Local Planning Agency - Regular Meeting

latch and I wanted to know if there's anything in the pipeline about all the lots that are overgrown. Do you have any future plans about what to what you're going to do with them? So we thank you for the question and it's it's very important to us as well to me as a town manager to my leaders and the staff the that uh we try and keep those lots clean from a public safety perspective also just from an environmental perspective as well. Um yes it is a requirement in our ordinances. So, uh, we rely on a combination of our our staff as they drive around and not notice these lots and then enter it into the system so that we can notify the property owners or the whoever maintains those lots they need to come into compliance and take care of them. But we also rely on all of you, everybody out there in the community. You can go, you know, call it into the town or call it go into our online uh code compliance uh section and submit a report. And once we do that, that'll also trigger my staff to go right out to that address, open up a case on it, take photos, uh, and if it is not in compliance, generally the reports will be, you know, uh, somewhat accurate. And then we'll we'll go through notify the owner. There's a process then we go through where we notify the property owners or whoever manages that property. If it's if it's a rental, you know, we have property management companies, notify them uh, what they need to do and a timeline for them to get it done. And if they don't do that, then we'll escalate uh the next things and eventually hope it never happens, but it can escalate to the magistrate process for the magistrate to um order them to come into compliance. Do take it seriously. So I'd ask for everybody see see something, say something and we will act on it.

Yeah, I just wanted to add to that. You know, the time staff can't be everywhere all the time, but it's important. I don't know what I did wrong, but going in and out. Yeah. Hello. Hello. I don't know.

I'll do my best. There we go. So, it's important to reach out to our realtors, our realtors on the island if they have places for sale. You know, not everybody knows the the ordinances codes here on the island. So, if any realtor or you know any realtor out there to help them the word that maybe can get some of these cleaned up before we have to get to the code violation part. Not everybody wants to turn in their neighbor, but some will, especially if you have to report your name now under state law. So, it's encouraging to to let your neighbors know. Let the real know. Let them know what the requirements are. Maybe try

try holding it a little further away. Does that work better? Okay. Abby, where are we going to next?

Okay. Thank you. Does anyone on this row have a question? The mic. Awesome.

Okay. My name is Terry Murray. I live with just a couple blocks over and uh very concerned about um the canal in Kuru and Egret. Uh London Bay has made it very clear. They warned us that they're going to run boats up and down our canal every 30 minutes uh in and out for London Bay. And the theater sounds like they're going to do something simple similar. And one other caveat, when the theater um sneakily at 10:30 at night took out those mangroves, uh there was discussion that not only would they be fine, that they were going to be replaced and there never were replaced and now there's a a dock there. So, it's kind of a twole question. The concern is with them going up and down a a private canal

is that once all the boat lifts are back in, there's 34 boats on a narrow canal and he assured me that they'll have professional captains. Okay, fine. My joke at the time, just because it was timely, um, in Philadelphia, uh, a professional captain took that bridge out. So, not only worried about the traffic getting my boat in and out, worrying about them hitting my dock or my boat when I'm not watching, and then of course the public traffic be interested to come up there.

Well, I'll start with that. So when this first came up about using the canals for commercial uses or I dug into it because I wanted to see may not be a popular thing in the room but it is an acceptable use under our current codes. So even if we wanted to change it, we really can't because of the new state statutes that don't allow us to make it harder on property owners. So technically within their right able to do that currently in our vote doesn't mean it's that we will allow that or development should they want to do that. Nobody I don't think what they're proposing yet know if they plan doing that or not. We I guess we'll find out at the LPA when they come before the LPA. But I do know that they've heard the community loud and clear about exactly what you're bringing up. And you know, I have worked with London Bay in the past and long before I was on council in the private sector and there's one thing that I do know about them is they do take the time to listen. Now whether or not they're going to implement whatever the the community has a problem with is to be seen. But I wanted to be clear that even if the town wanted to tell them that they can't do it, by law we can't tell them that they can't do it. So just keep that in mind as we're going through the negotiations with the LPA and then on to the council.

One last caveat, we did make as a group of neighbors a good suggestion. The canals are narrow to start. Uh Fishtail Maria is not far over. It wouldn't be hard. It's a large much wider area to go in and out of is to do go in and out of there and a smaller maybe at home that didn't hear his question. It was the community the close community had made a suggestion about fishtail is if I'm just basically summing it up. I know that they have heard that suggestion. Again, whether or not they're willing to implement that, I don't know. But I do know for a fact they've heard the the issues with doing exactly what you're saying loud and clear. So, we'll see what they come up with.

Yeah. The only thing I would add is exactly what the mayor just said. We just finished our staff review of the project that'll be coming before the LPA in a couple of weeks. Um and that the use of the canals right here were not in that uh as we looked at it. Um so I but I would recommend maybe you know coming to the public hearings post public hearings and make the recommendations that you just made directly to the developer. I I would love that. All right. And we have a question from Facebook um I'm going to read really quick. Why can't we have flood panels? Go ahead. [laughter] Go ahead, Will.

Yeah. Yeah. No, thank you. It's it's it's an excellent question and it's a timely question. Um, well, the goal my goal is to uh make sure that the island uh that all the develops developments and and all the projects on the island and everybody's property on the island for for all residents, for all businesses is safe and compliant. And in order to do that, uh most recently after the storm, uh as everybody knows, there the FEMA um suspension uh was brought upon the town and and in order to bring the town back into compliance, there were many things that we had to make sure we were doing properly according to FEMA and according to the um FDM and the Florida building code. And uh so many of the things [clears throat] fall into what's allowed in certain in basically for us in a special flood hazard area because the entire island is a special flood hazard area whether it's velocity zone or an AE zone and there's different categories in the AE. So there's really nowhere in the town where on residential structures you can install uh according to FEMA uh to for the national flood insurance program uh flood panels and uh for for compliant purposes on residential sorry and residential on on commercial structures there's different uses and we can review those cases on a case-by case basis based on where it's going to be within that commercial development. Um and we review every project, you know, uh on case by case, every whether it's a residential or a or a um commercial project. It goes through the review of our our building official, our flood plan manager, our community development planners and permitting staff. And uh we we try to help every every developer, every resident, you know, get their get their project out of the ground. Um, but we also have the responsibility for all the residents uh to make sure that we're that that it's being done in that compliant way so that we can maintain our uh community rating system rating for the National Flood Insurance Program. That's the main

reason that I can't that we can't issue those. Uh we don't we also don't have a permitting process for for flood panels. So I I can't issue a permit for flood panels even if I wanted to. [cough] I got a permit. Okay, one second. Hold on. We we have to be on the mic because it's a matter of public record when it goes on the mic. So, thank you.

We got a permit because you made us get a permit. And now, I mean, all I want is some guidance on when or what we have to do. We We don't live here. We live here maybe eight months out of the year. So, when are you going to let us know what we need to do? So we can have I can have you sir talk with directly with one of our staff members right now. You can tell them your address if Frankie or somebody from the community development can can talk to him specifically about your address because again we got to look at it case by case and uh I've got you know our our officials from the community development team here because I' I' I'd love to help you in as much as we can. Can I just can you put like a barrier in front of your

A lot of questions on flood panels. We have to have some some decorum here. So you when you have your your turn please ask it there obviously there are different you know when when the term flood barrier flood panels flood you know uh things are used um what I what we are referring to here is anything that that modifies the structure of the building if it if it's bolted into the ground if it's bolted into the house if it becomes part of the envelope of the building it's not allowed on residential structures

I It's important to talk a little bit about why FEMA thinks that way. And and many of us don't agree with a lot of things that FEMA does or says, but at the end of the day, if we want to be in the National Flood Insurance Program and want that discount, we have to tow that line, especially after what we went through. Their big concern is when you're attaching a flood panel structure to a wood, that's obviously going to add a lot of resistance if it comes under water. So, that's a lot of they think it's going to cause more damage and they're not in the business about repetitive loss. They tell you that whenever you meet with them, it's always about repetitive loss. Now, it would have been nice to know that so that we're not fielding these questions like we're getting now ahead of time, but we didn't know that. And as I think some of you difference is please correct me if I'm wrong they had ordinances in place specifically talk about how they were to we did not or we do not and FEMA is very big about

is this better? There we go. Yeah.

And FEMA is very very big about you have to follow the ordinances that you have in place at the time of the disaster. Well, if you remember back to the temporary use structures that we just have went through, the temporary use permits, we didn't have that in place. They didn't like it. It wasn't there before the storm. Helen Milton, it was because we had it in place then, but for Ian, it wasn't. And I think that's part of what we're dealing with with FE. I know the staff is working with the the Atlanta people. We're certainly trying to work up in in DC to try to to get them to look at this a little bit differently. Um because I'm with you. I you know, everybody knows I come from a construction background. It's not very often we get a a Milton, right? It's not very often we get an 8ft storm surge or a sixoot storm surge. So a 4 foot temporary barrier to keep the water from coming into your house to me makes a lot of sense, but again with FEMA sense isn't always always the key. Um so we are walking a tight line. It's a very difficult situation for the staff to be in to have to tell people no or if they were told yes to tell them no now. Um so but they are working on it and we are working on it.

Yeah. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. And since there are questions about other, you know, other towns have have this in place, they allow this, they allow that, and I'll I'll address that. But to just to pick up on where the mayor was leaving off, you when FEMA came down for this past July for their community assistance visit upfront, you know, when when I asked them what what are you evaluating us on? What's what are the standards? What are we going to be evaluated on during the standards? Well, what they evaluated us on is are our policies compliant with FEMA regulations? and if there are state regulations, FDM and so forth, are our policies compliant with those? So, they reviewed our policies and then they went back and looked at all all of our processes and procedures about whether or not we are following those policies, those compliant policies. So, that was a big long process of review. It came up with a long list of properties where they had questions and we went out with them to work through all those properties. And you I know many in here remember that process, the FEMA list and and so forth. and and I appreciate everybody's help working through that list and as a community we were able to get successfully over that line to get back into the community rating system. the when we talk about other municipalities I'll just start by saying it no two municipalities are the same it's obvious statement but you have to understand too that when I talk about our entire island here is a special flood hazard area that's not just me saying it that's according to FEMA their flood maps how they do the flood map zoning with where the limwa is the you know line of minimum wave action or and and so forth and which side of that line uh properties are on Santael has, you know, land on Santael Island that is, you know, they have a lot of special flood hazard area, but they also have some a zone that is up above that that wave action level. Naples has a much larger footprint than we do. So, the further you go in land,

it may still be an AE zone by FEMA, but it's the the wave action is less in in, you know, in the FEMA flood maps. So those communities have been able and I don't know all the details of their policies because it's not my policy. They've been able to institute some policies that potentially that might allow people to install flood panels for mitigation, not for compliance, but for mitigation. Um I have looked at the policies. I do understand um what they say, but we cannot do that here uh in Fort Myers Beach because of our where we are in those flood map and flood zones. It's a different process and the the mitig I don't want to it's it's a lot of nug work. I can talk about it if you want, but the the the the application process for for Naples, for example, requires the resident to uh submit a lot of engineering documents that prove that as we talked about the envelope and you know the attaching to the home that prove that the structure of the home can withstand the wave action that those panels are designed to withstand because if they can't, if the home can't, then the home could be could become a hazard, you know, if it collapses or comes off foundation or whatever. Uh so they have to go through and submit all that for their mitigation uh voluntary uh mitigation process for Naples. They also have to sign a lot of waiverss, you know, that no no liability for the town, no liability for, etc., etc. Um so we're just not in a position. I did review that. I did talk about it with staff. We're not in a position where we can uh implement such a policy.

