Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the November 17th, 2025 meeting of the Planning and Zoning Board.

Planning and Zoning.

Planning. Listen to me. Parks and Recreation. Parks and Recreation. I had Planning and Zoning on my head. Could you call the roll, please?

Yes, Chair. Chair McBride?

Here.

Committee Member Gabbai?

Here.

Am I pronouncing that correctly?

Yeah, Gabbai.

Okay, Gabbai. And Committee Member Mishai?

Here.

Chair, you have a quorum.

Thank you. Does everyone have reviewed the agenda?

Yes.

Anything to add to the agenda? Mr. Manager, take your time. We'll talk slow.

If I have ideas for adult programming, at what point could I?

Next Tuesday, come.

want to add something this is the place we add yes adult programming thank you can i get a motion to add adult programming to the agenda just say second second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries that will be as item um 5a the new business okay

Can I get approval of the minutes? Anybody have any questions about the minutes?

No, I read them and I motion to pass the minutes.

Second.

You cannot second the chair. You have to pass the gavel to someone else so they will.

Raphael, it's on you. Say second. Second. There you go. I'm like jumping in the fire right up to Raphael.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Mission carries.

Okay. Everybody, Rudy and Carlos, you met Raphael?

Just today.

Just today, okay. Well, we're glad to have you. Glad to see you're a student.

Can you spell your last name?

Yeah, G-

A, B, C as in cat?

G, A, B as in boy. Okay. A, I.

Thank you.

Dubai?

Yeah.

Hmm. Dubai only with a G. Good. Exactly. All right. What are you studying at Miami Dade? Film production.

All right.

Well, you're in a good place for it.

Yeah, for sure.

You used to make a lot more movies down here. We were just talking about a movie that was made in Surfside, not too long ago. Alright. 4A.

Yes, so this is my item. So how we do it every year, the clerk's office, we prepare our meeting dates and deadlines for the 2026 year. I added also the January 2027, just so you guys...

Sorry.

Just so you guys have an idea of what it looks like. We have deadlines and we have the... I don't think it's what you want to see. So we have the deadlines and we have the meeting dates as well. So in there you can see when the meeting is going to take place next year, when the agenda is going to be posted, and when the deadline is for you to be able to submit any items. If you do want to submit any items, you can just email me or you can just email the Parks and Recreation Director with your suggestions. Do have in mind that when you do submit an item, it needs to be approved by the staff liaison which in this case is the parks and creation director and the chair of the committee um also three dates have been changed due to holidays which i made a note down there as well um also do have in mind that if for some reason a date needs to be changed in the future you can do so um if there's a discussion because you guys can have a discussion or that's something that i can talk to the board in the future um but yeah i think just if you guys are okay with these items and these dates um if i can just have a motion to approve that will be appreciated am i december the 15th isn't that hanukkah i started yes i have it on the i

We were waiting for you. Come on in.

I thought this year in freezing.

Yes, right now.

Hi, nice to meet you, Mario.

Hi.

Nice to meet you. So your name is? Mario. Oh, okay. Nice to meet you. So, December 15th is not the start of Hanukkah?

I looked online. I'm not very familiar with the holidays. I don't know why it just popped up on my calendar. I looked online and it says that it's not restricted to work or anything like that. So, I thought it would be okay to still have it that day. Unless you guys want to change it, we can do that.

I'm fine. This is the day we're talking about? It starts the 14th.

You start the evening of December 14th through Monday the 27th. Okay. But there are certain days that are more...

I look for that day specifically. It didn't give me any restrictions. Again, I'm not part of that religion, so if you guys can give me any feedback, we can change that.

Yeah, well, I am Jewish, and I think that Sunday is the first day, meaning that the day before... So would you like to change it?

It's on the 15th, so it's the day...

It's Sunday, but it starts the 94th.

So right now, what they're trying to see is for December's meeting. For next year.

For next year.

2026. 2025.

No, for 2025. This next month's meeting, are you okay with Monday night, the 15th?

yes is your meeting next month hold on oh i'm sorry i i believe are we speaking about next year's meetings are we speaking about the next meeting our meeting next month next month oh so we're skipping to the next month um Oh, so we skip to 7A?

That's what he saw, so he's trying to win.

I thought we just started winning. I thought that was you.

He skipped to 7A.

I was like, what's going on?

While you were mentioning dates, I just...

Yes, so that is Hanukkah. Hanukkah starts on Sunday, and then Monday is the second day. When I did it last year, I saw that this date was also okay again, but if you have any feedback, we can move it.

I have a problem with Monday the 16th. Monday the 15th. Monday the 15th?

This month, next month.

Oh, okay, so I was wrong. Okay, Monday the 15th. Are you okay? Yeah.

Okay, good.

on tuesday so the town meeting was on december 9th oh yes okay um but if we can go back to next year's uh meetings did that look okay to everybody 2026 2026 correct Second, please have a motion to approve the dates.

2026 dates.

May I have a second? Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Mr. Perez.

Bicycle rack space, Ward B. So this was actually an item that I spoke about, the bicycle rack space over there on 96th Street Park. I thought it was a great idea and very convenient, especially for our residents when they're commuting to our events that we normally host out of 96th Street Park. I just had a few questions on the sense of, we do have a bicycle rack already in place that's there. Inside. We have two. We have one outside and inside. Where's the one outside?

