City Infrastructure Referendum Passes by Razor-Thin One-Vote Margin

Marco Island’s bond referendum, which was put forward on the ballot during this month’s primary election to authorize $23 million for transportation improvements, was officially passed by a single vote.

The Collier County Canvassing Board officially confirmed the totals on Friday, after recounting all 4,675 ballots and counting the votes both by machine and by hand in a publicly accessible meeting. In total, 2,259 people voted for the bond referendum, and 2,258 voted against. 158 ballots were marked as undervoted, meaning no mark was made for either option, and 82 of those were mail-in ballots. After running them through a machine, county officials counted the undervoted ballots by hand to check whether any had been marked, but the machines hadn’t picked them up, and found that the totals were correct. Melissa Blazier, the county’s supervisor of elections, confirmed the result was accurate and sent it to the state for approval. The official confirmation will take place during the Canvassing Board’s next meeting, which is scheduled for August 26 at 9 a.m. at the Supervisor of Elections Office. The recount was called on election night after the results were initially taken, falling well within the one-half of one percent threshold as required by the state. The passage of the referendum, even by such a narrow margin, officially empowers the city to approve $23 million in bonded money for a variety of transportation improvements, which the city council initially approved in May as part of a broader 10-year infrastructure plan. The money will be used primarily for two major bridge replacements ー one being the Caxambas Court Bridge, and the other being on Goldenrod Avenue. Both of the replacements will cost $4.5 million and $6.5 million, respectively. According to the city, the Caxambas Bridge has the lowest sufficiency rating of the county’s 370 total bridges, and the Florida Department of Transportation rated the condition of the superstructure as being “serious”. Built in 1973 and later repaired in 2017, the bridge is considered to be at the end of its operational life.

While the city will be paying $4.5 million for repairs, the project will cost $12 million in total, with the state funding the remaining amount. Work is scheduled to commence in 2027. Goldenrod Bridge is also one of the lowest-rated bridges in the county and is considered to be in critical condition, according to FDOT. Work isn’t scheduled to commence on the project until 2029, according to the city. Other bridges on Blackmore Court, Sand Hill Street, and South Seas Court will also be repaired for $1.5 million in 2028.

The remaining $7.2 million will be used to pave more than 36 miles of roadways across Marco Island, which hasn’t seen repaving in over 10 years. According to the city, each lane mile costs an estimated $200,000. The annual cost of this work, according to the city, will be $48.72 for those with an assessed home value of $500,000, with those having an assessed value of $1 million and above paying $97.44 annually in taxes to pay off the bonded money ー which ranges from around $4 to $8 a month.