Let's Talk with Stephen Carter Show 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 wcc F fifteen and one
hundred point nine FM on your dial. Remember, you're going
to take us anywhere with you and listen anytime to
any of the programs coming from ihard here and you
just go to the iHeart app. It is free. Sign
up today and take us anywhere and listen to us
anywhere you go. All right, So the show comes on

(00:21):
every Monday. Let's talk with Stephen Carter eleven thirty them
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 want to talk today about

(00:44):
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 thirty
to eight thirty on Tuesday mornings. Always have some good speakers,
great events. So if you need information on that, you'd

(01:06):
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.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
The other you could check out an evening club and
that is the Rotor Club at Wellem Park. They meet
six to seven on Wednesdays, the second and fourth Wednesday,
sixty seven pm at the downtown offices Downtown wall Park
offices of Capstan 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.

(01:41):
As I mentioned recently, we've had the new principal for
the well Park High School. I've talked about that recently.
Mark came in and talked. Recently, we've had Mike Done
from the Atlanta Braceis recently in and talked. The great
gave a great talk about development of baseball players and
now what the Atlanta Brave Way is and how they

(02:01):
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, 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

(02:24):
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 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

(02:47):
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 gest certificate
from publics or fifty whatever the case. 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,

(03:11):
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 welcome center, which is located at well and Park
Welcome Center on a Mercado drive at downtown well and

(03:32):
Park and check that out. So you can go into
the welcome center. You can select the tag from 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 Park Welcome Center and they'll go and get that.
Then on the fifteenth, when this ends, the Rotary Club
at well and Park will pick up the cards. They'll

(03:52):
go to Public so they purchase a complete Thanksgiving dinner.
So the dinner consists of frozen turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes,
gravy and all the fix that's for a complete Thanksgiving dinner,
and then waking food pantry. We'll pick up the food
and to serve the folks 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

(04:13):
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 such a special time to give thanks for each
and everything that we have, family, friends and helping others

(04:34):
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 those that we can
help with Thanksgiving Mules through this Thanksgiving Tree Campaign program.

(04:56):
So that is what we're talking about on that one today. Oh.
We joined Rotary for a lot of different reasons. You know,
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 that are around you that need helping. It may
be around the country, it could be around the world.

(05:18):
With all the different things that we do, we have
about one point four million members now on Rotary and
it is an origentiation 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 grants and all the different things that we do,
whether it be a nursing walk, whether it be to

(05:41):
raise money for scholarships, whether it be a golf tournament
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, done a lot of
concerts around the area. Whether it be a military heritage museum.
We're doing those to raise money for scholarships and a

(06:01):
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 to be there
talk to you about Charlotte Harbor Rotary and Punta Gordon
on Sundays, you want to go to a farmer's market.
You can check out the Downtown Wallham Park Rotary Club
at the Farmer's Market at Downtown Wallam Park or they're

(06:23):
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 by and talk to my fellow rotarians
and they'll tell you all about what's going on and
what their clubs are doing. We've got a lot of

(06:44):
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 it'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, the fellowship,
the community, the development, the business development, your personal growth

(07:05):
and leadership development, all those things that you get when
you join Rotary. It'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 the 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 rotrans that dedicate their time,
their funds, their expertise, their 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

(08:12):
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 Rotary
Foundation's exemplary commitment to the prudent management of donor's funds
is extraordinary. So we are very very proud of that.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
We know.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
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 Rodary 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 do

(09:18):
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 by

(09:38):
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 foundation, core mission here is to empower
Rotarians to advance world understanding, good will and peace through

(10:01):
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 it's all about.

(10:22):
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
whise too late.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
We would have said 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, well, in find 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's from the Man with the Spectacles.
Benjamin Franklin said, that's that's Some of these are just amazing.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Did you ever read Poor Richard Solomon act?

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

Speaker 3 (11:12):
The one that I remember is fish and Visitors smelling three.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Days he would cut to the chase. I'm always interested,
and I say something about it. H 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 true?

Speaker 2 (11:35):
You?