There were just so many bikes at the Halloween party that it was, and they were, some were parked because people were walking in. It was just...

Correct. Correct. So, but there is one outside. It does get used frequently. I don't think residents know about that when we do our events because over the years our numbers have grown.

So it would be... And that was the whole idea of having that park that we cut back the parking so people would walk to the playground and would ride their scooters and their bikes.

My only concern with this branch would be where can we locate a new bike rack, being that it's already difficult for residents to kind of commute into the park because we only have one main entrance gate. is it illegal to have it in the street next to the bike rental rack that's in the street i would have to follow up with probably our building to know more the logistics next to where the bike rental though correct um so i would have to probably sit down with building and also maybe code to see if we're in compliance with where the location of the bike record would be But it's something definitely we can look into, especially that the numbers are growing, and we seem to have a lot of teenagers coming in. But that was a concern of mine, how can we place the placement on the new bike rack, because we already have one in place. Or maybe even to expand the one we currently have. I don't know if that would be something of interest as well.

if that would be beneficial to the town as well. I look at handicapped people walking down the sidewalk and it's full of bikes and scooters at the events. I just thought something either past the entrance or closer to the end of the park.

Well, the ending of a park is normally we cannot have a bike right there because that's normally where our vendors and our contractors use our entrance and exit. True, true. And then obviously EMT and fire hazards, we need that location as well. So I don't want to overpopulate that area. I want to leave that access accessible. But you did catch it, and I thought it would be a great idea. 4C.

community chalk stencils.

So this is actually my idea that I asked staff to kind of help me out with. One of the things that I really wanted to do first coming in is would like to try to get the community um through the various social media channels and then when we're communicating at events um to start talking about the things that we love about our town right and so one of the ideas is using um creating a stencil that says in this case i love suicide and then using chalk that There's a spray that they use. It's not permanent. It's temporary. And then we kind of turn it into a little bit of a scavenger hunt. Like, where are you going to see it? We're not just going to do it all over the place and try to get people to post videos talking about why they love Surfside, what it is that they love about it, little things like that. And then instead of a heart, it can then turn into anything else right that can kind of grow out of it we try to get the youth advisory board engaged with it or the kids in the community that are activating again to start having the conversation about all the good stuff that's happening uh within the town and even growing up of what it what it's been right to foster that positive um vibe as i like to call it So that's just the idea. I think in total the cost of the chalk is like $86 to get like two boxes of different chalks. So it's not very expensive at all and I think this would be a good way for everybody to get together and then we can kind of hopefully kick it off through here as well and talk about all that positivity.

Who would actually be, how do you envision who would, where the places would be or who would be doing it?

So it'll be our, internally it'll be our staff that we would just create, yeah, just create the stencil out of, not a construction paper, but particle board or anything like that. And then just get the chalk and then spray, almost like if you were spray painting it. And then just pick it up and maybe start off with two or three throughout the town. And then Cindy can start putting like a little campaign together and see, you know, if someone can find it exactly.

There's a guy on the surf side, that artist that leaves like graffiti things in odd places. Somebody in sort of Wynwood.

There's an artist out of London that does that. He does it here.

It's semi... It's semi... It's not called semi-permanent. It's semi... after maybe a couple rain or something like that then it washes right away and it's environmentally safe as well um so it's not permanent yeah it's non-toxic it's not going to ruin the sidewalk or anything that we put it in or anything like on the sidewalk or on the street or something like that in the park somewhere it's it's just chalk so it washes away after you know our staff that would use the chalk to paint the I love surfside

Where? Where would they be painting?

For example, Martha, like the roundabout at the community center, that could be a location. The 96th Street Park, the sidewalk strip. Or the Flamingo Gardens. The Flamingo Gardens entrance area. The tennis park. The tennis center as well. Locations where residents normally commute to and go and arrive and there's a lot of traffic, those would be the locations preferably. No, no, no. In place of it. Well, the staff- They're not doing it. We're the ones doing it. Yeah, we're doing it.

So they would go around- They would just take the picture with their phones and then put it on social media, like on Facebook or Instagram.

We would find them. I found one at the park. I found one on 91st Street. Almost like a scavenger hunt. Scavenger hunt? Yeah.

Is there a reward? That would get people out.

You know, we haven't thought of that. Maybe for like the most likes.

How about a t-shirt? Most liked?

She puts it on Instagram. Whatever pictures most liked. We can figure something out. Yeah. Something simple. I don't want to necessarily try to be going after the reward so much. I think I have to thank you. Yeah. But it's meant to kind of generate more, and then let's see where the rest of the community wants to take it, right? They might want to go into somewhere else, and hopefully that just grows organically.

Periodically. You see kids that chalk stuff in the

street anyway yeah I wonder if people would add on to well we'll be prepared to wash away just in case because you know sometimes kids can be a little bit already we wanted to bring this to you all first um for for support and stuff like that because i think it goes very well with our parks and recreation and what the intent of the board is as well i love it i think that's a neat idea scavenger hunt kind of find the what do you love about surfside and find it Wonderful. Okay, with that, we'll make sure to start moving that forward ahead of some of the events, and we'll create a little bit of a communication, and then we'll randomly start seeing, popping them up.

