Let's Talk With Stephen Carter 11.10.2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, good morning. That's let's talk with Stephen Carter coming
to you right here on WCCF fifteen eight and one
hundred point nine FM on your dial. Remember, you can
take us anywhere with you and listen any kind of
programs coming from Lihard here and you just go to
the iHeart app. It is free. Sign up today, take
us anywhere and listen to us anywhere you go. All right,
So the show comes on every Monday. Let's talk with

(00:22):
Stephen Carter eleven thirty ten right here. And as I
always say, every day is a gift, and I totally
I believe that every day's a gift. You wrap it,
you see what it's going to be. Let's talk about
today's and see what's going on in the world relating
not only to Rotary, but do the community and things
that are out there and what's going on. So we

(00:42):
want to talk today about not only where Rotary meets.
We always I want to start off and tell you
about you know, where the two clubs meet that I
usually talk about, and that's Charlotte Harbor Rotary and they
meet at the Ihearve restaurant. I hopis seventeen eighty nine
Tammy trill Imports Charlotte seven thirty, eight thirty on Tuesday mornings.
Always have some good speakers, great events. So if you

(01:05):
need information on that, you'd like to be a speaker
or go visit and give them a call, you can
call me a nine four one four eight four four
three four to one. We'll get you connected to them.
You can go to the website or their Facebook page
and check them out. Now. The other you could check
out an evening club and that is the Roder Club
at Wellem Park. They meet sixty seven on Wednesdays, the

(01:25):
second or fourth Wednesday, sixty seven pm at the downtown
offices Downtown wall Park offices of CAFSTAN Financial Consulting. UH
they're in downtown Wallam Park. So again you can give
me a call if you'd like to find out about that.
Great speakers coming up. As I mentioned recently, we've had
the new principal for the well Park High School. I've

(01:47):
talked about that recently. Mark came in and talked. Recently,
we've had Mike Done from the Atlanta Brads just recently
in and talked. The great gave a great talk about
development of baseball players and now what the Atlanta Abe
Way is and how they do it in development. We
appreciate those guys coming in a lot of other good
conversations coming up when it comes about the scholarship or scholarships,

(02:10):
and we'll also talk about the s ORTL program coming
up and some other things. But you know, we're getting
close to the holidays now and we certainly want to
make sure that we know about that. So there's still
that one holiday thing going on with a lot that
will be starting, but the one that's going on right
now today being November tenth, but you've got through November
fourteenth to participate in the Thanksgiving Tree campaign that started

(02:35):
October fifth. It goes through November fourteenth. That is the
Rotory Club at Wellen Park and the well And Park
Welcome Center. They're partnering again this year for the Thanksgiving
Tree project. What it is the service project where there
are tags placed on a tree. You can pull that
tag off and it'll tell you if it's a twenty
five dollars gifts for gift certificate from publics or fifty

(02:58):
whatever the case. Me of the denomination is that you
choose in a way it works. You take that tag off,
you can go to a QR code and make that
purchase directly. We can provide that to you, or you
can go to the well And Park Welcome Center, get
it and pulled off and make it directly there. Or
you can select the tag and take it to Public's
purchase that and then bring the coupon back to the

(03:24):
welcome center which is located at well And Park Welcome
Center on a Mercado Drive at downtown well and Park
and check that out. So you can go into the
welcome center, you can select the tag, run the tree
off the tree, get your dollar domination, purchase your Public
Skift card in the dour Mount that you choose, and
then take your gift card back to the well And

(03:45):
Park Welcome Center and they'll go and get that that
On the fifteenth, when this ends, the Rotary Club at
Wellham Park will pick up the cards. They'll go to Publics.
They purchase a complete Thanksgiving dinner, so the dinner consists
of frozen turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and all the
fix's for a complete Thanksgiving dinner, and then waking food pantry.
We'll pick up the food and to serve the folks

(04:06):
on Thanksgiving day and it's a great way to give
back and help people and it's been very successful in
the pass. Hopefully we'll be able to do two hundred
meals this year. That's our goal at the Rotary Club
at Wellham Park. So if you need more information on that,
you can give me called nine four one four eight
four four three four to one, and it's really it's
a great program. And Thanksgiving is such a special time

