The Naples Daily News from Naples, Florida • 48

4DC Thursday August 28 2003 Xaplra Daily £eou LocalState Missouri sues Florida company alleging violations of no-call law out The authority agreed to push this information in die front of the plan in the executive summary so there is no doubt that commissioners will see it The Economic Development Council of Collier County is working on a marketing campaign to convince companies that impest and export products out of Miami International Airport to use airport instead The new five-year plan points out that fuel sales from two Cessna Caravan Super Cargo Aircraft operating an average of four flights each per week between Immokalee and the Bahamas would generate $167424 annually Authority member Robin Doyle pointed out that this is a gross fuel sales number The net number would add up to about $L600 a week in revenues for the authority he pointed out The revised plan also points out that $43000 a year could be if only 2 acres is out at the Immokalee in- Tax help Continuedfrom ID inent in which the money that the county has paid to balance the authority's budget each year eventually would be paid back when the authority started to make a profit But that has yet to happen for the authority which operates the Marco Island Everglades City and Immokalee airports And the amount lent by the county to the authority to date adds up to about $10 million when interest is factored in The authority recently decided to ask the commission to forgive the debt saying the county-owned airports are part of the public infrastructure just like parks or libraries which usually requires tax subsidies But commissioners would not The plan approved by the authority on Wednesday calls for an average general fond transfer of $75680 a year for the next five years which is less than the average transfer of $939500 for the previous eight years General fond money comes from property tax dollars Of the tax money the authority is receiving a lot more is ping toward operational than in years past From 1995 through 2003 the authority spent an average of $347600 each year from the genual fund for operational costs Most of the tax money that went to the authority in those years went to capital ex-lifores which is far build-and infrastructure related to the three airports In stark contrast the new five-year plan calls for the authority to spend an average annual amount of $657380 on op erations with capital expenditures being only $99300 each year Thu glaring difference is due to the charging the airport authority a lot more for services it provides authority members pointed out Collier County charges the authority for items such as insurance and the services of the assistant county attorney that sits in on authority meetings and advises members This new plan which is revised from a previous draft includes a breakdown of how these costs are taking their toll on the budget you can see a significant portion of our operating costs are amounts paid to the said Bob Titus the finance manager to say that they are not necessary expenses but these are amounts that go back into county coffers" Authority member Dennis Vasey said he wants die authority to ask the county for an itemized list of expenditures "I think the uncontrolled costs are truly out of he said suggest that we need to have every charge that the county has (billed the authority) itemized I think what we are is a target I believe it is absolutely criminal how much we get charged to do business with Collier But Titus said there is nothing to indicate that the authority is being overbilled "To us there is nothing to indicate that their (county-billed) costs are out of he said The revised plan also has a section that talks about all the potential income that could be generated if only a few of the efforts to bring in business to Immokalee Regional Airport pan ik the county for an of expenditures uncontrolled costs are Xentel interim President Michael Platz said Wednesday the company had not seen the lawsuit and could not immediately discuss it -know it's there going to have to study it and will respond to it as we see Platz said insisting have adhered to no-call) "We go to great pains to adhere to the no-call list" he said A separate lawsuit filed against EchoStar in St Charles County accused the company known for its Dish Network satellite service of wrongjy railing Missourians who had home telephone numbers registered with the no-call list Nixon said his office had fielded more 150 reports that EchoStar based in Littleton Colo illegally made telemarketing pitches of its satellite equipment and television serv-ices "We feel that this action by the Missouri Attorney office is a EchoStar spokesman Steve Caulk ai "EchoStar subscribes to the nocall list and complies with it We believe the action is without merit and we will defend ourselves in this no-call list which took effect July 2001 allowed consumers to sign up with the attorney office to have telemarketing calls to their homes stopped Both of lawsuits seek unspecified penalties costs and fees from the companies shown our ability to file lawsuits in any circuit court in the state in counties where no call violations occur and lawsuits are a continuation of that aggressive Nixon said Nixon's office which administers the list said last month that complaints about fraudulent telemarketers had dropped by 65 percent and complaints about telemarketers calling the homes of those on the no-call list have fallen from an average of abort 5000 a month to about 800 a month More than L2 million residential phone numbers are on no-call list representing about 3 million people More than $1 million fines have been levied against firms who have violated