The road beside Bonita Beach is getting a new look. Plans are underway to line the entire street with palm trees. This month of December the first 50 were planted and another 100 will be added next spring. The beautification and safety changes are sparked by a partnership between homeowners in the Bonita Beach Association and Lee County. The Bonita Beach Association chipped in $16,500 and secured a matching grant from the county to pay for the $33,000 project. The same type of matching grant is expected to apply for the next round of plantings.
“We are an organization that has been dedicated to the betterment of Little Hickory Island,” said Bob Wagner, a board member of the Bonita Beach Association. “In that scope we decided to make it a safer place and a more environmentally pleasing place.”
The safer part comes from the removal of the coconut palms that are sporadically planted along that road.
“The trees that remained (after the hurricanes) were coconut palms and they (coconuts) have fallen on cars, and they have almost fallen on bikers,” Wagner described. “For one lady, it hit her bicycle basket. When a coconut falls 30 feet it is going to hit with some force. It is a safer place now.”…