good morning everyone it's 9 30 i'd like to call together the uh jacksville waterways commission meeting for april the 15th 2026 tax day if i can have a roll call from my left please uh jerry pinto jackson university shannon mcgillis office of general counsel jim super waterways coordinator andy frayden waterways commission my gay city council district to kenna mars city council district one mike barker waterways commission jay hobson waterways commission adam hoyles environmental protection board er repass planning commission thank you gentlemen if we will stand for our pledge of allegiance we have a quorum so i'd like a motion for the approval of uh the meeting minutes from february the 11th and march the 11th second all in favor any opposed motion passes uh we have the st john's river status report on water quality and manatees uh being delivered this morning by dr pinto good morning uh thank you yeah um things are still fairly quiet on that front although manatees are being reported by uh coming into the area by many people and um in terms of temperature we are around 70 degrees you can see there uh in the report here um salinity is high uh sort of uh abnormally slightly higher than normal because of the lack of rainfall that we've had and um we're at a deficit of about six inches uh for the year um in terms of algae blooms there's no new data to really report on that although i anticipate this next week there will probably be a new round of samples and that data will will be forthcoming there are some reports of uh microcystin uh microcystis algae further south from us so in crescent lake and lake george and moving up um so i anticipate that we will start to see that as the water temperature reaches uh in the 80s uh as we go into this spring and summer here in terms of manatee deaths we've had two two more deaths since last uh month's report one has not been necropsy that was recovered near blunt island actually on quarantine island um and the other one is in goodby's creek a perinatal death um so no watercraft deaths at least to report yet in terms of public sightings there's a link there if you have a chance to click on it on your digital copy you might be able to see the latest public sightings of manatees in the area and if some of you have loaded up some of that information or have turned it in to me i've actually put it in there if you have any pictures they've also been loaded up there so that qr code will take you to our website and then you can go to the latest sightings page and look for that with that i don't really have anything else to report i'd be happy to take any questions thank you thank you dr pinto any questions from uh committee members none thank you uh dr pinto i got one uh i'm not a scientist so i'm just curious uh this microcystis if i'm pronouncing that correctly algae that is moving north what are the consequences of that so uh microcystis is a is a blue-green algae and um it produces a toxin called microcystin and microcystin is a hepatotoxin it's a liver toxin that with repeated exposure can build up in your body over time and so we call that a harmful algae bloom and when we have those usually the the uh if they're bad if they're over a certain amount of toxin in the water the health department will put out an advisory that people stay away from those areas don't fish in those areas and that kind of thing until it clears up sometimes that appears as green in the water and you can see it uh it's musty smelling and sometimes it'll give you a sore throat and sore and watery eyes but sometimes the algae subsides and clears out of there and it looks normal but the toxin may persist for a couple of weeks so that's something to pay attention to as we go forward thank you dr pinto you just painted a picture that it ain't good period i want to acknowledge uh representative dean black he's been in tallahassee and here's he's here with us today thank you sir for being here with us we now have a presentation from eric in reference to the city of jacksville and ju manatee protection program contract extension eric you have the floor thank you uh eric hinton uh planning department i administer the city's vanity protection program we contract with jacksonville university every five years and as part of that contract we do we bake in for extensions and so this is the second extension to the contract that we found two years ago the only significant change in this is going to be an increase in the rate that we pay back from university we've been paying them about 90 we've been paying them 90 000 for at least a decade uh they asked for an enhancement so the new rate is going to be 103 000 per year uh mbrc is already happy to answer any questions any questions from committee i got one what's the source of the funding i believe mayor's office okay so it's in the mayor's budget yeah okay um any questions from any member of the committee and can you just expound for a minute eric on what is being delivered in this program yeah absolutely um you'll uh see at the end there's a task list task list has remained pretty consistent for as long as i've been administering the program last five years so uh one of the task one is um dr pinto's uh contributions to this commission um the uh manatee sightings i think dr pinto talked about that fairly frequently it's part of the what he talks about when he gives the status of the river report um signage is something we work on uh signage specifically is really difficult topic because the uh state is uh the only ones that can state and feds can do the regulatory uh areas the vanity zones and things like that so uh signage is an ongoing issue but all we can do is really test for the state to go ahead and address that um i mean the education efforts there are many uh dr pinto attracts a lot of these uh captain suber is involved in a lot of this stuff as well uh captain suber are we talking about the media day coming up next month chair i'm sorry may i do the chair yes sir um i'm looking at may 15th um friday morning that is the friday before the safe boating week starts to do a multitask press conference for safe boating week as well as the uh season for the manatees kicking in full speed so that's what we're looking at right now we also receive reports from the sheriff's office on enforcement actions we get a quarterly report from them as far as law enforcement is concerned uh it's a all hands on deck effort of local state and fed um law enforcement efforts the marine facility inventory that's just looking at all the docs that exist in the county keeping track of that uh and then the mpp review we've already talked to um the feds and the state and they're pretty happy with the status of the manatee protection plan as it stands um so we're aware of that but at the moment we are not being asked to do any major um and i think that's that's about it thank you sir any uh mr hobson you're on through the chair is there any other funding that comes into this is there any grant funding from either fwc the state or any federal funding that also offsets any more costs yeah is that something that would be applied for from ju is that something that's been looked at because i mean for using taxpayer dollars for this i'm just curious why we wouldn't if it's going through university where we're not looking for any grants or funding um your question is well taken uh we have not pursued grain opportunities but um i'll look into that it's just it's a great it's a great idea and again all right thank you um to miss mcgillis uh are we required to do any action on this okay all right we need a waterways to approve i was looking at last year the last time this came up and whether or not it was put on as an action item it is on as a presentation not an action item so if you would like to take a vote we would just put it on next cycle uh next month but i'm not aware that you have any say whatsoever over the mayor continuing the contract this is more of an informational sorry to bring that up i'm sorry mr hinton what were you saying i'm sorry uh chairman uh i just wanted to make sure that we were in the right posture as far as do we need to vote on probably should have cleared this up before this yeah well and and and the