Resort Tax Board - Regular Meeting

We have the agenda printed now.

That's just the agenda, not like all the details.

OK. Good evening, everyone. First of all, I would like to congratulate board member Cynthia Callaway for her birthday, and she enjoyed her birthday with us yesterday doing a sandcastle, and it was beautiful. Congratulations.

Thank you, thank you. That's sweet, thank you.

Okay, so call to order.

Yes, Chair. Vice Chair Martinez?

Here.

Remember Calloway here or myself sour here to have a quorum.

Thank you so let's go to the agenda in order of business is there anything else that we have to move around.

Yes, madam vice chair if we could do an item as a walk on which is to pay for the volunteer T shirts for the group of teens that are volunteering to help us with the check ins. Okay, we had that item volunteer T shirts, yes. And I would also want to let you know that have year with the 3rd Thursday's recap is running a little bit late so if maybe we can make a motion to move that to the last item and then decide where you want to place the walk on item.

Okay, I think we can move him to give him more time till the end of the meeting, because it's a short agenda, and we can leave the work item to before him.

Perfect.

Madam Chair, if I may, the welcome item will be added as item 8A under new business.

Okay, perfect.

Yes. So it will be after everything we hear on the regular agenda, this will be heard.

Thank you. Okay, then, well, our liaison is not here today, so there's no public comments, and then we'll go to the approval of the minutes.

Madam Chair, if I may, somebody has to make a motion for the order of business. There was no motion made or second.

Oh, okay. Okay, I'll make a motion to change 7A third Thursday recap to the end of the meeting and add the volunteer t-shirts to item number eight under new business.

Thank you. I'll second that. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Okay. So we go to approval of minutes. Which are approved.

I don't have any changes. No? No changes. No, fine.

Okay. So we approve the minutes.

So make a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting on the 12th of January.

I'll second that. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Moving to item six, resort tax collection and back-of-seas report.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Unfortunately, we don't have a new set of numbers, so we don't have a report today. The last report I received was on January 12th, which was the day that we had the special meeting last month. So normally it takes about four to five weeks to get new numbers. So as of now, we don't have any new data, but we have been looking into the collection process and trying to reinforce it. So we are working with Code Compliance and the finance team to catch up on the penalty notices. and to follow up with the businesses more frequently. Additionally, I have also reached out to counterparts at Miami Beach and Bal Harbor to see if we can get any insight from them as to their process, and hopefully we do.

Oh, here we have. Hi. Welcome. Hello. Hi. Hi, everyone. No? It's fine. It's a good quote. Since we have our town commission liaison here, do we have any report to assess?

Thank you, Vice Chair, and my apologies for being a little late. I don't have a commission report. However, I would like to update you a little bit on the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee, because at their last meeting, now they've also been trying to do some kind of reef line project. So I have brought up the project that the Resort Tax Board is working on as well. And I mentioned that to them and shared the emails that have transpired that we've had and basically let them know that right now that project is held up with approvals and possible permitting. So I just wanted to share with this committee that the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee supports any kind of reef line project that we're working on.

Thank you. Okay, so let's move to 7b, update on MFF and MJFF film screening.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Last month, the board was able to select the two films that they would like to see for the Miami Film Festival discussion and screenings. And we were able to confirm both of those films. There was a question about Nana's and it being a little bit more difficult because it was Netflix, but apparently everything is OK. So we're working on those agreements. I did ask the vendor that does the seating and the screen to come out and take a look at the beach because it is pretty narrow. I mean, he agrees that it's definitely quite a bit narrower than it was last year, and it's going to be tougher to do the exact same footprint. He can still do it, though, so we can get the inflatable screen out there and some seating. It might just be a little bit tighter. It might be more rows because it's narrower, so we'll have to adjust. But another option might be if you wanted to do it maybe in the community center green space, although that makes it not open to everybody. It would just be the residents and registered hotel guests. So it's not quite as open as the other doing it on the beach.

Any comments? No? I think I'd rather keep it on the beach, even if it's longer than wider. Just let's see how the weather is doing. Because if it's too windy, then we might move it inside to the green area. But otherwise, I think we should keep plants on the beach. OK.

And then I will bring the film titles for the board to choose next month for the Miami Jewish Film Festival. I'm not sure what they're holding. I think their festival is happening now or very soon. Or it just ended. So I think they need a little bit of time, but we'll definitely have them for the March meeting.

Okay, beautiful. And then March, what is the...

So the screenings are we have March 15th for the so March 15 unfortunately wasn't available and it was Oscar night and then they also had a conflict the festival. So we're now looking at the 22nd March 22nd and March 22nd and then February 22nd.

Is that the known.

Yeah because MFF he was February right.

Okay, sorry, you're correct. So, yeah, February 22nd will be the first, and then the second one is going to be on March 22nd.

