##VIDEO ID:diDfdbUgGO8## sorry about that we're GNA we're going to we wanted to talk about it before we adjourn the other one but we're going to call the MMP meeting to order and then we are going to take a motion to adjourn for roughly 27 minutes and come back at 1:00 so Recess Recess for that's what I meant yes okay so we're going to call the the uh Fort Meers Beach management planning session uh to order at 12:33 p.m. and then I will ask for a motion to recess for 27 minutes yes so Move Motion by councelor K second by councelor Safford any further discussion all those in favor signified by saying I okay we will recess and come back at 1:00 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we're going to call this meeting to order uh back to order go get it it is 10 two please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all keep back there J glor why you bring home cour okay our first item for a discussion we've already done that was the presentation that we saw Homeland Security the next will be CV zoning discuss CV zoning District changes s yeah um we have some maps oh perfect um so I created some maps because uh we'd had a discussion about the CB zoning district and I put together language based on the conversation that happened at the Town council meeting and then when we took it to the LPA the LPA um had a lot of concerns and people came in and spoke I thought that it would be really good for everyone to see where these Lots actually are um so I created a map or my someone on my staff helped create a map um the it's a little bit hard to see up there but uh the darker pink the solid pink and and the solid orange are the CB Zone districts or CB Zone properties on the northern part of the island and then the next page can you scroll to the next page Jacob um those very few lots that are pink and orange are the uh Sarah yes could you just go up a thousand feet before we get granel here in case folks are watching talk about what a CB zoning district is and also uh is this same as a land use map could you just kind of just help people set sort of set the table okay uh so Commercial Boulevard uh is a zoning District that we've had some issues with for a number of years uh this code was changed several years ago currently the way it is written you are allowed to have a use that was previously on the lot um but you can't you can't have additional uses so if you had a restaurant so uh it has sort of a scale restaurant is the highest intensity use um retail is the second highest use and office is the lowest level use so if you had a restaurant and you went back to an office uh previously the code wouldn't allow you to ever go above anything become more intense so you couldn't ever be retail you couldn't ever be a res uh restaurant again we changed it a few years ago so that if you previously had a restaurant and then you became an office and you could prove that you had a restaurant before you could go back to a restaurant um however that's been pretty difficult to implement um because we don't always know what were on those lots and a lot of times it's a new owner and they may not know what was there either uh the records aren't great so it's a little bit difficult for staff to know what was previously there um especially in the uh plazas where there are multiple businesses in them so um when we had spoken about this before the uh Council had concerns regarding people being able to use these Parcels you know uh for a commercial use that was reasonable um because they were sort of stuck with things that had been there before and they may want to change it um so I put together uh several changes to the zoning ordinance um there was concern that it was too far that people would be allowed to do too many things um so i' sort of pulled it back a little bit um if you want to take a look at the table that's in your packet um so exhibit B that is the you know the zoning table with the L's and the O's um so previously uh you w can you put that up on the screen I don't think he has it's in the packet but okay find it I sent him the maps so he could put those on the screen okay um so the idea is that CB would be open to these other uses but with limitations so um you would be able to have a restaurant but no essentially the limitations would be on the outdoor entertainment so the noise aspect um and outdoor dining um again the noise aspect that everybody seems to have some concerns with um but I thought it was really important to include these Maps because it shows um so the pink is commercially uh properties being used commercially um so for an office retail or restaurant um and then the orange lots are the ones that have been a residential use okay so this is the zoning table um and as you see down at the bottom uh the CB with all the X's through it that line um I had it had gone from limited for lodging office retail to open for those so that would allow um most of the uses and the limitations really are this the uh floor area ratio um because the floor area ratio is still lower than downtown because I know there were concerns that oh we're turning this into the downtown but we're not um the floor area ratio within that uh area is one so we're looking at a much smaller floor area ratio it still has the setbacks it still has the height limits so we're not talking about hugely intense developments because they're just not going to be able to get those with the uh setbacks the F the Hy limitations but it would allow them to have additional uses with limitations so that they wouldn't be as impactful to the adjacent properties so that was the intent with with doing these changes and I wanted to get your feedback before I took it to LPA to find out if you were comfortable with it and I wanted to create the map because there were concerns at the hearing that these uses were going to be encroaching in neighborhoods and uh um jaob can you pull the map again so so if if it was a bank say before and now maybe they want to do a coffee and bagel shop this would allow them to be able to use that use whereas before they couldn't have done that yes that's correct so in that in on page 42 that under it says uses it says continuation of the commercial uses that were previously allowed on the site prior to the permit request evidence of the per blah BL but that's not saying that you can't do anything that wasn't previously there right that's just saying that you can do something that you could show was there but it doesn't necessarily have to be yes or you can use the or you can um have the uses that are allowed by the table 34-2 okay but but you having the additional regulations limiting the outdoor dining but if you already had outdoor dining if you already had outdoor entertainment you can continue to have those uses it's just if you're adding a new use and you want to have that there are limitations to ensure that the adjacent property owners are less effective but could they go for any kind of special exception to have those things they could go through a CPD to have those things um the special exception I don't know would would allow them that necessarily could they go through a development agreement they could go through de yeah because a development agreement is essentially the CPD process so yeah yeah so there would be ways for them to pursue it but as a byright zoning use they you know they they would be limited but they can have more uses so Sarah originally we were trying to address a section of the island on the south end and I I I sounds like we're doing that uh but I just want to be clear so I got two questions the the property uh it used to be an old Medical Center it's vacant it's been vacant for years uh it's it's on a stero it's close to Church of the Ascension as you go by Church of the Ascension headed south and again this remains vacant for years uh a few years ago somebody wanted to open a kind of a tea shop there and couldn't for the reasons we just talked about so so under this new proposal could somebody buy that property and open a restaurant there as long as the restaurant remained indoors yes and they can't currently yes that's what I that's exactly what we're trying to accomplish and then so the same would hold true further south where you had the old dentist office chiropractor and a spa there cross from Santini Plaza on a stero Boulevard I don't know that those are Zone CV what would they be Z I pulled um that's what I'm trying to pull yeah um I I got the maps from I got the addresses from the property appraiser and the gis team and then I cross checked it by what we had in our records so I don't know that we have that those are the kind of properties that are vacant and idle and those would be the ones that we'd want to impact positively but don't have any adverse impact on the neighborhoods in fact that particular location is across the street from the stero so there is no other neighbor think they're next they're near the 7-Eleven and and and well there is a condo behind there behind there that's right but again for to have activity for the condos is generally welcomed particularly if it's some place to eat uh given the current situation there so and a couple people express interest in a restaurant there but of course they're concerned about that indoor restaurant um there's lots of parking across the street in Santini Plaza as well uh if they wanted to have a partnership I just I'm trying to figure out ways to to have some life in some of these dead areas these dead spots now that was a great great complex before having a dentist a chiropractor and and a haircut uh SLS spa place there that was Dynamite uh but you know to get that to come back is going to is you know it' be great but if it doesn't I want to make sure that there's other options so that building just doesn't sit vacant it appears that that's zoned RM and what does RM mean residential multif family why would that be zoned RM just out of curiosity I know you don't have a history but what it seems like an odd location to be zoned RM right um it was probably owned by a condominium developer at the time and they never resounded it um but I couldn't speak to exactly why can we can we impact those types of properties on that section if they if they choose to rezone we can't do that through this changing they would have to come in and reone yeah and and that's why I created the map because I think there are a lot of questions about what actually is Zone CB there's a total of 35 properties only 35 properties on the island that are Zone CV so it's very it's a very minimal change it does it impacts the people who own those properties but it doesn't affect a lot of properties and that's also why I didn't want to do an overlay because there are so few I think that it would impact the owners very differently and I don't know that that would be a good idea with just so few properties in that zone IND District and I know I know I don't see Jason here but does this address the Paula Kiker yes issue there any M we have on our website shows that that property that he's talking about is in the CB zoning District yeah I'm not sure if it is um doesn't go down I I got off the top of my head I can't well you can see right where it's at on the on the map because it's it's on the corner of uh I got zo right next to 7-Eleven right yeah yeah you there wait no it's no it's not the one he's talking about is right next to L realy right well no that's that's one of the two the other one is I don't know I I'm not sure which one you're talking about do you know the address cross from San just just I don't think your map goes that far this one in the back there's santin this is Santini here so 7-Eleven is right here y but this is well that's could be this well the CPD that that is um CBS wonder what this is is that the service station that's no this is that um where Dr Bennett was in yes that's not this building I'm talking about service station that's that's um why is that pink it's C Co yeah I see Co there Co is commercial office so we're not impacting commercial office so they would have to go through a rezoning to be able to to Commercial Boulevard yes if that's what they wanted so if somebody wanted to open a restaurant there they could come before the LPA and the council and just make a petition that that wouldn't be a violation of the comp plan that would just be a petition to to change to change the use correct I I would need to evaluate um so it would be a zoning District so it wouldn't be a use change um and it is well but by doing the zoning District change you would essentially get the Commercial Boulevard uses yes but the other one I thought you were talking about that was as well that's in a commercial bullevard okay very good very good which is down by we follow yep yep yep well regardless I think this is a good step forward Sarah okay um are you comfortable with this language uh does it make sense do you think that's it's the appropriate limitations yeah what were refresh my memory what were some of the the push back from the LPA I know I don't remember all there was a concern that it was going to be impacting neighborhoods well I can tell you the push back because I watched it the uh and I was responsible for some of it we had a constituent who we all know who was interested in having right across from Church of the Ascension there a couple areas back there that looked like they were I mean they were destroyed by the storm and it looked like they were just sitting there phow um and there there was a thought that maybe that area could be rezoned so we could have some restaurants on the ocean right there and since that time uh I've been informed that that that the folks who own that land are interested in rebuilding their homes and property so that has sort of become a moot point so and I've talked to Anita about that so that was just really more of a trial balloon than anything else but so that's that's off the table and I think that's what that's where we heard a little bit of push back lot but I think I think the other issue was less controversi is the solution you have just posited I think was less controversial yeah um my my understanding was that there was were a lot of questions about where these properties were yeah who would be impacted um and then just adding that extra layer of protection for the neighborhoods regarding the outdoor seating and the music since that that is an issue that the town experiences and there were a few folks concerned about that this would somehow empower the theater properties well they have outdoor seating and and obviously your solution does not do that yeah yes it looks like from the map basically from junkan New South there's no until you get around the bend down by the church there's no Commercial Boulevard properties yeah um we're looking at uh the the realy as you go south the the furthest North on that South End is the yeah the car wash and the the realy at what about the Munch box it it obviously went from a restaurant to Comm to like a little T-shirt shop it can go back to a restaurant mhm okay and and I did have the orange and the pink because there were concerns uh some people came in and spoke and they were concerned that if we made this change then all of the residential in those in that zoning District would go away so I just wanted to show like I mean there's a pretty decent mix as it is it's mostly commercial but there are some residential uses and there's no reason to believe that the residential uses will necessarily go away the Hope initially was just to have this impact properties that Abed a Jerald Boulevard yeah and all of them a but except for one residential um but the other ones are all connected right so speaking of the car wash and that so what is that one zoned again is that's it looks like it's Zone CB we went back through records to try and so that that's one of the things we're actually going to be working on and we're going to talk about this next but with the Land Development code we are going to be doing some uh some GIS work to make sure sure that our maps are up to date um because there's some missing information in there so the way I did this was by going back through rezonings to see what had happened over the years and if anything referenced those properties it appears that uh the car wash and that real estate office are both CV zoned okay um and that's based on the records from Lee County also so they support each other um although there were things on the map that didn't appear to be completely correct I believe this map is correct okay no I think you looks like youve got pretty much everything covered that was discussed okay John do you see anything I'm good Scott I'm good I think this is gonna accomplish what Jim Jim and hope for right here yeah I yeah okay fantastic thank you all right then we'll move on to the next one which is the Land Development code okay um so I wanted to take an opportunity to speak with you all about the next steps for the Land Development code talking about the big items that we wanted to be discussing a lot of this is going to be clean up because there are just issues in the code that need to be resolved um and some of these will be asking you uh as the council or the LPA will will be asking questions and some of them will be taking to uh the residents we're going to have several workshops with residents um Avail you know in person and online so that people can be involved um but a big part of this is figuring out the best time to have those meetings um and I wanted to get your input on when you think people are going to be most available when when would be the best time for us to plan these workshops to have people at them um do them just in person or both we're going to do both but we're probably not going to do them at the same time because it will be difficult to do both the online component and the inperson component at the same time so probably have an inperson component where you know we try to get as many people as we can in person and have those conversations and have some booths have a couple different things going on so that everybody can get visuals and give us input on on items that we think that the residents really care about and then we're going to have uh second a meeting that's a workshop online uh so anybody who wasn't able to join that original meeting can do the online and then we're also going to have surveys available so that people can go in afterwards anytime and maybe like read a few documents learn some things about what what's going on and take a survey so that we can get feedback and really try to hear from the most number of people in town so do you want to just go through one at a time sure kind of get feedback would that be instead of jumping all over the place yeah that would be great um so some of these are I'm just bringing them up as items and I kind of want to find out if you guys think these are issues that we should be addressing if you would like to be involved in that answer or if you think the citizens should be involved in that answer because some of these are going to be really Technical and some of them are going to be less technical more like just a preference um so uh we're definitely going to be looking at parking lots and parking lot regulations and maybe trying to come up with a matrix maybe trying to come up with a way to to right siiz parking lots because that has been a big issue we want to make sure that there's adequate parking but we don't want to overpark the island one of the first things we can do low hanging fruit is look at the Double calculations so if you're a bar and a restaurant it doubles up your parking I think that's pretty low hanging fruit Y and we keep talking about when we're talking about parking in general that is it is is it so much our decision or can we make it more for a business for example can we make it more of a business decision if they think they can find alternatives to parking then the parking issue kind of goes away so some communities have we have minimums some communities do maximums we could do a minimum and a maximum so that somebody can't say well I'm not going to provide any parking we're just going to assume everybody's walking here especially if we know that that's not what's going to happen um so we could do a minimum or a maximum or allow some type of flexibility um they could provide micr Mobility options um that might decrease their parking but currently it doesn't decrease their parking um so I think there are a lot of ways to structure this and it's been handled very differently by different communities and it also may change if we want to do things like if there's going to be a parking garage if you can say well there's a parking garage within X number of feet of this business um I mean if you look The Way Naples does it they pay any business opening pays for parking in the area they just have a set amount that they're paying for each parking space that they need um but then that parking does have to be provided so the difference there is that there have been public private park parnerships to create those parking garages um so looking at how the town wants to handle it there are a lot of different ways to do it so you know maybe maybe it's uh a conversation that we have where we put it out there at a workshop and ask people for hey what are your ideas about this do you think there's enough do you think there's too much do you think we should do X Y or Z give some people give people some options and then we can come back to you guys and LPA and say hey this is what the town is thinking how do you guys land on this or you know we've looked at it and this is what this community does and this is what this community does and also we can talk with some of the other communities that are doing different things and find out how it's working for them is there ever been a place or for a simple calculation based on your square footage so for instance I had a th000 square feet and now I'm going to build something back that's 3,000 square ft is there a way to just do an easy calculation that you know if you're Tri the size of what you had or doubling the size of what you had chances are you're going to probably need more parking than what you had before but if you're downsizing if you had 2,000 sare feet in I don't know if that's or percentage of the I mean I don't know it could be relative across the board but based on the lot sizes and so so would it be lot size or would it be building size yeah there's a little there's a little bit of a problem with that the mayor because now because of ADA requirements yeah the size of the rooms size of the showers the size of the hallways you're people are actually having to build bigger okay so that well if we're if we're looking at um like hotel motels I mean it would be based on the number of rooms if we're looking at a restaurant it's based on the number of square footage and that's that's how a lot of communities do it they base it on the square footage of the structure um but we're finding in a lot of instances that may not work the best and it may not be the right size for this community because every Community is a little different um so it it really depends on what that square footage looks like and I have known communities to do to allow developers to sort of come up with their own parking in special instances um I had for example I had a tractor supply company coming in in a community and they were like that's too many parking spaces for us this is how many parking spaces we need we have this store this store this store this store we can show you the numbers okay they showed the numbers we said yeah you can build that size parking lot that's fine because they could prove it they knew what they Happ people would still be able to have that ability to come in and say I need a variance from this because it's yeah and they could certainly ask for a variance the the biggest issue is going to be sometimes a new business may not know what kind of parking it needs and they're going to be limited by their lot as opposed to asking for the number of parking spaces they need they're just going to be like well this is what we can fit is that adequate could we do something like we do with the setbacks on the house you know your property so is so big it's your setbacks are this you're lots bigger you know I mean the bigger your lot goes the different the calculation slides with the size of the lot I don't know if that's the best way to handle it because then if somebody buys a bigger lot and they say you know we really want to build we we own this lot but we really only need to build a doctor's office that's this big and we want to you know we really want to make the amenities very nice we want so they not going to really have more demand for parking spaces even though they have a bigger lot well no but you got to have my point is you got to have a starting point right you got to have a number whatever a number is but what's that starting number how do you get to that and make it easier for someone that wants to buy a property or already has a property so that they know going into it when they're purchasing it let's say that this is what is going to be required based on the size of this lot and potentially what I'm looking at building to put on the lot I would say they need to know what size building they're going to be building first before we can really say because I mean especially if you know it's a restaurant use it depends on the size of the restaurant to how many tables will be there right but maybe I'm not saying it the right way so if I'm going to buy a piece of property that's we say 50,000 Square F feet and I know based on that that I'm going to be required to have this many spaces whatever that number is in my head then I can calculate what size building I can build to accommodate that you know what I mean versus buying a property and not knowing how many parking spaces you're going to me because you don't know just try to give more information up front and it doesn't mean you couldn't come in ask for a reduction or whatever you would need or just trying to get a starting point for people I don't think it could be based on the lot okay I mean I just because the use is what's going to drive the parking you know some offices are going to have lesser demand uh whereas is you know retail's going to have higher demand you know and then you're going to have something like beach parking that could have unlimited demand so um you know it's it's a little difficult to know that based on the lot size but once they have the use and the square footage and if they know you know we're going to have this many offices in there that helps us um and I think that people can always kind of argue no we really need this many parking places and instead of you know we say they need 50 and they say no we actually need 35 and here's why it'd be nice to figure out a way to incentivize them to get people to walk or bike you know however that is you know what I mean kind of like the wedding cake thing we did in the LPA you know went through that where you want to go up you can come in and you can get more so if there's a way that we could I don't know if that's possible to put in Land Development code kind of a way to you know if I do this and I know I wouldn't be this many parking spots left and yeah it becomes part of their development well um I mean one thing so a lot of communities when you do uh Workforce and affordable housing or attainable housing they decrease the number of parking spaces that you're required to provide um and that that does a couple things um it makes it easier to build Workforce and affordable housing and it also um ensures that you're not having like entirely too many people living in each unit um and uh it a lot of times a Workforce or affordable unit isn't going to have five cars they're not going to need that many cars so um that and a lot of times the workforce and affordable housing is going to be near the business that that person works at so um that's one way to encourage it but it doesn't do very much for the businesses and I think that that's maybe an individual business choice and I don't know how best to do that but I mean we can certainly look into it I I mean I fixing the easy stuff is a starting point and then maybe we have to look at maybe that's when you get it out there and and let the public inut that once you get rid of the the double parking requirements that we have on there now in certain instances maybe you're not dealing with as many variances we've been dealing with but yeah you know these lots are all small we all know it and parking is going to be a challenge at almost every property yeah and there's not a lot of extra parking to go buy or or rent from other people so it's got be a solution at the end of the day the business owner is building a business and they need to figure out what they can sustain and what they can't sustain but yeah I think you're right though there's some low hanging rout I mean you know the doubling down like you talked about and I I also think you know more and more people are using golf carts or other modes of transportation and giving credits for that instead of using a vehicle a car more bike racks give give a bigger credit for bike racks um you know double you know have create some parking spaces for the golf carts that that counts as two instead of one yeah I mean anything to promote leaving a car at home I think is it is a good practice oh that's the best Jim you've been off quiet over there no I'm just I'm just thinking I I think about uh I think about just did my own personal experience I I have a number of uh Consulting clients that I have that come to Fort Meers Beach to visit and talk shop and and I would always just send him over to tuck away Bagel because they always had parking available it's easy to find it's right on a stero always had parking I knew they were coming from off Island and so I I'd like to keep some component of Market forces into the equation in other words if I'm a business and you know I I have to sort of look at my business bottle and determine you know if can I survive without having some parking for my C customers I love the idea of giving additional credits for bikes and golf carts and all that stuff that's fine but at some point the Market's going to determine whether a establishment is going to be successful or not if they've got if their customers have access to parking or not whether it be their own parking or be near a public lot or I think it's just going to have to factor into the the business equation when you're putting a business together but from that that's a an excellent point and so then why should we we as a town have have you know extra limits when the market when the Market's going to determine that the the lenders who are going to build their properties are going to demand they have so much stuff um and then Market forces you know they don't have I'm not sure I disagree you I think that's what I'm wrestling with because I think the market can solve a lot of these problems up to a point but you know certainly we have an island have a public interest in in incenting other forms of Transport Transportation as well just to improve quality of life for our residents who are stuck in traffic so it's a it's a Sticky Wicket I I don't I don't have the answer open for suggestions no I think this is a perfect one to get in the hands of the public and let them kick around some ideas and you know they're the ones that are using these businesses they're the ones that are we've all probably done it went to go somewhere on a rainy day and there was no place to park so we went somewhere else but that plays into that market you know you don't have a place to park and pourn on RAM and go find a place it does m so it's all part of the this would be a good discuss I think out of all these I mean these are all important right but I think this is the the most important or the most controversial or needs to be solved I mean you know it's like as you said there interlocal agreements There's You Know the Way Naples is doing things um seems like EV every CPD that comes before us parking it's an issue it's it's the big issue y I mean we wrestled with the last last couple of them and you know it's it's there's not an easy solution but I think like you said we can make it we can let's get rid of the lwh hanging fruit first but then let's get some public input and uh you see if we can come I mean there's a lot of SM people on this island we can come up with some solutions yeah anything that will help because I've always had an issue with someone saying well across the street or this business has 5,000 parking spots why do I need to have well that's their business that's not your business you know you shouldn't be able to use their that business as your parking calculation so if we can eliminate unless you contract and pay for unless you want to pay for it sure if they have the stuff to give away but I don't know if it's ever going to happen on the island there just not enough places to park but there's got to be I mean there's a middle of the road somewhere but starting with the easy low hanging fruit seeing what we can get our calculations down is there is there state law requirements other than Ada as far as parking do you know Nancy I don't I haven't been find I'm not sure I don't think so but I'll I have to check there's got is there requirements for Ada there's going to be those yes and then how do we address those salty crab that didn't have any parking now they're going to be required to have ada8 parking and they're going to have to figure that out I would assume right yeah well I think with salty crab too they're going to have to have they're going to have Supply trucks dropping stuff off where they going to park in the middle of the boulevard yeah we don't want to have that all over so might want to say that compliance with state and federal regulations and laws would be the starting point for your discussion and then proceeding forward from there that makes sense John I'm just tired of a low hanging fruit I prefer low hanging Donuts yeah when is the doughnut shop going to open what donut shop your donut shop King's Donut King's donut do you think you have enough kind of direction to we still working on parking you have any no I've made my comments maybe a drive through okay you want to move on to number two sure um so one thing that we have talked about um previously were the list of public benefits I think that um we did get some input from Council regarding these and I think that this would be a really good thing for the public to weigh in on like what do they think the public benefits are do they agree you know what what are the things that the citizens really want in new developments um so I thought that was a good item to sort of put out there and and then add to the list and then figure out a way that we really work it into the code and