And it it doesn't mean that there's no hope. I just to kind of finish off this question. I guess it doesn't mean that there's no hope. I think we all remember that we're here back right after the storm when we were dealing with the 50% rule and what letter how do you get to 50% determination and all that and it was across the county determined that the property appraiser would his letter would serve as your your 50% determination based on his his his expertise. Well, we all remember Valentine's Day that first Valentine's Day after we got that letter and it came out in the news. Uh you can't do that. That's and everybody like now is like well wait a minute we've been doing this we've made plans we've we've signed contracts we've done all this. So it doesn't mean that they're deaf to hearing this especially when you have other policies in different municipalities that we can re we can go to them and say this is what they're doing. This is what we're trying to do. We're trying to follow the same thing. We know we didn't have anything in place beforehand but we're working to try to get to that. You have to have you have to be able to open. And that's where, you know, our our elected officials up in DC have been helpful in getting us into that room to be able to say, "Listen, we need we need to talk about this a little bit so that it's not just a hard no." And I know it's not the same comparison to what I just gave you from the Valentine's Day letter, but that lets you know that there is and if we remember about two weeks after that, we got the letter not saying we were wrong from FEMA, but go ahead and continue to do what you're doing. So that's what we're trying to do is a same scenario, try to get them to understand that we're not trying to rewrite the rule book here. We're just trying to show you that there are circumstances that you need to look at. To your point, oneoffs that or property by property is a better way to say it. That this might make sense in some properties and some properties it might not make sense. But at least have us let us have those discussions.

I'd love to continue and continue on this. I I'll if there's more questions about the flood panels, come and talk to me after. I think we'd like to get other people a chance. And I'm not avoiding the questions. I I'd love to talk more if people have more questions about that after. Yeah, we just have to get to your row. So, if you want to ask it again, that's totally fine. Let's just wait till we get to your row and then so we don't have more followup. Okay. I think we have a question right here. This gentleman.

Yes. I was just uh wondering this could be something that we have to submit, but I live across the street in Coina and we usually get about uh whenever it rains heavily or when they were pumping out that house over there, we get a little lake right in our parking lot right in the street of uh Flamingo Road and uh Eststerero Boulevard because it has to go up a hill and this I call it Lake Coina because it's, you know, massive lake that, you know, people got to drive through or, you know, whatever. And I was wondering if that something that we have to submit, take pictures of when it rains or is anybody ever brought this up before? We we do get a lot of feedback from the community when there's different uh um standing water issues after rains or during rains and stuff like that. Yes, I I would say yes, sir. Absolutely. If an issue like that, please report it to us right away. Our team, uh, Jeff Howy, my community services director, and his team are out every day throughout the community. They'll go right away and take a look at it and see if it's something that structurally we need to fix or uh we need to add into our project uh plan. We've got our road improvement plan and our storm water improvement plans that uh constantly require updating based on issues that you that you bring up. And I'm happy to do that. That's the first I've heard of it, so I'm glad you brought it up.

That one is the first I'm hearing of of that from one, but but Jeff's nodding back there, so we'll take we'll be looking into it. [laughter] Thank you. We are briefly going to take a Facebook question. Uh this question is, "Other towns have recovered faster. Why is Fort Myers Beach taking so long?" You want to start with that one?

Well, I mean, it's very broad. I mean, I I don't know if you've been down here this entire season, whoever's asking that question, but I would say we're recovering pretty good. Um, I haven't talked to a business owner on the island that has said we're struggling or, you know, it's horrible. Um, a lot of them are saying they had they had COVID numbers this year so far through season. So, I I guess I would push back on that a little bit. Um, you know, you can't build a house. Building a house on on Fort Myers Beach or Santael or any barrier island is much different or even a commercial structure is much different than inland or in the Midwest or wherever this person may or may not be asking the question from, you know, you can't just you can't just throw up a stick building. You have to you have to go through a lot of stuff as we're seeing with the pier. You know, it's ready to go. But we're waiting on federal agencies to to sign off on the county level to be able to start that. So, I would push back a little bit and say, you know, is it ever fast enough? No. We'd love to snap our fingers. To me, I would be more concerned if if I talked to Will and staff and they're like, "It's been three months. We haven't had a single building permit come in or a single remodeling permit come in." That that would be concerning to me. If you look at all the commercial projects to date, 25 projects, if my numbers math is correct, every single one of them have the latest one being the women's club have been approved and and now it's on them to start moving forward. So, I would say that uh do I think we're recovering fast enough? I guess we'll find out on on Monday when when Matt Caldwell comes in and gives us some numbers to see where we're at as far as our Avalarum is. But um to to be back to where we were in three years at just speaking straight Aarum to be back to where we were or real close to where we were pre-storm, if you'd have told me that what I saw at 4:00 in the morning when I walked out to Astero Boulevard after that storm, I'd have told you you were crazy. I I'd just say I've only been here a short time in comparison to many here, but uh I think that the progress has been steady and picking up since I've gotten here. There's no shortage of permits uh being pulled in our community development office, whether it's

residential or commercial. Uh there's more of them being pulled. There's we've got plenty in even more. Mayor talked about the 25 projects that have been approved so far. We've got a few more that are going through the pre-application process right now with the team before they actually submit a development order or or whichever process they're going to go through. So, we've got progress coming. Uh just today, I think the the fire district reopening was a fantastic uh sign of of us coming back and building back better. Uh I was after that, I was downtown talking with some of the business owners saying this is this like record-breaking numbers for them, some of the business owners downtown. So, it was really great to hear. In this row right here, we

uh my name is Carol Tatio. I reside down at the south end uh the Islands End community, 8402 Estero Boulevard. Um I have been here since 1988 and we've had red tide and we've had fish kill, but we have had nothing like the seaweed that we are experiencing this season. sometime it's so thick down there it's at least 12 in wide and 12 in deep and we have lived with that the entire season. Back in February I believe the town started cleaning up some of the areas. They got as far as 8300 and stopped. We are a little further south and I just like to know what's being done about it. The air quality is not good and our children and grandchildren as far as swimming in the water. It makes it impossible. The uh turtle season's coming at the end of the month. I don't think mommy or the turtles could get in and out on our beach with all the seaweed that's in there. I kind of feel like we're the orphan children down at the south end. We do have the bridge being built, but we are there and we are alive and well. Although we've been living with one driveway for 104 unit owners in two buildings. I know it's Leak County and not you people, but um what's happening with the water down by us.

Okay, I'll I'll go ahead and start. Frankie, if you come up because Frankie's our community development director. He can answer um at least one of those. Our Chad, our environmental you guys know, a lot of you know Chad, our environmental manager, is not able to be with us tonight. But when it comes to the seaweed, you're right. We had the the pickup just recently. We're going to, you know, he's they've got plans. You have plans for our south end?

Yes, ma'am. So, what it is, it's a criteria that we have to follow with the FWC. So, the Florida Fish and Wildlife is telling us that it has to be a certain condition before we're allowed to pick up. So, it is reviewed every day. Chad is on that beach every single day in his buggy most of the time right before sunup. He's going up and down that beach looking at everything. He then comes in, fills out a report. He talks to our community services director if he needs help out there. We have the equipment to take care of it. We have taken care of it in other spots, but there is a criteria that we have to follow not only with FWC, but also with DP. So, it's a very tenuous road at best, but we do monitor it every single day and when it gets to a certain point, then we can act.

What point is that, ma'am? I I know it's not it's not knee deep in that, but I I do know that there's criteria for at least getting a little accumulation so it can be spread out. That's the ideal way to deal with the the red algae and another few weeks once the tide pattern changes. We won't see that. It just a weird winter.

Just to add one more point, I have called Chad's office three times in February. I have left messages on his phone in the office that have never been returned. I think the staff were so annoyed with me that they gave me his cell phone. I used his cell phone. The mailbox is full. I don't think that's any way that any official should be handling his duty. No, ma'am. Not at all. And and and that will be addressed. That will be addressed. And I guarantee the next time you call, you will get through to him or to able to leave a message. I'm hoping I never have to make another call. Yes, ma'am.

Really? Uh if you look down there and you see it and the smell and the air quality is not good. A lot of our residents are suffer.

Thanks Frankie. I am also at 842 stero boulevard last cond on the beach down there and put in a burn for us but with it the wildlife and everything we our building has absolutely no protection from the water if there's any kind of a surge we are definitely going to be in trouble [clears throat] and in big trouble I would like to see you put in a higher BM down there and put more grasses and stuff for us because I think I walk the beach and there's nobody else on the entire beach that has Chad said we are now a wildife which we never we're not allowed to do anything. How can you help us?

Well, I'll talk to Chad about that. Uh because I I the whether or not there's a preserve or not. Um we we definitely as we as we identify more areas to continue our BMS, continue the uh um our beach projects. We seek more grant funding to help us with that. So, I'll talk to Chad about that and have take a look at that. Yeah. Hopefully not. Hopefully not.

I would, you know, one thing I I understand um what you're saying and the concerns and everybody wants more protection and I do too. What we're um as a town, we're looking into every anything possible that we can do like some other communities possibly to uh for more protection from that wave action that might come. One of them is a wave mitigation wall, a shoreline protection project. We've been working with uh J.R. Evans, the engineering group. I I'd encourage everybody uh the next M&P meeting, what's the date of that, Amy? I think nth. The 9th. I think it's next Wednesday or Thursday. Wednesday the 8th.

Next Wednesday the 8th, our next uh um management and planning meeting and it'll be publicly uh broadcast as well. Uh they're J.R. Evans is going to be coming in to give us an update on their shoreline protection study that they're doing. They're identifying what it'll take to do a wave mitigation wall, where are the best locations, uh, most ideal locations, and also the options for different, uh, um, property owners along the beach, whether it be a condo association or an individual property owner, to how they can get involved in that project and stuff. So, it'll be the initial briefing to council on how that study is going, and I encourage everybody to watch and then provide feedback.

