Resilient Lee – Funding Opportunity for BERT

(The following email was sent out to Friends of BERT members on November 30th, 2023. The opportunity for providing feedback to the Resilient Lee Task Force ended on December 8th, 2023). 

Your feedback is needed to help secure funding for the purchase of Bonita Estero Rail Trail (BERT) through a federal grant from HUD managed by the Resilient Lee Task Force!   Follow the instructions below to go directly to the initiative to provide feedback or continue reading for more background information. 

• Click on the link here to go directly to the Natural Resources list of initiative profiles.  
• Scroll down to ‘Reviving Public Recreation’.  
• Just below that you will find two click boxes; Read Full Text and Provide Feedback.
• Click on Read Full Text to access the initiative profile. 
• Return to the Natural Resources page.
• Provide feedback on why you support this effort by clicking on the Provide Feedback button under the Reviving Public Recreation initiative profile. 

Background

You may have seen or read news reports over the past year about the $1.1B HUD grant that Lee County received to help recover from Hurricane Ian.     In order to receive the money Lee County was required to follow HUD guidelines to identify the various ways that money would be used to not only mitigate the damage caused by Ian but also to build back a stronger, more resilient community that would be better positioned to withstand the negative impacts that future weather-related events could bring to the area.    Lee County’s response was to form the Resilient Lee Recovery Task Force led by County Commissioner Kevin Ruane, as well as mayors and other elected representatives from throughout Lee County.  Support for the task force was provided by the Resilient Lee Branch committees each made up many of the area’s community and business leaders.   The branch committees set off to identify the many areas of need and then narrowing down and refining the needs to the most critical.   Those efforts ultimately led to the creation of various detailed initiatives calling for improvements to infrastructure, housing, economic recovery, flood mitigation, natural resources, etc.   The many detailed initiatives making the cut have been summarized in Initiative Profiles.   You can learn more about Resilient Lee by accessing their website here.

Friends of BERT Involvement

Working closely with members of the Resilient Lee Recovery Task Force and branch committee members, the Friends of Bonita Estero Rail Trail have been involved with this effort from the beginning.   We started by creating and submitting several initiative writeups that describe how BERT would directly benefit the community, (e.g. providing access to natural resources, creation of infrastructure for flood mitigation, contributing to economic recovery by diversifying tourism, etc.).  Many Friends of BERT members then participated directly by providing feedback through the online surveys and Resilient Lee community town halls held during the year.   Through the strong support we have received by Friends of BERT members and by several Resilient Lee Task Force and Branch committee members our collective efforts have paid off!   But we have more work to do to help secure funding for the trail.   Our next step is to take advantage of the opportunity to provide direct feedback on the refined set of initiatives that will be submitted to the Lee County Commissions for approval after the first of the year.  

Natural Resources – Reviving Public Recreation Initiative Profile

Although the Bonita Estero Rail Trail benefits several of the initiatives described in the Resilient Lee plan the task force chose to summarize the initiative under the Natural Resources – Reviving Public Recreation Initiative Profile described as follows:

“Expand public access through growing the multi-modality trail network and linear parks in the region.  Unique opportunities to convert unused rail lines to new trails and pathways are being considered in transportation planning.  Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization is an established regional coordinating body focused on transportation. They have produced a feasibility study on Rails to Trails that supports the expansion of acquiring land for a multimodal network of multi-use paths that could foster active linear parks, contribute to water management, protect native habitats for plants and animals and educate the public about natural resources. Together the region can apply for funding, determine the feasibility of projects, and build community support for reviving public recreation spaces”.

How to Provide Feedback

The Resilient Lee Task Force and the various Resilient Lee Branch members have been working hard over the past year on the various initiative on how best to put to use the $1.2B federal grant from HUD.   We would encourage each of our members to read the entire plan and provide feedback on the various initiative profiles by linking here.   To provide feedback on the initiative profile supporting BERT specifically, follow the steps listed below:

• Click on the link here to go directly to the Natural Resources list of initiative profiles.  
• Scroll down to ‘Reviving Public Recreation’.  
• Just below that you will find two click boxes; Read Full Text and Provide Feedback.
• Click on Read Full Text to access the initiative profile. 
• Return to the Natural Resources page.
• Provide feedback on why you support this effort by clicking on the Provide Feedback button under the Reviving Public Recreation initiative profile. 

Thank you for your support of the Bonita Estero Rail Trail and the hard work of the Lee County Resilient Lee Task Force and Branch Committees.   Community feedback provides an essential data point in the decision making of our elected leaders and this is a great opportunity to help shape the county’s future that includes the addition of linear parks and multi-use trails.