County commissioners begin Beach visits
Lee County District 2 Commissioner Brian Bigelow visited with Fort Myers Beach Mayor Larry Kiker and interim Town Manager Jack Green at Town Hall Wednesday, then took a trip through the seven-mile stretch of Estero Island and discussed some of the projects the FMB Town Council and Town staff are working on.
The two Town officials were planning on meeting with the four remaining Lee County Board of County Commissioners this week. District 1 Commissioner Bob Janes and District 4’s Tammy Hall visited Tuesday, while District 3’s Ray Judah and District 5’s Frank Mann are slated for Thursday tours.
“We did a tour around the island,” said Kiker. “We started on the north end, and we showed him the project that we’re doing with North Estero Boulevard. We used that as a comparison to the rest of Estero Boulevard. We spent probably about 50 percent of the trip talking about Estero Boulevard. He was very receptive to that.”
Commissioner Bigelow called the tour “enlightening” especially after seeing the condition of the Beach’s main road. While Green provided the history of Estero Boulevard, Kiker offered the political side of it, according to Bigelow.
“Like a lot of areas, you think you know the issues fairly well because you see a lot of the paperwork, but it can be all together different when you experience it live and in person,” he said. “I think it was very informative. I was particularly struck with the poor condition of Estero Boulevard. It is quite troubling that the County has allowed it to fall into such disrepair.”
Commissioner Bigelow pointed out Kiker’s discouragement with the state of the County-owned boulevard.
“Larry was quite frustrated to put it very, very mildly,” he said. “I think he has been more patient then we can expect. It’s time that we except that as a County problem. It’s our road. We understand we are spending a lot of bed tax dollars to encourage more people to come to the Beach. We’re doing a lot to make that road suffer from the wear and tear.”
The Town officials then showed Bigelow the facilities at Newton Park (including the remote bathrooms which Kiker explained how the plan was to populate the beach accesses with them) and the Mound House (including the dig) before visiting Bay Oaks Recreational Campus.
“Worth noting is what they are doing to Newton Park,” said Bigelow. “It’s a rare asset to have that kind of beachfront access as a park. It’s a shame that old cottage can’t be relocated. They don’t build them like that anymore.”
Bigelow did offer recommendations on the Estero Boulevard project. The Town plans to have sidewalks on both sides of the street, an adequate bicycle path and trolley pull-offs.
“I think it’s more appropriate to make Estero Boulevard a corridor for other transportation other than automobiles,” said Bigelow. “I’d like to see the priority given to a street-car system or some kind of mass transit system to help people get on and off the island. I think there is a way we can make pedestrians and bicycles the priority and make automobiles low on the totem pole. If you make it a system to discourage people to drive, they acclimate to it.”
Kiker reflected on Commissioner Bigelow’s thoughts on Estero Boulevard.
“One of his approaches which are unique is to do a stack ranking of what is important in terms of designing the roadway,” said Kiker. “It would be pedestrians first, bicycles second, transit third and automobiles fourth. It’s designed to be proactive to be walking and ride bicycles.
“I told him that’s really good but, in the meantime, we have four or five years of improvements we need to do with the sidewalks, trolley pull-offs, storm-water issues, and we need to invest in that,” said Kiker. “We reiterated that to him enough to the point that he said ‘I got it.'”
Bigelow has deep roots in Lee County. His grandfather, Charles Bigelow, Sr., developed Bigelow Shopping Center where McDonalds now stands and also donated property for the first modern Post Office on Fort Myers Beach. Brian’s father, Charles Jr., was raised on the Beach before moving off island to attend high school. A city judge in Fort Myers and a land use attorney in Lee County, Charles Jr. also served as District 2 Lee County Commissioner between 1986 and 1989.