Commissioner Frank Mann said Lehigh residents should reconsider incorporation at the recent Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Photo by Mel Toadvine

Commissioiner Frank Mann was the guest speaker at last week’s Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon on July 28.

Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann told members of the Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce that the community should revisit incorporation.

His remarks were made at a general membership luncheon last week held at the Majestic Golf Club. Some 70 members attended luncheon, one of the largest crowds in the last few months.

Mann, who made no comments prior to the 2006 education held in Lehigh about incorporation.,

“I thought that the people of Lehigh should make up their own minds without me getting in it,” he said.

“But today, I think you should revisit the ideal of incorporation, Mann said.

He spoke of problems in Lehigh such as the high unemployment rate and the number of foreclosures and noted that Lehigh has several crises.

“You’ve approaching 10,000 people without jobs in Lehigh. And we’re at around 25,0000 county-wide.”

Mann noted the problems in Lehigh with what he called the near collapse of the Lehigh Acres Fire Department due to the plummeting tax base of 49 percent on Lehigh real estate.

He praised the Blue Ribbon Panel that had volunteer to come up with a budget for the fire department. The members of the panel were made up of the Chamber and the Community Council.

“I have never seen it as bad in Lehigh in its history,” Mann said. He lives in nearby Alva and represents the eastern area of Lehigh on the County Commission.

As for reasons to consider incorporation again, Mann said agencies such as the fire department, the East County Water Control District and Street Lighting District would come under one local control of a City of Lehigh.

“You may be able to stop or cut back on duplication. Everything would be under the authority of a city government,” he said.

At the beginning of his talk, he said Lehigh reminded him of The Tale of Two Cities.

“You remember how it started; ‘it was the worst of times; it was the best of times,'” he said.

“Here in Lehigh good things have happened. Sheriff Scott has increased the number deputies here and he has a wolf pack that sneaks in here at night to get criminals off the streets. He has had his own budgetary problems, but he is doing this for Lehigh and my hat if off to him.

“The county has increased the number of code enforcement officers out here from four to 11 and we’re brining in some part-time helpers, too,” Mann said.

He noted the demise of First Homes, which was one of the principal home builders during the “good timers” in Lehigh. He said they are gone, but still maintain a small office to take care of warranties.

“But more important than that,” he said. “There is a gentleman who was associated with the company who with some others have gone off on their own and they buying homes that have been abandoned and they are refurbishing them and selling them back. That’s a good thing,”: he said.

Mann also said that when people call him and think there is a $100 million pot of money sitting in Fort Myers, “I have to tell them that it just simply isn’t so.”

He said money from the Obama stimulus package came to Lee county and most of it has been used on

roadwork in the Metro Parkway Avenue area of Fort Myers.

“But we have been able to go forward with more road resurfacing here in Lehigh than had been originally planned because the cost from the firms has gone down. That has given us the opportunity to improve many of your roads here,” he said.

“But you people need incorporation out here,” he repeated.

“Don’t give up on it.”

“You just can’t continue to deal with the long distance to Fort Myers; it gets defragmented sometimes at the county level.”

“You can do so much more yourselves under the umbrella of a city,” he said.

Later in the week, Sen. Mike Bennett was in Lehigh visiting constituents and when told of Mann’s remarks, he said the people had decided that issue in the 2006 election.

“As I recall, you had a 58 percent vote against incorporation and a 42 percent vote for it. The people spoke. He needs to talk more to the people here before incorporation becomes an issue. That’s it, nothing else,” he said.

Bennett and local legislators would have to go forward in the State House with legislation for a vote for incorporation.

“That’s not going to happen,” Bennett said.