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

(11:56):
what it looks like now. So anyway, that's the quote,
and I thought that was quite interesting. So we talked
about the foundation a month time. 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 of 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 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

(13:00):
qupon which would basically be a tag from the giving
trees where you're purchasing towards a Thanksgiving meal and be
donated to those folks and through the Thanksgiving Tree Fund,
which is a nomination effort between the Rotor Club at
Wallem Park and Wallam Park Welcome Center. For the Thanksgiving Tree,
you buy the coupon off the tree, take that to Publics,

(13:22):
buy the gift card and that amount whatever do you
purchase off the tree for that one, you take it
back to the Welcome Center McCargo Drive in downtown Wallam Park.
After taking tag there, you purchase that at Public so
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.

(13:44):
They go to Public's. You'll purchase a complete Thanksgiving dinner.
Dinner consists of frozen turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and
all the fixings 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 mill so
they'll be able to have a 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

(14:05):
clubs meet. They meet Charlotte Harbor Rotory 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 and 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
front of Gorda. If you want to check out the

(14:26):
Rotary Club at Wellam Park they meet the second and
fourth Wednesdays with every month six to seven pm Downtown
Wall Park in the office of Capstan 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 three four one and we can go over whatever
question she may have on that and see what's going

(14:49):
on with that. So that's what we're looking forward to
do and the different things there of what's coming up.
A lot of other things happening too and that have
taken place in one of those to 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

(15:11):
uh saying about snakes. What would you think if you
had a Burmese python around?

Speaker 3 (15:17):
You would not?

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Now what?

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Because I would run as fast and as far as
I get away from all right, just a such a creature.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
All right, let's talk about a recent article. But buddy
Chris Porter, the editor for Charlotte Siasota to Sodo, editor
for the Charlotte Sun, that Chris put this article in
a paper and I couldn't pass up on it. It's
a dead Burmese python found in Placida. Wildlife officials say
sightings of invasive snakes increasing in Charlotte County Englewood area
as constrictors head north. I think they had a GPS

(15:50):
mark for your address on them, so on the last
one that I saw anyway, h 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. State Wildlife say, in fact,
it was one of two pythons that officials had picked

(16:11):
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 fromice pythons in Charlotte County, so of those,
sixty three were west of the Mayaca River, Okay. Fwc's

(16:35):
Non Native Fish and Wildlife Program staff picked up the
first python recently lasted a road. The snake was reported
it was I I believe this one was. It was
a dead one second five time was found at Rotunda
Lex Community Park. First reported to the Invasive Species Hotline
alive on Wednesday evening that just recently a while back,

(16:59):
a few weeks ago, but discovered nearby dead yesterday afternoon.
But you know, there are some out there. So that's
what's very interesting.

Speaker 3 (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.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
You know, they keep they keep things away, right, Yeah, absolutely, rats,
and that's sort of the 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 placida Inglewood, Gasparo Island and Ports Charlotte.

(17:34):
So and twenty twenty the f DE receivers who do
an increase in python reports causing us to increase the
survey for the location of pythons. According 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

(17:55):
four eight three four six eight one. Photos and exact
location are useful for the FWC officials, but public reports
are helped them to help 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 doing so more information give

(18:18):
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 snake that you don't want
to have hanging around right.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
So with that.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
I think we're about up against the clock.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
No, we have a few minutes.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
We've 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 2 (18:53):
It is? How doing this fine morning?

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

Speaker 2 (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 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 happened?

Speaker 2 (19:14):
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

(19:36):
a lot of times there's a lot of confusion that
comes with the depopulation process.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
And so.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
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 resort and sure of the people the
state of Florida, which means that it was originally intended
for those who could not get insurance right and to

(20:05):
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 2 (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.

(21:03):
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

(21:48):
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 a selection. Now, people always ask, well, why can't
I stay with Citizens? It has to do with that
twenty percent eligibility pool. Okay, so when you have a

(22:10):
depopulation 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 hirementing 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.
You may get an increase of nineteen 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

(23:15):
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,

(23:36):
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

(23:57):
may have been the best option for you, they may
not be the best options, and that depopulation may not
be the best option for you. And so if you've
had updates and you want to get a review, they
can give us a call nine four one, okay for
eight or four three four one for go on our
website and we can go through the whole profits.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
Great, that's good information, and that's something that's that's regulating
and done by the State of Florida for on Citizens
profit insurance. It's not the insurance agent, and so people
understand that, Okay, So you can give them a call
nine 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 Aro,
and let's talk with Stephen Carter. Have a great day, absolutely,

(24:33):
have a great day.