BERT in the NEWS – Spotlight News Magazine

The following article appeared in the December 2023 addition of Spotlight News Magazine:

Update on BERT

The city of Bonita Springs and the Village of Estero and the Lee County MPO unanimously approved the proposed trail several months ago.

“The first thing that has to happen is that we get a negotiated deal so the county can purchase the rail corridor,” said President Deb Orton of Friends of BERT. The Trust for Public Lands is doing the negotiations with Seminole Gulf Railway on behalf of the county. The beautiful rail corridor will enable a 15-mile trail by 130 feet wide. As many as 21 local communities are very much in favor of the trail. “Friends of BERT and the community support, that’s what’s driving this forward,” said Orton.

What Friends of BERT is working on and promoting is what’s called Connect Lee, according to Orton. BERT will fill in the big gap here so when BERT gets put into place, it connects to the John Yarbrough Linear Park Trail which is being developed all the way up to the Lee and Charlotte County line. So Lee County will have 42 miles of trails away from the traffic and not on any busy roads.

July 1, Senate bill 106 was passed that was put forward by Sen. Passidomo and signed by the governor. It doubled the amount for the SUN Trail Network budget. The $25 million dollars a year to construct the trails has now doubled to $50 million dollars a year.

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