Waterways Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

The

Waterways Advisory Committee meeting is now called to order. Tara, can I have roll call, please?

Member Lewandowski?

Here.

Member Rojena? Here. Member Winter?

Here.

Vice chair, High? Member Schneider?

Here.

Member Woodworth? Chair Mascu?

Here. Okay. Thank you. We do have a quorum, and we are good to go. Let's rise for our pledge of allegiance. 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. Thank you. We move on now to the approval of the agenda. I'd like to make a motion to move number 8A. Yes, 8A, the Marco Island Police Department Marine Unit, to our first, I guess, item, you would call it, so that our police officer can get on with the work he has to do today.

So I'd like to move that to after the approval of the minutes. Do I need a motion for that?

I'll motion that.

Do I have a second? Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Okay. I also add, can we just simply put it there all the time? Exactly.

I've talked to Tara and I've talked to Justin. I think that cannot be done. Justin, do you want to comment on that? If

this is going to be something that's temporary, know, only for the next six months, then no. But if it's going be something permanent, you can consider doing that.

Okay. So it could yes. I was told that the agenda was in its particular, you know, predetermined format and

Let me just double check with the city clerk.

Okay.

She's the one who ultimately has control of of the agendas and and publishing of those.

Great. If it can be

done But I don't have an issue with it.

Well, I talked to our chief of police, and she told me it could be a permanent a permanent thing. And I just wanna go I'd like to go on record as saying that the public, people at random have just come up to me over the past month and told me that they are so grateful and so happy and that this is absolutely a fantastic public service, and they'd like to see it continue. So, you know, I'd go on record to say that that, you

know I think you can do it just calling it old business, marine issues under old business and I'd have to check on stays there.

Okay. Okay. I'll check on that too. Okay. Then why don't we do the approval?

I have one comment on the agenda. Sure. Seven a rodenticide. Yes. It's way out of our scope. No. And, as far as I know, anyway, maybe I'm wrong. But it was another advisory committee was working that arena. And at the last city council meeting, they took ownership of it. And we've historically not wanted to engage in things that are already on the city council's plate.

So

I will give you exact reasons why it is in our scope and the difference in what the beach and and coastal advisory committee did and what I would propose. Two different things. And it does directly affect canals and our waters. Okay. I'll tell you why.

Yeah. I mean, if if the objective is just to say it's poison, it's not good for our canals, it just doesn't warrant and it

it Correct. It could ahead. Our canals.

I just wanna make that point.

Boxes are found with with rat poison in our canals, so that would affect our canals.

I I would agree the point, Ralph. I feel like this is a little outside our scope, I'm happy to happy to listen to

It'll be brief, though. I'll I'll I will make it brief, but very, very to the point. Okay. Any other questions about our agenda? Okay. Then the agenda has been approved and I'd like to go to approval of the minutes. Any discussion relating to the minutes of our last meeting? No, I don't hear any. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting?

Do you have a a vote on the agenda approval?

We did. Okay. Moved.

Okay. Do I have a second?

I second. All

in favor of approving the minutes of the December meeting? Aye. Okay. Okay. What I'd like to do now is move number 8A to our next agenda item. And I'd like to invite a member of the MarCO Marine Police Unit to make our presentation for the latest on the navigational channels and the situations around the Marco Island waterways.

Excellent. My name is officer Ferris. I wanna thank you guys again for having us up here. Think it's definitely a great way to keep an open line of communication. So I wanna start by letting you all know that I've shared some resources with Tara to put out to you. One of them being a derelict vessel map. I just shared that with her this morning, so it can be sent for your review or input. The state has an interactive derelict vessel map. And what that means is any derelict vessel that gets labeled within the state, including the one that was in question at the last meeting, is there for the public to see. You can click on those and see what status they're in.

So the one in question across from Factory Bay over by Isle Of Capri recently, you can go on and you can click on that and you can find that it's in a state of review right now. So basically what that means, it's in a state of administrative review, it's still being investigated. As I've stated before, a lot of times when dealing with the derelict vessels, it's dependent on the willingness and the availability of the vessel owner. And that can determine whether a vessel gets removed in six months, which is rather quick, or three years. Right?

You can go in there and look to those. You can certainly also contact our department and get to the Marine Unit to find out more information on those too. But I sent a link to those to that map, so any of you can click on it and see what's going on. Also, there's a couple of new derelict vessel and anchorage laws that have been put in place as of last year and they've kind of assigned some verbiage to some of that here at the beginning of this year, 2026. One of them that's going to directly affect us and actually help us moving forward because I know this has been a matter of public question is the anchored vessels and what we do for them.

In the past, we routinely on a monthly basis went out, encountered these vessels, checked to make sure that they had proper safety equipment, dealt with them if they didn't, and also looked into their sanitation device whether it's working, whether it's not. We had options of implementing dye that goes into the head unit and it would tell us whether they were dumping out or not right there on scene. And one of the new laws that went into place is an Anchorage limitation law. And basically what it says is, you now if you're going to be a live aboard on the waters of the state or even have a live aboard, you don't have to be living aboard is you have to get a special anchor or a long term anchorage permit, right? Now you only need to get that long term anchorage permit if you're within one linear nautical mile of a designated anchorage area, which the only one that we have on Marco is in Factory Bay.

And it's kind of irrelevant because it's over a sandbar and it's a federal anchorage area. And what that means is it's a designated anchorage area. We have anchorage areas that people can legally anchor, but they're not a designated area. They're not a documented area. They're just places where people can legally anchor.

So within one linear nautical mile of this area in Factory Bay, you would have to get this long term anchorage permit. Without that permit, you're only allowed to anchor fourteen days out of a thirty day period, right? So out of a thirty day period, you can only anchor fourteen days within this area without the permit. Now you get the permit, you can anchor as normal first as you want as long as you're keeping your vessel out of an at risk or derelict state. It does allow us to keep better tabs on boats that are anchored out there.

It allows us to tap into a statewide database to know whether that time has been met or whether they even have a permit. We can also create our own tabs on when they arrived, start o'clock per se. And once again, when you get the permit, which is it's a free permit that you can get if you're a live aboard or you're gonna host a live aboard on the state. It only takes about five minutes to do. Did a kind of a mock one and it's not very hard to get, but it is a law that went into place that will affect our ability to manage some of these things.

I also sent a link to some information on that and a direct link to the verbiage on that law that I just stated. As far as the Seakeepers project that we've been working on, I'm going to put a picture here on the board. I don't know if that's visible to you if I need to adjust it.

So this is the current

state minus Roberts Bay, we have completed. So this is all the points that just our boat has hit. And this is all the data that our boat has collected. Per the International Seakeepers organization. They have had more interaction with the public.

They've had six people sign up for this program since the last time we spoke. The last meeting that was after the six people signed up, they had 20 people interested. So we are getting some traction with the local boaters in the area. And once again, the information that I shared with you the first time we were here allows you to go in and look at this. And potentially all six of those boats including ours, you'll be able to look at.

Now what you don't see here is the data that you guys really want and that we all want. And we have a meeting set up IT setting up a meeting with our mapping service to create a map that will project all of that data along with the tracks. So you'll be able to see all the tracks and all the data assigned to the points along the island where we're looking for the information as far as depths and things like that. I was hoping to have that now, but we don't have that yet, right? So they'll be able to build the map out to see what you all want to see and what really the public wants to see, what we want to see as well.

So this is the current state, like I said, minus Roberts Bay and those adjacent canals, we do have all of that done. It's just a matter of getting with our GIS service to make it in a more amusing format to look at. Outside of this, I will say over the last twelve years that the Marine has really been back in effect. And most recently, we've had a lot of success in removing hazards from the water and affecting some mammal rescues. I wanna credit that to our local captains who reported all that to us.

Now, would we have come across it eventually? Probably so. But without the local boaters and the local captains specifically keeping an eye out, some of this stuff would go untouched for a while. So whether it be a piling down or a cement block in the water somewhere from years ago, an injured sea turtle, an injured dolphin or a stranded dolphin, I'd like to encourage all the captains and boaters to report those to the FWC but along with us too because whenever we get a a call like that, I'll immediately be in contact with the FWC and Coastal Zone Management while we're affecting remedy in that. So generally hazard will be remedied almost immediately if we uncover it whether it be marketing it until we can get it out with the help of Public Works and we've always had a great working relationship.

As far as updates on everything that we've had going on in the last month, that's it. But I'm open to any questions, always open to any questions throughout the month as well from the public.

Do we have any questions?

Just curious if you're seeing with your bathymetry work, anything special stand out like big differences from 2005 effort or anything like that?

Yes. So specifically in the areas of Hideaway Beach, Big Marco Pass and the South End, right? So Kaxamos in between Kaxamos and Dickman's Point. That's ever changing and I could say that between 2023 and now, right. That's I can't even tell you what it was in 2005, but I can tell you it's extremely different.

That's almost a monthly difference in sandbar shifts, especially on the South End. Kaxambas Bay, if you remember back in 2005 and when I began on the Marine unit in twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, there was an island over there just off of Kaxambas and it housed a lot of dead foliage and things like that and a lot of birds. That island has dissipated into the entire Bay. And almost if you're coming straight out of Kaxamba Bay, you cannot take a direct path at certain times. Now you have to hug the ship's landing side of the Bay because that whole sandbar has just shifted out.

Now beyond that, in between the islands between Dickman's and Kaxamba's, that's ever changing. That moves back and forth east and west, it dissipates, it gets deeper, it gets shallower. We often travel to the top of ships landing to see some of those changes, which is the best thing that we've ever done as far as seeing what's changed. That's ever changing. Big Marco Pass is also ever changing as far as the sand from the Hideaway Beach side coming into the pass and the Hurricane Shoals side coming into the pass. So that's almost a tab that we have to monitor regularly.

