Sustainability and Resiliency Task Force - Regular Meeting

Alrighty, good evening everyone. Am I muted? Can you guys hear me?

Yeah. Yes. Good evening. Good evening.

Good evening. Happy holidays. Calling the meeting order at 630.

Roll call. Oliver?

Here.

Neil?

Brenda? I'm here. I see Neil's there. I'm here. Hi, Neil. There you go.

Awesome. Alrighty. So pretty short today. So let's move forward with approval of November's meeting minutes. Everything looks good. Always. Looks great.

Great. I make a motion to approve the meeting minutes.

second hey one favor ah hi hi all righty minutes approved uh moving on to old business uh item 3a update on reef tile installation project at vogel park um i got some pictures of another project of them in styling the reef arches and tiles i sent it over to um alba and the mayor I'll have them circulate them to you guys. Pretty cool. Other than that, we have Breezy Permits. They're working on submitting permit applications. I think we just need the sign off from the city. And for sponsorships, I'm at around a little over 50% funded. So we're trying to have everything work together linearly. And hopefully we get everything done at the same time so we can launch it as soon as possible. That's my update. Item 3B, update regarding stormwater park, seawall, and pump station for the parcel on West Treasure Drive. So I think we were asked to come up with ideas and proposals of what we can do with that. piece of land. Did anybody make a request for us to go over that? Would that be the mayors or Christina? Hi, Christina. Oh, good evening. I'm here.

Hi, guys.

Hi. Did anybody specifically add that item?

We had talked about it at last month's meeting, and I think it should probably stay on here as a standing item just so that we can have it top of mind as we continue sort of project development for this property. I don't have anything in particular to share. Yeah. All right.

I don't have anything yet on my end. Do any of the other members have anything?

No, I don't.

Okay. I don't.

No, I drove by and looked at it, but I saw the olive trees. Didn't seem like they had a lot of leaf debris, but I wasn't there during a time, I guess, when sometimes the leaves tend to accumulate, so... But yeah, I see that there's an opportunity there for something to happen. Good.

Do we have title to the property yet, Frank? Is Frank here? Sorry, I'm walking Paloma, guys.

I don't see him on the list.

I don't see him either. Okay. Who from staff is on the call and can you answer the question about whether or not we have title to that property yet? Okay. Well, that's a question that's important. The follow-up to that is, have we had an arborist go out and look at the trees yet? Because that's also something that needs to happen.

Hi. Sorry. This is Christina. I'm having a little trouble with my phone. That's definitely something I can look into. From what I recall, I don't believe we have this the title yet.

Okay. And then I'm guessing once we get the title, we'll start getting proposals or... Yeah.

And if I can propose, we can maybe start looking at other stormwater parks just to get some examples. Perhaps that's something we could do for the next meeting if you need to do that.

that would be amazing okay great thank you so much and forgive me my camera's off I'm a little bit under the weather sorry to hear that hope you feel better quickly thank you any other um yeah so I actually so Christina on the arborist question um We could probably get somebody out there now. There's nobody there. There's nobody living there. They have been doing all of this construction for the 60-year certification on my building. And every day, the construction team is using the driveway and the property to park the So I'm sure access to the property, we could get consent from the Anson's, no problem, or from Andy, no problem. So we don't really need to wait. If you could follow up with Steve about the tree analysis, that would be great. We could get that done like early in January.

All right, definitely. I'll follow up with Steven. Great.

Any other comments or anybody would like to speak further on this item? No, OK. Item 3C update on January activities. Community Bay cleanup and paddle event. I don't know if you're in the group chat, Rachel, but Dave offered. who would be leading this and he would be interested in co-leading it and, of course, posting it on volunteercleanup.org? Yep.

Yeah, if we do it, we'll definitely post it on volunteercleanup.org. I do not have an update. I need to focus my efforts on this if we're going to do it. If we don't do it in January, we'll do it in February. This is on me to really get my act together and start talking to people about doing this.

Okay. I think MJ from Clean This Beach Up does a really great job at rounding everyone up. Are you looking for an organization to host it? Yeah. Okay. If you want, I can reach out to a few people. I know she does some big numbers with cleaning up garbage and leading it. So I can get a hold of her. She did one before.

