Celebrating Pine Islanders: Alex Franke
According to Alex Franke, the most important thing people can know about him is that he is always willing to help. He admitted he does not usually feel inclined to ask for help in return, but said it is amazing how quickly someone else comes to help as well when he does.
“Whether it’s physical help, needing a hand doing something or general knowledge about things I’ve experienced in life,” Franke said.
He and his wife, Jody, moved to Pine Island in 2011. However, he had been in Cape Coral with his family of origin since 1990. Franke’s family moved down from New Jersey after his father retired as a New York City police officer, just as his grandfather had been, he explained.
“The amount of time I was able to spend fishing year-round was just a dream for me. Previous to that, we would travel to Florida just for vacation time and stay with my grandparents,” Franke said.
While dating his wife, they often spent time on Pine Island and always planned on living here. They took the option to buy some land the moment the opportunity presented itself, he explained. Both happy it was sooner rather than later, they found a home and property that checked every box on the wish list.
“We came out and have been loving it ever since,” Franke said, adding that has not changed after all the years.
He said the ability to observe the island post-event makes the small-town feeling both very obvious and very apparent. On the island, people do not come and go so often, leaving residents like the Frankes to revel in the quiet serenity of their neighborhood. Even the islanders from whom they purchased their home still live on Pine Island. Franke added he even spoke to the previous owner within the last year.
“He called me and said he had all the photo albums of when he was building the house and finally felt like he could let them go,” he said.
Franke admitted he had wanted the albums for as long as he could remember, and though he had seen them when he was purchasing the house, he had not had them in his possession until after that call. He said although Hurricanes Ian, Helene and Milton changed some of the local landscape via Pine Island residents, it has recently been coming back.
“I’m sure this coming season, with our visitors, we’re going to see a lot more people — people with roots, not just vacationing,” Franke said.
Given the task of describing Pine Island to a non-islander, he said he would tell them it is an interior barrier island and there are no beaches or high-rise condos, but much preserve land.
“For preservation of our ecosystem out here, it’s mostly rural. We have a lot of tree farms and we have more developed areas, like Saint James City, where houses are next to each other,” Franke said. “Pine Island has a little bit of everything.”
If he were to make a wish for the future of Pine Island, he said he would keep trying to keep it the same way that it has always been for as long as possible, although change is inevitable.
“Just a slow progression into the future. Development happens, all that kind of stuff always happens — you can’t avoid it, but to slowly progress into the future of development,” Franke said. “Obviously, developing areas provide income for people and everybody needs income. When there is change, it does provide jobs for people.”
“We can’t frown upon it as every one of us has come from some place. Very few people have actually been here for generations,” he added. “Returning to the island after being in town and working in town, I feel like we return to our sanctuary once we hit the Matlacha Bridge — you kind of feel at peace, like you’re almost home.”
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email