I CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was opened on Friday, March 15, 1996, at 1:00 P.M. by Anita T. Cereceda, Mayor, with a pledge of the allegiance to the flag.

Present at the meeting: Anita T. Cereceda, Mayor and Council Member; Ted Fizsimons, Vice Mayor and Council Member; Council Members Rusty Isler, Ray Murphy and Garr Reynolds; Marsha Segal-George, Interim Manager.

Representatives from the Traffic Committee and the Lee County DOT present at the meeting: Al Van Horn, Tom Myers, Bill Whittaker, John Davis, George Crawford.

Mayor Cereceda reminded the public attendees that there was no public input at a workshop meeting.

II INTERIM MANAGER'S ITEMS AND REPORTS

Marsha Segal-George reported that she had been asked to speak before several different organizations: the Cities Association, Concerned Citzens Group, the Fort Myers Beach Association of Realtors, all of them next week. The following week she is scheduled to speak to the Chamber.

Mrs. Segal-George would like to offer the town hall facilities as long as we can work out security arrangements with regard to keys.

Another issue Mrs. Segal-George brought up is the volunteer assistance that the council receives. She finds this assistance very helpful, but has received complaints that if the volunteers are affiliated with certain organizations this might have a chilling effect on people who want to call in and voice their opinions or views to various council people. Marsha said she has suggested to these callers that she would also accept their offers of help, but that as far as she was concerned her volunteers were essential to her and she very much appreciated their help.

Mrs. Segal-George asked the council for direction in these matters so that she would know how to proceed. She would like for the council to develop a policy with respect to the above issues that a town manager could follow. Her first speech is scheduled for Tuesday night on the subject of Ecotourism.

The consensus of opinion was that it was a good idea for Marsha to do public speaking and also for council members to do so. In Mr. Isler's opinion, anyone that the town manager is willing to speak to would be fine and the council didn't need to decide which organizations were appropriate. The more speaking done by the town manager, the more it makes for open government. Mr. Reynolds felt that Marsha should report back to the council if a group representative asks her to fill a speaking engagement. She should let the council know what groups are requesting her services.

As far as volunteers belonging to certain interest groups, the Mayor didn't feel that that should be an issue. Mr. Isler concurred that if someone called in and didn't feel comfortable with a volunteer, they should just ask for Marsha directly. If she is not available, the calling party could simply ask to leave a message for Marsha to call him or her back. Mr. Reynolds endorsed volunteerism also regardless of the volunteers affiliations and addressed the public attendees regarding the need for more volunteers.

The use of the town hall facilities, Mr. Isler feels, is another service they can offer to the community paying the rent for the facilities. The only stipulation is that it should be open to all organizations. Trash of course should be picked up. Mr. Reynolds said there should be a time limit on the ending of the meetings at night and 10:00 P.M. would be an auspicious time for most people. Bank security as well as the Sheriff need to know when people are out of the building.

All council members felt similarly about all the issues brought up by Mrs. Segal-George and supported them.

Rusty Isler reported a very welcoming meeting with the county commissioners on

March 12. They even had coke and cookies for them. He joked about receiving a parking ticket, however.

III DISCUSSION WITH TRAFFIC COMMITTEE REGARDING TOWN TRAFFIC CONCERNS

A. Al Van Horn

Mr. Al Van Horn, who resides in Fort Myers Beach six months of the year, advised the council that the Traffic Committee under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce was formed about two years ago when Mr. Petro, president of the Chamber of Commerce, contacted Mr. Van Horn and others about a need for a committee to address the traffic problems.. It was really spawned, he noted, by a seeming rash of accidents or near-accidents at the pedestrian crosswalks. The committee has lost some members, they are presently interested in expanding their membership.

Tom Myers, past president of the Chamber of Commerce serves as chairman of the Traffic Committee. Bill Whittaker, a business representative, is on the committee. Mr. Van Horn stated that he was the only non-business representative on the committee. John Davis, Chief Traffic Engineer for the Lee County DOT has been instrumental in the deliberations of the committee. Many times their entire agenda is built on Mr. Davis' input. George Crawford, the director of the Lee County DOT, has sat in on several Traffic Committee meetings. Capt. Tom Halverson of the Sheriff's Office has been transferred to another post and Mr. Van Horn was not sure whether or not his replacement would attend today's meeting. Jim Bradford, a deputy at the Lee County Fire Department, may also come to the meeting.

