FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Marilyn Rawlings, Lee County Fleet Management
                (941) 338-3233

FORT MYERS, Fla. (September 21, 2001) – If you see a monster truck traveling through one of the county’s wellfields, it may be an official vehicle.

Lee County’s Fleet Management recently built two trucks for the Utilities Division to access the Green Meadows and Corkscrew wellfield sites. The trucks were needed to be able to service the wellheads during the rainy season when the wellfields become inundated with water.

Lee County originally considered spending as much as $300,000 to build access roads to the sites, which may also have been difficult to get permits. But some enterprising Fleet Management employees solved the problem by customizing two vehicles into swamp buggy/monster trucks for less than $70,000.

The trucks were outfitted with oversized, farm-type tires that are 45 inches high and 21 inches wide. Also installed was a hydraulic steering motor, the wheel wells were adjusted, and the chassis were raised to handle up to four-and-a-half feet of water.

Note to reporters: If you would like footage or to get a picture of the trucks in action, please coordinate with Patty DiPiero in Utilities, 479-8534.