tell us to start time to go all right good morning everyone we're going to call the meeting to order today is Tuesday February 18th 2025 it is 9:00 a.m. all council members are present uh Town manager Town attorney town clerk if you please rise for the invocation followed by Council
Woodson and the Pledge of Allegiance as we begin this meeting May we be filled with the strength to overcome any challenges before us the wisdom to make thoughtful and deliberate choices we seek guidance in our discussions so that we may engage with purpose and clarity as we work together
in unity to fulfill our shared Mission let us be mindful of our responsibilities committed to the common good and be focused on creating a brighter future amen amen I pled algi 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 stock all right we just have a small change we've got um FPL here to give us an update on the street lighting it's
not on the agenda but we're going to put that in front of the approval of the final agenda if everybody's okay with that sounds good great all right we got Ivy Davis here come on up Ivy good morning good to see you again
likewise morning ladies and gentlemen quick update on the project for the turtle light uh project um currently as you probably know uh all permitting is completed um I can you just move closer to the mic little bit harder here all
right so uh 100% of Permitting is completed for the project um as far as side streets is concerned all the underground boring is complete at this point with uh pole and light installations to start actually tomorrow on the 19th um as far as a stero
Boulevard is concerned we're about 20% complete if you recall it was broken up in four segments currently in segment three um can you tell us what segment what not to interrupt but you said there's the four segments what can you what segments are what four it's
basically four is furest down south and one is uh up in um I guess in the downtown area so we're on the the second to further south portion right now um we also have started to install the foundations for the poles on the stero
um we started that around the 3D of February with um inspection of those uh foundations um this week about 20 or so locations um and um posing likes to be installed installed on the stero
starting on the 3rd of March okay um with that said we're about overall 25% complete of the project at least by the end of the month and I'm we still on schedule to uh be complete with the full project by the end of October oh that was
fast it's a lot of information uh questions for vice mayor good morning iy thank thank you for being here um I had heard uh Frankie I don't want to put Frankie on the spot but I I think at one point I heard Frankie tell me that that as you put up the polls on a stereo and
get the fixtures and everything set and then you move down from the south end of a stero down to the North End that we won't have to wait until the whole all of a stero is done and that those lights will actually be up and functional as they're installed is that is that correct is that your understand well that's the that's the the plan and we
are definitely working with uh Power delivery to ensure that power to those areas particularly the load centers uh are there so that we don't have to wait so we are addressing that um in current time as well simultaneously so so then it it's it sounds like the side streets
are being done at the same time as a stero within in terms of sections is that correct yes so we did start on the side street first right so but yes we are doing the conduit is done for all the side streets yes so if you're working if you're starting at estr which
is the furthest south street and obviously you're starting to put the polls in on the you're going to start to put the polls in on March 3rd for the south end of the island yes so as as we move down the island uh from south to North when the when the poles and the fixtures
are in for both the side streets and the Estero they're they'll both be functioning as the as the project progresses well U that is the current uh goal to do that but again uh the load centers have to be powered so we that's
why it's imperative that we work in conjunction with the power delivery team um to make sure that there's Transformers that are uh uh essentially energized so but that's working in simultaneously with that that infrastructure IV that the the
Transformers that you're talking about that will power the side streets and AO are those already in place on the island or is that new infrastructure that'll have to go uh some are new um which is why we had to come up with the uh different addresses for the load centers that way to power them they have to have
an address when you say load centers you're talking about the various sections of the project yes yes where where the power will basically power the come from to power the load just a separate a different word for demand gotcha y so so these Transformers that the new Transformers are they going to
be going right on a stero Boulevard are they where where will they be placed uh I do not have that answer on me at this point but I can get that to you but they'll be like aesthetically pleasing I mean they're not are they going to be just giant boxes on a stero Boulevard what well uh we can do there are options
to you know put different type of uh I want to say skins but you know how cars can get those wraps and stuff so we can that is an option as well so and I don't want to put you on the spot Ivy but March 3rd the poll start to go up so that first
section on the south end which would include side streets S A stero Boulevard if you were a betting man what when would you guess that those lights would be up and turned on uh for the first section on the south end um at this point I couldn't give you that ass
I is it like a couple months is it like a month is it a six months could you just kind of B I wouldn't imagine it' be six months sir uh you see it wouldn't you wouldn't imagine no sir okay so like like maybe a month or two something perhaps but again I rather get that information for you I can get that to
Andy and Frank okay thank you John nothing Scott I think Jim asked all my questions yeah pretty much he cover this for all yeah way to go J um so is all the product here or on
its way are we have any um I see we got a bun of PS back there there's a few more shipments to come um but at the same time as they come now we able to start to uh install them so so are you going to continue you said that the side streets the boring is all done on the
side streets and you're 20% through on a sterile Boulevard is that your guys out there doing the boring I see on the south end or is that Quantum uh well Quantum at if I'm not mistaken Quantum is our guys oh because I know they're doing Lumen or lum's out there doing something too doing stuff here and there
so those are your guys out there running orange conduit and the blue I think it's the orange blue yes sir okay when do you expect to see will all the boring be done before the lights all go up or you going to just do the boring and do the lights and then move to the next I I don't expect all the boring to be done
before lights I don't expect it to be done by March 30 that's when we're going to start oh yeah I don't expect you to have all boring done but are you going to finish boring on a stero Boulevard currently as you're working it's going to I think it's we're we got it scheduled through May um doing the
boring doing the boring yes and with with the project on you know they're doing it the roundabout F do gotot the project there we now get weekly updates of progress of where they're at do you have meetings where you guys have weekly updates from your subcontractors doing the work to let us know can you provide that with us so we can keep the public
informed it it it we've get them for the roundabout which has been very helpful over the last two or three weeks I see him coming through I can definitely let my team know that you would like to get that that way if there's something happens whether there's weather relations or something that holds it up people at least know that that's the
reason sounds fair all right I just just a quick question I and again I know you're I know you don't want to speculate but let's let's let's rephrase the question in terms of your goal if if you were to have all sections
done and be done with Fort Meers beach in terms of installation and turning those lights on what is the goal for your your company right now to be to have that finished at this point uh by the end of October by the end of October all right sir thank you very good is that something too when we get the
updates could we put that out have through our Pio so that everybody is aware of the progress and that type of thing that would be great yeah people are it's not the number one probably the second right now during season but it's the number one thing asked about when
we're going to see some lights on the stero Boulevard and how's it going this maybe a question for Frankie in correlation with them I know were responsible for the power down old St Carlos but if I'm not mistaken your contract was to support Supply at least the light but we had to supply the poles or right it was the fixtures and we've
been in discussions with Chris Powell on a few different areas of what we're going to be doing um when the project got kicked off they gave us uh some temporary lights to use on Old Estero and that's kind of what they did at that time we're working uh Jeff has been working with them is the proper fixtures
to fit into the decorative poles that we'll be placing on old San Carlos have more information but where are we on our our aspect of what we've got to cover as far as the making sure the electric is up to up to up to Snuff if you will yeah so it's work in progress um of course
like anything down there um so they they already replaced the electrical panel down a Bayside that feeds the whole that feeds half of Old St Carlos so that's already done now they got to run all the wiring and see how much of the conduit is broken um we had some is any of that
powered from that that one power box that's it raes you going to town Town Time Square by the Light there no none of that's powered back the one Bayside runs half of it and then there's one byuk ukan that runs the other half so okay cuz you know this the Count's talking about elevating that correct
panel we're not going to elevate those panels they're going to stay down where they're at uh we're talking about mitigation factors with FEMA that's one one aspect but we haven't heard anything back um but there there's going to be different we did a little different where they can
be disconnected the not the panel itself but all the lights and everything down there will be able to be disconnected um and even taken out if we want there'll be more uplighting all right I I if I could uh just for folks who are watching because it gets a little bit
confusing this this lighting system will be installed and will be separate obviously they'll be inter related to some extent from a power supply standpoint but this will be a brand new system that will be apart from the transmission lines that go up and down a
stero Boulevard is that correct correct so the the transmission lines that everybody sees currently they will and these new light poles will be installed in addition to those transmission lines so the so the poles for the transmission lines won't necessarily be used for lighting is that is that fair
um I believe so I still I the the the lights that are there will be there so those those will remain the incumbent lights on the on the transmission poles will stay and so uh but they'll be changed to the right the matching fixture with the new
fixture so obviously you've got to make a determination as to where to put all these new light poles yes those have already been done that's already been done is that information available to the public because I'm guessing somebody at some point is going to be is in the uh design or the the plans is that on
our website by any chance it was on there at one point maybe we just need to update it the photometric study has been done put on there and I know you have certain needs and requirements to make this work and have it have it functional uh but my guess is some folks are going to be surprised when a light pole uh comes up in front of their home or their
condo and so I just uh I just think having that information out there so people aren't surprised they can kind of plan and is there any is there any process that that your company has for people to have input and let's say a poll just needs to be if it moved I
don't know for whatever reason had to move three feet one way or the other to help that particular private property owner or uh or or business for whatever reason is there a process that they can go through to to work with you all to sort of adjust as long as it doesn't mess with
your broader plan is there is there a procedure that can be done if somebody wanted to contest the location of their light pole well from my knowledge I do not know of an official per se uh procedure but I'm sure if let's say for
instance they got in touch with Andy or Frankie and they're in touch with my construction team we can kind of move things a little bit and I don't know what the reasoning but may there may be something that blocks a sign I don't know I got you I got you it's not necessarily to Apples to Apples but I had a project at one point where
the the homeowner had a boat he was buying so we had to move the fixture over because the boat would have been it have been in the way of the boat so to speak got you I think you probably have a couple instances of that and I would just and and Ivy maybe you don't maybe you don't want to comment on this but I'll ask Frankie because it's it's kind
of gerain to this conversation a lot of people are wondering about Lumen and how they're doing and and if you're boring all new lines for conduit for the poles is there any Synergy between that and Lumen Lumen was out here last year um
and did I'd say about 95% of the island at that time for centry link taking away the old uh uh Corner pod boxes that they used to have and trying to get everything underground to eliminate and alleviate any problems in the future that said they're making minor
connections throughout the island we've had a few people reach out to us uh we're having a difficult time contacting their repair people uh this is a subcontractor that's working for Lumen so they're not Lumen proper but uh the people that we reached out to last year are no longer available uh through Lumen
