[Music] That's how you're Marketplace. That's right. Anyway, I decided
it's okay. But I did local It's like watching Yeah, exactly.
was last year's Fortunately, you're just Let me tell you,
sorry to interrupt. [Music] So October 9th, you're going to hear about Uh, Mr. Chairman, point of order. Are we going to start this meeting today? I was trying to find out if my water was roofied.
You ready, Matt? All right. Sorry for getting us started late. We're uh some of us are attending a conference uh next door. Uh today is September 24, 2025. And it is not 1:30. It is 1:36 p.m. And we are here for the uh Pensacola Predate Estuary Program Board of Directors meeting. We'll call the meeting to order. Matt, if you'll do roll. Yes, sir. Chair Wright here. Vice Chair Moore here. Mayor Boutwell here. Mr. Compton here. Commissioner Hoffberger here. Commissioner
Kohler here. Commissioner Smith here. Mr. Speed here. And we do have uh Councilman Burr and Mr. Norberg absent today, but a quorum is present. All right. Thank you. Uh do we have any public comment today? Don't all run down at once. Okay. Um we'll move on to uh board agenda. Has everyone had time to review the agenda? M Mr. Chairman, just two notes on that. Um as I indicated to you earlier, we are dropping um the Purto Islands presentation uh to the next board meeting uh as well as the
water quality discussion. Um that will come back at November when Councilman Burr is uh also here uh and we can discuss water quality at that time. Okay. Okay. So, item E, right? And sorry. So, we looking at D and E which Yes, sir. So, that is uh item 6B for the Purdue Islands restoration presentation and then N uh item 9B for water quality. Both of those will be tabled
until November. No, I'm sorry. Yeah, I marked the wrong one. Okay, perfect. Any other changes to the agenda? All right, we'll accept it as presented. Um, I trust everyone's had opportunity to look at the board minutes for July 30 and August 27. There any amendments or changes to the minutes? All right. Second. All right. Any opposition? All right. See none, that moves unanimously and we'll move on to 6A. Northwest Florida Water Management Districts wersheds partnership program. Yes,
sir. We do have uh Mr. Daryl Budro with Northwest Florida Water Management District to talk about the watersheds partnership program partnership. We're very excited. It's kicking off. Good to see you, Darl. Good to see y'all. Um I didn't realize that I was going to be able to do the presentation. So my presentation went from like two minutes to 30. So if you want to sit back, get a drink. N it won't. I'm just gonna breeze through this because y'all y'all mo know most of this. So appreciate y'all letting me speak to y'all today. So the water management district back
in 1998 899 the legislature created the surface water improvement management plan program which is basically the guiding document for water management districts. And what that does is we each district divides their their um territory into major watersheds. So for us it's Purto, Pensacola, Chakahhatchee, St. Andrew and the rest to the east. For each of those wersheds we have a swim plan which is a very high level. It talks about the high level characteristics of the watershed, its geology, its hydrarology, those types of things. And then gets into the
uh impacts that are facing. So we've got storm water issues, we have septic tank issues, etc. And then it will list the types of projects that can be used to address those issues. What it does not do is get into the level of detail where we say in Bayou Tahar we need to convert septic tanks to sewer because we have a nutrient and bacteria issue. So the goal of the watershed program is to identify a subbasin in each of those major watersheds and focus on
that so that we can get to that next level down and say in Bayutahar we need to put more storm water controls in. We need to remove these septic tanks over here and actually have a funding source to help fund those projects because the district does not have the the funding each year to to fund projects. Most of our project money comes from grants. So get better years we have more projects, not so great years we don't. Um, so what we doing is we're proposing in an LBR to the legislature 22.5 million to fund the grant program that would fund projects and then 2.5 million to
fund the the management of that program. What we're are doing is working with estray programs. We're going to be meeting with each county. We're we're going to the regional planning council and trying to get the word out before the session starts so that there's this level of awareness and hopefully you'll be able to support that that request. Why are we doing it now? As you all know, this fastest growing state in the US, Panhandle has five of the fastest growing counties. And with the creation of the estray programs, there's a lot of momentum to focus on watersheds and and
really take that step above. The other reason is if we don't want to become a South Florida where it's going to take billions to dig ourselves out of the hole, if we do some investments up front, we can reduce the amount of investments it's going to take to keep our quality of life and avoid becoming South Florida. Not that South Florida's bad, they're just different. So, what we're doing is um again, I covered this already. We're going to have public meetings in all the seven watersheds. And I really should have pulled up the date for hours. It's going to be I can tell you it's going to be Santa Rosa County auditorium. I think it's on the 8th,
but I'll verify that with y'all. Um from 6:00 to 8. And so, what we're going to do there is have a public meeting where we do a little bit more in-depth. We're going to have a nice video that that avoid me talking in the beginning. and you'll see a nice video with with clarity and and then we're going to get public input on the subbasins the draft subbasin prioritization that we've gone through. So what we did is we took our three focus areas water quality water supply and habitat restoration and we developed objective metrics for each one of those and then scored
the subbasins within each watershed. So, in those meetings, we'll come in with a list of here's the top three, four, five subbasins that have been prioritized and then take input on which one do you think is going to be the most important to focus on. We're also going to be asking, are you aware of any restoration plans that are in those as a way to try to make sure we're focusing to where we can get the biggest bang for the buck? Because this is a one-time LBR request, but the goal obviously is to try to get a recurring funding so we can keep this moving.
