20261212 BOCC Workshop - Jan 13, 2026

Okay, may I have everyone's attention? We are now at the Bewitching Hour. We are getting ready to get started. I want to be sure all the sound people have time to get everything geared up. And while they're doing that, I'll give a quick briefing. We had a seminar meeting in Titusville. It went extremely well, great turnout. We have a great panel of expert speakers that have been working this issue for years now. I think you'll find it very interesting. First, we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. Okay, if we're in order, I think we got everything set. Will will begin with our first presentation via the Natural Resources Management Department by Virginia Barker. Okay, good evening. Can you hear me? I think so. All right. I have been tasked with explaining what the Save Our New River Lagoon program is doing, the progress that we have made, and the lagoon's response so far. So I want to start with the ballot language. From 2016, what the voters approved was to restore the Indian River Lagoon through projects and programs designed to improve water quality, fish, wildlife, and marine habitat, remove muck, and reduce pollution, requiring deposit of all revenue to a Save Our Lagoon trust fund, solely for such projects, with citizen committee oversight and annual independent audits. So I'm going to focus my presentation on the projects and programs designed to do these things for the lagoon. And then the second speaker, Vinny Toronto, is going to talk about the role of the citizen oversight committee that also reviews the annual independent audits. And then the other four speakers are going to give a broader context around community interest and perspective. So broadly, the Save Our New River Lagoon program is structured around four R's, reducing the amount of excess pollution going into the lagoon, removing the amount of pollution that has already entered the lagoon from decades of excess pollution, restoring the natural filter feeders that help rebalance things after shocks and are constantly out there doing their work, and then responding to new information, new opportunities, and amending the project plan annually based on that new information. So the program was tasked with winning a race to save the lagoon, but our little life raft here was sinking. And so, you know, when you're in this kind of situation, you can't just keep paddling like you've been doing. That's not going to win the race. You've got to make some changes. So one of the first things you've got to do is stop too much water from swamping your boat. You've got to stop the excess pollution from going into the lagoon. You've also got to frantically bail excess water, excess pollution, out of your boat. Ideally, you would be able to restore those filter feeders that function like a little bilge pump, maintaining balance in your boat, a dry bottom. And then every now and then take a look around for new problems, new opportunities. Maybe you need to adjust some duct tape and respond accordingly. So around those four R's, this pie chart shows that over half of the money goes to reducing the amount of pollution going into the lagoon. A little over a third of the money is going to projects that remove pollution that's already accumulated in the lagoon. A small sliver, 2%, is going to restoring those filter feeders that provide the bilge pump. And then 2% to that annual process of reviewing opportunities and successes and adjusting the plan accordingly. Then on the right side of the slide, you see a summary of we've spent almost $100 million of the Save Our Lagoon tax dollars. We have also secured over $100 million in grants. We've spent about $64 million of that $111 million in grants. Right now, we are managing over $300 million in projects that are either in design, in permitting, in bidding, construction. And so there's a lot of work that's currently underway. When you combine the spent and in progress, that adds up to $430 million of Save Our Lagoon funds. Of the $496 million that have been collected, by the time the tax expires in December of next, of December of 2020, so this year, we expect to collect $586 million. The delta between the $431 that is spent or underway and the $586 that we expect to collect, those dollars are all allocated to specific projects in the plan. Those projects just haven't started yet. So the graph on the left, the green, represents how much of the tax we have collected so far of the 10-year program. So we're at about 85% collected. The pie chart on the right shows that for every dollar paid in half-cent sales tax by residents at the register, we are getting a lot more dollars going towards projects. So because this is a sales tax, it's paid not just by the residents, but also by the tourists that are visiting here and shopping and spending money in our community. So every dollar that the residents pay, we're gaining about another $0.26 from tourists. We are so far gaining, on average, $0.24 from grants. And then we have these fantastic community partners, both municipalities and nonprofits, all sorts of different organizations that are working with us. And this money helps them get these projects. It helps provide them enough money to get projects across the finish line. On the left is a map of the 119 projects that we've completed so far, where they're located. You know, you can see they're distributed from the very north end of the county to the very south end of the county. They're on the mainland. They're on Merritt Island. They're on the barrier island. And then the lists on the right show you those fantastic partners, how many projects each of them have worked with us to complete. And the bottom right, you see we have also worked with over 2,200 individual homeowners to improve their septic or sewage situation. So how do we pick the projects and who gets how much money? So the first thing is we have to understand the sources of pollution going into the lagoon. So each of these bars represents a major source of pollution to the lagoon. The biggest bar is that black bar sort of in the middle. That is from muck decaying in the lagoon, releasing nutrients into the water column above, feeding algae blooms, smothering the bottom, using up oxygen that the fish need to breathe. And so that is the biggest source of pollution in the lagoon right now. But if we focused all the money on that and still continue to put too much into the lagoon, we would never fix the problem. So we have to also address some of the other sources. So these little green bars represent how the funds are distributed. And so you see they are roughly proportional to the source of pollution. However, the orange there is septic systems. You see sort of a disproportionate share of the funds are going to address septic because there's a lot of interest. There's a lot of grant funding available, and we just need to do it. All right. So there are over 400 projects in the lagoon plan. This phone book size thing is the 350-page plan. I'm not going to walk you through the 400 projects this evening. You'll be relieved to know. But they do fall into these 14 project types. So each of the little rectangles there on this document, there's copies of this document on the tables outside the room, provides a summary of what these 14 major project types are, how much funding is allocated to those project types, how many projects of that type have been completed, what's the load reduction benefit, how many projects are underway, how many we have left to go. And a lot of the times people say they're not seeing anything. These projects, for the most part, are almost invisible because they are largely underground or underwater. Whether it's a stormwater baffle box or a septic upgrade or a sewer line installation or digging muck off the bottom of the lagoon, no, they are not very visible to folks driving by, walking by. But they are happening. All right. So now I'm going to walk through a few examples, not all 14 types, but the ones that we get the most questions about. So I want to start with one of the toughest ones, preventing sewage overflows. So these graphs represent the data from four different sewer lift stations, right? So the sewage comes out of the house and goes into the sewer line, and it flows to the nearest lift station and then pumps at that lift station, push that sewage the rest of the way to the wastewater treatment plant. And what these graphs show, because those lines are trending up to the right, is the more it rains, that's rainfall across the bottom axis, the more it rains, the longer those pumps have to run to push all that volume to the wastewater treatment plants. That means rainwater is getting into the system, and it's that excess rainwater that exceeds the capacity of the sewage system to hold everything, and that's what leads to overflows. So this problem was not part of the original 2016 plan. But then in 2017, we had Hurricanes Irma and Matthew. There were overflows. People were furious. Why is this happening? The county's utilities had just invested over $140 million in lining the pipes, replacing sewer pipes to try to prevent this problem. Nonetheless, we still had overflows during those hurricanes. So we asked the utilities, why? Why is this still happening when you just did all these major repairs and upgrades? And they said, well, we only own, we only have responsibility to maintain what's in the right-of-way, what's in public ownership. People own the pipes from their home across the yard to where it ties into the public system. And those pipes are as old as the houses. And so all that development that went in with the space race, all that older development, those pipes, some of it's cardboard, some of it's clay, it's old, it's tired, it's smashed, it's filled with tree roots, it's leaking out some of the time, it's leaking in some of the time, that is a major contributor to these overflows. So utilities said, but you can smoke test and try to find those leaks. So we smoke tested over 50,000 homes, we found over 1,200 leaks, we've repaired almost all of those leaks, we have a few holdouts that we're in code enforcement proceedings on, and you see the orange lines show you that post-repairs, those run times are basically constant. No matter how much it rains, those run times stay the same, and that shows that we have significantly reduced that rainfall infiltration into the system. Now the bottom right graph is a different situation. I'll show you the red line, right? It's not lower, it's actually higher, same slope. So what happened here is at the same time that we were smoke testing and doing all those repairs, we had lots of development going on, like this senior living facility constructed, and so there's more sewage every single day going to the lift station, having to be pumped to the wastewater treatment plant. All right, septic systems. So in the headlines, in the media, we hear a lot about failing septic systems, but it's not just failing septic systems that are the problem. When you flush your toilet in the house, right, the stuff goes to the tank, the solids settle to the bottom, the liquid goes out of the tank over to the drain field, seeps through the perforated pipe, through the sand, to make room for the next time you flush. And so everything that's in that liquid is going down through the sand, into the groundwater, and moving laterally to the lagoon. So whether it's waste, whether it's chemicals, cleaning chemicals, pharmaceuticals, whatever it is that is leaving the house, is getting into the groundwater and moving towards the lagoon, creating pollution. So the map on the left shows we went through an exercise of estimating the load, the pollution impact of every individual septic system in the county, over 62,000 of them in the lagoon watershed. We color-coded them, so the hot colors are the ones that are polluting the most. And then we looked for clusters of those hot colors. So you see that big yellow cluster there in the middle of the slide. We identified around 100 clusters. Then we calculated, well, what would it cost to connect those, that neighborhood, to sewer? What would the load reduction, the pollution reduction benefit be? And we could come up with a cost per pound for each of those clusters of septic systems. Then we sorted them by cost per pound. And for each region of the lagoon, we came up with the highest priorities. Those are the ones that are funded in the plan. We also installed groundwater monitoring wells. We wanted to be able to document whether these projects were working and the sources of pollution. So we installed some wells in natural areas in the eel conservation lands. And you see that green bar represents the concentration of nitrogen pollution in natural areas. Then we put in wells, about a dozen wells, in septic communities. And you see very polluted groundwater. Then we installed another dozen or so wells in sewer communities. And you see that they are much cleaner than the septic communities, but they're still polluted. Why are they still polluted when they're not getting sewage dumping from the drain field in the septic tank? That's our fertilizer. That's our pet waste. That's, you know, all the other car wash water. All the other things that we're doing at our homes that are adding pollution to the groundwater. Now, when you convert people from septic to sewer, there's more waste going to the wastewater treatment plant. The wastewater treatment plant treats that for pathogens and other contaminants. And then the clean water that comes out the back end of the wastewater treatment plant to conserve water, a lot of that is sent back out to be used as reclaimed water for irrigation. So when we installed wells at people's yards that were on sewer but were getting reclaimed water, you see that it was just as polluted, if not more polluted, than the septic communities. Again, four septic produce enough waste for one sewer to get reclaimed water. So there's still a net benefit, but we can do better than that purple bar. And so we put money in the plan to upgrade the wastewater treatment plants to wastewater treatment plants to improve. And the first one that was completed was Titusville. And this is what the water quality looks like in those Titusville yards after the upgrade. So you see it's equivalent to the sewer service area. So we absolutely can do better. Once we had this data, we added more funding to upgrading wastewater treatment plants. So we went from two projects in the plan to ten. We also, based on the difference between the red bar and the blue bar, moved more funding to septic to sewer projects, since that's a highly successful way of reducing pollution. So the same theory that we used for identifying the best wastewater projects, we also used for identifying the best stormwater projects. So we have over 1,700 outfalls to the Indian River Lagoon carrying, again, draining stormwater to the floodwaters to the Indian River Lagoon. Each of those outfalls drains a specific land area. And we can look at that land area, look at the development in that land area, look at is it septic, is it sewer, what is that development, how much impervious area, is it old development that didn't have to have any stormwater treatment when it happened, is it new development that does have stormwater treatment. And based on that, we can estimate the amount of pollution from each of those areas. Because we prioritize the ones that are the most polluted. That's how the funding is allocated in the plan. For muck removal, we have all this excess pollution that's been going into the lagoon for six or seven decades now. And it accumulates in the deep pockets in the lagoon. And that means that we can find it easily, go in and vacuum it up. And when we do that, we improve the water quality above, and not just above the muck, but also up to a four-mile radius. We can see in the Water Management District's data, improved water quality up to four miles away. And not just, you know, next week or next year. We're seeing that benefit three to five years after the project is completed. And so this is a graph for the O'Galley River muck dredging, one of the first projects that was completed. You see what was the level of blooms that was being fed by nutrients being released from the muck as it decays. What was it before in the brown? What was it after in the blue? All right. And then for our little filter feeding bilge pump that gets 2% of the money, most of these projects are built by Brevard Zoo. We contract with the University of Central Florida to provide independent monitoring of the success or the performance of these projects. We initially used the state criteria for how to design these. And those state criteria, you know, based on statewide statistics, they did not work very well here. So then we got to the old timers that used to be oystermen, clam farmers in the lagoon, talked to them about how to design these projects, redesigned. We have to go through individual permitting now. It's a bit of a beast. But now we have 100% success with these, the last year or two with these projects. So this is a graph that shows the sum of nitrogen reduction from all of the projects completed so far. You see that each year we are able to reduce more of the pollution. You see those first five years or so, the bars are very short. It took years to get these projects designed, engineered, permitted, bid, constructed. You don't actually see the nitrogen reduction in the lagoon until, you know, the project is done. But for the last four or five years, you see that we're making major strides in reducing that pollutant load. So remember that, you know, four, four and a half years of just running but not seeing progress. And then the last four or five years of beginning to really see results. On the left is a map of harmful algae blooms that you can see from space. This is satellite imagery that is from satellites flying over several times a week. And you can actually see from the color of the water where blooms are, how extensive they are, how intensive they are. And so then we went back all the way to the beginning of the program in 2016 and mapped the bloom levels in different portions of the lagoon. So that graph shows you for each region of the lagoon, the blooms got worse from 2016 bloom with the fish kills to the 2018 brown tide to that peak in the middle. This is the 2020 blooms that happened between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2020 resulted in large fish kills. And then things calmed down. Well, that calm period sort of correlates with when we really got the gerbil wheel going fast, delivering project results. Okay, so we're finishing projects. We're reducing pollution. We're reducing harmful algal blooms. Does that mean the lagoon is healthier? So here's another line of evidence. This is seagrass data collected by the Water Management District. The green bars represent the area of seagrass mapped from aerial photography from airplanes. They interpret, you know, what is the area of seagrass. And you see it peaked in 2007, 2009, and then it declined after that all the way to 2021, following that 2020 bloom. The black line and dots are, sorry, the green stuff, they only do that. It's expensive. They only do it every other year, and it takes a long time to process that data. The black line and dots is based on surveyed transect lines that the Water Management District staff swim every single year. And they crunched those numbers very quickly to report how things are going. So I'm going to just zoom in from the peak in 2007, 2009 to the decline seen in the 2011 super bloom, the 2016 fish kill, 2018, 2020. And you see the bottom, the levels bottom out in 2021. And then since then, during this calm bloom period, when our projects are getting going, we are seeing the transect length is increasing. And the longer the transect length, probably the more seagrass there is. And in fact, those transect lengths in 2024 and 2025 are longer than the transect lengths were back in 2016. So just to sort of show you, you know, while the blooms were increasing, the seagrass was continuing to decline. When the blooms decreased, the seagrass began to recover. So we have a long way to go, but we're making progress. Now, where that seagrass is recovering is largely in the very shallow water, less than two feet. Now, why does this matter? Because seagrass is like the underwater rainforest. We can either have an underwater rainforest out there or an underwater desert. The more seagrass we have, the more fish we have, up to 40,000 fish per acre. The seagrass also provides food and habitat and oxygen. And the lagoon is this ideal environment for seagrass. It's shallow. It's protective. It's expansive. And so it's that huge expanse of seagrass that makes the abundance, that makes the diversity, that makes this place so special and what was once the sport fishing capital of the world. So that's what we're trying to recover. And so I'll just close with our projects are working, but restoration takes time and hope is on the horizon. Thank you, Virginia. Our next presentation is from Denny, Toronto. Save our Indian River Lagoon Sorrel Citizen Oversight Committee. All right. So Virginia mentioned the ordinance that was back on August 23, 2016, that the current commission approved. So I'm going to start off with a question. Where were you on August 23, 2016? That was me, August 23, 2016. Well, maybe that was a few decades before that, but I think I can probably still get that high. Commissioner Feltner, you ready? You want to say? No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Not today. Not today. Maybe the next time. But anyways, as the slide says, my name is Vinny Toronto. I'm a failed ninja. But I've also had the greatest honor to serve you all and the entire county as a member of the Citizen Oversight Committee. I was one of the original members. I served eight terms, eight years, and I was the immediate past chair. And so as Virginia mentioned, I'm going to start off with the ordinance. This was in the ordinance, and this was the actual ballot language. So when you went to the polls to vote yes or no, this is exactly what it said. And if you notice in here, it circled, well, it wasn't circled on the ballot, it circled here, that there's a Citizen Committee Oversight. So the residents who voted for the sales tax, they knew that they were going to get oversight from a Citizen Committee. So that was the ballot language. Now, if you dig deeper in the ordinance, you're going to see this is the ordinance language. And in Section 17, there's two things that I want you to remember in my presentation. The first one, it states that the Oversight Committee will recommend updates of the project plan every year. Okay? So I want you to remember that. Annual project plan updates recommendations. The second thing I want you to remember, it says provide public oversight and a transparent process. Okay? So annual updates and a transparent public process to make the project more efficient. Well, as Morris and I talk about often, ordinances are made up of letters, which then put together, form words, which then form sentences and paragraphs and so on. And it ends with an intent. So what I'm going to talk about today is I'm going to talk about the implementation and the brilliance of that implementation. All right. So I once heard the Citizens Oversight Committee described as the best thing since sliced bread. I like sliced bread. It's good. So let's go ahead as a scientific process and let's evaluate that. Let's dive in. So what is the structure of the Citizen Oversight Committee? Well, first off, it's seven areas of expertise. And so my area of expertise was technology. There's one voting member and there's one alternate member. So seven areas of expertise with two members. That's 14 for those keeping score at home. Half are appointed by the Space Coast League of Cities. Those are your municipality leadership. The other half are appointed by the Board of County Commissioners. Those are your county commissioners. Now, this two-year terms with a possible reappointment up to eight years. Now, remember the two things I told you to remember about the ordinance, the changing part? This was not original. The original ordinance didn't have a term limit. But as somebody who's served eight years and who now watches the meetings, I'm glad to hand that baton off. But this changed. The second thing is there are now two emeritus non-voting members, that institutional knowledge. What did we do three years ago? What did we do six years ago? This is something new that is now part of the committee. Okay. When is the CIS and Oversight Committee? For those oversight members who are here, we've got you all have a meeting Friday. The third Friday of every month in Vieira at 830. It's also broadcast live on Space Coast Government TV, Brevard County's website, the Facebook page, and the YouTube page. And I counted. There are 14,445 minutes of meetings on YouTube. 