MATLACHA, Fla. (WINK)—A woman’s home in Matlacha still has someone else’s dock stuck in the canal behind her house four years after Hurricane Ian, and she says it’s dangerous.

Leah Gregg came to WINK Listens to tell us about the problem that hasn’t been resolved since the storm hit. The cleanup touched almost all of the waterfront in Matlacha, but not the canal behind her house.

“There was a huge dock that floated down my canal, and it got stuck right at the end of the canal,” Gregg said.

The dock is still there four years later. Gregg said she thought it would be cleaned out with the rest of the debris after Ian.

But there was a problem early on. A boat was blocking the canal horizontally, preventing cleanup crews from reaching the dock.

“Unfortunately, they couldn’t get down that canal because it was blocked by a boat that was horizontal, so they couldn’t get down that canal,” Gregg said.

Eventually, the boat was moved. Gregg said she was told crews would come back to remove the dock because it was a risk leaving it there.

“I was informed that they would come back and take it out, because it’s a risk leaving it there, because there’s two drains right there at the end of that canal that’s right along Island Avenue, and when the tide rises, that huge dock comes up and it blocks and even damaged the drain,” Gregg said.

Gregg has been calling for help ever since. She followed up in January 2024 and heard nothing after that.

The problem, she was told, is money. In the time it took to get the boat removed from the end of the canal, the cleanup funds ran out.

Gregg came to WINK Listens, and we contacted the county to try and help. The county told us this is the state’s responsibility to come up with the money to fund the removal.

“So now I’m stuck, and here we are in hurricane season, and this massive dock is still in the canal, and it will cause damage if it’s not taken out of there, and cause additional flooding that’s really unnecessary,” Gregg said.

But as to when the state might have the money to help, a spokesman told us instead that whoever owned the dock before it broke free would be “typically responsible for removing the dock debris from the canal.” We asked attorney Robert Goodman, who’s not involved in this situation, his opinion about tracking down and trying to force the dock owner to pay.

“I think her time to file that claim, like a negligence claim, has run out,” Goodman said.

And as for waiting for the state to pay, Goodman doubts they’re ever going to put money back into that program at this point because it’s from Ian. His bottom line, based on the information we told him, is that Gregg is probably on her own to get it removed.

Since we put this together, we got in touch with state Sen. Jonathan Martin’s office. They contacted Gregg the morning after WINK News alerted them to the situation and said they’re working on getting her some answers.

WINK News is also still looking for solutions and will keep you updated.