In negotiation on the Cape Coral Spreader Canal System, city mayor Eric Feichthaler declined to agree to eventual reconstruction of any structure to divert water through the spreader canal. Riverwatch and the other petitioners continue to insist that the spreader system integrity be restored, not permanently dismantled.

News-Press.com

Ceitus Boat Lift compromise faltering

Brian Liberatore
bliberatore@news-press.com

April 18, 2008

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080418/NEWS0101/80418033/1075

A compromise between the city, the county and a slate of environmental groups over the fate of the Ceitus Boat lift appears poised to collapse.

The county and the nonprofit organizations last month challenged in court the city’s decision to remove the lift.

Lee County Commission chair Ray Judah and Pine Island resident Phil Buchanan, who is representing the ten other environmental advocacy interests, met with Cape Coral Mayor Eric Feichthaler and representatives from the state Department of Environmental Conservation Thursday to discuss removing the lift and the canal system it serves.

The city and the county last week agreed to put aside $4 million with the possibility of replacing the dam and Ceitus Boat Lift with a new dam further north along the canal. The DEP requires that the city, working with several environmental authorities, would have a year to find a stormwater solution after removing the Ceitus Boat Lift and dam.

Feichthaler has said that solution will not necessarily include a new damming structure to keep the freshwater canals from infiltrating the Matlacha Pass Aquatic Preserve.

But Buchanan said today that any compromise would have to include a contract to build new damming device.

Feichthaler told the City Council Monday that the groups appeared close to a compromise should the city put $1.5 million into escrow for the possibility of a new lift. That deal appears close to crumbling.

“There doesn't seem to be a compromise,” Buchanan said Friday. “They (the city) is not willing to contract to put another (lift) in.”