and so we're in the process of trying to reconnect with the company to uh reassure some of these residents that uh you know you come home and your front yards all tore up and you wonder what's going on um we' we've talked to them we're we're taking all the information and we do make contact with Lumen we're
going to pass that along actually get that on our site as well could we at some point if we can find the right person have somebody from Lumen come before the council and kind of give us an update as not only how not only their progress but what they're going to be offering Fort Meers Beach and how it will be either the same or different than Comcast or Century Link so so
lumens is Century Link so if you had Century Link before whether for your cable provider internet provider that's the same service that's being brought back but it's being brought back on a fiber line exactly versus a static line um that used to be so you can get a lot more information a lot more that's what
i' likeability on Fiverr than you can cuz right now Xfinity Comcast basically has a monopoly on Fort Meers Beach and so we'll have competition you know which is always good and uh and it'd be nice to have somebody come in plus I I had I had a somebody who was concerned about Lumen digging in their yard do do you
have a government contact government relations person contact that's who we used to have and that person is no longer with Lumen so it just goes to a dead file okay so we're trying to reconnect with with the Lum proper the the main repair division is out of uh Orlando and that's kind of where I sent
a few emails to on Friday when you're doing your boring do you see the Lumen uh fiber when you're going up and down a stero I I I can I don't um that would be my construction team okay um I can is there any particular question at this point it's probably just conduit not
fiber okay I don't know if they put the fiber I don't think they're that point you don't think Lumin has put the fiber in I don't think so I think they're just putting the conduit in I think they've done the side streets already because they've they they board everything and they came back and made the connections but I don't think they've ran anything yet okay very helpful yeah great to have somebody from Lumen come in and just
brief long answer Frankie to yes we'll get somebody in here the other thing is I talked to Chris pal he has spoken to a couple of residents it's very difficult to REM to move these things very much the thing that he's running into and we've see is okay the house has been totally demolished it's not there I'm redesigning my house and now I've got
this big window that I'm putting out this way that wasn't there before and now I'm on the second floor and now so there's a lot of moving Parts remember there's driveways there's rideway there's certain limitations they have but he's working with them to try to move as much as he can it's it's going to be 10t or it's going to be six feet
it's not going to be 30 feet or 40 feet that's fair that's it's going to be it's not going to be then people just have to understand that it's not going to we're not taking it out it's a whole project usually how those photometric studies work is they have overlap and in order to meet the the F do safety requirements
they have to it's kind of like two wavelengths that overlap a little bit can move them a little bit either way but it's not going to be a major amount exactly I was going to bring that point up but yeah you made the point well thank you for being here Ivy and thank you for Charlotte who's in the back who is extremely helpful with all of our
constituent inquiries with fpnl and uh we've gotten a lot of accomplished through Charlotte and we just wanted to recognize Charlotte for being here this morning Charlotte you're a lifesaver thank you very much for being here all thank you before you run off I I did notice when I was looking through it the other day that the other week I should
say the study of where the poles are going to go one glaring thing that did stick out to me is a pole that's scheduled to be put right in the middle of the walkway into Margarita vill Crescent okay yeah yeah but I'm guessing that's probably going to go away because of the lights that are already there I'll make sure to bring that to but it's
literally right in the middle of the sidewalk and I just thought i' I'd give you that heads up before you chaos before you got that to that point but I think because they have all those lights already there at that crosswalk which would be run by Lee County's portion right because these are both running concurrent L right the crosswalks as
well as the sto Boulevard lighting they're running at the same time do you talk to the crosswalk contractors that are working for Lee County to put the cross I'm not aware on the day-to-day um conversation between our construction crew and theirs but I imagine there is some I I I I would encourage Andy and as
you talked to the county that they talk to these folks because there's got to be some coordination because the County's claims that they're going to do lighting for their crosswork crosswalks and all kinds of things and it' be great have some kind of coordination between the two I can confirm that though yeah I'll let you go so far they pretty much have
I know it's two it was two separate permitting processes def but they're talking to each other yeah it's going to be close to the same fixure if I'm not mistaken I think crosswalks are going to be the eights versus the sixes so and there had to be a County permit I mean the County's aware of everything that's happening they've got the plans they
have a lot of people ask are they do you know Andy if if the County's going to be doing those you know you push the buttons and the lights blink so the cars know to stop but I don't know if they'll be in the street I know they'll be the what what's by lenar the U I talked to commissioner MOA about that he he's it's
in that FEMA thing um they expect it to go out to bid soon to be able to do not just those but all the signage up and down because I would just say that the one you did uh for lenel or you partnered with the county on that that's great the the only reason that one was
able to be done the fire station well no because it was it wasn't installed before the storm oh I see so it didn't it didn't qualify for FEMA funding so they were able they were able to go do that but that's a great light oh yeah people people love it I mean it's the most dangerous according to statistics
yep intersection on the island thanks Ivy thank you since we're on that subject I I did speak to Dave Harner I was going to talk about it later but Estero is not covered under Federal Highway Administration so they have to be in talked with FEMA I mean
and we all know dealing with FEMA is just a a struggle but but Dave anticipates um the entire Estero Boulevard and the traffic signal at Old S car everything to be on construction this summer so it's a little slow so but it's
they could they could both projects could be done by October that is correct they expect it to be um and an email from him it should be by the summer I know Karen's talked to him as well so that's great all right next we'll move on to the approval of the final agenda is there any changes or an approval motion
to approve the final agenda move to approve second motion by councelor King seconded by councelor Safford any further discussion all those in favor signified by saying I I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next is public comment m y I
have two people signed up uh first is Becky Knight followed by car Knight good morning good morning um my name is Becky Knight and I live on Miramar Street the goods store right down there that's the mark and I
own a home there and the reason for me to speak with you guys today is to tell you about a house that's being built next to me and there's actually three homes going to be built on our street it's mirar 250 254 and 120 that's the that's the house
number um a gentleman an investor has bought these lots and a um he has he has uh hired Everglades to build these homes and the issue is the setback you guys um
did a uh with the parallelogram last July you probably all know about that I've sent some emails hopefully you've all seen that but on this one right here the lots are shaped like this 50 by 100 I gave you all the things and what's
happened is I was inting here talking with Jason and somebody I don't know if you guys know about this or not has developed a little dotted line that goes across like this that makes this front 49 ft not 50 so therefore they get more additional
setbacks that being said when they does Judith have a copy of this sitting right there Judith are you seeing this and listening to this I can give you go um so that being said what's happened is is that they came out and they started drilling um and they drilled
actually there they actually turned into two plans they drilled one that is a uh drainage plan and they also then they also set in a site plan and what happened was they drilled it at 10.4 feet and I was over there and I was like what are you doing and they said we this is we don't know they must have got a
variance and I said I don't believe so so anyway I started doing some research that's what kind of triggered this whole thing so I went out there and anyway so long story short they drilled at 10.4 and with this loophole technically they can go at 12.6 12.6 feet back an average car is
14.7 Ft that is a midsize car that's not an SUV that's not a truck that's not a van so what what my issue is with this whole thing is that um and this is going to be a four-bedroom 2700 foot home um there's four bedroom four bath so we all know in
these rentals that people uh multiple families rent them right and so there's going to be more than one vehicle there's nowhere to park in front of this house um I don't believe you guys when you set this when you did this loophole when when you guys did the ordinance for the parallelogram I don't believe that
this was part of the what you were planning them to happen what you did is you gave them eight extra feet so it's 25 plus 8 makes 17 feet that they could do a swing on that and because of this little loophole like this now they get
five extra feet so now it's at 12.6 feet so um my concern is this when we walk down myamar I can walk with my dog and literally when a car comes down thing I have to get way over like this so they can they can walk they can go by two cars cannot pass each other on our street so it's a safety conc concern if
they park in the street the ambulance can't go down the street um EMS can't go down the street it's a very very big safety concern that there's not enough room for these people to even park a car thank you thank you Becky appreciate Carrie Knight after Gary that's all I have
signed up okay morning everyone I'm Gary KN obviously Becky's husband 246 Miramar I'm here on behalf of the rest of the street not just myself and my wife uh obviously you've got numerous emails from uh the rest well some of the rest
of the street the other people are pretty much in the dark about this they don't know I'm sure they'll be upset uh um we called the city and emailed them as soon as we saw what was going on and thankfully they stopped work uh we
were told the city was going to look into it and the building did stop we waited a couple of weeks an email for an update obviously this affects our property value and everything I mean we need to be kept in the loop period I mean how these plans got passed
in the first place I know I do not know because the drainage plan does not m match the for plan I saw that in two minutes of looking online in the permit the plans don't match but it got rubber stamp and it's okay you can build it so
we need someone to be looking out for us and really monitoring these plans and I mean the fact that this rule has changed Miramar if this is the road this is the line of houses right here right here uh there's
been three new houses Alex King built one Perfect all in line these new ones are going to be here there's nowhere to park there's nowhere to I mean you got to look at it and you look at the corner post of the
house you look up there's pons and it's three-story house it's to unsafe um as I say um we emailed a couple of times to get updates never did we came here and talked to someone and all they said they
got to just move two feet two posts two feet back we do this for a living in Iowa we develop ground we we that's why we're used to looking at plans and things it doesn't add it if the plans if you they drilled the hole to the 10t thing which
is completely wrong that means the 25 foot set back in the middle a lot is now 23 because you can't have 25 and a 10 and then on another plan 12 and a
half and 25 that doesn't make sense something somewhere is way off um I just really want you to think about this new rule where they're given these in this house is going to be 8 ft
off the back property line fence that's how close it is to that and it's 12 1/2 ft from the front there's no room to park a car there's going to be three of these I mean if everyone does it on this street this street you might as well just make it a walkway cu no one's going to be
able to drive down there you can't turn around down there in anyway there's no circle at the end to turn around it's just yeah anyway thanks is there anyone else that like to speak in public comment no all right we'll close public
comment can we take a minute to address these I was gonna ask if because um I've had an exchange with Frankie about this and yes so I've reached out to Judith who's here today along with Sarah and Joe spect official uh Joe's out at the property this morning taking a look at
these properties personally then he's going to come back in and we're going to review those plans make sure that they do meet um and if they don't then we'll take appropriate Steps either bringing the contractor in here or whatever and figuring out a path forward but the three smartest people I have in this
town are going to have their eyes on it so I what I I haven't seen these plans so I'm not exactly sure what they look like but I know going down myar several times there are other homes that have posts out front of where the garage is but the home and the garage door is actually set back inside and I don't
