25282 Water Awareness Poster Contest

35:12Resolution Resolution number twenty five two eighty two. And before I start, if we could go ahead and have our young folks come forward and I'm going to apologize in advance. Um So if I mispronounce, I apologize, but I'll take a shot at it here. A resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, recognizing and commending Pasco County, Pasco County elementary students receiving first place for their respective grade levels in the

35:4316th annual Water Awareness Poster Contest. Whereas clean, safe, and sustainable water resources are vital to Pasco County's economy, environment, and its citizens, and whereas the steps we can take to protect and preserve our water through educational partnerships and positive actions are encouraged throughout Pasco County. And whereas the Water Awareness Poster Contest was developed jointly by Pasco County Utilities and the Florida Government

36:13Utility Authority, FGUA, with the guidance of the Pasco County School Board to champion water conservation education. And whereas students are given the opportunity, with the assistance of dedicated Pasco County School teachers, to explore STEAM, S-T-E-A-M, Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics-based teaching materials that expand their knowledge of water-related topics through artistic

36:43expression. And whereas this year, 1,111 posters were submitted, with 22,240 entries submitted from Pasco County Elementary Schools since the program's inception in 2010. And whereas winning posters were selected by a judging panel that included representatives of Pasco County Utilities and the FGUA and community sponsors. And whereas the posters chosen displayed

37:14exceptional artistic merit creativity, and clarity of message, and is representative of students at various levels of learning from kindergarten to fifth grade. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, the said board hereby thanks each participating student and teacher for their dedication in promoting water awareness through Pasco County. and congratulates first place recipients, Hunter Hipps,

37:45Karam Al Habar. Elizabeth Sutton off. Is Zan Rabbi. Deruve Padabar and Jessica Cato for their outstanding achievement. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum president voting this fifteenth day of July 2025.

38:05Move approval.

38:06Second.

38:06All in favor? Aye. Well welcome. Um Uh If you all wanna say something real quick, I can start with you.

38:15Yeah, I uh in my nine years being here as a county commissioner I've actually been a judge several times and this artwork that you see is very hard to judge when all of 'em are so great. I mean they do a great job and such a teaching method of telling people where the work comes from where where it goes to and and all the things that that deal with water on the past year of Swift Mud and the past year of Tampe Water. I really care about this program

38:45and and what they do and the artwork they bring forward is very good and very educational for everyone. So thank you.

38:54Thank you, Chair. It's just a fantastic and a fun item that comes forward every year since being on the board and just can't commend the school district and the parents and the teachers and everybody involved in engaging our youth. and um teaching them the cycle of water and what's healthy and what's not. And um it's just great to see the the imagination and the learning and the skill come together on on paper and um just glad we have

39:24a another year of of successful participation and happy that you all are here today.

39:30Commissioner Yeah

39:32Well, I love your poster. Can you tell me a little bit about it? Okay.

39:39So th I'm very happy to hear be here. This is my first time being here so this is a really big thing for me. So what I tried to show is that if you use chemicals, pesticides and you throw plastics into the water, how polluted it could be. And then As you can see the houses are all broken down, the ecosystem isn't very good. And then then if you use natural fertilizers for cycle reducer reuse and you follow the local rules, you can get clean water

40:09and a good water cycle. So I learned about the ecosystem in third grade and the water cycle, and I really care for the environment. That's amazing. Great job. I

40:21appreciate

40:22it.

40:28Well I think we all learned a little bit from your poster today. Thank you for sharing. Great job and congratulations.

40:34Commissioner Mariano. I

40:36wanna say that was fantastic. Yeah. Uh congratulations, great job. Uh we we do uh uh uh the entire board appreciates this program, uh w with what you guys do with it, bringing everybody together, uh Matt coming out too it's phen phenomenal. So congratulations again, great stuff.

40:53And um I wanna say thank you for um letting me have the opportunity to judge this. Um Um I will say uh to the parents out there 'Cause we had to um remove some of the posters from the selection process 'Cause it was kinda clear Mom did it, or maybe Dad. And and not the youngsters. So parents, stay out of it, let the kids do it. And um Uh just really impressed with what they came up with and boy am I impressed with you. So I are are you

41:23looking for a field in science, uh, as you keep As you uh Yeah. Grow yep. So we have opportunities uh to um uh for you to do things at the county and you know, with our you saw our environmental lands program here. So just keep that in mind, parents, as he gets older, if he wants to come um do some shadowing or volunteering at the county. We can help him pad his resume.

