Brevard County Board of County Commissioners

• Item C.1.

  Natural Resources

  approved - Amanda Elmore, Natural Resources Management Deputy Director, stated she will be presenting the other environmental programs in their Department; Virginia Barker, Natural Resources Management Director, ended the last budget workshop with an overview of one of the Department’s programs, the Save Our Indian River Lagoon (SOIRL) Program, that the Board sees on the right in green; she will be giving the Board the overview of the programs in blue and their associated funding and expenditures; recognizing that there are 13 other Departments eager to present after her, she will move very quickly; she will apologize in advance for the pace of her presentation; and if time runs out for questions, she will be happy to get the Board more information at break or at its convenience. Chairman Feltner stated it is just his opinion, but he has noticed the number of slides keep going down. Ms. Elmore advised she is 16 minutes all in. Chairman Feltner stated for Ms. Elmore not to rush herself unnecessarily, as he feels optimistic about things today. Ms. Elmore stated she would like to provide some fast facts; they provide varied services over the five programs, the budget is about $50 million; this year they have had about $10 million in grant funding, and an additional $8 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars that they encumbered before the end of last year for stormwater projects; they have 75 positions and they enjoy a pretty low vacancy rate with six vacancies; their employees are geologists, engineers, and environmental specialists that are absolutely dedicated to their mission; all of the program managers have been with the County for more than 20 years; they are experts; and she is honored to work with them every day, and all of their employees. She went on to say they provide thousands of environmental reviews; they oversee environmental cleanup, manage Brevard’s beaches and waterways, and they build stormwater projects for flood mitigation and water quality; they also have a support services program that keeps all of that moving forward; very importantly, they partner with Public Works for ESF3 and serve the community before, during, and after storms; and Ms. Barker presented the overall budget at the last workshop that included SOIRL, but today she wanted to focus on the $50 million that comprise the programs previously mentioned. She noted almost 99 percent of that funding is restricted, stormwater, assessment, grants, permitting fees, and contracted charges for services; they have a small amount of General Fund that the Board can see in green, $687,000, for environmental Code Enforcement, and boating and waterways; she will provide more detail on those sections and services in slides to come; and they largely spend their dollars on capital improvement projects, compensation and benefits, and operating, and their restricted revenues for reserves for multi-year projects, the Board will see this pattern in all of the program expense pie charts. She mentioned the first item she would like to highlight is Environmental Resources Management; this program primarily provides permitting and policy implementation, Environmental Code Enforcement, and resilience efforts; the budget is $2 million, mostly permitting revenue, but the Board will see the largest portion of their General Fund allocation is $541,000; that General Fund supports the Environmental Code Enforcement section; for the last four decades environmental specialists have implemented the Board’s Policies and land development regulations; typically, they review all permits that affect horizontal or vertical development for impact on the County’s environmentally-sensitive areas, like wetlands, coastal dunes, aquifer recharge areas, and surface water buffers; their regulations are typically more stringent than the municipalities; for instance, they require tree and canopy preservation, depending on lot size and use, and additional coastal setback from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) coastal construction control line; and they also provide incentives that encourage the use of Low Impact Development (LID) principles. She continued by saying Natural Resources is one of the reviewing agencies coordinated by Planning and Development for zoning and land use changes, commercial, industrial, and residential development; they also capture environmental reviews where there is no vertical construction, or Planning and Development trigger for permit; for projects like rock revetments, filling and excavation, also called land alteration, they issue natural resource specific permits; they carefully monitor monthly permit numbers and revenue; and what they are seeing is although permit revenue are down over the last couple of years, those reviews are taking longer as development pushes more and more into marginal properties, because there are more environmental issues that they need to review for compliance. She stated like Planning and Development Code Enforcement, they are reactive when it comes to environmental violations; their three natural resources officers, together with their environmental specialists, work to educate property owners and formulate restoration plans, but these cases tend to be complicated, involve multiple Departments and State agencies, and therefore, can take a little longer to resolve than other Code Enforcement cases; this program is also forward-looking, always seeking to propose policy and ordinance improvement, when necessary and appropriate; they have worked collaboratively with Planning and Development to formulate and implement the peril of flood Policies, Evaluation and Appraisal Review (EAR) and the barrier island area of critical State concern that Billy Prasad, Planning and Development Director, detailed for the Board in his presentation; and they also partner with other regional and State agencies on funding and initiatives. She noted the remediation and compliance program focuses on safeguarding the drinking water; starting with the fuel storage tank and hazardous waste sections, they provide the first line of defense compliance inspections to prevent pollution and leaks; their geologists and engineers oversee cleanup sites as well, under State Contract; this is a $3.6 million program entirely funded through State Contract or charges for services, and business tax receipt fees for hazardous waste; and there is a $50 surcharge per Florida Statute on hazardous waste generators. She pointed out the petroleum, remediation, or cleanup section is the largest section in this program, and doubled in size last year when FDEP asked staff to expand the oversight to a sixth County, Volusia; that board approved expansion means that staff now oversees this program for the entirety of the Indian River Lagoon and Okeechobee; local staff manages multi-year cleanup plans for more than 500 sites; they also provide fuel tank compliance inspections for 350 sites in Indian River and Brevard Counties; they inspect hazardous waste generators in Brevard; this is an unfunded State mandate; but they collect a hazardous waste assessment fee in conjunction with business tax receipts. She went on to say now turning to the small, but mighty program, beaches, boating, and waterways; this program provides a variety of management and services but is just three employees strong; the Board will see that their other portion of General Fund shows $146,000 of the $771,000 budget; there is also a Tourist Development Council (TDC) transfer for the beach program of $280,000, and grants of $227,000 for reef creation and derelict vessel removal; the boating and waterways coordinator oversees derelict vessel removal; she is going to spend a little time here as staff fields a lot of questions about derelict vessels; and everyone sees them, they seem to take longer than they should to remove, and that is because they are waiting for them to be designated as derelict by law enforcement. She advised the owners have to be afforded due process and have to be allowed the opportunity to remove the vessel. Chairman Feltner noted the County does get some State grant money toward that; and he asked if that is right. Ms. Elmore replied yes, she is about to cover that; they have the $150,000 TDC grant where the County is removing some of these derelict vessels, but Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC) also has a storm-related derelict vessel removal effort right now; once the vessels are designated by law enforcement, the County is given permission to then remove them, it cannot touch them until then; once the County gets that permission, it typically takes about one to two days to get a quote; then if it is a smaller boat, one to three weeks to remove; if it is a larger boat, it takes one to three months, so staff has kind of looked at the pattern of the last vessels that was allowed to be removed, and that is what staff is seeing; and that is once the County has been given permission to remove them. Commissioner Delaney asked if that is a large portion of the issue that it takes such a long time to get that permission. Ms. Elmore responded right, and that is not something staff can control, but they have removed more than 300 in the last 17 years; they also have this program that works on waterway markers, navigational dredge priorities, and that donation and grant-funded reef creation offshore; the boating and waterways coordinator also manages the Griffis Landing site on State Route (SR) 520 that Larry spoke of in his presentation; the site was acquired through the Stan Mayfield Working Waterfront Grant Program in 2009; and redevelopment has been grant-funded. She continued by saying this year they have an $890,000 grant to reconstruct Ms. Apple’s Crab Shack that was heavily damaged during the last storm; they are fortunate in Brevard to have a Federal beach re-nourishment project, and are halfway into the 50-year cooperative Agreement the Army Corps of Engineers; the Army Corps manages the project and Brevard is a local sponsor; the Federal project is comprised of the North Mid-Reach and South Reach; and she will be providing an update on the most recent re-nourishment efforts. She stated they administer beach restoration projects to protect upland