I don't know.

How do you make me the microphone?

They're on.

No matter what?

It's four o'clock.

I think we will go ahead and get started.

Can everyone hear me?

Okay.

I've been knocking it over, so um.

All right, I'm calling this uh meeting to order.

Uh today's meeting of the environmental advisory board is called to order on November twelfth, twenty twenty-five.

Welcome everyone.

Uh, this is my uh first time chairing this committee, so I hope you all bear with me.

Uh the members of the environmental advisory board were appointed by the city council.

We serve voluntarily.

The board's objective is to provide citizen insight to the city council and staff on environmental activities within and affecting Clearwater.

Agendas of today's meeting are on the wall at the entrance to the chambers.

Please remember to turn off your cell phones and electronic devices.

To ensure a complete record of the board's actions, we ask each individual wishing to speak to clearly state your name and spell your last name for the clerk.

Um, we'll take roll call.

Uh, will members of the board and staff please introduce yourselves?

We'll start on our far left.

Cassie.

Cassie Hardova, sustainability manager.

Tim Hughes.

Kelly Dobman.

Michael Rabina.

Glena Wentworth, Chair.

And uh, I don't know, anybody heard from Jason.

I haven't heard.

I assume he's on the case.

He's always coming from work, so I'm assuming he'll be here.

But we do have a quorum, so we can't proceed.

Thank you.

Um, the minutes, our first order of business is uh to review and approve the minutes of the board's last meeting.

Everyone, I hope had a chance to read the minutes.

Are there any changes or corrections?

Seeing there's none may have a motion to approve the minutes.

Motion approved.

Have a motion.

Second.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Minutes are approved.

Um, citizens to be heard.

Um, items on the agenda.

Is there anyone here to speak to items not on the agenda?

Please step to the podium and state your name for the public record, and please spell your name for the clerk.

You have three minutes to speak on the subject that is not on today's agenda.

There will be no dialogue between you and from the podium and board members until you are completed your comments.

Brian Beckman, the ECK M A N, and that's not fair that you're not going to talk back at me here.

So uh you're doing a great job so far, Clana.

So I think it's doing fantastic.

Um so I send emails uh about once a quarter uh before I don't know, maybe two or three months ago, I sent an email on uh what Sierra Club put out there on a new solar dashboard for the county of Ready for 100 cities, where we took what we've done in Clearwater now for a few years and exploded that across four other cities, St.

Petersburg, Safety Harbor, Largo in Don Eaton.

And I hope you've got it had a chance to go out there and look at that, but I did wanted to highlight it again for you all here and anybody else that might be watching this.

And it tells a great story.

Um city by city.

So you can you can see the numbers associated with each individual city, but then you can also see it accumulatively.

And especially of cumulatively, cumulatively, that's I guess the right word, is uh you see the impact.

So you see the impact on saving money across the community.

You see the impact of reducing pollution emissions, and then energy independence for each one of those installations.

They are more energy dependent than what they were uh prior to getting solar.

And the other thing that you people might not think of is that cumulatively it has uh significant positive impact on the grid that during energy peak times, this additional energy is supplied out there to the grid that reduces the need to create new generating infrastructure within our service area, and that's exactly what's going on.

You're not seeing new generation stations that are being proposed or propping up because of this energy that's being provided from within the county, largely on rooftops.

And just to give you an example of what that looks like, there's about 10,000 solar permits, which is as of the middle of this year across those five cities.

There's more if you if we were to do it across the entire county, about 27 million dollars a year that's saved on energy bills, and almost 13 million dollars uh gallons of gas that's not burned every year when you look at it from a pollution perspective.

Those are huge numbers.

And I expect we haven't done the numbers yet, but of course the year hasn't ended, but we'll do them through the end of the year and provide updates out there.

Um expect to see a big increase because of the change in the uh solar incentive laws.

Um but the other thing that we'll look at incorporating going forward is energy efficiency information.

The city does such a wonderful job there.

We'd like to show that across the those different communities as well.

Thank you.

Any questions from Brian?

Thank you, Brian.

Yeah, thank you.

Excellent information.

Yes.

Okay, I think every everyone's here to hear the uh vulnerability study results.

Um that's next on the agenda.

So is it Melody?

Hi, good afternoon.

Uh I'm Melody Yin, sustainability specialist in the public works department.

So we're excited to present the results of the vulnerability assessment.

Um a few months ago, our consultant that worked with us on this uh study actually presented it at the city council meeting.

Um, but this time around uh we've internally, Cassie and I have digested the study and made it into much simpler to understand format, and you know, one in terms of an info sheet that will be published on the website, as well as a presentation to you right now.

Um so this is an effort that started back in 2022, and we finally concluded it early this year.

Um this is the agenda.

Oh, I have two laptops a little confused there.

Sorry.

And uh so we'll move along in this manner.

Um this project was funded through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's resilient Florida program.

It meets the state's statutory requirements for vulnerability assessments uh for municipalities, ensuring that a city is aligned with Florida's resilience planning standards.

So by completing this assessment, the city also becomes eligible for future adaptation and resilience funding opportunities.

And this assessment identifies risks from flooding and extreme heat through the year 2100, helping the city plan for both near-term and long-term climate challenge.

So the vulnerability assessment enables the city to plan for long-term growth while identifying potential future vulnerabilities associated with climate stressors, such as increased rainfall, sea level rise, stronger tropical systems, and extreme heat.

This project involved worked with consultants, namely Atkins Realis, a project action team, which is made up of internal city staff from various departments, and a technical advisory committee, TAC in short, comprised of both internal city staff as well as external partners.

This assessment utilized the consultant's geospatial resilience modeling tool.

It's now called simulator instead of the old name City Simulator, which was reused to create a digital twin of the city that included buildings, parcels, and transportation infrastructure.

The tool was used to model the city from 2020 to 2100, simulating both its growth and activity and relevant climate hazards.

The study focused on tidal flooding, rivering flooding, which is inland rivers overtopping their banks, pluvial flooding, which is from heavy rainfall, as well as storm surge.

While sea level rise was a core concern of the grant scope, Clearwater was also elected, also elected to include heat stress impacts as a proactive step towards comprehensive resilience planning.

Major findings show significant increases in storm intensity, flood depth, and temperature through 2100, which we'll touch on more.

Melody, can we ask questions or do you want us to wait till the end?

Oh, sure.

Well, first of all, I was wondering what is the definition of heat stress?

In simple terms, so that just means that how would increasing temperature and also increasing temperature in multiple locations in increased locations in clear water impact how people live, go to work, and play.

Okay.

So I can add a little bit to that.

So the model, when it didn't just look at buildings, it actually looked at demographic information about those buildings.

So it was able to determine are they residential buildings, are they like what the function of the building was, and that function of the building determined if the occupants would be spending time outside.

So if it's just general office space, people generally don't go outside very often.

But if it was a school, they would know that the kids are going to go outside.

So the modeling actually was able to show how many people based on the function of the building would be going outside and therefore how vulnerable they would be at that particular location.

