Virginia Key Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Tuesday, 530, Virginia Key Advisory Board. Thank you all for attending. Thank you all for being in the room. We're going to do a call to order and see how we're doing for attendance of board members.

Thank you. Andrew Frey. Peter Ehrlich.

Here.

Chris Evans.

Present.

Steven Leiner. Here. Lynn Lewis, Gary Milano, Vincent Richter, Monte Trainor, Nicholas Lopez Jenkins, Jackie Collier, Carrie Johnson.

Thank you very much. We will do a Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you very much. And Raffaella, are there any requests for absence waivers?

No, I did not receive any.

Okay.

We've got some discussion items today and we also have a presentation from Aaron Jordan. So I think we'll start with a presentation of Aaron Jordan. He's done some research and he's taken the time to be here at City Hall. Thank you for helping us.

Thank you for having me. Good evening, everybody. How are you doing? So I'm Aaron Jordan. My background is in integrated marketing communications. and I also have a background in entertainment, but moreover, over the last five years or so, I've been heavily steeped in community activism and strategic partnerships, and so I actually hail from Louisville, Kentucky. I'm a proud beneficiary of all the hard work that goes on in Louisville, Kentucky, and I'm here because I came down here to build my tech company, and I actually didn't know that I would be a resident of Miami then when I was aspiring to build my tech company, but I'm really appreciative of the warm welcome that I've gotten here in Miami. And I'm just really excited to be here this evening to talk to you a little bit about an initiative that I'm hoping we can get support from, from this body. It's called Hip House Music Festival. And just before I go into what Hip House is, so my background, I actually built the Louisville Juneteenth Festival in Kentucky I mean, we turned six this year. It's actually the official Juneteenth celebration for the state of Kentucky. We have a governor acclamation and we have two Kentucky Senate proclamations dubbing us as the official Juneteenth celebration for the state of Kentucky. We've had over 10,000 attendees each year and we support over 100 businesses. And so we're super proud to be doing that work in community along with corporations and along with nonprofit organizations alike. Our focuses are on tourism, workforce development, job sustainability and creation, and economic empowerment, along with supporting the creative economy. And so this evening, I'm really excited to be talking about Hip House, which is a passion project that was born last summer when I first came down here through the Built in Miami program. Shout out to Mayor Suarez and that initiative, supporting founders like myself. And really, again, my background really steeped in activism, community engagement, community organizing, and building festivals. This festival is hip-hop music, house music fused together. with a fierce commitment to sustainability and climate action. I think that the majority of people here this evening overstand the challenges that Miami and the globe faces as climate reality is on the rise. And so our festival is one of a kind. It's Miami's first festival focused specifically on sustainability. Everything from our logistics, the types of materials that we're gonna be using, the education that our attendees will leave with, And then we're not going to do it in what I would call kind of a lame, corny way, right? We're going to be engaging the community around food, around music, around culture, and again, doubling down on that workforce development, that job creation, and sustaining the creative economy. And so... I am here this evening to talk to the advisory board of Virginia Key Beach Park because that's where we want to host this event in November of this year. A tentative date that we're looking at is November the 18th, 2025. And we're looking for support in the way of both advisory board members and any partnerships and relationships that can be curated with support from this body. Super happy to have Brother Monty as one of our advisory board members, along with Councilwoman Venuse Mia. And really, again, I'm grateful for the support that we've gotten for this initiative. We've had three events here locally. We've hosted an open house event and a cocktail mixer at the Citizen M. If you know about the Citizen M Hotel, it's one of the world's most sustainable hotel chains. And so, again, we're doubling down on our mission to partner with organizations that overstand this mission. We're also partnering with local brands like the Eleven Vodka Group. We're partnering with other local organizations like Big Blue and You, and I could go on. There's a gentleman behind me, Brother Stevens, good to see you, that I actually ran into at a climate event last fall. So, anyways, I'll just land on... I've been truly educating myself on how to be a bridge connector and how to be a conduit of climate action, bringing that into community, but also creating a space where corporate feels that they can too contribute. And again, would love any support, any guidance, any feedback on how you all believe an initiative like Hip House Music Festival can add to the value of the ecosystem of Miami. And I would love to have any feedback related to key stakeholders and community that I should be talking to, that I should be building relationships with. And I hope this conversation is an opening to a longstanding relationship and partnership that we could build together. So thank you for your time this evening.