infrastructure and property, and maintain healthy, vegetative beaches to be enjoyed by residents, tourists, and wildlife; she provided the Board with a slide that show the dollars spent on beach construction over the last 25 years, of which the County’s cost-share has ended up at eight percent after reimbursements; there needs to be about 25 percent of share available on hand before getting those reimbursements back; the south beaches are not part of the Federal project; the south beaches represent world class turtle nesting habitat; and because this area is not a part of the Federal project, staff is limited to usually managing dunes after storms with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and State dollars supplementing the County’s local share. She noted Peter fielded some turtle nesting questions during his presentation, so they have therefore added a few slides to address the questions; although Natural Resources does not oversee any protected species, staff obtained data from the FWC contacts that show strong nesting over the last 25-plus years; the grafts being provided to the Board are specific to Leatherbacks on this particular slide, which are at the top of their range, so the Board will see low numbers because of that, but there is an increasing trend line when comparing it with other Florida core beaches; the County has far greater numbers of Green and Loggerhead Turtles; from both this slide and the next, the Commission will see that Brevard County nesting trends follow that of Peninsula, Florida, and represents about half of all nesting data; and again, here with Loggerheads, about half of the measured nesting is in Brevard, which follows the State in trends. She stated turning to tourism and recreational benefit, there is no more recognizable example in Brevard than the Cocoa Beach Pier; in the top image, the Board can see that there was practically no beach at high tide or opportunity for recreation pre-Federal project; the middle image is after sand placement; the bottom image is post-storm, still with a wide beach, plenty of tourism and recreational value; she provided the Board with another slide showing another set of pre and post project images in Cocoa Beach; she advised again, there was no beach at high tide as evidenced by the rack line by the seawall; and in the bottom image, the seawall has been covered by sand and the beach revegetated. She remarked moving south to the Mid-Reach, this is a more narrow area of managed beach to avoid the rock outcroppings in this area; the Board can see Oceanana Condo in the City of Satellite Beach on the left that has been undermined; the property owners in this condo were very nervous and placed some sand and vegetation at their own cost, so in this slide the Board can see the same edge of that same condo on the left, that is that beige wall, and sand has been placed and staff is undergoing revegetation efforts; sand placement is only part of the beach management equation; and staff also replants the dunes to hold the sand in place an encourage the residents to do the same with the annual sea oats sale. She commented this is the rock reef habitat that staff endeavors to avoid when placing sand in the Mid-Reach; they are permitted up to three acres of impact or 10 percent, and have mitigated that impact with a 4.7-acre mitigation reef being utilized by Green Turtles and other marine life; the mitigation reef has been deemed successful by FDEP; here is an example of pre and post project on the left and in the middle in the South Reach; the picture on the right shows the Board, again, a healthy, vegetated beach and how that performs post storm; in the South Beaches the County has seen some failure with armored shorelines and minor structures; this pool was removed, but the primary structure remains; no primary structures were lost during the last storms; and this just shows that armored beaches are not preferable. She went on to say regarding current project status, staff completed South Beaches sand a vegetation, Mid-Reach sand placement is complete and they are finishing plantings; North Reach will be complete next month; the South Reach was partially re-nourished this year, and will be fully-re-nourished next year; and detailed project status reports are available for the public on the County’s website, as well as a lot of historical information on the Federal project and the South Beaches. She noted turning from their smallest program to the largest, stormwater management is primarily responsible for projects that can control flooding and improve water quality; this is a high-dollar program because of the Capital Improvement Projects (CIP); the County collects about $6.3 million in stormwater assessments per year; this year it had $10 million in grants to leverage its funds; the Board will see a lot of balance forward here for multi-year projects; this graphic represents various project types per District, so the Board will see a mix of master planning, flood mitigation, water quality, and hybrid projects; and the yellow dot near the Max Brewer represents an innovative waive attenuation device project that she will highlight in a few slides. She provided the Board slides of some completed projects that she will go through quickly; she advised this slide and the next two represent completed projects that eliminated flooding for 800 homes, treated water quality and worked collaboratively with Environmentally Endangered Lands (EELs) on conservation, and incorporated LID principles here to avoid wetlands and specimen trees, and enhanced habitat and recreational opportunities; here are a few of the current nutrient reduction retrofit projects in various Districts; District 1 is Flounder, District 2 is Pioneer, and District 4 is for Arlington; and here are current culvert and channel upgrades in Micco and a gabion system installation in Sand Dollar Canal in District 5. She pointed out on the current slide that this is the Titusville Multitrophic Wave Attenuation Devices (WADS) project, south of the Max Brewer that has gained Statewide attention for is innovation; this project is just finishing up; the WADS structures will help dissipate wave energy and storm surge; the beach will be renovated and replanted to protect the Causeway, and seagrass will be planted and clam seeded as well; the stormwater program is also completing a Countywide grant-funded vulnerability analysis that looks at various rainfall and storm surge scenarios, this analysis is statutorily required, and it keeps the County eligible for resilience funding opportunities; staff monitors their projects to make sure they are well-placed, designed, and working as they should; and they comply with State recording requirements. She explained lastly, staff is always seeking ways to reduce nutrients while eliminating herbicide usage and have drastically increased the mechanical aquatic vegetation harvesting program, adding grant-funded equipment and a second crew; this year, to date, in 2025 they have harvested three million pounds, so staff is well on track to exceed last year’s total of over 7.4 million pounds; and she is happy to answer any questions the Board may have. Chairman Feltner asked on the last thing there, when the vegetation is harvested from the waterways where does that go. Raleigh Berry, Senior Environmental Scientist, Natural Resources Management, replied it goes to the landfill. Commissioner Adkinson stated derelict vessels are talked about constantly, so the time consumption seems to be getting it called a derelict vessel; and she inquired how long that normally takes, and why is it so time consuming. Ms. Elmore responded it is due process, as the owners have to be afforded that opportunity to claim and remove their boat; and it is usually three to six months to get that designation. Commissioner Delaney advised she did not realize Brevard helps other counties with the petroleum remediation; she asked one, if the County has the resources for that; and two, is the payoff worth it, because she is assuming they pay the County for its services. Ms. Elmore replied they do, they entirely cover the cost, no County funds are expended for those programs; when having a local program like that, there tends to be more care, as the folks live here and care about the drinking water and groundwater; if a good job is done, there is more work; the County started in the ‘80s with one county; they have continued to ask Brevard to take on more and more counties; with Volusia County, Alachua County was providing those services; and Volusia asked Brevard to provide them instead of Alachua. Commissioner Delaney exclaimed awesome, and good job to Natural Resources Management for doing such a great job on that. She stated it is not in the presentation, but she has been getting a lot of questions about Parrish Park; and she asked if Natural Resources Management was involved in the engineering or planning of that park renovation. Ms. Elmore advised typically they review all park plans, but she does not have specific information on that. Commissioner Delaney stated the reason why she was wondering is because Natural Resources Management staff had so much in the presentation like how hardening of the shoreline and things like that end in disaster; it is almost like what Parrish Park looks like; it did not even get to open; and now it is just sitting there after millions of dollars being spent. Ms. Elmore stated she can try to get Commissioner Delaney more information on that review. Chairman Feltner asked what Natural Resources Management’s biggest challenge is in the next year or two. Ms. Elmore replied for the projects, inflation, just as all of the other Departments have . . . Chairman Feltner asked construction specific. Ms. Elmore replied affirmatively. Commissioner Delaney asked what about vacancies or anything like that; and are they having issues with that as well. Ms. Elmore responded they were, and over the last couple of years, they do not let the grass grow on the applications they get, they call in applicants immediately, very quickly, to interview; they have been really successful in attracting folks and retaining them, so they are lucky in that regard; but most of them come for their mission, and they are lucky they are willing to come, stay, and make a home with the County.

