Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Good

afternoon. This is the, me. This is the March 4 meeting of the Beautification Advisory Committee. And before we get started, I'd like to introduce a new member, Rhonda Glatte. So welcome.

Thank you.

So just everybody. And now that she's on board, you can take roll call if you would. Okay.

Member Sippi?

Present.

Member Glute?

Here.

Member Corey? Here. Vice chair Scherzinger?

Here.

Member Myers?

Here.

Member Sullivan? Here. Chair Needles?

Here. K. Thank you. This right prize for the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and

to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

K. Can we have approval of the agenda or any comments around?

A couple edits. I have a couple added.

Edit? Okay. Please. Go ahead.

Just under Marco Nacherni, I am listed in that as Chair Needles.

Yes. I I got that. Thank you.

And I have a couple of things to add. I think we should talk about Arbor Day. And I want to give updates on the Mackle Park Tree project and Owl Park.

Okay. And where do you see that? Or where would you

I just want to add those to the agenda.

Okay. Okay. And we'll do that under you want it under old business?

Then for Arbor Day would be new business, I guess.

Okay. And

I'll I'll have you follow-up on after the Colusa Park since you're on. Okay? Motion accordingly. Oh, I'll move. Okay.

I'll second.

Got a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carried. Okay. We've got the approval of the minutes, please.

I move to approve. Okay. I'll second.

Any comments on it? All those in favor? Aye. Good. Those opposed? Carried. Election of officers. K? We were we were told we're supposed to do that.

It begins with nominations.

And Yes.

I'd like to nominate Marvin Needles to remain our chair because he's done such an excellent job leading us this

year. Thank you for that. But

Do you accept?

If nobody else wants it. No. I

think we ought to keep it the same. I like the setup we've got.

Okay. Well,

I'll second Victoria's.

Okay. Anybody else want to volunteer? Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? I don't wanna unanimous also oppose it. So What? I'm

Well, if you don't want

I'll go along with it. Okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. I I thought maybe I could turn this over. Okay. Actually, it's been kind of a it's not a struggle, but it's been fun. But, this thing for nature night is that's been more than I expected. But

Just because your chair doesn't mean you need to do nature night.

Well, I'm I'm not gonna I'm my my term expires next year this year end of this year, so I might not even be around to do it. There we go. But I'll be helping. Okay. Okay. All business.

We need to vote on vice chair.

Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Vice chair?

I motion to nominate Linda. Member.

Do I have to say

it, for more formal Scherzinger.

Yeah. Sure.

I accept.

Okay. Is that is she allowed to take any cruises or anything during that term?

She is a bit of a world traveler.

I I would second it for Linda. So okay. Any others? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Congratulations.

Thanks. Status

quo. Okay. Leland Wei Swale. Victoria.

All right. Leland Wei Swales. I do not have an update. I have talked to my city council member that appointed me, and we are yet to meet, but we will be. And so we're not doing anything more on that. I see Joe push a button. What do you got for me, bud?

So I've got direction from the city that the Leland Way, we were my direction is to give to you is that they want you to focus on the plans that we gave you. Which were For the trees and plantings.

Right. We understand that they found a few streets last year, and those tend to be not really big pedestrian streets and and dead end cul de sacs that don't take advantage of what we'd really like to do. So I hear what you're saying. We're not giving up until I have a few more meetings, and we consider Ryan's proposal, which was a very key place where children stand and wait from school. But thank you for the reminder.

Can I I have a a comment on that? Can I go to the put some on the phone?

Sure. Sure. Now that you're vice chair. Still. There's still here.

So this is the map of the streets that we were given by the Water and Sewer Department. And this is not something we asked for, but this is something we were given. And this is to Victoria's point of there's not a lot of streets on there that are of high impact because there's a lot of cul de sacs. We've already planted all the way down Heathwood on the side of the road that we're allowed to plant on. I've been on Collingswood, I've taken some photographs of that street, at least it's a through street, and maybe that's something we can consider.

And then the one on the North Side Of Winterberry Park, the softball park, and I've got some photos of that one if you wanna look at them. They are on the side of the street that is right up against the ballpark. And in talking to the ball players, any trees that are there would not be welcome because they would be impacting potential balls that are there. So they would prefer that we not plant anything there.

How would they affect balls if there's balls are supposed to form. Smack.

Yeah. Because if, like, someone hits a hits all the way out to the outfield and there's trees hanging over, then they could that could interfere with a catch.

That's a stretch. I've been to there. I used to play there years ago.

That's just their that was just their suggestion. That doesn't mean that we can we could still look at that, But my point being is, of all of the options that we were given by water and sewer, again, that we didn't ask for, I don't think that there's a lot of other places to consider other than Collingswood and the road behind Winterberry Park. And we're we're already gonna plant on Winterberry with the Calusa Park plan that we're gonna talk about in a few minutes.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Because our what we did ask for is we just wanted Heathwood, and then they they went and did all the other cul de sacs as well.

That's right.

Yeah. And as I live in this area, and I do this walk every pretty much every morning, and there already is a significant amount of shade here because there's trees, over on the corner of Winterberry Park on the south, Southwest end. Yeah. Winterberry Park. So it's actually pretty nice there already. The other side of the street, Calusa, Park, could use more trees, of course. But, yeah, I I I think what we already have is pretty good.

So I wanna thank the water and sewer department for doing this, but I don't think that this is the right direction for us to follow when we're looking at trees.

Yeah. If I can interject at this point, I think that we need to possibly consider a policy that we want to make to kind of address our trees to fairly well traveled streets and avenues as opposed to where there's a cul de sac at the end of a street, where there's only maybe ten, fifteen, maybe even 20 houses on it, which really doesn't get the exposure. And because we wanna make kinda walking areas, if you will, on the main roads because that's where people want do walk.

And especially because we're only allowed to plant on one side of the road. Those the water and sewer department was only allowing us to plant opposite where they have their water and sewer mains, which I drove all those streets. They all have power lines. So now we're also subject to the new rules by LCLC LCEC of 14 feet. So we've been kind of handicapped on both sides of the road.

And the water and sewer, let's be honest, is a new policy within the last three years. If you go down around Marco, there are a lot of streets, through streets planted on both sides. And Leland Way, the side I want to plant on that has the 40 foot deep swales, has already, along Mackle Park, the same street that abuts what I want to continue, large Gumbo Limbo trees. So why was it Okay three years ago and before, and now it's not?

