FORT MYERS, FLA — "It's sorely needed."
That's the feedback the Fort Myers City Council got Monday night when it came to making room for a new position.
“I think an environmental consultant is important," said one man.
The council was voting to bring in an outside Environmental Consultant, to study the city's weak spots and help make them stronger.
"I would be looking for someone outside who not benefit from the results of the study," said Councilwoman Darla Bonk.
The discussion comes after the city was slapped with $500,000 in fines by the state Department of Environmental Protection because its water wasn't up to snuff.
The city got around the fine by instead promising to invest it in making the area greener.
But the council wasn't done. They also discussed a need for a total audit of the city's water system.
However, it was revealed Monday, that the city's Public Works department is already doing one, in an effort to revamp its master plan.
"To look at what our future demands look like, what the current state of our assets are, what we need to do to plan and fund future investments in these assets," said the department's director Richard Moulton.
That said, council members weren't quite sure if that audit would go deep enough into the existing water issues. So they're planning to review the audit contract and discuss additions to it at a later meeting.
"I for one would like to fully understand the state that our water plants are in," said Mayor Kevin Anderson.
The council can't quite say when it will discuss the additions, because the audit contract is 90 pages long and it won't be ready for them to read until March 15th.
