Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

Angie.

Hello, everyone.

She's assistant to the clerk. Angie, would you call roll, please?

Yes. Chair Frank McBride.

Here.

Vice Chair Oliver Sanchez. He's right here. Committee Member Rafael Gabay. Here.

Here.

Committee Member Marta Olchek. Here.

Here.

And then Mary in my side absent. So, Chair, you have a quorum.

Thank you. Is there anyone would like to welcome, would bring anything to the agenda other than what's on the agenda? Good, moving right along. Could I get a motion to approve the minutes from the January 21st meeting?

Yes, I motion.

There you go.

I'd say, I wasn't here, but I would say,

It was a lovely meeting.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right. Okay, motion carried. Move on to item four. We'd like to welcome Commissioner Dorado. I'll never get the last name. He spoke through e-mails about coming to the meeting and speaking, and if you haven't Flamingo Libraries. What's the new name?

Little Bay Park. Little Bay Park. That is a good name. Officially. Officially, yeah. Okay. And a plaque is on its way to name it.

And that was a wonderful thing to do.

I'm getting an inquisitive look from the board member, but I'll explain. On 92nd Street.

Remember where Joe Bradbark used to be on 92nd Street? No? No. But there was a corner. There was a property that ran from the bay to Bay Drive. And some lady 100 years ago owned the whole piece of property. She subdivided it into two properties. Her house was next to the bay, and then there was a house built in front of that. And the only way for the town to issue her approval to subdivide it was that she donated about 10 feet by 30 feet of the property. And I was always told that that was the original Veterans Park, but through research and through Joe, that it wasn't. So we had this piece of property, and then two years ago, they turned it into a nice little park. And it has benches and a gazebo, and now it has all Florida indigenous plants, and it has a lending So Gerardo's here to talk about native plant giveaway and something he's done. He gave away trees eight months ago.

Well, that was separate. Yeah, we had the town tree giveaway, which I think was very successful. But yeah, so because the board member doesn't know about the park, I could say just a little bit about the process you just described. the garden what we got a grant from the florida wildflower foundation last year that allowed us to replant the garden as part of their native garden landscape demonstration program called viva florida uh and so we had to actually have a scientific uh certification that everything planted there is something that you might have found in this zip code um pre-columbus so you know it The garden is doing, I think, really well. Recently, the town hired a caretaker who has a company called Green Spirit Miami. Because you need a specialized gardener for it. We don't use pesticides. And the weeding has to be done by hand. So it's not really something that the town's landscaper can do right to you. So she works five hours a month. It's a very small contract for a small park. But she comes and does the monthly maintenance there. It's looking really nice. I think Mr. Goodbye can attest, I hope. He's sort of a close neighbor of the park, as I am too. And so the reason why I'm mentioning all of this is that there's a few events coming up in March that are relevant to the park, and then I wanted the committee's input on one other piece of the puzzle that I'd like to add. So I'm working backwards. The park will be rededicated March 15th. It's a Sunday, and we'll have a little ceremony there with a plaque acknowledging the Florida Wildflower Foundation and saying a little bit about what the park is about. So time is TBA, but that's coming up on March 15th. Working backwards, the week before that, Greenspirit Miami, the caretaker, is going to be hosting a volunteer gardening event with students from the C-Core Club at Mass FIU High School. So they're going to be coming, and she's going to be doing a little educational program about the plants, and they're going to be helping us do some weeding and mulching that's needed there. So that's happening on March 8th. Going back one step further, March 1st is the Community Relations Board Community Resource Fair, which at the moment has nothing to do with the garden, but it might. So anyway, there's a sort of series of events coming up, which I've been working on, and the staff have been super helpful about getting that all together. The one piece of the puzzle, I guess there are two things that I'm trying to fit in there, and I'm hoping for the committee's input on these things. I have at my house still about eight plants from the garden that were dug up. They are a native plant called wild coffee, distantly related to the coffee that we drink, but it's a Florida native plant that birds love. because it puts out berries in the fall. I have about eight of them in seven gallon pots. And I have a couple of other non-native plants that were also dug up from there. And I've been taking care of them at home. And I want to have a plant giveaway as part of one of these events. So I'm trying to figure out where to slot that. I also want to get rid of them and put them to residents who can plant them. So we have somewhere between 10 to 11 plants in large pots that need to be given away. And hopefully that can be an event that can educate people about the park. And then I'm trying to bring a woman named Mary Benton to give a talk in the town. She runs an organization called Bound by Beauty in Miami Shores that promotes the use of native plants to attract birds and butterflies and other pollinators. And this has been a big interest of mine for several years. Again, Mr. is my neighbor behind. So he actually sees the results of my native plant gardening. We have a million butterflies every day now. It's really magical. And it's something that I want to sort of spread the word about. I went to one of her talks about, five or six years ago, and it was really just an incredible experience, you know, and she's a very good advocate for this issue. So I'm hoping to invite her to give a talk. And the reason why I mentioned the calendar is that it could fit into any of those events. Like it could be, she likes to do things in the morning, like 10 a.m., and so it could be like a 10 a.m. lecture at the community center before the resource fair on March 1st. It could be a little lecture either before or after the dedication ceremony on March 15th. and we could pair either of those events with the plant giveaway. So if we do invite Ms. Benton, I would hope to get the committee's approval for something like a $250 recommendation to the staff, donation to Found by Beauty, and she might be able to help us give away seeds and stuff like that as well. So those are the things I'm trying to work on is trying to find a time for her lecture. I talked to her today and gave her the dates, and she's going to get back to me. I don't think she has, but she's interested in coming. And then there's also the question of what to do with these plants that are sitting on my porch.

