Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

afternoon uh this is the call to order for the beautification advisory committee to the city of marco island and for june 3 2026. can we get a roll call please remember cp yeah remember mike corey here member vice chair scherzinger here remember myers here Chair Needles, here. Okay, please stand for the pledge.

Doesn't he have to call the ones that aren't here?

What do you mean?

Does he have to call the names of the people that are not here, people who are not here?

We'll do it. 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.

For the record, Excuse me. For the record, Ryan Sullivan is not in attendance. And I understand that somebody will be joining us. Yes. Rhonda. Rhonda will be joining us. Online. Online.

I believe we had to do a roll call with her and did she is she already sworn or like I think you guys have to approve to have her for remote that's how we do the other times is that you you vote to let her in and then we do roll call with her

I'll make a motion to allow Rhonda to participate by Zoom. I'll second. Okay.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carried. Okay. How will you know she's coming or should we just announce it? Do you get that notice there?

I don't do anything here. Actually, I think Martin.

Martin. Okay. All right. Okay. Approval of the agenda.

I have an item to add. Okay. I'd like to discuss the memo from our city manager to the city council about reducing the advisory committee meeting schedules.

Okay.

I agree with that. I have something to tag on to an item already there talking about the fertilizer regulations. I know it's a little bit different version of that, but I'd like to tag on to that. It's already on the agenda.

We'll do reducing the meetings as new business.

Okay.

And I've got a few other things that I'll address, but just as information as opposed to having something that needs to be voted on.

I vote, I make a motion to approve the agenda as amended.

Okay. Second. Favor? Opposed? Carried. Okay. Approval of the minutes?

I have one correction. In section 6C, the second paragraph, phase one was prioritized over phase two, which is correct. Therefore, following the recommendation of removing phase two and bringing the total of $22,000 down to 19. I didn't want to remove the entire phase two. I wanted to remove just the amount of money to get us to 19. which we can discuss when that comes up on the agenda, but that was what we talked about in the meeting, that I recall.

Okay, so why do you want the change on that?

It was not a complete removal of Phase 2, but a removal of an amount of money to get us to $19,000.

Yes, okay. So you want me to just clarify? Yes. Okay.

Thank you. We have to make a motion on that one.

Make a motion.

I make a motion to approve the minutes as amended.

Okay. Second?

I'll second.

Give a second. And? Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Aye.

Rhonda's here.

Oh. Yes. I've been here.

I just didn't have my mic on, I guess. Okay.

Welcome, Rhonda.

Thank you.

Okay. All business? Lelyway swales.

Lelyway, yay! They got planted today.

They got planted today?

Where is that? Was that Rhonda? Okay. Yes, and thank you to Joe and team for pushing it through. Before rainy season, it started hours later. Perfect. And also, I drove by, and those are big, beautiful trees for 25 gallons. Wow.

Oh, good.

I mean, you don't call them big, but they were impressive for a 25-gallon tree. And so thank you to Affordable for getting quality materials for us. Great. Great. Two side notes. One tree did need to be planted in the rocks. Um, so I went over there last night after I saw the positions where they were and it's right in between all these trees are planted between lots, which is beautiful. So it's not blocking anybody's front yard or front door. Um, and on one of the sides where the rocks are, there was somebody there who lives there full time. And so I talked to Walter and I explained what happened and he's really happy. He's getting a, um, a shady lady, and I asked him to put a bucket of water on it today, and he's going to. Then I had to mark where the Royal Poinsettia goes. It's a yard that is sprinklered, and so is the swale. And I was thrilled to tell the neighbor, so I saw that she was home and talked to her. She doesn't want any trees, but she's OK. she thought that's more for her to maintain and I said it's not yours to maintain and it's owned by the city and the city has decided this and she was happy that it was the Royal Poinsettia versus the others and then we're having rain and all the other places they were planted there are there is grass but I don't know how much they water so coming up the coming week I think I'll go door knocking and point out these are new trees and they could use the benefit of just a little bit of water if they wouldn't mind helping out. But I guess I won't stop and ask the lady that has the royal. We'll do that ourselves. I will, my husband and I. Great.

Thank you very much for following up on that. Yeah. Calusa Park?

Also good news. I was there today, and four of our 11 trees are planted, and the truck was there. They're working on it. So, again, they look great. Thrilled at the timing with the rain. So thank you again for that.

Okay.

I want to add to that okay report on Meckle Park same thing there's trees around the soccer field today super excited and I saw trucks at the lake I didn't get out of my car because it was raining but it looks like they're working on planting there so I just want to make sure that we're clear on we're not eliminating phase two we're just eliminating part of phase two to get us to the right money. And we can talk about that even more at the end of the meeting when we talk about budget, if you'd like.

