Town Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good morning, everyone. We're going to call the meeting to order. Today is Monday, August 24th, 2026. It is 9.01 a.m. All council members are present, including town manager, deputy town manager, town clerk, and town attorney. If you'll please rise for the invocation, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

As we begin today's meeting, let us take a moment to appreciate the privilege of living in this beautiful community we call home and the opportunity to serve it. May we remember the joy and beauty that surround us each day, and may our decisions reflect a genuine commitment to the people we serve. Give us patience when challenges arise, resilience when the path is difficult, and wisdom to move forward with purpose and care. Amen.

Amen.

And justice for all.

Next is the approval of the final agenda. The only thing is we have Joy Sullivan from BORCAB is here to give an update for the BORCAB committee. Is there any other changes to the final agenda?

Move to approve is amended.

Motion by Councilor King. Second. Seconded by Councilor McLean. Any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimously. Next is public comment. Amy?

First up, I have Marianne Shealy. And following Marianne will be Lori Webster.

Hi, I'm Marian Shealy. I'm on the town audit committee for the past three years and recently there's been a lot of social media posts about the audit committee not meeting, being the reason for the town's financial problems. Why haven't we met? I get an email every month saying we're canceled. And this month, about two weeks ago, I got asked for dates. I live full-time on the island. I said I'm available, and we still don't have a meeting date set. So just wondering.

Well, Marianne, have you meet with the staff after public comment, and I'm sure they can get you the answers. Okay.

It's just I really don't like being called out on social media for something that's out of my control. I'm a local business leader. I'm the business owner, retired local business owner. And, you know, we are volunteers. We want to meet. We want to help the town. And I know there's been some staff changes, but, you know, we're ready and willing to help. So I'd like to.

Thank you, Marianne.

Lori Webster, and that's all I have signed up.

Good morning, my name is Lori Webster and I live on Curlew Street. I hope you enjoyed your month off from meetings and came back rested because there's much work to be done. Unfortunately, the town finds itself with mud on its face and that's not acceptable. The town is in a bind because as most of us can sympathize with, we find ourselves at the mercy of our champagne budget. our champagne taste with our beer budget. In the midst of known shortfalls, we are both looking at tax increases and unprecedented hiring. It doesn't make financial sense. At the same time, while doing budget reviews, anomalies were discovered and the people potentially responsible were placed on a two-week paid administrative leave. We were told yesterday during the Beach Talk radio show by our town manager that the third party, sorry, that the third party auditor's work could take four weeks, and we are just getting started. While I understand, as explained by the town manager, that it takes time to investigate internally, vet vendors, and negotiate parameters, the timing still seems off to me. In my simple little brain, that should have been done while the internal investigation, audit, whatever term you want to give it, was happening. Hiring an outside firm to run the forensic audit should have been step one. It was not. Now we find ourselves two weeks out. That means that while we are struggling to balance a budget, we are paying two employees to take a six week plus vacation. That is not acceptable. I asked the town manager if there was a cap on that and was told at this time there is not. It is not reasonable to continue paying their salaries at a time when needed and promised projects are being shelved for lack of funds. That is not acceptable. We haven't even addressed the elephant in the corner, which is the fact that if the audit confirms there were corners cut, steps skipped, or funds misappropriated, the town is now on the hook to pay those funds back. The processes, which, while cumbersome, are very well outlined, were not met. This puts the town under even more financial burden. Say it with me, this is not acceptable. While I understand that HR matters are a slippery slope and hard for our town manager to address publicly, you cannot deny that more transparency is necessary, especially while we are facing down a potential millage rate increase. I just want to urge you to take steps to cap the paid leave. We cannot keep paying them to stay home while we are bleeding money from every poor because that is not acceptable.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lori.

That is all I have signed up.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak in public comment? All right. Seeing none, we'll close public comment. Next is the local achievements and recognitions. We'll do the councilors first, and then we'll go to the Citizen of Distinction Award, if that's all right. Councilor King? Okay.

Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor Safford and I had the pleasure to attend the 26th annual Elaine McLaughlin Outstanding Hospitality Service Awards put on by the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau. Six town employees were nominated for the awards. There are Aaron Adkins, Sandra Breitez, Skylar Henry, Lisa Hollywood, Seth Jacobs, and Barbara McDonald. Erin Adkins was also an honorable mention winner in the other services slash business category. And I just want to say congratulations to all these employees and thanks for all they do. Also on Friday, I had the pleasure of attending the Fort Myers Beach Pier groundbreaking. I thought it was a great event. I need to especially recognize Cindy and Alan Chinoski for all they contributed to make this project what it is. Cindy, Alan, and their dog, Brody, have visited so many piers and helped shape this newer, longer, wider, and more resilient pier. They did this on their own dime because they love this community and that pier, and thank you for that.

Thanks, Mayor Stafford.

I'd like to echo both those sentiments. It was fantastic, the E Awards. I am so proud of our town. Out of all the towns, cities, and municipalities in Lee County, we had the most nominations, and that says a lot for our service. It's a great reflection on you, Will. I mean, great. It was an honor to be there and to represent Fort Myers Beach. I'd also like to thank the Chinovskys, and as well the peer committee. It started as Let's Go FMB, and the peer committee just took off and ran with it. And if you can see what unity can do, working together, and Alan and his wife are for sure the MVPs, but that entire committee, they kept pushing. They did surveys. They found out the pier was really important. Council was busy. Council gave us the blessing to move forward and make the community better. And we also had to try to figure out how to pay for it. And Alan, he's like a dog with a bone, man. He was fantastic. So kudos. I can't wait for the ribbon cutting. And let's move forward together.

I WANT TO ECHO THE SAME THING. ALLEN AND CINDY, WE MET EARLY ON IN THE LET'S GO FMB AND MOST OF THE PEOPLE ON THIS COUNCIL WERE A PART OF THAT ORGANIZATION WHEN IT FIRST STARTED. BUT NOT ONLY DID THEY SPEND A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF TIME, THEY DROVE ALL OVER THE STATE. They looked at peers. They took notes. They made presentations. This wasn't just a committee that you work on for a few hours. This was a lot of time, a lot of gasoline, and they also spent a lot of their own money. So I want to thank them as well. Thank you.

I really don't have much to add to what everybody said. It was amongst many of us part of the Let's Go FMB and to see Alan and Cindy really take off on the pier was just something to behold up and down the entire eastern seaboard. So I just want to echo everybody's comments and say that That type of citizen response immediately following the storm was something to behold. And it's something that we need to embrace because that's the best of this community. Thank you.

Yeah, I can't say anything more other than I think it's a perfect example of what can be accomplished when everybody works together as opposed to against each other. It's easy to take negative things and run with it, and sometimes good things get lost in translation because of the one negative thing or two negative things. JUST KEEP FOCUSED ON WHAT MAKES FORT MYERS BEACH FORT MYERS BEACH. AND ALLEN, I APOLOGIZE, I DIDN'T BRING YOUR NAME UP PERSONALLY AT THE GROUNDBREAKING I MEANT TO DO THAT, BUT AS I ALWAYS DO, I DON'T WRITE ANYTHING DOWN, SO SOMETIMES IT SLIPS MY MIND OF WHAT I'M SUPPOSED TO SAY, BUT I APPRECIATE ALL THE WORK THAT YOU AND THE ENTIRE COMMITTEE, YOU'RE RIGHT, SCOTT, THE ENTIRE COMMITTEE HAD A LOT TO DO WITH IT. HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THAT WORK, I DON'T KNOW THAT WE'D BE WHERE WE'RE AT WITH UP HERE. YES, IT'S TAKEN FOUR YEARS, BUT IN A YEAR FROM NOW, IT'LL SEEM LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY. Can't wait for that ribbon cutting. Next, we have the 2026 Citizen of Distinction Award. We have four people. So we have one ballot here, but there's two categories. So are we just writing down one person for each one and right next to it? Or how do you want it?

One has three. You could vote on that one and just nominate the other one that's individual if you'd like. So these are parts.

Got it. Got it. Okay. So I see what you're saying. For those that don't know the names, there's Christine Beggy. She's the president and CEO of Wonderful Creation 777 Inc. And we have Rosemary Bishton. Those who don't know, she's the lady that does the flowers on the north end of the island that is in that camper. Obviously, their building is completely gone. Don Miller, the founder and president of What's Up FMB. I think everybody knows who she is. And Joy and Kevin Sullivan, I think everyone knows who they are as well. THERE ARE THREE NOMINEES FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE AND ONE FOR THE BEACH HERITAGE. SO WE WILL SELECT TWO, ONE OF THE TOP THREE, AND THEN OBVIOUSLY JOY IS THE ONLY ONE.

JOY HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR THE HERITAGE AWARD.

Thank you all for your work. It's nice to have citizens. Again, it goes back to what I said just a few minutes ago when people step up to work together with their community, what things can come out of it. Who wants to click?

And, Mayor, we'll have a formal awards presentation at a later meeting. Correct. Closer in the fall when there's more people here. Okay.

Ready?

Yep.

Go ahead. Uh, council member McLean. Uh, this is for the, um, arts and culture. Yeah. Arts and culture. Uh, council member McLean chose Don Miller. Council member King, Don Miller. Vice Mayor Safford, Don Miller. Mayor Allers, Don Miller. And Council Member Link, Don Miller. So with five votes to Don Miller. Is that how everybody voted? I'm sorry. Councilor McLean? Yes.

Yes. Scott? Yes. John? Did it. Congratulations, Don. I don't see or hear. Motion. Is there a motion to approve the results as read by the town clerk?

I would like to make that motion, Mayor. I appointed or sent the letter in for Don, and so I'm happy to do that.

Okay, we've got a motion by Councillor Link. I'll second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimously. And do we need to go through the formal process for Joy? Go ahead.

Yeah, you can announce what award it is, who was nominated, and take a motion and a vote, please.

Okay, so you don't want to have, Nancy, do you want to go through this, even though there's just for the record?

We only have one nominee, so I think it's okay. I think verbally, if you just affirm that you agree that the individual should be honored, that should be sufficient. And then a motion. Okay.

I'd like to nominate Kevin and Joy Sullivan for the Heritage Award.

Okay. Second. Got a motion and a recommendation from Councillor McLean and seconded by Councillor Link. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimously. Congratulations, Joy. You want to say anything?

And would you also like to choose a Grand Marshal or choose that at a later date?

Oh, can they both be Grand Marshals? Why do we have to pick just one? What's one extra Corvette?

I think we certainly could have both, absolutely.

I would say have them both. The parade's going to be even bigger next year.

Yeah. Okay.

Who doesn't like Corvettes?

I'm thankful and honored to receive this award, and I'm sure my husband is going to be thrilled because he actually is the guy that does 40 hours a week. FOR THE SOUTH END OF THE ISLAND. SO THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I'M SURPRISED AND HAPPY ABOUT IT. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, JOY. NEXT IS THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE'S ITEMS, REPORTS, AND APPOINTMENTS. WE HAVE A BORCAB, BUT WE'LL DO THE AUDIT COMMITTEE. Jim Dunlap is on the LPA. He's also asking to serve on the audit committee and needs a waiver to do so. Is there a motion to grant the waiver for Mr. Dunlap?

So moved.

Second. We've got a motion by Vice Mayor Safford, seconded by Councilor King. Jim, you want to say anything before we? Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimously. Thank you for stepping up. Next we have a presentation from Joey Sullivan for BORCAB.

Good morning again. I guess you know my name is Joyce Sullivan.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you as a representative of the Bay Oaks Recreational Campus Advisory Board, BOARCAP. I was appointed in February 2023 and have served with several residents that gave of their time to Bay Oaks. I would like to formally recognize Betty Simpson, Barbara Hill, Bruce Butcher, Becky Guidry, Jeff Field, and Ed Schoonover for their previous service. The current members include Michelle Cherney, John Duslier, Rick Lowry, Beverly Milligan, Tina Yell, and Annie Neve, as long as myself. And we really appreciate the honor of serving on the Bay Oaks board. In our last board cab meeting, we formally adopted the following recommendations and request council support. First of all, we have input regarding the current pool design, which I know is coming up on the agenda later. We recommend that the town council approve changing the pool depth from 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet. While this seems to be a small change, it may impact lifeguard certification requirements, staffing, training, and ongoing operational costs. We also request an evaluation of waterfall safety, which you'll hear about in a few minutes. We are concerned that lifeguard sight lines and pool supervision may be impacted by the current waterfall design. which may require additional staffing. In addition, we recommend that town council request that the engineering firm conduct at least one community event to obtain public input. At 30% completion, the community should be able to provide input that may affect final design. Our final recommendation regards proposed additional pickleball courts at Bay Oaks. We recommend that town council begin the process for drainage work, bidding, site selection, and acceptance of donations from the Friends of Bay Oaks for the installation of four new pickleball courts. We do not know how the current investigation impacts the above recommendations or Bay Oaks in general. However, these recommendations reflect our view that they will improve fiscal responsibility, operational practicality, and community engagement and will help ensure that Bay Oaks is a safe, sustainable community-centered facility while also leveraging private investment. Thank you for your support and your time today.

