e e e e e e e e e e right do we know if uh Dan or Dan are coming must not be okay uh go all right we're going to call the meeting to order of Public Safety Committee on Tuesday March 21st let's do the Pledge of Allegiance I mean May gosh May 21st Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all roll call you Ron uh Ron benach Kieran Ferell Heidi youngworth Don Thomas Jim nickel Jim bouas U look at an approval for the minutes from April 16th I make a motion to approve the minutes I'll second that okay uh minutes are approved staff reports and updates Matt good morning Lieutenant Chitwood Lee County Sheriff's Office uh from the sheriff's office we don't really have a whole lot to report we are we we're in we're finalized our plans for Memorial Day that's uh in the books and you know ready to go as far as operationally um we are still looking forward to July 4th that's going to be a busy day for us so those those plans are almost complete on our end and then we have um the next event after that will be Labor Day so that's that's where we're looking out right now as far as events as far as crimes and things like that we haven't really had anything to of note to report luckily and other than that I can just uh take any questions we do anything for the 4th of July yes we are uh I we received the plan from the town several probably I don't know two months ago now what the plan was so I can let the town describe what they their activities are planned for but we've you know we've been we've looked at their plan and are have made our plans based off of that so um anything new or like any um I know that tourism is down quite now have you noticed any trends that are just a little different is there any um like has there been breaking in I haven't really seen much going on you know there's usually like some influx maybe bikes are stolen whatever but it seems been pretty quiet yeah we don't use the Q word but um oh sorry well said yeah so there's been no no no Trends um we've you know we we've moved into the summer rout routine for our traffic and pedestrian patterns that we normally expect so there's been nothing that really has jumped out at us as of recently when it comes to the beach and the surrounding area great man I would like to say I've noticed a lot of traffic enforcement more so since the last couple of meetings and I appreciate it very much I think the people who residents here appreciate it we get a lot of visitors and they they're a little rambunctious Sometimes they come down to Vacation helpful to have uh good enforcement uh I don't necessarily mean people have to get a ticket every time but it's helpful to stop them and talk to them about it so glad to see you guys out there thank you we'll try to keep uh keep the presence up and keep keep doing what we're supposed to be doing good awesome thank you very much okay thank you thank you Tom good morning Thomas yzo town of Fort Myers Beach operation compliance we are pretty consistent we have seen a decline in the amount of visitors we have a lot of our residents have now gone back to their Northern homes or wherever they they come from it's been pretty consistent with our Beach traffic our weekends of course are three four times the amount of people on the island than we have during the week for the most part uh it's been consistent as we work with the sheriff's department as well uh we're working together very well we let them know about problems they let us know about problems the 4th of July is still in process we given them the basic list they understand what we're working on with the fireworks and such and the Manpower that we're going to need coming up next is the Memorial Day I do have extra staff on for assistance uh the so has numerous other people coming in so we'll get that squared away too and keep a lid on things that's about right now we'll bring you back up cuz there's a lot of things you'll probably have to jump back up and answer questions very good by all means just a quick question on the from a beach patrols love seeing them out there doing a great job um just from a noise ordinance um are they stepping that up as well as because you do see some of those large speakers and they do uh we do go over and try to address that but again our noise ordinance is specifically towards the evening for the most part so during the day we do go try to address it as a just a a Good Neighbor policy and we do get people to to slow that down even some from some of our uh Beachside bars and stuff we've asked them to kind of tone it down sometimes too when we have for our other guests so yes we are addressing that code is going to be picking up on another level code is going to be picking up some more no ordinances in the evening some of my code officers are going to be coming in in the evening to go address some of that with the equipment that we just purchased thank you anything else before I no okay later thank you thank you anybody else want to say anything no on okay yeah they said there was something on the bridge this morning um okay well we'll go on to uh hurricane response plan Jim do you want to take that lead on that yeah I think there is um some work that Nicole's been doing so maybe Nicole could come up in a second um the if from the last meeting we had planned to to meet at the um downtown building with emergency response system to talk a little bit more about the geot tring systems that they had so I had paused um waiting for that that meeting to discuss what the availability of that technology was um so that's basically we've you know since we did not uh host that meeting um and you know with the sunshine laws I'm not sure what I actually can do that's what I was going to say can he go alone can you go can he go as a representative of the Safety Committee to the response thing I mean I don't want to put that on you and I don't have problem with that I just kind of spearheading it literally just stopped all my work because I'm like I don't know if can I call the chief and talk to him separately or or does that me need to be made public attorney Tom do you just want to sit up here or th I should say Thomas because we are gonna be asking a bunch of questions so the best of my knowledge uh what are we advised from the town attorneys were that if you meet in any manner with more than one of you at a time then it goes into Sunshine grab the mic so you guys all right you good grab the big seat um you guys can go individually you're more than welcome to have a representative from you to go and then you would have to come back and let the let the rest of the committee know what that was and you're going to have to have direction from that so just be careful with that the Town Council has to have direction to that too so you're going to have to go with the Town Council to see if they're okay with you making that happen too to the best of my knowledge I could be wrong in that but okay it's something you should check into first um I will reach out to Dan to see what the procedure is if you can go alone and because we have you can then you can take it over maybe you go with Scott with a cheap worth and then you can come back and report that way and you can pick it on your schedule what works for you right right yeah which would be fine I just wanted to make sure I did it correctly instead of reaching out and doing something that not supposed to do such a rule follower good job okay um so that's a little bit on hold unless you want to say something right I Nicole I don't know if you had any builds from you sent out a code red test that I saw you've been yes so we sent out a code red test on May 1st um and it was townwide just to make sure that the system is still working and that the people who were not enrolled had time to get enrolled before hurricane season and that test was successful um I did have some people reach out to me who wanted to get um unenrolled they were no longer living here so that shows me that it did go out to everybody which is good um and we had a lot of shares on our post as well so hopefully more people were getting signed up that weren't previously so that should be working for Hurricane Season how was your event at the mount house it was really good um we had quite a few Community um Partners come we had um some people coming through there were lectures going on to discuss things about hurricane season and that was great so I would say that was also pretty successful having a good turnout there lovely I thought it was a great idea yeah yes thank you thank you and you joined us would you like to say something I would perfect um Amy Baker town clerk for the the record um on Jim's conversation you can go with the with