We have a lot of. Sometimes coming down. Yes, I understand that you went to different businesses. You have some right around us too. One of them was taken at some kind of say not
to sell the anti right. My son had a some conflict on our website when he was in Seattle. They felt
It's one of those that we're not going to use. I think he might need us. Maybe we can put that. In because it really is
so interesting. We saw a yes, and it's obviously protective. Yes. So it's a beautiful win win. Yes. I know personally we
love boxes. Oh, and all that which we saw at least protects the. Also might get a squirrel every now and then, but oops
oops. But in the sense that it kills the animal. Right? That was the first time I've really seen it. Because let's face it, people want something quick. They want something where they
don't have to deal with anything. Yeah. Even me. I couldn't figure out how to work these hours. I was afraid fingers like that. So, like,
even those boxes can be. Turned away. We just go ice caves and that there. And do you know the vendors that you're recommending? Do they have electric boxes? I know they sell them there as well, but
but I was wondering. It depends on the vendor. You know, our main goal was to have them not. We preferred like a new
instance integrated approach like that. So they could use certain what we call safer chemicals or they could be. I can't wait to hear about it
next. Including. You know, Snapchat. Oh. Oh, I think, you
know, sort of an integrated thing. I. Yeah. Good.
For the sustainability committee of the City of Tarpon Springs. And now we'll do the roll call. Yes. So
Doctor McKidd is absent. We had notice from her so that is excused. So Siobhan Meehan okay. Doctor Molina, I'm here. And
Loretta Richetti present. Great. One comment you need to make sure everyone goes all the way to the microphone if possible.
Yes. Okay. Is this good? Hello, hello. Hello. Thank you. So the first order of business is the approval of the March 2026
meeting meeting minutes. I move to approve. Motion to approve. I second. Okay. Motion approved.
So next, we're going to have a presentation about the owls of Philip Park by doctor Mark. Shocking. Shocking. Shocking.
Okay. Okay. Would you like to join us? Well, Linda's going to give the first half, and I'm going to give the. Okay. Okay. Okay. And we understand it's going to be about a 20 minute
presentation and then we'll take questions. Okay. Can you get that? Absolutely. Right in here. The presentation. Okay.
Perfect. All right. And your name is if you could tell the committee. Hi, my name is Linda Shatkin, and I am a member of the Safety Harbor Owl team. We
call ourselves. And so we're going to talk to you tonight about the Owls of Philip Park and what we did to help protect
those owls. And so the presentation is the owls of Philip Park. We call it a local tragedy in a national issue, because this happens all over
the country. And there are different organizations that are trying to do something about this. So the objective of the talk is to tell the story.
Philip Park, What we did to protect our owls, and hopefully what you can do to protect owls in your community. So the male owl, who is we named Oliver,
was in the park for eight years. During this time he had two mates. The last two years Emily was his mate. And there's a picture of the two of them. So he's on the left and she is on
the right. You can see maybe that the females are a little bit bigger than the males, and these owls were famous. Photographers came from all over the country and actually
even all over the world. We had friends from the UK that came and took pictures of these, this owl family, and they were at times 50 to 75 photographers
there. So in 2022, they had three outlets. We called them Huey, Dewey and Louie. Although it turns out that Dewey was
actually Daisy, because females again are a little larger than the males. So she ended up being called Daisy, Oliver, and Emily and two of their three
owlets died between March and early April. The cause of death was from anticoagulant rodenticides, and this was based on necropsy results. So
there was one three month old owl left, Daisy and we tried really hard to capture her and we were never successful.
Although there is a female, there's a pair nesting in Phillip Park right now, and their nesting in the same tree
where she was born. So we think hope that that is Daisy. So after the death of the owls, we learned that the City of Safety Harbor was using anticoagulant
rodenticides on all of their property. So a handful of concerned citizens met with each other under what we call the owl tree, and talked about what we as citizens could do.
And that night we started a Facebook group called Safety Harbor Strong Owls in Nature. 500 people joined within the first three days, and now we
have 3800 members. So one of the things we did is we created this brochure that talks about death by poison, things you can
do, what to use, what not to use, and most importantly, preventative things like trash, bird food, fruit on the ground
that attracts rats. So we went to the mayor and the city council and explained what happened. They removed the black boxes and the brochure I just showed you the city sent
out in the annual water bills to the whole town, and the mayor, through social media, supported our efforts. And we had a lot of magazines and
local coverage from Tampa Bay times, Patch, the Beacon, Dunedin Living and other publications, TV channels three and eight, and even on Fox News.
So we developed the idea of providing a certificate of recognition for pest control companies who agreed not to use
the anticoagulant rodenticides. So what happens is a team contacts the pest control companies and explains to them the dangers of using
anticoagulant rodenticides because in many instances they really don't understand. And so we present them with a certificate. Which is a memory
of Emily and Huey, to recognize each company that agrees not to use the anticoagulant rodenticides. And we have one of our members present the
certificate to the company, and those pictures are posted on our Facebook site and on our website. So that gives them a little bit of free publicity.
These, you know, certificates of recognition are put into the windows of their organization, and they use it for public for.
