##VIDEO ID:aTI2O_F38Zo## with that I would like to start the meeting it's uh 2:00 in the afternoon it is August 22nd okay we got it 24 and I'd like to call I'd like to call this meeting to order it is the town of Fort Meers Beach cultural and environmental Learning Center Advisory Board uh commonly known as ccab and um we'd like call the meeting to order beginning with the Pledge of Allegiance please take I pledge of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all thank you thank you and we'll start with um Jeff doing roll call uh Jeff Hogan Adam thank you Pat M Betty Simpson Barbara Hill Sher SP Henderson elleny Warner Jim andh thank you all for being here my goodness I do believe we have a full we group today Con thank you again I mean that's really huge when we can get everyone together especially during the summer months when a lot of people are out of town so I that's much appreciated uh hopefully everyone's have an opportunity to Pro look at the minut and I'd like to entertain a motion to approve I would entertain a motion uh I'll move that we approve the minutes of the June 20th 2024 uh meeting okay thank you Betty second Betty Von thank you any other changes or Corrections or amendments there being none um uh I'll vote to approve I not opposed assumably thank you uh public comment there's no one in the audience at the moment so it could change so we never know it we go on to the uh sta leaz uh report and before I mention that I just want you all to know that Adam has been working so hard since June on this map process unbelievably so with regard to you know the Museum of assessment um and you saw this ction policy it's a veritable tone and so in the event that you wonder what staff does uh kudos to them for doing 150% Adam and Jeff way to go nice job both of you thank you uh ditto on the soccer report thank you Barbara um so uh just real brief I I'm looking at the July the single sheet of paper July 24 August 24 Mountain House updates um so if you want me to go back um if if since our June meeting since we've not met that would be lovely exactly uh just since we haven't been met since the end of June I'm going to give a brief overview since then um so some exciting news you might recall there was a grant finder project to install a water quality gauge here at mountainous uh through a generous donation from the fort Meers Beach Chamber of Commerce Water Foundation um happy to say we got an additional Grant from them to purchase the much needed maintenance supplies that can actually calibrate the equipment for its installation so if you're wondering why I haven't spoken about it since then it's because we're waiting on this additional grant funding cycle to fund a year worth of Maintenance equipment to calibrate the equipment to get it installed um uh in terms of marketing we've been we started a digital marketing campaign um um on supervisor in Google ads as well as running a mail flyer coupon to 20,000 households in the Bita Springs and southp Meyers area uh and that will continue monthly on the 15th from June 15th until November 15th six month period can I ask a question real quick on the digital marketing is that targeting the same area or where is that targeting great question so in terms of the digital marketing and trip advisor in Google ads uh those are usually targeting um it's a conversion marketing technique so it's people who are already in the area looking for additional things to do in the Lee County uh area or me not Lee County area uh the surrounding area so Coler charl Le and the whole area the surrounding outside of Lee County area since the funding is from the Lee County VCB right so it's bringing people into Lee County so it's tarting those neighboring areas okay on those popup ads flying Banners To risor as well as doing a um I forgot the exact terminology right now the um when someone visits our website and they don't purchase it's a retar a retargeting ad for our kayak tours and offing a discount to our kayak tours through that retargeting program okay uh through tracking okay Adam just real quick what kind of a response have you had to the direct mail pieces and are you actually seeing coupons come in and what's your what's your return on your investment for those coupons and that Direct Mail mhm great question so in terms of the direct mailing um we're only uh just now the third month of mailing went out so we've only seen a couple calls uh we haven't seen anyone come in for the tick for the couponing um but I think the consistency in terms of us doing this Reach campaign and awareness campaign that we we do exist to this does the direct mail piece actually contain the the hard copy of the coupon yes okay so you'll see it obviously they'll have they'll have to bring it into redeem correct exactly okay thank you yes uh so no no one yet uh but the third month just went out okay did we do a QR code on that cuz I never did see the design on that was that a was there a QR code on that too so that there is a QR code and then a tracked call right number okay all right um I have another question about the um because in the minutes it said that there was a partnership that we've got for the digital and campaign who is that that's priority marketing oh okay and are they hired by us to do their to do our marketing uh for this for the digital ad campaign yes okay not all of our marketing can we see the reports on that can we see the Impressions and all the numbers on that cuz I know how to read all that stuff so I'd love to just see what you can get on that for each month I would like to see what we get on it absolutely yeah break that out for you and if you have any questions call me and I'll tell you exactly what I want to see on it so we can really look at it uh yeah I've received the report from July so I can forward that at the end at this meeting wonderful thank you you're welcome uh electrical system for the underground uh needs repairs uh we're taking quotes now to half more lights downstairs basically um we're also getting um or have received uh since also August uh we got designs and new visitor navigation signs that have come in to better facilitate uh public navigation of the site even whenever we're closed since the property is open 7 days a week and and also in terms of getting the mountain house property into ADA compliance uh there's several uh violations uh that the mount house has in terms of not being ADA Compliant in regards to Small Things no sign here no brail sign there um that we're working on and I'll give you more update as we continue moving throughout that process um Can this is a Ada question let maybe rail signs yes I don't see how there could be any way for someone who is blind to navigate the property without help so what good to Braille signs do uh I mean people who are blind and with vision impairment do visit the property and have a right to enjoy the property just like and I absolutely and it is under Ada law and it's uh we should not assume that people need help right uh nor that they want help um nor are we going to have to string ropes up along the PA I think I think it's just like when you go to a public place and even the restrooms have brail on them yeah you know they obviously don't to your point they wouldn't know exactly where the bathrooms are but it's just part of the ADA compliance MH could it also be that some folks are not 100% true and they can see and get around but they couldn't read the sign oh good point very good point yeah that's a great point yes my guess is that at that point never mind uh we're also getting quotes for increasing or having not just increasing just having Outdoor Lighting on the site for safety and navigation as well increasing capacity for increased revenue for the town for Event Rentals um so that's underway and they are going to be Turtle friendly environmentally friendly downward casting and only facing towards the pathway as not disturb uh neighbors nor uh visitors or while life from the water or the air um while not being uh too obtrusive as to um ruin any um sight lines for example they're going be flush they're going to be basically the puff lights is what the current plan is will they go off at a certain time like 10:00 at night or something uh we haven't got that far in the process we're still reviewing a couple quotes in the different systems and Technologies they use is it the case that they would not be um embedded enough in the ground that you would have to do archaeological things uh they would be no short answer that was the goal that too deep answer no uh no they won't be too deep um we're also integrating um uh was it yeah it was July 29th our Museum registar Briana Basco actually got married so uh you might have heard of another last name last time but she got married so Brianna verasco she's doing an amazing job in Catal The Collection we've purchased an additional not purchase we were renting an additional storage unit nearby our existing storage unit and she's currently reviewing the collections more specifically the artifacts and has grouped everything by excavation and collection um and afterwards because I know a lot of the CCA members have been here a long time especially as volunteers uh with the various director especially Teresa and Allison transition the records end in 2014 all records of all kind um so I'm asking for your or any community members support who have information regarding uh the state of artifacts or the movement artifacts um so you can talk to me later or you can email me or reach out or call the mount house uh if you have information paining to the artifacts or the state of the artifacts um after basically starting in 2013 to 2015 so those threeyear periods there's a uh some discrepancies and gaps that we want to tackle and investigate further and if you haven't met Brianna or you Breezy uh Breezy she is she is really enthusiastic and has a wonderful personality and is just wanting to do this job and so excited about it so it's awesome to have her unle that's great yeah where is she located is she at town hall or here she's here here well right now she's mostly at the swor unit okay that's what that's what I figur but her office is okay thank you it it seems like it would be perhaps um advantageous to have her interview those of you who were here in those years that ones yes I was I was a movie in those years so I really didn't know much but these people do before 24 before 2014 before Allison I'm sorry I heard like the most recent so really 2013 to 2015 the most recent that's the period we're interested in uh as records stop with Teresa's depart well departure but you have the records that she left no you don't have the records that Teresa left there are some records They are incomplete um we have email correspondents whereby everything was done by mouth or by oral communication so there weren't uh written records uh let alone in inventory so we're currently back tracking and starting basically from square one with the collection um so if you have any information regarding uh the movement of artifacts or the location of artifacts um or what maybe some of the Shand uh that was referred to in email correspondence between uh Town staff at the time or volunteers or out or other vendors um like the safe I'm assuming the old safe at Town Hall but I could be wrong but again we can talk more later about that in more detail um just for the sake of time did yeah did did we ever get a hold of Teresa uh no she hasn't responded to us yet I'm looking forward to it I wonder if interviewing Park Lewis would be helpful yes well Park don't and he he's he's he's been quite responsive over a number of different issues so Susan Grace might have some information oh yeah on fact I think it's been known that in that period of time between and that was it was chaotic it was cha chaotic and stuff didn't happen or did happen and we don't know about yeah but I think Park would be a good source because he was sort of a constant during those years yeah um and then uh we're looking at plans on of course uh once the new town hall is open having that permanent collection storage installed and having it all Under One Roof that's owned by the town um so we're making plans for that and and then finally we're uh or have been working on getting replacements for the gutters quotes for the dock lighting repair that was brought up at the last hcab meeting um as well as um looking at expanding the parking lot here at Mount h house proper with a small parking lot I brought this to your attention I think in the February meeting of CCAP uh you all voted in favor of uh looking into expanding along that Street between the two entrance Gates between the small parking lot and the main entrance gate of the oneway drive um so we looking in that and working with the zoning department to make sure sure all the Ducks are in one row uh going through the proper channels and all that fun uh stuff now Adam a question about that I think during our June meeting there was talk about removing disable Palms is that in the plan still I mean that was apparently of relocating of relocating them uh and so when is that is does that do you have to wait for zoning to do any of that uh yes we're basically waiting on this one stop if it's even possible to have the parking lot there under their specifications so we we want to get it all approved before we obviously do anything um because we don't want to take them out and then something comes up and we're not approved for it and then we out some trees on the property yeah the we're looking at a larger holistic scope in terms of the storm water project um traffic potential traffic in the next few years especially if the property at the end of Connecticut that was recently sold is developed into um multi- density you know how would that affect the other end at beach Baptist the former Beach Baptist property so we're considering all factors and possible factors in terms of the the future of the mountain house property and that of Connecticut Street in that conversation is there an opportunity to revisit the extension of the sidewalk because at the time the neighbors voted against it but we still feel it's an appropriate thing to have for safety of our pedestrians that come yeah I'm glad you brought that up cuz that's been a conversation within our you know the staff level lately um again being brought up um yes we need additional parking but we are and Adam is and his staff are doing a great job of trying to promote this for different events and that is just a critical part as far as Public Safety goes on my end um absolutely you know they're they're either walking through somebody's yard or they're getting potential with all the traffic coming in for an event and walking down that way so I would like to revisit that again um and we we would have funs available to do that uh to do a sidewalk project so that would be then a town funded project or would that yeah we can we could use either um impact fees or uh we could use gas TX for that as well and