Scott to okay with the chief it's when more than one of you goes at the same time then it becomes a public meeting because there's two or more of you okay um and then like Don said just uh report back at the next meeting got it for the Restriction is really only members of the Public Safety Committee and not staff members or or like the fire chief or Matt or any correct correct I'm more concerned about you all sitting here then him not that I'm not concerned about you but I'm just trying to keep you guys out of trouble thank you appreciate that so Amy thank you so Amy if we would have called that a meeting then we all could have gone we have to notice it like a public meeting but then the EOC Center has to be open to receive the public also because if anyone from the public decided to join you for your meeting they have to be allowed in there too that's where the TR I with them so okay okay you can do individual um tours of the facility and that would be fine for this example do we need to meet with Town Council before I set that up with Scott okay so not called in yeah you're fine was airing on the side of that's always the best way I air on the side of caution okay okay thank you Amy you're welcome you're welcome very helpful okay so just put it in your court and talk to Chief okay um Public Safety campaign and messaging Nicole we're probably going to bring you back up but uh lots of stuff going on with electric bike messaging um at the I don't know if it was the last Town Council the time before where Dan brought up he would like to be the mayor brought up that he wouldd like to be able to see electric bikes allowed on the sidewalk I don't know where it is that's I was hoping he would show up and maybe Tom has an update or Nicole has an update I know we've been um messaging information out about that it's a Hot Topic especially now that it's a little quiet it's a nice time to to do a test right now when there's not a lot of pedestrians so I do know that um we have it on our homepage as a news flash just the town ordinance saying that um that electric bikes are not allowed on the sidewalks so that's the main messaging that we've had out um and then when we first put it out as a news flash it was posted a couple of times I believe on our social media but since then I'm not quite sure so basically we're staying with that right now until there's some kind of change with on from either a vote or I don't know how what they need to do the process it might be a town I don't know to the best of my to the best of my knowledge Thomas yzo for Myers be CH compliance the best of my knowledge is that it has to go through an ordinance change for anything to be changed that's Town Council Okay so until they till they come to a conclusion rewrite the ordinance have a you know have it go out for there and they' make the change through a vote it's going to be as is to the ordinance as it stands Okay so we've been giving out that information as best we could Nicole and I we talked about that message already just to get it out to people if they want to change it of course that's that's their purview we're just here to enforce what's there now well there was a lot of discussion as we all know from last week or last month from the public comment I think um we do need to come up with some solutions to eliminate you know we're trying to encourage us to be a bike friendly town and if it's not safe on the street once you hit Red Coconut North because you don't have a lot of room on the street for cars and a bike um it would be nice to come up with some new Solutions and I know they're all looking at it well I um yeah since last month we've been talking a lot to everybody everybody I run into I'm always asking them what do you got what do you want how what you see and um one thing is is is if if there're you know through education um as soon as you say ebite oh man they're flying 30 mes an hour we need pedal assist I mean that's if we can get that changed to pedal assist um uh quite a few people have said um for people that rent um if they if the rental places disengage the throttle so that they have to use pedal assist um that's that's one of the big things um um again in I I would I would agree with um um using the pedal assist on the on the beach um I would say um if there's a way then if you're a resident that you're you identify there's other places around that where golf carts you you pay $25 and you get identification on your thing and you're a res res and now your bike is identified something if somebody is a resident obviously their throttle is not going to be disengaged they are on the beach and it's doing wrong you have a way to identify it okay a rental place that throttle is going to be disengaged um just thoughts um just only because we were constantly talking about the traffic is so bad and so bad and and the the pedal assist bikes are going to be here they're going to get more and so we have have to I mean really we have to help come up with something and Now's the Time um can I say one more thing too is that you know I I went through this I go back to that I was yeah yeah and and so um the idea of of a path if there was a way to do a path along the Bayside because that is in here that's what they did talk about that if the town never had a chance to do that um um the only thing is is is just that you know you're going to have imminent domain you're going to have all these issues and then as soon as you get to a canal what are you going to do once you hit that first Canal yeah um so again you know if we go to the other side um a boardwalk there's there's places that have rolling roll out boardwalks in case if a hurricane comes you roll the boardwalk up um for out onto the on the beach instead if you don't you know there's there's there's a lot of things that we can talk about I know that on that packet um uh they're doing the strategic planning the Town Council is and I watched that and they did bring this up and the woman who is the moderator said we'll get there they were a little more higher level at that point they were 20,000 ft up talking about the Strategic plan and they were she said that's kind of the next step to start meering into some more of the details so I'm hoping Town Council is um open to this Ian it is the time to do it even if you can eliminate a large chunk of area to have this path to get people to go through that um knocks off a couple couple miles it's beneficial um we started mapping it out walking it to see where we where you could go and there are a lot of ideas you don't need that much space for a path we're not talking of a two-way path either we're talking of a one-way Path North because going south you can make it there's there the traffic does not move does not go south it's all coming north and it could be a northon bound Lane so then you don't have to have it as wide anyway so that's what that was part of my discussion is I you know I keep bringing this up to Town Council saying where are we at please do not forget this because this is the time to do it why all these buildings are knocked down you're absolutely right do you have any update on this have you guys met with them again because I keep they keep saying we're going to meet with them we're going to meet with them but I don't know if anybody's met with the company that put this together we have not met with them we are waiting for them to get back with it and we've kept the new plan they are working on it and that's what we kept for our last response so the meeting has not happened yet so do you think though if it's a one-way path there's going to be issues with that people going the wrong way yeah it's going to be a huge issue yeah absolutely I just think though candidly if we don't have the space and we're limited right I guess I'm thinking of a golf cart path and bike path not a bike path you could have two ways because it doesn't have to be that wide but a golf cart path that you're eliminating people to stay on the road you're renting you you know we're telling people come here park your cars walk everywhere uh take a bike wherever the biggest complaint is coming north they get stuck whereas you have the Northbound Trail that's how you get up north you can hop on a a stero and head down south super fast I mean maybe it's enough room for two ways on bikes but One Way North on an electric vehicle vehicle let's call it that or or a rickshaw so if you have one of those bikes that's that's a wider that's pulling three or four people that could go on there going north right just a comment um so there's the company that had done this assessment prior to this is it worthwhile for someone on this committee to reach out to