When you say we, who do you mean?

Staff between Parks and Public Works and stuff like that, just to make sure we have the material. Yeah, yeah, we. We staff. We'll do it. You're good. I just wanted your blessings, that's all.

I'm in. Here's the chair, he...

I'm everywhere.

4D, how's the bus situation?

Bus, so far, is going good. I mean, the average is 45 kids. With the new bus, we haven't reached max capacity yet. So the numbers-wise, it's going good. I had a question. I know your background was school. Is there any communication system you had in place, like buses, to communicate if they're running late or early, anything of that nature?

And with the school system, dispatch calls, you know, it says your bus number is going to be late. That there was, you know, especially with the handicapped kids, you have a kid that was picked up late. And there's also a system, we have ConnectED messages to note to our parents. We can notify parents by bus 4263 that your child will be, you know, came to the school late, Because it broke down, we had to get another bus. They're going to be arriving home late, so you don't have parents standing in the front of their house or the corner waiting for a bus. So, just a telephone tree is the best way to communicate with 45 parents. Right. So, you're worried about if a bus came late from Bay Harbor to drop off?

Take up or drop off.

Either or. Well, in the morning, they've got to wait. But the drop-off is more of a problem because then you've got parents standing there saying, where's the bus? Right. Just staff coming down and telling the parents.

But another inconvenience that we've experienced is, so... If a bus is late, sometimes the parents think they missed the bus. So they're assuming that they never came, but that wasn't the case.

I'm back to the PSA, being there in the morning when the bus is supposed to be there, either a few minutes before, making sure the bus is there and loaded. At least you could communicate with one PSA rather than dealing with a lot of parents. And again, I still think the PSA should be there when the bus arrives. Our bus turned, coming out of Bay Harbor, going east on 96th Street, turned on a red light the other day. I was waiting at my light. I was going east, going home. At 96th on the, I guess it's East Bay Harbor Drive, this side of the little bridge.

Correct.

My leg turned green, our bus turned right in front of me, clearly red, and went over the bridge. I'm not a fan of the bus. But it works. But I would say a PSA. Through the chair.

Is there How many stops are there? One. Oh, okay.

One. That's what I was going to say. Do you want somebody else? No, there's two. There's two stops. Two pet cemeteries. Two pet dog parks, right? Dog park and the garden. The garden.

Where is it? The first one again?

On 89th Street. Oh, okay.

And what are you calling the garden?

Is the Surfside Community Garden?

Yeah.

Oh. 92nd and Bay. Is that Little Bay?

Not yet. Okay. Not yet.

I was thinking that they multiple stops and you wanted somebody to go to the top. No, it's two stops. Two stops and then to the school. I just wanted to understand that. Okay, thank you.

real quick guys why don't we get with PD because they might have their notification software as well and maybe we can piggyback off of them or see what what Cindy also has for notifications to see what other services so we can probably just create a unique contact list for those parents and we can use that see if that works

The school we use, ConnectED, we send out on social media also. Most cities have a red alert or something like that, so it just kind of depends on… We get hurricane alerts.

Did you report that going through the red light?

I think that's important. Thank you.

Frank, I also had a question for the school bus. Is it a possibility if Obviously, if they're not employed, can a parent sign a waiver or anything to be on the bus as a chaperone? Or is there any way that we would have to probably fund a Surfside employee to be on the bus?

To be a bus aide?

Just to be like a chaperone or an adult president. Because we're having issues. Because Ruth K is a K-8. Correct. So we have... K and first graders in a bus with... And one was never supposed to ride the bus. Well, not K-1, but we got second, third, fourth grade. Even, let's know a big age gap. So a lot of parents are getting complaints, forwarding them to me or to Carlos. But, you know, the middle school kids may be using profanity or inappropriate words or things of that nature. Like I told the commission, they're not going to sit there and speak to me. It's kind of difficult for myself or Carlos to address those issues. with not having staff in place? I wouldn't use a parent. Maybe not a parent, but is there any way, like, a staff member from the school could be delegated that, or is that something us internally, we would probably have to staff somebody?

It's our bus. We would have to handle the staffing of that. It's our bus. Or why can't we ask the bus company to provide an aide?

Yeah. Are we going to pay for that extra?

It's something to ask for. Yeah, it's something we're revisiting now because it's... Every bus that comes to a public pool has an aide. Handicapped bus especially.

Thankfully, we don't have, I don't think we have any kids with disabilities on that bus. No.

How many people are on a bus, do you know?

The average varies every week. It's between 30 and 40.

Right. This is why I think there should have always been an aide designated. I would not put a parent on the bus because they're going to prioritize their child. And I don't send parents as chaperones on field trips because it just doesn't work out. They end up taking care of their child and forget the other nine that they're supposed to be watching. I would sort of by asking the bus company. And I'm sorry if it costs us an hourly rate, and that's something we could just add on, but hopefully they would agree to this. It's giving somebody else a job, because we don't have the staff to put somebody on there. All right. See what they say.

