##VIDEO ID:NktiyBFObU8## Corum right pardon there were there was a pil agendas I can give you this one right here oh Becky and joy I think that Joy did ask for an excuse I believe she did is so she's excused all right we're live everyone we're ready okay I'm ready if you all are he said he said he's ready okay thank you I'll call this meeting to order it is the Bay Oaks Recreational campus Advisory Board commonly known as borab and it is we are in the uh uh Town council chambers on Oak Street it is Wednesday September 18th 2024 at 12 12:02 I believe it is so okay so our meeting is call to order would you all please rise for the pledge to our play I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay let's have a roll call and just start around the room Becky will start with you hi I am Becky gri sorry for being a couple minutes tardy you're fine Ed scon over Karen Woodson Barber Hill Betty Simpson John Danielle Deon Jeff okay and we have an excused absence for uh Joyce Sullivan and also for Jesse field at this time so in our uh Town staff we have Jeff here and Danielle so thank you and our very faithful Town leaon Karen thank you for being here as always that brings us to item three the approval of the minutes and I believe all of you should have a copy of those the August 21st don't have of oh perfect thank you stealing them all so I'd ask for a motion for approval of those minutes when you're ready take your time did read them from the email so I'll go ahead and motion to approve those Becky G second Barbara Hill motion by Becky and sent by Barbra okay any further discussion if not all in favor indicate by saying I I opposed okay those pass unanimously and that brings us to our staff liaison report a public comment but there's none here anyone anyone anybody in the public that wants to talk I didn't see any public that was Rising yeah but that's okay and uh the staff leaon report okay um did you want me just to run through it real quick okay um everything's operating as usual and um getting some good numbers for being the month of August it's generally historically a really slow month for us but we had some good numbers regardless as you can see on the report you know our standard hours of operation um even our pickle ball was still well attended though which is pretty impressive for the summer months historically very good our fitness classes were also well attended so another you know big thumbs up for our instructors who draw their own crowd so they're doing great um Athletics we've got our indoor volleyball is new this month it started on the 21st of August it's free to members or if you buy a day pass to B Oaks it's free to them it's currently a little low on participation but that's any program when it first starts last week I know it was September but we had six people attend so it's getting better pick a ball of course doing pretty good um our open gym is offered daily and on Fridays is our best attendance with average of 12 11 or 12 people attending open gym on Friday nights our uh pickleball instructor Pam Beren she's currently running pick a ball lessons indoors on Wednesday mornings and that's looks hugely successful so you'll get a report on that next month as far as the youth programming goes uh the last day of summer camp was August 9th and that was a really successful program this this year as well our average every week was between 30 and 40 kids and these were different kids so we have a very close number in our club wreck but it was a different group so that's really nice to see the registration speaking of Club wreck is still open it will remain open and we currently have 42 children registered from each Elementary School good right how many 42 42 and the last I heard I think they've got like nearly 60 or just over 60 kids so what is that the scho most yeah so we like usual we have a good percentage this is probably one of the higher percentages we've had of the school uh population coming to B that's awesome yeah yay yeah that's great uh we're working on getting the teen program kind of up and running we've had a few teens that visit Bays occasionally mostly for open gym so we want to kind of gather all of them together and see if we can start running some teen nights like we used to the senior program is still on hitis but it'll return in November and we're working on getting that schedule all set up as well um Aquatics we might have a an update on later community outreach and special events um it's been really good to see that our gym has been used by by the Lee County Strikers which is a soccer team group lots of teams within it and they have pretty standard been using our facility the indoor gym to practice on Tuesdays and Thursday nights and so we'll have you know 30 40 sometimes more kids inside the gym practicing their soccer and wonderful yeah it's really good to see they use it primarily on rainy days when they can't go to their field it's normally Kelly field that they go to so when they can't go there there they come to B Oaks and uh we we charge them a small rental fee but it's small and they appreciate us being open for them so that's really nice to see good and that is let's see I don't know if you mentioned um you just want to talk about the Special Olympics I know it happened probably this month right I don't know about last month but it's just such a great opportunity uh that we can host that yeah so they're coming every Thursday for their practice rce they've got a big like Championship or tournament coming up so they need places to practice their pickle ball and they have strict standards when it comes to a heat index they cannot play outside when it's so hot so they really needed an indoor facility that Lee County didn't have available for them and they we connected with them they're so grateful is probably the nicest group to have in and as they all left last Thursday every single kid said Thank you to us it was so nice it was so sweet very good oh and they're actually having a little practice for their tournament this Saturday so it'll be considered a rental um it's all a tax write off which is nice they don't pay us up front we get it at the back end as a tax write off so that's a little plus um but they're coming this Saturday so shenn and I will be there to open it up for them and uh yeah it's a really great group we're excited that we have that does it happen to be open people go watch it sure yeah great come on in and if you happen to be nearby you want to check it out and work out it's fine too as long as we're there staff will be there the whole thing is basically open excellent and that information is all on your website actually I'm not sure that is open it since it's a it's a special event that is more of a rental I didn't think to post it but I can we can put it out there but if the public is invited to to watch watch that would be fun for them to know that that was there yeah and I don't know if that was a thing if they wanted us toti that or they didn't want sure if they want us to but I'll check with them I should see them tomorrow for sure I'll ask them tomorrow and I'll see about that I have a question for the facilities as far as like the baseball field and all is that ever open for just people to come play on or 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. when the field conditions are appropriate the gates are open every morning at 700 on the weekend two we went by what day should be seven days a week Sunday or so but all of the chains and the locks were on it was the at all yeah okay then I will yes I was just curious cuz we were starting baseball our family and my son wanted to just go throw a couple balls let me go drive by what day was that oh Jeff Sunday it was Saturday or Sunday asking I think it was Sunday but it was Midday cuz I had run to Publix like a my way home I think it was Sunday yes the the restrooms and the Ballfield should be open to use as long as the Field's not wet mhm uh from 7:00 a.m. to 7: p.m. even the restroom should be locked up at 7 700 p.m. and not any that it was definitely one of the days it didn't rain this weekend so I was curious but like all the gates had the chain with the lock the pad lock on it yeah and they've been instructed step been instructed that if it is wet to keep it locked you don't want to be getting hurt or the field to get you know right too tore up so uh but