March 22nd, okay.

And then Miami Jewish Film Festival will be on April 12th. Okay.

Thank you for the update.

Sure.

Moving on, 7C, Peraltopia.

Sure. I will ask Sarah, who just arrived, to come up and present her ideas for this year. Really quick before she starts I also want to ask the board a big component will be for you to decide what weekend you want to do paddle topia traditionally it was held like later in May, but that gets a little bit tough with the heat and the rain, so I think last year. We moved it a little bit earlier, but we had a tough weekend with the passing of the rabbi and F1 weekend. So the choices are the weekend of April 25th or 26th, which would be just the very next weekend after the Earth Day Plastic Fishing Festival and the Earth Day event, or the following weekend, which would be May 2nd or 3rd. And a note for the board, I will be traveling for April 25th and 26th. So if you'd like me to work the event, would have to be the May 2nd or 3rd.

Sorry, I prefer May 2nd or 3rd. I don't want to have it the same week right after the other event. I think having at least a week in between is more space is better because it's a big event the weekend right before.

Okay. And just to note, the May 2nd and 3rd, I believe, is Formula One weekend. So just know that it would coincide.

But nobody, that doesn't impact traffic in our town.

It's not about traffic, but it's about people going. Competing. People is engaged with Formula Uno. You don't go to the event itself. You watch it at home or whatever, unless we add a screen to watch Formula Uno in the event.

You could do that if you want. Sure. I don't know that that's our crowd. I mean, I don't.

If I may, through the chair, I believe the vendor, and she could explain it herself, but I believe she had issues with finding vendors for the weekend because of the Formula One.

Is there another weekend that we can do it in May? When something happens in Miami, it's everyone is called on.

It's harder and more expensive.

Yeah.

Is there another weekend in May? What about the weekend after? What about May 16th weekend?

Yeah, you could do the May 9th or 10th. We were just trying to go earlier because that was the request because of the rain. But sure, you could do the 9th and 10th.

I'm away that weekend. 10th is Mother's Day. Yeah, I don't want to do Mother's Day either. That's bad. How about the 16th, 17th?

Why not the last weekend of April?

We could. Frank's not here. He just said he can't do it that weekend.

You can still have the event. I just won't be here. But also, it's just one week after the Earth Day. If you're fine with that, you can move forward.

It's right after the Earth Day weekend, the weekend before. He's not here. That's why.

And just food for thought, this will include the paddle for plastic that the board approved separately on one of the days. But it is a pretty different event because it's paddling for the plastic than the other beach cleanup on Earth Day. And that's 16.

Yeah.

How about the 16th, 17th, May? Yeah, the only issue we get into is like if for some reason weather, and then we get into pushing it to the following weekend. It's fine. I mean... I think it's a good day. Okay.

The weather is clearly... The weather is just a disaster. We can't predict any of that anymore. But this weekend.

I just don't... We don't want to do it on Memorial Day weekend. No, for sure not. But this is well in advance of that.

Okay. It's the weekend before.