Yeah. I mean, if, if you want to, if you want to talk to MJ, that would be fantastic. We can also do more than one, you know, if you have the capacity to talk to MJ, MJ about a date, like in January or February, I, I'm going to follow up with surf rider and I can talk to them about March or April. Like I, I want us to be doing these. And I don't you know, I don't have the bandwidth to sort of run them myself. And I can't task staff with it unless it's like, you know, a full commission effort. So this is like a scrappy kind of side hustle that we want to put together. So if you have the bandwidth to talk to MJ, that would be amazing. And you can just call me directly about it, too.

All right. Sounds good. I'll reach out to her. OK, sweet. And new business. Approval of the 2026 meeting schedule. I'm good. Everyone else good? Did you get to review it?

I'm fine.

I looked. I may have trouble next on January because of traveling, but I just may be at the airport or something listening in, so I'll do my best.

Okay. Do we need a motion to approve or can we all just say thumbs up?

Thumbs up.

All right, we're all good on that. Moving on, staff commission liaison updates.

Hello, everyone. Let's see. Updates. Well, let's see. Some of you sent me the news clip about Miami Shores and their living seawall with kind designs. Very, very happy for Miami Shores. It was like a multi, multi-year effort for them to get this seawall designed this way. And there were several of us who were like providing moral support to their elected officials behind the scenes to get that done. We obviously have an opportunity now at the West Treasure Drive site to do a really cool seawall. And then there's still the conversation of Civic Park. One thing that I really want to do in the first quarter of this year is have a conversation with Roger and Frank about what is to become With the Civic Park plan and the timing on the Harbor Island pump station, there has been a suggestion that maybe we don't need to do the installation of the Harbor Island pump station at this time immediately. So there's just some timing details that I want to nail down about Civic Park and the pump station. And I just want to be able to communicate that. to the public about what's going on with that project. The North Bay Island Pump Station, I believe, is out to bid. And then the Treasure Island Pump Station is at 90% design. So that's positive. I know Christina is working with Roger on the roadway component of stormwater and we'll get more updates at Commission meetings early in 2026 in terms of that. At the community center project, because this is the sustainability and resilience task force, I will share with you all that one of North Bay Village's responsibilities under the community center slash AFA slash Ties Park project projects. One of North Bay Village's obligations was to make sure that the Galleon Street site that we delivered a clean site. So we've been doing all this environmental cleanup and the state of the soil underneath the Galleon Street site was so bad that we are installing multiple protection wells community centers. highlight that because about being stewards of the bay and being in the heart of the bay we should be really honest about the fact that that property was sitting there for decades and decades and decades leaching all kinds of pollutants into the groundwater And so the fact that we have now cleaned up this site and we've spent a ton of money doing it and that going forward, our stormwater management system is going to avoid contact with groundwater at all is a really big testament. You know, obviously we had to follow environmental regulations, but making the investment to do it is something we should all, you know, really be proud of in terms of what we've prioritized here. Yeah. So those are two sort of bigger project updates. trying to think of what else I have to share. The kayak launch at the December commission meeting, the commission authorized a new scope of work in contract to build the kayak launch. And so in the next couple of months, we will have a functioning kayak launch. And then we're gonna also have some modifications to Vogel Park. that are like accommodating and make access to the to the kayak lounge much more open um accessible so that's moving um what else can i update do you guys have questions about any specific projects that i can answer questions about since you compare just walking the dog um

No, we've got a solid waste workshop coming up on January 22nd, 6 p.m., I saw.

Yes. Yes. Thank you, Oliver. That's really helpful. The solid waste workshop is the 22nd at 6 o'clock. I've asked staff to circulate that far and wide. I think we're going to be putting notices in people's water bills about that meeting. But we've given staff the direction to really, really, really, really push this. And I want people talking to their neighbors about it. We want as many people there as possible. I'm committed to hosting as many of these workshops as is necessary. to literally generate like a buzz around the community about what we're going to do here. I really want to make sure that there's an open and transparent process around what we decide to do.

Just a quick note, since you just mentioned water bills. If you want to get the word out, most of the common buildings, the condos, Most of water is included in the monthly maintenance fee, so we don't get any kind of- Water bills, right?