Correct. I think that that is to avoid what happened on Bald Eagle with the shady ladies that they cut down. Because there was those 13

There are different power lines on this side of the street I'm talking about.

Right. Okay.

Maybe

we can continue to address this. And I think that we need to be looking at possibly some policies, not necessarily absolute, but some policies directed into where we start looking as opposed in other words, if we're not going to do some of these streets where there's a cul de sac at the end, let's make that right up front. So we're not even dealing with it. And so the water sewer people don't come back and say, well, we recommend this when we've already said that's not working for us.

We're looking for pedestrian friendly streets.

Right. Okay. I've got a question, Joe, if I could. I noticed on El Cam, on the South Side of East El Cam, there's a bank there. There used to be a there's a funeral home there and that sort of thing. There was trees planted for I want to say there's maybe a half a dozen or so, but they have power lines above them. And we're talking about trying to get continue because it only went maybe a third of the way down El Cam going towards Collier and wondering if we can still plant there even though the the power lines are above it.

So the one thing I would say is is that anything in the right of way, if you go to do the permit and there's utilities there, the permit will not be granted. So that would be something you'd have to take up with the city.

So the issue is their LCEC made up new rules in 2025.

Mhmm.

So that's not really a city issue. That's LCEC saying no.

But they still wouldn't issue a permit from what I understand because of the the utilities being there.

But they did in 2024 and in 2023 and 2022, etcetera.

Yeah. This is like I said, I wasn't there at the time. I know that the policy states that. So

Can city council overrule that? Certainly.

I don't believe so unless it's brought up to them as a, you know, an ordinance to bring up.

Are we talking about LCECs ordinance or are we talking about water sewer?

So the way that I read the policy on that is that any utilities, whether they're ours or LCECs, they wouldn't grant the permit.

Right. So we already know that the water and sewer is not granting permit because of water and sewer's new rule. And now LCEC has a new rule.

Joe, what would it take? And I think we're still focused a little bit on the area that we tried to address on Leland. And what would it take to get actually the utilities to do a marking where the underground is to see if those trees could be planted over here as opposed over here? Would that take a whole lot?

We could do that, but from what I've been told, they're still not gonna issue a permit because of the utility lines that are the the plumbing or the water lines that are there. I was sent, pictures earlier this week that they wanted me to bring up to you that was not that it's a 100% pertinent, but there was clean out lines from a residency that was right next to a tree, they the whole clean out is filled with roots from the tree, and that's at the homeowner's expense. So they're worried about that as well. Mhmm.

Can I ask a question? Let's say you have a normal sized swale that has the water and sewer lines in it, and then there's a sidewalk, and then there's private property of a homeowner, and he wants to put a tree in on his side of the sidewalk, and he can do that. Let's say that distance from where he plants the tree to the normal sized swale where the water and sewer lines are is 10 feet. This is 40 feet. Correct. So let's say the water and sewer lines are now 30 feet away from where we want to plant the tree. Why can't we do that? Just because this swale has water and sewer lines here, I disagree that that should be a blanket rule. And maybe we do need to bring that to city

Sure. And like I said, you can always you know, you can try for the permit. What I've been told, it will not be issued.

Who who is the permit issuer? Which

Well, it's gonna have to go through Public Works, and it's gonna have to go through water and sewer.

But who at Public Works has changed that? Because we ran into that suddenly about three years ago.

I can look into that in deeper, but the direction that I was given was that anything with utilities, there's no permit.

So do you have to would this be, like, a variance?

Yeah. It would have to be.

Well, I I don't wanna believe you know, beat this thing to death, but you talk about a clean out for the individual homeowner. There's one on every, you know, every 100 feet or every 80 feet. So at what point, you know, is it do we ever are we not gonna plant trees at all? I mean, I'm not I'm asking the question, I guess. So how do we Joe, how would you suggest we address this in the future?

Well, I think that I can have meetings with the water sewer and public and see if there's any other locations that they can have you, like, you know, focus on. But if you're gonna try to push to get them into areas that they've already said no, I think that we need to have further meetings together.

Don't we have the chances of you and me and Jeff getting together?

So that was the original request from the last BAC meeting.

Oh, I'm just privately.

Privately, I can definitely do that. I can set something up.

Okay. Yeah. Because you know? Yeah. I think that might be step one. And

Leland Way is a great example of an unusual situation that could be the should be the exception should be an exception.

Yes. We also have that list that we I think we got it from UF of the noninvasive roots, where they're not going to cause such a problem like would with a laurel fig, getting in there and, like, tearing apart water mains. Because there's trees everywhere on the Island. And it's not like this is a problem that's happening every day.

So I'm Okay. I I will take it to meet with Joe and Jeff at the utilities. Okay. We're done, Vicki? Victoria?

Yes. Thank you.

You prefer Victoria, right? Yes. Or Vic. You go. Okay.

So for the Calusa Park, this is opposite the Winterberry Ballpark. And, Joe, do have an update? I think we're waiting on bids for that. Right? Or a bid because it's under 5,000.

So I've got four bids, and the fourth one I'm still waiting on. So and I'm meeting with Susan tomorrow to go over the delivery and how she or where she wants them so that she can take care of that. I I think we've made some really good progress with that.

Susan From La the Garden Club? Yes. Grada. So that so you think that those will get planted at the beginning of rainy season maybe?

That's up to them. They don't want us touching them. They just want them delivered, and they're gonna take care of that.

Now you're talking about the Butterfly Garden Park, and are you not talking about trees?

No. This is not Butterfly Garden.

Oh, okay. I apologize.

This is We at Beautification passed a plan to put, I think there's nine trees, along the street of Calusa Park, in the public right of way. And so we're waiting for and it was we approved for up to 5,000 or up to whatever the number was that allows you to only need one bid, so 4,999. And for one

Did send you that plan to me?

Yes.

Okay. I'm still working on that then.

So you want me to send it again?

Please do. And then I know you're working on the Mackle Park one, so I'll I'll do them both together.

