e e Thursday February 27th 2025 and it is 1:02 p.m. and this is the meeting of the cultural and environmental learning centor Advisory Board uh and it's here at Town Hall Chambers and I'm calling
this meeting to order beginning with the Pledge of Allegiance please stand of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you and we'll begin roll call
with our esteemed vice mayor Jim aderhold Jim aderhold is here and would you state your name Carolyn McOwen and I just want to stop at this point to welcome Carolyn to our cellc advisor gour congratulations on
your appointment by Town Council it's great thank you very much here thank you welcome continue Ellen vaugh Sher Smith Barbara Hill Betty Simpson Adam Knight and Jeff hogy okay thank you everyone um uh the approval of the minutes have you
all had a chance to review the minutes they were of course emailed to you previously so I'm assuming everyone's had the opportunity to review them are there any additions amendments Corrections actually I have I have a few comments okay
um the the Adam had made the statement and recorded in minutes P we are on page three of six that the seol tribe had a proven cultural affiliation with these ancestors and I want to say that's it's an opinion speak up I'm sorry it's an
opinion stated that they are approving cultural affiliation with these ancestors and I would like that to be prefaced by saying that's just that's that's Adam's opinion uh it is not an opinion well according to the United States uh Indian Claims Court 1968 the S
tribe are affiliated by land and their rulings that they are for the entire State of Florida right then moving on to um page five you had indicated that that the friends were paying $2,000 a year for a
kiosk um I don't believe we have anything in our budget that line items that talks about us paying $2,000 a year for a kiosk where's that on page five page page five page five ccab member explained that she did not support the location you said that revealed the
friends were paying $2,000 a year for KI domain uh yes that's the website well what but what domain name are we paying $2,000 for uh kiosk house.org so but who I mean we're
not formally you're not anymore okay but my knowledge well how long ago how many years do we pay for it uh up until last year it's not a line item in our budget so I think we need to talk to Nancy we need need to clarify that with with Nancy Smith so if you could say that
that needs to be investigated okay I I think that's a friends issue it is a friends issue but but it's stated in here that the friends is paying that ah and the friends to most of my knowledge as president of the friends to my knowledge we're not paying $2,000 a year for domain name uh correct you're no
longer well we weren't it hasn't been a line item in the budget for years okay we'll look into it okay so should we make the correction then in the minutes reflecting that P five all right um any other additions
Corrections clarifications there being none a motion to accept the minutes I'll make a motion we accept the minutes okay Sher thank you second second B second all in favor sir oppose none motion carries thank
you we are now moving to um public comment and we have hello there you are and we actually have two guests this this afternoon good so would you like to come up and and um yes I would and uh
wow good for you for surviving the traffic I live years Bonita Springs you just zip up here 8 10 minutes you know by boat certainly by boat and oh wow it's I feel sorry for so many people could you state
your name I will for the record I am Charlie streer of Bas Springs Florida I've been involved with the southwest Florida archaological Society since the early 80s I'm former president current treasur and involved in countless
archaeology sites and recording for the Florida Master site file Etc active in numerous uh excavations and events uh former um twice former president of the Ben Springs historical society and the C
chairman of the city of benas Springs historic preservation board yada yada all around good guy so um superhero yeah superhero cap Dro it so one of the things I like to do in life as a matter
of fact for my um I'm a tour officer operator internationally but here in Florida having family in North Florida I've hit most any Museum you can name certainly archaeological sites you can go to and certainly something we can all
I think attest to here is the mound house is super special you've got nature history and archaeology in one package only thing lacking is parking uh but that's okay um I recommend you guys mountainous all the time on my history
walks and presentations because it is one of the few that you can actually drive to in part I'll try to be brief um so so we know what or at least in my mind my opinion what really sets it apart is the underground archaeological
exhibit I mean let's get real that's why you have Japanese people German people people from all over Florida that want to come here to see that um and it is only one I did research the best I could I came up with maybe three definite
maybe four or five underground exhibits in all the United States so this is truly something special that where the public can actually walk into a out so the uh plus the underground exhibit moundhouse in its entirety is
one of the very few cultural attractions that Fort Myers Beach has right I guess if you include churches or Library as cultural attraction maybe but I mean you don't have other uh for that rainy day or the people that are already
sunburnt after the first day you know that sort of thing so uh it's just such a special uh and important for not just local residents but the archaological community uh visitors of you know from all over that like to go to Heritage
sites um well just considering the Rarity of the exhibit as I mentioned and therefore the inter interational marketing ability and I know Fort Meers Beach and Le VCB has worked together and rightfully so uh
because it's Unique not just to Fort Myers Beach to also to Lee County I mean there's Pine Island Randell Research Center can't really think of too much else you know we're public can actually drive and understand our cultural
heritage uh from the Native Americans so it would seem that in my mind at at least considering the Rarity uh along with the major work's already been completed for the underground exhibit right it's been opened even for
quite some time uh thousands of dollars have been spent thousands of volunteer hours have been spent it only makes sense to me at least to maintain the exhibit and perpetuity I also assume the funding for the exhibit you know they don't give you
that money thinking oh it's just open for a few years you know planning Florida forever I think was one of the contributors if I'm right so the name kind of implies it so they gave a lot of money to Fort Meers uh Beach for
for that and I'm sure they had expectations um so I guess I'm here today to to learn so I'm curious uh what grants have been applied for like FEMA I know for museums and all sorts of cultural things has a
special Grant you have a three minute limit and you're past that so okay I'm last paragraph okay thank you uh let last two sent so so I'm interested in you know what what's the status of of the funding and also what's the current physical status I've stopped in and it looks you know
it's closed uh for the that so what kind of stat what's the status inside and what's the you know maintenance part of it too how they keeping it going and it's been 60 years since uh hurricane Ian and Don let's hope it's another 60
year before these hurricanes and uh so I'm here to kind of learn in my mind I still think the entrance might be well served and I think it could be done and still allow handicapped access to have a little rise
so it you know would stop that because we're really mostly talking storm surge here for damage you know it comes in it goes out so thank you for your time thank you very much Charlie Shader appreciate your um comments and I believe you'll get a lot of those
answers when we have the uh staff report um so that would be I think help too and we know who this is the former director the mount house Teresa SCH how are you I'm doing well Barbara good to
see I'm sorry I introduced you have done on your own for those who don't me the the vice mayor does probably doesn't recognize me and I don't know that I've ever met Jeff in person before though I know his name um but I think everybody else I just met Carolyn I know but you
right by me and no hug seriously um it's been 14 years since I've been in front of this board and so it's just kind of incredible to think about that um uh for those of you who don't know me I was um employed by the
well by uh Florida Gulf Coast University and then later on directly by the town of Fort Meers Beach and spent nine years raising four and a half million dollar to make the mound house property a reality for the town um including the underground exhibit and um I've often
called the stories beneath our feet exhibit my million dooll baby and I am here to request respectfully that you do not throw out the baby with the bath water or in this case the storm water um I understand firsthand the challenges of
hurricane recovery I am U Back in Fort Meyers because my own house in Iona which flooded from Hurricane Ian is still under repair and this summer almost pushed pushed me over the edge and so I can imagine from an administrative perspective that um some
of that same angst is Amplified when you have a public property um but sometimes we make rash decisions when these things sort of hammer us one after another after another and so what I'm what I'm here to suggest um oops well I'll
suggest it if might can scroll it um is that current events shouldn't be ignored but rather than an automatic reflex reaction um a thorough transparent unbiased assessment of the value of that
exhibit as part of your overall strategy for that property um would be would be warranted um you may recall when we were developing the property together so not all of you were involved but um Becky was and Sher was and Betty was and Barbara was was um we would bring
together committees that had multiple perspectives sometimes Engineers Architects um historians archaeologists uh other stakeholders who were citizens from the town and all of those perspectives together allowed us to be open to resolutions to challenges
and new opportunities that can't necessarily be brought forward when you only have one perspective or a small number of perspectives that are that are being shared and explored and I think that would be a great approach here there's a lot of stakeholders for this
Charlie alluded to some of them Florida community's trust the management plan for the moundhouse property is attached to the deed as part of the gift of over a million dollars to acquire the parcel have you revised the management plan to
remove reference to an exhibit at the swimming pool that is archaeological in nature DHR funding has the state been contacted to weigh in over $600,000 from the division of historical resources
funded the excavations funded the development of the exhibit the Florida Humanities Council contributed funding to that what do they think about this have the restrictive covenants of those grants expired and if they did how long ago even if they did a year two three
years ago do you really want to lose DHR as a partner in future work on Fort Meers Beach it's worth bringing together these partners to be able to gain that broader perspective of what it means to do this can you fold this into your strategic planning do you have a
strategic plan have you done an analysis of of whether this closing this exhibit meets your mission fits within your vision what part of your strategic plan what part is it a capitalized asset what Revenue has been generated from the underground exhibit and how do you
compare that you have three minutes yes I know I know I'm sorry can't play favorite I will I will end just by saying that there's a lot of things to consider I'd be glad to submit the list that I created some of them may have been considered but but my impression from
the um uh news stories that have come out my impression from talking to some citizens who got in touch with me is that maybe this is happening faster than that due diligence data Gathering would really allow and it's a major decision that could have ramifications for the
town in terms of securing funding um FEMA would be another entity certainly they have cultural resource Specialists that would have evaluated what percentage of your loss is insured versus uninsured just lots of things to think about as you grapple with this
decision and so um uh those are are overall my comments um I do want to clarify two quick things um one uh I was misrepresented in in November um I understand I gave a poster presentation at the Southeastern
archaeological conference um called a history and hurricanes um I invited Adam to participate and collaborate with me on that poster but I didn't hear back I understand that it was referred to cellc cap that I recommended closing this exhibit and that is obviously not true
so hence I'm here to um to make that comment um and then the second thing I'll mention um Ellen you were right to say something about the seminal tribe of Florida yes they became federally recognized in 1957 but to suggest that it's a a fact
that all people agree that the seminal tribe are the descendants of the Kusa would be a bit of an overshare um uh history as we know is created every day it's an interpretive discipline and it's uh nuanced and it's important to have
multiple perspectives about the past and I encourage you to have multiple perspectives as you consider consider what you're going to do with the underground room thank you thank you so much please I appreciate your words I I you have that in in in a written format it would be wonderful if
you would forward that to us it's on a note field on my phone from talk to text but I will be glad to send I can send it to Barbara and she can disseminate it or I can send it to Adam and he can disseminate by suggested list of things you should consider it would
be Adam can share with cell you can cut and Pace that okay well let's let's let's move on um and so thank you very much for the comments from both Charlie and Teresa much appreciated um staff report we have
um Adam going to give a report yeah obviously we have a lot to catch up on we our last last meeting was last November yes so we didn't meet in January and so now got catch up yeah start with Newton I'm give that update um and we just want to preference
that or preface that we have a lot of stuff going on a lot of good stuff going on in the cultural Department um just like all over the town so Adam will talk about the programs and the attendance at the Mountain House on visitors V visitorship which is amazing um lately
and um I'll just kind of touch on Newton beach park for a little bit for a second um so if you've driven by we do have it stubbed up for we have the sewer in we have the water line in for the restroom trailer so at least um so the next steps