Thanks. Don't go away. You say walk away? No, stay there. Oh, don't walk away. Thank you very much. No problem. Aaron Jordan. Any questions?

Mr. Jordan.

Yes.

Workforce development. Yes. How?

Yes, so workforce development, I can't do this by myself, right? We've got to have people that are going to be building our stages. We've got to have people that are going to be engineering the electricity in those stages, whether it's the sound, whether it's the lighting. We've got to have, you know, those vendors have to be managed. We've got to have folks that are on the ground. that are able to communicate. We've got to have strong communication and strong leadership to pull all this together, everything from the artist relations side of things down to the logistics, what nuts and bolts go where, what time is load in, what time is load out. And again, those smaller vendors that we'll partner with, whether they're food trucks or whether they're local bar companies, they'll have to also employ Miamians to carry this through. So that's some of how we'll contribute to workforce development.

So you're not planning on bringing your cousins down from Louisville?

Am I planning on bringing who down from Louisville?

Your cousins from Louisville.

Well, yeah, I want them to come. Absolutely. I want my cousins to be here to support what I'm doing. Hopefully that inspires them to take up residence here in Miami alongside me. But no, we want to be super strategic and intentional about working in partnership with local Miami-based organizations and companies. We want to make sure that we're first fostering the relationships here and contributing to the economy here.

Thank you.

How big a crowd do you expect?

I just have a question. Oh, I'm sorry. Is there a request here that you're requesting something from us?

Yes, so the request, sorry, Monty, I did hear, my brain went two ways. So the request that I have this evening is, one, that you all be open to further dialogue around what partnerships look like. Who should I be engaging with? Who should I be making introductions to? Or who could you all make introductions to on behalf of the organization? Giving us candid feedback on where do you think that our resources and time would be best spent? What have you guys seen work in the past? What has not worked in the past? And how can we double down on some of those ideas? And candidly, if there are introductions to partners and fiduciary friends of ours that you guys could collaborate with us on, we want those. If those are statements of support, if that's research that I might not be privy to that you all on a city level have access to that I should know, those types of things. So just really asking that there be deeper conversations.

Do you have some literature that you could share with us so that we could review it and then see how we might be able to assist you?

Yes, Monty, could I send you that deck and then you distribute it to the rest of the advisory board? Is that something that I could do?

Aaron, Raffaella is our...

I can give you my contact and then you can send it to me and I can send it to everybody.

Awesome, awesome, thank you. So yes, I can definitely get you some more literature. Thank you. Monty, what was your question? I think you asked me how many attendees are we anticipating? So we're looking at, I want to do 5,000 attendees. That's my sweet spot. to kick off something like this. I might have another advisory board member. He's not here this evening, but he's a little more ambitious. He says, let's shoot for 25,000. He has a little bit more access than me, so I'm sure that inspires some of his ambition. But me, more realistically, I think that we can drive 5,000 eco-conscious, music-loving individuals to Historic Virginia Key Beach Park this fall and then looking to grow on that. And I will say something that, you know, I believe relates directly to the attendees, the amount of attendees. I do also understand that there is a lot of traffic and congestion that goes into historic Virginia and Key Beach Park. And one thing that I really want to work on along with you all and other organizations locally, how do we utilize the water to transport individuals and transport attendees rather than just relying on cars? How do we also inspire carpooling and use like maybe shuttle services to not only you know support the logistics and not clogging up the crossway but also we want to have a very low co2 footprint in this event so how do we double down on climate action thank you for that question hey Steven Aaron can we bottle your enthusiasm and excitement

So when is this event being planned? And a couple, when is the event being planned? What aspect of sustainability is different that you're proposing or thinking about? Inspire us.

