Fishermen’s Village in Punta Gorda to reopen after Hurricane Milton

If you’re looking to do some early holiday shopping in Charlotte County on Friday, Fishermen’s Village is reopening its doors just in time.

It’s been closed since Oct. 8 due to Hurricane Milton.

Several employees are preparing for the reopening on Friday. From what they say,
it feels like a grand opening after being closed for almost a month.

Kathy Burnam is the Marketing and Events Manager at Fishermen’s Village. She said that now is a great time for Fishermen’s Village to reopen.

“What a perfect day to have the opening with all of our Christmas decorations that are pretty much nearly in place,” said Burnam. “It gives people a lot of encouragement. It will start the season for them very well, and it’s a big deal.”

It’s a big deal for several employees who have had to temporarily close their businesses due to Milton and felt its impacts.

A few of them are Captain’s Landing and King Fisher Fleet.

Ralph Allen owns King Fisher’s Fleet. He said Milton was hard for his staff, but the boats fared well.

“It’s a traumatic experience for all of our staff,” said Allen. “I believe all of our staff stayed with us through that month. It was a miraculous event for our boats. We have not a scratch on a boat, and in Punta Gorda in the boating department, that’s saying something. We got very lucky.”

Troy Young is the owner of Captain’s Landing at Fishermen’s Village. He said that he’s glad to be back in business.

“We had the storm surge here, so we got a lot of damage with that up there,” said Young. “Just more wind and power, so it took a long time to get us going here, but we’re happy to be opening tomorrow in time for season.”

From the Village’s closure from Oct. 8 until Oct. 31, employees used it as an opportunity to revamp once the storm settled.

Allen worked with his employees at King Fisher Fleet during the downtime.

“While we were down for a month, we took that opportunity to do some upgrades and put fresh coats of paint on things here and there that we probably wouldn’t have had a chance to get to that quickly,” said Allen, “so we try to take some advantage to our downtime.”

With the clock ticking and more preparations underway, reopening day was almost in question. Burnam said despite the difficulties, they made it work.

“We were not sure that we would make it, but we’re so delighted that we have. It just made sense, and we’ve been able to do it,” said Burnam.

The reopening is just in time for the snowbird season and the holiday season. Allen said that customers are ready for both.

“There are a lot of people anxious to be able to join us back here again, starting tomorrow, November the 1st,” said Allen.

Fishermen’s Village will officially be back open this Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., which is also the return of their regular business hours, Monday through Saturday.

On Sundays, they’ll be open from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.