(04:29):
to give thanks for each and everything that we have, family,
friends and helping others, and it's a great way to
do that. So that's the Thanksgiving Tree campaign that ends
the fourteenth. So if you need more information and you
can give me called nine four one four eight four
four three four one and we can go over that
with you. But love to participate and we thank all
those that have contributed and donated so far to help

(04:50):
those that we can help with Thanksgiving Mules through this
Thanksgiving Tree Campaign program. So that is what we're talking
about on that one today. So we joined Rotary for
a lot of different reasons, you know, and a lot
of those reasons have to do with giving back, and
those are one of the things we're talking about giving
back to your community to the individuals in your area

(05:13):
that are around you that need helping. It may be
around the country, it could be around the world. With
all the different things that we do, we have about
one point four million members now in Rotary, and it
is an organization that provides and tries to cover all
those different avenues of service that you can to help people.
And that's one of them, like our scholarships and the

(05:33):
grants and all the different things that we do, whether
it be a nursing walk, whether it be to raise
money for scholarships, whether it be a golf trinmit to
raise money for the Northport Police Department canine unit, whether
it be the concerts that have been given to raise
money for folks. Excuse me, I've done a lot of
concerts around the area, whether it be a military heritage museum.

(05:58):
We're doing those to raise money for scholarships and a
lot of different things that we do. But all those
different events that are out there coming up. We know
Farmers Market Saturdays. It will be on Saturday mornings. You
can go over and you meet somebody be there talk
to you about Charlotte Harbor, Rotary and Punta Gordon on Sundays.
You want to go to a farmer's market and check
out the Downtown Wallham Park Rotary Club at the Farmer's

(06:21):
Market at Downtown Wallam Park. They're there nine to noon
on Sundays and talk to them all the different things
coming up if you have an interest in joining Rotary,
if there's something we've talked about, or some other interests
that you may have. But check it out and stop
buy and talk to my fellow Rotarians and they'll tell
you all about what's going on and what their clubs

(06:42):
are doing. We've got a lot of different things going
on all the time, and that's why it's so interesting
to be a part of Rotary. And you know why
you want to join this one. You know's what do
you want to do and what service do you want
to provide? How do you want to help people? You
ask that question of people. There's a lot of different
things with the friendship, fellowship, the community development, the business development,

(07:04):
your personal growth and leadership development. All those things that
you get when you join Rotary's. It is an amazing organization.
That's why I've been in it for just about thirty
years now coming twenty nine right now, and it's twenty
nine years of perfect tenants. That's not too bad. What
do you think about that, saying you're doing better than me.

(07:25):
I was only ten when I joined. Wow, yeah, maybe
not maybe twelve. But time does fly by. But that's
that's very true when you're talking about that. But those
are things we're talking about, some of the different things
you can do, and we're talking about you know, we
mentioned this is Foundation Month, which it is, and you
can't not emphasize the importance of Foundation Month in November,

(07:48):
So if you wanted to know about it and how
it's the exclusive arm of philanthropy for Rotary. The Rotary
Foundation leverages a worldwide network of Rotarians that dedicate their time,
their funds, their expertise are joys to address these key
priorities and things that are aligned with the seven Areas
of Focus for Rodary. Those areas you want to tackle

(08:11):
challenges like disease, poverty, literacy, malnutrition, sustainable solutions and make
a lasting impact around the world and in your local community.
So globally recognized Rodary has been for its outstanding financials, sewardship,
and effective utilization of contributions. The Rodary Foundation has consistently

(08:32):
earned the prestigious four star rating from Charity Navigator every
year since two thousand and eight as the world's largest
and most reputable charity evaluator. This accolade is granted to
only one percent of charity is signifying that the Roadary
Foundation's exemplary commitment to the prudent management of donor's funds
is extraordinary. So we are very very proud of that.

