e e e e e e e e e e e morning we're going to call the meeting to order is 9:00 a.m. we are at the Town Hall council chambers at 27:31 Oak Street um we have any public comment no all the do we have is Nancy here or is Becky here Nan by phone okay good good morning good morning we had everyone here so Town manager Town attorney here town clerk all the council members are present we just have one thing it's just emergency meeting uh our administrative agenda is resolution 24- 154 local state of emergency tropical storm Debbie it is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida declaring a state of local emergency due to the approach of tropical storm dur Debbie providing the town with powers including but not limited to those pursuant to Florida Statutes chapter 252 and town code chapter 2 article 6 providing for penalties for violation providing conflicts severability and for an effective date and termination date man yeah thank thank you mayor just after talking with the uh um Town attorney this morning and thinking about it we and and the evidence that we saw yesterday and last night post storm we wanted to make sure that we did this we've been working uh really since Saturday morning talking actually with staff since Friday early Friday and Thursday of last week to to get things going to get things in order um obviously Nicole and I communicated a lot yesterday as well as I communicated with you guys about what what we were and what was happening um I've talked to uh the Lee County County Manager Dave Harner quite a bit yesterday and and they're mobilizing this morning to come out and and take care of their part so we just felt like this was necessary Joe and I talked a little bit yet via email yesterday a couple times about the need to go ahead and get this accomplished so we can move forward we do have some some U um things we've done that we feel like they do qualify for this we're filling out the frro documents so we can submit that to uh the state and and to FEMA also having a phone call this morning with tidle bason who's going to help us uh go through the paperwork and get everything filed if you would mind just kind of give an update as to what staff did yesterday what they're working on today and I know like I told you coming in I saw the county was out there with the street sweepers and all their guys ready to go so just for anybody that's paying attention or watching just give an update what we've done so far and what we're planning to do today the main thing that we we we wanted to focus on early last week as we saw it was coming was just just our thought process about okay how are we going to react what are we going to do turned out to be a little more than we expected but nothing that we weren't anticipating and weren't prepared for uh I think the focus became um the storm surge which was probably at at its worst three plus feet and I think it was more around old San Carlos uh Time Square we got out there yesterday afternoon around 3:00 and we noticed you know obviously we had more sand than than we even had with Adalia approximately a year ago so it was still it was kind of like the same memory reflex that we just we just picked up on there and and it was our our preparation uh Jeff he's not in here now but he did an excellent job mobilizing his team making sure they were aware on Friday before they went home that they're on call all weekend they came out we started getting sand out of the way in Time Square so we can get back to normal today that continues uh we've got some fencing down we've got debris scattered around the town I see fpls got one one um street light that are Street street light that needs to some attention from them the county is mobilizing this morning to do some street sweeping and obviously work in their parks and do the things that they need to do along a sto uh again I did speak with Dave Harner and we had a very had good conversations all weekend back and forth about what we needed and he was offering anything that we needed so that was really good to to have that communication process and of course our staff coming in and doing what they needed to do and we all were in in constant contact with each other the good thing is we do have some radios that are very very good and I had taken a trip to Jacksonville for a doctor's appointment on Thursday night in Frankie and I talked periodically on the radio and the radio communicated all the way to Jacksonville so that was a plus now I don't know that we'll ever find ourselves that far apart when when a storm is but the good news is we could be anywhere in Lee County and communicate with each other at each end of the island and we felt like that was just a real progress that that you supported that you approve for us to purchase those radios and and Jason was a big part of that as well as was Tom and Frankie and and Joe and so we really are are we're appreciative of the fact that we could communicate with you know if cell towers go down it also goes to satellite it's it's really some kind of a global positioning system uh walkie-talkies that we have Motorola also I communicated with the fire chief yesterday as well as Lee County Sheriff's Office they were uh in constant contact with me so I think we had a very good uh a a team approach to