The Town of Fort Myers Beach celebrated another segment of recovery efforts from the destruction of 2022's Hurricane Ian on Wednesday with a grand opening and ribbon cutting for the new town hall.
Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers described the opening as special.
"Our staff has really gone through a lot. You know, I think a lot of people forget that they lost their homes, too, when they would have to show up for work every single day," he said. "I think our town manager's move, this will be their final time, obviously, but I think she's moved 10 or 11 times since the storm."
Allers also pointed out that the new town hall will provide more than just a central governmental location: "... it also means a lot for our nonprofits because our nonprofits lost all their buildings. So we now have a place inside this building where they can meet and have meetings."
After Ian wrecked the previous structure beyond use, the town made do with trailers until the Estero Boulevard structure became available.
"Town Hall is in a building, no longer in trailers. What does this mean? Well, this means a lot to me personally. Means a lot for our staff... . We didn't know about this building, so it was nice that it did come up and become available," the mayor said. "It could have been, you know, 10 years before we were able to get back in the building. If we if we had to build something new. So, you know, this this is it's I keep saying this is a community building."
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