  • Brevard County Board of County Commissioners — Minutes
• Item C.8.

  Valkaria Airport

  approved - Adam Hied, Valkaria Airport Manager, advised Valkaria Airport was built back during the war effort, World War II, as a naval air station; it was used as a training base; over the years, it was deeded to Brevard County to be used as a general aviation airport; in the last 20 years or so, it has really been polished into the gem that it is today; it covers 670 total acres, about 190 acres of that is a golf course, and the rest is used as an airfield or other operational uses; this past year they have done just a smidge over 100,000 aircraft operations, which is huge, and up from what their estimates used to be; and now they actually have a system in place to accurately count that. He mentioned they have two 4,000-foot runways; they recently had a Global Positioning System (GPS) safety for instrument traffic; they have 95 hangars, 94 of them are available for lease, and the other one they actually keep for themselves to use; they have a fixed-wing and ultralight flight school; an airport is almost like an on-ramp; any time there is something like that, other things get built up nearby, so services, things like that; and they have an airframe power plant, fuel, and builder’s assist. He stated all of this is actually managed by three full-time people and one part-time person, so he thinks that is pretty impressive and a great feather in the cap for staff; their operating revenues are $1.5 million, on the slide it is all the color of pink; most of that revenue comes from charges for services, such as fuel sales, land leases, hangar rent, and things like that; and then some of the rest is just intergovernmental revenue from their grants that they get from Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) or Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He went on to say the first of their two largest leases is the Habitat Golf Course; their current annual rate is $150,000; this lease was reevaluated in 2022 and brought to 7.9 percent of fair market value from what it was originally concepted in 1992; Mosquito Control is their other large lease that they have at the Airport; they use that as an unmanned aerial system base, and a variety of other uses; and they just had an increase by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to $53,000. He commented the final, largest revenue producer at the Airport is actually their hangars; the majority of the hangars they have are T-hangars; the slide provides a lot of information, but he will draw the Board’s attention to the CPI column; they generally have just gone up with CPI over the years, so right now they have gone from $251 in Fiscal Year 18 to $335.09 for this year; the nearby airports that are comparable to Valkaria do charge a little bit more to a lot more; and the ones that charge a little bit more are also run by the governmental entities, so Arthur Dunn in Merritt Island are run by airport authorities, Sebastian Airport is run by a city, but their hangars are run by a private entity and that is the largest difference right there. He pointed out their operating expenses, the vast majority of that is maintenance and fuel purchasing, followed up by comp and benefits, CIP, that is the total for one of the projects they have going this year, and then debt service that will be retired in 2030; their largest and major CIP project right now is the development of a large hangar facility; it will house approximately 75 hangars total; right now they are in an environmental assessment phase; FDOT is funding that, and of course, the rest of it as well at $160,000; and they are responsible for the match at 20 percent. He noted looking a little bit more towards the future, this is the part he is most excited about, he did say the new hangar construction, but they did purchase some property in 2018 or 2019, and that is a piece of property that they are hoping to use as private hangar development; if people want to build their own personal hangar, or a business wants to build a hangar for their own business uses, they can; this photo provided on the slide shows a conceptual drawing that was provided to him by their flight school; they are hoping to build that in the next couple of years at the Airport; that is a big deal for them; it is a big shift from what they normally have done; they will need taxiways to do that, and the Airport Master Plan is coming up to its midlife point, it is a 20-year document; usually around the midpoint of that, they see how much things have changed over the years, and start doing a new one; and finally, they will actually need some additional staff to meet that growing aviation demand. He went on to say an airport budget presentation really is not complete without talking about the Federal regulations that govern airport revenues; the real essence of it comes down to Grant Assurance 24 and 25; Grant Assurance 24 basically says the Airport has to have a fee and rental structure that helps the Airport be as sustainable as possible; Grant Assurance 25 basically says any revenue generated at the Airport has to be spent at the Airport; he knows this was quick, he wanted to be conscious of everyone’s time; and he asked if there are any questions. Chairman Feltner asked how the relationship is with Town of Grant/Valkaria; and he stated in years past there was some friction but he has not heard that in many years. Mr. Hied replied it has changed quite a bit, especially over the last couple of years; he meets fairly frequently, and just randomly will stop in and talk to the Town and some members of Town Council; in fact, one of the tenants is actually on the Town Council now; they rarely get noise complaints; and when they do, the majority of them are so far from the Airport that there is nothing the Airport could even consider doing, so it has been really good.

  • Brevard County Board of County Commissioners — Minutes
• Item C.7.

