June meetings scheduled for key issues in North Fort Myers, Waterways Estates and Rec Center
On Monday, June 14 and Monday, June 21, two key meetings will be held on the future plans for North Fort Myers.
On June 14, County Commissioner Tammy Hall will hold a meeting on Waterways Estates at the County Commission Chamber downtown, and on June 21, a public information session will be held on a proposed future North Fort Myers Recreation Center.
The purpose of the Waterway Estates meeting is to continue communications with residents of that service area regarding alternatives to onsite expansion of the existing Waterway Estates Wastewater Treatment Facility.
“We will provide a status update of the proposed acquisition of North Fort Myers Utilities by the Florida Governmental Utility Authority,” said Hall’s executive assistant, Carmen Salom in a recent invitation to community members. “We will also discuss the opportunity this provides Lee County Utilities to provide wastewater services to the Waterway Estates area through a bulk service agreement with FGUA and eliminate the wastewater treatment plant.”
Possible impacts to the Waterway Estates area also will be discussed. There will representatives from Lee County Utilities and FGUA present. For those unable to attend the meeting, it will be recorded and uploaded to the website lee-county.com/district4 available for viewing the next day. The following Monday, June 21, there will be the second in a series public meetings on a potential new recreation center hosted by Lee County Parks & Recreation. The purpose of the meeting is to gather suggestions and input on the center.
Deputy Director of Lee County Parks and Recreation Barbara Manzo said the last meeting held in May was well attended. “At this next meeting, we’re going to start getting more detail,” she said. “There was a presentation by Parker/Mudgett/Smith Architects. They showed the footprint of the building in the proposed location.”
The spot for the proposed center is North Fort Myers Community Park, behind the North Fort Myers Library. The meeting will be held at the current park community center, starting at 7 p.m.
While funds are not currently available to actually build the center, this design step is the first in what can be a lengthy process for any projects of this magnitude.
“What happened is we have the dollars to design it, and go through the permit process,” said Manzo. “Part of that design and permitting process is to get us an estimated cost of building it.”
Public input is key to the process, she said. “Minutes were taken and we listened to what everyone had to say. Each time we have a meeting we’ll do that, and we will have as many meetings as needed.”
She said there were a lot of questions about the budgeting process and how it works.
“The commissioners will have to find out where they will get the money to build it. Traditionally we build with impact fees and there are no any impact fees in that district at this time.
“We want to people to come from the community to participate in the process so when it is built and open the elements that they want will be there, and will be incorporated.”
W. Jeffrey Mudgett, AIA, of Parker/Mudgett/Smith Architects agreed that the last meeting was a good meeting. “We showed them (attendees) the site plan of the park, and we showed them the relationship from the proposed new building in relationship to the current amenities,” he said.
Since 1993, the firm has worked on numerous projects for the county.
“We’ve actually been been doing business in Lee County since the 1960’s.”
“The main crux is that we’re using the Estero Recreation Center as a prototype for this project. We will be gathering any ideas from any citizen, with regards to what programs to put in the recreation center.”
Future meetings are planned but no future dates are confirmed at this time.
“We’re really excited about the prospects. Projects like this are very exiting to work on.”
The North Fort Myers Community Center is located at 2021 N. Tamiami Trail, North Fort Myers. For more information on North Fort Myers Community Park, visit leeparks.org.