Setting The Record Straight

Special Guest Editorial by J. L. Kreger
President – The Community Council of Lehigh Acres

A recent story published in the Merchant’s Marketer was filled with innuendos, untruths, and much misleading information.  The writer is an elected public official who should be considerable smarter that he shows himself to be.  For example, in his most recent story about the Lehigh Fleamarket at 270 Beth Stacy Blvd., he stated that it had been in existence in some form for over 50 years.  This is not true.

Truth is the fleamarket building came into existence in 1974 (several years after the property was first used by the Lehigh Corp. to host the Spring Festivals) in accordance with county ordinances that were in place at the time.  Vendors were only allowed to use the INSIDE of the building.  This is a far cry from what exists now.  In 2010, the owner went before the County Commission to request a permit to use the space as a fleamarket for up to 6 inside vendors.  No further request has been made to the Commission.

In April of 2012, the owner was cited for 19 violations by Lee County and the local Fire Department.  All the violations concern health and safety issues for the vendors and the general public.

Not a single member of the Community Council has a problem with the Fleamarket or has any animosity towards any of the vendors.  The Fleamarket manager came asking the Community Council to support them.  However, with 19 code violations, the Council tried to determine who the owner fo the property was, but the manager refused to divulge this information.  The Council tried to direct him to the owner to resolve the problem.  The fact remains that the OWNER did not address any of these code violations.  Once the problems were made public, he became willing to do something about it.  For that, the vendors who have been paying rent to the owner should be thankful.  Their building will comply with Lee County and Local Fire Codes; food vendors will be able to go to the bathroom, wash their hands, and the building will be safe.  That’s all something that should have happened BEFORE not AFTER.

When one considers the writer’s background (once the aid to one of our State Senators), one might hope he would better understand the law.  His ignorance shows or perhaps he conveniently forgets by stating “I am not sure what the Community Council is or what it does.  When he worked for the Senator, he arranged several meetings with himself and the Senator before the Community Council  from 1998 to as late as the early 2000’s asking for “their” council,” “their” help, and “their” assistance with many matters concerning Lehigh Acres.  Hmmn….

As an elected official in Lehigh, he should be held to a higher standard.  Writing hateful articles implying that the oldest organized group of citizens working to make this a better community has an agenda of racism and viciousness shows exactly what type individual he is.  This talk can only strain relationships between good people.  However, as proof of his continued vindictiveness, he feels it necessary to print the “Anderson Watch,” something I’m sure all of us wait for breathlessly each month.  In this latest issue, he tries justifying his own actions of removing a young lady working as a reporter for a media other than his advertising supplement (that would be a violation of the reporter’s constitutional rights) from attending an event where the public was invited.   Perhaps the writer feels he is above the law!

With regard to Jack Morse’s story in the same publication, he works for the REAL OWNER of the fleamarket.  He continues the attack on Anderson blaming the investigative reporting that resulted in 19 violations as something evil.   He states Anderson was encouraged by the Community Council to “go after” the fleamarket.  You can put this in the same category as the previous writers’ misrepresentations.  The first time any conversation of the fleamarket came up at a Community Council meeting was when they were blindsided by whoever “orchestrated” the events of the May 21st meeting.  He also tried to stir up visions of racially motivated hate crimes, by paraphrasing a comment that was taken out of context.

The Community Council of Lehigh Acres is very interested in keeping Lehigh Acres as a great place to live and work.  Any citizen is welcomed at our meetings which are held at the Lee County Sheriff Substation on Plaza Dr. the 3rd Monday evening of each month at 6:30pm.