You. You. Martin, I think

you several questions. One, the new law from '26 about Anchorage, I've done some kind of research on that. My understanding is one, it's actually an appeal. They've passed it, but there's a whole push to appeal it and change it. The other thing was I thought that there was like a thirty day limitation on it that you could anchor for thirty days then you have to move.

Without the permit, yes. With the long term the way the statute reads currently and I don't have any information about the appeals, so I'm not up to speed on that. But currently what's in the state statute which is what we would regulate as a marine unit, that verbiage is how I stated, right? So without that permit, if you're there longer than fourteen days out of a thirty day period, you're subject to a $100 fine. Subsequent violation is $250 fine. Third violation is $500 fine. With the permit, you can stay.

And that is an online application?

Yes, through myfwc.com.

Okay. And what are the bullet points of that? Do you have to prove like registration of the boat?

Yes. Yes, you have when you apply, so you put your personal information in to create your account. That's as far as I went. I did not go forward with applying with a vessel. But yes, you'd have to have your either documentation number, Florida vessel registration number and then you get your permit now I can check or the marine unit can check the status of that permit live which in the past a lot of FWC run programs our local municipality couldn't check. This one we can jump online and see the status of the permit. They should also have it with them on board.

What about vessels that are registered outside of Florida?

I don't know, but I would assume that it would be the same.

And then final question is, do you tap into things like ActiveCaptain because a lot of people will actually go to ActiveCaptain and put in debris found at this location?

Yes. I've never looked into that. I'm sure it's something that can be done, but we have never historically done that before.

Thank you. Chris, I think you had

a question.

With the new law of the four that are parked at the bridge, where are we at on that?

Right. So right now, once again, we have not started implementing this law. This is something that the verbiage of it just came forth at the New Year. So the two that are at the bridge on the other side are probably right on that one nautical mile line. The one that's on our side of the bridge near the beach on our city, That's 0.8 miles from that Anchorage area.

So technically, yes, the way the law reads, they're going to need to get a permit. Once again, we have not implemented a strategy. I'm kind of hoping that we can get together with FWC, which we do share Intel and things like that and see how they want to proceed. But the next time I see them there, I planned on going on a kind of educational route. Once again, it's something that you can do on your phone right now in a matter of minutes. Right now the way it states if they don't have a permit, they can be held to that fourteen day out of thirty that they can be there.

The one by the bridge they just use is like a weekend home.

Right. Like I said, I get a lot of the frustration on that. But up until now and even if they get the permit, they are allowed to be there.

Any other questions? I had one. Actually, I have a few, but in the interest of time to move along, I'm just going to ask one of them. The sea keepers, what can you tell the public exactly what you'll be doing with that information when it is complete? Because I've had people ask me that.

Right.

And I promised them that I would try to get an answer.

Okay. Yeah. Well, I know it's something that the city will probably use more than myself, but one, I'll continue to update. Right? So on a weekly basis, I'll continue to send my data to them. Okay. And that will also make public the changes that I see or that we see on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, monthly basis. So I'll continue to input information. The entire Marine unit will continue to input information. Hopefully, it does take a participation effort from whoever signs up because you are held to pull that little chip out, upload it and send it. And that's really it. It takes very short time to do. They do the rest of the work, it gets uploaded to Noah and then we can see it.

So

it'll be an easier way for the public to monitor what's going on and not just have it to where I know or we know and then shoot it to you guys once a month.

Okay. Great. I think to

me, sorry, just to add from that, I think the underlying thing that I would see from it is I want to see the data compared to the old survey so that we can see what has actually happened to the canals.

Right. That will be in there and I was very hopeful to have it here for you today. But like I said, I'm at the mercy of who can build a map for us.

Because to me, like the shifting thing, I mean, that's just going to happen. There's really little we can do about it. Bigger issue is water quality in the canals affected by silt sedimentation. Where were we twenty years ago? Where are we now? That's

I to me the big can say that there's it's not apparent to me in my daily travels, a change in a canal. Now I can't say I've gone into the Goldenrod Canal five years ago and jogged a depth, But it's not a noticeable change when I'm watching my depth finder. But I'm sure there is a change, especially from twenty years ago and we'll uncover that when this is done.

Yes. I mean the important thing to me is in a twenty year cycle how much of these things silted

up because

certainly where I am and I'm in a good title location, it's silted up.

I would imagine so.

I just want to say rarely do I ever hear a completely 1% positive response from the public, on anything. But on this monthly presentation that what you're doing and from our police department that we're allowed to do this and that this committee is having this, I have just heard universal public response being totally happy and appreciative of what you're doing. So I hope it continues. Yeah. I wanna thank you and the Mark Rowland Police Department for making this possible.

Well, from the Police Department and the Marine Union, I wanna thank you too because like I said, an open line of communication, I think, is the best way to operate, especially with a city the size of ours. Great.

We're all

in this waterway together. Thank you.

Thank you.

We appreciate it. Thank you and have a good month. Okay. Along, see old business number six, dredging alternatives going to member Rohina. You said you have about a twelve minute presentation approximately. Let's see what it is. I I hand it to you.

We'll see how it goes.

Alrighty. Great.

Depends how much I wanna yak. Gotta come up here. Here we go. Dredging alternatives. I've spoken a few times on some alternatives to handling the muck.

And I stayed away from talking about the dredging alternatives to it, partially because of my opinion, the Seahawk presentation was fundamentally flawed at its basics of trust and risk. And I didn't want them to use a potential item in that arena that they could pivot to. But that's just my opinion. But I felt that there's a couple of things in there for the toolbox that if you were to engage in dredging that you may want to hear about. So that's the purpose of this.

One of the things that's very interesting, everybody remembers the Harper report, the executive summary in the beginning sections. He talks about widespread hydraulic judging program because muck was the number one spewer of nutrients. But at a $189,000,000, that's never gonna happen, and it kinda pushed it aside. However, if you read the 500 to 600 page report to its end and get into the data and into the conclusions of his team from the data, there are some areas where it conflicts. And it doesn't say exactly that.

And I put one example of the organic content that's related to the core sampling, which is one of the main parts where it conflicts. And I use this as an example of the organic content part of those core samplings, but it relates similarly to the moisture content, calculated wet densities, nitrogen phosphorus content, tells the same story where sediment organic content, there is a component, a piece of it that gets into the twenty percent and thirty percent arena where the muck or the sediment itself is in fact muck. But when you look at the overall mean of the organic content of 5.2%, it starts to tell you a story that the vast amount, majority of these canals are not muck. And if you start thinking about that at $40 a cubic yard, if you had a widespread overall dredging program, you could be spending $40 a cubic yard to dredge a lot of sand. And that's where it starts to get you to thinking about it and it gets you to go back into the other components of these core samplings, which starts to tell you that story where there's not as much organic matter in the sediment as you think there is overall.

And to kinda try to confirm it, usually, use the Florida Keys as an example, but I went over to the Florida Indian River Lagoon because they use Florida Institute of Technology as a science behind it. And it's actually several thousand pages of really good stuff, with the institute, but you better have a big pot of coffee to get through it. But they went ahead and did a survey of the area, very complete survey, which I've advocated for in the past. So they knew what they were working with. And you'll see, I'll talk a little bit about what that survey told you here, but it was quite well done.

But the important part of it is they found when they did the testing and the core sampling, the contaminated sediment, muck, only covered onethree of the waterway. And that starts to tell you again the story that, hey, a big part of this area is not muck. It's sand or a small component of organic material in the sediment. And I cut and paste that piece at the bottom from their site. That's not my conclusion.

The survey reduced dredging costs, for the actual dredging and trying to find a place to put the spoil because, again, two thirds of the waterway, had they done a large dredging program, would have been dredging sand. And that's what they're trying to tell you to do is go ahead and sample first. This is just a screenshot of some of the core sampling just to give an indication that it was quite robust. It wasn't seat of the pants guesstimates. And there's a whole story about that on the website.

It's quite inclusive, telling you what each one of these core samples actually found. Getting into some of the technical piece here a little bit, we've heard the word geotextile bags or geotube bags kind of tossed out as part of the dredging program. Just to talk about it because getting into small scale dredging, this will be very important. These bags are special fabric where the hydraulic dredging material is pumped into it. And it sorts out, keeping the sediment in the bag and letting the water flow out.

So we end up with a bag full of sediment. And it's actually quite ubiquitous around the world, the use of these bags both on land and in barges. This happens to be a particular one because when you do small scale dredging canals, that's probably what you would use. Notice there's well, I'll go over here a little bit. This is the back end of it. There is tugboat on the back. But they do have these barges that are self propelled. So it's all self contained. Those that little blue barrel is a chemical. It's a flocculent.

And that gets added to the actual hydraulic dredging material that goes into the bag. And what it does, it makes the sediment clog up, to put it very simply. So it helps the system let the water out and keep the sediment in the bag. One thing I'll get into these bags, you'll see them around the world and around Florida itself, are used for erosion control themselves. You'll see them used for trapping sand, surge protection, all kinds of things, stabilization of banks and coastal things.

But it's used just for example, I suppose, tiger tail. And sand dollar has been in the news lately of a lot of money going every year towards to keep that thing in shape. If you were to use something like this as a beneficial use of the sediment rather than paying to get rid of the spoil, it would be lined up at some point offshore and sunk down to the bottom parallel to Tiger Tail. And it's pinned to the bottom so it doesn't distract from your views and also doesn't distract from navigation. But what it does, it acts as a breakwater.

So when the ocean swells, come in instead of breaking on the beach, it breaks over this, causes a wave, dispels the energy, and behind it, you get a benign flow towards your beach. So that's what's used around the world. I know it's used a lot in Miami Beach and some other places, But that's one use of it, just to throw it out there. And you'll probably read more about it where it is used. But I'll just throw it out there as a side note.

