Code Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Let's call this to order.

Member Quinlan? Ritchie? He's calling in. Chair Ritchie.

Here. Alright. Rise if you can for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic from which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

All right. We have remote participation from John Quinlan. And I'd like a motion to permit him to participate via telephone due to his tough travel schedule and that the participation shall be allowed for the purposes of discussion and to the extent permitted by applicable law and city policy.

I'll make a motion to approve John Quinlan to participate and vote during this meeting.

Member Nesbitt second.

All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Guess I should have allowed for discussion. I didn't think there'd be much of one.

Thank you.

We got you, John.

All right. Next, we'll move on to the agenda. I'd like to get approval of the agenda. Can I get a motion to approve? So move and one second. Second? Any discussion? Yes. Okay.

I'd like this is the agenda that we are approving, right? I'd like to add an item on Item seven it will be 7D, so that will be under old business. I'd like to add the update on the Winterberry Access participation of the Beach and Coastal. We're going to be discussing the art part of it.

I thought we had that on here somewhere. Didn't Did we? We didn't have the the beautification stuff.

I didn't get an update on that?

Oh, yeah. We Anne and I still haven't met yet.

Because of the fact that that thing is moving so fast, I just took it upon myself to just move on and give you a report on the art on the art

And I appreciate that. I that was an omission on my part. I wanted that on there. So that's fine.

So are you taking this over moving forward?

That's not a discussion right now.

Chair Ritchie? Yes. Could I talk Number 11, is there a number 11, or did I just have a bad copy?

Oh. No. We omitted number 11.

Okay. Alright. I just wanna make sure. Thank you.

Okay. Now can I get a renewed motion as to approve as amended? So moved. Seconded? Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed? It is so moved that we have an agenda that has been amended. We'll move forward with that. Okay. Now we're looking at the minutes from March 18. Can I get a motion to approve?

Member Quinlan makes a motion to approve the minutes as published for March 18.

Second. Okay. Any discussion? I see no lights. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. So approved. Moving right through them, but I have a feeling we're going to slow down soon.

All right, next is attendance policy. That one is mine. I'd just like to take a moment to review the attendance policy. The attendance policy, I'm not going to read the entire thing. The key part of it is that the absence from 30% of the meetings shall be held absence from 30% of the meetings held by the board, committee, or commission within a twelve month period shall automatically operate to vacate the seat of the member.

The main reason one of the main reasons I bring that up is, Dustin, you're on two. And I just want to point out it's a 12 period. It's not a calendar year or anything else. So I just wanted to make sure you were aware of that. And more than that, I wanted us all to recognize that.

Next one. Update on the beach code amendment.

I'm sorry, chair. Do we have a public comment? We missed the public comment. Was there any public comment?

Oh, we have one we have one public comment. I guess I should have mentioned I was planning on doing that at the time we take up the gopher tortoises. Is that okay with you? No?

Thank you.

Oh, I apologize. Can we please? Thank you, John.

Hi, my name is Lindsay Boehner. I'm a resident of Marco Island. I'm a board member of the Audubon of Western Everglades. I'm a former member of this committee and a former chair. I came here today to show support for John Quinlan's Gopher tortoise sign proposal on my way to our annual board retreat.

So I'm sorry. That's why I'm kind of on a time frame. So as a former member, I learned about gopher tortoises, and I soon learned about the horrific vehicle strikes that they face all over our island, mainly on the South End. Watson and Hawaii have been historically dangerous areas, even with signage. I've been a first responder to many of these strikes where large tortoises are hit and left in the middle of the road with their shells crushed.

So I urge everybody to support this proposal and to put the money into more signage. We have had lower strikes this year. I'm not sure why, but anything that we can do to prevent gopher tortoise strikes is something that we should do. Amber and to the committee, Brittany and I have made a database. We drove all over this island and we reported all of the signage in a Google Maps doc. If you need us to help you access that, we're happy to do that. I would just like the committee to remember whenever you're putting signs up to add that data into our document, please.

Alright. Thank you. And now you know why I thought I'd be putting you up with when we talked about science, so I didn't realize the time

We constraints, so my would like to thank everybody for their support here. And if you need anything, please, you know, let me know. I can go to the Audubon and talk to them about any future items you might need.

So let me ask you this. Thank you. I'm sorry, John. Go ahead.

John. I'm just gonna say thank thank you, former chair of Vader, for your support.

One question. You had mentioned that you inventoried the signs basically where they are. Have have any work ever been done to map where the strikes are?

I believe Britney has all of that data. She has an Excel spreadsheet of dates and addresses, and it goes back, you know, probably five years.

Oh, I I know I know the listing happened. I was wondering if anyone put it on a map. No. Okay. I was just sort of a heat map kind of thing to see where

these shoots are. Incredibly that would it would be really neat to have, you know, a map with different overlays on it where our signs are, where the strikes happen.

Yeah. Alright. If you happen to be speaking to Britney and it's an easy thing to put together, would you would you ask her? And if not, if you could send me the data, I'm sure I could put something together.

Yeah. That's my computer skills aren't that great.

And so Mine are okay.

So I'd appreciate any

help. Happy All right.

You guys all

have a great day. Thank you so much.

Thank you again, Lindsey.

All right. I had my head down doing paperwork and completely forgot to look up. I'm sure she was waving. Alright. The update on the proposed beach code amendment. We had a meeting with the city council as as we all know here. We approved the beach code amendment this past in March. It went to city council. It was a packed house. They had to move along.

I would have liked to have gotten up there and said thank you to this body. So I will just do it here, even though it doesn't get quite the play as it would have if I had been able to get up that night. But this group did a great job, and I just want to point that out. I would have liked to have shouted it to the rafters a little bit more. But thank you so much for that.

The amendment was approved six to zero, which I think says a lot. And the other element was I did speak to a couple of people. The other thing I was planning on saying was that we are a subcommittee. And I guess this one person in the room I'm going to look at as I say this. And we are a subcommittee of the overall committee.

And we take direction from the city council. And we are at our best when we get that direction, and we are tasked with doing things. When we just do things on our own because we think it's a good thing to do, less likelihood the city council is going to say, yeah, that's approved. So just speaking to the ethers.

Chair Ritchie, could I say something?

Sure.

I also wanted to thank the committee. It was a a spirited discussion as we went through it. Sometimes the room was packed with lots of people wearing suits and ties, but I think it was it showed that we could collaborate as a team with the people that were affected by it. Now there were lawyers, but they were affecting they were supporting their clients. And I think it was a very good working relationship that we developed with the committee to or the team to go through that. And it was it was slightly painful because it took several meetings, but I think at the end of the result end of the end of the day, it was a very good result for everybody. So and and chair Richie, I wanna thank you for your your verbiage as we went through it to create it.

Thank you. John, do you have a button on your interface so that you can get on my speaker list or or not? I don't I've never called.

That

that that may be above my pay grade, but I'll look.

Okay. If you have it, fine. If not, not a big deal. Amber?

Oh, this was a note to the previous comment, public comment.

Oh.

I have done the mapping for the strikes. The issue is the spreadsheet that we have doesn't have specific addresses in most cases or coordinates. So it's usually like Copeland and Inlet or something. So it's not super accurate, but it has been done.

Oh, okay. Is that something you could provide us?

I could, but just I'm making that

With that

not super accurate mapping.

That would be great.

Jerry Ritchie, I raised my hand again. Think perhaps.

Oh, you don't come up on that list. You come up as a hand in the corner. Okay. Now I have a second thing I have I'm to try and pay attention sorry.

And I would just ask Amber if she could provide me that information as well because I will bike around like I did with Brittany to develop this presentation. And if the addresses are incomplete, we'll get GPS coordinates, and hopefully that we can feed into a map.

Great. All right. That is the end of that update. Let's move on to the t shirt layout and cost. Before turning this over to Maria, one thing, while I didn't have a chance, I meant to go in and count t shirts, I will simply point out that I believe all we have left is mostly double extra large. And we may have two or three extra large, all of the old style. So that is the total inventory.

Okay. We may donate that to public works, the double extra large. They like the blue.

