Lee County cut the ribbon this morning on the rebuilt splash pads at Lakes Regional Park in Fort Myers, a 2.6 million dollar replacement paid for with state disaster money after Hurricane Ian ruined the originals almost four years ago

The splash pads at Lakes Regional Park in Fort Myers are open again, and Lee County held the ribbon cutting for them at 9.30 this morning.

Two dates matter here, and they are not the same one. The pads opened to the public at 9 a.m. on August 5, WINK News reported at the time. This morning's ceremony at the park, 7330 Gladiolus Drive, marks the project finished rather than the water being turned on.

They had been closed since Hurricane Ian came ashore in September 2022, which is very nearly four years.

It was a replacement, not a repair

Saltwater and sand from the storm got into the systems and left nothing worth saving, according to the Lee County Parks and Recreation announcement as reported by WINK News and WGCU.

So the whole installation came out. New concrete pads, plumbing fixtures, electrical components, shade structures, water features, signage and fencing went in. Gulfpoint Construction Company Inc. carried it out as a design build job.

The county has also described stronger materials, updated engineering meant to stand up better to a future storm, and an automated lightning detection system that watches the weather and starts safety protocols on its own. Those are the county's descriptions as relayed by the newsrooms, and this desk has not seen the specification.

Who paid the 2.6 million dollars

The project came to about 2.6 million dollars, and it did not come out of the Lee County parks budget.

The funding ran through the Florida Division of Emergency Management Legislative Appropriations Program Fund. That is state disaster money, and it is the detail worth keeping.

A free water play area in a regional park reads as a recreation line item. On the books it is a state funded Hurricane Ian rebuild, which is a small piece of an answer to a question Southwest Florida is still asking almost four years on, namely what the storm actually cost and who is still paying for it.

Nearly four years, and three of them before a shovel moved

Demolition did not start until August 2025. Construction then ran about a year, WINK reported on the morning of the ceremony.

That leaves close to three years between the storm and the first equipment on site. The reporting does not explain the gap and this desk is not going to guess at it.

Nothing else about the park changes. The rest of Lakes Regional Park stayed open throughout, and Lee County Commission Chairman Cecil Pendergrass pointed to that wider use at the ceremony, describing a park residents already use through the week for biking, walking, picnics and family gatherings.