e e e welcome to the town of Highland Beach Town Commission meeting today is Tuesday April 16th and it is 1:30 I'd like to call the meeting to order if we could have the roll call please commissioner Gober present commissioner Peters pres commissioner David present Vice mayor Stern present mayor Moore present Town manager labid present and town attorney Ruben present thank you we could all rise for the pledge States I just have one change for the agenda and that is to add um state representative uh Gosset Sidman it's here today and she will also be providing legislative updates any other changes to the agenda if no changes not a motion I move that we accept the agenda as changed second all favor say I I motion carries unanimously uh so presentations we have our first presentation uh the State Legislative update by Senator Lori Burman you please oh oh and uh Goss Sid and state representative gossip Sidman together okay great good afternoon hi everyone so happy to be here with you um congratulations to the new members on the council very happy see you all up there um so we're gonna kind of divide it a little bit um I am GNA focus on the preemption issues because I always think it's important to tell you what T has on preemption and this year is no exception unfortunately um and then U rep we'll talk a little bit more about some the budget issues and the bill issues oh got Mike okay um so um we did do our budget which is our only thing that we have to do we did do $17 billion budget new this year um successfully each and I do want to give a special shout out to um your audience jar R he couldn't be here today excellent job helping us in the in this session um so for those who don't know preemption is when the state says that we are taking over an issue and that that a local municipality or County cannot pass any laws in along those lines um for the most part I vote against preemption bills and I think everyone that I'm going to talk about I voted against um I'm a big believer in home rule and I think that the government closest to the people like we see here today is is really the most effective so I'll go through a couple of the different um bills that we passed this year on preemption and and I will start it by saying that last year we passed a really big about preemption and they called it the mother of all preemptions and they said there would be no more preemptions so that didn't happen unfortunately um so uh we passed HB 433 it prevents local governments from putting um any additional heat exposure safety measures on employers the city of Miami was going to mandate um water breaks and shade for some Agriculture and construction workers and the State of Florida said no we're not going to allow that we're going to take over that issue so you cannot pass any laws along those lines um in connection with the big agricultural package that we passed this year which was 1084 uh one of the things we said was that um cities cannot have any regulations regarding electric vehicle charging stations so that's another area that uh we preempted we also passed a bill that was very controversial last year it was 152 six and it has to do with local regulation of non-conforming structures and so if you had a structure in your area that was nonconforming and unsafe um if it was a historic structure the historic boards used to have input if you were going to destroy it or or you know take it down and then they would have requirements about putting up a new one that could would probably have to meet some of the historic requirements that was preempted so that is no longer the law so you know if there is a demolition of a historic structure there are no you can not place any requirements saying it has to be rebuilt in a certain manner um and then the one that's probably the most uh the largest one that we passed this year and and and a little bit shocking to me because I've been in the legislature now for 14 years and we've been discussing this issue often and it usually doesn't move forward was the vacation rental bill um so we did it's a pretty big pre if you have any uh laws on your books after 2014 that regulate like Airbnb or vbo or any of those people who are coming in those are pretty much um going to be preempted and the state is going to control that issue so we did as part of that bill there are things that are very specific about how many people can be in a unit how many people can be in a bedroom but those are uh put forth by the state cities can no longer regulate those areas the one thing that was done as kind of a com compromise was to say cities can require registration you can charge a registration fee no we didn't set any limits on that and you can require inspections and you can require an inspection fee but other than those things most of the rest of it was preempted to this to the state which is pretty surprising um uh I'm going to let um repb goset Sidman talk about the budget and a couple bills and then maybe we'd like to talk about insurance also we'll we'll give you a little update on that also thank you Senator um Senator and I worked many days and hours at the capital together with a lot of luck um I concur with the senator on the vacation rental bill I voted down on that it was you know I was up there with you all at one point and worked with League of cities and there were just some issues within it I did not agree with with I I vote down when I need to uh to support our district and our our our residents here um if I could just add on the um the tear down along the beaches I do know that they they carved out St Augustine I believe palmach and Palm Beach but not Miami Beach and the reason because we're a Beach Community here the reason reason for that is Miami Beach made the error of lumping blocks and blocks together as an historical data inst instead of each individual building and it was just a matter of paperwork they'll have to sort that out um but this did come to pass after the hurricane and the uh Gulf Coast and I drove that storm my brother lives over there the buildings that were demolished were the old Plywood And you know Palm FR roof buildings and the new code built to code buildings did sustain hardly any damage so the effort of it while not perfect was to allow old buildings in the in the in this form to be removed without having to rebuild to its code so that's the explanation it wasn't a perfect Bill and like others we can tweak it going forward I think for the budget um the two biggies in the budget were medical and education um education I sat as Vice chair of K through2 appr proes and for Education we decided to beef up as much as we could you know when I moved here from Michigan the Florida schools were like joke like oh you you don't want to stay in Florida to go to school and now that's the complete opposite even our little neighbor FAU here thanks to basketball and other other and it's uh fine at science department has come a long way and so education we beefed up as much as we could the voucher system is still in place um we put more money into some of the special needs Education Services which we've got now 1,200 people a day moving to Florida we were anticipating future needs for the residents moving and many of them with children um then medical this it was a huge bill just pass Senator passados baby you might be able to talk even better about that um was to revamp and buttress the medical services throughout the state and it's not you can find a doctor in bokeh you can't always find one in the Panhandle I mean for those who haven't driven north of Martin County you know it looks like Oklahoma or Iowa it's a you've got rural areas and cattle farms and Vegetable Farms and they don't always have doctors or dentists or opthalmologists or anything else for that matter they're to serve the people so this bill focuses on bringing in Talent just in a different system in order to provide services there and provide more funding for services um so those were the two areas that we work very hard on and and tweaking tweaking individual counties needs you know where as we represent you all we get up there and represent the whole state with our colleagues so we have to weigh in everyone needs and um that's a biggie um the senator and I ran two very um voluminous bills we're very proud of um the first one was support for Israel two days after the war broke out so that was October 9th we were the first to get that together along with rep Waldren of um Wellington and uh the second was our what used to be called safe waterways act and is now entitled sampling of public water Waters and public bathing spaces yes I still call it safe waterways this started right here in Highland Beach actually the senator had other people come to her and I woke up one Saturday and called Marshall I Friday and called Marshall said do our beaches are closed did you know where it's contaminated Waters at Belo Bridge no no one bothered to tell the town turns out that this is a policy Statewide if there is a breakage uh providing contamination flowing into the waterways whether it's gasoline sewage you know people there have been instances of trucks out in the Glades they just pull up to a canal and dump their extra load off into the canal you well that makes its way East to the inter Coastal and west of the gulf and then we see it in Lake Boke a week later so this bill requires cities and counties and the state for that matter to report within 24 hours if there's a contamination to share the information with residents via email text phone we're set up for electronic messaging I mean we we know when a sharks in the water you clear the beaches or when they even suspect a shadow was seen by some drone they clear the beach they were never clearing the beaches for sewage so we were swimming in it for all of these years that's going to stop and we are very proud of that b we work very hard on that we were what do we call ourselves women warrior water Warrior water women warriors so were four of us Senator Rodriguez out of Miami jumped on because she has all of the keys in the South half of the ever Wades and then rep cross from um Clearwater jumped onto the bill because she's an environmental scientist so we were four of us and people took notice when four women get up talk about water so we are very proud of that um those were very important bills for us and I think that um we continue to work well together something that I I do wish to say that isn't always said when you read the post or the Sun Sentinel you hear the news what they want to report 99% well 95% of the time we are very Ive in Tallahassee we get along we have a lunchroom together we share ideas We call we have everybody's cell numbers and we get along great we try very hard to do the right thing by by the people I've I've only only met one person who I didn't feel was trying to do right by the people was an elected official I just want to put that in so do you want to speak back to any of the other sure maybe wrap up about the medical because that was a major Senate bill yeah um yeah it's a great bill that um had a lot of I think it was unanimous support in both Chambers and some of the things it does is we created medical residencies because we know if somebody does a residency they stay we um gave some student loan forgiveness and it's not just for doctors there it's Health Care Providers it's all the way across the Spectrum um they're also trying to do some emergency room diversions so that people don't go to emergency rooms for their act for their regular care and uh that's especially in rural areas also so it's it's a wonderful bill um I did want to say that we got two Appropriations for the city of Highland Beach we're very proud of working together so one is for the a clean water project for Lift Station Rehabilitation that's for 250,000 and the other project is State A1A gravity San sanitary Su sewer Rehabilitation and that is for $875,000 so very proud and happy to work together with pegy we really work well together and and I will tell you that the entire Palm Beach County delegation works well together we want to bring money back here to Palm Beach County we're too often we're a donor County because we are wealthier than a lot of the rest of the state um but we still are entitled to our fair share and we go there and we do all fight for it um just a little bit of an update on the insurance issue um I'm sorry to say that we didn't do very much on the insurance issue the feeling of leadership was that we've done things in the past and that they're going to wait and kind of see how the market plays out you may have heard there are eight new carriers in the state but you may have also seen that there was a report that some of those carriers may be very under capitalized um so we're we're kind of in limbo and the and the way I feel about it also is you're hearing that they're they're expecting the market to level out they're not talking about dropping so don't anticipate that your premiums are going to change much hopefully but what we're hoping what leadership is hoping is that you don't get a 20 30 40% increase like we've seen in past years unfortunately um so I would have liked there were some really good ideas still put forth about insurance and and I think we need to think out of the box it's we've been doing this for so long and we're not getting the results we need um but this year there wasn't anything there were a couple good programs that we're doing one is my safe Florida home and what it says is you can apply for up to $10,000 and you have to match that money two for one and you can use that money to uh you would have somebody come out and do a hurricane inspection mitigation report and then you can use the money to get new doors new windows help to secure your roof your garage door um we did do a one change we put 200 million more into the program but which is probably not even enough and with the one change that we did it's not going to go very far the change that we did we probably should have done from the beginning and that's that we made it a priority for lowincome people and seniors so they will when the money opens up on July 1 which it will they get priority and then it goes there's five categories till it gets down to the regular person so you may not see much money especially with $2 million it's got the money that's been in that program has gone very fast in the past and I think think I'm we're going to see that but I'm glad that we're going to prioritize our lowincome and seniors and we also did a pilot program for Condominiums to actually get my safe Florida home and that condo associations will be able to get up to $175,000 and we put 30 million into that program and um my office we're keeping a list right now uh it's going to open up July first so if anybody's wants uh to get on the list we I passed out the bullettin and has my off off information in it um do you wanna yeah I want to add add that on this mys safe Florida home program the homeowner must work off of a prepared list of contractors and that list is available online I know my office also has helped many residents to they think they can just call their brother-in-law to do the repairs and that doesn't work it has to be a a certified appropriate contractor we don't want to go back and fix what the brother-in-law didn't do right so um that's very specific um I know I I don't know if uh Jeff is here but I'm sure he's on top of that um furthermore that it also covers the roof straps the the tie downs that tie the roof to the structure you know they're trying to go even above the codes in some places because that is critical particularly you know seven miles from the beach and Inland um and then for the um my safe Florida home also the seniors and if you're senior and you're underserved they that is regarded there's there's a mapping that is being used by the government by Tallahassee to look where your house is when you apply and so that's kind of a consideration are you near the beach are you in underserved area and and that to be to be fairs is taken a top priority and I will add on the insurance side from The house's perspective from my chamber um we were very dissatisfied with the outcome and there were some people who were very very angry with the fact that we did not get something done on insurance um you're our former rap Mike Kus so um I can't quote him here but he's a CPA and I think he's got some good ideas coming forth for next session he was very angry that he's got the coastline actually of Palm Beach from around South Palm Beach all the way up to Jupiter so he's got over half of Palm Beach County we will come back and we will fight this part of the issue is our property values are rising so we got more to Ure and people don't understand that and the other thing is this is a nationwide problem Florida was the first state ever after Andrew hit 31 years ago to actually work with the whole country and regard the values put forth by insurance and this is not this was not a good idea so what the insurers did back then is they spun off their their home insurance into a new little side company and went on with their their Auto and their business and held that differently and that really looking back they should have kept the three entities together and maybe we can work on that in the future you're not going to see your your your values cut in half or a third or anything right away but we are working on it and there are a lot of very angry legislators up there to perhaps uh portray what you guys what our residents are feeling I want to just say that we're not thinking oh everything is fine and the daisies are blooming it's not and I I like to end on look a little happier notes so we we we do do um some fun things up there you may recall last year we did the um Strawberry Shortcake was the state dessert um although keyme pie is still the state pie um but this year the bill that I thought that was the most fun that we had the the best time with was um honoring our state's trador and so we are renaming A1A from Jacksonville down to Key West and it is now going to officially be called Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway absolutely yeah so it's my pleasure and honor to represent all of you and I'm so glad to be here with all of you today thank you very much do we have any question happy to answer any questions thank you