Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Calling to, excuse me. Calling to order unification advisory committee to the city of Marco Island, for the 01/07/2026 meeting. Can we have a roll call, please?

Member Sipi?

Here.

Vice chair Scherzinger?

Here.

Committee member Myers?

Here.

Committee member Sullivan?

Here.

Chair Needles?

Here. Can they stand for the pledge, please?

I pledge allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay. We have an approval of the agenda, please. Any comments? Move to approve. Second. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay. Approval of the minutes.

There was one change. I think it said we were going to announce Marco and Bloom on the nineteenth, and that City Council meeting is actually the twentieth. Let me see where that is. Did you find I that

found it under Leland Way and Marco and Bloom timeline 7C. I found it on it says January 15. So that should be changed to twentieth?

January 15, it kicks off. We present it on the January 20 at City Council meeting. Okay. It might have been one of the ID numbers that had it. I'm not seeing it quickly here. Just so so long everybody is aware that that's the date of the city council meeting. Yes.

I know you're you're gonna

go do that. Yes. We'll discuss that when we get to that part of I'm sure.

If you'll excuse my cough periodically, I am two weeks past, what is it called, super flu. So I'm not contagious, though, the doctor says. Same here.

Have some cough drops.

Oh, thank you. I might take you up on

that.

Okay. All those in favor of minutes as amended?

Aye. Aye.

Opposed? Okay. Carried. All business. Old business. I'm sorry. Beach access beautify I'm gonna try and move this along, folks. So beach access beautification project.

I can probably report on that. I had gotten in touch with the beautification committee, and I just learned now that there has been a change of who is going to be.

Correction. To the beach beach not beautification.

Coastal. Yes.

Because we're being recorded. Okay.

And so they're setting up a new person, and that person will be in touch with me. I had reached out to them. So Okay.

So that's in progress. A process. Process. Yes. Okay. Tree City USA funding allocation.

So this is from that funding income sheet and possible expenses sheet that I presented last meeting. We have $29,000 available for Tree City USA. We have a plan that we voted on last year for Calusa Park, which was about $5,000 for 11 trees along Winterberry. We have we'll need money for Arbor Day Tree. Victoria presented a plan last meeting for Leland Way of about 4,000, and then we have Mackle Park.

The parks and recreation committee has a plan that could cost maybe 21,000. We still have to they still have to get exact details on that. But what we have to decide is how do we wanna allocate our $29,000.

Okay. Have you got a suggestion that you want to propose to us?

Well, if we do our Calusa Park plan of five and Victoria Leland Way plan of four and Arbor Day, that's 10, that gives Mackle Park about 19.

K. We wanna make sure that we get this in line to get it done so we don't find out we run out of calendar and still have money.

Right. And so I think, Joe, if we have something that we think will be 5,000 or less, we only need to get one bid. Is that correct?

That's correct. As long as it doesn't hit the 5,000 mark.

So if we wanted to go ahead and start pursuing the Calusa Park plan and the Leland Park plan with no no more than $4,999, up. Can we go ahead and start getting those bids?

Yes. We can.

And then I can go back to my contact, Darren Spindler at the Parks and Rec Committee. And since theirs is gonna be a lot more, they need a lot more time because they need to do multiple bids. Is that correct?

That's how I understand it. Yes.

Yeah. So then the our only other thought is we wanna continue to have plans, assuming we're gonna get this money. So we wanna continue to project for the future. And then also if something falls through, like, say, Mackle Park plan, they only can put in 14,000. We wanna be able to have a plan to spend the money. So we need to look for some more ideas, places to put more trees.

K.

So I love the trees along Swallow right now, and I've had multiple condo owners say, that's wonderful. Can we have more? But I do know, and perhaps Bonita can speak to this, Trail Town USA, there's gonna be bike lanes. Are they gonna be on both sides, Bonita, or just one side? Do you know? Usually.

Sorry about that. Boni Deschwan, councilwoman. I think it's just one, but I need to confirm that. And I will I'll relay that information back to you. I'm sorry I don't have it up on top of my head.

Do you

know how do you have approximate when the timing of construction and installation of those will be?