are and Kirk elect is working on the electrical um when Ian and actually when both Ian and Milton went through it it wrecked some of the the infrastructure of Newton as well so we had to trench a whole new line uh for the electrical
just like you know most places so we we did that and got it up to the uh the Transformer that we need to now we're just waiting on fpnl inspections um uh the building inspector did go out and inspect it and it's all ready to go as far as the town is but the fpnl also to
go out and inspect that we hooked it up to the Transformer right um once that happens and it's not is that my 3 minutes um once that uh once we get that okay and that's kind of on fpnl timeline um which hopefully will be sooner than
later uh we'll get the restroom trailer there we're going to pour some uh some shell to start until we get the plans for the CBD grr money uh to redo Newton completely so I'd say hopefully I want to be optimistic but of course with the beach construction and everything going
on I can't give a date uh but hopefully we're we're ready to pull down the restroom trailer so at least it's a a full access with paid parking um the access is open uh there but uh we don't have much for parking right now and hopefully that'll be remedied in the next I want to say week or two week or
two parking parking yes y we just we're going to lay it down they they just got done trenching and if you've driven by and taking a look at Newton um they filled in all the the trench marks and they have everything stubbed up you can see where the sewer comes out and where the water lines come out and Kirkwood was just there yesterday and put the
electrical box in for the trailer so that's all ready to go we're just waiting on inspection um we're Contracting with a company that can dump the shell whenever we're ready so they're going to do that here whenever I say let's go um and that that might be tomorrow um and then we already have the
parking curbs the park the curb wheel stops and we have the signs uh ordered so we just have to put them in the ground ground and there'll be parking again is the parking going to be where it was turn currently yeah it's going to be just think it's going to be probably
no more than eight spots this time just because of space we only have and if I don't hopefully you guys have all driven by and looked at their properties but uh where that green fence is we only have from there to the road so we don't have the full access um are you talking about adjacent to the beat Jack strand view
area where the parking was before originally on a sterile okay cuz we decided that that's where we were not going to have parking when we do the CBD grr that is the parking is going to be on the other side but this is just because we don't have that access yet because of the beach re nourishment we
still don't have full access to the okay but so temporary yeah this is definitely temporary that's why we're just putting shell down um for now just to kind of mitigate you know anybody getting stuck in the sand and that kind of thing because people like can drive on the beach so when is the projection that you'll get full access to the property
again um um didn't Chad say that beach re nourishment would be it's it's supposed to be done on the south end by March 10th but the entire Island by the end of March yeah i' heard March or April somewhere around there um and then they have to get their equipment off and then
we we haven't even received the cdgr money um yet and what organization is that CBG that's a HUD oh through through the county through the county through the county okay all these new acronyms yeah that's County money we had gotten that that project on a couple of them so
we got Newton paid for we got uh money for the pool finally um and we also got money for the water tower we get a whole new water tank because remember the island is only running off one one Tower and we'd like that to be two so that's a main priority for the town is to get the
second water tower up and going um so if we have a break it doesn't shut down the entire Island like it has been um and then lighting down old St Carlos and Time Square uh we got money for through that that Grant so um but we have about I think it was three and a half million
for Newton each part nice so we'll be putting that designated for Newton just for Newton correct yep so we did have um um now I'm joh blank who was here bar we had that meeting with is it do the land the urban urban
planners it was through another uh FEMA project though they did the visioning session at Diamond Head too yeah R2 P2 yep that's it yeah so they came and they we had uh two two Community visioning sessions I think Barbara was
there if anybody else was there that we basically had a really good design for Newton and had Community input so we have a good idea what that's going to look like um I think I did share that with ccab at one point2 after the R2 P2 project was done um or the the visioning
sessions were done so it's going to go back it's obviously going to be you know because of the Florida trust Grant it's going to be an educational Park um we'll have a little more open air we're not going to I don't believe we're going to do it hasn't I it's not 100% but we're not going to do another building there we can't recreate a historic Cottage I
mean we can recreate it but I think we'll have a better use out of it um with some open air Pavilions um and I think they when they did the when we did the visioning session it said we had enough room for about 400 people to be in either the large Pavilion or a smaller grassy or whatever area they're
going to do in the back so a lot of weddings could happen there events so um people could rent a tent if we we want to do that so I think it be better just open air especially with you know the the track record in the past the storms yes thanks for bringing I didn't want to
say that word yeah but I mean it's it's just getting more frequent and you know even after Ian we've suffered a lot of loss with the other three storms that came through this year it was devastating again for us so infrastructure was yeah but anyway that's Newton I'm sorry I went kind of
far into that one but no that's good that's that's wonderful a related question it's actually really at Jim I know you have you had been hoping that we would be able to acquire the property adjacent to it is that still that was that was going to be my my my question slash discussion item uh I haven't had a
chance to talk to Jeff about this I've been noodling this in my own brain we had about uh a month ago the consultant that's putting together the formulaic uh review of the impact fees for Fort Meers Beach for all these new developments that will have to pay an
impact fee and that'll be grandfathered into the ones that have already been approved as well because there's still time to capture them so we don't know exactly what that Revenue number will be we'll have to set what the impact fees are based upon surrounding communities and so forth but I think it'll be
substantive and what I'm wondering is one of the things that uh Jason Green was part of the team that was that's doing that review I'm wondering if and they referenced Parks as a as a legitimate item of expense for this impact fees and
I'm wondering Jeff if we could and and what what'll happen is once we create the the amount or the or the or the uh what the impact fees are they'll be tied to sort of formulaically they'll be tied
to a a capital project plan for the town of Fort Meers Beach so in other words we won't be able to spend that money willy-nilly we'll have to connect it to a strategic plan Capital plan for the town and I'm and since parks are legitimate expenditure I'm wondering if
there's a way to monetize that potential cash flow that'll be coming in from the impact fees to leverage us maybe through a loan to acquire that property next to newon Park and then pay off that loan just over each year with the impact fee
money and that way because I just get drove by on the way here I saw that for sale sign right on the property there and and I know things are going a little slow right now on the island but still somebody could snatch that up and I just and I know we don't have the impact fees coming yet but just something to think
about maybe talk to Joe about and the team yeah I I'm just not sure if we can at this point with the bridge loan we're not able to take out any additional loans until that's all paid off and I think that was a 10e 10e loan so anything Capital um we're not allowed to do while we still have that loan but so
that might be one obstacle but still I'll I'll explore that with Joe and I think too the hope is to pay that bridge loan off early obviously right so that may not be an obstacle for a long period of time right correct yeah I'm not sure about the timeline on that but I know that we can't do any capital or but if I
if we have we know these revenues are coming in and we know they'll be steady and we can spend them on Parks I just I'm just my my brain's just from a cash flow somebody there's got to be a way to leverage those dollars to potentially acquire that a good public benefit oh
absolutely there a there's a lot of wins there yeah yeah I think it was listed at what 14 or 17 a little less than that I thought was it yeah I thought was I heard 10 but but I could be wrong I I think last I heard was but it could have went down I don't know it could have gone up too I don't know yeah or part of
that funding for the um renovation for the underground exhibit so it can go back to be open to the public I think that's fair too yeah as a consideration absolutely it has to what they I should say the statute uh State Statute ties it
there's certain restrictions on so so the developer uh because of hence the term impact fee it's uh it's got to be somehow connected to the increased growth and density uh of Fort Meers Beach and it may there may be a way to
do that Barbara I don't know but but but it has to you know obviously additional pressure and need for Parks because we have more people more density more intensity um and there is a it's a little bit gray but that that could work to our advantage but I don't think I think on the parks place we're we're
pretty safe to play in that space But and we talked a little bit about the water Ferry as well and that could be used the impact fees could be used to help pay for the infrastructure of the water Ferry not not necessarily the day-to-day subsidization of it but the infrastructure which again impacts Mount
house because I truly believe if we have a water fairy stop at the mount house we could potentially double the attendance of the Mountain House particularly on rainy days um yeah so it's it's it's all very intriguing and this will be a nice Revenue source for the town but that I so hope that answers
your question but no we don't have we've not acquired the grant money yet I know Jason from our the town staff has been working with the land trust trying to but it's a lot of money small property and I don't think he's H the jackpot yet but I know he's trying I think the most
that they when he did the research it was about a million was the max yeah so so I just think we have to start to think outside the box and maybe to leveraging part of that impact fee to procure the opportunity to expand our Parks could possibly I have been open
yeah to Parks especially on the South Side you know there's some properties on the South Side I've been looking you know just looking at I mean obviously it's nothing serious but there's some condos that are or some properties that I think would fit really nice into a little park for you know some of those
neighborhoods that kind of Veer back and there so I am so open for Park uh pocket Parks yeah excuse me as we call them um and would love to have it some on the south side because I know that's where a lot of our residents live um down there well we have some beach we have some
beach access challenges on the south end as well too we do yeah but I mean that's part of the CWA um could have to fight the federal government on that one but uh yeah because there aren't any Beach ACC as points south of the of the Catholic church and that's number 10 and there's
no 9 our Public Works has to ask for access to get out there to clean it so yeah it's it's yeah it's yeah that's that's unfortunate thank you Jim I just want the record to reflect that Becky Warner joined us at our board meeting welcome um I believe it was 108 when you
were so just for the record thank you for being here all right breing the traffic continue with your report that was Newton that was you for Newton okay Adam now it's your turn uh so it's pretty good at Mount house um even with the undergone clo we've actually had uh
post Ian record attendance at M house um I'll start with December I know it sounds a million years look two reports here which so one so one is multi page and the first page say October so if you flip two pages to page three I apologize
for no page numbers uh Madam chair again I know uh but it's labeled December at the top do you have cop of these things or I know some cop you could have mine I can share I'll share I'll share with
Carolyn so for December 2024 uh pretty steady attendance um a key thing to point out in December was uh due to the previously discussed uh closure of the mount House Museum
from December 8th through December 16th which because of the Mountain House schedule was and the Christmas holidays uh was also closed until we reopened that I think it was a Friday on the 26th of December uh but in terms of the days we were supposed to be open we were the
museum was closed uh the 8th that week of the 8th and the week of the 16th and so that uh closure even with that closure we had uh pretty good attendance uh overall with the museum and the closure as you might recall was done
done for two things one was to repair the living room and the me the ceiling of the living room which had been damaged due to uh excessive rainfall over the summertime through not having gutters on the mountain house um which update uh tenative insulation date for
the the new gutters is April uh 2025 just these new gutters or are they replacement gutter replacement replacement gutters okay thank you y so that ceiling was replaced and then uh while that was being done the formerly
the digging deeper exhibit aka the bathroom uh was closed and turned into a permanent collection storage area or as we've coined it the artifact preservation Center uh it would be the first um in a long time permanent
collection storage uh for the artifacts in the town's custody so their house there at the Museum um so Briana the museum registar at Mount house has been doing incredible work in organizing and making sure that the collections are stored within terms of best museum
practices at set forth by the American lines of museums um that week I also I just want to say that the Nicole did a nice video with Briana yes explaining showing the room and kind of talking about what her role is and and how how it'll could of
