Community Relations Board - Regular Meeting

the Community Relations Board on October 16th. And I'll call this meeting to order. We'll do a roll call.

Chair, you have a quorum. Great. Fantastic. No, please. We'll go through our agenda and anything, is this where I ask if anybody wants to add or change something? Anybody want to add or something? My name's on a lot, but these are Joanna's.

Okay, so my name's on a lot of these, but these are Joanna's. I can just repeat what I heard last time, and if Frank had any updates, we'll call him to talk about them.

To the chair, I agree that we already have the tourism board, which throws events. I don't think we're supposed to just be an event group. I think we're supposed to figure out ways for our community to get through hard things, to come together during good times, bad, whatever it is, and take into consideration that some topics are difficult, but there exists, whether we do things or not, can we make it better for us to all exist together and deal with some difficult topics? I think the words debate, politics, bring in a certain sort of like, you're not supposed to talk about this stuff. But I

Do we want to maybe... take a little time, figure out how we present what this is to the community, and maybe sometime leading up to the March election, which is another election that's gonna be important in this town, maybe think of it in that way so we have a little more time to create the structure, how we wanna present it, not use, you know, lightning rod kind of terms that get people feeling like it's going to be something combative and think about how to do it in a way that, so does that make sense?

I don't see the debate on the agenda, so can I still add it so we can talk after?

And then, okay. Because I think we'll talk more about it then. Any recommendations you have in case you're gone? No, you know, I...

the gun violence prevention community since we have a speaker on it.

Well, the debate could be for new business. 7a.

Okay, is there a motion to move to add the debate item? item for discussion to add a debate for the discussion item all those in favor say aye motion passes okay and i'd like to move 6g up because we have a guest speaker I'd like to make a motion, or someone to make a motion.

I'll make a motion to move 6G up. So it'll be 6B? I'm sorry, 6G.

Ah, okay. Okay, I'd like to move, I'm going to make a motion to move 6G to 6B. Second, is there a second? I'll second it.

Okay, thank you everybody. Motion. Okay, motion passes. Any public comments first? Okay, and approval of minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes from last September 18th?

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. I got a whole bunch from the library because they all came at once. So they have collective stories.

Yeah. I have two of these because they all again came at once. I thought they'd spread out. I'll pass it around. But this one here has a nice chronology of his life. pass that around. This one is mine. And then I have two children. They're a little scary. The Wicked City by Isaac Beshida, the singer. Beautiful artwork. Yeah, the artwork is beautiful. And it's monochrome. And this one is even autographed, Love, I.B. Singer. This is from our rabbis when he dispersed his library when he retired. 1972. And then this one is Joseph and Koza not signed. But even the prices, like this one is $4.95. Fo

Oh, Barbara. Yeah, I got that one too, Barbara. Okay.

the library so there's some out there and they'll pull them from different libraries did we discuss in our last meeting that we would possibly partner with books and books to buy Yes. Is there something happening?

So that would be a purchase. Yeah, but we could share the link with people. The Miami-Dade Kindle link didn't have any.

Yeah, and Collected Stories is free on Canola. Oh, it is? On my Canola list, yeah. Read for free.

Thank you. All right, so I see here the date for it is November 16th. And anything we need to know, Frank?

You should definitely spread the word that currently, we can't say a month from now, but right now it is zero dollars on Kindle. So people with that app. Yeah, exactly. Maybe you could add it on the...

Okay, I'm just looking to see where it is.

That's zero. But you have to have Kindle unlimited, right?

I think Kindle Unlimited might come with time.

It says read for free. Okay. Sign into Kindle Unlimited.

Yeah, I think it should be, and it may even be for people without time, but I'm pretty sure if you have time.

Okay, great. Okay, so, all right, we'll all start reading. They're short stories. Mm-hmm. So they start out real strong, and then all of a sudden there's a weird ending right at the end. Weird part.

No, but I've read like a number of them this past couple weeks.

Go ahead. Okay, anything else on Singer Fest? Okay, 6B, Gun Violence Prevention Community Awareness Presentation, and welcome, Hilary.

It's embarrassing. I'm good friends with the uncle. And he was saying, please spread the word. And I told my son, who was a senior last year, and all of the friends to do it. I didn't stay on them. They're college apps. Everything else took over. Not one of them applied. And I was like, it's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. Nothing. Not that. How old are you? Are you past high school?

reasons this committee was, you know, brought into effect to help out with something like that. So I'd like to put our name on it.

brainstorming here, but maybe we can do something along with you. I just for some reason always think towards arts and I know Should we just have something along the lines of like the wishing tree we do, something else that's maybe creative. We could do maybe a big canvas where everyone works together on something in Aria's name or in the idea of gun safety. Something that, I'm just thinking something healing, something that kind of gets the community in a way that's interactive. I don't know, just...

