Naples Daily News - 04/24/2020 Page : A03

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SWFLAToday

About 55% of respondents in a sur-vey conducted by the city of Naples saythe city should regulate the noise levelof leaf blowers.

In March, the city released a surveythat asked landscaping contractors andcity residents a series of questionsabout their use of leaf blowers and howthey would be impacted by any rules en-acted by the city.

The Naples Daily News obtained thesurvey results through a public recordsrequest.

The survey had nearly 200 respons-es. About 31% of respondents were con-tractors hired for jobs that involved us-ing a leaf blower within the city, accord-ing to survey results.

The other nearly 69% of respondentswere city residents with varying levelsof leaf blower use and ownership. About55% of those respondents hire a con-tractor to use a leaf blower on theirproperty, according to survey results.

Naples is continuing to evaluatewhether to amend the city’s noiseordinance to ban gasoline-powered leafblowers and battery and electric-pow-

ered leaf blowers that make noise great-er than 65 decibels.

The Naples City Council made no de-cision during a workshop in December2019 about possible changes to the noiseordinance targeting leaf blowers, beforethis year's city election in which voterselected a new mayor and three newcouncil members.

“We’re still working towards this,”said Dana Souza, the city’s communityservices director. “The matter mighthave gone before the city council al-ready if it had not been for COVID-19.”

The city is working on analyzing theresults of the survey to determine where

Naples surveyed for leaf blower opinionsAbout 55% say the cityshould regulate noise

Brittany CarloniNaples Daily NewsUSA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA

Lee Haddox does landscape work inNaples on Feb. 6, 2019.MORGAN HORNSBY/NAPLES DAILY NEWSSee SURVEY, Page 4A

Can’t get out to enjoy paradise? Collier County’s tourism bureau

aims to bring it to would-be travelers— and even locals — through a new ad-vertising campaign, called We Aren’tGoing Anywhere.

With COVID-19 trapping so many athome, the campaign is designed toshow off� the natural beauty of the des-tination through a collection of shortvideos, along with sharing inspira-tional and uplifting messages.

The campaign launched a fewweeks ago. The digital hub for it,dubbed Paradise in Place, can be foundat paradisecoast.com/paradise-place.

In neighboring Lee County, thetourism bureau launched a marketingcampaign last month to encouragevisitors from its most popular marketsto stay home for now.

To engage with visitors whilethey’re asked to stay home, the LeeCounty Visitor & Convention Bureauhas developed a virtual vacation sec-tion on its website, which can be foundat fortmyers-sanibel.com/visit/plan-your-trip/fromhome. It includes beach andwildlife cams and links to other virtualexperiences.

“We will be adding more contentsoon, which includes stay-at-homeactivities, books and movies related toour destination,” said Betsy Clayton, acounty spokeswoman, in an email.

The tourism bureau has been shar-ing the virtual off�erings through its so-cial media channels to “keep our desti-nation top of mind with our followers,”she said.

An example of that? Coloring pagesof the area’s wildlife posted on Face-book, which can be found here: face-book.com/FtMyersSanibel/posts/10158424874137664.

The bureau also has posted photoshighlighting the beauty of the area onFacebook, telling its more than 721,400followers that it’s doing so in hopesthat it “adds some sunshine and relax-ation” to their day.

In mid-March, the Collier tourismbureau paused all of its advertising,due to the coronavirus pandemic,which has hit the tourism and travelindustry hard in Southwest Florida, aswell as statewide and nationally, lead-ing to countless closures and cut-backs, including furloughs and layoff�s.

The bureau shifted some of the dol-lars saved from putting a stop to itstypical messaging this time of year, tothe new campaign. So, it hasn’t neededto tap any emergency tourist tax dol-lars. They’re waiting if needed later onto help the local tourism industry re-cover after the pandemic subsides,said Jack Wert, Collier County’s tour-

Looking toexperienceparadise at home? There’s a web pagefor would-be travelers

Laura LaydenNaples Daily NewsUSA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA

See PARADISE, Page 4A

Michael, from the NBC comedy “TheGood Place,” is an immortal beingplayed by Ted Danson who constructsneighborhoods for people to live inwhen they reach the afterlife.

He’s also a demon.Funny, then, that this quote also

comes from him, toward the end of theseries:

“What matters isn’t if people are goodor bad. What matters is if they’re tryingto be better today than they were yester-day. You asked me where my hopecomes from? That’s my answer.”

