FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Pete Winton, Lee County Administration
              (941) 335-2777

BOARD OKS FUNDS FOR EDISON ESTATE RESTORATION,
DELAYS TRAUMA DECISION

FORT MYERS, Fla. (February 18, 2003) - The Board of Lee County Commissioners today approved the following items during its regular weekly meeting. They are:

Edison Estates Restoration - Agreed to give $1.5 million ($500,000 a year over three years) for the restoration of the Thomas Edison Estate in Fort Myers, part of a plan the city is putting together using city, county, state and federal funds. The county money will come from construction fund reserves. Funding from the county has the following conditions: (1) city receives state funding for this restoration project; (2) issue of who manages the estate is resolved with certainty that all future estate revenues will be spent on the estate and not diverted to other projects/programs; (3) submission of management/financial plan to county; (4) interlocal agreement between city and county setting forth terms and conditions of funding to include - a) any funding from the county will be on a reimbursement basis for capital expenditures only; b) county's commitment will be for three years total with payment not to exceed $500,000 annually on a reimbursement basis, however unspent allocations can be carried over to future years; c) county's $500,000 annually is a match contingent upon $500,000 from the city annually from city funds not related to estate revenues; d) city will not seek funding from the county beyond this request.

Trauma Center - Continued for a week a decision whether to use $11 million of county reserves as a loan to get a match of about $1.5 million of Medicaid funding for the Lee Memorial Trauma Center. Lee Memorial would repay the $11 million and keep the $1.5 million for Trauma Center operations. County attorneys are waiting on written confirmation from the state Agency for Health Care Administration on whether the structure of the proposed deal is legal.

Communication Towers - Directed to public hearings on March 11 and 25 a proposed Communication Tower Master Plan that would regulate location, size and appearance of communications towers in the county.

Water Plant Expansion - Approved entering into construction management agreement with Earth Tech A Tyco International LTD, to expand Corkscrew Water Treatment Plant and build a storage tank facility that will interconnect to both Corkscrew and the Green Meadows Water Treatment Plant.

Traffic Management - Approved $15,910 as the county portion of $420,000 (federal and state funds make up the match) to develop an Incident Management System (IMS) to address traffic incidents on the bridges crossing the Caloosahatchee River. Through this system, a program would be in place to detect a traffic incident, handle the event, and provide information to motorists approaching the bridge, so they might travel on an alternate route. The overall objective is to optimize traveling public safety and mobility. The bridges include the Cape Coral Bridge, Midpoint Memorial Bridge, Caloosahatchee/U.S. 41 Bridge, and Edison/Business U.S. 41 Bridge.