This is just a picture because the world, if you get into trying to do dredging, split barge is a term that's used a lot because it saves a lot of money on getting rid of the spoils when you want to dump it in a specific location. It's just a picture that shows the actual middle length of the barge does, in fact, split open. And the dredge material and, in some cases, bags might be in there. And it drops out to where you want it to go. So actually, you know when I talk split barge, that's what they're talking about.

One of the things the Florida Institute of Technology did up into the Indian River Lagoon is they invented a special shroud over the hydraulic suction head where they can control the air that goes in and kind of moves the muck around and the amount of vacuum or suction to pull it out so that it pulls much more of the low density sediment, which is what muck is, being somewhere between 7090% water, and leaves the high density material in place. And it's helped to perhaps they say 100% more efficiency in getting the muck and leaving the high density material where you want your seagrass actually growing into. And I just put a site here for explanation of what it is and how it works because it'll do a much better job than I would. It tells you the whole story of what they invented and how it works. Now, one thing, we talked a lot about Seahawk presentation, the creating of these islands, and all the negatives that are surrounding But there is one potential thought going back to the 2,005 bathymetrics.

There are a lot of areas that are 17 feet plus deep and some that are 20 feet plus deep. And these could be looked upon as kind of black holes for organic material to go into, creating more muck, spewing more nutrients up. There is an opportunity, rather than making an island in order to make a cheap dredging so it's close by from where you're doing the actual dredging, is you can put the set of material in these holes and get rid of it that way very cheaply. And where there's no sunlight now, nothing can grow there, it's just all negative, you can put muck in there as a spoil area, overlay it with dense material, a foot or two, to encapsulate it, which is part of what Seahawk did, except they were going to encapsulate it as an island. And it's done one time, and it's done.

You don't have to go back and worry about it years later. And you can actually bring it to an optimum level where sunlight will get to it. And then the dense material that encapsulate it, it's an area where you create a garden of seagrass whereas before it was a dead zone. Now one of the things that you have to do is FDEP would, of course, have to approve it as well as residents have to weigh in. But it probably does do away with Coast Guard and the Corps of Engineers because you're not making anything that's above the data point.

So I don't think you have to go play us at the EP. But certainly, it's an opportunity to do small scale dredging, have a place close by to put the spoil in. And this kind of thing has been done all over the world to get around doing something with the spoil. But it's just a thought to put for the toolbox if you wanted to engage, something to think about. And I just have a couple of pictures.

I mean, people picture dredging as always this giant mobilization of this wholesale, huge equipment. And this is just a thought that, no, there is small, detailed types of equipment, different types of heads depending on the situation. And this is just an idea of one of the small ones that's used for canals and marinas and whatnot. And here's another one that's being controlled by wires in this case. But they actually have them like this where actually it's by remote control.

You sit there on the bank and you move this thing around with GPS and all that. And it's actually small scale. And it's not intrusive, not as invasive as these big Seahawk things. And there is an opportunity since we see that there's potentially some canals where it is high level of muck, but a whole bunch of them may not have any at all or hardly any. And you might be able to jump start cleaning up our canals in conjunction with AWT and other efforts that work a little slower over time because it's trying to help Mother Nature heal itself.

And if you can get to some of these areas and grab that stuff where the source is actually already in the water, we may be able to jump start something there much quicker than we think about if you wanted to think about doing that. So I'll just leave it there if anybody has any questions on it.

Okay. Let's first of all, I appreciate that I was did not know quite about this, so that's an education. Thank you very much. Mhmm. I'd like to throw it open to the committee.

One quick just a quick comment. Very good education. Appreciate the work that went into it. The only comment that I've got is is that as somebody who fishes a lot, those holes are there for a reason, and the upcoming cold snap is gonna prove that, because those deep holes, those twenty seventeen footholds, they give a place for the snook, the redfish, trout to go and hide until the water warms up again. Because if they are up, they are forced to stay in the shallows and that water snaps, I think it was 2010 the last time we had a really bad below freezing cold snap. Mhmm. We lost a huge portion of our snook population. If they don't have those holes to go hide in, there is a problem. So I liked a lot of what was in there, but I don't God put those things there for a reason.

I don't

want us to go fill them.

Yes, that's a good point. I realize that.

And

though if we were to try to go that direction, that would be a thought, maybe you fill one or two. Maybe there's three or four canals that need it, we fill a couple. But yes, that's a good point.

Martin, I think you have your light on.

Yes, sure. Multiple questions. I like it a lot more than some of the other proposals I've seen. My question would be one dumping of the soils even though what you're doing is basically displacing stuff from here to there, so it's already in that ocean per se. I would be interested in what the Florida Department had to say about that.

It sounds like there are multiple locations already where they're using this. So my question would be what locations in Florida are using it? And have they done just dredging or erosion programs? My other question would be, I agree with the point that the whole island most probably doesn't need to be dredged. There are some places where there's more muck, less muck, no muck, but we don't know.

And if that's the case and we're saying that from this at a very high level that you think that only 30% needs to be dredged, that takes $183,000,000 down to $60,000,000 That's in the realms of a bond issue if people wanna do it. Mhmm. Now I know there's already a load of pushback from the last council meeting, but no one wants to do a bond issue and raise money, etcetera, etcetera. But, you know, I mean and again, the the comment about not doing it, if we are serious as an island about fixing this, in my mind, this is something that we have to address. And we can't just say it's too expensive.

We don't wanna touch it. Mhmm. Some point, if we don't touch it in a hundred years from now, this is going to be a mound

with no canals and I agree with you. I mean, I think one of the reasons that I think we need to seriously think of going there is there are some locations that we should go in because it's just too simply too shallow. It has nothing to do with the muck. So if you say, gee, we need to go in there because this is inhibiting boating and other things that are going, Gee, maybe while we're doing this, let's go after the muck in some of these places. But a lot of these decisions can't be done until we survey and see what we have.

And you're exactly right. If we don't do something, it's somewhere along the line. I wrote to city council seven years ago. There was a point of no return. And I've seen it, and it's not pretty. And if we wait till we start getting there before we actually do something big, we're not going to want to spend the money. We're already bulking now. And we're not even at the point of no return of spending the money or getting a bond. So we need to seriously survey, see what we've got, see what the best remediation is, and then move on from there. Everybody else who does this work from the Florida Keys to Indian River and everywhere, they survey to see what they've got before they engage in a conversation.

I believe that's what we need to do. But I hear you. I think you're right. We need to do something with it.

And then my other question was the picture you showed right at the beginning of the presentation, where was that?

Oh, that was I don't really know. That might have been somewhere around where Rick lived. I don't remember because it's in a pile of pictures. That's the one way back here, right? The very first picture. Yeah.

Because to me the thing that we got to be really careful with and I've seen it before is if we're putting pictures like that up, it is like, my God, and then we find that it's Coral. Cape Coral or somewhere else. So I'm just saying if we're going to put this kind of stuff up, we should clearly state source, picture, location so that people know this is actually happening now on our island.

The only thing I can say, like I said, I pulled

out of a

pile that I have, it is on Marco Island. That's

And it certainly looks that way. But I just raised the point because we've been there before where people have made comparisons about stuff. And it's like in Cape Coral, which is a different water body. It's not really connected to the ocean quite the same way we are. And so I just word of caution.

No. You're right. And I know in one of Rick's presentations, we had pictures similar to this that show pretty much the same thing. So because his was piled in there, that's that's the only reason why I say it could be one of those.

Mhmm. Okay.

I may not have to ask a question at all because you already covered one, Jim. You just covered one. I'm gonna go to Chris now and maybe you could ask. Right. I would have said, go ahead.

I think that like when we talk about advanced water treatment, that is a very small percentage of it that is ever going to hit this water. I think the dredging is a bigger issue. But just like your pool, if you don't have a pool cage over it, you're getting debris that's falling into it every day so that's what's happening in the canals. Drive down 951 leaving the island and that whole flotilla there, watch every month there's another tree that falls into the water, another tree that falls into the water. So it's just going to keep compounding, I mean that muck is just going to keep going there.

So I agree, I think that dredging is kind of where we have to look at somewhere, but I don't know if that's not a solution, that's only to help mitigate the problem that we have currently. But then you talked about seagrass, I don't know of anywhere on the island that there's really much seagrass at all because we do have a lot of brackish water. So, we do we I mean, and then when you have seagrass, you usually have some kind of a muck for it to grow into or some kind of stuff versus sand.

Well, no, that's the problem with seagrass. It won't grow in muck. That's why it dies. It needs higher density material to root into. As soon as you can do something, which is part of what Seahawk said, except it was an island, when encapsulated, they'll put their plantings in the encapsulation because that's what you need for seagrass.

But you're right, this is not the cure all. That's the reason why we've talked about having a workshop to bring these things together where instead of talking in isolation, you're comparing one against another. You have resident experts. You can even bring in people from The Keys, project managers, people from the Florence Institute of Technology to come in. If you have a workshop beyond just the expertise of the people on this committee, you could bring in people and have this conversation and match one against the other.

Is the street cleaner putting money towards that better than doing dredging? Or should one be eliminated to do the other one? And we don't do that. It's hit and miss, or it's kind of a produced town hall. And even here, it's just an isolated one thing. And he's right, it is a big thing and a lot of pieces come together. We should be doing that. As yet, we haven't.

Think sorry, can I just make a comment? Go ahead, I think the complexity of it is such that there's most probably a half a dozen more things that need to happen. AWT, I just my concern with it is bang for the buck, the amount of money that gets spent and how quickly this looks better and whether that will aggravate the residents of the island. Hey, we've done a bond issue of vote. We've raised X amount of money and now we're still looking at the same picture.

That's one of my concerns with that. I think what we should really do as a committee here is we should collate all this information and we should do a really, really thorough job executive summary to city council because we quite frankly don't have the power to really put this initiative where it needs to be, the funding, the money, the city management, the councilors to get it done. And I think we've done a good job of, you know, some piecemeal stuff. But things like the street cleaner, it's a kind of placebo y thing. Yeah.