them and make sure our voice is being heard as they're developing this plan cuz last night I went having to spend months on this come back and go why didn't you think of X why didn't you think of Y is this the time that we actually provide our comments into it and and we choose one on our committee here to be that point person working with the company are we allowed to do I mean can we I don't want to step on Town things because I'd love to be on that I I've got that would that'd be something I have to check into check into it yeah I know how busy town is and if you need a little help some to push cuz you know where are you at where you know I and I really believe this is where we could add value by being that that voice in connection to uh some of these Special Projects you know really some of the discussion we've had the problem is from nor it's north of Red Coconut area right so that area up there I I I personally think roll out the boardwalk Boardwalk from Red Coconut North North so you you could we could have about bike path or however you get to that area you would then go over and you're not going to be behind as many residential homes there because from that point forward you're mostly looking at condos uh and business I mean there are some there's a few houses way on that side of the road mostly from that area forward you're looking at at condominium you I think there'd be less objection to having that out there you know and then you Tom would have to take it up when the Hurricane's coming so that it doesn't blow around right I would get people off the road get them up to the North End I I I would also think that um uh having that you're going to be able to make that you know from that point on whatever you're be ada8 compliant and I would think there would probably be some federal money to assist with that that's just my thinking that would that would be available but um I don't know you'd have to see what all what kind of options there would be oh absolutely I'm just I just just you know throwing that around I think too I think it almost needs to go to Publix when you think about about it for all the people on the North End that are going to the grocery store well coming south generally isn't an issue Hest it's going north right but once they leave Publix they got to now they're in the traffic yeah when coming back North then they would be able to when they get to the Red Coconut area I mean you're right traffic is going to back up we're never going to solve traffic just it's too small and there's just not enough places to put the cars and the vehicles people we can get get them on the some sort of a boardwalk out there from the where the road definitely Narrows and there just isn't any hope put any help people in that area at all right be car if you did go from the road to the beach side right there at Red Coconut that happens to be right where seagate's going to be doing all their stuff yeah and you know part of their public benefit would be to help a place to start start it and then just work it North from that yeah I it's just a thought really I think that uh that area from that area from that area north is always a problem it's always going to be a problem yeah for any any kind of bicyclist or ebikes or golf carts cars are going to be cars they're going to man they're going to line up and they're going to be in the way and that's just how well might find out on that and see if there's anything we can do to help and if not we'll just keep asking but yeah we just don't want to see it Go by the wayside cuz I do think this is the time and can I ask a question when you say roll up what is it made out of if they roll you said they roll up the it's not like a a cement no it's a wood a wooden plank okay and it's movable it's movable yeah interesting I'll get some information on that just share it with you guys okay I mean there's that's one option the other option is to make it a really permanent or make it permanent black top permanent picture out there that would be maybe harder to sell the of the land owner correct because we do have the issue with I think ownership runs to the high water mark across there so you're going to have to get permission of owners to put anything out there correct but I think they most owners would probably see there's a have yeah yeah yeah well I don't know I don't know about that couldn't even get them to get new sand if I'm paying if I'm paying some heavy duty money for a beachfront property I don't want people traes and through my backyard sorry I paid for that I paid for that view of the gulf and when it comes to eminent domain that is such a thin line I mean it's a it's it's a valiant thought but if I owned if I paid a million or whatever those more L more for that sand or four yeah um I don't want you know I'm sitting by my pool looking at the Gulf of Mexico and some guy comes driving behind his bicycle you would like nah just that's what I love about this plan because there's other Solutions and it weaves through the town I me you're not going through people's backyards per se but you know you are taking some space from a lot of properties right now that are gone and there are a few properties on there that you could work with that are so small that the current owner would have a harder time building a house back on that property because it was one of the original very tiny Lots so it's it's it's actually how far this can go up yeah there's a lot of options there are and then then just uh just expansion of the sidewalks I know that gets into Lee County um but there's sections that are you know 10t wide right I went out there with the tape measure I was measuring a few of them and I'm like 10 ft wides I mean for a pedestrian and a bike if you had like a line down the middle and said okay pedestrians on the the right and and the bike's on the left 5T 11 ft seems to be and looking at the um instruction that seems to be the right distance so it's almost like how do we make sure that we have 10 foot at least minimum sidewalks all the way down the beach you know so it could be another option of just hting some sections adding another foot um but also there's the bike lane so we could even come out into the street a little bit so there may be even options just using the existing sidewalks to accommodate bikes and pedestrians from my understanding that when they did the sidewalks County went from right away to RightWay so they used up everything they had so if you're going to add to a sidewalk towards the resident's house you're going to be taking prop you know that's taking property again MH that's all I mean yeah well lots of work there um another thing too is uh I I did watch the videos on um the the one people that were here and talk about just bikes yeah um I did watch that I I did I for some Reon I just didn't find the right video that showed me any um help with the ebike um pedestrian crosswalks I really thought that was cool I mentioned that to a few people um raising this that but that's a whole different deal that and that horse is out of the barn but um I I I if that person uh could let us know what videos to watch on that one because it was kind of scattered around it was hard to follow hard to find it I couldn't find one that helped me with ebikes yeah I didn't see anything with ebikes said it was regular bikes yeah it was interesting yeah yeah that was the non justest bikes on YouTube right not just bikes yeah yeah that's it that's okay um crosswalk messaging are we done on this one electric bike I guess I do want to find out what's going on with but Dan if they' made some decision if because I know they brought up a Town Council so it's addressing it something um when is the next town council meeting June third okay we'll talk about that thanks okay um crosswalk messaging I know we were talking that with all the workers on the island now res our visitors are down dramatically except for on weekends it seems like we're getting a lot of the locals are coming over to come to the beach but uh we talked about doing some uh different messaging when you come on to the island please slow down at crosswalks pedestrians have right away um is it something we want to do with Nicole on social on social media or messaging is it something with signage I know we can't have too many signs because they don't like that um I guess it goes hand in hand maybe with this survey if people had made some comments on it if we maybe it's not as bad as we think it is maybe it's okay which we can talk about that when we get to the survey so if we haven't had a lot of complaints about crosswalk walking and people are feeling that people are slowing down then maybe it we're it's you