Yeah, so you may want to just forward that through the managers of each building and then they could- Well, but Neil, remember the switch, if we were to switch, if we were to outsource solid waste and you were a condo owner, like you wouldn't really experience that much of a difference, right? It's really the single family homeowners and how their trash is picked up where it's like the sensitive, the subject is most sensitive.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, but no, I mean, it's a really good point. I just know that the people who feel the strongest about the issue are single family homeowners. Since we're talking about solid waste, the other update, North Bay Village acquired a warehouse in Little River last week. The property will house our public works department, all of the garbage trucks, all of our utility vehicles, our cars. our generators, our mobile pump stations for when there is a storm. All of the equipment that used to be on Galleon Street That has been sitting in the parking lot at Grove by the Bay, as well as administrative offices for public works. That's all going to move over to this new property that we acquired in Little River. So I wanted to share that with you guys as well.

Wow. So is that going to change the analysis or economics of keeping the North Bay Village solid waste service versus going out privatizing? Or is that part of what will be discussed?

Well, the property that we acquired is in a heavy industrially zoned area in the city of Miami. And so I think that there would be a path forward to keeping trucks there if we decided to keep the North Bay Village proprietary solid waste removal services. I think that's something that we need to confirm, and we will confirm it in public meetings. the cost of the warehouse is not necessarily going to be factored into the cost benefit analysis of the solid waste decision because the warehouse we would have purchased anyway we needed it we got rid of the galleon street site there was a ton of stuff happening there we needed a new property to to house all of our behind the scenes like back of the house You know, the things that cities need to have to deliver services to residents when they need the most. Right. So plus landscaping. But yeah, the cost of the warehouse probably wouldn't be factored in to that. I'm trying to think about what other figures there might be. Yeah, I'm not sure. But I talked to Steve Buckland about how he's doing the cost benefit analysis. And I asked him how far out he was looking. And he said about five years. So I don't know if anybody has any feedback on that. Oliver, do you have any other thoughts on how how one might affect the other?

No, I guess it would just be initially a math analysis of the cost of whatever the outsourced, you know, however the waste management is going to charge for the pickup. And you just compare that to probably an amortized or like a rental kind of cost for the pickup. the trucks to stay at the warehouse. I'm not an expert in doing that, but I'm sure Steve's completely competent in figuring that stuff out. And it's very exciting to hear that because I know that was a big need for North Bay Village. So all the people behind the scenes working on that, I'm really glad to hear that was acquired.

That's really awesome feedback. I really appreciate that. I'll pass it along to Frank and Steve. It was the, when Steve came on board, he took on a gazillion different things, but immediately he took on the search for this property. And it really is like, it really is an ideal, ideal property. And now we own it. Right. So it's not, it's not a leased situation. It's ours. Yeah. And the city of Miami has agreed to be helpful in terms of, you know, getting us up and running there in case there's, you know, anything that we need to do to the actual building. Yeah, I personally have not... I mean, I'm digging into the solid waste issue because I'm the mayor and it's my job to dig in. But there's like I have a ceiling for how in the weeds I want to get before we have a public conversation, just because I don't want anything to feel scripted. I want to come into these public meetings with genuine questions. And I'm listening to everybody and their concerns, as well as, you know, watching the budget and signing the checks and knowing how much money we spend.

labor and that kind of thing.

Not in the meeting?

In the meeting. But your advice. I want to say one thing. Dog park for the first. So. Like really superstar. and they're healthy, and they install it, and it just, you know. Next. I'm going to call for a moment, I guess. Sure. Updates not necessary.

It looks like there's life back at the Shoma project across the street. They're setting up all their heavy equipment. There's people on site. So it looks like they're finally putting the money back into getting construction going again. So that's a good thing for the village.

That's a really good update. Thank you.

The second one is going to probably make some people unhappy. It doesn't really affect me. I saw the article the other day that one of the famous steakhouses in Miami, Five Star Michelin, is going to start a one-year pop-up at the Palm Tree Club. So that's going to bring in a lot of high-end people for dinner. So I don't know how that affects people, but I did read that yesterday. Okay. And the last thing as far as the sanitation, moving over to Hialeah or Miami, that's a great thing. For me, it's a sad thing. I end up losing my regular speedway game, seeing Tim and everybody in the morning.

No, absolutely not. Under no circumstances would you lose your speedway game and seeing Tim and everybody in the morning. They're not going anywhere.

Oh, okay. So that's just a personal.

Yeah. Neil, anytime you hear some work staff that we love.

No, I didn't mean that. The gang, so. I think it could. Adjournment. Your phone. Alicia's not. It's a big mouth, so.

Thank you.

Bye, ladies. Bye.