3 To Know: Marco Island City Council meets Monday

1. Naples City Dock closure forces captains to relocate

When the Naples City Dock closes May 1 for a nine-month rebuild, the city will temporarily lose one of its most popular spots for tourists and other residents who want to enjoy the Naples Bay waterfront.

But the 14 charter captains who keep their boats at the dock are worried about losing something else -- their business.

For some fishing, sailing and sightseeing captains who have long rented slips at the dock, walk-up visitors account for up to 25 percent of their customers. The captains will lose that luxury when they are forced to relocate to other, less-popular spots during the rebuild.

“It’s a giant mess for all of us,” said John Crimmel, a 20-year fishing captain. “This is our storefront down here. The city is basically putting (us) out of business.”

City Harbormaster Roger Jacobsen said the city is trying to accommodate the captains. He’s posting signs at the dock that will reroute visitors to Naples Landings, the city-owned boat launch where most of the captains will temporarily operate.

The Naples City Council in March gave final approval to the $6.5 million rebuild of the dock, a nearly century-old Naples mainstay. The project was initially budgeted at $5 million. The dock will be demolished beginning May 8. – Joseph Cranney/Staff

2. Marco Island City Council meets Monday

The Marco Island City Council will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the community room, 51 Bald Eagle Drive.

At the meeting the Beautification Advisory Committee will present the winners of the 2017 Marco in Bloom Landscape Awards and W.D. Higginbotham, Jr. of The Mercer Group – the firm hired to conduct the city manager search – will give a presentation to council.

Council will also discuss a variance petition request, financing road resurfacing and appointing members to the Ad Hoc Parking Solutions Committee.

3. U.S. News & World Report rankings: Mixed results for Collier's high schools

For the second year in a row, Barron Collier High is the only school in the Collier County district to make the 2017 U.S. News & World Report’s top 1,000 high schools list.

The report ranked the nation’s top 2,609 public high schools based on graduation rates, minority student performance and state test and Advanced Placement scores. U.S. News’ 2016 report ranked 2,673 schools.

In 2015, three of Collier’s public high schools — Barron Collier, Naples High and Gulf Coast High — made the cut. But Naples High’s ranking fell from 883 to 1,846 last year, then back up to 1,218 this year. Gulf Coast High ranked 953 in 2015 but was not on the list in 2016 and 2017.

Barron Collier’s ranking fell from 608 in 2016 to 910 this year.

Overall, three Collier schools fared better than last year: Naples High, Lely High and Palmetto Ridge jumped up 628, 321 and 170 spots, respectively.

Three other schools — Lorenzo Walker, Barron Collier and Golden Gate — took a step back in the rankings, with Lorenzo Walker taking the biggest leap from 1,264 to 2,568. Golden Gate was ranked 2,149 last year but was bumped off the list this year.