Not sure they're gonna

appreciate They like the green because it's visible when they're working out in the field and, you know, anyway, I hope they have sizes for that double extra large. Sorry. Finalize volunteer cleanup layout.

Let me

give you a history of this so I won't feel like I'm grabbing attention on this. This initially was voted on by the committee to be under Dustin along with the schedule for the beach cleanup. There was quite a bit of a time crunch in this, so Amber and I collaborated on finalizing the schedule for the beach cleanup. And also, it was a very tedious process reaching out to 16 sponsors and getting a check or pledges from them. So this is my update for that.

We have I'm going to do a verbal update, then I'm going to go over there and show you what is the final copy of the feature. We were able to exceed our goal of 14 or 13 sponsors. We were able to get total of 16 sponsors for the shirts, which is good. That equals to 5,950, okay? However, one other sponsor wanted to share the top part and add another 500.

But, anyway, I will show it to you. The short sleeve t shirt is at $11.31 at the dry fit. This is the lowest I can get. The long sleeve t shirt is $16.12. I think cost wise, we're gonna vote on the long sleeve or short sleeve just to be in the sunshine on how we do this. We're also today going to vote on the color choices, blue versus green, green tradition and visibility. That is kudos to something that has been used in the last fifteen years. Now, here's the math part. We have nine cleanups a year. Times four, that would be equal to 36 cleanups for four years.

And the reason I'm saying that is we only go back to the financial pledges once every four years. So we're going to make that $5,900 less for four years, okay? So how much to order? So you have to divide that, dollars 59.5 divided by 11.31. I came up with five twenty six T shirts that we are either going to order all of it because Amber has told me we have to spend down that amount by September.

So either we order half now and half by some we just order the whole box. So which means that we are going to bring 14 t shirts to each cleanup. Okay? We let we need to ration that, so to speak. Not all cleanups are going to be huge like we've been doing.

And not all cleanups, those people are going to want the T shirt. So I'm just putting it out there that because we are going to be very economical with the giving giving out of t shirts, and, you know, that is something to consider. So based on that, I'm going to go up there and show you the kind of t shirt there is. Okay? Sharing the $1,000 pledge.

Okay? On the 16 sponsors, I have not I did not add CRG to it, Dustin, because I do not have the money in hand. So unless you have a commitment to get CRG on there, I can plug them on as the number 17 sponsor. So that's just, you know.

You can follow-up with them. You got it.

I'm going to be once we have the vote today, I'd like to have a vote because we would like to have this new t shirt by the May cleanup. Because sponsors are saying, we have not seen our name on the back and etcetera. So I'm going to, once we vote on this, Stitcher Sunshine Stitchers, who's our local, they've been very, very proactive on this. They have not charged us for a lot of these small items that normally other, you know, printers would do. Once we vote, it should go the way it is. So we need to approve the way it is. All right. So that's it from my side.

Thank you. That's

We are going to vote on the short or long, okay? Long sleeve is $16 short is $11 So cost wise, what do you think?

So we have some comments first.

Yes. Do

we do the motion in the second and then do take the comments or do the comments now?

I think we'll do the motion as one whole sweep.

I believe it's the motion first.

That's what I thought. Can I have a motion so please frame the motion?

Okay. Well, instead of having four, five motions, I would going to give you all one sentence of three items in the motion. Okay. We're gonna be voting. I'd like to request we vote just to be on the sunshine on short or long. So we're gonna say for short or long. So can we have a consensus whether we want a short for $11.21, long sleeve for $16.

That is not a motion.

However we phrase it then.

I

will try. I will make a motion that we approve selection of the dry fit short sleeve shirt in green at a price of $11.31 per shirt that will generate five twenty one T shirts for over the next four years.

Before so first, do we have a second?

Second.

Okay. So we have a second. So we have some discussion. I have a couple of lights on. I will point out at the last meeting that we collectively discussed the colors blue versus green and chose blue. So I would amend the motion Oh, actually, that

we were a tie, three-three. So we need to break that tie. Sorry. Okay.

I suppose I am not sure why that would I will leave it at that. Would I'd

be happy to amend the motion to say blue.

We will tackle that one in a moment. All right. Amber?

Maria already made my point. My point was we need to use the funds before the end of the fiscal, and merchandise has to be received or it just goes away like the rest of our budget. So if you can store the shirts somewhere, I would suggest order as many as possible right now with the funds that

you have.

Great. Mark?

I remember it the way you do because I was on the losing side. I voted green. It was blue.

So Okay. I think the distinction we're drawing here was we were I was trying to be economical about our time and do an informal poll, we made a choice. But Maria is trying to make it a formal motion, as part of a formal motion, and that is the distinction. So, okay, so we have a couple of things to discuss here. The first one, let's start with the long sleeve versus short sleeve. Historically, I will point out that we have had both in inventory, and we get plenty of requests for long sleeve. Any thoughts from anyone with more history than I do?

Chair Ritchie? Yes. Sorry. I had my hand up. Sorry. A couple things. I think we need to perhaps look at the timeline, and maybe we order two batches. And I think the only reason I say that is we'll order the first set of smalls, large, mediums, whatever, and then we back up from when the money goes away and make the second purchase with based on what our needs are. If we're if we're blowing through more smalls or blowing through more longs, maybe we do larges versus smalls, then we modify for the second. So do it in two payments thought.

The second thing is maybe we don't have to have all small and all large, maybe we do 75% short sleeve and, you know, 25% long sleeve, just so we have a few of those if they're asked for. But to Maria's point, we need to be judicious in how we hand those out, and maybe people have to ask for the long sleeve, and we can go into a super secret stash.

So I think we usually did the, like you said, 75 versus 25 or whatever the percentages were. I'll also point out that don't bother raising your hand. When you are not on the screen, we cannot see your hand.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. Dustin?

Yeah. How did we come up with this 14 per cleanup,

the shirts? I believe Mario walked through the math saying spreading the number across four years and then dividing it by the number of cleanups we have per year.

And we voted on that being Okay?

We did not. That was just that was her math. I don't know how you bring 14 shirts, because you don't know what sizes and the like. I think the point I took from it was we have to that gives us a scope of what we're trying to limit it to, though we're probably going to end up in the, we'll call it 30 shirts coming to the beach. We'll do Right. With

I'm not saying if we're going to stretch it out, make it last. MR.

Right.

MR. Mean, we should probably look at the number of people that have attended each beach cleanup, and that would probably give us an idea if we were to look back on that data for the past couple of years. We'd probably have a good idea how many people attended, if that's something we track.

I don't know if it's something we track, but keep in mind that once you have a T shirt, those peep a lot of people are repeaters. They come, so they don't collect each time. Jim?

Just a question on why we have to spend the money by September, and why would it go away. This is donated funds.

It doesn't make sense

to me.

That's included in the budget if it's It would not constrain that way.

So I see you're trying to press over. Let me give it a shot at this, Amber. Previously, the store set up an account for us, and we were able to put the money in there, and it could sit there for years. That person has retired. So I don't know that so because of that, we have to put it into the general fund, and therefore it becomes basic government budgeting. Do I have that about right?

That is what I've been instructed.

Isn't that commingling of funds?

We have it earmarked specifically for T shirts from the donations, but it is in the committee budget.

Good. Right.

Linda?

Two things. One, I agree with John about the two maybe trying to do it twice. The problem we have is the September deadline. We can't do it if we have to spend the funds by September. And secondly, behind the scenes here, I did Maria's math and she did the five twenty one T shirts based upon the short sleeve shirt. To the extent you want to get long sleeve shirts, then you are going to have fewer than 14 shirts per cleanup. So that's why I said short sleeve shirts, because unless as a committee we want to spend other funds, our own funds, to buy T shirts, We don't have sufficient funds to fund the long sleeve shirts without having fewer T shirts.

It is an interesting question. Amber, can you answer whether we could use money that's budgeted? I don't think we can.

I'm sorry. I believe the cleanup does have a line item. So I can review when we're doing our budget. We're going to review that in a second. But I believe there is a line item that includes cleanup.

