Okay, so I'm gonna, it's six o'clock.

We have everybody here.

I'm just gonna do a quick welcome to everyone.

My name is Teresa Creen.

I'm the director of resilience and sustainability for the city of Newport.

We are experimenting with an in-person viewing option here at Innovate Newport.

So I'm gonna put us on mute so we can watch the screen on the big screen in this wonderful event room.

Um with that, I want to just thank everyone for taking the time to participate in this presentation tonight.

Um the consultants will lead us through what took place in the different workshops in the month of June and also tee us up for what's coming next in this process.

Um, I just want to again thank everyone for turning out for the work workshops and meetings the week of June 16th through 18th.

I want to thank the beach commission for their participation in our Easton Speech Resilience Committee.

Um, so with that, I'm gonna just go right in.

It's 601.

I'm gonna turn it right over to Beth Kermsey, who is our consultant lead from uh the firm of Fuss and O'Neal, and I'm gonna put us on mute here at Innovate.

So if you guys need us to unmute, just give me a cue and I'll jump up to the podium.

Thank you.

Teresa, sorry to interrupt before Beth jumps in.

Did uh is it recording or do we need to hit a record button?

Correct.

It is recording already.

You're also there's a little red button at the top of the screen next to meeting info and the closed caption that indicates that we are recording.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, let me unmute myself.

You're not muted, Beth, I hear you.

I'm not okay.

It says that I'm sorry, I was trying to do that so you could read my lips because I got the uh message on the screen that said you're muted and can't unmute yourself.

Um thank you so much, everyone.

Thank you, Teresa, for uh for having us here tonight, and thank you everyone for spending your Monday evening with us uh to take a look at some of the work that was produced uh over the workshop and during the pause.

We're excited to um run through this agenda with you tonight.

So just a quick welcome.

We're gonna reiterate who the project team is and look at the project goals just to ground the conversation.

I'll be handing it over to um to Martha, who will be walking us through the project um background and workshop recap.

And then we'll be and then introducing the latest concepts and uh and then Ian will join the conversation to uh further introduce um these latest concepts that we cannot wait to share with you.

And then we'll reconvene with some closing remarks.

So who's on the project team?

The project team is led by DBVW.

Um so um Martha and Zach from DBW architects are um the the primes Fuss and O'Neills team of landscape architects, uh, planners, coastal engineers, civil engineers are um are providing support services there.

And Woods Whole Group is leading our um uh the analysis of uh coastal conditions.

And big thanks to Teresa, Bill Riccio, and Eric Reese for shepherd this project through um on behalf of the city.

We have also engaged an Eastern Speech Resilience Committee, and the purpose of this committee is not to replace the beach commission, but is to have us um a committee that is that consists of of interest groups that have an interest at Easton's Beach to make sure that we are able to carry out effective and um thorough public engagement with the community in the city and to advise on on things that are within their expertise.

So Easton's Beach today, as many of you know, uh this project team has been engaged with the city for a couple of years now, and we have during the course of looking at the facilities, and Martha will get into more detail in a little bit about that, but in the course of looking at the facilities at Easton's Beach, we have seen, we have witnessed an increased frequency and severity of storms.

We have witnessed storms wiping out the um the access ramps up to the promenade, come flooding into the rotunda, causing damage to the elevator in the rotunda within weeks of um of storms occurrence, uh causing heavy damage uh to the beach and the facilities there.

We know that the city is interested in not being reactive to these storms, but thinking ahead.

How can we get out ahead so that Easton supports the public's use of the beach?

How can we make sure that the beach is there for the next generation and the generation after that?

So we've been tasked in this phase of the work to look at creating a more resilient waterfront that will serve as a public amenity and sustain that shoreline access for all.

As be public beach in a premier city like Newport, we understand the importance of having this public amenity space to serve not only the residents, but also as a cornerstone to your tourism industry.

And how are we thinking about doing that?

We're thinking about doing that by employing nature-based solutions.

Nature-based solutions that consist of beach nourishment programs, consist of uh dune construction, bringing this welded barrier beach back to a form that allows it to naturally withstand the higher energy that it's being asked to absorb in these current conditions.

So we've been looking at um how the beach has been might serve the public and how that while serving the public, it can also be transformed into a place that is more readily uh prepared to absorb that energy that's coming by way of storms, by way of uh of rising tides by way of extreme precipitation.

And so we're looking to strike a balance.

Before this workshop kicked off, we held an event early on, a listening session to hear from the public on what Easton's Beach meant to you.

We wanted to listen to the public so that we're not coming in and telling you this is the only way that your beach can be.

We've we've tried to strike this as a as an inter as interactive as possible so that we can hear from as many people as possible, so that we can better understand how Easton's works now for the public and how it might continue to supply those needs, meet those needs in its new transformed, more resilient form.

So, a couple of key dates.

Um the public workshop just happened.

Here we are on June 30th.