Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

from what I gather is I'm not sure we're Kind of late on it but I met a meeting with the city manager yesterday and she informed me that they have already allocated for the proposed budget $25,000 for the beautification committee. So we can ask for 50, 100, we might as well ask for 2 million but we're only going to get 25. And that also, my understanding is we're not committed to $25,000 for trees exclusively as we were last year. Also was informed that in order to qualify for Tree City, we do not have to spend $25,000 on trees. We have to spend $25,000 towards trimming, replacing trees, new trees, or anything else that has to do – including the maintenance that the city has – maintenance contracts the city has with the two different vendors that they've contracted with. So we're not committed to anything in particular. I have put into – in front of everybody a kind of Something for us to consider as we go through here is what we want to spend. And we don't have to commit to anything. We're not really here to commit to anything today. But just look at these various things, items. And I've tried to include everything that we have talked about over the last year of things that we would like to see done. And we'll take these maybe one at a time and just have some brief discussions on them.

Can I ask a follow-up question on the Tree City USA?

Yes.

So is what the city manager is saying is that the beautification committee is no longer responsible for Tree City USA? They're just going to say, we pay the landscaper X amount of money to do all kinds of stuff. That's enough. That counts.

That's part of it.

I do also have the arbor-day.org website pulled up with the exact requirements for Tree City USA. Under standard three, the annual expenditure of $2 per capita. So this is the standard as it reads directly from the website. The community must document a minimum $2 per capita expenditure on community tree care related activities. Expenses can include staff time, contracted work, and or volunteer time. I don't know how you pay for volunteer time. But qualified expense categories include tree planting and initial care, tree maintenance, tree removal, management, utility line clearance, volunteer hours, again, I don't know how, other tree related expenses. So on the application, we need to provide the dollar amount for all of those. all of those different things. Oh, it says down here, volunteer hours, when you list it on your expenditures for the application, you submit the total hours and they calculate the hourly rate at a national level in the application.

There wouldn't be any volunteers.

Right. But if we did have volunteers, that would be what they would do.

There's other standards, though, like standard number one, tree board or department. The community must designate a board, department, or staff position that has legal responsibility for managing public trees. So who's that?

Well, that is us.

Right, but if Casey's saying, nope, we're just going to cover it ourselves underneath our regular, then who's the board?

No, I think the discussion that I had was that it's still our Well, we're gonna go, we're part of the equation, if you will. City staff, I think we're all under Joe's department, so we contribute to Joe and Joe's, correct me if I'm wrong, but, because he collects everything, and talking to Casey yesterday, she also indicated that I could, that Tara, that she could help on this process. So I haven't talked to Tyra about that, but that was an assignment that maybe you already know about.

Do you have anything to add, Joe?

I heard the exact same thing. It was going to be a combination.

I have a follow-up question that's pretty important to our budget of the 25. If we are saying tree maintenance and trimming, tree removal, I think most of our landscaping on the island is maintaining grass and bushes. Our contractors, what dollar amount did we spend last year maintaining trees and trimming trees?

I can look that number up. It's part of the contract. They do trim trees for us in all the parks, linear parks, the city buildings. So that is part of that, and Juniper as well. So I'm imagining that's for both contracts because Juniper is doing all the right-of-ways and all the trees throughout that. So it's probably a combination between both contracts.

And LLC usually does the trimming of the power lines. But in the end, we all pay for it. through our LCEC bill, but not the city is my opinion.

But they don't do a good job of it. They just trim it away from the wires.

Correct.

So it still needs to be spruced up, beautified.

I agree with that, but we can't take credit against R25 for what LCEC does.

I agree.

So what we've done as a beautification advisory committee is increase the tree canopy on our island. And if we no longer do that, because they're just going to take, we already pay, I'm going to make this number up, we pay $1 million to our landscapers. And within that $1 million, they do a bunch of tree trimming. So therefore, check, we are Tree City USA qualified. Is that what you want, city council? Or do you want an increase in tree canopy like we've been doing? So that's a question I would want to bring forward to city council to say,

What is your wish? And my next question is, does the city manager have the authority over our committee? And in reality, we report to city council. And I understood that our drive was to increase tree canopy and really to help the medians that all look pretty horrible. But we haven't had any budget to do anything with that with. So that's the overall Archie. Bigger question, in my opinion, is that a decision of the city manager or is that the decision of city council?

Let me interject if I can because I think the city manager, well, I don't want to speak for her, but what I got out of this was we've given $25,000 for our budget. And if we want to take $25,000 and add to the canopy, that's fine. We just don't have any money to do anything else. So in our wisdom to try to accommodate what we feel is necessary for the city, whether it be adding trees, including trimming like the butchered trees that LCEC has managed for, some combination of that or adding, taking from different items within here of all these things that we do and allocating some of that 25,000, some under item 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, whatever we decide would probably best to submit that at some point to the city manager and just get the blessing there. I think that the city council, based on what they did last year, which was give us $25,000 to spend on trees, period, then that's kind of the direction I think we've been given unless there's a new city council which is coming up that they may take a different position. But the existing city council, that was what they have given us.

