Bill Barnett with NAPLES POTPOURRI

Bill Barnett

Well, the City election is over and this will be the last time I will be writing anything about it. I will say that the voter turnout was a disgrace, and not one of my choices was elected. Was that because I’m over the hill and don’t know my city politics anymore? I don’t think so. Well, if not that then what? I knew how well my choices were qualified, and I thought for sure at least one would get elected. I wasn’t alone, but with all that having been said, that’s the way politics go and I can only hope that the new electees will do a good job and make our city proud. They have a lot of work to do so we shall watch and see. I don’t want to be an “I told you so” person but from what I’ve heard so far, I’m a little anxious, premature, I’m sure.

Okay let’s talk about something other than politics, after all it is about Life in Naples and I sometimes think it’s anything but! Looking at the popularity of the new restaurants that have come to town and are still coming our restaurants are rated among the best in the country and there always seems to be an article in a magazine or a newspaper outside of Naples that gives us a good review.

I haven’t been to the new Four Seasons yet and I think I’ll wait until after season to check it out but I don’t think it’s going to make much of a difference because I expect the occupancy to be way up there all year around.

It’s been determined that Publix across from Coastland Mall is definitely my political hangout! No matter what time of day that I go there I always run into someone, be it from the mid-eighties to 2020 when I was finished with being an elected official. I can go there with the tiniest of shopping lists and when I get home 30 minutes later my wife Chris smiles and reminds me that some things never change because when I was Mayor and told her I would be right back, she would just add a sufficient amount of time to my trip which, in reality, if I had just done my shopping and gone home the total time could have been 20 minutes or less. Well today it’s nowhere near that but still I see former friends and constituents and they never run out of questions or catching me up on their lives. I still genuinely enjoy it, and I’ll be sad when it stops for lack of recognition, which will eventually happen.

These days when we get invited to an event it’s often that we say to one another do you know anyone here? Nope, do you? It’s nice to see the younger generations taking over a lot of our charity events and being superstars at running them. Speaking of charities in Naples it is amazing what a phenomenal job they do. Since my early days here in the early seventies there weren’t many charities here. Most were fledgling and just starting out and I had never been involved up north with any of them.

I was in Naples when my mom died in New York of lung cancer. The American Cancer Society was just starting here, and I got involved in volunteering for them. That was a starting point for me, and I never forgot how good it felt to volunteer and the wonderful people I met over a span of 40 years.

I loved them all, and to this day I never found a downside to any of them. The last one that I recently retired from not because I wanted to, but because they had term limits for their Board Members which makes sense. It was the Shelter for Abused Women and Children, and I was fortunate enough after being a board member to become the Board Chair. It was an accumulation of volunteer work, and they are a sensational group of people that are involved with the Shelter.

Although today in Naples we are so blessed with many charities that need volunteers so don’t be hesitant to get involved. I’ll wrap this up by saying that each year the Shelter for Abused Women and Children does a luncheon event to raise funds called Mending Broken Hearts and last week they did theirs. Their guest speakers were the Mom and Stepfather of the late Gabby Petito. There were 700 people in attendance, and for the rest of my life I will never forget their words of love and anguish.

Be thankful that we are in Naples and you should never have the time to say, “I’m bored!”

All the Best,
Bill Barnett, Former Mayor
239-777-7952
I do respond to e-mails at: mayornaples@gmail.com