Don't run off, Joey, in case there's any questions. Sorry. Don't run off yet, Joey. Council King, any questions for Joey?

No.

Vice Mayor Safford?

No, but thank you. I read John's email. It was very detailed, and that input's going to be great for us going forward. So thank you for all your hard work.

Councilor Link?

Yes, I want to thank you as well as the whole committee. This is a perfect example of what an advisory committee is there to do. You've spent hours, your team. analyzing, thinking about things we don't have the time to think about. So a perfect representation of an advisory committee. Thank you to all of you.

Thank you.

YEAH, NO, I AGREE. I THINK THAT THE EXPERIENCE AND PASSION THAT THE COMMITTEE SHOWS COMES THROUGH. AND, EXCUSE ME, I'VE HAD THE PLEASURE OF SPEAKING WITH JOHN QUITE LENGTHILY ABOUT HIS THOUGHTS AROUND THE POOL, AND I HOPE THAT WE TAKE ALL OF YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS UNDER ADVISEMENT. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, JOY. GREAT SUGGESTIONS. I'M SURE WE'LL ADDRESS THEM AT SOME POINT IN TODAY'S MEETING, EITHER WITH THE TOWN MANAGER OR WITH THE PRESENTATION.

All right, next we have presentation.

First is the Newton Park Beach Facility Reconstruction. Good morning, Elizabeth.

Good morning, council. Again, for the record, Elizabeth Fountain with J.R. Evans Engineering. And we have the pleasure today to provide a status update on the work that we've been doing for the Newton Park Beach Facility Reconstruction Project. So we are very excited to be working on this project. We know it means a lot to the council and to everybody who lives and visits within the town of Fort Myers Beach. Just to go over our understanding of the goals for this project, it is really to restore and enhance a critical, vital public facility that was once used quite a bit and enjoyed by everybody. It's really to incorporate a resilient design informed by recent storm events. It requires a balance of recreation, environmental stewardship, and public access. And ultimately, we wanted to create a public place that prioritized sustainable design and environmental consideration as well as community engagement. We want this place to be an opportunity for educational venues to occur, meeting places, events, things like that. A few of the key criteria for this project, we need to consider the prior conceptual plan that was realized during the R2P2 process after Hurricane Ian. There were some priorities that were identified from public comment that we need to consider for the ultimate plan. The project is supported by a CDBGRDR program, so it's grant funded and there's requirements the project execution and documentation has to meet. And all work must be in compliance with federal, state and local requirements. Work completed to date. So we've been having recurring meetings with town staff, including town manager and deputy town manager, providing updates as we move along. All the sub-consultants have been engaged and actively working to complete their required tasks. The environmental assessments and subsequent environmental report has been completed. No issues have been identified. The final boundary and topographic survey have been done and delivered to the town staff. We have also obtained all the utility records and other applicable data to support the design for utilities servicing the park. Our master site plan has been conceptualized and put together with the major placeholders, and I'll have that for you in just a minute. We've also completed the design of the wave mitigation enhancement to the existing retaining wall that's in place, and we've submitted that conditional letter of map revision to FEMA. So just to tie into that resiliency component, there is an existing wall out there that separates the active beach from Newton Park. We were able to verify that that existing wall is a structurally sound system already and can withstand to have a structural cap added to it in order to effectuate that wave attenuation and lower that wave energy down to get to a lower risk flood zone for the property. So that, like I mentioned, the plumber package has already been submitted to FEMA and to the town. There is an assigned case number for it. And right now we're just waiting on FEMA's review and process.

Elizabeth, how long do you expect, it won't hold you to a date, but roughly how long do these take in situations like this for FEMA to review?

I would estimate six months to get through the process. And that's why we wanted to start it early, as soon as we could, just so that we can get that determination and be able to move forward.

So once that approval comes back from FEMA, then that allows you to move forward with actually the building and construction of the site?

Yes, we would have to get the construction permit through the town, of course, as well as make sure that we have our DEP permit for the overall construction of the site, which would include the wall. But having that clomer will give us a green light to move forward.

And are we doing that concurrently, like applying for permits, the DEP permit? Are we doing all that at the time as FEMA's required, or are we waiting until FEMA gives you approval?

No, we're going to do it all concurrently. OK. Yes. Here is a visual of our current master site plan. And with me today, I failed to mention, I have Kristen Petrie with Pergola. And she is our landscape architect for the project and the creative mind that collaborated with the team and with the town to put together this concept plan. We feel like it's a very intentional, meaningful plan. that highlights and provides opportunity for, as I mentioned, those educational opportunities, really plays attention to providing a true native coastal habitat and vegetation palette. On the left is where the Strandview corridor is located. So this plan maintains the current access on Estero Boulevard, which is on the top part of the screen. So we don't have to make any changes to where that current access is. we're able to bring that access into a parking field that's really pretty much split between the Strandview corridor and half of the parking that's in the Newton Park actual property boundary. It provides 27 parking spaces with two ADA accessible spaces located closest to THE BEACH AND AT THAT POINT THERE WILL ALSO BE AN ADA ACCESSIBLE BEACH ACCESS BOARDWALK TO PROVIDE SAFE ACCESS TO THE BEACH FROM THE PARKING LOT AND THE ADJOINING SIDEWALK.

SO ELIZABETH, JUST FOR CLARITY, IF YOU'RE LOOKING AT THIS PICTURE FOR PEOPLE AT HOME, STRAND VIEW IS ON THE LEFT WHERE THE PARKING IS, CORRECT?

YES, SIR.

SO THE PARKING THAT'S THERE CURRENTLY, THE PARK IS GOING TO SHIFT UP AND THE PARKING IS GOING TO MOVE OVER TO THAT SIDE, CORRECT? YES.

The plan also locates the proposed restroom building close to Estero Boulevard, also close to the parking, and I'll highlight that structure further in the presentation. And then there's an open-air pavilion that's pretty much centralized within the park. It has been designed to hold at least 100 people, so it's a fairly significant size shade pavilion. Next slide, I'll go through some key elements that I've already mentioned. All the pathways will be ADA accessible. I did mention the beach access walkover. There's also two cheeky shade structures. They will be true cheeky structures located closer to the beach. The restroom building will provide three single occupancy rooms. So a family room, a woman's and a male, a men's, and then also provide some enclosed areas for electrical systems that are serving the building and a janitorial area.

Elizabeth, may I ask a question? Elizabeth, is there any storage room in that building currently planned? One of the things that I'm thinking about is we have residents who will request Oh, what is it called? We have buggies for people who have trouble getting to the beach. So there are chairs, I think, with the big balloon tires. I'm thinking of some of the other ADA equipment that the town owns. I'm wondering if there is a storage place there. It might be a great opportunity to have them request them. We can give them to them. They return them there. Just a thought. Yes, I think we could accommodate maybe a separate storage structure.

Yes, closer to the beach access would probably be ideal. Thank you. Thank you for that input. As I mentioned, it is designed, the vegetation palette is completely native, coastal native, taken right from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's recommended plant species for this area of southwest Florida. The pathways we have recommended, we coordinated with town staff. We knew that they didn't want asphalt. They didn't want necessarily typical concrete. So we suggested that we use a concrete with shell aggregate. They wanted to have something that looked a little bit more natural, but still ADA compliant. We believe this is the best of both worlds. It's low maintenance. It won't be as hot as asphalt, and then it still looks more natural with the shell. And you can do all kinds of different shell mixtures based on the town's preference. The site plan does provide a small, not small, it's a pretty large gathering space that's in the, basically the close to Estero Boulevard towards the southeast corner of the park. The alternative I propose to town staff, and I think they're looking into it internally, is maybe provide some sort of activity feature or area for your younger visitors and families to enjoy. One such idea would be like a dry estuary where you don't have to deal with the burning water, you just deal with the sand, but it gives them an activity place with maybe some DUNE FORMATIONS TO CLIMB ON AND MAYBE A SMALL SLIDE, JUST AN IDEA THAT'S BEING CONSIDERED. RIGHT NOW THIS IS THE CURRENT DRAFT ARCHITECTURAL PLAN, YOU KNOW, ELEVATION VIEW AND FLOOR PLAN FOR THE RESTROOM BUILDING CONCEPT. It will be, the structure itself will be elevated a couple feet above grade. That's why you see the steps and the ramp. But it will be supported on a foundation that is designed according to the Florida building code and will account for any minor wave action that still may occur on the site. But having it elevated a couple feet lessens the amount of dry flood proofing that we need to do for the doors and any openings. Open air pavilion concept, a little over 1,000 square feet of open air space, capacity for 100 people. The roof and material and things like that still need to be fine-tuned, but this is currently out of the concept.

I was going to ask, versus the industrial type look, was there a reason why you didn't go with the Cheeky Hut type?

look like you have with the other two cheeky huts would it make more sense aesthetically to just continue that theme versus you know this industrial type look well i think um and this is up for refinement i think what we were also going for was paying homage to the previous seven seas cottage that was there and that tried to bring back that type of um style at least maybe from color standpoint. So items are still being refined. We are finalizing our surface water management layout. So some of those green spaces that you saw in the site plan, they may become like small detention areas or areas for us to retain stormwater runoff and route it through the park so that it gets the required treatment for water quality aspects prior to discharging into the town's system on Estero Boulevard.

Elizabeth, is there any plans to have, you know, water filling stations or like we have at Bayside Park? People love to have those, especially if they're walking or biking. If they're bringing their dogs, they could stop and refill their water bottles.

Yes, I failed to mention that we are locating a centralized area close to the restroom for a drinking fountain, a dog water fountain, and a foot wash. Foot wash. Yes. Those are elements still being refined as well as exterior lighting through the park and in the parking lot. Obviously, we'll need to provide wayfinding signage and then look at opportunities for signage to highlight the historic aspects of the park site so that we don't lose that component and then highlight species of plants that are being planted throughout the park. I mentioned that we're coordinating on potential use of that gathering space or a portion of it for maybe an activity area. Working with town staff on the needs for security and low voltage electrical service and then fine tuning those materials and then permit coordination as we get close to submittals. So the next steps would be advancing the design drawings, continuing our coordination with FEMA during their review of the conditional letter of map revision, preparing the permit applications for the entire site development, which would include a town development order, for Department of Environmental Protection CCCL construction permit and a water management permit as well. Those target submittals are planned to happen in October. We'll continue to provide continuous updates to staff. We still have those recurring meetings, which are very helpful. And once we go through the permit process, we'll be able to finalize the actual construction documents and specifications, get those quantities, understand what the costs are, and then start talking about the bidding process for a contractor. Ideally, we would love to be... you know, going through that bidding process like June of next year at the latest. The target date for completion is January 2nd, 2028.

Elizabeth, when you spoke about the security, is that whether or not the restrooms lock in at dusk or something like that, or what sort of considerations?

Yes, so like we're having cameras, which I think the town has indicated they would like to have. stuff like you know lighting if do they want like you know security lights that might come on on the pavilion or restroom not necessarily that are on all the time but just when activated okay thank you and so i'm we're here today to address any questions or obtain feedback from council mclean any other questions

Not really questions, I think feedback. I understand the historic nature of the building, but that doesn't remind me so much of what was there existing. I kind of echoed the mayor's comments about more of a natural roof line or something that is... I see the environmental vision... I think we can pay homage to the building that was there through signage and education material, but that's a personal opinion.

Okay. Elizabeth, something that I would ask that you consider as well as the town staff that is involved. I had a resident reach out to me a while back with absolutely wonderful ideas. There is a community of tourists who go to different places based on their availability of events for autistic children actually there's a there's a whole range of people and once you show the world that you are one of those places they flood to you in the summer time when they're on vacation because they know that we are thinking about their children they have some special needs she has given me wonderful examples of educational and tutorial things at parks, they are so low cost, but a huge advantage to someone who may be on the spectrum and they learn differently. So it doesn't exclude other children using it, but it does speak to some children's unique. And so I would like to perhaps put you in contact or our staff who are working on it. We may be able to kill two birds with one stone and also be seen as one of these sites where we have these types of activities to draw vacationers in the summertime. Thank you.

