Welcome, everyone. This is the Martin County Public Advisory, Art Advisory Agenda for today. We will call the meeting to order with a pledge of allegiance. I pledge 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. We have minutes from our last meeting. If there are any comments, please make them now, or if there's a motion, we'll entertain that. Make a motion. Second. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Great. Any conflicts of interest that need to be disclosed? No one. We have a comment section, and I have a request to speak from Kathy Harvey. Would she like to speak now? Okay. Please state your name, and you have three minutes. Three minutes. Kathy Harvey from Port Salerno. I am one of the artists that applied for this project for the mooring pocket, uh, mentee pocket. This application was originally posted in February. The deadline was February 20th. They extended it to March 15th, at which time it closed. They want to cancel every application that was submitted because some of the applications were incomplete, and some, they feel, were not encouraged to apply because it requested signage. Personally, if you apply for any position at a job, if your application is incomplete, that responsibility is upon you. If someone chose not to apply for a project, be kind of signage, that's also their responsibility. We've been waiting since March for this. They also want to take away a subcommittee that was partially staffed and partially people from the community. This was a very controversial building that was built, and I really feel that it's imperative to keep the community involved. We should have a say at what we look at every single day. Staff doesn't have to look at it. Staff looks at a picture. Oh, that's pretty. Let's do that. They don't live there. They don't have to look at it. We do. If you are a stained glass or mosaic artist, the very first thing you do is learn to make something that is flat, which is a sign or a wall plaque. If someone does not want to do a sign, I question their credibility of doing a mural of this magnitude. It's six foot wide by seven foot high. If you can't make a flat sign, how can you do a six foot by seven foot mural? This application was very detailed. There's an entire paragraph that explains what was required for the signage. Kayak launching. My three minutes is up. It was very detailed at what signage was required. The website was very helpful. They responded within 24 hours. Elise and Susan were also very helpful if you had questions. On the very top of the application is the e-mail and phone number if you had questions. This should not be canceled because somebody did not complete an application or they feel somebody did not apply because of the signage request. Thank you. Good point. Anyone else want to speak? I see you stood up, Gary. You'll save it. Okay. All right. We'll move on to new business. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't want to add anything more than what Kathy's already said. I'm Ellen Aslin. I'm on the NAC board. I would like to know why the subcommittee was done away with. We had an understanding that some of the people on the subcommittee are people that live on Park Drive that will be looking at that building. And we have also heard of some people that were on that committee that are long-time Salerno people that would keep that fishing type of flavor in our community. And like Kathy said, that monster building was never presented to us. It took away most of our park. So we should have some involvement in the mural. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Well, now we'll move on to that subcommittee discussion, right? That's our first item. That's our first item. Susan Cora's Office of Community Development. So at the March 24, 2025 meeting, the Public Art Advisory Committee did appoint a subcommittee for this particular project, the artist selection for the Manatee Pocket Mooring Field Upland Facility. So during the discussion that we're going to have about that, I'm also going to touch on the next item because they're kind of intertwined. So I'm going to talk about that for a minute quickly first, and then we'll go back to the subcommittee so that I think you'll have a better understanding of the discussion. So in the next item, we're going to ask the committee to approve re-advertising this project with revised parameters. And those revised parameters would be the mosaic parameters stay exactly the same, and we take out the signage portion. We thought that the signage portion was confusing to people, and we ended up with only very, very few applicants to choose from. So 80% of the folks did not submit the signage, and we thought taking it out would make it better for the artists and certainly give the committee, whatever committee looks at it, a few more options to look at. This does not disqualify anybody. Everybody can reapply. It's very simply done. You take out the signage piece. You reapply. You do exactly the same thing. So going back to the subcommittee, so the subcommittee was appointed. We were counseled that we needed, if we were going to re-advertise the call, we needed to talk about how you guys wanted to do the subcommittee. I think that Kathy made some great points. We did recommend getting rid of the subcommittee. There were a couple of reasons for that. One of them was that Public Works needed to have the mosaic done by a certain time. I spoke with them again, and they said that we did not have to worry about a deadline since we have come upon this. They said, no, we can make it so that you guys can have the time that you need to do that. So that hurdle is out of our way, which is a really nice thing. And we also thought that the Public Art Advisory Committee could do the selection process. So when you're doing the selection process, and we've done this before for a couple of different projects, we realize that it's kind of tough to do it without a subcommittee. And the reasoning for that is that, let's say we have nine applicants, or 10 applicants, or 12 applicants, or even seven. It's a long meeting, first of all, that we would have to do because it has to be publicly noticed. So even a subcommittee would have to be a public meeting. So we thought because we didn't have the time that just coming directly to you would help us to meet that deadline. We don't have that deadline to meet any longer. The subcommittee would have people, you remember who they were. I mean, I can name them. We had a member of the NAC. We had a resident from Park Drive, somebody from Public Works, which really needs to be on it, somebody from Parks because it's their facility. And I think, who was, oh, and Martin Arts because it says that in our ordinance that we need to use them when we do any sort of art selection. That we need to have a representative from an arts organization. So I would say to you that I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm happy to discuss the subcommittee's role with you. But I'm going to present it to you as to the decision of keeping the subcommittee or having it come directly to the Public Art Advisory Committee. So just one last comment. The process would be, if we keep the subcommittee, we do a subcommittee. They would look at the applications and then they would cull it down based on criteria that they're given. Chuck, I think you served on a subcommittee for us for Cummings Library, so you know what the process is. You can visit the site. You come to the meeting. You look at the criteria. You look at the different artists. We get questions answered if there are some. And then the committee makes a recommendation of, say, three projects to you, to the Public Art Advisory Committee. And then those recommendations, if you decide to make one recommendation or two, goes to the Board of County Commissioners for final. That's how the process works. So that's what would happen. Or alternatively, you could view all the applicant applications. Right, if you choose to do that. So I'm happy to answer any questions. I know it's a little bit convoluted. So if you have any questions, please feel free. I've got a comment, maybe. So it sounds like the barriers to keeping this subcommittee are no longer there, so we could keep the subcommittee? I think that's correct. I mean, I think it's going to take a little while longer. You know, in reality, we'll try to get it done, and to you guys, by the 28th, which would have been July 28th, which would have been your next meeting anyway. So it wouldn't have happened much before that either way at this point. So I'm not even sure that's still a problem. And is it fairly vague as far as the design criteria, except it says to go along with the local history and everything? Yeah. I mean, the design criteria was pretty much that it needs to be a mosaic because that's what the community had asked for. It gave the size. It showed some pictures of the location, talked about the building, talked about Salerno a little bit. I can't think of anything else. Did it have anything else in Italy that was – so it really – I mean, it was fairly open as far as that went. I mean, you think about that village has been a fishing village forever and was quite a place of commerce back when, and also there's a lot of boating in that area. So it seems like it would be towards those two ends or one of those ends that it should be designed around. Well, that's what it says in the call is that it needs to reflect the, you know, the demographic and the feel of where it's going. I mean, it's going on a mooring field, so that has everything to do with water and boats and et cetera. And it's going to be right next to the commercial docks. Right. Still, I feel that's pretty broad. Well, the applications will come through, and that would be a criteria certainly that any committee would look at. Hopefully they have quite a few people applying for it so we can get quite a range of selection. Well, that was our problem. Yeah. Anybody else? Yes, Jamie. So how many applied? I believe it was nine total. And for this scope and size of a project, how many typically average? I don't have an answer to that, Jamie. I don't know. We've done two calls. So I mean, just in general, like in the area, like this scope, because I've seen mosaics around. I just don't know how many typically apply for this type of project. I'm sorry. I mean, I think not. I don't have an answer. I think not a lot. I mean, I don't know too many people who do mosaics, you know. It's a great. I thought it was an excellent. I thought it was a great response. Unfortunately, most of them are not responsive in terms of the entire call. So you mean the signage was the biggest issue? They were non-responsive. Correct. They did not supply a design or anything about the signage. That's correct. And what, if you can explain to me, because I'm sorry, I'm novice to this, what is the signage connected to the mosaic? So we had looked at doing a mosaic for the building, and we put that out to the community, or I should say we had looked at doing artwork on the building, put it out to the community. They said mosaic. We were like, great. So we'll do the mosaic. We had wanted to, and it's been talked about, doing some wayfinding signage down there. So with the park drive project happening and the sewer happening and the road repaving and everything, the new park stuff, we thought it would be nice to have some new signage as well because it was looking pretty bad. I remember that. Yes. So we thought, oh, great. We'll add the wayfinding signage into this call and get both done at once. Well, I don't know that that was such a good idea in the end. I don't think it worked out for us. We can do the wayfinding signage. And when I say wayfinding signage, it's, you know, in my head, it's something like a sign with, you've seen them, arrows, you know, cookies bakery this way, blah, blah, this way, that kind of thing. That's what we were kind of looking for, a place that, something that would say, here's the boardwalk, here's the commercial fishing, here's the mooring field facility, this way, to pirates, this way, you know, whatever, something like that. So we added it on and we probably messed up. I think we muddied the waters a little bit, to be honest with you. And I'm going to be honest with you, I don't remember adding that on, but I remember talking about the signage. Is that something that typically happens where you have like a mosaic and a signage on the same application for this type of project? Again, I can't really answer your question. I mean, I don't know that anything's typical. When you do a call for artists, you're calling for specifically what you're looking for. Because there may be. So they're all different. Right, right. Because they may specialize in mosaics and not so much signage, is what you're saying. Well, and that may be part of the issue. And that's probably what happened. You know, we were looking at, yeah. But the signage can be included at a later date? We can do the signage at a later date. We can do it through Art in Public Places. We can do it through the CRA. It's not a big deal. The subcommittee now, though, is the question on this item. Yes, the first item is subcommittee. And to have the input from the community and have the subcommittee sounds like something that we all agree with that, you know, having the community input. Okay, motion. Yeah, let's look at that one, and then we'll move on to the next section. I'll make a motion that we reinstitute the subcommittee with the same parameters as before. So you want to ask for public comment as well, Bert? Looks like Mr. Earler is up and would like to speak. This is on the first one, the first item. Yeah. This would be the subcommittee. This is for the subcommittee, okay. Feel free. Sorry, I skipped. That's all right. He can see where we're going. We sort of went up. Gary Earler, Coach Salerno. I told you it was kind of. Thank you. I think we all are in agreement of it. I think losing the subcommittee was actually losing the one resident of Park Drive. Include the one resident of Park Drive. We're good. We're good. We do have an NAC member, but everybody else was included. You said Public Works. You have an NAC member inside the CRA. You had the Public Works. You had the Parks and Rec. All those people are still included. The only one that was really going to be excluded was the resident, and as long as the resident is still on that, we can still make our time frames. We're good. Public Works is good with it. But the community is good with it. That's all. Thank you. I got another sheet if I need it. Okay. So, we had a motion. Did we have a second? I can't remember. Yes. The motion needs to be denied. Yeah, you need to actually say the motion. Did you say it? I said it. What were the same parameters as in types of members and number of members? I said that we should reform the subcommittee, and it be made up of the same type of members as before. So, keep the subcommittee that we have. Mr. Chair, the motion will be to deny the staff recommendation and keep the subcommittee. That's correct. You good? Yeah. Anyway, you okay? Motion maker's okay? Motion maker's okay. Second's good. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay. So, motion's denied, and we will keep this up. No, motion passes. Well, yeah, motion passes, but the recommendation is denied. Sorry. Thank you. Mike. Okay. Next item, then, is Manatee Pocket Mosaic Project request to re-advertise call to artists. All right. Okay. So, for this item, again, we'll talk a little bit about we're going to leave the subcommittee behind. We're just going to talk about the call itself. Staff does recommend and continues to recommend that we do a new call so that we do have a little bit more choice in the applicants, and also because we feel that the signage piece did muddy the waters. It's really not a problem for anybody that wants to reapply. You do it through a program on the Internet. Everybody can do that. It's a few clicks to reapply for the same thing. Only the call will say, only Mosaic. The signage will be taken out. So, that's what we would recommend, and I don't know if there's any more questions that anyone has on that. I think we kind of answered it, but if not, please ask. And we're recommending for a 45-day time period. Same thing, 45 days, and that will – so, I kind of looked at what the process would be and the timing would be. So, if the revised call goes out tomorrow, let's say you approve that. We send out the revised call tomorrow without the signage. The applications would be due by July 4th, and then we would schedule a subcommittee for, say, the week of the 14th, and we'd still be able to bring it to you at your next scheduled meeting, which is July 28th. And then we would bring it to the Board of County Commissioners at one of their meetings in August. So, it doesn't seem to affect us too much timeline-wise. Any of you guys have comments? Anybody have? I just had a question. Sure. Do you resend it to those who had already applied, to the nine that had already applied? Can you answer that? I'll plan to resend it. Yeah, and I think the – doesn't that – the website thing send them like their previous – turned off, and then we set up a new call entirely. So, then I'll e-mail everyone and just say, hey, we revised the call without having the signage. Yeah, so everybody would know. Okay, that's good. Yeah, I really didn't realize that the signage had gotten, and that's my bad. I didn't even realize that, but I don't know when that happened. Yeah, so, I mean, live and learn, you know. I'm learning. The community is coming up, so I'm taking notes. Do you have a comment, Rex? I was just getting ready to make a motion if nobody else wanted to. Any other discussion before Rex makes his motions? Public comment. Oh, yeah. Public comment. Yes, Mr. Erler. Are you going down over there? I guess my question is for the board and staff, the ones reviewing these applications. Can the ones that get it right get a bonus point, some kind of extra credit? I don't know. It seems like, you know, we're going to vote on this until we get it right kind of deal. Well, I appreciate the help. I appreciate the help, but somebody got it right, and in reality, you know, I won