know if that's how this house is being built or not yeah so I'm not sure if that's how this is or not but I'm yes like you saidst us to clarify 17 well nobody can hear you so but it sounds like the staff is they're well aware we
did receive everybody's email concerns that we we we are taking this seriously and we are going to to find a uh find point where we both can be uh in the right here and we can communicate with those yes yes okay thank you all
right anybody else have any keep say no no I forwarded the emails that I got to Frankie yes if anybody's listening we we did receive several emails about this and they have been forwarded to this uh next is local achievements and recognitions councelor Safford I do not
have anything counc Woodson I'm good thanks mayor just a shout out to tuna skin who had a just a spectacular Beach cleanup on Sunday I think there were over 300 people there spectacular uh and also a shout out to the Community Foundation for their
fashion show I don't know what the total amount they raised but it sure looked like they had a heck of a crowd at Santini Plaza supporting Lanas and The Islander and it was a looked like appeared to be a very great event counc King Nothing not you covered both of mine Jim
so next we'll move on to advisory committee items reports and appointments we don't have anybody here move on then we have an approval of the minutes from the town council meeting on February 3rd 2025 and the M&P session February 6th 2025 there any changes or motion to
approve I'll move to approve second councelor king the motion seconded by councelor Safford any further dis discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed hearing none that motion carries unanimously next is the consent agenda we have nothing on that
um there's nothing to be removed from the consent agenda next is our public hearing Nancy you want me to go through the um yes do you want to would you like to just read the title first I could certainly do that okay I get computer to work there we go
next is a resolution of the Town Council of the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida approving approving with conditions or denying a special exception sez 202 4257 to allow repair of pool pool deck fences Grill area foot rtin station and
beach access stairs in the EC zoning District SE of the 1978 cccl for the property located at 2654 Estero Boulevard providing for scriveners erors severability and an effective date so Council um this special
exception um is quasi judicial in nature and this will require that today's public hearing uh comply with some procedural requirements that have been established in Florida law and in our Land Development code so our proceeding today would be less formal than a
proceeding before circuit court but it is going to be more formal than the remainder of your meeting and we must follow basic standards of due process that requires certain notices uh the application of the correct standards and decisions and your decision to be made
on competent substantial evidence that is presented to you either in written documents or through oral testimony you must evaluate the testimony and the information for each item and then draw a conclusion regarding whether the criteria in Your Land Development code
or in state law as may be applicable has been satisfied so pure speculation or opinion that is not based on competent facts cannot legally be considered by you in evaluating this agenda item testimony by professionals who have been
qualified as experts in a particular area has been considered competent evidence by Florida courts as well as testimony by neighbors and residents who have fact-based information information such as minutes surveys engineering
reports or testimony based on personal information so your decision is final and if a decision of approval is not obtained or if a vote results in a motion to approve or a motion to deny then the matter being considered is
denied unless the majority of you present and voting agree by motion before the next item is called to take some other action in lie of the denial such other action may be moved or seconded by any member if you decide to
deny an application the reason for the denial should be stated in the motion and the denial must not be based on determination of public support or opposition to a application the reason for the denial also cannot be arbitrary
discriminatory or unreasonable and should be based on a lack of competent substantial evidence to support the required criteria if there is a denial the denial is with prejudice unless you um State
otherwise if so members in the audience who may be here for today's um review of this special exception if you intend to speak please keep my comments in mind and when you come forward please state your name clearly for the record and whether or not you've been sworn in and
your qualifications or your interest in this matter so for purposes of efficiency um mayor and C Council we can go ahead and dispose of a few um matters procedural matters um I first must ask the town clerk uh was this agenda item
properly noticed pursuant to Our Land Development code yes it was Excuse me yes it was thank you and at this time if any Town council member has a conflict of interest that would prohibit them from voting on this item could you please disclose it at this time so we
can determine whether we have a quorum present C none vice mayor none I do not have any Council Woodson none counc saer none for this particular item again um because it's quas a Judicial in nature a little bit more formality we would like to go
ahead and ask anyone who is present that will be providing testimony to stand and to um be sworn in by the town clerk that includes during public comment correct yes yes during public
comment for this agenda item okay was went in doubt do you swear affirm that the testimony that you're about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth okay and I think mayor at this point it
goes back to you okay if any Town C council member has had any expar communication to disclose please let us know the subject discussed and the identity of the person group or entity with whom the communication took place any correspondence that you received or observations made of the site C Safford
uh nothing official uh I I very very familiar with the property and I have several friends that live there but nothing official Council Woodson I have had none vice mayor I've had none and CC King none I have had none also who's
taking this one Judith Frankle has been qualified as an expert already by This Town Council based on her education experience has been accepted as an expert in the field of land use planning and development in the town of Fort Meers Beach are there any other individuals who would like to be qualified as an expert witness on behalf
of the applicant at this time seeing that has a property owner applicant seen a copy of the agenda backup materials from staff anyone see okay go ahead Judi good morning Judith
Franco with Community Development uh Estero Beach Club East condominium has applied for a special exception to allow the replacement and repair of accessory structures that were constructed in the environmentally critical zoning District um it's part of the common element
portion of the condominium property um they were there prior to Hurricane Ian these structures include a pool pool deck fences Grill area foot rinse station and beach access steps in the environmentally critical zoning District
um the plan is to replace like for like um for what was there previously the applicant is requesting the special except exception through an amendment to uh section 34- 652e that allows reconstruction or renewal of primary structures and major
accessory structures partially or fully within the EC zoning district with the approval of a special exception the EC zoning district is in the Lan seaward of the 1978 Coastal Construction Control line uh this condominium building was
constructed in 19 1973 prior to the creation of the 1978 cccl the applicants uh are not proposing any additional development in the EC beyond what was in existence prior to the hurricane uh the plan does show a path onto the beach however only stairs
onto the beach from the pool deck are proposed at the January 9th LPA hearing the LPA recommended approval with a vote of six to zero with one member absent um we're I'm available for um any questions you have I think is a representative
from stero Beach Club East condominium here okay um let's see if we got any questions for you first counc king May Woodson it's pretty cut and dry counc Stafford none I don't have any of this time okay applicant like to come
up good morning good morning Janette um owner at ECE and um also fulltime resident so I really she covered like everything that I have on my little note so I does anybody have any questions for
me uh CC K nothing no CC W no it's it's just like for like correct I mean you're just putting it back the way it was correct nothing different no extensions okay I'm good so the stairs were there before she had mentioned there was a
path I could see the pict yeah we have stairs on two sides actually and you're going to have on one now is that going to be on both not that it matters from what I understand it's like for like so I would assume it would be on both sides okay that's only question I had okay thank you so much appreciate
your time thank you uh we'll open it up for public comment are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this matter if so please come forward to the podium and identify yourself provide your address and whether you were sworn in any public comment seeing none I will close public climate
I'm guessing you don't have any rebuttal unless you do Jud go ahead come on up um so the application was reviewed um subject to section 6- 366 B3 which is governs regulations and considerations
for special exceptions um uh one any repairs must comply with all relevant local and state flood plane requirements um um and the development will comply uh repairs may not damage existing dunes or Dune vegetation uh the repairs and proposed structures are proposed
landward of the dunes so no impact is uh perceived um three repairs other than those limited to emergency repairs um to enclose a damaged structure may not be completed during sea turtle nesting SE nesting season which begins May 1st uh
and ends October 31st um the other code section we review for is section 34- 88b um which are the criteria um in our part of our findings for approval um one whether there exist change or changing
conditions um these uh elements were all there pre hurricane Ian hurricane Ian was the the change in conditions um two whether the request is consistent with the goals objections objectives policies and intent of the fort Meers Beach Comprehensive plan um and staff finds
that it is in compliance with the plan um the proposed Redevelopment is like for like repair um as we stated pool pool deck fences Grill area foot R station and beach access steps um three whether the request meets or exceeds performance standards the request
repairs will allow the pool and surrounding develop area to meet performance and locational standards um whether the requests will protect conserve or preserve environmentally critical areas and natural resources um these elements have all been rep place for approximately 50 years so we don't
perceive any additional um impact um except for what was there previously um whether the request will be compatible with existing or planned uses and not cause damage Hazard nuisance or other detriment to persons of property um as we said um has existed the condominium
has been there since 1974 so we don't perceive any additional um impacts at this time um whether it will be the request will be in compliance with the zoning provisions and the Land Development code um we find that it uh will be in compliance um with the tan
Land Development code code so uh in review of all the findings and conclusions staff recommends um approval um with the following conditions um approval of the special exception does not give the applicant undeniable right to permit approval development of the
property must comply with all applicable requirements of Fort Meers Beach Comprehensive plan and Land Development code in effect at the time of permit approval um to the the applicant must obtain an approved lighting plan as outlined in Land Development code section 34-1
1834 uh which is standard for um anything in this area three each time the structure is repaired the applicant must request a new special exception approval in permit um for construction may not occur during the sea turtle nesting season as we previously stated
and uh failure to comply with any of the above mentioned conditions um will render the special exception approval no void um at the LPA hearing on January 9th um as I said previously the LPA recommended approval um with these same
conditions all right councelor King any questions for Judith I have none vice mayor none counc wson none coun King is the applicant okay with the conditions that were just stated by staff not okay all right I'll now close the public
hearing and request a discussion or a motion from Town Council to approve approved with conditions deny with reasons or a continuance to a Time certain I'll move resolution 2558 secz 2024 0257 2654 STL Boulevard with the
conditions for approval Outline by staff I will second a motion by councelor King seconded by councelor Safford any further discussion councelor King I councelor Safford hi councelor Woodson hi VI may I I'm and I as well that motion carries unanimously
look forward to seeing it done Mr Mayor sir parliamentary inquiry if I could uh Madame Town attorney as I understand it we have a a process uh now in place that for variances that pass the LPA unanimously
they can skip the council in order to expedite it for the applicant I'm wondering and I'm just asking and Judith to chime in on this if it if if you think this would be helpful would it be helpful for for us to expand the scope of that particular
ordinance to include special exceptions where you're replacing like for like if the LPA votes can you do it I guess is my if it's it's like for like the LPA votes unanimously includes the conditions with staff can we include
that in our our ordinance or would it be more more trouble than it's worth no we would have to um amend our code uh to provide for that um as we did for the variances and then things that are like for like um it just seems like after Ian
