All right. Good morning everybody. Uh, welcome to the public safety committee. Today is Tuesday, April 26, 2026. And let us call this meeting to order. It is 9:00 a.m. Would you all join me in standing for the pledge of allegiance, please?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Uh let's do the roll call.
We'll start. My name is Kieran Frell and I am sitting in for Dawn Thomas who is not here today. Uh, I will do my best to lead this meeting. So, >> Fred Canal, Todd Capella, >> Ron Benock,
>> Robert Williams. Outstanding. Um, let's go to the approval of minutes from last meeting. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes, please? >> Motion to approve. >> Seconded. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I >> I
>> So approved. Uh, next up, public comment. And seeing nobody and no comment, we will continue to move on. Item number six, discussion, proposed projects review. Uh, item number A, community
emergency response team, theert. Uh, we have some gentlemen from the fire department here to help us along with that. >> Right. I'll I'll go ahead and start and and we got the chief and deputy chief over here to help um talk about but um
in the past I' I've had experience with uh with C and um thinking this over talking with the chief um it it is a more of a fire department type of a deal. Um, but I guess what I'd like to know is is
sitting here thinking about what the volunteers would do, what the fire department would have to do to keep them uh interested in getting everybody um involved with CERT. Um, what is it that any ideas from any of the members here
on what they would think that a civilian that is trained in minor um um emergency operations type thing? Uh what what would be expected for citizens to do in your guys' op in everybody's
opinion? What would you think? >> I'm not familiar enough with the topic. I mean the the idea the concept. >> Okay. So I guess okay so the hurricane hits and um so we have this citizen
group that um would come out to help blank basically is what I'm asking. Um in my opinion here you know anybody that's going to be part of C is going to be um residents from the island. Well,
if a hurricane hits, they're going to be busy with their own homes. Um, so it's kind of a different it to me it just seems like it's different to try and get a cert team up. You know, you guys may think different or not, but um in my opinion just people
that would be part of the C are um affected by the hurricane. So the fire the fire department thinking they're going to have some people here while they're at their homes getting stuff cleaned up. >> So um >> True. But but if you're called up to serve, you have you have to you have to
serve. So um you can't you can't opt out of it. Um Tom, do you have any input on how you could use volunteers? >> Sorry, I sit at the table. >> I don't know if this is working.
Good morning. Thomas Yazu, merch services director, Fort Myers Beach. So CERT is a massive tool. It's a it's a great tool for communities. I don't believe that CERT is an effective tool
within scope of EM for a hurricane type emergency. I think they're a selective tool. So to use an example that's probably a little bit off, you know, uh far-fetched, but we have a plane that goes down on the north end of the
island, right? It's commercial plane, passenger plane. There's damage to facility, to human life. The FD is going to take lead. They're going to be there. They're going to be scaring stuff. That's where a cert team as a community
organization could come and be helpful to the outskirts to help the emergency management from the county and everywhere else come in and help with supplies, help with whatever else is needed for the firemen to give them uh some some help with uh welfare and
safety for the firemen and for other civilians in the area to help Red Cross and everybody moving people out. That's where cert team is kind of effective. I believe for a whole scale event like a hurricane using a local search team doesn't make sense as as Ron was saying
because people are going to be so engaged with their personal needs that and and I do get the idea of Luke of them talking about serving. I do understand that as well, but if your home just came out of 10 ft of water and you're trying to recover and you might be looking for your pets or whatever,
your your head's not in that game. So, I don't think that's an effective tool for those bigger events that affect the entire community. I think they're a selective tool that can be used in particular type of events and you know, and I use the far-fetched plain down type, but you know, is it really
far-fetched? Could it be something else? So that's my that's my thoughts on SER. I'm sure fire chiefs have maybe a different opinion to it and they can probably address some of the some of their concerns to it, but I don't I I the team should be kind of self-run in
some respect too by tasking the fire department to then take on a volunteer organization and putting staff who are already short staffed trying to have them organize and keep everybody in the loop and trying to wrangle the cats, which we all know everybody's got their own lives. trying to wrangle the cats
together for this team is is is a lot of work. So asking staff who are already doing 10 other things to do that too is is kind of hard. So it should be kind of self-organized in some respect with a oversight but selforganized. Does that answer the question? I'm going
to pass it on to the chief and let him >> Okay. Thank you, Tom. >> So good morning. Um for people watching at home, I'm Scott Worth. I'm the fire chief here on Fort Myers Beach. Um I've been on Fort Myers Beach since 2017, but been in the fire service since 1989. And
I tell you that because I started as a volunteer firefighter over in the middle of the state. Um Fort Myers Beach had a C team and it dissolved in 2015 2016, couple years before I got here. Um it was my understanding from the folks
before me that the team dissolved. It was a lack of utilization. Um things of that nature. So when Ron and I were talking and and discussing, you know, where would this work, you know, when could we utilize it, what I really came up with is, you know, possibly the
bigger events. Um, what we have seen as far as supporting emergency services is, you know, when you have those large scale events in the summertime and, you know, uh, when I worked at the city of Fort Myers, it was people waiting in line for tickets and they were falling, you know, passing out because of the
heat and dehydration. So, um, and I say that because emergency services with Lee County has a robust infrastructure for responding to those types of things. In the volunteer service, a lot of times where you'll see s drop in is they'll
backfill and there'll be support functions for firefighters fighting a a fire, you know, a bigger fire and they're getting exhausted and and they need uh support resources. Um, we have all of those support resources in place.
