OKEECHOBEE – Okeechobee County Engineer Stefan Matthes shared good news and bad news for county commissioners at their Oct. 22 meeting about the proposed traffic light at SR 70 and Berman Road.

The good news: After months of back-and-forth between county officials and Florida Department of Transportation, FDOT has agreed the light is needed and put it on the work schedule.

The bad news: FDOT funded the project for Spring 2028.

“I just don’t think they are in tune with the reality of what we are experiencing at that particular intersection,” said County Commissioner Terry Burroughs. “We need to push them along to get this done quicker!”

Matthes said the signal is under design now. Around the first of the year, they will implement temporary measures to increase public safety at that intersection, he added.

He said they have allocated $650,000 in their Fiscal Year 2008 budget for the traffic signal.

Commissioner Brad Goodbread said he was told they have to spend $200,000 on an environmental study on where to put the poles.

 Commissioner David Hazellief said the project will be on the FDOT right-of-way. They shouldn't need another study, he added.

Assistant County Administrator Justin Nelson said the county received $1 million in federal funding, which they have offered to FDOT for the traffic signal.

Nelson said if they use the federal funding, they should not have to wait for Fiscal Year ’28.

“Our goal would be to use the $1 million we have allocated to expedite the project,” he said.

County officials were lobbying for a traffic signal at that intersection long before the fatal accident there on Aug. 17.

At the county commission’s Aug. 20 meeting, Matthes told commissioners that more than a year ago, they had asked FDOT to use the $1 million federal funding the county had received for Berman Road to put in a traffic light.

At one point, FDOT claimed there wasn’t enough traffic to warrant a light. Later they offered the plan to close the intersection to left-hand turns, which would have forced semis to make U-turns on SR 70. They finally have the traffic light on the FDOT schedule, but construction would not start until 2028.

Nelson said they will continue to push FDOT to use the federal funding to expedite adding the traffic light to that dangerous intersection.