doing this and I know. Okay, bear with us, Becky and Carolyn. I think we're about ready to move forward. So, yes, we're good. All right, thank you. I I thought it was my computer. No, no, it's us. It's not you. Okay, good. No, it's
us. Thank you. Uh so yeah just to resume um or go back to what we were saying before the connection cut off um we started the digital membership program uh mostly thanks to the hard work uh from Karina in terms of having a system that is more
efficient, quicker and instantaneous. Basically, whenever someone purchases a membership through the mount house, they get sent a digital membership card and if able or if they would like, people can opt in to the uh a paper membership program uh and get a paper physical card
sent to them. However, we've only had two or three opt in of the dozens that have renewed um in the last two months. So, um seems very successful. We've actually been given um at least two people have complimented us on the new
system. So that's great. Um can I interject real quick? Is that um also uh on the website telling them that it's electronic now? I believe so. I'll double check though. Yeah. Um so FEMA did pay a visit uh to Mount
House and Times Square. Um I'll just talk about Mount House part though. Um Mount House was visited specifically they visited the exhibit that is sometimes referred to as the underground. the uh exhibit building. They're just checking on the status of uh any work that had or had not been
done in terms of surveying the structure uh any contents and at the end of the uh survey they stated they will produce a mitigation plan for the town. Um however, other structures that they
visited um and are working on mitigation plans after Hurricane Ian um we're still waiting on a couple of those. So, in terms of a timeline for um a mitigation plan from FEMA for the underground exhibit, um I don't have a timeline
unfortunately for that. Um hopefully we get bumped to the front of the list. Who knows? But um and then in regards to the underground, it was actually during that site inspection that we noticed that the uh PVC mural panels that were that are in the underground exhibit were starting
to warp from the the humidity um of the the room and maybe also as a result from the constant flooding of the room during our last five flood events in the last two years. And so we made a decision to remove the those PVC panels from the
underground to prevent any further damage to those assets. And so it was actually um a great idea from uh our public's works too, historic properties uh historic properties public works too.
uh Seth Jacobs that had the brilliant idea of actually installing it um the murals temporarily while the underground is undergoing its closure and temporary and we figure out what's happening to display them to the public so people can see the mural and the mural has been installed five of the seven mural panels
installed on the side of the kayak shed. So, right when you drive into the moundhouse, right when you walk up the the mound towards the museum, um you see this nice landscape mural of the Clusive Village mural that was in the underground exhibit and it lines up
perfectly um where the horizon actually matches the real horizon of the water. So, it's a very nice effect. Brave compliments from residents, rave compliments from uh staff, volunteers, everyone has loved it. really adds life and adds a new interpretive element for
staff uh giving programs to utilize and helps visitors better utilize the totality of the history of the site. Um and then staff is planning on applying for a small matching grant through the Department of Historic Resources at the state of Florida, uh
which is a grant up to $50,000. Uh, and we're applying for that grant to pay for a um a feasibility study for the underground exhibit to really look into all the holistic options of what what
does it look like to fix the underground? You know, is it a a partial fix, a full fix? Uh kind of just restore everything how it was and hope for the best and budget every year that it gets damaged. um or like a a larger u
mitigation plan or a more moderate or minor mitigation plan. So, we're hoping that that feasibility study grant will purchase that um will be approved. So, we'll be applying for that. Um it's due in June. Who is the granting agency? The Department of Historical Resources at
the State of Florida. Okay, good. So, it's a state grant. Um, and being on the state's timeline, the grant review doesn't happen until fall 2025. And the funds would not be released until summer 2026, July 1st, 2026. Um, so it will be
a lengthy process even just to get this feasibility study that will better give us a road map of what to do and actually have, you know, hard facts from uh, an outside agency um, preparing this feasibility study. But just to give you a better sense of the timeline for the