(08:56):
We know. The foundation when started in nineteen seventeen by
Arch Clump, the sixth president of Rotary International, one of
the original folks back in the day when rodri Foundation
started with Paul Harrison started the organization in nineteen oh five.
The foundation was conceived as an endowment fund with the
purpose of generating a sustainable income for Rotary's mission to

(09:17):
do good in the world. Originating with a humble contribution
of back at the time. This was in nineteen seventeen,
twenty six hours and fifty cents from the Rotary Club
of Kansas City. The foundation has now verged into an
impressive stunning amount of over a billion dollars this versus
grant succeeding a million dollars per day supporting projects spirheaded

(09:38):
by Rotarians around the world. So TRF is currently that's
the Rotary Foundation currently boasts one of the world's largest
and most esteemed international fellowship programs for different things that
are around the world. So when you're thinking about all
the things in the foundations and core mission here is
to empower Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace

(10:00):
through the improvement of health, the support of education, and
the alleviation of poverty. So that's why I was saying,
it's what is your passion? What would you like to
do with Rotary? There are so many different things you
can do and get to know about Rotary, how you
can help people, and what your passion is. So that's
that's really, you know, what we're talking about and what

(10:21):
it's all about. When it comes to Rotary and what
they're doing out there, it's pretty remarkable, I think. So
let's give you a quote for today, Zayner. You ready, Yeah,
Today's quote is life's tragedy is that we get old
too soon? And why is too late? We would have said.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
That that's a really great quote, but I have no idea.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
And I think we all think that it's like as
we get order and you think, bolly fine, do I know?
And that was when that was twenty as opposed to
fifty or sixty or something. So the quote is life's
tragedy is that you get old too soon and why
is too late? That was from the Man with the Spectacles.
Benjamin Franklin said that that's some of these are just amazing.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Did you ever read Poor Richard Solomon act?

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah? But what do you have to say?

Speaker 2 (11:12):
The one that I remember is fish and visitors smelling three.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Days he would cut to the chase. I'm always interested
and I see something about it, a documentary or something
about his life or some of the history characters. I'm
really into that. It's pretty amazing. That quote of life
strategy is that you get old too soon and why
it is too late? Benjamin Franklin, isn't that the truth?

Speaker 3 (11:35):
You?

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Sometimes you think, can I go back and do something
a little different there? Perhaps you can't do that unless
you're in back to the future or something. Yeah, and
doesn't quiet work. I haven't found a deloreum that will
take me back to that specific time of place I
want to go to yet, unless you know what I'm saying,
it's probably painted over and you wouldn't even know what

(11:56):
it looks like now. So anyway, that's the quote, and
I thought that was quite a saying. So we talked
about the foundation a month, and I think that's extremely important,
talk about the farmers' markets and things coming up there
and different things that are happening out there and for
what you want to do and how you want to
get there and do it. So remember too, this is
still November tenth being today, but it's still in the

(12:18):
hurricane timeframe through November, so always keep diligent, keep your
supplies ready, don't let your guard down, be ready for
that because we know something still could happen between now
and the end and November. Hopefully it won't, you never know,
but always be prepared. It's best to be prepared than
not prepared. Don't get caught short, have your stuff ready
to go, with your supplies and be ready to make

(12:39):
sure that that's the way you want it to be,
right because that's certainly the thing that and the way
that the best way for it to happen. So we
got a lot of different things coming up to so
we want to make sure you know. We talked about
that Thanksgiving tree campaign and mention that again if you
need information on that, how you can get that, buy
that qpon which would basically be a tag from the

(13:03):
giving trees where you're purchasing towards a Thanksgiving meal and
be donated to those folks and through the Thanksgiving Tree
Fun which is a combination effort between the Rotor Club
at Willem Park and Wallam Park Welcome Center. For the
Thanksgiving Tree, you buy the coupon off the tree, take
that to Publics, buy the gift card and that amount

(13:24):
whatever do you purchase off the tree for that one,
you take it back to the Welcome Center mccargial Drive
in downtown Wallam Park. After taking tag there, you purchase
that at Publics. You take it back to them. Then
what happens on the fifteenth when this ends on the fourteenth,
the fifteenth, the Rotor Club at Wallam Park picks up
the cards. They go to Public's. You'll purchase a complete

(13:46):
Thanksgiving dinner. Dinners consists of frozen turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes,
gravy and all the fix's for a complete Thanksgiving dinner.
And then the Awaken Food Pantry will pick the food
up and they'll serve those people or get them the
meal so they'll be able to have a thing Thanksgiving
dinner and that's a great cause and a great thing.
And we talked about the foundation there. And remind you
again where the clubs meet. They meet Charlotte Harbor Roadery