these folks had to come in wait you know and everybody it costs more you know just it's time it's staff time I'm just curious as the what my colleagues would think about something like that I'm all for it every every day that is delayed is another day that they
don't have their pool deck and or it's I'm I'm all for it vice mayor yeah I would agree I if it's absolutely like for like we approve these all the time I don't think we need to take up the time or the expense the only concern I have is like
I agree with a like for like but a special exception is a very broad paintbrush it's not always going to be a like for like when it comes to this so my only concern is you know special exceptions are a little different than a variance I mean you're you're asking for quite a significant difference when it
comes to a special exception so my only my only hesitation would be as we've seen in the past not everybody follows the LPA they don't always know that something's going to the LPA before it makes it to the council so that'd be my only hesitation if it was specifically for I don't think we can differentiate
between something like this yeah to your point Mr Mayor and I'll ask the attorney is you're very you're very skilled Wordsmith can you Wordsmith this in a way to address the mayor's concerns we can try and and bring it
back to U maybe an M&P just to have some further discuss session um and you know throughout the course of review there might be some other things too that um are pretty straightforward um I think today's U special exception was that
maybe you might want to consider adding as well yeah yeah the concern I have is just to give you an example concern yeah a special exception you need to change a use for instance say in the in the Commercial Boulevard what was maybe a thrift store now maybe they want to Y
make it into a gas station I want to I want to capture things that like just happened today no I agree age if we can if if we can and Jud put your thinking cap on if are there other other examples that you might like like like Nancy said that we may want to include to expedite
the process without compromising what the mayor legitimately raises I mean so just that may be a great project I know you have lots of free time but it might expedite the process for everybody involved particularly the applicants yeah and the staff and the staff I think
certainly in this situation there's an excellent case to be made for for just having it at the LPA level but sometimes we would want to bring you things if they were say adding something new or absolutely different nobody different nobody disagrees with that you maybe you
could use that like for like if it's a like for like situation something very narrow um that you would be comfortable with great thank you okay uh onto our administrative adjust item the first is a resolution of the Town
Council the town of Fort Meers Beach Florida authorizing the town manager or designated to apply for execute upon and administer a grant from Lee County visitor and communication convention bureau's tourist Development Council for beach and Shoreline funding in the amount of
1,355 184 determin and include additional funding requests for landscape and repairs and maintenance Vehicles authorizing the town manager or designated to execute all related and necessary documents and providing and effective date Mr Town manager thank you
mayor um this is our annual ask for uh tourist development dollars and I'll turn it over to staff to update us on where we are Yeah so basically it's a compilation of the things that we asked for on a yearly basis uh whether it's maining maintaining our beach accesses
uh repairing adding equipment to it uh last year we added a couple of positions just beach only and requested uh vehicles for that same thing as this year what we're doing is expanding a few of the positions uh mainly for the Rangers out on the beach only and then I
think Jeff has some for public works as wellc yeah I mean basically what Frankie said we we have our annual ask every year for TDC um included a few extra things so our budget uh went up a little bit this year which we we think really is needed um based on us really getting
the the beach accesses back and being able to clean up the beaches as quickly as we can so we haded a a staff for sure for um for the the beach and then we had some Rangers on the beach too so the only concern I have is it seems like it's a copy and paste every year with
the TDC it's always Mount house Newton Park and it's a copy and paste ask every single year at least on the surface and we don't really think outside the box and hold on a second and in having for me it's always driven me crazy that Time Square is not considered a beach access
and I know from the vice mayor's time on the TDC it's been and the lawyers and talking to our lawyers it sounds to me like it could be done it's just a matter of wording I'd really like you guys to take a look at how we can reward that because I know Becky has said there's ways that you can word it where it's been done in the past
throughout the state because it is the most visited beach access in all of Lee County so why we don't get funding for that um another thing that came up that I'd like you guys to take a look at if the council's okay with it um at the last meeting last week uh council member Holly Smith from sanabel brought up a a
very good idea um over the 4th of July and New Year's Eve a lot of people come to the islands to watch the fireworks that are fired off from the pier would it make sense to combine the two through TDC funding if they're being fired off a bar barge because they're going to have
their Causeway open which is going to be full of people watching it to get that funding through T through TDC funding or at least ask for it I can tell you she was a approved to be on the committee that's going to be making those recommendations and she's going to be pushing very hard for that so the council's okay with that I'd like to ask
Andy and staff to work with Dana Sosa and those guys over in santel to really try to push that forward to make that a reality because then it could be on the barge all the time off the shore so both Islands get to benefit from it that's awesome good idea I think it's great and I and I I
commend you mayor for continuing to push the Time Square redefinition so that can be included in TDC funding because a lot of folks walk walk right through Times Square and go right to the beach I mean that's it is is by far the most popular beach access that we've got and it's
going to get busier once the Pier's done next decade or so I I just wanted to add something Mr Mayor um the copy and paste thing yes when Andy first got here that's the what look like you know each year you're asking for the same thing you're going after a big piece of equipment uh that
we either did or did not need at that time but it was you know something oh gosh look at that uh We've definitely changed the direction last year we went from more of a maintaining type uh approach this year we even refined it more so we're going for that replacing of the beautification at the beach
accesses so a lot of the money that we're asking for this go around is putting back plantings that were lost at those Beach accesses um trees Shrubbery as you approach that uh and then also to complement as you go out towards the Dune so we have several on the island
that we did and we we've kind of had a little brainstorming session about what we could do with Chad and things like that so that was a big part of our ask going forward this year as well and I know that when we another thing that has been is starting to gain some steam at the TDC is stuff about ada8 compliance
stuff they look this last week at doing a park that is 88 you know for for those that can't always um do the the things normally that you and I can do all the day and Moy mats comes up a lot I know when we were over at the uh the Florida Le of cities thing on the other coast we looked heavily at ada8 compliant things
that would allow people not just to get to the beach but to get all the way to the water to be able to enjoy the water to me that seems like a a perfect thing to ask for from TDC whether it's the balloon chair wheelchairs I get asked all the time you know anybody that rents that I know we've talked about it but
they're not cheap so I would really like to push you to look at some of the ideas that we looked and we found over on on the coast last year that will not only be able to get people to the beach but from the beach to the water we we we did get approved um last year for the
replacement of the chairs that we lost that the town had at one time um and those are current currently in process of yeah they were ordered um the wait the lead time on those was about 4 weeks so I'd say in the next week or so we'll have those and have all of our Moby mats been placed on all the beach ACC they
haven't yet because of the beach R nourishment they just tear them up when they go they go through so we're waiting for once we're done that then they'll go back we do have them and we have actually we do funding every year for Moby mats um 15 mats a year and we can replace replace more if we just need to ask so we do we do have those in our
budget every year um and we just have to wait to put them out because the trucks are are tearing them up we tried to put them out and we've lost a couple already because of the trucks I would like to see added to this that what I just talked about that stuff that'll get people that need to use a wheelchair or
they can't walk through the sand to be able to and we T it's something very easy that can go up and down every day so it's not staying out on the beach to be able to allow people to get to the water this is the last year that we're going to have a voting membership on the TDC for a while until we get back to where we need to be um so I think we
need to take advantage of it as much as we can we actually have a seat at the table until June so the more we can we can get on there I think that's a very important thing U at least this year yeah and this year we we increased our our budget by about 400,000 so we've
already put some some big items and up upu our our our maintenance cost our maintenance uh for the beach and Beach accesses and then just as a side note about the ADA Compliant um we are going to be putting Newton Beach Park back with a big emphasis on being ADA
Compliant with the walking trails and those things so they'll be able to park go to the go to the the park and walk around the trails and they'll be very accessible Jeff would you just you just mentioned something that maybe a lot of the public doesn't isn't aware of these these special wheelchairs that are
designed to go on the sand you say they might be coming in a week they should be it was we ordered them probably a month ago and they said it was going to be three to four weeks so any day now no that's fine but but if a member of the public has somebody in their family or a friend who's disabled and wants to utilize those wheelchairs how how do
they go about doing it and and is there any cost no there won't be a cost um they'll just be able to use them and right now normally we would we kept them at Newton Beach Park um and they were checked out there um when they come in we'll have to figure out uh what what
what that looks like right now as far as where we hand them out from is it town hall is it um somewhere else but yeah we'll get that information we'll have conversations about that I think this is a good idea to use some tech there's a lot of Technology out there that allows you to have Bluetooth locks so if someone signs for it you can have it locked once they sign up you have the
information to make sure that we're protected should they ever disappear then they can get a code to get the Bluetooth lock off and then they can lock it back up yeah once Newton Park is that was one of the things we talked about but we just need to find something in the meantime um some but we can do a lock or something that way St it can be
there and staff doesn't have to mean you can manage it remotely you don't have to be there to yeah we want we want to have them accessible and not off Town House closed you can't get the wheelchair or you know that so we want to make it accessible to them at you know probably set some time parameters on that Bluetooth but yeah might there's a lot
of programs out there that are fairly inexpensive if not that you can use app base that they can download the app and they can put all their information in that the town monitors yeah and then you know who has it how long they've had it when it comes back yeah and we'll get the information
out where they're going to be um we'll have a conversation about that um in the next few days con Stafford anything you want to add to that no great ideasc wson no I think it sounds perfect vice mayor good
CC Kane good all right is there a motion to approve or deny resolution 25- just just a thought because you mentioned the fireworks piece of the puzzle yeah which I like uh and I know I know we've we're starting to explore the Drone technology as well I know sounds like that's a
little more expensive and if the but if the TDC does get involved in is that that was part of your thought right the TDC would help fund those yeah I mean well it was it was council member Smith's idea but I thought it was a great idea and I talked to her I said I would certainly support
teaming up with Santa Belle to push forward to to make that a reality you know if it evolves it evolves but we got to get it past the TDC the first time I just think and we have all the costs in place already to know exactly what it takes to do it off a barge since we don't have a pier to do it off of and we
can move the barge out further from the pier so that it's easier to see from from everybody it doesn't have to necessarily be right at the end of the pier but and and again the thought and I and I love the fireworks but but but if if we do Advance the Drone technology those drones could theoretically go up over to Santa Bel come over to Fort
Myers Beach they could go up and down the island I think maybe they limitations I don't know but the technology is is uh is approving every day just by I haven't I haven't had the the distance part of it but I I think you know Frankie probably knows the physics of it but I think one one of our
problems would be the flight approach to the airport yeah planes go right over this area drones they had an issue at Universal Studios um at Halloween with the Drone getting loose and they stopped the program until they could get it refined a little better so it's a still