I'll confirm that with you too. We have several projects that we're working on right now. So I just wanna make sure I give you the accurate information. So I'll get the if it's on one or both sides and what the construction timeline is back to the committee too.

That's great.

Okay. Thank you.

I would recommend that we not do more trees on Swallow until after that work has been completed after the bike lanes. And then there's also a swale project. So That's prudent. Yeah. Let's let those things happen first.

Okay. So you're recommending the the two projects that we should vote on?

Yeah. What do we need to do? Do we need I mean, we've already voted on them.

We did not vote on Leland. I presented it, and we discussed it, but we never voted. So it would be appropriate to do that if you'd like me to make a motion to move ahead with the Leland planning as I outlined at the last meeting, which was trees along there, two royal poinsettia or one or two royal poinsettias and Shady Ladies not to exceed $4,000 is what we were looking at. I don't think I think we need to do that. So Joe can first look and see, is that a plantable swale?

I would hope so because it's 40 feet deep. But we don't know where sewer lines are. We don't and but we know the power lines on that side. So probably, the sewer lines are on opposite side street, but that's not always true. So that would be my motion. Second? Thank you.

We do we have a does the budget of that amount cover the full length of what you're suggesting?

Yes. There are a lot of residential lots there that have rocks in the swale, which are not technically eligible or difficult to plant in because there's no sprinkler system. However, on the corner of the road that breaks the two, and I'm not sure of the name, there is a wider swale and would be an appropriate place for a royal poinsettia. They tend to kill the grass under it anyway, so having rocks is not an issue as long as maybe there's a sprinkler system there to do it, or we could do one of the water bags

Water bags. Yeah.

That Justin Martin described to us. So, yes. So utilizing spacing of the the lots, residential lots, that have grass in their swales. Yes.

K. You made a a motion?

Yes. I'm

pretty sure you did. I did.

And then I rambled. I apologize. So my motion is to approve it as discussed at the prior meeting and not to exceed the $4,000, and Anne seconded it.

Seconded again.

I'm curious. Any further discussion on that?

I'm happy.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay.

I think we need to vote by name, don't we? I think we need a roll call when we're spending money.

Okay. Member Sippy?

Yes.

Vice chair Scherzinger? Yes. Member Myers? Yes. Member Sullivan? Yes. Chair Needles?

Yes. K. I have a question for Joe in reference to this. From the time we say go, what's the process to actually timeline to get from where we say we wanna do this? We make a motion to getting the bid and arranging the planning and actually getting them planted.

So the first thing I have to do is look at the location that you guys want me to have the trees planted and then start investigating what obstacles we'll have, what's underground, if there's overhead, you know, wires and stuff like that. So once we get through that, then I can let you know that we can go out and start getting proposals. And from there, it's just a matter of just making a decision.

Assume but I should clarify that. Assuming that it's fine to be able to plant in that these particular areas we're talking about, what would you project the timeline? Sixty days, ninety days, hundred and twenty days or

No. The only thing I would say is that I still wanna talk to the, you know, permitting and all that and see how long it would take and how far we are out with that. But I don't think that once we we have permission to move ahead, it should be within thirty days, I would think.

Based on how efficient we were with Linda's last minute request when we had money left over last year, it was under a month. Yeah. But we're not in a rush rush. We sure wanna be ready, but the optimal time to plant is rainy season.

Right.

So we're headed for have this all lined up and ready to go into May.

Well, that's a that's a very good point. We want to be able to make sure we're there when June arrives rather than June, all of a sudden, we're saying, oh, we better scramble them and make it happen.

I think Justin had said they LCEC needs to come out and water and sewer have to go out and, like, check and mark things and yeah.

As far as I know, yeah, that we'd have to make sure that everything's marked. And and like I said, we'll have to go through planning, and they can let me know if there's any underground that we don't know about.

Do we need to vote on giving money to Mackle Park for Tree City USA?

I would think anytime we're spending our budget Yeah. We need to vote.

Yeah. I would think so.

So I make a motion that we let Parks and Rec know we have $19,000 available for them to use through the Tree City USA budget for their Mackle Park tree plan. And they should get started right away because it's going to take them longer to get all the bids.

I would second that.

Excellent. Okay. Get a call, roll call.

Any discussion?

No. I'm Okay.

Member Sippy?

