We'd like to call the March 18th, third Wednesday, a meeting of the Clearwater Marine Board to order. To start things off, I would like to say at least to the board, never got the notification for the January meeting. I would have been here. I was a little bit behind. Ask everybody and we'll do it. And never got the notification, maybe confusion with one of my old emails. Apologies. Thank you, Mike, for taking over. I did watch the show, and that would segue right into talking to the Stevenson Creek people.
Good morning. Good morning. I'm Sherry Day, president of the Stevenson Creek Advocacy Group, and I want to thank you all for coming at 8 o'clock in the morning, the day after St. Patrick's Day. Everybody perky? We appreciate your attention to this, and I want to say also that we're limiting our conversation today to the Manatee Protection Zone, which you've received the draft letters. I wanted to know your opinion of it. Is it well-suited for you to sign it today?
Personally, I'm glad that we were able to separate the two items that you guys have concerns with right there, and that someone clearly went through and pared it down to just say the exact point of what we need to say to the city council. They have to do something about this.
Yeah.
Do you have anything to add to this, or do you think we can just vote that we approve your –
We would love for you to vote it as is. I would only note that what you have is not today's date, so it probably needs to have today's date.
Yes. Good catch. Yes.
I have one here with today's date.
Okay. And what would be the procedure for that? If we approve it, we could just go ahead and sign it, or the chairman could just sign it now?
Yes. When you – you would need a motion to approve, a second, and you would just state that you would be correcting the date to today's date.
Okay. And the one I have here is dated March 3rd. There's no change? Not to the content, only to the date.
But you have a current one, right? That's dated today, right? Yes.
Do you want time to read it?
Oh, no, no. I'm good.
She's got one that's got the correct date on it, though. Yes. Yes. That's what you'd have signed. No, I'm good. I make one.
We have a motion to approve this letter to send to city council. Mike seconds it. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. It passes. We will sign your letter. We will get it to city council, and I personally will watch to see when it comes before the city council, if it comes up at a meeting or a work session. Thank you. And see if I can't be there to show our support. We are fully behind it.
Thank you very much.
It's a beautiful little thing, and we don't have Mike today. No, you're stuck with me. Which is fine. I think you look like Mike. You'll do. But Mike got me to meet him down at Stevenson Creek, and we did an interview for Bay News 9.
I've heard that.
Yes, we talked about it, and I understand you maybe did another story with one of the other news stations.
We had a beautiful piece on Channel 10 TV news, very at length. His focus was on the loophole that allowed the permit to pass the state.
Oh, so it was more about the docks.
It was about the docks, absolutely, and the permit that allowed them to bypass all of the aquatic preserve language. And it had a big sign in front of the Southwest Florida Water Management District and said, we tried for a month to get an interview from them, never got one. So I'll send you a copy of that video.
Yeah, just a link would be better.
There was also a story online about Stevenson Creek that I read the other day.
There's a lot of them, and if you go to our website, stevensoncreek.org, there's a section of media, and it has all of both written and TV videos.
We've been promised a link, and maybe it just hasn't got to me or whether the Bay News 9 story has aired yet, but Mike and I both talked to him, and we kind of – one walked away and let one be interviewed, and then I walked away, and they interviewed Mike. So I don't know what Mike's input on it was, but I know he's as positive about this as we are.
I followed up with the gentleman that interviewed you and asked, did it air? I'd like to have a copy, and I haven't heard back.
Yeah, that's – I followed up last week and hoping I'd have some information for today and got nothing. I know he's a busy guy, but – and these things take time, but now is the time if we're going to put this before the city council to put a little – I don't think pressure on them because I don't think the city council is going to need pressure on this either.
Can I just ask a quick question? What's the mechanism for the letter to get them? Does Mike's – does your office deliver it?
Right, right. Is what happened – a package will be put together with a draft of a local ordinance, a map defining the boundaries, a letter of our intent of what we want to do, and then all supporting data and reports that's been compiled. That will go to FWC for review. They'll then get back with us, let us know if –
Yeah, the specific question was how does this letter get to city council?
Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were talking about how we get it to FWC. Yeah, we can get it. We'll get that to city council. We'll present it to city council.
So the letter is just going to be a part of a bigger package of here's what we're trying to do.
Correct. That's – yeah, that would be included in the package that goes to FWC, that we are, as a city, in support of it. All this information – I'm sorry to get your name. I'm sorry?
