The cost of the utilities expansion project in Cape Coral continues to climb, with a new $45 million wastewater assessment directly impacting families in the North One East area. Some homeowners are reconsidering whether they can afford to stay in the city.<\/p>\n
Carolyn Gates, a resident of Cape Coral, expressed her frustration over the rising costs.<\/p>\n
“We will leave. I… We will not pay those prices,” said Gates.<\/p>\n
Gates enjoys her peaceful front yard on Northeast Sixth Avenue, but she knows the bulldozers and heavy machinery for the utilities expansion project will soon transform it into a construction zone.<\/p>\n
“I do feel it’s borderline criminal about how much it’s costing. I do understand materials are going up. So by the time it gets to us, I think it’s gonna be astronomical,” said Gates.<\/p>\n
The city plans to begin construction in 2026, adding new water, sewer, and irrigation lines.<\/p>\n
Alejandra Mantilla, a single mother, also feels the strain of the rising costs.<\/p>\n
“I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place because I don’t know what to do. As a single mom, all the payments fall on me,” said Mantilla.<\/p>\n
Despite these concerns, city leaders could move forward with new assessments soon.<\/p>\n
Gates shared her thoughts on the impact of these costs.<\/p>\n
“I’d rather move into somewhere that’s more established. To be honest with you, we’ll just get out of Cape Coral altogether. Gone,” said Gates.<\/p>\n
The Cape Coral City Council is expected to vote on the assessments, decisions that could reshape the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cost of the utilities expansion project in Cape Coral continues to climb, with a new $45 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,5219,211,210],"class_list":["post-53280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-city-council","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}