the law since it went into effect Nixon said A federal do-not-call registry has grown to more than 30 million numbers since it was opened June 27 according to the Federal Trade Commission which operates the service On the Net Missouri Attorney General wwwmoagaorg dustrial park On Doyle's sug-list gestion tne authority decided to take out of the plan the last sen- take out of the plan the last sentence of a "vision that called for an airport system being operated at no cost to the Collier County taxpayer "These airports I think provide a substantial public benefit They are part of die transportation infrastructure and they cost something to operate Doyle said "Some day Fd like to think that we will operate at no cost to the taxpayer But that is de pendent on the development of the industrial park in Immokalee and the develop ment of air-side operations primarily in Immokalee We envision that happening in five years and I think we should put that in our five-year ty not bypassing Soliday said "Gene (Schmidt) has been in my office many times We have offered to assist in any way Collier Airport Authority Chairman Bill West said he thinks the authorities should be the ones to make any recommendations about mergers here because operating three airports and very very difficult to do that when you have behind-the-scenes communication that our authority is not privy to extremely difficult and it makes people (working for the authority) guess about their Naples Airport Authority member Eric West said this was one of many times that the issue of merging the two authorities has come up He said each time the Naples authority has had sponse: It's a response: sion to be made by county commissioners and Naples City Council members the reality of the situation speaking as an individual of the authority would be very reluctant to take any particular action in terms of looking at (shared) operational arrangements if there wasn't a reasonably clear not necessarily unanimous (position) from the 12 elected WEIDNER NAPLES 43 6-1 9961 0lISATURNlSL2 PUBLIC NOTICE By JIM sum Associated Press ST LOUIS Missouri sued a Florida company that makes fund-raising calls and satellite television giant EchoStar Communications Corp on Wednesday accusing berth of violating the state's telemarketing list Attorney General Jay Nixon labeled Xentel a repeat offender of Missouri consumer-protection laws accusing the company of nuking fund-raising telemarketing rails on behalf of third-party organizations according to a lawsuit filed in St Louis Nixon said Xentel Inc based in Fort LaiidprHaV used high-pressure techniques" to solicit donations denied or interfered with requests by Missouri consumers to be placed cm own no-call list and repeatedly called Missourians who already had asked the company not to be bothered The lawsuit seeks penalties against Xentel far violating terms of February 2002 court order that required it to abide by Missouri consumer-protection and the noncall laws or face fines beyond the $5000 the company has already paid the state Tickets Continued from 1 The idea is to flood the roads from Immokalee Road to the southeastern end of Collier Boulevard with dozens even up to 65 deputies pulled off their usual jobs for the morning and afternoon rush hours Bloom said Some were spotters calling out descriptions at cars breaking the law while others were in the ticketwriting mode For example the marine units warrants deputies and youth relations deputies moved from their usual posts into the traffic crackdown during those hours and went back to their regular responsibilities after the rush hours he said Deputies normally assigned to die traffic unit were involved in helping 1999 CADILLAC ELDORADO ETC Twdw ItcMi'q gottr mow rwt tftrtm vhtilt IUnct i i A Uiw utn aanawfl 122900 KP451 See DIckKneseheckP 659-12261 LOCAL FISHING SHEr? Sports GOLFING PUBLIC NOTICE City of Naples Clerk organize and coordinate within the larger group set out for the spedaToperation Neighborhood patrol deputies remained on their beats but the different substations were putting together their own traffic details within their areas such as in Golden Gate or East Naples in the Off-peak hours Deputies were set up at more than 20 major intersections Wednesday and plan to return through the weekend Bloom said throw a few new ones in he said He said it will take a community effort to make the enforcement work Drivers know now that deputies are out in groups targeting busy intersections need the community to buy Bloom said "If an $86 fine will do it fine" On Saturday Sunday and Monday "Operation kids in with cars patrolling the length of Interstate 75 Custom ARCH SUPPORTS Computer Casting IptlMulmTtylor Custom Arch Supports can hep prevent those problems: Plantar FUacWa Knee ProMama Shin Splints Lowar Back Pain Had Pain Sny demon's Shoes Wien tin betk go far tka put 20 retrtl 4910 Ihmiami hall 263-6844 Nut to Outtw StnkhouM INFORMATION PUBLIC NOTICE from the county line through Collier The interstate accounts for 30 percent of all of foe fatalities and holiday weekends often bring even more traffic into Southwest Florida about high visibility" Bloom said see the cars every five six seven a look at same of the intersections deputies will be targeting for Operation Brake Light ILS 41 North and Immokalee Road Airport-Pulling and Vanderbilt Beach roads Airport and Fine Ridge roads Airport Road and Golden Gate Parkway Fine Ridge Road and US 41 North Golden Gate Boulevard between 13th and 16th streets Immokalee Road and Randall Boulevard Golden Gate Parkway and Santa Barbara Boulevard Collier Boulevard and US 41 East Airport Road and Davis Boulevard and Radio Road and Santa Barbara The First Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting an astablshmant of religion or prohibiting the frea exarciae thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the tight of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances "Ift a rare nation that grants those avowed to destroy it the freedom to speak their piece But what makes America -1 aJaJJ mJISmm noMti uqm ftORoni pigi gora BaplciTOailirmtB -Sportsi in PUBLIC NOTICE Merger Continuedfrom ID cemed that already gotten into a political morass here of who is going to be in control and are we going to lose this or Interim Collier County Executive Director Gene Schmidt then snapped: "Did you imply that you thought that the Naples Airport Authority should take over? Did I understand you to say Soliday then interjected: "Gene please Make sure you understand that Mr Eschauzier said he was speaking for himself The (Naples Authority) board has not taken a position on Eschauzier noted that the structure of a merger could be laid out many ways Authority members have different views about any type of a consolidation effort and in the end they agreed to bring those out in public at a future workshop Naples Airport Authority at-itomey Joseph McMackin recently told that authority that a 1990 amendment to the state enabling act that formed the Naples Airport Authority allows for the takeover of the operations of Jhe county-run Immokalee Everglades glades City Executive Airport The authority operates Naples nidpal Airport Collier authority officials have several concerns about merging one being the Naples Airport battle with the Federal Aviation Administration over the Stage 2 jet ban at the city airport As a result of that ban the FAA is withholding grants something Collier County doesn't want to lose Collier Airport Authority members said the workshop with both authorities could help Shop therapy Support groups ftf-Sun at Fleamastere How 'bout a nice new pair of shoes? FLEAMARKETft? SA Inal WHt it 1-75 S34-7DS1 to quash rumors that could be hurting employee morale Several Collier Airport Authority members stud they felt that they were being left out of the discussions over a posable merging or consolidation of functions of the authorities Collier authority member Robin Doyle said there was a meeting between Soliday and County Manager Jim Mudd that did not include anyone from the Collier Airport Authority using the term Doyle said "Now I'm not accusing anybody of anything Fm just saying that I think teat if going to have productive discussions and not have people stake out turf which is not a good idea then we need to include all the Talks of a possible merging of the authorities stems from a recent edict from the Collier County Commission to Mudd County commissioners have expressed concerns about the millions of dollars in tax money that is shelled out each year to balance the county airport budget They have asked Mudd to explore a wide range of possibilities to reduce this tax subsidy including having the Naples authority run the county airports The -city airport authority does not ask the city for tax aid It makes enough from fuel sales and leases on the airport prop-r to cover its budget distributed a sheet at the meeting that he said shows a list of questions that were recently asked by a city airport authority employee about the Immokalee airport But Soliday said this should not be construed as a study by the county airport authority of that proper FLY Labor DaWeekencl Naplesto key Wtit -4 Wlflisniwi- Naples lo Nassau $2980 taxes 'Round Jl- Sulnnlng Tridmy Aufwt WHi lompniMMory coMmonm inoumhi hjt me morning flight IMhztng Sunrise Airfare' 19 powongor prep jet aircraft air conditioned and pwreifired wHh stand up hood room huo pflata Cal for leiemrfioni 239-403-8312 or toll frao 866-291-3951 uni lniwHeureiim Offered by SUNRISE TRAVEtlLOURS Noon ai100ajw8uidreran VIMALJAt NOTICE OF COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT The Naples City Council will hold a public hearing on the second reading of an ordinance adopting the following Comprehensive Plan Amendment COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT (Large Scale) 03-CPA1 (03-023) An ordinance granting Comprehensive Plan Amendment Petition 03-CPA1 to amend conservation and coastal management elements of the Comprehensive Plan by adding objectives and policies to establish marina siting criteria providing a severability clause a repealer provision and an effective date Petitioner City of NaplesThe Naples City Council will hold a public hearing on this ordinance at a meeting beginning at 9:00 am Wednesday September 3 2003 in City Council Chambers 735 8th Street South Naples Florida 34102 A complete copy of the proposed Comprehensive Plan Amendment can be obtained from the City of Naples Planning Department 801 8th Avenue South (239)213-1050 ALL INTERESTED PARTIES ARE INVITED TO APPEARAND BE HEARD Any parson who decides to appeal any decision made by City Council with respect to any matter considered at this hearing will need a record of the proceedings and may need to ensure that a verbatim record is made which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal Is to be heard Any person with a disability requiring auxiliary aids and services for this meeting may call the City Clerk's office at 213-1015 with requests at least two business days before the meeting date ONE ON ONE with jaff lytla 1200 Jsfflytfs of tfwNaptoi Daily New goal ONI aa ONI awry TMsWNftfiuost week with Southwest Florida newsmaker Challenging LmkAUatt in-deptfi interviews that focus on Coiar aid Laa counties UbrScMBwCkUr City Council of the Tara Norman City 8 Chanl I NqlN Bonh Springs Fort Myn Goldai GUWVhww and Capa Cord production ol Cone ul rOWwion WBHMV 1240.