Last week Lee County Manager Dave Harner attended the Let’s Go FMB pier presentation made by Allen Shanosky. After the meeting we interviewed Harner and asked him where the pier was on the county’s priority list of projects.
BTR: Where do we stand with getting the pier replaced?
Harner: Right now we have to go through a process with FEMA to get reimbursement. We do paperwork, they do an inspection, then we do additional paperwork. We have a consultant that makes sure we cross all our t’s and dot our i’s when we put the paperwork in. It then gets reviewed, it comes back to the county to make sure everything is correct and then it goes back to the Fed’s. They currently have it now. Through that they determine how much they will reimburse us for that. Also we’ll be talking about resiliency when we talk about that component as well. You don’t want to have to rebuild this if there’s another event.
BTR: Is the pier 100% reimbursable?
Harner: We don’t know that yet but our assumption is that it will be.
BTR: The pier is a big deal to the people of Fort Myers Beach. When do you think it can be started?
Harner It takes a while because you have to go through the permitting process. The discussion of on average it takes 4 years. I am not sure how long this one will take. I assume it will take years because you have to deal with a number of permitting agencies, state and federal when you’re dealing with waterways. So that could take some time. Our goal is as soon as we get the reimbursement, as soon as we get the OK that we are good to move forward with this, and depending on public comment. We’ll have a workshop with our board and have that discussion. They want to move quickly. It’s an iconic piece in the community and the board wants to ensure that’s back for our community.
BTR: Four years from the storm or from some other date?
Harner: That’s hard to say. I can’t really tell you right now. Permitting takes awhile. When you build a road it takes 10 years. I don’t think it’s gonna take that long for this but you do have a lot of permitting agencies to go through. There’s two components to it; are you building the same footprint, if you’re increasing that footprint that changes and that changes with the permitting process because you’re not putting back what you originally had or where it was. That would be a consideration we all have to take into account.
BTR: The presentation you saw from Let’s Go FMB. Does the county take any of this input or do you have your own people that are putting plans together?
Harner: I took notes. It’s always good to hear what the community is saying. Typically when we build something we have community input. It depends on what the movement is to move forward. If we’re going to expand the pier you would definitely want to take public input on what that will look like as opposed to if you are going to put it back the way it was. That’s a discussion of permitting, funding, time, all those parameters you want to consider when you’re doing that.
BTR: What’s the ETA on repairing the bathrooms in Lynn Hall park?
Harner: Right now we can’t build back the restrooms the way they were so you can’t have that structure unless it’s up in the air. If you’ve been to Bunche Beach you know how high the restrooms are. Probably not going to happen out there. We would be looking at putting a nice trailer out there that you could remove. We can’t build the restroom back on the causeway that used to be there. we have to put something else there. Our goal is to have nicer than what is currently there.
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