All right. An interesting possibility. And Maria?

I don't know what the question was. But, you know, anyway, yes, so we have a deadline. And because I brought this out in the sunshine, for fifteen years, this has been sort of out of the budget of the of our committee. There was a fund someplace. We put it in there.

Somebody held it for us for fifteen years, and it has gone very well. But now we're going to bring it in because in four years or two years, someone is going have to deal with this. And now we have an SOP in place of how we deal with T shirts, how we deal with funds that are pledged for T shirts. Okay? So it's all out there, so let's vote on it so I can make the order and spend the money by the deadline and have some T shirts by the May cleanup.

Chair Ritchie, this is John Quinlan again.

Yes.

Just maybe my comment, and Linda, thank you. Timeline wise, we probably don't have time to do two batches. But maybe what we can do is look at historic data when we make that one big order just to see what really we seem to blow through quicker. And obviously the 3XLs and the 2XLs, we don't blow through them at all, so we can adjust accordingly. And and I'll go back to the long sleeve versus short sleeve, and I really think we need to push as many shirts as we can because I think we need to get the volunteers out there, and I'm sorry if someone only wants a long sleeve. We don't offer those currently. So I'd to have as many shirts as possible. Just my thoughts. Thank you.

So we did offer them. When I took over, there was a good stack of them, and they probably went among the fastest. I'll just point that out. And as recently as the last one, I had a gentleman walk over and say, when are you getting long sleeves back? And I pointed right at Maria and said, talk to her.

So we do have to deal with that. One thing I want to suggest potentially is we deal with this as a one shot deal with the money we have right now. We do maybe a split, as we as was suggested. And then we can still monitor how fast we go through sizes, what sleeve length, and then depending upon what Amber comes up with when we cut more towards the end of the year, if we have budget money that still hasn't been spent out of our budgeted capital for the beach cleanups, we can allocate some of that to make up the difference.

One question. We will be talking about budgets later on so we can see where we can insert this if we are allowed to use. The mission is very specific on our budgets. Coastal resources, it's pegged to each of our mission. Nothing for buckets, nothing for t shirts. So I think if we are gonna ask city council or city manager for this, they're gonna guide us back to what our mission is.

Well, understand your point. Amber, just opined on that she thought we could do it under there.

Potentially. I pulled out the budget. We have a listing for restocking the beach cleanup stations This is not a cleanup station, which is 3,000. And then we have 4,000, which includes a bunch of stuff potentially under public outreach if you count that as an outreach material. But other than that, you guys would have to have the discussion.

Thank you.

Okay. All right. I believe the motion is there's a motion on the floor for believe it was so I guess we have to I have to understand it again because if we're

I suggested my motion was that we order the full five twenty one t shirts in the short sleeve version. If we have agreed on blue, I'll amend my motion to blue so that we can get those in stock for the May cleanup and meet our deadline to use these funds by September.

May I suggest we do this motion without a color and then we will take that as a separate one afterwards?

Then I will make a motion that we order five twenty one T shirts in the short sleeve version at $11.31 a T shirt.

We have a motion as amended on the table. Can we call

the I second it.

That one has already been through. Thank you. Can we call the roll? Roll?

Member Ryan?

Yes.

Member Lamb? Yes. Member Morris?

Yes.

Member Scarpa? Yes. Member Quinlan?

Yes.

Vice Chair Nessman?

I would like to abstain.

Chair Ritchie?

Yes. Motion carries. Let's discuss the colors fairly quickly. I guess given where we are, if we're so I guess we the decision maker is sitting next to me, ultimately, unless somebody has put a so we're going to have to start with a motion. But we did this conversation before, and we were split down the middle at three to three.

The only person that was not present was Dustin. So I guess what you're saying in a sense, we're saying Dustin's going to decide what color they are. How to do that by motion, I'm not quite sure. So I think one of you have to put a motion on the table for a color.

This is John. I'll make a motion that we chose green, the current color that we have for the old version of shirts, for the color for the new shirts.

Second. Okay. So any discussion? All right. Could we call the roll, please? Oh, I'm sorry. Mark?

It's unrelated to this motion. What I was going say is unrelated to this.

Oh, okay. I took you off, so press it again when you're ready. All right.

Member Quinlan?

Yes.

Member Lamb? Yes. Member Morris?

Yes.

Member Ryan? Yes. Member Scarpa?

Yes.

Vice chair Nesmith?

All agree with the bunch? Yes.

Chair Ritchie?

No.

Green is the color? Okay.

It looks like yellow has carried it.

Lime green.

Oh, whatever color that is.

Yeah, it's a hyper color.

There's a historical reference to that color. And by the way, for past, for the ten years that we had the t shirt, we had short sleeves and cotton, okay? So we evolved when maybe about four years, you know, and then they started doing the do I fit as short sleeve. Then two years ago, we started, you know, trying the long sleeve. So historically, we kinda start evolving into technology.

So are you arguing we should go backwards?

No. I'm not just saying. We're just saying that it's good to know where we came from.

And how did we come up with that green?

That was fifteen years ago in 2016. Okay? We will go back at that point with a graphic artist we had on our committee, and we voted. So we can look back at these meetings on the beach and coastal resources and look at those minutes.

MR. Mark? MR. So the question I was going to have is, is there an opportunity for the sponsors to contribute more money when and if we run out of

t

shirts within this four year period? Has that ever been done before so that you have a restocking fee for the 17 that want to stay on? And if they don't, in the next iteration, maybe they drop off?

So both Hilton and JW have said that they don't mind writing this into their annual budget, which would mean annual payments. I think historically, it's every four years. Something we should revisit at some point. Okay, Dustin?

Chair, I'm sorry, Chair Ritchie.

Can you please, John.

Oh, I just wanted to say, I think the you know, there was a lot of discussion about the color. But as I stated in the one meeting, you can usually tell these volunteers down the beach a long way away versus the blue, but I understand the concern about the blue. The other thing I was only gonna ask is could Maria go back to the sunshine printers that have been so helpful and ask them the question if they could hold the money and only print half of them now and half of them when we need specific sizes. Just a question.

I actually have the answer for that, but Murray has taken that over, so I'm sure she can answer now.

Well, you you may feel free to answer if they wanna hold our money.

It's your project now. You've taken it over. So you have the answer.

I do not have the answer, sunshine wise. I did not discuss whether they would be willing to hold the money because the discussion has been that the invoices to these pledges go to a certain person, the finance department, and they are going to put it in a special account on Beach T shirt. So that has been decided, not my decision.

All right. Dustin, your lights on? No, nothing. Oh, I just alright. What's that? Okay. Alright. I think we are I think we're done there. We can get going to seven the new seven d, the update on beach and coastal. Was asked to attend mean, beach and coastal. You mean the beautification, right?

Yes, yes, yes.

Sorry. I wrote beach and coastal. I have no idea why. So the beautification committee we attended, they're doing a lot of great stuff. Actually, would you like to speak to it?

It's our line item for discussion under 70

can briefly. I just came because you came to ours and I thought I would come to yours. But the I wanted to tell you there's an awful lot going on. Kimberly Horne is an engineering firm. He's done all the design work.

They brought they gave a second presentation. We asked him to go back and tweak a couple of things. But basically, everything is coming to fruition here and should be started here once it goes to city council for final approval. There are some design issues that are just basically as what is going to be some artwork on walls that have to be determined at some future date. But if you want to see more about it, if you would want to review, it's you can go online and see what committee, what they presented to the committee.

And that was at the last meeting. So if you want to see more about Kimberly Horn is looking to do to the entrance of the beach, it's pretty outstanding. Think everybody be proud of it. So if anybody has any questions about what beautification is doing, I'd be happy to answer them.

This is John Quinlan. Online. Sorry. Thank you very much for that presentation. And what I would ask is if going forward, Amber could send us the link to how we can find the rendering so we can take a look at that. But I think I spent some time up at Naples last weekend and looking at their graphics and some of their obviously, the pier is under under construction, but the signage around there and their entrance, even with all the construction, looks pretty impressive. So I'm I'm excited to see what ours is gonna look like, and we'd like to get the link of where I can take a look at it. Thank you, Mark.

