Beacon formulates emergency task force on island
According to Beacon of Hope board members Elsie Stearns and Joanne Lembo, the Lee County Board of Commissioners has authorized the Beacon of Hope to lead a new volunteer emergency task force for Greater Pine Island.
“The Lee County Board of Commissioners has authorized the Beacon of Hope to work in conjunction with the Lee County Emergency Operations Center for a disaster and preparedness mitigation response and provide coordinated leadership for other groups and volunteers engaged in local recovery efforts through the creation of the Greater Pine Island Emergency Task Force,” Stearns said.
Directly after Hurricane Ian, Stearns explained, she became aware of a group of concerned Pine Island leaders who met to discuss immediate action that could be taken to support and assist Pine Island through the emergency. She said the first and most important subject affecting the island was the volume of fuel necessary to keep things running. Possible barging was also a topic of discussion, in case a future event caused another road outage.
Many at these post-hurricane meeting will now counted as part of the Pine Island Emergency Task Force. Among the group are representatives from Matlacha/Pine Island Fire Control District, the Pine Island Water Association, locally owned Dynamic South, Stearns Custom Home Builders, LCEC, Lee County Parks and Recreation, the Beacon of Hope and Honc Industries. It became immediately obvious an assigned group would be needed to tackle preparations in an emergency situation, such as this one had been.
“We needed a task force of Pine Island leaders who would come up with some way to handle this and be efficient at supporting the community. These business owners and community members will work in coordination under the umbrella of the Beacon to serve as the area operations Center,” Stearns said.
The Lee County Commissioners were all in agreement and voted unanimously on the creation of this volunteer task force group, she said. The Beacon of Hope is undergoing a Starlink installation, as the goal is to make the Pine Island Beacon of Hope the hub for any future storm emergencies.
“We’ll be setting up recovery centers on the island. Our classroom and our community programs area will be up and running unless something happens to the building. We’re putting things in place to be able to be more prepared, pre-storm and post-storm. That’s our goal,” Stearns said.
Task force board member and Honc Industries owner Steve Honc said while this new volunteer task force is unaffiliated with other Pine Island organizations, they are happy to work with the community as a whole.
“While we’re here as a relief in a time of disaster, we want to make it clear that we’re here for pre-hurricane preparation and also immediately following. While we’re happy to work with other organizations established with some of the long-term recovery, our mission is not to be a long-term recovery organization,” Honc said.
For additional information on the task force group, please visit the Beacon of Hope’s website at BeaconofHopepineisland.com.
The Beacon of Hope is at 5090 Doug Taylor Circle, St. James City. Call 239-283-5123 for more information.
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email