Depends on what is planned. It could be something not that doesn't take hours and hours. Even just something like a big canvas where as the evening's going on, people come up and just paint a little more on it or do something, you know, whatever it is, it can be.

Or a pledge, a pledge to check for guns or teach their children and just have signatures. Right.

Just a question that I'm probably very wrong about, but I know that there's been a lot about pediatricians are kind of handcuffed and are not allowed to ask certain questions. They can now. They can now. Okay, so we're allowed to ask and do anything regarding guns. Not anything, but things regarding guns and what we talked about.

Well, why don't we keep it simple this first time? We can always do another one. We can do the gun, like the Be Smart, the police presentation.

So it sounds like we're not going to come up with anything to add to the agenda of the night. We may not need to. It's just a matter of maybe it will cover some of the expenses if Parks and Rec, doesn't have that, well, I would like to, through the chair, maybe do we need to say we're going to cover whatever expenses for water or anything else that needs to be purchased to make the event nice. Is that a word?

What about the art project or the signature?

Well, I don't know if we need that. It sounds like you've got the...

Like a parent teaching their child, oh, you're going over? And then the parents, it's really the parent's responsibility. It's the parent's responsibility. It's not the child's responsibility. Do you have any guns around? If not, they can come to my house. You know, that's the pledge almost, right?

And that would be a perfect role. trying to prevent anything like this happening again, we're teaching. And then we can also put it in the Gazette, here's what we've done, and here's what we encourage. Okay, so I'm going to add this to, is there a motion to, how much money do we have, Frank?

Okay, is there a motion to cover miscellaneous expenses?

I'll make a motion to cover miscellaneous

expenses all those in favor say aye motion passes and then I'll put this on the agenda to decide how we're going to come up with the pledge activity yep and I would like to talk to the

I'm thinking we could make the, we could do the poster board or something.

Yeah, anything, I would say, sorry, through the chair, if, if, I would like to see maybe if we do get involved in anything that maybe has something to do with Aria, just because the police can take care of any of the, you can take care of explaining what you do, and the police can do that, and maybe we just, if there is something since it is on or around her birthday, maybe just one more thing that we do there is for her.

Did she have an interest? Was she an artist, or was she... I can ask Walter.

We could do the unveiling that night. Right.

Let's just keep it to this. Because your activity by itself is just perfect. Because there were a lot of little kids coming by. And right on the way to the pool, or the beach. Okay, so I'll put this on next. We'll think of the activity, and then Frank will let us know how much the brick is. See if we can cover that.

So next meeting is the 20th. If you can come, we'll put you on the agenda. you let me know when you see me run out the door 10 to 4 there you go when I put my swim on Okay, we'll move to the, which is now 6C, the recap, the pizza and palm fronds. I thought it was very good, except we didn't have enough palm fronds or pizza. But I thought the interest was there this year.

So put that on the calendar for next year. But it was really well done. A lot of people came to talk, just to talk and hang out with your family. Yeah, it was really nice. And other people were there, and then the town manager was there, so he was filling questions, we sent questions over.

Okay, and 6D, recap of the public works appreciation. It was excellent, too. It was great.

I enjoyed it. Tremendously, and I think the most importantly in the sanitation workers public works department. They seem to really enjoy it. I love Flanagan's. They really did a great job. They gave us the coins for free drinks, so we played trivia. different street names and then we gave points to the people who have been there the longest and then everyone got coins and it was just really, really fun and a bunch of us were there and it was just, I thought, a great day. I enjoyed it so much. You emceed it perfectly.

Like, I didn't know what to say. I couldn't even talk to them. They were all big, you know, and they were sweating. They're great.

And now even more, I always got love from our sanitation department, but now when I see them... Now you're the queen, yes.

Yeah, she really schmoozed them, you know. And her nightdress.

As I told them, when people say... They're schmoozing. When people say, why do you live in this perfect town? And I say, people think it's the beach. because having our trash picked up as often as it is is such a joy, and they take everything. I've seen the roads too often. I've lived other places where it's not the case, though.

You were great. Yeah, and that for us. Did you get any feedback from any of them?

Yeah, I'll maybe stop it. We use their a lot, though. I'm embarrassed to say, but I'll stop there and mention again, the manager was great.

No, it was a nice touch. Okay, very good. Thank you. 6E, Community Resource Fair and Wishing Tree. And I have Frank down for that.

She could sell her locks. Frank, what do you think about that? I think they could be free. combining the resource fair with the gun education.

Okay, so wait, wait, wait, wait. Yeah, Vice Chair was asking about combining the gun education with the resource fair.

That sounds really appealing to maybe have more for each of the events. If some people are just coming for the wishing tree, you'll come to the gun prevention too.

Have you been able to contact any resources?

