Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Good morning. Good afternoon. Pardon me, everyone. This is a meeting of the Marco Island Community Parks Foundation. So welcome. We have a fairly large agenda. The first order is to call the roll. Jim, could you call the roll, please?

Yes, sir. Director Cox? Director Folly? Director Champagne?

Here.

Director Ilitch? Director Richards? Here. Director Siegel?

Here.

Secretary Taylor?

Here.

Chair Brechnitz?

Here. So we do have a quorum, so we can continue. First of all, the first order of business is that we haven't appointed Board of Directors to serve. Joan, how do we do that?

Sure. So the first item of business is back in September 8, the city council meeting, council members reappointed our current directors. So Eric Brechnicks, Reni Champagne, David Cox, Mike Ilitch Jr, and Jim Richards were reappointed again for another two terms. And in addition to that, Ms. Dolores Siegel, who is the chairperson on the Parks and Recs advisory committee, is automatically a, director on the committee. So we just wanted to acknowledge that everybody has been reappointed again for another two years.

Okay.

In addition to that, at the same September 8 meeting, mister Greg Folly, was appointed to fill the seventh spot, on or the excuse me. The eighth spot, for the directors on this board. So we just wanted to acknowledge that the board has

eight members of Wouldn't it be the seventh spot and not the eighth spot?

The seventh, the city clerk is the ex officio. So I am a director as well, but ex officio.

Okay.

So that we just wanted to give an update to the public just to make sure everyone's is understanding that all of the members have been appointed for a two year term.

Okay. Item four is approval of the agenda. Any additions to the agenda? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve. So moved. Moved by councilor Champagne. Second. Second by councilor Siegel. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed like sign. The agenda is approved. And the next item is election of the chair and vice chair. So that's what we do now. Are there any nominations for chairman? I'll nominate Eric

I'll second

it. Okay. Any others? Okay. Let's vote on Eric Brechnitz.

I'm sorry. Who who made the second? I didn't quite

I made the second.

Oh, thank

you very much.

Jim Richards did. Call the roll please, Jim.

Yes, sir. Director Siegel.

Aye. Yes.

Director Richards. Aye. Director Champagne.

Yes.

Director Brechnitz.

Yes. So Director Brechnitz is appointed as chair. And that term is a year term, Joan?

That's correct. So we're a little bit out of sync right now. So the next time that there will be another election will be either September or October. That is the start of our annual meeting with this board.

Okay. Thank you. I think the rest of the the members should know that that in November, I I go off of the city council because I'm term limited out, and I intend to focus a lot of energy toward this group because I'll have much more time at that time. Next item is to nominate a vice chair. I'd like to take the privilege of the chair and nominate Counselor Champagne. Do I have a second?

I'll second. Second.

Second by Director Okay. Any others? Seeing none, would you call the roll please, Jim?

Director Brechnitz?

Yes.

Director Richards? Yes. Director Siegel? Yes. Director Champagne?

Yes. Okay. Director Champagne, Rene Champagne is the vice chair. Next item is approval of the minutes of August 21. Any additions or corrections to those minutes?

No.

Seeing none, would you I a motion?

Motion approval. Second.

Approved and seconded. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed like sign. The agenda is approved or the minutes is approved, pardon me. Okay. Next item, there's no old business. New business is amendment of articles of incorporation. And what this is is that if you're on the city council, you have to sign a financial disclosure form, which I think is called a a form one. Right? Is

that Yeah.

Yeah. And so the articles of incorporation of the foundation mirror that and say we have to do the same, but we found it difficult to recruit members when they had to fill out the form one. So we have asked for an exception to that for the foundation, and we're going to do that again. And that's what this is for. Joan, you want to expand on that, please?

Yes. So what we'll do is we'll take a vote to see if members want to continue with Form one or not. If you decide that you do not want to continue filing a form one, what we'll do is we'll bring forward to city council for their approval to remove the filing of form one for this board, and we'll put that through by ordinance or resolution, so we can change the articles, for this board.

Okay. I would like to move that we approve the elimination of Form one for directors of the foundation.

Second.

Second by Counselor Champagne. Any comments by the board? Would you call a roll on this one, please, Jim?

Certainly. Director Brechnitz?

Yes.

Director Champagne?

Yes.

Director Siegel?

Yes.

Director Richards? Yes.

Okay. That motion is approved and we will send that to the Marco Island City Council for approval. Correct? Will that be on the February agenda?

It will be probably on the second meeting in February. It's a little bit tight right now to get to the first meeting in

February. Okay. But but are you are you thinking about the consent agenda? Or

We can place it on consent. Yeah.

That way, you could do it the first one if you're gonna do consent.

Let let me work with the legal with the attorneys, and we'll see how quickly we can get that turned around.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. The next item is a presentation from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, Darren Spindler. Darren, I again. Darren

Spindler, Royal Marco Way, and member of Parks and Recs Committee. Today, I'm here to ask for a little seed money to help with a potential Owl Park that we have brought forth. It was worked on a previous Parks and Recs Committee about two years ago, and we've been able to pull it along a bit a little bit slowly. Here it is. So our goal here is to ask for $50,000 from the Parks Foundation today that we could use to get the drawings and everything that we need in order to get this, not only shovel ready, but also the ability to begin to raise funds.

And we've got members of the community who want to begin raising funds on this and do that through the parks foundation and ultimately be able to create this park. For members who haven't seen this project yet, the land is already owned by the city. It's a plot of land between Mackle Park and the Rackett Center along the walking path. And I'll show some photos of that here in a in a second. This is gonna give us the opportunity for folks, you know, students to visit the park, also for members of the community to visit the park.

But also, I think, people who come here and visit the island currently pull over on the side of the road to get photos of owls and things like that. And this puts it in a better environment for that and potentially takes them off the side of the road from taking photos and visiting nests. It also provides some additional green space on the island that would be preserved. And again, the property is already owned by the city. It also fits into the city and the parks and city master plans that were worked on over the past couple of years.

Inside the city master plan, continue to plan for the maintenance acquisition and enhancement of open space parks recreation facilities and programs for the enjoyment of Marco Island residents. And then under one point two point one, the city will develop a parks and open space master plan to assess desire and needed park lands, open space amenities, and continue to improve, identify current and projected shortfalls based on population or other community goals. And under that, letter g, there's opportunities for protection of sensitive habit habits and species and ark historical, archaeological, and cultural resources, which this project would fall directly under. When the parks committee did the park master plan, I believe, two years ago, 2024, guess, a year and a half ago in 2024, the number one thing that was identified by the group that sent out emails, held listening sessions in person, and sent out postcards was natural parks for local wildlife. So we bring this project that would fit directly under that.

For those of you who haven't seen the opportunity to watch the Americas segment where they highlighted the Owls, it was a beautiful documentary about Owls. And it was a great presentation for Marco Island, and I think we could leverage that into this project and give people the opportunity to view it with a QR code, for instance, on on-site because very few people probably have actually watched this other than those of us who live here on the island. People visiting probably do not know about the little owls on the island, at least in as great a detail as they went into in the show. So the piece of property that we're looking at here on the left hand side, at least my left hand side, Tamako Park, the other side goes to the Racket Center along that bike path. On the backside is Leland Way.

And on the next couple of photos, I'll show you some drawings that were done. I'm gonna skip this one because I think the next couple will show it a little bit better. But you see you can see here, I think we can do a much better job enhancing this piece of property with to make it a lot more aesthetically pleasing. When we get through this right now, there's a little drainage ditch there. There are some owls that are currently on the property.

But, you know, if you look at this, you can see the neighbors' houses in the background there. I think we can screen those off so that you don't have traffic pulling up from the backside. You can do some really nice landscaping on the backside with some, you know, trees and bushes. And then the only access would be on the on the bike path side so that people were were over on there. And I think from a neighbor's perspective, it would also eliminate people, you know, stopping and gazing at the birds over there.

These are some photos that I took again this summer. And you can see, it's not that aesthetically pleasing. And I think with what we're gonna try to do here, we can do a much better job. This was a earlier version of this. Doctor Portu, who started this project probably three years ago. I think the only thing that I would recommend that we take a look at changing is the parking. There was some parking included here on this. There's parking very close at Mackle Park in that people could walk very easily from Mackle Park. And I think it would also mitigate traffic going over to the neighbors on that side. So I think we'd wanna probably eliminate that.