Great idea. As a daughter that is on the spectrum, I certainly would appreciate that.

Scott? Thank you, Elizabeth. You've answered all my questions. Good work. Thank you.

Just to briefly, I think I heard you touch on it, and it's probably not fair for you to have to answer all of it, so maybe the town manager can weigh in. But I know in the past when that property was acquired, the state helped with that, and there are certain things that we need to meet, and I want to make sure that those are being met.

Yes, that's why we review any ideas with the town manager and staff as we understand that there are some conditions that need to be adhered to.

Absolutely. Yeah, we review periodically with Elizabeth's team and, of course, with the state requirements and the CDBGDR requirements with Lee County, as Elizabeth mentioned.

Thank you.

Thank you, Elizabeth. I guess the other thing I would suggest going off of what Joy was talking about earlier is is it possible to have a town hall, if you will, not that people are getting to see really for the first time. I mean, there was the discussions through the R2P2, right? But now you're actually seeing a conceptual idea. It would be nice to have some input from the community to see if there's anything else that could enhance this. I think it would be well received from people that would like to have some input on it.

Okay. We will work with staff to organize that.

We will do that. That's all I got. Thank you, Elizabeth.

Thank you, everybody.

Looks like we have public comment on the agenda.

Give me a second, John. What's in your coffee?

I wanted to give you a chance to get your glasses on.

Thank you. Public comment. Would anybody like to have any public comment on the presentation you just saw? Seeing none, we'll close public comment. Next is the public community pool, the Bay Oaks pool presentation. Welcome back. Good to see you again.

Hello, everyone.

Hi, good morning. My name is Paris Tobias with Opulent Outlines.

And I'm Jason with Opulent Outlines. And we're excited to share with you guys an update and presentation we've prepared, video, some slides, and the initial engineering layout for the project that we've started. You got to move over a little closer. We're ready to present a video, some slides, and the initial engineering layout for the project, and then happy to field any questions and concerns. But I think we'd like to start it off and hopefully let the video speak a lot for itself and give everybody an idea of where we're going so far with it, and happy to hear anyone out on questions or recommendations. So with that, I don't know if we can see anything.

Eric's going to queue it up here.

So that was the presentation we were going to go through afterwards, but we actually have a video of kind of a tour through the entire project, if maybe we could bring that up instead. Bear with us through one more video. I think the video, not the slides.

SAME ONE. HOLD, PLEASE. SO, JASON, WHILE WE'RE WAITING, I GUESS IF WE CAN MAYBE JUST ADDRESS A QUESTION OR TWO THAT JOY HAD FROM BOAR CAP, SPECIFICALLY MAYBE WITH THAT FIVE FOOT THREE INCHES TO FIVE FOOT

Yeah, so the five foot is going to be no issue whatsoever to adjust that and bring that up to five foot, four foot, 11, whatever is going to help with the lifeguard requirements or safety requirements. We can easily do that. It's actually really a recommendation of ours anyway because it's just going to make more of the pool navigable, usable, where people aren't treading water, and you'll find that it's going to spread out the amount of people that you have there. People usually shy away from the deep end or anywhere that they can't really stand up, so it's just going to even out the crowd when you have it out there also. Okay.

Yeah.

And then in regards to the waterfall blocking any visual perimeter or safety perimeter, the commercial requirement, we are allowed up to a certain percentage to block the perimeter. And thankfully in this particular pool, which, you know, I was strategic in that, was to pick it because it had a huge perimeter on it. And so I had some room that I was going to be able to block and still meet that. the code requirement for that. So I'm well within that allotment and don't see it really being an issue. I think some strategic placement, if lifeguards are gonna be a thing for you guys and on duty, that it would still accommodate without having to increase the staff.

Yeah, it's a great feature. Yeah. Hate to see, hate to lose it, but if it's gonna add cost, then you obviously have to have that conversation. Absolutely, absolutely.

I think in addition to the staffing costs, we've heard about the operating costs, the increase in water, electricity. I shouldn't say water, but electricity bills, pumps, things that can break down. I don't know if you have that priced out separately that we can weigh that as an idea separately.

Absolutely. When we look at it, I really am working within that original footprint, so the hydraulics of both what we're demanding for the kiddie pool and the pool aren't necessarily changing a dramatic amount because we are going to be running the same pool. We're going to be running it with a few more returns given the extended pool with the sun shelf. We're also going to be running the same slides, so that's going to draw the same water, require the same power that it was before. And what we're adding to it is a couple waterfalls, which are going to be not necessarily high-flow waterfalls. After speaking with engineering over the last week, and we dialed this thing in a little bit more, we think about function, we think about the experience that you guys are going to have out there. And to drop sheets of water from 8 to 10 feet is going to be incredibly noisy. Also, doing so by dropping the water into shallow areas of water is going to wear the finish much quicker and create maintenance for you guys. And we're going to be a bit strategic and hide some rain descents, which are going to give, it's a perforated housing that shoots out rain. It's going to be much more gentle, but it's going to give that cooling effect. Not nearly moving as much water whatsoever, so very little power to actually move stuff like that. And the big waterfall on the one side of the main pool, same thing. We'll build in all those housings to have rain descents coming out of there so it's not this big. ginormous waterfall coming down that's disruptive to people where you're having to yell at people because you're having a hard time sitting in the chair, you can still read a book and enjoy the area and space.

Perfect. And then one last thing is a question perhaps for Will. Will the grant, the CDBGDR grant, allow us to add these extra features that were not there and be a I should say an eligible expense. I think that is something we need to be very careful of.

Do you know if that is an eligible expense? So far, we're staying within the boundaries of the CDBGR. Nothing that dramatically increases the scope or size or usage of the event of the location, which we're still within that. But we'll continue to go through as they present their design, 30% and then 60%. Those are provided to Lee County. who reviews them as well to make sure that we're staying within the parameters of that grant. The eligible expenses. Yes.

Perfect. Thank you. That's my number one concern.

Thanks. And if I can comment too, there is quite a bit of strategy involved with both the ROC work being aesthetically pleasing and functional. The rock work is replacing an incredibly expensive stairway and structure leading up, which is completely unsightly to look at in the overall project. So the rock work itself is structural, functional, and meaningful. It's purposeful. It's there to create stairways. It's there to create the structure for the slides. It's there to create the structure for the landing for the slides. So it does really affect the multiple variables. And then when you look at it from a longevity standpoint, you guys truly are building something look at the condition that the slide is in now even without the storm it was in dire straight it was rough it's steel it's going to weather this real stone is not going to weather it's always going to be there and we may make we may have to make decisions that say this is not an eligible expense but this is still the best use of taxpayer dollars

My questions are we need to have those in the front of our mind at every decision point, and then we can make those appropriately. Thank you.

Yeah, you're very welcome. So I'm not sure where any of the other slides are, but happy to keep fielding questions. I mean, really one of the main goals in designing this project was to show you guys what you could do with that space without really making tremendous dramatic changes to the hardscape itself. Yes, I'd be removing the hardscape and proposing to remove the entire hardscape that's there, but by breaking up the hardscape into different materials, combination of different stone materials for decking and artificial turf, I think, along with the planters and very strategic seeding and function all throughout the project now where Families can enjoy the kids in the pool without having to necessarily commit to going to put their suit on and they're right up against the pool. There's many different vantage points and different seating areas left that we've really created for and ways to enjoy this entire space outside of just being in the pool. I think it'll be an attraction just to hang out. I mean, it's an incredible environment now.

I have one last question and then I'll let you continue. And this may be for town management as well as joy. We like to keep our community engaged. Um, we know that there are parameters. We are, you know, we're not going to give up the grant money. Nobody wants to do that. So we have parameters, but, um, have you worked with the board cab folks at all? Is this the first time, Joy, you're seeing some of these plans? How do we interact? And when, if it is appropriate, do we show some things to the community? And are there opportunities to get input or it's kind of locked down? Just thinking about all these other stakeholders that we have for CAB and the community.

Right now, I'm just kind of going as directed and looking for whomever I'm presenting it to on a biweekly basis with the town reps. And then now for the first time with you guys, we're happy to share whatever material. I'm happy to make ourselves available for additional meetings and feedback meetings. Really, what's going to make the project great is to get the community's feedback and some of the things that they're really going to enjoy. Obviously, I do my best to try and think of all different avenues and even give you guys then some more than maybe what you even thought about. So hopefully I can show you some of those things in a minute when I take you through. Perfect.

And in addition to that, like we asked the folks at Newton Park, if you could consider work with us to look for things that the pool may have that speak specifically to children that are autistic. That could make one more place that we have a destination for those types of families. That would be wonderful.

I would welcome that challenge, yes.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah, I would encourage staff to get a presentation in front of BoardCab. We have people on that volunteer committee that are experts in pools that have some really good suggestions that maybe you'll think of things that are outside anybody else's thought process, like the 5'3 to the 5'. I'd also encourage you to look at potential ways, as long as it's not costly, to alternative energy stuff to be able to... heat the pool, I'm assuming the pool will be heated or have a heater for it for circulation pumps, things like that, if there's ways to offset some of that through solar or wind or whatever we could come up with, as long as it doesn't add to the cost. John?

Yeah, no, aesthetically I think it looks beautiful.

Mike?

Sorry, aesthetically I think it looks absolutely beautiful, and it looks like it would be a real... not just an asset, but actually become a destination for visitors as opposed to the residents in the community, a much greater participation. One of the things that I absolutely agree with the community and board cab feedback loop and having an iteration that allows for great ideas to come in. And something I'm thinking about as well could be opportunity for the things that are unique about Fort Myers Beach around being a marine environment and whether there's opportunities for even an educational component or historical component. Just keeping an eye on honoring the past as we move forward, some of those elements. And I think those can come from the community very well.

And I will definitely welcome that and try and incorporate that to the best of my ability. And, you know, we can talk about that more when, you know, I'm sorry, the board cap you said?

Joy, right behind you is your gal today.

It should be good to play the video.

Do you guys have any questions before we watch the video? I can wait. Okay. All right. Go ahead.

I got a question.

Hold on. There's public comment at the end. I wanna go there right now.

You see my seat already.

So if you notice there, there's a walking path that goes around the entire thing with a roundabout on each end. So it's just a nice way to kind of tour the entire area and just kind of hang out and do something different too.

And it's been thoughtfully curated to cater to everyone's needs, the children, families, people who want to swim, of course, and just relax. So it has many different areas for different things. It just feels open, welcoming.

Did I see water cannons there?

Is that what that was?

Yeah.

Did I see water cannons there? Yes.

And we do have the engineered drawing for the slide that has come in. So kind of that dual setup is actually fitting in that area, fitting in within the design. So as long as that all comes in within budget, we'll continue to proceed that way.

John, are you volunteering for the first target of said cannon?

I was just hoping that they wouldn't swivel all the way back to where the parents are sitting.

The swim lanes also would be our recommendation maybe to open up half of them and remove half of them just because it's not necessarily competitive swimming. You know, it's more of a recreation or therapy, physical therapy type of thing. But it would open up the other half of the pool. Whereas even right now, the way you guys have it set up previously, it was all taken up by the swim lanes. I think it just kind of gives half the pool back to recreation and enjoying the pool.

So you could keep half for swimming and then you could keep half water, aerobics, whatever?

Sure, because you're definitely going to have those people that want the lanes there and want to utilize that and swim, you know, that type of physical therapy. So we could accommodate both.

And there's plenty of seating areas as well as ADA compliant areas with, you know, ADA compliant chairs and tables and the walkway.

And to me, that would be kind of a pergola in the back area of the extended deck. You could run different events. You could run different yoga programs, different wellness programs, different healthy living. So there's different shaded areas that you could definitely spread out a different variety of groups on any given day.

Jason, how about speakers for music or announcements? Is that built in?

As far as audio, visual, I don't have anything built in or planned for right now. One of the questions I have in is whether the area is going to be lit for night swimming. And so we're waiting to hear back on that because that changes, obviously, lighting the pool, lighting around it, everything.

There's also an area for dogs to enjoy. So you can bring your pets, you can bring your dogs. It'll have a covered area. Where's that in the? So we just, yeah, we just passed it, but it'll come back around. And then we have photos as well.