do you have to have neighbor consent um um I don't know I mean maybe Jim can maybe talk more about that but I I don't know if we need consent they they obviously had their opinions last time which which which drove the council to probably their to their decision ultimately not do it um I I wasn't here at the time maybe Jim I wasn't on the council I was decided but I do I am curious as to how many of the remonstrator are still in the area I'm not I was thinking certainly the building mon his kids that are doing that now building it right yeah but yeah he was could believe and I understand that it you know it's going to be part of our easement and you know they're going be walking in front of the houses but they already do that they do that anyway um and I I understand as you know as a homeowner them you know people having their opinion and it's there so I get that whole part too I just think on our end for public safety and Ju Just for my benefit with the sidewalk be on the beach Baptist side or the other side or both sides I think there is a right away there well there's there's usually right away on the on our street so when you come across I mean we wouldn't even have to go down that far even we could do a crosswalk you know with with a sign or something um depending on how it's going to look I haven't I have not seen a design how was laid out before I just know that that's been uh a topic for a for a while since I've been here I do think it would be a great conversation they had before not only Beach Baptist does their work but the developer does their work that's facing a ster their good do you know Beach Baptist sold the the land a stero I think they're going to do 12 units there I think yes and then Beach Baptists will do their Church Etc but I think while all that's going on to do the sidewalk would probably be pretty good time no it would definitely just they Walk sidewalk they already have the sidewalk in front be an exion would that sidewalk need to be redone no it's in good shape it's in great shape I didn't know if it had to be congruent with a new sidewalk okay um no I think it would just at some point connect to it cuz that sidewalk was put in as part of the the that project at the time it was just a question of not taking it from the stop sign on so I know it's going to be a big conversation um but I would like to revisit it at some point because and and isn't it in fact you know public right of way so I think the last time they were being very nice to the neighbors but that was not a requirement to say you have to have consent from the neighbors before you can put in a sidewalk it was Ill advised the last time that whole brand new sidewalk coming from um a stero that should have gone all the way down Connecticut was sh because the neighbors yeah and I mean just the fact that if someone's taking a walk and they want to walk down you the sidewalk in that yeah that so I mean we don't have to you know keep going here and we can definitely put it on the agenda and look at it especially now with these redevelopments and people building may I don't know how many people actually bought new houses here on on Connecticut but I would like to see that and we're going to hopefully potentially have the bike path or the the trail kind of goes this way too so to connect all that would be wonderful as well one one part of discussion that would kind of solve two issues on Connecticut Street for that whole listic scope is the connecting the sidewalk from 216 to mount housee um I'm not too sure I'm not worst on the storm water project but if Connecticut street is on that perhaps during the storm water project that's also in the time whenever the sidewalk is installed so it's less you know disruption to visitors disrup to neighbors um and traffic Street y because storm water is going in all that shall not Park area especially sh yeah they're already working on shellmon yeah but yes that's you had the same thought I didn't um I want to backtrack a bit on the Underground exhibit because I know you touched on it but I think we were supposed to get a word of the grant um funding um I think that was sometime last month so you have an update yes uh so unfortunately um we did not get the grant no um for the underground exhibit was this the big state Arts Grant uh yes the one nobody got it nobody got it right State yeah it was it was through the state and um to the and actually we were in the small 1% of grants that we apply for that did squeak through um but unfortunately um they uh there are some very very um detailed Scopes and projects that they needed within a day's notice to supplement the application um that we didn't have at the time ready for them um so perhaps we'll be able to apply for that Grant next year um if we haven't found additional funding sources from other sources so that's delaying our repair of Dent ground exhibit for least year so in terms of doing a very large project yes but we are working um once we get our collections taken in order um I've been speaking with uh Jacob uh assistance administrator for the town in terms as well as the other staff education ran with collections in terms of proving a smaller smaller scale exhibit with C with in-house produced material until we are able to raise money for that larger ideal situation exhibit um but that's on the horizon so that's the more shortterm answer is perhaps a in-house produced exhibit to supplement the material especially in terms of um assisting in self-guided visits to the underground exhibit or assisting in terms of volunteers who are taking stth down or taking uh visitors down um so that's one idea but in terms of the large scale project that will be well over probably $100,000 for over how much $100,000 for some of the equipment just how much a equipment is these days wow uh that's going to be uh a distance so perhaps it may be a capital campaign for friends get get busy I heard yesterday something about a million dooll cookies uh yeah at million brownies Milli brownies brownies and I'll just speak on that cuz I know Adam you worked so hard on that Grant and you're you're looking at other options and we we talked about yesterday at bcab the pool you know the same thing like we're just waiting and throwing a bunch of ideas and Grant applications and funding sources out there and we're hoping one sticks you know we're not just sitting here waiting um I know you've been researching pretty heavily Title Basin is also researching um and we're trying to put these projects into into some C categories that that will work and it just it's going to take that one time that some funding source wants to give us a bunch of money or private donor whatever it is um and we are ready to go on it it's not something we're just waiting and saying and we'll get to it when we get to it we're actively uh I know Adam's been huge on that is actively trying to get some funding to put that back the way way it should be and can be down there to make it a good experience for visitors and and and that is the biggie I mean when people for they can't we realiz that yeah so that's why Adam said we're going to try to pce meal it together to try to get some kind of experience down there which is a great a great way to do it but is the lighting going to be improved that's definely going to happen uh yes we're getting quotes on getting the lighting improved uh like the rope lights you might remember before we had Puck lights for when the lights would dim there' still be lights for people to navigate safely so that would be part of a larger quote as well as getting the electrical system up to grade not I mean literally up moving up but also having it ready for if we do go direction of a theatrical exhibit um instead of more of a traditional experior exhibit with u artifacts and touch screens and other interactive components if we do go that route that we had before with an a experience uh the electrical companies are providing quotes that an A A later AV company can install their systems so it's already to go so so so that's part of the peace mealing that we're doing can the electrical system be hardened so that it can withstand a flood um so you can uh make some of the equipment like the lights and the roof lights um cuz the the exhibit will flood again and it has twice since Ian uh during Hurricane was that Nicole that last year Didia Adalia dur so during so three times Nicole idalia and Debbie uh we got KNE deep water and that's just the reality on the floor or in theit on the floor the floor yes it comes in from the bottom is hard oh okay it's really hard I mean we could do some hardening and that's MOS has been one of those things where we've talked about um trying to get some dry proof doors flood proof doors at least um so we have some asks for a few of our properties to get some funding for that so they are in in one of those is the underground um yeah it's hard when it comes up from the ground yeah aren going to help it just exactly they'll help I mean some but not a lot not a lot it it is it is flood proof in the sense that it has survived in terms of the structure of the real yes but in terms of like the AV components we are planning in already for whatever exib we do have that the components are movable so during Hurricane preparation for example if we had a kiosk or another interactive we can move it before a uh storm surge warning or a tropical storm um and moving that even during you know a castal flood not necessarily a storm a formal storm surge event where there's a posted warnings staff can move it here up to the museum for safekeeping and that that happens even like with Town Hall while we're looking at doing that it's going to be up but we can you can move servers you know to protect all of your information so that's just it it's it's been done before and it Contin to be done so it sounds to me that it that really that is the way to go so the idea of basically putting back what was no longer is viable it's just not a good way to spend money right especially the town's money so is there now an alternative plan to not do that to say we're going to do this and to find out what that cost would be uh yes so that number I gave out the $100,000 that's using a projection mapping system so it's a very Advanced projector and the projectors would be mountable and very quickly able to be deinstalled by staff so that very most expensive equipment which is all basically self-contained in a projector this is not a projector map or this is a regular projector those start at about 70 80,000 each for unit so we need about two down there and basically it would illuminate and be able to find the grooves and surfaces as if the shell wall was a smooth C canvas but it' be able to project across many threedimensional surfaces um so perhaps instead of the television we' use the projector light and project a video for example on the shell mountain itself and show animations of the shell mountain being constructed um for example in the different layers whereby Whenever there is a storm just like in the kiosk example staff can go down there the projector and carry it to safety and then the surrounding electrical system which can't really unavoid it being hardwired cuz a lot of the electrical system for lighting is already hardwired as well it use a s system and electrical source um that we would have to we've elevated so those more regular floods that are knee high you know it's going to be installed about a 6t level so it'd have to be a serious flood um which um so similar in terms of the experience being a theatrical one but different in a sense that the actual AV Equipment won't be hardwire but the electrical equipment will be if that makes sense it's almost too B doation and we could I don't even know if this would be possible is to put it above the that ceiling above the on the mound somehow decoratively I don't be a construction project but just having like even the electrical panel up top um you know cuz that's not going to proba flood too much you know I don't know if that's even a possibility but it might be nice to maybe think about as far as mitigation goes and we do we do have we're still working with FEMA mitigation on trying to protect our own assets that's a good idea cuz I mean the the AC units are outside similar to that yeah so but it would be in the long run I think would help maybe so I I have it written down to think about if we I think it's definitely an idea we pursuing i' like to and there's there's good ways to to decorate that if you will kind like do when we're going to put some structure over the toilets or whatever that I think we can do it uh do it in some class oh yeah definitely like yeah most exibit that could be yeah have some information on or something ex any other questions on the underground bar no but I think what I'm hearing the two of you say is that you are looking at Alternatives that the Alternatives make sense long term for future storms which we know will happen and that you will come back with a draft of what that looks like not only in terms of the actual equipment but also in terms of the budget I would like to see yes and you've been very in fact I think staff across the board for the town has been very Progressive and aggressive in finding grant funding but I think also this is a responsibility of the town of Fort Miners Beach I'd like to see at some point some money from our taxpayers to help offset all of the you know expenses incurred in this um in this Venture this this is the town of Fort Meers Beach Mount house this was started by the residents by the community and it should partially be funded by the community to support things like this yes I think FMA and you know all the other grant funding and Title Basin all good all the better but we can't we can't yeah to your point if it falls short we should step in I think that's right we should and I think we should like with so many things we need to set an example to FEMA saying yes we recognize there's a shortfall we're looking to fix it I don't see anything in our budget that talks about any capital projects for the mount house or sustained funding beyond the the bare minimum I think the challenge that Jeff and others are going through at the staff level is that we want to exhaust what our possibilities are with FEMA and then I think at to your point I'm happy to advocate for the town to step in but I think we want to make sure we get as much as we can through the process and we don't want to leave itting on the table I agree and especially because of Ian this allows us to do that so we're looking at every Advantage possible and you know when we talk to FEMA and even through title base and to your point though I mean you ask both points is FEMA wants to see us being proactive in in getting our own money too so they are they're yeah we have a lot of things we can go after a lot of divisions of FEMA that I hadn't even heard of Jim you know exactly what I'm saying there's so many I thought it was just FEMA no it's not so um through mitigation