LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – Lake County officials are moving closer to finding a solution to get an earlier start on a road expansion project that’s been discussed since the 2000s.
At Tuesday’s Lake County Commission meeting, Clermont city officials said Hartwood Marsh Road is the road that receives the most complaints.
“It’s literally every week that I’m getting a question or comment about Hartwood Marsh Road,” said Lake County Commissioner Sean Parks.
Parks said there’s an easy solution to get construction started by Summer 2026 on Hartwood Marsh Road and to move things along for improvements on 44B in the northern part of the county: short-term loans.
“I’m hoping this is something that we’ll see fit to move forward for both of these projects,” Parks said. ”I know it’s a big deal in the north part of the county, as well.”
The Hartwood Marsh widening project from Highway 27 to Regency Hills Drive was originally designed in the 2000s.
If the county doesn’t move forward with the short-term loan, the earliest construction could begin is 2027, when grant funding becomes available.
“We need it now,” said Clermont resident Joe Fumasi. “Not down the road. We can’t kick the can any further.”
The short-term loan Parks is proposing for Hartwood Marsh would be $12 million.
While commissioners recognized the need, Commissioner Kirby Smith said he didn’t have an issue with the proposal but wants to be able to look at all funding options.
“If this was agendized, I would have gone down personally, driven that road several times, look at the other option,” Smith said. ”There may be other options out here other than ‘Oh, let’s just take out a loan.’ There may be options that we can take something away from, something the county has and add to this road.”
Clermont resident Vincent Niemiec was also at Tuesday’s meeting.
Even though commissioners didn’t commit to the loan during the meeting, he still feels like it’s a win.
“I feel a lot more confident because I felt a lot of optimism from the commissioners today,” Niemiec said.
Now, the county will move forward with consulting a financial advisor to figure out its options for a loan, should it decide to go that route.
That will be discussed at a county commission meeting at a later date. Once the date is set, we’ll update this article.