Page 12 - August 2016 Life In Naples Magazine

STATE OF
THE
I have to give real journalists a lot of credit. Although I have
been writing articles for Life in Naples magazine since its
inception and before that for the Naples Journal, I think I’m far
removed from adding the title journalist to my resume if I had
one. I sit here with a lot to write about but struggle mightily with
the fact that today is June 26th, my deadline for this article is July
1st, and it won’t be on the stands until August 1st.To make matters
worse what I’m about to write has to cover August, September,
and October. Now if I was a certified professional journalist this
challenge would be a piece of cake and probably exciting to me,
but, alas I’m not but with tongue in cheek I’ll do my best!
After being elected as your Mayor in March and being officially
sworn-in in early April it has been a whirlwind for me. I say that
on a purely positive note because there are so many exciting events
happening in our City now, and on the drawing boards for the
City’s future. I would be remiss if I didn’t have something to
say about our current City Council and our very fine staff and
employees that we all depend on every day 365 days a year and
24-7 if we need them. Although it has only been three months
since the election and we have only had seven Council meetings I
couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to work with. From
the sitting Council members to those who were newly elected it is
going to be a council that will accomplish a lot. Already we have
shared many differing opinions, had some 4-3 votes, proven that
we have a sense of humor, and perhaps the most important of all
is the simple fact that we can work together regardless of what the
issue at hand is.
Baker Park is going to become a reality! Our council has adopted
the plan of what this park will look like; awarded the engineering
contracts, and committed to fund the remaining balance needed
to complete the park. I know it will be spectacular for the simple
reason of how long it took to finally get to where we are. When days
turn to months and months turn to years and different Council’s
share different ideas and progress seems to take one step forward
and two steps back it becomes a tedious task for all involved. Our
staff remained committed to steadily add useful input during
the entire process, and we were and are truly fortunate to have
Matthew Kragh who is one of Naples premier architects donating
his time and services because he truly believes in supporting our
Naples community. The bottom line is it will take the engineers
approximately one year to come back with the plans, which will be
June of 2017, and hopefully we will break ground later that year.
Exciting stuff !
12
CIT Y MAYOR BILL BARNETT
Already we have
shared many
differing opinions,
had some 4-3 I don’t think there was a
Mayor anywhere in the world
votes, proven that
we have a sense including me, who didn’t have a
of humor, and nauseous feeling in the pit of their
stomachs when the horrible Pulse
perhaps the most Nightclub tragedy occurred. It
important of all could have been any of our cities
and I’m sure that during those
is the simple fact horrible days and weeks afterward
and for who knows how long
that we can work in the future it will remain with
together regardless us. The Mayor of Orlando John
“Buddy” Dyer brought tears to my
of what the issue at eyes when I listened to him talk
hand is. about those tragic first moments
when he was awakened by a
phone call that will remain embedded in his memory forever. During
the days and weeks that followed he truly personified his role as a
Mayor who firmly believes and cares about his community.
I think that all of us at one time or another have said something
during their lives that they wish they could take back. The year was
1984 and I was a newly elected City Council member, the youngest
that had ever been elected to Council at that time. All of my fellow
Council members had automatically become mentors to me since I
didn’t have a clue of what to do. Each of them had already concluded
successful business careers and had retired from business. I soon
learned that similar to today there were regulars that would show
up for Council meetings although they didn’t have the luxury of
watching our meetings on television or their computers. I couldn’t
help but notice a lady that showed up at every meeting and she made
no bones about how she felt about issues in front of Council. Her
name was Sue B. Smith. Well after two years of listening to Ms.
Smith speak on about every topic that came up and being a little
tired of hearing in her opinion that we couldn’t do anything right
I decided that I didn’t want to listen to her any more. I remember
clearly that our Mayor at the time was Ned Putzell who down the
road became my mentor. So after I had made this decision and at our
Life in Naples | August • September • October 2016