Special to the Naples Daily News, by Joe Landon of Collier County Public Schools: 

 Could Immokalee become a center for innovative solutions to alternative energy production and creative uses of our nation's waste stream? 

A Wisconsin-based company thinks it just might. 

The Growth Design Corporation, based in Milwaukee but far-ranging in pursuits and interests, met with Immokalee's planners February 15th and suggested the community could be place where pioneering steps are taken efforts as diverse as indoor organic tomato production to the conversion of organice waster into bio-methane gas or fertilizer. 

"We have access to technology that can turn plastic (waste) into above-crude grade (oil) for less than $10 a barrel," said Growth Design's Byron Tweeten, a third-generation Iowa farmer, business man and part-time Naples resident. "It can also produce a synthetic fiber that Wal-Mart is very interested in." 

Growth Design's interest in renewable and sustainable energy resources has grown out of the creation of its Center for Environmental Stewardship, the result of its work over many years with faith-based organizations who are now coming to recongize the responsibility humankind has in caring for and sustaining the Earth's resources. 

Tweeten and his Growth Design team have been quietly meeting with a number of groups in Southwest Florida, including Collier County commissioners and senior county staff, engaging the community in the possibility of investing in a public-private partnership to build, among other installations, waste-to-energy plants. 

Locating such installations in Immokalee makes sense because of the community's relatively inexpensive land, young and energetic workforce and a wide range of economic incentives. 

The attraction of Immokalee to innovative solutions to today's major problems is just one of the many reasons why Immokalee is "Florida in the 21st Century." 

 All businesses struggle in the beginning but IMMBIZ wants to help new and growing Immokalee businesses take advantage of U.S. government policies inteneded to give businesses a boost. 

That's why IMMBIZ, the Immokalee Business Development Center, offered a workshop Saturday, February 18, to help small business learn how to qualify for government contracts awarded under Section 3 of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) project guidelines. 

Section 3 of the HUD policies require government contracts be given, where ever possible, to businesses owned by low-income and struggle business owners and business owners in a community where HUD is providing funds for projects. 

Call 239-867-4121 for more information or emai: RosemaryDillon@Immokalee.biz. 

Click here to read more about Section 3 of the HUD policies. 

IMMBIZ also recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide training and assistance to small business owners. 

 SPECIAL FROM THE NAPLES DAILY NEWS: 

 For the first time in years and years, Immokalee will have a single vote in the Florida House of Representatives and U.S. Rep Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, returns as Immokalee's man in Washington, D.C. 

The Florida Legislature approved Feb. 9 with a vote of the Florida Senate a final - maybe - map of Florida reapportioned congressional and state house districts. 

The caveat, “maybe,” keeps slipping into the conversation because no sooner had the final vote been taken than lawsuits and rumors of lawsuits also began swirling. The Legislature’s redistricting plan must pass muster by the Florida Supreme Court, the U.S. Justice Department and must survive lawsuits to be filed a number of groups who will say the state lawmakers did not comply with requirements of the Fair Districts constitutional amendments approved overwhelmingly by Florida voters in 2010. 

The Legislature is required by law to redraw district lines every 10 years, two years after the decennial census, which in 2010 gave Florida two additional congressional districts. 

Under the redistricting plan approved in Tallahassee for the next 10 years, Immokalee will become part of an expanded congressional district now represented by Congressman Diaz-Balart, who served Immokalee and eastern Collier County from 2002 to 2010, when he moved to another district based mostly in Hialeah and Doral. 

With the new plan, Diaz-Balart’s current district is expanded to reach eastern Collier County, Immokalee and extended into Hendry County. 

“We are excited," said Diaz-Balart. "I am very happy to be returning to Immokalee. I’ve continued to keep in touch with Immokalee and Everglades City and I’m thrilled to be returned as your congressman.” 

The new plan also combines Immokalee, eastern Collier and much of Hendry County, including LaBelle and Clewiston, into a single district in the Florida House of Representatives now represented by State Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples. 

For at least 20 years, Immokalee was split between the seat now held by Hudson and a district now represented by State Rep. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, and before her State Rep. Joe Spratt of LaBelle. Grimsley, ending her statutorily limited 8 years in the state house will seek election to the Florida Senate in a district that will stretch from Lakeland to Clewiston, from Port Charlotte over to I-95 on the east coast. 

Immokalee will continue to be included in an expansive Florida Senate district now held by State Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami. That district will continue to stretch from the Florida Keys to Hendry County. 

Maps of the new districts are available here in Google Maps and other media. NOTE: don't be confused by district numbers as cited on the maps. The district numbers may change, slightly. 

 With the effort to introduce mega-casinos to South Florida dead in the Florida Legislature, the state lawmakers' focus shifted to the state's budget and reapportionment and, it seems, a no-harm-no-foul session for Immokalee. 

The defeat of the mega-casinos for Miami is good news for the Immokalee Seminole Casino - and other Seminole casinos - and a handful of bills that might have affected the Immokalee Community Redevelopment District and the Immokalee Enterprise Zone appear dead. 

And it now appears the reapportionment process will return U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, to Immokalee as its lawmaker in Washington. (More on that in a later post.)

The Immokalee CRA made its annual visit with Florida Legislators February 7-8 and the state's lawmakers understand and appreciate the dramatic efforts the community in making to fulfill its destiny as "Florida in the 21st Century." 

While four minor bills were filed in the 2012 session that might have limited the effectiveness of the state's Enterpise Zones, including Immokalee's, none of those bills have moved at all through the legislative process and appear at this point to be dead issues. They were, as a matter of record, mainly intended for enterprise zones in major urban areas but might have been a problem for the Immokalee zone. 

House Bill 547, filed by Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, was intended to drastically curtail activities of two community redevelopment agencies in Dade County. Fresen assure the Immokalee delegation his bill would have no affect on the Immokalee CRA but the issue - though minor - became moot Feb. 7th when the bill failed to pass muster and died in the House's Finance & Tax Committee. 

One House bill that is making big news is a bill sponsored by State Rep. Matt Hudson, Immokalee's lawmaker in Tallahassee. That bill, HB 1263, is making its way through the committee process and appears headed for the House floor. That bill, if adopted by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Scott would essentially shift all public health responsibilities from the Florida Department of Health to each of the 67 counties. Gov. Scott has indicated he is not necessarily supportive of the legislation. 

The Immokalee CRA will continue to monitor events and legislation through the remainder of the 2012 Legislative Session, which is scheduled to end in March.