##VIDEO ID:_pej2pMqfnM## e e e e e it is Wednesday August 14 2024 we're here for a marine and Environmental Research task force uh regularly scheduled meeting um I may meet Baker town clerk we'll do a quick roll call um Jen here Bill Alto Rose L Robert Howell here we have Chad shs here and Cel John King here also um Steve Johnson is excused so if we all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance United States of America indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay your n yeah you got Dave on the line well yep I'll extend a um anyone want to make a motion to allow Mr nusb to appear virtually for extenuating circumstances yes okay Dave join okay uh Mr Alto uh motioned and Rob seconded so we'll allow Mr mbom to appear virtually now thank you y um before we approve the final agenda with the resignation of Mary Rose speta we now have an opening for a vice chair and we have the ability to assign a new Vice chair or nominate a new Vice chair if you'd like to do that and then that person would take over this meeting here I'll entertain any nominations you'd like to make I would like to nominate Jennifer Rusk I would like the second okay Jennifer thank you so much for thinking of me and I really appreciate it I my term is coming up um in October so I don't know if I'm I do know that I'm going to apply for the position um but I don't know if I will be chosen that position so um but I will be uh acting as Vice chair until that until that decision until the council um appoints new people or the same people okay so we have a motion by Rose Larin and a second by Rob Rob and Miss Russ has accepted that so can I get a vote on that all in favor I hi perfect and no day so um Jennifer Rusk is now your new Vice chair and I will move seat do my best do I yep okay go deep those are Sharp thank you Amy thanks thank you Amy welcome you Amy oh I have them oh I have I have lots of them all right uh so we already did the call to order and the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call approve uh agenda the agenda to have we approve the agenda we need to we do okay uh can we approve it do I have any motions to approve I make a motion we approve the agenda second thank you sir so that is n bom that we be a motion to approve the agenda and uh Bill who uh second that approve previous uh meeting minutes did you we have to take a vote on a oh we need to vote okay thank you I told you I'll do my best that's all right y can we take a vote to approve the agenda yes I I I Mr nesom stop laughing at me I'm at me I do it it all the time laugh atth girl okay public comment on so we have the vote approved for for the um agenda next is approved previous meeting minute minutes I had some questions on that on the second page B Community Foundation donation are we coloring this first paragraph says coloring book second paragraph says activity book that was the motion that kind approve is that a big deal or not it's both it's a coloring book and activity I think there you know it really is an activity but that is what I would like to make clear uh because there's acties in there for children change coloring to activity in the minutes and then I would like to do that and when we change something in the minutes change in thees does that get to you have to make I make you make a motion that the minutes are approved as amended okay so we're gonna then change the minutes and I guess do we need to take a vote Yes okay so let's take a vote on amending the minutes a motion what a motion make I make a motion approve the amended minutes the the change is outlined you know we are amending the minutes so we're changing the minutes and voting for approval of the amended minutes second I I okay so move on yep if I can lead off um we had took the opportunity Dr sa was on island and do some surveying work so I asked him to attend and as him he could come have a few words and let us know where he's at in the project and answer answer any question y committee I guess it is there we go anyway good morning I'm Mike saice I'm a professor uh at the water School of Florida Gulf Coast University and I've been here helping Fort Meers Beach um look at the impact of recent metropical storms and hurricanes um Chad mentioned uh or I guess the agenda item is listed as a SE Grant project uh a collection of us uh from Florida Gulf Coast University and from the US Geological Survey received some money from Florida SE Grant to undertake a two-year study um to try to anticipate how Fort Meers Beach might respond to Future storm impacts uh into the future and that project involves um monitoring the state of the beach um Chad mentioned the survey work we've been doing we're out actually flying what are called lar missions which provide topographies maps of what the beach looks like we've flown a number of um iterations of those mapping um surveys we just U completed back in June a survey of what Fort Myers Beach looked like with the burm in place and now we've flown literally this morning a view of what the what the island looks like after the impact of hurricane on that gr so that's a big part of the project the more um interesting and valuable part of the project though is to take those monitoring data and then use them in some sophisticated computer models to look at how the island might respond to different types of treatments that Fort Myers Beach might impose to help improve your resilience so one of the things and we're doing this work I should say very closely with three jurisdictions for Mars Beach is one the city of Naples is two and the City of sanal is three we're also working with Lovers Key State Park as our fourth jurisdiction um but uh we've reached out to each of um the four communities and we've met earlier in the summer with representatives from the town Chad included and we've asked each of those jurisdictions to provide us with a sense of what kinds of interventions you might be interested in what's an intervention an intervention might be some um mechanism some methodology you impose Fort Myers Beach that hopefully improves its resilience and protection from future storms so an intervention might be something like what if um uh we created a set of Dunes that were of a certain size or breath what if we vegetated those Dunes in certain ways what if we um looked at the a comparison between a dune in front of an existing seaw wall or retaining wall that's already on the landscape versus a dune that lacks that retain pain in wall behind it um so those are the kinds of things U that um the town might be interested in we have we kind of limited in how many of these simulations we can run uh for each uh jurisdiction so we can't run every possibility we're just looking to you for um what your top priorities might be the kinds of things that you're interested in um and so um Chad suggested bringing that to this advisory Council um I have a I don't know it's quick or question um how did was the BM beneficial during Debbie it seems like it just disappeared but I guess I guess it hit a lot of that energy hit hit the BM right how much was like displaced and can you go a little into dep like what was the outcome yeah it's hard for me to give you any real quantifiable answer to that because we literally flew the mission this morning and it'll take a couple of days maybe a couple of weeks to process the information but it's clear given um the number of times we've been here that the BM has suffered um substant you did lose a lot of that sand um that sand is probably still out there um in the offshore setting and is available for nature to bring back to shore so it hasn't been sand that's been carried over the island and and dumped into a stero Bay which is a good thing so the the reservoir still has the sand in it um but clearly the the burm has taken a hit um um had there been vegetation on that BM uh it would have it would have um survive better I'm sorry um being such a new BM would there have been any plants that they could have planted as they put the BM in that would have had a good enough growth to have held up better or would have it still been to New No I um you know it's it's it's ironic and unfortunate um the FEMA money came not only to um to Fort Mars Beach but to the city of Naples and sanabel as well and that um FEMA money came just for the sand for the for the construction of the burm but didn't provide any funding uh for the vegetation and you did what any pragmatic Community would do you took the sand you