Any of the community events or the Mass at FIU coming over to the park? I think that would be better than the vacations. Other dedications we've had, it's kind of been a political kind of a thing. For the giveaway. Yeah.

Yeah, and actually the nice thing is you could use, like, that's a youth council-sponsored event, and so the teens who are coming, you could have two or three of them, you know, coordinating.

Who gave away the seeds?

That was lovely. Oh, we have more. And actually those can be part of the giveaway, too. I still have, from the 90th anniversary party, the vendor, you know, Relief Designs had a giveaway for the native kids. a great season to plant them.

The dedication, you say it's dedicated to a plaque? Yeah, just sort of giving, the plaque will be a dedication. It's going to be dedicated to what?

Oh, no, I just mean like an unveiling of the plaque and a renaming kind of ceremony.

So the unveiling is going to be in whose name?

The town?

The park. I was thinking of the lady that gave that away to the town. I think she means that.

Oh, that was... Yeah, well, the plaque does mention the former commission, which sort of originally built out the park, and then the current commission. But that lady was 100 years ago.

No, but I mean, she gave part of her...

I don't know who... I wouldn't even know who it is. Maybe Joe does, but I don't... I mean, that had to be

I would imagine that she must have relatives or something that would be very interesting if we dedicated to her for these people to donate forever.

I actually wasn't aware of that bit of the history until Frank said it about the donation. At the moment, there is a plaque already in process that just mentions the two commissions and also the...

plants. I know we beautified it and we had other plants in there, but they took a lot of work. The original plants that were in there. And it was costly. It had gotten overrun.

There was a bunch of invasives in there.

Yeah, and flowers. It grew quick. There's a circle where people walk around. It's only as big as this room, but there's a nice path, but in the center of that path was this massive

idea it's really working it really is a demonstration garden i think also for just educating um the town because it's not easy for a municipality to maintain a garden like that you need expert gardeners right so we have this woman who comes once a month for five hours but that's the kind of work you need and it doesn't it doesn't really fit with the kind of large-scale landscaping that we do you know around town hall and stuff that's much more industrial So it's kind of trying to see, can a town maintain something small and detailed like that? So I think a lot will depend for me on whether and when Mary Benton is available. But I did want to maybe get the board's approval. I do agree that maybe the 8th would be an appropriate day for the giveaway just because we'll have volunteer labor and we can promote it. And yeah, would the board be willing to endorse the idea of a lecture maybe either March 1st or 15th?

How does that work? We just make a recommendation to make a monetary donation I'd like to promote...

The March 1st, that's through tourism though? Isn't that Frank's name?