Oh, that's pretty in depth.

And with the simulated city growth, what kind of growth are we anticipating or did we project?

Do you know?

Um I'm not entirely sure, but their model uses data from it could be from university, it could be from some sort of federal government data, but it's but it's definitely something that I can look up and get back to you.

I'm just curious because I think in the last five years we've had like sort of an abnormal amount of growth, haven't we, with all the migration from other states?

Yeah, I think it used census data.

Census as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

There's a portion in the study that mentions in-depth method methodology, which we are not really going into detail in this presentation, but happy to send that portion to you.

That's fine.

I was just curious of how much projection we were anticipating.

What is a node?

Stormwater nodes.

8,000 are those dots that we're looking at.

Yeah, think of it as points on the map right now.

Uh, because it's highly GIS-based model modeling.

So those are just points of interest where there is a stormwater connection system.

Oh, okay.

Um, so moving in into a little bit of the methodology behind.

The study relied on scientifically grounded projections and high resolution modeling using a simulator.

The study combined local historical data with global climate models for sea level rise projections, NOAA's 2017 intermediate low and high, uh, was used, and as well as the 2022 update were used as well.

And these were satisfying the FDEP requirements.

Um flood exposure was modeled for planning horizon 2040, 2070, and 2100.

Um the study focused on quantifying the depth and location of flooding and heat that will potentially impact the community in the future.

It also used GIS-based analysis of 52,000 parcels and thousands of critical infrastructure points.

It also evaluated exposure under three planting horizons, which I mentioned before.

It also accessed days flooded death and also heat intensity per structure.

So a little bit of the result from the modeling.

It also showed upward trend in sea level, future sea level.

So as for key findings, and we're breaking it down to the various different types of findings here.

Clear water will experience various flooding scenarios, include tidal rainfall and storm surge.

The floods will impact various infrastructure buildings, including both residential and commercial roads and stormwater systems.

The study analyzed stormwater and transportation assets and projected increased disrupt disruptions for residents and businesses as they try to navigate the city's transportation network.

So for tidal flooding by 2100 using the intermediate high sea level rise projection, 3,000 plus parcels may flood 300 plus years.

This represents close to 10% of parcels in the city.

Coastal areas are especially vulnerable, including the Barry Islands and also downtown area, as you can see on the map here.

And as for flooding that involves large rainfall events, by 2100 using the intermediate high sea level rise projection.

I think it's the same amount of data here.

Sorry, I'm moving into the rainfall part.75 feet in the 202040 planting horizon to 14.34 feet in the 2100 planting horizon.

And for a 500-year rainfall event, that increases from 15.32 feet to 20.38 feet.

And just a little bit of background on what it means for to be considered a hundred-year or a 500-year event, right?

So a hundred-year rainfall event refers to a rainstorm that has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year.

Similarly, a 500-year event has a 0.2% chance of occurring in any given year.

These terms describe statistical probabilities, not guaranteed schedules.

So like a hundred-year event can happen more than once in a century, and in some cases, even multiple times in a few years.

So these events are used by engineers and planners to design infrastructures like stormwater systems and flood protection that can withstand uh extreme weather.

So when you say 100-year rainfall event, you're talking about the amount of rain, the most amount of rain that has fallen within that hundred years.

No, it's a it's really sort of complicated to explain, but it's uh it's basically a statistical guess on an event that would rain approximately based on historical data, we would get this large rainfall event once every hundred years.

But as we now know, we can't necessarily base future projections on historical rainfall because things are changing.

Um it's just saying that based on previous data, this event happens approximately once every hundred years or once every 500 years.

So it's just like an estimate, but it is in by no means a guarantee that you're only gonna get an event with let's just say 20 inches of rainfall in 24 hours.

I don't know what it is exactly in our case, but it's just saying statistically, historically, that's only happened once every about 100 years.

But now, you know, we just got three storms last year, so and think about it, you don't know when this will occur in the next hundred year.

It could be this year, it could be 50 years later, but the chances are happening is uh 1% or 0.2 percent for 100 year and 500 years.

Did they give any indication of why they think that is?

That's just a standard way of of measuring stormwater in terms of the case.

It's like a normal term, 100-year storm.

Yeah, no, no, I know that, but it's like I'm just wondering, like our chances are going up, right?

Well, yeah, by design, the chances are always the same.

A hundred-year storm has a one percent chance every year of occurring, and a 500 that's how you get the percentage because it's one of the things that we're gonna do.

I was gonna say that is it once in a hundred years, one percent?

Yes, yeah, yes, okay.

The the rainfall depth is going up.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think I saw you you had data there that showed a hundred year storm will increase the amount will go up twenty-four percent in the year uh in the previous slide.

Yes, yes.

Can you show that slide again, please?

Yeah, see that helps to explain.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Are they are these normally occurring during hurricanes for us?

I mean, would this be this study doesn't really find that?

Yeah, it's so important that uh civil engineers use this data to design stormwater systems and retention ponds and detention ponds.

Yeah, to make sure the capacity will hold for those events.

It's like when they're building this long-term infrastructure, right?

When you're building infrastructure like bridges and stormwater, the life cycle of these is 50 years, 100 years.

So they're building them based off of what they think a likelihood of these storms are gonna be based on this data.

Thanks for the question.

Um for flooding that relates to storm search events, uh maximum projected search depth increases from 17.1 feet in the 2040 planning horizon uh to 22.7 feet in the 2100 planning horizon, according to the intermediate high 2017 projections.

So um this heavily affects coastal areas and also low-lying neighborhoods that are shown in the map here, and um that little um arrow sort of signifies the search depth increase there.

So Stevenson's Creek?

Yeah, and the and their um watershed areas, and then also is that is that our lakes and warningside down there off of Belcher?

It looks a little yeah, kind of or maybe that area, but I don't know if it's our lakes or it looks just like our lakes.

And as well as Bay Shore, yeah.

Um so moving on to heat exposure, and that would be as a result of storm surge.

That means that because the water is backed up, our lakes can't flow into the bay, into uh Berker Creek.

Okay.

Can you identify specific communities that will be most vulnerable, like Stevenson Creek, like Sand Key Island?

Are there others?

Uh for this scenario you mean overall or per scenario?

Yeah, like what the what the modeling says in the next, you know, by 2100.

Well, I mean, if we look at all the scenarios, obviously the beach is very vulnerable in almost every one of them, but yeah.

Yeah.

And then and then later on we go into talking about the scenarios that the study picked out to do some sort of adaptation strategies, and you I think you will sort of hear more on like specific areas of the one other question.

Does your is your tool interactive?

In other words, can you zoom in and like a GIS map?

That's that's a very static map right there.

A great question.

It is supposedly built to be interactive.

Um the city has not gained uh access to it, but we're hoping to have that conversation with a consultant to work that out.

Yeah, a valuable tool.

Yeah.

But it features its forthcoming.

Well, the the vulnerability assessment itself was simply to do the information.

