The town and Estero Boulevard neighbors Eddie Rood and Kurt Kroemer are all named in the lawsuit the Audubon Society filed to try to block the wooden walkover to the beach the town approved for the two homeowners last month. We reached out to all three to get their reaction.
Interim Town Manager Keith Wilkins says, “We are surprised and disappointed. We would like to put this behind us and let everyone just move forward.”
Kurt Kroemer told Beach Talk Radio News it’s extremely disappointing that Brad Cornell would have the town of Fort Myers Beach sued during their time of rebuilding. “The Audubon does not own this land and they should not be trying to fight permits already approved by the FDEP and Town. Mr. Cornell had his say at both the LDC meeting and the Town Council Meeting, where the final vote was 6 to 1 and 3 to 2 respectively, approving the walkover special exception application. The Audubon is bound by the final ruling of the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings which confirmed walkovers help and do not hurt this dune eco system. This lawsuit is a terrible waste of their member’s monetary contributions.”
Eddie Rood said every governmental entity from the local level, state level and federal level have all approved the walkover. “It has been determined by all of them that the walkover is a benefit to the environment and wildlife, but the Audubon wants to disagree with those agencies whose job it is to protect the environment and wildlife of the State of Florida. The Audubon continues to fight the walkover simply because they just don’t like it. It is hard to understand why the Audubon would pick this fight against the Town with all the physical and financial problems the Town is already facing with the destruction of Hurricane Ian. The solution should be all of us working together for a positive outcome that benefits everyone. The Audubon just gave the Town an unnecessary gut punch simply because they didn’t get their way.”
Read the full filing from the Audubon HERE.
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