I love that question, Stephen. So the, I kind of forgot the first question, but I know the aspect of, what was the first part of the question again?

When?

When? November the 18th, tentatively. Specific times I'm looking at. to kick things off around noon and end them maybe around 11 o'clock midnight. One of the key initiatives that we want to do is every attendee that purchases a ticket is going to plant a tree. We're partnering with an organization that has the ability to plant trees and mangroves not only here in Florida, but also they support initiatives abroad, international initiatives that can also contribute to workforce development and other ecosystems. My preference is that we start here in Florida, and those attendees that are purchasing those tickets, plant trees right here in Florida. That's just one initiative. We're also looking to partner with folks like Breeze, or partner with folks like Elixir, right, for water taxis. So again, doubling down on the local economy, how can we partner with organizations that are already doing water taxis, for example, really well to lower that CO2 footprint? So those are just two of the creative ways, but we're going to have a list of initiatives once we lock down every logistic, and as we add to that list, we'll put that all on the website. That website, by the way, is www.hiphousefest.com. Thank you for that question.

Yes, of course.

Yes, it's a festival. It's a music festival, yes. Correct, yes.

Huh? Sorry, if everybody could please speak into the microphone. Thank you.

Yes, I would love feedback this evening as well, yes. I don't believe that office in particular, no.

You have not approached the city of Miami yet.

I have approached the city of Miami. I don't think that I've spoke to the events office specifically, special events office specifically. But you're planning to do this. Correct, yes. And again, this is part of that two-way communication that I so appreciate to kind of point me in the direction of who I should be bringing into the conversation. So thank you.

And that's easy. It's just a matter of for our board, it's really important for you to present to us as far as what the scope of the event's going to be. That is, is it going to be an ultra event? What are the decibels? What type of music? You mentioned it's going to end at 11 PM, I think, and start at 12? 12 p.m. Well, so noon to almost 11 hours of activity. Correct. And during those activities, it would be nice for you to break down. You know, you're going to be planting trees from 12 to 2. You're going to be playing music throughout the whole event, I would assume. Correct. Have you worked with the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust yet to schedule this?

We've put a soft date on the calendar. So, yes, we have engaged that organization.

Thank you.

I don't know how many decibels the music would be. Obviously, there are probably more.

That's a big concern because when Ultra was here, you know, there's a natural area there, a preserve. And so the animals that are in the preserve, you know, we need to kind of make sure that the decibels aren't too high that it's going to harm those animals.

I've been in very close communication with Connor, who is the events person over at Historic Virginia Key Beach Park. I'm deeply passionate about the crocodile family, for example, that lives there. And so we want to make sure that everything that we do is going to be in line with the policies and procedures that the city has set forth. And also, we want to establish Hip House as sort of a north star for what festivals should aspire to do in terms of community participation. right, conservation, excuse me, and then, you know, just being good stewards of the environment is literally the crux of what the mission is. So I appreciate that question.

I think when you provide us with more information, we'll be able to be more helpful as far as giving you feedback.

Yes, sir. Thank you. What was your name again?

Gary.

Gary. Thank you. Nice to meet you, Gary.

Aaron, thank you very much. Thank you. One thing, Aaron, thank you for coming out today. Obviously, just to reiterate what everybody else says, your enthusiasm is fantastic. Thank you. The focus of your event is going to be great. I think to Gary's point, the more you get it fleshed out. But the good thing is that you came here very early. We still have six, seven months lead time. Yes, sir. So we'll be able to work with you in any way possible. I would give you another piece of advice. That guy sitting there in the audience right next to you, if you want to make strategic partnerships, I would be very nice to him.

