Coastal Engineering Consultants

In addition, “Coastal Engineering has a real commitment to being involved in the community,” says Weston, who was recently elected as chairman of the Naples Area Chamber of Commerce — a position that Stephen held in 1990. Other partners and employees are mentors in schools, coaches for children’s sports teams, involved in civic organizations, and a host of other activities.

“You’re expected to be involved in the community,” Weston explains. “We’re a service organization so the quality of life and relationships in this area are what makes it work. Making a dollar quickly becomes not the answer. We want to try to make the area the best it can be,” he says, partly because they live in the community.

And the community — public need — is Coastal Engineering’s business.

“It always goes back to public need,” Weston says. Those who oppose new roads, new developments, or beach nourishment always will be around, but when the public need overwhelms the opposition, the project gets under way.

Coastal Engineering has gradually expanded and diversified in response to community need and right now, as a legislative delegation recently pointed out at a meeting Stephen attended, public need in Florida focuses on three areas that have almost reached crisis proportions — water management, growth management, and healthcare.

“Well, we work in two of those three areas,” Stephen says. Local and state leaders are tackling these issues and even municipal governments are starting to work together on them. That can be good news for the Coastal Engineering partners — both as a company and as residents. “We’re in a place that has real challenges,” Stephen says, “and I believe we can address them.”

Jill Tyrer is a freelance writer and editor based in Cape Coral.