It's Community Relations Board event. So Frank is the staff liaison. That's not a Parks and Rec thing. That's not yours. Though it is at the community center. It is. It's all about the space that you're occupying. Right. I know it's not. Right. So if she did want to come the 1st, then that might be something for Parks and Rec. And then, who knows, maybe she would like to also have a table at the event that that would be for the event. So, yeah, happy to answer any other questions, but that would be my general suggestion.

I'd like to make a recommendation that the Parks and Recreation Committee, the town, make that monetary donation to Bound by Beauty. That's the group. as we were asking the guest speaker to come and give us some pointers on natural plants to the area. And it's certainly going to beautify that part of town. We needed something down there.

Could you leave a figure in us to exceed it? Yeah.

What do you think? I mentioned $250 is sort of a little bit off the top of my head.

I just thought that was a... Not to exceed $250.

Through the chair, would you like to turn that into a motion? Yes.

I'd like to make a motion.

So someone else has to make the motion, not the chair.

I can't motion anything. I can't wave.

No. I motion to accept the recommendation of the chair of doing this on our program.

Okay, of $250. Okay. And then do we have a second? Second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you, President of the committee.

I hope to see you at some of these events. Let us know what's going on. I appreciate you, what you've been out there working hard. Thank you. I was out there at Robine one day, and he's jumping up and down because there was a butterfly in the garden.

and attracting. There's a whole other, you know, for kids to learn the different species. Oh, yeah. Oh, and I forgot. I forgot to mention. I got approval. Also, we're going to purchase some plant markers so that you can, with QR codes, it'll take you to, like, the Florida Native Plant Society so you can learn about the species that are there because people might see something they like and they want to buy it for their house or they want to just know what it's called. And there will be sort of museum quality signage hopefully coming soon.

Did you ever hear of Richard Lyons?

L-Y-O-N? I do not know the name.

Richard Lyon owned. No, I brought Richard Lyon here when we started having a hedge problem in 2000. And we were planting the ficus hedges. And I had him, I went down to his nursery down in the Redlands, and he came up and spoke to the commission and to the town about how invasive, how it just tears up your pipes. But they couldn't be planted any longer. It had to be a hedge that was non-invasive. He has all kinds of, it's a fruit nursery. So all kinds of native fruits down there.

One of the issues, and I don't want to relate too much, but Mary talks about very really aren't, they're not Florida native. They sort of don't do anything for the environment. They don't feed the birds or the butterflies or anything like that. And so this sort of movement to make people aware of which plants actually create a habitat is really the idea.

a meeting coming up, and I want to hear about 4B, so I might just stick around for a little bit, and then I'll hang out, but thank you so much.

Yeah, all the other events I mentioned are kind of finalized, but I'm waiting for the lecture and the giveaway, so I'll write to Mario about the giveaway, and see if we can somehow pair that with the March 8th, and then that'll take it off your plate. And then the lecture maybe we'll put on your plate.

Because we're actually processing that large sign estimate that they sent this morning. The one for the Platte, or the one for Evie? Something with Evie, I think? That was a quote with a sign that they were processing.

There was one for like multiple signs that would be the plan markers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. I got that one. Yeah. And Andre approved it though. There was a, yeah, yeah. He sent it to me. Got it. Got it.

All right. 4B, the school bus headcount for the month.

Yeah. So we are for January, we're averaging 40. And also, we actually implemented already the tracking link. It's up and live, so parents are able to track the bus location and any delays. And we also did upgrade the bus now to a coach 60 passenger. And for February, we are actually getting 50 to 60 kids. Why not a school bus? They couldn't provide the school bus. It was having too many conditions. I'm going to come back to the commission.

This is extremely dangerous. I've been told this for years. Not having signage on a school bus to stop the cars is going to require a PSA on a daily basis two times a day for two stops to stop the traffic. Rudy had to go down there the last time when we had the coach with the buses being repaired. Right. And walk down the street nicely. You've seen the videos. A school bus is 66 passengers. How is a coach benefiting us? You don't know.

It's convenient to the students. That's all there really is. What's convenient? The comfortable bus? They tell their parents that they prefer that one and

We did discuss this at the last commission meeting, if I may. You know, I love this public comment. And I really love sticky 9148 Proud Avenue. Thank you. At the commission meeting, the... Mario said he'd been in touch with Joe Geller, our representative on the school board. And Joe has sent him a list of companies that the school board uses for its kind of overflow capacity that are sort of more traditional school bus operators. And I know he is looking into that. So there might be something coming.