Thank you — for the work you to do tomake our community a community,even when we’re apart. And thank you,too, for trying to be better today.

It’s all we can do. If you have something you’d like to

share, please email us at features@na-plesnews.com. Please include yourname, contact info and any details wemight need to write up something shortand sweet.

Keeping the light on

Bill Kilgus is, literally, in the businessof brightening people’s lives.

As an owner of Trimmers HolidayDecor Inc., he only had a few ways hecould help when he learned a neighbordown the street had lost their job. So hewent over and lit their yard in lights: red,white and blue.

The thought behind the patriotic col-

ors, Kilgus said, is to help people feelunited and let others know everyone isin this together. And, as it turns out, thathouse was just the fi�rst.

“We said, ‘You know what? I’m goingto see if some other people want itdone,’” Kilgus said.

Now there are at least nine homes onhis street in the Golden Gate Estatesthat are lit in lights from Trimmers Holi-day Decor — all free of charge. That’smore than 1,000 sets of lights at 50lights each on one street alone.

To hear Kilgus tell it, neighbors andpassersby have loved the unexpectedshimmer.

“It makes us feel good that we madethem feel good,” he said. “Because thisis not a good time. We’re kind of fortu-nate that we’re doing well throughoutthis, but a lot of other people aren’t do-ing well.”

A meal and more

The Port Royal Association had twogoals: supporting local businesses andletting fi�rst responders and medicalworkers know they’re appreciated.

One creative solution let them do

‘IT MAKES US FEEL GOOD’

“The Good Place” (NBC) with Kristen Bell and Ted Danson COLLEEN HAYES, NBC

We Care: Lights, cameraand community actionIf you have somethingto share, let us know

Andrew AtkinsNaples Daily NewsUSA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA

A yard lit by Trimmers Holiday Decor, Inc., in Golden Gate Estates.COURTESY OF MARJI KILGUS.

See CARE, Page 4A

Naples Daily News - 04/24/2020 Page : A04

(c) Naples Daily NewsApril 24, 2020 3:52 am (GMT +4:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

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both. Executive Director Jenna Heider-man said that by drawing from reservesaccumulated through membership feesand other initiatives, the Port Royal As-sociation was able to buy more than 150gift cards from around 30 local restau-rants, all of which were $40 gift cards.In total, the association purchased morethan 5,100 gift cards.

And where did those gift cards go? Tofi�rst responders in the city of Naples,from police offi�cers to fi�refi�ghters toEMT personnel. Beyond that, they’realso providing gift cards to the entireNCH hospital staff�.

The Board of Directors for the Associ-ation approved the purchase unani-mously, Heiderman said.

“It’s just really important that wegive back to the people who are workingon our behalf,” she said. “Port Royal is agreat community that has a lot of re-sources to be able to allocate to peoplewho need it and need help. What betterway to support the city we live in?”

Isles of Good

Marbella Isles has been a stellar ex-ample of community support and activ-ity.

Kathy Doll, who is the social chairwithin the community, rattled off� alaundry list of kindness and good deeds.

There was the two-week food drivebenefi�ting St. Matthews’ House that’sjust fi�nishing up. There was the thank-you night, where everyone was encour-aged to step into their front yards wear-ing blue to support hospital works.There were the hoagies donated to hos-pital workers and a massive mask-mak-ing eff�ort that produced thousands ofmasks. There were chalk messages onthe sidewalk, too. And there are thethree signs thanking hospital workersthat are planned to travel between theNCH and Physicians Regional.

Really, so much came out of the com-munity that it’s hard to nail it all down,but the community’s kindness speaksfor itself.

“I just think that we are all trulyblessed. We have such wonderful neigh-bors here,” Doll said. “I’ve never been ina neighborhood like this, where every-one is caring and kind.”

Other good news

Dunbar High School’s AdvancementVia Individual Determination team

made a donation, alongside the Lady-Cakes Bakery of Cape Coral and Chloe’sCookies of Fort Myers, to those workingwith COVID-19 patients at Lee MemorialHospital. Workers Tuesday received 40cupcakes and 40 cookies and a ‘ThankYou’ note from the team, showing theirappreciation for those saving lives.