Yeah. And it just seems that we're the only building on the island that is as narrow as it is down there because we got no sand on our beach whatsoever where everybody else it stopped right before us. The sand reourishment and I think that is a crime. Well, I don't want to speak for Chad, but I'm trying to recall when we first saw the after the storm when we saw the critically eroded beach and what qualified for the funding and what didn't. And there was sections on the south end outside the critically wildlife area that were in it. I don't remember off the top of my head if your section was part of those that weren't deemed critically eroded, therefore weren't eligible for the sand. But again, I don't want to speak for Chad. He'd be much much more intelligent conversation. We were definitely,

but there were sections of the south end down by where you're at that weren't involved in that sand allocation. We were the only ones. Oh, I don't think you were the only ones, but there were there were a couple sections that weren't. I don't know. I never saw anything when I walked down the beach. Like I said, our condos are the only ones. Well, it sounds like you're going to be able to get a hold of Chad this week. So, we we'll get to those that we're not getting answers to tonight. Like right now we will we'll publish answers for people. And guys, I'm sorry. We don't want to be here till midnight or maybe maybe you do, but we we have to kind of keep the follow-ups to a minimum. Let's keep it going. Yeah.

Hey guys, thanks for [clears throat] having this. This is great. Started off this morning with the uh beautiful ceremony down at the firehouse. Excellent. Very civic. Uh great for the island, I thought. And so is this tonight. Uh thank you very much for having it. see a lot of same faces here this evening that I saw this morning. So for those of you who say there's no such thing as a free lunch, they [clears throat] got the free lunch. Now they're getting the free dinner, too. But uh my question to you tonight is for you, Will. A lot of my Catholic friends on the beach uh are continuing to ask me about the status of the permitting for uh with the Dasis of Venice for the Church of the Ascension. and uh haven't heard an update in a while. The last we heard at the uh at the at the dog and pony show down at St. Leo's was that uh they were going to be in in January for permitting and we haven't heard anything since. So, if you could bring us up to date, that'd be great.

Thanks. Thanks for that question, Ray. Um I have a vested interest as well, as you know, we've talked about it and we were so excited uh when the the the bishop came down and did the uh did the briefing and the beautiful uh proposals. And not long after that, he did he was in here with our staff going through the pre-application process to see, you know, everything that they would need to do to submit a development. Um, and we got through that with our staff, no problem. That his next step, because what they want to do is they want to open up uh uh change the entrance and exit path. You I'll remember how you come in off of a it go to the parking area. They want to modify that a little bit and because some of the modifications are going to change some of the sidewalk um flow and stuff like that. I mean, they have to get go with county with some permits anyway, but the the county had some questions with that plan. They had, you know, and they they wanted them to modify the plan a little bit or submit further plans. Uh once Frankie found out about that that there was kind of a delay going back and forth to the county, Frankie got involved, sent a letter on behalf of the town, we this is really important to us. What can we do as a town, Lee County, to help with this project? Uh, and uh, I think last thing Frankie told me is a couple of days ago, and I don't want to speak totally for uh, the county, but uh, we've got that resolved now for them to move on to the that that discussion. We've facilitated a discussion with them and county and us to work through those because we want to keep this going. The bishop is ready to go. He's allocated the funding. You heard him when he made his speak. So, we we want to do everything we can and we've done it from a town perspective. And uh we've I talked with Dave Herner, the county manager, just uh early Monday, and this was one of the things we talked about, and he promised that he would do everything he could to get it uh get it moved along.

I I know it's not it it doesn't I I can't give you a date when shovels are going to go into the ground, but I'm looking for that date myself. I just want to know if it's moving ahead with the permitting. It is. They're in in process. Yeah, they're in process getting their county permits right now and they get those and everything and then uh it'll be the development process with us. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you, Ray.

Terry Kaine, resident year around for a long time. You all know that. Um, my question is, and I want to thank you guys for having this. Thank you very much. And I know you're very, very busy. And I know this town is busy. And as far as our recovery, I think it's phenomenal because anybody who's familiar with Mexico Beach, we are years ahead of Mexico Beach. So, I kept looking at them, thinking about us after what happened to them. and when I refer back to them recently, it's just incredible how far ahead we are. So, I think we're doing great. Thank you for that. And my question is in regard to um amenities for our town, which for me would be the school and the pool. So, um I kind of slipping it in two questions. I could ask five. You all know that, but uh because I've got plenty more I could say. I do. But, um so I'd like to know how the pool is coming. Personally, I'm selfish about that. and for the school, for our community community. Thank you.

Thank you, Terry. A couple weeks ago, the town the the town uh council gave me the authority to enter into negotiations. Uh this is regarding the pool, enter into negotiations uh with a design and engineering firm, architectural engineering firm for the pool. And uh and so those negotiations have been going very well. And uh we're going to be entering into a contract with them to do the the design and architecture work, which needs to be done first. uh and uh there there's an added part of every piece of this process because the where the funding is coming from and then it flows through the county. So all of these discussions then have to go back to county. County has to give the you know signature of approval for it to move on to the next step. Great relationship with the county. We meet with them, the team meets with them every week, sometimes twice a week on these projects to keep them moving. So that's going to be the next step. I imagine maybe a couple more months, Jeff, you know, for the design engineering that the team is an excellent team. They've already got a head start. And then once that's complete and approved, we'll move on to putting out another bid for the contractor to build it. So our goal is Jeff, what time timeline? I think we said in the council 27.

Yeah, sorry. Yeah, late 2027. Uh, early 20. Yeah,

it just it's there's been a lot. If you've watched the board cab meetings at all or cell cab meetings, I kind of explained a little bit more in detail on how the process works. Um, it's it's we tried to go out. It's taking we know it's taking long. We I want the pool to be back. That was my first job down here was working with the pool and the rec center. It's in my heart. Um but we went through I think three bid processes that didn't work out because of um the requirements from Lee County HUD for the uh CDBGR. So we are behind from what we want to be but it was not really on us. It was the requirements for instance we needed three people to bid on the project. Um we only had two so we had to go out and solicit again. So it's things like that that keeps kind of setting us back and it it's no fault of you know whatever it is. It's the C CDBGDR uh project that is run through. So, it goes to the Lee County and

Yeah, I think it's important to go backwards a little bit because you kind of, you know, if we could have just snapped a finger and wrote a check, the pool would already be open. I think we all understand that, but the town isn't in a position to be able to write a check to put the pool back as much as we'd like to. So we went down the path of obviously putting in the requests through uh FEMA and then we also so we learned at the very early onset after this was don't just throw one thing at the wall throw everything at the wall and eventually something will stick you know so ask for money from every direction become a professional beggar as Kevin Wayne likes to say it's 100% the truth so you start asking all these people we need all this money we need all this money well it came down that CDBGR was the best path and the quickest path believe it or not to get the funding

well that funding went instead of going to the state to be administered through the CDBGFR. We all remember the the HUD director was down there and granted 1.1 billion to Lee County. Um and we had the you know we had the big to your point Ray the dog and pony show you know right across from from the church. Um and then you have to but instead of it going like it normally does through the state to be administered out to the municipalities they gave it to Lee County directly. So to Jeff's point we knew we were getting that funding. We asked for a specific and it was around 4 million somewhere in there right around 4 million if my memory serves me Frankie but for the pool and and and to build it back because our goal was always as we've been talking to people over the last three years we all know that the Bay Oaks area was fairly underutilized right I think we can all agree on that I know you know we talked about it a lot when I was on board cab we make this place something where it's a destination where people want to bring back to where the town manager was saying earlier he noticed a lot of families down here how can we get more families down here to utilize not just the pool but all of Bay Oaks and the other facilities that we'll have. So, I think when you finally see what comes out of this design, I think you're going to be pretty impressed. I would I'm I'll hold off and say everybody's going to like it because not everybody likes everything, right? But I think that the vast majority I think what will come out of it through the discussions, people will be excited about it. But to Jeff's point, when you're getting HUD funding, you're there's a very specific path that you have to go down. You have to put it out for bid. There's going to be so many biders. Same thing that was happening with the light that we all have a problem with at old San Carlos and fifth and the stero right there's so they only had one bidder they had to send it back out and then once you go past the second round if there's only one bidder then you can go ahead and move forward and I think that's where we're at we've already as as Will said we've already given as a council the approval to move forward with the design once you get the design then we can just go right in because the funding is there it's obligated for it now we just have to check all the boxes to make sure that we finish it so it sounds like it's a long ways away and it is a long ways away but I'll tell you if we were waiting for FEMA obligation, we'd be waiting much

longer than 2028 to get that funding.

Terry, if I can, I'll try to answer your other question quickly about the school so we can move on. So, um, as you as a lot of you know, council asked me to start negotiations with the school district on the school a while back. We've been doing that back and forth. I've been reporting back to council. Council had a mediation meeting with the school district themselves. Uh and we mayor made an initial offer since he made that initial offer of you know just give us the school and and some of the disaster relief money so we can just build back on our own. Uh we've had negotiations back and forth. Uh I think I can say uh the negotiations have been candid and good. We've moved things further along. Uh I would I would not uh I don't think there's going to be money coming to the town to help with the rebuild. uh the school district uh my my op opinion I don't want to speak for any of them have have decided uh that it's not in the best interest of the school district as a whole um to uh to do that and money has been used for other projects across the district but I do I can say and it's still in negotiation we're still talking with uh with the staff that what we're moving for and and hopefully I I'm talking to you know some of our leaders he's uh the the superintendent's talking to some of their leaders about you know another compromise mediation. Uh hopefully what I'm asking for now is this the property the there's three parcels of land that the school was on where the historic building is and the building itself. Then uh the the a larger lot where the basketball court and the playground uh beautiful playground, beautiful basketball court back there. And then there's a strip of land in the middle. As for all three of those to be deeded to the town, give us the the historic building. Let us control our own destiny. Um, and then uh I'm asking now too for some inkind uh monetary do instead of actual money uh that just give us what we need to start a school up again. Then I think at least then I'd be able to come back to council council and we'd all public be able to go back to the public and and really talk about

how we intend on making that happen as a town school because I owe that to you really. I need that the the people that kind of tell us, you know, what they want and how they want or what they don't want us to do. And I I need to really be able to explain to everybody how I feel I can make that work for the town of Fort Myers Beach. I think I can. I think we I shouldn't say I can. We can. But uh I owe that to all of you. And right now I need to wait till I can actually say that we do control our own destiny because right now we don't yet.

Yeah. I think it's important to you know anybody that has met Will or has met Tracy wherever Tracy they if you think for one minute they're not calculating every single possible scenario how this is going to play out and where we're going to go next. you don't know them very well. They are planners to the nth degree and they have been working in the background with with some people that we all know to to formulate every possible scenario as to what could happen with that school. So, you know, contrary to popular belief, you can do more than one thing at once. So, even though there's negotiations going on, there's not anybody just sitting on their hands waiting to see what's going to happen because we don't, to Will's point, we don't control the destiny. The school board does right now. But they are doing all kinds of hate to use word contingency contingency plans of what we're going to do should we think it goes this way this way or this way. So feel confident that those those two and their team are are are well on top of what's going on with that school.

