Environmental Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Today's meeting of the Environmental Advisory Board is called to order May 14 and we're gonna go to recess shortly and we'll be right back in just a moment. The Environmental Advisory Board, our special meeting for May 14 is called to order here at 04:01 p. M. Thank you very much. The members of the Environmental Advisory Board were appointed by the City Council.

We serve voluntarily. The Board's objective is to provide citizen insight to the City Council and staff on environmental activities within and affecting the City Of Clearwater. Agendas of today's meeting are on the wall at the entrance to the chambers. Please remember to turn off your cell phones and electronic devices To ensure a complete record of the board's actions, we ask each individual wishing to speak to clearly state your name for the clerk. And will members of the board please introduce yourselves.

Hello, my name is Jason Dreist.

I'm the Chairman, Jared Leon.

Kelly Davin.

And our liaison is Cassie Cordova. Thank you very much. Our first order of business is to review and approve the minutes from our previous meeting. Thank you very much Danielle for putting those together. I'm looking for a motion as the minutes were submitted. Motion to approve. All right, and a second?

I'll second.

All right, all in favor, aye.

Aye.

None opposed, motion carries. All right, we'll go on to the next item. It's anyone to speak on items not on the agenda. Is there anyone here to speak to items not on the agenda? If so, please come forward. They're our first item on new business. Sorry.

Sorry, I suppose just

We'll give you guys just a minute here. Please step to the podium, state your name for the clerk. You'll have three minutes to speak on any item that is not on or any subject that's not on today's agenda. Thank you very much.

Thank you, members, and thank you for being here. It's an important job that you do. And I am William Johnson. I live at 2694 Redford Court West in Clearwater. And I recently received some more information about the Nash Clearwater's national.

Community survey. That is done about every two years. And there's some of it that relates to the environmental area and I thought I would share that with you. Taking it over so right here. The questionnaire asks the about four forty people responded to this survey, and one of the questions was, please rate how important the overall quality of the natural environment is in Clearwater.

And the way this works is that 87% of the people that answered that question from Clearwater rated it essential or very important. Now, this allows comparison to other cities, and when you compare this percentage to the other cities, there were 75 other cities that asked the same question. And of the answers, we ranked number 10. So, we were pretty high in that. And so that meant that the number of cities that ranked lower than us was 88%.

So we our citizens really think that's important. If then they'd ask the questions of, well, what do you think about how the city is doing on that? And in this case, our citizens came back and they are significantly lower than the midpoint on the ratings. And also the questions ask about water resources. And we rated very high on that.

On air quality, we're pretty darn good. On preservation of natural areas, we were really pretty low, and also open space is pretty low. Recycling, I think this was because of the problems a year ago, but yard waste pickup, we were really doing good. So I thought I would share that information with you. I think the bottom line is that what you're doing for the city is very important, and I thank you for continuing to do it.

Thank you very much, Bill. And I agree, and I think as the survey shows, a majority of people who live in Clearwater and choose to live here consider the environment an important reason as to why they do stay here and live here. Thank you very much, Bill. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak to any item that is not on the agenda? Alright. Then our first item on new business is the review presentation on Orca Litter Robot, Kaden, Mac, and Auris Isaac. Come on down. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to present in front of you today. My name is Eris. Caden and I are fifth grade students at Pride Elementary in Tampa. We are very excited to show you our project.

Hello. My name is Caden. Welcome to Ocean Robots Collection Administration. This is Orca. Before we get started, he'd like to give you a brief presentation of his own.

Hello. My name is Orca, short for Ocean Robot Collection Administration. My purpose is to collect beach trash so it doesn't end up left on the beach where it takes away from the beauty, the enjoyable time, and affect the animals. It can also make you sick.

Beach trash can find its way into the water and ultimately in larger bodies of water like oceans. There, it can cause even more damage to marine life, wildlife, coastal environments, and

even the economy. Let me show you what I mean. See that? I'm trying to keep that from happening. How do I do that?

Keep watching, and I'll show you. See? People are excited to see me and interested in what I do. More importantly, they're participating by depositing their trash.

That's a great start. If I can get them to think about trash differently, what a difference I can make. So I gotta get back to work.

I'll see you at the beep. Don't forget. Be part of the solution, not the pollution.

We selected this project because we like going to the beach, we like helping the environment, and we like animals. It bothers us when humans litter and it affects so many things. It affects the beauty of the beach, the wildlife, the economy, coastal environments, and even humans. The problem is there is too much trash left on the beaches. The challenge is how to get people to use the Orca robot to deposit their beach trash instead of littering. We believe Orca will possibly work the best because it moves around, it has a fun design, it talks and tells you what it's about, and it creates interest and attention. These characteristics will appeal to people to give them a try.

These are our working blueprints. The reason for so many blueprints was trial and error. We kept adjusting our blueprint after testing because of three main issues. So the first one, wheels rolling freely. The tires will roll forward okay for a while, then they would stop. Then they would roll for a while longer, but not reverse or make any turns. Through testing, we tried cutting large squares in the bottom of the box where the tires were. While this solved the wheel problem, it created a bigger problem with balance and stability. When we removed that much of the bottom of the box, it took from the structure and strength of the box. Balance was another issue.

The robot would lean to one side or the front or the back. Through testing, we tried moving the rulers that connected the RC car to the box outside and inside front and back and evenly in the middle. We even tried using medium weighted stones in all corners of the inside of the box to weigh it down evenly. But through all of that, it didn't work. Stability was our last major issue.

The robot would wobble in all directions like it might fall over when it was moving. Through testing, we tried adding wood pieces all around the perimeter of the bottom of the box and connected them to the piece of wood down the middle. Lastly, we used zip ties to tie down the suspension coils on the tires so they would not bounce up and down. This corrected both the stability and balance problems. These are the materials we used.

We knew when we started that data collection was going to be a challenge. How would it be possible to count the amount of trash available to be collected, the amount of people on the beach that day, and the amount of trash we could realistically collect? It's simple, we couldn't. Too much potential trash, too many people, and too little time to collect it all. So we needed to focus on a smaller group size rather than the whole beach. Our focus was on interest and participation. Were people interested in the product, Orca, and would they participate? The answer was yes and yes. We had a script for people as Orca approached that explained this was a STEM fair project. And we were videotaping and asked if we had their permission.

Orca went down the beach stirring up curiosity and excitement. Everyone we encountered that agreed to be videotaped was excited about the project and participated in disposing of their trash in Orca. We received a lot of positive feedback about our project and compliments on how Orca looked. Orca approached 32 people on the beach. We collected glass and plastic bottles, cans, paper goods, other plastic materials, food containers, and anything else they wanted to throw away.

I would say the data collection was successful. Out of the 32 people ORCA approached, 100% of them that wanted to be videotaped participated. They weren't just interested, but were excited about this project. They thought this is a great way to help there be less beach trash help there be less beach trash. That means this is a great start.

If people are interested and excited about this new way of collecting trash to keep the beach clean, they'll use it, and the beach will be clean or at least cleaner. Our project is the best solution to the litter problem because it takes a serious issue and turns it into something fun for everyone to participate in. The well design is great and attracts interest that makes people want to use it. It also helps people contribute to making a difference. Most importantly, it works to save marine life, it prevents sicknesses in human life, it helps the economy, and it protects the environment.

