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DeSantis returns to Matlacha

By PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com - | Nov 23, 2022

Gov. Ron DeSantis addressing the crowd in Matlacha last week. PAULETTE LeBLANC

Gov. Ron DeSantis made another visit to Matlacha Wednesday morning to assure Southwest Floridians that the state is financially behind those who have been affected by Hurricane Ian.

“You’ve seen me here a lot over the last 6 or 7 weeks,” DeSantis said, adding that he’s had to spend time on the other coast due to Hurricane Nicole, which made landfall on Nov. 10.

DeSantis acknowledged widespread damage in Lee County giving a verbal thumbs up to locals who have been working hard to get everything back on track, as well as those on a state level and even those across the country who came to help and assist.

“It was something that we knew would be difficult, but we said, we understand it’s going to require a lot of effort, but we’re going to do well by this and we’re going to get it done,” DeSantis said.

In the days following Hurricane Ian, he was contacted directly regarding the Matlacha Bridge, DeSantis said. He was able to respond to islanders immediately after they were told there wasn’t a solution to the road leading to the bridge being out, meaning travel to and from Pine Island was by water only.

“We decided to take up the mantle on that–not our road, not our bridge–at the state level,” DeSantis said, adding that you just have to put the bureaucracy aside and get things done.

“We got it up and running in three days,” he said, to a crowd happy to applaud in response. Florida First Lady, as he referred to his wife Casey DeSantis, had established the Florida Disaster Fund for charitable contributions, even before Hurricane Ian made landfall, a fund that has now raised more than $55 million for storm victims, he said.

“We’ve already distributed more than $7 million through the fund–and these are things for like helping our first responders that got impacted, helping our school teachers, helping residents repair and rebuild their homes, and there’s much more on the way,” DeSantis said.

Some work may be done in the coming weeks to make funding available to groups that don’t currently qualify under Florida statutes, he said, although he said he was happy to announce another $1 million will be awarded from the Florida Disaster Fund.

“This will be to help Emergency Management personnel, National Guardsmen, and other community members who have been displaced or negatively impacted by the hurricane,” DeSantis said.

These funds can help people with basic living essentials like housing, food, transportation and also rebuilding and repair efforts.

DeSantis said he has no doubt that this area is primed for a big economic recovery, as this is a great part of the world.

“People see how beautiful it is. They’ve seen how resilient the community is… Southwest Florida boomed during the pandemic, because we were open. A lot of people moved here, or vacationed here to get away from some of the bad policies, so we were able to really benefit, at the same time, something like this really does impact the economy, “ DeSantis said.

The need to make sure everything is in place for a boom in the future is a priority, he said, emphasizing making training available to people who will fill key positions in our workforce and economy, such as skilled laborers.

He said $7.7 million was awarded to workforce education funds. State College of Florida received $2.9 million to expand commercial drivers license and logistics programs. Florida Southwestern State received $2 million to expand training for information technology. South Florida State College received $618,000 to expand its CDL and welding programs. Fort Myers Technical College received $973,000 to expand programs in diesel maintenance and machine manufacturing. Cape Coral Technical College received $200,000 to expand its nursing program. CareerSource Florida received $1 million to expand services.

“This will end up representing about 3,200 students that will be equipped with skills, that can go out and help power this economy going forward… We understand this is a very multifaceted recovery process. We’re going to look to do everything we can across all the different ranges. I know we’re going to be in a special session of the legislature in December, we’ll announce those dates shortly, but it is going to happen–we’re going to do the property tax relief for those people whose homes were destroyed. We look forward to being able to do that,” DeSantis said.