Putting stinking ditches behind us

BY MARCY SHORTUSE - In just a few weeks, dramatic improvements are scheduled for the ditches north of 45th Street on Gasparilla Road. If all goes as planned, crews will be working on draining and improving the swales full of water in the first week of December.

In a reply to a letter from Misty Nichols, executive director of the Gasparilla Island Conservation and Improvement Association, Randy Cerchie, with the Lee County Department of Transportation, said that because the swale is too deep they plan to place filter fabric and rip-rap (grapefruit-sized stones) on the bottom, then put fill dirt over that to aid in drainage.

“We'll have the final plan ready for the proposed work on this ditch by the middle of next week and tentatively plan to begin work the first week of December,” Cerchie said.