We we spent 400,000 in the street, and we are collecting a lot of material. And so it is helping and it was low value. You know, a few $100,000. Yes. You know, it's not insignificant, but it's not huge like this. So I think the best thing that we can do is take some of these things and do executive summary to put them into city council because those are the folks that are gonna have to decide how they wanna play it and push it and do it. Mhmm. And those are the people that are gonna be responsible for getting the public behind it, getting the funds behind it. You know, we saw these things about, oh, there's there's plenty of money and grants for AWT. Well, yes, there are.

But generally, those grants are available for people that have to do AWT because they're doing direct discharge. So we're sort of positioning this thing that we're gonna get this grant money where I personally don't think we will because we don't directly discharge. And so it's gonna get all those facts up to a city council level so all the councilors understand what the implications of these things are. I mean I think this is a way better project to look at and push than some of the other things that I've seen. Again, it will be the devil's in the detail when, you know, someone finds out they're going to have three bags of muck sunk in the Landmark Basin, for example.

I don't know how people are going to feel about that. But I do like this a lot more.

And I agree with just about everything you said. That's kind of what I'm getting towards with the workshop. So we can have the expertise and the energy to put it together and bring something that results in, this is what we would like to see to city council. Mhmm. We're not gonna do it because I've tried, you know, with the muck eating bacteria thing a little bit, and I pushed it as far as I could.

But, you know, when you don't want or find a reason not to have somebody, the principal, the owner of the patent speak to you. Okay, so why should I bother a little bit? Where do we go from this? So I'm willing to hear anything.

But this is the reality of the Harper report is when that report was done, the number one issue was market sediment, a big price ticket. And then when that was reviewed by city management, it came down to Waterways Committee and it was don't touch this. They didn't wanna touch the dredging. We were explicitly told don't touch this. And we were given, oh, here's like six or seven things that you can go and work with. And they were all lower impact, lower budget items. So that falls back to the sort of placebo type thing of like, yeah, we're doing something.

Chris? Hey, next meeting could we just put on the agenda item that we can discuss Let's come up with a few ideas instead of if we don't get to a workshop, let's at least us are sitting here, come up with some ideas of the some of the possible solutions to this.

It's all about a what should be the next step.

Yeah. Like, what should we work on? Because you know Martin said right there, you know, we we should bring something to City Council. But before we get to that point, we got we got some meetings of work ahead of that, but let's just brainstorm on, okay, we know that there's a mark there, We know we may need to dredge, maybe a couple other ideas and then maybe some

So what you're saying is maybe the next meeting, since generally speaking, this is small scale dredging, if you wanna put a name to it, maybe we wanna talk more about it, put together a package, and agree to what we wanna do, what we need to put together, and

Kinda make it into

that to see you

Well, know, mean mini workshop. The other interesting thing from a dredging point of view is is we had a project that was sort of positioned, which was a dredging project where we were gonna take the dredged material and pump it to land that we own. And that was about a rough numbers, think it was 5,000,000. I mean, it wasn't inexpensive, but compared to some of these other numbers, really good pilot. That didn't even make it to the budget cut because when that got put in front of city management, said, no, cut that straight away. Didn't even get reviewed. So if if we're gonna do all this work and then get to that position again, we're just spinning our wheels.

And, you know, when you mentioned that, one of my first discussions was why aren't we making more land with it similar? Because that would kind of pay for with the value of land on Marco Island. And just as you said, that was kind of like, we don't wanna do that. We don't wanna go that direction, so we never did.

Well, I think the challenge the city council have got is if you look at the size of this project, it dwarfs the whole city budget for multiple years. And so it's gonna have to be something that gets pushed and gets, you know, state funded most likely because the numbers are so big and maybe some county funding in it. We just can't do this on our own.

That's true.

Yeah. We are the we are the ones that are generating, you know, sales tax revenue and all these things for Collier. And we seem to not get our fair share of stuff coming back. Just my opinion, but

Well, there is potential.

I'm sorry. That's good. No. I I just wanted to ask a question here. We went through the muck eating bacteria talk and found out that the FDP said no, you can't do it. Said that this well, that's the report I got.

No. Well, whoever told you that is absolutely wrong and in contrary to what I was saying.

Well, I was told that, it was no. You can't do it. So my question is could we research and make sure there are no, agencies or controllers above us that tell us you can't do this? Because you've said that this is going on elsewhere. So obviously, it has been approved in other locations. So I'm feeling better about this. Now, of course, we have the, you know, the reports I've gotten that FDEP said no to the other, and you're saying that's not true. So I'd love to

Well, that's one of our problems when you get fake news. You don't come back to the person who knows about it.

Uh-huh.

In particular well, not to go back since already a done deal, but no. That's absolutely not true. And one of the things is even if you went out for any sort of business, you wouldn't go out and RFP and say prove that you're going to get this permit or prove that you had a permit or get a permit and then we'll come and see whether we want to do business with you. It's always going to be, yes, we want to do business with you subject to getting approvals and whatever it is. And that was the same thing that I said many times here.

With that, is that if you want to go this direction and do this, then they will spend a thousand of dollars and hundreds of hours to go and get the approvals. Anybody who said pre process that we're not gonna do it is absolutely fake news.

Well, okay. I'll take your word for it. Would this committee like to make a recommendation as to maybe to do what Chris suggested for the next agenda other than for perhaps, you know, the MarCO Marine unit, you know automatically will come to make the agenda just this one topic as a kind of a mini workshop. Does the committee want to go that way or?

I am just looking for input from everybody because we can't discuss this outside here anyway. So We can't. We have people that have been here for a long time and have ideas and let's just come up with like not just the dredging but let's look at this issue and see how where we should go, I guess.

Okay.

I don't want to take it now because we have other

Right. We we've got a few other things here to do. But I did want to give ample time to what your presentation was about and I do appreciate it. I've learned a lot. I think we all have.

Just to clarify, what is the go do for the next meeting? Is it I'm not sure exactly.

So for me, I would think the go do is, like, discuss this further, but we ultimately need to get this into some form of document executive summary to give to city council. And then I think we hold city council accountable to the fact that we've given you this summary. This is what we see. Now what do you wanna do with it? Because if they're not gonna give us any feedback on, yeah, we think this is good, we're gonna have to figure out raising funds or we're have to do this or do that.

If it's just gonna go to city council and fall in another black hole, then Mhmm. It's kind of wasting our time. I I would vote for putting on the agenda further discussion on this topic. What we see is, you know, features, benefits kind of thing high level and get it into some form of presentation where I don't know we're doing quarterly reviews I believe to City Council.

Will be the next City Council meeting in the month of February, think the seventeenth, if I'm not incorrect. I'll be making a presentation a quarter.

Okay. So we're not gonna have time to collate this No. Before then. No. But I definitely think that's the direction we should take. I I don't know how other people feel

about Well, put put something more I mean, is kind of an information, so it's You can make an comprehensive report. What I could do is package it. It says, yes. We are thinking about this as it may be a good idea. Okay. And one way communication would be alright. Yeah. Absolutely. And if you wanna talk about

it from that vantage point, we can In my report in February, I can I can present that too? I'm sure it it that's okay to do that because it's Yeah. Everything that we do will be fair game for discussion.

I'll I'll try to package something and send it through Tara's or Wayne. Okay. See where it goes.

Any do we need any kind of a motion of vote in on any of this or just This is public

Friday, my next meeting. I think we just put it on the agenda. Okay. Okay,

I'm fine with that. I do need to move along though. I'd like to go on to and I know this is a little bit controversial, but Wait a I'm sorry. Sure, I'm sorry.

Are we doing anything with what was just suggested? I'm hearing, like, three different things and then it all just kinda stopped.

Are we gonna do something different next month when we meet? No. I'm gonna put something together as more more of a we think maybe this is a good idea and squeeze it in that direction rather than just informational, some sort of toolbox and see where that goes. So that'd be my goal to to try to do that.

Chris, does that go to what you were suggesting?

I just think that we need the time. We don't have time today, but we need the time to sit here and discuss it.

Yeah. Alright. Thank you.

Okay. Okay. I appreciate that. I know it's a bit controversial in some people's minds. We're go on to seven a. Rodent traps. I'm not gonna make this a big deal. I wanna tell you why I'm bringing it up. Because these rodent traps are full of rat poison. And there are reports, and doesn't happen every day. This is not a constant constant thing, but it does happen. And it happens often enough that I thought it was important. These rodent traps wind up in canals full of rat poison. And why is this important? Because water quality in our canals is our basically, one of our top issues.

When you talk about rat poison in the canals, that's not a good thing. How do they get there? A lot of these are perched on top of seawalls. They get blown in, washed in, knocked in. Kids come along and can throw them in. Even if they're close by, you get a real good wind or a real good deluge in the rainy season, they do wind up in our canals. They're full of rat poison. Now, I do realize that the Beach and Coastal Advisory Committee has taken this up. It's gone to city council. That's not what I'm trying to retread.

That's not my purpose. The city council and the Beach and Coastal Advisory Committee were dealing with the city of Marco and their Mackle Park test for a year to see if they couldn't reduce the population. I think they reduced the population of the rodents in that area by about two thirds by making them infertile. They couldn't reproduce. Okay.

That's without poison. That's a whole different way. My only goal in bringing this up, and I don't really wanna make this into a major topic, but I think it's an important topic. And that is to get city council to either guide and educate and help push this island away from using poison to other alternatives. Maybe the type that was tested at Medical Park or some other ones that are out there.

I know of a whole bunch of different ways that they're trying to reduce and do something about the rodent population. My only concern is, and why I feel I'm not straying from our lane, is because these are getting into our canals. And that is an issue. And they don't belong there. And if they have something nontoxic, and they wind up in the canals, yes, you have a rat box in the canal.

