Florida DOT wants to halt landscaping in Lee County

When the Florida Dept. of Transportation announced plans to cease all landscaping on new roadway projects in Lee County, the commissioners cried foul. DOT says cutting out the landscaping for two years “will save the county millions of dollars,” Paul Wingard, project manager at the Florida DOT, said in a story on NBC 2 news. County Commissioner Frank Mann doesn’t like the idea. “It just drives me nuts to think we won't do anything for 2 years,” he said. The county’s current landscaping budget stands at $4.4 million, 1.5 times the budget for canals and twice the budget for maintaining the county’s 300 bridges. Commissioners tossed out ideas to trim the landscape budget, including planting younger trees and finding an alternative to using sod. Commissioners will make a final decision in the next few weeks.