Sorry. So, first order on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance.
Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I'll just say this is a very patriotic county. Appreciate it. You know, I didn't do this last meeting, so maybe this will cover both meetings. Anybody have any conflict of interest either last meeting or this meeting?
Does it work that way, Elise? Can it be retro?
Okay. Anyone from the public like to make any comments at this point? No. Okay. New business. Mooring Field Upland Facility Art Project. Port Salerno. What's that?
So, this is a project that is a new possibility for art in public places. So, I wanted to bring it to you and explain a little bit about it. I think I did put the, yeah. So, this is a rendering elevation, if you will, of the Upland Facility that's going to be going down near the mooring field in Salerno on Park Drive. This project is being done by Public Works and Eco, you know, they've done the, and Coastal, I mean, they've done the dinghy dock. They've put in the mooring, two small mooring fields there. And they are required to have an upland facility for the moorers to have bathroom facility and laundry facility. And it will also serve as a small office for the parks and rec employee who takes care of the Jensen mooring field and will also administer this one. So, one of the things that we had thought of for this building, which is on a residential street, although the street is zone general, so it can be commercial and or residential. Right now, it is mainly residential, except for the commercial docks, which are right there. We wanted the building to look like a residential building and to make sure that we looked at code and that it met the CRA code as best it could, like any building in the CRA, like any residence in the CRA. And we wanted it to be attractive for the community. So, we did add a few things to the building itself, and one of the things that the community had requested was to have some type of public art there. So, as you can see, instead of a front door, we will have some front artwork because the main portion of the building that will be used by the moors, really, they come in through the back. So, the front is really kind of a faux front, if you will. That's what faces the street. The back of the building is where, and the two sides, is where people will go in and out to utilize the laundry facility and the bathroom facility. So, it's about a seven-foot-high, six-foot-wide space that is being put aside for some public art. I thought it might be a nice small project for us to undertake. Last week, at the Port Salerno Civic Center, we did have a little bit of a community engagement to talk to the community about the color of the building, what kind of art they might like to see on the building, what are some of the amenities that they'd like to see in the little park area there. Right now, there are, I think there's a picnic table and a bench or two. So, we kind of had some boards, and I'll show you what that looked like. Did you take down my, huh? So, this, I don't know how to make that a full. So, this is what I showed them. I was there at the engagement meeting representing Art in Public Places, and we showed them the mediums that we felt would work on the building. So, the mediums that we showed them were mosaic. We can put that on. We can do a mural. The ceramic relief, like the one at Stewart Beach. And then there's some clay relief work that's up on the wall in Hogue Library. So, those were the things that we thought would be able to go on the building, and we could put a call out to local artists to look at doing that. As you can see, mosaic was the big winner. So, it seems the community would like to have a mosaic, or the majority of the folks that were there would like to have a mosaic. So, I would suggest that perhaps we put out a call to artists to do that and use some Art in Public Places funding. The little twist to this, which is a good one, is that this is a building that is being built by the county, which means we get a little piece of that. So, we'll get our 1%. However, our 1%, I don't know, would cover it, and we don't get anything until it goes out to bid because we won't know. So, what our ordinance says is that anything the county builds vertical that's not on the airport or funded by bonds, we get 1% minus the first $5,000. I don't know why it says that. It's kind of crazy. So, let's say the building costs $500,000, we would get 1% of $495,000. So, you can see that that's not a heck of a lot of money. So, maybe we'll get $5,000, maybe we'll get $4,000, whatever it is. I suggested that we do a not to exceed just to move the project forward. A $15,000, I don't think it would probably cost that, but just so that we had some idea when we did our call to artists. So, saying a not to exceed a $15,000 from us would at least let us kick off the project, and I could start working on the call and seeing what we get back. So, here's our capital construction budget that you guys approved for FY24. And you can see we kept our roundabout money. This is where we are. We put aside money, as you recall, for the Hope Sound Library. We took it out of the murals because there will be a mural there, including those library, the book benches. But we still have a pretty healthy balance. So, we could do a not to exceed if you guys wanted to, I mean, and again, up to you, whatever motion you'd like to bring to add to doing this project, assuming you want to do the project.
I know Port Salerno is emphasizing sewers, but was there any discussion of them using TIF funding?