no that if it's not I I appreciate that heads up because I'll be following up okay we want it to be open for the the general public to play on um I know there was a couple softball guys down there too that said hey can we you know they're in the cage cage hitting like can we go on the field I'm like yeah for sure you know it's here for you guys to use so that's awesome yeah thanks for bringing that up um I have a couple more things if you can go okay uh just a few updates and they'll probably be on the the report for this month but uh we just got the yesterday and today new playground mulch we hadn't gotten it since the storm um we we obviously red through it but it it needed it was pretty compacted so we just got new Mulch on our o playground uh some fresh mulch um and then we did buy mulch uh the town bought new mulch for the garden uh at Bay Oaks to to freshen that up a little bit more um and then Danielle probably doesn't even know but I think next week we're going to start the install of the divider curtain our staff are gonna are going to do it um next week so what's the divider curtain where we can divide the gym into two down yeah we purchased one yeah we can it goes this way right yeah we were going to get an automatic one those were way expensive we have one it's just just like a curtain you just manually pull them open which way does it split the gym the long way the quarts so well technically there's three quarts isn't there two two okay like when you walk two bask two full size basketball courts yeah so it'll be two basketball courts yeah or volleyball or so that's where the endoor pickle ball it goes right down the middle of the so there's if you can picture the court there's two basketball courts and on each there's four lines for pick quarts within those as well so this Cur curtain will go right down the middle so you can have two distinct basketball courts each side will have distinct four pickle ball quarts so it'll split it up really nicely and and be all the way up so balls can't even go over mhm is the bottom of the curtain weighted yep it's vinyl from like 10 or 12 feet down and then it's a mesh material all the way up to the top so it'll allow air to go through but the vinyl's very heavy so it'll wa itself okay very good it's like you'd see in any standard gym except ours isn't going to be automatic we'll use our muscles man it's manual operating well then when it goes into when it goes into storage position we were trying for room does it t yeah I don't think we well we have yet to really see that but when we ordered it long time ago um it's as I recall maybe only two three feet on the sides it'll fold up together really well sure believe I don't know if this one has a strap that goes over to usually strap it in get it real tight yeah if not we will put we'll get one I question much more usability yeah it's nicer when you have two groups going on you know you could have open gym on one side in the basketball league and balls won't be Crossing or when the kids play you won't have Dodge balls going to each side or Becky what exactly do we have open outside we have the fitness courts we have um we have the basketball courts we have the tennis courts and pick on the basketball courts all that outside in the okay all that's open okay the only thing that isn't open is the large field right correct yeah everything else is basketball open and the disc golf we don't have I mean there's a few out there but we well we're going to wait to till we finally get a whatever we're going to do with the back of the property yeah um to figure out what we're going to do on that so we are uh and I guess I could just give a quick update on that we have yet to get a call back from the state on our grant that's what I was about to have it's uh I call probably four times a week floor who does our grants calls I think every day and we just can't give away respond we call National Park Service now and still no one will respond so we've emailed we've have it in writing I document when I call um I I I don't want to be you know negative about it but I just I don't foresee it us getting funding to do the ballpark so to the Grant I just I I if they haven't made a decision by now and it's been probably six months of us trying to get it an answer to to extend it because it's it's due December 31st we can't do anything after that until they unless they would extend it and we've had the mayor called Tom maner has called and we can't get an answer so for them not to give you an answer it's just sort of we agree with that poor Management on their part office or body specifically we've gone all the way up Frankie went all the way almost up to towards the top okay but I mean what is it is it state or federal the state gave us the grant but it's through the national parks okay oh National par oh it's through the national parks um so yeah we're we're still working on it we're more than doing our due diligence um you know maybe too much but somebody should just give us a call back right I said I just want to know either we need to plan for the future um this has been held up kind of long enough because of the hurricane 2 and so I just I do want to know one way or the other and we' submitted all the documentation we we actually gotten confirmation that that all the everything they need they have um and then of course when we go up the chain they'll say ah it's actually this so we they'll they'll get back to it just doesn't happen so um it's it's unfortunate but hopefully they'll come back and you know tell us we can have an extension on the grant but good I'm not sure so everything is can't really do much without the extension I mean we can't really start because we wouldn't finish you know by December 31st um just be completed by then completed in paperwork in yeah at the end of the grand session so that's even if we would have started a few months ago we wouldn't have correct been done so um so if we were not getting that million doll Grant from the national Park service is there a grant opportunity for the Florida State Park um well that's we're getting the funding from the state oh it's the state I think it's a pass the national okay I guess I'm just not clear what so it's it's a state funded Grant correct okay well we try to go up the chain a little bit and see because I think the federal has to sign off on it I think somewhere along the line so well it's interesting that the that that the state department at one point wanted to build all these golf courses and yet there's no funding for us to repair our ball field it's a little exactly you find opening a golf you know I wonder if um if I could get our park manager at leers Kei State Park to make a phone call if she might have a connection at the State Park level on grants at least state parking wreck I mean it's I don't know if it's the same I don't know if it is either but I can ask Katie if it is so you guys like I said Dan has tried and Andy has tried Frankie's tried wow we're just not getting I don't know how long it takes to review maybe that's part of it if it takes a few months to review when was ited they had told no I mean the actual Grant was the Grant application that we um the submitted was pre that's pre hurricane that's oh wow mhm not done you think they would just be like okay we're not finished reviewing it like just some sort of communication yeah that's that's I said I just want to know one way or the other kind of stop calling for a little bit yeah no is a bad answer but it's an answer and we can make plans correct that's that I just called before this meeting again just in case there was an update it's actually a the number I the name I got was a female name but when I go to the voice when I get the voicemail it's a male so they say this is Justin or Jason or something not even I don't know no no it's it's two different names oh so I'm assuming so yeah so I I you know we did we got some really good news on the pool which we can talk about later but uh yeah we got one ball field that that that's usable so that's good but we'll see so that means that for a whole year there's nothing happening on that on that land um I wouldn't say that I would just we have to find alternative either plans or funding right maybe it's maybe it's we don't want a ball field there anymore maybe want a multi-use field with we've had a lot of people come