Okay. Do you want me to give my update then

on Every day,

yeah. Yes. Okay. Well, let me do the Mackle Park Mackle Park tree plan. So this is what we're doing in combination with the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee. And I was just out around Mackle Lake with Darren Spindler this morning. And we have Dan Smith's original plan that he drew up when they had the $25,000 donation to put some trees around. So we looked at that plan, figured out where the trees went and where the holes are per his plan. So I'll be sending that to you, or Darren might be sending that to you. Darren and I are are confused about who who to work with. Do we work with because it's and Samantha said not us.

It would be me. Okay. Yes. I'll take care of that.

Great. And then there's also some that we're specking out for around the soccer field on one side. And then the second thing is I'd have are you guys aware of what Owl Park is, this new idea from the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee? So very close to let me come down and bring my picture again. So just north of Mackle Park, if you park in Mackle Park and walk on the little walking path north up there to the area highlighted in red is property that's owned by the city.

And it has it's not landscaped, it has a couple of owl burrowing owl sites on it. And the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee are working on an idea to officially call this Owl Park and do a little bit of work on landscaping to make this kind of a destination park for people who want to go see owls so they would have a place to go you could send an address versus sending them to someone's house. And so they're working on this plan, they're coming up with trying to find some money, but they're wondering if not this year, but when this is done, if we would be able to provide some funding from our Tree City USA funds to put some trees there. So I just wanted to let you know that that's an idea that they're working on and that could be something that we collaborate on.

I love that. I also walk that path there pretty often too. And it gets hot there during the day because there is no tree cover right there. So that can be a double win.

Yes. And they're talking about they're talking about adding benches, adding, like, QR code, educational codes so people could sit there. They could look at the QR codes. They could direct them to videos about the OWLs. It sounds like a great plan. Whether they come up with enough money to do this, I don't know. And then we talked to Brittany from the Audubon Society, the owl expert, owl watch person, about what types of trees we want planted. She's got ideas. She doesn't want too tall of trees, because that's where predatory birds would be. So she would have some ideas for us on the types of trees.

Good. Okay.

Do you want me to talk about Arbor Day now?

I since you're on the roll.

I just wanted to to get this on the agenda because Arbor Day is April 24. And this if someone wants to do Arbor Day this year. I know you Mike, you did it last year.

I'll do it again. I yeah. I thought you were taking care of it because I missed the one meeting, I thought there was something.

I I think it has to be, like, a specified separate event.

Oh, definitely. Yeah.

So

that would be great. I mean, have the you got the plaque guy. You got the

Right.

Wonderful. That was easy. And

we won't ask Corey a mister or Michael for a report on that since he just found out he's doing it. Alright. The next item is Christmas lighting issue. First of all, do you were gonna look Michael, you gonna look for

a storage area? I do have storage. It's off 41. I haven't seen it yet, but it's supposedly large. It's someone who lives here on the island has a storage area and has agreed to provide it to us for free.

Super. Okay. Wonderful.

Would he be able to store all of the lights, not just any new lights we purchased so he can get out of that one guy's garage? Yes. That'd be great.

Yeah. That's what that's what I wanna follow before I pursue the next step in that direction. I wanted to make sure we had a place to put him.

Yes. He yeah. The individual is actually on a worldwide cruise right now. So when he gets back in May, we're gonna go visit the facility together. Okay.

Sounds good. Okay. In reference to the lights themselves, I haven't pursued anything further other than, I'm putting together a joint effort between the Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Realtors and this organization, this committee. Committee. And to I'm kind of wearing two hats because the board of realtors gave me a go to represent them.

So we're trying to put together a plan as to now that we know that we have a place to store them, how we approach it and how it gets funded to actually buy more and get the installation and so on. So we're going to move forward on that hopefully in the next month at next month's meeting, I'll have a better report to say that. Everybody seems to be on board. Oh, Christmas Island style also is part of it. So and they what the input I got from them was they didn't want to take anything on themselves. However, they would like to coordinate with us to give some ideas. So

And this would be every other poll from bridge to bridge.

Yeah. I'm recounting right now. Matter of fact, today, as I came on, the traffic was really slow as I came back on the island. So I could go, okay. There's one. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. Here's another one. So I'm recounting to make sure exactly how many poles there are. But with the idea that if we double up the 40 that we have now, that with every other one, would take us to from one bridge from the Jolly Bridge to the Bridge, which takes in that whole commercial district. Did

the roofing guy who installed those lights, did he give does he have any idea what the new cost would be for them to install?

He said just whatever the cost was per unit would be the same. Okay. So if it was x dollars per unit, he said, I'll do all the rest of them for x dollars. Because I told him our plan was to buy another 40 or 50 or whatever it would take. Okay.

Victoria, Marco Nature Knight. Oh, I'm sorry.

That's me, isn't That's it. Thank you.

I see your names down here, though. I put this together. Tomorrow is Joe, you've got Martha has it over there, I think. This is a program I put together for if anybody has anything that needs to be addressed on it. I haven't printed other than what I've distributed here today. And the next question I have is, how many do you think I don't know what our count was last year. I think we were like 70 or 80 people. Maybe is it 100? I don't know.

It was closer to 70 than a 100.

Okay. So I will print these out and have them available to pass out when we pass out the tickets when they come. And Martin, he says he has the tickets for the drawing. And that being said, I put together this certificate or coupon that we're going to pass out. And we're going to actually will be drawing, 10 names.

They're being donated by, as you can see on the Adam Garden Center. And what he wanted me to do is have something that I've signed off on or whoever's the chair is gonna sign off on it to make sure somebody isn't duplicating or running copies or something like that. So we're gonna have something that is gonna be a little distinct when we pass them out.

Deb had a comment. I just this. There's some spelling errors.

No. Take umbrage of that. Yeah. Please.

Sorry about that. Deb Henry, city council. Renny, his name spelled is wrong, and then it's, borrowing owls instead borrowing.

Oh, I

just those

two. I I did change that. Okay. And the

So I just saw that. So before you start making copies, I

just Yeah. I I caught that. I caught that. I would like to say I caught that, but

Also, raffle. Is raffle spelled with an e l?

R A F F L E.

Yeah. Raffle at the bottom for raffle drawing is also Yes.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you for that.

I love the plug for cul de sacs on the back.