I keep hearing good things about Brother Luis. I just met him maybe 10 minutes ago, but definitely want to continue to build relationships with folks here.

He's been very pivotal in a lot of communities down here and a lot of community service, and I think he'd be a great partner for you to work with.

Awesome.

I appreciate your words of encouragement and your wisdom. Thank you again for having me here this evening. Have a great rest of your night.

Thank you very much. Anybody from the audience like to comment on the presentation? OK. So we're moving to our discussion items. The first item is the Marine Stadium Operator Request for Proposals. And in the package this evening, Everybody will be able to review addendums three and addendum two. They're very informative. They give a lot of information on questions that might come up pertaining to the RFP, questions that came from prospective bidders. I know we are just receiving it this evening, but has anybody had a chance to review it? And does it give anybody any questions? There's also some nice color drawings. Thank you to Raffaella for getting the copies for us. I don't know if everybody has seen all of these pictures.

Do we need a motion on this?

No, we don't. Just for discussion, Monty. We did discuss at the last meeting... the possibility of speaking to the city manager to Getting a board members or several board members from this board on to the approval committee or the Committee that will be reviewing the RFPs Raffaella is there any update on reaching the city manager?

No, not yet. I'll attempt to reach out again. I sent an email inquiring and I haven't heard a response and

Thank you, and thanks for following up. It'd be nice to have one or more board members on that review committee. And this information here, the handouts, give us more information on what the bidders are looking at. Anybody, any board members have any comments at the moment? We just got it this evening.

One thing, Mr. Chair. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

We're under, we, the city, everyone's under the cone of silence. How would it be suggested, if at all, that we who might have questions about Addendum 2 and Addendum 3, should we, can we, and I really ought to ask the attorney, can we articulate those questions, if so, to whom and how would that work?

So any questions would have to be answered pursuant to the solicitation process. They'd have to be submitted before the question's deadline and then answered pursuant to addendum. They wouldn't be able to be answered separately through the city because of the cone of silence.

So to whom would they be addressed?

They would be addressed to the individual identified in the solicitation. I believe, I mean, I'd have to check to see exactly.

Annie Perez, the Chief Procurement Officer.

She may not be the main contact in the solicitation. This is just an addendum. So Chris has just indicated that he'll find out who the correct contact is.

I don't know that I or anybody else does have questions, but it would be great if, now that we've been furnished this, if you could tell us to whom and how we ought to pose questions.

Yes, so I think Rafael can send an email out.

Right, we have the cone of silence notification that identifies the procurement officer, Mr. Eduardo Falcone. He would be the gentleman that would be responsible for answering any questions. I'll make sure, through Raffaella, we'll send that to the board until they have the notice, but efalcone at miamigov.com.

Efalcone?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, great. Thank you.

I apologize for everybody just receiving it this evening, maybe over the next few days, If anybody's curious, they can spend some time reviewing the various questions that have come up. And there are some answers that have been provided by staff, and it's a matter of public record, I presume. All of this is on the city website, isn't that right, city attorney?

Yes, so I have to confirm which is the website that the city's currently using for the solicitation. I believe it's Bidsync. But yes, it should all be publicly available.

Thank you very much. Anybody else have any questions? The next item, I was hoping to get an update from the Miami Rowing Club. I believe Raffaella reached out to them and nobody's here to speak for them tonight, is that right?

Correct.

They're obviously an important part of Marine Stadium Basin. They've been incredibly important for many, many decades. So maybe at another meeting, we'll get a representative just to fill us in on how the boats and the use of the basin have been affecting their activities. Anybody have any questions on that? Or anybody have any information from Miami Rowing Club? OK. Update on traffic and gridlock on the Rickenbacker Causeway. We've been hearing from people that live in Key Biscayne that weekends have been very, very tough with traffic and gridlock on the Rickenbacker Causeway, partly due to the popularity of the public beaches that are alongside the Rickenbacker Causeway. I believe there was some construction that had gone on for several years and it's recently been completed and it's made the park and the beaches even more attractive. Anybody from Key Biscayne would like to give us an update on traffic and gridlock on the Rickenbacker Causeway? Would you like to come up and speak for a minute? We'd love to hear from you.