(14:07):
meets at the I Hop restaurant on Tuesdays from seven
thirty to eight thirty and punt and port Charlotte at
the I Hop and always great speakers, good things to go.
You can catch them up at the Farmer's Market and
check that out, and they're there on Saturdays, and that's
in Contagorda. If you want to check out the Rotary
Club at Wellham Park. They meet the second and fourth

(14:28):
Wednesdays with every month, six to seven pm Downtown wall
Park at the Office of CAPS and Financial Consulting at
Downtown wall Park. If you need information on either club,
you can give us give us a call at give
me a call it nine four one four eight four
four to three four one and we can go over
whatever question she may have on that and see what's
going on with that. So that's what we're looking forward

(14:51):
to do and the different things there of what's coming up.
A lot of other things happening too and that have
taken place, and one of those has the do with
as soon as I find my little article on it,
I think you'll find it's quote interesting. It has to
do with you know, we talked a while back then,
we uh saying about snakes. What would you think if

(15:14):
you had a Burmese python around you?

Speaker 2 (15:17):
I would not you know what one, because I would
run as fast and as far as I get away from.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
All right, just as such a creature. All right, let's
talk about a recent article. But buddy Chris Porter, the
editor for Charlotte Seisota to Sodo, editor for the Charlotte Sun,
that Chris put this article in a paper and I
couldn't pass up on it. As a dead Burmese python
found in Placida. Wildlife officials say sightings of invasive snakes

(15:45):
increasing in Charlotte County Englewood area as constrictors head north.
I think they had a GPS mark for your address
on them. So on the last one that I saw anyway, Uh,
there was a photo recently of a dead Burmese python
being making the rounds and social media. Recently, large invasive
constrictor not alone in the western part of Charlotte County.

(16:05):
State Wildlife say, in fact, it was one of two
pythons that officials had picked up recently, according to the FWC.
Information offer for the Florida Fish and wild Conservation Center
was saying that to date they have a total of
sixty seven reports of credible verified fermice pythons in Charlotte County.

(16:28):
So of those, sixty three were west of the Mayaca River, Okay.
Fwc's Non Native Fish and Wildlife Program staff picked up
the first python recently plasted a road. The snake was
reported it I think I believe this one was. It
was a dead one. Second five time was found at

(16:48):
Rotunda Lakes Community Park. First reported to the Evasive Species
Hotline alive on Wednesday evening that just recently a while back,
a few weeks ago, but discovered done nearby did yesterday afternoon.
But you know, there are some out there, so that's
what's very interesting.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
I'm going to go on record as saying the only
snake that I like is the black racer because they're harmless,
you know, and they keep.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
They keep things away, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Absolutely, rats, and that's sort of the.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
Other little critters. That's a good thing. They feed on
those and that keeps them from feeding on the right,
But when you're talking about this, I mean areas where
they've been found for these Burmese pythons and Rotanda flacida Inglewood,
Gasparo Island and Ports Charlotte. So and twenty twenty, the
fcceivers who do an increase in python reports causing us
to increase the survey for the location of pythons. According

(17:41):
to the fwc's staff, so anyone that sees the Burmese
python or other non native snakes are asked to report
pythons and they're sighting to the fwc's Invasive Species Hotline
at eight eight eight four eight three four six eight one.
Photos and exact location of very use we for the
FWC officials, but public reports are helped them to help

(18:03):
the biologists understand the python activity, the locations, and it
can help with response and so forth to these. So
I thought it's kind of interesting because we certainly don't
want them hanging around our backyard or outside your front door.
Do so more information give them a call. You can
go to my FWC dot com python slash backslash python
and check it out because it's a little slithery, big

(18:25):
snake that you don't want to have hanging around right.
So with that, I think we're about up against the clock.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
No, we have a few minutes.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
We got to still, Nick, we'll be calling in. Okay,
So I think we're right about for that time. From that,
so we'd be catching CI Carter Insurance in just a minute.
We'll talk about some insurance updates for that. So with that, Uh,
we'll be right back with Nick in just a couple
of minutes. Hey on the line, I think we got
a call. Is that Nick, Nick from CI Carter Insurance?

Speaker 3 (18:52):
It is? How are you doing this? Fine morning?

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Couldn't be any better. If we were better, we'd be
selling tickets, Nick.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
It would be a short show, though, wouldn't it look
at that?