There was not. I have not brought it to their NAC. I don't know that the project is really big enough. Yeah, yeah.
And when is this building supposed to be built? Because is it even going to be built?
This year. It is? Yeah.
Yeah. Is this, if I remember right, is this next to Pirates Cove right in that little?
Yes. Google there?
Seems reasonable to me.
I just, you know, I had a lot of people come to me with concerns, Susan. So, if you could just clarify. I can try. Thank you. So, because you've definitely, you gave us a presentation at the NAC meeting as well. But how was the site chosen? I'm not a boater, so I really have to listen to other people regarding this. The site meaning the building site? And I guess there's 30-some-odd boats near Sandsport, and they were wondering why the site to build wasn't an option over there, as opposed to where we have it currently drafted.
So, some of the reasoning, and again, I know everybody hates to hear this, but it's not a CRA project. So, I'm going to tell you what I do know. But, again, this project was decided by Public Works and Parks, well, I don't even think Parks, and the Board of County Commissioners. Part of it is that you want to have something close enough to the moors, and I believe there's 42 buoys out there, or moors out there. I'm not exactly sure what you call them. And they also, moorings, there you go. And they also built a dinghy dock that will address the needs of those boaters to come in to shore and then come to the facility as well. There was the hope that a private company would be doing that. That did not come to fruition. There was no contract signed. Although they put it out for proposal, we had only one person who responded, one company who responded. That didn't work out, so they had to go to Plan B, which is find a site to build it. The county had to build it themselves. It's apparently a requirement via statute to have a mooring field. You must have an upland facility. And they did not feel that there was any other place, I guess, that fit the bill, as this one did. That's why it's there. That's really pretty much what I know. The building is built on a lot of right-of-way, so the park is certainly a piece of it, and it is certainly affected, but not affected as much as you might think because we did take right-of-way to put part of the building on. So what was roadway will now be part of that building. So it wasn't all the park. And we're going to do our best. I mean, as the CRA, it wasn't optimal, certainly, but that's where it's going, and that's what the board decided. So we're trying to mitigate whatever we can by making the building look nice, by putting art on the building, getting art in public places involved, and putting in some new amenities in the park itself. So I think there was a picnic table out there. It's probably pretty ratty. We'll buy a new one. We'll do things that will make the place look a little better. That's the best we can do.
Thank you. I mean, I guess that's where the concern was, is that there were more boats near Sandsprit, not as many near where this was.
But I don't know, Jamie, to be honest with you. I'm not that conversant with Sandsprit and what's there and the distances and how that works and who uses what.
But I'm in the same boat as you. Yeah. No pun intended. But even though it's not, you know, a project that the CRA necessarily, you know, NAC or CRA would be involved in, because it is within the boundaries, I think that's where.
I get it, and we bring as much information as we can. But at a CRA meeting, we generally try to do CRA business. Right. That's my mission. So I'm happy to bring information when I can bring it, and that's what we do. But we also give the public the information of who to go to to get further details. That's the key, I think.
Okay.
Susan, from what I'm understanding, this is not a project from our CRA, money or anything like that.
No. No, the CRA isn't funding this.
The CRA is not doing anything for it. It's public art. Public art and a CRA, they're two different things. Yes. Well, that's because a lot of times they keep mixing them up. We have our own fundings for public art.
Well, in this case, it probably will just be Art in Public Places doing this particular project. But, you know, I mean, I think even in Salerno, you can see the lovely partnership that the CRA and Art in Public Places can have. We've done it in Rio. We've done it in Salerno pretty successfully. So I think that does work when it's appropriate. You know, it's a nice way to go. So being a boater and looking at a map. Maybe you can educate us.
Sand spread is a way off from the two main mooring fields in the manatee pocket. And this is sort of not quite in the middle, but close to the middle of the two main mooring fields in the manatee pocket. And I've seen that myself by boating down through there. So I think it's, with the county-owned land, it's a good place to put it as far as I know, as far as between the two fields. But anyhow. So I guess we need to.
So what I'm looking for from you is a motion that says, yes, you would like to do the project, and that you would approve of it not to exceed $15,000 until we get better numbers. And this way we can kind of start the project moving forward.
So I move.
I like that idea.
And that's for the artwork.