Hi, my name is Luis Casamayud. I've been a Key Biscayne resident, twice a Key Biscayne resident, 30 years ago and then back about five years ago. And I've noticed a big difference over those years. Like you said, the beach goers are the biggest problem in the traffic on the weekend basis. As soon as the sun goes down, heading out of the quay is sometimes a two-hour wait. Regardless of an event, once you've got an event, it's game over. What worries me about that, I mean, I... I was engaged to somebody who had a very sick young girl. And if she had an emergency, I wouldn't even know how she would be able to get out of the key during that emergency. We would be stuck around anybody else for that matter in the key. So that's always been a big concern. Events, there has to be a better way to coordinate the event traffic in and out and the coordination of that. Understanding when it's a beautiful day in South Florida, knowing that depending on the time of the year, it's 7 o'clock, 6 o'clock, it's gridlocked. And again, you add the event, and without coordination, it's a disaster. So if there's a way to really control that, it would be great. Coming in is not as bad as coming out. So I think coming out is the biggest problem. Like you said, if any kind of emergency, we're in big trouble.

Has the problem gotten much worse, and are the county beaches gotten much more popular?

It seems that way. I mean, I don't really go to the beach. I mean, I go to our private beach, you know, on the beach club, so I really don't see the public areas, but it seems like it's gotten a lot more popular because it wasn't like that even just a few years ago. especially 30 years ago. So I don't know what has attracted so many people to come in. I know sometimes they close the Bill Baggs Park once it gets full, but that doesn't really solve the problem because there's beaches all the way down, like you mentioned, on the causeway in Crandon Park. So they're coming and they're filling it up. So I don't know what's happening. I don't know if the weather's better. I don't know if there's more people coming. The city's obviously grown tremendously in the past few years. So I think that all of that has caused... I just don't know what the solution is, but it's a big problem for all of us living there.

I have a good friend that I grew up with who lives in Key Biscayne in the winter, and he says the traffic is so bad that on Saturdays and Sundays, he doesn't leave Key Biscayne.

the problem is if you do you know sometimes you have an event or a wedding or a commitment with family you know and you can't leave you have to coordinate you can't leave and then even those that come in that you know they're stuck two hours to come out it's you can't even have guests come visit you because they're they don't even want to come right um in a way it's kind of good because you don't want more people to come to the key kind of keep it you know but but when you want to come out it just becomes a real problem even having guests or friends or anything it's

Louis, I really appreciate your comments. Nicholas, do you have any comments?

No, I just, building on what you said, people that live in Key Biscayne have kind of conditioned themselves that, you know, there's certain times that you just hunker down and you don't leave. And that's definitely, you know, in the evenings to leave on a Saturday or Sunday. It can be brutal. And it's definitely, I have empathy that, like I said, we live there, so we just go back home when we see the traffic or whatever. But the people that are stuck there for hours, it's really a brutal situation.

I'm gonna address Director Chris Evans, Director of the Parks Department. Director Evans, you're well aware of these traffic issues and how they're affecting the ability for residents and users of the parks to get in and out. Any thoughts?

Not in particular. The operation that we run out on the Quay is more for Virginia Quay North Point Park. The majority of use is during the daytime hours for the mountain bike trail, the beach, access to the water. We have not, you know, among the general complaints, we don't typically host events there that back up the key. We do allow our parking area to be used if they want to contract that out for certain events. I know the Love Burn event is one in particular that uses a lot of of the parking footprint, but we typically don't have a lot of special events in our area. I hear the complaints are probably at the same rate that all of you all do when there's other events in the Flex Park or Historic and everybody trying to funnel out. And also with the FDOT project, they're coming into the city of Miami as well. I know that impacted traffic, but nothing I'm privy to that I'm probably sure the board isn't as well.