So as long as we could get that through code code and whoever we need to work with with that. But outside of that, there'd be a little outlook which would really be the only thing that would be built up on there. All the rest of it would be natural habitat with some landscaping trees, bushes. And then, I think we'd be working with the Audubon folks to figure out, you know, spacing and how many owls can actually fit into this space. But, certainly, we've got some early support from them and also people in the community.

In addition to that, I've been working myself along with Linda, who's part of Beautification. And we've been working together to get some more trees in the parks. And I think we've got a good collaboration going here. They were able to secure $19,000 for us, as you guys know, through the Tree City USA money that you got through council. We appreciate that.

And working together, we were able to quickly identify where we could deploy those dollars and put trees in in a place that could make a difference in Mackle Park. But in 2027 and beyond, this would be another project that we could work together to put some of that Tree City USA money, in with other funds that we're raising to, make this a really nice facility. So that is another opportunity for us to, improve that spot. In addition to that, there are some folks that have received grant money. I'm not gonna hold my breath on that because the the pace that it takes to get grant money.

But in order to get any grant money, as you guys know, we've gotta start raising some of our own money in order to get any of those funds. And if we can get that, great. I know that a couple one of the counselors has also mentioned that she's got some early interest and potentially a private donor that's interested in helping with this project as well. So there are some grants available, but I think that process might take longer than the pain that it's gonna take to go through. And we may be able to get this done without it.

But, hey, if we can get it, Cape Coral was able to get some real money to do some owl protection in their community. So, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. But, again, our hope would be that we could ask for $50,000 here today that would get us the ability to get some some drawings, work with Dan Smith to get everything we need to do in order to make the shovel ready. And then at the same time, give us the the opportunity to begin raising funds. And I've got some people already interested in helping make that happen as well.

Okay. There's some questions here, Darren. Thank you for that presentation. Appreciate it. Doc director Champagne.

Thank you. Good presentation. Very supportive of the concept. I'd like to know more about what the you're asking for $50,000 Can you help fill us in? And what are you going to do with the $50,000

Yes. So, as this is my first project, walking through it, when I spoke with Doctor. Porto, he was obviously involved with Veterans Community Park and the work that needed to be done in that project order to get the drawings, to get the elevations, the water drainage, and all those things. We wanna make this so that we can get the the drawings done, get everything ready to go, the so that we can go out and say, hey, here's what this is. It's already been approved. Now we just need the funds and be able to then raise the money to then deploy it right away.

And do you have a specific civil engineer who's gonna be doing the work?

I think I would work with Dan Smith and potentially doctor Portu who has worked with a couple of the civil engineers previously to to make this happen.

No further questions.

Okay. Director Richards.

Thank you again for that presentation. Al's adorable. What's the big picture? If you had to guess, estimate, I understand what you're gonna kinda do with the $50, but is this a million dollar project that is gonna be funded partly from this and this and this and this? Or what do you think that number?

Yeah. So I think that the goal would be to, with 50,000 that we could get from here, that would be our end here from what your current funds look like. And that we'd go out and raise all the money necessary to complete this. In addition to that, I think, not only for this project, but I think for all future projects, I think as a community, we have to think about depreciation and replacement costs and things like that. Because when you're raising money on the front side, there's a lot of these projects that get started.

Then you have to go to you know, I I sat in enough parks and recs committee meetings and city council meetings to understand that budget in the future becomes very tight. And I think the appetite from the community, you know, to raise taxes isn't isn't there. But I think that there's some passionate groups of people, and especially in the in this case, the owl lovers, that if this project, for instance, you know, when I asked doctor Portu what he thought, he thought about half 1,000,000 just knowing what he knows about some of the other things and cost of, you know, this is really an observation deck with some landscaping and it's not a very large project. So I think that ultimately, whatever the number is, we need to raise more than that so that we also have replacement built in rather than going to try and raise funds later and beg and have a plan in place so that this part can be taken care of by people that are currently interested in it?

I would rather see you spend $500,000 on the park and the city take ownership since and that's who owns it and maintain it. Now, yes, that means city council has to look at it. But, I don't see I don't see raising funds from not for you know, for for these kind of purposes to also do maintenance as know, ad infinitum. To me, that's more of a city cost. But you answered my question. I appreciate the 500,000 because I first looked at this and said, I can't imagine you can do this for 50,000. So, yeah, you you gave me the answer. Thank you.

Director Siegel.

Are we saying that we want the 50,000 from the foundation, and then we are going to raise all of the other money, whether it comes from foundation or I know outside people are interested. Do can we do this ourselves and not ask the, the town of Marco to to can we hand them a finished product to then Yeah. That's the intent. Maintain it.

That's the So

isn't that what

we want?

That's the intent.

A 100%.

And I

wanted you to say

Yeah. The intent is to hand them over a totally finished project.

Yes.

And the intent here is to just be able to raise funds through through the foundation so that people can get the tax benefit, obviously, from the donations going directly in. And also having those funds not going into a general fund or wherever else that it may get lost. Goal here is singular project, plans, money, hand it over. But also have raised more funds than the that is necessary to complete it today. So that we have some to replenish, replace, fix, and keep the park up rather than just depend solely on the city budget on this in this case.

Right. Darren, as you as you look at our financials, you have to keep in mind that that some of the funds are already designated. A matter of fact, the great majority of the fund is designated.

Yep.

So we don't have a whole lot of money to spend at the moment. I would estimate somewhere in the neighborhood of a $125,000. I think the the the the biggest point that that we can do is figure out how to raise more money in order to fund projects like yours. I I think it's a worthy project. $50,000 seems like a lot of money to get ready.

For example, if you have to go out and hire a civil engineer, perhaps you can talk to the civil engineer about donating their time and taking a tax write off and saving some money that way. That might be a a cheaper way to get your project ready for the big push, which is the half $1,000,000 that we're we're talking about. $500,000 that we're talking about.

Yep. So the ask here was, you know, based upon historical knowledge of others who've gone down this path. So that's why I'm here. And Right. I understand that there is money that has been allocated for other things already.

There has been. And but but but it's a worthy project. We gotta figure out a way how to to pay

for And I I think if you guys, you know, if we find a a number that get worse, I think we can get this ball the ball rolling because I think there's definitely interest among parties.

Well, one of the things that we're gonna talk about during this meeting and the and the next speaker is gonna help us in that regard, and that is we have to have a consistent fundraising effort that we we put forth. It can't be sporadic, and it's gotta be consistent. And we can if you have donors that wanna designate money toward this project of yours, it it can be directed money. It can be restricted for that use only. And and we would honor that, obviously, if they give it through the Parks Foundation.

K. That's excellent.

And they can do that at any time.

Yes. You have such report more, Jim?

What question and a comment. One, if you were coming to me for a private business, investment, and you told me this $50 is your seed money, and you're gonna go raise the other $4.50, I would ask for a specific plan on how you intend. Like, what's your capital campaign campaign plan if you have people designated? How are you going to do it?

Yeah. So certainly, you know, in early conversation with doctor Porto, he's already willing and able to host an event to to raise funds. Counselor Henry has had a conversation about she's got somebody who is potentially interested. Certainly, going to the Owl Watch people and Britney and their group and making that happen. But I'm certainly, you know, aware of the challenges ahead.

I've done some work in fundraising and nonprofit before and, you know, aware of the hurdles ahead. But I do think there's plenty of people here on the island surrounding community that that do love the little the little owls and they're a passionate bunch. And I believe that we're gonna be able to to make this happen.

And my last is a comment to the group here. This is the first person that's given a presentation asking for the funds, which is what this board is to raise funds and then to decide how to use it for parking, recs, improvements, advancements, etcetera. And when it was formed, I believe the number one issue was shade. And, so money was put in. And my only concern is making any contributions yet until we at least understand the girth and plan for shade. So it's just my comment to the group.

Yeah. I think shade is important. I think shade was part of the original conversation, but so but the primary conversation was the band shell, and to to do an upscale version of of what we had so we could have events in the band shell that are meaningful and and would bring in the the community. Bless you. So in any event, I I do agree that the the the issues are extremely important. And Veterans Park is a perfect example.

Yes. Yep. My point is we know how much funds we have. We also need our own capital campaign plan.

Well, that coming later. Right? Yeah. Right.

And so when we find out that, hey, we have a million $2,000,000 and the shade is 2 and a half, we have to be careful where else we commit the money to.

Right.

My only comment, I'm not trying to throw it has nothing to do with the hours. I love them. I get I get it. And I think you got a worthy cause and it fits the island perfectly. So

Well, I think that we have, of our million dollars, I think we do have and it seems to be on the high side. We do have a bid for shade.