Okay. 7A, new business. The 10,000 tree.

That's the first item. And what we need is a committee member to step up and take that item, somebody that isn't already full.

Would you like me to take it?

Absolutely. If you would be involved in doing this, yes. As you recall, there's 18,000-some dollars, and I went to – I've learned that the 10000trees.org website is still available. So if you go onto that website, you can see exactly what we promised the people that donated. You can suggest the trees be planted in a particular location in a swale median or public park, and we will do our best to honor your suggestion based on the master plan of this initiative. Okay. I'll make sure that I'll give this to Jose so he can get this to you. Tree species will be selected based on a recommendation tree list from the Marco Island Beautification Advisory Committee. Next, I wrote to David Leaser, who is the person who invented 10,000 trees, and he is willing to have a meeting with you, Rhonda, to tell you exactly how you can find out who donated what and where they wanted trees. And like I said, it says we'll do our best to honor. But we know it can be difficult to plant trees, one tree here, one tree there. And there's a lot of places on the island where we can't plant. But Joe and the rest of us can help you with that. And we don't have to have these planted by the end of September, correct, Joe?

No.

So we don't have a deadline on this.

That's a non-budget item.

Yes. OK.

So the money won't be lost if it's not used

by september correct yeah that would be hard to do 18 000. can maybe plant it in cul-de-sac it just for clarification it's not eighteen thousand ten thousand has to stay okay endowed so for what from what i understand you're allowed to use the eight thousand i have a number wrote down here the eight thousand seven hundred and twenty six dollars

Okay. Is that because it's part of the community foundation?

The way that it's written is that $10,000 has to stay in doubt is what it says.

All right. Then we have $8,762. Okay.

So Jose is going to send me the contacts? Yes.

I will make sure I get everything to him and then.

Okay. All right.

Thank you, Miranda. This is very exciting.

It is exciting. It is exciting. Okay.

Moving on to this city ordinance. Sorry, go ahead.

No, no.

Nothing.

Oh, OK.

Moving on to 7B, city ordinance, fertilizer regulation. I believe we're supposed to have some sort of a public announcement twice a year, and I'm not even sure how they've done that in the past. If anybody – are you familiar with it?

I've never heard of this.

Okay. I think that's the ordinance that we – it's up to us twice a year to have some sort of

promotion or acknowledgement to the residents yeah so that the order yeah you just need to speak to the ordinance twice a year so that you know the public can see it so someone can go to the City Council meeting and at public comment read something I believe it I'd say I got a check on that I didn't know if it was two times a year in this committee meeting because it's still broadcast oh so this might count yes do you know what we need to say As far as I know, since this is my first time as well with it, it's just that you need to speak to it and just bring it up and then have a communication about it.

So can you find out what we need to say and then we'll talk about it at our August meeting?

Yes. Awesome.

Maybe. We include that in part of Markholm Bloom when public's here, just a short thing about that.

I'm going to see if I can get the coastal breeze to do something. So at least that's one that's fairly shortly that way later on. Because in the middle of the season, it doesn't do any good. Because this is the time frame that we're looking at that we're not supposed to be fertilizing.

That would be great.

I have information on the...

Time out. Hi.

Deb Henry.

We have some input.

City Council. It was in the Coastal Breeze last week. Sorry, what? It was in the Coastal Breeze last week. Oh, okay. It said City of Marco Island Police Department code enforcement, so we might want to make sure there's not duplication, rainy season, no fertilizer application. It was an ad on like page three.

And it came out on the Marco Island website too.

Yeah, so it might have been done without even knowing it. Thank you. Just so you know. Thank you.

Does that count? Or do we have to do something specifically?

I will find out and let you know.

Thank you. I'll bet it counts. And then if we're done with that section, I was going to tag on to that. And it's just to see if there is consensus amongst us to consider to modifying the landscape ordinance to eliminate mandatory turf grass and embracing Florida-friendly the requirement for mandatory terse grass. Everybody could always choose to do so, and this is not an original thought of mine. This was a white paper written by Rick Wooder, and he is on the waterways committee. That was presented there, and there was some support, but they have described their committee as being a little bit dysfunctional. Those are their words, not mine. And I think there is synergy if both groups would bring this to the city council and recommend it because we would like to see less fertilizer used. And that is included in some of our goals for the beautification advisory committee as far as encouraging Florida friendly and Florida native. So it does marry in with ours. So perhaps we shouldn't require as much turf grass as currently required. And perhaps we could, one other element, it was three pronged for him, was to allow for astroturf. Now, I have not studied that. I don't know. I heard a, yeah. Okay, Rhonda. And I don't have a strong opinion on that. I have a concern that I don't want to exchange one problem for another. I don't want to have less fertilizer and now have microplastics, right? So all I've done is a brief conversation with somebody who installs it, and he said if it's done correctly, that doesn't happen. But then again, that is an installer. So before I would consider backing that third leg. But I have the white paper, and if you guys are interested in hearing it and thinking about it, I would digitally give it to Jose and have him distribute to you, and then we can talk about it in August.