The Key Biscayne officials and county officials They're in communication. Everybody's aware of the issues, right?

Absolutely. Our city officials as well. I know there was community meetings and things with the representatives that have discussed those things.

Any other comments? Anybody on that topic? Anybody from the audience would like to speak? I'd like to get an update in the proposed mooring field. That's a very important item to certainly the Miami Rowing Club, anybody that uses the historic marine basin. Is there anybody here that can give us an update on the mooring field or should we put that off for another meeting?

No, we don't have anybody from OCI that's able to assist with that information. We can ask to put that in the upcoming agenda if you'd like.

Maybe Andrew could update us next time he comes to the meeting. And then Regarding proposed events for Virginia Key Park and historic Virginia Key Beach, it was very nice to hear from Aaron Jordan today, who hopes to do an event in November. Is there anybody here that can provide update on other events that might be upcoming that we might not be aware of?

In the agenda, so I reached out to athlete who oversees the historic Virginia Key Beach Park, and there's an attachment with the agenda packet that has them for the previous events and the upcoming events, I believe up until July.

Oh, thank you very much. You're welcome for providing that for us. Does anybody, any board members been getting any feedback or any comments on upcoming events? So the Virginia Key Beach Park is fairly busy, one or more events every month.

Anybody in the audience like to speak?

So Mr.

Chair, I have an agenda.

Yes, of course, we're coming to the end of our discussion items on our printed agenda, but I'd like to hear from Board Member Carey.

Right, I just wanted to share with the Board tonight something that's occurring that is a little concerning to me. Sure, I try to. As you know, I was elected by this Board to work with the City of Miami in the development of a park at the Virginia Key landfill site. And I've been working with them for about two to three years, and we've made some progress. But in the last year, I've noticed a real resistance at the staff level to share information, to be transparent. And I was on a telephone call with city staff, the consultants that are assisting the city with the development of a plan for the Virginia Key landfill site. And there was also a representative from the village of Key Biscayne. The information was transmitted to the village, but it has not been transmitted to us. When I asked for this board to enable this board to review this information, I was pushed off. I still have not received the conceptual drawings that exist today that the consultant has provided to the city for this park And we are getting into a situation that we all know very well where the city does an end run, where they don't share, and then they share at the 11th hour when it's too late. I mean, we can go right through the discussion list. The mooring field is this way. I mean, so many items that have come before us. And it's very frustrating for me because, as you know, this is something I can help with, but yet I've been pushed off because of the politics, I believe. I'm not sure where it's coming from, whether it's coming from the city manager, department heads, or whatever, telling the project manager who's overseeing the development of a park at the landfill site. I'm not sure where it's coming from, but it's the same old story. And it's frustrating to me to sit here, to come here, to spend, to volunteer our time and to be told that, well, you're just an advisory board. You don't need to know that. And it's very frustrating, and it almost pushes me to the point to resign. And I'm sure everyone here has had that feeling through time. But I'm reaching out to you tonight because I don't know where to go with this. I mean, if we put a resolution together, it's going to be pushed to the side by the city administration. So the question is... Why was a village of Key Biscayne representative provided with this information and not other municipalities within Miami-Dade County? And why wasn't this board presented with this information so that we could at this point input into the process at an early stage, rather than at a later stage where the train left the station.

Anyway, I'm sorry to bring this to you, but I'm just frustrated. Let's ask the city attorney. Ms. City Attorney, Gary's referring to some documents and proposals that he would like to see, as he's described. How can we get a copy of those for this board, and particularly for Gary, who's been advising on this

topic for the last few years so they can be requested through what was it which I was even stated in the meeting that they were going to send me copies when no copies were sent after two to three weeks I sent an email saying hey guys remember what you said I did not get an email back from the city of Miami. This is the lack of respect that this board is getting. And that's the frustration I'm demonstrating tonight. So, you know, I'm sure it's not going to change. I'm sure it's going to go on. It's been like this for 15 years. Why should it change today? But it's very frustrating for people like us to be here volunteering our time and trying to help the city when there's ulterior motives going on in other agendas within the city administration.

