Vincent Miller

Possible traffic solutions for a major intersection in Lehigh Acres were discussed last week at the regular meeting of the Lehigh Acres Community Council.

The board members heard a presentation from Vincent Miller, a representative for the Lee County Department of Transportation, and employees from HDR Engineering about options for the intersection of Gunnery Road and Lee Boulevard.

Miller explained that the project began by looking at 47 possible solutions, but the field has been narrowed down to four options. They range from creating a system of multiple signaled U-turns to constructing a bridge to alleviate traffic congestion.

A HDR representative explained that each option is being evaluated on the basis of safety and how many times it would force a driver to wait for multiple cycles at a signal, the ideal answer being zero.

Miller explained that the next step is to narrow the choices further and return to the council with the top two suggestions. He stressed that all discussions are preliminary and it could be as long as six years before a proposal on the intersection would go through the bidding process.

JUSTIN MARTIN The Lehigh Acres Community Council discusses its concerns about proposed changes to the Lee County School District’s district boundaries at its meeting on March 20.

At the meeting, the board members also discussed their concerns about a redistricting proposal for the Lee County School District that would have impacted some districts, including the one for Lehigh.

The proposal, presented to the Lee County School Board by the local NAACP in February, sought to redraw the boundaries of the voting districts. Under the plan, some Fort Myers communities like Dunbar would have been moved into District 5 with Lehigh, while current District 5 communities like Alva and Buckingham would have been moved into District 4 with North Fort Myers.

President Rick Anglickis said District 5 School Board Member Pamela LaRivere was scheduled to talk about the proposal at the council’s next meeting. However, he was concerned that the school board’s meeting on March 21 might impact the issue before the board heard from the Lehigh community.

Anglickis encouraged the council to attend the school board meeting and share its thoughts.

“I would recommend that if we have a feeling of keeping our district together as it currently is with our representative, that we would probably make that feeling known at tomorrow night’s school board meeting,” he said.

On March 21, the school board was scheduled to give direction to its staff on how to proceed with redistricting proposal. Board attorney Keith Martin informed the dais that while he had advised it that the proposal was in good legal standing, a recent Supreme Court decision had changed that.

Martin explained that the recent Bethune-Hill v. Virginia State Board of Elections ruling meant that moving forward with the NAACP plan might make the school district vulnerable to legal action.

He said he could present the board members with an alternative proposal for redistricting the school districts if they wished to continue to pursue the issue, but the board quickly declined the option.

At last week’s meeting, the Lehigh Acres Community Council also voted to add a new member to the board. Will Bronson, who has lived in the area for 14 years, will be sworn in at next month’s meeting.

The council will meet on April 17 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Lee County Sheriff’s Office East District substation, at 1301 Homestead Road N.

For information, visit online at: www.lehighacrescommunitycouncil.com/.