The Traffic Committee is concerned with the total scope of traffic as it relates not only to that which is now the parameters of the town of Fort Myers Beach, but the Fort Myers Beach greater area. Discussions have ranged from the intersection of Summerlin and San Carlos to the southern tip of this island. Mr. Van Horn feels that it is important that they have this interface between the existing traffic committee and the town council regarding transportation on the Beach. He has given the council copies of the committee's accomplishments during the years 1994 and 1995 and welcomes questions from the council.

The Traffic Committee, according to Mr. Van Horn, has tried to expedite traffic wherever possible, if by doing nothing more than enhancing the signage and directing tourists. The traffic gridlock on Estero Boulevard remains a perennial problem. They have had endless discussions on matters such as a three-lane bridge; a walkway over Estero in the vicinity of Times Square; how the reconfiguration of traffic in and out of Times Square is going to impact on the overall problems.

Mr. Van Horn feels that today's workshop with the council is a healthy step in their efforts to tackle the traffic problems. They live with it three or four months of the year but it has a much longer lasting impression on those who visit here. The council obviously has the option of creating its own independent traffic committee, but Mr. Van Horn feels there would be overlapping with the existing traffic committee and that might put them on a collision course. A great deal more would be accomplished if they worked in unison with one another. Hopefully, out of today's workshop, the council will get new input for making decisions regarding the traffic problems and get questions answered.

B. Bill Whittaker

Bill Whittaker referred to John Davis as one of the finest Lee County professionals he has ever had the opportunity to meet and Mr. Whittaker gives him credit for most of the traffic committee's accomplishments. Mr. Davis also said he thinks the committee has gotten real good input from all its members. His own input is given both as the chairman and also as a resident and he noted that he has the same concerns as everyone else who lives on the island. He is not sure that they can resolve the traffic problems in their entirety, but they should be able to alleviate them. Once construction is finished on the bridge, that should help a lot. They welcome input from everyone who lives on the island.

Al Van Horn asked John Davis to explain which roads are the state's responsibility, which are the county's and which are the town's for everyone's edification so that they are all coming from the same base of understanding in regard to San Carlos as it feeds into Estero and the adjacent Times Square complex.

C. John Davis

The base has not quite been set, according to Mr. Davis. There are still some issues that are in dialogue between the town and the county as far as the disposition of the roads on the island. The only thing that can be said with any certainty is that a portion of what most of us know as San Carlos Boulevard as it crosses the Matanzas Pass bridge is a state road, and is under the auspices of the Florida Department of Transportation. At a point after the traffic signal their responsibility ends. Prior to January 1 of this year, Lee County took over and is responsible for the balance of what most people know as Estero Boulevard. The attorneys for the town and the county are still discussing what the county will continue to maintain and be responsible for and what the town will be responsible for. Mr. Whittaker is not sure if the council has had the chance to review the latest documents from the county attorney's office. Times Square won't be the state's responsibility. What elements of the elbow loop and Fifth Street will be the responsibility of the town or the responsibility of the county is still being negotiated. There is some thought that it may be a shared responsibility between the town and the county. One road may be the town's and another the county's.

Garr Reynolds advised there had been a strong argument for Fort Myers Beach having a traffic committee of their own. The Chamber and other organizations would be working as a peripheral to the town's committee. Mr. Reynolds saw the local committee as the final analyzer of solutions and presentations to the town council. At the time he had argued for the town's own traffic committee,

Mr. Reynolds had been thinking only of residents of the island and not in terms of whether or not one owned property. If the council feels otherwise, Mr. Garr said that then we would work otherwise. He still feels strongly that we should establish our community identity at Fort Myers Beach. As time goes on, if it spread out and included the areas of Lee County, then that would be okay too. Mr. Reynolds advised that he never at any time entertained the idea of not welcoming input from outside the established group. He understands that at the meeting last week, which he was unable to attend, the council voted to have LPA form a county at large. He thinks we should have uniformity in our policies.