Not from a person that works

You're just worried that we don't have the stop sign in nature and that kind of thing.

You don't have the bar in front of the bus. You don't have the stop sign. You don't have the lightage. On a coach, a coach is meant to take people on a vacation, take the brunch crew down to keep escape.

I don't think the coach has the exit to the back either.

No, it doesn't have an evacuation. It doesn't have a roof exit. It has push-out windows. Right. This is the same thing I have to go through when I plan a trip to SeaWorld, Disney World. I have to go through all of these vendors to make sure that they have standards. But the kids are getting on a bus and off a bus. It's not a school bus. It's not going to a school. It's going to a tourist location. That's how I'm able to use a coach and not a school bus. It's a difference.

It's a difference. Can I interject something about dealing with the seniors? I'm having the same problem with the seniors. I have talked several times to George to tell him that it is very dangerous, the balls that we're using right now, because we have several handicapped people that they come in wheelchairs. And they, our bosses, they don't have the elevation. So, for example, last time, myself, who is 87 years old, has to be helping the people to get in and out of the wheelchair.

They don't have the little escalator? They don't have. The lift?

Uh-uh, they don't. So then today I called George again to see whether Tomorrow Street will have that. Because last month, if it wouldn't be there, I recruited two people to help me. The driver didn't even help. The driver was outside and I think he said, I don't know, maybe like a military or whatever. But how about me? How many people are in the bus? So I recruited two people to help me to get the people in and get the people out. So today I spoke with George and he says he's not using any of the buses. He's using the same company. And he's bringing his tool We don't have to raise so high the person to put it there. That's a halfway thing. I mean, these people are going to file, and who is going to be responsible for it? The town.

The town sponsored event.

I have been talking to him since two months ago that we need the votes that will be acceptable for people that have disabilities. So I don't know where else to go.

Well, it's the same point I brought up about the school bus forever. Does the coach have a handicapped ramp, a wheelchair ramp? It's the same vendor.

I could look into it to see what are they using for ADA. Because they have to have something for service. Unless the bus driver is just being lazy. But to be operational, you have to have something.

Child in a wheelchair wants to ride the school bus. What are you going to do? Tell them they can't?

No, of course not.

No.

So what are you going to do? Just to be operational, you have to have something. I don't know if it's the driver that just wants to be lazy. and doesn't bring it out, but that's something that...

Helping someone get on a bus because they need help getting up the stairs is one thing. The bus should be able to lower down to street level like a city bus, but a child in a wheelchair can't be lifted on a bus. You need a school bus. You know? You need a school bus. You've got spring break coming up. Somebody needs to work on that. And I know Marios. Joe Geller... You want the same list? I can give you the same list Joe Geller gave you. Approved vendors for school buses. When we rent buses for a field trip, if we just go from here to the art museum, I have to have a handicapped accessible bus. In the event that I have a kid all of a sudden breaks his leg tonight at the football game, he's in a wheelchair. He's supposed to go on the field trip. Am I going to tell that mom she can't go?

No.

She'll be a rich person.

Well, I have been, you know, I thought that I had some type of push in some of the issues, but I, you know, whatever I say, it just follows in their fears. And I happen to know that this couple comes every single month. The one that the guy is in a wheelchair.

Yeah, I know.

And there's too many others. I feel terrible for him. Because no.

So how does he get on the wheelchair? Why? How does he get on to the bus?

That's what I'm saying. Myself and to other people helping to get in.

And then the chair, what do they do with the chair?

They fold it and bring it? Oh, the police chair folded in the, you know, place where the police... No, there's not that. No. Well, speak to George about it. No, I don't need to speak to George. I need to speak to Charter Up.

That's not his company, that's Charterhouse Company. No, I just go.

And I tell him, every once I say, if the person files or something, I mean, not only he, but we that are helping him to get in the bus.

Oh, yeah. You cannot have a contract in place for transporting children and seniors and be operational without ADA. No. No, of course not. You cannot be functioning and operating like that.

