Road planners reject controversial earmark

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 18, 2007

FORT MYERS - An Interstate 75 interchange study that would have been paid for by a controversial congressional earmark has been removed from a regional road plan.

The Metropolitan Planning Organization Friday scuttled a study on the interchange that would have connected I-75 to Coconut Road in Lee County, despite warnings that the move could hurt the county's chances for future federal road money.

Local officials never asked for federal money for the interchange, but in June Lee County leaders voted to go forward with the study anyway. It would have been paid for by a $10-million earmark put into the federal budget by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who made it clear the money could be used only for the Coconut Road interchange study.

Area newspapers reported that Young got the money into the federal budget after benefiting from a fundraiser two years ago that was hosted by a builder who owns land surrounding the proposed interchange.

Planning officials told the News-Press of Fort Myers that they'll try to get Congress to let locals use the $10-million for other projects.

[Last modified August 17, 2007, 22:39:55]