Beach officials visit county office about parks
Fort Myers Beach Mayor Larry Kiker and Town Manager Terry Stewart visited officials from Lee County Park & Recreation and the Division of County Lands last Thursday. The two Beach officials met with Lee Parks Director Barbara Manzo and County Lands Director Karen McGuire.
According to Kiker, the brunt of the meeting focused on the fact that the construction at the yet-to-be-named county park at the barren Gulf front lots at 1080 and 1130 Estero Blvd. near Times Square should be finished “pretty close to the end of March because of permitting and Department of Environmental Protection issues.”
Using town council provisions, Kiker then swayed the conversation to a transfer of all county parks on the Beach. The subject first surfaced publicly at the county/town joint meeting at Bay Oaks at the end of January.
“We had the meeting with the Lee County Board of County Commissioners first, so that was already on the table,” said Kiker.
The Beach mayor believes the town should have control and collection fees from Lynn Hall Park and Bowditch Point Park. Both parks bring in more than $700,000 in annual parking fees.
If the town had control over the county-owned Seafarer’s Mall property across the street, it would not only give Beach officials more metered parking (if the building was demolished), it would allow them to take a better look at helping to solve a part of the traffic problem on Estero Island.
“Although (Manzo and McGuire) weren’t qualified to talk about improvements on Estero Boulevard, they realize the building space at Seafarer’s Mall will come into play. We’re still interested in securing the building property as parking space in hopes the town would take over that property at some point,” said Kiker, who believes that property will remain untouched until after tourist season.
The transfer of any county parks or property isn’t expected to be completed any time soon as well.
“In principle, we agreed the ownership of that building property would probably come to the Beach,” said Kiker. “Everyone clearly understands that our primary motivation for that property centers if we can do something with the traffic. We haven’t backed off from that proposal at all.”
At the joint meeting between town and county officials Jan. 25, Bay Oaks was listed as one major county property that the town took over in the past year or two as an expense savings of more than $708,000 out of the county budget. Besides Seafarer’s Park and the Seafarer’s Mall building, the county commissioners were asked to consider the transfer of the Estero Island beach accesses ($23,189 out of county budget expenses), Bowditch Point Park ($343,446 out of county budget expenses) and Lynne Hall Park ($250,056 out of county budget expenses).