No, I'm going to follow up with them and see what they want because I'm going to let them know our issues.

Either that or if the bus driver has a problem with a child, they don't ride the bus. In a public school, a child gets abusive verbally, fighting, something like that, they're suspended off the bus. Not for life, but a couple weeks. Inconvenience to parents.

Vending machine. Vending machine report for ice cream we sold for October 352, beverages we sold 402, and snacks 412 with a total revenue to the town $585. That's very good. Yeah, it's for both facilities. Oh, yeah, yeah. Any biters on the concession stand?

receiving pending bids.

I mean, obviously with the transition, we've got to research.

Is that an internal position, or are we looking for vendors to come in to operate? It's open. Outside vendor to come in.

And we've had numerous people over the years It's just not a big money maker. Some days you've got a pack pool, some days you've got three people come to the pool. It's cool now, you have less people and you've still got to have the same quantity of food, you've still got to have some items that are generic and kosher and things like that. But things have changed in our community. I hope we can find somebody because it was always fun to go there. Is there a deadline?

Cindy has it. What does that mean? She was receiving the page and the menu, and then she's the one that put the marketing out for that, to tell them the seating.

But is there a deadline?

I believe not.

I didn't see it on the flyer. It's open on the found website. It's open to anyone to apply. Right.

So I guess once we get a good amount for review, then we'll probably shut it down. It's not an easy task. It's not.

It's a needed task. But the vending machine, we had a suggestion from a former member of the board. Why don't we get vending machines in the meantime? 412 snacks, 412, I thought that was pretty good. And it's not us making money. It's a question of just having something if you want something to eat there. Yeah. And there's been no complaints with the food items? I don't know. Wow. They know what I'm talking about. Okay.

We did have a vendor that wanted to introduce coconuts vending machines. So I just wanted to see if there's any interest of maybe coconut vending machines to put in our facilities. Coke? Coconuts.

What does that mean, coconuts?

Yeah, like actual coconuts.

Like coconut water and coconut meat in the vending machine? Yeah.

So it rolls down and then you, how do you...

It's a vending machine that dispenses coconut. Yeah. I know coconut water is popular.

Once you do the transaction, it opens. You select the coconut. It comes with a straw.

Is there a hole in it?

That's a great question. They just proposed it to sell coconuts.

I wonder if they have a video or something like that. Do we have the space for it?

would probably be at the park right now yeah we don't have space at the community center but the part would be try it i think it's very risky because people are thinking out how to open the hole of the coconut as well so i say it's very risky i didn't get into all those details they just said a vending machine that sells coconuts yeah

Yeah, it was an actual coconut. I thought it was coconut water, but no, it was an actual coconut. I don't think that would be necessary.

I'll stand up to the coconut people. Well, I don't want a coconut to clean up.

It would be hard to eat, I think. Yeah, I know.

And messy for the pool deck.

Well, I must be at the park. Yeah. Coconut? Coconut. All right. Thanks, Carlos. The movie Under the Stars was fantastic.

Yes, so the one on November 8th, it was a great turnabout. It's one of our biggest ones yet with over 100 in attendance. It was a great chilly night. People enjoyed it. And we currently have a survey out for the December 6th where residents can pick up out of four movies and the winner will be displayed. Right now we have 10 submissions so hopefully we'll get some more and we'll pick the movie out for December 6th.

Who picked the

So we sent out a survey to the residents with four movies, and they'll pick from that four.

But I mean, who picks those four?

Oh, our staff, so Parks and Recs.

Like your staff? Yeah, correct.

Yeah, we pick the movie depending on holiday. We try to make it a holiday theme.

Okay, thank you. Speaking of seniors, what would you think about having a movie night for seniors? Hey, sorry you're outnumbered on that side of the table. All right. You're going to start to a beautiful friendship. Winter Wonderland. I had a great time. I mean, the Halloween.

Our Spooky was on October 24th.

Yeah, I read the news.

Yeah, no, I had a great time with Doug.

There was a ton of people.

That's a lot. It was great.

We had some new people, new friends. Yeah. There were 1,300 at least we had in attendance.

I went for a little bit. It was nice.

Yeah, I saw you there.

It was my first town event. It was really, really nice. I really liked it.

Now I got off track again.

Winter Wonderland is scheduled for December 14th at our park from 10 in the morning until 1 p.m. We have five attractions, including the ice-skating arena we did from last year. And we're also bringing back the pile of snow or slash ice that we create. We also have photos with Santa. We have a dreidel show. We're doing a kids' toy giveaway. And then we also have adult giveaways that have awesome items. If you could guys help us pick out some giveaways. Nice to meet you. So we had our staff pick five. So any of these fives were picking one of these to give out for the adult giveaway. So those are the kind of the stack selected. Travel bag. So many mugs.

I'm just thinking of me being an adult.

I think you guys always pick nice things.

T-shirts and stuff you've had in the past.

Whatever you guys decide. Your staff likes

Not at all. I'm kidding. So this folds up into that? Yes. That's handy and light.

That's just a smaller travel bag.

How big is it?

Oh, it's saying it holds earbuds and stuff, so it's probably smaller.

They're not the details.

What did your staff like?