Advertisement. And Mark's going to continue to talk about the different compounds. So I'm
Mark shotgun and I'm a chemist by training and a passionate wildlife photographer at this point in my career, which is, I
think, retirement. And I want to just give you a card so that if you need to follow up with us either now or in the future,
you have contact information. So I'm just. Okay. So in
general, an adult can consume 1000 to 1400 rats in a year, and the barn owl is particularly good at it, but all of them are good. The the
barred owls and great horned owls and. But the problem is that using these rat poisons, particularly the anticoagulant
rodenticides to kill rodents, has the long term effect of killing many of the raptors that consume the rats and
control the rat population. So in the long run, you're creating more a higher concentration, a higher population rather of rats, and you're killing off your
beautiful owls and hawks and whatnot. So what can you do as an individual, as a town? So
part of this is prevention. And so you want to keep your trash bins tightly, trash bins tightly closed. You want to clean up any refuse. You want
to remove pet food. You don't want spilled birdseed. And this is to me, this is the hardest one. A lot of people like to have bird feeders and it's a
problem when and I have had bird feeders for many years, what happens is you get a red bellied woodpecker comes to the feeder and he takes a seed, but
he doesn't like that seed. So he throws it down on the ground and then he takes another seat. He doesn't like that. And so he may take five seeds and throw them on the ground until he
gets to the peanut that he really wants. So what happens? Well, now you have seed on the ground. And sure, the mourning doves and the thrashers will come to eat that seed on the
ground, but so will the rats. So you can attract rats. And we attracted rats and we had to get rat traps and repellents to do something about it. So there
are ways to have bird feeders and be able to collect the spilled seed, rather than it going to the ground. We can talk to you about Linda can talk to you very much about
that. So that's prevention. You can this is exclusion. You can seal cracks and crevices in your home. You can use this
quarter inch metal mesh to block entry points. You can trim foliage and tree limbs to get them at least two feet away
from your home. And and so the rats can't get up on the on the roofs and get entry into your house. You can use an owl box,
for example. You can easily get a screech owl box and hope, hope that is a screech owl come to that box or they even sell
barred owl boxes. I don't know if you can get a great horn box. They don't. It will be a pretty big box. Would be great if you could. It's oftentimes done. Farmers. Growers will do it on
agricultural fields. They'll get boxes for barn owls. Think about it. They have to spend so much money for rodenticides because it's a real problem on a farm. Rodents are eating
their crops and you know the roots of their crops. Just get one owl and the owl will consume 1400 a year, and it's a lot cheaper on the farmer. So
again, win win, right. But for for, you know, individual person, you can use an owl box. You can get ultrasonic devices
to repel the the rats and mice get repellents such as peppermint oil or eucalyptus oil that really do work. The only problem is you got to
replace them just about every month, or you can get dryer sheets. When did I have a camper up in New Hampshire and will be going soon. And so we spend five months there, but we
spend seven months here and we use dryer sheets and dryer sheets. We use both the peppermint oil and the dryer sheets, but dryer sheets will
repel rats and mice for that whole seven month period. It's I you know, I don't know how we got on to that when we agreed with them. What's that? What do
you do with them? Just just throw them into the corner of a room. And then at the end of that, when you want to take them, you just pick them up. And that's what we do. We, we
put them into into the camper and into the shed. And then we come back seven months later and we just dispose of them. We don't have any rats and we
don't have any mice, at least not yet open. This has been this is our fourth year doing that. So it's important if you need to hire a professional.
And let's face it, homeowners oftentimes do it themselves, but they oftentimes are overwhelmed by the situation or they don't want to do it themselves. And they're going
to call a pest control company. So if you do and then you don't want that pest control company using anticoagulant rodenticides. And I'm going to I'm going to talk a little bit
about that class of chemistry. But you just tell them you don't want it and what you know. And if they can't, if, if, if they say they can't use any other approach or any other
chemicals and get another company, because there are many companies that don't use
anticoagulants. Yeah. So if we do all this, we can reduce the population of the rodents and most importantly, keep them out
of our homes. And that's a nice picture of it, of Emily taken by Linda at sunset. Really nice.
Nice work. The truth about anticoagulant rat poison. I took this picture. You see, the owl on the right is Emily. The owl on the left, I think is
Huey. And you can see the rat. And Huey is about to consume that rat. And three days later,
they were both dead. So. It's an important issue. So a lot of scientific studies have shown that these rat poisons are
present in tissues of a wide variety of animals, including owls. Now, I'm a chemist and I'm going to tell you, just because it's in the tissues, just because it's in the organs
doesn't mean it's toxic. I mean, if if you know, when, if we could look at your tissue and your organs and do an analysis
with the analytical instrumentation that's available now, you would find that you got a lot of things in your in your tissues, probably including DDT that hasn't been
used in 50 years. So to me, as a chemist, it's not necessarily the point isn't, it's, it's not so critical that it's in the tissues of these animals, but
at what concentrations and will it cause toxicity or ultimately death? Rat poison kills dogs and cats. And now we're talking
about two ways of exposure. One way is direct exposure. So consider a dog or a cat gets in, get some pellets of the bait or
containing a an anticoagulant rodenticide consumes it and then gets very sick. And then you take that dog or cat to a veterinarian. That's direct
exposure. But what we're really talking about with wildlife is not an it can have direct exposure, particularly for not what we would call non-target
mammals, but for the owls and, and flying raptors. It doesn't work that way. The way it works is the rat takes the bait of an
anticoagulant rodenticide and in. In 4 or 5 days kills it. But during that time the rat is lethargic and easy prey for,
let's say, an owl who's trying to feed his family. So the owl catches easily, catches the rat, and either consumes it itself
or brings the rat to the mate who feeds it to the kids, the outlets and the the poison in the tissues and organs,
particularly the liver of the rat, are transferred to the Raptor, and the Raptor gets a high enough dose and kills the. The owl or the hawk or whatever
we're talking about. So the last line here is rat poison kills the very wildlife that we need to control the rats and mice. You know what's wrong with this picture? All right.
I'm going to talk a little bit about the the the rodenticides. So the anticoagulant rodenticide is what we're really concerned about. And this is a picture of Feryal
Thomas, who worked for a rescue group called Birds and Helping Hands. Now she's a ranger up in Homosassa and a very knowledgeable person. So she's
holding actually, Oliver the male. The male owl that was killed by the anticoagulant rodenticide. So these things
are in two classes. One is the first generation products. They were developed in the 1940s. They're known as warfarin or a couple of other derivatives of
warfarin. Very close chemical structures. The they were developed in the 40s. The problem with them is that the rats developed a resistance to
them. So after a while they didn't work. So the chemical industry in the 70s developed second generation anticoagulant rodenticides. And these are
Brodifacoum and Bromadiolone and a couple of others. These are known as super warfarins. They're much more powerful than
the first generation. And. They have very they're very persistent in tissue. So they have half lives of up to nine months. They're very long lived.
