Estero Fire Rescue pulls out of youth ranch venture

Fire officials had hoped to lease about 40 of 100 useable acres on a site near Alico and Corkscrew roads for a regional training center. The Lee County Sheriff's Association wants to lease the land for a youth ranch.

On Tuesday, though, Estero Fire Chief Dennis Merrifield will recommend the district's fire board hire the Renaissance Design Group, an Omaha-based design company, to help officials review sites and decide on a new parcel in the Alico/Corkscrew area.

"That's our ground zero," Merrifield said. "It could be anywhere within a five-mile radius."

Merrifield said it was time to pull out of the running to share the county parcel with the Sheriff's Association because the district wanted to have more control over the land.

"We just think the site had too many issues involved with it," he said. "We just felt that we would have more flexibility to train" somewhere else.

Fire officials recently sent a letter to Rick Diaz, head of Lee County's Utilities division, notifying the division of the district's decision.

In the past, some utilities staff said the 100 acres could only accommodate one user.

The parcel is part of 476 acres the county owns near the county water plant and well fields. The site is bordered by 313 acres of county-owned land to the east that has been reserved for use by Southwest Florida International Airport. To the east and north is Conservation 20/20 land, or county-acquired property to expand conservation preserves, and to the south is land owned by the South Florida Water Management District.

"The plan the sheriff had was less obtrusive," Diaz said. "What the fire chief needs there, we couldn't have that there."

Estero Fire Rescue is proposing a $1.1 million training center that also would include a driving track, a training tower for climbing and burning and an additional fire station.

There is a possibility the fire station would be operated by volunteer firefighters because there aren't many residents in the area yet, commissioner Larry Westin said.

"They don't have any people out there," he said. "You can't expect them to wait 25 or 30 minutes" for someone to respond to a rescue call.

The center eventually might be a place where area firefighters can travel to do specific training instead of traveling out of the state.

The Sheriff's Association is proposing a 100-acre youth ranch for juvenile offenders that would consist of four main buildings and an outdoor barn, amphitheater, picnic area and horse paddocks. There also will be a 24-hour security building, an education building and a combination visitors center and administrative building.

The fire district's plans didn't fit in as well with the nearby well fields and water plant, Diaz said.