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Safety board ready for Council joint session

By Staff | Sep 17, 2014

Safety issues that are expected to be addressed at an upcoming joint session have been discussed and listed.

The Town Public Safety Committee iced down details on some of the expected particular discussion topics, including lightning detection, emergency operations plan, street lighting, left turn avoidance and traffic circles. The advisory board is expected to meet the Fort Myers Beach Town Council during a workshop on Monday, Oct. 6, at 10 a.m.

Regarding lightning detection, the committee will make a presentation that was provided by Town Public Works officials on Sept. 5. Questions arose from the proposed cost of installing systems (just under $430,000) along the beachfront and the viability of placing such equipment infrastructure on private condominiums or having those associations invest in individual systems.

FEMA height requirements for electrical devices at each pole at beach accesses (17 feet) and extraneous costs were brought up. The WeatherBug system involves installing 17 outdoor alerting systems along the seven-mile beachfront and one weather station system. Concrete poles, service meter and panel and related costs were said to cost $18,097.86 per pole.

“You also have the roughly $8,000 a year for a electric bill and cable bill on top of that,” said Public Works Director Scott Baker. “There will also be a DEP permit requirement. They are going to require a signed and sealed drawing per location for the poles. The price that I gave you did not include that.”

Committee member Al Durrett doesn’t like the price tag.

“I think we are trying to do something that not too many towns have done. We are unique island and 7-1/2 miles long. It shouldn’t be that hard to do this project, but at a half of a million dollars, I am not really for that myself,” he said

The committee has also been tasked to condense the Fort Myers Beach Emergency Operations Plan, a 174-page document that is designed to give Beach residents and visitors an understanding of weather-related vulnerabilities on Estero Island. It has been deemed out-of-date and inaccurate.

Committee member Alice Mack would like the incomplete, brief executive summary of the plan to include a synopsis on instructions for people with special needs and an up-to-date phone contact listing. She relayed her own experience during Hurricane Charley when oxygen tanks ran dry.

“We had a lot of people from the community running out of oxygen,” she said.

Town Public Services Supervisor Tildon Copeland, the committee advisor, updated the committee on a proposed seasonal traffic officer at Lenell Avenue intersection. Central Parking Systems of Florida has extended a $25 per hour fee for the crosswalk attending service.

“We are planning to have a traffic officer there December through January,” Copeland said. Hours may run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Town officials are looking at in-house operations for that particular position for the future.

Street banners were also discussed. Three such banners -one adjacent to Lani Kai Beach Resort, one adjacent to Beach Library and one on the southern portion of island- have been in place, but different messages may be used in place of the current hanging ones for tourism season.

“I think the key messages are ‘Stop for Pedestrians in the Crosswalk,’ ‘Yield Three Feet for Bicyclists’ and ‘Be Seen on FMB’ and are very, very significant,” said committee chairman Bruce Butcher.

One banner during the summer rainy months was suggested to read, “When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors,” to further educate the public of the importance of lightning safety.

Mesh banners were looked into but, due to the inability to have a message on both sides of it, were not favored.

Committee members were told a newsletter regarding the Estero Boulevard Improvements Project had been recently sent via the water bill to Beach residents. The first mile segment of the funded six-mile project was announced to be from Crescent Street to roughly Lovers Lane, a 50-foot right-of-way section. The project is still in the design phase.

“We are approaching a 60 percent plan stage for that segment,” said Lee County Department of Transportation’s Rob Phelan, the committee’s County liaison. “Our expectation is that we are going to be moving forward with construction probably in early 2015.”

The Town Local Planning Agency and Public Safety Committee are being encouraged to add input regarding aspects of the improvements design to the Town Council prior to construction. Committee members would like to suggest improved lighting designs.

“Being involved in that lighting design is perfectly appropriate,” said Phelan. “It is a big component of the appearance of the corridor.”

Since there is limited space in that first segment, proposed improvements will require use of all existing land within that 50 feet of ROW. According to County records, FPL will be moving all utility poles and overhead power lines to the edge of the ROW to maximize the sidewalk width that will be available for pedestrians and bicyclists not choosing to use the shared roadway.

That first segment will provide 10-foot travel lanes in each direction marked with “sharrows” for the shared use between motorists and bicyclists, an 11-foot center turn lane and a nine-foot-wide sidewalk on each side of the boulevard.

County officials stress that, although the project is not designed to ease seasonal traffic congestion, improvements will aid in a safe shift to alternative transportation modes, such as bicycling, walking or use of the trolley.