In The News
Our Next Disaster Is Already Here — And It's Scrambling Around in Plain Sight
Walk onto the pickleball courts at the Racquet Club, and you're not just playing a game — you may be picking up Salmonella on your shoes, balls, racquets, and hands. Look along the berms between the Collier Blvd condos and the beach, and you'll find burrows undermining the ground itself. Look up, and you might find one in your attic. Marco Island has a disaster playing out in plain sight, and our City government has not only failed to address it — it has actually turned away help.
I’m talking about the explosion of invasive iguanas across our island, and I believe it's time we treated it like a public health and environmental threat.
Iguanas aren't native to Florida. They arrived in the 1960s through the exotic pet trade and agricultural shipments from Central America, and with no natural predators here, their numbers have grown largely unchecked ever since. On Marco Island, they are now among the fastest-growing lizard populations in the world, with residents reporting animals over five feet long and up to 18 pounds. Every breeding season adds thousands more eggs to our city — far outpacing what our current, limited mitigation efforts can handle.
Iguanas are undermining seawalls, cracking pavers and patios, damaging pool decks and home structures, and infiltrating roofs and attics across the island. They also feed heavily on landscaping and agricultural crops, a growing concern for South Florida's broader agricultural economy as well as our own yards.
Other communities have seen this coming and acted. Miami Beach recently quadrupled its iguana eradication budget, from $50,000 to $200,000, in direct response to mounting infrastructure damage. Puerto Rico is confronting the same crisis at a territorial level, with significant damage to infrastructure and agriculture prompting extensive government intervention.
Marco Island's budget for this problem is zero dollars.
The first responsibility of local government is to protect the health and safety of its residents. On this issue, our City is not meeting that responsibility — and it is running out of time to get ahead of a problem that grows larger, and more expensive, with every breeding season we wait.
I am running for Marco Island City Council to address a number of critical issues Marco Island is facing. This iguana hazard is among the issues. The City should get fully engaged now: dedicating some small funding to professional trapping and removal, coordinating with HOAs, monitoring and remediating shared community spaces, educating residents on the health risks and safe removal practices, and tracking our progress so we know the investment is working. I’m not talking about more city spending of money, but surely we can redirect some small amount to fight a big problem.
Waiting until this becomes an even bigger crisis is not a strategy — it's how we end up paying far more later to solve a problem we could have gotten ahead of today. I am asking my fellow residents to join me in pushing our City to act before that happens.
- Dennis Bartolucci
Skills, Balance, Judgment
As a CPA for over 30 Years, now retired, and licensed to practice in Massachusetts, Ohio and Illinois, I have been asked my thoughts on the August 18, 2026 Marco Island $23 million bond referendum. Here are the facts that I am weighing as I decide how to vote on this.
- The $12 million Caxambas Ct. Bridge is already mostly paid for by grants and stockpiled money in dead projects on the city's books. I take this out of the equation.
- There is no independent and objective engineering report on the condition of any Marco Island bridge. When roofing salesmen contact me, as they do, about a need to replace my roof for $60,000, I do not accept their offer. I get a second and a third opinion. For twelve or more million dollars, it's hard to believe a city wouldn't do what any reasonable person would do with their own house and their own money.
- The city approved (and voted for by one incumbent 2026 Council candidate) to spend approximately $1.2 million to design a new bridge on Winterberry. The council then decided to fix that bridge for $200,000 and wrote off the $1.2 million spent on a design. That is the full annual property tax paid to the city by over 1,000 residential properties, down the drain.
4. The city manager recently advocated to spend $12 million for a parking lot for visitors who want to go to the beach. The council approved that plan for further consideration. Yet, in the current budget the city is proposing to cut funds for our parks.
5. The city manager and council have proposed to replace the Winterberry beach access boardwalk by spending nearly $1 million. The third party engineering report that the city paid for recommended fixing, not replacing, the boardwalk for a little over $200,000.
6. Repairs to roads with manholes that launch cars, drivers and passengers into a jarring jolt, are not included in the bond. Only roads that haven't been paved in over 10 years are included. What is the cause of the manhole problem, and isn't fixing that properly the first priority?
7. Tax and spend is not good public policy.
8. The bond is an automatic property tax increase, and it will consume a significant portion of our credit capacity. If we don't get this right, there is no do-over. The voters, who own the city, and all taxpayers are stuck with the reduced financial flexibility.
9. Rollback of the tax millage in prior years wreaked havoc on our finances. I'll let the only candidate in 2026 who, while on Council, repeatedly voted for this and supported rollback, to explain why.
10. We have infrastructure needs, and I support meeting those needs. They may require our city borrowing money. Where I wrestle with the current proposition is whether this referendum achieves our most pressing needs.
So, speaking only for myself, I have much to consider as I decide how to vote. FACTS MATTER!
