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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-02-2025 NRB AgendaCITY OF Sfj3ASTj_Atj HOME OF PELICAN ISLAND NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD AGENDA REGULAR M EETI NG TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER2ND, 2025 - 6:00pm 1225 MAIN STREET, SEBASTIAN, FL "To improve the quality of life in Sebastian by nurturing the balanced relationship between our citizensand our environment by protecting, preserving, and promoting our natural resources" 1) CALL TO OFUER 2) R-EDGEOFALLEGIANCE Kil■:."�7�we1KK 4) APPROVAL OF MINUTES —ACTION ITEM Item A. August 51h, 2025 - Natural ResourcesBoard Meeting Minutes 5) ANNOUNCEMENTS Item A. Living Docks Workshop with IRC— Friday, September 191h, 2025 Item B. Presentation from Nicolette Mariano, Treasure Coast Shellfish 6) AGENDA MODIFICA-TIONS 7) PUBLIC INPUT 8) UNFINISHED BUSINESS Chair announces the title of the item Saff Presentation Public Input Saff Summation Chair callsfor a motion Board deliberation and roll call vote Item A. Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup — Debrief Item B. Sustainable Sebastian Item C. Upcoming Event Planning 1. Updated NF;B Calendar 1. Touch &Tour —Saturday, September 131h,10:00 AM to 2:00 PM a. Stormwater Superhero KC19 Activity Proposal -by Frank Trinkle 2. International Coastal Cleanup —Saturday, September 201h, 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM 3. Sebastian Kids Fest —Saturday, October 4th,10:00 AM to 4:00 PM 4. Christmas Parade —Saturday, December 61h, 2025 at 6:30 PM 9) NEW BUSINESS Chair announcesthetitleof theitem 3aff Presentation Public Input 3aff SJmmation Chair callsfora motion Board deliberation and roll call vote 10) ITRASFORNDJAGENDAAND DATE Tuesday, October / h, 2025 1. Sustainable Sebastian 2. Event Debriefs a. Touch &Tour b. International Coastal Cleanup c. Sebastian Kids Fest 3. Preparations for Upcoming Events a. Christmas Parade 11) ADJOURW ENT ANY PB;9ON WHO DBD DESTO APPEAL ANY DEMON MADE ON THEABOVE MATTE WILL N®A FEDOF;D OF THE PROCBEDINGSAND MAYNEED TO BVSJRETHAT A Vff8A11M NFU OF THE PRDCEEDINGSISMADE WHICH FE00FU INCLUDES THE TESIIMONYAND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH APPEAL IS TO BE HEARD. SNDAPPEAL MUSTBEFILED WITH THECITYCLEWSOFFICEVNTHINTEN DAYSOFTHEDATEOFACIION. (286.0105 F.S). IN ODM RJANCE VNTH THE AMERICANS VNTH DISABILJTI ES ACT (ADA), ANYONE WHO NEEDS SAL A000MMODAl1 ONS FOR THIS MB=TI NG SHOULD CONTACT THE aTYSADACDORDINATORAT(407}580-5330ATLEAST48 HOURSPRORTOTHISMB=TING.TWOORMOREBJ==OFRaALSMAYBEINATTENDANCE NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 5, 2025 Vice Chairperson Stadelman called the Natural Resources Board meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. II. Pledqe of Allegiance was recited by all. III. Roll Call Present: Mr. Carrano Ms. Shellenberger (a) Ms. Thompson Mr. Krauss Mr. Trinkle (a) Mr. Stadelman Mr. Bruggen Not Present: Ms. Ware -- Excused Also Present Alix Bernard, Community Development Director Felicia Gordian, Environment Technician Joseph Perez, AV Technical Assistant Janet Graham, Technical Writer IV. Approval of Minutes A. July 1, 2025, Natural Resources Board Meeting Minutes All having indicated they had reviewed the Minutes of July 1, 2025, Mr. Stadelman called for a motion. A motion approving the Minutes of July 1, 2025 as presented was made by Mr. Carrano, seconded by Mr. Krauss, and approved unanimously via voice vote. V. Announcements A. General Announcements Ms. Gordian stated that Donna Ware is not able to attend this evening. In lieu of the board being short of one member and Ms. Ware being absent, Ms. Shellenberger and Mr. Trinkle will be voting this evening. NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 5, 2025 PAGE 2 Ms. Gordian stated there is one vacancy on the Natural Resources Board. The City Clerk is working to fill that vacancy. If a new member is appointed or an alternate board member is moved up, we will then have a vacant alternate board member position at that time. B. IDEAS for Us presentation on Fleet Farming & Senior -Focused Urban Agriculture Ms. Gordian introduced Caroline Chomanics and Danae Redington representing IDEAS for Us who made a presentation on Fleet Farming & Senior -Focused Urban Agriculture, and they attended the meeting via Zoom Ms. Chomanics introduced herself and stated that she is the Chief Operations Officer of IDEAS Us. She reviewed her background in horticulture and added that she helped to develop this program over the years. She also introduced Danae Redington, who has been leading this program. Ms. Chomanics described the pages on the screen and stated that IDEAS for Us is