The Town of Fort Myers Beach appears to be making progress on rebuilding Newton Beach park, which is located mid-island, and was destroyed by Hurricane Ian. The rebuild will be paid for with CBDG-DR grant money managed by Lee County. The park is now just a parking lot with mobile bathrooms.
On Wednesday, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council was shown one updated sketch drawing for a rebuild of the park by Engineering Firm J.R Evans. The Town has a not-to-exceed contract of $498,000 with J.R. Evans to design a new park. The one updated photo (below) of the proposed new park includes 27 parking spaces, restroom facilities, 2 shade structures, an open air 1,100 square foot pavilion, and a lot of landscaping.
According to Lee County, Fort Myers Beach was awarded a little over $13 million for three projects. Those three projects are the North Island Water Tower, The Bay Oaks Pool and Newton Beach Park. Approximately $4 million will come out of that total to pay for the Newton park rebuild.
It’s unclear what the next step in the process is and when construction on the new park might begin. It’s also unclear if this is just another pretty picture provided to the town with the cost being unknown (ie; the resort pool at Bay Oaks). For some reason these town council conversations always avoid actual costs.
When construction finally does begin the park is expected to take 18 months to build. Earlier this year the town approved a contract of $497,000 to design the park. That money comes out of CDBG-DR funds awarded to the town.
Elizabeth Fountain from J.R. Evans told the council the current portion of their contract obligations have been fulfilled and for the company to take the next steps, an additional contract would need to be executed, which really meant they needed more money.
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Town should add horseshoe or bocce ball pits to Newton park. And these design fees are obscene.
Someone tell me i’m wrong thinking we just paid a half million dollars for that picture.
Let me get this straight, they had not exceed amount of $498,000. Layout was designed and computer generated and we paid $1,000 less than the not to exceed amount. I would like to see an itemized bill or I want that job.
Why doesn’t the town buy the vacant land next to newton park( which is for sale) and the have a really valuable parcel to develop and bring real value to that part of the island
Where do you suggest they get the money?
So glad to see Newton Park is coming back! Now we need more restaurants in the middle of the island. Progress is good!!