already talked all about that. This is why I don't like slides. Um, so once we have identified our subbasin, we'll take a very we'll take we'll do we'll develop a subbasin work plan which then gets into that detail. It'll say here's the subbasin, here's the characteristics, here's what are the greatest uh issues that we need to address, here are the root causes, and then here's the projects that we're funding to address those causes. And we know we're not going to have enough money. Again, $22 million spread over seven priority subwaterheds is going
to be about three million per watershed. It's a start. And our goal is to make sure by going through this prioritization and this public involvement back and forth that where we focus, we're going to be have a quick win. We're going to be able to show value for that investment and then we can go back to the legislature and say, can we keep doing this because we're really having an impact. That's the really the goal of this this first round. uh the grant program once we identify the subbase and the legislature says yep here you go and hopefully they'll say you know
what you need three times more money than that be nice but it it could happen probably won't um we will then do a call for projects and say okay biotar I keep going to bayar bio we can you know east bay um whichever watershed it is we'll do a call for projects have the projects come in and then again that plan will identify both the projects as well as the unmet need that came in. So the next steps we're doing this right now we're doing re um outreach to all the
groups the counties and and then getting feedback and then once we go through that uh feedback process which will be midocctober we're going to be complete that we're going to start writing these subbasin plans and of course that'll hold off. We'll do the subbasin plans up to the project part and then once we have funding do a call for projects. We'll fill that part in. It's all I have unless you have any questions and I appreciate it. Again, I have any questions for Daryl. I just want to make sure I get that date right whenever you get it. So, make sure you get
it to October 8th. I believe I'm 90% sure. Oh, the pressure's on. We can make sure it's distributed out to everybody. Yeah, I won't stand. Although, you know, I could because I do keep pontificating. That's cool. Huh? Pontificate. It's It's great. Not while I'm trying to read my Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Darl. All right, we'll move on to uh staff updates. Matt,
if we can get the other slide presentation pulled up maybe it Thank you. Thank you. While he's doing that, I'll just wish everybody a happy National Esseries Week. I know
Bailey will talk uh about some of the programs and opportunities and events that we have going on this week, but uh this is annual celebration, always the third week of September every year. uh really to highlight the the natural resources that we get to call home. So, please go out and celebrate and enjoy uh the the esties that make uh this region so special. All right. Uh first up, I had to throw in the picture, of course. Uh action. Commissioner uh Commissioner Wright and
I had the opportunity to be up in DC a couple of weeks ago uh to meet with uh a number of uh congressional representatives. Uh we're actually pictured here with uh Congressman Petronis uh who spent a a good deal of time with us um talking about um not only the national estray program designation but some other key uh priorities for uh the region. uh very fortunate to have uh great conversations uh with not only Petronis' office uh but Congressman Dunn uh Moore uh Senator um
uh Scott's office um Brit Yeah, Senator Britt and Congressman uh Isel's office out of Mississippi uh as well. Um, so the the uh long and short of it is that uh there is a lot of support uh from our congressional representatives to help us uh through the remainder of the national um estray program enrollment process. Just as a reminder, we did receive the designation back in December of last year. Our hang-up has been on the administr administration side for the EPA
administrator to formally enroll uh the uh estray program into EPA's national estray program. So uh we've gotten those commitments to help on the outreach to EPA administration. We also had a conversation uh with leadership of uh EPA um while we were up there and it's not been a matter that it's not a priority for them. uh they've just had a number of other things going on uh that have uh been priority of uh the EP administrator. Uh so they anticipate being able to to move forward with
that uh enrollment. Um question is more on timing. So we're going to keep the pressure uh on them to to help us get through that process. Also uh last week the national estray program reauthorization bill HR 3962 uh did move through uh the house transportation infrastructure committee. Uh rep Congressman Petronis is on that committee. Uh fortunately we were already included um in the bill in that language. Uh but they also added in Mississippi Sound in Mississippi. Uh so that was
great progress there. They are a partner of ours. We work with them all the time and and looking forward to them uh moving through the designation process with us. Also had the opportunity to attend the uh legislative delegation meeting uh last night over in uh Santa Rosa County up in Milton. uh represented the SJA program, gave our appreciation uh to Representative Andradi for his support uh of the SJA program of our legislative budget requests um since he's been in office uh as
well as uh articulating uh you know the continued uh need for support uh moving uh moving forward and I know we're going to talk about legislative priorities here towards the end of the agenda. I forgot there's a picture It's a full house. It was a very full house last night. And I I'm sorry. Somehow I I jumped on the uh schedule ahead of uh Commissioner Smith. Uh I I don't know how that worked out, but uh thanks for thanks for the the the advancement on the schedule.
Other updates, uh Whitney and I are currently going through interviews for the outreach and education program manager position. We did receive uh 60 applications um many more than we were expecting. So, it's taken some time to to get there. Uh we hope to uh reach a decision here uh in the next week or so once we conclude those interviews. The strategic planning process continues to to move forward. Uh we have uh continue to work with ID group and the rest of the team um to build out our uh primary objectives in the strategic plan.
uh we are in the process of refining those and then starting to work on the action plans. Uh at the November board meeting, we will have um a session uh focused on presenting the overall uh strategic plan concept um and engaging with y'all at that point on where we see the the organization as a as a whole going uh over the next five years uh and and set ourselves up for success. Vessel update. Just got word uh yesterday that the boat is ready to go. It's built uh over in Louisiana.
