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Hurricane Ike wiped out 3,600 homes on Bolivar Peninsula. As a result, most of the residents haven’t yet returned. Galveston County Emergency Management Coordinator John Simsen says this is a chance for the community to rebuild Bolivar exactly the way they want it.
“We’ve had an awful lot of good feedback from citizens who have said everything from please bring it back the way it was to those who want to do some really far-reaching types of things including bringing casino gambling, those types of things.”
Before anything as ambitious as a casino could be built, Bolivar’s infrastructure must be restored. The peninsula’s main highway will eventually have to be elevated and residents will need a centralized water and sewage system. Simsen says all of the ideas from the community will be analyzed and crunched.
“And put into some proposals, basically some project ideas driven by the community for Bolivar Peninsula for the next couple years. When that is all said and done, when that public process is finished we’ll have a Bolivar blueprint, basically to help lead us into the future. And that will become part of a bound volume that can then be used to go after grant funds and to be handed out to politicians.”
The Bolivar Blueprint open house is tomorrow from 9am to 5pm at Crenshaw Elementary at 416 Highway 87.
Laurie Johnson. KUHF-Houston Public Radio News.
For more information, visit the Galveston County web site.
