Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-04-2024 NRB MinutesIIV/ NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING JUNE 4, 2024 Mr. Stadelman called the Natural Resources Board meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Pledae of Alleaiance was recited by all Roll Call: Present Mr. Clifford Ms. Ware Mr. Krauss Mr. Bruggen (Alternate) Also Present Mr. Stadelman Mr. Carrano Ms. Billman Dr. Mosblech (Zoom) Alix Bernard, Community Development Director Felicia Gordian, Environmental Technician Joseph Perez, AV Technical Assistant Janet Graham, Technical Writer Aooroval of Minutes A. April 2, 2024 -- Regular Natural Resources Board Meeting Minutes All having indicated they had reviewed the Minutes of the meeting of April 2, 2024, Mr. Stadelman called for a motion. A motion accepting the Minutes as presented was made by Mr. Carrano, seconded by Ms. Ware, and approved unanimously via voice vote. V. Announcements A. Board Member Vacancy Ms. Gordian stated that Ms. Haggerty turned in her resignation. There is an open alternate spot at this time. Ms. Gordian said that, speaking of the alternates, there was a new City ordinance approved by Council that is regarding the alternates on the dais. From this point forward, all alternates for all board and commission meetings will be seated in the audience as opposed to being on the dais with the rest of the members. In the event that there is a regular board/committee member missing, an alternate would take their place on the dais. VI. Aaenda Modifications -- None NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD PAGE 2 MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING JUNE 4, 2024 VII. Public Inout -- None VIII. Unfinished Business A. Earth Day and Arbor Day Celebration -- Debrief Event Overview and Insights for Next Year Ms. Gordian said the event was very successful again this year. She thanked all for their help and participation. She reviewed a few areas that can be improved such as organization for the initial event setup. She also had some concerns about the flow of the entertainment and the speaker sessions as far as people's attention. She was concerned that maybe there was not enough attention for the speaker sessions. That is something to keep in mind for next year. She asked for feedback from the Board members. She said that staff is going to be developing a feedback survey for the participants from the event. Hopefully, the vendors will give us some feedback as to what they would like to see going forward. Mr. Stadelman agreed that the event was very successful and called on the Board members for any input they may have regarding this year's Earth Day Celebration. Ms. Ware agreed with Ms. Gordian about the organization of the event. She opined that it was a little delayed with the City employees putting up so many things. She suggested that the City bring in extra help, perhaps volunteer groups such as the Scouts or some other groups that need volunteer hours, to help set up tables. The people doing that job were way overworked this year. She gave a big thank -you to the people who handled the setup. She also agreed with Ms. Gordian as to the speaker sessions. She suggested putting more signs up or having more announcements about the speakers who came in. She said that the announcements were not able to be heard at the different booths about the speakers coming up. Her other concern was the length of time of the event. She does not think 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. is necessary. She feels it was too long, and not many people started showing up till 10:00 a.m. Also, the volunteers and Board members were "melting" by 4 o'clock. She thought the event was well attended. However, she thought that there should be more food trucks. There were only three food trucks. Ms. Gordian added that the Rotary Club was selling pizza. Ms. Ware made the suggestion that next year we ask maybe the Scouts or some of the other organizations if they want to sell sodas and/or hot dogs wrapped in paper wrappers. Those groups are always looking for fund raisers. She NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING JUNE 4, 2024 7_Te3:11110i mentioned a group having Snow Cones at another event, and she thought this would be a good idea for next year. Mr. Stadelman suggested attempting to get more people to fill in the grassy area. He mentioned that some bands have followings, and the amount of people that attend has to do with the band that is picked, whether they have a large following or not. He also suggested getting a regular DJ with his own sound system who would fill in the time between the bands. Mr. Clifford asked if the bands are compensated. He also said he knows some bands would want to be compensated, and there are others who would do it just for the recognition. Mr. Stadelman said the bands do get paid, and how much depends on our budget. Mr. Stadelman also stated that the process of looking for bands and/or a DJ needs to be started early Ms. Gordian stated that, in speaking to some of the vendors during the event, it seemed that from their perspective —and maybe this would be confirmed or denied by reaching out to them with a feedback survey —they actually thought that the participation numbers by the public were lower this year. Mr. Stadelman agreed. Ms. Bernard stated that, in talking about planning for next year and booking some things six months in advance, Ms. Gordian and Ms. Bernard