BCC Minutes 02/24/2000 TH (District 4)February 24, 2000
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
FEBRUARY 24, 2000
LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County
Commissioners in and for the County of Collier, and also acting
as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of
such special districts as have been created according to law and
having conducted business herein, met on this date at 7:00 p.m.,
in a WORKSHOP SESSION held at the Conservancy of Southwest
Florida, 1450 Merrihue Drive, Naples, Florida, with the following
members present:
CHAIRMAN:
Timothy Constantine
Barbara B. Berry
John C. Norris
Pamela S. Mac'Kie
James D. Carter
ALSO PRESENT:
Mike McNees, Assistant County Administrator
David Weigel, County Attorney
Maria Ramsey
Leo Ochs
Vince Cautero
Edward Finn
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COLLIER COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
TOWN HALL MEETING
DISTRICT 4
AGENDA
Thursday, February 24, 2000
7:00 pm
Conservancy of Southwest Florida
1450 Merrihue Drive
Naples, Florida
NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON ANY AGENDA ITEM MUST REGISTER
PRIOR TO SPEAKING. SPEAKERS MUST REGISTER WITH THE COUNTY
ADMINISTRATOR PRIOR TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE AGENDA ITEM TO BE
ADDRESSED.
ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THIS BOARD WILL NEED A
RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS PERTAINING THERETO, AND THEREFORE MAY
NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE,
WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE
APPEAL IS TO BE BASED.
ALL REGISTERED PUBLIC SPEAKERS WILL BE LIMITED TO FIVE (5) MINUTES UNLESS
PERMISSION FOR ADDITIONAL TIME IS GRANTED BY THE CHAIRMAN.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION
A. Rural/agricultural assessment process update.
B. Goodlette-Frank Road widening project.
C. East U.S. 41 beautification.
!
2000
D. Status of Bayshore/Gateway redevelopment areas.
3. ADJOURN.
2
2000
February 24, 2000
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good evening, and welcome.
We'll call the workshop of February 24, 2000, of the Board of
County Commissioners to order.
If you'd stand with me and join me in saying a pledge to our
flag.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mr. McNees, do you have slips
anywhere in particular if members of the public are going to want
to speak?
MR. MCNEES: Up in the back by Jean Merritt.
MR. CONSTANTINE: If anybody is going to want to speak as
the evening goes on, we do ask you to sign up. You can do so at
the back left portion of the room, or if you're facing our way, it
will be the back right portion of the room.
First item for discussion is Rural/Agricultural Assessment
Process Update.
Mr. Mulhere?
MR. MULHERE: Thank you. Bob Mulhere, Planning director.
A little different perspective here tonight than I'm used to.
For the members of the public, I'll just do a very brief
background. The final order requires that Collier County conduct
an assessment of Rural/Agricultural areas. I have a map on the
very far wall over there, and I'll leave that up if anyone wants to
take a peek at the map during the evening.
The Board, on August 3, directed, in conformance with the
final order, that the process be bifurcated; and they appointed
two committees to oversee the process, one to look at the
process or oversee the process in the rural fringe lands, and the
other to oversee the process in the far eastern lands. That
committee is referred to as the Berry Committee.
The Berry Committee has met alternately in Immokalee as
well as in the urban area of Naples on about six occasions.
Currently they are on hiatus waiting for the first phase of the
scope of work by Wilson-Miller to be completed, although likely
they will reconvene sometime in the next four to six weeks to
look at some staff work.
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February 24, 2000
Okay. I'm going to explain the final order. The final order
was issued by the governor and cabinet sitting as the
Administration Commission to allow the County an opportunity to
correct what the governor and cabinet felt were deficiencies in
the comprehensive plan, particularly with respect to natural
resource protection.
And that really provides for a period of three years, or up to
three years, during which an assessment will be conducted to
study the area, collect data, and then develop comprehensive
plans to protect natural resources and to provide for alternative
plans for development and for agriculture in that area.