very much any questions from any comments questions no no thank you thank you for working uh you know getting those two grants and that and uh I know you're going to work on insurance I know that's the biggest thing condos are talking about going up sometimes double triple i a couple condos went down so it's very important thank you again yeah and condos are being hit also because of Surf Side too so it's a double whammy because they have to deal with the that and property insurance I think that the myay Florida is very exciting program uh I'm sure that um the residents of my community and the whole town are going to really look at that closely and uh you'll have a lot of applications before July 1 I'm sure thank you again if I can recommend getting them in early because it be a mad rush when the portal opens so you can get organized now thank you we did pass an ordinance regarding vacation hopes but it was primarily registration and inspections so so you should be okay it was things like showing where local hospitals were and things of that nature and yeah really it was so that we knew where they were good good yeah so you should be all right you can run it by your town attorney but sounds okay thank you for your hard work yes thank you for your hard work and dedication I know it's it's a lot you know especially to be up there in Tallahassee so we really appreciate it and I really do hope you can do something about the insurance because it's um it's really tough and making home ownership very difficult to afford it's it's you know it used to be a side thought when you you know had a home now it's like a a main issue when when you're considering a home so I hope be property taxes people couldn't afford to stay in their homes now because of property insurance they can't stay in their homes it's really bad so I hope I I really hope uh you guys come up with a good solution I know we got good people working up there so thank you very much thank thank you all okay thank you see you soon next item the sea turtle presentation by Joanne briyan thank you okay are you gonna move the slides for me okay so okay great um you can stay on the first one for now yeah I want to kind of explain okay so one year ago uh highing Beach sea turtle team became a 501c3 and um the town gave us a very generous donation kicked us off and I wanted to just um show you guys some of the accomplishments we H we've had in in 2023 so the first thing um we did was create a logo and um the vision for the logo was that Highland Beach is a Coastal Community um you know it's very beachy and I wanted to incorporate the colors of the the inshore water and The Gulfstream Waters but then I had I worked with a guy who actually used to be a turtle person and now he's a graphic designer and he gave me some Concepts and then I had a vision of when we released our little hatchlings and they go off in the water I always tell everyone wait 10 or 20 seconds they're going to pop up for a breath of air so what we have is we have a turtle coming up for a breath of air we have the sun rays in the background and we have beautiful Aqua Wat but the one thing I wanted to point out um that we did work together on is if you look closely at the back of the turtle shell you're gonna see we incorporated the HB for Highland Beach y thank you um and here we have um a real juvenile sea green sea turtle and we have a large population of those right offshore here so it's kind of similar and the colors um kind of match and um that green sea turtle um helps mow the yard out there in the seagrass that green sea turtle is eating all the algae off the seagrass out there and keeping the ecosystem nice and clean so um one of the reasons why they're so important to our ecosystem go to the next okay so the next thing we did was we um we had a record-breaking season last year you may have heard it was all over the news the whole state of Florida had record break breaking Turtles um we had to buy suppli we had to keep uh we had record-breaking heat we kept our our um team in cooling towels and um hope they would survive the two hours they had on the beach in the morning and this um we did not buy kitty litter so you can ignore the kitty litter but that's a storage bin at one of our volunteers homes where her husband every year cleans the staks and repaints them for us and um he stores up to 500 Stakes each season and some of our volunteers keep stuff at home too but um they are big big help and so we did buy some supplies last year then we hosted our first recognition party um since before covid we it was long overdue to get the team together as you can see um mayor Moore was there and Barbara nesla with uh the preservation board we had our friends from Gumbo Limbo we had the son of the first permit holder in the town of Highland Beach um he came and told some funny stories and we had a really lovely night um so that some of the funds went to have a really nice night and finally we updated our team uniforms we took out the generic turtle on the t-shirts we put in our new logo we still have the town seal on the back um but we also Incorporated the The dryw Weave technology shirts to keep them cool and dry and um and we still have our cotton t-shirts so we were able to do all that with the um generous donations between uh the town and the associations that gave us the money and the residents so I'd like to thank everyone for their ongoing support to keep our programs going that's it oh terrific well thank you very much um does anybody have any questions or comments no but I heard you got some turtles already some leather nests we do we have six leatherback nests we started we're back out there here we are um we had a little bit of downtime and March 1 we were out there we had our first one March 20th last year we had our first one March six which was really early but this year already we have six which is really nice um and uh two years ago we had 13 total so we're hoping to break that record this year and it's only April they'll Nest until um June and the loggerheads are already coming in Boon had their first Nest so we anticipate any day those loggerheads will be taking over the beach and last year in Highland Beach we had 990 loggerhead nests yeah well I just wanted to say I think that um the celebration you had last year that was your first yeah um because you guys did not get you weren't set up to receive any donations so I think last year was the first time and so yeah thank you very much for inviting me and um it was really uh terrific it it really served as a way to kind of get everyone together and at least this is my observation you can correct me if I'm wrong but uh to really rejuvenate the team it's like a once a year um type thing and uh they hand out Awards and um it almost seemed like a um like to kind of rejuvenate the team and get everyone ready for the for the next year and to recognize accomplishments which is really important to keep the team together and to keep everyone focused on what the ultimate goal is which is to you know protect these sea turtles for the environment for you know for the species for for so many reasons so it was so much more than a party so much more than a celebration it was really a motivating um and you know continual recruitment of the team you know going forward I think everyone's I sensed everyone is very passionate about what they do they're out there every morning I don't know how they do it so early in the morning doing what they do it's it's extremely impressive um and uh it's it was really great to be a part of so congratulations and I'm glad and I thought it was a very important event for you to do and um like to keep it going you know thank you I that really means a lot that really does um I said to the girls I'm not GNA get emotional but that is um that is really that means a lot because I did put a lot of effort into it um I had a couple on the sly helping me with a few things but I didn't give anything away beforehand and um I I um really wanted to make it special because we did accomplish a lot this year and um we have uh janx and Susie that are modeling our new shirt the new dry weave shirts here very ni and then we also made these up um these are to be merchandise so um we did that too we and and um one other thing I almost forgot we we had stickers made up so I'd like to give each of you one of our Highland Beach sea turtle stickers if you want to put it on your car or your water bottle or your cooler um so um and you know in the beginning when I started this I said I can't go around and ask for money there's just no way but it's become easier because I'm not doing it for me I'm doing it to support my team I mean this is just a small portion we have 20 people on my permit four more traines this year a husband and wife team that live Regency Highland that are I know they're going to be just as passionate as the rest of us so we're just keeping it going I have a young girl from FWC who's been walking with me and this is the future um because you know in all honesty I'm not going to do this forever I want to find someone I can turn it over to um few years down the road and um I have two young girls one is a python Hunter out in the Everglades very passionate about the ecosystem and she's gonna be over here staying with her grandmother and walking the beach and then we have Jasmine from FWC who is uh in the Fisheries department but she wants to get into the sea turtle side of it so I'm helping you know her do that by her volunteering with me so so I want to thank you all very much and you know if it's in your hearts to do an annual donation we won't um say no but um but thank you all for the support we really appreciate it thank you I I have a quick question sure uh how can we obtain those t-shirts they are great well these t-shirts oh those white ones that they're wearing are their license they're their they're their uniform yeah that's what gives them the okay to be out there doing what they're doing however we have these and we can do them in white we can do them in any color I just wanted to incorporate the colors of the logo um and Highland Beach is I think highing Beach is very sophisticated I didn't want like you know a animated turtle I wanted you know something that looked kind of sophisticated for the town that it is so um but I do have a sticker for you and I will get you a shirt that's terrific and again thank you thank you to to the team all the participants and everyone in town that they may not be be on the team uh but they back you you know 120% and their the commitment and the compassion is just outand and it's representative of our town so we also thank you and we um one other thing in zone one uh we are going to we're waiting for the first turtl Nest to come in we're gonna um do that one in honor of David matthewman Diane and Bill matan's son um we told them that we would um you know Mark it as a memorial and when it's inventoried we would have the whole family come out that's nice well thank you very much for everything you do thank you very much so the next item on the agenda is a resolution of the Town Commission of the town of Highland Beach Florida to donate funds in support of the Highland Beach uh sea turtle team a 501c3 nonprofit organization and providing for an effective date and and uh the amount of the uh donation is 2500 um which is the uh same amount that we gave uh the year prior um and our our donation is not the only donation as as Miss Ryan had mentioned they sell shirts they raise money from lots of other um residents and things like that um so I guess I'll open it for public comments anybody want to make a um public comment with respect to the resolution if I could point out a feature of this resolution so moving forward we don't have to do a resolution we'll just do it as part of budgeting and it'll be a standing line item that can be uh included every year great the resolution does say annual that's and uh Joanne who they make for all the people out there who they make the checks out to what should they put that yeah sure goad so the official name is Highland Beach sea tural team Inc any discussion among Commissioners I think it's a great idea okay good we love our SE curles in this town and anything that we can do to make it easier to protect them I'm all for I was struck with um the comments about about um the growth and the survival uh and the health of our beaches and uh just the you know the work of the environment working together and I was wondering I'd like to hear some comments too about um the population specifically uh to the South uh near the rock the Milani property that we refer to does that have um um do you have any numbers on the population uh and the different varieties of the turtles that we have okay the Milani Park issue is an ongoing thing um so that little area of beach which is roughly like maybe 400 square feet or so um we call it the Palm Beach growth area it's Tangled Woods it's very beautiful I think um and we do get a lot of turtles there um we had I think last year we had about just in that area and this is over the course of the whole summer you you have to remember we do this eight months out of the year I think we had about 40 crawls but the nesting is usually about half of that so we had probably 20 nests in that area not all at the same time you know they they hatch the turtles come back and forth um we have not had a leatherback nest in that area in a few years now um but all of that's considered Zone one I think I've explained this to you guys before we've broken into five zones because we walk and we carry supplies so Zone one actually starts with the bokeh highlands club and ends at the Bello access area that's the first Zone and um it's that's a high density area zone one zone two zone three for whatever reason the turtles just love the South area of Highland Beach the numbers go down just a little bit with the last two zones going north um but I think it's because Del Beach is so close you know we butt right up against Del re um so yeah that area I think last year we had almost 700 crawls in that whole area and I did do a report I think I sent it to Marshall um breaking down it was a three-year study I think that I I gave all the data over the three years nests Bal crawls and you know total um so yeah you know I know that um every's opposed to that Park I'm not really you know where there's less people there's better as far as I'm concerned you know um but I did speak to um one of the top people at FWC when I went up to the permit holders meeting and um she said they're not opposed to Parks you know public parks um you know she asked me how busy it was you know she was kind kind of really vague about it there's a resident here that's been asking me to try to do this get her on board but they're they're just not going to do it you know um but she did say that um they're not opposed to public parks but they're they are opposed to like structures on the beach boardwalks and stuff like that so um yeah I don't know thank you we thank you awesome yeah thank you but going back to the resolution um you support the resolution as well yeah okay so it looks like we all support I I am very much in favor of the resolution I think um it's a small contribution that has a really big impact so um if we're all in agreement yes absolutely yes oh you want to make a okay okay years is this hi night um I was a longtime resident here but since moved not too far just a few miles away and I do the sea turtle still for 24 years um I just wanted to add that back in 2006 when we first had um the big powwow I called it at um Highland Beach for that whole Park area and everybody had a a a a topic to speak about um and we all did our homework and did reports um one of the things that you that has not changed is is that the parking lot across the street from that area which is like 380 some odd feet wide on the beach um across the street they are doing they wanted a 100 cars and if you figure if you have like four people in a car going to the beach on a Saturday that's 400 people and as doanne just said there's like 400 square feet there on the beach okay that means every person could have a square foot like this on the beach they can't throw down their towels if you have full capacity across the street whether it's two people in a car or four people in a car there's no room there's no room for people on that little piece of beach that little 380 some Rod wide they have all of their other Palm Beach County parks that they could go to that are free and have lots of room so there's no room there and they will never be able to build any structures there because every time you dig down into the ground there are artifacts and Indian it's Indian burough ground in perpetuity that's what it's going to be um and that goes back if you get the video from the library from our 2006 meeting it was actually very long but we had the um white clouds come and the Indians actually came and and gave their um ideas and speeches and you could hear a pin drop it was such an unbelievable meeting and it's all on tape and it and nothing has changed everybody did all these reports it's not like starting over like I think a lot of people are doing now because we go all the way back been fighting this for a long time our 10 years was up in court where we got it postponed for 10 years but they there's just nothing they can really do with that property because it is an Indian bual ground they can't change that so they can't dig down D you have to dig be able to dig down to build anything you can't dig so they want they said well they could put like a pathway across but even if you were to lay anything down for a pathway um the rule was they had to have an archaeologist there the entire time that they were going to work any construction on a pathway and then it just it was just through the roof for the cost and it wasn't worth so I just had to get that off test I just want you to know that a couple of years back we had Essence a sit in at that beach one I think it was a Saturday morning and you can't get a hundred people on that beach at high tide no never mind you know three or four per car you you couldn't possibly even get the hundred and people were standing up people don't stand up at the beach it makes no sense so it really is a very small Beach and at high tide you don't see the rock no