Okay. Well Yes. Yeah. So and on that, I did talk to the city Casey, the city manager. And I I suggested that if to have a point person and I didn't want to put the chair on future chairs on notice on this but that we would have an email address that we could put on something like this or on our web page, if you will, that would, if anybody had any questions that could go, we would have a dedicated email, and it would be forwarded to whoever the chair is or whoever wanted to take that and and Smart.

Run with whatever questions. I don't see we're gonna get a lot, but if there might be, at least it would be something that, hey, there's somebody out there that I can talk to and I have any questions

I think that's a great idea.

Okay. So I will talk to Casey. I'm not sure whether Jose does that or who does it. But we'll need to get a like bacccityofmarcoisland.com or something like that.

Cabin, some more things on marketing today.

Okay.

I wasn't sure so I think what I've learned is there's no one helping advertise this at all. The city doesn't help us. We have to do this ourselves. So last week, I submitted information to the Coastal Breeze, and we are in the Coastal Breeze on the dates, March 5. They put a website to go for more information as calusa.org, which I corrected. They've corrected it online, and they're going to correct it in tomorrow's edition. So it'll be more City of Marco Island. But anyway, it is on In the Coastal Breeze. It's also in the Marco Eagle, a little blurb. But it's not on the things to do page or on the calendar, so I'm afraid it's going to get missed. And I'm thinking, depending on how many people show up tomorrow, maybe we should spring for an ad in each of these papers.

In the future?

In the future. Yeah. Yeah.

I sent them a full description of what was going on, a copy of the flyer, in anticipation that it would get much better than what we got.

Right. So we may need to do a paid ad, potentially. And then I also posted on social media and a bunch of different Facebook groups for Marco Island. And then I distributed to Casey, and she put it on a lot of the city websites. So hopefully, we're going to get some traction. But if anybody has any other ideas that you can advertise today or tomorrow morning, tell your people. I think also it went out as a blast for the Calusa Garden Club members.

It also went in as a post on the Board of Realtors website too or newsletter, I should say.

I'll post you on Good Morning Marco tonight. I'll post you on Good Morning Marco tonight. Okay.

Great. Also, I was at the city council meeting on Monday night. And so I during citizen comment, I got up and read a little blurb about it to invite people. And then also gave a plug for hurry up and send in your Marco and Bloom.

Thank you. Good. Okay. Any comments other than

the audience? I have one note. I had my schedule a little bit crossed. I'll have to leave about halfway through because I'm in the artist series at the Lutheran Church. And I have a show tomorrow. I thought that tomorrow was my dark day. No. Tomorrow's opening night. So I will have to leave right in the middle of the first presentation. Thank

you for bringing that up. I plan to be there probably around 03:30 or thereabouts. I don't know what time. Some of the tables are already here. Mhmm. The recommendation I had from, the previous was a vendor was gonna provide tablecloths. I've left messages a bunch of messages. I've even called when the manager's supposedly there. I can't get to talk to anybody, so we're gonna I'm gonna go out and buy some plastic white covers or something.

Oh, how do we have, like, those eight foot plastic tables out there?

Because Yeah. There's there's one out there now.

I can look, and I can see if I can borrow we have cloth table covers at the church. I can see if we can borrow them for tomorrow.

That would

And I'll just take them home and wash them afterwards.

Will you know that? From somewhere. When will you know that? When will you know that?

I will I will text our group chat right now. Hopefully, I'll know by the end of the meeting.

Okay. The reason I say that because I'm planning to leave here and go to Naples and see if I

can How many would we need?

Well, there's gonna be 12 tables. Hey, we

don't have enough tablecloths. So we have I believe we have eight. Okay. I I I can see if we can

I'll I'll buy the plastic. It's like $40. It's not Okay. A big

Maybe the Dollar General on our

island. That's that well, we don't know where they are. So, well, it's you you buy a roll of plastic. Got it. That's what comes in. So it's I think it's, like, 30 or $40 for a roll. It's a 100 feet long, which will cover 12 tables. Anyway.

Okay. What I can be here early tomorrow to help set up. Okay.

So I would say 03:30, you know, actually, probably 04:00 because

Alright. Yeah. I'll get

Last year, we started at five. We're starting at 05:30 this year. One of the things that I sent out to everybody, I sent an email to all the presenters saying we're on a very tight schedule. We even reduced it from four presenters to three presenters so they each have a little bit more time with the audience. And so, but, you know, we're gonna be holding you to twenty minutes each because Martin gets on my case if we go beyond that.

Right, Martin? Wherever he is. But anyway, and then we have need a few minutes for the drawing at the end. So I think it's gonna be a little bit more smoother. And also the exhibits outside, instead of an hour, it's like from 05:30 to 06:15. Right. So there's

And we'll let people in here starting at like six?

Yeah. There's no reason not to. Good. Yeah. Yeah. If they would have come in here and said that's

How is the raffle being run? Are you

do you like tickets? Yeah. I've I checked with Martin. He said he has a roll of tickets. Okay. So we'll just need somebody

same thing we did last year where we'll stand at the door and

Yeah. We probably ought to have, if we can, if there's enough of us to to to come, to do two doors because it kinda backed up a little bit last year. Yeah. Now we don't have the band this year either. So that was I felt that that kind of held things up a little bit and people were lingering for that. So but So, Marv,

said we reduced it to three speakers? Right. Because there's four uplisted.

Yeah. One of them, they're it's a joint effort that Oh, the Yeah. Hold on. It's about the Turtles? The turtles. Yeah. There's two people, and they just Oh, okay. Bio on both of them. Yeah. But they're gonna be doing one twenty minute segment Okay. Together. Yeah.

So, Mar, when do you want committee members here?

Anybody recommend, I don't know, between four and 04:30, something like that. If it's 04:30, that gives us an hour. I don't know what else we need

to do. Plenty of time.

Yeah. I think so. 04:30 would work, I think. Okay. And if you wanna come at noon, that's fine too. You just sit around. Sit outside. Do wanna

talk about how we're gonna if we're gonna sit over

for everyone

else to just sit in the audience? What what would you like?

I don't know what's everybody's preference. I don't see why we have to be That's them over there. Yeah. Okay. I mean, just sit in the audience. Find a chair. And you wanna

Call it Marco Nature Night, not Beautification Nature Night.

Yeah. Right.

It's not about us. Yeah.

Sounds good.

Yeah. Okay. We

have a container. Oh, we're gonna draw raffles. Right?