are meeting monthly to make sure that everything is on track so that we are on schedule for getting some of those bands and live performers. She opined that Earth Day 2025 is going to be amazing. Mr. Carrano stated that it is his perception that the numbers have gone down year after year. He added that there are a lot of events going on at Riverview Park, and he suggested that people may be becoming saturated with the number of events, and they don't distinguish one event from another event. He agreed that we need a better draw and a better number of food trucks and better entertainment. Ms. Billman suggested that maybe it should be described in the advertising as a family day with hot dogs/hamburgers, etc., having nominal pricing for different food items. Maybe if it were emphasized that there would also be a community cookout as well as recognizing Earth Day, that would help draw more people. Mr. Clifford asked if the date for next year's Earth Day Celebration has been set yet. Ms. Gordian said it is set for April 26, 2025. Dr. Mosblech agreed with some of the comments. She thinks the comment about being saturated with events is definitely an aspect of this. She thought that this year was a lot NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING JUNE 4, 2024 PAGE 4 of fun, and everyone who came to the booth was genuinely interested. She also thought that the food vendors that came this year were very good. She knows there is always room for improvement, but she thought there were some really great bright spots there this year. (SHORT RECESS TAKEN) (MR. STADELMAN REOPENED THE MEETING.) Mr. Stadelman remarked that there was no bottled water at the event this year. People were filling up at the fill stations. He thanked everyone who contributed to the success of the event this year, especially the City employees. He also thanked Ms. Gordian for her hard work in pulling everything together. B. Sustainable Sebastian Assignments for New Board Members Ms. Gordian stated that she has had meetings in May with the three newest board members. Mr. Dan Bruggen is going to be assisting with the invasive species removal at Stormwater Park, and he has already begun assisting with the Brevard Tree Protection and Landscaping ordinances, which she will be using in updating Sebastian's ordinances. Mr. Mike Clifford is assisting in helping to develop an educational program for local schools as written into Sustainable Sebastian as well as the City's internal effort for reducing single -use plastics. Mr. Matt Krauss is going to assist Ms. Ware in the resource conservation goals, and he has already helped to provide some insight on some of the programs that were used in Vermont for input as to what possibilities there are. Mr. Clifford asked who would be his primary contact in the Procurement Department for coordinating the increase and encouraging the use of environmentally friendly products. Ms. Gordian stated it would be the Procurement Department. Jessica Graham is the Procurement Manager. The gentleman who handles procurement specifically for the City's facilities and the supplies here at City Hall would be Jim Testa. She said she will be coordinating with Mr. Testa as staff goes over the discussions of what specific supplies we would like to change. Reduction of Single -Use Plastics -- Champion: Charles Stadelman NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD PAGE 5 MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING JUNE 4, 2024 Mr. Stadelman said that he has discovered that the City of Sebastian does not have occupational licenses; they have local business tax applications. What he is planning to do is to try to get the LCA to add it to the application. That is going to have to come as a request from City Council. He would like to get this item added to the agenda for this Board's next meeting. He would like to ask City Council to add the Life Cycle Analysis to the City's local business tax application. In addition, he talked about education, legislation, and litigation that pertains to this item. He also stated that at the next meeting he is going to request the City of Sebastian look at a single -use plastics ban. He reviewed both pros and cons of a ban. iii. Native Landscaping — Champion: Sherida Billman Ms. Billman reviewed that she is still in the planning stages waiting for a plan and a cost summary of what is being projected for Garden Club Park. That is coming up next month. She said there was a very productive meeting on site at Garden Club Park, and Richard Blankenship, the Parks Director, was present at that meeting. Ms. Billman called attention to some of the landscaping around City Hall and the fact that she trimmed some of the plants, and what a positive difference it made. She added that some of her neighbors have native yards, and suggested, if anyone is interested in going by and looking at these yards, she will provide the addresses of these yards. She suggested that the City have a program where it points out these people with the native plantings and provide some recognition for those who have done this. As the project progresses, she would like to call for some sort of community effort to help maintain it. Ms. Ware brought up the fact that recently the City has had open community discussions about Riverview Park. She was at these discussions, and one thing that was apparent to her is that there will be a lot of money invested in the Park over the next year or two. She described