Lee County seeks barges, debris staging
Lee County voted to accept the Resilient Lee Recovery and Resilience Plan at its Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, March 19.
This plan is the product of the Long-Term Recovery Task Force, which was approved by the board back in December 2022. The plan is to survey and assess Lee County needs, identify and engage key partners to address those needs, develop solutions and maximize funding to implement those solutions. It is intended to be a starting point to promote coordination between the government, private sector, community organizations and the public.
The task force, chaired by County Commissioner Kevin Ruane, contains 43 core initiatives identified as medium- and long-term needs to help assist the community through recovery and encourage resilience from future impacts of disasters.
One item identified was the need for attainable workforce housing, especially near employment centers, including on barrier islands where there are site specific industries like shrimping, agriculture and hospitality that need their workers to live locally.
The plan also includes an item for managing hurricane debris, recognizing that barrier islands and smaller communities have limited availability to create additional debris management areas. It outlines that the task force must determine the need and increase debris staging areas.
Additionally, permanent facilities for barge operations must be developed for each island in the event of a disaster or any event that disrupts vehicular access across bridges that are singular access points to barrier islands, according to one section of the plan.
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