weight was delivered i i felt that it seems like it's something that requires an action that's why i asked um but if it's in the posture of just a presentation right now i guess you'll have to come back uh in the form of uh actionable item and and we'll take it up then um if it's the chair's pleasure i'll look into it um when we leave today and if it needs to come back up then it can just be an action item vote and um whether you have him represent or be here for questions would be you know your discretion thank you so much thank you very much for your time i'm moving through the agenda we now have a presentation from groundwork jacksonville the emerald trail project and and the wonderful work that was recently unveiled at mccoy's creek uh we have miss kay ehas with us miss miss miss good morning everybody um thank you for having me chair amaro and commissioners ke house ceo of groundwork jacksonville um we are the city's non-profit partner in building the emerald trail which includes the restoration of mccoy's and hogan's creeks my presentation this morning will mostly focus on mccoy's creek our mission is to use green space to promote healthier neighborhoods environmentally socially and economically the city of jacksonville sought a groundwork trust to help it clean up its urban land and waterways and i believe we are doing exactly that which i hope you'll see in this presentation we'll be we're building 30 miles of trail connecting 14 urban neighborhoods to each other downtown on the saint john's river uh the two creeks will include six miles of the 30 mile emerald trail the map shows you the progress we've made over the past five years yellow is what has been constructed so far 4.6 miles orange is under construction 2.6 miles light green is in design 6.3 miles and then in dark green is 14.6 miles that are now ready for design so 100 of the project is underway within five years i think that's pretty good progress in that time frame so we have an agreement with the city to lead trail and creek design and community engagement we work with neighborhoods on trail planning and design and creek restoration they are at the decision making table we see the trail as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization and reinvestment we've also completed watershed plans for both the mccoy's and hogan's creek watersheds that will complement the creek work help with stormwater runoff and improve water quality groundwork jacks has secured more than 24 million for the emerald trail project so far including 9.4 million for mccoy's creek the city has contributed 193 million so far and 124 million for mccoy's creek creek restoration is not for the faint of heart or or inexpensive um but the benefits are tremendous so mccoy's creek has been the city's number one flood mitigation project for decades priority for decades you may know that most of the city's urban core is an epa designated brownfield mccoy's creek is a prime example of that and polluted soils are being removed and disposed of during construction mccoy's creek is groundwork jackson's first design project the city's plan was to close mccoy's creek boulevard which ran along the south side of the creek shown in the photo on the right and just let the creek flood and they intended to widen the creek towards the mouth which with a traditional engineering approach which would have not um which would not have benefited a natural creek so we asked and received permission from the mayor's office to design the project we raised private dollars hired an engineering firm with expertise in natural channel design in florida creeks we knew many more benefits were possible than just flood reduction by returning it to a natural stream and the design did meet the city's flood mitigation goals it's reducing flooding by two feet removing 50 homes and businesses from the hundred year floodplain or flood event the urban core neighborhoods at the emerald trail will connect our groundworks key partners residents are the experts on their neighborhoods and we believe residents should always have a say in what happens in their neighborhood in fact one of our goals is to increase the capacity of neighborhood organizations to lead this year we intend to begin a neighborhood revitalization project whereby resident leaders are trained to lead the planning effort in six neighborhoods the trail is connecting we formed the mccoy's creek task force to guide the design at the beginning of the mccoy's project and members included residents the rail yard business improvement district the st john's river keeper the north florida land trust and city staff from public works and and parks and also the st john's river water management district the mccoy's creek vision in 30 percent design was a result of this effort the city accepted the design and we worked together to complete it there are three different stream types within this project the creek's headwaters shown at the left side of this graphic will be very narrow shallow and meandering so children will be able to get in there and explore it as the creek heads east it is a series of connected lagoons and wetlands to add more storage capacity because the land is so incredibly low right there and then past stockton street it opens up into a wider channel john was just john mooney was just mooney was just telling me that he recently kayaked all the way up to king street and he has a video to prove it the key components of the project are taking it back to a natural creek as much as possible given the urban constraints natural meandering creeks control flow deposit sediment along the way so that it doesn't build up and you don't have to dredge and natural streams grow stronger and more stable over time requiring much less maintenance than straightened and hardened creeks expanding the flood plain to contain the water within it so it doesn't flood outside of the land that's been given daylighting the section of the creek that was buried underground buried creeks cause upstream flooding and are inhospitable to fish and wildlife the king and stockton street bridges had to be lengthened to accommodate the wider creek so as not to be constrictions to flow and the city also decided to raise them out of the 100 year flood event the creek was fully designed in phases and is being constructed in phases so the green area is now under construction that's the creek the creek's headwaters that we call the branches phase one restoration is complete that's the blue section the outfall within the red box in the pink area that restoration is complete and the rest of phase two is still in design that's the brooklyn section so this slide was taken during phase one construction and what is really interesting to me is how narrow the existing creek was and it had no flood plain so you can see the difference in terms of what we're doing the next few slides are photos of the restored section of the creek in phase one at the bottom of this photo would have been mccoy's creek boulevard as soon as that road was removed nature took it over so you would i mean it always wanted to be nature the ends of the residential streets were turned into cul-de-sacs the cul-de-sacs will be connected to the emerald trail the emerald trail will follow the creek on the south side so on the residential side of the creek and the green space outside of the cul-de-sac will include amenities like swings and benches and grills for the neighborhood residents along these streets to have their own little park spaces this is a view from the king street bridge looking towards downtown this area between king and stockton streets is where the connected lagoons and wetlands are located is that not gorgeous you got you can see the creek meanders in this photo on the right will be a parking lot restrooms pavilions seating and grills there also will be spaces with exercise equipment swings and two playgrounds and the classical academy charter school is on the right off this picture we call this the goodwin trailhead so residents want to be able to fish in this creek again one day john also told me that he recently caught a red fish that if he was in a tournament it would have won first place i don't know if that's true but the fact that