GPICA elects new board members, addresses more local issues
(Due to technical difficulties, last week’s Greater Pine Island Civic Association meeting live streamed without sound. The following meeting notes were taken by GPICA Board Vice President Nadine Slimak and presented as a wrap-up of the meeting.)
GPICA Members Elect New Board and Provide Other Community Updates
Members of the Greater Pine Island Civic Association (GPICA) elected new board members during the organization’s annual meeting, which took place Tuesday, Feb. 4, at the First Baptist Church of Pine Island. The meeting also included updates on a celebration of life for Calusa Waterkeeper and Pine Island resident Codty Pierce, new developments in the Seven Islands major development project in Cape Coral, a Conservation 20/20 land purchase proposed for Bokeelia and more community news.
Pierce Memorial
Board member Sue Dahod shared plans for the memorial for Codty Pierce, who died Jan. 13, and invited his Island friends from the community to attend the Tuesday, Feb. 11, activities starting with:
A short memorial beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Randell Research Center, 13810 Waterfront Drive, Bokeelia;
Followed at 6:30 p.m. by a gathering to share stories about Codty at Carmen’s Kayaks, Knight’s Landing, 16499 Porto Bello St., Bokeelia.
Seven Islands
Dahod also provided an update on the Seven Island project. This massive development has been envisioned by the Cape for more than a decade and the project moved forward when the developer, Gulf Gateway Development, and the city applied for an Army Corps of Engineers permit to build seawalls, dredge and build docks for the infrastructure of the mixed-use development proposed to include residential, commercial and entertainment facilities. The public notice of the application was made on Dec. 4, 2024. The project will encompass seven undeveloped man-made islands located on the east side of the Spreader Canal not far from Matlacha. The developer envisions a 10-year build out with the first phase focused on Island 7 and the frontage on Old Burnt Store Road. Ultimately, the project calls for:
* Condominiums
* Apartments
* A Marriott-branded hotel with 240 rooms
* Fish houses
* Waterfront restaurants
* Tiki bar
* Public marina and more than 200 boat slips
* Lagoon resort where a beach will be created on the waterfront of the hotel
* More than 10,000 square feet of meeting space
* Commercial spaces
You can read the public notice about the permit application to the Army Corps of Engineers on the GPICA website: www.GPICA.org/seven-islands.
Conservation 20/20 Purchase
GPICA President Deborah Swisher-Hicks shared that the GPICA Board sent a letter to Lee County Commissioners in support of a proposed Conservation 20/20 land purchase in Bokeelia. The land is an 80.5-acre parcel located near existing conservation properties — the Conservation 20/20 Smokehouse Bay Preserve and the Matlacha Pass National Wildlife Refuge (a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service property). The land is a former tree farm.
Conservation 20/20 is a Lee County land acquisition and management program voted into place twice by Lee County residents, who agreed to tax themselves to support the conservation of environmentally sensitive lands. At Tuesday’s Lee County Commission meeting, commissioners voted to allow staff to begin negotiations for the property.
Dahod also provided an update on the Chiquita Lock lawsuit: Cape Coral is seeking millions of dollars in legal fees from the three fishermen who brought the suit opposing the issuance of a DEP permit to Cape Coral to remove the Chiquita Lock. The fishermen have filed suit in federal court to stop the Cape from attempting such a retaliatory action against citizens who oppose their government’s actions.
Resiliency Survey
Vice President Nadine Slimak urged all residents — not just GPICA members — to take the GPICA’s resiliency survey. The goal is to use the information gathered to help understand which parts of the island have received the most storm impacts and to possibly seek governmental or grant support to make those areas more resilient to future tropical storms and hurricanes.
Visit www.GPICA.org/resiliency-survey/ to take the survey
FDOT to attend GPICA March Meeting
Treasurer Steve Eldredge provided an update on the Little Pine Island Bridge reconstruction and announced that a representative of the Florida Department of Transportation will be at the March GPICA meeting to discuss the bridge. Residents are encouraged to attend.
