He should have called a public meeting and at the very least told fellow commissioners of his action, Pool now says publicly. Commissioners killed Pool's action in a quick 4-1 vote Tuesday. Only Pool voted for the fund request.

His instructions to Arlington, VA-based Alcalde & Fay, a national government and public affairs firm, to lobby the Congress for a $5 million grant to study the proposed Lake-Sumter Greenway concept has created a controversy in two counties where the entire permanent population is less than 250,000. Alcalde & Fay is being paid $5,000 a month on a 12-month contract.

U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Florida) immediately withdrew his request to the Appropriations Committee in Washington to consider Pool's proposal. The Appropriations Committee's deadline is March 29.

The 35-mile, non-stop road, whose roughly estimated cost would be $800 million and wouldn't be built until 2009, would link rural Lake and Sumter counties to urbanized neighbor Orange County with a permanent population approaching one million residents.

The road project would trigger unprecedented, and in some areas, unwanted commercial development, anti-growth forces argue. The road would also ease congestion on traffic-heavy U.S. 441, pro-road groups contend.

The road would start at Interstate 75 near Wildwood, FL in Sumter County where it would run for 12 miles before heading east over alligator-infested Lake Griffin. It would then skirt Lake Eustis and Mount Dora, FL and connect to a planned extension of State Road 429 (East-West Expressway) just north of Apopka, FL, 17 miles north of Downtown Orlando.

Based on the $237 million Orange County recently paid to build 10.5 miles of the Orlando Beltway, the proposed 35-mile Lake-Sumter Greenway would come in at around $22.6 million per mile or a total $791 million, county planners tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

Pool is telling other elected officials in Lake County he did nothing wrong and simply followed a road-study plan drafted at an undetermined time in 2001 by county staffers. But staffers, department heads and other elected officials now say they don't know who came up with the toll-road plan or when it came up.

There has been no formal public discussion on the undertaking. The construction cost would make it one of the largest projects of its kind in the recent history of all three counties, private area planners tell GlobeSt.com.

Instant Insights /

GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Lake Chairman in Hot Seat for Secret Funding

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