Um so we are still working with Yamaha on uh the U partnership opportunity. Uh it does look uh very uh very likely that they will donate the engine for us. Uh it'll likely be until January before uh we're able to get that approved as they go through their budgeting process. Uh, and then fortunately, PAS Marine is also donating the the service of the installation uh for the engine uh on the vessel. So, we're going to go up to go over to Louisiana at some point in the next couple of weeks,
go pick it up, and uh hopefully by the first part of next year, we'll be ready to rock and roll on the water. And then just my last update is just a reminder uh what happened there is we uh third annual evening for the eststeries event our gala is October 16th 6 o'clock coastal arts center of Orange Beach. Please help us uh get additional attendees uh to the gala. If everybody can bring four people we will hit our mark um of uh uh of our attendance. And uh we're looking
forward to another great time of celebrating our esties raising funds that go directly back uh to our uh programming opportunities. So with that, I think I'm turning it over to Whitney. Unless there's any questions. I don't know what happened to the text. I know it doesn't sounds apparently. Looks like we typed it on a typewriter. Um lots of things going on. Um we've been really busy. Um especially this coming up Sunday um the G Coast Research Lab folks that we partner with
um Dr. Darnell will be over with his team of amazing researchers doing all of the seaggrass surveys across Purto and Pensacola. They're are already kicking off things on Sunday and then um Zach is going to be volunteering his time to help us with the trollling survey this year. So, we have um previously contracted with the Dolphin Island Sea Lab um to conduct this monitoring um but I have gotten the uh blessing from Dr. Ken Heck to continue on this program um and us as the
lead. And so we're going to be leading this survey annually um from here on out, especially once we can conduct it on our own boat. That's going to be exciting. Um and so we're going to be out there the end of next week um collecting juvenile fish um in our seaggrass beds and taking um data and information that we've been collecting for several years prior um to add to that data set. Um and that information was also included in our state of the bays report. So we're looking forward to that. Hopefully it'll be good weather for us. Um we continue to do the Pensacola Bay Oyster
Restoration Initiative SPAT and Laurel monitoring. I have some exciting pictures to show you on the next slide. Um but we did get um actually a lot of spat settlement on the tiles from the end of August. So August 21st we went out and saw several oyster spat on tiles across the entire bay system. So we're waiting on official data from that. Um we are partnering with the Dolphin Island Sea Lab. Uh Dr. Ronnie Baker's lab is leading that effort to process the tiles. Um and so they're making good progress on that. And then we're partnering with um Dr. Amanda Croutau from University of West
Florida to do all of the laral um processing which you'll see is uh quite the undertaking. There's a lot of live animals in these um from our plankton toes that we're doing. Um also in a couple weeks we're going to be doing our last quarter of living shorelines monitoring for our um collaborative work that we do with St. Andrew St. Joe Bay estuary program and Chakahhatchee Bay estuary program. And so we're going to be completing quarter 4 monitoring um that first week in October. And then the living shoreline assistance program has been uh wildly successful. They've had
a lot of interest. Um they're currently doing site visits and assessments and um they're moving forward with six projects in the Purto Bay wershed. So they're already working on designs for those projects um and getting out in the field. So that's been exciting as well. I think they're going to give a more robust update at the November meeting as well. But the left um picture is one of the pictures that was taken under the microscope. And so in the middle that's the by valve larvi. Um so that's what we're looking for when we're looking for oysters. We can't specifically say
that they're you know eastern oyster um larve um because just at that size it's very hard to speciate them. But look at all the copapods and other things like flying around in the sample. She also sent really interesting ones of brittle stars and other laral fish. So once we have um a lot more samples, we can I'll put together a slide deck of of pictures and some interesting stuff that we're finding at sites. But I thought that was really cool. Um and that is just a tiny tiny piece of that entire sample. So she has to really like filter it all down and and basically
she's only uh measuring a subsample of those um water samples. She showed us a a picture of just how much biomass is in those samples. And it's crazy. We're only doing a one minute toe and just the amount of like life in those samples is incredible. Um lots of zop plankton and phytolankton. Um but on the right hand side is our tiles and you can see the three um uh little kind of yellow marks are where the oyster spat. So in amongst the barnacles and other things,
we're definitely seeing tiny oysters settling on the tiles. So that's always promising. Um they're also settling on the pipes and everything else that we have in the water too. So they're around. Um and then just a quick update on the Carpenter Creek uh restoration project. We've really been hitting it hard with property owner engagement. Uh all of our team and the Moffett and Nickel team split up into groups the last what three weeks. Um and we've been doing door knockocking. So going to um uh businesses and property owners and really just letting them know um about the project. They
received mailers um in the mail uh just additional information on the project and how to contact us. And we were really looking for property access. So we were um successful in getting several property um access agreements signed for data collection for that first uh kind of segment of the project uh to inform design. And then there's an upcoming open house um that we wanted you guys to be able to share with your constituents. I know that Matt's have been in touch with some of you, but this will be Tuesday, October 7th from 5 to 8:00 p.m. at the Bayiew Community Center. So,
this is really targeted for property owners specifically just to really let them know more about the project. They can come and ask questions and then we'll have partner partners there as well that are doing um similar efforts. We'll have the headarters um Carpenter Creek project where people can come ask questions. We'll have a little presentation and have um the access agreements there. If people are ready and willing to sign there, we can make that happen there as well. So, really targeted at that, but of course the the public is also welcome to join us. And then the
Living Shoreline Assistance Program, like I said, um they've been really busy um kind of going all over the Predto uh Bay area, but site assessments and landowner meetings are underway. project design work, like I said, is is ongoing. And then they're really going to be working on permitting these projects, um, getting those permit applications submitted, uh, reports to homeowners, and then looking for, uh, towards project implementation in early 2026.
