The Lee County Electric Cooperative will be permanently shutting down its Coralwood office at 4 p.m. this Wednesday, Dec. 23.
Spokeswoman Karen Ryan said the shuttering is a cost-cutting move for LCEC
“We’ve been looking at it and evaluating it over the last year,” Ryan said. “It made sense to close that office down because there is a cost associated with running a satellite office.”
According to Ryan, LCEC will now offer “authorized walk-in paystations” throughout the Cape, that will charge a convenience fee for the service, and be available to take payments nights and weekends.
The paystations are located in places like gas stations, small grocery stores, liquor stores and insurance offices.
The closest location to the soon-to-be-closed Coralwood office is Postmart — a postal services store — located next to Hollywood Video on Del Prado Boulevard.
Ryan said the annual cost to operate the Coralwood office is $250,000.
She added that LCEC previously operated satellite offices in most areas of Lee County but shut them down for similar reasons.
The walk-in payment offices in North Fort Myers and Immokalee will remain open, but those too could be closed in the future.
“Those offices are being evaluated, too,” Ryan said.
Payment options are available on LCEC’s Web site, www.lcec.net A complete list of authorized walk-in paystations can also be found on the Web site by clicking on “Payment Options”.
For those without Internet, information on authorized walk-in paystations is available by calling 656-2300, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.