built the burm and you crossed your fingers and you hoped that it didn't get harmed before vegetation could be imp placed and with the Dalia some communities the burm went in before Adalia before last year so Naples as berm has been harmed twice um I don't don't recall the the the coordination of timing between your Burman placement and idalia's impact it was before di was before that so you you got you probably got you took a hit from aalia as well um there's now money coming um through FEMA for vegetation um Coler County for example uh has money uh I think it's I don't know how many millions of dollars to revegetate their burm sanabel has money to vegetate uh its burm I believe Fort Myers Beach has money coming in as well the question is whether or not there's enough of a burm left to vegetate for uh for the veget to be effective with the current Beach reement project that's starting at the North End and working South um and this might be for Chad too the remaining BM are they going to build up on that any and then vegetate it is that kind of the plan or what's the plan with the two project going forward so uh we have the renourishment project starting from north to south and we're going to be rebuilding the firm and then coming through and vegetating it okay and then we'll be vegetating uh working with property owners throughout the island to vegetate the entire burn are they going to be vegetating while the renourishment project is still going on like right behind it or once that project's done then they start vegetating uh the intention is to uh get vegetation on the BM as soon as possible so we may do several phases maybe a north and uh uh South on Big Carlos Pass uh started talking to the uh proper owners um behind the Lagoon as well and um uh there seems to be uh a uh they would like some vegetation as well so I'm not sure if we'll follow the Dune management plan we may vary some plants um with that but looking to vegetate but it will be in phases might be worth noting that um our team as part of this project came and uh did a sort of a briefing of this Advisory Group that was last fall May in June I don't remember when it was my my brain doesn't hold all the information I wished it would um anyway we came and we briefed uh the whole team was here we briefed and we made a number of recommendations um this committee um Consolidated some of those recommendations and presented that to the Town Council one of the things that uh came out of that study looking at you know where the weaknesses were where were the vulnerabilities um in through the passage of Ian uh resulted in some significant recommendations on how revation should occur in other words simply planting Sea Oats isn't necessarily the best way to go and so those um revegetation management practices has come to the town and it looks like those management practices are going to be put into place through this revegetation so so that's a wonderful thing so hopefully you're getting the most bang out of your vegetation bucks and you know the kinds of um uh plant communities you're going to establish uh will be heartier and allow for building of the dune naturally through wind deposition and hopefully survive um minor hits um so in some ways um um maybe Fort Myers Beach is in a good situation in that at least you've got the opportunity to put some more elevation on your burm with this nourishment project so that you're not you're not putting the vegetation down on the flat Beach which is what I fear is going to happen in CER County we all know there's pros and cons to the raking debate um is there anything that besides planting the dunes that property owners can do to help um protect their properties whether it is um how they rake or how they act around these these firms and that treating them like Dunes even if there's no plants or yeah I mean I I would encourage you to maybe look at um the packaging material we we submitted um I don't know if there's been a change in the composition of the of the task force um and I see familiar faces I some familiar faces and some unfamiliar faces um yeah I there's a variety of recommendations we made I don't know how many of them are are doable by by a homeowner um certainly homeowners um can plant I believe they have the the right to plant as they best see fit I don't know if they have the right to sculpt a burm or a dune out in front of their property or if it's on their property but certainly um the kind of Mor phology established of a dune um could be helpful um U but I think most of the things are are larger are larger more expensive kinds of projects that you know involve coordination and some of your interv talking studies inrease elev of the primary Dune yeah I mean in in the best of Worlds having a nice high Dune that has space to move and respond um is a good thing unfortunately so much of Fort Meers Beach um development is right up to that for Dune Edge so there's not a lot of accommodation space for a dune so the Dune um doesn't have an opportunity to respond or migrate on its own in response to to events and and non-events to regular you know wind movement and wave movement 150 100 to 150 ft a be but where it is currently uh that's where I thought the primary is is that that area right there yeah I mean where the burm was in placed was uh um I'm I'm assuming it was it was placed there because that's the most logical location for the primary Dune which is typically as I seen on for Myers Beach is far back um on the beach as allowable um by because of development so correct you going to call the up where you got right now well I don't know where the where the Dune is I'm assuming the new Dune was going on top of the burn yeah I mean the typically you would call that where where we put the burn would be the primary Doom professor professor uh yeah did that did that yeah typically the where we have where we place the burn would if you call if you said where's the primary Dune that would be the primary D okay now with the modeling that you're doing um as you had out to the water and right now where it's the main high tide the wet line whatever you want to call that the wet sand from that existing point right now you're going out 150 ft so where it's wet right in the wet stand right now does that going to is that area going to get more elevation because that could also help protect the primary Dune that's further behind well I I don't I don't know anything about your unfortunately I don't know anything about your nourishment project and what's actually being planned that's something that you you design if I can just steer it so just think of this as kind of a uh an experiment so we have um he he's surveying our beach and he's uh looking at input from yall for interventions treatments whether that's a coastal armoring around Time Square whether that's a big Dune system um throughout the island uh vegetated um nonvegetated different treatments that allow them to test those impacts on resiliency and then I think one of the questions that we had last time what does that what does that word resiliency mean how are we measuring that effect of those treatments on resiliency is that uh loss of elevation is resiliency or um you know how much sand is carried over a stero island is is a measure of resiliency or how are we how are we measuring the effect of the interventions okay um I I thought we were getting back on track and I feel we're going to get off track is that on track or not no I don't know I mean I the input that I thought we were looking for was what interventions is this committee looking to test my questions may have stored us away so I apologize so so I think I mean for me it's it's just having healthy Dunes like once these BMS are in place having the Healthy Grow grown Dunes because you look down at like Diamond Head where they had the BM in and then they put in I don't know who paid for those plants but their BM and dunes were just fine after debie like it am I wrong with that like so we have one intervention would be planting or having a doom so there any other interventions I would say primary Dune towards the I was just using that as an example more towards the wet area that's the current wet area whatever you want to call that what you would call the rack line right now where the tide comes in leaves all the debris so putting the Dune further out towards the another Doom there because as you blow this in if you had any elevation there at all it would have protected from