Estero Council elects Jon McLain to fill seat vacated by Don Brown
The Estero Village Council on Wednesday elected Jon McLain to fill the council's District 3 seat vacated by Don Brown in early May.
Before the vote, District 6 Councilor Nicholas Batos announced that Brown had died Tuesday night. Brown, a longtime advocate for the south Lee community, resigned last month. He had missed several public meetings due to his lengthy battle with cancer.
“He was a very compassionate, very professional individual,” Batos said of Brown, who represented District 3 after the village was incorporated in 2014. “I’m going to miss him terribly.”
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A moment of silence was held for Brown at the meeting.
McLain, in an interview with the Daily News, said he hopes to represent Brown well. McLain said he reached out to Brown to learn more about his vision for Estero, but the former councilor was seriously ill and didn't reply.
“I hope I can fill his shoes and carry on,” McLain said.
McLain, a former executive vice president at Amscan, won in a 5-1 vote. He has lived in Estero for seven years. Before joining Amscan, which owns the Party City retail chain, McLain worked at multiple paper companies across the United States.
McLain was one of four candidates vying for the open seat: Barry Freedman, Frank Howe and Bill Williams, a former city manager, were the others. Williams received Mayor Jim Boesch’s vote.
The council used paper ballots and, to ensure no votes were secret, a clerk read aloud whom councilors voted for.
“I’m very honored,” McLain said. "The process has been extremely rewarding."
Councilors pushed McLain’s public interview to Wednesday’s meeting, just before the vote, after he missed the June 7 council meeting due to a planned vacation.
Like the candidates who spoke two weeks ago, McLain focused on the village’s major Estero Parkway construction project in his speech before councilors. He said the project’s final plan will be used as a model for other Estero road improvements.
The council needs to come to a consensus regarding Estero Parkway, he said. Making sure the highway is safe for bicyclists and pedestrians is one of his priorities, he added, and the road needs to be resurfaced.
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The project, now on hold, is aimed at improving safety along the four-lane highway that cuts east-west through the village. Councilors have debated project costs, how to approach construction and whether roundabouts should be built on the road. A roundabout costs about $750,000 to $1 million.
McLain, in his public interview, also said he supports Lee County’s push to acquire Edison Farms land near the eastern limit of the village. County commissioners on Tuesday voted to begin talks to buy the 3,900 acres for conservation.
“We have water issues as our development continues, we need aquifers and we need to support our natural environment,” McLain said after the meeting. “I think that area needs to be preserved for the enjoyment of the populace and ecological reasons.”
After the election, McLain sat with the council, voting to approve a motion that opened competitive bidding to contractors for the Estero Parkway project. He also voted to amend the Coconut Point DRI, a plan that lays out rules for development in the Coconut Point area.
Under the village charter, Estero was not required to hold a special election in this case because the District 3 seat term has less than two years before the scheduled 2019 election. Brown’s resignation was accepted May 3, which left the village 60 days to fill the vacancy.
McLain will serve through the term, which will end in 2019. District 3 is in northern Estero. About 4,000 residents live there.