There is an antidote, vitamin K, but because they're. Long lived, you got to give vitamin K forever. And so if you bring
your dog to a vet who's accidentally gotten into some anticoagulant rodenticides, he'll treat with an antidote
vitamin K, but he may treat for three months. And usually with the Raptors, you don't, you know, by the time you can get to them, they're just about
dead, if not dead. So what's the alternative? I think Holly wrote me and told me that maybe you were using Bromethalin in town. Okay, so we were faced
with a dilemma of the Safety Harbor Owl team. Honestly, even though I'm a chemist, I didn't want to use any chemicals because these are not really
safe. Bromethalin is not really safe. It we call it safer. And we felt that we had to give people restaurants, pest control companies, you name it.
We had to give them a choice of something different because they we didn't think we could sell a non-chemical approach. I don't have enough time to tell you why, but take my word for
it, it's a really hard sell. So there are two products Bromethalin and Cholecalciferol. Cholecalciferol is otherwise known as vitamin D3 and vitamin
D3. You know, I take it every morning, but I take it in very small doses. In very high doses, it's very toxic. The bromethalin is a neurotoxin.
It's one single feeding will kill the rat in a couple of days. But importantly, it's not known to cause secondary poisoning to wildlife. So and
this is based on test limited testing and just experiential information. So if an owl catches and consumes a rat
that's been poisoned with bromethalin, there's not a lot of good information to suggest that those poisons are transferred to the owl or
transfers in a high enough concentration to kill it. Now, do I believe that entirely? I know I would like to see more information, but I can tell you that I really scan the
literature for many days, and I could find very little that showed secondary poisoning where the the the literature is
replete with information. God bless you. Thank you for the anticoagulant rodenticides. And basically the same thing is true with cholecalciferol.
Bromethalin is a neurotoxin and cholecalciferol just increases the amount of calcium in the blood, which has deleterious effects on the heart and the kidney. It also doesn't is not
known to cause secondary poisoning. It's a product called tetrad three that a lot of pest control companies use,
and we would recommend it, but only as a last resort after you've tried everything else. Okay, so everything else. Well, I'm going to go through this
quickly. But you know, we talked about exclusion and prevent prevention. The two bottom parts of that pyramid. I won't go over it again. You can see what's written there.
There's snap trap, snap traps and 824 units. Snap traps are the thing that just you baited with peanut butter or something. The lever comes over and kills
the rat or the mouse quickly. Is trap is an electrical electrocution type device that's similar to a snap trap,
and a 24 is a more advanced unit that cost about $250. And it's more for a restaurant or something where it's powered by
carbon dioxide cartridge. It kills, it causes a strike to the animal when they get close to the to the striker, and it's powered by the CO2. And you
don't have to change the CO2 cartridge until it's fired 24 times. So it's more appropriate for a bigger problem. Then I talked about repellents.
There's a rat X, which is a lot of people like it's comprised of corn meal, gluten and sodium chloride. And basically it's
nontoxic to any other organisms. But in rodents, it causes them while they're going to get thirsty, they don't know they're getting thirsty. It's some kind of communication in
the brain. And ultimately they die of dehydration. The reviews are mixed on the product. Some say the the mice and the rats won't eat it, but a lot of
people really like it. So it's definitely worth considering. And it's pretty inexpensive. If you went to Amazon or, you know, one of the big box stores, then
above that, we talked about Bromethalin and Cholecalciferol, and there's Contra Peste, which is a birth control product for
rats. On paper, it sounds good. It does work. But our problem with this one is that we're just afraid that that the birth
control drugs that are in the product would be transferred to the owl tissue, you know, and, and then cause the owl to the female to be infertile or the male for that matter. So I
don't know when we're going to be happy with this, but it's being tested in various cities across the United States. And in principle, it sounds good. I just we're just kind of afraid
of it. And then at the top, you know, in red is anticoagulant rodenticides. These are the ones that cause hemorrhaging, internal bleeding in the rat.
And we don't want that at all. So I wrote an article, got published in the Wild Lands magazine. And it talks about
everything we've talked about the Philip Park story. And I have a PDF I can email. There's my email address, but the card
I gave you has that on there too. So if you want the reprint of the story, just send me an email and I'll send it to you.
And finally, these are some resources that you might want to take a look at. Linda mentioned our website, Safety
Harbor Strong Nature. I think we're calling it Safety Harbor out in nature now. But if you put in strong, I'm sure you'd get to it. We have a website
and then Raptors are. The solution is one of the largest and well known groups. They are not a. They don't use chemicals. They use everything else but chemicals. They're out of
California and they're very politically astute and have some swagger there and have been very good for California. And then Birds and Helping Hands is a rescue group that if
you have an issue, a local issue, you should call them. And they'll come out and they'll get the the animal and
they'll take it to some of the rehab facilities. And that's it.
Thank you. And we'll entertain any questions you have. See. I
really appreciate your presentation tonight. It clearly shows how the owl deaths are directly connected to rodent side use and how
those impacts move through the food chain. I want to acknowledge that our city has already made an important step
by moving away from the anticoagulant rodenticides. And given what we've learned, I think this might be a good opportunity for our committee to come together and look at
what a more formal approach could be, whether that's a resolution policy or a broader integrated pest management strategy that continues to
reduce risk to wildlife. And we're also seeing movement locally. Safety Harbor, Pinellas County, Dunedin have all taken steps in this
direction, so I think it would be worth exploring what makes sense for Tarpon Springs. I'd be interested in whether the committee would support looking
into this further and potentially bringing back some recommendations. And one positive idea could also be exploring owl boxes as a
natural form of rodent control, along with evaluating non toxic methods like trapping as part of a broader approach. And I'd
love to for our committee to consider looking at a more formal, well, life safe rodent control approach based on what we've learned tonight. So thank
you. Anybody else? I don't have any questions. I do yeah, I appreciate the presentation. There was a lot of helpful information here. And I agree.