I really, I like the idea that we have $25,000 that we could spend however we want because we could do an adopted, so this is the other side of this. We could do an adopted median because then we could put in shrubs and other kinds of plantings, not just solely trees. That's the pro side of this. But then on the con side, so remember last year, When Justin was our person, we were promised at these meetings half a dozen times at minimum that the LCEC trees that were cut down were going to be replaced. And then they weren't because that money was taken away and allocated to something else more important, which I understand. So are we really getting, ooh, $25,000 we can spend however we want on all these great projects because someone else is going to be getting trees, or are we really, there's not going to be any more trees?

I would say that we have to determine what we want to do.

I think the trees that are planted will be planted under our direction, whatever amount of the 25,000 we choose to put.

Oh, of course, of course. But are we still going to, do we, and or does City Council care that we are a Tree City USA city? Or should we just go pull that stake out?

Well, I think they're saying we are because of what we spend with our maintenance group, technically. I don't think that's the spirit of what they want. That's right. But I think technically we qualify it. It's disappointing, but it is what it is.

May I interject here? So the Tree City USA, one of the other requirements is that $2 per capita. We have approximately 16,500 residents on Marco, which means that our Tree City USA budget should be $33,000. So if we spent every dollar of our budget on trees and maintenance and all that stuff, there's still $8,000 to make up.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. If I can stop you there. The city already spends well over that.

Right. And that's what I'm saying. And that's what I'm... Take that out of the equation.

Yeah.

That's what I'm getting at. I feel like we now just have more of a safety net of it's just we have more money that we can spend on things that aren't necessarily Tree City USA because... we kind of have expanded the definition of what planting trees mean. It also means taking care of the trees that we already have and making sure that they get watered, that they get trimmed properly. So I think that it is very good that we can have Tree City USA budget coming from other places than just us.

Right.

I would like to see us spend some time on trying to develop the cul-de-sac circles. Because they look terrible, most of them. There are a few people that have gone out of their way to try to dress them up some. But the number one problem with them is water. And when I recently checked into seeing if we could get water hookup, because almost all of them have a drain there already. to flush the cul-de-sac. So it wouldn't be that much to hook up and just put in a drip hose. And drip hose is very efficient as far as water use. And we could have beautiful cul-de-sac circles. We really could. But what I was told is we have to put in a meter and that you'd have to put in a meter on every one of them. Why do we have to do that? Why do we have to do that? Is that something that's necessary?

Somebody has to pay for the water.

Yeah, but if you're, who's paying for it now in the islands? They don't have meters on the islands. You know, these are community areas.

I think one homeowner is connecting it to their water.

Right, I knew about that.

Or they're trying to get donations maybe from their other neighbors.

But then are they going to charge a fee for that each month? I mean, it doesn't seem reasonable to me. And if you use drip line, it uses very minimal water. You can put it on for two times a week and get lush plants. And in the summertime, you don't have to run it at all if we get regular rain.

That's one thing we could add to our list of things. We want to do two cul-de-sac trials. And over the next year, that's something that you could lead and figure out how much we would need to spend.

Right. I already have all the people on my street willing to volunteer to pay for plants, to help do work. So the minimum cost to the city is really not going to be anything. My only thing was the water meter. That was my problem there. And I'd like to get that sort of figured out.

If I could interject here, do you have a flushing system? Yes. Yes. Almost all of them do. They do, yes.

I didn't know about Omarco.

Yeah, we do. So my question would be to Joe. momentarily. Sorry, Joe. I have a question to ask. Where these flushing systems are, Is there a way of checking that or modifying that so it could be added to a drip so the water could be dispersed a little bit more extensively than straight down? In these cul-de-sac areas? Yeah.

I'd have to work with Justin on that and just see what the options are. Okay. That's his area.

But are you connecting it just to the flush?

are you connecting it like it goes on it would be on a timer so it would go on twice a week if you're doing that then we need a meter we've been told specifically we either need the meter or you need a homeowner that's on that cul-de-sac to run it under the street and have it be part of their meter and that's how it's done now so it would have to be connected to that flush but that doesn't seem like you should do that because

None of the islands in the middle of the roads going down the streets and stuff, they don't have meters. This is city property. This is not somebody's individual property.

We've been down that road before.

I think this is something that really needs to be discussed.

We could look into that. One of the factors is, we can look into it. Thank you.

As we do that, if we're planting native Florida-friendly, it's only that initial watering that has to be

Not exactly. They say that the plant will survive, but when it's dry, they're going to look ratty. So if you want it to look good, all you have to do is like 15 minutes twice a week, and you'll have a beautiful cul-de-sac. I know that they say they will survive, the native, but they look much prettier if they get a little bit of water in the wintertime when it's dry. I'm a gardener. I know those things.

Yeah, because if they don't, you're absolutely, Florida friendly doesn't necessarily mean it's going to look nice.

Right, right. They will survive it.

Under the term beautification, we don't want ugly. Right, we don't want ugly.

And I guarantee you, I can make these beautiful. They will be beautiful. Yeah.

Marv, do we want to rank these items?

No.

Importance because that's where the money will go then?