Correct. Did I get a second? I'll second that. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Passed. Thank you very much. I think it would be a great project.
Yeah, I mean, I think it would be a great addition to our inventory. You know, hopefully we can entice a local artist to do it.
We knew someone who worked in mosaics.
If only.
Yeah. A lot of the projects in Rio have been mosaics. Or mosaics. Yeah. Yeah.
Gee, who could that be? Anyway.
You know, to me, the way this is designed, I think it will add to the Salerno community in the area it's in, as far as the way it looks.
I think we're going to get a nice-looking product out of it. You know, whether that fits into everything else that's going on, I guess that will be, we'll see how that works. So we're just trying to do the best we can for the neighborhood. That's all we can do.
When is Golden Gate next?
When is what? Golden Gate. When is what?
We don't have no art, so move it. Get something.
Well, once we get a trail.
Oh, that's speaking of the art. The sign. And you guys put a lot of flower in front of it. And nobody sees the year where, you know, the Golden Gate was established. So that covered it. Is there any way they could shave that area and let it?
It's not completely finished, so I'll bring that up to Carly.
Because it seemed like those plans cover everything. It deceived the purpose why we did it.
Well, you can see your name.
It was more than a name.
No, no, no, I get it. I get it. I will absolutely bring that up to her. Sure.
So I might need, as chairman, some training because Rich brought it up that I didn't have the minutes approved from last time.
He needs to go back to training. Okay, he's on time, but everything else is just going downhill. I don't know, Rex.
Do I have any discussion about last meeting's minutes?
I'll move. Yeah, we need to approve them so I can sign them. Well, that's why I mention it, so you can sign them. Go move. I mean, is that okay? I can't vote.
All in favor? Aye. Okay, then you sign it. Sorry about that. Moving on to old business, request for qualifications, Art for Ryo.
So the last meeting that we had, we talked about how we're going to move forward on the Ryo roundabouts, how to set up the project. This is probably the, well, it is for sure the largest art project that we will have undertaken up to this moment. So we wanted to be sure that we were doing it correctly. We did get advice from folks in the community that know a lot about this. We decided at the last minute, at the last meeting, that we would go with the request for qualifications, and what that means is that that RFQ will go out. We will hopefully get lots of proposals, and then we will have a committee that looks at all of those and will select three finalists. At that point, those three finalists will get a stipend to bring us back their designs, and they will come in person to present that to us. Hopefully, we'll probably have them make models, or we can figure that out. At the time that those three would be selected, we would give them another set of, like, a request for proposal, what we're looking for them to bring back to us. And then that committee, again, would choose the winner. So it's a little bit of a process. I think it's a really good way to do this. It's a lot of money. And I think we're going to get, but I think it's completely appropriate for the location and for the work that we're asking for. I mean, this is big. This is going to be big. These are two roundabouts, brand new, in an area that is seeing some serious redevelopment happening. So I think if we want to really and truly put Rio on the map, which I think all of this will do pretty easily, that this is what we'll go to. And I have questions, and I know that Nancy Turrell is in the house today to kind of help us maybe answer some of those questions. I had questions. I did send this to the developer, so he's looking at it as well, because one of the things that I need from them would be, I suggested a timeline. I need to find out from them what's really the timeline that they're going to think they're going to be constructing. I also needed to get from them, you know, if the folks come back with, hey, we need access to water or access to electric or, you know, those things need to be built into the, you know, the engineering, like all the engineering part of it. I need them to come back with some information. We probably have to supply plans, actual plans to, with the RFQ to go out to the artists and the teams that may respond. So those are the types of things that I'm going to wait for from them. I wanted some feedback from you in terms of the overview that I wrote, which is what I got from talking to people. And I know, Rich, you were part of a committee we put together to talk about it. I've talked about it with artists and with staff and community members. Those were the types of things that we came up with. It's fairly open, which I kind of like, because I think we could get some interesting ideas. And, you know, we are looking to the creative community to give us those ideas. I certainly don't have them or I would not be sitting here. So this is the information that I'm giving out. Again, I'm looking for you guys to give me some feedback. I suggest that we do a nationwide call on this. I did talk a little bit to Nancy about the fact that we're going to have to up our game a little bit in terms of we probably need to use some kind of a platform that larger art projects do. So it's something that we would put, it's a computer platform. You would put out the RFQ and the RFP on this, and then that's how people respond to you. And I would ask Nancy if maybe she could talk a little bit more about that. The other thing I would ask from Nancy is if you had, Nance, any other guidelines for us. I know you've looked at this, but anything else that you are looking at that maybe we can change or make better in our RFQ, that would be helpful as well. So, again, my timeline was just my timeline. That doesn't mean it's going to go out when this timeline says it will, because I want to make sure that it really is the best that we can make it. Did you want to look at it? You got it?