  Library Services

  approved - Wendy Bost, Library Services Director, commented she is proud to be Brevard County’s Library Services Director; what the Board sees on the first screen is the nature and variety of the libraries, they are all very different; libraries are great buildings, but they need to have the right staff in order to be the most successful; she wants to start with some key performance indicators of libraries; she does not know if the Board realizes this, but 1.6 million people visit the libraries each year; and their circulation is over 4.3 million items. She stated they see certain things going up, their volunteer hours, they love their volunteers; a lot of people are coming to them for programs; she always says the library is like a hidden jewel; one comes with a specific need and someone asked if he or she have tried the library, they get to the library, and they are amazed by all of the things that they offer; and she wanted to point out they are required by law when someone registers for a library card, to update their voter registration, or register them to vote. She went on to say they have a total of 19 locations; she is stretching one because it is a mobile library; they stem from the Mims Scottsmoor Library all the way down to the South Mainland Library; they manage four of the buildings they do not own, that is Merritt Island, Mims Scottsmoor, Eau Gallie, and Cape Canaveral; Mims Scottsmoor is on school property; they have a mobile library; their newest addition is the Riverhouse; the Riverhouse was built in 1924, this year the first floor has been renovated so that it is American Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant, and they are holding a lot of interesting programs there; it is about a 338,000 square foot library; no two are the same, all of them are aging; and they also give about $300,000 to the Law Library here for them to maintain their collections. She stated their revenue is simple and straightforward; they are a dependent taxing district; in 1972, the taxpayers approved a referendum and they became an independent taxing district, so they receive that revenue; and they do get State aid to libraries; and they have fines and fees, those are the main things, and a balance forward. She noted for their expenses, library media, they have various transfers they give; they also have a lot of capital projects; she gave a shout out to Skip Bell, Public Works, and his team who are incredible; they work with them regularly; they help manage the projects and get them done; operating expenses are about $7 million, $14 million in salaries, and they have endowment money where people have donated money to the library, which is very lovely; and she would like to have a process where they can let the community know it is a great resource and for them to think about. She went on to say they do have the $2 million in Reserves, that is there to kind of get them through the beginning of the next Fiscal Year as the Tax Collector is collecting the funds; Library Revenue, and she has to shout out to Marc Bernath, Public Works Director, and Mr. Bell; as the Board can see, there was a kind of increase there; and by looking at the next project, they will be a little bit down, because they have gotten some of their projects done, so some of that balance forward has gone down. She commented like she said, they could not do what they do without their staff; in 2001, they had 307 library staff; but as the Board can see, the majority of them are part-time, and then they had some full-time; now, they are moving towards adding full-time staff; slowly but surely, they call it creating snowmen; when someone leaves, they piece things together, so they can have some additional positions that are full-time and dedicated to service; they have had 100 staff get promotions since 2021; some of those positions are from full-time to part-time, sometimes from an entry-level position to a more senior position, so it is all within the system; they try to promote from within; and they have had staff that go out and get their Master’s Degree in Library Science, they will help them with that, and they will get promoted and move up. She continued by saying when she talks about Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) projects, just some ideas of what they are actually spending, they had budgeted this year she thinks close to $5 million, and they are working their way through it; there are some challenges, pipes break; she will show the Board that in a minute, she will show some examples of some of their projects; this is kind of some history; with 18 locations, someone is going to need a roof every year; they have not had new flooring in the Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Library for quite some time, so they are looking at ways to get these things done, make them fresh, make them look good, but being mindful; and again, they focus their funds on the envelope of this building, plumbing, air conditioning, those are all of the things that their dollars are focused on. She pointed out budget priorities are staffing, security, which she will talk about, and maintaining buildings; even windows, they have to replace all of the windows on the north side of the Melbourne Library; they were looking to do it in sections, but they learned the windows will not be the same, so they are going to start saving now so over time so they will be replaced all at the same time to have the same look; she explained to and showed the Board pictures on either side of the slide being the mobile library; she stated it is not just a bookmobile, they do technology and all kinds of different things; and kids are coding ozobots, playing with Makey Makeys, making instruments, and there are all kinds of things the libraries do that would surprise the Board. She advised this is one of her favorites; they do a lot of renovations, they have a lot of facilities that they want to make sure are welcoming to the public, and they are working on a more central theme going forward where they will have a similar-feeling experience when entering each library; right now when one enters them they are all different; they are trying to make them look the same, painted the same colors; and they are not identical, but to give them that same feel. She provided the Board with pictures of a project she is very proud of; she stated they got a new roof, had it painted, and they refreshed the Cocoa Beach Library, so it is looking much cleaner and nicer; bathrooms are a big deal in public libraries; anyone is welcome in a public library, and they will talk to a person, but they have to maintain those facilities as well; this slide shows an older bathroom that they renovated; her favorite project, which is at the Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Library, they have an old drain system on the roof, they had pipes crack, they understand they have other pipes that need replaced; when the pipes crack, the water flows down; they had water on the first, second, and third floors; and in their IT room on the third floor, she has a video of puddles of water. She stated they spent this money, the $87,000, to fix the cracked pipe shown on the far left of the slide; they have more pipes that need to be fixed; then when they are done, all that is seen are ceiling tiles, so it is pretty uneventful, but they know it is fixed; some more examples are the Cape Canaveral Library bathrooms that were just updated and renovated; they did the adult and youth bathrooms; and they are going with the same bathroom with the same look and feel as they renovate other bathrooms, so everything has a similar feel. She went on to say this is the Riverhouse; she does not know if the Board saw, but it was recently featured in Florida TODAY, Viera Voice, and some other locations; they are doing all kinds of creative activities in this house for the community; someone very wise said to her that during their campaign they were knocking on doors, and people were lonely, so one of the things they focused on here is a place where people can come together and serve the community; they have things like knitting with a purpose so one will knit maybe baby caps for kids in a hospital, or scarves for veterans; what is in the two bottom right pictures is a book club that they have on Thursday mornings called quiet reading on the river; a person will come in with their book of choice; at the end, some people choose to talk about it, some do not; and they also bring in service dogs, service animals the last Thursday of every month, so if people are lonely or they are companionship, maybe they cannot have a dog where they live, but they the get the opportunity if they want to meet with one of the space coast dogs. She noted she did want to mention safety; they do have a code of conduct, and all kinds of training for their staff from de-escalation seminars to on-site seminars; they do crowd control webinars, they have monitors, they have alerts, and all kinds of different things; they had over 360 events at the library that required some more significant intervention; and that is important because as they move forward, they want to make sure the buildings are safe. She commented by looking at the chart, one will see they do have off-duty officers at a few locations; one of them is the Melbourne Library on Fee Avenue where one would be aware that they have the Daily Bread and some other things; hopefully, there might be a turnaround in that community, but more importantly, they have security guards at other locations; Titusville, and they have a few locations that need some security; and Eau Gallie and West Melbourne are coming up. She explained they talk about visits to the library; they had 511,000 people visit their website; the first quarter was not available last year because Google made some changes, but using their online resources are critical to the community; they always say the library is available 24/7; and one can check out books, stream videos, there is a lot one can do in the libraries, and a person does not have to come in every time. She stated technology, over 450 public access computers, so just some fun here; again, the slides show some kids on the mobile library, but the bottom right hand corner of the slide shows their cyber patriot team, so when people are speaking, this is hacking for good, and it is part of the national program; four of their students this semester, they will end in April, are in the top 10 percent of the 10,000 students participating across the country; this is a grant they are doing with Northrup Grumman and Codecraft Works; and they have been a tremendous partner for them. She pointed out with their app, one can carry his or her library in their pocket; if the Board does not know, he or she can have a bookmark for that; this app can be downloaded, items can be checked out, and a person can even go to a bookstore; if a person sees a book they like, they scan the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) to see if the library has it; they have a lot of exciting resources that way; for example, it will take a person to Libby and Hoopla, if one has never done those before; those are online e-book resources; and of course, there is LinkedIn Learning, she does not know if the Board is familiar with that. She advised a lot of the veterans that she has talked to, when one is in the military, they can get LinkedIn Learning, certificates, and all kinds of things to help oneself, but also learning in small increments, so LinkedIn Learning is a product of LinkedIn and one can get access at the library for free; if a person has a child that needs tests prep, it is a good thing; if one needs to see an attorney, she always recommends going to the legal forms just because what it will do is one can look at what a lease or will should look like, so when a person goes into see an attorney, he or she could have some preconceived notion of what they may be looking for; and the Wall Street Journal is usually a big hit for people, along with other newspapers, that one can look at for free. She stated they are in trend to beat the numbers next year; there were 846 electronic e-books checked out online with just Libby and Overdrive; the app is called Libby, the website is Overdrive; that is books that one may want; they can review them if they are available; they can be reserved; and a person can go online and ask what is available now. She noted they do a lot of small grants in the community; she was just awarded this week a grant from the Eau Gallie Rotary Club for summer reading; their theme for this summer is ‘A Summer on the Space Coast’; and they will be having a lot of fun with that, and the kids that win the award at the end of the summer will be getting space telescopes, informational telescopes, and it is kind of going to be fun. She commented finally, young storytellers is a grant that they have with the Florida Humanities Council; it is a wonderful thing; these kids wrote all summer long with authors they brought in; they did it all online in a contained environment; they published this book at the end of the summer; they just recently spoke at Library Con, and they asked if their fans would be there would they be signing things, because they wanted to know that their fans would all be there; they are doing this again next year; and they have some other tricks up their sleeves. She went on to say there is a celebrity on this page, it is someone the Board may know, but she wanted to mention this is summer reading; if the Board will look at this, they had a 30 percent increase in attendance in summer reading, it is their busiest time of the year; where everyone else is busy during retail, they are busy during the summer; they had over one million minutes of reading in two months last summer; and that is tracked on an app they call ‘Bean Stack’. She explained their Friends of the Library are very important, they have many locations that have Friends groups; they are separate 501c3 organizations, they all volunteer, and they all support the libraries and raise funds to help them do more; they are always evolving to serve; and she does not know if the Board recalls, but they have added on January 1st at least one hour to every library almost every day, because they are opened now until 6:00 p.m. instead of 5:00 p.m., so unless it is a day a library is open until 8:00, they rotate evenings, they are opened later, and they did answer over one million reference questions. She stated it is really important to recognize that 1.6 million people visited their locations last year; they provide a lot of things like tech help, programs, classes, community spaces, and e-books; there was a survey done recently where about 2,000 people were evaluated about the library; she thinks they feel more peaceful after being at the library, it positively affects their ability to cope with the world, they have used it for personal growth, and they are feeling more of the community if they use their library; they do have something for everyone; and the slide provided just gives one an idea of some of the things the libraries have. Chairman Feltner asked if any Commissioner has a question for Ms. Bost. Commissioner Delaney expressed her appreciation to Ms. Bost for all that she does for the community. *The Board recessed at 3:10 p.m. and reconvened at 3:16 p.m.