Okay. So to your point, John, I had asked they gave a nice presentation, a PowerPoint presentation at the meeting showing the ideas of murals and where they went and the like. And I had asked for a copy of that so that you could see that, but we didn't have that available, unfortunately.

Okay. Thank

you. I think I'd probably find it online.

You could provide a link, that would be fantastic.

It's easy. Is Martin here? Martin in the back. He might be able to provide that to you.

And, Marv, this is John Quinlan. I could probably ask my grandson who's three. He can probably show me how to do it. Okay.

And I will say that the other the final part was after watching that that meeting going to that meeting and seeing what you're doing, I actually had no idea one of the act beach accesses existed. The one you one of the ones where you're putting a mural, so I purposely I went down think it'll help it a lot. It's an educational part. It was an educational part. Yes. Thanks so much.

That mural project was a great idea.

But even beyond that, some of the things they're doing to fill in the fences along the way just to sort of create a separation, an attractive separation along the walks, some of the smaller things they're doing are really worth noting. And it's a great opportunity for us to collaborate. Maria?

Yeah, I was contacted. We're going back to the art mural. And the reason I believe Counselor Swan said that we should have some say, because the message we go with wildlife and art continues on to the beach, which is share the beach with wildlife. And I know we all like Picasso like murals and all that, and I'm asking, hopefully, the beautification committee to keep that in mind. As artists, I don't know how you're going to go through this.

Are you going to get local artists to bid on the project or however it is? So I just want to make sure that whatever that message is, you know, will highlight out the wildlife we have on the beach that we're trying to protect. Okay. Now, secondly, because of my relationship that I have done with the major pledges on our t shirts, two entities have come come up and say, we actually own that walkway or at least legally, we need to ask them permission to do something to the wall and the fencing. And they would like, because it is theirs and they have a lot of deep pockets, they like to be involved in the art.

So I think lowering that 100,000 for at least the Winterberry, if we can lower that and they can contribute, I think we should at least consider that. So I can give you the name that you can, you know, they're discussing this with their owners as we speak. Thank you. That's it.

That would make some sense. It sounds like it sounds to me like they own the property and that we have a right of way or an easement there.

The walls, I believe the walls are theirs.

And the

the fencing is theirs. So those are the things we're trying to beautify. And I I don't know what else.

If I can address that, I was on the planning board when a lot of that was planned back years ago. And it was a dedicated right away that that that was part of their development process that they had to provide that that we would have in perpetuity that right away to the beach.

But the fencing is on the so is this ours or is it is it theirs?

I don't know what the what the actual dimension of it is, but that's, in perpetuity, that that the city has the right to have that beach access.

So the distinction we're drawing though is that, and that makes all the sense in the world that we have that. But as a right of way, we don't have a right to adjust their property, which could contain the fence or the wall is is really Maria's point

We're not adjusting those. Have a fence.

I know. No. Adjust, meaning paint, meaning add or subtract.

Touch any of their property. However, I disagree that we are gonna look forward to try to do that with their permission. If it's a wall that is permanent, it's on their property. Other areas are within that the plan is will be within the footprint of the right of way.

Perfect. Thank you. Alright.

Thanks so much.

But it was nice that they said, hey, can you be part of that? Thank you.

Chair Ritchie? Yes. I have one more question. And and thank you. So the scope of the project is Winterberry and Maple, which means we'll have very consistent signage for our visitors and and owners on the island to go to the beach at those two access points.

One of the larger access points that we don't have access to and don't control and don't have any say in is South Beach. And, again, and I've talked about this before, South Beach is where we have our cleanups. That's the majority of our locations, and that's controlled by Collier County. So I don't know if we can go back and try to get a dedicated right away for South so that we could perhaps emulate the same murals or same concepts so we have consistency at all of our major locate all of our major access points to the beach. Just a question for down the road. Maybe we could talk to Collier County about that.

So Collier County actually owns that. We don't really need a dedicated right of way or any other legal access. What we would need is very simply permission from them to beautify it.

Okay. Alright.

And I given your current, we'll say budget constraints and all the things on your plate, I assume we would want to do that serially. Wait until you're done with this one. But I think it is, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's on your long list of things to do. All right. Thank you again. One final point of business on this. The Beautification Committee has asked for a liaison that would be a little bit more accessible. So I've spoken to Mark, and he has accepted that. So he will be the liaison in the future.

Can I speak to that? Please. Okay. So the issue with availability is I contacted Anne, and Anne, the only time she could meet was maybe thirty minutes before her meeting at her house, which I'm not comfortable going to someone's house that I don't know. And it was thirty minutes before the meeting. Meeting. So on that specific day, I wasn't available. So it was the only time that we could meet was on her terms, you know, and it never worked out for me. It was always the same day that I couldn't be there because of prior commitments. Commitments.

So Anne and I have contacted each other, and I have all the communication on my phone. So I have been doing my job, you know, because I'm the one who started that

project. No. You're a

pro I get it. And I'm not commenting one way or another. I'm just

just don't I I I just don't like it being on record that I'm not accessible, and I'm not doing my job for this committee when I have nothing but heart for this committee and this city as well. You know? And it hurts me to have a member jump over my head and start taking over my projects as well. So I didn't know that was part of what the committee allows here.

Understood. So Alright.

That's that. So can we redact that from the notes, whoever's taking the notes? The part about me not being accessible, I would like redacted.

So the statement was that the beautification committee has asked that a new liaison be be appointed for that reason. Yeah. Not whether you were

or not. But that's that's not a reason. That's just that's something they're making up. I mean, literally.

Okay.

You can look at the messages here. Oh. Everything. I've been fully available for for her except the specific day, which was always thirty minutes before their meeting. That was the only time she could meet, and it was a month. I always had to wait a month.

I understand. I'm I'm certainly not here to judge. And if and in fact, if there's some way to redact, then I it doesn't bother me in the least. The point is to be try and be responsive.

Yeah. No. I I and I was fully responsive. I have it all right here. I just don't want my name to be tarnished like that. I don't appreciate it at all. Fair enough.

Maria?

Yes. To add that, no one is tarnishing. Unfortunately, a lot of these projects are time sensitive. Okay? We need to make a decision. As far as the T shirts are concerned, I did not just take it over. We discussed it fully here in the committee. And I said, here are this, and I will go. As a matter of fact, it was Mr. Morris who said, why don't we use Sunshine Stitchers? I went there as a person to look at what are the best prices.

And I thought we needed to get a couple different pricings.

In weighing But that's not

the case. So I reached out to two other companies that I was working with, which one ended up falling through. And then I contacted the Sunshine Stitching, which just happened to be the same time that you had contacted them without even knowing that you had contacted them. So I'm not sure why I wasn't made aware of this switch, that she was taking over the I'm t

going to step in and put an end to this discussion. We're moving on to other things. I will simply say that this is a public forum. And there are minutes. There are videos. There are plenty of ways to watch discussions. We will move on from there. So now let's move on to the budget. Let's review the budget and the proposed 'twenty six-'twenty seven budget. So let's start with the 'twenty five-'twenty six budget where we are.

Just one note on that. There is no proposed budget for next fiscal year. That's what I'm hoping you guys will discuss.

Okay. All right. So, Okay. So where are we in the current budgets? So that's what you sent out, the current budget. So we have the

Right now, it's in.

Online there's the current budget in the actual. So we've spent zero?

That's correct.

Got it. All right. We're having a discussion about signage shortly.

John Quinlan.

Yeah, John that's an agenda item. Restocking beach cleanup stations. I believe we spoke about that previously, and there was a discussion that it was not something we want to continue doing. Am I correct on that, Yes. right.

I'll take that out.

Okay. So we should make a note of that for the next budget.