That's not good. But it's not polluting with poison. So my only reason for bringing it up if I'm out of line, I'll let the committee tell me that. I'm bringing it up because I think as a public service and an issue, we should at least address this. So that's my purpose. If you feel I'm out of line or you don't want to discuss it, the committee can do as it wishes. And I will abide by the decision. Just wanted to bring it up. And again, it's not to redo what the city council is doing. It's to get the city council to get the private homeowners off of this particular type of rodent control and on to something that is nontoxic and will not affect our waterways.

That's my point. Any discussion?

Yeah, I'll go first. I agree the point. Poison wrap boxes in the canal, not a great thing. But how many of these are we talking about in 17.5 miles of canal? 10 wrap boxes, 20 rat boxes with a poison cube that's four sugar lumps.

And there's a

hurricane, there's more.

Yes, of course. Of course. And I get that. And clearly, it's not a good thing. I'm just concerned excuse the pun, we're going down a bit of a rat hole.

We may be. The committee feels that way, I will drop this issue and move on.

To me, personally, the best thing we can do is to draft a a memo, whatever you wanna call it, push it up to city council, tie in beach and coastal, say, we've also noticed we would like you to consider wrap boxes not be placed within 20 feet of a canal wall or something like that. And I would just personally I would just leave it there.

That's fine. I mean I can't how tell many times I see them perched on seawalls.

Yeah. Then, you know, if you get someone to kind of educate and try and get people to do that, maybe that takes a problem. I mean, I just I feel that we're I'm not saying it's not an issue. Clearly, it's not a great thing. I'm just concerned about how many is it, where are they, what is the real impact.

Okay.

So and when I compare this to like the dredging thing we just discussed, I feel like, wow.

It's small, but I think it's important. I understand what you're saying. Martin's point,

since there is another committee that's gonna do something and present it to city council, do we give a little gravitas to it by coming back and saying it's an issue? The the waterways committee has identified this as an issue. Absolutely. It's very much of an issue because they end up in the the canal system, and we would like to see the city implement something to Martin's point of, you know, anybody that puts a rat box out can't put it within 20 feet of a sea wall or a waterway. 20 feet is an arbitrary number, I don't know what it is, and I don't know, because I've never seen one sitting on a sea wall, don't doubt that you have, but I've never seen I normally see them underneath people's bushes and around their houses. But if we could put something like that in, then we've got to hold truly no one accountable, right?

Well, city council already took ownership of it anyway.

Right, right.

Okay. For Marco Island properties.

Think that's the thing that you raise a great point is if we do this and we get some backing from city and the beach and coastal, then we say to the people that are going out there doing this stuff and baiting the rat boxes. Just so you know, this is a new legislation, ordinance, recommendation, whatever. And I think we leave it there.

I think anything that we can do even at that level would be helpful. I'll be fine with that.

Chris? I agree. Draft draft a letter to city council and Beach and Coastal.

Okay. Yep.

Okay. I I think that

That that that way Beach and Coastal knows we're with them.

Yep. I think that is a great start. And I mean, if that's what we can do, I'm happy with it. Do we need a motion for that or just No.

I don't think we need a motion. Think you can just write a memo and Fine. I would memo into Beach Advisory Chair and I would memo into all the city councilors.

Okay. Okay. I'm great with that. Did you want me to do that? I mean, with

I think it feels like it's your baby.

So It is my baby. Thank

Thank you, Martin. Just what I wanted. Okay. Let's move along to seven

b. I've gotten the reason I'm bringing this up, I I hear from people, a lot of people, that are landlocked. Canal access for residents who do not own canal front property or live along the canals. This is an issue that people have, and I understand why they have it. They don't have access to the canals, and yet they live on Marco Island and they're taxpayers.

And some people could say that, well, if you don't buy property on the water, then you don't have the right to have canal access. And other people say that just because you don't live on the water does not mean that you do not have the right to canal access. So I brought it up. I've had enough of the public come to me with this and talk to me about it just at random. I'm I'm not soliciting from people, but I'd really like to know if the and it has come before the city council.

It has been mentioned in the recent past. So I was wondering if this committee was interested in addressing this issue in any form and had any ideas. And if not, I respect that too.

Well, can tell where You're So

my take on this is this, I don't see why we shouldn't investigate giving access to

the canals for people that live on

the island. They're taxpayers. Most people come here because they want access to the waterways. I agree. When we talk about access, what are we talking about? Are we talking about people being able to put in a paddleboard, a kayak? Are we talking about motorized, whatever, whatever? Because if we're talking all the motorized stuff should be going to Kaxambas. That's our our one and only entry point that is public on the island. And then the other option is obviously nine fifty one.

They can use that. If we're talking about paddleboards and kayaks, I spent quite a bit of time with ex councilor Blanner on this subject. We we came up with locations. One was over that fed directly into Factory Bay. One was actually on the back of Mackle Park of putting an access there in a pontoon so people would launch a kayak or a paddleboard. Went all through the process, pulled all that information together, all that information can be, excuse the pun again, dredged back up. And we can review it.

Ralph, you have a comment?

Yeah. I mean, sometimes you have to look at it from the other point of view as well, from the people who pay for the quiet ambiance of their homes on the canal. They paid a premium for the access to the canal area. The existing put ins like Hexambus and all these other places already is the access that is usable. And because it's not usable for the people who already have access, they paid in their taxes to have Kaxambas and all these other put ins.

So it's double dipping. So to actually pay for some of these additional accesses that the people living in a canal won't use or can't use, that's triple dipping on them to pay for it. So there's another angle on it, Plus, you have the enforcement of it, the fear from the people who already live on the canals that you can have these put ins so you have masses of paddleboards and whatever. You know you're gonna get jet skis on there. We already have an enforcement issue when everything needs to be enforced as it is.

Who's gonna stop it? You're gonna get complaints out the yin yang of jet skis and whatever. People pay for the quiet ambiance of their canals. And you're effectively changing that for something that they've already paid twice. They haven't so you have to kinda look at it from the other point of view too.

So there are two points of view here. Oh, if I can get we're through with Martin, we're through with the rodent topic. So if I can get that off the screen. Okay. I appreciate that.

Bias against rodents?

Okay. Back to Peter when you're new. We have Chris, you had a comment.

I guess the question I would have is what access they're looking for because just like everybody said, there's already access there. So if you want access to the beach, the city has spots for that. If you want access to the water, the city and the county already have spots for that.

So you say that it is adequate and this is not an issue?

The question would be is what access are they trying to look for? Are they trying to go fishing? Are they trying to do whatever? That would be the question. But again, we have to remember we all made decisions in our life, made choices. So if you chose to live on a property that's not on the water, then that's your choice. And you did pay differently for that.

I have heard and I would agree with this to a degree that a lot of people have, who are not on the water did not necessarily were not unable to afford it, but chose to not be on the water because of the fear of hurricane flooding. So some people just didn't wanna be at risk for hurricane storm surge, but they still would like access to water. And they chose what they chose because of that fact. So, you know, anyway, it can go in a lot of directions here. Any other discussion on this topic?

So so I think my position would be on it is, one, the people that you have spoken to or seem to want this, what access are they talking about?

It's not really clear.

It's just general public conversation. We don't live on a canal and we can't use them.

So to me, it's not they can't use them. And to Ralph's point, there's options and there's quiet use of the canal and all the rest of it. At the end of the day, the canals are roadways. You buy on a canal, you buy with a water roadway. You can't stop people coming up and down the canal in jet skis. All you can do is enforce the no wake zone and expect them to be respectful of that. So, you know, I I don't think the quiet use, yes, absolutely. But it's a roadway. People can use it. Whether they're in a boat, a jet ski, paddleboard, as long as they adhere to the rules, that's kinda where we're at.

Right. They can use it.

To me, this thing is I think it would be a good thing for people that wanna get access with a kayak or a paddleboard. Now, a lot of that depends on the location because clearly, if people have got, you know, a house that adjoins somewhere where that's going to happen, you have to take into account their consideration. The other thing when we went through this whole project before is if you put these things in, you got to make sure it's somewhere where people can park a car. Cause if they want to launch a kayak or a paddleboard, they're going to drive up in their car and want to launch from that launch site, be it a gangway to a pontoon. I don't think we're going to cut any additional like slipways in anywhere because there's no way to do it on the island.

So the whole jet ski thing to me is like I just can't see how you can give people access other than what they got now.

The very early iteration when this came out as far as I heard of it was the mass of ataxambas with the outfitters in conjunction with the people who normally wanna use it. It was a mass. There's no parking. There's not ramp. And the thought was, well, let's spread these outfitters out to these other places. And so when they're talking about the canals, it's all kind of, hey, let's spread them out. So you know when you have these potentially other places, it's going to be outfitters using them as well. That's where you get into the argument of masses of paddleboards and kayaks I disagree. And

comes back to that's really easy to regulate. You say we're going to put in a launch platform pontoon for kayaks, paddleboards and in order to launch from there, you either have to have a Collier sticker and you pay to launch. And you say there is no commercial operation. No committed. That's really simple. This all comes I'm back to

just saying that's where it started from my perspective.

Well, comes back to the whole mindset of it's my island, I don't want you doing that kind of stuff on my island, which is

think that's strange.

The only other argument that I've heard, I mean, I'm not making this up, is that the whole beach access issue, we're not a beach committee, but the beach access, people who don't live on the beach still get access. There are are accommodations and there are ways to give them access. I've just heard that why wouldn't our canals be the same. So, you know, other than that, that's my only You have Kaxambas.

Yeah. Have Kaxambas.

There's nobody there right now. Well,

right now.

That's a

whole another time. Yeah. I mean, you you have a beautiful spot to go to. You have a floating dock. You have everything. Fish.

You wanna put that on the agenda for a

future meeting? We can do that.

I think that would be a big can of worms to open

right now.

Isn't there another one behind the new hospital? Like, a new urgent

care? Oh,

oh, yeah.

I don't know. They were talking about that.

I'm aware of it.

That was one of the locations that was suggested for this paddock.

Ah, okay.

