In the weeks after Hurricane Irma, as Collier County's utilities failed and sewage began backing up into streets and homes, the county needed thousands of gallons of sewage hauled away.
Now the county will pay the hauler, Southern Sanitation, about $270,000 less than it billed the county because of an invoice discrepancy found by the clerk's office.

Collier County will take a look at what it would take to build a parking garage at Clam Pass Park as commissioners consider options for improving beach access throughout the county. 

A Naples City Council candidate with a history of litigation in Collier County said his financial disputes were results of a couple of bad partnerships and an even worse mid-2000s economy.

In almost a dozen lawsuits spanning the past decade, creditors and lenders said Mitch Norgart neglected his $2 million mortgage and racked up more than $350,000 in unpaid debt on credit cards, a motorboat and a yacht club membership.

A new year and a new start. As Southwest Florida says goodbye to 2017's hurricanes, brush fires and flooding, it looks ahead to a potential sales tax increase, elections and maybe off-shore drilling, among other things. 
Here are the Top 10 topics and people the Daily News staff will be watching in 2018:

A landmark Naples fishery is expected to stay open while a real estate developer manages delays to his plans for a renovation at the property.

Work to build a fire station behind Naples City Hall is expected to cost about $3 million over budget, prompting a recommendation for the Naples City Council to borrow money for the project.

It's a fluid situation, but support is growing to protect inland waterways and beaches. Save Our Water is the battle cry. Behind the Headlines Staff.
A $1 million project years in the making to reduce pollution in Naples Bay is on track to get started in 2018.

In the latest legal challenge to downtown development, a Naples resident is again alleging that the Naples City Council went too far in approving a commercial project that skirts building restrictions in the Naples charter.

A Naples political action committee is now eyeing the August ballot for a referendum to poll voters on the creation of a local ethics commission to govern conduct of public officials.
But the newly formed Naples Ethics PAC is still collecting signatures

If you are a Naples voter – and rent or own property in Naples — you have a vital stake in making sure that Naples government is conducted with high ethical standards.