so we can get started good morning and welcome to the Natural Resources preservation Advisory board meeting on February 8 2024 at 11:00 a.m. kindly silence your cell phones two roll call um Miss deart please call the role member matthewman um member Vias yes member shriberg president Vice chairperson Nest here okay right so we're good on the roll call Pledge of Allegiance and member Davidson has just walked in so we can move as soon as Joshua is here to the Pledge of Allegiance please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance agenda item four approval of the agenda of the last meeting is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented I'll second it all in favor say yes yes yes any opposed say no very good the agenda is approved what a minute but number five public comment public comments are now open each speaker will be allowed three minutes to speak so are there any public comments excellent please come up and speak please state your name and address and affiliation for the record thank you very much good morning my name is janx paresi I live in bokeh but I lived in Highland Beach and I've been a turtle Ranger here on the beach for seven years this will be my eighth year and one of the things that I've noticed is not a surprise to you is how dirty our beach has become um I started doing this um and got very very upset about how much trash there was on the beach that I had to go to a hypnotherapist who told me f pick five things to pick up well I picked round things and it started my Odyssey with bottle caps so last year towards the end of the season in October all we do is pick up trash because the turtles are done and um this woman came running up to me because I had my Turtle shirt on and she said oh my God I just moved here and I regret it I said why and she said I didn't know the beach was like a third world Beach and I said it's not it's just really bad today because we've had storms but it woke me up it woke me up to the fact that I've been picking this up every day for years and I looked it up on the net and I found that the EU had just passed in 2019 a directive it's called EU 201924 and basically what that states is that of the 27 members of the EU have to use bottles that are tethered their caps are tethered onto their bottles like beverage bottles like Coke anything more than three liters I think it was or milliliters I forget what it was but anyway regular Coke bottles have to be tethered you've seen tethered bottles before it's where the actual cap unscrews but it stays now the county and various counties around have said well the onus is on you the recycler just screw the tops on don't worry about it we'll take care of it well they don't recycle the Caps because they're different type of material than the bottles in fact there are two different types of material within the cap so they can't recycle it it invalidates the the validity of the cost of the bottles or the money they can get for the bottles so I asked the county what do you do with them and she said oh we burn them and I started choking I said what do you mean you burn plastic oh no no no we don't do that and then she gave me two recyclers that they use that never heard of them my point is I found out that this problem is a problem that's not being addressed and it's being addressed in Europe so I started this group called YZ because I want the kids involved why is it okay and it isn't okay that the two companies coku who bottles over a hundred billion bottles a year has no plans I mean they say they have plans they've had plans over the years there there's nothing to enforce the plans but they do say that they are going to tether all their caps globally by 2025 to that I say let's enshrine it in law because they're only one of the bottlers there's Pepsi there's Unilever I mean it's it's a gigantic problem if anybody spend any time on the beach lakes rivers anywhere you see what it is so if we can get them to tether the bottle caps and then recycle the bottles with the cap it'll alleviate a lot of this problem now what is it that I want from Highland Beach same thing I want from everybody I want people to know what this problem is and not just think it's the people that go to the beach that leave their trash behind it isn't it roll you see it rolls in on the ocean stormy days rolls comes up from the sand after it been turned over I mean this is a big problem now the biggest part of this problem is that it's not the biggest problem in the world but it can be resolved very readily there's already a road map by the EU we could we don't obviously we're not going to follow their law but we could extrapolate from it and build our own law uh Coca-Cola has already said they're willing but they have a long history of being willing um Coke costs $384 a gallon to drink that's a lot of money and if they're going to complain that they have to redo their assembly lines I'm sorry it's time so what I'm looking for from Highland Beach bokeh the other coastal towns is a buyin an acceptance of this idea uh you would know how to do it for yourself so I don't want to dictate but even if my petition could be uh on your website if you all could sign it if I can say Highland Beach stands behind tethering of bottle caps I don't like to make that assumption um this is all I'm asking we are not asking the population anybody for money we just want to get this to the councils to the state to the fed and then globally because it's a doable problem anybody have any questions yes great idea fully behind it personally um have you started a petition process I have the petition going we've had over 3,000 views I started during Christmas which was kind of stupid but uh I'm going to do an update now um with some of the organizations that have gotten behind me Oceana which does the ocean worldwide uh a couple local schools and things like that because I'm working with the schools and the chambers this is a problem yes so I do have a petition um I think you have it it's on that handout so it's it's just a QR code that you can go ahead and join up again no money just your name I just want to be able to go to our state government and sayl we want this and then go to the federal government look it's needed and then maybe force Coca-Cola to do as they say they want to do I mean I'm not in a fight with Coca-Cola believe me but very International or very Global they call themselves now and Coca-Cola are two American companies that do this for Europe but they won't do it for us is not okay any other questions I I don't have a question I just thank you for coming and and bringing this to our attention I think it's a great idea I can't imagine that the commission would have any objection to backing this and I guess we can make a motion to have the board have the Commissioners take a look at this I mean I would suggest that you know you can if you can come to one of the commission meetings the commission meets um twice a month it's the first and third Tuesday right and they have a public comment portion on every part of on every agenda that they have and you know you could state that you've already been to the Natural Resources board um and see what their thoughts are and support or the petition and what have you okay I will I will definitely do that I wanted to get into this group because you're integral obviously to the the beach uh and for my money I think the beach is what makes Highland Beach important I mean and housing um have you visited any other beach towns and gotten support for them uh well bokeh uh I'm starting I just started last month but um bokeh is I've Got bokeh High School boka Chambers involved I want to get all the chambers up and down the coast um uh one of these organizations that helps kids integrate into society I'm doing a beach cleanup with them just getting the message out is the most important thing because I think when everybody knows what it is they're gonna say okay because it's not there's it's a win-win there's no lose I mean Coca-Cola can complain but Coca-Cola has to upgrade their equipment every so many years anyway and $3 in 47 cents a gallon yeah more than gas have you uh um discussed this with Pepsi no I haven't discussed this with Pepsi I tried calling Coke and boy did I get a run around and uh I realized that my fight or my aggression I call it a fight is not with Coke or Pepsi or Unilever the three top ones it's with the government the government has to say it it's not hard to do obviously if they're making it happen in Europe we can make it happen here similar population similar demographic we could make it happen here um so yeah I'm trying to get it out there as much as possible another option is to um give them a reason to care um that they understand maybe not