The best thank you
To the editor,
Since the last council campaign on this delightful island, a lot of things have gone right for Sanibel despite the fact that so much seems to be going wrong elsewhere.
In large measure, we – the residents – can thank ourselves for the untiring efforts and selfless dedication of citizens, business men and women, volunteer organizations and our partners in the County and State for keeping this a community to be proud of. But we must also remember that it is only fair to recognize those we elect to serve our interests when credit is due. Councilman Kevin Ruane is one such person.
When markets and financial systems were beginning to crash, Mr. Ruane – whose background is in business finance – saw that there were mounting risks to investments, both public and private. He led the delegation to Tallahassee to withdraw all of our $27,000,000 from the SBA Local Government pool just in time to safeguard our taxpayer dollars. Other communities were not so lucky and lost untold millions of dollars as funds collapsed. Mr. Ruane also saw the need to build our financial reserves and reduce municipal expenditures by several million dollars, which has kept our budget on firm financial footing. Mr. Ruane pushed for grants to supplement local funds to assist in a time of financial threats. He led the efforts to protect our beaches from the menace of red drift algae by putting in place an environmentally-sound plan to keep our beaches clean. Bikers and joggers can thank Mr. Ruane for his strong support for rebuilding shared use paths on Periwinkle Way to keep our families and visitors safe. His watchful eye on the construction of the new Recreation Center contributed to its on-time and under-budget completion.
But the best thank you we can give this dedicated public servant is to re-elect Kevin Ruane to a second term that is well deserved.
Jack Luft
Sanibel