Wasteful government agency shuttered

FORT MYERS — The Lee Soil and Conservation District has been dissolved, the result of a citizen effort to cut wasteful government spending.

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam approved the district's request to be dissolved, ending a six-year, citizen-led effort to eliminate the government agency.

The district was created in 1947 as a conduit for federal and state grants for farmers, but it had mutated into a slush fund for politicians and bureaucrats. In recent years, the agency's only task was to provide free inspections of residential sprinkler systems.