The other committee, the Rural Fringe Committee, has been
meeting every two weeks, and they have been meeting on a
consistent basis and dealing with matters before them with a
schedule -- a little bit more expedited schedule. They, they
expect to complete -- I really don't want to put a time frame on it,
but certainly within the next, say, 12 to 15 months.
The Rural Fringe Committee is currently looking at specific
levels of development that have been approved within that area,
and the staff is concurrently developing an evaluation matrix
that will be applied consistently throughout the entire
assessment area.
As an example, if we look at the, at the criteria of, for
example, wetlands, we'll be developing measures or developing
criteria to measure impacts on wetlands, not only on our current
comprehensive plan, but also on any alternatives that are
developed; and we'll apply that uniformly throughout the
assessment, whether it's in the fringe or in the farm/rural area.
The final order requires or calls for this to be a, a process
that has widespread public participation, and all of the meetings
are obviously advertised and open to the public. They're held in
various places, but the Fringe meetings are always held at the
Development Services Center at 5:15. The next meeting is on
March 8, and of course we invite the public to attend that; and
we will be advertising the next Berry Committee meeting, as it's
called.
In addition, we're doing some other things to try to engaged
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February 24, 2000
the public in the process.
First of all, all of the information minutes, agendas, maps,
and other pertinent documents are available for the public to
inspect and review on the County's web. That's Collier -- or
CO.COLLIER. FL. US; and we're adding information, as we have it,
onto that web page, so we invite the public to view that at any
time.
We're also developing with the County's IT Department a
web board, and that will be a process where we can post
electronically topics; and then at any point from, from their home
or wherever a computer is available, members of the public will
be able to respond to various topics that we post. We expect to
have that up and running within about a month.
And this will give us another opportunity -- as an example,
the DCA survey -- 72 percent of the people responding to the
Department of Community Affairs survey recently responded
electronically, so we do feel that this is going, this is going to be
a vital mechanism for the public to communicate with us.
When we've completed -- I guess I'm jumping around a little
bit -- when we've completed the evaluation matrix, the next step
for us will be to distribute that to a, a resource committee that's
been set up of various state and federal agencies, and chaired by
Bob -- Robert Cambrick from the DCA. They will then provide
input into the, the specific criteria that we, that we have
developed with the Fringe Committee and the Berry Committee,
and at that point we should be able to begin to evaluate the
alternatives.
Again, I think that the Fringe Committee is moving at an
expedited pace, and we expect them to finish up their work
sometime well before the far eastern lands and the Berry
Committee finish -- finishes its work.
I think that's basically it.
Any questions?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Berry, this has
kind of been your bailiwick. Anything you want to throw -- add in
there or--
COMMISSIONER BERRY: We're just waiting, at this point.
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February 24, 2000
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Mac'Kie.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Two things.
One is, why don't we use Channel 54 to televise the
committee meetings, whether through tape or otherwise,
because I would watch them. I can't show up every time, but I'm
sure there are other people who would tune in.
Has that been considered?
MR. MULHERE: Well, two things -- Commissioner Mac'Kie,
we're considering actually two things, and I'm glad you asked
that question, because I neglected to mention that we are
working with the IT Department to, to use available resources
such as the new Collier 2000 program to disseminate much of
the information as it becomes available.
As far as specifically taping the meetings, I do not believe
we have explored that though. I think that's an option that we
could work with the Office of Public Information on. I don't think
-- I don't know that it could be done live, but it certainly could be
taped and rebroadcast.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I don't think it would matter so
much if it were live, but I've found from watching the EAC, the
environmental committee, for example, that I learn a lot from
watching those meetings. I can't attend them, but I watch the
tapes; likewise, this is such a complicated process, if people
could watch it unfold, they'd have a lot better chance to
understand what's going on.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Berry?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: Just one comment on that.
Where we meet, first off, we meet -- we've met at the IFUS
Center out in Immokalee, not really conducive an area in terms
of we'd have to tape -- in terms of meeting out there, it would be
rather difficult. I don't know how Katie deals with lighting and
all those kinds of things, but it would, I think, present a problem.