Last week, The Comrie Cancer Foun-dation, a nonprofi�t based in BocaGrande, donated $25,000 to the CapeCoral Caring Center. According to anews release, these funds will help theCape Coral Caring Center continue toprovide food and other assistance asneeds grow due to the coronavirus.

Also last week, Lipman Family Farmsdonated 700 bags of produce to front-line medical workers with PhysiciansRegional Hospital and Lee Health.

The Healthcare Network has repur-posed its Ronald McDonald Care Mo-bile. Originally, it was outfi�tted for den-tal care and used for school visits andoutreach, but according to a news re-lease, the Suncoast Credit Union Foun-dation issued a $10,000 emergency CO-VID-19 grant to allow the mobile unit toshift its focus toward infant well visits,including vaccinations and risk assess-ments.

Bonita Bay resident Mary Calabreseshared that her husband, Joe Calabrese,helped organize a blood drive for April29 and May 1, and now has more than100 people signed up to donate. Likemany other communities, Bonita Bayalso has donated 1,000 masks and arebeginning to sew for farmworkers in Im-mokalee.

CEO and Executive Artistic Directorof the Naples Players, Bryce Alexander,wrote in an email that the theatre’sscene shop constructed custom plexi-glass intubation boxes tailored to NCH’srequests for free. The boxes can helpprotect medical workers while intubat-ing patients.

The Marbella at Pelican Bay, not to beconfused with Marbella Isles, has alsodone its part to make sure residentswithin the independent living commu-nity feel loved. Director of ActivitiesCathy Orban wrote in an email that thecommunity held an outdoor concert forresidents to enjoy from their lanais. ForEaster, staff� created a bunny-themedesert delivered to every door in thebuilding, and every person with a birth-day this month received a birthday bal-loon and some cake, too.

Dena Liston, chief development offi�-

cer of the Boys & Girls Club of CollierCounty, wrote in an email that whileclub members are out of school and dis-placed from the community organiza-tion, the Club is still providing meal kits,school supplies and online activities,among other outreach initiatives.

Students at the Collier Charter Acad-emy pitched in to make a video slidesh-ow expressing how much they missedtheir teachers, showing off� hand-writ-ten notes of love and appreciation andthat they want to come back to see theirteachers.

The Naples-based Halstatt Charita-ble Foundation, the philanthropic armof the investment fi�rm Halstatt, donat-ed 4,500 KN95 masks to organizationslike NCH and the David Lawrence Cen-ter.

Thirty iPads were donated by indi-viduals through the Lee Health Founda-tion to assist with patient visitationacross social distancing measures. TheiPads have been distributed through thehospitals, and are confi�gured with anapp so patients can send a link to familyand friends to start a video conference.

Vineyards Country Club will donateand deliver 175 meals to NCH’s down-town Baker Hospital this morning.Through April, Vineyards Country Clubhas donated more than 700 meals tohealthcare workers across both NCHhospitals and the Physicians RegionalMedical Center. Florida 4-H members,including those in Lee County, havebeen participating in a pen pal program,Pen Friends, to correspond with about250 4-H youth across the country.

The Fifth Avenue South Business Im-provement District announced a newmarketing initiative, #UnitedonFifth, tobolster business for the nearly 15% ofbusinesses still open, according to anews release. One of the fi�rst programsthrough the new initiative is calledFeeding the Frontline, which will pro-vide NCH Healthcare workers, EMS per-sonnel and police offi�cers with donatedfood from Fifth Avenue South restau-rants.

In partnership with the CaliforniaPizza Kitchen, Waterside Shops donat-ed nearly 1,000 meals across SouthwestFlorida throughout three weeks, includ-ing fi�rst responders and The Shelter forAbused Women and Children, accord-ing to a news release.

Andrew Atkins is a Naples DailyNews features reporter. Contact him viaemail atandrew.atkins@naplesnews.com. Tosupport work like Andrew’s, please con-sider subscribing: https://cm.naples-news.com/specialoff�er/

Carl Falk, one of the AVID teachers at Dunbar High School, delivered cupcakesand cookies to those working with COVID-19 patients at Lee Memorial Hospitalalongside fellow AVID teacher Heather Carter. COURTESY OF CARL FALK

CareContinued from Page 3A

contractors and residents stand on theissue, Souza said.

