PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Charlotte County Commissioners will discuss possibly reopening a portion of the Port Charlotte Beach Park at an upcoming workshop on Dec. 17.
The Park was closed after it sustained damage in hurricanes Helene and Milton, and a fence was put up around its perimeter to keep people out. According to the county, in addition to hurricane damage, the buildings in the park were scheduled for demolition and the park is to be used as a staging area for the removal of derelict boats and debris.
Watch Fox 4's Alex Orenczuk report on the effort to reopen portions of the Port Charlotte Beach Park:
Despite county officials previously stating the park would be closed for several months, a group of faithful park patrons formed the Port Charlotte Beach Park Reopen Committee, lobbying for the park to partially reopen.
“The green space we know is in reasonable enough shape that people can use that, use the hard court surfaced areas, the volleyball courts, tennis courts, pickleball, possibly even one of the pavilions,” said member Scott Prosuch.
During the Dec. 10 meeting, commissioners announced that the agreement with the state to remove the derelict boats was not finalized, yet work had begun anyway. According to Commissioner Stephen R. Deutsch, contractors at the park had pulled derelict boats across the beach and crushed a boat on site without permission.
“We did not authorize them to pull the boats out, we did not approve it,” said Deutsch. “The county did put in a cease and desist and told them to stop.”
“Nothing is going on there until we have complete control, meaning a contract is in place and everything is completely spelled out according to the way we and the administration want it done,” said Commissioner Chris Constance. “And that includes no destruction of property, it's just pull it out and haul it off.”
Commissioners discussed possibly moving the fence perimeter back to allow pedestrians into the park. Commissioner Ken Doherty said while it would be ideal to allow people to use the park, it opens the door for liability.
“What are we going to do about vehicles?,” said Doherty. “We need to really understand how that would operate. I get the goal to try and help out. I really do, but we have got to be extremely careful about this and do it very professionally or we could be exposing the taxpayers of this county to some major liability if we don’t do it correctly.”
Commissioners will further discuss what options are available to reopen portions of the park during a workshop meeting on Dec. 17.