Please do that.

Okay. Can I speak? Yes.

Okay. I think that's a wonderful idea. I think more native or friendly, Florida-friendly, that is a wonderful idea. It will help with our environment. It will also help with wildlife because the birds and the butterflies need these types of plants in order to survive. So it is an absolutely wonderful idea.

Thank you. We want to use less water and less fertilizer. Just an example, in our own backyard, we back up to the canal. We have grass. We're taking much of it out. We're redoing with beds. We're putting up a few trees for privacy. But we... tapped on some experts in the garden club, master gardeners, who helped us with how to do that. We have zoysia grass back there, and we're leaving some of it. And it uses less water and less fertilizer than most. But the cute cue is if you intermix the mimosa, and do you remember when we did Marco and Bloom? We were on Mulberry Street in the front swale there. There was mimosa planted in the grass. It was beautiful. you can walk on it it can be mowed and it was rich looking like grass with little surprise plumes of pink if you intermix that with your lawn you don't need to fertilize ever so because it makes I have never fertilized yeah I had never fertilized my yard since I've lived in Marco since 2011 We loved it when you won last year.

Victoria, may I say something? Yes. Just a little information on the city ordinance for the fertilizer. It says the beautification committee in conjunction with city staff shall incorporate into their community outreach programs no less than two educational sessions on the requirements of the fertilizer ordinance per year. So that's all I put for the background on that.

Correct. And that was what we talked about earlier. And I just asked at the beginning of the meeting if I could tag this subject on to see if there was interest in exploring, perhaps altering the ordinance a little to allow for things that are more Florida-friendly and not require as much turf grass.

Okay. I just wanted to share what the ordinance said.

Yes. Educational session, would that be something beyond our meeting here? I mean, we wouldn't put it on our beautification meeting. Is that correct?

I'm looking into that and I will bring that back to the committee.

I would think we could possibly have some discussion on it at the future meeting and announce that if it's on the agenda, that be something that is for the public to view or be here either way. You can get back to us with the clarification if you would, Joe. Okay, thank you. Anything further on 7 ?

that was it for me and so I'll move forward and get that out to you okay staff communication I just I'm sorry just said one item I wanted to bring up we had previously had money set aside for the tree for Arbor Day so I took care of paying for the tree installation so I wasn't sure the process to get reimbursed and Joe thought we should discuss it just so everyone is on board.

I thought we already approved the amount, but if we need to do it again, otherwise it's just working out logistics.

I think he's looking just since he paid for it that we agreed to reimburse him.

I make a motion that we approve reimbursing Mike for the Arbor Day tree, which we had preapproved I think up to $1,000. And the plaque. And the plaque. Is that enough?

Yes. You want to second it?

I'll second it.

If we got a second. Any further discussion on that? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Okay.

Yeah, we've already approved the funds, so we don't have to get a roll call on it.

Before we go to staff communications, can we go ahead and take care of the proposed changes to advisory committee meetings? You said we do that in new business?

Is that staff communication or is that other business? I mean, we can do it now if you want.

How much is the amount again?

So this is a memo from – He asked how much the amount is. The amount was – Oh, sorry. We were just allowing him to be reimbursed, Mike.

Okay. As long as it doesn't exceed what we had approved.

Which was $1,000.

Right, right.

We can take care of that. Jose, I'll work with you after this. Okay. Thank you.

So I noticed on the agenda for the City Council meeting on this past Monday a memo from Dr. Lucius to City Council titled Proposed Changes to Advisory Committee Meetings. And it talks about them wanting to have a discussion to change the meeting schedule for their advisory committees from 12 meetings a year, so once a month, to six meetings a year plus two optional workshops. So from 12 to 8 at most. And then there's some explanation. You can go onto the city council agenda for Monday night, pull that up, and then you can get the memo. which I am opposed to this, and I sent a letter to our city council, and then I was at the city council meeting for this agenda item, and I recruited the chairs for all the other committees, so there were six of us in the room, and about after four hours of us sitting there with 30 seconds left, Chair Colombo decided to postpone that item until the following meeting. He was scared of you. So I was wondering if we could have a discussion about that, how we feel about this,

Well I can tell you I contacted a few of the city council people, told them I didn't have an opposition to it as long as the committee had the option to add as many as they wanted. So we could have six scheduled but we could also add another one like during February and March when we're having activity we want to have an extra one because we've got stuff going on. If it's in June or July or August then that's fine. My recommendation, and I sent that to Casey also, just saying six works for me but the committee itself should have the option to add as many as they want.

