Explosion cuts gas service to 8,000

11. November 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Family, Home, News, Tech, Video · Tags: , , , , , , ,

7:39 P.M. — The News-Press and news-press.com are following a Lee County gas line explosion on Colonial Boulevard near Treeline and State Road 82 involving a construction worker.

All of TECO?s 8,000 customers in Lee and Collier counties will be without gas for several days as the Tampa-based gas company begins the lengthy process of restoring service.

Company representatives will have to personally visit each customer to cut gas service, company spokesman Rick Morera said. And after they fix the break and return pressure to the lines, technicians must go to each home or business turn the gas valves on and re-ignite pilot lights. The law prohibits customers from igniting the lights themselves.

?This is going to be a difficult and lengthy repair,? Morera said. The company will prioritize hospitals and schools when it begins the restoring service and may bring in help from other companies in the state.

Region-wide service cuts are rare, Morera said, though the company had a similar service interruption in Jupiter in May when more than 10,000 customers lost service for several days.

No one has gas, according to Arturo Brawn, manager at Cantina Laredo off Big Pine Way in the Bell Tower Shoppes.

But, he?s still cooking his enchiladas.

?I still have a full restaurant because the majority of my equipment is electrical,? Brawn said. ?We have stoves and steamers that keep the food hot and we can still make any type of enchilada.?

He said he spoke to the city this evening and was told the issue with would be fixed by the end of the night.

Brawn said the restaurant will be closing at their normal time.

The only hiccup is he?s running out of corn tortillas and will be switching to flour ones soon and they can?t serve steaks because they cannot use the grill.

?I?m at the door asking people, ?where are you going?? we?re the only ones serving food,? Brawn said.

7:27 p.m. update

TECO has confirmed 8,000 customers this evening in Lee and Collier counties are without gas.

(2 of 5)

The company doesn?t know how long they?ll be without their supply. They have to assess the damage.

Those customers are commercial and residential, according to a TECO spokesperson.

Several restaurants at Bell Tower Shops are taking a hit in sales after their gas supply was cut.

Restaurants as far south as Bahama Breeze at U.S. 41 and Six Mile Cypress have reported gas outages.

Carrey Smith, a server at Taste of New York, said the impact on business there will be huge.

?All of our customers pretty much left,? Smith said.

The restaurant is still serving cold subs and salads.

Bistro 41 and Blue Pointe both confirmed their gas supply was out, but managers there declined to comment.

Arturo Braun, manager at Cantina Laredo, said the restaurant is managing with electric equipment.

?We?re still open, but we?re serving a limited menu,? he said.

6:49 p.m. update

The Fort Myers Police Department has identified the victim of this afternoon?s construction accident as Mario Santos, 30, of Bonita Springs.

The westbound lanes of Colonial Boulevard are expected to remain closed until midnight. The eastbound lane has reopened. Drivers are asked to avoid the area.

Fort Myers police suggest drivers take Gateway Boulevard or Daniels Parkway.

6:32 p.m. update

Several restaurants at the Bell Tower could not serve hot dishes tonight due to having their gas supply cut off by the explosion. Patrons are advised to call ahead to see when service will be restored.

6:01 p.m. update

After the fire broke out, passerbys in the Publix Plaza gathered to watch the flames.

Most scattered after a couple of hours.

Businesses in the area have not reported any impact as of 4 p.m.

Inside Publix, in the deli section, Nichole Shepherd, 19, of Lehigh Acres said the explosion sounded like a sonic boom that reverberated the walls.

?I didn?t know what it was,? Shepherd said. ?And it seemed like no one else heard it because it gets pretty loud back there.?

It did cause a box of cups to fall from a shelf right in front of one of her co-workers.

(3 of 5)

Ken Bennett, fire marshal for the Lehigh
Acres Fire District, said that the best way to address a gas fire was to turn off the gas and let it burn out.

Authorities earlier in the afternoon did just that.

?Believe it or not, unless there?s a hazard nearby that forces you to put it out right away, that?s the safest thing to do,? Bennett said. ?It eventually dies down, once there?s no gas, but in the mean time it?s under a lot of pressure.?

Bennett said it usually takes the flames at least an hour to die down and burn up the fuel.

4:53 p.m. update

The severely injured construction worker jumped from the bulldozer, according to Fort Myers police.

4:45 p.m. update

The eastbound lanes of Colonial Boulevard have reopened. The westbound lanes remain closed.

The seriously injured construction worker is being taken from Lee Memorial to a hospital in Tampa.

4:19 p.m. update

TECO Peoples Gas reports at this time approximately 300 residential and 50 commercial customers are without service. TECO has approximately 3,500 customers in Lee County

Compressed natural gas (CNG) trailers, which will help stabilize pressure on the system, are en route.