I would say ultimately yes. We're not there yet because at one of our meetings we're going to have to make a decision on at least target where we're going. One of the things that has come up that We're going to have to look at, and we don't have to look at it now, but to extend the holiday lighting from one bridge to the – from the Jolly to Savage Bridge, we're looking at to – for the cost of the adding lights is just under $10,000 for the extra lights. and that is at cost, that's below wholesale, because one of the contact I have is a fellow that is from Atlanta, that's what he does, but he has a house on Marco Island, and he wants to contribute to it, so he would give it to us at his cost. That $10,000 includes shipping and everything else. But in addition to that, we're looking at $5,000 roughly to have everything installed. So whether we go out and get volunteering for that or whether we take some of our funds and put towards that, I don't have an answer to that. That's something we have to, as a group, decide what we want to do.

As a priority for me, beautification means you're around. I don't view us as the Christmas committee. So I really wouldn't want to see much of a 25 go to that.

That's been assigned to us, though. That project has been assigned to us as one of the things we do.

No, the existing project has been assigned to us.

Right, right.

But adding new lights, I'm with Victoria. That's like one month, so I would make that a lower, extending it a lower priority. Yeah, that's fine.

I agree. I agree. And we have, you know, they have Christmas Island style that has no money either. But to me, them working with us, maybe we could think of something together rather than taking it out of our budget for Christmas.

I think as part of this, it might be helpful to look at our annual programs and say, yay or nay, continue, or start every other year, or discontinue a program. That's worthy of discussion, too. And we're here for a workshop. And I know it's financial, but man, we could assign numbers here and be gone in 15 minutes. So maybe we could take some of the time to discuss those, too.

I put this out for more than anything for everybody to look at and give some thoughts to it. So at one of our meetings probably in September that we then start to assign some dollar amounts to each section. Just as a good example. The Marco and Bloom, the cost of the signs, I think that's what typically?

800? 800.

I had 500 in my mind.

It was this last year because we did less awards. It had been 800 when we did winners and runners up. This last year it was more in the 400 range, yes.

Okay, and do we want to do winners and runners up or, you know, that is just something to plug into that particular area. One of the things like Marco Nature Night, the programs, I did those myself, but if I'm not around and nobody else wants to do it, we may have to contract that out or contract it to be printed out or even if it's existent. Right now, we don't have any cost assigned to that, but, you know, I'm looking at something that maybe a year from now two years or three years the same thing with what Ryan does the posters those are I don't know what the cost of those are but Ryan is gone we want to still want it the posters somebody's got to pay to have them printed so these are some things that are here not major items we've got the light bulb banners we were told they were what a couple thousand dollars to it you have that exact number Joe

I believe it was about $2,500 so those are something else that we may want to use to do from that $25,000 I also would like to hear from Mike Corey about the historical markers it would be good if we could put some money towards having a landscaper help us spruce those up how do you feel about that

I mean, definitely some of them need it. Some of them really have no landscaping right now. Anything that was planted has died. Some of them, like the ones I know, Rhonda, you're keeping an eye on, on Bald Eagle, are in good shape. They're also shaded there.

And I trim them a little bit so that they look groomed.

But yeah, we could use some definite maintenance there.

Yeah. I agree the one thing I did add here and I brought that up with the city manager was the utility box decor and she says that was a major item and it was extremely costly they did it through the through the art league and the they got everything the designs and then had it everything printed up but I don't know what the cost was she didn't know at the time but the city paid for the installation or the application to the boxes so she said that out of your 25,000 you probably don't want to do that right now

But that's part of what came under the beautification. And they're still in pretty good shape. I mean, every time I walk by one, I check them out. Well, there's still a lot that I'd like to see done.

I mean, they're still bare and ugly.

And if there's some, if you want to bring them to my attention, I could go look at them. And I would have a pretty good idea of what we could do that wouldn't cost something. I could just go look and see. Because I know which plants survive best in sun and different things as a gardener, just for an idea, just saving costs.

We're talking about the art wrapping on the utility box.

Oh, I thought he was talking.

Sorry, sorry. You're all good.

I thought you were still talking about the memorials.

There are some things that previous beautification projects have done. Like, for example, there's a bus stop on Collier somewhere between the Marriott and the Hilton where a lot of workers after work would stand there in the full sun. And beautification paid for a shade structure over that. And then there's a lot of, a long collier, and even in some of the parks, the park benches are just really in decay and decrepit condition. Even if we used a little bit of this money to replace some of the worst park benches.

Wouldn't that be under Justin's department?

It would be, but, yeah, I mean, you still could use those funds for that.

We can ask him to do it. Yes. But we can, you know, make some.

Do you know how much Parks and Recs are getting for a budget this year?

It's less than I had last year. That's what we're proposing. So I wouldn't be able to add it to that.

Right. No, that's what I'm wondering. I don't know what it used to be. It used to be 10, and now it's 5?

Gotcha.

My point is that we could help.

Gotcha. Understood.

What is our wish list for tree canopy next year, fiscal year? Ryan had a great idea on San Marco, where all the children are across the street.

And we'll have to make sure that it's not going to block any stop signs.

Yeah, and they're walking down into the Y for after school.

Yeah, I think that's number one priority. I can't really think of anywhere else that we have as, like, that high on the priority list. Did anyone have any other ideas about where we're planting trees for 27?

Well, we started planning on Swallow and bike paths, and so there's going to be a lot of bike path roads. Landmark, is Landmark another one that has bike paths? Yeah, Landmark's both set up. Yeah, so anywhere where there's bike paths, if we could continue those types of lines of trees would be, I think, beneficial.

Do we, just because some of the feedback we got for the trees we planted by the park.