what you're calling the primary Doom back by the buildings right right so is that on armoring no armoring would be kind of part infrastructure seaw wall or attenuation walls um gray infrastructure okay so you're almost saying like a double Dune so a dune one Dune closer to the wave action and another back from the um Clos to the infrastructure your um is it David I think David is in I have a question Professor one of the um charges from the mayor to Chairman Johnson at the last town meeting was for the murf committee to take a look at uh cities such as clear water and what they've done to establish a boardwalk bike trail seaw wall Allin one because there are areas on the island that Des desperately need u a trail for cyclists because there isn't enough room on the highway for an adequate bike trail and one of the options that they came up was could we copy something that clear water is done which would armor the coastline and provide a bike trail on the beach along those congested areas would you be able to do something like that in your uh iterations of seaw walls around the island so Mr nesam excuse me I'm sorry I know the question is directed but so each individual property is privately owned on court Beach and clear water my understanding is that clear water their uh Coastal front they had I believe the city or the county owns um um a portion of that so they were I don't believe that we uh can do anything like that here on Court's Beach not only that but I would I would firmly um be opposed to something like that because I don't think it's you know it's just adding more issues to our our post well except except that the mayor charged charged us to look into it if you go back and listen to the meeting that's exactly I was going to say you know what what we're talking about here um we're calling them um experiments these are resilience experiments so we're not we're not putting in walls we're not vegetating Dunes we're just going to simulate those uh in the computer modeling and um so admittedly any intervention strategy that gets imposed and actually gets paid for will have problems you know in terms of how you organize that can it be done centralized does it require individual property owner Buy in but simulating the impact of a seaw wall um in one of these intervention scenarios might provide you with insights might might provide you with um maybe there's Great Value in doing that and maybe that increases the incentive among private um um Property Owners to buy in uh maybe you'll find out that it's not sustainable and not worth the investment so you have an opportunity to play around with with different types of options and I suppose you could ignore how well received or how not well received a particular intervention might be by the public or by by the by the council um so I suppose you're doing you're doing um simulations about width of the Dune the height of the Dune what well I know the topography in Florida you can't in this part of Florida any you can't have a dune over certain Heights it just doesn't naturally occur so it will just be taken out of my accur like you're not going to get North Carolina Dunes on the Gulf Coast because it just doesn't work like no not naturally but you can you can build you can build a North Carolina style Dune if you want to what do you have off hand like how wide how big some of the um some of the experiments you have done like the simulation you have done like what are well we have not done any of the simulations yet but we C we can experiment with Dunes of different heights different breaths I'd love to know like yeah the width and the height um and then also having a seaw wall in the Dune and then building the Dune over top of that different kinds of what what those simulations might show as to like what's planting seems to be our issue here with our Dunes obviously you know a planted Dune is the best but having simulations where in between the times where the dunes are wiped out like during Ian um what like different things that could be done what can we put in the Dune whether it's those you know um can you put in the simulation like those the fencing that yeah we can um you know uh one of the things that um struck us when we analyze um the pre and postan um Topography of Fort Meers Beach was how effective um um seaw walls were retaining walls they're not very high walls but those walls prevented that absur erosion returning water that cut all of those uh channels that took out all the homes and structures um you know Dunes seaw walls during normal conditions normal wave conditions tital conditions um are bad things because they reflect the wave energy and they will literally take away the beach um but under extreme conditions when you've got extreme Tides extreme wave heights um um they do serve as a as a an element of of Last Resort and they prevent they they they prevent the water some of the water anyway from entering what's behind them um and so one of the things we've been excited about is what we would call hybrid Dunes so something something a dune that's either anchored by a seaw wall or seaw wall behind it it could be the seaw walls you already have on your Beach there are plenty of places with seaw walls you could simulate what is a dune a dune's Effectiveness like out in front of one of those seaw walls versus what's the effectiveness of a dune somewhere else where you don't have the seaw wall and you can see that compare and contrast um so I think there's an opportunity an opportunity there um to experiment with the uh impact of seaw walls um um and it it could be a could be ultimately implemented in a localized situation you're just putting them in certain places where you where you're more vulnerable so yeah so I think like I mean if you're asking for our input on what would be most interesting for me would be like width height placement of seaw walls extra Dunes like you were suggesting um how would that affect well that's that's the thing especially like sea how would they be we have sand Over Matter that's what we're talking sand that poti well I think I think depending on the placement of it and the depth of the man structures would would be but you don't account for wildlife in new Just Wind no um and I I can tell you that um um hybrid Dunes like there are these things called geot tubes where you put up sandfill tube inside of a dune um um turtl nesting um conservation biologists are almost uniformally opposed to that because it it does affect it does affect Turtle nesting activity but your seaw walls are already there and your and I would argue that what makes more sense is in putting a seaw wall or a geotube inside of a dune but putting a dune out in front of a seaw wall Turtles don't cross a dune and Nest generally speaking don't nest on the other side um and of course the seaw walls are already there so you wouldn't be I would argue that you know uh uh sand dunes that were built out in front of seaw walls might provide additional uh nesting habitat for sea turtles yeah the seaw walls in behind the Dune like land facing then I don't I would I personally don't think it would affect the turtles if it was in front of the Dune that's where would have the issue no but if yeah professor professor if we had and again we're just talking the uh different scenarios that you can run in your program so you can Encompass pretty much a a seaw wall with dun in front a scenario that would accomplish what the mayor was looking for as far as an alternative to the problems that they're having with traffic you could literally run that scenario yeah I mean we can we can run a scenario um with with the seaw walls um we wouldn't be well the the the boardwalk and and the pathway wouldn't be part of the modeling but probably wouldn't affect resilience anyway it's the seaw wall out in front of the boardwalk that would matter so the engineering PL attenuation walls as well just for like a height of a typical wave attenuation wall yeah you know the problem is this is this is It's Complicated right and there's a thousand possibilities and we don't have the resources to model a thousand possibilities um is it okay for me to suggest that you entrust Chad to work with us given this feedback and come up with um maybe a a short list of of of interventions and then come back to you for for approval in other words um um help sketch some of this out as a number of possibilities yeah we'll discuss that after yeah um because again I guess our big concern