All of them? Yeah, those are the best ones they've found. Okay. Yeah, those are the best ones. It's pretty much for me. I like this one. It's practical.

You can use it to hold it up, travel with it. Okay. Put it in your supply bag. No, we'll do that.

Put it in a bag. Kirk Rose sleeps. Yeah.

So you're good with that? What do you think? That's fine. Always for us. Good? Yeah.

Senior trips and brunches. Yes.

So we have this upcoming Wednesday. We have the trip to the Foss Museum. We have 12 enrolled right now, so we're good to go for that date. And then for December, we have the December 17th where we're going to the Bayside Marketplace. Oh. Yeah. That one's going to be December 17th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

So the Marketplace?

To the Bayside Marketplace.

There is a boat there as well.

I need to find out with George. I'm not sure what he votes. I just know we're going to. The boat?

The tour boat? Yeah, like the Jungle Queen one.

And then the senior brunch is on December 12th. It's going to be buffet style again. Holiday theme from 11 to 1 with rounds of bingo. I believe we have a speaker for the January one. I think we're starting with two bingos and guest speakers.

How many people do you usually have? This time it was a full, I would say more than 30.

We had 32 signed up.

So today went process with bingo?

Yes.

And the food was excellent.

Added prices, but for a busy motherfucker, I got one price. Awesome.

We got some good prices.

Very good. I cooked. You were cooking? I cooked. Oh, really? Nah.

What is the... Are they... What's the age range of seniors? I would say 65 to 85.

any interest in hearing the status of the school board? One of them. You don't think so?

They have no kids.

I understand that, but they pay taxes. Yeah, well, they have these comments and they have their own things that are more... See, the board of management of North Miami Beach just had the superintendent to state that they talk on me.

Don't shake your head at me. It's just my idea. Okay. Something related to healthcare.

Okay. We have had that in the past and people are interested. For example, the freebie, before the freebie started. I started that. So we really have very interesting things. That's why I don't think that we should have two bingos. I think people are more interested in educational

like a cooking class. Like somebody would, this was done at another Parks and Rec facility that I heard came to Bell Harbor, and they had a woman doing it, but she cooked enough for the whole class. But the class, you know, didn't have their own individual setup, but you learned how to cook a certain meal. And she said it was so well attended. That would be different. me, I don't know.

Did they just observe or did they participate in the cutting?

Yeah, they just observed. So you could just have, they just had one platform where the lady was doing the cooking and you had the recipe and telling you how to do it. But she was cooking in large amounts so that everybody participated And that was a big success.

She brought her own cooking materials? Yes. Did you by any chance get a name or a concept? Yeah, I'll get that. Okay.

That was one of my ideas on my list. I will. But I think that would interest...

It could be trying. I mean, this is something that everybody is interested in cooking. Or even eating.

Something easy, like for one person or two people. Something really easy to make.

That only accommodated one senior, two seniors? That's one person doing a cooking demonstration.

The instructor only doing the cooking. But everybody else observing.

Rachel Ray and her TV show where she would cook and explain it and then heal everybody.

So you think this would be for the brunch or for a senior trip?

No, no, it wouldn't be a senior trip, by the way. No, I'm saying to substitute, instead of the seniors. That's what I say. I mean, people enjoy very much a senior trip. As a matter of fact, I sent George 30 different suggestions for future senior trips. Because usually we go more to the theater, and this year we haven't. So usually we have more theater. For example, I didn't think that many people would go to the Frost because there's a lot of walking, and there's many people on my end group that is not easy to be walking for two hours straight.

I also had a question about that. I did sign up for it, and there is a lot of walking, but is there something specific, like a theater ticket involved in it that we were going to?

Last summer, two years ago, they made a reservation for the IMAX inside. So everybody went there, but then everybody could walk wherever they want to and then meet at the Chanda World Court. And you guys are departing? Yeah.

So you watch the group, the show together, then you explore the museum, and then at whatever convenient time to relocate and to exit, that's when you guys depart. That's exactly right.

But then, is there a place that you don't have to walk around a lot? You didn't want to? Well, that's the thing.

That's the whole point. Well, the only thing I would eat is those that didn't want to walk the whole thing. They just went to a pure lunch at a place and they sat there.

Did you go from that one? Uh-huh. Did you just relax for an hour?

Yeah, yeah, I did. So did you enjoy that, though? I told him that I think that it should not have been this year because I gave him several suggestions of places we have not been in New Zealand.

It's usually the same group that goes.

So maybe George could communicate with the seniors.

He does very well do a lot of communication with the seniors, and he takes suggestions.

I am the liaison. I'm the one that's a team because I speak to these people to see what they're doing. selected. And they said, you know, I think that...

It probably was too short notice, because I know you guys haven't gone on trips for a various amount of months. So I know now we just started up the program again.

Well, he told me that we don't have the budget for September.

And that's something we also have to revisit.

So he says we have to start in November. When he told me, which was two weeks before, I said, George, I mean, as I say, it's very little time. We can change, but I also say there are places like, there is a bird museum that is not far away from here. There is, I mean, all the places that I told them that is museum, and I also told them For example, we can go to see the district over there, the one that has all the paintings outside. Oh, good. And then, you know, different things. So, we go to the same place all the time.

