FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                   

Contact:            Rich Beck, Lee County Facilities Management
                          (941) 335-2255

LEE COUNTY INSTALLING EVACUATION CHAIRS IN KEY FACILITIES

FORT MYERS, Fla. (December 12, 2002) – Lee County Government has purchased easy evacuation devices to help people with a disability or injury evacuate buildings quickly.

The Garaventa Evacu-Trac is a lightweight, compact and easy-to-use evacuation chair for emergencies – such as fires – when elevators should not be used for emergency evacuation of a building.  A speed governor and braking system allows a smaller person to easily evacuate a larger person securely and maintain full control of the speed of descent.  It is easily folded for storage in a cabinet.

For more information, the product can be viewed at www.evacutrac.com.

Lee County Government has purchased nine of the devices (and received a tenth for free) to place in its facilities.  The cost was $23,000.  They will be located at these facilities:

Prior to placing a chair in each facility, Lee County Facilities Management will install the storage cabinet and then schedule training for employees.

Lee County Facilities Management employs more than 70 people and is responsible for repair and preventative maintenance of 2.3 million square feet of various county facilities ranging from office buildings to baseball stadiums valued at $450 million.  Its customers include county departments, constitutional officers and the courts system.