Business

Report your news to CAPTIVASANIBEL.COM

SBA updates Business Recovery Center operations

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced that it will discontinue Sunday hours at its Florida Business Recovery Centers. It opened the centers to assist business owners with applying for SBA disaster loans for Hurricane Ian. The SBA is operating the following Business Recovery Centers in Lee County: ∫ The Hub at SWFL, at 25071 Chamber of Commerce Drive, Bonita Springs. Hours are Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ∫ Kiwanis Club of Cape Coral, at 360 Santa Barbara Blvd. S., Cape Coral. Hours are Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Applicants may apply using the Electronic Loan Application (ELA) via SBA’s secure website at https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/ela/s/ and should apply under SBA declaration #17644.

To be considered for all forms of assistance, applicants should register at DisasterAssistance.gov or download the FEMA mobile app. If online or mobile access is unavailable, applicants can call the FEMA toll-free helpline at 800-621-3362. Those who use 711-Relay or Video Relay Services should call 800621-3362.

Disaster loan information and application forms can also be obtained by calling the SBA’s Customer Service Center at 800-659-2955 or emailing DisasterCustomerService@sba.gov. Loan applications can also be downloaded from sba.gov/disaster.

The filing deadline to return applications for physical property damage is Jan. 12.

The deadline to return economic injury applications is June 29.

Paychecks for Patriots hiring event scheduled

CareerSource Southwest Florida will participate in the state’s 10th annual Paychecks for Patriots, a special hiring fair dedicated to employing veterans.

Most statewide events were held in conjunction with Veterans Day. Due to the impact of Hurricane Ian, however, the CareerSource Southwest Florida event was rescheduled for Dec. 1 at the Next Level Church, at 12400 Plantation Road, Fort Myers. The first hour from 10 to 11 a.m. will be reserved for veterans and family only, then open to the general public from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“Veterans and their families bring dedication, a special set of skills and diversity to Florida’s workforce, ” a press release said. “CareerSource Southwest Florida will aim to match veterans with employers who value the knowledge, skills, and attributes attained during military service. ”

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity,

Florida National Guard, Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs and participating Florida employers are partnering with CareerSource Florida regions to connect veterans with available careers in their community. To address the employment needs of service members and veterans across the state, the Paychecks for Patriots event works to bring employers with current employment opportunities in Florida to the table with great military and veteran candidates. Through Paychecks for Patriots, businesses will be connected with talented, well-trained veterans to join their team. In the past nine years, more than 8,000 veteran candidates and military family members who participated in Paychecks for Patriots across the state have gained employment. For a list of employers attending the event, visit www.careersourceSWFL.com. Lee Health reports on COVID testing sites

Lee Health reported that Dec. 2 will be the last day of operations for Curative’s COVID-19 testing sites in Lee County. It partnered with Curative during the pandemic to create additional access to COVID testing for community members.

The sites, which are set-up at Lee Health’s Lee Convenient Care locations in Fort Myers and Cape Coral, have served thousands in the region with free COVID testing during the past year.

Anyone who wants to receive a COVID test on or before Dec. 2 can do so by making an appointment at www.curative.com. There are still a variety of COVID community testing sites open and available to the public. They can be found at www.leehealth.org by searching “Community COVID-19 Testing Sites. ” At-home tests are also available at local drug stores. Lee Health continues to encourage the public to take necessary precautions to protect themselves and their loved ones from COVID, influenza and other illnesses, especially while gathering for the holidays. Get vaccinated, wash hands frequently, gather outside if the weather allows and stay home if you are sick. Lee Health noted that it is also important to know where to go when you are ill. Visit your primary care physician for general concerns and head to the emergency room for severe conditions, such as chest pain or shortness of breath. Lee Convenient Care is a resource when quick care for a minor injury or illness like the flu is needed. For an on-demand urgent care service, Lee TeleHealth is available 24/7 at https://leetelehealth.org.

Kiwanis moves meetings to new location Business Note

DiCharia joins VIP Realty

VIP Realty Group announced that Marilyn DiCharia has joined as part of the real estate team of Glen Simmons and T i n a DiCharia, her sister.

She has been in the mortgage and real estate industry for over 15 years. DiCharia has been involved in everything from market- Marilyn DiCharia ing and postclose mortgage processes to home renovations, staging, staging consultations and appraisals.

Having raised her children in Minnesota, she is excited about her return to Fort Myers.

Team Rubicon sends experts to survey damage and speak with homeowners on what type of relief assistance they need. Different groups go out and provide services such as debris removal, roof tarps, removal of flooring, walls, ceilings, bathrooms, furniture, and more.

“We help take all that stuff out, so that way when you come back home, any contamination will be removed and you can move forward from there and hire contract workers and begin remodeling, ” Mederos said.