fish are now in mccoy's creek is incredibly exciting and it is being designed with fish and wildlife as well as people in mind so here you see two smaller bodies of water which are fish nurseries the mama fish can go in these pools and have their babies and the babies can stay in there until they're large enough to swim with the bigger fish and not get eaten i love that this photo is to remind everyone that mccoy's creek was buried underground between the office building and the manufacturing building of the florida times union that happened in the 1960s when it built its headquarters these next two slides show you the relocation of the creek and the fact that it's no longer buried underground the trail will be on the left side of the creek and a new park will be between the right side of the creek and the railroad track so this is um how we see the work project timeline again the branches all of these phases are about one mile each so it's a three mile creek so the branches is under construction and should be done within um a year phase one trail and recreation construction the city will be building out very shortly the brooklyn phase design should be complete by the end of 27 and then groundwork just applied for a grant to um implement floating wetlands in the outfall because it's you know it's bulkheaded there because we didn't have enough room to make it a natural stream and the velocities wouldn't allow and that um living shoreline to work so we're going to be bringing in floating wetlands to they're they're going to look like when you're when you're on top looking down or kayaking they're going to be placed so that it looks like a meandering creek and it'll be great again for small fish to be protected um have refuge and also food so we started a home this is why we think the trail the trail is is more than a trail it's really about community building so we started the home repair program in partnership with the north riverside neighborhood as one way to prevent displacement and keep people in their homes we will complete 51 home repairs this year in north riverside the program has been privately funded united way is one of our major partners our mutual goal is to have a home repair program in every emerald trail neighborhood it's resident based um run by the neighborhoods it's a way to help them build capacity once again um case managers are from the neighborhood that get paid um construction managers are local the contractors are local we will add robinson's addition in newtown later this year so i'm going to end it with a short video that i think will kind of bring all of this home oh my goodness the sea has come together more as a community to really enjoy the nature enjoy the walk it means a lot to me having come up in this area and see where we have come from and now knowing where we're headed and the direction we're going says a lot our family is one of the first blacks to move in this neighborhood we've been in this neighborhood we saw almost 80 years 75 80 years just hoping that what they want to bring back to the neighborhood it's not in my lifetime for my grandkids and my kids all right it's so great to see such a big crowd we drove up and we're like wow people are excited about this this is awesome we are here at the branches this is the western most end of mccoy's creek to celebrate the next milestone in this restoration originally the branches were not part of the city's scope or budget however once again groundwork jacks came through securing grants and private donations to fund the design and cover the majority of the construction costs for the headwaters of the creek the the two branches right now are ditches there's probably ditched in the 20s or 30s and the those ditches replace natural creeks that were here they are starting to underperform in terms of their flood objectives and they're starting to erode you can actually see a pretty massive amount of erosion right here the idea of the stream restoration we're doing here is to build a system that is self-organizing and resilient we can use nature as our guide for the design of what to put here that will be stable and fully functional in terms of improving water quality and flooding and provide great habitat for wildlife and fish and a recreational amenity that for the community instead of kind of an enemy that's flooding you with with the lid water this section of the creek will be incredibly meandering as you can see from the board shallow and narrow so children and adults can get in it and explore it i grew up next to a creek like this and it was one of our favorite outdoor activities to get in that creek and explore it the restoration is phase one of this project the one mile emerald trail also has been fully designed and is ready for construction once the restoration is finished by restoring the creek and continuing the emerald trail the community will not only be reconnected to the nature but also with our neighbors in brooklyn and riverside la villa and downtown what are the results of this effort is a north riverside home repair program thank you to groundwork jacksonville so far we have repaired 44 homes now these people are having a better quality of life some of the houses we went into the seniors weren't able to get in their bathtubs to see that their latter days is going to be their better days you know they don't have to give up their home to go trying to keep people in their homes that means a lot i want to thank the north riverside community for their partnership working with them has been the most rewarding part of the mccoy's creek project change is stressful giving up a road mccoy's creek boulevard felt like one more amenity was being taken away this project is for them i love this area it's peaceful and i really hopefully see the real progress coming back to it just the different things that's going to be taking place out here it's going to just bring a lot to us that says a lot to the community that we care about them yeah thank you missy yes that and that was uh that was very nice to be honest um before i go to the queue if there are any questions from commission members i want to acknowledge uh commissioner mark hardesty who arrived as well as city council member at jimmy peluso to my right do i have any questions from commission members um let me opine for a second i uh i remember when this project started as a reporter having conversations with you as well as uh members of the committee and and it's so wonderful to see uh the transformative work that is taking place what amazes me is when we visit other communities and we see such projects and we become excited and and and we come back and say why can't we have that yet we're having it and there's still some in the community who have failed to embrace the work so i guess the work will have uh to speak for itself and so far it's it's been transformative and that's what we need let me go to the queue uh adam hoyles through the chair thank you um question um in with the home repair program are you guys also working with lisc to deal with uh heirs properties where people don't have clear title to their own home yeah lisc is actually working directly with the neighborhoods the neighborhood organizations are kind of the outreach to the community about this yeah that's incredibly important work thank you uh mr palusa thank you chair uh and to the point of what uh commissioner hoyles had said i mean to to the body i mean this is this is the kind of work that that other cities wish that they could do when you look at the belt line in atlanta um there's so many lessons learned from it and one of which is you know the concerns of gentrification and i think what k has done and what the we had two members of the north riverside cdc in that video the cdc is the community development corporation they're the ones doing the home repair program and and to the and they're working with lists directly for heirs property i mean these are very real concerns and i think what's important about these incredibly important ecological projects is that they also obviously the parks that are coming with it as well but like those parks need to be not just for people wanting from outside the neighborhoods to come in it's got to