Exactly.

And we're going to have it tomorrow.

This is the same. I mean, simple as That's why you have the beach wheelchairs over here at the beach now. From something that came up years ago. We had a handicapped kid who wanted to go to summer camp. And the director before Tim said, oh, they can't come to our camp. And I said, you're crazy. Yeah, they can come to your camp, and they're coming. And they hired an individual counselor to work with that child. You can't deny it. And a senior, me, anybody, access.

I'll talk to Mario about it separately, but I'm glad the question is here.

Thank you. All right.

Thank you.

January venue, we making a million?

We have...

For January, for ice cream, we sold 432 units, beverages, 332, and snacks, 324. And a total, running to the town, 575 with 40 cents. And there's no problem with the machine? They keep filling them and fixing them? The part one, yeah, they have to be there every two days to replenish it. It's busy.

There has to be a common solution somewhere. They actually discussed it at the last commission meeting in regards to trying to get new appliances. They have to inspect it, make sure it's up to code, water, plumbing, electricity, mold, and whatever the case may be. getting somebody contracted to operate the concession.

Yeah, but it's like Martha said, it's never been a moneymaker, but it's been a convenience. You just got to find the right person that has got to find Hector back.

That would be great.

Yeah, it would. All right. We have another trip tomorrow, too?

We're going to go drive. Tomorrow we're going to the theater.

The theater, yeah.

Oh, Miracle Mile?

Yeah, I could stay on Miracle Mile. Okay.

Every stage.

What happened at the, I lost my place. The senior, the brunch. The last brunch? Yeah, we had a decent crowd. We were max capacity.

We were over pretty much, yeah. It was a popular one, yeah.

And they registered for that?

Yes.

Okay, good.

So they're not short of food, right? No, we have 50-plus. Nice. Yeah, 50-plus guys that enjoyed it. Oh, these were the older generation. Oh, there you go. Okay. Has there been... Do you have anything coming up for me? You talked about the chef coming and demonstrating food cooking.

No?

No.

Oh, Marianne? She never got back to me with the contact information to reach out. Okay.

We'll tackle that next time. With chef, I am not eating. I already think about chef food. No, you're not eating.

5K1. We have our 18th annual 5K taking place this Sunday. The race is going to start at 8 AM. Currently, we have 92 registered, 67 adults with 25 kids. off the beach, the Hawk Path. So we start a little bit after the community center. We do a loop around 88th all the way to 94th. and do the same loop again, go all the way to 96, and finish right behind the community center.

And Rudy leaves us?

Yeah. He's going to be leaving us. We won't need to hate him. That's what he's going to do.

EFT. What happens with leveling the hard part?

It's a work in progress. They're working on it. Public works, right?

Yeah, they're still working on the hard part, but... I believe Marianella, our aquatic supervisor, she had to make an adjustment on the route. It's still 5K, but instead of the hard path, we had to cut up. And she has the actual mapage for me. It's going to be finalized, and then we'll probably be advertising it tomorrow.

The walking path.

We had the problem, and we were soft.

And it's being... Andre from Public Works is working on it with his staff.

and ongoing, but there's no problem.

It's because they correct something and something else falls apart.

But I understand we're using the correct sand now. Now.

Now.

That's all. That's why I said you do... One of your candidates is out there talking about it, how it was all good to go. I just wanted to find out that it's still in progress.

It's still in progress. It's not finding life.

Everything is worn very slow. It's really slow, slow, slow.

I mean, there's a lot of construction over there by 88 and 89, so it doesn't even help.

Right. And this is going to be new stuff from 88 to 96? It's all going to be redone? The dune restoration?

I don't know if it's going that far up, but I could check for you.

I was under the understanding that through this candidate...

Scholarship. Yes, so the Araya Gray Scholarship, the deadline is this month. I wanted to share with everyone, if you have any friends or family that have seniors in high school right now, obviously that are Surfside residents, if they want to apply, they can go to the town with the town clerk. And then that will come through Parks and Recreation, and probably myself and Carlos will sit down and probably revise all the candidates. But just sharing that the deadline is February 27th.

been, I thought if they attended a beach school, like Beach High, that they didn't have to, it's always been a surfside resident. Because, you know, kids don't go to their normal high schools anymore. Kids from Surfside might go to North Miami. Same district, but different specialties. High school became a specialty now. You might go for firefighting, police work, law work, and depending on where it is, that's the school that they go to. But as long as they're a Surfside resident, it doesn't matter what school they go to then.