I can get your name.
William Hotson, H-O-D-G-S-O-N.
Okay, thank you.
I've dealt with Mike quite a bit.
Okay, good.
The information on the – like you said, a loophole, the ability to financially circumvent some things has gotten a lot of attention. And I think a lot of people did not know about that. They just figured this stuff just happened. Is that on the docks, though? Well, just the whole circumventing a lot of the – and DDP is kind of – they knew about it. But, you know, again, they've got to stay in their lane, being a state agency. And I think this is going to get bigger than just –
That was the entire focus of that 10-week floor.
I think, yeah, because it's like, wow, you can do that.
And it's legal. It's not like they did bypass something illegally. They did all the right things.
Right. And just to be clear, and this has come back to us several times, the purview of this board, there's nothing we can do on that note to help.
This is just FYI.
It's – yeah. We understand that now. It's private property. Right. It's between the city and the licensing board or permitting board. State and county, everybody. State and county. We don't have anything – not that we wouldn't love to get in it, because most of us agree. It's a dumb idea. Yeah. The tides, the height, the depth of the water, the size of the boats they picture in their brochure that will go in there, and the actual size of the boats, you'll be able to get in there. One of those maybe wait them out things, but just that we're killing time here, because for us, it's not worth talking about.
And on that note, I want to apologize to you folks about that January meeting. If we had known that the docks were beyond your purview, we would not have taken your time and called you here at 8 o'clock in the morning. I just learned that this was not in your purview. We got a call – I got a call at 9.30 the night before the January meeting to attend, so we were blindsided and unprepared.
I wish I had.
And I thank Mike McDonald for that. Since then, I've talked with the city of Clearwater about the notification procedure, because it's wacky. You know, we requested a special meeting. Last I heard was it could not be – it wasn't – it didn't sound like it was important enough to have a special meeting, and then I get a call at 9.30 at night to come to the meeting. So the excuse I was given was if you were registered with the city to get notifications, you would have gotten that notification, and that notification came only at 5.30 the night before the meeting. So that's a whole other thing about notifications, but it's just led to a lot of confusion and a waste of city resources, so I'm sorry for that.
So a formal copy of that letter after the meeting, I can sign it, or does the whole board need to sign it? Sure.
Since she has a version with the correct date –
We could do it right now? Right. Oh, sure.
If you're okay with handing that over to the board, you're able to sign it now.
And they can go get breakfast.
Yep. They're free to go at that point. Get coffee.
Okay.
Yep.
Nice font, March 18th.
I feel like I'm signing the Constitution. Okay.
Are you having a special pen, you said?
A special pen?
The one I borrowed from Mike, one that barely works.
While you're signing, let me just mention, Mr. Zippel, the state legislature, Representative Burfield, Kim Burfield, is very aware of our work here, and she has invited another meeting to discuss her representing and opposing that loophole.
Okay.
So we're getting in that arena as well. Yeah.
Like I said, I think you –
And that's where it needs to be.
You have exposed something that a lot of people are unaware of. Yep. And the people that were aware of it were like, boy, I hope somebody notices this and rings a bell, which I think you might have done. So why not you, but this circumstance?
I mean, Mr. Capitalism, they take them down before the state ever gets around to it.
We can only try.
Well, when the people that put their boats in there realize they can never get their boats out and end up putting them in Clearwater Bay Marina or somewhere else, then you'll just have some empty floating docks there.
Well, it's an aquatic preserve, and it's supposed to be preserved. Yes. And the whole dock thing violated some language that said it was consistent. Their project of nine docks was consistent with others in the aquatic preserve. There's no other but single docks. So it should have never gone from there.
Thirty years of restoration work.
And $100 million. Thank you.
All right. It continues to silt in. It will only get shallower.
Mine is Mike Foley at 1809 Apache. Hi, Mike. And all I'm going to say is we did spot five manatees this past week. It's very hard to see them, but we have a lady in the high rise who gets a good shot at it, and she reported to me three and then another day two. So they are continuing to come in through the winter months, not at the high level of volume that they were before, but we are seeing them. And so just as you stated, the restoration, Stevenson Creek is now, I believe and I hope, being seen as a model of urban creek restoration for the state of Florida. And the city of Clearwater has taken the lead and stepped up every time. This past week, Tommy picks up trash. That's Tom Ross reported to me over off of Hope Avenue, a place where trash was coming through the sewage system or the drainage system into a finger on the creek. So I reported that to the city, and we asked for a goat, which is a barrier, to be placed in. The very next day we've got a barrier. So we're monitoring that when the spring rains come. We hope to prevent a lot of trash from getting down into the auxiliary.
