R26-229 Lottie Kelly Keep Pasco Beautiful

51:53Now we'll go to R S One. Lottie Kelly?

51:57Lottie Kelly. And whoever's here with Lottie Kelly, please step up to the podium.

52:06Uh she's wearing green.

52:10I will go ahead and I'll read the resolution. Resolution number 26-229, a resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, recognizing Lottie Kelly for her commitment to keeping to keep Pasco Beautiful and her dedication to Pasco County. Whereas since 1995, Lottie Kelly has sat on the board of directors for Keep Pasco Beautiful Incorporated, an environmental nonprofit whose mission is to improve Pasco. County by engaging the community in sustainable

52:40efforts to reduce litter, promote waste reduction, and encourage beautification. She has served as president for six terms, vice president for three terms, and secretary for four terms. And whereas Mrs. Kelly spearheaded the Shady Hills Gateway Project that started in 2002 as a collaboration of various organizations, including Keep Pasco Beautiful and the Florida Cooperative Extension Service. Volunteers were able to plant 14,000 square feet of land. Land with over

53:11seven hundred native flowers, trees and shrubs. In 2008, Pasco County received first place in the transportation category of the Landscape Awards program from the Florida Native Plant Society for the Gateway Project. And RARAS, in 2010, Mrs. Kelly became chair of the Pasco Earth Day event. At that time, there were only 12 vendors and approximately 300 people in attendance. This event Has grown immensely through her dedication with

53:41activities now including ladybug release, native plant sale, and workshops which have composting and rain barrels. In 2026, there were 25 vendors and 1,000 people in attendance. And Ras Ms. Kelly's contributions to keep Pasco beautiful are insurmountable. Prior to paid s prior to paid staff, she assumed the many duties of executive director. Mrs. Kelly spearheaded efforts to create a staff position for the organization, which became

54:11successful in 2014 when the Pasco County Commissioners approved and funded the Keep Pasco Beautiful Coordinator position. And res in twenty fourteen, Mrs. Kelly applied for the Florida Department of Transportation grant, which Keep Pasco Beautiful was awarded and has continued to receive every year. And Ras, Ms. Uh Lottie Kelly has participated in the annual Great American Cleanup and Keep Pascoal Beautiful cleanup for more than three decades, volunteering hundreds of hours to remove trash

54:41to protect our environment. Most recently, she helped form the Shady Hills Sunday cleanup group that picks up litter weekly along the roads in the community. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said board hereby honors Lottie Kelly for her years of dedication to keep Pasco beautiful and her passion for incre of in her passion of increasing awareness for environmental initiatives. Initiatives in Pasco County. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting this

55:11nineteenth day of May 2026.

55:13Approval. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Commissioner Weightman. Wow.

55:21Thank heaven for this.

55:22Thank you.

55:23No, it's our honor to have you here today, Ms. Kelly. Reading through the list of organization and projects you've been a part of for thirty years is absolutely amazing. But more amazing than that is putting up with the sweet, sweet smell of solid waste for that period of time. And uh yes some people's trash is other people's treasure. We know that, right? So Ms. Kelly. On

55:54top of all your duties at Covanda and and I'm gonna read this list. Aside from keep P keep Pasco beautiful, you know, the hundreds of hours there, but all the hours also volunteering for the you know Um aside from Tampa Bay Beautiful or Keep Pasco Beautiful. Great the Great American Cleanup, Keep Pasco beautiful.

56:20the regional and virathon on the planning committee, Arbor Day, which we saw you out there you know, at Cruise Lake Park, amazing turnout, not just for the trees, but the little festival that was set up and the solid waste team for shredding and and just taking what people don't need in in helping folks clean their their yards up. Supporting the one community now Clay Chute, the New Port Richey Wild Game Dinner, World Oceans Day, Pasco County Earth Day, Earth Day events in Dade

56:50City and for our libraries, our Gardening 365 Festival and Plant Cell. uh working with IFIS Uh the one community now packed park event. Pasco County's Recycling and beefing up our recycling program to keep waste out of the stream, supporting Marjorie's Hope, supporting Mary J L Elementary School in multiple ways, supporting River Ridge High School with many programs. You've gone above and beyond to service,

57:21not just for Kobanta, but for our county. And your dedication and support to the place that we all call home and love so dearly. Um is just absolutely a beautiful thing. And it's our honor to have you here today and we can't thank you enough for the countless hours over thirty plus years and your dedicated service outside of work. We're just incredibly grateful and I see uh here that Kevin has worked with you for over twenty

57:51years and uh so I'm sure he has a few stories to tell. Um that the floor is yours, ma'am. Thank you.

