Last week I attended Lee County Days in Tallahassee as part of the Sanibel – Captiva Chamber of Commerce delegation.These are days set aside so that community leaders and interested citizens from Lee County can meet with elected officials and heads of different state government departments.
A couple of things I learned were:1.Lee County leads the state in Waste to Energy.Almost all of our trash is converted, cleanly, to electricity.Covanta Energy – a nationwide company – has a plant in Lee County and generates enough electricity to power 29,000 homes. Pretty neat!
2.Lee County has a major initiative to create an Innovation Hub – not far from the airport.The intention here is to attract green businesses into a campus setting – think Research Triangle in North Carolina.This initiative is in conjunction with FGCU and the R&D will focus on renewable energy research.Again – pretty neat.
Both these initiatives have the potential to really diversify the economy of Lee County as well as to bring more middle and upper income individuals to the area.This can only be good for home values!
Lee County Department of Transportation has decided to drop their plans to change the county toll structure, including the Sanibel Island Causeway toll. After two public meetings, one on Sanibel and one in Cape Coral, and meeting with the Sanibel City Council this past Tuesday, they have decided not pursue their proposed changes.
The changes would have increased the toll expense for Sanibel Island residents and business owners considerably. We are grateful that the Toll increase is off the table - at least for now.
There is a move afoot by the Lee County Commissioners and Lee County Department of Transportation to raise the tolls on the Sanibel Island Causeway. To the casual visitor or day tripper, the proposal is for the toll to remain the same $6.00. The increase comes to those residents and employees on the island who use the transponder discount program. The proposal is to raise these rates to $3.00 per trip. This is going to place a huge burden on all our island businesses, not to mention all the residents who have kids in school off island, residents with doctors off island or any other errands that occur off island. Check out The News-Press article from today's paper for more detail on this issue. http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906110321