be for people who live in that neighborhood right to want to be a part of it and i think that was that was part of the point that k made in her video it's very very grateful for this very grateful to the work that you've been doing on this k how long have you been working on this how many years back when it was the emerald necklace i'm going on eight okay all right yeah this has been a this has been a long time coming and we're seeing the real the fruits of a lot of labor and uh and i'm very grateful to you and and this checks a lot of boxes and it's in my district so i really like it thanks so if i may one of the we need to raise 1.2 million dollars in case anybody wants to give us some money um so where the branches are located at the western end is hollybrook park and over the years every single recreational amenity was removed for retention ponds that that didn't solve the problem i mean they had tennis courts so our goal is to once we get the 1.2 million is we're pulling together a committee of residents we will pay them for their time and they will work directly with the design firm to design their own park space so i think that's another incredibly important project to get done uh mr freight thank you through the chair um wow uh this is probably like one of the reasons why i joined the waterways commission for projects like this um very impressive uh during the video i saw a walkway overpass at the mouth that was disconnected is that going to get reconnected i'm curious yes you're talking about the um the river walk yes yeah that is being put back together now but when we relocated the creek we had to remove it and yeah of course it should be done by june excellent thank you thank you again for your uh presentation uh my uh simple humble advice is keep your hands on the plow keep it moving forward uh uh the secret to our success is tenacity and persistence amen amen thank you so much uh moving on on the agenda we now have a presentation from uh lisa rhineman of the st john's river keeper with the uh some legislative update the last time she was here she was speaking about um some of the bills that were moving through so miss rhineman you have the floor good morning everyone lisa rhineman st john's river keeper appreciate the opportunity to be here and at the last meeting it was a couple days before the end of legislative session nice to see you representative here today and i just want to give a couple feedback from some of the items we discussed at that time also before i jump right in i wanted to underscore which um dr pinto mentioned about the blue green algae our team was out in the st john's river yesterday in georgetown just north of lake george about 100 miles up river from here and there was an active cyanobacteria outbreak um and so we're seeing it it's coming this way as temperatures heat up not only does that create health problems as we discussed earlier it also blocks much needed sunlight to our submerged aquatic vegetation which is critical to the river's health so we'll be keeping an eye on that reporting back to you all as things develop over the summer um in that same vein you know what the reason the what drives these blue green algae outbreaks is nutrient pollution and so we were very pleased that important biosolids legislation which is a permitted source of south florida's nutrient pollution coming north that legislation prohibiting that practice by 2028 was passed in the final days of session in addition to that there was important regulatory guardrails that were passed regarding class double a it's a little bit cleaner but it still has a nutrient pollution issue as well as forever chemicals and things that can harm us in our waterways that was passed as well to begin rulemaking with the florida department of environmental protection but now the devil's in the details and so we will be working with our colleagues in the headwaters of the st john's river to make sure that we have citizens oversight and participation in the rulemaking effort that results out of that important legislation that was passed so again we'll keep you updated on that effort but it was really important um state policy that will help protect our waterways and prevent unnecessary pollution being shipped into our watershed from south florida in the form of biosolids and sewage sludge um something else that was passed was regular mandatory pfas or forever chemical sampling at our utilities and that was passed to happen quarterly and that will help make sure that there's nothing that's being put in our land or on our inner waterways whether it's sewage sludge biosolids or a reach claimed water to make sure that there's no contaminants in that that are harder to get out after the fact once they're put in um so more information to come on that a related item that's happening at the florida department of environmental protection is they are building a watershed wide the st john's river watershed wide nutrient pollution model that's really important to all of us downstream as well as the entire river 80 percent of our nutrient pollution in the st john's river in duval county comes from upstream and so this modeling effort will look at the entire 8 800 square mile watershed so we'll really understand what we need to collectively do counties as well as the state to reduce nutrient pollution and reduce those blue green algae outbreaks that we're continuing to see in the st john's river um and that started thinking about that as we're looking at all of these things that impact duval county we are downstream from all of these other counties i think that could be a really important role of the jacksonville waterways commission is really looking at these state policies these decisions that are made by other counties upstream and really reflecting and reporting on what policies we need to weigh in on as a county as a community as a city and also help with our our departments within the city that are working to reduce pollution in the st john's make sure we're keeping an eye on state policy that has some impacts there were two bills that did not make it to the finish line um that does have an impact on local decision making one good one bad um there was um the blue ribbon projects bill um if the blue ribbons project bill would have passed that would have basically taken out local um county participation in developments of 15 000 acres or more um so that not only impacts us in deval county but our upstream counties as well and there was also a bill a fix it bill it was trying to fix senate bill 180 that was passed in the 2025 legislative session which would not allow for local counties to have more protective um decisions made that would help in resiliency efforts efforts um decisions like more protective comprehensive plan amendments land development regulations things that our own resilience plan says we need to do in jacksonville would not be allowed to happen if this bill remains in place that was passed in 2025 so the fix it bill did not pass and that's already stopped very important protective initiatives in orange county volusia county volusia county brevard county and st john's county after months and months of local county commissioner work with their citizens to protect those counties so those are types of things that will be coming back up in the 2027 legislative session and i think it's never too early to get started having these conversations on how we can all work together to protect our waterways so i just wanted to plant that seed that it may be something that the waterways commission could look into start looking at now and how we can be more engaged and proactive on state policies that are coming down the pike for 2027. but with that i want to thank you all for the opportunity to speak and give a short update and then i'm happy to answer any questions you may have uh thank you lisa any questions from the commission adam go ahead through the chair thank you um the oklahua river restoration project i know that was squashed in the senate do you have any sense for whether that will be brought up again or whether it might be successful next year because i know that's also a very important restoration project i know part of the opposition to that