25 centsVol 16 No. 19 HENDRY AND GLADES COUNTIES, FLORIDA SERVING THE SOUTHWESTERN LAKE SHORE AREA SUNDAY, JULY 24, 2011 8 PAGES

TO CALL: (863) 675-4255 To email: navig8r@strato.net

Summertime fun with Pirates?Yes, summer is here. 100 degrees in the shade. What is there to do? The Firehouse Community Theater is the answer. See Page 7

BY SEAN FOORMAN

LaBELLE, FL ((Friday, July22) — Chloe Delhomme, ageography graduate student atthe University of South Floridais making the Caloosahatcheeoxbows the topic of her master'sdegree thesis.

Two other colleges students,Jeremie Sage from the FrenchNational School of State PublicWorks and Sean Foorman fromStanford University inCalifornia, are also spendingtheir summer working on theoxbows.

In all, ten college studentsfrom the US, France, China andCzech Republic are assisting inthe river projects of Dr. JohnCapece and Riverwatch, theCaloosahatchee River CitizensAssociation.

Meanwhile, the U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers is workingon plans to restore sevenCaloosahatchee River oxbows inLee County, but the Corps hasno plans for restorations of anyof the old river bends in Hendryor Glades County.

The group of university stu-

dents is spending their summervacations surveying all 38oxbows from Franklin Lock toLaBelle.

The project is the continua-tion of research spanning overthree decades. The first oxbowsurvey was done by SouthFlorida Water ManagementDistrict in 1978. Riverwatchrepeated the survey in 1995,2001, and 2005. Chloe's workthis summer is the first to incor-porate surveys of all 38 oxbows.Her graduate thesis is an exten-sion of the oxbow restorationplanning project she did in 2008as an intern of Dr. Capece's edu-cational organization,Intelligentsia International.

The goal of this summer'sprojects will be a description ofhow the oxbows have changedover the past 33 years, and com-pilation of an updated prioritylist for their restoration.

Because the oxbows are offthe main channel, they get verylittle water flow. Aquatic plantsfall to the bottom and theirdecaying remains accumulate,slowly filling the oxbows with

mud. Eventually the oxbowsturn into wetlands and then dryground.

Restoring an oxbow includesdredging out the accumulatedmud to increase water flowthrough the old river bend. Theshorelines are restored to stablebanks with native plants. In2005, South Florida WaterManagement District funded therestoration of an oxbow at OldFort Denaud.

The Caloosahatchee Riveroxbows are all that remain of theonce narrow and slowly mean-dering flow that was theCaloosahatchee River. Theoxbows are our connection tohistory, giving locals andtourists a glimpse into the past.And anglers love the oxbowswhere the fish are plentiful.

The college students will pre-sent results of their summerwork at the Riverwatch meetingon Wednesday, August 3 at theBridge Street Coffee Housestarting at 6:30pm. The public isinvited to attend.

COURTESY, HCSO

LaBELLE, FL (Friday, July 22) —Some con artists have reached a new dis-gusting low - preying on grandparents.Better known as the Grandparent Scam itworks like this. Typically the grandpar-ent receives a distressed phone call fromsomeone pretending to be his or hergrandchild. There are several variationsto the scam but usually the supposedgrandchild explains that he or she is trav-eling in Canada or Mexico and is in somekind of trouble, ranging from an arrest to

an auto accident. The con artist pleadswith the grandparent to wire money topost bail or pay for damages, usuallyamounting to a few thousand dollars. Aspart of the scam the grandparent is askedto wire money through Western Union orMoneyGram, right away.

Scammers sometimes contact peoplerandomly. They also use marketing lists,telephone listings, and information fromsocial networking sites, obituaries andother sources. Sometimes the scammersdon’t know the names of the grandchild.

For instance the caller may say “Higrandma,” hoping that you actually havea grandson. If you ask, “David, is thatyou?” the scammer will say “Yes!”,Often these crooks will call in the middleof the night and take advantage of thefact that you may not be awake enoughto ask more questions and you may notwant to disturb other people by callingthem to confirm information. If you real-ize you’ve been scammed contact themoney transfer service immediately toreport the scam. If the money hasn’t

been picked up yet, you can retrieve it,but if it has – the money is gone.

If you get a call or email from some-one claiming to know you and asking forhelp, ask some questions that would bedifficult for an imposter to answer likethe name of the person’s pet, or the dateof their mother’s birthday. Try to contactthe person who they claim to be directly.If you can’t reach the person; contactsomeone else, a friend or relative. Don’tsend money unless you’re sure it’s reallythe person you know.

BarronLibrarygrant

(LaBelle, FL – July 22) TheLibri Foundation’s Books ForChildren Program has awardedBarron Library $1,050 for thepurchase of new children’sbooks. These books wereselected locally and are a greataddition to Barron Library.

The Libri Foundation is anationwide non-profit organiza-tion that donates new, qualitychildren’s books to small, ruralpublic libraries in the UnitedStates through its BOOK FORCHILDREN program. TheFoundation enables a library toobtain children’s books it couldnot otherwise acquire due tobudgetary constraints. Friendsor other local sponsors con-tribute up to $350, which theFoundation matches at a 2 to 1ratio.

