Page 8 - LIN_March_2026_Web-File

BILL BARNETT

am so glad that this last City Council Election is finished the best equipment we could to control traffic. Each addition
I worked for a period of time. I remember when we installed a huge
and I hope the. candidates that were chosen will do a good
screen in one of our city departments buildings and we could
job for our City. At the time of this writing, I don’t know the
results, but I do know just how ugly this election was, especially visually see and manually control the traffic lights when needed at
after all the candidate forums were finished. Perhaps the most intersections. It worked really well but it finally got to a time where
upsetting to me were some of the cards that were sent signaling they did no good at certain times because the traffic had nowhere
out certain candidates and why you shouldn’t vote for them. to go no matter what color the lights were. We tried on Fifth
The City of Naples has been and still is a NON-PARTISAN Avenue South from 4pm to 6pm having a traffic officer manually
ELECTION CITY. Obviously, the Collier County Republican direct traffic at the intersection on Eighth and Fifth during the
Executive Committee certainly knew this before they sent those Christmas Holidays and February and March. It eventually was
degrading cards out to the public. I have always chosen my friends the same as everywhere else, traffic was so backed up that it did
because we had something in common whether it was about kids absolutely no good to direct it. Here we are thirty years later, I’m
and family, sports, politics, and just about anything. I never gave it retired, and candidly we don’t venture out too much, if at all, during
much thought, You know if you like someone or not, or just don’t the season. I am still constantly asked when I’m grocery shopping
have an opinion about them one way or the other. But when an in Publix and see people that I know “Bill, how about this traffic?”
organization singles out a group of candidates because their party My answer remains the same these days that, unfortunately, with
affiliation is not the same as theirs and then berates them like they the growth in Collier County, and those that commute daily to
were evil people and makes accusations that were as false as could Naples from points North I don’t see any magical solutions.
be about them, well, I don’t know about you but that’s where I I still love Naples as much as I did 53 years ago. Our shopping,
draw the line. Those candidates mentioned on those cards are all restaurants, and all of the amenities that we have to offer still
good community people that ran for City Council because they makes it a great place to live. As for traffic, plan to add an extra
felt they could make Naples a better city. They didn’t deserve to be 10-20 minutes to your schedule and grin and bear it. I do:)
chastised by a single-minded political group. Be thankful you’re here especially with the weather going
As we move into March, I can honestly say that I have never on in the rest of the country!
seen traffic as bad as it has been so far this season and I can’t All the Best,
imagine it will get any better and it certainly can’t get any worse. Bill Barnett, Former Mayor
Yesterday I needed to go down to Wynn’s Market, and I know some 239-777-7952
shortcuts that never let me down. It was 3:30 in the afternoon and I do respond to e-mails at: mayornaples@gmail.com
my shortcuts let me down, they weren’t shortcuts anymore, they
had turned into traffic nightmares.
There were no traffic issues when I first moved to our city in
1973 and I would say it pretty much remained that way until the
mid 80’s. When I was elected Mayor for the first time in 1996 and
it seems from then on traffic became the subject every season and
as Mayor the buck stopped with me. We took every measure we
had at our disposal from synchronizing traffic lights, to buying

8 www.LifeInNaples.net