  • Brevard County Board of County Commissioners — Minutes
• Item C.6.

  Mosquito Control

  approved - Joseph Faelia, Mosquito Control Director, stated they operate Countywide, they have three offices, their headquarters are in Titusville, and they have another office in Valkaria, both adjacent to airports; they have airport operations, laboratories, ground operations, and shop and vehicle maintenance in the Ag Center of the County; and they have a small office near the center where they have watercraft operations and also do some maintenance there. He went on to say they were established as a Mosquito Control District in 1937, State approved; they work to maintain that certification under Florida law in order to protect public health; they are completely funded by special revenue funding via ad valorem taxes; he showed the Board on the slide, the revenue; he stated obviously ad valorem taxes are $8.8 million out of their nearly $14 million budget; the balance forward is approximately $4.7 million; this is their laboratory that they are looking to construct in the next Fiscal Year; and they have money saved for that and have shifted forward, over $3 million, as well as some operating funds that can be carried over to help with the transition. He stated beyond that, there is miscellaneous interest, a few services that they provide to other agencies, grants, and just regular transfers; as far as expenses go, basically comp and benefits are at $4.3, almost $4.4 million, about the same for operating expenses; this operating category is everything from repair and maintenance, to pesticides, fuel, and just everything to really keep the Department going; the insurance captures a lot of different things; the capital improvement projects, that $3 million that again, is the laboratory they have been saving up for; they have just in the recent balance forward added some more; capital outlay, $765,000, is their equipment, so obviously, there is a lot of equipment involved in Mosquito Control; and some of that, a couple of hundreds of that, are grants, excavators, vehicles, computers, and things like that. He noted the Reserves are in case they have a real outbreak, a real public health emergency, since that is what they are there for, they have that ready to go; and then, just transfers for the Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, and annual payments. He stated this is what their team looks like, as shown on the slide provided to the Board; there are 51 positions, nine of which are administrative, customer service, and support staff, four biology, environmental technician-types, and six heavy equipment operators and impoundment technicians; he will talk about the impoundment in a minute; now, this is their largest kind of section, which is their ground operations section; this is where they are on the ground doing the inspections, treatments, and the spraying, which there are 22 people that are involved in that; there are four people involved in their manned and unmanned aircraft operations, including drones; and their shop maintenance, calibration, and safety staff are at six people. He went on to say the reason why they have such diverse staff, usually people think of Mosquito Control pretty much be about spraying as they have a lot of habitats, challenges, and nooks and crannies, which is everything from the Salt Marsh associated with the Indian River Lagoon to the waters of the St. Johns River, and all of the lakes, ponds, and wetlands in between; that gives them over 40 species of mosquitoes to deal with in Brevard County; not only does staff have to deal with all of the different species, decide what they are seeing, how much they impact humans, what types of habitat they prefer, diseases they may transfer, but they also have to deal with them in their different lifecycle stages; there could be an aquatic stage as eggs, larvae, pupal, and they can be adults where they are biting, flying mosquitoes, which, again, is what one would think of; and some of them are the size of a gnat and some are pretty big, like the size of a wasp. He advised the list provided on the left side of the slide shows there are 11 diseases, and these are the ones that they have to pay attention to, they see these regularly; this is why they were historically part of Mosquito County, he would say between the mosquitoes and the diseases; but the ones in these red boxes, he would say they expect to see every year; outside of the box, it depends, as they are seeing more of the tropical viruses like Dengue and Malaria cases; what happens is there are people traveling out of the area, often out of the country, and they will come back, feel ill, go the medical center, where they pick up on key words; the Health Department contacts the County; they then address that; and they basically keep that from spreading to others, because they have the mosquitoes to transmit the diseases, they just try to keep them away from the diseases. He mentioned they follow an integrated approach to mosquito environmental management; he thought it would be a good way to go through what Mosquito Control does as a service, because it is really an ecological approach; the first thing they do is, they receive phone calls from people who would like to have them come and spray; they do not necessarily spray without justification; they will go out and look for a source; they may go out to a house and see a birdbath, buckets, abandoned swimming pools, and tires full of mosquitoes; they get rid of the source and the job is done; they may not have to even spray beyond that; they removed about 60 tons of tires every year just picking up waste piles; and now with this new program, they are hoping to get some more. He pointed out tires are a mosquito habitat, along with other containers; thinking about habitat on a larger scale, salt marshes are known to produce up to two billion mosquitoes per acre, that is not just once per year, it is every time the tide comes in, the wind blows the tide in; they address that in a unique way; then these mosquitoes, the salt marsh mosquitoes, can fly 25 miles, pretty much go across the County; other 40-plus species may not go beyond a mile or even a few hundred feet; and it really varies. He stated this is what they call their mosquito impoundments, which a lot of people have heard of; back in the 1950s and 1960s, these were built with the understanding that these salt marsh mosquitoes, unlike a lot of the other mosquitoes, will only lay their eggs in the sediment, not in the exposed sediment or in the water; every time the wind blows the water out, the tide, they will lay these billions of eggs; the water comes back in, and within a week they are producing all of these flying, biting mosquitoes; then it keeps happening and happening, so what they realized is if they build these urban dikes around these acres, they are managing 28,000 acres, they are able to capture that water the first time in the beginning of the mosquito season and hold that; and they go through a lot of trouble to keep that water up to level, and it reduces the mosquitoes opportunity to lay eggs. He continued by saying it is enhanced by 110 culverts, 15 pumps Countywide, plus several more culverts in the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge; they partner with them for the management there; this allows staff, when the mosquito season is not as active, to open everything up, let the water and the fish exchange between the outside Lagoon, and inside the impoundments, so that gives them all kinds of opportunities to not only manage for mosquitoes and public health, but due to the environmental projects, they get involved in the Indian River Lagoon restoration; they have seagrass projects where they are trying to use the impoundments as a nursery; when they do shoreline work, instead of a hardened shoreline, they are putting native plants and oysters; and they are getting grants for that, so it all works out as a win-win. He noted they also get a lot of opportunities to partner with people with different agencies, not only in the County, other than County Departments like Natural Resources Management, but outside the County; they have a water quality program as well; they are looking at water quality inside and outside of the impoundments; they are trying to make sure they do not impact the environment any more than needed; one mosquito fish is known to consume about 100 mosquito larvae per day, so they built and expanded their hatcheries in 2020; they have one north and one in the south office; they are able to use those fish not only for ditches and small ponds, but they are able to do some largescale stocking, because they have this impoundment program which is very unique; and they are pumping that water in, so why not stock some fish, because even though they are native, mosquito fish or Gambusia that would be found in the area, they are not necessarily there yet, so mosquitoes are producing a new brood, new generation within a week, sometimes less than a week, five days. He stated the fish take a while to get in there; they are already going to have to start spraying if they do not figure out a different way, so they have really been perfecting that system of utilizing the fish stocking program, especially like in this timeframe in the beginning of the season; they have also been doing mosquito fish giveaways for residents at outreach events; and if the Board ever has any residents inquiring, to send them Mosquito Control’s way, and they can either go and stock or they can pick some up. He advised the vast majority of their operational staff are out there checking any nook and cranny they were talking about; they are inspecting seeing if there are opportunities to stock fish; sometimes one will have an inch of water, so he or she will not be able to throw those fish in there right now, but it is still enough for mosquitoes to breed; staff has to consider what pesticides they might use; their goal is to save the actual nighttime spraying as the very last resort, as they have options; they have Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tested and approved materials, most of which are derived from natural materials, such as soil bacteria, Bacillus Thuringiensis Subspecies