I do know a lot of people do access through the Isle Of Capri right there when you make your right like, on Capri Road there and you make an immediate right, there's a little park there. There's a paddle park there.

Yeah. Perfect for paddle

boards. Right, paddle boards. Yeah, exactly. Okay, did anybody have anything further? Did we want to just, at this point, drop this issue at this time? No no further discussion.

Well, I mean, I think it's a worthy issue to discuss, to be honest. I I do too. Because I I think You know, at the end of the day, if you're buying a Marco Island, whether you're on the water or you're not on the water, you're buying Marco Island for a reason. You're all paying taxes for that same reason. You know, mean, that's like saying, hey. Well, you live on a canal, so you can use the canal. But because you're not inland, you can't use Mackle Park. I mean, that's to me, that is if you're paying taxes for Marco, whether you're on the water or not on the water, you you have some or should have some ability to access the water. Now we have some of that with boats and jet skis, Kaxambas, $9.51. For paddleboards and kayaks, why not?

Why not put in something? Now, I mean, you have to get through the the parking issue, but Mackle Park would be an ideal site. There's room there on the seawall. I've been there. I've I've trod the ground. It would be sorry. Veterans Park.

Veterans Park. Right. Right.

You know, it would be an easy fix. I mean, Winn Dixie have got a dock there on their piece. It would be not too big. Now if you if you honestly think that you do that and you're going to have 300 people clamoring to get access to that, that's not going to happen. You're have a handful of people that want to do that.

I would love to see something put forth in this direction, Martin. I mean, I don't know how

I I I'm happy to pick this one up. I will go talk with our ex councilor Blana about it, and we'll resurrect some of that information, and we'll come and present that to city or to waterways first.

I have a question for Martin. So I was on the committee when Martin was chair and this was picked up and this was discussed

Yep.

A lot.

Mhmm. We spent a lot of time on this. Mhmm. Nothing came from it. Mhmm. Right? Yep. Why did nothing come from it?

Nothing came from it because city council and city management didn't wanna put any money in. These things were about a when we looked at a broad level, about $20,000 to put in a pontoon ramp access to that. So No one had the appetite for the budget.

Rather than rather than because it's gonna have to go to city council anyway.

Mhmm.

So rather than reinventing the wheel, why don't we resurrect?

Yeah. Exactly. That's why I proposed it.

What you

did before. That's exactly what can As a committee, we'll take a look at it. We'll vote on it. If we think it's a good idea, we'll put it to city council. Let city council decide if they think it's a good idea. Because at the end of the day, doesn't make any difference if we think it's a good idea. Makes it Apparently not. Whether they think it's a good idea. And they represent the citizens. So let's not reinvent the wheel.

Absolutely. I'm just gonna go and get the data and bring it in the next meeting or two. Okay.

If we can be able fit that in in the next meeting, I'd really like to do it. I don't know about the workshop that we you know, our mini workshop with our other presentation, but if we can be able to fit that in, I'd really like to.

Mhmm. Yep.

Martin, I appreciate that. Any any other discussion on this?

I just Yes. Question of access because it's a very vague term is what I what we need to clarify here, what people are actually Because looking if it's a paddleboard or kayak, the ones that are in the canal behind like the Winn Dixie and all that, those are people that live back there. Okay. I don't, me personally, I wouldn't put in veterans and go anywhere because you got to compete with boats. Know, so it's not the perfect place to go in. Like the Capri Paddle Park is a great spot because there's no boats back there and you got a lot of stuff

You access to go to the canal, sir. I mean Paddle from the paddle park to Marco Island?

I don't think people are paddling down the canal because they want to go down the canal, are paddling down it because they live on the end of that canal, so they got to get back that way. Say I think they're trying to get out to something.

I've heard different comments. That's what

I'm saying. I'd like to clarify the word access. Like what are they looking to do and why and like and see if there's something that is I don't want to go down a path where we're trying to find something that.

So one the things that came up the last time we spoke about it was like there is really no access because obviously you can go to Kaxanba so you can do south of the island. But if you want kayak to Factory Bay or up around the Snook in or any of that area, there's really nowhere for you to put it.

The bridge across from the yacht, right at the bottom of the bridge by the yacht club, people go in there.

It's private.

No, I think it's a county or city property.

I can further investigate it. Last time I looked at that, it was private because that piece of land is now controlled by the Yacht Club because of all the sailing activity and stuff there.

The other side, going off the island on the right hand side where that boat is parked.

Well, there's I mean, the reality of that, there are people that are running commercial operations out of that. They bring up a trailer and they run paddleboards and kayaks and operate commercially. So yes, sure, you can launch from there. But anyway, I'll dig into it and present something.

We'll get a report from you and I think that will be extremely valuable.

Just the last thought, I mean rather than bumping heads with obviously, the canal owners, the people who are on the water saying that they're gonna pay for something they're never gonna use, what about the people who want, like, the inland people, instead of putting it on as a budget item, they get together as a group. If it's $20,000, okay, you want access? Is it a thought for them to pay it?

Well, I I think there's clearly you can make people pay to launch from there. But, you know, I mean, that's a bit like saying, hey, well, you play basketball a little bit. So we're gonna make you 10 people raise $20 just so you can I mean, that's a it's a community based thing?

I don't disagree.

But this It's a community based thing. It's like everyone on the community contributes to schools, to parks, to access. So I agree the sentiment of funding it, but I don't agree with that idea personally. Okay. Well, let's move on.

So you're yeah, I'm all ready to move on from this because I'd really there are two more items here that I think are really important that I'd I would really like to be able to include. The next one is seven c, Waterways Advisory Committee goals and objectives for 2026. We can get a volunteer maybe to go to the whiteboard and jot them down. We did this

We've done

this. We trod this ground already.

Yeah. We have. I really, what I would rather do is if anybody has a list of, say, two or three personal goals that they are passionate about that we have not been addressing or that we have been addressing, but not to their satisfaction or just directions that they would like to see this committee go, I'd love to hear just right on down the row and have it public record to see exactly where we are with how we are feeling about things and what we would like to see happen in this next year. So that's my reason for bringing this up.

I think we've already hashed it out, to be honest.

I mean we put up what we thought were the topics. We scored it. We ranked it. I think we're all kind of we're all here and passionate about these things because if we're not passionate about it, why would we be here? So I would say just go back to that meeting that was like six, seven meetings ago and just look at that and go, hey, here are our objectives. If you want to formalize that and send that up to City Council management and say, hey, here's our core objectives. Then the problem is we never really drill down and focus on that.

That's correct. But then things have changed since then and we may have changed some of our desires, opinions.

I know we haven't solved any of those objectives. Yeah.

Exactly. That's

Well, no. I I got we were able to

get one thing happening and that is a monthly report from the Marco Police Marine Unit. I think things certain things have happened.

Right. And I'm not saying that they haven't. But to me, we go back, let's pull that up, let's look at the things that we put down because it's pretty much the same committee minus one. And say, hey, these are what we think are the priorities. Push that up to city council and say, hey, these are the priorities. I mean, there was a big thing about, you know, one of the things Rick championed was, you know, the focus of committees. So they they know, maybe we just need to do that, clarify those things. I think we we spent like three meetings on it, if my recollection is correct. Just grab that information, Mr. Chair, and summarize it on a one page, put it up at the next meeting and go, are we all still in agreement with this? I think you'll find most will say yes.

Is there a link on this particular one with what we're trying to say at the quarterly presentation Because City I originally thought that's where you were driving.

That I would like to make that presentation of counsel. So if that's what this committee would like, I can But pull those I do have one or two that I would like to add that I didn't add at that time because as things have evolved, things have changed. And I have a couple that I would put in there if we were

I have nothing that I would add in addition to what we fair. Ashed out last time.

That's fair. Chris?

I think I found the notes from last time when we kind of summarize it again. It was navigation, water quality, construction, education and then communication to like external bodies. That was what we summarized it to.

So I guess that my thing would be is from the people here go around one at a time. Is there anything extra you want to add? To me,

there's not. I'll go last. No. Who who'd like to start?

Well, I think a big part of it, I mean, Jim, think, or several people have mentioned it, kind of saying we're not accomplishing what we should be accomplishing.

That's not that's not what I that's not what I said. I said we hadn't finished any of the goals that we had

set Well, that's what I'm trying to say.

There's things that for us to dig down to and all the buckets we still that we have already. Exactly. I wasn't taking a shot at anybody.

No, no. No. I'm just saying because we've all kind of said that in that way. I I agree with you. But what I'm getting to is we don't talk about how we are going to do these things we're talking about. You know, we I don't think we have we're not giving go dos in a month before we're meeting. You do this. You do this. And we bring it together at the meeting. Right. It's kind of a lot of talk, sometimes good information. Few things come out of it, but we're not where we need to be. And it's the how. How are we doing this as a group to get to that goal is the most important thing that we don't get into.

Okay. I agree. So I would say just come back to the point is that things that other people want to add to the list that Chris just read out because that's what we already hashed out. For me, there really is nothing that I need to add. I

agree with that. Jim? I agree with Martin.

Okay. Would like to say that I would really like to see if there's any way that we can do. Your suggestion is to actually make workshop happen, to see if the city of Marco Island can give us that part. I know Justin has told us it's pretty much impossible, but I would really like to see if that can be done. Other otherwise, we turn our meetings into a mini workshop on occasion. That would be the only other

But I think we have done in fairness, we have done workshops. I mean, counselor Golla was instrumental in putting together a workshop. And it was quite frankly, it was a little lame. There weren't that many people showed up from a public perspective. Okay. And it was, you know, a little bit of a AWT positioning kind of thing that she wanted to do. And it was a little frustrating for me personally because no one reached out to me and asked for my opinion or anyone from the Waterways Committee. They just said, oh, we're gonna run this workshop. Yeah. I I mean, it you know, respect is getting given kinda deal.