Our purpose in doing this project was to make a difference in the amount of trash that is left on the beach. This manner of pollution affects wildlife, humans, the environment, and the economy. It was our mission to do something to help, and that something is orca. If orca can help lessen just a fraction of the numbers we are currently seeing in trash left on the beach, it will make a difference. If people's minds and habits can be changed by an orca whale traveling through the beach asking for trash, then we have done something, and that something is a start.

Right now, Orca is a prototype. If we were to get the funding to make him possible, some things we would do to make him better and more improved are, we would buy something that would pick up trash and sift out sand while still keeping the method where people could throw trash into the robot. We would use a Roomba type product to schedule a path for Orca to follow on the beach instead of using an RC vehicle. And we would use a different body for Orca that will adapt better to the beach where there is sand and water and needs to be cleaned. We would also use a heavier material for his body so the wind does not move him as easily. I would like to bring your attention to the top 10 litter items on our beautiful beaches.

Before we close, we would like to leave you with a few facts about beach litter. It has been estimated that more than 800 species of wildlife around the world are affected by beach pollution. Americans take more than 900,000,000 trips to coastal areas each year and spend approximately $44,000,000,000. And when beaches are closed, it impacts local businesses, tourism, and the all around economy. In 2013, The United States had more than 20,000 beach closings due to pollution and contamination.

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA estimates that nearly three point five million people get sick from contact with sewage while swimming. If people continue to leave trash and plastic where they can get into coastal environments, by the year 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by weight. Plastic can take up to four hundred fifty years to decompose. Thank you. Any questions?

Wish I had one of those golden TV and you hit it and all that confetti comes down. I thought that was fabulous. Well done.

Thank you.

I just want say, think it was a great idea. I know Walt Disney famously stated it when he was observing in his parks when he was building them that he saw people would take an average of 30 steps before throwing trash on the ground. And I know having garbage cans at our beach entrances is way more than 30 steps. I think it's a wonderful idea to have a trash robot going around and collect litter. Thank

you very much. Yeah, great way to raise awareness about this problem. We also have some certificates of appreciation and achievement for you guys doing this. If you can come up and thank you very much.

You very much.

You guys could just

stand around

and hold the certificates up. Can you maybe just stand like so that yeah, like you guys can spread out just a little bit. Perfect. Okay. Can you slide in just a bit? Right, perfect. Okay. Ready? One, two, three, cheese.

Perfect. And

you guys keep working on it.

Good job. Thank

you.

All right.

We'll move on to our next item. It's a review presentation on the Stevenson Creek feasibility study.

This is Stacy Roberts from First Line Coastal.

Thank you very much.

Hello, good afternoon. That's going be a hard act to follow. I'll do my best. My name is Stacy Roberts and I'm with First Line Coastal. And today we're here to talk about do

to to

first, the shoreline stability assessment. And so, we'll talk about that briefly. And then we investigated the opportunities for a slow speed zone, evaluated those alternatives, and the important considerations. And then and then we have a recommended alternative along with cost and schedule. So just an overview of the site.

The tributary as we know abuts right up to Clearwater Harbor. And within the creek, there's about a mile of what we would call navigable waterway. And there's very limited bridge clearance to enter Steven Son Creek. That's something to be aware of. And of course, there is a diverse ecosystem that has been documented outside of Stevenson Creek.

And so here are some photos from this site visit. I don't have because of time, I'm not going to go through any of the three sixty video here today. But this is the areas that were examined for the shoreline stability assessment. To just present the findings, the shoreline appeared stable with no real active erosion that was notable and not due to boat wake. So that was a specific question that was asked.

And there's a very you know, there's variable shoreline habitat and varied conditions in terms of hardened shorelines, seawalls, that kind of thing. And one small area of historic erosion that was noted. So moving on to the slow speed zone alternatives, we looked at three options and those are first the boating restricted area, a manatee protection zone or a local government manatee slow speed zone. And we'll talk through each of those. So the boating restricted area is considered the least restricted necessary for public safety.

And you see the criteria here for implementing such a zone. There really needs to be demonstrated some kind of hazard to navigation. For manatee protection zone, the criteria really centers around if in the absence of restrictions is any of the following likely to occur. So are we likely to have injury or death with our manatees, manatee harassment, or damage to manatee habitat? And then here on the right, you can see all of the factors that are considered when when looking to implement a manatee protection zone.

What is considered manatee harassment?

Oh, well, you know, it's illegal to, like, approach and harass manatees. So people have offered them hoses to drink fresh water, that's harassment. If you approach them, get too close, you can't touch them. The FWC recommends that for example, if you come upon one, say you're canoeing and you you know, that you float and you observe but you don't approach. So those are the kind of things that would be considered harassment of manatees.

Okay.

Thanks. You want to let them be and let them do their own natural thing without human interference, observe from a distance. Okay. And then the third option is the local government slow speed zone. And this is really very similar to the Manatee Protection Zone but rather than being implemented at a state level, it's implemented by a local government.

Same criteria. In a local government manatee slow speed zone, if in reviewing all of the data and information required there is any disagreement, then a committee would be formed. And so here on the right, you can see these would be the representatives that we required to be on such a committee and that they would be charged with reviewing data from FWC, also the Fish and Wildlife Service on federal side and then coming to resolution on any kind of conflicts. So we looked at these and evaluated these alternatives. And for the boating restricted area, while here on the screen is an image of FWC's 2023 annual boating accident report and Pinellas, I think, number four, if I remember correctly.

But none of those accidents or incidents were recorded in Stevenson Creek. So we're not aware of any known safety concerns, citations. We actually reached out to FWC, the public records request, zero citations reported. And the vessel traffic is very minimal in comparison, let's say, to Clearwater Harbor. So this would not qualify for a boating protected zone.

Now the manatee protection zone, again, is state implemented and you can see here this is just a portion of Pinellas County and the existing manatee protection zones that are already in place. And you can see just outside Stevenson Creek, we have these protection zones. And those zones I believe are also all year long. It's slow speed all year. It's not seasonal.

The process for implementing a zone like this, you know, has to be done through the state rule making process. It can be very lengthy. I looked at the process that did all of the ones that exist now and that process took about four years. If that rule were opened up to add Stevenson Creek, then it opens up the rule for the entire county which just means it could be challenged in in not just in Simpson Creek but other places. And for that reason alone, we're not recommending that particular solution so you don't open up the rule in other places.

And so then that leaves us here with the local government manatee slow speed zone and that's something that could be implemented by city ordinance. Again, all that criteria is the same as the manatee protection zone. It does require approval by FWC. And if the city chose to move forward, we would recommend this as the most viable option. Some important considerations, the Stevenson Creek Watershed, know, Stevenson Creek 3.2 miles long.

It's the tidally influenced segment about one a little over one and a half miles. And I I think we all know that we have a lot of upland development and that's mostly medium to high density residential, some commercial, industrial with recreational and open spaces. And, a lot of this development occurred before we had our water quality legislation and rules in place. And so there was a bit of a negative impact certainly on our water quality. And in 2001, believe it was the city, the county, Swift Mudd all worked together on the Stevenson Creek Watershed Management Plan.