Yeah. The the they can go over to Island Garden Center, present the I understand. Are we

gonna drop them in? Are you bringing something? I'm just thinking it through.

I've got one of those raffle, like, you turn the the thing and

Draw them. A little drum?

Yeah. It's the the mom. Little, like, golden yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

The tickets will be contained. They won't fall through the little slots.

They should. I've only ever little ping pong ball. Yeah. Some sometimes they do fall out a little bit. But if you go slow enough, it will. If you go, like, a little fast, it will come out. But

Well, if you wanna bring it, if it will I'll bring it. Fine.

It's Yeah.

I'll bring it. We'll just use a hat or whatever. Yeah.

Excuse me, Marv. These chair needles. Is there any way that we can keep this, like, to where people are are, you know, raising their lights so that they can call? This is gonna be very hard for us to do the minutes with all the minutes.

Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah.

I apologize.

No. My I'm not doing a very good job, am I? We'll take care of that. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else wanna hit their button? Okay. Alright. Political sign, Linda.

What about Marcon Bloom?

Oh, Marcon Bloom. Alright. Victoria, I keep missing you.

I'm Marcum Balloon is still open. Nominations close on the tenth. Thus far, we have 28 nominations. I have a, as a reminder, a nominating committee. I might have gotten maybe from that committee 60 nominations. They started coming in pretty heavy, so I asked my group to rank them. So I'm not chasing b's and c's. I'm chasing a's. And it is a lot of chasing because in a lot of situations, I have but an address. And so I stop by until I catch somebody home or find a neighbor.

Ask, do you have contact information? So far for Florida Friendly, we have six nominations, Professionally designed, six. Personally designed, three. I had some submitted to me that were listed as personally designed, but when I spoke to the homeowner, they were professionally. So that's why that's a lower number than we expected. Cul de sacs, seven currently. Commercial and public, four with one pending final approval. And condos, only two. Condos is our weak area. Linda did a big effort going to visit several of them recommending they put in.

And we have one that was nominated by one of my committee members and one that she kind of forced or not forced, encouraged. She didn't volunteer them. Anyway, so our next thing we're gonna be doing is on March 14. We will all be judging at nine in the morning. I think we're going to try to combine ourself into two large vehicles. Do we have two people with SUVs here that would like to be drivers at night? We won't be discussing our judging, but we will be sharing a ride instead of and we can meet here, or we can meet at the two drivers' homes. Any volunteers?

Parking would be better here. Is this on a Saturday? Yep. Parking Saturday is unlimited same. Parking here. So if we could all meet here, I think it would make more sense.

At nine? Yeah. Right.

I'll drive.

All right.

Thank you.

Mike? My light's on. Last year, didn't we do 8AM start time to to try to avoid, it getting too hot throughout the day?

I think we started at nine.

Okay. But I just remember the sun being much lower.

I think it was nine because we didn't wanna go to people's houses that Oh,

this is true.

Yeah.

We're springing ahead between are we

springing ahead between now and then? This coming weekend.

Oh, okay. Well, everything is done automatically for me nowadays.

Okay. Nine nine it is then. Right?

Nine it is here.

Okay.

And if you happen to have a clipboard, bring

it. Okay.

Do you need a second driver?

Oh, yeah.

That's fine.

I could drive. Okay. Great.

Anything further than the blue?

That is what I have now. Thank you.

Okay.

Oh, one yes, one very important thing. Signs. So we're only going to award winners, and we have six categories. I was in contact with Paul, and he's going to hold our price the same at $50 a sign. So I would like to make a motion that we allocate, because I'm gonna put flex in there in case it's a little higher and, of course, tax, that we allocate $300 350 of our general fund for me to order the signs for the winners. That's my motion.

I need a second. Second. I'll make I'll make a second.

Second. Any further comment? All those in favor? Aye.

Think it's money. He has to roll call, I believe, when it's a a money idea.

For money roll call. Yep. Jose, please, roll call.

Member Cipi?

Yes. Vote yes.

Member Glute?

Yes.

Member Corey?

Yes.

Vice chair Scherzinger?

Yes.

Member Myers?

Yes.

Member Sullivan? Yes. Chair Needles?

Yes.

That's $7.00.

Yep. $7.00.

That was to allocate up to $350 from

the general fund. Thank you. Okay. Political sign. Linda, please.

Okay. So I hope everybody had a chance to read my proposal. And I don't does everyone understand what what I'm talking about? Do you want me to explain?

Why don't you prefer everybody? The audience on TV.

So particularly at early voting and at voting sites, our public rights of way are just completely littered with signs. And I put some pictures in there. I didn't want to point out anyone in our community, so these are just random pictures that I find on the internet. But you get the idea. And this is what it looked like at the Marco Library and at each of the voting sites with these political signs just jam packed into the public right away.

And and I know that on Marco, the rules are they have to be removed by six at night, and they're allowed to go back up in the morning. So people come and take them away and put them back up and down, up and down. I learned that in Collier County and in Naples, they do not allow this. People are welcome to hold a sign, but you're not allowed to come put signs in the public right of way and leave, or put 10 signs in and you're standing there. You can hold a sign and exercise your opinion that way, but they don't allow signs.

And it's just a it's ugly. It's not beautiful. It's a lot of clutter. So this would be to my recommendation would be to amend the Marco Island Ordinance to be more like the Naples Ordinance or the Collier County Ordinance, which does not allow at all public, political signs in the public right of way.

K. So does that mean that if someone wanted to put a political sign in their their home as opposed to putting like

They can put a political sign on their own property.

Okay. Okay. So like in their front yard, they could, but just Okay. Not in the

Yeah. That makes sense. And

you're saying this is for a limited time period. What time period is it? The year. Oh, the year.

All year. You can't have political signs in swales unless you're standing there holding it. Now, it's allowed on private property. That's not a change. This is in public rights of way. And Mike's issue particularly is at early voting and at voting sites, because that's where the most signs are.

Okay. The recommendation would need to go to the planning board to change the code.

So Is

that correct? Or does it need just to go to it's just an ordinance change, kind of like the banner ordinance?

I'd

have to look into that, but I do believe it's just an ordinance change.

So it would be something that who would be would you write that, or would I write that and you would look at it? When there was the banner of ordinance, Justin wrote it, and then he brought it to us for approval.

