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BCC Minutes 08/23/1994 W (Strategic Plan)BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS STRATEGIC PLANNING CONFERENCE August 23, 1994 9:00 a.m. Collier County Main Library 650 Central Avenue Naples, Florida REPORTED BY: Jaclyn M. Ouellette Deputy Official Court Reporter TELE: OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS McMiller Reporting Service, Inc. 20th Judicial Circuit - Collier County 3301 East Tamiami Trail Naples, Florida 33962 (813) 732-2700 FAX: (813)774-6022 OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 2 BOARD MEMBERS: BETTYE MATTHEWS JOHN NORRIS BURT SAUNDERS MICHAEL VOLPE STAF[: GEORGE ARCHIBALD - Transportation Administrator DICK CLARK - Community Development Administrator TOM CONRECODE - OCPM Director NEIL DORRILL - County Manager JENNIFER EDWARDS - Assistant to the County Manager BILL HARGETT - Assistant County Manager KIM PINEAU - Emergency Services BILL LORENZ - Environmental Services Administrator MIKE MCNEES - Budget Director LEO OCHS - Administrative Services Administrator TOM OLLIFF - Public Services Administrator MIKE SMYKOWSKI - Utilities Administrator AI,SO PRESENT: PROFESSOR LESLIE "PEPPER" MARTIN OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 2 MS. MATTHEWS: Why don't we all have a seat and get started. Mr. Dotrill, would you lead us in the invocation? MR. DORRILL: Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for this opportunity to once again begin to look at the future of this County and to develop not only the strategic vision for the County but the associated work plan of the staff that will become next year's measure by which we succeed and we thank you for the process, we thank you in particular for Professor Martin and the work and voluntary effort that he has brought to this process this year as well as the board's commitment and the associated work of the staff. We'd ask that you bless our time here together this morning and we pray these things in your Son's holy name. (Pledge of Allegiance) COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I believe we have some -- you wanted to make some announcements? MR. DORRILL: As part of the welcome, the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 4 Clerk of the Circuit Court is here this morning, Mr. Brock, and I think that he wants to introduce not only to the Board but my staff and members of the public and press who are here our new chief fiscal officer and finance director. Mr. Brock? MR. BROCK: Thank you, Neil. Staff members and Commissioners, I'd like to introduce to you Ms. Katherine Henkins. She's my new finance director. She's here to try to provide you with the information that you need throughout the year to make your decisions in an intelligent manner. She can be reached at my office at 8404 at any time. If you will let us know what it is that you are looking for, we will try to provide it to you. Sometime back we -- or I sent to you a letter requesting what reports it was that you would like to see in the future from the Clerk's Office and to this point in time I have not had any response, but during the next month or so, Ms. Henkins is going to be communicating with each of the commissioners in an attempt to try to derive from you what it is that you would like to see in terms of financial reporting from OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA the Clerk's Office. Any guidance or assistance that you can give us in trying to accomplish that from the commissioners as well as the staff. It is our hope and our desire to try to provide for you the information that you need to make the decisions that you have to make in the operations of the County, so anything that we can do in trying to facilitate that, please don't hesitate to give us a call. That's what we're here for. That's what the constitution provides the clerk's function as, is one of providing you with the County auditing information. So, any time we can help you, we are here. Katherine is monitoring the County Commission meetings. If there is an issue that comes up that you would like some information on, all you have to do is -- I think each one of you has a telephone, they are in the boardroom, get on the telephone and give Katherine a call at 8404, she can come right down with the information that you are looking for if we can get it. If we can't, we'll come down and tell you that we will get it when we can. I just wanted to introduce her to you. She's OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 6 been a super person so far. She is a very good accountant. I wanted to let you know that we are here to serve you as beet we can. We are going to depart. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Thank you. MR. DORRILL: One other brief word of housekeeping, because the board will be away today and next Tuesday as well and not meeting again until September the 6th, I wanted for purposes of the record establish that we had the board approve the manager's availability to accept and approve routine and essential type items in the board's absence and report any of those that are approved to the board at your first meeting back in September. There have not been any thus far but I wanted to re-establish that this morning, because you will not be meeting for the next two weeks. By way of quick introduction this morning, Professor Martin had sent to the board and the staff a little recoup memo at the end of last week. I'm not going to go over that because I hope you have had a chance to review that for yourselves. I wanted to Just quickly establish the purpose OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 7 3 of the meeting this morning. The chairman will not be here and Ms. Matthews will serve as chairman for purposes of the meeting this morning. The board had originally identified the eight categories of strategic planning for the County at its meeting back in May, and associated in with that the staff has been directed to prepare an annual plan of work to effectuate that particular strategic goal. The purpose of that again was to have initial goals but then objectives and indicators that are measurable and have associated dates and deadlines and schedules with them so there will be some basis to determine whether or not we have been successful when we get to the end of this. It's hard to believe but I guess this is our fourth meeting that we have had and our first meeting was back in February. This is the last meeting scheduled for this fiscal year. The staff's work plan will begin on October the 1st. We are a little -- we will be halfway through as a result of our efforts here today. The areas that are going to be covered today are the environmental conservation strategic goals and OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIOA 8 the quality of life, which could involve an awful lot of you. By way of introduction, that is all that I had to say. I think that's the purpose and we will get right to work and have the division administrators present to the board the proposed work plan. Professor, have you got anything to say? MR. MARTIN: I just want to say, welcome once again. I hope you recognize me. I was here the last time a couple months ago. I want to reiterate the fact that when I went out and did some research with people on the streets, verbally asking them what they thought was going on in here, we got a very good report for the eight areas of strategic planning that you had selected. This has been reinforced. If you will read the papers and listen to the other media, these same eight topics seem to be propping up all over the area, all over the state and in fact all over the United States. It seems that you have hit the nail right on the head and you will be complimented for that because, you know, it was was a long, tough haul. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA Now, John, do you want to givu us a hand? (Laughter) MR. MARTIN: Since that meeting, I have talked to some of these same people as a sounding board. They are still very pleased, don't get me wrong, but they are somewhat dismayed at the fact that we have taken quite a while to get here and now here we are at our last meeting. So, really, our first year is gone and the five year plan that I had suggested to help ease us into a ten year plan, which is yet to come, the first year now becomes an operation year after this meeting. So, you see, we are really, after this meeting today, luckily we'll be halfway through a four year plan. So, what I'm saying to you, I hope some way along the way we can get some suggestions from the commissioners and from other interested people to hopefully speed this up somehow and get at least these first eight categories for the first five years on paper. With that, I'm turning it over to Bill Lorenz, who is going to talk about water. MR. LORENZ: Thank you. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA Starting on Page 10 of the planning documents, on the potable water resources, one thing I think that needs to be done is the cross reference on Page 1, the Utilities Division is looking at A.S.R. That needs to be reflected at this particular point, too, because that is determining what a future water supply source is. But the item that we have listed under the potable resources is to finalize ground water recharge management plan. Staff has identified areas in the County that have higher ground water recharge, increments of ground water recharge through them and worked through EPTAB at this particular point and determined, from a regulatory perceptive, that the South Florida Water Management Direct's criteria for permitting water management system is sufficient to protect ground water recharge characteristics of the sites. However, we won't be able to finalize that plan in F/Y '95, and also take a look at some other strategies, other than regulatory strategies. The prime -- the areas of highest ground water recharge in the County is in the northern part of the County going up from a little bit south of Immokalee Road, going all the way east of the County through the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 11 Immokalee area. Those are the areas that we would then start to look at some other types of strategies for protection, either looking at supporting the CREW effort as one item, supporting the Big Cypress Basin Board's efforts to raise water control structures or other types of mechanisms that that management plan will have. So, the next fiscal year we would be looking to finalize that management plan and bring it back. The second item under protection or the first item under protection and preservation of natural systems is actually another O.C.P.M. item. I'm not sure if Tom wants to jump in and discuss that item. MR. CONRECODE: By way of brief introduction, we'll bring an item to the board within the next several weeks regarding the acquisition of a mitigation bank for future County road projects and we look over the next four or five year period in continuing that process to expand the mitigation banking area and other future capital projects as well as potentially develop that area for the surface water recharge or for specific habitat protection areas and potentially easements for future park sites. That is kind of in a nutshell what exactly we OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA are going to do with that particular effort. MR. DORRILL: Geographically, where are we at? MR. CONRECODE: Well, we have looked at principally properties in the Belle Meade area, which are also considered additions to CREW and also sensitive areas north of Belle Meade and a lot of that is for habitat. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Belle Meade, because it's my understanding that the Belle Meade area to the south is an area that is critical also and the omission of that in your comment sort of diminishes the importance of that and I would like you to comment on whether you view the Belle Meade area as an area of significance that we focus on also or if it's an area you feel that we don't need to focus on. MR. LORENZ: The ground water data that we have gotten from the South Florida Water Management District indicates that the areas of highest recharge are the northern part of the County, not in that Belle Meads area. So, to simply look at recharge as a criteria for Belle Meade, it does not rank up there as opposed to the CREW area and areas north of the County. I'm glad you mentioned OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: The Belle Meade area seems to be important for reestablishing sheet flow through the Rookery Bay, Henderson Creek area. Talking about the ground water resources, I have got four items that I'd like to know a lot more information about so that we can make a decision, and that is that the benefits and problems with aquifer recharge versus drainage, surface water drainage. What are the benefits? Why is it that we have not really gotten into recharge? We are told for many different areas recharge in the northern part of the County is what we really ought to be doing, yet for some reason we are not investing in that, we are not investing in our own future supply of water. The other -- the next question that I have is on the other end of the scale, not water supply but water demand. What are we doing [or conservation efforts? Again, I don't think we are doing a whole lot in that area. While I was writing this stuff up yesterday, I just had one quick thought, in conservation only, but when I turn my kitchen hot water tap on, it OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORID 14 takes almost five minutes of water flow to get hot water and my kitchen is 35 or 40 feet away from the hot water heater. I'm losing five, six, seven gallons every time I turn that hot water spicket on and the same is true with the showers and so forth. Is there some way that we can put into our building codes some method for putting hot water, small hot water booster tanks in the house for a nominal amount of money where you could turn the hot water tap on, you have got hot water in ten seconds, 15 seconds maximum and save this six, seven, eight gallons in every household several times a day? That is just one quick thought, and I'm not in the industry, so --- MR. DORRILL: Let'$ see if we can get a quick answer as we go along, because I know that there are some recirculation devices that are available. MR. CLARK: There is and it's a very good point, and that's why I think that the relative expense in the real world scenario of expense and water conservation, the technology is there now that they have and it kind of looks like an electric panel box only it's like a water panel box, and it has each -- for each OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 15 bath tub, each source of water, comes right into this or has its own line rather than going from the hot water heater and going sequentially from the sink to the bath tub so that the end of the house is the coldest one and takes a long time to get there, but each one has its own direct source of hot water. They are doing that now and it's a good point. It may be beneficial to us to look at that. If the board directs us to do so, and I suggest you may want to do that, to put some sort of initiative, some sort of motivation for builders to do that -- in other words, some sort of incentive for private single family houses to do that. The expense to do that for a single family house is probably in the area of a thousand dollars. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: That seems really high, and I say this because this small water heater concept that I'm thinking about, I used a five gallon hot water heater my office complex in Maryland years ago and the whole thing, installation under the sink in the kitchen area, was $75, I believe, and it was about the size of a propane tank and it was very, very adequate water for washing dishes, making coffee, fixing lunch OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA and so forth in an office and I had no other hot water supply in that building, except this little five gallon hot water heater. To me, i[ we were looking at something comparable to that in the average home today where you have one of these things under the kitchen sink or near the master shower, to me you are talking $150 or $200 and saving hundreds of dollars over time in water. MR. CLARK: But with your suggestion, I think it would be good for us at the County to take a look at options to see if that -- that may well be the more practical option to look at technology available and that has been available for sometime, like you said, to see if there is some initiative that we can put in the system, talk to the industry and see if there are ways of conserving not only water but costs. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I think I would like to see, and I don't know if the others agree with me or not but I would like to see more direction in the conservation area. I understand that our average household is using 200 gallons of water per day, which equates roughly to 100 gallons per day per person of sewage, and OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA if we are looking at half a million people here we are going to need a lot more water treatment, waste water treatment plans and it seems to me one of the best ways we can go is to try to reduce the use. The 200 gallons a day I'm told is high for a national average in that category. You may want to --- MR. HARGETT: No, it's low. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I'm told it's high, but anyway, whatever we can do so that we are keeping our citizens involved in conservation efforts and keeping potable water and saving of it. The next --- MR. NORRIS: Before you get to that, can I comment? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Yes. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: I think it's a great idea to make these conservation efforts. What you are suggesting, as we all know, is the technology ie here, it has been here for quite sometime, whether it's recirculators or satellite heaters like you are talking about, but you have to keep in mind you are going to pay a premium somewhere to do that, and the premium you are OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 18 6 going to pay is electricity, electric costs and electric usage, which means somewhere at some generating plant you are increasing the use of fossil fuels by consuming more electricity to have instant hot water at every tap in the house, so while conservation -- it's a good conservation method of water, but don't forget that you are increasing the use of electricity. That's one thing that you need to keep in mind whenever thinking about making an ordinance to require people to do something. Don't forget that there is more than one consideration involved in something like this. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I think what Betty is suggesting -~ she's giving an example, just an iljustration -- and I think she's suggesting and we are all suggesting that we need our staff to take a look at what other communities are doing for conservation, not just for hot water, water conservation, but there are other aspects of conservation, I think. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Mr. Lorenz, would you refresh my recollection? This is not the first time we have discussed this. As I recall, we are under some compulsion to develop a water conservation program which I thought we OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 19 were in the process of doing, so this is not --- MR. LORENZ: Fred Bletcher had provided a report on water conservation strategies of which a number of strategies the Utilities Division has implemented and are implemented through the building code. If the board were so inclined, that report could come before the board in a formal setting and looking at various proponents of the comprehensive water conservation strategy, say, yes, we agree that these are appropriately implemented but there may be some others that you may want to go forward on and --- COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Wasn't that a part of the process of volume metric billing? I mean, we were getting into our rate structures we --- MR. DORRILL: I think it's part and the only point Bill is trying to make is that the water management districts are going to compel users who have consumptive use permits to develop a water conservation plan and while the issue here has to deal with the ground water resources, and I thought it was a good point to make, we are going to be compelled to increase it when we go to renew our consumption use permits with OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 2O the South Florida market. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Commissioner Matthews made a point, but just to pick up on that, what I'm not quite sure I understand, isn't the South Florida Water Management District ~orking on some management plan and isn't the D.E.P. as well working on some water resource management plan? MR. LORENZ: The Water Management District has developed a water supply plan for the lower west coast. That plan was geared towards looking at what the impact of future withdrawals would have on the environment and there was some strategies that were established in that plan. I'm not sure how much utilities is involved. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: We are not working with whole cloth here. There are other regulatory 'authorities that have already begun the process and the D.E.P. is working on a management plan. It seems to me, as part of the process, I mean, we can buy into that plan, which is what I think we should do, but I don't think we ought to be spinning our wheels when I believe that a fair amount of this work is already underway and, I mean, obviously we want to be a part of that relationship, but I suspect that we 21 are not acting independently of what South Florida Water Management is doing and the D.E.P. because those water resources are not only impacting upon Collier County but they're regional and they are affecting a number of different counties so, I mean, it's a resource that goes beyond the jurisdiction of Collier County. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: My point in this is not to say that we need to reinvent the wheel or that we need to duplicate anybody else's efforts, but that I just simply would like to know what is being done at whatever level because at this point I'm not aware. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: I think that is one of the things that the staff should probably bring back to the Board, and I mean it's just the sort of thing that Mr. Bletcher has been working on and the kind of plans that I believe are evolving with the D~E.P. and South Florida Water Management. MR. DORRILL: What I would probably suggest is that under our central service category, that we go back and since we have got a draft element of a County water conservation plan, we may want to present that to the board as a legitimate item, but incorporate that into the work plan to develop and have the board adopt the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA water conservation plan and have us ahead of the curve a little bit of what ultimately the Water Management District is doing. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Could I ask Mr. Archibald a question? Mr. Archibald, what are the plans, if any, as it relates to U.S. 41 between 951 and Miami in terms of four lanes, in terms of any improvements to that corridor. Do you know? MR. ARCHIBALD: There is none in the state's five year plan and there is a strategic plan, they do recognize the need for improvement between 951 and 92, but not beyond that point from the capacity standpoint. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: The thought process there is that we have been reading a series of articles in the local media having to do with our eco-systems and in particular Florida Bay, and it seems to me if we are concerned about Belle Meade, there is a dike that exists and that dike is U.S. 41, so after you get past these other blocks, I suspect as a part of the overall strategy over time, that in the same way the state has seen fit to provide for corridors for panther habitat, that they'll do the same for water flow or the sheet OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA flow into Florida Bay. MR. LORENZ: There is actually a proposal, I can't remember, but the committee is working on it. It's coming out of the U.S. Army Corps. One of the proposals is to increase the number of culverts underneath 41 to establish that sheet flow. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Right. MR. DORRILL: last point? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Madam Chairman, do you have one A couple more, really. One of the issues I hear a lot about representing District 5 in Golden Gate Estates is the aquifer and what are we doing to protect it from contamination. There seems to be a good bit of concern, especially in the Golden Gate Estates area, about aquifer contamination and I for one would like to know what are we doing to inform the public about the ways that the aquifer would become contaminated so that they're aware, we're aware of what not to do. I don't even know how close the aquifer is to the surface at some points, but some people have told me that it's as close as four feet at various times. MR. LORENZ: Within the Golden Gate Estates, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 24 the typical well users use either what is typically called water table aquifer, the lower tamiami water table which goes from basically land surface down to approximately 40 feet, and then what is called somewhat of a semi-confining unit, that separates the water table from the lower tamiami, and some well owners go into the lower tamiami. The difference between the two aquifers, the surface aquifer and the water table aquifer is high in iron and color, the lower tamiami has the high sulfate, so it depends upon which one you prefer. But that's basically your idealogic structure out there. We currently in the Pollution Control Department have been monitoring ground water quality throughout the County and we take a variety of samples throughout the year from various points and we don't see any contamination problems. We see poor water quality just because of natural conditions in the area and those reports we publish basically on an average maybe once every year or two years and provide the information to the press for press reports to try to get the word out to the public. That's the monitoring component. We don't OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 25 8 currently have any -- other than the permitting of septic tanks which is the building process with the health department, and a very comprehensive well construction permitting inspection program that is handled through Development Services, I would say those are the two major areas that exist for protection of ground water supplies for the self-supplied users. There is obviously -- there is all kinds of opportunities to alert and inform individual home owners. There are a variety of possibilities. For instance, publishings. I know there is a little booklet or pamphlet that could tell homeowners this is what you want to do and not to do to be able to protect the water quality and local resources around your home. That's an opportunity. We don't have anything like that. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I guess what I am looking for is what are the educational methods that we're making available to the property owners to get them educated about what the aquifer is even and which aquifer is where, the types of things that can contaminate it and what to avoid and what is good and what is bad. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Are you talking about OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 26 education? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Essentially. I hear a good bit on the street so to speak of people who have these concerns that they really don't understand and I don't necessarily understand either and I think there is a lot of educational opportunities that we have that could allay a lot of the concerns that are out there by simply educating people of what is available. I'm not sure that we are doing that and perhaps in our long range planning we ought to include an educational element within our potable water plans. MR. DORRILL: Would you be opposed to us doing that in conjunction or in cooperation with the Big Cypress Basin Board? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I don't care where it comes from. MR. DORRILL: I would presume that they are the best place to start as opposed to us recreating that. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I see no reason to recreate anything nor to duplicate anything. My concern is that we're moving forward as a big picture and that we're getting these things done. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 27 My last concern and then, you know, do as you will, deal more with probably the South Florida Water Management's area but they're concerns that affect us and that's the allocation of the water resources. How much of it goes to agriculture and how much of it goes to regular use, and I know consumptive permits and so forth are what it's all about, but what can we do to assure our citizens as time goes on that there is plenty of water. I mean, we're reading in the papers, at least I was over the weekend, when we're being told that the current growth management plan in the State of Florida, 91 million people, and we will run out of the water at 50 million. So, do we have the same problem with Collier County? Our build out study tells us a half a million people, but are the water resources really limited to 300,0007 Those are the things we need to talk about. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: This would be a good time for me to also let the commission know that on Monday I'll be meeting with the chairman of the South Florida Water Management District and a representative OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 28 from one of the local engineering firms and we are going to, again, a little bit of exploration and discussion on an idea that I posed at the last -- one of these meetings, and that is the system of active surface reservoir management. The theory being, and it's a little early to get into too much detail, but the theory is that we have plenty of water with 50 inches of rainfall a year but we need to capture, treat and deliver that water. The system of active reservoir management will reduce our dependence and our demand on the underground aguifers which will alleviate a lot of our environmental concerns. Environmentally, also, we'll be able to treat and deliver back to sheet flow a lot of the water that is now not being controlled so well as it could be. So, there are actually several things that this will accomplish at the same time that it is giving us a supply of fresh water for the future that we can rely on. Unfortunately, that meeting is next week, so I don't have anything to report to you today but perhaps if we get a little progress I can do it on one of our OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 29 9 B.C.C. communication days soon. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: That handles the last two items that I have and that was water retention, detention, what can we do to slow the flow and the loss of so many millions of gallons a day in Florida Bay and Naples Bay. There are several ramifications to that happening. Not only do we lose the water, but the estuary reefs, which are desalinated and a lot of ramifications. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: That's exactly right, and that's part of the problem that I'm going to try to help address to get this system of management, so like I said, I don't have a lot to report today, but perhaps there will be a starting point next week so we'll see. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I guess my purpose in having that on this list was to gain information from staff as to what are we doing, what is South Florida Water Management, Big Basin or what are all these different units doing to bring us where we need to be a few years from now. MR. LORENZ: I think it would be informative and perhaps, I don't recall whether the Board has gotten OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDt 30 the brief from the South Florida Water Management District on that lower west coast water supply study, but there were projections made from that study to look at what the impact of the withdrawals -- of the combined agricultural and municipal withdrawals would be on the resource itself, and again there is sufficient water that at certain locations, because of the pumpage centers when they apply certain environmental criterias, certain wetland systems will be adversely affected and those are showing up in that water supply study. Again, that's an allocation problem and permitting problem the South Florida Water Management District has to deal with and that's why they have a water supply plan. Another perspective, too, the Big Cypress Basin Board is just beginning an analysis of the lower -- of the Big Cypress Basin area to look at and opportunities, if you will, for replumbing, diverting water let's say from the Golden Gate Canal that will impact, adversely impact Naples Bay, and try to move it in some other direction in the County that will provide for a better environmental impact. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: You are getting into my OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 31 program, Mr. Lorenz. That's part of what we wanted to do, is stop all that water from Just being dumped down into the bay. MR. LORENZ: We need to redevelop that study. I'm sure you'll be getting that information or already have that. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: It sounds to me that, going forward, that as a part of an overall strategic plan, that there is an opportunity for this Board of County Commissioners to be brought up to speed as to what some of the other agencies or authorities are doing and I don't know when we have had the opportunity in the last six years that I have sat on the board to sit with the South Florida Water Management District or any representative thereof other than Mr. Slayton (phonetic), as a staff person, or the Big Cypress Basin. I think we know who those people are. Some of them are residents of the County of Collier, and we get all this printed material but it might be worthwhile to sit down in a joint workshop just to exchange information, because some of the questions that you have, Commissioner Matthews, sounds to me as though someone else is addressing them and is along the way in OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 32 the process. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: It doesn't surprise me that somebody else is already doing it, but I don't know about it. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Yes. So, as part of an overall strategic plan in terms of a cooperative effort to address a common issue which happens to be water quality, water resource, it seems to me that would be part of our overall strategic plan. The second component seems to be education, and we have tried the symposiums that we get a few people out to, but with our new public access channel, we have not availed ourselves of, I'm sure that the South Florida Water Management District has some canned program that they can Just put out there and be like Discovery and someone could sit at home and learn, you know, as much as they could in a 90 minute session sitting in commission chambers, you know, with a question and answer period. MR. DORRILL: One of the things we are evaluating at the moment is just that -- we're evaluating a system where people at home could call in and randomly pick and punch into their phone a four OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 10 33 digit code and it would roll into a canned or prepared videotape that they could watch at home. They'll have to get in line with other people that may have called in and key punched in other subjects, but we are exploring an interactive public television type phone access. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: I realize where we are now is not there, but that seems to be a part of all of what we have been talking about as we go forward and, you know, we have talked about our public access channel and how the County can educate our citizens. It seems to me that's got to be a part whether it fits into this part or it goes to all the other areas that we are discussing, but somehow -- Mr. Dorrill, I don't know what you are doing with it, and Ms. Edwards, but at some point you need to bring the board up to speed as to what it is you would like to do and how it c~n be done. MR. DORRILL: We can, but I think combining your comment and that of Ms. Matthews that we need to do a little better job with the educational aspect of who and what is the South Florida Water Management District and from just a basic hydrogeology, why is it that Tampa OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA Bay and Sarasota have chronic shortages of raw water when otherwise we are led to believe that Manatee County is a water rich County, Collier County is a water rich County. What is it about the basic hydrogeology of the west coast that has certain water resources in some areas but not in other areas? COMMISSIONER VOLPE: The issue keeps coming up, obviously, and water conservation, water recharge, that seems to be on the minds of most of the citizenry. This seems to me to be the opportunity to capitalize on that and offer up to them what information we can make available as part of our planning process and if they are really interested they'll come in. If they are not, we will continue to do our work in any event. MR. DORRILL: Then I have one question of Ms. Matthews. The very first thing you mentioned, I was trying to take some fast notes, you were asking more of a cost and benefit analysis and were you saying of the aquifer storage and recovery concept or the highest areas of water recharge? I lost you. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: The highest areas of 34 OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTy, NAPLES, FLORIDA 35 water recharge versus aquifer storage and recharge. Are we better off supporting and buying the land up at CREW and back the water up so that it stays in CREW or are we -- is it better to put these bubbles in the ground? MR. DORRILL: Okay. We mentioned CREW, and I heard somewhere mentioned recently another area and I'm going to mispronounce the name because it's one of these Indian names, it sounds like Okloacoochee Slough. MR. LORENZ: Okloacoochee. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Which is up north. MR. DORRILL: It's to the southeast of Immokalee, it runs in a linear fashion, I'd say on the east side of State Road 29, but that may be another area. Can anybody in the room spell that? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: O-k-a-l-a-c-h -- I lost it at the end. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Ms. Matthews brings out some very good points and concerns that we need to start addressing in that number two there. The point is that probably a lot of these discussions are ongoing with other agencies. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 36 What we need for the staff to do is to get these concerns down on the list and find out who is doing the research at this point, piggy back on their research and integrate this all together for the concerns that we have as the Board of Commissioners. MR. DORRILL: Take advantage of the opportunity to have a joint or workshop meeting with the the South Florida Water Management governing board, look at public educational aspects either what they are doing or what we can do on our own through the public access cable television channel that we have. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I'm sure the South Florida Water Management has many of tapes available for educational purposes that all we would have to do is duplicate them and make them available. MR. DORRILL: They have a fairly elaborate marketing and production and they run their own television commercials. You can see them a lot during the course of the season. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: They have their own helicopter, too, don't they? MR. DORRILL: At least one. Is that all on that one, Bill, or did you have OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 37 11 anything else? MR. LORENZ: I don't have anything further. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I have one final question with the water and this is the use of gray water or lake water for irrigation purposes. I know we have a lot of areas in Collier County that are using potable water for irrigation purposes and I am well aware that putting in a gray water system would be very, very expensive, and I guess one of my questions that just kind of hangs out there somewhere is at what point are we looking at water being, number one, scarce enough and, number two, expensive enough to warrant a gray water irrigation system? MR. DORRILL: I think you have seen the initial evidence of that in Cape Coral where Cape Coral was compelled to build an assessment district water reuse program at the residential level for the homes. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: That was retrofitting, but do we have anything on the books -- I think it was retrofitting -- do we have anything on the books that requires all new subdivisions to do as Pelican Bay has done, for example, for the water system? That maybe OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 38 something going forward. Any new residential subdivision must have a dual water system period. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Whether they pull it from local lakes or whether we start putting gray water mains to the subdivisions and as we go by some of the older subdivisions encourage them to --- COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Mr. Hargett made a good point. The expense of retrofitting is really -- we have seen some of the problems with Just connecting up some of our older subdivisions with the waste water treatment facility, but I think there is some merit in my opinion going forward with some of the -- certainly some of the upscale development that we see occurring with the unincorporated areas of the County. We don't have the supply, but at some point we are looking at increasing the supply. MR. DORRILL: I think that could be evaluated as part of an A.S.R. concept and that's why I wanted to clarify your very first point because it's two entirely different things, but if you were going to seriously explore an A.S.R. concept, then you would have the volume necessary to have water mains and sewer mains and an irrigation main distribution and collection system in OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 39 front of every'house subdivision. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: The time to do it is when you are putting in the water and sewer lines, when you are putting in the irrigation. time. have. water. It's no big deal at that COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I guess that's all I I don't know if anyone else has anything on MR. LORENZ: The next topic we discussed briefly about the mitigation banking areas. Item Number 2 on Page 11 is to complete the Clam Bay N.R.P.A. We have noted earlier that the staff expects to be able to have a recommendation for the board for new management plan in January. At that point, we will have identified various problem areas, identify also certain operational programs that we would recommend to take, such as exotic removal, and other long range moderate programs we would also be recommending for this management program. MR. DORRILL: board meeting last week over Clam Bay, I can't believe you even brought it up again. As much as we beat you up at the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 4O COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: (Laughter) MR. LORENZ: Is it budgeted yet? No. The third item is when the board gave direction for the staff to begin work on the Clam Bay area, it also came back to the board to get other board direction to work on additional N.R.P.A. The procedures that the board laid out for staff to follow is before we do work on any other N.R.P.A.s, come back to the board with a technical memorandum recommending the N.R.P.A. to work on with certain pieces of information for the board to evaluate, "Yes, staff should work on this N.R.P.A." or not. I think the direction I would like to get from the board here is that sometime in November, because of just our management of our own staff and where their work load is, we would like to be able to come back to the board with the technical memorandum for an N.R.P.A. or a series of N.R.P.A.s and then to get board direction as to whether we should proceed or not on additional N.R.P.A.s. That's something we'd like to bring back to the board early. MR. DORRILL: The only direction we have thus far is for Clam Bay, and what you said is we would have OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 41 12 a plan associated supplemental to budget requests, you said, in January? MR. LORENZ: The January time frame would be to complete the N.R.P.A. in which case we would have the actual management for Clam Bay N.R.P.A. and then that would translate into a series of programs that the board would have to fund. MR. DORRILL: That is kind of an important point there, that we will have the associated plan for the Clam Bay system and supplemental budget options that go into effect at the end of the first quarter of fiscal year '95, Clam Bay. Then I think Bill's second point was that the board will need to decide and if you want to have additional authorization for other N.R.P.A.s because currently we don't have any, we're working with the sole direction of the Clam Bay System. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I think what I would like to see in a technical memorandum for additional N.R.P.A.s is a ranging of which ones are viewed to be more important than others because certainly the ones that are going to have the greatest impact on the environment are the ones that we ought to be working on OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 42 as seen now and I think that is what I would like to see and along with that the expected benefits and the expected costs. Not only dollar costs but private property costs and so forth, how that N.R.P.A. will affect whatever property owners are involved as well so that we will know up front, no surprises, what is going COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Mr. Lorenz, would you refresh my recollection? It seems to me that back about six months or so, maybe a little bit longer, we went through the N.R.P.A. process and we had a dissertation that the process would be involved and what it was that we would be looking at and there were six or eight areas that were identified as potential N.R.P.A.s. MR. LORENZ: Yes, we presented -- at staff presentation, we presented to the board a list of maybe around ten N.R.P.A.s that have been prioritized and in addition to each N.R.P.A. what the expected benefits would be in terms of environmental objectives. At that particular level of presentation, we did not get down to any type of dollar costs with regard to either cost of development or implement of private OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA property costs. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I'm not sure that we need to know what the dollar costs are right away, but some of those costs we don't even know what they are until we get into it, but certainly to know up front how much of the property involved in the N.R.P.A. is in private hands and the expectations of what we will be asking them to do, whether we'll be asking for the conservation easement or whether we'll be asking to buy the land or what other -- whatever methodology might be available in order to begin N.R.P.A. work. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: I'm trying to go back just to remember where we were in the process. There was quite a bit of work that was done by Mr. Simpson and some others. That's all there in terms of prioritizing and that's my recollection. If what you are suggesting is that we bring this back to the board in a workshop session, because obviously one of the issues that comes up is the issue that you have identified and that's private property rights, and the one that I recall in particular was one where the Colliers were particularly concerned, as I recall, about --- OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 44 Strand? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: With the Camp Peace COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Yes, Camp Peace Strand. In terms of what the impact of designating that area as an N.R.P.A. may have, so I'm Just simply, A, refreshing my recollection and, B, suggesting as an overall strategy that maybe, you know, you are going to have a new board in November and that as part of this process, it would seem to me that the staff needs to bring that back through the EPTAB or Environmental Advisory Board which has already done their work and they have made -- they have actually made some recommendations. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Yes, they have. MR. LORENZ: I think we can certainly bring back the overall process as somewhat of a refresher for the board. The board did give us specific direction as to what the board did want to see for the technical memorandum. Commissioner Matthews has added some other criteria that we will certainly include as part of coming back to the board and we'll have a prioritization and EPTAB will be involved with that program. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 45 13 COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Let me ask a question, because I'm not sure where we stand on this. It's a different area from government, but having served on the value adjustment board last year, and correct me if I am wrong, but there is currently in state law no mechanism for getting an assessment relief due to a conservation easement? Is that true or is that not true? Anybody know? COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Mr. Skinner, are you here? COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Well, I don't know, but my reaction to that is that that is one of the factors that the property appraiser would take into consideration if there were a conservation easement in terms of the limited use to which the property can be put. The statute says that this is what a conservation easement is all about and these are the only easements that could be made. that --- COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Just in the same way I just wonder if it's automatic that the property appraiser automatically takes conservation easement into his Judgment or does OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA the individual property owner have to come in and argue his right to reduce the assessment? It's just a question that I'm tossing out. Maybe we need to address that with Mr. Skinner as to what that process is or should we be approaching Tallahassee to get a procedure put into place, so that a property owner that offers a conservation easement will have an automatic reduction in the assessed value and we don't have to spend our time arguing each individual parcel, as John and I found out last year with the value adjustment board. That could be another environmental issue. MR. DORRILL: We will get an answer to that from either the Florida Association of Counties or the property appraisers. MR. LORENZ: The next topic is air and water quality. One of the things that's somewhat glaring here and doesn't have any information on it is air quality, and I just want to bring the board up to speed in terms of an assessment that the staff had done several years ago on air quality. What we find in air quality is that any OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 47 problem with Collier County that is going to exist in the future is going to be basically from automobiles. We don't have industry that would cause any type of air contamination at this particular point. Another area that we find ourselves -- staff involved with is complaints regarding burning as a result of land clearing activities. Typically that's handled or that's permitted by the fire district. The state only has one air quality monitoring program or one air quality monitoring station in the County and through 1991 there were no violations. We don't have any updated information. That's why at this particular point, in terms of the staff initiative, air quality seems to be in good shape. If the board wants the staff to come back with some update report, we can certainly do that. One of the areas that we will be assessing -- all of these types of areas is actually in the growth management process -- a valuation and appraisal report that will be involving our public input and assessing where we are with the growth management plan. This will be a tupic that will be assessed as a result of that report. Again, I Just wanted to bring that up because OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 48 the topic is air quality and we don't have any specific programs addressed in the strategic plan. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Mr. Lorenz, you mentioned automobiles in particular. How about, with the, quote, growth, close quote, of the citrus industry and with agriculture, with the spring and with pesticides and other chemicals, what impact that may have on our air quality? And mosquito control, do we have any regulatory authority that we exercise? Additionally, there are certain areas -- periodically the board is asked to expand the jurisdiction of the mosquito control district. I realize they have taken different approaches, but we're going to be expanding -- being asked to expand the district to take in some part of Golden Gate and Golden Gate Estates areas, out east of 951. Is that an issue as it relates to the air quality? MR. LORENZ: I don't see it as being an issue at a staff level. To answer your other question specifically, no, the County does not at this particular point that OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 49 14 I'm aware of have any jurisdiction with regard to air quality. We don't have any ordinances, we're not delegated from the state to enforce anything from the air quality perspective. MR. DORRILL: The only other thing that I can think of that concerns agriculture would be potential soil erosion and dust problems, and all of us have been through the intersection of Airport Road and Golden Gate Parkway in March when it's the end of the growing season and plants have been removed and it's a windy afternoon and seeing at least that one indication what soil erosion can be and the associated dust, but to my knowledge there is no regulatory aspect at a state or local level. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Well, I guess the other part of the thought process was, for example, out in Immokalee we're trying to build some additional hangars there. Those hangars presumably are for crop dusting and some of the other activities that occur out there. I don't know, I mean, if you drive up to Immokalee, agriculture is a big business out there, and as I recall they are still part of Collier County and it seems to me that that may be an issue in terms of how we OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 5O regulate who occupies our hangars and is there some ability or should we be concerned at all about it. The question is should we be concerned about air quality as it relates to the pesticides and crop dusting that occurs in the rural area of our County. MR. DORRILL: I guess in the greater scheme of things, the immediate answer, given the budget that we have is no, but we can certainly explore and do some of what Bill has indicated -- I don't know where the current location of the one air quality monitoring station is. I have seen these things and I'm familiar with them --- MR. LORENZ: MR. DORRILL: The courthouse complex. The air is great in East Naples, but whether we can condition the D.E.P. through their district office in Fort Myers to get a second monitoring station that would be in the east end of the County in and around the agricultural area, that would be my first blush response to that. station. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: We'd need another monitoring The other issue would be that Lee County has fired up its incinerator and I think those winds blow from the north to the south except OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA during hurricane season, so it seems to me that we are really talking about -- am I right, Mr. Lorenz? MR. LORENZ: I don't think so. north? Gulf. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: So it's not an issue. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: They go south to the No, it goes out to the MR. DORRILL: I was coming down 1-75 Sunday afternoon and, if you look, you can see as you come across the Caloosahatchee and get up to the top, you can easily see the smoke stack for the resource recovery incinerator and it's not hard to see the belching smoke stack of the Bunker C Fuel oil driven generators of the FP&L plant there. I mean, that is the most obvious source of air pollution that we have in Southwest Florida and the difference between the two, you can't see anything coming out of the stacks of the new resource recovery facility, but you can see for probably ten miles the smoke trailing out of the main generator at the FP&L station. It's awful. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: At least ten miles. MR. DORRILL: It's awful, but again that is an OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 52 issue that is regulated through the separate divisions of the Department of E.P.A. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: To address air quality at some point in the future, if we want to get into that, I think far and away the major polluters are automobiles and, if I am not mistaken, the state has legislation that enables counties on their option to enact pollution control standards for automobiles and has provisions whereby they have periodic and I believe annual checks to make sure that your pollution control devices on your automobile are functioning properly. MR. DORRILL: I think that they do that in Hillsborough County and they may do it in Dade County. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Dade and Broward both have enacted it, is my understanding. If we do begin to have air quality problems, we can go to that system in the future. I believe that maybe now would be the time to have someone research that legislation and get our options out for us. Because if air quality becomes a concern, it's going to be because George builds these beautiful, wide highways for us that attract all of these cars and the cars then make the pollution and that sort of concern. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 53 15 MR. DORRILL: The County commissioners can put stop lights up and down all those, stop and go all the way or --- COMMISSIONER NORRIS: I couldn't recall exactly what it was, I thought it was just because George builds these beautiful highways and people Just can't resist driving on them. MR. DORRILL: It's County Commissioners and stop lights, I'm telling you. MR. LORENZ: I would suggest through the growth management valuation and appraisal report process, we can revisit the air quality control topic and look at those options that Mr. Norris mentioned and bring that through as part of that process. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Right now, I don't think we are anywhere near the point of needing to do that. I don't think our air quality is in jeopardy, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. MR. DORRILL: And for us to research the current air quality vehicle emission testing statute as it pertains to the urban counties that you all mentioned and what if any opt-in provisions there are for other counties. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 54 COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I agree with that and I would maybe even like to carry it one etep farther and that is to look at whatever the air pollution level is required to be before the Federal government impose~ it, the automobile emission control checking. Perhaps we should within our strategic plan document adopt an air quality level such that we don't get there. I don't know what it would take, what we need to do in order to make sure we don't get there, but that's what this is about. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: If we have to worry about automobiles only in this County, we may never get there because we don't have the physical entrapment problem of, say, Los Angeles or Denver or something like that. The winds just move it right out of here. If there is any breeze at all, even if it's two miles an hour, it's going to move right out so we may never end up having that kind of a problem, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: To have the information. If we are one-third of the way there now, and we don't know that, but we have got a population now OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA of 160,000 people, if we are one-third of the way there now, by 2030 or 2040, we may be there. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: We need to start monitoring a sufficient level where we can detect trends. Are we doing that now, Mr. Lorenz, do you think? MR. LORENZ: No. The only data that is existing is total suspended particulars and that's something you are going to have to monitor for nitrous oxide. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: What we need to do perhaps, then, is to explore setting up a system where we can monitor close enough to see what is happening and then often enough where we can detect trends as they start to form. If it starts to go downhill, we'll know it in advance. MR. DORRILL: Anybody who has spent more than ten years in Florida will recall that the most despised County government function of that period of time was the annual automobile inspection program and the associated rip-off industry that would bring you in to OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 56 compliance if you failed and that is sort of what some of those urban counties are getting themselves back into for all that emissions testing. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: That's true, but we were smart enough to disband that and turn it into a helicopter hangar. My birthday was in January and that is when I had to go and the line was about four blocks long. MR. DORRILL: People hated that more than any other County government --- COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I hasten to say that does the same thing and it's very -- the repair stations that do the repairs and make the inspections is not a good system. MR. DORRILL: What else do you have? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: When we get to air, let's talk about indoor air as well as outdoor air. Obviously, if we are not doing anything to monitor the outdoor air, we are not doing anything either with indoor air and I know the state has an indoor air quality act and perhaps, too, we should get that off the shelf and take a look at what it requires because certainly, as our population grows and as we OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 57 have more and more numbers of people in the meeting rooms, we need to have some assurances that viruses such as colds, measles, legionnaires' disease, et cetera, and so forth are not being spread among the population. So, while we are looking at outdoor air we may want to look into indoor air as well. MR. LORENZ: There is one component of that, and it probably fits into this, is radon gas and the health department has a very good program to looking at radon gas in the buildings and are doing certain monitoring. We don't have that, I don't have that information at my fingertips but that could be something we could also look at. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Don't we collect some sort of a fee for the radon gas on the building permits? MR. CLARK: Yes. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: What is that for? MR. CLARK: It's for the testing requirements that do occur. There are certain types of soil content and so forth, in certain instances it appears to be more prevalent than others, so the health department does get involved in that. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Okay. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA MR. LORENZ: The next item on the list under F/Y '96 is the pollution control department back in F/Y '91 began a five year water quality monitoring plan where you are going basin to basin across the County and doing fairly intensive surveys of the water quality of surface and ground water. We would propose completing that effort at the end of F/Y '96. Again, we kind of discussed a little bit about educational programs. We typically develop a report and put a press release out. It's a highly technical report. Our staff is trying to develop something of a one or two page summary that kind of gets beyond the highly technical aspects and gets it more for the general public and that's something that we can probably put in here in terms of that educational component in terms of assessing water quality. The data that we have assessed is we see a marginal increase in nutrients in the estuary system and there are some areas that we have a little bit of hot spots that we have reports on, some old pesticides that were used in Collier County in the past, nothing of any indication of those types of constituents that there is OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 59 an ongoing active source, but again that monitoring is somewhat of a little bit of a surveillance trying to get ahead of the curve, but we should complete that in F/Y '96. In F/Y '97, we anticipate completing the clean-up of contaminated sites that have been delegated to the County from the state. We have 52 petroleum contaminated sites in the County that we are working with. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: These are from underground storage? MR. LORENZ: Underground storage tanks, yes, petroleum storage. Fourteen of which are within our well field protection zones. Those are the priority sites that we will work on. Typically, we have been able to find that these sites are somewhat localized but that's where that budget of about one-and-a half million dollars is going that we get from the state that we have for a variety of consultants who are actually cleaning the sites up for us. Also, end of F/Y #97 would be the completion of the state's requirement of the small quantity OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 60 hazardous waste generator program, roughly eleven or $12,000, so we'll have that inspection and complete that role at the end of F/Y '97. That's takes us through the conservation. MR. MARTIN: I would like to make statement. I think we should have a break before we go into the Section 4. It's now 10:20. I also would like to make a statement that I feel a resurgence of what we started out to do last February, that this meeting has really started to accomplish what we set out to do, and if you will recall my original hand out to you, I call this top down, bottom up planning, and this section after we selected our eight basic areas and went to the two sections of four to go back to our administrators to tell us what is on the books now is starting to pay off. We are now beginning to find out what we already have planned for these first five years and now our commissioners can see what might be missing or what might be needed to be added to fill those first five years out but, even better, it now gives us the opportunity to look ahead for the balance of the ten year program to see what now we need to be adding for OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 61 these people to help this County do what our plans are to do and to take care of the water which when we opened it up at the first part, it was a very complicated process and we need to have potable water and we need to protect our sources of water, and it's very complicated. Whose responsibilities and what planning needs to be done by who and when and where and how do we coordinate this, so I am very pleased. I sat here and I can see this working. So, let's come back in, what, ten minutes, 15 minutes, Nell? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: We will re-adjourn at 25 of the hour. (Short recess.) COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Why don't we take our seats and come back into session. If we can come to order, we are going to lose our quorum probably very shortly, so I would like to bring up a question that came to me during the break and that is I know this is a workshop and historically we have not taken public comment on doing a workshop environment, but I would like to ask my fellow commissioners who are here, because of the nature of the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA workshop that we are in, namely environment quality of life issues, we have a number of people who would like to give us a brief, very brief concept of what it is they would like us to include in our planning as we move forward and I'm asking if we would like to hear from them a very, very brief statement. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: I don't have strong feelings one way or the other. It seems as part of the process, if they have something they would like to share with us, it seems it should be in written form. This is our strategic planning session. We're here, we have had other opportunities, but I don't have strong feelings if someone wants to give us a two minute statement about something that they want to be heard on. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I would hope that they would be limited to something that we have not already discussed, something that we have not looked at. Mr. Norris, any comments? COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Well, I share Mr. Volpe's concerns about breaking policy. Like you pointed out, we normally don't do that. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Who wants to speak? Who is it here? OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: There are a number of people here from the environmental area and I would -- I would want to ask them to limit their comments to the subject area that for one reason or another we have not addressed this morning. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: We do intend to adjourn at noon, no later than noon; is that right? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Yes, as far as I know. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: So they'll be absorbing some of the time that we have left for the other sections, that's fine. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: We'll go ahead and move ahead and towards the end of the period of time, we'll hear from whoever has got information that they would like us to consider that we have not addressed in the course of the meeting this morning, assuming there are some area issues that we do need to look at. There may be something along the way that we overlooked. Going back to environmental issues, Mr. Lorenz, how is the H.P.O. coming along? heard anymore on that. MR. LORENZ: on in the year that we do not work on the habitat We have not The board gave us direction early OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 64 protection orders until we further develop the N.R.P.A. program, so we have not been working on that at all. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: So the H.P.O. is at least a couple years away, you are saying? MR. LORENZ: Right, and until we get board direction to actually work on it again, we're not working on it. The latest step we took was to try and incorporate it into the County, unify the development code to break it out of just being an ordinance but after we received the board's direction we have not worked on it. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: And then one other question. Earlier this morning you were talking about the growth management plan update that comes up next year. Do we have a mechanism put together yet for how that update is going to occur? What the procedure is going to MR. LORENZ: Lipsinger (phonetic), I've been working with Stan I'm not sure whether community development wanted to do it, but we have been working through his time table and put in our own internal work plans and to even have discussion with EPTAB to present OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 65 information to them and have them start reviewing their annual work plan for next fiscal year, and I would prefer growth management give you the specifics on that process. MR. ARNOLD: I think I can add a little to that, if you wish. Mr. Lipsinger and the growth management department is working on a schedule for us to complete an evaluation of the appraisal reports which we will have a year to complete. We are working with the regional planning counsel as well. We are trying to get the evaluation of the business report review for D.C.A., and I'm not sure exactly what the status is. I believe that was proposed to the D.C.A. within the last couple weeks, so we could be working closely with the region rather than D.C.A. in that process, but as Mr. Lorenz said, that will be an opportunity for to us to go back and create the plans, look at what we have accomplished and what we have not accomplished as well as possibly tackling some new issues through the public information and citizen participation process. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I guess that was my OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 66 question, the public information and citizen participation portion of this. Do we have that scheduled yet and when is it going to happen? We have got some people who want to know what the program is going to be so that they can then participate in it. MR. ARNOLD: We don't have any specific timeframe for establishing the committees and in some -- I guess in some ways it will be reconstituting the older committees that were used five years ago and Mr. Lipsinger is working on that as well trying to determine which ones we have to have and which ones we may or may not have to and whether we want to reestablish all of them as part of the process. MR. LORENZ: One of the options that I have talked with Stan about is to have the existing advisory boards be the boards that would funnel through to the public, do the review and be the vehicle for public input. EPTAB being one for the conservation, coastal management element, plus solid waste drainage, even water and sewer, and their timeframes were -- I know Stan was talking about coming back to the board with OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 67 that concept, and within the next month or so, but that's the internal -- that's the program that we're looking towards. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: So we can be looking on an update on what the process will be in the next couple months. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: A related subject, it's not quite the same focus as on the growth management plan, but the chamber of commerce, as a result of some correspondence that I exchanged with them back before the first of the year and their own processes, they are doing Vision 2020, which is an update to Collier 2000, and at the same time as I'm sure my colleagues are aware, the Economic Development Counsel has been working on a strategic plan for economic development within Collier County. At some point, it seems to me that this is another one of those opportunities where the governing body needs to be connecting up with the private sector to see whether -- what it is that we are doing in the context of these strategic planning sessions coming together with what the Naples Area Chamber of Commerce is doing as well as the Economic Development Counsel OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 68 because I think a lot of the same issues that we are talking about during our strategic planning sessions will come up in the context of the update Vision 2020. Does anyone know where that process is on Vision 2020? Anybody? MR. DORRILL: Do you mean in conjunction with the chambers? COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Yes. MR. DORRILL: Justyna is behind you. MS. FORD: We are just going to the very beginning of the process with Greater Naples Civic Association and I believe the conservancy is involved as well and various others and Just starting out looking at what should being looked at. That's about it. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Same way Commissioner Matthews asked as it related to our growth management plan, will you be publishing and making available to Collier County Government and to the citizens what the program will be so that if there is anything for citizen participation, that that will occur? MS. FORD: about that, sure. MR. DORRILL: I can certainly talk to our office They have asked Dr. Woodruff and OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA I and Dr. Munz to participate in a conceptual proposal, which goes back the thought that some not for profit corporation would be set up to actually sponsor or administer the updating of what is being on this entire -- this vision update for the community and that at least initially they don't have any plans of asking local government to underwrite their response or the cost to do that. They'll set up some non-profit corporation. That's the concept. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: I talked to representatives of the chamber many months ago and the concept of doing an in-house type program, I found that not to be a good concept. I felt that if you tailor it to the needs of the local chamber or whatever it happens to be and it seems to me that hiring some type of group to do it as was done in the past is really the way to go. MR. DORRILL: The paid or appointed executor or administrator of any major community organization in addition to the City and County and school board have been telephone interviewing facilitators or firms that do that type of work. I was invited to their most recent meeting and OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 7O they have a series of meetings and I think sometime early this fall they hope to begin to provide a proposal to each of their respective boards about what an updated visioning process with the community could be, what it would cost, who would be responsible for the administration of that, what the necessary citizen participation of that would be and that is ongoing at the moment. I went to their meeting I guess last Thursday or Friday. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: So, where does that process tie in to this process where we're talking about visioning, strategic planning five years and ten years out? I mean, it seems like some of that is happening as well at least on a parallel course to what it is that we are trying to do in these strategic planning sessions. Is there any kind of correlation? MR. DORRILL: I guess there is some correlation. I can't tell definitively what it is or how our comprehensive planning process will mesh with the divisions' process and I don't know that anyone OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 71 knows other than there is an interest in doing an update to that involving every major community or business or environmental group within the community and their -- at this point we are doing some telephone long distance interviews of firms that specialize in that and thus far you can spend as little as $10,000 for the facilitator to do that or you can spend as much as $200,000, as was the case in the firm that we interviewed last week that did a major effort for I think it was Des Moines, Iowa. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: The question may be whether Collier County Government should, as a part of the processes that we are involved in, provide the leadership role to take that project from where it is to where it would want to be and I submit to my colleagues that that was the void that was identified previously in the Collier 2000 and that was the lack of leadership. That's not to suggest that the private sector can not do it, but it seems to me that somehow the new board of County Commissioners as it's ultimately constituted should really step up and take a leadership role as it relates to the divisioning that is occurring and even to the extent that it may require some local funding from the board to help that process because OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 72 that's where it's at, in my view. For those of you who will be here after November 8, I really would underscore what I really think is an important part of where we're going because this is a very important part. MR. MARTIN: Let me interject something. You are the legal body for planning for Collier, and they criticized past commissioners for not writing a ten year plan which you are now engaged in the process of, so that criticism should now be melting away. As I would see it, from the standpoint of these citizenry groups, whatever they may be, their input is important and I think it should come to this board in whatever form that you can digest it and integrate it into your planning, but they're not official, you are. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: That's the reason why I think they should be given some official status, top down-bottom up sort of thing that we need to bring them together and what we are trying to do in the context of these meetings is to envision for a community and we have got a few representatives here that want to share OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 73 2O with us some particular concern that they have but we have not allowed them this process for any real public input. The whole process really was supposed to begin with the League of Women Voters and the telephone survey to reach out and find out and then to go out into the community and have town hall meetings to find out what people are thinking about, and then bring this together in this context. That's how I envisioned that originally. MR. MARTIN: That's the bottom up part of it. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: My view is that that has not happened and it is no one's fault. I mean, we are plugging along here trying to pick out the best way of doing it. MR. MARTIN: And it should happen. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Yes. And the process has begun in a different context and I'm Just suggesting that to have Collier County Government put it's imprimatur on the process is really where the leadership comes from. We should be doing less of the rowing, which is what we are doing here, and more of the policy OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 74 direction and let that community tell the governing body what it is that they want and then these policies come out at the top. MR. DORRILL: Part of our interview process at the last meeting that I attended was to ask the facilitator firms what efforts did they use to broaden citizenship participation because traditional citizen participation for local government usually results in the same ten to 20 people who have a stake in the policy decisions in the boards' hands and one lady that we spoke to in particular on the east coast said they are using a much different approach and it involves going out and soliciting the efforts of local churches and little leagues and they said a great source of citizen participation for most states is the bingo parlor for retirees and they have a very broad list of groups that are usually not invited to the table for that. One of the things that we're interested in in particular are what new or different approaches are you using to bring them in, and then one lady said they had over 300 people participating in this kick-off --- COMMISSIONER VOLPE: My concern is if I didn't bring this subject up, when were you going to tell the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 75 board about your involvement in this process and who are you representing when you go out and you do these things, you and Richard Woodruff and the rest of you? Maybe we don't want you doing that. You respond to the board and you don't respond to the Chamber of Commerce. So, this communication thing needs to be improved because I think this is a very, very important process. We can do the weekly and monthly things that we do sitting as members of the Board of County Commissioners but, again, you have not shared that with me. Maybe that's because I have not been available the last couple of weeks, maybe you have shared it with the others. Has the manager shared that with you? MR. DORRILL: No, but for no other reason that I have only been to one introductory meeting. I don't know who gets the credit for bringing everyone to the table. The first I heard about it initially was through the chamber and the E.D.C. and to what extent that any one board has authorized them to do this, I think the point was, hey, we're all -- the E.D.C. is OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 76 doing strategic planning and chambers is doing an update and the board of realtors and contractors have an interest in X, Y and Z and Greater Naples Civic Association and I don't know who gets credit for bringing the group to together but I think we've got to see if we can present a single, unified project. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: I didn't mean that as -- I didn't mean to criticize, but I'm saying here we are working on a strategic plan and we are kind of inching along and if there is another process out there and it is something that I had been aware of, certainly I'm sure the others have been as well, for at least the last 12 months that all the people have been out there and even to the point of trying to raise money to set aside a fund to try to underwrite the cost of the project, MS. FORD: It has only been active recently and the reason we invited Mr. Dorri11 is because we realized that we were not operating in a vacuum, so --- COMMISSIONER VOLPE: My point would be you ought to invite the chairman of the board of County Commissioners, not their chief executive officer. That's my point. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 77 COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Well, the thing that I would say at this point -- I would say at this point as the different positions come forward is to take a look at them, realize that they are not mutually exclusive, but they all come from a different group of people who have different priorities from the other groups that are also putting these plans together and we need to examine all of these plans and hold the best foot forward that fits the County as a whole into our plan and that's the direction that we would be taking based upon the work that all of these people are doing and certainly the E.D.C. is doing an economic division statement that we can incorporate that into our portion of the economic program we do want for Collier County, provided that it's what we want to do. Certainly, they are doing a lot of ground work, a lot of the nuts and bolts of it. MS. FORD: We have been doing it and --- COMMISSIONER MATTNEWS: Well, why don't we move forward with quality of life issues. I'm on Page 12 of the basic strategic planning area, which is essentially parks. Mr. Olliff? MR. OLLIFF: We are pretty excited about some OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 78 of the things we are doing. We have some of these things we will be showing as projections to what we are doing. I was Just looking over some of our activities before I came over and the number of users in your beaches and parks system is just incredibly large and it increases almost each year. The numbers we are projecting, we project them high and we get blown out of the water every year. This year, for example, which is the third quarter of the year, your beach and water parks, we had estimated based upon last year that we would see about a million people through each of your beach parks and your boat ramp parks and so far through the third quarter we are almost to two million. We are at 1,930,000. There are some reasons for that, some we can point easily to, like the opening of the new Cocoahatchee Boat Ramp Park, certainly a factor in that, and the closing of the Lee County Bonita Beach was certainly a factor in that, but a 200 percent increase is -- over the course of one year -- very, very large, and I think that you will see as we gear up -- a lot of the things you will see are trying to keep up with some OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA of those kind of growth factors. Your community park users were up 121 percent, and that's through the third quarter of this year, so we expect that to be about 150 percent higher than it was last year. Our recreation program, because we are trying to be a little smarter in that regard, we have had an increase of 50 percent in the instructional hours in our recreational program. So, by and large, almost every program this county offers for these parks and recreational programs has incredibly increased this year and last year and we don't see it slowing down any and the Community Development is telling us that they are up 30 people a day moving to Collier County, so we don't see that slowing up. So, we're trying to do things a little smarter and I'm going through quickly some of these capital project related items, and then going into some of the broader scope issues we are trying to deal with as well. Fiscal year '95, the two major projects were the Estates Park, and that's phase two, because phase one -- you'll have to excuse this, it's a little messy OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 8O and it looks like I did it. I tried to highlight in the yellow marker here the things that we are actually proposing under phase one of this Golden Gate Estates Community Park. As you recall, this is one of our most recent and best ventures in conjunction with the school system. The school is actually located here (indicating). We are currently proposing a Joint entrance into the school and park and we are working out some transportation problems. There is a single access and the amount of traffic that that may cause on the boulevard. This is the 15 acre'tract that the County Commission recently purchased. We are designing as part of phase one to add two softball fields. We are showing one large covered pavilion basketball area and the community -- we had several meetings with the community parents, primarily, to tell us what it is that you wanted to see in this park and that's one of the things that we're trying to stress a little more is listening to the consumer customer and that we have been trying to be a little more responsive, making sure that when we spend this kind of money and we make the kind of capital investment that we do, that we are spending your money OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA Sl as smart as we possibly can and we are trying to make sure that we are doing what that community that that particular facility is in wants to see. That was the highest rated item on the list. They wanted to see some type of general covered concrete area that they can get together in groups and have picnics and meetings and things in this park, so that's a covered pavilion. Two small children's play areas. There's a large population of pre-school and elementary school age children in the Estates area. One of the things that we did not do very well in our original five community parks was build playgrounds for pre-school aged children and we continue to see mothers driving all the way down to Cambier's Candy Land Park from the Estates, from East Naples, and and even North Naples and as far as Immokalee on occasion, so we're going back and we're trying to retrofit all of our community parks to have some of that pre-school age playthings, the spring chickens and things, put those in our parks because that's what the people want and there is a population that needs that kind of recreation here. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 82 The tennis courts are located here, racketball courts are located here and you will see this winding little pathway that actually goes all the way around the facility. This is school property that we are going to use as part of this park. The 15 acres actually becomes 20 acres and becomes a half of a traditional community park. There are two additional ball fields there now and we are proposing to put as phase two a future soccer football field out on that location. So, this is one of those great projects where we're working with the school board to try and take advantage of a similar population who is going to use this, and a lot of times it's the school kids who use a single facility. It makes a lot of sense to have a park located where during the day they can take advantage of the facilities that are here. After hours, it's also here and we get to take advantage of the school property. We hope to do a lot more of that in the future. That's about 90 percent designed and we should OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 83 be out to bid on that probably within another 30 to 60 days, I would imagine. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Mr. Olliff, we collect regional park impact fees, do we not? MR. OLLIFF: Yes. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: parks? Do we have regional MR. OLLIFF: No, we do not. We have traditionally had three different categories we spend our impact fees on. The first, and the way the plan was developed was an idea for 250 acre passive regional park that may have been -- if you have been to Lakes Park in South Lee County, padslye recreation, picnic pavilions, grills, that kind of thing. The board made a decision about two and a half to three years ago to recognize the amount of state and federal park lands that are located here in Collier County as part of our regional park land inventory. The state went along with that and, as a result, we have an inventory of regional park land that, according to the plan, carries us well beyond 2000, so we have --- COMMISSIONER NORRIS: You say you are piggy-backing on state land? OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 84 MR. OLLIFF: It was actually property already there when the plan was adopted, but it allowed us to take advantage of it. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: What I'm getting around to is if we collect regional park impact fees, then we throw it into the same place that is set up or --- MR. OLLIFF: The other two categories are beaches and boat ramps, assuming these are regional. I think your parks and recreation -- I feel there is a need for a passive type recreational park somewhere a little closer to the urban area. I think that the closest park we have at this point is the Collier-Seminole State Park, which is out on 41. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Do you have any suggestion for this regional location? MR. OLLIFF: The original locations were out along 951, but we have not pursued any other locations. I know there is a track of land that is being discussed today, which is on south or East 41 for the Lake Avalon project. That project, my understanding, is about 120 acres with a 60 acre lake, and there was a preliminary meeting to talk about its possible use Just last week. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 85 COMMISSIONER NORRIS: SO, that being actually well within the urban area, it sounds like that may be a good candidate to do some exploration here to see if this might be suitable for a regional park. MR. OLLIFF: Any time we can find park properties that are within the urban area, they are worth looking at. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: This is the property directly across the street from, say, the K-Mart just past the Government Center? MR. OLLIFF: Yes. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: As part of this discussion, specifically, before we took credit for the Estates properties, we had a deficit, significant deficit in our regional park. As I recall, there was a 500 acre tract that was required' and $10 million that we were looking for at some point, so this was a real coup in terms of meeting the deficit. How much do we have right now in that category, if you, you know, ball bark, in terms of dollars and cents available? MR. OLLIFF: The budget next year, we have got OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 86 about $870,000 in the budget. Most of that money has been earmarked for beach park improvements and boat ramp type improvements. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: And I think, Commissioner Norris, your thought process with that area of the county as a potential regional park in East Naples, I think is an excellent one. The other that comes to mind with the suggestion we had about the Greenway along the Gordon River and that system, which you know my view may fit a little bit better into the concept of the regional park where you would have the opportunity for camping and hiking along that corridor, and I'm not sure, but I think we gave some instructions in that regard. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: My point, Mr. Volpe, is that while we have been collecting regional park impact fees, we have actually developed a new park from those fees, which we have assessed through our growth management plan through the piggy backing, and my point is that if we are going to collect the money to do that, what we should do is build a regional park. If you like Greenway, that is certainly one we can discuss. We have an opportunity perhaps to locate a OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 87 future full regional park in the urban area, which would have an opportunity to present itself again, and to have a regional park with that many acres within essentially ten minutes of 57 percent of the population of the County is probably a good opportunity. I think that we should at least look at it. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: This sounds like an item that is going to be coming up before the board in a very, very short time, as opposed to strategic planning where we are looking at four or five or ten years away. Why don't we continue, Mr. Olliff, with the conceptual plan. MR. OLLIFF: Thank you. I think this plan perhaps is maybe a little too capital oriented. Maybe at the end we will get into some of these discussions about broader issues. The next item is to purchase the South Naples Community Park. I have handed out a map showing what is the South Naples Planning Community area and it also shows what are the accrued P.U.D.s within that planning community, so that you can see where we are looking at to provide the location of the next community park. There is not a lot of available land. If you OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 88 are familiar with the area, particularly the one neighborhood we are trying to target was that Naples Manor area there on East 41. Trying to find a way for that concentration of children there, trying to get a community park without having to cross U.S. 41 being the East Naples Community Park. Land in that area has been exceptionally difficult to find in that size of track that environmentally can actually be developed. We found some land that we looked at adjacent to Lely High School, trying to do some coordination with the school property, and they said it turned out to be some 60 or 70 percent wetlands and not worth the investment. That's what happened on about three different locations. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Are you talking about another community park in East Naples? MR. OLLIFF: South Naples planning community, and that is the sub-planning committee targeted by population to have a community park. I might as well jump into some of these overall broader issues that we keep sort of heading that way. We are currently going through some OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 89 discussions with our parks and recreation advisory board about where are we in our parks plan and where do we want to be for the next five or ten years. We are in the same process we are going through here. When the growth management plan was originally adopted, the community was in need of a community park system which it did not have and was developed as part of the bond issue that built the original parks. Today those parks are built, they're located throughout the urban area and the parks and rec advisory board is thinking that perhaps we do not need to continue with Just simply building more cookie-cutter type of parks if we have that level in the urban area already. Parks are generally categorized by neighborhood parks which are very small parks for a small neighborhood. Community parks is what you would traditionally build 35 or 40 ncres, and the next level is a district park, which that is a park which is designed to serve a population of about 50,000 as opposed to 25,000. Generally doubles the land size, somewhere in that area of 50 to 70 acres for a district park and then your regional park is the next level after that, which is much larger and more passive oriented OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 9O kind of park. The park and rec advisory board is thinking at least in general discussions now that we have a good community park system in place and what the community doesn't have and may have to pursue is the district park, north or south district park to service the 50,000 people with tournament type events and five or six, seven softball fields as well as the passive area use of each. They're having those discussions. The other discussions they're having in discussion with that is our impact fees. Our impact fees are fairly narrowly defined to community parks and regional parks. Most communities have impact fees such as a parking fee. It is a standard set fee and there are some ways for the less aggressive impact fees we currently have but that allows you to use these impact fees for those odd type projects that come up and part of the larger type projects. For example, the Gulf Coast Little League project that came up, was one where it was in the county's advantage to do something there, to be able to pursue that. So, those are some of the broader issues we'll OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 91 probably bring back to you within the next year. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: questions. Mr. Olliff, Just a couple Number one, as to the district park, within the urban area of the county, how many acres did you say? MR. OLLIFF: Anywhere from 50 to 70 acres. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Within the urban areas of the county? MR. OLLIFF: Yes. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: This may be one of those opportunities where government may want to look at providing incentives to the private sector. What immediately comes to mind is the Florida Sports Park. I mean, isn't that really a place that you have this tournament type of activity? They have got the land, they have got the zoning, they have got all that, so why would government want to get into that business? MR. OLLIFF: That's a traditional parks and recreation type of business. Tournament type facilities are located in almost every community. We are getting to that size where -- you can't have a tournament in a OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 92 5 community park that has one softball field, one little league field and one baseball field. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: In terms of providing programming to a place like Florida Sports Park, I mean, why would we want to go out and develop a facility when there may be the opportunity to allow for the public to use that type of facility and government could provide some type of programming? I mean, you are talking in capital expenditures, you are talking about 50 to 75 acres in the urban area, you know, just to begin with and then we are going to talk about ongoing operation costs. Again, I'm focusing on the Florida Sports Park. I don't know how many acres they have out there. Does anybody know? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Lots. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: zoned recreational. opportunity there. A lot. I mean, it's all It seems to me there is an That's not to suggest -- I ask why we would want to get in the business, we can provide the programing and do the sponsorship, however that's done, but it seems that you can minimize your capital costs. MR. OLLIFF: On the private side, you don't OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 93 find many private interests who are going to want to build that type of park. They're not money makers. One of the other broad areas that we are working on in parks in trying to increase revenues is it's a big issue trying to define ways to maximize revenues. We have gone from about 16 percent o[ the total budget last year and return of revenues -- this year we'll have -- this current year 18 percent and next year we should have about 20 percent and our ultimate goal is at least 25 percent. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: When you start talking like that I get a little nervous because it almost sounds like a spring training facility concept that you are visioning when you are talking about tournament play and all that and in terms of capital cost. It sounds like that could be -- this is what the community wants, large softball tournaments and all that, but it sounds very similar to the concept that was discussed two years ago about having this magnificent facility that could be used by the public in other than the regular spring training sense. MR. OLLIFF: We envision nothing in terms of professional sports unless the board gives us some OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS ~ COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 94 direction to proceed. I have no desire to go through that. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: I agree. This discussion, though, when you talk about district parks at that size, not wanting to get involved in the private sector to do it and, like I say, it gets into that area that I think we have previously discussed in a different context. This is a part process, you see. MR. OLLIFF: of the strategic planning We have thousands of kids involved in leagues here, whether it's little league, adult softball, women's leagues, business leagues. There are literally thousands upon thousands of people in this community that play these types of leagues. Generally, all of those are associated with some sort of a larger association. There are districts, state level tournaments and actually national level tournaments, so we're talking about your local and residential athletic leagues. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Who is it that uses the new very elaborate baseball field at the Naples High School? MR. OLLIFF: Naples High School. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA COMMISSIONER VOLPE: So, if we wanted to have the little league world series, could we have it there? MR. OLLIFF: Because you have a tournament there, you can have 20 teams involved. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Not big enough? COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: It's only one field. MR. OLLIFF: You have to have the ability to play about four or five simultaneously at the same time in order to do that. It's something the parks and recreation was talking about, something for the board to decide whether or not they wanted to go in that direction or they wanted to change the structure or change the impact fees. That is the general discussion at the advisory board level. The fiscal year '96 and '97 shows us at least today, continuing development of that South Naples Community park. Fiscal year '97 actually shows an increase in acreage slightly for the next community park, and then finally fiscal year '99 you are talking an Orange Tree park on 56 acres that the county currently owns across Immokalee Road from the Orange Tree Development. 95 OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 96 6 The boat ramps at one of these areas, the second item there where we tend to have tremendous demand, if you ever get an opportunity to go down to the Bayview boat ramp on a weekend day and see the impact that our county facility has in the neighborhood there, it cries for the fact that the community desires to have more boat ramp facilities. Cocoahatchee Park is a great facility for that but if you look at the management standards we are behind in terms of boat ramps. We are looking next year at the possibility of expanding the Bayview Park location by using some land which is adjacent to the road across the swamp on that property that Collier County owns. We have been working with the Colliers on this for the last part of this year and unfortunately most of the people that we were working with are no longer there, so we're talking about a whole new group there of Colliers who seem as agreeable to that as the previous group, but have just been starting all over again. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: What kind of boat ramp do you envision? How big does it have to be? MR. OLLIFF: The ramp itself doesn't have to OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 97 be that large. The both trailer park is what would require the land. Right now, on Saturdays, that road is probably a quarter of a mile long and in the morning by 10 o'clock the cars will be parked all the way to Bayshore Drive -- what is the road -- all the way to Thompson and then turning down Thompson and probably eight to ten deep down Thompson Drive. So, we are probably 50 parking spaces short there to meet the public demand today. It's not ramp space, it's parking. MR. SMYKOWSKI: There are about 20 spaces there and 70 in Cocoahatchee. MR. OLLIFF: We do have some funds to be able to expand on the current property, but there is a small kitty park there that we would like to try and to preserve. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Do we have any land at the East Naples Community Park or at Avalon School that would be available for parking once you have launched your boat? MR. OLLIFF: You probably could but that must be a mile and a half to two miles from the boat ramp OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 98 location. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Is there any opportunity to make a multi level parking garage for that? MR. OLLIFF: thought about that. I don't think we have actually We're desperate for trying to satisfy that demand because it's huge and it's not going to get smaller. There is only so much waterfront property available. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: What I juet said about East Naples, I realize that it's not very close but there are things like shuttles that they use all the time out at Clam Pass, they use at Pelican Bay. It's a means of transportation, and you say you are trying to generate revenues, we have got existing facilities that would be used that maybe are under-utilized in that regard and there may be an opportunity to provide that kind of service. MR. OLLIFF: Well, we're more than willing to look at any alternative we have at this point for boat ramps. That's something we may eventually head towards, shuttle service. Beaches, the board has consistently expressed the desire to try and increase the public access to OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 99 beaches and beach facilities. We are currently undertaking two park expansions. So the board knows, we are making some large drives in providing additional beach parking. Last year we had 30 percent more beach parking space than we had the prior year. Next year we have plans to add another 25 percent on top of what we currently have, so we are adding a lot of beach parking spaces. We currently have well beyond what Lee County has in terms of beach parking capacity and continue to look for opportunity to expand because the numbers that I quoted earlier, two million people, are using Collier County beaches and boat ramp parks. It obviously is increasing and continues to be a demand to use these parks. We have got two parking projects proposed for next year as expansion. Tiger Tail, which is going to be a very difficult permit to obtain, we may or may not be able to do that. It's probably 80 to 100 spaces depending upon how mitigation and the layout works. Barefoot Beach will maximize what we are allowed on state property for that and that will be another 100 OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 100 spaces which we hope to have available by the time the season starts this coming year. The rest ofthe time you will see we will continue to try and pursue some additional land facilities or even some trams or shuttle services at these locations like Marco Island, Tiger Tail Beach, try and provide some additional beach opportunity. In addition to these things, Just the last of the broader scope issues, the four items I wanted to cover with you is the review of growth management plan and impact fees, which we discussed, increasing our revenues. We continue to think we have got some opportunity to be able to do that and we're always walking that fine line about increasing revenues with keeping our programs affordable to that middle and low income portion of our population which uses our recreational programs, especially summer camp. Just so you know, we Just completed our last week of summer camp last week. Thank goodness we had no fatalities or anything else. We had a good, successful summer and we had 900 kids involved in the summer camp this year, which is a lot, and I think it's the best OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 101 deal in town for 25 dollars a week. They are provided camp, generally 8:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon and they are also provided the lunch and two field trips each week, one with the pool, have got. so it's a great opportunity we The demand has been so high we have actually increased our rate by 75 percent last year and we are continuing to try and increase these rates until we get to the point were we begin to see some --- COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Can you give me the child care -- per child cost? The $25 a week doesn't begin to compare. MR. OLLIFF: No, it doesn't touch the child care costs. That's why we honestly believe it's probably the best deal going. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I would say it is. MR. SMYKOWSKI: Even with the increase, you still have a tremendous outpouring of sign-ups. MR. OLLIFF: We used to have sign ups at 8 o'clock in the morning and we would have people literally spend the night outside the county parks in order to register their kids for camp, so we shifted that to where we don't start registering until 5:00 in OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 102 the afternoon, which then they don't have to at least spend the night. We're doing some things like exploring the use of credit cards and being able to register at any park facility for any camp, so we're trying to make this as customer friendly as we possibly can. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Do you have an arrangement with the school board so a lot of these kids that are going to school, that you could sign up while you are in school so you don't have to have a separate exercise to sign up? MR. OLLIFF: No, we haven't, and that is worth pursuing. Generally, because it requires the parent to be involved. MR. CONRECODE: They do send materials home. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: I just wondered if there wasn't a way, in terms of the actual signing up process, I mean there are a lot of children going to school. That may be an opportunity to work through the school for that. MR. OLLIFF: The last item is the coordination. We wanted to try and work a little better with our community school system, trying to work with OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 103 them both currently and in future planning. They have property that they own that they plan on doing school construction and that's where we ought to be looking at parks next. We're trying to do more and more of this type of facility with parks and schools working together to share land and share facilities. We have Just recently discussed with the school board the use of three of the local middle school facilities and upgrade their fields and actually have them open to the public after hours, that being Pine Ridge, East Naples and the new Oak Ridge School on Immokalee Road. Those facilities are already built. We would not have to go out and build a new facility, which would save us $350,000 or $500,000 per field. From the school board's perspective, they get better maintained fields and they get the reduction of their operating expenses because they no longer have to maintain these fields, so it's a win-win for everybody involved. The middle schools target more because they don't have organized athletic teams that use these to practice, so we're hopeful that we can probably add six ball fields to our inventory, simply by signing an OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 104 8 agreement with the school board. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Mr. Olliff, is there any opportunity for the parks and recreation to utilize the public access t.v. as we were talking about the interaction with some of the programs? You can't swim, but there may be some other programs -- seriously, some other programs that we could offer to the youngsters as part of the overall recreational opportunities. MR. OLLIFF: We are doing that. In fact, there is a program that has been designed on a national level for preschool age children and smaller program to help them develop their motor skills and something like that. They then transfer these kids directly into organized pee-wee sports programs. It's something we're looking at in terms of the television system. That's all I have for parks and recreation. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Mr. Olliff, in your parks community strategic planning, is there language in there what the eventual goals for acreage of parks on a population density or is there something that would contain language similar to that no one should have to drive more than six miles or ten miles or what have you OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 105 to get to a public park. Do we have actual goals like that? MR. OLLIFF: The only goals that we actually have are either land square footage or it's most difficult the level of service to try to deal with and that's one of the things we are trying to look at. Right now we are required to build, for example, .0353 baseball fields per thousand. standard. It's an odd type of We have that standard for everything whether it's racketball courts or basketball courts or amphitheaters and trying to do your inventory to determine whether you have met .0353 baseball fields per thousand is just kind of a regular sort of standard made and it doesn't allow you to respond when the public wants something not on your list. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: amphitheaters. MR. OLLIFF: There's a big demand for We're in the process of building one right now, but there is nothing in terms of location of those, whether they need to be for the population, but we're getting ready by making sure there is a level of service so that there will be so much by way of OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 106 facilities as the population comes up. It's sort of on us, but there is no standard on that. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Also in terms of future planning, so that we will not be behind the curve so to speak in areas that are developing population, are we looking ahead to acquiring the lands while it's still relatively inexpensive? MR. OLLIFF: You have got to remember that that park system didn't exist ten years ago, and they were trying to do some very fast catch up and I think you have seen us Just this year telling you that in terms of our level of service standards in our existing parks efficiency that we have met that, so now we are at the point in the next five years trying to see where are the people going to be and Just what you are saying and if you say, before they get here, let's go out and acquire that --- COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Let's buy it while it's still $2,000 an acre instead of waiting until it's $15,000. COMMISSIONER VOLPE: Back on the regional parks, just to identify for the board, there are some opportunities that exist out on the south trail, talking OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 107 about South Naples now, that are actually backed by the Florida Power & Light easement on the east trail, and a little bit farther to the southeast there are sections of land that are available there that would make a great passive recreational area, and I think that they can still be purchased at some very reasonable prices, Just in terms of where you are focused on and I understand out on the east trial but as you go a little bit further to the south there are nice blocks back there that can be bought reasonably. MR. OLLIFF: Do you want to go a little into libraries and try and finish this up? MR. MARTIN: MR. OLLIFF: the Estates Branch. open in January. Yes. The first library item there is The Estates Branch is scheduled to You will recall that this project the board approved and the location is right next to the fire station. That's the front elevation of the building that was approved by the board. That's currently up to about trusses now. We expect it to be open by January. The floor plan of this is one where we are trying to be a little smarter and trying to build our OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 108 facilities again so that they meet the customers' demands. In this case, you will see a very large juvenile department, children's room. This is in the Estates. This is where the children are and we're trying to build facilities that in this particular case provide what the public is out there. It's children, and that's what we're trying to focus on. The library system today, if you will look around, our main children's collection and room is located here in this building and in terms of demographics and population, that probably doesn't make a lot of sense. Most of our children are located in Golden Gate and the Golden Gate Estates area and North Naples and we don't have a large children's room or large children's selection there, so that is something we are trying to be a little smarter about. We want to expand our circulation by 25 percent. We believe that'e achievable, that's something we can do. We have a circulation of a million items and we think we can have that at a million-two-fifty. Better than half of every person who lives in this county holds a library card and with the opening of OFFTCTAL COURq' RF, PORq'ER,.q - COT~T~T~.