On Leyland Way.

Correct, thanks. I know some of the homeowners were not pleased, even though it's not their property. Well, I saw some additional comments. Should we make an effort when we're

when we choose an area that we're going to add trees, plant trees, to talk to the homeowners to make sure that they're- I had an idea this morning rewatching last month's meeting when Melanie Burns came to speak. The issue that came up there was something that none of us would have ever thought about because we don't live in that area. What we could do going forward and There's a different spin on this than what I'm proposing, but we could, when we have a tree plan, it's like, okay, we're going to plant trees here, like along this road. We could post as the city, saying it's like, beautification committee plans to plant trees on this stretch of road starting at this time and we make sure that that time is after our next meeting so that it is posted in public information that we are planting trees in an area because A, that's very good for transparency. B, people can see, oh, look, they're planting trees and then would come and look if there is someone that lives in that area and goes, oh, no, this is going to cause a problem for blocking this already difficult to see through street. It's going to be blocking these storm drains when this happens, this, that, and the other thing. We could avoid that by just making it more transparent I mean, I can't imagine that many people are watching this meeting online right now, making it more public information of where we are planting trees so that if someone does have a complaint, a valid complaint, they can come public comment the meeting before we actually go. planting so then that way we can avoid problems like that in the future. I don't think it would get rid of everything, but it could avoid a majority of those types of problems.

When you bring up blocking the view on a turn area, and that was one of the things she brought up, we should be checking with somebody else other than that. If we're going to plant something there, is that going to obstruct the view? In my opinion, that was an argument that was not reasonable because the trees that are there are not blocking the view when somebody's making a turn. The trees are high enough, it's not going to be a problem. But we should be checking because there are some places on the island where people have hedges that you've got to make a turn. You're trying to look around the corner. And so from the safety, we ought to be looking at that before we make the planning plan.

Which, that's exactly right. I feel like what I'm saying is more in a realm of, of course it's great for transparency. There will be always things that us not living in that area and seeing it every single day could miss. And opening it up to make it just more public information would allow someone to say, and we don't have to listen to what they say, but just hearing the complaint and going, oh, Well, let's look into that because that's maybe something we missed and then deciding, okay, we don't think that it'd be as big of a problem and then we go ahead anyway. Just making it so that there is an opportunity. It's a fail-safe, really. I think a fail-safe would be the best way to describe it.

And if there is an issue or something, maybe it could be negotiated with some other kind of tree or something.

Exactly.

So... Yeah, the public, how you public notice is important, or maybe representatives just knock on doors. It's a small area. But since we are on that subject, there was a concerned citizen that didn't like where the trees were planted, which were within an eight or... shortly, not very far away from the sidewalk. So we were given two areas that could be planted. There was a section there, and then there was a section much closer to the street that was, I think, eight feet off the street. And they were all planted towards the sidewalk, which is closer to the overhead lights and where the electrical lines do run. And that was shared with Joe and I think he went back to the city and I know there was going to be a discussion with Affordable or somebody. What was the outcome of that?

So we went and measured it off, and you're about 17 feet away. And the LCEC requirement's 20, so it's close. And when I talked to Affordable, they said that working with the water and sewer department, that they thought that was the best location, was right where they put them, because of the underground utilities that were in there. So my thought was coming back here and just seeing if you guys wanted to move them to another location or just leave them there.

But the my understanding is the water sewers on the other side of the street It's just the individual leads that come into the house on the wide side where the big goes all the way through that area That's why they only gave you eight feet out and then you had to stop and then eight because that whole middle area is all filled Okay, and then the other section but the other section there would be no issue whatsoever because it's Then it's what 30 feet away from the electrical lines and

What is the other section you're speaking about?

The one that you were saying that was closer to the street. The original information that was given to us, there was two corridors that could be planted in, one near the sidewalk and one near the street.

Near the street, yeah, eight feet out. So you want to move it out there?

Well, the Royal Poinsettia certainly will get big enough.

Yeah, we just didn't have any direction on that. Plus, there's going to be a cost to have them moved.

Definitely, and it's not good for them once they start to get established.

That's why I said they're 17 feet away from the power lines as it is.

How important is it to talk about moving trees we've already planted? I mean, if somebody has an objection, that's one person having an objection to be doing this whole project because one person doesn't like it. I'm not sure that that's reasonable.

Well, I think the point is consideration moving forward when we do plant it. Because we were asked why did we let it get planted? I was. So close to electrical lines. Well, I didn't decide the corridor. That was decided by the city. And it wasn't brought back to us. Can it be brought back to us? Can we talk to it? Because their point is eventually LCEC will be trimming these trees. And in the end, all residents pay for that. And I understand. That's true. I don't think we should. necessarily should go moving trees we just planted, but we need to have that discussion for future planting. I agree. Joe... Be included in it. Not let... I don't think the right decision probably was made when they were planted where they were.

The only other decision I think from what I've been told was that we just wouldn't put them in, and I'd have to come back to the BAC and say, all right, pick another street.

No, no, you said they could be planted in the corridor near the street.

Near the street. But then utilities met with Al and they said that there's actually too much stuff out there. They were a little worried about it. So they said that was the only place that they were.

That was unclear to me because we were getting written instructions of two corridors.

Of course. Yeah, we didn't know that until they went out there to mark the trees with the tree company after everything had been approved.