And this plan put forth 28 projects as recommended using ranking criteria. They listed those in preferred order and you see the top 10 here on the screen and I think seven of those have already been built and completed. Of the 28, I think it's 13 altogether have been completed and it's my understanding that there's four additional projects from this list that are in some phase of planning or design with the city. I think most people remember the 2014 ecosystem restoration project by the US Corps of Army Corps of Engineers. And while that selected in '20, 2003, it was completed in 2014.

So there was there was a rough road rough road to get there. But at the end, 90,000 cubic yards of accumulated muck and about 10,000 yards of sediment were removed, exotic vegetation, and then there was some planting of mangroves. When we look at the water quality, the the water atlas, we can see the water quality monitoring that has gone on. And, Stevenson Creek is deemed, you know, they're class three waters, but they were deemed impaired in 2007. And, so then total maximum daily loads, I think I think you all are aware of what what those are.

We're defined and with DO, dissolved oxygen, as one of the measuring items to measure to monitor nitrogen, total phosphorus and biological oxygen demand and then excessive nutrients. And so on ATLAS site, you'll see what is called the water quality index. Now this is not a regulatory measuring tool, but it is still indicative of the water quality and so you can see here they have they set a range for good, fair, and poor. I really wanted to reach way back and get the data but it wasn't available to me so all I was able to get was like the past four years. But in there you can see that the greater majority is actually in the good category with a little bit poking into fair.

And when you if you go back and look at that data back to 2007, you're going to see there's been quite an improvement since then. The TMDLs have been met for chlorophyll A and dissolved oxygen but it remains impaired only due to fecal coliform levels. So the progress there's been good progress made but still some work to do. It was surprising to me that on DEP's like web map service, map direct, the publicly available data sources that Stevenson Creek is not shown as part of the Pinellas County Aquatic Preserve. I just wanted to point out that it is.

We did state lands title check and then that is included in the appendix of the report. I think most people are aware that there is extensive submerged aquatic vegetations, sometimes I just say seagrass, all throughout Clearwater Harbor. And, you know, do we have it in Stevenson Creek? We really don't we don't know. It provides the food, the shelter, you know, habitat stabilizes nutrients, it has a lot of great benefits.

And of the surveys that we were able to identify by FWC, DEP, the Southwest Florida Water Management District, none of them went into Stevenson Creek. So just part of all the data that we were looking to find to support being able to determine if this would qualify for slow speed zone but it was the data wasn't there. So is Stevenson Creek manatee habitat? Well, that's the question. And if so using, you know, with recommended alternative, we want to pursue this local government entities slow speed zone.

This data would need to be collected. And again, in the absence of restrictions, is there a likelihood to be damage to that habitat, harassment, injury, death? Traditionally for patterns of boating, a vessel traffic study would be performed and that is a pretty big study. And for an area as small as Stevenson Creek and also with limited vessel activity, it, in my view, doesn't seem warranted and would be a little Similarly for manatee surveys, those are typically done by aircraft, you know, aerial surveys. And again, for such a limited area, that seems to me to be a little bit excessive as a data collection method.

Mortality data, that's readily available through FWC and I wish I could zoom in a little bit. I'm going to point if you would just notice that for the mortality data, like just in this region alone, it's either six or seven, I apologize. I don't remember how many were actually found in Stevenson Creek. So there's a table there that indicates watercraft strike, what the, you know, what the cause may be. But it's pretty interesting to me that there were certainly indicative of manatees using Stevenson Creek to some degree.

Data collection, food sources. Okay. So in order to document food sources, need to understand if we have submerged aquatic vegetation in the creek and then that would typically be an SAV survey. That's usually coupled with aerial photography to kind of preview and, you know, if we can see through the water and find areas where it looks like there might be and then go target in and hone in and do a seagrass survey. This is a little bit more affordable and I think would be very worthwhile.

And finally, to get our water depths, describe the waterway characteristics, the bathymetric survey would do that. And in my view, it's the best bang for your buck. It's relatively inexpensive. You're going to get an awful lot of information from a bathymetric survey. And it would have the added benefit of doing an assessment of the shouldering that may have taken place since the, dredging took place in 2014. So it would kind of give a status of where we are. We're going on eleven years now. And freshwater sources, those are known. We know we have, you know, stormwaters and tributaries and all those things. And of course, we have the Marshall Street Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant.

We have that effluent there. So because the boating patterns and the aerial manatee surveys are a little bit on the side of overkill, We we we did want to just point out that citizen science is an alternative way to do some data collection that might be more affordable, reasonable, and, also allow the city to collect the data in a scientific way so that that could be presented to FWC to make a determination about those particular factors as it relates to the slow speed zone. A little more information, have tons of information on the Cision Designs website as well as, you know, just tools to really get to have a jump start. And then, of course, we did some estimates for doing the data collection for this effort, both alternative methods and using these alternative methods replacing the manatee and vessel traffic information. So a substantial amount of money could be saved with that.

And then we estimated about a two year process to get through that. So with that, I will conclude and open for any questions if you have any questions for me.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yeah, if Kelly or Jason, you have questions, please?

I know there is proposed development of boat docks within Stephenson Creek. And I know when they do that, they do a benthic study. Have you thought of looking at permits for and see if those are publicly available on swift mud for various benthic studies that are in the area?

No, I did talk with Pinellas County and they told me they had they had gone out to do inspections actually for those applications. So I think they were relatively new applications at the time we were doing the study. And they did report like oyster beds definitely in the area. So said, well, I would share the study with them, you know, once we are done, but no, I didn't get any additional detail or information.

Okay.

My hope is that they're going be held to the standard of the aquatic preserve in terms of the permitting of those particular whatever, permitting of anything, right, on the creek, that they're held to that higher standard of the AP.

And I know you were saying the that when they do manatee studies, they do like aerial like plain from planes. Yeah. How often do you have any idea how often they like what's the frequency they would study an area?

It really depends. And for those counties that have a state adopted manatee oh, my gosh. Is it a protection plan? Sorry,

I can't think of

the official name of it, but the state identified like 10 counties and they that all have manatee protection plan. And other counties that could voluntarily do it, and none have to my knowledge. Pinellas was on the voluntary list, like right behind the top 10. I know in Sarasota County, that's the one I'm familiar with, go monthly.

Monthly, okay.

They do every month. They're up once a month flying.

I'm just wondering if they can potentially find someone that does a study, because it's such a smaller scale, they could do a drone study over it to still get your aerial photos

Oh, of sure.

And still basically, you know, get your accounts without having to do such a large scale.

Yeah. That's really becoming an option these days, right? Yeah. Help cut down those costs. So

I have a question. If this is a two year process and we already have someone trying to get permits, aren't we gonna isn't the horse gonna be out of the barn before

Well, I mean, if in any water body, once it's implemented a slow speed zone, that's going to control the manner in which people can operate. And I think that's maybe one of the concerns at least that I've heard is, you know, vessel traffic, maybe more, you know, smaller vessels and jet skis, things of that nature kind of flying or, you know, zipping around the creek and having a grand old time and not really being aware that there, you know, there's manatees and dolphins in it, you know, all these wildlife there, right? So once that's regulated then they wouldn't be able to utilize you know, they have to stick to the speed restriction while they're within that zone and would be free to resume speed once outside of that zone.