in for soccer uh they want FL football back so well I think may we just this is the time and this is the place and these are the people to have that conversation so let's talk about that let's talk about if that if there's no funding to recreate the ball field and there are other options that this community now wants us to um discuss with regard to what should be happening on that property ideas we need some ideas we need the see support and then we need to find the funding to make that happen I think before the hurricane we as Bard cab members were all talking about the um that field not only being a ball field but also because it was already existing at that point but also to have it as a multi-use field we were going to have concerts we were going to have art festivals we were going to have you know Taste of the island events uh food courts all of that on the property so none of that has changed we just want to bring that back to the front burner to say let's continue this conversation yeah and I know part of the R2 P2 conversation was they wanted a lot of walking paths and and trails yeah and I think with with the plan that we had we it was thought about that we would have that perimeter walking path but because of the mangroves there was no room for it but if we reimagine that space then we can have ample room for all of that and I guess perhaps even a boardwalk or something that would go beyond where and then hook up to matan's past preserve if we could make that work in mangroves or around by the Historical Society that'd be great so um what does I mean so really and I don't mean to be so vague but there's just a lot of things like the pool we don't we couldn't have a plan until we had a plan funding for it um how does that work with the ball field though because I know with the little league ball field that was the whole deal Little League had raised so much money over the years and that was part of their field now that the Little League field is there does that matter for the bigger field League raised so many funds that was part of the discussion we had had a couple years ago we were talking about one field versus two fields and little league had always raised so much money over the years for their field I believe we weren't part of little leag so I don't know all the details that's always been our field the field so what happens like not always I the bigger field I mean does that cuz I mean the Little League field is great yeah who uses the bigger one adult leagues and all well that's the thing I mean we'd have some random people come down and use it um obviously the the seniors that come down and play the double or the triple Deuces okay but I've seen little Le like the park to be honest I yeah it's more powerful for it's more powerful the bases are shorter but no there isn't there isn't a reason why we for say have to do another field um yeah I mean I've seen little league play on both fields at the same time which I mean you could schedule one game at a time you know if you have to have one field but soccer we never had room for soccer to play out there we would have to go out to Kelly Road that's my point I mean they only had they didn't even have enough kids for one team soccer little league right so I don't know if there's I don't know and I'm a baseball guy like a big baseball guy I don't want to say no to a ballark there's other things that the community wants there's like five Beach kids that are playing Bonita ball this starting tonight five yeah yeah they put us all on the same team yeah so I mean there's you know I don't know I don't know where all the kids are going but we got to get them back somehow yeah no but they have the little but one field I mean for instance my son plays it at Rutenberg and we only use the one field right we don't we don't play on the other four so I think one team I mean even if there was four teams they could share that field right if it was like too small for somebody else who was using the bigger field in the past I didn't know who used it Karen I'd love your thoughts on this because you know you've been a member of borab and and remember before Karen before you I just want to say that this is all very hypothetical if we get the grant we probably use the grant for specific spe right thing or if it can be modified we can do that within the grant it's just we may have we may not have that funding after December 31st to use and then we're kind of back to square one again so we're kind of just talking about funding is available then that's what is designated for and that's yeah I mean there's always a chance we could ask to modify it to a multi-purpose field so right yeah but the what I'm hearing is that you're not getting that funding I mean you're not getting I don't know I just wanted to give every on the update that we've been really trying at this point they're not even being responsive so we may want to start thinking what alternatives but we may get that funding I don't know well and wasn't there a conversation to now and and I know you're going to talk about the um the pool funding but you know by January all of these trailers are going to be out of here we will be moving to the new offices and everything there might be one TR left for maintenance or I don't don't think they can anymore okay so they'll they'll all be gone so then it's a question of okay now we've got the pool funding right we don't want that to be an Institutional pool anymore we want to make it grander bigger you know that that means all the locker rooms all that kind of stuff so we have a big area to look at that could be repurposed re you know re-engineer to see what we want um we have seen a lot of good examples like good plans in Tampa and bigger cities um that have area this size um this is a lot for a community our size this is a big area to have a part which is great we're not we're not getting rid of it we're just going to keep utilizing it as much as we can um but we've seen some really cool things uh some images talking to some other people um you know they're just cool looking Parks I mean they are they for people to walk around there's things for them to do within the park there's Retention Ponds there's all sorts of things that we could put um and not as a passive Recreation uh we'd still probably want to do something with u some active Recreation like soccer or baseball or something some big area uh I know lacrosse is Big too so an area maybe for that for teams to come down but and even more outdoor pickleball courts during season and that kind of thing yep and we had to have this whole area we're you know probably not going to put parking in here like part of that grant that we're getting is I think around 400,000 of it was to do the parking lot oh so it was it was really spelled out into specific things it was baseball field or softball multi-purpose field is what it said so we can interpret that however we want um Curbing and parking what else was there pickle ball there like six items on there five or six items that it was specifically going towards so it wasn't going towards the new building uh the new community center it wasn't wasn't going towards the pool that kind of thing so okay I just sent you I contacted Katie Moses and she basically she said she doesn't it's a different division than D but she sent me the link for the land and recreation grants and she said here's at least some names you can try contacting on the website I don't know if you have any of those or anyway I just sent it to you yeah well I'll try any number possible try them all right um yeah I mean I just think there's I think we're at the point where we start looking at a new M master plan of what we want to do here and I don't know personally I don't know that we need the building anymore because we're going to have so much more building at the new town hall right that we're going to have those meeting rooms we're going to have you know space for all the things that we had talked about maybe we won't have a stage but you know that could be you know maybe a little mini Amphitheater here or something like that but I think we should probably look at how does this all play out and kind of get a whole new vision going and maybe we can use the one that we had been talking about that you know obviously didn't get to the finalization thank God right um to the construction