57:58Well, I wouldn't be able to be this successful if I didn't have the great support network that I have, Kevin being one of them for many, many years and Nobody ever told me no and nobody ever told me it wasn't a good idea. So I just always moved forward and did what I thought was right and we've had a had a great success and I have the great people standing behind me. to thank for making me so successful and always being there and you know, hey, let's do this, hey, let's do that, you know, and then everybody always shows up. So it's a great organization, it's a great

58:28group. I have great bosses, I have great support. You know, ReWorld is just supports everything I do, so I appreciate it all.

58:36Well, you make ReWorld look really w really, really good. And uh I don't know what they'll do without you, should you retire or what we would do without you. Should you retire with

58:46fifty nine days.

58:50Congratulations.

58:51Thank you.

58:52Yes. But uh I hope if you retire you still stick around and help us because I don't think any of these organizations and endeavors would be as successful without you at the helm.

59:02Oh I'll still be annoying everybody.

59:04Good. Good. Yes. Thank you. Kevin? Or anybody else? Your team?

59:11Um I just wanna say my name's Kristen King, I'm the current president for Keat Pasco Beautiful. And I got involved with this organization as the coordinator thanks to Lottie's efforts in 2015 and was told that Lottie Kelly is the Uber volunteer. She knows everything. She does everything. She keeps the glue together. But she's so much more than that for Keep Has to Go Beautiful. She's our heartbeat. And she charges, champions things when nobody has the energy left

59:41and is the memory of all the things we've done in the past and the keepsaker of things. So while she's retiring from ReWorld, we will hold on to her ankles and refuse for her to leave Pasco Beautiful because she's done so much for this community and it just wouldn't be the same without her. So thank you a lot. Thank you.

59:59Right.

1:00:01So

1:00:02I just want to say thanks to the Board of County Commissioners because I've been both on the county side and on the uh private side and without the support of you guys and and even what Solid waste has done, what Recycling has done. Lottie wouldn't be as involved if we didn't have the support from you guys as well. So thanks to Lottie for her thirty years and thank you guys for supporting us.

1:00:24And and your name for the record,

1:00:25please. Sorry. Alicia Hacker and I'm currently the treasurer for Keep Haska Beautiful.

1:00:30Thank you.

1:00:33Good morning. Kevin Pliska, Solid Waste Director. Yes, I've worked with Lottie for over 20 years. And her passion is genuine. I think her guiding beacon is perfect. She takes care of she's got a great family. What matters most are the big things, right? People, the environment. And she she always keeps that in mind. One thing that didn't come out, and it's a very important part, is Lottie has been Very I'll

1:01:04just say She's eager to get sponsorships and without that these programs are difficult to run and Lottie has done a tremendous job doing that. She is very hard to say no to, let me tell you firsthand. So so anyway, thank you, Lottie.

1:01:20Yes. Keep Pasco beautiful. Thank you all for sharing her with us and coming here and and allowing us to support you and support Lottie and uh so we'll come down and take a picture.

1:01:33Do you want us to stay up here? Yeah, yeah.

1:01:48Oh sorry,

1:01:50yeah.

1:01:54Yeah.

1:01:58You could go to the side a little bit.

1:02:06We'll see the top of the head. Yeah, can you see me above that? All

1:02:10right, ready? Here we

1:02:36Are they over there? Oh, they bring them.

1:02:40You know, Mike Carbellos, times like this we need to elevate this platform a little higher.

1:02:44Yeah.