We have mechanisms for calling them. Um, Lee County ambulances can backfill our ambulances if we're fighting a structure fire, providing us rehab, um, rehydration. Um, we can call in the county and they have in warehouse all the resources needed to to backfill and
support us when we have these longer scale events. So where I think Ron and I had left it is if if the committee members have some perspective of other times when cert would be practical here on the island is that maybe come back
with those ideas something that we hadn't thought about um and it could be considered. Uh I can tell you that there is a lift as far as the cost of buying the resources for a cert team. um we would have to scale up to provide the training and stuff, but there are
programs out there. It is doable. I think the first step would be to identify if it's actually going to be a utilized team here on the island in our community. So I can answer any any questions or anything you might have. That was my
exper that was my experience with cert was um keeping them engaged and keeping them interested so that we had enough people when something did happen. Um but then uh once once you're there and and
something happens and you're trying to use them um like the chief said, there's actually there's other um um organizations and stuff that can come in and help as well. Um, so I think that's a great idea is is
that um until our next meeting we you know we we all kind of come up with some ideas of what they think that they could you we could use a certain team for. Um you know again we need to be able to get
people in get them trained. It's going to take a lot of work to get everybody trained and then the biggest thing is is to be able to use them and keep them interested in cert. So there's there's a lot more involved than just thinking, okay, we're going to have these people ready to go. Um there's a lot that's
going to be involved and then keeping them interested in it as well. I guess I have a question of not being familiar with it at all is it's it's kind of hard for me to imagine
what things a cert group or cert individual can do. I don't even know what kind of training you're talking about. So, uh, I mean, from my perspective, I kind of see it as a group of people that the
fire department leadership just knows these people and knows uh, I guess what their kind of base training skill levels are. So that we're just kind of you those people would be
there for uh the fire department leadership to say I need two people to go over there and do that because the fire department leadership knows they've got the skills to be able to do that. >> I don't know what skills or training we're talking about. So it's very hard
for me to picture how to in in what way to utilize them. So, I guess my question would be, what sort of training or skills are we talking about? Obviously, we're not talking about a paramedic. Um, but I mean, are we talking about being
certified on first aid and CPR and AEDs? Are we talking about being certified in traffic control? What sort of things are we talking about so that we have an idea of what sort of things to try and think where could those be useful?
And I'll agree with you. Like I said, I've I've not been involved with managing a cert team, but I've seen it from from the outside. So, it Todd, you you hit a good point. Is that what what services would they be able to fill? Um, is that the resource we're going to call
when time is of the essence, when we're working an emergency, or are those the types of services that we would turn to when the shrimp festivals coming and we need extra folks to walk the parade route or or work a larger scale event. In that case, I would say there there's
quite a bit of volunteerism in this community as it is. There's a lot of associations that that, you know, make these bigger events happen. And you you might find that, you know, you're creating a search team that's simply providing redundancy for for things that
are already being done by the community members who are interested in volunteering anyway, >> right? I mean, it kind of sounds to me like depending on the skill set training that's involved, it almost seems like if you're going to go through this and and
utilize fire department resources, um, then it kind of sounds to me like it should be something that's elevated above the normal volunteer standing under a beach umbrella handing
out waters during during a parade for rehydration, >> right? Um, so I mean I guess that kind of goes back to what sort of training are is being envisioned here so that we can have some idea of whether or not that has a place
um you know in in the hierarchy I'll say you know is is there a gap between as you said the all the community groups and things that are just doing basic volunteerism versus needing a full-fledged
firefighter resource, >> right? And I can I can say that uh when the search team did exist, um you know, we had an enclosed trailer, we had a UTV. Um the UTV uh basically uh rotted
away for all practical purposes and we replaced it with something that we were using for emergency response. But um uh the point being is that there are resources involved and if if we're purchasing them with tax dollars and they're not getting utilized, then we also have to ask that question if that's
the best use of taxpayers money. >> Yeah. And I'll just add with um with my experience with uh with CERT was basically Yes. It was more of a uh um CPR first aid type of stuff. Um my
experience with them was um at a a tornado um we have a tornado hit and cert comes in, they go to help. We also at the same time we have all these other volunteer church organizations and and people coming in
to help as well. So it was like um that's where it was just it was just hard to try and um keep keep the team interested. That's I guess in my in my mind here that's the biggest thing is is to to keep people engaged. If we get a
bunch of people that want to do this, it's great. It's a great idea and there's places for it. Absolutely. There's places for it. But in my in my mind and in my experience with it here, that's you know, if we could take a little more time and think of what we
would want a certain team to do because um you know, we there are other organizations out there that are going to come in and help clean up stuff. Um traffic type of stuff is going to be with law enforcement. Um so
yeah, that's it. My main thing is is I would be all for it if we can come up with a way to keep people in it and keep them interested and do the training for them. Um, then it would be great. But I I just see I I I just uh have a hard
time seeing us keeping people interested in it uh here in this community here. >> Does anybody know of somebody that was on that search team before it >> um ended? We have some we have some members of the community that we could
we could reach out to. >> Would they would they want would they want to come and talk to us about their experience? >> We could we could reach out to some. One of them was one of our old commissioners. >> Tell us the pros and cons. Give us a better idea of of what they
were doing or supposed to be doing. >> Just just to follow >> or what they thought they were going to do and it didn't work out or >> Yeah. Well, the pros and cons. >> Yeah. I can I can share. >> Would that would that be >> We could reach out and see if >> would that be possible. >> What was the vision and what was the reality?