And you can see the city's on your side.
The city's been right there the whole time.
We passed the CDB meeting inappropriately, and that would have prevented all of it.
Well, I'm talking about from about 2000. The city's done a lot of expert Clean Water Act projects along the creek, state-of-the-art.
And what I learned is that there's plans in the coming years that two of those first three bridges are going to be replaced in the next. Yeah, we're hearing stories about that.
I followed up with Mr. McDonald, and he said he did not have knowledge of that.
Knowledge of that. We found out the morning of the interview, I did a little drive-through on the way to the interview, thinking of what I was going to say when the guy asked me questions. And a city employee was there on the bridge, and I stopped and took a look at the, I think it was the Betty Lane Bridge. And I told him what I was doing, and he told me what he was doing was an early purview to begin the steps to rebuild the bridge and that the next one up was going to be rebuilt.
The Betty Lane Bridge was rebuilt about 2000, somewhere in that period, because it was really dilapidated. But it's a good bridge now. But I think you're talking about Douglas Street and maybe somewhere else, I'm not sure.
Douglas and, yes, I might be wrong about that.
Yeah, Betty Lane's a good bridge now. In fact, they raised it up.
Actually, the Betty Lane is, no, we were on the bike path bridge.
Yeah, I went to the meetings with the engineers on the Betty Lane Bridge, and it was low, and that's an evacuation route. So it was actually raised to provide protection. Oh, good.
And the homeless people like it under there.
No, well, Tommy picks up trash, reported all the trash going under the bridges. The city has put in rough, concrete rip-raff to keep the place from being too comfortable, and it's cut down on the hanging out. All right. So anyway. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Best of luck.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. We are talking to you about the rate increase.
We did skip around a little.
We haven't approved the minutes yet for December or January. I missed one meeting. Let's jump back. We jumped to the first item because I wanted to get right to them. Can I get a motion to approve the meetings from the December 10th meeting?
So moved.
Second. That is passed. And next item, can we get an approval for our special meeting from January 28th?
So moved. So moved.
So moved. I've read them both, and I watched the video for the 28th and found them be true. So those are both passed. Sorry.
Good morning. Good morning. Bill Hodson, Division Manager, Marine Aviation. For the agenda item approval of the rate increases for City Council, what we recommend at this point is bringing the recreational rate up to the 100%, which would be effective October 1. That's recreational rate only. The commercial rate, they increased 50% that went into effect February 1st, so just last month. We recommend to remain at that rate until the completion of the marina construction, the beach marina construction. At that time, we'll have a market rate study completed by an independent certified appraiser, and then we would bring that recommendation to the board and City Council.
And with respect to the recreational slips, what do you know right now about demand for them at these new high prices? Is it soft, okay, or what?
No, we're pretty steady. We get steady phone calls, generally around the 40-foot to 50-foot range is what people are mostly looking for. I don't anticipate having a problem really filling those.
Is the charge by the slip or by the foot?
By the foot. The in-state resident or resident rate would be $23 a foot at the final rate. It would be $25.30 a foot for a non-resident rate.
The reason I ask that question is there was always the dilemma, here's a slip. It will accommodate up to X. Well, I'm only going to put a 20-foot boat in there, so I'm only paying for 20 feet, but it would fit a 60-footer.
We wouldn't put a 20-foot boat there. No, no, no, I'm just using that as an example. You would pay the rate of the size of the slip or the size of the boat.
Right, right, you're renting the slip. What you put in there is up to you.
Well, if your boat is more than five feet beyond the slip, we generally wouldn't put you in there anyway. If we did, you would pay that higher rate.
Right, but I understand what I'm getting at is that the slip could come in up to this, therefore you're renting the slip up to the parameters of it. Correct. As opposed to just by the foot.
Correct. It is not a straight by the foot where you're not going to put a 60-foot slip and pay for a 20-foot boat. Yeah.
Yeah. You've got a 20-foot boat, you can't afford the 60-foot boat. You'd spend that money on a new boat. One other question. Did I see something in my Clearwater emails that there was a – we went from step one to step two, and there was a little party, and we weren't invited?
