FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FORT
MYERS, Fla. (December 3,
2002) – The Board of Lee County Commissioners today approved the following
items during its regular weekly meeting. They
are:
Manatee
Rule – Requested the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service allow an additional 60 days for review and comment on
its proposed Manatee Protection rules that would result in a virtual moratorium
on private docks, sea walls, and boat launch facilities in Lee County.
The initial comment period ends Jan. 13.
The county is asking for another 60 days beyond that date.
School
Site – Gave the OK for
the School District to survey 20 acres in Veterans Park, Lehigh Acres, for
possibly locating an elementary school and middle school.
If the survey shows that the site is feasible for the development of the
schools, the county and School Board will discuss and negotiate an agreement
(subject to Board of County Commissioners’ approval) for the building (at
School Board’s expense) of a gymnasium, community/recreation center for use by
Lee County Parks and Recreation for park activities in exchange for the county
deeding the 20 acres of land to the School Board.
Veterans Park is located at 55 Homestead Road.
For more information, contact Jim Lavender at 479-8301.
Recycling
Renewal – Extended the
county’s recycling operations contract with FCR Inc. for another five years.
FCR operates the county’s new recycling facility, which is located near
the Waste-to-Energy Facility in Buckingham.
The contract guarantees revenues of $125,000 annually to the county
during periods of low (price) commodity markets.
During the past 12 months, the county has received about $520,000 in
revenue from FCR’s marketing of the recyclables, 35 percent of which has gone
to the municipalities. The county is engaged in a campaign to promote recycling
because over the last three years, per household waste generation has increased
from 1 tons annually to 1.3 tons – a 30 percent increase. This trend is particularly disturbing because Lee County’s
household recycling rate has only slightly increased.
Paper, aluminum,
metal, glass and plastics (#1-7 on the bottom, including bleach bottles) can be
recycled. Within those categories, such things as magazines and
catalogs, flattened corrugated cardboard, all of the newspaper, brown paper
grocery bags, telephone books, computer and office paper, junk mail (including
envelopes), shredded papers, clean pizza boxes (no crusts), soda and beer cans,
clean foil and pie pans, metal food cans, empty aerosol cans, and bottles and
jars (green, clear and brown) can be recycled.
For more information, contact Lindsey Sampson at 338-3302.
Road Corridor Study – Concurred with the top ranking of PBS&J to perform a Burnt Store Road-Veterans Parkway-Colonial Boulevard Corridor Study. The study evaluates future configurations and widths of the road corridor taking into account ultimate future development build-out. For more information, contact Scott Gilbertson at 479-8580.