Naples Daily News Weekend Digest Miss something this week? Catch up on a few of our big stories in this quick digest
Sticker shock: Some rich Naples homeowners pay much higher property taxes than others
As April turns thoughts to taxes, here's something cheery to consider.
Few Southwest Floridians, if any, have to pay as much property taxes for their home as the owners of 2200 Gordon Drive, a sprawling mansion with a Gulf view and its very own lake and tiny island.
Last year, it had an ouchable property tax bill of $575,733.18, according to Collier County tax records.
And its owner, Westbury Properties, Inc. — a group led by Canadian tycoon and Bermuda resident Michael De Groote Sr., who made his fortune in trucking, school buses and hauling solid waste — got to pay it.
Six-figure tax bills are hardly unique for owners of Collier County's most dazzling and well-located residences. But because of various caps and exemptions — including a $50,000 homestead exemption any permanent Florida resident can apply for — as well as length and type of ownership, tax bills can vary wildly for properties that have roughly equal market values.
"The effect can be dramatic," said Annabel Ybaceta, the county's director of exemptions.
Bonita Springs downtown construction squeezing small businesses, owners say
It was Good Friday, just around lunchtime, when Bryan Field, owner of the Survey Café in downtown Bonita Springs received a phone call.
On the other end was a would-be customer asking how to get to the quaint restaurant on Wilson Street, tucked away behind Benson's Grocery not far from Old 41 Road.
Field, 62, told the caller to follow the road detour signs. He explained that calls like that are common since construction started on Old 41 Road, which leads right through the heart of the city's historic downtown.
"Everybody calls," Field said. "It changes every day. 'How do I get in?' We're getting 20 calls a day: 'How do I get to you?' "
But giving directions is the least of Field's worries these days. His business is hurting.
As part of the city's $18 million, two-year downtown redevelopment project, construction crews have been hauling dirt, operating excavators and shoveling gravel in front of Field's business since mid-February.
Closing time for Chrissy’s: Longtime local restaurateur taking break
Next week's closing of Chrissy's Tavern & Bistro will be a bittersweet milestone for Chrissy Bianchi-Rabil.
After more than a 25-year run in the Naples market, the local restaurateur is finally taking a break. Over the years, she has juggled as many as three restaurants at once, but now she is down to one — the one that could be her last.
Chances are, nearly everyone has dined at one of Chrissy's creations in the last quarter of a century. Chrissy's Café on Radio Road was the first, launched in 1989.
"The most personally meaningful restaurant was my first restaurant on Radio Road. That's when I was pregnant and opened the restaurant and didn't know anything about restaurants," said Bianchi-Rabil, recalling how she was six months pregnant with her first son while she was up on a ladder painting and preparing to launch the café.
"I call it my baby. It's where my children were born. We had a lot of history there," she said. "I considered myself a strong, willful survivalist and providing for them and building a restaurant. It all turned out OK. The American dream. And I did it on my own."
The timeline of Chrissy's restaurants gets a bit confusing because Chrissy Bianchi-Rabil opened and closed three locations twice over the years. Like the original, almost all of her restaurants had Chrissy in their names: Chrissy's Wildside Cafe in Carillon Place, Chrissy B's in Tanglewood Marketplace, Chrissy's in Pebblebrooke Center and Chrissy's in Bayfront Place. Exceptions were Bianchi's, using Chrissy's maiden name, in Bayfront; and Freddie Rebel's Neighborhood Sports Bar and Grill, a nod to the nickname of her late husband, Fadi Rabil.
Progress, however slight, a relief to victims’ families
An outdated address.
A computer disk lost in the mail.
An incomplete record.
A calendar mix-up.
An endless string of seemingly minor snafus have added up to years of delays in bringing to trial a Frostproof, Fla. man accused of DUI manslaughter in the 2011 deaths of two Collier County women, leaving their families in a prolonged state of grief and uncertainty.
Relatives of Jennifer Jenkins and Kathleen O'Callaghan have made dozens of trips to the Hardee County Courthouse in Wauchula to sit in on hearings for Michael Phillips, 51, who is accused of two counts of DUI manslaughter in the Dec. 30, 2011 crash that claimed to the lives of the two childhood friends.
The ordeal has left them frustrated to the point of anger.
"I want this closure," said Dan Jenkins, the husband of Jennifer Jenkins. "This is the one part of her life that is the ugliest but it goes on the longest," he said Tuesday after yet another pretrial conference before Judge Marcus Ezelle.
The halting pace of the case seemed at last to wear on Ezelle, who approved a scheduled proposed by prosecutors to have all expert witness opinions in and depositions completed by September, setting the stage for a trial in October.
Central Avenue project to add roundabouts, bike lanes, parking starts Monday
A monthslong construction project in downtown Naples to redesign Central Avenue breaks ground Monday, as local business owners continue to argue the project will chase away customers and worsen traffic.
The $4.3 million project from Eighth Street South to Goodlette-Frank Road will shut down parts of the avenue. The city is building roundabouts at Eighth and 10th streets, installing bike lanes and adding on-street parking. The project will reduce the stretch of the avenue to two traffic lanes.
Business owners are worried that traffic issues will keep customers away, in addition to concerns about a lengthy construction process that will close parts of the avenue leading up to their storefronts.
Rick Johnson, the tire shop owner, picketed a ceremonial groundbreaking held Thursday and spoke publicly about the avenue project at the City Council meeting Wednesday, when he reiterated his three demands for changes to the project and told the council, "This will be my next-to-last stand."
The council voted 5-2, with Doug Finlay and Teresa Heitmann dissenting, to approve the final plans for the project in February. Central Avenue is said to be the first of several potential projects that would redesign downtown corridors to be more pedestrian and biker friendly.
The construction on Central is designed to lead up to the entrance to Baker Park, the yet-to-be-built public park planned for the old landfill site at Riverside Circle.