this race. Now you're going to make me race again. So, you know, I would ask that it stayed the way it was and made the best man, woman, child who ever did this one. And do-overs are never good in my mind. I mean, we're rehashing. We're redoing. Take it for what it is. Call it good. And we live with it. And that's the way I do it. Thank you. Just so that you know, this is to the committee, that no one has reviewed them. All we did was look at them and find out who was responsive and who wasn't. That's really all staff does. We don't review them and vote on them or do any of that. Yeah. And just like it would happen for any kind of sort of request for proposal, if you will, if you went by purchasing. Do you meet the criteria? You have to meet the criteria, yeah. So, and we do have the option of, and the county does as well in some of the projects they do, we do have the option of putting that aside and doing a new one. So, just wanted to let you know, legally, we can do that. Okay. Would you like to speak, ma'am? Okay. I just got, I've just been listening to all of this and I'm not familiar with it. Name is Terry Kogel and I live in Stewart. My question is, is that I heard that 80% did not put the signage on their applications. There were only nine applicants. So, how come you don't know how many did not? You won't give us any answer on how many did not do the signage. Nobody asked me that question, ma'am. Or I would tell you two of them. So, for sure there was only two. Correct. Okay. That's why I needed to know. Thank you. They still should stick to the original plan on that. Seriously. Thank you. Rex was about to make a motion. I'm going to make a comment first. Okay. I think when you're talking about these two things, the sign and the mosaic, you're talking about two types of art. And I can imagine why somebody wants to do the main project but not the other because it's out of their expertise, let's say. So, I can understand that. And for us to have the most designs possible to review with the subcommittee, I think it's important we redo this again. So, I'm going to make a motion that we go with the county's recommendation on just having the mosaic and give the 45 days again with the subcommittee. Any comments? I have a comment. Was that two of the applicants that did it right or two that did it wrong? Two of the applicants submitted designs with a signage. And you would need to, how do they need to say it? They need to, the motion needs to be to reject all submissions received under the original call and to re-advertise within the revised parameters as recommended by staff. That's my motion. I tend to agree, Rex, that there's only two and that's not a lot of options and choices. When nine submitted, it'd be nice to have the nine that were all qualified. So, is there a second or any other comments? I'll second. I did have a, out of the nine, did all of them apply for the mosaic? Yes. That's what I needed to know. Okay. Comment? Yes, sir. I think I'm pretty good at photography, but there's no way I'd do mosaic. So, again, I think those are two different things that we're talking about. And I think we should go the way we're going. Okay. Very good. I have a motion and a second. Any other comments? All in favor? Anyone opposed? Okay. So, you said it, as far as how the motion was. Did you get? Yes. It passed. Okay. It passed in the way it was noted. Yes. You're welcome. Let's see. Where are we now? Alicia, you can stay there if you want. So, we are now on to the Gillian Mark Temporary Public Art Opportunity. Oh, but you need this? Yeah, if you want to. Wait. So, things have been moving along with the Gillian Mark Public Art Temporary Project. We identified that the patio at Palm City would be a great location for it, just given the traffic, how it would look. So, that was brought to the NAC to get their feedback, in which they recommended that they would accept the piece if we were to bring it there. So, in my conversations with the global project manager, I learned in the last week that there is another party that is interested in also loaning this piece, but they've been holding it for us. And so, can you pull up that little map, too, in the mock-up? Sorry. No, that's okay. Just so we can. So, it's the location map at the top. Maybe I should have gone down there. Oh. There we go. Okay. And if you want to zoom in, Jordan made this. Thanks, Jordan. This is where we thought the piece could go. So, at the entrance over by where the clock is. Oh, here's Map Road. And then next one over, I did a little photoshopping. So, you kind of get a sense of what it would look like. Our public works agreed that they would help us out with pouring a cement slab. It's not going to be too large. And they were happy to help us with that, as well as get in with the forklift to install it and take care of all of that, which is great. And then I think, Susan, if you scroll, there was one more viewpoint. So, to just get a sense of how that would all look. It's almost as if it's the trees, they're spaced along there, and that actually is kind of one of the trees that was there. Yeah. In my eyes, that works well. It would be such a great addition. So, given the news of the other party now being interested, I did, I know I didn't have a motion written on here to recommend. But, as we know, the loan itself is $33,000. And I would ask that you make a motion to move forward and that we have it installed in Palm City. Any comments? I like the idea. Sorry. So, I wasn't at the last meeting, so I didn't know what the figure was at $33,000. Is this something we've got money for? We actually do. Okay. Yeah. And I could find the budget page if you need to see it. We did look at it last meeting. We do have the funds, so it's really a question. And there's another piece to that, too, which is they loan it to us for a year for $33,000, and then we get to buy it minus the $33,000 at 50% discount. And then we can, at that time, what we were thinking is that we would shop it to any of the other areas or shop it to any of our private development that's going in that might like to put an art piece. Okay. And it's a significant piece as far as nationality and reputation of the art. Yeah. Yeah. They're internationally known. This is one of their signature pieces because it has their rabbit, woman, and dog, man, which they do a lot of. But they're also really well known for their wildlife. They do a ton of elephants and gorillas and rhinoceroses and huge, huge installations and give part of that funding to keeping wildlife from those types of animals from being extinct. So they're very well known. Comment? I would say since Palm City has graciously allowed this to be in their park that we should have first right of refusal to keep it there after the year. He's working us, isn't he? He is working it. Palm City should pay for it then. At the end of the year. At the end of the year. At the end of the year. Any other comments? Okay. Public comment. If there is anyone. Anyone from the public want to say anything about this? No. Would someone like to make a motion so we can get this in Palm City? So moved. So moved. Any seconds? Second. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. We will hopefully move forward with that. Okay. Thank you very much. Next item is Art in Public Places Survey. Make it full screen. Is it full screen? Well, I could. If you want to tell me how. Did you have it someplace else? A little negative. I don't know. This? Mm-hmm. There we go. Okay. So since the end of January, we've been conducting an online survey for Art in Public Places. During Arts Fest, we had yard signs that were out throughout the festival. We have one currently in front of the Courthouse Cultural Center. And we've been doing targeted e-blasts just to get a read on what the public thinks about what we're doing with public art. So I just wanted to give you a little snapshot of the results that have come in since that time. And as you can see, 79.6% of our community so far thinks that public art is important for enhancing our community. So that's a great figure. Very important. Yeah. And then the next one here, how they rate our overall program. So excellent and good are two of the biggest pieces of the pie. That's great. But 14% think we can do more. And 2%. I know. Or those two. Those 2% says otherwise. And then this I thought was interesting. The types of public art the community would like to see. Of course, murals being a really big one there. Sculptural, functional art. So a great example of that, like the mosaic benches in Rio. So interactive installations, temporary, so now we get to fill that one. So that's exciting. And then this one about where the public thought they have, public art has its biggest impact. So being downtown and commercial areas, parks and recreational spaces, and neighborhoods and residential areas were the top three. And then this was just a summation of some of the feedback. We did have like an open comment section. So the community wants to prioritize durable, vandal-resistant materials, engage local schools and community members, showcase our local culture, history, and identity, increase visibility through mural, sculptures, and installations in public areas, and broad support for more public art across the county, and provide opportunities for local artists to participate and be celebrated. So I just thought that was interesting to share, and we're continuing to solicit more surveys and encourage everyone to take it. Yeah, we'd like to bring that to the Board of County Commissioners, too, at some point. Great. Yeah, makes us solidify, Zara. Yeah, and I think it shows that we're trying to get out there and let people know what we're trying to do. Any comments from the members? Nice work. Thank you. We are through the main part of the agenda and on to the comments section. We have a public comment section now, if anybody's interested. Looks like Mr. Erler's up. Gary Erler, Port Salerno. I like to play by the rules, so that's why the last three minutes, and I'm normally not here this late, and I don't expect to keep you all here much later. I guess my question is for staff, and the Mosaic had a $15,000 budget on it. With the signage, is there a new dollar amount suggested for the Mosaic? Does it still stay $15,000 and the signage comes out is my question, and that was part of what I wanted to bring up before we reconsidered, you know, all cost factors involved. So that's my question. If it gets answered today, great. If not, I'll share. I'll hear about it somewhere else. Thank you all again for being here. We'll move on. Any member comments? Staff comments. All right. We're adjourned. Thank you very much. Why did they took the clock out? Welcome to the Martin County Community Redevelopment Agency. We'll call the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. To the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have some minutes, and are there any comments? Would anyone like to make a motion to approve the minutes? Motion to approve. Any comments? Second. All in favor? Second. All in favor? All in opposed? Okay, great. Any disclosure of conflicts of interest? Go on. Move right into public comments. I have one from Julie Priest. I don't know if you want to speak now or later. Good afternoon, Julie Priest. Normally, I represent Rio, but today I'm representing all of Martin County and anything having to do with historic preservation and history. In front of you, you have a little packet that I put together a couple weeks ago when I found out that we are losing our archival department called Martin Digital History because their grants are expiring and there is no funding beyond the end of December. We have, in your packet, you'll see the credentials of Georgian Charns, who is the supervisor in that department who has wonderful qualifications. And when we talk about archiving historic documents, photographs, and so forth, they come up usually when someone in a family passes away and then the relatives have these items and they don't know what to do with them and so on and so forth. So this gives all these wonderful treasures a place to be digitized for generations to come well beyond me because that's what I do now. I am a volunteer historical researcher. So I'm here to ask you if you would consider writing a letter of support to continue the operations of this department because we are going to hopefully appear, those of us who support this, in July when the Board of County Commissioners will be looking at their budget. And so I'm here to ask you to consider a letter of support to continue the operations of Martin Digital History completely as they are today. We would be asking Martin County, and my hope is that we will come up with some seed money through donations to help with the $100,000 that is needed for payroll to continue this department. Everything else would be covered. We just have to cover payroll. So that's where we're at. I think it's all explained a little bit in the package to the best of my ability. Again, from what I knew two weeks ago, I'm learning more all the time. And there's going to be a meeting, if you notice, at the top of the form, June 2nd, 11 a.m. at the Cummings Library. Anyone who is interested in continuing with the digital archiving and wishes to have the operations continue, please come to that meeting, and we're all going to brainstorm together. Thank you very much. Thank you, Julie. It sounds like a worthwhile operation. Any other public comments? We'll move right into our presentations then. The CRA Capital Projects Review. Good afternoon, Chairman and Board Members. Susan Cora's Office of Community Development. I will point out a few projects, and as always, please feel free to answer any questions that you might have on anything on the sheet. I'm going to go directly to RIO. Most of those that I don't talk about, as you know, are pretty status quo from our last meeting, which is why I don't go into it. So, in RIO, both of our new projects, the CR 707 streetscape enhancement and the property and civic center design projects, both will be having kickoff meetings for all the stakeholders on May 22nd. And it's kind of interesting to note, and I'd just like to say thank you to Jordan for this. We have the same consultant group on both of those projects, which has been a huge cost savings and a real, I'm not going to say struggle, maybe challenge for Jordan to keep those projects separate, but tied together at the same time because there's a lot of survey and underground work and things like that that can be done, community outreach that can be done sort of at the same time because the projects are so close in one place. So, that's been a great cost savings for us on the design and really gives a little more of a holistic approach to the entire CRA area of RIO. So, thank you, Jordan, for that. That's kind of exciting. And then the last thing or second thing or last thing that I'm going to say about our capital projects is the investment program. We have 12 completed projects, so I think that's pretty amazing, and I would like to give kudos to Jana Cox on that. She's really been operating the program and overseeing everything, and I believe Jana Hope Sound might be in the lead. Ah, Mr. Chair, you might be happy about that. Anyway, she's going to talk about number 12 a little bit later on in the program, and that's all I have to say about our capital projects, but I'm happy to answer any questions. I knew that. I looked right over in your direction. Did you see me do it? You know I love you. So, it's similar to the palm trees that still have not been trimmed off of A1A. I'm curious about that we're still stuck at 30% for the unpaved roads. If we've heard anything, you know. Joy, do you have any update on that? It's like it's been ongoing and ongoing, but without progress. If you do, then please come up. If not, then just say no. Thank you. Joy Cuerta, program manager. Yes, we have sent our actual comments back, so we should be getting the 60% plans in shortly, because I was in discussions with the consultant last week. All right? Seriously, Jamie? Real quick on Ryo. Yeah. It says a stakeholder meeting will be scheduled for May 22nd. Yes. Is that during the NAC meeting, or is that separate? No, that's separate. I think those meetings will happen in the morning, and when we say stakeholders, we're talking about the consultant and the county operations for the most part. No public. So, public works, that kind of thing. Jordan will update the NAC, but that's a meeting where we kind of get everybody in the same room so public works can give comments and utilities and all of those things, because we have to coordinate all those folks. Sounds good. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions for Susan? Well, actually, I was wondering, didn't Julie ask us if we could, you know, bring up to write the letter of support, and you guys didn't say anything. Nobody said anything. For Julie? Yeah. Well, actually, it's for all of us. Right, but I mean for her comment. Yeah. You can all decide to discuss that now or take it up at a future time. I don't know how much everybody knows about it, so I'm not sure if you're ready to discuss that or not. Individual letters, no? No, we normally write one letter of support from this, you know, so we really should. I'm a history freak, so you can tell. We all are. I'm okay talking about it if you want to talk about it now. Yeah, as well get it over with. I'd be in favor of it. I think it's a great program. Once a document's lost, it's lost forever. I know. I know. And now if you go, I mean, you go just online and you look for something, I'm excited because every time I want to remember something, you know, for a Golden Gate building is there. And that really helps a lot. Anybody else have any other thoughts? Yes, Jamie. No, I thought it was first presented as far as, you know, all the details at this weekend's event in New Monrovia for the first colored school dedication. And I was glad that she brought it up because I thought it was a good idea because even everything that you've collected for that would be included on there and it would never be lost. So I think preserving our history is definitely something we should take seriously. We were doing a research for a Golden Gate building. We end up in the Cocoa Library and I found some stuff they belong to here. They are in the Cocoa Library. I never know they had the mosquito area. Mosquito, what was it? I'm still impressed with that thing, you know. No, no, not treatment. It was a little area that was called Mosquito, like a city. I mean, here, why we have to go to Cocoa when she can do it here? You see what I mean? And I know Julie, she was, didn't you go to Miami and look some more? Yeah. It took us a long time. I mean. How do you guys feel? You want to write a letter? Yeah, for sure. Somebody want to make a motion? Yeah, I'll make a motion that we write a letter on support of seeing if the county commission can find funding in their budget for this position. Sounds good. Second. Any comments? All in favor. Is that how it works, Susan? Okay. That's how it works. Okay. Thank you. I mean, I'm happy to take any volunteers. Draft form. Maybe Julie can help us out. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Great. Good idea, Sadia. Well, thank you. I just felt like we just heard about it and nothing done. Nobody said anything. Yeah. No. Good. We'll move on to the next item. It's new business. Office of Community Redevelopment Fiscal Year 2026. Tentative operating budget. Thank you. Thank you. Again, Susan Cora's Office of Community Development, and we welcome Shelby Baker. She is with the Office of Management and Budget. Yay. So we're going to submit our fiscal year 2026 tentative operating budget to the Board of County Commissioners in July. That's when those workshops happen. So as you've seen, if you've taken a look at this, we talk a little bit about us, and then we get right into some actual numbers. You have seen, I'm sure, that we're $40,000 higher than we were last year, and that's due to the 6% increase in salaries that was voted in 2023. Correct. So that's where that comes in. It's salaries and fringe. The rest of our operating budget remains flat. We have not asked for any more in any of those categories. If you have specific questions, because I'm sure you've also noticed when you look at the budget pages that there are differences in what we had and what we're asking for, and all of those differences are really just to either pay off what we had to make it whole, if you will, so we've borrowed from other lines, or to add or subtract from lines just to, because we kind of know what we'll spend. So it was just basically a reshuffling of the deck, if you know what I mean. And then there is some, Shelby has it all highlighted for you, and she can go through each of those if you have questions. So what we did was we just reallocated due to actual. So as you can see in communications data slash wireless, we had zero budget in this fiscal year, which is 25. So Susan, Jordan, myself, we talked. We're like, let's move around some funds. We didn't increase the budget by any means, but we reshuffled funds to actually be budgeting for the actual, due to our actuals. So there is minor adjustments in those line items. And it's all kind of spelled out when you look at the bottom. You can see what's been reallocated and from where to where and how much. Everything else stays the same. We're not getting any new staff or anything like that. So that was my question. How many are included in the salaries? There's six of us. Thank you. Any other comments? We need a motion to approve the budget. If somebody wants to make a motion, please do so. I'll make a motion to recommend the budget. We need a public comment. If there is any. Does anybody have any comments from the public? None. I'm sorry. I heard a motion. Second. Rex in a second. Any other comments? All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Great. Thank you. Thank you. We are on to old business. The 2025 final legislative report. So I included in your packet the final report that we received from Sauer Powers. She's our legislative aide. She spends most of the time during that period in Tallahassee getting information for us and talking with our legislators and our other folks up there. So all the news for us is good. Yeah. So this, what I gave you to look at has all different types of information in it. It's just an update. I thought you might be interested, which is why I included it. But specifically for the CRA, the one, the House Bill 991, that was the really awful one for us, and the Senate Bill 1242, which wasn't quite as bad, both of those have died. So in early May, the Senate Bill was indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration, which pretty much equals death. And then in late April, 991 was sort of rolled into another one that they're calling 110. So CSSB 110, and it's named Rural Communities. What they did was they took out everything that had anything to do with the CRA in it. We've been through it line by line. There is nothing. That bill does remain alive, and it probably will until the end of the budget season. So they've extended, as you know, budget till the end of June. So they will remain active doing that, and that bill will be part of that because it does talk about finances for other things. But I think we're good. So that was the best news ever. And I, again, took a deep dive, and I, for hours, looking and looking, because I'm like, what am I missing? What am I missing? But I think we're all set. And Frank agreed, and he's more the expert in that than I am. So that was the good news. Great. Any comments for Susan? All right. Okay. Moving on. I think we have the investment program project completion. You're so fancy. This thing? Good afternoon. Jana Cox, Office of Community Development. I have a presentation. Full screen? I don't know how that's done. How did we do that? Resize, maybe? Yep. Oh, sorry. You have to click present twice. I do have the project completion report. It's applicant number 13, but it's our 12th completion of the program. Speaking of history, I went down to Hope Sound to share with MCTV to interview this applicant, and there's loads of history with this property. They were actually the first licensed car rental agency in Martin County, which I did not know. So I look forward to getting that report. They don't have that for me yet. The applicant is located at 11690 Southeast Dixie Highway. Diamond Garage. This explains the program types that we have. Property improvement and fence and landscape. This one is property improvement, and they install new windows and new garage doors. The target areas are our six CRAs, and you have to be located in one of these sub-districts. This one is located in Hope Sound in the corridor sub-district. This shows a little bit about the process. Are you a property owner, or do you own a business in the targeted areas? If so, everything is on our website, or you can contact our office, and we will start the process. Applicant 13 presented to the CRA board in November of 24, so hopefully you remember that presentation. Their improvements were completed in April of 2025. Again, it was the property improvement program. What improvements they did, the garage door window, which was involved in an accident, so they replaced the entire window, and you'll see pictures later. And two garage doors of historic look and feel, and you'll see pictures of that as well. They actually already got their reimbursement in May, and as this process goes along, it spurs the applicant to do improvements on their own, and they actually are painting both buildings. They got new gravel and landscaping. Can I just say something really quick? Just to kind of add to that comment, we have another project that's in Golden Gate right on U.S. 1. It's a large, what am I trying to say, strip mall? Thank you. And they also, once they received their reimbursement, they put it right back into the property and did all new lighting. So it really does work that way. Where was that project? Right along, the Golden Gate one? Yeah. It's right along A1A, Dixie, right across from the barbershop. Oh, you said U.S. Yeah, I said U.S. 1. I'm sorry. Yeah, Dixie. Dixie. Thank you. Got it. So here you can see what the garage doors looked like before, and I have a nice after picture. The same thing with the window that's located on Bridge Road, right on the corner. The before picture and after, it's fully hurricane-proof, shatter-proof, all that kind of good stuff. The additional work that they did, it's not dumpster. They put gravel in landscaping, and they are, he and his wife are painting the building themselves. It looks really nice. This just shows the vendors and the proposed cost, and the actual costs were spot on. The total improvements, $26,604, and we reimburse up to 80%, which is $20,000. As a bonus, I added the historic light pole that's located on this property. As part of the Hope Sound Historic Society, they are redoing all of the motion picture lights. I'm sure you're familiar with that story in Hope Sound. And one picture is at night, and they just look awesome. It's a solar dome, and so we don't need electricity. And so they're redoing. They actually have a manufacturer that's redoing these lights, and we're going to include those on our Dixie Streetscape project. And that's all I have. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to entertain them. Anyone? I do have a question. How does the budget work on that? I've been told that certain areas don't have any money for this kind of program. So we started in 2022 putting funds away in that particular category if they were available. So some CRAs have more than others, just depending. That's a line item on the CRA. Yes, and they were all voted for in the individual NAC. How much they wanted, how much they thought, you know, improvement-wise. And, yes, some have money left, and we're looking for new applicants all the time. So does it get re-upped every year, or it all depends on the CRA? It depends on the CRA. So we added more to particular ones that didn't have any funding. Hope Sound has plenty of funding, so we didn't add any this year. That happens during the CIP process, Chuck, where the committees decide if they want to recommend additional dollars for that line item. And then, of course, it's just in certain districts, right, core and? Certain sub-districts. Sub-districts. That's what I meant to say, yeah. And I did want to add that Hope Sound has four, Golden Gate three, Jensen three, Rio one, and Port Solerda one. So that's kind of the count we have going. Jamie? So, Jana, are these mailed to some of the businesses? Yes. In the area? Because I even tried to stop by and hand deliver, but I never know if the owners are actually getting the material. So I have a list, and I'm mailing them to the area. Because there's several off of Salerno Road that would really benefit. I did find the gentleman who owns the tin wall that I've been talking about off of Cove Road for a while. I personally handed that one to him. So I was just curious if they were getting them by mail, because I don't know if the owners are receiving them. So, okay. I have a few possibilities in Port Solerda. Oh, good. Thanks. I was glad to see the light pole with the solar fixture on it. I have to check it out at night. It's nice to actually see one, what it's going to look like. It looks like some of the poles north of there have been refinished. Was that something that was part of our end? There was one pole that was refinished, and it's the one that was hit by the taco truck. Okay. Because we salvaged that one from another property that sold. Okay. And it's case by case. Like the one just north of this property, it's on their property, and they don't want it straightened. I see. So hopefully Pat can talk them into at least getting a dome. Private property? Gotcha. Some of them are on private property. So they own them. I got you. Okay. From way back. Let's see where it goes. I know there's some at the Apollo School that I've been told they're trying to work on as well. So maybe they can match the same fixtures. Yes. Hopefully. Yeah, there's a vendor that's making those for the Historic Society. Or is that the way the fixtures look originally? Do you know the original? Does anybody know the original look of the fixture? I don't think that's what they look like originally. I do have a picture. Gotcha. And I think they were square. Okay. All right. Thanks. Anybody else? Thanks. Welcome. So that takes care of pretty much our agenda with the exception of comment section. We do have a public comment section now. If any member of the public would like to speak. Yes, Julie. Thank you very much. May is Historic Preservation Month. And there are schedules online on the Martin County website. And there are schedules at most of the libraries and also at the log cabin. And also right outside here in the lobby, you can pick up a schedule. We honored Sadia this past week as preservationist of the year, but we have more events to follow. So we hope that everyone will come out to those events and enjoy learning about history. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Any member comments? Nope. Nope. Just me. Just you? Like Julie said, I was honored this week and I am really grateful and humbly, humbly. I felt like guilty of getting the award in a way because what I'm doing, restoring what I did, restoring Golden Gate, is a privilege for me. I think every human being should live where God wants him to be, not hungry, not scared, just peaceful and more or less comfortable. And that's what I'm trying to do for my community. And the Golden Gate just so happened that building was, you know, harboring a lot of mess. I mean, it was like headquarters for drunks and ask him. He lives in the neighborhood, if you remember how it was, that building. I mean, people coming out of it used to really, really bother me when I come down in the morning going to Publix or something and see people just straggling coming out. Now, thanks to the CRA and the helps and my mouth and pushing and insisting, it worked. And I am so grateful and I'm so happy. And I want to thank every one of you who was there. You too, Mike. I was there. I said hello. Yeah, he sure did. He came over. Everybody was there. I even got the Moroccan council that she came up and, you know, it was really nice that everybody shows up. And again, Miss Susan surprised me. It was a secret between two of us and she blurted out. It was my Sadia story. I have to tell it. Yeah, but tell it. But you didn't have to. Anyway, so I want to thank you. And I am so grateful. And I'm going on vacation in the morning. Have a wonderful time. Well, thanks to Kylie because she's graduating on Friday. So honestly, I don't like fly to Maui because it's too long. I mean, too many hours and I'm just not that's not my I wish they come here, but I have to go this time. She's the only granddaughter I have. So when you get there. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be fun. I don't sleep on the planes. Oh, I take my tablet and I play games. Anyway, that's all I want to say. Thanks to every one of you. And I really appreciate you. And if I ever said something you don't like, just smack me. I mean, you know, correct me. Whatever. You know me. That's a big honor. And you are to be congratulated. I'm looking for that in the minutes next meeting, by the way. Thank you all. And I appreciate it. Yeah, well done. And I saw Frank there, too. Nice. Who's there? And, of course, you know, Jenna and Joy. I saw every one of you. I wasn't there, but I was there, too. Yeah. Very good. Any staff comments? Yes, actually. All right. I have comments. Let's have it. So, there's been a little change in the Office of Community Development coming up that, frankly, we're not all that happy about. And that is that Naomi has taken another job. So, we're really happy for her, because it's great for her. But we're going to miss her. I'm not happy. So, we have a little something. I'm mad at you. Yeah, we're all kind of mad at her. So, it says, a heartfelt thank you to Naomi Lopez in recognition of your dedication, service, and meaningful contributions to the Office of Community Development, November 2021 to May 2025. She really, she hung in there, I think. Your work has helped shape stronger communities and made a lasting impact with sincere appreciation and best wishes for your next chapter. And that's for you, Naomi, to put on your desk, so you won't forget us. Good job, Susan. Thank you. Thank you for that. And with that, I am done. Well, thanks for that, because we appreciate all that Naomi does. Yeah. Yeah. She's going to be a hard act to follow. Yeah. Yeah. So, you're advertising or will be advertising, I take it? Yes, we are. One or another. We are. Will she do interviews of the applicant? I'm not sure I may torture her that way. I may. Haven't decided. All right. Any other staff comments? All right. We'll adjourn, and we've got Art in Public Places here in a couple minutes, or do we want to start right away? How do you want to? It's a preset at 4 o'clock. We need to start at 4 o'clock. Okay. We'll start at 4 o'clock. Everyone, this is the Martin County Public Advisory Art Advisory Agenda. For today, we will call the meeting to order with a 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. We have minutes from our last meeting. If there are any comments, please make them now, or if there's a motion, we'll entertain that. Make a motion. Second. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Great. Any conflicts of interest that need to be disclosed? No one. We have a comment section, and I have a request to speak from Kathy Harvey. Would she like to speak now? Okay. Please state your name, and you have three minutes. Three minutes. Kathy Harvey from Port Salerno. I am one of the artists that applied for this project for the mooring pocket, uh, Mantee pocket. This application was originally posted in February. The deadline was February 20th. They extended it to March 15th, at which time it closed. They want to cancel every application that was submitted because some of the applications were incomplete, and some they feel were not encouraged to apply because it requested signage. Personally, if you apply for any position at a job, if your application is incomplete, that responsibility is upon you. If someone chose not to apply for a project to be kind of signage, that's also their responsibility. We've been waiting since March for this. They also want to take away a subcommittee that was partially staffed and partially people from the community. This was a very controversial building that was built, and I really feel that it's imperative to keep the community involved. We should have a say at what we look at every single day. Staff doesn't have to look at it. Staff looks at a picture. Oh, that's pretty. Let's do that. They don't live there. They don't have to look at it. We do. So, if you are a stained glass or mosaic artist, the very first thing you do is learn to make something that is flat, which is a sign or a wall plaque. If someone does not want to do a sign, I question their credibility of doing a mural of this magnitude. It's six foot wide by seven foot high. If you can't make a flat sign, how can you do a six foot by seven foot mural? This application was very detailed. There's an entire paragraph that explains what was required for the signage. Kayak launching. My three minutes is up. It was very detailed at what signage was required. The website was very helpful. They responded within 24 hours. Elise and Susan were also very helpful if you had questions. On the very top of the application is the email and phone number if you had questions. This should not be canceled because somebody did not complete an application or they feel somebody did not apply because of the signage request. Thank you. Good point. Anyone else want to speak? I see you stood up, Gary. You'll save it. Okay. All right. We'll move on to new business. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't want to add anything more than what Kathy's already said. I'm Ellen Aslin. I'm on the NAC board. I would like to know why the subcommittee was done away with. We had an understanding that some of the people on the subcommittee are people that live on Park Drive that will be looking at that building. And we have also heard of some people that were on that committee that are longtime Salerno people that would keep that fishing type of flavor in our community. And like Kathy said, that monster building was never presented to us. It took away most of our park. So we should have some involvement in the mural. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Well, now we'll move on to that subcommittee discussion, right? That's our first item. That's our first item. Susan Cora's Office of Community Development. So at the March 24th, 2025 meeting, the Public Art Advisory Committee did appoint a subcommittee for this particular project, the artist selection for the Manatee Pocket Mooring Field Upland Facility. So during the discussion that we're going to have about that, I'm also going to touch on the next item because they're kind of intertwined. So I'm going to talk about that for a minute quickly first, and then we'll go back to the subcommittee so that I think you'll have a better understanding of the discussion. So in the next item, we're going to ask the committee to approve re-advertising this project with revised parameters. And those revised parameters would be the mosaic parameters stay exactly the same, and we take out the signage portion. We thought that the signage portion was confusing to people, and we ended up with only very, very few applicants to choose from. So 80% of the folks did not submit the signage, and we thought taking it out would make it better for the artists and certainly give the committee, whatever committee looks at it, a few more options to look at. This does not disqualify anybody. Everybody can reapply. It's very simply done. You take out the signage piece. You reapply. You do exactly the same thing. So going back to the subcommittee, so the subcommittee was appointed. We were counseled that if we were going to re-advertise the call, we needed to talk about how you guys wanted to do the subcommittee. I think that Kathy made some great points. We did recommend getting rid of the subcommittee. There were a couple of reasons for that. One of them was that public works needed to have the mosaic done by a certain time. I spoke with them again, and they said that we did not have to worry about a deadline. Since we have come upon this, they said, no, we can make it so that you guys can have the time that you need to do that. So that hurdle is out of our way, which is a really nice thing. And we also thought that the Public Art Advisory Committee could do the selection process. So when you're doing the selection process, and we've done this before for a couple of different projects, we realize that it's kind of tough to do it without a subcommittee. And the reasoning for that is that, let's say we have nine applicants or 10 applicants or 12 applicants or even seven. It's a long meeting, first of all, that we would have to do because it has to be publicly noticed. So even a subcommittee would have to be a public meeting. So we thought because we didn't have the time that just coming directly to you would help us to meet that deadline. We don't have that deadline to meet any longer. The subcommittee would have people, you remember who they were. I mean, I can name them. We had a member of the NAC. We had a resident from Park Drive, somebody from Public Works, which really needs to be on it, somebody from Parks because it's their facility. And I think who was, oh, and Martin Arts because it says that in our ordinance that we need to use them when we do any sort of art selection, that we need to have a representative from an arts organization. So I would say to you that I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm happy to discuss the subcommittee's role with you, but I'm going to present it to you as to the decision of keeping the subcommittee or having it come directly to the Public Art Advisory Committee. So just one last comment. The process would be if we keep the subcommittee, we do a subcommittee. They would look at the applications, and then they would cull it down based on criteria that they're given. Chuck, I think you served on a subcommittee for us for Cummings Library, so you know what the process is. You can visit the site, you come to the meeting, you look at the criteria, you look at the different artists, we get questions answered if there are some, and then the committee makes a recommendation of, say, three projects to you, to the Public Art Advisory Committee, and then those recommendations, if you decide to make one recommendation or two, goes to the Board of County Commissioners for final. That's how the process works. So that's what would happen. Or alternatively, you could view all the applications. Right, if you choose to do that. So I'm happy to answer any questions. I know it's a little bit convoluted, so if you have any questions, please feel free. I've got a comment, maybe. So it sounds like the barriers to keeping this subcommittee are no longer there, so we could keep the subcommittee? I think that's correct. I mean, I think it's going to take a little while longer. You know, in reality, we'll try to get it done, and to you guys, by the 28th, which would have been July 28th, which would have been your next meeting anyway. So it wouldn't have happened much before that either way at this point. Okay. So I'm not even sure that's still a problem. And is it fairly vague as far as the design criteria, except it says to go along with the local history and everything? Yeah. I mean, the design criteria was pretty much that it needs to be a mosaic because that's what the community had asked for. It gave the size. It showed some pictures of the location, talked about the building, talked about Salerno a little bit. I can't think of anything else. Did it have anything else in Italy that was – so it really – I mean, it was fairly open as far as that went. I mean, you think about it, that village has been a fishing village forever and was quite a place of commerce back when. And also there's a lot of boating in that area. So it seems like it would be towards those two ends or one of those ends that it should be designed around. Well, that's what it says in the call is that it needs to reflect the, you know, the demographic and the feel of where it's going. I mean, it's going on a mooring field, so that has everything to do with water and boats and et cetera. And it's going to be right next to the commercial docks. Right. Still, I feel that's pretty broad. Well, the applications will come through, and that would be a criteria certainly that any committee would look at. Hopefully they have quite a few people applying for it so we can get quite a range of selection. Well, that was our problem. Yeah. Yeah. Anybody else? Yes, Jamie. So how many applied? I believe it was nine total. And for this scope and size of a project, how many typically average? I don't have an answer to that, Jamie. I don't know. We've done two calls. So I mean, just in general, like in the area, like the scope, because I've seen mosaics around. I just don't know how many typically apply for this type of project. I'm sorry. I mean, I think not. I don't have an answer. I think not a lot. I mean, I don't know too many people who do mosaics, you know. It's a great. I thought it was an excellent. Have I just in the local. I thought it was a great response. Unfortunately, most of them are not responsive in terms of the entire call. That's the problem. And the signage was the biggest issue? They were non-responsive. Correct. They did not supply a design or anything about the signage. That's correct. And what, if you can explain to me, because I'm sorry, I'm novice to this. What is the signage connected to the mosaic? So we had looked at doing a mosaic for the building, and we put that out to the community. Or I should say we had looked at doing artwork on the building, put it out to the community. They said mosaic. We were like, great. So we'll do the mosaic. We had wanted to, and it's been talked about, doing some wayfinding signage down there. So with the park drive project happening and the sewer happening and the road repaving and everything, the new park stuff, we thought it would be nice to have some new signage as well because it was looking pretty bad. I remember that. Yes. So we thought, oh, great, we'll add the wayfinding signage into this call and get both done at once. Well, I don't know that that was such a good idea in the end. I don't think it worked out for us. We can do the wayfinding signage. And when I say wayfinding signage, it's, you know, in my head it's something like a sign with, you've seen them, arrows, you know, cookies bakery this way, blah, blah, this way, that kind of thing. So that's what we were kind of looking for, a place that, something that would say, here's the boardwalk, here's the commercial fishing, here's the mooring field facility, this way to pirates, this way, you know, whatever, something like that. So we added it on and we probably messed up. I think we muddied the waters a little bit, to be honest with you. And I'm going to be honest with you, I don't remember adding that on, but I remember talking about the signage. Is that something that typically happens where you have, like, a mosaic and a signage on the same application for this type of project? Again, I can't really answer your question. I mean, I don't know that anything's typical. When you do a call for artists, you're calling for specifically what you're looking for. So they're all different. Right, right, because they may specialize in mosaics and not so much signage, is what you're saying. Well, and that may be part of the issue. And that's probably what happened. You know, we were looking at, yeah. But the signage can be included at a later date? We can do the signage at a later date. We can do it through Art in Public Places. We can do it through the CRA. It's not a big deal. The subcommittee now, though, is the question on this item. Yes, the first item is subcommittee. And to have the input from the community and have the subcommittee sounds like something that we all do. I think we all agree with that, you know, having the community input. Okay, motion. Yeah, let's look at that one, and then we'll move on to the next section. I'll make a motion that we reinstitute the subcommittee with the same parameters as before. So you want to ask for public comment as well, Bert? Looks like Mr. Earler is up and would like to speak. This is on the first one, the first item. Yeah. This would be the subcommittee. This is for the subcommittee. Okay. Feel free. Sorry, I skipped. That's all right. He can see where we're going. We sort of went up. Gary Earler, of course. Thank you. I think we all are in agreement of it. I think losing the subcommittee was actually losing the one resident of Park Drive. Include the one resident of Park Drive. We're good. We're good. We do have an NAC member, but everybody else was included. You said Public Works, you have an NAC member inside the CRA. You had the Public Works. You had the Parks and Rec. All those people are still included. The only one that was really going to be excluded was the resident. And as long as the resident is still on that, we can still make our time frames. We're good. Public Works is good with it. The community is good with it. That's all. Thank you. I got another sheet if I need it. Okay. So we had a motion. Did we have a second? I can't remember. Yes. Yeah. You need to actually say the motion. Did you say it? What were the parameters as in types of members and number of members? I said that we should reform the subcommittee and it be made up of the same type of members as before. So keep the subcommittee that we have. Mr. Chair, the motion will be to deny the staff recommendation and keep the subcommittee. That's correct. You good? Yeah. You okay? Motion maker is okay? Motion maker is okay. Second is good. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay. So motion's denied and we will keep this up. No, motion passes. Well, yeah, motion passes, but the recommendation is denied. Sorry. Thank you. Mike. Okay. Next item then is Manatee Pocket Mosaic Project request to re-advertise call to artists. All right. Okay. So for this item, again, we'll talk a little bit about, we're going to leave the subcommittee behind. We're just going to talk about the call itself. Staff does recommend and continues to recommend that we do a new call so that we do have a little bit more choice in the applicants. And also because we feel that the signage piece did muddy the waters, it's really not a problem for anybody that wants to reapply. You do it through a program on the internet. Everybody can do that. It's a few clicks to reapply for the same thing. Only the call will say, only Mosaic. The signage will be taken out. So that's what we would recommend. And I don't know if there's any more questions that anyone has on that. I think we kind of answered it. But if not, please ask. And we're recommending for a 45-day time period. Same thing, 45 days. And that will – so I kind of looked at what the process would be and the timing would be. So if the revised call goes out tomorrow, let's say you approve that. We send out the revised call tomorrow without the signage. The applications would be due by July 4th. And then we would schedule a subcommittee for, say, the week of the 14th. And we'd still be able to bring it to you at your next scheduled meeting, which is July 28th. And then we would bring it to the Board of County Commissioners at one of their meetings in August. So it doesn't seem to affect us too much timeline-wise. Any of you guys have comments? Anybody have? I just had a question. Sure. Do you resend it to those who had already applied, to the nine that had already applied? Can you answer that? I'll plan to resend it. Yeah, and I think the – doesn't that – the website thing send them? So what will happen? Like their previous – yeah. Turned off, and then we set up a new call entirely. So then I'll email everyone and just say, hey, we revised the call without having the signage. Yeah, so everybody would know. Okay, that's good. Yeah, I really didn't realize that the signage had gotten – and that's my bad. I didn't even realize that, but I don't know when that happened. Yeah, so, I mean, live and learn, you know. I'm learning. The community is coming up, so I'm taking notes. Do you have a comment, Rex? I was just getting ready to make a motion. If nobody else was. Any other discussion before Rex makes his motion? Public comment. Oh, yeah. Public comment. Yes, Mr. Erler. You going down over there? I guess my question is for the board and staff. The ones reviewing these applications, can the ones that get it right get a bonus point? Some kind of extra credit? I don't know. It seems like, you know, we're going to vote on this until we get it right kind of deal. I appreciate the help. I appreciate the help, but somebody got it right. And in reality, you know, I won this race. Now you're going to make me race again. So, you know, I would ask that it stayed the way it was and may the best man, woman, child, whoever did this, won. And do-overs are never good in my mind. I mean, we're rehashing, we're redoing. Take it for what it is, call it good, and we live with it. And that's the way I do it. Thank you. Just so that you know, this is to the committee, that no one has reviewed them. All we did was look at them and find out who was responsive and who wasn't. That's really all staff does. We don't review them and vote on them or do any of that. Yeah. And just like it would happen for any kind of sort of request for proposal, if you will, if you went by purchasing. Do you meet the criteria? You have to meet the criteria, yeah. So, and we do have the option of, and the county does as well in some of the projects they do, we do have the option of putting that aside and doing a new one. So, just wanted to let you know, legally, we can do that. Okay. Yeah. Would you like to speak, ma'am? Okay. I just got, I've just been listening to all of this and I'm not familiar with it. Name is Terry Kogel and I live in Stewart. My question is, is that I heard that 80% did not put the signage on their applications. There were only nine applicants. So, how come you don't know how many did not? You won't give us any answer on how many did not do the signage. Nobody asked me that question, ma'am. Or I would tell you two of them. So, for sure there was only two. Correct. Okay. That's what I needed to know. Thank you. They still should stick to the original plan on that. Seriously. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Okay. Rex was about to make a motion. I'm going to make a comment first. Okay. I think when you're talking about these two things, the sign and the mosaic, you're talking about two types of art. And I can imagine why somebody wants to do the main project but not the other because it's out of their expertise, let's say. So, I can understand that. And for us to have the most designs possible to review with the subcommittee, I think it's important we redo this. So, I'm going to make a motion that we go with the county's recommendation on just having the mosaic and give the 45 days again with the subcommittee. Any comments? I have a comment. Was that two of the applicants that did it right or two that did it wrong? Two of the applicants submitted designs with a signage. And you would need to, how do they need to say it? They need to, the motion needs to be to reject all submissions received under the original call and to re-advertise within the revised parameters as recommended by staff. That's my motion. I tend to agree, Rex, that there's only two and that's not a lot of options and choices. When nine submitted, it'd be nice to have the nine that were all qualified. So, is there a second or any other comments? I'll second. I did have a, out of the nine, did all of them apply for the mosaic? Yes. That's what I needed to know. Okay. Comment. Yes, sir. I think I'm pretty good at photography, but there's no way I'd do mosaic. So, again, I think those are two different things that we're talking about, and I think we should go the way we're going. Okay. Very good. I have a motion and a second. Any other comments? All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. So, you said it as far as how the motion was. Did you get it? It passed. Okay. It passed in the way that it was noted. Yes, you're welcome. Let's see. Where are we now? Elyse, you can stay there if you want. So, we are now on to the Gillian Mark temporary public art opportunity. Oh, but you need this? I are, if you want to pull it. Wait. So, things have been moving along with the Gillian Mark public art temporary project. We identified that the patio at Palm City would be a great location for it, just given the traffic, how it would look. Um, so, that was brought to the NAC to get their feedback in which they recommended that they would accept the piece if we were to bring it there. Um, so, in my conversations with the global project manager, I learned in the last week that there is another party that is interested in also loaning this piece, but they've been holding it for us. Um, and so, Susan, can you pull up that little map, too, in the mock-up? Sorry. No, that's okay. Just so we can, so it's the location map at the top. Maybe I should have gone down there. Oh. There we go. Okay. And if you want to zoom in, Jordan made this. Thanks, Jordan. Um, this is where we thought the piece could go, so at the entrance over by where the- Oh, here's Map Road. And then the next one over, I did a little photoshopping, so you kind of get a sense of what it would look like. Um, our public works agreed that they would help us out with pouring a cement slab. It's not going to be too large, and they were happy to help us with that, as well as get in with the forklift to install it and take care of all of that, which is great. And then I think, Susan, if you scroll, there was one more viewpoint. So, to just get a sense of how, um, that would all look. It's almost as if it's the trees, they're spaced along there, and that actually is kind of one of the trees that was there. In my eyes, that works for, works well. It would be such a great addition. So, given the news of the other party now being interested, I did, I know I didn't have a motion written on here to recommend, but as we know, the loan itself is $33,000, and, um, I would ask that you make a motion to move forward, and that we have it installed in Palm City. Any comments? I like the idea. Sorry, so I wasn't at the last meeting, so I didn't know what the figure was. Is that $33,000, is this something we've got money for? We actually do. Okay. Yeah, and I, I could find the budget page if you need to see it. Uh, we did look at it last meeting. Um, we do have the funds, so it's really a question, and, and there's another piece to that too, which is we, they loan it to us for a year for $33,000, and then we get to buy it minus the $33,000 at 50% discount. And then we can, at that time, uh, what, uh, what we were thinking is that we would shop it to any of the other areas or shop it to any of our private development that's going in that might like to put an art piece. Okay. And it's a significant piece as far as nationality and reputation of the art. Yeah, yeah. They're, they're internationally known. Um, this is one of their signature pieces because it has their rabbit, woman, and dog man, um, which, which they do a lot of, but they're also really well known for their, um, wildlife. Uh, they do a ton of elephants and gorillas and rhinoceroses and huge, huge installations. Uh, and, and give part of that funding to keeping wildlife from those types of animals from being extinct. So they're very well known. Comment. I would say since Palm city has graciously allowed this to be in their park, that we should have first right of refusal to keep it there after the year. He's working us, isn't he? He is working it. And Palm city should pay for it then. At the end of the year. At the end of the year. Right. At the end of the year. Any other comments? Okay. Public comment. If there is anyone from the public want to say anything about this? No. Uh, would someone like to make a motion so we can get this in Palm city? I'll move. So moved. Any seconds? Second. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. We will hopefully move forward with that. Okay. Thank you very much. Next item is art and public places survey. Make it full screen. Is it full screen? Well, I could. If you want to tell me how. Did you have it someplace else? A little negative. I don't know. This? Mm-hmm. There we go. Okay. What's to say? So since the end of January, we've been conducting an online survey for art and public places. During Arts Fest, we had yard signs that were out throughout the festival. We have one currently in front of the Courthouse Cultural Center. And we've been doing targeted e-blasts just to get a read on what the public thinks about what we're doing with public art. So I just wanted to give you a little snapshot of the results that have come in since that time. And as you can see, 79.6% of our community so far thinks that public art is important for enhancing our community. So that's a great figure. Very important. Yeah. And then the next one here, how they rate our overall program. So excellent and good are two of the biggest pieces of the pie. That's great. But 14% think we can do more. And 2%, I know. For those two. Those 2% says otherwise. And then this I thought was interesting, the types of public art the community would like to see. Of course, murals being a really big one there. Sculptural, functional art. So a great example of that, like the mosaic benches in Rio. Interactive installations. Temporary. So now we get to fill that one. So that's exciting. And then this one about where the public thought they have, public art has its biggest impact. So being downtown and commercial areas, parks and recreational spaces, and neighborhoods and residential areas were the top three. And then this was just a summation of some of the feedback. We did have like an open comment section. So the community wants to prioritize durable, vandal-resistant materials, engage local schools and community members, showcase our local culture, history, and identity, increase visibility through murals, sculptures, and installations in public areas, and broad support for more public art across the county, and provide opportunities for local artists to participate and be celebrated. So I just thought that was interesting to share. And we're continuing to solicit more surveys and encourage everyone to take it. Yeah, we'd like to bring that to the Board of County Commissioners, too, at some point. Great. Yeah, it solidifies there. Yeah. And I think it shows that we're trying to get out there and let people know what we're trying to do. Any comments from the members? Nice work. Thank you. We are through the main part of the agenda and on to the comments section. We have a public comment section now, if anybody's interested. Looks like Mr. Erler's up. Gary Erler, Port Salerno. I like to play by the rules, so that's why the last three minutes. And I'm normally not here this late, and I don't expect to keep you all here much later. I guess my question is for staff, and the Mosaic had a $15,000 budget on it. With the signage, is there a new dollar amount suggested for the Mosaic? Does it still stay $15,000 and the signage comes out is my question. And that was part of what I wanted to bring up before we reconsidered all cost factors involved. So that's my question. If it gets answered today, great. If not, I'll share. I'll hear about it somewhere else. Thank you all again for being here. We'll move on. Any member comments? Staff comments. All right. We're adjourned. Thank you very much. Why did they took the clock out? Did you know that experiencing nature can make you feel happier and reduce levels of depression and anxiety? And that's not limited to the beach or national parks either. Walking to a local gathering place, visiting at a friend's garden, or just simply noticing trees and flowers can boost your mental well-being. Improve your mental well-being by taking just 10 minutes a day to step outside to reconnect with nature and yourself. For more information on mental wellness and self-care, please visit martin.fl.us forward slash human services or call 772-288-5785. Good afternoon and welcome to our unveiling of our new airport building. My name is Sarah Hurd. I'm a Martin County Commissioner and currently the Chair of the Board of County Commissioners. Some important facts about Witham Field. It was founded in 1928 as Kruger Field and then it was later called MacArthur Field. In 1942, the airport was leased to the Navy and in 1943 it was renamed to Witham Field after Navy pilot and Martin County native Paul Homer Witham was killed in action in 1942. The airport served as a military training facility during World War II. Witham Field is home to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Facility right there, which was the first intermodal clearance facility built in Florida. Witham Field is also home to the Stewart Air Show, which is a fantastic community event that happens each November 2025 marks the event's 36th year. And while you're here visiting, by all means, visit Andrew McBean's Terrace. It is the most extraordinary viewing platform for the Stewart Air Show of any place in Martin County. I asked Andrew how on earth he ever got that approved and in his typical, modest, humble fashion, he insisted that he had no idea. This is an extremely exciting day for us today, especially for me and my staff and the rest of the county. Witham Field is a premier airport for business and recreation aviation. And with a $1.3 billion economic impact, it serves as the largest economic engine for Martin County residents with no impact on their tax dollars. It's home to two fixed-based operators, Atlantic Aviation and APP Jet Center, a jet maintenance repair shop, Precision Jet Center, Precision Jet Services, I'm sorry. A legacy of Martin County flying residents at the Witham Aero Club, an innovative aircraft manufacturer, Daher, the Martin County Sheriff's Office, and the Martin County Fire Rescue's hangars are both over there to support the residents. B.D. Barred Liberator Medical Supply and their corporate headquarters are down the street. And then finally, the Martin County Fire Rescue Public Safety Complex just over the woods there. The building itself is almost an 8,600-square-foot building. It's hardened. It is a safe spot for us to continue operations during major events and also to be a recipient site when we do have disasters. Our airport obviously serves as a significant role in staging for either FPL or any of our own staff in response. So anyway, we're excited about the project. Andrew, you did a great job of landing this thing. We had some difficulties, I know, with getting it to the finish line, but what turned out is a great project. And so thank you again for the staff, and I hope you will join me in reviewing the building afterwards with some refreshments. Thank you, Andrew. So, commissioners, if you would join me, and George and Matt and Don and Andrew, let's cut the ribbon. The Wellness Initiative for Senior Education, or WISE, is a free program designed for seniors in Martin County to promote positive health and health care behaviors. Frequent attendance can improve mental well-being, knowledge, and attitudes about aging, awareness of the interaction between medications and alcohol, and recognition of early signs and symptoms of depression. The WISE program is currently held every Friday at 1230 p.m. through June 6, 2025, at the Log Cabin in Jensen Beach. For more information about WISE, or to enroll, please visit martin.fl.us forward slash human services, or call 772-485-2007. Yeah, I come here from Charlotte, North Carolina, and we discovered the Jensen Beach area through my real estate agents, and just fell in love with it. It's a beautiful place. It's right by the water. Great people. It's just a great place. So we've decided to invest in the community, and we're glad we did. I'm Trevor Pittman. I work with my dad there, Daryl, and I manage all the properties. I kind of help him out so he can relax. And this hotel here, that's my baby. So I've been running that here ever since we owned it. We heard about the CRA investment program through Ron Rose here with the Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce, and these guys work great with us. They led us through it, and it was a benefit to us because it helped us spur the project. So thanks to the CRA investment program, we did some improvements on the building, which include the Bahama shutters. We redid the paint, and on the north side by the elevator, we did a new glass door plus a fixed window. And when we've seen, hey, the town, the CRA, is willing to work with us, I think it's a great teamwork thing because it's inspired us. We spent way more than what they give us, but it's made a difference. As a result of the CRA program, we had a vacant unit here, and we were actually able a few months later to secure a tenant, I'm assuming because they saw the beauty in what we did. And also, the hotel business has picked up a little bit, and I think we're getting a lot more repeat clientele because they really see how beautiful the place is in person. The CRA worked with us on another property just down the road here we call Pineapple Square, and we also repainted that building with some new, more modern coastal colors. And we did an awning by Ian and Kai's Pizza, as well as new glass on Welcome Home Realty. Hi, I'm Vicki Davis, Martin County Supervisor of Elections. Have you ever wanted to learn more about the elections process? I'm inviting you to call the elections office and schedule a tour to see firsthand what it takes to cast your votes. Whether you're a member of the public or a part of an organization, this is a great opportunity to meet our team to learn about the important work that goes on behind the scenes to secure your vote. To schedule a tour, call 772-288-5637. Don't miss out on this opportunity to become informed and have all of your questions answered. Vote 2026. Your vote, your voice. Good morning, everybody. It's Francisco Hernandez with Martin County Growth Management Department. Today, I'll be showing you an initial inspection prior to permit issuance on what the growth management requires prior to releasing any permits. Here we have the silt fencing that requires to be entrenched a minimum of four inches in the ground. And then our orange fencing here has to be a minimum four foot high. So that way, any contractors, anybody who's doing work on site can visibly see it at a good distance. Let's everybody know, hey, stay clear. Don't go past here. And our silt fencing also is a sediment control so that way no debris, trash, soil, loose anything goes past in here. To protect our delicate preserve area that Martin County does its best and strives the best to protect. We are here at our next site. This site is going to be a tree count requirement prior to CO. What the growth management department requires is a certain amount of trees be planted on the property prior to giving out a certificate of occupancy. All righty, here we have one tree here. This guy here is a calusa tree. This guy will count towards one tree count. So we have one hardwood here. And then here we have another one. This is a green buttonwood tree. Nice, beautiful, fabulous native guy here. So that'll count towards another tree. So now we have two. So now we'll need another eight more for the inspection to pass. So here we have one pine tree here. So that's one. Another pine tree here, two. Here's another one, three. Here's another one here, four. And here we got five. So that's five here, plus our two more guys back there. So that's five plus two equals seven. So now we need just another three more trees for the inspections to pass. All right. So here's one, two. So that's seven, eight, nine, ten. Here's an oak here. And then here's another oak there. So this goes above and beyond the tree count requirement. In other words, this property here passes inspections with flying colors. So this will result in a pass inspection for the growth management department. And down the road, they should be able to get their certificate of occupancy in no time. I'm Olivia. I'm a lifeguard here at Sailfish Splash. And