We went off of the guidelines from last year, and it strictly said town of Surfside resident to earn the scholarship.

Right, but that's where I have it backwards. That it doesn't have to be Beach High. It can be any high school, but it has to be at Surfside. Okay.

And we have always had a program in getting people to register. You only had one applicant. So then what happens is that we give it to whoever because it's everyone. Yeah.

Even for the last couple years, you might have had one or two. And I know you advertise it.

You think maybe next year it would be something we would have to look into on how to phrase it differently, maybe make it more broader?

As I suggested in past years, I think it's up to to contact the counselor at the school that does college placement, CAP counselor, college assistance. It's called a CAP, college assistance program, CAP counselor, to say, hey, we got this scholarship if you're a Surfside resident. And then they could talk it up more at the school. I know it's on the website, and I know our kids look at the website, the team board.

It's free money.

There's a lot of scholarships out there that are $200, $100.

$1,000. Exactly.

I brought it up to them and some of them are seniors.

Let's keep plugging along. I'll mention it to my counselor. Maybe she knows somebody at North Miami. I know we've got kids in Surfside that have been to North Miami high schools. I've seen them. How's Santa come along?

So the restoration, we are promoting it. I actually spoke to communications. They haven't received any information of anybody interested. We're going to keep it going, trying to promote it within the town. But obviously, after a few weeks, we're probably going to pull that and then just probably have to look into a contracted vendor to see if they can provide service. I'm trying to see if someone from Surfside... We're trying to take care of the situation first so they can make their own album, but we don't get any feedback. We have to get our own contractor.

People were laughing at the eyeglasses and these people were really laughing.

Like Oliver said, he just needs a little makeup job. Offer the tools. Well, he was willing to guide somebody. Again, there's got to be an art kid somewhere in Surfside to say that they participated in this program. That looks good on the resume too. You did something for historical preservation.

Santa, right?

see if she knows somebody that might wanna, cause she lives right down on 71st Street. Maybe she knows somebody How was the dance? I couldn't get a date. I said, we'll be upstairs in the new room and everything. No luck.

It was lovely. They enjoyed it. We had over 80 people come in. So we had some music. We had some giveaway snacks, like refreshments. At one point, we had a great crowd just dancing, so it was really nice. People enjoyed it.

Because it was decorated all day. They had the table out on the balcony? Yeah, we had the balcony.

We had the balcony. I was sitting at some games out there. We had some lights, DJ. DJ was great.

I didn't know energy was available. Nobody invited me.

See that?

Are we renting the room upstairs? No, not as of now.

We are looking into it, so probably in the future, but no reservations as of now.

But we have publicized. That we're going to rent or not? No, not yet, no.

We haven't publicized. We were just looking how the first year goes to see how the actual park is managed. To see if we could actually do birthday parties and rentals that doesn't interfere with the regular program.

That's always been the problem. People want to rent the top lot. to have birthday parties. But then you're taking a public park for a private event. And it would not go well in the neighborhood. That top line, I just passed there. There had to be 50 kids running around in it. Shame we don't have more, any more land expanded again. But it was recent. Have you found a solution to the teen gang?

Me and... The major, we talk about it. Can we give them a citation? You can now.

It's on the book. I'm talking about the kids that enter in the top left. We just need to watch the cameras. I ain't saying somebody's got a police dispatcher can't sit there and watch the cameras. But there should be some kind of a... The cameras at school, after hours, all the kids are gone, and it's nice and calm. When somebody walks, when a custodian, say, 8 o'clock tonight, walks past a camera, my camera on my monitor would flash that there was something moving on that camera. And I'm sure your cameras are better than my own school. So we had, at the top lockdown on 9 Day Street, a resident sent me a video. There was all kinds of teenagers in there, in the dark, with their electric bikes and electric scooters. Something's going on. You know what teenagers do after hours in the dark? I just don't want to see it happen to us. And the gate wide open. So we've got the gate locked down. But still, they're climbing over the gate, I'm sure. It's all history. Some of them will stop playing and run away.