Okay, well that's history there. I agree with what you're saying that in the future we need to kind of tweak it a little bit more and check with everybody, as many people as possible to make sure we're doing, we're not creating more problems for the neighbors or LCEC. I have a question to follow up on that. Joe, is it LCEC's responsibility to trim Or would we be better off looking to put in the budget to do trimming some trees ourselves?

For the existing trees? Are you talking about the new ones we just put?

No, existing trees.

I don't know how to answer that question. I'd have to ask the city manager how they would want me to move forward with that.

Okay. I have a little input. So if they'll see, you know, they'll trim it half the tree. because it's got to be away from the power line. So they do half of the work, maybe, on that tree. Then you bring in your guy to do the other half. It's going to be cheaper that way than doing a whole tree. It may not be as beautiful. Oops.

I had asked Joe before the meeting if he could get us some pricing on trimming trees especially some of these that have been butchered and I had also had somebody out on site and he who is in the tree trimming business or removal of trees And he indicated to me that these trees that are lining down the Bald Eagle, that they should be thinned out because of a heavy storm coming through. They're so thick that wind's going to take them down. And we could have even more of an issue.

It didn't come down in Hurricane Irma, and that was a Cat 5. So I don't believe that.

But they're much thicker now than what they were back in

i'm just passing that information on so in my yard i spend two thousand dollars a year having trees trimmed our twenty five thousand dollar budget poof on like one section of street so let's not ask that question to anybody i don't want i would like that removed from your tree trimming let's take that away well i'm not i'm not in that same position as you are but because if somebody has a contract to do

20 or 30 or 40 trees, the cost to do that is not going to be what they're going to charge you per tree or me for a tree. Because I pay $75 to $100 a tree to get trimmed. It may not be that when they have a contract.

I just don't understand why that's on our list. Why is that on a beautification list? What? Trimming.

Trimming trees make them look better.

You think those trees are beautiful going down the road here?

No.

You're the only one that I know of.

No matter how you trim it, they're still going to have the big V in the middle, kids.

And I think that we have to be careful of that. If LCEC is trimming and then we're trimming, they're going to still trim. They don't like the way our landscaper chose to trim. It's still going around the wires. So that to me around the wires is their responsibility. We're already paying for it. It's every tree on the island that's causing the issue, not the new ones, older trees. So I don't know. They're already doing that. Not a good job, or not a pretty job. But I don't know why we would want to put any more money to add another cut, and then they'd still cut it.

You could shape it. Absolutely. You could shape it nicer.

Absolutely.

It is gonna cost a lot of money.

Let me add something that I didn't before. One of the things that when I met with Casey, I mentioned to her that these are some of the things that not just for this year or next year, but looking at the long term and ultimately asking for a stronger budget down the road that maybe instead of 25, we get 50,000. But some of these things, then we could be picking up the trimming. I'm not suggesting we start the trimming right away, but it's something we should be looking at sometime down the road because these are pretty, my term would be butchered, okay? Maybe somebody else has another term. But it should be, we should be looking at a long term, not just the next 12 months.

I AGREE. I THINK I LOOK AT THE NEXT STEP UP AND THE HIGHER LEVEL OF WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE'RE GOING. I KNOW THE CITY MANAGER HAS ASKED EACH DEPARTMENT TO CUT THEIR BUDGET BY 5%, AND THESE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE MUST DO. I KNOW THERE'S A VOTE ON THE PRIMARY, WAS IT THE MAIN ELECTION OR PRIMARY, WHERE WE MAY HAVE our taxes dramatically cut because of what's happening in Tallahassee. So I think we should be prioritizing some of these things today. And I agree with Linda. I don't want to see tree maintenance and trimming get hardly any budget from us. And I think we should be deciding some of these programs. Which are most important to us? Do we keep the big three?

Well, this isn't something to decide today. This is something that everybody ought to sit and sharpen a pencil and put on there. So for our next meeting, we can talk about this because our budget doesn't kick in until several months from now. And then we're going to have plenty of time to make a decision on October 1, right? So we've got plenty of time to look at this. I just wanted to put this out in front of everybody, because I think this covers everything that is under our umbrella, if you will, or has been for the last few years.

There's something that you had talked about, having a separate website. Is that still under consideration?

That's, well, Jose was doing that. I don't think there's a cost involved in that other than some staff time. And that, I'm gonna get with Tara to find out if that still exists or if it's floating around on somebody's computer at this point. He had done, Jose had done some of it. but I don't know where it is now.

Also associated with that, is it a separate website, like off of city?

No, they didn't want it on a separate website. We're going to try and find a way to make it easier for the public to find it.

Okay, okay.

Too many clicks right now.

Yeah, fully agree.

Anybody out there like to say anything? They're all ears. Please.

Please approach. Please, Elliot.

Yeah, smile you're on camera.