That was one of the things from the beginning I was hoping you could incorporate.

Yeah, so given the placement of where it would be over on the other side of the building, to me, you'd be able to access it from outside the pool area and inside the pool area, but also shut the dogs off from interacting.

That's a great shot.

And really the only extension of the existing footprint that we're expanding is on that right-hand side right now. You'll see there will be a cantilevered wood deck that goes over into a drainage area that we've been told we could potentially do. So we propose that for the additional seating area. So if he wants to bring up some slides.

Eric, are you able to bring the photos up? Please.

Will, just out of curiosity, you mentioned obviously the county, because they're administrating the CDBGR funds, are they reviewing this and giving the okay then to go on to say the 60% and 90%? Or are they just looking at it and then they're going to review the final project before any bids can be brought in?

Or are they doing it step by step? Step by step. They have to review every phase. We have to get their approval before we move on to the next phase.

Okay. And have they seen this yet?

Yes, they've seen the 30%. They've seen this. Okay. Yeah. And so really we're at a point where we're definitely a critical standpoint where we would need that feedback from anybody else who wants to be involved with feedback. Because for us, the conceptual design is pretty dialed in from what everyone said they're looking for. We haven't gotten any feedback to lead us to alter it otherwise, which is why we've initiated sending it to engineering. So engineering has started laying this all out and ready to create the formal details for all the individual components. But if there is gonna be any potential changes or anything, I would wanna wait on that before I move any further with engineering because then we're just gonna be creating new structural details for things So I definitely want to finalize conceptual design before I move any more forward with engineering. That's the process we take with each and every design, each and every project. We have to get through that general layout to make sure this is what we want before we put that final engineering plan together. It doesn't make sense to go to the final engineering until we have a final design.

I agree.

Sure.

Well, it sounded like, at least from Joy and the forecast recommendation, the only structural thing that I heard was the 5'3 to 5'0 as far as structurally.

And mainly the other part is going to be just designing the involved part will be the structural for the rock waterfall and everything else. So before we move forward and start to really dig in and spend time and money on that, I would like the conceptual to be approved and signed off on to go forward.

Go ahead with your slides or your pictures.

All right.

So you can see in the initial here in this first drawing, we've got the, I wish I had a better view of that top pool, but that sun shelf right there is really that extension of what the existing pool is. It's easily done to make the pool bigger as long as we're not going to exceed a depth of 18 inches when making it bigger. We're able to chop down the pool shelf ever so much to extend that sun shelf. And we're not going to create any type of cold joint or structural deficiency when we do that. We're very well experienced with that and have done it a number of times. So it's an incredible way to make the pool itself look much bigger than it really is. Because all that area just now became a great area for young kids. And I've created a very long step entry, which to me is now going to give all the parents a nice long place to sit and watch their kids slide into the pool, off the slides. So just trying to think of the whole environment, how you're going to live there. So that's kind of this first one.

Jason, when you said bigger, before you go on, when you said bigger, is that changing the footprint?

I did change the footprint of the larger pool by adding the sun shelf.

Is that allowable, Will? We need to know that before we continue. yeah so far we've received no pushback from county on that but we can i can verify that i'd almost like to have that in writing from them that they they are okay with that because that is changing the footprint okay

So given that, kind of an overview of both here. Again, in overall style, going with the tropical, natural look, all the tiki huts, I believe we have 10 to 12 different tiki huts. And combined, though, to not, and I believe, I think in your comment earlier, I actually liked that initial design that had that metal roof building. I think it kind of goes with that Key West look. and that natural look which i think is a very updated and timeless look for the area and i think it'll go really well um and uh so what i've also done is kind of combined some pergolas and some sail shades to break up that overall tiki so it doesn't get to be too much so you can see i feel it really brings an up-to-date kind of contemporary yet natural feature to it all um going through it, the splash pad. We've kind of reinvented the way some of the accessories for the splash pad. Now this is going to be, depending on budget, my proposal is going to try and actually remove the splash pad and reconstruct it within the same budget because of the plumbing components not being in the same place as some of the others. So if we want to be allowed a little more creative freedom, Because it's not a very deep body of water and it's not that big yardage-wise for concrete, potentially I have to run the numbers what makes sense to remove it versus the challenges with plumbing I'm gonna have. What's your plan for the hardscape there? All the hardscape is going to be removed. And then we're going to give you guys a series of different options between either real stone pavers or brick pavers to go back in its place and whether we want them sand set or mud set. And I'm going to give you guys my recommendations of both practices, maybe in different areas be better. um but even driving in here i can see on the road project that you guys have thank god you guys had sunset pavers in the middle of the median because now you guys can access whatever drainage points that you need to without chipping out concrete and it just um given the storm you know uh i guess i have a new kind of light and look at it because if um we did get flood waters back in here again and you have movement if you have a mud set deck you're basically going to a point where you're going to chop that out and remove it and replace it versus if you had a sunset deck, you could do repairs, you could get to things that are broken, you could reset it back to original condition so it's a little bit more serviceable over time. And so there's definitely pros and cons to both ways we go about it.

Would that be an added cost or a reduction? Is that completely separate?

The decking is a necessity because the decking has been destroyed by the storm. So the decking has no, there's no way I can restore it with proper drainage. So we have to completely remove it, reset drainage points, and make sure this thing's going to drain and function properly for you in the future.

But we are working with a set budget, are we not?

We are. There's a set grant amount for all of our CDBGDR grants.

And that would be included in all that? Yes. Okay, perfect.

And I'm very, very familiar and very well-versed at monitoring the budget. I'm a design-build firm, so every project we design typically goes straight to construction, so we don't design things that we can't afford to do.

Perfect.

Thank you. So just a couple more looks at it. I think that's the duplicate. Oops. And I wanted to show, let me go back. So back in the corner, I've got some additional pergola areas, locker areas. Also wanted to add, again, to balance the rock work, a rock feature on the kiddie pool, which is just kind of an open air, very unique. You can walk through, see through. It's got water falling down on a couple sides. So it's just kind of a unique entrance into that area and creates kind of a cool setting and seating area for people back there. Just a really warm field. And there's kind of your shale shade structures combined with pergola over here. Just really great seating areas, just gorgeous in its own design with its look. And in the top picture, you can see you've got this big roundabout bench that has actually seating on the inside and outside of the bench. And I've used kind of neat elements, if we could zoom in a little bit more, but I've got almost dock piers that are holding up the bench to give it kind of that nautical look in different things. nice so there are definitely details and elements to kind of bring in the beach life and Might be it to the end here so and then if you could bring up the final engineered plan showing us the overview of layout and

Thank you.

So it's a little hard to read. Obviously, it's a large area, very zoomed out. But that's showing you guys overlaid on the survey that the town just provided us and had done and updated how everything in this project is fitting to scale and in reality. So this would be the final layout. We'd be seeking approval conceptually before going to begin final design engineering, drainage plans, everything.

So where on this is the dog part you were talking about?

In the bottom right-hand corner.

Behind the building?

Yeah, behind the current building. So it's basically that entire length of that building in between that and the fence of the property. So I would say it's probably about, just offhand, probably 30 by 10 area.

John, questions? Sorry, John King.

Thank you. I guess maybe a concern about when I'm hearing a reduction in the lanes, I think one of the things, the thought behind the competitive lanes was to bring in competitive swim tournaments or meets. I don't know if there's a minimum that they need. I'd hope we look at that because I think that would be a way to help monetize the pool and help some surrounding hotels bringing those teams and tournaments and things like that. So I'd hope you'd look at that if there's a minimum there. Also, just a thought off the top of my head, a couple weeks ago, having attended a Florida League of Cities meeting, the afternoon of Saturday, the final day, I was done. So I joined my wife at the pool, and I was not impressed with the pool there, to be honest with you. But I was impressed with how many families were there. They were right next to the Atlantic Ocean, and yet more people were at the pool. And I think this is something that could be, as mentioned before, a real destination for families, if nothing else, for day trippers and things like that, which would help, again, monetize that asset we have.

Absolutely, absolutely. I definitely agree. And I'm sorry, the first point, your first question, competitive swimming, it is my understanding that for competitive swimming you need the starting blocks, and the starting blocks are going to require greater depth in the pool, and therefore we've just went the other direction because we knew that wasn't a potential option to make that existing pool deeper to accommodate for the swimming blocks and competitive swimming.

All right, good to know. Thank you.

Scott? Yeah, I think he's correct about the blocks. It's got to be a little bit deeper. I'm going to take his word for it. Yeah, I've got my grandkids coming to town this week. I wish we could go there. Soon enough. From a timeline standpoint, if you guys can get together with BORCAB and make some refinements and then assuming everything's afloat, what's kind of your plan? target date for completion?

I know it's early, but what's our goal? I guess our first goal would be to wrap up the design and engineering phase, and then going out for construction bid would be the next step for that. So we're hoping to wrap up the design and construction phase. It's all going to be based on feedback. If you said we had to finish in 30 days, today I could be done.

Okay. And then construction, permitting, construction, everything else, what would be a good target date to shoot for for opening?

right so you're going to be looking at anywhere from eight to ten months for the construction of the project um take permitting outside of it i think you guys might have a little bit of help moving the permits uh through faster than i'm used to in a normal situation potentially but um if you gave us a couple months for that i would call it all in one year okay great thank you it looks beautiful and that would be from final approval of the final 100 design we'll be looking at a year yeah okay

Rebecca?

Yes. Jason, what are the different milestones? So we're at the 30% review. What are the additional milestones?

So I guess maybe I was a little bit confused on the milestones. To me, the typical way we do it on a day-to-day and for all of our projects, commercial to residential, would be the 30, 60, 90 is more of a design phase, not the engineering. So typically by the I feel I'm actually more at the 90% phase right now because after 90%, the way the contract is written, we would be moving to engineering, which I've already preempted that just to keep things moving, give you guys detailed information for this meeting, which is fine, but it's a little out of practice. We would rather have a final approved design before going to engineering, but we were pressed to go forward with it, so we did.

Okay, so these milestones are within our contract. They are separate from Lee County milestones that we may have to meet. That's good to know. So we're closer to the 90. You'll get together with BORCAP. And then what would be the next one? You said engineering?

Yeah, so then once engineering was finalized, that would be complete, and then we go to a contractor selection process, which is the final part of our contract.

and then construction yeah perfect um my last question is um around um the waterfalls the structures and staffing do we know i'm not sure if you know this answer neil maybe you have some input or will I'm worried about, because kids can hide behind them, will we need additional staff to make sure they have eyes on every area of the pool? How will that change our staffing needs? Do we know that, or is that still something we need to discuss?

I don't think we know that yet at this point. Neil, you can go ahead. I know we do have members on staff who were... running the pool before. That's what we're basing our current staffing numbers on. I don't think we know yet the specificity of that.

Because that's something that I'm not sure if it would need to get in the budget this year, but it's something we are going to have to ask the community if they are willing to allow us to add staff and the expensive staff because they see the value in this beautiful design. Neil, do you have any comments on that that you would want to add?

Make sure it's on with the little green light there.

Neil Mathis, parks manager for the record. I would just say from the previous pool that we had, we would have up to five lifeguards when we were busy and all three features, the lap pool, the kiddie pool, and the slide features were busy and operating. With the blind spots that we could have from the waterfalls, I would say additional, at least one. But not to say that that's going to be the case all the time. That's when we're at capacity with those different features. So I know budget's still, you know, just beginning. So we're hoping, you know, we get what we're looking for as far as the staff that we've requested. But, you know, Also being open generally seven days a week in the summer, that was the expectation. Off-season, five days a week, but those are all going to factor into that.

Well, that's something I want to keep us in front of mind because we are asking our residents every day, is this service worth it to you? And those are things we'll have to keep in mind. So I thank you, Neil. I'm sure you keep that in the front of your mind as well as we'll. That's it for me, Mayor.

Councilor McLean?

No, I don't have any further questions. I think that feedback is going to be important, and keeping an eye on the operational issues is critical.

Yeah, I guess the only question I would have is, is there any more obstruction with this current design than the design that's currently there and was being used in the past?

There is. The steel structure for the slide is transparent. Not that I could see that being any more accessible if you were the lifeguard having to be on the other side of it and take care of somebody. I mean, equally as restrictive, maybe not as visually, but to me, the lifeguards would be assigned a certain area within their visual peripheral. So that lifeguard would be on that side of the pool. There would be another lifeguard on the other side of the pool. I don't think it would. I think, you know, typically you would have it that way anyway.