Israelensis (BTI), and that kind of stuff; and not only are they more environmentally-friendly products, but they can also target just where they find those mosquitoes, so instead of treating, just mass, treating broad scale, they can actually just treat where the mosquitoes are before they start hatching out and going through and flying away. He pointed out once they are flying, it takes a lot more pesticides to catch up with them; all of their applicators are licensed in public health by the State of Florida, Department of Agriculture (FDA); in getting this material out there, including the fish, they have developed many retrofits, innovations; they have taken their amphibious eight-wheelers, four-wheelers, airboats, other boats, and side-by-sides; and they take all of these vehicles and make sure they can take out their dry granules for these kinds of products, liquids, and fish, and take them right out where they are needed, so that is where drones come in. He mentioned they were really working on all of these different ground vehicles, but they have different habitats out there, some are so thick with mangroves, one cannot really get those ground vehicles out there; they started off thinking drones will be the small niche, they are just going to hit these small areas where larger aircraft are not needed to just buzz these homes, like the Board can see in the clip; some of these areas, they just could not keep up with the treatment; even having people out on foot would be rough on the environment; they have drone pilots that are licensed by the Florida Aviation Association (FAA) and FDA; and they are at a point where now the drones are capable of doing all of the daytime treating, basically, so they have a fleet of drones. He went on to say a lot of it has to do with grant funding they have received, and accessories to lifts and things to get them to where they can get a line of sight; their largest drone is 13 feet across in diameter and can handle over 200 pounds just as an example; he provided the Board with a slide showing what a typical drone mobilization looks like when they are set up; and he stated there are battery charging stations, they mobilize, and then they can do hundreds of acres if needed. He noted here they are at a point where they have talked about the habitat, source reduction, larvae control, biological control, larvae treatments, and they are at a point now where some mosquitoes are going to get away, they are going to be flying around, and now something has to be done with them, because these are the ones that can transmit diseases; they have a trapping, a surveillance program of 50 traps per week; they check around the County; most of them are Center for Disease Control (CDC) traps, they have others that are standard equipment in the industry; they check these, their biologists go through and look at everything in those for the species, the number of individuals in there, because they may get a couple of hundred mosquitoes that are known to bite earthworms and frogs, as they are not even interested in humans; there may be some that are not known to transmit diseases, so they know that hundreds of mosquitoes, they met the threshold, but they are not going to spray; they are going to leave them along because it is just part of nature at this point; but if they find disease threats, that is another story. He stated in the case of their Sentinel Chicken Program, chickens are immune to these viruses, so it is kind of a good situation; they get spoiled, taken care of, and there are 12 coups around the County; they draw their blood, send it to the Health Department every week, they get those results, they look at Brevard County’s results, as well as the neighboring counties, and together they can make decisions; if they see a cluster of West Nile Virus kind of heading the County’s way, from out of the County even, they will start looking in those areas more closely and prioritizing; it may be even prioritizing over the telephone calls they are receiving regarding some species that maybe are not transmitting viruses; and that is the decisions they have to make between the mosquito trapping and disease monitoring. He continued by saying this is where they are doing what most people think of, they are spraying; they choose their equipment accordingly; they can spray by ground or air; again, the EPA-approved pesticides is all they would use; they actually wait until after sunset; normally, the vast majority of time, 30 minutes after sunset, they want those pollinators to get in their shelters and go in for the night; there are also people walking their dogs and kids coming home from school; they want to delay a little bit, but that is actually the most critical timeframe for mosquitoes, so it is really tricky as it has to be balanced; they are most active at dawn and dusk; he reiterated they are trying to get out there and not interfere with people and pollinators; but at the same time, they want it to be effective. He explained luckily with all of the technology Mosquito Control has, such as atomizers and mist droplets that they measure under the microscope to make sure they are in specification with the product labels; the droplets are in the range of one to two tablespoons for an acre of treatment, so very little goes a long way; it is not like the old days where one pictures this big cloud of smoke; they receive a lot of calls saying it is not working, and no, it is working as they can see it in the traps; but it just does not look like it is working. He remarked emergencies like hurricanes, all of these things come together; when a hurricane is approaching, they coordinate closely with the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), watching those updates, and when it becomes the real thing, they save themselves a couple of days to go out there to protect their resources, make sure the chickens are safe and tied down, make sure their traps are pulled in, because they do not want them to become flying objects, or attach to downed trees they cannot get to, and heavy equipment; they want to make sure everything is safe; as soon as that storm passes, they are out there soon as they can get out there making sure their facility is ready for them to work out of, checking around the different habitats; now they do their thing, basically everything he has been talking about; they are checking the new water for mosquitoes; normally, one does not see it kicking in for a couple of weeks, so it is not instant unless they happen to have an influx just before the storm; and they conduct larvae treatments, fish stocking, and nighttime spraying as needed. He stated if the County is in a declared emergency, Mosquito Control staff may get the opportunity to utilize Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding, as they work with the EOC on that procedure; this is where their data collection comes in really handy; they have to submit three to four years of trap data, show that it is a significant increase; they have to get support letters from County Management and the Health Department, then design some spray maps, and once they release it, they have to do their internal spraying in different areas; they try to prioritize staying out of those areas while they process it and they are dealing with all of the different counties; as an example, with Hurricane Milton they had quite an influx; they thought last season was never going to end; then they came out and did 140,000 acres in the critical areas where lots of mosquitoes were seen and viral rates were rising; sure enough, it yielded a 98 percent reduction in the mosquitoes, and they were good; and the same thing happened with Ian before that. He went on to say when they are not dealing with emergencies, they are always trying to do some testing and development of their processes, improving everything along the way; they came across some methodology that they wanted to try, enhancing their pumping in these impoundments and stocking fish together; normally, they expect over the years, over the decades, everybody who has been there a long time expects that first brood of mosquitoes that come and just really hits the County hard, there is a spike, and they are just going to have to do some treatment; after that, they hold; but what they found was watching what happens, sometimes when these storms come in, there is this influx; and the fish spread around naturally and the Department does not have to treat in certain areas, actually around the Salt Marsh. He advised they started that, they started with a small impoundment, about 50 acres, and then they let it go as long as they could; sure enough, they saw the fish, they saw the larvae, they were not connecting, they were about to the point where they needed to maybe treat, and then they started a feeding frenzy, so this might just work on a larger scale; in 2024, they did this on 1,000-acre impoundments where they had some success; sometimes they had to treat certain areas, but it was just little spot treatments; ultimately, they have reduced the need for as much pesticide applications; they had no significant emergence of mosquitoes, they had traps all around there, so it was a full-blown test; they had people working seven days a week making sure it did not get away from them; and now in 2025, they have implemented it even further. He stated this is what their trap counts look over the last 10 years, as provided in the slide; as the Board can see, it is a downward trend overall, so they have had a lot of historical sites that are in approximately the same place all of those years; they are running about one-half of the amount of the mosquitoes in their traps, so definitely these new, improved methods are working; there is a similar-looking trend regarding acreage of pesticides; again, they are getting those results of fewer mosquitoes by using the new and improved technology, the drones, impoundment methods, and everything else; and they are actually getting lower trap counts. He continued by saying as far as testing goes, that is why they are planning on building a lab this next fiscal year; they have really expanded their in-house resistant efficacy disease testing; they were awarded $300,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for