Have you ever been to the MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami?

And I also told them that if I use the one that is here.

How much notice does he give you?

Well, he says he needs about a hundred. He already has one in December.

Now, do they have a budget for it?

All the filters have a certain budget for the total amount.

It goes all the way up to May. He just put the cross. Nothing else left? Well, that's it now. Because usually I am the one that gets to the table. I just talked to him.

He was picking one of the ones that I picked out for January and February.

We only have December 5th.

I told you that we need the theater.

He was looking for the theater. Nice meeting you.

Thank you. Yes, family, pick up the airport.

Thank you. He's our new member. He's the second new member. Gerardo's appointment. Gerardo... I asked him and he said okay. After the last commission meeting.

He just got appointed last week. Last week he got appointed.

Okay. New business, 5A. What else did he have? Okay.

I mean, I know that I'm... Sheriff, my apologies.

You skipped item 4I, winter camp?

Oh, winter camp.

Yeah, so winter camp is already finalized through the YMCA. It's going to run from December 22nd through January 2nd with no camp on the 25th or the 1st. And it's from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the 96th Street Park. have kids registered it's just open sorry it just opened on friday so i'll check back with him hopefully this week and then we'll see the numbers yeah i know winter camp usually runs is the other ones that because bay harbor doesn't have their camp right yeah we tried for dan's gaming's one but it didn't get no numbers they wanted one point that's strange because we're on the whole stupid weekend yeah yeah the whole week but only one kid signed up for that one

I wonder if Bay Harbor is running there. Because technically schools are open Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So maybe that's why the Y is over there.

I wanted to ask the committee, how would you guys feel if, obviously, for next year would be something I'm proposing to bring back, if we did internally our own winter, spring, and summer camp? And not run it through the Y? Parks and Recreation, Tom Sersak, Parks and Recreation would run internally with our staff, our department, would run the camp.

Initially, they did that, didn't they?

They did, and they went away, and then over the years, I don't know what happened.

In my opinion, we fought to get the Y here.

They do the hiring. You're the boss. I feel that at least my short period I've been here, and Carlos also, the Y hasn't been the best, I would say. And I feel with my education and my expertise, if I got my staff, I would train them. I would teach them. I would share that knowledge to them. And I feel that I could propose and implement a successful program.

How many people do you need?

Depending on how many children. I would mark it. I would promote it. I would make sure I attract the kids from Ruth K Broad. So if they don't have anywhere to go for summer camp or spring camp. But don't we open it to the outside also? Correct. It would be resident, non-resident. But my focus would be obviously targeting the children in our town. and having them be watched within our limits, our own staff. Not having to contract something out, and then if something does occur with the contract, it will still fall back on us anyway. I'd rather just have my internal staff.

Do we have a long-term contract with YMCA, or is it a yearly contract?

It's a yearly contract.

It ends in August, the last year of summer camp, and it starts again in September.

And then since our numbers are low, I don't see why it wouldn't be something we could... Summer camp numbers are larger.

program? Or is that under you, probably?

I thought it was under the director.

Not quite sure.

And then they could bring it to the, regarding the budget, they would bring it to the commission.

Well, I think the the director's idea of um i think is the right way to do it where i want to just initially get your feedback then he would do his proposal bring that back to you all see where you all feel and then we can take that to the commission with a recommendation, if you all feel that it's good, and then it's something that we can track, right? And see where we are. If there's no clear advantage to having to wide run it, because you're not providing the service that our community really deserves, then I think we try it.

At that time, I thought they were having a hard time getting staff for it, in my recollection. Our internal staff, yes.

That's why we went with, hey, knowledgeable company like the YMCA, are you feeling that they're not supportive in boosting up their program to get kids here? They're not promoting themselves enough. In a way, I don't think... Because that's not... If they're dumping that on us to promote, we offer it. But if they're not boosting it up, then they're losing.

I think that also goes with the quality of the program as well. Because if kids enjoy something, they're going to talk about it. And they're going to try to bring their friends and their cousins and their brothers in. That's how the program works for them. Just like in Surfside, we have a successful tennis and soccer program. Their kids, they're dating because they enjoy it. So they talk about it. They're invested in it. So the program is successful. I don't think our camps are doing the same thing because of the quality. And you think it's the YMCA. And I feel it's the Y because I know within the field I've spoken to people that have worked with the Y and it kind of triggered into that. And then... I just worry about staffing for you. That would be something I focus on down the line. I just want to know if it's an idea. I need to get the kids first before I do the staffing.

Because it's difficult for you to keep your staff regularly. I know you've got teens that are eligible, junior counselors and things like that, that if you hook them into

a winter camp thanksgiving camp and then a summer camp you'd have somebody coming back especially if they're local kids coming back from school or something and then and then with the staff that i have having communication with them a lot of them are looking for coaching opportunities and teaching opportunities and mentorship opportunities Maybe some of the ones in the youth council could probably have them come over and even be work staff. Correct. And then I feel Carlos has been in the field a long time with his expertise, my expertise, and we train them correctly. I think it'll be a great quality program.