and Pa and all those so I think if if we can get it out of them and get out of the state um you know that helps out our budget with other things Staffing um costs that we have for other things um I I don't I'm just trying to think of many capital projects that we have right now and I don't know that we have many you know as far as the town goes that aren't that aren't related to FEMA yeah yeah I mean we through strategic plans you know before those kind of got thrown out the window as far as Capital you know building at for instance a new community center something like that that that's kind of gotten also thrown off a little bit it's still in the plans but it's just not something we can fund right now and at the same time at a large in a larger picture our appraise value for Fort Meer speech is up 43% this year and then next year it's likely to get back to prean levels so the the revenue will be coming into to the town to afford us to have a much more aggressive Capital project budget as well so the future is bright just it's just a process okay but no I agree B that investing in ourselves is always is great too and I think to a great extent the town's already been very supportive in terms of General operating not Capital perhaps but the general operating support of of making the mount house open and you know um viable so that's important but it would be nice to have the capital projects especially with regard to the underground exhibit which is such a vital part of our programming the key part did you say it's like you know the million dollar exhibit and all of a sudden for two years we've not shown it right yeah so so sorry staff watch this and then they kind of get back to me on some certain things but this got a message that we aren't able to do capital projects while we have this bridge loan as well we can't do any capital projects a bridge loan our bridge loan from the state yeah from the state have certain requirements when you're yeah one of I forgot about that so thanks Shar okay um yeah we aren't even able to that's why I was thinking I was trying to think of any capital I couldn't think of one so yeah thanks Jerry that's why well thank you st yeah watching but uh that's a good point I'm I'm glad it's kind of that's a great update I couldn't think of any and I'm like we don't have any so why AR we doing okay those are the and I'm sorry digress to what Adam was giv in terms of the report Madam chair could I di again since before we move on to the next s because you touched on this earlier I just got to thinking the person doing the inventory of all the items in storage that's bani you say yes and it sounds like she's very Dynamic yes and and the former history Major's coming out here but these storage facilities in my I've never been there and but in my my mind is my imagination is is is going wild thinking about what's in these things I remember when I was out in DC I had a chance to go what they used to call The Attic of the fian things that just weren't put on and I wonder if there's a way bana maybe could bring in some of those items and give a little talk and maybe we could could be a friends of the mous event or it could be part of the speaker Bure and she could kind of I don't know if it's just tiny Pottery chips or if there's all kinds of cool stuff in there I just don't know but and if if you if you think it would be interesting to people especially with her enthusiasm just a the process and B what's in there I think people would find that really interesting maybe I'm wrong I just to me that would be really interesting I have no idea in my mind what we're talking about here either really cool stuff or just tiny little pizza of pottery so is that one all of the above well Teresa was here and I have a van she had a very small sports car I hauled boxes of plastic baggies full of bits of pottery oh gray Limestone Dusty sort of things with some labels on it and that pretty much was we have what 2200 artifacts and mostly their pieces of poy we so we have a wide collection uh we actually had a program in May where I brought in a selection of three artifacts from that are not on display uh was coffee and conversation Ellen Sherry you were here um we right here so it was a chance to see it behind the scenes and learn a little bit more about the collection so we we did that in may like to have so uh but definitely yes so um Brian and I we both had Museum cities um uh graduate degrees so a big part of Museum study ethics is not just taking care of objects but also providing public access to objects is equally as important preservation and interpretation it's part of our mission statement even at Mount house here so um Public Access is key um so once we get a better sense of what we have basically and in getting everything cataloged and squared away definitely having Public Access and you know my dream is in the uh Town Hall facility not just to have storage but also a research room like a research room display yeah a small display maybe to have just collections that the town owns on its way throughout different town facilities so people can be you know visiting permitting and read a little bit about the history and maybe that draws them to visit exactly so providing that public access to Residents visitors um researchers uh students uh it's definitely um on the horizon um in terms of what is the collection so it's mostly Pottery shirts so broken pieces of pottery um historic Nails um funnel remains so animal bones um and some soil samples um and then so it's it's mostly Pottery shards but some of the pottery shards are quite unique and there's even some historic Pottery shards from the uh Spanish Colonial period as well as the Anglo Aman period so the case family house and we've even have some um muskets fired or fired musket Le shot and unfired musket lead shot from a potential Spanish attack on this Village in the 1600s which is probably the coolest thing in um so definitely uh through social media but in public so definitely want to do more of that very good nice which leads me to to to to notice that the the layers on the mound is is not it since we now know that there were people here so is there any way to update that information uh yeah I mean just like any field of you know Academia history and uh as a humanity and archaeology as a science new information always changing things uh so when these exhibits were installed in 2015 they they were accurate because that was the knowledge of the time but more and more research from academics and researchers like at the University of Florida who discovered the the Spanish muskets and possible raid of the site in 1619 um so definitely we'll have this is also on the list of updating our permanent exhibits um but that'll probably be after like the underground exhibit for example so maybe can we use a little marker [Laughter] and there there are ways to do small little edits um like I might do that upstairs in the um the Rancho exhibit there's a couple word choices that aren't um accurate uh or um what's the word polite uh and how they describe people so definitely want to so there are ways in terms of Industry that you can change words but in terms of whole panels that might be better suited for like a strategic plan an exhibit plan an interpretive plan and then for us to move forward with that yeah with as far as volunteers go and stuff when I give the history of the cusis I include that now a so I think maybe if the volunteers could do that that would help too yes we have t-shirts made t-shirt which we do have two new t-shirts the popular m t-shirts there are two new uh branded t-shirts and the old ones are in sale she already me and I already bought four um and then the very last thing just real quick before we move uh move on um if if you so choose um would be uh the education staff Franklin Ashley um they developed lesson plans an entire year year curriculum in terms of a partner with a partnership with Fort Myers Beach Elementary School to offer both field trips and in school programs for the students at Fort Meers Beach Elementary School um not only to further the education and that of the mission of the mountain house but also as a a recruitment tool for the school that we partnered they partnered with Mount house they partnered with Florida University nice you're going to see uh more for Mar's Beach Elementary School students visiting the mount house on a monthly basis oh that's very nice good job and that's it for this SE one you know I just want to you know Adam puts this together and I just want to say thank you ad every time you talk and give out dates and information you just I me all what you know and your knowledge so you know he runs a good program here and I know it and I'm lucky to have him here to do that you know in our department so thank you we are we appreciate one question on on before we move are we doing August but you oh I I because a lot of the July went into August in terms of the projects okay one question with regard to the um interpretive signage uh if you're going to replace some of those signs that were damaged during the hurricane you're going to still continue to use the artwork am I correct uh yes if if we do replace the sign and it's the same thing yes and do you have the digital files then for all of those artworks yes for each sign okay yep I have digital uh PDF and some other file uh system for all the interpretive panels inside and out okay so the new signs will be in the same design as they were before um okay oh that thank you yes one other thing on the staff report that I'm just going to say is I I just thought of this is uh because we were talking about putting marker on there and potentially crayons at at Town Council meetings the color of these books murf came out with their their book their activity book yeah and it's awesome it's great and it's all over town it's all over I think it's at santaella all over um so I don't I'm sorry I didn't bring copies do you have why do we not have this are they hand outs do we get some yes we got some okay I just don't have one for everyone right now but yeah they're just they're they're free activity books they're public they're at all over the town hall too right they're Town Hall yeah I'm sorry I should have I just thought of it now they are amazing the illustrator was an intern from FGCU um she did a great it highlights artwork um from the kids that were here at M house for that summer program um so it's good and they passed them out at Council and I I think Dan wanted his crayons or something I don't know color so we do have color pencils I believe but yeah but I just want to give a shout out to them too because that that's a big part of of kind of here too and they come out they do the popup so that and that's Jennifer R she she is amazing just yeah so they they have money and they continue to to print them out and they're they're not just cheap they got a nice hard cover to them a little bit and you can right great for grandkids free that's really nice yeah they they really they transcend the usual age range because I've collected four of them for my grandchildren who are aging out of that sort of stuff but those there's enough detail that will keep an adult and there's enough you know reading and just knowledge in there so that's great so just want to say look out for those um so is that for the staff the report we're done we're ready to move forward thank you appreciate that all right for the um map we're going to put you back on a burner Adam that didn't take very long for the uh and Museum Assessment program is the map was just for your verification updates and discussions yeah so um the map team met I think seven or eight weeks for two or three hours each meeting um with various stakeholders from the friends of Mount house cell cab uh Barbara Hill representing cell cab attempted to print it too far um but if you need it I can also print it out for you as well uh 10 how many pages 19090 yes like it's crazy train yeah my ink yes you don't have to read it all but it's just for your own uh getting up the speed and edification of what we've discussed um but so the peer reviewer we've confirmed dates so Wednesday September 18th I printed out a draft agenda MH uh a draft agenda for the 2-day peer reviewer visit to mount house that he will meet staff he will follow an FGCU group who's scheduled to show be there that day um he's there's also on Thursday SE September 19th at 9:00 a.m. make sure I get my days right uh there will be a joint meeting between cell cab and Council where the peer reviewer will be there um and other staff like uh Andy um Jeff Frankie Al me um the prer reviewer uh in terms of discussing the governance of Mount house um so you can kind of look over the agenda but just to list off for viewers at home um there will be an introductory uh meeting then a uh session or meeting with peer riewer in the museum regant on the collections a meeting on facility security and disaster management a a session meeting on education and interpretation um that meeting on governance the next day a section on finance a section on uh auxiliary group so friends volunteers um and then then finally that exit in including interview and um so of course cell cab uh I would hope you would all be here as you can see I have you labeled on that second day um for that joint meeting um can you talk a little bit about what you're hoping to gain from that meeting from 9: to 11: yes so so council members can be responsive to what you're trying to accomplish and also we manage that time well what are you thinking about what's the what's the what's the overall purpose and what's what what should we be thinking about as cell and as the council as we meet jointly in front of this person yeah so the the main goal of the map Assessment program uh is uh its operations so governance is going to be a big part of that in terms of uh where where does the buck stop for Mount house who's ultimately re in charge of signing off on the collections or doing an expansion so what's the process from step staff working with the friends and the volunteers and cell cab and then Council and then the administrative staff in terms of that process for things like which we'll talk about later um which I think have a we have a pretty clear standing on the pathway but just in terms of all those moving parts that go into the mount house because there's so many stakeholders um and then also better defining the roles and responsibilities between all those moving Parts Council cell cab the friends uh especially Mount house being in such unique situation um with the friends of Mount housee who have uh the ability to host their own programs here at Mount house as well and really formalizing and professionalizing Museum operations in terms of a government system did this ad hoc committee that barara participated in did you all did you lay a course for this or you just going to throw it out for discussion there there was a course laid out in a workbook there was a government governance