Great Safety Adventure rolls into town

The Great American Adventure tour manager Joe Straughan shows kids the dangers of potential burns from a hot pot handle sticking out. The kids used flashlights to identify dangers in the kitchen like open cabinet doors and playing near a hot stove.


(left to right) Bonita Springs Elementary school kindergarteners Miles Alceus and Brennan Engel
crawl out of The Great Safety Adventure Wednesday during a practice fire drill. The smoke filled
room smelled like pancake syrup.


Dubbed “the coolest field trip on wheels” by its tour manager, the Great Safety Adventure trailer rolled into Bonita Springs on Wednesday to teach school-age children about home safety.

The trailer unfolds to form a 1,000-square-foot animated home.

Rover, the nonprofit organization’s mascot, guides children through rooms where hidden dangers can lurk in places such as the living room, kitchen and bedroom.

“We take kids through the house and talk to them about how to identify dangers and alert a grownup,” said Joe Straughan, tour manager of the program created nine years ago. He teaches children about falling, poison, choking and drowning dangers. “We don’t show them to try to fix it themselves and that’s important to avoid injury.”

Preventing injuries is one of the reasons the home visits elementary schools and Lowe’s stores that act as anchor and sponsor for the program.

“The great thing is that we have reached over a million kids, and if we save one life or prevent one hospital visit we are doing our jobs,” said Straughan, as the tour made its first stop in Southwest Florida at Bonita Springs Elementary.

The tour, part of a Home Safety Council Initiative, will include stops in Fort Myers, Lehigh Acres and Cape Coral the next two weeks.

“A lot of times the children learn so much that they go home and share it with their parents,” Straughan said. “Their retention is phenomenal.”

Robert Mecannic, 6, a pupil at Bonita Springs Elementary, was thrilled to practice a fire safety drill at the end of the home tour.

“I liked it a lot. I got to crawl out of the fire and the smoke was cool,” said the kindergartner, who crawled through
pancake-scented smoke.

At the end of this week’s school tours, the trailer will make a stop at the Lowe’s in Estero.

Old 41 traffic drives sale and move of Village Haus

Jakob’s Village Haus is up for sale because the business is moving, permit pending, to what used to be Smith’s Garage just a block north on Old 41.

The Village Haus of Bonita Springs is up for sale, but drivers on Old 41 will soon see it popping up just one block north at what used to be Smith’s Garage.

Jakob Hammerle, the owner and sole employee of the business, put the German-inspired location on the market because his wife, Ingrid, was tired of dealing with traffic on Old 41.

“We had to take customers across the street to see our products and the traffic was just too bad,” said Hammerle, 69, of their sales office that was split between two locations. “She just wanted to sell it, and Smith’s is closer to the other half of our business.”

Hammerle has seen the traffic grow in the last 20 years since he opened shop in Bonita Springs.

“There is a lot of problems with crossing over (Old) 41 and over there we can have a bigger showroom,” said Hammerle of the new space that he can’t fully move into until all permits have been finalized. “Next week I’m hoping to get the rest of (the permit) so I can start work on the new place.”

Currently, the Village Haus sits on the west side of Old 41 but with Smith’s Garage on the east, customers will be able to visit one location and see everything the Hammerle’s have to offer.

“The population has outgrown the streets and when we started there wasn’t even an I-75 or a McDonald’s in Bonita,” jokes Hammerle who got his start in the interlock paving business 55 years ago in Germany.

Despite the traffic, Hammerle admits that the population surge has helped his business, which was the first of its kind in Southwest Florida.

“Nobody knew what this material was at first but now they know it and want it,” he said.

And customers will have a better way to get it now that Smith’s Garage will be transformed into a Florida-style building in as little as two months.

“We plan to paint over the sign since people still stop in and ask us to fix their car,” said Hammerle of the traffic signal- type sign that currently adorns the building. “The new place is like half an acre bigger and now my wife won’t have to drive customers through traffic anymore.”

Bars compete for best St. Patrick’s party title

Bennigan’s at The Promenade at Bonita Bay will offer specials for St. Patrick’s Day at its outside bar. Irish dancers will also make an appearance.

The green beer will flow today as local Irish businesses in Bonita Springs and Estero help locals and visitors celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and feed their inner leprechaun.

Several bashes are planned throughout the area with every business unknowingly competing for the top spot as the biggest party in Bonita and Estero.

“This spot will definitely be the biggest party in Bonita Springs with Irish trinkets and green beer,” said Darren Novosel, the general manager at the Bennigan’s Grill and Tavern at The Promenade at Bonita Bay. “We got everything that you can think of to celebrate St. Patty’s Day.”