OK. And I guess my other question would be maybe for Nancy or for staff. Is there a way, we're talking about staffing it and cost to staff it. We don't know yet if it would be more than what it was pre-storm to staff it based on the design that we're seeing. But is there a way to parse this out to make it a user fee coverage? Meaning whether it's through pool passes, whether it's through daily, is there a way, kind of like the mooring field, is there a way to make it so that the user fees pay for the operating expenses and the employee costs versus it being a general fund ledger item?

I think that we probably need to explore the issue of a user fee to see if that would be possible to do. Typically, that is how other pools operate with a daily rate that you would pay if you're going to go. If you're a resident, sometimes it's a little less.

I think that's always been there. Yeah, I can speak to that. Is there a way to appropriate that cost directly to the operating and staffing costs?

And I think that's what we're looking at because clearly the rates, I don't want to, well, I don't want to speculate, but we did have user fee. We had memberships. So we're looking at, you know, when we were open, what we were charging. And it makes sense with some of the other facilities. City of Sanibel, they have a pool. The county, just what they charge.

Well, I have a feeling this will be a, the whole goal was to make it a destination, right? We've heard for decades. Nobody knows Bay Oaks is there. This is something that would draw people there, especially in the summer. And the pool did do probably better than anything else before the storm as far as revenue generating to make it as revenue neutral as possible. But I think this is really going to set that game up. And I think it's a perfect opportunity to be able to provide a good amenity and provide a good service while being staffed by fees that cost people to go use it.

And I definitely agree about the feedback because this pool pushes commercial design in pools. You don't see commercial pools done this way because they're not taking the restrictions so closely into consideration that I am in trying to turn those restrictions into features. And so the pool's been very carefully designed to maximize how beautiful you can make a commercial area. And that's why I honestly don't feel like it looks like one. And in the end, I think the residents and the people enjoying the area won't feel like it either.

No, it certainly looks like a resort style pool that, you know, and one of the big things I get asked all the time is what is there to do besides go to the beach? Like John was saying, you know, you get families that come, they tell them all the time, well, Bay Oaks, they never heard of it. This will make them understand what it is. And I think TDC would really like to see something like this too, to help drive people to this area. So this, this will be a benefit to not just us, but Lee County in general. Absolutely.

So given the timeline, we're talking eight months to a year, does that change our 27 budgets since our budget ends in September?

At this time, no. I think we're planning on when we did when HR and Bayoaks did the planning on the budgeting for this. They're planning on staff coming on about halfway through next year. Because Neil and his team are going to need time to get them onboarded, get them trained, get them comfortable with the layout and the facilities. So I don't think it changes our 27. But again, we're going to look at some of these design changes we've seen. And I'd like the experts to... Look at that and see if we will need additional lifeguards or not. To Neil's point, it may just be for surge times that we would need different things. We'll take that, but no, no changes right now. I think they did a good job, really good job, calculating the needs for 27. Okay, thank you.

The only question I have would how soon could we get this? I'm assuming BoardCab would like to take a look at it and have to allow you to get moving with what you need to do. I think I haven't heard one person complain about it. I mean, there's been some minor adjustments like five, three. I mean, everybody's excited about it. I think we can get it on.

I think we get it in next BoardCab. I think we've got plenty of time, don't we, Amy? We can publicly advertise that this will be on the next BoardCab meeting, if that's okay with Joy and the team. And then also that gives the public a chance to know far enough in advance if they want to attend that meeting as well.

Yeah, I'm all for it. Moving along.

Sounds great, guys. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Beautiful.

Thank you. Thanks, Neil.

Public comment.

Yeah.

Howie. Hi, my name's Howie Hoffman. You all know me. I've been here 28 years. I used to go to the pool every day. It was my country club pool, fantastic. This thing looks great. I'd like to know where they're gonna put the bar. you guys want to make money on it this is fort myers beach a recreational place you go to pools i'm not talking about a bar in the pool i'm talking about just some place that parents families could get a drink if you look at the one at the lighthouse The new pool they have there with the running water and things like that, it's fantastic. Alcohol sells here on Fort Myers Beach, and it'll pick up the money that we need to pay for the pool. It's just a suggestion. I don't drink, but it's a suggestion to get more money into the project. Thank you.

Thanks, Howie. And as always, great shirt. You can't see his shirt. It says, you know what I like about people? They're dogs. Howie. Anyone else? Yes, Joy.

Yes, thank you. I just want to say the board cap is not against waterfalls. We love waterfalls, you know, and they're beautiful. We just want to make sure that staffing, you know, Neil is good and safety is good. You know, we love the notion of a waterfall. Just wanted to be clear on that.

Okay, thanks, Joy. Anyone else? Come on up. Ellen Vaughn, just a resident of the town. I just want to say this is really exciting. I mean, this is two wonderful things in short order. The sand breaking for the Fort Myers Beach Pier and now having the pool come back. This is wonderful. Thank you to everyone that's worked so hard.

Thanks, Ellen. Anyone else? All right, we'll close public comment. Next is the approval of the minutes from the town council meeting on August 3rd, 2026. Are there any changes, amendments, or motion to approve the minutes?

Move to approve.

Second. A motion by Councilor Kane, seconded by Councilor McLean. Any further discussion? All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimously. Next is a consent agenda. We have nothing. There's nothing removed. There are no public hearings. So we'll move right on to the administrative agenda. The first item is the special event Roar Offshore 2026 Power Boat Races. This is an approval of the Roar Offshore 2026 Power Boat Races special event to be held September 11th through September 13th, 2026. at the offshore of Margaritaville Beach Resort as requested by Roar Offshore Power Boat Races, LLC, including authorization for the waiver of enforcement of the town's noise and open container ordinances, use of waterways within the town's jurisdictions, use of applicable town beach property, use of town property subject to final approval by the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District, Lee County Sheriff's Office, and town staff.

Will? I'd like to have Nora, and Nora's up, to go through the status of their special event application, and then we'll discuss. Go ahead.

Thank you so much, Will. My name is Nora Skipper. I am the special events coordinator for the town of Port Marys Beach. First of all, I'm really excited to present the We're Offshore Their application, of course, for three days in coordination with Margaritaville Beach Resorts to give a really brief overview. The application, and I know this is the first time you're seeing the full scope of it, life safety, including the Coast Guard, has made many adjustments, including the timeline compared to previous events by the Coast Guard, kind of stretched it a little bit. So this should be the final version given to you now. It's 44 pages, so take your time. I am happy to say, so currently their scope and plan is they would like to use Times Square to show off some of their vessels and teams. They are 32 feet vessels and they plan to showcase a few in Times Square. They also request to use Westina Way for two more teams for logistical support, as well as the whale is also in coordination to assist with the logistics. There are 18 teams in total, and they're currently being placed in the water at the one particular harbor, formerly Silver Sands property by Crane. And it, of course, goes through three days. I do have a representative from Roar Offshore with us today. His name is Randall Truesdale. If council is willing, he is attending via Zoom. Is that amenable?

It's fine with me. Anybody have any objection?

No? Go ahead. Thank you so much. Yeah. So, Randall, it's lovely to see you. Thank you so much for attending.

Thank you. So we're really excited about bringing more back. And I just wanted to be here so I can answer any questions that, you know, might be on the people's minds and what we can do to make sure our event is a success and to make sure that we can be able to. Being that you guys have not had the races, I believe, since 2021, the last one, obviously, because of Hurricane Ian, we decided to bring our event back. The owners, Sean Tarenta and Cole Livell, recently purchased this from Cindy and Tim Hill. We are not bringing the... A big melee of races. We're bringing more of our super stock class, which is what Sean and Cole live are both racing. So as Nora was saying, it's going to be right now, it's tentative, but we're in 16 to 18 race teams that will be racing. And What that's allowed is you don't have to go back and forth across the bridge. They're not doing any of the other events that they used to do, such as the boat parade, which is something I know that really just messed up Estero Boulevard. to see what Margaritaville had in the footprint and some of the other properties we've been able to use. We're able to keep everything on the beach, which is going to be great for economic stimulation for any of the people that are coming to visit. Even if they're not participating, it's going to be eye-catching for the people, the patrons, you know, the residents of Fort Myers Beach. And it's a family-run environment that I think is going to be a huge win for the businesses as well as the city.

I just have one question for you. It's been reported about the, you're asking for the expansion or forgiveness, I guess, of the town's open container. Are you looking for just specifically within the raised perimeter area of where you're going to be staging or entirely island-wide? Because I believe it's been reported that you're looking island-wide. Is that the case?

No, actually, that was when we originally did. But we don't need the open container stuff. We're not really too concerned about that part of it. And the reason why is that because with the majority of the events are going to be being held, they're actually on host property. There will be some stuff happening in Times Square. And we've spoken with the restaurant owners on Times Square. So that actually was in the beginning, we were looking at the open container permit, but that's something that we do not need at this point.

Okay.

Councillor King, any questions? Could you explore or explain a little more about what you want from us as far as wasting away, what that would entail? Because that is paid parking that could be some money, income for the town during this time.

and we've spoken with Margaritaville because I believe that they had a relationship with you guys in reference to that party. Our goal was to be able to utilize that space to be able to house two of the race teams. That way there would be across the street from 1207 a sterile boulevard where we'd actually be loading the boats in. And it would also be a place that people would be able to hang out and come and see some of the boats, you know, throughout the race weekend as well. So my understanding was that the Margaritaville GM was in contact with you all in reference to the utilization of that property.

I can speak to that, Randall. This is Will, Will McKenna, town manager, Randall. Hey, Randall. Yeah, that was... I understand your question and the point you're making, Councillor King, about the revenue, potential revenue loss from that part, but I believe... allowing them to use the space for those two teams and this event on a weekend where we wouldn't maybe normally have as much activity here on the beach. Our activity in our other parking spaces is going to well offset what we might lose in that space. I think it's a good addition, allowing them to have those teams right there in that area, you know, along with that. So I was willing to make that concession. So we're looking at all three days of that for the, yes, they'll start coming in on Thursday afternoon, actually Thursday, you know, so from Thursday night through about a Sunday morning. Yes. Okay. Thanks.

So do we have, I'm sorry, I'll wait.

That's okay. Um, anything else? No, I'm good. Scott. Not right now. Rebecca.

Yes. Um, so those, that would be 22 spaces for three days.

Yes. Okay.

Do we have the financial impact of that? I think on the previous application I saw that there was none. I think there's a dollar figure we can say that we are waiving.

I can provide that to you. Okay. Thank you. Not at this time, but we'll get it together for you.

Again, we're asking our community to pay for this. That's all my questions for now, Nora. Thanks. Thank you so much.

Councillor McLean?

No questions at this time. Thank you.

yeah i don't really have any i i think will i think you're you're spot on when it comes to wasting away i mean we have for previous special events we've allowed people to use that parking lot because it does benefit the community it does benefit so i i don't have an issue with i know there's a cost that comes with it but there's also a cost benefit to having the people come to the island and they will fill up parking spots in other places but I agree with you. It would be nice to know what that dollar amount.

It's hard to ask the community for more taxes. I just want them to know.

No, no. I totally understand. Yeah, I think a fair question would be would you rather give up some spaces for three days or would you rather have the event?

I don't think it's the event or give up three spaces, Mayor. I'm sorry, I don't. That's fine. It is. I mean, these people have funds. They have generously donated a lot of money to our organizations. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. I just want to know what it costs the taxpayers. That's all. Okay.

Well, would you like to postpone this until you have that number? Or are you okay with making a decision based on what you have? I'm okay making a decision. Okay. Anything else?

Mayor, I have one comment. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I know during the agenda review process, I did raise a couple issues regarding the application. There is a notation in the agenda that there would be a supplementation to the application at the meeting, which we did receive something from Lee County. I would just ask that maybe staff working through will that we document the and we have a completed application. Just fill in those blanks that we're missing.

Of course, we'll get that corrected. Thank you, Nancy. Or updated, I guess is the right term.

Okay. So, Nancy, do you have any issues with this moving forward to a vote?

No. I think that they've addressed the concerns that we had getting the sign-off from the fire department and all the things, the questions that have been raised. It's just we need the document that we'd like to put into the record so it's all signed, sealed, delivered.

Okay. And this, this is contingent. If it, if it's approved on fire control, Lee County sheriffs. So correct.

I've never given a permit. If I haven't seen any writing from both the Fort Myers beach fire control district, as well as the county sheriff's office.

