After about three weeks of cleanup efforts, City of Naples Parks & Facilities staff have officially reopened Lowdermilk Park Beach.
"It knocked all of my trash cans, the benches, the showers, everything that had been restored. We had to go back and try to search for them and find them again," said Chad Merritt, the city of Naples Parks & Facilities director.
Lowdermilk Park Beach is currently the largest access for parking spaces and is the only functioning concession stand out of the 40 existing accesses, due to Hurricane Ian's destruction of the Naples Pier. The snack shack, dubbed the Flip Flop Beach Grille, is slated to reopen on Thursday, October 31st, according to the city of Naples.
"So efficient! I was so surprised that everything's up and running, because we had we were thinking maybe we would have to cancel our vacation because of the effects of the hurricane, but it's just very good," said Bernie Ready, a seasonal resident.
Each of the 40 beach accesses in the city of Naples saw about 3-4 feet of sand, as well as erosion and some debris, according to city facilities staff.
"You've got some of the accesses that have parking, you've got vehicles getting stuck that are pulling in because there's three and four foot of sand that they're driving over top of," said Merritt.
The majority of the accesses are now open. City staff asks the public to be aware of crews working to finish the final touches of restoration.