HOLMES BEACH – Bill Romberger, owner and agent at the Anna Maria Island Real Estate Corp., is hoping voters will consider him for the city commission when going to the polls in November.
“I didn’t want it to turn into an Anna Maria situation,” he said, stating that he wanted to make sure that voters have a choice when it comes to choosing Holmes Beach city commissioners in November.
The local resident and Realtor said he’s been living on the Island with his family since 1995 and has seen a lot of changes over the years. He said he thinks the current elected officials in Holmes Beach are doing a good job and, if elected, he hopes to support continued efforts to improve water quality, protect the environment and oppose consolidation of the three Island cities and a proposed parking garage at Manatee Beach.
Currently a member of the Clean Water Ad-hoc Committee in Holmes Beach and the Surfrider Foundation, Romberger said that keeping local waters clean and Island stewardship is paramount on his list of priorities, if elected to one of the two open seats on the city commission.
“I’m an environmentalist,” he said, adding that he wants to protect the Island’s natural resources. “We need to look at things that can be done to, if nothing else, we don’t hurt the Island anymore, that it’s going to be hurt with the amount of tourists and development that it encounters.”
Romberger said he’d like to be a liaison to the clean water committee if elected so that he could work closely with those members to bring some of their projects to fruition.
“I think that would be my top priority,” he said.
Another priority, he said, would be to encourage native landscaping and minimalist landscaping to reduce water usage and stormwater runoff.
Romberger also said that he is a large supporter of the efforts to maintain home rule and is against consolidation and efforts to build a three-story parking garage at Manatee Beach. If it was fiscally responsible to consolidate services among the three Island cities, he said that would be worth serious consideration.
“I spent my whole life in island beach communities and always thought it was important that the small communities keep their local government,” he said.
If elected, he said he’d like to work with property owners and local businesses to develop affordable housing for workers. Romberger said he feels there’s a way to incentivize business owners to create or provide affordable housing on the Island for some of their workers or to encourage property owners to turn short-term rentals into reasonably priced annual rentals.
He said that if the city’s budget allowed, he could see giving financial incentives to property owners or helping to subsidize the rent for workers at brick-and-mortar locations on the Island.
Romberger is answering questions from the community at The Sun’s Holmes Beach Candidate Forum on Wednesday, Aug. 28 at 6 p.m. at Holmes Beach City Hall.