I just have not heard, and this is the first I'm really hearing, that the YMCA is not getting our kids excited about being at camp. Because it can be a boring time when a kid gets dropped off at 8 in the morning and picked up at 6 o'clock at night. If your day isn't moving with activities and new games and new changes. Even at my school, they go outside for so long, they come in for so long, they...

If you look at the numbers, I mean, that's what I'm going off of. And then, I mean, I've been in parks and recreation for a while. It sounds like you've got a proposal to write up. Go for it. I just want to make sure that it's okay and you guys accept it. And I think it'll be something we could really grow in the town.

Do we need a motion for anything like that?

No, he's got to come back with a proposal. Yeah. Sounds good. I'll take care of that for you.

I had a few ideas when I first got into this. I was going to the Miami-Dade Senior Center looking for ideas for here as well as looking into our schedule. For myself, number one, I wanted to keep active. I was the one that got the senior spree. Thank you very much. I mean, I'm Thanking you. Your ideas. Yeah. So to implement, for instance, the senior time on Wednesdays, I showed up and there was nobody there, 10 to 12. So some ideas that I had were, like, I understand they used to do games, you have all these games, but nobody shows up and you need people to play games with. But what if we had someone to teach mahjong? It's really popular right now. All the movie stores are doing it in Hollywood. And it's a typical senior game. So, that was one of my ideas for that Wednesday, which is supposed to be game day.

How is that activity advertised? Just on the flyer?

Flyer, website, on e-blast. We have it pretty much in all our facilities. On Gazette. On our trips, on our brunches.

I'll show you.

But Cindy do a separate senior blast rather than being included in the parks blast.

That was a good idea. Senior time, this is it.

I'm the opposite. I look at things, what is Parks doing for kids, and I should be looking at what seniors are doing. Senior time, and that's a flyer.

Yeah. Come and play bridge, board games, and more, but there was, they had a board game, but nobody there, so nobody to play with.

Wednesdays?

Wednesday from 10 to 12. So we need, You need something. So my idea was to offer people a Mahjong lesson, or bridge lesson.

Do you know how to play?

I did it once, but you need to… Do you have a teacher?

It looks confusing to me.

Do you know somebody or not?

No, I've never even heard of that game. That's why I'm asking. I'm not familiar with it.

The ladies sit around and play Mahjong.

You don't know Mahjong? I don't check it.

You're not in a condo with a courtroom and everybody's... No, we bought that game for a resident two years ago and she was playing it with a group, but she never came back after that. That was like two years ago. She had a group of eight ladies that would come every Wednesday and go play that game. So we do have the game.

FYI, it changes every year. The titles change every year. But we'll find out. Can I look into finding? Would you be interested in learning that or not?

I personally didn't know anything about games, so I'm not the right person. I grew up in a family of six. We played games all the time.

We need a senior survey.

What game would you want to learn?

Everybody's coming up to me. They don't know what to do. They don't know what to expect.

Well, we were having bridge.

Maybe it was just a bad window. I show up and there's nothing there.

That's because they are not interested in it. They know the bridge, the gate, the place.

Or maybe the morning on Wednesday before, I guess, when we're getting everybody together to depart, we could probably ask a couple, see which ones are interested, who wants to play what games.

But these guys would have a very low participation in the waiting space.

You mean for this?

No, I'm saying this Wednesday when we have the senior trip. Oh, oh, oh. You guys will all be in the same bus. No, we could do it before. We could do it inside the community. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Before we depart. Did you say only 12 signed up to that?

Yeah, only 12 are signed up so far.

I'm one. That's 12 opinions.

That's 11 more opinions. I mean, that's 11 more than one. But you could get some type of opinion. Yeah.

That's a good start.

I would create a survey as well, survey the town, see any answers.

I like the idea of the cooking class also. It's one pot, easy to cook for, maybe you've only got two people.

It sounds like the breakfast might be, or the brunch might be a good place to try to get as much information from. There's more people at the front now.

Regarding classes, there's some classes, well, that I found, I attended at the, at Unidad, at my English senior center, and such as calisthenics, tai chi, Spanish class, a book club, just more things to engage. I know that tai chi is very popular. mentally, physically. You haven't heard of it, Frank?

I'm not much of a... Tai Chi, sure. I guess I'm not just...

I haven't done it myself. I know my mother did.

But I know many people are going to take classes of yoga and Tai Chi. Is that anything to do with meditation? No. Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

That's part of it, I think.

But what about Spanish class also? We used to, we do.

Don't we have a bilingual class, an ESL class?

We had, had. What happened? Didn't get the numbers.

Participation was low.

How many numbers, I mean, how many do you mean?

It depends on the instructor. I mean, usually it's a minimum of five for most of our classes, but it depends on the instructor exactly what they try to do, but five is usually the minimum.

So maybe on... And a certain amount of classes to sign up for. Correct. Especially with our language.

Because one of the days was lacking exercise, like Thursday. You only have an exercise class at night, which is self-defense. So there's nothing like... On Thursdays. At night? No, during the day, like in the morning. So I thought calisthenics. And the woman that teaches calisthenics down here teaches something else up here. So she's already there.

I think she's Yenny, you were referring? Yes, Yenny. She's doing our dance fusion.

