FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Donald D. Stilwell and William H. Hammond, County Administration

(941) 335-2221

LEE COUNTY HIRES NEW TRANSIT DIRECTOR

FORT MYERS, Fla. (August 16, 2000) – Lee County Government has hired a new Transit Division Director who will oversee the operation of Lee Tran – the county’s bus system.

Steven Myers comes to Lee County from Dallas, where he most recently served as assistant general manager for First Transit Inc., an international provider of public transportation and maintenance services. Myers has 24 years of public transportation management experience, including 17 years with First Transit in such places as Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Seattle, Houston and Massachusetts. He also worked for seven years for the Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corp. in Lafayette, Indiana. He replaces former Transit Director John Myers, who resigned in March to take a job in Dallas.

Myers holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration/finance from Indiana University and is a member of the American Public Transit Association.

Lee Tran has a $6 million operating budget, 124 employees, 41 buses, nine trolleys and 19 routes. The system provides more than 1.5 million passenger trips and 40,000 paratransit trips annually. The county also is completing construction of its Intermodal Transfer Center in downtown Fort Myers. The $2.6-million facility will act as a hub for all forms of public transportation in Lee County.