what was happening uh on Fort Meers Beach and and I believe you know you know thank goodness knock on wood we we we weren't didn't receive much much damage uh but we do have some uh Clean cleaning to do Jeff's walked in he's been out you know with his staff uh this morning and late until the night uh last night uh so we really feel like we we we're reacting as you usually should react in something like this and and it just helps you down the road with the muscle memory when something else happens John questions for no question but I just want to thank everybody for all their uh excellent efforts appreciate vice mayor uh I would just see first of all excellent response by the mayor and the town staff um I just thought for educational purposes obviously we're not going to have events like this on a regular basis but Frankie you and I talked the other day about tier one streets and and even a tier one street can never be prepared for an event like today but talk a little bit about those tier one streets what they uh uh experienced yesterday and and what they can hope to experience in the future given these types of events um Mr vice mayor basically um Andrew sitework is on island as our vendor uh that's handling the tier one project uh what they have done so far is we've managed to put in portable water lines that needed to be replaced and Sewer lines and Sewer boxes the outfalls to those are still in process so some of those streets like uh The Perennial ones that we always talk about take it take it up another th000 ft when you talk about the outfalls just for folks so the outfalls is a is a way for the water that's trapped in the system to get back out out into the bay uh we don't have holding facilities here on the island so everything that we catch storm water related wise gets pushed back out into the bay and it goes through a series of boxes and the boxes are staged at different levels to allow water through gravity feed back out uh some of the roads that we have we have about five on the island that are at sea level or below um so you could actually run your garden hose in your driveway for an hour and have flooding on a street like that that's kind of taking it to the extreme but you kind of understand where I'm talking when we have I think the official was 6 and a half inches of rainfall um as of Saturday night into yesterday on the island uh we had a big storm surge as uh the town manager alluded to already on the Back Bay because the way the wind was flowing uh it really pushed all the water to the back of the mangroves and then of course it has to come back this way so we had a lot of flooding over the seaw walls in those streets um as we go down now you're going to see a lot more settling back and finding it its wherewithal uh Andrews is moving uh equipment and things off of lots that they shouldn't have put things on um that's their main thing today um and tomorrow we're going to start uh going back and and putting in our boxes from the box stage when you see those big cement boxes that's when they go to the seaw walls and make sure that all the outfalls are either attached installed or cleared and that's going to be the final phase on those streets so streets that are still waiting hey you did all this work with pipe how come I still have water it's because the outfalls have not been addressed yet that's always the last thing that they do that's really helpful thank you coner what's in so I just have a question was there um was there more damage done of the process of everything that they have to backtrack now and fix or do they just continue to move forward because there wasn't damage there they're continuing to move forward everything that they've installed is fine it wasn't moved it wasn't uh uh uh affected by the storm surge in the Back Bay nor was it by the water that we had uh coming across so uh they're in good shape and they're they're on the island mobilizing today that's fantastic and we are going to be cleaning out the storm drains we have our our vendor coming out to start looking at that and and to pump out any sand that might have got in there just it just happens we continually do that sord uh no questions but Nicole thank you so much and Jeff fantastic job and and mayor thank you for all your posts on Facebook let telling everybody stay you know stay in place stay inside stay inside I think we did really well mhm thank you just quick question on the storm drains is that something that people should be aware of prior to storm obviously the town has a responsibility to go help but should folks go out on their street and take a look at their drains and make sure that everything is free and all debris is clear is that should be yes on a part a daily basis in front of your house um Nicole did an excellent job at getting some messages out last week even before Friday about making sure that your yard is kind of picked up any kind of loose debris when you have a lot of people have a lawn service come and they'll come and trim the trees trim the bushes and they stack that nice up at the end of the the driveway for the trash people to come uh and then they leave and some of these people you know whether they're snowbirds or whatever they have these properties that they're not attended to on a regular basis they're