eat in education and and behind the scenes tours and I thought that was a really nice video that was posted on the town's website yes we're very excited for the artifact preservation Center thank you for reminding me um about that video If you haven't seen it it's on the town's um social media both Instagram
and Facebook uh I think it was last week it was posted if memory serves uh we'll be posting another video next month for a kind of a virtual ribbon cutting uh when the uh full plexiglass store so while the uh artifacts are safe behind a closed lock door there'll be a large
plexiglass window so people can see uh an archaeologist at work and even while it's closed there was a smaller window uh that we put in um and uh yesterday Brion or actually this morning ban told me that a child was was peeking Through
the Windows watching her peek uh through a little crack and uh screamed to their parents look Mom it's a real archaeologist um so that was a she was part of the exhibit she is she she it is so it's a good public engagement for the the vast collection that the town has um
um so um but even when she's not there we do have a small um panel explaining the tools of the trade for both archaeology and collection management uh which are kind of the two uh careers that um we have there at mountainous you know archaeology but also that
collection management aspect to have those artifacts on display fully accessible to the public to Residents to visitors um and we actually have April 12th just since we're on the topic I know I'm jumping around but just so we're on the same topic April 12th uh
save the date is a lab day that we're co-hosting with the Florida public archaeology Network so that's a free program you go to mount house.org sign up free for everyone member or not of the mountainous and you can sign up and participate in an artifact sorting
activity and an artifact cleaning activity uh so you'll actually be handling real uh artifacts from and basically doing the work of collection managers and in maintaining and uh preserving the town's collection in history so it'll be a very exciting
behind the- scenes opportunity so we'll have more opportunities like those like Jim said both virtually through those videos but also through these uh special events and opportunities and there's more opportunities especially with um uh volunteers we're looking for maybe next F school year getting in the budget for
like an internship uh through Florida Golf Coast University or neighboring universities for our collections in turn so there's a a wide range of possibilities for not only the museum in help furthering our mission but also for that public engagement aspect for this artifact preservation Center what happens if like 50 people
show up I mean how do you handle it unfortunately we do have it uh capped at 20 people okay you do have it C yes with RSVPs uh strongly encouraged and you're talking about um the general public having an opportunity to personally
touch and clean those artifacts yes some select artifacts select yes is that precarious 50 would be great if we get 50 yeah 50 would be great I was being optimistic yeah I mean uh we can
always hope but yes um so yeah basically creating that public opportunity and training for uh the residents in public and part of that it's a it's a two-hour Workshop uh so we're not opening the door firsthand uh there's first an object handling course that people can
apply to their everyday lives so they might have you know family heirlooms uh sensitive material and they might want to know how to take care of their own belongings as well so there'll be an artifact handling uh component to that Workshop as well very so yes and then uh
uh I think that's it for the artifact preservation Center and so tell us again where what page are we on we're still on December okay so we're still on that one page uh I attended a onewe training on emergency preparedness in Washington DC uh hosted and sponsored
uh or hosted by FEMA and the Smithsonian Institute uh of out of 250 applicants I was one of 20 chosen um for this opportunity for basically emergency preparedness through the lens of cultural management and cultural
properties especially in collections so how to safeguard museums and cultural uh sites and cultural heritage when the disasters happen so both in terms of preparedness and in response so that'll be very useful in terms as we move forward for one of the core documents
for accreditation emergency preparedness plan and also in terms of training staff to better Safeguard the the mount house in all shapes and forms both the collections but also in terms of Staff safety and better being uh a resource to
the town so it was a fantastic opportunity uh I also had the chance just since we're on it they had a great opportunity we each got to se sit down with representatives from grant funding agencies so I have various contacts now through imls so the Museum library Services the
National Endowment of for humanities the National Endowment for the Arts and femus Cultural Wing which was the main sponsor of this program um and I have been in conversation with them um I talked to them since it was in December about the underground specifically while I was there since it was a good marriage
of that um so then flipping the page uh to the backside the last page of that packet we're on in January uh January we had over in total visitors to the property we had um by our calculation
1,25 visitors just in the month of January again with the underground closed um that was the highest attendance since before since hurricane Ian in September uh 2022 wow um so that
was quite an achievement I'm very proud of the staff there at Mount house for providing so many of these uh services that we provide that before the hurricane like our kayak tours our shell Mount tours or clusa tours as they're also known as uh our lecture
series uh January we also had our first um well I guess our second movie on the mound our first movie on the mound was in November in collaboration with the mikasuki tribe and uh this event was um showing the movie en Kanto so it wasn't as academic as the November movie
documentary we shown but the uh January uh great event great sales membership up uh engagement up um we've been doing a lot of marketing so on the second to last page you can see some of the marketing we've been engaging in not just through uh valac but also digital
ads through Expedia Travel tended uh we have an uh an ad on lran so if yall take the the seasonal tram uh uh up and down the beach and if you look up we're uh an ad so we have an ad for all six all
three of the trolleys seasonal trolleys advertising the mountain house and we are on the uh the discovery map the tourist Discovery map as well so uh we have expanded our marketing quite a bit uh starting this calendar year so January was a really good year um and
just some things of note um for January besides just raw attendance uh we received a lot of sponsorship money for these events coming up I'll talk about in a little bit in terms of our program calendar for 2025 uh we received a $500 sponsorship
ship from castal engineering to sponsor the January movie on the mound we received $1,500 sponsorship for the February movie on the mound thanks to the Fort Meers Beach Chamber of Commerce we're very thankful for their support uh the fort Meers Beach Water Foundation uh supplied US
$5,550 34 for calibration equipment for the gauge you might remember a year ago we received grant funding of $22,000 from the Water Foundation to install a water quality gauge to monitor algae levels flow to be installed at the
observation Pier M um so this is additional funding to pay for the calibration equipment so we can uh install that when we have a better idea of a timeline for the installation date of course we'll have big ribbon cutting and we'll I'll talk I'll work with Nicole the town's Pio to uh send that
out and we'll make it a big event and of course I'll also include cellcow in that uh email as well uh we completed the map uh organization officially uh through a am which I hope to discuss at our next meeting hopefully the report we got from
our peer reviewer who came into September Dr Scott Neil uh a part of that completion uh the American Lance Museum awarded us $550 worth of complimentary registration for their conference in May 2025 in Los
Angeles um landscape lighting uh has been oh me I'm jump jumping ahead uh I was looking to the Future in January uh some dead plants uh there are some storms and a tree did fall from the mountainous grounds the golden shower tree you might remember it fell so
unfortunately we had to remove it um it it broke and fell um so we got uh taken care of that of course um I also attended in January from the 20th through the 29th The Jackal Island Management Institute upon the urging of this board and just individual
conversations with many of the board members here a uh an actual uh Management training so I attended that and that was sponsored by the sou Eastern Museum conference and there was 19 workshops over 8 day period so it was quite in-depth uh terms of uh a holistic
approach to museum management so it was a very worthwhile uh training and we joined the Florida trust for their historic preservation passport program so another way for people to uh learn about us and engage with us in another connection or yet another way we are connected and collaborate with the
Florida trust for stor preservation uh we got new rack cards and uh we did receive a sponsorship for 600c me uh $260 for the March 15th birding and brunch program courtesy of Mom's restaurant they're providing uh cinnamon
rolls and breakfast sandwiches uh and uh sign up quick I think there's only two spots of 20 uh left for that March 15th event so if you want to join uh do so now um so that was January questions so far before I move
on to February which is I just wanted to ask here I was looking you have the the total visitors at25 and then you break it down for Museum Admissions and then ground visitors yes so I assume the rest were tours for the difference in the rest were programs programs and okay yes so
emissions and programs are counted differently so I it's basically programs except for the off-site programs added to uh grounds visitors and Museum admission tickets thank you you're welcome any other questions for Adam
excuse me um a question um yes um Museum store sales obviously these are numbers and then that's is that yes that you know it was for the month of January and then year to date is 505 so that's $55 uh uh no those are individual sales
oh the number of sales not the revenue correct not the revenue okay so that that's a concern you have Revenue uh figures uh not on me but yeah I can share in the next moving okay cuz that was yeah these are individual sales it would be a little low but but
since every other metric in these reports is uh quantity of uh units you could think uh I didn't want to mix up with okay different ways to measure different categories in the same report uh but I can I can do so in the future if it makes it easier to read it would
really be nice to I mean actually have that separate simply because it is a revenue based I'd also like to see kind of what the not that we're responsible for your budget we understand that but just as in terms of growth and expansion to see what kind of Revenue we're
getting from Museum sales what kind of Revenue we're getting from kayak tours you know and maybe just that one segment that's separate apart from the actual attendance would be great absolutely I can I totally share that with you I I do know on the top of my head last last
fiscal year our our goal or our intended Revenue was $71,000 in change and programing for everything okay for everything our enti Revenue based okay programs admission rentals donations membership is membership part
of that as well yes so our our gold our total revenue that we're supposed to earn through all various factors for last fiscal year was 71,000 and we made 91,000 okay wonderful a question yes um when we have
the um School groups come in uhhuh how much um Revenue do we get from the the the school groups do we get any yes we do so it's uh with the except uh excuse me it's $5 a student a student yes okay and are they listed in the um number of
visitors yes okay yep they're in uh K under programming they're listed in K through 12 field trips great thank and then uh Florida Gulf Coast University is its own category okay thanks uh as they they're charged $8 ahead they're eight okay thank you you have have been busy yes we have been very busy and you've
been go you've gone to two national conferences uh yes so very very busy so I'm very I'm very thankful that we have a very well- trained very professional uh highly qualified staff at Mount housee with Karina Sandra Franklin Ashley and
Brianna uh running operations while I'm uh at these conferences well I'm only going to two I'm tired you got I'm tired for a while conference sh yes um with regard to the uh report uh
because we're really focusing on the Underground of it in a few minutes but um with regard to the um map program the effort are we going to really and the collection management policy and all of that is that going to be deferred till
next month because I don't see it on the agenda uh correct yes I I I'll talk to you about working on next month agenda uh but since it is a lengthy report that the peer-reviewer issued uh yes I'll uh I'll send that out with plenty of time
for the staff or the the cell cab uh to read okay uh in terms of his final report because I think it's 50 or 60 Pages uh but yes so hopefully next meeting we'll be able to focus on that one of the things too that Adam might talked about is um you know while Tom
maner has our weekly meetings with uh the Town Council is to let give them an opportunity to read it too and have their input on it as well so since it's a a townwide it involved you know all all entities and involved them as well they they had we had the joint meeting they some were interviewed that
kind of thing so we going to give them an opportunity to to read through it and good because that's an integral part of our strategic planning going forward and obviously with regard to the Strategic plan that was a question that I do believe that we are trying to coordinate
with the town because the Town Council and staff is looking at building a strategic you plan for the entire town right we just had our first kickoff well it was really a second kickoff SE
session for our strategic plan there is overlap to what the moundhouse is doing but also uh I tried to convey to the Strategic planners that the comprehensive plan which we're also trying to finalize is much more comprehensive than I think they originally assumed having read the comp
I know you've all read the comprehensive plan it's very Broad and so we we all have to be talking to each other and kind of be in sync with each other as we go through this process but yes the answer your question is yes okay y I think that was the intent with both