they just had to make it a memorial very dangerous they should just make it a memorial to the Indians that used to live there because they are now extinct those Indians those um in your opinion how would that affect the nesting oh my gosh are you kidding we have a tough time now keeping people away from our nests we have to put a huge square around a leatherback Nest just to keep people from putting their chairs there and laying all over their kids are digging the sand you know it's it's very tough one year we actually down there by that area we had some young kids college kids I guess I don't know if you guys remember this they took all our sticks out and they had a bonfire all our nests you just pulled them all out had a bonfire on the beach we had to try to recreate where they were but you know I mean nobody was there to police it it's dark at night and there's really nobody around that area so yeah it's terrible we we need we need to keep piece there um that little parch not they should never do anything with that piece it's the only place it's the only piece if you look on the whole if you look at Florida all the way down it's one of the only pieces that still has its Integrity it's called because it was never built on there was one house on the north end a long time ago that was torn down you can still see like a footprint of it there and that's it the rest had never been built on it's all natural you know it's um they they call it that it has its Integrity Integrity which means it's just the way it was long time ago it was never touched do you find that the people who live here are more respective of the turtl nests that they mostly stay away from them the people who actually live here I I think the ones that are are educated are we have PE a turnover a lot of turnover of people I I'm a real estate broker here so as soon as we get somebody you know just the way we want them they love the turtles they turn their lights out then they sell their house and the new person comes in and it starts all over again they turn on every light we have a problem with the nest going towards their homes you know we have they have to be educated and understand and then they have this huge respect for the turtles after they see the turtle and experience them otherwise if they don't see them they don't know anything about them it's just it's just an ignorance they don't know they until they learn so yeah as soon as they know something about the turtles they have a lot of respect for them it's certainly people who come from far away are going you know anything just fascinated well thank you thank you thank you we could have a motion about the resolution that we ADT resolution number 2024 d012 second that commissioner David yes commissioner Goldberg yes commissioner Peters yes vice mayor Stern yes and mayor Moore yes motion carries thank you very much congratulations congratulations uh next up we we have the presentation of the 2023 Beach restoration feasibility study okay so right on Q with the turtl nest is the update that we've um been been working on and uh Mr Man our Coastal engineer has concluded uh the update if you will to the third 2013 beach erosion study that had uh I know many of you had looked at uh you authorize staff to move forward uh SEC here Mr Man services and kind of give us an update of the condition and health and then as you'll see a unique element to it is property by property identify uh areas for improvement on the Dune um so homeowners can know what activities to take um know the natural resource Advisory board has been driving this a lot too pushing for uh this work to be completed so the work has been completed you got the great huge study and uh Mr Man is going to walk us through uh his findings and answer any questions uh you might have okay thank thank you uh for the record Douglas man I work with aptum environmental and infrastructure in next door neighbor in bone um if you can give me my next SL appreciate the opportunity here today oh just give me back up one uh where we're going to go over kind of a I've got kind of a little bit of an executive summary slide that kind of covers everything that we'll get into some more detail dealing with some of the shoreline processes both kind of regional townwide uh things that are going on as well as some of the local Coastal processes that you might see in certain specific areas within within the town um one of the aspects of the study uh this past year was to try to incorporate some resiliency and sustainability Concepts and how that inter intermingles with having a healthy Beach and we'll talk about that briefly um I'll talk about some of the Alternatives that we considered as part of this overall study uh we'll talk about uh the funding challenges that the town would face if they wish to move forward with any of this and then lastly I'll bring a couple recommendations next slide um long term the town has been fortunate uh being immediately down drift to the city of Del Beach Beach um the city of delr has a long-term Beach nourishment project as you're aware of and that sand as it erods uh Works its way South some of the sand is on the dried Beach some of the sand is in the submerged portion of the beach profile but that's all beneficial to the town um this has resulted in very small M mild long-term movement and uh Shoreline advancement uh giving you a slightly wider Beach than you did historically um and that and that's a good thing that's the good news uh the the bad news is is uh today is that you're still subject to episodic impacts from storms uh you're still vulnerable to storms um and we can see that um in primarily as you walk out there in the in the at the toe of the Dune um we've got some Dunes scarps we've got some losses of vegetation um as uh the manager said uh the town asked us to go out and look at each every property one by one uh in the report there's a one photograph and a couple of comments for every each individual property so if anybody's interested in exactly what we saw or how their property compares to properties north of them or south of them uh they can take a look at that um but for the most part most of the uh toes of the Dune are are are scarped off some of the vegetation been lost um which is just an indication of the of the storm history that you you have been experiencing uh long-term sea level rise is is occurring uh we can see that in in in the title gauges around the state um eventually this is all going to catch up with us um in terms of losses of beach width you know as I said before the town's been experiencing advancement of the beach width albe it's small we haven't seen the losses due to sea level rise yet uh occur but I think the bigger potential and where we'll see see it is within within storm impacts um the same size storm you know from 20 years ago could occur today but it's occurring on a slightly higher water level um and has potential for slightly increased uh impacts um there are a couple of Alternatives uh you can attempt to nourish the entire Beach from the dry Beach from the edge of the dunes out all the way into the water um that's got some challenges with it we'll talk about that later uh you can attempt to Nish just the dry Beach portion of the burm that is the horizontal P portion of the beach that most people like to sit on um is a little low in my estimation from the observations we made it's a little lower than it is in Del or or or um you can just pursue some effort to restore uh the Dune toe scarps and to try to nourish them and that can be done both on a townwide basis or just an individual property basis uh if if a an owner was inclined to do so um all this talk of construction uh forces the town to recognize that there's very little construction access to the beach itself uh go having to go through private property uh is going to be a make any kind of construction difficult doesn't mean it won't happen it doesn't mean it can't happen it just means it's going to be hard it's going to require some cooperation um and we could eventually get into those details if we needed to um and then lastly uh from my summary here uh you have a beautiful private beach um which is nice if you live there own there have access to it um but you won't be getting federal state or County money uh to support restoration efforts as a result all those funds are all tied to uh funding beaches that are open to the public um and we can go on to the next slide here um let me see if I can get this careful um to try not to focus too much on the the broad numbers um the the D monitors the beach with these range monuments r11s up there right near the Delaware line Delray line Sorry I'm wrong project um and then r24 is just south of yumato rock um and uh um people have been monitoring the beaches measuring the widths measuring the heights of the beaches for years we have this data focus in on the last column this is from January 1975 all the way to August 2023 when we went out there and if you do a comparison of how wide the beach is you can see that on an average annual basis you're gaining three or four feet at the at the Delray line kind of area and that slowly decreases in size down at least halfway through town you're still gaining small quantities of sand long term and then the southern part of the Town kind of oscillates fluctuates back and forth between a little gain and a little loss um but overall the entire town it's been gaining 1.2 feet of Shoreline per year uh over the long term that's the good news uh as I as I mentioned we have some issues with the uh storms coming coming in and impacting the dunes I selected kind of three pictures kind of at random one's kind of at the north end of town one's kind of toward the middle and then I picked one from Ocean Place States um they're kind of like a random uh selection because they all kind of look the same in my mind um they're all you you you can see where the storms have come in they've washed out the face of the Dune the vegetation has back accordingly or washed out and this this is pretty typical this is all result of wave run up combined with high tides combined with King Tides we get them once a month once every couple months more in the fall um and even some of the minor Storm surges that that roll through so that that's kind of a local process but it happens kind of townwide next slide then we have a couple of uh uh interesting uh features in the town's beaches you have Nearshore hard bottom or rock or reefs that people might refer to them in the in the technical literature they refer to it as hard bottom um because it can be the basis of some some biological uh ecosystem there in some cases you have rock that holds Beach holds sand on the updrift side and then it kind of erods on the Dow drift side this is maybe more of a cyclical thing it will hold sand for a while until the storm comes and then the sand gets released um but you do have a pretty dramatic change of uh Beach width very locally as a result of these rocks um I again I picked up yada rock this one's functions not only like a groin but it also works kind of like a break water in the sense it reduces wave energy immediately in the Lee or the Landor section you can get a little wider section of beach here and then you have you have some Dow drift effects into uh the the southern part of the town and in bone as a result so but this is really anchoring your Beach this is a great piece of rock to have in the right in the right place to have um it really does hold the the South End together really well um so that's that's that's good news there next one uh I guess I want to talk a little bit more about storms uh that you have that you may have uh um and you you can see the the results of these storms in in the rack lines that's the dead vegetation lines that form along the beach this is where the waves Rush up uh during the storm and deposit some of the vegetation that usually forms rather linear lines up and down the beach but as you can see that you can have some smaller storms and then bigger storms and then you have this bigger line that's up against the toe of the Dune and that that was what was kind of concerning me is that you're having a storm a year uh maybe once or twice a year where you're pushing a lot of vegetation right to the toe of the Dune um and this is causing the burm that is this flat section of the beach in here to be somewhat deflated because you're getting waves rushing back and forth across this portion um it's not very deep but it's still moving the sand around and doesn't allow uh the beach to build up very well when that's occurring and then you have impacts to the Doom so uh it's common these days when I come and talk to public groups that we talk about sea level rise um this is a uh this slide is from the southeast Florida compact on climate change that's a multi-g government group that have gotten together in southeast Florida uh Palm Beach through Monroe County they've all did their study kind of collectively um I I've heard that Martin County has kind of signed off on the on kind of the conclusions at least they're not I I don't think they're part of the compact but they they like the results um you you have some relative sea level rise measured here inches I believe this is inches time over on the on the axis starting in 1990 uh this is this is what the sea level rise gauge in Key West Florida looks like uh everybody uses the Key West gauge because it's been around the longest um is reliable some of the more local gauges haven't been around very long so uh Noah is still reluctant to generate Trends um and these are scenarios of what sea level wise might do in the future and we could spend a whole hour lecturing as to which one's right and which one's wrong and I I don't want to get too focused in on there the compact itself tends to suggest that you should do any planning effort somewhere in between the blue between the the bottom two curves they think that's re usually reasonably good um but your sea level rise is is rising it's projected to arise and and you you need to have a forward thinking that life today is gonna be or life tomorrow is gonna be different than it is today um when you start looking at these are decades here on the bottom so you know um if you move in if you're 20 years old here yeah you might have to worry about way it is up here but if if we're if you're my age I don't think I have to worry about 20 60 anymore um so we we want is Beaches that are sustainable we want be we want the beach to be there we want the beach to be there to protect us we want the beach there to have place to go recreate on we want a place for the turtles to go uh nest in um you you can pick your pick your favorite uh reason but we all love our beaches um and so we're going to have to face the reality of a rising sea level in in years to come have a quick question so um you go back to the pr slide so we are 2024 how did the projections compare like do you have an update for this do um this this is this is the last time I think they published the data okay when do they publish it because I mean we can kind of know how the predictions compared to actuals right for the this other I I I've done a similar exercise for other communities where I've actually gone and grabbed the data from Noah and plotted it myself um if if you take this Noah intermediate High curve and you start yeah start around 1990 and then you extrapolate that the N the Noah intermediate high is is reasonably good it's it may be on a little bit on the high side but that that's some a fairly decent indicator that's one scenario that's seems to be a reasonable one to consider so you think if you I mean I imagine the 2020 measurement exists right and the24 so if you were to plot that those 20 21 22 can't can't can't get to 24 but we can get to 23 okay 23 um you think it's going to be on the intermediate High Line um like what yes uh at at this point these curves are so close together that statistically you probably don't have much of a difference how you know these estimates are comparing to the actuals now that we have some of these Noah publishes what they call a mean Trend which for Key West starts all the way back in like 1900 um and their mean trend is a linear line and that one clearly which worked really well till about 2000 and then after 2000 it doesn't work well at all so we know that these long linear Trends which is pretty much close to this IPC median line um is probably on the low side which high side we're going to be on which upper curve we're going to be on we're not it's not clear that you know every year these these numbers are going up and sometimes they come down they fluctuate they fluctuate on a monthly basis I mean the when you GB the data you're actually grabbing monthly averages um and there's fluctuations every month um but the trend is the trend is upward the trend is accelerating um and uh so that's posted online someone could go look up the Noah intermediate high like or or the actual um I guess you're saying the reason you do a fiveyear average is I guess it fluctuates by well well well well you you want to plot this you you can plot every month and I've done this before what you don't want to look at any one month and you don't want to look at any one year you want to look at the trends and where they're headed right um if you start looking at if we were looking at just this 1990 to 2000 Trend it's rising it's rising at a fairly linear rate when I get to 2010 I don't know what happened in 2010 the data goes up and it it's accelerating and then you I always pick on the year 2010 is something changed I don't know what changed something changed and from from 2010 to 2020 we get not only a rise but we get a faster rise than the previous decade um and you can you can download the monthly data that's publicly available you can get that right from a website um you have to manipulate it to be able to plot it kind of like this and then you know had to know how to put the other curves on top of it but it it is possible except okay I was just curious how the actuals came compared to the predicted I mean you could get a year in here that that might hit this Noah High curve it fluctuates because there's a lot of there there's enough fluctuation here we're only measuring inches over here so we're talking really small quantities averaged out over a whole year um at this