It’s safe to get back in the water at Fort Myers Beach’s popular Lynn Hall Memorial Park now that health officials have rescinded a Jan. 8 warning that “water-related activities (posed) an increased risk of illness in swimmers.”
Fecal bacteria levels were too high to meet Florida standards, samples showed, so the Florida Department of Health in Lee County had cautioned people to stay on the sand until the all-clear, which came Jan. 12. So now, just a quarter mile from Margaritaville, you can “jump right off the deep end,” as Jimmy Buffett sang in “License to Chill” along with Kenny Chesney.
The warning was triggered by unsafe levels of Enterococcus bacteria, which inhabit the digestive tracts of warm-blooded animals and exit with their poop. In its follow-up release, the department didn’t say what had caused the high levels, and it didn’t immediately return calls and emails from The News-Press and Naples Daily News…