I like that idea of add as many as we need.

Right.

And I think your point is well taken. That's what I was going to say, that we must have our January, February, March, because we have a lot of programs for our residents, and most residents are back then. They're big programs that we do, and we need constant communications over those four months. So they should know up front.

Even December and November, because there's planning.

Right. And then when you get to the second part of the year, like we're getting to, We've proactively planted our trees, spent most of our money, and now is when it gets really heavy for budgeting for the next fiscal year for them, and we can back off more and not be so needy. I just think it is reasonable.

Okay. Well, I have a question because I'm new on the committee. So I'm listening to everything you have to say. But it seems to me there's always something that comes up that needs to be worked on. And the only time we get to really talk to each other because we're not allowed to talk to each other is during these meetings. So for me, I feel like it's important to have the meeting. I'm a new guy on the block. I'm learning all of this, even though I've seen meetings before. But when you're actually participating and trying to organize, it's a whole different animal. So I like having the meetings. And that's just my opinion.

I was, I did a count and I don't have the list here, a count of all the things we worked on. And I think we have like 17 items or something of items that we work on over the course of the year. And so if we reduce our meetings to six to eight, we would need city council to give us a list of the 30 to 40% of our 17 items that they would like us to drop.

Yeah. And I think that's, what's going to happen is not that we're going to be more productive.

And Councilor Champagne, this is a point that I was going to make when I was going to speak on Monday. Councilor Champagne, I thought, made a very good point about some of the items that come right before city council that this could have gone to an advisory committee first for discussion and research and a position point before it comes to city council. And if we meet less, then that can't happen.

You can speak to that if you'd like. That's not the right sort of call. I'll do it. Okay.

So if everyone's okay, I plan to attend the next city council meeting if it's on the 15th, if this is on the agenda and speak. Anyone else is, of course, welcome to come and speak. If it's on the meeting after that, I'm out of the country, and so I would hope someone else would attend and then also take up the reign of recruiting all the other chairs like I did. I plan to attend the next one.

Okay, so you're in agreement yourself that you think we should stay with the number that we have?

Yeah, or we reduce programs.

Okay. I, yes. If we reduce our meetings, definitely that's going to happen. Right. Just because of the fact we're not meeting together. Right.

So. Yeah, I'd like to add here, I think the purpose of this is because staff has been Time is being used up by this and I think Casey's trying to find as well as a city staff not being Spending as much time at these things when sometimes they just go on and not necessarily our meeting But in other meetings that across the board that people just they want to hear themself talk and so I think that I maybe we could and I've talked to a couple of the city council people already I've talked to Casey on it and told her my thoughts on it about the six with the option to add as we feel necessary and if we want to and if you want to take that with you when you speak don't want to sit for four hours waiting for them to cancel so we would have to put in that how much notice we would give them whether it would be usually you have to give what the 30-day notice two weeks to get the right to get it published yeah as far as I'm under I was understanding it was two weeks say what you heard Jose That's for public notice, right. But if we typically, if we're sitting at this meeting and we don't have a meeting next month and we say, hey, we really need to have a meeting next month, we just, you know, we schedule it and that's 30 days out.

So does the committee have to vote on it then if you are going to have another meeting? So does everyone have to agree that we're going to have another meeting? How is this going to work?

It would just be a majority, like any other decision.

Yeah, because we need to have a quorum.

We have to have a quorum, yes.

Do we want to encourage each member individually to also write to City Council, or do we want to send one as the committee and everybody signs?

Well, it depends on our opinions. Obviously, we have some difference of opinion.

would suggest you if you want to write to the City Council people you have the right to do that and would we write also as a group we have some differing opinions here so I would say at this point I'm not sure whether the City Council is ready to make a decision on that but I think if we could if we individually let our give our opinion to those people who will be voting on that then let them decide they're going to decide anyway and i think it's important that they hear from the committee or at least the committee members because it's our time too not just city staff another point if they do this

Now, if you miss three meetings, you're out. If it's six meetings, if you miss two, are you out? Or one, are you out? You know, that's something for them to consider, I guess. And then they did briefly summarize which each group is responsible for. It's not all inclusive. It's just a few of our major things. And, you know, our number one is medians. Well, we haven't had a penny for medians for, I don't know, how long. So we've been really working on tree canopy.

Right. And I worry about once something's taken away from us, how easy is it to get back? We're going to need all the people that we have now when we have these extra meetings if they come up. I just don't like the idea.

I agree with you.

