Commissioners Back Down On Plans To Sell To Developers

The people of Everglades City (FL) spoke and, apparently, Collier County Commissioners were listening. They had threatened to shut down the airport and sell it to developers. But at a Tuesday night commission meeting, they got both barrels from residents who support the airpark and don't want it to be turned into condos.

"The airport is extremely important to Everglades City," resident Claudia Davenport said. She was quoted in the Naples Daily News. "People fly in and buy stone crabs. They fly in and stay two or three days. The economy would suffer greatly without it."

The Everglades City Council stood solidly behind the airport as well. Members passed a resolution saying, if the county were to pull out, it "intends to use its best efforts to take possession and continue the operation of the airpark on behalf of the Everglades City community." There was an iron fist in that velvet glove as well. Council members said flat-out that they would refuse to change the airport's zoning if the county opted to sell it to developers.

Commissioners had been thinking about selling the airpark because the county's airport authority is more than $10 million in debt to the county. But after hearing the rousing testimony of airport supporters, Commissioner Jim Coletta said, I hear everyone talking on this commission, and it sounds like we are all in agreement, that there is a need for an airport there. I don't think anyone here is going to carry a cause forward that it should go away."

Commissioners agreed to start talking it over with officials in Everglades City.

But that still leaves the county airport authority in debt to the county itself. Commissioners are now looking at other ways to reduce the authority's impact on taxpayers.

The authority runs three airports -- in Everglades City, Immokalee and Marco Island. Commissioners are thinking about putting an ad in the Wall Stree Journal to outsource airport services now provided by the county to a private company.

That idea may fly with commissioners, but may not with private airport operators. During the meeting on Tuesday, Commission Chairman Tom Henning said, "I'm thinking, what business person, what wise business person, would come to Southwest Florida to operate an airport that runs at a deficit."

Commissioner Fred Coyle thinks Immokalee would be a great place for a freight operation -- perhaps even a start-up. "I think we have a lot of good selling factors, particularly with (the proposed) Ave Maria (University), and the town, and things like that coming up. So that's the purpose of this. It's not necessarily just to turn over operations to somebody. It's to solicit ideas about how somebody could come here and start a business that would be beneficial to Collier County."

FMI: www.co.collier.fl.us