>> Sure. >> Sure. >> It seems like we're kicking the ball around back and forth here and maybe we need to talk to them and >> see what their experience was. >> Yeah, I'll I'll reach out. I'll try and find someone that uh from the from the
as well. >> Great idea. If I could take a second to just follow on this conversation because it's a good one and we're a public safety committee meeting. The fire department does offer if you're a community association and you're watching, you're interested in
getting training for external defibrillators um for first aid or CPR, we offer those services. We can come teach that to your communities um you know, if you're here on the island or anywhere in our district really. So, we do have those services available and
we've had some conversations recently with some of the communities interested in, you know, getting the defibrillators placed um throughout their community. So, figured it was a good time to pass that on and make sure everybody knows that our services include that. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Great. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Chief. >> Thank you, Chief. >> All right. Moving along. Uh item B, visitor bike safety campaign. Last time we talked about the uh the new
Florida ebike law, Senate Bill 382, 10 mile per hour limit near pedestrians with an audible signal required. Uh we all know the ebikes have been a hot topic on this island for the last year or two. And uh so where are we at with that?
Talking about distributing bike safety rules to short-term rental operators, hotels, rental companies. Um before uh Hurricane Ian, we were also talking about a bell program and uh Dawn is not here, so we don't know what kind of
conversation she might have had with Abby, our public information officer, unless somebody has an inside scoop from the town. >> I have not heard from Abby. No. >> All right. We have any thoughts on the uh I think
we really do need to get some public awareness out there. Um, I'd probably be willing to put together some type of helpful since I do ride an ebike down here on the island and >> as well. >> Yes. And people happen to mention to me many times that they see me. So, so far
I have not gotten any tickets, so that's a good thing. Wait, hold on. There we go. Um, I'd be happy to put something together in the way of a helpful tip sheet unless anybody wants to jump in when the water's warm. Anybody have any thoughts one way or the other?
Um, for this law to be effective, it's got to be enforced. So, who does the enforcement? I mean, I don't see the sheriff's office taking the resources to to write a ticket for something. >> Well, I think that's helpful. I think
that's where we possibly can come in with um tip sheets, stuff like that, the dos and don'ts, you know, and a lot of it is frighteningly elementary riding with traffic. The number of bikes that I've seen, I mean, we have bike lanes on
this island up into Mother's Lane right where the the chamber office is right there and it ends. So, you have a choice of either staying in the street or getting up on the sidewalk. And that's typically what I I just get up on the sidewalk and I drive slowly.
Um it's pretty common sense type stuff, but it's sometimes noticeably uncommon. >> Yeah. So, um as far as implementation goes, I would think or enforcement that's Lee County, but again, if we get enough support from the community of
yearround residents riding bikes and leading by example, I think it's doable. Okay. anybody? >> Well, it does seem like kind of the first step is just developing a
uh hopefully one-page list of safety rules and tips. Uh so that I mean that's our starting point. Then then we work on how do we get that to all of the short-term rental
operators and and uh >> bike rentals >> bike rentals and etc. But I guess the first step would be literally creating that it's called a cheat sheet. >> Sure. >> Um with with that kind of information
>> I would suggest maybe a brochure with further visitor information as well. um like visitor safety, all of that stuff, maybe some stuff about hurricanes if they're not here um but they're here in the summer. If you guys come up with a
list of what you want on there, I'd be more than happy to help you create the brochure and then we can work about how we get it distributed to the hotels, the short-term rentals, all of that. We can work on getting it out to people. But I
think it would be nice for us to like have a brochure that they can just leave in the Airbnbs and the hotels and stuff. I think that would be our best option to get it out. >> Great idea. >> Okay, I like that.