Joe and Martha and Jose, do you have an idea how to do less staff attending a meeting? Do we need all three of you each time? Just throwing that out there.

We'll be here always.

And then, of course, there's Martin. Hi, Martin. We appreciate you.

Okay, getting back to staff communications.

So we're going to start off with the budget. You had asked for a snapshot of the budget. And we had an original budget of $25,000 with a transfer in of $9,000. So our $34,000 budget, we've currently spent $3,569.88. We have encumbered $23,622.83, which leaves you an available $6,807.29. my recommendation and you can go from here with this which is tying off of what Linda was talking about earlier earlier is to fund phase two of the Mackle Park trees which was seven thousand seventy five dollars and eighty seven cents that leaves you the reason we didn't do that previously because we had a shortfall of We still do if it's 7,000. $268.87, and we can take that from the new tree fund that we've just found that we have. So that was my recommendation for that.

So you think we should use 200-some dollars of the 8,000 in the...

Yes, and from my understanding, we can go back into that as we find other projects.

Okay. I don't have the information yet on what the agreement was for these trees. If it's usable, I mean, I'm open to hear whatever. We need to plant trees. That's obvious.

Well, these will be trees, too, Rhonda.

Right, right.

My only question is, will we incur any more expenses between now and fiscal year end if we were trying to do banners or order more Christmas decor. I'm fine doing this, but let's have that discussion because that's what we'll be doing is nothing else unless we are able to manage more donations.

Okay. You're not thinking of using the money from this new money that we found for the trees for banners, correct?

No. We are asking to use $200 of that to go if we do Phase 2 of Mackle Park, and that is trees.

One thing that I wanted to bring up is we, Tree City USA does require that we spend $30,000 a year, the $30,000 a year on trees and we only receive $25,000 of that from the city because the city committed to spending $5,000 of it on tree maintenance that they needed to do. And I think we are just short of spending $25,000. Plus, Counselor Gray donated his $4,000. So if you add that in, that's $29,000. So $5,000. Thank you. The way you had pitched it is four for trees and one is needed elsewhere. But I like this idea that Joe is proposing that we use the rest of the money to fund phase two. The plan is done. The work has been done. We have the approvals. LCEC, everyone else has signed off on this. And that way we don't need to go start and look somewhere else. It's ready to go.

And it is trees. I don't see a reason. Does anybody know a reason why we shouldn't do it that way?

And also, it's been competitively bid, so I do not have to wait on that.

Good. So we'll work for staff. We like that. We'll turn that around within a month still.

I like going ahead and let's get something done. Let's plant those trees. I think you have done an awesome job planting trees. So if we just need to finish up that last bit, and it's already most of the work is done, As long as I'm not stepping on anybody's toes. It's supposed to go somewhere else. I don't know yet.

You're fine, right? Okay, I'm gonna make a motion that we move forward with the balance of our funds to complete phase two of Mackle Park I Second that motion.

Mine is of course what we owe. Mr. Corey.

Okay Any further discussion on that?

Now, this is coming out of the newfound money.

Only $200 of that is. Only $200? Yes, because we have $6,807.29 left in our budget.

I said let's go for it.

And then we'd have to reimburse the payment out of that, too. So I didn't have that in that original amount.

So this is requiring a roll call.

Okay.

Member Sepe?

Yes, in favor of it.

Member Gluth?

I agree. It's $200, correct, but there's some other money also?

The remainder of our budget, which is $6,807.29. That's the budget we already had this year.

It's on page 17 of the BAC agenda.

Okay, so that has not been paid yet.

It's not been utilized yet. We're going to put it to use for trees.

Oh, okay. I got it.

Sorry.

Member Corey? I agree.

Yes.

Vice Chair Scherzinger?

Yes.

Member Myers?

Yes.

Chair Needles? Yes.

And then before we go off this topic, since we brought up the topic of banners and we have some city councilors in the room, if you drive down Collier, On the light posts, there are banners that are, I don't know, like, yay big.

That's about three feet, Rhonda, since you can't see it.

They hang from the light posts, and there were, how many, Joe, 50 of them? Yes. 50 banners are vinyl.

There was 80 originally.

