FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:          Rick Diaz or Patty DiPiero, Lee County Utilities
                       (239) 479-8181

NEW UTILITIES CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTER HAS DRIVE-THROUGH SERVICE

FORT MYERS, Fla. (November 18, 2002) – The Board of Lee County Commissioners will hold a ribbon cutting for the county’s new Utilities Customer Service Center Wednesday (Nov. 20).  The new building will officially open to the public Monday (Nov. 25).

The ceremony will be at 1 p.m. and Commissioner John Albion will serve as master of ceremonies.  The center is located on the south side of College Parkway between U.S. 41 and Summerlin Road (7391 College Parkway). 

The 5,334-square-foot building combines all customer service activities under one roof.  Improved services to customers include drive-through window service, a larger lobby, conference room and customer restrooms.  Customers should enjoy easier access and quicker service.  The building also will benefit utilities staff by providing a larger area for billing and mailing functions and a check-in and checkout area for meter readers.

Activities at the center include opening new metered accounts and arranging for an average of 1,400 account transfers and changes monthly, handling phone calls regarding billing, accepting payments, and answering customer questions and complaints.  Customer contacts average about 7,200 each month.  

Total construction cost was $829,000.  The existing building at the same location will be used for storage and as a repair shop.

The first Lee County Utilities Customer Service Office opened in 1969 in a small office on Main Street in downtown Fort Myers.  The Utilities Department soon outgrew the original office and moved to a larger rental office space in Edison Ford Square Plaza.

In January 2001, the Edison Ford Square Plaza office was closed and the entire Customer Service staff moved into the department’s College Parkway office, formerly Florida Cities Water Company offices.  The new facility is right next to those offices.

The county’s Utilities Division serves 55,000 water and 39,500 sewer customers in portions of North, East and South Lee County.  The county operates five wastewater-treatment plants – Fort Myers Beach, Fiesta Village, Waterway Estates, Highpoint and Pine Island – with a total of 12.5-million gallons of capacity per day, and five water-treatment plants – College Parkway, Corkscrew, Green Meadows, Olga and Waterway Estates – with a combined 26-million gallons of capacity per day.  The Utilities Division has an annual operating budget of about $30.3 million.