Oh, for the marina construction? Yes. The – I know they tried to put together – it was the first week of February, that first Monday. I apologize if you weren't invited. We didn't organize that. That was done by the tenant group, Trish Rodriguez and that group. They really wanted more of a soft opening, more for an introduction to the hotels and the concierge who would be guiding people towards the marina. They wanted them to come into the marina and see what it looked like so they could kind of better direct their guests. They didn't want to do a full opening because we don't have our kiosk in yet. We – it still looks somewhat like a construction zone. So, it wasn't news ready. I was just feeling a little left out. It was not intentional. Okay.
Any other questions on that? When will the fuel dock be open?
Fuel dock – they're out there – actually out there. I met with an electrician yesterday working on it. We had some delays with that. They didn't want to run the piping, obviously, until we had road plates. Sure. So, we ordered road plates the end of January in conjunction with that phase being ready for us to be able to be in there to work for phase two. And the weather delayed the road plates. And then when I called to ask for an update on them, the guy said the order had been canceled. So, we had to reorder them all over again. They were coming out of North Carolina. And that really harsh weather they had the end of January really messed some things up. So, the road plates got delivered, and they're working on it now. When a crew is available for the installer, EPI is doing it for us. When they can get the crew out there. They said they should have someone out there next week to continue on it. You know, I hate to – next week, next week, next week. Every time I talk to somebody, it's next week. But we're hoping by next week, next couple of weeks.
By mid-April would be a target.
That would be the push, if not sooner. We have the pump. Everything is ready. It just has to be – everything has to be open.
Thanks.
Okay. Moving on, the Harbor Marina update.
That would be Kelly.
Had a good St. Pat's day. As far as the Harbor Marina, we're excited to – Give us your full name. Oh, sorry. Kelly Petrich. I'm the engineering division manager.
Okay.
City of Clearwater. As far as the Harbor Marina, we're very excited to say on the south end, we have got a low bidder now on board, which is Kelly Brothers. And we're actually on the 3-30 council date. We're going to bring that contract to council. So we're hoping to have the Kelly Brothers and start around the May time frame on the south side. And that should be complete. We're hoping by the end of this year to early next year. As you know, we've divided into the south end. As far as the north side, we are now done with the 90% construction drawings, which we were reviewing. So we're going to have some time for comments. And then we're hoping in about four weeks to have the complete 100% construction drawings done for that. And then we probably will go out to bid between – probably by June, we imagine, we'll get that bid package together and get that on the street. And that's usually about a 90-day process to get somebody on board as far as a low bid contractor. So we're hoping – right now we're kind of shooting for the September 16th council date for the north side, which would have us kind of around that October-ish time frame to get somebody on board. And then it'll be about six months to a year to complete that one. So probably be by – hopefully I will be finished by the next storm season of next year on the north side to get all those complete. So that's all the updates I have for the Harbor Marine.
Question, Jim? And you're going to fill us in on the Beach Marina reconstruction also?
Yes. As far as the Beach Marina, I've got some updates here. So right now the – so we did switch over from the Phase 1 to Phase 2, which we feel like it went pretty well on that end. As far as Phase 2 right now, we're doing the demo of all the buildings and docks, and that is now complete. And then they're also 90% complete with the removal of the timber and concrete piles out there. And then we're moving pretty well on the new sheet pile wall. It's largely completed, and the rock is now 90% done. And so basically what we're doing – we're trying to move the schedule along. So as we get the sheet piles in, we're going back and we're forming and doing all the concrete work right behind it. And so we currently have the first 50 feet port of actually the actual bulkhead right behind the sheets. So it's going well. And then – so we're – the pre-dredge survey was also completed last week. And Orion Construction expects the submittal information to go in this week. We're looking at the – the dredge will then happen as soon as this survey has been approved. And the steel pipe piles are delivering this week, and the installs will start as soon as possible on that. As far as the upland work, I'm sure you noticed that we did get the concrete – the pavers in on the Phase 1, so we're able to have that completed so we can access the building now on both sides for the Beach Marina building. So we're very excited to get that in. And as far as the upland work for the Phase 2, all the sidewalk demo has been completed. The utilities have been shut off, and we started – this week, they will be re-piped. And the stormwater outfall extensions will also be installed this week. As far as the electrical work, the demo of all the marine power has been turned off and removed. The underground rough-in will start when the Orion has the bulkhead work completed. A new transformer service is required to power the East Trash Compactor, and a work order for this has been submitted to Duke Energy. The existing transformer will then be removed, and the new transformer is installed so it can provide a temporary power to the remaining critical systems for the marina. As far as the remaining Phase 1 work to get that completed, we are looking at the end of March to get our temporary kiosk in place. At that point, we're going to coordinate with the existing tenants and the existing kiosk and get that removed. The electrical room exterior will be finished after the electrical is completed so the side of the switchgear can be accessed. And then the open planter beds will be completed with the Phase 2 work as the irrigation system is tied to the Phase 2 controls. Any questions?