We're going to move on to this row right here. This gentleman has a question. Black face from the past. Hi Bruce Butcher here from uh the South End

Buccaneer Lagoon specifically. I'm too bad Chad's not here today because there's a lot of unanswered questions that I would like to pose to him. We're we're I'm kind of tired of this induendo that the residents are throwing fertilizer on their lawns and it's washing into the lagoon. That is absolute BS. That is not happening. The time for fertilizer runoff is in the summertime when it rains. It hasn't rained here for ages. And I'm getting tired of these news reports saying, "Wow, we found four vacant lots that probably have fertilizer." Well, those four vacant lots don't have grass. So, why are we hearing this stuff? Where is the water an analysis? I know a couple of weeks ago when we had the fish kill, there was comment that we're getting a water analysis. Well, where is it? Why does does it take that long? Is this like DNA or something? I uh I I just don't understand. It's been a long time. And I went out the lagoon pass today. The smell is terrible. I thought maybe it was coming from the old bridge. I drove to the old bridge where the bargers were. There was no smell there today. But there's a smell in the lagoon. We don't understand what it is. And also we that lagoon entrance dredged like it was years ago like it was permitted before Ian. Ian hit everything got lost. We had already paid $3,000 per homeowner to help in the dredging cost. We saw that it was on the FEMA list to be approved and yet we hear nothing about it anymore. So, I'm sorry that's sort of a long question. Thank you. Thank

Thanks, Bruce. I'm going to start with letting Curtis talk about we did he he they did receive some analysis from the water test that him him and his team did. Curtis is our harbor master marine operations lead folks. Go ahead, Curtis. hear me? Sorry. There we go. Hold it a little bit further away.

So, um yes, we did FWC we did get the um the um water analysis back today. Um we are um reviewing it. Um Chad will be looking at it as well. But there are several factors in this in this fish kill event. The biggest thing that caused was zero zero oxygen. So there was something that sucked sucked out the oxygen from the water. Um and um also now what you're looking at in the color change in the lagoon. So um whatever happened so now that's caused a little bit of an of an um of a algae bloom back there in that um in that lagoon. So um with the more water that we have, we have rain on the forecast coming up. I spoke with FWC. They said you should see that start to dissipate with the more water that we have. Um but right now they um we think the water quality is starting to come back a little bit. I do agree with you. We were back there yesterday. Um there is still a little bit of that of that sulfur smell and um the marine environmental uh team and myself, we have been going and speaking with entities over there in that in that south end location. um just to understand the best practices for lawn service and things of that nature to minimize and to understand what the practices are so we can minimize this moving forward

and it wasn't in an effort to you know place blame or anything like that Bruce we um and actually I talked with Abigail our pio a couple of days about this when we saw some of the media and they were and they were ask asking us questions similar to some of the issues that you raised and I wanted to make it clear to them that we did open up uh some you know like a code case on some of these because we want to wanted to get out and investigate and that's all it is to try and identify what is causing if if there is something uh you know causing this other than you know natural uh events uh if we can identify that and we want to be able to you know solve it and put put a stop to it or or if it's if it's education like Curtis is saying it's educating the residents visitors however we want to do that if it is some if it is somebody who's doing something that they shouldn't do or something in there, then we want to make sure that we uh take care of that as well and work with that that uh those individuals or that business. Uh we haven't identified any of that yet. It's still we're looking into it along, you know, our code team, Curtis, Chad, and in partnership with FWC. So, you know, go

well, I can touch because this was before you were here, but I could probably touch on and Ray maybe you can help me remember before the storm. I think in the past the Lagoon neighborhood and the town always split the dredging 5050 and that's the $3,000 that you're referring to. And I think not long before the storm, I think the council at the time, Ray, right, we we gave the approval to go ahead and and move forward with that same agreement. Then obviously the storm hit and I'm pretty confident that I don't know how it happened, but I remember signing the checks that those three $3,000 went back to the lagoon people.

Um because I think to your point that we applied for everything, right? Throw all the stuff at the wall. Hopefully something sticks. Well, FEMA has told us that we're not going to get any money for canal dredging because we didn't have a plan in place to dredge the canals. Now, we could maybe continue to argue. I don't know, Frankie might be better or will maybe we could continue to already say, well, we did have a plan technically for this area because we did have a contract in place. So, I think we can at least look into that part of it because we did have a contract for that. I'm not confident that that's going to go anywhere, but again, comes down to money. But I if I'm mistaken, please tell me. But I think everybody got their $3,000 back. I know. Okay. [clears throat]

Yeah. And I'm I'm happy to have to to learn from that, Mr. Mayor. Learn from anybody who was involved in the previous things and see if it can help us with uh with FEMA. Um what we are doing as a team is we're having discussions as a staff um and uh with some of our partners in the area to see how we can start to plan for a canal dredging project. you know, doing a do a study, then, you know, work with the the core of engineers possibly or others to to figure out because it it is something regardless of how we do it, we I feel we need to figure out a way to do it because our canals need it. It's not only something that's good for the residents and their their properties, it's also in, you know, good for protection of the island, more more places for the water to go and for environmental reasons. So, there's all kinds of good reasons to do this, to do the canal dredging. We are still going to pursue that uh in every way that we can. And right here

we do. Hello. Uh my name is [clears throat] Dennis Alfieri. I live on Flamingo Street. And my question is in regard to San Carlos or Eterero Boulevard. If you go north on the boulevard, I've noticed that we've got a lot of uh I don't know, you know, we did the five-year project and they did the whole street. Well, they did a lousy job on the drainage, as you know, because the drainage stinks right now. We get a heavy rain, if you're going north, everything's puddled out and streaming with water. And and on top of that, in that road, what's going to be done with the manhole covers? Every manhole covers up and high. Some of them are getting to the point where you really hit it and it's like boom. Now, those have to be fixed. Now, is that the town or is it the county? Who who's whose whose job is that one?

Actually, I'd love Jeff to start off talking about this our community because he works with Lee County and and and the other agencies on this and then we can add after that. Go ahead, Jeff. Yeah. So, right now, I don't know if this will work out. Maybe I was yell do your best.

So, right now they're the county is working on a project. It's an $8 million project to um redo sidewalks and the drainage on Astero Boulevard. Um, I know everyone's going to love this, but it's about a 530day uh project. So, Eterero, we're trying to put out uh we're working with them. We just had our kind of our initial meeting uh for the town um this week. So, they're going to feed us information and our PIO Abigail uh and the town are going to put out as much information as we as we can to inform all the residents. But, they are they're already starting. If you see just down the road here, just uh to the north, uh they're already starting. You can see some of the the delineators down. They're they're starting to work on the drains, but um yeah, so that is it's in the works. Um they're about 30 days into that 500 and some uh days, but they're starting um on the south end first. They were going to start on this end. You probably already saw they're doing sidewalk repair. Um I did, you know, just for everyone to know, I I did in the meeting [cough] just kind of want to know more information. So, they said not every crack is going to be done in the sidewalks, but the big the big problems are going to be addressed. So, um but yeah, that'll be going on now for a while. They're going to actually right uh probably end of April, they're going to start on the north end and try to quicken that up a little bit with two crews going. But it's going to be Yeah, it's going to be quite the project.

Well, and and it's important to point out that, you know, the county was they they are working with our staff because they were going to start in Time Square in the middle of season and work their way out. So, at the request of the town, we're like, maybe we could start at the south end and and not tear the you know, the middle of the the streets up in the busy season and they and they did that. And recently talking with Commissioner Mlea, it sounds like they have a little extra funding in that budget. So, they're going to try to improve it. To your point, obviously, I've pointed out to him many, many times about the elevated manhole covers that we all are that we all need to invest in Midas. I don't know if there's Midas is even still around anymore, the shock company. But after the main project that they did, the five-year project,

what what happened? I mean, are the are the things plugged or what? Why doesn't it drain now? It could be. And I don't know, Mark, answer. Are you get a microphone? Mark, utilities manager. Um, no. Part of the manhole cover problem was

most of the issue with the drainage on Asterero is that the drains are about an inch higher than the road. So the road has settled. All the pavers have settled and the concrete structures which are the drains, they don't settle. So the pipes that are connected to them, they're higher than the road. So all those puddles you'll see, they're right around a drain. And until they fix that road and raise the road up and then that will also take care of the manhole problem because the manholes don't sink either. the road sinks. Well, I No, no. I I I think a lot of it had to do with the 18 months of debris haulers driving over the top of a lot of them, too. I mean, that's a lot of weight to be going over something that wasn't meant to be designed for that. But

got more compacted than they probably anticipated. Yeah. [clears throat] But I think you could you could see it doing it in certain spots to your point where the tires you would get the tire ruts.

Yeah. And we have that in other town uh and town property like Time Square for instance. We had so much underwash on the three three especially uh Milton and Helen when they came through one kind of softened it up and the other one came through. So we had benches that were collapsing u in Times Square because of it was just too much too much water coming through. So I'm guessing I don't know I'm not their engineer but I'm guessing that happened on a stero as well um with the brick pavers. So u they're trying to fix it now. Um it's it's going to be a big project and uh when we we'll see we're going to try to get them down um I talked to I'm not sure if I talked to the town manager about it but getting them down to speak at a council meeting and get and at least let us know their plan so people can have a have they're saying it too

real quick I'm sorry didn't mean to interrupt um the town we also recently just purched a backhon truck and we are going out and we are going to make sure that even though it's not our drains we're going to make sure that they're clear as hurricane hurricane season coming. We just found some on Sterling that are about half full of sand. So, we're going out on a daily basis. So, if you see a big truck and people waving you down, say thank you. [laughter] Thanks, Mark. Or if you if you haven't seen Mark, you can always identify him. Just look for the bottom of someone's boots. He's always in a hole somewhere and his feet are always sticking up in the air. I put on my jacket.

Yeah, you dressed up for us. Again, guys, please thank you so much for being here, but we have to keep some of these follow-up questions to a minimal. We're not even to the other side of the room, so let's try and be try and be quick. Hi, I'm Ben Levan Sterling. Just a quick question. Um, we've been applying for permits once in a while and um I noticed that the the notary is needed on some of the forms. Is there any way is it state law that we have to notoriize certain papers? Is there a way that we can streamline that and get rid of the notary? Just a question.