During his two week, Mederos worked on homes in Bontia Springs, North Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach. He said Team Rubicon has a fleet of volunteers in the area working to assist residents.

“On a personal level, it definitely hits to be here, ” Mederos said. “Seeing it on the news or online, you can’t really get that sense of connectivity to what people are going through until you get here. ”

Mederos said in speaking with local residents and homeowners, he can feel the strife and sense of loss they feel. He is there to help lessen the burden. Often times he is carrying people’s lifelong possessions out to the curb.

“When you’re here and you’re doing work for them, for me personally, I treat it as if it were my home, ” Mederos said. “I can empathize and connect with them. This is their lives. A lot people don’t have a helping hand, and that’s why we step out to come out and do as much as we can while we’re here. ”

Mederos, his Team Rubicon and IsraAid peers are all volunteers. He said he felt compelled to join after being in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Jose in 2017.

“Being able to experience that … it made me want to step out into the arena and help, ” Mederos said. “I had heard about Team Rubicon a little bit after, and when I found out there was another hurricane going to hit Puerto Rico and Florida, I felt that this was the time. I needed to do something. ”

Mederos and his mother signed up and they both were deployed to Florida on Nov. 4. They went and worked on homes around devastated areas and when their week of duty was up, Mederos wanted to continue working and requested an extension.

“I know I’m only one person, but one person is better than nothing, ” Mederos said. “I got to continue to help and continue to connect with residents here. Being able to come out and just help and take a little bit of stress off the homeowner’s shoulders and be there in any way we can and see them gain a smile back, that’s more than words. ”

Team Rubicon serves communities by mobilizing veterans to continue their service by leveraging their skills and experience to help people prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and humanitarian crises. Founded following the Haiti earthquake in 2010, the organization has grown to almost 150,000 volunteers across the United States and has launched more than 800 operations both domestically and internationally.

“To see Team Rubicon and other people from all different parts of the U.S. and from overseas come together, it shows it doesn’t matter your race, age, ethnicity or religion, at the end of the day, we’re all human beings and we all go through things together, ” Mederos said. “When you see people from all type of backgrounds come together to assist a community, it’s a beautiful thing. ”

Recently back in Texas, Mederos said he would be back in Southwest Florida to continue to assist residents on Nov. 25.

Another response team working around the region is ARS Global Emergency Management.

Its team of more than 440 industry experts is in the Cape, on Captiva and Sanibel, and in Fort Myers working on many properties. One of its properties was even able to open up again for business just 13 days after ARS began restoration efforts.

ARS in an emergency management firm that started planning and preparing for the storm prior to Ian making landfall. It offers a number of services for response, ranging from search and rescue, support for critical infrastructure, mobile power generation and distribution, and damages to buildings and properties.

“The final piece is recovery, and that’s the long road, ” ARS Vice President Nathan Normoyle said. “And that’s not only putting back what was damaged from a construction perspective, but also instituting more resilience in a given scenario to prevent or lessen amount of damage if that event happened again. ”

ARS has been a licensed general contractor in Florida since 2017 and has an office in Miami, where ongoing operations took place prior to the storm. Normoyle said they mobilized resources to Florida for hurricane response from five of their bases as far away as Texas.

ARS was staged in Gainesville a few days prior to the storm, allowing them to track its “dynamic” path at a relatively safe distance while being a few hours away from being able to tangibly assist.

“We had boots on the ground about 11 hours after first landfall, ” Normoyle said, as his was the first ARS truck in the convoy of response down to the area. “For the first two days of our engagement here, we had teams running our search-and-rescue boats primarily on the barrier Islands. ”

Normoyle still remains in the Southwest Florida area post-Ian and said the storm was unique in that it just about stalled when it hit Florida’s west coast.

“It kind of stopped and stood there for hours, ” he said. “The amount of damage that would have been experienced if the storm kept moving at its previous speed would have been far less. We don’t often see that amount of sustained wind or rain in one area. ”

He added that heavy damage to coastal cities and towns proved a logistical challenge getting to and from the areas.

ARS has team members all over the region, from the islands to the Cape and beyond. Normoyle said there are crews working on various properties in the Cape that sustained flooding and wind damage.

ARS’ clients are primarily commercial, industrial, institutional and multi-family.

“We’ve been involved with 3,000 to 4,000 multifamily units and helped in many cases stabilize the units and people with getting their belongings out of the buildings, ” Normoyle said. “We’ve supported other with putting temporary power and HVAC equipment to allow them to continue to reside in their place of residence if safe. ”

ARS also as a humanitarian-based arm that has in several local areas partnered with organizations such as the Cajun Navy to provide services such as power, medical triage and supplies, fuel, and other basic needs such as food and water.