emerging technology evolving technology yeah it's Food For Thought yep appreciate it so just clarification there the due date for this is uh March 7th so I don't do we meet before then probably March March thir okay so we'll
put in there about 990,000 for the fireworks I would say Andy if you can reach out to Dana and find out through you know what exactly they're looking at but it just seem we've already got the number so we could actually share that with them and let them know this is what it this is what it would take so when we put in
this submission or whether we do it or whether they do it as long as we're both on the same page at work yeah for sure instead of duplicating them the process great idea yeah I mean we we have so many people coming from Le County well then once the causeway is going to be open this year it's going to really have a
lot of people on it I think it's a great idea except when it's a foggy day in London Town oh don't oh God all right back to is there a motion or L I will make a motion to approve resolution 25- 59 TDC Beach and
Shoreland maintenance Grant uh based on the conversation that we just had second motion by mayor Aller seconded by councelor King any further discussion I'm an i councelor King hi vice mayor adal hi councelor Woodson hi counc Safford I motion carries
unanimously next is Item B a special event for Fort Myers Beach FM Festival 2025 Fort Myers Beach Lions Club is requesting an approval for a special event for the 2025 festival 5K run and parade contingent on approval of fot Fort Mar's Beach fire district and Lee
County Sheriff's Office in regard to the event and road closure from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Sunday Mar 8 2025 the parade will start at 10:00 a.m. once the 5K run is complete the Lions Club is also requesting to wave the noise
ordinance who's here for this come on up it's nice to say good morning still yes my name is Diane clipon and I am a secretary of for Myers Beach Lions Club and I've been a member of the club for going on 22 years um there are shrimp Festival just a little bit of history about our club
it's um been around since 1952 and we have had a shrimp festival for this is going to be our 67th one this year if you approve so since 1958 was our very first Shrimp Festival if anybody was around
back then it was they did turtle races and actually did um Fried Chicken andal yes yes exactly um and it's evolved to a
huge art and craft fair I get people from all over the US that want to be in our uh fair and a shrimp boil which we are bringing back this year because we had more people last year going where's
the shrimp where's the shrimp so we are going to do that with the blessing of John Rashard allowing us to use his parking lot and land behind the uh cigar Hut so Lions is more it originally
started out as ey care pass it around and now it's expanded into so many things disaster relief and we've done a lot with disaster relief and I don't know that you if you're aware but when hurricane
Ian hit we got donations from all over the United States to our club to help with that and we are in District 35 I of the Lions which goes from Port Richie all the way down to the ever
plate and 35i has gotten we've gotten one Grant already from lcif which is our um main organization worldwide and we got $50,000 and 20,000 of it went to Fort
Meers Beach and we are now getting another one with $20,000 and the um the person for 35i has said find out where you can spend $20,000 on the beach so we will be
getting another $20,000 but in addition to that our Festival brings in when we were at ly Hall Park we bring in between 50 and $60,000 which we give back to the community and last year I think we netted maybe
40,000 which wasn't bad considering we had less than a third of what we were used to for vendors well Diane I'll tell you the very first 5k I ever did in my life was the shrimp one it was more of a sloth crawl than a 5k but it was the first one
I ever did I was pretty embarrassed as I'm coming down the bridge the lead Runners were coming back over the bridge can't laugh at yourself you were there in spirit I well I did it did you competed you did well I don't know if it
was a competition but I didn't come in last the further away you get from it it's a competition yes all right and as far as the waiver on the noise ordinance um honestly I just copied the paperwork from last
year um the only noise that we produce is during the par from 10: to about 11:30 and if you want yes we I mean we are um it's going to be in the um Fort Meers Beach Living magazine exactly the
timing of everything and um and yes there is going to be music but it's no more than somebody going down the road with their car windows down and the music blarn it's a parade it should be noisy parade
yes any questions for Diane counc King just thank you for all you do vice mayor Diane youve we always have quite a few people watching this this morning do you want to give a few details about the event itself and just kind of do a little promotion okay so um as I said
this is our 67th year of doing this and we will have 44 vendors this year um and again we're bringing back the um shrimp uh dinners and those will be sold for $20
you'll get a half a pound of shrimp yeah yeah and big big shrimp um from uh Ericson and Jensen shrimp uh the parade is Saturday it starts at 10 o'clock or as soon as the 5K run
finishes up then we get going with that um there's a number of businesses I think I've got 28 um entries are ready for the parade the Shriners are coming back is there a deadline to apply to be in the parade
no how does one go about if if they want to get a float together how does one go about applying um online on the fort Meers Beach Shrimp Festival site there is an application process there and that comes directly to me also the vendors come to
me so Scotty are you thinking about resurrecting the crew of sloth no keep keep the deck party there's always many participants we were hoping that we were going to be able to get a um High School band but
they backed out on us but I also looked at the roadway and some of the um the way it's made now for the drainage I really didn't think it looked like it would be real safe for people marching playing instruments because they're not going to be able to look where they're
walking so in that regard I was kind of glad is it still going to go back is it going to be the same route as always yes same route start maybe we need to reach out to F do and let them know this is going on and we're going to need better barricades along that roundabout area
for safety because right now it's kind of Bob's barricades are just willy-nilly and I I do have as far as the Shrimp Festival itself we'll have barricades at Third Street um and at the park at the other
and and second yeah very good Ian you're also you probably want to mention the uh the the SHP competition as well as the princess oh yes yes the princess competi have a
prison princess competition I think they've got eight people now that have applied they can take up to 10 um time for you there's still a chance we do have people putting their granddaughters and things like that in for it
um and that the crowning of the princess will be on Saturday after the parade um and of the queen excuse me and the shrimp meeting contest actually is on Sunday and it will be at Sandy
Bottoms but it's sponsored by the beached whale and they are going to have 10 competitors with that also what are the guidelines to apply to be part of the shrimp eating competition hungry yep hungry very hungry but is it first come first serve
is it a yes have you ever watched that I have it's so disgusting sorry it's great fun interestingly last year the person that won was from Minnesota and he was a spring breaker down for the um spring
break and went back home before um he could get a shrimp shirt a festival shirt oh so his mother reached out to me to see if I could get if he could get a shirt and I got one sent to her and it turned out that she lived like a mile
from where I grew up in Minnesota I said I know exactly which house is yours that's funny yes speaking of shirts I I know uh Preen used to have uh specific stores where where you could buy the the shirts are you doing that this year we
are not doing that yet okay the logistics of that gets to be bit much yeah online presents they people order them online uh no we have not done that you also have these wonderful shrimp hats and I think Beach talk radio was
selling some for you are you selling them as well oh yes we are they will be $20 how does one how does one procure a shrimp hat because they are they are pretty cool um they can reach out to me I've got actually a huge bag in my car
right now if anybody's is interested I can bring them in with your connections to uh graceand is is is Elvis going to be sporting a Cel Parker is currently in negotiations with the the team so we'll have to see how that goes It's All Shook
Up yeah yeah Chester did the artwork this year for the for the shirt didn't he pardon me Chester um no Sherry shiffon with um Grand Illusions okay downtown I thought chest what did Chester do for the one for tuna skin is that a
different one I don't know we'll see when you get there question for Dian no just I'm so happy you guys are putting this together it's it's it's what we're about so thank you MH very good I have my shrimp
earrings we are going to have um the shrimp hats and uh Jackie LX is some um beads that have shrimp on them I don't know where she would get those probably Oriental train or something like that Marty gr Marty there
you go all right thank you Diane all right thank you is there any further discussion or a motion I will move to approve the special event for Fort Marys Beach shrimpfest for 2025 second motion by
mayor Aller seconded by councelor Woodson any further discussion I'm an i Council Woodson I Council seford 100% I vice mayor 100% I Council King th% motion carries unanimously thank you
I can't wait to see your I'm a bigger guy next is the our final administrative agenda item is a special event for Southside art and craft show Blue Ribbon events is requesting Southside art and craft show at Santini Plaza reoccurring special event on March 28 through the 30th
2025 8 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and April 25th through the 27th 2025 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. is there anyone here for Blue Ribbon events I did talk to the applicant uh a couple maybe a week or so ago and and
it's going to be a great event to again draw people to Santini Plaza along with the farmers market which is there every Tuesday and Thursday so lots of activity at Santini Plaza is this the same event that they used to hold across from lover key
in the park there that's a great question Karen I I don't know the answer to that I wouldn't be surprised if it I'm pretty sure it is the blue Riven event people and they can't do it now because of all the staging for the bridge so I bet I bet you're right about that all right any discussion or
motion I'll move special events Southside art and craft show second motion by councelor King seconded by councelor Woodson any further discussion Council King hi counc Woodson hi counc Safford hi vice mayor and I'm an i as well that motion carries unanimous final
public comment yes sir come on up hi good morning I'm Cliff Gallagher I'm property owner on uh naughty turn drive and I've got several things I see
I'm limited to three minutes which probably isn't going to be enough first I'd like to thank you Dan for the advice you gave me over at Publix about the taxes tax increase that I suffered and
uh want to let you know that going unofficially to the tax assessor's office was a waste of time I spoke to the gentleman there and he just says no I can't do anything and then on the way down in the
elevator the uh assessor rode with me and I put forth everything to him and all he could do was smile and two days before I was to before I was to go before the value
adjustment board I got a phone call from one of the invest tigators who offered to reduce it significantly they didn't want to go before the assessment board and so that's some general information for the
public don't rely on showing up at the assessor's office go before the assessment board okay second thing is since Ian three
times I've had Town employees trespass on my property I don't want that to ever happen again the first time I caught them was in late
October they were taking a damage assessment they'd already been through they knew everything that was damaged on that property but here they came again and I didn't say anything I just said well you know what you see is what you
see and uh of course the electric was damaged and that was all disconnected my laundry rooms got flooded so that had
to be corrected I had some damage on the roof some of the shingles were torn off not a lot not a lot to require a permit it was one square or
less and so they left and in January I had people on the roof replacing the shingles and I had two people show up come on my property told me I wasn't
allowed to do that that I couldn't even paint my property and since I had bothered to read the uh documentation as to what is allowed and
what isn't allowed I said that's not true you're lying to me and they started saying well the Town Council just had a big meeting with FEMA and this is not allowed and I said well when was it
published because I know it has to be published to become an ordinance Cliff I I need you to wrap up three minutes is your beeper off I just but I want to go ahead and wrap up and then going ask you to meet with staff after the meeting so you can well so this issue hasn't
subsided after Milton my neighbor caught people poking around my property from the town they were trespassing they were ordered off my property and off the property next door to to
me they were looking inside the doors that I have at ground level they were peeking over the fence cff I need you people next door okay I'm telling you what's going on I understand and staff will be happy to meet with you
after the meeting so that you can they can get all the details because they will make sure they address it okay I also have two permits hanging in the wind right now one to have a new roof put on that's been there more than a
month it's apparently being delayed because FEA wants to do an investigation of what's going on in this town and so I can't get my permit and I've got another permit
