Environmental Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Say let's do it.

Okay. Call to order. 06/02/2025, Environmental Advisory Board. Roll call.

Let's start over here. Paul Jackman. David Fratellone.

Fella North. Casey McGowan. Stephane Caleb, staff liaison.

Shannon Greg, your testimony specialist.

All right. Let's do the pledge. Justice for all.

God

Is there any public comment?

There's no public comment.

Have we ever had public comment on the two years I've been here? Alright. Approval of minutes, item A25-two 241 approved the 04/07/2025 EAB meeting minutes. Need a motion? I have a motion to approve the minutes April 7.

Second.

Both? Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Good. Aye. Aye.

Motion passes.

Motion passes. Yep. Good. Okay. New business, twenty five-nineteen ninety eight, presentation and discussion regarding potential future development projects in Northport. Stephane.

All right. Thank you, chair. If you give me just a minute to set up my computer so I can That's Okay. So this is finally working. I wanted to welcome

Thank you.

Jessica, board member who just joined us. So if you give me just another minute to load my quick report pertaining to future development in Northport that was approved approved recently. So as we had a meeting skipped, I will go over the project approvals for the month of April and then month of May as well. And if you have any questions at any time, please let me know. I wanted to start with the fact that this is a presentation item only for informational purposes to the Board.

Just so you are all aware of upcoming projects and development throughout the city. So no decisions would usually be taken with this item. So the first one is a voluntary annexation. This is a fairly extensive area south to the south of Welland Park that currently belongs to that currently is part of Sarasota County. And the annexation went through a review of our staff and these comments have been made by our natural resources team pertaining to the annexation only.

So this does not relate to any development or any site alteration at this point. Our comments are more informational. So the party of interest will know in the company. For foundation We the foundation We are strongly a recommending and attempting to implement more best management practices and low impact development for these projects.

And

of nineteen. Team in April. I wanted to specify that if you seek an approval, note that this is only approved by our Natural Resources team. So there may be other divisions or entities that may not have approved this project. However, just for simplicity's sake, I'm not providing the natural resources comments.

What's the size of that stuff?

This is a very large area. It's thousands of acres.

Oh, okay.

Yes. And it's I can show you real Why

do they want annex or want us to annex them?

I am not aware. From my understanding, I I am not 100%, but from my understanding, they would like this area to be a continuation of Welland Park. If you give me a second, I can show you exactly where this is, just so you're aware. Okay. You see it right now.

So so this is 41 here. Here's Welland Park.

That's Meacke Pines.

This area here is the one Yeah. Out of question. So okay. Just a moment. Alright.

So back to the projects. The next one, much smaller. This is

S. Was hoping for.

Say that again?

That's the opposite way of what the new ULDC was hoping for, from corridor to residential.

With this particular one, yeah. I am certain that there will be some that will go the other way.

Oh, yeah. For sure. 100%.

That just struck me wrong. Just 21 Innovation Avenue. I'll show you the site plan. This is near Toledo Blade, and here's the area. And our components are as false.

You perhaps, you can see that they're extensive from Gopher Tortoise concerns to 100% Gopher Tortoise survey, proper relocation. All tourist surveys need to be conducted within ninety days of issuing of a land clearing permit. So it's something that we want to ensure where in case where the environmental assessments may be a bit older, it's highly likely that tortoises could come back to the site and then get impacted. So the other comment relates to landscape requirements and the next one is talking about understory vegetation, how everything needs to be inspected for proper barricades, especially for the trees. Oak Bend amenity center.

So this is an area that has been already cleared under a different masquerading infrastructure plan within Welland Park. And our team, a thorough review of this project, don't have any environmental concerns at this point. Michael the the call. We we seeing in

in

lot survey within ninety days and mainly the comments were pertaining towards that. Boca Chica Park. That's an exciting project where the city is creating a low impact park that will allow for this important timing nature for the community there. And as you can see, there's going to be minimal impact, gopher tortoise avoidance, and I believe will turn out to be a wonderful place to go for a sprawl and just It'll be a nice party.

Chamberlain.

Yes. A

Yeah. Best I can give you.

Fine. So my monitors the monitors are kind of backwards. So

But it's all it's all natural,

Yeah. Side of Tamiami is it on?

It's on this side.

This side.

And on this side of price.

Okay. That's good.

So it's like

That's good. Yeah.

Right right. If it's South Cranberry South, that's $41.02 Price. North is Price $2.75.

Right. Okay. Yeah. That's good.

So that's on the North that's on the North.

That's good.

Yeah. It's an exciting exciting project, definitely.

Yeah. It is. We've been talking about it for for months. It's yeah. So here is price.

Here's the send over work, by the way. There's Boca Chica right here. Okay. Yeah. Because that's this is the first big park park that we've done South Of Sumter since they opened the one out here in Atwater. Okay. Now there is more extension on park, but that's something totally different. It's more it's a more natural park. Okay. Not playgrounds and swing sets and stuff like that.

So that gives you an idea. Chamberlain, not too far from Toledo. Okay. Yeah. So

That's good.

Do you have any questions or would you like to discuss any of these projects?

Well, are they able to buy their way out of that co paternus thing with the doctors? Is that still enforced that they could just say, here's a fine. Here's your fine.

Well, there are many reasons why they shouldn't do it from risking a potential felony charges with the state to steep

felony issues. Clear cut, they can just pay a fine for, say, tree removal.