Yeah. 16, 17. Okay. Okay. Well, thanks for having me. Happy to propose Paddletopia again. I know many of you are familiar with it, two-day festival, and this year I think we can focus a lot more on the docs, on the new doc, and then on fitness and wellness, as I think it's becoming more of a theme of the event, and it worked really well to have the kind of round-the-clock fitness activities going throughout the event. I did also speak with the CRB, the Community Relations Board, to see if they could float the idea of doing the community swap again for sustainability, and so they're going to see if they can do it. But also now I didn't know that that weekend was an option, so I'll see if that works for them. But anyway, so we'll have complimentary paddle boards and kayaks, the designed inflatable infrastructure, fitness demos, eco-friendly brand activations, a healthy food sampling. We always try to get the flea market with the food vendors and music and art activities. So all of the different areas are activated. So this event is designed, I'm not sure why this came up, something was in the PowerPoint and didn't come through. But anyway, our goal is to attract sporty families, visitors, first time paddle boarders, but people who are also water sport enthusiasts, and of course, Surfside residents. So food and beverage. So we're going to be having kind of round the clock food and beverage. Daily cold brew and coffee. That was a big hit last year. So we're going to do that throughout the day. Complementary coffee. Healthy snacks, protein bars. We always try to get, you know, something that aligns with the values of eco-friendly, sustainable, healthy, nothing with... sugar, refined sugar, things like that. This time, we're going to have more of a beverage station with lemonade and iced tea, smoothies with the blender bags, fresh fruit, and daily ice cream. And last year, we partnered with Rita's. We could possibly do that again, and we'll just have ice cream as a daily thing that we put on the schedule to attract. families that are excited for that the programming so last year we had a really good lineup of fitness yoga this year we want to incorporate mahjong which is having a renaissance in miami so there's a lot of different mahjong clubs and meetup clubs in miami so i was thinking we could have like partner with one of them and they could run like a mahjong tent or a mahjong meetup where um What is it? Okay, sorry. So Mahjong is a game. It's of Chinese origin, and it's a tile game. It was in the movie Crazy Rich Asians. Maybe you saw. Okay. But it's actually very, very popular. It was very popular with the Jewish community who would go to the Catskills and go to those retreats in the 1950s and 60s. And then through COVID, it became a big resurgence. And now in Miami, it's actually becoming a huge... thing, a trend happening at nightclubs, happening in golf clubs, members clubs, different places. So just another way to attract people and help local clubs also become involved and promote it to their people, and then they come. And then trying to do the clothing swap. There's a sustainable swap organization in Miami that could also do the swap. So we could partner with them, and they promote it to their database. So just looking for ways to partner with other community organizations so they promote it to their groups as well. And then we had the screen printing activity, the book exchange. We have art activities. We are going to do a family gardening workshop using a local Surfside resident who does family gardening classes. And a Miami Charm bracelet station is also a local resident has that business. So lots of fun things. These are some of the partners we had. So we always work with Miami Beach Paddle Board. And I do know that we have the paddle app paddle boards at the community center at the dock. So we're going to see about partnering with them too if they want to come and possibly do demos about how to use the app. I'm not sure who. I'm going to get in touch with whoever it is that created that partnership and see if there's a contact there and they want to be involved also with the event. And then, you know, we have different SBF, the Exhale Spa, different local businesses, yoga studios, dermatology who will come and do skin checks, and Pelican Harbor Seabird Station. I want to see if the Youth Council wants to do, I know they're trying to work with this scooter safety initiative, so maybe they want to come and have... some kind of activation there with that. Or if there's anything else, I know they work a lot with sustainability, so I'll talk with them and see what we can get to do to get them involved. And then we have the plastic fishermen activation on Sunday, which I need to flesh out more what we're doing with that, too. So we'll be in touch with them about that. So these are some enhancements I think that would be fun for the event because, you know, maybe it would be nice to have these big visual, a visual draw to the event so people could see it from walking on the bridge or walking in the neighborhood and just recognize that there is some carnivalesque situation happening at the park. And I think that's something that would you know, draw families, keep them there, and have people, you know, kind of engaged more with the event. So these are extra enhancements that I'm proposing for adding this year. It's not something we've ever done before, but I think it kind of goes, it's not mechanical, it doesn't, you know, it kind of goes with what we want to do. It's not like a, for lack of a better word, sort of a loud carnival thing, but it's, you know, it's fitness, and it's fun, and it's low impact. So I think it would be a nice thing to have at the event. So those are the climbing wall and the bungee trampoline would be fun. So this was just like a sample schedule of something we had last year and this is just to give you an idea of how we're just gonna do the same thing and then I think we're gonna really work on getting the word out earlier and maybe getting people to sign up to sort of get commitments in the same way that I think you guys tried to do with this past weekend event so just get people more in tune with the schedule so that when they come they know like what's going on and all the different things but this was a sample schedule that we had for last year. And then this is just giving an idea of some of our partners. We have the Excel Spa and the Vacation SBF, the new dock, which looks great, and the yoga and the screen printing. So, yeah, so this is the budget. Pretty much kept it the same for however long we've been, you know, since we came back from COVID and we've been doing the event. And then last year we had the extra enhancements for the 90th anniversary. So this year I'm proposing to do instead the recreational event. the interactive climbing wall and the bungee jump station. And the screen printing was also the extra from last year if we want to keep that as well. So those are there to be added on or as you see fit, added or subtracted.

It's in that budget already, right?

It's included there. So that's what last year, that was our budget from last year. So I just kept it, we kept it the same and we just added those in as the enhancements.

Through the chair. So the board budgeted 30 because that is the original event budget for a non-special year, I suppose. But last year we did do 38 because of the 90th. And this year she's proposing that $8,000 enhancement. So just so you know, we do have $60,000 left over for additional events or enhancements as of now. So there is money in the budget.

Is there music at this event? I don't remember.

Live music. Yeah.

Was it banned? Yeah, banned. No, I saw it was at the Bay Harbor. Bay Harbor had an art festival, which was really great, actually, except for the weather, which ruined one of the days. They had really terrible weather. But the day that wasn't bad weather was great. And they had the Miami Beach Rock Ensemble perform. Okay. They were phenomenal. Like, we should have them, because they're kids. They're high school kids. Oh, yeah. And they're phenomenal. All right. everybody loved them. Like we should find a way to incorporate that into some of our, I don't know whether this or something else, but you know, that's this.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's cool. I didn't, I, I didn't thought they were professional. I was like, wow. Okay.