necessarily for the same P pure reasons as you do give them a monetary reason um understand what that you said that they mentioned manufacturing may have to change manufacturing process um some of the Machinery but uh if you look into the costs of those differences and then compare it to something about the benefits of doing it then you'll have a financial comparative you know I'm an old salesperson and believe me I looked into a benefit to give Coke the only benefit to give Coke is to say oh good you say you're going to do it because uh there's an organization called uh yeah it's here somewhere oh anyway uh conservation law it's an NGO it's a foundation and they have decreed that coke is great for making promises but they avoid doing anything so if we think that by 2025 globally globally that means India too where a lot of these bottle caps are coming from because that's where they dumped them if we think that they're going to do it within a year I think that we're part of the problem uh I don't know if there's a financial incentive for them except that they can continue to do business in the United States just like it was a financial incentive for them in Europe it's it's their responsibility and I know that um they've said they're going to do this that and the other thing why not just enshrine it in law if they're already saying they're going to do it enshrine it well we are a Beach town and I'm actually collecting these cups every morning it drives me crazy drives me totally nuts so I'm personally behind it and I don't know I'm looking at the board here could we for example say we have a link just on our website that or is that something that the commission would have to decide um I could discuss it with the town manager I I don't know what his thoughts are about putting petitions because obviously there could be a lot of petitions right yes um so I I'll be happy to discuss with them with him and then I could always follow up with the board uh but I would again definitely recommend you go before the see what their thoughts are um I'll call them first and do it the right way this time but I've already made a note okay so as far as getting the petition on the web page or something like okay great yeah I I the EU it is in place it has it's already started they've already done it in Germany UK and manfacturing bottles that are T only that's all by 2024 July 20124 they have to have it in place every 27 countries so I I'm thinking that um we could certainly say that we are we recognize natural resources that this is a problem in Highland Beach yes and that uh as a as a commission we would recommend that there be something put on the website if it's not a link it certainly could mention that this is law in EU and that there's that we are interested in using our resources whether it's our connection to our representative um or it's our resources on our website to get people to sign sign the petition and that we would be in favor of that if the commission so chose yeah you're making me happy I like doing you yeah I one question I think it's a motion I have a question when when we recycle a bottle now and and we put the bottle cap on is that bottle net the whole thing not being recycled okay so that's an interesting question first of all we only recycle 30% of our bottles we are disgrace I'm not talking this County I'm talking this country so what the what the strategy is now because I mean there's a there's a lot of trickery in recycling I'm sure we've all figured this out over the years but this one is really hateful because what they do is they're putting the onus on us screw the capvs back on so that we could recycle It screw the pack you're you don't want to be the bad one so what they do when they get these bottles they can't recycle them together they're three different kinds of plastic two in the cap are cheap and they will devalue the bottle so they throw them out so um what they do is they do a thing called float soak and Float so they put these bottles that are capped on into a big vat and they agitate the water and they unscrew and they come to the top and then they skim them off and throw them out how dumb are we I mean really it's such an insult to us it's not only do we have to do the work but it's not even valid work so I mean people who are well-meaning and want to recycle just keep getting stopped at every every corner so they don't recycle the Caps there's no there's no Financial use for the cap that's an incentive for Coke by the way edate people that yeah but that's an incentive for Coke in that they could use it's a cheaper plastic as it turns out people in Europe are not crazy about it you've gotten Waters from Costco where you know they squeeze and you know the the the bottle kind of involutes uh it's a little bit harder than that plastic but it's not as firm as our plastic is now but okay you know again this is one of the biggest problems that can be solved so if you have time to stay to the end of the meeting recycling is one of the member updates um that so we will be talking briefly about recycling in this town so um maybe if you have time to stay yes I do and I will uh one more thing and I really wasn't going to bring this up but you're so receptive um it's kind of hard not to I understand and I have witnessed the turnover of sand I love the way Highland Beach cleans this beach I mean they do a fabulous job the guys are great they go around our Nest they're so careful um but turning the the sand over just puts the problem down a couple days they come back up when it rains they come back up when the wind blows they come back up this commission is very well aware of this problem and trust us we are very frustrated about them buring tra H trash and it's been discussed I think how many times oh for several years since I've been here ongoing problem yeah huge problem and keep in mind that the beaches you know are private so you have property owners that have their own individual contracts with the beach raking companies individuals have the contracts with the rakers or the town individuals it's a these are all private beaches it's not a public beach so there are some residents on the beach that don't want Beach that don't have Beach Breakers so there again there's an individual contract between the property owner and the beach raking company yeah and there's two Lin and speed tring companies and trust me I've been on their back emailing them talking to them all the time and I have videos and I'm sending them evidence and they do listen if I send them evidence they apologize it's gotten better until it gets worse and we're just doing our best and we just hope for no storms when this lady told me that she was thought she was in a third world it crushed me because I love this town and I couldn't imagine somebody regretting moving here yeah I don't know certain to uh identify that this is this has happened in the EU and that you know don't put your bottle caps on and if anyone has interest they can go to this I would also recommend when you do go to the commission uh hearing you could ask uh if they were to put that petition QRC code in the in the manager's monthly minute that goes out to everybody maybe they would allow you to do that I will any any ideas that you have I mean we're going to do some beach cleanups we're taking it really down you know to the bottom level because I think this is a Grassroots thing and you know um I want to get the high school kids involved that's my big thrust is getting high schoolers in because we made it filthy they're going to clean it up we know it so we might as well get them started no great thank you so much we have a lot on our agenda but thank you so much and you're speaking them you're pre I Will Wait thank thank you so much great so um we can come to the next presentations um Town planner updates so I refer this item to town planner in other public comments I I just see some other people here oh these are my parents from I'm sorry I didn't want to ignore you in case you know okay they want to um kind of very nice see American democracy in action oh amazing okay thank you okay just so just a few updates uh since the November 1st 2023 meeting that you had um if you recall you had the gentleman Mr Bo that came from the United States um what's the Coast Guard right um he had provided you that article and you all had asked that the table which gave the product and how many years it takes to decompose uh so that will be in the next manager's minute um I have the article already uh provided to um our staff that manages the manager's minute um I also went ahead and added in the article and I'll just at verbatim because I know that you all wanted to tie this into the bucket Tre so I put in here given plastic waste is