| Published: | May 22, 2010 1:28 AM EDT |
| Updated: | May 22, 2010 5:09 AM EDT |
VANDERBILT BEACH, Fla. - It's your money, and Collier County may soon spend $1.5 million of it on one of it's most busiest beaches...Vanderbilt Beach. After 15 years, it's about to get new facilities for beach goers, but not everyone thinks bigger is better.
"The bathrooms are kind of gross."
"I don't go to the bathroom here, no."
Those are the comments a group of regular beach goers at Vanderbilt Beach give me when I ask about the bathrooms.
At least one visitor had something a little nicer to say. "Honestly it's not that bad. It's kind of gross, I guess compared to the rest of Naples, because Naples is so glamorous and this bathroom is kind of medium," Danny Werner says.
The bathrooms are about to go from medium to magnificent if new plans get the go ahead. The county is going to spend $1.5 million of tourist tax dollars to add a two story facility with bigger bathrooms, larger decks, and a new concession stand.
Right now, a little hut called Cabana Dan's is all the beach goers have, and many say it's always packed.
But, not everyone is happy to hear about plans to transform the beach's facilities. One local man tells me he's heard an earful from local condo owners. "Sexual predators, ruckus, teenagers everything else," Matt Young says are their main concerns.
Plus, some neighboring condo associations think the new larger building piercing through the mangroves will be an eyesore.
According to a group of ladies catching rays on on the beach, that would be unlikely.
"That's the number one thing Naples does is make things look attractive."
The new facilities will be a nice addition to the $8 million the county spent on a new parking garage that added nearly 350 additional parking spots.
Local businesses wouldn't mind if newer, nicer facilities also attracted more visitors.
Plans on the county's website are only preliminary and may get some tweaking. County commissioners are expected to vote on the project in June.
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