section that there were some guided questions as well as some readings that we did where whereby we discussed Jeff was also part of it we can get you guys that information just so you can prep it be good for us to prep s capter prep so we we perform admirably in front of this assess you know and we give you what you want you know what I mean yeah I I have that done to send out some information and talk to you don't be shy to give us Direction in terms of he here's what they're looking for here's what we'd like to see and I know from you know correct if I'm wrong what we wanted to get out of this is who really is in charge of the collection is it the town manager is it the council is it Adam or I um and I think we we have a clear path now which we'll give you and we can discuss at that point and then we would in essence affirma than this joint meeting is that what would happen uh affirming but also the peer-reviewer and just so no one's worried like it's going to be a the SATs or anything when the is here uh the peer-review is just here to help to facilitate dialogue conversations between the various groups and stakeholders so conversations between Council and ccab I think there's been a joint meeting between cab and Council in a few years so reaffirming those bonds and those connections and bringing everyone all those various stakeholders into the table and then also um just understanding more and then at the end of uh his visit uh Scott Neil he's a director at the Fort Still Museum Complex in Oklahoma he actually works for the Army so he's very familiar with with um government ran museums um he also had experience in running Native American museums from his experience running museums in Alaska but he'll basically providing his feedback and his opinions on how we can work uh more efficiently with each other um Council cellc cap staff friends and that's just one of the pieces in this the maps program so it is it is a big piece on governance and and you know the collection so we just are covering all of our bases for sure it's also 2hour block of time so I want to make sure we don't get off on all kinds of crazy Ian that's going to be just yeah I think we can focus on the maps and the that yeah that's we'll have we'll have an agenda U for that as well I just want to make sure that we work in concert with what you're trying to accomplish with this person who's visiting yeah we'll we'll put it on agenda similar to any other public meeting um so we'll have on there hopefully won't Deva too far off of it we we all kind of know what we're looking for here we'll all know at that point uh as far as the what the meeting is going to entail and we're trying to accomplish so and I do have a I did schedule it for two hours because I might notice all the other meetings are 1 hour so I do have an extra hour for uh deviant uh deviant deviations you watch council meeting so there yes for uh different uh questions and you know all our things and the and the ultimate responsibility here is that um the American Alliance for museums is a national organization and its job through this map program there's map one there's map two map three we're engaging right now in map one is to go through these series of stages of growth and professionalism to ultimately get to the point where aam will designate the mount house as a museum of credited institution and they'll only do that if we dotted all our eyes and cross all our tees and you know hired the right people and managed the right organization and handled the finances appropriately so the first step and making all of this come to fruition is what we're engaging in now so it's a it's a fact finding and I'm guessing this this accreditation not only increases our Prestige and professionalism it potentially opens up new funding sour ources as well right absolutely absolutely and it is a stringent program so there and I have to tell you there is only one accredited institution that's not art or history or just one in general in all of Southwest Florida that's five counties and that's the shell Museum they're the only institution in Southwest Florida that's accredited so the na Museum of Art is not nor Edison for I'm sorry you said also evison for does not no it's wow wow that's interesting and Str it's less than 1% of all museums in the United States are accredited wow and that's one of our goals in the Strategic plan U that we had before was getting so obviously it's a multi-year process is there expectation of how many years it will take uh it really depends on our the status of the collection okay um because a part one of the core documents which we're going to be reviewing uh on the agenda is the collection management policy but also having your collections in order whereby if someone from am comes during the assessment review they can ask to see I want to see Pottery Shard 200401 776 and you have to find it and bring it to them right we have that one I that was really good number so so and we also have to know the legality of the ownership of the collection there's a lot of items that have been donated through very well- meaning people throughout the years but there's no documentation that it's legally owned by the town so we have to have clear and legal title on the collections is it our collection is it on loan to us like the collections upstairs in the museum that are un loaned from the Florida museum in Gainesville so we have to have clear and present title and documentation for every single Pottery Shard phone fragment nail in the collection over 15,000 items so depending on that in Florida property law um um it could take years I mean there's a reason why Edison Ford artist Naples are not accredited it's not that they're not trying Edison Ford has been doing an active accreditation I used to work there for the last eight years they've had a full accreditation committee working once a week wow really so it's a Barbara said it's a stringent lengthy process so I I couldn't even estimate the years it will take but we can at least make our our status better than was last year so what do you do with these fragments that are have no um ownership or that you don't know where you got it what happens to those so thankfully for most of our collection being archaeological it was uncovered from town property which automatically makes it Town property because it was found on top property the other items which have been donated to the museum or we suspect may not come from a town owned property under Florida property law we have to make three Public Notices over a six-month period in the public newspaper of the last known address of the potential donor or the last known donor or heir to the estate of the ad donor who potentially gave it and Florida property law says we cannot claim it until 25 years after no one comes forward oh my gosh so 2047 is the year if you're wondering or 2049 sorry that's if you were to get all of these things ready to go out and posted the notice and everything so maybe longer than that obiously yeah and we don't have to have it owned by us to go forward with the accreditation we just have to know what is and what is not owned by us okay so we could have something that's been found in the collection and we're doing the proper channels and they go okay good do you have any sense of how long it will take to determine how much within the collection is actually in that category of that the way Brianna is working uh any any day Sunday night yeah she is working at Brick neck speed um every day she gives me an update and it surprises me so it's great again she's the first fulltime I mean she's 40 hours a week she's at the collection she might be here 5 6 hours doing office work or doing necessary paperwork but she's there at the collection sorting through making going records and the legality of all those are that's a huge part of me like that's a that's a that's a problem that we haven't done a collections like this before yes so she's the fir again she's the first serious she's the first person who's been tasked with only the collection in the history of the mountainous well and to be honest um you know we as a cell cab we've been negligent in terms of wanting to do a map program not knowing because we hadn't been told by staff that the collection wasn't assessed it wasn't inventoried it didn't keep close records and here we were meeting for years and we never questioned it so shame on us but thankfully we've got this staff now working on it so the question I know when I was here bar was like well what's going on with the maps and then we Adam thankfully got involved and we found out was when it's awful I feel I feel terrible that we weren't more mindful I I want to say though that I have heard Barbara talk about Collections and inventories and things not just in the last year but before that and you know asking some questions but she's probably the only one with Museum experience to know what what what's going on the other thing I wanted to say is you know think Edison Ford is not and they're taking one week you know they have a whole committee working you know once a week on this and what are we doing we're so small but I think in this process we learn an awful lot and we you know even if we never get there for 45 years our whole thing is being made better yes as as we proceed yeah and that's ultimately the goal of the map and they say it first and up front it's not to judge it's not to shame it's to help there are a lot of there are hundreds of museums that are much much much worse State than we are well that's good to hear we're very young we are very young young there I mean so again the map program is all about helping they're listening they're giving their opinions uh they are no way can judge us or make us feel ashamed again we're going through this formal process as a self assessment it's not them assessing us it's us assessing ourselves so that's the the map now the election management policy which you all have a copy of yes uh I hope everyone read it and you all got the email version so hope you have a chance to review it so there was only one change I did make um on the third to last page under excuse me the fourth third to last page oh these are not numbered these p uh no I discovered that after are you going to send this to us electronically again I can again yeah that'd be great yeah so on the third on the second to last page so if you go to the back and open it under landscape care okay I did change uh from a registered public archaeologist which is a specific uh uh certification to just a professional archaeologist m in discussion with a a fellow colleagues who have an RPA and archa who are archaeologist got so so professional archaeologist is to be appropriate so in the copy I sent you it said registered public archaeologist which is a certification so this that I have that you have in front of you is up to date okay I just want to make that clear in case you read it and had a note about it wonderful so this is the collection management policy draft a collection management policy is the sword and shield by which the staff will use to maintain and uh defend the legality ethics as well as proper care interpretation of the collection through the lens of the Museum's Mission uh it goes under many circumstances and situations that are present such as accessioning and inventorying but also addresses things that may come come up so whenever there's a situation such as the assessing which is the process by which you formally and administratively remove an object from a formalized assessed collection which of course accessioning is the process of administratively accepting an object as a collection and not just having an object which we currently do for all collections um so it covers situations by which if this happens what do we do so this is again a policy for staff to use as a sword and shield in terms of enforcing the um Mission uh but more ofly Museum standards under ethics Florida law uh and uh hopefully with this adoption Town policy so I don't how which you like how you would like to proceed since it's a large document I can go through things document and now we've had a chance to get the hard copy I'd like for you all to kind of look this over uh we I'd like to put this on the agenda for next month so that we can formally vote to approve this collections policy this also gives us time to listen to the map reviewer that's coming um in September 18th and 19th to kind of um if he has questions of us or if we have questions of him we now have this document that we have in draft form that we can tell and we're working on it so so it kind of makes us look like we're being much more proactive than we wouldn't would have been had we not had this in hand so this is well timed um Adam and I think next month we'll have it on the agenda for a vote good yeah do we have a meeting date for next month but usually be the same time next mon yes usually thank you for that bar because I think now with having this context it will be help us be a more thoughtful review yeah we don't want to rush into it we got time just to that previous question so so would we the 17th of October would be the meeting if if it's it's and are we still going to meet at 2 is it the 17th will be I'm sorry that's October so September we meet on the 17th then we won't have the benefit of the math experience so well so no I'm sorry I was thinking this would be the 26th of September yeah the 26 so we'll the map will be here and then we'll have a chance to vote right yeah on the country country so I won't be able to even call in sorry just so we have some certainty though will it be at 2:00 again 2 o00 I mean if that works for everyone it'll be the chambers it just set up so back in town yeah back in town it's nice here but Jacob has to bring all his equipment over here and it's just a little bit of a a hassle for him yeah now we get it my recollection is that we move the meeting up to 2:00 to accommodate schedules oh that we already and that's perfect that's great and and we're talking a bunch that to we we have a lot to discuss okay uh for next um item on the agenda is marketing and programs for Mount house 2025 yes so think we have something in our packet hand it out for us so this is well first you have through the end of the year which is great thank you you're aw and can you send this to us electronically so I can just put it right on my calendar for my people that might rent my condo or something yeah perfect yes I can uh so this document that has on the front September events runs through September October November and December so this is what we have we're currently still working on finalizing dates um for 2025 but we're currently working on that but just to talk go chronological order uh these are just some dates of future programs and events we've planned for the end of or for the rest of this uh calendar here so we're going to continue with first Friday can you just talk about First Fridays and the success you had yeah so first Friday so uh starting