Derelict boats at Gilchrist Park still awaiting removal

Reporter: Jillian Haggerty
Published: Updated:

Boats that came ashore during Hurricane Milton haven’t moved since.

They’re not where they belong, stuck at Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda. The new goal is to get them out sometime this week.

It’s new because they were supposed to be gone by the end of last week.

The impact that it’s creating now is that the park is closed; it’s an eyesore and will affect events that typically take place here.

These boats are a reminder of what the area has gone through.

The city asked FEMA for assistance with the boat removal, and one of the latest updates from Melisa Reichert, the interim city manager, is that the city is trying to open the park back up by the end of the month and is removing the rest of the boats sometime this week.

“I do see people running away,” said Linda Shay, a park visitor. “It’s no secret. Florida has a lot of older people, and they made it through Ian, which was a horror show, and it’s not even two years, and they get back to back, clobbered again. I talked to a new number of people that said, ‘I give up.'”

The city said there will also be a community cleanup day for the park, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 20. However, stay on the lookout for changes because the date isn’t final.

We’ll let you know if all of these boats are, in fact, cleaned up this week.

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