Okay. If there's no other questions for staff, is there a motion for the special event? Roar offshore 2026 powerboat races. So moved motion by Dr. King. Seconded by vice mayor Safford. Any further discussion?

I'd just like to say I think the cost-benefit on this is an absolute no-brainer.

Okay. Any other discussion? Councilor Kane? Aye. Vice Mayor Safford? Aye. Councilor Link? Aye. Councilor McLean? Aye. And I'm an aye as well. That motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Randall. Thank you guys for having us. Thank you very much.

Thanks for being here.

See you next month. Next is item B. It's resolution 26-177. It's an approval of the Advisory Committee Policies and Procedures Manual. This is a resolution of the Town Council of the Town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, adopting the Advisory Committee Policies and Procedures Manual, establishing uniform policies, procedures, roles, responsibilities, and expectations for town advisory committees and providing for an effective date. Will?

So I think we have...

Or John?

Yeah, Amy and Nancy, and I think actually I'd like to see if Councillor McLean wants to start off discussing this.

Yeah, this is the second reading of this. We reviewed it previously. Looking, the goal is to provide uniform guidance to all of the advisory committees. I want to recognize that this initiative started with Chris King as she was the chair of the Anchorage Committee. And still is, thank you. But as she assumed that role, she recognized that there were not clear directions for how the committee should be operated and the types of restrictions that they would have, et cetera. A lot of this information was absolutely included in our ordinances and code, but it wasn't in a consumable place that would be easily understood and give clear directions. So it was really a lot of great work by staff, in reviewing and ensuring and legal between the clerk's office and Amy, Nancy, and then of course Will and Tracy in review as well, really came to what I think is a great document to help guide the committee members and give them some clarity.

I don't know that there's more to add than that. I agree. I think the adoption of this is really going to provide a centralized resource for all of our advisory committees and boards where it was kind of spread out throughout and some didn't have, other than really the one document that said why that committee or board existed, they didn't have a further guideline like maybe uh chris king had developed for her committee and so forth so i i really and i appreciate council mclean's uh leadership in this and helping us from a counselor's perspective in that across and then amy and her office really putting this in the right format i think this is really going to be a great asset for the staff and all of these committees and boards

That's all I have. John, our local paper reached out to me yesterday asking for specifics on what's changing. To me, it doesn't seem like there's a lot changing. I think you just laid it out that this is all just putting it all together in the right area. I told him we'd be talking about it today. Perhaps maybe you or Chris would be better to field those questions than I would if there's any substantial changes that need to be highlighted.

It's not that there is changes in any of the regulations. It's really just a clarifying document to ensure that everyone understands how these boards should be operated, truly. So there aren't any

new rules new restrictions etc etc it's really process flow roles responsibilities uh things like that thank you uh any other questions or a motion for resolution 26-177 i'll go ahead and move that mayor all right got a motion by counselor king all second Any further discussion?

Yeah, I'll just say I think my wife did reach out and already has answered some questions from the local press. And I think she shared that information with RPIO and with our town attorney. Also, yeah, what Will has said, I think this is a great asset. I know somebody contacted me that recently got on a committee and they were just struggling to figure out what how they needed to prepare, how to prepare, what was expected of them, those kind of things. I think this will be a tremendous asset, so thank you.

All right, any further discussion?

I have a few. Yep, go ahead. So I, too, want to thank Chris and John and everyone who worked on this. I love when people know their roles, especially me. One thing I'm wondering if we could add to this, perhaps for the staff liaison role, is that when the committees are meeting and discussing things, they can understand what part of our strategic plan they are discussing. And then as a counselor liaison, we can come back and say this is misaligned or this should be reconsidered so that we don't start work going down a path that the whole community and everyone has already signed off on in our strategic plan. And then people are wondering why we're putting it on the back burner. So perhaps some alignment.

I really appreciate that suggestion, Council Link. We'll incorporate that. Similar to how we've started for the agenda preparation and the blue sheets included, the staff includes and knows which part of the strategic plan it's aligned with. So we can do the same thing with the green sheets. Is that right, Amy?

It currently has no color.

It has no color for putting those agendas together, but I appreciate the recommendation.

It's good for the committees to know that they are working in alignment with everyone else. Thank you. That's it. Great work, too. Thank you, John.

Thank you. We've got a motion by Councillor King, seconded by Mayor Allers. There's no further discussion. Councillor King? Aye. Aye. Vice Mayor Stafford? Aye. Councillor Link? Aye. And Councillor McLean? Aye. That motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Next is item C, resolution 26-172, adopting and updating comprehensive emergency management plan. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, adopting an updated comprehensive emergency management plan and providing for an effective date. Will?

Great. So as Jason maybe comes up just to be prepared to talk about in details, but really, you know, this establishes uniform policies and procedures consistent with NIMS for the effective coordination of resources to cope with a wide variety of natural man-made and technological emergencies. And, Jason, if you could just maybe do a summary of the changes from last year to this year that we incorporated.

Yeah, absolutely. Jason Freeman for the record. So this is part of that routine process overview. So every couple of years we do what we call a substantial revision to our CEMP. Our town manager is part of the CEMP, which stands for the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. So essentially, it's the town's guiding framework of how to act in emergency situations. It heavily focuses on hurricanes and storm surge, but it does apply to a variety of different hazards and emergency situations. And so as part of that process, every year with the town manager, we go through and do an administrative update. And then every couple of years, we do send our draft CEMP to our partners, including Lee County, the fire, and sheriff, just to get some input and try and put together a final draft revision, which is what's in front of you today. So major updates to it include just some organizational structure changes. We include the deputy town manager position, as well as an emergency services director, which we did not have in some of our previous plans, and then just aligning a lot of our practices with the county. As Will mentioned, we do follow the ICS NIMS structure, which does help in emergency situations. And as part of the policy, we want to make sure that we align with the county's processes, more importantly, and then the county does focus on aligning with the state. So I think it's a great document that we've been working on with Phil and Riley. and now we have it for you today. So there is an executive summary attached as part of your agenda packet, which will go over a lot of the changes that were made, but nothing really substantial to the process, more so just updating a lot of the positions and the structure to align it with the best practices, and then we continue to put in some lessons learned from Hurricane Ian and Milton and Helene to continue that. So if you have any questions, please let me know.

Council King, any questions?

Nothing. Thanks, Jason.

Vice Mayor Safford.

No, I'm good. Thanks, Jason. Great job with the FROC program.

Thank you. We just had our kickoff last week internally, so we're ready to go for next year. Way to go. Councilor Link?

Yeah, I was wondering, how does this integrate with the FROC?

Yeah, so a lot of the components that we have for the FROC, we actually provide our CFP as documentation for some of these. Some of the major ones include like our donation policy. The town does have a donation policy, but more specifically for emergency situations, we include in here. The whole FROC program did develop a lot of forms that we've been starting to incorporate. such as documented resources, a lot of our town staff, even in blue skies, so normal times are utilizing the FROC daily forms. So those have actually been approved by FEMA as a replacement to what is known as the 214, which is just an individual daily log that staff can use to get documented time for reimbursement from FEMA. But the state has had... has received approval to utilize these FROC daily forms. So every couple of weeks we go through and just see what's been updated with the FROC program and start incorporating a lot of those documents into here. But we're starting to try and do it in blue skies just in case us were prepared. So I know I think Phil just had some of his team staff members start to fill out these FROC forms. And I know the public works and a lot of other staff are filling those out daily just as a good practice. So we utilize a lot of the the documents, including the CMP, as documentation for FROC. So it all kind of ties together.

This is something you should all be proud of. I see we do training. Do you do tabletop training or scenario-based? This would probably be right up Whale's Alley.

Sure. Yet we definitely have talked about doing some of those. Members of staff do go and participate when Lee County has things at their emergency center. But it is a goal of mine that we start incorporating some of that here at the town staff level. And we'll be doing that.

Nice. Thank you, Jason. Good work. Thank you.

Councilor McLean.

I think it's great work, obviously. It continues to improve our responsiveness and our ability to... rebound much quicker to these events so fantastic job and we don't want to have any of these have to be enacted but at least we know what to do when we're yeah it's one of those jokes that a lot of our planning we we hope that we don't actually have to use it but in that case at least we have it prepared so

Jason, will this document be easily accessible from the town's website?

It will, yeah. We'll update our current copy. And then as part of the process in between what we call like the substantial reviews, which is when we have town council approve this copy through the resolution, we'll have that posted on the website. And then if we do make any administrative changes, which is allowed by the town manager in between these revisions, we have like a amendment tracker that we'll post online as well so you can see if we do make any of those administrative updates exactly what we've changed and then you know what we're planning on in the future so it should be on the town website and then we also share it with uh with all of our partners too so

Yeah, I'd encourage anyone, you know, one of the things that happened after Ian was a lot of people didn't feel like they knew what was going to happen. This is a great document to read ahead of time to know what to expect, who to reach out to if you need to, because all the information is in there. It'll tell you what's going to happen, how it's going to happen. So it's a read, but it's worth going through to understand exactly what kind of preparation is going in year long to be able to respond to any kind of emergency situation. So if you get a chance, go out there and get on there and read it. Thanks, Jason. Cool. Thank you. If there's no other questions, is there a motion for resolution 26-172 for the updated comprehensive emergency management plan?

So moved.

I'll second that. Got a motion by Councillor Link, seconded by Councillor McLean. Any further discussion? Councillor Link?

Aye.

Councillor McLean? Aye. Vice Mayor Stafford? Aye. Councillor Kane? Aye. And I'm an aye as well. That motion carries unanimously. Next is item D, resolution 26-175, renewal of health and supplemental insurance for fiscal year 26-27. This is a resolution of the town council of the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, approving the renewal of Cigna for medical insurance, the renewal of supplemental insurances through standard, and transferring dental and vision insurance coverage to Cigna for fiscal years 2026 to 2027, and providing for an effective date.

Yeah, thank you. Before you step out, Talisa, did you want to start off anything here? I know Talisa, our HR director, did invite a broker to come here to go through the changes, but I don't know if Talisa had anything she wanted to say in the beginning.

Hi, Talisa Oliveira, HR Director for the Record. It's that time of year again where we renew our insurances. We've worked really closely with Athena Archard and her team who have been fantastic. They're our insurance brokers. They're with Brown and Brown. And so, yeah, I'll turn it over to Athena. And I'll be on standby for any additional questions after.

Good morning, mayor, vice mayor, members of council, town manager, deputy, town manager, town clerk, and town attorney. As Talisa mentioned, my name is Athena Urshard. I'm from Brown and Brown, and we have the privilege of working with the town on your employee benefits program. So up for renewal this year is the medical insurance, and we're recovering from a high prior year where the claims experience loss ratio was over 100%. This year, we successfully, initially the renewal came out at a 14.5%. We were able to negotiate that down to an 11%. and then further reduce that to a 9.9% with the addition of the dental and the vision insurance bundled with Cigna, which actually has other synergies because folks that suffer from kidney disease, maternity claims, heart disease, Cigna has an internal processing system where they look at the claims on the medical side and the dental side and they're able to identify chronic risks when they have both of those systems talking to one another, which they do. So the reduction from the 14.5% to the 11 saved 45,000 and then the additional, adding the dental and the vision was able to further reduce that by another 14,000. The dental rates remained unchanged for the move from Standard to Cigna, and then there was a small decrease in the vision insurance of 1.7%. So overall, the impact to the town, when you look at all of the coverages, because the life insurance and the disability insurance remaining with standard does not have any change to the benefits or the rates. So altogether, on page two of this executive summary, The impact to the town would be an additional 110,000. And the total additional impact would be overall 126,779. And then the impact to the employees would be an additional $16,677. So just to give everybody some background on the landscape of what we're dealing with with medical insurance, because it's not a subject that we obviously take lightly. I work in it every day. And this has been a particularly difficult renewal year. We're very sensitive to what everyone has going on. from a property tax standpoint, and I have seen renewals this year unlike any other year where I have seven employer groups with renewals in excess of 30%, some even 40% and 60%. So we're seeing a much harder market. It's always been a difficult market. A lot of those drivers for these plan costs are more difficult negotiations with the provider community. They have invested in sophisticated technology to run their businesses that include AI. We're also seeing an increase in behavioral health inpatient stays and just more difficult negotiations because as providers band together, into larger groups that makes it more difficult for the insurance company to negotiate a lower discount with that provider. We also have the impact of high cost specialty medications that we're seeing. In our self-funded space, we're also seeing very high renewals on the stop loss side for those self-insured customers. PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is another, they look at a lot of different markets and every year they come out with what their prediction is going to be for the medical insurance side. It's the highest it's been in 17 years and they're predicting medical trend for 2027 to be increasing from 8.5% to 9%. So we are seeing a very difficult market.