84 meetings. That's a lot of minutes. A lot of minutes. And so, remember that first thing I told you to remember on the ordinance? Public and transparent process. It's all there. Okay. What is the Citizens Oversight Committee to do? Look at that. It's a box. What color is it? Orange. No one's going to scream blue? Come on. Where are my Florida Gators at? Come on. University of Florida. All right. Blue. All right. I said it for myself. All right. So, here we go. So, there's the Citizens Oversight Committee, right? So, this is what we do every month. Every month, we take the latest science through expert presentations. All right? And so, here's a list of presentations through just the first four years. Dr. Windsor compiled that list. That was just through the first four years. So, every month, we get a list of expert presentations. We also hear about new technologies. Virginia mentioned it. Satellites. So, we're able to see where the blooms are. We're able to track the blooms. And then, this was my favorite. This was a wind model. So, our lagoon is 72 miles long, right? And so, if you think about other impaired bodies of water, Chesapeake Bay, their tidal flow, tide comes in, tide goes out. Our lagoon is so long that we're wind-driven. And this was a model that a doctor had put together. And it had all these little crazy colors and lines going all over. And it showed you how the water moved throughout the year. And so, this is part of the new technology we've taken to better understand the lagoon and how to fix it. All right. So, that's the latest science. The next thing is we have the Sorrel and Natural Resource staff come in as advisors. And they give us a project progress and funding information. And so, we have a monthly revenue chart showing us how much we've collected. Also, quarterly project reimbursements. And one of those things real quick on that monthly project chart that Virginia mentioned, every dollar is allocated. Even the dollars we haven't collected right now. But the dollars we're projecting to collect because we want this train moving fast and we don't want it to stop. So, we actually have all those projected dollars are already set to projects. Anyways, quarterly project reimbursements. So, we look at the projects, where they are, and are the reimbursements going out. We also look at quarterly grant acquisitions. We've been able to take the half cent sales tax and apply for state grants at 50-50 matches. So, we look at how our grant progress is going. And the quarterly project progress, see how the projects are moving. And lastly, the yearly audit. This looks at the entire project from beginning to end. So, they look at the entire process to make sure that it's being done as efficient as possible. All right. Then the last component is we take citizen input through public comment and also the fact that we're citizens. And so, our bylaws state public comment to be heard on a proposition before the COC. That's in our bylaws. And so, when I was chair, I took public comment on the approval of the meeting minutes, approval on the agenda. I want to hear from the community. I'm trying to represent you. And so, I'm asking for your input. So, we have public comment on all propositions. We also have a general public comment session. And for those that are on the Citizens Oversight Committee, your last meeting went four hours and 45 minutes. Woo! That's a good meeting. That's a good meeting. But again, for me, if I'm going to represent the public, I need to hear from the public. Lastly, it's that citizens part, right? I'm a citizen. We're citizens talking to citizens. This patch right here was a gentleman who was very passionate about the lagoon. I spent about 100 hours with him, outside the meetings, talking to him. I've talked to many of the people in our community. I want to share with them the information I have, and I want them to tell me what I'm doing wrong. Tell me what I'm doing wrong. Tell me my karate kick isn't high enough. I'm going to kick higher. We want to make the project better. So, I always carry... This is in my car right now, and I carry it around with me. It's a reminder of who I'm doing this for and who I'm representing. All right. So, then we take all that information, tie it up in a nice bow, and we come up with a yearly project plan update. That's a request for proposals. Every year, we say, okay, any new projects? Any new project types? Any new ideas? Send them our way. We'll see if they're more efficient. We'll swap out projects, and we come up with an update. Then we take that update, and we give it to the board of county commissioner, and they decide. We're an advisory committee. We're an oversight committee. We give them our advice, and then they go ahead and decide what they'd like to do. And you'll see there, that arrow between the yearly project plan and the board of county commission, see that? It's a double arrow, right? It goes both ways. Well, that's for a very good reason. In 2019, through public comment and science, reimbursements were reallocated towards septic. So if you look at the plan on the left, right, that was the original plan. Gray, that was muck dredging. That was 66% of the dollars. Then in 2019, we sent the plan to the county commission. They said, well, why don't you look at reallocating some more to septic? So we did. We took it back, and then the one on the right is the plan after that, and the one that was approved. Now, there is a lighter gray, and there's no smoke and mirrors. That's 13%. That was interstitial water treatment. We were treating the water going back in the lagoon. So even if you add up that 13 and the 30 for muck, you're still less than the 66. So new project examples. Virginia mentioned them. The lateral smoke testing. We're able to come up with these ideas and technology and science and provide them. The last thing, the project plan, which provides long-term funding, does change. It's brilliant. And so, again, like I said, the citizen oversight committee is the best thing since sliced bread. The reason that I heard that is because I said that, and it's because it's true, but it's not just because of the things that I stated. It's because of these people. These are the other citizens that I've had the honor to serve with who have represented you. These are the members who spent those 14,000 hours going over the project. So that's the reason why it's brilliant, because the citizens have been able to take their passion and turn it into progress. Lastly, here's your current committee members. There can be misinformation out online. Reach out to these people. Talk to them. They're citizens. Hear what they have to say. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Our next speaker is a presentation from the National Estuary Program, Dr. Dwayne DeVries. Good evening, everybody. I want to start just by saying how honored I'm to be here. I'm glad I look at you, and our history goes back to the very beginning of the Environmentally Endangered Lands Program when you were a county commissioner. And in my career, which I've been here 47 years as a resident, 10 years as the National Estuary Program director, but I have two highlights in my career. That was the first, is the Endangered Lands Program for Brevard County. And the second is actually being able to work with you, Virginia, and the team. I get to see NEPs, National Estuary Programs, all over the nation. And in fact, there are 28 of us dedicated by Congress in Section 320 of the Clean Water Act. There is a new one coming on board as soon as EPA administers it up on the panhandle, Perdido-Pensacola. And what I can tell you is I get a chance to talk to all 28 of those national estuary programs. They are all basically directed by Congress inside the Clean Water Act to actually work as non-regulatory, science-based, community-driven programs, and they are all different. But none are like ours, and none have county partnerships like we have with you all and the other four counties along the lagoon. If you look at the slide to the right, there's a couple things I want to just mention. What makes us nationally significant is not just the biological diversity that Virginia mentioned, but it's also the human and public-built assets. We have, just in Brevard County, two national wildlife refuges. We have a national seashore. We have Kennedy Space Center, which has been, for seven decades, you know, the launching space, you know, to space for America. And I was just over there last week and saw what's coming, and we are making history again. But we also have Port Canaveral. Now, I just heard the largest, most active cruise terminal in the world. And all of that comes together in an interesting connection to a lagoon that's narrow, shallow. Vinny mentioned it, wind-driven, not tidily flushed. But one thing I didn't mention during our Titusville meeting that's really important, we are compartmentalized by causeways and bridges. And so it used to be a wind-driven system of 156 miles. Now we're really having to manage this system causeway to causeway. So what's happening in Titusville, we could put a billion dollars in Titusville and solve every problem we needed, probably isn't going to affect Indian River County or even Southern Brevard. And that makes both a challenge and a different perspective on how, you know, you would manage Tampa Bay, you know, or Sarasota Bay or Chesapeake Bay. In 2015, after 25 years of being administered in the St. Johns River Water Management District, six counties came together in a county collective. And we were under the gun at that time. So we had a massive harmful algal bloom in 2010 and 11. We were having discharges from Lake Okeechobee. And the counties really felt that they needed more representation. So the five counties came together with two water management districts, Department of DEP, Florida Department of DEP, said, let's reorganize under an interlocal agreement that created the IRL Council, an independent special district of Florida. The only authority we have as a collective governance model is to administer and be the fiscal agent for the National Estuary Program. We don't have regulatory authority, and we do not engage in regulatory authority. At our last meeting in Titusville, somebody asked me, why aren't you in these meetings for zoning? We don't do that. You know, we are working at a much higher level, and we leave the local governance and the regulatory side to the water management districts, the counties, the cities. The other point that happened is that we went from, you know, largely federal funding, which is an appropriation each year, to having this support from the five counties in the interlocal and the two water management districts. And so our base funding is quite limited, but we leverage it out in a big way. The other mandate in Congress was to assemble stakeholders, and not a small assemblage. This is a network or collaborative governance model. And so we now have over 100 scientists, citizens, industry leaders, community leaders, resource managers, leaders, and we work collectively and coordinate and communicate with the Sorrel Program. My staff are either in the room for every one of those COC meetings. Virginia, I don't know how many times you've presented, which always gets a little bit of jealousy with the other counties, because the other counties on the lagoon do not have this program, do not have this level of investment, and they see how much work is being done. Also, all of our meetings are in the public sector. And so we do that all in a single week, and our policy board is much like the Board of County Commissioners. The final decision is really from our policy board, and right now Commissioner Atkinson represents you, previously Commissioner Feltner, but we really work closely with you all to make sure we're in alignment. We realized early on that this wasn't about how much science we had or how much technical knowledge, that if we didn't work together in a super region, that we were not going to be able to move this forward because you can't do this alone. And so the partnerships of the federal government and federal funding, state funding, and then working together among the counties give us a fairly significant clout on the political spectrum. We, too, have a 10-year comprehensive conservation management plan. You know, Virginia kind of walked you through this long process of concept to delivery, but I wanted to mention how important it is to have a list, a priority list of projects. In the middle, you see your most recent plan for sorrel. On the lower right is a plan for stormwater projects that was done just in 2024 by the Water Management District. It's those lists that allow us to go to Washington, Tallahassee, and even some private sector partners and say, we have a project that needs funding. That's a powerful place to be. This is what we look like over the last 10 years. I just want to highlight this. We have funded, with our IRL Council funds, 248 projects at $24.9 million. That $24.8 million is like half of what you have to work with on an annual basis. So what we do is we fill the gaps. You know, in fact, right now, our small grants program is active, so if anybody's listening and they have a small grant between $500 and $5,000, we can really make a difference, you know, where you're doing these large infrastructure projects, we can fill the gaps in science, technology, do some of the really high-risk stuff, and also leverage our position for federal funding. This is the distribution everybody wants to know, well, how much did my county get over this 10 years? And you can see it's a fairly even distribution. I tell us to all the counties, look at Brevard County. If you don't ask, you don't get. And every year, you're in Tallahassee, you're in Washington, and you're leveraging the power of the Sorrel Program, because you're coming to the table, you know, not with an empty hand, but with money on the table and projects lined up with priorities. Federal government has been really, really important to us over the last 8 to 10 years. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act brought $909,800 directly to the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program over the last 5 years. To give you an idea, we used half of those dollars to create seagrass nurseries, which are helping to support the work that's being done. We have a $9.4 million NOAA grant, and I just want to show you that NOAA grant and our EPA funding has allowed us to do some things that we wanted to do, but we could never have afforded just with our annual dollars. And then, of course, the state of Florida. Next week, we start session. As some of you know who've been up there, you know, this is the beginning of talking about budgets. The governor has $100 million in the governor's budget for a combination of the Indian River Lagoon Protection Program and Biscayne Bay, and so I'm hoping that that gets supported this year and we can see another year of significant funding from the state for infrastructure projects. But we also were able to cobble the EPA money and the federal dollars from NOAA to complete a pretty comprehensive economic analysis of the Indian River Lagoon. And you'll notice the numbers are large, $28.3 billion in spending output, you know, and that is the direct, indirect, and induced value that the lagoon brings to the table. 128,000 jobs. The number that I was interested in as a scientist is what are the ecosystem services? You know, I think it was Commissioner Delaney was talking about flooding last time. So when you look at a wetland, you know, a wetland has birds and fish and all sorts of critters. That's a value. But when that wetland is storing your stormwater so you don't flood, now you've got a co-benefit. And so when we looked at all of those co-benefits across the real estate, you know, the boating, fishing, you know, even commercial fishing, we're looking at a $10 billion, you know, value add when we think about that. NOAA said, you know, we're giving you $9.4 million. And I didn't have this in the last presentation, but it's really interesting. I look back to 2016, in our NOAA proposal, we have 15 different sites, 10 different sub-awardees, multiple subcontractors and contractors with those sub-awardees. And we were able to look at those sites and say, gosh, and I'm going to pick one. So we've got a 2,000-acre restoration in Marin Island National Wildlife Refuge where the dike top was completely taken down by St. John's River Water Management District. That project came in at half the budgeted cost because of new technology. So we're going to double the value. But if you look at some of the bar graphs, you know, that particular project is generating a benefit-cost ratio of over $50 for every dollar spent. And I want to caution you, when you look at the difference of each of these and you think about why is one more or less, a lot of it has to do with how much it costs. Seagrass restoration is pretty costly. So the bigger the project, that benefit-cost ratio goes down. You know, clams, relatively inexpensive for CapEx, but big delivery. The average of all of those projects was 24x. And what's really interesting to me is back in 2016, the Board of County Commissioners had a contractor look at the first Sorrel project. And I went back to look at the very first report. Hard to believe I keep that stuff. And the projection for return on investment on the county project plan was 22 to 1, correct? At the same time, we were doing a large regional effort with the regional planning councils and also what is now Florida Commerce, and they came in at 33 to 1. So when you look at today and you look at 10 years ago, return on investment has been relatively stable, even though everything has gone up in value and cost. So I'm going to leave you with this thought, that we are building not just a public workforce when we do this restoration, but a private sector workforce. I don't know how many contractors that Virginia has, you know, deeply embedded within all of those projects. But our NOAA project alone has 16 private sector companies who are employed as part of that 9.4 million, along with academic institutions, non-profits. And so the bottom line here is that we live in a remarkable place, probably one of the only places in the world that have the assets that we have. We have lots of challenges because we're growing quick, but this takes time. Took 60 to 70 years to hit that tipping point. You know, we are in year 9, moving to year 10 on the sorrel program. We are in the beginning of restoration of the lagoon and not at the end. And the ability to restore quickly and effectively and efficiently the way you're doing now is really going to be the telltale on where we are 10 years from now. You're anchoring this effort and leading this effort at the local level, and