How many years old, seven? Oh, they're old and falling apart, and not all of them were able to be put up. and they need to be replaced and I think we talked about that as maybe was it $2,500 I believe so that was the number it's been a while but I believe it was 2,500 and a member Sullivan was gonna work on some artwork so I just want to put a pitch in for we needed money for replacement of banners I'm gonna touch base on that a little bit because we need to be talking about a budget at the August meeting to submit the City Council is that too late

we don't have a meeting in july but is august too late for us to request money from city council we'll ask yes so we need to talk about that today well i've got it on that it's something to talk about okay i'll get to that later we'll do city council communication and public public comment uh... and then i'll get to it City Council communication?

first thank you for all you do i actually think this is a high functioning committee just as a perspective me personally if you're being productive you're being effective and you have a quality mission statement i would be going and booking the meetings i need to do to execute accordingly i think one of the things that all committees need to prove up they're just being productive centered right and they're executing it if you want to get things done you need to get them done then you need to I am not smart enough to speak to all of our sunshine procedures, but it could be an additional workshop, gives you a better way to talk. I keep hearing these committees frustrated with their ability to dialogue on things that are relevant. Push on that as best you can because I believe in the wisdom of the crowd. I really trust the judgment of the people in these committees trying to sort problems. And I personally wouldn't be as careful about listening to what the council tells me they want me to do. You people are birthing a lot of important concepts for the well-being of the community. As far as I'm concerned, push the conversation. Two other points that came up is fertilizer. I keep finding out scientifically how impaired I am. I've heard a number of residents say they don't use and don't need to use fertilizer. Now we have other people that have a powerful attachment to their fertilizer and the way that it makes their yard glow. It would be great if over time you can arrive at what are the minimum necessary requirements from a fertilizer standpoint To the extent it's possible to prove up that it's really not needed. That would be powerful messaging to the community So I thank you what you're doing. Good luck trying to sort it all out But I love what you're doing. And if you come up short on a thousand dollars on trees this year, I'll deliver for you Thank you

MS. Also, if you would – if you wanted to contact me and stop by my yard, I could tell you all about no fertilizer. I'd be happy to help you out.

MR. Let me address the fertilizer issue just briefly, because I think we have to look at reality here, and people that have three, five million, ten million dollar properties They don't want to go and just have a bunch of weeds or whatever the case. I know that they're Florida friendly. However, they have certain things they want to have as to how their house looks. And I think we have to be kind of cautious of that and recognize that and try to maybe minimize the fertilizer. and certainly certain times a year when it's not necessary. But the other times, you know, we have to recognize what people want. And we can't just dictate and say, you're not going to use fertilizer ever again type of thing.

When you see this white paper, it's not requiring it. It's allowing an option if people choose to use it.

No, I haven't said it. I'm just kind of waving a little flag here just in case.

Can I bring something up, though, too? I'm sure that a lot of people don't realize how much damage we're doing to our waterways. You know, they think of their property. They're not thinking about that this runs into the water and causes great damage. And as an island, Everything that we put on our property ends up in the water, everything. So if we want to promote wildlife and help the manatee with seagrass and everything that brought us to Marco Island originally, we really need to give this a hard look.

Thank you. Okay, public comment?

We have one registered speaker, Melanie Burns.

If somebody else wants to speak, that's fine, too. Come on up. Please identify yourself.

I'm Melanie Burns. I live at 1455 Leland Way. Okay. This morning we just had some lovely trees planted, and I appreciate that this committee is trying to make the trees and the area beautiful. Only problem is that I understand now, after listening to Ms. Myers, why we have two trees on our property because we have grass. But we are on the corner of Leland and Yarmouth. It is a very heavy trafficked area because of the vicinity to Winterbury Park and Mackle Park and the YMCA. They put two trees right at each corner of that intersection. These trees will be very large in 10 years. There is a stop sign there that is considered not really a stop sign. No people stop on bicycles, no cars, they just zoom around the corner. I see it every day. I see in 10 years these trees are going to be a nuisance for that area. If there is any way that you can take those two trees out and plant them a little bit further down would be appreciated. The other thing is that both trees that were planted is a Shady Lady, which is also a black olive tree, it sheds the leaves constantly, and it also has flowers. Being where we live, we also have the stormwater drains. I constantly make sure that that stormwater drain is constantly clear so we don't have flooding all the way down to Mackle Park. Garbage days, I make sure the garbage that flies around is picked up from there. we make sure we maintain that area now with this tree this thing is going to constantly shed so we are going to have leaves getting in to the storm water which we are trying to prevent for having the clean water act so i think possibly if these two trees can be moved to a different location even on the block since there are people that don't have them in front of them would be helpful I'm just looking at for 10 years down the line when, you know, these trees are very large. I mean, there is one across the street from Mackle Park and you can't see around it. So we're going to have people zooming around and not being able to see on either side. Like I said, it is a very trafficked area. Also, bicycles, people walking. These trees do make a mess. And we do try to keep that area very clean, all of us up and down the block, because we realize it's a shared use. There's bicyclers, there's walkers. We make sure there's no leaves. We make sure there's no grass. We make sure there's nothing down that block that anybody can get hurt with, because we have a lot of people that visit us, and we like it to look nice, as you say. So I'm just considering that when I came in, when I got home from lunch today and I seen those two trees, I was just like, that tree, I was just like, I can just see a nightmare coming down the line in 10 years from now. when they are big I hate to make a complaint of little stubby little trees but I'm trying to look to the future and I know that's what everybody here does too you know with their budgeting and their things like that but this is you know something that could happen those shady lady trees are also shallow root trees that will actually once they get bigger will start popping up the sidewalks and they can get into the sewer systems in that area So there will be issues later on that the roots will get into and break all the storage room things. I am a proponent, just like the other one, I do not water the lawn and I do not use fertilizer. We do have a Florida grass in that area and it does very fine. I mean, Ms. Myers, I know you're a proponent of that and that's what we have on our street. Go ahead. If you have any questions of me about it, I don't know what, you know what I mean.