also evident on beaches the natural resources preservation Advisory Board encourages residents to keep their part of the beach clean several condominiums in the town have a town beach bucket Tre which is a resourceful way to pick up and depose of beach trash if your condominium is interested in a town beach bucket Tre contact ingred Allen so I kind of threw it in that article as well sort of a two punch you know so people will get some information about decomposition is a good way to get people's attention what it takes 15 years for a cigarette butt to decompose so just wanted to uh mention that um and also from the November meeting um I wanted just to say on the record uh for anyone that may be watching I did email the board that recommendation memorandum so as you move forward and as I said in the past the board we had a previous chair that um we utilize or the board utilized those recommendation memorandums um aside from the last meeting I wanted to advise you that the sea turtle lighting ordinance was adopted Yesterday by the town commission and um I did mention at the meeting because I did present the project I did mention that the natural resources board would possibly be interested in doing educational Outreach because I know you all have talked about it I didn't get a specific direction from the commission on that uh but I will talked to the town manager I don't know if he wants staff to do it um I had mentioned to the commission that you know the Florida Fish and Wildlife has a lot of information about sea turtle lighting so it's not a lot of Reinventing the wheel there's a lot of information out there so it would be a matter of um you know putting it in the manager's minute and maybe doing some stuff online but given that you all uh gave a recommendation on the sea tural ordinance I wanted to let you know that it was adopted so um and uh that's pretty much all I have for the other update would you be interested in adding a sentence that on the plastic topic that don't recycle your Botts the article's already out oh it um yeah I already sent it um again if you all want to discuss um you know putting an article together that could be something that the board takes on someone could volunteer to draft something um as far as last um you could email it to me I could then email it to the board you know any changes and then um of course as always I say I have to run it by the town manager but if you all want to come up with some sort of article um I mean recycling is a very complex topic and I think each town and each facility recycles differently and is able to recycle different things for example in Newton Massachusetts where I was at one of those facilities myself I saw how much trash actually how much of the recycling became trash because it didn't fulfill their criterias yeah and then in a neighboring town in Boston it was possible to recycle it so I think this is very local and giving some recommendations on our side it might be wrong for for Highland Beach wherever we ship our recycling to I do remember a few years back um we did put in the manager's minute um from South Florida Waste Management what to recycle and which bin it was a great um yeah hand out I mean it was part of management you know the blue and the yellow and it lists everything because um even in my own neighborhood I see people put all kinds of stuff in the recycle I'm like you're not supposed to put that in there so umbe maybe it's a matter of putting it back in the manager's minute I think that's one of those things that we should you know periodically put in new people are coming in all the time um so yeah I don't think that'll be a problem make a note um next manager's minute and if it doesn't have something on that botel caps let's throw it in there that please don't yeah yeah I think that'd be great if again one of the board members would like to volunteer to reach out to South Florida Waste Management I know that one of the previous Commissioners in the town had brought up some issues about recycling what wasn't being recycled I guess there was some um conflicting information but yeah I mean if one of you want to I think that's an excellent idea are you volunteering and will you um email Our Town planner with you yeah email me and then I'll yes you know I'll email it to all the board members yeah yeah and you may want to start just to suggest it because I was the person who was given improper information from the prior commissioner and I went to Palm Beach pal Beach H has the information the Recycling Group in Palm Beach because they they have the plant the recycling those so that's who and she can tell you right I just hadn't heard about BS I didn't get that great so I think we're done with agenda item six we can move to approval of minutes agenda item seven that's the um meeting of November 11 2023 or there any corrections to the minutes of that meeting hearing none is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented motion to approve there a second all in favor say yes yes all opposed say no yes so great thank you so much then we're moving to the agenda item number eight unfinished business that future un restoration management related events so basically we were going to discuss kind of what kind of um events we're going to plan as a as a um nature preservation board in particular to June restoration and June management um I think I can start the topic by um giving some feedback with everybody who attended the mingle and jingle event on December 7th where we had a table and that event was very very highly visited overall we had I don't know hundreds of people come we noted a lot of out of town people and I've already um mentioned that to miss deor um at the at the evening that there were a lot of people from boka and from Del which obviously for us from a nature perspective is great because they live on the beach as well and they're learning and they come and they talk to us so I think from an educational perspective I welcome other people from other towns coming to our table because other towns can benefit from our educational efforts however obviously from tax perspective I'm not sure if the town of Highland Beach wants to welcome um Southeast Florida to our parties so um that's something I leave out there as a comment that we noticed probably about half of the people were not local Highland Beach people and also were not guests of local Highland Beach people and they were very honest about it so it was very nice it was a great event um the last thing I would want to mention is that the turtle team was missing because they were not invited so the future we would love to um actually also have the turtle team presented at our table they have items now to sell and for the charity so that the charity can start fundraising and also um teach people about turtles and nesting and turtle ordinance the light situation which is an easy fix I think in our condo all we need to do is just changing the light bulbs it's a $7 investment per lamp it's not a big deal so it's little things that make a huge difference and I think that's why it's important to have the turtle team um present too so um who else was would like to comment on the event um on December 7th yeah I I thought it was excellent event and um the way the table was laid out and the information that was provided the brochure um we had the um we had a PowerPoint presentation and we also had a electronic version of the web page that we have for the for the board yeah I I too thought I thought it was very well attended all almost all the information we provided was taken uh so people were looking at it uh the thing that was hard about the event was we didn't have a little tent that said natural resources on it so people didn't always know we were over there because we had the fire tent next to us not a tent but it was what you call it the little thing with a name on canopy thank you so that might have that might be something that's worth investing in and and if the turtle people come same thing just so people can see us because the crowds got so big I was surprised how large it got it was a nice evening male um and then there was a second event in January which I tried to get to at um The Towers Penthouse towers and there was no parking so I couldn't get in I didn't want to park on the street they had there people there so I didn't end up going to that uh for the second time but um it looked like it was very well attested um same thing talking about the dunes so regarding a canopy um could you make a motion for the town to invest in a canopy with a banner so that we actually could um make ourselves better seen for the next event um again I'll be glad to talk to the town manager about so it's a banner is what you're talking