Our other meetings have been held in the elections office as
opposed to, say, the EAC meetings, which are held in the
commission chambers, which is set up for doing all the taping
and those kinds of things.
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February 24, 2000
I certainly wouldn't be opposed to doing that. I just -- it
might be an imposition on staff, traveling out there to tape those
meetings and certainly not having the best of facilities out there
to, to tape those meetings, but whatever you-all choose to do is
fine with me.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: But if the majority of the Board is
at least interested in exploring it, I think it would be a good idea.
Is that something --
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: I don't mind exploring it. I think
that we've just got to make sure it's viable, and, and I think -- if
you remember the way our commission meetings used to be with
one camera, no displays, nothing, it was a, it was a hard watch
to watch that for any length of time. And that --
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: City Council now.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Yeah. If you're in a place where
you're set up -- yeah, that's a hard watch too -- if you're watching
in a place where it's difficult to set up.
Maybe our Collier 2000 program, if you can boil that into 20
minutes or something, it's better than nothing, but I have no
objection to have Katie or Gene and everybody explore what we
could or couldn't do.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Do you have a second question?
MS. MAC'KIE: No. That was it.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Wow. Great.
Second item, Goodlette-Frank Road Widening Project.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Are we going to offer people a
chance to speak on this topic or --
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Yes, we are.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: At the end.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: At the end.
MR. KANT: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Edward
Kant, Transportation Services Director.
I'd like to give you a brief status report on several issues
regarding Goodlette-Frank Road, the four-laning improvements
from Pine Ridge Road to Vanderbilt Beach, some median
landscape improvements from Salana to Pine Ridge, and a small
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February 24, 2000
roadway re-alignment project south in the city.
As you're aware, this past meeting the Board approved the
final roadway alignment and typical cross section for the
Goodlette-Frank four laning between Pine Ridge and Vanderbilt.
The final design plans will be prepared, and in the executive
summary, there are some dates which I'm not going to go over
because they may no longer be valid.
I was fortunate enough to meet with the consultant earlier
this morning, and I'm waiting to hear back, but preliminary
indications are that we're going to be able to significantly
accelerate that time schedule for design right-of-way and
construction start-up.
We've asked them to see if they could take six to nine
month off the design period, and in doing so, it will give us an
early jump on some of the right-of-way issues, and it's entirely
possible that we could be looking at as much as a year early in
starting this project. But I will report that back to you officially
at a Board meeting probably within the next month or so.
The other project -- another project is the median landscape
project along Goodlette-Frank Road between Salana and Pine
Ridge Road. It's about a one-mile -- excuse me -- it's about a
one-mile project. It's a public-private partnership-type project.
It's going to cost a total of 340,000, of which 110,000 will be
from private sources, and the remainder from the public funding.
The design plans are due in March, about the 15th of March,
with the construction program to begin later this summer, or give
or take Labor Day, about six months' worth of construction on
that.
And finally, at the southern end of Goodlette-Frank Road,
anybody who's ever traveled north and discovered that as they're
moving north, all of a sudden there's a storm water pump station
in their way, will be happy to hear that the City of Naples is going
to be relocating that; and we've worked out a joint agreement
with the City that, as part of that, they will also then rebuild that
third lane.
And from my point of view -- I imagine it's somewhat selfish,
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February 24, 2000
'cause all we're going to have to do is write a check, because
they're going to do the whole job, and we won't have to get
involved in construction or anything with that.
They probably won't get around to doing that though until
about the end of this year, because they have to build the new
pump station before they tear the old one down.
Unless there's questions, that's all I have in this report.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Questions for Mr. Kant?
(No response.)
MR. KANT: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thanks, Ed.
The next item was item C, which is the East U.S. 41
Beautification.
MR. FINN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
For the record, Edward Finn, Interim Public Works
Administrator. Much like Mr. Kant's report, this actually
involves a couple of different items.