do they want to see an itemized list because that list could change over time so true it make the sense to have an itemized that' be a question to ask well it doesn't have to be all encompassing right but I mean and different parts of the island have different location biger bigger properties are going to be able to offer more obviously but there's it's good public discussion yeahi do public that was easy move on to the next one hold on once she's done ready oh we need to get you a second type really fast Nicole's like don't look at me I I was going to say marks right there Jason Jason Jason went back um so something else that so we've been getting a lot of request for uh additional height um so looking at ways that we could um automatically qualify people for additional height um that was one idea so you know this might play into the list of public benefits but looking at impacts to the adjacent properties looking at maybe incre inreasing setbacks for additional height maybe doing lead or sustainable development maybe giving um Workforce housing but some options so that people can automatically get a story or two more for public benefits that the town wants and will be beneficial to the Future wasn't one of the things we talked about and I don't think it ever got codified was you know when you're building back to base flood elevation I know there was discussion about if you go to the three-foot above freeboard so you're going higher that that would potentially allow you to go an extra story it is codified it is yeah I I do believe so yeah um yeah they're allow actually I don't know that we ever did if they're doing the no the way that it's written is you get the three extra feet but that doesn't give you an extra story but then the carrots and sticks can get you to the extra story if you do the different things that that's what it was yeah yeah the extra they get extra 5T and an additional story I like the idea of the lead and the Green Building certification that's that's pretty good outside the box thinking thing that which is basically your Green Building certified oh okay I got you got so lower lower energy use you know like better yeah better air quality that sort of stuff yeah that could be um do you guys think that that would be a good conversation for the public in general or do you think that would be better in in a meeting I I think I think definitely public in my opinion to be you know Height's going to be an issue that we're going be dealing with coming up and you think we should limit there's there's got to be a Max like in downtown district oh I yeah I agree again it goes back to that different section of the island have different things that could fit in or couldn't fit in yeah yeah so I mean based on the zoning District or based on and based on what's around you and what fits and what doesn't fit yeah if you're right next to single story you know right then you can't have a 10 story building yeah so maybe a transect kind of situation where if you're within a certain distance you can't be more than I know that's how they do it um TSA key maybe they I mean up north there are a couple different communities that have really interesting ways of looking at their height yeah this is an interesting one because as time has gone on people they they're one way or another their opinion on height is Shifting some are going one way and some are going the other way but it it how do you how do you you know two stories above what's there now versus 10 or 12 or 15 stories MH how do you differentiate between that you know is there anything really that that uh someone could do that would allow someone to put whatever say 10 stories because they're giving up this or they're doing this is that something the public really wants to see I yeah I I think that's an excellent question that yeah we need to know how people maybe there are certain benefits that they feel are enough like sure you can build a 10-story building if you give the town a brand new park you know I don't I don't know what the trade would be but I think for sure you know the setbacks because we're seeing that with some of the you know proposed stuff coming in they can build a big huge box that's four stories but it looks a whole lot better you know if it's the wedding cake thing wedding cake or yeah so lower towards the street and higher further back and mhm I think people are getting more flexible because they're actually seeing some of these designs that the Architects are coming up with and they do have stair step approach and they do have more setbacks and um it makes it more palatable I think and also depending on where in the development they are is this at the back of the lot where it's not against any road or anything like that so a lot of it I think the ideas have been shifting because of designs we've been seeing MH I you I think this is definitely one for the public yeah okay um another one is public art uh this has come up several times over the years um but we don't really have a way to sort of incentivize public art um I know that everybody has different opinions about what is art and what is not art um but one one option would be you know to sort of have a theme that the community uh recommends say you know you want to give public art well our theme is dolphins our theme is sea turtles or whatever the town would want um you know because there are a lot of communities that do like Kansas City and the cows um you know different places have different themes there's another Community with mermaids if if we wanted to do something like that and kind of pick out a theme and say if you want to do public art we would like and then and then have a way for people to do that and incentivize it with you know maybe as one of the uh options for public benefits but are we going down a slippery slope with this one because what I consider art and what you consider art might be two completely different things but if I'm your neighbor and what I consider art is completely obtrusive to you but I get to have more because my version of art is different than yours is that that we going down a what's you used sticky sticky Wicked is that is that putting us in a sticky Wicked so I mean you you kind of have to decide because you you can't both encourage art and discourage artistic um options but couldn't we just leave it at that I mean couldn't we just say we encourage you to are and whatever they're going to do they can certainly present like 71 did when they came through for their side of their buildings they at the time that they're coming through asking for what what they're asking for that's when they can present their art people then can all comment on it and say we love it hate it what what about the buildings that are already there do they have to come in and get a permit to do it why would well and and I don't think I mean as it is right now somebody can paint right somebody can install a um you know some things might require a building permit if you wanted to do a fountain something required electric something you know there are a variety of permits that may be required um but if they just wanted to paint something if they just wanted to put a little statue something like that wouldn't require a permit um if you put this as on the list of public benefits then each individual location can come in with their proposal and it either through the development agreement of the CPD and then the LPA and the council would have a chance to review it and they'd have a chance to determine whether that art was a public benefit or not I almost think it has to be Case by case I mean it's and then now we getting into that the whole First Amendment yes we are that is the Sticky Side you can't really regulate the content of it it's going to be artistic expression but you can't like show preference we're different because then you are regulating content so it's it's not real clear and it's kind of problematic at times and is it is this really broken I mean the way it is now it's not broken but for I would say for an island that a lot of Island ISS do see themselves as sort of artistic Havens um and a lot of a lot of Island communities kind of lean towards that um it's just an option I put out there because art is an investment in your community and you would need to potentially encourage it if you want to get it so could you just say you encourage it as a potential form of public benefit as opposed to saying it is a public benefit or it will get you something more if you do something just put on the list of public benefits let everybody enjoy but then I still go back to what do you do with people that already have buildings and they're just going to paint something we couldn't stop them right now anyway if we wanted to and that freedom of expression so then nothing would change there pretty much I wouldn't think you well you're just going to paint them in what regard I'm sorry um they're going to put a piece of art up now well like a you know they put a mural on the side of the building or they put yard art of some sculpture or I love Fort Meers Beach or whatever it may be right so it would fall into the same category but they don't they can do that now no matter what and they they don't have to come and get permission is what I'm saying from anyone to do that it's just their property that they want to decorate the way they want to decorate MH I think it's pretty simple just like you said vice mayor it's you could put it on the potential list or the list of public benefit and possible public but it doesn't there's no artwork that guarantees you something more because you're doing something artistic okay um the next item is drive-throughs um so one section of our code says you can't do a drive-thru the other SE another section of code says you can do drive-throughs so this has been an issue um this could be important for you down so yeah if you want your dut drive through donut shop um so I didn't know if this was something that you know Council wanted to weigh in on or bring before I mean because there are a lot there are a whole variety of things that are drive-throughs at this point you know in the past it was McDonald's or there weren't very many options now you know a drive-through coffee shop it's it's your bank it's do we do we R the risk of encouraging chains to locate here versus indigenous restaurants I don't think that it increases or decreases the likelihood I mean at this point the cost of land is what's driving those types of decisions and can they make enough money on a McDonald's to make it worth their while I mean because they're still going to have the the regulations regarding stacking and so they're going to have to have additional land they won't be able to back up out onto the streets that sort of thing um so I mean I feel like it's it's a preference issue um and I don't know what your preference is I don't see a lot of Mom and Pops that have drive-throughs and obviously our banks are are losing interest in opening new branches oh I must tell you San at Santini Plaza they are having a drive through ATM uh with sovis bank so it's uh that could be and of course they've got a lot of parking and space to do it but I don't think that's the drive-thru that you're thinking about though well I mean but it is a drive-through so it would fall under these regulations and we just need you know like which which side does everybody fall on we need to either allow them or don't allow them or allow them with X a little get to something we're going both ways one one one section allows what are those two sections and where I in here I would have to go back so what you're saying we just have to clean it up deci we just we have cont free code sections and we just need to know which direction to go with it I think staff has no preference I think like you said I mean there's donut shops there's Banks you you the bank's going to want to have a drive up I mean people aren't going to want to get out in the rain or the heat or anything I mean I'd make an exception for a bank but I don't think we want to encourage fast food chains I don't know like she said I don't know you're going to buy the land make it work yeah and is that counterproductive to the whole get out of your car movement you know exactly R bike and I know some communities have concerns regarding uh people walking and all the because you have to have two curb Cuts if you have a drive-thru essentially you have to have one to go in and one to come out and you know there are a lot of concerns with pedestrian traffic and bicycle traffic with those ENT entries and exits so so you say not allowed with the exception of and you know what are the other than a bank I mean CVS and the CVS yeah iy you know dry cleaner dry cleaner dry cleaner yeah yeah I mean well okay so this is this is later this is later in the this is later in the uh number 12 on your on the list here is conditional uses um so it's possible that a drive-thru could be a conditional use when associated with X Y or Z uses and you meet X Y and Z criteria for uh pedestrian visibility landscaping and noise or you know but I think isn't that what we're trying to get rid of though I mean to me that sounded just very muddy I can this but I need to do this this a conditional use means and and this is how I think we could really clean up our code a conditional use is you are allowed to do this thing if you meet these conditions and it's usually criteria having to do with the issues that the they create so like uh one of the problems with drive-throughs is the noise coming out of that box people don't like it when they live behind them they're like I constantly hear this drive through and so they if you put in the appropriate Landscaping if you put in the appropriate like a whole variety of things that ameliorate the issues that those uses create then you're allowed to do that use if you choose to not do those U meet those conditions then you have get it through a so if you're if you really want this drive-through use then do this this this this and this you can have your drive-through use if you don't want to do those things you have to go in front of the LPA and the Town Council and tell them why you don't think you need those things so that actually I think would help reduce the number of people coming to you to ask for things that well if if you handle your noise and you handle your Landscaping we don't care parking lots are a perfect example example of that you know at grade you know parking lots where somebody is willing to install landscaping and uh their you know whatever five things do you guys care do you want this to come in front of you do you want to talk about landscaping for a parking lot we can make that conditional use if you meet all five of the conditions required for this use it doesn't have to go to LPA and Council so we're saving time we're saving time money for them time time for them time for you um so I I think conditional uses could be one of those things that would be really beneficial to the town could we then maybe instead of it just specifically calling it drive-thru could this be conditional uses and that could be a public part of a discussion because it yeah now you're this is one of many that you just mentioned parking lots and landscap bummers is that conditional use text if you will does that make more sense to have that conversation versus specifically Drive yeah well I mean we do have to determine like do we never want them or do we sometimes want them but you know then it sounds like we sometimes want them in certain instances but not all instances I mean so we can right side I don't know if we want to completely close the door you it seems like we're all very much in providing as many options and if there's an option out there for a CVS or Walgreens or something that may potentially want to come in um this just leave that they telling them no they can't have it I don't know that that's always a good idea but okay I think that works um I understand um moving on to accessory structure setbacks and dimensions this is an item that we discussed previously um but I realized it touches a lot of code sections so this is something that we're going to need to talk about you know what is an accessory structure is it the same thing as an accessory uh dwelling unit when do they have to be attached when do they not have to be attached what setbacks do they have to meet because right now accessory structures have a much smaller setback but if we're talking about an accessory dwelling unit that could be like size of a house it's elevated it's it's big do you really want them to have lesser setbacks so really looking at what what's explained in the code and what's not explained in the code so it's just more clear what's allowed and what isn't yeah this was we had a a sticky Wicked on this with a with a with a someone that wanted to build back MH what the exact same thing that they had and because of this text they had to go through hoops that they shouldn't have had to go through yeah so you know to your point if I'm going to put a shed that is not attached to my house is that any different than if I'm going to do a mother-in-law Suite that's not attached to my house obviously you've got other things that fall into place there as far as height and builds and all that stuff that comes through in a different way but is that looked at any different than shed or should it be is that I mean is that a very good pretty good example no I think that's a perfect example is the shed the same thing as mother-in-law's suite or once it gets over a certain square footage is it something different is should it have the same setbacks as sorry is it is it I mean can you use words like habitable if it's going to be a habitable structure then does that now not be considered an exist yeah and I mean that I think that's what we need to look at figure out what how how do we rightsize this code section so it meets the needs of the community and really addresses all of the issues that we see pretty regularly is there Nancy is there any state statutes that this could fall under when it comes to if I'm building my primary house and then I want because we had some on the island and we still have some on the island that had an accessory use or had a mother-in-law Suite or whatever you wanted to call it that was maybe on the front of the property is there any state statute out there that dictates that they have to be the same setbacks or not no I think it's more discrep Miss are and based on home rule powers that you have that you can decide that um unless it's like some kind of group home or something like that and how does this play into our dreaded Senate Bill 250 as far as if we were to change the definition as we see it now as an accessory structure could that be more restrictive on someone that wants to build a mother-in-law Suite or well I I think our goal with this is going to not run a scance of or yeah what you mean yeah yeah I our goal is to not run into that issue we're we're not trying to make anything more restrictive restrictive but in some instan it's just really not clear or in some instances it's really restrictive for one thing and maybe we want to make it more like the other like whenever you're looking at accessory dwelling units accessory dwelling units that um don't meet the density are required to be separate structures accessory dwelling units that do meet the density are required to be attached doesn't make any sense so like if we just make it all the same so it's like you can do either one with either of these but these are the setbacks and make it clear what what these structures are and what their setbacks are because in our code it just currently isn't but we do have to be mindful of sp250 and and and we are so um it's clarifying some of the existing language is what I'm hearing um and perhaps even making it less restrict RVE than it currently is well and I get so just using a shed for instance you mentioned that a shed M would have less of a setback than a a habitable structure or excess you so let's say if we if you were to say we want to make a shed have the same setback as a habitable structure are you then now making it more restrictive because you're you're putting more of a setback on someone for a shed for instance versus what they had before so I think that that probably would be but I don't think that's what we want to do I mean we're not trying to make it harder for somebody to build a shed we're just trying to make it more clear when they're doing something what they need to do because that's our problem is is not so much that the code is wrong as or bad as it's unclear it does not clearly State what it what it needs and we want to make sure that it's understandable to everybody reading and it makes sense well I'm just trying to wrap my head around how you can construction wise how you could do it how you could you know most sheds aren't going to have a toilet in the more Plumbing or running water whereas the shed might have electric in it or it might have an air conditioner in it right but it's not going to have anything that would allow you to stay for any long period of time inside well if it's at grade then it can't have a certain number of things if feo so I mean and I think that's probably one of the restrictions I mean one of the issues with a living well theoretically um in a a dwelling unit if you're building a new one it's going to be El um so you're talking now about a taller structure whereas at a shed is not a dwelling unit it's not liveable space so it can be at great and I think that we would look at that potentially very differently because it has less of an impact on the adjacent property if you have a little shed at grade versus a story well see to me it's e keeps going back to inhabitable like if it doesn't have a bedroom doesn't have a a shower doesn't have whatever is that considered dwell it's not a dwelling right it's not a place that you could actually live yes well and we also need to have better definitions of dwelling units because that's something that's kind of weird in our code so having a definition that's clear and what most communities have um would be oh so you're just trying to fure on a dwelling I know it can have a kitchen but it have to have Kit yeah exactly could have who has a house without a kitchen it's not a house if it doesn't I mean you have to have what constitutes a kitchen right well yeah but go hole here most communities do Define it as a 220 plus so that's what most communities do yeah so sounds what problem yeah it just needs to be in the Cod right you know your draw is 220 221 whatever it we can find different ways to slice it and dice it however I think having a clear definition and having just clarifying what the code intends so that staff knows how to implement it so that somebody coming in knows what they can build and what they can't sounds like you're well in your way don't answer perfect um uh we also wanted to talk about architectural features that have additional height um that was previously in the code we had to take it out due to some people doing things where they were creating extra stories um and calling them AR features that type of thing um so finding a better way because people have asked how they can have these additional architectural features we agree they do add to a community in the look um but we need to find a better way to do it so that people aren't just adding stories and hype to their but Sarah that that that's a great one and we certainly want to encourage that and I know there's people that abuse that but that's something with your technical expertise or the the lawyer technical expertise I I don't think that's something that you put before the public that's something for the subject matter yeah I I would agree I agree we want to we want to encourage that because it makes makes the community interesting right and and I think that since we pulled it out of there we actually have a better opportunity to add it back in more carefully because with sp250 if we hadn't pulled it out it would just be whatever it is but now we can add to it allow some additional height allow some specific things and we're not we're not causing problems with SP2 so I think this is a good opportunity um we have a bunch of changes we need to do to match up with the comprehensive plan those are all going to be pretty pretty straightforward to knockout and put together properly uh clearer uses in the use table right now we uh don't have a lot of things it's pretty unclear what a bank is have Bank in our use table um so you know is it an office what is that so having more clarity in our use table having better definitions will be helpful um want to include more graphics and diagrams so it's easier to understand visually what we've got but we are going to be really careful with those because I've been through more than a few codes that have diagrams that are just not helpful you know you look at them and look at them and you don't understand what it's trying to tell you so we're going to be really careful about what we got um we're going to need to look at the Redevelopment districts uh that was something that is a component of the uh comprehensive Plan update looking so right now right now the Redevelopment districts have some very specific language in them and we're talking about um downtown Commercial Boulevard Santini um and the village zoning District so they have specific criteria about how those have to be redeveloped is that what we want still is that the vision we're pursuing does it still work um I I don't know that I don't know if this would be better as a public conver like a public Workshop conversation like what do we want to see in these areas or if if this is we leave it alone and see what people com in well to me this kind of falls into that same thing with the Commercial Boulevard that we were just talking about you want to Pigeon your whole pigeon hole yourself into one usage because it's in this zoning District or times Chang things people want to do change 15 years ago nobody ever heard a pickle ball right and now pickle ball is a big thing so what's going to be 10 years from now to me it would make sense to keep this as open and it as possible maybe through the public forum to to find out to me again it's an option it's an option thing to keep open okay I don't know how everybody else about it but I'd like to see it more open I'd like and I'd love to see the input sounds good um and then the next page we're looking at conditional uses which I already went over with you guys um but if anybody has any questions um and then Landscaping buffers I mean we pretty much adopted Lee counties Landscaping buffers they're awfully big they're they don't really make sense for a small town um and we need to re-evaluate what makes sense between our uses and where we really need these buffers um right now we require pretty wide buffers in strange places maybe we just need them between the commercial and the residential maybe you know maybe there's some some leeway there and maybe there are places that we want to make sure we do keep the landscap because they're beneficial and again I this is another one of those that do we seems like we're fighting ourselves sometimes we're getting people to try to incentivize them to give us bigger view corridors but then we're requiring them to fill it in with all this green we takes away the view corridor they just bought for you know we just fought the keep so this one has always been baffling to me why we it's very counterproductive and I hate continue continue to use that word but it I appreciate what you're taking it I'm still very concerned about the buffers that are going to go in by the bridge and try to keep people from Crossing oh that's going to be I mean oh it's it's going to be a nightmare and yeah and it's it's going to die off there's no sprinklers there's no nothing I mean it's going to be bad well we're not maintain yeah we need today I think you're talking about the base of the bridge uhhuh that's all Margaritaville I think has agreed to maintain that oh that's helpful because they did a beautiful job so the last item is when do you guys think uh the public Workshop makes the most sense I mean we want to do it sooner than later but we also want to do it when people are going to be around I think that's going to be an issue no matter what so if you're going to do one in person in one online virtual I think you're going to cover both your bases so people that want to be involved you probably have a bigger turnout on the zoom then you will in person this time I think you do the zoom first yeah and then in person as more people get back okay makes sense what's what's your time frame to match up when we get the comp plan back um so you'll have the comp plan in front of you on the 19th back from the state already yes yep wow and we've addressed all the comments um so I'm going to be dropping it into the agenda and you guys will have it for you August 19th I I yep I'm glad you brought that up because I I was talking about it at the beginning the last time we had this comp plan discussion that was way too much information in my opinion in one meeting I think by the end of the meeting you could just look around and see everybody was glazed over and I think things got missed I don't know if it makes sense to break it up into two meetings I mean you start getting into hour six and hour seven of talking about comps it's people have just they don't even know what they're talking about anymore half the time and I think we missed some things in that in that initial discussion simply because of that so I don't I know I don't want to draw it out any longer than it needs to but I would hate for something to get through that we didn't mean to get through or vice versa we missed something that we wanted to get through then you're then you're bringing it up in September when we got the budget and it's 9:00 at night well it would be the first meeting it wouldn't be the second one because you would have to have two readings I would assume right no you have the first meeting you have the first uh we had the first already then we send it to the state and then we get it back in second the adoption so so does the review of the comp plan have to be as laborious as we're talking about in other words we've we've vetted it relatively well it seems to me as staff you could highlight anything that might be controversial or different or of concern right I mean we have to go through it all Page by page because we've done it initially the only thing that has changed are going to be in the pages at the beginning um they were driven by comments we received we didn't receive any comments from uh Department of Commerce we received um a few comments from fdot uh FD and water district maybe Water Management District but those changes we would want to see those changes but again if individual members of the council have concerns or have heard concerns since it's been submitted they could be raised but I I don't think it involves Page by Page yeah I mean we yeah I mean we certainly don't have to make it laborious we can go over just the changes and then any questions that you guys have or um or we could break it up into two meetings that is option well I think I guess I didn't know how elaborate it was going to be but to your point I don't think we're going to go each section Page by Page like we did before because that's already been done yeah but there is at least one or two things in there that afterwards when I went back and watched it I I don't think that was what our intent was but now that it's in the new version of the comp plan it's going to have a drastic impact on some of the development on this island if it goes through the way that it is okay so F and density for instance that those two things I don't think the way that it's in the comp plan now or the revised comp plan I don't think that we had enough time because it was late in the meeting to really discuss what that looks like or potentially could look like on some of these bigger Acre Properties and to to memorialize that in a comp plan you could be taking out any of this public benefit negotiation stuff that we've been talking about and those would be the type of issues that's the ones the big ones like that are the ones that I I I would want to make sure that we really look at so could we prioritize like some of the issues that we've been seeing as we've gotten from there and prioritize those first um because I think as we go as we go further they're not as indepth and not as highlighted as what we've seen at the beginning yes if we did those at the beginning then we probably could get through the rest pretty quickly um Can can I ask what you would want to see and what you would need that discussion to look like for some of these items just to make sure that we're prepared and if you want well we would need to see from you what what's the presentation going to look like what does it look like now that it's come back from the state we don't we haven't seen it well I mean but you were talking about F the F hasn't changed so that wasn't required a change um but if no but how things are calculated how the equivalency Factor went in there were some changes in there we we didn't CH the equivalency factors in the LDC but I there see this is this is this is to my point yeah there there was so much that went on in there I can't remember off the top of my head exactly what but there was something something along those Realms and how it was going to relate to one of the developments that was proposed to be coming through the change that we had talked about would have given them what they wanted to do by right should they were able to get the zoning request that they wanted to do and and that was not our intent so the the land development in the comprehensive plan we took out the requirement to do the um equivalency Factor but the Land Development code still has that requirement so the the comprehensive plan does not have to direct that the Land Development code can still contain that and it can still be effective um the comprehensive the way they wrote the comprehensive plan it did direct the Land Development code to have but we took that out because that was part of the discussion but it's still in the Land Development code still it's still in effect even though the comprehensive plan doesn't say you have to have it so until it gets removed from the Land Development code it's still in effect so us removing it from the comprehensive plan didn't like invalidated a lot to talk about yes but again I think I just want to make sure about on the 19th I the sooner we that's a lot of information and to the sooner we can get it presentation would be better I mean sometimes we don't get stuff till Thursday night and if there's other things on the agenda you're you're focusing all your time to review and do things in this case on the comp