>> Anything else? >> Okay, >> for the record, everyone too, this is Riley Baker. She's the emergency services coordinator. Okay, >> her title has been updated a little bit. So, I just want everybody to be clear that she is going to be your liaison with the town for you guys. She's a huge
uh asset for you. Please utilize, you know, as you can. And she's got great ideas in this. I've she and I have spent the last year going through uh my mind and passing on as much as I possibly can. And she's she's been very receptive to it. So, make sure you utilize her and
going forward. The idea of a trifold pamphlet is an amazing idea. Um, and if you do it from the public safety committee, from you guys for Fort Myers Beach, and it comes titled from you, we can help with that. But if you guys set it up, I think that carries a little
weight with our community knowing that they're you guys are fellow community members putting it out. It's not just the town dictating how it's going to happen. If that makes sense. Apologies for the interruption. >> We aren't the only community that has would have this problem in the state, obviously. I'm just curious or the other
areas might have a brochure or or the state might have some information. I mean, they're the ones there's the one they're the ones that gave you. Okay. So, maybe they have some guidelines that we could we could find for a brochure. Um, is that something you could look
into or >> I have not looked into it. Um, from my understanding, I believe you on the committee are supposed to be doing the leg work and I'm just here to support you as a liaison between the town.
>> Um, so if you guys could research that and come back in the next meeting with information you would like in there, I can help you with designing it. >> Sure. >> Um, but the leg work for like all the information going into it, that would be on you. >> Understood. I'll I'll volunteer to do
that research and see if I can find something. Give us a guide some type. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Anything else on the ebikes? All right. If not, moving along. Item C,
lightning strike detection system. Uh last meeting we talked about putting together a uh system throughout the town which would censor or sense lightning strikes within a certain proximity.
Um, based on last notes, cost estimates between8 and $10,000 per unit, primarily located near Time Square in the Lani Kai areas. Do we have anything further on that? Um Luke did send me this slide deck. Um
and then we also have a print out with a price breakdown if you want to take it away. >> We can email that to everybody too. Um >> do you want to walk them through the >> Yeah, >> I thought Tom was gonna say something about it.
>> Oh, looks like no. >> No. So So basically, uh >> Yeah. Thank you. So, basically, we need uh we need 12 units for full coverage of the island. Um the
the company that I talked to was Perry Weather, which is probably the biggest lightning detection um network. Um the units are cellular with solar, so they're they're independent of the grid. Um
there is and I'm I apologize I don't have the price in front of me but um it's it's an annual fee. Uh the company owns the equipments. Um it's covered as far as uh any any
breakage. Thank you. Um 12 units is going to cost us about 4500, excuse me, 45,000 per year. Um and um I mean it's it's it's
self-installed. Our public works would have to install it. Uh the company could do it, but it's a couple grand per unit. It's not worth it. It just uh it's Ubolts that attach to an existing pole. Um I mean it's it's a great system. It's um
um again it's on the national uh lightning detection network which is a NASA um product. Um we can set uh a boundary of the strikes
5 miles, 10 miles, 20 miles, whatever is prudent. But um yeah, I I I I think it's a great system. I know Lee County uses something different, a different uh manufacturer, but I think Perryweather is the best. So, we will You guys got that? >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Okay. Okay. >> So, yeah, I mean that's that's basically it. I mean, I I just I talked to the rep and got some info and if we want some further info from them, they can actually come here and do a presentation. >> So, uh any questions? Chief, any
questions or >> I have no questions. Is this microphone or we need >> um but I have no questions on it. >> Okay, I have no questions on it, but um Chief Armaginger did some research with the county about a year ago. Uh so, uh
we did look into upgrading some of the systems that already exist. Do you want to talk a little bit about what you were working on? So just very briefly I had looked into it a year or so ago the county as you mentioned they use what they use is called weather stem and I
don't advocate one way or the other I'm sure this is terrific system whatever works best for you guys but I'd be happy to share the contact that I had with the county the benefit that I what would perceive to be a positive to me was the weather stem system goes
throughout the county so when you have one for instance we have a weather stem The county has a weather stem weather system at Pinkshell. Uh that you can add the lightning detection on. It ties into the system. So it puts you in this intranet of weather stems for the
county. So you can access, you know, you can access the uh the water the depth gauge at the the locks up in the river. You you can access the whole weather stem platform once you're in it. Uh so that's a perceived benefit. They have a similar system. You can u it has a
battery and a solar. It's 5G, so it gets on the cellular. Again, I'm not advocating for one system or the other. I'd just be happy to share the contact with you. Um if you do it through county, they're tied in with FDM to a grant. So, you can get the system at a
significant savings. What you really do is you wind up uh last I looked at the grant was you were into it for 10 years, the maintenance. So, you cover the maintenance on the machine and the service on the machine. 10 years and they provide the system that that information is about a year old. So, but
again, I'll share the contact with you. You can pursue it or not. >> So, the only thing the only thing I would say is from an infrastructure perspective, especially during hurricane events, we work closely and under the umbrella of Lee County Emergency Management. So if that real- time data
that's being used countywide to determine evacuations and wind speeds and stuff, if it's all integrated under one system, if possible, it would probably be the ideal circumstance. So and and Perry may be able to feed that data. A lot of these systems are getting
autonomous where they can they can overlap and Perry may be able to send the same data to Lee County that they're getting out of weather. So Okay. Again, like like Chief Arer said, we're not advocating one way or the other. >> Yeah, of course. Yes. Uh Tom, do you have
>> So there's benefits I think to both the thought process on this. Perry is a well-known advocated company across the country. They're in a bunch of different places. But the benefits I think as the chief was saying to piggybacking with the county is having again because we do
come under the umbrella of the county em. It doesn't matter what the incident is. We come under their umbrella for major incidents. Having that data in one place makes a big difference. Uh I know they're talking about a second station being at the end of the island on the bridge.