point so okay okay thank you SL H how do we live and make resilient sustainable beaches um the the BMS that we have out on your beach and the dunes that you have they're going to experience more storm effects leading to reduced protection to Upland properties I think that's the biggest concern um we'll have other depending on your your perspective on how much square footage you need to recreate on the beach and how many square feet you need to support successful sea turtle nesting um I'll say the climactic changes I said originally climatic changes are not discernable or measurable maybe that's from the coastal beaches data set I mean I can't go out there and go oh I measured the beach today and this is different than it was 20 years ago and the sole Reon reason is because climate has changed no we're not there yet but at the same time um I reference this is the National Climate assessment report this is a federal government document uh I think they've got five versions of it out now if somebody wants to know about climate change and what Noah can see in their data sets which is a lot of atmospheric data and and what temperature data and those kinds of things that's kind of a kind of a objective source of data um that they're able to measure certain things at this point um you're probably looking at needing some enhancement to the to the beach burm or the entire Beach profile that'll probably be likely over the long term and I I'll give you a a recommendation now is taking no action is probably not going to be a sustainable uh means of maintaining beaches in the way you want them to be SL uh we we looked at a couple of Alternatives um we looked at beach nourishment in terms of nourishing the entire Beach profile that is nourishing all the way from the dunes into the dry Beach into the Nearshore zone out to 25t of water um that type of a project can only be designed at at a townwide length you can't just build this on one property and expect it to last more than a month um uh you have challenges um the hard bottoms that we showed in previous pictures those are protected by the state um and because they are an environmental resource um so you'd have to design around them uh again we talked about construction access briefly being able to get heavy construction equipment onto the beach is going to be difficult you might need help from your neighbors neighboring communities to give you some better access and it will be very expensive um I gave you an option of just nourishing the dry Beach let's say you could put together a project conceive of a project that might be a mile length um that might be the minimum you want to attempt U but maybe there's a need in one mile of the town and versus the entire town um that's probably the minimum length you would need again you'd have challenges in construction access some funding um and then the durability you're only nourishing the dry Beach we were only talking about putting you know five or eight cubic yards of sand on each linear foot of beach um you know the forest storm will come in and wash a good chunk of that sand away and people start pointing some fingers and and I'm just saying there's some durability issues with that it'd be easier to permit it costs a lot less money um you might build it a different way you might use truck hauled sand as opposed to going offshore with a dredge um and uh so they're pros and cons with all these Alternatives um I talked about making an attempt to repair the the toe of the dunes adding a very small quantity of sand uh a yard two yards somewhere in that range per linear foot of beach um this could be done on a single property basis uh be better like if on some of your condo properties they're a little longer they they would be a little easier and more feasible to undertake such action um still dealing with with construction access durability but the price drops dramatically you're only putting a small quantity of sand in you're going to put some vegetation on it and then you're going to drive away um and this type of an action can be done to try to offset the effects of sea level rise try to give you a little bit more storm protection and uh um it it'll look like you're actually doing something um and at a fairly uh nominal cost something that single property owners could undertake if they so chose um it' be better if it was a bigger larger scale project with multiple owners or you know condominium sized properties Etc and then I said uh the last alternative I kind in terms of was no action didn't really recommend it you don't have to do anything it doesn't cost you anything in the short term it might cost you in terms of long-term impacts um that need need to be factored into decision making when that occurs whether it's on a single property basis or a townwide basis um we looked at some Coastal structures we talked about them in the report um the town's Beach is really not set up there's not a distinct need for adding structures like groins some people call them Jetties uh if you're from up north um or putting in break Waters break Waters get be very expensive hard to permit um and uh it wasn't sure that your beaches would get that much better with that kind of investment so didn't want to really go there uh funding uh we touched on this before you have a nice beautiful private beach enjoy it um take care of it you get to take care of it yourself there's no public benefits um and uh therefore the core of engineers the State of Florida and the Palm Beach County are not going to uh cost share in your efforts um there are if if the town wish to pursue a project and uh whatever that project would be there will obviously be time to plan the project and part of that planning would be determining how to fund it that would require the town finance director to get involved and uh there are multiple ways of funding these types of projects uh there's probably an example of each the I I listed out four different four different ways there that an individual town could go ahead and do things um there's probably examples of each one of these examples somewhere in the state of of Florida somebody's done this um so it's not like you're having to uh create new ground here um uh I I understood that the first time the town of Jupiter Island uh built their project back in the 1970s they literally went up and down to the wealthy residents of Jupiter Island they just simply collected checks I mean I don't even think there was an assessment of any sort I think it was just a understanding between the the members but that's a different Community with a different the different situation that's not you guys here so um but I mean they there have been people who've done private donations uh we do a lot of work over on Captiva Island which is more of an erosion prevention District they self assess themselves they do get some benefits from the state for a couple of their public beaches but for the most part that's a fairly private project as well so want you move on we'll get the recommendations uh shortterm uh recommendations are to consider some dun toe repair or maybe do a dry Beach nurman um if you're a single property owner and you don't like the way the uh things look um the duno repairs can be a conceivable option for individual owners it can be an option for groups of owners condos um that can be put together I think this can keep Pace with sea level rise and the effects there of um it's not a it's not a cure all but it's a management of the beach uh that's approaching longer term um I I think you're going to get into Beach nourishment of either just the dry Beach or the whole Beach profile you'll be able to keep Pace with sea level rise um because you're putting enough sand in there um this will take years to design years to permit this is a long-term investment long-term commitment um you may or may not have the support to do it at the present time um but that's I I think you're going to wind up down that road at some point in the future um and I I'll get to your question um and lastly monitor the beach and doing system um you know we went out and surveyed your beaches so we know where they're kind of at uh as of August of last year sometimes County comes through and does some surveys um Bon Del kind of survey into the limits of your town a little bit um maybe uh every couple of years or whatever it might be worthwhile um you know call collab opting with your neighbors and trying to get the whole thing done at once um and uh keep an eye on that stay a breast of uh Trends and sea level rise and what what that what's going on there uh the southeast Florida compact seems to be around it's it's a group of counties County governments who are participating um that they're going to be around they're going to be monitoring this long term I'm just stay in touch with uh that information that that'll be your best source of information um and that data will probably be updated every couple of years by uh the technical Committee of that compact so I think the next one's question so we we can go there yeah uh just a quick question what do you define as longterm like a what is that time Horizon that year um I I I'll say you know five years 10 years 15 years one one approach to beach management is is to Monitor and then adapt um you you you you'll see when you're getting into trouble you'll see you'll see the erosion creep up unfortunately it'll probably creep up during one storm and then there's a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction that's typical of communities all over the State of Florida uh we have bad storm well the phone will start ringing um that's that's just the nature of dealing with episodic storms some of it's part of a long-term program well long-term process on the other hand you're down drift to Del so you're get this little feet of sand so things aren't aren't the worst in the world you know because you had that one chart that had it broken up in the decades and there was one decade there in the Middle where there was a lot of loss yes but then I don't know did Del do a nourishment or or something I don't know if that's when Del did the nourishment and then it was like a there there was a column in that data set um that talked about what happened in 2004 and if we go back to 2004 2005 even we have back-to-back GE of very high uh hurricane and tropical storm activity not just Statewide but also locally and many of the beaches suffered from impacts from storms um and your beaches suffered and then they recovered they recovered naturally as the sand came back on Shore sometimes the sand just shifts offshore and then Works its way back onto the beach um sometimes you you're you're benefiting from Delray big activities will cause more sand to leave Del R than come back here so that was just an uh kind of at this point it's evidence that you you are susceptible that you're not just living on this long-term positive trend there's a lot of noise there with hurricanes tropical storms passing by in a northeaster um you know I was working up in the north end of the county here uh recently and they got we had in December we had three days of really heavy winds it was windy in t in bokeh I can I didn't really realize it until the phone rang a couple weeks later and some people I knew called me and they're like Doug we need some help the beach is gone um and uh so um they got hit much worse up in the north end of the county but um even even northeaster events that have no names and people will forget about them in in six months uh can occur and cause damage and you know you you need to factor that into your planning um as well other questions are there exceptions to the limitation oning fund from outside are any Hur um I I'll say that the state legislature last year um in response to Hurricane Ian and then adaia and tropical storm Nicole between the three of the first no the second two between hurricane Ian and tropical storm Nicole some of them were more impacted to the West Coast of Florida some of them were more impactive to the east coast of Florida um the legislature granted money uh to be released via the EP who handles the money for the beaches um to anybody who needed help and they put some specific criteria on that money um there are um I was working at the time with a community over the West Coast small little it's it's a large uh homeowners association they have uh like 3,500 residential units in it and they happen to own about 1500 feet of beach on the west coast it's all private according to the the definitions that the state uses uh we went and since the legislature I think it was Senate Bill 2 granted all this money uh uh and they didn't put a lot of conditions on I said hey maybe you finally will get some money if you apply so we applied they didn't get any money uh they said the money oh money's got to be handed down to the counties okay they went over and talked to the county County's like well we got a lot of a lot of needs here in this County and so this large homeowners association eventually wound up at the bottom of the list and there was no money left over so um there are exceptions the exceptions are hard the exceptions are restrictive um that doesn't mean the answer is categorically no because now we have evidence that the state has given money on a kind of a broader base to help facilitate recovery in some cases it was recovery of local economies uh beaches Drive tourism and tourism drives our economies um and so they they knew that if we they could get the beaches back in shape and the hotels open U The Tourist would come and and um generate tax revenue for everybody so it has been done it but it's very restrictive on private beaches you it's not like a I I I talked to uh The Regulators and they would just sit there and smile at me go you can apply S as well as other um most of most of that cost is just going offshore and dredging and and the cost of bringing a dredge in and doing the project one time not and um by some mode of authority perhaps Municipal mandatory howal that without bringing in just planting restoration that saying like like like really everyone gets really serious about doing restoration doesn't if you're going to do the plantings the plantings are good overall they're good to control windblown sand um it's better than having no plantings at all um you're not going to get a lot of erosional protection from you're not going to reduce the rate of erosion that make go on they the red the reduction in storm response is there it's not if I measure it it's not going to be a very big number it might be there um I mean seots are wonderful plants and they grow they're not like pretty they're functional but if I measure them at a scientific or an engineering level or or you know I yeah we saved onethird of the Dune you know over not having any plants on it but I mean it's it's a couple of yards of sand we're not we're not talking tens of yards at this point so [Music] right yeah can we go back to that slide where you show the annualized shoreline change summary year yeah number four there go so so the bottom right hand corner of this slide says the overall average is an increase of 1.2 1.2 feet feet per year per year averaged out over 48 years okay so I guess can you explain again why is it possibly in five years we would have to replenish our beaches I I think it's a matter of the fact that your your burm elevation is low you're I I we looked at this um and the burm in Highland Beach is about one foot lower than the artificially maintained BM in delay um when you have a storm the waves Rush all the way to the Dune and will eat up the Dune it does the same thing at delr on the same storm and the water may only not even get to the Dune um and um has allowed Del's beaches to get very wide and and the wind to blow up into the dunes and the dunes have gotten very big there um the I I I think I fear more than anything else that your high tides King tides and then Storm surges whether we agree or disagree as to whether we're having more hurricanes or more severe hurricanes um POS pose a threat to to your property um you don't have a lot of resilience while the beach width has gotten a little wider which is what this data is showing it doesn't say that the burn the beach has gotten any taller um and isn't holding any more sand I think that's probably uh so is there a slide on height no I didn't I I didn't show you on height it's important the height isn't important but yeah it's important it's the volume of sand between the Dune and the shoreline that's always important mean like the next SL Maybe yeah if we look at um look at where the rack lines are this is the north end of town the rack Lin's right at tow Dune it's kind of somewhere in the middle of town we got rack line we got multiple rack lines in here showing that waves are getting to this location to this location or even almost toward the Dune uh even Ocean Place of States we got a couple of them getting close to the to the Dune so you're seeing actions they're going on every year um already and so that and we haven't had a direct hit from a hurricane or a tropical storm in in years we've had couple lots of storms have come by um we haven't had a really bad storm maybe a decade or so um and that that's kind of you you're going to see the the episodic storms are what's going to drive action or no action um um and um whether you plan for a project and build a project or two different stories sometimes uh we we've had clients whove planned for things and then have never built it um because they didn't think they were ready to pull the trigger on it um and uh but they wanted to be down the road if they needed something they want to have a plan in place um so that but but I I look at this particularly the north end of town this beach profile you have the Ste the Steep dun face and then you have a profile that's really flat but I thought this was awfully low compared to I was a little surprised how low it was relative to to Del um and I was like geez we're feeding all this sand into into Highland Beach but we're seeing it in the shoreline data but we're not seeing it in the height it that the beach literally drops like a foot in the first five 500 or th000 feet as as you as you walks out that of Del and I was like H nature doesn't want doesn't want to support that elevation without without means um and uh so that that's that's that's my