plan and you don't have a lot of time between Friday and and Monday to get everything caught up so yeah as sooner we can see what we're going to be discussing the better off okay we be right Andy and I'm I'm trying to get the complete I have the changes but I don't have the complete comp plan so I uh reached out to the consultant to make sure that I have the most upto-date version and then I'll get on the agenda is it is it C plan son's map sort of is future land use map included yes we so we will see all that as well yes that that's something to the mayor's point it all went so quickly i' I'd love to see some of those maps and you know maybe a hard copy changed so many times every time Eddie's been here it's been it's this and then it's this it's this where did it where did it land where did it land yeah and I can I can get you hard copies great yeah if we can I mean it doesn't have to be the agenda I printed them off last time and uh left them at my house so we have them already oh perfect good deal um so I think we have covered everything that I needed to cover did you guys have any suggestions questions about items that you think need to be covered that are big issue items I brought it up before and I don't know if this is in your perview what you're trying to look at on the Land Development because we talked about parking garages a little earlier and there's some buffers in there that have to come in that currently in the code that just don't make sense to be able to do yeah a you know parking is that something you guys are going to look at speaking of the parking yeah I mean the way the code's written now it's almost impossible to put a parking garage on the island yeah and um I mean the way they talk about that design of the parking garage makes sense I've seen that in a lot of communities but the size lots that we have here it doesn't make sense it doesn't work very well so I I understand what you're saying and we recognize that and we'll will make changes to give people other options for building these because it is something the community wants and would utilize so I think that makes sense all right anything else good good that good good we good fantastic thank you guys okay the next uh it where we at Bridge tolls Bridge TOS is that right m Karen you want to start I can do that um so I had brought up as a suggestion of something to look at um putting tolls on the bridge to help monitor traffic to help with cut throughs uh that type of thing so I worked a lot with Andy and team and we worked in conjunction with Dave Harner um from Lee County and we ended up getting um it didn't go very far let's put it that way so I received a letter actually through um Kevin Ru and it came from um it basically came from their attorneys um and it stated why at this point in time and the timing of everything we are a long way out of even considering a Bridge toll if at all um so basically it said um the Ben matanzas BRD Bridge pass is a state-owned and maintained facility located blah blah blah blah blah um according to the statute the department May establish tools on new limited access facilities on the state highway system Lanes added to existing limited access facilities on the state highway system or new major bridges on the state highway system over waterways and replacements for existing major bridges on the state highway over water rays in other words it could be added however in the case of the mananas bridge um it's not being replaced so therefore according to plain language and the statute it does not appear that we have the ability to impose tolls because we are not having a new bridge or a replacement Bridge um the Big Carlos Bri Bridge um that is a whole different uh situation um the Big Carlos Pass Bridge is currently being replaced and the project is under construction The Bridge Project is being funded with local monies Federal Highway Administration monies and car's act Federal monies according to discussions uh the discussion to imp according to Rob Price the discussion to implement a new toll facility would have had to take place with the federal government prior to applying Prower and acquiring the federal monies and commencement of the construction so needless to say it's under construction that's all been approved there is no way to go back to that right now um it would have to be at a totally different time and place after the bridge is already constructed and it would open up a whole new a whole new ordinance Amendment everything else that would have to take place and funding mechanism so at this point um it doesn't look like there's any leeway at all for either bridge to have a toll but I do appreciate um some of the comments that I received um some comments I got comments or you did um but you know this is why you bring things up like this it it's talked about casually and everybody wants to know why or why not and as we did our due diligence we found out there is absolutely no way that this is going to happen now or anytime in the near future so that's where we are at that discussion well that was an easy short discuss also didn't you also find out that you can't there's there's no cut through provision like in Texas they have some tollways where if you if you cut through you get you get at the airport at DFW airport where if you where if you cut through instead of picking somebody up you get charged but if you go pick someone up and take the other exit you don't get charged but my understanding that in Florida and you may know this that you can't you can't differentiate reasons of passage on on a road in other words you can't do that I mean I didn't that that never came up in the conversations or anything like that so I you have express lane what you're I guess it's the flip side of what you're describing let me see because in this you'd be paying a toll to come in one way but paying a toll when you go home the other way so in Florida tolls are generally applied uniformally to all vehicles passing through toll roads or Bridges regardless of this specific destination or purpose to travel whereas in Texas you can delineate between the purpose of travel that that conversation never came up at all because we were pretty much it's mute because you can't even put a toll on there right but I mean based on what we got back and you know in working with Lee County and everything it's just it's it's not even something that is even in the shortterm line of sight so I will say I support Nestle Toll housee cookies okay next item moving on uh consent agenda public comment Who's whose item was this I think that might have been mine yeah that that wasn't me and um I think today the way uh we handled the consent agenda and the administrative agenda um took care of a lot of that issue for me I know um i' had shared with Andy previously that the fire department has on their agenda what exactly the consent agenda means and how it's handled um so I think U we could if we're if we want to remain the way the consent agenda has been in the past I would like to see that added to the agenda so the public would know what to expect but if we're going to move to where uh we're going to discuss these issues all the time anyway I'm okay with uh uh the way it is but uh maybe uh and I think we saw it again today uh with u the woman that uh um was comp was concerned about her flooding uh she was expecting us to address her and if if there's a way to let the public know that this is public comment um if you have any concern um then see us afterwards but um just so the public knows what to expect when they come here because not everybody comes here is that something maybe Nancy you could put in you know I've got that really nice cheat sheet that I read all the time for the yes is there something that we could have to to John's point that saying here is our policy for public comment and before we open public comment we could say do you would you like us second work with Amy maybe put it on the agenda itself Yeah just something to read that you when we open public comment if you're asking specific questions that you know what I mean just to let them to John Point let them know that so they're not standing up there waiting for us to respond it becomes awkward can't do that but I think we could there something it doesn't have to be yeah so we'll work on some language maybe to follow public comment there for an explanation just and then you're still going to have consent do you want any type of description there on consent items of administrative items that are administrative in nature um I will leave that up to your discussion Mr Town manager this time I pretty well looked at you know obviously there was a lot of one-time such things that didn't come up in the budget that affected money so it said okay let's these need to be discussed more um and and that pretty much is what I looked at if it was it's like if it's you know $40,000 which it wouldn't be but I'm just using that number maybe it Go in consent but if it's you know2 200,000 50 millionar obviously it needs a little more explanation this is what because that's kind of what we've looked at as we've gone through the last year I'm going to move this because we just need more explanation of really why we're spending a million dollars that kind of thing that's kind of how I just kind of looked at it this time and we thought that would create a pretty good balance and we went through it pretty quick it wasn't long and we staff's ready to get up and talk about their particular area and that way it's Bo cut and dry well and there's certain times that I I would ask for something to be removed because it's an opportunity for public attention for example the farmers market moving to Santini Plaza oh yeah it's it gives the the applicant a chance to kind of tell their story and it's a good because a lot of people are watching this post so that that I I think the system can work we just just got to manage it and you know some of those repetitive things that that the hurricane emergency order okay we we all rubber I think it say expectation for time too so if you have 10 things on the consent agenda someone thinks that the consent agenda is going to be that you know maybe one thing comes off but when the entire consent agenda was coming off now someone that thought they were going to be here for 10 minutes to speak is now here for an hour and so so if it goes out like that like it did today oh we already know we've got 10 things here versus 12 here we're going to pull 10 of those off now we got 22 over here instead of even though when we do the consent and pull them off it's pretty quick it's it's not a long drawn when you get into the public hearing part when lawyers are sitting out there you can budget their time a little better we we can do it yeah I thought it fled cly I thought it was great especially even after a layoff yeah about good job out of you efficient government all right anything else with this one John no thank you all right we'll move on to agenda management anybody Scott anything on agenda management well tolls are out um except cookies except in Texas um I think we spoke about it the ebikes I think that we should tackle that and get it get it put to bed I I think everybody wants wants a solution so the sooner the better that's all I have I okay Cil would um I just think you know I don't know how many people actually see this but it is published so so we should change that final budget hearings to after or I'm sorry change our council meeting to after we have it there but um if we have update tier one project we have it at 9:23 at 9:00 a.m. so that needs to be after budget meetings but other than that um and I know some of these things are in process but uh what is life pole decorating along a sterile Boulevard what is that that was so that was mine it it was I told you about the um when I was up in dened it was during Christmas and each like people sponsored a light pole and they decorated with like decorations it just it goes into that artistic kind of thing where they were allowed to be able to decorate it and some had it was just a cool it was just a neat thing and it was but if we're going to talk about that it was on here to come put on a future M well maybe it needs to go on music sooner than later you got it I think it' be a fun way for people by the October maybe we'll start to see some light poles actually lay on the decorate the yard yeah they're here you want up too I think with that we're going to need we're going to need to check with FPL on that too because technically we don't have our own poles yet so this could be a mute so if we want our PS sooner can we just grab them and start walking them down that's a quick a quick way to that to get them to respond to you to get them put up yeah we can decorate the pool at the same time light PS have an outlet uh that's I don't know that they do but I got to believe that there's something that could be added if they need to be down the road I don't know if that it's there's always solar light it's a town it's a town own system so it's solar lights installed solar lights batteries we got it cover there's all kinds of things youan yeah um I will say the flag we know the queen of Blinky we could probably really exactly um I will say the flags that went up along Old San Carlos and everything for the Fourth of July and all those that was really cool really really cool I love those um I have nothing I'm sorry yeah no I'm done nothing additional I don't have anything additional but this has been on agenda since last November it looks like a joint sessions between Council and advisory committees other than the LPA and the Public Safety Committee uh we haven't met with any of the other committees that I recall is this something that's still an issue or just keep it on there in case it is or actually I will say that um in borab specifically and because I'm the liaison with borab um you know there was a Oh God what he doing there was a um a time when we had approved an entire Administrative Building and all that kind of thing and then Ian came in place and and the people who have sat on borab for a long time they worked very very hard for that approval for that building um and now we sit with no building in sight no pool no and it comes up every time and Jeff will agree with me that this is something that as much as we say it I think it would be really helpful at our next B bcab meeting if um at least Andy or Frankie one of the two of you could be there to address some of their their ongoing questions because I mean it's even come up to the fact from one of the people you know is borab even you know should we even have a borab anymore you know what what are we doing what role are we playing so and I just keep trying to tell them that if this is timing we have we have to wait for a couple of things to happen which some things did now and with the new um Town Offices being official and that type of thing so I just think it'd be really helpful if you could come in and talk with them I'd be more than happy to come and at least explain how we got to where we're at with especially with the cdbg and then also Plan D andf uh that we have lined up for those projects as well that would be great and I think if I'm right our next forab meeting is the 21st of August I can't yeah that's a that's not a good date I'm pre-arranging my so with with regard to that do you think it would be prudent to me with the LPA again while we're going over the LDC did this board cab thing get addressed fully or so I'm sorry I you're good just while we're waiting for to come um I do know that that the two that I you know am on Cell cab and Bor cab have been wanting some direction from Council um um and the talent as to the direction that they want to go in um or that they want us to okay cool uh the the direction that the the town is looking for them like like you said um Karen they're just not really sure where we're going with it things like the pool aren't moving very fast we're just kind of waiting um on some some funding and that's just kind of the way it is right now I mean we're in recovery mode still um you know there's things that are happening slowly but they're just kind of sitting waiting for something to happen well we're going to be off this these buildings are going to be gone in in the near future I mean so this will be opening back up is now a good time to to task them with trying to find funding or Grant or so we've got the design ready building it's already pretty much ready to go to permit does it make sense to take a look at that again does it Mak sense to to find a way to fund it to build it do it direction of the town and that's the way we want to go yeah we can definitely discuss what that looks like but I don't know I don't know if that's their they didn't have a lot of input into the building right that building itself they yeah what what we had envisioned and told to dream about because that's when I still sat on bcab and then what came out was like what building is this we had no idea so yeah the ones that are on it weren't exactly thrilled with how it it turned out no one was no one was then I I keep looking at like the new town offices and all the extra space that's going to be there and and opening up to different groups and different um 501 c3s for meetings and all that kind of thing and so then it's like is it really an administrative building that we need or maybe we need to switch gears and look at other types of recreational type things that go more with Bap Oak personally my hope would be because the uh the B Oaks facility is aging and it's going to eventually be switched over to public works whatever the new building is can incorporate some of the previous functions but also some exercise facilities that are up to date and current and Trend with where the island is headed Y and that makes more sense for a recreational facility as opposed to you know the meeting rooms and theater and that kind of thing especially with the library right over there right exactly yeah and I guess in my my perspective we just put a million and some dollars into Bay Oaks and it got renovated um I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon um it's in it's actually in good shape um really we did rid the roof we did all the flooring you know Fresh coat of paint the floor still really good um so it's just how whatever the the town and the council want as a as priorities I guess but I mean there's things you can look at like indoor pick a ball space and you know things oh yeah that you don't have to have co-mingling in one building instead of having a big Administrative Building that was there before and now the ball field is going to be in the back and now you've got more space to create Park and green space and you know things like that and that's what during that visioning session we did at Diamond Head that was one of the things they wanted more walking paths and bike paths and you know Green Space like that um that they can they can use yeah and I it I could go either way on it like it'd be cool to have a new building but it also have great to have have green space where you can come and kick a soccer ball around and um you know run around as a kid or adults I guess too have maybe does it make sense to maybe take what the layout's going to be when the new other field is done and this is gone and here's the usable space that we have because we still have that interlocal agreement for the don't we still have to do a park for the school wasn't that for the school fening there's a certain place that the fence needs to go and that type of thing too that was all in the old yeah we did get a playground for them um that that's on their their lot and I think I thought the fencing was already done done with the boundaries but I'm not sure my point is get the usable space yeah and I mean well now the new town got a whole the new town H has a community room that's about this size that that's what it's going to be used for Council Woodson just mentioned that so I mean you don't need that space now right we've taken that off that list so now re reevaluate the building and to your point does I mean these are all things that that their B bcab could be talking about does it make sense to get or instead of now that we're not building that can we do a structure to put all the assets that we have now to protect out of the Sun as opposed to sitting in outside parking lot does that make sense to put that facility somewhere on campus here you know what I mean it's just yeah I mean there's a lot of like I keep telling everyone even in warab we have a clean slate kind of on some of this stuff you know we have we have a lot I mean you get have food truck things in here you get all kinds of things you could do you do everywhere else comp I mean there's all kinds of things I love the I Love The Proposal before had a lot of social opportunities for the island to gather as a community but I think one of the things that's changed as well with the weight room the the exercise weightroom private facility gone now from the island we're no longer competing against any of our local businesses and obviously the weight room at Bay Oaks even though they did a nice job of doing the best they can in a pretty small space could be huge that could be expanded in a way that can really help Public Health on the island I think but um particularly now that there's not a private facility on the island I think we just gave them a lot to talk about sure did yeah and the other thing I just wanted to mention is that um through cell cab and mountainous we're doing the U Museum accreditation program and that is going to be on I talked to Andy about presenting it to you you all but it's going to be a joint session with uh Council as part of it and then once we get that maps program that opens up a lot of funding and marketing and everything for us so it'll be coming up just want to say with the joint thing I guess jef if if the committee still feel after meeting that they need to speak with us then go ahead bring the representative here to a council meeting and and we can work on it yeah okay yep I will relay that message thank you is that is that self cab joint meeting required as part of the certification or is that just a courtesy I I think it's required as uh a quorum I don't think everyone has to be there but I think we have to have a majority but the the cellc cap has to brief the council has to be part of that certification process yes that's one of the requirement very good well I I would take that opportunity to to have that joint meeting at the same time we're going to have one okay I forgot who was that was that was me okay where did I where did we leave out well that I originally interrupted I was asking about so rudely interrupted I think Daddy Daycare is an option too over here Daddy dayare Daddy Daycare husband um I was asking about the lp a perhaps because we're going through the LDC and the comp plan's coming up maybe they should probably request it but I don't think it' be a bad idea to get everybody on the H page I was thinking that it might make sense to do a joint session once we have the uh yeah once we've had the meeting with um the general public both the meetings and then we can come back to meet with you guys as a group sounds good that' be great perfect thank you John we is that anything else that took care of what I was concerned about I have something further okay if you're done excuse me wait The Joint session that uh Jeff was talking about with cell cab for the maps assessment um Adam Knight is requesting that on September 19th that's when the maps people will be here I don't know who they are that' be a night night meeting that's second meeting 19 no September 19 September 19th Thursday that's not a budet correct um the I guess they will be here at certain time so that's a totally separate meeting yep the visit dates of the maps person whoever that is um they'll be here September 18th and 19th track so he's asking if they could schedule a special Joint Council cell cab meeting on September 19th and then while you're all looking at your calendars just a reminder next meeting on August 19th will be at Bay Oaks not here because of the primary um elections and the supervisor of elections being here in Chambers oh yes B there is that it are you waiting for us to say is the 19th okay the 19th is the council meeting yes no the 19th would be the joint with cell cab for their map September 19th I'm sorry yes September what timea n um how about you how about you let us know at the next meeting I will let you know in just a moment here or in a few minutes 9 to 11 11 they're asking for during the day yes I thought somebody said even had to be an evening Sor no you're ready to clarify it I thought somebody said had to be does anybody have any issues with that September yes September so that would be cell cab joint meeting right 9 to 11 so his his I'm good his agenda is September 17th 18th but his email ask has 18th 19th so clarify I thought we bring this back to you at the next meeting I've already put it in in gamie sorry I'll discard my changes cuz the 18th would actually be better well just yeah get it figured out and then just let us know the next meeting and it sounds like everybody's flexible yeah yes anything else not as flexible as it used to be I just have two things if if there's someone else that's okay with adding it for discussion um because I don't see it on everybody I know we've talked about it one is the Estero Boulevard Landscaping how we want to approach that as far as allowing people to be artistic and creative and you know how we that's not on here so I'd like to see that if there's at least one other person that's I would like to talk about that so if we can add that to the agenda management and then the other thing is been talking I don't even know if it's a feasible thing Chad's not here but I know I've been talking with Andy a little bit about looking at a potential for Moby mats or something that we could put on the beach that would allow both Walkers bikers I've seen it in some other areas where they've got wide ones and actually have markings of the bike on one side and the walkers on the other if that's a feasible thing to be able to do or not do not that I want to give staff more work into looking into stuff but I did talk to um fep about certain issues of that they seem to think that would be still a concern as as a as a a walkway would uh be and then FWC might have some issues uh regarding Turtles but yeah I figured that was probably gonna but well you said these are mites I think we should explore it yeah I'm just saying looking into yeah okay I'm okay want to add that on there for discussion to add a fature MN meeting and that would most likely there as I Enis tell me if you agree uh would potentially start at maybe red coconut and go to Time Square not necessarily the whole no I think you that to your point I think it makes sense where there's no bike lane yeah to be able to maybe do something see how it works and it's something that can be removed fairly quickly should the event of a storm or less less residential property would be impacting I would think the resorts if they're if they're they're uh renters or or their guests could hop on a bike and get the Time Square in five minutes versus well I you know I think of everything wheelchairs people in wheelchairs if they want to pull up to a beach access and they can only go out so far it' be nice if they could get out if it's if you got two directions going and then the electric flikes wouldn't threaten anybody either CU if Walkers are generally going to walk around the beach right so it's just an idea to KCK around and see see if it it goes anywhere is there anything else move to ajour motion by John second by C Safford any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I we are adjourned at 248 --------- ##VIDEO ID:ME6aEyGNMN0## e e e e e one we are going to call the meeting to order today is Wednesday August 7th this is the new uh date we're supposed to be on Monday for the regularly schedule Town council meeting uh Town manager Town attorney town clerk all the council members are present if you please rise for the invocation followed by uh councelor Woodson and the Pledge of Allegiance As We Gather here today we pray that we are ever mindful of opportunities to render our service to fellow citizens and to our community we ask you to guide those who as our government leaders make their daily decisions that affect us so that their efforts shall be motivated by the same Great rule of Charity and good will let us continue to strive to Make a Better World amen amen I plg to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all how cozy is I know it's really cozy thank you next we have the approval of the final agenda is there a motion to approve the final agenda so moved got a motion by councelor King I'll second second by councelor Safford we I know we got some disc go ahead Madam oh I was going to say um we have a pres presenter that was originally scheduled for the Mmp I don't know if he's here or not that we were going to maybe move to this morning okay I don't know um and then also Dr koher is not going to be here today correct correct and then we also have Steve Johnson from murf is here to to um speak under ad advisory committee's items and reports no not yet we're just finalizing the final agenda just making sure everybody knows what's coming up please yes uh we got a motion and a second any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next is public comment that okay first up I have Ellen Von Miss Von will be followed by Ramona Kaiser good morning everyone and thank you for all that you've done to get us through this this next thing um yeah whatever I'm I'm I'm here on behalf of the friends of the mount oh I'm live at 7500 Estero Boulevard um I'm here on behalf of friends of the mountainous and I'm here to do a little seed making sure the seeds are germinating because the friends of the mountainous are going to be hosting the island Hopper event at the end of September um and listen when you hear the date that we have drawn we are on Saturday September 28 yeah yeah all right so we're going to reclaim that date um so so I will be here again at the next meeting to speak about the fact that we are getting a a one-day liquor license so that we will be able to sell beverages so that we will reap more benefits which will go to the mountain house so just hold that date and uh try to reclaim it as a positive day thank you do you have a time uh it will be the afternoon so we don't know definitively we don't know who our performers are yet but I'm sure they'll be wonderful um I'm going to guess that it will be you know mid to midafternoon is okay thank you thanks uh Ramona Kaiser good morning good morning uh Ramona Kaiser on Sterling Avenue and no liquor on my street just lots of water and that's what I want to talk about Street too unfortunately about the flooding um and what is supposed to be done about it um I heard there's going to be a new drain line coming down our street which will be installed right on my property and my problem with that is yes our street floods a lot and I have been here for 30 years the last few years have been worse where I am located right in the middle of the street across the street for me is already a drain installed with a new Duck build going into the canal I can tell you it does not work um it always backs up it floods the street and makes it worse now that's across the street from me um across the canal from me is also a uh drain line with a duck bill that drains into the canal I live on a very narrow Canal um when the water comes in you can see it gushing in and it kind of creates a wake and bounces pretty much off the seaw wall and I have a boat ramp so that doesn't help it goes up the B RAM and over the uh sea now they want to put a drain in my yard which would be exactly across from the existing drain to me that doesn't make sense I mean two drains that go into a very narrow Canal right across from each other I don't think that helps and the drain line is supposed to be installed all the way from Estero Boulevard past Lauder Street past P fall Park all the way to my property where it goes into Canal um I'm talking for myself but I don't think that is a good solution it I'm not a professional drain installer or anything but it seems to be a better idea to drain the water further down into the Back Bay I know it levels out but at least it doesn't hit a seaw wall or any kind of other obstruction and B its back it kind of like seeds more into it that's my suggestion but I realized something has to be done on that street um yes I was flooded in this last hurricane but that had nothing to do with rain or you know um whatever I don't know any questions maybe I'm not very good at talking about it but that's my story thank you rosan you maybe after the meeting get with with Frankie over here in the white shirt he can he can answer all your questions that's all I have signed up is there anyone else at like to speak in public comment seeing none we'll close public comment next local achievements and recognitions councelor king um I guess I'll just start with uh recognizing and appreciating uh the town manager and all his staff for the hard work in preparing for tropical storm Debbie um also the hard work uh in the recovery efforts as well with Jeff his Public Works folks and uh everyone that was involved it's uh deeply appreciated thank you thank you vice mayor yeah it's been a been a while since we've met and I've been remiss in uh not recognizing councilwoman Woodson and our Lee County Commissioners um for the good work they've done on the pier uh Alan shinoski and his wife Cindy let's go FMB and uh particularly those who served on the peer committee for let's go FMB and that whole organization that helped get the get the focus on the pier and and to councelor Woodson I'm not sure how you pulled that rabbit out of your cuz things were looking Grim for a while but it was quite uh quite a turnaround and and and it's a big piece of the puzzle uh or a piece of the puzzle at town for our town so I just thank you for that uh and all those involved and it it kind of got me thinking is this is one of our key puzzle pieces a number of the other puzzle pieces are falling in place and I just want to make a couple observations we have activity significant activity on the North and the South Bridge of this island we've got new Street lighting going on and being installed across the island we've got massive Beacher nourishment going on right now across the across the beach uh hopefully to be concluded by the end of the year we've got a a town hall building with additional parking that will be open in a few months at a third of the cost of building a new building uh we've got an LPA and Council docket uh over the next few months that is full of Redevelopment options