They were just waiting to get through with FDOT to try to get the that established again. So they'll have one pink shell, one down by the bridge. Um I I think the value of this is great. I don't know how we're going to fund that money every year. Whereas if we
piggyback going through the grant, I believe that I believe that that will be the would be the best use of public money. Honestly, uh if we create our own system, which I I again, Perry is a great system, but I think piggybacking is going to be the
most uh inexpensive but still have the the best service for us. And again, uh, dep the chief over there has information for that. Uh, we're help we're happy to contact them and get some of that basic
information. Riley will take care of that and get that back to you as far as what their thought process is and where those costs are and she can present that at the next meeting if that sounds good to you. >> Okay, sounds good. Yeah. Yeah, I think right off the bat it's probably better if we can stay integrated with the
county since we do fall within their parameters of emergency management. So, as as nice as I'm sure this is, the cost and being integrated with the county, I think is probably a better better outlook for us. Anybody else? >> Just for clarity, I don't know that this
won't integrate with the county. I I don't know for sure on that. That's would be a more of a conversation as the chief said. So, um, but I I think the county is because they've they have a system in place already. A lot of times, even our radio systems that we we use,
our 800 systems, we go through the county. There's no other option for us. That's just how it works because it works better in the end for constant contact. We can get on the radio with the fire department if there's an issue and we can get on eventually with LCSO. That's the goal. So that's where we want to kind of stay integrated because those
systems in the mount in the >> in the time of emergency having integrated systems make everyone safer honestly than having multiple we found that out many times as our government agencies don't play nice together and we're finding that when they when they work together things happen much quicker
faster and more efficiently. >> Okay. >> Just one more point for consideration is relevant. What led me to going down this path for the the weather stem specifically was when I was trying to identify places to put the system what I realized okay you know intuitively well
you put one by the pier by one all park and the pier's back online putting at the end of the pier same thing in the area of the lani kai so we uh on our we can run a heat map on our data sets for calls so I can see where we're busiest I can see where the concentration of people are for emergency calls so either way uh what I found out is a lot of
those places where you'd want to put one is county property. So that's another thing is, you know, hey, if it's a system that's already in the county, you know, they're used to weather stem, they have the infrastructure and the support already in place for it, you want to put it on a piece of county property versus what's the town. Uh, again, it's just
another reason to to tilt that way. >> Okay, makes sense. Thank you. Anything else? All right, next item. Item D, public safety event. Um,
I think last time we talked about at some point we talked about we talked about a standalone fundraising event. We've scrapped that. Um, we're looking to explore partnering with the fire department and LCSO for national night out or an October fire
awareness event at the new fire station of all places. Um, Ron, is there any updates on this? We got it. >> Uh that's another thing that um the chief and I had talked about. Um I thought it was a a great idea. Um
normally um national night out is with law enforcement and uh that's usually done in August. And there's another one that uh is more geared towards um fire department type uh activities um during
October because October is National Fire Safety Month. And um so I thought yeah I thought it'd be a great idea that um um kind of do it on the and I've been involved in these in the past where um fire department you know takes a takes a
rig out um in the neighborhoods. This is this would be a deal where we would want to um identify different neighborhoods or I know mine I'm speaking for mine but uh um you know throw some burgers and hot dogs and have the fire department come and uh get all the neighbors out so
they can you know check smoke detectors and and do all the stuff that we need to do for fire safety. And so, um, that was kind of the thought that we're kicking around is sometime in October to do a, uh, um, public safety event type of a
deal. Um, totally it'd be it'd be totally us doing it and then having the fire department be there too with with rigs and stuff that they want to be there to. >> What does an event look like like that? I mean, >> it's it's a neighborhood basically a neighborhood get together. Get your
neighbors out. Get your neighbors to know each other. Okay. >> Um and promote safety for the neighborhood. >> Okay. >> So, where do we go with that from here? Um, that's something I could I can continue my conversations with the fire
department and uh that'd be something that um would be on me and and the rest of us here to identify one, like I said, I I I have no problem identifying a spot in our neighborhood to to get a a deal together
where everybody comes out and um we host u the event, the the public safety event for that evening. Um, and if there's other neighborhoods on the island that want to do the same thing, get them the information and help them get it through. So, I mean, there's a couple
two, three places um, on the island, that'd be great to get people out to see each other, talk to each other, get to know each other, >> okay, >> and promote public safety. >> So, really, it's just kind of organizing a date. >> It's organizing a date, and yeah, that's
that'd be it. >> Sounds good. If I may, would would it make sense if um if we did like a neighborhood event, we'll call it a block party with a purpose. >> Um it's public safety and fire safety and whatnot. Is maybe we have, you know, we do it once a week over three week,
you know, the three weeks in October. Um you know, and we put together a template that the community, each neighborhood could use to say, "Yeah, we're on board with this." and you know the other community, somebody will take on the barbecuing or whatever and we'll bring
all the fire safety uh information to go with it. Bring the trucks and the crews and all of us out and and and maybe hit it two or three times. >> Yeah. So, >> put together a template or the other option is when I, you know, before I was
with the beaches at the city of Fort Myers and we often did a a big weekend event at Centennial Park. So in our case, it would be a Times Square type type event on a Saturday or something if we did it once in the month of October.