I know. My name is Elliot Mascoot, 1300 6th Avenue on Marco. You guys are really great. I just wanted to add a few things. I have a degree in horticulture and I do my own yard and I know where all of the work is and where it's a whole lot easier. where you need more water, where you need more effort, and where you don't. Shrubbery, bushes, hedges are very intensive for maintenance to keep them looking good. In my yard, I get away from them. I have trees, and where I want something else, I go with things like muley grass or pampas grass or things like that that you don't spend so much time and effort having to trim. and maintain. And you can put in a lot of shrubs and everything all over the place, but if you don't really maintain them nice, you're right, they get weedy, they get not healthy. And I love the fact that you're really concentrating on trees. For me, trees are the answer. and the right kind of tree in the right place. Of course, there are so many older trees here that are planted where power lines are. And they don't mix. And I know in a lot of cases you've got power lines on one side of the street and you've got underground utilities on the other. And you want trees and you want beautification. And it's really hard to decide what to do and how to do it the best because you just really... In a lot of places, there is no perfect answer, but I would hope that there are no more trees being planted where power lines are in the future so that they get the V and they get whacked and they get hacked and they look horrible and they begin to die or they just are just totally lopsided and hurricanes will take them out. So I think that, really, I love the fact that you're really concentrating on trees. And I'd love to see a lot of – well, you also have to be very, very careful to plant the trees that are not going to – be greatly affected by hurricanes and that are extremely drought tolerant, that look good, that are healthy, and that you don't have to do a lot to. That you don't have to get into a lot of trimming in the future. And that you don't have to really spend a lot of money and time and expertise dealing with that. That they take care of themselves. And they're out there. I mean, I know I do a lot of checking with what the University of Florida has and everything else. And there are books really written. There are so many trees that really laugh at hurricanes, even a flood. I mean, you have to really think about all the things that can happen from wind to flood to drought to everything else. And there's a lot out there that we don't use, that we don't think about and that are just not offered. And so I think a lot of research in that direction can help. But I think you guys, I love what you do. I do watch you folks. I mean, it's a great committee. You folks are really awesome. I'm on waterways. I just want to say this publicly. We could learn a lot from you.

We're glad somebody watches us on TV.

We weren't sure. Being a horticulturalist, this is one of my top committees that I love to follow. I'm just really impressed. Thank you very much. Thanks for your time.

Thanks for coming up, Elliot. That reminds me of a joint passion we have and that is landscaping with less water and less fertilizer yes and to that end I would like to some of our budget be available for whatever we're going to need to do to educate the public on that and perhaps I know we're going to bring forward the white paper that Rick Woodworth prepared on let's changing our ordinance so that we don't have the amount of required grass The extensive amount that's currently required by code if somebody wants to do Florida native and Florida friendly that they can and We can help them with us beautiful now the sea grape can tolerate all of those conditions, but they're ugly High maintenance Right. You'll see a lot of them over at the Historic Museum. But there are some, and we do have a list that we worked with LCEC, we worked, our people, Maple Botanical Garden, we've developed that list of salt tolerant, wind tolerant, what has invasive roots, what doesn't. It's a good list of about 50 trees.

When I was, I looked at that list. And I thought one thing that was missing were small trees. We have, and I know a lot of people like to think of trees for the shade, but on the side where you have the power lines, you got to have small trees. And it's better to have small trees than no trees.

You have a list there.

Yeah. Of the small trees? Yeah, maximum 14 feet as per LCE.

I missed those for some reason.

There's a list of specifically small trees.

Okay. Because there are a huge variety of those, and a lot of them are very nice.

A lot of them are flowering. Yes. Secretive patio trees.

Right, right, right, right.

I just wanted to add that on the waterways committee for next week, I will be doing a presentation involving the fertilizer issue.

Good, I'll do it.

Awesome. That would be great to have you. But, hey, I'm glad to be here, and I'm glad to see what you're doing. Thank you all.

I have a question for you. Certainly. Do you guys address the pesticide and herbicide problem?

I want to. I got chastised by one of our members saying, Elliot, you're straying out of our lane. You need to stay in your lane. And I was told not to go in that direction, so I haven't. I would love to if they would allow it. Who is stopping you? One of our members.

Beach and Coastal is doing that. Is doing what? Beach and Coastal Advisory Committee works on herbicides and pesticides. Is it the member that was kicked off and put right back on?

No.

No, but I was asked to, one of our members said, you know, you're out of your lane, so I let it go.

Yeah, because that is a really important one.

Yes.

Okay, if I can interject here, we're kind of getting off the tangent of the budget, so if we can have any more comments relative to expenditures related to the things we do, then let's have that discussion. If not, then these items we just talked about, we can have that in an open meeting at one of our regular meetings.

Just something to think about with the light pole banners. We kind of put ourselves in a situation where most of them are falling apart right now because we haven't done anything about it in 10 years. If maybe going forward we set it so that it is incremental, so that year by year, it's like, oh, we've replaced this many, and then the next year we replace this many, so that it's not a huge, like, we're spending 10% of our budget on banners when we want to be planting trees.

I think in a perfect world, that would be great, but if we have this money this year, and then somehow the property tax thing passes and there's no more beautification advisory committee at all, I say let's just... Let's replace them for $2,500.

That's something I'd like to see done with that.

But generally speaking, I like your idea better. Yeah.

But I think there's probably an economy in doing them all at once, too. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. Anybody?

Anybody out there?

Any council input? No, just came for the ride.

We wouldn't have to worry about trimming trees with LCEC if all of those power lines were in the ground. That's all I'll say. So look into it, please.

I have a question. Maybe, Joe, you can answer this, but it's my understanding that When we pay our power bill, there's a certain amount goes into an account with LCEC that is to be withheld or held for future underground. Am I misled on that issue? Just talk loud.

