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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-06-2024 NRB MinutesNATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 6, 2024 I. Mr. Stadelman called the Natural Resources Board meeting to order at 6:00 p. M. II. Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all. III. Roll Call Present: Mr. Stadelman Mr. Krauss Ms. Ware Mr. Dovell (a) Dr. Mosblech Mr. Clifford Ms. Billman Not Present Mr. Bruggen (a) -- Excused Mr. Carrano -- Excused Also Present Dorri Bosworth, Community Development Manager Felicia Gordian, AV Technical Assistant Janet Graham, Technical Writer IV. Approval of Minutes A. July 2, 2024 -- Regular Natural Resources Board Meeting Minutes All having indicated they had reviewed the Minutes of the meeting of July 2, 2024 as presented, Mr. Stadelman called for a motion. A motion approving the Minutes of July 2, 2024 as presented was made by Ms. Ware, seconded by Mr. Krauss and approved unanimously via voice vote. V. Announcements Mr. Stadelman announced that Mr. Carrano will be excused from tonight's meeting, and alternate member Paul Dovell will be voting this evening. VI. Aqenda Modifications NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD PAGE 2 MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 6. 2024 Under New Business, Mr. Stadelman stated that NRB participation in the upcoming event, "A Look Back in Time" on Saturday, September 14, 2024 will be an actionable item. This will be the first item discussed under New Business. VII. Public Input Brent Wohlenberg stated that when all the towns along the 157-mile lagoon started fishing, that is what brought people here. He reviewed the history of what he has investigated and found regarding chemicals in the lagoon. He read a copy of a statement that he had presented to a former commissioner. He suggested that the lagoon can be brought back by changing the dynamics. VIII. Unfinished Business A. Sustainable Sebastian Initiative Reduction of Single -Use Plastics -- Champion: Charles Stadelman Ms. Gordian stated that she and Ms. Bosworth think that it would be very pertinent, based on the previous meeting, that Mr. Stadelman provide staff and the Board afterthis meeting a step-by-step process of what he would like to see happen with the goals that he is aiming to achieve. Then, that information can be made available to the Board members. Staff believes there needs to be a step-by-step template with enough information to say that this is what would possibly take place in order to lead to that ban. That would be worked on by the Council and on down to the staff level and on the NRB level. Then, there would be actionable items that could be put into effect. Mr. Stadelman explained his plan for dealing with single -use plastics. Ms. Gordian asked that Mr. Stadelman give the Board and staff a couple of sentences on what the subject matter is and what he is proposing to happen. Then she and Mr. Stadelman can talk about what that step-by-step process for each of the subjects would look like. Mr. Stadelman reviewed the plastic bags proposed ban. Also, the PFAS ban scheduled up to 2030. PFAS means the chemicals that are used to make the single -use plastics. The other subject he will discuss will be establishing requirements for disposable food - service products, including Styrofoam, plastic cutlery, and plastic cups. The third thing he will be discussing is to establish a plastic waste -reduction fund. This would be a fund from direct revenue from where we could do plastic reduction and recycling activities, making improvements to recycling infrastructure, and carrying out marine debris reduction. He then called for questions/comments from the Board. NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 6, 2024 I7_W491 Mr. Krauss stated that the Board voted on Mr. Stadelman's initial recommendation to ban single -use plastic bags. His understanding was that it was going to the Board for a vote. He asked regarding the status of that. Ms. Gordian stated that the Board did vote to pursue looking into the single -use plastic ban. Now, she is suggesting that the Board needs to come up with a step-by-step outline on how it will get to that point and reach the end goal of what Mr. Stadelman has proposed. Mr. Krauss asked if what was voted on did not go before City Council for a vote. Ms. Gordian stated that is correct. She said the steps were not in place, and that discussion did not happen. That was something that staff realized after the meeting. At this point in time, staff wants to make sure the Board has something to present to Council that comes from the Board, saying that these are the steps that the Board foresees being necessary in this process. Mr. Krauss asked if PFAS have been banned by the federal government. Mr. Stadelman said yes, as of April 19, 2024. As of April 17t", 2024, the EPA announced a new national enforcement compliance initiative. The EPA now designated two types of PFAS: PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under CERCLA. Those are the two particulars that he is going to address because those are the two that have been designated by the federal government. Ms. Billman asked what Mr. Stadelman is asking the Board to vote on. Mr. Stadelman said nothing really because this is going to be an administrative issue. Ms. Billman said she thought earlier Mr. Stadelman had asked for a vote tonight. Mr. Stadelman said that will not be necessary. Mr. Dovell asked how this will impact other things. He suggested we will need bags for sand when hurricanes are forecast as well as mulch for our gardens, soil for our lawns and gardens, etc. Most of these items are sold in large plastic bags. He asked how this will impact those types of products. Mr. Stadelman