concern I mean we got evidence that you're getting waves to places where you don't want to you you want the Dune to be a last last ditch res uh your last ditch protection to your property as you're doing and you're seeing small incremental impacts already so can you build the seaw wall on the beach and if you could would it help uh there are there are rules in the State uh FL Administrative Code that allows seaw walls to be built uh they're highly restrictive as to whether you whether you're eligible to get a seaw wall or whether you are whether there's justification it all deals with how close uh your habitable structure is to the beach and how threatened it is and also it deals with whether uh that habitable structure was designed with a foundation system that's intended to resist uh extreme storm events um and I know a lot of a lot of the properties in town here are these are redeveloped properties over the last 20 or 25 years many of them were done under a permit from the state which means they've got a foundation that was in theory designed to uh withstand the effects of of a of a 100e storm event is that is what the permit's based off of so um those those structures wouldn't be eligible for a seawall uh though we are seeing rumors that the state has May relax that rule uh in some cases um and uh but that's I'll say that's just talk at this point I haven't seen them actually do it uh for any of my clients yet but we we've got applications in now for one of them and we're going to see see how how willing they are to relax some of the eligibility rules for seaw walls is excuse me is one of the options to build a restrictive Reserve each year to build up a fund if and when it's needed for a beach renourishment project um I I didn't talk I didn't talk about that in my report uh there are as as I as I said there were multiple different ways of funding these projects I don't think there are too many communities out there that are prefunding uh uh a uh a reserve shall we say for uh be Beach res Beach uh preservation efforts there are communities principally at the county level that dedicate funding to beach preservation they most of the counties in the state that are on the coast have uh take some of their tourist Development Council dollars and their bed tax dollars and if they get five cents or six cents of a bed tax they may Don dedicate one penny or two pennies to to beach preservation on a countywide basis uh wherever they think it's best applied wherever they think it's best uh utilized um I don't think it's but that's usually at the county level that's not necessarily at a municipal level I I see a lot of the places a lot of the condos need dun toe nourishment I see our condo needs that is that only sand is only the cure for that bringing in sand for the the best the best way to accomplish that is by by hauling sand in placing it in front of the front of the in front and then vegetating it to keep the wind from blowing it away okay but you say vegetation will help like onethird or something like that you yeah about it it'll reduce some of the erosion if if the waves get to the Dune having vegetation is is beneficial yeah it seems like you know part of this too was to um identify needs by property which you did um so that we can share it with the property owners and they can take specific action and it seems like the general recommendation is ADD what is it the two cubic yards per foot is that of sand and then rejuvenate or revegetate the the Doom toe that's generally the consistent feedback throughout right one one of the I I think I was a little surprised when we went out and did this property by property observation of the beach and the dunes that I I knew that there were properties that had they were going to need some Dune help what I didn't realize was is that nearly every property had some spot on it that needed some do restoration effort on it and that it was a townwide basis you know I think that was surprising to me um that you can find it anywhere in town but it it it's it's a that can be done at a scalable level you know whether you own 100 feet or whether you own 500 feet or whether you want to do it on a townwide basis that's people can take action if the individual owners can take action if the town doesn't want to right and and right you know that that's up to the board here yeah and then the other recommendation I see generally is to remove the Exotics and the sea grapes um there there there are now we're getting now we're getting into the weeds um but I noticed in first of all uh I'm not a horticulturist I'm an engineer but i' I've had to learned a lot of beach horiculture um first you have sea grapes that are growing on your beach on your Dune face uh if you look at good Community structures sea grapes are there they're native they were in ended to grow on the backside um and if you ever see the grapes after you have a really bad northeaster when you have all that salt blowing in the air for days after days after days and suddenly you go out and look at the pretty sea grapes and they're all brown because they all got burned by the salt um they don't tolerate the salt that well um so if you see sea grapes on the front side of the Dune they were probably on the back side of doing originally uh sea grapes in Palm Beach County grow like weeds in my my estimation uh they grow very well they grow very fast and it's all got to do with the climate we get lots of rain we get lots of sunshine um and we we don't have any freezes um historically P County might get a freeze every 10 years if you want back a hundred years that would keep some of these plants you know shrub size not tree size we get we can get sea grape trees this County um I go to the West Coast and I'll see SE grapes over there and they're this tall and there're struggling um and I just go geez I don't have any problem with that at home um and uh so I would caution people from planting seed grapes on the Dune faces that's not where they're intended to be there are plenty of other plant species that that grow very well on on the Dune faces um that can be swapped in um and so that the other thing is is if the dun scarps out the sea grapes kind of fall down and then they hide the the actual where the Dune is you just see those big lush green sea grapes and didn't realize that there's you lost five feet of sand back there and you can't even see it um there's another plant out there calls I call it Beach Noka it's got a couple different spellings uh but uh it's originally from Hawaii um it got imported at some point in time it grows like a weed and it'll out compete adjacent native plants it just grows and spreads year by by year um and if you ever get a permit from the state of Florida buried in the fine print on the back page is something says you will remove all your Beach Noka um because it it's it just outc competes uh other PL other native plants and doesn't really help help the Dune system so um we we saw that in a couple spots in in town there that's not a pervasive problem here it's more of an isolated on some properties there's some growing well it's pretty exciting to see um 4307 didn't need any action I know they spent a lot of time and I'm imagine money um rebuilding there dun and uh yeah that was um really great to see um no action um I think the report card on some of the other property shows some action is needed so I guess it's kind of like what do we do with these uh results that we have now we share them yes we share them and encourage the actions to be taken right right and I don't know maybe included as part of our strategic priorities if the town from completing the study now to communicating and engaging the public to take action now it's a call to action I know that the Natural Resource Board wanted to start then right maybe send it to the homeowners if they're not paying attention just send it to them say here's the recommendation you look at these things and then reference the study and start working to get them educated like we said at the same time about the sea turtles educate them about maintaining their feates and stuff any public comments about the study Rick Greenwald Bello uh I appreciate that uh the commission Marshall arranged to have this study perform because I think it's good to get the information having lived here now for 26 years I find this report extremely reassuring because basically it tells us that our beaches are in as good a shape as they've been over 26 years that areas of to the beaches are actually broader than they were before other areas roughly the same but certainly no significant decline learning more about the dunes but overall I think it's a very reassuring report and that there's nothing we can all agree I think emergent going on doesn't mean there shouldn't be some planning but certainly I didn't see anything that suggests that uh the town needs to be heavily involved in this as a high priority item at this point I think it serves best as a as an educational item I think uh educating people in town I know that process has already started about Dune management about plannings possibly about individual uh homeowners of Condominiums renourishing uh the toes of the dunes I think is uh you know all reasonable but based on what I've seen I don't see any particular reason for a you know a massive townwide uh Improvement project thank you thank you anything else well thank you very much thank you very much for your presentation and thank you for the study is very helpful thank moving along uh any general public comments seeing none uh we have no ordinances consent agenda if is there any discussion about the consent agenda if not we could have a motion I move that we accept the consent agenda second second all in favor say I I I anyone oppos motion carries unanimously unfinished business um resolution number 202 24-8 a resolution of the Town Commission of the town of Highland Beach Florida dedicating the Highland Beach Florida rescue Department Station number 120 in honor of former mayor Douglas hman we had discussion of this last time I think we were ready to approve the resolution we just made some minor speaks to say dedicated in honor of instead of being named after it's just uh some semantics if you will a little bit of changes um with the followup on that um I have placed a design order with a sculptor bronze sculpting company to start putting something together that would go into the library it's called like a Bas relief sculpture plaque where hopefully they can you know 3D sculpting of the mayor's face at the bottom along with um of a summary of the Proclamation here that will be read on there with his name so what's the difference between in honorable than naming uh I doubt thought I was just taking your guys lead if you want to go something else you know you you know you you tell me um I thought there was some concern saying calling it The Doug hman fire station or Memorial fire station so then we're just going to in his honor dedicate this little bit that you know counselor uh you know you've been there so scrier I think that there will be a lot of unhappy people about that as opposed to naming it I'm it's up to the it's up to the commission you guys tell me I'm more than glad to do that I'm working on the piece to permanently recognize it how do we want to call and recognize it you let me know and I'll be more than glad to uh tweak it to meet the commission's desire so Evelyn you want it to be naming it that's what I thought was going to happen and that's what quite a few other people thought was going to happen um so the discussion at the last meeting I I thought like we didn't want to have the name across the front or whatever I I don't think that was ever really suggested um what my vision and it could be different than other people's was that there is a for example there's a plaque on the outside of the library and have a plaque similar to that on the outside of the building like near the entrance Door into the lobby area and then have his picture and a little history inside the lobby and that to you is naming the building after mayor Helman not in honor of yes what I'm not if the the bronze it's pretty it's it's going to be big my concern is putting it outside right on the front from the sea it's going to get beat by salt so I was going to take it inside just inside the doors and like the entry way you'll know is this on the library get beat up uh no because it's a little bit further tucked away the one on the front of our building at Town Hall is pretty rough um we do have a dedication plaque to the like a typical building construction um we can put it inside or out I just thought inside so you walk I mean we could put a little naming plate above it but like when you go in the the cost of the bronze structure or plaque or whatever you know it's hard to I'm learning about the bronzing of stuff um would be inside so when you come in any Resident that goes into the fire station there will be we can put his name on the wall and then there's a big dedication plaque inside so it's kind of like a special showcase area for every resident in the the future and gas that comes into the fire station will recognize it I'm not sure how big I would make that plaque I mean it's 16 by 26 it's not ginormous but I mean it's you know 26 16 it's a good size like you'll be able to read the letters and the font and you'll know what it says but Evelyn I don't but is it even the plaque is I mean I hear what you're saying your concern is the words that we're using name the building versus in honor of I mean I think we can get to the details of the actual whatever but to be fair this fire station would never have been built without dougill because he was the one who I mean we all had issues with how much money we were paying Del but he was the one who had the insight to be able to bring in a consultant and tell us yes you can do this the rest of us would just say gee this is too much money and then what do you do about it well you can't just walk away from a contract and not have anything in place to take over and he had the vision to actually go and do something we all agree with that clearly we all agree I I guess I don't um honor of or naming the building after I I don't I don't know what the difference is to be honest so I don't know if anybody else wants to chime in I mean I I could go either way to be honest with you I mean I I don't really know what the difference is you tell me yeah yeah I can I can write it I can write it too I can write it either way because I think we all can we're all agreeing on I think the effect is the same we're all trying to get to the same effect the effect is the same I thought there was a little bit of concern or softening or how we were calling it The the Doug Hillman fire station 120 or morial fire station and does it impact anything as far as the emergency like there's no confusion right like 120 is all we care about right station 120 you can say anything at long as 120 is read by the dispat I mean from a technical perspective how every anything else we can do whatever we want I I had seen the U the language that the honoring was what we wanted to affect the naming to me was putting a big side the Hillman VI which is something that I don't think anyone wanted and the black is appropriate whether it be inside or outside I I I don't know about the size of any kind of statue or something else sign is is good yeah I thought honoring honoring is approprate in my opinion but I I thought it was like I think what Judy what commissioner Goldman Goldberg is trying to say is I thought h Hing was maybe an improvement or something you know because it we are honoring him for what he all the significant accomplishments he did as opposed when I think of naming I think of someone donated enough in order to name the building after them like all the Arenas and all that if you donate enough you get something named after you and and this honoring in my opinion was honoring the actions that the brave actions that he took so to me so just in my rationale that's why I I like it but I'm flexible I mean we could you know to further memorialize or alter I can always pull the check or the mayor doesn't have to sign the check um to get it going uh you know you could we have the we could do both there's a wall right like in front of the building it's not that attractive we could say the Doug Hilman fire St Memorial fire station along the road on the the the basic the wall in front of the station like the ramp that goes up there's a lot of wall space where we can put that in I mean there's other things so I thought we didn't want to do that I don't know that's that's the that's the part I mean if if it's the language is different than the actual physical memorialization we can separate the two and again if we want to call it that that in a effect through a resolution of the commission we can change that yeah I kind of agree with the mayor I think honor is like it's a higher level I mean to me that's what I would personally do it both I don't you want me to try one more time and bring back a couple versions so we get it let's get it right you know this is something that last time right yes I can twe we got time the the the bronze takes a takes a while takes you know like 12 weeks and I told a son Michael we'll have another event unveiling event things of that nature um that will take some time so we have a little bit of time to uh do that you know by F Friday we we're going to recognize him as part of it um you know in honor blah blah you know the language we can we have a little bit of time so I can bring back uh some further tweaks and see if every I'll run it by everybody first maybe maybe I should have done that before this a is it sound right U maybe we'll do that exercise amongst ourselves and then bring it back agree on of what yeah very good moving on fire rescue implementation update we don't have too many of these left to we but these guys are making me nervous my anxiety as we get closer and closer to May 1 and this Friday it continues to grow but Friday I'm concerned about everything but uh May 1 I'm good relax that is uh mayor dice Mand your fire chief uh update uh construction we did the punch list today with um cof and L pjl and uh Tom McCarthy I was at a meeting with the HOA so didn't make it some minor stuff uh touch-ups paint and that kind of thing