I just want to take you through what we do every day as lifeguards and swim instructors. So first, here we have our playground. There is no one here in the park right now because we open at 10. But when everyone does get here, we have three different rotations, keeping our eyes on the water at all times, making sure everyone's following the rules. And that if anyone does get hurt, that we can go and respond right away. All right. Next, we're going to go over to our first aid room. This is where our seniors prepare in the mornings. They make rotation sheets. And then during the day, we'll usually have a senior here for any cast that has a first aid emergency or just has any questions. So every day, every guard gets audited to make sure that they're doing their job correctly and have all of their equipment. There are three stands that we have for making sure everyone is safe on the slides. The first here we call bottom of blue. So this is a seated stand, and basically the child or adult will come out of the slide. We make sure they're all right. If anything happens, we're right there to help them. And then once they have safely exited the slide, we signal up to the person who is at the very top of the slide to tell them that they are good to send another person down. Our bottom of green slide, this is an in-water stand. They'll be sitting here making sure everyone exits the slide safely. If there's a child who isn't super confident in swimming, they'll come really, really close and hold their tube out so the child can go safely onto the tube. And they're here for just any sort of emergency. So this is our lazy river. We have many different stands all throughout the river. This is a very important stand, which we call River One, because this is an entry and exit. It's also where anyone who needs help getting into the water can get in. So any seated stands, we stand up every five minutes to make sure that we're getting a view of everything, to keep us awake and alert, and just so that we have a better view to make sure everyone's safe. So this is what we call the island. We'll have one who is walking here, and we call that roving. So it's the same thing that happens on playground. They keep their eyes on the water the whole time, and they walk back and forth along this stretch of concrete and just make sure that everyone is following the rules and having a great time. All of our staff have access to HydraApps, which has checklists for every single rotation. So this is our river rotation checklist, and we have pre-open, daily, and closing. Every morning, each rotation has their own checklist that they need to go through to make sure that the park is safe to open, both for us and the guests. So as an entomologist, I study insects, bugs. I specialize in mosquitoes, and I've been working at Martin County Mosquito Control for two years now. I do like working with bugs, but I do not like spiders, I think. Eight legs is too many. What I like most about this job is the ability to consistently be identifying mosquitoes and be working with insects, which is my true passion. I love being able to assist with public health because mosquitoes are a dangerous vector species. They can be. So it's really important that we keep a wrap on these and understand what sort of species we have in the area and what potential vectors they can be transmitting. Mosquitoes can multiply rapidly due to precipitation and things like tides. So depending on the species, so there are species of saltwater mosquitoes that rely on the tidal flow to hatch their eggs. So as soon as water reaches a certain point in the mud bank, it will initiate a hatch off where there is a bunch of eggs, and that will cause a ton of mosquitoes to hatch out. Things like big weather events, so hurricanes, rainstorms can cause flooding in areas and can cause containers to fill with water, and that's where mosquitoes lay their eggs. So as soon as they start laying eggs, then they can hatch within a day or two. It's very, very quick, their life cycle is. And females usually lay, you know, somewhere between 10 to 100 eggs in one little clutch. So it's very, very fast, and these insects usually have a quick life cycle. So we're talking one to two days for the eggs to hatch, and then somewhere between 7 to 10 days for them to go through their entire larvae development. Two to three days with pupa, and then they're fully adult. So within two weeks, you go from egg to adult. It's very, very fast, so it's very easy for these to multiply. The most common species that we see in Martin County is probably Culex nigropalpis. It's a floodwater species that breathes in stagnant, standing water, so things like ditches or, like, small pools of water. They will breed almost anywhere, so they're really prevalent, and they do transmit encephalitis. So West Nile, St. Louis encephalitis, Eastern equinine encephalitis. And they lay egg rafts that usually have 100 to 200 larvae per egg raft. So they're very, very quick to breed, especially in the summertime. So something that everyone can do around their house to help lower the mosquito population, especially for vector species, such as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, which breed in containers that are commonly found around the house. So you can tip and toss things like flower pots, buckets, tires, anything that will hold standing water. You want to make sure that it's emptied at least weekly. Raising the roads for resiliency. As tidal flooding's increasing, roads are getting a facelift to fight back against frequent flooding. Here's how it works. The process begins with elevating the foundation. Layers of fill material are compacted to create a stronger base to raise the road to a new height above potential flood levels. Upgraded drainage systems are then added to prevent water buildup and direct stormwater away from the road. A fresh layer of pavement completes the elevated road, creating a more resilient, weather-ready surface. Taking a proactive step in climate threats protects infrastructure and keeps our community connected. In a world where movement defines progress, the Martin Metropolitan Planning Organization's Long Range Transportation Plan is more than just a roadmap. It's a vision for the future. Imagine a county where every journey is seamless, where transportation is safe, sustainable, and accessible to all. The 2050 Long Range Transportation Plan, or LRTP, is not just about today, but about the next generation and beyond. Our 2050 LRTP is our 25-year planning horizon document that will be our guidebook for the transportation projects in Martin County. And we're very excited about that. With innovative solutions, and most importantly, community input, we're shaping a future where transportation enhances the quality of life. Transportation is extremely important. There's individuals who solely rely on that transportation service. And it's imperative for them, knowing that there's a bus system that will be there every morning. The LRTP is a commitment to sustainability, safety, and resilience. From roads, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, freight, and waterways, the MBO's LRTP looks to enhance all aspects of the transportation network. The infrastructure has not caught up with the demand of supply. And we don't have the roads to carry all these trucks. Through planning and collaboration, we're ensuring that Martin County moves towards a better future. The Long Range Transportation Plan is paving the way for a smarter, greener, and more inclusive tomorrow. Join us on this journey towards a better future. Participate in our survey, attend our workshops and meetings, and share your vision. For more information on how you can get involved, visit our website at martinnpo.com. Martin Moves 2050. Together, let's plan a better future for Martin County. We've all been on the El Camino for the past seven years, and we've made it here today. In the Golden Gate Redevelopment Plan, the community called for a system of pedestrian and bicycle pathways for the residents. Thanks to the unwavering support of the Golden Gate Neighborhood Advisory Committee, the CRA Board, our Board of County Commissioners, most especially our District 2 Commissioner, El Camino will be that and so much more. This pathway, it aims to connect one end of the community to the other with pedestrian and bicycle pathways, community gardens. I wanted to, if you also see behind us, another really exciting, I didn't say Noel here, but I saw somebody from Powell, that behind us also is a future site of Martin County Police Athletic League, and that's going to add a tremendous amount of value. We've got Rob Ranieri from House of Hope. One of the things that this project does, it connects these community assets together. We've got House of Hope and, you know, all of the wonderful things that they do in this community. We're going to have community gardens, and I know that's a big thing, you know, growing food for House of Hope for the community. We've got community gardens intertwined with this pedestrian pathway. We have spaces where people can learn together, connect, grow together. We've got, and I've been learning a lot about landscape trees and urban canopies lately. We've got a lot of great native landscaping, and I think there's some commissioners that when they retire, they're going to help me out on the trees and the canopies. And so, too, we're seeing in our CRAs and elsewhere is how do we transform some of these old public right-of-ways into something that's more than just a utility strip to put in a water line or a road future connection or all the other things that our different departments think they are. And it takes folks like Susan and her team to work with the community to put together these visions of how we transform our neighborhoods, especially our older neighborhoods that weren't designed with all the parks and amenities that some of our newer subdivisions, and how do we recreate those? And this is a great example of taking one of some assets we already own and transform it. And I also thank everyone of you who came today and attended and be happy for us. I just have a last comment, and that is to say that I am very honored that so many of our departments are represented here today. This, as Don mentioned, was really a coordination effort in many, many ways. We have a lot of utilities and parks and public works and us and engineers and lots of departments had to come together and really make this happen. Hello, I'm Michelle Miller, Director of Human Services, and I'd like to introduce you to a few members of our mental health court team, Yuri, Kevin, and Jen. They and the rest of the team work diligently to assist Martin County citizens who are arrested, have a mental health diagnosis, and are diverted to mental health court. The mental health court team is comprised of a mental health court judge, the state attorney. We have a public defender, and we work often with Veterans Affairs. And then you have case managers and then a peer support specialist, which is me. We have a really good team of people in the program that work together, even if they have different opinions or they disagree. The goal of the mental health court program is to divert individuals that have a mental health issue or an intellectual disability away from the criminal justice system into becoming productive members of society. We help individuals that have mental health issues and are also in the criminal justice system. In the past year, we've had about 40 graduates in the program. We've had a one-year residivism rate of 6 to 7 percent, which means that those individuals, once they graduate from the program, don't get re-arrested, and they continue to do well outside of our program. For more information about how to get into mental health court or any information about mental health court, please visit our website. My name is Susan Correz, and I'm the manager for the Office of Community Development. And we are here today to celebrate RIPPLE. It is a fabulous stormwater water quality eco-art project that combines art, science, and community engagement in one gorgeous package. It takes up four lots in this community. I hope that you'll all walk that at some point if you haven't already. I'm going to give you just a teeny-weeny history of the project. It has quite a history. It was actually started by my predecessor, Kate Parmele, so yay, Kate, and thank you. Yay! She was the one to get the first NEA grant, National Endowment for the Arts. That led us into doing design. We got a second grant from the NEA, and that was to do our construction documents. And then with the help of our friends in ecosystems at the county, we got a third grant from the Department of Environmental Protection, and then a fourth grant from the Department of Environmental Protection. Not to say all of that is amazing, and I will give you a little bit of history on that as well. We were one of seven projects in the U.S. This was one of seven projects in the U.S. to receive the first NEA grant, and the only one in the country to receive the second. So very unique in that way. Yeah, yeah. Good morning, everybody. What an exciting day. As Susan said, this is something that's been in the works for such a long time. You know, commissioners and elected officials, we get to show up for the groundbreaking and the ribbon cutting. So it's all about golden shovels and big scissors for us. But all of the hard work, the heavy lifting, the hours of figuring out how to pay for it, figuring out how to do it, keeping the project going, all falls on our absolutely remarkable staff. You know, wherever you, if you were fortunate enough to be born and raised here, and you're still here, this is a blessing of a community. For those of us that were smart enough to find Martin County and specifically Palm City, these are projects that we can all be proud of. This is one in a series of projects that Susan and her team and our county staff have been working on that'll be just one great project after another. It really started with MAP Road, and I know they worked on Bridge Road and Hobesound as well. So I have always said to our staff, it feels like there's only one district, District 5. It feels like there's only Palm City. But our staff makes all of the commissioners feel the same way, that we are the only ones, and that's a really unique and special talent. MAP Road was a vision of folks that have been on the NAC and the CRA. Folks like Dr. Rex Centel, who you'll hear from, Mike Searle, Dr. Plymel. These are folks that years ago, and we're talking years ago, stuck with this vision, never gave up, kept pushing it forward, and now finally, and thankfully, they're seeing the fruits of their hard-fought and long-time volunteer and dedication to their community, our community. And so without all of you that made this possible, we've done it, not just for the folks that are here today, but if you look around, this is in the heart of a neighborhood. This is in the heart of a community. This could have been a stormwater retention pond that was fenced off with six-foot-tall chain-link fence that said, keep out. But we didn't do that. I think this is an enhancement to the neighborhood. If you have not had a chance to go through, it starts and it works its way through. And it is just a remarkable project that is still doing work. Now, there's so many people in this community, including the county staff, the volunteers, our commissioner, that's made this possible, and all the other things going on in Palm City. We've been working on this as a committee for over 20 years. Actually, back in about 1992, I was president of the chamber, and the chamber already had the vision for MAP Road. The thing is, it's not just about MAP Road. It's about the other areas in the county. And when you can bring art and function together, which we have on this project, it's really something else. We're very, very active in advocating with state and federal government on dealing with large regional water quality issues. And it really helps us when we're at those tables to say, look, we're dealing with our own water quality issues. This is a great example. This neighborhood was built before we had the drainage standards that we do today for new developments. And so it didn't have the water treatment elements that a new development would have. And so the county comes in, identifies an area that has some nutrient loading to the river, and we work with our partners and designers to engineer a system that deals with the nutrient cocktails of that basin so that when the water does get to the river, it's not as harmful as it would be. So as you know, or maybe you don't know, this project is planted solely with native vegetation, some of which is pretty unique, some of which is pretty common. The idea being, and everybody has mentioned it that's been up here, the stormwater attenuation, the stormwater treatment, beautification, the eco art that Lucy, I'm sure, will have something to speak about shortly. This is just a fantastic project that I got to be part of. The vegetation portion of it, spend a little time out here if you haven't. This site in particular, there's four different species of hummingbirds that show up. Usually right when the sun comes up, site one, which is up just north of here, has just a plethora of swallowtail, butterflies, this site, the hummingbirds, wood ducks on the deep water part, and then the piece right on the river just does a fantastic job for a living shoreline and stormwater attenuation to deal with our king tides. It's done a fantastic job. There's been virtually no impacts from ultra high tides and storm events over there, so you can see that. There are a couple of people behind the scenes that you don't know about that helped me tremendously. Marjorie Shropshire, she is amazing. She's a graphic designer, and so she helped me put together all of the panels, all of these panels that are in these two structures. And although she doesn't call herself an eco artist, she is too. She knows about all the plants, all the animals, and so working with her was a joy, as well as her just, she's an amazing artist. She can paint anything. She can put anything together. She has such a wide range of understanding. So thank you, Marjorie. A lot of people don't know you, but I hope they'll know you now. Um, the other person, I don't know if Sandra Thurlow is here. Sandra helped me with the historical part of this project. As a creative, I always want to get as much information as I can because that's what inspires me. And so the historical photographs you see up here, and they're so fun, some of those maps, you can see where you are. The other person I have to thank is my husband, who's here, Maziar Keshavars, who is truly an inspiration for me. And it's through him, honestly, that I'm able to do this kind of work. He understood that engineering projects could be more. And, and it, and, and having us all here together and the fact that this was a project that, you know, Susan mentioned that it's artist-led, but the important thing about this is it's artist-led community engagement. The first thing you have to do in community engagement is embracing the unknown, which is really hard to do. And so we're going to make our own fossils today. And that's our art project. I'll be loving you, oh, the love that's true, always, when the things you plan need a helping hand, I will understand, oh, days may not be fair, it's when I'll be there, just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but always be fair, it's when I'll be there, not just an hour, not just a day, not for just one year, but always, always, all the time. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Martin County School Board meeting. We're going to have a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, a nation, to God, divisible with liberty and justice. Thank you. Before we begin, we have a special presentation I'd like to call John Michael Tillett and his principal Forte up to the dais, please. Attendant Maine, I'm John Michael Tillett, and I've had the privilege to serve as a social media manager for Yearbook Club and National Junior Honor Society at Hidden Oaks Middle School. Although School Communicator Appreciation Day was officially recognized last Friday, I believe appreciation shouldn't just be limited just to one day, especially for a department that works so hard every single day to keep our community informed, engaged, and connected. I've been so fortunate to work alongside with the incredible team in the Public Information and Community Relations Department. I've learned so much from them how to craft strong captions and how powerful, great designs and storytelling can be representing our schools. Their guidance and support have truly helped me grow as a communicator and a leader. Today, I want to recognize Jennifer DeSazzo, Chief of Staff, Derek Lowe, Coordinator of Public Information and Community Relations, Kirstie Jermaine, Multimedia Journalist, Maggie Domerhauser, Public Information and Community Relations Specialist. Thank you for keeping our students, families, and staff and all Martin County residents informed through so many engaging and creative platforms through the Martin Moments newsletter, Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and our website. To show our appreciation, I'm honored to present you with certificates signed by Superintendent Michael Main, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Tracy Miller, and our school board. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to Ms. Pritchett, Superintendent Main, and Ms. Falls for helping me put this recognition together. Your support and encouragement means so much to me. Thank you for everything that you do to support Martin County students, staff, and schools. Thank you, John. Thank you so much. That was lovely. I would now like to call up Martin County students, Future Readiness in Action, Jessica Warren. Good evening, Madam Chair, Pritchett, school board members, Superintendent Main, colleagues, and community members. My name is Jessica Warren, and I serve as the career and technical education coach for the district. Tonight, it is a pleasure to recognize this remarkable group of seniors as they prepare to graduate this month from the Martin County School District. Each of these students embody what it means to be future-ready, having gained the skills, knowledge, credentials, and confidence needed to thrive in college, career, and life beyond the classroom. These students, representing Martin County High School, Jensen Beach High School, and South Fork High School, are with us tonight to share their experiences and personal journeys. Through their dedication and the opportunities provided by our specialty pathways and programs, they are well-prepared to achieve their dreams and make a positive impact on the world. Please join me in welcoming our student speakers tonight. Thank you. Hello. My name is Bradley Carrillo-Lopez. I've attended Hope Road School and Innetown Middle School and will proudly graduate from South Fork High School next Wednesday. Taking the CTE courses, Certified Nursing Assistant and Certified Clinical Medical Assistant at my high school made me feel confident and prepared for a future in healthcare. Earning the certifications gave me real-world experiences and hands-on experience, showing me that I'm capable of succeeding in a professional medical setting. A special thank you to my teachers, Ms. Ramos and Ms. Gary, for all they did in order to prepare me for my future and my career. Thank you, and have a good evening. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Tommy, and I am a senior at Jensen Beach High School. I will be graduating next Tuesday. The Martin County School District has made me future-ready by offering so many different CTE programs. One of my favorites is the drafting program at Jensen Beach High School. It has truly taught me a lot of hands-on learning and getting me ready for what comes next in the future. Specifically through the drafting program and Mr. Power, my instructor, I was able to get hands-on experience with a local general contracting firm known as Masterpiece Design and Build. This was a really big opportunity for me to see what it's really like in the real world, and I just love having the CTE programs like that to give us some hands-on experience. And I also want to shout out Mr. Power. I love how he's always encouraging us students to do our best in everything that we do, and he's always helping us in real-world situations and teaching us how we should handle them as the adults that we are becoming. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Hi, my name is Ashley Mendez. I'm a graduating senior at Martin County High School. I enrolled at IRC and successfully completed the Pharmacy Technician Certification Program. This opportunity has provided me a career as a pharmacy technician while I continue my college studies. It's worth mentioning I completed seven years of AVID, which contributed to my success. Thank you. Good afternoon to all esteemed school board members, faculty, teachers, and guests. My name is Reagan Herr, and I am a CTE program representative for South Fork High School. And, yeah, we graduate next Wednesday. Not that anybody's counting or anything. I joined the South Fork High School ROTC program, which is the only Army program in the entire school district. After spending many years in that program, I've earned myself multiple leadership titles through company, specialty teams, and battalion leadership. As a head of the program or battalion commander this year, I can confidently and proudly say to all of you that joining Army ROTC has changed my entire high school career. While earning over, almost over, actually, 300 community service hours, over 30 awards to wear on my Class A uniform, earning a certification in cadet proficiency, and achieving the highest rank of cadet colonel in the program, this change is directly related to their goal statement of motivating young people to become better citizens. Through the Army JROTC program, I was able to receive a pre-contract scholarship to join Stetson University and their Army Senior ROTC program while majoring in political science on a pre-law track. In hopes of becoming a JAG officer in the United States Army. I also participated in the TV production program with my instructor, who's had over 20 years of movie and TV production experience. While the Army JROTC program instilled public speaking in me, also it instilled in the TV production program while speaking towards an audience. During my sophomore year, I learned how to do the basics of Photoshop, and I learned how to do the basics in Adobe Premiere Pro. I was also able to continue that with a small business and entrepreneurship certification. I was selected in my junior year to become a part of our Bulldog Brief, which is our news morning broadcast that happens every day. Shout out to a couple teachers in my senior year who played it every single morning. I really appreciated seeing it in front of my entire class, even though it was a little bit embarrassing to watch back. And during my senior year, I was often on the show, so I really enjoyed that part. But I can strongly and confidently say through my JROTC instructors, Lieutenant Colonel Joy Leonard, Sergeant Major Evans, and Sergeant Del Valle, I've definitely progressed through them. And I'm really thankful for all the opportunities they've given me. Same thing with my instructor for TV production, Ms. Kane. She's a wonderful human being, and I'm very thankful to take part in her class. Thank you, and have a great night. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jessica Brown, and I'm graduating from Jensen Beach High School, and I previously attended Stewart Middle School. Martin County School District, and specifically Jensen Beach High, made me future-ready in many ways. I have been taught kindness, strength, and leadership through my theater program. And also, I would like to thank Mr. Guy Power through drafting, and because of drafting and CTE, I have lifelong friendships and skills. Mr. Power always pushed us to aim for the best, and that mentality will carry me forward at the University of Florida School of Architecture. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, everybody. My name is Carter Grimmens. I'm a senior graduating at Martin County High School. While in high school, I was part of the dual enrollment program, earned my associate's degree. I was part of the AVID program. I was also part of the welding program. Dual enrollment and AVID helped me prepare for college, building a lot of mental resilience and discipline, which we know we need for college. It's a very grueling process to get through that. I also was able to earn a free college degree, being an associate in arts, which is hard to argue with. And welding, in my opinion, was the most important to me because I joined welding on a whim in my 11th grade year. And it turns out to be something I absolutely loved. It's something I wanted to do as a career, and even I earned a certification in stick and flux curl welding before even graduating high school. So that was very important to me. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations to all the students. Thank you. To our outstanding graduates, thank you for being here tonight and for representing your peers with such pride. Your stories are a powerful reflection of your journey and an indicator of the bright future that lies ahead, not only for each of you, but for our entire community. To the families, educators, and local community partners who have walked alongside these students, thank you. Your commitment and support have been invaluable. Together, we are creating opportunities, fostering success, and building a community where every student can thrive. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Ms. Falls, will you take the role? Dr. Moriarty. Here. Mrs. Roberts. Here. Mrs. Powers. Here. Mrs. Russell. Here. Mrs. Bridget. Here. Okay, I'd like the approval of the agenda and addendum. Items added, 7.04, addendum to personnel recommendations, 11.02, out-of-state leave requests. Items updated, 3.08, 3.22, 7.01, 7.02, and 11.01, and no items removed. Move approval. Move approval. Second. I have a motion by Dr. Moriarty, a second by Ms. Powers. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Unanimous. Okay. Moving right along. Board member discussion. Move to consent agenda. I consent. Oh, okay. Sorry about that. May I have a motion to approve the items of consent? So moved. Second. I have a motion by Ms. Powers, second by Ms. Russell. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Unanimous. Sorry about that. Now it's time for board member discussion. Do I have any discussion? Seeing none, I would like to call Dr. Tracy Miller to give the Martin County High School ball field renovation recognition and Hidden Oaks Middle School ball field complex update. Thank you, Madam Chair, Madam Chair, members of the board, Superintendent Mayne, Tracy Miller, Deputy Superintendent, and I'm pleased to be here tonight. We have some friends in the background. I was going to call them guests, but they're really friends at this point and partners of the district because we have been working so closely together, not only with the McNicholas Family Foundation, but lots of other community partners, and also with the county on some projects that you're going to see an update on this evening. So I will start before I have them come up here, unless they're coming behind me. I will start with a quick video to share an update on the Hidden Oaks Middle School improvements to the baseball fields. Take a look. So as you can see, a field or a set of fields that was almost non-existent or unusable, they've been completely transformed into state-of-the-art, absolutely gorgeous complex for students in our community. And so this would not have been possible without the partnership that we enjoy with the McNicholas Family Foundation and several partners that, as I mentioned, you'll meet this evening. And I know, so Tom McNicholas and I, I told him I've been really struggling to come up with an adjective to describe this incredible transformation, and I really haven't come up with one yet. When you see what these ball fields started as and what they look like today and just the transformation that's happened for the community, for the players, for the athletes, for the families, just the joy on the kids' and parents' faces when they're at this facility, it truly is remarkable. So we're very grateful, and the next phase is coming up, so a partnership between the foundation and the county to work on some additional upgrades to the field. So the next time you go out there, you'll be able to take a look, and maybe we'll come back in the future with another video. So thank you for that. And I will share a project that is a continuation of this baseball theme that has taken place at Martin County High School. You heard a little bit about it at the beginning of the year, right during the Christmas break. Lots of staff were down at the field. Lots of community partners were at Martin County High School to, again, completely transform the ball field, not just for baseball, but also some upgrades to the softball field as well. Take a look at the video and what happened over the winter break. We start off with the infield, laying it first. The infield and the hips take the longest to get everything cut in and pieced in with all the edges. It's getting roughly 35,000, 40,000 square feet down today, hopefully. So in the Martin County School District, we are always anxious to work with community partners who have a vision. They see things that we do, something, a project that needs to be taken on. And so that's exciting for our students and for the community. Martin County High School is going to have the nicest field in the state of Florida, thanks to the partnership with the McNicholas Foundation and the other community partners, making this all possible. This partnership with the high school has been great. And we've got Star Farms to contribute over 105,000 square feet of turf. The Ranch and Ken Bax to contribute 2,200 tons of new sand for irrigation. And then our irrigation team with the McPhee family, who did 6.6 miles of irrigation. It's going to be a great project. So this morning, we're installing Celebration Hybrid Marine Grass here at Martin County High School baseball field, growing right here, local in Indian Town from Star Turf Farms. This grass, in about seven days, you won't be able to pick it up off the ground. It's that good. We all came together to benefit the kids, and that's what this is all about. We're going to benefit the high school kids and the club organizational youth teams that will be able to play here in the future. So we would like to thank the board and the superintendent for your support of these projects. And we definitely want to thank our partners from the McNicholas Family Foundation, Star Farms, The Ranch, and Perfect Pitch. And of course, Coach Hawkins and his players from Martin County High School. And we have a few of them here this evening. And I want to extend my heartfelt thanks from our team, who's worked so closely with them. They've been wonderful partners. They continue to be wonderful partners. And the transformation has been truly amazing. Tom McNicholas, school board members, thank you for having us, Mr. Superintendent and staff. I want to thank the staff, first and foremost, Mark and your team and Tracy. We couldn't have done this and wouldn't have done this without you guys. You have to have good partners to be able to do this. And that goes for Kevin Abate in the county as well. The Parks and Rec stepped up in that. And we appreciate that. I would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge some of the people who are in the audience. Star Farms, their general manager, John, who's in the back of the room, as well as Ken Backs from The Ranch. These folks gave you for $50,000 in matching contributions with our fund development through the McNicholas Family Foundation. They gave you a field that's worth more than a quarter million dollars. It's state-of-the-art. It's probably the best high school field in all of the state of Florida at this point. So thank you for trusting us with that, bringing these community partners together for the high school and foremost. Hidden Oaks is a whole other story. It was 18 months of work. It's still going on. Batting cages are next. And that is through private partnerships and working with the school board. These fields mean a lot, and it's a great project. But the infrastructure only takes you so far. You don't put the infrastructure and the dollars in unless you have the programs. And those programs come back to the families, like the McPhee family and the Coquinda family, who's here with us today. The Coquinda family, when the wind starts blowing and the hurricanes blow through, he's the first guy out there, Chris Coquinda, strapping everything back down and putting everything back up on fences. And the Soich family as well and those families. And many of our coaches, Ryan Ellis, who's over here to my left, who's founding, he's the founder of Florida Baseball Club. It's a 501c3 that's partnered with our foundation to work at these fields and train. And Megan Kios, who runs that foundation as well with the Florida Baseball Club. And Marty Stern, who's in the back of the room, who knows all these kids in the area. We went from one team a year and a half ago to seven teams this coming August. So to give you context to that, 1,000 student athletes will be passing through Florida Baseball Club over the next five years. 