Atkins chose to do it by creating a digital twin, but you don't have to create a digital twin to do a vulnerability assessment.

There's dozens of other firms that are doing vulnerability assessments by just looking at the data.

So this tool is kind of above and beyond.

So the what the federal, what the state grant paid for was for the vulnerability assessment, not necessarily for us to have access to this tool indefinitely.

So that's something we have to work out.

Yeah.

Um so for heat exposure, um, both the number of days per year with high temperatures as well as the number of locations with high temperatures will increase.

Um days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit increases from one to 25 days in 2040 to 176 days to 200 days in 2100 in many areas.

Don't we have over 25 days over 25 days of 90 degrees?

Can you clarify that specific data?

Because I think we're up to about 80 days a year, 90 plus degree temperatures.

Does that say one to 25 days more than the current 90 or more days above 90 degrees or more?

Um so there might be a different, so it it really depends on uh I think it might be average as well of like the whole city.

So I don't as far as I mean I grew up here, I don't think we're at 80 days over 90 degrees a year at all.

You guys are that's what you think we have.

I did an AI Google search.

I find it hard to believe.

Depends on what type of temperature they report.

A lot of it is like it feels like more than 90 or whether is it the recorded high.

Um so I I would I would check that as well.

Yeah, just to make sure.

If you could clarify that, that would be great.

Yeah.

And um, yeah, we'll we'll make notes to do that.

Um so the study is saying you know there's a strong correlation uh between um the increasing temperature uh the areas of high temperature with low tree coverage, which we'll talk about later as well.

I mean, uh if um the the reading that I've done about uh the a vulnerability to climate change and the heat would be the probably the biggest killer um and you know would be probably the most effect and most effect on our lifestyle, our life quality, quality of life.

So heat's a really big factor to be tracking.

Yeah, agree.

Um so the this map uh shows the areas with limited tree coverage, um, which also which we noticeably see higher heat intensity uh in the study by 2100 uh 17,000 study locations face heightened heat exposure, and um this next map over here um would also show the location spread, which increased over time.

So the color difference is the lighter the color, it means the more number of days that experience higher uh temperatures.

Okay, so we have reached the adaptation scenarios portion of the presentation.

The development of adaptation scenarios in the vulnerability assessment was guided by three core principles maximizing return on investment for mitigation and adaptation actions, reducing flood and heat risk, and prioritizing equity.

Uh using the simulator, 10 initial scenarios targeting areas with high exposure to flooding, heat, and critical infrastructure vulnerabilities were created and modeled.

Each scenario represented a different adaptation strategy or location focus, including structural elevation for property acquisition, increased tree canopy, and stormwater system improvements as shown in the icon in this page to support digital making a cost-benefit framework was applied at each scenario, assessing the upfront investment against long-term avoided damage.

Um so a notice, these scenarios are in support of high-level planning uh exercise to begin evaluating the complexities of future hazard conditions.

Um the scenarios are not meant to imply that the city is going to perform these actions and more uh internal analysis will need to be done to make that decision.

And then later on, additional five scenarios chosen out of the ten will be looked at further as well.

And then a note on the ROI formula.

So it is damage avoided divided by cost of adaptation strategies.

That gives the ratio.

Okay.

So scenario one is the Stevenson Creek area.

This focused on elevating roads and acquiring structures to improve drainage in a flat-prone watershed.

The scenario shows strong RI from targeted acquisitions and infrastructure improvements.

Examples are covert outfalls.

The RI was maximized when 200 million dollars is spent on 79 projects.

That includes eight road elevations, 71 building acquisitions, which is estimated to avoid 297 million in damages.

And the ratio is 1.485.

And a little bit of additional info here.

We have the city is currently undergoing the Lower Spring Branch project, the flood control project proposal back in 2016.

It includes and focuses on completing the second component of the project at Douglas Avenue, Springtime Avenue in Overbrook Avenue.

Pinales County is also part of the project.

And the city is taking care of the second portion, I guess, phase two of the project as well.

And plans will be finalized and brought to the council sometime this month.

And then we also have the Stevenson Creek Management Plan that is upcoming, and City South Summit did the project for Swift Mod Corporate funding, and we're waiting for the funding results to be released next year.

Okay.

And scenario two is increased tree coverage for citywide.

So at the study assessed citywide benefits of increasing urban tree canopy to reduce heat impacts.

The scenario offers insights into where shade may be most beneficial based on local demographic data.

The results show that tree planting has high RI, especially when targeted in tree deserts and disadvantaged communities.

The RI was maximized when 3.62 million is spent at 7200 planning locations, which is estimated to avoid about 5.1 million in damages.

The ROI ratio is 1.41.

And the note here is recommended tree planning locations will need to be further looked at before implementation as some sites might be unsuitable due to physical constraints or professional guidance limitations.

So there's tremendous social well-being benefits, including human health, air quality, shading, cooling, habitat, and biodiversity improvements that relates to this scenario.

Does clear water have a um a tree canopy canopy goal?

Like I know I just I can't think of the Clearwater has that, but I don't know.

Like I think Gulfport has a 30% goal.

They have reached a 30% goal of tree cover uh canopy coverage in their city.

Um, in fact, because of this study, um Cassie and I in our division, we have just recently submitted a grant to AFDAX for doing an urban tree management plan that will include a tree canopy component in there.

Um, and then we'll eventually have some recommendation out of that project.

Uh we're also waiting to hear back on the results of the grant.

There will be a goal.

Um it'll be an urban forestry management plan.

Okay, and inside of that would include a canopy assessment and goals.

Okay.

Awesome.

Um in my review of the overall vulnerability report.

I find that just in my opinion, that a tree, this tree plan that you're referring to is the best thing for the buck.

It's the most cost-effective, and it could have many tangible as well as intangible benefits that you couldn't even measure.

So that's why we applied for the grant.

Yeah.

Big fan of that.

We're excited for for this project.

So coming to the third scenario, it's elevating seawalls, uh, specifically for the area of North Beach to island estates.

Um this model, the elevation of seawalls in this area provided moderate ROI in reducing tidal flooding impacts for coastal properties with varying benefits by location segment.

Um cost estimates are highly variable.

Um and a note here is most of the seawalls are private and not owned or maintained by the city, therefore making a large-scale use of seawall modification difficult to implement.

Um however, just a little bit of additional info here too.

The city is undertaking uh seawall repair study uh project.

Uh there was an inspection from our consultant of 48 seawalls throughout the city.

Out of 48, 33 required maintenance repair and ten required rehab or replacement.

Six locations were identified in Clearwater Beach.

Uh out of the six, five needed maintenance or erosion on the back side of the wall, and one required food replacement.

So these will be a priority.

Um any of these future projects include removing seawalls and replacing them with living living shorelines?

Very good question.

Um not certain at this point, however, I think you guys will be interested to hear that we're also working on a very exciting project um that is uh the first in Clearwater.

Uh this is called the Living Seawall Project.

So instead of leaving shorelines, I know you know people would very much honestly prefer that if we're all environmental conservationists.