um cell cab and with Bard cab because we have these separate strategic plans that we would then be able to incorporate what we're what we've worked on the past what we've achieved and what we need to accomplish going forward and having that
in sync with what the town's plan are yeah and I'm I'm hoping we'll just incorporate those aspects in the Strategic plan for those for those subject matter areas and I and I to to Adam's point the peer reviewer pointed out that you know our strategic plan
really hadn't been updated in several years unfortunately we've had covid we've had hurricanes and so uh we know that that has been lacking for all of us in terms of planning going forward no question about it yeah okay thank you uh
and then uh the last thing for the general staff report before in terms I guess the general staff report uh is just February um even though uh February is not over uh we did beat January's record uh by what is it three days uh so
wow uh in so very busy at Mountain House uh across the board kayak tours um guided tours programs uh so uh movie on the mound had another good attendance 38 people um we've been doing a lot of Outreach so
this month you had 38 people for the movies on the M yes excellent uh and that was Indiana Jones so some fun archaeology uh and then uh at the event we also had a uh a family activity station to show what uh some real Archaeology is uh in addition to
you know punching people and boat chases and stuff like that you know I just want to speak on that too because you know dealing with Park and wre before this position we try to do movies too and we would get a we wouldn't get that creative attendance even prean um so getting that many out there for movie on
the mountain is great it's I mean I know it doesn't sound like a ton of people but just that keeps increasing um movie after movie and that's just a testament how other programs and and what do you attribute that to do you think it's because the location is so beautiful the setting itself is conducive could be as
opposed to Bays yeah and I'm wondering if you know we haven't done a survey on them but um you know they had they came and they had a great time and the staff were were nice and friendly and it was a beautiful location um you know I just think people are looking for other things to do besides so do you think
they're Island residence or a mix of visitors and or do you know I mean uh yes so we we have been surveying collecting uh ZIP codes uh mostly As basically it's a a giveaway so we've been offering a
basically a membership as a giveaway for people to enter their information um and um through that information a lot of people are coming from off Island uh from the neighboring areas and a lot of them are families and first-time visitors to Mountain House so we're attracting new
audiences and that's held in the evening so that when things are open during the day which they can't come to you're reaching a different audience yes so um our we don't have a just because of the the way the sun sets uh
because if we had another movie on the mound uh next month it wouldn't start until 8:30 uh which is a bit late uh especially with the noise ordinances uh so our next movie in the mound because of the sun's schedule uh will be November and we'll be showing the movie
Shrek which is a kind of a cult classic so which word Shrek Shrek oh my favorite yes yes so we'll be showing Shrek a nice uh uh light-hearted movie um so that's been uh good and we've also been doing a
lot of Outreach um this calendar year we did some in the fall but this calendar year uh we you can see on the first page of the February uh report you can see uh huge turnout in terms of direct staff involvement with individuals giving each
person a brochure and telling them about upcoming events uh the bur rangal Festival the iMac Community Day the K Coral classic car Fest and next month we actually have or next week is a bit of a gauntlet we're attending the The Shrimp Festival the Santa Belle shell show and
the MC Pioneer Museum all in the same day so it's going to be quite the uh busy uh staff at Mound house uh spreading spreading the word and um we also had some rentals in February from uh we had a celebration of life we had
uh the friends Mount house use the facility for the silver anniversary 75 people uh quite quite fitting uh divisible by 25 and um for the 25th year a public ownership and then uh the esto Island Historical Society have been has been using um in collaboration with them
working providing a space for their lecture series um until they provide a more permanent larger venue they can find and that's a wonderful partnership to um to uh and then we' continued with marketing and then just real quick other
things to note for February uh pathway lighting was installed uh at Mount house so people there's a navigational way and a safe way for people to transverse transvest I guess or uh Transit from the uh small parking lot to the museum and
to the office restroom building uh so that's um a lot of visitors have noted it's very helpful uh we also got the observation peer lighting restored uh not restored repaired after it was damaged in Hurricane Ian so now we have dock lighting uh and the dock is
illuminated and uh we're continuing to investigate which I'll talk go a moment always possible uh to keep the underground open and we also got or or and are installing uh new signs on the observation pier and the dingy do uh
there's currently not a sign on the observation Pier showing what the mount house is we get a lot of boat traffic we probably have well we do we have more boat traffic than we do car traffic or pedestrian traffic coming to mount house or going by Mount house I should say so
we're putting a nice sign on the observation Pier that'll be visible from the canal for all those tour boats that go by and people that will drive by and comment saying oh what a nice house uh not really realizing it's a museum uh uh
Dock and discover Park mum kayak tours and then uh there's currently a sign on the dingy do it's a little um it's not as welcoming as we would want it it talks about fines and ordinances and punishments for not using the dock in
the proper way so I um I added a word welcome uh uh on this new sign and inviting people you know still reminding people it's limited dock space dock docking is limited Mount house visitors only but welcoming people so hopefully
we'll get more visitors um casual voters using those two slips at the dingy do to visit the mount house if no one else knows you can visit the mount house by boat quite a rare opportunity not too many too many museums offer that opportunity so we're quite proud of it I
think the only other Museum I know of in the area is I think the Tampa Art Museum of Art or Art Museum yeah downtown Yeah by river Riverwalk by Riverwalk right uh so hopefully this the sign will be built in for maybe a a future uh fery system
so so Adam sorry go ahead Madam chair I just wondered where the where's the dingy dog the oh you're talking about the small dog the small doll s okay so that gives an opportunity to put their boat in temporarily yep they and be able to walk off and get onto the site okay
yes so so if someone had a a traditional boat could they come to the mound house absolutely so not just a dinghy boat you not just a dingy but a traditional a boat do it is a boat dock I think a boat 15 18t long we've had we've had pontoon
boats from like shellpoint come and bring tour groups that way like full pontoon boats does the 20 30 people do does the uh does the uh uh does the Harbor Master know of this and can can they communicate that to those staying at the moing field yeah I I'll they they
are aware of it I I talk to the office occasionally and they'll have people ask at the office whether or not they can visit Mount house by boat or what that dock is they would probably likely take their dinghy their dinghy to the mountain house they can as well yeah yeah but there there's that huge
Anchorage that the informal Anchorage uh that kind of spills back into mana's pass down towards H pekne Bay uh but yeah some people that live out there on the boats they'll come and visit the mount house um they'll use their dingy do they don't you know as visitors just
to walk around some of them have dogs um so they'll walk their dogs and use it like anyone else so yeah it's a great opportunity public restroom that really attract true so Adam have you considered whether or not there's a signage signage opportunity at the Harbor's Master's
office where you could we have R cards right there uh I'll double check but that's a good uh good idea I know we have provided them with rack cards at least for their office um so people can take a card you know and is it on is that service on the moing fields website for those who visit the moing fields
website just to see what's what's available and how it works I don't know I'll look into it I know we have talked to Curtis about um actually he brought up to us about promoting it too so because he knows there is yeah great so Adam there was a point where we had a partnership with with fishtail Marina um
is that something that you feel like you're in a position to explore again whether or not a marina would offer that and we could possibly go out to mount key again uh I have been in contact with various uh companies um I unfortunately haven't been successful in forming a
partnership there's been a couple people U Allison was also doing that as you might recall uh trying to seek a partnership of some kind um the STA well Ashley Franklin myself are going next month the survey Mound key and cheuck on it it did suffer uh according to our
colleagues at Florida public archaeology Network pretty extensive erosion on the kayak side or the the kayak launch side so we're going to see if it's feasible but we are planning um hopefully one day to have that as another option especially in terms of providing more access and continuing our partnership
with Lovers Key but we have been in contact with Lovers Key State Park and we do have permission to uh have kayak tours launching out of the Bayside of lover key and paddling the 45 minutes from the the Bayside Park of lever key
to mount key itself so we do have their permission um and that's something we hope to look into and offer on a uh regular basis uh small kayak tours so some one option so one step closer providing more public archaeology to
people so so the dock that had been at at Mound key that was in private property that I as I understand it the whole island is now state state yes that was that was donated by the McGee family so is that dock still a functional dock
uh that I don't know I don't think so I think it's only for official use um I don't I don't know if even survived the hurricane Milton uh there was a a large storm surge with Milton from the south side of Mount key gotcha okay but I'll
look into it again other questions for Adam with regard to his staff report I have a a question with regard to the parking options that we have on the outside of our property by the RightWay to Connecticut at the end there
were conversations about angled parking in that area where are we with that uh currently stalled not to use a pun um but thank you um uh currently stalled um there there are when we started looking into it more
uh we had concerns over in terms of environmental impact uh in terms of reviewing the Florida trust agreement in terms terms of not in terms of sight lines and no s lines in terms of certain parts of the property and you know not being able to see the road from the
museum and vice versa um and then in terms of drainage there's a storm drain right there um so um we're not currently actively working on it um we're currently looking into other options um
one option that I think would be a great benefit to public safety especially is looking into a sidewalk connecting the Overflow parking lot to the Mount house as there might be some liabilities with having people Park and then walk in the middle of the road to access a town facility um and just generally provide
better access so there that might be one route we might consider and look into and investigate I know was brought up in the past it might be worthy revisiting and seeing you know getting that input but uh in terms of parking currently stalled right there and do you all
remember it was huge Hue and cry from the neighbors who said they did not want that sidewalk extending to the end of Connecticut but uh frankly it is a public right of way and so I think uh it is U for safety reasons imperative that
they put that sidewalk in we have I mean not only our staff but the general public that walk down I mean I I go down there a lot and I got to almost go to the other side just to because somebody's maybe walking their dog which is great we want people to be down there walking the dog dog but I just I agree I feel
like it's a public safety um it issue for sure um and I I for one don't want anybody getting hit um our employees or residents or guests or walking having to walk in somebody's yard around around them so they could you know roll their ankle they could do whatever
so well I'm hoping that that can be put back on the on the front burner because I do think that becomes a safety issue and I think the side the idea of a side uh constructing That Sidewalk as was originally planned to have it go to the end of Connecticut and neighbor stopped
it since we since we have so many veterans here on the committee do do you do you have a sense just back of the envelope has the the remonstrator that were there years ago do they still are they still there could is it hard yeah that's a good question the gentleman at
the end of Connecticut who's building that large home okay uh has pass away but it's his daughter I believe that is the property owner and um as if not more adamant I was going to say very much her
father so okay that might be a um and the neighbors too and the neighbors so that is definitely something I think that we would I think the consensus was originally that we wanted that sidewalk down but then um
Council had a snag with that final I don't know if I was there yet or not I can't remember I don't I don't I think maybe not may have been right before I got there soon after the I came in I came five four and a half years ago so
yeah it's been since Thena it was in my era yeah it was Teresa so 14 years ago okay okay I do think we need to revisit it because I mean even when we have we're having all these guests and more events happening there and people have to park at 2:16 I I I don't disagree
it's uh okay thank you for a very very ambitious um report of all of your activities and things that are happening at the M out um and and then uh just last thing for your own review there is
the sorry I'll still carry she's not here uh this document this is our program calendar for the rest of 2025 oh this so yes it's has January on the top uh did you get that no I think you so that has our again so for all of
2025 the grounds of the mount house the park are it's open daily from 7: to 6: the museum is open Wednesday through Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. uh we'll have our clusa tours uh on Wednesday