Additionally, the LibriFoundation received a generousdonation from Hal Berenson andLaura Ackerman to be used inthe placement of Math andScience Books. Barron Librarywas included in this donationand received $350 worth of mathand science books.

BY RAOUL BATALLER

LaBELLE, FL (Friday, July22) — An extraordinary amountof personal income is comingdirectly from the government,close to $2 of every $10 thatwent into Americans’ walletslast year. They include joblessbenefits, food stamps, SocialSecurity and disability.According to an analysis byMoody’s Analytics, by the endof this year many of those dol-lars are going to disappear, asextended benefits intended tohelp people cope with the therecession expire. In Florida,where nearly 476,000 people arecollecting unemployment bene-fits, employers have added only11,200 jobs in the last year.

Moody’s Analytics estimates$37 billion will be drained fromthe nation’s pocketbooks thisyear.

A lot of those people livehere.

In Hendry and Glades coun-ties there are also warnings thatproperty values are expected todrop in the estimated seven per-cent range.

Things aren't getting better. The health care squeezePeople who lose food stamps

are going to stop paying mort-gages and health care bills.More foreclosures will drivedown the housing market.

There are very few controlsover the charges made at hospi-tals, and when the food stampfunds dry up people will besqueezed, and probably resort toseeking care aboard ambulanceswhose bills they can dodge. Itwould be logical now to beef upPat Dobbins's public healthfacilities.

In Lee County, where mil-lions of dollars pour into thewell-endowed Lee Memorialsystem, at least when hospitalcare is needed there are excel-lent, well-funded choices tomake. Hendry county shouldemphasize an ambulance/heli-copter race to the coasts, but

instead burdens the taxpayersthree mils for the pursuit of anunproven hospital theory that ithas shown in the last 15 yearshas pulled less than 20% marketshare. And that's in its ownback yard in east Hendry coun-ty. It's much less in westHendry county. In fact, it pullsmore from Glades than fromLaBelle.

Hospital board meetings talkabout "outmigration" of patients.In fact, there is no dynamic, nei-ther out, in, or under to justifythe use of a word such as migra-tion that implies movement.Market share has been patheti-cally stagnant 15 years. Therehas been no movement in theusage statistics. People aren't"leaving," they now, as always,refuse the courtesy wholesale,all the moreso every time aninsured or self-pay patient loseshis or her patience and walks outafter watching the cumbersomeClewiston labor force play-act-ing the role of hospital employ-ee.

The hospital imposes anunjustifiable tax burden uponthe county as a whole.Unjustifiable? It places us in thebind of forcing us to pay threemils of taxes for a hospital thathalf the county will not use.

Constitutional officers, mostnotably the sheriff's deputies, onJuly 27 are expected to request aHendry county government advalorem tax increase from theexisting 6.5 mils to more than8.1 mils.

The constitutionals do notprovide a labor pool. They per-form service so important thatthe state will not allow localpoliticians to fiddle with thecontents of their budgets. TheHendry Regional service is oflittle importance. To theClewiston resident the hospitalis most valuable as a tax-sup-ported labor pool.

The people are paying threemils to a hospital that theyshould instead be paying for

deputy salaries.The $10,000-a-week trio

But the leadership of countygovernment needs to beremoved, including the commis-sioners. An inept, cluelessadministrator is paid a $125,000salary more suitable to theresume of someone else. In factthe salary was custom-set for herpredecessor's resume which wasfilled with lots of real experi-ence, unlike hers. She is in needof propping up, and another$125,000 salary goes to theboard attorney to do so. He vio-lates the structure all the time byworking not for the boardmajority, but by working byassignment from the administra-tor. Further propping up is alsonecessary. An $85,000 financeofficer is also working for theadministrator. This is in addi-tion to the county finance officerworking in another buildingunder the clerk of the circuitcourt. Those three salaries, withbenefits, are pushing $10,000per week. The single moreimportant responsibility of acounty commissioner board is topick leadership. There's yourfailure. The $10,000 a week isnot the biggest cost. It's whatthe mediocrities at the top dowith money that really costs.

The latest waste is shoppingfor real estate. A few of thesecommissioners are lost in play-ing monopoly, and one in chief-of-staff. One sports a manlygoatee suitable to the list ofcheap rentals he acquired.Another lists rentals on hisfinancial statement. These boysknow their real estate. Thefemale doesn't count. You and Iknow that there are thousands ofbargains out there, and that gov-ernment is supposed to go out tobid in acquiring things. Theseboys now can't live withoutacquiring a certain buildingfrom Alico. Days are gettingdeeper into depression but theseboys feel like going shopping,and adding to that resume (that

Times getting tougher, dollarsfewer, county goes shopping

Eco-tourism and river restoration

Summer program at Firehouse theatre

friends and family filled in forthem).

Are they reined in by a sensi-ble county administrator?

There is none. Besides, what could be more

suitable to house a woman inher position than a real-liverecently vacated corporate head-quarters building?

And the one lost in chief-of-staff nods approvingly.

Everything in real estate is agood buy these days. But don'tyou think, with times gettingworse, and deputies needingraises, that the commissionerscould do something better thanto go shopping for fancyoffices?

Con artists target elderly

The river restoration research of Chloe Delhomme and Jeremie Sage and other college studentswill be presented at the Riverwatch meeting on Wednesday, August 3 at 6:30pm in the Bridge

Street Coffee House.