Letters to the Editor, March 5

SW Florida merits more vaccine doses

It doesn’t take a genius to see that Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties need a greater allotment of COVID vaccine. These three counties book up much faster than any of the other counties in Florida.

David McDonald, Goodland

Vaccine ‘redistribution is needed’

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I get on the internet and try to schedule an appointment for the coronavirus vaccine, but I have been unsuccessful after four weeks. If anyone is monitoring vaccine distribution, you can readily see that within 15 minutes of appointments being posted, Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties’ are taken.

But four or five hours later, there is still availability in Miami, Jacksonville and the Panhandle. There even are appointments in those areas still unscheduled at the end of the day.

It would seem logical then that those overseeing vaccine distribution would redistribute vaccine according to demand. Our system in Florida is very unfriendly to users and quite obviously poorly managed.

My entire family in Michigan easily received both vaccines already. In most cases, they simply registered online and then received a phone call to schedule their appointments.

And I sit here waiting for the next morning, waiting for the opportunity for our community to have enough vaccine available for more than 15 or 20 minutes.

Governor, please help us from having to drive hundreds of miles to get the vaccine.

A review and redistribution is needed.

Stanley Ksiazek, Naples

Limbaugh was Constitution defender

A vicious, hate-filled letter condemned Rush Limbaugh as a “racist, religious bigot and compulsive liar.” Clearly, the letter writer never really listened to Limbaugh, since Rush was none of those.

Rush was strongly opinionated and a vigorous defender of the Constitution, an outspoken opponent of most things “left,” especially the national “drive-by media,” and a skilled exposer of anyone phony.

In addition, Limbaugh had a high truth index. It was fair game to dispute his opinions, but no one ever established a pattern of lying.

Bob Beckwith, East Naples

Rural land ‘under siege by developers’

Rural Golden Gate Estates is under siege by developers with the SRA combining Rivergrass, Longwater and Bellmar of 7,850 dwelling units, 265,000 commercial square feet and 78,500 square feet for civic and institutional land use.

The Rural Land Stewardship Area (RLSA) is recreating Rural Lands West and eliminating their high costs for infrastructure, services and restrictions with the SRA villages and transferring their deficit to county taxpayers. The projects are not designed according to RLSA rules; and the traffic will go west, affecting already failing roads, for which developers’ plans would not pay their share.

These projects would be devastating to the last remaining habitat of Florida panthers and the environment of people who moved to Golden Gate Estates to enjoy nature and have farm animals and space. The projects would increase human contact with wildlife and farm animals. Four days into 2021, two panthers were killed by cars; and there would be more pet loses too. These developments also would endanger our water aquifer and stormwater flow. This combination of the villages into an SRA town is how the developers have their cake and eat it too, at the taxpayers’ cost.

Rae Ann Burton, Golden Gate Estates

A threat to water quality, manatees

How would up to 99 boat slips and a fuel dock affect the water quality of Vanderbilt Lagoon?

Water quality in this lagoon (in North Naples) has been studied by Collier County and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida for years. The lagoon is polluted and lacks the amount of dissolved oxygen many organisms need to survive. It can’t flush the pollutants because its southern flow to Clam Pass was blocked by earlier development. This lagoon is the southern termination of the Wiggins Pass estuary.

The Conservancy’s 2005 estuary report card for water quality of the Wiggins Pass estuary was C-, and in 2017, the report card for its water quality was D-.

Ironically, the Cocohatchee River, part of the Wiggins Pass estuary, is designated by the state as Outstanding Florida Water, meaning the water will have special protection from pollution.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife determined that the Wiggins Pass estuary warranted manatee protection.

Protection of manatees in Collier County is set forth in section 5.05.02 of the Land Development Code, titled “Marinas.” Section C of 5.05.02 describes a rating system to evaluate proposed marina facilities to determine maximum wet slip densities to improve manatee protection. In evaluating a parcel for a potential boat facility, a minimum sphere of influence for the boat traffic must be designated.

As proposed, the One Naples marina would exacerbate pollution of the Vanderbilt Lagoon and create unfavorable conditions for manatees. Building this marina in this lagoon would be wrong.

Susan Snyder, North Naples