I think that that's something that the committee should talk about and see how we can support that. Well, I Claretta said. Down in Saint Pete,
Safety Harbor, Marco Island, I mean, there's there's a number of towns in Florida that have done something to help their in
particular their owls. It's a major issue. I somebody told me, I think Holly told me that just a. Recently a local golf club
had an owl family and even one of the owls was an outlet that was taken as an orphan to the to the family to be cared for,
which owls are good at. And then the whole family is dead because of anticoagulant rodenticides. So it's a major problem in Florida. It's a major problem in the United States. We were hoping that we
would get help, that we could convince EPA to do something. And EPA, you know, we're living through a period of regulatory
is bad, and it's not going to get better for a while, I don't think. And. The EPA is not going to be helpful for a while,
if ever. Well, they'll be helpful, but not not in the near future. So they were supposed to do something in 23 and 24 and 25, and now it's 26
and nothing has happened. So I think the important thing is that communities like yours have to do something. And I'm very encouraged what we did in
Safety Harbor, I'm encouraged what they're trying to do in in Saint Pete, and I hope you're successful in doing what you can do. Excellent. Thank you so
much, doctor and Linda. I recently had a screech owl in my backyard. Oh. And I came face to face with it. Wow.
Because he was sitting on a piece of bamboo that I was going to. I was reaching out to pull down and then he's staring at me. So it was so awesome.
But you know, he's so elongated, so he's elongated because he's kind of scared. Yeah. And they puff up and they get bigger. Yeah, I'm sure he was. But
they're you know, they're not the I mean, the best at killing at getting consuming owls rats rather is of course the great horned owls, the owls, the
barred owls. But the screech will help. Yeah. So this, you know, screech owl box is probably your best bet. Yeah, I'll do that. It's my second encounter with the Screech owl.
Did you say you had a box or was just in your yard? It was just. I have a lot of bamboo and it was on this piece of bamboo. Yeah, yeah, it was great. But my neighbor across
the street, she's had a big rat problem and she had the pest control. People come and there's, there's a black box there. So I'm going to investigate more. I have all my
information here. Yeah. So let me tell you what the problem is. And I don't know why this is, but the black box could be something innocuous, could be radical, let's say. I don't
think it's going to be, but it could be. But there's no regulation that says you have to label it on the outside. So it's just a black box. And I don't know how the EPA ever did
that, but when you you have to find out from the pest control company what's in it. So it could be from Bromethalin or
Cholecalciferol. It could be, you know, it could be a snap trap in there, but you don't know because it's locked. Yeah. Well, you've armed me with all the information that I can and
contact. You know, use the card, get in touch with me if you need. If you need to. Excellent. Thank you so much for the great presentation. I just want to thank you for spending your time coming to our committee.
So thank you so much for sharing that educating us. We can do things like send out a similar brochure in our utility bills. We have that capacity.
So we can do that honestly, you know, anytime we've got a lot of outlets and ways that I think we can do outreach that I know the committee would be keen on. And I did get even a
further update from the pest control company because it had a couple of questions. So I followed up with them. One of her questions was, where do the dead rats go? And of course,
they don't really know because, you know, obviously if they saw one, if someone saw one of our facilities maintenance team or someone saw one, they would, you know, clean it up. But there's no real way of knowing
that that was a question that she had. And then the pest control company actually said that they only use actually, they said they use secured bait boxes. A key is the only way to
access. We only use when requested in a specific area so they don't do it preventatively over broad. They only do it if there is a specific issue. They
said the majority of the time snap traps and glue traps are used and they do not mind only using snap or glue traps instead of using bait. So it
sounds like our pest control company is we could possibly do something, you know, with just putting that request through on the staff level. But then, you know, if you guys want to support policy, a standard
operating procedure, something of that level that we could then put into place saying going forward, you know, this is, you know, we want to use non-chemical options. And
obviously, unless there was something that truly dictated that need, which it sounds like there are a great number of many options we could do without getting to that point. So thank you for that. I would
just say, as an aside, try to discourage them from using glue traps, okay? Because birds also get trapped and it's not a
humane way to perfect, you know, trap, kill any any animal. I know I personally, and in our home, we've had rat issues and
we purchased on Amazon several years ago a box electric, you know, box where they just walk in and you just clean up the
dead body, but it's instant at least. And then we, we had to basically go under our deck and
put a bunch of liquid nails in the areas where they were getting under, into our home. And then, and then we took, I went to the Dollar Tree and
bought a bunch of cayenne pepper and put that in with the liquid nails and the foam and all that stuff. But it was the liquid nails. I the dryer sheets in the dryer sheets. I
got to try the dryer sheets, be happy with it. And on the, the, the boxes are supposed to be secure and so, so that they're
resistant to children or animals foraging around. But the problem is, of course, the rats get. If what's in the box is an anticoagulant rodenticide,
then the rats in ingested. And then they get consumed by the owls. And it doesn't matter whether the box was locked or not. So on direct exposure,
it's helpful that the box is locked. But for the secondary exposure, it really doesn't make any difference. Okay, well
thank you. And we're going to go. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time in New Hampshire. Thank you. Oh, and you know, we can get you the
list of approved vendors. Great. And I can also get you an electronic version of our brochure if you'd like it electronically. Perfect. Thank you, thank you. We definitely would like that. Thank you,
thank you. Good night. Good night. Okay. The next agenda is annual report to the boss and doctor is not here, so we will
move on to the next one. The next thing is the presentations update. And do you have anything. Yes. So I was able to reach out to Robyn Singer and
Doctor Shaker as panel participants. And they both agreed as long as we could do it on May 19th, which was one of the days that was provided
as an option. So we're waiting to hear back if that is confirmed. I also sent them the proposal that I brought in here,
and we will set up some some times to sort of go over what we want to be able to include, because there was a lot of information in the proposal to see, you know, what pieces we
want to preserve. I'm sure Robyn will have a lot more as far as the trauma informed care piece. And Doctor Shay will probably speak more on the
community based mental health services. So yeah, we're we're going to work on that. Excellent. Thank you very much.