in April and running through September this will be our last uh first Friday of the year here uh during the summertime every first Friday of the month we offer free admission to everyone uh so if no one's ever been to the Mountain House anyone watching you can come and visit those of that are watching not if anybody who haven't been here um uh you can visit the mount house every month has a different theme so um since um uh latinx Or Hispanic heres month is September 15th through October 15th the uh September 6 first Friday will'll be uh focusing on the sites latinx history um especially that with the Rancho period the Spanish seminal um and the more broader uh history as well various programs have been uh are being finalized by staff of um basically family with young children centered uh drop in activities and events as well as um the tours we free on those days and first Friday has been a great success um um I I don't have the average in front of me but usually we have at uh the lowest we ever had which was I think a fluke I think we had like 12 people but the most of them are over 50 people days that's fantastic I just want to highlight that because that is a great program started ni yesil so that's again 50 people that's usually what the mount house in terms of admission would get in a 2 we or 3 we period can you do you know uh and I guess I should ask this in our meetings but have we SE have we seen uh the revenue in the gift the Museum Store um kind of go up on those days are people shopping in there oh definitely so people are here and they're learning about our future programs and they're coming back to those future programs and they're also spending money in the Museum Store on items so I guess the point I'm getting is that even though we get free admission you know Revenue wise we're not we're still in they can take a t-shirt home and they're going to advertise for us those going buy books um I know the M House book popular yes um so you know it's just good to get them in here um you know that's great that's wonderful I think that's kind of why you know far as restaurants have happy hour they get them in they have some Bost stuff and then they buy more food and so it's kind of the same concept concept we just got that back in Indiana what happy hour you didn't have it no they banned it we're oh during Co yeah no way before then it was congratulations yes I tell you every car owner is so excited about it so yeah um so we're doing that September 6 September 21st we're doing a partnership with Florida public archaeology Network that's kayak onia kayak with archaeology in English um but it's going to be uh a part of Hispanic Heritage Month but also Latino uh conservation week which is a national initiative to get people amongst the latinx communities out into nature and to enjoy the environment so we're doing a free uh kayak tour with fpan out to dog key where we're going to do a citizen science program and doing a a a report for the state file on dog key and teing people uh in English and in Spanish the program will most be in Spanish um on the archaeology uh the history the environment of a stereo Bay M house but also how to do uh citizen scientists and be stewards of the environment and stewards of archaeological resources uh like dog key which if no one knows dog key which is one of the islands in Estero Bay is one of the 20 known archaeological sites in uh Estero Bay so some of those Mangrove islands are not just Mangrove Islands just like the mount house they were a village for the cloa and other indigenous people for hundreds of years wow um so we're going to do that they'll also do a wellhouse free andmission that day cuz it's only 12 people for a kayak tour so it's first come first serve but we'll have free Mission again that day and and have free bilingual shell Mount tours um that uh Franklin will be giving and then the friends of Mount house on September 28th from 2: to 4: we'll be hosting Island Hopper here at Mount housee uh with Tim James and Jeff Cohen to um songwriters who are uh basically if youve heard songs on the radio or songs in movies you've heard songs they written uh they're quite prolific in the industry so they'll be performing um their songs here rain or shine and you can purchase tickets at Mount house.org back Master events and all money will go towards uh the friends of Mount house which is the nonprofit organization that help support uh fundraise and advocate for the mount House's uh initiatives thank you for pushing that I just noticed uh General adion is $50 VIP is uh 75 and premium VIP is 90 oh uh so we've already sold four tickets in the first week we have a premium PR you get to park in the little lot o I got I got so there are only six of those tickets available there's uh We've sold uh four four the premium uh no four four tickets in general in general uh for this event in I is is that part of the uh the island broader Network in other words we get their advertising and marketing to help for this event does that help does it Ence sell itself because of the popularity or do you have to do a lot of work to push it that does a lot in fact when I went so I finished up on the on the the um uh liquid license yesterday I spent the afternoon at the State Building in downtown Fort Myers which I didn't know was there they were all very helpful but it's a very laborious process and when I got to the last stage and I said now how long is this going to take and she says well it usually takes about five business days and then she looked at the event and she said well we're prioritizing these nice yeah it it's it's good and I think you know we could have probably we could probably sell a lot more tickets especially based on last year and how successful that was um so whether they advertise or not I think you know ours is such a uh a nice small venue that people like to come and it did it rained a little bit last year but everyone had such a great time yeah pretty intimate yes we have we had the same partner for the liquor distributor he was very very helpful last year I'm sure he'll be just as helpful this year that was a great event yeah um moving into September we're going to do some uh light seasonal abominal decorations uh around the Mountain House Museum um just to get people more in character and to see the mount house and maybe a little new light um just some very light decorations so uh if you're volunteer you'll be getting um some updates and helping us uh decor some some some light decorations throughout the museum uh for the fall season uh October 5th uh which is a Friday uh we're going to be doing B A Taste of uh taste and dance and taste latinx Heritage so it's going to be a tour on the sit's Latino history a salsa dance lesson and a sampling of food from various Latin American countries all within an hour and a half I have a question La teix is that is that a the Heritage Month in September or or October both both so two months it used to be a week but then it was expanded beyond that so it's SE it's September 15th to October 15th yes okay yeah Dr up more conversation about it yeah because the week used to be September 15th to the 20 you know 2nd whatever that is um because a lot of countries in Latin America have their independence day during that during the that one week yeah um but so they're like well we want more than a week we want a month so it got expanded to the next 15th where there's another series of countries that have Independence days around that middle of October I was going to say isn't that how long you celebrate your birthday yes exactly is that going to actually happened here the dance yes yeah we had it last year and the dance lesson took place here we did the tour outside and then upstairs on the patio is where we served food on the enclosed porch so it's really really nice limited seating get your tickets now we sold that publicly last year didn't you yes and we've had some good I was thinking about Nico how she sends this out we've had some good relationships with some of the news media um on on most of our stories I think getting these out to them too and I can talk to Nicole to see if we can send those out a little bit more and get them you know on on the news in the morning or something would be good or Beach radio or Beach radio Nathan always is very so yeah there there's a lot of sources that that we can get out I mean these are always successful programs but putting the M house out there and I'll send mine out too for the media too absolutely and channel two I've caught advertising for the mount house nice yeah great so is that um M um MBC oh um October 15th date tenative uh that's because uh just before I walked in uh David who was our speaker for the October 15th he emailed me and uh something came up and he's unable to make that week uh he's traveling from North Carolina to speak to us um so it will be sometime in October we just haven't nailed a date done CU again he just rearch but he's the author of Spanish semal uh so it'll be a very uh a great lecture uh so that'll be uh formerly call it a lecture series we decided to call it a lecture series something instead of just lecture series uh we're calling it Community conversations and it's going to be more of a formalized process whereby perhaps me and David set up front in front of the audience and have some dialogue and prepared questions to facilit discussion between David and I but also facilitate conversation and interaction between the audience I love so it's reworked a little bit and it's also been moved to 6 uh to 7:00 p.m. instead of 600 p.m. so a lot of people um haven't been able to make the lecture series one because of traffic but also people are getting off work late people who are working they can't they don't want to come straight from work to this event they want to go home shower change or you know if they live in for Myers like I do it's going to take them a while to get to anything that starts at seven so in my own personal life and the staff you know if there's an event that starts at 6 we can't make it right if the event starts at 700 oh I can make that so we just moved it that one hour so we did tweak a little bit but it's the lecture series plus and you s of stylistically about how how you would arrange it because I'm just thinking when you go to when you go to conferences and they're sitting up on the stage and they're in comfy chairs and they have plants and it's conversational maybe not plants but uh I work on the comfy chairs s a similar setup we can probably find someone that's a Master Gardener that lives up the street that might provide some [Laughter] plants I I'll work oning look Adam's face is getting um so uh the last Saturday for Halloween I've always wanted to do a Halloween program and that's actually bat week so it's a week about raising awareness about bats and they are for the environment uh and our nature so they're pollinators uh so a lot of our food comes from bats um so discussing that conversation so it's going to be basically that is a great idea different it's going to be a trick or- treat station so people can come it's include with the price of mission they can dress up if they want children as well uh they can come and they can trick- or treat and volunteers hopefully will be at different stations handing out candy and bat fats and take-home bat activities like books or make your own like cut things like that is B hosting Halloween again this year it's not on the same day that's that's always literally Halloween isn't it no there's going to be the week before uh it's the Friday yes it's the night before okay so that so the 26th is a Saturday a Saturday okay yep so we're doing it during the day so uh 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. so uh families and people usually can come on Saturday y um we're very excited November 8th say see definitely put this one in your calendars we're doing a collaborative event with the mikasuki tribe of Indians of Florida uh and this is a tentative title I still have to run it by them but the details are pretty much the same uh we came up with the title real toore mass media and mikasuki art there will be a uh free community film screening oh wow movie on the mount here at Mount housee well they'll be showing the documentary real engine finding Hollywood's Indian and that will be a it's a documentary from a cre Canadian director who will be discussing basically how Native Americans and native peoples have been portrayed By Us Media in television books movies um and the mikasuki tribe will be here including papy Oola who's the Secretary of the mikasuki tribe currently and hope along with some other tribal members and they'll be providing some dialogue and conversation on their perspective of that as um papey Oola says you know he's like I was I grew up in the ' 80s I'm a child of media of mass media so um they're going to have that but before that you might notice we're going to have an art reception Barbara uh here at Mount house four mikasi artists will be showing their work for this one night popup art show uh for being a very important number to mikasuki culturally and spiritually and those four art uh pieces will be on display here in the orientation gallery and there'll be a small reception we by they'll be able to discuss their pieces and their pieces will basically be the mikasuki perspective on the United States as the film is discussing the United States perspective of natives uh so it be a way of communicating back and talking back uh to the uh audience who will be then watching a film on how the United States thinks of Americans so it's actually a film that's going to be shown yes so it's going be a movie on the m and an art showing wow very good and the art show will be just the popup it's not going to be exibited here after is that if they want again I still have to talk to the mikasuki uh tribal members who are the artists um if they want they're more than welcome to but in just in terms of logistics yeah probably bare minimum it would be they'll show up set up their pieces it'll be on display they'll be able to talk about it whether or not they would want to sell it here I'm going to give them that opportunity they don't want to sell it also given of course their it's their works so still have to work out those more biner details have you worked out an arrangement I understand there's only four artworks that would sensibly be available for setto but should they sell one while it's being exhibited have you worked out a percentage on what the mount house gets to keep uh no uh um may I suggest 30% so for example if an artw sells for $500 the mount house gets 30% of that that's normally with a nonprofit when working with artists that are exibiting that's sort of part of the I was I was going to give them all the profits considering the trbal members are driving out here on their own time and they're coming out here driving out from Tammy mrail which is near Miami the reservation they live at and they're speaking for free and doing