Rotonda West Association, Inc.: Home Page

by Pattie Mihalik, Correspondent
Englewood Herald-Tribune
Sunday, April 27, 2008

For at least 60 residents of Rotonda West, Earth Day is yearlong mission.

Residents walk the streets to pick up trash or patrol the community's canals to keep them clean.

"A few years back, there was so much debris in our streets from construction projects or the carelessness of some people," Belinda Olsen said. "There were some residents here and there who were trying to do something about it but there was no concerted effort to involve everyone in keeping the community clean."

She and her husband, Don, have had considerable experience in grass-roots projects in Illinois. They decided to organize a massive group of volunteers, who would each be responsible for cleaning one section of the community on a continuing basis.

"All we did was to get the word that we were asking for volunteers," Don Olsen said. "We scheduled our first meeting at the community center a little over a year ago and about 60 people showed up."

Although some people have moved or went on to other activities, more volunteers come to take their place, according to Don Olsen. "Our numbers hold steady at about 60 people, sometimes more," he said.

The Olsens stress that they were only the catalysts in the creation of the community clean-up plan. "It's the volunteers who work hard each and every week to beautify the community," Belinda Olsen said.

Serving as captains their section of Rotonda are: Andy Vanscyoc, Oakland Hills; Tom and Donna Gleason, White Marsh; Roger Zucchero, Pine Valley; Margie Carroll, Long Meadow; Robin Lavoie, Pebble Beach; Donna Krabbe, Pine Hurst; and Linda Bondeson, Broadmoor.

Vanscyoc will also serve as canal captain, cleaning each body of water with other volunteers and boaters.

"It's amazing all the junk we have to pull out of the canals," he said. "We find bikes, abandoned boats, lots of tires, pieces of furniture, pieces of rotten docks, appliances and lots and lots of plastic bags."

Those plastic bags are especially harmful to birds and other wildlife. "I don't think people realize how much harm they do when they let a plastic bag fly away," Belinda Olsen said. "They don't realize you can't walk away from trash and have it disappear. It will stay there until someone else picks it up."

Rather than saying, "someone else should do it," dozens of volunteers do daily patrols, picking up everything.

"It's discouraging to see how we can clean a street one day but the next day there is more litter," Belinda Olsen said. She notes that soda and beer bottles along with flyers, cigarette packs and butts are there almost every day.

"It's not a case of just picking up a bottle every now and then," Zucchero said. "We have picked up and taken away trucks full of debris."

"People often ask me why we do this again and again," Carroll said. "We do it because it's our community. It's up to each of us to do what we can to keep it beautiful."

Carroll was among the volunteers who "walked in mud up their knees" to pull debris from the canals. But now that several people with boats volunteered to do it, residents say the canals are cleaner than ever.

The canals will look even better after the Aquatic Canal Committee implements a new project to remove invasive plants and plant emergent aquatic plants at the edge of the water.

Bob Winters, a retired plant manager with a strong environmental background, is heading the committee that will create the littoral zone at White Marsh Memorial Park, planting desirable native plants such as pickerelweed, blue flag iris and golden canna.

"Residents who live along any canal in Rotonda will have the chance to buy the plants at a minimal cost of 60 cents each," he said. The low cost is due to a $2,875 grant that supplied the seed money for the project.

The grant was obtained by Olga and Bull Durham, who have worked for many years on behalf of the community, he said.

Volunteers are looking forward to tackling more projects to beautify the community.

Their motivation is simple, Belinda Olsen said. "We all want to take care of the Earth and keep Rotonda West a desirable place to live."

Following are the totals for the Rotonda West Earth Week cleanup effort:

53 volunteers participated
84 man-hours of work performed
101 bags of trash collected

The Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Governing Board voted to extend the current Water Shortage Order, which restricts lawn watering throughout the District to one-day-per-week, until June 30, 2008.

The water shortage order, which was declared by the District’s Executive Director David L. Moore, went into effect Jan. 16 and was originally scheduled to expire July 31. Since then it has been extended twice, and was slated to expire Nov. 30.

Click here to view the entire November 26, 2007 SWFWMD news release.

Charlotte County has a special once-per-week schedule in effect. View it here.

Lawn & Landscape Watering For Rotonda Residents:

If your address (house number) ends in:

0 or 1 -- Water only on Monday
2 or 3 -- Water only on Tuesday
4 or 5 -- Water only on Wednesday
6 or 7 -- Water only on Thursday
8 or 9 (and locations without a discernible address) -- Water only on Friday

Only water before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
Handwatering or microirrigation of non-lawn landscape is allowed.
Certain exemptions are available, such as allowances for new plant material.

If you have additional questions or if you wish to report a possible violation, please contact us: water.restrictions@watermatters.org or call Water restriction hotline: 1-800-848-0499 (Florida only).