First a flag, now Pine Island has an official song
The Greater Pine Island Civic Association meeting got off to an unusual start Tuesday night with a song.
Local musician Cindy Walsh, who frequently performs at Island Cafe on the Bay, performed “The Pine Island Song” for a crowd of about 75.
“I’ve lived on Pine Island for 8 years now and like most people here, I really love Pine Island,” Walsh said. “They say songwriters write about the things they know. I began thinking about so many things I love about Pine Island and over the course of a year or so got them all into my song.”
Walsh’s song captures the character and spirit of the island. Phrases and words like “small town,” “pelicans,” “no traffic lights,” “sunsets” and “eagles” are scattered through the song. It concludes, “Nobody cares about the latest fashion stylin’s, It don’t matter what you wear, what counts is who you are …”
Cindy Bear then offered 30 minutes on Randell Research Center and the Calusa Indians.
According to the Randell Research Center website, “The Calusa were once the most powerful people in all of South Florida. For many centuries they accumulated huge shell mounds, engineered canals, and sustained tens of thousands of people from the fish and shellfish found in the rich estuaries west and south of Fort Myers. All that is left of their culture today is a dwindling number of shell mound sites dotting the estuarine landscape between Charlotte Harbor and the Ten Thousand Islands region of the Everglades.”
Updates were offered by Phil Buchanan about the final vote on the Pine Island Plan.
“The results of the vote, 5-0, was totally expected and that’s why I decided to stay home,” Buchanan said. “But this is the end of it. Today was not a vote on the Pine Island Plan but a vote on implementing the regulations. The Plan was approved weeks ago and the Pine Island Plan is a ‘done’ deal. We won’t see anything right away but theoretically it’s possible to build a couple thousand more houses and they’ve made no effort to create the infrastructure to support those houses.”