Yeah. I think it's a, great way to motivate the youth. We really have a very big youth community that is growing on, so I think it would be a great idea.

Okay. We'll get in touch with them.

Maybe also another idea to to keep the people interested in the whole event day. Maybe it's a raffle at the end of the day. Maybe like to raffle a paddle board, inflatable paddle board or inflatable kayak. So maybe we can do that one day or I don't know.

That's a great idea. People come and register. We announce it at the end of the day. Yeah, and that's something we can promote beforehand.

Yeah, and also I think besides the bad weather that we had last year, I think since the ramp is behind, it's kind of hard. People were in there and they didn't know because many people have not used that ramp. They didn't know it was in the back. So maybe we have to do something.

Better signage.

Yeah, better signage, you know, to show where is the route or still, you know, during the day, do the announcements, you know, we have spots available or things like that to promote the paddleboard itself.

I would be okay with spending more money for those events. I think it's in line with the outdoor nature thing, the rock climbing and all that, so that's a good fit. I would be okay with that. I think that's a big draw.

I think it's a great addition, the wall climbing. I think it's really good.

Yeah, it keeps people there.

And I don't think I've seen that at a Surfside event through the years.

I don't think they do that one. They're more like the motorized thing.

It's good to have something new and different. Right. Yeah. Okay, so we agree.

Okay, so we agree to move forward with the weekend of the 16th and 17th, and then Sarah will work with Rodrigo the Plastic Fisherman and identify the best date, and of course we'll promote them together.

Are there any town events in the month of May that were?

There are always town events. Not too many in May, though, which I think is good. We've got a historical walking tour, and so far I think that's it.

Okay. Memorial Day?

Memorial Day, yes, correct.

Okay. I'm just checking one thing. Thank you. And this was just media stuff, but, yeah, we'll try to get more, obviously. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Sarah. Okay, so let's move forward to update on installation of new total sculptors.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I believe I mentioned at the last meeting that there had been a little bit of a delay because one of the locations selected by the board was on private property for the Waverly Condominium, and they were going back and forth as to whether They would accept both of the designs. They had some back and forth, but ultimately they decided that they would pass on the turtle. So we are back to our two town locations, which are the monument sign at 88th Street and then the beach entrance at 92nd Street. So we hope to install them there, but they will be part of the town manager's report at next week's town commission meeting. And that's when we'll ask the board to, the commission to approve the locations and to select which turtle they would like at which location. Okay.

Can we have like a recommendation of plays?

Yeah. I think I can pull it up. Give me one second. Let me just pull it from our agenda because I have the mock-ups there. No, it's in the resort text, the mock-ups.

It's kind of weird placement, to be honest. It's kind of a weird placement.

Okay, so here are the turtles, which are In the agenda packet, okay, so we have two designs. So it's the one that is the darker blue with green, and that's the back.

That looks kind of random there.

And then we have the brighter, lighter one. So I just, you know, I did both sides just so that the commission can see what it looks like from the back. I think you would obviously put it from the front.

And that's the one in 88th Street, right?

Yes, that's the 88th Street. So, again, you can recommend which one you would recommend for this particular spot. And then, of course, we did the same with the beach entrance, which you could put it before the tree or after the tree. And so I have both.

I think the one with the fish should go by the beach. Yeah. The one with the fish should be at the beach.

I think, personally, I think this one looks better there because if you look at the tones, they match perfectly. Yeah. So I think, but up to you, of course.

Right, yeah, that one should be there. There's no other place to put it. I feel like no one's going to be able to stop and take pictures with it. It's a very high traffic area, like driving. It's not really a walking. Is it by the tennis courts, though? Spot. Yeah. Isn't there the debris going there or no for Champlain?

No.

So the debris is in front of the tennis courts. This won't be affected at all. Because this is along Collins, and the debris is along 88th.

So I'm trying to understand the picture. So it's going to be, what direction is this going?

That's looking northbound.

Right.

I just showed the back, but I believe it should be this. Facing front. Like this. Yeah, it should be facing front.

Showing the colors.

Yeah, I'm just showing the back.

Oh, I see. Okay. But we would place it this way.

Mm-hmm.

And when we had the discussion, you know, several months ago, a couple of times, I don't think there were other locations that were identified. We talked about the hard pack, but then that's not going to work because of the different projects happening there.

Um, so I have a question for the 96, the 92nd street one, it's right in the middle of the trees of the trees. Is there a way to move it to the, yeah. Is there a way to put it on the side? Like, so it's.

So you just want it on this? There's also the beach equipment there. So then it's going to just.

No, it could be on the other side then. Because there's a sign for the street with like the school or something.

Let's look at the front.

Where is there a sign on the right hand side?