we're going to need that leadership again for the next 10 years. And it takes resolve, and it's not easy. It's like a combination of science and farming. At times, you look out the window and go, oof, hope we don't have a tornado. So we need to be risk, not risk-adverse, but risk-tolerant that some of this work isn't going to deliver exactly what we thought. But Virginia showed you. We have evidence with seagrasses and with water quality that we're making progress. So thank you. Thanks for indulging me for a little extra time. But my staff knows I just can't stay on script. Thank you for those three wonderful presentations. Very, very, I never get tired of hearing them. I would like to, I think we have to schedule a short break, five minutes, ten minutes. Let's have a seven-minute break. Couldn't make it my mind, so seven minutes. Went that way. Okay, ready to get started again. I'd like to get everyone's attention. I like to have dinner conversations with people, and there's very few places. We will start with our next speaker. Next to my office. We have, may I have everyone's attention. I knew you were going to get this. Can you listen? All right, we'll get our next speaker. Our next speaker will be a presentation from the business community, Loralee Thompson. Loralee, you're here somewhere, I think. Yes. All right. Our next speaker is Loralee Thompson. I don't know, did she step out? Oh, here she is. Okay. Loralee is representing the business community. Thank you for being here, Loralee. Sorry about that. I couldn't find my script. I was about to have, you were about to have to call an ambulance. I have a feeling you could probably do it without a script. No. It's a lot of words. All right. So, here we go. First of all, thank you for inviting me, and thank you for your support. This picture looks really different than the first time NASA revealed a view of Florida's night sky from space. There's a lot more lights in our landscape now. You see that tiny black gap along the coastline, the one with the yellow arrow? That very special area is the Northern Indian River Lagoon. Except for the extreme northeast corner of the state, this is the only place where one can stand on the west shore of an eastern Florida estuary and look towards a barrier island and not see the lights from houses, hotels, and condos. Before spaceships and cruise ships made their way to our community, citrus and fishing were Brevard County's biggest industries. Net fishing was a profitable enterprise. In 1922, the Indian River fishing industry was bigger than the world-famous Indian River citrus industry. Our region thrived on both commercial and sport fishing. Numerous fish houses and tackle shops operated along the river. By the 1950s, pier fishing had become a major activity for tourists as well as locals, and every coastal town had a fishing pier. My Thompson grandparents operated the Titusville Fishing Pier, and my family had the great fortune to live right next to it. A pioneer in the fiberglass boat building business, my dad built his first 16-foot T-Craft runabouts underneath the apartment where we lived. There was a small basin by our house. When the wind blew out of the east, big mats of seagrass drifted in. Then the manatees would come. We could sit on a dock and touch the backs of grazing manatees with our bare feet. We welcomed a summer when clouds of moon jellies floated into our basin. Sometimes there were so many moon jellies, it seemed like you could walk on them. They filled the water column from the bottom to the surface. Bottlenose dolphins fed outside the entrance to our basin every evening. We could see the dolphins tossing fish in the air and leaping after them. Watching the dolphins from our pier was better than being at marine land, because the dolphins were in the wild, in their home in the river. On summer nights, the bioluminescence was spectacular. Staring into dark waters was like peering into a fairyland, as tiny luminous creatures scattered through shimmering seagrass, like flickering stars. When I was 11, my grandfather told me something that was so profound, I'd never forgotten it. We were standing on his fishing pier, looking down the river at the cranes and the barges and the dredges used for building the NASA bridge and causeway. He told me that all the new development was going to kill the river. My grandfather only had a 7th grade education, yet he knew that causeways and growth were going to be very bad for the lagoon. That was about the same time that my dad built a push net and started dropping me, the net, and a rowboat off at Hollover Canal on summer days so I could catch shrimp for my grandfather to sell at his pier. Like many kids from families who made their livings from the river, I was expected to work. That suited me just fine, because all I ever wanted to do was hang out on the river and fish. Later, I built 150 crab traps, and I started running those every afternoon after school. When I was 17, my grandfather co-signed for my first bank loan, and I bought 500 yards of gill net and a bow runner boat so I could fish for mullet. There were massive schools of mullet back then. The same school of mullet could pass underneath my grandfather's pier for more than 20 minutes. I made a lot of money as a teenager fishing for mullet. Being on the river was a magical time for me. The water was crystal clear, and close to shore, the bottom was carpeted with rippling, waving seagrass. A walk down any shoreline revealed... Oh, that was a big mistake. Let's start over. Sorry, guys. I am technologically challenged, as you can see. Okay. Got to look at the seagrass again, but it's not going to kill anyone. Pretty, isn't it? A walk down any shoreline revealed fiddler crabs as far as I could see. When I approached, they raced towards their hulls, and the motion of hundreds of fiddler crabs running for cover, it looked like water parting as I moved along the shore. With the coming of spring, hordes of bigger crabs made their presence known. Any sandy beach with a hard onshore wind was covered with spawning horseshoe crabs. Flocks of hungry shorebirds feasted on their eggs, gaining weight for their long-distant flights to the Arctic tundra to nest. I didn't know it then, but I was experiencing the end of the grandeur of the Indian River lagoon before my grandfather's prophecy came true. The 2000s were a period of intense focus on the Indian River as a world-class fishery, particularly for its abundant prized redfish. Anglers came seeking the high quality of the fishery, particularly for site fishing opportunities in clear, shallow waters. Our area became a premier destination for competitive angling. It was a regular stop for the Professional Fishing League Worldwide Redfish Tour and prestigious local series such as the Redbone Large Celebrity Tournaments. Guides who consistently perform well in these tournaments gained recognition. Some ended up with their own TV shows and a large platform for conservation messaging and promoting our lagoon. Regardless of whether a fishing tournament is a local event or a major professional tour, fishing tournaments are big business for our hospitality industry as hotels and restaurants fill to capacity for days as anglers scout for the best fishing spots. The economic worth of unpolluted water through the creation of jobs in fishing, tourism, recreation, and other industries is well documented. These assets make it easy for us to attract good workforce for our economy. People come here to enjoy the same magical experiences I had while I was growing up. Bioluminescent kayak tour operators put hundreds of people out on the water every summer night, relying on schools of mullet for their guests' experience. Manatees often swim right up to kayaks, and fishing is a widespread activity. Popular pastimes for visitors and residents include birding and wildlife photography. Without a healthy lagoon, our unique nature simply would not exist. It's been shown time and again that property values increase in direct proportion to their proximity to clean water. A huge portion of ocean seafood relies on estuaries and their salt marshes, with estimates that over 70% of the U.S. commercial catch and 80% of the recreational catch depend on these vital nurseries of the sea for critical life stages. Generations of my family and many others have depended on a healthy Indian river to make our living. This map of Florida's salt marshes shows the critical importance of the Mosquito Lagoon and the Space Center salt marshes as a recharge area for fisheries. Very little salt marsh acreage exists along Florida's southeastern coast below Kennedy Space Center. I know that the lagoon is getting better. The water is clear, and the algae blooms are generally spotty, smaller, and they don't linger as long as earlier blooms did. There's a lot more bait now, and the fishing continues to improve. Seagrass started coming back strong in the Southern Mosquito Lagoon in 2022 and in the Northern Indian River in 2024. In 2025, this year, it expanded south into the basins between the Titusville Railroad Bridge and the NASA Causeway. With better water quality, it should continue its southern movement. One way to measure the character of a community is to look at what it protects. We protect what we value. The Indian River Lagoon is more than a beautiful body of water nestled inside coastal barrier islands. It's one of the greatest estuaries in North America. Its diversity of life is unmatched. Its total annual economic value is more than $28.3 billion, a staggering economic impact that affects communities and economies throughout its entire length. Everything about our way of life here in Brevard County is enhanced and given greater value due to the influence of the lagoon. Do I still like to fish? You bet I do. Only I don't keep them to sell anymore. I throw them back so others can catch them too. Due to development and a growing population, the Indian River will never again be wild and free like it was when I was a kid. But we can bring it back to a condition where our children and grandchildren can enjoy it as much as I did. We need to treat it like it's a giant aquarium that's always going to have to be managed. We still have a long way to go. It's our responsibility to leave a restored Indian River Lagoon and a funding source to keep it healthy as a legacy for future generations to enjoy. Thank you. Thank you, Laura Lee, and thank you for all that you've done for our community. Our next presentation is the municipal perspective, and our speaker is Frank Cattino. Thank you. I'll tell you a little bit about myself because I know they said municipalities, but it shows up there as Captain Frank Cattino, and I'm not so sure. When I went to jury duty one time, the judge looked at me and said, I always want to meet the guy whose wife had the real job. So that's part of my life. The other part is I have been involved with the city of Satellite Beach for around 45 years. I had the great opportunity when I was much younger to serve on a lot of the boards and then serve on City Council as the longest elected official, and it taught me a lot. And first, I want to thank the county commissioners, Virginia, for all your hard work of working together with municipalities. I really think working together and the half-cent sales tax brings in more recurring dollars where grant dollars are available to municipalities to do and complete more projects. These funds are being used for meaningful projects that directly benefit the Indian River Lagoon. None of this would be possible without the tax and a strong collaboration among the county and participating cities. We must remain committed to work together to continue advancing these critical projects. While there is still much work to be done, funding is often the key factor that determines how quickly progress can move forward. The Bloom and the Half-Cent Sales Tax has brought together the county and municipalities along with community organizations to help educate the ever-growing population for a better environment. And I'll tell you a little story here. I was wondering if to tell this or not. But years ago, I was doing that job. And I was in the middle of nowhere. I mean, a place where some of the scientists, Dwayne, you know Aaron Adams, told me, until we went there with the airboats, humans might never have walked these flats. And I'm walking with a gentleman, and I'm complaining about the Indian River Lagoon. And I think, really, what he wanted me to do was shut up so he could fish. And in doing so, he says, I'm going to tell you the problem, how to solve it. Very easy. And I was like, wow, this is great. Here I am. This guy, he said, it's real easy. Just, and he said, tell people to go home and look in the mirror. And that was one of the things that really changed. And it's also one of the things I think that I want to thank about, you know, our growing population. And thank the NEP, Bobbard Zoo, Bobbard Indian River Coalition, and the cities that have created sustainability boards to educate the public. We can go and put all this dollars out there. But if we don't do a better job on our daily lives, how we live, we're wasting our money. So the education, I think, has been important. And to those groups, thank you. And the fund, I really like, to be honest with you, because it's really a partnership. We're not paying it all as citizens here. Yes, we pay a good portion of it. But you have tourists that pay it. We get grants because we have this fund. And we're partnering with people to put the dollars together to get more bang for our buck. I think we've got to realize, too, that in 1955, there was only 25,000 people living in this county. There's over 650,000 people now. Our municipalities and county infrastructure is aging. And we as a society can't go back and live the way we have in the past and expect the environment to change. And again, I think working together is a critical factor in making the dollar go more. The cities have worked closely with the counties to complete important projects funded by the tax. One project is septic to soar. And other projects are trunk line replacements for stormwater and retention ponds along with muck dredging. It's not over, and I don't believe it's ever over. We as municipalities in the county and the general public must always work towards a cleaner environment. And one thing I think we need to realize, I know everybody's in a hurry, that it's important, you know, we spend our dollar wisely and we don't waste. Chesapeake Bay took 40 years. You look at Tampa Bay, about 30-year project, and none of those projects are stopping. They're continuing to go. And we are, as I think Dwayne and some people said, we're in a very different system. These are tidal systems. A lot of our system isn't. We need to use the best available technology. And remember, this tech has a lifespan and will need to be upgraded someday when better tech comes along. And I can tell you, in the satellite beach back in the 90s, St. John's River, Marty Smithson came to us and wanted to put baffle boxes in. And we were pretty progressive. We were buying up most of our beach, and we wanted to get into this program. We put the baffle boxes in. Today, those baffle boxes are no longer there. Just in that short period of time, they lived their life, and better technology came along. So we have to reach out to this technology and keep using newer technology, especially in stormwater ponds and stuff that's going to help. When you look at a population growth, we could probably sure live fine with 25,000 people. But 650,000 in a lot of our cities were built back in the 50s and 60s and have a hard time changing their makeup because there's no more land to do it. You would never build the beach towns to, you know, the way you did in the 50s if it was being built today. A story. A few years back, Dr. DeFries came to me and said he wanted me to go out with this guy named Grant Gilmore. And I was like, okay. He goes, yeah, you guys are going to go out. It's going to be really cool. You're going to listen to fish talk to each other. And I'm like, oh, this is really good. Two doctors and, you know, they're trying to get me out there. I go out there every day to try to catch fish and they don't love me. And now they're going to want me to listen to these fish talk. Well, it was one of the couple things that really changed my thinking. The one that the gentleman told me that, you know, just go home and look in the mirror. The other small company called Patagonia said that. And, you know, this day I went out. And I went out that night and fish do talk to each other. It was amazing. But he said something that night that I look and look back and it came true. Very much so. And he said something about the river. He says, it's dying bad. No one believes me. And this river system has been dying for a long time. Way before the bloom. And I say this not in a sarcastic way, but the bloom in a long run might have been Mother's Nature's wake-up call to us. I think until then, until the fish washed up in people's backyard, floating in the river, I'm not saying people didn't care. But out of sight, out of mind. We didn't see it. Our people didn't see it who weren't on the lagoon. Commercial fishing guys were saying it for years. It was scientists. But the mass public didn't see it until this happened. Okay, let me show you a couple. If I can do this, I'm very technically bad. Push the button. So, believe it or not, this little guy swam around Melbourne Beach. And many years ago, that's actually, there was giant ones. And this is just a little one that swam around not too many years ago. Here is another picture of our lagoon before the algae bloom. And this picture I want you to keep a remembering, so I'm going to show it to you again in a second. The grass, the little fish and stuff, it was amazing fishery. Then comes this. This is an area of the algae bloom. Remember that spot I said to take a look at? There it is. This is after the bloom cleared. The grass is gone. And it's just sand. And here it is a year and a half ago, starting to come back. It was then about 20 feet at that spot. There it is today. So, what I say on this is the sales tax and the hard work from the county and the municipalities are starting to show. We can't quit. Ten years is just a drop in the bucket into making this better. So, thank you and thank you for your help. Thank you, Captain Catino. And thank you for your public service to City Council. Next presentation is the presentation of the economic impact of the Indian River Lagoon. Chris Peterson, St. John's River Water Management District, is here to give us a presentation on that. Thank you, Virginia. Let me just put this up here. Thank you, Chairman. You introduced me as I'm from the St. John's River Water Management District. Tonight, I am the Secretary of the St. John's River Water Management District Governing Board. But tonight, I'm not here speaking on their behalf. I am here simply speaking as a citizen and a Brevard County business owner. And I want to talk a little bit about the money of water. I'll just set that right here. You'll probably hear me well enough anyway. My wife says I'm loud and everybody knows where I'm at anyway. So, good evening, everyone. And thank you for the opportunity to speak today about one of our most important issues facing Florida, the health of our waters. From the Everglades to the Indian River Lagoon, from our springs to the St. John's River Water, the St. John's River Basin, the story of Florida is the story of water. And today, I'd like to share with you what's being done by the legislature, the governor, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the St. John's River Water Management District, and importantly, Brevard County, to restore and protect these vital resources. Oop, I go back. But first, I'd like to take a moment to explain why this matter means so much to me. I love natural Florida. I spend my time boating, fishing, and it's more than a pastime. It's a way of life. I've been so passionate about it that I built my career around it. Today, I have the privilege of serving as the president of Hells Bay Boat Works, where we build the world's finest shallow water skiffs in the world right here in Brevard County. So, what is the economic impact of recreational fishing? According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, saltwater recreational fishing alone generates around $9.2 billion of economic impact that supports about 88,000 jobs here in Florida. And when combined with freshwater fishing, the total estimate is $13.8 billion and supports about 120 jobs here in Florida. So, this is why I feel it is so important to spend our valuable resources on fixing our water and saving our lagoon. But here's the truth. Without clean water, we don't have healthy estuaries. Without healthy estuaries, we don't have good fishing. And without good fishing, nobody needs the world's finest skiff. Which means all the families who depend on Hells Bay Boat Works would be impacted. Clean water just isn't about an environment. It's about our livelihood, our heritage, and our future. In this year's budget, the 25-26 state budget includes almost $1.4 billion has been dedicated to restoration and water quality. The same budget declares that since 2019, Florida has invested nearly $9 billion in restoring and protecting the state's waterways. In the 2025, the governor's budget includes $600 million for targeted water and quality improvement and springs protection efforts. In that same budget, $25 million was allocated for the Indian River Lagoon protection and for priority water projects. That budget also has $382 million of a larger chunk that is set aside for expanded water quality improvement projects, including wastewater, stormwater, and septic conversions. Closer to home, the state has recognized a crisis in the Indian River Lagoon. Since 