Gary, let's try again with a request in writing to Raffaella and let's see if she can unlock this for us. Is that okay, Raffaella?

It's going to be just like everything else, Peter.

Can Gary send you an email with the report he's looking for? Would you be able to follow up

Yes, but would that be a report with the mooring, the landfill that Lorraine would be able to assist?

No, no, no. This is specifically for this board to get conceptual plans that have been developed by a city contractor for the development of a Virginia Key Park at the Virginia Key landfill site. They exist. and other municipalities even have seen them.

Gary, you recall the name of the consultants working on it?

I could find out. I mean, everyone knows who the project manager is for the Virginia City landfill site.

I don't.

It's the lady that comes here on a regular basis, Lorraine.

Okay, I'll inquire with Lorraine to see.

Well, I even asked to put it on the agenda tonight, but guess what?

Yeah, she's not in the meeting, so that's why we didn't add it because she had already advised that she would be absent from today's meeting. That's right. So I can request to put it on the upcoming meeting. I can speak to her so we can try to get the information prior to the next meeting for April.

So you can ask that it gets sent out to the board members before the next. Okay, and let's see if it happens, guys.

Don't be surprised if it doesn't. Mr. Chair?

Yes.

You know, there is a statute called the Public Records Act. And at least at one time or another, the law department had a person who was specifically designated, and maybe there still is, to respond to Public Records Act requests. And it has some teeth, and it's a little awkward because it is this advisory board asking our fellow persons, and we don't get a salary, you all do, to give us information which would likely come our way, but I think we ought to do a Public Records Act request for the documentation to which you are referring, Gary. And I'll be pleased to help. Write it up.

You know, the city does have a website for public records based on Chapter 117, and It's not always easy to get through it, but once you've done it a few times, it gets easier. And I guess we should make specific detailed requests. They like their requests to be very detailed, and then they are able to respond.

Well, you understand the point was that we were supposed to be working as a team with the city. As team players, you don't need to go through formalities to get copies of updated reports. This is all a game.

You make a good point. Any other comments from board members?

Chair, if I could put Nick on the hot seat. Are you familiar with any, what Key Biscayne is planning to do with this space?

As far as the actual landfill part or the back area that they were talking about?

Yeah, we're specifically talking about the Virginia Key landfill site. It's a 115-acre site just to the south of the water treatment plant. Right.

It's the property that's ready to be developed now, or?

Oh, yeah. No, no. The landfill is being closed. It's going to be developed into a park. And for the last two years, three years, I've been working with the city trying to develop a plan that's consistent with the master plan.

Right. I'm not familiar. For that particular piece of property, I'm not familiar.

Right. This is a little bit before your time as far as when this... whole thing started but anyway it is in the process and we can get another update from Lorraine but the point is is that we should be brought in at an early stage so we can assist rather than being brought in that permit funding's in place we can't do anything the trains left the station sorry guys no it's a good it's a very important issue Gary any other comments questions

Anybody from the public who's been kind enough to show up this evening after our rainstorm in Miami would like to speak? Erin, you want to speak again? You're OK. I think your motion to.

Move we adjourn.

Adjourn. All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you all very, very much for coming. We'll see you in one month.

I would just like to also get on the agenda for next month the status of the boat ramp, which my understanding is that it's been completed, but it is not accessible to the public. It is not operational. I hope Lorraine can give us an update on that as well.

Thank you. What specific boat ramp, Stephen?

The boat ramp next to the Marine Stadium boat ramp, I think it's called, or Marine Stadium Marina.

Okay. I'll inquire with Lorena, and I'll see if we can add it to the agenda. Okay.