underground and for anyone watching at home, you know, if we had a million dollars today and I was able to call up someone today and everything worked out on time, no one was sick, there was budget, no on budget, no storms, blue
sky day every day, it would still be an 18month process if we started today with a million, you know, a million dollars, let's say, um, to reopen the underground in whatever state that might look like. So, just to assure people that the underground will be closed for a while
while we're trying to figure something out, but the rest of the museum is still open. We're still doing programs, kayak tours. Um, so while it is a, you know, blockbuster exhibit, uh, the mound still survives, the whole 2.86 86 acres of the archaeological site, the historic 1921
house with its exhibits, our new artifact preservation center and various programs, outreach, field trip initiatives, and other programs. So, um, if you've only visited in the past for the underground and think the underground is all there is, the moundhouse, there's, uh, more than just the underground, we have a lot of other
cool things going on. Um, yeah, if I could, this this uh this FEMA mitigation plan that's in the works, maybe this is a better question question for Jeff because you've been down this road for other facilities. Is it does that mean it's a precursor for potential funding
as well from FEMA or not necessarily? It's basically just a plan. Um, there is although for Ian there was mitigation funds um they deemed it necessary but not a whole lot. Is tidal basin part of this exercise to help us get funding for
it? Yes. Thank you. Yeah. For instance, um for Ian, we just got in kind of fasttracked it just for the the rec center. So, we were able to lift up um the air handlers about 8 feet um off the
ground uh which hopefully will help in in a future flood if we have it. Be good. Um but quicker through the insurance, but you just the the underground the mitigation
for FEMA takes a while. Um, and then kind of moving on other activities. So, like I said, um you may recall in past SECAT meetings I've mentioned that the town was awarded nearly $27,000 from the Fort Myers Beach Chamber Foundation to purchase the
parts, materials, and with the assistance of Florida GF Coast University's water school, the installation of a water quality sensor that measures near live within 10 minutes uh water quality conditions in a
stereo bay. So, water current, air uh air water flow, uh algae content, uh pH, salinity, uh temperature, and this is the only publicly available live uh water gauge for all of Aero Bay. Uh so,
this will be quite a resource. We're working on getting a widget or basically a small area on our website where people can view it and possibly as well as the town's website. So residents who are living on the back bay or on the bay side of Sarah Island can check the water
temperature and the overall general quality of the water uh in their backyards. Um as well as good tool for any visitors uh businesses. So it's a good benefit um overall for residents and also a great tool. You can come to
the mount house to the observation pier and see it. And you can scan a QR code and see the readings yourself while you're sitting there, which will also be useful not only for um general formation and people informing their own public health choices, but also a good tool for our kayak tours to ensure that the
tide's not too fast that pose a danger to our programs uh like our kayak tours. Yeah. And we're hoping that the press release that goes out and goes out to the media too would pick pick this up. Um it's you never know what they're going to pick up, but I think this is a good story that that I think everyone
should be aware of. Um so we are we knew that already the press release. Uh not yet. Okay. Nicole, I know that our PIO, Nicole, the communications director is working on it. But hopefully we get some good press out of this and we'll be posting it everywhere. Can you guys send that out to all of us too, the press
release? Uh yes, that'd be great. Seems great. I think you want to have like obviously not a ribbon. I went and saw you then have ribbit that too. We are the uh uh FGCU the f uh Fort Mary's Beach Chamber
Foundation uh in Mount Housetown. We're als we're planning on having a ribbon cutting for our second Saturday program which is one of our free mission programs. Um that will be um June 14th. Great. Um, and we're planning on having the ribbon cutting um, tentatively at 10
a.m. while it's still cool. So, we'll have a official ribbon cutting during that second Saturday, which is themed with environmental um, science, environmental sustainability. So, there'll be free admission to the museum and some extra free programs and uh, activity stations for families.
