Waterways Advisory Committee

City of Marco Island Florida 51 Bald Eagle Drive Marco Island, Florida cityofmarcoisland.com Meeting Minutes - Final Thursday, February 18, 2021 9:00 AM Community Meeting Room Waterways Advisory Committee Chair: David Crain Vice-Chair: William Trotter Committee Members: Steve Sokol, Philip Thompson, Martin Winter, Eugene Wordehoff City Staff: Jason Tomassetti, P.E. Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final February 18, 2021 (1) CALL TO ORDER Led by Vice-Chair Crain. (2) INTRODUCTION OF NEW MEMBERS Vice-Chair Crain introduced the newest Committee Member Wordehoff. Member Wordehoff is originally from Iowa, but worked in Chicago for many years in the pharmaceutical industry. Member Wordehoff first came to Marco Island in 1999 and retired as of 5 years ago. Member Wordehoff is now living in Marco full-time. (3) ROLL CALL Present: 6- Member Sokol, Member Thompson, Vice-Chair Trotter, Member Winter, Member Wordehof and Chair Crain (4) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Led by Vice-Chair Crain. ELECTION OF CHAIR/VICE-CHAIR MOTION by Vice-Chair Trotter, seconded by Member Thompson, that Vice-Chair Crain be appointed as Chair, be Approved. MOTION CARRIED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE: Yes: 6- Member Sokol, Member Thompson, Vice-Chair Trotter, Member Winter, Member Wordehof and Chair Crain MOTION by Member Thompson, seconded by Chair Crain, that Member Trotter be appointed as Vice-Chair, be Approved. MOTION CARRIED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE: Yes: 6- Member Sokol, Member Thompson, Vice-Chair Trotter, Member Winter, Member Wordehof and Chair Crain (6) APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA MOTION by Member Sokol, seconded by Member Winter, that the Agenda be Approved. MOTION CARRIED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE: Yes: 6- Member Sokol, Member Thompson, Vice-Chair Trotter, Member Winter, Member Wordehof and Chair Crain (7) APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES ID 21-1402 January 21, 2021 Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes MOTION by Member Thompson, seconded by Member Sokol, that the Minutes from January 21, 2021, be Approved. MOTION CARRIED BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE: City of Marco Island Florida Page 1 Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final February 18, 2021 Yes: 6- Member Sokol, Member Thompson, Vice-Chair Trotter, Member Winter, Member Wordehof and Chair Crain (8) STAFF COMMUNICATIONS Member Thompson asked Storm Water Engineer Jason Tomassetti if he was able to get in contact with someone from the Police Department regarding having a Liaison Officer attend the Waterways meetings to provide an update of marine activity. Mr. Tomassetti stated that he did reach out to David Baer, Administrative Captain, but will reach out again for a response. Chair Crain asked Mr. Tomassetti if there could be adjustments made to the brochures shown on the Waterways page. Mr. Tomassetti mentioned that there is currently $6,000.00 for Water Quality Brochures, $2,000.00 for Fertilizer Grass Clipping Signage, and $2,000.00 Water Quality Information. At the moment Mr. Tomassetti is in the process of getting quotes for Waterways brochures. Member Winter brought up the idea of using the message board for any water quality updates. Member Winter mentioned that there was no clarification of how many ATONs the City owns and maintains. a. Member Orientation - City Clerk Laura Litzan City Clerk Laura Litzan deferred her discussion to allow Chairman Grifoni speak first and congratulated the Committee. Chairman Grifoni thanked the Committee for all their time and hard work then spoke regarding communication. The City Manager and Chairman Grifoni would like to have each Chair from every Committee speak at a City Council Meeting and provide a brief update of any matters that the Committee has. Chairman Grifoni encouraged the Committee to reach out to him and provided his contact information. Member Winter asked the Chairman if other Committees could email their meeting minutes to certain Committees if they are involved in the matter. Chairman Grifoni understood his viewpoint and encouraged every Committee Member to visit the City's Website and either view the meeting video or read the summarized report. ID 21-1393 2021 Sunshine and Ethics Law for Committees City Clerk Laura Litzan went over the attached document on the agenda: 1) Stated in the Sunshine State Law any communication (including social media) between two or more Members regarding Committee business will be investigated. 2) All City matter should be accessible to the public and recorded. 3) Minutes must be taken. 4) The public is allowed to voice their opinion. It is limited. 5) The Commmittee/Board must vote unless there is a conflict. 6) The Committee is not allowed to accept gifts. Member Winter then stated to Ms. Litzan that he believes there should be a "realignment reconsideration" of the Waterways Committee because of that Member Winter believes there should be some communication between Members and asked Ms. Litzan if that would be considered a violation. In response to that answer, Ms. Litzan said yes. Any important discussion should be an Agenda item and held as a meeting. (9) PUBLIC COMMENT Jack Williams, Marco Island Resident, was happy to have some of the City Councilors present for the meeting. Mr. Williams directed his attention to the Councilors and requested support to help speed up the City of Marco Island Florida Page 2 Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final February 18, 2021 process. Mr. Williams then thanked the Committee for all their efforts. Josephine Woodruff, 380 Rookery Court, Marco Island resident, expressed her concern about boaters. Ms. Woodruff lives by a canal has observed that boaters are not respecting the speed limit on the water. Ms. Woodruff reached out to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC) regarding the water regulations. Because of the boaters not respecting the "no wake zone" Ms. Woodruff personally bought signs that said "No Wake Zone," but was told by FWC to have them taken down. Since there is a lot of unclarity Ms. Woodruff believes there should