Grass-roots effort to incorporate started

By Staff | May 20, 2015

Alain Capucci

A Lehigh Acres man is beginning a grass-roots movement on his own to get Lehigh incorporated.

Alain Capucci says it is again time for Lehigh to start the discussion about incorporation and so he has taken it upon himself to talk to people and ask others to join the campaign.

Capucci, who moved from overseas to south Florida a few years ago, made his thoughts and intentions to see Lehigh incorporate a few weeks ago when he appeared before the Lehigh Community Council. He told the group of 41 members and about 12 visitors from the public that he wanted to get others to come together and plan on incorporation of the community.

He said he had met the council’s president, Mohamed Yasin, who had invited him to come to the meeting and make his thoughts known.

And that is what Capucci did.

“I’m here to talk about incorporation of Lehigh Acres,” he began. “I am right now on my own and I am talking to several people and others are supporting efforts of incorporation.”

Members of the council listened as Capucci offered many reasons for incorporation of Lehigh with the most important one being that Lehigh residents need to rule themselves.

Yasin, the council president, welcomed Capucci’s remarks and said the council itself had not taken an official stand on incorporation although there is a committee that has been asked to look into possibility.

Lehigh has said no to incorporation twice now through ballot voting, but Capucci says that is not going to stop him to get people thinking again and on board perhaps with his feelings about incorporating the community.

He has met, he says, with Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann who has told him some of the history of the quest for incorporation of the community. And he is planning to talk to Rep. Matt Caldwell, (R-79) who represents all of Lehigh in the House at the state capital in Tallahassee.

Caldwell likely will tell Capucci of other attempts and that it would have to be decided by a referendum vote and that before that can happen, lawmakers have to take a bill to Tallahassee. And before that can happen, the local Legislation Delegation has to agree only if they are convinced that there are enough people interested in incorporating.

Otherwise, it is a dead deal and incorporation may be far off in the future, if ever. It may remain a 100,000 populated suburb of Fort Myers and under country control.

“I am no stranger to the Southwest Florida area and I used to vacation on Sanibel Island or visit friends in Naples. As we visited family members in Cape Coral, I remember passing through Lehigh Acres on Lee Boulevard and the streets used to be one way in and out way out. Even Gunnery Road was one lane at that time.

“What interested me most in moving to Lehigh is how quiet the area is and not dealing with real heavy traffic, so my wife and I thought that this is the best place we would like to raise our two sons,” Capucci said.

They decided to move to Lehigh and bought their home and he recalls a week after they had moved in, a member of the community or the chamber had visited and welcome the family to the neighborhood. He said they were given a fruit basket and information about the town.

“At first, I was surprised that he did not say ‘the city,’ and that idea stayed in my mind for a while.

But as time passed, he said he had a chance to meet people and there was talk about Lehigh not being incorporated and some hoping to put it on the voting ballot.

“I remember voting twice and we all know that it did not go though, not enough people voted in the referendum to start the proceedings of incorporation,” he said.

Those two votes were essentially straw votes on the ballot and Capucci is right to remember both efforts failed and local lawmakers said at the time there was not enough interest to ask legislators at the General Assembly to agree for Lehigh to incorporate.

Prior to the referendums, people in both camps – to incorporate and not to incorporate – became emotional and arguments ensued at local meetings and “hate email” filled many computer screens.

But after the 2008 vote lost, Capucci said he started developing a bigger interest in Lehigh.

He mentioned the road conditions in many areas of Lehigh and how bad they are. He also mentioned the lack of lighting on the streets and having cars taken to a mechanic too often because of all the pot holes. In fact, Capucci and another neighbor live on a portion of Poinsettia Avenue which is partly stone and the rest dirt and when it rains, just plain mud with lots of holes. The paving of Poinsettia Avenue stops at West 11th Street and to get to his home, you must drive very slowly or you can tear up your front end, the shocks or the steering mechanism.

And after some violence in the area where a man lost his life, Capucci said he started asking around and he met people and talked about forming a local government in Lehigh.

“For some time, I looked to see if we have someone who represents the voice of Lehigh and until that happens, there is the Lehigh Community Council that meets once a month.”

He would love to see more people go to the meetings which meet on the third Monday night at the Lehigh Sheriff’s Office Substation meeting room at the rear of the building on Homestead Road, beginning at 6 p.m.

“During the high season, all reads lead to all the areas except for Lehigh Acres. There are lots of opportunities and unfortunately, no one is looking enough. When bad things goes wrong in Lehigh, the Fort Myers TV media is the first to be there, but they don’t report about the good of the area,” he said.

“There are many good citizens in Lehigh Acres and they deserve their voices to be heard and mostly they deserve to have a local government that speaks for them. We need structure and planning, and we need to bring more jobs and put young people to work and get them off the streets. We need to bring new business to Lehigh and not depend on the county to do it for us.

“After a long discussion with my wife and beginning to collect more data about the town I learned how to create a city. Then I reached out to the Community Council and presenting my campaign, hoping others would follow.”

Capucci said that as of today, some citizens have joined his campaign and he has received many calls supporting what he is doing.

He has formed a website that is www.yourlehigh.com, which is under construction, he said.

“All information will be available to the public to read and review. Citizens will have a chance to communicate with us and express their thoughts or ask questions,” he said.

He’s also planning a survey and will reach out, he says, to all the voters to meet in a public forum to listen to their concerns.

“Again, the citizens of Lehigh Acres deserve the right to have their local government and a voice,” he said.

He noted that others who want to become part of this grass roots campaign to call him on his cell phone at 239-220-8156. Or interested people may write him at 1119 Poinsettia Drive. If he doesn’t answer his cell, leave him a message with your name and phone number and he says he will get back with you .

“Incorporation is something we need in Lehigh. I hope others can see the advantages of ruling ourselves. We can do it, but we must plan for it and get everyone on board to understand how important it is.”

Grass-roots effort to incorporate started

By Staff | May 20, 2015