Lee County commissioners vote to create Ian recovery task force

Recovery will take years, a grim yet realistic admission at the Lee County Board of Commissioners meeting earlier on Tuesday.

Facing a long rebuild after Hurricane Ian, county officials have approved a new task force that should help Southwest Florida down the road.

The county is projecting recovery efforts as far out as five years. They voted to form the task with the biggest priority is connecting with the communities that need the most help.

“I’m focused right now more on the near-term because people are hurting right now. But I want to plan long-term,” said Lee County Commissioner Ray Sandelli.

A challenge Lee County as a whole is battling is short-term recovery along with long-term rebuilding.

The motion carried with no objection.

With cleanup efforts underway and the challenges looming, the task force’s main short-term goal will be connecting with areas that need the most help.

Some people feel they need more access to information and aid.

“We don’t really have until next fall. We just need to know who we need to be working with to make a joint plan for our whole community,” said Julie Dixon, who lives in Matlacha.

“I see this as offering up another layer. Another layer of community relations and input that we can utilize to build back,” said Mike Greenwell, Lee County commissioner.

The task force cited Bay County’s 2018 Hurricane Michael Recovery Task Force as a potential template.

According to Bay County documents, their task force used a mix of public and private sector partners to complete hundreds of recovery projects.

The two counties have compared plans in the past and Lee officials believe they can learn from Bay County’s rebuilding experience.

“They went through this what, five years ago? We both learned a lot that day talking with those commissioners,” said Lee County Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass. “So we’ve got to find a happy medium. How do we put the task forces together? How we put it together will be really important.”

Task force Chairman Kevin Ruane will begin connecting with partners in the public and private sectors to fill out the group and identify where it will begin its work.

“This is, to me, an opportunity to rebuild this community. To give this community hope and do the best we possibly can,” Ruane said. “We’re going to give Lee County a much better place to live in in the future.”

Ruane’s office told WINK News the task force will focus on recovery efforts and will not evaluate the county’s preparedness or “Just in Time” evacuation protocol. It was the protocol that led the county to start evacuations one day before Ian hit.