I'm curious what they're going to do with the dredge spoil, where they're going to put that.
That's being just as within Phase – the same as we do with Phase 1. That's going to be sent to an approved location as per our Army Corps permit.
On the west side, why is the driveway entrance from Coronado open yet? There's still some barriers there.
Yeah, well, at this point, based on the location of the temporary – see, the kiosks that are out there right now, that's not going to be the permanent locations. That's actually going to be switched. Because of that location, we're really scared with the pedestrian traffic walking there. We want to keep it just one way. We don't want to have that open. There's a lot of people congregate right now on the street there, just in the current location. And then they get shade there as well. So we're going to keep that as one way. And then as soon as we bring the kiosk in, that'll be there permanently. We're going to make that a two-way. And then we have to re-strike that parking lot as well.
So when did you say –
It'll be the end of this. They should be shipping in a couple weeks here.
And how about the barriers on the seawall on the west end too? There's just a bunch of plastic barriers. Same problem, same concern?
Yeah, those will be removed once we get everything finalized.
Oh, God. And if there's waiting for a railing there or something like that?
That is – that's for the railing. We're waiting on the delivery of the railing. And then all of those orange and white barricades along that cap will be removed. Okay, I thought they might be. Thanks.
And the good news is we are way under budget and we're on schedule. So everything is moving forward. Fingers crossed that it continues to be up. But we're still scheduled for the summer time frame to complete everything. And I'm very happy with the progression of our contractors.
Who's doing the construction management?
That's Kokolakis Construction.
Okay.
The years we've been overseeing this, I never thought it would come off as smoothly as it has. And you guys are to be commended. Yeah, good job.
Yeah, the pilings are going in a lot easier this time, actually, than the phase one.
It's like greasing the wheels on a moving train. Yeah, yeah. A bunch of fingers.
There's so many moving parts you can see on that. And we've been really happy with our contractor and the ER. And the teams are doing a great job on this one.
Excellent. Good. We have other people here.
Before you go, are we going to address the conclusion of the Seminole Ramp Rehab?
Well, we've got a director's report coming up. Maybe you can ask some questions to Bill about that when he comes up.
Are you either way? Kelly's been involved in that as well.
Oh, you're involved in that too? What was your question?
Well, the uptide portion and the docks are done, but the submerged portion is not understood. It's going to be done in two phases. So what's the status of the second phase?
Yeah, we're still working on the EOR. We haven't received their final drawings on that. And then we're going to put together a bid package to similarly go out to bid for that. It'll be a similar phasing plan.
Okay. Any guesstimate on when that might happen?
I imagine that's going to go out to bid by summertime. And then that's a 90-day process again.
Maybe start in the fall.
Yeah. Okay. And we're hoping to start that in the fall. Okay.
Thanks.
And it should go pretty similar as far as a time frame to get that completed. Yeah.
Ideally, we'd like to get that into the winter. It's a lot of months to do. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
Thanks. Before we go to the director's report, I guess my year is up. The election of a new chair or vice chair, or whether you would prefer to keep things going. Does anybody have a suggestion? We keep it going. You're doing a great job. I agree. We can do another term. I'm glad somebody finally said that. Because I have never done this before, except as vice chair for Mike. I think one time I filled in for you, nervously. That's fine. And here I skipped the minutes approval right off the bat, just to prove how good I am.
Well, but we understand why you did that in expeditious maneuver. We applaud you for that.
I did want to get them on their way, and they're very nice and very persistent, and they really believe in the cause. So maybe it was a good thing I skipped around. Oh, it supports a good cause, and I think they've uncovered something that needed to be pointed out. Do we need to vote on them individually?