Okay. Does anyone have questions for me before I hand it over to Bailey? Just real quick on the living shoreline. Um the project was going to be moving into the Pensacola watershed, Pensacola Bay wershed. Is that already off to a good start, too? Yeah, there's actually we're not officially rolling it out until the beginning of the year, but we've already had interest from um rolling it out in Purto. We've already done, I think, several site assessments in Pensacola, even though it's not officially, you know, we haven't done official
outreach pushing for that, but it will be opening up in January of next year. But I think people are already free to apply currently. So, it's an kind of a rolling application process. So, yeah. Okay. So, going back to July, we had the Purto Islands volunteer planting. And again, this was an effort with Mafeta and Nickel, the city of Orange Beach, and the Nature Conservancy. We had a total of 28 volunteers come out, and that's um not including
all of the wonderful staff from the city of Orange Beach, Moffett and Nickel, the Nature Conservancy, all of our partners that came out to help as well. And we ended up planting about 2500 native plants. I think a lot of that was switchgrass, and that was along Robinson Island. We had Chloe come out and she was able to get us some really cool aerial images from our drone. So, we were really grateful for that as well. But, it was a very successful event. It was also a very hot event. Um, so it we ended up cutting it a little bit shorter than what we
had originally anticipated, but there was a heat advisory that day and we wanted to make sure that we got our volunteers back um, off the island and kind of in the planting before that heat advisory went into effect. But we just want to extend gratitude to everyone that made this planting possible. Thank you so much to the city of Orange Beach for helping shuttle people out to the islands. We definitely couldn't have done it without that support.
Oh, no, too far. Um, and then another thing that we did is we had the National Oyster Day celebration. So, National Oyster Day was uh August 5th, but we ended up having a celebration August 6th at Redfish Bluefish to coincide with one of their oyster specials that they were having where they have a lot of locals come out as well as tourists that are staying by nearby hotels come out and partake on uh oysters. We had 51 attendees and we were partnering with Red Fish Bluefish. So,
they're one of the restaurants that are part of our oyster shell recycling program. So, we really wanted to amplify and show off the efforts that we're doing through our oyster shell recycling program by highlight highlighting one of those restaurants. We also had Oyster Corps, our partner that helps us with the oyster shell recycling come out, as well as Dune Defenders. So, they're part of Inis Free, which is the partner that oversees Redfish Bluefish, as well as several other hotel properties on Pensacola Beach. And then, um, we had Florida Sea Grant come out as
well. So, we were really excited to pull together a lot of our oyster partners that help make uh the oyster restoration initiative and all of the other projects that we're doing a reality. So, it was just a really fun event to kind of celebrate the work that we're doing. And we ended the evening by showing the humble oyster out on the beach, which you can see in the left picture, which was a really lovely evening. So, thank you to those that came out and celebrated with us this evening. It was a lot of fun and we really appreciated having your support. And then this week, as Matt already mentioned, is National Estuaries Week. So, uh you can see we
already have one event sold out. That's actually this evening. Um just like at National Oyster Day, we have vertical oyster garden building. So, that's where we take the recycled oyster shell from the restaurants that we're collecting. And Oyster Corps helps us by drilling holes and then we have volunteers construct the Vogs and put them together. So people can choose to take those bogs home and hang them off their dock to help create oyster habitat or we stockpile and hold on to the vogs until we're ready to distribute to homeowners. But that is an event that we're having
today over at Gary's Brewery and Beer Garden. So this is the first time that they've hosted us for a Vog building event. And I know they're really excited about it. We're really excited. So um we're already completely full on volunteer registration. We've had people reaching out wanting to get on a wait list. So there's definitely a lot of community support there. This Thursday, we would love to invite all of you to our community grant symposium. So this is where we'll be showing off the work of our recipients that just wrapped up their project. So 2024 to
2025 community grant recipients. Each one will be giving a presentation on their project. There's a total of six. And then we'll also be announcing the awards of the 2025 to 2026. So we're really excited about that. We're going to have some light ordorfs, so we invite you to come out. That'll be at the Bay View Community Center from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. And then on Friday morning, we are working with UFAS to put on an event called Bringing Back the Bays that they uh cutely came
up with a title, a learning lunch. So, the idea is that they're going to have coffee and light snacks in the morning during the presentations that are going to start at 8:00 a.m. and they're going to wrap up at about 12:30 p.m. And at that time, we'll bring in a cater lunch from Publix. So, we already have people registered and signed up for this learn and lunch. It's going to be taking place at Belleview Library. So, we're really excited for this and we invite you to come out. It's going to be on the topic of water quality. So we have several um u ufus agents that are going to
be coming out and giving topics uh presentations on topics such as uh POS u microlastics vibrio and I know I'm forgetting one more but it'll be a fun morning filled with lots of learning and hopefully some good food. And then from this Friday to Sunday our staff will be tableabling at the Pensacola Seafood Fest right here in downtown. So, if you're going by, you should swing by our tent and say hi to us. So, we'll be there along with our oyster core partners. So,
we'll be tableabling and showing off our new 2025 state of the base report. And that's all I have. Thank you. You have any questions? No. I saw your light on Vernon, so I wasn't sure. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. All right. We'll move on to action items. Uh we'll move on to approval of the quarterly financial statements for fiscal year 24 25 third quarter. There any concerns or questions there?