The exercise equipment, there's one here and then there's another one like.

Because I think for emergency stuff, don't they sometimes have to drive right down that thing?

No, no, there's trees. So they don't drive down here.

OK, they care about the tree. There's not a spot on one of the sides?

I think it's fine. It's fine because it's in front of the tree. It's like when you enter the.

I mean, it's a pretty long walkway. There's not a lot there in between the trees. That's why I'm saying.

I like the location a lot.

Okay.

Just in your renderings, Frank, you have it, that one is, so if I'm walking on the beach path, it's after the tree going, like, if I'm going back home.

It's in the wrong spot. Or in the back of the tree. In that picture, it's in the wrong spot, no? Then you have another picture.

You only have that photo. You can only rotate it so much. So I can't, like... No, but are you putting it...

There's two different pictures. One of it has it on the front of the tree between the tree and the beach path, which I think looks weird. And then you have one where it's in between on the other side of the tree.

Correct, because they're both options. So I'm letting you and the commission... That's what I'm asking.

Oh, I see. That's what I was asking.

I see. There were two options. Okay. I don't know. What does the town manager think? I mean, is there a safety issue either way or no?

Well, in the middle where people walk would be my concern, but if you can scroll down to page 45. For me, that looks like the most logical step. Even just the way that the picture shows into the walk path, because the other picture just kind of, I don't know if maybe the overall picture is maybe too narrow of a viewpoint, but I think this gives a clear indication of what it would actually look like overall. The other option, and Frank, you would know this area a little bit better for this. The other option would be potentially putting the turtles on the very edge, almost like both of them on the edge of the walkway that way, but then you're eliminating the entire spot.

Let's do that. I like that. There is a sign, though. There's that, like, those little block signs that say the street and the school or something. Yeah, but that's low. Isn't that really low? It's very low, but it's, like, in the corner. In that corner. Is it a permanent sign?

Yes. And it's signs that need addressing because they were – it's a nice project done years ago, I think, through Bay Harbor. So it's, like, tiled mosaic signs. But I believe due to heat, like, some of it has cracked and –

So let me ask you, what's on the very edge of that picture, all the way on that fourth tree?

The fourth up? The bench to the left?

Could you essentially, the other option is, could you essentially put the other statue on just the other side, right? So they're both on the same path, just on either end of the path. On the corners.

I like it better on the corners because I feel like it's, I don't know.

But the corners front or the corners?

The corners front.

So if you look at that turtle, it would be the left one on the right?

Yeah, or like he was saying, one on this end by the beach and one on the other side by the street. That's fine, too.

If I may, through the chair, because I'm a little familiar with the street end. Me, too. And essentially, the way the path is done, you have the trees in the middle. So you have the pedestrians on both sides of the path. And consider they carry beach chairs, or people biking will come down that way also to ride the bikes. You need to keep those pathways. So you want it on the side? What we're saying is on the side of the path. I don't think you can. On the side would be great, but you also have to add equipment. No, we're talking about on the other side. On the other side.

Yeah, on that side.

I think staying in line with the trees makes a lot of sense because.

I'm going to try to find a Google image to see if we can find one.

I was thinking, what the manager's saying is on the side.

I walk every morning, I have to check it again.

Yeah, can we decide this next meeting and go look at it?

It's gonna take more time.

Yeah, let's not be hasty.

No, no, it's gonna take more time. If he can put it like a...

But they're not, when are they installing it?

Nothing is happening until we have a selected location. So right now, nothing is happening.

No, but even if we decided today, when would it be installed?

I don't know. We have to ask Public Works and ask the students.

It's not going to happen quickly. Yeah, but we should go look at it. This is like we're basing it on the pictures that don't really give it.

Okay, just to recap, a few months ago when we had the discussion, I did bring full photos of the location, and we had the full discussion, and that's what was selected.

Excuse me. I think if you just zoom up a little bit and put the yellow. We can make the decision today, so we keep. What's the yellow man?

Okay. What's the yellow man? Is this it? Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, so. You can't walk. I didn't know that. Where are you? I just learned something. So this is walking on 92nd going east. If you're coming from Collins, you're walking towards the.

But this. Wait a minute. No, this is old.

This is old. I'm confused. That sign's not there. Does it look like that now? Yeah. I mean, the hedges are there very much so.

What?

So I think that's the sign. That's the mosaic sign. You can see it there.

And those are lights on the sides? Why can't you put them on the side? They're between the lights. So we're out of the way of the people walking or biking or strolling or anything. And people can take pictures the same way we do it in front of Town Hall where they're like lined up.

I think that looks really weird.

It has been landscaped since that Google photo. So you see it was showing Some rocks and now there's grass.

I would put it on the side where people aren't going to walk by the grass.

Like on the... Yeah.

Between those two posts.