Yes. So even if you're keeping things the same, well, I suppose if you're keeping things exactly the same with the chair and the vice chair, what you can do is somebody can put forward a motion to have the chair remain and the vice chair remain, and somebody can second it, then we can go unanimously and bang the gavel.
I second it. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye.
Good job.
I'm chairman once more. I dispatched that in a hurry, didn't I? Continue. It's all my years in the boat business. This is one of the coolest things I've ever done, to be involved in all these projects and things, and this will start, you and I, our 10th year. It's good to be a lot of years. I'm lost track. I'm glad you have. If you remember, a year ago, we had to go before the city council and let them say that we could have another term because you're only supposed to have two unless there's special circumstances, and the special circumstances is keeping these chairs full, and also maybe that we've been on it so long that we know all these projects that are going on.
Well, it's nice to have some true maritime people on the board, so that's my background too.
14, building a sailboat in our garage with my dad. Wow. That's not huge. Were you able to get it out once you got it built? Well, we didn't put the mast on until we got it down to ... He bought an 11-foot flat-bottom 11-foot rowboat, and we built a cabin on it. He got a pole. We built a mast, a big slab of steel for a rudder. He bought a parachute that we made all the lines, all the rigging, and the sails out of, and the best it could do was, with a good wind, you could keep pace with the river, the Allegheny River in Oil City. Oh, geez. And if you lost the wind, then you had to drag it up the shoreline back to where we kept it in the little marina. And of course, you know, I was 130 pounds back then. So a long time I've been doing this, and it's good to stay involved. So moving on, we have a director's report. Somebody I'm sure has ...
I don't really have anything else in the director's report. We kind of covered it. We've already covered it. Are there any questions I could help answer?
One question I had, we had discussed a couple times, recommendations for kayak launch. The sandy area just to the west of the fish cleaning station at the Seminole Ramp, there's a sandy area there. It would cost nothing just to put up a couple of very little ... put up a couple of signs and re-strike kayak paddleboard launch, you know, 15-minute loading right there in the cul-de-sac there by the dumpster, and also the possibility of a similar circumstance up by the shuffleboard court on Stevenson's Creek. There is an undeveloped area just to the east of the shuffleboard court itself. You've got plenty of parking there. A lot of people launch kayaks and so forth in there now. Now, that would do two things, take some of the pressure off the other launching facilities and give them more of a sheltered area in which to launch, and I don't know what the process is. We had mentioned that in the past a couple times, if that had been proposed to whoever that needs to get proposed to. It's not a lot of expense to do that. It's an area that's pretty much already there.
Right. That's a parking rack is already looking into that. Okay, excellent. About three years ago, the area you're talking about, Seminole Boat Ramp, we cleared that of rocks and tried to clear that out and give people an opportunity to, but to actually make it a kayak ramp, there's certain criteria that has to, and it has to be brought up to certain ADA requirements and stuff. That's, Parks and Rec has reached out to us, and that is something that's in the works right now.
Good.
Especially the shuffleboard court with Stevenson's Creek making it more of a kayak area.
Sure.
So that is in the works. Okay, excellent. I don't know where that is in the planning stage right now with Parks and Rec, but I have seen some recent correspondence.
And I'm sure you could get some volunteer assistance on that from some of the kayak clubs, and for instance, like Osprey Bay, you know, they have a big kayak group. You get a bunch of people out there, clear some rocks.
It would seem interesting to speculate that if that happened and it became a launching point for such light watercraft, one would wonder why there would be heavier craft in the same vicinity, such as at the docks.
Yeah. The seminal one, because the return to normal operation starts just past that, that they're kind of protected. If you've ever run out Hurricane Pass, Dunedin Pass, no, this is Dunedin Pass, Hurricane Pass, and they rent the kayaks and the sailboats, and the first thing they have to do is cross the channel on a Saturday afternoon with boats coming in.
At the steepest angle they can, so it takes them 20 minutes to cross the channel, and it's five feet deep at high tide in some places. Yeah, there's no room for error. No. Okay. That'd be great. And they would need to look at re-striping and a little bit different signage. Some people launch there now, but there's a lot of, you know, no parking, no stopping, and the parking department's down there often just waiting for somebody to take the keys out of the ignition, so, but that would keep them off the ramps and kind of out of harm's way too, so thanks.
Yep.