Right. But I mean, so you're asking now that we try and get the safety zone implemented and then

It was a question the city asked us what would it take.

Okay.

What would it take to implement a slow speed zone in Stevenson Creek so that we can, you know, regulate the vessel activity on the water there. And these are the ways that could be accomplished really and it centers around it being designated a manatee habitat.

Yeah. So historically, many years ago, our board had a presentation from a member of the now your organization, it was Daryl who came in and talked about jet skis and a number of other watercraft that would speed along Stevenson Creek through the study area, and through that, I think there were a number of WIG zones implemented using the process that from bridges within a

certain From the bridge.

Yeah, a certain boundary from the bridge within there. That's right. So, but that was just a start to attempt to kind of regulate some of this overuse by some of these vessel operators throughout there. There's plenty of other people who go on kayaks and other vessels and don't stir up wake and other issues that I think have been historically a problem there, and like has been stated, the city has invested a lot of money in the past, millions of dollars to remove that bit of muck, and then additional investment coming down the road. Marshall Street plant is going to be offline within several years, so that's a lot of pollution that will not be entering that area anymore.

So, there's a lot of water quality improvement that's been happening since that dredge project that I think will rapidly increase over time with less and less additional effluent added So to the that's where I think this is extremely valuable to try to figure out, not just what it will take, but also what other partners the city can work with. There seem to be a number of aspects through this, like the Tampa Bay Estuary. They might be a group that might be able to help cut down on a number of costs. There's a number of other non profits that Yeah, can help with this. Especially startling was seeing the manatee mortality.

I know from boating in the area that there are manatees out there, but if you're seeing their carcasses show up somewhere, that means that they are certainly nearby, and I know some of that is tidally produced, but that many is a sign that they are in the area.

They're entering there. Yeah.

And recently there was a seagrass study that was completed. I saw it was done, I thought by Swiftman, but I don't think it covers, again, you said, the Stephenson It Creek at, again, a wide area and looks at aerial photos from a few different times to kind of gauge what the increase and decrease has been over time. I think

they do every four or five years. I think they repeat and are able to kind of track progress over time.

So one of the things I was curious about though that I noticed and there was some of it about the shoreline I want to ask about first, that there were three forty feet of Brazilian peppers. Are those on private or public land? That was some of one of the things that was noted in that.

I don't know the answer to that. I could find out

and Yeah.

I'm curious. Maybe email Kathy.

Yeah. Because it's against ordinance to have Brazilian peppers on public property. So if it's on private property, that's why I'm curious if there's opportunities to kind of improve the shoreline Mhmm. Depending on what environment is is currently there. Okay. I was also curious because you had mentioned a lot of it has not been developed, the shoreline. Would there be an opportunity for a living shoreline project? That's something that has been talked about from this board and throughout the county. Is that something that's possible out there? Or is it a lot of private?

I mean, I don't see why not. There's certainly there's certainly ample public areas particularly around the shuffleboard court. Is that am I saying that right? That area there. And I was can't remember the source. I think there's plans to do maybe a kayak launch there or something of that nature. So as long as you can, you know, leave that area open so nobody gets, you know, hurt by oyster beds or something like that, it would be very beneficial, right? Yeah. That water.

I was also curious about the water quality index, the numbers that you showed there. I don't know if it's possible to bring those back up. Maybe. They always seem to go up to the fair or impaired quality. It looked like it only it said only the year at the bottom, but is that toward the watering season or the summer season?

It seemed like it was almost like think you're seeing the seasonality. You're seeing the rainy seasons which are, you know, probably adding more water and flushing and then the drier seasons where things are a little more concentrated, maybe the water levels are a little lower. So you might expect to see a little bit more, concentration during that time. I don't know. Oh.

These were just some additional aerials that I had pulled together looking at the creek over time. This one was very interesting to me because I that tells me that a certain seagrass survey needs to be done.

Just looking at that.

Also, in I've seen in old maps of the creek area, There were areas of, former springs or impaired springs. So that was other, freshwater that I think through development they were kind of pushed over or there's I guess you didn't see those in your study. Was curious if there was an opportunity to figure out what it would take to improve the springs along

I didn't. I didn't fresh get a chance to really investigate like the tributaries and the different branches that are all kind of connected connect in and provide water. So that's something to think about with respect to the Marshall Street plant and the eventual goes offline. It's also going to be a reduction in freshwater, right? So there's a there's a there's a balance that that happens. It's just something to be

I know that city is working on a couple of stormwater projects just upstream to improve capacity and I think stormwater quality before it reaches there. So, there's like 5,000 square it's a large area of that for that watershed of water that comes down from Palm Harbor all the way down to

Stassen So

but I am I'm curious then. For our board, I think what we would need to do is put together a letter of support for a slow speed zone because it sounds like the what it would take is city council to support that. Yeah. But we can help kind of urge our city leaders of the importance of this and to keep this project moving. The timeline says two years.

I think that there's a number of opportunities that could slim that timeline. Like I said, working with other partners, I think the Coast Guard is another one that can put the signs out. They have done that in the past where they put marker signs. That's one of the things that they are supposed to do.

The city can do the mark the cities haven't saw markers themselves. The city has the capability. Did it for the anchoring limitation areas and some other. I think the ones around the bridges, I think the city did themselves.

Oh, okay. Great.

So, yeah, that was actually considered in the cost estimate that that wouldn't have to be paid for because the city well, it would, but it would be through city and actually constructing that themselves.

Okay. So yeah, that's but that's what I think we would have to do is to put together a letter of support to move this slow speed zone project along. And I guess it would be in support of the third option, the slow speed At zone

the local government level.

Right.

And really the data collection, I think that's going to be the most important piece is really initiating some conversation with FWC, right, and defining that data collection because we really need to understand what's going on in order for them to say yes or no. And there's just a lot of unknowns right now. So getting that data collection is the place to start, I believe, yeah.

Okay. So I think that's what I would be looking for is a motion to draft a letter of support for a slow speed zone.

Real quick question before we do that. For citizen science projects, would that be established by the city or would that be established by another

That's a very good question. So I believe that the city was not prepared financially to pay First Line Coastal do this work. That's fine. We have suggested that the city might use citizen science to collect the data and they said, well, what would it take for Firstline to do it? And we gave them an estimate and they said, no, we can't do it.

But then they also shared that information with the Stevenson Creek Advisory Group. And so I think there might be some discussions going on with the advisory group about collecting data and that's all I know. So you can ask them when up here. I know we have I have a biologist friend who lives in the area and he heard you know, we told him about we were doing and he got all excited. He's kayaking here all the time.

He loved he's like, I'll do it, you know. So it is really about identifying your stakeholders and getting local people engaged and they're out there anyway, they're in their kayaks and their canoes and they're going so when they see something, it's about collecting that data, doing it in a scientific manner, right? So that's it, right? What would be the structure for the collection of data in a scientific manner and then let the people using the water body help to collect this data? So that would probably take a little bit of public outreach, right, to drum up some interest.

But that would be a really effective way to get information on manatee usage, on vessel usage without having to go through those, you know, those bigger data collection efforts, right?