was on top of the thing okay and then on the canopy itself it says so it's a unique canopy that says natural resource it's not theang down right I don't know the fire department had something next to us they had a wle it's just I think you're talking about like the background like the back of the tent like so behind you like a big canvas was it's it's um a little eight six inch thing yeah it's a folding tent um it's like a canopy type Section 8 in strip around the front no it's just the canopy just like a literally like so that we're visible it's like a cover and then we have the banner maybe 8 in wide could sck to it right it's not a big investment they yeah they're they're they're less than $100 yeah they be glad to discuss it with the town manager and get back to the board and see it to be an issue but to run it by also I I was um I I went to uh both of the turtle events and um good outcome and excellently run um very educational and I saw great engagement so it was good do we want to have a ask if we can do one more I don't know I mean before the holidays in April I don't know you think that would be helpful or you think we've matched that out I think that maybe a couple so do you want me to ask ell Prentice whether she wants to do another event you'd like to yeah I can definitely ask her um she reported to me that her last event January 17 was the second event and it was very highly visited they had 26 attendees and she also reported that people couldn't come because there wasn't parking so um it probably would have been more people so definitely was an success and she's very proud to present what she did and I think the town we as a nature preservation board are very proud of that building what they have accomplished and also that they're willing to educate others um is really amazing very impressive so I'm going to ask her if she's willing to do another event in a couple of months for sure um yeah do we reimburse them for no they they pay it for yeah they're offering coffee and bagels they had a fantastic breakfast it was very nice it was very nice it's very nice yeah because because they can see how easy it is to start planting yes and it's not expensive um and and that they the citizens who live along the beach could could help even those who don't who have Pathways to a section of the beef they could plant some Sea Oats and and begin to start preserving erosion so that's definitely an event that we could definely um organize um and I will ask um Miss prenis if she's willing to do another event in terms of future events I mean I know that there is the um inauguration of the uh fire department coming up that we could maybe um add a table there is that something we can discuss already now or is it too early in terms of the uh inauguration event I think that would be great if you could find out and then let us know by email um and if there was a table then I would suggest we're doing the same thing as before and we add the turtle team as well yeah perfect and could uh have uh copies of elain's materials passed out because those went really fast the most interested in notes and then we also had you had brought some things inred from Beach yeah okay yeah maybe make some more yeah we could pass them out if we had more to do that and El Lan's presentation I mean if there is going to be an event we can put a table that would be great there were two things that I noticed at these various events one that nobody knew who the committee was there was at the table in the the mingle and jingle event they were behind the table but we didn't know who they were so it be nice to have a name tag that you're on the committee this is who you are or a banner that SS natural resources oh or Banner was good but that doesn't identify the individuals you're right so there was a banner on the bottom of the table people just didn't see it because there were so many people that the banner was not being seen yeah that's right right yeah and it at the penous towers you don't know who's on this committee when you go to those meetings right M and some people were asking what are you doing here and i' say oh I represent part of the committee and I'm I live here Etc so maybe we if we had a name tag or something that would identify us would help that's great I'm going to add that we have name tags next the next time and then they're easy I can just bring them yeah yeah yeah that's easy unless the town wants to like do official ones of the town of Highland Beach yeah I think the I think if you are able to print them out yeah yeah does the town have a capability to do that or if they you know if anybody prints name tags out at the yeah it's on a sticky yeah yeah it's just a STI I sticky one that's all we would want that would say natural resources board and the name yes if you can do it and if not then we can do I can go to Federal Express they can print those sorts of XS it doesn't cost much yeah so that would be the backup so we don't trouble the town too much with that yeah because our the big ones because I mean the address so then we have two events in the pipeline one is um again the penthouse Tower if elain is willing to do another one and then the opening of the fire department if that happens and if they're allowing a table any other ideas for events at this point of time that we could organize now maybe as we get back in the fall y I can that's great so um we're still under the um agenda item future Dune restoration management related events I can report we're doing an event I'm pretty proud of my Association Parker Highland um on 4605 South Ocean we are doing a very big event um with St Andrew School a high school so you mentioned high schools St Andrew school has volunteered their community service team high school and middle school so we have about 20 um or more children students after sixth grade come and help we also have four faculty members confirmed that are coming to help us um on the President's Day weekend Friday Saturday Sunday Monday and eventually Tuesday a couple of days they're going to help us with the dunes we have spent a lot of money I have to say it was a much bigger job than we thought we have cut that back according to the um permit that we got the field permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection we got the field permit and we cut all the SE grapes back to three feet it was tremendous we've had about 20 workers for three three days nonstop everything by hand chopping with um literally with um this what is it called like the machine sauce and then they were hand carrying it it was it was like FS it was a lot of work it's done now our Dunes look ugly we still have to remove all the leaves so we're going to remove all the leaves so now we have short Dunes all the leaves are removed and we have all the invasive species removed so right now it looks ugly um people did not like me for this but they will once it's done um we're going to plant SE outs after we have removed all the trash there's still a lot of trash in our dun old like old pipes and all stuff sort of stuff and then we're going to um plant Sea Oats in those bare areas and then next year when our building has the budget because obviously money is always an issue we're going to also plant more SE on the bottom of the um of the Dune we have Dan belante one of the um advisers and consultants for bean Beach at Yun Restorations he is Consulting us as a consultant and then we have our landscapers that are doing the work and our tree public doing that the hard hard lifting work so that's kind of um Parker Highland what we're doing um I think it's great that um I could convince the board and the residents to open their wallets for doe restoration I'm very proud and um I hope that other buildings will do it as well we are a small community so wouldn't be the right Community to um to do an event but once it's done I can also ask my board if we would be willing to do a d restoration event and show what we've done um that could be another option um yes so yes can you uh send out the dates for the President's Day and like times if people want to join in or would be absolutely amazing so um right now we have F so it's Friday Monday or Tuesday so the dates would be let me quickly look it up um that's February 16 is the Friday the Monday is February 19 or February 20 and the school will confirm the precise dates because it has to do with faculty meetings and faculty obligations um the original plan was a full day on Monday but now um there's a fact faculty so they won't be able to the the teachers have to find out when they can actually be away from school so I can if you tell me who would be interested I could email you privately outside of this board that just as a so I'll just email everybody