I haven't heard of any or seen any.

Was it just for Marco Island or everywhere?

No, I thought it was just for Marco. Part of their contract was to have a certain amount of the bill that goes into Future Underground. Maybe it all got used up when Collier Boulevard was redone because that's all underground.

The only thing I've ever heard of is... there's issues with above-ground power lines and wind, and there's issues with below-ground power lines and floods. Right. So I've heard that, too.

Moving technology forward, maybe some of that's been cured, too.

That would be good.

The choice of living on a barrier island.

Does anybody else have any comments relative to the –

So I do have a question, just a procedural question. So we scheduled this meeting today because we wanted to have it in advance of the City Council operating budget workshop so we could go in with our – Right. Please, sir, can I have some money?

Do we not need to do that now? Correct. It's already been decided.

Is it, but city council hasn't voted on this, so.

The recommendation has been we get 25 period and we can use it as we want.

Is it too getting into the weeds for us to still go forward and talk about that so that if something happens in August or September and they're like, okay, we really need to have some other money, where can we take it from that it doesn't get taken from us or do we not need to worry about that?

I'm not sure we have a whole lot of discussions to contribute to that. I mean, they're going to pretty much dictate, as they did last year, where we go.

Could we perhaps say Thank you for the $25,000. We will try to make it work. This is still less than we would have wanted. Please let us at least have this. I don't know if we need to beg or not. Just a suggestion of going with, it's like, yeah, that's great. We'll do $25,000 to make it seem this is the bare minimum. I don't know how to phrase that properly.

I would, not that this really matters, just throw it for discussion, if we're going to ask for more, ask for the additional funding for the finish the lighting on Collier Boulevard and we'll take care of the installation. That's a one-time shot. It's a one-time.

I'm not talking about asking for more. I want to make sure that we don't get less than this.

Well, it's been recommended by... the manager because as Victoria said everybody has been requested to submit a budget 5% less than last year. This is giving us but we now have more flexibility with that same 25.

I think we have friends on council so I think we should be

Mostly okay So so we don't need to be Babysitting necessarily that that process so do we need to meet in August?

I? Don't think we necessarily need to be I think well because the budget isn't finalized until the end of September. I don't know what the date is But Joe do you know what the date is the final date? City Council. I think it's the end of September sometime.

September 22nd.

Before we decide not to meet in August, Joe, we spent all of our budget. Is that correct?

No, I have a follow-up for that.

There we go. All right.

So the last meeting that we had, we were trying to fund Phase 2 at Mackle Park. And we had a remaining amount of $6,807.29. We needed $7,7587 to fund that. Casey found that extra fund from the grant that we were able to use, and there was about $8,000 there, and I had asked your permission to do that. You guys said that's the route you wanted me to go. They don't want us to dip in there for just the remaining chunk. They didn't want us to do a small ask. So my request now is that we change that request to them now for the full amount, of the $7,075.87, which then would leave you the $6,870 still on your, sorry, $6,807.29 would leave you that to still do what you wanted to do with, maybe the banners or whatever else you see fit. But that's my request. I just need your approval. And it can't be a vote here. I just need you to basically nod your head and tell me to go ahead.

Wait, you're going to take, I'm not sure, you're taking the money from the,

The grant that they, or the fund that Casey has, it was just under $10,000, or it was just under $8,000.

So the $10,000 tree donation people money.

Is that the grant that she's, I've got the email back. That's a separate thing. That's not a grant.

That's not a grant. That's individual people donated trees because they wanted to have a tree put in a specific place, so I don't like that idea.

Yeah.

You don't like taking the money from, it's either that or.

It's already been spoken for by individuals to have trees planted.

So this 8,000, I've sent them an email, and they were happy to do it.

Who's they? Who's they? Yes.

This is the grants administrator from Collier County Community Foundation.

This is separate money from Tree City USA? Yes.

No, no, no. It's not Tree City USA. It's 10,000 trees.

Oh, is it separate from 10,000 trees?

That's a grant.

It's a different organization.

It's the money that we basically said that you had brought up that Casey said that we could use.

This is Deb Henry money.

Yeah, Deb Henry money.

Is it Deb Henry money?

It is. You donated your own personal money. Yes.

That money I didn't know it was a grant I know it was the money That I spoke of last time was there was seventeen or eighteen thousand dollars in from the ten thousand trees program some of which was my money and other members of the community who donated to have trees planted in certain spots and We couldn't have them planted where we wanted at our homes. So we were kind of wherever you want to plant them. I am not aware of any money with the Collier Foundation or any of that stuff. So if that's a grant from unless and this is how the 10,000 tree program could be set up into that foundation. as just one of their branches, I don't know. We'd have to ask David Lieser how he set it up. That's the only way I'm thinking that could have started from that is in order for him to set up his foundation of the 10,000 trees, he might have had to work off of something Collier County had. I don't know anything about it with a grant. But as for the money that I spoke of last meeting, which I understand what Joe is saying, they don't want to piecemeal it. They want to say you get $8,000, take it all at once.

Why can't we just spend whatever our budget is left? Like if it costs this much for phase two and we have this much, let's just do this much.

They didn't even ask for the remainder from them?

And don't even worry about the rest of it.