We we have got a we've got about a million $75,000.

Okay.

About 925 of that is is still part of the original donor.

Yes. And I think

So so that does give us maybe a 125 to

Of that $9.25, we know who the original donor is.

Yes. We do.

And we know that they have received a a bid or a an idea or a proposal from the town of Marco Island Yep. To spend 500 of that for shade. So we know that the that part is already allocated for shade. It for the layman, which I think I possibly am $1,500,000 for shade, you go, oh my god. It's an oh my god.

But when you do things through the town, what that's just the way it is.

The cost the cost get inflated.

Yeah. And, maybe if you and I were doing the shade ourselves, it would be less than that. I don't know if that's our purview to say, wait a minute. We've got we've got 500 allocated. We can go out and find somebody to do it less expensively. Is that what the Parks Foundation is about?

I think so. Okay. I think so. Okay. Yeah. Darren, well, obviously, your project has been well received. It's a matter of finding the funds to to help you do this. And there's others who are gonna follow you who are also gonna ask for funds.

I'm aware.

And and we'll and we'll try to we'll try to figure out a way to raise the money to accommodate all of you. Okay?

Yep. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. The the next item, I have to tell you, I was introduced to this young lady by former city councilor Greg Folly. And she's in the fundraising business and has been her entire business career. And I sat down and had a talk with her and came away hugely impressed with her talent and her ability to communicate.

So I asked her to appear in front of this group and make a presentation as to what she thinks we ought to do relative to raising money and and how it would work, and if she were to be involved, what she might charge for it. So with that, I'd like to introduce Melissa Phillips, who I've invited to be here today. Melissa, if you're ready to chat with us, welcome. Thank you.

Well, haven't done a proposal because I was just really coming because Chairman Brechnis asked me if I would give some opinions on some thoughts that I had that might help propel the mission of the Parks and Rec Foundation. I know that previously, there's been a lot of talk about grant writing. And grant writing is very important, of course. But with grant writing comes a lot of restrictions. So some of the ideas that I instill in my company and how I raise money and how I've been successful are probably a little bit outside of the box of what we've what's happened on Marco Island, but certainly not outside of the box in the bigger picture on the even in the Naples, Collier County stage and so forth, where maybe larger donations are happening.

So some of the things that I think might be very helpful is really diversifying how you want to raise money, not just specifically on grants. I did do a proposal when there was a conversation about having a grant writer. But I also think, based on on the demographics that we have in Collier County and Marco, and I keep saying Collier County because it is I do believe that the conservation and the growth of Marco and the preservation reminds me a lot of Sanibel and Captiva back when it was getting started. And we can be along the same lines as that in a lot of ways. So I do think there are donors that are off of Marco Island that would certainly be interested in helping.

So some of the things that I've done that have a low investment, so to speak, are geofencing. I'm not sure if we're used to geofencing. But as an example, if there was a large event, as an example, where there were a bunch of conservationists and we were raising money for an owl project, we might put a geofence around that area. And what the geofence basically does is if I open my phone and I'm at this certain event, then all of a sudden, for lack of a better word, you would start seeing ads about the OWL project. And so when you have your Googles and you're googling something or you're looking at something online, your ads on the side would be specifically about this project or about the parks and racks.

And so you continually are in front of showing what's going on, whether it be a video, an advertisement, a link directly to the website. Then whenever you go back home and you get on your own Wi Fi, it's also within your television now. So it shows up in your Netflix and all of your other, types things. That's why when you open your computer on Yahoo, for example, you may see things for Newsweek or Forbes or whatever it is. All of that is geofencing.

So I think that would be imperative to create a major donor pool based these are my thoughts. I haven't seen the donors. I don't know who you're working with directly. But this is certainly something that is being done more and more, less so much in Southwest Florida. But for example, when the Harvard Business School comes to Naples and they raise millions of dollars, they certainly do geofencing. So this is something that's been done in marketing, if anyone has any marketing experience. And it is pretty common. And it's not very expensive, honestly, for the ROI. Plus you can track all of the IP numbers. You have a way to follow-up with people and so forth.

So I would certainly suggest that maybe when you start thinking about strategic plan, if I were doing the plan, would put in geofencing. The other thing is certainly analytics are really big in fundraising right now. Back in the day, we used to take a zip code and just send out mass emails or excuse me, mass postcards. Well, that's expensive. And it's not really targeted.

But there are so many analytics today and so many different software programs where you and a lot of donations are public. So I would certainly suggest that you purchase a subscription for some fundraising software, which is research. So it's nothing that hasn't been reported publicly. It's nothing that's untoward. It's very common.

But basically, if you put in conservation, Southwest Florida, owls, it will drill down a list of people that might be interested. And it'll also give those people a rating of the propensity of why they might be interested. So I would definitely encourage everyone to have a very targeted approach. Sometimes when we, as fundraisers, focus directly on grant writing, first of all, as was alluded to, there's such a long wait. And there are so many different hoops to jump through, as well as there's a lot of ties.

So when you have a grant, especially a government grant and I'm sure you're all familiar with this it's very much it's a lot of reporting back, a lot of strings, a lot of control with that. But if you are able to create a relationship and a strategy with donors that are interested in the projects and you have multiple projects I hear from everything from shade, veterans park, conservation, and the racquet club I've heard, and some different things you can really drill down and start pipeline of those donors. So I would certainly suggest probably a little more focusing on getting your analytics in place, starting a very focused strategy with that and working one on one because relationships people give to people, and also putting together compelling marketing. Marketing is very important, and it's often overlooked. It's like, well, we like Owls, so everyone likes Owls.

Sorry, I'm not picking on you. It's just the presentation. But it's important to show why. It's not just we like owls, they're endangered, and they're a part of our culture. Well, what else do the owls do?

Well, they're very important of the ecosystem and the larger picture. So really, the storytelling, I think, is absolutely imperative as far as the donors go. And certainly building out your committees, not just what you have here, which, of course, is a board and a foundation, but also looking into the community and having people like this gentleman who wants to head up the Owl Initiative and so forth. So those were just some of my initial thoughts. I have done some just basic research about the propensity of some of the projects.

And there are a lot of corporations and CEOs in Southwest Florida that you may or may not be aware of. I mean, we have a very high end CEO who lives in Everglade City that you would never think of, that lives in a tiny little cabin on the water out there. But he is a multibillionaire and gives quite frequently to conservation and very much under the radar. But the average person or fundraiser or volunteer would not know that because you need you know, we're in we are in the digital age. So the digital age is very important.

These types of softwares are not tens of thousands of dollars. So you can start at all different levels and then also specific software for grant writing that would tell you individual foundations. Those are always easier to work with than government entities. So those were just some of my thoughts when I spoke with Chair Brechnitz about how to diversify, how to funnel money in quicker, how to get the project started, how to get the seed money, and then, of course, working someone to match is always very pivotal. As well as marketing within the magazines outside of Marco.

I would very much suggest that you have a strategy that is really Southwest Florida to benefit Marco. And I think you'd be surprised at the donors that would do that because I'm sure many of you are members of the zoo, of the conservancy, of the botanical gardens, etcetera. And so that might tie into more of the tourist portion of that as well. So those were just some initial thoughts that I was thinking of when I was asked to come and speak.

Melissa, I've got a question for you. I have suggested just out loud in spitballing this idea that one very fertile group of people that might be willing to give us money, and I am not talking about billionaires who might give us a significant amount, but somebody who might give us $10,000 to $20,000 range, that anyone who has an IRA or a four zero one k who happens to be over the age of 72, and I'm probably the only one in the diocese that is over 72. No. Maybe,

maybe not.

I don't I have to confess that Doris Segal and I went to college together. So we are

We don't talk about it. But

IRS rules are that you have to start taking the required minimum distribution at that age and that up to $100,000 of that required minimum distribution can be donated to a charity called a charitable QCD, a qualified charitable distribution. How would you go about focusing on on that segment of people who might who might be willing to do that?

Yeah. So that's definitely a huge part of fundraising in Southwest Florida. And also planned giving is very important. But what you can do as far as, like I was talking about with the database, I would segment all of the donors within different categories. And when you fundraise, your message to different donors are all different based on where they are in their life, their what they you know, if they are looking for their name on a building or if they tend to give anonymously.