For the tree removal, they're also heavily incentivized by us not to do it because they they will pay a whole lot more.

Yeah. Because I just went down River Road towards 75 today, and, of course, that's Yeah. I've been there several times. I watched them clear cutting and then burning all the trees, which for some reason, really, really is just insane.

It's a waste

of getting out there.

Right. You know? I mean, you can see why they're doing it. But Yeah.

Well, you can't you can't do anything with cabbage palms. Pine trees are not really good for mulching, so the best thing to do with them is to burn it.

And they can use

some of

that now. Yeah. They can. There is some that they could use. I'm not I'm not gonna argue with that.

I mean, you know, it's just then they come back in and replant new cabbage clams, and they fall down during a storm. But, you know, it's just really sad. Because, you know, they're killing animals when they're doing that too. Wildlife, they can't help it.

There's yeah. There there are certain things that they're not supposed to do, and we take it very seriously. So any unauthorized clearing, there's steep penalties, and we will go after the owner seeking appropriate reimbursement for that. And then, yeah, potentially impacting Laurel can result to severe penalties with the state.

So I have sort of a

Nevertheless, people still do it at times, but it's

not a good branched off question. They clear cut, you see all that dark eventually it gets to a lighter sandy earth. Is the dark earth like the carbon sink from the trees that they collect? You can definitely see it.

Usually, that's organic matter. That's the top layer of the soil. But that's the richest layer. Right? That is the richest layer. But, also, when the the soil is moist and wet, it's darker in color. But as it gets bright out Right. It turns lighter.

We're other

seeing we're

locations, it's a market. A There's market price value. And right now from my understanding, it's approximately $7,000 per torus re location.

So the market is set by the providers? It's set by

supply and demand and the availability of mitigation, recipient sites and demand on the other side. And both people will pay.

100%. Is there a do we know if there's a legal cap to what we can charge?

I am not aware of any. No.

And I hear rumors I don't know if it's true that they often aren't successful in the relocation. That it's a reptile that wants to be in its spot. Yeah. So I don't know if that's true or not. I mean, I'm asking if somebody wouldn't really know. I

think that's that's a fascinating topic. And just in the interest of time, I would like to perhaps go to the next presentation. However, when we go to the future agenda items, the board may wish to further discuss as there's a lot to it. Interest of time, I I won't take too much, and I believe this one is only this one is maybe only one or two items. But we have Sunexis Apartments in Northport.

It's a 2.8 acre for a residential 42 unit apartment five story building after a long set of disapprovals. And after some disapprovals and resubmittals, finally, this project was approved with conditions. And the main one, Gopher Taurus survey within ninety days. If any protected species are present on sites, construction shall cease. No land clearing or site disturbance activity shall commence until all required arborist inspections and pre protection barricade installations have been in place.

And this is what the project will look like. I believe this is the only one that we've approved in May.

Might be where that one was.

Let me actually look it up real quick because

Is that the one that's in there? Price And Toledo. Yeah. Just off right there between the Yeah. Sandwiched in between the other two fire station behind Publix Yeah. On the corner there. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. I was talking with that I was talking with fire chief the other day in our meeting, and they're they're hoping to actually put a once the four laning begins and then it goes through, they were gonna hoping to get a actual light there. Okay. Be because of the fact you had the fire station, you got the buses. Oh, yeah. And now it meets three three apartment buildings or three apartment complexes. Oh, no. It's not.

No. This is the one over by Heron Creek.

Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. By Sumter.

Yep. So Thank you.

Yes. Thank you. You're

Does the board have any questions?

I was going to for the park. Is there going to be any, like, educational postings, like, informational postings?

Get that inform I'll get that information for you for the next meeting if you'd like.

That would be great.

Because I'll I'll I'll get with Trish.

Okay.

I don't I can't remember exactly what we do have on that.

Well, that's

when you let you do that. Okay. Like, native, like

That's a

good idea.

Yeah. Yeah.

Because it it is a more natural

That's an all ages kind

of Right.

More of a natural park.

Wonderful. Okay.

Yes. And thank you, Paul. My pleasure. She and perhaps advisory board, the Parks and Rec advisory board, have been working on that. So I'm confident that they have some exciting signage plans for this one. We also, with natural resources, we also provided some ideas. That's all I have for this item.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you,

Chip. Item two five dash two three two seven, discussion and possible action on selecting a date for the joint meeting with the Parks and Rec Advisory Board. So do I go?

Thank you, Chair. So for this item, as we all are well aware what happened last month, we were not able to achieve quorum for the joint meeting, so that was canceled. And according to our process, a new date can be identified during one of our regular meeting dates. And this is if the Board would like to attempt again to initiate such joint meeting. So this will be a great opportunity to come up with such date.

So the earliest that technically we could probably meet would be August.

But I'd like to do regardless of the date, and if that's the date, that's the date, is do it in such a way that we don't lose a month. Right? So we lost a month. We lost

our board, or that board, or both? That's what I was curious about. When

you do a joint meeting, you're the board that's hosting the meeting. You're the only board that's required to have a quorum. And this is not the first time this has happened with this board. I know y'all are not you're new members, but this is not the first time that this has happened with this board where we've worked to schedule a joint meeting with another board, and this board was not able to make a quorum. So this will be our last effort to get y'all to have a you you want to make sure that you're going to have a quorum for this day. Because the other board canceled their meetings so that they could have this joint meeting. Which they

saved my butt.