It it is a requirement on many many forms that get submitted. Uh the notary uh if we do have some notaries here at town staff as well. So, you know, that can that can help with that process, you know, so you don't have to go out and hunt for one, you know, you can do that right here, [laughter] you know. Yep. You got one right there behind you. You got we got actually Yeah, we've got several. See, raise your hands. But uh yes, it is it is a requirement for many of those forms. Go ahead, Ron.

Okay, let's Yeah, let's talk after this, Ron. Okay, thanks. Okay, Abby, now gonna move on to this side of the room. So, thank you so much. That side of the room. Yes, thank you. After, so it's okay.

All right. Thank you. Uh William Murphy on Fair View. I've met Will a few times. Uh great relationship. Um but our our development, Fairview Isles, um we're going through our road um resurfacing and they put a lot of drain sewers in it and we have standing water in multiple places. And when I talk to the engineer, he points his finger at the guy doing it. Then you talk to the guy doing it. He points his finger back at the engineer. The engineer then points his finger back at the town owns the responsibility. And it seems, you know, again, not I'm not an engineer of any sorts, but they put a drain in where the water isn't puddling. And then they tell us they're going to put swailes and they've tried this over the last couple weeks and we have heavy rains and it's still not working. So you go talk to them and they point the finger again. They say, "Well, the town owns it." Um, so who really owns it and who should before they start to resurface the road? I really don't want to have a problem afterwards. So, I'm not sure what direction that should go.

It It's an excellent question. We We met with some residents of your town just within the last couple of weeks. And Mark, I don't want to misspeak what was said in that meeting, but go ahead. Yeah, go ahead, Mark.

Okay. Um, so yes, the key is is that project is not done in Fairview Isles yet. Okay. Okay. So, everything is still the roads are going to be paved and the roads are going to be pitched so that they go into the swailes and then the swailes. That's only on Fair View. That's not on every single road in Fairview. But at that point, that's what the engineers felt would be the best way to get that water to the drains that goes to the new outfall that they just put in. So, we're not going to know if it's going to work until they finish the paving because the roads are going to be pitched to go to the go to the storm drains. That's what I'm I'm just telling you. That's the way it's designed. If it doesn't work during the rainy season, then we can go back to them. I can't go to them now.

Wasting money. You're wasting money. I I have to go. I have to We don't Do you have a question? Okay.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Who's in charge of it? The streets are terrible. I've never seen anything. I'm a major contractor myself and I shake my head every time I see this stuff done. It's very frustrating to see this done and the waste of money. You got broke and you're spending money on waste. I don't know who's in charge of it. Are they capable of looking over the project? Nobody's there. Andrews is sucking everybody dry in this town. I have I've shook my head so many times I can't even talk anymore about it. Well, I I'll take part of that. Understand your frustration, but I guess I need a little bit more. When you say we're wasting money, I would assume we have a contract with them, not to exceed contract like we have with every other. So, I don't know that it's costing any more money than what was already agreed upon. Now, if they're not out there working, that's a whole different story.

Anytime you got to redo something, that's wasted money. But is it a contractor's wasted money or is it the towns? And I don't know that you're assuming that it's the town. And I'm trying to say I don't know that it is being wasted. If he's saying that ain't fixed and we have to go back there and fix it again, who's going to pay for it? Because Andrew isn't gonna Andrew is going to say, "Oh, that's your problem." Well, everybody keeps pointing the fingers at everybody. It's a mess. Well, I can understand your frustration, but I'm I'm certainly not a road engineer.

I have one street right up right here, right beside you that they pave and after we get this rain in another half hour, go drive down. We got puddles that are right next to drains that don't even drain into it. We have drains that are high, low. Nobody is overseeing this project. I have never seen any city official overseeing this project. Nobody's there. Okay. Well, that's I can't answer that question. I don't know if it's in our contract to have someone else do it, if we're supposed to have I don't know. I can't answer that. But if the project's not done, if Mark's telling us the project's not done,

I mean, if we could get if we could get guarantees that every project would work like it was supposed to before it was or when it was done, I think we would all be much happier. But being a contractor, you know, that's not how it works. Sometimes you may have plans, but you got to pivot. And I'm not saying this is the case, but if we have standing water and it's not done, and you're Mark, you're the expert here more than I am. They're aware of it. They know.

Yeah. I drove down after the I seem not working. Uh I've been driving down there just about every day just to see if there is any kind of, you know, even the rain. Um we had pretty heavy storm come through what a couple last week or so. I drove down and then I drove down the next day and there was some puddling that that Mark and I talked about it. But even at the the Fair View Isles after 24 hours or 48 hours, the water except for two spots were pretty much gone. Um that's what we kind of expect with rainwater uh with storm water is that you have to give it a little time to drain. We are a barrier island. Um we have a low table and I drove down there. I drive down there every single day now after that that that talk and even at the heavy rain and we had Boulevard was underwater a little bit. Um those drains aren't working. Fairview actually look pretty good. There was other streets that that need some work in our other areas, our critical areas, but you go down Shell Mound that's working as you know as far as I can see. We try to drive through when these are happening but it's there's a little bit in the entrance of Fairviews. We know that. And then the the very back uh when you get down there's

some working on but we also added uh what's that back on Bay View. Yes. On Bay View. Yep. Right. Right as you turn the corner. Yeah. So we're working on that to try to remedy in the paving paving hasn't been done yet. We we use contractor we meet with them. We have a formal meeting once a week and then Mark's always out in the field talking to the contractor for work tech who's who's doing our engineering on that. So, um I guess you're right. I if it doesn't work, then we got a problem. Um it's it is [laughter] Yes.

Have you met Joe? There are contingencies in the contract. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. So, we're aware. Um we we do Fair View for sure. There's a ton of other streets too that that have drainage issues. Um, and you're not the only one. I'm sorry, but uh we're uh if it's high tide, it's high tide. There's nowhere for the water to go. But this is they're talking rain water, which I've been monitoring now at least five or six months myself driving down there. So, it's been looking better and it's not that much standing water if you talk about a day or two after.

Thanks, Jeff. Uh we could take a question really quick uh from Facebook and it is in regards to the lighting project. Um when are the lights going to be done? Um Bruce, you want this one? [laughter]

Yeah. Well, we meet with them every We're I'm not on every call every Friday, but every Friday we have an update from them. As people know, we we've we've uh we've had a little bit of a setback with some electrical or some uh copper being stolen, even out of live lights that have been live. People have been stealing live wires out of there. So, again, it goes back to if you see somebody, they gave us we did put something out not that long ago. Maybe we should put it out again, Will, for u an update of of what they gave us as far as guidance after hours. if you see someone around or look like they're working on a pole after a specific time, it is definitely somebody that's not supposed to be there. So, so let somebody know as as soon as you can. Uh because obviously stealing live wire is is not going to be good for them if uh if if if they don't know what they're doing, but the fear is that they do know what they're doing. Lee County Sheriff's Office has been aware of. Um, but I believe we've got a

our meeting will be tomorrow. So, we'll get another update. But they told us by the middle of this month they should be substantially complete with all the installation. And if you have noticed, I've noticed I try to drive up and down every night. Every night you start to see more and more lights coming online. They're not all online yet. Um, they're putting some poles in. You see by the uh some of the street corners where they're pouring some concrete now. now that they've finished uh like an area in front of the uh the uh fire department and there's another area I just saw today on the way down here that they were putting in the base in and the concrete in for that light. So the south end looks nice, [laughter] but it's, you know, the one time the south end could say, "Hey, we got something that you guys doing on the north end." Right. No. So, it it it is it's trust me. I think uh I think I I think uh Bruce and I can sit down and have a bourbon one day when this project's finally done. He started it way way back before I was on council and I've been trying to run with it since.

And we'll continue to try to put out updates. Like the mayor said, we do have a have a discussion every week, every Friday on the lighting projects and uh everything he said. But a lot of the question is about old San Carlos obviously where where everybody is. So we had replaced the town is in charge of old San Carlos as we know and North Dero Boulevard and we had replaced long before Will was here but we had after Ian we had to replace all the electrical infrastructure down old San Carlos before FPL would come out and do what they had to do to put lights up in that area. So we tried to do temporary solar lights things that we could do. Well, then Helina Milton paid us to visit and took everything that was just done out again. So, it it's being redone. I don't Jeff would probably could tell us better, but I think it's if it's not done, it's in the process of being done. The electrical work down old San Carlos so that we can start to see and there'll be some decorative poles that'll go up there. It's going to look nice when it's done. Um, but you know, Helena and Milton set that corridor back. [laughter]

Probably gets advertised on Monday. On Monday for the It was another one of those grant funded projects and stuff like that. So, we're working with county on getting the bid, like Jeff said, is going out this next week for those lights.

And if you haven't had a chance to see the lights, I know Aby's going to get mad because I'm talking a little more than I probably should, but if you've had a chance to come down and look at it, it it it does illuminate the sidewalks from the back of the sidewalk to the back of the sidewalk. And there are some spots, most of the uh if not all, most of the the crosswalks have been illuminated. The county was in charge of that. So, we're we're getting close. I mean, it's everybody knows I'm not a huge Amber Light fan, but it's it's better than what we had. And when it's done, hopefully we can all never talk about this ever again. Question from this row right here.

Shores about the back bay. When you're leaving the back, there's a short canal about halfway down that canal. The water's completely different color than the and a canal and your eyes will burn going through that short area. I'm sure you've been through there. Can you tell me why that short maybe the length of two houses is where your eyes will catch on fire? Curtis, I think that relates to what we were just addressing. Yeah, it's worse than the others. Okay, I got you, Curtis. So, where um where exactly are you saying this Estraita? Oh, the opening of the back of the back.

Yes.

Is it a little bit of a reddish reddish color in the water? The milk I think the the milk a little bit milky color. That's what you were telling me about previously, Curtis. not change. Okay. But the water going through that area is four months now. It's about four months.

Um that sounds good. Me and my team, we we will we will investigate this more tomorrow. We could take water samples. This might be along the same lines of what what we're seeing in the Buccaneer Lagoon. Um but we will um we'll do what we can to um um assess the situation. ongoing on a daily basis because that lagoon should flush itself every two days just by the tides. Right. Right. And that is not flushing out. Okay. Every day for four months straight. Okay. It's something from that condominium that got put up at the end of RJ with that big boat, that big white boat when you come in the entrance. Okay.

The best thing you can do as the public, and this is just me as a public information officer saying this, is to send in photos. If you see anything, we really can't do anything if we don't have evidence. I mean, yeah. I mean, you can do call us, submit it online. I mean, right now, Curtis and team will go out and check it out tomorrow. I guarantee you that, right? And and we see if as soon as you start seeing this stuff, you need to report it to the to the town as soon as possible. So, we can It allows us then to work. Correct. Yeah. they need to call us or we because we we're we're going to be the ones that are going to um talk with the entities that are going to help us resolve this situation. if I get my own water.

