The Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District held its regular monthly meeting May 24. During the meeting AIM Engineering went over its monthly report before the LA-MSID Board of Commissioners and gave updates on various joint effort projects with the district.

One project discussed was Lehigh’s GS-10 project — a joint effort between Lee County and LA-MSID. The LA-MSID board awarded the GS-10 design contract to AIM Engineering, which is now in the final plans design phase.

“This project is still under the final design phase. AIM has until December 2022 to finish up the design. At this time, we still do not have the funding for this project. Lee County is in the process of submitting to get a Community Development Block Grant for this project,” LA-MSID District Manager David Lindsay said.

Upon completion of GS-10, Lee County would oversee all park aspects of the property and the Municipal District would handle water structures and preserve areas.

AIM is also contracted by the district to design the Caloosahatchee River and Estuary Storage and Treatment. This entails approximately 105 acres for the CREST preserve and stormwater treatment area.

According to Lindsay, the district was happy to announce that it recently was awarded a grant from the state to begin the project.

“The legislature gave us our $4 million grant. Governor DeSantis approved an appropriation grant for the CREST project despite the $3.1 billion that was cut by DeSantis. In total, it’s $6,600,000 in grants to help pay for CREST. Construction begins in fall,” Lindsay said. “AIM should be done with their design of the project in August, and our crews will be out as soon as the dry season starts. This is a 9 month contract from Oct. 1 to the end of August, 2023. There is a lot of excavation that needs to be done.”

CREST design elements include an interconnecting channel between Dog Canal and Hendry Canal to balance flows between the Bedman Creek and Carlos Waterway drainage basins. A retention reservoir is also proposed to provide year-round treatment of suspended solids through increased flow-way resident time and storage to attenuate peak stages during storm events.

Members of the board also talked about the Lehigh Acres Cookie Rehabilitation Plan.

“We decided it would be a good thing to have the public’s participation in designing, so we are asking the public to send us designs for the new cookie. We have a blank drawing of the sign available and really want to get the public involved in the process,” Lindsay explained. “Some might want to keep the current design and others might feel they want a brand new design. We are holding a workshop on the 21st of June to look over some design ideas.”

Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District’s monthly meetings are open to the public and held inside the Barrett Room 601 East County Lane, Lehigh Acres, FL 33936. For more, contact Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District, Florida (la-msid.com).