is we we do have I mean the problem is the simulations it's a lot of um computational time using high-end Computing um and a lot of the work is actually being done um in the Netherlands um and so uh we have this um we don't have the Liberty to be over there um all the time um so we have we have to constrain just how many of these modeling scenarios we actually um test do do you have an idea how many you are going to be testing so we can we were thinking maybe as many as five per community so you've got five figure five five picks will this be available to the public to see yeah I mean uh I think we would make it we certainly make it available to to the town and to this group and to the Town Council um we we are happy to present it to the public if if that's what the town wants to do um but I'll leave that decision in your hands we're happy to um for full disclosure um it's up to you about though how to handle it um one last one for me because I know I've been no very interested in at all um what have other communities what what do they tend to lean towards when they want their simulations run what are their what are their like focuses okay so I can tell you a little bit about uh Naples and sanabel and what's running through their minds um sanabel is so different from from Fort Mars Beach because uh they've got a greater width of of natural landscape between development and and and the beach and so they have they have the uh advantage of having the potential of multiple ridges multiple Dune ridges um so they're going to actually experiment with um um um multiple ridges versus singular ridges um they're very interested in uh in vegetation strategies they're they would like to play around with different compositions of Dune communities so that's going to be part of their simulation they have had um their crossover paths their Dune walkover paths all of those paths literally every single one of them um was eroded away by the returning flow from the surge during Ian and they want to experiment with different um different pathway designs so that probably what they do I think Naples is um more similar to you and maybe if you're interested there's an opportunity to maybe uh Coop cooperate with Naples or have a conver ation with them their um uh director of Natural Resources is is a a person named Natalie Hardman she's very much thed about this they have the same kind of problem as Fort Meers does there's not a lot of accommodation space maybe there's a little more space for a doom they also have this sort of weird Mosaic of some some places have seaw walls and some places don't so they're interested in that in that H not hybrid design but what what's a seaw wall behind a do and likely to do um uh and they're going to play around again with vegetation types they're they're interested in the same vegetation strategies that um that Fort mys Beach is interested in um so so maybe you've got more in common with Naples than santelle but Holly milbrand is their director of natural resources on santal and um she could Holly milbrand so it's Holly milbrand and sanabel and it's Natalie Hardman and I can get Chad or get you those contacted contact information if you want reach out so anyway so we're hoping um the models uh were set up this summer um in in in the Netherlands so the models are ready uh so sometime this fall we're able to start running the simulations so I don't know what your what's on your docket and your calendar and how many things you have to attend to but getting a sense as to what kinds of interventions you'd like to see tested the sooner the better we've got plenty to do though and if another Community gets us interventions first we'll run those first so sound good yeah you're welcome thank you so much um do you have uh are you okay with any one of us M members calling and reaching out to you oh yeah most definitely um the my appearance here kind of took me by surprise if you saw me before I was here I would look like a different person I was out uh um getting consumed by biting insects most so I'm not very well prepared I don't have anything with me but um but Chad can get you my contact information so we really appreciate yeah happy to help and I like your your activity book if you've got if You' got Oodles of them to spare um we have a a community outreach person her name is Regina Bale for the water school and she does a lot of kids programs I've got a box for you well why don't uh I I let me talk to her first and see if she's I can I have an extra activity book and I'll share it with her and I'll say is this something you would like to uh um pass forward otherwise I Fe I'd be taking your limited resources and they wouldn't perfect thank you so anyway I'll talk to Regina about it I really appreciate that no worries all right and I like coloring myself actually so I have my own set of coloring pencils what's that it's good uh it's good it's very it's very therapeutic especially if you're not very artistic you just have to stay between the lines yeah right all right all good all right good luck take care okay so discussion for would like to start we can do a little bit of study and then get it to Chad our our input you were saying a week two weeks weeks like to have a cut off whatever whatever ideas I think we have some great ideas here now um multiple Dunes uh various uh vegetation stabilization um different dun Heights and with uh Mr Dave did you have anything on your mind well I was just echoing what the mayor had um asked at the last meeting saying basically uh we needed to look into Alternatives such as Clearwater Beach and if they can if they can do an aeration on that uh picking out the areas where the mayor was had concerns I think that would be an ideal place to start yeah so the attenuation walls a part infrastructure and attenuation walls that would come with such a a uh an armament my I I think if you went back to the to the public safety people or back to the mayor himself and said where are the areas you think we should do this because we could get a free computer simulation on this to see not only what the resiliency effect is for the island but also taking care of reducing congestion uh by establishing a bike plane yeah I had the I sent the original plans to Dr Savar that uh I think he was referring to that Margaritaville that initial Margaritaville plan um that came several years ago so I sent that to him I believe it was from like Edison to uh maybe red coconut and um you know threefoot maybe attenuation walls that were breakup wave action and uh behind that a uh basically a bike for that so yep Mr I guess what I'm confused about is you know when um the town was asking for emergency BM uh participation we had how many people that did not ask or do not respond to the emergency are those people really think are going to be okay with a walkway or a in front of their property uh you don't know till you don't know till you yes well they I think the opposition was um it was more to vegetation in the sand so um you don't know till you ask I think it's if you have a story that that if you can have some data behind what this would actually do for the island then you could maybe like to Mr n Bon's Point tell the story that hey there are some resiliency pluses or minuses we wouldn't know until we ran the model so do you think that you would have a lot of I don't like to speculate what other people are thinking Mr nesom I was curious are you thinking just at particular properties like Margarita or are you talking are you thinking awalk that goes from to I I think if we can provide a resiliency to the island that protects the owner's property uh that each individual owner would look at the benefits and also look at the what it does as far as relieving congestion on sidewalks and the road and I as Chad said I think there's a very good story to tell um it's it's free to run the to run the program and I think that gives us an opportunity to look and maybe we can cover it all the way down uh to Santini you know I don't know it would be interesting to see him run the program and then give us what it would do as far as protecting the island I don't think any homeowner on the beach is against protecting the beach it's how we wish to do it so is this free or are we contract um they got a grant with uh C Grant that's how they're funding their program cont just staff time that we spending that could I make a suggestion for how we can get some ideas to chat um maybe like let's say by next