know out there it's good enough I heard anything I guess we wait for this I I have not had any extra complaints about cross walk issues we still get the complaints about jaywalking people just crossing everywhere and that message has been out for a long time I mean it it's historically been part of everything that people put in for PSAs so to walk in the crosswalk but crosswalks himself unless unless the sheriff's department has had something that I haven't heard of but I haven't had that many been pretty quiet yeah seems to be a Hot Topic in season but not so much because I agree yeah May we'll come back to that um f. roundabout messaging so I think the gentleman was supposed to be here today um I got a email yesterday from councilman um oh my God I'm like blanking out John John and um thank you John King my gosh I keep thinking of his wife Chris anyway but um he said the gentleman had to cancel and he asked about coming to our June meeting so I sent him the June dates I have not heard if they have confirmed that they want to come to that one and I told him we would verify that our June when our June dates are if he could make it and I think they're still set to start building in October or November which is blows my mind why you start right when season starts but okay the smartest thing not season inah house true ever anything so that I we have to wait on that so I'll let you guys know when I'll send an email to um to Thomas or to Jackie to find out to let you guys know when it's going to happen Okay Okay uh survey okay um so just to remind everyone U during our last meeting um had presented off an idea to send a survey out to the public to understand um what their priorities their thoughts on public safety and um we had reviewed it with Town Council previously received some input we opened it up to the public um we did receive 35 respondents and I'll just run through a few of the top lines um you know what we're planning to do next um is you we need to work out a few bugs uh just from a reporting standpoint and some of the questions and we'll probably try to keep it open a little bit longer so that we get more respondents more than the 35 that we did receive um but just overall in general um you know first of all to the public who has filled out the survey thank you so much this actually helps guide us into what is most important where to focus so all of your input has been is extremely valuable um so some of the the Topline results that we've received so far is that you know high percent respondents are not informed about what's happening to improve safety on Fort Myers speech and I think that's one of the things that we can lean into pretty heavily here part of our Public Safety Committee is making sure that our communities understand what we're doing as a committee but also what fort Meers Beach is doing to improve safety um we had a moderate number of respondents um know how to report a public safety finding so which is good so they they know the website they know where to go um but you know those are numbers that we could probably try to increase as well some of the top concerns um not in any order right now is bike safety Street lighting crosswalks and pedestrian safety um by all the rankings that I did see in the the results those are the top four that team seems to come up over and over again um so that's what our our community is asking for in improving those those areas now from an open comment standpoint you know there was a you know we received some nice comments about you know really where to focus and some of the concerns that people have um just running through the the top ones you know better Lighting on a stero Boulevard lightings lighting at crosswalks specifically it's pretty dark near a crosswalk you know that area should be bright so people could see anyone that's in the crosswalk walking across um you were asking for more education um and more enforcement so I think that relies on just you know people not j-walking people you know with ebikes on sidewalks just um you just more education around safety um more conversations about ebikes ebikes and bicycles was definitely a Hot Topic um you know people were saying that we need to have dedicated lanes for them um you know safety some people in Pro to have um ebikes on sidewalks and Beach but doing in a safe Manner and um the other side saying please do not allow ebikes on the on sidewalks so definitely uh depending on how we we set this up it needs to be safe um they requested um a little bit more patrolling by police um to ensure that you know people are people are safe um on sidewalks and and you know overall in pedestrian safety um there was you know just overall um you know very light on traffic believe it or not a lot of people were more about The Pedestrian safety than you know talking about traffic um and and someone wrote back about hey why don't we have two lanes coming on the beach and then two lanes going off the beach um and setting up the bridge so that we could do that so I think that's an F dot thing but just one of those uh just general comments about traffic which um didn't come up as as much in the comments that I had expected and I I'll leave this on a a kind of a a sad note and these are the reasons why we are here why we are talking about things is one of the open comments was that my son was was on a bike was hit and run last week so it does happen and I I think that's why this committee and and Town Council needs to take this you know very not lightly you know this is a a very major topic for this beach we want it to be Beach friendly for anyone that's here as a um resident and to Our Guest um so you know we need to take action to make sure that doesn't happen on a regular basis um so this was the results as I mentioned um we could talk about it in in more but the U you I see th trying to keep this open a little bit longer I think we need to um fix a little bit on the survey questions so that we get a little bit better rankings on some of the um you know top concerns um but that's um so far that was what we've received in the the survey results so far Jim just quick question do you have contact information for that person that last or do you have their information by any chance believe if they uh put their email in there we do just cuz I'd like to reach out and find out where this happened and if there was injuries cuz I haven't seen that report and I don't think Matt has either so uh the lieutenant but I mean I'm not saying it didn't happen I just I just wanted I'd like to have a conversation with them so I can send my Rangers into that space too to pay more attention to it as well so if you wouldn't mind getting that to me I'd appreciate we do I'll work with Nicole and we'll follow awesome thank you I have a question just on this first one a drop off uh and pick up for pedestrians in the roadway you know we're starting to see Uber or you know ride share whatever um designated spaces for pickup is that something that we need to put in um I know we don't have a lot of space but certain spots on the island so people aren't stopping right in the middle of a stero and waiting for people to jump in because I've have seen that um I've seen them turn into Time Square like right off the curve but I don't know if that's something maybe to look at when we're you we're doing F doot and all these different things you know if there would be a special place that we would say this is like designated to be picked up really like that idea we see that happens at like airports yeah designated Uber lift pickup zones um you see that at concerts and sporting events so yeah that way cuz that'll stop traffic you know if you stop and say oh I'm trying to get out here you know they they they just stop traffic and and as we get into you know of course it's the safe way to go if you've been um drinking please take um like Transportation like that but at the same time you know we we should have some locations where they can easily get out of the car safely that's what I was thinking particularly in the congested areas of right right yep oh again space it's all about space right well even if you're not on a major thoroughfare where a lot of cars aren't going by if you get off the main drag and hypothetically picked up um down by matanzas that even though there's enough room to pass around a car if they're picked up whereas if you're on a stero you can't really get around them so there's there are different spots you could you could have something a little farther a little north of Time Square as a pickup you could um you know I'm just trying to think in my head of some other areas that would be easy to yeah North the Time Square there