>> So would you say like one week Time Square, one week on the south end, one week in the middle or or three weeks at Times Square? >> Well, it I guess in my mind we could go a couple ways with it. If we were doing it like a block party, uh, you know, more immersed in a neighborhood, I would
say that would be something we would consider doing, you know, each week for three weeks and we would hit three neighborhoods. Okay. >> People could come to it, right? >> If we were doing it as an islandwide event, I would say we would probably, you know, pour all of our resources into doing it at a central location like
Times Square. >> Okay? >> So, food for thought. We can approach it from either way. If we're doing it as a neighborhood event, I would say we would pull together a template that we could get to the get out to the communities and they could say our neighborhood's on board if we want to be one of the three.
>> Okay. >> And we're willing to take on the barbecuing and whatever. >> I can also uh reach out to LCSO, see if they'd be interested in partnering with that and we can get them involved as well. And we also have bay oaks that we
can use um if we wanted to do maybe not in the community but like a bigger party >> we could also use bay oaks as well. >> Okay. >> So you'd be able to get a template of u
how a night would progress or I mean I have an idea but to to I can work on putting that together. I can work on putting something together to hand out to other neighbors to see if they want to um put something on like this and then they have a a guideline to go by for the evening.
>> If you together and kind of talk more about what your thought process is on on, >> you know, what you would see the community doing and what the fire department would do, then we'll use that template, bring it back here and disseminate it to the communities. >> Okay. So, I'll I'll meet with I'll meet with with the with the chief
>> and we'll discuss this some further. >> Excellent. Um, >> I can actually help you with that if you want to help. >> Yeah, so absolutely. >> Okay. >> More the marrier. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, next item E, crosswalk safety. This is always an interesting
topic. Um, last month we talked about the travel signal at the uh at the roundabout or ovalabout as it were. Uh, the signals activating too quickly after the button is pressed, causing abrupt traffic stops. We're just looking for an
update on um crosswalks, the crosswalk lighting um possibility. We entertain the notion of water- fil jersey barriers with privacy screens proposed for the downtown corridor to kind of keep people we know where they're all crossing and many
times it's not at crosswalks which is causing that I think in my opinion is causing a lot of the traffic stalls and stops. pedestrians just crossing wherever they want and it happens in my observation probably between
Diamond Head and Time Square. Fair assessment? >> Yep. Yeah. >> Okay. So, uh is anybody can we get anybody comment on where we're at as far as updates on the crosswalk lights, uh the crosswalks themselves or anything like that?
>> Committee. Um, I've been in several meetings now with the town manager and the county executive uh talking to Lee Dot about some of those issues. They're going to be doing a full rehab on Asterero at some point and those those things came up. They they are working on
them. There's no time frame at this point for your crosswalks, but they are working on them as in everything else. They're on the they're on the list, but they they have a cost. So, they're they're working through that. Lee Dot is following the traffic uh pattern that
was devised by FDOT when they created that downtown area with the new loop. So, I think they're they're going to evaluate that. I know even the FD has asked them for some uh some thought process into how they're handling the lights and everything else. So, uh it's
it's a work in progress. Uh I that's the only thing I can give you as far as this. I know that the town manager is diligently trying to get some of the crosswalks up and going. And you have noticed again we still have more patrol units down here than we've had in many years because uh LCSO takes it very
seriously too and they're putting people down here for traffic control. So you you have seen more patrol cars on this end of the island in particular but also up there who are doing traffic stops for some of this stuff. The barriers are something else that we were discussed and again it's a there's a couple levels
to that. Uh the financial is always going to be primary trying to pay for those things, but also uh does the pedestrian traffic mitigation uh how do we handle that safely where people are not trying to climb over barriers and getting hurt that way too.
