County/Town officials discuss roadwork; trolleys to run at month’s end
Officials from Lee County and the Town of Fort Myers Beach took a trolley ride along Estero Boulevard Monday morning and stopped near Lynn Hall Park for a short outdoor discussion about the completion of the North Estero Boulevard Drainage Improvement Project.
The Lee County officials met at Town Hall aboard a LeeTran trolley and picked up Town Manager Terry Stewart, Mayor Larry Kiker, Public Works Director Cathie Lewis and Environmental Sciences Coordinator Keith Laakkonen for a ride to the county-owned park north of Times Square then Bowditch Point Park on North Estero Boulevard. Along the way, the officials talked about expected improvements on Estero Boulevard before turning their discussion to the town-owned portion of that road, which happens to be between the two parks.
“The reason they were there was to look at the North Estero project. We wanted to show them where we were on the project and tell them what we expect from them on Estero,” said FMB Mayor Larry Kiker. “We stopped a couple of times along North Estero to show and explain to them how the storm water management system worked.”
The North Estero Boulevard Drainage Improvement Project came in under budget at just over $4 instead of the $8 million per mile, which county officials were expecting to spend on the remaining six miles of county-owned Estero roadway.
After the tour, Kiker said the officials had a working lunch and talked about a few other issues on Fort Myers Beach.
“We talked about two or three issues like beach re-nourishment, the (undeveloped county) park and who we were going to deal with in terms of the seafarer’s property,” he said. “Barbara Manzo and Karen McGuire will be the two point people who will be handling the beginning negotiation stages (regarding the proposed Town purchase of Seafarer’s property from the county).
Kiker said the undeveloped park south of Times Square still needs a field permit from Department of Environmental Protection agency to get started on that particular project.
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LeeTran’s trolley service along North Estero Boulevard, which has been suspended since Nov. 19 due to inadequate conditions of road construction, may not be back to providing route coverage for the one-mile stretch until roughly mid-December or late-December when the road is expected to be paved. The uneven road is linked to the late stages of the North Estero Boulevard Drainage Improvement Project, which began in October of 2009.
According to Joann Haley, Marketing Manager of LeeTran (Lee County Transit), the county public transit system decided to suspend service on the 0.8-mile section from Old San Carlos Boulevard to Bowditch Point Park due to unsafe road conditions.
“We’ve been trying to use that road and have actually incurred some damage to the vehicles due to the condition of the road bed due to the construction,” said Haley.
“After a couple of incidents like that, we figured it wasn’t safe to use it until they get it paved.”
Under the ‘Detour’ heading, the LeeTran website stated “The Fort Myers Beach trolley cannot access the northern segment of Estero Boulevard due to road construction. Service currently ends at Old San Carlos Blvd. Construction is expected to continue through mid-December.”
Some sections of the road in repair are “so rutted that a 35-foot vehicle bottoms out really easily” when going over it, says Haley.
As of right now, the off-island southbound detour for LeeTran trolley service goes from Summerlin Square to a right turn on North Estero Boulevard, then to a right turn on Old San Carlos Boulevard and loops around to Crescent Street back onto Estero Boulevard near McDonald’s.
Town of Fort Myers Beach Public Works Director Cathie Lewis confirmed the paving schedule, but hopes LeeTran may be able to provide service on that road before the actual paving begins.
“Some of the more extensive work may be finished in advance of the paving, so LeeTran may decide to begin operations after that,” said Lewis. “Quite honestly, LeeTran should have made some considerations for this long before now. We’ve had issues with the trolleys throughout this project.”
FMB Mayor Larry Kiker agreed the dilemma should be over soon.
“(The trolley service) is temporarily on hold until they finish doing a lot of work down there,” said Kiker, who further stated a January time frame for that particular portion of Estero to be “all cleared up.”