were there's um delivery trucks and stuff on the M right by lenal Park ex there there's a big long strip there to park right I think the plan from fot is going to have an area for like buses to pull in there they'll probably facing there we talked to the OD do Folks at least some of the plans I've seen there in front of Margaritaville by the Time Square where well it's going to be interesting I thought of that too but then you're going to have p pedestrians a ton of pedestrians walking crossing the major road to go to the pickup joint and I think that's going to cause even more problems I don't think that's a great spot because I mean at night late people coming in and they're if they're have been drinking they're crossing right over the the main throw where everybody's coming over the bridge that's where they're going to be Crossing anyways cuz there's like 15 crosswalks in that plan right so you're not going to stop that either way I mean so D they're not going to get rid of any the crosswalks we tried right so at least not for now yeah okay good job on this though great job yeah I do I do have a question about lighting I noticed after Turtle SE started a lot of street lights were turned off that problem is that was that part of the deal or we just going to shut them off in something areas to off is that a pro I mean it's a m it was a mistake or there's a a problem that should be reported that would be a better question for Chad our environmental manager so to the best of my knowledge they were supposed to be transferred over to the Amber lighting but I I I would have to defer to him on that as what the plan was as far as cutting out street lights as a whole they all went off like there in front of the old uh Hotel down from lenel up to Albatross they they had lights they had Amber lights and then all of a sudden that entire block is black it's just like well one one or so I would think well okay something you know that's a burned out Ball but it's like I think somebody made a concerted effort here to turn off lights and it doesn't seem very s really they should go through the whole island every light if we have Amber lights with shielding they should all be on I I don't know who would be making a judgment call that's like well even with an amber light and a shield it's still too bright who's making that call I'd like to talk to that the turtle people Turtle time they don't get to decide what lights are on Town gets to decide what lights are on I will nfpl I will follow up with that with uh the environment of the manager and find out what that status yeah some Albatross and yeah between Albatross and Lenell there's like no street light they all went out on like May the 2nd they're gone yeah it's very dark and that was and that just that one catches us because it happens to be right in our neighborhood so you know we see it every night and there's like it's a dangerous area and and many sidewalks or crosswalks I mean are not lit at all I mean I I concur with some of the comments here crossbox have to be lit I mean we have to make a choice people they Turtle I mean there aren't that many crosswalks on the street we'll just light the crosswalks and go and behold if that happens to cause a problem one time for a turtle but might might save someone's life have a crosswalk L at night so that if somebody is crossing stero Boulevard at 9:00 at night and I'm coming down the road I see them otherwise you can't see them no not everybody wears bright yellow clothes reflective yeah there are 31 comments on this survey response sheet about ligh 12 of them mention lighting very clearly it's a problem oh yeah yeah yeah and I know there is a plan to to be adding lights or you know there's a lot of money in the process for lighting so we don't really know what the lighting will be like when it's finished I just know right now this right now it's it's bad there there is a plan to add more lights um I don't have the specifics on that right now so that's something we can work on getting for you too I know that was part of the plan uh and again they have to come to standard for the turtle lighting sure expectations well we have been waiting forever for this I mean it's been this is a long time coming and there are other T other islands that have Turtle lighting I feel like we re I don't know why we're Reinventing the wheel I say this every time but um hopefully um I haven't even heard when they're going to start the lighting project I thought it was approved and it's ready to go I think they're waiting for parts or polls or something they were waiting for equipment okay and uh I can find out about that too exactly what the date is now because I know the date's been pushed back a couple times because of equipment okay this is really an FPL project yes yes town is has a role has an influence in it correct okay well hopefully they'll get going on that we'll have an update from them yeah that's a good it's a good observation there are many many comments about lighting yeah and and I do think there's some creative and innovative ways we can deal with crossbox I mean you can put the light on the ground I was just thinking about that even reflectors or whatever so you notice it's coming as you're coming to a crosswalk you you can see people in the crosswalk which going to be able to see cross it is dark okay um member items who wants to start I would I I'd like to ask a question see if if um any information on um us going up and down and and marking the sidewalks that were in disrepair I think uh Chief worth was the one that uh if he would he's not here today but he was the one who got the information I think it that's where it went to yes and then um he said once all of our so if everybody was done I think everybody got their I put a few more in there because yeah I think he said he was submitting it we were supposed to tell him we were all done which I we told him we were done so now with him not here I think he was the one who was going to do that anything else that's all for myself Karen um I don't really have much to add except and we were talking and this sound I think we're beating a dead horse here as far as the ebike thing goes cuz I was listening a little bit but it seems like we're trying to legislate common sense and you know I'm all about if we can find this path on the Back Bay and all and that's all well and good but if I went through this report as well and there were some really good ideas and a lot of it had to do with striping sidewalks and putting down symbols and stuff like that and I think if we can start there I think we need to take this in smaller increments rather than try and create an entire Boardwalk along the beach or create a whole another path on the back Bay we've got the sidewalks and if we if we message this correctly by splitting the sidewalk half toward the curb for bikes and let's be honest ebikes and pedal bikes can both go 20 M an hour right and we've seen pedal bikes flying up and down the sidewalk faster than they should be so yeah if you can set a speed limit I don't know how you enforce it if radar guns are you know if they can clock bicycles yeah I I wasn't sure sure they could so radar units are designed by mass and they'll pick up the largest mass coming at them at the fastest speed is what usually how that works okay lasers are a different different creature picking a person on a bike with a radar unit right uh from my knowledge is pretty much impossible unless they're the only entity that's moving through that space and if you have any Vehicles it's going to pick up the vehicle right I'm assuming the lieutenant can yeah you're 100% right okay yes so what I'm saying say is rather than legislate you know whether it's a pedal bike or an ebike we just you quote unquote legislate the speed so that people just know hey take your time and what this does the effect is that we pull more cars off the street and lower the traffic and so that's what was going through my head um and that was that's pretty much all I got for this one I just want to jump in on that Kieran so I'm thinking it's five years now ago as soon as the sidewalks were put in has it been that long since we've had the sidewalks Maybe I'm Wrong okay anyway so when the sidewalks were put in and the issue started with the people with the bicycles and the pedestrians on the sidewalk we went to Town Council they tried to go to the county to get the stripe down to separate them and we were told I'm almost 100% sure we were told no they would not do it because of the curbs that was the remember that was their excuse because it the driveways have right so they won't put to my understanding they will not put any signed recommended no