for the town we've got new and rebuilt housing going up all across the island our Beach school is opening for its first full school year here on the island uh After the Storm Santini Plaza making more progress than meets the eye with a number of significant announcements to come I would just say to to those uh who are listening Fort Meers beach is on the move and I'd like to recognize the residents and the businesses to help who help make this happen as well of our as well as our governmental Partners at the local level many of whom are sitting in this rle our County Partners our state partners and our federal Partners I would just say be encouraged onward that's all I have Mr Mayor thank you very thorough coun Woodson I can't say anything in addition to all of that thank you yeah c yeah that's a tough act to follow I there um I I want to Echo what uh what councelor king had said both both Karen and I were out of town but it never felt like we were out out of town it was not that urgency to come back uh the communication between staff and us before the storm was tremendous um you compare this to two years ago and it's it's night and day and once again Nicole thank you you did an excellent job getting getting press releases out and letting the public know what's going on and and Jeff um great job cleaning up I mean and we had a plan and you you could see that we had a well organized plan and was well executed so thank you again yeah ion I don't want to be the dead horse but I agree with both councelor Safford and councelor King they they uh unfortunately we're getting good at this which is not something you want to say but uh it just goes to show you that the staff is well prepared um and and and speaking with a lot of people after Debbie there was a lot of compliments about how well organized how well U people were communicated with um they didn't feel pressure after the storm they didn't feel like where are we going to go what's going to happen uh so that's good I think that brings up morale for people knowing that if we do have an event like we had with Debbie that uh we've got it covered uh we've got good Communications and relations with our our state and local Partners so uh we've got it as best under control as we can and and uh still got some work to do but but uh getting better better every day so thank you all right Steve you want to start us up I don't see the other presenters here yet so come on up morning Council mayor vice mayor staff uh my name is Steve Johnson chair of the Marine environmental resource task force got some really some Administration here to do it's uh dates back to to April some recommendations um and some corrections so back in April um there was a recommendation to um to prevent or at least uh encouragement from uh from murf uh to the Town Council to discourage uh varing in the EC Zone uh actually the the vote had been 5 to2 uh but I wanted to correct the record it should have been 5 to1 as as a member uh did not recuse himself uh while acting as an HOA president and actively pursuing a variance in the EC zone so that's really the correction uh number one there where it says EC Zone protection was in fact the recommendation that day uh but also as a point of clarification uh councilwoman um um Woodson I'm sorry uh had asked actually when we made that recommendation whether or not that applied to grandfathered structures and I had actually mistakenly said uh it didn't so I came back at a at a at a meeting we had skipped the meeting and uh and so we had reconciled that that we do in fact uh recommend to discourage grandfather structures for that very reason that their grandfathered that the forefathers created the the the EC Zone to create that buffer for resilience uh for storm events and uh to prevent encroachment to the beach so the fact that it is grandfathered um Everybody realized at the time they were grandfathered and uh certainly if there was destruction the idea was that they they would not build back in that zone um so next recommendation actually was a correction as well during that same um uh recommendation uh time in April uh I had failed to also include a Rec recommendation to consider allowing beachfront seaw walls uh as needed to protect the beach from the effects of eptide scouring um the boat was 7 to Zer at the time and uh we all know that uh uh Coastal seaw walls and hard structures uh cause erosion to our beach but our um Dr sees from FGCU who's a coastal resilience uh one of the coastal resilience experts at our Forum had discussed that uh the seaw walls actually do have a positive uh effect in eptide scouring so after the water inundates up into the up on the land on the way back uh it prevents the the deep scourers that uh that affect structural Integrity in some of our our buildings um so that uh the recommendation was for Council to look into it all right I think that gentleman also said that was his calculation correct me if I'm wrong that the water going back out into the Gulf did more damage than it did coming in is that your recol yeah abely absolutely yep yep yep the structures uh obstructed and INF funneled the water and it scoured and and caused really it's the structural damage to a lot of the the buildings uh undermines the um the uh the uh the base of the building so the LA uh second to last here uh so these are new anyway uh but there was a recommendation to prioritize Mangrove habitat propagation so adding planting uh mangroves throughout the island uh as a community benefit in all development uh on Fort Meers Beach so specifically as you consider tradeoffs with cpds rpds uh development orders um instead of maybe a walkover we have we have somebody donating some some mangroves to a particular lot or actually adding them to their own uh property uh to to to hold this sand on this Barrier Island we have um and then last but not least uh there was a request for permission to approach the beach School to begin discussions on potential curriculum and ongoing education programs so that's uh specifically just a request to Town Council for permission for um for M members to to discuss things with with the beach school does anyone have any objection to that what kind of curriculum are we talking about uh it would be a um you know a conservation type curriculum so it would be uh I mean the early discussions we didn't get too deep into it uh because we thought we needed to to discuss but uh basically Hands-On things on the beach around the island uh we provide uh materials and um so I don't want to say SE School type activities but those types of activities it's my understanding that the curriculum that is already underway in terms of being shaped so I think they're they've already started that process the timing is exactly and that's why we we came for the permission have no objection okay perfect so I'll put a yes there any other questions or uh issues I can address while here one of the things that I've been you know talking about and I know that people probably ter hearing me talk about it but it goes kind of along with what you're talking about here is we really got to start to be proactive at trying to find ways to protect the island and and you're talking about the seaw walls and people have heard me talk about the coastal protection system at nazu probably but if if if it's okay with my fellow counselors to have murf start looking into exactly what Clear Water did or what clear water has is it something that could be VI is it something that we could use mitigation funding for is it something that we could put in that could solve more than just one issue when it comes to erosion it could then prevent some of the traffic issues that we're dealing with as far as getting pedestrians from the north end to the South and bicyclist off the ster a Boulevard and onto the you want this hand on the boulevard I know they have kind of like a boardwalk type system that goes on top of the coastal protection system so does it solve multipurposes and costs associated with it and how we can how we can work with our state government and federal government to potentially get because keep redoing emergency BMS over and over and over again seems to be like you're throwing money into into a bucket that has no bottom and and I think if we start looking at the systems like that whether it's the seaw walls U but to have a continuous system all the way down versus this guy has it this guy doesn't this guy has it this guy doesn't you know what I mean sure sure if everybody's okay with I think that would be something that falls right immersed wheelhouse right to to look into and dig up okay well I do know that uh sorry I just going to add I think uh Mr Mayor uh I was talking to the chair of the Public Safety Committee the other day and I think there's also and and not that both can't look at this because I think they they're both impacted both committees uh and I was talking to Frankie about this Frankie Frankie's over there uh I think the term is these Moby Moby mats Mo mats we had some contiguous Moby mats from Red Coconut down to Time Square away from the beach but closer to the buildings then bikes could instead of going on the beach they could potentially go on these Moby mats again getting people out of their cars and getting getting another aside from the potential corridors on the on the the Bay Side maybe some options on the on the Gulf side as well but there's environmental consequences to that but at the same time there's also there's good Public Safety I mean it would be a good discussion to have I think okay well I think it goes I mean and the more you dig into it the more you'll find it helps with rebuilding it helps with taking things out of a velocity Zone and and putting them in areas where things can be built back at great grade level so I think there's a lot of potential benefits into it but what does it cost is it something that is both environmentally friendly as well as practical you know I think this is kind of rid in murf's wheelhouse to to dig in and do the research on that so really you're talking about a seaw wall essentially yeah what call it what you want SE wall closer protection system but if you start with clear water and see what they have it'll kind of give you an idea it works as a as a boardwalk it works as a protection from storm and scouring um so it's multi it's multifaceted and it's something that doesn't have any uh it doesn't really affect the property owners it doesn't really affect people because it's something that uh you can still see over it's not you know it's not sure I mean it's not like the the initial uh recommendation from Margaritaville right where they exact I understand what you're asking exactly it yep which would have been huge if we had it in place so taking it one step further it seems like the most floodings in the downtown district so you know Crescent Street and all that is are there public phones available to raise seaw walls on the back or on the canals and and again I think that's where murf would come in good and doing the research and finding finding all that information out and then obvious or maybe some pumps that if if we do get water we can pump out the water quicker or yeah that was one of the things I was going to bring up is if there's something like yeah I'm on the same stranded yeah was stranded well it seems like that's always you know the the deepest part and the quick as one the flood and um a lot of the neighborhoods are too though Scott I mean it's not it's a lot of the neighborhoods are well yeah I a couple we've established yeah really a watershed that's dumping into the into the canals I mean is there is there portable solutions to be able to put out there quickly after a storm when the water does go down below the outfalls to help try to expedite the water getting off the streets and not just relying on the storm drains to be able to get it off the island so I think that's kind of we yeah was so if you want to add that to your list of things to to research and obviously it's got to be practical and economical and and but if we could pull something out there with a simple pump truck or something yep there's grants available land order insurance rates I be a win-win long term M okay I think I got all my notes okay thank you anything else that's it all right thank you for your time I don't see the other presenter here so we're just going to continue on next heard from you heard from him maybe they'll show up for the M&P part of it yeah uh next is the approval of the minutes from the Town council meeting on June 17th 2024 is there a motion to approve the minutes from 20 June 17th so Mo motion by councelor King I'll second second by councelor Woodson any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next is the consent agenda there are three items on it all R I think it's the first time ever we've had three state of emergencies at the same time but um is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved motion by councelor Woodson second second by councelor Safford any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none the motion carries unanimously next is public hearings first is ordinance 24-18 DCI 202 4143 for 1668 I Street the beach bar a continuance has been requested by the petitioner but I've been told we have to open it yes and then so read the title so this is an ordinance of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions denying a request to reone the property located at 1668 I Street generally identified as strap number 1946242 4-70 b. 0110 Fort Meers Beach from downtown to commercial plan development CPD zoning with deviations for a bar and residents providing for other clarifications as necessary providing for conflicts of law scrier errors separability and providing for an effective date who's starting so they want to do a continuance right Jason morning Jason SMY with your planning and zoning department uh yes they uh through their uh contractor they have asked for an extension until the 19th of August 19th of August okay is there a motion to approve the uh continuance to a date certain of August 19th so moved second okay got motion by councelor Safford seconded by councelor King any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed hearing none the motion carries unanimously next is a review of secz 202312 6163 Old San Carlos an annual review of approved resolution 2387 for special exception se22 30126 that allows temporary outdoor consumption on premises with retail use at 163 old San Carlos Boulevard good morning uh again my name is Jason SMY with your planning and zoning department uh as you have just mentioned this is a uh requested 12-month re-review for the property on 163 old San Carlos Boulevard uh this was contained within the approved resolution 2387 uh the resolution put in some conditions of approval uh and also requested that after 12 months the applicant come back to uh to show what movement has been made uh staff as of this morning has looked at both of the lots that the applicant owns both 185 and 163 we can report that there in the past year there have been no new code issues or violations for either of those lots and as of this morning no no uh permits for site or development work have been pulled on either of those lots okay any questions for Jason thanks Jason applicate you want to we can have them come up right yeah sure you want to come up say anything morning good morning how are you good I'm Susie Bayan I own both of those properties um the reason that there been no application submitted is because the flood insurance on 163 Old St Carlos Boulevard is still in litigation um I never thought it would still be in litigation a year later but it is um therefore I am selling property my home in Texas in order to take those funds and to um remodel the 185 Old St Carlos which is the bar building so that's where we're at and when it sells then I will commence repair and remodel of that building have you had a meeting with Joe or Frankie about some of the issues that staff had had with potential safety hazards is that meeting happen I spoke to Frankie yes um I did all right and we're working on that okay so you're comfortable okay any questions for the applicant good morning good morning this is an opportunity a lot of folks are watching do you want to kind of give a little plug as to how your business is doing what your hours are and just encourage people what to come on down since sure um we're open Friday and Saturday nights right now um just because it's off seon and that seems to be when everybody's frequenting the beach start from the beginning tell them where it is and what you guys do sure it's 163 old San Carlos Boulevard it's called Susie Q's it's an outdoor Tiki Bar um we have live music every Friday and Saturday night uh we have a DJ takes requests um it's a good time um but we're open uh typically between 7:30 7 7:30 until everybody's done so that's right now um when season starts our hours will be extended very good thank you all right any other questions I have a question um because I live right down that canal and there are noise ordinances in place right and there's a lot of times in music is way past the time okay um so it's not just me it's Neighbors in that whole street that have come to me and said what about you know what about the noise ordinances they're not being followed so that is one thing that I would expect as we move forward with this um that that would be in compliance okay well typically I believe it's 11:00 um that the noise noise ordinance is in effect uh we typically lower the volume at 11 but we can adjust that it's not lowered is it 11 or 10 I thought I think it's 10 is it 10 it's 10 yeah it's 10 o' it's not 11 okay um so that is something that I would want assurance that that stays in compliance okay because what happens is it travels it's like a big pond there it's like a lake you know because you're at the Basin and it just goes okay so and there truly are many times I can hear it with all my doors closed and the air conditioner on so it's higher okay well thank you anyone else all right thank you thanks is there a motion to approve or deny uh special exception se22 30126 I believe this is just a review of one that you've already done no you've um accepted the testimony and uh there's no reason to revisit it so we don't have to vote to extend it it just automatically gets extended I believe so yes for how long another I believe it's another another 12 months it says annual so I'm you're right I'm sorry this um shall come back for review every 12 months um okay so a motion to to extend it for another 12 months okay is there a motion to approve the extension or deny the extension for 12 months I'll move to extend okay got a motion by vice mayor adhal I will second any further discussion do we have to do 12 months or can we do six months because there's things in the works I think that property especially on old San Carlos is very visual to so many people and nothing has been done and I understand you know Insurance everything else it's a nightmare um but I would like to see it shortened up to six months and have some movement May if I may also U I'm not sure if she's aware but the property next to her at some point is going to be demoed by the town so going to have a wall issue there so just to keep her in the loop of that I I certainly am not opposed to changing it to 6 months versus 12 months you can do that can I'll restate my motion move to extend for 6 months I'll I'll I'll amend my second did you want to see if there's any comment from the applicant sure would the applicant like to comment on okay okay okay good understood any other discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none the motion carries unanimously next is ordinance 24-17 advisory committees this is the first reading and public hearing of an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida amending section 2- 94 qualifications and appointments of members and section 2- 96 removal of agency board committee or commission members of division 2 procedures for the establishment of boards committees and commissions of article 4 boards commissions committees and other agencies of chapter 2 Administration in section 34113 composition appointment and compensation of members of division 3 local planning agency of Article 2 zoning procedures of chapter 34 zoning districts design standards and non-conformities of the code of ordinances of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida removing property ownership as a qualification requirement for the members of the town's agencies boards committees or commissions including the town's local planning agency eliminating duplicative language adding a grandfather provision for current non-qualifying members of the towns boards agencies commissions and committing uh committees adding a provision to section 34113 regarding the mandatory annual Financial disclosure form as required by Florida Commission on ethics providing for codification severability scrier erors conflicts of Law and an effective date will now open the public hearing okay thank you um M uh Mr Mr Mayor um this is an ordinance that has been before you before um before our summer break it came to you on first reading um on June the 17th and at that time there were some suggestions made to revise um a couple other sections and because of that we felt it would be appropriate to come back as a first reading so this is on first reading to you the substantive changes that have been made is to uh eliminate the requirement of proper ownership within the town's boundary um and the reason for that was that became a fact-based um criteria that was a little bit difficult to determine whether or not they uh own property on the island if they resided there so the criteria has been changed to Simply say that they must be a registered voter um within the territorial boundaries of the town of Fort Meers Beach and that determination as to whether they are a registered voter is made by the supervisor of elections so it's a very black and white easy um analysis and review to try to clear up that ambiguity um there was some duplicative language in section 2- 94 and 2- 96 that talked about the removal of members um regarding offenses cons uh involving moral turpitude that's been eliminated and um there was also an addition that the planning board we just added the language that under Florida law they are required to file their um Financial disclosure okay those are the proposed changes Scott any questions for Nancy um yes um I had asked that exhibit a um be changed for Town Council it still says the requirements form six as of right now that's not the case so can we change that to whatever state law requ state law requires please sure that's all I have we will do that and bring it and you'll see that change at second reading okay great so we're good no I'm I'm fine okay vice mayor I'm just curious Nancy uh the uh LPA and the audit committee are the only two advisory committees that are sort of designated by State Statute does State Statute have any language that affects this these changes we not find any residency requirements in State Statute but you are imposing some at the local level okay thank you counc K I just answered my question thank you I do not have any also on second reading we'll be bringing back your procedural rules so we need to make a little tweak there in order to have it consistent with this proposed ordinance okay thank you is there a motion to move this to the second public comment oh do we need public comment yeah I'm sorry public comment thank than anyone here like to speak in public comment seeing none we'll close public comment do we want do this need to be roll call or okay is there a motion to move this to the second reading on August 19th 2024 at 9:00 a.m so moved got a motion by councelor King second second by councelor Woodson any further discussion John hi counc Woodson hi counc Safford hi vice mayor adle hi and I'm an i as well motion carries unanimously thank you thank you next is the administrative agenda the first one up is the fiscal year 2023 audit report Joe would you feel more comfortable if you were able to sit down during this or you're going to be okay up I I should be okay okay yeah okay good morning everyone um so this very first item let's see oh I do have the president presentation up that's great it's just a couple of slides to just go through regarding um these resolutions that I'm responsible for for this first one is regarding the acceptance of the FY 23 audit report the audit was performed by our Auditors molden and Jenkins and they have issued an unmodified report so in other words it's a clean opinion which is the highest form of assurance that can be rendered regarding our financial statements that fairly the financial position of the town and there was also no findings by their test of the town's internal controls in compliance with laws and regulations so uh I just personally just like to comment on that in the sense that given the volume of all of the emergency transactions that we that had to be thoroughly documented and accounted for a compressed period of time that we had to do that within and then the relatively size small size of our finance department I think that this was an extraordinary accomplishment for us so I'm very proud of our finance department staff for their hard work and their dedication to Excellence um but then it's it goes beyond the finance department it's also reflection of the town's administrative staff or their adherence to strict internal controls and so the credit also needs to be shared with them and I'm grateful to our town manager for supporting us in providing the additional resource that we needed in order to handle that volume the so molden and Jenkins presented the audit report results to the audit committee at their July 29th meeting and they have recommended that the Town Council accepts the audit report questions for Joe councilor King no questions but I'll just reiterate what you already suggested and you're obviously a part of that as well for everyone's hard work and and and excellent work on this so so thank you everyone Vice man uh great report Joe congratulations uh to you and your team I'm curious what the status is of the contract with modin and Jenkins is it a is it a multi-year contract is it up for Renewal where are we at with the contract from from what I understand it's a three-year contract so they've completed two of the three years the next audit the to audit our current year 2024 um that would also follow with in like the third year of their contract and this was also discussed at the audit committee meeting and we were prepared even to go as far as approving an RFP if if the audit committee felt that that was necessary but they did not feel that that was necessary they would like they are recommending that we extend the contract one more year or renew it for this third year and um have them do the audit for 2024 as well and then after after that additional year it would go out for bid again it it would and you inherited this firm uh this this is an incumbent firm what was your impression of the firm and their work obviously they blessed your your efforts but but nonetheless what was your impression of the firm and and are you comfortable with this firm I am comfortable with them I was impressed with um their flexibility because we it was a struggle for us to pull everything together and so they were very patient and flexible and accommodating of like any delays that we had and providing them with the information so and then they also were helpful and if we had questions or issues that we needed some guidance in how to deal with they were right there and and responded instantly to our request for um guidance um and they were very thorough um they required a lot of information from us to review so and which is part of why it took as long as it did so I was very impressed with how thorough they were was it the same uh players for the firm that did the review that had done it done it PRI previously or previous to your uh uh employee with the for Mar Beach well I don't know for certain but I'm under the impression it's probably the same audit manager but I believe the staff has been changing because it even had changed you know from year to year since I've been here I asked that because uh obviously as you know there were concerns before you all got here that there there might be a need for a forensic audit of sorts did do you feel as if the work that this firm did even though they're their incumbent firm uh gave you assurances that that forensic audit is is not necessary yes I mean they have to me and I you know I certainly have not seen any evidence of a need for that personally but I realize as a staff member that's I should not that should not be my opinion alone and I I know that they did not see any evidence of anything and I think if there was concerns of any kind of um um mishandling of things it was not within the finances of the Town it would have been maybe things that were happening you know outside of the town maybe in personal um dealings with people but it was not with the town's Financial um resources good I just want to thank you for your good work thanks to the audit committee as well for their we got a lot of new members of the audit committee and they seem like they're doing good work so thank you for their efforts and your team as well that's all I've got Mr M thank you Council Woodson um I just want to express Kudos con you know everything about this team when you came in here our finances I know were um questionable skeptical um you pulled from every direction to try to get into the right format into the compliance the way we needed to be and your work has just been phenomenal and so I want to thank you and your team we've created a great team the work that you do with Andy I mean it's it's great I going into this budget period we are set I mean we know already everything that's happening um I don't think that was something that ever happened in previous councils so thank you thank you second yeah just I mean what another thing you have to realize how this was so Herculean is that fiscal year 23 started 3 days after the her huran hit okay so to get to get a clean opinion in in of itself is incredible but to get a clean opinion after the storm we had two days later is is incredible kudos to you Joe and kudos to you Andy everyone yeah I think it's a it's a it's an extra extraordinary uh feat that you guys pulled off and it just goes to show you that when when people work together as a team you can get things done and it starts at the top with providing resources that you need to get the job done and knowing that you're committed to Excellence is is what we're striving for so thank you to you and your team mayor yes sir obviously thank you to Joe and his team uh great to work with and we we we had we had you know a feeling out period with with everything getting here all all the newness that you see in the room uh you guys too the leadership that you've provided and the direction you helped me with that that that reflects on this as well so it's a big big deal uh for for you other thing vice mayor we've already we have discussed and I an RFP for a new uh audit firm I'm a firm believer about 3 years is is is is a good time to change it keeps everybody on their toes and and and it gives you a clear uh break but we we have to start now on the RP to get it ready for next uh October 1st so it's it's a it's a process so you get them lined up well before you get into the next year so Joe and I'll be working with that uh with the audit committee U and then then counselor Safford as well all right thank you Joe thank you any further discussion mayor I'll move um we accept the fiscal year 2023 audit report all right Al seconds motion by councelor King second by mayor allers any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next is the Second Amendment of the RightWay agreement with bans Construction Company authorized the mayor to execute amendment number two to the previous non-exclusive RightWay agreement with B Construction Company Inc to extend the agreement for two additional months under the same terms and conditions Andy or Frankie yes uh Mr Mayor this is a cile shop right in the corner of Old St Carlos and Estero um when they got in and started doing the Rena on that project um they didn't realize that the pit for the elevator had to be redone they thought they could Salvage the old elevator that was there um it has to be a new sized elevator by code so that kind of put them back and getting structural steel to the island as well as elevator service so that's what they're requesting okay and and they're going to keep I noticed they they're keeping the sidewalk open we have worked with them and to get the sidewalk open as fast as possible during the day when they have deliveries and they're doing outside construction or moving iron beams in of course they've been very good to work with that way but as soon as that work is done for the day they do try to to move it in as quick as possible okay any questions to Frankie counc King none may nope Stafford none okay I don't have any either is there a motion to approve the uh the Second Amendment so move got a motion by councelor King second secondly by councelor Woodson any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none the motion carries unanimously next is resolution 24-135 cdbg drr excessive force policy a resolution of the Town Council of town of Fort Meers Beach Florida a adopting policy protecting individuals engaged in nonviolent civil rights demonstrations and providing for an effective date Frankie or Andy actually this Jason's gonna speak to this Jason kind of uh organizes and orchestrates our F Rock program I want him to talk a little bit about our score and where we are in the in the first year um how how amazing um it is sure so uh good morning Jason Freeman for the record uh so this second this next one this is cdbg but yeah we can um so this one is just part of the Town submitted some applications for the planning I'm sorry this one's for public facilities and critical infrastructure for the cdb gdr program as part of that application process the county requested that we submit uh an excessive force policy even though we don't have our own law enforcement um so this policy just mirrors what the county has already established uh and then we can submit that resolution as part of our full application package so it was on as part of the uh application materials for those cdb gdr grants so can you explain what the excessive force force policy is I mean just an overview of it or not uh yes I I I can step in so if if if you have uh again this is a HUD driven program so the cdbg is driven by um housing Urban Development right so within that context um if we have a public facility or we're using federal funds for a public facility we cannot