is the bass fishermen but there's still plenty of bass in the river um but you know that that's a big supplier of fresh water to our river and clearly now with the drought we really could use a lot of that water so through the chairman to to to mr hoyles that definitely will come back up we were fortunate to see the house of representatives pass that important legislation 107 to 3 but it did not make it on the senate floor um and so it will be coming back forward and one of the challenges with that bill it's still perceived in some circles as a local issue for putnam county because that's where the dam is is located however this is a project of regional if not statewide significance because the important connectivity if you're looking at just a small footprint of the rodman pool you could make an argument that it's an independent system but it's right in the middle of the largest spring that provides fresh water to the saint john's river historically during droughts you can see a significant saltwater spike because you're not getting that spring water when the oklahua used to flow naturally it could sometimes be up to 80 percent of the the fresh water flow during a drought conditions and so it's really important it will be coming back and that's another conversation to have because it is a project of regional significance and it needs to be all a counties working together and having that conversation so thank you for that question thank you representative black thank you chair um to your point earlier uh about the need for going ahead and starting substantive discussions about things looking forward into the next legislative session i would say that's absolutely wise we shouldn't wait until the event is upon us things move much too fast and so i'm pleased to be here of service on this board and look forward to working with you and having those conversations let's get to work right away thank you chair thank you mr black uh thank you mr rodman for that uh very uh detailed presentation uh my encouragement to you is continue to be the watchman on the wall and and protect our river thank you sir and thank you all uh it's time to move to public comment miss hobson do we have any cards for uh our first uh uh ulysses cromedy am i saying that correctly uh would you please come uh you've got three minutes and please as you come to the podium your name and address uh for the record good morning everyone my name is ulysses cromedy senior 4625 lynncrest drive south i've been a jasmine uh citizen for uh 73 years stayed this year last night it's so important for me to stand here before you and you for the george crazy bridge that i know at this at the time i was coming up it was the nassau sound bridge i love the bridge i love my city i love to be able to take my grandkids now and my cousin and like we used to and say this is a nassau bridge like i say now we know that george crazy bridge i'm just this not this morning to ask each and every one of you to help us say that historic bridge i remember when i was coming up we used to be a toll bridge and then it ended up to be a bridge that we can fish off of we don't need to track through traffic the heavy traffic to go through with foot traffic for each and every citizen who want to go go to that bridge and fish and fish uh safety they partly have this good part we can park our car and we get to the bridge and have to worry about no traffic and very many fishermen love to see that bridge restored and for each and every one of us to be able to fish and fish safely i'm telling this and i'll be through with this a few years back my stepson and i we went fishing and a drunk driver decided to come up on the curb this was dumb creek but they refrigerated refurbished that bridge and made it so we got we don't have enough parking place at that particular bridge but this drunk driver hit my my stepson he survived but now we have no other place to really fish than and being truthful with you um fort george inland and nassau sound bridge nassau sound bridge can hold normals of fishermen and we can fish comfortable and that's why it's so important for me to stand here all the years i have fish and seeing fishermen fish and they enjoy with the family and and this is a good atmosphere fresh air beautiful scenery from a meeting out of back to jacksonville i like jacksonville side to say on on on the on duval side replenish for the fishermen and we can look down at that bridge and think and say this is what we work for thank you thank you sir uh miss latrice bell bell representing uh george crady bridge fishing pierre state park bridge crew happy to have rep black here that's my buddy uh want to say that um i call in my head drum major because i've seen him in action many times and i know he can get things done working with uh councilman gay and working with the bridge crew we can get those two bridges reopened safely on the duval county side not just for people to fish people have different reasons for coming out after i saw that film it just excited me because i was the head drum major for two years in my school so i know what it is to lead and i'm a leader so i have rep black and i have the bridge crew and i have councilman gay along with ken o'mara for years and years ken said don't get mad just tell ken and ken is the in the sitting in the middle so with all your help we appreciate if y'all join the team do what we can to reopen the duval county side safely so we can enjoy it the emory trail that is so beautiful could you just imagine if we do that on the duval county side down at the george crady historical bridge that means a lot it's just not just a plain bridge like the rest of the bridges it's a historical bridge mr crady is 94 years old it would be a joy to him if we could restore those bridges bring it back up to its beauty before he leave us we love y'all we appreciate everything you do for us real black once again it's good to see you thank you for joining the team miss bell before you leave would you please name an address oh sorry leechress bell and my address is on fire thank you so much and someone's phone is up and thank you for your determination um our next speaker is did she say someone's phone was on the dives uh podium uh maybe it's miss e has i don't know oh it's mr cromedy our next speaker is uh james bell good morning my name is james bell and my address is on file i'm here to represent uh george crater bridge fishing pier state park and on behalf of the bridge crew you heard from two of the bridge crew just before i come up our concern is about the do all county side of the bridge we would like to have that restored so we could fish again comfortably on that side of the bridge now we fish on the other side which is the nassau side which is getting crowded real crowded but we most of us we just like a family we know we know most of the people there and who come to there but we need some more space up top of that bridge they got a gate crossing with the lock on it we would like to see that reopen that'll give us some more space to fish that's what we concern about we need your help on that to see can we get that back restored and open so we can all us can enjoy fishing without being crowded we used to spend the night all night long on that bridge fishing we used to do that but with that lock on that gate we can't we can't do it no more but just like i say we appreciate what y'all are doing but we just got to roll up our sleeves and put some more elbow in it thank you thank you sir our next speaker is uh brad huntley thank you for allowing us to speak my name is brad huntley i live in harbor oak uh 13927 shipwreck circle i'm here uh requesting that the council help us with a line item for the upcoming budget to give us some assistance with a watershed study a little history to this is that the sandalwood canal is one of two things that dump into our creek hog pen creek years and years ago back in the 80s when that that area between beach boulevard and lake boulevard burnt and the development started ensued after that with mr kernan and so on the cut the canal of course has heavy density properties around it now as a result more runoff etc etc years ago in the 80s i'm told by one of my neighbors that's