Council still looking for lights
Since a proposal in November to replace the town’s blue lights with LED white lights was shot down over concerns over the impact to turtles, the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council has been trying to find a solution that works in order to improve safety along Estero Boulevard with better lighting.
At their latest worksession on Feb. 6, Councilmember Rexann Hosafros slammed a recent presentation given to the council on the issue as being “very slanted” and said it appeared that the information in the notebook came from Councilmember Bruce Butcher when she had requested that new alternatives be presented by Town Manager Roger Hernstadt.
“I wanted it to become from a more neutral position,” she said.
Butcher has championed white LED lights and believes they can be made to be turtle friendly to assuage concerns over potential negative impacts during turtle-nesting season.
At their December meeting, the council was told that turtle-friendly amber lights would be much more expensive than the white LED lights. Hernstadt has said that the town’s current blue lights are reaching the end of their lifespan and are tougher to replace.
Councilmember Joanne Shamp said in Longboat Key, they are looking into remote controls where the lights switch to yellow in turtle season and back to white lighting when the town is busier with more traffic.
Shamp said that effort will cost Longboat Key millions of dollars.
“I want to make sure we are not being shortsighted by doing something quickly,” Shamp said.
“In a hurry? We have been looking at this since 2013,” Butcher said. “I would just say we are late.”
Hosafros said she opposed the white light proposals supported by Butcher in part because it would require an additional 516 more poles. Butcher said Florida Power & Light has state funding for that project. Florida Power & Light is currently not offering alternative proposals to white lights.
Hosafros said utility companies all over the country are distributing LED lights to cities and that complaints have followed them for being too bright and shining into homes. “It’s not just the turtles.”
Vice Mayor Ray Murphy said “the most compromising” option he supports is the Fort Lauderdale model to switch the lights to amber in the turtle season and back to the “bright lights” in the non-turtle season. “That corresponds to how many people we have on the roads. We have far fewer people on the roads during the turtle-nesting season.”
Mayor Anita Cereceda said with “everything we are doing to accommodate what I am going to call the unique character of Fort Myers Beach I can’t give a blanket white light to Fort Myers Beach. As much as I want lights on Estero Boulevard, I think there has to be a better option.”
Cereceda said that improvements to the Bay Oaks Recreational Campus could be put to the side since a lighting project may be more necessary. Cereceda said she wants to notify Florida Power & Light of its desire for more lighting options, including amber lighting.
Murphy said Fort Myers Beach used to have its own lighting district which the town could bring back as a taxing assessment to fund lighting improvements.
“We don’t want people to die on that boulevard on our watch,” Murphy said. “We really can’t wait any longer.”
Cereceda and Hosafros asked Hernstadt to reach out to Fort Lauderdale and Longboat Key to find out what they are doing with lighting.
“We’ll try to put out a feeler to the industry to see what innovations are coming and what’s available,” Hernstadt said.
Cereceda said the issue should “be a priority.”