FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Pete Winton, Lee County Administration
               (239) 335-2777

COUNTY FINALIZES SUNTRUST BUY/CONTINUES RECORD PERMITTING PACE

FORT MYERS, Fla. (February 11, 2004) - Following are "County Update" informational items that may be of interest:

January Permits Still on Record Pace - Lee County's Department of Community Development issued 547 single-family home permits in January, only the second time ever the county has issued more than 500 permits in a single month. In August, the county issued 571 permits. The mark continues the record pace for permitting, set in 2003 when the county issued $2 billion in permits - a $500-million increase from 2002.

Road Paving Project Saves Money - The county recently saved $523,000 by using a new road paving technique for the resurfacing of Stringfellow Road on Pine Island. "Hot in Place Paving" mills (scrapes) off two inches of existing asphalt, adds rejuvenating oil, as necessary, and re-lays that asphalt as it goes in a chain of three or four pieces of equipment followed by rollers. This is cost effective in a remote area like Pine Island because it doesn't require all the trucked-in asphalt haul costs. Conventional paving would have required more than 1,000 dump truck loads to be sent to Pine Island. Here is the final analysis for the Stringfellow Resurfacing project using HIP:

247,329.28 SY @ $3.75 = $927,484.80

Trucking & Asphalt (Cougar Contracting) = $66,820.00

through Minor Paving & Drainage contract

Total $ 994,304.80

If we had done it using conventional methods with unit prices from the county's most current resurfacing contract:

Milling 2" 247,329.28 SY @ $2.16/SY $534,231.25

Asphalt 2" ( 247,329.28(100)2"/2000)($39.72/tn) $982,391.90

Total $1,516,623.15

Difference of $523,318, plus a 3-year warranty.

SunTrust Purchase Completed - The county officially closed Monday on its purchase of the SunTrust Building in downtown Fort Myers for $16.925 million from Fort Myers Ventures I, LLC. The nine-story, 121,000-square-foot SunTrust Plaza is located in downtown Fort Myers on Heitman Street next to the Caloosahatchee Bridge and comes with a 400-space parking garage and enclosed and elevated walkway from the garage to the building. The building will be used primarily for Justice System expansion. The county hopes to receive approval in the next month from the City of Fort Myers to vacate Heitman between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Main Street for future growth of the Justice Center if needed. The county estimates it saved millions of dollars by buying an existing building instead of constructing a new facility.

Tri-County Meeting - The County Commissions of Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties will meet in a joint workshop Feb. 17 to discuss issues of mutual concern and cooperation. The meeting will be from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Lee County Port Authority's Training and Conference Center (where the Board of Port Commissioners meets), Southwest Florida International Airport, 15924 Perimeter Road.

Mediation Meeting - The court-ordered joint meeting between the City of Sanibel and Board of County Commissioners to discuss settlement of the issues relating to the Sanibel Causeway will be held Monday, Feb. 23 at 9 a.m. in the Cape Coral City Council Chambers.

Road Flooding Meeting - The county is holding a meeting Mar. 4 in North Fort Myers to discuss roadway flooding issues with interested North Fort Myers residents. It will be at 7 p.m. at the Bayshore Fire Station. Participating: Public Safety- John Wilson, DOT-Randy Cerchie, Natural Resources-Staff, MSBU - Libby Walker, and Fire Chief Chad Jorgensen.

Water Workshop - The South Florida Water Management District will hold a community forum Mar. 5 to discuss water releases into the Caloosahatchee River and red drift algae that has covered local beaches. The workshop will be at 10:30 a.m. in the Lee County Commission Chambers.