documents but we can pull that back up and say okay this is no longer of need of Need for us and then we can begin to think about um you know what it is that we can we can um incorporate that you know and especially because of the multi-us property there and the idea of of the walkway to me that opens up a lot of opportunities for events which I think is the better way to utilize that property uh it um IT addresses a larger audience that a Ballfield would and I agree you know I I I understand that's been a venerable tradition on Fort Meers Beach right uh is that Ballfield and Lee melson can attest to that for all those years so there it's near and dear to the heart of the people that used to live here but we're in the 21st century now we have to really think about what this community is looking for clearly the pool is a huge agenda item for me as well for John and others but this ball field is a clean slate I think I mean soccer is so popular soccer I think soccer would be awesome there are a lot of adults that would love to play soccer on that Dani how many how many kids are coming down to play soccer during the on Tuesdays and Thursdays I mean 30 40 sometimes 50 kids Strikers are the kids that we played though when the former Beach soccer played Strikers in the weekend like that was those were our games yeah and what I understood is that there was not a socer a soccer field could not be placed on that existing ball field that's what I remember that lar depending on like the the age regulation it you know changes the size of the field but they didn't even have enough for the smaller ones see so maybe that is ruled out as a result of sheer geography right yeah yeah M multiuse we can be really proactive with some coming Trends mhm um flag football and Lacrosse are both in the next two Olympic Games and they are going to be marketed Across America to a level that who's prepared is going to benefit I mean if you go to Naples you go to Bonita you go lacrosse is huge it's already huge down here wow but then they have somewhere to practice down here or even I mean soccer or I know we used to have a big flag football uh League here I mean I talked to one of the guys that coaches my son he's like yeah I used to coach down there we had a lot of kids so we know there's a need for it it's just we haven't had a space for it this is the second year Bonita high had a girls flag football team like it's starting to pick up it hasn't even really been marketed yet and it's coming I know that from the Olympic side it's already I mean they they do the the the play NFL does the NFL 60 the play 60 and that's all like football and it's a big thing a lot of you know my son's friends play you know in the area so it' be nice to have an area where they could play well that opens up an all new so that might be a discussion for later but I just wanted my point my point was that we need to maybe start thinking about Plan B because once we find out hey we either are getting or aren't we need to have a a plan going forward or I would like a plan going forward where we can start something and it's not going to take four years to do yeah and we can kind of start before that deadline hits negative of course yeah and that's what I'm saying yeah I want to get something you know I don't want it to look like that um that back there is going to be all the material for the fill because we're still going to have to raise it up that's never going I mean we'll have we don't want it to flood every time we get a high tide so exactly we're going to have to bring it up you know two three feet and so am I hearing once all the trailers are gone that that is going to occur regardless of whatever plan is happening from what I hear now that these trailers are all of our beok conx boxes are all going to have to go because of the new federal the FEMA regulations right November 18 November so that that affects the town too being at these trailers don't have to CU we are in process of of doing the other building so right I think we got the extension to January January maybe yeah January we got the extension to January because we have everything in play yeah right now so yeah you're right we did get that to January but it's still not a whole lot of time no it's not a whole lot of time so you know we have to follow the rules too and so we won't be we were planning on having a public Works trailer over at our at the Public Works lot we're going have to figure something out with that cuz that's not going to be able to be there oh wow so oh you know we'll we'll find a spot for them of course but right wait though isn't that because I thought it was just the first two locks in sounds like from what I heard in the last two days that we're not going to be able to have a PW trailer there really I thought it was the whole island am I going to miss I don't know I don't know that I don't and I don't want to I can't say anybody else's I'm just talking about what what I've heard about our our trailers and our our property so those are the plans that we're making is to get these off um to comply with everything going on so so you're saying that by January when these trailers will be off this property all of that fill back there can immediately be used to bring up the elevation of the property we could start right now we can start tomorrow we just don't have any we don't know where the fun will come from to start the project so you you need that million dollars to start leveling that's all part of the the ground work ground the earth work and all so it's not that the buildings are in the way really it's that there's okay it's not a question it's just money no it's just the money to hire the people to do it it's got to be funded like they dumped it here for free I mean they just dump but it's got to be crushed up and everything yeah so so that Grant didn't just cover the Ballfield and parking and pickle wall it also covered taking that um infrastructure and flattening the property in other words yeah the reason there's so much fill is because we have to raise it up about three feet and it's either that we do that or truck in dirt which is more expensive right so they can crush it right here you know level it out Harden it and uh so do we know how much that cost without putting the ball field in just to level it yeah yeah um I don't think we got a number yet I have a company we that came out to look at it if you ever did finally give me a number or not that was recently so I'll see if I can figure out a number be interesting see that obviously is going to need to happen regardless of what happens on that property going forward right so whether it's the ball field or whatever we reimagine as a pier that ground will be leveled by that fill and you it'll be leveled but there might the way the drainage goes and the permit we got to figure out where the Retention Ponds are going to go because there's got to be retention in there so we have a plan where they're going to go but if it's reconfigured and we do another purpose on you know attention B right where the soccer field needs to be yeah you know for irrigation and runoff then we may have to go to plan you know another plan but there's a lot of moving Parts when you a big project like that it took us about a year over year to get the permit uh the Wetland permit anyway so hopefully we don't have to modify that too much um we can just stay with that how long is the permit good for the wetlands permit yeah that's d d does it expire I me I think it has an we didn't ask for extensions I think we've asked for extensions remember the permitting for the ball field CLE yeah at least a couple years so I'm wondering if and I know that we're waiting on this other Grant but the grant that we got through the cdbg funding for the pool and Newton Park and all that is there another bucket that we can go back and ask because one of the things that um Frankie said is or I think it was Andy that said at a council meeting that you know we asked for what we could foreseeably get done and had the wherewithal to do and then there's other monies available so as we see other opportunities to go back and ask for more um so I'm just wondering if we really think that we're not going to get this could we start looking into those CBD grr funds and see if there's another funding mechanism but I'm but then I'm assuming that we all we have