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Weldon Rogers at a glance

Family: Single father with four adult children, six grandchildren.

Hometown: St. Louis

Applicable experience: CEO Office Furniture Manufacturer, director of three private companies, experience in banking and stock trading.

Why run? It's an important place and I like it. I'm crazy about the place. I don't know the answers to the bridge dilemma. I'm an outsider. The only way I would have any knowledge of this is by being an insider and by reading reports of engineering firms that have studied the matter. I wouldn't want to run if I didn't think I could be helpful. I want to see the island has as bright a future as it has a past.

Education:

How long lived on Boca Grande: I've been an owner of property for 25 years. And a resident for almost three.

Civic: Member of Gasparilla Golf & Beach Club, St. Andrew's episcopal Church, Lemon Bay Golf Club

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PART SIX: Weldon Rogers, the sixth of 11 candidates to be profiled by The Gasparilla Gazette, is not even convinced the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority needs to rebuild the bridges and certainly wonders if $40 million is a necessary amount to spend.

He is opposed by Virginia "Ginger" Watkins and William Jack for the Group 1 seat in the Aug. 24 election.

TOP ISSUES

The top issue is what to do about prolonging the life of the bridges or replacing them as cost-effectively and efficiently as possible with the least interruptions to the people who use them. There are examples of bridges where the life has been extended by substantial rework on the bridge structure. I'm not suggesting not replacing them is the way to go. I just don't know. Until someone gives an outsider an opportunity to investigate it thoroughly, I don't think that the conclusion should be embraced that that's the only alternative.

FUNDING REPLACEMENT BRIDGES

It depends on a lot of things. No. 1: knowing a lot more about it, the bridge authority's source of revenue and financial wherewithal than I do now. I've looked at the financial statements for the bridge authority for 2008-09 and clearly the authority makes money. The question is how do they spend it? How much is needed to either finance the substantial reconstruction of the present bridges or their replacement? What is required is the first thing to determine.

How to finance it? It could be a combination of things from higher tolls to taxes. It just depends on what is determined. There are some financial transactions that might be possible here. There are ways to finance this bridge that would reduce the cost.

Rebuilding the bridges is what we are led to believe reading the newspapers. But I don't know to what extent rehabilitating the present bridges has been considered. I'm sure it has. But I don't know what the results were.

IS THERE A MAX TOLL LIMIT?

I was quoted incorrectly in the Boca Beacon as saying $5 would be sort of the glass ceiling. I don't know. Obviously there would be some limit. What I said was a $5 toll would be possible. Yes, I think it would be. Would a higher toll be possible? I suppose it would be. Again, there's a lot more things to be considered. Offering opinions when you don't have any more facts than I do is dangerous. So, I'd want to know more.

SHOULD STATE TAKE OVER BRIDGES?

I've heard that as a possibility both why it might make sense and why it might not make sense. Who's going to be in charge of regulating tolls? I think that sometimes people tend to listen to only one point of view. What's in the best interest of the people who live on the island? In many respects those folks could afford to pay more in tolls. If the state were to run the bridge maybe they would raise the tolls and it would not be in the best interests of the folks on the island.

It's a bit of a Catch-22. On the one hand, the state and two counties represented on the island derive a considerable amount of money from the taxes on property on the island. The value of property on the island is considerably greater than it is, probably, off the island. If you had a problem with the bridge, I suspect the value of property on the island might decline. We can all look at the history and know what the value of property here was 25 years ago, when I wish I'd bought more.

So I think it's to the benefit of the counties and state to make sure that property values on Boca Grande don't decline more than they have recently. So I think you have to consider both sides. Clearly it's not in the state's or counties' best interest to decrease the value of the property on the islands.

WHY ARE YOU THE BEST CANDIDATE?

I've got a lot of relevant business experience. I've got a vested interest in the well-being of the island. I had to be convinced this is something I should do to be helpful rather than seeking another item for my resume, which I don't need. If I didn't feel as if I could help, I wouldn't do this. There needs to be a final resolution of discussion about the future of the bridge. What makes the most sense economically?

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