Well, can't you try the local arts first? We have really.
Sadia, this is a $500,000 project. We are going out. We are going out.
We can't make another.
No.
That's exactly what I'm afraid of.
But you can't limit your, Nancy. No, I agree. Executive Director of Martin Arts, for the record. But you also can't limit yourself. I mean, I would like nothing better than a local regional, I think is probably your best case scenario, regional artist responds and be the selected choice.
Which is very possible.
Would even love to think that there were points associated with them being local slash regional over a national candidate. But I agree with Rich. That was my first thought when reading through this was we just can't let the same mistake happen that happened before. And I think, I don't know, Susan, one of the thoughts that occurred to me after reading this last week was whether or not there was a small stipend. I don't know if some of the Americans for the Arts and some of those kind of places where we may want to post these calls, there might be some fees associated with those.
Okay.
So a small amount of money. It's almost marketing.
Yeah, we read through, I read through a lot of different RFQs and we would have, that money could come out of Art in Public Places to pay those fees. But also what I did read in pretty much all of them, examples that I looked at, samples and stuff, stuff that's gone out, is that those three finalists would receive, say, a $1,500 stipend each to prepare their proposals. And that would include travel expenses or whatever they needed to get here, stay here, talk with the community, talk with us, talk with the selection committee, make their presentation. And that generally seems to be the way these things work.
Yeah.
And it worked pretty well with our kaleidoscope out at Palm City Library. Yeah. In this library.
Yeah. We didn't do a, we didn't give anyone a stipend for that, but that was a lot less. Yeah, that was a much, much smaller project. So, yeah.
This is half a million dollars. Yeah. I mean, I think in general, I like how you left it open-ended and described it. Part of me, I don't know if we have a height restriction by code for artwork also, but if we do, we don't know if we should include that. And the second thing I thought maybe could be in there is identifying the area is also an economic opportunity zone since it's both a CRA and an economic opportunity zone, which maybe will trigger creativity or just some, who knows. Right.
I totally forgot about that. Yeah.
A couple of comments and questions. Of course, you would want this, there's going to be a lot of construction equipment, large trucks and things bringing things in. And you want to make sure that it's not done before. It could be damaged by some of that equipment to spend this kind of money and then have somebody come in and cause a problem. I mean, you have the basic form of it.
Yeah, this would be the last. Yeah.
Last thing. The other is, what are going to be the funding sources of this?
So the developer is, has promised 150,000 and we're going to use the RIO CRA creative placemaking for the rest.
How about, where do we come involved?
We are going to manage and maintain the project. So it will come into our inventory and maintenance will then follow art in public places from there on.
Maybe we could ask the developer to throw in a whole bit more money. I've asked. I know you're happy.
It doesn't mean I'm done asking.
Look for the tape when he said he paid for it. Who's paying for it? When he presented to us, he said he will pay for it. Look for that tape. Maybe you can get him. Seriously.
He didn't know he was going to have to do it. That's when it was one roundabout.
He didn't know he was doing it.
That was way early in the project.
I know, but don't promise something you're not going to fulfill. And he did. So I may go look for it myself and get it. That sounds like a plan. Were you finished?
I'm finished.
I just want to make sure I didn't interrupt you. So when you initially put this out, since it's going to be nationally, you know, presented, will they have like a little blurb as to, you know, the history of Jensen Beach, things like that, so that they know whether or not they want to take on this project?
I have just a small little brief thing about Martin County. So I'm not sure. That's not a bad idea.
Yeah, I think they would know whether or not they'd be interested, and then you don't have like this huge influx, and you're going through so much, and they're not even really giving you what the project should represent.