to have the plan laid out first or not yeah in order to get money through that if there was extra funds we'd have to have a plan in place okay they even want design like for Newton Beach Newton Park we had the whole building was redesigned to spec okay because we needed a cost to it gotcha so we had U through title base and they have a company that did it for us so we we do have a plan of a a building at Newton and it's beautiful right but it's just High you know right so I I don't know if that would be incorporated in the plans or not but we don't have to use those per se we would have to use those specs of of that building but it's just a placeholder so is that something so the last time we went through was the dmpr drmp DRM I know I never remember that you know and that cost us a pretty penny but now we've got these planners that have been given to us by the state that we're going to be talking to again about different project Time Square One in particular is that is this something that they could also take a look at because I I think um Frankie is trying to set up a meeting with them in October yeah in Octo second week of October or something like that so maybe this is something that we could talk to them about too is this you know do they do Parks and Recreation do they do this kind of thing as far as planning not just downtown areas or municipalities or something I don't know if they do or not but it's free yeah oh boy so it's it's funded through the state so it's a free um that was the group that came in for those few days of workshops that we had yes right and we came up with that plan for newon Park as a result of that yeah that was wasn't that part of the r2p that's R2 P2 yes R2 P2 yeah I knew it had to do with Star Wars right exactly that's R2 Star Wars that's how I remember it the force is not necessarily oh there's a force there let me tell we want it so I don't know maybe we should just before that meeting just have an idea if that's even what they can do because that could expand while they're here we talk one day About Time Square another day about here you know something like that again yeah I got a note to ask him okay good good okay and you can maybe get whatever information you glean for our meeting next month then you been about what yeah about what I mean we I mean you think you'd know by October or November if we got the extension or not I mean think you would have known we initially talked to them about the extension it was three four months ago probably and they said there it might take a while because their their the new Grand cycle was was due and they through all of those I'm like why's it take it review an extension yeah an extension so maybe it's just a matter of Staffing and not getting to it yet maybe be optimistic about it okay well let's move on then to item8 the update on funding for the pool oh actually I have Qui question before we move uh shade sun shades for the fitness Court where are we with that well we they told us it was going to be uh two to three weeks to get the polls it's now been at least a month and a half still no polls um as of yesterday I just made a decision we're going to cancel and order a new from a new company because they can't even give me a tracking number on them they said it's coming from Texas but so we're just going to cancel it and order new ones and hopefully it's another two to three weeks before they get in I mean they're big polls so still working on it we forgot about it we do have the actual shade the sail but you need the PO kind of need the poles for them to go in the air DET helpful so that'd be a lot of helium not to mention not to mention the installation crew to do it yeah or does does public works we'll put we'll put the need any sh at 4:30 this morning I beat did you go out there yeah cool okay so that's good thank you for asking all right now are we ready for the update on the funding for the pool yeah so I I I don't probably last meeting we kind of said we were hoping to get some some awesome funding for the pool and couple other projects thanks Jason sorry A lot of times during these meetings I'll get fact checked or something from one of our staff and so Jason just said that that permit that we were talking about goes till 20128 okay okay good the Southwest division so um South Florida Water Management District that's where it comes from Swift Mud yeah Swift Mud okay so the pool so I think yeah last time we had said we were hoping to get some funding we were pretty optimistic and we ended up getting quite a bit of funding for the pool so um we are going to be we we met with them last Friday uh down we met with um uh people Friday they're going to come and do a site inspection tomorrow uh tomorrow right yeah tomorrow uh for both the tower the North Tower uh the pool and Newton Park so they we're g to be looking at those uh they just want to do initial site inspection to make sure that the footprint is the same and because they're going to be doing all the all the the permitting as far as the uh environmental reviews and all those things so uh they're going to come and do an initial kind of look at the the the areas tomorrow we'll just talk about the pool specifically uh and then we'll kind of go forward from that 13.1 that was total 13.1 13.1 to be divided by those three yeah so uh looks like we can do something big um which is awesome you know if remember female only gave us like 200,000 so um these are awesome additional fundings that we can use uh Jeff you're talking about the footprint and is this one of those grants or gives that the town gets that we have to use the same foot print that the current pool has or can we improve this thing a little bit from the initial meeting we had we had said we're going to use the same footprint um now what that means is we still have a lot of area we could use for a pool you know that doesn't mean that we can't push back you know push back the rest the locker rooms and stuff toward towards the playground or even move it out I mean our property we're not going to go into somebody else's property but we still have a lot of property that we can work with yeah I understand a road could be vacated and everything but I just I just don't see how there's not enough room there for a official lap pool I mean there will be a lap pool not like Olympic lap pool I know but it's about half the size I just typical lap pool I don't know what your uses is on lap pools just like the big ball field I mean I had a hard time believing that had a lot of usage maybe it did I don't know no the the ball field oh the ball field no not as much with the lap pool I know every Aquatic Facility I've worked in the lap pool is extremely popular and it is here in the mornings yeah for sure we had to share it with other people too which was interesting interesting Barbara you can attest that I mean we had we had aerobics and we had that well they enough room they typically do water aerobics and lap pools because the a pleasure pool is too shallow and that's where we did it we did it in the lab pool right so we'll have some more that's my point it's not really a question it's just like I think there's plenty of space there that you get creative and and really make you know it sounded like that facility was well loved and I think you can bring something back that would be yeah a real bit and we definitely had we had more visitors by a large number than we had residents using in the pool so traditionally during season I mean total throughout the year oh really so we had a lot more daily passes that were from visitors than residential people when will the theoretical design stop being a mystery we probably won't get that's where are we going when we going to put it out for bid uh not quite sure we we probably won't even get the money until January and and that's not the question though yeah I know I mean obviously where I sit everybody everybody knows who has any care about the pool but um it doesn't feel evasive yet but it's getting to a point where when can we see what this magic idea is because and it doesn't have to be com committed to but it's it's it's getting it's going too far in we have this great idea tell us your great idea we're the users yeah you know and not you I'm speaking ethereally because because the I mean if you to to your point the the depth and that um that rectangle that is starting