3:57 p.m. update

Steve Byrne, a Fort Myers firefighter, said “it sounded like a jet engine. It was pretty intense. When we got there, it was roaring.”

The flames shot up 50 feet or higher when it was burning, he said.

Firefighters were pumping water from a hydrant at the CVS store down the street to a fire truck, which then used the water to help extinguish the blaze.

3:22 p.m. update

Capt. Chris Bevan of the Fort Myers Fire Department said the gas was shut down about 30-60 minutes ago. Now, the fire department is spraying the backhoe with water to make sure everything is out.

Also, the worker who was injured suffered burns to over 50 percent of his body, Bevan said.

3:41 p.m. update

Fort Myers police say a second victim, also a Posen construction worker, was treated and released on scene with minor injuries.

3:22 p.m. update

TECO Peoples Gas reports that the pipeline break has been contained.

(4 of 5)

As soon as access can be gained, construction of a bypass around the break will be attempted.

A small number of customers are out of service at this time.

Posen Construction is required to contact OSHA to investigate the fire.

3:04 p.m. update

The injured worker is in critical condition at Lee Memorial Hospital.

Fort Myers police are waiting to notify the construction worker?s family before releasing his identity.

Flames aren’t visible anymore as the fire appears to have been almost completely extinguished. Thick black smoke continues to pour out of the ground where the explosion occurred.

3:02 p.m. update

Lee County transportation director Paul Wingard said Posen employees were mixing stone into the dirt – a vital step in stabilizing the soil below the roadbed.

“There must have been a gas line close to the surface,” Wingard said.

This is not the first accident on the site for Posen.

Posen employee Tom Maines, 58, was injured on the same site in late June after a piece of a crane boom fell on him. Crews were working on the boom on the south side of Colonial Boulevard near the Home Depot, county officials had said.

Lee County hired Posen in March 2009 on a $16.7 million contract to widen the road between Interstate 75 and State Road 82. The company is also widening Summerlin Road as part of a $25.1 million contract with the county.

The Summerlin project is 10 months behind and millions of dollars over budget after crews there were forced to rebuild an overpass and environmental regulators found asbestos chunks in the fill.

The injured construction worker was with Posen Construction, the main contractor on the widening of State Road 82.

Fort Myers police suggest drivers take Gateway Boulevard or Daniels Parkway since Colonial Boulevard is closed.

Russ Reed with FPL came out with another worker to look out for their feeder, which lies just west of the fire that continues spouting off billows of smoke and flames.

“It doesn’t look like it’ll affect it,” Reed said. “But, we’re going to watch it and make sure to keep everybody in service.”

(5 of 5)

If the wires burn down, it would directly affected the area locally, which includes the Publix plaza and CVS.

2:50 p.m. update

Kenny Winstead, a witness who was driving by, said he heard the explosion that sounded like a sonic boom.

“God help who was on it,” he said, referring to the backhoe that is completely engulfed in flames.

He said you could still hear hissing from the gas line.

2:47 p.m. update

At 1:46 p.m. today, the Fort Myers Police Department responded to a construction accident near the intersection of State Road 82 and Colonial Boulevard, according to the Fort Myers Police Department. Upon arrival police learned a construction worker on a bulldozer severed a natural gas line and caused an explosion. The construction worker was transported to Lee Memorial Hospital trauma alert. Right now Colonial Boulevard is shutdown between State Road 82 and Treeline Avenue.

The fire department also is on scene. Police expect the road to remain closed while repairs are made to the gas line.

Rick Morera, a spokesman for TECO, a Tampa utility, confirmed that construction equipment pierced an 8-inch gas main. The company doesn?t know how many customers will be affected by the explosion.

A Marine Corps veteran at the Blockbuster video store in the Crossroads Plaza at State Road 82 and Lee/Colonial Boulevard heard the explosion.

“It was like a Humvee blew up,” said Chance Hood, 36, who estimated the explosion occurred about 250 yards away. “We didn’t know what it was.”

Hood said the explosion shook the plaza.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is directing traffic. Traffic heading east toward Lehigh Acres is blocked at Colonial Boulevard.

2:26 p.m. update

Motorists are asked to avoid the area of State Road 82 and Colonial Boulevard because of a gas line explosion. Both directions of Colonial are closed starting at Treeline Boulevard. Both directions of State Road 82 are closed at Forum Boulevard and Gateway Boulevard. Both directions of Lee Boulevard are closed at State Road 82.

The Lee County Sheriff?s Office is now assisting the Fort Myers Police
Department with the investigation.

2:08 p.m.update

Reports of heavy equipment hitting a gas line, sparking a fire, have caused Colonial Boulevard to be closed at Treeline to SR 82 both directions. SR 82 is closed between Gateway Blvd and Forum Blvd both directions. The Fort Myers Police Department responding.