Friday we each come up with five ideas that we think would be a good idea just send it to Chad then he can pick the ones that repeat or and like if we if three of us say um multiple dunes and four of us say you know um more you know a certain amount of vegetation those are the kind of scenarios we' run to around then that's two out of the five that we're going to send to to the people that okay well why not do that right now here well because I'd like to do some research on yeah research on how santelle is doing it and you know that way we have time to do research unless we have how do you feel about that that's fine how do you feel about that resarch I'll make a motion that by next Friday we all submit our recommendations to Chad email all right so we have a motion to move uh to wait a week and and submit U questions to Chad by next Friday which is 14th 14th and Chad Fray then we have a second T unless vote all those in favor all those in favor I I I allone good okay so uh second item on the agenda is Community Foundation donation um well they donated and um definitely helped with the printing class of our activity book so I would just greatly um thank them and support them in any any way you can if anyone else has any comments on the Community Foundation donation I had suggested buying something to the town hall hope you got that um you know that um could be put in town hall to allow to pick up free information that normally would people I walk through the front area and that's the only thing I would I would I would say for sure we can get one for them when they move down the island but we can ask Donna ands maybe we should to and what he thinks and get the mission that's just my not that decision I do have um a request in regards to something like that a table that size that go with the pops appointed um for to another ter I can send that off to Karina who's kind of um helpful and does a lot of theing price just approve $60 that's true so I guess we'll just okay so um comments on okay activity B it's done conratulations I have I have to thank all of the members who helped me the Educators the pro turt time um I don't want to miss anyone but I feel like I'm getting award well there's so many more I mean people you know we had Town staff over we had Town counil um it's just really this was really um piece of my heart and my soul and I'm so proud I feel like spee you know has um their first children's activity book I'd like to I wish I could have printed but I'd like to share with you that um they are in the hands of our school kids and I have a picture I can share with you maybe I think I believe the town's going to post it but it's um a picture of uh two third graders holding a DAT where the first ones to get the activity book so I'm super proud just to give you a list of have the sensitive can't pick up my books okay so the books have been given uh to many places Publix you can find uh the activity book at our Fort Myers Beach Publix they will hand them out to you uh the Public's off Island uh on uh San Carlos Road County tourism development is handing those out Lee County Parks have them nonprofit organizations resorts on the island Margaritaville pin shell Diamond Head the Roxy and Time Square the Chamber of Commerce uh children's camp aab Bay Foundation For Myers Beach Town Hall BS recreation center and mous and I have given we have given away almost 4,000 I can't believe and that's within a week your picture is in the that's what I that's the picture that is it that like honestly I want to cry the observ yeah I'm really proud of us and uh let's see yeah and the beach School received 175 yesterday and these are free to all who want uh to distribute um and I'm you know again very proud of our community and the town and I'm really really proud of all of us good job well congratulations and you have re it's a very good Legacy no matter what happens your appointment or not it's a great legacy yes okay so um we're moving on are we done with that okay uh Chevron decision I'm not familiar with this not familiar with the story that da brought up by last meeting I had asked if we could have the town attorney give us at least a an idea of how the Chevron decision may impact some of the uh regulations that are on the beach from the federal agencies that uh we're abiding by now but may be compromised because of the Chevron decision and uh I don't know if everybody got the email I sent out I did check with legal uh July 11th I sent out a email um after checking with uh Becky Voss uh the scotus decision was a federal decision affecting federal agencies at this time it has not trickled down to the state or local level if that changes we will be advised by uh legal therefore um there would be nothing to cover in a in a in a murf meeting so that's where we are on that day okay excellent thank you is that it on that matter any question Chevron position anyone else'll on me items we'll start with you Mr n uh first of all I would like to again congratulate you uh you did all of the heavy lifting on the activity book uh and even though we had input you were the one that drove it and you Des you deserve the bulk of the accolades on it well done that's all I have cry on myth actually tomorrow cupcakes will Ste I have I have two things um the first is the Garden area between the wavy wall and Time Square in the Lake County Park um I was at a Garden Club luncheon last Monday on the 5th and was told that had been changed and that um plants had been taken out and that uh Fabric and rock had been placed in and I was fairly shocked and so I went and looked at the Garden immediately afterwards on Monday afternoon and I had been told that um Jeff hey am I pronouncing aii was the person that had sort of um imposed this change to the garden and so um I believe he had spoken to the president of the Garden Club Kathy Turner and had said that um there was a concern about a lot of weeds or specifically grass growing in the garden but he didn't elaborate to say that it was some emergency that it needed to be taken care of and he just acted on his own without any authority to my knowledge from any other group to rip out the landscaping and I you know this is a real slap in the face of beach talk radio followers because those people raised all the money for the garden and they provided all the volunteers basically in the labor that put the plants in and I thought this is not a very good public um image for the town or public relations image for the town because when those people come to go look at the Garden in Time Square and see that their work has been taken out and replaced with rock they're probably not going to be that happy um additionally removing those plants um was actually retaining the sand and soil that was there and so when I went down there Monday afternoon this is right after tropical storm Debbie had passed by there was Rock everywhere from Time Square into the Lin Hall parking lot and at least 30 feet into the parking lot and there was um a man down there with the shoveling up Rock to back in the garden and um if you follow or are familiar with any vegetation practices putting down Fabric and rock and Garden is like the worst thing you can do it is supposed to be used only for creating walkways and not for Gardens so we've actually created an example of what not to do in a vegetation situation so that's my comments on that don't know so why do you think they did that to prent probably but my thought is that they could have collaborated with the Garden Club yeah and said you know this is a priority we need to do something immediately you know get the garden club members down there some volunteers and pull out the grass you know in a couple hours it could have been taken care of at the very least my suggestion would have been the Garden Club come up with a couple hundred and pay crew to go in and pull out the grass I mean it was primarily grass but instead the town actually spent probably a lot of money wasted money on fabric and rock and and the labor did that and I think he acted alone I don't know from what I first acted Al know well I can tell you when Rose sent this to me I boarded it to the town manager and Jeff was the one who responded as Public Works reports to him and uh I I'll just I can read you what he he shared with me and that I forwarded on the rose as well um he could he said he'd address the vegetation at the wavy wall it was more of a staff maintenance issue we have had complaints