Wonderful. So, it be a great event. Um, we got a uh received a $1,500 grant from the Fort Myers Beach Community Foundation to actually sponsor and pay for um that entire second Saturday series, which is that three-month program where every second Saturday in
May, June, and July, excuse me, June, July, and August, we'll have a free admission. So that $1,500 $1,500 grant will pay for supplies uh as well as the in in in a sense 50 people to attend the
museum for free on those three days uh to cover costs of those that pre-mission day. Um, we're hosting a volunteer appreciation day this Saturday, April 26 at Mount House from 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Um the museum registar is or has
spoken on a panel or excuse me the museum registar has been accepted to uh speak at southeastern museum conference in 2025 in October in Montgomery on the artifact preservation center along with a colleague from Florida G Coast University and in art museum uh whose
name is escaping me in Mississippi about how to how small museums can um can um integrate and change um their collections for the better in terms of building um a collection storage space within existing historic structures or
with limited budgets, limited staff, limited time. Um I I'm accepted as well to speak at uh Southeastern Museum Conference in um October as well. That one will be on community engagement. Um the Artifact Preservation Center had its o official opening day last Saturday on
lab day, which was a public program hosting 18 people. Um, we are now the only public archaeology lab in all of Southwest Florida. So the besides us at Mount House with our public archaeology lab in the Artifact preservation center, the nearest public archaeology labs are
in uh Davyy, Florida and St. Petersburg, Florida. Uh, so it's quite an achievement to have um that for the town. And this uh lab, it's available for visits by appointment. So if there's any researchers or residents that just want to see what it is, feel free to
contact Mount House and you can schedule a time to see it behind the scenes and we hope to have more structured and scheduled behind the scenes programs like those live days moving forward. Um and then we have um the museum registar and education coordinator will be speaking on various career panels coming
up in Mar in this month and into May. So that's that's what you missed. Oh, you can visit in one month. That's all. Is that in one month? 24 days. Could Could I ask a question? Yes, of
course. Well, okay. Uh I wasn't sure about my audio, so I'm not sure where we are here, but uh back to the uh underground. U Adam, do you know who will be doing the feasibility study? No, not yet. Well, how will that process work? Uh, so
once grant funding is awarded in summer 20126 um depending on uh matching um funds which working on uh that as well. Uh I think there will be a request
for proposal made and it will go through that process uh in uh late summer early fall 2026. So it'll be through a request for proposal session that the uh contract for lack of better word would be awarded to follow our procurement
policy. So it will actually u be uh operated through the town. Correct. Okay. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. And uh I think that is a highly
specialized field. So the um appropriate contractors would be how many would you think would be necessarily uh bidding on this proposal? Uh that I don't know. Okay. Just as reference, we just did uh
our contracted services. We we renew every two years. So we have a panel that discusses about I think it was 20 different categories whether it's you know envir environment environmental engineer or um you know, site planning,
those kind of services. And for archaeological services, uh, we didn't have anybody put in the hat for it. So, it's going to be very specialized. I'm sorry. I have a question uh for Adam. Um, while the underground is closed,
waiting for um grant approvals and that sort of thing, will all of the air conditioning and air cleansing and all of that stuff be kept going um so as not to make things worse? Uh yes, we're looking into, you know,
mitigating so it doesn't continue to get worse. And then we're still awaiting um an inspection from the industrial hygienists as well to kind of lead us into what direction would be best in terms of using town resources to accomplish that challenge. Thank you. You're welcome.
Any other questions for I I just just had a thought if I could, Madam Chair. the uh and we've talked about this, Adam, and and I we're gonna lose Jeff here for a second, but Jeff, I wanted you to hear this. The uh it's it's a bit unclear how this is
going to manifest itself, but there's still a significant discussion about a water ferry and obviously having the moundhouse be a stop for the uh the water ferry would be, I think, tremendous and really help the moundhouse uh attendance and and just
help on a number of fronts. I just wanted to encourage you again, nobody knows exactly how this is going to manifest itself. We've got a little bit of a chicken and the egg problem here on Fort Myers Beach that folks don't want to do anything until more people get here, but or people won't don't want to get here until there's more stuff to do,
right? So, that's a little bit of a challenge. But I just would hope as you think strategically, think about in a perfect world, which we don't live in someday, if that was to be built, where would it be built? How would it be designed? and just kind of just sort of just
conceptually build it into your thought process as you look at your strategic plan and and to the committee as well just to kind of think about how we would do it, how we would how we would utilize it, how you know, it could have tremendous rewards for the moundhouse. But, you know, we got a long way to go, but but I know we're going to have to
probably do some things to our own facilities to make it work, and that would probably be something that we could potentially use impact fees for when they come. And so, uh, the funding should be there, but I think this group would be really helpful to figure out how to how to how to marriage it with the mission of the moundhouse and and
just think about a little bit how that would help. Are you referencing the water taxi? Yes, sir. Water, not water fairy. Fairy, I'm sorry. Yep. Water ferry can accommodate up to 49 people on a boat. So, we have um we have had those discussions and our already said yes,
we'd love to have them stop. we our our dinghy dock um would be able to accommodate that or we'd modify the the observation pier. So, we've had those initial conversations just because I know it is far out maybe and potentially but um I think you had mentioned about I
don't know if you I suppose I just said it but we're going to have a kind of a partnership hopefully coming up. Um I don't know if you mentioned that. Oh, not yet. It's a potential one. I just want just to kind of piggyback on that and kind