said that this is designed for what we can get rid of, but obviously not everything will be banned. Dorri Bosworth identified herself and stated that she would like to help with jump-starting the reduction of single -use plastics. She applauds Mr. Stadelman's passion on this matter, but she is concerned that, if you start off with a large plan trying to eliminate plastics and change some of the policies city-wide, that would be starting off too broadly. We do not want to change anything that will bring lawsuits against the City or start off with some sort of ordinance that she does not think will go anywhere with City Council. She would like to see something that would get to City Council such as a resolution that you already have outlined through your different steps that creates a plan that the City, in the running of its daily operations, be the example for other businesses in town on how you can achieve this. Let the City and its facilities and employees eliminate the single -use plastics in its daily procedures. She called attention to the plastic bags in the parks and NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 6, 2024 PAGE 4 throughout the City's facilities, and she asked what can be done to eliminate those plastic bags. She mentioned an event at the Environmental Learning Center in Wabasso that required her to sign something stating that all the utensils and flatware, etc. had to be biodegradable. Those are some of the policies that you can suggest that Council add to our facility agreement, etc. She strongly suggested that the Board show how the City can be the example. She agreed with what Ms. Gordian suggested about a step-by-step process being presented to City Council. Dr. Mosblech stated that it is important to focus on what we can truly impact and control in implementing the project. She stated that she thinks that starting with the City is definitely worthwhile. She suggested that there are some state-wide regulations as to what types of municipalities can actually enact these bans. She stated that we need to make sure that we are within those rules. She agrees that starting small is important. As to PFAS, she has read some of the articles on regulations for PFAS. She does not know that it is eliminated, but what is being done is requiring monitoring of water supply systems, and the City is not in charge of our water supply. Mr. Stadelman said he actually called the Water Department and checked to see if they are testing for it yet or not. He has all the information on what has been discussed this evening. He said knowing where it is tested is important, because the water is not tested for PFAS at the tap where it can be used for drinking or cooking. He is working with a company that actually does the testing. He mentioned many items that have plastic contained in them. He also mentioned the Life Cycle Analysis that he is interested in. Mr. Krauss stated that, if we take Ms. Bosworth's recommendation, it might be that we should focus on the PFAS in the City operations as a starting place, and then prove their effectiveness. That can be included when we go to other businesses, etc. with addressing the sustainability project. Mr. Stadelman listed several items in which plastic is contained. Ms. Gordian stated that she has been working with the Procurement Department towards addressing the single -use plastic items that are being currently used by the City that are purchased for the breakrooms and other facilities. She has sent the information she has gotten so far to Mr. Clifford. Mr. Clifford said the sooner he can get those costs to compare to what we use now, the better. 2. Native Landscaping -- Champion: Sherida Billman Ms. Billman said she has a meeting the next day with the nursery to go over the plans and plants and recommendations. At the next meeting, she should have some good information. a. Garden Club Park Updates NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 6, 2024 PAGE 5 Ms. Billman also suggested at the last meeting changing the name of Garden Club Park. There was discussion regarding this subject, Ms. Billman suggested "Centennial Park" as a new name. Ms. Gordian suggested that, because of the recent passing of one of the founders of Garden Club Park, now may not be the time to talk about changing the name. Ms. Ware said that there is no longer a Garden Club, which is pertinent now. Ms. Billman said that there are some organizations that we may be able to tap into to get a group of volunteers to help maintain the park. Mr. Krauss spoke regarding Stormwater Park. It is his opinion that the name is an accurate description of what the park contains; however, it is not a particularly enticing name. Ms. Gordian suggested that renaming the park would be under the Parks and Recreation Department's purview. Ms. Bosworth said that the park is owned by St. John's Water Management District, and there is a collaboration agreement with the City of Sebastian that we maintain it, and it is not necessarily a formal park. a. Riverview Park Possibilities — Donna Ware Ms. Ware reminded Ms. Billman that there were open meetings for comments about changes coming into Riverview Park based on grants that the City has received already. There were an awful lot of changes that were suggested for consideration, and she thinks there should be some kind of summary report on the things that the people voted on. She suggested that there would be a great opportunity for this Board to get involved with planting native plants in this process. Since they have money already allocated for these types of projects, she suggested that someone from this Board should be able to participate in this process with the group that is pursuing these plans. She stated that there is a handout