Tick-tock: Your hours are numbered, rogue dock! Helping with the removal effort from TECO were Sr. Engineer Nick Fletcher; Environmental Specialist II Ryan Greenwalt; Sr. Manager of Land & Stewardship Programs Stan Kroh; Environmental Specialist Jordan Luscier; Sr. Environmental Coordinator Aiden Reidy; and Sr. Environmental and Health & Safety Technician Jorge Varino (from FWC, Jason Chilson and Aaron Quitugua volunteered).
What’s up, dock?
Oh, you mean the dock in Apollo Beach that tore loose from its spot during last year’s hurricanes, the mangled mass drifting into an enviornmental restoration area co-managed by Tampa Electric, with the owner of the dock (a resident across the canal) unable to arrange its removal?
That dock?
You’ll be happy to know TECO volunteers and others from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) found their way to the rogue dock and eliminated it. It didn’t have to be as dramatic as similar occurrences to offer a hugely rewarding outcome. Best of all, no one got hurt in the the effort to remove it.
We can say this: No one got bored during the effort to remove the dock’s many boards.
“The dock came from across the canal, from Caribbean Isles mobile home park,” said Sr. Manager of Land & Stewardship Programs Stan Kroh, one of the day’s six TECO volunteers. “I had reached out to the owner and learned she didn’t want the dock back, nor did she have the means to remove it herself. I decided to remove it as it was impacting an environmental restoration area.”
But wait – seems the dock owner wasn’t entirely ready to write off her property just yet.
“While we were working onsite, the owner called out to us from across the canal and said she wanted the plastic floats from underneath the dock,” Stan added. “We separated those from the dock and set them aside at a location where it was convenient for her to retrieve them.”
FWC drove success with heavy equipment to carry the remains of the dock.
As always, safety was the top consideration, with a pre-job briefing to keep volunteers injury-free. (And we’re not talking about some family funzone here: “There was power equipment onsite, wood fragments and nails/screws, insects, rough terrain, and marine growth (barnacles/mussels) covering the floats,” Stan said.)
But after two hours of dock-chopping, the structure was done for. And look what else surfaced in the effort:
“While onsite we found personal belongings we returned to two other neighbors, along with three memorial benches and five garbage cans that we brought back to the mobile home park,” Stan said. “The effort shows not only are we good environmental stewards, but also good neighbors – and happy to give back to the community.”
To the next dock that goes rogue: You’re on notice. When we find you, the dock-tors will go to work.
So long, dock!