through Saturday 11 at 11: and one on those days we're open uh kayak tours Wednesday through Saturday daily on those days from uh starting at 9: uh in season so January through April we're going to have our Sunset kayak tours on
Fridays two hours before Sunset they start two hours before sunset uh March 15th is our birding and brunch program uh March 26 or last night we had our um speaker the director of the
Florida public archaeology Network Sarah a rsby uh she spoke on uh resiliency for cultural sites after hurricanes uh and then her colleague Natalie deales she is actually speaking on March 26 at
6:30 p.m. at Mount house on uh weeds and seeds a history of dining in Southern Florida uh I already told you about our lab day April 12th with fpan in may we are our special event
will be uh spring into summer and a uh the Kusa tours the kayak tours uh those those are every month I'm only just mentioning for time sake the the things that are different from month to month so may we have the day before Mother's Day so if you're looking for something
to do uh spring into to Summer tea party so we're having a tea party um so if anyone's a mom uh or just want to celebrate a nice Saturday in May in Florida at the bount house we're having afternoon tea party uh with an educational component with a uh a mini
bouquet making activity so you get a little mini bouquet when you leave uh in June you might recall last summer we had our first Fridays which was a a free day and uh an activity with various activities uh throughout the museum and the property uh we're shifting focus in
terms of reviewing with other museums and other calendars and in order to attract the most people and not be in competition with other people uh we switched it to a second Saturday uh program but same premise just different title and instead on the first Friday it's going to be on the second Saturday
especially in a way to better attract family and children who might not be um working on Friday not the children the family's part um and we actually have them themed so June's theme will be environmental exploration July will be Florida's art
and music uh August will be a back to cream a back to school ice cream social uh so that'll be the Saturday before school starts here in Lee County uh and then September you might some of you were I think Ellen someone was there
uh a couple years ago we had our Bala uh event that celebrated the site's uh uh Latino Heritage um so that is a uh dance lesson tour of the sight's uh Rancho history and a uh a meal last year was a
Cuban restaurant we facilitated but we might uh lean into another Latin American theme or another Latin American restaurant as the Ranchos we're more than just Cuban and uh then October comes we're back to our Sunset kayak tours um we did limit a couple of the um or
not limit as I talked about earlier because of the sun we have our movies on the mound returning back in November with Shrek and then uh December just because looking at visitation numbers we don't have a special event just because of holidays and everyone's out of town so we just have our normal regularly
scheduled program available in December 2025 any questions for the upcoming programs I have been looking for this for as long long as um what maybe four years or three
years and you know I mean we've always been told you know usually at our cell cab meetings you know what's going to be happening that month but never did we have a whole season of events in one package so Kudos uh this is so great for
both short and longterm planning um and certainly with regard to tourism the more advanced notice everybody gets the better off we are so thank you for that Adam you're welcome long time coming but here it is just a question um we we're open
Wednesday through Saturday is that correct yes um during season before Ian and all that we had opened up I believe like Monday or Tuesday and I'm just wondering if that's a consideration maybe for next season or something because I people comment that it's
closed quite a bit and just wondering if that's in the in the works to have more days question yeah that we'll totally look into that okay that might be part of that strategic planning too to you know now and of course I guess you know
trying to get the repairs done for the mount house and the property it's sort of taking the backseat getting all of the just getting together it is nice to have the property uh on Monday and Tuesday uh with less visitors so we so the historic maintenance staff can
really get the ball rolling and it's easier to schedule contractors for those repair services like the gutters for example um but yeah for now moving oh the roofing was a that was fun yeah thank you okay so an observation for
park hours you listed is is s to six would you give it any consideration having it sunset to sundown I mean Sunrise to sundown I'll look into it um the uh we're very thankful to have the um the help from the public work staff and the
neighborhood services staff in helping us secure the property in maintaining uh Public Access but also safety um especially since the mount house does have a smaller staff so I'll I'll have to check with them but it is something to consider and I'll look into
it okay any other questions for Adam before we move on uh there being none we can go to the underground exhibit which is of course why you both are here so um let me preface this by saying at our last
meeting in November um that we voted unanimously to look at all options to explore all means by which we can effectively ultimately get that underground exhibit open to the public so we had that unanimously from us I
then presented that report to Town Council and the Town Council verbally voted individually each one of them unanimously to also support the opening of the underground exhibit and the repair and the the study in terms of
what it takes and the feasibility of what it takes to get that so I think it's important for the community in general to understand that we are looking forward to exploring all options necessary to with the intent of getting
the underground exhibit open so everybody's on the same page hopefully someone in the Press will sorry hopefully someone in the Press will state that so there's not a lot of gray area yes exactly um and I think it's important that Council you know is
is UN unanimously supported that's big because of course the issue becomes funding and so we are hoping that um this will uh go forward right and I know we had the discussion at at borab because that's one of my advisory boards too uh um you know they were talking
about and not that that priorities in the town I don't know if council's ever said priorities from here and there but you know this is one of our departmental priorities is getting this open just as you know we still have boks in the pool not open at all um just because of
funding issues now we finally got funding for both um and so it's just a matter of you know like I said about the pool if someone wants to write us a check you know we'll we'll do whatever
needed um but all the above um and I know it's not just a financial piece but that is you know being a director that's that is one piece you know we we decided not to do another softball field um because of cost here you know we just decided to do an open field now I'm not saying we're going to just because of
cost we close it down you know we're going to look at every option possible um and uh Adam he'll give you a brief report today about what what we've been doing um and getting people in and trying to get people in uh to keep it open um but we're doing we're doing our
due diligence with with getting people in all that Adam kind of talk more about that but um it is still a priority um to keep all of our Assets in the town open um some are just bigger bigger priorities than others such as a water tank we need water on the island so we're going to put probably our money
towards that and um you know those kind of things but there you know there's grants out there like Adam said he talked to a lot of a lot of um Financial and Grant people when he was on his his his his work trips um professional development
professional development correct uh you know and and hopefully we can just get that I I I know we are you know I'll let him do his thing and report on what what we've been doing but U yeah we just have to make sure it's um safe responsible for for having people in there we're
doing our diligence go ahead ad oh no worries sorry I didn't mean to no no please uh more opinions the better um so like what Teresa was was referencing um it is a very complex holistic
approach you have to take when you're looking at this thing that's very few places um it's a very unique thing and those have those you know the benefits that come along with it of being a world class destination but also has those challenges in terms of you can't really
model it off it there's no you know papers there's not a lot of studies done um so in terms of you know how to reopen and underground exhibit after numerous hurricanes in numerous flooding wasn't
it five storm salt water intrusions five five separate saltwater intrusions uh in two years yeah yeah um so Nicole Debbie Irene Eileen or Irene Helen oh no Irene Adia Adalia that's what it was Adalia
Adia yes Adalia um de Helen and Milton yeah um Helen and Milton being the most serious at 32 in of inundation and Milton at 51 in of inundation measured from the concrete floor um if I know no one's there but at
the lecture uh Sarah showed a very not a very flattering picture of me but it was a picture of me being used as a measuring tape where the storm water got up to my shoulder after Milton so just to give you a perspective of How High uh 51 in is now Adam would you just take a quick
second on the 51 in issue yeah can you explain how that was that due to the storm surge was it due to seepage or all of the above uh all the above so most of the flooding um is coming up from the the basically groundwater or not
groundwater it's coming through ground intrusion so it's flooding up and usually like was observed by staff during um during Debbie um the water was actually flowing out of the underground towards the that little vent you might
recall that's just before the entrance the water was actually Fring out of the underground um towards the exit does that mean it was seeping into the underground exhibit and then flowing out yeah it was basically flooding from the back through the soil so when you walk
into the underground you might recall there is the um the the area that used to have six excavation units uh that kind of looked like a a uh a checkerboard pattern uh so basically the water is rising up through the soil
there and you know it was even observed well before uh Ian the storm water initation uh not not just storm water initation during King Tides so that's why Allison works so hard with the Florida public archaeology Network the University of Georgia Flagler College
Florida Golf Coast University the University of Florida and the similar tribe of Florida to help mitigate um you might recall it was actually a week before hurricane Ian archaeologists were there to remove those last unexcavated units not because of Ian because they
were damaged during Irma from 2017 yes okay so they are actually playing catchup which inadvertently was a good thing in terms of timing because hurricane Ian the room was completely submerged so it flooded not through the
door but it's flooding up through the soil because you know it's it is a window for to the past as it sometimes uh at least Spanish Point calls it that sea level and and it is below sea level um so during uh full moons so before the
excavation before they backfilled it and elevated that the area looked down into before they backfilled it after that 2022 uh archaeological conservation project um when you walked in and you saw the the depressioned areas or the
excavated area units uh during a full moon and a couple days before and after you would see standing I mean many of you can attest to that before Ian you would look down and there' be standing water uh in it and this is not from hurricanes or tropical storms that's from a full moon that's
from high tides as a result of sea Lev Rise um I think also over the years if you looked at the video and looked at that that was white sand with those excavation units that all got very you know I want to say dirty just disc
colored because of erosion and the sides they collapsed in collapsed in a little after hel and Ian we really found that you can you know the we had a structural engineer in there and he was doing a flashlight underneath where the concrete is and you could tell it was all washed
out so there's there's a layer underneath that concrete that doesn't have any base to it scoured MH and and there's a if you look in the back corner you can see where the water came through and almost like a mud slide a little bit coming through the corner so but that's all stuff for we trying to research and
see if we can mitigate just a broad question and I'm no structural engineer but if it's if it's if it's designed structurally to embrace that seepage and allow it to happen naturally and then some pump it out just naturally and if
it it could be done structurally where it's kept safe and structurally sound but just understanding that sort of like an underground CR crook or creek would come through or whatever and you just embrace it work around but this this underground exhibit was
designed to do exactly that in advance and and actually I'm going to break protol here because I know it's not appropriate for us as a cell cab group to bring uh a person from the public up to speak but because Teresa was the
former director and she's the one that is responsible for the conception conception and uh fabrication implementing of this underground exhibit I'd like for her to speak if I can get approval from the rest of the cell M please Teresa so move thank you thank
you Barbara um there's some history here that I think is really important which was actually the uh part of the purpose of the presentation I made up in um uh Virginia in November was a retrospective on the history of the exhibit but also
to look at how it fared based on all of the design intentions that went into it and so a number of them are what you all are talking about which is why I was like Barbara let me speak because it's one thing to go around and say well what does it do but right and and um
certainly there's institutional knowledge that gets lost over time right I mean this exhibit was designed um when I was still at Florida Gulf Coast University so I want to say uh I submitted the first Grant application to install it maybe 2001 or 2000 I mean it
was that long ago that we were doing the planning for this so certainly I think you know the town's changed there's there's been a loss of documents I understand certainly there was a lot of damage on the island from from Ian so um the exhibit was designed to do exactly
this it was recognized then so uh for example when we were building the exhibit Hurricane Charlie came through Hurricane Charlie of course had nowhere near the storm surge but it it was not unlike some of these other storms that you're talking about later and what we