Said they didn't get to have their meeting. And obviously, y'all lost out on your meeting. But this is your meeting because these are topics that you want to discuss with this board. So that's why we put it on your normal meeting day. And because it's evening, you're taking staff to do this as well, which you have staff scheduled for the meeting. Work that goes into it. We want to make sure that it is a date that you all are solid on that you're going to have a quorum.

We are aligned on that. So if I'm hearing you right, if we're the host, then it's only a quorum needed from our board. If it was just Paul representing the Parks board and we had a quorum here,

that counts. Parks and Rec only has to have one member. How many of our members show up for Parks and Rec? It's not their meeting to have the forum. It is your board that initiated the meeting. So it's your board that requires

the forum.

Okay. That's helpful.

We want to say more than just Paul, though.

Yeah. And in the same aspect, if you were to have a joint meeting and say that you're going to make a you want to make a motion on something that you're discussing, your board is the only board that will first, second, and vote on that motion. That other board does not vote on your motions. It's kind of like when commission has a joint meeting with advisory board there. It's their meeting. They have a quorum. They're voting.

Okay. That's interesting. And helpful to know.

So just to clarify the other group, if they would like to vote on an item, they need to have it as part of their regular meeting, like, they need to initiate that joint meeting

on their end. They can

take feedback that they've received from having a joint meeting. And because they're really they can only vote on things that are applicable to their their tasks and duties as well as this court. So, I mean, they can only vote on those things. So if that's something they wanna take back to their next meeting, discuss, and they vote on it separately to do something for themselves, you know, then that that's something that they have to do as a board.

So if it's something that's applicable applicable for both groups?

It will be applicable, but it's going to be applicable in different dynamics because you don't have any of the same roles and responsibilities exact as that board. So you might have something that's pertinent to trees, and they might have something that's pertinent to trees, but their portion

of it might be different.

Yeah, it's adjacent.

Yeah, right. Yeah. Well, that's why I'm on both boards.

Oh, that's a good point.

So we could have been doing this for a long time.

Yeah. Mean, that's the reason when the commission approved people to be on two boards, that's why I joined you guys with this I joined up with us.

But we're all fairness too.

If you have a joint meeting,

you don't want Paul to be the only person who's here for parks

because they might as well just have

a meeting with your board.

But what we can do is have him poll his board.

That could be a discussion at next at their board meeting. He can't discuss with his

board members. Sunshine. Right? Understood.

Okay. I thought that you couldn't attend parks anymore. That sometimes it was I

haven't missed the required It's a very difficult slope that I am working on due to the fact I missed April because I'm on the the Citizens Public Safety Academy, which is meeting every Thursday. We canceled our meeting for May to do this, so there's no quorum. That doesn't count. This month, I am missing my safety academy class to make sure I'm at the board meeting. So I don't miss the you know?

Okay. I gotcha.

Yeah. I'm trying not to I'm doing everything I can within the rules of the city. So

July's meeting is on the seventh. Jeff, it's Monday after July 4.

Is not enough time to get both boards together. Because they

need to discuss it in their meeting. Yep.

So our date would have to be the August meeting. Fourth, five. That way, there, we can we can send it to them, then we can send it back to you guys saying yay or nay.

Do we have a date in August?

August 4.

And also, another thing I know it was a discussion that was had was regarding the time. So your board meets at 05:30. Their board meets at 06:30. That's why we did 06:00 because some of their board members cannot

make it to five So

in August 4, 06:00 joint meeting proposal?

Absolutely. I mean, I don't know how we guarantee

quorums. We can't. I mean

yeah. All right. Make the motion.

Do we have a second?

I make

the motion.

Make Make a motion to have the joint Parks and Rec EAB meeting on August 4 at 06:00.

I second. I second it.

Any discussion? Any thoughts? David, Jessica, Bella? Let's vote. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes. Five-zero. And as a reminder, that'll be our we'll have our meeting regardless of whether parks and rec.

You will not because if you cannot get a quorum

We will if we have a quorum. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. You might if they if they can't make that day up from you. I'd like to add if if they don't show up that day, you just talk to me.

No. No. Well, I just wanted to make sure everybody understands that'll be our right regular meeting.

Yeah. But it wind up being a 06:00 meeting. Won't know until the last minute. Remind me again. Well, we'll know.

That's why I

was asking. Yes. You will know well in advance because we'll see if they're going to be able to approve

to have a joint

meeting that day. If they say no, they don't want to do it that day, then you're going to know we're just going have a regular

meeting. And

we have the items that we are going to use. We have exactly the same items.

That's right. That's good clarity. Thank you for that. Okay. Anything else on that topic? Or are we good? All right. 20329, discussion and possible action regarding the Environmental Protection Fund. Mr. Juan?

Alright. So I was able to include some attachments that may be beneficial for this discussion. And I also wanted to I will be following up to the members with some additional information that I was able to find literally this morning today. So perhaps I can start with that, and then the members can go through some of the items or some of the attachments and have a discussion. But I wanted to explain that the tree fund is now known as the Environmental Protection Fund.

And the definition of the uses for the Environmental Protection Fund are within the Unified Land Development Code. I can follow-up and provide these to you, if you would like. Now there are projects that are anticipated for the next fiscal year. And I will briefly go through some of these and some of our proposals. However, please note that a lot of these are to be discussed by commission in June and they may or may not be approved.