Loretta. You made a presentation and. Holly. So how is that going to work with Rita's presentation? Do you
mean for the sustainable development. So that's actually a separate. Oh, okay. That will do that next if that's okay. That's okay. Yeah, we'll kind of keep just because the public presentations were kind of
together. And then we'll do yours at the. Yeah. Okay. No problem. Great. Okay. And then I have my update. So
everybody's got a sheet here. So. The first page is I'm trying to work out how, how the presentation goes, who the
member, who the key people would be. So what I'm recommending is that I can do a PowerPoint type presentation
and I've come up with this. Overall theme, which is how to garden affordably and sustainably with our current
economic situation. Everybody's looking at ways to save money, and gardening has become very, very expensive. As, as a landscape designer, I can't
believe how much plants cost now. And so there's, there's a lot of tips and tricks that you can do. So I've outlined those.
And then I was thinking about who could. Partner with us for this talk. And so I did
research and I found out that Tampa has a group called the Tampa Green. Tampa Green team. And this looks really exciting.
It's an environmental stewardship program in partnership with AmeriCorps and Volunteer Florida, that addresses many of the city's sustainability and resiliency
goals. Some of what you'll find the green team doing is litter removal, tree planting and maintenance, establishing community gardens, invasive species removal, park
beautification, community education, youth engagement, and more. This really attracted me. This is like an overall umbrella because it can enable
us to do outreach to the community. I started my career with a group called the Young Adult Conservation Corps, and
it was a Carter era I'm dating myself program. And what we did was we we developed mini parks
in, in areas that really needed help. And, and we're able to teach kids skills that, that they could use later in life.
And it was really great to see how some of them really, really grew and were able to take the
next step and get jobs. So the other ideas are. In. Holly gave me this idea. Teresa, who's a
Pinellas County urban horticultural agent, and then the other one is this woman named Desiree Sims, and she's
owner of Peas and Love. And she's had 17 years of organic growing experience in experience, including gardening consultations, turnkey garden
installations, garden design, garden coaching and classes. Another idea is somebody from a representative from Fat Beat
Farm. I don't know if any of you know about it, but it's it's. In Oldsmar and they are
associated with. A couple of big restaurant chains. I can't remember the names right now, but they have an impressive operation there. And they've
been able to develop this farm to table thing. And it's a nice place to have lunch. And I'm sure there's great people there
that we could access. So then. On the next page is the outline for the talk in conjunction with Leepa-rattner Museum of Art, with the subjects once
again being how to garden affordably and sustainably by less grow smarter and let the garden's natural systems do the
work. More of the work. So I'm not going to go through this whole thing. I'm just going to give you the key points. And I'm looking to everybody's
comments, you know, direct advice on direction. So number one is seek out inspiration.
Either through your community or go go to garden tours, botanical gardens. There's a lot, lot to learn. And I, I've
been on a tour of America's Botanical Gardens, and also IPA beer places. They go hand in hand because if we can have
lunch in an IPA place, my husband will go to the botanical garden with me. Okay, the next one. And this is so important propagating. I agree
it's a virtual, virtually a free way to expand your expand your plant collection and then composting and fertilizing
naturally and then free mulch. And I've. Because of what I do, I found this group called chip drop. And you can go online and
find an arborist who will do a drop at your house. Really interesting. I had that done for a client who has two and a half acres in Safety Harbor, and it worked out really well.
They just came, they dumped the stuff. The guy had spread it. It was great. Sometimes you can even pull over the side of the road if you see. And I've asked them, oh, do you mind at the
end of the day, just drop it off on my driveway and you can, if they're in your neighborhood. Yeah, I did that. Also, I heard a tree being cut down in this
neighborhood, and I ran over there and I asked him to come over and they came right over with the dump because, you know, they have to pay dump fees, right? Otherwise, and then I've
listed free mulch sites available in North Pinellas. And then use of DIY containers recycled in household items and
on a garden tour in Buffalo, New York, which is where I'm from. They have the world's or the country's biggest garden tour, open garden tour, around 400 gardens and I. I saw how
this one guy was using plastic tubs. You know, the big ones, 18 gallons. And he was growing tomatoes and with a self wicker
in there, and I it was really impressive. And then choose perennials and interspersed with interspersed with annuals grown from seed, which is what
I do. I grow a lot of pollinators from seed. And then plant Florida natives. We all are aware of how important that
is. And then water conservation. Huge right now because we're in our drought condition is now classified as extreme. So
there's ways to tackle that natural weed control. I recommend to my clients that they use this mulch called
flora mulch, which is made from the melaleuca tree, which was unfortunately, the seeds were dropped all over down in South
Florida and the Everglades, because some genius decided he wanted to. Deal with the swamp and try to get rid of the swamp.
So it's an Australian tree and it's highly invasive, but this company has figured out how to make mulch out of it, and it's got natural pesticide qualities
and it binds also. So it it can keep the weeds down because it binds in nature. Where do they sell that? Only at Lowe's. Okay.
There's eucalyptus. Now, Melaleuca is a form of eucalyptus, but you want to get the melaleuca, not the eucalyptus, because eucalyptus
doesn't have the pesticide. Natural pesticide quality. The next one is soil health. And seeing that we have very sandy
soil with low nutrients, I have spent years conditioning my soil and it's it's very happy like to report it's very, very
happy. And I have a big compost operation. And and then the last one. Yeah, the last one on my list and I'm sure I can come
up with more. But this was ten was enough for now. High value crops for budget gardening, like leafy greens. Some of these things are so expensive
and leafy greens are so easy. Well, to grow like lettuces and and spinach and stuff in the winter. Really, really easy. I integrate them with my flowers
too, so it's really pretty. And I'm also huge into nasturtiums, which are a natural. They perform a role, the outfits
like them so they can attract the outfits and keep everything off your tomatoes and other things like that. So it's integrated pest control,
natural integrated pest control and then herbs, you know, when you buy herbs in the grocery store. So they're so expensive. A lot of our, a lot of the
traditional herbs, those are winter things. Now, for instance, a great summer herb, of course, is basil. Well, the
basil that we use here, mostly the Genovese, it does not tolerate our conditions well. So there's a basil called Maisal basil developed by the
University of Florida. And it's a fantastic plant. I did a, a little trial where I had a Genovese and I had the had had
the basil and the maisal basil ended up to be like six times as big. It was this big. It was huge. And it's very easy to, to root. So it can be. I like to
give plants. Also, gardeners by nature are very generous, so I, I try to, I have a bunch of plants that I give to people.