Bill Whittaker said the council should take into account whether they want to go to the expense of forming a traffic committee. He would think this would be one of the first decisions the council is going to have to address. Is it willing to go the whole nine yards to get the formal committee and public notices and all that goes with it. If they are not and want to work informally outside of the formal structure, then Mr. Whittaker feels that the Chamber would be playing the more significant role here. The mayor asked Mr. Whittaker if he felt that a formal committee would do more significant work than an informal committee, to which he replied no, he only meant that the council needed to address the issue and make a decision.

Tom Myers felt the traffic committee should be restricted to residents of Fort Myers Beach because coming to the island and leaving the island impacts the Beach just as much as the traffic right on the island itself.

If the traffic committee is established under the Sunshine Law, committee members wouldn't be able to talk with each other Garr Reynolds noted..

Bill Whittaker said it might he easier to discuss these things without the formal committee, but to instead have an integrated committee between the council and other concerned citizens as well as the Chamber. Everybody should be welcome to input on this. Their committee's latest project starts at the county airport, Mr. Whittaker noted, and this involves safe routes from the county airport to Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Captiva. So their interests extend county-wide but it's all directed toward improving the health of the citizens of Fort Myers Beach.

It was determined that the council never came to a conclusion about setting up a traffic committee.

Mr. Reynolds noted that he was thinking in a restrictive sense regarding traffic problems that pertained just to Fort Myers Beach. Mr. Whittaker said you can't just shut the door at the bridge. Part of their last committee meeting dealt with the fact that they didn't have a representative from San Carlos Island whose traffic problems might impact on Fort Myers Beach. But everything is geared toward Estero Island, improving and helping the traffic flow surrounding it. It is the committee's reason for being in existence. But you can't just shut the door. You have to go out and get all the things that are causing these problems.

Whatever they do, the traffic committee feels, is going to impact on Estero Boulevard and this island and it is a matter merging interests so that they are not going in two different directions. And the Black Island issue will have to be dealt with very quickly.

Ted Fitzsimons feels that the committee structure may not be as important as its productivity. The town council needs productive input and the ability to analyze, come up with recommended solutions. And when it comes to traffic we are not an island. We are an impacted community that is impacted by everything that surrounds us and we have to be very cognizant of that when we discuss traffic conditions. The committee structure should be that which performs most efficiently and effectively. If it is doing it now and continues to do it, so much the better in benefiting this town. If the council somehow gets the impression that it is not, then it will become something that we can bring to the traffic committee. To make the committee a formal one, however, may prove to be burdensome.

There is a transportation element that is a requirement of the comprehensive land use plan and it will have to touch on the future or the twenty-year view of the subject of transportation within the community and eventual solutions to the problems, or at least accommodations of the impacts that are going to be affecting the community in the future. Can the traffic committee serve as a resource element for the comp plan? Can it give input on evacuation issues? It will require a lot of interfacing with our neighbors.

The traffic committee feels that they can deal with all these elements eventually and have resources that they can turn to such as the Sheriff's office and FDOT.

The traffic committee in Garr Reynolds opinion is absolutely perfect for an evacuation effort. Before they can evacuate the island, they must give about 48 hours notice. New developments going up now on Summerlin will jam up the Summerlin evacuation. These are things the traffic committee will have to be looking into. Storms can generate very quickly and graduate from nothing to Category 1 and Category 2. The Gulf of Mexico is shallow but we're not elevated enough to contend with any kind of water rise. Keith was not a hurricane, but it covered 85% of our island. These are the kinds of challenges that the council will expect to be helped with.

Everything they do on the island must coordinate with everything else in the evacuation plan, according to Garr Reynolds.

The subject of standing committees came up and Garr Reynolds said he was told that you have to have official recognition before you could have a productive committee. The mayor said that we need to make a decision on whether or not the traffic committee should be sanctioned by the town council or if it should just be a committee that doesn't have to abide by the Sunshine laws. The consensus of opinion from the visitors leaned toward an informal rather than a formal traffic committee. Mrs. Segal-George felt that the traffic committee needed to have a priority list. She was told by the committee that they saw no problem in drawing up a priority list and presenting it to the council.