yeah yeah would be amazing I mean it's gonna be fun we're gonna provide coffee and bagels and you might have to go to so this is just drumming up uh I'll just be drumming up uh other volunteers it's kind of like the Parker it's kind of like the Parker you know Parker whatever not Parker the penous it's very similar to that yes it's a it's a it's a private project look it it can't hurt just to send it to ingred and have her send it like to just avoid any trouble no absolutely of course I can send it to you no I I understand so I will be sending it to to ingred and to to counc and Allan and then you can send it to everybody and then whoever turns up turns up if you turn up because I won't be able to email you um please bring um any gardening tools we're basically digging little holes for the plants it's not a big deal it's just sand like a tool this deep would be fine just to dig a little hole and you need gloves and wear long sleeves and wear long pants because the Dune has been freshly cut so you could scratch your skin and wear good shoes that's all and just turn up and there will be coffee and bagels and lots of fun and the consultant will be there we're paying the consultant because we also want you to be the education of for the children to learn fantastic that's really good news thank you so much was uh this in line with um Miss apprentice's budget for what she had to do for the penthouse or for her tow so budget wise I can tell you our our budget was 6,000 it just to cut it was 8,000 that we're paying but I can tell you um honestly I think the value is probably more 15,000 I would say we they quoted too low I have to say we are very grateful to our landscaping company they honored the contract they were throwing a lot more labor at this job than they anticipated so I saw them doing that work and I I didn't know what they were doing at the time but yes it was a lot of work it was like at at two days we had probably 20 workers on site it was it was a lot of work so I would say if you depending on the food we have 350 ft I would say cutting back is at least the $10,000 at least $10,000 job but yours were very tall not everywhere now because we keep maintaining them yes for maintenance you don't need a permit only for training like we did you need a permit and also removing of invasive species we were labeling the species and we also have a new permit well okay that was mainly Brazilian pepper and St that we have to miss ask you a question in case anyone's watching if you could just talk a little bit about getting the permit from fdp was it quick was it it was absolutely amazing so David kickbush um um I don't know his email by by but maybe you can publish it um if you just email him and you basically summarize what you're doing I believe it's 42 inches and more you don't need a permit if you go again to the top of my memory I don't have the notes Here 42 Ines and less you need a permit um it's a year the permit is for one year and what they want to know is how much you trim and where and what plants you're removing and also what plants you are planting and they want a plan but it doesn't have to be an architectural drawing it can be a simple Google Map so I just took a Google map and I marked in red you could draw it right I've seen those before they let you draw it yeah I was literally drawing on it this is the area of concern I left out the areas that not of concern Google Map is is amazing you can really Zoom it for what you needed and it was approved I think the next day was less than 24 hours I'm so glad you brought that up because when I tell people oh call fdp as I mentioned I have people call me I want to trim this on the beach I was say please call TP and people are hesitant because they think oh my God big agency I'm GNA get the runaround and I always give him David kick and Bush again he is our designated field permit uh permit uh perit per holder not not permit holder but he does all the permits he has a very large territory but I'm so glad you gave the example that within a day you got the permit because that's typically how he does things in turnaround time so to hear you say that anyone listening it's not a big hurdle no it's not to reach out to them he's very efficient exactly and just give him all the information so he doesn't have to come back with questions but if you give him the information I just stated then it's fine and also in ela's um documents she actually has my information um printed so it's part of that document as well so we could actually that information we could add to our website um yes I I have to see if I still have it because I did send it to her did keep it I just was writing it down but Elaine definitely has it electronic isn't that already I think it may be already um if not I'll be sure to have his contact information yes the contact information at just a steps that's that it show an email with that information if if uh if uh there a lot of the condos have already cut their SE grapes you know they keep them trimmed uh if it's just removal of invasive P species uh what does what does David at Florida Department of Environ what does he need to know he just so if it's just removal you just tell him with removing um um invasive species and you list what you're doing and then also he needs a picture with the marking like this area or say you say three 30 square feet of scav and you mark it roughly where it is they're really really easy going they they trusting us yeah especially in this town so yeah that's great so I think any other um topics on un restoration management related events I I noticed that we emphasize the bej area almost all the time but we have another natural resource on the other on the Intercultural side which we have to pay attention to yes and I see that getting beat up every day with boats and and people walking back and forth we have Wetlands we have mangroves and those are really valuable resources that we should pay attention to as well what what would we be beginning to think about a cleaner don't throw trash in the in the mangroves it's not a bad it smells sometimes but it's not a bad place at all and make people aware of it that what it can do for the environment that's how we could start with that yeah that's great I mean boa boa Beach Club and they're in Bon actually but they they are cleaning up they have a lot of trash and they always clean up well to me the flood of the future going to come from the in coastal side not from the ocean side the water is going to rise and come in well that the commission I the commission has said that uh the town commission has said that they're uh at one of the meetings that that's the the side of the town that they think is is higher risk the other side yeah so is anybody in favor of adding the inter coal protection also to one of our events and just add like a table with half Dune restoration and half like Wetland protection yeah yeah I did be very valuable do you want to um maybe volunteer to put some documentation together Focus yeah let me think that you know but what else should we focus on I let me figure out a plan that would be great and if you could share it with C Al yeah if you want to email me um any educational information as I said we can always put it in the manager's minute or at your next function you could possibly print some things out or you all can bring your laptops again and have it running um if I may just add I forgot to mention to the board we did get back the a draft of the uh update to the beach restoration feasibility study um I had mentioned several times to the board there was a study done in 2013 and the commission approved an update uh so we did get a draft um and um we'll see it eventually we'll go to the commission um we'll see if the commission if they decide to adopt it if they'll give you any the board any direction um in terms of Outreach advising residents you know what this report says for each individual ual property because there are individual maps of each property and they do assess the Dune um so just wanted to let you know we have a draft report at this point staff is reviewing it and um it's moving forward so I have a question then yes if if there is a report that is saying let's say this house at whatever address your Dune is in trouble and their attitude is no I don't really care who's enforcing this I mean what are we gonna do to make make them get their Dune in good shape well I don't know that um we can I think we've already talked about you know in the code it doesn't specifically say uh you have to maintain your Dune I mean there's General Provisions in the code about maintaining your property as far as debris and a health and safety issue um let's hope that when people at least I think providing the