The first item is a brief update on the U.S. 41 median project
on the north side of Seagate to Gulf Park Drive.
That project is under way. It's currently at 90 percent
construction plans. The total project cost is estimated about
$502,000. There has been a grant application submitted for
$200,000. That project is scheduled for substantial completion
by June 30, 2001. The other project update on this item is U.S.
41 East between Davis Boulevard and Rattlesnake Hammock,
and as the Board might recall, that project is broken into two
segments.
The first segment to be constructed is between Davis
Boulevard and Airport Pulling Road, and the second segment
identified as B is Airport Pulling Road to Rattlesnake Hammock.
The phase A project is scheduled to commence construction
on 5/1/00, and be completed by January -- I'm sorry -- by
December '00.
The second phase is scheduled to commence construction
on January '01 and be completed by October '01.
The phase B segment, for the phase B segment, we have
submitted a grant application for $200,000.
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February 24, 2000
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Questions for Mr. Finn?
(No response.}
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much.
MR. FINN: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Item D, status of
Bayshore/Gateway Redevelopment Areas.
Mr. Kant, welcome back to the podium.
CHAIRMAN MAC'KIE: Just a -- I'm sorry --
MR. KANT: Actually, I'm just warming everybody up for Ms.
Preston.
This was an item --
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Ed --
MR. KANT: This is a separate item from the --
Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Where is that -- well, that's a
separate item, the Bayshore/Gateway Redevelopment.
There's also an item in our packet for the Bayshore median
landscape project status report.
MR. KANT: And that's what I'm here to report on.
I can speak to the agenda listing. There must -- there was
obviously some kind of a mix-up. I just want to give you about 30
seconds on this landscape project, because it is a separate
project from the redevelopment project and is moving ahead.
The construction plans are about 90 percent complete. We
anticipate having those complete within the next couple of
weeks.
The bidding and award of the contract should take place in
60 to 75 days after that, and the work will start somewhere
around April or May, with a completion date in October.
The overall project is about a million-two. That seems like a
lot of money for just a mile and a half, but it does -- it is more
than just landscaping. The overall project will include some
street furniture, sidewalks, some driveway re-alignments.
We've been working very closely with the residents in the
area, and I think that when the project is complete, it's going to
kind of set the pace for what other people are going to have to
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February 24, 2000
measure up to for similar types of projects.
If there are any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Mac'Kie.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: One -- actually, two questions.
Does the project you just described include the bridge
improvements, or is that a separate project?
MR. KANT: No. That includes the bridge improvements.
There is a $200,000 grant from FDOT. What we're -- in order to
keep the project moving, we're going to finance it, and then that
will be paid back in the FDOT's fiscal year. It's -- there's about a
two-year lag there.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Is there a final design yet on that
bridge?
MR. KANT: It's close, but not final, not, not just yet. We
hope, as I say, within the next two to three weeks we'll have the
final plans.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: It's something to see.
The other question I have is --I hope it's a typo that -- on the
schedule, it talks about a design start of February 1, '99; and
then construction, it says April I of 20017
MR. KANT: That's a typo. It should say '00.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Thank God.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: That's this April, two months from
now.
MR. KANT: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Construction starts soon.
That's great. That's all I wanted to know.
MR. KANT: Well, we've already done some construction.
We've done all the subsurface borings for the irrigation,
electrical sleeves, and there's a -- an entry feature that's been
placed.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And this is a project paid for by the
people in Bayshore in the area; they developed an MSTD to pay
for it? MR. KANT: That's correct. It's a, it's a self-taxing
district. They've taxed themselves 3 mills, and they're raising
about a half million dollars a year for three years to pay for the
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February 24, 2000
project.
MS. MAC'KIE: Big bucks.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Which takes us to the Gateway
redevelopment area.
Ms. Preston.
MS. PRESTON: Debrah Preston, for the record, with the
Planning Services Department.