part of a USDA grant, all to help seniors with food security and insecurity. She stated that IDEAS is a global and international nonprofit, but they have a lot of projects throughout Florida, and their home base is in Orlando, Florida. They do projects related to energy, water, food -waste ecology, recycling solar panels that would go to the landfills back into our communities. They do projects with energy, water, mangrove plantings, beach cleanups, shoreline restoration, and food. Fleet Farming is their leading program. They also do landscaping, tree planting, work with different types of waste products, and plastic reduction programs to encourage small businesses to have a lesser reliance on plastics, with ocean conservancy. She explained what Fleet Farming consists of and described the photographs on the screen. She reviewed how the Urban Agriculture & Innovation Production grant was used and said that the grant just sunsetted recently. Danae Redington then added what her experience has been with this program, and she went through the slides on the screen and described what they represented. Ms. Chomanics and Ms. Redington thanked the board for inviting them to describe their program. Mr. Stadelman stated that this subject is contained in the City's Sustainable Sebastian initiative under Goal 15, Item 4. He added that Mr. Bruggen is the champion of this item. Mr. Bruggen stated it was a very nice presentation, and he was taking notes during the presentation that sparked some ideas for our food bank. He would like to reach out again to the IDEAS for Us program. Ms. Thompson agreed and stated that under Goal 5B, Hosting Landscape and Tree Workshops, she suggested there could be some collaboration that would work really well. Mr. Trinkle asked if someone could explain how the SNAP program works into what is community gardening. Ms. Redington explained NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 5, 2025 PAGE 3 the involvement of the SNAP program. Mr. Bruggen stated he understands the grant expired July 1, 2025, and he asked if they are trying to get it renewed or are they going down other avenues. Ms. Redington said she is not sure about that, but she knows that USDA grants are actually extremely limited right now. They are looking for more creative ways to continue their program. Mr. Stadelman thanked both speakers for their presentation. VI. Aqenda Modifications -- None VII. Public Input Nicolette Mariano identified herself and her background. She is the founder, president and agricultural biologist of Treasure Shellfish. She is the only oyster farmer in Indian River County and the only woman -owned -and -operated oyster farm currently on the entire east coast of Florida. She stated she met with Ms. Gordian last week, and she just wanted to introduce herself and her business and try to be involved in any way possible with the Sustainable Sebastian program. Oysters are an indicator species within the lagoon, and she stated everyone is aware of the state of the lagoon. She stated she has never seen this much seagrass and how thick it is since she has been here for the last six years. With the loss of seagrass in general within the Indian River Lagoon, her farm has created this vertical three-dimensional habitat. The farm is located just north of Pelican Island in the area where the clam leases are, and a couple of those are still active. They lease just under seven acres of public waterway from the state, and they have just over 500 floating oyster cages out there. It has been amazing for her to see what has changed in the lagoon. She would love to be involved and to help in any way possible with the Sustainable Sebastian initiative and also with education as well. Mr. Krauss asked if Ms. Mariano has seen significant progress in the last six years. Ms. Mariano asked if he meant from an environmental or business perspective. Mr. Krauss said both. She said it has been rough from an environmental perspective. Ms. Thompson said she has been following Ms. Mariano's company on social media for the past couple of years, and she thanked Ms. Mariano for everything that she does. Mr. Ray Osborne, who was attending the meeting via Zoom, stated that he has been organizing a lot of teams of volunteers, and they have been working at different locations like the Environmental Learning Center, ORCA, and also the Chozen Retreat, and a lot of people are really interested in native plants and Fleet Farming and vegetative gardens, etc. He was wondering if the NRB wanted any volunteers for No. 6-C and 6-D on the spreadsheet for goals. NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 5, 2025 PAGE 4 Mr. Stadelman said yes, volunteers are always needed. He said the City Clerk can be contacted directly at City Hall, and you can also contact Felicia Gordian directly at City Hall as well. Vill. Unfinished Business A. Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup - Debrief Ms. Gordian said she does not have a lot of information and stats yet. She will be debriefed on those stats in the next week or so from the Marine Industries Association of the Treasure Coast. She did state that at the Natural Resource Board's site alone we had over 30 in -person participants from Sebastian, and we had over 8 virtual participants. She estimated that we had over 150 pounds of debris collected. Ms. Gordian will provide more detailed stats after she finds out more information at her next Treasure Coast Waterway debriefing meeting. She asked for any suggestions as to what can be added or changed for the event next year. Mr. Carrano stated that the one interesting thing that was discovered is that everybody was coming back and saying that they were having a hard time finding the amount of garbage they had in previous years. Mr. Stadelman suggested that the mandatory garbage pickup had something to do with that. Also, the Leave -No -Trace initiative has helped to reduce the garbage compared with previous years. Mr. Bruggen stated that he did not attend the event on site, but he did virtually. He actually did it in another county, and it was very easy doing it virtually. Mr. Trinkle said he was surprised at the volunteers. They were very anxious to get out there and get to work. Mr. Stadelman thanked everyone who participated. B. Sustainable Sebastian Ms. Gordian said that in lieu of having Paul Dovell and his normal regular seat on the board, she has taken his responsibilities and split them up between Deborah Shellenberger and Frank Trinkle. They each have a copy of what she proposed to them as their responsibilities. Ms. Shellenberger is going to be handling Goal 3, supporting the reduction of single -use plastics. She will also handle Goal 19, promoting the City's livability through marketing the City's parks and green spaces. Mr. Trinkle has Goal 14, NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 5, 2025 PAGE 5 reducing our operational footprint by finding opportunities for resource conservation and maximizing recycling as well as providing support for stormwater best management practices, which is Goal 16 ,for protecting and restoring water quality. She stated that this is the best way that she was able to divide those goals that Mr. Dovell had between the two of them. That does not exclude either of them from participating in anything else within the Sustainable Sebastian realm that they are interested in. This is just something that needed to be covered as far as responsibilities being divided up. Ms. Gordian asked if there is any board member who has anything that they would like to share at this time. No one had anything. C. Upcoming Event Planning 1. Updated NRB Calendar Mr. Stadelman said this calendar is flexible, and if there is anything anyone wants to add, contact Ms. Gordian, and she can put it on the schedule as needed. Ms. Gordian said that the biggest changes since the last meeting were the addition of Touch & Tour, the International Coastal Cleanup, and Sebastian Kids' Fest. She added that there is another event that is not mandatory for the board members, but they are welcomed to participate. We are working in partnership with Indian River County to host a living docks workshop at Riverview Park. Tentatively, that will be set for September 19, 2025. She will provide additional information when she has the timeframe set in stone. That will be an educational opportunity by bringing the public in and teaching people how to make the wraps that will go onto docks to create the living docks installations throughout the county. 2. Proposed Kids' Activities for Upcoming Events Ms. Gordian described that for these two events, there is the opportunity to have children's activities, and Mr. Trinkle has proposed an opportunity. Mr. Trinkle said that at the Kids' Fest, he thought it might be interesting for the kids to come up and they can learn a little bit about pollinators and plants, and then every child will get a stem cutting that has been rooted for African Blue Basil. He will instruct them on planting it and watering it. It is an edible, but it also attracts the bees. Then they can take it home. There is no cost for it. He just needs about two weeks to prepare for this if it is something that the board members think would be a good idea. The kids will also get a sheet with directions on how to take care of the plant. NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 5, 2025 PAGE 6 Mr. Stadelman stated that, if anyone has ideas for kids' events, send those suggestions to Ms. Gordian. 