Um but leaving seawall is also a good alternative.

Uh it's adding panels onto the seawall that helps promote uh you know juvenile marine animals uh growth around that that that area and also improves water quality in that area of the water that touches the seawall.

Um and it's it's gonna be a really exciting project where we have invited a bunch of external partners to come together and put our heads together and see what we can come up with.

Um I'm sure you'll hear more.

I don't I don't want to get a lot of people.

We don't want to give out too much, yeah, exactly.

No, that's great.

Um could that incorporate mangroves, you know, with the living seawall?

It's to be discussed, but definitely there m we're looking at oysters, um good corals even or uh reef balls and etc.

These are just like in exploration stage though, so um yeah, more to come.

Definitely we'll have like a big press release when that happens.

Thank you.

So could you repeat the number of seawalls that are in existence right now in in this map?

Did you say 48?

Um so this the study um so the study that I mentioned, the seawall repair study, this is a separate study outside of the vulnerability assessment.

Okay.

It's just additional info that was relevant to this slide um that public works department is working on.

Um it said forty they studied 48 seawalls throughout the city.

And those are all city seawalls.

So just I I don't know if she mentioned it, but the majority of our seawalls are privately owned.

I was gonna say these are these are just city seawalls or not private seawalls.

Yeah, that's the note on the bottom of this slide is that majority of our on the beach, they're privately owned.

Although the study did include all the seawalls, just because it's you know a community study.

Private and public.

Yes.

So so the numbers that you indicated of what needs to be repaired or possibly included private.

No, those are city owned.

Okay, that we have control over.

Okay, yeah.

When she said the study just now, she meant this study, not the study.

Yeah, I should be more specific.

It's confusing.

I know, it's confused too, and then I so the other stu this is the vulnerability study looked at all of the seawalls, the one that we're mentioning that public works working on with a consultant separately, that is just city-owned seawalls.

And that's something they do on a semi-regular basis, I think every few years.

I think that's a project in the works.

That's right.

Yeah.

Pardon?

Isn't Edgewater Park in Dunedin?

We have a portion of edge water.

Yeah, it's a city park, right?

Um to be shared, I don't think so in the leaving seawall, uh, leaving seawalls project.

But you know, who knows?

If this gets traction, we might expand the original selective sites.

Um definitive at this time.

So coming into scenario four, this studies coastal zone three that includes the Bay Shore Bulbara area.

So modeling elevation in that area near the old Tampa Bay coastline.

Um, it showed reduced flooding and high ROI.

Um, and these ROI was maximized when 70 million is spent on 14 road elevation projects, which is estimated to avoid 213 million in damages.

So three priority projects with the greatest ROI were um highlighted at the 25% budget scenario.

Um the RI ratio is 3.74.

Um in fact that's a pretty high ratio.

We are, yes, we are actually the city is actually taking steps into applying for various grants for this area.

Um I shall not go into detail because we're we're just applying for a lot of grants right now.

Um and then scenario five is the elevated uh elevated structures on Barry Islands scenario.

Uh this assesses uh elevating residential structures on the beach barrier islands.

High benefit in terms of avoided flood damage, especially with phased or budgeted budget limited approaches.

So our the ROI ratio is at about 2.73 uh and it's maximized when 88 million is spent on 602 projects, which will uh avoid 240 million in damages, and then the big biggest takeaway from this initial result is probably the location of the projects.

So the image is the 25% scenario budget scenario, meaning if only 21 million of the estimated 88 million budget uh is used to elevate structures.

The largest benefit of the to the cost for these are um 90 properties along Clearwater Harbor North and South of State Road 60.

How are these uh projects chosen?

Are they private or all public ownership?

The simulator.

The simulator gives that result, and um, so you might be wondering um why there are no orange dots in the north part of the beach.

Um so the results are mostly in this region because this area has a high percentage of commercial structures versus residential commercial properties have a higher replacement cost on average than the primarily residential structures on the north side of the Barry Island.

So the metric our consultants use to judge projects is ROI, which is um like mentioned losses avoided divided by cost of elevating.

So as the losses avoided, it's directly influenced by replacement cost of the building.

Um it makes sense that the RI would be higher for higher replacement cost properties, therefore the simulator chose those projects.

Yeah.

Um so scenario six is acquisition of structures citywide.

So this model, the citywide buyout program based on RI of individual properties, and found the study found this to be one of the most effective long-term strategies for reducing overall flood exposure.

Um the ratio is 1.63.

Um the RI is maximized when 1.5 billion is spent on a thousand two hundred and eighty-two projects, which is you know estimated to avoid 2.45 billion in damages.

And of course, again, the notice the city has to assess whether these would make sense.

Does each one of those 1282 projects represent acquisition of property?

Yes.

Okay.

For this scenario.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

That's private and public.

But private.

That would be private.

Private.

Acquisitions, of course.

That's pretty that's really kind of crazy expensive.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And of course, yeah, this was the you know, the map was showing the 100%.

Oh, I mean, the RI here and mentioning a thousand projects is showing the hundred percent budget.

And I think each of the scenarios, if possible, the they will give a 25% budget scenario looking at what are the priority acquisition projects.

Um, but then again, acquisition is really a challenging task.

So yeah, just because something has a beneficial ROI doesn't mean it's palatable politically.

Yeah, so there's other considerations on Clearwater Beach.

There's gonna be a lot of unhappy people.

Yeah, a caveat right there.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a lot on the barrier islands.

So scenario seven is the area of Hercules and US 19 corridors.

This focused on acquiring structures and economic development corridors prone to flooding.

Uh the scenario showed strong ROI from targeted acquisitions as well, property acquisitions on a cost to benefit curve.

It's maximized when 26.35 million is spent on eight acquisition projects, which is estimated to avoid 43.17 million in damages.

Um this one's right and sweet.

Um, and then the next scenario is coastal zone one as well as the central, which is downtown clearwater and also North Greenwood.

Uh, the scenario evaluated these three areas as a combined geography where reinvestment is ongoing and social vulnerabilities have been identified.

It evaluated estimated cost and benefit if flood exposed structures were acquired, and additional trees were planted to reduce heat exposure.

Um, these results showed that mixed use adaptation had high potential return, especially in vulnerable census tract.

And then scenario nine is the state road 60, Drew Street, and South Missouri, which is US 19 alternative.

Uh, this scenario was intended to value some water improvements, density changes, and tree coverage for future investment corridors.

The model was not able to accurately evaluate the mix of soft and hard mitigation strategies.

However, flooding exposure and tree planting benefit analysis were demonstrated separately.

Um of course, because of the limitation of the simulator, uh, this scenario was not selected for refined scenario analysis.

Uh, and then moving on to scenario 10.

Uh, this is to evaluate structures, uh, elevate structures citywide, and a broad scenario assessing the benefits of elevating all vulnerable uh buildings.

Results show that approach is costly but impactful with the best ROI in the high exposure zones of the beach, Stevenson Creek, and also near the old Tampa Bay coast.

The ROI is maximized when 141.1 million dollars is spent on 837 elevation projects, which is estimated to avoid 389.3 billion dollars in damages.

Um, ratio being 2.76.

Um, there are some dot orange dots on the beach as well as inland as well.

I think the map is a little small for you guys to see that.

Uh just wanted to point out it's not just the beach, but there are some in the old Tampa Bay area as well.

Stevenson Creek.

Um, so we selected five uh refined scenarios and uh incorporated more localized intervention.

Yeah, examples include bridge upgrades, targeted acquisition, tree planting, and that um uh and then going into the first refined scenario, which is the Civison Creek with bridges.

Um we updated scenario one from before to assess bridge vulnerability to inundation.

The scenario identified three bridges that would be good candidates for upgrades with further analysis, um, including planning design and cost information and coordination with the county, state, and federal agencies if needed.

And these are uh Bellevue Boulevard, Stephenson Creek Bridge, Bell Air Road, and Rice Lake, Douglas Avenue, and Stevenson Creek.

Um these are the three bridges for this area.

Um so second refined scenario goes into the North Greenwood, um, which was the scenario number eight.

Um so this targeted this targeted acquisition uh of properties and also tree planting in the social socially vulnerable neighborhood.

Um the RIs maximized when uh 76 million dollars is spent on a thousand over projects.

Uh that includes a thousand tree planting projects as well as 43 building acquisitions.

And then the third refined scenario is downtown uh clear water.

So this focus on tree planting as well and a few critical acquisitions.

This has found to improve walkability and reduce urban heat while offering modest flood mitigation benefits.

With a 25% budget scenario, it highlighted 919 tree planting locations as well as 33 building acquisitions that returns the highest ROI.

And then this is the fourth refined scenario, which is in the mainland West Coast.

So this focused on tree planting and a few critical acquisitions as well.

Not going into too much detail here.

This is the further analyzed scenario two, which we uh developed the tree planting benefit index based on cities' parcel fabric and demographics to estimate relative benefits to tree planting locations.

This has identified priority areas shown on the map for tree planting with the highest cooling potential, which targets the heat stress that we've talked about.

Okay, moving on to the technical advisory committees made uh recommendation.

Uh members made several recommendations during our final get together for the study assessment.

Um they mentioned the use of potential use of St.

Petersburg tight station for regional consistency and uh integrating surface water models, water quality and including groundwater modeling as well.

Uh and they also emphasize public opportunities like rain gardens and individual property protection actions as well as regional solutions.

Um also included land acquisition for stormwater retention, and they wanted us to consider including and pursuing grant funding to expand upon visualization of the study as well as educational outreach opportunities that communicate vulnerabilities.

Um of these green action items could be potentially performed by the public residents as well.

Um then the next steps.

So the City of Clearwater vulnerability project successfully met its primary goal of assessing the city's vulnerabilities and evaluating potential climate adaptation strategies by creating a digital twin of the city and utilizing the simulator.

Project provided a detailed simulation of future climate scenarios, including flooding and rising temperatures.

The simulation gave the city valuable insights into the expected impacts of climate change on critical infrastructures in communities, enabling the city to make informed decisions regarding adaptation planning.

So based on the findings that we have shown previously, the city will consider the following strategies to increase the city's resilience to climate hazards and ensure long-term sustainability as well.

So, first being prioritizing high ROI adaptation projects such as Stevenson Creek or coastal zones.

So the VA laid the foundation for high impact adaptation measures such as elevating seawall structure, acquiring at risk properties and upgrading infrastructure to protect the most vulnerable populations in the city, as well as assets in the area most affected by frequent flooding.

Secondly, being we are looking to expand tree canopy in vulnerable areas as well, including North Greenwood and downtown.

And then thirdly, we're looking to enhance data collection for future modeling.

And fourth, we're hoping to engage community in resiliency planning as well.

Continue engagement with community members, especially in vulnerable areas will help prioritize actions and ensure that the benefits of adaptation measures are broadly shared across the city.

And we're also looking at pursuing grant funding for implementation, like mentioned.

We have already pursued resilient Florida implementation grant and waiting for the results, as well as some other federal funding as well.

What is it called again?

Resilient the FDEP Florida implementation funding.

And many other federal funding grants.

Could you back up to the um the the slide before that under the green bold it was in green bold?

What what citizens can be doing and yes?

So some of these some of these um actions, for example, under general infrastructure improvements, um adding rain gardens if possible in private properties, right?

Be it commercial or residential, and um adding native plants to your yard, that helps as well.

And um leaving shorelines, if a private property would like to partake in that, we highly recommend as well as um permeable pavements in your residence, um rooftop runoff storage, um, like the rain barrels.

Um, and then there are also other physical countermeasures like the um raising seawall for the private properties, uh flat proofing your homes, uh tree planting in your own residence, your own property.

Uh we would love that as well.

Um, and elevating if people choose to elevate their own uh homes and their properties, that would be good for the future.

Could we add an item to that list?

That's a great list.

I was thinking of uh riparian buffers along streams, planting trees along streams.

Like it's for yeah, yeah.

Great, great one.

Thank you.

Right, apply green print 2.0.

Is that um yeah?

Oh, there's there's that, applying green print 2.0 because there were a few strategies in Greenprint 2.0 that mentions what in individuals can do at home, at play, at work to be sustainable and resilient as well.

And many of these actions actually are mentioned in Greenprint as well.

Right.

As well as encouraging the and purchasing plot insurance for your homes and properties.

Uh this is the end of our presentation.

Um we do have a website that includes this study result and um a summary of the study as well.

It's myclearwater.com slash VA.

Uh VA stands for vulnerability assessment.

Um, and if anyone has any specific questions that you would like to get in touch, this is our email, sustainability at my clearwater.com.

And if anything that we can't answer, we'll be happy to redirect them to our consultant.

Thank you, Melody.

Are there uh comments from the board?

Do you anticipate uh or have you anticipated how much in grant money you'll get from projects like these?

Let me open my spreadsheet.

It's very uh it's complicated.

We can tell you for a lot of the amount of grants, I guess grant monies that we have applied for.

We don't have them all back, but it's a big number.

Yeah, yeah.

And some of some of the projects are you know related to vulnerability assessment and the vulnerability assessment informs some of these um projects and decisions.

So right now we've applied for 79 million dollars worth of grants.

Wow.

That's quite a number.

Yeah, they're very good.

Those are all pending, so it does not mean we will get any.

I guess you're not gone for the multi-billion dollar plan on that.

A step at a time.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any more questions?

Yeah.

Um, I mean, I guess the uh uh I mean the this would not be a part of the vulnerability study, we'd be talking about um climate change mitigation, but that is part of green print 2.0.

I just like um this is all about the effects of mitigation of the effects of climate change.

Um so you know, I just want I just want to be always mindful of the things that we can be doing in the next 80 years to try to change these projectories, trajectories as much as possible, you know, including our clean energy goals.

I know um uh they're part of Greenprint 2.0.

I know I sound like a broken record on that, but um I don't think we can be too mindful to always be mindful about what we can be doing to try to try to change these trajectories, try to mitigate um and keep some of this some of this stuff from being so bad.

Thanks.

Yeah, that can go very deep.

Makes sense.

Can we pass a motion in support of this?

Well, I don't even know that that is a part of a vulnerability study.

I mean that you know this is this is a study of the effects of climate change and how to how to um how to uh yeah adapt to it basically or yeah, I would I would just like to comment how much I think community outreach and education is gonna be so important, and uh we want to be a part of that, especially with the board going forward, the future board.

Yeah, I think that was identified that community outreach is gonna be key for that future board.

Um I want to support that.

I would have uh you know, I would hope that are you gonna support it in I mean that in the form of a motion?

I don't think we have any control over the next board or the the coming board.

But I do hope that we would include that in some of this.

This is a scary scenario.

These are scary scenarios, and there are things that individuals can be doing.

Uh we can be doing in our own homes in our choices of energy usage, um, you know, and energy efficiencies and the those things maybe I don't know when we're doing these reports, um, if that would even make sense to build those in at all.

Because that's sort of a different topic, but um I just don't want to lose sight of prevention of mitigation of the thing that you know if if climate change is the is the f is the water that's filling the bathtub and overflowing, then um then we need to also make efforts to turn off the faucet instead of clean up just to clean up the water.

Anyway, I I would like to say how much we want to support our sustainability director and her staff, and this is a very important report.

Um and it looks like a city arborists are gonna be very important when it comes to these tree planting projects.

You'll be partnering with the city arborist.

We have several arborists on staff.

Good.

Other comments?

I'm just wondering too, do you share this data with like the building department and all the other agencies that could be impacted by this?

Yeah, which we will planning to launch uh social media posts as well as uh news release to mention that we have the summary document ready, um, which is easy to read and digest uh compared to the full study, so that will be uh uh hopefully a bridge to get other departments to be part of and also the public, general public um to be interested in learning more about the study uh what the city is planning to do.

Well, that's extremely important because if it's presented in a format that is too complicated or has a lot of words they don't understand, it could just you know glossed over and sat down.

So that's really important.

I appreciate you guys reading the full study.

It's not easy, but uh hopefully this helped explain a little bit.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's been a long time coming twice since 2022.

Impressive.

Um, were there comments from the floor regarding the study?

Madam Chairman uh members of the board, I'm William Jones and 2694 Redford Court Press.

I haven't filled out a form, I can do that.

Um I am handicapped in some ways in that my hearing is not normal, even though I have hearing aids, and the loop in the room apparently isn't working.

So I missed some of this.

Um but I I have a lot of questions about this that may be better answered if I was able to sit down one in one.

But just some highlights.

For instance, when you talk about upgrading the city-owned seawalls, that's not going to be do any good if you don't elevate the private seawall that's next door.

Am I missing something?

Uh that's one of my questions.

Um I don't understand the ROI cost avoidance.

How do you determine that cost avoidance benefit?

I is it the total current value of the property?

Is it the damage?

I I is it uh taking care of something that the property owner should have done long ago.

I kind of um the is the concept here that if there's damage, particularly in an area like North Beach, where people are living in a risky area for the benefit of living in that risky area, is the expectation that the city would mitigate the private property, or is the study designed to mitigate only the city properties in that area?

Is are taxpayers in the high parts of the city to be funding the cost of those residents in the risky areas?

The private, I I understand the city city resources.

Um are you saying that is the city planning on like paying for things at the people who live in the North Shore?

Like if something happens to their private property?

Yeah, are you are we gonna are we gonna pay for every every home on North Shore North Beach to be elevated?

Is that what is the outcome of this project?

Um I mean, some people out there are doing it already.

The other option is to acquire the property, so that's that may be the preferred option that rather than elevation.

If you acquire the property, is that a municipal purpose?

Now I can see that if the city sources can I continue or I might time's up, but I don't mean to a few other questions.

We can go another minute or two.

Just just let me explain this.

If the if the city's sanitary sewer has a break and a collapse, and homes get uh back up into the clearly that's something that's the taxpayers as a whole should compensate for because it's something that it could have been avoided by maintenance, but if you have a home located at ground level on North Beach, and the because of rising sea level or or storms, that home is damaged.

I mean, the last year homes were damaged.

The city didn't pay for for fixing those homes.

So if we're trying to avoid a damage coming up next year, or five years from now, should we pay for mitigating those homes?

I I these are the things I'm I'm kind of struggling with, but but the bottom line, and I'll sit down, is what specifically are we going to do in the next six months.

From the vulnerability study.

Perhaps it's raising some roads.

So that or reinforcing the roads so that they don't get washed out.

There's some of the other things that uh were in here is I was difficult to determine the keys, what was red, what was green, what was what was blue, and for instance on one of the pages, a hundred year rainfall depth of 13.7 feet to eight through 14.3 feet.

That's a lot of rain in one storm.

Is that what that meant?

I don't understand.

I'm I'm struggling with understanding this, and I'm I'm I'm sorry to burden you with that, but I I'm having trouble getting my head around this.

Well, I don't think you'll you're the only one with those questions, Bill.

I think that we'll probably be getting as you make presentations to I mean, have you have you presented this to the council already?

So the consultants present it to the council, okay, and our attempt here today was to try and break it down to be a little more digestible.

It's obviously a very very technical report.

Um it's you know almost a 200-page report based on a lot of different data.

I think have you been on our myclearwater.com slash VA or slash vulnerability website like this last week.

I have not.

Okay.

So what Melody was speaking to was that we did create a document, and I forget how many pages it ended up being in the end, about maybe eight or nine pages, but it it basically went through what she said today.

Um, but I think if you were to be able to read it and kind of look at it, you'd be able to understand a lot better.

Um, and it's on the website as of today, broken up into different sections, but it will also be a PDF that we were hoping to have printed by today, but we we didn't get to it.

Um but we are attempting to make this more understandable because we understand that it's very complex.

Um we will be presenting this to CNC in January.

So I've written down your questions and we'll definitely work on getting some of those prepared for January.

Um I can take a stab at a couple of them.

Um well, mostly the one that you said what we're gonna do in the next six months in the director's report, which I'll be doing next.

I'll and Melody kind of mentioned a few, but I can reiterate some of the projects that are essentially a direct result of this report.

Um and then a couple of the other questions.

I mean they're good points, but we'll prepare for them on in January, I think is better because I can I I don't want to say anything off the top of my head without you know having something to back it up with.

I mean I'd I'd be happy to sit down with you if you want to if I can understand it, I think anybody can understand it.

But right now I'm well I think some of your comments are going to be uh you know be shared by you know this is giving an example of what uh I think citizen input maybe you know what is gonna look like as people look at the vulnerability study.

And what was the uh what was the website again?

It says myclewire.com slash you can either put VA or vulnerability and it'll take you to the website, and that's the same website we've been using for the last probably close to two years.

It has the presentation to city council.

It had we've been updating it, um, but it like I said, it just we just updated it this week to have it's it's like in drop-down menus, basically Mellie's PowerPoint, but then we will have and it's got the full vulnerability assessment that you can click on that 196-page report as a PDF, but hopefully by tomorrow or certainly by the um by next week, we'll have that PDF, and it's it's very like graphically pleasing and kind of has everything, so I think it'll be more visually digestible.

Excellent.

Thank you, Bill.

Um right.

Um see we oh we do not have old business.

We don't have um so what we have next uh is the director's report.

All right, so I have a few things.

Um first and foremost, I'm very excited.

I don't know if you guys watched City Council last week, but um the Congressional Directed Spending Award that I've been talking about literally since I got here has been officially accepted.

Um so that is that 949,500 federal funds that will require a match, uh same same match, so approximately two million dollars worth of solar projects that will be continuing on our last four solar projects.

So, as you know, we completed this year, we put solar on Morningside Rec, Clearwater Gas, our solid waste transfer station, and our general services facility.

So now with this next two million dollars, we will be putting solar on our upcoming new city hall, our long center, our North Greenwood Rec Center, and our countryside library.

So those will all be very public-facing buildings, and we just were discussing today as we had with Morningside Rec that solar was going up there, and there was kind of a lot of confusion about it.

So we ended up having putting a poster that um so we'll be doing the same with these next facilities, but we'll be doing that proactively.

Um so really excited about that.

So that'll bring the total to nine city facilities with solar on it, which I think is pretty excellent.

I think we may be ahead of every other city and knowledge greatness completed.

Nine within a span of really three or four years.

Yeah, yeah.

So it's awesome.

Congratulations.

Yeah, well done.

Thanks.

Um, and then just a little another update that's been kind of been ongoing.

The RECBG grant, that's the energy uh efficiency community block grant that we ordered the our EVs with.

We are still waiting on that final fourth EV.

The one we had ordered had some issues, so they had to cancel that.

So we are expecting our final EV next month, and then then we'll be closing out that grant.

Um, and then as was mentioned in the presentation, we did apply for an urban forestry grant.

Um, so that is to do a canopy assessment as well as an urban forestry management plan.

Um very hopeful on that one, and you know, if if for whatever reason we don't happen to win that grant, we've got that narrative written, we've got a plan in place, so the next time you know these kind of grants come up, we'll be able to apply again if we don't get it this time.

Um we have successfully pre-filed for our 2025 elective pay projects.

So just a refresher on that.

Elective pay is the federal government IRS allowing for tax exempt entities to get a percentage cash back for clean energy projects.

So we did that.

We've so far we've applied the last two years, so we applied, so it's just like your regular taxes, you apply for the previous year.

So Coachman Park, the solar and the EVs, we applied the following year after that installed.

So in 2024, we applied for those which went in place in 2023, and then this year we applied for the um solar parking meters that we replaced, some of them from the storms last year.

Um, and then now for this year we're applying for well, we're getting ready to apply for 2025.

We've pre-filed, it's a it's a kind of a complicated process, obviously.

So we've pre-filed, and that'll be the remaining solar parking meters that were destroyed during the storms, as well as those four solar projects that we completed this year.

So the first year we got about a hundred thousand dollars back for the solar and the EVE chargers at Cushman Park.

Last year we got back um 25,000 for those solar parking meters.

Um, but now that we're talking about four major solar installations, um, we're looking, we don't have the exact number yet, but I will say it is more than half a million dollars.

So we're very hopeful on getting that.

Wow.

And then that will be part of the federal tax credit.

Yes, that's the federal tax credit.

Um then another thing I wanted to mention was we did uh receive the grant to the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council stormwater education grant.

Um I told you I think last time we had applied for two grants for our adopt a drain program, and we did officially receive that award.

We haven't heard back from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program grant yet.

That'll be announced probably I think in December.

But either way, we'll be moving forward with the program now that we've secured the first grant.

So we will be kicking that project off.

We've got to work with the um, it's an organization, a nonprofit that we're working with, adoptadrain.org.

So we'll be we've got a kickoff meeting with them coming up to get all of our marketing ready and all of um they they basically host the platform for us, and um so that'll be upcoming in January.

So we're looking forward to that project launch.

And then um, in addition to that, as you know, we typically do an outreach kind of campaign every quarter ish.

Um so right now we're in the middle or towards the end of pollinator power.

We've been talking about that.

We did several events.

Um we made the webpage myclear.com slash pollinators.

Um we've got the seed libraries at countryside and Clearwater East Library.

We've they've got book displays.

Um we planted some pots.

Is that yesterday?

Last week.

Um I wasn't there.

Um so that is our current campaign.

Um before that we had our beat the heat campaign over the summer, before that we had our climate friendly commuting.

So just uh a preview for our next upcoming campaign.

Um I just wanted to mention it because of our topic today, but we're going to have a uh ongoing campaign about resiliency.

So um we're calling it resilient clear water and then colon and then blank.

So this will be ongoing for the next year or so.

So we're gonna start with resilient clear water dot dot water, and we're gonna focus on you know stormwater education.

Well, there's a lot with water, so we'll probably end up redoing water a few times.

Um, but then that'll that campaign will continue probably all next year.

So it'll go resilient Florida or sorry, resilient clear water, then we'll probably look at heat or or green infrastructure and so forth and so on.

So that's gonna be kind of a long-term campaign.

So I just kind of wanted to mention it because we were talking about how important it is to have community engagement, so that's um what we want to be working on for sure.

And then the last thing I was going to mention, um, I'm sure you all are aware that the city council has voted to go ahead and consolidate um the EAB with the Parks and Rec Advisory Board and the Library Advisory Board.

So they they voted last week.

Um, so it's gone through the first reading, so it'll have to go to a second reading on November 20th.

Um so if that is to move forward, this will likely be la be our last EAB meeting.

However, you will have the opportunity and you will have the uh first dibs at joining the consolidated board, and that board, I'm I'm happy to say is going to be called the community resiliency and leisure services advisory board.

So it will have seven members, it will meet bi-monthly, meaning every other month.

Um so you've sorry, um you will have first dibs at that.

So the application will be the same application that you've used to get onto the environmental advisory board.

It has not been updated yet to have that option, but once it it has, or if you know, assuming everything goes forward, um, I will go ahead and I will send you a reminder email and say here's your link.

And so I hope that you all you know are still interested in serving, and then you'll you'll be able to apply to be on that board.

So there's gonna be seven members.

Seven members.

There's five.

There's five currently, yes.

Two other boards, how many other boards?

Um, I don't know off the top of my head.

I think they both may have seven on them already.

Okay.

Um so there, yeah, yes, not everybody will get on.

There is some thought that because it will be meeting bi-monthly.

All the boards right now currently meet quarterly, so it may be that that might deter some of the current uh board members.

Maybe they they won't have availability to meet more frequently.

Um it's gonna meet.

What's that?

What day of the week?

I don't have details on the date or the time.