Move to approve. Second. All right. Any opposed? All right. That moves unanimously. Um fiscal year 2526 operating budget. I trust everyone's had an opportunity to look at that. Uh Matt, did you have anything to add? No, sir. As it states in the in the backup, uh this is consistent with what was approved back in the July board meeting. Okay. All right. Is there any opposition to that one? All right. We'll just move that unanimously. Um renewal
of the uh estate programs office lease with Empire Partners LLC for an additional one-year term. Are there any questions or concerns about that? Any input? All right. I would move the approval of that. Second. All right. Any opposed? We'll move that one unanimously as well. Uh on to item D. Authorization of executive director to negotiate contract with Johnson Mir Mermaran and Thompson. I want to say Mirian. Mermaran and Thompson uh Incorporated JMT for the um RFQ for P2425-02
sediment reduction prioritization action plan. Are there any concerns uh or questions with about that one? Move approval. Second. All right. Any opposed? All right. That's approved unanimously. Um item E, approval of agreement with Eskeami County, Florida in the amount of $487,527.40 for the microbial source traction uh nera project. Are there any concerns or questions about that or
any staff input? No. Move the approval of that one, too. All right. Any opposed? That passes unanimously. And item F, approval of an agreement with Escami County, Florida in the amount of $49,329 for the Noah Bay wershed education and training of the BWAT project. Are any concerns about that or questions? All right, seeing none, we is there anyone opposed? We'll move that one unanimously as well. And that addresses all the action items. We'll move on to discussion
of legislative priorities. Yes sir. So, uh, as alluded to earlier, of course, the delegation is has had the Scambian Santa Rosa County delegation meetings the last couple of weeks. Uh, we're gearing up, uh, for session to come, uh, as we've done in years past, looking for board direction on legislative priorities. Uh, I've put together, uh, this slide and and certainly open to additional feedback um, from the board in terms of where we go. Uh I'd like to request uh continuation of the legislative budget request that we as we've had in in years past to support
our oyster restoration initiative, Carpenter Creek restoration, community grant program, monitoring program, and community outreach and education programming. Um just note that I uh gave a range of a million to a million and a half um working with uh representat staff on what would be the most um feasible uh ask uh to to submit for for this year. Additionally, what I'd recommend is that we support uh the water management district's wershed partnership program.
Uh the presentation you heard earlier from Daryl. Uh this is something that we've been working uh um kind of in the background with their staff uh the last couple of sessions and and hope that it can get over the finish line this year. Uh also look for uh support of Escambia Countyy's Carpenter Creek uh acquisition uh LBR. Uh that is certainly uh goes to support uh the the larger um restoration uh work that we are planning for for Carpenter Creek. Unfortunately, the bottom one kind of got cut off. Uh, but I was looking for general direction from the board on
the SJA program's involvement in uh environmental policy uh legislation. This is something that we have typically not been involved in in in past uh sessions. Um, every year there is uh, you know, a number of environmental policies uh that that uh come up. Um, you know, we're involved in in different organizations that have some level of influence, whether that's FAC or um Florida local environmental resource agencies. Uh, so just looking for general board direction if that's
something uh that you'd like us to to continue to to monitor, weigh in on um or or you know, just uh just stay clear. Certainly the policy element uh has an impact on on the the larger work that we do. Um, and we haven't really taken a a active role in past years. So, just looking for some general guidance. I'll I'll jump in real quick. I'm sorry. No, you go. You had your keyed up. I didn't see you. I'll come up next. Okay. Um, I think we have to be careful and judicious
when we start talking about getting involved with with policy and and and advocating for legislation one way or the other. However, I think it would be wise for us to do so. Um, I'd be curious to hear from the rest of the board how they think we should what policy we should create though in order to figure out what how this board decides what the if there's legislation that you're aware of that looks like it's moving forward. I don't know how we how we approach that whether you know it makes sense for you to apprise the board at a meeting of it and then we discuss it and vote
whether or not we want to take a stance on that on on that particular policy or not and at that point then be begin to go advocate for or against a policy. Um, I just want to be careful and make sure that there's not there's not an effort for the program to advocate for or against something unless the the board agrees in in a majority, if that makes sense. I just I wouldn't want anyone to feel like they're their voice isn't being heard on the board. Um, so I'll open it up. I I just think we need to come up with some kind of policy on how we do that. Absolutely. I I agree. And I think,
you know, from from the get-go, this has been a non-regulatory organization. And you know, we and and I think we stated that in the very beginning when this was all coming together. Um and and it, as Colton alluded to, it's it's we kind of have to tiptoe around um advocating for one thing or another. I think that we need to discuss what what type of like what what level um we would take it to. You know, we talk a lot um in the past we've um we've seen letters of support
for certain projects and things like that. And I would consider something like that assuming that it was unanimous across the board if if we were able to, you know, take a letter of support to, you know, whoever that may be to to show our support. But, um, I think I think it's it's a good discussion point for the board to decide if if we're going to take that route, like you said, what the process looks like. And is it a letter? Is it actually going to, you know, DC like you guys just went and and and pushing like that or or sending it to our lobbyists to say, "Hey, we're in
favor of this. What can you guys do to help move this forward?" You know, there's there's a lot of different avenues. So being clear as a board um how we approach that is is important. Hey, Mr. Chairman, just a couple thoughts. I guess when I first heard you say this, Matt, I was thinking looking at the five things on the list, I was thinking you were asking for our priorities of projects that we were going to lobby collectively. and I had something come to mind. But um I I don't
mind getting behind things depending on what they are because I do think letters from boards help. I I know you guys do them in Santa Rosa. I do them regularly, but I think the board should have a a majority vote before we do that obviously. Um can I go back to what I was thinking with what you did on oyster restoration because this came up between and Carpenters Creek. Obviously, I'm very supportive of that in Commissioner Hoffberger's district. But one of the one of the projects, and I think I mentioned this to you, Pat, Matt, that I've been working on with legislative folks
that includes the city as well as the county and commissioner May's biocheo. And we got about chips is out there. We've got about $10 million right in there. Clean up a lot of really, you know, bad stuff that's in there. And we're seeing some progress. But that's a that we have a very active group in that neighborhood that will advocate for us as well as it splits the city and the county. Is there any um thought process in lobbying for that project in the future a little bit more?