And certainly, that would definitely be an integral part of the fundraising on Marco Island in Southwest Florida is to develop a plan, a fundraising plan, that is specifically for that. Just like you would have a fundraising plan that would be specifically toward private foundations, Corporations are often missed. And this is not a criticism, but on Marco, I know we have a lot of small businesses that are very generous. But there are a lot of really large corporations in Collier County, like Uline. Uline has a headquarters here, and they're very philanthropic.

And there's Arthrex. I know it probably doesn't sound like that's a good fit, but Arthrex has a huge initiative for health and wellness. Well, I'm sure some of their employees live here. So they're and they do and the other portion is matching gifts. And some of you that have been in industry, you understand that sometimes companies do matching gifts.

So it's a multipronged approach to get to the same goal because not if you give one pitch, it's not gonna resonate with every person. So I would suggest saying and I'm making this number up. We have $5,000,000 And then you mine the data a little bit, and you look at it and say, Okay, I think we could get x amount from a corporation, x amount from private foundations, so much for an IRA distribution. And then also because it is a community initiative as a community on Marco Island, I would certainly try to set up a monthly giving program, which is smaller, but it's very important for everyone to feel like they have a part of it because people, you know, even if they can't give a million dollars, if they can give $10 a month, all of those gifts are the same. And they, you know, they all go into the same pot.

And it certainly teaches the younger generation how to be philanthropic and especially our school age children and so forth. And then also the parents who might be working now, but in twenty years, they may be in a position to make a larger donation. So a fundraising plan isn't just one dimensional. It's very layered, and there's lots of different components of that. But you asked my suggestion.

So I would certainly before I started looking at necessarily giving out money, I would want to put together not me, but I would say you should put together a comprehensive fundraising plan and then work from there. Because if you don't have a plan, then you're just kind of shooting in the dark and hoping for the best. That doesn't mean it's gonna be exact because plans morph. So you might be surprised and get more money from corporations than you do from individual donors. But at least you have a goal and you have a targeted approach rather than just fumbling through.

K. And

My only comment was what you just ended with is exactly where I think we need a comprehensive plan

Mhmm.

For fundraising, and I'm glad you're here. I like the presentation. And, of course, later, how do we spend a 100,000 to make a million?

Right. And then also, I just wanna bring this up because sometimes it's forgotten, but they really are hand in hand. Marketing and fundraising are hand in hand. So it it has to be storytelling. No one just gives because they have a piece of paper, and it's a nice brochure. So when I say that, it's also you know, part of that has to be marketing and telling the story in a way that resonates with different donors and different types of donations and all those things. So I don't want to just box it into it's just a fundraising. It's really more of a storytelling of what you're looking for.

Do you find it necessary that the storytelling is specific project specific versus general? I've been involved in fundraising myself, but it's always very specific to a project. Not general, let's contribute to the Parks Foundation, which is seems to me not to be touchy feely enough.

Mhmm. I think what happens is you really build it from our overall vision is this. And I don't know what that is because I haven't delved into it. But our overall vision is to have a community in Marco Island where it's safe to ride your bike and we have wildlife to see and you can enjoy all these amenities. And then as you're talking to your different donors, they will tell you what they're interested in.

I really like to go to the Racquet Club. Or, you know, I remember I was part of the group many years ago that built the new Mackle Park, the playground. So But maybe some of those mothers or myself at the time, my son was like two. If you would have asked me about owls, I would have been like, no, I need somewhere to take him so he can run this energy off. So I think you have an overall idea of what what, you know, the comprehensive idea is this community that we want, kinda like Babcock Ranch did.

Right? They started this idea or Captiva. We wanna have this community that is environmental and healthy and like the blue zones. And then your subsets are, as you're talking to people, here's some of our initiatives. This is what we're looking at. And then they'll tell you, I like this, or tell me about this a little more, and maybe it's a miratage. I mean, best case scenario is always an unrestricted donation. It always is because then you have a little more leeway in case. I always say when people say, oh, the program it's only gonna cost a $100,000. And in my mind, as a fundraiser, and I'm like, okay.

It's 200. Because you know things happen. So it's rather to over instead of saying, oh my gosh, the money's due and we don't have it. So I think you start with the overall vision of what you want the community, meaning Marco to be, and then you build it out underneath of it with the specific initiatives and you have options for donors.

Now if we were inclined to go the fundraiser strategy, namely involving you, do you personally become involved in the project?

Well, I do have my own consulting firm. I only raise funds for one organization at a time because otherwise, it's really disingenuous. But I do work with other nonprofits for strategy, for marketing, for social media, for all different things. So but yes. And I do have other people that help me. I mean, I don't set up the geofencing. Okay. I know enough to be dangerous. I know what I want. I know what I'm trying to capture. But as far as going in the back end and programming the computers and making sure that's set up, No. But I do obviously look at the data, arrange the data. Sometimes we say, Okay, I'm not getting what I want. I want to move it over here. So very involved in the strategy.

It's very much like a chess game. So but, yes, I am extremely involved in that and meeting or coaching. Sometimes, you know, with fundraising, as an example, you know, someone may prefer to talk to you than a fundraiser or or as a group, two together, one together, coaching, here's the packet, we meet beforehand, here's what I think we should talk about, here's my suggestion. And then it just depends. But yes, I'm very hands on as far as fundraising.

Let's consider the Parks Foundation as an example. We're not part of the city. We're a separate entity. However, we conduct our business in the public. How do you set strategy in public conversations? Seems to me to be a little difficult to do that when you're on TV and you're telling people in advance the kind of strategy you're going to employ to get them to compete?

How do you think about

Have you

worked with public entities?

I have not worked with like a city of Marco Island or things like that. But I was the executive director for the Erin Brockovich Foundation. And she's extremely public. So we did we were very open. I spoke in front of Congress and these different things for that. And I've worked for a government agency in Italy, so not quite local as far as that goes. But I do think that there is something that all fundraisers and certainly foundations that are raising money should abide by, which is the donor bill of rights. And it's very specific. Encourage you to take a look at that. You might know about that as a donor.

But it's not something where we would be coming up coming during a meeting and talking about our top 20 most richest people in Collier County, this is what we're doing. It's not because we have to protect their anonymity. It's their story to tell if they want to say what they've donated or not. So there's certainly confidentiality that is covered under that. But as far as a plan in place, I mean, you could certainly share the plan. People will copy it. That's what happens, unfortunately. But if it needs to be public by the Sunshine Law or whatever is governed, could do that. But certainly not because of the donor bill of rights. Specific people's names, unless they agree that it's public, are kept private.

Well, you. Renny, that's a really good question for the city attorney. We are bound by the sunshine law, but that applies to our conversations with each other as opposed to talking to you or talking to a donor or talking to someone else. So I I think there can be a significant amount of anonymity involved. And I know with the million dollar donor that we had that for a long time, he he preferred just to stay anonymous.

So are

we And we kept it that way.

If we choose to work with you, do you present us with a comprehensive fundraising plan? Is that how we begin? How does it how how do you work with a group like this?

Well, generally, what I would say is, you know, I always say put together it doesn't have to be huge, but put together what needs to happen for you to consider it a win. Is it a matter some people are like, no. We want a lot of marketing because, you know, they want that together. Or we want a strategic plan. Okay.

Well, in the strategic plan, is it we want, you know, a million dollars for Al's, a million for this, dollars 200,000 for that? And then we have a conversation based on that. Because if I just went home today and said, Okay, I'm going to put together a strategic plan, it wouldn't be worth the paper it's written on because I don't know enough information about your goals, your budget, what you're looking for, your timelines. So it would definitely be a conversation of what exactly are you looking for. Do you want it to be something that's drug out?

Or are you looking for someone to basically be available full time so that it's done quicker? Or is this when I spoke with the city before, they were looking at something, I believe it was over two years. I have a difference of opinion in that because I think if you drag things out, people lose interest. But that would be a decision that would have to be made if that was a goal that you had. So I would just say talk amongst yourself, however that works, within your guidelines and say, here's what we really want to do. Here's best case scenario for goals. And would you be willing to put together whatever that is? Strategic plan, that would be step one. Would you be willing to work with us? That might be step two.

Because you might want me to put a strategic plan in place, but you might have someone else in mind to implement it or oversee it. There's several steps. But I really would highly encourage you to do a strategic fundraising plan. It doesn't have to be 30 pages thick. It can at least be so that there's more of a plan in place because it will change. It's a stagnant plan. Strategic plans aren't

So how would you suggest we would begin that process?