“Staff� is really trying to do a compre-hensive policy analysis on this. Weknow people have strong opinions onboth sides of this,” Souza said. “We havea diff�erent city council on this now, too.”

Souza said city staff� will eventuallypresent options to the city council,which will provide staff� with directionon any amendments to the noise ordi-nance.

The city wants to hold a meeting at atime where many voices can be heard onthe issue, Souza said.

“We don’t want to have a meetingwhen the public comment would bemore restricted,” he said.

For some Naples residents, the noiselevel of leaf blowers is disruptive to thequality of life in the city.

“The amount of noise really aff�ectsus. You have landscapers any day of theweek, there’s not just a certain time,”said Janet Ferry of the Old NaplesAssociation. “It’s when you’re taking anap. It’s when your grandchildren aresleeping. It’s any time you’re having aconversation.”

The Old Naples Association in 2019brought a petition to the Naples CityCouncil asking for requirements forcontractors to use leaf blowers that do

not exceed 65 decibels in Old Naplesneighborhoods.

Jim Streicher, chairman of the OldNaples Association’s neighborhoodcommittee, said the organization isstill advocating for amending the city’snoise ordinance but recognizes thecity has a lot to address with the coro-navirus pandemic and a new citycouncil.

“We’re taking a position that we’renot going to push anything,” Streichersaid.

Landscaping companies have saidproposed changes could create a fi�-nancial strain on their businesses tocover the cost of new equipment.

Landscapes of Naples performswork within the city's limits. OwnerDave Smith said he admits the leafblowers can be noisy but suggested thecity look at limiting the hours leafblowers can be used.

"It's an essential part of cleaningsomeone's yard, is to be able to blow itwith a blower," he said.

"You can use rakes. Brooms canonly get you so far," Smith said. "(Bat-tery-powered) blowers consume a lotof battery. You would have to have aton of batteries. It's not good for theenvironment."

The city previously discussed regu-lating leaf blower noise in 2007.

In 2017, the town of Palm Beachbanned the use of gas-powered leafblowers on property smaller than anacre.

Lee Haddox does landscaping work in Naples on Feb. 6, 2019.MORGAN HORNSBY/NAPLES DAILY NEWS

SurveyContinued from Page 3A

ism director and the executive for theNaples, Marco Island, Everglades Con-vention & Visitors Bureau.

The targeted audience for the neweff�ort touting the county and ParadiseCoast? Mostly Floridians, but it in-cludes Georgians too, from Atlantasouth, and other would-be road-triptravelers up into the Carolinas, Wertsaid. The targeted messaging is gettingdelivered through social media andstreaming devices and services, fromRoku to Netfl�ix.

“We’ve had good engagement sofar,” Wert said. “So it seems to be res-onating correctly.”

Messaging will evolve as travel re-strictions are lifted, said Carlyn Top-kin, with New York City’s Lou Ham-mond Group, the tourism bureau’spublic relations agency.

Paradise, the tourism bureau’s ad-vertising and marketing fi�rm, devel-oped the campaign.

While some destinations still aren’tadvertising or thinking about advertis-ing due to the dire situation in the tour-ism industry, Wert said he wanted tobe at the forefront of “soft messaging,”using it as a way to support local busi-nesses online and to get people think-ing more about where they want to goor what they want to do when they areable to travel again, Topkin said.

Currently, dozens of hotels areclosed. At the ones that remain open inCollier, business has been very slowwith average occupancy at about 10% asof last week, based on research fromSTR, Wert said.

The Paradise in Place web page in-cludes a list of virtual “things to do,”from tapping into the Golisano Chil-dren’s Museum’s play and learn onlineprograms to watching live educationalvideos off�ered by the Naples Zoo at Car-ibbean Gardens.

The page also shares links to web-cams across the county, off�ering virtualviews of beaches and sunsets over thewater, and lists fun and entertaining ac-tivities that still can be done with socialdistancing, from shopping to fi�shing.

“It really is not a selling message atall,” Wert said. “It’s just a reminder thatif you are dreaming about vacations wewill be here when you are ready.”

Naples Zoo posts daily education videos and activities for families. Its lions willbe featured this Saturday. SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-PRESS

ParadiseContinued from Page 3A

Naples Beach remained empty ofvisitors as pictured off the Naples Pieron March 19. JON AUSTRIA/NAPLES DAILY

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