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Don’t restart UEP

By Staff | Jan 24, 2009

To the editor:

It would be very inappropriate for The SW-6 and SW-7 utilities project to be restarted at this time. With a full-scale recession on our hands (with no end in sight) and an unemployment rate of around 10 percent and climbing there is no doubt that residents will be pushed out of their homes. In fact, restarting the project would be a downright lack of common sense and would show a total lack of concern for the welfare of our residents.

Newly appointed council member Gloria Tate seems to think that a cost of $18,000 is a very good price. At least that is how she is quoted in the paper. I don’t know how she reached the conclusion that $18,000 is a good price especially with Bonita Spring at $8,720. It just doesn’t make sense to me and many others.

I just wonder if unemployed people in SW-6 and SW-7 see the cost as being low. In fact, if you take the 20-year plan and have a 2 -lot site the annual payment will be around $1,851 for the assessment which not deductible on your federal taxes. Then you have to figure around $75 a month for the monthly utility bill which is also not deductible. That would total out to $2,751 per year. If you are in a 25 percent tax bracket you would have to gross approximately $3, 675 to clear the $2,751. Which means you need to make $3,675 before taxes to pay the assessment and your monthly utility bills.

The maximum amount you can receive in Florida for unemployment is $275 per week or $1,100 a month. Your payment for the assessment and the monthly bill would be $306.25. You would have to give the city 27.8 percent of your unemployment check if you were out of work and living in The SW-6 and SW-7 assessment area, assuming you were collecting maximum unemployment. Someone on an $1,100 a month Social Security Check would be in the same boat, The Cape Coral Titanic. If your unemployment has run out, then where is the money supposed to come from?

I would recommend that Ms. Tate and the other council members who want to restart this project take a little road trip into SW-6 and SW-7 and explain to the residents that $18,000 is a very good price. I’m sure they would give them a very warm reception. I expect a barrel of hot tar and some feathers would be in order. One of these days the ivory towers in Cape Coral will come tumbling down. It can’t happen too soon as far as I’m concerned.

John Sullivan

Cape Coral Minutemen