Chair Ritchie, a question on that. We taking we not going to if we're not going to support the bucket trees anymore, are we going to remove those bucket trees? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

The handouts for so we have various projects we're gonna be covering in a little bit. Most of these things we're going Okay. So I don't know that there's much we can talk about for the current, because we're going to be running down at the end the projects we talked about last time, which mostly include these things and where we are on them. So I think we have to double back on that. So I think the primary thing we need to discuss at this time is a proposed budget for twenty sixtwenty seven.

So Maria, Oh, you're

sorry. Yeah, well, we did discuss this in sort of informal way last time. I recall that we removed the non native and noxious handouts because that has been taken over as a big project for the beautification. They have that big invasive list, top 10 or something. So that was taken out. So we should scratch that right away. It was decided before, but now officially remove it.

Chair Ritchie, sorry. The noxious species used to be one of our goals several years ago, and Maria's right between beautification as well as code. So when I met with the code leadership, they had picked up that that charter basically, and they are now writing NOVs for noxious plants and trying to educate. The only thing that came up at the last meeting is are there any funds that we had earmarked for that goal that we could transfer to code, but Amber reminded me that we can't transfer money like that. And the only possibility that we could use to help them with that new initiative that they picked up from us is to do some of their printing, and I think they have their own budget for my last discussion.

So I don't know that there's any money that needs to be transferred. I think to Maria's point, maybe we just take that off of the future the plan for budgets.

Okay. I am making note that we'll take that off for the future. Anything else any other changes to this with respect to the future? And then we'll look at additions afterwards. Linda, please.

I just had a question. I don't see on the current budget the funding that we gave to Audubon to do various projects. So I'm confused where that is in the budget. Shorebirds.

One note. The wildlife signage and handouts completed by an intern is the shorebird stuff for Audubon. The outposting supplies is the borough maintenance, and that would be funds that would go to Audubon for maintenance outside of the $4,000 There is no longer the tortoise survey that's been completed, just in that same comp there. The conservation leadership no longer exists either. I think that's it for under there. That's stuff that's been removed from there.

Amber, one question. You said the Gopher Tortoise survey has been completed?

MS. Yes.

MS. Have we seen the report?

MS. I just got a report from Britney this morning that she supposedly had sent to my predecessor. But I can send it out to you guys if you'd like to see

Yes, thank you.

Please. Okay, Amber, you're next. Did you just cover what you were going to

say? Yep.

Okay. And Maria? Yes. You're next, but did you just cover what you just said?

I think I'm done. Okay.

And Dustin, you were on a couple of times and then off, so Nothing. All right. So how about additions for next year? I am questioning whether we should we are taking off roughly $4,000 of our annual budget. Would it make sense to have a budget item on here annually for public outreach, whether that's through T shirts or otherwise, so that we have a way of backfilling should we need it. Okay.

Just one note, that is covered under the $4,000 But if you'd want to separate it out, that would be great.

Add to it. Given

that we have a $10,000 budget and we're spending $5,000 of donated money, it strikes me as a material part of our annual budget. So it should be its own line item.

And

by doing so, that makes me a lot more comfortable spending our entire donated budget this year knowing that we have the ability to replenish as necessary, even if it's we've got plenty and we want to add long sleeves. Mark. So I was

just going say, wonder if there was an opportunity with any of the county buildings to seal them out, actually use them on a personal basis. Several weeks ago, they did a fantastic job. Paul Traff came and spoke to us a couple of months ago. And so I don't know if there are any buildings that would benefit from the use of their services in order to cut down on any sort of intrusion. I heard about Tommy Barfield and some efforts there that maybe didn't go as well as I would have thought or hoped, especially since my daughters go there.

And they seem to have just kind of brushed off perhaps Britney's entreaties to seal up the outside of the building instead of letting things the walls, maybe even die there. So I don't know if there's an opportunity there. But maybe we could put our money where our mouth is, because I think the whole effort to cut down on rat poison, if you can keep them out in the first place, then it really lessens the need for it.

So that's actually a great segue into something else that I was going to mention. Per Councilor Schwann's suggestion, I sat down with our acting city manager to discuss how budgets work, where we can spend money, where we can't. Was fairly straightforward, as you would expect, that we can't make donations, but we do contracts with Audubon, etcetera. But one where we spent most of our time is exactly the area you're touching upon. If other city budgets exist, and it's supposed to cover that, we can't just step in and cover it.

So they have, for their buildings, for example, they have a certain amount of money budgeted for such items. We can do things in concert with them. So at one point I suggested that maybe there was a way we could participate financially with the beautification committee. And those are possibilities because we have shared charters, so therefore we have shared goals. Then I saw how much he was looking to, Amar was looking to get, and I said, okay, that's a little beyond our budget.

But my heart was in the right place. But hopefully that answers the question. I don't believe that's something the city would allow us to do. But I will defer to staff on all such things. Amber.

I was just trying to start a running draft on the proposed next year. We've removed 4,000, like you said. Would you like to move all of that in the current draft to public outrage or to another line item or an additional line item?

MR. Let's first finish the discussion and see if there's anything else anyone has that might go in, and then we'll figure out how to divvy it up. Maria?

I think Mr. Quinlan, I think we're going go through his presentation. And I think there's a budget attached to his presentation. Okay. So those are for signages for Gopher Tortoises, I believe, because we had we have many strikes, and we're trying to lessen the vehicular strikes on those sections. So there is a budget item attached to that. And number one, I need clarification from City Council budget because this is new to me. It used to be we could not spend our budget on T shirts. I need a clarification on that. And if it is, then it solves our problem.

Because in the past, we have made it separate that this is a sort of an outreach for our cleanup. We needed people came up and said, Why don't you do T shirts? They gave us cash. They did. And we deposited in that. For fifteen years, it stayed in one vendor's account because we could not mingle it with our city budget. So now we are. So I just wanna make sure, can we spend it on T shirts? That would make our job a lot easier if we want to reorder or add some more.

And I believe the way we're handling that is by making sure we have what we have for this year. Yes. And will add a new budget item for next year so that there's no questions. I

was just going say I think we should the categories of our spending we should keep broad so that we have a lot of opportunities to fit money into it and don't get trapped in a situation where that specific thing isn't budgeted so we don't have money for it. And then we underspend some other areas. So things like signage, roadway signage for wildlife, or signage in general for wildlife, public outreach, general.

Right. It could be anything. Agreed. Okay. As of this time, I think in our current draft for next year, that entire amount goes into public outreach.

I have no doubt that this group will come up with more ideas by the time we sit down again. So, all right, anything else we need to, oh, Mark.

I was just gonna say, how could we put a sign down by South Barfield that would talk about, I guess, Consecration Collier and that lot, maybe talk about turtle strikes. There are people I'll see that come out there, maybe they're walking by. I don't if we've ever thought about, you know, people may not understand what that area is and how to maybe bring some attention to it as people come down and talk about what it is the land is providing,

I guess. That sounds like a fantastic segue into our next segment on gopher tortoises.

John's welcome. Yeah.

Alright. John?

Alright. Thank you very much. And, Martin, if you have my presentation up. I'm sorry. Engineers do PowerPoints, and I didn't want to disappoint the team.

So this was a couple week process based on feedback from the last meeting where Brittany and I went out to the high gopher strike areas, whether it was on a bike, walking, or driving a car to kinda look at those strike zones, the highest strike zones live. So just to set the stage, there's Hawaii Circle. There's Barfield on the left. Dogwood is there, and North is at the top. If you look at the if you click to the next slide, the proposal is to put the street decals coming up the hill because if you look at the topography, you start to come up the hill as you head east on Hawaii Circle, and that's where we would place the gopher gopher tortoise crossing decals on the road.

And I suggested as we walked around out there that we put them on both lanes just so it's a double As you're coming up the hill, if you look to the left, look to the right, straight ahead, you're gonna see the gopher tortoise decals, just to, really remind everybody, that that's an area that we're very concerned about gopher tortoises Because there there is a wild on the South Side Of Hawaii Circle. There is a rough area that the homeowners themselves have put up some signage. And I I couldn't see if Britney was in the audience, but I wanted to thank her for the hobbling around, and she had a knee problem, but we were hobbling around for a while looking at these areas. So go to the next slide. So there was where the decals would be on the road, and then there would be a sign coming up the road, and you'll see on the the right location the the right lower panel that person that looks almost like Britney.