Well, then I imagine it'd be the same. Let me look into that, and I'll let you know.

And then after we approve it, then so we, as individual citizens, could go to city council during public comment and complain about this. But I thought it would carry a lot more weight coming from us as the Beautification Advisory Committee, this this idea to change the ordinance to

In the in the LDC, there is a sign ordinance, a sign code. And I forget what the details are. I know that's specifies for construction signs, political signs, and and so a lot of it has to do with on private property, commercial property, and so on and so forth. So I would think that it may be need to be incorporated in that, but that doesn't mean we couldn't shoot otherwise.

So So you'll look into that for us?

Yes. I will.

Does anybody have any questions

or concerns? I have some comments. I know there's a public comment here this evening that our ordinance was well thought through at a point and for a reason. And that I think we classify it as commercial and noncommercial versus political and nonpolitical. So we'd have to be careful with changes and not impact adversely Absolutely. Real estate This would be political signs only. But I don't think our ordinance

And I talked to Councillor Brecht Schnieff about this at length, because he was present during all these conversations. It did say political signs at that time, and there was a lot of discussion and debate over this exact issue. And the legal department was concerned about freedom of speech issues. And so they decided instead to do a carve out for political science to do the 6PM to 07:30AM, not allowed, but allowed during the day. And then you take them down.

And that is during a limited time period.

Yes, exactly. Limited.

I don't mean daily, but I mean

time of year. Yes, exactly. But what we've learned, and I've talked to him extensively about this particular issue since then, is because Collier County hasn't had any issues and Naples have not had any issues, he is very much in favor of this change.

Chair Scherzinger. So I did get notice on that. So I will have to send this to Allen, the city attorney. So but you guys can propose new language, and then I can send that to him. So you could do that here.

So can I propose that we adopt the Naples the city of Naples language?

Depends on what it is.

There was a link that I provided, and it was attached to the agenda. It looks like this.

I believe this I guess I'll use my button. It's over here. I believe the city Naples charges for certain signs, and that would be a change for us. And the picture she included that you see is a mess of signs. And we have seen that here, but that is already against our ordinance. No, this is allowed. It wasn't enforced.

This is allowed. Signs in the right of way are allowed. There is no charge, according to this document, for the city of Naples. And here's the other thing. It doesn't have to be 100% what Naples says. We, as a committee, could make any changes we want, because ultimately, the city council gets to decide, and they can also make any changes that they want. This is just us proposing an idea.

I would like to have our public person come here. I think she has vast knowledge. And before we vote on it, I'd like to hear from her. You can announce her, Jose.

Okay. Jerry How do you pronounce your last name?

Summerfelt.

Summerfelt?

Summerfelt. Please announce please announce in the microphone your name and address, please.

Terry Summerfeld, 1111 San Marco Road. K. I had seen your agenda, and I felt compelled to come and just give you a little history since I was also around at the time when they were deliberating over a 52 page sign ordinance. It's important to recognize firstly that the sign ordinance that we have does not say political signs anywhere within the ordinance. It was very deliberate to define it as either being commercial or noncommercial.

And it was a free speech issue. If you have an opportunity, the real trigger for this sign ordinance was a case between Reed and Gilbert in Arizona. And it basically was free speech. So when it became an issue around putting signs in the right of way, the issue became one of who gets to put signs in there right away and who doesn't. So it wasn't related necessarily to an election, even though we knew the election was a time when everyone was putting signs out.

So then it became and I'm surprised that Councilor Berezhnik didn't reference this because this was really a critical piece of discussion. And that was, if you don't allow political signs in the right of way or certain kinds of signs in the right of way, then there is not an allowance for other types of signs in the right of way. So that's where our dilemma was. We have events. Primarily, we have realtor signs in the right of way.

And if we eliminate the realtor signs in the right of way, or if we eliminate the political signs, noncommercial signs in the right of way, We also have to give equal attention to the realtor signs. And the council did not want to compromise the realtors. Now based upon the information, Linda, that you put out on your program, I went back and looked at Naples Sign Ordinance. And they do address political signs as noncommercial and prohibit them in the right of way, but they do allow permitted signs in the right of way for events and directions. So I'm not sure how they tease those out, and that may be what Counselor Brezhnek was thinking of, that they haven't had problem with certain kinds of signs being up versus not.

And I don't know if Naples has had similar problems to what we've had. But we've truly had painful and unfortunate elections that have been contentious with slander and attempts to try and suppress the free speech of some legitimate candidates over others. And when you start to do that, your signs become somewhat of an issue. If we didn't have that kind of history, maybe we wouldn't have a problem. But my recommendation is definitely to talk with our attorney about this because I think it's very risky to try and eliminate political science in the right of way.

What we saw in the last election were a lot of signs that were in the right of way, pulled out of the right of way. But that was a certain group. There was another group that felt much freer to be able to put their signs wherever they wanted. And we had counselors at that time who were very biased on who it is that they were going to support. So all of these things kind of play into equal treatment, equal free speech for the people who are going to be running. And Collier County also, they restrict signage in the right of way unless it's permitted.

Four minutes have passed.

Okay. So I don't know if you have any questions for me. Oh, one more little thing, if I can say. I know you're talking about the Owl Park. I had this flyer come through from LCEC regarding environmental funding awards. I don't know if you've seen this. I don't know that this is large money, but I don't know that it needs to be if there are small things that you want to do. It looks like it's pretty simple to apply.

Thank Can

you present that to the Parks and Recs Advisory Committee? They're the ones that are doing All Park.

I don't know that it's specifically to parks. I think it's environmental.

I meant we're not developing the All Park, the Parks and Recs

I know, but there are things that you do environmentally that impact on that too. So maybe you can't get any more than a tree or two from this. They indicated that they awarded over $325,000 since 2013, which tells me that their awards are rather small. Just a thought.

Thank you very much. Yeah.

Just a like to talk just really quickly about the freedom of speech issue. There have been five elections since the city of Marco Island changed their ordinance to remove the words political science. That is a March March, August, September, August, September, five elections. And there have been zero free speech issues, lawsuits or threats of lawsuits in the city of Naples or in Collier County. And I talked to Commissioner LaCostro about this to ask those questions as well.