3. Touch & Tour -- Saturday, September 13t", 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. 4. International Coastal Cleanup -- Saturday, September 20t", 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Ms. Gordian said it will either be done at the boat ramp like we did last year, or possibly Riverview Park, depending on how many hosts are available for each of the sites. She added that this is an opportunity that we will likely need most of the board members on deck unlike Touch & Tour and the subsequent Kids' Fest. She will come back to the board members with numbers for how many board members we are projecting we will need for each event. If anyone has an idea that you will definitely not be available for any of these events, please let her know as soon as possible. She will come up with a schedule template like we normally have for each of our events. 5. Sebastian Kids Fest -- Saturday, October 4t", 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Ms. Gordian said this will be the first time for the Kids Fest. IX. New Business A. Christmas Parade -- Saturday, December 6t", 2025 at 6:30 p.m. 1. Board Approval of Participation Mr. Stadelman said this is an actionable item. A motion that the Natural Resources Board participates in the annual Christmas Parade was made by Mr. Carrano, seconded by Ms. Thompson, and approved unanimously via voice vote. 2. Prospective Float Theme Proposed by Donna Ware Ms. Gordian said that Ms. Ware could not be here this evening, and she asked if Ms. Gordian could present her ideas. Her concept was "Protecting our Paradise." This is along the lines of something tropical, something with Jimmy Buffett vibes. She had a couple of catch phrases she wanted to potentially include on some signage. Ms. Gordian said there is some signage that could be reused. There may be new signs that we need NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 5, 2025 PAGE 7 to create. Ms. Ware had the idea to "stop buying single -use plastics," "planting natives," "no pesticides," "and recycle the right way." Those were some of her ideas for signs. Staying with the tropical theme, if there is any tropical decor that we want to include on the float itself, we do have the Christmas decorations that Sherida Billman graciously donated to our stockpile that she had just acquired after the last Christmas season so we can incorporate some of those items into this new theme. If there are any ideas for what we need when the new budget season comes around, we will need to review those ideas. She stated that, if you like this idea and the board wants to move forward with it, then we can discuss what the particulars would be. Mr. Stadelman asked what the rest of the board thinks about having a Hawaiian/Jimmy Buffett theme to the parade. Mr. Krauss suggested not calling it "Hawaiian." He suggested calling it "tropical." We are in Florida, and he thinks we should promote the tropical theme. He also mentioned that the NRB had a great location in the parade last year. He stated that, if at all possible, we be as close as possible to the beginning of the parade. Mr. Stadelman said that the NRB is supposed to be immediately behind the City Council. Mr. Stadelman said that we will improve securing transportation for the NRB members at the end of the parade. He also asked if the board wants to have music. Ms. Gordian suggested having some Jimmy Buffett music. Mr. Bruggen said he will not be able to attend the parade, but he has some Jimmy Buffett items he can supply. X. Items for Next Aqenda and Date: Tuesday, September 2"d, 2025 A. Sustainable Sebastian B. Preparations for Upcoming Events 1 Touch & Tour 2 International Coastal Cleanup 3 Sebastian Kids Fest 4 Christmas Parade Mr. Stadelman asked if we have a date for next year's Earth Day Celebration. Ms. Gordian said she has the date, but she does not recall what it is. She will have that at the next meeting. NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 5, 2025 PAGE 8 Ms. Gordian asked everyone to keep in mind that the day before the regularly scheduled meeting is Labor Day. If that is going to affect meeting attendance, that needs to be discussed. Most of the board members indicated they did not have a problem with having the meeting the day after Labor Day. X. Adiournment There being no further business, Mr. Stadelman called for a motion to adjourn. A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Mr. Carrano, seconded by Ms. Thompson, and approved unanimously via voice vote. Meeting was adjourned at 6:59 p.m. Charles Stadelman, Chairperson Jg Date: