2MC Podcast Eps 69 - Show The Snowy Plover Some Love

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MAK
Hey everybody, it's Mac.

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Courtney
And I'm Courtney. Welcome back to to emcee, our weekly podcast.

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MAK
We have a ton of stuff to cover today.

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Courtney
We do. We had a board meeting this week and it was a lot of fun.

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MAK
Full house it was. I love to see it when chambers is packed.

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Courtney
Me too. Right. Let's dive in. Okay, so we had some proclamations. The Pine School boys varsity soccer team won the Florida high school Athletics Association class, won a state championships. Put. Right.

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MAK
Yeah, it was pretty awesome. Yeah, it was fun. And when they were talking about it, they said they won the last four out of five state championships undefeated. Doing some cool stuff over there. Right? Yeah.

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Courtney
We also recognized National Safe Boating Week.

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MAK
Did you put your life jacket on?

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Courtney
I did not know.

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MAK
Okay. You know, I did not. I was reading proclamations. Yes.

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Courtney
We recognized public works week, and also Memorial Day is coming up.

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MAK
Yep. And emergency medical services week in Martin County. Yeah.

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Courtney
So many great week. Like a great week. For many things. Yes.

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MAK
Yes, it was a great week of things.

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Courtney
So during public comments we had a lot of people speaking about quiet zones.

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MAK
Yep. It's been hot.

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Courtney
Whatnot. Yes. And so the board asked staff to bring back an agenda item regarding the quiet zones with a, freight expert.

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MAK

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Courtney
And that.

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MAK
There was a presentation to the board last.

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Courtney
Year, a year ago maybe March.

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MAK
Or something of last year. So it's bringing it back. Yeah. It's good.

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Courtney
All right.

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MAK
So then getting into it like we said there's a lot of stuff to unpack. But started out this was on consent. But the chief did talk a bit about it and it was the interlocal agreement between for fire, fire suppression and emergency medical services between Martin County and the city of Stuart. And that was approved.

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Courtney
Yes. And then there also was a request, well, in on consent and approval for the request for proposal process RFP. So wow. I know I'm not.

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MAK
Sure that I tried that with you, but I'm going to say okay.

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Courtney
Good. Okay. So now the airport staff can go out for a RFP request for proposal for the two vacant aeronautical parcels, which is important because that means they have to be aeronautical style things.

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MAK
Yes. And, compliance with FAA regulations for uses on the airport.

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Courtney
Yes. Right. Process will comply with the applicable laws.

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MAK
Oh, it says it right there.

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Courtney
And the voluntary corrective action plan.

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MAK
Yeah.

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Courtney
And the FAA.

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MAK
Next up was an item that came before the board for the Florida mobile Park in Hobe Sound. And it was to modify the RV park standards. So the board received and filed that agenda and all the attachments. They approved the ordinance amending article 12 of the Community Redevelopment Code, the elders and the Martin County Code so you can watch the meeting for more details on that, because it was a really involved process.

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MAK
And, you don't want me to go into all of that here? Just saying.

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Courtney
The board also approved the amendment for the Pine School project. And we had a Marty update.

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MAK
This was great. I'm so excited to follow the progress of Marty right now.

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Courtney
So they ever so senior resource took over in July of 2025. And since they took over there's been a 20% increase in ridership. But since going fare free which happened in November, there has been a increase of 37% in ridership, which is amazing.

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MAK
That's really exciting. My county residents are getting where they need to go and they're getting there for free.

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Courtney
Yes. And, they're also looking to add an additional 21 new stops where they feel that they are needed and they're starting the route optimization study. The route optimization study.

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MAK
Good. Yeah. Thank you.

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Courtney
Yes. What else was the other thing that happened was there's three different easements, environmentally sensitive lands. Conservation easements would be the correct way to say that. Yep. And it's to use the half cent sales tax to purchase those with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program, I know.

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Courtney
We're all collaborating together. Yeah.

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MAK
Love it.

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Courtney
The board approved to go ahead and purchase those three conservation easements.

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MAK
Nice. That went through. What else do we have. Oh the Martin County Healthy Start Coalition. There was a presentation and there was public comment on it. And the board approved an option to to lease between, Martin County and the Healthy Start Coalition, because right now, we have the Mom mobile rights, which started last year. And I know they've had some great success with the mom mobile, but we now will have an additional proactive care solution for Martin County residents giving birth right here in our community.

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Courtney
That's awesome.

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MAK
I know. It's cool.

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Courtney
So this is definitely been a hot topic.

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MAK
The P3.

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Courtney
Yes. Right. And so, yes. So the board at our last meeting, staff to put together kind of like an infographic of how a P3 works, why a P3 rate, blah, blah. Right. So we have that now and it is on the homepage of our website. Yes. You can check it out to see what the infographic says, but I did take some interest.

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Courtney
I took some notes down. Yes.

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MAK
You know, look at it.

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Courtney
The budgeting for the operations facility is always in our CIP. So you can always look at that. Everything all of our projects. Capital improvement plan. Cool.

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MAK
Yes it is. And those are that's available on our website. And there's a there's a sheet for each project.

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Courtney
Yes. So you can definitely check that out if you're interested in the budgeting of this project. The other thing that I wanted to talk about was normally when we do contracts, with our contractors, they have change orders that happen. And so sometimes projects can be a little bit more.

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MAK
Than, yeah, the process is it's like doing something in your home or whatever.

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Courtney
So the interesting thing about a P3 is that the contractor can not initiate any change orders.

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MAK
Yeah, it's a fixed cost. And what that's budgeted for and.

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Courtney
What you.

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MAK
Promise is what's.

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Courtney
Delivered. Right. So it can't be more which is great.

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MAK
Yes.

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Courtney
Yeah. So yeah, check that out. The infographic has all the information I.