Thank you very much. But I'd like to suggest here that since we haven't been, you've been out there to look at it, that we all go by there, see what the lady's issue is, and at our next meeting address whether they should be moved or not.

I have a question for her. Yes. Because I haven't seen the area yet either. Would you be interested in a tree if it was a non-shedding tree? Oh, yes.

That would be perfectly fine. I have no problem. I have no problem with the other tree that's on the other corner on our swale. The only thing, I wish they put it a foot away from the water line. But, you know, what can I do? It's right in front of it. You know how they have that little water thing in the front of the house? It's right exactly in front of it. and also down the block, theirs is that way too. If they would have put it a foot over, it would have made us feel a little bit more secure that these trees are not going to get into our sewage system or anything like that, because these trees are water-seeking trees with shallow roots.

I will say that water and sewer went out, and they decide where they go best so that that will not happen. The trees we work from are on approved lists worked out between the city, LCEC, the Naples Botanical Garden so that they are salt tolerant, wind tolerant, not invasive. All those things are looked at in advance. We generally do not plant just in rocks, and that whole stretch is barren of trees. And as you pointed out, a lot of people use it, pedestrians and bicyclists, and they would love that shade, I believe. Will they get bigger? Yes. In 10 years, I don't think they'll be big. But they'll get bigger. And when trees get bigger, they do get limbed up. I don't think it's going to be a traffic issue on that corner. It's a T, and you're right. There's a stop sign. And if people don't stop, I don't know why it's a T. They should be on Yarmouth. These are the trees you see along San Marco and along Bald Eagle. And they're well-loved trees. They're quite beautiful.

They are a beautiful tree. I love all trees, to tell you the truth. But they do shed. She's got a point there. And I haven't seen the location to look at it yet. I will look at it.

I did take pictures on my phone this morning, but when I seen the meeting was today, I didn't have time to print everything out for everybody.

So when you did like the Royal Poinsettia, they shed too, but they shed flowers.

That's what I meant, yeah. And that one is not going to be as bushy. Like, yes, they do get that.

The oil will be much bigger than cherry ladies.

Well, bigger, the canopy size, but the amount of leaves won't be as much. So you'll be able to see through it making turns on that road. Excuse me.

I think we've covered this pretty well, and we need to move on. Okay, no problem. We will go. I suggest everybody to go look at that site and see what your opinions are, and at the next meeting we will discuss it further, okay? Jose, if you can make sure that that gets on the agenda for the next. I will. Thank you. Okay. Okay, I have a couple things that I wanted to touch base with before we go into a proposed the next meeting. The banners and annual budget and anything else that we're going to be looking at, and it was brought up earlier about the possibility of just having a workshop. There could be a budget workshop for our committee. and maybe we could do that late july sometime if is anybody not going to be here in the in late july can i ask first when the city council meets to discuss that portion of the budget we have three counselors here and one's working diligently yeah

Mid-July, I think.

Hi, Deb Henry, City Council. Our operating budget workshop is July 21st, and capital budget is – sorry, wrong year. Operating budget is July 20th of this year. Capital budget is June 15th.

How far in advance would we need it so you have it for the 20th, you think?

Can I suggest – I would suggest trying to meet in July. Can you send something out to everybody Well, in here, is there anybody that's going to be here in mid-July or not going to be here in mid-July?

I don't get back until the 15th, but you could meet without me.

You're going to be back at the 15th, so I don't even have a calendar here.

But if you need to meet without me, I can type up my ideas and send them in to you.

I'd like to, if at all possible, have everybody here because it's kind of difficult when it's not as effective when they're doing it online.

It's a Wednesday. Then I get back at, like, midnight, so I can't meet on that day. So you would want to do the 16th or after.

Let's just poll who's here. Who could do the 16th?

Yeah, who can do the 16th?

So this is a special meeting? I'm confused. It would be a workshop. Workshop. Budget.

Budget. FOR THE BUDGET.