they're working on that diligently to get cleaned up for Friday our compressor is still in back order um don't know when it's going to be delivered yet but they gave us a mobile unit so we've been using that for training and stuff so we're not that's not hampered our ability to do the job our dedication plaque delayed so we won't have it for the likely we will not have it for Friday so um and we changed the station number when we were directed to change the station number I kind of threw everything back because that happened six weeks ago you just can't get things done that quickly so uh we'll keep working on that on the good news that Del G to be delivering the rescues on the engine uh either sometime this week they were supposed to do today but they had some breakdowns in there their own Fleet so it might be Wednesday or Thursday by the time we get the trucks delivered they'll go directly for maintenance and check complete check and clean and then we'll remove the graphics and do all that bring him a ro to get it done uh I was just advised today that our inspection with the state is going to be on 26 so next Thursday we'll get the state inspection which allows uh them to issue our FD ID number which is going to be now officially by State records fire department up until then we were a pseudo fire department when we get our fdid number then we're official so that's going to be uh next week we're well prepared all of our records are in place our I submitted all the documentation that they requested last September so uh they've had everything for that long and they've been dragging it out so she's going to be Susan sha she's from the State Fire M's office will be down next we Thursday uh she's she only allocated 30 minutes for the inspection so I'm thinking that she's well aware that everything's in place just a matter of putting eyes on things and then issuing the number Personnel wise we've been training diligently for the last six weeks uh and um we rented the Bas is a training facility for a few days but we've been mostly using rier Beach uh they offered it at no cost so we've been up there uh all most of the last week and most of this week will'll be up there during the actually h on training search and rescue pulling hes and doing this kind of things so it was very generous to them to do that I just want to mention that in the public forum that they've been very generous to us in the past in fact they offered us to store the vehicles up there in their new station if our station wasn't ready in time so again Chief C has been very very generous to us I just want to mention that open house based on our VPS we're looking and uh the fire department their families and town Personnel we're looking at about 250 people might be here on Friday we're hoping the number is smaller because uh you know venue is small but we'll accommodate whoever shows up all of the um deposits been made for food and music and you know equipment so everything's on time we'll do a complete rundown tomorrow at 11: and then we'll start setting up on Thursday afternoon after noon probably begin setting up stages and that uh to get all that done in time I'm confident we'll be okay it's gonna be a busy day well plenty of food so we're good we're good so if a lot of people don't show up you get a doggy bag to take home with you large doggy bag parking will be at say Lucy's we have three uh six passenger uh golf carts to transport people back and forth in case need assistance we'll be parking the uh VIPs and the people that need assistance and on our campus to make the walk shorter uh so the only Downer is that that P's probably going to not be here in time so we're gonna have that I think you want to do a ribbon cutting cut want to do a ribbon cutting yes yeah oh yeah ribbon cutting I guess I got to get the ribbon and a big scissors maybe hit it with an axxe a gold axe vice mayor staring and mayor Mo on one end of the scissors and we'll get it done so that's all my report I just have to one one mention uh Mr Ray car in one of the count of buildings in town taught 90 people CPR three days in over two weeks uh we gave him the equipment but he did it so I made him a a commendation for you know life saving efforts which I'll present to him later this week he's not here today I just want to mention that he went above and beyond for his fellow for his community and so we wanted to publicly recognize him and uh give him something to memorate by Mr car outstanding are we inviting some of the people from WEA Beach to come we invited most of the people that helped us out including Booker rier Beach Palm Beach County palage Gardens uh some of the small departments uh Chief trobe in uh TOA and J Alexander who's in North par and then we also got our elected officials extended invitations um I'm guessing where we're at 250 it may peek up because I I've texted a few folks that got the invitation I said did you get it and I they didn't respond and they're like oh thank you and I was like what does that mean you coming or not coming so I think some people may have forgotten to RSVP that will show up so but we've formally invited um the elected officials um from our district City Senator Burman yeah Peggy got it side Peggy will be here I think Senator Burman or one of her staff members will be here somebody from Jimmy Patronis who's the CFO State Fire Marshal his office how about our County Commissioner we um Extended an invitation uh to her along with um County uh administrator uh Virginia Baker so we did you know we'd love to have him same with Chief Kennedy we invited him and and our folks from from Del we invited them you know we'll just see you know the Comfort level of some but uh one way or another um we're gonna have a great event we you know a labor of love and a lot of hard work I mean I don't know how many times I'm gonna say that I might even get emotional there might be a lot of hugs going on but we were able to do this so I mean I I also got to mention uh Jamie uh martinello she's with the buan police uh Foundation she was I mean I called her up told her what I needed she made a list she checked everything twice find all our vendors got quotes for us I mean she went above and beyond she did my work for me and then some but she did an outstanding job uh so it'll be a good event I think you'll be I'm not going to give you any details I want you to be a little bit surprised you know like so uh but uh Jimmy did line share of the work more than I anticipated as Le surprise so that's one function of the the foundation which they been various and they want to be there also the entire Foundation all the boards were invited uh Boer told we had an issue with them because the rscp went into their filter and they have a filter that doesn't show up in their drug box it just goes away so I ended up uh but they'll be here and um I know uh the chief uh trainer right Chief trainer yeah I send city manager Brown will be here and I have to admit though they they have turned the corner uh George Brown has been wonderful if you know anything about him he's you know in the article in the post being with bokeh for 40 years so um it appears bokeh is willing to talk to us about being a formal partner so that's good I mean I know Chief had said that they would eventually come around and I think they see that you know we're establishing ourselves they see the very mirroring capacity of our two agencies looks similar same medical director staff so I I I see that they they're comfortable with our Direction definitely a milestone and I think I think others will and you know other departments in the neighborhood will come into play don't want to mention any names but it's just a matter of time I think we have to establish ourselves as being serious moving forward because up until a month ago everybody saying we couldn't do it still saying we couldn't do it so I think when we get past the initial shock and the dust settles I think we'll have a more cordial and more collaborative arrangement with our neighbors and then once they see our beautiful station it's it's it's amazing it's beautiful isn't it wonderful when a plan comes together together I when you you prove everybody who said you couldn't do it wrong I didn't do anything we was a team effort like I keep telling you every time it's everybody was on board for this one everybody in town everybody even now neighbors some of them just jumped in and helped us out I mean the chief of Rivera Beach chief kurd called me up and said hey if you need anything let me know I mean he was the first one of the Chiefs in the county to call me that was and it's you know it was very uplifting you know encouraging that things are going to turn over so looking forward to Friday yeah it's gonna be a good time whether or not you we it comes off like we wanted to it's going to be great and it's going to be beer and wine to uh amarate any toward feelings we will have a great time we will have a great time to DJ so DJ will be well this is really a historical event for the town of Highland Beach and it's a Triumph for our community and it's something to really celebrate so I think we are all very proud of the accomplishments that we all did together and uh it's a very exciting time so Jason wants to from the police fire Foundation wants to tell media he wants to have everybody here we just don't have the room for it Rich will be there that's all we need that's all we need we have Richard here are you coming come on on Friday rich rich is all we need food yeah the C star wanted to watch the training so we inv I'm up to Rivier Beach tomorrow to take photographs and to uh interact with the with the fir Fighters and then Friday we have a few other beyond the open house we have a few other things going on so you want to come in early say around one o'clock take pictures and meet everybody so it's going to be a full day of fun and uh hopefully you're pleasantly surprised that the ceron goes well we've been planning it for a while and hope you feel uh proud of it looking for to I oh I don't think the people who founded this town 75 years ago would had ever imagined we would be where we are today full service it's a full service community and it is it's funny you say that it is our 75th Anniversary so we're gonna have a big we're GNA start working on a 75th anniversary celebration for the fall which will tie into the fire station so really it's kind of iconic that on our 75th Anniversary we are are uh starting the last piece to be a full service Community um total local control so um it's kind of nice it's good you know we started by building a water plant that was their first action um over 73 years ago was to sell water bonds and get some wells going for the residents and then it moved into the police and um all those other services over time kind of filtered the way in but on the 75th Anniversary we're starting our first fire station inaugural department so I'm glad to be a part of it it was a it's been a great ride so far I had a full head of here when I showed up but hey I grow back right any questions I'm not so sure don't count hope keep hope alive thank you very much thank you thank you exceptional next item Florida Department of Transportation the trip R project update uh so as many of you have uh know and seen in the emails uh they have delayed the project to late May early June is now going to be uh at this point their new start date um they're leaning more towards May than June whatever that means meaning late May rather than early June so uh We've you know got a month of reprieve we'll finish season without any disruptions um but again they said they've delayed working with the contractor so um we have expressed our concerns we don't want to hit two seasons though so whatever they do they need to really start it to get some heavy lifts and really only impact one season versus a second um we don't want to see a lot of road closures that second season round so okay uh next item continued discussion of Milani Park um you do it I guess uh one item that's pretty exciting that uh transpired over the last couple weeks is that uh we had a we ordered an appraisal done of the property you know one as I had been talking to each of the Commissioners and suggesting that the county sell the property um you could kind of tell that that meant different things to different people you know maybe some Commissioners thought that the VA the value of that property wasn't that much much so it couldn't really get them that far if they were to sell the property um recall that the uh the county paid 3.9 million so less than four million the county paid for that property and the appraisal came back at $45 m750 th000 so um it's quite a bit more than what they purchased it for and so I think that that will really help um at least put a number when you know we suggest selling the property and then also when you tack on that the savings that the county will um realize from not actually you know the of the construction of the park so you got to take both into consideration the for the near 46 million and then plus the savings of not constructing the property and the savings of not having to run it and main that's right the main right is a cost to that that's right if they don't put a structure on the beach and they don't have lifeguards there's still a cost to maintain it absolutely yeah very good point so that was uh really important um and the other thing that we are planning to do is uh the county uh I think it's the first meeting of every month has what's called called the matters of the public where people can go and present and so we are coordinating um residents to for us all to go up there and to [Music] um put on display how how the the town is Unified in um you know we do not want the park and and we think it would be best for the county to sell the land and use the proceeds for the land that would benefit uh the rest of the of the county so um we are trying to organize everyone to come together and uh the town is going to uh reserve two buses for us all to go up there and uh I think it's important for us to show in numbers uh you know where what position the residents of the town of pyland beach people have and I guess other people from you don't even have to be a resident of pyland Beach uh to join us and um and people who want to make public comment can make public comment but it is very important I think that we we all show up and show um because I you know we had our meeting here it was recorded um I I personally went and met with every uh almost every commissioner except for one um but I think this will be very compelling if all of us go and um make our opinions known so so please save the date May 7th and I guess the buses will leave here at noon is that what you're we thinking yeah we'll all get here at noon uh again like we we've reserved two buses uh we'll get food for everybody so no one's peckish and getting too angry and aggressive on the way there uh we'll keep everybody at Bay and real nice coaches motor coaches we have um we'll get there and then we will work on the bus is to kind of keep our uh the county won't do well with an open Forum if you will with everyone um we just have to kind of mind ourselves a little bit keep our sense of a group decorum you know no shouting yelling name calling uh being highly aggressive um there the way we were at our meeting our public meeting here I thought we were fine but I guess that's too much sometimes for them so we just want to be a little bit mindful of that and have a very coordinated approach to express our concerns um this isn't a meeting where it's going to be back and forth per se but we'll get an opportunity to talk and then the idea is to set the county with the foundation that we're against it we followed up as promised the mayor went to all these meetings said hey we're going to do these things show you these items which is basically the appraisal the the concerns from Public Safety um pedestrian concerns limitations on the beach Dune sea turtles all that stuff was uh communicated and that's really our message and we just want to present our message succinctly uh and appropriately and we'll have uh speaking cards for everybody so you don't have to you can express you your your position without talking uh they're just not going to let everybody talk and say the same thing if we we've all been there we all even here sometimes we'll have people all say the same thing over and over there we want to be a little more coordinated um we'll have stickers and do that kind of thing and we'll just go and the sheer numbers I think we truly believe we'll express our opinion clearly and then the county will then have our position then return back to us this isn't a negotiated meeting where everybody gets to talk like we they're not as open as we are let's say with constructing Solutions they're very formal and structured so this meeting is sell the property here are our reasons leave it and then they will uh come back and we'll get to see what they think when we went to County about the b g the fire department did we have one bus or two that we did one so I got two that I will tell you the County Chambers are not as big as you may think and one bus kind of overwhelmed them so two will really send a message yes and I think that's what we're uh getting I know that um I think the committee to save Highland Beach has partnered a little bit with the town on this part or has and said hey save the date we do have buses we do have transportation I will you know water and some finger food sandwiches something to keep us moving and uh you know come you can the other secondary things that I like is again we continue to build our sense of community um and camaraderie so this is an opportunity to meet some of your neighbors talk um you you know meet your Commissioners if you haven't had a chance uh but I think it's great um and again this is kind of our I want to say our Lasco but this is a big push we this is our you know everything has been choreographed and scripted if you will not really scripted but we've planned this we knew the day was coming and we're moving uh systematically towards that and this is our next big step and see what you know see what the county does um they're listening the County Commissioners as a whole are listening so um you know what we say and how we say it matters and you