All right. So spring camp. Spring camp. Spring camp is, we have registration open. It's through the YMCA. It's going to be the last week of March, as always. We currently only have two kids involved right now. I know they need a minimum of 15 to run this camp.

Christmas, you ran into the same problem. Yeah. I don't know what.

I have asked a lot, the kids that go to the park, they're saying they all just go to the school one, because the school's not providing camp. So most of them are just staying at school. Even spring camp? Yeah. Because a lot of principals like to close out. The YMCA is hosting at the school. Right. Yeah. We are doing a soccer camp, and that's popular. Those get registered, so we provide that as well. It's going to run from 9 a.m. to 12. And now we're going to open registration on Monday coming up. And the last one had 11 kids, so that one does get filled. So we're going to provide both options.

How's the field looking? Between Halloween, Christmas and stuff, the field gets beat up. And being used by the kids. Every day. And it's got a sprinkler system?

Yeah. They go on overnight. Bribery's there at least twice a week, I see them, but there's not much they can do pretty much. It gets used a lot. We have soccer and football going on, and in case I'm not using the park as a lot, so they're putting a lot of soccer out between themselves.

I think that in the tot lot was the greatest investment the town made, because it certainly

All kinds of people. Especially with the lights now. Before we didn't have lights now. It's at 9 p.m. We have to kick them out. It's a real basketball court. It's a nice improvement.

Tender Center is doing okay. So far so good. The only new business I have is I talk to the chief and the major about the bike safety. in the works for april he said the actual event that we want to host is in april right the rodeo right and we have a big i know you have scooters up here it's a problem but in town we have children that are riding electric bikes and electric scooters it looks like hell's angels

The bikes are just, I'm horrified. I mean, I'm driving, and when I see them just pulling the bicycle and just doing it, I don't know, one of these days.

One of these days, and the same thing we said, we don't want it to happen to us. But it is a ongoing problem, but the chief is, the chief took the video of the kids in the park. the school identified the kids, the chief went to the house and said, if I say it again, I'm gonna confiscate the bikes and the scooters, and then the parent will pay. So he said when he was on Key Biscayne, he used to confiscate the bikes, golf carts, kids racing through Key Biscayne on golf carts. So he would call the tow truck, load the golf carts.

Well you know what, they should be also giving a fine

Well, Gerardo just put on the books that, first of all, how are you going to catch them? Because they're going twice as fast as a police car. But Gerardo just put, the state has directives. You have to wear a helmet. You can't wear, you may have one rider on a scooter. You've got to obey the speed limit. You've got to stay within so many feet of pedestrians. So there are books out there, but the police have to. Uh-huh. One, you know.

So you don't want to chase them. It's like police don't chase motorcycles because then they crash.

Correct. No, you don't want to chase them. But it wouldn't hurt them to be at the corner tagging them. You know, kids are scared of police. They don't. And I just think that we just need to make it. You know, when you walk into a class as a teacher, as a substitute, you walk in and there's 25 of you. But they're going to take advantage. All you do is make an example. You're the example.

But do you see that the children really are scared of the police nowadays?

No, they are. I think. No, but they are. No, but they are. At least in this community, they are. No, I think. Because they don't want, their mommy's told, they don't want their bikes confiscated. Like I said before, these bikes are not just like they come from the factory. They're putting different batteries in them, different gear ratios. These things are flying. And they don't stop at a stop sign. Don't even think about it. And neither do the cars. But the chief's working on that, too. All right. I'm glad to see everything's still moving forward. We have no public. Next meeting date. Our last meeting date.

We have March 16th as the next meeting date, which is... Monday? Yes. And it's also the day before the election, right before the election.

Yes, this could be our last meeting. I am still counting. I've been on it since roughly 2000, so.

Wow.

I can't find anybody. All right. Did I get a motion to adjourn? I move so far.

Through the chair, sorry. So everybody is good with that date to keep the March 16th?

That's our regular back to Monday because January and February always get goofed up because of Martin Luther King and President and things like that, so.

I second.

Thank you, gentlemen.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.