I would suggest that you get together or share with me how much money you want to raise, maybe your top three projects. Share any information you have about that. And then tell me your budget. And you know, we talk about it from there. That's generally what I do when I meet people.

I think that's part of our problem is we can't just sit down somewhere and have a cup of coffee And talk about and talk about what we wanna do and how we wanna do it. This is where we can get together.

So maybe I don't know if it's allowed because I like I said, I've been in this but maybe one on one coffee meetings to say, this is what I'm thinking. This is what I'm thinking. And then I could put together an overall document. You could all look at it and say You vote on it

or say you have an agreement. You could do that. Yeah. Or or we could talk about it in an open session.

Mhmm.

If we discussed it in an open session, it would be best if it'd be done on the parks and rec. Let them help us understand what the top three or four projects might be.

Mhmm.

And then we can entertain what their input is as a committee and decide if we want to narrow it or expand the list a little bit, but at least let them tell us to get going because we suffer from the same problem that you have. We said write us a strategic plan, you wouldn't know what to write. Guess what? We don't either. We are at that same loggerhead and we need to figure that out. I think maybe the Parks and Rec Committee is already doing it.

Well, we just did a Parks Master Plan there were recommendations in

the and

that's a good starting point for us. That's a very good point.

Mhmm. Yep.

Or one on one meetings with maybe Parks and Rec or each of you, and then I can compile everything, and then you take a look at it.

Have you have you seen the Parks Master plan?

No, sir.

Maybe that's the first step for you is Mhmm. Is to get you a copy of that master plan. Mhmm. Can we do that, Dolores?

Oh, sure. There's no Samantha Malloy is here, and I think she can get her a copy of the master plan. That's that's another issue. Yeah.

Are you

here, Samantha? Oh, there you are. Can would you get Melissa a copy of the master plan?

I'll give her my card.

That's an excellent idea.

So you can take a look at that and then maybe start from that position.

Okay. Take a look at that. Okay.

Because that that will that will tell you some projects Mhmm. That and this is the the a Parks and Rec Foundation. So we have a specific charge, and that's the parks of Marco Island. Okay.

And when you do get the plan, you we probably can highlight which items have already been addressed.

Mhmm.

And it will save a little bit of time from that point of view.

If there are

any it's about questions a $25,000,000 project.

Yes. You and I can sit down and we can I can give you some clarity on questions you have Okay? About Yes.

Excellent idea.

Okay. And it it might be behoove us to even ask the beautification committee. At times, we we work, yeah, with them, and the projects are done together. So I think we could include they're on the periphery

Like trees, for example.

Yeah. And we when we do our the a lot of times, the trees are part of everything we do, the Owl Project and so forth. So I think it might behoove us to open it a little bit more and have Parks and Rec involved. I mean, and have beautification involved in some of this.

Well, I thank you because I think what you've done is open our minds to what we need to begin thinking about. And from that point of view, it's fertile opportunity for us. Now sharing some information with you in the parks master plan, We can continue the conversation once you finish that and once we've come up with some other ideas ourselves and we have a couple more yet to be discussed in this meeting. But very good. Thank you. Nice presentation.

Thank you. Yeah. And, Alyssa, thanks so much. And read the read the master plan, and then we'll be in touch.

Alright. Thank you very much.

Okay. Alright. I'm gonna call a five minute recess. K. We'll come back in five minutes and and begin again.

Yep. Very good.

The next item is is a recommendation for the record center improvements, and we have Tim Arnett who's here to speak. Tim, good to see you again.

Is everybody this afternoon? Great. Good. Tim Arnett, 1731 Ludlow Road. Been a full time resident for about the last seven years. The good news is my presentation will probably take about five and a half minutes because I have an Uber to drive me over to Everglade City immediately so we can raise some funds. So it won't take long. The PowerPoint, you see it up front. How does this make sure we get everything in sync here? But on behalf of myself and all the pickleball community, wanna thank you all for your time today and your generous to allow us to go through this process.

Right? So it's all learning for me and our team as well in regards to how things work, but we'll try to get through this and answer any questions that you may have. But yeah. So before we get started, just personally, once again, thank you for your time and effort today as we as we go through the presentation. One of the key things that I believe when we when it comes down to pickleball and what we have here on Marco Island is so special compared to other places in the country where pickleball is is relevant.

And the the group of people that we have here, not only are do we play pickleball literally every day, but we become very good friends. And so I talk about this a lot with people that I meet in our community as well as outside. But if somebody has cancer, we do cancer together. If somebody has a new grandchild, we talk about that. Birthdays, anniversaries, funerals. So in the end, what we have is we have this tremendous community here on Marco Island that is so special. And and even if you go twenty five minutes up north to Naples and go visit, it isn't anything like this. It's all, hey. Who can I partner with to win this game? And you're just trying to keep track of your wins and losses.

But on Marco Island, you literally will play a game, and it could be a random foursome that you're playing with. And you sit down, and then literally, it's a social, as Rob Kirzmanich said at the last meeting. You're you're literally there keeping up, talking to people. What's new in your life? What can we do to help you?

And what's happened is is the extension of those relationships that we've made on the courts, they carry over well after the courts. So literally, every night, a lot of lunches, we're doing something with that common theme tying back to pickleball. So way the way I describe it to others is it's the people who God puts in your life and doing this side of heaven together because, really, what we have here and the people that my family and I have met, the friends, these relationships continue well outside of pickleball. So when you look at why it's so important, where we're at, and why we're doing what we're doing, it's all one reason, and that is for family and friends. And to some degree, you could even make a business case to say, it isn't even about the pickleball.

It's about those relationships. So what we're talking about here is worth investing in our generation and for the next generation. So what we want to do is, in a perfect world, is we would expand the number of pickleball courts to a total of 24. Right now, there are currently nine. One is slated for demolition.

And then in a perfect world, if it's approved by city council, we would add a total of 16 more pickleball courts and then rehab two of the tennis courts that are in desperate need of of repair. What we'd like to see is create a maintenance reserve for future repairs and labor requirements. And and overall, what we're talking about simply is just beautification of the property. Many of you have gone out to see the property right now, and and let's just say it's in disarray. And what we wanna do is we wanna breathe new life into into the the facility.

What we're talking about is is raising funds to do many different things, but the addition of the pickleball courts, refurb of the tennis courts, put a fence all the way around it. And Samantha and I have spent a lot of time. But a lot of times, people come in, and they go on that ninth court that's not fenced in. It irritates the neighbors. Walk in traffic gets really difficult to control.

The drop in, some drop in, some don't pay, some do pay. So just trying to bring better process to the entire configuration. Part of it also is expanding the bicycle parking. We know we're constrained on car parking. And generally, what happens is we start getting toward the January, moving into February and March, A lot of people, including myself, my wife, will start riding our bikes up to the park because the parking becomes a little bit of a constraint at times, or we'll carpool together.

But in the end, we wanna have a setting where people can bring their bikes and and and have plenty of parking to do whatever we need to do. And if as you walk back toward the tennis court areas, there really isn't any seating areas, so we wanna bring some seating back there. So, really, what we're talking about from 100,000 foot view is just making a good thing 10 x better. And and the most important piece of this for me personally is the fact that whatever we do, and if it is approved by the foundation and if it is approved by city council, the most important part of this and I've lived on both sides of the equation when it comes to having things in my backyard that I didn't want in my backyard. But the most important thing here, in my opinion, and the pickleball community's opinion, is that we do what is in the best interest for our neighbors.

So we don't want to go in and add a whole bunch of courts and not have the noise protection in place and then say, oh, we gotcha. Happy living for the next twenty years while all this noise is going on. So what we're doing is we're gonna we're spending a tremendous amount of time and effort. John Ages and I, we're talking quite a bit. Samantha's helped introduce me to some of the other neighbors. And and so really what we wanna do is make this a high level consensus. Right? Because I it's not fair to jam the neighbors. And so we wanna have a situation where the neighbors are bought in. They're happy with the proposal.

Pickleball community's happy, and we let this thing ride into the into the sunset, if that makes sense. My understanding is there were previously approved funds by the city council from last year, and if possible, we would like to utilize those. If not, then our group, the pickleball group and the fundraiser side of things, will be fully committed to fund the entire project to do this beautification. So if there's money allocated, and I've heard yes, no, yes, no, there is money, there isn't money. To be honest with you, I don't know if there is any money.