In different times too, different time

slots, That's you right. Like somebody is down at the dock at sunset and somebody is there first thing in the morning, so it would. It would give you a really nice snapshot. And I think FWC would be amenable to data collection in that way, so.

Yeah, I guess as long as it met whatever standards and structure. Exactly. Okay. So we can make sure to include something along to ensure that the results will be acceptable.

Exactly. I'll make a motion that we write a letter of support.

I'll second that.

All right, great. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? None?

All right. Thank you very much. We still have an opportunity for citizens to have any comments from the audience. So if you can stick around in case we have any questions.

Absolutely. Thank you

very much, DC.

Absolutely. I did want to just say that I have throughout my twenty I don't know, five year career too often seen a plan like a watershed management plan like that with all these recommendations get put on a shelf and collect dust. And I personally am floored by the fact that 13 of those and many are major infrastructure projects have already been constructed and that there's four more in the works. And I

think

that's commendable and I think it shows in the water quality data. I think a lot of good work has been done like you're the city has the momentum.

Yes. I agree. Thank you for bringing that up, Stacy. You're very right. And over the years, we've gotten updates from our stormwater public works department now on some of the accomplishments and some of those projects and how they've whittled them down over the years. I very

think it's hard for the public at large to appreciate that in the grand scheme of things, is not that big of a timeframe. A lot of work has been done. Thank you so much.

Appreciate Thank you.

All right. Are there any comments from the audience? Please come forward and state your name for the clerk.

Good afternoon. I'm Dennis McDermott. I live, on Lakeview Road in Clearwater, so I'm not necessarily close to Stevenson Creek. And I really didn't know much about Stevenson Creek until a couple years ago and started to learn more about it and just find it to be a fascinating part of the natural environment. It's, you know, a very important estuary.

So I I more of a question than anything else. In December 2022, the city passed an ordinance. It was ninety six forty dash 22, which is a, I guess, a slow speed zone thing in Stevenson Creek. Are are is that something that I missed in this presentation? Because I I I'm thinking that maybe what that study was done for was to help justify this ordinance.

Is that is that right? I I thought that had to do with the signage, no wake zones that were eventually put The

last the very last part of section five, the this ordinance shall take effect upon completion of the following, approval and adoption by the Clearwater City Council, which which occurred on 12/01/2022, I guess. Approval by the FWC and other requisite regulatory entities and upon posting of the requisite regulatory markers. But I'm just curious, that's all. What

I thought that specific one had to do with when they changed it to put the markers up 300 feet from the bridges. That's I thought that's what that one had to do with. I may be mistaken though, but I can look in and appreciate you bringing it up, Dennis. Yeah, thank you. I don't know if you are familiar with that, guys. But it's Ninety-fortySix-twenty2, 22 is 902. 902, okay, thank you. All right, even better. Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to speak on this item? Alright. We'll move on to our next item then. We'll have a presentation from the Stevenson Creek Advisory Group. Thank you very much. Come on down.

So we have Ami Truckenberg and Sherry Day presenting.

Well, Stacy, thank you for your report. I appreciate that. Yeah, that was great and very informative too. But we'd like to let you know that we are working. We are the citizen science.

We are working on our creek every day. I was out there kayaking today and I saw two manatees. So that's great for the health of the creek and that's why we are here is for the health of the creek and the habitants that live in the creek. I'm going to start off with some facts for you here. A manatee count is currently underway to obtain local ordinance for Manatee protection zone and several sightings are reported each week including cows and their young.

We are working, I'd like you to know, with the Save the Manatees group under the supervision of Doctor. Beth Brady. And we are now counting manatees. We have new signage that will be put up onto the Pinellas Trail there so that people who are passing by will be able to help us with this count. We're also going to be counting the boats and the amount of boats that will are coming into the creek, and that is cameras.

It's hard to do cameras for manatees because they're constantly moving, but I just wanted to let you know on that fact. Manatees now are present year round and that's a little known fact up to date. The healthy mangroves that we have there account for about 64% of the vegetation. The healthy seagrass beds are widespread as determined by the scientific assessment, and the manatee population points to their Now, a full size federal protected manatee, a big one, eats about 150 pounds of seagrass or eelgrass a day. So it has to be somewhere.

I mean, today when I was kayaking, I didn't see a lot, but I kind of went up the creek instead of down the creek. I volunteer at the homeless empowerment project for a long time, so I go up there and check and see how our buildings are doing on the back end, too, there. Also, Stevenson Creek belongs to the residents in Clearwater, and it must be better protected from predatory and speculative investors. Investors. Let's go on to our next one.

A few more facts I've got here. Stevenson Creek is a little known but invaluable watershed to the city of Clearwater and its residents. It is essential for the city's stormwater and title management plan, and namely in the light of recent and unprecedented weather events and flooding of late. The environment is improving year after year thanks to substantial investments in the taxpayer money, which has been quite a lot. It seems like though that we're using more taxpayer money to fund the permitting application process for a predatory developer with a view of improving the aesthetics of the standards of a luxury development regardless of the environmental impact, and this is inefficient and it's very wasteful.

Up to date, there has been no in-depth impact studies have been required so far. The creek water quality has improved significantly since they put in close to $100,000,000 into this creek, and that's taxpayer money. And that was through the restoration and the dredging project that Stacy talked about with the Corps of Engineers. Nonetheless, the creek waters remain impaired. I was mentioning to her that there are 72 brownfields in Clearwater.

71 of them are pieces of land, and one of them is a body of water. And Stevenson Creek is still considered a brownfield. Its remains impaired due to urban pollution, but it can be it can be improved with aggressive protective measures. And this is the only remaining undeveloped coastal area in Clearwater, I have you know. Hence the importance of preserving it, namely in light of rapidly changing weather patterns and increasing environmental challenges.

I know Stacy also mentioned that the Marshall Street water treatment plant which sits on this body of water, this estuary. And there's been talk of it being outdated. I think it is very aging. Who knows when this is going to be replaced, but the development keeps going on. When this water plant exceeds, I think it's 12,000,000 gallons a day, it spills over.

And it did it repeatedly in August, even before we had any of our what do you call it storms that came through. We've had problems also with they were doing some work down on the Clearwater Golf Course, and that caused more problems with the creek recently. So, you know, more development is going to push more into that water treatment plant and it's going to hurt our estuary. I'm going to let Sherry Day take over from here. Thank you.

Yeah. Hello, Sherry Day. I believe Alex Nixon, who was our originating president, was going to speak with you today, and she was unable to make this, so asked me to pitch in. So I'm picking this up kinda last minute, and I'm not sure, has this group heard a presentation from the Stephenson Creek before?

We're familiar She just came and

did the little three minutes

from this message. She's spoken before for

So you know who we are and how we were developed and a little bit about us are back

I am. I'm not going to speak for the rest of the members of the board.

Anyway, about a year ago, February, we heard that this developer was gonna put nine boat docks in the Stephenson Creek Estuary right at the mouth of the bridge. We got together with some neighbors and then we're in an uproar about it and hence this group got developed. So we're a true grassroots five zero one and learning the ropes. Where are we here? Shoreline assessment.

