FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 27, 2001) – Lee County has won three Achievement Awards from the National Association of Counties (NACo) for innovative programs administered by county government.

This is the 32^nd year of the Achievement Award program and winners will be officially recognized July 15 at NACo’s annual conference in Philadelphia.

The three programs are: Lee Education and Employment (LEE), Artificial Reef Plan, and Born to Read Project. Here’s a description of each:

Lee Education and Employment (Department of Human Services)

This program is designed to rapidly produce a substantial increase in income for low-income working adults and to provide a career path with future upward mobility. Participants are provided specialized vocational training in partnership with Edison Community College. The vocational training is tailored to the medical office field and prepares students to work in scheduling, medical records and insurance billing – all high-demand occupations in Southwest Florida.

The program is funded through Community Services Block Grants. LEE participants must be employed but low income (125% of the poverty income guidelines, which is an annual income of $18,287 for a family of three). They must have a high school diploma or a GED, pass an entrance exam and be interested in becoming more self-sufficient. The LEE Program covers all costs for tuition, books, childcare for class hours (which are at night so participants can continue to work), necessary car repair and emergency transportation while in school.

Thirty-six (36) people have graduated since initial enrollment in October 1999 and another 13 are currently enrolled. Participants’ average wages have increased nearly 70 percent after graduation. For more information, contact Patricia Howell at 278-7886.

Artificial Reef Plan (Division of Natural Resources Management)

The Lee County Artificial Reef Plan was written as a tool to guide the development of artificial reefs. Artificial reefs have been built in Lee County since the 1960s, primarily for the benefit of recreational fishing, but never in a systematic manner.

The Plan was written in March 1998, in part to address changes in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permitting procedures, and to provide a tool to Lee County to detail why reefs are constructed, what types should be built, and how they should be built and managed. It has proved to be useful for improving permitting success, reducing the potential for negative environmental or economic impacts, and increasing the success of obtaining competitive grant funding for reef construction.

The Plan has been a major factor in Lee County being ranked in the top two applications for reef grant funding from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for each of the last three years. Since fiscal year 1997-98, $168,000 in reef grant funding has been awarded to Lee County.

Steve Boutelle and Chris Koepfer wrote the plan. For more information, you can view the plan at www.lee-county.com/naturalresources/artreef.htm or contact Steve or Chris at 479-8181.

Born to Read (Lee County Library System)

Born to Read is a Lee County Library System community partnership project to encourage parents to read to their babies beginning at birth.

The program targets teen parents and low-income families with the information that reading to babies can be vital to proper brain development for success later in life. Born to Read delivers books, information, and reading incentives to thousands of young families in the area, and has succeeded in encouraging reading to our littlest residents. It is grant funded through the Library Services and Technology Act.

Partnerships with WIC (Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program), Lee County School District’s LAMP (Lee Adolescent Mothers Program) and Early Intervention Programs, Child Care of Southwest Florida, the Fort Myers Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, and neighboring library systems also have been established and are flourishing. Library staff members Marilyn Graham, Youth Services Coordinator, and Denise Folke, Born to Read Project Coordinator, developed and implemented the program, which now is in its third year of grant funding.

For more information on Born to Read, contact Marilyn Graham at 461-7322 or Denise Folke at 390-3226, or visit its web site at www.lee-county.com/library/kids/btr/programlist.htm.

NACo serves as a national advocate for the 3,067 county governments in the United States. It also is a resource for innovations in government. NACo has 2,016 member counties.