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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10052010NRB Minutes6. PUBLIC INPUT: No public input. 7 OLD BUSINESS: SEBASTIAN HOME OF PELICAN ISLAND NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD MINUTES TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5th, 2010 6:00 P.M. City Council Chamber, 1225 Main Street, Sebastian 1. Chairperson Graves called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. 2. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 3. ROLL CALL: Present: Excused Absence: Robin Graves Chair Jane Schnee Albert Alvarez Ken Grudens Barbara Salmon Eric Spokas Vice Chair Staff Present: Margie Reynolds, Board Liaison and Donna Cyr, Recording Secretary 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes from the August 17, 2010 meeting were not ready for approval. 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS: The board secretary mentioned that the board might be getting a new member. Her application was going before Council at the meeting on the 13th. Ms. Salmon received a call from Mayor Gillmor (as did all members). He would like to have the area between the old Chambers and KIRB buildings enhanced to be a Butterfly Garden. Also, Ms. Salmon mentioned that at the last Council meeting, Council Member Wright asked about a grant that the board could apply for. Ms. Reynolds stated she was aware of the grant and would discuss it under Staff Matters. A. Recap of State of Florida Indian River Clean -Up Project, Saturday, Sept. 18th. Ms. Graves said that the dumpsters were not delivered before the clean up. They arrived after Ms. Reynolds loaded everything in her truck and hauled it away. There were 52 bags of garbage and large items collected. The event went well. There were a couple people that had boats and would be interested in volunteering at later clean ups. Because this clean up included Spoil Island IR #1 the board has fulfilled its obligation for having four clean ups a year. We will not have to do any other cleanups until after February when the weather is cooler. It was suggested that we could bring food and utilize the fire pits and have a bar -b -que at the next cleanup. There was some discussion about how disgusting some of the islands were. Members talked about educating the public on the practice of "take out what you bring in Natural Resources Board Meeting Oct. 5, 2010 Page Two B. Recycling Businesses on US 1 update Barbara Salmon. Ms. Salmon had no update at this time. She will meet with the City Manager about what she needs to do and where to start with this project. Ms. Salmon said she feels some of the larger businesses in the area wouldn't have the time to separate their recycling. But the smaller business would welcome the project. It was again discussed to bring in another group to collect the recycling and their incentive would be to keep anjanoney collected from the cans. 8. NEW BUSINESS: A. Earth Day 2011 Ms. Schnee forwarded the dates of the Hibiscus Festival (April 15 16, 2011). The real Earth Day is Friday, April 22. The members discussed if the group as a whole wanted to continue having the event. The board secretary will verify available park dates in April to have the event. The board is trying to stay away from competitive events like the Hibiscus Festival and Relay For Life. After some discussion the members were leaning to continuing Earth Day but wanted all members present for the final vote. Members were reminded that everyone needs to be involved. It was discussed to work more on educating the public and raising public awareness to natural resources. The board also needs to work on the Champion Tree component to Earth Day. Members need to work on finding and measuring champion trees. Member need to work on sponsorships and not worry so much about getting prizes for drawings. 9. MEMBER MATTERS: Ms. Graves said she received an invitation from Sebastian Inlet Marine Power Squadron to have a board member come speak to them on Monday, October 25th. Ms. Graves and Mr. Alvarez volunteered to speak to them. Ms. Graves will give a short presentation. Ms. Graves also mentioned that she also heard from the Mayor regarding a Butterfly Garden. She thinks it's a great idea. Ms. Reynolds let the board know that the area is actually a Gopher Tortoise habitat. That the plants that were there was food for the tortoise. The area can still be set up as a Butterfly Garden but must be handled with care so not to disturb the tortoises. There are five boroughs there. Ms. Salmon will contact the Mayor and let him know about the tortoise habitat but tell him the project is doable. The board will make a sign for the area. Ms. Graves mentioned that two of the three Letterboxing boxes were missing. She will go out and replace and move these boxes and create the new clues for the website. 10. STAFF MATTERS: Ms. Reynolds let the board know the grant that Councilman Wright spoke of is for small scale projects. It is the Coastal Initiatives Grant. There is a small piece of land on Indian River Drive near south Main Street that the board could work on. We could do an evasive species eradication and get funding to purchase coastal plants that would survive in that area. It would be great if the board could do this project. The dead line for the grant is mid November. The board needs to decide if we want to do this. If anyone knows of a non profit group that we might want to partner with bring back this information to the next meeting. Mr. Spokas will check to see if his students might be able to be involved. Natural Resources Board Meeting Oct. 5, 2010 Page Three The agenda was set for the next meeting. Update on Letterboxing, Recap on the talk with the Power Squadron, the Recycling project, Earth Day 2011, the Butterfly Garden Garden Clean Up, and the Main Street Grant. 11. Being no further business, Ms. Graves adjourned the meeting at 7:12 p.m. Natural sources Chairperson Signature 1(7 9/1 Date