because of that I don't I don't remember yeah they won't to my understanding is they won't put any markings on the sidewalks to separate them or say slow down so in turn we got little signs the size of an 8 by10 sheet of paper that said wrong way that you couldn't even see I'm just I mean that's what happened so they had the town printed up um they were they were this big yeah pretty much and it would say if you were riding your bicycle this way on this side of the sidewalk it would say you're going the wrong way and it would say pedestrians on the right bikes on the left or whatever but you literally had to be right to the sign before you could see it so the signs were they were baby signs and that's what we did they did versus striping the sidewalk I don't think striping is ever going to work but I I like the idea of putting the little logo on periodically on the sidewalk walking person here bicycle over here right I got their concern as you particularly get up in the congested area where all the driveways go through the side go out through the sidewalk and that the bicyclist is doing this or could wreck or could end up getting thrown out into traffic I got that concern they have to navigate that all they're going to just have to move to the middle of when they get in near a driveway or and here's an idea you could slow down exactly could happen I I do I do think it'd be great if we could get the logos on this and just kind of periodically clue people in pedestrians should walk to the right side of the sidewalk bicycle be on the left side of the sidewalk as you're going that or bicycles toward the curb yeah closest to the curb Clos yeah if they're on the side have there been any more talks about the um by the beach Baptist Church they did the yellow or not yellow the green they painted the test the test spot is there any been any more on that I have not got any feedback on that or any other I know that was like before the storm and I think it kind of fell to the Wayside so maybe we can look into that and see mean for the bike lane yeah so it stands out or whatever wouldn't hurt that's all I got just well you brought up some of the stuff I wanted but one thing I want to bring up where are we at with the dilapitated buildings uh and knocking them down and getting people to clean up their stuff so that comes back to code again so we are working on that and you'll notice that some of those buildings now have been fenced some have been demolished that were on our list we are moving forward to that we are moving forward to going to Magistrate on some of those buildings as well that's coming up here in the next month or so the issue when you get into this is you have to you have to site them under the correct ordinance and law sure and then you have to make sure that you've done due diligence for due process and that's about working through this and getting notifications out to people in the proper manner trying to this is not excuses I'm just telling you there there are some hurdles to to making this happen and we have come to the thing where we still have empathy for all these people who have gone through this disaster uh but now we're coming back to the common sense side of this too and we're really trying to push forward on this and then that is a priority for the town management and we've been tasked as the code Department to really start digging into this and we have over a 100 cases in those aspects that are open right now great that we're working towards just so you do know that are some of them though still waiting for insurance some are yes yeah I mean there's there's a couple large facilities that you see right on a stero that have now fenced their space to protect it uh to keep civilians safe from walking in there and jumping into to a a defunct pool but uh one facility in particular they're waiting to figure out what the insurance is going to give them more assistance in and just demo in the building so they've Al They hav a notice of violation they've been given certain amount of time they are working with us but you know we have we have the obligation to be reasonable in how we move forward and if they are working with us and trying to mitigate things then we we allow that to happen and we keep moving forward that only happen for so long and then eventually it'll go to a hearing what about ones that um that are more in the I'm not saying like not a side street or whatever in a neighborhood but are on where the multitude of uh pedestrians and visitors and activity are that have you know uh chunks of uh sidewalk flipped up they've got bar wire coming out they've got rebar everywhere they people are using it for their garbage cans they're throwing stuff on there how do we address that because it's one it's unsightly but two it's also dangerous and and people are still climbing all over even though they might have the windows boarded up it's still pretty bad and it's right there on a stereo right where all the activity is we are working on those if you see them on a stero you'll probably notice that there's a notice of violation posted somewhere on those buildings okay and the ones downtown there's several down in Old San Carlos that we're working on as well uh where people have demoed them because we did give them notice violation and we just had two of them demoed last week where we we went to them and said we have to move forward and they did they came forward and they got it squared away okay the ones I'm looking at have not been demoed and need to be okay and you have and please do if if it's something that you is really catching in your craw please send them send the address to us again and we can let you know if we're already in process with them or not and and I people have done that we have we have civilians that are jumping forward saying hey what about this one and we do say okay this is our process this we're moving with it okay so I get it if they're working on stuff it's the ones who aren't doing anything is that's frustrating because I do know there are some like that there are okay um I I just wanted to I just wanted to Echo what K was saying about uh common sense you know when we start trying to figure out how to solve some of these problems we're looking for a 100% solution that never happen so if we can just get about 80 or 90% % of the people kind of doing the safe thing doing the right thing we can sort of deal with the ones that are not uh on a Case by case basis we may or may not be very successful for example at regulating speed on a sidewalk but it but I think you're going to get a vast majority of people are going to make an effort to comply that's the whole voluntary compliance is what law enforcement is all about it's not about you know mandatory tickets and arrests we just that you but but if we make no effort whatsoever you have chaos I would just suggest that we not let that get in our way of anything just do what we think is right educate people to the degree that we can and you'll get a vast majority of people willing to cooperate like an old saying I'd rather have 50% of something than 100% of nothing yeah that was my own comment about all right um so I have a couple things so one is um just two actions that I have EOC so I'll set up that time with the chief um visit that come back to this committee I've also working with Nicole we'll continue with that survey and get these results um over the next month or so um two other thoughts that I also had um is you know whenever in like um corporate jobs whenever you have a challenge you always reach out to others and um you network and one of the thoughts that I have had was there's got to be other towns other locations beaches that have the same challenges that we face with bike safety pedestrian safety and wanted to understand how you know is it possible for us to reach out to say Cape Coral or some another town on in Florida to sit you know ask them these types of questions don't know how that works but I I think there's you know don't want to have to feel like we're always Reinventing the wheel there's someone out there that has some solutions and the more we can reach out to them understand some of those I think it could be more beneficial than doing a round table of just trying to create you know some of these ideas on our own so I don't know if that's one of the things that maybe I can talk to you Tom about and and see how we maybe capture some learnings from other towns um and I don't know how you would set that up with Sunshine Law but I think we'd have to navigate that and well I think this comes back to the same conversation that Amy came in and addressed town clerk that you have the ability to do that as