Okay. And do you like one turtle there or two?

Two.

Okay, so we're dropping Collins Avenue?

Yeah, I would drop Collins, yeah.

I think there's a lot happening in that corner, but it's... already, you know, so.

I think this will make people will take pictures and it'll look nice.

I think it'd be very nice to have two of them there.

Where they're not lonely. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly, I don't want them missing each other. I think it's a better location, 92nd Street, than the other one. As you mentioned, there's so many things going on and it's not really in the corners, you know. Yeah. Personally, I don't know if we have to vote. I will agree to put it in this, both in this and on this side. Yeah. I think it will look good. Yeah.

By the grass on the north, right? Not the side with the exercise equipment. The other side. On the other side. Which is the north side in the grass area. So it's not impacting on.

One and then the other, right?

Yeah. Yeah. That would look really nice.

Okay. Perfect.

That would be our recommendation for the commission.

Okay. I will update the report. Perfect. Thank you. Okay.

Beautiful. Okay. Good job.

Thank you. We did it, okay, we did it.

Okay, moving on. Item 7E, update on Hardin Avenue Music Nights.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. So last meeting, the board, we talked about the musician for Harding Avenue, which is a good idea and was successful for Midnight Madness. We talked about maybe doing some of these activations in tandem with different dates, like Mother's Day, to encourage shopping and whatnot, Valentine's, for example. Right now, we don't have a lot of those dates coming up other than Valentine's. I know that The Musician is available this Saturday, which is the weekend before Valentine's. So if we wanted to move forward with an activation for, of course, we don't have a lot of time to promote it. But I could push it out if you agree. We could do something this Saturday. But otherwise, the next big day, like Mother's Day, is not until May. Father's Day is in June. Would you want to do some music on Harding Avenue just on a regular March and April night? I mean, I think that would be nice.

Yeah. It's pretty low cost, too.

Yeah, it's relatively low cost. And yeah, I think it's something that the whole district will enjoy.

So which day will be?

So first of all, would you like to do this coming weekend? Start with February 8, or is it too short? OK, so we can start with February 8. And then in March, I'll have to work with the violinist to see what date is open. But maybe something like right now, well, that March 15 when we were going to do the first screening is now open. So we could do that weekend, March 14 or 15 potentially. And then in April, we could look at a week that is a little bit quiet. There's no quiet weeks in April.

Didn't you say about doing Valentine's Day?

Yeah, shopping for Valentine's Day. So that would be this weekend, which will be the weekend before Valentine's. And then in April, we can, you know, maybe Saturday the 18th. April's pretty busy, but, you know, we can find. I don't think this competes with any of the other events because it's not an event. It's just.

What about having romantic music on the 14th, too? Like, just for ambiance.

I mean, or would you rather do it on the 14th?

I think I'd rather do it. I would rather do it on the 14th.

I'd rather do it on the 14th. Yeah.

To be frank, I don't know that the music, you know, is really going to incentivize people to shop. And I know there was suggestions, well, you know, talk to the businesses, see what they like. But, you know, there's like 50 different businesses. They're all different. So I'm going to get...

I think the 14 just adds to the night. It's going to be a night for anyone going for a walk or anything else.

Yeah, it's romantic.

It's sort of an occasion to do the 14th and some random...

Okay, I'll have to confirm that he's available.

And one more question. When we are going to do these activations, is the activation always going to be in the same place or we're going to rotate the activation to give, you know, to highlight...

I mean, we have to look at this space because, you know, he has to plug in. And so he has to be near somewhere where he can plug in, but he's not in the way.

For all the business to have one. Correct. And one in the other place, not always in the same place.

I think we'll try, but it is tricky because of the sidewalk cafes. There's a lot of areas where it's tight. You've got to run a cable. So it has to be safe. So I think we'll do our best. But the location we did last time will probably repeat that one for the first one. And then I can walk around with him, and if we see that there's other spots, for sure, we can spread it. But we just need to assess because of safety and congestion on the sidewalks. But I think it'd be great if we can spread it around. And then as far as the hours, do you want to do two hours, three hours, two and a half maybe? Just keep in mind he'll have to take little breaks.

What's the difference in price between two and three?

I'll tell you in one second. I have it here. Okay, so it is 900 for two hours, 1,200 for three.

I'd do three the whole night. You'd do three?

I think two is probably too little. Six to nine or seven to ten?

Seven to ten is good. Seven to ten? Mm-hmm. It's date time.

6.30 to 9.30, whatever. I don't know.

Yeah, or 6.30. Okay, 6.30 or 7.

I think 7 is...

If I may, based on the calendar, it's a Saturday night, so the 7 to 10 might be better. 7 to 10 is better.

All right. Three hours, 7 to 10, and we will try to start with Valentine's Day and then look for a date in March and April as well, and then May Mother's.