I have, yes. I've been speaking to Tamara Oppenheimer. And she has a list of resources of phone numbers for us. And I haven't gotten the list yet because it's been a lot of the holidays. But she is getting us a list of everyone. She's the... social worker for Beach High, so she has a ton of good contacts. I already have some communication going with the children's bereavements, and then poison control. We've got a doctor we know who's the I think we have other ones that we've all talked about here, but yeah.

So how do we envision it? So Hillary's would be the main event with the youth council, right? What's the fiscal? Is that the fiscal?

So that would be the main event. And then we have tables for each of these volunteers.

Yeah. All right. So it's going to be December 10th or 11th. Mm-hmm.

I was the mental health coordinator, parent coordinator at Beach High when my kids were there. And so we would do a mental wellness and physical wellness program. And we had all of the, it was really, really impactful. So we had psychologists, all different people from different organizations come in and they're amazing. They'll sit one-on-one and talk to people and tell them all the different things that their organizations can do for children and adults. And I think I envision a little bit like that, where it's just, you can go up, interact, they'll give out brochures, sometimes they bring g

Can we start like, what, the fire department, could they like come? Oh, that too. Yeah, just let's start, why don't we start with what we have here, and then we'll do Joanna's list, and, uh, So we should wait for the date, right? So we should have it by next month. And is that a weekend? No, it's midweek.

She said it was around her birthday, so December 10th or 11th.

There's two rooms, right? So let's be prepared to get all that planned at the November 20th.

We've had somebody doing self-defense classes.

All right, so let's be prepared November 20th. And if we're canceled November 20th, we'll have to have a quick meeting.

What about November? What does the town have?

So what do I do? Oh, I save that for this. You're keeping track of all these? Did we already approve money for the resource fair and the wishing tree?

And a resource fair. Chairs, tables, tents.

Motion passes. Thank you, everybody. Okay. Lending library. Joanna?

Yeah. So just back to what we originally were talking about, some things that at the library in Massachusetts were expensive in time. Just telling you some of the things. I have a paddle ball set. They have a karaoke machine. They have a pasta machine. They have a metal detector. They have a bunch of tools and they have some other electronics and other things. But I just really think that, you know, I talked a little bit just to go back to it with the vice mayor about when the time comes maybe to pitch what's going to be happening with the house that we bought, maybe this is in the house that

So we get, we need like a period of time to do a collection so we know what we really have to catalog it.

Yeah, the collecting of the items, whether some of them are donated. I know some people would love to get rid of their pasta machine that's taking up space in their kitchen. I have some things that could probably be useful that I would be happy to donate, and then we could fill it and we'd find things on.

Yes, exactly. It really wouldn't take up a ton of space and I think could be really useful for, I know the big thing is also manning it, but I don't think we necessarily have to have it fully manned.

If you're at a yard sale and you see a croquet set, you just say, oh, here's a croquet and put it there. It could be anything. I think it just kind of goes back to what we are which is a community driven branch of this to get people doing things that they have always wanted to do but don't have the space in their home or the storage for these things. So I think that is a good place for it if anyone else has ideas and I know it might be a while before we actually have access to this place but The vice mayor thought it was a great idea, and I did as well.

So I'll just keep putting on the agenda until that house... I guess. The house is being rented, right?

Right now it is, but I think they really want to... It's being rented month by month. Month by month, exactly. So at any point, it can be taken back over by the community, and I think they just have to have some ideas that... They'll find out what to do with it.

show that we're in favor of taking this building absolutely happy to okay so i'll just put on the agenda for this month the book clubs exactly this is what we're saying if it's if this space is it can be so many things that um we run out of space as we've talked about between the community center and 96th street park we run out of so if we can have one more space to do things whether it's a book club or people learning to play chess or whatever it is. Archives. Okay. All right, very good.

Okay, and monthly book club. I don't know why that's on there.

Was that you for the monthly book cover? So once we get that building, that would be a perfect place to have it. We could make a strong case for it if we have a plan. So we'll refine it next week. Keep thinking about it, everybody. We'll make a proposal, and then we'll go over to the commission. What was the date for it? It was supposed to be in November.

I think it was supposed to be in November, which is not going to happen. So I think we need to push it off for a bunch of reasons. I think we need to brand it, rebrand it to be not to feel too controversial. We want it to feel positive. I think we have a lot of stuff on the agenda in general for the town. Why don't we think about pushing it off a little bit past the new year? and maybe February, maybe March, and just keep figuring out how it's going to look. I think we also, the schools just came back in August, and they are busy. They start to slow down a little bit at a certain point, so we

Okay, so there's no date on the ad. So that's good. And then has anybody, is that your phone number? Yep. Anybody called you? Nope. Do you know Joel Blumstein? Yeah. He might be interested. Okay.

Definitely. And, you know, if adults are not wanting to do it, then maybe we do have our teenagers involved. as the ones showing adults how it's done.

