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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-19-16 IR LAGOON COALITION MinutesINDIAN RIVER COUNTY LAGOON COALITION MINUTES TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2016 — 2 PM SEBASTIAN CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS SEBASTIAN CITY HALL 1225 MAIN STREET SEBASTIAN, FLORIDA 1. Chairman Gillmor called the IRC Lagoon Coalition meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. 2. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 3. Present: Richard Gillmor, Chairman — Mayor, City of Sebastian Joel Tyson — Mayor, City of Fellsmere Richard Winger — Council Member, City of Vero Beach Also Present: Robert Ginsburg, Sebastian City Attorney Joe Griffin, Sebastian City Manager Jason Nunemaker, Fellsmere City Manager Monte Falls, Vero Beach Public Works Director Robb Bolton, Vero Beach Water & Sewer Director Recording: Sally Maio, Sebastian City Clerk 4. NEW BUSINESS A. Approve October 26, 2015 IRL Coalition Minutes (Minutes) Approved by consensus and voice vote in affirmative. No motion. B. Recap of January 8, 2016 Indian River Lagoon Council Meeting Held in Sebastian (2016 IRL Council Meeting Schedule) Mayor Gillmor recapped the January 8, 2016 IR Lagoon Council meeting, citing that the NEP, according to Counsel Carolyn Ansay, is now officially in the hands of the IRL Council, has met EPA compliance, EPA has transferred authority for grants, funds are transferred, 15 project funds are in the bank, and assets are still being transferred. He said the Management Team was approved, as well as a subcommittee to that team that will conduct project scoring for grants. He said he had folks for the Citizen Council but need members for the Finance Committee and called on Mayor Tyson and Council Member Winger to come up with ideas for recommendations. Mayor Tyson mentioned Larry Napier, Fellsmere Finance Director but said he is set to retire. Mayor Gillmor said there are wonderful people on the Management Board and everything is going smoothly. C. Discussion — Urge Staff to Complete and Submit Grant Funding Requests for Submission to IRL Council by January 22, 2016 (IRL Guidelines for 2016 IRL NEP Annual Work Plan Re uest for Proposals) Mayor Gillmor said grant funding requests for next year are due on Friday, January 22, 2016 and Mayor Tyson asked did we not prioritize at the last meeting. Mayor Gillmor said we did but each City had their druthers as to what they want funded. He said we have IRC Lagoon Coalition January 19, 2016 Page Two $638K funded between five counties so we each could use that amount, but it has to be split, so if you have projects you can itemize and get funds to get it started — maybe do one outfall and get that into a grant request it has a chance of being funded. Mr. Falls said Vero Beach has a couple of active successful grant applications they have been successful with — one from DEP for $ .5M for McAnsch Park area and a smaller one for Vero Isles, and maybe we could submit that for a $60K grant. He said Bill Messersmith is looking at that to get it submitted by Friday. Mayor Gillmor said when he sent out the draft grant request, EPA had not yet said we were the agency, and now the grant information is on the IRL Council website. He said we prioritized Vero #1, Sebastian #2 and Fellsmere #3 and so he wanted to make sure we had this meeting to let everyone know the applications had to be in by this Friday. He said he did not know where Sebastian was in its grant process whether we have anything going in for an outfall, but it will be filtered through the management board and then come to the Council for final approval. He said he spoke to the Vero Beach and Fellsmere managers last week but could not call Coalition members so he called this meeting. Mr. Ginsburg confirmed that it was legal for Mayor Gillmor to talk to other staff. In response to Mr. Bolton, Mayor Gillmor said it was open to anything that affects the lagoon, noting that Sebastian is also looking at Vero Beach's step program for our area along the lagoon and maybe ask the County to contribute to donations to fund more people taking advantage of hooking up to sewer. Mr. Bolton said we received cost share funding from St. Johns for construction of step lines and laterals, to have an incentive program where if the line is in front of your property you have one year to take advantage of a credit against the impact fee. He said there is another incentive that if they pay cash, they get another $1100 of their cost to connect so he was hoping that they could submit for another incentive to create a pool of money that would provide for 20% of the equipment or something like that. He said this would allow us time to get all the documentation in place and send out for the January 2017 grant, and it may push people to connect. Mayor Gillmor said that is a great idea and the initial push will be about $735K, and if all that money is not used people will be upset, but until we know how much we have left over we can't give grants for which we don't know if we have the money. He said after the first grant cycle there will be money on the table for other projects, so the more projects you put in for those smaller grants in the $25K to $50K range, they may give septic to sewer higher priority. Mayor Gillmor said everyone knows that septic is a big problem with pollutants into the lagoon and described