not aware of that so on any Street if you see a neighbor who you know is not there and you have brushed by a storm drain or by the edge of the road just if you if you have the time just drag it up the the lawn a little bit so it doesn't wash into the road we also had Crews doing that all day Friday going up and down and looking for stuff um and that that helped greatly uh where we weren't that far along in the thought process uh uh when we were dealing with Adalia last last August that's great thank you the only thing I have is just to remind everybody to be cognizant there's going to be a lot of trucks and front end loaders and street sweepers out there today so just be patient let them do their job the sooner we let them get done the sooner we get back to normal business so yeah go ahead Frank one quick item uh with the wave action that's still hitting the beach you're going to get a lot of people down here um and and you know by all means we're not telling you to stay away but uh be cognizant of rip currents rip currents are very very strong as this storm pulls farther north even it's made landfall already the currents are just sucking everything up to the north so please if you're going to go in the water be careful also it's a good point if you are coming down and you're going to walk the beach even if you're a local walking the beach make sure you wear shoes um that storm did bring up a lot of stuff that may not look very big but it could be potentially very big in in in the sand and um don't grab stuff barehanded if you have gloves with you and you want to pick something up just use some gloves we don't want somebody getting hurt or infected so just be careful just just since Jeff's sitting here Jeff come grab a microphone and tell people what you saw last night or this morning as your you and your team were out there doing it as as he's coming up also still awake we want want to remind want to remind people to watch if they get into the surf as well there's still stuff from Ian out there and and it gets turned over and and comes to the surface when events like this happen so just be mindful of that as well yeah so last night we were pretty much here all day we had the guys come in about five the clock uh last night once we could get back on the island it was kind of hairy getting back on like everyone probably knew that um yeah we just saw a lot of sand I mean there was a lot of sand there's a lot of open open properties right now that the sand just blew right through uh north of stero is kind of a mess we're down there cleaning it up we're having some help from IC uh materials they're coming down with some dump trucks and and stuff to help out uh make it a lot easier and a lot quicker uh we ordered a sweeper uh to get stuff off the sidewalks um we sending guys down the streets and picking up any debris that's there um they did a great job of it on Friday as Frankie mentioned of getting the debris so it's not getting stuck in the storm sewer storm drains um there is a lot of uh just scraping around storm drains getting the sand off especially down at Times Square in Old St Carlos um just trying to get those those cleaned up um our guys are down there now I was just down there a few minutes ago and they're just they're shoveling away they're they're doing a great job um at what they're doing and and they're they're trying to make uh some steady progress did the folks with the beach re nourishment were they able to get their equipment away safely or do yes they they were able to store everything uh get it off Island they secured the pipe as best they could they filled it with sand so it wouldn't travel uh they submerged the outline pipe that was out into the Gulf um I have not heard uh where they're at this morning they actually vacated and came into Safe Harbor um also hats off to our Ming field people uh we did take in a few vessels uh for Safe Harbor that's what our morning field was part of it was established for and in case of a storm so uh Curtis um lewig and his crew have been working with the Coast Guard and uh securing that whole area and so they also did a great job during this storm very good thank you thanks Jeff is there a motion to approve resolution 24-14 mayor I'll remove resolution 24-54 local state of emergency tropical storm Debbie I'll second got a motion by councelor King seconded by councelor Safford any further discussion uh do we need to do a roll call okay councelor King I councelor Stafford I councilor Woodson I vice mayor adhal I mayor Dan I motion carries unanimously great anything else for the good of the order motion to approve we do a j journ sorry um one other thing a reminder that our council meeting was postponed and it'll be Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. with M&P following immediately after that cor is it is it following immediately after is or is is is M&P actually at noon regardless you know what I mean we didn't set a time we just felt like whenever we adjourned if you want to take a break and then pick it up it could be if we go to one o'clock I mean we don't know but it it probably will be around noon I would imagine okay very good right got a motion by councelor King uh to adjourn I'll second all those in favor the same hi hi we adjourned at 9:15 thanks guys