in the mid 1980’s
The welcome to Lehigh Acres monument (known as the Wooden Nickel) needs repairs. And as it has aged gracefully over time at the corner of Homestead Rd and Lee Blvd. the lack of maintenance is starting to show up. It has missing stones, cracked lettering, faded paint, mold, mildew and now a major issue a broken weld joint at the bottom of the base of the monument.
The iconic monument started its life as the sign welcoming visitors to the “Charmed Circle” on Joel Blvd. Then the Lehigh Corporation moved the monument to the current location over 35 years ago knowing that corner begins the downtown section of Lehigh Acres.
The Lehigh Corporation moved the monument with or without permission but no one seems to know and no documents can be found about the move. Currently the monument is not on private property, it sits on Lee County road right away. And Lee County DOT agrees with that. Director of Lee County DOT David Loveland said, “We did not have the money to fix the issue and our budget has been cut every year and the community will need to fix it.” According to Loveland the Lehigh Acres Community Council has been looking into resolving this issue.
The Gazette reached out to Richard Anglickis a long term member of the community council and 50 year resident of Lehigh Acres. Anglickis said the council has talked a few times about the patch and repair effort but he did not know about the other damage to the monument until he saw the photos.
The Gazette contacted NPR Graphics to look at the sign. NPR Graphics is sending out a sign engineer to look at the monument top to bottom and make some recommendations how to resolve this issue of the metal band holding the sign together that is rusting away at the weld joints at the bottom.
Check back with the Lehigh Acres Gazette for further developments on this iconic monument.
It is so SAD, our city is falling down in little pieces and seems no one can do anything about it . Just to drive around Lehigh Acres roads and vicinity is depressing. I moved to Lehigh back in 1985, then was a lot more alive and clean that what is at this moment. Where is the money that we paid to the city in our taxes? Why we are like the poor cousin for Fort Myers and Cape Coral? Why we have so bad reputation, when most of the crimes in this area are done from people outside of our little town?.
Who is or are the people that wants Lehigh Acres in this situation? Many times I have been thinking if someone is manipulation this kind of neglecting behavior in the people we have selected to represents us.
At least someone to fix the Welcome!!