FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Jim Lavender, Lee County Public Works
                (941) 479-8301

FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 13, 2001) – The Board of Lee County Commissioners unanimously approved an agreement today to purchase a former bank branch for a new Sheriff’s station in North Fort Myers.

The county expects to close on the 5,712-square-foot building in the next month. The former First Union National Bank branch is located at 121 Pondella Road and will cost $380,000. The facility will be the Lee County Sheriff’s Office’s North District Station and will replace the existing North Fort Myers substation on Hancock Bridge Parkway. The Hancock Bridge substation is 2,690 square feet.

The new station could be open by later this summer. Relocation and renovation costs will be about $225,000.

The Sheriff’s Office is moving toward a plan of having four larger district stations located in the North, South, East and West sections of the county instead of many smaller substations. Deputies assigned to the districts work out of the stations, which also serve as links to the community for taking crime reports from residents and hosting citizen meetings.