that's been hanging since the 4th of November when I replied to nonsense arguments given by your flood plane administrator thank you Cliff please meet with meet with staff after this
everyone that can help answer your questions is in this room okay thank you anyone else all right we'll close public comment next town manager items thank you mayor
council just a few things um shouldn't take more than a couple hours but um the big thing contractual services mayor and I talked a lot I talked with uh Tom yo yesterday we we have contracted with an organization to come
in and help us with traffic control they will start today I believe two or 3 o' it's like 2 to 8 or 3 to n or something like that at the corner of um Fifth and um Crescent and then again over towards
um um old no San Carlos and old s to keep the traffic moving as it comes down off the bridge to keep that moving so that should start today also working with Lee County Sheriff's Office we've got them just been getting some
complaints about that so we're addressing that as well Town manager Town manager search update um we got Andy on this firm that's coming in which is much appreciated is our staff helping with the training of these folks because a lot of people complain that the folks that are there don't have the proper
training to help is that is that you say the folks that are there our our folks F the sheriff's the folks that were hiring this this security firm they haven't started yet right but when they start are our folks going to train them yes Tom was out yesterday talking to them and going over it with them but we can't control the County Sheriff's Office no I
got that their training is their training but the people we're hiring will be trained by our team that is correct that's why it took a extra week because Tom was on vacation and I wanted him here to make sure that you for trained properly thank you and and he has more control over that group than we
do Sheriff's Office uh town man manager search we we've got a lot of applicants obviously you get a lot of applicants that don't meet the minimal qualifications um sat down with TSA and and we've we've narrowed that list down um we're going to be we're doing some
some background checks and looking at at some of these individuals as we get them um we create a list of those who have qualified and so now we're moving into that phase and hopefully within the next couple weeks we'll start lining up some interviews and getting with you on that
schedule possibly uh it could be the uh week of March 17th or 24th so that's kind of the target at this point but again if it's sooner then I'll be working with each one of you um the MMP meeting is scheduled for I
think it's 38 S I believe on Thursday the 6th Dan and I will be in in Washington meeting with lobbyist and and various representatives from Florida
to discuss you know our our nfip our CRA CRS rating and so we're just asking if it would be okay to move the meeting to the 13th the next Thursday right now there's really nothing on the agenda but we might be
able obviously by then there probably could be that is a Thursday yes that works I'm okay with that I'm okay works for me perfect Council gang yes sir all right
um Town Hall update we're working with the downstairs the floor was finished on Saturday I believe or yesterday I'm not sure they finished the what would be the U the tile work and grouting um we
should be working on the walls hopefully this week and moving forward I did just get an email that the council desk will be probably shipped around the 13th or 14th of March that's not going to delay us if we get the elevator and the the fire marshal inspector signing off on
the building the elevator's in in working condition we're waiting on the car itself the insides of the car uh they did some sand blasting on Saturday to get everything cleaned up underneath the the elevator the electronics are already replaced
uh it's been watching it's in operation so we've got a lot of positives happening there the the walls like I said should be going in and um then the drop ceiling and the the HVAC duct work and and the the fire alarm system so we
we're we can continue to move um towards progress there and also start hopefully this week or next week on the parking lot with the drainage first they're going to have to start working on the drainage to get that properly taken care of um got a couple emails in the last couple days about our storm water
project we need to I'm just talking to staff we need to make sure we get notification out to everybody where we're working where what's going on on their streets that type of thing so we continue to to to communicate with our residents uh let's see and a Newton Park update Jeff I don't know if you want to
give a little update on the progress there there is some significant progress being made a Newton Park yeah I think uh this restroom trailer is finally going to happen here soon um we are just working with Kirkwood Electric to put in
um get electricity to it the the sewer and the water lines have all been run so we're just waiting on Kirkwood to to hook it up um which a meeting with them he's supposed to send me a quote probably today and a meeting with him tomorrow um should
be fairly simple process for him so hopefully the next by the end of the week or early next week if whenever they get it done we'll have restrooms at Newton Beach Park um then we'll we'll lay down kind of a base maybe shell or something for a parking lot um maybe at
that time we can get a shed down there as well to house maybe the the the Wheelchairs and stuff too so it' be nice parking um down there and then once we get the uh the other funding then we will start the design process Jeff maybe
this is a Chad question but are the beach Tre nourishment folks done at Newton park for for most for the most part or not necessarily not necessarily so we have a fence we have it fenced off it'll just be parking lot and restroom trailer for right now uh with a beach access um on the side thank you and by
shed I think you meant trailer that's what I meant trailer something something elev something on Wheels movable yes we'll chain them up with the chain Tom is here if Tom you want to come up and just talk briefly about the the group that we've got coming this afternoon just help with
traffic control good morning everyone morning Tom so uh the company company is a m certified company uh they handle traffic by nature for large construction areas on highways and such so they have some basic training we're going to get them
out there and really push our expectations because we're not just trying to move traffic we're trying to move traffic in particular in a certain direction and that's to keep things moving Northbound on a stero we're also going to have them placed up at Old San Carlos in North Estero uh where we have
that three-way intersection at Time Square it's becoming obviously an issue with pedestrian traffic and we want to have more control there the stop signs are up now which is a great help but we also need somebody in the middle uh traffic control officer in the middle of that intersection who's
going to help move people and vehicles at that time so that's the goal today they're coming in at 2 o'clock today they're first three I'm going to go down for about an hour I'm going to train them in each intersection and what our expectations are and how I want it done they're going to be outfitted with radios they'll be outfitted with r gear
and we'll keep on them and make sure they're doing what they're supposed to do Tom would it make more sense at Old San Carlos and fifth to have them there sooner because the traffic coming on the island obviously backs up sooner than leaving so 2 o'clock might miss that window for getting people to move yeah I
have to go by their schedule so you want them to come earlier is what you're saying try to get them in earlier in the morning well I I I guess we had around noon it seems to really start backing up I don't know if it we can do that we can modify the schedule a little bit I think is a good idea yeah makes
sense the traffic yeah so the the biggest part is that what my fear was in that three-way over there in Old San Carlos and North Estero is is really that the pedestrians are moving and everybody has the misconception that they the right away they have the right away and what they don't understand is
that you don't actually have the right away to enter the roadway you have the right away if you're in the roadway already so uh people don't really understand the fact that they can't just go and walk in the middle of it and when you have a tra control officer placed in that space too they have ultimate control of that uh intersection and
there is no such thing as a RightWay Burian at that point they have to be they have to be maintained by the TCF Tom you've uh you obviously have a lot of experience in law enforcement and and in this area could you just take a minute and if
you were if you if you were uh emperor of Fort Meers Beach and you wanted to give advice to people who live here and who are visiting here to help minimize the challenges that we're facing what would be what would be the advice that you would give to the public
today to to try to help things along what would it may be a number of things but please take a second and opine if you would well the first thing I would say is for our pedestrian traffic please cross at the crosswalks do it in a manner that people see you have
expectations that the driver does not see you and wait for somebody to stop don't just walk into traffic as you cross anywhere where you're jaywalking then you create a a bigger traffic Hazard and you also create a hazard to your own health so please control your children out in that space
make sure you're Crossing at the crosswalks if you're driving be patient I know it's a it's a trial but it's not a new trial for this island I mean every Barrier island in the in the country and in the world has when you have two egress points there's going to be
traffic so just be patient we're doing our best to make that happen uh I I know it's it's hard to sit in traffic when you're sitting there for two hours I do understand that um but be conscious that there are going to be people moving around and keep your eyes open stay off your phones please stop letting major
gaps happen between your vehicle and the one in front of you because you're too busy looking at Facebook please get off the phone before somebody gets hurt so and the bigger part is when you're walking be conscious stay off your phone as well I know it's everybody wants to be on these silly little computers that
we all haul around with us all the time but you're going to get hurt if you're not paying attention what's happening around you be conscious that there's people out there who are having a good time down here and they're in bibing of something so that is going to change their uh their ability to correct
immediate action so their their time frame stops and I would ask that everybody stop yelling at the tcos including the cops that are out there and be conscious that they are trying their best if you do see a problem please contact us I do go down and address it with the deputies on the post
with the HP officer who's on the post a trooper we go and talk to them all the time I stop by see what they need I asked them to be you know active in their participation in that traffic control and our new people that were hiring will be will be out in that intersection the entire time they will
not be standing on the side of the road that's helpful thank you Tom have we had any conversation with the Le County Sheriff's Office about potentially I don't know I think they have bike Patrol officers or motorcycle officers as as over the next month and a half
we're going to see a large increase in motorcycles scooters golf carts trying to bypass the traffic on the roadways and in their Cruisers they're stuck in traffic just like the rest of us and if they can't see it obviously there's nothing they can do about it the 28th of this month they're starting their extra
patrols down here uh I know the conversation was had with Commander Lawler and Lieutenant chipwood about having more ambulatory uh spaces out there they also do work with us with our buggies so if there is an issue they call we get somebody on a buggy we get
around to where they have to be they have to get on the beach when they don't have one of their side by sides out here but yes that that conversation was had and that's going to be their command structure and how they want to put it out but it it's a very good idea and it was brought up last year as well so commander La does know about it so don't send us videos of the side by side lcso
chasing down a motorcycle down the sidewalk yeah it it's I I you know the problem with trying to chase down somebody um on this small little uh area no matter where you're doing it you're going to
put civilians in a little bit of Jeopardy um trying to chase somebody down uh we do our best to try to make a stop and the best weapon any of us have out here honestly is this because we talk to each other and we can stop we can stop people moving down because there's enough people when they're out here posted so hopefully you're not
going to see too much in the way of Pursuits out here you may see some little roadblocks set up to try to stop they've always done a good job of being Strate ially placed to see people coming down the side they do a great job they've been doing it out here for a long time and I think they got a pretty good grip on how to kind of lock people in in certain places and we all know the
trouble spots and that's going to be where we have that mass migration of people coming out of resorts and such like that Tom when you train this this security firm that comes in and and obviously you'll train each individual person who comes obviously that same
person's not going to come each day with the new people come will they also get that same training all right everyone is going to get the same training great there's going to be a rotation of four to six people the first three are getting trained today and then I'll train in next three over the next couple
days um it'll be it's a it's a pretty simple Beast to handle the traffic at a three-way stop as long as you have positive control and you're out there activ actively letting people see what you're doing your folks uh any advice and and I don't know how I don't know how we could say this because I've said
