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Ribbon Cutting for Medical Examiner's Office Renovations
Apr 20, 2005 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FORT MYERS, Fla. (April 20, 2005) - The Board of Lee County Commissioners and District 21 Medical Examiner's Office will hold a ribbon cutting Wednesday (April 20) of the renovation and expansion of the ME's facilities. The ceremony will be at 2 p.m. at the ME's Office, 70 Danley Drive in Fort Myers. County Commission Chairman Doug St. Cerny will serve as master of ceremonies. Representatives of Hendry and Glades counties also will be present, as well as officials from the 20th Judicial Circuit's State Attorney and Public Defender offices. The public is invited and encouraged to attend. Guided tours of the facility will be open to the public. Because of limited parking at the facility, attendees are asked to park at the Jerry Brooks Community Park parking lot (located behind the Florida Highway Patrol station along U.S. 41 south of Page Field) and ride a LeeTRAN shuttle bus to the ceremony. The Medical Examiner's Office had not had a major expansion or renovation since 1990. The $3.7-million project includes a total renovation of the existing building and the expansion of the facility (a physician's addition of 1,823 square feet and a morgue addition of 5,616 square feet). Also: A new roof, windows with impact glass, fire alarm, fire sprinkler system, security system, card access system for the door and gate, phone & data system, intercom system, furniture, additional parking and landscaping. An additional generator and fuel tank is added to supply both the new and existing generator. A new air conditioning system including a filter system for odor control - with a pre filter, carbon filters and a hepa filter - and autopsy room interlocking exhaust and outside air units are added. The morgue is greatly expanded. New items include: natural and surgical lighting, mortuary freezers and mortuary refrigerators with a racking system for bodies from a catastrophe; automatic doors are included with no touch openers in the path of the body cart movement; a downdraft autopsy table and dissecting table are added for autopsies of decomposed bodies. The architect for the project was Anchor Engineering Consultants and the Construction Manager was Kraft Construction Company. |