Um, they want to know exactly what I should be testing for water school at FW FGCU and uh they can they can help you with that. We'll publish we'll publish that information for you. So, but thank you. Thank you for your question.

Have a question in this room. Hi, Nancy Walker. I live over here on Ibis. I met with town uh I guess a couple months ago. We have a lot of weekly rentals in a monthly rental street. We only have three legal monthly uh weekly rentals on our street and that's fine. They were grandfathered in, but it hasn't changed. I want to know were there any citations done? We've turned in addresses. It to us it appears like nothing has changed. They're still in and out. It's almost it's not even weekly. nightly.

So, we are every time we get the reports, we we do, you know, open up a case and sometimes they're quick to close, but sometimes they're still open. So, um if if I could get with you after to get the, you know, maybe the addresses I don't want to talk about, you know, people's addresses in public like this, but I can get with you after and then I can answer you back directly um to whether or not we do have an open case on those and and if we had it open and it's now closed, what the results of that that was, we I owe that to you definitely. Um, in regards to the the larger, you know, issue of that of the short-term rentals, I know a lot of people do reach out to the town, and that's what we ask you to do. Reach out, uh, submit, call call the town's, uh, main number, and, uh, you'll get in touch with our short-term rental team or our code compliance team if you think it's a code violation and then we will open up a case on that to to further investigate. Uh sometimes we can use some of the information you send us. If you send us photos or witnesses, sometimes we have to do the case ourselves. But if you give us the information, the address and your con your concerns through opening a code case or talking with our team, then we will investigate it and we will uh then you'll be able to track the results of that investigation in our code uh section. So I I I want to get after this. We have now um we've got I think almost 1500 or so we think short-term rentals on the island. Uh last time I got it, the new uh registration uh process is working. Close to 800 are now registered. Um that's obviously there's a there's a gap there. We want all of them to register. So they've all received notifications that they need to register. Sometimes we get notified by the public that somebody is renting and they're not they they um we didn't know they were. So then we add them to that list of of you know inquiry to get them to come in and register. Then we know then we can tell them and inform them if they're not aware of the what that they're renting in the wrong way.

Yeah. They're registered then. Definitely. And nothing has changed. We want to hold them accountable. Feedback to the complaint. I guess feedback to the people that complain. Feedback, you know, would be really helpful. Yeah. I agree. And issued any citations. Well, we need you guys to help us as the eyes and ears out there. So, I should give you some feedback. Yep. Thank you.

Awesome. I think this row we have quite a few. So, I'll start down. Maybe look. Gail Crab, Tree Pgoli, I want to thank you very much for having this town hall meeting. How can um individuals, there's some communication problems. How can we as individuals, if we have a question, for instance, why are there vehicles on the beach at night? I submitted that question. and I've gotten no response back yet, but how can we best communicate with the town to get answers? Is there a portal now that we can just post a question on there and it will be answered by the appropriate person.

So through the town website, those questions do come to me and I read each and every one of them with profanity and all. And so, um, and I I do answer them usually within seven days. And if I don't have an answer, I assign it to a director that does, and their director is to answer it within seven days. And if I get more than three questions, you'll see it on Facebook or you'll see me go on the news and talk about it. That's usually my cadence. Um, but again, if you don't want to do it that way, you can always just email me, abigel.berheart fnbgv.com, and I'll answer you immediately. And I'm also happy to give you my cell phone.

Thank you so much. I have another question. What is the status of our storm drainage system? Not just on Astero Boulevard, but off the roads that go off of Sterile Boulevard. Going to have to turn it.

Well, once again, I'll turn it over to our MVP there, Mark. Uh could have been Mark's town hall, but that's okay. Go ahead, Mark. Well, I know drainage is a key key issue on a beach, but um our tier one project, $23 million project is in the final stages right now. That covered quite a few streets. It did not cover all the streets on the island there. Once that project is is complete, we will go on to the next phase and see where the next [clears throat and snorts] um worst streets that doesn't sound right. Where the worst flooding then is in the next streets and then that's going to be our next focus area. And like Mark mentioned before, I would like to give credit to the team for, you know, we they did recommend to council uh certain um investments like the vac truck and like now we have a camera van that goes with the vac truck where we can send our own cameras down the drains to see what the issues are with the drains and then and then we can uh assign projects to them. Um and these we funded these with the you know with through storm water funds, water fund and stuff like that. So, uh, really great investment and it's already paying dividends. Would you agree?

Oh, yes. Mostly. Yeah. So, go ahead. Jeeoff, you wanted to add something? Yeah. I just want to add that um we do have the tier one and I just want to add to that we are always looking at uh trying to give money to improve the storm water on the island. We have some some focus areas that there was a study a couple years ago on the uh the focus area. So, we did you know tier one was the first one. Um we are asking for appropriations from the state and federal level to also get money for storm water uh to mitigate some of those things. Um so those are kind of working their ways through. So it's usually storm water is usually on our radar every time there's an appropriation or a grant that comes through because of course we do live on a barrier island and we want to get as much water out as quick as we can um off the island.

I would I'd add something to what Jeff said really quick there. We have gotten great support from Senator Scott, Senator Moody, uh, Congressman Donald's on some of these, uh, as well as our state, uh, legislators as well in Tallahassee. They're very supportive of the beach. Um, and it doesn't hurt if you all reach out to them as well and let them know what we need. Um, most recently, we just asked for another appropriation for this coming year for storm water improvements, and it's I I think it's progressing very well through the process, and hopefully will be approved this coming fall. So,

and we also I'm sorry. Well, I didn't, but I want to piggyback on that. We also, if you tell us, we'll come out and look and there may be something that we as a town can do. Dig out the ditch a little better or clean out a culvert here or put a swale in over here type of thing that we can do ourselves. And we have done a few small projects here and there that have helped individual people. So, don't be afraid to email me and we'll come out and take a look. If there's something we can do, we can do. But if there's something I can't do, I'll tell you that, too. Said, "Sorry, we got to wait for the next big project. So sorry sometimes I'm too honest.

Okay. Uh first I want to say that I think you guys are doing a great job. Uh if you think three years ago the devastation and if down now

lower okay uh it's great you know but I think what distresses people are the pockets. You know, you see buildings that like the Salty Crab across from Margaritavville. You know what's happening with that build? I mean, you drive in, it looks great, and then you see this dilapitated building and people go, "Oh, they're not recovering." And that's all the way I think people when they say that what's happening with the lots. So, I don't know what you can do, but if you could make them pretty or tear them down or do something. [snorts] Um, the second thing is I know the street is being redone Arrow Boulevard. Uh, I hope crosswalks are part of that plan. Um, you take your life in your hands when you cross the street. Uh, there the crosswalks are very they should be painted every season because when you're a motorist and you're seeing all these people, you need to know where the crosswalks are. And I am for the barriers in Time Square. I've seen it done. Um, if anyone has ever been to Wis Casset, Maine, they have beautiful barriers. They have granite with um chains to prevent people from running across the street cuz somebody's going to be killed. Um, San Carlos Boulevard, please. I hope there's a plan, a unified plan as to what it's going to look like. Right now, it's a mishmash. Can can the builders get together? Can the town can anyone get together and say, "Okay, what do we want this to look like? Do we want flowers? What do we want to make it unified and pretty?" [snorts] Um, I talked about the derelic buildings. The one last question I have is uh when the big developers come in and they want to build 17 stories and they say the town needs the money, but no one can explain to me why the town needs they say, "Well, the investment bankers won't

invest." Well, has anyone ever talked to an investment banker? Is this true? Do we really need 17 stories? I mean, the whale is at 17 stories. Margaritaville isn't the uh co, you know, whatever it is, Lanny Kai. I just want to know why they say that we need that money because if you look at the property values on Fort Meyers Beach, they're astronomical. those beachfront properties 7 10 14 million they're paying more taxes than they were before Ian. So, we're h we have a good tax base, but I wish the town would really explore that issue and and let the town know is do we really need the money or are they just saying that? Thank you. Thank you everyone. [applause]

All right. I guess I'll start. Yeah, there's a lot of questions here. So, I we'll work we'll work backwards. You know, I I've always asked that question about, you know, does does development help? Absolutely. You know, I'm a fan of development. And I think you have to continue to grow. Um, but if you don't see development for 10 years, how does that money really help, right? And and I've asked those questions and and not everybody has an answer for it. You know, development is great, but if it never comes out of the ground, who does it benefit? Nobody. You know, the to your point, the the the land cost has already gone up significantly since the storm now has come back down to earth, but we all remember right after the storm, it went extremely high and we saw that huge increase that first year, and now it's kind of coming back down to back down to earth. Do I think this town is ever going to go go out of business? No. I mean, if it was going to do that, I would have done it long before Hurricane Ian, right? And I think as you saw today with with the fire department coming back, with all the 25 approvals that I've talked about, with the countless new buildings coming back, I think we're going to be just fine. Um, you know, we are still waiting for a lot of appropriation funding to come in, or I shouldn't say appropriation, but obligated funds to come back that we've had to outlay that capital for to be reimbured for what we've already paid. Uh, and we I think we saw that in our September budget hearing. You you heard that from the staff that that that's a concern. It will come in. It is going to come in. If we can ever get the government to stay open long enough to make decisions, it would be great. But, um, so that's that part of it. Um, you know, I don't want to go on about the 17 stories. It is that is what it is. Everybody can ask for what they want to ask for and, you know, the council at the time, whether it's this one or the next one, we'll look at it and make a determination and then it'll go where it goes. But

um [laughter] um, as far as the flowers and the lights, I think it there is kind of a plan in place to go up a sterile boulevard. I I don't want to speak for the town manager and the team, but I would assume that that's going to be tied into, you know, that the the state is going to be doing um the the landscaping at the base of the bridge there. That's supposed to be done. I just got an email this week that it's probably going to be mid 2027 before that's completed because they have to do a contract separate from the actual construction part of it. Once that's done, Margaritavville will be taking over the day-to-day landscaping of that. So, as I've said before, if you walk around Margaritavville, you see how they take care of their landscape. You know, it's going to look beautiful. So, we already have the funding in our budget for doing a sterile boulevard. We were going to start that before we got word that they were going to come down and redo a sterile boulevard. So, I think when that's done, then we can start. Doesn't make sense to put nice flowers and stuff in and then tear it up to do the road over again. So, as they're going down, hopefully we can start to implement that. I know the staff has been working with the garden club on getting some ideas on how to, you know, if anybody's ever been to a little town called Deneden up outside of Clear Water. If you've ever gone up there, every time I go up there, I think it's just one of the coolest places ever. And it reminds me a lot of here and how can we make it similar but different from that. Um, you know, and now that we have light poles and there's all kinds of fun things that we can do during season or outside of season with lights and stuff. So, I that was two of the questions. I'll let Will what were the other

just to add on to the Yes, we we we are working on plans for the u um old San Carlos uh area around through time square down through our main business district. We have visions. I have a vision. I work with Frankie, our community development director visit like we look at what they did in downtown Fort Myers. Look at what they did in some of the other communities the mayor's talking about where they were able to kind of bring all those businesses together in partnership with the town to come up with a unified vision to beautify the area uh to to come with a how how do we consolidate and and and make our money work together for all of us with unified plans of landscaping, lighting, signage, uh awnings over the sidewalk and all those types of things. There are there are methods to get to that. I don't want to speak ahead of approvals because uh we're working on some studies right now we'll bring to council then we'll bring to the county commissioners to get their approvals to to to set up some there there's there's different ways that this is done and I don't want to get ahead of the process before they they get a chance to decide how they want you know if they want to support us in that effort they being the the counselors or the commissioners. Um but I think I think you're going to like what comes from that.