On the easel over to your right is the boundary map for the
Bayshore/Gateway Redevelopment -- proposed redevelopment
area, and the blue area that is highlighted on that map is phase 1
of the zoning overlay that we are also working on for that area to
encourage private developers to come in and start to redevelop
the area.
On the floor is the large map that also is the conceptual
redevelopment plan that was created by Landers Atkins and
adopted by the Board in concept in November of 1999.
The Board has given direction to the staff to proceed with
the creation of a community redevelopment agency, and we plan
on bringing back that item to the Board on March the 14th to
establish the CRA and also to adopt a finding of necessity for
both Bayshore/Gateway and the Immokalee area.
The overlay that I had discussed briefly in the blue area will
be adopted in the LDC hopefully by December of 2000, and staff
is also working on a comprehensive plan amendment which will
help to initiate some of the redevelopment efforts, and that
should also be before the Board by December of 2,000.
Do you have any questions at this time?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you very much.
With that, let's go to the public speakers.
Mr. McNees, we have two?
MR. MCNEES: We do. First would be Bill Boggess.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Good evening, Bill.
And he'll be followed by --
MR. MCNEES: -- Mr. Pennington.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Both those names sound vaguely
familiar.
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February 24, 2000
MR. BOGGESS: Good evening. I think you-all know me, but
my name is Bill Boggess, former beach committee member and a
retired civil engineer.
I have for several years been concerned about the illegal
placement of rocks on our beaches, both Vanderbilt and Naples.
You have a report that you paid some 40,000, $50,000 for it,
which was withheld from July until December.
Finally it was released in December with the excuse that the
attorneys wouldn't release it, which is fine.
If you review this report, you compare the findings that this
report and the findings that your expert consultant Coastal
Engineer had done on Naples Beach, and you will see that there
is twice -- more than twice the amount of buried rock in
Vanderbilt Beach as there was in Naples Beach.
And I know you're particularly interested in that because
you've -- Chairman, because you've raised questions in the past
over it, is this the only area?
No, Naples isn't the only area.
Currently your Mr. Huber, who seems to be the only person
that's in charge of this project, has issued a memo to the former
County Administrator Fernandez through the former public works
administrator as of December 13 that everything's hunky-dory;
the state and the Corps of Engineers will let us just drive by, pick
up the rocks once a week, and forget it.
Just this day I had an e-mail from the Corps of Engineers in
Jacksonville. This is not the case. Their noncompliance letter
means what it says. You do have rocks.
They do agreed with our analysis of this report, and when
are you going to go up there?
Mr. Carter and I have discussed this, as did Mr. Johnston
with Mr. Carter. And if you want, I can show you pictures of Mr.
Johnston's.
The question is, when are you going to do anything about
the Vanderbilt Beach?
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mr. McNees, do we have
anybody qualified to respond to that here this evening?
MR. MCNEES: I think Mr. Finn is as close as we're going to
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February 24, 2000
get. If he's -- if he's not, we can sure put an answer together
for you, but I don't really don't want to put him on the spot, but
he may be prepared --
MR. FINN: Thank you for that vote of confidence, Mike.
MR. BOGGESS: We don't need an answer. Just want to
bring it forth to you that we -- me and my cohorts and other
people are concerned and fully aware of this and think that you
should.
We're fully aware that the investigation that you started
December 16, 1997, is coming to a climax this following -- this
next month, that is, the attorney Sigfried will be submitting his
report; and hopefully he don't bury that somewhere like this got
buried for six months, because there's going to be some
explosive information in that report that you need to act on
immediately.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
MR. BOGGESS: So that's all I have to say.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Ed, here's your question for you:
Do you have any idea when the report -- next report is scheduled
to come back to the Board of County Commissioners?
MR. FINN: That report is being done by the county
attorney's office. I don't know if they're prepared to answer
that.
My understanding is, another four weeks before that's
complete.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: March 28, is that a target date,
by any chance?
MR. WEIGEL: I can't say that it's absolutely March 28,
because as recently as within the last 10 days, there were two or
three final -- final items from both T.L.