Yes.

Vice chair, Scherzinger?

Yes.

Members Myers?

Yes.

Member Sullivan? Yes. Chair Needles? Yes.

Okay. And then one last thing to your point of having backup plans or things for next year. Does anybody have or can everybody bring to the meeting in February maybe ideas for our next steps? Like, I wanna plant on this street or here's a area.

Or I

think it would be ideal if we have half a dozen things that we kinda prioritize each one as where we might be able to if, okay, all of a sudden we have some extra funds because one thing didn't work, we we can

move right on to the next one. Absolutely.

Mhmm.

Yeah. So bring ideas. Bring idea. Yeah. Mhmm.

Okay. Mark on Bloom.

Okay. That is me. We are moving along well. I now have completed the nomination committee. We have five lovely volunteers, three of which are from the Calusa Garden Club, all very knowledgeable. And one that I recruited was the winner of Marco and Bloom personally designed Donna Pearson last year. She was thrilled to be asked. We also have a master gardener, Donna Kay, also from the garden club. She is a master gardener and a master naturalist, and she will be helping us. She was thrilled on judging day.

She's a former member of the BAC. So this is very helpful moving forward. And today, we will be receiving

Yes.

A digital version of

You'll notice that this flyer that, we got printed out for us, there is one typo. It still says, to be announced 04/07/2025. So that will, I just amended that, and I'm gonna be sending that to you, like, ASAP. So that in fact, I'll just send it to you right now. And then

Also, it needs to be the email address should be changed to Victoria's instead

of Okay. Victoria, what is your email so I can change that

right here? And then another a. Let's see. Victoria Victoria. A a. Myers, m y

e r s

e r

s. Gmail.

Got it.

Okay. Yes. That pink or mauve box down in the bottom is where I am changing the email and the date. And then it is done. Does anyone have anything else that we see that needs to be changed on here? And that QR code does work.

And app oh, deadline, March 10. I was gonna say it needs a deadline, but there is Yes. Big bold letters. Never mind.

Let me make sure that aligns with my timeline. Yeah.

And Also, as you see, I did change the date on the top, so that's good.

March 10. Correct. You got that, Ryan.

Alright. Cool.

Then Thank

you very much for this.

Exporting this, and I am sending it to you. And I'll airdrop

it, too. That is all right now. I will be moving forward with sending articles and getting some flyers out there and posted. We can talk about this now or later, Marvin. I know you'll be presenting to the city council on the twentieth, and Joan asked that I follow you. And I don't know if we should do that after you answer the councilor's questions or before you start councilor's questions.

Well, my thought of it is to because she asked me about she said, you got ten minutes. I said, I'm not gonna use ten minutes. I'm I'm gonna be to it. Just kinda give a brief outline where we are and and and and beg for money for next year. Excuse me. Somebody's calling me. Sorry. And so it's gonna be very short, maybe two, three, four minutes at the most. And then if there's any questions, then end up going right into you.

Okay. Mine would be approximately four minutes.

Yeah. So we're gonna be the Or under. Under ten minutes. Yeah.

Yeah.

And I've she asked if it was a PowerPoint presentation. I'm not gonna have anything. Maybe at some future date, we'd do a a nice color presentation, but that could be down towards the end of the summer or whenever.

Linda, do you recommend any visuals, for a PowerPoint or an individual thing for when I announce it or just announce it? I mean, I could technically put up the application form.

Yeah. Put up the application form.

Yeah. I'll get I'll make sure she gets that ten days in advance.

And then I think just be really clear on how people can enter that they can enter by going online, or they can stop in at city hall and pick up a physical Correct. Application.

Or anywhere they see Ryan's, they can scan that QR code. It's already on the website. It was on there for a while. Thank you, Jose. So if you go to the Marco Island website and use the search bar on the main page and do Marco and Bloom, it will pop up with the application form. It's already there. It's not announced that it's already there, but it's already there. And there's already a big write up about 2026. So we're good to go.

Okay. Thank you. And Jose,

I just emailed it to So you could share it with us whenever.

Nature Night, we're it's in process right now. I've got a question because we've got a few dates that I've picked up. One is March 3. One is March 5. One is the day before our meeting in March. The one is the day be post. Is there any preference? Would we rather

I mean, it would be nice to do the day after only

Just in case there's any discussion.

