To the Editor:

Southwest Florida is a national treasure, and also a personal treasure to every voting adult who is smart enough, and lucky enough to live here. As a fishing guide, then a novelist, I've enjoyed forty years in the area, but I have also traveled to enough troubled, far flung places to know the importance of solid, responsible and thoughtful leadership. It is for this reason I urge voters from all parties to give serious consideration to a man who is among the smartest, most decent and responsible candidates Florida has ever produced: Chauncey Goss.

The first reports trickled in late last year. An odd insect had been spotted on the north end of the island, near Peekins Cove.

Then, cars downtown started showing the sticky signs of an advance, though at the time no one knew what the little spots on their cars were.

Recently, a call came in from the Gasparilla Inn, and the invasion was confirmed.

The Rev. C. Read Heydt is retiring from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church after serving nearly seven years as parish rector. He will be the preacher and celebrant on his final Sunday, July 29th, at 9:30 a.m. Fr. Heydt will turn 75 in August.

While summer attendance is greatly reduced from seasonal highs, some parishioners are planning to fly down to Boca Grande for the occasion ... including members of Vestry, and old friends. A bagpiper, Gary Reinstrom from Sarasota, will add to the festivities.

It always comes down to the money. In this case, it is the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority’s hope that a potential new funding source will relieve the need for any toll increases beyond the one already scheduled for October.

It was a busy day for the GIBA board. From a 9 a.m. Engineering Committee meeting to a 4 p.m. executive session, with a special board meeting sandwiched in between at 2 p.m., it was a day full of updates and information for the board and members of the public who attended.

Noah Agles has a long history of concern for the environment.

“I first became interested in the environment when I was five years old,” said Agles. “I have always wanted to protect and preserve it. I learned about reusing, reducing and recycling when I was four. I have done all three since.”

BY NOAH AGLES - 

Electric vehicles are good for the environment. People should know about the benefits of driving green, which will help us in the long run. I am an environmentalist and care very much about our ecosystem. Planet Earth is more sensitive than you would think. It reacts in different ways depending on what we do to it. Electric cars run on electricity and are CO2 free. They do not use fossil fuels, which hurt our environment, both land and sea. Gas powered cars run on an engine, and pollute everywhere they go. That is a huge comparison.