about the way the vegetation looked weeds were growing out of control and our staff is not able to do the upkeep to weed each day we as a staff decided to put the Rock in to match the town hall look I spoke with president of the Garden Club and she also had her concerns more so that we did not consult her about it I told her that the weeds were getting out of and and we're not able to spray chemicals on it she said that the Garden Club was supposed to do the upkick but I asked her when the last time they did so and she said it' been over a month she suggested putting cardboard down but first but the cardboard also has chemicals in it that would leech into the soil it also attracts termites and other bugs we've had a great feedback on the look of the Rock and we did it at Bayside as well to match so that's what I got and shared with Bros oh and there's Jeff he Jeff I guess you know I just wanted to know why it was that you left the plants and you know the Rocks around the I don't think they may they may have removed some I don't know exactly oh Jeff hogi um Community Services director town of Fort Meers Beach um we possibly could have the decision just was made to do rock um we like to look of it around here uh we talked to both the town manager and the mayor about it uh they they like the look of it and we we just went with that so yeah I don't know how much we removed I wasn't down there but we had been getting some complaints about how it looked jungle is as what we we got some some comments on um and just wasn't it didn't look up upapp so we just decided because we don't have the staff time to go out down there and weed every day and that's why we were constantly going down and trying to do that but it just wasn't it wasn't what we what we wanted to look to be down there when we have all those tourists and visitors and residents that are down there is it could be I mean that the Town Council on maybe giving our input sure and we do have some people on our staff that that do environmental um things we have a landscape landscape architect on the on staff that went to school for that as well so we do consult consult as well but um it it's more of an upkeep thing I think I ran the numbers by what we paid and I know it's you know you got to take everything into account and sometimes our bottom our budget is as a big deal is taking tax paay dollars out um so the amount of time that we were spending to weed it um we paid for the Rock in about it paid for the Rock in about two months but environmentally is it better to have rock or better to have vegetation considering it's uh that I don't know so I don't I from what I hear it doesn't necessarily hurt anything to have the rock there um a lot of places around town are doing it Margaritaville is doing it as well taking away the mulch it's just a lot of time every time we have a storm we are end up down there cleaning up the mulch um rock I can tell you do the same well we didn't have any movement on the Rock after this this last storm yes you did I just went and before you got here and said that there was a rock 30t into the the man down there shoveling it out okay well I didn't see any in our ends so um so I guess what I'm asking is when it comes to decisions like that is it possible ask res yes but I I also think that sometimes staff need to make a decision on some bottom lines and that's just one that we made of course I'm just asking that maybe yeah we can definitely take that yeah and uh with talking to Kathy you know she said we consulted the town and but it's and I had written her back that it's I'm the director of that Park and I I wasn't and whether that's an uh oversight on whoever's part that okayed it but I I I don't know we want to do the same at at the Rock at uh at BS too it's just a lot of upkeep I mean we have to go get new mulch we have to get so I get it both ways but when we take you know a lot of the day to you know after a heavy rain to clean up after it it it gets to be a lot and when we get complaints about the way it looks and the Aesthetics when we're having visitors come down no those are he knows it he yeah so so that that's why the decision was made so I would personally I can't speak for but I would personally love to see natural and like that I don't want it to to you what I like to see yeah and everyone kind of has their own opinion on Aesthetics of of what it looks like um a lot of the visitors that were coming down were or some of them were commenting on environmentally it's not all rock is not good I'll tell you why one is you they don't they can't suain in rocks they need plants butterflies Frogs native Little Creatures PLS survive we take out all of our that is not good and that's not what I'm suggesting I'm not suggesting just concreting everything on the island out yeah I mean if if the Garden Club or whoever else can volunteer to come down and doing do it I don't think we would have this issue we don't have the staff time they were trying to upkeep it it just to because maybe we could have you know talk radio as Rose was saying went in and put a lot of time into this so they're volunteers I understand that and and we we reached out and and offered reimbursements for any plants that we would that we that are missing and we that's not the point the reimburse no I know but that was a point when I first got the email was we got a lot of donations for this they paid for this so it was a lot about the payment at first too so I did offer to reimburse anybody that needed to be reimbursed moving forward I'm just personally ask you don't and just know as resents we should have a in our are as did people when they were complaining about it right exactly well then why didn't they go out and the I don't know any other questions because then why did you not contact the club and say this is an immediate emergency that we need to address I don't know it just wasn't a decision we we made at that point um we just decided we like to look a rock and we put that down and it was the same with boks and I I haven't been over there because I know you guys have been working on that too and you know if it looks great then I'm not I'm not going to touch it um correct it's Memorial no I understand that I understand that well it is the town's property but it's a memorial garden I get that so we just want to make what's best for decisions what's best for the town too so if there's you know if we're constantly down there and we're not I am we are the town we are the town but the Garden Club is not the town it looks great opinion yeah it is an opinion y we are the people en got it I got it I understand that's why I'm standing here taking questions so anything else all right thanks you thank you thank you my second item is something that would just be um for anyone that has a Gumbo Limbo tree there's um there's something that's like a disease or pest that's affecting Gumbo Limbo trees maybe Chad knows about this um Stephen Brown from the Lee County extension service who's a University of Florida IIs person employ has been studying these and he's actually taken samples to a Pathology Lab in Gainesville because Gumbo Limbo trees have been breaking off and not falling over from the wind but breaking off right above the ground and collapsing and so he's taken samples from Santa Bell it's also happened on Pine Island and so if anyone has a gumball limbo tree and it breaks off of the ground if they would contact the Lee County extension service just to let them know they may or may not come out in one a sample they have not been able to identify what's going on um some of the plants had beetles but they weren't found alive um they they're looking for pathogens that might be causing this of some sort but they're not sure so it's an ongoing concern you know no I haven't I haven't heard this and gumbo limos are a native tree in Florida so it's kind of a big deal if they're suddenly just breaking off at the ground and at least during um tropical storm Debbie a funus or they're searching and they were thinking possibly because there's so much salt water and it's not just one delusion of salt water that there's a lot of salt in the soil that could be contributing to it but just during tropical storm Debbie at least a dozen Gumble libl came down on Santa is this something we could have the town email out to the residents for a mat for those of who aren't watching um the meeting today that they could get the information on how to report it come out and