News in month: June 2012
Immokalee's Chez Nuos Dadou is the latest restaurant to get a facelift, part of an on-going redevelopment effort in the community's quest to become a shining example of "Florida in the 21st Century."
The Haitian and French eatery, 211 West Main Street, won approval earlier this week from the Collier County Commission for a $16,000 facade improvement grant from the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA).
The CRA's facade grant program gives businesses up to $20,000 for an exterior face-lift, provided the business matches the grant on a 1/2-to-1 basis.
The project is one more piece of the revitalization effort currently underway in Immokalee. In addition to a massive stomwater and drainage project in South Immokalee, a variety of businesses and institutions are taking advantage of economic and business incentives to grow and expand.
Miner's Market on First Street is being rebuilt from a fire in 2011. Immokalee's Kountry Kitchen is expanding into a new building on New Market Road.
Other improvement projects currently underway or beginning soon include Dr. Francois's Haitian Grocery, the old Santos Corner in South Immokalee, Goodwill Industries on Main Street and a new headquarters for the Immokalee Foundation on Roberts Avenue.
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Special from the News-Press:
A Southwest Florida-based agribusiness completed a trio of acquisitions in the past six months in its quest to supply tomatoes to every corner of the nation.
Immokalee-based Lipman Inc. already had staked a claim as North America’s largest field tomato grower, with about 30 locations throughout North America. But, it wasn’t content with that.
With the recent acquisitions of Dallas-based Combs Produce, Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Branscomb Produce and Portland, Ore.-based Coastal Brokers, Lipman says it can supply tomatoes to about 75 percent of the country, and is aiming for even greater market penetration. Company leaders wouldn’t be more specific about the financial details or future plans.
“Our ownership group is committed to long-term growth, and to running a vertically integrated tomato company,” said CEO Kent Shoemaker, who joined the company in 2010, becoming the first CEO not related to the founding Lipman family.
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Special from the Naples Daily News:
Elvis Tribute Artists from around the country showed up for the Elvis Fest 5 competition to see who was “King” for 2012.
How would you like to walk through a casino and see a couple of Elvises trying their luck at the Elvis slot machine? That was the case at the Seminole Casino in Immokalee on Saturday June 23, 2012.
Hundreds of Elvis fans gathered in the Event Pavilion in anticipation of witnessing twelve Elvises perform hit songs such as “Don’t Be Cruel”, “Love Me Tender”, Kentucky Rain and many others.
“I just returned from Graceland and this is the icing on the cake for me,” mentioned Doreen Polaki.
Guest performers and past contest winners, Dwight Isenhower and Todd Martin demonstrated to the crowd exactly why they were crowned “Kings” as they had the ladies screaming and crying and the men swaying and clapping to the beat.
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News About Immokalee
With all the construction and revitalization taking place in Immokalee it's hard to believe anyone finds time to eat.
But Abey's Kountry Kitchen knows hardy appetites are the norm in this community, not the excep,t and the long-popular spot for down home cookin' is changing with the time.
The Kountry Kitchen, located at the corner of New Market Road and Nixon Drive will soon open a entirely new restaurant - with the same flavorful menu - on the same spot as the current restaurant and will rennovate the "old" restaurant into a banquet hall for parties and weddings, quinceaneras and all sorts of festive gatherings.
The "old" buiding's facade will be remodeled and rebuilt with the help of a facade grant from the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency.
The Kountry Kitchen is available online through Urban Spoon and on Yelp, two popular online restaurant referral and geolocaton platforms.
The work at Kountry Kitchen is just one of several construction projects currently underway in Immokalee, which stands as further evidence the community is rapidly advancing to take its place as a shining example of "Florida in the 21st Century."
Construction is also underway (and will be featured here) Miner's Market (see below or
click here), Dr. Francois's Haitian Grocery, the old Santos Corner in South Immokalee, the Haitian Restaurant on Main Street, Goodwill Industries on Main Street and a new headquarters for the Immokalee Foundation on Roberts Avenue.
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Immokaleans and most regular visitors to Immokalee remember the distinctive landmark of the old Miner's Market on First Street (Immokalee Road), with its "old west" exterior.
Miner's Market burned to the ground in March 2011 but the new Miner's Market is quickly coming out of the ground and will re-open within the next two or three months.
Located across First Street (CR 846) from the Immokalee Seminole Casino, the new market's exterior will be modern and reflective of the overall Latin/Caribbean flavor of architecture in Immokalee's future.
Construction on the old market's replacment got underway a couple of months ago with the held of incentives from Immokalee's Enterprise Zone. It's exterior contruction comes as a result of a $20,000 facade grant from the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Zone. 
Reconstruction of Miner's Market is just one of several construction projects currently underway in Immokalee, which stands as further evidence the community is rapidly advancing to take its place as a shining example of "Florida in the 21st Century."
Construction is also underway (and will be featured here) at the Kountry Kitchen restaurant, Dr. Francois's Haitian Grocery, the old Santos Corner in South Immokalee, the Haitian Restaurant on Main Street, Goodwill Industries on Main Street and a new headquarters for the Immokalee Foundation on Roberts Avenue.
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Eighteen-year-old Immokalean Rafael Lopez hears the smell of the grease paint and the roar of the crowd in his dreams.
With the help of his father and the community, Lopez will launch that dream this summer during acting camp in New York.
The Naples Daily News featured the Lopez family in a special Father's Day piece:
"He is taller and lankier than his father, also named Rafael, with darker hair and pierced ears, but just as quick to smile and laugh. He admits he's not cut out for working the fields like his dad did for nearly 20 years.