discriminate or exate people from uh peaceful protests in front of those buildings uh we cannot show that we're coming in with a water cannon to get them moved out of the way in our case Back Bay flooding to push them away um but um it it's one of those things where you have to be cognizant of all the things around you and and and be that to Jason's point we do not have our own police force but uh we do know that the county follows these policies with uh the lcso and they have also drafted this language into their cdbg document and so we did likewise okay correct yeah this this resolution just mirrors the County's policy so it's just one of those things that even though we don't have our own we're still going to be a good partner and that as well check the box correct just for exactly exactly exactly thank you counc sa questions no VI no counc K just got a comment I mean it just um it seems silly it seems like a waste of time but um we have to jump through these hoops I mean you you have Federal protections under the Constitution obviously from the state and the county um I thought about turning my back during this presentation in some municipalities that would have got me arrested and a million dollar payout but um we'll go through with it thank you all right is there a motion any further discussion is there a motion to approve resolution 24-135 cdb gdr excessive force policy so moved second motion by Council Woodson second councelor Safford any further discretion all those in favor signify by saying I mayor roll call that's a roll call okay councelor Woodson hi councelor Safford hi councelor King I'll go with i m i and I'm an i as well motion carries unanimously um next is resolution 24136 2025 FR Rock participation this is a resolution of the Town Council the town of Fort Myers Beach Florida authorizing the town manager to execute the 2025 participation request in renewal form for the Florida Recovery obligation calculation frro program authorizing the town manager or their designated to execute and submit related documents needed to implement and administer the program including the disaster Readiness assessment and the abatement activities providing an effective date Jason goad morning again Council Jason Freeman for the record so yeah frro we're going into our second year now so it's a pretty exciting time uh a couple staff members attended a training last week that was put on by fdm uh just going over what's new for the program for this year um and kind of different ways that we can incorporate different forms and and policies that they're starting to do we did finally get our scores for last year uh so after we submitted all of our policies and procedures and procurement documents uh we originally had scores of uh out of 60 we had a 37 and a 38 um through everybody's efforts with with Andy and the executive team and and then all the staff as well we did get our score from Cate for category a from a 37 to a 54 out of 60 and uh category B we got from a 38 to a 55 so we're almost there uh but we had a pretty pretty large Improvement which is exciting and that score automatically translates to uh more upfront funding for obligated projects if and when we would need to do that so uh that's that's really exciting we still have a little way to go though with it so next year um if you all choose to opt in again which I think we're really excited for um then we can hopefully tackle those couple final points and keep going from there so it's uh it's been a ongoing effort for sure we're learning all the different ways to kind of get more prepared uh ways to improve our policies and procedures working with everybody so yeah it's a very exciting time but we just hope to kind of keep going up from there so so Jason do they have like tiar like your point system and does that relate to percentages of what you can get it does so um there's there's a couple different ways you get to they're changing the score actually this year compared to what it was last year but last year just for opting in you got uh 20 points for a Baseline and then there was 40 points you could earn from This Disaster Readiness assessment which is where we went through all of our policies and procedures um and and submitted all those to FM for review that's when we got those initial scores uh then they came back and gave some suggestions through an abatement plan of different ways that we can improve you know and incorporate this policy make sure you're following female language if you're using federal funds um making sure that you have an emergency Financial plan set up and so through that um we increased those scores so right now yeah we're about 55 and 54 out of 60 and that translates directly to a percentage uh for that upfront funding so there's 20 extra points that you can get but you can only get it after disasters declared um and they get those points through what they call a uh post- disaster questionnaire so they're going to go back after an event and say did you use these forms did you follow your procedures did you do all this and that gives you that extra 20 points so it's up to 80 points um but we can't get those 20 until there's an actual uh disaster declared and then we we submit that information after so I believe it can be up to that percentage from what we understand translates directly to it so that 505 right now gives us 55% upfront um and then we get that opportunity for the 20% more you can get up to 80% from what we understand um of funding directly after obligation which I think is huge compared to a lot of those um emergency expedited uh projects I think we get up to around 50% so that's already given us a huge chunk more of money um we hope you don't have to use it but just in case we do it it saves a lot of money I think out of out of pocket for us so and you think the changes and the things that we're doing now are going to potentially hopefully give us an increase to that 60 or close yeah absolutely um and that's what the training was last week was just kind of going over different ways that we can still improve um just because it's the second year that they're doing it um I don't believe many municipalities have been able to do a post disaster questionnaire because we haven't had any events um I think this might be the first one with uh with Debbie depending on what we need to submit for it but um we can kind of learn from that once we kind of go through that first post's answer questionnaire we can see where we improve um and then kind of see where we're at with everything that was one of the big things that we were asking is um they kind of break down different categories but they don't and through your questions that you answer um and we're trying to figure out you know which areas we still lack uh but not getting those full points and then we'll work on improving those but yeah I think overall it's going to be a really great program to kind of just really it's more of an internal audit for us which was great of different procedures and everything that um the state recommends that we do so we've kind of adopted all those suggestions with it and we'll continue to do so um and it's an evolving program too so I think this next year we'll learn a lot more once they actually get that in use with expended funding and people doing those uh posters as questionnaires too so it's yeah really exciting Jason if we could just take it up a th000 feet real quick because you went granular pretty quick so for folks who are watching this in essence is is a quality control program by the state of Florida that if we participate and we participate successfully it it it it makes it easier for us to get public assistance from the state after disaster is that a fair characterization it is yeah it's so um the division of Emergency Management they went through and have started making all these different templates that uh they encourage municipalities and agencies to to use um anything from time sheets to uh inventory logs to Asset Management trackers um and those are all already vetted through fdm uh so it kind of saves a lot of time not only for us and we're giving them exactly the information that they need um but then it's already kind of pre-cleared so and they can help provide that to FEMA if they need to uh so it's just really strengthening I think that Partnership of using everything and giving FM everything that they would need um through their forms so it's uh did the did the town of Fort Myers speech participate in this program prior to hurricaning in so it just started last year so we opted in the first year which is exciting U so we were part of that first group and then now I think there's going to be a lot more participation in this second round so um that was one of the big things we're going through in the training is just that not a lot of agencies have been able to utilize the full program yet just because it's so new but so we would be one of the first communities in the state to qualify and Par we were in that first round y that first year of so and then now yeah and then so moving on so and I'm curious to see hopefully we can kind of see where we were with our scores compared to everybody else too but we don't have that information yet Jason were also used as an example in their training that they we were yes our our uh debris cleanup project uh that we worked with Lee County in the state for was their model for the training Statewide so see now Jason this is good stuff you got to leave with this stuff yeah so it's it exciting it's kind of it's keeping us definitely on the on the map there so yeah frck uh the division Emergency Management is going around doing a a training tour so a couple of us went to it last week in Lee County um and yeah they're they're sharing the message so it's exciting very good thank you yeah it's pretty exciting we'll see where the program goes this year but um definitely appreciate if yall can let us off to in for this year don't run off yet councelor King questions is there anything you need from us as a council I know people have to report certain things sure um when I came on board after the hurricane uh there were certain things that we had to uh submit uh for uh for the state sure I don't know if there's anything at this point that we need to do or I think the biggest thing is just um making sure that we're having all the right documentation and I think you know between the administrative department and finance we're all have a much uh Stronger handle on it just making sure we're collecting all these forms um the FM has made new time tracking forms that we're going to utilize this year and that's kind of exactly yeah so it's just making sure that we have all the proper documentation for everything just moving forward um whether it's you know Financial related emergency purchases um the program goes through all of our procurement policies and how we get emergency contracts and just make sure that we're following everything uh so really it's just making sure that it's a lot easier not only for us for submitting PA projects and getting reimbursement for everything FM makes easier for them and for FEMA Tu so I think it just streamlines that whole process uh which is is there anything know as a council for us individually that you need reporting such as time that we've spent doing something or anything that we uh that we think could qualify for emergency uh measures and protections then yes um and we can we can work with youall on that that if we do anything Des are related whether it's pre or post storm um we'll make sure that we we're working on maybe doing a training with everybody just to fill out those forms so we encourage you know all Town staff and that way we standardize that and streamline that process for for get that through so I think we're in a a much better spot and this kind of just helped give us some suggestions on different policies that we can use so it's uh it's exciting the only other thing was be a couple of silly comments that I usually offer U one is the old radio DJ and me wants to go with the stereo 98 FR rock on your dial and the other is old enough to watch The Flintstones it's frck twitch twitch my god there you go down memory lane Woods I will move to approve resol appr the quit or there there's a motion to approve resolution 24-13 I'll second motion by councelor Woodson seconded by councelor Safford uh any further discussion counc Woodson hi councelor Safford hi councelor King hi vice mayor atol and I'm an i motion carries ously sorry next next is resolution 24147 BCC TD fund Grant agreement fiscal year 20225 a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida authorizing the mayor or town manager to execute a grant agreement with the County Board of County Commissioners for receipt of tourist development tax funds in the amount of 1, 26255 from Beach and shureline maintenance authorizing the mayor or town manager to execute any related documents needed for receipt of the funding and providing an effective date who's who's going to speak on this one it's you Frankie you guys so so so basically what this is doing is just uh keeping us all our expenses that were occurring out on the beach uh moving forward um and some of the expenses right on some of those programs that aren't being picked up um could be submitted properly and and be passed so it's just like a a regular routine uh capture of documents and information that we're doing for some of the projects Chad do you want to come up and maybe explain what those dollars are going to be used for is that just so in case people don't know sure so we have equipment Landscaping identify yourself please oh sure Chad shoots environmental staff good morning everyone nice to see yall um so sure TDC it's the maintenance fund uh again it's going to be the equipment that we need uh Transportation along the beach the the ATVs um we have our Landscaping uh Personnel uh for operations uh keeping the beach uh clean and inviting for all of our tourists and residents a good example for that in this last go around with TDC we requested a a mini sweeper um similar to what they use in Miami Beach um and it's a it's basically the size of a sidewalk one person operation uh but it would keep our beach accesses clean our downtown area as far as Time Square area clean on a daily basis uh we were granted that in this last go around we requested uh more equipment that ended up in the Back Bay after Ian uh skid steer for the town um they graciously uh agreed to pay for half of that we had insurance money to cover the back half of that um so we'll come October 1st we'll be getting a brand new Skid Steer to help uh maintain some of our beach accesses uh especially help with the rep putting down of the Moi mats after we just got them all done and nice um but those type of things and then uh as far as uh on the security side of it U they granted us uh two positions for two full-time be or Beach Rangers uh that will be out there just doing be Beach Activity um so instead of Rangers that we currently have that are splitting that time up we're going to move away from that with the Rangers Inland and just keep these two people uh with vehicles out on the beach if I could Mr Frankie so would this be the first time that the TDC actually is it covers the salary for these two employees we have we currently have employees that are salaries are covered by TDC so this is not a new pres this is not a new thing no just continuing what we've been doing correct correct all right thank you and we we haven't uh we're still in the workings for this coming year as far as our asks we've also gotten Portable Restrooms I think in Palm Avenue and uh in Newton through the TDC as well which the one is that the one that's sitting over here the one pal Avenue installed the new one is that you see over here our DPW lot is going to be going over to to Newton Park yeah do we have a time frame on when that's going to get installed uh Jeff how GE Public Works um as soon as we can get everything coordinated uh the restroom trailer actually came in a lot quicker than we were anticipating um which is great so we just got to coordinate with fpnl and an electrician to get it all hooked up and get all the sewer hooked up and just I would say the next if we can get everything rolling less than a month maybe okay and it'll be similar to the setup that we have at Palm Avenue hard plumbed y hard plumbed and then we'll have parking there as well and then a beach access uh open at at Newton okay so so just to be clear because we I don't want this confused with Paul M we potentially will have public restrooms open at Newton park within a month if all things get coordinated correctly we know how some of those get delayed but and those public restrooms are obviously temporary until we get a more permanent design for the park correct yeah they'll be we we own the the trailer so um yeah it'll be we'll have to figure out what that's going to look like as far as a restroom there but yeah it'll be semi-permanent for now I mean it's going to be hard plumped in and air conditioned and all that I know those restrooms will be very welcomed by folks along we're trying espe councelor Woodson or King do you have any questions for I do not okay now I'm good sa I'm good I'm good as well thanks sir thanks is there a motion to approve resolution 24147 BCC TD fund Grant agreement so move second motion by councelor King second by councelor Woodson any further discussion uh councelor K hi Council Woodson Hi C hi May hi and I'm an i motion carries unanimously next is resolution 24-48 FD hurricane restoration Grant this is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida authorizing the town manager to execute amendments to floor Department of Environmental Protection hurricane restoration reimbursement Grant to fund the Estero Island beach renourishment and hurricane recovery project and providing an effective date check Chad morning again Chad shoots uh so this hurricane restoration reimbursement Grant we've already taken advantage of that that was that 1.9 uh million do grant that we used to build the north berm um on North Estero Island uh that project's done uh the idea with this one is the state made $35 million available uh to municipalities and local governments for sand projects large scale sand projects which we are underway it's on a first come first serve basis um so we did not want to hold up um any funding that we would be eligible for uh by having to wait for Council to authorize uh future amendments to this permit um uh up to uh so we you know our our our beach projects already funded we we have funding from TDC we have funding from the state and we have our part the great thing about this grant is it funds up to 100% of the eligible cost um with no uh uh local match required so theoretically it uh uh as long as we get our our our you know it's first come first serve so as long as we get our our um uh our invoices and receipts in for what we paid atna and Coastal Engineering in timely um we're we're positioned very well to take advantage and uh reduce the the local cost share for TDC and for the town substantially exent also Michael PFF is here if y'all wanted an update on our beach project and everything that's going on see my mind seem timely yes sir come on up welcome back good morning thank you for the record Michael PF it's good to be able to laugh a little bit in the wake of what we're dealing with so thank you councelor King for the entertainment there a little earlier and Jordan only of a certain age though everybody I'm old I'm older than I look so I got think you're using that word entertainment lightly I got my I got my dad's baby face I'm I'm older than I look so I've enjoyed the Flintstones and some of your references anyway obviously Debbie caused significant flooding overwash of the burm and so we are in the middle of assessing all of the the conditions on the beach we just met with ata's construction crew two brave souls stayed on the equipment throughout the weather wow and uh and kept the pipeline from snapping or breaking as far as we can tell on the lands side it's all been reset in place now on the beach side and the dredge pulled into Safe Harbor in Hurricane Bay it wrote out this particular uh event safely and so the last item that we need to check is the submerged pipeline so we had literally been on the beach pumping water testing the system the day before we had to pull in for I say we atna had to pull in for the storm and so we were that close to starting pumping sand but they they did fill the pipe with sand to weigh it down in addition to the anchors to try to to keep that pipeline in place so the next order businesses when the when the conditions are safe they will assess the pipeline and check its position and then bring the dredge back on site and start pumping water through to to blow the sand out of the line and make sure that they have their pressures make sure there are no leaks and when all of that has been tested any leaks have been repaired we will start pumping sand and so we will also survey we CC will repeat the survey of the north segment to evaluate the sand volume changes we know a lot of sand was overwashed so as much as possible let's get that sand back on the beach with that said we don't want top soil we don't want asphalt bits we don't want those things brought back to the beach so uh the the property owners who are scraping the sand off their parking lots and things please coordinate with Chad and with Public Works um to make sure that if we can recover that sand let's put it back onto the beach or at least put it uh right at the edge of of your seaw wall or your your Upland um so that we can evaluate it to make sure that it can go back on the beach and be safe for birds and turtles and recreational use so we are going to rebuild the burm uh to what we built it originally um The only positive thing which I even hate to say it that way is that the low-lying areas land where the BM have now been filled in with the burm sand um and so we will we will build off that platform and put the burm back in place um and then move forward we have the Dune plans ready to go out for bid and so we will uh shortly follow with Dune plantings um and so the goal is to uh rebuild what we had from the burm projects we had the emergency burm from the FEMA and then we had the second truck Hall from the Dem $8 million Grant and so we'll put back as much as we can into place with ATA while they're here on site take advantage of them we do have a limited supply of sand in the bar area we will exhaust that volume and then whatever we don't have done we will go back to the demm grant we still have 3 3.2 3.3 million roughly in that Grant available to then um truck call in sand um and we've also asked for additional funds from DP for Hotspot maintenance uh in the first two years of the project in their annual funding request there's a resolution that you'll be asked to approve for that specific annual grant that we've been doing now for the past five years for you and so um I don't know that's not on today's agenda or is it next meeting you'll have another similar companion item that'll be a resolution for lgr the local government funding request funds and so we are we are positioned well with the uh the hrr GP funds that Chad just brought before you and you approved to take advantage of that opportunity which will free up dollars in your current funding for additional s placement if we need it so let's pray for calm seas low water low winds and uh get ought in and pumping sand and that is our best defense against the next storm so thank you B question Mike first fa so thankful you're here and all you do for our town you've you're one of our best contracted uh uh employees or for lack of a better term you're you're a great partner you might be bordering honorary citizen well I did sneak in the back entrance and I thought well maybe I'll just have to put a put a desk here with with us so I don't say this about this is our community too and so we we are in Bonita with our office we have people who live and and recreate here and so it's a privilege and an honor to represent you not just on the beach project but the dingy dock the moring field and the other Public Works projects so we are here we're committed to help you say this very often but you you exude competence and we're very thankful for your service you're my best marketing sir thank you I don't have to advertise I have I have you all just so I'm clear though you kind of went through this pretty quickly so for the Emergency BM you're going to replenish the emergency BM instead of like we did initially with the truck Den stand you're going to replenish the emergency burm with pump in sand from the Gulf is that did I understand you correctly on that we will do as much as we can with the sand we have in our borrow area whatever we can't finish with that bar area it'll have to be trucked in how will that look different assuming that we didn't have to redo the red uh the emergency bur we're just going to do the traditional renourishing how will it look different will it will the pipe just go further up on the beach or how does it how does it work prac the pipeline will run parallel to the beach and then as the sand is being dispersed by a slurry which is about 20% sand 80% water their bulldozers will do the grading and move the sand into position and and advice for and I know we've got a few weeks to go possibly but advice for people who are living or businesses who are along the beach as this process is going on it's obviously going to be disruptive but it's going to be wonderful when it's done any advice for people how how long they can expect the activity in front of their property before it's before they move on just any advice to anybody who sees these folks property we' love to talk about that at every meeting and during our public inform information meetings I had slides that showed it it is a construction zone and so they're going to be putting up some fencing that will keep people out of the immediate area as that slurry is coming out the pipe it's a heavy discharge please do not go near the pipe what I uh encourage people to do is get your beach chair and go sit right next to the fence and watch the show because it's amazing to watch um but it is a construction zone there are going to be alarms on the backup equipment there's going to be heavy construction equipment please do not walk past the fence and try to get into the area to get the first one to be to the new sea shells there'll be plenty of shells coming up and so that's what we have people who want to try to get past the pipe and walk uh you know along the entire Beach we will do our best to have a path for people to walk but it's at some point you may have to come off the beach walk down and come back on the beach so there's just some places it's too narrow to get everybody by and so um we just ask everybody be be be patient with us they're going to bury the pipe flush with the grade at very high use areas the hotels Lin Hall Crescent Beach those are the kind of places where they'll probably just bury the pipeline but that pipeline will be in place the entire project as we've talked about before that comes from the bar area to the beach and goes down the beach so they will advance about 100 ft a day on average some days it'll be more some days it'll be less but generally about a th000 ft of beach will be the active construction zone and then they'll move it down the beach the pipeline stays in place where the pipeline's not buried they'll put little sand ramps over the pipe to get people across to walk safely down to the water and so for the first 30 days the north end's going to be our construction zone we'll move to you know down to to the uh Lin Hall and Crescent the next 30 days and then down past Newton the next 30 days or so so next three four months the North and Central sections will be very active and then when we're done with that we'll move down to the south end and pump to the South End um at the Leonardo arms area further south it's about a a 3500 long stretch down on the south end last question Mike and I I've repeated I took notes uh months and months ago something you said for Leonardo arms and I and correct me if if this is still the case if it's not still the case uh at Leonardo arms that seaw wall there the projection was the new sand would go out 200 feet initially and then recede naturally back to about 75 ft in a perfect road is that still the case yes sir all right thank you coun K uh a few comments um thank you for addressing the BM issue um being at the extreme end of the island um second year in a row that I think that BM saved a lot of the condos especially M down there islands and um it you can tell the difference between the North and the South End of the island with those BMS uh especially at in Carlos point and Castle Beach and all those folks uh earlier this year late last year earlier this year it's just fantastic to hear and thanks for addressing that uh question uh do we have any idea how much sand we lost uh on the beach because of Debbie and uh any idea of uh how this will impact the time frame U for uh by getting it all taken care of by the end of the year not yet we have to wait for safe conditions to run the surveys because we we'll run the survey boat on the on the Gulf side and then we'll have our Land crew out there so as soon as we have those numbers or to chat you can get them out to you you'll have them before your next meeting thanks Mike you're welcome counc Woodson I'm good inredible job I I'm like Blown Away by these two individuals that literally stay during that storm to make sure that these pipes were in place I mean that to me is talk about above and beyond that's not employ of the year can wow even we need to do that wow I mean that that's amazing thank you for let when we're done we can we can Pat us on the back let's let's get it done first but they did they did I I would imagine they had a a steak dinner if they didn't I'll make sure they get one so I'd be curious to know if they have any video footage that they tried to take that had to be a rough ride yeah I'm not sure so concer so I just want to verify so the construction area let's say is about 1,000 ft long but you you go about 100 feet a day is that that's the progress correct okay that's and those are averages okay so correct so your your fenced off area will be that entire thousand ft construction zone plus or minus that's plus or minus and then you'll just continue it down that is correct the only question I have is with all the sand that we've gathered obviously since Debbie is there a process there is a possibility to sift that sand and reuse it or is it just something that becomes sandbag sand from now on um we paid a lot of money for it so let's sift it and get it back to the beach if it needs to be sifted so we just met with the crew at Newton and I asked them just for now to leave it at Newton uh maybe behind the seaw wall so we can kind of take a look at it that's pretty clean down there but there are other places that will have asphalt and other debris in it but if it comes over here to the park uh we've had it sifted before and brought back to the beach after Ian and after Adelia so as much as we can recover um let's try to recover it do we have any idea on how many tons of sand we roughly pulled off I mean how many of those big trucks went back there a lot five four or five loads of the big the big dumps um and we it's all back here at b Oak so U we made sure not to put it right back on so you can evaluate the other topic uh for discussion that we don't have to talk about necessarily today but I I did photograph it again there are three or four private properties that got completely rded and scoured by Ian it's all on the landward side but the I mean the water obviously came up to to the boulevard um so far we've been focusing on the berm and and sew of the BM but there are those are your weak spots right now on the island so I've been talking to Chad about the Dem money the grant that we got 8 million is allowed to use it to recover from Ian and that money paid for a lot of this sand so think about um do we want to fill those private properties those scoured areas because they are a vulnerable area along the stero and we can meet with the team and talk about that but that might be something we could use where that the Sand's not suitable necessarily for sea turtle nesting we could maybe look at putting it in those those areas and uh and try to fill in some of those scour holes because again after Debbie I mean I was here Monday morning I wanted to come up Sunday night but uh decided with the road conditions you didn't need another person uh trying to get on and off the island so Monday morning here first thing and then the water was still at one point lapping up at at at the Boulevard so well it's a great idea but it gives me a little pause yes legally that gives me a little bit pause about going one on private property and two are we then opening up ourselves to all the people that spend tens of thousands of dollars of their own money to put on their property and then those that have chosen not to do anything are now going to get for lack of word bailed out I think we I think we need to um to you know bring it back as an agenda item I've been talking to chat about it and and I just proba bring it up today because there other uses for that material if we can't put it right on the beach because of nesting and birds is this something maybe Nancy you could look at that falls into that red tag scenario as far as life and safety I'll follow up with them on it sure we certainly want to get those filled in or can we charge the that's what I mean if we can do this under the red red tag or whatever it is the safety issues that we're dealing with with the other unsafe structures is this right we don't want to do this entire program and leave a hole in the in the in the system that that would fail because of so we want to bring it up talk about it bring it back to council at an appropriate time and talk about those other areas yeah I think sooner the better if we can get it in front of us sooner than later we're in the heart of the season if we've got sand like we've got sitting out there that we could use for that and we can go through the same process and to that point we are placing sand on private property as part of the beach project and that's you have construction easements right and permission from many Property Owners now there's some in the central areas we know that didn't sign that didn't want their low Ling um and so but but there is a process by which we could get construction easements um for that placement in in a in a hurricane recovery scenario so and they are eligible for demm dollar so all but to your point Mr Mayor we can treat that as a neglected property um and we can approach it that way Nancy um and it's just Public Safety