Um, but I did also just remember that there will be a preference on that board, and is it for two or three?

I can't remember of the seven.

Three might be three.

Yeah, three of the seven members, there will be a preference for uh environmental background and education.

So you have an edge.

Education or experience, yes.

Yes, education or experience.

Three out of seven.

Yeah.

It's not that's not a mandatory thing, but it's a preference.

So I might think that most everybody on this you you've got, you know, you've been getting educated on environmental issues uh for the last what year or two at least.

So yeah, so we the I mean, also I think that we have our objective um incorporated into you know, our same objectives preserve provide citizen insight to the council and staff.

Um is it also include environmental activities within an affecting communities?

Do you know if that language is in there?

I didn't that's our key objective, and I and we are unique in that we just wanted to incorporate it into at least the citizen input.

I mean, this is going to be one of the now few forums in which citizens are going to be able to can be heard on items that are not on the agenda.

So we're citizens can bring issues of concern and uh or suggestions to a board who can also then bring it to council.

So one I've got it up now, but before I get into that, one other thing that I did request of the new board is that we be able to bring grant applications to this new board.

Um as you may be aware when you're applying for a grant before you even get the grant.

There's typically a section wanting to know is there citizen support for this type of project.

So we would want to be able to come to this board before we finalize the grant application, which is another benefit of this board meeting bi-monthly because grants sometimes pop up real quick, and but if we have more access to this to do that, um to this board to get some information about whether or not there's community support.

Um I have a question.

Yeah.

Um we actually talked about this just briefly before the meeting.

Um we have a hard time coordinating because the boards do uh traditionally because there's no work session prior to a meeting.

And so we get we get the agenda, but we're not able to talk because of sunshine laws.

So my suggestion is would it be possible we could get a work session with this board prior to an official meeting?

Well, the work session I think would still have to be public a public meeting.

Well, yes, yeah, absolutely.

But yeah, we can I can certainly pass that that on to city clerk's office.

Great.

Um I don't know if you did watch the city council last week, but that was one of the things that the mayor said that he um thinks that you know citizens could have be more effective if they had their own essentially private organizations, nonprofits to to kind of gather public input and support because of the sunshine laws and how it limits capacity of these types of boards.

Then also the um uh the objectives are gonna include uh education and outreach.

Yeah, we've got it open now here.

Okay, so it says the community resiliency and leisure services advisory board shall provide feedback and guidance to the city council on endeavors that enhance sustainable recreation parks, athletic fields, library services, and cultural programs at city facilities and foster community interest in events and initiatives that promote community well-being and environmental stewardship.

Advise on the establishment of rules or regulations governing governing the library system as requested, review challenges from a citizen who questions the inclusion of any item in the library collection as requested by the library director, hold public hearings for requests to rename a city park or portion of recreation facility, and provide the city council with a recommendation for a final decision, prioritize recreational needs for inclusion in the parks and recreation master plan, seek public sentiment on prospective grant applications as requested by the parks and recreation director and sustainability and environmental division manager, provide insight to city council on environmental activities within and affecting the city, identify educational opportunities and community outreach sessions on topics or initiatives supporting the city's community well-being and environmental stewardship objectives identified in the strategic plan.

Engage residents to build and strengthen community support and feedback on existing and future projects.

Yeah, so it does say three members with environmental science professional background preferred.

Okay.

So background.

That could be education experience, volunteer work.

Right.

And these are four-year terms.

And yeah, it sounds like there would be, you know, this committee might be gonna have I've been promised a lot of uh resources, staff, staff resources, so yeah, but we're gonna we're gonna be helping.

Yeah, four year staggered terms too with input.

And so yeah, it you know, it sounds like it's like it's an interesting board.

Um do you have any questions for uh regarding the director's report?

Any direct questions, comments?

Bravo.

All I can say, bravo.

Yeah, this is very very exciting.

And you well, I have one question.

What about the for the 2020 um okay?

So you think that we are gonna get a 30% on the pro the last four projects?

We will get the 30% on these last four.

They those are locked in.

The next four, we are on a very tight timeline to get them.

If we can get them started by December 31st of this year, okay.

Um, we will lock those in with the 30%.

If we don't get them started by December 31st, but we do get them started by July 4th of next year, right?

We can still get the 30% back with a little more paperwork involved.

Okay.

Um, so but you have a little grace period into 2026.

Yes, so I'm not guaranteeing that we're getting the 30% back for the next four, but for these last four that we that have been online since what August, um, those will definitely happen.

That will definitely happen.

Right.

Awesome.

Okay, any other comments?

Or um we'll um we'll finish out with uh any comments from the board.

Um board members to be heard.

So we'll start off.

Oh, real quick.

Sure.

Uh Jeremy Brown, Jeremy Brown and the Deputy City Engine City Engineer Public Works Department.

I just want to take a quick moment, thank you all for your participation.

But from my perspective, I'd like to just thank Cassie and Melody.

They've put a ton of effort, not only into this vulnerability assessment, but into all the initiatives you've seen her speak about.

I mean, the list is long, and there's probably a bunch that we still that we forgot to mention.

So just from from me to you, you know, I hope you all make it to the next board.

But if all you know, you you think there's only three on the board, you got a couple of people who are really fighting for the same issues that you support every day of every day when they come to work.

So I just want to say thank you to both of them.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good comments.

Um, so we'll start to the left.

Uh do you have any first and last meeting?

But it puts you in the running for the other board, so yes.

Um, yeah, so uh I I would like to concur with the gentleman just said.

Uh great work, a lot of work that was it's been accomplished.

Awesome.

Um, I do recall the city clerk saying that if the next board wants to have extra meetings, uh, she would be open to it.

And that's where my idea for work sessions kind of comes in.

Um, it's just an idea going forward.

So, but uh yeah, thank you.

I've enjoyed my first meeting here.

I didn't trip over my tongue in my first time on the dais.

So yes, thank you, Cassie.

I've enjoyed sitting on this board and uh working through the different new members we've had and kind of the flow of how it's gone.

Um this is a subject I'm passionate about too, so I really love to see where we've gone and the things we've done, but I echo what you say.

It's been very difficult in not having the extra time or being able to really talk about things and work through things and kind of even brainstorm together because we don't really get any kind of session where we can have dialogue and really debate things or fully hatch them out.

So I would really suggest that that happen as well.

Awesome.

Thank you, Kelly.

Yeah, uh have the pleasure of serving on the board for about a year now, actually.

I think it's like a year almost to the day.

And um, I've been impressed with with how much you guys have been able to get done in the city.

Um it's really been impressive over this past year to see all the amazing change and all the things that have been presented here.

And so no, I definitely wanted to echo that sentiment that you know really appreciate what you guys do for the city.

Uh so thank you.

I think my last comments will be down that line too.

Um I just want to basically I want to thank Cassie, Melody, um, our um uh Madam Secretaries, um and um and everyone on this board.

Thank you for your service to the A B and to the the community of Clearwater.

And with that, we're finally adjourned.