So there there's there's some aspects of that that they're still researching as well. So, you know, it is in process and the town is taking it pretty serious. And I've had many discussions with the chief about modifications and stuff, too. And we've been banging our head against this thing for at least 2 and 1/2 years. So, it's still in process,
but uh they they it's on their radar at least with the county now. >> Okay. Do you know if when they're repairing Estero Boulevard in stages obviously as they repair those do you know does anyone know if they plan on implementing more crosswalks or are they just going to simply
>> I I don't think that's in the >> I don't think that's in their work order to create new ones. I I think they're repairing old ones. Okay. Uh and from my understanding of traffic studies uh they're when they do those they're done
they're not taken lightly. So when they do them they hold on to them for a long time with those traffic studies and where they put those crosswalks are designed by uh historical evidence of accidents pedestrian injury and such. So you know that's that's where a lot of
that's built from. It's not just convenience to a neighborhood. I hate to say it but that's that's the reality. It has to it comes out from historical historical reports of injuries and accidents in that area. >> Okay. Thank you. I think probably the crosswalk safety thing we could probably
try to put under the umbrella of the short-term rental information packet that we were going to put together for Yeah. And it's not just for bicyclists, but also for pedestrians >> because it's they clearly cross wherever they please. and they think by that by
that right that they can just cross and I have the right to cross here and you have to yield to me. Not so much. So, uh thank you very much. Anything else? We're pretty much through the agenda. >> Um I'd like to the uh assistant chief is
have we properly ident uh been introduced to because he's going to be taken over. Chief's not going to be here anymore. And uh did you want to get up and introduce yourself and uh talk about the report
that you nice report you put together. >> So while Chief Aringer is making his way to the podium um I was reporting to the committee for the newer members. I was reporting to the committee monthly um on behalf of the fire department. Uh Chris Armager is my deputy chief. uh he will
be taking over that role and he'll be here uh to answer questions, provide some information on kind of trends and monthly reports and what we're seeing from a from emergency response perspective. So chief, >> so uh just for people who don't know me,
uh my name is Chris Arminger. Just a brief introduction about me. Um so we moved down here from Maryland from Baltimore when I was 10. We uh had a house off Iona McGregor off Iona Road. So, uh, just on the other side of the bridge, went to Cypress Lake High School. Uh, and I've remained in this
community since then. So, I'm 45 now. Uh, my wife and I got married on the beach. We live over the bridge just close to Health Park. U again, so I'm just I'm very familiar with the community. I grew up here. Best friends lived on the beach, one off Lazy Way, one off Abony to Creata, one off Dakota. So, like I bunch of friends down here.
Um, so that's kind of my history here. I worked 10 years in another fire department uh in town, South Trail Fire District. Covered a big square in the middle of of Lee County uh Pagefield all the way out to basically a Leo 75 until you got to Lehi and then down here to
Lakes Park, big big square in the middle of town. Then I came over to the beach and uh got on an ambulance and a fire truck as a paramedic and then just promoted through over the last 10 years to uh deputy chief now. So, um, 20 years of experience in the fire service here
in Lee County. Uh, to get to this report, um, it I I gave each you it's it's a report. It's about seven pages. Lots of charts, lots of graphs. I'm not going to go through each one with you in detail. Uh, the last page of the report, you'll see there's a lot of little
numbers, little words. It's it's a blue page there. That's the aggregate data that I used to put together those charts that you'll see. And all I want to do is impress upon you that what we're see what I did was I took a look at um before Ian this first quarter I really went J I went up till yesterday till the
day of April 27th. So you have the first four months of the year basically before E and what that looked like and you'll see in that um those four months I think it's like 1500 calls a significant amount of calls and in 2022 is where we were really peing as far as historically
a demand for services on the island and then obviously we had Ian and then I captured uh what I could for 26 which was why I just did the first four months uh and and 25 and 24 so what it looked like over the last three years and I All I want to point out to you is uh
historically we ran a significant amount of EMS calls. 80 to almost 90% were EMS calls and then after Ian it almost flip-flopped. I mean it was almost 80% service calls, not EMS calls, fire uh
fire alarms, uh you know, problems with stuff, right? Um so that's starting to kind of get back. It's trending back to the way it was before. And there's different things you can take from that. One of the ways you can look at that is we're starting to see less problems with
stuff, right? So like things are coming online. Where we used to run a tremendous amount of fire alarms for a couple years, those are coming down. Those systems are back in place. Buildings are open. Things are working the way they're supposed to work. And the EMS is ticking back up. Right? So the people are not only here, but
they're staying here. You'll see in one of those charts where it peaks in March. So you can see on our data the demand for our service is cons starting to become more consistent like it was before the storm. We have an influx of people for season. We create a demand in
EMS service. People not stuff, right? So that's really what I want to impress upon you with this sheet. I'm not going to go through every every bit of it with you. I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Um and then just a quick recap on kind of where we are as a fire service district. Before the storm, uh
we were three station department and then we lost station 31 um as a result of the incident and then now we're back to three stations. So u we're starting to see I explained to you a heat map. I'm kind of watching that map and I'm starting to see the demand for
service drive again towards this the center of the island. U we have an ambulance back up at station 31 now. Uh so another thing that you can kind of see in the data is our response times are really quickly starting to get back to where they were. We were running out
of two stations. Uh station 32 on the mainland and then 33 here on the south end. Now that we've had 31 open, like I said, our travel times, which have always been very good. We've always been uh very fortunate to have quick response times. They're improving even more with station 31 back open only just a month.
You can you can see a drastic change in response times. So, um, this is for you to digest. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Um, and I'll just end with, you know, our staffing, our resources, our capabilities are, uh, are where we like
them, where we enjoyed them before the storm, they're back to where they were. And, uh, just speaking for the guys on the on the on the rigs. Uh, they love to engage with the community. So, if there's anything that we can do, uh, if there's any opportunities for us, uh, to provide service to the district and its
members in any sort of way, u, you know, we're always open, you know, 247. We're available to help out. It doesn't always have to be because somebody's sick or hurt. Doesn't always have to be because something's on fire. We provide a community service. We're here to help. So, just don't forget that, you know, you call 911 to get a hold of us, and
they can reach out to the stations via landlines, but the guys are always here to help. Um, so I'll end with that. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you, Chief. >> All right. I have one off-the-wall question for you because I've forgotten 50 times to ask
this. Right in front of station 32 right at this at the sidewalk, there's a stop sign that looks like it's for the sidewalk. And every time I drive by there, I go, why I don't understand why there's a stop sign on the sidewalk. We probably
need to I believe it might have got twisted in one of the storms, but it actually faces our fire trucks because if we don't know to stop at the sidewalk, >> but um yeah, it's uh um it it's an interesting piece that got put in when the station was built, but it's supposed
to face us our fire trucks as we're coming out. >> Okay. >> So, no, if you're on the sidewalk, you don't have the responsibility to stop every time. >> Please yield if you see a fire truck with the lights on, but >> there's a line of people just standing there for >> Right. Well, and that is kind of the problem is
because it's it's right there at the >> far edge of the driveway. So, if somebody did see that and I've gone through there on my bike and I'm like, okay, but if you literally stopped right in front of you, you are in the middle of the I did not, >> right?
>> I did not. But I did go by it going, "That seems really weird." And and which means of course that for the next 30 seconds I was thinking about how weird that sign was instead of paying a lot of attention to riding my bike up the sidewalk. So anyways, it was just a
weird question that I've forgotten 50 times to ask what was the deal. Excellent. >> Then I I got I've got one more question and I've asked you this at the um open house and for anybody that's watching if they're wondering if if you guys are going to get um a traffic light put
there so as the rigs come out you can turn it red so that traffic stops for you. >> Yes. So it was an interesting conversation because typically when you see a fire station you see the you know the signs down the road a few blocks saying you're coming up on a fire
station. So, as we were designing that facility, the original design from the people who designed DOT right roadways was to have the warning signs down by the library and you know, a few blocks further up. I explained to them our
problem isn't 30 or 40 mph traffic. Our problem on the island is zero mph traffic when we're in season. So, yes, there are warnings coming, but um they will be very close to the fire station. So, there will be one uh on the corner of G Beach and Eterero Boulevard, right
on the corner of the fire station property. Um, and it will be controlled in the station will be able to push a button and it'll flash the lights. So, if traffic is bumper to bumper, the cars that are there before um they reach our driveway will know to to stop, the fire
trucks are getting ready to come out. The other one will be across the street uh for the southbound or eastbound traffic, if you will. Um and it'll be close to the fire station and they should be going in in the next week or two. Um that those those materials were
on back order. So that is part of completing the project. >> Great. >> Excellent. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? Um, yeah, one thing we talked a little bit before and Tom, I think you said something about there
there are in theory reviews ongoing with the new traffic oval. Um, I I'm just wondering if there's any mechanism by which we can provide any
input. Um, I mean, I' I've noticed a number of things uh that just seem like relatively minor tweaks in my mind. Most things connected with my mind are minor. Um, but
I'm just wondering if there's any kind of mechanism for us to provide any kind of input rather than just talking to each other here once a month and then it that's where it ends. I mean, is there a way for us to get that information to the
county or FD do or whatever? >> So, you're well, you're welcome to send something to the county by all means. I think it would behoove you to as a committee create a list that you believe is something that you wanted to put out there from the committee, send it to
Riley. Uh Riley can then present it to the town manager and I think he can then move that forward a little bit. But you're welcome to send something yourself as well to to uh Lee County DOT or any of the administration over there.
But I think you're better served by doing it as a committee, putting together your thoughts and anything that you've noticed that you think is something that you know would be helpful. And then if you put that together in writing to Riley, she can pass it on to the town manager and he can pass it he can pass it on in his
conversations because he meets, you know, consistently and weekly with with uh command staff from the county. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Nothing else. Let's set a if we can set a date for our May meeting.
Uh dates we're looking at right now are either the 19th or the 26th. And I guess our first start would be to find out if the town has anything going in this building at that time on either of those dates. >> Is that >> um I just wanted to share with the
committee that your meetings are scheduled to be the third Tuesday of the month. >> Okay. >> We'll start at 9:00 a.m. and your next meeting will then be May 19th. >> Okay. Um those dates are set okay for the rest of the uh advisory committee
year which ends in October. >> Um so if anyone has any uh scheduling conflicts please uh communicate directly with uh your staff lesson on who is Riley and you can also include me on the email correspondence and um we'll go
from there. But for right now your next meeting will be the 19th. >> 19th it is. same time >> 9:00 a.m. >> One last thing, if we could please remember your sunshine obligations and when you're meeting, make sure that you because you are committee members, you
have to be responsible to that statute. So, just a reminder, >> no huddling together. >> Correct. >> Can do. And with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> There we go. Thank you all. Appreciate
it.