So we're not treat these as preliminary budget proposals. So I wanted to point out there's the first one will be a $5,000 usage funds towards the beautification of the welcome sign on Sumter Boulevard, additional $12,000 of matching city funds towards a $48,000 grant that we were just approved recently by Florida Forestry Service and FX, which is Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service to replant trees damaged by hurricane by the recent hurricanes along Sumter Boulevard and also to conduct tree pruning along the road there. So that's $48,000 of state money secured. Now is a rewilding project that we would like to initiate behind the Canine Club. So this is by the dog park there.

There's a large area that's being currently, it's in solid state. So the natural resources team would like to allocate 200 I about

micro the the forests?

What was that called?

The micro forest? Yeah.

I'll talk micro forests. Actually, with those, you need to think small. Those are most effective for smaller scale projects.

Thanks. What I was saying is there are enough room there to

do Yes. Absolutely. That's a quite large area actually. One of my favorite parts about it, there are numerous tortoises and the habitat can be enhanced and can provide great great quality of food source for for the tortoises there. Nice.

So a few more shade tree planting around playgrounds. As many of you are aware, especially after all the recent hurricane events, some of those shade trees near some of our playgrounds have been impacted. So we would like to prioritize $250,000 towards enhancing some of these areas by planting more trees. So this has been in collaboration with our Parks and Recreation team as well. Then another project pertain to the planting of more trees along the aquatic center.

However, one of the biggest concerns of the Parks Rec team pertains to foliage and leaves that may clog some of the filtration system for the pools. So we are going with palm species. So it's going to be numerous palms planted, I believe, the pool area there, which will add additional shade. So then an exciting another exciting budget proposal for fiscal year twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six pertains to invasive removal and property maintenance, where we have significant invasive coverage. We will have funds allocated to enhance these habitats.

Now this is for $250,000 We're also initiating a tree giveaway program where there'll be $10,000 per fiscal year, where trees will be given to qualifying residents. They will be taking a pledge to plant the tree and take good care of the tree. And then we're going to provide expertise and we will provide the tree for free of charge to them. So this will be a great, in my opinion, opportunity to enhance private property where we can partner with homeowners. So far, we have allocated funds for approximately close to 500 trees per year, but we'll see how the program goes.

And depending on that, we may adjust for the following fiscal year.

That's a nice opportunity to deliver a message too. I agree. We should think about right now and how right what can we help them train with beyond the tree and give them some awareness about something. Yeah. That'd cool.

I agree. And we already participated many events. Events. So we are there as a resource. All we need is a nicely designed handout for each specific tree species that we can give to them. We can we'll ask some questions about what's the area that they intend to utilize, do they have enough room, we'll talk about right tree, right place. So I think that it will be a good way to partner with the community.

Should we get some of their feedback

in the So wage

what I'm just kind of thinking out loud here. So these are people that are probably already kind of think like we do. We'd rather come and get a tree, plant it. We're typically for that sort of thing. Are there things that we'd like to know about the public's viewpoint about something to deal with the environment? It'd It'd be just as easy to hand them, hey, we appreciate you. Here's your thing with the tree. And if you kindly fill this out or you give them a card to go to a link and have them do it online instead

of doing paper. Yeah, that's a great point. We can so when we engage the public like this, we need to coordinate with our communications team because they look at few other different angles.

But

we always engage, we always talk about people's thoughts, concerns, and we take notes. For this specific program, we got the idea by talking to others and by also doing some research and seeing what other municipalities and cities in the area are doing. So we kind of cherry picked what And we thought would work best for our we will save significant amount of funds because irrigation and watering, that's the biggest expense associated with planting a tree. So that's another exciting budget item. Then we have matching funds allocated for fiscal year twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six towards our watershed master plan grant.

And what's exciting is that by us allocating $75,000 we will be able to match FEMA funding of approximately $300,000 So in order so by spending 20% of what this entire project will cost, hopefully, we'll have a high quality worship master plan report. And this will then in turn save our residents. If everything goes right, this in turn will save our residents off of their flood insurance rate. So that will come back exponentially and benefit the community in my opinion.

That would have helped the pitch this morning.

I did not want to go into many details.

Yes, right. That's what I'm just waiting on the

The mayor is sitting up there saying, wow, we'll have all this information, but are we ever going to do anything with the house? And they're going, dude. Yes.

That's exactly the key points. And I believe that yes, Ms. Ray today, our Director, she mentioned that, but it's one of the main reasons why we're doing this. It's to improve our community rating system, which then gives our residents better FEMA flood insurance rates.

How much from FEMA for this?

$300,000 if we get nominated because it's a highly competitive grant and actually maybe it may not be available next year.

Grant team is they're exceptional. The grant team is exceptional.

They were quite helpful, actually. We had questions and they were very helpful. But this is submitted by the Natural Resources Division and we're hoping for the best. We also decided to allocate a pool with additional matching funds of $50,000 for other grant opportunities that may come up. And if we don't get any grants or if these funds are not needed, they will just be moved to the next fiscal year in case we needed that.

It's just some funds to have ready because there's no worse feeling than being nominated and selected for a grant, but not having the matching funds, right? That can be a mess. And it happens more often than you would think. Finally, the a few more items for fiscal year so for fiscal year twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six, which is one of our main items that we're proposing in addition everything else mentioned, dollars 2,500,000.0 towards acquiring environmental sensitive land throughout Northport. So we are dedicating the funds to seek and prioritize some areas that may be of high ecological significance as far as potential wildlife corridor or else.

