Commissioner Starkey report on storm response

1:42:13Um Gina, I I was trying to keep the idea. I was trying to keep the volume off of my phone, but were you able to get my Okay, you don't have to

1:42:22Were you really?

1:42:23You don't have to I I don't know why every time I hit it the volume would shoot back up again. It was getting louder. It doesn't matter if you play the volume or not, it's just but this is my flooding photo. I didn't I can show you my Gulf Harbor's house, but no, not that. I just sent you a video.

1:42:41Okay. It's an email that just I would have just came, but when I look I can't tell if it went through or not. I um Okay, I'm gonna uh continue with you on the tree situation, and of course you know I've always been Um And last year we started back on giving trees out on Arbor Day. And um I paid for some and the county paid for some. Um but I would suggest that we, you

1:43:11know, double our efforts. They're not very big and maybe we can talk about getting bigger.

1:43:18Yeah um There is money for tree giveaways and it Typically happens on an Arbor Day all around the country. So something we can build on. Um But I'd love to see those oak trees come back. Uh okay. So you can't show that video? Okay. Um this is uh fact when um We did a field trip to look at the Living Shore line that they got grant money for after uh the the spill.

1:43:49Um Do you have the picture of the water? No.

1:43:55Um, that was our Veterans Memorial Park that's along the waterline there. Um this is what they have two of these. And they got they got grant money for this and they built they built up these little islands and then they Um

1:44:13I don't know what you even call 'em that there's co these line looking things. There's concrete on there and then they put other stuff on top that got um oyster beds to grow on it. And it has totally protected their shoreline. And they have they have two of these and they're getting ready to do another one. very successful, full of fish. And it um Jack, have you ever seen these? 'Cause I know we've talked about 'em, but this is the first time I've ever I ever saw one.

1:44:38I have I I wouldn't mind seeing one now that the storm's gone through though, to see what actually what the effect was.

1:44:43Yeah, and um well this is in this is in Pensacola. Um do you have the video of the of the water? So that's just A short little video of this water.

1:44:55Or picture. That that's that's it looking out. Um those are the grass beds. Uh interesting birds don't make a nest nest on there because they said It's uh critters com would come and eat the eggs so they so it's bird free. But um Anyway, they have two giant installations of that in Pensacola.

1:45:13Penny's pretty.

1:45:14Yeah. And it's done a great job of protecting them. Um So that was very interesting. Okay, I got a um I got uh this is uh a trip we did to the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. and um those are like it's like an Ironman suit. Some some of 'em have obviously have defense capabilities and we didn't go into that section. But This is for people who have um Injuries? and

1:45:44so they can walk and move around again and also for for certain kind of jobs. uh very, very fascinating stuff and um they were very interested in NAM skills and and partnering with us too. Uh so we're gonna um invite them down and they're very interested in Moffitt. They've got this whole other section that does very uh advanced science scientific research. And um I've been reading about them for years. They they got a lot of funding from the legisl legislature and I always heard about them so

1:46:15I was excited to uh to be able to go visit them. Okay, what other pictures are on there? But uh that's that. I don't know why you have this pictures. Keep going. I don't Oh, so uh Commissioner Yeager and I um got into some some swift boats with our firemen from Longview, Texas. And um Uh Jimmy Petronas. I guess he's not in these pictures. This is kind of a mishmash of pictures. Um

1:46:46So on the left is us going down Elfers Parkway. And Once again we have homes where the water was up to their windows and above and Alfred's Parkway and this has happened multiple times so I don't know how those mobile homes are still there. Um But i uh y you can't e you can't even tell that's a road. Y you could not tell where any of the roads were. They had these sticks in front of them, big poles and they were you know, trying to keep us safe as we were We

1:47:16were boating down the road. Commissioner Yeager, I did not put the picture in here of you and the chickens. Do you have that? I do have that. I accidentally deleted mine. Um but while we were getting ready to go into our boats, um Uh up comes a little John Boat w with a a couple and about I don't know how many chickens were in there. uh that they rescued out of a tree. And since this one used to have chickens, she just grabbed a chicken and put it right into the truck. I'm I'm I'm not touching wild chickens, so Um, it was it was really funny. Uh

1:47:46but it was s so cool to meet those guys from Texas and um And uh we're just grateful that all those first responders came. That's um Governor DeSantis up above when he came to Zephyrhills and uh And that was my first view of some of those oak trees. You can't see it in this picture, but you can see that one oak tree standing up there, but behind him was mass d destruction of oak trees in that In that that area.

1:48:14So um I gotta I got a request from a resident who lives on Buddy Lake, also Uh it connects somehow to Lake Pasadena. Yes. Commissioner Oakley? It

1:48:25does, yes.

1:48:26Um we have an ordinance against airboats. on some lakes on Bell Lake, Cruise Lake, Lake Thomas and Cherry Lake. No, that's getting ready to be a a a park. Uh on Lake Pasadena and Buddy Lake. and um a passive and active park in Uh apparently someone's zipping around there in a very loud

1:48:52I wanted to um know how we go about adding that lake as a lake that has airboats prohibited on it. Frankly, I don't think any boats inside the county.

1:49:04I'll I'll check that up. Yeah, I I don't think any lake should have an airboat on it. it. Personally, do you know how loud those things are? I

1:49:12disagree with

1:49:12that.

1:49:13I've so

1:49:14loud.

1:49:15I believe you're preempted.

1:49:16Well these lake these lakes don't have 'em on there.

1:49:20I believe you're preempted by state law to regulate airboats, but I will check on that.

1:49:27Okay. How old's the ordinance? I don't know.

1:49:30It's section one one four-four seven.

1:49:33It should say at the

1:49:34airboats prohibited on certain lakes.

1:49:36Does it say at the bottom?

1:49:38B.

1:49:41I don't have a date.

1:49:42What was the number again?

1:49:44Uh section one one four dash four seven.

1:49:47Okay.

1:49:48We had someone come in an airboat behind our house in Gulf Harbor's about ten o'clock at night one night. Jess is doing donuts and Was out there for about an hour. Everybody came out of their houses and was yelling at 'em. Which kept him from doing more and more. Um and uh I had said my comments this morning, but I just wanted to um Thank everybody for all the hard work. We're not done yet. Um but Um Wow, I

1:50:18think we came through with fine colors when you think about two hurricanes in thirteen days. I mean has anyone ever gone through anything like that?

1:50:25Yeah.

1:50:27That's why

1:50:27we have all this water.

1:50:28And we're uh unique in our county that we have three lakes, three rivers going through it. Is there any other county that has three rivers going through it? Maybe up in the panhandle. Maybe.

1:50:41So We stand out in that regard. Thank you very much, sir.