Popular island park receives improvements for accessibility

FORT MYERS – Lee County Parks & Recreation has made improvements to Sanibel Causeway Island A – the island along the popular causeway that is closest to the bridge – so people who use wheelchairs can better enjoy the beach.

The east end of Island A now has a Mobi-Mat, which is a roll-out surface that makes beaches accessible to people in wheelchairs. An ADA-accessible picnic table and landscape enhancements also went into the area, which is known as Pete’s Point, named for devoted Lee County Parks & Recreation staffer Pete Schroat, who died unexpectedly in 2011.

The cost of the Moby-Mat was defrayed thanks to a donation from park patron Brad Piper, of Fort Myers, who is fond of Pete’s Point and who uses a wheelchair.

“I’m originally from Illinois and so was Pete, and we struck up conversation when I’d see him out there working on the area. That became my favorite spot to go,” Piper said. Schroat was a senior maintenance specialist for the department.