The Naples Daily News from Naples, Florida • 4

4A Wednesday December 9 2015 Naples daily news Collier Comity to provide $527000 for documentary about reefs By Greg Stanley gretstanleyfJnaptesnewuom 239-263-4738 Commissioner Donna Fiala "With the reefs we're trying to introduce a whole new segment of tourism and that's diving plus augmenting our lagging fishing tourism industry 1 think well find that this will pay off over and over Hiller who cast the lone vote against funding the film said the county should have competitively bid with other filmmakers to see if they could have gotten a better price "There is no proof that this is going to increase Hiller said concerned that funding a 56-minute film but I know anyone who watches 56-mintue films attention spans of the majority of people are very short I believe the right way to advertise this project is by spending over half-a-million dollars without would focus on all the kinds of life supported by a healthy reef system the science behind the project and how a handful of locals were able to capture a $13 million grant from BP to pay for the work Harry Julian said The film will feature a 30-second advertisement for diving or fishing in the Naples area that will run before the documentary We think this will be a great Julian said going to release the film royalty-free for eternity so any networks or other PBS stations need to pay to run this better than any single expenditure like paying for a three-month ad campaign somewhere This film will be playing as long as people keep playing Julian and director John any sort of competitive bidding or guaranteed Julian a ship captain owns Tin City Boats a charter company that docs sunset cruises and deep sea fishing For the last 21 years he has been helping Hollywood film crews scout locations on the water and assisting in water-based stunts and dives along with a litany of planning and coordinating services under his company Marine Team International Last month Rick Johnson general manager of local PBS affiliate WGCU told the tourism development council that there is no guarantee the documentary would be picked up by national PBS stations 1 But based on the story and the quality of footage it stands a great chance of being widely distributed Johnson said Scoular have been filming the meetings reefs and fish on their own for the last three years It will take about four months to complete the film Julian said The money will come out of the tourism funds raised from a 4 percent bed tax the county levies on local hotels On top of the documentary the filmmakers would create two 30-second commercials for the county with footage they shoot in the Gulf They have already created a three-minute video the county can use as it sees fit according to the proposal The county would also be able to comb through the hours of additional footage that make it into the final cut of the film to edit and use for future advertising efforts "This is one the best things that could have said Collier County commission ers have agreed to fund a documentary about the artificial reef project that began here in the aftermath Deepwater Horizon oil spill Commissioners voted 4-1 TUcsday with Georgia Hiller dissenting to pay Pure Image Productions a group of local filmmakers $527000 to tell the story of creating the 36 reefs the largest artificial reef project in the Western Hemisphere and what they mean for the ecosystem The filmmakers Lance and Harry Julian along with John and Madeline Scoular hope to have the documentary aired on PBS stations across the state and country The hourlong film AGREEMENT from 1A a deal The fire latest settlement offer demanded that commissioners issue them the same license that was denied in September The fire district reapplied for the license but commissioners again voted 4-1 Tuesday to not consider or process the application Commissioners will meet behind closed doors in January to discuss options to settle the lawsuit Commissioners also voted 4-1 to formally remove all county regulations on the taxi limousine and vehicle-for-hire industries Commissioners first voted in October to throw out the regulations in response to Uber and the fast-growing ridesharing business becoming the second county in Florida to do so behind Sarasota County More than a dozen taxi The docks would serve a townhouse development called Landing which is planned to open immediately next to the Windstar properties off Bay shore Drive The creek is between 90 and 120 feet wide at the proposed site Developer Standard Pacific of Florida said it needed the extension to make it past a line of mangroves that take up nearly the entire shoreline At the behest of commissioners the developer agreed to build the 26-slip dock parallel with the shoreline rather than gled which means it will take up less of the waterway a said Maurice Gutierrez who has lived on the creek since 1979 "This eliminates the obstruction increases the navigatability and makes it look like less of a If the license expires before a deal is reached or a decision comes from the courts the 85 paramedics with North Collier fire would no longer be able to practice the full gamut of medic procedures The fire district medics would be replaced by nine county medics working on overtime under a county contingency plan that will cost taxpayers about $1 million more a year to keep medic response times close to where they are today according to county estimates The district which includes North Naples Big Corkscrew Island and about half of Golden Gate Estates would also go from having a medic on board between seven and 11 quick response vehicles to having a medic on board three vehicles The two sides both admit they are still far from drivers and owners of limo and other transportation services made a last pitch to try to change