Well, that is Britney. That's where the sign would be. She was trying to act like a sign, and we were trying to look as you came up the hill between the two of them, the decal as well as the sign to to optimize the location of them. So that's the first high gopher strike area, Hawaii near Dogwood. Any questions on that slide?

I just have a quick question. Are you proposing the decals be both facing in the same direction or one would be going up and one down?

Right now, it's both facing in the same direction only because the the hill, it goes up. The topography of that street is coming up the hill. Yeah. And I I wanna and maybe it's overkill. I didn't mean that pun. Maybe it's more signage than we need, but I'd I'd like to go overboard to make sure because this is the high strike zone, which is why we coupled it with the the street sign on the side of the road.

Amber?

Okay.

I had a question.

I know. Amber?

You're on mute, Amber. You're

yeah.

Alright. For my clarification, this would be facing as you come up from South Barfield. You it would be facing you?

Correct. Correct. As you're going up that hill, as you're as you're cresting that hill, as you go up the hill, it would be on that that street surface. And I tried to take up the upper right pictures trying to show that the the hill is going up, and it's a very visible area. Because what I understand from Brittany previously is when we approved signage in the past, it wasn't specific as to where it would go.

They just said, okay. Put in an area of Dogwood and for example, Dogwood and Hawaii Circle, and public works would put it where they wanted to put it, not necessarily where it was the most effective. So that's where we walked around the site, biked around the site to make sure that we got it in the right locations. And and if you let me continue, there's a we can go through the next slide too because the next kill zone will kinda the high strike zone is Watson And Inlet, and I had never spent much time over there.

John? Yes. We have other questions.

Okay. Alright.

Mark?

Thank you.

Yes. A comment about the color. Tortoises are dark. I don't know that a black tortoise I mean, I could almost see them being camouflaged as a walking. They're small.

God forbid, if the sign is there to try and help bring people's attention to it, and it's lost in the literal shell of the sign. Also, is there the opportunity to put on the sign next 100 feet to give someone an understanding? I have seen things on the internet where people think, oh, it's the tortoise will know to cross right where that sign is, but not maybe 10 feet ahead. So I just maybe to add something to that next 100 feet. Now I know if the sign is facing a certain way and you're going a different direction, but I think there could be an opportunity to to for the sign to be updated a little bit or provide some

more Yeah.

And thank

thank you very much, Mark. Those are that's very good comments. And you're right about the black pavement and the black tortoises because if you go out there, you see the tortoises all over the place. And they are a dark shell, and the asphalt is is dark as well. Britney and I even talked about trying to paint stripes on the side of the road that were in white that would would show up more, but we thought the the decals on the road were really the first step. And and I think maybe the next 100 feet is a is a good idea, but maybe we can just say ahead so we don't have to put a number on it. Maybe go Yeah. Go for towards crossing ahead or something. So and that's a very good point. So thank you for that.

Okay. Dustin?

So that that that's a hill. Are are we gonna put signs on the other side of it?

So when you look at the go where the gopher strikes are coming from, they're crossing that road.

Mhmm.

And by the time you come over that hill, you're already heading down the hill, so decals wouldn't do any good. So perhaps we need another street sign facing the other way further up the hill for the traffic going from east to west. So Yeah. We didn't look at that, but that is a good point as well.

That was exactly my comment. Yes. I agree with that. Yeah.

So we can modify my motion perhaps to add a few more signs. And there are some signs that Brittany and I, as we noticed in the area, are not in an area that has gopher tortoises inhabiting anymore because they've been built out. So maybe there are some signs we can relocate as well and we want to do that perhaps separately as we start to go through that. Very good feedback. Thank everybody for the feedback.

Maria? Yeah. Martin, can you go back to the first slide where we see the signages? Okay. Now do we have any limitation from FDOT on what the sign would say, size of the sign and where we would locate them? Have we contacted our traffic department and say, yes, we can help you on this and that? So do we have any limitation on the signs and what the signs should say?

I can answer that. Public works would have to approve all signage. And it's mostly the standard highway signs. Don't want to do anything outside of that. So in terms of placement or anything, we would have to get approval for them to do that before anything could be installed.

And in fact, what we're talking about right here was the subject with the city manager of how we can work with them and provide budget to them, even though they're the ones that are going to be installing the signs.

I just wanted a clarification on Dustin's comment. Now that this picture is up, I didn't quite understand where what you were saying.

So the far right picture that's pointing at where Britney is acting like a sign Okay. That's a hill that's going over. Are we going to have signs for the other way, for people going in the other direction?

Going down the hill?

Coming at the camera.

Or across on Dogwood.

Coming at so we have him going up like this for the hill. Are we going to have someone for the other side?

Coming down the hill.

Yeah. But at the top of the hill, where you can't see what's going on afterwards. Afterwards.

Because when you kind of get towards the crest, you really don't see anything.

I understand now. Thank you.

Amber?

Just one note on this area. I spoke to Conservation Collier, and they were looking into putting in signs. I sent them this proposal from John. They did not give me a plan where they were planning to put in signs. So we would have to coordinate with them, make sure we're lining up on what our signage is so we're not overlapping on things.

John, you got that?

Yes. I've been Amber copied me on some of those emails. Think there is some synergy between our two groups working together. Yes.

Perfect. All right. Please continue.

Okay. So the next is Inlet and Watson. I don't know if it's not showing on my screen yet. Any second. Oh, that's me. Okay.

Yes.

So this is, again, a a high gopher tortoise strike area, and the suggestion is, again, on that hill. And I took a picture of when the car was going through just to help show that there is another hill there and would be the same thing with again, and perhaps it's over the top, but it's a couple of gopher tortoise crossing signs, decals on the road. And if you forward to the next slide, it would be where the sign would be. Go forward one slide, Martin. Sorry.

Yep. So it is, again, as you're starting to come up that hill, and that where that star is just to the left of that was a temporary sign that they had was out there that said slow, but it would be a permanent sign there that would be go for Taurus. And I like the idea of ahead. We can look at trying to modify it slightly. But if you look at the right side of that picture, on the lower right picture, there is a sign pointing the other way, and that's that's where I think if we have signs going up and going down, that one, we already have one going down.

Maybe that has to be relocated slightly, but that's the second our second gopher strike high gopher strike zone is that area inlet in Watson. So any questions on this?

None. There are no lights on.

Okay. And then the last slide is my motion, and I'm submitting a motion for the purchase of four street decals and two street signs to be placed in the two highest gopher tortoise strike stones on Marco Island. Now perhaps I will amend that to say some additional street signs. So maybe it's four decals and four street signs. But the second part of it is the placement of these signs and decals will be conducted under the direction of Autobahn, Western Everglade, perhaps now Collier County, and would not exceed $2,000 But if I add a few more two news additional street signs, it would be not to exceed of $2,500

Okay. We have a motion on the table. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Jim, discussion?

Yep. John, the the street decals, we installed those, I don't know, probably two years ago, maybe three years ago. Are they holding up well, the ones that we had previously installed?

Yep. Yep. Thanks for that, Jim. And and they are holding up very well. Okay. When I when I we looked at all of them, and they're they're not showing any signs of wear. They're not peeling at all. So they were done. They were put down correctly, and there is a process when we looked at the quote from the supplier how to how to install those. And I think our city did a great job of installing. Public works did a great job. So I think that is that is a real testament that now we just have to make sure that we put them in the right spots. So thank you.

Yeah. And in terms of the spots, issue that we had with some of those when we initially put them down is I think we had a couple of them that were on a downhill slope, which makes them very difficult to read. And the recommendation was to place them on the uphill slope so that they're more front and center. In terms of picking the spots for these, that's the advice that I would share. The other thing is if instead of two in the road on both lanes, maybe one in the center works as an option, just as a suggestion.

And then following up on what Dustin mentioned, if we have a zone where, you know, up one hill and the opposite side of the hill, we should cover it from both sides. So we should have signage going to the north, signage going to the south at the beginning and end of the the zone where we're seeing the gopher tortoise hits.