Board members to be heard. Does anybody else have any new projects? The only thing I can say is I hope things are well with Mr. McDonald. This isn't any... Oh, me, he's fine. Yeah. I don't remember him missing a meeting. It was St. Patrick's Day yesterday. McDonald. Well, I will add that I've gone out twice in the last 25 years as a designated driver. You tell by my name, we bit Irish, as my mother, Rosemary Callahan, would tell you, and I don't entertain it. You know, first St. Kevin is the real Irish saint, well before St. Patrick's. Two, there were never any snakes in Ireland, and three, he was Welsh. But it's more the debauchery and the drunkenness, and the wolf pack was out this weekend, massive number of DUI arrests before St. Patrick's, the real St. Patrick's Day even got, and I had a very nice Guinness at home last night, and I'm glad you guys are all here and safe, and I hope that goes for any missing members.
Yeah, just before you stop, is there any action underway to fill that? How many open seats do we have on the board, if you know, one, two? I think just one, just one.
Does he serve for water, a board member now?
Oh, no, he's done.
Yeah, he stepped down. Yeah. Oh.
I had a carefully worded conversation with him on the phone. He contacted you guys and got my phone number, and having just moved here from San Diego, he didn't feel that he knew anything that we were talking about up here. And I told him, you know, yes, I've been voting here many, many years before I ever joined the board, so kind of had to let up, but that's not unusual for our new people to come in and learn about the projects as they go along. And how many seats are open, one or two? Well, if he's gone, I think there's two.
Right.
I think we ought to. Is it appropriate for us to approach someone? Because Trish McDonald, or Trish McDonald.
Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, thank you. I'm looking at McDonald over there. The sign, Trish Rodriguez, I know, had thrown her hat in the ring, and she would be a good one. Also, another one that I personally know is Courtney Ross, who lives just up on Osceola. If you remember back in the day, Ross Yacht Service.
Who you're mentioning, she's the girl with the marina group?
Yes, and she had thrown her hat in the ring when I did.
One, I think she'd be more effective staying in charge of that group because she's been doing a wonderful job. But two, she couldn't do, I don't think she could do both. It would be a conflict of her leaving the Diaz and going out there and presenting things to us. But that's her call. Yeah.
Only because she had thrown her hat in the ring would it be worth it to say, hey, what do you want to do?
Right. You can approach anyone you want, but I think they have to apply through the city. There's a process. But it's very easy. Yes.
I have a, oh gosh, I can't think of Eric's last name, but a local commercial realtor. He handled some property for me years ago. His family's from here. His brother owns the fish house there at the Dunedin docks. And his family's been boating here for years. He's got stone crab traps. You know, you name it, though not commercial. And I pushed him for years. And it was like you are like one of the perfect people. You're out there on the water all the time. And it's hard to get somebody in there. So yeah, you know any other boaters? Does he live in Clearwater? Yes. Yeah, they're in the, like, the whole family for years have been right around the country club there, up above the country club, whatever that neighborhood is called.
His brother, just drew a blank on his name, owns the two of them in Dunedin.
Yeah, the restaurant there on the dock. Yeah. The fish house and the restaurant. Old Bay Cafe. I was introduced to him through the late Ashley Pimley, who was a long-time member of the Environmental Board, who also is a major factor in why.
Walt Wickman owns that. Is that his brother? Eric Wickman, yes. Okay, okay. He has the ones who lives in Clearwater, yeah.
Eric, if you're out there. So, but people like that that have an interest in what's going on down here, please, you know, talk to anybody. You're allowed to suggest to anybody, and they can apply through the city, and it's not a terribly in-depth thing, you know. Just, you know, you're not a felon. I don't even know if that's a, I don't even know if that's a little clear word.
Conviction?
That's it.
Yeah, and on that note, anyone that does apply for the board, and they do get on the board, like his situation, if they want to get up to speed, reach out to us. We'll sit down with them. They come in the office. We'll give them any kind of documentation we have, any archived information, try to get them feeling a little more comfortable, like they have something to contribute.
Good idea. I'll talk to Walt and Courtney.
Good. Anyone have anything to add? I'm good. Did I skip something? Oh, gosh. Are there citizens here waiting to be heard? No, you're not here for that? I'm sorry. Okay. There's two things I skipped. Thank you. If we have nothing else to add, though, we'll motion to make a motion. I'll second. This meeting is adjourned.