commisr sioners minds The regulations which include requirements for criminal background checks and proof of commercial insurance and vehicle inspections are needed to protect the safety of passengers said Randy Smith owner of Naples Transportation and Tours "lb say that county staff cannot enforce the rules is just wrong as the rules have been enforced for Smith said "This is not doing any good for Collier County citizens If you think that a lot of people and alot of companies will start cutting costs now not in Commissioners voted along the same lines with Commissioner Penny Taylor dissenting as they did in October The move gives taxi companies an even playing field with companies like Uber who can more easily skirt the county rules said Commissioner Tim Nance "If everyone is on an equal playing field then the professionals will distinguish themselves as a higher service and they can present themselves as higher level of Nance said In other business commissioners also helped negotiate a settlement between developers who hoped to build a 26-slip dock on Haldeman Creek and the dozens of homeowners who have been fighting the proposal for more than a year The proposal had called for boats to stick about 38 feet into the narrow waterway 18 feet more than typically allowed 300000 people who come into the district every day So anything that extends our ability to serve them is For each of the last five years commissioners have granted the district an annual certificate to train and provide its own medics and hire its own medical director But in September the commission voted 3-2 not to renew the license this year saying it fragments care by providing different standards for patient care and medic training in different parts of the county Fire officials sued the county in October saying commissioners never gave them a fair hearing and asked a judge to order commissioners to renew their medic certificate CYPRESS from 1A gas reserves Their signs read: "Oil: Not Worth a Whisker" Mess Up the "Seismic Testing is "Kill the Drill Deny the Last week the National Park Service issued a review called an Environmental Assessment that declared the Burnett seismic testing proposal the "preferred It is undergoing public comment before a final decision Inside a crammed meeting room at the Big Cypress welcome center where preserve managers fielded questions about the proposal Tuesday the protesters cheered another alternative: No seismic survey a dangerous step in the wrong said Stone Crab Alliance leader Karien Dwyer of Naples her voice crackling Out of a bullhorn outside the meeting The review concluded that the Burnett plan "would provide a high level of regulatory compliance while generating the best quality and most detailed seismic In a written statement Burnett President Charles Nagel III thanked the Park Service for its review our history we have striven to promote a culture of preservation and good stewardship on the land where we the statement said will protect that legacy through our work in Southwest The review looked at three effects cm the environment including vegetation soils wetlands plants and animals soundscapes water quality and visitor use The third alternative would have explosives dropped into small holes in the ground In every category the review found that effects from the Burnett plan would be "adverse but short how it would work: Seismic signals would be created by vibrating an' S-by'-foot 7-inch-thick steel plate against the ground at spots laid out across llOsquare miles down from an original proposal to survey 366 square miles- ThVsignals would bounce off subsurface geological layers and would beread by geophones at the surface to determine the likelihood of formations that might contain oil or gas The plate would be lowered from the bottom of a special off-road vehicle equipped with balloon tires designed to minimize damage as it moves from one spot to the next- Two groups of three buggies would work simultaneously in the preserve covering 25 square miles a day stop- BNCSIMTVSTAFFQ) Stone Crab Alliance leader Karen Dwyer of Naples leads a rally Tuesday at the Big Cypress National Preserve welcome center against a proposal to conduct seismic testing for oil in the preserve Almost 80 opponents attended a national Park Service meeting afterward about the proposal by Texas-based Burnett Oil ping at each survey point for about two minutes each Vibrations would last less than 30 seconds at each stop The federal review predicts that field activities could be accomplished in one dry season maybe less and maps and field crews would work around wildlife buffer areas soft soils or dense woods Oil exploration even drilling is noth- ing new in the Big Cypress preserve which was created in 1974 in eastern Collier County Discovery of oil and gas in Southwest Florida dates to the early 1940s The Collier family for whom Collier County is named kept their oil and gas rights when they sold the original pre- serve to the National Park Service Oil production in the preserve already has included 23 wells on nine pads in Bear Island field and 17 wells on five pads in Rac- People crowd the Big Cypress National Preserve welcome center for a meeting about I coon Point field Mobil and Shell also a proposal to conduct seismic testing for oil in the preserve have conducted seismic surveys in the preserve die any possible Jones said birds and frogs that were plentiful when enough said Marshall Jones Seminole Tribe of Florida spiritual he was a child playing in the swamp 37 a Gladesman whp lives at Fish leader Bobby Billie took the bullhorn we see nothing but peo-! Camp near Miami to decry oil exploration as an example of pie running around trying to kill every- ecosystem is too delicate to han- human actions that have pushed out the thing come to Billie said I i.