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MAK
Thought was really interesting because I wasn't I didn't know exactly what it meant and what the differences were. And that really helped me understand that.

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Courtney
Yes.

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MAK
Yeah, yeah.

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Courtney
And then at the end of the meeting, Don, our county administrator, Don Donaldson, was at the Jupiter Island meeting to discuss the.

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MAK
Yeah, he talked about what he was, why he had missed the very beginning part of the meeting.

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Courtney
Yes. And so he was at the Jupiter Island meeting to discuss the building that they will be putting on the homes on beach, right.

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MAK
For ocean rescue.

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Courtney
Ocean rescue. And so Jupiter Island did approve the easement that we needed and the site plan.

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MAK
So that's that's exciting.

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Courtney
It's good news. Yeah. Yeah. Up next, this was not in the board meeting, but no.

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MAK
So now we're moving on. Right. So there's an airport strategic planning open house. Thursday, May 21st from 430 to 630. And that's, that's at their administrative location at 2011 Southeast Airport Road in Stuart.

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Courtney
Yes.

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MAK
Open to the public. Go in here about the strategic plan, learn more, provide comments.

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Courtney
All the things.

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MAK
All those things.

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Courtney
Yes.

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MAK
And then there's a whole nother page of stuff.

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Courtney
No, it's good stuff. Yeah. It's just two more things.

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MAK
Music in the park. This is always a fun one.

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Courtney
Party. Patio. Patio. Palm City place. I'm not sure where that came from.

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MAK
I don't know, but we've been talking a lot.

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Courtney
At the patio at Palm City Place. The artist is Indigo Dreamers.

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MAK
It sounds lovely. Right? Right. It's a beautiful Saturday evening at the park.

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Courtney
Indigo dreamers? Yeah. There'll be food trucks, drink trucks, drink trucks and ice cream. I heard there was ice cream, and I got very excited. Yeah.

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MAK
You have to bring your lawn chairs, your beach chairs, your blankets, whatever, whatever. Yeah. However you want to sit and listen.

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Courtney
And that's on Saturday, May 23rd. Starts at 6:30 p.m.. Goes until 8:30 p.m.. So.

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MAK
Yeah. And this is, this is kind of a cool thing. We have had our coastal manager in here with us before. She's talked about nourishment project Garland. Jessica. Yep. And beaches and such. But we were just notified that the Hutchison Island Shore Protection Project won the ASB Best Restored Beaches.

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Courtney
Now, you might be saying what is a s b par?

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MAK
It's the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association. Wow. So that's a nationwide, organization. And they recognize this project is one of the nation's most successful coastal restoration efforts.

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Courtney
Means we're doing something right.

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MAK
I know and we started doing these in 1995.

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Courtney
Yes. So this has been our restoration project. This is our 30 year mark of doing these as well.

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MAK
Right? I didn't do the math. I can't do it that fast.

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Courtney
I think that it is okay if I'm incorrect. Well, let me know.

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MAK
2025.

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Courtney
Nope.

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MAK
Minus.

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Courtney
Let's not do the math.

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MAK
Okay?

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Courtney
So.

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MAK
So we've been doing this as long as William's been.

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Courtney
Alive. Perfect. And over the past three decades, we've done ongoing monitoring, adaptive management strategies. And I do think that we have created a pretty good plan.

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MAK
For a resilient beach and a resilient community. Yeah.

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Courtney
Well, nice. Beautiful.

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MAK
No, thanks.

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Courtney
And not to forget, we've also enhanced the nesting habitat for our sea turtles.

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MAK
And our shorebirds. That's true. Right?

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Courtney
Yeah. The snowy plovers.

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MAK
Yes. They're the ones that just drop their eggs. Right? Right on the beach. Right, right on the sand. And you walk away. So, yeah, you have to be careful where you, step.

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Courtney
Not very good moms, but.

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MAK
They should go to the mom mobile.

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Courtney
So, yeah, that's all we have today. It was kind of a lot in the board meeting, but good it was.

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MAK
But it's good information. And just remember, this is kind of bite sized information, but you can always dive into all of those different topics. In the board meeting we have the summary online. We have the board meeting is on our socials. And it's also very.

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Courtney
Accessible.

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MAK
And on the website.

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Courtney
Yeah I did want to make a note.

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MAK
It's not here I know. Okay. The scares.

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Courtney
Me. There might be a.

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MAK

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Courtney
Cross on.

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MAK
Watson. Yeah, yeah. This little croissant.

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Courtney
I don't know if you guys have tuned in to our much earlier. Earlier I podcasts.

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MAK
Purchased a.

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Courtney
Crochet.

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MAK
A package of thread.

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Courtney
You purchased a crochet kit that told her how to make this.

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MAK
It's said that anybody could do it, and I could not. And so when we had, Brittany Bassett here from utilities, somehow it came up. I think you were making fun of me. And she's like, oh my gosh, I crochet. And I do that for stress relief. And I'm like, I've got a project for you. Yeah, it took her a little while.

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MAK
I think it caused her stress.

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Courtney
Yes.

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MAK
Instead of relieving her stress. But he's just as cute as can be. Yeah.

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Courtney
So here he is. She says.

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MAK
Bourgeois. Bourgeois.

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Courtney
I just thought he needed a little moment.

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MAK
Yeah, he does. It doesn't stand up, but he does like to sit right here with the milk and cookies.

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Courtney
Yes, that's all I've got. But that is all we have. So don't forget to, like, follow and subscribe and comment. We'd love to hear it.

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MAK
That's it.

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Courtney
That's all we got.

00:13:05:07 - 00:13:08:01
MAK
You know what I'm going to say over.

00:13:08:03 - 00:13:08:25
Courtney
See you later.

00:13:08:25 - 00:13:09:06
MAK
Bye.