And we would like of progress the the in commission. So also, please note that Price Boulevard widening project, there's estimated projected cost of $1,600,000 towards planting trees along this along Price Boulevard once it gets widened. So that's a significant project. This will be beyond 2026 from my understanding.

Okay. I was just going to say, right, that seems aggressive to me that they'd actually have to good a question.

The one for that's Price Boulevard? Yes. So this is not from my understanding, this is not budgeted. And the way that I understood this because this is mainly a public works project. This is for beyond fiscal year 2026. So this perhaps will be discussed next year in the summer. I

wanted to just comment on the trees, the types of trees. Are these trees that Yeah. For you talked about in the beginning putting restoring the trees for on playgrounds for shading. I didn't print the handout because it was a lot, but I read it. But I don't want another huge storm to come again.

But we also, I know, had a lot of cleanup to do. Right? So I'm thinking, with different kinds of trees, could we make the maintenance less? Can we decrease the amount of maintenance we have to do with a big storm or with a big hurricane if that happens since it's raining here? Or, like, the leaves, like, they were talking about. Can we like, switching to palm trees or switching to you know? But they don't really have a lot

of shade. Yeah. That That's

a good question. It's a great question. For

the shade.

So for playgrounds let's say for playgrounds area for playground areas, the the key point is shade. So I know that I believe sycamores and oaks will be fantastic. However, with proper hurricane trimming, if you thin out the crown of the tree, you give it exponentially better hurricane resilience. So that might be something that we should consider. And then the issue with the aquatic center, yeah, foliage there is a big concern, so that's where we need to consider other options such as pollen.

Well, you did. Yeah.

Isn't the aquatic center, like, right on the canal, though? Say that again?

Isn't the aquatic center right, like, right near that canal, though?

Yeah. It is. It is, but right between one of the parking areas and the aquatic center, right now, there's some shrubs and I I believe couple of palms. And the idea is to plant much taller palm trees there to provide a little bit more shade.

I do agree with the different types of trees with the trimming as well because we've had, the past three years, big storms that just knock everything down, and it starts to seem like a norm. We want

to prevent that as much as we can from having to clean up for so long and spending so much money in doing that.

Know, I'm gonna speak from experience with my side yard. It's very beautiful oak hammock. I lost I lost a big oak right on my right on the property line of my side lot and the next lot, and it and we're talking a good 36 inch diameter on that one. I also lost some three quarters of my palm trees. Unfortunately, I was bad, and I took down two of the other ones that were surviving to clear out, but it allowed my oaks to flourish even more.

Now all my oaks there was two oaks that were basically stripped from Ian, and they are nothing like they were, but they are coming back. And they're coming back strong.

Yeah. I've noticed that. My my neighbor too. I agree.

They're they are quite resilient, but Yeah.

It's like, I currently am having my septic field replaced. And the guy was over on my side yard. He was like, you have the hammock that I have is beautiful.

So I'd like to go back to the tree thing. I think that's an interesting idea. Are there so a couple of questions. We have a lot of trees on city owned land, right? Are there particular species that hurricane grooming works better on than that?

Not these native stores.

So it really to an extent, yes. And the most susceptible ones are the large canopy trees because that huge spread of the crown can really act like a sale. And if doing it. Doing compromised. We're Where if you don't do that, the whole tree may either become uprooted or get structurally damaged to the point where in the long term, it may not be a safe tree.

So to Bella's point, at that point, it needs to be removed.

Do we evaluate the ones that we have out there now?

Our native trees are fairly well adapted to deal with hurricanes, but, ultimately, when you get to a high category wind event

They're very

most most trees will many trees will not make it with harvest.

Destroyed by Akahatchee. It was just heartbreaking to come back and

So we got it when we were lucky.

We were doesn't help that oaks have such shallow roots. It's easier to pull them up than because I lived at these apartments near Woodland, the middle school. All the oaks, every single one of them, they were torn down with the roots still attached.

Yeah. Yeah. Be And if, let's say, those oaks because I'm pretty sure that they were not hurricane pruned. If there was some of that work done on them, many of them could have survived.

And it would have just been less work because you they they would have just been trimmed prior to, like, a big mess.

But after that, the one thing

I did like about the

hurricane was the everybody in the apartment started helping each other out and just Yeah. One another. Yeah.

I have a question

about soil. I know the city has soil maps because I found my lot. Mhmm. Trying to figure out why I can't get a native tree to grow in my front yard, and, basically, it's silt. You know? And I'm wondering, when we do these replantings and everything, do we look at the map? Do we consult the map? Do we decide what is this tree gonna be appropriate for this soil? Not saying we have to soil test everything, but the city has a really thorough map of soil the kind of soil that you have all over the place. And I know we were developed on wetlands.

So, yeah, a lot of it's gonna be just not enriched. Yeah. So, I mean and I have tried. And and I I bet I've planted five different native trees in my front yard, and every single one of them is I don't know. Maybe they're too close to utilities or something, but all I have is a nonnative, you know, 10 branched palm that I gotta be trimming all the time out there. You know? And hibiscus and all the, you know, things we're not supposed to. It's the size of a house, you know, in the back of

your mouth.

Lot of people take those out now, but I'm telling you what. I've hatched we've had three bunnies under there, baby bunnies, and we have cardinals, blue jays, and grackles make nests in there. You know? So I'm not gonna remove something that's helpful to wildlife because and I have a real wet spot that I would like to try, like a button bush that, you know, are pretty ugly when they're not blooming. But, I mean, they're good, you know, because they need a

Oh, good.