"He was accepted to a summer acting camp in New York City, though. It will be his first time on a plane if he can raise $2,500 for the three-week July program.
"His dad, one of 1.7 million single fathers in the U.S. last year according to the U.S. Census, will help. But his landscaping job — the Lopezes' only income — barely covers expenses some months for the six people now living in their Eden Park home."
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Immokalee voters will get the chance in August to express at the polls support - or disapproval - of the proposed Immokalee Area Master Plan.
Collier County commissioners voted 4-1, Tuesday, to place on the August primary election ballot a non-binding straw vote on the Master Plan, the outcome of which will serve as the final and undisputable "will of the people" statement for the lawmakers who will, in turn, give the plan a formal up-or-down vote in September.
Collier County Commissioner Jim Coletta, who represents Immokalee and eastern Collier on the county’s lawmaking panel, proposed the August straw vote after the third of three community meetings on the plan broke down into a raucous affair with both supporters and detractors of the plan claiming intimidation by the other side. Only Commissioner Tom Henning voted Tuesday against holding the straw vote.
Tuesday's decision by the county lawmakers means the planned June 18 meeting of the county commission, in Immokalee, will not take place. The lawmakers
agreed last month to hold the June 18 meeting at take the final, formal vote on the plan. That meeting will now be set for September, after the August straw vote.
The ballot question will read:
DO YOU SUPPORT THE AMENDMENTS TO THE IMMOKALEE AREA MASTER PLAN AND
THE IMMOKALEE AREA MASTER PLAN FUTURE LAND USE MAP AS VOTED ON AT THE
COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS’ DECEMBER 13, 2011, MEETING?
____Yes ____No
[Read more →]
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The Immokalee Business Development Center (IMMBIZ) will formally open its new computer lab June 20.
Made possible through the generous donation of Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union, the computer lab is open to clients of IMMBIZ and others.
A ribbon cutting will take place at noon on June 20 at the IMMBIZ headquarters at the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency, 1320 North 15th Street (State Road 29), just north of Lake Trafford Road.
IMMBIZ is Immokalee's center for creative entrepreneurial efforts. Over a dozen new businesses have been launched with the help of the center in its first year of operation.
The computer lab is an ongoing effort to move Immokalee entrepreneurs further into the highly competitive and technical world of business in the 21st Century. Through the lab, IMMBIZ will offer courses to small business owners and entrepreneurs in Quickbooks, Microsoft Office 2010 Business applications such as Excel, Word and Outlook; as well as a wide range of computer skills and applications. The center is also offering assistance to small business owners who wish to register for U.S. Housing & Urban Development Section 3 certification to help procure government contracts.
Call the center, 239-867-4121, to reserve a spot for the computer lab ribbon cutting or write RosemaryDillon@Colliergov.net to seek more information about the burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit in Immokalee.
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Special from the Naples Daily News by Eric Staats:
Neither ranchers nor researchers knew what to expect when they kicked off a two-year study last year to try to figure out how often Florida panthers are attacking newborn calves around Immokalee.
A report on the first year of the study is putting some hard numbers to the problem, for the first time, and is revealing some surprises, they say.
"I think we have a good handle on what happened," said University of Florida graduate student Caitlin Jacobs, who conducted the study with the help of ranchers.
Getting to the bottom of the problem of panthers preying on cattle herds looms large because private landowners' cooperation is key to the survival of a rebounding population of the endangered species that's running out of room in Southwest Florida.
The study is helping guide the development of a possible program to compensate ranchers for calf losses, either paying ranchers per killed animal or paying a so-called "ecosystem services" fee to reward ranchers for the environmental benefit of their land.
Scientists estimate that as many as 160 panthers live in the wild, up from as few as 30. A recovery plan calls for establishing new panther populations in other parts of Florida, raising concerns about conflicts between panthers and humans elsewhere.
The study tagged 98 calves at the JB Ranch and 108 calves at the Immokalee Ranch with ear transmitters that allowed researchers to keep track of the calves during calving season from September 2011 to April 2012.
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Special from the Naples Daily News:
Gonna be some funk in da house at the Immokalee Seminole Casino in July...and not just any funk...but Dr. Funkenstein, himself!
Rock and Roll Hall of Famers George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic headline a "Fantasy of Funk" Outdoor Festival, July 21.
At sundown, Clinton and the band will climax the music festival, a daylong jams, beginning at 1 p.m. with Nouveaux Honkies and followed by funk band Bonerama and the Glen David Andrews ensemble, playingNew Orleans jazz, gospel, rock, blues and funk.
Parliament Funkadelic is credited with being one of the most prominent innovators of funk. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. They are also among Rolling Stone Magazine's list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" (2002), SPIN Magazine's "50 Greatest Bands of All Time" (2010), and VH1's list of "The Greatest Artists of All Time" (2010). They have more than 40 R&B hit singles and three platinum albums.
Food and beverages, including from 10 gourmet food trucks, is avaialable, and water, sodas, beer and wine for sale. Visitors are asked to bring chairs. No pets or coolers will be allowed.
Tickets to the festival are $25 in advance and are available at the Casino Cage or by calling, 1-800-218-0007. Day-of-show tickets are $30. Player's Club members canreceive a discount by ordering through the club.
There's a free kick-off party with funkiest costume contest and live music by Nouveaux Honkies at the casino's Zig Zag Lounge on July 20.Seminole Casino Immokalee is at 506 South First Street, Immokalee,The "Fantasy of Funk" festival begins at 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 21, just outside of the casino. More than 10 food trucks from across the state will be on hand.
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