it many times over the year last couple years but encouraging people to use The Pedestrian overpass at Margaritaville is that just do you we need people with a sign out there what what what what what how could we enhance that so we can go back to Margaritaville again they were
very open to us at one point to put more signage um they're their director of security has offered some help with that as well at some point especially in busy times this weekend I posted a ranger uh in one of the locations there to try to help people understand there is another
way across the street as opposed to lining up and blocking the whole street that has its own challenges of course especially you know add alcohol and that changes things a little bit too we worked with finding a spot the biggest thing I'm seeing now is Uber and lift drop offs and Pickups so that was on I
talked to the town manager about that two weeks ago uh Third Street is where we're looking to take a space that we own a big piece of rightaway there that we now have as paid parking I had asked for permission it was given permission that we were going to change that into a designated Uber space case once we did
that I was going to contact all the different uh Resorts that we have on the island and any the other businesses and let people know that that's where they should be directing people so I I have a question uh I was actually going to bring this up under my items but since you mentioned it is there a way we can
not only have a uber spot but a door Dash spot or a free five minute parking if somebody wants to run in and grab something or they they had forgot you know they they don't want to spend obviously five dollars for the hour but they just want to pull in you know grab
a souvenir maybe if there's some businesses talking about opening up down there but you know parking's tight so is there a way we might be able to create a you know brief 15 minute zone or a dollar 15 minute zone or CH the
challenge to that is monitoring it right you know you'd have to have somebody on post to monitor that so we're chalking the tire for lack of a better expression it's not we don't do it anymore do it digitally but you basically chalk the tire and you to start your CL so um it comes comes to be an issue with
monitoring and how many would you designate for that and who's going to sit and watch it because there's always going to be the person who's like yeah I'm just me here 15 minutes and then these three hours at dinner for you know yeah so it comes down to that and but a lot like like I
said a lot of the restaurants you know they're doing door Dash now um especially with traffic so you know door Dash is an option but the door Dash driver needs to pull in and Park Park go grab the food come back out that's that's another creature as long as they're marked properly they have their
vehicle marked properly with a door Dash something that we can kind of go by and check and let the restaurants know that if it gets abused that they're going to start getting tickets again so uh I think we have to put that out there that we willing to try to work with that and figure something out but you know it's still something that we'd have to
monitor and put manpower to just to be conscious of that and then my my second question um I'm I'm just throwing this out there trying to think outside the box how how to help that area is is there a way at certain times we can close Creston
Street going toward the beach and just make that one lane for Margaritaville valet and then the right lane is is a traffic lane we did talk about that at one point um it was been brought up again it comes down to marking it
properly and then Manning it because we'd have to man it otherwise you're going to have somebody who's going to go the wrong way and get into a space where they shouldn't and we open oursel up to some liability to the best of what I can see if we're if we're saying we're changing that traffic pattern and then
we don't monitor it and we're not on putting manpower to it then I think we kind of open oursel up to some headaches that's just my opinion again okay when the fire department want to I'm guessing they would want to have their opinion on that absolutely so what else I'm just thr out for discussion just what how
that would that would look in your eyes I mean we're we're trying to do everything we can't I mean obviously every day we're getting comments so mean I'm I'm just looking for Solutions if if it's outside the box I don't care I just want I what
everybody else wants is for traffic to flow a little bit better and you know we don't have to recreate the wheel I mean we like I said before I mean we've had Barrier Islands here on this country for you know 100 years with traffic of some sort everything from horse drawn ever and there's always been something and people have come up with some good ideas
and I reached out to some uh colleagues that I used to work with that work in Jersey now at some of the shore towns there and what they're doing for traffic and they do they do some stuff that maybe wouldn't go over well down here but it seems to work with alleviating some of the congestion um and I can bring that up to
the to the town manager and we can we can address that at some point where you can take a look at what theyve they're doing as well is there sorry is there any um conversations with fot or anything about
elongating or working 247 working overnight at that whole roundabout area just to get this moving faster yes we've we've continually said keep working you know work holidays work nights that type of thing and I I just think it's their safety issue their
protocols that type of thing Interstate you see them working at night Paving and things so it's not a it's not that issue I just it just seems to be falling on dep here I know the mayor and I at one time at length had me meeting about you know spend your hours work as much as you can and they just they just don't
yeah they they're fully aware we we saw this coming we tried to warn them that this is going to be we've even asked them to expedite the one lane so that we could get that at least that lane and it looked like they were doing it for a little while and now it seems to have kind of shifted so they they did go and
they worked on that sidewalk for us we did ask for that Tom Andre had asked again and you had asked as well so that one sidewalk that got moved up and got that done for us on the beach side which is a much safer plan for people moving down through there so they did get that done faster for us they
have come uh forward with us and helped us they got FHP in place for us and when we asked for it they have put the extra lights on the bridge they got some of the lights working again that were knocked out somewhere in the construction phase so they're still telling us I I hit them for Thursday meetings they have pretty extensive
Thursday Zoom meetings that I I listen into all the time and they're still still pushing for uh for the May deadline they really like to get that part squared away so uh if that happens or not but that's what they're shoving for Tom and Andy could you elaborate on that one in terms of the overall
timeline for the project at least on the on our side of the bridge can you guys elab what what are they telling you in terms of timeline they were saying sometime by the end of May they were going to have they were going to be done with the biggest part of that now that could be pushed back they did change some stuff for us when we asked um we
did modify their plan a little bit cuz they had a go back to the original plan um you're going to see some of those uh Islands have now been torn up and changed a little bit because of some considerations for safety after our meeting with them so that was less but I will reach out again this Thursday I'll
dig into the conversation last time you talked to they said their goal was to be done by May by the end of May is what they're saying does that include the landscaping and all the other stuff I can't speak to the whole project I think it's just the B the biggest thing we're concerned with is that exit off the island if we can get that exit that's
that's that's the important one cuz I'm guessing they're going to have to switch traffic patterns to work where we're coming on the island now they're going to have to switch that yeah and the bridge is going to have to be a little bit more completed I think before some of that happens just for just for moving people over a little bit more so because
of the way the the loop comes but I can't I'm not an engineer I can't speak to that totally it's just what I see so Thursday I have that meeting I will give an update for the town manager and I'll have that for you well I think having these our people out there out and hopefully Joe we're going to forward
that bill to fdot to see if they can cover these guys it's you know we're doing it but it would just be nice if they were paying for it but you can you can see sit in it all the time you can see the difference when they're moving traffic and they're stopping pedestrians
and when they're not I mean it could save an hour and a half sometimes so doing it right has to be an active traffic post and I say that over and over again standing on the side of the road or sitting in your car is not active traffic post you have to be in the intersection moving people and and
that's that's the biggest push that we've had we've had that conversation with lcso and they're doing a good job at it I know sometimes we people have gone through and they've been off to the side for whatever reason but for the most part I do believe they're out there and they're doing the best uh our people will be out there the entire time uh s a
bathroom break or something like that but we're going to be have people in the middle of that intersection moving people so Andy since we still have them contracted I'm guessing lcso are we going to shift them to the crescent and the sterile that was their original and they responded to to us that they couldn't find the lock box
that the control the light because F doot had moved it I said I can't control that they decided to move down they couldn't find a key they couldn't find a lock box it was just a whole so we're working on that try to figure out what their problem was with that one but yes that was the the original contract was
to have them at that intersection well it seems like the light is doing its job it's the people that are trying to cross there are not and having somebody keep the tra people from walking when they're not supposed to walk is more effective than corre making the light blink and trying to control the traffic because sometime depending on who you get out
there they might stop all traffic for one pedestrian right so yeah the the key box for that is something that it's a lead do key yes uh they don't like giving those keys out um they do not like me anybody messing with their light mechanisms because they have it set up in a certain manner so
they're like gold down here to get them um and honestly right now the traffic light is doing its job and you're right Mr Mayor it's it's the pedestrian traffic that is causing the issues because they're coming either out of Margaritaville or trying to go over towards margaritaville's pool and
they're not paying attention they're just walking so you know that that'll be something that we can help with I would like to not have squ it's people go and that's the only controlled intersection it is so people are going to where that's why we're still trying to push people to the beach side so they'll go down the Time
Square along that side that's why we pushed so hard to get that sidewalk squared away and they they really did come through for us on that one yeah you got it done pretty can you recap the time and the locations of the new folks that are going to be coming on to control things so right now we're looking I think the
contract was from two to 2 to 8 is what we looked at um and they are going to be e they're going to be filling gaps as till as long as that's lcso is there they're going to be covering Fifth and Crescent um we have the FHP guy at the
base of the bridge who's handling any of the the u-turns and then the other location they're going to be at is Old San Carlos and North esta where that threeway is right by Time Square um the goal is safety in all all those spaces um the gentlemen or ladies that are
going to come working for us they're going to be working wherever we need them so they're going to be Plug and Play they're going to be trained in all the intersections and everything they have to do um the biggest key is again pedestrian movement and by us having somebody moving around that's that's why the Rangers are doing extra patrols down
in fifth and when they see people crossing illegally over there they're moving them quickly and keeping things going and keeping people from stopping at of Margaritaville I spoke to their director of security he was great about telling their people not to have their vehicles parked out there and not to have delivery vehicles keep their their
van that bring their their uh employees over keep it out of the road so we're not hindering traffic in any man I think it's important people bring their patience I mean it's not just Fort Meers Beach I can promise you that all speaking with council member Holly Smith she's getting the same emails Lee County
Commissioners are getting the same emails Bonita Springs everybody it's a volume issue Lee County is packed and anybody that's been off the island at any time of the day knows what 41 looks like knows what 75 looks like just trying to get off the south end of the island people think if you go south from
Bonita Beach Road all the way to 75 is dead stop absolutely every day so it's not just a fort Meers Beach thing it's a volume thing you go to Summerland out to Daniels Parkway you're got an hour wait sometimes getting three three or four lights so is the season Tom do you have of those key intersections do you have
video or do you have cameras there where you can monitor it from your headquarters that is part of our our thought process moving forward is to have that stuff put up in place that is something that we're working on going forward so I'd like to have one key system for the entire town and that's
with the town manager Frankie and we had the big discussions um with Nicole as well about having our system kind of to be a one siiz fitall which is a better system so we'll have it for the new town hall we'll have it for all of our properties on the island anything that the town owns there'll be stuff there