long as you know you're not doing it with several people at a time right so if that's a task that you're taking so be and I will assist but and I think you have to be particular what township that you're going to go because sanabelle is a different creature than we are let's be honest cave Coral is nothing like us even though we're neighbors we're really not Bonita is probably the closest um in our as a neighbor Naples is in there a little bit but they're a little different than we are too so uh we would have to I think broaden that search and go to a town North or like um I think one of little places off by Sarasota Town some like Clear Water even though they're bigger than us but there's still a Barrier Island type space so I think we we'd have to go to a Like Apples to Apples type thing to really see where it is and I mean Fort Meers Beach is its own is is its own entity and it's developed over however many years to where it is today and space is limited I mean we're 7 mil long but we're less than a/4 mile wide at our widest so it's a it's a small little space with a lot of lot of people here um okay so I think that's one I'll I'll connect with you on and maybe that's a a session that we bring someone in and talk through it or um we have a a separate session is it possible to say like Jim and I take that and then we make it public so say we sat down with someone in Siesta Key um and you know we said okay but we want to make that public that you'd have to have a notification process for that too it has to be notified in a certain amount of time you wouldd have to have the other towns uh they'd have to notify it as well if you're going to meet with another town in some Manner and then that's going to come back to a legal decision by our Council so with the sunshine thing if it's one person it's it's different best to call them and say can you talk to somebody on the tell us some of the things you're doing yeah okay oneon-one oneon-one seems to be the only way okay that's how I understand it again that the town attorney would be able to describe that better for you I believe or Amy and again I don't think we have to be careful to say well we can't do anything that's not true if if if you and I wanted to go meat with someone all we have to do is have the town posted we're gonna we're going to have uh two of us are going to go meet with someone and if somebody from the from the public wants to tag along they theoretically could in my experience with the Fire Commission they don't do that they're not really that interested yeah unless we're talking about something really controversial if we're just out gathering information no one's going to Care it just has to be legally posted yeah meeting minutes yeah that's how I understand it yeah I that's my understanding as well some followup there we can see what makes sense but I think that's you am we can work with Amy she some good guid how to exact how to accomplish it in the proper man exactly yeah she'd be the one to speak to I think first right um and and last thing it was just about again back to the bike safety um just quick qu um question of how we want to move forward with this so you know I want to be in a position where next mean we're actually kind of driving some of the the you know Direction um instead of just talking a round table so I think there's you know from finding out if you can possibly be the the point person to talk to um the agencies that's doing the bike um Lane you know getting into those deep details if not even before that maybe there's like another session that we have as a committee to make it open but at the same time just document like here's all the things that we're thinking about I think the next step what we have to do we've talked about some of the solutions and and a Dan was there is we bring it to Town Council that's what we have to do so we go to Town Council then Town Council is the one who brings it up so Dan did bring up cuz he was at this last one at that last meeting or two meetings ago can't remember which one that he wants to make the step to make ebikes on the sidewalk he'd like to start the process of that yeah um then it has to like you're saying if we go to an ordinance I think the next thing that maybe we do is as this group we sit and make a decision and hash it out whether it's now or whatever and say all right this is what we'd like our next we'd like to do ebikes on the sidewalk number one we would like to see if we can get a delineation on the sidewalk yeah and or some of some kind and maybe it's um or it's the um image of a bike and the Walker and number three is if we'd like to make sure that this path is being addressed or we want to address a rollup Boardwalk if that's an ex we'd want to present this to Town Council these are the four things that we think are important and we since you're in the process of doing your strategic strategic plan we want to ensure that this is like one of the top priorities of there because it's one of the biggest con uh complaints about the island is the traffic and this is one solution to help eliminate traffic so that's I think what we have to do that's what we've had to do in the past to go to Town Council so the next thing is that's why I was asking what June 3D is I'm out of town that day um do we send a representative one of us goes up and talks and says Safety Committee has met this is um we've been working on uh the hurricane response plan bam we've been working on electric bike messaging talking with Nicole she's been doing that um we did a survey and the biggest thing that we've been talking about is electric bikes on the sidewalk I know that the mayor has brought this up and at this point we would like to add our Vote or our recommendation that the town proceeds with some kind of test that we do we have to get approval from Lee County can we not just do it ourselves you know why can't we take this initiative I think that's what that's the next steps yes so that being said we could put something together I mean we can write something out right now in the next 15 minutes we're all pretty much talking about the same thing and rehashing it if someone would volunteer for that June 3rd I would go but I like I said I'm I'm pretty much gone all of June um I have to look at my calendar would anybody want to go and do a presentation to Town Council to say here's what the Safety Committee has been up to and um but more importantly we want to talk about this topic that we feel it should be addressed right now and I know that you're all working on it but this is our recommendation oh anyway I thought he was volunteering I know like thank youy he's got enough on his that so that that's what we need to do and and I was planning on going this last month but every meeting they had I had something going on I couldn't get over here for the meeting um I wouldn't be able to make it I know I'm my my calendar is book tight the other end working on that um they already called me three times this morning June 3 June 3 I could make it June 3D all right we're gonna put you in charge all right so let's let's just make an okay all right bring them chocolate maybe they'll get they'll do it um I think the biggest thing is what we just discussed I think you should talk about just tell give them the update on what we've been working on you know which is basically on our agenda here because it's you know they'll see what's going on but then I think the next thing is you know you really want to bring to light or to attention the Safety Committee is proposing and recommending that one we allow ebikes on the sidewalk and we do some type of um test and some kind of marking maybe it's not permanent to see during this time right now even in the next year if you think about it um the South End is still not full I don't even know what percentage of the condos are full down there but it that's not much and so when people were complaining about the traffic this year and and I even made the it my biggest thing was there are not people on the island there are not our usual uh residents are not here so that traffic are workers so okay we've got a worker issue and you know the funny thing is I I made a comment to somebody I go let them start at 5 as soon as Daybreak starts and leave at 2 you know ship their workday to get on earlier leave earlier but then you're going to have traffic from 2: until 6 yeah but um this would give people who are options to try new things um again bringing up the um the pathway you know you say we hope that they are working with this group and you know we are watching or do they want uh one of us to be a representative with the with this group or is it this group only working with