And thank you, Jim, for that very good feedback. And that's why I think in my motion, mentioned that it needs to be a joint effort between Audubon and Public Works and us and and Conservation Collier now. So if we go back to the presentation, there is one more slide, and and I will apologize up front. If you forward, this is the latest gopher strike, and and my comment was our neighbors deserve better. I won't keep that on the screen very long because it is it is that turtle was a very large turtle that had to be euthanized, and that was just last week.

And that that animal stayed alive for quite a long period of time.

Yes. It did. Yes. It did. And it was it was taken to to the rehabilitation center to try to be rehabilitated, and it sadly had to be euthanized. Our like I said, our neighbors deserve better. Thank

you. Maria?

I was just gonna add to John's motion to include public works and traffic department and or maybe city of Marco Island personnel in there. That's it.

Are you saying to amend the motion?

No. We leave it the way it is.

Oh, okay. And Mark?

So I feel strongly that decals are better than signs. Signs, especially those blinking signs. One, at night, it blinds what it's trying to say, I find. Two, it draws your eyes to exactly the wrong place when it comes to tortoises. So I would think on the ground is better because it makes you look down.

And that's where they are, unless we have flying turtles I'm not aware of. So I would just say maybe there's the opportunity, instead of signs, for more road decals, and maybe even to warn people, like when you're on South Bartfield, when you're getting ready to turn on to Hawaii, perhaps there should be something, some signage there to let folks know. I do feel strongly that distance is important. So people need context to know how big is this crossing. Is it 100 feet?

Is it 10 feet? Instead of just saying ahead, how far ahead? So if we know, and if maybe with Brittany's help, this is where they cross, then let's put that in there, and you have a finite amount. And then the last thing I would just say is, with Captain Frisano or Code Enforcement, it's horrible seeing that picture. And I don't know how much of a police presence there is, but it seems like there should be more, I mean, for what goes on on this island or what doesn't go on.

It seems like there could be make it where people know you don't wanna mess around in this area because you're gonna get a ticket. You're gonna get pulled over, whatever that is. And I can't speak for what the police do or code enforcement, but it seems to me there could be a real effort made to put it in people's brains. This is not a place where you wanna speed.

Yes.

So, Mark, thank you for those comments, and I will echo that. When I saw that when Britney contacted me with that last strike, I went out to that site and looked around the houses to try to find cameras because I felt because that was a hit and run. They didn't stop. There was no report of it. The animal was left to to suffer. And the cameras, unfortunately, in

that

area only face the the the driveways. They don't face the roadways because I was going down the same path you're trying to go down as we need to set an example perhaps. But I may reach out to chief Frisano and talk to her again about that. So thank you for that.

Well, John, if I may, is there anything, I mean, talking with a neighbor to be proactive or even, I don't know if we can pay for a private citizen to have a camera up but if there is a better place sort of ask them, you know, would you consider? Because we would could really use this. And I don't know what we could I mean, there's trail cameras out there. I mean, one of the other options would be if we are going to put a street sign, you could strap a a trail camera to it and be able to see, you know, what's going on.

So maybe that's a And, Mark, you make a good point. The only issue is we we have an incident that a a car that struck a gopher tortoise was on film. They knew who the driver was. It's not necessarily a ticketable offense because the animal walked out in the drivable roadway. So there was some issues about if that was really a ticketable if an animal walks out into the into the roadway because the driver could say, I didn't wanna swerve because, you know, I could have run off the road or something like that. But your your point is well taken that we need to figure out how to be a better steward of our neighbors.

Agreed. Jim?

John, is there based on based on all discussion, is there anything you want to change in your motion in terms of adding more street decals or signs or anything like that to accomplish?

Yeah, I think yeah, thank you, Jim. The way I just would like to say that not to exceed $2,500, maybe the quantity of the signs can be adjusted if that is the case. But I'd like to get as many signs or decals as I can for that. And I think I amended it on the fly to $2,500

I would I was actually going to suggest 3,000. You have a lot of signage there. I think you can do a lot with that money, and I do believe we have the budget for it.

So I could amend my motion to if you go back to the slide, Martin, with my motion. I will modify it to say I'm submitting a motion to purchase additional street decals and additional street signage not to exceed $3,000.

Discussion. Can we call the roll?

Member Quinlan? Yes. Member Scapa?

Yes.

Member Morris?

Yes.

Member Ryan? Yes. Member Lamb? Yes. Vice Chair Nesmith?

Yes.

Chair Richey?

Yes. All right. Unanimous.

Thank you very much.

Great. No, thank you. That was great work getting out there and getting it all done. We appreciate it. One more on this topic. Ed with Beach Control has requested that we order signs for sea turtle nests. The amount of the signs, were last year, there were 118 nests. He was asking for 200 signs at a cost of $300 we'll say $10 Amber, do I have anything else that I

I was proposing the amount to order 200 at this time in case we had additional nests or something. Like I said, we had 118 nests last year. And these are signs that are specific to Marco Island just saying about keeping the 25 feet and then a couple other items about sea turtle protection. We've had issues and Ed can speak to people sitting up almost on top of the nest right next to the birds roped off.

Are you suggesting approving $500 for it? Or is that your argument for the $200

That's for the $200

Okay.

So it would be the $3.00 $8 something.

So I would suggest a not to exceed $350 just to give a little room for tax and the like. But do I have a motion?

Where's the sign? I see

the sign? See if we're going to mess with the posting? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Caution. How large are the signs? It says more.

I believe they're, though. That's she's

Can

you pass it? Yes.

I love that.

Was going to do it during the discussion period, but who's counting?

Chair Ritchie, I have another comment on that.

Can we get the motion first if we're going to have one? Yep.

I'll make a motion to purchase 200 of these signs not to exceed 350.

Amendment is the second.

Okay. Now discussion. John?

My only discussion was going to be as we're nearing turtle season, Maria was able to help get a donation for lighting for the appropriate decibel wavelength of lighting for the beach vehicle. Maybe down the road, this committee needs to earmark some additional funds to add additional lighting on the additional vehicles that they might have.

I think we will add that to the discussion on the budget as we move forward.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, John.

Just make a note. I will quickly forget this. Got it. All right. We'll just do this by voice vote. Can I have an all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. The ayes have it. All right. We are on the rodenticide video. Linda, you want to lead us through rodenticide?

Well, at the last meeting, I suggested one of our action items would be to put together a rodenticide video. And I gave you the key messages possible text. And I understand that an AI tool has been used to produce such a video as an example that we should discuss. Amber, does Martin have that video queued up? We can take a look at it.

I did send it. Martin, could could you bring that up?

Mark isn't just where we live, it's who we are. And sharing this place are some of our most iconic residents. Burrowing owls, small, curious, and deeply connected to this land, but there's a hidden danger right in our neighborhoods, rodent poison. Nearly every tested owl here has been exposed because poisoned rats don't die right away. They become easy prey and that poison moves up the food chain.

The result is a slow, preventable loss of wildlife. But there's good news. We can protect both our homes and our owls. Simple changes make a big difference. Use enclosed traps, seal entry points, secure trash and remove food sources, and talk to your pest control provider about wildlife safe solutions. Right here on Marco Island, safer methods are already working. Protect our owls. Protect what makes this place home.

I think we

we wanted to get feedback on this. I had a couple of comments. One, the pictures go by fast, but I'm not sure they were of Marco Island. So those would need to be corrected. And I would like to see more information about wildlife safe solutions.

Okay, Jim?

The exact same feedback. I think we need to be more specific about what people can do and what they shouldn't

do. Right.

Dustin? Yeah, just like what Jim was saying as well. Maybe add something along the lines of the alternative to the rodenticide? Or was that in there somewhere?

No. It wasn't. And that was one of my points was that there wasn't enough information about the wildlife safe solution.

Yeah. Oh, I gotcha.

What we want them to do.

What we wanna replace. Yeah.

That they are available here on Marco. Yeah.