So I don't I think that in 2022, the Marco Island City Council was timid to make the same changes, and so that's why they did not rule them out. That's why they changed the language to be commercial, noncommercial. That's why they did a special carve out for the 07:30AM to 6AM only. But now what we've all learned, and for sure, we should talk to our attorney, But this has not been an issue in Naples or in Collier County, and I think we should be consistent with them.

Just a follow-up to that. The the the that court case out in Arizona had national ramifications, and that's why the city of Marco took a position on some of these signs that like, before then, we were restricting certain signs within people's own property. And so all that had to go away because it was freedom of speech.

Right. So I'd like to do exactly what Naples and Collier County do and only restrict political signs. Yep. But again, you can stand there with your sign. That's fine. It's abandoning your signs, putting 20 of your own signs out and abandoning them for the day. That's the issue.

Okay.

So what do we need to do next?

I would say that we need to put language together that I can bring to the city attorney, and then we can have an answer from there. So like I said, you can vote on the language you wanna put together. If you need to do that at a later, committee meeting so that you have time to put that together, we can do that. Do

you guys

do wanna do a consensus vote to see if people are interested

in that a consensus to whether we wanna follow through with it, but, let's do that first.

I I think also, if if I may just comment on it, we have to be if we if we do move forward with it, we have to be extremely careful on what political means because political could mean just about

The attorney can handle that.

Yeah. That's what that's

something that precedents in two neighboring, municipalities.

Is there is there anybody that doesn't wanna pursue this issue?

There's lots of opportunities in the future for no. The lawyer could say no. The city council could say no. We're just, as a committee, deciding whether this is a beautification issue or not.

Okay. I've got Victoria up here. My

reason for saying no is it's a little bit out of our wheelhouse. I don't think it's strictly beautification. It is more political than beautification. And I think that belongs with a different body.

Would agree to a certain degree, but I think it is part of the beautification. Think that kind of like some of the dumpsters that people leave out all the time, that's part of it We

talked about the banners that people put up. Businesses put up the banners that are not allowed. So this is worse. Imagine if somebody put up 20 banners in their property. This was like that.

So my take on this, there were six that said that they didn't object to it and one that did. So let's pursue it, and let's see what comes out of it. But thanks for your input, Victoria.

Okay. Then maybe on the agenda for next time, I can bring some more clear language. Fine. Good. Thank you.

Event policy time limit. This I'm gonna pass on this because I think we're pretty well settled to where we are this year. Let's see how this goes because we've kinda streamlined it. And, if we need to address this again for next year, then we'll address that unless somebody wants to comment on it. Rhonda, you can jump in anytime you want on anything. Okay. Staff communication. Joe?

K. So the Collier Boulevard banners, I was asked to look into the pricing to repair these or to replace these in bunches, whether we do, you know, in fives, tens, fifteens to see if the price would go down. It does not. It's one standard price. We were able to look at that. It was $45 each, so that would be a total of 2,250 because there is 50 banners. And when I talked to Justin, he let me know that they're all in very bad shape. And on my way in today, was windy, the very first one I saw was flapping in the breeze because it's already torn on the bottom. Yes. This is yeah. So you could see the stitching on them is is in bad shape and This one is falling off.

I've been, ever since we first brought up this issue, I've been taking a look at the banners. And the sun damage is bad. Yeah. It's gotten extremely difficult to read or make out. Because from this distance, they look pretty Okay. But it is difficult to see from the road.

Okay.

From what I can recall, we have $2,000 of general money, which is my donation, Counselor Gray's $1,000 donation, which he said we could use for general. And then you had the realtor's donation, which was going to be for extra lights. So we have $2,000 which is and I know we're going to spend a little bit for Marco and Bloom, but we have a little bit of money. So we could we could do $500 worth now. Or we could start replacing some each year, so we kind of get into every That year, we need to replace

way, we wouldn't leave it to be a massive issue for another ten years down the line when

we Well, we could also look for to try and get part of it in a budget, and the city council might give us some extra money next year.

But we wanna have things to spend our 2,000 No.

I understand. Know.

But and that maybe

But this is something too that it's been, what, ten, twelve years since they were last purchased?

That's what I was told. Yes.

So if we have a ten year policy, this is $220,000. That's $2,000 a year.

No. Didn't you just say $2,250 total?

2,250 total.

I'm I'm sorry.

So if we play if let's say we replace 10 a year or five per year, every year. Right? Five that's 10 because there's 50 of them.

That's correct.

So how about we make them we vote on replacing five?

When do they go up? They go up in January through April?

Yeah. It's right after the Christmas lights, I believe, that they start putting them

up. Okay. So

Yes. I have Victoria, your name

is up here constantly. So

I I pushed the button because I

was told to hit the button.

Sorry. Yes, I don't know why. Yes, I think it's very worthwhile doing. I think let's not spend the money until we get close to the end of the fiscal year. This is something we can do the last bit in case we need it for other things like planting.

Okay. It could be too that I would like to see a way, a pathway to put them all up, to get them all done. And I know that, we don't have enough money to do that, but maybe we can somehow find a way. Because they're not going to go up until next year anyway. So between now and then, if it's we get a little bit more in the budget, they could be done through that budget.

So if we collect money now, it would have to be spent by October 1?

Yes. If we find at the end yes, but if we find we're at the September or in September and or even August and we have extra money, go ahead and dump it into that Agree. Into this, and then maybe we can get more for the next year's budget to finish the job. Sounds good. Because they won't go up until January anyway. Does that sound like a plan everybody?

The only other thing I was gonna bring up is that there is there's a design that the city supposedly has for these these banners that was given. Martha knows more about it, but we're looking for that. I still don't have that. I don't know if Justin has these so that we can You

mean the artwork? Yes.

Yeah. Okay. Reuse them?

I I reached out and tried to get copies of the artwork. The four let's see. The four that are hanging, it's a gopher turtle, sea turtle, manatee, and owl. They're actually hanging at Mackle Park when you first walk in if you look up. So if you wanna take a look at them again, they're all out there.

Is that the that's all we have is five different designs? Four. Oh, there's four four designs. And so it's not like everyone is different? No. Oh, okay.

Okay. So perhaps if we can't find the designs, could we do something like we did for utility boxes and do some sort of like, design contest, if we get the dimensions that the artwork needs to be?