James from Coastal and from the County that the attorney
and our consultant, a hdryogeological engineer, needed to have
so that they could put the final wrap on the report that they have.
I can tell you that the report is ostensibly ready at this point.
In conversation with counsel, I have a very good idea of where
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February 24, 2000
it's going to lead us. I can't say for sure that it will be on the
March 28 agenda, but we're looking to have it for you with not
only Mr. Sigfried's report, but the county attorney's
recommendation, if not at that time, very shortly thereafter.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Is it fair to assume a March or
April time frame?
MR. WEIGEL: No foolin'.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: All right. Thank you.
Mr. Pennington will be our final speaker.
MR. PENNINGTON: After Bill, I'm easy.
Thank you all for coming here tonight and sort of turning
things around, and I for one appreciate the fact that you-all come
out into the community on occasions to meet with the
community.
I must say I'm greatly embarrassed though that more of the
community is not here to meet with you.
Maybe there was a misunderstanding on the part of a lot of
people. There certainly was on my part. I didn't know anything
about a meeting until noting in the paper this morning that there
was going to be a town hall meeting for District 4. I'm
anticipating that Commissioner Mac'Kie was going to be here to
have District 4 people here to discuss things locally with District
4.
So I came in -- I'm amazed. I thought at first the rest of you
were coming in to see how she was going to do it, so I really had
no idea that this was what it was, so -- but thank you for meeting
here. And this would be one of your shortest meetings, it
appears.
The thing that I was going to speak to you -- and I'm not sure
that it's totally appropriate under these circumstances, but I'll
follow along with a little saying such as Bill did, but mine's a bit
different.
During the course of this past summer, why, we moved from
the south side of Doctors Pass to the north side of Doctors Pass,
and there's a gross inadequacy of sand on the beach up there
because the renourishment project never got down that far, so
you -- along Gulf Shore Boulevard in the vicinity of the
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February 24, 2000
Continental Club, for example, there's hardly any beach there.
And so there was intent, starting in January, I understood,
that there was going to be sand trucked in there to fill in that,
that void.
And then, as I understand, the quality of the sand was
different than that that had been previously from the same quarry
area, so that was stopped by action of DEP; I believe.
I understood that was being resolved. I haven't seen
anything else about this, so it is certainly a matter of concern for
those of us that use that beach area, which there are quite a
number of people, not just the local people, but at the beach
access points there.
And so we need some sand, and we won't mind even if we
get a few of Bill's rocks in there too, just to get us some sand up
there.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mental note: Move Bill's rocks to
Ron's neighborhood.
Mr. McNees.
MR. MCNEES: For the benefit of Jean Merritt, since she's not
here to see for herself obviously, I won't even attempt to recite
the litany of channels that she attempted to broadcast this
meeting through any number of sources and what it was and
what it was about.
And we try as hard as we can, but they don't let us go to people's
houses and drag them to the meetings, so I think it's just fair --
because I know Jean worked very, very, very hard to make this --
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: It's been interesting.
This is actually the fifth in a series of five, one in each
district, and we've got some -- couple of meetings have had huge
turnouts, and a couple of meetings haven't had much at all, so --
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We like what you're doing.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, that's what I was going to
say, but I thought maybe I'd just better not at that point. It looks
like District 4 is very-well satisfied with what's going on.
MR. PENNINGTON: We're either, either satisfied or totally
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February 24, 2000
ignorant.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mr. McNees.
MR. MCNEES: Just one more thing that I need to inform
you-all of, just since we're here, it just came in the
commissions-hate-surprises category, and having no other way
to talk to you, we've had a couple of incidents involving the
dispatch center that the sheriffs run where there has been some
slow dispatching of the helicopters and perhaps judgment calls
made incorrectly regarding which helicopter is going to be called
in, Dade, Broward, Collier.
There is a related issue that you're also aware of. We've
had some staffing problems in the helicopter operations, and
there's been a little bit of down time with the helicopter to deal
with that. We're resolving that.
