Local News

While council chose to delay making several costly decisions, an audience of residents let out an audible moan following a close council vote in support of spending about $484,000 to design a new "green" utility building. Full story »

City Council's meeting began for the first time in months without a cement wall between City Hall and neighbor Andrew Guidry's physicians' office. With parking once again open and shared between City Hall' and its neighbor, as decided in a December meeting, Council began Monday afternoon addressing a new dispute between the city and three contracting firms regarding bids on sewer construction. Full story »

Marco Community Bank funds city's tennis program for children. Full story »

An accident on the southbound side of Collier Boulevard near the road to Isles of Capri, CR-952, sends three victims, including an infant, to the hospital. Full story »

Marco Island's financial planning committee gets to work early on the city's budget process beginning with how to make a projected 10 to 20 percent decline in property taxes cover essential city services. Full story »

Physician Mitchell Jerome Shaw, 38, was last seen by his family on Christmas day and found dead in his Naples’ physicians’ office Saturday, reported Karie Partington, a spokeswoman with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. Full story »

For a few months, it rose to the level of fever pitch.
A study, generated to explore the possibility of raising tolls on the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge, raised more than just a little ruckus in Marco Island.
But since August, the din has grown quiet over how to replace the Jolley Bridge, built in 1969 as one of two routes on and off Marco Island.
As officials from the city and Collier County describe it, the issue is in a holding pattern while they wait to find out whether several sources of alternative funding are available. Full story »

A strange-looking endangered species that swims Southwest Florida waters could be getting some new protections. Full story »

Much of the Island’s top news items of 2008 centered around power. Full story »

Q: There is an area inside of my mouth that my dentist checks every time I come in for a check up. He told me the last time I was in that he feels it should be biopsied. I don’t notice anything different and I don’t want the inside of my mouth all cut up. He assures me it won’t hurt. I want to do the right thing but I hate needles and don’t want to be healing over the holidays. What should I do? Full story »

Conservation groups are petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revise the boundaries of critical habitat for the endangered Florida manatee in Southwest Florida. Full story »

A friendly, familiar face is gone from the Marco Island Residents’ Beach. Full story »

This month is named for the two-headed Roman god Janus who guarded the entry to many homes in those days, looking inward and out. Full story »

It’s a very thin blue line that separates peace and civility from chaos and anarchy, police often say. Similarly, the Marco Island Police Department is hosting a citizens’ academy to make a thinner line between the community and its police department. Full story »

Transparency and accountability in city government are two goals Vice Chairman Frank Recker is seeking to achieve and council seems to be backing the idea. Monday’s City Council meeting will include discussions to create a committee of residents to review the city’s charter and a committee to assist in the forensic audit process. Also on the agenda is a protest of bids for the central sewer project, which will be the order of business in the 3:30 p.m. City Council session Monday. At 5:30 p.m. regular business will begin with items including a request to purchase a $330,000 sewer water vacuum truck Full story »