Residents rejoice as long-awaited road repairs transform LaBelle neighborhood

Long-awaited road repairs in LaBelle’s Country Village are finally underway.

As Fox 4’s Hendry County Community Correspondent, I work in this area every day, so one of my connections let me know the entire neighborhood is being repaved - it’s a transformation people there say they’ve been needing.

The sound of heavy machinery filled the neighborhood as crews were hard at work laying fresh asphalt down. Watch my full report here...

“I’m just so excited!”: Residents rejoice as long-awaited road repairs transform LaBelle neighborhood

The reason why? A drive through the neighborhood quickly turned into an obstacle course to avoid pothole filled roads.

Rose Fischer has lived in Country Village for 14 years and said it’s been hard to watch the roads deteriorate in that time.

Austin Schargorodski

“They just kept getting worse and worse…terrible. People wouldn’t come to visit because of the roads,” Fischer recalled.

Fischer said the roads have gotten’ so bad that she can’t even keep her car in alignment. So, she said seeing the roads redone outside her front door has her in high-spirits.

“I’m just so excited! I can’t wait, I can’t wait,” Fischer said happily.

Austin Schargorodski

Hendry County Commissioner, Ramon Iglesias, said these roads haven’t been repaved since they were laid down in the late 70’s, and there were a few bumps in the road getting to this point.

“The problem is, the roads weren’t county roads - this is actually a property owners association by the name of Country Village,” Iglesias said.

Austin Schargorodski

Iglesias said the association was responsible for the roads, but didn’t have the funding to do this project all at one time. So, he said he worked with the county to figure out a solution.

“We put together an MSBU - it’s a special assessment towards the owners over a 20 year period to bring them new roads,” Iglesias explained.

Iglesias said the county will continue to maintain the roads while the community pays for them over the next 20 years. Then, he said they’ll hand them back to the neighborhood association.

Austin Schargorodski

Plus, Iglesias said he believes this solution will pave the way for other communities to get help like this too.

“It’s the most impactful project that’s been done within this community since it’s been developed,” said Iglesias.

“We’re gonna have such nice, beautiful roads, yes,” said Fischer with a smile.