So. And then self-seeding annuals, those are really important for the bees and, and
then this was interesting. The most reliable way to cut your garden budget in half starts before you even set foot in a nursery. A single packet of
seeds, which typically runs 3 to $5, can yield anywhere from 25 to 100 plants, and a nursery transplant costs roughly the same amount for one single
plant. Better homes and gardens put them at math. Plainly. A single packet of seeds can give you loads of annuals for under $5, while nursery, plant
nursery flat of plants may cost four times as much. So, for instance, on the nasturtiums which I had the best year with
my nasturtiums this year and I get them online and I. I got a bigger bag of them because if you get them at, at a, a store,
if you get them retail, you get like 12 of them. And I got this huge amount and I give them out to people and then I save all the seeds too. I have a huge collection of safe seeds right
now. So that's what I, I've been thinking about. And this would be in the fall sometime. Great presentation. So does anybody have any input? Well, I
think that if possible, it'd be nice to actually have a pot of each just as a visual teaching tool. Yeah, I can bring. Yeah.
And I think just definitely nasturtium seeds to definitely. And I'm willing to help you with all that. Okay, great. And
I could even help make propagations. Yeah, we can do like a drawing for propagation. Yeah, we can have a little demonstration because I use rooting hormone on some of the
things and then some things like Bougainvilla is very, very, very difficult to propagate. So I read years ago that you put a plastic bag over it and it makes a little greenhouse,
instant greenhouse. You put a rubber band on it and it does its thing. Some things just are easy as pie, like the that basil is super easy. I just
I've got cinnamon, basil and Thai basil and I just stick them in and push. It's really important to use your fingers and push down. No air bubbles.
I definitely am interested in some of your basil. I'll bring some the next. We had a. I had gotten a little wilted purple basil plant from one of the
hardware stores for like a dollar, and we were able to keep that going for like two years. Well, that's impressive because that's a tricky one. Yeah. Purple ones are like the
perfect sunny cell in my office. And it, it just thrived. But then it got the little the flies. Oh no. And they got up in the soil and I tried to, to
change the soil, try to, you know, nurse it back to health. But it didn't, it didn't survive. But I figured a dollar turned into two years of fresh
basil. Yeah. Yeah. Because it tends to bolt. Yeah. They. That's pretty it's hybridized. So anything that's hybridized.
Well short lived it can shorten their life. Yeah, yeah. Variegated hybrid, you know, all that sort of stuff. I love the list. I love the ten.
Because I think that would present very well. And then having a having visuals. I agree with Loretta. Yeah. Because I was thinking like, oh,
you know, like companion planting is also, but 11 is a weird number. So I think I could have a dozen because I was just thinking about
sustainable pesticides, things like that. Yeah, yeah. Because that's what we, we were trying to use little stickers and then some more holistic approaches.
Yeah. So what did you just recommend the companion planting? Oh yeah. The companion. Okay. And how about like we have some tomatoes now that just pop up every single year. I don't even have to
plant them. Yes. Those little. Yeah. The everglade tomatoes, Everglade tomatoes. Those are. Yeah. Awesome. I love those things. And like when they get wilty, you just stick them in
the ground and. Yeah, sometimes I'll just push them in squash, which is. I haven't tried that one yet. It's a great one. And then the perennial spinaches
longevity, spinach and Okinawa. Yes. Those are Siobhan, if I can just ask one question or just a thought that I had would be, I love this. This is so
thorough. I would say the question or the thought I would have would be seeing just people's general, I guess, level of interest. Did you have a contact for the Tampa Green
team or need help finding that? I need help finding. I can do that. You can do that. I'll see what. Yeah, I don't know if that's associated with, you know, the city, but I can do
some research. Oh it is, it's associated with it's a city run. Okay, perfect. Then I can find out I have contacts at City of Tampa. Awesome. So I'll find out about that. And do you think that's a good. It could
it could be great. Yeah. I will just have to see what you know, if they usually people are happy to share. You know other sustainability teams are kind of happy to share. But I will
absolutely reach out to. I thought that was a broad umbrella. Okay. You know, my presentation would be more directed at immediate needs.
Okay. And then our sustainability committee, you know, we want to increase our, our, our reach, right? So if we learn from another community that's doing it well, then
maybe we can help some other communities, you know, Dunedin and Saint Peter and things like that. But it looked really great from the website, what they're doing. Cool. You know,
and then maybe again, the environmental groups at the high schools, you know, get them involved. It might be a really good way to get their attention. You know, that
there's this group that we could form and would you be interested in it? Well, I'm going to my first Tarpon
Springs Garden Club meeting next month. Okay. Because I did the volunteering last week and at the library for that. Oh yes.
I just that was really fun. Yeah. Good. And so I was encouraged to come to the next meeting. So I'm going to go. I'm excited for that. I've spoken at the. Oh you have,
I've spoken to the group years ago. But yeah, I noticed there's going to be a native plant presentation at the library too. That caught my eye.
Oh, coming up on the schedule, I think it was. Or did it pass? I think it may have been Tuesday. Oh, it passed this week. But there is still the. Yeah, there's still other ones that you know are coming.
There's lots of. I think people are doing a lot of programing right now on drought tolerant landscaping and things like that. So we'll just try to keep posting all of those on city web page, you know, share with
you all, send you all emails, whatever. So yeah. Okay, so shall we move on to the next thing? The sustainability or
development recognition program? Yes. Okay. Are we waiting? I'm trying to remember all the things that happened in the last meeting. So we, you know,
Loretta presented this. I'll just do a little recap. Loretta presented it. That was the first time that, you know, we got it that day. So that was the first time that anybody had
seen it. So I think that, you know, Tommy and myself from the staff perspective were both very impressed with it. And I think doctor McKay just wanted to make sure that the committee
felt like they had adequate time to comment on it. If there was something that didn't, you know, get shared. I have not yet asked planning staff to review it, but I did tell them about it and they're happy to
review it. You know, once you all are ready to send it to the next phase. So I think that was just I wanted to make sure that,
you know, it had been a month if you all looked at it or had any further thoughts, comment. Yeah. Did doctor give you any
personal feedback? No, I thought it was five stars. No notes. Yeah. Yeah, I, I agree. I, I think we're ready to
submit it to the planning. Okay. Yeah, I agree. I thought it was, it was a great project that you did. Sure. You can do a vote. You don't have to. You can just say that you're all in agreement. But we can
absolutely do it as a. We can do it as an action if you want to. Either way, I think we're good. Okay, good. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. Perfect. Okay. So. I agree. Send to staff review. Fabulous. I thought it was
great. Yes. Thank you very much for that. Awesome. Both of you. That's awesome. You know. Yeah.