Speaker 1 (19:02):
I didn't say how much the tickets would be, but
they'd probably when they're with the whole heck of a lot.
But hey, we'd tell them anyway. So let's what's going
on in the world of insurance today. Talk about it.
What's happening?

Speaker 3 (19:13):
Well, you know one of the topics that every year,
well in your phrase, not necessarily every year, but every
now and again that pops up is what citizens depopulation. Yeah,
you know that that those terms and those words tend
not to make people too happy, mainly because there's just

(19:35):
a lot of times there's a lot of confusion that
comes with the depopulation process, and so I'll try to
make this a little bit easier for people to understand
when you go into Citizens, because Citizens was started as
the insure of last resort, thank you as the last

(19:57):
resort and sure of the people in the state of
which means that it was originally intended for those who
could not get insurance right and to be eligible to
be a Citizen's Policy order, you have to fit certain
criteria that makes you a perfect candidate for them.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Right.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
What most people think of is why I can't get
insurance in the standard party. Yes, that is one of
the first easy ones. There's not an offer that is
literally the first option you get to go in, right.
The second one has to do with if you've been
offered insurance and it's twenty percent or more than what
Citizens would offer right now, that's where the depopulation process

(20:39):
confusion really does start for a lot of people. When
you sign up and you are eligible and you become
a Citizen's policyholder, you are subject to this depopulation process,
where that means is that the private insurance companies at
the time you may not have fit the profiles for them,
and they didn't want your didn't want they didn't have capacity.

(21:02):
It wasn't that they didn't want you, they didn't have
capacity to take you at that time. Okay, Well, they
get they get a chance to review all of the
policies that Citizens has on the books, right, and so
when they look at it, they look at your region,
you're built, locations, updates, all the materials that come with it,
and they go, hey, you know this policy, X, Y,

(21:25):
and Z, we can take those, but ABC, we don't
want those. You know. They go through and they'll and
they select the policies for depopulation that they, as an
insurance company, are going to make an offer on. Okay,
and if that and so some people receive a bunch
of offers, okay, you know, you can receive anywhere at
the bare minimum of none. Right, and you stay with

(21:47):
Citizens and you don't even know and then you have
up to three, four, sometimes five offers that may may
pop up, and all of those will list out on
a letter that they send you and you have to
make selection. Now, people always ask, well, why can't I
stay with citizens. It has to do with that twenty
percent eligibility rul. Okay, So when you have a depopulation

(22:10):
process and you get that letter, in some cases you
may not be offered the ability to stay within citizens.
And if that occurs, it may be one, two, or
three hironmenting companies that have provided an offer, right, and
then list off who they are and what the price is,
and then further in the letter that you get there's
a comparison of coverages between the two. But that's a

(22:33):
big deal is if insure X wants to ensure your
property and it is less than twenty percent greater than citizens,
Citizens will not offer you or renewal and you will
automatically go if it's one company to that company. If
it's more, you have to make a selection so that
you can go to where you want to go, right,

(22:53):
And so a lot of people go, well, why can't
I stay? It has to do with that twenty percent,
So you may get an increase of eineteen percent, right,
but it's under that twenty percent rule, and so by rule,
you would have to leave Citizens and go with that company.
So there's been a lot of people that have come
up for this depopulation process, and what we've been finding

(23:14):
is that maybe three four, some cases five six years ago,
depending on when you became a Citizen's policy holder, at
that time, they either had the best rade, best coverage,
or you were not able to get it outside of them.
Right right now, that insurance market and those conditions have changed,

(23:35):
so a lot of companies have opened up more capacity,
especially with the storm season being as low key as
it has been in comparison to the last few years
that we've had. More capacity has opened up and people
are willing to take more risk on and so what
that means is that even those citizens at the time

(23:56):
may have been the best option for you, they may
not be the best option. That depopulation may not be
the best options for you. And so if you've had
updates and you want to get a review, they can
give us a call to ninety four one, okay forty
or four three four one, or go on our website
and we will go through the whole process with right.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
That's good information, and that's something that's that's regulating and
done by the State of Florida for on citizens property insurance.
It's not the insurance agents, and so people understand that, okay,
so you can give them a call ninety four one
for a four four three four one. We are up
against the clock, coming up. We'll send Nick. Thanks for calling.
We'll talk to you next Monday. Right here, and let's
talk with Stephen Carter.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Have a great date, absolutely, have a great day.