Lee County Commissioners will be discussing an extension of the contract for beach renourishment that Gasparilla Island has with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at their meeting on Tuesday, May 17. 

Among those items that were discussed were solar panels. Board members had asked Lee County at their last meeting to do some research into how other counties and localities deal with the visual impact of solar panels, to which Lee County Attorney Amanda Swindle responded.

Now is the time to be diligent in picking up all furniture, toys, tents … pretty much everything from the beach. Turtles – both adults and hatchlings – can get stuck on or in these items and cannot turn around. If left out of the water too long, they will die. That includes trash, so please pick up after yourself if you are spending the day on the beach.

It’s difficult to get your bearings when you first see the old Fishery property without the shops, the fish house, the restaurant and the charter fishing buildings that used to be there. The only things left to remind you at this point are the concrete platform the restaurant once stood upon, the old docks and the last two Albritton houses still standing on the southernmost tip. The view is breathtaking, with the alcove and docks for Gasparilla Marina on your left and the old railroad trestle over to the right. The old memories are still there, but new memories are to be made.

The truth about the cost of living in this area is brutal right now. While income has barely – if at all – increased for most employees in many years, the costs of groceries, gasoline, utilities and, of course, rent have vastly increased in the last 18 months. When droves of people started moving to Florida during the height of the pandemic, real estate went through the roof. Many people who owned rental homes realized they could easily get hundreds more in their pocket with the supply-and-demand situation this area was facing, while others decided to take full advantage of the market and sell their rental properties. Not only did they leave the worry of being a landlord behind, they had a lot more money in their pocket from buyers paying an inflated price for their property.