| Economic impact of 'dock ban'
December 2, 2002 By Mark Greenblatt To submit a Letter to the Editor: comments@nbc-2.com LEE COUNTY - The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service may have proposed a dock building moratorium, but it's not offering any federal money to help local governments reduce manatee deaths. That leaves city governments like Cape Coral wondering what to do about meeting federal goals, and how to pay for it. The city of Cape Coral wants help so it can comply with the federal proposal and protect property values for all its residents at the same time. "A 5-year moratorium would shut down the economic development of the city," said Connie Barron. The city is concerned because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service isn't offering any money to help local governments develop plans to meet federal goals to reduce manatee deaths- and get the proposed dock building moratorium lifted. "We don't think it's fair," said Barron. The city would be willing to budget some of it's resources to protect manatees in canals, but officials are so confused by the proposed moratorium they don't even know if that's what the federal government wants. For instance, the city plans to hire another marine officer to patrol the waters, and keep boaters at idle speeds. But the city says it's just guessing that that's what the feds want it to do. "Clearly at this point, they have been so ambiguous with this 5-year moratorium madness, it's been very difficult for us to determine where we go, what's the next step," said Barron. Until they receive more federal guidance, or any federal dollars, cities like Cape Coral will go it alone, and hope they're doing what they can to help manatees, and stop the moratorium. A spokesperson for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service admits his agency doesn't have any money budgeted to give to local governments. But he says they will offer guidance where it's requested. They plan to meet with the city of Cape Coral in the very near future to address their concerns. http://www.nbc-2.com/News/stories/120202-docks_economic.shtml
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