one of the subjects that came up is putting some type of planting along US 1 to deaden the noise from the traffic and the trains going by. That would also make the area look like a park if it had nice plantings along US 1. Ms. Billman stated she asked about that at one time, and it seems like it is the FDOT that maintains that corridor. They have the final say as to what can or cannot be planted there. She would like to have large oak trees all the way along, a nice canopy, and that would give the area a nice hometown feel to it. iv. Tree Protection & Landscaping Ordinances -- Champion: Thomas Carrano Mr. Carrano said he does not have much to add. He described that, for everything he writes down, he comes up with several reasons why it will not work. He told Ms. Gordian he will probably have a list of questions he needs to have answered before moving forward about the process and procedures. Ms. Gordian stated that staff has been working on addressing the Tree Protection and Landscaping Ordinances before staff comes to this Board with their assessment. She has been working on cobbling together pieces from other codes, trying to assess Sebastian's own code and trying to piece together something that she and Alix Bernard will go forward and redline, and eventually staff will bring that to the Board. NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD PAGE 6 MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING JUNE 4, 2024 Ms. Bernard added that she and Ms. Gordian will make sure that they talk with Mr. Carrano regarding this subject since he is the champion of that item to make sure that staff has gotten all of Mr. Carrano's feedback before it comes forward. Resource Conservation -- Champion: Donna Ware Ms. Ware has been looking at other cities that have different plans in place that are working for them. She has several handouts from these cities, and she has been trying to get some type of approval for copyright issues. A lot of them are from the University of Florida's IFAS extension. She has made a copy of what she has been working on, and she suggested Ms. Gordian could talk to Legal to see whether we need to have permission if it's educational to the public and is the same things that we are talking about doing. As long as we give them credit for what we are doing, then why do we have to go through a whole copyright issue? She will give copies of these documents to Ms. Gordian. She discussed having all of the City's buildings involved in this plan. vi. Green Infrastructure and LID -- Champion: Nicole Mosblech She stated that Ms. Gordian and she have been in contact, and she has three more assessments. They are Riverview Park, the Yacht Club, and the Community Center. A meeting has been set up in mid -June where the next steps are going to be discussed now that all of the observations have been, and then they will see where it goes from here. vii. Sidewalks & Bikeways — Champion: To be Determined Ms. Gordian said she had spoken to Mr. Krauss about the possibility of him championing that goal. They have not yet had another discussion about it, so that is to be determined. IX. New Business A. Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup -- Saturday, July 27, 2024 Ms. Gordian said there are flyers in this evening's agenda packets about the event. She asked, if anyone is interested in the digital copies, she would be happy to share them with those who would like to help promote the event. She described this year's event and schedule. She would appreciate as much help as possible throughout the event. She estimated that each helper would need to be there for only a two-hour block at a time. She plans to be at the event at approximately 7 a.m. that morning. She described the help that she will need throughout the day. She stated that the entire event will be from 8:00 a.m. until approximately 12:30 p.m. with setup beginning at 7:00 a.m. and clean-up ending around 12:30 p.m. She also emphasized that the Waterway Cleanup site is at the Main Street Boat Ramp. Dr. Mosblech stated that she will be there early to help with check -in in the morning. NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD PAGE 7 MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING JUNE 4, 2024 Mr. Stadelman emphasized that this event lasts for a week, and you can do the self -reporting from Saturday, July 20w to Sunday, July 28'", and you can register online at tcwaterwavclean uo.com City Council proclamation on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 Ms. Gordian said that, if anyone is interested in attending the Proclamation on July 101" at the City Council meeting to be there representing the Natural Resources Board and the Main Street Boat Ramp site, she would welcome their attendance at that meeting. ii. Board Member Assignments Ms. Gordian said that she has already mentioned the particular timeframes and the different things that she would need assistance with for that event., and asked that those who will be helping to let her know. Mr. Carrano and Mr. Clifford said they would be available to help. X. Items for Next Aoenda and Date: Tuesday, July 2 2024 Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup ii. Sustainable Sebastian XI. Adiournment There being no further business, Mr. Stadelman called for a motion to adjourn. A motion to adjourn was made by Mg. Carrano, seconded by Ms. Ware, and approved unanimously via voice vote. ilk By: l Date:�C, Charles Stadelman, Chairman p A