You're right, you're right. Yes, that could be actually even better. So I think we can maybe then partner with the youth council, we can figure out different ways to do it, but I think it's okay pushing it off for sure.

So do we want to spend some time now or for the next meeting?

Yeah. Because he has to present to the commission too. And it would be good to hear his input on how it's going to best be palatable.

Alright, so I'll put that on the agenda for next month also.

I have another new business. Can I make a motion to talk about an idea for next year that I just don't want to not say out loud now because I'll forget? which is the SUKKAHOP.

It's like spelling Monica. There's 31 years. Okay. Shana Tavares, stick the H in. Yeah, I like that H. So, I just, again, it's like a year from now, but now that I'm saying it out loud, you guys will all remember since I'll forget. I think what would be a really great around this time is to do a little bit of a fun competition. best sukkahs in the neighborhood, and then we provide the kosher food, and we do a sukkah hut, where we go from those ones that we choose as the best, and we pick a night, and we all go during Sukkot, and we go from one to another as a community, and see the sukkahs. Ma

Yeah, I think one of the... first things we spoke about with this community relations board was to bring all of the different communities together. And the fact that there are SUCAHOPs going on, but a lot of people don't know about it, it's because it's only in very specific communities. And I think the beauty of it would be that we open it up to all of Surfside. And I think we can. I think we can do it through maybe even talking to the different religious leaders around and giving people to spread the word and then we can make it, you know, and it doesn't have to be that everyone's in each so

Should we put this on for next agenda so we can discuss a little more?

Okay, next meeting is on here November 20th. Do we want to change it?

I am available November 13th. Are you available a little earlier than 4?

So you're tired or you want to get up early? Yeah, I can get up early. May I?

Does that have to be part of new business? Community relations for 3 o'clock.

Right. Okay, so I'd like to thank L.D. for 10 minutes.

It's hard. Now, if we have anybody, do we recommend them to call to put in the application?

Okay, so if you have anybody, you have them do that QR, and then he picks, right? Yes. And then if the board says yay, the first one,

So it wasn't like in the beginning when we picked our own.

Oh, no, it'll be over, so it'll be a recap. No, it'll still be three days before. Oh, okay, good, good, good. The gun violence prevention, we'll try to get the date, and then we'll tie in the resource fair and the wishing tree. We'll discuss the lending library of things and the monthly book talk.

Oh, I understand. Did you call, Frank, were you able to call anybody? to see if they would make us little books and boxes for them.

book box and the dog box so let's talk about that wait do you want to add that with the lending library or separately though the lending library was that was different that we have to wait till that building so this one could be separate because as long as we get a So let me bring it up first, the book boxes and the dog boxes.

a library. It might be nice to put theirs. I know I walk my dog around there, that little thing, and I see people do it all the time. Maybe that would be a good location to put the dog lending thing. And then we can even do something, maybe this is down the line, but people, when they lose their dog, there's no, it's hard to commemorate. So maybe we do something where we sell for not a lot, but it benefits the town or fundraiser or something. a little thing that we can put back there in the garden that has like a stone with the name of the dog painted on it, something like that. Or it doesn't

Okay, so I'd like to ask Frank if he would talk to us. Now, for the dog boxes, it really wasn't that hard. It was just like a crate, and they threw in some rope, you know, to throw in the holes, and some sticks.

Okay, so that would be a book box, dog box, and then the last thing would be some stones. Do they have like, don't the Michaels have like a kit of a stone, you know, we could maybe find?

We could do bigger things where there's like stepping stones and things but I feel like it might be one of those things that if it takes off it could be a lot so I just we could do something where it's literally just like river rocks that have you know rover painted really nicely on it or etched into it depending on how much you want to spend and they're put out I think like around that garden area. Um, nude. Is there a nude? I don't know. Yeah, there's fully nude.

Because I was thinking, like, a lock. You know how people are putting those locks everywhere? And then you just bring your lock, put it, like, even at the dog park. That's a nice idea. Of course, then there would be, bring back sad memories.

Okay, I'll put that on for Jen. Everybody think of something that wouldn't...

through the chair, would you like me to contact a contact at Sanitation to see if they can build. I have some ideas of what we could do. Is it something that we want to... Frank, is that okay?

Yeah, check on the possibility. We can just start with maybe one each somewhere and then we can add on each.

How are the boxes watered? We don't get snow so it doesn't matter, but we get the torrential rain.

All right, I'll put that on the agenda for next month. So just keep thinking about these things. When you get the agenda... from Angie, just refresh your memory and come up with new ideas. So I have Singer Fest, Gun Violence, with the Resource Fair and Wishing Tree, Lending Library of Things, Monthly Book Club, and that'll be contingent on that house. The Debate Update, Soka Hop, just so we can think of some things, and then the Book Boxes, Dog Boxes, I make a motion to adjourn. I second. All in favor say aye. Aye.