Another bump in the road
The Fort Myers Beach Fire and Rescue District is used to being flexible, but with the construction on Estero Boulevard, there has been a lot of flexing this year.
The next phase of construction on Estero will begin at the Red Coconut RV Resort and run to Madera Road, just south of Publix. So, the fire department will be working in tight quarters as construction runs right in front of the Estero station.
The Town of Fort Myers Beach held a public meeting Tuesday, Aug. 9., about the next phase of construction for both Lee County’s Estero Boulevard sewage and stormwater project and the town’s waterline porject. The next phase will run from the Red Coconut RV Resort to Madera Road, and it will pass right before the station on Estero.
Fire Chief Matt Love said the barriers coming with construction already cause an issue for the big engines, which can’t navigate gracefully around them.
The department will continue using what Love called altered responses to calls for service. This alteration means choosing which station will respond based on ease of access rather than proximity to the station.
“But the town and the county have been good at recognizing our needs and I appreciate that,” he said.
The department has given construction crews a special vest to be worn by the foreman, so if the fire department has to respond to the construction scene, their staff knows who to go to.
They’ve also been training on how to respond to a call if a vehicle should crash into the trench created by construction, but Love said thankfully there have not been any accidents yet.
It’s a re-route that the fire department will have to get used to. According to the presentation given by reFRESH Estero, the pattern for construction has altered for segment two. Rather than working in the same area, the town will be one step behind the county’s project.
The town will begin its waterline replacement program, which runs along the Gulf side of Estero, starting at the Red Coconut. The county will begin its improvement project a few blocks down at Washington Avenue – and eventually circle back to the gap between segment 1 and 2.
The reason behind this move, spokeswoman Kay Molnar said, is because the road by Red Coconut is more narrow than other segments of Estero.
“There is such a limited right-of-way,” she said.
The county will soon flag its right-of-way in segment 2 with pink flags. Molnar said over the years people have planted personal shrubbery and greens in the county’s right-of-way so they are being asked to remove any personal property of value from the flagged right-of-way before construction begins, or it will be torn out.
Mailboxes, however, will be moved back by the county.
For Surf And Us Resort owner Heidi Jungwirth, the construction project is not just an inconvenience on her doorstep. She has to find a way to explain to her clients that the power might go out or the potable water might be put under boil order during their stay.
She’s contemplating what to do should the waterline get broken during construction, something that’s already happened in segment 1. She’ll either buy bottled water or save milk jugs to fill up, she said.
“I’ll have to do something for (guests),” Jungwirth said.