look at it um just we can have a mass email out to Residents about just to have a little more information to I think the Pio I'm not sure about a mass email but something I believe can maybe perhaps put it on the website social media get that information be able to contact exension I Wasing we have everything now when my first started I don't even know if we had a Facebook but we have Instagram we are we have lots of social media so is is rocking in so okay okay so um um I have two number one is um I've been building some bat houses and I was wondering who can I talk to about potentially putting them up at public beach accesses to help negate some of our um mosquito issues um bad houses take a few years to establish but if we can get them put up in some public areas might help um encourage some colonies I know there's a few there's a colony about it and uh I'm trying to extend that down to chill a little bit and see if we can't get some more interest Jeff would have been a good person to ask um is that something that the time would be even interested in it's something that I'll do for free and I'll just donate them I'll even put them up U yeah we need to talk to Jeff Hy and maybe get some Town Council awesome um then my other thing is my um science talks are moving forward we're calling them for pink shell science time or science talk so it'll be the first one will be in September it will be about dolphins it is open and I will be sending out a flyer um to social media and the town to get that information out everybody's invited it'll be kind of a neat public thing just come and learn about dolphins the first one's going to be lowkey and relaxed so yeah that's all I cool cool yeah that is awesome thank you I have so many things to talk but I also want to go home and celebrate my birthday so I think I'm only going to touch base on two things I want to um tell you one is um that uh this activity book was really um inspired by anamarie Island Turtle watch who had their own book because during the popups I would give out all kinds of um you know activity books and covering books from FWC us Fish Wildlife Pro you know ding Darling every non every organization you can imagine but um Anna Marie had their own activity that was unique to their own Island and um this was really inspired by them now the people that started that Turtle watch actually I had called to get more books so I could pass them out at the popups and they had passed away and they couldn't get into uh the computer to be able to download their own activ so I've offered them a box I'm going to drive it up to to next week and I hope that you all are okay with that because I think it would be nice I also think that um they would love to possibly um make their own and and kind of use ours as a as a you know a starting point so we'll talk about that more once I meet with the new lady who's in charge of the turtle watch there but um I I think this is important to share with our neighboring you know and for and then with that I want to touch Bas on the popup um the the um the lady who is in charge of the Market has um has gener has been so kind and generously have asked for us to be back at the farmers market this season again I know you know I need to be appointed to obviously do the popup but to get ahead of the game I think we should approve some dates um so I can at least tell her that we're going to be possibly okay is that to starting September I believe yeah someone know I don't think it's you know I don't remember I know all I can remember off the top of my head is santin is in oh and we'd be able to do s too which I think it's really cool I've always wanted to do s so um let's just let's just um go ahead and I know Saturdays I think Wednesdays is going to be Sant but I'll get the certain dates but can we go ahead and just approve um the month of September um oh I will still be available to yeah I forgot it's October I think so let's choose three dates in September CI I don't know specifically what dates they're going to be at CI but I think every Saturday they're at or every Friday they're at Time Square we could go ahead and approve Friday September 6th and say Friday the September 20th okay no no all right so is that okay with everyone okay great and that's it for me um staff update Chad yep so we are uh back up and running for our beach renourishment project it's up on the North End pumping away uh they've moved about 600 feet in front of pink shell right now uh we are resurveying all the beach profiles to uh understand uh the impacts of Debbie on volume will need uh as I stated before our plan is to uh rebuild that uh Beach burm design uh the plantings are prioritized and uh working with property owners to uh double check if any Property Owners still want to participate in the beach project and get vegetation and a full engineer Beach design in front of your property for protection it's never late we're only on uh 275 Estero so there's plenty of time to um I wouldn't say plenty of time get it to me as soon as possible if you want to participate in the beach project um still taking easements so um other than that we had uh a lot of alal accumulation from Debbie that project's wrapping up cleaning that up um that mass alal accumulation from 3,000 to 5500 St Boulevard uh it's being uh staged over at Newton Park and will'll be getting moved out to uh to the Horticultural landfill uh wh they can get the cheapest tipping rates um so that's wrapping up that's the two major things in my life right now thank you y um I just one more thing I wanted to say I'm gon to miss um Rose Rose um greatly she is much appreciated and was quite an asset to her two orms I like to say thank you so much Mary for all your efforts and your kindness and your dedication to this island I'll see you on the beach girl a second definitely be she was was a little spit fire yeah all right public comments with the sterile Island Garden Club I will say I'm entirely too rattled to deliver my comments this morning after that last conversation that was a six Monon effort that we made I have my my comments here I'll be happy to leave with them with you but this is an atrocity I do not agree with what some of the godess so I can't do this can you read it Vice sure okay so the may I read this comment the asaro island Garden Club was invited by the Town Council to present IC advisory services for the town of Fort Meers Beach and M mnp on August 10th 2023 at that meeting vice mayor aderhold directed the town to work with EC on matters of vegetation Time Square Garden behind the wavy wall in September 2023 bigc teamed up with BTR which is Beach talk radio Time Square funds for this project were raised by BTR worked with Town staff as well as Le County plan was approved by all parties Garden was planted on March 24th 2020 2024 after Garden was completed to partner with FMB and Lee County we were aware that grass was grow which really took off in July town did not contact EIG about weeding and their future independent plans for the garden saw a picture of the Garden on social media posted by the town on the garden and it looked like a lot of plants were gone around July 31st 20124 viewed in person the loss of many plants addition of landscape fabric and landscape rocks which is not in keeping with the objective of the Florida friendly Native Garden we originally planted 206 plants with the installation of fabric and rocks the garden has lost 111 plants 54% of plants are gone and one over ,000 were wasted and was paid for by by donations the majority of the plants that were removed or covered by landscape fabric for ground cover and spreading small plants which would serve to knit the soil and minimize weeds and they were only starting to take hold landscape fabric and rock are not recommended for Gardens with plants rocks rocks should not replace organic mulches in planting beds as they won't contribute to the soil's nutrient and organic content of water holding capacity however there is a desire by FMB for uniformi such as such that rocks by the temporary Town Hall were repeated at Bayside Park in the sand area where the moly grass is and now in Time Square which again is not in keeping with the industry's best practices FMB should lead by example on Native natural fora friendly Gardens the only way to recover this Garden is to remove the landscape fabric and rocks and add back in the small plants and ground cover this Garden was careful planned to be at least 75% native