information hopefully will incentivize people that they don't really have to pay somebody to assess their property it's been done on a preliminary basis and hopefully that will get them um maybe you all want to continue that discussion I again it is private property so um I think I know the town but I do think that we have an opportunity talking about events there was a tremendous interest last year when the dun uh consultant came in to talk about the dunes and why couldn't we do another event for the town we've got the report we've been telling them it's coming it's been in the manag OR minutes a couple of times and we'd like to do an event and have maybe a consultant available but let everybody talk because that's how this is going to happen it's going to be this condo people talking to that condo group to this condo group because we're mostly condos we do have some resident single family residential homes but it's it's been be through that so we rather than the stick I'm thinking what's the carrot for the city what or the town what do we do to energize people about it this is an event we're gonna a year-long event we're going to try to get people to focus on the Dooms and share oh what's your condo what's our condo you know that you can have tables that's actually a good idea and actually there is a president group there are actually two I think competing president groups um In in Highland Beach and and um so I think if we if we get in touch with them to bring this as a topic on their agenda because they've been talking about Reserve studies and U you know like concrete restoration and and topics that we all are very aware of and knowledgeable but the doomes is really something that the people don't know so we could organize something with the president's um groups and add an agenda and maybe bring a consultant in there yeah for for an event I think that would be great I think that would be good I think the both Highland spend the existence for 15 20 years they're large it would be very yes yeah um in the scope for this beach study um I don't believe there was uh an a line item for a separate presentation outside the town commission so there may be a cost um if you want the consultant to come out I I mean I guess we'll that bridge when we get there but just thinking out loud um that there may be a fee yeah so I I was actually thinking of the Consultants that we' Ed like Robert you know Robert was yes or Dan okay um because they they are basically Consultants there it's for them it's marketing it's marketing their services yeah great so I think um any other thoughts on um events because otherwise we would come to the topic that was mentioned men a couple of times on actually the research that I did on jun's protection laws what we can do and actually come to your question which is has been frustrating me um since I moved to Highland Beach so I'm not a Florida lawyer I'm not a US lawyer but I am a Swiss lawyer and I'm frustrated so I did my research and um if you allow I'm going to share my findings so the question that we were discussing last time and that um I was tasked with is actually are there any Town ordinances in our neighboring towns like Montana or ocean rich or Gulf Stream um in terms of June restoration and the frustrating conclusion is that I have not found any specific ordinances in any town that says you have to clean up your Dunes you have to manage your private Dunes you have to remove invasives I haven't found anything um the few towns that I actually was able to speak to the lawyer or to somebody at the Town either the lawyers at that I'm not familiar with that topic I can't help you sadly or and they referred me to state law and I heard the term state law so often and it's the state it's frustrating so I said okay let me go back and actually take a wider picture and look into state law so here here we are so there are um several ordinances in Florida and in Palm Beach County that regulate private Vie management so here are some key points that I wanted to share with the commission or with this with the board um there is the Statewide regulation which is the fdp the Florida Department of Environmental Protection so they um their regulations protect native Dune vegetation like Sea Oats and interestingly enough also SE grapes which our Consultants thought would not really be needed but they are protected according to their laws and they're prohibiting their removal or trimming without a permit and that's what we discussed before you need the fdp permit to trim or to remove so but you can remove say c o grapes you can remove but it needs a permit and a clear explanation why you're doing it and they also restrict sand scraping dun alteration and other things that are not relevant here so that's the Statewide regulation and then there's the Palm Beach County ordinances the first one um worth mentioning there's a lot um I'm just picking three relevant ones is the Coastal Construction and excavation setback ordinance this really EST is a setback line for construction seaword of which um no structures are allowed it protects the dunes from damage and helps maintain their natural function and regarding this topic there's a ton of ordinances on Town level when cost construction and un walkovers and so forth you can find a lot of building and so forth you can find a lot of um Town ordinances on that topic um but not on anything else um Palm Beach County also has a sand and dune removal and alteration ordinance chapter 66 and this ordinance prohibits any activity that materially alters students including excavation construction or vegetation removal if you do that permits are required and they are super super only very very few limited exceptions so it's basically totally not allowed full stop the third and that's really what really struck me and I'm really fascinated about the property maintenance code and you miss Al you already mentioned it it's not specific to Dunes but this code addresses vegetation maintenance and nuisance AB which can indirectly impact human health there is actually and was really proud to have found this nuisance provision regarding Brazilian pepper as an invasive plant so um I'm actually here reading and this is a long I'm not going to bother you because I know we're running behind to time but SEC um so basically sand and dune removal ordinance section 66-1 121 I'm only reading the relevant Parts it is unlawful for any person to remove alter destroy or damage any existing Dune or vegetation thereon in the town except after approval of a permit application submitted to the town no person shall alter damage or cause to be damaged any sand tune or any vegetation excluding Lawns rowing seaword of line of 25 ft landward of the crest of the primary natural Dune without first having obtained from the town a class one two or three permit so and then they go into the permits whatever is um is relevant and now here comes the relevant nuisance property maintenance code PBC section 1462 nuisance declared it is hereby declared and determined by the board of County commissioners of Palm Beach County Florida that the following shall each individually or in any combination be considered nuisances when they exist Upon A Lot in an unincorporated area of the county and then and they list accumulation of waste trash depre and so forth and then uncultivated vegetation blah blah blah I'm not going into details then four um skos Terin folios commonly known as Brazilian pepper bushes or Tre so it's listed then basically if the nuisance consists solely of uncultivated vegetation as provided in section to theum and the parcel is less than 1 half acre in size the nuisance shall be abated in its entirety so basically in other words you got to remove the Brazilian pepper in its entirety if your parcel is less than half an acre if the parcel is greater than half an acre in size only so much as the nuisance shall be Abad as lies within a 25 ft of the boundary of any adjacent property so for all of our big condos can't force them to remove all of the Brazilian pepper but the 25 ft line okay that's the law that's all good and great so what's enforcement looking like um it's the Palm Beach County code chapter 14 housing code article one property maintenance code division six lot clearing and usance abatement requirements and procedures ordinance number and so forth lots of numbers um the section 146 for procedure for enforcement the department is empowered to enter upon and inspect Lots on which a nuisance is suspected to exist so if you call up the county they actually come and even better any code officer shall be immune from prosecution civil or criminal blah blah blah you can imagine cannot so they can come they have the legal right to come if inspection reveals