\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCape Coral\u2019s beloved Big John statue, a community landmark, is undergoing final repairs before returning to Southeast 47th Terrace. “I always like coming down the street and seeing Big John. When you wanted to give directions, you’ll see the big statue of Big John in the parking lot. We always knew where to go,\u201d said Jeanne Robertson in Cape Coral. Big John has been a defining feature of the downtown Cape area, but was knocked down during Hurricane Ian. \u201cAs he is such an icon for the downtown Cape area, we are extremely looking forward to him coming back to our plaza. It’s how we describe ourselves as a plaza, as we are the Big John’s Plaza,\u201d said Kelley Bouge of Tropical Furniture Gallery. The restoration work is being carried out by Design Studio Brand 1 Ink.\u201cBig John is in the final stages of its structural rebuild. I would say we’re about seven days away from getting him inside the building,\u201d said Clinton Strand, owner of Brand One Ink, on the statue going in for its paint job. Strand also addressed misinformation circulating online, clarifying that a post claiming Big John has already returned isn’t correct.\u201cThat’s a picture right after Hurricane Ian came through and snapped him. So, in this picture, you can see that there’s a big post sticking through the top of his head, which no longer is there, but it’s all been repaired. It’s just a poor representation of his current standing,\u201d Strand said. The restoration process includes reinforcing Big John with stronger steel and a thicker coating to prepare him for future storms. Once the repairs are complete, the statue will undergo a paint job. Though it’s not certain yet when he returns to the streets of Cape Coral, it will take about a month before he’s done. \u201cHopefully we can have a big party for him,\u201d Bouge said. DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Cape Coral\u2019s beloved Big John statue, a community landmark, is undergoing final repairs before returning to Southeast 47th Terrace. <\/p>\n
“I always like coming down the street and seeing Big John. When you wanted to give directions, you’ll see the big statue of Big John in the parking lot. We always knew where to go,\u201d said Jeanne Robertson in Cape Coral. <\/p>\n
Big John has been a defining feature of the downtown Cape area, but was knocked down during Hurricane Ian. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs he is such an icon for the downtown Cape area, we are extremely looking forward to him coming back to our plaza. It’s how we describe ourselves as a plaza, as we are the Big John’s Plaza,\u201d said Kelley Bouge of Tropical Furniture Gallery. <\/p>\n
The restoration work is being carried out by Design Studio Brand 1 Ink.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig John is in the final stages of its structural rebuild. I would say we’re about seven days away from getting him inside the building,\u201d said Clinton Strand, owner of Brand One Ink, on the statue going in for its paint job. <\/p>\n
Strand also addressed misinformation circulating online, clarifying that a post claiming Big John has already returned isn’t correct.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s a picture right after Hurricane Ian came through and snapped him. So, in this picture, you can see that there’s a big post sticking through the top of his head, which no longer is there, but it’s all been repaired. It’s just a poor representation of his current standing,\u201d Strand said. <\/p>\n
The restoration process includes reinforcing Big John with stronger steel and a thicker coating to prepare him for future storms. Once the repairs are complete, the statue will undergo a paint job. Though it’s not certain yet when he returns to the streets of Cape Coral, it will take about a month before he’s done. <\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we can have a big party for him,\u201d Bouge said. <\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cape Coral\u2019s beloved Big John statue, a community landmark, is undergoing final repairs before returning to Southeast 47th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20426,47708,104251,104253,209,211,210,104252,47710,104,1172,1179,6027,15131,104254,213,104255,13517,104256,30955],"class_list":{"0":"post-233591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-air","9":"tag-big-john","10":"tag-big-john-statue","11":"tag-big-statue","12":"tag-cape-coral","13":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","14":"tag-cape-coral-news","15":"tag-cape-coral-statue","16":"tag-clinton-strand","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-genera","19":"tag-gulf-coast-news-app","20":"tag-hurricane-ian","21":"tag-ink","22":"tag-kelley-bouge","23":"tag-late-news","24":"tag-paint-job","25":"tag-plaza","26":"tag-repair-crew","27":"tag-return"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}