Um and there was one other crosswalk the crosswalks. Yes. So, I've um we do meet with the county on a regular basis and with uh the county uh manager, Dave Herner, and I have talked uh we talk about these projects. I will bring that up to him next time we talk or I'll talk to him tomorrow and make sure that we talk about the uh um as as they work on the project. Um what's their plan to uh to repaint? Now the lighting they've as they've been doing as the mayor mentioned is they've been doing the lighting. One of the tests when they energize those lights is to make sure that they are lit and the crosswalks are lit within uh compliance. Um can they make sure that the crosswalks because all of a sterile boulevard is now changed.

Yep. that they're in different places because some of them don't lead to anything and some of them, you know, need to be put like the town hall. I don't think there's a crosswalk in front of

it. There's one Yeah, just just right right up here. Yeah, right up here and one just down. So, I I understand your point and those are some of the ongoing discussions we have. Adding on to that, yes, I have talked with uh uh the council and and we're talking with the county now since really it's it's their it would be their project for a project like you talk about with the uh the bar the sidewalk uh barriers. Barriers probably not the right, but anyway to restrict because we all know as we drive up and down there every day, one of the biggest issues with backing up traffic in that area is are the pedestrians crossing from the parking areas on either side of Astero. So, you're exactly right. It's an idea that we're working with in the county. And just to add, like I said before, we're I'm going to try to get them to come down and at least present to the council and then they can ask questions to them, I hope. And those kind of questions is definitely ones that we want too because we don't control a Serero Boulevard, but it's a huge part of our our life um your life, you know, and uh the traffic flow and we got people darting in and out. I mean, we get calls all the time and you see the ambulances all the time and we want to try to try to get that. So that is one thing that we're really pushing for uh is you know more crosswalks if we could because I know sometimes you got to go down two blocks so you crosswalk. So

it's not it's it's suggestions from us and push from us. So uh but ultimately it's county's decision but we will push as much as we

well county is very very data driven and you know just to give you an example the lenel road we all know the lenel crosswalk is was one of the dangerous crosswalks that we've had and there was a lot of people concerned about it. We were able to go through the LCSO and we were able to go through the fire department to show them here's the data. Here's why we need to have this crosswalk and why we need to have it illuminated with the push button because they weren't going to do it. But when we showed them the data, they're like, okay, this makes sense. We'll do it. It's back now. Right. Uh trying to get new crosswalks is very very difficult. That doesn't mean it can't happen. But they are, if you've ever heard of the green book, I'm sure Bruce is ready to flip on his flip over [laughter] his back. the green book. They live and die by the green book. Um and and if it doesn't meet certain regulations, they're not they're just not going to do it.

So, should we call when we are standing in a sidewalk? I'm so sorry. We we have like five more questions. Is there any Can we summarize your last Definitely send your concerns to the county commissioners? Reach out to the county commissioners. It wouldn't hurt at all. Doesn't hurt. So, if somebody bumps by when I'm in the crosswalk, doesn't hurt to send Okay, we're going to take one more question from this. I'm so sorry. My my question is also about the crosswalk. Um, I'm Clarangberg, uh, Bay Beach Lane on the south end. Our crosswalk by the EBIA access by Leonardo Arms, we had a um, uh, flashing light before. And do you know when that's going to come back? That's a really

Well, I don't want to speak for the county, but in asking these questions before, the reason they were able to do the the Lenel one is because that was outside of their obligation through FEMA. So with the signs, with the lights that were there, if they were there before, they're going to come back. And my assumption is they're going to do them as they're moving north because they got the funding, you know, they again it wasn't just go out and do it without getting obligation for the funding. So again, I don't want to speak for them, but if it was there, I'm quite certain it'll be coming back. And that's what I was told by the county as well. We'll check on the status, see if we can get a status updates of when those crosswalk will be lights will come back.

Question right here in the front row. Hi, I'm Rhonda West from Lagoon Shores. Uh, we put a new water billing system in last year. Um, the last three days I've gotten three different amounts for a water bill. Um, the 31st it was 317. Uh, yesterday it was uh I'm 377 and I called this morning and a young lady was very helpful and she said uh it was the consumption charge change. um it went up $60 over two days. So I said, "Well, how do how does that happen? What what what's the change for?" Well, she couldn't explain it to me, but she did tell me that when the water bills come out, someone in the department goes through all those bills and takes a look at them, and if something seems out of whack or, you know, should be changed, they go in and they change it. Well, that's concerning to me. So, we have a new system should be very automated. We have new meters. At least I do. So, [clears throat] why do we need someone to go in and make changes? A, and B, why is that not being explained? Now, I did get an email before I came here, uh, from Mark, and I got a $61 credit. So, now my bill's 315. So, I'm sure my bill will now come through my checking account at 315. But why? All of the above, why?

Okay, come on down, Mark. So, that was that was a combination. Um, but the new meter that you got and the old meter, thanks. The they they did not sync right in the program and and so when they did not sync right it did charge you an extra $61 and we found that because you were informed that we do not go and look at 3,000 bills every month. I'm sorry we don't do that.

But we look we we have flags that say high bills, unusual bills, that type of thing. And that's what we go through. So we thank you for bringing that to our attention. And so that was the issue is that because of the new meter installed and the old meter that was there, it it did not convert right. So that's why we did that. And when we were closing out the program, this happened this month, is our computers crashed. So we were able to close out like half of them, but we had to delete all those and then put them all back in. And when we put them back in, that's when the new amount came up. And that's why we came back in and credited you the $61. I remember I've worked on it this morning. 70 78. [laughter]

It's the feedback that's important to us. And anybody that has ever gotten a call before I was on council, I got a call from the town saying, "You might want to check your toilets. Our water bill looks like you might have a a leaky or running toilet because your water bill is way higher than it's been in the past." And sure enough, we had a we had a bad valve. We had a leaky toilet. Everybody's going to get a new meter on the island. There will be a portal where you'll be able to go in and see your water usage within a 15-minute time period for the past two [clears throat] years. [laughter] Only if you don't want to shower, Bruce. I guess I suppose you could. He's asking can they turn it off through the portal?

Oh, through the portal. No, we do not. We did not buy that option meter that you can have because that meter would have been about three times as much as that we're putting in. So, I did not go with that option. I went with as best as I could get, but not crazy. You're going to get another one because it's a cell meter. And that way, everybody will be able to, like I said, you'll be able to do instantaneous read. Even if even if you're out of town in Michigan, you can check your meter on. Bruce, you raised a good point. Awesome. You'll be able to read your meter like that because It goes off

and for a matter of record, that system is called Neptune. So, if you want to go look it up, wonder if there's a a a path where if a homeowner wants to purchase the meter above what's already been installed themselves to be able to have that ability to remote control shut the water off if they're not going to be there or in the case of a storm, is that something that the town can look at? If you call the department, we'll be glad to go out and shut it off. I need my water for two months because I'm going on a cruise or whatever. We'll be glad to do that for you. I would have to investigate in to see if it's possible that that meter may be a different configuration than the meters we have in the Neptune 360. I don't know if the two softwares would talk to each other.

I can investigate into that. We have to take a question um from Facebook and the question is is there progress or what is the progress on the strategic plan and I think that is a question for Dr. Kohler. I think yeah Dr. Coler gets to answer. Yeah, you thought you were getting away without it. Kind of explain what it is and then

Okay. Um first of all, I see a lot of familiar faces here from all of our community engagement sessions we had regarding the strategic plan and we had hot dogs there too. So anyway, um I guess that's how we get people out. So, thank you for our residents who are able to participate in those two community engagement sessions. I know council also had at least two or three sessions with um Angela Christ from USF and the John Dailyaly Institute, not the Gulfer, different John Dailyaly. Um and so the reason why I give you all this background knowledge is to let you know that we have almost a finalized draft. It is going through USF right now for final tweaks, I guess. And then um Thank you

for final tweaks and then we will be presenting it to council at the M&P on May 7th I believe is the next M&P. Um it has metrics, it has a vision and mission. It has um guiding principles and I'm just really excited that you'll be able to have dashboards with an advanced digital tool that we purchase that will be coming within the next year and a half once we get the strategic plan implemented so that you can see our percentages and our performance metrics because to me that's important that the public sees how much progress we're making on those those goals. But I'll do you have something else you'd like to add Dan?

Nope. I think you covered it. They're my favorite meetings. I know they are. I can tell the smile on your face. Remember, I was your your techie assistants. Um Will, do you have anything to add about strategic plan? It's my passion, so I could also talk all day about it. And we have um one more question from the audience. We're going to take maybe two more questions if you don't have a lot of followup. So, we're going to go through seconds right now. Yes. I was wondering uh who's responsible for giving permission to build on the island? Is it you guys? Can you be a little more specific? What built?

Let's say with the uh the place across the street where uh the old hotel was. Well, I I'll I'll try to cover the best I can. Outrigger was so generally whether you're talking commercial

permission who gives the permission to build this? Well, you have under your certain property rights and what zoning district that you're in and things like that, height and all the stuff that has to do with land development code and comp plan. You have property rights to be able to build something by right. You still have to come through and get your building permit and do that. And if it's within what you're allowed to do by right, then you don't need any permission other than to get a permit and have it inspected. Now, if you want to go outside, whether it's a five- foot variance for a side setback for your air conditioner or something, then you have to go through a process where you go before the LPA for a hearing and then it goes to the council. I shouldn't say that because if it's a variance and it's automatically approved, now you don't have to go before the council, but there it has to go through a process. You can't just build what you want to build. If it's outside what you're allowed to, they can go through either what's called an RPD, CPD, or development agreement. Those are basically the three land development tools that you can use to ask for something outside of what you're granted by right. But it goes through the LPA first, then through two council meetings to be able to be approved.