So we just heard a lot about the feasibility study, that's a wonderful piece. I'm very supportive of that and pursuing all the citizen study which citizen science study which we are in process of doing as Amy mentioned. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of enforcement, so signage is good and it's in some ways can prevent some activity, some development. If it's a certain kind of manatee protection area, this project would have been forbidden. If it was a manatee protected area, the docks would have been forbidden by the FDEP's rules if they were to follow them.

The creek study, you saw that and just discussed the water quality, so I'm going to skip that. That included a lot of the statistics about the type of vegetation that's in the creek, and I don't know that there's anything particularly there, but the Brazilian pepper issue, made a note, I know that that's exist on both private and public property along the creek. And, yes, we see manatee every day. I walk my dog every day on the footbridge there, and just this morning I saw manatees. I snapped a picture and send it to the Save the Manatee Club, and they are collecting both boating and manatee sightings.

So that's been very, very encouraging because we're seeing them almost every day. So the oh, that's missing one. Aquatic preserve. I think I wanna go backwards. How do I go backwards?

That's going forwards. I'm missing one.

You hit the arrow.

There is a Try to hit the

arrow up.

Yeah. Thank you. Likelihood of boating impact. 96 manatees were killed in Florida or found dead, dead manatees in 2024, and ninety nine percent, I believe, the figure of all manatees have propeller marks on their backs, so they are getting beat up out there, and they are a federally protected mammal, so that's why we are so focused about this.

Are you saying that the deaths were attributed to boat accidents, or

They are many due to boat accidents, I don't remember the exact statistics, and what I did read is not from the propellers hitting their backs, but from them actually being bumped in by a boat, the bodies being bumped in. So that speed issue would certainly be an impact there.

I think what you're saying about that ninety nine percent is even when they're found dead from a natural cause, they would have those scars on them.

Yes, yes. Dead or alive, they're scarred. Yeah. So this is an aquatic preserve, and I have become highly educated on what that means and what it is supposed to do for us, and it quite mind boggling. We have all these designations and documentations of missions of each of these aquatic preserves, the Tampa Bay is an aquatic preserve, there are 42 of them in Florida.

They are overseen by a group called the Aquatic Preserve Society. They are a part of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and

supposed to

be looking out for things like this. We did meet with the aquatic preserve friends of the Tampa Bay Aquatic Preserve recently and had a lengthy discussion because I'm getting off track. Because we have learned that the docs that are in process now, the application for the docs have a specific criteria in the Florida Administrative Law that says that those the project has to be in the public's interest with no cost environmentally, socially, or economically. So we've provided them with a thousand signatures that say we don't want it, it's not in the public's interest, here's the environmental issues, here's the economic issues, and there is a loophole that says if they donate some money to the Aquatic Preserve Society that they will say it's in the public's interest. So that has occurred and it has continued to process through that department.

So How much

did they have to donate?

$23,400. 24,000. I'm sorry, I get the numbers backwards. $24.03, $24,300, and that's calculated by some method we have yet to find in our research where that calculation number comes from, but apparently it assessed certain factors of the project and it was cost that much and that much and that much, so they tally a figure and they send the money to the Aquatic Preserve Society. It doesn't come to the Stephenson Creek, it just goes to their general fund. So that was extremely disturbing.

I'm going

to put this here, is that?

I can pull up there.

So that's basically the organization. The FDEP is overseeing this office of resilience and coastal protection who oversees the aquatic preserve programs and they fund projects to the Friends of Tampa Bay and other aquatic preserves in Florida when they ask for money for certain projects. So here's the Southwest Florida Water Management District permitting, taking money and putting it over here in one of the agencies that they themselves oversee. It seems interesting. So back to the slideshow.

Is that what you thank you. Yes. So we have a situation that we are greatly concerned about because there is lack of interest and a lot of big money out there. So Valor Capital, as you may know, developed the Serena Luxury Tower on Edgewater Drive and next to them they've just cleared that lot within the last couple months of oak trees and they are the ones that are looking for this nine boat dock permit. And as you probably know, all of the Serena properties, they're advertised boat docks so they're really looking for this to be a precedent.

If that's passed, then probably gonna have that many more next to them for the Serena High rise. So that's alarming to us. So we feel like many of our local authorities have turned a blind eye to the Creek's value in favor of purely financial decisions and developers, and we have made it very apparent that the public does not want this, and there is no enforcement by the city or county or the state to, it seems, to protect the protections that have been labeled on this important watershed, an aquatic preserve, it seems to be blindsided by developers. So we're upset by that. I'm going backwards.

So what's what are we doing? We this is going backwards.

Going backwards. Hit the down.

Down button.

There you are.

Yes. So this started in February 2024 with this community development board extending a an extension for the easement for the docks, and that was granted, which really shouldn't have been. And then here I mentioned this $24,300 donation seemingly to satisfy the public interest aspect, which I see no connection whatsoever. Keeps going backwards. What's next?

We're very busy raising awareness. You might have caught us on Fox thirteen last night. Mike Foley and I, our comrade, were interviewed and had an 11:00 showing on the news about our concerns. We are supported by lots of residents who attend our meetings and offer to help and seem to have very little time to do so, and we're busy trying to spread the word and gain the support through all the agencies possible and trying to figure out what is this loophole with this money because if that money were not accepted, I think that permit would have halted right there with the Department of Environmental Protection. So we would love it if you would write a letter in support of that study and anything else you can about what we're doing here.

Thank you very much, Harry.

Do y'all have any questions? I have questions. Please go in.

You said there's supposedly a loophole. Have you, like, had legal counsel look at this wording? Or

We are staged to do so. We have retained an attorney, and we're in the process of deeper records request. None of this is addressed in the administrative code anywhere. They have these set aside letters of agreement that I can't get a copy of unless I do the public records request. I can't find it on the administrative code. So, yes, there's some agreements and some formulas that are in place and I've got the records request to learn more about that, try to figure it out.

Good. You seem very passionate about it and I keep fighting.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

It's important.

Just curious, I know you guys mentioned you're putting up signage on the walking path for people to participate in citizen science.

I'm sorry, say that again?

You're putting up signage on the walking path on

the Yes, Parks and Recreation were kind enough to agree to let us pay for an aluminum sign that's gonna go someplace on that railing on the bridge, and I wanted one on the Fort Harrison Bridge because also that's a very prime spot for people to spot manatees when they're out there fishing, that's a bigger project because it's a DOT bridge, so the only one I could get really easily was this bridge.

Okay. And is there I know you mentioned you were kayaking. Is there like a public launch for kayaking or is it just kind of you come up and

Well, for those of us who live on the creek, we

can You live on the water?

Put it on our backyard. There is a place informal, a couple places along the creek that are very informal, not actually very difficult to put your kayak in if you ask me.

Yeah.

But there are lots of people kayaking in there.

I was just curious if

we had maybe a, like, a public area that we could potentially put another sign there to, again, raise awareness while people are on the water.

Good point. There's one at the Washington Street Park, or Overbook Park, whatever they call that, that would be an ideal place. And the shuffleboard courts because I know they launch there.

I just have a quick suggestion. You said you were making note about the number of vessels that are on the water? Yes. So I would encourage you maybe to try and make a note of, like, if it's a boat or personal watercraft and about what size Take it pictures. Okay. Good.

