There seems to be some Lee County confusion when it comes to debris removal on Gasparilla Island
Gasparilla Island has been quite the hot topic within Lee County administration circles lately, including some cryptic conversation at a meeting held on November 1 regarding, among other things, debris removal.
After Hurricane Ian, Lee County signed a contract with Charlotte County and their subcontractor, Ashford, to clean up Gasparilla Island. Charlotte County already handles regular waste management on the island.
On a color-coded map the county disseminated to the press it shows what stage of clean-up each area of the county is in … but nothing is shown on Gasparilla Island.
Commissioner Ray Sandelli addressed that question to County Manager Roger Desjarlais toward the end of the meeting.
“I have heard there is only one Ashford truck in Boca Grande,” he said. “Is that correct? I heard that CrowderGulf would be sending more trucks up there. I know there was a potential conflict with Ashford not getting the contract, or that they were ignoring that area.”
Upon confirmation of the fact that just one truck had been running in Boca Grande for some time, Dejarlais said that he had just found that out the day before the meeting, and that while Ashford said they could bring in more trucks, possibly four or five, he needed to see it in writing prior to accepting it as the truth and making a commitment to them. He also said that CrowderGulf, the company that is doing the majority of debris hauling for Lee County, was their “Plan B” for Boca Grande. They could get some trucks on the island and get it done at a much faster rate, Desjarlais said, and that would be what would happen if he didn’t get a written commitment for more trucks from Charlotte County’s hauler immediately.
Commissioner Kevin Ruane interjected at this point, saying he had spoken with Gov. DeSantis the day before, who had alluded to him that “four contractors” were going to be hired to clean up all debris on the island. He mentioned these contractors twice more during the conversation, but said that the conversation was not ready to go public yet and would not give any more information.
Ruane also said that he had received six or seven calls from Boca Grande constituents who said there were more trucks picking up debris on the island within the last few days, but Ruane had no idea who those contractors were.
He also mentioned that the conversations he had were “pleasant” in nature. He seemed relatively surprised by that.