lab equipment; they are now trying to wrap up the design and build the lab, so they can spread out instead of shoving equipment here and there in these buildings; and then, they can really do some more testing and improve their processes further. He commented as a quick review of some of the grant funding, with FDEP they are typically able to get wetland restoration grants; each year with culverts, with living shorelines, they have two of them awarded, a couple of them are pending; US Fish and Wildlife, with Ducks Unlimited, they are actually looking at a partnership with Natural Resources Management, and they are waiting to buy some acquisition; a lot of the impoundments are privately-owned, or at least portions are, so it limits how much they can improve those areas, and when somebody wants to consider selling, they have incentives like this; the last thing on this page is the tire amnesty events, which were recently approved; and they already ran one big event at the Health Department, they took six tons of tires to the landfill, and they have more planned. He stated a really important source of funding was CDC funding that was administered through the FDA, $861,500; all of this surveillance equipment treatment; this really got the Drone Program up and going; they are just wrapping up; they just made the remaining purchases on this grant, and getting close to closeout; this originated from Hurricane Ian incentives; and they are basically trying to make sure they address any shortfalls or anything they saw that could have helped the Department get through the hurricane. He advised he is not going through all of the next slide, but essentially, this is their partnerships; a lot of these are tied to grants; a lot of these environmental agencies outside of other Departments that they work with, FEMA, National Fish Hatchery, they coordinate with Merritt Island Refuge, Brevard Zoo, and just various projects to help make their processes better and improve things like he just talked about; finally, their most important resource are their employees; they are always looking for opportunities for employees to develop; they work very closely with Human Resources; in the last few years they developed three new career ladders and multiple updates on job opportunities; they have had some people retire, so it is an opportunity to look at the latest technology and what the Department really needs right now; incorporated in those ladders, they have incentives for people to participate in the Employee Development Program, the Executive Leadership Institute (ELI), and these same employees represent the County, so they are out doing local outreach events, talking to the community, and even at State events, they are definitely at the point where they are one of the largest mosquito districts in the State, and they have a lot of resources and things to share; and if they can help the other districts with some of the environmentally-friendly measures that they take to control mosquitoes, they are taking notes and contacting the Mosquito Control Department. He provided the Board with the last few slides showing Career Days, a Parks and Recreation event, libraries, open houses from time-to-time with different groups coming in, and professional participation; he stated they are going to these events mostly in Gainesville, and not only attending for Continuing Education Units (CEU), but they are teaching classes; that is the best way for employees to learn; and he asked the Board if it had any questions. Commissioner Delaney expressed her appreciation to Mr. Faella and his team for all they do; she stated after she was elected, she did a tour with Mosquito Control; it was a really cool day; and it blew her mind how expansive the Department is, and all of the different things they are doing, not only for health and safety, but how conscious they all are about the environment. Mr. Faella advised that is one of the things that had him really interested in coming to Brevard County; he came in actually to Natural Resources Management, and then went to Mosquito Control after a year; but the environmental focus was very unique; and they keep up with that tradition as much as they can. Commissioner Adkinson inquired how many impoundment areas the County has. Mr. Faella replied technically, they have over 100, but there were a lot of impoundments built in the 1950s and 1960s that are not functioning; most of those are in the refuge; but they also have about 25 that they actively manage out of that; that is where they share the management in the refuge; in Central Merritt Island, there is a cluster there that they manage; then South Melbourne Beach area is another cluster; and then there are a couple in the Scottsmoor area, so 25 they actively manage, and some of them they monitor, but it is such a vast Indian River Lagoon. Chairman Feltner stated Mr. Faella did a great presentation, it was very thorough; he is very interested in the amnesty event they did; he joked with Mr. Faella before saying there is a need for couch amnesty in this County; they have shown that was successful, six tons of tires, and that is 12,000 pounds; and he asked if people brought the Department 12,000 pounds of tires, or did they have to pick them up, were there dumpsters they dropped them in, or how did that happen. Mr. Faella responded it was a combination; they were at the Health Department parking lot; it was a Saturday, people were kind of trickling in; they did not really know how to judge and plan for it, but it seemed they had enough people to say they knew of a close tire pile, so they sent half of the people out to pick up those tires at the same time; they did not have so much of an influx that they could not handle it; they pretty much doubled the count by going out; he checked with FDEP ahead of time to see if that could be done; and they were fine with that, so it was half and half. He stated they found, he thinks on State Road (SR) 528 on the ramp going on, a lot of truck and tractor tires, and those were really heavy, so they got a lot of weight just from those tires. Chairman Feltner stated to tell him if he is wrong, but that is 12,000 pounds of tires. Mr. Faella advised that is right; this past weekend there was another event that Virginia Barker, Natural Resources Management Director, put them in touch with the Pineda Warrior Waterway Group; they were cleaning up Tire Island, so they did the trucking, and it was probably about the same amount of tonnage; and they would have to look at the numbers as they just did that. Chairman Feltner asked if rain barrels are a hatchery for mosquitoes; he stated they are becoming more popular, and he thinks that is great, trying to keep the water out of the Lagoon; and he asked if it had a long-term consequence when it comes to mosquitoes. Mr. Faella replied they could, but people need to keep a screen . . . Chairman Feltner stated a screen keeps them from getting . . . Mr. Faella stated one could take the BTI dunks, it is the same material they use, but break off little pieces if for some reason it is not secure and sealed up; but just to keep up with the screen is the main thing for the maintenance of it so there is not a problem. Chairman Feltner commented when he thinks of the many retention ponds in the County, typically those are in Homeowners Associations (HOA); he asked if HOAs contact him for mosquito fish; and he stated Mr. Faella talked about that, people could contact them. Mr. Faella advised a lot of times open ponds are not really generating mosquitoes, so unless they are just clogged, wall to wall vegetation, people often think that is part of the problem; they will often go out and figure out where it coming from; but that is where is more of an issue of non-biting midgets that are attracted to lights and homes; they are called blind mosquitoes, so people get mixed up and think that may be what is biting them, so they do education and work with the people on that; often, it does not require the fish stocking; and sometimes they do find areas that are pretty heavily vegetated and they will stock fish. Chairman Feltner asked if bat boxes are something he promotes; he stated it used to be a thing; but he has not heard that in a number of years. Mr. Faella responded not bat boxes; at some point there was some research in a laboratory, and bats eat mosquitoes like crazy in that lab; out in the wild there have been studies, including a recent one from the University of Central Florida (UCF) where that they are finding that they would prefer moths or larger insects; mosquitoes are pretty hard to catch, where a moth will fly right in ones face; there are different species of bats, so they have found that the Seminole Bat was one of the key species there; and they do not prefer structures like bat boxes, they prefer Spanish Moss and hanging Palm fronds, so all of the conservation, like the EEL Program, Natural Resources Management, and the impoundments Mosquito Control manages that is the best way to have bats do their thing, because the bats that are consuming the most mosquitoes are those bats and not so much the ones that are attracted to the bat houses. Chairman Feltner pointed out once and a while a lizard is in his house and he can hear it making noise in the middle of the night, and he hopes the lizard gets that mosquito that he saw earlier; and he asked if that is realistic. Mr. Faella replied probably not, it is hard to catch mosquitoes. Commissioner Delaney asked what the best situation would be for those fish, where they are most useful. Mr. Faella responded they are most useful in new ponds that do not already have an established, native population, and in flood water areas, as it is the beginning of the flooding season; that is why when they are artificially flooding an area, they can then add fish, because they know they are pumping; but if not that, when the rainy season picks up, and there are ditches that are full of water only from that point on, that is a good time to stock fish; anything that is pretty established, they will go out and actually see that they already have the mosquito fish and everything under control; and the exception is if they are clogged with vegetation and maybe need a little more help.