Yeah. Only because it would be cool that we were able to meet the day before because, I mean, it it would feel more like a debrief if we had it the day before our meeting. So, I mean, I no other reason other than it would be nice if we had extra meeting time just in case before.

So we're suggesting Nature Night is March 5?

Yeah. With our meeting being on March 4.

Okay. Yep. Okay. Consider it done. And then

What time do we start that?

Well, that's the next question. I was told, I think Jose said, we've got no. Martin said, we've got two hours. Okay. And it's pretty constraining to have two hours because we went well over the last time. And we talked about having it earlier, but that still doesn't help us in the

Right.

Two hour window. So do we wanna still have the band out front? Do we how much do we wanna have time for the displays?

I think that's the part we wanna shorten because it was too long last year.

The display.

If I I remember we discussed this in previous meetings, reversing the order where we do, I whether it be we start at five or six, whatever it may be. We start, and then we come in here and we do the presentations. And then when the presentations are finished, then you can go out into the lobby out there for the displays and stuff like that. Or maybe if we do it, like, ten minutes up front out there, so it's just people kind of get to mix for a moment and then come in here because it felt like we have an hour for each thing when, really, the displays, you can kind of go through at your leisure. So the thing that we know is going to take the longest, we get done first.

I think that would work.

The only difficulty that I see there, just thinking out loud, is we give the presentations first, and then they go out there. Now how do we get rid of the people when they're out there when the two hours are so

And there's fresh food out there.

We say, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here at the end of the two hours.

When I went to enter it, it prepopulated 03:30 to 05:30. So is that what we did last year?

No. I think it was 05:30

to 07:30. Maybe that's when we arrived. We were getting ready.

But it was 05:30 07:30 before we got out of here.

That's right. Because we had trouble getting Martin out of here.

Got it.

Poor guy. Yeah.

Maybe we can get give him a bonus if he stays a half hour. I don't know. You there, Martin? That was something we came

to set up. But there's fresh food. I think it is very welcoming welcoming to give them their goodies when they come.

Yeah. Can we just do the the lobby part from five to 05:30 and start Yeah. Open up the doors at 05:20 so that people can start coming in here and start promptly at 05:30.

I like that too.

I don't think you need as much time in the reception area.

Okay. And

And then it begs the question, do we want the band because of that? That's a lot to ask for them to come for

fifteen minutes. Yeah. Yeah. I would maybe pipe in some music or something.

DJ, I don't know if the school likes to have that program, to have the kids in front of people. If they'll miss it? That would be my only question.

Okay. I I don't have an answer. I'm I'm just you know, I didn't realize we were so limited in time. I know the last time we had, we were pushing to get everybody out because we were supposed to be done at seven and it kept lingering. We've you know, as you remember, there was one lady that kept going on, and I felt bad that I had to try and stop her, but she She

nearly cried.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So so I don't I don't any I mean, I I we we don't have a yeah. We've got a February meeting. So I'll arrange getting people to this thing. We might try and have further discussion on the exactual time when we start and finish.

Do we have a plan on who our speakers are? Are we gonna reduce it to three versus more?

I'm gonna find out from the speakers if they can do it in fifteen minutes. Right. If we can do it in fifteen minutes, we can get four of them. If they're gonna take more, we get three.

Yep. Are we gonna try to do donations again this year? Donations? That material?

I I that was kinda I think that didn't work out last year because we were supposed to we had people giving out tickets, and then they were supposed to be Yeah. For what was it? Was it supposed to be one per?

Yeah. I feel like people thought they

were supposed to get more. It was kind of confusing, I think.

I think we usually advertise it. It does drive some attendance, but we just need to have a tighter feel on what it is and how we do it.

And where we get the funds get it from? Because

They were donated.

I know they were donated from a vendor, which we don't have anymore.

Correct. Mhmm. But we do have other landscaping

Right.

Companies that But we can you know, we can And they may.

I I I might even be able to get it from the Garden Center to donate it. Mhmm.