Yeah. And as we know, we cannot we cannot call out a specific company, but I think we can call out specific types of friendly for dentist or friendly pest control, whether it's reproduction affecting or something like that without calling out the name.

Dustin? Does the so for the alternative solution, does it go in that same style of box, that black box?

It depends on the solution.

How does that? Okay.

The scent deterrent solutions go in a box, not black, they're gray. But then there are other solutions that

The reproductive one?

Yeah. The reproductive one is different, and then the the traps are different, obviously. Okay. Yeah.

I feel like And and, Linda, the the reproduction reproductive one is being used at Crescent Beach now for two years, and theirs is in a green box instead of a black box. So I think there is some maybe if we showed a picture that had a green box and said that there are alternatives that are more eco friendly, maybe that would be a good addition. But I did want to thank the AI video was a very good first step at really pulling this together.

Yeah. I just think it would be better. I I love the idea of the different color because it then people can actually visually see the difference.

So you

have gray.

Yeah, yeah.

And the green.

Yeah, yeah. And then they see the black box, that's bad. Skull Good. And

Glad it was a good first step. Know, Linda provided the background, and I generated the copy and the photos. Oftentimes, I couldn't find photos that were dead on. And from the perspective of trying to put this together, I used what I had. So to the extent so what I would suggest is now is the time to, you know, throw darts.

I always love to put things up there for everyone to throw darts at. And that's great. That's what it's all about. So if you have pictures that you think are better, I'm happy to look at them. Linda, if you want to coordinate putting together more pictures, can have I'm glad to send you the script I used. We can augment. I'll do it any way you want. And at some point, I can either generate another video, or we can talk about it's time to send it to a pro.

Yeah, well, I think you have access to the AI tool. Because it's a fee based tool, the rest of us don't have access to that tool. So we need you to run the tool. I think we can work with Amber to provide other photos to Amber. I think all of us could provide photos to Amber. I know I have access to some aerial photos of Marco Island that could be used. John, I don't know if you have any photos of the green boxes.

Yes, I do.

And it's easy to get photos of the gray boxes. And maybe, I don't know if we have photos of the traps. But I don't know, Jim, if we I know we had, in the brochure, we had some pictures of things. But that would be helpful if everyone can send photos to Amber. And then Amber can work with Chris to do another take on it.

I think that's the right direction. And just so everyone knows, this is actually a free tool I'm using. Those watermarks you saw on there are because it's a free tool. If I write them a check, the watermarks go away.

Okay. Okay. Which tool are you using?

It set it on there, and I didn't read it too I think it was in video, if I remember correctly. Mark?

I was just I don't know if there's an opportunity to put some text with some of the pictures, whether it's contact information at the very end. Oh, sure. But maybe to highlight what you're saying in a given picture, if you will. Just to talk I mean, I guess we can't promote good bites, but just to talk about things and just have the text pop up to reinforce the message that's there, you know, the spoken word with the written word, I guess.

So just so you know, the way these things work is the free tool, you get limited choices of things you can do. You write a check, you get lots of things you can do. And the bigger the check, the more you get.

How much that check is?

Oh, probably the maximum would be $75

Oh. I wonder if there's like a monthly subscription.

Oh, is. I'd just subscribe for a month if we were to do it. If it's too much less than that, I wouldn't even bother writing it

Yeah.

With sending in the bill.

Because I tried doing it with some other tools, and they would do the brochure, but they wouldn't do the video for free.

Right. Right. Everyone plays the game a little differently. Dustin?

In the video, did they describe what actually happens to the owls when they ingest it as far as their symptoms?

No, I'm the one that created the copy. So this is not my forte. I pulled liberally from what Linda did. So I think

it would be more of like a shock of knowing what happens to the owl once they ingest that.

And Well,

and Dustin, I Yeah. I Thank you. And I have worked with Britney a little bit, and the necropsies that they have done on owls have shown that it was rat poison like it was stated in the video. But sometimes the the owls are disoriented and actually will will run into a car or have a car strike, and that would ultimately kill them. But the real underlying death is the disorientation, which is due to the rat poisoning.

Yeah.

So I don't know how you weave that in, but that would be a very strong statement if we could figure how to weave that in.

So again, would you why don't I suggest doing this? I'll I'll email you my current script. And I don't care how you annotate it. You don't have to word it. But to the extent you think something needs to be plugged in, I'm happy to do copy editing and everything else. Just want a little help.

Help me understand

the overall

process that you use. Did you provide an actual script to the tool? And did the tool use your script? Or did it enhance enhance it?

So I I take the pictures. I number them from one to whatever it was, 20. So I put them in order. I then create a script to go with it. And then I tell the tool, here is I will make this into a video Oh, okay.

Associate. Quite prescriptive in this.

Oh, yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah. This wasn't just Screenwriter. Clicking a Yeah.

Okay.

I did a little bit.

So Okay. Well, me why don't you provide what you have to Amber? And I'll work with Amber to try to get another iteration of this for our next meeting. And if everyone could provide photos and other information to Amber that you think would be helpful, we'll take that input and take another stab at this for the next next meeting.

That sounds great.

You know, it might be also nice. I know you're scheduled to present to City Council in May, is it?

Yes, probably.

May 18, I believe.

May 18. So I don't know if we can have an updated draft of this for that, not in the effort to have them approve it, to show them what we're working on.

I sort of like that idea.

Yeah.

Shock value. Yeah. All right. Amber?

I'm just giving you a heads up. We have just over twenty minutes remaining.

Yes. Okay. Thank you. So let's do a quick rundown on the projects. Let's not spend too much time here, but let's just do a check-in on where we are. Maria, the brochures for the kids.

Oh. I have a sample for Amber. And I think we have a very limited number of those brochures. Hang on. It's in La La Land. There you go. And on the next meeting we have in May, I would like to present maybe a possible summer craft thingy with the summer program at MacLeod Park, quick and easy. We're going to use some of the points that we talk about in the brochure. But for now, I am going to check the inventory. Amber is going to check also the inventory, how much more we have available and if we want it.

Great. Amber, could we make sure we have an agenda item in about the next meeting for that?

Just to note, we don't have a meeting in May. Was removed That's not from our what would

be May then.

It will be June. We had about it was less than 50 of those in our supply cabinet.

Okay. So that sounds like a good segue to Mark for summer camps.

So I spoke with Brittany, and she's supportive of the idea of Brittany Paris, of course. So the idea of about going to Tiger Tail, and then maybe reaching out to publics and contacting them about the publics, because the issue is going be public parking for buses, for things of that size. So I've reached out to the head of the current head of the PTA. She'll be turning over this year. But I want to talk to her first about getting in touch with the principal and vice principal about promoting this idea, along with the Shell and Beach Club that Britney is currently working with. So more to come on that.

Okay. Thank you. I'm not 100% sure I understand my own note. It is restrooms on South Beach. I'm not sure.

Who did that?

I'm simply saying it was something we discussed at the last meeting, and I wrote it down. It's not assigned to anybody, and I'm not 100% sure what it was.

Thirty seconds. No? There have been requests, restrooms on South Beach or any of the beach access. That would be a TDC request if we were to do a if there was a overwhelming request that restrooms on the South Beach are needed. So we'll have to discuss that. We don't have any data now. Okay? It's just anecdotal. We need the restroom because the restroom is all the way out parking. Where did those hundreds and hundreds of beachgoers go?

Is this something that we should follow-up on with others that we should try and look at it as a project?

Well, it takes a long time to deal with COVID.

I understand.

However, also has been discussed maybe a restroom on Winterberry. That has been discussed many, many times. I think it has been brought up also. And again, it's all about it's all a question of funding. It's called a question of where we'll report it, the whole thing. So the discussions on those things are very, very premature.

Okay. It sounds like we have to do a little investigating before we know what direction it can go. Dustin, would you mind taking that one on? I would absolutely love to.

As long as no one else steps in. Okay. Let

me put that in context. Okay? So let's be clear.

There's nothing to put in context. Okay. And that's not part of this I do not want one to hear your comment, I do not wanna hear

your conversation. And send we have to finish certain projects by this.

This is not part Okay.