Yeah, so she already does something here. But there's nothing for... adults or seniors on Thursday, and the self-defense isn't until like 7.15, and I attended it, but I felt like it wasn't for me. It was like boxing.

Self-defense?

I had self-defense. I went to a four-year women's college, and it was not what I expected, but so anyway. some other exercise activities on Thursday morning. I know Thursday there's nothing.

For the January section, we are already in a second Thursday silver sneakers class. So we'll run on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Silver sneakers. Then there'll be nothing on Friday.

No, it will be Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. So we're adding three.

Oh, so it'll be three.

It'll be three. Oh, that's great. Yeah, so we're adding a third one on starting in January. At the same time at 9? From 9 to 10.

So we could do something 10, 15 to... or 10.30 to something. I mean, we have other classes that go like that. Yeah.

I know Jenny did submit us some proposals to us, so we'll definitely review them. Yeah, talk to her about that. We'll see exactly what we could add, and then is there like any specific time frame you're looking at, or just in general?

I like the 10 o'clock. time frame or 10 15 if you're going from one class to another um yeah there's nothing usually around 10 o'clock okay morning's on how about like maybe evenings two three o'clock looking at her schedule when is she's wednesday she's wednesday at 10 30 downtown so um she could do thursday i think i even asked her like if we could get her thursday okay

Yeah, I'll definitely talk to her, and then I'll add George, see if we can coordinate something. Yeah, great. Okay. Okay.

Get back in shape.

Now that I'm not working. We have no public. Oh, but I want to talk about the swimming pool issue. Okay. I know that I'm always talking about the problem with the heater in the pool, and it's very... This is extra.

I gave one to you.

Especially for the women that do swim by in the morning. For years, we have had the problem that they say that the swimmers do not like the water to be too hot, which is not fair. Number one, because we are only one hour there. Tuesday, one hour Thursday. So I don't see why we cannot accommodate the people that do Zumba and the women that go there to walk and do this in the pool from, let's say, 8 or 9 o'clock until 10 or 11. There is no reason. Today, there were three people in the pool. I was one of them. And it was freezing. And I spoke to everybody, and then you told me that they cannot be lowering and highering the temperature of the water. Okay. Tim has always told me that they leave the heater on at night, and the heater then fluctuates between 84 and 85. the heater is never over 83. So they must have done something that the heater is so low. So we haven't had hardly any Zumba in the last two weeks because it's impossible for somebody to go in and stand a temperature that is 80, 81, 82, 83. And we don't see any swimmers. I understand that there may be somebody that would like to have an 80 because he's a young guy, very educated. But then why has it always been a fight that the human classes cannot have the water at the temperature that is at least bearable?

You're making me cold just thinking of it. Yeah, I know. I hear the same thing.

Why do we waste money in, for example, the air conditioning?

It's only a degree. It's what? It's only a couple degrees, right?

In the water, yes. 85, we have always had 85, at least. And Tim has always accommodated us. I don't see why we cannot do it now.

I would have to follow up with Tim to see exactly what he did in regards to the heater and having the chemicals and all that stuff running overnight, because I'm not too familiar on how he did it, because I know it's gas right there that's circulating. So I would have to touch base with him, see how, what he did, or what did he try to...

When did it start?

About a month ago. We usually have it, starting in October the 15th, we usually have it accumulated so that we can do the Zumba classes. And this year, I have been fighting it, I'm talking to everybody, and whatever somebody says, the other one says just the opposite. I mean, every single person, you told me one thing, I want to speak to Marielena and probably somebody else, I spoke to the guy today, So either nobody knows what is happening, or they don't want to say the truth.

I'll speak to Mayanela to see what they did in the past, to have a better idea with you. Because it's not there. The heater is on for some time, and then it's off for another time, and it's between 83, 84, 85.

I mean, 84 or 85 is a minimum. It should never be 82 or 83.

We'll fix it.

Yeah.

I hope so.

I'm going to make a motion for that. You bet.

Anything else? man, Adrian. In Parks and Recreation, luckily I've grown in the field, so I'm very familiar with directors, former directors, current directors, so anytime I have a situation that I need questioning on, or that I'm kind of stuck in between, I could reach out. And like my town manager, if I have a question that is in need or is complicated for myself, or I want assistance, I'll reach out to my manager as well.

I had heard… Andy, by the way, has also been very helpful. Who? I'm sorry? Andy DeWell was before… off your team? Adrian.

Adrian.

Yeah, you said you talked to him too.

Adrian and I went to school together.

Right. Was there any talk about Tim's consultant coming on full-time?

I heard… It's in the manager's hands. Yep.

Is that… It's in the manager's hands. Yeah. I think that would be great. Yeah, that would be great. Not to take anything away from you, but he's been here for over 20 years.

Really, yeah. He knows everything. He knows. And he's ready to perform. And he could suggest things along the way. Exactly. He's on his way to retirement anyway. He knows everything about the… On his way?

He was out in a fishing hole the other day. So we're up for the 15th of December. Gentlemen, good. Thank you for keeping it going.

May I have a motion to adjourn?

I'm going to ask for one. Can I get a motion to adjourn?

I do.

Marianne? Second. There you go.

Thank you for coming.