Tempers flare over RSW expansion budget

Reporter: Annette Montgomery Writer: Tim Belizaire
Published: Updated:

A meeting over upgrades at RSW quickly escalated into arguments.

Tensions rose during Thursday’s meeting with the Lee County Port Authority and county commissioners.

Commissioners did not get what they were looking for.

Between agenda items being deferred for “Lack of enough information” and the county attorney butting in to say there may be future litigation regarding the parties involved, it was decided Thursday was not the time to discuss the logistics of the expansion project and its potential costs and delays.

During the joint meeting on Thursday, commissioner Kevin Ruane deferred the agenda items, discussing how much time and money still need to be given to the RSW expansion project.

“The agenda was published on Monday,” said Ruane. “It had a change of astronomical proportions, and I got my briefing yesterday, I didn’t feel there was enough information to truly understand the scope.”

Ruane said he’ll need more information before spending more money on the project.

“I need a lot more information before I’m going to continue to potentially look at another investment and not have some clarity with no clarity. It was in our best interest to defer this project,” said Ruane.

This comes after questions were thrown during the joint meeting with the port authority and commissioners but also abruptly stopped.

The question of why the RSW project hasn’t been completed has not been answered.

Ruane moved to have a special meeting within 30 days to go over the expansion project and some of the questions.

The board also moved to extend Manhattan Construction’s contract until the special meeting is held.

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