the presence of a nuisance the department shall notify the owner that a nuisance exists which is a violation of this ordinance then they advise the owner specify what corrective action must be taken state that a failure to Abate the nuisance will result in the department a bading at the cost of the owner and if they don't pay then it re a lean will be recorded against the lot if not timely paid within 20 days so it's pretty tough enforcement is there I ask you so that is under uh The Heading of lot clearing right that's send it to you I will send it to you because that that's a lot different than having an established home and going onto someone's property you know sounded like it was under the lot clearing provision it's under division six lot clearing okay so that is if you're clearing a lot okay just wanted to make that clear yeah so it's on it's under specific situation okay yeah yeah um but basic yeah correct that's that's the that's the enforcement part um but the um the rest is under the property maintenance code so um but yeah that's under lot clearance um and then there's appeals and so forth so that's kind of what I found in terms of the law and removal of invasives more specifically there's actually no really specific laws in this County so in pal County requiring individual Property Owners to remove invasive tume plants other than Brazilian pepper as per the laws I cited and the restrictions there however there are regulations and ordinances in place that address the issue of Hune management indirectly Florida Statutes it's chapter 553 of the Florida Statutes prohibits the introduction or possession of certain invasive plants including Australian Pine and Brazilian pepper so you definitely cannot plant it you cannot import it you cannot bring it you cannot buy it it's totally illegal these plants are listed as category one invasive Exotics meaning they are considered to have the highest ecological impact and pose a significant threat to the state's native ecosystem so that's Florida Statutes there's also Palm Beach County code ordinance 0774 prohibits the planting or cultivation of category one invasive Exotics on public or private property within the um unincorporated areas of the County however it does not require the removal of existing plants um and brail and pepper as I said as some exceptions in the maintenance code last Point Beach tune management Palm Beach County's environmental resources management department encourages the planting of native Dune plants and the removal of invasive species as part of beach dun Management program so this is kind of the main thing so basically it's a lot of encouragement and recommendations and no very specific laws other than the one that I mentioned that you can sites and and and use um the department has a lot of educational resources um of technical assistance and uh communities interested in restoring their dues then I have a whole list in addition to what we already have um I'm not going through the list it's just a list of websites and um and that's kind of um the end of it so sadly we don't have anything in hand other than the um property maintenance code and Miss Miss Allen is an expert on that one it does mention Brazilian pepper but when it comes to enforcement it's under lot clearing so that's under Palm Beach County code yes we're under the town of Highland Beach yes no so basically the town of Highland Beach we as a town OB say not your lawyer but yeah there's not much that the town can do but the residents can call they kind that if you say say your your neighbor has Brazilian pepper and it bothers you you can try to go through the new s do we have a lot of Brazilian pepper Tre yeah we can do a Beach Walk I can show it you can and I did it with Anna because it's very beautiful I can see why people would want them the little red berries are are yeah they are yeah well I'm I'm sad that uh your report was the same as mine because I got up I called my my whatever Town's M and I got nothing so I was hoping that you would come up with something better but no I called them and I also looked at literally all their ordinances I I mean it's great everything's on the on the website and it has this link to this this this it's like a Florida State yeah I went through some of the statutes as well and and a lot of it is on new it's all new construction yeah if you're doing new construction you have to follow a lot more rules than exist yeah the the last one you mentioned after you talked about Palm Beach 0774 was talking about planting Natives and removing invasive what was that oh that's just that's just general um that's that's just uh that's the um uh yeah that's that's just due management that's that's the counties environmental resources management department so it is not an ordinance no yes it's just on it's it's a part of a doom man management document that Palm Beach County has yes exactly because we could mirror that those two items just planting native uh and we can recommend for sure co uh and removing invasive and identifying some of the invasives that are in Elaine's presentation and probably will be in yours yeah that that that to me is something that natural resources could recommend uh because Palm Beach County has it we're recommending it whether we do it as an ordinance or as an informational piece on natural resources website is that du no no is not right this is just do manag yeah but the information we already have it it's it's basically in the brochure that um Mrs Alan showed show it's the one that we've been using at the table it goes through the steps of cutting removing invasives okay so it has the most important information listed it's basically a recommendation it's not it's not that you can import they they recommend that you do all these okay yeah encourage they encourage you right okay so that is something um you know why why is can't Highland Beach encourage that in other words that's a county document um but why can't we we encourage that that people uh identify you know that we identify native plants that were trying to get people to plant and the I I just think there's an opportunity these things are all scattered if you if I'm a resident I have to pull this from so many places is there I I haven't studied that particular Beach but is are we coming up with ideas today that might focus our residents on what could they do if they're on a cond board so Elaine's document is actually really good yeah um the document she put together it's really excellent so we maybe could put that document on the website I could ask does anyone know the process for adding specific invasive species to codes ordinance um to the code well obviously it would be an an amendment to the code of ordinances from what I've heard multiple times is scarola is the primary us yes what is and and Brazilian pepper oh yeah those two yeah but there's so those are the two that I know Elaine mentioned over and over again in her presentation so if we add additional like specific plants to ordinances maybe that will create some more you know we can't I've been on this board for years now like we're not going to be able to enforce anything no okay so it's it's education only so the more specific we are in our town ordinances as to what we'd like our town Property Owners to do uh I think the more we'll accomplish because education only goes so far because we're never gonna reach every single one of our property owners but ordinances are ordinances you know that's that's specifics to everyone's proper property so if we can add specific plants specific things that they need to do or should do um and then what's the process to do that well I think you have to be mindful of our landscape code it's many many pages I'm just skim skimming through it now um we have a section about pruning and that particular section references um a zeroscape plan with the I just lost it um see I can find there's different references to different plans oh here it is it's a zeroscape plant guide and pruning manual um it's with the national arborous standards um so you know when you look at a lot of these manuals and standards I mean obviously they always promote not putting in invasive species so we have some references in the in the maintenance Landscape Maintenance uh landscape code that reference it there's another reference to I think it's the county um maybe I I don't remember again this is just something you're discussing and I'm trying to remember but I think um you all may want to look at the landscape code before I me you make a recommendation to start adding certain noninvas or invasive species in the code because we already have references to certain plant guides and so you may be I don't want to say overstepping but those guides often