Resilient Lee Task Force discusses money used for Hurricane Ian’s damage

Thursday evening Resilient Lee Task Force and the Fort Myers Beach Town Council will meet and give the town a chance to voice their opinion.

During the meeting, they are trying to figure out how to split up the $1,100,000,000 earmarked for all of Lee County. That is a bit far off from happening. But, the people in Fort Myers Beach know they desperately need it.

“Where there’s chaos, there’s opportunity. And we certainly have a surplus of chaos,” Councilman Bill Veach said.

Fort Myers Beach welcomes hundreds of people every day to simply lounge around the beach. But sunshine doesn’t just expose the beauty, it exposes the work remaining to be done.

“Anything that we can do to help people that have been through this to not have to go through it, again, is really what our focus is,” Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers said.

That’s why the mayor believes Thursday night’s Resilient Lee meeting is critical for everyone on Fort Myers Beach to attend.

“These meetings are essentially two-hour meetings for the communities to be able to come out, tell them what’s important to them, they take it back, they disseminate the information, put together the plan, send it up to the federal government who reviews it and then sends it back,” Mayor Allers said.

He’s talking about the $1,100,000,000 block grant that the federal government has told Lee County to figure out how to best spend in the wake of Hurricane Ian. Fort Myers Beach was hit so hard, but so was Sanibel, Cape Coral, downtown Fort Myers, and so many other areas of Southwest Florida.

Resilient Lee, the county’s recovery task force is traveling around getting ideas on what it should do.

“Workforce housing is a big thing. Communication is a big thing for us. Hardening every structure we have,” Mayor Allers said.

“I’m keeping my mind open, because the intent of this meeting is to see what the public wants, what their opinions are, what their challenges are after the storm,” Councilman Veach said.

And that’s why the meeting is open to everyone. But if you can’t show up in person, you can always watch online.

Click here to go to the website to watch the meeting online.

Click here to get more information about Resilient Lee.