Desoto County, Florida

trucks. There’s also a pilot shelter, campground with a fire pit, and bicycle access into town. The non-profit Friends of Arcadia Airport (FOAA) even created a fly-in/camp-out center for visitors, and host fly-in pancake breakfasts to attract out of town pilots to further stimulate the local economy. Infrastructure projects also help further the community. Several years ago, U.S. Highway 17 (US 17) was converted into four lanes through DeSoto. “We have new major state roads that intersect in our county making it a really good transportation and logistics warehousing destination,” states Hines. “Right now, Cardinal Contractors, Inc. is doing our wastewater rehabilitation program. We’re part of the four- county owned Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority (PRMRWSA). We have access to potable water, but we needed to expand our wastewater capacity to meet demand. There’s a little lag time getting that capacity constructed, permitted, and planned. The development stage also takes a while, but we’re working hard on expanding our wastewater capacity.” She also details how a $1.4 million bridge project is just finishing up along Reynolds Road. Specifically, a wooden decked bridge was replaced with a “lengthy monolithic slab concrete bridge.” DeSoto County even has the most Florida Power & Light (FPL) solar energy centers out of all the counties in the entire state. It has been a state-of-the-art area for FPL’s clean energy ideas ever since the first FPL DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center was built in 2009. This past May, FPL’s fifth solar energy center, the Rodeo Solar Energy Center went online. It contains approximately 300,000 solar panels and adds about 74.5 megawatts of additional power to the grid. Along with championing solar energy, DeSoto is also known for its many campgrounds and recreational vehicle (RV) parks. Guffey explains, “The RV parks, especially the ones