And if it appears to be moving at an accelerated speed, we make sure it's a video so that they can tell the wake would be an indication of the speed. According to the Save the Manatee gal that we're working with, Beth Brady, she's been extremely helpful. So Mike has a camera at his site, I'm out often or I jump up if I hear a boat coming out and I take a picture, so that's how we've been doing it. And she wants also leisure craft, If they're just out there peacefully fishing, show that it's a quiet recreation area. If there's kayakers, we catch those too.

Want to I mean, thank you. Mike, thank you, everyone else, Daryl, everyone else who's involved with the organization. I want to thank you guys for all the effort that you've been doing. Thank you. I noticed in slide, one of the slides says a lack of interest, but I would have to say thousands of signatures and you guys have had a number of news articles written either most recently on Fox thirteen and previously with Bay News nine. I think you guys have had a bit of interest to say the least for this endeavor

But that it you're taking seems like we can't get them enough from the politicians.

Can never get enough, yeah. But thank you very much for what you're doing and I wish you all success in your endeavors I think you guys are going about it, know, it's a valiant effort.

And may I ask you a question about this board because I'm learning the ropes here. Do you find that, I'll put it more directly. Has the county water navigation been to you to ask anything about what feedback you're getting from the citizens?

The county? No. But in the past, we had a board member who had a lot of interest in seagrass and the navigation signs, and so our concerns were moved forward to the county and I guess the Coast Guard at that point when that was in the past. It hasn't been backwards, but it was from us toward other organizations.

So you can write the county commissioners and give them your thoughts?

We don't typically write to the county because that's not the board that oversees our board. You know, this is we're the city, Clearwater, we're not an extension of the Well, you

can still talk to them?

Sure. But it's our we serve for our local leadership as the city council. So we can write letters to other organizations as the environmental advisory board certainly, but we typically haven't because that's, you know.

Well, can you think of somebody in our effort here that you can write for us? That's your assignment.

Okay.

All right. All right. We do have to accept if there's no other questions or comments from the board. We do open it up for the public, so please stand by if there's any questions or anything. Sherry, thank you very much. Are there any comments from the audience? Please step forward. You'll have just a. All right. Mike

would like

Regarding I

have a few things I'd like to put on record.

Regarding the Stevenson Creek? Stevenson Creek? Please come forward.

Yeah. He's our historian.

Come forward. State your name. You'll have three minutes.

Yes, sure. Hi. My name is Michael Foley, and I'm live at 1809 Apache Trail. I'm a riparian resident of Stephenson Creek. Know they use this term NIMBY, not in my backyard.

Well, I believe that everybody should check-in their backyard everywhere they live. And if they see environmental problems, are making their business. This Board was established because of Stephenson Creek. Did you know that? It did not exist before we had a problem back in the '90s with the city was going to channelize the creek, and we didn't think that was right.

We figured out why. We figured out a solution. Established this board, we pushed through a solution which eventually became Glen Oaks Water Park, which is if you haven't been there, you've to go over there. It's a state of the art, a three pond system that was developed by individuals, not the city. It was given to Reem Wilson as an idea, And he liked it and he made it into a water park.

And it came from your board. Bill Johnson was part of that establishment of this board. And he worked on Stephenson Creek back then. So it's been a big part of this. The Board started off also doing projects with the city, encouraging the city to take initiative in other areas for water pollution control.

And that's we had at that time, we had pesticide companies on the creek. They're gone. And also, drainage systems were changed in the City Of Clearwater because of Stephenson Creek. A lot of stuff was improved, Glen Oaks being the main one. And Marshall Street was improved because of Stephenson Creek because the people at Marshall Street want clean water too.

Unfortunately, they keep overloading the system with the beach now, and Marshall Street's having more problems, but hopefully you guys will take care of that. Brownfields Pierce and Myrtle Street, and the intersections of Cleveland and Myrtle, all that new development in there was industry that drained into Stevenson Creek because of a drainage pond there. So, Stephenson Creek, the junior league, took part in this was a big thing. I'm going to keep on going. It's just I've got a few things.

You just have to wrap up, Mike. I'm to an end here.

Want you all to think about declaring Stephenson Creek as a manatee zone. You can talk speed limits all you want, but make it a manatee zone. If you can do that, yeah, because it's right on the other side of the bridge at nineteen, it is a manatee zone. As soon as you come under that bridge into the estuary, and you know what an estuary, what if you wanted fish in your city like it used to be? You'd have to build an estuary.

Well, we got one. Now, Stevenson Creek, since the nineties, everything that's been done there has been restorative. We cannot take steps to go backwards. There's been too much put into this project.

Thank you, Mr.

And we're going to make it good. Also, one last thing. If a agency requires a permit and tells the permit application to put money into an outside not into their own mitigation, but to another group to mitigate. That mitigation must be done in the zone where it's being affected. If you do it outside that area, it's unethical, I believe.

Thank you very much, Mike.

Thank you.

Mike brings up some good points, but, you know, unfortunately, even like you said about affecting the zone, you know, people do the carbon credits where they're impacting one area and they pay somewhere else to improve the environment. So kind of to offset that, but I thank you for that and we are going to work and do what we can to support efforts to save the manatees on Stevenson Creek and we'll write a letter of support and send that to our city leadership and hopefully continue to keep this process moving. I did think of I had one other question to ask and maybe it's Stacy, sorry, but the presentation on the Stevenson Creek slow speed zone, is that going to city council and when would that go and be presented to city council? Sorry if you may have to come up here to sorry about that.

That's okay.

Yeah. We have made a presentation to the city. You have? Yeah. Not the council, the city manager and staff.

That at recently public meeting, will there be a presentation that you know of?

Not that I'm aware of, I don't know. Yeah.

All right. Well, maybe we can also ask for a public presentation on that too for your counsel. Thank you very much. All right. Great. Great to know that. And then I was going say also to Mike's point, yes, the Environmental Advisory Board has a long history and it's gone through many iterations. I think at one point there were more members who served and at a time the board was I think a larger board and we met much more frequently than even just six times a year. I think they met almost monthly back when it was like the storm water and environmental advisory board. There was a part of the reason for the start of that board was so the city could collect a storm water fee.

To collect a storm water fee, city had to have a storm water board to oversee that funding. So, this board no longer has a budget to oversee like the former storm water environmental advisory board did, but we are still working on being effective as a board and making improvements to make our city an environmental place that people want to come to, like we'd heard earlier in the meeting. So I appreciate that. If there aren't any other comments from the audience, we'll move on to our next item, old business. Cassie, do we have any?

I don't have any old business now.

Okay, anyone? Let's see, the only thing that I'll bring up I'll just bring up on old business then rather than on board members to be heard. We had last year supported efforts and wrote a letter to the council about supporting efforts to oppose using phosphogypsum in road construction, and we ultimately, we wrote in support a letter, but did not submit it, really I think because there wasn't any movement at that time. Earlier this year, Mosaic has entered into an agreement with FDOT to study the use of this product in Polk County and see how that effort goes. I wanted to bring this up.

I know this is something we talked about before and we had supported that. I wanted to submit the letter considering that there is this new kind of movement with this product. So I wanted to just bring that up to the board here and see if that was amenable to everybody.

Please.

Okay. Okay. Kelly? Jason? Yeah. Just

she might have to take look at it again.