to be spoken against um I think to the death of the major user the the the lap pool wasn't utilized as much as it could have been because it opened at 9:00 and the swimming crowd swims before work swims before their day they kill their they kick off their day there so there there are some opposing things where you know yes it's a fact that there were probably less lap swimmers than we would have wanted even though there were a lot but relative I guess we were in line at the gate because we've already been up for 3 hours yeah you know and I just I just really want that to be so part of that is we can't have the pool open for so many hours I mean we'd have to pay so many extra staff so some of that is budgetary I get that well and I think your your lap swimmers are going to pay what it costs to to cover who's coming in because I mean historically we've never made money at the pool or Bay Oaks or Mount house you know we not even close but I also think I will tell you right now that was mismanaged I mean it stayed the same fees for 12 years before they even did anything we didn't do anything with the fees this year because we really don't have that much outside of the gym so we didn't mess with the fees we said let's look at next year um you know as we go forward and we get this funding we do it but you know to your point there's a lot of talk about the pool I have not there I personally I can tell you looking you in the eye I have not seen a concept of the pool well and yeah and that's I have not I sounded confrontational because I'm so passionate about this and I'm not being that but there seems to be people with an idea in their head that they've been presented to of even a concept no and that it's just ideas there's nobody working on the concept yeah what what we know and what we feel though are are a lot of are two different things and and this is how I feel as a as a person who is not going to stop talking about it 4 50 m Lanes can be in a beautiful utilizable pool design it can even have a small bulkhead and now you have eight short lanes and you can have lap going on with exercise going on with people floating in a tube going on somewhere you know there's there's so much and I'm just over anxious to know what we're going to do so since it's so close and the green happened I would love to see this there's just been a many ideas thrown out there I think sometimes publicly I mean I've heard everything from a doggy splash pad to to concessioner selling drinks yeah you know so yeah and we have I think that especially with your knowledge that I think that we could have a pretty good idea of how to start a design here yeah but you're going to get into engineering challenges you know I have about 30 dream ones right so I'm not going to be starting from scratch when I also have I've seen pictures of about 30 dream ones yeah you know just from doing research and looking what we might want there's some great pools out there and pool designers I guess my question is if in fact staff had to come up with a concept for Newton Park before they could get that $5 million for the uh Redevelopment of Newton Park and they had to conceptualize a a building that could justify $5 million what did you present for this grant funding for the pool that gives us some suggestion that you know we know what we're going for I mean if they a concept plan for that one what we'd like to see you know a bigger pool area okay but was that actually drawn out like you had drawn out like the other one was we only got cuz the other one was free to us we didn't have to pay for the design so the Newton one you mean right yeah that one we didn't pay for that right but who put in the pool into that design because at the time that was really just sort of more of a pavilion and sort of a very rough draft but so somebody had to come up with the the justification for a $5 million uh fund for Newton park by putting in that yeah tile B's company did I guess the company I could find the company name okay so you actually the town had to hire we did not Title Basin had some resources right after the right after Ian that was free to us okay so that was Title Basin okay so did they have to do before you could apply for this grant did could did you have to come up with a rough concept plan of the pool area I guess that's my question well then the other thing I have not seen the actual Grant only my fating but look who just walked through Frankie wonder if we have an answer Frankie don't you know what's going on in here you can't sneak in like that so there's a question um when we put in for the grant and we got the money for the pool and we understand that title based did a conceptual thing so that we could put that into the grant for the no there there was no drawing of any kind again my name is Frank operations director for Town Fort Mars Beach we're putting on the spot so yes there there is no conceptual plan uh design or any of that all that we used was quotes that we had gotten one of them was the only one that we got for a complete fit job meaning start to finish was one contractor and we used their figures for the rebuild as a line item for our P rebuild of the current what was there currently or previous right so we we went back to when the the pool was originally built and then the day before the storm okay what was the value of that if we had to rebuild it the day before that storm and it came out roughly around the 4 million dollar Mark so that's what we use as our line item for our project so based on that can we change it or is it like specific you have to go with you we we go we what we put in there now so when the pool does get built back there's going to be changes that's okay not to the pool people will still be able to do their laps they'll do all that kind of stuff the slide obviously is got to be removed because it's safety hazard at this point but all that concrete that we had around that pool that's going to be reimagined okay Green Space livable space walkable space to change shared space the the the the outline of the pool stays the same the Box we can't change that it has to stay you can't change that right but we can we can enhance it we can add to it somewhat is as long as it still fits in that those parameters same thing with the slide that stays the same the slide is different because the slide is considered an accessory so accessory can either stay or they can go can it not be changed the pool itself because that's the stipulation of the grant or because it just would cost too much money it the the dollar amount is already given so all that the federal government is giving you is at x amount of dollars is that 4 million uh it's a little over that that's so the federal government would not allow us to change the whole you cannot cannot put a waiver in for something like that okay that's my question but conceptually you all you have is the outline of the big pool the the kitty pool doesn't really qualify as a pool that can be reimagined redesigned within that space okay because it has to go by depth and that doesn't go deep enough to be considered a pool okay so that plays into our plans as far as how we want to redesign it freshen it up move it into this century and make it more accommod to families but the depth stays the same as long whatever's in it is different it's the big pool okay no even this where the kid pool is the kitty pool doesn't qualify for that Harden stop because it's not qualification officially so you're saying that we need to actually provide additional funding if we wanted any of the other elements or amenities to be added to this initial there's going to be plenty of amenities built in so when I envisioned this program and we sat down and we started talking about it and you know you kind of had a broad brush on how you wanted to redo this so moving out that concrete was the first step making it more uh appealing to to families you know I come from K Coral so the county built Sunsplash and then turned it over to the city the city has never figured out a way to to manage or run that correctly now they have a private concern in there and all of a sudden they're making a profit well how how how are they doing that you know you make it more familyfriendly you just don't drop off the kids and the parents go away no you have to you do something so the parents stay and engaged so we have