been there since 82 that the city cap the council or the government city jacksonville assisted and placed a catch basin where the canal goes under san pablo boulevard but on the other side of course is where hawking creek hawking creek is and it dumps there so they uh assisted and so on but the understanding was that they would clean on a yearly basis well that's disappeared years ago prior to our living there so we're looking for a study to be able to get some direction or some results or some options available to assistance at low tide uh probably 50 of the people that live on hogfin creek they can't use it it's nothing but a mudflap and it's creeping from the sandalwood canal forward the intercoaster so it's evident that something is happening affecting that there's also an adjacent community that has their stormwater drains and so on that dump in at a different point but in the same creek so we're looking to the counselor to get us or to assist us or give us some direction about getting the watershed study to give some direction as to where it's really occurring from what's affecting it how we can get some help that's what i'm here for any questions about not at this phase sir thank you thank you i'll get to you in a moment commissioner uh mr charlie bender my name is charlie bender i live at 13833 four winds court holiday harbor in jacksonville florida i wanted to stand to thank this commission for your underlying purpose which as i've seen from these presentations is to protect uh the resources for this community uh the emerald um trail and the manatee projects that you guys oversee are uh fantastic i want to thank you for that and in like source i hope that you will take a look at the hog pen creek issue um that the gentleman before me brad just discussed um i my family has lived on hog pen creek since 1968 it is a natural waterway and it is uh very beautiful however in the last many years because of the sandalwood canal and the proliferation of the areas of about 11 square miles of hodges and kernan boulevards and all of the water runoff that comes from the sandalwood canal into and all spills into the hog pen creek we see sand debris and other things that aren't natural to our uh waterway the creek as again the gentleman before me said is filling in from the west side to the east side so we're not only seeing natural uh fill in from the intercoastal we're actually seeing it in reverse uh the community is uh now not seeing the natural wildlife that we've seen in the past we're not seeing uh the fishing uh charter fishermen used to come in and be right off of my bulkhead that that doesn't happen anymore because the waterway is not navigable and uh largely because of the sandalwood canal so i would urge this commission to um do what it needs to do to urge the city council to put in a light item budget to have an independent uh survey done as to what the damage and destruction of the sandalwood canal and the lack of maintenance from the city of jacksonville in that sandalwood canal has done to hog pen creek so that we can again enjoy the beauty of a natural waterway things that you guys are protecting through the through mccoy's creek and other things that you've been a part of and i'd like to see that for hog pen creek as well thank you very much thank you sir uh mr philip failure am i saying that correctly hello my name is philip reed foliar i live at one four two three three pine island drive jacksonville florida three two two two four yeah enough twos in there um i live off a excellent job by these two speakers i'm picking back in on essentially what they're saying however we have uh accumulated some actual photos uh the actual work that has been done off of atlantic boulevard jack's beach boulevard and the amount of drainage that has accumulated over the years and years in a slow sediment that as he said went west to east and is filling in the uh the canal hog pen creek uh it is significant and i think i would like to give this uh present this to the uh photos the backs of uh houses the docks people sitting on their docks uh feet hanging over their docks uh into the mud um they in addition to that they're you know paying deep water access and property taxes as well that's a separate concern the main concern as to what we would like to seek is direction guidance a plan to dredge hog pen creek and put it back to its original state before all of the uh extent uh expansion of uh san pablo road beach boulevard atlantic boulevard and so on and so forth so could we have a study can we proceed in a direction of having the area dredged please review the package that uh we are presenting and i greatly appreciate your time and your consideration as you know that's a lot of people live back there uh the dream to live on the water to dream to live on the canal a lot of the people are able to do that in florida and we need your help with the dredging thank you so much thank you um mr john nooney i will get to the commission after mr john nooney hello i am john jay nooney jacksonville city council resolution 2023 0819 i'm in district 4 carrico cpac planning district 3 rosemary waslowski and school board district 3 cindy pearson charter school public school public park on pottsburgh creek 2025 0867 doublah county public schools in city of jacksonville cip collaboration and i got to give a special shout out to uh ke hoss this is mccoy's creek i missed the ribbon cutting ceremony that's the train and then right before that here's the 10 spot red you know that would have been first place in a fishing tournament and so uh anyway just i had to you know share that um um also you know with this hog pen thing you know guys you know uh ernest smith is here he's the chair of the urban core cpac and the reason i mentioned that is you know with your dredging thing you know uh let me just say and this is gut-wrenching but you know we have six cpac you know i went to the ethics commission meeting and asked we have six cpac representing the entire city of jacksonville we have the mayor's disability council uh wheelchair gang council on elder affairs senior citizens why is ogc the officer general council not represented at these meetings i'm just down to a minute 34 and uh the reason that i'll tell you you know it's it's really kind of like the wild west but um um what i also want to do is also do a play off this is fwc let's play off the fish and wildlife commission it's the state of florida it's tourism and so fwc fishing with crady george crady you know um you know that has to get opened up immediately you know fishing with council fwc fishing with chris miller the next vice president of the jacksonville city council fwc fishing with congress fwc fishing with clara that's 2026 0024 i'm down to like 49 seconds but getting back to the cpacs let me just say you know uh you know uh again each cpac is like a hundred grand that can be used for whatever they decide and i think you know with dredging that could be a consideration and uh let me see you know just 20 some seconds but here's the the other thing to the true commission taxation revenue utilization of expenditures this is where the minutes come in and here's how it was reflected in the minutes public comment john nuni and cody marks that's it wendy khan office of economic development she is over cip capital improvement projects look into that that's money right now for everybody thank you thank you mr noni our next speaker is jake jacobs good morning my name is jake jacobs 14155 pine island drive um there's uh an obvious sediment problem in the hog pen creek uh and there are three factors that uh i believe are contributing to that sediment buildup like to what extent we don't know and for that reason uh i really believe we need to have a uh comprehensive watershed study uh completed to determine what is contributing to the sediment the the three factors in my opinion are one the sandalwood canal which was created by the city in the 1970s maintained by the city and it drains 11 square miles from 295 to uh just uh san pablo uh and it's a massive canal um and uh uh it connects directly to hog pen creek and uh hog pen creek by default is an extension of it uh this is not usual there are no other uh canals like hog