This is a developing story. Check back for more updates, photos and video.

Explosion cuts gas service to 8,000

VA clinic ahead of schedule; development interest grows

25. September 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Drugs, News · Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Construction of the Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Cape Coral is almost a month ahead of schedule, sparking increased interest in development of the surrounding area, including plans for an assisted- living facility and hotel.

“We’re almost at 50 percent completion. All the concrete and steel are in place. On every floor, interior walls are going up,” said Richard Martire, the VA’s senior resident engineer for the clinic project.

If construction continues at this pace, the work could be done by November instead of December as originally scheduled, Martire said.

That means the $132 million, four-story, 222,000-square-foot clinic, once all the furniture and medical equipment are moved in, could be open in the first quarter of 2012 instead of later in the year as originally planned, Martire said. The center will serve 202,000 veterans in Southwest Florida, offering several same-day services, including CT scans, MRIs, ultrasound, nuclear medicine and minor surgery.

The earlier-than-scheduled opening is good news for people interested in developing property in the area of Corbett Road and Diplomat Parkway, said Audie Lewis, Cape Coral’s business recruitment specialist.

Within the next couple of weeks, developers will be meeting with city officials to discuss a planned assisted-living facility and hotel on the 20-acre site just south of the clinic, Lewis said.

“This is exactly the kind of project we want in the area,” Lewis said. People could go to the clinic for outpatient day care and the hotel offers a place to stay for people being treated at the clinic.

The assisted-living facility would have more than 200 beds and the hotel would have 80 to 110 rooms, said Fred Drovdlic, the planner of the project by JCM Contracting.

The project, called Patriot Plaza, meets zoning requirements, Drovdlic said. He said the firm has to go through the process of getting a city development order and environmental permits from the South Florida Water Management District, a process that should take about a year before construction begins.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Reserve is interested in building a training center on 15 acres across from the clinic. The city has told the Army Reserve the site is ready for development and the agency should be letting the city know within a few weeks whether that site will be chosen for the project, said Councilman Bill Deile.

Lewis said the city is also trying to attract other projects, including medical offices, restaurants and drugstores, to locate within a half-mile radius of the clinic, but there is nothing definite yet.

VA clinic ahead of schedule; development interest grows

Cape Coral won’t replace boat lift

13. September 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Money, News · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cape Coral will move forward with adopting a fertilizer ordinance and investigate a septic tank inspection program instead of replacing the Ceitus boat lift, the City Council decided Monday.

The 6-2 vote adopted in principle a management plan for the north spreader canal, which runs north of Pine Island Road along the city?s western edge. The former Ceitus boat lift, removed after a major breach in 2006, separated the canal water from state waters in Matlacha Pass.

The vote gives the council?s conceptual approval to complete the projects, said Jon Iglehart, director of the state?s Department of Environmental Protection office in Fort Myers.

?The details would be worked out in the permitting process,? Iglehart said.

?We?ve got to do what is right for the environment even if it means taking a few chances,? said Councilman Pete Brandt, the council?s point person on the plan. Science shows the projects are better for the environment than replacing the lift, Brandt said.

The plan came out of a task force that involved DEP, the city, Charlotte and Lee counties and environmental stakeholders. Lee and Charlotte counties also will help with projects involving the discharge of storm water into the area.

Lee commissioners are scheduled to vote on the management plan today. Charlotte?s vote is scheduled for Sept. 21.

The city, Lee County and DEP also created a $3.5 million fund to pay for the projects, said city engineer Oliver Clarke. The city and county put in $1.5 million apiece and the DEP $500,000. There is $3.1 million remaining in the account. The projects are projected to cost about $4.3 million. The sewer expansion part of the plan would be funded by assessments on the property receiving the services, Clarke said.

Mayor John Sullivan opposed the plan, as did Councilman Chris Chulakes-Leetz
?We have stakeholders out there who want us to spend our money and bring down a lot of assessments on the people of Cape Coral. I have a big problem with that. It?s like putting a gun to our head,? Sullivan said. ?Basically we?re making an agreement we don?t understand.?

(2 of 2)

The city would have had to replace the lift at a cost of about $4 million if it didn?t agree to the plan and its projects, which include expanding the city?s sewer system into the area.

The city has enough room in its treatment plants to add new sewer customers.

?We have enough capacity there to do the north part of the city,? Public Works Director Chuck Pavlos said. ?I?m talking the whole north of the city, up to about Kismet (Parkway).

The city has several years to comply, so sewers are not coming right away, said City Councilman Kevin McGrail. It could be four or five years, he said.