Rusty Isler asked the traffic committee how they measured the traffic problems and what sort of equipment they used to come to their conclusions. Are there counters at both ends of the Beach to tell them how many cars come onto the Beach and how fast they are going? What kind of data do they have that they can base decisions on? The traffic committee explained their counting stations and their hours of service. Permanent counters are situated around School Street seven days a week, 52 days a year. Then there are three additional periodic counting stations that they set out four times a year for a 24-hour period. In this way they get an estimate of the traffic flow on Estero Boulevard. They also have a counting station up on San Carlos Boulevard just south of Pine Ridge. The State Department of Transportation has a counting station on the Estero Island side of Matanzas Pass Bridge. That's in part how the committee gets a measure of the traffic volumes that are on Estero Boulevard. Their counters are very temporary in nature but can determine volume of the traffic, vehicle classification and other facts from the traffic flow. They would have to get another set of counters out to actually measure the speed. People became annoyed when the traffic speed was lowered, but this was done because pedestrians will cross anywhere along Estero rather than restrict themselves to the crosswalks. They didn't want to have a seasonal speed limit that kept changing.

How do you measure capacity? was another question presented by Mr. Isler, and what capacity are we at on Estero Boulevard? It was explained that on the Beach you do not measure capacity like you would normally measure it. If you use a grading system, quite a few of the roads are D in season, but during the summer they would be B or C. It was discovered that when adults are with children, they pretty much do all the right things. When children are alone they do all the wrong things and when adults are alone they do all the wrong things.

The pothole problem was discussed. FDOT is responsible for pothole maintenance but works slowly.

Mr. Reynolds feels that a four-lane road from the Beach all the way to Summerlin is going to help a lot.

Mr. Crawford feels that a toll bridge would restrict the number of people coming into the island. Another solution would be to bus them in. They already have a good trolley service but people don't bother to take it. The island needs to do things that restrict the number of people coming in. Two lanes can only accommodate so much traffic.

Voice people have been a real contribution in alleviating traffic congestion, but the committee recommended that the hours of the voice people in this area be extended from 10:00-4:00 to 9:00-6:00. They would be taken their lives in their hands, however, at the intersection of Summerlin and San Carlos.

Motion: Made by Rusty Isler and seconded by Ted Fitzsimons that the traffic committee remain an informal committee. Passed unanimously.

Discussion: The mayor suggested that Garr Reynolds act as a liaison with the traffic committee and report to the council.

Ray Murphy perceives the real traffic concern on Fort Myers Beach to be aggravation and the economic impact of that aggravation. People often say they can't take it and won't be back. He sees no need for formal committees. What we need are answers, solutions, a list of recommendations. It is time to act.

Mayor Cereceda asked that the council be contacted by the traffic committee before their next meeting so that the council could give the committee lists of things that they would like to see addressed. Mr. Crawford suggested giving the council a list of things that the committee felt are priorities too.

Asked if Lee County had any plans for improvements on Estero Boulevard under the 5-year capital improvements plan, Mr. Crawford replied no.

The council was advised to write to David May and voice the council's concerns over the potholes as a safety hazard.

Traffic has started picking up at the south end of Estero Boulevard.

Mr. Van Horn presented a letter from the Florida Department of Transportation stating that it does not recommend three lanes on the bridge.

It was determined that the sidewalk was a part of the county right-of-way. Mr. Crawford was asked when the county was going to do some work on it. Mr. Reynolds said it was hopelessly broken in many places. Mr. Crawford advised that if it needed repair, that could be done under the capital improvement plan.

The traffic committee was informed that maybe their function should be transportation, moving people. This would then include such things as sidewalks, mass transits, solutions to the moving of automobiles. They were asked if it were true that the north end of the island was going to be doing some sidewalk development independent of the county and the CRA.

The mayor was thanked for the opportunity for this forum by the traffic committee. They were thanked for coming.

IV ADJOURNMENT

Mayor Anita T. Cereceda adjourned the meeting at 3:15 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Lorraine Calhoun

Recording Secretary