Oops. Okay. So okay, items for the next meeting agenda. Are we
planning to if the May 19th date is approved, that's going to be standing in for the May meeting or that would be up to you all to decide to discuss if
you. Because that would be the same week. So that would be, you know, a Tuesday evening. That would probably be however long. I'm not sure how long you know, the program would be
scheduled for, but, you know, it would probably take a couple of hours. So that would really just be up to the committee to decide if you felt you still wanted to hold the regular
meeting. If you all want to vote to then skip the May meeting because you've kind of already given a chunk of your time. You could, you know, motion to do that when you know
that's truly up to you all. It's your it's under your purview how you want to control that scheduling. Also, do we
have meetings over the summer? So we do still, you know, again, that's that's really up to the committee. So let me just say, if someone needs or wants to ever propose a schedule change,
you all can do that, right? And have a discussion about it and make a motion. You know, there are some committees in the city who meet every other month. There are some committees who
meet quarterly. There are some obviously who meet monthly. So there's not while in the, you know, guidelines, it says that, you know, this committee does meet monthly. You all can still
modify that and make that, you know, you can take a vote as an action that says, we're going to, you know, we know we won't meet quorum in June and July.
I'm just saying, for example, right. If we knew there was a reason you're going to you're just going to have to cancel those meetings in advance, essentially. So scheduling over the summer, if we need to put
that on, you know, as a topic to discuss, we can definitely do that or just meeting schedule in general. That could be a topic for the next meeting. I think I can make because it's
a Thursday. So, you know, I think as far as I know, I can do the I'll let you know if something comes up or I have to miss. Do you mean for the may?
I mean for over the summer, like maybe July or something? Well, we could just put it as a discussion item at the next meeting, just as a placeholder maybe. Okay. Well, and that way
if somebody, if something comes up and someone knows they're not available, review everybody's schedules and see if, you know, once we have it.
Yes. Oh. Just to confirm this next meeting that we're going to be having the two hour one. What what day is that? Is that on the Tuesday, April 28th or
what day. No, it was the 19th. The 19th. Okay. May 19th. May 19th would be the proposed date for the presentation. The regularly scheduled advisory committee meeting would be two
days later on the 21st. I propose that we just do that and not have the meeting. I agree with that. I'm just wondering because it wasn't
here to go over the agenda or the presentation. The only challenge with that is that. So just so you know how the POC like backup materials work, I
will have had to submit that presentation prior to the Thursday meeting because then, yeah, the meeting is the next Tuesday. So 21st, second or
third, right. So it's the the rally scheduled. This committee meeting is the 21st, the Board of Commissioners meeting where the presentation will be given is the 27th. So at that point,
there wouldn't really be a lot of changes that could be made. But if she did want to go over it as a practice, that might be, you know, a consideration. We
can also send it via, you know, email for everyone, sort of final glance and approval. There's no, you know, problem with doing that. So it's really up to you all. She kind of
practiced it last time and we could do an email. Just make sure. Final glance Ali, do you want to check with her? I, I
can do that. I will just let her know kind of the, you know, timeline. And if she, if she feels that she needs the meeting. You can do. I mean, I
know I'm free. I think we defer to her, you know, because she's missed this meeting. Maybe she wants the next one. Yeah. I feel like I'm available, but the end of the school year
feels a little bit rapid fire. May is always a challenge. I don't want to be like, yeah, I can do it. And then like, oh gosh, there are four other things that I had to do that
night. Yeah. So we'll just tentatively, you know, say yes, we'll follow up with doctor McKay. I can reach out to her about that. And then obviously
if someone ended up not being able to make it for whatever reason, but we still had three people, we could still hold the meeting. You know how that goes. And if, you know, just kind of see how it plays out, it's a
month from now. So okay, I have time. So on April 28th, I have that we're supposed to present our sustainability summary at the board meeting. It is May 27th. Oh, okay, I have that.
That was the original oh possible date. And then because of the swearing in, it might be the that was this week. They moved all the or most of the agenda items for this week to
the 28th meeting. I need to change that to me. What ■I'm sorry. The May 27th calendar. Sorry. Denise is saying the 27th is not a Tuesday, which is. It's a Wednesday, so it
wouldn't be that. Okay? It would be. I probably just said the wrong date to have. It's it's that Tuesday the 26th. Okay. The 26th, then May 26th. Is that something that we all
need to be. Is it Tuesday? Typically that is up to you all though. So also you might. Oh thank you Denise. I didn't even know that they changed the time
of the Board of Commissioners meetings. So that's also new. Did they do that double check. Okay. It was during the comments and there were some objections and what they were
voting on it in the comments, but they suggested that they do it because the meetings get lengthy time. Okay, I need to
double check. I will do that meeting time change. Okay, so I will follow up on those details and let you all know I'm going
to check my email right now for the communication with Trish, who is the, you know, administrative assistant for the board who scheduled the
presentation with me. So let me do that. They're doing the stormwater poster. On the 28th.