In the initial days following the storm, ARS ran barge and cell service operations that supported first-responders on Sanibel and Captiva.

“There was so much done in the first 20 days here, ” Normoyle said. “I’ve done this for 20 years and I’ve seen all shapes and forms of disaster … what was really touching in this instance was the amount of people that we were able to help on the first-responder and humanitarian side. ”

Nomoyle recalls sitting around a table with senior leadership roughly 10 days after the storm and saw smiles all over despite having just put in 20-hour days of work for multiple days.

“I had to stop for a minute and ask, ‘Why is everyone smiling?’” Normoyle said. “And the answer was so organic and natural: ‘Do you see what we’re here to do?’ It had nothing to do with money or size of equipment, it had everything to do with the impact on the community. It was a real moment for me watching seven or eight seasoned 20- and 30-year veterans of this disaster emergency space tired beyond belief and with the biggest smiles on their face. It was so cool. ”

ARS has a long way to go before it takes off. Normoyle said they are currently slated to continue working between the Tampa and Naples area for a minimum of two years, as there is lots left to do.

“The work is endless, ” Normoyle said. “From what we seen the ground, I would venture to guess there remains at least half of the properties that were impacted that haven’t been sufficiently responded to or dealt with — some haven’t been touched at all, and that’s alarming. Maybe it’s the sheer number of properties that were damaged. ”

For more information on Team Rubicon, visit www.teamrubiconusa.org.

For more information on ARS, call 800-500-3213 (24-hours) or visit www.ARSGEM.com.

A Strike Team with the nonprofit Team Rubicon led by Chris Mederos traveled from Texas on Nov. 4 and has worked on homes in Bonita Springs, North Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach. Team Rubicon and its IsraAid peers are all volunteers.

PHOTO PROVIDED

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Wildlife Alert System is using a safe and effective new system for submitting anonymous tips. The public can contact FWC Law Enforcement by downloading the iPhone or Android app “FWC Wildlife Alert. ”

The new Tip411 system will enable the public to anonymously communicate with members of FWC law enforcement via text, which will allow officers to receive the information they need to address violations more quickly and efficiently. The system replaces the Tip@MyFWC.com text and email functions, which have been phased out of operation.

You can still submit anonymous text tips by text, phone or via the FWC website.

To report a violation, you can use any one of these methods: ∫ Download the iPhone or Android “FWC Wildlife Alert” app from your phone’s app store. ∫ Send a text to 847411 (Tip411) with keyword “FWC” followed by the location and any information you can about the violation.

∫ Call the Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404FWCC (888-404-3922). ∫ Submit a tip online at MyFWC.com/WildlifeAlert.

“We are excited to begin using the new Tip411 system to connect the public and FWC law enforcement, ” Wildlife Alert Board Chair Virginia “Jenny” Brock said. “We believe in this digital age the text and app options will increase public safety and conservation efforts by encouraging more people to report violations. ”

The Wildlife Alert program began over 30 years ago to encourage the public to contact FWC with information regarding wildlife violations. When the information leads to a citation or arrest the tipster is eligible to receive reward money ranging from $100-$1,000. The program is administered by the Wildlife Alert Reward Association, which is funded primarily by court ordered fines paid by violators. The members of the association promote the program and raise private, tax deductible, charitable donations to supplement the rest of the fund.

Coalition From page 1 months ago we got back in the conversation. Housing issues have become more acutely challenging. ”

Mazany said this is part of Collaboratory’s commitment in coordinating and solving the region’s social issues. The Call for Information was issued last spring to see where the interest was. Housing came to the top.

“Bright has experience and work doing this type of organizing around housing solutions in the region, to the north of us, but Florida generally, ” Mazany said.

Mazany said he believes the need is two-fold: an immediate solution and a long-term one.

“We are not going to say within 30 days we would have housing units to fill the gap from the hurricane, but recognizing that we need to demonstrate to the community that there are solutions for new housing opportunities coming out of the ground. At the same time knowing this is a long-term realistically for three to five years adding substantial progress, ” he said.

When looking at these glimmers of opportunity within a difficult time, Mazany said they look at entanglements, how everything connects. When looking at housing, there are also issues of construction cost, land availability and insurance, as well as the market itself and location of where housing is relative to the need and transportation.

Collaboratory has already had employers on the record stating there needs to be affordable employee housing.

Mazany said it is about building to a higher standard to resilient construction that can withstand hurricane force wind and weather.

“There is a consensus from people that we work with at the Collaboratory that we don’t want to go through this level of devastation again, ” Mazany said. “How do we help to build to the new standards? Most of the construction standards and building codes are already on the books. How do we make those affordable? Strengthen those?”