and I'd like to have some intersections uh we have to go through F Dot and Le Dot and find out make sure there's not any issues with us and have we monitoring traffic and that would probably be a legal question in some respect too on what what we would have to pay attention to and what would be
responsible for how maintenance of that that timeline what we'd have to hand over if something happened in a crime space your working on a plan yes yes sir and in and as you work on that plan do you envision that to be for internal use only or could could somebody from the public kind of tune in just to get a
sense of what traffic's like before they even get their car to go out for certain cameras yes I think it's going to be for the public okay uh for a bigger portion of that system is going to be just for internal use gotcha all right thank you very much thanks Tom thanks time thank
you thank you good luck with training that's all I have M we all do just if you could give just a quick update Andy on this property when you expect the trailers to be gone what the progress is for starting and kind of give an overview what what the plan is for where we sit perfect Nancy and I just talked
this morning she's been in touch with the attorneys for these buildings um we anticipate uh We've notified them that the middle of March we'll start getting out of these buildings they should be evacuated for the most part and so now we're waiting on their timeline which should be pretty quick I mean these are
new there is um a need for these in other parts of the country north Carolina to speak of uh that you know where the where the floods were with Milton so so that won't be and they can use them for schools and things like that that that we can't use here so there's there's there is a big need for
these other places we're also putting this week going to have the um the uh RFP out for the park to get that going make sure we're we're we're being going to meet our deadlines with this project $2 million project for for the property we're on and
everything which is when when's that deadline uh August 31st I believe it have this completed so it's aggressive so we're pretty aggressive um Jeff's Jeff's up to the task had conversations so we're going to we're going to be as aggressive
as we can and that's that thing where we just talked about the working extended hours this doesn't affect back here a lot of properties and things of that nature so there's certain things they'll be able to do here here that that out the neighborhoods they couldn't do so we we'll be mindful of the subdivisions but
of course you know the next few weeks the time changes and it's getting later lighter longer and that kind of stuff so we've got some good opportunity over the summer to be able to do some things uh quickly um and and extended hours which will really help tremendously but these trailers obviously are key and and
nany's again we just just had a conversation she updated me this morning on on these so obviously the progress down there is is is importance so the timing is you know divine intervention you hope but you know everything happens for a reason so get everything ready get
where we can use the downstairs fire alarms would be a big deal um if we can at least use the downstairs for meeting space I can get staff in there if they don't mind going up and downstairs but again the elevator is almost finished so that's that's a big a big deal all right thanks any oh sorry Frank did tell me
one real quick I'd like to uh recognize not only staff Tom and his staff over the weekend and uh Bob manahan who is one of our Rangers uh they met up with the crew at the beach bar um there was some activity over the weekend where large groups were partying out on the out on the sand and left tons of trash
bottles and whatnot so a bunch of people at the beach bar and uh our staff got together and went and hauled up all the trash and collected it and put it by the receptacles so our crew could come by and pick it up so thank you for people that are active and see that in the
community and and work with staff but um uh especially Bob who went out Above and Beyond in uh what we ask of our employees to do and also the people at the beach bar for pitching in so thank you good thanks thanks ranky Town
attorney Adams well that's a tough act to follow um no I don't have any items to share Nancy if I could uh could you just take a second and elaborate briefly on the policy for the Town Council and
quite frankly the LPA in terms of commenting on a case that's quasi judicial case that's pending before the council had a question from the fort Meers Beach Observer wondering why you know I couldn't comment on the uh the uh
food uh truck issue that's coming before us and I and I did my best to articulate what the legal reasoning was for that but if You' just take a second because I think he monitors these meetings uh if you if you would elaborate on that a second so in these quasi judicial
applications that come before you um at stake are private property rights and so we we handle those very very carefully um because of the protections that have been um afforded um you know I read the
The Narrative about how your um your review is more formal than your the rest of your meeting but not as formal as a court um sitting in a quasi judicial you are somewhat quasi judges and you come
to the hearing um with an open mind um not having predetermined a particular decision that you intend to make um and you are looking at the evidence and the testimony that's being given to you um during that public
hearing so commenting on um a position that you have really gets into some due process issues for the applicant because the applicant isn't there uh to hear you say whatever you said now maybe it is a newspaper or
at a public uh another public meeting but the applicant has that opportunity to question you to make sure that clearly you are an impartial uh fair-minded uh quasi judge looking at
his or her application um for or you know changing their private property rights so it's very very important that your comments um be somewhat curtailed um and only occur at the
meeting uh the opportunity you know sometimes we do it too when you do your exp partake um disclosures I often ask the um applicant or their attorney if they want to ask a little bit more um to really make sure that there is no hidden
bias or that that you haven't um already made your mind up about a particular application thank you all right council member items and Report uh Council Safford I'm good my questions were answered by Mr dser all
right coun wison I have a few things um I am already hearing a lot of concerns I will say about the September 202 deadline for
RVs and so I think that's something we need to get maybe on the next M&P agenda and start really talking through this as to where where we are in our thought process about the
RVs permits in process building in process all of that kind of thing because it's going to be upon us really fast I mean we're basically 6 months out so I would just like to bring that out and hope that we can get that on a the
next M&P agenda consent I agree and I believe I want to speak for Andy but I believe you've sent out a an email asking for more clarification today I just got it completed this morning okay um if I can add that's Andy's
second attempt trying to get a response to that question from U from FEMA yeah and and I know it's it's difficult I mean but I do think we need you know because people are worried and rightfully so and what are we going to
do um and then I just wanted to bring people up to date um I've had a number of discussions with Andy about the pier update and Dave herner um the city manager of Fort Meyers he was wonderful
to give us kind of a whole outline of dates and times and um not what we wanted to see or hear with the timing I mean it's very extended um so I actually took it upon
myself to reach out to um commissioner R and I do believe that they are talking about it in their meeting this morning about trying to get this tightened up and not so far out in the future for the
peer and he had mentioned to that he was I think you're all going to be at the same meetings in March and he was going to try to get some meetings on the docket for the pier in itself so I don't know if anything is going to happen if
it can be done but we are working on it um none of us are happy about the time frame um including Lee County and see what we can do to push it Forward I would I would offer this uh councelor Woodson uh the last time
senator Scott was on the island uh had a chance to just we were literally standing by the pier and I asked him about the pier and he said you know if if I can help in any way expedite with the federal various federal agencies involved in the approval process reach out to his office and okay he said he
would personally intervene to do it do everything he could to expedite yeah eron's a good person she's a great contact she okay she gets things up great uh that's all I had all right vice
mayor well just briefly uh I know my colleagues are always very interested in in in the fort Meers Beach Elementary School um it's been challenging post Milton uh particularly for the kids and the parents obviously but uh the
response right after the hurricane was very disappointing and it it lingered for a while as it did after I but after reaching out to and I I know my colleagues on the council reached out as well and we we got a good response from various members of the school board and the new superintendent is is is is is is
gun ho and uh the ad hoc committee now is divided into subcommittees as well as the full committee and we're working on various aspects of it the Hope was is that we could find an inim solution so we could get the kids back on the island before the end of this particular school
year um the town staff was very helpful we explored uh the town these these Town trailers here we explored uh the the school district was talking about potentially intrum trailers next to the school that obviously had some FEMA
challenges uh there was a John C and and Jenny tardiff went out to the library and approached the library and with the school district officials to see if we could use the library but but the time by the time those modifications could be made uh it looks like it's going to be challenging to get those kids back uh
before the end of the school year which is very disappointing the goal now is and we'll know in our our our March ad hoc meeting the school district and and I give credit to the new superintendent she's really lighting a fire under the staff there's quite a few staff members
involved at the Lee County School District level now and they're they're to come up with a formal plan in March to give us direction as to uh some substantive repairs that need to be made in the school uh po post Milton I think they also they claimed they discovered
some things after Milton that they didn't discover after Ian that need to be repaired as well some scouring underneath some cracks in in this in in the cement uh and some termite damage and other things that they're working on so uh the hope is is that in our March meeting
we'll have a definitive plan to make sure that school is great in great shape to open in the fall and uh uh and and we we're I just encourage everybody to continue continue those the relationships I know everybody on the board on the council has individual
relationships with these school board members keep Fort buyers Beach uh at the for school at the Forefront when you talk to these folks I know that I a lot of people see them at meetings the new superintendent is is very dialed in you could tell the tone of the meeting and the sense of urgency of the meeting with
her participating was enhanced and so we're we remain cautiously optimistic very disappointed about this particular school year but hopefully by the Fall we'll have a very good plan going forward and I'll I'll report back at our after the March meeting as to what the
status is Jim is there any talk obviously out of our control with the interlocal agreement I know there's time time sensitive things that were in that interlocal agreement as well as the cafeteria and other things like that that were going to be built has there been any talks about potentially
extending that interlocal agreement due to the things that are outside of both of our control that's a great question and and that has been raised at our meetings and they are open to considering that giving us some Grace for the time uh post Milton that that they were closed like this and
right now we have a four-year agreement uh with the school district and we're about I guess approaching almost halfway through that but to your point uh the goal would be to give us an additional uh X number of months as a result of Hurricane me to extend that District or
to to extend that agree that four-year agreement so yes that that's part of the plan we'll probably know more on that in March but they were open to considering that great one of those Milestones is that construction of the cafeteria this summer and and of course it's they been default of the inter local agreement if
they don't do it so we got to get that back to the table and address that the cafeteria they are they still if they've not they still pledged that they're moving forward with the cafeteria which will be great the town manager just the other day uh offered to go over there and mow their lawn just so it looks nice and just do whatever and I I know we're
working on the playground and we're trying to be helpful and we're trying to do whatever we can and there certainly is a sense of urgency to get that school back open not only open but in a way that it becomes resilient to Future uh occurrences and
so uh but it's been a real hardship for the kids and the parents and the teachers anything else no K nothing to fall into place for me oh I I have one additional thing um I'm going to be remote for our next
meeting if that's okay um yes so what we'll do is at the meeting uh we'll have to take a vote and uh for extenda stances but thank you for that he extenuated are there any beads involved
possibly all right I I do not have anything either yeah go ahead um on the blue ribbon event she was in traffic trying to get here and she let Nicole know that she she couldn't make it so but she knows it's it passed so okay
well all right well hopefully she turned around all right mve to journ all right a motion to adjourn I'll second any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I