the object to to make it a you come and have cocktail your kids are over here we have lifeguards whatever the case may be I'm just throwing that out there that it's not a hard and fast anything but trying to reimagine that space not the big pool that'll still be for the lap people and still for the aerobics and all those type of things but the whole other surrounding area trees you know Cabanas not just a metal structure with a sun shape over it right so my understanding is that it's not the additional funding that we need to change it is that we can't change it because they gave us the you can't change the funding if you want to find more funding and add to it but then you still couldn't change the actual ho of the bullet in okay so now that you've received the funding um at what point can borab be part of that conversation well the actual funding will probably be transferred to the town probably close to the first of the year maybe a little after um at that point we still have to go through our whole procedural paperwork with our vendor our vendor is title basic so there's they're the manager of that Grant I'm probably looking at maybe February is okay with the deadline of a hard and fast once they hit the shovel in the ground they'll be done in a calendar year no I'm talking about when we as board that's when you guys that's when you guys will come into that process in February because at that point whatever we degree agree on or we talk about from that point on it's less than a year for this we should be talking about it to do this but why can't we start talking about it now you defitely can come up with your ideas and and any any type of things who does the design on it so we're going to have to hire someone to do the design do we know who that's going to be well it it would go off for RFP okay so by by federal standards these contracts have to go off for RFP so we take the scope of work that we did in the proposal we we draft that into the RFP we send that out we come back whoever comes with those bids we look at staff would look after those make recommendations you guys would put your input into it as well so point we would see that draft and it would be correct you'd see the vision of whoever contractor is coming here and briefly what they think that they can do when is similar to what drmp did for the exactly probably wouldn't have the elaborate drawings at that stage but once you selected that contractor to go forward it would be very soon after that that you would okay so is this something because I had asked this question before R2 P2 do they get involved in recreational facili and all that kind of stuff because we were just talking about that to possibly reimagine this big Ballfield and when all these trailers are gone and can R2 P2 give us some Visions on what this could all be as well most most definitely um and I I can tell you um Andy and I and the mayor went up to a tourism conference up in Tampa and one of the days was going on the uh the Hillsboro River and you go where you Lele restaurant is and they had an old water plant next to that where they made it into all those little restaurants they had this huge multi-purpose field and in our plans with drmp it's called a multi-purpose field it's not called a softball field um so if we stick to the the original plan that it was a multi-purpose field and instead of having the band shelter where the wck building was put it on the Bayside all of a sudden now just like in Tampa you have this beautiful open space for soccer field hockey softball dogs playing frisbee people having picnics and a concert venue in the back and and that's kind of we we got pictures we haven't had time to really digest all that and put it into place but as soon as Andy and I do and get with Jeff you'll be the first ones to see that sounds awesome it's true to the original concept that you all looked at under the DM drmp we still have the retaining areas we still have the restrooms but there's ways to re-envision those um retaining ponds too because up at that site they had the freshwater ponds you didn't know it was Pond you walk over a little foot bridge and they have the Hillsboro River which is brackish on one side and over here they had tilapia cichlids turtles in a beautiful little area well it was it was a retention Pond but it was also spring uh fed like a regular Pond would be a Circ pond so more ecologically sound right but underneath the foot Bridge which you didn't realize was a hard and fast Dam and it separated the two structures but it was just visually appealing it was visually for everybody kids looking at the turtles you know those type of things and and it's a way to catch the water like we're supposed to with our plan and still facilitate the original outline for DMP that they suggested to you good Franky can I just go back to the original question that we were talking about so the existing pool that's there m we can't change the hole in the ground for lack of a better term can't change other words we can't make the lap pool bigger sounds like with the kitty pool you could possibly do some different things the kitty pool was was considered just that it's just a waiting pool and if it was a foot deeper then that would have changed the dynamic on that HUD has very strict guidelines on how they classify things the fact that they even took a a wreck project like this under consideration was amazing the fact that we scored in the top 10 was even more amazing wow so out of 200 and something projects that were submitted we were the only ones that had a pool project people had uh you know emergency management centers people had fire stations police stations life and death we come through we come through with a PO what's more important than a pool not a fire station we knew going in looking at some of these projects again I think I told you at the meeting last time these were projects that we knew we couldn't get funding other places or it would really be difficult over many periods of years so this was our not our only chance but our way to kind of group things so the minimum ask on all these projects was 5 million dollar into the program so how do you make a pool that you know that all day long you could make a city the art for 4 million how do you add another million on you know with being trying to be fiscally responsible and through process of moving things around a little bit we do have leeway we do have leeway to sway and and move I honestly don't know those questions that would be more for a contractor okay but the original guidelines is because they see it's it was written off as being sound and safe it's sound and safe and stays there everything else around it can change when does this grant expire does it have an expiration it it it really doesn't and you can actually add funds after your initial project is deemed complete so it kind of can go on Inu okay so it's not going to expire though um this is not really a grant they call it a grant that's just one of the caveats we've had is that oh now it's expired and we can't do anything with it no no no not like other grants so so so this is a grant normally what You' do is you would spend that four million they'd give you the four million back reimbursable okay because the town and santel are in unique situations on how we were impacted um the county has agreed to give us those funds up front so that's anou that we're working through now that's what's going to probably delay the transfer of funds just because we have to have all that legal documentation done not only between us but then between the county and the federal government as well so in as this $13 million more than compensates for the loss of the $10 million grant that we uh couldn't use because we ran out of time for that was Time Square and the par and Newton Park the the loan that you had taken out remember and so we lost that right originally I think we had we had talked to John early on we had plans to get this thing moving with that the problem with that was that you had to have receipts and shovels in the ground by an end date right there was no feasible way that we could we had a plan but then we figured out because of the type of grant that we needed to get go off for RFP we couldn't just do a piggyback or the three quote we needed three hard quotes or an RFP process well I just think this was a brilliant creative