pen creek that are connected to the storm water system uh of jacksonville so this in my opinion is not just the private citizen issue the second factor is the runoff from the developments nearby most recently the sand um san pablo road um the deck that i have for each of you um what shows photos of uh of the sludge that has been pumped into sandalwood uh to hog pen creek from that road construction and the third factor in my opinion is the utility work that has been done by jea uh in 2013 through 2018 and in 2023 they repaired seven towers that are in the hog pen creek they did a terrible job they left barges that created a huge rift in the sand it is a uh a hazard for boaters that are not familiar with the area they left construction materials in the water they destroyed a retention wall uh and there is documented proof in this deck from jea acknowledging that the project took much longer than expected and they should have moved that barge and they will move that barge um these photos speak for themselves first coast news came out to my house uh about a week and a half ago and covered this story i've emailed um all of the council members uh because i feel like i am not getting proper representation from my district manager uh about this topic and despite years of trying to get a hold of him and speaking uh trying to get um anyone's attention i feel like this is falling on deaf ears i don't think it's fair i'm asking for a study so that we can determine the cause and then step forward in the right direction thank you mr jacobs for your comments and now moving to the dais mr hardesty you've been whiting thank you chairman um i first would like to comment on the public comment i think this has been some of the most uh impactful meaty comments that we've we've heard in a long time for a variety of issues uh hog pen creek uh clearly an issue uh along with the shoaling and the shoaling committee that we have in place uh where i will tell you they are very complex costly and difficult things to tackle we have been dealing with one now for about two and a half years or so easily and it's been like pushing a semi-tractor trailer it's it's been rough and a long road and so um i feel your pain and these are certainly issues that that we must deal with because they are becoming more and more prolific as we move on with development and that sort of thing so thank you for the group that's come in and talked about that i want to jump into the george crady bridge and tell you that you guys are spot on and let me tell you why it's spot on more than ever right now is because uh the florida department of transportation is coming in to replace the browns creek bridge what that is going to do is it's going to impact uh several businesses it's going to impact the browns creek fish camp that's been there since 1943 83 almost 84 years and it's it's the jury's still out on whether or not that's going to be able to be viable uh during the and you're not going to believe this seven and a half years to build a a bridge as little as the browns creek bridge but that's our plan they're also planning to obliterate uh chowder ted's across the street and uh to take out a a legacy restaurant on hecksure drive the reason i bring those two things up is the next whammy that's coming is that the land that was donated for the thebedo sisters landing right across the browns creek bridge is going to be completely taken away there will be no kayak access there will be no parking there will be none of that that um that the citizens of jacksonville have embraced and used incredibly uh throughout the years that it's been there and the amazing thing is fdot is going to take that land from the city of jacksonville without any compensation and take away our park because that's the way eminent domain works on the city level so these people donated their land to the city to see it be a park and guess what it's being stolen by the state that's the bottom line that's why the george crady bridge project is so incredibly important because now you're taking away all the access for the citizens for fishing and that sort of thing the gentleman that talked about his son being hit while fishing on one of the bridges that's a real issue and what i wanted to do was simply let you all know that some of the best fishing in northeast florida is that entire corridor that's going to be impacted by this project very negatively in councilman gays district the district where i live and uh i'll tell you we we really need to visit with the state and figure out why they're doing this to us for seven and a half years and get a better plan together than what is being proposed at this point in time um i just wanted to kind of the these these comments that came out today are very pertinent and they all come together in one thing and that's an horrendous impact to our area of jacksonville and some of the most ecologically and recreationally important uh areas that we have of this entire city that impacts not only private business but also residents enjoying it and it takes away city property and city access on what we've all been fighting for so long the emerald creek or the emerald trail project thank god that's being given created and given back to the citizens of jacksonville but on the other hand the state's taking it away thank you thank you mr hardesty let's go to adam adam hoyles and he'll be followed by jimmy peluso and state representative black through the chair thank you um yeah so george crady bridge um i want to address that really quickly before anybody gets the impression that this is like somebody's pet project that property is actually managed by the florida department of environmental protection through the park service and basically based on their data for fiscal year 2022 and 2023 203 029 visitors contributed 24.4 million in direct economic impact to the local economy okay that's not nothing okay and that's what that's half the bridge okay that's supported directly in duval and nassau counties 342 jobs just that one park and now for 2025 this is florida state parks foundation data 39.3 million in direct economic impact with 327 000 visitors and now 551 jobs supported that's just last year that's basically about a thousand people a day they're buying lunch they're buying bait they're buying fishing tackle they're buying fishing licenses they're paying the park fees what they're asking for is supporting economic development that's really important in this county so i want our city council members to realize that like this is not a small problem that they're talking about like they're clearly personally attached to it but that's real economic impact and i think if we talk about that project in those terms it'll be a lot easier for our state legislators to appropriate money to make it happen and i'll leave it there thank you so mr palusa thank you chair to the point of what uh mr royals just said i was gonna i was gonna bring up a lot of that and i know uh state representative black who's the representative for that area is going to speak next i assume he's going to speak to some of that with a crowd uh city of jacksonville does have a um the duval delegation that the city of jackson will ask appropriations requests for and the duval delegation votes on it and they try to carry it up to tallahassee through the appropriations process and the budget um this is something that we can collaborate with and i'd be happy to do it i know council member gay has been intimately involved in this and i'm grateful to you sir for doing that we've heard enough we've heard a lot from the from the uh the bridge advocates over the past several months and for many of them it's a livelihood issue for many of them it's a it's a quality of life issue and i think that is important so we should be discussing that as for those who came to talk about hog pen creek we've heard about hog pen creek a lot over the past year and a half um i will say every council member this past year has received a million dollars via the community benefit agreement every council district is able to use those dollars as they see fit i cannot promise you that that it would be wise to put it towards a study for for our pen but the council member can