the town and does the town want us to you know to have us sit in to help we're we're offering because we really feel a value in this bike plan or this plan and we want to get involved because if we could make that change while we're here on this committee that's a huge thing for this island that we DE after the hurricane we developed a path to eliminate some of this major traffic which then would go hand inand you'd have more golf the golf cart company that came in and did their presentation this that solves their issue of traffic you could get additional bike people you could get people from the South and um anyway I'm rambling does anybody have any comment other comments because I think we're all on the same page yeah I think we are we are I think we just need to get that on the agenda for the next town council meeting however that goes about is to get the the ordinance for ebikes on the sidewalk get it rescinded how do we do that yeah I don't think it's more complicated than that I think they're all in agreement as well I do too and so now the next thing is I know they always task us with oh check it out well okay we have it's Now's the Time you've actually got a path if you want to take it that way so what can we do or is this how how do how do we help bring this to fruition because at some point our our suggestion stops and it jumps over to action them and then town to uh bring it to fruition or implementation you kind of have a direction you're good you can Wing It wing it you can do it clear is mud um just quick question maybe for Tom does the town have or they're still working on the master plan like as far as planning and and everything I know they were talking it during the last uh yeah that would be that would be a better question for uh Frank Frankie cropac and and Andy the town manager for the master plan they'd be able to answer to that much better than I can honestly and Frankie might know they might have additional information if you on that as well yeah okay they're in DC this week so they'll be back okay so yeah I'll follow I'll follow up with them just from uh how's this incorporated into a master plan and you know is it part of their because they're right now they're like I said they're at this level going through like ordinance um for buildings and then eventually it gets down into this um but they both need to work together right yeah okay and you know Ron made a comment um you've got the driveways and the sidewalk and some of that sidewalk does butt up right into a property owner uh you know like into their front yard but there's also a lot of businesses that that sidewalk butts up to and there's a gap like um a small small sliver of grass or um some trees and I think someone else brought that up there are some areas on this island that we have these little swaths of grass it could be places that turn into weeds that we could add more cement and make it part of the maybe the sidewalks a little larger in summer areas EXA um I will say this once you hit um I'm G to say around um Lon Kai or where uh I can't even think of the name where the goods was from there North to Time Square that sidewalk is 10 it's there's too many people there to truly right on the sidewalk it it really is hard and from there two Time Square is thick so again another plan of how can do they have to go back onto the street is there enough room is there somewhere that you could add a little extra somewhere it I don't that's one of the places that I could never find that extra space so that becomes a block you have to walk your bike or you're getting in traffic and and you're riding your bike um but that's a lot better on that shorter area than all the way up from Publix yeah and totally agree and maybe just from a like we call building ordinances you have bike ordinance so certain locations where you have high congestion like you're talking about ebikes have to be only pedal you know just only pedal you can't be you know know throttling during or on the road yeah or on the road or something to that extent there's some kind of thing that says now you're off the sidewalk and like we've been saying there not going to be one size fits all but there may be certain sections due to the fact that high congestion or small sidewalks or up lot of ups and downs or we put rumble strips or whatever the solution could be you know maybe through signage and education like okay in this area yeah you yes you could wide open you can go as fast as you can here here you can right just being very clear on that to be clear when you're making a recommendation for an ordinance change and you make it too complicated or convoluted okay then it that comes down to an enforcement issue so you want to keep it simple and any change that you're recommending honestly so if you put too many different stipulations and this 50 ft you can do this that 50 feet you can do that you're never going to be able to enforce that I just do I think right now you're not allowed to ride your bike in Time Square right that's a fact you really shouldn't be able to ride your bike from really probably around the Lan Kai yep exactly all the way up and even on old San Carlos you shouldn't ride your bike on the sidewalks old San Carlos up there as well as well as in front of nervous Nellies on um yeah what is that not um whatever that street is first first first yeah there should be no bike riding on sidewalks from there all the way so there I mean that's pretty simple so you got you better get in the street that's it and then you're in traffic so traffic is slow typically in that area so it's not like like you could likely but that's where I think um they've always said it and there isn't enough room there's too many people even in the Deb of Deb of time there's not enough room to ride a bike there yeah and that's why you put bike racks there so when they get into that they put their bike in and then they can walk from there so it's just strategically of where you put those as well could help right okay love it okay that was oh I had you have anything to add no I have some work to do I will get back to you on some of the stuff that you spoke about I will check with uh the environmental manager about the lighting issue um I will find out where we stand on the bike planning company and about you addressing that as one of your members to to maybe if that's something that they could go with talk to them about some of your concerns sure I will also check with Lee County DOT marketing sidewalk that was before my time to be honest with you before I was here um so I will do my best to try to get that part squared away so I'll and I'll talk to uh uh councilman King we'll figure out when when F doot is even coming or that's and you you are going to talk to Amy about getting on the agenda correct yeah I'll just talk to her real quick or we'll do it when we walk out okay um or I can shoot her an email um next meeting public the comment oh oh public comment sorry no public just that threw us off last time we didn't know what to do um next meeting we're set for June I just looked it up 18th June 18 I will not be here so I can call in and do we want to take July off like the Town Council that was the other thing I wanted to ask everybody I don't know who's going to be here in July I'm here gonna fly in but I will not be here August okay yeah I'm just we when's August August is the 20th okay July would be the 16th I won't be here there I know my July and J won't be here July but I can make August I can make a when is August the 20th I'm good on all uh I will not be here either one um do we want to set for then uh you want to take July off and do june set up for June 18th I can call in is everybody going to be around for June 18th I'd call in college Ro Series Baseball I was just there they've done a nice job with that I am not going to be here June 18th this SE of that um that doesn't matter I mean you guys have your meeting I will have a representative uh who will be here to represent the town though we do that June 18th good okay and then what do you guys think about July what do you want to do doesn't matter to me skip ju let's skip July town is off you might not be a lot of stuff going on give people some maybe we'll give some action plans to see what's going on and then resume August 20th uh okay are you good with me sending Dawn an email uh with the some of the answers that we have and she can disseminate that information appropriately uh didn't Jason used to just send it off yeah I have Jas send it to everybody be perfect fine cuz then it's I guess that's yeah okay off in July 20th of August I make a motion to adjourn the meeting I'll second that all right meeting adjourned