we're able to see on the property the the excavation the room was actually open to the air at the time so it was just um uh wait had the pool come entirely out I'd have to look back at all my photos but we were in the process of actually constructing the space for the room um and the what the water does
in that part of of the island is it runs down the streets and it fills the Back Bay and then it sloshes back so there was actually a higher storm surge on the Back Bay Side than on the entrance side which gave us a little bit of um uh
a a a good feeling at the time because of course we knew as we were designing uh the it was a balance between how do you create this exhibit without impacting negatively the view of the property from the front because the goal
was to preserve the historic view of the house the sistern restoration with all those early photos so that you don't have something that's two feet higher for example and then popped up so that you have have the historic house and then all of a sudden you have something that looks like a septic tank next to it
right so that was one of the considerations but then being able to to enter from below so the floor is sloped from Back to Front because the expectation was as time goes by and seasonally High Tides perfect Moon um a
storm hitting um from the right direction on a Max tide these things will create uh uh opportunities for water to rise and so the floor was designed for the water to flow out the French drain that's outside the entrance is connected to a sump pump system so on
Lower water threats that's how it's exactly supposed to work water comes in water flows out water gets pumped out to um uh the canal in between where um uh the next where Larry noon used to live
um uh but it was also designed um with a a roof cap that would allow for impacts to the exhibit with space to clean and continue to maintain and I think that's what's been lost most
through time so like those excavation units that were being referred to were um that space was inundated before uh Irma and those excavation units should have come out probably five or more years before then
um because water actually flowed in so I think what you're referring to to float in by where today there's the the the um the uh mural ends and the room turns um
there's a column that's right behind that space and initially the roof cap was constructed so the roof cap is hollow core concrete it's like a parking garage it's um helical anchors down between 30 and I think 150 plus feet to
get to resistance a footer that's on top of those helical anchors and then columns on top more Footers and then the Hol core concrete slab so it's you could literally Park a semi TR on top of the mous exhibit that's it was designed like a parking
structure um but the roof cap was designed so that it would feed into the top of the mound and then to the right the long wall it actually goes over 10 feet past where the mound wall is today fairly early on I don't remember
what storm I'd have to look through notes it was when we were filming was right after we filmed water came in by that post at the end of the mural and we cleared back the upper part of the mound and poured an additional
roof cap so there could well be some water intrusion between those two slabs that would be worth investigating putting addition there it was waterproofed at the time but it may need to be redone um but the intention had been and this
is what happens at historic Spanish point which those of you who are on Cell cab at the time will remember our field trip so Osprey there's a exhibit not not like the mound house exhibit because the mound house exhibit is like nothing else
right we learned some lessons from how they had designed their roof structure over the mound and they had and still have rodent intrusion root intrusion water in like regular um which they've attempted to address over the years um
and they clean the face of their exhibit about every three years and that was intended there was intended to be maintenance of the archaeology to maximize The View and opportunity and experience and
educational potential for the public it was never anticipated that you would build it and then this organic structure would just stay as is so I think I think that part of it um while
uh there's been a whole bunch of Storms and now that needs to be done it hasn't been done regularly over the last 14 years um and so so had it been there may be less less any one time right to be a
to have to do to kind of get it back to that normal but um uh the the building was designed and and i' I'd have to Reas David saaks or you all could Reas David Sachs who was the landscape architect who worked on the project um some of the pathways some of the ways that we
resculpted parts of the mound so um when the long family was there in the 1950s they did a bunch of leveling there used to be uh parking spaces some of you will remember there was a carport to the right of the structure there was a whole parking pad there and a couple of spaces
the back dirt from the excavation was used to reconstruct the shape of the mound in those areas so there's clear separation because the ashalt still there we just cut holes in it and made it so that it was permeable but we we reutilized that stuff and there was some
sculpting done to help the water flow away from that entrance but again that's the landscape architect and the civil engineer from ECT um forget his I can see him in my face if I forget his name um but it was also expected that there
would be a big storm at some point and the goal was to create or to prevent Rushing Water from entering because Rushing Water is the damage so all of the design intent was about how do you get water out once it's
in and how do you prevent Rushing Water from coming in the exhibit because Rushing Water would Cavern out the base spaces and then you'd get partial collapse of those um of those faces that are that are available to the public to
see I'm happy to answer questions but that's just you know I just wanted to give some of that background because I think it's relevant to your conversation oh it is thank you so much that's very valuable I actually have a couple question just um since we've been starting to look into this and getting you know with getting the
fire department down there for CTO and tcos did you have any issues with that and how what what permit did CTO you're going to have to give me like the whole did you have to get an occupancy for that since of course y cuz we can't do you know that would have been 200 what
we're just trying to locate some of so we can I think is when the occupancy so the room was finished before the pathways were done because in May of 2010 the Florida anthropological society and the Florida trust for historic preservation conferences were in Fort
Meyers and it was the the mountainous was the opening reception for both of those conferences and it was the first time the public were allowed into the exhibit but the paths were wooden boardwalks um so we had to get the occupancy certificate in order to be able to do the conf trouble locating the
original permit so I just didn't know what for some reason I thought it was 2008 no it's not no it was 10 that was 10 2010 and then the pathways got built after that because the pathway funding came from um TDC right the 1.3 million from TDC included the pathways and the
sculpting of the mound that I'm talking about and all the the French drain and some of that other entrance work and the signage the dock okay so T Teresa does the documentation from all of that work does that live with the town sure um uh I I
have some copies of like design like the schematic design for exhibits um uh but the town I mean the town has had all of it right because the the um uh Kathy Lewis might be the other person to ask so as I was transitioning away from the
mound house Kathy Lewis was the Public Works director I don't know if she still works out on santelle but she had been in parks and recck out on santel um uh or Jack uh green who's still around all the still around yeah yeah so that would be helpful but all
the permitting was done at the time through Lee County I think so I don't I know that because it was still in that transition of community developing permitting so you might look there and you might look at 289 Connecticut because at the time
the address hadn't been rechanged Ah that's another thing I'm just throwing out ideas as as yeah we're just we've been right as we're asked to do our due diligence we've been trying to get everything to get if we have to get permits and I don't know you know did you lose records from the town building
everything was electronic most of it but we did have some in a a waterproof safe luy but we we did uh we did recover most of it when we were able to to view it but we haven't found I don't think we
found any do we have schematics and um so far uh just because we haven't found it yet doesn't mean it's not somewhere so uh the zoning department there I've also been meeting with the zoning department the flood plane folks and they've been very helpful and helping me trying to locate uh necessary documents
to move forward yeah yeah yeah okay I I know soon after and you were gone by then and but there was a a minor water incursion yes very shortly after you left and I remember saying something to
why didn't you fix the Sun Pumps the hadn't been on I think when that happened we didn't know it was there we it's there it was there currently we' went like through four of them was there the town the people working for the town did not or whoever was and the some that's in there is only like two horsepower yeah
soes out right away when any kind of so when did you leave Teresa uh September 2011 2011 yeah so we'd have I mean that's part of it is getting a bigger Sun pump down there somewhere and trying to get it where we can rush out the water a little bit more and so we're we're exploring it's just going to take
a lot of time the other thing and I I don't remember this exactly because I haven't been in the exhibit for quite a while um uh but it struck me at the time when we were going through permitting that the requirement for elevation of electrical components was 18 in off of
floor which I thought was absurd at the time but you know whatever we were building an exhibit um uh and I don't remember if we didn't we should have run the Electric from the house through the cap or through the not through the cap
but under the under the um roof cap and then down and used like well we had to rip out after Ian we had to rip out all of the wiring cuz it it did go up it did go up cuz the AC units uh they sat on top okay and we ended up that all got
clogged with mud and debris so we had up ripping out all of that and redoing all of it and running all new lines so okay so it did it did get ran from up top it was ran from up top at some point even before I got there so put the the panels in the in the little closet right yeah
yeah for theak well like like so many of us you know no one anticipated a hurricane Ian even the you the best designed underground exhibit in the world could not have anticipated this kind of catastrophe as so many of or any
structure on this island yes yes no I think I mean I think uh certainly in Donna all the you know the oral histories about Donna were that people went to the mound house because it was the highest point of land right right so so when we were designing the exhibit um
it was anticipated that it would that the water would rise and that storms would impact the exhibit and that we were building in contingencies so that that wouldn't be the the um that wouldn't uh eliminate its use right
that there would be ways to uh make regular repairs due due diligence but to continue to maintain it so that it was still accessible um uh so I so I think that that's sort of partly true but also not
I mean Ian was pretty phenomenal right like it just really hit at the right time right tied you know stayed flooded for a long time yeah I mean it just really was the perfect storm and one would like to believe that they won't all be perfect storms but um we even I
mean just at our gym I we had stuff that was up 10 feet that were like that's never and we ended up replacing it so yeah yeah stuff happens it's a natural disaster and could I Madam chair just just first of all thank you for being here Teresa this is really helpful
information and I know your access more recently has been limited to the mountainous particularly the underground exhibit but given your experience and given what you've heard thus far could you just wrap up a little bit in terms of what your practical recommendation would be to save the
underground exhibit what would be some of the basic maintenance steps that you would Envision given that you were there at the ground floor of of of of of the design work um well I think uh uh I think I think a handful of
things so not having seen it so haven't seen what the damage looks like in real time obviously I've seen other damage that happened to it from other storms that created much less impactful damage but um uh part of the impetus for not
having a complete floor was twofold one was that um there needed to be a place for all the lights and all of that creates a lot of head space that then um reduces the amount of head room that visitors have and so so uh kind of
creating the glass wall to separate it but it was also considered to be um an opportunity for for the water to not put all the force pressure underneath the floor but I think to me that's something that does need to be assessed like the
um because the water is rising from below um making sure that the the floor of the exhibit hasn't undergone undue stress and is um uh might have some issues that would take longer to
materialize or to become ible um there is a lot of extra rebar in that space um I'm trying to think it was a white white construction um Phil Phil White the guy out of Naples does that name sound no it was construction it's Phil White Phil
White okay he was down in Naples but I and he was doing the restoration work on the um the railroad Depot building at the time he was doing the underground room at the mound house um another building that may uh they may never reopen the railroad building downtown
NES because it had major impacts from um so I think that needs to be done and then um a regular plan needs to be put in place to manage the the walls um uh like I said at Spanish Point um that's
about an every threeyear thing um what that so so the walls as they were excavated too at the time the exhibit opened were fairly stable across most of their faces so the shell
Mounds are made of a lot of oyster it's the the most um highly the highest percentage species and oysters are these gnarly things that claw stack together and then get cemented together by Earth and so they create a really really