Oh, okay. Oh, on April 28th. Yes, yes. So okay. May is I believe may is stormwater awareness month. So I thought you were going to say May, but they told us and I was like, oh,
thank you for letting us know because my son completely lost the the information. So yeah,
they're doing that on the 28th. Yeah. 26 I just said the wrong date completely. It is
confirmed for Tuesday, May 26th. Okay. That is. Okay. So. And
then should I read off the staff comments or do you want to do that? I won't do it. Okay. Okay. So as you all know, we are still under as Siobhan was
talking about the phase three extreme water shortage order due to our very extreme drought conditions, the reason I put this on here is just in case anyone in the public is
listening, we are required actually by the state to start violations, which means people will get an instant citation. Tomorrow is the first date of that. So April 17th. So when
the order started on April 3rd, we had a two week period where we could give warnings. But then that ends. And it's required to go to directly to
citations. So the process for city water customers would be if they receive a citation, they will be given a notice of hearing and violation. And they
would go to the Tarpon Springs Code board at the next scheduled meeting at that time. So that is that process. Can
people hand water? Yes. I would just say go to our watering restrictions website for all the details. And also if we don't have everything listed, we have a link to the Southwest
Florida Water Management Districts page with all of the regulations. So between the two everything is covered. But yes, there are allowances for normal
activities. They just they just have specific details on kind of time of day and things like that. So yeah, the Earth Day display will be up at the
library next week. That's April 20th through 24th. The city is doing its annual spring cleanup that is sponsored by the Solid Waste Department. Sunday, April 19th. That's this Sunday. Have
your items at the curb by 7 a.m. for the accepted items, you can go on the city's website. It's also been posted on Facebook. Fliers have been sent out. Let's see. Parks and
Recreation master plan. There is a community meeting coming up for that on April 21st at the recreation Center. The community center at 400 South Walton Avenue. That's 530 to 7.
So that's an opportunity for all committee members to give input to the master plan. Committee members might also be interested. There is a
presentation that Teresa, the urban horticulture agent, is doing on salt tolerant plants for Pinellas County. Tuesday, April 21st, Palm Harbor Library. Another city event is Shred Day,
which the Police Department sponsors. It is, I believe, at the Tarpon Tower. It's like a drive through kind of thing. Saturday, April 25th. And then we've got our tentative date
for the mental health Awareness presentation annual report to the b o c. I put the wrong date on here, so just strike that 26. Sorry about that. Again, I don't know what about the seven
was so stuck in my brain. And then as Loretta said, she helped with the native garden planting at the library on April 10th. So if you haven't seen that, go by and check it out. That was done through a
grant from the Florida Wildflower Foundation, specifically for libraries called Seeds of Knowledge, I
believe. So very cool stuff. Thank you. Ali. Okay, so any more any other comments? Well
I'm just. I'll probably be sending a follow up email to everyone regarding the owls and hopefully we can get something moving on that as well. Too
exciting an email to me that I will send out to the committee. Okay. Yes, just sunshine sunshine, sunshine. Oh, and then doctor was going to
mention it. So sorry for going back. Tuesday the 21st in the morning is the committee training. If you all were available or if you are available to attend, that the city Clerk's office and I
believe the city Attorney will be going over the legal aspects of community service board, you know, function, things of that nature. So that is on next
Tuesday, the 21st, I believe. Did we get a better idea of how long. So I heard that, yes. So I don't know that there is a
capped time. I believe an hour and a half is the goal. I mean obviously could extend and you could leave. Sure. If someone only if you only had an hour to
give that it's fine. It is not. So this is something that's on our that's supposed to be on our calendar and we're supposed to attend. So it's it is being put on for all the volunteers,
for the board members, for the. Anyone who serves on a committee in the city, essentially as just a refresher of what that volunteer commitment entails and the legal, you know, ramifications
of that, send it in an email, but I will send it again. Yeah, I know there have been a lot. So my apologies for that. But it is that like it's at nine, I
believe nine in the morning. So I have a 10:00 client and I'm like, can I swing this? So it
is no, it's not that. Okay. It is being offered to all department heads also. So there
might be some staff members in there as well. So it is April. Why is this not April 21st at 9 a.m. in the auditorium
downstairs. Commission chambers. So topics to be covered include ethical obligations of public officers and board members under Florida statutes, conflicts of interest and voting conflicts, which that
doesn't really as much apply to you all, but it applies to anyone who might be on a, you know, quasi judicial or, you know, decision making body, the disclosure requirements and recusal procedures, open
meeting requirements under the Florida Sunshine Law, communications between board members outside of public meetings, public records requirements, retention and disclosure of emails, texts and other records related to public
business and best practices to ensure compliance with Florida's open government laws and to maintain public trust. So you are strongly encouraged to encourage to attend. That is,
it is not a requirement. It is the city clerk's office coordinating and bringing in the city attorney to do this presentation. Okay, it's a busy
day for the city. April 21st. Lots of things, right? It's just when things, you know,
pile up, they they really do. Any comments from our guests tonight? Yes. I was going to ask any comments from did we miss we missed the other public
comments. So do you want to move public comments to now Siobhan. Yes. Okay, perfect. Easy peasy. Yeah, we just skipped over it. Sorry. Okay. We went to we went straight to
our presentation, which was exciting. I just had I just wanted to say that I'm so glad we had that presentation. And if there's, you know, if you do
form a committee or something around the owls, if there's anything I can do to help, I would like to help. And also, I may be leaving for the summer
and the fall in about a month. Okay, so I'm not disappearing, but expect you back in the fall.
Yeah, I'll be back. And I also on the the rat poisons that doctor was talking about the one that he, he more or less
recommended that, you know, doesn't have the secondary effect in the owls. The one thing he did say about that when I talked to him is that
one, if something does get it like an animal, there's no remedy. Yeah. That's just so you know. Yeah. Okay. All right. It was on his list. Okay, I
wasn't sure. Yeah, that that was brought up. Okay. Anyway. Thank you. Did you did you find out what your community of
condos was using? We're not really there's we're not really using any except there's one building. And I looked at the box and it has sort of a
natural name. So I kind of just let it go. But I will I'm curious. I'll find out because there's only one building I see the boxes at, but there's an
office building next door that I'm concerned about, and I would really like to know what they're using before I put an owl box up. So maybe I'll find
out more. Excellent. Just curious. Thank you. Thank you. Denise, do you have anything? We're always glad that you're both here with us. We all love.
We always love to see your smiling face over there. Excellent work. Yes. Thank you.
Okay. So should we adjourn? Anything else? Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. I second the motion. Okay. Passed.
It sounds like it would be a light, you know, agenda at this
time if the meeting is held. So.