I understand. The other thing I wanted to mention was that we have a mandate on four topics, and I think that we need to stress more each of those four issues. One is water quality. Another would be education for the public. And I think we I mean, that's almost free. It's really cheap. I mean, and we can accomplish a lot by educating the public. And I don't think we have been doing quite enough in that direction. The others would be the navigation, know, public being able to safely navigate our channels and waterways. And the fourth one are seawalls, and that's another one of our four mandates.

Elliot, with all due respect, these are the mandates that Chris just gave us. You know, we had building construction, we had water quality, we had education, we had all those things.

But we don't do Well, that's the question.

That's So the really

My goal is to stress doing all of those in So 2020

when we positioned it, my intent on that was to make people champion certain things. Dan has done a great job on the navigation side Yes. Of really, you know, pulling that together and reaching out to Coast Guard and who's responsible for it. So, you know, that thing is kinda moving forward. And Dan and I had discussion at meeting about it. And he said, yeah, I wanna champion that. So I would say bring back this list and see what people want to truly And

hopefully next meeting, we talk about water quality.

Well, again, the thing with water quality to me

Dredging is what I'm getting at.

Well, yes, dredging, absolutely. But the challenge that we have got with water quality is we've had the Harper report on docket for years. We've had the Jacobs report for years. We're now getting the Black and Beech report. But we haven't really acted on any of the big ticket items there. And to me, we can, as a committee, discuss it ad nauseam. Right. If we think this, we think that. But if we don't send that to city council in an executive summary saying, this is what we spent the last year doing. We now need you to pick up the ball and move this forward. Because if they don't, we're we're burning through hours of our lives. What are we doing?

Good question. Okay. I'd like to see that happen.

I'm with Martin

on that. So we're championing it. Next meeting we're gonna get into this dredging thing which I think has got legs. It's got some really good bits. I'd like to explore more and great on the research Ralph. I'm with you. But then we have to we as chair, vice chair, we need to push that up to city council and hold them accountable to say we gave you this report and we recommend this, this and this. What are you gonna do?

Good direction for twenty twenty six. Okay?

And I I I think we're learning. Remember very early on, Rick had a whole bunch of white papers Mhmm. Which speaks to a little bit. Hey. Bring these all these reports. Here's what we think they say and what it should be. Mhmm. And we kind of dismissed it a little bit, didn't take it up. We moved on to other things that are of individual interests. And I think we're learning now that that's what you're talking about, coagulating this stuff. Here's what we think about this. And I think we're we're moving in that direction, if I'm not mistaken.

We are. I'd like to see it happen in a more direct and forceful way. So, yes, I'm with you. Any other comments on this before we move along to our last major topic? If that's okay with everybody, I'd like to go to 8B, Black and Veatch, RWPF, Advanced Water Treatment Evaluation Progress Report. We have an attachment. If we could pull that up, then I'd like to see exactly. I wanted Jeff Poteet here today. He was not able to make it, but he provided the attachment for us. So when that comes up, we'll be able to discuss that.

And we can take a look at, this page that's now posted, project management and kickoff meeting task one. So from, see what this is, the progress report. We can all read that. Do you want me to read this to everybody or we can all read?

Don't think we need personally to read it. Mean, we can all read. I mean, to me, the cutting to the chase on this thing is what I want to know is I want to know what's the cost of CapEx and OpEx and how we're going to fund it.

Not started yet.

Exactly. But that's what I want I mean, personally, that's what I wanna know.

I was told by our old city manager that this committee was not supposed to address cost. Does everybody feel that way or do we feel otherwise? I mean, I'm perfectly willing to address cost if it is appropriate.

Personally, I think it's absurd because that's what you're judging. You're judging most of the things we do, we talk about, is how much does it cost, who's gonna fund it, and all that. To not discuss it

He had told me that it was only for city council and that we were discussed issues. I'm fine to deviate from that, but I was told that. So just reporting. Mister chair Yes.

If I may. I think the purpose of this is just to provide this committee an update on the task that Black and Veatch is doing right now of looking into the cost and feasibility. Okay. So it's not really anything that this committee is gonna take action on. It's just for information for this committee to be kept up to date on what's going on with that. And that's what this summary is. I would suggest, you know, having this every meeting one of these submitted so you could see where they are in the process and when it looks like they may be able to bring something forward to to city council.

So a question.

You're right

ahead, Jim. City Council has already made the decision to explore AWT, correct? And that's why this is going on.

They have done that.

We've already taken it. We've given it to them. We've pushed it up. I don't understand why we are discussing it because we've already made

we've This is just an update.

Perfect. But I don't think we need to my point is I don't think we I need to debate

would agree. There is no debate. The $182,000 checks been cut, signed and delivered. The only thing for me is to get a status update because I want to know what the CapEx and OpEx because I want to be sure that we are as a city transparent with our residents if this thing goes to a vote that we say you are voting for AWT, it's going to cost $20,000,000 this is how we are going

to raise the money rather than it goes to

the vote and people say do you want AWT or not with no data around it And that will be an injustice to all of the residents of this island.

I'm not disagreeing with you.

So I don't think we discuss it. I think it's just a case of progress report. Next meeting, can we go, oh, yes, they're making progress. Because when this was actually cut, I was told that it was about a six month process, six to eight month process. I think we're a little longer than that now. So I think we can move on. I mean, those are the things that I want. I want to know. Now I can't do anything about it, but I would sure like to know the information.

That's exactly why I asked for it, was transparency. People should know where it's at and we should know where it's at. Maybe something we see that we might make a suggestion or a comment, but that's where it was going Thank to

you. I think it's important for us to see this on a monthly basis. I'd like to have this report available to us each time so that we can be able to take a look at it. And if we have a comment, suggestion, then we can do that.

I would suggest that.

Put that under old business. This is gonna be a continuing item.

Okay. I I like to go on record to have Staff

communication is not the place for it.

No. No. Absolutely. I agree. Okay. Any other discussion on the Black and Veatch progress report? Okay. We can move along now.

I do have a just a quick little item under staff communications. This

is Sure.

This is staff communications.

Go right ahead.

You may all be aware, but received an Email yesterday that one of the committee members here turned in their resignation and that's member Wordworth And, so that's why he's not here. So I suspect that, city council, city councilor that, appointed that person will look at appointing someone else, and that'll go through the process of getting approvals from city council.

How long does it usually take to get a new member?

That depends on the city councilor, identifying somebody, and then getting that put on the city council agenda for a vote. And, also, whoever is identified has to want to do it. They can't just be, pointed out of the blue. So, but I would suspect that would be a minimum of at least two months.

Okay. And also just along those lines, I am aware that we will be voting again on a chair whether they want me to continue or they wanna select a new chair. Should be first

on the agenda at your next meeting. And that coincides with all the other advisory committees doing the the chair, vice chair elections at that February meeting.

Okay. So that'll be at our next meeting. Okay. City council communication. We have one city councilor. No communication there. Public comment. We have a couple members of the public. Who has been asked to speak?

We have Nicholas Merridge.

Step right up.

Good morning.

Good morning. My

name is Nick March. I live at 31 Hickory Court. Been on the island quite a while full time. And I appreciate what you folks do. I've watched the committee maybe fifteen years.

And the water the water quality and the water is why I'm here. My dad was captain. My grandfather was a captain. I got a captain's license about forty five years ago. Spent a lot of time on the water.

We came down here for the fishing, and that's that's what I love. There's two things that are very important to me when it comes to the waterway. And a lot has spoken about the cost of cleaning up our water. I came from an industry where you prevented things from happening and you save the cost. Two things I see on the island or two things that I find very important where if we kept the yard waste, the grass clippings and leaves out of the waterway, and we maintained our swells, we might not have impaired water.

And, what got me out of bed this morning was the fact that we're talking about modifying the rules for the swells. Swells really cost the city nothing because as I've learned over the years, I have to maintain the swell. When the swell fails, I have to rebuild the swell, and I have to keep the swell clean. I if you go on on the city website, and I got a million notes, and I just wanted to keep this quick. If you go on the city website, it tells me exactly what I have to do with my soil.

And all the funding and budgeting that's appropriated for swales and then gets pulled back. But one thing that's very important to swale is not to compact it. As soon as you start driving a vehicle on it, it's not made for that. The swell is made to be soft so the water can absorb. It's something that you all know.

My question is, this is an advisory committee. And I would think that the water quality is one of your high priorities. So now there was a white paper at the last committee to modify parking on the swells. I believe it's to allow a permit twelve months of the year. I guess if you needed it, you could get a permit so you could park cars in your swell.

I think we all know that parking is a problem on Markow Island, but I think that's part of living on an island. You know, that's gonna be a problem. I don't think the parking problem should roll over into the water quality problem, especially being that we are impaired. I mean, if everything was fine and dandy and it didn't have an impact on it, maybe it wouldn't be as big an issue. But if it's not getting better, I don't I think any little thing that we do to contribute to that isn't going to help.

So as an advisory committee, each have your counselor that appointed you. Are you giving them the feedback on these things? And how does something like that come up? It may seem like a small thing. It may seem like something that trying to keep people you know, I know it started years ago with the holidays.

You know, your family came down. There's no place to park. But doing that during the rainy season, I think, would even have a much heavier impact than now when it's dry. Although, never I don't think ever putting a vehicle on it. And I just wanted to come and and and make that those comments to the waterway committee where I think it should come from. So

It It impacts the water. You're right.

Because. So, you know, you've got you've got a vote coming up and I think you folks would have impact on that vote. And I I appreciate the time to come here and say that. Good. Appreciate what you folks do.

Appreciate your coming to say it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nick. Thank you very much. That would be an issue that I may wanna bring up in the near future. Do we have another speaker?

Dennis Bartolucci. Sorry.

Step right up. Welcome.