One thing that we talked about at an earlier meeting was doing a speaker that would highlight this unwanted tree list, like someone who could speak about this. So maybe changing one of the speakers to someone who has expertise on this. And I know someone we didn't we talk about the woman that used to be on the beach and coastal resources committee who wrote started writing a PowerPoint about this?

No recollection of what you're talking about to be fully honest.

Where are you getting your information from?

A lot of it has been from, that website with, UF, UFAS. I don't recall exactly, But that's been predominantly.

Well, I've talked to the lady some time ago from UF Yeah. The extension, which is out near the Fairgrounds. Yeah. And she said anytime you want anything, she'd be happy to Yeah. Provide something. So I'll get I'm

not sure what item we would drop to do it, but since we've put a lot of work and effort into this, I think this would be a good topic.

Okay. Mhmm. Okay.

And since Ryan put a lot of work into this.

Not wanted. Okay. Okay. That's on that. Unwanted Tree, we've already talked about that.

Holiday decorations. Joe, supposedly, I think in the last meeting, it was decided that we wanna talk to one of the vendors, we have to go through you. But that makes it kinda con it's kinda difficult because what before I contacted to get possibly more decorations, I'd like to talk to the person that's storing them and that's putting them in if they would be open to that. So, you know, I don't necessarily wanna go have bother you every time I have a question on something like that.

I'd I'd have to get clarification on that, but I don't understand why you can't speak to them one on one. You just can't do it as a group.

No. I understand. But I was told that everything had to go through you.

With the funding part of it, yes. But the communications getting up to that, I think you're more than welcome to

do. May I ask you to send me a contact for the person who is that put those put the that's storing them and also installed them.

Absolutely.

Okay. And then I'll follow through from there. Because I've got the contact for who where to buy them, but I don't wanna make a commitment if we the guy says, I haven't got a place to store these things. So now where are we? So

The Ridge Valley guy.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. That's last on that.

Oh, we will be the

next committee meeting. You'll be doing that presentation. Right? Or not committee, but city Because it wasn't ready for last night.

Right. So there is going to be a, in theory, a thank you proclamation also at that committee meeting city council meeting on the twentieth to thank the who's donated for the Christmas Garland Light Wraps along Collier.

Well, I was planning to be at the last one, and I was told on Monday that morning that, oh, that was taken off the Agenda. And nobody I didn't did you get notice?

Yes. Yeah.

Now the

wants wants to workshop some of the wording on the proclamation.

So Okay. Okay. So,

Marv, are you gonna be available at the twentieth meeting then?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah. I've I've I've reported to Joan that I would be there. Right. Thank We

also skipped item seven b, by the way, unwanted tree use ordinance. I think it's because we had just spoken about it in during nature night. Mhmm. Yep. I don't have any update other than it was in the newspaper.

So, there was a article written by Maria Lam, which, included the flyer in the newspaper. And, because of the design of the flyer, it being tabloid 11 by 17, it was very, very, very difficult to read in the newspaper. So what we're gonna be doing is making a separate flyer for each of the different unwanted trees that we have on the poster and sending those to the coastal breeze in, like, once a month. The article that, Maria Lam wrote focused on the Brazilian pepper. So I'll start from there and just upload those.

Yeah. Yeah. Start with the Brazilian pepper. And as you can see, it's impossible to read on

here. Right.

Right. So, because it's meant to be this big. But, yeah, that's it. I have nothing else.

Okay.

That's a great idea. So it'll be, like, maybe once a month featured in the Yeah. Awesome.

That's great. There you go, Ryan. Okay. Liaison roles. The a liaison roles. Potential. You had mentioned you're possible, which you're in that process. Anybody else?

I'm not sure what this means. Yeah.

Well, we've talked about having a liaison with

Other committees.

Parks and Rec and also

With me.

Right. With you. And the other one was with Beach Committee. And I guess there's nothing to be said about it. Okay.

All set.

Do we need to have liaison with any other committees that we can think of? Or so nothing comes to mind right now, but since we're on the topic.

I don't think planning board or water waste needs beautification Yeah. Or auditing.

Okay. Staff communication.

