The Lee Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday to accept the ResilientLee Recovery and Resilience Plan, a product of the Long-Term Recovery Task Force, which included more than 200 community members.
In December 2022 — just months after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Lee County — the Board approved the formation of the Long-Term Task Force.
Teams of community members organized in branches and synthesized months of community input, feedback, and analysis to create the ResilientLee Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Those eight recovery branches are:
- Planning & Capacity
- Economic Recovery
- Education & Workforce
- Health & Social Services
- Infrastructure
- Housing
- Natural Resources
- Cultural Resources
The plan contains 43 core initiatives identified as medium- and long-term needs to help assist the community through recovery and encourage resilience from future impacts of natural and human-made disasters.
Additionally, a Universe of Resilience Funding Opportunities has been created to help assist entities working on these initiatives to find grant or other supplemental funding opportunities to offset the costs of this work.
The full ResilientLee Recovery and Resilience Plan can be reviewed at www.resilientlee.com.
In other action, the commissioners:
- Voted Tuesday to purchase 10 ambulances as part of its on-going commitment to public safety.
The ambulances will be purchased for about $2.59 million, using an existing competitively solicited Florida Sheriff’s Association contract to achieve a savings of 9.6%.
Two of the ambulances will be additional units used by Lee County Public Safety and eight will be used to replace units reaching the end of service. Six of the units will be delivered by January and the remaining units will follow.
- Continued its commitment to the county’s roadway network on Tuesday, voting to allocate an additional $7.5 million from the General Fund to roadway resurfacing projects due to the increasing cost of labor and materials.
The Lee County Department of Transportation currently budgets $10 million per year for resurfacing, which includes:
- $5 million for Lehigh Acres neighborhood streets
- $4 million countywide
- $1 million on selected sections of arterials
However, the price per ton for asphalt has increased more than 50 percent during the past few years. Lee DOT staff presented the budget challenges to the board at its March 5 workshop. The increased funding will help address the increased costs of materials.
The Board has identified roads and bridges as a strategic priority as Lee County approaches 1 million residents.
In other transportation matters Tuesday, the Board also:
- Approved consensus from the March 5 workshop on the DOT project priority tiers, including moving the four-laned expansion of Sunshine Boulevard in Lehigh Acres, from 75th Street West to State Road 80, to the top of Tier 2.
- Voted to award a low bid contract to Pavement Maintenance, LLC, to provide roadway resurfacing, intersection improvements, and ADA upgrades on Pine Island in the amount of $1.1 million. Work is expected to begin in April.
- Approved a change order to the contract with OHLA USA to add adjacent roadways to a resurfacing project in the San Carlos Park area, resulting in a cost savings to the county of about $200,000. This brings the project total to about $1.8 million.
The Lee County Commissioners also approved an increase in LeeTran Mobility-on-Demand fares to start June 3 following a public hearing Tuesday.
The fares for will increase to $3, matching the fares charged by LeeTran’s Paratransit and Transportation Disadvantaged services.
Mobility-On-Demand is offered within designated service zones of Lehigh Acres and Bonita Springs on a first-come, first-served basis. Vehicles are equipped with real-time tracking software that allows passengers to schedule rides at their convenience.
Bonita Springs Mobility-on-Demand service began February 2022 and Lehigh Acres service began February 2023. The demand for this service has continually increased:
- Bonita Springs ridership was 1,596 in March 2022 and increased to about 4,300 in December 2023.
- Lehigh Acres ridership was 692 in March 2023 and increased to more than 2,000 in December 2023.
Mobility on Demand comes with a greater cost to operate when compared with traditional, fixed-route transit. The fare increase will help offset operating costs not covered by a Florida Department of Transportation grant for Lehigh Acres service or by the county’s interlocal agreement with the City of Bonita Springs.
For comparison, Orange County charges a $5 fare for similar service and Miami-Dade and Pinellas counties’ fares are $3.50.
For more information on LeeTran Mobility-on-Demand service, visit www.leegov.com/leetran/ultra.
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