I just I know Delaran had reached out to me. Um I just was wondering if that's even come across as one of the projects you guys are looking at. It it it certainly could be and that's something that we can talk with Chips about of you know really coming up with a strategy on you know what the county's leading what we can support um whether that's a direct LBR or you know continuing working with water management district or D on on some other opportunities and and to make sure that it's highlighted uh to get you know all the funding that's necessary to see it come to come
to construction but certainly uh not not anything that I'd be opposed to. Okay. Yeah. I'm always if I get the chance to ask for money, I do. So, yeah. And I the reason reason I said I think we need to be careful is obviously understand the political climate both in Florida and nationally and and and and Matt as you know um much of the conversations many of the conversations we had when we were in DC um we had to clarify you know what we were asking for um wasn't
a regulatory change you know or or additional regulations that we were just trying to basically uh provide outreach and provide uh resources us to do to do restoration and education. So, I I think we do need to be careful. But that being said, I'm comfortable with some level um of advocacy. I just my suggestion would be that yourself and staff, if you see something, bring it to the board. We can make an agenda item that, you know, that that we can discuss
and hopefully we we'll have time to be, you know, well verssed on it and that the board can vote and We may even have to vote on this portion. I don't know if if if we want that to be unanimous or if we want it to be twothirds, you know, like a super majority or something like that. But I think we need to figure out what that looks like and maybe that's something we can discuss at a later date. Um, and then if there's something that's for whatever reason, you know how sometimes session gets in um in Tallahassee, if there's something that comes up that is is for whatever reason extremely timesensitive, you know, whether we there's a requirement to to hold a, you know,
an emergency board meeting or or how we handle that or whether we have a couple people designated as delegates to to address it. I I don't know. I just I say all that just for discussion sake just to say that we need to make sure we have some kind of policy we've created for sure and and your thought process is very much in alignment with I think mine which is uh again we are non-regul non-regulatory non-advocacy in the sense of some other organizations but really a lot of what we do can inform policy decisions and so that's really the reason I brought up this
subject is often asked you know uh issues that we see in environmental permitting. For example, we we've had issues in being able to um uh propel um living shoreline permitting. See, some cases can be easier to get a seaw wall permit than it is, you know, a living shoreline permit. So if we can work with, you know, legislative members or or the state agencies to to help inform that policy decision, that could be a good thing to advance, you know, the mission as a whole. Um certain
things like that without, you know, maybe taking a stance, you know, for or against or you know, over overtly advocating for, you know, XYZ policy. But uh what I would suggest is uh at the next board meeting between now and then maybe uh the chairman and I can kind of come up with a policy uh recommendation of of the board uh just to give some guard rails to it. it hasn't caused any issues uh in the past and u just want to make sure that we're straight staying on the the straight
and narrow kind of moving forward as you know uh as we get additional requests so that way we we know generally what the the appetite and direction of the board is. Mr. Chairman, I want Well, I was just going to say I just realized uh as you were talking, I may have inadvertently put us in a in a little bit of a tough tough position in with regard to advocacy for policy because by asking you to serve on the land development code task force in San Rosa County, one could say that you're an extension of this board advocating for a policy change. And I just realized that. So, one,
just let me apologize the board for if anyone thinks that that was improper, it wasn't meant to be. Um, it was basically to say take your expertise and and help help us in Santa Rosa County do something that would ultimately benefit the eststerary program and the estaries and and our waterways. Go ahead, Mr. Col. Well, I'm just Matt I'm trying to process. So, for example, let's just talk about Carpenter Creek. Obviously, that wasn't funded last year, right? One of Escambia County and one of our delegation requests was we went back and requested that again.