stable surface like you can excavate into a shell Mound n9ine feet down in a one by one meter unit and the walls won't cave in unless you start to Elbow them and hit them with your butt and and kind of thing but there's parts of the mound um made of fighting conks which
are much rounder parts of the mound that had higher density of um like the shark eye shells and those are a little more roly poy and some of those layers had a lot less sediment and so a lot less cementing in and so the the sloughing
from the mound which had had happened and um I I made this comment to Allison years and years ago that that needed to be cleaned back and managed because the visitor impact is to see the strateg graphy and over time just by virtue of the air flow from the
humidifiers dust that comes in just from people walking in and out of buildings um if there's any moisture seepage or you know whatever it is all of that creates a fuzziness on the strateg graphy on the stratification of the
mound which then reduces what people are getting out of the experience and at Spanish point the problem they have because theirs is a little more open air so it feels less like a parking garage theirs instead feels a little more like a little house they get spiders that
come in and build webs and then when there's a little bit of vibration the vibration uh the the dust Sparks around you know Falls around and then it gets in all the spider webs and then they have these these sort of like webs of of fine dust that prevent you from seeing
the actual Mound my goodness it's different in the mound house but um but just something that deals with that it could be a research program which is kind of how it was intended to be um way back when we were starting it that uh you learn a little bit more if you if
you you know kind of clean this space and um where you have intact stratigraphy you're actually analyzing the material um because the face that was created was a moment in time right it's like what the mound looks like when you cut it like this but if you cut it somewhere else it's going to look a
little different and there might be slightly different stories that you can tell new interpretation so a little bit more of a of a of an active process um active education that helps to kind of um
uh increase the utility of research-wise of that excavation space but then also keep it clean and fresh and the Strate stratification is clear which makes it much easier for a member of the public to understand what they're seeing um but in terms of the hurricane impacts I mean
if the if the electric audio run from the ceiling that's great um putting the panels up as high as possible makes sense increasing the size of the sump pup I mean it sounds like they thought through a lot of those things but I I would um have a structural inspection of
the floor itself just because um it doesn't have a continuous footer if I'm remembering correctly um so so there could be um uh wash under the floor as sediment moves around as water rising
and lowering that creates the opportunity for that to happen um so I think that might be kind of what's is that is that that's what it looks like yeah yeah yeah and even I mean mitigation is going to be a big thing too with this and you know maybe sealing
the floor completely might be it like the the rec center we we're not even going to put back a regular floor we're epoxying the whole thing so there's no seepage from up because that was what was happening there too so well you need to let water come into the space which sound so antithetical no it does but we
were getting a lot of water coming in the space but what you might need to do is peel back the glass wall and then um since since the uh exhibit excavated to the base of the mound you could excavate now You' need to do it in the dry season you'd need to do it with a with a um a
WellPoint system installed really dry out the Earth but you could retrofit Footers under the edge of that which which may help um maybe anchors below those Footers uh if I'm remembering correctly the um back side of the site
had the shallower helical anchors and the front part had the deeper ones there was some um uh uh uh drilling like some pores that were taken to assess all of that stuff but that is do we have that documentation then all of that would
have lived with the town okay so hopefully we get we're going to look into all of it I mean it well also we can barely even you can't open that back door because it's it's yeah caved in so much yeah behind where the that's how much land sliding down okay yeah you
can't open the door cuz that entire shell profile behind the door where that back column is you can't you can barely see that back pillar okay cuz that whole area has collapsed the shell mid profile has collapsed and that's where water is to wash in from above there so there's there's flooding both from the top and
there's also um I guess um a water just coming down and eroding through the through the soil and so there was a collapse there so you can't open the door anymore cuz it's you know it's waste high of a shellmon collapse and then the area uh where the curtain was
half of that area has collapsed the curtain uh when you first walk in electrical room by the electrical room there was never a curtain when I was there so I don't know where I'm sorry so whenever you walk in that need to be whenever you walk in um so where the shellmound profile ends and where the
electrical room begins yes that's that's where it with the 872 case that's where the human remains were reburied yes H half of that has collapsed and basically it's chest High against the glass oh wow yes that's that's why I'm mostly concerned it would be and I know you
you've got such a wealth of knowledge Teresa and I'm hoping that there can continue to be this conversation back and forth because your institutional history helps Adam as the museum manager have the the tools needed to get to that
next level and I think that when Adam gives his report he's talking about what he's doing now but your information is invaluable so I'm hoping that maybe there can be that um communication going forward that that panel that glass panel was supposed to be frosted it was one of
the other things I mentioned to Allison it was in order to create a yeah I understand a barrier a shadow yeah it's Curr uh between because we reopened those nine months after Ian until uh Helen flooded it the first time um and
then we cleaned it out and then Milton uh uh flooded it again uh those nine months um we did uh using aquarium paint we basically painted those panels those Glass Walls fully so that's so those two
first panels but yeah the whole area which is also where the electrical came in for the rope lights so uh that's part of the archaeological profile now uh some buried uh rope lights uh so yeah so yeah guess the point of this was you
know we'll give brief updates on you know strategies we we're trying to get and the people were getting in you know we're getting still from new new I can't ever say the town new new SMA Beach new SM Beach is where our industrial hygienist is he's just got to get down here um so yeah with the some of those
things were just still working on on getting those because even with you know not just that it's an underground thing we had it at B Oaks too you know we just got to make sure it's safe for the public and all that yeah there there is noted I talked to you about this Barbara there is noted mold and MW growth um I
mean even after uh Ian just with the CEO rise and the continued erosion so the environment has changed quite dramatically um it's just moist more often um so we're looking into getting like what je said a air quality test um
and then also maybe like a like a filtration system to have a bit something more advanced than you know a um what are they called a little AC Min split Min splits yeah dehumidification yeah what is it AC units are
dehumidification Bas yeah so to get the humidity levels down so it won't to right now we're we're trying mold sounds awful but we're trying to find the issues so we can fix the issues so first we got find out everything that's going on with it and then we
can what about a permanent WellPoint system you need to you need to come to the mic y I just said what about a permanent WellPoint system that connects to your French strain and some pump that allows you to maintain a certain level of of uh
where the water comes up to which would help with all of the issues you just mentioned with the dehumidification yeah and we we had that the mini split down there which kept it at we had our kept the humidity down for sure it was pretty steady so we had that pretty much under control but then when
we power for six months and it would kind of yeah that's another issue of response you know we're just trying to yeah fix the problem as it was going and now we got a bigger problem that needs bigger fixing so well and and like someone mentioned um there's not a
comparable example of I mean it was unprecedented when we did it and it's unprecedented when you got to fix it so you know sorry sorry about that part it's a lot cheaper if you have a ton of things you know how to fix it but this is where we're trying to just yeah that the only other thing I would say is um
uh uh if you haven't replaced the hurricane impact doors at the front they we have okay good um it might be worth two sets um so that there's a clean front to the rounded part of the entrance yeah so we do the we do the hurricane doors and
then we do the when the storm's coming we do this the storm okay Shield so we do have two okay I forgot we're trying we're trying forg about storm sh trying everything we Poss can to to mitigate so what of my big takeaways from Teresa everything that Teresa said is that it
was designed to have water come up that that that's not that's a feature right and I actually U our vice mayor has really sort of um pursued this too after our November meeting to find out
what St Town staff is interested in doing going forward I I I really appreciate TR Teresa being here because this is the kind of colloquy that is really helpful because we're we're trying to solve a problem now instead of just hyperbole we're we're actually
digging in and trying to solve a problem so I appreciate the dialogue what's it nothing I'm not digging too much yeah and can I right I'm not AR more digging and can I say too thank thank you Teresa
but just talking you can see what how important this underground is and I know there a list of priorities and things like that but it's something that really archaeologically I mean I've gotten so many calls on it I mean people love that
underground and I think it's worth going through every one of these little bits as many as the pool I don't know we could I don't know about that but what to what to save it well I I I could say our chair was at a recent meeting and she posited the question directly and I
made sure each counselor responded and there was 100 % unwavering support for keeping the underground exhibit I just want to make that clear that it was a good very good discussion y y and and I appreciate you vice mayor to uh push
that issue when I gave that presentation because you actually queried your fellow Council to say you know what are your thoughts so they were then verbally on record for their support and collectively like U uh Teresa said it's going to be a slow
process of course to slow down and really take time so please be patient with this we're trying we're you know we all we also have other things going on besides this but this is a a priority for us and we're we're doing it it's just getting people down here is is
tough it's very complicated I mean it's there's no quick easy fix exactly exactly so I think we're in for the Long Haul but we've shifted we've shifted the Paradigm of the conversation now we're we're all working together to try to solve the problem as
opposed to sort of a preconceived notion that just close we're going to close it so I I I much prefer this conversation than the ear I mean there's always no there's no guarantees I mean if it cost cost what it does we need need to find that money somehow too say how
about outside sources we've we're I know he's really working on grants uh to try to do it I know um you know with Carolyn and her family we've gotten hopefully some donations to help go towards that well all total is about close to ,000 and that's $6,000 I mean you yep that'll
pay for hygienists you know yeah I know it doesn't go very far no no no I'm not saying that I'm very appreciative I'm being realistic it it won't it doesn't Consultants are expensive yeah but I mean I do appreciate that and going towards that as well but by way of background just so
everybody knows Carol the memorial funds for Carolyn's Osman Patrick are dedicated to the preservation of the underground exhibit so I just and and and I think I I talked I had had chance to talk to Adam but you and I talked about that Jeff and so that that just
it's important to know that those are dedicated to a solution if and we know there's there's a lot of people in this community that love it yeah yeah and I'm very appreciative and you know and and I'm going to turn my hat around and put on my friends at the mountainous hat and the preservation of the underground is
critical to the friends and there's Rumblings of maybe we could launch a capital campaign and I think the the interest in that would be significant not only from our own community but around around the world yeah yeah I mean that that's going
to be an intrical part I'm I'm sorry if anyone takes offense to that but money is going to be an issue course we all know that we all know that we have to know I know it always is but it sometimes it doesn't get said you know especially as me being in charge of budgets and trying to raise money and you know it seems like we we raise a
million here we raise two million here for things and it just doesn't go very far you know we as a town the past few years we've raised a lot of money and rent roll grants and gotten tens of millions of dollars hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money and it just we
just need that little that that one grant that helps the underground just like we had for the pool and the Newton Beach and all that stuff so yeah specifically in terms of numbers because I have been uh soliciting uh I guess bids or like getting ballpark estimates
from exhibit designers so exhibit basically you have to do a planning phase and you have to do uh the actual implementation phase so generally some do one some do the other some of the larger firms do both phases you know again as we're saying a multi-year
process but uh just the planning phase usually about um $1800 a square foot um for material and other costs usually we're looking at about A4 million dollar uh for the planning phase and maybe
another half million dollars for the implementation phase um so I'm hoping to apply for a special categories Grant through the State of Florida uh for the planning phase it does have a onetoone match um that the town would have to match or the friends