Thank you. Dennis Bartolucci, Marco Island. Thank you for your volunteer efforts here. I appreciate that. I know that it's a sacrifice of time and energy and so forth. And I think it's important and I'm glad that you do it. I have two questions today. I don't know that we have dialogue but I'll ask the questions anyways. I've read the reports that the our city, water and sewer department published. And some of them are monthly reports.

And from those I learned that the city distributes about 700,000,000 gallons of reuse water a year on the island, on the land, spreads it all around, 700,000,000 gallons. I also read from the water department's testing that that water contains high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus. Quite a lot. And. You know I'm thinking about that.

And I'm thinking about the fact that everything I've heard tells me that nitrogen and phosphorus are the food for algae. So we know that nitrogen and phosphorus contribute to algae growth. I've done a calculation to figure out if the nitrogen and phosphorus expressed as a per liter measurement. If you take the city's measurement per liter and you multiply it times the volume of liquid, you can come to the volume of the solids of nitrogen and phosphorus. And that comes to, I believe, over 80,000 pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus.

So then I thought, what would 80,000 pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus look like if we stacked it on the Jolly Bridge in fertilizer bags? And what it would look like is the entire Jolly Bridge covered with fertilizer bags 10 feet high all the way across. Seems like a lot. So I guess my question is. What is the point of view of this committee about that?

Because it seems significant. It seems like a a big load of nutrients that we, the city, are applying. And, you know, there can be no good use for that, I don't think. So that's the first question. The second question is whether you've published or you have a report for 2025 whether it be fiscal twenty twenty five or calendar, I don't care, that indicates what are the accomplishments of this committee over that annual period.

What has gone to the city council in the form of a recommendation by this committee to the council for action. And I haven't seen that. Maybe I missed it. But if there is such a thing, I'd like to see it. And I think it would be good to know what do you accomplish and what is going to the city council, which is ultimately an accomplishment. So that's it. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Excellent Excellent questions. Questions. Any anybody have any comments or

I I don't comment on public positioning,

quite frankly.

It's

not my job to do that in this forum. Right.

Okay. Very good. I've as a chair, I try to give the freedom for as it would be requested. I guess we can now move along to the next meeting confirmation and attendance for 02:19 at 08:30 in the morning. Will everybody be here that's here now? Yep. I will be. Everybody in agreement? Okay. So that's fine. That's a yes. We can move along then to proposed agenda topics for the next meeting. I think we have an idea what that's going to be. Anybody wanna make any other suggestions?

Well, you know, just thinking on it based on his comment, there's that, hopefully, we talked about fertilizer was a part of

it. Yes.

But fertilizer, landscaping, I don't know, I guess, enforcement of the landscapers putting stuff in the canals. That whole regime Mhmm. Probably should be packaged together because there are other ordinance besides the one you talked about fertilizer where there are conflicts. There's one place where it requires grass turf. But when I talk there's another ordinance when it talks about the public right of ways where they talk about Florida friendly and actually specify certain species of alternate ground cover. So I'm just thinking about maybe talk about packaging it with a bunch of gold dos and then come back with something. I don't know.

I mean, hold that's something I am working on. I'm getting piecemeal right now. That that's a big project. And if I remain chair, I'll I'll take this as a major project for '26. Right now, I'm getting little bits and pieces of that.

In fact, I don't know if it's appropriate for me to bring this up at the moment, but I'm on a committee up in at the James e Hendrie Hibiscus Society in Fort Myers, and we just met this past weekend. And they came up I've been asking them. One of the professionals there came up with a plant that could definitely change some of the issues right here. It's called it's a dune sunflower. Just an example that doesn't need water or fertilizer, and it doesn't do anything bad.

And it can grow on the dunes of the beach without any help at all. And you could use a a strip of bed. In fact, Justin has, you know, a picture of this, you know, a photograph, you wanna bring that up. You can plant a strip along seawalls, plant these flowers, if it'll come up. Oh, Okay.

Tara has that there. And we'll be able to look at it real briefly. Just to answer your question, an example of something that could be planted and the landscapers wouldn't be coming right up to the seawall. They'd be set back by a certain amount of feet and that you would reduce the grass clippings and the pollution from the landscapers going into our waterways by wind and whatever other means. So and that plant there, you just plant it, doesn't care if it gets water, fertilizer, anything.

My backyard is I have that for

its purpose. Have this one? It does

work exactly as you said. That's what they said. So it Spreads prolifically. Right. You can have the whole strip by the seawall. Yep. I have to cut it every other day just to keep it from getting too far, but

it works. It it it does work, and, it's a totally Florida friendly, maintenance free plant. You put it in, it does its thing, it doesn't ask for anything. So these kinds of ideas, yes, I would like to do a project like that. And if this committee wants for me to go about that, I'm perfectly happy to do it. So we can

We'll put it on the agenda. We'll talk about it.

Okay. Great.

So from an agenda point

of view, Ralph, you're going to do some more detailed work

on the dredging thing. I'm going

do the canal access points. Elliot is going to do a summary of the things that we want to focus on as a committee. Quite honestly, I think

with those three things, we're going

to have more than enough. We will. Talk about the landscaping thing, if you want to do it, Elliot, I would say you push that off to the next meeting.

Oh, definitely. No. I'm not going try to cram that in next Nope. Okay. Any other proposed agenda topics for next meeting and or other communications of our committee?

I've got one and this is, I think, more towards Justin. You and I talked about this before the meeting. So just as background, I've been coming to the island for well over fifty years. The island has changed dramatically. There were more sand roads than paved roads when I first started coming here. Was a pretty cool place. Still is a pretty cool place. But the island has changed dramatically, and I feel like a lot of the stuff that we talk about, a lot of the facts that we put out are somewhat anecdotal. One of the things I've looked for and I haven't been able to find, and I'd like and I would be happy to put together if I can get the data, is I'd like to look at what has happened historically. So what I'm looking for is all of the water testing data that we've got going back as far as we have it.

I don't know how many years we've we've been doing it. We've been testing it, looking at all the different levels, dissolved oxygen, the whole bit. And what I'd like to do is I'd like to map that along, and take a look at historical things that have happened, whether it has been hurricanes, whether it's been the fact that the city moving from septic to going on to wastewater treatment, to the population growth on the island, full time residents versus part time residents. Because when I first come came down here, there were probably only a couple thousand people lived on the island year round. Now, think it's 17 or 18,000 people they say are here year round, and we swelled to over 40,000 people in season.

I also like to take a look at the volume of reuse water during that period of time, because as has been pointed out before, the areas that use reuse water are the medians, are the condo buildings and the golf course, which is a very small percentage, and has that gone up over time? So is it over the course of the last thirty, forty, fifty years, however long we have the data, how long has your reuse water been used and put there, And put it all into one place, because I don't have any perspective as to what's occurred over time. I hear people say, well this happened, and this happened, and this happened. So does that exist today, or can I get that data and try to put it together to have people acid test it?

Well, it certainly does not exist in one place. The water or wastewater plant reclaimed water production is compiled in monthly reports that are submitted to DEP. And so those are available on DEP's website. You may reach out to Nigel Noon at the wastewater plant to see if he has some other readily available location, which, you can access quickly. And then the as far as the surface water quality testing, I think the city started or took over the testing, with the inception of this waterways committee.

I can't remember what how many years ago that was. But prior to that, it was Collier County that did the surface water quality testing. They didn't have as many testing locations. And I think it was also done quarterly, not not monthly. But if you want to send me an email, I'll forward that to our stormwater engineer and see if she can pull up whatever we have readily available to provide that. And so surface water quality data, reclaim water data, what was the other?

Population of the island. I don't know where

I'm I would refer

you to the growth management department, specifically planning and zoning. They do a comprehensive plan which has Is that here on the island?

Yeah. That's city hall.

Okay. Okay.

They they do a plan that gets updated every so many years. I don't know how many years that is. But, you could probably reach out to Dan Smith, who's the director of that department, to be able to get that information.

I can give you two months to assemble that? Two? Well, I mean, if it would fit in the next meeting, I'd love to see it.

Are you gonna increase my salary?

Yeah. Definitely. Double it. Double. Double.

Triple. Okay.

You've got it. Are there any other I'll try.

I'll do my best. But I'm I'm gonna start. And I may and if it's if I can do it, I may pull in other people from the committee or maybe one other person from the committee to help me kinda compile it and put it together, because it's gonna be a lot. But I don't know if that gets a foul of Sunshine.

Yes, that's a foul of Sunshine Law too.

Well, if you segment it, it doesn't cause an issue.

If you ask someone to do maybe just the population piece or the number of house build starts or something like that.

Well, what I'm thinking is compiling the data might be the easiest part. Yeah. The hardest part is gonna be starting to overlay all of it and that's when, you know, more So hands might be I'll I'll I'll put it together and I'll and I'll talk to you about what we might need to do next week.

Okay. Okay. Great.

One one last thing. You mentioned at the beginning of this meeting that you're gonna be giving an update to city council at their February meeting, their second February meeting. I think that's on the seventeenth of seventeenth. So did you want to get input from any of the committee members here as to what's going

That would be update. That would be one of the of the last things I was going to ask right now. So thank you for bringing that up because I have it right here. Anything that anybody here would like to make sure that I mentioned?

I think specifically you need to, and you obviously can't liaise, but you definitely need to take some of Dan's information that he's done on navigation and feed that up.

I think it was mentioned at the last meeting that he would also be there

to But he is going to

be presenting.

But apart

from that

Yes. Anything else? I think

you could do maybe a summary on the fertilizer topic about have we got the timings right on this? Are we doing Because the right it felt like from the last couple of meetings ago, we're not. That's right. We're not. That's correct.

Okay. Anybody else?

I mean,

you could give them an update because I think we chat, I don't know when we whether we've pushed this information up or we changed the frequency of the water testing. That's most of it is something they either know about. Sorry? One minute. Oh, yeah. No, I'm

done. I think we are done. If there are no other communications, no other comments, we are adjourned. Thank you.

Thanks, Mark.