YEAH, I KNOW IT'S FOR THE BUDGET. BUT ARE WE MEETING WITH CITY COUNCIL PEOPLE OR ARE WE JUST MEETING AMONG OURSELVES?

AMONGST OURSELVES. Okay. What we want to do and how much we're going to need.

And then as a result of that, then you would take that information to the city council budget workshop on the 20th. Yeah.

We got Joe.

Okay. Sorry. I can be there.

Hold on, please. Yep. I just talked to Martin, and he was asking if we could do this by email just to clean this up. So send me dates, and I'll get dates from Martin, and then I'll send them out.

Okay. We'd like to target the 16th if possible.

Okay. Okay.

16th or 17th? Well, 17th is Friday. Yeah. Let's send out the 16th and 17th. Let's offer 16th and 17th in an email, I guess.

Yeah, 16th or 17th, either way. Just send it an email. I've got one last item that we will be talking about, but I just want to bring it up to attention. I think I lost it in here someplace. I've got information back on the additional lights for the holiday season. To do the additional 40, we can do 40. We need 80 lights or 80 poles decorated by doing every other one from the Jolly Bridge to the Savage Bridge.

How many more?

We need a total of 80. We have 40. So an additional $40, and I got this from the person that gave the other ones to him, because he had bought a company and they had them. So he donated to Christmas Island Style, which they in turn donated to us. So an additional one, the wholesale price is $84, and he's going to discount us 25%. So it comes to about $65 each. It takes three units per pole. So now we're looking at three times 65 and then 40 poles. Comes to $7,800. And then shipping would be in the vicinity of $1,500, so a total of $9,300, so somewhere between $9,000 and $9,500 to get, so we'll be able to decorate all the way. So just so you're aware of that, so if you have any other input you want to make that when we do our workshop, then we can talk about that too.

Would there possibly be any buy-in from the business district where this is covering?

We don't know. We don't know that. I had a schedule to meet with the Chamber of Commerce, Diana, and also Christmas Island style people to maybe talk a little bit about that sort of thing so maybe they could help us fine contributions I didn't I just got these this three days ago so now I have all that information and we can move forward on that to see if we can do that or to ask this to be part of our budget and it'd be nice to know what we expect the useful life of these to be

How long do we expect these to be good for, useful life, before we have to replace now twice as many every three years? I didn't ask him that.

I was too anxious to get this. The guy that owns the company, he has a place on Marco Island. So he's willing to basically not get any money for it.

And then, Mike, you had found a guy right off the island who's willing to store all of our original. Would he be able to store all this new stuff too? Okay.

Yeah, I had to ask Mike on that. And also I talked to the person that installed them, and he said, I asked him if he would do it, I told him what we were looking to do, add 40 more, and he said the cost would be just, if you got 40 and they're doing another 40, it would just be twice the price. He's only going to charge per unit.

I forget what the...

It was $2,100 or something like that.

$3,500.

I thought it was $2,500. Okay. Whatever it is, he said per unit, the price would stay the same. And the next meeting is scheduled for August. However, we're going to find out if we can have a workshop in July. And that workshop would be for budgetary reasons only. Everybody good with that? Okay. Do we need to have something to say that we want to have that or to officially make a motion to have the budget work shot?

Marv, real quick, just to give you an update, it was $27.50 from Ridge Valley for the lot.

It was $27.50? Yes. Okay. So it would be $55.

That's really wonderful that Ridge Valley is willing to continue to install them at cost. That saves us so much money.

Okay. Anybody want to add anything else before we adjourn?

I would just like to briefly talk that I did meet with Beach Advisory finally and talked a little bit to Joe about it too. So we're working together, waiting to hear from them to see what their next few steps are. And I have other information here, but I can possibly ask to be on the agenda in August, I guess, at this point. We should know a little more by then. There's still time now if you have it, if you want to... It's just notes from what Dustin and I met on, so I need to wait to... I will tell him that I just reported on that here, and I will need to wait to hear from him as to what they... where they are. And as Joe and I spoke, they're in the works. So we don't really have dates yet when we will need particulars from them and provide to them. But we'll be finding out.

Excuse me. I think at the budget workshop, we could also throw out anything that pops up there that we want to put on the agenda for the August meeting also. If you have anything else you'd like to have for the August meeting, I'd like Jose be. And before I end it, I want to say thank you for Jose for contributing. Jose is leaving us. He is moving to be closer to family, correct?

Oh, my. Good for you. Thank you.

We wish you good luck, and we will miss you. You were just kind of getting there. Getting it put together. Yeah, I know.

You know who the replacement person will be? Yeah, Jim.

Yes. Yes. Ara. Ara.

Ara. Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anybody have anything else? Yes. Meeting adjourned.