I can always go back to the drawing board with the, but then I got to go get a bid three ways again. We already went through that process with getting three different bids, competitively bid, and I brought it here.

Whoever is the person that bid on phase two.

And won it.

And won it. And it was going to be $7,000 some dollars. Tell them, okay, we want you to do that, but also now we only have $6,000, so can you just only do that much? Like take away one or two trees?

What is the shortfall if we just spend our total budget? What is missing?

It was about $200 and something. whatever the difference between 7,075.87 and 6,807.

I don't want to commit someone to something who's not here, but last month in the meeting, Counselor Gray said, it's like, I want you guys to finish this. If you can't, I'll give you $1,000. Didn't he say that? Because I remember him saying that during the meeting because I rewatched it this morning. Well, no, I'm just saying that if we have 200. You don't need to do that.

Just plant one less tree. Have the affordable landscape who did their seven, six.

I think I still have to go out for bid three ways again because it's a change of scope.

Do one less tree?

That's our purchasing policy. I can get clarification, but I think I have to go and get three more competitive bids.

Well, I think we have to do that because we don't have enough time to spend the rest of the time.

I know I understand that, but I think what it does then is it opens up the door for me to give it to somebody because they bid it, and then I change the scope so that they were able to win the bid. So they want me to, I would have to competitively bid it.

Okay, then let's do that.

Okay. Oh, man.

I feel like we can make up $260,000. What I'm saying is forget 10,000 trees. That's a project Rhonda's working on. That's what Deb was just talking about. We don't have a timeline, deadline on that. She's contacting the individual donors. You're working with David Leaser. Take that out of the picture. Right, but he's saying this is a grant.

If you don't take the grant when you have it, it goes away.

Deb doesn't think it's a grant. I don't think it's a grant. It's this 10,000 tree money that's happened to be being held. Some people's actual donations. I think they're calling it the wrong name. They're calling it the wrong name.

Can you say the email address again, please?

Yeah. The lady that's working with me right now is Dawn Grundemann, grants administrator from Collier Community Foundation. And this is who Casey is. Yeah.

Collier Community Foundation is this, and they have lots and lots of branches, and they work through lots and lots of people in the communities when they set up some sort of a nonprofit. People donate to the Collier Community Foundation, and it trickles down. So her title could be grant. Is where I think he's going. But this is not grant money. It's our money.

It's not grant money. It's our money. It's your money.

But so to answer your question, Victoria, it's not a grant like money's going away. I totally understand what you're saying. This is our money. It's sitting there. It's just the foundation in which it works under. Okay. So I think her title is grant, but it's not a grant.

Are we requesting the right thing to have him go back and redo this?

It stinks because it's extra work because it's one or two trees. But unfortunately, I believe that's the legality of it. Because if he does, he would look like he's doing favoritism. Like, oh, if you take one tree away, your price is better. So it's favoritism.

No, it's just because we don't have the money.

Right. So if I, what you're saying, letting him, whatever's left in your budget.

We're done.

Yeah that's what I'm saying if we come up with the difference ourselves not as a board but as individuals we can just have it be done It's July 15th we have all the way till September 30th to plant these trees Okay folks this is a budget hearing workshop we can't make defined decisions at this okay so if we're No he said he just needs us to nod so we can make that decision because we just need to nod Well, if he goes back, I think he can say, OK, it seems to be that that's what we want. quote what we want is to get a budget have these trees planted based on what our budget is and find out how many trees we have and if you need to put that out for bid then so be it that's and we will need to vote we need an august meeting and then we'd vote at the next meeting right so we need an august meeting because we need them planted

Do we need to vote in the August meeting? Because we have to say.

If we're spending money, yes.

So we've all voted to spend $7,000. So why do we need to vote to now spend $6,000?

It's a different bid. It's going to be a different bid.

It just came in less. It just seems less. It's just less.

I think we voted. I don't know, Joe.

What do you think? No.

Yeah, I'm not.

And then I could have another meeting just for that one item.

I agree. To be honest with you I thought you were gonna tell me to go ahead and use the money that they're offering us I Guess the other thing I could do is ask if they'll do the exact same amount of work for the a little bit less Because then I'm not getting any they bid what they bid I I'll get clarification from Casey on that. But if I can get the vendor to do it for that price Yeah

And if not, we have two and a half months to get this done.

Yes.

And so should we go ahead and have an August meeting so we can get an update from you?

I don't believe you need to. I think I can get this done.

Okay.

Then get it done.

Well, let's leave it at this. If we do need a meeting, you have to let us know and we'll get it scheduled for August.

Understood.

Thank you. Also, we each as individuals can email Joe and ask for an update. Yeah.

Oh, Joe would like that. Well, he could just take it through the system, and here's the update. Are you allowed to do that?

Then that would be great.

And then we just say, you can't read the email.

I don't think he wants inundated, but sending him stuff.

No, the reason I don't want to rush to spend that $8,000 is because, well, two reasons. One, Rhonda's working with David Leaser on a plan for that, and she has time, and there's no rush for that.

And there's people that dedicated money specifically for trees, and I'd like to see that they got their wish.

Exactly. And then if we did do that, now we've got $6,000-some that we need to figure out how to spend on August 3rd in our next meeting because we can't do that today.

Understood.

Any other discussions? Not hearing any, we're adjourned.