filling in and it's not beach sand as Mike said I'd say get it get it back to us as soon as you can right we're not improving anything we're putting it back to pre grade so just this thought of another thing this I know this is incredibly difficult Chad you might have a thought on this too I is that as you as you progress there are certain significantly large Resorts they're trying to function do you have any ability to communicate to them that hey in a week we're going to be in your area so heads up don't plan a huge Festival out there we've been talking with them on a routine basis um the pink shell Diamond Head um Best Western I mean I mean Lee County because of the parks yeah we we have had routine meetings and sometimes daily communication with all these folks especially when the pipeline came up and you know the initial pipeline we had everybody and so they have weddings that are scheduled and things like that so we're working around those things that's why the contractor is like I'll just bury the pipe through these these high use areas and um then in December when we're done we'll just dig it up and smooth grade the beach and till it and we'll be done that's great thank you all right you're wel any other questions for Mike thank you sir you're I'll move resolution 24-48 fep hurricane restoration Grant right got a motion by councelor King second second by councelor Woodson any further discussion Council King hi Council Woodson hi Council Safford hi vice mayor adhal hi and I'm and I as well the motion carries unanimously next is resolution 24149 budget amendment number three allocation a fiscal year 23 savings to emergency reserves this is a resolution of the Town Council the town of Fort Meers Beach Lee County Florida approving budget amendment number three to the town general fund and emergency fund providing Authority and effective date Joe yes uh Joe ANUK Finance director so this is just a continuation then of my presentation um just to help explain these things so regarding this now that we do have the audited Financial statements and we have the final figures what the statements show is that we have an unassigned general fund balance of almost $3 million and this was accumulated during FY 23 as a result of less than budgeted expenditures that was approximately $2 million of less than budgeted expenditures and then about $1 million of interest that was earned um these savings um were generated well partly in to the fact that there were so many vacancies initially after Hurricane and um there was apparently several employees who left but then there was also um much of our expense that was being incurred immediately after Hurrican in was reimbursable um so was all being charged to the emergency fund so there was that period of time when we had less expense being charged to the general fund and of course then there were um some aspects to it like the Bay Oaks recck Center and the pool and places that were not um operational so that was the what generated the $2 million of savings and then we also had um a very large uh interest um Revenue earned during the year as a result of the higher interest rates so all of that together generated that almost $3 million into the general fund that is available for allocation so um and just then taking a look at what is the wisest um use of that money um the government Finance Officers Association um gfoa they recommend that we maintain in our uh general fund a reserve of 20% of the budget and so by doing the calculation um there is that would equat to about $2.5 million that we should have unreserved in the general fund fund um it's been the established practice of the Town um before I arrived to split that Reserve into two um smaller reserves one would be the general fund operating reserve and the other one is the emergency Reserve so it's two separate pots of money so to speak within the general fund so by splitting that $25 million into those two different reserves that would mean that we would need a balance of 1,275 th000 in each and so in order to bring those reserves up to that level um like comparing where they are before we do so and then to the Target Point all that requires is adding 60,000 to the emergency reserve and 580,000 to the operating Reserve so we can use um out of that $3 million that's available we would only need to take the 60,000 and the 580,000 to update those two reserves within the general fund Joe before you move on yeah you said it was practice before you came on board to have these two funds is that is in your professional opinion is that still the best way to do it it it is I mean it's it's it's common to have two different reserves like that so um and so I didn't there's no reason to change it so just kind moving forward with that um now in addition we also then have our emergency fund and this is the fund that we mostly we've been operating out of since hurricane Ian and that's where all the female reimbursements the insurance reimbursements all the emergency expenditures all the revenues coming in expenditures going out all of that's there and then we had a very small balance to start with in that fund um that kind of helped get us through those initial few days and then as in a previous meeting I explained we had to use other sources of funding for cash um in order to meet our emergency expenditures well since we still have about $2 million left um of unassigned um balance in the general fund I'm proposing that we move 2 million of that into that emergency fund so that we have a significant amount moving forward into the future that would be there for our use and and this kind of um it really falls into place with what I was um attempting to recommend at an earlier meeting where it looks like really we we need about a $3.5 million balance in total of all of our reserves if we were to ever um have to experience another event like hurricane Yan where so much cash is going out that quickly and so this would help that $2 million in the emergency fund itself plus that $2.5 million um in the general fund that would give us like $4.5 million so this next slide um kind of depicts it in terms of the figures so so that Center yellow or greenish yellow um column is what I'm proposing we allocate so that's a total of $2.6 million so it's this again it's a 60 million or 60,000 into the emergency Reserve in the general fund 580,000 into the operating reserve and the 2 million into the emergency fund so that's what this resolution um if you approve it would accomplish is is moving those monies into those Reserves coun King question noce Mar Joe just curious I is is just to make sure I understood you correctly is your ideal Reserve fund however you want to characterize the reserve fund is the aggregate number three and a half million is there 4 and a half million what what what what would allow you to sleep better at night well the to me the 3 and a half million was the minimum that we would need because that's that's exactly what we needed to get through hurricany and of course a few years later things are more expensive so the more we have you know of course the better off we would be and there is still the aspect um we're still dealing with a lot of hurricane Ian expenses for which we need um upfront cash so having maybe more than what we need um would help get us through that period while we're waiting for reimbursement from fima do you have you ever had the ability uh I know you came in uh to this not the beginning of this exercise uh hurricane and I mean do you have any sense of what the town of Fort Myers Beach had in reserves when we went into hurricane in well I I do and I just ballpark yeah I'm trying to remember because I think I actually presented that to you it was very small I mean so it was like maybe a half a million dollars in the emergency fund that or less than that maybe 360,000 it in the emergency fund itself they did have um well like even as this would illustrate we they had almost $2 million if you look in that um the audited balance where you've got um 1.2 million in the emergency Reserve in the general fund and then the 600 is that 80,000 95 in the operating Reserve so we we did have that um but only like 300 and some thousand so just over $2 million is what we had context right thank you that that's all I've got okay Woodson I'm good we had discussed this before so right counc Stafford um my only comment was uh vice mayor I think you know feel comfortable going forward the next couple years I think we should Target 5 million just because inflation and cost and everything else and then and you have to realize that being reimbursed everything if it happens again we have to pay 15% our cost go up yeah potentially that's true and and just to add to this um then this is like to put this in initially now from the savings of 2023 but then um I'm also have proposed in this budget for 2025 that we put in an additional 435,000 it's just part of the normal operating budget to continue adding money to the fund so that would bring it up to the 5 million by doing so no I like it I think it's a I think it's a good idea thank you Joe is there a motion to approve resolution 24-1 149 budget amendment number three so moved motion by councelor Safford second second by councelor Woodson any further discussion councelor Safford hi councelor Woodson hi I'm an i vice mayor hi counc K all right motion carries unanimous next is resolution 24-15 temporary $8 million interfund loan to purchase the building a resolution of the Town Council of town of Fort Meers Beach Lee County Florida approving temporary interfund loan to purchase property for New Town Hall providing Authority and effective date Joe so um to help um give you some background on this the town as as you know um has received an $8 million propriation from the state to fund the purchase of property that will become the new town hall the appropriation is being administered by the Florida Department of Commerce it's in the form of a grant from which we would be reimbursed within 30 days after submission of the reimbursement request so this is another case where we have to first expend the money and then we'll be reimbursed so this in order to finance that we need to use our own cash so so technically we haven't received it we've been approved for it correct so then in order to to finance this um I have a proposal to borrow money from our existing funds and this would just be a short-term basis so I would think the most the longest period of time assuming that no complications arise would be about 6 weeks between um the closing of the building and then um reimbursement from the state I mean it may be a few days longer but they've been very good at responding to our questions um so I have no reason to doubt it would take longer but that you know the worst case scenario if you want to double that and say three months but um so if you look in that purple column the second one to the end that's my proposal as far as what I'm suggesting we do so we would now that if you've just approved putting all that money into the reserves I'm proposing proposing that we borrow from those reserves and we we take out 900 $137,500 from each the emergency F reserve and the operating reserve and the general fund and then we take that $2 million we just put in the emergency fund and we borrow from that then we also have almost $2 million in the capital fund that's accumulated um in the past it was accumulated um to be used um for just the periodic replacement of equipment that um occurs normally over um lifespan of usage for each of the departments in the town and so that was accumulated but there's no there's not a foreseen need to use any of that funding right now because so much is already being replaced through emergency funding and insurance proceeds so to use the actual Capital fund is not something that is expected within the next 3 months so I'm proposing that we use most of that we also have that $155,000 that's accumulated um out of short-term rental revenue for um Workforce Development and then we since um the end of 2023 we have accumulated almost another $2 million of savings and additional interest Revenue um within the general fund so that has accumulated and built up so we can then borrow from that as well so that accounts for the the total $8 million um and that would be put that that's we would put that then into um the capital fund for the purchase of the building and then it would be reimbursed immediately upon our receipt of reimbursement from the state just to clarify the building is 7 million the additional 1 million would go for the purchase of the land next door the 7-Eleven property yes the question I the only glaring question that I have is so it I know that they'll be sending the money fairly quickly does it what risk does that put us at for six weeks and do we have a backup should we have an unfortunate event okay I'm glad you asked because I have a slide for that I figured you probably did okay so actually two slides so although we would be depleting our Reserve balances that we just created down to 675,000 we also have the bridge loan what remains of that um Bridge Loan um balance that is not slated to be used for this year or next year and we also have arpa phones that both of which can be used um within the language of the bridge loan agreement and with our funds it can be used for emergency response so then that brings me to this slide which will will take you know what's left of our emergency Reserves at 675,000 after borrowing from them and then if you also include the arpa funds that are available that's almost 1.9 million and then the bridge loan that's almost almost 4 million that gives us $6.5 million that we would be at our disposal should we need it during this you know 6 weeks to potentially 3-month period yeah I knew the answer to that already but I'm glad you had it ready because I knew people out there were gonna ask that question uh councelor K you questions for Joe I guess um I'm not clear um insurance money where is that on the previous Town Hall that we have approximately 25 million dollar of insurance money from for um the town hall and contents so that would be used um to help pay the difference between the $8 million grants and then the total cost of the building and the the adjacent property and then doing the the um the remodeling that's necessary and and the new Furnishings that would be necessary for the building okay I just didn't see it in the slide so I was confused and concerned but thank you okay ble nothing additional counc Woodson I'm good counc can't charge your self-interest no okay well this was important because I think there's been a lot of misconception out there in the public that the you know the taxpayers are are fronting the technically I guess it's not coming out of you know this is being taken care of through State Appropriations and insurance funding to purchase both properties and outfit them with whatever needs to be done yes that's correct and in such a short term compared to trying to build something and the cost of building third I mean yeah I mean this is this should I mean in my mind this is a no-brainer we have an update to when we're looking at closing and things like that or yes um we are hoping that um our due diligence period will end tomorrow um we've received the survey that's under review we are waiting for the environmental which is a phase one um as soon as we get that assuming you know best case scenario that there's nothing that requires additional um analysis or investigation like a phase two um we would then be proceeding to closing the following week we're setting it up for technically a closing on Friday the 16th um but you never know uh as you've gone through closings before it's hurry up hurry up hurry up we got to do this and we all get poised and ready for it and then there's an issue that comes up but we're hopefully um we can resolve if anything comes up so I would say if not next week the following week because it's a pretty clean transaction the title looked good thank you n and then what about the adjacent property the 7-Eleven property is that what's the due diligence on that I have not heard back yet um we've sent them the letter so there have a Andy might want to brief them a little bit on that we had a 45 day period to do our due diligence so that that's happening I don't know that we're going to need all of it Frankie was is working on getting some of the other things done just like this property to make sure it's clean do the title search which which sir it's going to be clean with the 7-Eleven company that's not a problem we don't anticipate any issues with that so that I'm anticipating probably something in in the middle of September with that one by the end of September we will be you know new owners of of a new home and a place to park right all right any further questions for Joe thanks Joe thank you for all your work yes very good job is there a to approve resolution 24-15 temporary $8 million interfund loan to purchase the building so Move Motion by councelor King second seconded by councel Woodson any further discussion councelor King hi councelor Woodson hi counc Safford hi Vice and I'm an i as well motion Carri uny thank you Joe I take a quick five minute break perfect okay we'll come back at uh what time is it we'll say 10:50 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e next is item I resolution 24151 budget amendment number four authorizing arpa funds for emergency outfall repairs the resolution of the Town Council the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida authorizing the use of $14,999 of the American Rescue plan act arpa funds to reimburse the storm water fund for emergency expenditures eligible for reimbursement by FEMA and amendments to the fiscal year 2024 budget related to the reimbursement and providing for an effective date Joe okay um this is relating to an an older item that you know it's already come before you and I just want to give you um a reminder of what this was so there are emergency Crescent Street outfall repairs that were performed by Andrew sitework this was a few months back um the emergency expenditure is about $15,000 it was ratified by the Town Council on June 3rd so that portion of um the documentation that was necessary regarding that emergency expenditure was all taken care of at the time we weren't sure if this would be reimbursed by FEMA or by the srf loan um but because it was not part of the original tier one project um planning um and fell outside of that scope and was not pre-approved by the state to be part of the srf loan it couldn't be paid for that way and because it was something that was um an emergency from our perspective and it was um because Andrew sitework was here and and they were doing similar work for us and we had that contract for the tier one it it seemed appropriate to utilize them to do that work but for fem standards it just wasn't clear that they would necessarily reimburse us for that and so rather than take the risk of it not being reimbursed and while we still have the arpa funds at our disposal it just seemed best to to apply the arpa funds to it because they can be used for emergency expenditure such as that and so that's what this resolution is doing is to approve the use of arpa funds for that expenditure okay sa questions for Joe no sirc Woodson good just real quick Joe after this 104,000 in arpa is expended how much of the arpa money is left U ballpark about 875,000 well that's a left that's not already been earmarked for other uses and the FEDS are going to allow us to have that linger for how much longer well we have until the end the end of this calendar year to um to obligate them and so I've just been trying to hold on to some of it as long as possible just to make sure there wasn't some unexpected need that we didn't have but as we move closer and closer to the end if we don't have any needs um and we're getting to the end of the year we can always apply it to our operating our general operating expense and so it's not that we are at risk of losing them it's just how we use them very good thank you K none I do not have any thank you so I I have excuse me Mr I have one question that I just thought of so the arpa fund even though our budget goes o October 1st to September 30th the arpa funds are actually on a calendar year as far as the the federal government is concerned yes okay but this this money came back in like 2020 this is this is a this is like a fiveyear program yes okay thank you Joe yes yes came that's what about that top is there a motion to approve the resolution 24-1 151 budget amendment number four authorizing the arpa funds for emergency outfall repairs so moov motion by councelor King second second by councelor Woodson any further discussion councelor King all counc Woodson I CC sorry it's okay M and I'm an i as well motion carries unanimously next is resolution 24- you make it I think so look next is resolution 24152 budget amendment number five allocation of community enhanced fund balance this is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Le County Florida approving budget amendment number five to the town general fund and other funds providing Authority and an effective date Joe this U the community enhancement fund is the fund through which um the reimbursements um from that $10 million um Capital improvement loan were funneled and so that was for the projects that were previously approved specifically for that loan that was like for the Bay Oaks um Recreation Center um I believe Times Square basic side park so it was it was for those projects um that loan has expired um at the end of May and so anything that we could have used it for um that's it's it's all what we could have used it for it's it's been completed and so there was a balance left in that loan from an accumulation of reimbursements that we received and the reason why that happened why there's a balance in that fund is because some of the expenditures for which we were reimbursed weren't actually charged to that fund and so this is more of like an accounting housekeeping type procedure where we just need to move those reimbursements back to the funds where those um expenditures occurred and so but because it means transferring funds from One Fund to another it requires Town Council appr okay Council King question none may just real quick John I don't want to put words in your mouth but Ed the term loan it really was could be described as a line of credit correct yeah yeah yes that was that was how it was commonly referred to yes all right thank you counc wison none Council s none at this time and I do not have any thanks Joe is there a motion to approve resolution 24152 budget amendment number five allocation of community enhancement fund balance so Mo motion by councelor King seconded by councelor Safford any further discussion councelor King I counc Safford I Council Woodson I vice mayor edille hi and I'm an i as well that motion carries unanimously next is the final one it's uh resolution 24153 budget amendment number six purchase of the new town hall and acceptance of Grant a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Lee County Florida approving acceptance of the Florida Department of Commerce grant for New Town Hall and related budget adjustment number six providing Authority and effective date mayor this one's going to have to be moved to the 19th Joel will explain a little bit about what it is but we're going to move to the 19th because we don't have the document ready yet we thought it would be here it's not so we got to make there's some still some moving parts to this you'll explain a little bit more Jo what it is yes we place this on the agenda in the hope that we would have the actual agreement from the Florida Department of Commerce for um you to for it to be reviewed and then for it to be authorized for um Andy to sign um but we it's not we don't have it yet I it we should have it by the next council meeting and so that was basically what that was about and then that would be an appropriate time to um also do the budget adjustment recognizing that additional Revenue coming okay so you need a motion from us to table this till the 19th yeah to reschedule it reschedule okay is there a motion to reschedule resolution 24153 to the next meeting August 19th at 9:00 a.m. I'll make that motion second uh motion by mayor Aller second by councelor Stafford any further discussion want a roll call vote for this as well I an I councelor Safford hi councelor Woodson hi vice mayor adol hi councelor King hi motion carries unly next is final public comment anyone here that would like to speak for final public comment anyone in the back no mayor the speaker that was scheduled earlier is here now if you guys want to hear him now up to you if he's here not yeah that's anybody have any objection to that Jims well it's for the M&P right it was originally but they had asked him to come earlier and he wasn't able to make it the beginning you can do it now or you can do it for M we'll close public comment then since nobody's here for public comment and then if the speaker would like to come up and do the presentation now we'll we'll do that now that's you I think we need to get somebody on the phone as well so I think Jacob's going to have to help with that or would they prefer to do it looks like they're on on they on yeah he was speaking to Jacob during the break just by way of background uh Len is here I'll let Len introduce himself and his team uh normally we would have we would have formally presented this at at a council meeting to have this be on the M&P calendar but it was during the break and uh I Frankie was kind enough to meet with these gentlemen while Andy was out of town and we had a very good uh productive meeting and and I think it's I think that my colleagues will find this of interest and so we we just we just sort of uh Frankie used his power uh to to put it on the on the calendar which I supported and uh it's just a little unconventional but it was just because we were having this six week or this four-week break so anyways so they're on the agenda I've been meeting with these these these folks for about five to six months and discussing this issue and I I think it might have some Merit for the island so with that L I'll I'll let you take it away and introduce yourself and your bonafides by the way Len probably won't mention this but he used to live on Fort Meers beach for a time I was going to mention it Jim all right Beau and before you start Nancy because this is actually on the MMP meeting are we doing anything that we this this presentation was actually for the MMP meeting no you this morning I think when you did setting the agenda there was discussion about adding uh this presentation to the regular council meeting so you're want to make sure yes take away Len all right uh my name is len januik I'm uh a member of the task force on National and Homeland Security as is Tom silky who will be talking uh a little bit here uh and he's on Zoom uh I want to make something clear because there may have been some misunderstanding initially the task force is not moving this project forward this is being moved by a Consortium of both task force and non-task force members including a a fairly large company which I'll get to in a second so what I'm here to talk about is a project that we are proposing in for Fort Meers Beach to harden the Grid on the beach as a bigger project or a pilot project for hardening the State of Florida and uh let's see how do we work this thing Joe's a master at you the wrong way it we I don't know if you can see that uh so there's there's three groups involved in this the miter corporation which is a large company and they would be a uh a general contractor on such a project they offer engineering and federal funding and research development projects for a number of uh government entities including uh small towns States and even DHS and doe and and people like that um Eis is a u a company that's uh spearheaded by a fellow named Tom silky um he's got a lot of experience in government relations he's an engineer and a lawyer and he's been invaluable in in discussing this across the state both at at a local and at a state level and then I've got a company called J&L resources and my background is uh analytical and risk assessment studies and I've been doing those for a long long time uh we did many of the studies across the country where there's been failures on the electric grid including the meaf uh substation attack on the west coast and uh the impacts of extreme weather events in the State of Florida in the state of Texas so uh I was also a member of the planning committee for nerk which is the North American Electric reliability Council uh so some of the things we look at when we talk about hardening the grid are shown in this particular slide and you can see there's quite a few of them unplanned events operator error physical attacks weather related items and even solar disturbances uh when it t comes to talking about the beach we're actually most interested in the in the items that are highlighted here with the arrows those would be cyber hacking uh terrorist attacks and terrorist attacks include physical protection so it may not be quote unquote a terrorist but it might be somebody just uh looking to do no good and of course your biggest issue the storms lightning hurricanes superstorms tornadoes and of course uh ocean surge which uh I'm well aware of of the issues that have come about in the last couple years um so anyway uh wanted to show you just why are we talking about the grid and why are we talking about the Grid in Florida not to take up a lot of time here but uh this is a matrix that shows dependencies and you can't see it real well but the left I'm going to show you enlargement of that so don't squint too hard uh the leftand column shows the the infrastructures that are dependent on the infrastructures across the top so this one's a little bit easier to read and you can see that for example uh water purification sewage treatment natural gas are all dependent on electricity which is in the First Column likewise uh if you go to the very last column they're also highly dependent on telecommunications so the theory here behind this Matrix is if you harden the electric grid you're actually hardening many of the other infrastructures as well by the way uh I'm told this is informal so if you guys have questions along the way just uh just interject uh otherwise uh we can wait till the end um so when we talk about hardening the Grid in general most experts agree that it's almost impossible to harden the entire grid however we can Harden the most critical locations on the grid and that allows us perhaps to survive a horrific uh incident or to at least recover very quickly from those um to do that we have to identify critical facilities and critical facilities can be uh hardened by establishing what we call hardened micro grids now maybe a lot of you have not heard the term micro grids but it's is basically an island it's an electrical Island self- sustaining It's a combination of uh distribution of generation of loads loads meaning customers and uh uh and and resources include not only generation but batteries and all different kind of of of energy sources like that uh in talking about a development in Fort Meers Beach uh we be talking about all clean energy resources so uh that would be a real plus uh I think from from your standpoint um would an example of a micro grid kind of be like a cell tower know cell towers kind of have those little micro grids where they're battery back up and no um uh well at a very small scale yes be more like a hospital yeah uh you know a micro grid might be a campus uh or a military base um Hospital maybe hospitals a possibility they usually have their own generation and they can operate without being connected to the rest of do they all have like Dan do they do they all have backup generators backup power batteries yeah a micro grid the one we're talking about a Harden one would have generation inside of it so uh and and I've got a slide that covers this in a little bit more detail but we'd be talking about uh again uh after we study and get some data from from you guys we determine what best combination of resources would would make sense but uh we'd be talking about microt turbines which are hydrogen powered for example uh fuel cells which can be hydrogen power this is all clean energy photovoltaic cells uh lithium ion storage batteries um and and there's there's a list of other items too that we be I might be jumping ahead but what what would you define as as an average micro grid would it be the the Encompass the entire island or just a portion of the of our island or our expectation for Fort Meers Beach and our goal would be to supply the load on the entire Island and I'm I'm going to cover this in more detail but there's a lot of advantages uh to you because right now actually let me uh give me a second for letting us jump in with questions it's okay it's okay I I'm going to cover that in more detail so okay great let me let me move forward uh I had to throw this slide in here how important is the grid uh it's it's the lifeblood of society in essence we can't live without it and in fact Dennis Quaid has made a uh a movie for us called grid down power up and if you go down on YouTube you can watch that it's about a little less than an hour long and it reviews and reveals all the issues if the grid were to go down uh it is really well done really well done uh so how does this relate to Florida well Florida is committed to protected the electric grid we've had a lot of discussions with the state talking about hardening the electric grid and uh and uh uh we've come to realize that developing a plan for the state is a lengthy process an expensive process and would take a considerable time and a lot of financial effort so a pilot development of a hardened micro grid seemed like it would make a lot of sense and that's why we're proposing Fort Meers Beach to be the place where that pilot takes place uh a pilot like that can be built in a relatively short period of time and would serve as a template for the rest of the state as we move Inland um would also serve as a as a template for the barrier islands and other what we call virtual Islands what what's a virtual Island um mcdill Air Force Space might be a virtual so um uh that's the concept that we're we're looking at and uh obviously I don't have to tell you but I've shown this to other people so I had to put this on there but you guys got pretty much wiped out year and a half of them and I was actually down here uh unfortunately here fortunately depending on how you want to look at it uh and it was it was devastating I just uh I still can't get over it so Len how does the coordination work with say FPL to distribute the power um I've got more slides so well I I I expected that so let's