1,000 students. And many of them will be coming up here to the microphone in several years to tell you which colleges they're going to, which was really cool for us to see. So thank you to our community partners. Tracy, thank you so much for allowing us to do this and giving us the trust and the opportunity. And we hope we can do more with you guys as we move forward. Thank you so much. Thank you. And again, thank you to the board and the superintendent because without your support and your vision for partnering with the community to make these opportunities available for our students, these are students who will be moving on to high school. They will have already played on our gorgeous field. And so we encourage all of them to continue on their educational journey here in our school district. Thank you. Oh, thank you very much. And we would like all of our partners to come up to the front, if they don't mind, for a photo. Sure. That would be great. Thank you. All right. I'd like to call Dan Moore up for the 70th annual Florida State Science and Engineering Fair. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board, Superintendent May. Thank you for having me tonight. My name is Daniel Moore. I'm the director of curriculum and instruction here for the district. And I am here on behalf of Jennifer Borges. She's our science coordinator, but she could not be here with us tonight. She is chaperoning our student representatives who are at the 75th International Science and Engineering Fair. And so we'll be talking about some of them tonight, but she is there with them this evening. And so I get the privilege of recognizing some of our fantastic scholars. So today we have the honor of recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of our Martin County Regional Science and Engineering Fair finalists who participated in the 70th annual State Science and Engineering Fair held from March 25th to 27th, 2025. This event showcased the ingenuity, creativity, and hard work of our young scientists and engineers from across the district. Before we recognize our amazing students, I want to first recognize our district STEM fair coordinators, Shannon Parks from Martin County High School and Michelle Gerrels from Murray Middle School. I believe I speak. Yes. Round of applause for them. So on behalf of students and parents, we are very grateful for their passion. dedication and commitment to our students and our science programs. Students from Anderson Middle School, Hidden Oaks Middle School, Murray Middle School, Stewart Middle School, Jensen Beach High School, Martin County High School, and South Fork High School were celebrated during the Mad Scientist Awards sponsored by the Stiles-Nicholson Foundation and the Cox Science Museum and Aquarium. These students also had the opportunity to travel to Lakeland, Florida in March with students from all over the state to attend the Science and Engineering Fair. This fair brings together nearly 1,000 of the state's brightest students to showcase their projects, the projects and fields from animal science, engineering, microbiology, chemistry, and more that were on display by some of the most innovative young minds that will be changing our world. I'm enthusiastic to share some of the highlights from each of our Martin County Regional Science and Engineering Fair finalists and their awards at the Florida Science and Engineering Fair. So students, when I call your name, please stand so we know who you are, but we'll call you to the front at the end so you can take a picture at the days with our board members. Isabella Calhoun from Martin County High School took home first place in her category for her project, The Role of Hormones and Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. She was also named a state finalist for the International Science and Engineering Fair with all expenses paid, received the Dr. Nelson Ying Scholars Award, which comes with a $1,000 grant, and won the Northwest Florida Regional Science and Engineering Fair Award, which is another $100. Nina Goyle, also from Martin County High School, earned third place in her category for using bio-enhancers for pest management and was named a Martin County finalist to the International Science and Engineering Fair. She also received the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Agricultural Award of $500. And these students couldn't be here because they are currently competing at the International Science Fair. Additional recognitions include Madeline Tuma from Hidden Oaks Middle School, who earned third place in her category for Is Less More. And Brian Wang, also from Hidden Oaks, who won fourth place for The C-Factor, Unmasking Broccoli's Secret Fuel. Madeline Parr from Jensen Beach High School placed fourth in her category for her project on the SLC23A3 Jeans Roll in TH17's Salhemi Uptake. This is high science, people. Several other students received recognition in their respective categories, including Sigurd Sanchez from Hidden Oaks Middle School with his project titled The Visualizing Sound, Kaylee Chauverling from Anderson Middle with her project Fight of Flooding, and Aria Call from South Fork High School with her project Analysis of Tartar Grade Survival Rates After Exposure to UV Light Radiation for Multiple Time Intervals. Theron Singh from South Fork High School received recognition in the Osceola Regional Science and Engineering Fair with a $25 cash award for his project on Leveraging AI and Wi-Fi Sensing for Fall Detection. Kirsten Ward from Murray Middle School earned an honorable mention for her project exploring AI's ability to recognize AI-generated photographs. Additionally, the team of Kyle Gomez and Aiden Green from Hidden Oaks Middle School also participated with their project, Best Bang for Your Buck. These students represent the best of Martin County's young scientists and engineers, and their achievements reflect exceptional dedication and innovation in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. At this time, I would like to invite the parents of our academic achievers to please stand so we can recognize you too. We deeply appreciate you for being invaluable partners. Thank you. It is because of your support, parents, that our students are able to achieve this level of excellence. I assure you that without your support and the partnership we have, we would not be so well represented at our state fairs and our international fair this week. Students, now is the time. If you would like to join us at the dais to take a photo with our school board, please come on up. I know we have a few in attendance. Congratulations again, students. Very honorable achievements. Thank you very much. Next, we have Dr. Paige McMahon with the 5th Grade Math Olympics. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board and Superintendent Maine. My name is Paige McMahon, and I'm the Coordinator of Math for our district. It is my honor to present this champion trophy this evening to our third Martin County School District 5th Grade Math Olympic champions, the Felix A. Williams Elementary Sailfish Mathletes. Our 5th Grade Math Olympics competition was designed to mirror the style and format of Math Counts, the nationally recognized middle school math competition. Math Counts aims to provide engaging, high-quality math experiences for students of all ability levels, helping them build confidence and develop a positive attitude towards math and problem-solving. By introducing this format at the elementary level, we hope to spark early interest and prepare our students to participate in middle school math competitions, particularly the Treasure Coast Regional Math Counts, where our district has excelled for the past three years. Our goal is to cultivate a strong pipeline of future mathletes by fostering a love of math from an early age. This year's incredible team was made up of team members Noah Kargen, Steele McMunn, Dylan Patel, and Quinn von Holstein, who finished in first place at our annual competition last month, besting the 11 other elementary schools from our district. This champion team was coached by Ms. Stacey Joel. Let's give a round of applause to our 2025 5th Grade Math Olympics champions. All right, students and coach, if you'd like to come up, please. I'm going just a little bit out of order. I'd like to call up Heather Platt and Kristen Register for Martin Mentor's Year in Review. Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board, Superintendent Mayne. My name is Heather Platt. I serve as the Director of Professional Learning, and this is? Kristen Register, Coordinator of Professional Learning. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to present a brief year in review prior to providing our certificates to our mentors, and also just thank you as the school board for your continued support of our Martin Mentor program. So the goal of our presentation today is to share data with you in terms of the program effectiveness, as well as just very much thank you for your continued support of this program. With our mentor program, we are consistently assessing and reflecting on the impact that our mentors have to retention and capacity building with our new teachers. We also consider the leadership opportunities that this program presents for our mentors and the capacity that's being built in them as leaders on their campus. This method of continuous improvement led us to update the programming this school year with support from you all. This year, our model improved to provide new teachers with professional learning throughout the course of the year during the school day. This allowed for all new teachers to participate and receive the learning in lieu of providing this after school where it was optional. So as you can see on the presentation, this school year, that resulted in five professional learning days for our new teachers with the support of their mentors. Something that we would like to highlight here is that two of those days were utilized as coaching labs. That is where our new teachers participated in a direct instruction type of professional learning. And then they moved into classroom walks where they were able to actually see those high impact strategies in action. And then it ended with strategic time with their school-based mentor so that they could reflect on what they saw and then plan for implementation. So these are just a few comments. We do collect a lot of feedback from them. You can ask them. We ask a lot of surveys. We send them looking for feedback to make sure that we are hitting the mark. So these are just a few examples of some feedback from our mentees. And then we also were able to gather some feedback from our mentors and our administrators on how the program was going this year on their campuses. We had to bring you some great pictures from some of our learning. So we worked in collaboration with other teams, Curriculum and Instruction and CTE and ESC and our ELL team to provide support. So we did some learning and planning. And they had real hands-on, in-person support during these events. And then these pictures are from our most recent coaching lab. We called it Excellence in Action because, you know, it was. And these professional learning sessions were led by our mentors at eight different school sites. And the mentees were able to choose things that fit their roles. And if you wanted to search that hashtag, you could see a lot more pictures. It was a great day. It was a great day. So based on the review of exit survey data from 23-24 as compared to 24-25, we have noticed overall improvement in the feedback specific to those who left because they felt under-supported. And this information could correlate to what you see on the screen now, which is a snapshot of our retention data specific to new classroom teachers. What you can see here is that we do have a 10% reduction in new teachers leaving. This is another brief snapshot with all employee categories. But if you look at that purple bar, that's specifically our MCEA category. And that continues to climb. So based on this data, you can see that 89% of our teachers have been retained. So what is next? We just want to thank you for your support this year. And in reflection, using our data, we have started to plan for next year. So based on some of the feedback that we've received, we're going to hold, we plan to host three whole day sessions next year as opposed to the five. And then also offer some quarterly sessions after school for our mentees for some professional learning opportunities and some networking opportunities. It's really important for them to be able to connect with people who might teach their same subject but at a different school site to build that network and sense of community. So that's what we're working on. The first, our August welcome session is really going to be critical for folks because our Neo summertime welcome for our new teachers is really helpful in getting them acclimated to like classroom culture and what we do here in Martin County. By August, they've got all their credentials and all their computer access and they have more technical questions that we'd like to be able to support them with, like how to use focus and where to really dive deep into the curriculum. So that's what we plan to do in August. And then the coaching lab format, we got great feedback on that and it's a research-based way for people to learn. And so we're looking forward to offering two more opportunities for our new teachers to have hands on learning. So we want to thank you again as a school board for your continued support of this program. We appreciate that you allowed us to adjust the programming based on our data that we've been receiving. And I'm proud to say that we have had excellent feedback this year and our new teachers have felt overwhelming support. So thank you for that. We appreciate that. Thank you. And then with that, we are going into Martin Mentors 2425, Heather Platt and Kristen Register. That's us again. Yay! Okay, great. Thank you. Good afternoon again. So it really is our pleasure to be here this afternoon to recognize our Martin Mentors. Before we present our certificates, I would like to take a moment just to thank our incredible school-based mentors. They're on this side and some are on this side, so I'll just look forward. But mentors, your commitment, guidance, and support have made a meaningful difference in the lives of our new educators this year. You've not only helped them navigate the challenges of the first-year teaching, but you've also modeled the kind of leadership, collaboration, and care that define our school district community. On behalf of the school district, thank you for your time, energy, and the heart that you've invested. We are truly grateful. This year, we are proud to have 41 dedicated Martin Mentors serving in our schools. While not all of them could join us this afternoon, we want to take a moment to recognize and honor each one of them for their important contributions. So mentors, as your name is called, please come forward to receive your certificate and then remain at the front so we can capture a photo in appreciation of your service. All right. Are you ready? Go ahead. It's like graduation. Okay. I'd like to recognize Nikki Zetsch and Wendy Stokowski from Bessie Creek. Kelsey Mulvannerton from Citrus Grove. Joshua Perry from Crystal Lake. Either way. Jessica Erbe from Felix A. Williams. Crystal Brandt from Home Sound. Cheers. Jamie Bitskowski from J.D. Parker. Karen Moen from Jensen Beach Elementary. Stephanie Carlson and Jennifer Oliveri from Palm City Elementary. Kristen Zala and Lori Mull from Pinewood Elementary. Susan Rayo from Port Salerno Elementary. Jennifer Lloyd and Lauren Favors from Sea Wind Elementary. Nikki Nazaro, Brooklyn Rion, Cindy Torres, and Megan Manuel from Warfield Elementary. Let's see you guys sneak in. Rachel Smith and Janita Johnson from Anderson Middle. Ashley Henderson from Hidden Oaks. Cheryl Jacaruzzo from Indiantown Middle. Janet Pace, Nicole Hammond, and Michelle Jarrells from Murray Middle School. Monica Poole, Kim Summers-Lintz, and Cassie Malhot from Stewart Middle School. Chris Fitchett, Krista Barcaro, and Michelle Hans from Jensen Beach High School. Chanda Leon, Joseph Neri, and Marinka Stuvo. Oh, and Lee Pike from Martin County High School. Laura Green and Jennifer Morreale from South Fork High School. April Sherwood from Willoughby. And Julia Gruneri and Amanda Carroll from Riverbend. A huge thank you for everything that you guys did for our new teachers this year. This is a great team. Look at this. It's so exciting. Thank you very much. Yes. All right. So we'll take a photo, but Chrissy's probably going to have to tell us how to make it happen. Right? Yeah. It's going to be... Oh, hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. I'm just trying to get my girls. No, you're good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.