know the numbers I think will set that impression do we have an idea of how many speakers they will allow um you know maybe a handful a dozen at most and I think what they tend to do is uh mayor Sachs will probably say okay all right all right you know they don't want like they don't want the the broken record heard public comment like don't build it because X don't build it because they want to hear the same thing over they kind of get that so they will try to help kind of group comments so we're not there till you have a right to speak we here even trying to say let's try to keep ourselves together everybody has that opportunity we cannot obstruct that nor will the county if you will they are going to work towards consolidating it so they're not there till 10 11 o'clock at night so they will work at kind of bringing us um together and you only have a couple of minutes so it it does uh pick up so the idea is if you are going to speak you know if we could do it on the bus like what are you going to speak about so we don't have three residents say the same thing you know so um that's what we're hoping to do um but has anybody reached out to the Indians I know we were just told today that the tribe that was here is now extinct that may play a part that you know an extinct TR at this point I mean we've had some secondary conversations through some of our Consultants uh one of our Consultants back room um not formally like hey again this is the opportunity for the county to make sounds Highland Beach Focus to make the right decision we're hoping they make that right decision on our behalf if they don't those that they still have to do the rest if they choose to which would blow my mind but if they choose to ignore real Salient facts on reasons why they should move off of it then you know they'll have to take their next steps and we have our next steps that's that's all um but we're hoping they'll they'll they'll listen and I I think there's an opportunity there I think the mayor did a really good job of um meeting on a one-on-one basis with the county commissioner so they could hear our story um and then with the relationship of of Neil or consultant to kind of like you know kind of struct that so it's working working quite well yeah I think that meeting oneon-one was a very good move I think that's where you Influence People is one onone not in a big group I think it's fair they like to get a little head heads up you know you can address specific concerns that they might have in a one-on-one basis that's not as easily addressed if you're in a bigger group I think we have a lot of good points to make and the appraisal really pulls it together like you know you should listen to this especially when if you read each of the County Commission or send their little newsletters or you read all the things they're trying to accomplish and these goals that are more vexing social issues and other parks that are falling apart this is where they're going to choose to funnel all their resources or a good chunk of resources where they can use the dollars from a sale to really leverage like you guys said in your resolution I'm hard pressed with the numbers that were presenting that they're not going to they have to really give that a good look because the rest of their District people are going to be in like you're taxing the county at full at $200 million to address this issue there's 50 million sitting here and you're going to just walk away from it so I mean it's it seems and it doesn't affect the numbers that they're portraying as important like meeting the square footage we all know where mayor she did the math so there there isn't there there isn't a a statistical change in the number with or without our beach so and but also as a practical matter I don't believe that the people in either delaway or boka really care if there is a park because they have plenty of beach park both of those towns have a huge amount of public beaches and if I'm coming from the west of this County I don't want to go to a little bit of a park that is near nothing and has no facilities as opposed to some place that's got a nice big wide Beach and thing restaurants I can take the kids to for a hamburger or a ride next door or something that will entertain them other than just sitting on the beach I grew up in New York and I remember our beaches had all kinds of things on them this one has nothing and when they compare it to Hammond Park there is no comparison because Hammond Park is part of a big expanse that's just Beach this is a small beach in among houses so it's not the same at all it's apples and oranges not apples and apples save the date y save the May 7th May noon we're sending out an invite if you don't mind saying like if you intend if you have guests with your number just so we can get kind of get a a pulse of how many folks so we can order some food appropriately and make sure we have enough seats and things of that nature excellent okay moving on to new business resolution number of members of the planning board and providing for an effective date and this is just a reappointment of Eve um Rosen and just wanted to say thank you that she's volunteering again um this is a reappointment so it should be pretty straightforward we can have a motion please I move we approve resolution number 2024 d009 second that all in favor say I I I motion carries unanimously okay next item is um resolution number 202 24-10 a resolution of the Town Commission of the town of Highland Beach Florida ratifying the selection appointments and term of term of office of members of the natural res uh resources preservation Advisory Board and providing for an effective date and this again is a reappointment of several U members uh Barbara Barbara Nestle Christine Vias Alan Bloomberg Kenneth shriberg um thank you to each of you thank you for um being willing to willing to serve again again this is a very straightforward if we could have a motion I move we approve resolution number 2024 d010 second all in favor say I I motion carries unanimously okay item um item C resolution number 2024-the Florida ratifying the selection appointments and term of office of members of the financial Advisory Board and providing for an effective date I know one of the members was um Mr Dr Greenwald and I see that he's left but uh a big thank you to him for um for volunteering again and I know there is another member here and John John johnil oh W yeah he as well so yes so thank you for reading the names uh this is a pretty straightforward so if we could have a motion for that please I move we approve resolution number 20 24-11 seconded all in favor say I I I motion carries unanimously okay cons item D consideration to cancel the May 7th 2024 Town commission regular meeting this is so that we can all go um to the county meeting yes so any discussion on this item if no discussion we could have a motion I move that we cancel the May 7th meeting of the commission so that we can go up to the County Commission meeting I second that okay all in favor say I I motion carries unanimously okay item e discussion of Highland Beach Community post office a contractual service of the United States Postal Service okay so um we received notice from the United States Postal Service uh that we they will no longer they will pull and they have pulled uh their credit card machine so there's no credit card processing of transactions um at our local post office so that in effect turns us into a cash only operation uh moving forward um Lena ran some numbers over the last three months basically 90% of transactions are credit card so basically nine and 10 customers coming in are using a credit card that is no longer accepted so um one would ask and you can see in your M model want to summarize it uh well we'll just put in our own credit card machine which we would be glad to do however uh the caveat that the United States Postal Service uh puts on that is that at the end of each day we'd have to reconcile all transactions and write a physical check now most Folks at home like oh let rip out check and well it doesn't work unfortunately that way here in in a municipal setting if we do recall from the charter that means every single SLE day that we operate myself and a commissioner or when I can't make it two Commissioners have to be here at the end of each day to sign a check before it goes through signing a check it has to be reconciled then push through the finance department which is two steps and there's a third management step to approve that authorization those while done Mobile Three Steps have to physically be taken and the check has to be written and given to the gentleman picking up the mail at the end of the day so we do that in about 20 minutes so it's just to to go to stay with credit cards with the US Postal Service isn't there so Lena asked uh she also uh this gentleman that is our official contacts out of Colorado that's how important you can't talk to the local postal master she asked to talk to that person's supervisor nope you can't do that H we've uh also spoken to some of our uh neighboring communities that have had the uh Community post office they've all stopped uh just it you just can't do that I think the Postal Service no longer wants to support it uh we have it's been for us it's basically we pay for that service to our residents it's a luxury we spend they pay us 25 Grand but we spend in total about $160,000 operating in the post office for the for the convenience of our residents uh vast majority of our customers are not residents but nonetheless we still have our residents going um a lot are simple Trend just dropping it off I like to drop it off in the mailbox um situation also our postal carrier of 24 years uh Val has um chosen to retire uh in a month so she'll be out that leaves us with one part-timer uh to operate a full-time cash uh postal office uh if we need to we could if you make the choice to stay with a cash only operation we can go and find somebody uh to do that so that really brings us down to how do we want to proceed you know for the next month while Val's here uh we'll continue to operate and gives us an opportunity no matter what happens to communicate that which we are doing uh to the general public um I I have expressed in an email I think it's it's time to to to transition away from providing that service for cost savings parking difficulty working with the Postal Service it you know that's difficult to do but I work at your pleasure so if you guys want to keep one keep it going somehow if you choose that a cash only and you just want to have a post office experience available you know I would encourage to consider a reduction of hours to a very part-time thing could work with a couple of part-time postal clerks you know like 8 to No 9 to two I think there's a a midday pickup so we could make sure you know we do that um they take the I guess the cash with them I think it seems kind of weird but they just take the cash with them um I'm uncomfortable with a lot of cash transactions just just making change right right um a lot of people carry big bills you know now now we got to change big bills and if if you remember at least I remember you know working in retail as a kid you run out of change you go to the coffee shop next door you go to the restaurant say hey can you get me some change for this well we'd have to get in drive to a bank and there's a you know takes a couple hours to get change um so we're a little bit challenged but it's the we're at a a precipice you know how do we want to to move forward with this there are uh other local post offices that are close there's one just over the bridge in lint I mean literally just over the bridge on the the north side of the road um there's other ones in Boke I mean there's there's plenty of there another one right over spish River in the Carell and it's there's one in a store there but there's also a Post Office right on the end of that yeah so I mean there's there's options I mean this is this is a nice service to have but it's you know if we can't take credit cards most people aren't traveling with cash and or their own personal checkbook to to write out a check uh I mean we're going to see over the next few days regardless of the decision how if people are really upset when they come in and yes um most of our can you know that the cash that we do see are very small like I need three stamps or five stamps to people a couple bucks okay but shipping packages the post office has made this decision to stop taking credit cards well you you good luck finding out um they don't really tell you anything their business model personally the business model the of the US Postal servic is broken without heavy subsidies by the American taxpayer it just because you have all the The Profit you know like I always tell folks if you can make money at a government service it's usually privatized quickly right so what's left of the US Postal Service is mailing a card mailing some invites doing some basic things that you still that people barely do now because everyone does online banking that's their business their bread and butter which is not a lot so it you know you put a 68 cent stamp on a card and you throw it out and you could try send it anywhere it's a great thing to have but it it costs a lot of money they just don't they don't want to do this they would rather internalize it maybe keeping their footprint smaller less other contracts to manage because they're so big you know it sounds like they really just don't want to do this I mean you can't talk to anybody you can't talk to your local postalm about this issue you have to I have Lela waiting on phone calls all day for somebody in Colorado they don't oh Highland Beach where's that you know it's it's and then they complain they have no money I mean and I see major problems with having a lot of cash around they probably make about a hundred grand on that little spot you know they not like they're not making money I mean they give us 25 it costs us 160 but the revenues are what's the revenue on the number 120,000 is the revenues generated there you figure they'd want it but they just they because they pay what the processing fee um like we do for a building department was that David like 4% three to four% of all transactions via credit card they got to pay so they lose that Revenue so maybe they think that if they close all the credit cards out of CPUs all of a sudden they're going to generate this additional Revenue well except they probably won't I it'll be people going to regular post offices and then when they have long lines it's people getting angry at the regular post office and that's my fear I know I talked to the vice mayor but people are going to get a little upset when what whatever decision we make even if we keep it open and it's cash only and that's all the US Postal Service will allow us to do people are going to be mad that it's cash only right so is a comment from a business perspective it probably makes sense to close from an amenity perspective you got to consider taking something away even if it's less hours of convenience because since this came out a couple of people came come to me and said hey you know it's easy for me I bring my packages I do so forth we're taking away something from the people will it cost us will is there a benefit to having more parking Etc sure but what's the downside with taking it away from a cash perspective it's cash in check I assume yeah simply by having a safe with a uh a a kid of money in the safe the change you know $1,000 or whatever the number is it eliminates the problem have to run somewhere to get change it can be you know it could be done if we want to figure out how to do it we can figure out to do it so we gotta we both sure yeah I mean sounds like the post office are trying to get rid of all their small stations I think the win on Linton is a private too I think uh uh I don't know if they're affected or they do more business there but I mean I'd like would like to keep it I mean we were saying we were saying last uh last meeting you know completes our town you know with a fire department in that maybe we can like they says maybe cut the hours a little bit maybe we just try it for a month or two see if it works out if it doesn't work out and it's outrageous uh but it's nice having a post office and a lot of people use it and it's easy to run to and there's never any lines and they're very helpful in there it's like an old Community uh post was like years ago so if we could manage it and you know try it out see see if we could do it it might be worthwhile you from I look at it from a um um not only the usage for our town but also the the cost Effectiveness I see that by um I I don't think it's beneficial for us to take on bringing credit cards in I think that's that's a whole other thing that I think we should avoid um the uh so then what we we're left with the cash and I agree um I that it's going to be cumbersome and um may be difficult uh but would other other issues may arise uh as far as having all that cash that concerns me the level of um as as well as the the cost I think the 160,000 um our side would go up dramatically in keeping it open and having U you know that the the cost would be increased would not Marshall it it depends if we keep the the same business model of Staffing with a full-timer and a couple part-timers we're still going to be paying the same amount uh we just they'll still pay us 25 Grand they didn't say they weren't going to pay us they're normal contract amount um it's just that we're just going to be doing a lot of cash is just a cash and check so I think from from the benefits to the town the convenience that will be dramatically different when there's no credit cards I think just naturally you know organically that's going to limit and uh you had made mention Marshall that I think it's it's important um that uh many people that use it are not residents they may be gu or just people coming through bicycling or other ones and so we don't necessarily have to C it to them um the space is important I I don't think we should you know even those two spaces in front and then there'll there'll be that um uh the issue of having that extra space for the town if the post office isn't there I'm generally against getting rid of an amenity just on general purposes um or principles