Joe? The only thing I have is Justin had just brought this to me, so I don't have any pricing right now to give to you. But these are banners that are hung all the way along Collier Collier sorry Collier Boulevard. There's 80 of them in total and apparently they were funded by the BAC previously through fundraising. They have met their lifespan and they need to be replaced. They're gonna hang the ones that they have this year that still can be hung, But my question to you is do you want to do fundraising and replace these? And if so, I will go and get pricing and bring that to the next meeting. But this

is What's on them?

I think, if I can, Joe, I don't think any of us were part of the committee when that was funded to begin with. So I'm not sure how the funding took place.

Beautiful. Yeah. They're they're all the same print?

No. No. They're they're different. There's multiple ones of each different kind. But he said

Is it different beach or different sea life?

Like, probably, like, half a dozen different variations of this. But they they go all the way down the thing. So there is some duplicates. And

when these are put on those light posts? Yes.

And And it

says when?

Through January through May. So they're already in the process of getting ready to put these up, the ones that they still have. But as you can see, they're they're falling apart. So they can't really put them back.

Well, the when I look at that, it looks like the banner's fine. He's the pocket needs to be reglued. Do we really need new ones?

Or He said that they're fading. The color's faded. He said this used to be green. Okay. So he said that they are fading, and they do need to

The yellow looks fine.

Well, honestly, the the banner itself looked striking.

So Joe, can you dig up and find out how the funding went last time and how much would be needed to to to get to to redo them?

Yes. What I'll do is I'll reach out to the sign company that we use and get an approximate cost to replace these. And then I'll I'll dig into

How many are there? 80. 80. Okay. Then

other question, if we're replacing them, do we wanna look into replacing the artwork Yeah. And doing something more updated? It's always a possibility if we have these that we're putting up for five months out of the year.

It's probably on some some documents, some place that actually shows each of the different designs, I would think.

I will look into that. Like I said, Justin put this on my desk right before the meeting so I don't have a lot more information.

Setting you up for failure. It's okay. Yeah. If we could get, like, a document or something that shows us, like, all of the artwork that we have for those, and if we have a list of what actually needs to be replaced, and then we can look in to see if we want to change any of them. Because I'm sure most of them are probably still great, but it I think it bears to look at at the very least.

And, Joe, how long do you know how long those lasted for? Were those just

You know what? He didn't he told me that it's been years though.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah. It might be beneficial to have, you know, what the life of these things are too.

I'll look into that too. Okay. Lifespan and price.

Okay. Thank you. And and how the how it was funded last time? Did somebody just donate or did we get a

program? Yeah. He said that you the the BAC organized a fundraiser, and that's how they were funded.

Okay. But nobody knows how that how it was organized. Maybe Shelley knows.

Yeah. Is there a way to search through old BAC records without looking at

Everything.

Them one at a time to find that, like, in old minutes?

I if I know who the vendor was that they use, I can look up all the POs that were ever issued, so I should be able to find how. Great. Any information on it.

Okay. I'm gonna see if Shelly has anything on that. She was on it for, I think, eight years, wouldn't she? Yeah. Okay. Joe, do you have anything further?

That is all I have right now.

Okay. City Council communication. Oh, gee. We have somebody coming forward.

Yes. Bike lanes, Swallow. So it will be on both there will be lanes in both sides of Swallow. It's projected to start in thirty days, and projected completion date is October. So that's that On date on the banners too, just a side note that I actually at one point was told they're quite expensive to replace them. I don't know if that's current information. Another option would be to repair those. There is a really qualified upholstery seamstress on the island that I actually know, Wanda. You may know Wanda from just Yes. Probably all know Wanda.

Okay. She's a friend of mine. So if it's too cost prohibitive to replace them, that certainly would be an option to to have a seamstress just repair those. Thank you. Happy New Year.

Anita, wait. Company member Corey had a question before he had to leave. He said, is it true that some trees recently planted on Swallow will be removed due to the expansion of the sidewalk?

We've gone through this discussion. Actually, Linda has had commentary back and forth with Justin. Do you want to just share what Justin shared with you?

That's a concern I had. And also, City Council also expressed the same concern. And so I went out, and I measured all of the trees, the distance from each tree to the street. Many of them are nine or 10 feet away from the street. There's three of them that are less than six feet away from the street. And then I communicated with Bonita about how wide is a bike lane. And Justin says to me, and also he said this at city council, this is not gonna be a problem. They're gonna be fine.

