Commissioner relays County news at Chamber lunch
Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah delivered good news and holiday cheer during a short speech on County-related issues at the Greater Fort Myers Beach Area Chamber of Commerce holiday luncheon held at Red Coconut RV Park last week.
Judah discussed the new Boston Red Sox spring training complex and energy plans as a late speaker addition to the FMB Chamber’s monthly lineup. Beforehand, he gave a shout out to Beach residents Carl Conley, Roxie Smith and Fran Myers for their instrumental roles in environmental protection, the tourist developmental council and the airport special management committee respectively.
“Jet Blue Airline has really stepped up. In addition to gaining the naming rights (for the Red Sox stadium), they are also contributing $150,000 a year for eight years to Lee County so that we can continue the refurbishments and upgrades to that stadium,” he said. “It is being paid for by tourism development tax dollars and is a wise, long-term investment that we will be recipients of for some years to come.”
Judah said that he asked a construction manager how many workers were present on a given day. He was told 285 journeymen on a daily basis throughout the course of the construction period.
“It’s just good to see blue-collar workers having employment to take care of their families,” he said. “This stadium will bring in a minimum of $45 to $50 million a year to this economy. We will also continue to have the premier facilities for amateur baseball, which in it itself is a $25 million economic impact to the community. So, it’s just a wonderful synergistic relationship.”
Eventually, the land that lies across the street from the stadium will be built out.
“That’s just the beginning, because the airport owns some 380 acres of land across from that stadium. That will ultimately be built out as a research and developmental business park,” said Judah. “There are a lot of CEOs and presidents that are already requesting how they can pursue the economic incentives that County provides and the opportunities to actually be part of this merging research and developmental business park.”
The commissioner stated that the stadium is Lee certified and will be energy efficient and conservation-minded.
“That is something to be really proud of,” he said.
Arthrix, a company that makes arthroscopic medical equipment for orthopedic surgeons to use in surgical procedures, has made a commitment to expand in Lee County, says Judah.
“They will be taking over the Robb & Stuckey building on Plantation Road. That operation will be up and running this month,” he said. “It will provide an excess of several hundred jobs. Ultimately, we will want to be THE location for orthopedic surgeons who travel throughout the world and want to learn how to use this equipment before they purchase it, so that we too can be the exclusive training facility for these orthopedic surgeons.”
Judah also mentioned Algenol’s progress within the county.
“They are in the process of completing their construction of their new binary refinery, where they will be making the photo bio reactors that will be placed on 40 acres of land next to their two buildings north of Alica between US-41 and I-75,” he said. “They will be mass producing ethanol with their algae to ethanol technology.”
Judah then bashed Florida state officials for not having a statewide energy plan.
“They cannot seem to pull it together and recognize that it behooves the state that if they wanted to bring in companies like Algenol to have an energy plan and a renewable energy standard,” he said. “That could suggest that by 2020, 40 percent of the energy produced in the state needs to come from renewable energy. Right now, most all of the energy comes from natural gas and coal.”
Currently, Florida produces only two percent of renewable energy.
“We are the sunshine state, and we have a long ways to go,” said Judah. “I’m very proud that Lee County is the epicenter of a company that is at the forefront of the bio-fuel industry.”
Ethanol BioFuels has invested $6.5 to $7 million in a bio-diesel processing facility and storage tanks and will be generating 4.5 million gallons of bio-diesel in 2012.
“We’ll be using that in our fleet of LeeTran vehicles and, hopefully, the school district will do the same,” said Judah. “The best part about it is we will get away from those obnoxious diesel fumes. It will also reduce the carbon footprint. The feedstock for that bio-diesel is vegetable oil and grease. It’s a win-win.”