That would be something I think would obviously be something that the board should send a letter in support because it was taken off. We went as a our commission voted to go back to do it again. You know, I don't know what I think we know why it was taken off, but it should have probably been funded. But something like that, I think would be very appropriate for this board to have sent a a letter of support for that project because it was already in the pipeline. I think that's what you're alluding to. Is that is that kind of what you're asking? talking more about policy. So, it's
one thing, I think, for a legislative request. It's another thing if we're advocating for some significant policy change at the state or federal level with regards to a type of permitting being required or, you know, restrictions of vessels in certain areas or something like that because I know that came up with with Congressman Petronis. You know, when we were sitting there talking, at one point, I think he was under the impression we were going to try to do something that was going to restrict people to be using their boats in our local waterways. And we're like, "No, no, no, sir. That's not the case. We're not trying to restrict anyone's access to the water. We're not
trying to create any regulations whatsoever. We're just trying to make sure the, you know, oysters are rehabilitated and we're doing living shorelines and increasing, you know, resiliency efforts." Um, and once we said that, once he fully understood what the program was about, he was very supportive. But I think it's more that type of legislation rather than just saying, "Hey, we have a project we want funded." Does that make sense? Yeah. No, I I I just want to add clarity. That's where it gets a little sticky. I'm all for supporting any county or city or town's efforts in
going out and getting some funding for a project. I I'll be the first to sign on to to help support that and help advocate for that in person. Vernon, do you have something? Yes. And um just to further what you were saying, chairman, about the um efforts on the policy side of the expertise of our staff related to items that we've already been working on a lot that are critical in this wershed. One thing that comes to mind that they'll see more and more of are the problems that we have with invasive species where they may able they may be able to actually input some information
that would help with the statewide policy of how do we deal with this? What are we seeing? Um that other people may not see that they're going to be out there all the time and and working with others in our local government areas. So that's where I see we could have a big impact and probably along the lines of what you were thinking of how do we institute institute some parameters that would bring those type of scenarios back to the board for review and then they could provide
that kind of input back. Thanks. I I don't think I don't think I don't foresee there ever being a problem with the members of this board or the members of staff as it currently sits. I just I I do worry about as things change over time when none of us are here, maybe that the executive staff is completely different um that things that we that somehow things go out of the realm of common sense and go too far one way or the other. You know, I think the worst thing could happen is if us have massive deregulation uh in our area and I think overregulation could be just
as bad and burdensome. So I I I'm glad to see that everyone has that kind of that same common sense approach here. Um so let's maybe we'll try to craft something we can bring back to the board and uh make sure that everyone is comfortable with something before we make a a decision. And just to clarify, so we're looking at what the parameters would be for the estuary program to essentially endorse asking for a new policy or asking to deregulate a policy. Is that correct? I I'd say it is on the policy front. I don't think there's any issues going back to the to
the support on on project funding and that sort of thing. That's a that's a separate uh issue in my mind. I think the parameters that we would set is you know at at what point does the program want to get engaged in certain aspects and we can set those different maybe uh authority thresholds so to speak in terms of if we're just information you know providing information to an agency or to the legislature as a whole to inform their crafting a policy that's
one thing versus if the board wants to take a direction on for or against XYZ policy. I I would honestly stay away from the latter as as much as we can and focus more on the information sharing side of things. Well, and I'm just thinking on a local level. So, right now, one of the things that my office is exploring is we're having a problem with larger vessels just dumping their sewage and not having it pumped out. So, we're exploring ways on how to regulate that. Obviously, that impacts the health of our waters. So my hope would be that the estuary program would say, "Hey,
this is needed. It's a problem based on this and this and this and this is the impact that we can expect if we don't regulate it." Um, so I think that there are projects out there that we could all get behind, but I do agree it needs to come to the board for a vote. That's a great comment, Commissioner. And I and this is another one that we're we brought up to the state legislature. You folks may not know it, but it was derelike vessels because the state regulation is is very complicated. It's not like if you have a car in the middle of the road, we come tow it. You got
you got to have FWC come out there. It's going to be 30 days. It takes it takes a couple months to get a derelch vessel out. So, we're pushing that. That was one of our legislative priorities um in Escambia County that we're pushing forward to hopefully the state will look at. That would be something maybe you'd come back and ask the board if we have an interest in. You know, it's just another example of what you shared, but it it goes to sewage as well because there's out there dumping stuff all over the waterways and not helping the water quality. Yeah, I think that's a great example and and I'll just I'll throw one other thing out separate
from from this board specifically. Um, everyone on this board is part of the community and part of you know a neighboring number of counties and cities and towns and we probably I know you know in small talk occasionally we talk about what each individual community is doing and and then we look at you know what we see in the media but I don't know if we have a formal way to do it but maybe if we figured out a way to either have our administrators and town managers or or some conduit to make sure that we all understand what each other's priorities are um because I've had
this I've had this conversation with the mayor and and we were trying to figure out Mayor Pensacola um of of how to assemble a team to make sure that we're very consistent much like where we have you know the legislative delegation has to be very consistent in representing the panhandle of Florida in our in our area because they are outnumbered. I think we should have the ability to do the same thing and find ways that we're So, you know, your concern about that? That's a concern that Santa Rosa County would have too. Um maybe not to the same extent because