but I don't know I think first of all I think you're going to have a lot of angry people because people are going to show up and not know they have to have cash and they'll have a package and they don't have the cash or a check to send it and then they're going to be angry and there really is no way of getting in touch with everybody and letting them know that it's not going to operate the way it was oper operating before if you limit the hours you're going to have people show up at 3:30 when usually went to 4 and they get there and it closed at noon and I don't know that it's worth having all these angry people to keep something that is used mostly by people who are not residents and we really have no way to get in touch with with them I mean even when we want people to know something and we try and contact people it's very difficult to get the information across and well yeah I people liked having it I think at this point especially with B retiring it comes at too higher cost I really think it would be in our best interest to close it after Val retires because I mean because even up until then people are going to show up and they're going to be angry that they cannot use a credit card they're going to be angry if they call show up and find the closed Post Office as well the same lack of communication or communication absolutely that is true talk again or okay yeah I'm in I'm in favor of of closing it as well um I just uh I think the other two post offices the one on Linton the one on Spanish River are are close enough um for our residents uh we still are going to have the mailbox right the blue mailbox so if you wanted to put um a card or whatever I actually use that blue box all the time so I don't trust going out of my mailbox but um yeah I just think the reduced hours have it open three or four hours a day I mean that just seems so um minimal I think the timing is right with the uh retiring of the long-term um uh postal worker that's in our office um I think we cater a lot to people that are not in our town so maybe it maybe it'll reduce traffic a little bit through Highland Beach which I think we're all kind of interested in um I I I don't want to have to have parking spots for people that are are outside of town that want to use our post office because it doesn't have as long of a line um I don't think that we need to cater we need to a lot parking spots for that I would rather have the space for other things um so for all those reasons um but I know I'm just a one in five so well I I just want to add to that that the memorandum that we have it does say 90% of all current transactions uh through credit cards and the effective date is was yesterday Monday so by the time the you know the outrage uh the they're going to see it it's going to it's going to spread we can't go there they'll be upset not necessarily that they don't have the post office that's the ultimate but they can't use their credit card so necessarily they're going to go to one of the other facilities right and it's really within within three miles for them it is yeah yeah it's closer than the bank to get the money to come back yeah it is it's faster to get yeah so I know but I know it's a hard decision I I really I hear it and everyone's even even if you're willing to do it it's just like God it's that I I just uh kudos to Lela she did a lot of work trying to go up every food chain it nobody they're just like this is how it is that's just it they're they're not flexible they don't want to continue partnership work on alternative you know we could say we could can reconcile monthly sure that would be something that would nope it's the end of the day you're going to write us a check for everything that went through that machine and that you know our limitations and our Charter and it just it creates a difficulty so then it's again it goes back to cash we're going to have an employment issue um we had a hard time we tried to find a replacement for Val um about six eight months ago we tried to go out and try to say who's going to be next because she'd kind of started indicating that we give us a Time couple people interested um the hard part about that job is uh you know it affects all government is said you know daveid and I just had this conversation you got to be here it's not a you can't remote in I'm not feeling well today I'll do some work from no no no you're you're here you're here from 8 to 4:30 you know like you can go to the bathroom but I mean you're here you have to be the person running it every single day except for when you go on vacation and that's when the part- timer comes in to help with that or you know appointments but it's it's hard to get folks it doesn't pay all that well I don't know how much you know do we want to increase the budget for a cash only to find somebody so it's It's Tricky so I know we're a little mixed here should we do a motion and we can vote on it or what would you like us to do well I mean it the the next time we meet it's the challenge right the next time we meet it will be May 16th Val will be done right so we will then if we don't take any action we'll have a cash only full-time operation we don't have staff we're forced to reduce hours uh I'm sure John would be willing to keep it going for as long as he can but you know he has sometime he's agreed to be a part-time right so a part-timer will be full-timer for a period of time so you know we're kind of on that window and again I apologize if it feels a very pressure decision um I own it whatever that is Is We I wish we had more time to try to unravel it uh they mean they pulled the machine on the fifth you know um but so we could you know keep it open until she's there and it gives us a month to communicate it's closing it's closing it's closing or it's going to be cash only and only be several hours a day you know you could do that if you want to slowly roll it out and and cease its operation I'm G you know do you want to make motion is someone want to make a motion as to what they want to do sure or and we can discuss it oh wait one second so not that contractually we have to give them 120 days notice so if we did it we'd give it'd be open for four months regardless but I don't you know if we don't have anyone to staff it we've done it before during covid hey we we're not we don't have any staff so I mean I I wouldn't let the post office pressure any decisions if it's a clean break then we'll just say we have no staff a person retired we can't give you four months notice so but technically the way it's written you're supposed to give them the 120 days but we have no one to staff it you know I move that we regretfully close the post office that we post a sign that says it's closing as a whatever date B retires and we'll let Len figure out the wording I second that okay so if we could have a roll call discussion oh discussion sorry go ahead U I just wanted descent on it and I would say that we're trying to figure out how we can rather than how we can be good open yeah I I kind of agree with that I let's see if it can work maybe maybe next meeting put it on the see what the people say if they want to keep it in cash I don't know I mean so we two two two issues I whatever you guys to say is going to happen right whatever you guys decided happening um we're gonna have a staffing issue in a short term at May 15th regardless of our decision mean we'll put an advertisement on but we're gonna we're gonna hit we're gonna hit a wall uh I mean John will probably do do a really good job holding it together um but we're going to hit at May 15th we're going to hit a wall again um it'll be tough to recruit because who knows how much longer the post office will be open I mean I don't know I we have a motion on the table I mean we can finish the discussion I say we you know do the roll call and see where see where we are I don't know if there's any public comment about it or any more discussion so call are we is it am I doing this procedurally you're correct repat the motion commissioner DAV repeat the motion I would say it's moved to close the post office and give the US Post Office the notice of intent to close it because we have to give them at least 120 days it it'll close prior correct would that be okay would be fine and I vote Yes okay and commissioner Goldberg I vote Yes commissioner Peters no vice mayor Stern no and mayor Moore yes motion carries three to two so I will work on a communication and we'll just start really getting it out looks like rich is he's got a he's got a page burner for front pager so bur sell some real estate ads this month um yeah it will be and then maybe that's you know again again we're just in a in a spot so um okay good discussion can't always be unanimous unfortunately um so moving on to town commission comments commissioner Golder well I think everyone's it's a long day everyone's tired uh but I'd like to um celebrate the firehouse I think it's wonderful wonderful news and uh we can bass ask in that and I was very impressed with your uh comments today earlier when uh you presented uh about our quite your unique service the unique service that the fire department gives in this in this uh wonderful town of us so I just wanted to acknowledge that again thank you thank you to the board and with regard to the post office um um we never like to see our any service diminished but um there are um um this is certainly beyond our control it was done uh by the post office and um there are other the financial u vagaries in this so I think that it was a a decision um notice that needs to be done so I do support that and uh acknowledging the Restraint of two of our members I think we're all u in agreement with that as well I we accept that um even though we voted differently so that's it thank you yeah I like to say we went a couple of us went to the beach condo association of course our Chief Joseph was there and Matt was there did a great job but it it was nice seeing them they're the hit of the the show there but it was nice to seeing that Del re was there and and um and boka and they got along it's not like you know us politicians where argue among they got like a I guess we call it a blue line for police a red line I don't know what you call it but they got together and they and Chief Joseph got up and said somebody from bokeh you called me Highland Hotel so it was just nice that that uh everybody to Harmony and everybody got along and also too uh there's a anybody cares h p park they have a boka has a um 7 o'clock tomorrow a meeting at the library and it's uh for discussion on what they're going to do so they uh they relay to us if anybody uses that going in and out of town there important for them to be there six o'clock I'm sorry six all right I made a mistake thank you well I'm super excited to have a ribbon cutting ceremony for a brand new fire station I think that's incredible I'm sad to close the post office but I think that there were extenuating circumstances that were completely beyond our control and under normal circumstances I would never have said that but between no credit cards and no postmaster I think that it would be it's an impossible situation for us to be in and I hope to see everybody on the seventh going up to the county again the BCA meeting thank you Chief Matt I think did a great job answer a lot of questions a lot of issues came up about uh batteries and fire things that are on our agenda to look at uh I think he did a great job there's also consultant there who did a great job uh so it was was a well attended very good thing and again all everybody sitting together from the fire perspective was great seeing everybody intermingling and so forth so I thank you guys very much look forward to that the other thing I just want to mention to the rest of the uh the commission just FYI for your information the two events coming up the uh uh at the fire station and at the uh commission meeting I'm going to wear my Highland Beach shirt and I think i' like I think it would be appropriate for us to do that I just wanted to pass that on so itpr um yeah good I was gonna ask about attire yeah I think that's a really good idea um it is important uh and I will most certainly do that and yeah I'm really excited for Friday Friday to at 3 so for the ribbon cutting I'm really excited for that uh celebration and um again you know Echo May 7th if we could all you know uh it's uh really great to be a part of this unified uh message so I hope everyone uh can come out and um and just want to say I I definitely I I respect all the Commissioners and their and their comments and their positions on things and yeah we're just not always going to agree but we're going to work um harmoniously on things and so um I I think we have good discussion up here and I and I think uh you know what we do is um constructive and you know we're just all trying to do what we we think is best so and then moving along Town attorney uh no ma'am I know uh representative Gosa Simon and Senator Burman did their little legislative update we are preparing a real comprehensive one waiting for the see if the governor signed some legislation so you'll have it Priority next meeting but I figure it's late and you're legislative Le out and where's my H and Beach t-shir P manager uh yeah thanks uh for the direction sorry thanks for the direction uh apologies on it seems a very tight timeline to make such a decision on the postal uh service um I wish it could be different um I'm happy and thankful for Val's years of service and I wish her well uh she served the community well over the 24 years and we're just in that spot so I don't know um you know how things could be different again um come up with the other couple other issues I wanted to oh um I was able to um something that we will have to uh unravel or start working on if you will that was on our strategic plan that will be coming forth uh will be special magistrate uh I able to secure us a special magistrate um and possibly a second one um so we have the ability to move in that direction we do have four code uh folks that are going to be coming off of the code board in August uh we don't have a gluttony of applicants so we're gonna find I'm going to be better this time and Le give you a lot more lead time that eventually the code board we're going to come to a period of time where they won't have a physical Quorum uh to take action and even if you get four when it's a board of seven is that truly fair to a petitioner or defendant that they're not uh granted all seven votes so um we're going to start one on the staff side I'll work with Len a little bit to kind of get a procedure very similar to the code board but um uh we do have a special magistrate so we're going to start you know May June July start talking about how we want that to look and uh how you guys want to go bifurcated Del re does it that way where you could take you know lower class of violations to the code board more technical high risk if you will for the community could go to a m special magistrate so it's very um very clean and little bit easier uh to process more technical issues um also uh Chief Hartman did come to me on something we had worked on a while ago that we may want to start talking about is beach access especially now that we hit with Public Safety we really don't have a a good way to get on the beach for other spots and now that we are primary uh means of rescue we may want to start revisiting that with some of the condo groups that have had they have a pretty adequate size access that they work with us to improve so we can get our uh beach cruisers and rescue vehicle uh not so much an ambulance down there but uh you think golf cart or something or the buggies we have to get to uh the water so we're going to have to start talking about that a little bit move forward again uh Friday uh excited it's like uh you know the anxiety of all this stuff coming to the head that we've been working on for so long we get to celebrate it um I think that hit when I uh gave my family a tour on Sunday uh I'm glad everything worked I was like we're never Badger's not gonna work hit it the doors open so um you know to see what I was stressed about they're like oh this is great you shouldn't be worried about it things should go well so um but you know that work in progress all the stuff we started um God you know we I still remember people telling me at the interview we're going to build a fire department here no way here we are six years later and it's it's it's come to it's come to life so I think it's a great opportunity for us to come together take a look at it celebrate welcome our new members to our family get a chance to thank each of you uh personally and our residents um for their support U has been amazing so look forward to that again uh and then May 7th think you know save the date let's go let's go tell the county what we think this is our time um let's go tell them how we feel and what we're thinking and see if they don't uh see it our way a little bit more and maybe they take pause if you know if there's something we can get them them to pause for a second to say maybe there is something different than the same thing that they're bring told to do so um and I like the the sea turtle group I like their logo that's pretty cool I know right Highland Beach kind of tied into it that's really nice um they're doing great work so thank you to the uh Highland Beach sea turtle team uh I'm glad they're formalized and uh continue to assess moving forward so thank you thank you very much um moving on to announcements we have some vacancies um for the board of adjustment and appeals board we have one vacancy for an unexpired term ending September 21st 2024 for the financial Advisory Board one vacancy for a three-year term for the natural resources preservation Advisory Board we have two vacancies for three-year terms we have um some upcoming meetings and events May 1st at 11: we have the natural resources preservation Advisory Board regular meeting uh May 9th at 9:30 in the morning planning board regular meeting May 14th at 1 we have the code enforcement board regular meeting May 21st at 1:30 is our next town commission meeting and then the town hall will be closed for uh May 27th in observance of Memorial Day there are no board action reports and seeing no nothing else looks like we can adjourn thank you very much everyone