But if there is and it could be allocated to what we're trying to do, fantastic. If it needs to go to other projects such as ours or whatever the case may be, our the pickleball community is a 100% committed to raising the funds necessary to do this solely on our own. Okay? So I think that's a very important part of this. And they're doing it be because they believe in Marco Island for starters.

They believe in the family and the community that's been created, and we all view from the pickleball side of this that it's worth protecting for the generations to come. Okay? So as it comes down, and I'm kinda learning this as I go through through various people who have been so gracious with their time. But my understanding is is the vehicle that we would like to utilize is the foundation's five zero one c three. And what we would then do is form a private public partnership.

So in essence, if approved by the foundation to raise the funds, we would then go to city council and get approval. And then if that all works out, then we would set up this this foundation, this five zero one c three, where where we will go off and raise the money. People that make contributions would be able to deduct it from their taxes, like a normal charitable type organization. Then the pickleball group, approval from city council, would literally go off and do all this work. We would solicit the bids.

We would do the work. We would literally take the current racket ball racket facility and transform it into what we view as the two b. And then when that is all completed, then it would go back to the city. So there isn't anybody on our side of the table that wants to be in the pickleball management business. Right? We don't wanna manage this. We don't want profit out of it. Literally, we're doing this because we love Marco Island, we love the community, and we love the people. Alright? So in essence, if approved, we would literally set up the foundation, get the approval.

We'd raise the money, complete it from A to Z, and then give it back. So that's a very high level of what we're trying to do. And then so I wanted to put this slide together. And I've only got a couple more. So this is fairly condensed. So there's multiple legs of the stool with what we're trying to accomplish. And the number one on top, which I mentioned earlier, is the noise control for our neighbors. So to me, that is the most important part because we get the text. We get the emails. I see the pressure on Samantha's face and Brian's It it it's just relentless.

Right? So in the end, what can we do to create a world class pickleball facility center and have the best noise control ever? So it doesn't mean it will be zero, but let's face it. The as is and the way things are right now, it's a mess. We have neighbors that are upset. The noise control is there to some degree. So the number one thing, and that's why it's on top, is the noise control for our neighbors. The second thing is tennis endearment. Right? So a lot of the courts just they're just in their they need repairs. And there's a lot of work to be done on several of them. But we you know, this isn't about pickleball versus tennis. This is pickleball and tennis working collectively together. Does that make sense? The maintenance reserve been talked about.

In a perfect world, we would have maintenance dollars that are carved out that are accruing, and I'm not sure how all that works with city government. But in a perfect world, we would have some of the dollars from the the membership being applied to an accrual. So then repairs are made. It's simple. You you go into the accrual.

You get a you get a bid. You fix the courts, and that money continues to go in from income from members, and it goes out for the repairs that are that are necessary. Financial stabilization, a lot of conversation about this over the last couple years. So in the end, I get the rec center, for the most part, loses $55,000 a year. And when you take a look at that number, when you look at the membership, and then in a perfect world, when all the courts are built, we could literally bring over those 900 waitlist members.

And the financial situation changes significantly then. The reality is you could probably take the current due structure, maybe increase a little bit. But when you go from three fifty members up to whatever that number is, right, we have to figure that out. And Samantha and her team are doing a great job of getting that nailed down. But let's say we have 800 members compared to where we're at three fifty.

The financial goes from a red situation to definitely a black situation. So there's a big component of the financial stabilization taking it out into the future. Community access and equity, I think it goes without saying right, but we have people that visit Marco Island every day, every month. And what would happen is if I'm staying at the Marriott, do you have open space? Well, with 24 courts, we would have space to literally bring in any members from hotels or outside visitors, along with taking care of the current Marco Island members that are currently associated with it.

But we also have this long wait list. And like Samantha was saying, that pressure becomes very significant. So in essence, once the gift and the performance is done, it's handed back. The wait list comes in. There's plenty of room for growth as well on top of that. So you kind of see where I'm going with this, where there really aren't a lot of downsides from what I can see. And then in the end, you know, the world the world class member experience. So we wanna we wanna continue to keep Marco great, feel like pickleball is an extension. I've been in several conversations about how pickleball is the fastest growing sport. Collier County is the fastest growing county in the country for pickleball.

So in the end, this is about creating an environment for right now, but it's more about five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty years down the road. Does that make sense? And then, yeah, the last thing, just once again, thank you for for your time and and your time today. I've been personally working on this behind the scenes, trying to understand where we're at, getting alignment from the pickleball community. So I've I've personally been involved in this for fourteen months now.

And, you know, it's it's fascinating learning how the process works, how the foundation works, how city council works. So I'm learning as I go, but thank you for your time and your patience today. And more than happy to ask any questions. We we have some pickleball people here if you wanna hear from others. So but I think in the end, I I told everybody from day one when I got involved, the most important thing that I think I can bring is just transparency. Right? So we're not trying to pull on over on anybody. We wanna have full transparency with city council, with the foundation, with parks and rec. So I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Tim, we do have questions. And I don't

wanna My Uber is just about here.

I don't wanna hold you up for your from your Uber. So when you have to go, just just say so. Jim Richards.

So is this going to be like a top golf multiple level? Where is the square footage of land that you're going to put 24 quarts on?

Yes, great question. So on this slide here, and this is looking at several of the proposals in the past, and you see the North South so you have an idea. But in the lower left hand corner is where the current check-in center is at the complex. And then over to the right, that is all the parking in the dark blue in the lower right. And then where the Racquetball Center is, my understanding is that is to come down.

And missus Siegel and I have talked about that a little bit as well over the last few months. And then the the one pickleball court to the south of the Racquetball Club, that one is set for demolition as well. So everything in the dark blue up on on the screen would become parking. And then on the left, you see the the current eight pickleball courts right now. So the plan would be to take that those eight right there and then stamp it going back to the south, So two more times to the south.

So there would be 24 total pickleball courts on the left. And then there are already two tennis courts right now that are in yellow. But quite honestly, those courts are in such bad shape. I don't even the one in the back doesn't even have a net. But our plan would be to get those two tennis courts in yellow back up to world class and then have the 24 pickleball courts on the left, and then the blue is all parking.

I'm sorry. I don't see how you go do you have a picture of the 24?

Here they are. Let me show you.

Yeah. That's fine.

Okay. These are the eight we have now.

Okay.

These are the 16 we're going to put in. And now, on this side, where it's green, those would be those would be our tennis courts.

Right. I get that. So now

you got 24 racquetball courts, 24 pickleball courts, and two tennis courts. Got it?

Okay. So these are all tennis courts that you're

Yeah. Right?

So you can put a lot more than six in there.

That's what

I'm No. It's fine.

We're gonna put eight we're gonna have eight here and eight here.

Gotcha.

You can take those tennis courts and make them each.

Eight? Yeah. No.

It's fine. No.

It's I know you gotta run.

No. No. I was being facetious on the

He's gonna go see the billionaire.

Oh. Yeah. So I have all the

time in the world. What

do you estimate the entire project to be?

That's a great question. So looking at previous bids that city council had had and to do what we need to do. So the big question is the noise control and getting the right product in there and the right installation. If I were to guess, I think we're going to be between 2,800,000.0 and $3,000,000 total.

Go ahead.

All right. Because we're talking 24 quarts. Okay. Yeah.

But so the noise is an unknown. So we haven't really gone out to get quotes yet. Dolores has done a lot of work in the background. So we just don't know. But for my clock, I'm just assuming it's gonna be 3,000,000, and then hopefully it will come down.

So you think with a thousand numbers, you can raise the 3,000,000?

I I very optimistic.

Yeah. So what's your ask from us?

So our ask really, the the pickleball community, what we want to ask is is the ability to use the foundation. So then as people members and other other people in the community, you know, submit their dollars that they will be able to write them off through the 501.

Administrative backing

Yes, sir.

A legal entity.

Yep.

That's all I have. Answer

to answer one of the questions about the money that was left from our the original plan for pickleball, they did have $500,000 left. No. This is in the town, not not us, not the foundation. No. This is the town of Marco Island, but it's Well, spoken

I've asked for balances in all of our fund accounts, and it appears to me, if you can believe the number, and we're gonna have to check on it, but it it appears to me it's more like 800,000.

Well, as of yesterday, Peter no. Tell me, Sam, who was sitting what's his name? Joe. Joe. God. When you get elderly. Joe was there, and Joe told me there is, in his estimation, there's really only 500,000. And But wait a minute. Then I want you to hold on when I give you this. We are going to tear down the existing building, and we are going to tear up the pickleball courts, our teaching court, and we are going to make that into parking.

