FORT MYERS BEACH, FLA — Tonight Fox 4 is learning more about the progress being made on Fort Myers Beach and a better timeline of when we can expect to see more changes. This information coming from today's Fort Myers Beach management and planning session.
A few key topics mentioned in today's meeting... one is "lights". Once the sun goes down, Fort Myers Beach gets dark and it's a concern for neighbors and businesses. The town is talking with Florida Power and Light to push for more adequate lighting or even putting something temporarily up to help.
Also in the meeting today - discussion of just how much sand we lost due to Hurricane Ian and the process to rebuild our beaches.
Fort Myers resident Brian Hites says, "They're trying to clean up all the debris and there’s people on the beach now - there wasn’t people walking around like three weeks ago." Adding, "I hope it gets back to normal so tourism can come - I mean that’s a big business down here in Fort Myers is the tourist during the winter months so I know a lot of businesses are hurting because of lack of that right now."
Many in hopes to get Fort Myers Beach back to what it was... with that being said there's a lot to do.
Let's start with this...
Chadd Chustz, Environmental Projects Manager said they lost about 57,000 cubic yards on the north segment and 163,000 cubic yards on the central and south segments.
Here's the timeline when it comes to the Beach Re-nourishment Project...
Permitting is between now and April 2023. Final Designs coming in from January to April 2023.
The bidding process: April – June 2023 and construction: June – December 2023.
Also the post office on Fort Myers Beach was destroyed. It was said that residents are having a hard time going to and from a location near the airport to pick up their mail so another request going forward is to try and work on getting a temporary post office on Fort Myers Beach.