and less than 25% Forida friendly plants each plant was evaluated as a sun and water needs as to sun and water needs and salt tolerance the intent was that mulch would only be added with the initial plantings waterings would not be needed regularly after the plans had been established we regularly consult with the experts including the esero island Garden Club UF Institute of food and Agricultural Science ufas Le County extension and Master Gardener volunteer program Florida Native Plant Society Florida Forest Service santel Captiva conservation Foundation EIG is a social Club who remains committed to providing assistance partnership on landscape and Gardens beautification is our business that is your comment wel okay any other uh public comments no all right we will move on to murf award you had several in the bank I don't have any of that with any of the information Steve had but I sent mine for Marty and pink shell already over with pictures to Steve and I I can't remember he should have that turn in um your lady who donated to this was on there and Don Davis Nom of M was on there for Conant contribution to the beach but you had pth I did I have so many I um I had she was in the bank yeah okay she was in the bank well I have more to add to the B okay okay so uh I had my niece and my nephew were here on their honeymoon and I took him uh on a a tour a dolphin watching tour and the captain was unbelievable and his first mate by talking about the importance of slow speed in our waterways and uh he basically the whole way back from Santa Bel talked about conservation and boating practices and heing about the environment and after uh everyone got off the boat I had a little chat with them and I said you know I really appreciate you know the conversations that you had with the visitors and myself who live here I was like do you do that on every one every cruise and he said absolutely this is my livelihood this is how I feed my family and the I want to protect my livelihood and I I love Wildlife but I also want to protect my livelihood which is I'm out on the water on a captain and I just really thought that was very poignant that our businesses our residents our visitors really need to understand the uniqueness to this island and how much it is important to protect our Wildlife our plants our our our grounds area for just that reason because we want to keep it alive we want to keep our Island alive and and because in return that will give us back or two I would be all for that questions at any time did they entice Dolphins to jump and wait NP or make n people clap whistle nope and I'm a nope awesome I oh trust me I was sitting there watching it wasn't a show it was more they talked about yes and what I yeah and theyed about um uh their H habitat and their habits and the things to just look out for and they really are we allowed to say what company well yeah I'm going to because it was a um uh it was uh salty SS awesome yeah yeah so I really appreciated that I know we have lots of people to thank and we need more companies that encourage that a lot get caught in waks and in types and things no it wasn't about the Almighty dollar with him it was more about just make making sure that people enjoy themselves but also understood and respected anyhow that's just one for the bank we can vote so we've got uh Patty Smith which uh yes that's great um but we're gonna I'm inviting uh Macy null who did the who was the FGCU student to come and so we can personally thank her next month uh so she's going to get back with me I'm pretty sure she's going to come to our next meeting um so we can just ask her what it was like working on this and I think it might be interesting we can you know give her a nice pat on the shoulder for all of her hard work um so maybe we can do Patty Smith then I would like to renominate Kristen Ginger Weber uh from mid Island sports who were singled out by FWC in their uh newsletter as being Beach Heroes for um not only working above and beyond U their um duties on the beach but identifying U several U endangered shorebird nesting helping with the staking um and the um FWC newsletter singled them out as uh going above and beyond what was necessary for them and made it a point in their newsletter and I brought that up at the last meeting and they said that would be uh put in the bank so I would like to again uh nominate person Ginger Weber from mid Island sports Okay so we've got chrisen and ginger Weber you said Weber and we've got Patty Smith and we have uh the Salty Sam's Island uh dolphin who's watching was there anyone else Don David and Don Davids and what was Don Davids again a down picked up garbage around the library and do we have pictures and things like that for him yeah we okay and then do we have pictures of or Ginger and weers I I have uh I can obtain pictures I can also send you a copy of the uh newsletter where they were written up then I can I've got pictures of Patty um and I do have pictures of the captains uh and the first mate um so let's go ahead and take a vote all in favor for or and of course if that we don't make it today we can keep them in the bank um so everyone needs to you know be honored with the Murphy award so uh all in favor for the weers I one two all in favor for Dawn yeah I was making them in the bank so I was oh well okay um all in paper P um all in favor for the boat captains I okay so we have a tie how do you break a tie well let's just go ahead and do it again between the two okay so all in favor for the weers hi all in favor for Patty Smith I okay yeah activity book just came out and she was a major sponsor okay fin all right so the um the murf award uh goes to Patty Smith All right so let's set the agenda does anybody have a pen I can find I wasn't prepared to be Vice chair today you've been ready with that tce just like Okay so let's set an agenda we're going to keep the um we don't need to keep the the the Chevron Nest bom right because that's we're waiting on okay the next meeting on the 11th yes sir I'd say the cant has to be back in there yeah um okay so do we want prop guards on the next agenda sure and then possibly spending the money or not spending the money that the whole yeah supposed to hear back from the schools and stuff if I should reach out to them I never I wasn't here last month so I don't know I I only watched a little bit on TV but it was the was it was money we got from the time we were trying to figure out what to do with it but we still have a budget right yeah that's that never goes away that budget never goes because it's privately donated right but weren't we waiting I couldn't reach out to the schools until you heard back we heard back from the city council about that I I can't remember anyone from schools remember I was going to reach out to the schools about potentially doing a and we disc program we did discuss it on Monday but honestly or last last Monday or two Mondays ago two Mondays ago Hey Monday um and I'm sorry I don't remember what the outome was I think you we had to go in to do it okay um so I can I think the concern was obviously they already had their curriculum right set I could reach out to them see if they could fit it in some way just just kind of put a feeler yeah and my understanding is they also have a new acting principle since Trac they do have an interim I've got a name if you can send that to me I'll just reach out put a fer out see if there interested we can discuss that okay so do you want that on the agenda then um I do apologize wa for another that's right have a good day you too thank you um yeah put it on there it might be a quick minute quick item but if not if if she gets back to I do know that the the Jeff hoggy and FGCU is working with the school on the water program did you know that yeah okay so school school uh Outreach M okay honestly kind working on it and I'm incorporating oh good that's awesome okay let's see so we have the SE Grant uh prop guards School Outreach anything else oh um I'm just going to leave activity book in case U Miss Macy no shows just so we can say hello to her all right anything else thank you for honoring me with uh and trusting me with being a a sidekick to the m okay so is everyone in uh everyone can we adjourn do I have a mo a motion to move for an adjourn I'll make a motion we adjourn second all right so motion bomb and ey by Willam we got it down thank you so much how close we were good job you're welcome to come back next time oh thanks