41:46Madam Chair? Yeah. What's the youngest intern we ever had?

41:49Yeah, I don't know, but I think he's up to it, right? Um so uh congratulations on your poster. How are we gonna um well you could speak and how are we gonna show these to the public? Yeah.

42:03For the record, I'm Sandy Anderson. I'm the director for Pasco County Utilities Customer Information and Services Department. And as you can see as the resolutions that came earlier today, it's community-wide. It's not one county department doing anything. We're really branching out. So we have the good fortune of this being the 16-year partner in expanding this with the FGOA and the school board. And the also coming up later this fall, we're working with County Library. We're going to move this into the libraries and make a tie in there too. So we're really excited about the things to come. And Phoenix is our water conservation

42:34coordinator for the county and is one of the many programs we do that work in together. So it's it's with these efforts that we have going forward. So we encourage you to be looking forward to i expanding in the future and being part of it in the future as well. Phoenix?

42:48Thank you. Phoenix McKinney, I'm Pasco County Utilities Water Conservation Coordinator. First I would just like to thank you. I'm a little intimidated about following Ison. He was such an outstanding speaker. Um however again thank you so much. As always, we appreciate your support. Uh I am really excited about the collaboration that we're going to be doing with the library right now. The posters um not in this format but in a different format are currently on display in the We West and East

43:19government centers and they will be there uh for a month. However, starting in November Through May. They will be rotating in four of the different library galleries. There'll be two months in each of the gallery and they'll be in frames uh similar to this. So you you'll have an ongoing opportunity to see those uh over an extended period of time if you miss them now. uh and encourage people. It's really fortunate for us of the timing that they're gonna go in in November because

43:49we're currently working on curriculum and new materials that will be used in contests that would uh kick off in December. So uh we're gonna hope to use that display time to also encourage more people to get involved. It is an outstanding program. And the students do do outstanding art. So thank you very much.

44:10And I

44:10um uh

44:11does someone else want to do someone else want to

44:13I believe so, yes. Okay

44:15Hello and good morning board. Thank you so much for letting me speak. My name is Vin Jones and I am here on behalf of the FGUA as a community services representative, specifically based in Pasco County in Newport Ritchie. And what I just wanted to share on the on behalf of the FGUA is just our um our gratitude and just our appreciation for just the partnership we've been able to have with Pasco County University. utilities and just honestly just your support as well. It's so encouraging just to hear just the impact

44:45that the children that the students been able to have on their schools, their communities, and their families, and even just their own education, just learning more about the water and how to preserve it, how to keep it clean. And so I just want to just extend just a thank you really just for all your support. And we look forward to the continued partnership that we have with you and with Pasco County Utilities and the school district as well. So thank you so much.

45:12Excellent. Um I wanted to make sure that the family knows that um this is on TV. So you can go to YouTube and cat

45:23And um you can capture your segment. You know, I was on TV once and I didn't capture mine the co I was on the Colbert report and it's gone when I was on the school district. So go get it now 'cause well I guess this is government so it may be there forever. But apparently the Colbert report is not.

45:46Uh sure I'll uh great.

45:50Good morning everyone. Uh my name is Raja Rabi. I'm the proud dad. I'm here with my beautiful wife, Nash Chairman. We are here to show our great gratefulness that the school district that we have in here is great. We are very happy with what he's learning. The growth has been tremendous. He is not only doing great in the school, but also his other uh performance is also doing great. So as a human being, we are raising him and the county is helping us a lot. to be a great human being and so that he can give back to the community and serve it. So you want to say all of you thank you very much for your support and help. And

46:20we're very happy to be here today.

46:22Well I I'm very appreciative that you took time off of your work and out of your day to come here and be in Dade City with us today because obviously you live in the Trinity area. So I know it's a drive but we're we're very grateful that you're here.

46:34Thank you so much.

46:35Alright let's take a photo.

47:09Yours in the front middle.

47:15What's the whole

47:28I think I could do that soon. Okay.

47:40Thank you.

48:15That's your okay.