Just thank you, Athena, for the work that you've done collaboratively with Talisa and the team to minimize that increase as much as possible. I really appreciate that, cognizant of us trying to look across all of our expenses, as I've talked with the council about before, to minimize our budget increases. This is a very valuable and important thing for our staff and the services that they're able to provide then to the community. So I think it's a very valuable and necessary part of our total compensation package. As noted by Athena, there's an increase for the staff. There will also be an increase for the town. There will also be an increase for the employees with this. And I'm glad that you did mention that and be very transparent about that, Athena. So I am recommending approval of this that we're bringing forward to you today to include the shifting of the dental and the vision over as well.

All right. Councillor McLean, any questions?

I think for Talisa, actually. Have we benchmarked our, I understand that it's about retention and employee the very important part of the entire compensation package and how we can attract and maintain, retain our employees. Have we benchmarked our benefits packages against other towns and where do we sort of stand on that?

Sure, that's an excellent question. We have just acquired a compensation and classification software called TrueConf, and it gives us the ability to update our pay plan, but also benchmark our benefits against our comparators. So we are in the process currently of doing that. We did benchmark insurance with Gearing Group a few years ago, and I believe our insurance was performing in the 80th percentile. We have a very low deductible of 250. We pay 100% of employee costs. We pay 50% of dependent costs. So the increase that you see will be going to those with dependents because those costs are higher. But I'm very excited to have the software so we have more data to show where we're trending against our comparators in the market.

And when do you expect that you'll be able to run that?

We should be able to run it before the fiscal year. I'm trying to get the pay plan updated before the fiscal year, so before 10-1.

But not before budget. I'm sorry.

Well, I mean, if that's the will of the council and the town manager, I can push the benefits ahead and go ahead and get that built out.

I think it's really in this very challenging time, and I do want to say I very much appreciate consolidating the plans in order to unlock further savings that you wouldn't see otherwise. Believe me, I think that's fantastic. The typical benefits plan and the employee contribution of it, I would really be interested to understand what is typical in municipalities such as ours. Because I do know coming from the corporate world, the employee contribution part of it is much more significant than it is here. I was surprised by it when I learned about it. But I do understand that there are differences between private sector and public sector. So I just want to ensure that we are not outlying in a typical public sector package.

Absolutely. Definitely in public sector it is more common, right, that our benefit package is strong and that we're covering the cost of employee insurance, but I'd be happy to provide you that data. You know, I hear it constantly that we are competing for employees with Lee County, with Collier County, that their benefit package, their insurance costs less to the employees for dependent care than ours. SO IT'S, YOU KNOW, DEFINITELY SOMETHING THAT'S WHY I WANTED TO GET THE COMPENSATION SOFTWARE SO THAT WE COULD PROVIDE YOU THAT DATA. I'LL BE HAPPY TO PUSH THAT FORWARD SO THAT WE CAN GIVE YOU A SNAPSHOT OF HOW WE'RE COMPETING WITH OUR COMPETITORS AND GIVE YOU A COMPARISON BETWEEN WHAT WE OFFER AND OUR COMPARATORS IN THIS AREA. AND I ALSO PULLED FOR MORE ISLAND COMMUNITIES SIMILAR IN SIZE TO OURS AS WELL. SO I'D BE HAPPY TO PROVIDE THAT FOR YOU.

OKAY. THANK YOU. AND I'M SORRY, I FORGOT YOUR NAME. Athena, so you mentioned that you've seen some plans that are going up 30%, 40%, et cetera. The 11% increase, where does that stand in the other customers or areas that you're working? Where does it sort of fit in?

I would say, because I obviously have colleagues that work on other cases as well, I would say that the 11%, and ultimately a 9.9% because of the bundling, I would say having a renewal in the high single digits is faring very well, very well compared to what I've seen.

You had referenced the PwC report that said nine percent. And so we're.

But in Florida, we typically run. So that's a national number, a national trend number. Florida typically runs about two to three percent higher because we have such a high Medicare population here in the state.

Thank you. That's helpful. No further questions.

Councilor Link?

Yes. So, Talisa, I think it's fair to say that the insurance, I think maybe you answered it, the insurance renewal runs the same calendar year as our fiscal year or close to it. Are you speaking of how our claims run against our fiscal year? No, signing up for a new package. Are they 10-1 through 9-30?

Yes, we hold open enrollment in September for our plans that start 10-1.

Perfect. So then can I assume that these numbers that you shared with us are in the fiscal year 27, 26-27 budget?

Yes. I double confirmed with Jeffrey, but yes, they are in our budget. Thank you. Thanks. Okay.

Vice Mayor Stafford. John asked my question. That data would be fantastic to have.

And if it would be helpful, I know John said he wanted to make sure we are not an outlier. Brown and Brown, they're the lead insurer for benefits in the public sector. So if you would like for Athena to speak to that a little bit for your decision today, if that would be helpful, I'm more than happy, and I'm sure she's more than happy to give you just a general consensus of that.

I think she answered that for me when I asked her. Thank you, though.

Perfect.

Yeah, I'm good. Thank you.

Thank you.

Councillor Kane. I guess my question is more along the process. When I'm going out and getting bids on my car insurance or my house insurance, do that every six months to a year, I get so many and then I whittle it down. Is that what we've done here, or did we just start with two and negotiate it from there?

so we went out for rfp in 2023 and we also went out for rfp in 2025 and in health insurance you want to be on a three-year cadence as much as possible so since we issued an all lines RFP last year. We didn't issue one this year because the town was still recovering from a very high 2024 year where some of those claims spilled over into 2025. And you want to build a relationship with a carrier because if you go out to market in health insurance too often, the market tracks all of that and I have seen instances where you will not receive any proposals and then you're in a situation where there are no options so you a three-year rule of thumb is what we there are exceptions to that as you saw in 2023 going out for Market in 2025 but that's typically what we like to see. It would not have been in the town's best interest to go release another RFP on the heels of last year.

Okay, I guess I kind of understand that because the sad part of going out as a person to get a bunch of quotes is you do that, it dings your credit. But I know in the past we had, through the Florida League of Cities, the FMIT, we had to move away from them because they were too expensive. I don't know if that would still be the case or not.

They were the carrier that you had prior to Cigna, yes. And they were still recovering from the very high loss ratio that the town had when they were under their coverage. Yes, they would not have placed a proposal on the table this year. Okay, thank you.

You guys have answered all my questions, so I appreciate it. Is there any other discussion? or a motion for resolution 26-175 for the renewal of the health and supplemental insurance for fiscal year 26-27.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve resolution 26-175.

I'll second that, Mayor.

Okay. We got a motion by Councilor McLean, seconded by Councilor Link. Any further discussion?

Yeah, Mayor. Not a discussion as much as a thank you. I know this isn't easy every year. It's very time-consuming, but I appreciate, Lisa, how you have always handled this, looking out for the taxpayers and trying to get the best not only for our employees but at the lowest cost for our taxpayers. So thank you.

Thank you so much, John.

All right.

And thank you, Athena. Yes.

Thank you. All right. Any other discussion? Councillor McLean?

Aye.

Councillor Link? Aye. Vice Mayor Safford? Aye. Councillor King? Aye. And I'm an aye as well. That motion carries unanimously. That brings us to item E. This is Resolution 26-173, Ratifying Acceptance of 180 Cubic Yard Sand Donation. This is a resolution of the Town Council of the Town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. ratifying acceptance of a donation of 180 cubic yards of beach-compatible sand, having an estimated fair market value of $13,500 from Millworth Group Inc., the contractor for the Bahama Beach Club Condominium Project, located at 5371 Estero Boulevard, for adoption to the town's sand stockpile at the Bay Oaks Recreational Campus to be used for beach hotspot maintenance and emergency sandbagging, consistent with the town's donation policy and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, the previously stated contractor did reach out to the town through our environmental manager, Chad Schutz, and offered to donate to the town 180 cubic yards of beach-compatible sand originating from their project site, again, at the Bahama Beach Club. The sand has already been accepted. I'm seeking ratification to council today. We've got it over at Bay Oaks. We required the contractor to screen the sand to Florida Department of Environmental Protection standards and for their engineer to sign off on it, which those tasks were completed before we accepted the sand.

Very good. Councillor McLean, any questions for staff? No, I don't. Councillor Link?

Yes, I do have a couple, so I'm glad that screening was done at their charge. About the value, who values the donation? Was that the donor as we require in our policy that they assign the value?

My understanding is we got the value from the donor.

Perfect. Okay. And did we also follow our donor policy or perhaps this one was even before we had our donor policy in place? No, the donor policy. Isn't donations over 10,000 come to council?

It is donations over $10,000, valued at more than $10,000 that come before council. Correct.

But I think that was prior to us coming up with that donation policy. So that is... No, that donation policy has been in place.

I think, Will, this was over the summer, wasn't it?

It was.

So this is just something coming back to you when you were not in session. Otherwise, he would have brought it to you. But, I mean, what are we going to do, reject the sand? It's more of a timing issue. I'm just making sure...

The donation policy has been in place. Oh, okay. It's not, this isn't because we just put in place a donation policy. That's what you're answering. Yes.

I thought that donation policy was new that had been in place.

Understood.

Got you. Thank you. That's it.

Okay. Vice mayor Safford. Any questions? No, I'm good. Thank you. All right.

No questions. Just thank you for the donation.

Yeah.

Yes. Thank you for the donation. I did not have any questions either. Um, If there's no other questions, is there a motion for resolution 26-173 to ratify the acceptance of 180 cubic yard sand donation? So moved. Got a motion by Councilor King. Second. Seconded by Vice Mayor Safford. Any further discussion?

Once again, since this is for sandbags, I hope we don't have to use it. From your lips to God's ears. Amen.

All right. Counselor King. Hi. Vice mayor Safford. Hi. Counselor link. Hi. Counselor McLean. And I'm an eye as well. That motion carries unanimously brings us to item F it's STA. Number one, tidewater 26 dash 14 dash PW. This is a motion to not ratify supplemental task authorization. Number one, to the agreement between the town of Fort Myers beach, and Tidewater Landscape of Florida LLC under ITV-26-14-PW for the Bay Oaks Park Sod and Irrigation Project in a lump sum not to exceed amount of $232,500 until adequate funds are identified for completion of the project, directing the town manager to cancel any previously signed STA for this purpose and providing for an effective date. Will?

Yes, as stated in there, Mr. Mayor, I am at this time asking to not ratify this. So we bring that project forward. It was just for full disclosure to the council and everything and everyone else. It came to my attention over the last couple of weeks that we did not have The full amount of the funds required within the park impact fee fund for the project, uh, due to some previously charged, um, projects to the park, uh, impact fees, not being, you know, that individual not being aware that those charges, uh, were still pending out of the park impact fee. Therefore we don't have enough in there for this. We'll continue to move forward with planning for this project when the funds do become available. And at that time, after all the due diligence required, I'll bring that back before council.

Councilor King, questions for staff?

Can I add real quick? I think Tracy has already worked on canceling the STA. So that part of the recommendation. That part is already done. Yes. Okay.

Councilor King. Yeah, I guess this is almost kind of embarrassing. I think we need to do a better job of getting handles on things before they come to light, I guess. This is something that we should have known before it was brought to us. So I'm sorry, but I'm disappointed in that.

Yeah, I want to echo that, too, because I was the one that asked the direct question. If we had a budget, it kind of doesn't look good. So I hope that if we are going to walk something on, that we've got all our facts straight from the get-go.

Councilor Link?

Yeah, same. I think sometimes walking on is a good thing, but it may mean we skip a few steps because we're anxious to do something, so... That's my comments as well.

Councillor McLean.

I accio my fellow council members. I do have a question. Was there any cancellation fees or anything from the provider? No. Thank you.

I guess I'll take my comments a little step further. I've always been one that you can't go backwards. You can't go back and change what's happened. I'm more interested in what we're going to do to ensure this doesn't happen again. Obviously, what we're going through with the town hall property, it seems to have spilled over then into now this, um, what processes are we working on or putting in place to ensure that this doesn't happen again, where we all have to sit up here and eat crow essentially for something that was very easily preventable.