this event for us for free for free for free so well there's that yeah are we charging for this how much it's going to be free it's going to be free oh my gosh it's we charge them 30% just saying so if it was so if it was a paid event it would increase the cost for the renting and the rights of the film right that we're showing so we're making it free to make it of course under those circumstan to lower the cost but also just to make people more aware that the mikasuki tribe does exist they are along with seminal descendants of the Kusa there was never an eraser there was never an emptiness Fort Mar's Beach always had people there was no empty land that people stumbled upon this land was always occupied by peoples and their descendants live just in a different place now so this land has always been filled has always been occupied and people just don't know that connection between the scoa and simol but also many people aren't even aware about mikasuki in their existence and how they're a separate Sovereign Nation separate and sere from the simal and the United States government so learning more about the mikasuki and furthering that as our mission um and of course being a a non being a settler ran indigenous site there is that in terms of Museum best practices and ethics in terms of forming more collaborative programs that's why with like the exhibits and stuff it's now seen as unethical to do exhibits about a community when you don't ask the community what they think about it at the very least right so definitely form as the first fourway into you know starting this relationship with the mikasuki tribe as a government dialog yes given that it's it's an evening event would you be interested in approaching them to see if they would think that maybe the friends of the mountain house should get a liquor license and offer beer and wine for sale at this event I'll talk to them about it you know I think that's a great idea Ellen I mean I know that at one point we have and it's just sort of a more congenial environment um and to not have that for those lecture Series going forward changes things it just just you know so I don't know if that's something that you have on is your license then is it a single but we can we can apply for 12 of them each year okay you know think you've gotone over and over this but you get it's like anything under four events for the organization you don't have to go to council for then for you guys okay so anything under four four days you don't have to go to council for so so but I just have to go through all the steps I went through yesterday just you just have to prove that you get the liquor license and okay it through the Tom okay that's all it is but I need that stamp and and just for anybody yes just for anybody that that's an agreement that we have at the Town Council up through the friends so that's it's not for everyone it's it's been a vetted process that you know so I just wanted mention that that and that's that's complement of the agreement that was formed in 2006 and Barb signature on that so I just want to you know make you aware that that's that's the case if it's yes but we still have to go through because I have to get them to sign that yeah I didn't know if you got one if it was like a year or you can just single use so that's good yes we can we can apply for 12 of them so I'll have to spend an afternoon in in downtown Fort Myers every time we apply but that's okay but um and that's fine I I'm happy to do that that's what it takes thank you and I have Jim push it all through [Laughter] should make that happen he does he has you you have you work magic sorry to to St the parking lot for Santini Plaza is trying to get resurfaced and just got delayed a month and so that's that was and santin Plaza on the south end is becoming really a critical issue for everybody soor and I know everybody's wanting it to get done it is getting closer and some of the shops are going to be opening are going to be spectacular there's still a couple out there that are even going to be more spectacular so I'm sorry to digress in s closet no wonder that things were delayed so understood understood great idea Ellen thank you for that uh following through the liquid license and getting that operation now now we know how to do it uh so we're doing um I'm hoping also to have a community conversation in November I'm still finalizing details of a speaker and it's tentative so I didn't want to put it in here so we're going to add it later um but uh working on that one we do have a Comm conversation in December U Mike Parsons from B golf University he'll be briefing on what's in the water and his report and stud he did in April of this uh this year we're going to be doing some light winter decorations at Mountain housee uh before that though I got off track November 15th is the mountain House's 9th anniversary uh so we're going to have a small anniversary celebration cake probably some cake okay good C yes and then uh we're do some light uh uh uh holiday decorations for various different holidays that have been or are celebrated in Southwest Florida throughout the museum so Christmas Hanukkah K Quanza Solstice etc etc um we celebrate we're going to have uh Story Time with Santa uh December 21st there be a story hour um and then there will be a um I don't have it in here cuz it's technically 2025 but uh tentatively I still have to get some details but January 4th 20125 which is Saturday uh that will be uh so January 6 if you're not aware is uh yeah Epiphany is Epiphany but in most of uh the Latin American World and among Latino communities uh and in Spain is celebrated as Dia deos oras magos uh day of the three wise men or the Three Kings or Three Kings Day um and that is usually celebrated there's a big festival and parade in Miami so hoping to really find a holiday Niche and C do a holiday celebration in terms of earned revenue from the mount house getting new people we because there's so many other holiday traditions we didn't just want to like try and do like you know holiday lights or holiday nights like at Naples Botanical or as Ford because those are different that's you know a huge undertaking they start they literally start October 1st decorating at SN Ford for their holiday event uh so doing an event in a holiday that isn't scene there's no other event in Southwest Florida that celebrates this holiday and it's kind of like second Christmas um for many people uh of the Latino World um to get a second gift from the three wise men um tell my [Laughter] k um so we're hoping to do that event but since January 6 2025 is a Monday and the day Lee County students go back to school uh and it's a Monday the museum isn't open on Mondays uh we're going to do the event on Saturday January 4th uh so more details will follow then uh but that kind of follows up the end of the the holiday the V doing it on the eve of the eve how's that uh kind of yeah it'll be during the day yeah day of the eve yes very ambitious programming and the Christmas festival is the 13th and 14th of December yes the Christmas at the Women's Club with the Christmas with a Christmas tree and a Reas tree and the oh yeah what date is that so Friday and Saturday 13th yeah on the Women's Club ground with the T and then in terms of the marketing half so those are programs that we have finalized or pretty much finalized uh we're still working on 2025 but in terms of marketing for 2025 uh through the VCB I discovered I didn't Discover it I wasn't other people knew about it I just found out about it um there's the they do a co-op marketing uh program so we are participating in that so uh on this landscaped paper with the mini colors which is mostly for me um um just I like many covers thank you uh so we're doing a year-long campaign through the VCB through their specialized neighborhood so they're going to be emailing people before they would email people who opt in to learn more about Lee County and what they discovered is people don't understand how big Lee County is you know people think they can you know take a cruise uh out the Pine Island they can have dinner in uh downtown Fort Meyers and then watch the sunset and lever's key in the same day no no no uh in the height of season so what they discovered is people want to know more about uh these places that are more realistic that they can better plan so they're dividing the county into neighborhoods so Fort Myers Beach is a neighborhood so Mount house is going to be in this year monthly email blog or email blast to subscribed opt-in members who want to learn more about VCB and specifically uh early County and specifically want to know more about Fort Myers Beach so we're going to be marketed alongside other fort Myers Beach attractions accommodations uh including restaurants as well so people for example if they're staying at pink shell and they want to have dinner at yukatan shrimp then they can visit Mound house as a more realistic community- based neighborhood uh vacation what's our demographic that we're targeting for all of our little fun things here uh for the events for September or no like for in general in 2025 like y uh so I do have some audiences so these are the audiences that they've listed um so we have the audiences who are already interested in Lee County so that so we'll write up things that are that kind of group us together in terms of people who might already be aware of Fort Meers um and there we have some breakdowns as well in terms of uh you know our traditional Museum visitor are usually older retired uh higher have higher education married coupled uh those are TP that's your tradition Museum visitor um white um and then you also have um uh secondarily we target young uh families with young children as a secondary demographic that we really go after especially those with road trips um and then people uh and then our third category of audiences that we generally market and will be marketing through this if you'll note through the audience for the different categories um people who are coming for a Beach vacation so we're trying to angle it in a sense of if it's raining if it's storming if you're sunburnt if it's day five of the beach and you can't take it anymore you can come to mount house as so as a conversion tactic of converting people who are already planning a Beach vacation whether to Fort Meers Beach or a neighboring competing tourist Market of an alternative destination that that can deepen their experience Beyond just Beach and Beach they can have this supplementary element for their families for getting their children so they don't forget everything during summer vacation or spring break or winter break uh or just on the weekends so those are our three big audiences that we Target and so for 2025 we're not going to be doing any more Spotify correct uh no there won't be uh we didn't we we try to get some Spotify for 2025 uh please don't because that's a very young demographic I just called my scarb 80 earlier to make sure I was correct I do this all the time so the 29% um 26% of Spotify is 18 sorry 18 to 24 and then the second group with no kids so that's a that's a and then 29% is 25 to 34 with no kids so that's probably not what we really want to be targeting um on Spotify and then the third one is 55 to 70 which is only 19% so I just think and not much disposable income so let's just make sure that we kind of yeah so if you look at these that we are targeting for that we've bought in for 2025 so uh I think what's really important for the first time we're really being consistent with our marketing and that we're for the winter season spring summer and fall season we're really hitting the three big ones so Expedia so people who are already looking or have already booked hotels in Lee County they're going to get web biners on mobile and desktop on retargeting are yeah so uh people who are booking hotels through a um I forgot the acronym but Expedia or uh a website travel travel velocity I forgot the terminology um those likely have that larger disposable income yeah um that are the more traditional visitors or families who have booked you know this hotel room or a resort and then Travelers intent that one uh that's kind of that step above conversion so people who are already looking at Florida vacations uh people who are looking at Beach vacations in general and it's targeting especially there's a whole list I can email ASE you as well to the VCB U makes public as well so basically it's the Midwest Missouri Indiana Michigan Minnesota um and then also targeting um especially during the springtime Minneapolis in Boston for spring training M uh so people who are coming down for spring training also Target those people who are coming down for a spring break vacation that's nice yeah what about e tourism so nothing so that is an element we still have are still developing our overall campaign on which we're going to Market these elements to but the big things that we're going to be really hitching it's going to be really reach um getting people that know what we are so our core our bread and butter here are arak tours and the the underground Museum and shamon tour so throwing the atle seeing the shell Mound and kayak tour like those are big three things for many different visitor types whether it's families facilitators uh experience Seekers so definitely imp implementing the EC tours but haven't necessarily designated them as a separate um audience type okay and this and this program it sort of takes the place of the grant that we were going for with VCB this what the supplements or this is instead of okay basically yes okay great uh so the we're able to get um find some additional funding uh thankfully from the town which very thankful for um that I was able to work with the finance department and move our money around and our budget for um next budget year um proposed budget year um um uh nothing's finalized of course until Council uh approves it um but um having more money for uh marketing to cover these costs and additional costs as well um one thing that's not listed on here um is um we also got a um the map so there's a basically a map that's distributed throughout many attractions and restaurants in the fort Meers Fort Meers Beach Bonita Springs area that shows um I forgot what they're called but basically it's like a a visitor map visitor map yeah I have one of those in my condo did you bring one of those at one point one of the meetings uh yeah I mean they're over there in the in the office in the um display I think not all maybe all of the restaurants don't tell yeah I mean I up yeah everybody yeah they're nice to have so we're so next calendar year 2025 we're literally going to be on the map so Mountain House will literally be on the map so people who are pick up the map reading a pink shell they can see oh Mount house and they'll see our advertisement in in the corner and what we are and what we're about our website um but yes definitely answer your question Barbara uh definitely uh Eco tourism as an element of who