make that request to that end i do not know if if hog pen area i mean that the district that was created a couple years ago was a really good solution for that that i understand was probably created because of interesting reasons um but that that was a solid solution that you know kind of fell apart the the city of jacksonville might have a really tough time rationalizing working on that creek vice that of others to that end a study can be funded and we do have state representatives up here as well we had state representative kyan michael who's been a member of this body she's also the representative for the beaches area and and somebody you could also speak to about going to tallahassee for for support with a study um that that's something that they could potentially do so those are just options that i want to make sure people were aware of thank you mr black thank you chair and um and thank you members for all of your comment and for the comments from the public we really appreciate you being here today it's only through you that we know what the priorities are and what your concerns are so that we can act upon them in no particular order i'm an eighth generation resident of north florida and since earliest childhood i fished on the george crady pier and i know that our citizens need access to the deep waters there there's nothing else like it and for quite some time now i've had discussions with councilman gay councilman peluso happy to work with you on this i'll also say that councilman matt carlucci reached out to me recently on this issue and we're looking at what options we can have to make sure that the george crady fishing pier state park lives out its namesake and provides that access to those waters and sir to your point earlier it is a mystery to me why it would take seven and a half years to build a small bridge my staff is here uh cam brown and we will look into that we'll open a file on that and we'll see what we can't do to expedite that and uh hopefully have some answers when next we meet thank you chair mr gay thank you mr chair i'll go ahead and uh move forward to the uh update on the george crady uh fishing pier i appreciate the community coming out as always and and the attentiveness of this commission to understand the the seriousness of of this scenario out there you know that this it is in district two which is my district uh but this is a city full wide city problem because so many patrons that go out there from all over the city uh you know other counties other states and all as well as you heard about how the the visitors come in and to that point that in 2025 what uh mr holza said 327 000 people came into that bridge i mean to that fishing pier uh this parks department has recorded over 400 000 that visits huguenot park and you just take those two items there plus everything else that goes on out there and then you put the browns creek bridge construction in in the mix there this is all critical items that really need attention and to be addressed because we've got some of the biggest attractions that it's well it's well over a million people are going in this corridor uh to fish live work out there so it's really critical that that we get the attention on it that that we need uh i appreciate representative black and his uh willingness to and his continued efforts to uh help with this situation on the george crady bridge um i'm looking at the latter part of may of of having a a big uh meeting notice meeting on this to uh look at what options that the dep has come up with and to keep the ball uh rolling moving forward that we need um i don't have any big update promises other than the uh we've got a new director with dep i believe that that's over this now so we we do have a dialogue uh with that so we're going to keep on trying to find solutions to get the duval side which is the saw pit corridor open for that access uh there are challenges that they've presented with me of the the why they're not open so we just got to keep having that discussions because it's there's got to be a solution for restoration or replacement so that that's what we're that that i'm going to be pushing for as as this being in my district uh to get this open back up but it's a laborsome uh process uh it's when we got so many different agencies involved it's hard to uh really get everybody corralled and the funding we all know what the restrictions that we're all facing coming up with shortfalls so i'm i'm you know pushing as hard as i can and but i look to have that meeting and get as many uh state players in here representatives as i can and as well as the departments and i do encourage all the uh george crady and the hog pen uh creek group to come to the duval delegation and speak openly to them when they're here because what i'm hearing on some of the hog pen is the atlantic boulevard is 295 these corridors that are projects that are draining into the uh the canals and into the creek that that is coming from state state projects so it's a there again that's a discussion that everyone needs to be uh tuned in into as well so that's kind of my in a nutshell on the george crady as well thank you chair thank you mr gabe before we uh move to a new business i uh i'd like uh just for a minute uh got a question for general counsel um is it within the purview of this uh commission to pursue a study of any sort uh regarding the uh the silt buildup and and all those issues with sandalwood canal and honksman creek etc and if it's not within the purview of the waterways commission who who would best if you're able to answer who would best be the ones to steer that effort to the chair and through the chair to the commission subject matter you're directly on point funding is another question um captain super and i were actually just discussing the layers um no untoward pun intended of um potential liabilities and potential um bad actors if there are any so the second part of your question is to whom the question should be directed um that is something we're discussing i think that that's kind of what i'm hearing is is one of the big questions but uh your first question is it a subject matter yes subject matter purpose of this commission but the second is a funding question i'm happy to look into it thank you so much i look forward to what you uh what you had discovered are you getting ready to jump in the queue mr suber i i see okay if you're not let's move on to new business we have ordinance 2026 0226 uh melissa long to uh give us uh some information on the uh ordinance for so we can take action hi i'm melissa long chief of the environmental quality division this is legislation that's going through to award a grant that we got from the fish and wildlife for four for the removal of four vessels um one of those vessels is on the rebalt river uh on the shore near um a home at rebalt river scenic drive another one is in the trout river near bill diet marina we have another one that's just north of hecksure where clapboard creek and cedar point creek meet and then another one right off of ju campus can i get a motion on the bill second all in favor any opposed motion carries thank you thank you melissa uh old business shad creek resolution update from mr gay thank you mr chair um we we are i guess working with ogc uh to come up with a plan to go back to the state uh with they've they i believe y'all all seen their their response uh so we we're looking to uh with assistance of captain suber uh get get some information put together so we can potentially move some legislation forward um i'm i'm holding some money back in for my cba money to be able to uh comes to comes down to it to fund the uh the signage to go in there so i'm uh i'm going to hold that back and hopefully we get the blessings from fwc on this and we can move forward with with uh getting some signage in there thank you thank you mr gay um is there any other business to come before the waterways commission this morning any any comments or just want to acknowledge mr matt jones he's going to be a new member of the commission he's in the audience here he was approved by council last night so uh welcome sir we look forward to you serving on the commission any other business if not we stand adjourned