Wetness kind of thing.

But Yeah. Yeah.

When you say you have people come out with the free trees that will help you, I'm just wondering, is the soil consideration go into that when they advise?

It's a good point. Yet soil is crucial. Certainly, we would encourage them to perhaps add some garden soil and mix it and also

But that doesn't Do you know that was the future agenda?

I I wanted to just say that perhaps that will be best to be discussed as a future agenda one. Yeah. We had three more items at least.

So It was just pertinent, and it crossed my mind.

You would like So Jessica, you can also reach out to me, and I can have one of my staff members maybe stop buying, give you some Yeah. Some point or something.

Try the native red maple that died from the cold, which is just hysterical. It's a maple tree that died from the cold. And I've done, you know, other things.

Does anybody have any questions about the budgeting process or the budget?

No. Paul, David? No? Paula? Dream.

Jessica, do you? No. I have one. It's like a two parter, relatively quick. So my understanding is that the Natural Resource Division draws from this budget, right, at least as it should be. And that allegedly, there's hopefully a weaning off is what I keep hearing. And the mayor brought it up again this morning, actually. The criteria? Do you have any sense for that?

I do not have any info information on this.

I mean, we clean it up.

I know that The

natural resource Division salaries are paid out of the tree fund, which was right now, it was always going to be set up. Right. Right. And then it was going to be at some undetermined time, they won't be. So I'm curious

Is the tree fund

what that number is and when does it happen? And that's

I mean, I would hope that the tree fund is invested in something and drawing interest from somewhere instead of us just drawing it down?

I All day long. What I don't know, I haven't heard any parameters. And that's what I'm

So I do not have an answer for you, Chair. I personally haven't heard anything about this. And this is not this is more of a this is a commission level decision. I know that there are there's a budget calendar for fiscal year 2026, and that's posted as part of the agenda. And there are opportunities for the public to speak up and provide their input and thoughts. And ultimately, it's something that's discussed at a higher level.

Yeah, please. I was just I thought maybe you might know who said this. Don't have

any updates. Don't have any updates

for you. Fair enough. I ask that because I just want to make sure we would do everything in our power to help meet whatever needed to be met. Right? So it didn't go away. So alright. That's the only one I have on that. What do

we're Thank And you, Chair. I believe that this item was brought up as future agenda items under previous meeting. And now the Board has an opportunity to discuss and speak about the verification.

Jessica, you were passionate about this. You want to leave us

off? I was just trying to I don't mean to, you know, keep be be doing the same thing, but, really, trash pickup is important and beautification. You have to make a spot if you're gonna plant things, right, or beautify something. And one of the easiest ways to do it is to do a cleanup. So I suggest either we make a call for volunteers.

You know? And if the city would give us trash bags or something, or we would have to provide those. But some place to put this stuff, or if the city would be public works would be willing to get involved in, just random littering that goes on. If there's any place in the budget for any kind of public trash cans, which I just don't see.

But it's a safe not it's a great idea. And I'm not trying to we had this discussion on parks in reference to garbage garbage cans cans along along the the the trail there between Pan American and no. Not Pan American, but price and

damn it. It. Cranberry? Cranberry?

No. Cranberry. The natural part. The natural walk.

Oh, Appomattox.

Yeah. Appomattox. Yeah. That there are no garbage cans in there. Just the front and the back because of the plain and simple reason?

Fares. We no. Wildlife. We have nasty people. Yeah. What?

We have nasty people.

Oh, we have nasty people.

Think about it. I'm talking, you know, destruction.

We could, you know, stuff in and love them.

I can shop the street.

Oh, we have that. We have that. Different clubs will go along and do that. But, yeah, there are destruct there's a destructive element in every, you know, community that they're bored or whatever, you know, their problem is.

Well, maybe not the trash cans, but the cleanups are

great. Yeah. But, I mean, you could have trash cans that are that lock like, they're, like, bear proof, wildlife proof, you know, along trails like that so that, hopefully, a human being wouldn't be able to completely destroy. You know? And if they wanted to graffiti it, I don't care. I mean, personally, you know, it was like you can always get off paint as long as they're not, you know, taking a hammer to it.

Yeah. Would we rather, like, cover up vandalism or have litter on the sidewalk? We would rather cover up

with vandalism. Well, they put up that idea about paying for your public art to be put on utility towers. They do that over in Fort Pierce, which is kind of rough. And there's no graffiti on any of those art covered utility boxes at all.

They're art covered? They have art on them. Yeah.

And they actually had a contest, and the artists that won were able to get a gratuity or something.

Because I was going to say, a doctor trash can doesn't sound very fun. But if I could paint the trash can,

it would. Well, they used the

wraps. You

know? Know? Right.

You know? Right. Yeah. Like, a a wrap thing. But I like that adopted trash can.

I'm not yeah. It would be cool if it promoted Northport a little bit, like if it was a theme, like something like a native tree or something. We love Northport.

We had, where I grew up in Iowa, they had a thing where they put cattle. And it was models of cattle on the street. Chicago does Oh, this no.

They did that in Cherokee, North Carolina. Right.

You know what I'm talking about.

Horses. Right?

And Iowa City, putting up all these different hertz. Right? What about The USA one? One of them is this. Right, built on your idea of that. Yeah.

Yeah. Its character took place. So Yeah. Right?