we are as an institution and a destination great and I know I don't want to spend a lot of time on this but in Market geofence can um you tell us the category that you're going to be targeting on that just not Le County but like with the demographic are you just older family two kids visiting the beach area blah blah blah blah uh I don't have the information right now in terms of um which specific audiences they're targeting right now the only information is uh visitors J Lee County I think we really more money so I mean it actually just make our dollar go a lot further we did that um last not this past not this summer but the year before when we got our money at the last minute we used Florida weekly was doing jail fencing like the Key West boat they were trying to hit around there exactly but I I never did realize if we got anything out of that or not I don't know I I wasn't sent the reports yeah we definitely just want to keep a number of our Impressions on that and like we can look at the Impressions halfway through the buy even and if we're not getting what we need we can find tun in even again but on all like I said please Vol I volunteer thank you much much appreciated uh and then in addition to that consistency in the Geo fencing uh we're also doing a uh targeted email blast in June for families family Road Troopers so that's one specific audience emailing families with young children who are in the state which I did not realize uh Atlanta is considered an instate Market uh which is really interesting Atlanta is an instate market for marketing purposes yeah yeah they can drive so Pat you're inate know I was in yeah yeah you didn't know that so that will be targeting families who have expressed interest in a family road trip or day trip within the state market during the month of June while school's out um so uh we're doing that cuz you know do a lot of Family Programs here especially um so that's kind of just a rough outline of the marketing not necessarily a marketing plan but a plan for marketing uh for uh 2025 in in lie of um we not in Li of just very a little bit better organized than we've been doing okay thank you very much we're just going to move on the a little you want water yeah um yeah so right now um we are well been around Newton at all in the last week or two after the storm we had a lot of uh LG uh that has been picked up on the beach we contracted with a company to pick it up and use Newton as the uh kind of the staging ground for that that's should be they said it was going to be off Island by tomorrow but I didn't see any movement today there today um but they that it was supposed to be a twoe project twoe contract so they they said by tomorrow it'll be hauled it should be hauled off uh off Island so hopefully that'll cut down on the smell and the the site we thing so yeah it's just kind of one of those things where Newton was available we're already staging it for the sand re nourishment Pro program and it's our property so we don't have to contract out with it with somebody else and pay for land uh to take it so um to that question because I know we have a lot to discuss with regard to Newton Park but I a question for um our wonderful M Vice chair with regard to um picking up the debris from the storm uh raging if you will or cleaning you know that is Nature's Way of replenishing the shoreline uh you know the city city of santel does not break its Shoreline it knows that when that algae seaweed stuff that comes out from when from when the storm happens and all the beach um or the uh Gulf uh plants are ripped up because of the storm and the and the waves that accumulates along the shore naturally and that if it's left is will replenish the shoreline it's counterintuitive for us as a town to pick that up and put sand in its place it's just counterintuitive just your it's so interesting that you say that because friend and I were just in Key West last week and there are literally signs posted all around the beaches that say exactly what you just said yeah we should not be I into I mean as a council person is that a conversation that you've ever heard as it was a conversation just came up a few weeks ago and I think the the discussion was and I wasn't part of the Cy but something to the effect that when it reaches a certain threshold where it's almost like a public health issue and literally to the point where nobody can utilize the beach almost like 2018 red tide for whatever reason it aggregated to that section pretty intensely it wasn't your normal Beach rack this was right around junkan new and kind of sou it was it was not your traditional well sometimes you have a heavy beach rack and you got a nice line and the birds love that and it's great this was I think times and if you looked at it and I know we've done it before this isn't the an excuse but if you looked at it we still had a lot of debris that came up from Ian um we had it was mixed in tables chairs I think a toilet came up um some entertainment centers you know cans with the like Budweiser cans with the old pop top and you know so it was full of fishing line and everything too so it was for for our guys to really just go pick through it would have been impossible um but I know that was part of the discussion this time um was there so much debris in there to your point I don't think there's a general policy to go ahead and automatically clean any Beach track that's on this was a pretty unique uh uh undercurrent that brought up a lot of not just the mut but all the material there's a there's a criteria that we need to follow and have to get a a permit for from um from the state to do that so it's got to be Pi up the debris it's got to be uh the the rack line it's got to be so high so many feet of it for us to even get a permit to do it so okay the only caveat to that is when they're doing the and I don't know why I haven't been that's more of a Chad kind of thing um but right now we are raking the beach while they're putting the sand back on which we for the rment I don't know I I I don't really have an argument one way or the other but I know that he has advised to that the company I think it has something to do with the renourishment process in order for it to be raped in I don't know it's all Mother Nature I mean it does it it cleans up itself that's why the are so beautiful I think what he's saying is is they're pumping it from offshore in order to to integrate it with the existing stand there of process again I don't know maybe we can put something out but uh I don't know I just know that our guys are but that's a once every 10 year or 15 year ex and there is yeah and we do have a we do have a b Drake um so if it does get two out of hand but uh I know that's the only thing so if you see them out there picking up that's why is because of the sand nourishment program uh putting it on for whatever reason I'm sorry I don't have that answer it's literally renourishing the beach from the north end all the way to the south end and that'll be over the next it'll be done by the end of this year they've already started near bage and they're going to be moving about a th000 ft a week and there'll be pipes along the beach it's it's probably $40 million worth of SE it be probably the largest Beach nourishment in history for Myers Beach and just to give you a little flavor of it in front of in front of Leonardo arms where they literally the wat is abing the seaw wall there that will move that out initially 200 ft and then naturally uh uh uh it'll it'll erode naturally back to about 75 ft so once again you'll be able to walk the entire length of the beach again like the old days assuming it all stays you just never know about the beach is going to do you know back in the ' 50s we couldn't walk the entire strip to the beach from time to time absolutely so you know it's a Barrier Island the exactly giveth them the taketh away say there are restrictions on just kind of clarify there are restrictions on how much we can okay typically pick up it's not like we there's a lot of communities um beach front that rake their beach every day they just they go up and down and rake it for tourism they shouldn't they should but they do and they shouldn't it's the condos yeah whatever whatever opinion you have on that they they do it we just we we do not we have it in through our Council and our our ordinance is not to do that so um I know the condo associations and the hotels love it when we rake the beach CU they do their own sometimes um and you can like I said you can have your opinion on should or shouldn't uh depending on what do you have an economic Viewpoint of it or do you have an environmental you know so are you listening to the chamber or are you listening to well and I'm not saying anybody needs to listen to anybody but you can have your own opinion so I'm not trying to get into that whole debate but uh but we do have a criteria for it and uh to your point barara I mean that is sound policy I saw I literally saw signs that said exactly what you said all over the beaches at Key West I would love for you to share that with the rest of council or something I wish I Tak a picture Saturday I you Jeff because I had I walked well now that we're back I walk the south end of the island and I've noticed debris from clearly from Ian if I see big stuff can I call the town just tell we did have a cleanup um keep Lee County beautiful had a beach clean up they did they were there for a couple hours and did a great job but some of it was even I mean there's huge logs of rope from ships or whatever that washed up and I I was out there the next day on the beach and it was it was a lot of stuff there was a lot of things out there that just got churned up probably from Ian that got sucked out and came back on so um yeah it was just unfortunate to see it was it looked like uh a lot of it looked like a junk pile for a little bit so and then we have our wonderful Chris King who goes out every morning and picks up debris right on the beach in front of Island Zen so there are individuals that go out there I ran into I wish I would have I've gotten her name but a woman that I was driving up and down and she was she had her her little like Walmart plastic bag she's like I always walk to beach like you might need a bigger bag we can get you one she ended up showing up as as a volunteer to pick the beach with the thing so I was like that I thanked her like for coming out and everyone a lot of people who do that anyway um my questions about B Newton uh so that should be off it's still going to be used for the Sandry nourishment program till December um right now if you've driven past we' put some temporary fence there with a BM um we still need to find well we've located it the sewer in the water for the restroom trailer we have the restroom trailer at town hall right now oh nice so it's just a matter of hooking it up um we're going to do a direct connect like we like Palm Avenue um and we'll put that there similar to where we were maybe thinking in a plan um so it's always movable though yeah but we can disconnected so then there'll be uh eight 8 to 10 parking spots there I think just for right now paid parking um get that back uh is that going to be five how what's the price going to be on that do we know yet on the parking there probably the same as same as last time okay um trying to get them to have that go to our department but we're working on that uh and then there'll be a a we did clear a spot for beach access then on the 17A I think that's 17A not the Strand view side the other side um we're going to put a we already have the walkway made uh we'll put some vegetation there with there's a little burms you know that Carol and then planted like the planted a bunch of stuff there already right by their fence and it's all stuff that's like was there before and they would spent their own money and did that a while back and it looks really nice already it's starting to grow up and look really good yeah yeah and we have some potential you know things that we've thrown out there um talked a little bit about it at borab that maybe we can get some funding and then it very very near future um but it's one of those things we we have a little bit of money for Newton not a lot from FEMA um so we got to be creative on how we use that but hopefully there's some some big things happening that we just need that funding we just need it so have that yeah very exciting thank you it is exciting can I add one thing to the park thing I just wanted to update you on the Strand proper that's what I was you know just just to give full credit creditors to Joe who lives next to to park he reached out to me probably a month and a half ago and referenced that stran was going on it was going up for sale I later saw that it was at least in the press that it was listed for $1 million by the condo ownership um it's current I think it's going to be destroyed this week or torn down they have the stuff out there and I called after you emailed me that I called and made some phone calls and they're planning on like next week having a I heard yeah I thought they were supposed to start today like they were bringing equipment out there but I think that they said by next week they're they they just did the dolphin in the other day and they did a beautiful job so hopefully they'll do was it that same company that moove it Pros or yes REM they have done a great job they have done a nice job and they really clean not advocating for any single company but I've noticed other the properties that they done yeah they've done a really nice they take all the materials and they recycle them and they sell them and they they use of everything they tear down um but as a but but but to that to point so I brought it up at the at the uh the uh uh management planning meeting to the Town Council and I ask for the council to give authority to the town manager and town staff to begin pursuing grants from the various land trust organizations in Florida and any other opportunity we can find and the council concurred I just uh on on at the last town meeting on this past Monday I asked Jason who's taning this for the town to give us an update he's exploring a Litany of gran opportunities it would be a dynamic where the town would have to initially put the money up and then we would be reimbursed by one of these various land trusts entirely and the fact the fact that it's ju supposed next to an existing park right is is helpful uh the fact we we're even going to potentially uh to approach the organization that helped us get Newton Park Park originally uh and see if they would be interested but there's there's there's two or three different land trusts in Florida that hopefully we can apply and and they they lots of folks have come and said want to help Fort Meers Beach but they just haven't found the right spot this could be the right spot $11 million is a lot of money but this concept of a park pocket park plus there's a there's a resiliency aspect of this Dynamic too and that that