Future stimulus money for Lee County will be headed for Cape Coral first.
The Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization prioritized transportation projects for $5 million in federal stimulus money Friday. With a unanimous vote the MPO put three Cape Coral sidewalks projects worth almost $1 million atop the list.
A compromise fashioned by state district transportation secretary Stan Cann also kept the widening of Six Mile Cypress Parkway between Daniels Parkway and Winkler Avenue in the money.
The $5 million came available when the first county stimulus project, the Metro Parkway extension from Alico Road to Daniels, came in under budget.
Falling down the priority list was the widening of U.S. 41 between Corkscrew Road and San Carlos Boulevard. The job won’t get any of the $5 million, though it remained near the top of the priority list for any future stimulus money. That job finished second on the future priority list behind $1 million worth of intersection work at the busy Viscaya Parkway-Del Prado intersection in north Cape Coral.

“I don’t like that, but it’s a small setback,” said Estero resident Don Eslick, who had urged the MPO to keep 41 on top.
The Six Mile Cypress work will be done using a combination of the federal stimulus; a county match and leftover state grant funding. Cann crafted the deal.
“All these projects are very important to us,” he said. “We can put it to bid and create jobs.”

— Printed with permission of the Naples Daily News