~ CO~TrPV. NRPT,~..q. 109 the new Estates Library, with the expansion of North Naples and with some other ideas in terms of increasing our collection by adding paperbacks and things that a seasonal public wants to have, we think we can do that. We will. Fiscal year '96, we're trying to coordinate all our services. We've done some things that operationally didn't make great deal of sense of how we did a lot of our operations here. We've had all of our materials selected, purchased, ordered, by a single individual which just simply doesn't make for an efficient system, and it also doesn't allow a person in the children's room who hears what the children want or hears what the mothers want to be able to place orders for these materials. We're trying to spread that out so the branches are actually ordering some of their own materials, children's library ordering their materials, and each of our branches will have a say in the budget that they will deal with. They will, of course, be required to have certain standard best sellers, reference materials and those sort of things, but I think there are some discretionary items for the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 110 population to be served. We're going to be working with parks and rec trying to implement some joint programs between our libraries and our parks to try and take advantage of the departments that we have, trying simply to coordinate or communicate a little better, have some recreation programs, story hours at some of our parks during summer camp, just a lot of opportunities for coordination needs there. The Marco Island Branch Library is on the capital plan scheduled for expansion and renovation, fiscal calendar year '96. That will be depend upon what the board decides when we come back, to give us information on the East Naples Branch Library. We're working right now with the owners of that shopping center directly adjacent to the East Naples Branch and hope to bring some options back to the board in terms of the financing of that or some expansion of that space and the board decides which of these two projects are the next capital project. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Mr. Olliff, Mr. Dorrill, we have lost our quorum. Are we allowed to continue? OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA '- 111 10 MR. DORRILL: I think for purposes of Just general discussion we ought to go ahead and complete this particular section. I don't think you can -- you will be precluded from taking any votes or any official action, but we might as well finish. MR. OLLIFF: Next is a computerized sort of public information access system that I know Edison Community College is working on here locally. The City of Tallahassee has a fairly involved system. They simply would allow people to go into different locations, whether it's here at the library computers and accessing things like community calendars or they can access the courses at Edison Community College coming up and Just allowing a whole generalized data base of information that is available at locations throughout the community. You can also access our library system and Edison's and sort of share information that is available to the public. Fiscal '97 is probably a realistic year when something like that might come to fruition. Then they're talking about investigating the expansion of book collection, again shooting for what OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA was the old projected level of 1.5 books per capita. Not only are we looking at trying to increase the size of the collection, but we're trying to increase the quality of the collection that we have. We can meet the growth management level today of 1.1 books and have nothing but Mickey Rooney's Autobiography and that would meet the definition, which would meet our standards. COMMISSIONER NORRIS: That's a good idea. It's a very popular selection. MR. OLLIFF: It's not only that quantity issue but quality and for the first time ever this coming weekend we are having a book sale, a book sale designed to allow the public an opportunity to buy used books, cassettes, C.D.s, these kinds of things, and offer us a way to make some money back that we can actually purchase some new books, but probably the better thing for us is it allows us an opportunity to weed the collection, get rid some of the material that is in there that is not circulating now, and in the case of scientific publications that should be off the shelf because the information is dated and it's occasionally wrong, so we need to get that material out of there. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 113 So, all of that wtll be on sale this weekend and I think we are expecting a great turnout for that, so a lot of children's books as well will be on sale, so if you have got some time on Saturday or Friday, stop by here and all that stuff will be on sale for about 50 cents a book. That's our plan for the library. Just so the board knows, we are going to --- COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Wait, a question. On the libraries, is there any opportunity here to work with the schools and use the schools' library systems for students as well, again, working towards a common goal of number of books available throughout the county, number of square feet available, and having the libraries in the schools open to the public after school hours, staffed by library personnel? MR. OLLIFF: We have tentatively talked about that. The first trial location that we have talked about it was in Everglades City. Everglades City has an expansion school going on there with a major addition to the library system, and the county library there is basically one small room, probably ten by 12. It's run or manned by the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 114 clerk down there and we actually don't do anything other than supply books. There has been some public resistance to having to go on to a school campus in order to access just the general public books but there is that opportunity and an opportunity for just a shared library card, single card for books, and it's something that I think we will continue to work with and we will bring the board a report on that. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: So it#s hearing some resistance from the citizens? MR. OLLIFF: The citizens, city counsel there in Everglades City are in fact Just so adamant that "We are not going to the library if it's at the school" kind of reaction, which kind of surprised me and we are trying to find out what the resistance is to see if we can overcome that some way because it does make a lot of sense. For the board's information, this season we are going to begin providing Sunday hours here at the library, something that we have wanted to do for a long time. It's going to mean that we have to fill some staffing and do some scheduling, but we, as of I think OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 115 11 the end of this week, will have an entire schedule put together so that from the months of November through March, this library will be open seven days a week and there is a great demand, especially on school children's part, who have a report due on Monday, to be able to get access to the library, so we are going to try and do that. Which leaves me to the museum. The museum as well is one of those facilities we are trying to respond to the public and this year through the friends, through the volunteers, we're going to try and facilitate on the weekends. That's a location where, during the day, working parents or the student, there is not a single hour where that museum is available for them. It's open 9:00 to 5:00, regular business hours. It's not open after hours, not open on weekends and we think we can get that accomplished with the friends of the museum, people who are familiar with and educated on the area's history and can not only open the door but also provide some information about the area's history. There is a lot of interest on the part of the volunteers as well. The museum is one of the areas the OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 116 board is going to need to decide for us its future direction. Right now the previous board had accepted the two locations which would mean a fair amount of commitment in terms of ongoing operation costs. The Everglades City building and the Immokalee Ranch project are facilities that will take the museum in completely different directions. Right now the museum is centrally located in a small facility that houses Collier County's history in a single location. Due to these two facilities, it makes the museum a system of museums and creates satellite museums that are located out of the way. The staffing requirements and operational requirements are going to be something the board needs to consider before we actually decide to open those to the public. We already have some commitments, especially in terms of the Immokalee Ranch. We have some properties that will be deeded to the county as part of the P.U.D., commercial P.U.D. there, where we are at least conceptually agreeing to move an old Florida ranch, a series of structures, to county property and preserved. To my knowledge, it's the only full and complete Florida ranch location in the state. The state OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 117 has told us that there is no other facility like that that is actually intact. The physical commitment to do that is large, and the board is Just going to need to make that decision when we get to that project. The private property is owned by a family of at least ten different members and if you have ever had a family and tried to get ten people to agree on something, it's difficult, so we have had trouble getting the property deeded to the county, but that commitment is coming. We don't know when, we did not budget it for thie coming year but when the property does get deeded, we'll at least conceptually have a basic commitment that we believe these buildings can provide a museum. That's it for parks, libraries, museums. Education, I think it's good. I don't do education. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I think that probably concludes the presentation from staff today. You may want to spend the last five minutes or so asking the general audience who has been attending if they have any input on some of the areas that we have not covered or things that we might have covered. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA I don't know, we didn't get any sign up sheets, did we? MR. DORRILL: No, but for those who wish to offer a brief comment, if you Just give your name and the organization that you are representing for purposes of the reporter, we would appreciate that. MS. STRATON: Chris Straton, and I'm representing the Collier County Audubon Society. Just in case no one realized, there was every large environmental organization in the county here today, the League of Women Voters, Florida Wildlife Audubon, the Conservancy and EPTAB is also represented. The reason I would like to bring up -- there are many items included in the existing growth management plan that still have not been addressed and I was just wondering what the plans were in terms of addressing some of those items. Of course, the one that immediately comes to mind is wildlife guidelines, the existing growth management plan and until the County establishes their own, they'll be using the guidelines from the State and that does create a problem many times with items that come before the E.P.A.B., so I did want to ask what OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 119 12 plans the staff had to get our growth management plan back on schedule. species? the Bald Eagle? MS. STRATON: MR. DORRILL: Specifically the protected The one that always seems to present itself, Yes, and the red headed woodpecker, those sorts of things. MR. DORRILL: My recollection is that this board had seemed to indicate that they did not want to have a redundant or higher level of regulatory authority over protected species, and plans during the interim we'll use either the Florida Fish & Wildlife Service guidelines for criteria and regulatory permit activities, but in the absence of that, that is probably going to be an issue that the new board will have to determine whether or not they want to strike that provision and Just indicate that the State or Federal wildlife protected species policies and regulations all apply or whether they want to reconsider having an eagle protection ordinance and the other associated either endangered or protected species. I think the answer is we are not doing anything beyond the direction that we have to utilize OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA ~20 the interim criteria that is there and apply it at our development service level. about that. MR. STALLINGS: There is no work ongoing I'm Fran Stallings of the Florida Wildlife Federation. I don't have a lot to say, but I guess what I would concentrate on is this. I believe there is a lot more common ground between the position I represent and the position for example that many people in the development community come from, and I think what would help tremendously is to get more factual information in front of the policy makers such as this Board of County Commissioners. I guess what I'm asking for or asking you to consider is to direct staff to be more aggressive in getting the facts in front of you as decision makers as to where we stand and where we are going and what the consequences are, and I think that you really have got to have as much knowledge in front of you as you can possibly get to make these decisions and I think you could have some better decisions with better knowledge, and I just think that the county badly needs, from an environmental perspective, a better organized group that is more aggressive in telling you what the facts are, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 121 where we stand and where we are going, especially on the long term perspective. We Just have to look down the road five years, ten years and 15 years and see where we want to be, and I would hope that this direction is something that you all can give a lot more consideration to. MR. LEE: My name is Arthur Lee, and I'm with the Historic Preservation Board. I have printed some brief and very -- highly informal notes bringing you up to date on what we have done. Essentially, we have completed in the time since we were organized the procedures and regulations necessary for diminishing the damage caused to cultural resources by development and other activities. That is in place now and the community development division has a set of procedures to keep these enforced. My message to you today is rather a positive one. Having cleared that, we are now in a position to take a more aggressive posture regarding the selection, designation and the accreditation, if you will, of historic properties. There is an essential part of the community's OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 122 history and is an Important one in bringing our highly diverse population together into something resembling more of a community. We'll be coming to you in the course of the next year or two for some small monies in connection with surveys and the designated process. Nothing there to raise anybody's hair, but we will be a presence in front of you from time to time when really for the first time we'll be engaging in the process. That's my message, thank you. MS. CORKRAN: I will say something. I'm Virginia B. Corkran. I was pleased to hear this morning that you were beginning to address or recognize the need for restoring or amending the gap between land use planning and water planning, water use planning, and I hope that perhaps you will consider meeting with the Big Cypress Basin Board or South Florida Water Management in the future in discussing your needs, your aims, your goals, with them as they consider those same challenges from their point of view. Thank you. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: I think we did decide earlier this morning that we did want to try to put OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA 123 13 together a meeting of these three boards to see where we can go together. If there are no other comments to be made, we're adjourned. MR. MARTIN: You need to set a date for your next meeting. MR. DORRILL: We tentatively have one -- the next Tuesday would be in November and I think we would want to try and incorporate that as part of our new commissioner orientation process -- we would have Just sworn in two new commissioners about three weeks prior to that, two county commissioners -- and we are tentatively scheduled to meet again the fifth Tuesday in November. MR. MARTIN: MR. DORRILL: That's the 29th. Thank you a11. COMMISSIONER MATTHEWS: Thank you a11. UNIDENTIFIED: If I may, I would like to suggest that we have a quorum of the commissioners here at all times or all commissioners. Thank you. (Meeting concluded at 12:00.) OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, ... / FLORIDA 124 STATE OF FLORIDA) COUNTY OF COLLIER) do hereby report the this record Stenograph session. I further I, JACLYN M. OUELLETTE, Shorthand Reporter and Notary Public in and for the State of Florida at Large certify that I was authorized to and did hereinbefore-styled hearing~ and that is a true and correct transcript of my notes of the proceedings had at said certify that I am not employed by or related to the parties to this matter, nor interested in the outcome of this action. WITNESS my hand this 22nd day of September, 1994. STATE OF FLORIDA) COUNTY OF COLLIER) The foregoing certificate was acknowledged before me this 22nd day of September, 1994, by Jaclyn M. Ouellette, who is personally known to me. State of p.~Y/:'U OFFICIAL NOTARY SEAL O,, ,,., ~ ~w ,~ MY COMMISS:ON EXP. OF f~ MAR. 28,19eS , OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS - COLLIER COUNTY, NAPLES, FLORIDA