?Rest assured we will be very sensitive to being cost effective. It pretty much boils down to protecting the water quality in your back yard,? McGrail said.

Five northwest Cape Coral residents spoke for the management plan.

?Our property values depend on a clean environment, as do your tax rolls,? said resident Rick Williams.

Based on the science, the Northwest Cape Coral Neighborhood Association supports the plan, said president Stella Peters.

Cape Coral won’t replace boat lift

Cape Coral’s 40th anniversary: From the editor

12. August 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: News · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to a special section of The News-Press that celebrates the 40th anniversary of Cape Coral’s incorporation. Cape Coral officially became a city on Aug. 18, 1970.

I’ve worked in Cape Coral for five years, and I’m still struck every day by how passionate people are about the city and all the things that have made it so unique over the years.

Our section has a dual purpose as it tries to honor that passion: to track the history and growth of the city and to celebrate the character of the community through the events, fun places and culture that have sprung up around us.

To do that, we’ve divided the section into parts. We have a brief introduction about Jack and Leonard Rosen, the visionaries who helped sell the world on Cape Coral, but we’re mostly tackling things from 1970 onward, although our community has been around much longer than that.

- Part I is all about the building blocks: How the city incorporated, the first mayors and the city council, and how the fire and police departments were formed.

- Part II is about progress. You’ll read about the first schools, the Cape Coral Hospital, the Midpoint Bridge and business options that have sprung up.

- Part III is called people and places. These are stories about the first people and neighborhoods in the city, night life and special events.

- Part IV takes a look at the city’s arts and recreation options.

We also have plenty of old photos from all eras, timelines, and other interesting tidbits to help give readers a sense of what their city is all about, how it got to where it is, and where it might possibly be going.

I would like to thank Anne Cull of the Cape Coral Historical Society, who let us use some fantastic photos. I encourage all residents to check out this amazing resource. The museum, run entirely by volunteers, has tons of exhibits and a wealth of information. It truly is a treasure trove. Visit www.capecoralhistoricalmuseum.org.

A big thanks must also go to our city historian, Paul Sanborn, whose knowledge and general good humor kept us pointed in the right direction.

Here’s to another 40 years. Thanks for reading.

Cape Coral’s 40th anniversary: From the editor

Cape Coral police volunteers make security checks

11. August 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: News, Tech · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It was Julie Tinkham?s first day on the job as a Cape Coral police volunteer trainee.

Under the instruction of veteran volunteer Peter DiPaolo, she was making security checks at houses where owners were away on vacation.

Making home security checks is one of the many services provided by Cape Coral?s 158 police volunteers, said volunteer Capt. Joe Hartley. He said the unpaid volunteers check as many as 30 homes a week.

Although she was new at the job, Tinkham said she immediately noticed something was wrong as as she walked up to the house in Southwest Cape Coral two weeks ago.

?I could see scratch marks on the door and that it appeared to be unlocked,? said Tinkham, 67.

She said she called to DiPaolo, who was behind her: ?Pete, we have a problem, take the lead.?

DiPaolo pressed the door and it opened.

?He said in a loud voice, ?run,?? said Tinkham, a retired oral surgery nurse who graduated in July from the city?s volunteer police academy.

DiPaolo, 64, said volunteers are told to leave quickly if they find a burglarized home. Volunteers aren?t armed and don?t want to run the risk of encountering burglars inside, he said.

They ran to their patrol car and called for officers, who went inside and found that burglars had indeed broken in, stealing a gun, a radio and a television. Police collected evidence and the investigation is continuing.

Dipaolo said the houses are checked daily. In a year, he said, he checks about 250 homes.

The service, said DiPaolo, helps discourage burglars.

And in the event a house on the security checklist is burglarized, the sooner the crime is discovered by a volunteer, the better chance there is of solving the crime, Hartley said.

After a homeowner goes to the police station and fills out a request for a security check, ?we go out and check the doors and the windows. We make sure that the pool pump and the air conditioner haven?t been stolen,? said DiPaolo, who has been a police volunteer for more than a year after retiring from a career in computer technology.

Besides the possibility of encountering burglars, there are other hazards to the job, including dogs.

Once, a neighbor?s pit bull stood on its hind legs and looked at him and Tinkham over the fence of a house they were checking.

?I just talked to him and said, ?Hello, how are you doing,?? Tinkham said. She said that seemed to calm the dog, which didn?t bother them, although it could easily have jumped the fence.

Although they don?t get paid, the volunteers are sometimes rewarded for checking people?s homes.

Thelma Koonce, 89, baked them a batch of cookies and an apple pie for checking on her southeast Cape Coral house while she was out of town in June and July.

?I just appreciated what they did. I wanted to return the favor,? she said.

Cape Coral police volunteers make security checks