When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 4
Where: First Baptist Church of Pine Island, 5363 Ave. D, Bokeelia, 33922, located next to Pine Island Elementary School
Adopt-A-Road
Swisher-Hicks announced the dates for the monthly GPICA road clean-up and invited volunteers to help on the first Wednesday of every month.
2025 Dates: Feb. 5; March 5; April 2; May 7; June 4; July 9; Aug. 6; Sept. 10; Oct. 8; Nov. 5; Dec. 3
Where/When: Volunteers gather at 9 a.m. at the Post Office on Barrancas, then fan out along a two mile stretch of Stringfellow Road, from the bridge at Four Winds Marina to Raymary Street.
No RSVP needed, but be sure to bring gloves, wear close-toed shoes or boots and a reflective vest if you have one. GPICA provides trashbags.
Swisher-Hicks also thanked Member Ellen Ballard of Bokeelia for organizing the monthly clean-ups.
GPICA Board Election Results
The last item of business was announcing the winners of the Board election. Eldredge announced that Swisher-Hicks, Slimak and Board Member Scott Wilkinson were re-elected and that Bokeelia resident Kathy Chumley was elected as a new Board Member.
About the Board:
Deborah Swisher-Hicks was born and raised in Sacramento and retired from the state of California after 25 years of reviewing, interpreting, and applying complex and ever-changing laws. She moved to Pine Island in 2019, a place she not only calls home, but a community she embraces. While working in California, she saw how natural resources such as soil-rich farmland, and natural preserves disappeared in the name of progress. She raised her children to believe in protecting what is important, which is why her son serves in the U.S. Air Force. With the great community of Pine Island as her home — a place that she holds dear to her heart — she believes that it is important to protect the natural resources from overdevelopment, to provide smart mitigation measures to protect the community, and to provide the heartfelt service to the community that she loves and embraces.
Nadine Slimak has lived in Bokeelia since 2000 and joined the GPICA board in 2017 to help protect the coastal-rural lifestyle that drew her to the Island. She spent 15 years as a journalist in Ohio, upstate New York and Florida before joining Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, where she served as Director of Communications for 11 years, directing national, regional and local media activities, handling crisis communications and helping the organization develop direct communications with its members and supporters. In 2015 (tired of the long commute from Pine Island), she left Mote to develop her own communications and public relations consulting business, Vetted Communications, LLC. Her main clients are nonprofit organizations working in the marine environment.
Scott Wilkinson was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He received his BA (Cum Laude) from the University of New Hampshire and has been a Florida resident since 2005 and has lived in Bokeelia since 2008. He served active duty in the U.S. Army from 1971-1973 and was honorably discharged in 1977. Scott worked for the USPS from 1974-1975, then became a U.S. Department of Labor Wage & Hour Division Field Investigator from 1975-2001 in Manchester, New Hampshire. From 2001-2005, he worked in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management, U.S. Department of Labor. He retired in 2005. He is a current member of the American Legion Pine Island Post 0136, Loyal Order of Moose Pine Island Lodge 1954, Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program — Civilian Advisory Committee, Calusa Land Trust, Charlotte Shores One Property Owners’ Association, S.W. Florida Central Labor Council.
Kathy Chumley was born and raised in New Jersey. She traveled the world as a military dependent before settling in Ormond Beach, Florida, in 1973, where she met and married her husband, Jim. Kathy has one son, Ben, who works as a Senior Planner for Alachua County. Kathy has a BA in History from Stetson University in Deland, Florida, and an MA in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida. She worked for 10 years at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, ultimately serving as Manager of Library Services for the University’s Extended Campus and Distance Learning programs. Kathy moved to Bokeelia in 2002 to work as a reference librarian at the Cape Coral Lee County Public Library and retired in 2019 as a Senior Librarian and branch manager at the North Fort Myers Public Library. Since retiring, Kathy has been involved with a number of community organizations, including the Beacon of Hope, Calusa Land Trust and the Pine Island Garden Club. She is interested in protecting our environment and way of life, building for resilience, and preserving our fishing and agricultural communities. Kathy would like to serve on the GPICA board to help preserve the beauty, uniqueness and Old Florida atmosphere of Pine Island.