2019, nearly $390 million has been invested in lagoon restoration, and $100 million was set aside for water quality projects within the Indian River Lagoon Basin, from septic sewer conversions to wastewater treatment upgrades and stormwater retrofits. We know the lagoon can't be saved by just one project or one year of funding. It takes consistent, long-term commitment, and that's exactly what we're seeing. Long before this state-level commitment, Brevard County voters took a very bold step in 2016, approving a half-cent infrastructure sales tax specifically dedicated to restoring and improving the Indian River Lagoon. This half-cent sales tax referendum, often called the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Program, was designed to raise approximately $586 million over 10 years to fund local restoration efforts. So far through this tax, Brevard County has already planned and implemented hundreds of projects, hundreds of projects, or put them into progress, all designed to reduce and to remove the excess nutrients and pollution that undermine the health of the lagoon, to reduce and prevent nitrogen and phosphorus from entering the lagoon, with projected annual pollutant reductions already measured in hundreds of thousands of pounds once all these projects are completed. Supported upgrades to septic systems, stormwater improvements, sewer expansions, and innovative approaches, like Frank was talking about, the new science, to reduce the pollutant inputs. Some of the standout projects funded through this tax include projects in partnership with Brevard County. One of them is the Crane Creek M1 Canal Flow Restoration Project. Right here in Brevard County, Crane Creek Project is now complete. It's now complete. For decades, the M1 Canal sent polluted water east into the Indian River Lagoon. Today, with a new operable weir, pump stations, and treatment wetlands west of I-95, that flow has been redirected. The project will prevent over 24,000 pounds of nitrogen and 3,100 pounds of phosphorus from entering the lagoon each year. And it restores up to 7 million gallons a day of fresh water flow back to the St. Johns River and away from the Indian River Lagoon. That's 7 million gallons a day of fresh water that's badly needed over in the St. Johns River, and we don't need it in the Indian River Lagoon. Second, another set of projects making a difference are living shorelines. Instead of hardened seawalls, we're building oyster reefs, planting mangroves, marsh grasses, and using nature to stabilize our coasts. Brevard County alone has helped fund oyster reefs and living shoreline projects that stretch for more than 2,300 feet, filtering water, reducing erosion, and providing much-needed habitat. The Titusville Causeway project is a standout. There's over 650 wave attenuation devices have been installed, four acres of seagrass restorations, and millions of clams. Thank you for the clams. They're very important. The zoo's done that, and others. Really, thank you for that. But none of these efforts will be possible without partnerships. Through cost-share programs, local governments and utilities bring projects forward, and the state helps fund them. This model stretches taxpayer dollars, rewards innovation, and ensures that both state and local priorities are met. These projects not only improve water quality, they support the economic and recreational value of the lagoon, strengthen property values, protect livelihoods of the residents who depend on clean water for tourism, fishing, and our quality of life. Also, I've not done the math on it, but all of these dollars are reinvested here, and we all help build these things. There's contractors, and your neighbors all benefit from these, and then there's always an economic multiplier to that, where they spend their dollars. Hopefully, they'll buy a boat, but we'll see. The synergy between state funding and local investment represents a powerful model for environmental stewardship. The state of Florida's historic water budget brings broad strategic support to communities statewide. Local investments, like Brevard County's half-cent sales tax, provide targeted, community-driven action where water issues hit home. The combination of state leadership and local initiative is what makes Florida uniquely positioned to tackle the complex water challenges, from nutrient pollution to water sustainability and ecosystem restoration. As the Save Our Indian River Lagoon sales tax approaches its sunset this year, our community faces important decisions about extending and refining this successful local effort. Public engagement and support will be crucial as we continue to confront legacy pollution and build on the progress that we've already made. And we've seen some of that progress tonight in some of these slides. We are making progress. That's the great thing. Together with these partnerships between the state, the county, the national government, the cities, scientific experts, and engaged residents, we are setting a new standard for water stewardship in Florida, one that protects our waterways today and preserves them for generations to come. But one point that is very important to understand and cannot be understated, local investment is not separate from the state funding. It is the key that actually unlocks it. Across Florida, vast majority of water quality grants, restoration funds, and infrastructure programs operate on a cost-share model. That means that state dollars are awarded competitively and they require local governments to bring real funding to the table. In Brevard County, that half-cent sales tax is not just a local commitment. It's the financial foundation that allows us to compete for more and to secure state funding. Because of this investment, Brevard County has been able to meet the required local match thresholds, often well over 50% or more, for state water quality grants. Projects funded through the Save Our Indian Lagoon Program are structured to align with state priorities, making them eligible funding from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Water Management Districts. Every dollar invested through the half-cent sales tax has been leveraged to attract additional state dollars, multiplying that impact well beyond what local funding could ever achieve. Without this dedicated local funding source, many of these projects would simply not qualify for state assistance, regardless of how urgent that need may be. In practical terms, that means that this half-cent sales tax turns local dollars into matched state investments, allows Brevard County to move projects forward years sooner than waiting for state funding alone, and ensures that state funds are also spent on shovel-ready, engineered, and accountable projects, rather than just sitting idle. This partnership model is intentional. The state of Florida has made it clear. Communities that invest in themselves rise to the top of the funding list. By approving the half-cent sales tax, voters sent a strong signal that this community is very serious about restoring the Indian River Lagoon. And the state responded by becoming a partner in that effort. The success that we're seeing today, cleaner water, nutrient reduction, major infrastructure upgrades, is not a result of one funding source alone. It's state dollars, local investments, scientific planning, and public accountability. And that's how real restoration happens. And it is why maintaining strong local funding commitment remains essential, not just to continue the work that's already underway, but to ensure Brevard County remains competitive for future state grants and cost-share opportunities. So when you step back and look at the big picture, the message is clear. Florida is investing water like never before. The legislature, the government, the water management districts, local governments like Brevard County are backing it up with billions of dollars. Innovative science and real results on the ground. But the money and the projects alone are not enough. The success requires continued community support, tough choices, and a shared vision for the future. Because whether it's the Everglades, our springs, the St. John's River, or the Indian River Lagoon, these waters don't belong to any one of us. They belong to all of us. The Indian River Lagoon is the lifeblood of Brevard County. It fuels our economy. It supports a way of life, defines our identity as Floridians. Thanks to the half-cent sales tax, we've already removed thousands of pounds of harmful nutrients, converted septic tanks, restored oyster reefs and clams, installed living shorelines, begun to reverse decades of decline. If we want clean water, strong property values, and a healthy future for Brevard County, we must keep that half-cent sales tax. So let's keep pushing forward together to ensure that Florida's waters are clean, abundant, and alive for our generations to come. In Florida, our water is our golden goose. It drives the economy. Florida's water is its soul. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. And I know Chris is here as a private individual, but he also is a representative on the governing board for the St. John's River Water Management District, which is so critical for what we do, and thank you for your service there. I think you can see it's an amazing cooperative team that we have between the federal government, state, local government, water management district, community leaders, business. It really, really is a remarkable, remarkable group of citizens that are doing remarkable things, and thank you for being here. I'd like to go ahead and open up for public comments. We have a scheduled break, but I think we'll get some of our public comments behind us. We just had a break, so we have about 25 cards. Chairman? Yes. May I just say one thing? Sure. Before public comment, I would really love if people could also add into their comments what they'd be interested in Sorrel 2.0 looking like. At our last workshop, a lot of people came up with support, but not really what their vision was for the future, so I'd love to hear that if people have thoughts. Okay. Sounds good. Our first speaker, John Nicco, came all the way down from Titusville. Good evening, commissioners. My name is John Nicco. I live in the north end of Brevard County, and my background is in urban planning, and I moved here to Brevard County about four years ago from Winter Park, Florida. I'm a Florida native, and I chose to move to Brevard County because I realized quickly that this area has the potential to be one of the most spectacular places to live in the world. In many ways, it already is, but there's still important work that needs to be done. I want to begin by thanking each of you for your commitment, your hard work, your leadership that's all brought us to this point so far. We are here today because we know the work that in the research that's being done to restore the lagoon is effective and showing real, real measurable progress. You can see from both the research and the projects, the results are trending up, and stabilization is occurring up and down, up and down the county's 72 miles of Indian River Lagoon. There are seagrass returning, fish habitats are beginning to form, shellfish are starting to spawn, and there are shorelines beginning to stabilize. In just a short time since I've lived here, I can genuinely say my quality of life has improved, and the lagoon is a big reason why. I believe one day, if we can continue this hard work, the lagoon could give back to our communities the abundance and the sustenance it once provided 60 years ago. This is why the half-cent tax matters and is so important in that if it does expire, Brevard County will lose $58 to $60 million every year that is currently being dedicated to restoring and protecting our lagoon. The big picture here is that the funding for sewer conversions, stormwater treatment, muck removal, and habitat restoration will all lapse, and the progress we've made so far will eventually decline. We would be putting millions, if not billions, of dollars in tourism and the quality of life for us residents at risk. Property values would decline, and our diverse local economies would be compromised by cutting these funds dedicated to a healthy lagoon. Protecting the health of our natural resources is one of our strongest economic drivers. People come here, they keep coming back, because of the water, the wildlife, the recreation, and the quality of life that nature provides us. As a resident and someone who shares this county with millions of visitors each year, I am proud to pay a half-cent tax to ensure that Brevard County has a healthy, vibrant, and living estuary for generations to come. To be clear, I'm not asking for an additional tax. I'm asking to keep the one we already have. It is a tax that is working. Thanks to Sorrell and many other partner organizations working toward restoring the lagoon, we are seeing real progress in a relatively short period of time. The lagoon is the crown jewel of Brevard County, and it is the residents who should have the chance to vote again on the referendum and decide whether to protect it. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Robert Rupp. Hello, Commissioners. I was going to end up talking to some people in the past that the sorrel isn't really helping doing that much. Why should we keep it? And the only thing I've ended up thinking in the past, what is it that's basically slowing us down as far as fixing the lagoon? And the only thing I can think of is basically you guys and the city commissioners is basically allowing development to go and say, oh, yeah, we've fixed the lagoon. Let's develop. And there's been loads of development lately, the last at least three or four years, that it's like, why do we end up having to do all the development without doing things like there's that low-impact development, basically make sure that to keep all the stormwater on the property and not let it go out to the lagoon. And if we add something like that, hopefully, if all the cities and counties and the county would end up doing that, I think that it would do a large part as far as making the sorrel look like we're doing a lot better job than what a lot of people might think that, oh, no, we can't keep up this abstinence sales tax. But we need it bad. I know that it's doing good, but it definitely could be doing better. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Robert Pickert. Commissioners, I am Bob Pickert, a longtime Brevard resident, a sailor, Indian River Lagoon supporter, career environmental professional, and environmental health and safety manager for Wakefield Biochar. I've provided previous comments on proposing the beneficial reuse of IRL muck amended with biochar and other Brevard natural resources for a local industry to produce a slow-release fertilizer and soil amendment. I stand by my previous comments that the sale of this material could replace or supplement the sorrel tax with $20 to $40 million of annual non-tax net proceeds to fund sorrel programs, including muck dredging. Today, I would like to take a little bit of a different tack and emphasize the soil health benefits for restoration of the lagoon. First, I want to make it clear that these are my comments and mine alone as a Brevard resident and based on the limited muck analysis that I have seen. Wakefield Biochar has been supportive, but the restoration of the IRL is not in the company's business plan. In fact, the county could produce all of the biochar that it would need. The solid waste department's developing a plan to manage woody waste from the curbside yard waste collection program and storm debris. The director of solid waste has advised me that the solid waste department has no interest in a commercial venture in which we are attempting to sell a product. My three-minute pitch to the sorrel COC was not enough time to educate the committee on the uses of biochar to support the restoration of the lagoon. I hope the COC invites me back for a more thorough presentation on the properties and relevant applications for biochar. The original sorrel ordinance and comprehensive management plan requires the sorrel COC to, quote, not only allow but to foster tools and techniques for restoration of the lagoon and to identify and develop long-term funding sources to preserve, protect, restore, and enhance the IRL system. Now to soil health. In all of the IRL restoration projects discussed, there seems to have been some precious little focus on soil health. If I look at Virginia's slide on pollution sources versus fund allocations, muck flux and stormwater treatment account for over 50% of pollutant sources. I see an additional 26% where soil health is critical to the success of the lagoon, including miscellaneous base flow, atmospheric deposition, and lawn maintenance. Biochar provides habitat for beneficial soil microbes, absorbs water, and absorbs nutrients in a way that makes nutrients bioavailable to plants and less leachable to groundwater and the lagoon. I recommend the sorrel program convene a group of soil health experts and stakeholders to evaluate the benefits of muck biochar-based fertilizer soil amendment appropriate for Brevard's sandy soils. This effort could support a public health information, a public soil health information campaign, and become a galvanizing message for soil health in Brevard. But first, additional testing of the dewatered muck from each of the dredged dewatering sites and an inventory of muck is being stored or land applied must be completed to properly manage the muck. Biochar would help address 77% of the IRL pollutant sources and could serve as a long-term funding source for the lagoon, making biochar something of a silver bullet. I support the reauthorization of the tax and as a supplement and or transition to more sustainable funding. Thank you for the time. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker is Milo Zonka. Commissioner, good evening. I just want to thank you for hosting this workshop and for the wonderful presentations we've heard tonight on what I think is a critical topic. So I'm here tonight on behalf of the board of the East Coast Zoological Foundation, which you may not be as familiar with, but it is the parent organization for the Brevard Zoo, the soon-to-be parent of the Bowen Aquarium, and also a partner with the county through the Restore Our Shores program, which provides a lot of the staff and a lot of the volunteers for a significant number of the programs that go on to help with the oyster beds and the seagrass and some of the other projects that happen. So many of the projects that happen throughout the county. You know, I went back and looked at the data of population in this county, and you go back to 1850, the first census, there were 139 people in what was St. Lucie County, which then became Brevard County. Today, I think the projection is there will be 681,000 residents of the county in this year. So as the old Earth Day poster cartoon talked about, we've met the enemy, and it is us. I mean, so for all of us who are here tonight, we are the problem. We are also potentially the solution. And so I think as we sit here and look at the science and the results of the efforts that have gone on with Sorrel and all of the programs that are in work that continue to give fruits to the labor, the question that we're really here talking about is we can talk about blame. We did this to ourselves. We can talk about, you know, patting ourselves on the back. We started to do some great things. But really the question is, what do we do next? And so, you know, I think the challenge is if we've got a good collection of science, we've got good programs, what we're really asking you for is to put it on the ballot and let the population of this county decide. That is really the only question that's in front of you. We're not asking you to decide for us. We're asking you, is it a worthy question to put on the ballot for the voters of Brevard County to decide? That's it. And if they decide to say yes, we will tax ourselves and we will tax our visitors, by the way, to help participate in righting some of the wrongs that just the presence of population. We're not evil, 681,000. We don't have any ill intent. We just want to live here. And as I was thinking about Vinny's question, where was I on August 23rd? Yeah, on August 23rd of 2016, I was at my son's football practice. I went and looked at my phone. I don't remember the day particularly. But my son and my family, they're hopefully our growth. So we want to continue to grow. We want to continue to live here. We want to thrive here. We want our families to grow here. We need to make the investment to protect ourselves. And what else, you know, I think we, the mission of the Brevard Zoo is to share our joy in nature so that wildlife and people can thrive. And I think that is a fundamental challenge that all of us want to have and want to look forward to and want to fight. Ask us the question. Let's vote on it in November. Thank you so much. Thank you, Milo. And our next speaker is Fred Goldstein. Okay, I missed the answer. My writing is not very good. That's okay, Fred. My reading isn't always the best either. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Fred Goldstein. I'm a resident of Merritt Island. While I'm also on the Citizens Oversight Committee, I'm not speaking for them. I'm speaking for myself. Yes, as we've heard, the lagoon is an economic engine. But I'm going to focus on an area not spoken about as much, health and health care. From the time I was a young kid, I wanted to study sharks and ultimately got a degree in zoology focused on marine biology. Sadly, studying sharks was not to be, but my career went into a world full of sharks, health care. For the past 12 years, I've had a consulting firm in population health. Population health is an area that studies and measures and develops programs to improve the health of communities or individuals living with various diseases and conditions. In population health, we look at the inputs to our health this way. Genetics is the deck we're dealt. Health care is the repair shop. But per the National Academy of Medicine, the environment where we live, work, and breathe is what drives 80% of our health status. It's not the health care system as most of us believe. So let's talk about our environment. On the positive side, there is research on what are called blue spaces. These are areas near bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, and coastal communities. Research has shown that people who live near the coast and salt water typically live about one year longer. And living there is associated with positive impacts on their health such as lower rates of depression, improvements in health indicators like lower cortisol levels, reduced cardiovascular disease, and improved mental health. Now, this is not to scare you or let the fear mongers amongst us run wild, but to discuss what was, impacts, and how it's getting better. In Brevard County, our blue space became a polluted space. I'll highlight a few potential health issues. Studies have detected toxins from blooms in the nasal swabs of residents. Now, that may be due to the body eliminating them. Another study found that toxins from blooms in the IRL were associated with causing Alzheimer's, like brain damage in dolphins. We don't know if or how either of these might impact us. While exposure to some toxins and pollutants may result in short-term health impacts, others may take years and years to develop. As a former hospital CEO and HMO executive, I also look at the total cost of care. When the IRL is polluted, we aren't just losing seagrass, manatees, and more. We are potentially increasing the rates of preventable hospitalizations, ER, and doctor visits for various conditions. But now for the good news, as you've heard this morning. Over the past few years, we have experienced fewer and smaller blooms. Things are getting better. Turns out the lagoon is also critical for our health. Let me leave you with one final thought. Our health and the health of our children is tied to improving our blue space. Thank you. Thank you, Fred. Our next speaker is Bill DeBusk. All right. Good evening. My name is Bill DeBusk. And I'm here as the president for the local Sierra Club, right here in Brevard County and in DeGroote County. So I've watched or seen a few comments on social media, and they're not really positive for this half-cent sales tax, and it's not great. But renewing the half-cent sales tax is our best and most proven tool to improve the health of the inner lagoon. But it will only pass with overwhelming voter support. And that support depends on trust. Residents must see their leaders fiercely protecting the lagoon every single day. We all remember how horrible it was back in the day with fish kills and algae blooms and starving manatees. We cannot, literally cannot, afford to go back to these days. The IRL is crucial to our economy. Without El Te Lagoon, we risk losing the very foundation that makes Brevard a desirable place to live, work, and visit. But putting the half-cent sales tax on the ballot is not enough. Elected officials in Brevard must insist on strong measures that mitigate the harm caused by a rapid population and construction growth. We need stricter regulations on runoff, smarter development factors such as low-impact development, and innovative solutions to prevent nutrient pollutions from seeping into the lagoon. The citizens of Brevard County must see our local officials actively participate in stopping the flow of pollution into the inner of the lagoon. You guys, Brevard commissioners, recently provided two great examples. One, when you called for an in-person public meeting on Blue Origins wastewater permit. They wanted to dump a bunch of water, wastewater, in our lagoon. So you stood up and said, hey, let's have a public meeting. Number two, you recently voted to make homeowners along the lagoon eligible for at least $6,000 in financial help for septic tank upgrades. Those are the types of actions that local leadership must continue. We can save the inner of the lagoon. However, it will require ongoing proactive leadership of our elected officials. This means taking decisive actions to tackle pollution at its source, enforcing smarter growth standards, and preventing new threats from undermining our progress. Only through this visible commitment will our citizens gain the confidence that renewing the absent sales tax is not merely a temporary band-aid over an endless stream of pollution. Citizens need these visible commitments to embrace the vision that the absent sales tax is a vital investment for fully restoring and protecting our priceless lagoon for generations to come. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Mary Ann Civil. Good evening. Mary Ann Civil. I live in Northeast Palm Bay, and I've been lucky enough to live on Turkey Creek for 35 years. I was also lucky enough to marry into a commercial fishing family from Florida, and he is still commercially fishing blue crabbing at 76. Loves it. So, the reason I'm here tonight is not only to thank Virginia and her crew, because I think they're doing an excellent job. We're on the lagoon probably two to three days a week. We've noticed that there's a lot of oyster recruitment that is going on in the lagoon, which can do nothing but help it as far as the water quality. I also spent almost 30 years as a professional geologist here in the state of Florida working on projects of groundwater and soil contamination. And one of the basics of those projects are you start at the source of contamination and move outward to clean it up. Now, Turkey Creek has always been a little bit of a problem because we have over 200 miles of canals that dump into Turkey Creek. And St. John's and Brevard County, the city of Palm Bay, have worked hand-in-hand along with Melbourne Tillman Water Control District to improve conditions on the creek. But I have noticed since the MS-1 structure at the C-1 canal is a top-flowing structure that was retrofitted approximately 15 years ago, that we're getting a lot more floating vegetation coming down the creek. When we have high flow conditions like September, October, November, every year, we get tons of floating vegetation. As Virginia's slide showed, approximately 40% is due to muck accumulation as far as the contamination. I guess my recommendation would be to look at the source where all that vegetation is coming from. And I know on Turkey Creek, a lot of it is just west of this top-flowing structure that is not being contained and managed properly. So if some, you know, maybe you can partner with Melbourne Tillman to get that vegetation during high-flow conditions under control, you won't have to dredge as much. As I said, I've worked, or I've lived on Turkey Creek for 35 years. There's been three dredging events that I'm aware of. So thank you very much. I'm in favor of the half-cent continuation. And please put the word out. Thank you. Thank you, Marianne. Vince Lamb. Good evening. I'm Vince Lamb, a longtime Merritt Island resident and a past chair of the Bavard Indian River Lagoon Coalition. Last week, I expressed broad support for what the soil program has accomplished and certainly supported its renewal. Tonight, I want to specialize a bit, and I want to focus on basic septic systems. I think that basic septic system removal should be a main emphasis of the soil program moving forward. An estimated 60,000 septic systems currently exist in the IRL watershed in Brevard County. The basic septic systems are high among the sources of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution into the lagoon. During the first nine years of the soil program, almost 1,000 septic systems have been removed with either sewer connections or upgrade to advanced septic. This pace needs to increase to support the legislative mandate that basic septic systems in the lagoon watershed be removed by 2030. Removing the basic septic systems is complicated. Sewage processing capabilities must be increased and lines extended into chosen areas. In low-density areas where the sewage service is not practical, advanced septic is the best alternative. Each one requires custom engineering work and a permit process. Grants are needed to reduce the burden on the property owners. Reducing and removing the basic septic systems is a key component of many water body restoration efforts, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The Florida Keys serve as a role model that the last septic system was removed from the Florida Keys a few years ago after a 25-year program that included county, state, and federal funding exceeding a billion dollars. And the Keys had less septic systems than we do. I want to encourage the Natural Resources Department and the Citizens' Oversight Committee to examine the progress of the last nine years and devise a plan for moving forward. Should Brevard County place an emphasis on the septic systems that are close to the lagoon? Where should the new sewage lines be planned to reach more neighborhoods? The soil plan renewal, if the soil plan renewal includes a bold commitment to removing basic septic systems near the lagoon, the referendum will be more compelling to the voters. Clearly, this is just one component of the soil plan, but this one has high visibility. Thanks to the county commissioners for hosting this event and providing this opportunity to speak. Thank you, Vince. Barbara Wall is our next speaker. Good evening. So nice to see everybody. And it's nice to have such a positive group presenting everything. I've learned a lot. I am on the Citizens' Oversight Committee. I'm not here representing them. But I'm here to thank the commission. I'm here to thank Virginia, of course, and her incredible team. We hear presentations once a month, and it does last sometimes for many hours, especially the last one. They're all wonderful, exciting, educational, and informative. I recommend that anyone that questions what's happening on this sorrel group come to the meetings and see what happens and listen and learn. I also wanted to say that the Indian River Lagoon, to me, is a legacy. I just became a great-grandmother. That means that four generations of my family are here, and most of them are not living on the lagoon, but they enjoy the lagoon every day. In the past years, I've not only seen it clean up, which has been wonderful. I see the fish jumping. I see the birds feeding. I see the dolphins. I see the water getting clearer all along the shoreline, which is beautiful. And I also want to comment that I also see the beach cleaner. We used to do a lot of beach cleanups all the time. There's not much to clean up because everyone is taking their own responsibility, which leads me to my last point, which is information, talking to everyone new coming into the community, is the best source of keeping our river and our oceans and our environment clean. And it's up to all of us to promote that positive attitude and inform those people. Thank you very much. Have a great evening. Thank you, Barbara. Cammie Donaldson, our next speaker. Good evening, Commissioners. Thank you. Cammie Donaldson. I have lived in Brevard County since 1962, and I came as a toddler with my parents. My first recollection of the lagoon was about age four, going to see the fireworks at the O'Galley Causeway and seeing what we did not know what it was. We called it phosphorescence, and it was the bioluminescence in the water. And, of course, as a child, that's a really magical-looking thing, and parents couldn't explain it, but everybody thought it was really cool. And in a few years, my father was able, through his business, which was Southern Gun Exchange on US-1, he served the hunting-fishing community. We were able to move to Indian Harbor Beach, and from the age of six on, I grew up on the Indian River Lagoon. And when I was little, you could walk the shoreline, and it was filled with fiddler crabs, and you could see needlefish on the water surface all the time. And I fell off the dock at the age of seven and cut my feet up on all the oysters. Ten years later, all those oysters were gone. We used to take a garbage can out the end of the dock, a plastic garbage can, turn the light on on the dock. You could fill that garbage can up with blue crabs in an hour at night under the light. You could shrimp. You could get lots of shrimp. We put out shrimp traps. It was a very lively lagoon. We saw horseshoe crabs, like Laura Lee talked about. It was beautiful. And yet, I'm almost 20 years younger than my husband, and he tells me stories of the things that he saw in the lagoon that I never got to see. And then, by the time I was in my 20s as a young adult, I was already seeing that I was no longer seeing those things. The needlefish were gone. The fiddler crabs were gone. The oysters were gone. People were building seawalls. Things were happening in the lagoon. I 100% support the sales tax, and I know as a business person, I know the inconvenience of discretionary sales tax every time I do the bookkeeping. But I think it's great. I wish it were more. I wish we could do more. Two years ago, I now live in downtown Melbourne. As an adult, I can't live on the lagoon on my money. But I live in downtown Melbourne, and we did the septic conversion through the city of Melbourne that got money through all this stuff that you've learned about. And my husband spent a lot of time talking to all the neighbors. Thankfully, the new construction people are kind of having to hook up to sewer. We were astounded, actually, to find that in downtown Melbourne there was still septic. But we did it, and we're so proud and happy that we were able to do it. And we're on a very ordinary income, and we wouldn't have been able to do it without your help. So those are, I second what Vince said about the septic. But it could be streamlined because it's too complex for the average person. It needs to be a little more streamlined, and you ought to get a bigger bang for your buck. So please keep the sales tax. Please continue. And I could say more, but I think I'm over time. Thank you. Good night. Thank you, Kami. We could probably share a lot of stories growing up a galley myself. Spence Guerin. My name is Spence Guerin. I live in Melbourne, Florida. I'm the husband of Kami, who just spoke. And, yes, I'd like to thank Vince Lamb for speaking up about septic tanks. As Kami just said, we benefited from that changeover. It took a long time, and the city had turned down all kinds of requests from people in our area to get us off of septic tanks. Consequently, some people invested in high-end septic tanks, and they're still on septic tanks, and they're not going to leave because there's not enough financial incentive for them to give up their invested septic tanks. So there are problems in that program that need addressing. Not everybody in our area opted to get off the septic tanks. There's some problems in that area that I would love to pass on to the capable team that's heading this whole effort up. As Laura Lee Thompson suggested, how bountiful the lagoon was. I would like to add to that, when I was a kid, before the high-rise bridges, a lantern would be held over the bridge at night, and the water was alive with shrimp and crabs and all kinds of fish. You could see way down in the water, fish, including you could see trout. They're all of them there, attracted by all the activity around that light, which brought all kinds of things. It was a very, the water was very alive, and if you hung a lantern over the water tonight at the causeway, somewhere where you could get to it, you'd probably see nothing. The changes are just huge, and people who move here from outside the area, they come here and look out. The lagoon always, unless there's stinking and rotting fish, the lagoon always looks beautiful, and people think they see sunrise, see sunset. Everybody loves it, but they don't know what they don't know, and it takes education beyond the effort that's currently being made, in my humble opinion, and it's very difficult, that's an ongoing, long-term effort, and I had efforts regarding that in the past, which, unfortunately, I failed, and there's the needs there on educating the general public are huge and ongoing and will ever be ongoing. Okay, thanks for what you're doing. I was glad to see the progress that's being made, and we certainly have a long way to go. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Jim McKinney. Good evening. Thank you for your service, and the progress that we have made is amazing. I grew up in South Florida. I grew up on the Biscayne Bay and Florida Keys, and when I got ready to retire, I said, I'm coming back to Florida where I can fish every day because ice fishing is an unnatural act, as far as I'm concerned. If I can't feel my feet, I don't know why I'm there. So, I'm a conservation coordinator for a local chapter of a fishing club by the name of Salt Strong. I think we have, Salt Strong has 50,000 members in several states, but we're really concentrated in Florida. We have 450 members here in Brevard County. We have monthly meetings, and as a conservation coordinator, I'm always looking for volunteers to go out and work with all of the groups, and I know a lot of people in this room who have spoken tonight because I see them at those things. And so, our goal is conservation, community, and education. Those are the things that I am really invested in. As a native Floridian, it matters a lot. I have a big passion for this. It's important. So, I think all of us here are here this evening because we care, and I think it's our job to educate others because I don't think, I go to meetings and I hear people question progress and saying, well, I don't see seagrass. Well, I see a lot of seagrass. I see the changes are dramatic. We're making progress. But without an ongoing source of funding, projects fail because they're not maintained. When the money is spent, you can spend millions and millions of dollars, but the maintenance of that has to continue. It doesn't just happen. And so, that's why people will say, well, they did this thing. They spent all this money, and then we're back to the same problem again. So, we've got to continue. We're on a path, and I think we can get there, but it's going to take a lot more time and a lot more effort and a lot of education. So, thank you, guys. Thank you, Jim. Judy Trendell. Thank you for having this down in Palm Bay. I'm here to ask you to fix the problem. To protect the lagoon. The question is not whether the lagoon is worth protecting. It absolutely is. The question is how we protect it in a way that actually works. The request of the half-cent sales tax deserves support, but only if we focus squarely on fixing the pollution at its source. The lagoon has been dying because, for decades, pollution has been flowing into it every single day from three primary sources. Aging stormwater systems that were never designed for today's development or rainfall patterns. These systems funnel fertilizer, oil, heavy metals, bacteria straight into the lagoon. Outdated sewerage infrastructure, including leaking pipes, lift stations, treatment facilities that release nutrients and pathogens during failures and overflows. Thousands of septic systems, many decades old, that leach nitrogen into groundwater, which ultimately ends up in the lagoon. Common sense tells us this. You don't keep mopping the floor while the pipe is still leaking. You fix the leak. Extending this sales tax makes sense if, and only if, it is used to fix these core problems first. Updating stormwater systems, replacing failing sewers infrastructure, converting septic systems to central sewer, where it makes the biggest impact. When we stop the damage at its source, restoration efforts will actually work. Water quality improves. Seagrass returns. Fish and wildlife recover. And taxpayers see real, measurable results from their investment. The half-cent sales tax, which actually costs taxpayers a full cent because we don't have half-cent denominations, spread the cost fairly across residents, visitors, seasonal users, while keeping property taxes lower. But with that investment comes responsibility. Voters deserve transparency, accountability, and a clear commitment that infrastructure fixes come first. Saving the Indian River Lagoon doesn't start in the water. It starts underground, in pipes, pumps, and storm drains. If we fix the problem first, the lagoon can heal. And this tax extension can be a true solution, not just another temporary patch. Thank you. Thank you. Joni Regan. Good evening, Commissioners. I'm Joni Regan. I live in Cocoa Beach. I retired from Cocoa Beach a few years ago after managing the city's stormwater utility for over two decades. We put in many stormwater projects that greatly reduced the volume of runoff to the lagoon. Most projects built native landscape bioretention gardens while reducing impervious coverage, basically reducing the asphalt footprint along the roadway corridor. A great example was the Minuteman Corridor LID project, which included rain gardens, permeable pavers, street trees, and underground percolation chambers. Once Sorrel was established, the support for these lagoon projects was greatly improved through funding, coordination, and the projects became more meaningful because the pollutant reductions were better documented from a watershed perspective. It also allowed us the opportunity to leverage grant funding more effectively and put the county and Brevard cities on the same page, the same BMAP. Virginia and her team have put together an amazing program that systematically crunches the pollution reduction in cost data and monitors lagoon improvement all through outreach