Egmont Key

[Grover1]

An editorial ... from Tampa Bay Online

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/28 ... -for-life/

[Rob143]

No, the greenbacks needed to keep Egmont Key alive are more pauper-sum: $140,000, according to the Egmont Key Alliance.

The gravity of the situation is clear. Faced with an estimated $5.7 billionshortfall in the state budget, the Legislature needs to make cuts. But the same elected officials who have refused to consider tax increases on alcohol and other revenue producers now are making cuts that would jeopardize schools, hospitals and unique natural resources such as Egmont, a wildlife refuge that attracts an estimated 100,000 visitors a year.

I just paid $6 to cross the Sanibel Causeway on Saturday only to find $2/hr parking when I got there. There was no shortage of vehicles crossing and plenty of cars parked in the lots.

I just paid $4 to cross the Boca Grande Causeway on Sunday only to find $2/day parking in the lots there. Again no shortage of cars crossing and quite frankly I had to park what might have been illegally to shoot the rear range light due to a full to overflowing lot near it.

My point very simply is that simple math tells me that the paltry sum of $1.40 per visitor would cover the shortfall. Let's round it up to $2 to cover unforeseen issues that pop up. I thought the causeway tolls were a bit steep but they didn't stop people from going if they wanted to. I'm no fan of fees for everything we do, but I'm equally no fan of allowing irreplaceable things being lost for all time over a paltry sum of $2.00.

[epona]

Rob, what you just wrote makes sense or cents to me. It would be easy to do and it is very logical solution to the lack of funding.

Carole

[Weasel58]

Rob,
The problem with your idea is there are no roads to Egmont Key. The only way over is via boat, weather private or shuttle. How are you going to collect the toll off of boaters that pull aground all around the island? you would have to pay people to patrol all along the 3 miles of beach to collect the fees.

[Rob143]

Eric,

A small oversight based on my having never been there myself. You raise a good point. I suppose the fees could be collected in the same manner they are at those parking lots on Sanibel and Boca Grande. They aren't manned but instead use envelopes in which you place the fee and drop it in a box. Of course any honesty system is dependent on people being honest which no doubt doesn't always happen.