Yeah. So but that's a great well, we're talking future agenda things. Go on with a lot. Because we No.

This is omniscient.

This omniscient. Is

We can

take action on this.

Alright. Yeah.

I'm just

spaced out for a minute. Okay.

And I if I may, just for a second, we have a an adult, a street option, and I can I will do that? And to And we'll city and then the

city the public?

I am not aware about this particular program's communication, but the one that's called Great American Cleanup that was quite popular and we had a great turnout. We picked up lots of trash. Yes, that was a wonderful I would love to see more personal.

Right. So I think we re ding the adopt a street thing, Right? We remind everybody of that thing.

Yeah. There's

I think that I can do something about that.

And just getting more trash cans along, like where they have the gazebos along Sumter, then they have the sidewalks. Wherever you have and there's one along Northport Boulevard too where you have these long, beautiful, wide sidewalks with pedestrian walking Yep. And dog and stuff. Not a trash can in sight, and they're long. You know? The one on Sumter is, what, three miles long. The one on Northport Boulevard is at least a mile long. Yeah. And it's a beautiful one. Yeah. I agree. You know?

So Is there a recommendation in here that we wanna make to commission?

Buy some trash cans. No.

That's also those are that whole area there is Parks and Rec. Yeah. Because it's Parkland. Like, Toledo, Sumter is it's all Parkland.

Yeah. Beautification on our agenda for our joint meeting, potential community benefits? So that

could be on our joint meeting. Meeting.

Yeah. Can talk about it. Good point. To jump off of that, where to do it first, and where do we want to focus? Where do we want to make Northport our main beautiful spot or hub? Because I don't know. Do we have a downtown?

Is it single? The whole plan is several downtowns. I think we should use the Artery Reef Roads first. Other words, the entrance is the seventh highest area.

It's easier to get approval of bites than it is the whole meal, for sure.

Yeah. I mean, they put out rat traps. They could have put out a garbage can. So there'd be fewer rats.

I understand you putting it

on, But like, trails and

to focus on, like, a big spot, like city hall, like this area here, I don't know. It is pretty beautiful here. There's landscaping. There's roundabouts. But and I don't know if there's too much trash here. But to clean up here and then expand from here because it'll just keep getting beautiful from our central spot.

Yeah. Right. That's the hazard you want us in. You see the

all Right. So you should

look north where this is our town. So it's beautiful here. It's the first exit you see. Yeah.

So it's part of the

And price? I'll

Good luck

to construction. There's someone's construction tape.

Well, and the other thing is just that I know the city thinks it's visual clutter to put up a no littering sign, but is there an an ordinance against no littering in North Park? I always assume there is. But I have never once seen a sign, nor have I ever seen police or authority pull somebody over for blatantly throwing their milkshakes out the window or something.

I am sure that they would if they catch them in the act.

I'm just assuming.

But Yeah. I would think so too. They're pretty aggressive.

I have not seen a personally, I I don't recall seeing a sign.

I don't think I've seen signs unless it's, like, an apartment complex.

Yeah. I mean, just in the big common areas. Or when you make a turn, you get your Unfortunately, speed

that runs into the same issue that we have a problem with in the city, finances. It costs money to make the signs and make I understand. And we have a very large group of people that are very anti cost. No on five. Remember that?

But I don't know what that means.

From a water treatment plant. The five

have been similar

to we're

supposed to vote on? Yeah. Now, I'm not agreeing with all of them, but they were very passionate because of cost.

Well, it's raising your property taxes. That's not. I know.

So a lot of these items, right, if we were talking about garbage cans up here as an example, and we paint them, and they look really cool. And people see it, they're like, yeah, I tend to like that.

That's our Well, if we

That's not a budget

breaker. Even if we creative fund ourselves somehow to buy trash cans, would the city be willing to pick it up with the trash trucks when they go around? Or would that be a budget breaker? I don't know.

I think it's going to be city. They want to speak on

cannot speak on for other departments. But as Paul mentioned, each of these things, they add additional funds, additional staff time, and that needs to be taken into account. I believe that this is such a vast subject and it's something that perhaps can this discussion can continue. Strong. I think there's so many opportunities to take action on many levels from city to volunteer to just

Well, they kicked it out to give you a sign if you seem to go for tortoise, if you knew gopher. If an individual knew there were gopher tortoises living in their area Mhmm. They put in the money to put a sign there that says gopher, you know, caution. Go for tortoises. Right? I know because a friend might not assign. So, you know, they're willing to do that. Now how much, you know, a sign is a sign. I understand it's expensive. I do.

Right. You know, the signage and stuff. And I don't think there should be you know? And plus, could be analyzed, you know, if you live in a certain area, they get shot at. You know?

So You're

talking to somebody who lived in. But what I'm saying is is that, you know, they I'm trying to think of, like could it be, like, a community award sign? Like, we have different named neighborhoods. Right? You know, like, I live in Country Club Bridge, so people live in Herritt Creek. Well, Herritt Creek. Forget that. But, I mean, the open, you know, communities and stuff. And they could you know, each neighborhood could say, okay. We're gonna pick up trash in our neighborhood.

This is gonna be trash day. And the city could give them a little flag or something, you know, that says, you know, congratulations, neighborhood blah blah blah for keeping, you know, your area clean or whatever. I don't know.

I think that there's

I mean, there has to be an incentive for community groups to get together to do things and then get a little

Yeah. Pride. How

it how does it look like? Do we ask for money? Do we ask for Do we fund the funding? Do we I haven't been on the board long enough, and I haven't.