we don't have as much for bayus and things like that where that could be done uh more. But um I think anytime we can be a force multiplier for each other, I think we should be doing that. So maybe we can if we can figure out some way to make sure that communication is there so that if if if Commissioner Smith or myself or in Tallahassee, you know, or having conversation with, you know, uh, Representative Salsman or Representative Andrade or or Boils or Senator Gates or something like that, we can all be very consistent so that they see the message that we all believe in the same thing. I think the the likelihood to to to get the best outcome would be better that way. So
I don't know. I'll go back to our administration and try to figure out if there's a some way to make that more functional. Matt, does that give you is it clear as mud? It that's that's all good that you know I personally wanted to just have a discussion of the board because you know this is something that we we kind of get pulled into every now and then and uh I just want to make sure that I'm adhering to general board board guidance but we'll get together and then approach the subject again at the November board meeting. Yeah. Last thing this board needs to be doing is putting
you in a tough spot as executive director and then making you feel like you're walking a plank and then you got to be accountable to us. That's not that's not fair to you or staff. All right, we'll move on to uh committee updates. What do we got? We have we don't have any committee updates today. No committee updates. All right, any updates from the fellow members of the board about anything? Uh go ahead, Woody. Throw something out here just because I'm excited about it because it's been a year plus. Um so uh city of Orange Beach uh as part of the uh living shoreline grant
uh or cost share program uh we uh we had a um a greenhouse that was part of that grant and that is under construction now should be built out in the next couple weeks. So we're excited about that uh to get it up and running. It's been a long hard road um with the manufacturer we selected and and everything, but it's exciting. Um I was out with the crews this morning, so just want to throw that out there. I know Santa Rosa is working on uh the same basically the same uh setup. So,
um hopefully it wasn't as difficult uh of a process on their end, but but that's that's exciting for us just because of the program and to get that up and running and get it stocked. So, You've got a big ribbon cutting on at the end of the week, too. Oh, yeah. The uh Purdue Islands ribbon cutting uh is taking place this uh this Friday. A great great time to do that during National Estster Week, but as Bailey was talking about earlier with the planting event. the city um the nature conservancy mafet nickel have been been working on this project years in the making
uh and it is uh finally wrapping up and it will be a great great opportunity to celebrate that uh coastal restoration project. Um it's it's looking real good. Yeah, I am. I'm I'm really excited about that. It'll be uh it's at 11 on Friday. Is that right? 11 o'clock on Friday at Cobalt. Um everybody's invited. Bring Okay. You can just pop in, right? We Yeah, we they they actually rented out the entire restaurant. Um so we've got the whole facility out back and it it provides a great view for the uh New Islands and and just to build on that, we we nixed the uh presentation from the
agenda today because Mafigle couldn't be here. But uh we'll kick it to the next meeting and then um hopefully we'll be able to get on the boat uh if anybody's interested and actually go, you know, tour the islands and look at everything. Uh it's it's impressive. Uh what's going to be cool is is just for the ribbon cutting on Friday is just the number of people that were involved and and everybody's going to be there. It'll it'll be fun. It be really really cool. So we're excited.
I was just I saw that and I was like I can't RSVP for anything because I never know what's going on from one minute to the next right now. And I know this week right here is just a crazy week and I every week in the advance is in the on the horizon is crazy. So I saw that and I was like, man, that'd be a great place to be on a Friday. So yeah, to that end, I'll be I'll be out of town through Tuesday, but um so I can't attend any of these things, but I I would encourage all of you if if given the opportunity to stop by the seafood festival at some point,
um please do so. And uh if you can stop by their tent and uh I know the last couple years when I've stopped by it was it was always interesting one to see everyone doing such great work out there talking to the people but it's also interesting as a board member to be able to sit there and listen to some of the people that walk up and see how they interact and and you know throw your two cents in and kind of uh show your support for the for the team and the staff, but also let the uh let the constituents and the residents know how important the program is. And you can eat some seafood while you're there. Um, one last chance for public comment.
Come on down. You wound me up. All right. October 15th, 6 to 8 at the Santa Rosa County Author Auditorium. And I really feel bad because I forgot to thank Christopher Lindy who helped me get that settled and registered. So, thank you. October 15th, 6 to 8, Santa Rosa County at auditorium. I got to save, Mr. Chairman. It's more for Matt. Who's Who's taking donations for the uh silent
auction? I you didn't mention it, so I was g you know, I'm gonna donate something, but I don't What was the question? for the equ the equestrian night out last year. We all were asked to give something for the silent auction. Oh, right, right, right. Yes. Thank you. Wasn't tracking before. Uh yes. In addition to the uh uh to to getting people there. Uh any opportunities for silent auction items is is greatly appreciated. Uh Commissioner Kohler's coming in again with Saints tickets. I don't know
where the seats are located this I may have to pay you to take them this year, but I'll still It's a good birthday gift for my dad. Um, I think we're up to around 20 items currently somewhere in that ballpark. Are you Is it you or Logan? I'll send an email to one me, Bailey, the whole team. Whole team is is involved. Uh, but send it to me. We're we're all working on it. All right. And then going back to your point about the sewage,
um D has a program called the clean marine program and clean vessel act grants and it's funding to put in uh vacuums at the marinas and my person has retired that worked there, but I can get a new contact for you. Yes, ma'am. Uh Darl, if you don't mind send that over to us as well in Santa Rosa, that'd be great. Thank you. Yeah, and thanks for the reminder on the silent auction items. I know I mentioned something to you that I think might be pretty cool and and relative to the estate program. So, I'll try to uh get that knocked out myself with
an item. All right. Anything else from the board members? You got a seaggrass cutter. It is not a piece of equipment, but it is a really cool piece of art that I actually wanted to buy myself, but I'll buy one and donate. Chips, are you going to out bid everyone this year as usual? All right. Thank you everyone for being here uh and for all the hard work. Thank you, staff. We're adjourned.