There likely will be another hurricane, but the focus is not having people displaced from their homes at the numbers they are currently at as a result of Ian.

“It’s really fortunate timing that we were in the midst of standing up this collaboration for housing with organizations that are doing the work and have the know how, experience and relationships with communities, so that all voices are heard at the table, ” Mazany said.

Mazany said one of the premises for the collective efforts with coalitions is they will have the ability to do things that individual organizations cannot. For example, Future Makers has more than 150 partners, which is the kind of scale they need given the magnitude of devastation in Southwest Florida.

“They will have the ability to secure resources beyond the ability of any one of the organizations, ” he said of a collective united approach. “We will be able to make a case for the need and wherewithal to move quickly to help people get rehoused and remain in our community, so they are not displaced and have to leave to pursue opportunities elsewhere. ”

Wells said it is going to be a big task, but there is a lot to bring to the conversation about making sure housing recovery really is a recovery for everyone living in Southwest Florida. Conversations and planning will stem around how do they plan for more resilient building efforts for individual housing or apartment buildings at a neighborhood, city and regional scale.

The idea is to look at how they rebuild to make sure options are available at every income level and stage of life. Wells said they want to make sure options are income affordable that are safe and well built.

“From our previous experience with recovery work, the immediate response effort includes FEMA and emergency vouchers that get people into having a roof over their heads. The next step of short-term immediate housing solutions is just starting to get under way. That will be one of the most critical parts of the recovery, ” Wells said. “The next stage of work, bringing the workforce back and making sure people can get back to their lives as much as possible and as quickly as possible. ”

Bright Community Trust began in 2008 when it was realized that money was being put into affordable housing with rent below market rates for those with lower income to ensure they had a good, safe and affordable place to live, which only lasted for a certain period of time with more money being put into them to replace units.

Wells said they use a Community Land Trust model that allows a developer to build on a site by paying a small ground lease, which could potentially be free. The ground lease is for 99 years.

“It’s a way to extend the affordable period to a permanent affordability level, ” he said. “We have been part of developing 17 apartment complexes that rent below market rate. There are 18 under construction next year in Orlando. ”

A couple of years into their work, the same kind of thing was happening for affordable loan ownership opportunities.

“You are getting a home at an affordable price in exchange for affordability for the next family. You can stay in the home for five years, or 35 years, (it will remain an) affordable resale for the next family, ” he said. “We love this tool for preserving affordability. It is an affordable home sale, or affordable home rental. It remains affordable forever. ”

Bright Community Trust has also helped with a pandemic emergency food access program and COVID testing in neighborhoods, as well as emergency rental assistance dollars.

“We are super excited about the opportunity to work with the Collaboratory. They do some really amazing work and the way that they are framing the approach in addressing those issues is really ambitious. There are big challenges ahead, but really excited to be a part of the team working to solve it, ” Wells said.

Fire commissioners From page 1

∫ A purchase agreement with Boss Floors, doing business as Floor Mart, to replace the flooring at Station 171. ∫ A purchase agreement with Motorola Solutions for three hand-held radios. ∫ An agreement with Deidra “Dee” Nelson, through the CPA firm Constantino, Nelson and Werline, to assist staff on an as-needed basis at an hourly rate. ∫ A ratification of the commission's decision at a prior meeting for the district to enter into an agreement with Hagerty Consulting.

Also at the meeting, the commissioners heard about a conference call between staff and the district's consultant with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Florida Department of Emergency Management and state mitigation to discuss storm reimbursements, including rebuilding Station 172.

The district will work with a private engineer on a required damage description and dimension report that will break down and justify the cost to rebuild Station 172 to the current codes and standards.

In terms of a temporary structure for Station 172, Barbot obtained quotes for a single wide that contained all the necessities for three personnel to reside in it. He noted that temporary structures are reimbursable through FEMA, but it does take time and would be an upfront cost for the district.

As far as Station 171, staff reported that personnel have contributed to compiling a parts and supplies list in order to personally fix damaged items and equipment, if possible, to save the district money.

In addition, the insurance adjusters completed and submitted their reports for both stations.

In other news

∫ Division Chief of Prevention Larry Williams recently attended a Fire Marshal Association Conference in Sarasota, and one class focused on the danger and risk factors of lithium batteries. He has been in contact and working with members of the Florida State Fire Marshal office given its interest in the district's effective handling of on-island electric vehicles following the storm.

Barbot added that the district's handling of electric vehicles post-hurricane has gained state-level attention, as well as recognition for its level of proactivity in completing the mission. If there were ever another such incident, the mission would most likely become part of any disaster response plans.

He noted that the focus would be to prioritize removing the vehicles in advance of a storm.