Several members of the Cape Coral City Council voiced their displeasure with how Lee County is maintaining the landscaping on 4 roadways the county owns.
Lee County owns Del Prado Boulevard, Hancock Boulevard, Veterans Parkway and Burnt Store Road. Staff showed pictures of a portion of the Del Prado median which led to several council members commenting about how the landscaping has deteriorated over the years.
Lee County has contracts with landscaping companies to perform base-level maintenance on county-owned roads. There’s an understanding that if municipalities want more they need to pay for it themselves. Or, they could take over the roads completely, and deal with all the costs of owning the roads.
At the meeting, Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter said, “You think they could put some damn mulch on the road.” Council member Joe Kilraine added, “It’s a shame. They are supposed to maintain it and it’s pretty poor.” And Council member Rachel Kaduk, who brought the item up for discussion, said, “It’s crazy we have to fight our own county for mulch.”
Cape Coral City Manager Mike Ilczyszyn said County Manager Dave Harner told him there is no money in the Lee County budget to do additional landscaping.
So, if the County Manager does not have money in the budget, sounds like the Mayor needs to be discussing this issue with Commissioners Ruane and Hamman, requesting they work to get money into the next budget. Have they done, or are they planning to do that ?