Lee County awarded more than $5M for Hurricane Irma repairs, narcotics unit upgrades

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has awarded Lee County more than $4.1 million to help deal with lasting damage from Hurricane Irma, and the county has additionally allotted more than $1 million to upgrade the Lee County Sheriff’s Office narcotics unit.

The money for repairs will go toward things like clearing canals, repairing sidewalks and rebuilding a pedestrian bridge that children use to get to schools nearly five years after Hurricane Irma first wreaked havoc on Southwest Florida.

Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman says a lot of canals throughout Lehigh Acres have debris left behind from Irma, so the commissioners want to use some of the money to clean them, ideally before hurricane season. Hamman says they’re especially invested in using some of the money tor repair the Richman Avenue Pedestrian Bridge.

“Anytime you have kids walking to school, you wanna make sure they have the safest route to school, so if we can use this money to help get that pedestrian bridge that used to be there, that was well-used, back up… that’s what we wanna use it for,” Hamman said.

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