I'll send it out to everybody before we send it to the clerk, but like I said, just because it was something that we thought was kind of dormant, but for reasons unknown against EPA regulations somehow this is being studied. I think How it

much did Mosaic donate?

Yeah, that's I think a lot more than 23,000, 24,000, but

Yeah. 1,400 foot stretch that they're it's already built in their testing, I believe. It's already there.

Yeah. The Whales facility. I think it was double what they had initially asked for to the It was, I think, twice as much use of the product to see how it works. Anyway, thank you very much. I'll follow-up. I'll send that out to Cassie to send everybody or however we do that to make sure everybody just gets a look at it and then we can forward it along. I don't have any other old business anymore. Okay. Director's report, Cassie.

All right. So I wanted to provide several updates on some ongoing projects. First being the vulnerability assessment. So that has been officially all tasks have been accepted by FDP. So that the the final stage now is us just applying for the reimbursement for the grant for that.

So it's pretty much finished. And what we're gonna be working on internally, you know, that final report is, I think a 189 pages, very technical, a lot of graphs, a lot of maps, not really digestible for our average resident. So we do have the website myclearwater.com/vulnerability. So we're working now to develop more summary, you know, something that the average citizen can read and try to understand.

And we need flow charts and listicles

and graphs.

Yeah, so we're going to be working on that with our public communications team so that doesn't nobody's going read 170 pages. I read it.

There are some

people the

Bill might be.

One of

those people left click.

Other another item we have is our EECBG grant. As a reminder, we used that funds, the 169,000 to purchase the city's first four electric vehicles. We just received the third vehicle yesterday, the day before. So that is our Ford Lightning. We don't have the tags on it yet, but once we get those tags on, we'll get that on the street, and that is going to be going to our environmental inspector.

So we're quite excited about that. We think it's very apropos, and he is out on the road all the time, so it will get used a lot. Then in relation to that, we those four those four vehicles came with free chargers as part of the Ford My complimentary charger program, and we did just get those installed last week at our MSB garage. Now, obviously, the MSB building is under renovation right now, so we're not currently parking in that garage. But those are set up, and they'll be ready to go once we get back into that building in November.

And those will be dedicated for fleet only. Another update on our solar. So again, talking about this one for a while, I feel like we're we're really checking a lot of boxes lately. I'm I'm quite excited. So we have those four ongoing solar projects, Morningside Recreation, General Services, Solid Waste Transfer Station, and the gas building. And just to update on where we are with all of those, so Morningside Rec is complete. It is interconnected, and it is live. So we are producing solar.

Yay. Yay. Yay.

General services, the installation is complete, and then we're just waiting for some final inspections and everything on that. Again, that that was from last week, so I'm not sure if if it's been updated since. And our solid waste transfer station, that has been built and inspected, and we're just waiting on interconnection from Duke. And then the Clearwater Gas, is in the permit has been issued, and the construction is said beginning in May sometime, so it could have already started. And that's expected to come online in July.

So we are anticipating all four of those to be done and complete and producing energy by, you know, by July. So in relation to that, we are going to be hosting a we're calling it a solar celebration at Morningside Rec on June 10 at 9AM. And we've asked to the EAB to be a part of that, as well as our city council, city leadership, and of course the public. So we haven't put out any flyer or anything about that yet, but we are developing that. So looking forward to that.

Here first. Exactly,

this is breaking news. And then elective pay, which we've I know I said at the last meeting, we finally got our check for our twenty twenty three projects. So remember, elective pay is that new opportunity through the federal government to receive 30%, up to 30% cash back for clean energy projects. And just like your regular tax returns, you apply for everything from the year before. So last year in 2024, we were applying for everything that went live in 2023.

So that we got that $106,000 for the solar on Coachmen Park and the EV chargers. So for 2024 or so for we've just now applied for our 2024 projects. And what we did in 2024 was we installed several parking meters that are all solar powered. So it's a smaller amount this year. We're only expecting about 26,000 back.

And then anything that's going into place in 2025, we'll now be applying for next year, and that will be a significant amount because we will have more of those solar parking meters. We'll have all these solar projects and as well as the EV chargers that I just mentioned. So it'll be a significant amount of money that we'll be getting back in 2026. And then I just wanted to mention our synergistic, our municipal energy savings program that we've talked about. We are near three of that and we're seeing some great numbers.

We're at almost 14% of our 20% goal of our overall energy reduction for municipal energy use. And we have really been working hard on getting those meetings to where I think they should have been. But where they are now, is having a lot of interdepartmental representation at those meetings, having it all very streamlined, documented monthly reports. We're actually getting weekly reports. And we're having the right people come to those meetings to address the issues so that we can move forward quickly. So just wanted to give an update on that. And that's all I have.

Thank you very much Cassie. I think that's great information especially about the solar installations. And I'll just say especially for this board, one of the things that was brought up was about doing studies and having them left on shelves to collect dust. Greenprint was one of those studies that the city did many, many years ago that collected dust until our board kind of brought it back to attention of our city leaders and they saw value in those policies. This is the fruit of all of that work is finally seeing some of these projects come online. Thanks for the update.

Yeah, and you just reminded me we are going to also be having a new intern start next week, Octavio. And one he's gonna be our summer intern and his one of his projects, his main project that we're gonna ask him to focus on is to go ahead and get us started on a new greenhouse gas inventory. He actually has experience doing that with Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. He was part of the team that did theirs. So we're looking to hopefully get that started. We've already got it in the budget. So we're hoping to maybe do since the last one was '20 we did it with 2019 data, I think it was. So we're hoping to do 2024 data.

That's great to hear too, because that study was I think one of the largest aspects of that green print project was

Yeah. We kind of need to do the greenhouse gas inventory first so that we can then go back to green print and update it.

Yeah. No, great to hear. That's another great update. Thanks, Cassie. All right. We'll go on to board members to be heard.

Just thank you for all the presentations today from everybody. Really appreciate it.

All right. I will be brief, but I have a couple of things I just want to bring attention to. It is sea turtle nesting season now through October 31. So, just make sure to, if you live right on the water where sea turtles are, have appropriate lighting. If you go down to the beach, make sure to put your kick sand back over your sand castle before you leave. Bring up your beach Yeah, bring up your beach chairs or whatever else.

Yeah. And your litter.

Litter. Yep. And then also there's a few other events, an evening with Doctor. Sylvia Earle, Echoes of the Ocean is May 20. It is a fundraiser at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, so it's like 20 to $45. Clearwater Beach is again a finalist in The USA Today, twenty twenty five ten best awards for best beach. So vote now through May 19 at

noon. Daily. What? He said I've been voting daily.

Thank you. And make sure I think set the box up to vote too or whatever you need to vote. The winners will be announced May 29 and the city is also doing a World Oceans Day celebration, June 7

Yeah.

At the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. There will be more than 40 exhibits or exhibitors there, including many conservation groups and so check it out. It's free to go, and then I guess with your attendance, you get a discounted you can get a discounted ticket to the aquarium too. That and then, yeah, don't forget about our solar celebration. June 10, 9AM at Morningside Rec, we'll be there and cutting ribbons and having a good time. And then, we meet again July 15. So, with that, we'll adjourn. Thank you.

Look at that before six Yeah.

Know. All right.