just not ask any more questions no no no no no no go ahead go ahead ask questions but so here we're going to get a little bit more detail here now so this is uh this is what we look at right now and this is uh data that i' visually obtained I don't have Maps right now of the island uh that would have to come from Florida Power and Light but as you can see uh there's a substation off the island up uh at the very top of this slide called San Carlos substation and it's my belief that that feeds the entire Island as far as I can tell that's a radial feed into the entire Island comes underneath the bridge and feeds the island and then not this I'm not jumping ahead on this one because you're talking about this specifically when we were up in t in Tallahassee last year we talked to to representative G Lombardo about this because he was on the task force and this was the talk the talking point so would that be part of the hardening or is that a whole separate different pilot the substation yes well part of your issue here on the island and having been here frequently I used to have a place on baby to uh my clocks would always be blinking every time I came here and usually when I'm here they'd be blinking every few days uh that's because you guys were are fed from a substation that's several miles away especially if you're at the South End of the island and uh you get a lot of what I call blips on the system uh from lightning strokes and whatnot we would solve most of those problems uh and uh uh you would find your reliability of service and I'm going to talk a lot more about reliability of service here but I'm also going to talk a little bit about what this is going to cost and that's the best part of this uh this show so let's move on here uh they're saying San Carlos substation it's uh probably about a mile off the bridge I'm guessing right near Pine Ridge uh it's kind of an older substation it's uh uh there's a street view here it's not not very noticeable um and then it of course feeds across into the island and you've got what I believe to be 12 KB feers they might be 13.8 KB feers uh different utilities use different distribution voltages but they're all basically in the same range uh those feeders run down the length of the island and then there are U uh attachments to the feeders that run down the side streets and of course on on the island here you only have one Main Street everything else is a dead street so uh I point out on this slide two uh particular areas of Interest one is the circle which I believe is where we're at right now and then uh and uh the area down off of Lenell which where you have some Public Works and the fire department and whatnot so um those might be areas of TR where a micro grid could be installed uh that would be subject to a lot of other uh pieces of information and what we would propose to do is a scoping study first to gather all that data and then decide what the best way of moving forward is uh would one would one location on the island be more beneficial than the other or do matter uh well it's going to depend on what data a lot uh for example uh I I've looked at various ways of doing this again Visual and not having data from fpnl or from the state from the county uh there's probably some space underneath the bridge that we could make use of uh at the North End of the island I believe that belongs to somebody else but state state but arms can be twisted obviously uh and then of course with all the space that you have a available right now uh there may be some trade-offs that can be done to make land available it may turn out after the scoping study is done that it makes more sense to have two micr grids one at each end of the island um and that may support you better and it may also fit from a land availability perspective as well and how how large would the would be a half acre I've got something on that except am I supposed to be pointing this towards something here Dan Dan head Dan's head bounce off a h Wii oh my God working on it Len yeah uh this is Tom silky I I just before we got too far away from mayor all's question um Mike Gio Lombardo was part of a group that looked at various resiliency um in issues uh for the state for the legislature and they there are multiple programs and initiatives um that affect everything from water intrusion to um things like this and so we have been in touch with um West Brooks who is the governor's chief resiliency officer he's been helping us locate where the state has made commitments in the 2024 25 budget um and so some of what uh Mike talked about in Tallahassee may be included with what we're doing I think there are probably other programs and other funds that have been made available through the state budget and state agencies that may be um effective as well in helping Fort Meers Beach okay thank you for that still can't Advance this thing oops there we go so um why Harden why put a Harden micro Grid at Fort Meers Beach well number one the timing is excellent unfortunately but it it is excellent your system seems to be pretty simple it's it's a radial system so that makes an installation like this very very easy to put in it's it's it's relatively straightforward uh as Tom suggested and he can add to this if he wants to we've already talked to state and federal people and there's a lot of support for this type of a project and and again as a pilot moving on across the rest of the state and ultimately a rest across the country uh and uh pretty important here because your project would be relatively simple this can be completed in a relatively short period the time and I'll just supplement that I still want to ask the question but I know you're going to probably tell it what is a reasonable amount of time I I I don't have another slide on but uh somewhere between two and three years uh completed that's a long time now there are there are parts of this that we can Implement as we move along so you know if you said what can I do right now uh in a month or two we might be able to help you to a certain extent uh in a year or so we might be in a lot better shape and again in two years or there abouts two and a half years it depends how much the political pathway gets clogged up uh we could be complete also uh Len all c um couple couple of items one is the the you know Len is talking about some interim measures that would Bridge the time span between what you have now the current situation and the and the beginning or the implementation of any kind of micro grid if you ever you know decide to go forward with that um those bridging measures would be temporary or would be interim they may be integrated into the micro grid the time frame is also going to depend on what if anything the town decides to to uh go ahead and build you know depending on the complexity of the of the system and and the type of equipment and so forth the time frame will vary so that we can't nail that down real directly I also just wanted to briefly supplement Len's last slide regarding the state and federal support so I mentioned that Westbrooks uh Governor Dan Sis's Chief resiliency officer is very very interested very strong supports um what we're talking about here today um fortunately for Fort Meers Beach your state representative and state senator um especially your state representative Adam Botana is on the committee that implements resiliency um matters and studies this so you've got somebody who's very knowledgeable um at the federal level uh we've been building out I've got a network currently I'm just going to check my notes Here currently uh being built with the members of Congress and federal agencies that may be relevant to this I have been specifically looking for building relationships with anyone from Miami around the keys and up almost to Big Bend um right now um Gus Billy rockus um Carlos Jimenez uh anapolina Luna uh I've been talking with their offices Byron Donald's has indicated a strong interest strong support for resiliency the Department of Homeland Security their science and technology directorate has been specifically tracking this this project and our discussions um about this and and uh is is very interested the department of energy and the Department of Defense is interested because it has Glen or as Len mentioned this is a template potentially for mcdill Air Force Base and for other military bases um in similar facilities so there's there's widespread support there is not a single person that I've talked to in the last 6 to n months who has anything negative to say everyone is supported um that that may not mean that they're willing to to start a congressional appropriation but there are funds available through FEMA through sisa other areas of DHS the department of energy Department of defense and people are very optimistic about the support being there both for the scoping study which is this initial step as well as uh the construction and implementation of any micro grid if you decide to go forward with it and I might add that uh uh General Bob Newman who's about the third guy down on the ladder at DHS has taken a big interest in this thing so we talk to him fairly regularly and uh and yeah I I talked to General Newman and he kept me on the phone for an hour he was so excited about the concept so it's I was very impressed by that and and with to supplement miter Corporation is a federally funded research and development agency it is one of the leading technology development uh agencies in this country they are very very keen on moving this forward and doing what they can to support it um that's why Len and I decided to partner with them on this and uh and I will tell you that I you know I listened to um some of your proceedings before we got started and I was listening to the discussion of the sand repatriation efforts and and the two guys who spent the the night on the beach when Debbie went through and I'll tell you that um our team has that kind of commitment we will make sure that Len jusic is on that beach all the time long as it's not in the summer middle of summer I came down here about three weeks ago and it rained every day for I don't remember how long and then so you're the blink well no then it cleared up and then the Debbie came through so anyway but there's there's incredibly strong support at the state and federal level and and it's both deep and wide uh for this project in particular you can see why Tom's on on this involved because he's he's the humor as well as the smarts and and the legal so Lord help us yeah well I'm going to tell you right now the next two slides or so are going to be the best slides in this whole group so if if you haven't been paying attention now is the time to do that uh except well Jacob can you advance it Forum to the next slide okay so what's the benefit to Fort Meers beats well we can talk about benefits in terms of improved safety improv security damage mitigation and economic gains uh in terms of Safety and Security Harden grid on Fort Meyers Beach with a minimum maintain critical services for the island and uh this is especially true with natural hazards such as Lightning wind and storm surge which you guys have had your share of so from our perspective the central services are include uh law enforcement fire departments I know you don't have a law enforcement uh department on the island but you do have a fire department medical facilities and I remember if you said there were I think there might be a clinic or something used to be yeah uh Public Works traffic signals and and Street lighting uh lights for the turtles and uh flood control and that's a big item uh freshwater as well as Wastewater and uh we can actually even deal with uh with uh uh small surges like we just had and trying to get the streets cleaned up a little bit faster as well uh what is the benefit to Fort Meers Beach financially so number one you avoid some of the economic losses that you would otherwise sustain if if you lost power I mean there's you've got a lot of little businesses here especially at the North End of the island and uh and outage is mean to have have no business so L real quick with that so would this cover just I don't want to use catastrophic but big events or would it so like for instance yesterday we had a power AR it affected like 700 people would this micro grid then Step In Our intention would be that it would cover those 700 it would so it could be it could be sporadic it could pick up oh yeah okay you well let me carry on here all right sorry uh recognizing that the town of Fort Meers Beach would be the owner of the micr grid you could sell Excess power back to the larger utility which in this case is Florida Power and Light you could offer Premium Power subscription to private parties hotels Condominiums whatever campuses you might have on the island there for example I live at Kasa Marina there's half a dozen buildings down there so that would be something I would call a campus and uh and of course offering Premium Power services to people means that you can keep the air conditioners running which mitigates mold growth when you have a power outage and that's a that's a huge issue down here and and that's why that last bullet is on there about reduced insurance premiums now summarizing what I said uh priority number one is obviously you missed you missed one point on the last slide um something that would inure to the benefit of all the residents and businesses on the island if insurance companies knew that you were serviced by a micro grid which would would be your own privately or not private but your you would own the electrical utility grid for that for the island even though it might integrate with Florida Power and Light knowing that air conditioning would be maintained knowing that that damages would be reduced um we think it's reasonable to expect that the insurance carriers uh would be willing to consider reduced premiums for Fort Meyers Beach residents and businesses in light of their additional security compared to other barrier islands and Coastal communities yeah and Tom I thought I said that but thanks for reinforcing it anyway um so back to my summary here uh priority number one is obviously saving lives improving security protecting property and businesses priority number two is achieving priority number one by enhancing resiliency meaning your your your continuity of supply and priority number three is to achieve priorities number one and two at no cost to Fort Meers Beach so that I think that's that's a key feature here because this is a pilot program we believe that all the funding would come from state and federal money uh that as this moves forward that would obviously not be true in other locations but you as much as I uh as much as I dislike the fact that you were devastated by the hurricane you are in the right place at the right time to benefit from from a pilot program to this time so then moving forward how would it work would it it become its own utility kind of like the storm water fund then as far as operating expens and maintenance and how does that get funded then would it go into another bucket in the town's budget well I'm not the budget person so well I guess that'd be probably policy decision yeah now now it's not untypical for a project like this for the utility to manage the lines and and the the non-generation part of of a project like this but you manage and own the generation resources and that's the key because you can then make some money for the for the town perhaps significant amount of which could offset the maintenance of the grip oh yeah oh yeah easily by the way it also P it also May pay to enough that you're able to hire a a management entity um you know to manage the utility on your behalf um you know if more of these if the State of Florida decides to really push across the state there may be a a way to um manage micro grids in a in a costeffective way um so that even though you own it and it's it it's subject to your operational control um the management responsibilities and upkeep and so forth would be um you know delegated to another party if you wanted to it it it depends on what if anything you decide to build and then it's yours to decide to do with As You Wish yeah the bottom line is you would gain a lot more security or reliability and you would actually be making some money coming in instead of money going out for the for the town uh so I uh you know again uh the micro grid would be resilient to natural disasters and you've seen your fair share of that cyber attacks and physical attacks uh which are proliferating across the entire country uh what we'd be looking at is a scoping study which would be completed within the first six months and we've divided this into two pieces the scoping study we would expect to be done in six months and that would be funded by the state and that would tell us well I'll tell you what it would tell us would tell us what the load is now and in the future and load meaning the customer base so right now your customer basee I'm assuming is quite a bit down but it's going to go up and it may in a couple years it may take a real sharp turn up uh it'll determine what power generation we can put on the island and where we can put it and we would actually be able to tell you the economic benefits of that uh we can evaluate the impact of of impacting events such as potential natural and man-made hazards and disasters we would calculate potential break points so we may not do this all at one time uh we may do it uh in a couple pieces where the first part would cover you for the next three years and then the next piece would cover a period beyond that and then we would analyze the possibility of smart grid management uh if if you're familiar with utilities at all uh smart grid has been around for a little while uh it's it's the uh utility version of AI so it uh it monitors the grid and it says I've got an outage here I'm going to automatically switch circuits so I can restore power there so we can Implement some smart grid Management in this uh in this micro grid as well now where am I uh Tom do you want to talk about the this last slide here sure sure uh so as I mentioned the the State of Florida uh we believe is is likely to support and fund the uh Port Meers Beach scoping study um the governor signed the6 plus billion dollar budget um at the beginning of July and and as I mentioned there are in my discussions with some of the state officials they believe there are several different programs or sources of funds and agencies and and programs um that uh in combination or or individually would provide the funding for the scoping study primarily because it would it would involve things like resiliency water intrusion um um mitigation hurricane mitigation Etc and it would really be a pilot in a blueprint for all of Florida's Barrier Islands Coastal communities that suffer from the same problems peninsulas in in Virtual Islands as as Len mentioned um military bases are are probably the best example um I'm currently I'm being introduced to Kathy Caster's uh Congressman congresswoman casters um resiliency uh Point person um her District includes mcdill Air Force Base which is the home of special ops and I forget the other special Mission but right um and few of my classmates from the Air Force Academy are are choing the bit they're I talked to them briefly about what we're working on and they're uh um they're eager to see that implemented in it in some of the military bases and and merer has contacts in those areas as well so this this project will be a blueprint for all of those scenarios all of those locations and and that could very well extend even Beyond Florida to the Gulf Coast and the Eastern Seaboard especially um so there's there's strong support in the State of Florida for getting this this scoping study done and for looking at the feasibility of a micro grid for a community or an island like Fort Meers Beach then we have the federal authorities who um as Len and I mentioned have been extremely positive um again nobody has voiced any reservation about moving forward with this type of project and and they believe that between the department dep of energy Department of Defense Department of Homeland Security that uh it's reasonable to expect that the federal government would pay for the uh basically the Prototype of a micro grid like this and um I I in addition to the Florida um specific Congressional uh folks I've been keeping in touch with um Senator Ron Johnson who's one of my US senators here in Wisconsin uh is on homeland security Carlos jenz from um whose District includes the keys in South Miami he's on the house Homeland Security committee they want to see this sort of thing being implemented for grid security purposes Nationwide so they there're just all kinds of people who want to see this happen and as Len mentioned um unfortunately for the town of Fort Meers Beach you were a ground zero for for Ian but it is provided the the the ideal location and Circumstance for for looking at this in the scoping study and hopefully um finding a a a structure that works for the the community and and as a blueprint yeah I I I would add that you can see in the bottom paragraph there that we're estimating the uh the actual micro grid will be in the order of about $50 million again expected to be paid for by uh by federal uh funds uh the scoping study uh would be somewhere in the order of $500,000 and that would come from the state it may be less I'm hoping it's less I don't think it's going to be more than that so um and that's a period of about six months that it's going to take for that particular effort uh so I you're probably all asking what is what does this look like and I've got some pictures here that will be somewhat indicative of of a micro Grid or pieces of a micro grid and and I'm going to go through those relatively quickly here that that would be the type of structure that we would expect to put the main part of a micr grid on again this could be a couple pieces but it would be at least 14 to 16 ft above sea level and it would be enclosed in a in a building up on the top there that would be uh shielding the critical parts to the weather to to other impacts that we might have um again the Control building raise this is a shoreline Control building that we found someplace else but it would be very similar to that uh batteries batteries would be a significant part of a microgrid now these batteries are on the ground and most of them are uh you can't do that along the ocean especially with lithium I am batteries so these would be on top of the micro grid platform obviously that platform would have to be pretty strong but we've we've done that before you can stack these batteries so that you can actually save some space by doing something like that uh what else would be in there microt turbine uh this is closer to a megawatt now rather than 700 kilow there's a frontal view of it uh this is a hydrogen based microt turbine uh solar farms and rooftop solar uh that's something that study would would look at in in conjunction with advisement from the town uh how much space can we make available solar panels uh a lot of people are doing them if you go down uh 75 up north you can drive a couple miles without leaving the solar farms uh they may be rooftop you could put them on the library there may be space on the land that you can put them or you can incorporate them into some new structures as well we'll have to see uh how that pans out this is a hydrogen fuel cell it's it's like a battery except this doesn't use uh battery acid and whatnot this uses hydrogen uh frictionless fly wheels we would imagine that there'd be uh a fair number of these they they are typically buried and they're watertight so they could actually be installed underneath the platform they uh they are a stor device and they one of the advantages of the frictionless flywheel is they have instantaneous response so there's zero latency from a frictionless flywheel and they would take out a lot of the blips that you now see on the system from from various uh impacts that you get lightning for example no latency zero latency wow well just they're just like because they're spinning they're just like a generator you get instantaneous because oh go ahead and because they're not water sensitive the way batteries may be they also could be placed in places like under the bridge they could be placed partially underground um it allows you to to vertically make use of the space you have by having something like this as a base and then having equipment that has to be kept above a certain you know a certain level above sea level um or is sensitive to water salt water water Salt Air you know you can stack these physically to uh to take better advantage of the of the space you have available and uh just an example of a this is a small micro grid it takes up about a half an acre again this is assuming ground level flat micro grid uh we can because we're going to be on a platform we might be able to stack this up higher or do some other things to to make the footprint smaller uh you get some mediumsized micro grids that are 3 to 4 acres in size uh I would expect that the one here would be somewhere in between those two and again it could be in a couple pieces uh so the scoping study uh just to give you an example here there's probably 10 major parts to that identify locations and footprints for the micro grid collect data and the project and future electric demand identify possible generation and energy storage technology IES for micro grid use and we just went through some of those uh create alternative micr grid designs in architecture so we give you some choices as to where you'd put them and what they'd look like and that type of thing uh estimate microgrid Capital operating in life cycle cost so you'd have you'd know you're making money by the month or by the year because you're selling power and then over the course of the entire life of this project would utility uh equipment often is has a life cycle of 30 to 40 years you'd have some balance of of cost and and and advantage or benefit um identification and cost of Hazard resilience Technologies and measures compare microG Grid electric deliverability reliability with existing reliability for Island loads that would be a significant difference in that one I would expect your reliability would be astronomic higher uh compute environmental and climate resilience benefits identify legal and regulatory requirements and and Tom's uh gone down this uh this path already a little bit and then uh Contra contractual reporting and final deliverable so next steps uh feedback from Fort Meers Beach leadership it's you guys uh feedback from the state of Florida uh and Tom's been talking to the chief resiliency resiliency officer West Brooks uh from the legislator legislature if necessary and then any make any additional presentations as so any more questions now that we've gotten to this point well I'm certainly glad you're here thank you for to VI May atal for picking this under run with it two times I've met with West Brooks he alluded to this and at the time we had met was quickly after the storm so it kind of fell in the back burner with everything else that was going on so I'm thankful that you picked it up and ran with it Vice May and got it to this point because it is a it is a very interesting idea and and I'm one I'm personally a person that likes to try different things and you know you can be the first at something that solves a bigger greater issue I'm all on board for but uh questions Vice may I just want to set a table just for what we're trying to accomplish today because I know there there might be additional questions the goal today would be to have the council empower the mayor and the town manager to proceed forward in working with this group and or others and then incorporate their their their desire for scoping study funds in their overall legislative strategy because I know the town has a number of different uh priorities with the legislature but but to make sure that they're empowered to to to to include this if they if they if they choose and then just again just to empower Town manager and the mayor and our staff to move forward with this as they deem appropriate um and just wanted to make sure everybody had a chance to see it have have their questions answered and just allow this to continue to proceed forward uh as as as our leadership deems necessary can you got questions for I don't have any at this time I think uh mine would be probably next level questions okay I'm going to can I Mr Mayor yield my time to Mark our U U ilities director Mark I'm sure you've been listening to this intently do you have any questions I don't want you I don't want to make sure you're overlooked since this is affects your world over there yeah no I mean it's a need a microphone here you go it's on is it on okay sorry about that yeah I mean it's obviously it's a it's an excellent idea um my concern is that um still a saltwater atmosphere Storm surges and things like that um so how is it really going to affect it because we get our looking at it from the water side I'll say we get our water off Island so it if we have electricity here we still have to fill up our tanks from Lee County utilities which is off Island so if they don't have that um grid on their side and they lose power you know that's n not like I said I'm speaking in a little small part just on the water part how is that going to help us fill our tanks and pump it out to the citizens so that that was kind the I think the answer to that would be part of the scoping study would be to look at the off Island needs that you have to to keep those things up and running so that was just something I didn't see in there that because we get our stuff from off Island and I know I have solar on my house I have three B batteries and everything and Ian it came right on we never lost power or anything so it's it was I had my own little micro good and it was awesome you know my neighbors came with their coffee pots and the whole n yard saying is we're calling you yeah yeah come on down you know I got room I just volunteer now we know where the new Future Part exactly there you go so but I think the other thing was is it's still a a generator so what supplies the generator is it going to be oil is it gas is it is it well it's going to be clean clean fuel yeah so LP gas hydrogen hydrogen um there's a variety of different options and and these would be things that we would itemize because then that has to be supplied to the island to keep the generators going well the generation mark would ideally be located on the island yes with the hydrogen and and the battery storage Etc in the Solar we'd have a combination of our own generation so we really wouldn't need a fuel a traditional fuel source so that was kind of what I was looking is it a traditional fuel source or is it something the other option Again part of the scoping study would try to ascertain is when I drive up to the island I see on the other side of the bridge Fort Myers Beach this and that do you guys own any land on the other side of bridge no no okay so and you don't own the land underneath the bridge a portion of it portion of it okay so you know uh the project could include uh supporting off off Island facilities to keep you up in mind the other the other thing um the other thing to keep in mind is that the Technologies in this field are developing so quickly so that um and this goes to one other point I wanted to make the scoping study in addition to looking at what the the current needs of the island are um can work on looking at what the needs of the island may be in let's say 2 to three years 5 years 10 years there's a decision made as to whether you want to build to that 2 to threeyear window 5year growth window 10year growth window or merely have contingency plans as growth occurs to be able to expand the capacity of the microgrid the Technologies are expanding at the same time time and so things like the flywheels that that Len was talking about for storage um just in recent times those have become incredibly more efficient and so we expect that that the Technologies available for generation for storage for for distribution will change as the project goes forward and part of the scoping study is to provide you with a a deliverable report that tells you what you can do at that point but with an eye toward keeping an eye on Technologies as they change so that you can opt into other Technologies as they quote unquote come online no pun intended and I might add that uh our other partner merer who isn't here um their ultimate goal was to be able to supply the island for 10 years with with microgrid power so uh that's going to be coming out of the out of the scoping stud to see how close to that number and and miter has access to things that are not necessarily publicly available right now whether they come from the National Labs like Los Alamos so forth or whether they come from um Private Industry they come from uh internal R&D projects at miter in um energy related U Fields they work very closely with the Department of energy Department of Defense and Homeland Security on on uh technology development both within miter and with um Contracting parties and I think just one other thing just on a positive note um about selling the power back to fpl I don't like that my electric bill is minus $117 a month because I sell it back to to else anybody that out there is listening their ears just perked up yeah I know yeah it's like I see my electric bill it's minus mine this month was minus $71 even though I had people from Alaska that were there my daughter and stuff and the the house was freezing the whole time you know and yet we still sold it back so that is keep in mind that the utilities aren't very generous with paying you no they don't pay me a check for your uh portion that that goes back to them but no the other the other concept of selling power to online on C campuses on the island could be consider considerably more Lu could be S so that was just a positive besides all the other for those reserves yeah besides the other aspects and stuff like that in in addition um as Len mentioned early in his in his discussion um keep in mind that where you have it doesn't even have to be a hurricane but a strong water related event um where buildings have to come down or large portions of them have to or have to be structurally rebuilt because of mold and and the effects of water over time because of a loss of power if you can keep air conditioning systems running as a bare minimum you will you will save a huge amount on property damage that will not occur because water has a chance to take hold along with mold sorry something just clicked in my mind I believe you said in your presentation that the the actual electric grid out there would be taken care of by the power company still but we would be in charge of maintaining the the