reference not to plant invasive species so it may be I the difference is planting versus removal of existing so yeah I know we we talk a lot about new construction and it sounds like new construction's pretty well covered from a dune management perspective it's how can we reach property owners and condo owners that already have these invasive species to want to remove them or I I think again education is probably your best set to to change the code and you can make a recommendation if you wish but changing the code is um you know it's a lengthy process to change the code um and then you change the code and then we have one code enforcement officer and I've mentioned this before we have many homes so enforcing it um is can be an issue so maybe a more practical way is to do an out Outreach on that and I agree new construction because when we have new homes that are on the beach I process those I bring them to the planning board um the dunes anything that they're proposing on the Dune they have to get a permit from fdp fdp is not going to let them put anything invasive on there and as you said anyone who wants to revamp their Dune they're going to need a permit anyway and so they're going to capture any invasive species um but yeah maybe the only thing which is really good if you have a new home basically the cheapest and best tune is just y it costs like a dollar per plant costs you a couple of thousand of dollars for the plants you plant and done you never have to touch it do ever again we have to spend $112,000 on just pruning per year on our just on our Dune plants because we don't have SE had they planted SE in 1984 our building was built we could remove that from our budget so you're actually saving money in the long term by just having SE because that's basically the cheapest and best way to protect you do in the most natural way um I think that's something we we can definitely talk about at the table we can put it in some documents um I think our best approach would be to get the presidents of if we could get a um a representative from every Condominium Association to come to a meeting and educate them I think that that would be our best bet so these meetings are set up the the next one is in Fe February or March so they are set up we can with every Association has we have a lot of people in Thea Highland Association presidents of associations and then there's this new upstart one get started the more the better you know I think if we were doing you know I think you can do both you're right but if we're focused on a presentation on the Dooms because we're getting this Doom report that that might be an opportunity oh I agree good opportunity that would be a good time as well as getting these associations yeah I'm a little confused when we say that the beaches are private are they what does that mean of they're private means they're privately owned they're not public beaches so 25 feet from the high water mark 25 feet from high water from high water that then they start that's their backyard that's their that's where their property starts so now let's say Milani Park comes online and people say let's leave it alone nobody touched that land and let it go and you know all these invasive species can move around they can spread right you can spread on to your private property they can yeah well P Beach represented that if they do a popup par or or a pocket part they will remove invasive species they do have a program when they make create a part to get rid of and the question is how do we take that concept and bring it to our child and it's funny that you have a let's say in a regular development one neighbor who doesn't do anything to their yard it looks like hell the other one go what yeah we have those snake plants are coming from our neighbors over yeah something to think about so I just have one last point which is recycling I would have brought it up um I just think I see a lot of people not recycling correctly putting plastic bags in their metal mix up all sorts of things and I think what would be great just as an idea to the town if the town there is South Florida Waste Management um documents is the blue and the yellow it's very blue it's it's just after we didn't do it and my neighbors are not doing it so my building is again telling people please follow the instructions but also say waste of Y yard waste I mean I'm going to produce probably half the room this room full of yard was dur in the condo the town doesn't pick it up so there needs to be some information to the public or say you have batteries or some metal waste the people need to know what to do and I think it would be great if the T to s in one of the management a manager um monthly yeah just like a one p on here is again a reminder for recycling but also yard ways don't put it in the trash if you have three bags pleas don't put it in the trash it goes into lville it's horrendous um I know that a few years ago we did in the manager minute in addition to their General recycling the blue and yellow we did another page about recycling household products um batteries you know there's several areas in Palm Beach County I know there's one on 441 by delr where you could bring you know electronic equipment all kinds of stuff and we put that out yeah paint all that so so we could if we're go you got you all mentioned earlier you want to see in the manager minut of that recycle um flyer uh that the um Waste Management District puts out we could put that one out as well and then as far as yard waste see if there's anything else that South Water manage South Water maybe you could put the names and addresses of those places especially computers and and paint yeah yeah computers sites yeah driven to them both one is41 and the other one's in Ray I they have two sites yeah um I will see if Waste Management has anything specific about yard was um I will also mention in the I think it was the December or January manager's minute um I had put together an article about um so these are just loow hanging food items about how people can manage their yards um and it talks about when you use pesticides to use them in certain areas to limit that and it also talks about yard waste where you don't always have to throw it out you could actually use yard waste you know for mulch and things like that there were some great pointers um and that came out directly from our climate change vulnerability assessment which I've mentioned to the board several times uh that assessment was done as part of the coastal resiliency partnership which the town is part of and so um in that report you know again it gave this loow hanging fruit um how can you address um the 12 threats that were in that climate change vulnerability you know Pest Control was one of them uh flooding it talked about in your yards you might want to do some different elevations so when you have a a strong storm you know the water has a way to percolate a little bit easier um so these man manager minutes they are archived on the town website if you go to um the town manager's office you'll see the archive and you can um look at that article but um we are putting some things out there on not specifically for people that are on the beach but anyone with a yard how they can utilize their yard more efficiently and with the mindset of you know climate change and all that type of stuff but um yeah when I pull out that recycle I'll see if they have anything um again Waste Management has anything specific about yard yard waste yeah it's yard it's batteries it's paint I think people just need to be reminded of that because they just throw everything into the don't know my neighbor yesterday I saw on Monday there were two computers and a printer sitting on the on the side for the garbage M and they pick them up they do come and take them so yeah Electronics they like B Electronics like Rec yeah if you bring it there but you have to bring it there you bring it there right it's like nothing many people aren't aware of it yeah they they don't know I yeah so I think that's an educational there's a lot of Education Dunes recycling trash interpost a lot lot of work to be done so um let me check where we are on the agenda so we any other board member updates no any new business no these another by that one we can get these do a spring or a fall event to gather that so then we can come to announcements on February 20 at 1:30 we have the town commission meeting March 5 at 1:30 we have another town commission meeting and March 12th at 1M the code enforcement meeting where we will enforce all of those invasive speeches rable just um so then we come to adjournment the meeting can be adjourned it is 12:25 thank you so much everybody thank you thank you wa how do we know where high water