with the Diverse Citizens Oversight Committee. As far as what I think for the future of stormwater, I think we need to move to LID methods for stormwater management, low-impact design, and low-impact development, which minimizes impervious surfaces, which these generate the huge volumes of runoff, which also exacerbate flooding in our low-lying areas when the lagoon is at its highest elevation in late summer and fall. LID methods put rain into the ground where or close to where it falls, so the freshwater input to the lagoon is much reduced. When you reduce the volume, you're also reducing the pollutant input, and freshwater in huge volume is a pollutant itself. Thank you for this opportunity to support great cost-effective lagoon restoration. I am very much hoping to see this on my ballot in November. Thank you, Jeannie. Ann Conroy-Bader? Good evening, Commissioners. Thank you for your work associated with this. It's quite a lot of information, and I think that information that is so beautifully presented by Virginia and all our speakers tonight needs the light of day. So my name is Ann Conroy-Bader. I'm president and CEO of the Melbourne Regional Chamber of Florida's Space Coast. I'm also a resident of Cocoa Beach. So I got to witness the changes on the Minutemen Corridor, and what a wonderful effect that project has had on Cocoa Beach's economy. As the Chamber CEO, I want to be clear, a healthy Indian River Lagoon is not just an environmental priority, it's an economic one as well. Our business community depends on a strong quality of place to attract and retain customers, investment, talent, and visitors. That's why the Chamber supported the Save Our Indian River Lagoon initiative when it was first proposed, and why we continue to support it today. This program has produced real, measurable results, so much data. Hundreds of community and homeowner projects completed major reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus, and a growing pipeline of infrastructure improvements that address pollution at its source. The data backs it up. A healthy lagoon supports tens of billions of dollars in annual economic activity, including tourism, recreation, marine trade, so much fishing that I learned about tonight, and even aerospace. And it contributes seven, or sorry, 28 billion in regional GDP, and supports more than 128,000 jobs. It's not an either-or choice between economic growth and environmental stewardship. They are directly linked. We also want to commend the County Commission and staff. This program is widely recognized as a model of successful, voter-approved government initiative, one that is transparent, adaptive, and grounded in science and outcomes. That matters to the business community. The Chamber believes strongly in letting voters decide. Our role is not to dictate the outcome, but to ensure the community has clear, factual information about what's working, what's at stake, and why this matters to our shared economic future. Katie, you asked what we're looking for in the next stage, and as I hear, one of the things that stuck in my head tonight was, the baffle boxes are gone. This program is so flexible, and we are living in a time of such rapid escalation of technology, and the fact that we're allowed to, this program allows for the adoption of technology as it develops, is an amazing thing. So I think that's going to be key to the future of it. Thank you. Oh, my gosh, is that you? Of all names. Sorry, Linda. Now I guess my new nickname. Thank you, Commissioner. Oops. So, Leonard Weatherman. Thank you, Commissioners. Linda Weatherman, the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast. The EDC and the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program have worked closely together and with many of our community and business partners to integrate the plans to restore the health of the IRL, urging clean water and habitat restoration, innovation and technology development, cultivate workforce development, and protect our nature-based economy and quality of life. The partnerships can include marine industries, recreational boating, ecotourism, water quality initiatives, and water-dependent businesses. From a business perspective, the lagoon helps reduce risk, supports reliable operations, and enhances the overall attractiveness for our community. When managed strategically, it provides benefits similar to transportation and utility infrastructure, while also strengthening quality of place. Watercolor initiatives and partnerships continue between the NEP and the EDC as we will deliver economic return for protecting its very important critical asset. I encourage all interested parties to review the NEP's Indian River Lagoon Economic Valuation Study, which includes an economic impact and ecosystems valuation. This was released recently in September of 25. Well done. The report finds $28.3 billion annually and 8.3 of that's wages and 124,000 jobs, which we've referenced in the past. But additionally, the economic services amount to an estimated $1 million annually. These are products and services and recreational opportunities derived from the IRL. These services reflect activities including recreational fishing, boating, shoreline activity, habitat quality, water quality, flood risk medication, and coastal protection commercial fishing. So the message today is simple. The Indian River Lagoon is not just an environmental asset. It's an economic driver for Brevard County. In regards to the EDC's economic strategy, the IRL assists and supports our efforts in an area of traction of talent for workforce and retained workforce. Brevard County competes for talent, particularly in aerospace, advanced manufacturing, technology, and the Indian River Lagoon plays a significant role. Access to waterfront recreation and natural beauty influences where professionals and families choose to live. The lagoon strengthens the county's ability to compete with skilled workforce and supports the lifestyle expectation of today's workforce. Finally, some evaluations and some valuations, you know, just can't measure. I know we have numbers today, but some can't measure. For example, how do you measure the enriched quality of life and the pride and pleasure Indian River Lagoon affords the community and our citizens? Leveraging the lagoon is not a single project. It is an ongoing strategic priority that supports long-term prosperity. When we invest in the health of the Indian River Lagoon, we are investing in the strength and competitiveness of Brevard County for a day and for generations to come. Thank you. Thank you, Linda Weatherman. I will not be able to live that down. I just crawl in a hole. I don't know. Now, this is another tough one. Captain Alex Goritschke. Goritschke. Hello, Commission. Everybody in the room and everybody watching on the cameras right now. My name is Captain Alex Goritschke. I'm a lifetime resident of the Brevard County area, lifetime lover and enveloper of all my knowledge in the lagoon, 20-year fishing guide and commercial fisherman, who has now converted my business, because there was no other choice, to working originally as advocate, but now in the last five to seven years as hands-on, boots-on-the-ground restoration effort work as much as I can in between my fishing at this moment in time. I work with everything from the IRL Clam Restoration Project with Blair Wiggins and UF, where we've been able to put in millions and millions and millions and millions, and I can keep going tens of millions on top of that. I've got wonderful clams that I get to work with on a daily basis. Along with that, I also work with mangrove restoration, and I am also part of an environmental outreach arm of a large industry, boating and fishing industry conglomerate, Starbright, in their Project Sea Safe initiative. I work with their conservation director, who's also a local resident, to get ourselves involved in as many of these projects as we can possible, and I do that because it has been my life since I was a child. I watched all the glory of the late 80s and the early 90s and into the heavy grass growth of the early, or the O-knots. I also sat there on my boat with clients and watched the devastation unfold on a daily basis, and it wasn't a long-term watch. It was over a month from beautiful to dead, brown, and no grass. I actually was pretty instrumental in stopping an ill-thought-out train going across the Banana River on yet another dirt causeway out of the port that was about 10 years ago, and it kind of reshaped how the port looked at their cargo. I want to let you guys know, because I've been here since some of the first meetings of this plan, that some of this stuff is absolutely working. The amount of grass that we're seeing, these grass are not lying to anybody. They are real. I see them with my eyes on a daily basis. I'm on the water five to seven days a week. That is all of my time. I have no more time to be on the water. There are ways I think that we could do better with this plan as we move forward, hopefully not just 10 years, but 20, 30. Those of you guys who have listened to those other areas that have done their due diligence and worked on their plans, those are decades, decades plans, is flushing. Not an inlet, because everybody thinks an inlet's a fix, but actual studies that can show people this is how we can actually do it, because there are some ways that we can do some flushing. Another big one is visible, in-neighborhood, stormwater retention projects is a huge thing, and I'm going to leave it on this real quick. The muck problem isn't a temporary problem. It does not need piecemeal dredge here or dredge there. We should have, 10 years ago, when I stood at the dais and said that we need to do this, had a Bevard County Division of Dredging, and we start them at the north end of the county, 15, 20 years later at the south end, turn them back around and re-dredge everything, because it's a reoccurring problem that will never be fixed unless we have a reoccurring fix to the situation. Have a nice one. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Alex. Mary Bowman. Hello, my name's Mary Bowman. I live in unincorporated India Atlantic, and Commissioner Feltner knows how much I don't want to do this. We talked about it at the zoo. But I want you to know how much I support this and how important it is. My sister just reminded me that in 1970, we were forced by our father to dig a ditch to hook up to the sewer in Satellite Beach so that he didn't have to pay the fee. So now children don't have to do that anymore if we save the tax. But the main thing I wanted to talk about was that there's nothing political where you get the collaboration, the cooperation, the working together that we have. If you had every problem that you have to face have this much support, you wouldn't have a job. It would be amazing. So I just want to tell you that I do support it, and I support Virginia and Dwayne and the amazing people that work for them, that stay with them. They don't have turnover. These people are passionate, and they're doing a good job, and I support them. That's all. Thank you, Mary. Statue of limitation has expired. Child labor, too, yes. Megan Murphy? All right, so I did prepare my remarks this time, but then you asked an off-the-cuff question, so I'm going to deviate a little bit. I'm going to start at the beginning, though. Good evening, Commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm here to encourage your support for the Indian River Lagoon, but also for something just as critical, public trust, education, and meaningful community engagement. Specifically, I ask that you put the issue on the ballot and let the people decide, while continuing the many successful partnerships and projects described tonight. I would also encourage you to focus more than ever on helping our residents understand why the Save Our Indian River Lagoon program matters so much. Help us understand how we can all be a part of the solution. I recognize and appreciate the essential large-scale infrastructure projects that were described here that the county has been doing, and no one disputes that there's more work to be done. But I would encourage you to focus on more robust community engagement. In order for this ballot initiative to be successful, people need to understand also how the impact fees from development helps to mitigate water quality impacts and how the county intends to hold large-scale industry accountable for their role. Don't let social media disinformation undermine this valuable work. Really. It is so important. And so now I'm going to deviate. I am somebody who lives in a neighborhood who started to recognize the degradation or decreased quality of the landscape in our community. And I come from a nice community. And we started to work on those things. And I have called every single department, county, state, and local. And I have had such positive experiences. People have come out and spoken. I mean, literally last week, someone from Brevard County Natural Resources came out to speak to the HOA board to talk about what we can do about aging infrastructure, how we can protect our ponds while we learn to develop plans to improve water quality. We are adopting better management practices, but how do we hold vendors accountable? How do we get homeowners to change the way that they view the landscape, right? How do we reduce the number of herbicides that are being sprayed and sold to individual homeowners? So I don't know. I think there are 50,000 homeowners associations in Florida. I think there's something like 70,000 stormwater ponds. That number is increasing all the time with development. We can't change that. But we can change the way that we manage the landscape. And I know in Brevard County that the number one expense for any homeowners association, on the water or not, is landscape. And we need vendors to understand that they cannot get away with mow, blow, and go, spray herbicides, and destroy the environment anymore. And in order to make informed decisions, we need you to continue to partner with us. So for all of the people that are here supporting these big projects and these big things, I'm telling you that every little moment, every little interaction, every opportunity that we have to impact the way that individual residents in this county spend their dollars makes a difference. And everything that you're doing means something to us. So good job. Thank you, Megan. MJ Waters. Thank you for holding this and listening to all these wonderful people say great things. I moved to Palm Bay 40 years ago when I'm still in Brevard County. I first experienced the Indian River Lagoon with a friend of mine who had a boat. And we went out in the lagoon and slipped in the water. And this giant beast came at me and scared the bejeebers out of me. It was a manatee. I had no clue what that was. After I retired in 2014, I went and volunteered at the Brevard Zoo because I thought that'll be a kick. And so Keith put me in the little place they have that's about the lagoon, which I knew nothing about really. And I was there for a few months and he came by one day and said, I need to talk to you. And that's when there was the Brevard Indian River Lagoon Coalition was forming to try to pass the half cent sales tax. And a lot of those people are here today who are involved. It was a small, really motivated group. And so we got together. We got a whole lot of other people involved, spent a lot of time educating people about what we wanted to do. Virginia put together a great plan. And I want to remind everybody that that sales tax initiative passed in every single precinct of Brevard County. Even the people way out west of I-95 wanted to support it. So we have a big base of support because people move here because they love nature and they love the lagoon and they love biking and everything else. So that's a real positive thing. The one thing I want to say about the plan is that a lot of the plan is focused on getting stuff out, getting the bad stuff out, which is really important. But we have a lot of innovation and creative people in this community. And I think we need to think even more and pull some of them in in terms of things like, what can we do to make development safer and better for the lagoon? Because there's got to be ways we can do that. I mean, technology is changing all the time. So what can we do with some of the, a lot of people mentioned stormwater. How do we make that more effective? How do we stop getting more septic, you know, less, fewer, fewer or better septic systems? Because that to me, stopping the bad stuff from coming in is equally as important as getting the bad stuff out. So you can tell I'm a real scientist by the way I talk about this. And then also the other thing I think is sewage treatment plants. We have a lot of leaks that go on every now and then with sewage plants throughout the community. And of course, it's a real challenge to upgrade a big sewage plant. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't take it on. And that may be something that's not necessarily part of the sorrel plan, but definitely Brevard County has a role to play in that with our water treatment folks. So thank you very much. And I'm very optimistic about the future. Thank you. Sarah Rhodes. Good evening, commissioners. Thank you for allowing us to be here tonight. Craig Wallace with the Brevard Indian River Lagoon Coalition. So I would not normally be one of those citizens you would expect to come to these commission meetings and speak about things like this. I'm a scientist, electrical engineer that knew nothing about the lagoon until I came here 10 years ago. I'm going to address Commissioner Delaney's question in a second here. But I just want to... My perspective on this is that I came here to retire and not to stand up on the podium and be speaking to you. However, I got caught up in the fish kills and trying to figure out what the problems were behind that. I'm a firm believer in science. I went to Virginia's presentations back when we started this program and I got enthralled by, you know, I found out a lot of good information that I didn't know before. So I continued on. I went to Citizens Oversight Committee meetings. I learned a lot from those meetings. I felt like I was taking a, you know, college class in the lagoon. So I would encourage everybody and especially those people that are not here tonight to come to some of those Citizens Oversight Committee meetings and engage and start working with the zoo, some of these projects that are going on because that is the way you learn about the lagoon. The first project I did was growing oysters in my backyard. I'm fortunate enough to live on the lagoon. So that was, but I got engaged from that because it was cool to see oysters grow and my grandkids would come and they'd look at that and say, wow, look at this. These are ways that we engage people in understanding the lagoon. If you don't understand the lagoon, you're not going to vote for the sales tax. Unfortunately, there are people that just don't know about it and we have done surveys and we've determined that there's a lot of people that you ask your neighbor, you know, do you know what's going on? They just don't know. So what I would encourage, and this is to Commissioner Delaney's point, what would we like to do differently? It's more of the community engagement. If we don't do that, then it's like Captain Coutinho mentioned, look in the mirror. You know, we are the ones that impact the lagoon. If we learn about the lagoon and we understand the lagoon better, we're going to do a much better job and support these efforts. The other thing is science. I'm a true believer in science and when I look at some of the stuff that they have come up with and the continuous improvement in the program, that is critical to have that ability to bring in new science, new ideas, and incorporate that into the program every year. Please don't do away with that. That's critical. So thank you very much for the opportunity tonight. Thank you, Craig. Sarah? Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak this evening and for this forum. My name is Sarah Rhodes-Onde, and I'm the Community Stewardship Coordinator for the Sea Turtle Conservancy at the Barrier Island Center in Melbourne Beach. And Brevard County has invested this half-cent sales tax quite wisely by creating a Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project Plan. The collaborative plan is multifaceted. It includes muck removal, habitat restoration, stormwater, sewer, and septic upgrades, nutrient removal, and a large component of public education. The plan lays out priorities based on which projects are shovel-ready, which will make the most impact. The plan's progress can be monitored by a very impressive, user-friendly ArcGIS map. If you haven't checked that out yet, it's amazing. I've never seen that level of accountability in any project like this before. And that quantifies the nutrient removal expected by implementing every project. The long-term effects of these investments will restore the health and biodiversity to the Indian River Lagoon, sustain wildlife, and economic value of the Indian River Lagoon. But the Save Our Indian River Lagoon program needs more time. There's a lot of projects on that map. They're just getting started. As an ultimate testament to the efforts of the Brevard County Save Our Indian River Lagoon program, and their partners and their collaborators, the seagrass is returning. In some areas of the Indian River Lagoon, we're seeing it. And improved water quality and expanded seagrass acreage is critical to the health of sea turtles that reside in the Indian River Lagoon. Juvenile green turtles live in this critical Indian River Lagoon habitat year-round. And they spend six-plus years there before migrating to the ocean as adults. Green turtles are herbivores. They feed primarily on seagrass. And without seagrass, green turtles will not have the food they need to survive. About 50% of the sea turtles encountered by the University of Central Florida Marine Turtle Research Group have fibropapillomatosis, also known as FP. And this is a tumor-causing disease. This disease is caused by a virus that's linked to human-caused degradation of the environment. The effects of this disease for sea turtles can range from annoying to fatal. And sea turtles show high-site fidelity to their foraging grounds in the Indian River Lagoon. And they remain in the region despite the seagrass die-offs and poor water quality conditions and are highly likely to benefit from the ongoing habitat restoration efforts and improved water quality conditions. The Sea Turtle Conservancy at the Barrier Island Center is the official nonprofit friends group partner of the Brevard County Environment Endangered Lands Program. We are committed to continuing to support the efforts of the Brevard County Save Our Indian River Lagoon program for many years to come by offering those critical hands-on stewardship workshops, getting the community actively engaged, which many folks are saying we need to do more of. And we're offering staff and interns to engage the local citizens and habitat restoration and to educate the public about what they can do to help restore this vital estuary and protect endangered and threatened species. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. We have about 10 more cards, about 30 minutes. I have, they're getting some requests for another five, 10-minute break. And 10, 10-minute break. Okay, 10-minute break. I tell you, I just will say something. I've been through, I've been doing this a long time, over 30 years. This is probably the most remarkable public hearing I've ever experienced. And the diversity of support, the broad spectrum of our community, it makes me feel good to be a part of this community. What a great place we live. And I don't think hardly anyone's left, too. It's pretty amazing. So we'll take a 10-minute break and we'll be right back. I'd like to call the meeting back to order. Call the meeting back to order. We're going to, we have 10 more cards. And our next speaker is Sharon Knoll. Sharon Knoll. She's here. I understood there was a line in the ladies' bathroom, but that's now gone. So it was obviously a break necessary. But Sharon, you have the floor. Thank you. Hi there. Good evening. And I'm actually going to read. And I never get to read, but I'm going to read so I can try and meet my time. Thank you for hosting this workshop and for the opportunity to speak. My name is Sharon Knoll and I'm here as a Brevard County Beachside resident, a waterfront property owner, an avid, avid voter, environmentally concerned citizen. I am not speaking on behalf of any organization. Let me say it again. I'm not speaking on behalf of any organization. For those who know me and my personal efforts to improve the Indian River Lagoon, understand that I place strong emphasis on personal action and responsibility alongside government participation. Sorry. I had a breath from running up here. Isn't that crazy? I do not believe in waiting on government to act. When there are things, even small actions, that I can do myself to protect our waterways. I believe the Hafton sales tax is one of those small actions that have large impact. As it's been said numerous times tonight, the Indian River Lagoon didn't decline overnight. More than 60 years, a combination of governmental decisions, some good, some not, and some simply necessary to support an aging infrastructure, along with everyday residential practices, contributed to the challenges we see today. For that reason, restoration will also take time, consistency, and sustained effort. From my vantage point, the Save Our Indian River Lagoon program is addressing these problems at their source. Stormwater improvements, wastewater upgrades, septic to sewer conversions, muck removal, and habitat restoration are not flashy projects. But they are the unglamorous work that will improve our water quality, reduce algae, and help seagrass recover. And if anyone understands doing unglamorous work, it's me. These are long-term solutions, not quick fixes. In balance, however, even with the amazing challenges that we've seen in the river, is the program perfect? No. Does every program and project have the desired results? No. But progress requires commitment, funding, accountability, and an engaged community, which we see tonight. Frustration and anger are understandable within the community. But they should motivate us. Every citizen should be motivated to become properly informed, positively involved, and part of the solution. I want to say thank you. Five seconds to your comment or your question, Katie. If we could increase more funding for things like baffle boxes, maintenance of baffle boxes, and the filters that go around them to stop the muck and the trash and the oil and the debris from going into the river, that would be fantastic. Beyond that, Virginia, I trust your team. I trust you implicitly with what you are doing for this count. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Gina Lindhorst. Lindhorst. Good evening. I'm Gina Lindhorst, and I am a Brevard County lifelong resident. I have just two items to just say brief comments about. First of all, all over Brevard County, there are unplanned overflows and frequently related to regular rains. Rainy days like unnamed storms for eight to ten hours of rain caused severe flooding and rainwater excess collection. This is primarily from high-density developments. Climate change, yes, but primarily high-density developments. There have been a lot of building and that affects the collection of rainwater. These are infrastructure issues. Sewage plants are addressed by impact fees, and they need to be maintained. Impact fees will help all of us. So what do we do with all the planned development that cause frequent overflows or unplanned dumping of sewage when we just have a rainy day? SB 180 does not control local development projects. It controls regulations, so we have control over local development and how high-density happens in our area. We notice most all developments are approved according to zoning change requests, and that is not helpful or necessary. The second item I want to say a little something about is that Sorrel must approach good neighbors like for-profit industries for funding to undo what they are contributing by infusing damaging fresh treated water. There are several agencies, not agencies, organizations, companies that have industry that generates a lot of treated fresh water that is damaging to our lagoon. They should be asked to match or double the half-cent sales tax revenues. They have been, and they can afford that, I'm certain. They have been causing damage last year and expect to do so indefinitely. There are several, or at least two different companies I can think of. I support continuation of the half-cent sales tax to address some of the IRL pollutionist problems, and please allow residents to make a choice about their taxes. Thank you. Thank you. Peter Amane. Amane. Good evening. I'm Peter Menino. I'm the 2026 board chair for the Melbourne Regional Chamber of Commerce. On behalf of everyone in the room, thank you for getting the air conditioner fixed earlier. That really helped. And it was, I think you all fixed it, Jim. No. Thank you so much. When we talk about workforce, we often focus on skills, housing, and wages. Those are critical, but workforce is also about where people choose to live, work, and raise their families. The health of the Indian River Lagoon is central to that decision. A restored lagoon strengthens our community in ways that directly affect workforce recruitment and retention, much to what Linda Weatherman shared earlier. It supports outdoor recreation, youth activities, and access to nature, things that matter deeply to families, young professionals, and the next generation of talent, such as my two boys, which are 13 and 11, growing up in this community. For many residents, the lagoon isn't a luxury. It's part of daily life, culture, and even sustenance. From a business standpoint, companies want to locate in places where employees can thrive. A clean, accessible lagoon enhances quality of life, supports tourism and small businesses, and reinforces pride in place. These are the intangible factors that increasingly drive workforce decisions. What's especially powerful about this program is that it engages the whole community, homeowners, students, volunteers, businesses, and local governments. Thousands of residents have taken direct action through lagoon oil, septic upgrades, which we've heard much about tonight, and restoration projects. That level of civic participation builds ownership and long-term stewardship, Commissioner Altman, much like you've said, in the spirit of this meeting tonight. So as we look ahead, lagoon restoration is also about investing in our youth. It creates pathways into environmental science, skilled trades, marine industries, and public service, careers that will shape the future workforce of the Space Coast. So in short, a healthy lagoon supports a healthy workforce. It strengthens our community fabric, fuels economic opportunity, and ensures that the Space Coast remains a place where people want to build their lives and careers, and the Melbourne Regional Chamber is proud to stand behind a program that proves progress is possible. I just want to say also, 10 years ago, as I was preparing to move out here, 10 months prior was March of 2016. And I remember living in Orlando, hearing the news about the fish kale and the bloom, and not yet being a resident of this community, wondering how something like that could happen so close to home. And since then, I have literally talked to hundreds of people in this community who have been here their entire lives and told me stories about what the lagoon represented to them before I came to know it as a resident nine years ago. This presentation tonight, much of what we've heard, has helped to educate me in ways that I quite honestly wasn't before, except from those sort of firsthand testimonials from lifelong residents. So I hope the word has continued to be spread like this. Please know, though, that to complement what Anne said, on behalf of the Melbourne Chamber, we deeply support this being on the ballot. Thank you. Thank you. Kimberly Newton. Kimberly. Good evening. My name is Kimberly Newton, and I do serve on the Sorrel Board in the Education, Outreach, and Advocacy seat. And I want to just make a footnote there that I've heard a lot tonight about how we need more education, outreach, and advocacy. I definitely agree, and we do work hard to make that happen. I say we. The staff, I know in county, is amazing, but personally out in the field as well at events. So I look forward to seeing how we can grow that if given the opportunity. I do want to thank you, commissioners, for holding the event and for actually listening. It's apparent by your feedback and by doing this initially that you are interested in actually hearing what we have to say and Commissioner Altman by commenting this is the most, I don't know your exact word, engaging public hearing ever. That's a big deal. I also want to thank every resident that's taken their time to be here this evening, to listen to each other, and to share your experiences and your ideas. And I would like to invite anyone that would like to follow up further after this evening to feel free to reach out to myself. Give me your ideas for those outreach and education pushes for the county environmental office. They're great with correspondence. Give them a minute because they're bombarded constantly. But they do great work with all requests and again commissioners. Now just speaking as a resident, as an environmental educator and a naturalist, to me, to address your Sorrel 2.0, it looks like continued community education and revamped and bolstered to say the least. Eliminating all biocide spraying. Again, point of source for the pollutions. We can't clean it up if we don't stop putting it in. And responsible development, implementing low-impact design and best low-impact development practices. There's a wealth of information here in Brevard County to educate commissioners, developers. I'm the former chair of the U.S. Green Building Council here in Brevard County. We're in 172 countries plus. We do great work. I still am loosely affiliated with them and I'm happy to address any questions that you might have on how to educate developers and correspond how that would go for making those procedures mandatory, but encouraged. Give them the information so that they choose to make the right decisions. It's best for that. So thank you all again. Thank you. Doug Hook. Hi. Thank you for commissioners. I'm here tonight as a Palm Bay citizen and also as the father of a seventh-generation Floridian, myself being a sixth-generation Floridian. I just wanted to talk to you tonight not only as a citizen but also as the eyes and ears of multiple organizations tonight. I'm representing the Florida Native Plant Society's Conradina chapter. I'm representing the Port Malabar Garden Club and I'm also representing the Palm Bay Sustainability Advisory Board tonight. I could go on and on about how important this half-cent tax is. Everybody else has a total of its benefits and the positive impacts I've just had on the environment and the area. Talking back to the Sorrells arc map, there are seven projects that are happening in or around Palm Bay that are going to positively affect the Palm Bay community. So I appreciate the commissioner and the Sorrell team for being focused on Palm Bay as well. But as Commissioner Delaney said, what would we like to do in the future? I think one of the things that have been brought up ad nauseum tonight is our septic to sewer conversion. I know tonight in the city of Palm Bay, we are looking forward by the end of the year to having a big push on trying to help connect some Palm Bay citizens from septic to sewer. And I think the timing of that lines up perfectly for us to have an opportunity to lean on Sorrell and use that as a way to increase the visibility and impact that this upcoming vote is going to have. Having that kind of coincide with a push towards septic to sewer right in front of the election cycle is definitely something to consider. One of the other things that has been brought up and I'm very glad to have it brought up, there's a lot of things that the community just doesn't know about what Sorrell does and what that half-cent tax does. There's been a lot of talk about I don't know why I should continue doing this. I don't see the positive impacts. It's one thing to talk about muck dwelling. It's one thing to talk about water quality. It's another thing to talk about all these other scientific measurables that we've been able to see and prove is happening. It's another thing to actually get right out in front of citizens and engage them and tell them this is where your money's going. This is how I can teach you. This is how we can improve your yard, your life, and your family. So something to keep in mind along that is to continue using funds or potentially use funds in the future for Sorrell to build partnerships with local municipality sustainability boards, build partnerships with the Florida Native Plant Societies, different chapters throughout the areas, build partnerships with the garden clubs. There are numerous garden clubs that service Brewery County. And also, reach out to the partners that aren't necessarily part of the community themselves, such as the Marine Resource Council and ORCA down in Vero Beach. These partnerships can help develop and build these educational projects that you're looking for in a low-cost and effective way. I know from my perspective on the Sustainability Advisory Board, I'm constantly looking for new projects and new things to champion. And so that would be a great way for the county to be able to bring in partnerships with local municipalities and increase that visibility. Thank you. Thank you. Jim Burney. Hey, good evening. My name is Jim Burney, and I'm here to express my gratitude for the achievements of the Sorrell Program through the years and also to the county commissioners that have supported these programs. I'm a Brevard County Lagoon Front property owner, third-generation Floridian, environmental services business owner, biological sciences UCF graduate, professional wetland scientist certificate holder, and an ELSMC member. My wife and I are also Bowen Aquarium founding members, so we have a strong commitment to the community. I'm also here to express my support for the proposed half-cent sales tax referendum to provide continuing funding for the Sorrell Program. Previous experts, and I'm sure some of the following speakers, illustrate the overwhelming environmental and public use and economic benefits of the program provided by lagoon protection and restoration efforts, so I won't belabor those established points. Unfortunately, with urban development encompassing the lagoon in Brevard County, the system may offhandedly be described as a massive retention pond, or as Dr. DeFries described, maybe a series of. Since we cannot reverse human development to date, I feel it is my, our fiscal, ecological, and moral obligation to mitigate further watercrawly degradation and continue critical research and habitat restoration efforts to offset decades of urban impacts. The priorities as I see them, I use my professional experience, personal observations, and media to kind of scratch down what I see as priorities, starting with some of the infrastructure. That would be invest in domestic wastewater plant improvements or the wastewater stream to eliminate accidental or other discharges into the lagoon, invest in public stormwater management projects to reduce nutrient loads and other pollutants into the lagoon, continue septic to sewer conversions, and finally, to conduct canal dredging, continue to conduct canal dredging to reduce existent nutrient recycling and to release native sediments. I haven't scratched those down and listened to presentations. They're pretty eerily similar to what's already being done by the plan. As far as research and habitat restoration priorities, those go hand in hand. You can't have the projects without the research. Establish seagrass established, excuse me, seagrass establishment as the base community, oyster bar and clam bed restoration and establishment, mangrove and living shoreline expansion, native sand exposure due to the dredging operations, and then as an SMC member, the two programs go hand in hand with the eel conservation lands, but conservation buffer property preservation by acquisition and easements in order to retain what kidneys we do have. And lastly, it's the public education outreach side of things. Public education programs and events and community involvement projects are crucial to keep this thing going. So once again, I thank you to the SRL program leaders and staff and volunteers, amazing people, and to the county commissioners for your continued support. Thank you. Thank you. Chris Edwards. Thank you, commissioners, for another opportunity to voice my support. The last time that I spoke with you, I said the elephant in the room was development. And I think that that's the biggest challenge is that the amount of population that's increasing, unless we have the infrastructure in place, we should limit development. That might seem like a tough challenge, but that's how I really feel. The real elephant in the room tonight is collaboration. It's actually amazing. Just like you said, Commissioner Altman, the energy and the love in this room and the amount of organizations, I have a list here of like 15 of the organizations that are committing their life to saving this lagoon. And you guys are part of that. The commissioners are part of the success. But the tip of the spear, Sorrel and COC. And without that, how can we really, keep this energy going? So, and to speak to you, Commissioner, about what I would like to see. I'd like to see less toxins. I'm a naturopath by training, so I know a lot about toxicity. And it's a problem that we face as humans in the world we live in today is toxicity. And we want to get it out of our lagoon. We might want to consider banning glyphosate in our county. Okay? It's a cancer-causing chemical. I support low-impact development. We should ban grass. No more grass. You know, and, you know, let's have native landscaping and xeriscaping. And I also support technology and science, and I think that Sorrel gets, you know, really high marks. That's what they're using is science. And let's look at how we can get technology to go. Maybe biochar is something that we should really look at, you know. And I didn't even know about it until we came here. And last thing that I might recommend is septic inspections. In a lot of places in this country, you have to have your septic system inspected. And at least maybe we can come up with a law that says if you sell a house that has a septic system, it needs to be inspected. I mean, that would be a good start. And, you know, and obviously we want to get rid of all septic systems. So, and I want to commend, you know, the commissioners for, you know, for opening this up to the public. And, you know, I really haven't heard a lot of negativity. So, you know, so I'll end there. And thank you, you know, and it's a whole community. Thank you, Chris. What's your doctorate in? I'm sorry. Dr. Chris Edwards is my name. What's your doctorate in? I'm a dentist. Okay. I'm a biological dentist, but I'm also a naturopath, you know, by training. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Stuart Nicholson. Good evening. Good night. And thank you all for hosting this and listening to us go on. I'm a resident here in Palm Bay. I live on Sunswept, which is on Turkey Creek in Palm Bay Northeast. Unfortunately, a year ago, I had to replace my septic system. It just had to be done. And my street is on the septic to sewer plan. It's even listed as funded. And when I finally got through to the Palm Bay Utilities Department, I learned that they hadn't even applied, hadn't written the grant yet to get that. So my point, and he said that it would basically be years before I could hook up with the grant, the plan, the approval, the work. My point really is there is still plenty of funding needed to get these programs through. And I think I'll leave it at that. You've heard lots tonight about it. And I really, my final point is thank you all for what's a challenging job and giving up your nights like this for attending and hosting this. I really appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. I have a question. I have a quick question for Virginia. Didn't we just vote on something that people who paid for their septic tank, they can now apply for up to $6,000 or something? So I would definitely reach out to Virginia and see if, because that just happened, I think, what, like two weeks ago or something? We did that. Well, what turned out to be the case is since my street is in septic to sewer, the way the law was written, I couldn't also apply for the advanced septic system. Gotcha. I believe that's a state law. Okay. If I remember it. I was trying to get you some money. Thank you. Thank you. Keith Winston. Good evening, commissioners. First of all, if you know me, you know I have terrible handwriting, but I think I did okay tonight, commissioner. So you could read my name. I appreciate that. I was here a week ago with you, and I mentioned that I was here really to listen and to hear what people had to say. And if you remember last week, I was charting the responses. So last week, 18 out of 19 people were pro-SORL, too. They had great recommendations. They appreciated the science. They appreciated the public transparency. I first want to tell you, 30 out of 30 speakers tonight spoke in favor of SORL. So I think you're hearing the community loud and clear, and I admire what you've done from the north to the south of the county. But, Commissioner Delaney, I wanted to respond to what you said. So, you know, I listened today. We kept hearing people talk about a few things. One was engagement and education. How do we keep the focus? Also was a realization that we're in this game forever, right? We passed SORL, too. It'll be great. And when it's done, we'll have other issues to deal with. So I'm going to do some sort of shameless self-promotion here and say there is an infrastructure project you can invest in once. It will be sustainable after that. In fact, it'll pump half a million dollars or more back into the Indian River Lagoon every year. It's adoptable. It will reach 600,000-plus people in its first year, and that is the Bowen Aquarium. And an investment in the Bowen Aquarium will do so many of the things you've heard tonight in perpetuity and will self-sustain it. We'll reach the tourists as well as the locals in large numbers. And, you know, we're right there. Tourism has dedicated, committed $15 million to this. Obviously, we'd love to see the environmental side. But just to give you one example of that, we had the conversation tonight. The speaker talked about FP turtles, which are little green turtles in the lagoon, which we treat primarily at the L3 Harris Sea Turtle Center at the zoo. But at the zoo, you can't see them. They're behind the scenes. At the Bowen Aquarium, we're blowing that out inside out. You will see the treatment. You will see that happening. You will see that turtles. You will see them going home. That will be real for everybody who visits. So as we look at Sorrel 2, if you want to push the boundaries a little bit, do something unique that's a one-time investment that will carry this community forever. The zoo is 30-plus years old, and you know how we've grown. I'm going to ask you to consider, is there a way to fund, we're about to start this, the aquarium, accelerate our construction, and have that feed off and that pay off forever in that public peace? Besides all the research, all the work we do with sea turtles and everything else, and we will take those 600,000 people out over the lagoon to see what we're doing. So thank you for holding these. I have learned a lot, and I appreciate your openness to hearing what else we can do better in Sorrel 2. Thank you. Thank you. Nicholas Frank Sanzoni. Nicholas Frank Sanzoni, Brevard County resident my whole life, born and raised here. Thank you, commissioners, for having us. I do sit on the COC as well as many other boards, but I'm not representing any of them today. I'm just here as an individual, as a resident, as a person, just like you guys, with lots of choices. And you have a choice, and your choice is to give us a choice. So I hope that you think about that long and hard. And I'll just tell you a little story about me. Brevard County resident, seven years old, little boy on the lagoon, on a field trip, doing the stingray shuffle, which many of you have probably done before. Touching the water and being involved with the master naturalist, walking the paths down at the Berry Island Center as a kid, changed my life forever. And I went to school to learn environmental science. I learned soil and water science, how soil and water interact. And what I learned was, we are an important part of that equation. And then I began educating. After college, I needed a job, so what did I do? Tour boat captain. Well, not captain, first mate, really. But the narrator would then go on to talk about all the things and learn and learn and share and share with groups and people from all over the world. Disney cruise lines would come to our lagoon, and they would want to know, what is this beautiful place? It's so-called one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. An economic driver, a home, a place where we can raise kids, share stories, and share something sacred beyond ourselves that existed before we were ever here. I got to be part of that first half-cent sales tax when I worked for the Marine Resources Council. It was amazing. All those people coming together, sharing their stories, wearing those blue shirts, attending those meetings. I imagine you all remember that pretty well. Today, a lot of these faces when we look out in the crowd are very familiar to a lot of us because we spend a lot of time together. A lot of our hard work, a lot of our volunteer hours. I've been privileged to work with and lead volunteer groups in the lagoon, planting seagrasses, oysters, clams. And when you see somebody's life change by being involved with a program that they didn't know about a week ago, it is astounding. There's a young woman who volunteered with me planting seagrasses, oysters, and clams, who went to Rome to talk about her seagrass work that she did. It warms my heart to know that all the work that we do that keep the lagoon healthy keeps us healthy as a community. So I ask you again, think about it, take your time. You have a choice to make to whether you get to give us a choice to make. I really hope that you decide to do that. And I think the rest of these people here do too. Thank you so much. Thank you. We have one more card. Isaiah Mayers. Can I just say something? Why don't we do this for 20 years? Why are we going to have to, in 10 years, do this again? Can't we consider going ahead and just going ahead and proposing this for 20 years? I meant to mention that in my time. So sorry. That's okay. That's okay. And as we go forward in this process, we'll have more and more public hearings. We'll start writing the ordinance and those options will be weighed. This is the beginning. Isaiah Mayers. My name is Isaiah Mayers. And I grew up here. And I don't know if you guys know me or not, but I kind of like it here. So I like the Indian River Lagoon. I like the animals that live in it. And I love all of them. And all the people here are kind of stupid, but I like them too. So like, just like, just like he said, you got to give them a choice. You got to tell them what's happening. And if they care about it, then they would show up and they would vote and they would, you know, actually go out and do something. So that's that. You got to ask the right questions and you got to partake in stuff like this. It's good. I didn't have anything written down. That was very well said. But I like it. Okay. Great way to wrap it up. Thank you so much. We saved the best for last. Yeah, right. Yes, sir. That's you. All right. Thank you so much, Isaiah. Okay. That concludes our speakers. Did we miss anyone? I don't think we did. No, no. So this would be the conclusion of the workshop. What I'd like to do is have board discussion. We'll start with District 1. We'll just go down the line. All right. Thank you, Chairman. First, I just want to thank everybody for coming out and sharing your thoughts and support and ideas for the future and the staff and the presenters for the work that they did. I have so many thoughts. One of the things one of the speakers brought up was impact fees. And I just wanted it to be known that we had passed going out for an impact fee study months ago. And that's going to be coming back. And that's the first step in looking at possibly raising our impact fees, which haven't been done in some cases over 30 years. So that's something that is going to be coming up in a few short months. I will say that I don't want to take the positivity out of the room because it's really been an incredible, incredible night. But I've been looking at some feedback, not just from the people that have shown up to these meetings, but also people that have reached out to me personally. I've been looking on social media. I've been looking, you know, I've put some articles out asking for a response back from the public. I really want to try to put out the best work going forward, as I'm sure the rest of the board does as well. Some of the feedback that I've gotten is obviously infrastructure. People want to make sure that our infrastructure gets fixed. But also some things like herbicides, like what we've heard tonight, and microplastics, testing of the water. And I don't know if Sorrel's the appropriate place for this to be brought in, but also expanding the conversation to getting our space industry partners to contribute to this. And I'm sure that they do in some capacity, but especially with the permits and stuff that FDEP has, you know, brought to light. And it's not just Blue Origin. It's all of them. They're all using the resources that the lagoon has. So I think that that's a broader conversation that I would love to look into. And I feel like it's not just about nutrients, but also true clean water. The point of this is to pursue clean, safe water for our community to enjoy. Because that's the way that, you know, we're truly going to help heal the lagoon. And it's E. coli, other bacterias, PFAS, countless other toxins that, you know, I'm sure I don't even know the name of. Low impact development was brought up a lot tonight. And I just, that popped something into my mind that I learned from the Eastern Central Florida Regional Planning Council was that Volusia County, they gave us a presentation on what they do in their county. And they have almost like a menu for developers to, that they can kind of pick from. And they have incentives for the developers to incentivize them to make better choices. And that could be a cool thing that we could look at in the future, especially since our comp plan is kind of being brought back to the table once all the legislation gets, you know, hammered out. So, one of the, some more of the feedback that I've gotten, we talked a lot about community engagement and participation in the sorrel meetings. Something that's been brought to my attention is that public comment is at the end of the sorrel meeting. And maybe that's something that the COC would consider allowing for a public comment portion at the beginning. Even if they just said you can only speak at the beginning or the end. That way, if people don't have the time to stay for a two to four hour meeting, they could still come and, you know, get their, get their public comment in on that. And I guess my last question is, I know that we've talked about, you know, that we're going to have more meetings and whatnot. But I was just wondering if, if maybe Jim or Virginia or, or Morris, if you could kind of lay it out for us a little bit more exactly how this process is going to go as far as more, more public meetings to talk about the ordinance, the, the, when, where, how, what of all of this. Because I think that the public is, is wondering, I'm wondering, and, um, I don't know if anybody has a, an idea or a plan about that. Could I maybe say a couple of things, Mr. Chair, sir? Thank you. Um, first of all, I, I think we, I said earlier that we have to get the referendum language to the supervisor of elections in August. So that's the, the latest that we can, we can get that done. Certainly, I think the, the board will take that up, uh, beforehand. Um, I might suggest, though, that we have some budget workshops coming up. Um, and probably after that would be the best time for the commission to take the issue up, um, in light of other budget constraints and concerns and, and goals that, that we have that we'll probably flush out in those workshops. Is that, am I going in the right direction, sir? Um, that, uh, Mr. Chair, if I can jump in there, I can't see so well. Um, and, and thanks, Commissioner Delaney, because I was going to go through the, the, the, you know, did at the last meeting, the agenda item approved by the board. So I want everyone here to know the, the five steps. Approve legislative intent. That's permission for staff to start working on advertising ordinance for voter referendum, renew the half-cent infrastructure sales tax for sorrel program, and to return the, return it to the board for a public hearing in April or May. Then it was direct staff to work municipalities, amend the existing tax, uh, use and interlocal agreements. I'm paraphrasing for everybody. Step three is to work with municipalities and the community on a project plan that identifies the most cost-effective pollution reduction opportunities on funded needs for restoring health to the IRL ecosystem to be implemented, implemented with funds or leveraged by extensive sales tax if renewed by the voters. Um, solicit public input to be considered during the development of the ordinance, which we're doing today, ballot language and save our Indian project plan, and direct staff to develop back ballot language for the 2026. So, um, and I, and I, and I do know natural resource staff, they seem to go out to a lot of public meetings and different associations. They get asked, and so they're out there quite a bit. If I could just, uh, answer that. Okay. We have a hard, real resource staff, and so we have a hard, hard resource staff, and so we have to do some input as we bring it along. And then when the public, uh, gets the opportunity, uh, the fine, I shouldn't say final, but as it goes to the board for adoption of the ordinance and the ballot language, that will be done at a public hearing at the board meeting up in Vieira. Um, and I, and I do know natural resource staff, they seem to go out to a lot of public meetings and different associations. They get asked, and so they're out there quite a bit. If I could just, oh, I'm sorry. Okay. We have a hard, we advertise till nine o'clock. Let me make sure that the other commissioners get a chance to give their input. And that means I'm next. Yes. Um, first of all, I just, you know, I want to say thank you to all the presenters for sure. Um, I think I heard different takeaways than I did the last time. Um, but thank you to staff because it's not just us who have to, you know, be here till nine o'clock at night. It's all you guys too. So thank you. But my biggest thanks is to everybody who's still in the room, right? I mean, everybody, there's hardly any seats, um, where people left. And I think I've got a chance to make sure that the commissioners get a chance to give their input. Sure. Um, I think I've got a chance to give them input. Um, first of all, I just, you know, I want to say thank you to all the presenters for sure. Um, I think I heard different takeaways than I did the last time. Um, but thank you to staff because it's not just us who have to, you know, be here till nine o'clock at night. We talked a lot about the need for education, the desire for education. My understanding, and Morris, please tell me if I'm wrong. The county can't really do a whole bunch of promoting this passing of this tax. We don't get to do that. Um, that doesn't mean we can't say what good we've done with the money from the last ten years. Um, but you can. You can go out into your communities and you can say what you heard. And you can encourage people to look on, you know, the county website and find some information. Facts, not just hearsay. And I think that's probably the biggest thing that you can do tonight. The two things we're supposed to get out of tonight is us hearing you, do you want us to put this on the ballot? I'm going to do it every time. Um, the other thing is for staff to hear some of your suggestions. And they did. And they will. And they're going to continue to go out and gather more of your thoughts. But the biggest thing that we need to do is to get out into our communities. And you guys tell people what you think about this. And you guys tell people how you think they should vote on this. And don't be bashful. You know, tell them why. And tell them that you came tonight. And the next time we have one, help spread the word so that we can have more people. So, thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I want to thank the presenters. When I came up with this concept and I called each one of them, I said not just that you would do a presentation, but you would do it in two places. Uh, two different ends of the county and they were all very gracious and agreed to that. So, thank you very much for making the trip to Titusville and again tonight to, um, Palm Bay. Appreciate all the staff coming down here and, uh, spending our evening here. I want to thank Palm Bay and Titusville, the cities, uh, for their hospitality and making, uh, making their chambers available to us. I appreciate all the public who's, um, come out and share their thoughts with us, um, both events. Um, it's, it's been, it's been great to, to hear from the public. Um, I heard some things tonight. How can the public, um, participate more? There's a lot of groups here tonight. So, when you're leaving here, talk to, uh, talk to the person next to you. You're going to find opera, uh, volunteer opportunities, um, before you make it to your car. I guarantee you. Um, and I've been out with, uh, uh, many of the groups and I really appreciate the, the folks who go out there and help clean things up. It's a very humbling thing to, to go out there, um, and try to clean up our waterways. And there's, there's a lot of passionate volunteers who, who do that every day. Um, I heard something about discharges and, and, and leaks and some of these other things. We'll see some additional infrastructure in, in the future. Uh, I would have you know that the engineers that work for the county are thinking about these kinds of things. And, uh, how holding vessels can be made to, um, handle that, uh, when there's sudden surges that come or a pipe that breaks. I mean, it, it, it's a lot of infrastructure to manage. And there's, um, and there, and they're working on some of those things. I heard a lot about low impact development. I really appreciate that. I think someone said, ban grass. The dentist. Uh, sir. And, uh, I, I've told people for many years that someday I aspire to live on a, a little, uh, parcel of land myself. And I'm gonna have two pygmy goats and I'm gonna let them eat everything. Uh, and, and so I, I appreciate the, uh, things that might be. appreciate the sentiment. I think we probably, it's an interesting thing as we all get older and things change and even in the landscape, you know, I see more and more folks planning things and having larger beds and such so they have less grass to take care of. I'm certainly thinking about that too at my point in life. So I think you'll see a lot more of those kinds of things happen. Sort of organically, if you will. So I had a lot of takeaways from these two meetings. I really do appreciate everyone coming out and again all the staff in the cities for making this happen for us. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. I just want to thank everyone for their incredible input and their wisdom and insights and you're a guiding star along with this really crackerjack staff that's our bedrock of what we do. So I'm looking forward and I have optimism. I think a few people mentioned that. I leave this meeting a lot more optimistic than when I came in. So does staff have anything else to? No, I just want to re-in, thank you for the staff, thank all the citizens coming out and then a special thank you for the city of Palm Bay for hosting us and we came down a couple times last week to make sure we can pull this right. And then for everybody, you know, it's not being streamed live, but it will be on our YouTube channel tomorrow. Great. Thank you so much. Do you mind if I just say one thing? Do you mind if I say one thing? Yes, sir. I just want to give a plug for Speak Up Brevard. It is open right now. So if you have any great ideas about what we can do to make our government more effective or efficient, check it out. It's on the website. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you.