Board rejects renaming preserve after Buchanan
At Tuesday morning’s Board of County Commission meeting, commissioners, by a vote of 3 to 2, rejected renaming Galt Preserve in honor of Phil Buchanan.
The initial appeal came in a letter written by Roger Wood, president of Greater Pine Island Civic Association. The letter was signed by Wood as well as presidents of the Calusa Land Trust, Matlacha Civic Association, St. James City Civic Association, Pine Island Garden Club and the executive director of the Clinic for Rehabilitation of Wildlife.
Commissioner John Manning proposed the renaming at the BOCC meeting on Aug. 16.
“I would like to open for discussion the possibility of renaming Galt Preserve in the memory of Phil Buchanan,” Manning said at that meeting. “I asked the appropriate staff to do some research…”
At the meeting Tuesday, Manning announced that the staff researchers came back with the alternative suggestion to name only a trail in Buchanan’s honor.
The public portion of the meeting began with Wood. addressing the board.
“I originally drafted the letter suggesting renaming Galt Preserve in the honor of Phil Buchanan,” Wood said. “I will paraphrase the letter. Phil Buchanan has served the greater Pine Island community for over 22 years. He’s been an activist… he’s been in a leadership position of the Calusa Land Trust, spokesman for GPICA, a member of Responsible Growth Management Coalition, served as a rescue volunteer for CROW and he wrote and promoted the Pine Island Golf Cart ordinance.
“The beauty and the character of Pine Island has been saved and our land values have been increased because of Dr. Phil Buchanan. Phil was also involved with setting up the Galt island Preserve. There are many people that support renaming Galt Preserve after Phil from the Calusa Land Trust, Pine Island Garden Club, Matlacha Civic Association, St. James Civic Association and CROW. I was surprised that the staff recommended against renaming the preserve.”
In attempt to mitigate expenses to the county, Wood suggested the GPICA provide up to $5,000 in funds.
“I didn’t know until I read the agenda that it was unfunded,” Wood said. “By unanimous vote of the Board of the GPICA, we have voted up to $5,000 to fund this. This is very important to us.”
In addition to Wood, Cesar Sanchez and Bob and Bonnie Kellen spoke in favor of renaming the preserve in its entirety.
Manning said he was disappointed with the staff recommendation to name a trail in Buchanan’s honor.
“I had brought this to the board’s attention and I disagree with staff’s recommendation,” Manning said. “I move to renaming Galt Preserve to the Dr. Phil Buchanan Preserve.”
Commissioner Frank Mann seconded the proposal. When the motion was taken up for a vote the three remaining commissioners, Cecil Pendergrass, Brian Hammon and Larry Kiker, voted against renaming the preserve.
Pendergrass suggested implementing the staff recommendation by renaming a trail after Buchanan. “The reason why is we had the discussion last year about renaming buildings and parks but we’ve never created a policy,” Pendergrass said. “We have so many great people in Lee County involved and devoting their lives to Lee County. We should have more of a structured policy. We need to talk about this again.”
Pendergrass proposed naming a trail after Buchanan, which Kiker seconded, and the proposal passed unanimously.
“It was my pleasure to work with Dr. Buchanan the full decade that I’ve been here,” Mann said. “He was a true community leader, especially for the island. And there’s a lot of good things that have happened out there that would not have happened without his leadership and I think this is a nice token. His name will be forever on that trail.”
“Frankly, I’m terribly disappointed in the County Commissioners,” Wood said later. “But we can do plenty of things on the island to honor Phil Buchanan and we will. Phil Buchanan has done so much for this island and he deserves better than this.”
Buchanan died May 19, 2016. A memorial service is scheduled for January.