And he communicated that to me too. A bike lane generally is three feet wide. That's a Collier County rule that we abide by, of course. So we've been Justin has shared that with us. So that would be the update at this point. But we certainly will stay on top of it, as I know your committee will too. So

I have little hawks down there watching on the street every day to let me know when there's a truck. And all of a sudden, we need all of us to go stand there and hold hands in front of our trees.

Okay. I love it.

K. Bye. Yeah. Alright.

Linda's got it. Okay. Thanks, Linda.

Thank you. Hi.

Deb Henry, Margo Island City Council. I'm preaching to choir since three of you, I believe, are parts of the Calusa Garden Club. But I know it was shared with us counselors, and I figured I'd share with the gentleman if you were not in the loop. Florida Arbor Day on January 16, it's a Friday at 10:30AM at Lee Plummer Park. The Calusa Garden Club will be planting a tree. I know the council was invited and all city employees, but I figured I would just let you guys know because I think the fact that working with them, I think, is wonderful for judging and such. And I figured, you know, if we're all working hand in hand, it's even better.

Wonderful. So

I just wanna let you know. Thank you.

It'd be a great opportunity for us to go there and see Lee Plummer Park. The Calusa Garden Club has planted a lot of trees there. They don't have sprinkler system. They those ladies, Anne, you live right by there. I don't know how many times you've probably hauled buckets of water to the new tree, but it'd be great for us to be there and support them. And, also, I know we have an opening on our committee. And just to share that I have written to the president of the Inclusive Garden Club so that she will share with all membership that there's an opening. And hopefully, we can get someone else to submit an application to join us.

And Linda may not be able to attend the next meeting. So, Anne, either you or I might wanna share that information. I don't know who the president will want to do that since you're on the board if she'll prefer you. But Just to reiterate. We'll wanna plug Marco and Bloom again and say that we have a wonderful committee. K. And but then still try to get nominations right then and there. Maybe I'll bring some forms, actually. But, also, who might be interested in joining the BAC.

Okay. And I will not be at the January meeting.

Okay. So I'll be the only one.

So You will. Okay.

Hopefully, she'll accept me even though I'm a newbie.

Oh, I'm sure. You'll just wanna let her know you'd like to be on the agenda? I can even let her know that. I'll let

her know.

That'd be great. And then, Joe, while we're talking about the park, some garden club members approached me and were very upset that our landscaping company I don't wanna say destroyed, but nearly destroyed the butterfly garden. They didn't know it was a butterfly garden, and they ripped a lot of it out, and they sprayed poisonous things. Then I don't know if it's I don't know. Where are we on that?

So I met with the members from the Calusa Garden Club, and we went through the area. And I explained to them what had exactly happened, and that was basically we had a member of the public that was complaining that the overgrowth was over the sidewalks. So we went there and looked at it, and I told the landscape company to go through that whole area, not just the the garden. They didn't stop at the tip of the garden. They they went right through it and just cleaned it out. So, at this time, I've met with them. They're gonna give me a list of of vegetation that they would like to have replaced, and I'm gonna see if I can fund that within my budget. And we made sure that the landscaping company knows not to touch the garden over at Lee Plumber.

And a note to self. And when we hire future new contractors, we proactively show them these sensitive areas versus after the fact.

Absolutely.

Okay. Any other city council communication? Okay. All right. Public comment?

Looks like we have none.

Haven't received any. Yeah.

Okay. Next meeting, confirmation of attendance.

I should have piped up on councilor communication. Before we wrap up, there were a few things from Marco and Bloom that Julie had been assigned. So I'll see if a few others might be able

to And

I'll just review. So Linda, you were gonna send Chamber of Commerce an announcement. Marvin, you were gonna do it to realtors. Mhmm. And then Linda was also gonna do Mackle Park since she's on Parks And Rec. So What

do mean what do you mean Mackle Park?

For putting a flyer up Okay. Yeah. And getting permission from them. And I'll do other parks. But

I think that's something that Justin handled last year. Do like, to have a flyer put up in the little glass plexiglass thing at Veterans Park. And if there's a place, like, a public bulletin board, is it something that you could put up for us?

If you send it to me and tell me what you'd like to have hung in those, I will I will get that done.