generator and and you would probably uh you know contract that out to to somebody using some of the money that you're making off okay I think that was the only other concern is if we have to maintain those generators that's that's a big expense for the town yeah exactly anything else Mark no I think I'm good Council won so just a couple questions um you said this is a pilot program and Fort Meers Beach because we were Ground Zero is considered one of the main areas are are there other areas that are being looked at or we are focused so obviously the other barrier islands have been impacted as well and and the advantage of a Barrier island is that the the grid is much simpler than on the mainland we don't want to start with a Harden micro grid on the mainland and some place like uh bu of time or something like that so so the barrier islands make a lot of sense because it's a simple installation the other there are some others that have been impacted we have not well I don't know Tom uh I don't know if you you spoke to a bunch of Representatives I don't know if you spoke specifically to any of the barrier islands I I have not talked to any other municipalities or communities other than Fort Meers Beach I will tell you that congresswoman Luna Congressman Billy rockus Congressman y menz um they the the reaction I've gotten is they could see this being a critical safety and and um resiliency upgrade to their districts and so they're looking at it from a from a broader standpoint and at the they're looking at the State of Florida but we have not talked to any other specific municipalities or or entities like that and I might add and I don't know if I emphasize this enough um aside from your exposure to storms uh surges and whatnot uh State of Florida is a peninsula so your connection to the rest of the world is limited up near the Georgia border in fact there's 200 two 500 KB lines there typically if you lose both of those lines uh you lose load in the Miami area on the order of several thousand megawatts and that that's happened I can point to numerous instances where that's happened so State of Florida has a good reason to be interested in this so and then I'm assuming when you're looking at this and you'll do all your work but then you're looking at 10 to 15 years out correct because right now we're I I hate to say it like this but it's kind of a shell and there's going to be a lot more development that takes place and how is that impacted or how do you right and and we recognize that so what we would do is a load projection within the the uh study and we would project what the load's going to be over the next 10 years and how it's going to grow and obviously uh you folks are going to have a significant input to that we've got previous low curves we can get from Florida Power and Light and typically you know the loads are you know middle of the day they get way up there and then especially down here with the air conditioning load then at night it tapers off and uh it's that's pretty similar across the whole country there are a few exceptions but uh so we would we would build a new load curve for you looking forward for 10 years and try to incorporate loads that you would anticipate coming again loads meaning customers coming online and and that would be the basis of our study and and keep in mind that um council member Woodson as you discussed there'll be more building um it's worth considering who might consider building a a a high-end condo complex in Fort Meers Beach if they know that they are going going to be better protected in terms of property damage and the safety of those residents because of the resilience of a micro grid being pres on the island you know that will enhance your marketability for things like development of that type so well those new developments then be will they have any impact or cost with them as they develop or is this they would just hook into the grid they could be customers of the Town well yeah right they would be okay okay all right that's all I have for now okay s so I guess my my number one question I know you've got the micro grid control buildings but we're still going to be using existing wires and cabling to get to the other places is that correct we would be using at least some of them uh we may put additional feeders in uh again that'll part of that will be determined by where we anticipate the load to grow on the islands so uh the middle of the Island's kind of bare right now so um and it may turn out that we need two micro grids and you know we could fit they'd be smaller but there might be two of them one at closer to each end of the island and that might facilitate so it's conceivable to say if some of the lines went down Mid Island there still be a portion South End where those lines didn't go down and still everything be working perfectly I would think you'd be better off cleaning one in each out to be St yeah and it'll be a function a significant part of that would be how much space we can have available yeah what's crazy is you think you know before the store a couple years ago like why is why do we have wires and why aren't they buried well find out that the buried ones were worse because of the salt intrusion yeah interesting okay thank you I've pretty much asked all my questions I mean I guess my only question would be so from us I think that the vice mayor laid it out pretty good but politically it sounds like we have a lot of ducks in a row with with Congressman Donald's obviously representative batana Senator Martin Wes obviously has been in our in our Corner what what can we do if we decide that we want to say let's ahead and go with this politically is there anything that we can do um I'm going to defer to Tom who's the expert on that yeah let me let me let me let me butt in here Tom what in essence what would be happen What would happen if the council authorized the May and the town manager to proceed forward there would be a partnership between this team and the town as we go forward and we do our legislative ask strategy but also Tom has a strategy to work through the various state agencies themselves without doing an appropriation to receive funds for the scoping study as well then once the scoping studies complete this team has a relationships and assets at the federal level that would help and it would be in their interest to help us procure those Federal fund so it wouldn't be incumbent necessarily on the town by itself to achieve both that state and federal ask they'd be actively involved in that process with their relationships that's right and we would sorry go ahead no go ahead you're up Tom uh at both the scoping study and construction phases the town wouldn't be making a decision about whether to go forward until they until you knew that you had the funding in place um at the state level as Jim mentioned um and again I'm I'm basing this off of discussions with with West Brooks and and some other folks um the the the funds that have been allocated to agencies or in the name of resilience already uh would appear to be more than adequate to put in a request for the scoping study uh and and I think we could expect people like Westbrooks and representative batana and Senator Martin to Shepherd that process through and to be supportive I think there are other people at the state level who will want to see this go forward because they want to see this become a state program or or again a template for the rest of the state um and and the the fact that that it's coming out of programming and not a legislative appropriation means that the town doesn't have to ask the legislature to make any kind of specific request makes sense right and I might add that uh Tom had a conversation with West Brooks recently on this subject and they spoke for an hour and a half so he's very interested in this uh well I I guess myself I'm I'm all in favor of this I think going through with that scoping St doesn't hurt anything um it gives us more answers to questions I think that we all have and probably questions that you you have and so I I'm 100% favor of it but how about you Scott um 102% okay I'll take it 103 we're getting there um I'm comfortable moving forward all right Jim I think we know where you stand great yep all right thank you gentlemen very much you look forward to the next step thank you and and please if you have questions after the meeting um always feel free to reach out to us the it's a it's a three- member team but we work very closely together uh we kind of bring I by way of a little bit of background I spent seven and a half years at the cabinet level in governor Scott Walker's Administration here in the state of Wisconsin with economic development um in our state jobs agency and I I've worked with various programs and so forth and so and I'm a I'm an attorney um don't hold that against me but that was a mistake that's stri too yeah well you had us right till then well I was I was an electrical engineer in a bartender before that so I've got a better pedigree than it sounds like um but but I have experience working on on projects at you know where the state has a commitment to something like this and to the extent that you all have questions we want to make sure that if we can answer them we will if we can't we'll help you find the answers um we want to see Fort Meers Beach come out of this way ahead and U it's again unfortunately it's because of where you are and where Ian hit um that you're in an opportune spot now and and we want you to help we want to help you take advantage of that so please make sure to reach out and let us know if you have questions in the future at all do thanks Tom and and just one last thing before you go uh skull Vikings go Marquette I I I I also repres BR far for 18 years so I'll I'll U as a former Vikings quarterback uh I'll I'll be supportive of uh of the Vikings as far as Brett having been their quarterback for a period of time that's a great so now you guys have have mentioned sports team so I have to end by saying go Irish oh no no no quick turn it off turn it off now turn it off now thank you thank you very much can you make all their contact information to staff together you already got it all perfect one thing we need to be mindful of you know we've got some cdbg cdbg drr long-term recovery planning money that that if we need to use that we got to find projects to use it for that shouldn't be different okay we got money we'll move on with the the rest of the agenda Town manager items thank you mayor um we've covered a lot of it but uh we we are in the process of preparing a letter to send out FEA is going to be sending out a letter for the national flood insurance program uh the 5, 292 policy holders in town we are also sending a letter so we're in the process of preparing that letter to be mailed out um we talked about the 7-Eleven property in the town hall closure um but again we can't overemphasize and and and I've talked to each of you about this and Council Woodson brought this up the cost of new construction and the timing of new construction uh that power grid could be in place by the time we got a new building built not really but it would take probably another three to five years or more by the time we we got this Council to start planning the next Council have their input and another Council have input that could get locked up in a in a political discussion very respectfully uh speaking but this kind of like C circumvent that that process and also saves a lot of money so we can do some of these other things so we can put money in the reserve so we can be prepared for that other rainy day so just just wanted to you know bring that to everyone 's attention um we have teams out now assessing uh Debbie we we have a since we it's a declared emergency substantial damage in the section 125 funding which is part of FEMA so we're out now assessing all that we have our teams out doing that as we speak again I want everyone to be mindful of the traffic pattern that changed this morning a little bit around Margaritaville you know going to be tur you're said it headed north they going to be turning on Crescent they go around behind Margarita so it's going to create a different process down there so we've got to also be mindful whenever we have a flood and whenever there's flooding in that area so we've got to be on top of that even more diligently now so pumps and things like that that you mentioned a while ago we've got to start addressing a what if how long will that traffic better 18 to 24 months it's as far as I know it's the whole Pro the project I do not know okay just curious unfortunate but I think they haven't been told that there's a short term or a long term so I would just assume that it would be a longer term instead assuming can we try to reach out to fot and see if we can get some so we can let the public know how long they can expect to as they do construction imag they'll keep one lane coming through and another Lane going around but we will find out for sure and you need the project manager's information I've got it we will well ni Cole we'll do some blast about that and get that out there um again um ncy mentioned the closing date on the town hall we're we're we're moving on that as quickly as we can so we can start those processes reaching out to architects now to help design L and do some things that we need to do for the downstairs but we we keep that moving we've got those uh that that momentum now so we're moving forward so other than that that's all I have so is a because of the two properties I assume we're going to be working at the same time we're going to be doing what we need to do building as we we have a demo company kind of under contract now to help with other things so once we do that we'll engage them to take the building down down and start looking at that property to get it raised up to get some drainage put in to do the things we need to design there but we've got got to talk to to Nancy about the Architects we we've called a few and they're not responding so we might just need to you know write a letter ourselves that we we attempted with our list now we got to start calling others who might be willing to help us so we'll have to talk more about that just a quick followup uh Frankie you mentioned something the other day and I don't know if it's ready for public consumption or not but with the the acquisition of this 7-Eleven property not only is it parking for the town but it might also so provide advantages to surrounding streets given some room that you'll now have to do some additional Street improvements do you want to just touch on that or is that not ready to disclose yet well it it's still being discussed but it's not no secret we're trying to look uh at possibilities of having underground storage um facility or or or tank so to speak um to take some of that burden off of Bea uh the access of the hea off of a stero is so steep that a lot of that water does not get catched by the basins that are there it just runs right down the roadway um but even after Ender site work is done and puts the outfalls in which I think that's all they have to do on beava and connect the system up on that road you're you're still going to have a large amount of water coming off of a stero on that street particularly so by rerouting it to the back of the new town hall property and putting into a storage facility we could actually pump that to uh the North or in this case West End of the island the next Canal up which actually sits almost about a foot and a half higher than Bea does you wouldn't have that so that's all still stuff that we're talking I just thought that might might be an encouragement to those people who live in that area now that they'll have a new neighbor not only that but I know Sarah would would applaud this but as we put asphalt or we put whatever on that parking lot we need to control our water we need to maintain we don't need to push it off on the resident so we're going to be creating we're going to be the good Steward we're going to set the example so people look at us and say okay you you're doing the right things by putting the right drainage under the driveway by doing things that others could do on their property a little more money but it helps your neighbor instead of pushing it down the road we're going to try to contain it on our property coming off a building that really has no drainage going anywhere that's kind of just running off so we're going to we're going to improve what's already there on our property so you add that big building that's contributing to beia now and then we start now change that water flow back to our property that'll take some of that off of that so then then it perks out a little over long if you look at what Mr Rashard did on his property U on the corner of first I believe it's first third and and Old St Carlos similar concept would put holding tanks underneath sort of like a big huge French drain catch Basin yes that's that's great thank you very helpful anything else no sir all right Town attorney items no items no items okay well I I've got one for the town attorney I just had a chance to watch the uh the special magistrate hearing the other day and I didn't know if you had any updates or comments from your perspective as to how that went and what we should look forward to or dread going forward it was a little disappointing to have the other attorney come and just throw out a whole bunch of um legal citations unrelated to a lot of the facts that were present in the case so um I think it was a good call on the part of the special magistrate to ask for legal briefings um she gave the uh opposing Council 10 days and then we will respond within an additional 10 days um the longer they take the more the fine acrs because our position is he is in violation and um the fine will continue to ACR as of the March 18th date that that that as I watched it I just wanted to make sure that was clear it's not just the fine it's it's a doubling of the fine correct it's now up to $500 a day is that it is that is what we are asking for yes because it is a um a repeat violation yes thank you and you're correct mayor she hasn't quite made her her final ruling on it yet because they've asked for um additional time that's thank you but I um I've come across some additional uh historical information which is quite interesting so I'm I'm really curious to see what their their brief is going to say okay and I don't know if I ask this now or whenever but um on the the subject of ebikes on the sidewalk where are we on that it's on the man gender management for yes we have done some um initial research on it and I guess I need to coordinate with um with Andy to find out when uh we need to present it back to you okay yeah I think it was a two we termin date on the agenda management yeah yeah we worked on it over the summer so okay thank you anything else no Scott question uh um not for the attorney okay all right council member items and Report Scott we'll see you do um Andy you you had mentioned that there there may be some funds available for for Debbie um at what point so just so the public knows there's some some times where we're not getting any help whatsoever and there's other times where we do get help is there an easy to describe line in this stand so to speak of what what triggers us being able to get compensation from the state obviously there's there's several factors and it was the the governor declaring a state of emergency then then you declared a local state and of course now the federal government's even done the same thing so that triggers a lot of of the balls that need to be you know rolling we are now collecting information I've just been talking a little bit to Chad sorry during the meeting about some beach clean up for some of the debris that has come up the seaweed and things like that so so we're we're starting that so that that triggers it just as soon as the event hit the the governor did that earlier last week we did it uh Monday morning so that that that's those are the trigger mechanisms and there was a question posed To Me by someone this week you know why do we have three state of emeres where they all have to fall under their umbrella you you can't have one and it just refers to all of them they're all separate so there's six more storms between now and the time the others do we'll keep adding those because they all stand along right yeah and then I I guess just as a follow-up question of that at what point I know we don't we have no idea now but at what point it's three months down the road 6 months down the road hey that that storm Joe cost us x amount and that we had to pull out from the reserves what how long does that take to kind of figure that out I don't want I don't want to hold you to I got to have the information in 45 days or anything but at what point can we determine what what the costs of these storms are and well because we we had talked about you know it was three and a half million last storm and we we're kind of looking at five so do we get do we get some numbers in from each of these events on overtime and what's not reimbursable and what's being pulled out of the reserve funds well I'll be honest to say I have not really had a chance to take a look at it from that perspective like from an overall perspective because from from what we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis I mean it's still an ongoing um thing where we're feeding um FEMA information we're still collecting information so I think with working with Title Basin we may you know now that most of the immediate response you know is over and passing behind us I think we can start looking at what we've collected so far but we're we're still are collecting the information we have it it's just not compiled in a way that we can maybe you're saying we're still collecting information we are and we are we are Scott from Michael if you will we've got we've got our our our monthly report from from title Bas and as of now the federal eligible amount right now is 19,8 191,00 5368 so that's the federal eligible Aid which means you take and add the states and other on top of that we cost which we don't have any cost basically with with this storm with Ian it would be State cost and federal cost okay we they do have we can get that breakdown to you they have it broken down uh between in uh the asks the PA projects uh Adalia and now we'll have another ask for for Debbie as well they keep a running total of what we send upstream and what actually gets obligated okay right and then Frankie for you how I I know we we'd spoken a couple times about you know getting the pool reopen and getting funds from one of the acronyms can you update everyone on that please So currently um it's one of those uh Square pegs in in in a round slot M um the only logical progression we have for funding right now would be through the cdbg uh so that's one of our infrastructure asks um we broke down three projects that really don't have a lack of a better term dancing partner to associate with um there's always a funding stream that opens up you and we stay on those um but the most logical path to get the pool redone as good as it was when it was built originally if not better would be through the cdbg and those uh Wheels have just started turning uh they're going to have uh interim discussions with that starting next week and that'll come to fruition uh probably in early September great thank you that's all I have there okay counc Woodson um just one thing I think I was remiss during um acknowledgements at the beginning but since Andy brought it up is that parking lot on old San Carlos and Third Street which is John Rashad's by sh shipwreck that parking lot I hope becomes the model for all future I mean it is beautiful the work that they've done the infrastructure that they put into that um you know even the fencing the foliage what he's still going to be building and doing his landscape I mean that is something that should become a model of what we look at when people are changing things or developing or want to enhance that that is for sure an enhancement on our street without a doubt that's all I just have one thing I uh I was contacted by uh Joe who's a neighbor uh at Newton Park literally a neighbor uh to Newton Park and he had suggested and I've since talked to a number of other people since then that the town consider uh potentially uh through partnering with the the Florida Land Trust acquiring The Strand View Property which is right next to Newton park on the other side that would in increase the size of Newton park by potentially a third I've seen numbers in the press as to what that property is listed at I don't want to say what it is because I'm not sure if that's exactly correct or not but I just wanted to see if there was a consensus uh from my colleagues today to give the town manager direction to explore the possibility of potentially partnering with the land trust to see if we could procure that strand View Property to enhance uh the size and scope of of Newton park again creating not only a larger Park but also a larger View Corridor uh on Fort Myers Beach at a time where we still have that chance to do so I would support that absolutely support that okay absolutely yes sir and Andy if you would just for just I know that this has going on for a long time but if you just spend a second and explain to folks uh how how that partnership with the land trust would work if if we had the opportunity to acquire that property sure um we have talked to the land trust the state the state land trust there's several land trusts that are nonprofit or but this the state the state works that that you actually purchase the land you expend the the revenue and then they reimburse you 100% but then it goes into a land trust in perpetuity and it can never be used for anything but a park so that they have expressed to us in meetings we've had that they they've got funding they're ready to do so they've asked us to look for property this was about six six or seven months ago so you just have to get the right thing and and sometime we we looked at houses and we looked at certain things but this just really actually this actually seems to be a good fit for what we are trying to do to to ex expand our Parks what would the what would the next step be would it would it be our due diligence or we just reach out to the land trust to see if they I think at some point we want to sit back and let them take the building down so we don't mess cont once that's gone and they get it they get it all cleaned up and then we will you know probably reach out to the owners and but I think it's listed for sale now I guess oh is it okay we can we can work with the attorney and get all those things and then I can also we can work reach out to the state and let them know and let them start looking at that and just engage engage them in a conversation which we've already started but we'll we will we'll brush that off and and dust it off and and then have that conversation further that's great thank you allc K I've got a couple things um received an email I think we all did uh concerning U the uh noise coming from Time Time Square use of uh bullhorns or portable speakers and if there's a way to control that um a suggestion I think made was perit for that I'm not sure exactly how to do that but so over the summer I was copied on a an email which I think um you may be alluding to um and we did some research there were some other ordinances from other cities that were provided to give us um you know a starting point but we didn't take it the next step until we had direction from from Council um but we would be happy to look at your ordinances and see if there's any type of amendment that could be made to um achieve the goal that you want to I would suggest we move forward with that okay we just wanted to get your permission before okay the other thing is more personal but last month I moved up from secretary to treasurer of the southwest Florida League of cities good Lu congratulations good luck with that John before you glance over that does that mean you're now in in line in the chairs you become president uh on the year following that I'll go up to vice president and then president all right very good very nice congratulations thank you yeah um I I just have a couple quick things one is getting a lot of emails and stuff you know everybody's obviously working so hard and we're trying to keep the beach clean and when the rack line comes up and it leaves that seaweed and we've talked about it in the in the past but it's never really gone anywhere I I would like to get support to allow staff to start working forward to see if there's a way that we can environmentally obviously clean that up because sometimes that stuff gets very big very stinky very um and I don't know if Chad can weigh in on this if there's a never really gotten a direct answer is it something that we could go through a process to be able to do as a town or hire an outside firm that has the per to be able to do it um sooner than letting it sit out there and then it's not a very pleasant smell when it does well yeah we may need to get some easements um I don't know if that activities necessarily covered under our construction easements depending on where the rack line is it could be on private property um therefore we essentially be maintaining private property um we definitely have the equipment for it um and uh you know by our code once you know if it's a storm created rack line it's permissible to to get it cleaned up so I just personally I think it would be something just to help keep the beach as nice as we can keep it um you know with all the stuff keep washing up sometimes stuff gets stuck in there that you don't see and people try to walk through it I've seen kids running through it and I would be support if everybody else would would would go along and not that I want to give you more work Chad but uh if that's something that you could look into to find if there's a path for us to be able to do that or if it falls under something we already have in place to be able to to keep the beach as clean as we can with those heavy rack lines that come up yep I have a couple ideas so yes sir okay with that absolutely may we I've done that in a previous we had a a contractor actually called Beach raker was a contractor but it was it was the County's Beach so we County gave us permission so this is a little little stickier but we we'll work through it and see what we can come up with okay and then the other thing I have is u a local a local Builder that will follow construction who's building the whale as we all know I've been in in conversations with them about the potential for parking garage somewhere they've been looking to try to do it for a long time and they've they've got a couple locations that they're looking at but I don't want go down the road of having them put time and effort into it one of the locations was obviously the Old Town Hall property but they they seem to think they can make numbers work there with an interlocal agreement with the town as far as financially how that works out for Town making money off of that um but again without everybody being okay with at least seeing what they can come up with I don't want people to waste any time or energy um but they've asked to reach out to meet with the the town manager and I to put something together to bring in to see if it even makes sense to go to bring it for discussion in front of the coun so I'm just seeking if there's approval to at least have the conversations with them certainly I'm open exploring just one thing thing about the presentation we just heard is that that also a possibility for on top of that to have the power G the you know the batteries or something that definitely would be strong enough and definitely would be high enough so probably something to incorporate in other studies that we did as well so think about fallowing construction has been building on signing for decades and and most people know who they are you know the buildings they build have made it through the storm so they know what they're doing and and I thought it would be a good partnership if it could potentially work out for the town and and and for them to be able to do it so thanks for the the support we'll I'll reach out to them and we'll see what we can come up with and that's all I have I'm sorry I forgot one thing um okay September 23d is our council meeting and then also the budget meeting at 5:00 is it possible to move our council meeting to the afternoon before the budget meeting instead of doing a 9:00 council meeting and then a 5:00 budget meeting could we do like a 3:00 council meeting or something and then the budget meetings get it done in two hours well they're usually those usually they're not a very heavy agenda on those on those days there's usually not I mean we could do it we could actually do it for both if we wanted to because September 9th is the other meeting but on the 23rd I'm running into a conflict in the morning if there's any way we could move the council meeting to the after I'm not saying this but you could also do the budget meeting and right after that do the council meeting of course you'll be here you know 9 or 10 o'clock but that way you guaranteed not to have to stop start you had an issue oh that's true too you could start the council meeting at 5 and0 no you have to do the budget and the council after that I'm not saying we do that but I'm just not a bad idea it isn't a bad idea that way you don't have to interrupt in the middle oh wait it's 501 we got to stop but then we're right in the middle of somebody's presentation and then boom yeah a lot of cities do that just work it backwards budget yeah I don't have any issue with it long as it's just once because I know how get it would just be the one time they're hungry now just the 23rd meeting just well for me it's just the 23rd I don't know if anybody else wants to change anything else I think it's easier if we just have to change the one meeting versus both for the public and everything but I'm I into that the 23rd is the only one I'm running into difficulty with anybody have any so this as it as it stands now the council meeting will just follow the budget meeting down the 20 230 correct that's that's the US and usually the second budget meeting is a little bit shorter right because it everything's been discussed right okay yes sir all right thank you to uh vice mayor adol's U suggestion or our our topic just like with the town hall building I have full authority to go make offers on things pending your approval so that's just we'll follow the same type of process I wanted to give you that Authority something else we got half time let's move to adjourn got a motion to adjourn from councelor King second second by councelor Safford any further discussion n all those in favor I I oppos None we are adjourned at 1231 for