would have to match for a quarter million dollars um or up to a quart million dollars um so it can be smaller increments but um just to put some actual numbers on uh yeah and there aren't a lot of people you know it's not like we can just go through the Yellow
Pages and find of these people the problem is if we consult with them a lot of times they aren't able to bid on it because of our procurement process yeah so we have to be very choosy as to how we we do it because there aren't a lot of a lot of people that companies that that do the work we're looking for um
that we don't consult with one and then they're not able to bid on the project so just with the way our our purchasing and procurement process goes um through funding you know with the the bid process and those things anything over 75,000 we have to go to bid so is that a
constraint is that state law or or well it's our local local I mean I don't know if it's state law it's pretty standard yeah yeah and a lot of the funding might come from state or federal and then we run into we're running into the CBD grr where we we turn it into the county they turn into the state which is also funded
by Hud and then they have to review everything else everyone did and we were you know we were planning on getting the money when was that that we talked about it I know uh when the council approved it we thought we were going to get it pretty quick and here we are still waiting for it so it's a process very
process yes um and then just for other things were uh I'm looking into I did get a CH I did get a hold of the town's legal team so I did meet with them about the various issues or potential issues just to make sure I know there was a lot of like legal compliance questions that came up in the last meeting so they're
working on that um so they're reviewing all those various things especially um 872 uh State ordinances um uh section 106 which is the National Historic preservation act so in terms of being doing Feature work working with
collaborative uh collaboratively and in consultation with descendant communities um so bringing all those and collecting all those various St stake stakeholders excuse me uh so been in contact with the state archaeologist of Florida we're not yeah might talk about we're not lawyers
we we we're going to let the lawyers figure that one out if they say yeah we're good we're good you know yeah and then um zoning uh flood plane uh make sure we have a flood plane certificate for that room and then working with Finance to make sure the room is uh insured and everything's coded the right
way okay so covering all bases steps are being taken yes thank you Adam okay so do we have a sense of what's going to happen in the next 30 days so that we for the next meeting if we have some progress report or I'm try
to get as many yeah people in as we can and right now it's been about well since our last meeting and I've tried to get that hygienist down so I was going to ask you would do you have what needs to happen before he can come nothing you just got a schedule they're just out so far with all this stuff going on around
and all these hurricanes that oh it's taking a while this one guy is like the expert he's our insurance guy that does it oh oh oh he's ins okay he's thank you just like B was contracted to our insurance to make sure the air quality was good because it's a public entity
got it okay more to report Adam uh just that thank you okay any questions for Adam at this point with regard to the underground exhibit is everyone feeling comfortable with the information that we've received
not just from Adam and Jeff but also from Teresa much more positive better great thoughts going forward great um strategy um thank you okay let's go to member items and reports we'll begin
with um ready okay well I think this has been an outstanding meeting yes uh I was impressed when we first walked in and I saw Teresa and uh uh we were
able to get a little recap from her and uh just a reminder of all the things that she has done for us and uh uh and where we've come from from that standpoint and uh I really appreciate
Adam's very complete U report uh it's one thing to get all these papers and we can take a look at them and you review them and you think well okay I'll have that at the meeting but then when you actually come back with all the
information I think it's really important that you uh uh fill us in on some of those details and uh I really appreciate that and uh of course I don't think we could do any of this without
our very uh capable uh chairman who uh I mean you led us from one thing to the other and uh have done an excellent job I just think this has been uh an outstanding
meeting I do so thank you that's all I have only thing I have is looking at the um agenda items for next month and I think you're going to talk about like the collective management policy and in-depth Report with regard to the map
Museum assessment um program um work that we've done over the last eight months I believe is what it was right eight nine months yeah a whole year I'm guessing that might take up the bulk of the meeting next yes exactly so um anyway so chair what you um not much um
I just a good meeting um thank you very much much Teresa because that was really good background things that I had I had forgotten um and I also kind of want to assure the town that I don't think that you're going to have to foot all these funds by
yourself I appreciate that I not g to say we have heard that before but I hope that I hope you're right there's a lot of local interest and uh we have we have plans the friends are very active on it so okay thank you Sher
and Ellen so I would just like to read I will not repeat what Betty and what Sher said but I just want to second and third it and say that um yes we are and Teresa thank you so much for all of your in-depth information and Charlie thank you for coming and letting us know that
people beyond our little Seven Mile Long Island are very interested in this uh we're we're very we're wonderfully we're we're we're heartened to hear about the progress that you are making we understand it's slowo and we want to do whatever we can be
supportive thank you ell Becky I'm just going to say ditto before I start coughing again sorry well first of all uh thank you for your welcome everyone and um I'm much encouraged by everything we've heard and
I think that uh this committee and the friends are ready to roll up their sleeves and make it a reality because it's too unique to bypass for today agreed so anyway thank you
thank you Carolyn Jim party words I have nothing additional this is an excellent meeting thank you so much is there a motion to adjourn public yes we do have public comment one more please I do have o' I
didn't realize it was gonna take two hours I know right well we thank you public comment I'll watch it I just have a question can the person from the public
speak on the same subject twice in one meeting yes okay they can okay yes so Charlie has to be on the agenda for the first time and at the end you can say anything you want I say congratulations technically you could speak three times at the beginning of the meeting during
the subject time and then after yeah so if you really want to push it all right um well it's certainly going to be a learning experience for all of us um engineers and certainly for archaeologists as as tresa mentioned as you clean these walls that I know this
is not question answer but I'm still confused is there like a dehumidifier down there is there air conditioning at all that sort of thing so um I am curious on that uh congratulations on on the sponsorships I know she had quite a
few in your report um don't be afraid to go to the top as you can just let your mind go I mean past Margaritaville which right to be re you'll willingly rename it for a few
million dollars to Margarita but I remember when when we were trying to get the main house open you know and as as a nonprofit we didn't have the resources even the city did but right construction I don't know if yall know
them they were doing the millions of dollars worth of downtown work for our storm water and our roads and stuff they saved us tens of thousands of dollars not because they came to us we came to them and and asked uh you've
got okay the uniqueness of this can maybe work to your advantage in other words if train air conditioning can say we help solve this engineering problem or you know just go big with this
because it will get worldwide press if you do the marketing right you know problem solved you know kind of thing and challenges because it is so large Contracting companies engineering firms you know maybe Beyond even local or
whoever's doing work for the city well they going to go no they should be willing to step up and volunteer it and you know they may or they may not um also uh it certainly sounds like Adam is certainly staying
busy but um if you want to refine your list of activities the swaus southwest Florida archaeological Society um you know our monthly newsletter goes to several hundred people so and many of them are local so
we'd be happy to list your events in there beyond the cloa coast thing that I know you have some so if there's a way just to um put that together whatever Graphics you want also I think our our members beyond the activities at the
mountainous which sounds amazing and I would be here quite often if it wasn't such a drive these days would be you know people are interested in the status I'm sure you guys get it all what's going on you know so um maybe some
photos and you know here's not detailed like today but um you know an overview working hard you know whatever but some photos and the plants and Status uh we'd certainly be happy to get that in our newsletter um thank you all it's been a
long day I'm sure for yall as well and um I kept trying to figure some way that cluser were known for being the shell people and making shell to tools so you just need to create a shell vacuum I guess for
the I haven't fig that part out yet back to my old uh oh gosh what was the one with the Dinosaurs the cartoon show Flint Flint Flintstones thank you Charlie thank you
important advice uh we have one more public comment from I'll be really quick um uh you all are welcome to reach out to me anytime thank you thank you um let's see
uh some communities have as part of their impact fee maybe it's not impact fees specifically because I do realize those have restrictions but Barbara how did the city of Fort Meyers uh require public art funding there might be a way
to build in cultural historical funding into what you're doing in terms of new development that allows for for an endowment to be built for mous Newton properties so there might be ways to tag on to that because I think you know one
of the things that's important to consider is that there's a there immediate need but it's it's really a Perpetual need right like managing the care and stewardship of this resource will cost the town money through the years and building in something now while you're revisiting all those things
might be really useful and Barbara worked for this city of Fort Meers manage and and Tampa managing their public Arts so she she may well have some really good insights on how to craft something that that dovetails here that is in everybody's best interests
and that is definitely done through ordinance and and uh you know run by staff and with consultants and the public art committee to achieve the goals set forth by building a public art collection that a town or city or a
county or state owns so that is uh often times an incentive for a developer can come in at which they've done for downtown the Downtown Development District where a new developer that would want to build a certain piece of
property would be mandated by the city of Tampa to set aside a percent of their construction budget for public art and that was a public benefit to the city
and that is you know that had legs now I believe there's some question with regard to wanting to do that in the future there's currently some legislation out there that says no we don't want to ask that of a developer but I do think you know that can be a
public benefit uh just like um you know if if you don't if you can't find a way to benefit the public on your property that you're developing you can uh take that money or that effort and set it aside for the underground exhibit like
an endowment if you will you know sort of put aside a reserve funding that developers can put money into so all of those are variables in terms of seeking the funding especially from development very good yeah um and then the only other thing that I made a note of just
as you all were talking was um when we contracted the exhibit design firm cnergy Design Group which of course went bankrupt in the post housing bubble much to my at the time um we actually hired them through the Architecture Firm so we
had used there's an exception to the um uh request for proposals process for historic preservation Architects given the nature the unique nature of the underground room and its um archaeological components we did an RFQ process for the architecture and
Landscape architecture firms and we included in the architecture RFQ um the exhibit design component and that allowed us to not have to Wade through people that don't know what they're doing in terms of like you know
18,000 a square foot sure if you have a something that looks like a big box store and you're building everything new but in this kind of a situation it's so nuanced that it's really important to make sure that you're getting attracting the professionals that are going to
really go the extra mile and understand the organic nature of it and and that might also help PR prevent um having conversations with firms that you figure out are the right ones and then not being able to use them so building it into your Contracting um elsewhere and I
I think you all are still using ranker Parks Architects even though John Parks uh retired um uh so it may not be something that you have to bid separately again because it was in their contract initially I just thought of that as I
was thinking so thank you all it was it's been fun I am not going to come every if you guys are talking about something that you think some of the history might be relevant just let me know I'm mostly in Tallahassee these days I'm at Florida State University I'm here in my personal
capacity today but um I I have my house still in Iona that I'm will eventually um have fully repaired so so in the near term I'm easily able to adapt my schedule to be able to to make it if you need something we
appreciate we appreciate your love of the house and your continued involvement much appreciated okay sorry about that missing the public comment thing okay now we can have a motion to adjourn next meeting Madam chair just for the record
I believe we're having this time next month fourth Thursday of the month in March at one o' should be I think we scheduled them for the whole year yes I do believe we did
watch so just just for the record it's March 27th one o' I don't have my phone 3:27 3:27 okay so 3:27 1 1
p.m. all right motion to adjourn I'll move the adjourn thank you second second second all right all in favor