I'm working on lots of, well, we've already made some process changes, and I will ensure that I'm working with finance and the departments to make sure that, especially in this case, it's not an excuse, it's absolutely because we walked this on, but to make sure that we have a process in place for those procedures as well, so we don't skip any steps that we do in a normal blue sheet process.

Okay. I wanted to point out that we already had under contract Tidewater for other things, so this wasn't a cancellation of them doing other things. This is just an additional scope of the work that they've already been approved to do.

That is correct, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. That's all I have. If there's no other questions or comments, is there a motion for Resolution 26-174, STA No. 1, Tidewater 26-14-PW, to not ratify the supplemental task authorization?

So moved, Mayor.

Okay. Got a motion by Councillor Link. I'll second. Seconded by Councillor McLean. Any further discussion? Councillor Link?

Aye.

Councillor McLean? Aye. Vice Mayor Safford? Aye. Councillor Kane? Aye. And I'm an aye as well. That motion carries unanimously. Next is item G, resolution 26-180, FY6-27 TDC grant authorization. This is a resolution of the town council, the town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, authorizing the mayor to execute two tourist development tax grant agreements for fiscal year 2026 to 2027 between the Lee County Board of County Commissioners and the town of Fort Myers Beach. for a shoreline maintenance 4-0-1-8-9-5 and albatross beach access 4-0-3-4-4-5 and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I've got Carolyn and Greg up to discuss these in detail for you. Go ahead, Carolyn. You want to start off?

So this is Resolution 26 dash 180. This resolution authorizes the mayor to execute two tourist development tax grant agreements with the Lee County Board of County Commissioners for fiscal year 2627. They total $905,375. These are bed tax dollars restricted to beach and shoreline purposes. This is outside revenue coming back to the town, not general fund dollars going out. Both agreements are cost reimbursement, effective October 1st of 2026. The town pays first and invoices the county monthly. Both require quarterly status reports within 25 days of quarter end. And reimbursement is gated on those reports being current. A late report stops payment. Both require evidence of substantial activity within six months, carry three year record retention requirements, and may be amended only in writing by both governing bodies. The resolution authorizes execution. The first project is 401-895, Beach and Shoreline Maintenance. The award is $879,108. It's classified as a maintenance grant. The term runs October 1st through September 30th of 2027 with the final reimbursement request due within 30 days after that. There is no carryover. Anything unspent or unencumbered at year end is lost and must be re-requested in the next application cycle. Three mound house items are expressly ineligible, the kayak launch, the observation pier, and the boat dock. Beach Patrol salaries are reimbursable only for the portion of time spent on beach maintenance. Time spent on enforcement is not reimbursable. The second project is 403445, the Albatross Beach Access. The award is $26,267 for beach access improvements at Albatross Street. This is classified as a capital grant. It's effective October 1st of this year and runs until the work is complete and paid with a three year outside limit. And there are no special conditions attached to this award and there is no town match.

Great.

Greg Bensek, Assistant Director of Public Works. To kind of go off of what Carolyn was saying, basically the Albatross access is something that we have down on our side here. It's a little further away from all our other accesses. It would be a great impact and accessibility for visitors and residents to get to our shoreline easily. Everything that I kind of looked at, what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it, I think is a great thing for the town.

Okay. Councilor King, questions for staff?

No questions.

Scott?

So just to recap, we don't actually get the funding. The funding is reserved for us, and we get paid as we have invoices submitted to the county. Is that correct?

That is correct.

Okay. Thank you.

So that leads to my question, Carolyn. Thank you for the way you've laid that all out. It's beautiful. So this, I'm sure, is in the 26-27 budget or will be considered. I believe it will be, yes. Okay. My next question to you would be cash flow. So we would assume that we have enough cash flow coming in so that these expenditures could go out, but do we need to know that we have it all right now? Or do we look at it like there are different times in the year? We get ad valorem taxes more during certain quarters of the year. We may have more expenses. Is that making sense? That does make sense. So the budget is one big number, but we can manage the cash flow quarterly or monthly based on amount of work done. Don't go past this because we're going to get revenue.

With these grants specifically, these are monthly reimbursements? AND SO TIMING SHOULD BE CLOSER TO OUR EXPENDITURES.

PERFECT. THAT'S EVEN CLEANER. THANK YOU.

The exclusions for the kayak launch and the observation deck at the mound house, I'm just interested why those are called out specifically?

I don't have the reason why those are called out, but this is a specific grant towards the beach and shoreline.

And the types of maintenance activities that this would entail?

I don't have the specifics in front of me. I'm sorry. I can get those for you.

Yeah, I could probably answer, but Scott is the CDC consultant. I'm sure he could probably, or the liaison, I'm sure he could probably answer your question.

Just the type of high level. High level, it's not beach and shoreline. But the one great thing is the TDC, we had a budget meeting back in April, I believe, and I think we're just $1,000 short from that $800. So there was a lot of cities that asked for money and didn't get it, and we pretty much got $99. percent of what we asked for. Thank you for your work on the TDC Scott.

Thank you.

You're going to try to get the money back, right? So for sure. Um, but no, that, that the main reason is, is the mountain house was not beach and shoreline.

Got it. Greg, you can talk specifically to what beach maintenance activities tie into this, please.

So we do have somebody from TDC that works at the mount house, which those two new structures would be able to be taken care of from that person. We do, under TDC, do have another vacancy that we could put at the mount house to ensure that those two are being taken care of. So that's fine. For beach accesses, that's just to beautify and maintain. Obviously, our beach access is the 26 that we have, planting row piling. vegetation, replanting, tree work, signage, like I said, but for those two specifics, I think the mound tasks would be covered under those two employees, and I don't see us having a problem with that.

Great job, Caroline, with the presentation. I think that's great. It's probably been the most informative since I've been paying attention or been on council that someone has laid out exactly how the grants work. But I think it's important to point out that These grants aren't, these historically have been very good for the town through the TDC, even pre-storm with getting money back for the Mount House for beach renourishment. So if there's any concern out there that these grants may be in jeopardy, this is something that the town has been doing very successfully for quite a long time. I don't want to say it's a rinse and repeat, but it's difficult, as Scott understands, to get funding from TDC. And I think historically our staff has done a great job of ensuring that Not only do we get the appropriation or the grant request in on time and getting it reimbursed, but we've done a great job of budgeting for it and getting reimbursed quickly. So I think that shows a history of being able to achieve the goal of getting what is specifically laid out to do what we need to. It's very tight, to Scott's point, it's a very small window of what fits in beach and shoreline. even though it's on the beach or it's on the shoreline, it doesn't necessarily meet the requirements that the state has put in place for us to follow.

Yeah, just for the record, the budget for the TDC for beach and shoreline was 12.9, almost 13 million, and we got almost a million of that back. And we were... We're able to do the budget without tapping into the TDC's reserves, which is huge. So I think the entire TDC did a great job recommending the beach and shoreline projects that we did have countywide, and we were a great benefactor of it. Well, obviously the pier is something that... Well, that's where the reserves... That's why we don't touch our reserves because... A lot of that money from the TDC came from the reserve fund. And a lot of communities are asking for, you know, hey, we want to build a park, and, you know, they want to tap into reserves. What they don't realize is the next year they're going to have maintenance on that park. So we're trying to do projects that create tourism but at the same time don't go after our reserves. Yeah. Great job. Thank you so much. That was very informative. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor? Yes? Just to echo on what you said, I think it's very important in lieu of what's been happening this month that folks be reassured. Carolyn, I think you did a great job today. Thank you for that. And working and talking with Will over the past few weeks, I have no doubt that changes and processes are in place to ensure that things are done accurately and on time. So thank you.

all right thank you thank you both all right there's no discussion or if there's nothing else is there a motion for resolution 26-180 for fiscal year 26-27 tdc grant authorizations just for in that it's missing the two in the at least on this printed out piece of paperwork and in the agenda packet it's it's there but it's not on the printed version So moved. Okay, a motion by Vice Mayor Safford. Second. Seconded by Councilor Link. Any further discussion? Vice Mayor Safford? Aye. Councilor Link? Aye. Councilor McLean? Aye. Councilor King? Aye. And I'm going to aye as well. That motion carries unanimously. Brings us to our final public comment. Howie?

Hi. As I was going past the commune today, by the sea grave projects, people are parking there on the street and then throwing their garbage all over the place. The town does a great job. They're trimming everything that's on the sidewalk. It looks beautiful. But right in, everybody's dumping everything. I have pictures. I've sent them to Will. And they need to clean it up before they go up 17 stories. Thank you, Howie. Anyone else?

All right. Seeing none, we'll close public comment. Town Manager's items.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to start off with just quickly answering Councillor Link's question from earlier today. For those days for the rural offshore, the wasting away would be approximately $4,000 in total parking that we would be – in total – that we would be – you know, not charging for that week. But, again, I'd like to go back to, as I've been looking at the past few weekends, I look at our other public parking areas, especially that side of town. I expect them all to be full for this event. So we'll more than make up for that. Thank you for that.

It is less than I thought it would be.

Thank you. So next I'd like to talk about the charter school committees and thank the community who – members for the great input we've received so far with applications for those charter school committees. However, we still have some where we've maybe not reached the mark for applicants that we'd like. So I'd like to just, for everybody listening, to further encourage those community experts or community members who just want to get involved and help us with that project or help us determine the feasibility of that project. More importantly, And so for facilities, we have one applicant for the facilities committee. We need at least two more to apply to be part of that. And for governance, similar situation, need at least two more to apply for the governance committee. For finance, we have a couple. We need at least one more. FOR OUR FINANCE COMMITTEE AND FOR HUMAN CAPITAL, WE HAVE ONE. WE NEED AT LEAST A COUPLE MORE TO APPLY. SO AGAIN, I'D LIKE TO ASK THE COMMUNITY AGAIN, THE INFORMATION IS ON OUR WEBSITE. WE WILL HAVE OUR PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER AGAIN PUSH THAT OUT THROUGH OUR SOCIAL MEDIA. AND COUNSELORS, I JUST ASK THAT YOU TOO REACH OUT THROUGH YOUR NETWORKS AND ASK FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR THOSE COMMITTEES. THE DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER 10TH FOR APPLICATIONS. Oh, yeah, and we also put an insert into the water bill for this month, too, for those who maybe wouldn't look on the website or others. It's been a little bit over a week now that I responded back to the school district on the draft ILA that they sent out, the most recent draft ILA that they sent in coordination with With Nancy and with Becky Vose and with Tracy, we reviewed that document, redlined it, and made some edits, recommendations back. It's been a little over a week. I haven't gotten an update. Since now it's reached another milestone, I'll reach back out to the deputy superintendent for an update on their response. I'd also like to just notify the council that I'm appointing Dr. Tracy Kohler, Deputy Town Manager, as the Interim Community Development Director during this time. So approvals at the community, at the directorate level will be done by Tracy going forward until further notice. And I'd like to add to what was mentioned at the beginning by several council members, my congratulations to Erin, the Bay Oaks team who just does a tremendous job for us with numerous things. But definitely the recognition so well deserved for Erin at the recent county level recognitions. That's all I have.

Okay.

Town attorney items.

No items.

I do have one question for you since we're on. Have you made any headway with looking into the sister city thing that we were talking about a few weeks back through the state level?

No. I have not made contact with the governor's office regarding that. No. But I will.

OK. I'd just like to let them know one way or another as soon as we could. If that's something, so it can come back to council for the discussion, if it's able to happen through state statute. All right. Town council member items and reports. Councilor McLean.

Uh, I have nothing.

Thank you. Okay.

Nothing new.

All right. Councilor King.

I just want to say this, that I think it's a misnomer by some, not everybody, that it's a paid vacation that we have two individuals on, and having known these individuals and seen how they busted their butts for this town, that's not accurate. But I understand the concern about employees being on a paid administrative leave, and Mr. Town Manager, it's your town to run, but I don't know if there's anything that these individuals can do as far as working from home that could still make a contribution to this town, and I'll just leave it at that. Thank you.

Okay. I don't know, Will, if you want to respond to that or not. It's up to you, but just take it under advisement.

I appreciate it. I'll take it under advisement. It was something that was discussed initially, and it will continue to be something that I review on a periodic basis with the HR director and the deputy.

All right. I do not have anything to add to that at this time, so if there's nothing else to add, John?

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road. Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go. So make the best of this test and don't ask why. It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time. It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right. I hope you have the time of your life. With that, I'll move to adjourn.

Wow, Green Day. Wow. Is there any objection? We are adjourned at 1134.