FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Rick Diaz, Lee County Utilities
                (941) 479-8181

FORT MYERS, Fla. (May 23, 2001) – The Board of Lee County Commissioners on Tuesday (May 22) agreed to sell to the Town of Fort Myers Beach (the Town) all potable water facilities located within the Town’s corporate limits.

The county owned the system because it acquired the assets of the former Florida Cities Water Company in April 1999, and the Fort Myers Beach portion of the system in September 2000. The Town had filed a lawsuit contesting the county’s purchase because the assets were within the Town’s corporate limits. In December, the county and Town reached a settlement whereby the Town would purchase its portion of the system from the county for $3.33 million. The proposed closing is set for June 25.

The Town also will purchase potable water for the system from the county for a term of 25 years. The bulk rate of the water – processed at the county’s Green Meadows Water Treatment Plant – will be $2.26 per thousand gallons delivered. If after five years the Town decides to cancel its bulk water purchases, it will have to pay the county about $12 million so the county is protected in repaying the bonds initially issued by the county to buy Florida Cities Water.

The Town will be contracting its utility operations, maintenance, billing and customer services with Woodard & Curran. The county continues to provide wastewater services to Fort Myers Beach.

The assets being sold include transmission and distribution lines, water meters, and two storage tanks (a one million-gallon tank and a half-million gallon tank) with associated pump stations.

The county purchased Florida Cities Water (part of Avatar Utilities) – which included the Waterway Estates, Green Meadows and College Parkway water treatment plants, and all transmission and distribution facilities – in the spring of 1999 for $125.2 million (adding financing costs bonds for $134.6 million were issued). Florida Cities Water’s franchise area included South Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach and portions of North Fort Myers.

The county’s Utilities Division serves 48,500 water and 33,600 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 10-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 $27 million.