in the agenda packet of what they gave out during the two meetings. Ms. Gordian stated that low -impact development and green stormwater infrastructure would go hand in hand with the native landscaping as far as something within the NRB's purview and is something that we are interested in growing throughout the City. Riverview Park may be an opportunity to implement some green stormwater infrastructure and some low -impact development techniques that you cannot really find elsewhere in the City at this time. There are other municipalities that have done redevelopments of preexisting parks, so, it can be done. It is quite an intensive process, and we would have to very carefully choose what elements would go where and how it would function. Dr. Mosblech asked about the next step for Riverview Park since she was not able to attend the meetings. Regarding Stormwater, LID seems like an obvious choice. Ms. Bosworth spoke on Dr. Mosblech's question if Kimley-Horn does a master planning like this, that Kimley-Horn will come to the City and do some sort of presentation, and the final plan would go to City Council for approval. She suggested that Ms. Gordian be given a copy of that plan, and someone from this NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 6, 2024 PAGE 6 Board could go before City Council to include LID into the plan. Ms. Ware said that she thinks that Kimley-Horn should come to this Board and get onto our agenda so that we can see it. Ms. Bosworth agreed. Ms. Billman asked how this Board finds out what they are considering putting in the park. Ms. Gordian said she will look into seeing if there was some sort of report done summarizing what the results were from the public and their input into those meetings. She will report back to this Board on what she finds out. iii. Tree Protection & Landscaping Ordinances — Champion: Thomas Carrano Since Mr. Carrano was not present this evening, Ms. Gordian updated the Board. At this point, staff has started having discussions about the drafts that we have come up with. The next step is to outline the plant list that would go into this code, as far as what plants are acceptable and what are recommended as far as the trees go, but also potential landscaping plants as well. iv. Resource Conservation -- Champion: Donna Ware Ms. Ware said that in the agenda packet are some things that she talked about last month that she had taken from other websites of other cities and asked the City Attorney whether we could use this information in our outreach materials within the City. a. Approval of Outreach Materials for Distribution I. Microplastics -- OF/FAS Pinellas County ii. 5 Things You May Not Know About Recycling -- UF/FAS & Florida Sea Grant iii. Simple Steps for Sustainability in the Workplace -- City of Sebastian iv. Habits to Be More Sustainable While on Lunch — City of Sebastian These that are attached are about the microplastics, plastic recycling, and sustainability in the workplace. She suggests those should be put on our website at the minimum, and whenever Earth Day, etc. is held, there should be some sort of outreach materials that are available to the public. She said there should be a motion to actually use these NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 6, 2024 PAGE 7 materials as part of our Board's sustainability program. A motion approving the materials listed above as part of the Board's sustainability program as presented by Ms. Ware and Ms. Gordian was made by Mr. Stadelman, seconded by Mr. Dovell, and approved unanimously via voice vote. b. Results of City Hall Walk -Through -- Matthew Krauss Ms. Gordian said she and Mr. Krauss took a walk through City Hall with Mr. Richard Blankenship, as he is in charge of our facilities. It was just to assess where we are as far as recycling, trash, and the lighting. We also walked over to the old school building as well to assess what is going on over there. Some of the things that she found to be most noticeable is that we could use some more recycling bins. There are some areas in City Hall where lights are on sensors but not all of them. There are also some AC systems that are on the smart timers, but areas like the Community Center are not yet on smart timers. Mr. Krauss said they did not finish the walk-through. They will finish it shortly. There is another meeting on Friday to finish a couple of items that they did not finish in their first meeting. Mr. Blankenship was quite helpful in providing background as to why certain things were done. Mr. Krauss' personal observation is that there is some opportunity there to emphasize other practices that could be done to show how the City is doing. He said they have to contact the IRCSWDD. Ms. Gordian said she has spoken to Ms. Ware about that possibility, and she will be looking into the Indian River County Solid Waste Disposal District Going through a building and talking with the employees provides them an opportunity to ask questions or to provide feedback, which is important. He added that all the items to take action on were proposed by employees. He suggested getting back to the employees to let them know their input is important. V. Green Infrastructure and LID -- Champion: Nicole Mosblech Dr. Mosblech said Ms. Gordian and she have been back and forth trying to make sure they have the best formatting and orientation and headings for the cutsheet where they are going to take all of the information from the site visits and condense it. They are still working on that, and she hopes to have more substantive information in September. vi. Sidewalks and Bikeways -- Champion: Mr. Krauss Mr. Krauss did talk with Ms. Bernard about this subject. Her suggestion was that there is a great deal of information already available that apparently was collected by the MPO. There may not be a great deal of additional work. The first step will be to take a look at what the MPO has available and see if it fits our particular needs. If it does not have NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 6, 2024 PAGE 8 Everything that we need, then the next step is to determine what information we do need and how we can obtain it. Mr. Stadelman recommended that Mr. Krauss attend the MPO meetings. B. Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup — Event Debrief Ms. Gordian thanked everyone who participated. Unfortunately, there were not as many public participants as she would have liked. Hopefully, she will get some good numbers from the overall event up and down the Treasure Coast. She will have that information later this month, and she will report back to this Board in September. There was discussion among the Board members and Ms. Gordian regarding suggestions for next year. IX. New Business A. NRB participation in the upcoming event "A Look Back in Time" on Saturday, September 14t'. Ms. Gordian said the Sebastian River Art Club as part of the Centennial event this year is hosting this event which is going to exhibit 40+ of the paintings of historic Sebastian buildings. There are supposed to be teacher demos throughout the day, mini - masterpiece sales, and the Centennial tent will be there. Ms. Gordian said that Ms. Ware suggested we have a NRB booth present at the event to create awareness and to celebrate the Centennial. Ms. Ware stated this is another outreach opportunity. There will be a lot of City trucks here, so there will be families here with their kids. There will also be food available and music, etc. A lot of it will be centered here around the fountain, so the table could be set up in the shade. She thought that the event will run from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Ms. Gordian said she has come up with a schedule, and she stated she distributed this along with tonight's agenda as to what the timeline would look like. There will be a couple of people needed per shift to help. Mr. Stadelman called for a motion for participation in the event for Saturday, September 14. A motion that the NRB participate in this event, as an opportunity for outreach for the Sustainable Sebastian project, was made by Ms. Ware, seconded by Dr. Mosblech, and approved unanimously via voice vote. B. International Coastal Cleanup -- Saturday, September 215', 2024, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD PAGE 9 MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 6, 2024 Park Champion Application Ms. Gordian said she has provided all the Board members with an updated calendar that includes "A Look Back in Time." It also includes the International Coastal Cleanup as well. They are back-to-back weekends. She stated that last year she assisted with the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary program in hosting the Riverview Park site for the International Coastal Cleanup. There was a wonderful turnout for that particular event. She has the Park Champion event packet. If anyone is interested in participating, we will do everything we can to assist the IRLNEP in this event. She reviewed how the cleanup will be held and what would be needed from the NRB members. Mr. Stadelman called for a motion approving that the NRB to be a Park Champion and participate in the International Coastal Cleanup on Saturday, September 2151 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. A motion that the NRB participate in the International Coastal Cleanup on Saturday, September 215' was made by Mr. Clifford, seconded by Mr. Krauss, and approved unanimously via voice vote. Dr. Mosblech and Mr. Dovell both indicated that they will be out of town on that date. C. City of Sebastian Christmas Parade -- Saturday, December 7, 2024 Confirm Participation Mr. Stadelman called for a motion for the NRB to participate in the Christmas Parade. A motion to participate in the Christmas Parade was made by Ms. Ware, seconded by Mr. Dovell (a), and approved unanimously via voice vote. ii. Float Ideas There was discussion among Ms. Gordian and the Board members about this. Regarding the Christmas Parade, Mr. Stadelman made a suggestion that there be no candy wrapped in plastic thrown from the float. Mr. Stadelman asked that this subject be on the agenda for next month's meeting. Ms. Bosworth described that there will be many activities at the park after the parade, since this is the Centennial Year. Ms. Gordian also reviewed that last year the NRB did hand out seed packets. She asked if the Board would like to do this again this year. There is no need for a decision this evening, but if it is decided to hand out the seed packets again this year, we would have NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 6, 2024 •_elw to purchase additional seeds and hopefully have another workday before the Christmas Parade is held. Mr. Krauss suggested that we hand out something other than candy. Mr. Stadelman asked that the Board members present their suggestions for handing out or not handing out candy at this year's parade. X. Items for Next Agenda and Date: Tuesday, September 3, 2024 A. A brief discussion was held regarding ideas for the next version of the Sustainable Sebastian Action Plan. i. Sustainable Sebastian ii. Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup -- Final Numbers iii. International Coastal Cleanup iv. Christmas Parade V. XI. Adiournment There being no further business, Mr. Stadelman called for a motion to adjourn. A motion adjourning the meeting was made by Ms. Ware, seconded by Mr. Dovell (a), and approved unanimously via voice vote at 7:43 p.m. By: JV T *L Charles Stadelman, Chairman jg Date: `I I3I c�bc�7