Pair of arenas to get $7.3M in emergency shelter-based upgrades

FORT MYERS — Lee County officials have approved funding agreements with a state agency for $7.3 million in repair work on two arenas in the county used for emergency shelters.  

The arrangement calls for $4.5 million to harden the roofs, windows and doors at Hertz Arena in Estero and $2.8 million to do the same at Alico Arena, on the Florida Gulf Coast University Campus in Fort Myers, according to a statement. The funding agreements are with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the release adds. Lee County Commissioners approved the plan Oct. 1; it approved the grant applications in June 2020.

The grants cover all the cost of hardening the facilities, which have served as shelters during emergency declarations in Lee County as well as elsewhere in Florida.

The federal Community Development Block Grant Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) program made these funds available after Hurricane Irma, when Lee County was designated a Most Impacted and Distressed area by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

Lee County commissioners have now signed $14.7 million in post-Irma CDBG disaster relief and mitigation funding agreements, the release states. That includes $7.1 million for improvements to canal and roadside flood control structures and sidewalk repair in San Carlos Park and $253,000 for a coastal risk assessment and resiliency study. Through the final quarter of 2021, commissioners are expected to review and approve additional funding agreements valued at $6.9 million for disaster-mitigation projects, including hardening of the Lee County Waste-to-Energy plant, sidewalk and roadside drainage repairs, canal clearing and replacement of pedestrian walkways.