Or maybe we approach the art league. Yes. Yes.

I think that'd be a phenomenal idea.

Let's see if we can find it, maybe bring this up, at our next meeting on the agenda for next meeting and continue it.

If we can get the dimensions, sent to us, I'd be great approaching the art league to see if they'd be interested in running some sort of competition to I'm I'm sure as as Heidi. Anyway, I'm sure that they have stuff in place from the last time that they've done, competitions like this.

They're, five feet by two.

Five feet by two feet. Long. Okay. Is there, like, a resolution that they have to be, or, in order to print them at that size?

No. He said that he could I mean, I would make it as clear as possible.

Okay. I'll just specify that we probably need a vector image or something like that other than a PNG or PDF or something.

Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. I'll talk to the Art League and see if they'd be interested.

Okay.

Then we can

Appreciate that. A little bit of

a plan next.

Okay. Thank you. City Council Communication.

Sorry, Chair Needles. I still have more.

Oh, I thought you said you would you had one more and you were done. Nope. I'm sorry.

So just the butterfly garden, which we already kinda spoke to, that I am, March 19 is the delivery for those plants roughly, and that's for the Colusa Butterfly Garden. And I'm like I said, I'm meeting with Susan tomorrow.

Can I do a little follow-up on that?

Of course. Victoria is permanently on there.

Stuff is on the side. Sorry.

It wasn't me. Okay. I was at the butterfly Garden this weekend helping trim back and get things ready for our replanting. And Susan's last email to you asked if we could keep them possibly out of the butterfly Garden, our landscapers. And I don't think it should be a question. I think it should be a demand. So this is one of the Contis that is there on either side of a bench. And there were two other Contis that were crowding a bench and here's what they look like now. See how gorgeous the one is there? That's how they were trimmed by our landscaping company.

Can we get a commitment that they won't step foot in the butterfly garden?

I've walked them through there and they said that they will stay out of there completely. They

This was recent.

Well, so they said that that's not them. And the only and I've I've brought them to this area. They said that we would not go back in there. We knew that we weren't they said that they sent pictures to every one of their tremors. And this trimming happened just within the last week or two.

I think so.

And they said that their tremors haven't been here in two weeks. So it's he said it was not them. So all I can do is I don't have film

Okay.

But I'm taking their word for it at this point. And then there was one at the Lee Plummer that was the same thing that they said that this happened afterwards. It was in a like an offshoot of the garden. We went there, and there was multiple plants that were there that only one of them was trimmed. So the landscaper said, why would we only trim one bush out of all the ones that are there? So I like I said, I've spent many, you know, much or a of time speaking with these people to make sure that they do not go in there.

So Thank you.

I think you're sorry.

One the only other thing I had left, unless there was another comment on the Butterfly garden, was the email that was brought up, the request for an email for the b a c or, yeah, b a c website. There is the city's policy is is that we still do not allow that an email address so that they can communicate with you directly. That was the only

No.

Last time had on it.

Well, I talked to Casey, and she said that because I posed it that it would be an email address that goes to the city, but it would be forwarded to the chair or a designated person. And And she said that she sees no problem with that.

I like I said, the information I just got, Jose, do you have any comment on that?

No. The information I received was directly from Martin, but I'm not sure because now we're

It could be a miscommunication.

There's there's obviously a miscommunication. I'll reach out to Casey, and I'll reach out to you afterwards once I find out. Alright. Okay?

Okay.

That's the only thing I have left for staff communications.

Okay. Well, the idea of in speaking to Casey was not having to have the staff give them more more responsibility if we can, as volunteers, take care of some of the things. And she seemed to be good with it. Now we've got city council. Going once, twice. Oh, okay. Public comment. I think we already had public comment. Okay. Next meeting. Anybody gonna be not here?

I will be here. I will be missing the May meeting. So I'll I'll be here for April, but I won't be here for May.

Okay. We don't care about May yet. I know. I'm just We might not even have a meeting in May. But you're not gonna be here. Why should we have a meeting with You know, that's

a good point. We can start planning now.

Anybody else? Everybody else think they're gonna be here? Yep. Okay. Any proposed topics for next meeting other than what we've already talked about?

I one. I was looking back on some I was trying to find something. And so I was looking at some old agendas that we have, our old meeting packs. And there used to be a page, like the last page of our agenda, that was called Proposed Beautification Advisory Committee Future Agenda Items. And then Jim would write down, like, this is what we need to do kind of in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter. It would kind of like allow us to know like, for example, the art wraps that's on there for us to talk about this year, but that isn't being included on our agendas anymore. And so I think maybe that's maybe why we're kind of losing track of things. So can we add that? Wonderful.

Yes. If we can I think part of the problem has been that when we weren't allocated with any funds other than what they did, that a lot of these things are just not gonna happen? So but that doesn't mean we can't have a wish list of which list of items.

Yeah. And a lot of those items don't cost money.

So Okay. And our next meeting is the first.

If you say so.

Hits you quick, so be ready. And we'll have our winners to announce them.

Okay. Good. Are

we gonna can we talk about how you're going to do scoring for the judging? Are we going to kind of do like last year where people fill them out anonymously and drop them off at someone's house?

Yes. I'll leave the same pink box on my front porch.

Okay.

We anticipate we will be able to do all the residential categories that Saturday. We may not have time for cul de sacs. Although some are on streets we're going to be on. We might look quickly or we may not. You might be doing on your own the condominiums, the business, and call this X, hopefully, within a day or two because I'll need to get them scored. Okay.

Any other communication? I I just wanted to give a shout out to the city. This morning, I I was walking by Jane Hitler Park. And since Ian, the landscaping has been nothing's there. And in the last week, they've re landscaped the park, and it looks wonderful.

Does everyone know where that park is? No. It's at the base of the Savage Bridge, like underneath the there's a walking way you can walk. On the Esplanade side, right? Yes.

Yes. We actually just replaced all the irrigation in there this year, and we're adding plants into that was one of the first things I saw when I started this job was that, that was bare from the last hurricane. So we did we're starting to replace all of that now.

Before I adjourn, again, I just want to welcome Rhonda to the team and look forward to your participation.

Thank you. Look forward to tomorrow night.

You're going to be there tomorrow night too. Okay. Thank you. We're adjourned.