So we're tearing down a building and we're making parking. And I want you to hold on when I tell you, he told us that it would take the whole 500,000. Now, you say to yourself, how could that be? It can't be. But not to say this is working with the town. This is what it takes. They need someone I they need an estimate for this, and they need someone to appraise it. You know, if that was me, I would bring in a bulldozer. We'd knock it down. We'd throw a little, you know, and it would be done.

But we are not this isn't. We can't do it ourselves. As of yesterday, Eric, they told me $500,000. Who's today? Joe. Joe. And Joe's the boss of that.

Just for clarification, I believe that's on the next city council meeting. Joe That's correct. It is It's gonna be on the February 2 city council meeting.

But but that is that's get ready because, gentlemen, that's the number. So, basically, the pickleball group, we are starting from scratch. There's no and there's nothing there. We've got zero. So all of the rest of the money has to be raised. The town can't give us anything. That's what I'm trying to tell you.

Understand. Yeah. And I think that's been part of the issue over the years. Right? Right. And and I think that's just where the the pickleball community and the commitment there's no guarantees, but just there's just a lot of excitement about what we're talking about. And and director Richards, I I I'll share this, but we actually have a quote to to add all those courts, to fence it in, not destroy the building and add the parking, but rehab the two tennis courts. And that that came back right around $998,000 to give you an idea. And that's to add all the courts and fix what we have and fence what's there. And I believe it included noise protection.

I I don't that's why the big caveat here is the noise side. So I'm I'm not why 3,000,000 and and the initial one of the quotes to be part of the work was 1,000,000. But I think that the work of the work is I think building the courts is gonna be fairly straightforward. I think getting it straightened out is gonna be straightforward. But we've we've gotta nail this noise thing, and we've gotta make it world class for our neighbors.

Have you talked to any business people about what's the is best there anybody willing to develop the best and sell every pickleball court in the country?

And I tell you, all all credit to John Ages. He has been fantastic. He's got a lot of great ideas that we can implement. Samantha and Brian, just a tremendous amount of ideas that we can we can become better neighbors neighbors as well. Right now, I've got three quotes from because what I don't wanna do is go to city council and say, oh, we're thinking about this and, oh, we had a decibel. No. We want science behind this. So in my inbox in my email box, I have three quotes right now of three professional firms that do this all around the country, one around the world. And we're gonna select between John and I and whoever else wants to be involved. We're gonna select the best one that can truly come in and say, this is where you're at.

If you do this, this is what it will be. And then we can just share all that with the neighbors and, you know, once again, full transparency. Because the last thing we wanna do is to do all this work and then have the neighbors that much more upset. Right? So so just taking a whole partnership approach to everything is the intent here.

Vice Chair of Champagne, miss Cousins.

Thank you. Good presentation. You mentioned the pickleball community would create a five zero one three c. Why? If you're gonna use this entity Great

question. We've we've already got one.

Okay. I that's where I my experience, Zach Lombardo has helped me a little bit, just try to explain it. But so I'm not sure. I can't quite answer that. But in the end, I was told we would have we would need to have our own association that dovetails into yours.

Okay. Yeah.

I there he may have been thinking about Tommy Barfield Elementary Baseball Field, which we did, in fact, create a five zero one three c to take a to do a lease with the county who owns the property. Alright. So once you do that though, you become the management company of that plot. So if you were to create a pickleball five zero one three, we're out, you're in, you raise the money, you do the management. I don't think that's what I'm hearing you wanting to do.

I think you want the instrument called the Parks Foundation to help you in fundraising and you don't want any involvement other than ideas on how to set up the pickleball courts and things of that nature. The maintenance you're expecting the city would do with some funds that you would raise.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Okay.

I I I was just a little confused there. Yeah. Because they're they you can do what you were saying, but that puts you in charge and takes us out of

I'm working it through as you asked the question. The entity we may need to set up is just so we have more of an entity to do the work, to get bids, to do the

corporate You just need a name to work with the city and this particular committee. And it can be your pickleball friends or whatever it happens to be. Yeah. But you don't want a formal instrument.

Yeah. All of the money that you would raise would be restricted to to pickleball.

Of course. Yeah.

So it would be segregated, and it could only be used for that purpose.

Okay. Understand.

Now with regard to noise, which is number one on your list, there are new technologies out with paddles that produce less noise, balls that produce less noise. Have you folks begun looking into doing that?

Yes, we have. And quite honestly, the technology just isn't quite there yet. The experience with the soft pickleballs and it's just not there yet. I mean, hopefully it will, but right now it's just a long ways. So

we're stuck with the noise.

And

now it's how to deal with that fact. Are you confident that the noise abatement kind of shields that they put up on the courts really in fact work?

Yes. So even me personally, and not to rattle any feathers, but I've spent time where we're full tilt on the pickleball courts and then walk around on the other side of where we have it. And it's very noticeable. But I also think, based on the initial education and things I have read, I think there are even better technologies. Part of it also will be potentially an easement from city council to take the 12 foot fence up to 16 or 18 feet so we give more of a barrier to our neighbors that are in the multi housing, the two stories behind us.

So I think it's just it'll be fascinating to see what they say in regards to what we can you know, what is possible. Because whatever whatever that is, we need to max that out as much as we can. So the neighbors, we just don't want neighbors saying a year from now, look at what happened and you lied to us. Then the Samantha, what she has to go through every day, we don't want that.

Has your group yet looked at what the setback requirements are for the courts space wise for the closest building? Property line. Property line?

I know enough to be dangerous. So I'm not going to answer that because I fully have a 100% grasp on that.

All right. Because we're hearing there's object objections from the community who live in the buildings that the we're somehow violating the space requirement

between court

and building.

Setbacks. I don't know. I'm merely repeating what

we've I

have no idea how correct that is or not.

So if that were the case, then we have been in violation for 15 places.

Exactly. But it's worse when it's pickleball. See, when it's tennis, it's more acceptable because the noise level is not quite as high. Of course. But when you get pickleball and you're violating, then it becomes an issue. Now I don't know if we are violating. I'm merely repeating what some people indicated to the city council that we were in violation of the setback.

Yeah. And I think my my thoughts are it really doesn't matter if we're below the ordinance. The bottom line is we have upset neighbors. And we've got to do everything we can do regardless of the law to try to make them happy. That that's just that's coming from where I the way I look at it. So Yeah. I I would assume the setbacks are okay because it wouldn't have been this way for fifteen years. But those are all things that we have to vet out. And I think by selecting the the best in class engineers engineers that can come in and just help us with this. Right?

Not opposed to having the individuals that were here last night on city council, I think mister and missus Caldwell who have been very upset. I invite them in. Right? Help us. I mean, be a part of the the solution because it's not meant to to jam anybody.

Yeah. Well, that'd be much, much better to get a community involvement and approval, quite frankly. It's the only way to be

It is.

Very honest with you. It is. Yeah. Otherwise, it'll never work.

Samantha's been so gracious with her time. And, I mean, it's it's just nonstop, you know, the the issues. So, you know, whether it's the wait list wanting more in or the neighbors don't let them in, it's just so we're just trying our best to to to make it it What's your next step? So our next step would be, in a perfect world, the foundation approves us to use the vehicle for the tax side of things. And then our plans are so really, we'll either try to present to city council in February.

That'd be best case. Worst case would be March. And really, the only issue, which is the long leg, is getting that noise study back, right? So how soon can we get the sound engineers? How can we get the current readings If we, you know, look from going from eight to 24 spread out over a range, what is that noise? Would those what do those decibels look like? And and just as important, what do we need to do to mitigate that? So I I don't wanna have our team come before city council till we have that buttoned up as tight as we possibly can.

So And on the noise measurements you'll be using the police?

So the this will be far more the police have done a wonderful job just giving us what are the current decibels, but we want people that live in this world every day. And we want solutions that truly work, not just something to say, oh, put this up and Yeah. No. We we want this to be real.

Good. Dolores? I think, for members of the committee, you haven't met a group until you have met the pickleball players of Markle Island. They are It is one amazing group. They had a meeting at Joey's Pizza on Friday afternoon, and they invited me to come. And I sauntered in, and I could not believe it. There were 100 people at 02:00 Friday afternoon. Was it July or August? And there they were. And I am going to tell you, they're family.

