TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. — State and local officials are trying to determine how to remove a collection of vehicles from a Tybee Island marsh as all their recovery options keep getting stuck.
It started Friday afternoon with a city of Tybee beach patrol officer’s all-terrain vehicle, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said. Then, one by one, a pickup truck and two backhoes meant to pull out the sunken vehicle also became bogged down.
Three of the vehicles, which are city property, are still stuck on the north end of Tybee Island in an area under the jurisdiction of the Georgia Coastal Marshlands Protection Act, according to DNR officials. Early Sunday morning, a Chatham County excavator was able to remove one of the backhoes.
“The city of Tybee is currently working to craft a removal plan and working with a marine contractor,” a spokesman for the state agency’s Coastal Resources Division said. “It is likely that a barge and crane will be needed to remove the remaining three vehicles.”
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According to city officials, the police officer was on duty when the ATV became stuck. The initial recovery process was made difficult by darkness and high tides.
The other three vehicles have been "secured against environmental contamination" while Tybee Island works with the Coastal Resources division to remove the vehicles, a spokesman for the city manager's office said. The city has offered to restore the marsh afterward and is conducting its own investigation of the incident.
This report was written by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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