The Irish-style restaurant will be serving corned beef and cabbage today, which is the only day it will be on the menu all year.

Thousands are expected to come out for the festivities that will include bagpipers, Irish step dancers and green giveaways.

“We have that great outside bar and all the activities will be going on out there,” Novosel said. “It’s will be the biggest St. Patrick’s day in the whole area.”

Fitzgerald’s Irish Pub owner Mic Fitzgerald begs to differ as he has spent the last week cooking corned beef and ordered more than 600 heads of cabbage for the big day.

“We have a great family event planned and we even got people flying in from Ireland just for this party,” said Fitzgerald of the barbecue and tents he will have set up all day in the parking lot. “We open at 11:30 a.m. and go until everyone goes home.”
The green beer is a must on St. Patrick’s Day, he says, and so are the Irish-inspired giveaways.

“We are giving away a six-night trip to Ireland with a flight and bed-and-breakfast-style place to stay,” said Fitzgerald, who will also give away other prizes today. “We do this every year ... this is the fourth year ... we are bigger every year.”

A pipe band and Irish step dancers will appear twice today at the restaurant and more than 5,000 are expected to attend.
“We are ready to go. The green beer is flowing,” said Fitzgerald. “We will be the biggest party in Bonita Springs.”

The British Open Pub won’t be fighting to be the biggest but they will represent the other British isle by offering corned beef and Irish stew on the menu tonight.

And while patrons guzzle beer and eat stew in Bonita, Estero locals can party it up at Stoney’s Sports Cafe.

The bar will keep mugs filled with green beer tonight and will sell $1 Budweiser and 16-ounce green aluminum bottles for $4.

An Irish band will end the night with Irish songs.

And, apart from drinking beer and eating, all businesses want from their patrons is that they remember they were at the “biggest party in the area.”

Realtors Wine, Dine and Design

Mary Beuth, left, and Lynn Murphy look at color samples during a fundraising event to benefit the Women's Council of Realtors.

The Women’s Council of Realtors raised $4,250 during their first fundraiser of the year.

“We are thrilled to raise that much,” said Sherry Gilliam, the co-chair of the event. “We have never raised this much in one night.”

The “Wine, Dine and Design” event brought out local Realtors for one night to showcase home and office vignettes throughout the Robb & Stucky Interiors showroom.

“Robb & Stucky has a Realtors referral program so this gives us a chance to get the word out and help the WCR raise money,” said Ashley Murphy, marketing coordinator for Robb & Stucky Interiors.

During the evening, local Realtors and designers chatted and raised money to educate local Realtors by participating in a variety of raffles and giveaways.

“We have all sorts of giveaways from botox to a resort getaway and gift certificates from area businesses,” said Gilliam, of the group that has been around for more than 3€ years. “It’s a great night to take in the ambience of the spaces and enjoy some wine while raising money.”

Medians on U.S. 41 in Bonita laid open for planting

Workers Alexander Gutierrez, 18, Naun Hernandez, 22, and Jose Maldonado, 27, dig up the U.S. 41 median in preparation for irrigation pipes to be installed. Workers will eventually grow trees as part of the irrigation and landscaping project spearheaded by the city of Bonita Springs.

Drivers on U.S. 41 are again seeing work crews digging up and placing pink pipes in the ground as part of an ongoing landscaping project near the intersection at Old 41 in Bonita Springs.

But they won’t be there for long.

The work, spearheaded by Bonita Springs, is part of a U.S. 41 median landscaping and irrigation project that has seen its share of problems.

“This is a continuation of the work we had started already,” said Rod Matterson, the engineering technician for Bonita Springs. “We started and then got delayed.”

James Melton, the city’s senior project manager on the project, attributes the delays to contractor Astaldi Construction Co.’s expansion of U.S. 41 for the last three years.

“My guys will be out there ... north of Old 41 ... until we get going on the other project on the south end,” Melton said. “The state owns U.S. 41 and until they accept
everything Astaldi is doing, I can’t get my guys back in to finish.”

Workers have completed all work from the Collier County line to just north of Bonita Beach Road, said Melton, who hopes Astaldi finishes soon.

“What you are seeing out there is them doing what little they can to get ahead while we wait,” Melton said.

Getting ahead hasn’t been easy because workers can’t install irrigation and eventually landscaping until water is available on the north side of U.S. 41.

“Eventually the plan is to finish with these pipes, put in pavers and grow some plants,” Matterson said. “We are doing what we can for now.”