They will have to go through the LPA first. No, they have to go through the LPA. The LPA will make a recommendation as well as the staff to council. Then council will have two hearings where we get to hear from the public in all of these hearings. And then the council will make the ultimate decision on whether or not they will be granted to build what they want to ask for. We have one follow question here and again just down

it's a combination kudos for all that you do and giving us this opportunity pretty much like what Terry said there but I also want to go way back to what somebody said at the very beginning about the concerns with the canal coming in for the proposed London Bay project. Um Mark Wilson Wilson.

Okay. Mark had a um kind of an invitation seminar over on Bay Beach Lane uh the beginning of March. I think it was. It was only the Bay Beach Lane people that were there. And basically it was I think like promoting what he had done at Grand View and what a great job he was going to do for the town. But one of the things that did come up at that meeting um that I was not totally aware of is that he is definitely looking at Fishtail Marina as his entrance in and out. And um I did not know until this gentleman said it. He but I spoke to him afterwards privately because I do live right on I front Fishtail Marina and I spoke to him privately trying to figure out are we doing this like every 30 minutes? How late in the evening is it running? Um but he seems to be going in that direction. But the concern that I have um because I do know it is public waterway and he has absolutely every right I believe to do this without permission from anybody else is that using the term ferry because ferry has been bandied around at LPA meetings and other planning meetings is a way um to alleviate some of the traffic on aero boulevard if they could get some sort of a transportation system to go from those of us on the south end down to time square bypassing Eststerero Boulevard especially, you know, during season and by concern um and this is why I want to bring it up is that people are looking at ferry is great but the ferry that is being spoken about right now with the London Bay project and I did reserve to bring it back up because he mentioned originally and then they're talking about the proposal that I believe is going to become coming before the LPA in another couple of weeks is that we've got ferry and we've got ferry and they're two totally different things. one would publicly benefit the island and that I think is the one the town is kind of talking about a little bit. The

ferry he is proposing with the same word is strictly to commute and transport people from his property over on a stero I don't know what if it's a hyatt or a ritzer or something he has something over in aero that would then come through our waterways to his property over here for their restaurants and their beaches. So I I guess I'm just concerned about the use of Fishtail Marina because he's very excited about it and the fact that we have Barry and Ferry and they're totally different. I don't know if you've heard any of that. This was a meeting that he had and he has since sent out a couple of emails as well. Well, yeah, I wasn't in that meeting, but I'm I'm pretty familiar with

Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. But, you know, water, ferry, taxi, all those things, if I remember correctly, are in the code as acceptable uses to be able to use in the public waterway. Um, I'm not so concerned with the definition of ferry and ferry and how it's going to be used. Mine is public. Yeah. And and again, he can he can he can come in [clears throat] and ask for that. Whether or not he gets it through the LPA and the council process, you know, or whether or not it's negotiated that he doesn't do that, we we don't know. We won't know until it goes to the process. out there because people are hearing one thing and they're thinking something else. [clears throat]

Yeah. I mean, well, it is it's why we call it the coconut telegraph, right? I mean, until we actually are standing in front of the LPA and before the council and they're making their proposal as to whatever it's going to be. I've been doing this long enough to know that what you see before it gets to the LPA and what you see at the LPA isn't always the same thing. And then once it gets to the LPA and gets to the council, it's not the same thing. And by the time it makes to the second reading, if it does, it's even it's different again. So, it's really hard to speculate as to what their plan is or what they want to ask for or what they want to do. Yeah. Going one way or the other, but I I to your point, I mean, you were in the meeting and and I've heard of other meetings that people have been in that But he brought it up before.

Yeah. They're It sounds like they're very very aware of people are not happy with the ferry situation. So, at least that's what I'm hearing from all these meetings. So, we'll see what they decide to do with it. Okay, we have one more question and I just want to make sure after we have a question right here. Does anyone else have a question before we Okay, so we have one and two. Okay, so we have one question right here. I know. Let's turn your listening ears on. Just so I can see. [laughter] Um, thank you for doing this. Um, it's really not a question, it's a comment. I was also at one of those London Bay meetings. It was a different one. Got to hold you back. Hold it up a little higher.

Sorry. I was also at one of those London Bay meetings. It was a different one. Um he was very adamant that and so I was glad to hear you say that you don't think we're going bankrupt. He was very adamant that if they didn't build within five years this island would be non-existent and bankrupt. So please please thank you. Just please um if statements like that are made at the LPA at the LPA meeting. Just got to hold it up so they can hear you. There you go. If statements like that are being made at the LPA meeting, please don't let false information get out there. That's that was just my comment. Oh, okay. Thanks. Hold on. Just

Oh, sorry guys. We have to do the mic for matter of public record. Then it's technically not even public and you didn't say anything when you look at the record. Um

just just um that comment regarding we need the ratables, we need the tax base that is typical developer comments that have been fought by thank God people that made the Asterero Bay preserve people in this room that were part of that fought that people that [clears throat] saved Keywaden Island and other and all the parts of the Everglades. So please understand the treasure we have to to save. That's that part. The other part with the ferry is in good faith, the town itself, you said by law he can do what he wants to and that's whatever, but the town itself would not use public canals for the um the sailboats, the moing fields. There were two public canals proposed. The one behind the old city hall and there was another one I think in the north end and the town council voted those down because they were behind private people's properties and we didn't want to have the people from the mooring field go behind people's property. So if we're going to do that as a town and that's our standard, we don't want to upset people's privacy. I don't know. I just think we need to think about that if this comes up as some type of revol resolution even though it may be legal.

Well, it's important, you know, we say it all the time. It's important for engagement, right? For the community to be engaged and have their voices heard because I tell you the LPA listens to it. Staff listens to it. The council listens to it. So, if you're not engaged, if you're not vocal, if you're not whether you're for or against something, doesn't matter. It's hard to read anybody's mind, right? And then it comes down to to the decision of an LPA and and a council. So, uh, be engaged. We have one more question. Okay, this is our last question. Question. Okay, you guys love this mic. It's hard getting it out of your hands sometimes. Hi, I'm Laurel from Bay Beach Lane. What's going on with Newton Park? Is that town? Is that county? I love Newton Park.

It is town. We love Newton Park. Jeff, yeah, she'll just pass the mic to Jeff back there. Yeah, that's another one. It's part of the CDBGR just like the pool. uh and the north um the north water tower. Those are all part of those three projects. Um so right now we are we're kind of in the same boat. We did our our solicitation. Um I think we're about ready to negotiate if we're not already negotiating with a a design. We're entering into negotiations with the engineering firm on that one.

And we do just so and I know this this comes up at at CellC um the advisory board and we do have a conceptual plan which we vetted out through the R2P2. Um, we had a number of residents that or all residents were invited to it. A few showed up. Um, and they did a great conceptual plan. Um, we might even have it online somewhere, but just keep in mind that that's a conceptual plan. Once we start to get into the design and architecture, it might not look exactly like that. So, um I do know that that was, you know, we talked about that a little bit quite a bit at CellCAB is do we want they wanted to see it like that because the town already vetted it, but when you get into design, it just might change a little bit, but it's still going to go back to an educational and and passive recreation park. Yep. Yep.

Abby. Okay. All right. If there are no more questions, I'm gonna hand it off to the mayor for some closing remarks. And thank you to everyone. Oh, closing remarks. Oh, and then just really quickly, um, we are still doing hurricane passes with Lisa in the back corner. So, if you haven't gotten your hurricane pass, just pop right re-entry pass. Yep.

Yeah. I guess there's uh some the one question that I heard that wasn't brought up today. People were asking about the elevation that the homes that recently got the funding from FEMA uh for elevation. Uh just to to clarify a little bit and please will if I'm if I'm saying something out of out of turn, let me know. Uh the town is not receiving that money. That money will be administered through the state. Um we did not select any of the people on that that we had nothing to do with it. We did at the beginning have to provide them information for things to go to the state to then review to then go to FEMA to review to then determine. So we did not make any determination on who received that money. We did not have anything to do with other than that little bit of in information we have to give out. We don't I don't know. It's a uh it's it's a a list that you can't just give out the information. Uh talking with Will, I think the staff is willing to if you think you're on it, you can come in and ask and they can tell you, but they can't put out the information as to this street number gets this or this street number gets that for whatever reason. Um so I just wanted to touch on that because nobody asked that question tonight and I thought for sure we'd be asked that. Um, it's different than the remodel grant. So, there was the elevation grant, then there was the state elevation grant, then there was the remodel. We have not heard anything with the remodel grant yet from FEMA. No.

So, as soon as we hear it, trust me, you guys get the information as fast as we get it. Um, as far as any other closing comments, I appreciate everybody coming out tonight. Much better crowd than I expected. Um, when Will first came to me about the idea, I said, "Let's give it a try." And I knew the hot dogs would bring you guys all in. So, whoever came up with that idea, it was it was great. Um, no, but I really seriously I appreciate everybody come out. I appreciate the other council members coming as well. This is how we gather our information on meetings like this because not everybody's comfortable with sending emails or calling or texting us. So, uh, I get more information from people stopping me on the street or at the grocery store saying, "Hey, can you help me with this or answer this?" So, this is the kind of engagement we need to be able to build back the way we want to continue to build back. Um, and I think you've heard from Will and staff enough that they're pretty much open. Uh, there there hasn't been an email I haven't sent to Will that said, "I've had a problem. This person needs help." And he and his staff are on it right away. So, stay engaged. Again, just stay engaged. If you have a meeting or you have something you want to say, come out and and listen. You may not always get your way or you may not always uh like the answer you hear, but we're here to try to get you the answers as fast as we can.

Can I ask a quick question? Sure. How often would you guys Wait a minute. You were just yelling at us that we had to rep me. I'm the problem. I [laughter] know. But I'm curious. How often would you guys like once every 3 months, once every four months, once a quarter? But on the north end, no, I wanted to have a big party at Bayside and ask questions. So, you guys were right.

Like I like I said in the beginning, and maybe some of you weren't here, my my goal, I've been working with Abby on this, is we want to find out the curiosity of these, how often we'd like to do them. But I would like to alternate locations on the island. Do we do one on the south end? We'll do one here. We'll do one on the north end. Do one at Moundhouse. Do one some others to try to bring people to those locations, etc. Things like that. So, much information as you pass to Abby so we can kind of refine and fine-tune it. That would really help us out.

And maybe we could even do, you know, if you ever when you go through the the the the sunshine training that you got to do every year, there's hundreds of people in the room listening to it, but you can't speak. Maybe if we could organize a online one where you know we're online and people can ask questions because not everybody can obviously be here and not everybody knows how to use set up remote locations where people could ask questions. Yep. Yeah. They just I mean it's going to be more difficult. You're going to have to mute everybody's microphone and people have to raise their hand. But you know how how bad can it be? Also, I want to let you know I I wanted alcohol here that was turned down. So I'm fighting for you. I promise. Thank you everybody. Really appreciate you guys coming. [applause]