On Monday, Seagate CEO Matt Price donated $47,000 to Fort Myers Beach to help cover the cost of the 4th of July fireworks. The full cost of the fireworks is $78,000. The reason the cost is so high is because without a pier the fireworks must be launched from a barge and that doubles the cost. $31,000 of the cost will be paid from the town budget.
Price also reeled off the other items Seagate has partnered with the community on, including beach cleanups, working with the Art Association, The Woman’s Club, and installing a new walkway at the Beach School.
So much terrible negativity on this post. We are excited that folks are pulling together to provide the town of Fort Myers Beach a wonderful July 4 celebration. Thank you to the generosity of Seagate and others who are making this work for the community to bring happiness and and a spirit of community and peace.
Seagate Development already got 17 floors approved. Maybe the fireworks donation will get them 5 more floors?
Way way too much money for this fireworks show!! Need to get a few more bids or put that money to better use as others have said
Carol I would never call anyone stupid and I am sure there are many causes which could use money. That being said as a full time resident having the fire works gives a few of us a sense of normality.
I will certainly this year volunteer to help with the clean up.
Joel I am a full time home owner too and I have to say I really don’t care that fireworks give a “few of us a sense of normality”….FMB has Vets that lost their homes to Ian or the kids that are displaced again would love “normality” as well. I think that money would be better served using it to change some people’s lives rather than give a “few of us” normality for 30 min. Cape Coral offers fireworks for the people that need that 30 min fix.
Call me stupid but can you imagine what good that $78,000 could do for some deserving cause? Help with all the abandoned animals, buy a protective barrier for the school to protect from flooding??? Instead we get 30 min of fireworks for a bunch of people to come from Fort Myers for the free show and leave garbage all over the beach for volunteers to have to clean up. They do not spend money on the beach. I have volunteered to clean up the dirty diapers, buckets of chicken bones, condoms, beer bottles…. If you ever volunteered to clean up after these fireworks then you would know what I am talking about. It is disgusting. Such a waste of money.
Imagine all the money raised to do a election recall or litigate Seagate on how it could beautify the island……touche
Two wrongs don’t make a right. Almost 80K for 30 min……if we have one of our freak fogs that seem to be more common, the 80K will be flushed away in total waste. Last year the sky was filled with fog and the show was not even visible and the rocket scientists (mayor/town council) opted to go ahead and shoot off the fireworks because as the mayor said “everything was already set up”……Total waste, total disgrace. It’s so ironic how government officials waste money and think nothing of it. This money should be used for something that will be there no matter what “freak fog” happens to roll in. Let’s ask Vets who live on the island if they could use a little help with their repairs. Or ask the parents of students if they would prefer if it would be used to buy one of those flood barriers.
“The town is receiving a financial boost to help bring the festivities to life.
The Fort Myers Beach Town Council accepted a generous donation from Matt Price, CEO of Seagate Development, amounting to $47,000.
“Although the initial reach was to you the mayor, it’s for the benefit of the town as a whole,” said Price.
The vote was unanimous, with all five council members in favor of accepting the donation.”
Nothing shocking here. Town counsel gets rubbed the right way from some builders, and they laugh the others out of the room with 7-0 no votes.