be an updated regulation sheet. It was mentioned that the website waterways page is not user-friendly. It was agreed that the Committee will review this issue to make it easier for the public to navigate it. Overall it was stated that the Committee will look into improving the waterways signs. The Committee stated that some of these issues need to be corrected by Code Enforcement. (10) PRESENTATIONS None. (11) OLD BUSINESS None. (12) NEW BUSINESS a. Marco Water Baseline 2020 – Member Wordehoff ID 21-1394 Marco Water Baseline 2020 Member Wordehoff looked over the Waterways website report and put together a statistical analysis of the water quality testing. The purpose of this report was to have a baseline of what the water quality trend is. Member Wordehoff stated that the report is currently a draft and that he is open to any comments/changes. Any of these changes would need to submitted to him before 8th, 2021. Chair Crain stated how important it is to test the water outside of the "outline" areas. It is important to not only take care of the water quality on the Island but around the Island as well. Mr. Tomassetti uploaded the water test quality for January. Chair Crain stated that in the winter the water quality does improve especially for this year. b. Mission Statement – Member Sokol Member Sokol looked over the Mission Statement and had some recommendation. Currently the Mission Statement is placed on the Waterways Advisory Committee website page under 'Waterways Advisory Committee Goals and Objectives.' Mr. Sokol believes at the moment the links/files are a little disarray. Mr. Tomassetti reinsured the Committee that if they would like to make adjustment to their website they are more than welcomed to. Any Committee Member should feel free to contact Mr. Tomassetti to include or change the Waterways Committee website. Member Winter volunteered to look over the website and figure out where it looks disjointed and from there make recommendations on what should be fixed. c. Water Quality Workshop – Vice-Chair Crain ID 21-1392 Water Quality Workshop Outline City of Marco Island Florida Page 3 Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final February 18, 2021 Councilor Blonna, welcomed the newest Member of the Committee and returning Members. He then proceeded by thanking the Committee for their hard work. Councilor Blonna was receiving negative feedback from the public regarding the water quality and questioned what is the City and Waterways Committee doing? Their concerns were that neither the City of the Committee was taking action on the matter. These comments took Councilor Blonna by surprise because he made it his initiative to keep himself updated regarding what was happening with the Waterways Committee and knew what the City was required to do for the MS4 (Municipal separate storm sewer system) program. Because of the feedback Councilor Blonna was receiving from residents he believes there is a lack of public education and public information. Council Blonna recommended that before Mr. Harper, President of Environmental Research and The design provides his data to the Committee there should be something held for the public so they could be caught up to date with what exactly the Committee and City has been doing to improve the water quality for the City of Marco Island and much more. Therefore, Councilor Blonna would like to create a 'Workshop' for the Public. Member Winter is in favor of the workshop and mentioned opening up this workshop to social media as well. There was much discussion among the Members and Councilor Blonna regarding the date for this workshop. Councilor Blonna believes that having this workshop around April would give them plenty of time to prepare for it. Chair Crain compared this idea to 'Marco in Bloom,' an event that the Beautification Committee had last year that ended up being a success. (13) COMMITTEE COMMUNICATIONS Chair Crain provided a brief description of what he used to do when he was working as a manufacture in Northern Illinois. He explained to the Committee the importance of water quality and his personal background knowledge regarding water quality. Chair Crain expressed his concerns regarding Code Enforcement and the communications between City Council and the Committee. Chair Crain would like to be able to communicate with City Council more and be able to express the Committee's concerns. Councilor Irwin thanked the Committee again for all its help and hard work. Councilor Irwin agreed with Chair Crain regarding the water appearance. Council Irwin stated that " we are the delta of the river of grass which is the Everglades. All of the 10 thousand islands are part of that delta as well." Councilor Irwin also wanted to let the Committee know she has been speaking with some scientists from the University of Florida regarding the restoration of agriculture. A specific way this can be achieved is by using crustaceans, specifically clams to restore the ecosystem and re-clam Marco. In early 1900, the City ran a mechanical clam dredge that ran 24 hours for 20 years that collapsed their industry. Councilor Irwin proved examples of how clams helped restore agriculture in other parts of Florida like Tampa. The Committee Members showed interest in this project and thanked her for her interest and research. Member Winter suggested having one of the scientists come in and give the Committee a presentation regarding the calm project. Member Winter stated to the Committee that in his property he placed 7 mini reefs in front of the canal and noticed an improvement in the water quality. Both Councilor Blonna and Councilor Irwin agreed with Member Winter. Councilor Blonna suggested creating a grant for this program to encourage homeowners to install mini reefs in their waterways. Member Winter mentioned that the reefs are fairly simple to build and if possible a mini reef brochure can be made for the residents. (14) ADJOURNMENT There being no further business before the Committee, the meeting adjourned at 10:51 P.M. PREPARED BY: ________________________________ Diana Aviles, Recording Specialist City of Marco Island Florida Page 4 Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final February 18, 2021 City of Marco Island Florida Page 5