Okay. I can send an email and tell you. So which parks have glass enclosures for flyers?

So Mackle Park has one. I know VCP has one. I don't but I think what they could do there is, I'd have to reach out to Samantha and see if they have the capability yet, but they might be able to scan it and put it on the electronic board that they have there now so that it rotates through.

That'd be great. Good. Any coffee drinkers here, Starbucks, Ori's? Any people who tend to go there because that they'll be well received if they've seen your face. I don't do that type of thing or Dunkin's. Anybody

I go to the borough.

Okay.

Yeah.

So

I can

If you're going to anywhere

can put up

a couple of flyers. Yeah. I used to put up flyers all the time for the shows that I used to be in. So I know what places usually put them up and what don't.

All right. All righty. Anybody who is the head of Kami?

I was going to reach out to her.

Okay. I'll

get that to Lundish. Forget off the top of my head, but I know I have it written down somewhere, Deb knows also. She can tell me.

Great. Thank you.

Okay. We're good to go. Okay. Next meeting, attendance. Everybody planning on being here?

Yep.

I am not available.

You're not available?

No, Banner Cruz.

Sorry. What's more important? Body. So we do we should still have a majority. Mhmm. Any suggestions for next agenda?

Yes. I would like the tree dedication to be on the next agenda. I'll work with you. When's the next I can look at that. Parks and Rec. I need to get permission from Parks and Rec to do a dedication for the Collins tree. Got that. So the Collins tree follow-up. I checked it this morning. It's still looking strong. It's dropping some leaves right now because this is just the time of year. But if we plan it for late March, early April, hopefully, his family members will still be here, and the tree will be putting out new growth. It should look really nice, and we'll get it in the ground. And then, Joe, we have not put the plaque in the ground yet. We wanna keep it fresh and nice.

When it's time to do so, will your guys be able to do that?

Absolutely. You just let me know when we you want it installed, and we'll take care of that.

Very good. Thank you.

K. Any any other, committee communications?

I super quick. Based on the banners, very minimal research that I've been able to do. Looks like the last time replaced any of those banners was in the, in 2016. So, yeah, they October. It looks like about ten years of and life's it was only 12 that were replaced last time. At least that's what it is looking like.

What are you looking at to find that?

I had ChatGPT look up all the previous meeting minutes. It's cheap. So I do that a lot. Yeah. It says that Linda Colombo presented the last time that we talked about that.

So she's the president of the Calusa Garden And

she was chair at that time.

Yes. So if one of us I can do it or if you wanna do it or whoever would like to do that, reach out to her, and you can get a lot of good background information too fundraising and

Under the name natural beauty banners was what they were we called them back then.

And chat GPT only works if it was in the minutes.

Yes. Only if it was in the minutes. So

does anyone wanna do that? Does do you

guys I'll reach out to Linda. Fantastic.

Joe, do we know how many are they all in need of replacement? Or

Justin said that they're falling apart. I would think that, know, being that they're the age that they are, we probably should look at replacing all of them.

Can you can we

Yeah. I can definitely look and see if there's ones that we can salvage if you wanna keep them up. But he did say that they're all faded.

Can you make sure he doesn't throw them away?

Absolutely.

Give us an opportunity to see what we can do. Sure.

Honestly, they're they're gonna be going up anyway. Is that right?

All the ones that are still able to be hung, he said the that won't, he'll just keep them off to the side. So I'll make sure that he does not throw the ones that are

Okay. And when and when will they be installed?

He said January to May. So I'm guessing he's already starting to do it.

I haven't seen any yet.

Well, I'm guessing.

Guess it's prepping.

Well, if it's a situation like this where mostly it's the pocket unglued or unsewn, are we gonna try to salvage them immediately and connect with

It could be a next year thing.

Probably ought to look at their condition.

With one Wanda. Wanda. Wanda.

Well, it sounds like what the ones that are in good shape are going up. Yeah. And then they'd just be whatever. So

Problem is we have no money right now to fix anything to get it hung now. I

have a staple gun. Okay.

All right. Love it.

Okay. I think we're going south on this discussion. We all adjourned, everybody, for that? Any objections?

We were efficient today. Thank you.

Thank you.