Can we do one of the dates to be, I know it's kind of weird, but can we do it one on a Friday? Because Friday is almost empty, and so we have to promote the business that open on Friday as well. Sure. Is there anything open? Yes, there are things open. We have all the paletas, heladerias.

Yeah, you have Flanagan's.

You have some, and I think we have to promote the day that is empty. It's good to do it on a Saturday, but also promote Friday. Sure, yeah, animate the district when it's quiet. We have the pizza place. So the idea is to promote when it's low attendance, right? Sure. Sure. That's fine.

Okay. Okay, we'll look at a Friday for March. All right. Okay, great, sure.

Okay, so moving to new business.

Madam Chair, item 7A.

Sorry, 7A. Third Thursday, a night in the Americas recap. And we welcome. That was the best steak I've ever had.

It was so good. I want that steak at every event forever.

Welcome, Javier.

Good evening. Javier Valmana, ADA 51, Abbott Avenue, Surfside, Florida. Well, nice to see you all. So for our first Third Thursday series blog party, We started with A Night in the Americas, and this year's series is Cruising the Globe. And what we're doing, as you're all probably familiar, we are featuring three different regions that will be highlighting countries within each region. Our first one was the Americas, which included Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil. And just to show you a little bit of the event, we started off with the entertainment, which we had. Our goal was to kind of feature entertainment, food, and drinks from each different country. So we divided the event into different areas, which I'll show you in my next slide. But as far as the entertainment, we had mariachis for Mexico. We had a tango demonstration for Argentina. And we had a carnival samba and drumming demonstration from Brazil. And we had a DJ playing music in between breaks throughout the night, music from each country. As far as food, we had an Argentinian asado or barbecue, which provided some steak and chorizo from this vendor. For Mexico, we had Mexican costas, which is kind of like a taco. We had a Brazilian vendor that provided typical Brazilian street food. And we partnered also with Morelia's here from the town for some Mexican paletas. And we also had a coffee truck, which also provided complimentary horchata, which is a typical drink for Mexico. As far as activities for kids, we had face painting themed to Day of the Dead celebrations. We had a football penalty kick activity, and we had also a carnaval mask painting activity. So this is kind of to show you the layout of the event. So our main goal was to really make it seem like each area was a distinct country. And that way, people would feel as if they're cruising through this region. And as you came in, you were in Mexico. And all the decorations from above, like hanging flags and things like that, to centerpieces on the tables, to even the color of the tents. Everything was done to match each country. And so you had Mexico, then you had Brazil, and then you had Argentina. We had two stages or platforms. That way we would have the entertainment kind of rolling throughout the event and not just in one place. So we had the mariachis at a certain time in Mexico. Then we had a tango performance in Argentina. And then we had the carnaval throughout. And then just around, you know, you can see some of the different stuff that we had, like these are the costras, the exact ones that we had. This is the little sampler for Brazil. This is the soccer activities that kids could play in, the Argentinian asado and the tango and the mariachis. So let me see if I can go to, just to show you some pictures from the event. One second. Oh, shoot. Do you know if it just goes on without logging in?

Sure. I'm going to remember ours. It's under Wavy? Yeah. Let me see if we can just go over.

But aren't those the pictures if you like scroll down or did you.

No I was it was on the.

Let me see if the video shows that. We do have a brief collage in the agenda packet. Let's do that.

Where's the. Can you look at it for me because I don't know where the files are. Oh, you can go on her Instagram to see the video and the pictures. So this is just a quick glance at the event. This is actually the mariachi stage. But here is the tango performers. Here was the mariachis. This is the soccer activation, which was a huge visual draw. We had an actual Argentinian asado and whole setup and it was kosher. So we had two kosher vendors in the night. We have Morellas and we had this asado vendor. Oh, and I also forgot to mention that we had a bar and we offered complimentary drinks to town residents and hotel guests. And you could actually choose a drink from any of the countries. So you could choose an Argentinian wine. You could choose a margarita or a caipirinha. And as you can see in this picture, for each country we had some flags and we had string lights above. For Mexico, we had these decorative kind of banners. And then for Brazil and Argentina, we just had flags. but we tried our best to include as much detail as possible in each area. And I think overall, despite the weather for the event, which was extremely cold, kind of like this past weekend, it was a great event, and I think everyone had a great time. So that's it for me.

It was amazing. It was a fantastic event. My husband's entire family was down from New Jersey, so the timing was, they were blown away. Every time they come to town, we happen to have one of these events, they think we do that every day. They're just like, this is the best place. I can't believe how amazing it is. They're kosher, and there was so much kosher food. Steak was incredible. It was really, you outdid yourself. It was really great. I look forward to the other two.

