It’s a story we’ve been keeping a close eye on and one that had many of you outraged on our Facebook page this week. This one, however, has a happy ending.
Because there seemed to be no real justification why Fort Myers Beach town manager Roger Hernstadt was proposing a fee hike for special event permits from $10.00 per day to $100 per day (after the initial $100 fee), the town council vetoed his idea and voted to keep the current fees in place.
Linda Miller, who operates the Farmers Markets at Beach Baptist and Santini Plaza, was very happy after the vote Thursday night. She would have been hit with a huge fee increase being that she operates 2 markets, 2 days per week, 8 months out of the year.
Miller told Beach Talk Radio News she was thankful the council gave the Farmers Markets considerable thought and conversation about how valuable they are to the community by voting to freeze the rates. “We are also thankful to Beach Talk Radio, The Observer and Fox4 for rallying community support. We look forward to starting Beach Baptist Farmers Market in October and Santini Farmers Market in November.”
Vice Mayor Rexann Hosafros, who voted against keeping the special use permits at the same price, said, “The fees need to go up.” Councilman Jim Atterholt responded, “In return for what?”
Town Manager Roger Hernstadt told the council, “You have to decide if Fort Myers Beach has value.” Councilman Dan Allers responded, “Farmers Markets also have value.”
Atterholt said raising the fees sends the wrong message. “Farmers Markets create a quality of place dynamic in our neighborhoods. They are interesting and vibrant.” He added that he doesn’t see the town spending a lot of time and energy on Farmers Markets and they shouldn’t be looked at as a profit center. “Nothing is broken here. What is the town trying to fix.”
The fee will remain the same for all special events: $100 for the first day and $10 for every recurring day after that.
Those that operate Jet Ski, Parasail and Beach Chair businesses were not as lucky. They saw their license fees increase from $170 per year to $685 per year. Hernstadt wanted to originally raise the license fee to $1,200 per year. Councilman Dan Allers voted no on that increase.
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