the benefits the Keys' efforts to eliminate septic and going to sewer, with amazing water quality. He cited the presentation by Brian LaPointe three years ago in Sebastian. Mr. Winger asked how many can be submitted, and Mayor Gillmor said one, two or three whatever you want, and the more submitted the more they can spread them out. Mayor Tyson asked why money was left on the table in the last cycle, and Mayor Gillmor said it was in a big state of flux and the Director was not there yet to let people know. 2 IRC Lagoon Coalition January 19, 2016 Page Three He said there were only twelve requests so everything was funded and funds are still in the bank and held by the IRL Council. He said he didn't want to see that happen this year. Mr. Bolton asked who manages the grants. Mayor Gillmor said it all goes to the IRL Council and they are next door and anyone can go over and talk to COO, Frank Sakuma who is there now. He said it is initially goes to the subset of the six member management team, which worked with St. Johns and are fairly experienced, and then staff will bring to the IRL Council for final approval. He said this has to be done by April or May. Mayor Tyson asked if it is on an agenda item to review. Mayor Tyson asked Mr. Nunemaker if we want to get in on this and Mr. Nunemaker responded that before the water farming projects, their main interest was in establishing regional stormwater lakes that would treat runoff, now if we have a 16 acre reservoir to the west of us being developed our main interest then needs to be piping to that and that will be the treatment facility, but getting detailed is difficult. He said he requested copies as a public records request if necessary which is how it was handled and which he was dismayed by. He said he is still waiting for that so perhaps they could just do a smaller project like a pocket park or retention pond. Mayor Gillmor said he was listening to the meeting at which Doug Bournique was talking about that and he thinks it is 1600 acres. Mr. Nunemaker said it is and they discussed it having a significant benefit to Fellsmere which would be great but the issue of the ten year duration so do you establish connectivity and rely on that treatment mechanism and not deal with nutrient runoff from new projects and year 11 it just goes away. He said it seems bizarre and should be a long term project. Mayor Gillmor said the other parcel is the Graves parcel and ten years makes sense for that because he thought they would want to develop it. Mr. Nunemaker said he needs to get more information on it. 5. PUBLIC COMMENT Bob Stevens, Sebastian, said septic is the answer to not killing lakes, but suggested we also stop putting chemicals in our waterways to kill plants because it kills plants and then goes into the lagoon, even if we have to manually clean out those waterways. 6. MEMBERS' MATTERS Mr. Winger introduced his friend Tommy Augustson, gave his history as a helicopter pilot, for the Swedish army and currently owns a helicopter. Mr. Augustson addressed the Coalition on coming to the United States in the 70s, his work at NASA and General Dynamics, retired four years ago, education at MIT, found out about the Coast Guard airwing for civilians, and received a gift of a helicopter when he retired. He said he lets other organizations use the helicopter, such as Chief Touchberry in Fellsmere asking him to take kids from the Boys and Girls Club, the Vero Beach Manager, and offered it to the Committee for any scientists, aerial surveys, photographs, to just let him know. Mayor Gillmor thanked him so much for his offer and said the BMAPS are done every other year to count seagrass status, though he was unsure of the altitude. 3 IRC Lagoon Coalition January 19, 2016 Page Four Council Member Winger said he could put him in touch with Dr. DeFreese. He then asked how they could get Dr. DeFreese to come to a Vero Beach Council Meeting and Mayor Gillmor said give him a call and gave him his business card. Council Member Winger said it is surprising how little people understand in Vero Beach the issues and the reality is that we have an obligation to let the people know and we can put Dr. DeFreese on our television and help, and we need to continue to do what it takes to get them the right information so he will call him. Mayor Gillmor also said people can go to www.itsvouriagoon.com. Council Member Winger said he was not sure his Council understands how serious our situation is. Mayor Gillmor said our concern for the lagoon has to be a trickle up so they are motivated to save the lagoon and will be a natural thing, and it flows to the County Commission to the Legislature to the Feds. We need to let them know not only that all canals lead to the lagoon, but all ditches lead there too and we all need to take ownership and get everyone on the same page. Mayor Tyson said that the lagoon is polluted is an established fact but asked if anyone had ever considered that loss of seagrasses being a part of the problem, and whether our protection of manatees was a part of the problem because they feed on seagrass. Mayor Gillmor said hopefully we can have more cities on board. Mayor Tyson said hopefully the County Commission can get on board. 7. Being no further business Mayor Gillmor adjourned the meeting at 2:42 pm Approved at the April 6, 2016 meeting. Ole By: ChairmantilAa Richard Gillmor Attest: JekAette Williams, Sebastian City Clerk lI