A particularly enterprising and probably even more creative
young reporter has made a -- has manufactured a connection
between those two issues, and is apparently telling the story on
the television that those are related, that there's a slow
response because of the lack of pilots; and it's essentially a
fabrication, but it has been on the News. I wanted you-all to
understand what it was about, and I'd be happy to provide further
information.
But in the category of don't like you to see things on TV
before you hear them from us, I thought this would be a good
opportunity to kind of let you know what that's all about.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Too late.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Thank you.
Commissioner Berry, comments?
COMMISSIONER BERRY: No.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Norris?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Just one more item, going back to
the Goodlette Road extension, I saw a nasty letter from a -- an
attorney that was purporting to represent the Calusa Bay
interests, and I just wanted to verify one more time -- I did this in
the meeting on Tuesday -- but just wanted to verify that, that the,
the berm in question is in fact built on our road right-of-way?
MR. KANT: To the best of my knowledge -- Edward Kant -- to
Page 16
February 24, 2000
the best of my knowledge, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Okay. So we have every right in
the world to say, move your berm from our right-of-way?
MR. KANT: If it comes to that, I can't give you a legal
opinion on that; but technically, if we need to get in there, we
have a 15-foot easement.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, I think Mr. Weigel could
probably give us an opinion on that.
MR. WEIGEL: The road right-of-way does give certain we'll
call it inherent rights in the County.
There is a possibility that another party that has some kind
of property interests may be in that road right-of-way, but only to
the extent that it is not a problem with the full use of the road
right-of-way as it develops, so --
The one thing that we would look at, to be quite candid, is,
any other promises the County may have made, if it were
involved in such a transaction, to cause the developer to be in
the right-of-way in the first place, but as far as the property right
of the right-of-way, I expect that it's a dominant -- a right that the
County has there.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner Carter.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: Two things.
One is with the beaches in Naples. I seem to recall that we
approved about a million-two to use the Parker Webb system,
and my question would be, if we can't truck sand in there, why
aren't we using that system to begin to build the beach?
MR. PENNINGTON: May I speak to that?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: The speaker will answer that
question.
MR. PENNINGTON: If you want an answer.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Mr. Finn?
MR. FINN: If I may, Edward Finn, director. The problem with
the trucked-in sand is one that has only recently come up. We
are diligently exploring alternatives to that. We're hoping to find
another on-shore sand source, and we hope to have that solution
wrapped up within three or four weeks.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Do you have another item,
Page 17
February 24, 2000
Commissioner Mac'Kie?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: But the question I think was the
Parker Webb. What's the status of that?
MR. FINN: That is not currently something that's under
consideration to solve this particular problem.
COMMISSIONER CARTER: And is there a reason why we
wouldn't?
MR. FINN: Because our plan calls for trucking in sand, and
our hope is, we can find that source. I think your professional
staff finds that to be a more guaranteed approach to renourishing
the beach. CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Commissioner
Mac'Kie, anything? COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: No, just
that I wish we had a better turnout, and we have been a little
informal in these workshops in other districts, and I hope that if
anybody got here and didn't fill out a slip but wants to get to say
something or has something they want to say that you'll allow
them to do that.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Just in case. You need four
members or five members of the public.
CHAIRMAN CONSTANTINE: Going, going, gone.
Going once, going twice.
Thank you all for coming. Have a wonderful night.
Pleasure to see you all.
Page 18
February 24, 2000
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 7:39 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO G~VERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL/DISTRICT5~ UNDER ITS CONTROL
TI M OTH~/rCON~STANTI N E, CHAIRMAN
Attest as to Chairman's
si~t.~re onl$.
ATTEST:
DWIGHT E. BROCK, CLERK
:- ,,'~ 'TheSe;minutes approved by the Board on
.PreSented ~ ~" or as corrected
., as
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT
REPORTING SERVICE, INC. BY SANDRA B. BROWN
Page 19