LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Back in 2005, Lee County added a project to its to-do list: build a sidewalk on 25th Street West and Unice Avenue, in front of Harns Marsh Elementary School on the south side.
For perspective — if your child went to the school in 2005, they would be 25-years-old now, and the sidewalk is still not there.
It's the reason a second generation of parents, like Rachel Labrie, won't let their children walk to school.
"That's why I'm picking up my kids. It's a safety issue," Labrie said.
Watch Lee County Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades below:
She said what concerns her is that the sidewalk abruptly ends, unlike the seemingly never ending list of projects this sidewalk is on.
Even after all these years, it sits in 123rd place on the Lee County Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee list.
Committee member Derek Felder said the county will help the school apply for an FDOT grant which can cover the $1.4 million sidewalk.
"Everyone should want the sidewalk. Why would you want your kids walking in the street?," Felder said.
FDOT said, the Safe Route to School Program funds "projects that remove any barriers preventing students from walking and biking to school such as insufficient or unsafe infrastructure."
Part of where the sidewalk would go on 25 Street West, there's no shoulder and heavy traffic.
"Even if you're driving your kids to school, you don't want to be driving next to other kids that are walking in the street to school, so either way the sidewalks are beneficial to everyone," Felder said. "I mean just standing here how many dump trucks have we seen past by us in the four minutes we've been standing here."
It even happened a few seconds after he said it.
This map from Lee County Shows in pink where the new sidewalk will connect with the existing sidewalk in black.
"We certainly do need sidewalks in Lehigh Acres. It elevates the community. I think it's just good all around," Labrie said.
FDOT said they'll decide over the summer if this project will get the grant and finally be built.