- Dennis Bartolucci
The Golden Boardwalk
On Monday, May 4, 2026, the Marco Island City Council voted to approve a plan to spend $849,000 to tear down and fully replace the Winterberry beach access boardwalk. They agreed to spend City reserves to pay for this project.
The city staff, at this meeting, reported that the boardwalk is hazardous, unsafe, dangerous, and an emergency to be addressed. When asked how old the boardwalk is, the staff said they were ignorant.
Their description of the boardwalk is based on what?
Chairman Palumbo said at the meeting that the Council doesn’t have the time or the interest to read this fairly short report. Instead, he said, they only need to trust the city staff.
In this letter, I am now appealing to the citizens with the truth. I have obtained the third party engineering report and the FEMA site inspector’s report (February 2025). First, on the front page of both documents, it clearly states that this boardwalk was constructed in 2017. Let that sink in….we are going to pay nearly a million taxpayer dollars to fully junk and replace a nine-year-old boardwalk.
The engineering report, dated 2023, does not say “emergency “, nor “safety hazard”, nor “unsafe”, nor “dangerous”, nor “urgent”. It says that repairs are feasible, and it describes the exact materials and process to repair the boardwalk. Further, it states that the repairs should be achievable with an estimated cost of no more than $210,000. Add some subsequent inflation and one would easily conclude that for a budget of $300,000, this boardwalk could be restored to brand new condition.
The taxpayers will pay for whatever we do to fix or replace the boardwalk. 96% of the property tax to Marco is from residential properties.
Facts matter.
Water, Water Everywhere:
The Lifecycle of Water on Marco Island
There is a finite amount of water on Earth. The water that filled ancient oceans, nourished early civilizations, and sustained our ancestors is the very same water we consume, bathe in, and use to irrigate our crops today. A single drop of water makes many stops as it travels along the water cycle, moving from sky to soil, from pipe to person, and yes, even from toilet back to tap. While most of us rarely think about this continuous journey, understanding it is essential, especially in a place like Marco Island.
All creatures on Earth require enough clean water to survive. Where does the story begin and end for Marco Island? Ours is a unique situation when it comes to our freshwater supply, and it is worth understanding how it all works. As a limited resource, renewing and ensuring a reliable water supply requires awareness, planning, money, and time.
We get our fresh water from Henderson Creek. The water is channeled to a reservoir on the east side of Collier Boulevard, just north of U.S. 41. During the rainy season, excess water is pumped into a deep well onsite, where it forms a freshwater “bubble” stored underground for later extraction and treatment during the dry season. Meanwhile, ongoing development along Collier Boulevard and upstream agricultural activity introduce potential concerns, as the creek is exposed to farm runoff and pollution before it ever reaches our system.
We also draw brackish water from deep wells locally. Wellheads can be seen along San Marco Road between the high school and Goodland. Deep underground, roughly 1,000 feet below the surface, fresh water and salt water exist in a delicate balance. As we extract fresh water, saltwater pushes inland to fill the void. This water is treated using reverse osmosis, an effective but costly technology. Managing this water source is a constant challenge, requiring expensive filtration, maintenance, and, over time, the drilling of new wells.
Between these two sources, Marco Island processes approximately 10 million gallons of water each day. More than 60% is used for irrigation - watering lawns, landscaping, and also filling swimming pools - while the remainder is used in homes for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and bathing. Once used, this water carries with it a complex mix of substances, including nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as trace pharmaceutical compounds. In a community with a relatively older population, these pharmaceutical traces may be more prevalent, underscoring the importance of careful monitoring and treatment.
From homes and hotels, wastewater travels to the sewage treatment plant. There, solids are removed and transported off-site. The remaining liquid is disinfected and repurposed as “reuse water,” used to irrigate our golf courses, parks, medians, large condominium complexes, and hotel properties both on and off the island, including nearby Hammock Bay. As a “houseguest” of Nature, we borrow fresh water and return it dirty. We put over 2 million gallons of this “reuse” water on our Marco Island land every single day; over fourteen billion gallons cumulatively since going to central sewage collection, and more coming.
This reclaimed water continues its journey through underground systems, eventually making its way into canals or the Gulf. What began as drinking water does not simply disappear; it returns to the broader environment, where evaporation, condensation, and rainfall begin the cycle again.
Given that we island dwellers are surrounded by water, it may seem abundant, but the reality is more sobering. The supply of clean, potable water is limited, and demand continues to rise. Every gallon we use is part of a closed loop, and every decision we make—how we irrigate, what we flush, what we allow to enter our waterways—affects the quality and availability of that water when it comes back to us.
The takeaway is simple but crucial: on Marco Island, there is no “away.” The water we use today is the water that must nourish us tomorrow. Protecting it is not just an environmental responsibility; it is a direct investment in our own health, our community’s future, and the sustainability of life on this extraordinary island.