dissolution on your part and you you and your staff of course Jeff to be able to get this funding to begin with that is miraculous thank you yeah I mean we we had been waiting I mean you guys know we always said where's the money who's got the money where we going to get the money as long as we get the money we're going to start it and we're going to start it and even at our last meeting when I kind of alluded to that we we really can't count your chickens till they hatch right and well they hatched and and we got instead of the 15 because of the female money that we're getting for these projects uh fima deems your pool at $170,000 that's the what they valuate as so that's a nice filter tank exactly exactly knowing that going in and that kind of also stopped our process with going with that Park loan that was originally taken out um the fact that we were using FEMA funds or we were getting FEMA funds even if you got a $100 from FEMA you can't refuse it because once you refuse that then you're refusing everything wow and these aren't this isn't money that the government's giving us this is money that the town's already spent and we're just asking to be reimbursed so you know I I can't leave $170,000 on the table n because that 170,000 parlays into another 200,000 over here and and by the end of the day we have over you know $18 million that we dished out at the town over a course of a year and a half after a disaster we need to get that money back sure so this program gets us our money back with no strings attached however it's it's a government project so you follow that government Trail you have to jump through those hoops and uh I think it's a sacrifice worth taking at the end result you'll have a legacy pool out here in this community not only for the community but people that can come from outside and use that area um and our North Water Tower to me that was that's huge just as huge because I've got two on the island and only one's working so you know that was down before Ian uh that hasn't worked since Ian so if something catastrophy would happen in the line or or something we'd all be saying hey call get man so so that was the precursor that that item got number two on the list of 239 so that they saw the relevance in that and and and needed that but there again we're not just putting up a water tower we're putting up a water tower with a facade so it Blends into all the other homes on Lagoon so neighbors don't say oh my God what'd you put it'll seemlessly integrate the only thing that'll give it away is that 6ot fence with Barb war on top but uh other than that you know it'll seamlessly fit into the neighborhood prison yeah but uh and then Newton Park Work Release yeah Newton Park was the the big one okay you're never going to replace a historical place we we know that oh yeah and we've talked at nauseum just Jeff and I and Andy just having internal discussions this gives us at least a foot in the door we can get something started we can get back even better than we were without the building I get that sure but now you've got you've got money right money is the whole thing yeah with money with money you can pretty much do anything if you do it right you know and again that can be a Legacy Park moving forward so that's still on paper we got to get from paper to ground but uh at least we got this kind of paper any any hope for strand view I think that's a little out of our reach it is okay just really there's really no state agencies that would front you that kind of money okay and the problem with that is that they will only pay like Land Trust they'll only pay what the market what the what the land is worth they won't pay market value because they were asking 17 million and I I don't know what the actual worth of the property is so if the worth of the property let just say it's 8 million yeah they would never sell it for 8 million you know what I mean nor would the land trust have that much money to give out they usually have 20 million for the entire state right we looked into that 20 million for the entire State and we're asking them to Pony up 16 someone wants to give us a park yeah I think we take it I'll definitely take it even have some input on what goes in there but if anything else you you know that Jeff and I are not afraid to knock on any door we'll sell cookies out there we'll do whatever it takes we appreciate that're we're here with a permit with a permit we're here for the long there there's a lot more money coming our way I can guarantee you that okay um but it's just a game good and we're getting pretty good at the game so you are than thanks for thank you thanks for running through Brant yeah Barbara can I just ask a question off topic um are you in at 1:30 yes and I have to leave okay so I told I told uh Betty that I would leave at 1:5 so I'm watching I about 5 more minutes yeah not to rush everyone but we have a we have the maps program for um the museum accreditation program should we get to the next meeting there's no public or anything so we kind of know where we are with the pool yeah um so so guys just to clarify we don't have a conceptual plan of the pool that's why I keep saying we don't have a conceptual plan of the pool right but there was some bids made huh there was some bids made bids no there was a line item made we had people that came in originally when we had a plan that we had this I mean you told us that one one bid was 5 million and the other bid was those were from three years ago oh those were no no those were right after the storm oh we were going to use the park funding but we found out because of federal guidelines that we couldn't just use the three quotes we wouldn't have had time to do it so that's why we had to scrap that and that would have paid for you know more of the Ballfield that paid for the building out here um so anyway whatever plans or whatever plans were submitted there in that they gave us just cost estimates is what they did okay just like if we put the pool get a new pool right where it is if we just maybe expand it a little bit they just give us costs on on equipment how it take to build new new locker rooms they never gave us a drawing or anything so okay those were just uh cost placements right so October 16th is a Wednesday October 9th we have a reschedule of M&P meeting so I couldn't make anything on the n9th but 16th don't we have a set a meeting every month for x was always the first Wednesday and then we changed it and we this year it's been kind of wonky that's thought we were doing a different it's like we change it every month I don't know no most recently it's been the third Wednesday third one that's I mean if we can consistently make it the third the third third Wednesday would be October 16th yeah do we need to meet in October I think if we're going to start talking about all this stuff too at least November I don't know but I mean we need to at least start talking about they can't come to us in February and be like all right now we have to make a decision by next month you know we have to have some IDE out there I think we need to start documenting a wish list right yeah to get to them when they start talking about it and I'll see if I can John you're gonna have to come prepar I'll email it right after the meeting no right so October's not necessary so I mean I guess I I'll find out what cost we Associated to that okay four or five million um and if it's broken down into specifics like how much for the accessories how much for the actual pool how much for the equipment I mean that'll give us a guideline if we have a whole lot of wiggle room as far as amenities MH um or if it's pretty set like Frankie said not set but more set than our wish list but we can at least figure out like I mean do we do little details like I mean what do we need in locker rooms and things like that is that stuff that we talk about or fine how does that work yeah those accessories Barbara is it on teams Barbara is it on teams is it a teams meeting the map yeah yeah yeah okay yeah SO3 I'll in it's a m house I thought it was online no no it's at the mount house oh it's so you're leaving too right yeah that's why I said we yeah okay so Wednesday October 16th next meeting at noon got it okay uh motion to adjourn I'll move to adjourn okay I'll second that motion we had to keep the meeting done in favor indicate by saying I that