And it lends to the character of the project, which is what the art should speak to. So I want to connect with that right out in the beginning.
We can do a little history of Rio. I think that would be a nice addition. What I don't want to do is say it has to. Right, just a history. Just here it is. Here's the, yeah, okay. We can do that. Good idea.
Coastal area, yeah.
So as you can see, this is a work in progress.
I did have another question, though. Excuse me. Where is the artist's depiction of the two roundabouts where you have the red arrows showing roundabouts on Dixie Highway? Is that part of the project plan online? This one? Yes.
So this I took from a PowerPoint that they did. Okay. Where it showed, this was a more recent one where it actually showed the two roundabouts. Right.
Yeah. I've been trying to figure out where that Western roundabout is going for quite some time, and I can't figure out where, yeah, I can't figure out how far the median continues after that roundabout going west and whether that, because I see another, there's two entrances to the northern community. There's the one at the roundabout, and it appears there's another entrance just west of that. And that, so I just didn't know whether that was going to be open or not. Oh, that's not an entrance? I don't think so.
Ah, okay. I'll, I'm not positive, but I.
How about the one in the middle? Don't think so. See, I see that one in the middle over here between the two.
And you see where? It's not because it goes.
Yeah, but I don't think it, I don't think it does.
It doesn't, okay.
I don't think so. I think there's a sidewalk in front of that. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, there's a driveway there now, but maybe they're going to build a curb and a sidewalk over it for sure.
I don't think that they would have an entrance that close to the roundabout.
Yeah, I guess it's too close to the gate, right? That makes sense. Okay, thank you.
So I guess the next step would be that I would continue to work on this, get some response back from the developer, do some of the things that you guys have suggested, and figure out what might be a better time. You know, his timeline may be very different from mine, the one that I put down here. And these things do take a really long time, so I don't want to get behind either. So I guess what we'll do maybe is move forward with him, see what is going on with them, and I can report back to you. If we don't wait the two months, I might just be able to send you all an e-mail or something, just giving you an update to say we'll go over it the next month or whatever I find out. Yeah. Sounds good.
How much notice do you have to give for an art in public places meeting that's not scheduled ahead of time? Because, I mean, theoretically you could just tack it on the end of our next CRA meeting and just have one item.
Three, four, five days. Okay.
Right, and then we could just discuss that as a new single agenda item.
If I have information before the next, we could do that. Yep. See how it goes along.
Good idea.
Yeah, that would work. In the meantime, I can work on the rest of this. Continue it. Sounds good.
I would say trying to emphasize the idea because it did seem like everyone did not want to limit the artist to something that had to do with the community or the history of Raya. There was a strong urge to make it a real signature art pro. Right, right. Rather than something that reflects the area and the community directly. And so some emphasis that it's pretty wide open.
Yeah, yeah, that's what I tried to write. Yeah, I saw it. I don't know if there's another way to emphasize it. I was trying hard to do that. I didn't want to box anybody in. But, yeah. Okay, we'll look at that again. We'll look at that again. Do you have anything else? You good on this topic? Sure. All right.
Thank you.
Naomi is next.
The recap of Art Fest.
All right. Naomi Lopez, Community Development Specialist. I'm here to present the Arts Fest recap for 2024. All right. I have a few pictures through this PowerPoint. But the first one here is our team on the left. We had Susan, Cores, Joy, Puerta, Jenna Cox, and myself. We had our set up there. We had a bunch of goodies, merch. We had tissues, fans. They were the fan favorite. We had everybody just flapping it everywhere. And the right, we have some pictures of just the setup of the booth, too. So you can see we had our voting station there that I'll bring up a little bit more later on here. Looks great. So this is just a mural chalk art just to bring back what we had during the Arts Fest. So these are the schools. I took some of the pictures of the kids that did the mural. So on the left, you have the Inyatown Middle School. On the right, we have the Stort Middle School team. So we did have over 566 votes. That means that we had a lot of people coming by. We had a lot of people. So from our People's Choice, our first winner is the Fish Bowl. Our second in the middle is Team Jake. And the third, we had Team SMS. So here are some more pictures. And then we were invited with the Martin Arts Council to join them for the school board meeting to give out the giveaway prizes that our People's Choice winners won. So we didn't have all the kids. Yeah, a couple of winners because some of them weren't able to make it out. So, yeah, that was on March 19th. And with that, does anyone have any questions?