Yeah. It is an amazing phenomenon. I am a tennis player. We play tennis. We say, how are you doing? And we go home. Eric will tell you. There's no sitting around and cheering. It just it this is a whole different world, and I think we owe it to this world. I know that, I have kind of been involved in finding someone to build the courts. And if we say yes to them that they can use our 501 C three, it's amazing to me. I'm not sure. I think they can raise the money.

We we don't they don't need our permission. This Well this this was set up to help the the

want you to say, let's do it, boys.

I think

that's what we're that's what that's what Jim is here. I'm I'm gonna Tim

is here cheer him

on. Okay.

And I I tell everybody, Tim, laughingly, I'm I'm 87 years old. I'm playing tennis. And I I tell my pickleball friends that when I get too old to play tennis, I may pick that sport up.

There you go. There you go. Yeah. It's it's been

We need a motion to

We can we can do it. It'll make them feel better. I don't think we do, but let's go ahead and do it.

I would make a motion that the board accept Dan's Tim's ask a request to utilize our vehicle for not to raising money for the pickleball courts.

Thank you.

Can I have a second?

Second. Second.

Any further discussion?

Thank you.

Call the roll please, Jim.

Okay. Director Richards? Yes. Director Champagne?

Yes.

Director Siegel?

Yes.

Director, Brechnitz?

Yes. Motion passes four zero.

Okay, honey. Let's go.

The work of the work. Alright. Thank you. Thank you for all your time this afternoon. Grateful.

Oh. K. Hope hope your Uber gets here. I use an Uber all the time.

Thank Okay.

Thank you so much, Tim. Let's see what do we have next here. Oh, yeah. We have someone who has expressed an interest in becoming a member of the Parks Foundation, And her resume was in the packet, right, Joan?

That's correct. So the member is and just to provide a little bit of review for our folks, foundation says that there's up to 11 members that can be on the board. Currently, there are eight with the city clerk being the ex officio member on the board. We did receive a application application and also a resume from a Marquise Island resident. She is qualified, so I did check her credentials.

Her name is Joan Jansen, and, she is applying to be the ninth member on the board. Basically, what we're looking for is discussion from counsel to see if they would like to expand the board beyond where they are with a number of members. And then also, secondly, have a review of her application.

The I I know Joan, and and I think she'd be a a good member of the before we did that, I would wanna query those folks that have trouble making our meetings to see if they still wanna be on the Parks Foundation. Because if they're not gonna attend the meetings, there's no point them being on the foundation. So I I think before we consider Joan, and I think Joan would be a great addition, way to find out who who wants to really be here. I believe that the larger committees get, the more inefficient they become, and so I think 11 members is a little overwhelming. Eight or nine is workable.

A committee of three is probably ideal.

Yeah. Committee of one.

Committee of one is even better as czar. But in in any event, before we consider, Joan, that's my opinion, and I I turned it over to my fellow board members to

express thoughts. Very good idea because we've already experienced absences in several different meetings and it's a good point. If they wish to be here, then they have to commit to coming. Right. And then maybe they aren't as interested as they once were. Right. People change their minds. So I would I would definitely seek their input.

I think there's two questions. One is what you just brought up and I think we should do that. But two is what I know it says up to eleven. So if we went to eight and we had a four four tie, is it the is it Joan that decides?

No. Joan is ex

ex officiating, so she had never vote. Would encourage us to try to stay to odd numbers, either seven or nine. Right. I prefer seven, because I agree with you, the bigger they get. So I guess it's both things. If we wanna try to keep it to seven, see if there's an available seat.

Well, if if someone doesn't wanna be there, then Joan would be a good person to to slip in the spot.

I think we have one who doesn't wanna be here. So let's let's it's I guess it's you who who checks. I'll Try. I'll Try.

I will I will make the query to his wife. Yeah. Yeah.

So, chairman, I can remind you that based on the articles, there is a section in there about attendance. And, basically, what it says is that directors shall meet regularly at the board meetings. At any time a director has failed to attend three consecutive regularly scheduled meetings, the chairman shall be notified of that. And then the directors, other than the member reported for failure to attend the meetings, may remove nonattending members from the board by an affirmative vote of a majority of all directors other than the non attending members. So there is an attendance policy that's built into the articles.

Well, between Joan and I, we will check with the members that have had difficulty getting there and determine that. Why don't we put that on our to do list, Joan, if we could? Okay. Alright. Staff communications.

Review of the budget, the budgets in the or at least the balance sheets in the packet. I don't know that we have established a budget. Think we need to wait to learn more about how we want to raise this money before we come up with a budget, because what do we want to spend for marketing, for example? Mhmm. And so there are a number of unknowns.

So I don't know that we can do the budget today, but we will wait hearing from from Melissa Phillips. And maybe at that point in time, we can develop a budget. Okay? Agreed. All right.

Next item is future agenda items. I think the future agenda item is to wait for Melissa to come forward with some ideas. And when that occurs, I will call another meeting and bring us together again. Any final comments, Mike?

Yeah. There was a good suggestion by a member

of

Parks just during the break that perhaps a workshop be constructed where this committee and Parks and Rec Committee, in a workshop environment, discuss what kind of projects should we be thinking about after reading the master plan?

Sure. I I think that's a I think that's a wonderful idea, frankly. And maybe you can arrange that, Joan.

Yes. I can work with Samantha to see their schedules for doing a workshop.

Okay. Well, we we are willing and able to do it. Let's come up with a date, enough in the future that it give us time to plan, but let's let's get that done.

Okay.

Another to do list. Okay. With that, I'm entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved. I'm sorry. We haven't done public comment.

Oh, public comment. My my bad. Okay. Who who do we have, Jim?

Well, I have mister Brian Lynch who's, asked to speak. So, that's the only per

person at this time. Brian, I apologize.

You're fine.

I I I wasn't trying to exclude you. I just I I had a brain lapse.

Oh, that's okay. Brian Lynch, 01:36 Marco Villa South. I'm commenting on the pickleball presentation. Thank you guys for caring about the noise issue. A couple notes I made.

I think one thing he talked about was was the the fencing around the whole place. I believe that the city has an ordinance where the fence can only be eight feet high or something. And I don't know the numbers for sure. And San Marco Villas is considerably higher than the Pickleball Center itself. They

could apply for a variance?

Right. And that's what I wanna make sure that they would need to apply for a variance to see if the fence could be higher to accommodate the difference there.

They they would go to the planning board first and then have to come to the city council.

Right. Okay, great. Thank you. And the other thing I did I brought up with Mr. Arnett was I think it's important to get that barrier set first before any expansion plans are done to make sure that's in place and it's working for what's there now. Because that hasn't been fully complete or tested. The sound you'd like you know, it's unfinished. Mhmm. You. My next can we how can we guarantee that this project that this project will remain in good standing?

What happened when they did the pickleball project to its current state? The fencing was never completed, all that stuff. So I wasn't here when that was done. I bought my place in 2009, and it was all tennis courts, I believe, at that point. So I don't know when the pickleball came into play.

I was young and really wasn't paying attention. So I just want to make sure that if we do this, what's gonna keep it from falling apart again or this same predicament happening in the future so it doesn't happen again. Last And, thing, who is gonna be responsible for keeping up with the project? Meaning the money, progress, the finishing of each step, changes that may need to happen during process or problems that are encountered. Is it going to be the city council, the foundation, or parks and rec?

I brought that up just to make sure that we all are kept up to date with that in response to the transparency that's wanting to be kept for the city and all the residents. Thank you very much.

Okay. I think the answer to that question is to be determined.

Right. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Anyone else, Jim?

No, That is our only registered speaker.

Okay. Great. Now we can adjourn.

Move for adjournment. Okay.

Next meeting?

Well, we'll wait to hear from when Melissa completes her work.

I think we were gonna maybe get together.

And then get together with the parks. Committee.

Or a workshop.

Yeah. And

do that. Okay.

Joanne Joan Taylor's working on that, Jim, and she'll be in touch with us.

Okay. Okay.

And I'd just like to just confirm with you the you would like to have the workshop first with the prac team, or would you like to first hear from Melissa?

I don't think it really matters. I think it's however you can get it scheduled.

Okay.

Well, I think did she not think that we should give her ideas before she gave us ideas?

Well, she's got the park master plan.

We're gonna give her ideas.

Oh, okay. Well, that's why do we want do we want to invite her to our

Why not?

Foundation meeting so Yeah. She's sitting to listen to see what you have to say.

That's that's probably a really good idea. Alright. Good.

Alright. We're adjourned. Thank you.