Thank you. Yeah, I think we had plenty of food. I think we had in total four food stations, including dessert, which was Morelia's. And we provided the steak, the Morelia's, and tacos for town residents and hotel guests. And the Brazilian, those little platters, we gave out for everyone. So even if you weren't a resident, you could still get something. And that was nice. Or you could buy something from the bar as well. Oh, and we also, from using some of the feedback that we got from the Night in Italy event regarding the bar and the prices, for this one, we tried our best to keep the prices as low as possible. I think for reference, for the Night in Italy event, I think we had cocktails at 14. For this one, we did cocktails at 11. We had wine for that one at 11, for the Night in Italy. For this one, we had it at eight.

Amazing.

And beer, I think, was like five or six, so. For the chair, we need Cynthia's approval on the spirit prices. And for the bars, I feel like since people could have an option of a drink complimentary, that was really good.

It was fantastic. Really, really great job. Can't talk about the weather enough, because that afternoon, there was the crazy cold front with the violent wind coming in. So the setup was really difficult. And it was in the 40s, the wind chill. So it was very cold. That did affect the turnout. But everything you put on was top notch, like the food, the entertainment, the decor. I thought you crushed it. Yeah.

I'm sorry, I missed it. I was not in town and I won't be in town for the next one.

Not to toot our own horn as a tourist board, but I feel like the level of events between what we're doing now and what the town had done in years past, they used to be sort of these parties in parking lots with like, they felt like kid carnivals. And now we're doing these upscale events that feel they're classy, everyone feels welcome. It's just really wonderful. You've done a really great job.

Amazing, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Javier. Really appreciate it.

Thank you, Javier.

Have a great night. Thank you.

You too. Okay, we hope the weather collaborates for the next event. So we have a better turnaround.

And just quickly, that's February 19, a night in the Mediterranean. I have a question.

Do we have to pre-approve getting those heaters in case it's cold?

We should.

Yeah, if you want to just pass a blanket motion that says that if it's going to be very cold, you allow us.

It's not really that much money.

And we'll bring you the expense at the next meeting.

$170 something, I think, or around less than $200 per each. And it's really helpful, and I think it helps the... The people know that whatever they're gonna have a spot that they can feel. Yeah for sure You want to make a motion best man that we do for the event for a couple of dollars That should not be a question.

Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve that ahead of time in case it's necessary for being cold and I'll second that I'll listen for I say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries

OK, so then we move to the new business item.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. So this is just requesting approval for $214 to fund the volunteer t-shirts for the group of teens that frequently volunteers, including your daughter and your son. So they're great. But you know one of the coordinators wanted to make some nice official t-shirts for them and so To spoil nothing they get nothing.

Yes, of course. It's fine They can have a t-shirt. Sure.

Sure two hundred and fourteen dollars hundred and fourteen dollars, okay Is the design gonna say something about like the tourism or

I think they were already designed because the girls were excited. But it just says, you know, it has the official turtle icon and our logo, and then it says volunteer in the back. So it's pretty simple, but on brand.

Good enough. Yeah, great.

All right.

Oh, sure. Well, why don't you make the motion?

I'll make the motion to produce the volunteer shirts for the Youth Council, which is roughly $215. Mm-hmm.

I'll second that.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you. And then I don't know if there are any other comments from the board, from the town manager, liaison? No? We are ready to go home. Next meeting date?

Next meeting date is March 2, 2026 at 6 PM.

Can we, is it possible to do it the following Monday instead because it's Purim?

March 2nd is what?

Purim. It's like a big Jewish holiday where there's parties and things and people probably wouldn't be able to watch the meeting and stuff. The 2nd, March 2nd is Purim? To do the following Monday, the 9th instead?

I know I won't be here. I haven't traveled in that week. I don't know about everybody else. I'm traveling on the 9th.

Okay, I think if you don't see it on the second, you can see it anywhere.

I probably can't be here on the second.

She cannot be here on the ninth. So I think we should leave it as it is right now, and then we will see if, you know. Yes, yes. Thank you.

Oh, because we have to ask, you have to have a quorum.

Yes, but she's not coming on the ninth.

Right, but I can't come on the 10th, so you still don't have a quorum. I can't come on the second.

We'll have our staff circle back with everybody so that we can get a common date.

Yes, to see what happens.

Yeah, what are the other options for dates? That's it, right?

We'll circulate it.

Thank you. Yeah, I'll need to get with staff what the other committee meetings are.

Okay, sure.

Okay, so I think this is it. Thank you so much for coming, everyone.

I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting. I'll second that.

Yeah, but let's send it to the other members so we can have a clear...

But you know our availability, so...

Yes, I will have to speak with other board members and also look at the availability of other boards. Thank you.

Thank you, Genesis. And congratulations to you, too, on your wedding.

Wedding? She got married.