Our charter is to make recommendations to the commission.

Okay. We met Right? The election of

that's what our output is. So that's why I was saying, right? So do we have a recommendation in there? This is the kind of things that we're talking about, right? As an example, if we were talking about, say, no lettering signs, we would write up a recommendation to the city commission that we think you ought to put up no lettering signs either across the city or in these

particular At least on the Ontario

an example of one.

At least on the major arterials, they should say, because those are the ways that people come in to the community. Right? Unless when you leave and get off, you know, or so they just say, littering $500 fine or whatever it is, you know, or a thousand dollar fine. That would be we could go to a refund. So Or should the actual resources. If

I if I may, just want to remind you all that the standard meeting is normally till seven. And I see lots of opportunities for our members to put some thought towards some ideas and perhaps at the next meeting that can be further discussed. And then

100%. So like your beautification, right, think about and we need to kind of prioritize these things and put them into buckets because there's a lot of different ways you could go. Right? So signage, whatever, other plannings, that sort of thing. Think about that, and we'll just leave this on the agenda for next time.

And then as you come up with some of the ideas, I can provide some of the potential challenges and what may be some of the hurdles of implementing some of these. And then you will They recommend the recommendation. But I want to give you that perspective as well from the Citi's point of view.

Good. Everybody good with that?

Yeah. Item

two five dash two three three two, discussion and possible action regarding Northport's air quality monitoring efforts.

Yeah. Thanks, chair. This item was brought up for the during the future agenda item discussion last meeting by Vice Chair North. And the goal is for the Board to discuss this program. And if you have any questions, please let me know.

Okay. I do, I mean, want to track this scorecard. I did you do put any attachments on this?

I didn't really add any attachments.

Okay. I think I found is there a map for the air quality index?

Yeah. It would be on Northport's natural resources page. Okay. The map's there. It's easily accessible, and then a lot of air quality resources there also online, and they're actually even more sophisticated.

Point here, guys, is just to track it and to understand it because I feel like it it falls into environment. And we have a lot of stoplights here, a lot of car, factories. Maybe not a lot, but a few. And we have a lot of natural wildlife, and so it's I feel it's important to discuss this. If we want to take it off of the agenda, I wouldn't be offended. I just I don't know. I don't have anything to say, really.

Let's roll it into the scorecard discussion because that's exactly what it is. Wonderful.

Thanks. Well,

Any other questions, discussion on the error quality? Bella, did you have anything else you want to talk to about that?

No, thank you, Chuck.

David, none? All good? Good on that, Jessica?

Oh, yeah.

And I just wanted to mention that I will update you if there's some progress with us adding additional air quality monitoring stations.

Great. Thank you. Item 252333, discussion and possible action regarding North Port's environmental scorecard.

So just real quick, there is a yeah, there's some handouts available to you. We started working on the scorecard. So currently, a few staff members are dedicating some of their time and expertise towards putting it together. We're excited about it. Commission supported it today.

So we're looking forward to updating you. Perhaps at this point, this is an item that may remain and I can be providing brief updates to you as we meet in the future.

That's fine. One quick question. When are we gonna see numbers?

Perhaps when it's completed. And can I would say I would say in about two and a half months from now, we should be there?

Good. Cool. Any other discussion around that? Leave it on for next time for for sure. Deb, do have anything? Jessica, do you have anything on the scorecard? No. All righty. So future agenda items. I'll just go around the do you have any Paul? David, do you have any future agenda items?

Not that I can think

of. Bella?

No, but I don't want Jessica to forget soil.

Jessica? Nope. Yes, you do. Future agenda items. I know you've got them.

Future agenda items.

Future agenda items.

I saw you writing something.

Yeah. And the definitely

the signage. And also

All right. So that's beautification. We'll cover that in beautification. Soil.

I think it was just to evaluate and to maybe kind of just see the soil map and see if we pay attention to that when we're landscaping.

Yeah. I'm interested in getting some feedback on that. And if that comes into consideration when we have the tree giveaway kind of thing. Because I have questions.

I can include a relevant item on the agenda for for next meeting. Mhmm. And that will be a great opportunity to talk soil, and I'll try to find some board.

And also if utilities affect where you plant a tree, I mean, obviously, I know where the electric lines come in from the street, but I think,

you know, that's

How far is that travel?

It's That's crucial. Yeah. So that's something that I can I can speak about as well? Thankfully, the city recently completed completed a large study mapping underground utilities. So that's that's something that will benefit such initiatives. So

I had the everything that you said so far, also native trees because you would ask about which trees bear better. And just put there is hotline based on what you just said. Fill types there's one more thing. Oh, the go for turtles. Are they successful in relocation?

Yes.

Yes, I would like to add that.

Yeah. We're going to have a whole discussion around the gopher tortoise.

I mean, I know

there's Because I think we should be charging the broad market rate.

I know there's figures out there that say how many are successful or not. I cannot cite the source, but I just remember being that it's something around Right. Almost

I will include something to allow for the opportunity to discuss. Absolutely.

Let's charge through the nose for it. If it's market based, are we having people turning this down? No. That tells me we're not charging enough. And that's money that could go to the tree fund. Absolutely. Well Okay. So future agenda items, that was it? Sorry. I just kinda got a little upset. Any public comment? No. No public comment. We are adjourned.

Perfect timing. Good meeting, gang.

Thank you for coming. Eight.