It was a beautiful weekend. We met lots of folks. We were next to the tourism booth, so that was fun.
Very nice.
Yeah, it was good. It was a good time. Thank you.
I guess we move on to the comments section now. Anyone from the public like to make any comments? Did I skip anything?
I have a few comments.
Yes.
Just a couple of announcements and updates. Ripple ribbon cutting. I'm getting this back on the record here. I know I already told you this, but Friday at 10 a.m. at Site 2, we will be doing that. We will have our little pelican celebration Wednesday, this Wednesday at 5.30 on the Manatee Gateway Bridge right in front of Manja Restaurant. They really look amazing, and it was a lot of fun to watch them being installed. It was a little nerve-wracking. Well, they weigh 250 pounds each, and there were three guys picking them up, and I kept doing this. And then they bolted them all down and cleaned them all up. It was fun. Just wanted to let you know that we are actively interviewing this week and next for our new Art in Public Places marketing historic preservation person. That person will wear many hats, and I think just in time, because I know for Art in Public Places anyway, we certainly have a ton of things going on. One of the things we really would like to see done for next year for our centennial is a change in the artwork down at Gazebo Park. And that's a very big, that's a big thing to, oh, fantastic. Yay. I was going to call you about that. It's been on my mind. Okay, good. We'd really love to get something new in there. It's, you know, those sculptures have been there for a while, and we can relocate, I think, all of those, if not at least four of them, around the county, and then put some new temporary exhibit there that might have a little bit more something to do with Martin County Centennial. That would be fun for us to be able to do that. So lots of big things to do. So we're interviewing, and we're hoping to have that new person on board around April 15th, something like that. So hopefully you'll get to meet them the next time that we meet. And just wanted to tell you that we did not forget about the virtual tour of the art, but I thought that it would be probably more meaningful to wait for the new person, and then they could learn it as well. So we will get to that. We just wanted you to know we haven't forgotten. That's it.
That's all I got. I did have one more question. Yes. Go ahead. Susan, I saw, I think it was probably three to five weeks ago, some signs up about an artist's studio tour. Did you see those around? Yes. And I wonder if it would make sense for us to be partner with them and get both ourselves some publicity and help the artists get publicity and whether there is any. Who does that, Nancy? I don't know. Is it the guild? Is it the? Yeah.
So it's an art guild here in Martin County that does that, and I don't know, they don't seem to use anybody else. I mean, I'm not, I mean, I'm not.
Self-sufficient and everything else, yeah.
I don't know a lot about it, to tell you the truth.
Yeah, so Nancy Turrell, again, for the record. The Martin Artisans Guild has been around for about seven or eight years now. It's all professional working artists, and they have a gallery space in the Harbor Bay Plaza in Sewell's Point.
Right next to that restaurant.
They switch out, yeah, down by Stringers. Yeah, it's really nice. They do. I've been there. Two exhibits, or every two months they switch out exhibitions there, all member artists, and then annually they do the studio tour. And the idea is it's free and open to the public, and you can go into all these different artist studios throughout the community and see what work is being created here in Martin County. A lot of them are painters. There's not a lot of artists that are in the guild. There's a handful of them that would be potential public artists because most of them are more small-scale artwork. But they're a great group of people, and if you wanted to get on, like, an agenda, they meet monthly, and they use our gallery for their meetings. Oh, okay. If you wanted to get on their agenda and talk, I certainly can help arrange that.
Maybe that's not a bad idea. Just introduce ourselves, make sure they know what we do, see if there's any connection point. Maybe one of them does public art.
Sure.
Eduardo Gomez is one of them. He does sculpture, you know, so. And there's a couple other mosaic artists. Mia's been a member, so she's part of the group.
I know a lot of the folks that are in it, but I just haven't connected with the group in terms of our group, their group thing.
Sure. Yeah. Just a thought. Thank you. That'd be great. Thank you. My pleasure.
Anything else? So, again, I go back. Any public comments at this time? Any other comments by the members?
Cool. I'm going to go.
Any last staff comments?
Nope. I vote four. I'm done. Okay.
I'd like to adjourn this meeting. Thank you all.
Excellent.