area as we all learned from the the the presentation that came to uh to murf is that is that area was the most heavily impacted because was a crescent on the island it all Focus right it was really and you can tell how that that came even in this recent one with all the seawe coming and it just all conc in that one not one area so so folks are optimistic uh hope I think my guess is it probably won't sell immediately 11 million on the market so hopefully we get these Land Trust engaged and be part of that we can't don't really have the funds quite yet to just go ahead and buy it uh but at the same time letting it sit on the market for a little bit would probably be good CU yeah yeah and we'll have to see what Mar the fair market value is on it um cuz that's what they'll pay for so if it's 11 million they they may be worth 6 million seriously can we start a rumor that we're going to put a mini carnival permanently at which would make it really crummy to live next to there you go just leave the seawe there you go that's the do that no no rumor right now we're get it's going away otherwise your phone number is going out to the public instead of mine put public anyway so very desirable no we're putting Newton back the way strand View Property would increase the size of Newton park over a third would you keep it a dog park area too it's really up to this group as to what we would do oh well dog park and that's one of the things we we've talked about and we've tried it in two spots and we got some bad feedback on it um one we couldn't do because it was too close to either the coastal Waters or the mangroves and you can only do it as certain level distance from there so we've been trying to get one we wanted to do one at Bay Oaks um dog park oh a dog park well in newon park you would have your dog there that's why we but just saying area yeah interesting so am I no go ahead I'm just I'm concerned about developers big developers coming in buying up different parcels and pushing them together is there any concern that that could happen at the property next for next to it is going to be rehabilitated that'll be fine so and obviously we're not going to sell Newton so there really isn't at that location there's not that opportunity so I think we're safe there other places certainly more vulnerable although I haven't seen I or heard rumors of that happening quite yet I haven't either and I waining that conern me a great deal is because we have these big developers going to come in and change the rules and think they can stimul us and we we also T I even at bcab yesterday we want to get some parks on that South End too we'd love to see that um you know Newton is kind of the farthest we go with the park and we'd love to see one on the other side matter plan of course but we'd love to do something um can we do something like um for a park on the Bayside too is there any land on the Bayside or would I'm saying like going swimming or something like that we have Bayside Park we have that this one yeah well this one but I was saying they swimming you know what I mean o is on the Back Bay technically it is is it fair to say that if this is a pending option for us with regard to acquiring land trust funds that we would then at this point hold off on finalizing Newton Park plans until we have a better idea that there could be a huge expansion that's a great question I don't it's a good question because depending on the funding that we we potentially might get we might have timelines you know we lost out on a a big chunk at you know at Bay Oaks because of the time limit ran out of us because of Ian um you know if we have the a grant let just say that we got to at least have everything in ocean in a year that really hampers us and I the land trust I'm assuming at that that rate would be quite the process um with legal getting involved so I'm not sure I think we we'd still come up with a plan and possibly we could think about you know depending on how it progresses over the next few months think about what that may look like yeah keep an open mind we already have a plan for newon Park when we all [Music] know and we had a drawing that they're Bing and it was fabulous we it we could just yeah I mean it over and have more parking too because parking is parking would people would love that we're already increasing parking with that design by 177 or 18 spots or really 20 I don't remember that in our conversation it was the one right after um it was the what was the visioning session can't remember which human Department that was RT R2 P2 yeah they brought in a a designer a landscape designer and oh my gosh she just was like talk about colored pencils that was fantastic and because that's what we were looking for if you remember we knew what all moving Parts Ro to be but where would they to be placed best use yeah so there's there's a spot for up to 400 people in the design that we like um for either a wedding or an event uh that kind of thing and it's got open access to the so the problem is if we put a a building there it's got to be we're not doing that 15t up's not talk about that I mean it's still an option we have a design through a marketing firm through tile Basin that that had to design a building for us it's beautiful it's got a lot of Windows um but we had to do it for a FEMA cost so they have to basically put a design in for a property that we would have that's similar conceptual conceptual in order to do a cost estimate so we do have it and it is a beautiful building we love our little traser yeah I I understand but we also have to think about it as a town All Glass I understand but everybody in the area except for two people really love it it's really hard for us to get Revenue at at in our department the did the little arched swing set make is it still alive yes put it on the ocean it's still alive it's actually over um when you come in on strand view that's where all the parking is going to be on that side it would be facing the ocean and then it's on the the water side of that beautiful Jeff you know I will help you personally campaign to get evinced there more this year after we get that thing done I will definitely help you raise some for that thing there you go yeah but we have part of our our grants and our we we do put in a cost estimate for a building so it just depends well here's the thing if you're talking about raising money though that goes to the friends right because the town can't raise M no I'm just we have schedules so we can we can rent it out for weding talking I'm talking about once it's there I will make sure we promote it because it's never been promoted for weddings or anything cuz we do have a feed we can't really do much besides that it's approved by the council so the town can raise money in terms of fundraising campaign we're a 17 1701 organization yeah Adam just discovered that oh I didn't you under federal law municipalities can raise money and accept donations that are tax deductible so if anyone makes a membership or a donation to the Mount house or the town in general that is all tax deductible under the IRS oh wow IRS code 1 170 C1 you're amazing okay that's interesting that is that's very interesting so donations to the mountain house or if they become if they give a donation to like b o or they write a check to I don't know permitting Department cuz they really like permitting that's all tax deductible that they can run up in the taxes all right we are going to move on let's go into member items uh shall we start with um Becky sure nothing thank you Ellen um can I put on my friend to the Mountain House of course you may so so we we've been talking with Adam and and at meetings plotting um out a event schedule for 2025 now that we know how to get um temporary liquor licenses we plan on getting all 12 of them and help hosting events so claiming and we we've actually pen penciled in two dates for 2025 January 2525 Adam is the one that reminded us that that is the town's 20 30th 30th anniversary of being a town 2025th 30 30th anniversary and it is the 25th anniversary of the Town acquiring the mount housee property and it's the 10th anniversary of the museum right yes so we have those three things to begin celebrating and we'll have host something January 25th 2 very nice bring in that Carnival that somebody suggested three cakes three cakes three cakes excellent right so yes oh and we'll also um and and and we penciled in March 29th 2025 for art for L section so what is it 29 29th did we say before how you can get ticket get to songwriters did we Island Hopper yes Hopper no did not it's so it's if you go to the island Hopper website there is a um a link and it takes you to the mous site and I actually suggested to Adam and Karina yesterday that we pl that properly prominently on the House website it is it is there on I just wanted to make everyone the hundreds of people that are watching yeah cuz their tickets are unlimited people exactly and whenever leaves today walk through the gift shop cuz we have a new television screen with a digital display with rotating events including it number oh nice nice so sorry and that yeah that display just went up today right yes and it was just being talked about last week that happened quickly nice job well done thank you thank you to Jacob lots for that was good thank you great events it's a team effort yeah just no I great meeting very informative thank you okay Shar and I was just going to piggy back and say what Ellen did and on the on January 25th with the anniversaries it's also with the town so we're going to have you know our Council will it'll be a party it's going to be a party and we will in as with tradition we'll have cupcakes oh yes for I'm sorry what was that we will have cupcakes on the January 25th iversary celebration we will normally we did it on New Year's right yes so we will have cupcakes alcohol well we are doing enough love it there were prints that were done I think there were 100 prints of the uh the artists who did a watercolor of the founding of the town really I have all of those you have all I have them are you going to sell them I can sell them we can sell them they're not framed and uh unfortunately she passed away so a lot of them that aren't numbered but other than that I've got about i' maybe over 100 I certainly think that we should I was give one to each one of the council members because we have new council members now but it was we had a great big party to celebrate the opening of the Town back in 1995 and one of their ladies from the Art Association very talented I took a picture and she made a it's a a drawing a print of our party and it's you know celebration of town and um so when she passed unfortunately a few years ago um she G they gave me all the prints oh so I had we actually had framed and we I had it framed so that it it hides the electrical panel in our apartment I got the same thing in my not that picture but same yeah so and it's just L it's just gorgeous it's a just I'll pi and send it to the send it to the group that's awesome I have the third one I think the third print but anyway that's something we can have there and we can it's was donated wonderful to Us moneyer sell sell them oh yeah you know what I think I think we get we get an Auctioneer to make them available via auction we have any left or if somebody $500 then you get one for free there you go W I like it I that's that's better than trying to find an Auctioneer exactly that's it right that's it thank you all right uh one thing on the agenda that I'd like to add for next year next month is um our ordinance which I received a copy of from Amy yesterday and it was written in 1998 and is uh wofly out of date for a variety of reasons and uh the reason this even came up was because I was looking at borab for much the same thing which is also outdated so I would like for us to look this over um I will I'll tell you I'm going to send it to Jeff do you have a copy of it I can I can get it well well I can get I Amy already got it for me so I'll send it to you you can send copies to everyone we can put that that on my keyboard I just haven't been there yeah I'll I'll send that to you because we don't want to bother any she's already through it once okay and that's we'll get it to you one way or the other you'll get it and that's all I have um so um we have our date set for next month I will not be here I'm sorry if we have niic six okay well thank you you have an exchanged absence thank you it's my anniversary oh happy anniversary do somewhere wonderful yeah yeah I can't say where cuz my husband doesn't know yet so I can't say it yeah this would be a good SP okay there we have two days for next month yeah September 19 two days for next month the 19th and the 26th and the 18th you yeah yeah if you want if if you now that's that brings up an interesting question uh we are not obligated to do a meeting every month if for example you feel that by doing the map program for September 18th we can forego a pro a program this is not a top agenda item I think we've covered so much at this point with today's meeting um there's nothing really pressing and that that requires board action so how about if we just consider the 18th or the 19th as our meeting and then we can foro a cell cab meeting until October oh the collections policy yes [Music] but we could do it that day as part of the meeting we could do that as part of the meeting with the joint with a council yeah uh it's a it's a public meeting and you'll all be there as a as a if you may you don't it could be informational for the council to see what kind of things we work on but then that would because the meets separately from Council would that be a problem no to have it I'm I'm just thinking uh this is a dense policy yeah um and and the focus of the joint is governance so that my is is there a time sensitivity in getting that approved in other words can that wa to I mean bet uh sooner rather than later I mean there's no deadline it's just a nice policy for us to have um so cellc cap can approve it and then forward it to council so Council can pass as formal policy for the town we plan on a very short meeting's a sing if it's a single agenda item meeting that's right it won't be very long I I agree with you I think have this separate meeting to clarify and put it as forward action item for the collections policy for our archives going forward to say yes this is now something that's officially on board for us to move forward on so you taken the ordinance off that agenda or no both will be on yeah I think we'll just do the ordinance and the uh collection policy and we'll keep the meeting for the 26 all right um all in favor of um aduring this meeting say hi Unos okay Med thanks everyone got a lot done sorry for the long see you here SE I'm pretty excellent well I've been just traveling well a lot exactly so you're surprising your husband well so every other year we switch off oh and it's one year it's his year and then next year it's my year and we don't tell each other