  • Brevard County Board of County Commissioners — Minutes
• Item C.3.

  Transit Services

  approved - Terry Jordan, Transit Services Director, stated as he has the opportunity to present to the Board almost on a monthly basis, he is going to focus on the budget since it frequently sees him at the Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) meetings; as the Board sees on the screen, there are some fast facts about transit; he will not get into too many of them, but one thing he wants to make sure he does point out is that they operate their services for 122 operators, 30 support staff and 18 contracted staff; currently they are providing about 64,000 passenger trips a month and their fixed-route service; in addition to that, they do about 360 paratransit trips on a daily basis, that is for individuals who are unable to use the fixed-route service; their 2025 budget is approximately $47 million; a large part of that, as the Board can tell on the graph, is split into two areas being the operating and the capital, of that which 56 percent is in the attributed operating of the overall budget, and the remaining 44 percent going to capital; and like Ms. Jackson, he will get into more specifics later. He continued by saying their revenues, as the Board can see here, are derived from multiple sources; however, with an overwhelming portion of that being from their Federal Transit Administration budget, which says 82 percent of the funds, and another 13 percent of those funds being derived from State funding; the General Fund portion is about four percent of their overall budget; this slide shows how revenues are utilized and the sources where they go to; once again, the Board sees the capital portion of the operations is primarily funded by Federal revenue; then, in their operations, another significant portion is Federal revenue, which typically applies to their vehicles and facilities; and operations is still comprised of significant portion of Federal dollars, along with a combination of General Fund dollars, charges for services, and other revenues the Board can see on the graph. He noted operating expenses primarily go to their preventative maintenance, which is 38 percent of their expenses; this is used specifically to keep their vehicles in good operations and to make sure they are providing that service to their passengers; the next greatest portion is for compensation and benefits for their employees; capital expenses, as the Board sees, the primary area is for their vehicles to make sure they are operating at optimal service, making sure the vehicles are in good operation for passengers, then they have their capital improvement projects, such as parking lot repairs, fuel tank replacement, and other items like their public restrooms; and the last part is the capital equipment, which a major portion of that is for technology in the vehicles like the bus cameras and Information Technology (IT) software and radio equipment. He pointed out this is the most significant slide in his presentation; it shows that the General Fund portion, which is the back of the bus where typically their engine is, is driving how they operate, so this General Fund the Board sees that $200,000 is matched to their intermodal grant of $100,000, which is half of that; the next portion is their block grant funds, which is 50 percent of their block grant; the last portion is $226,000, which the Board does not see there, but it sees $2 million, so that is 10 percent of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) funded; then they can leverage an additional $2.3 million in Federal funds to purchase vehicles and other things of that nature; if they have any issues with their General Fund, all of these items in this area will be significantly reduced; and right now the total required match is $2.4 million, they have a shortfall of $183,000, and that shortfall is made up of things like their sale of surplus vehicles, balance forward, advertising funds that are received, and charges for services. He stated in addition to that, using the funds seen in the previous slide, are also allowed to leverage additional funds with no local match requirement; they have $465,000 for their corridor and SR A1A corridor grants; in addition, they can also leverage $8.7 million in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) capital grant that is used for preventative maintenance and capital equipment; and once again, with no local match to the County. He commented this next slide talks about their capital improvement plan; various areas that they are looking into making improvements on is Cocoa terminal, learning center, ramp, and areas for their passenger restrooms, once again, approved in the existing budget; in addition to that, they do not just focus on their employees, staff, and equipment, they also make sure they focus on their passengers; one of the current and continuous requests they get are for amenities at their transit stops; as the Board can see on the slide, they have $1.6 million allocated toward amenities to be installed throughout the entire County throughout the next five years; typically, they partner with FDOT on roadway projects when they are doing any resurfacing projects and the County has the pads built; however, in some cases, they go through the process themselves completely, beginning to end. He mentioned they have a need for transit vehicle replacements; right now there is $23 million allocated for replacement of vehicles over the next five years; currently, and this number is always subject to change, a bus of this style costs about $600,000; right now Transit has about 20 buses that date back as far as 2007, some with over 600,000 miles; they have vehicles that are nearing almost a million miles; and it goes to the statement of how staff keeps the vehicles in good repair, and continue to utilize them way beyond their useful life. Chairman Feltner inquired when Mr. Jordan said it was $600,000 to replace a bus today, how much of an increase is that over say five years ago, just to give the Board an idea. Mr. Jordan replied last year they were probably at about $550,000; those numbers, he cannot say fluctuate incrementally, but he could probably get with Mr. Liesenfelt to see when he bought a bus how much it cost. Mr. Liesenfelt advised he has not been there in eight years, but the last time he was spending about $330,000 a copy; and the drivetrain, engine, and transmission, they are over $100,000 now. Chairman Feltner asked almost one manufacturer, or are there two, do they buy from, do they try to keep them all the same. Mr. Jordan responded there are several manufacturers; however, they primarily purchase their vehicles from Gillig; one of the benefits of doing that is their mechanics are trained and knowledgeable about this specific bus; there are a couple of others like New Flyer, Neoplan, or others; but there are many difference in, of course the equipment, components, and parts, so they will be trying to get parts from different people, different vendors; they have primarily went with Gillig, one of the vendors on the State contract; Transit is required to purchase off of the State Contract; and if the vendor is not on that Contract, they would not be purchasing buses from someone outside of the State Contract. Chairman Feltner advised he appreciates the same when it comes to these things; and he had a conversation over Fire Rescue vehicles, and how they try to purchase those also. Mr. Jordan stated there is an advantage, and one of the major advantages of the State contract is that they do all of the leg work to make sure the County is getting the best price, so the bus is not just being bought because it is liked, the County is getting one of the best prices for the equipment purchased; that completes his presentation; and knowing there are eight others behind him, he wanted to make it as quickly as possible, so he wanted to continue to give his thanks to the Assistant County Manager, County Manager, and the Board for the dedication and support provided to Transit Services. Chairman Feltner inquired what it costs a typical rider if they use Transit Services almost exclusively; do they get a pass for a month; what does that cost; and does it work that way. Mr. Jordan replied yes, it does; currently, for one ride fair it is $1.50 each way; they can buy a 30-day pass, it is just about $46; they can use that pass from the time it is initiated to 30 days later, as many times as they want to, with no restrictions; there is also a 10-ride pass which gets punched at each time a person uses that pass; but primarily their passengers pay for the single ride or they buy a monthly pass. Chairman Feltner noted he thinks he saw a Quick Response (QR) Code the other day, so one has a way to pay with a mobile device these days; and he asked if that is right. Mr. Jordan responded affirmatively; he stated one of the things they have implemented recently has been a myriad of technology, and one of those is the opportunity for the passengers to purchase a pass on their phone; once they get on the bus they are going to show that pass to the operator; they are looking at ways to even increase the technology; and then, there will be a scanned pass on a device on the bus and minimize the amount of cash they take in, which will also allow staff to recoup costs because of the cost in counting the money, the armored truck services, and those things, so he reiterated they are looking to implement even more technology to allow them to save more. Chairman Feltner asked when a person gets on the bus, does he or she somehow show their mobile device that interacts with the bus when one gets on, and it shows it was, for instance, their ninth ride, or something else. Mr. Jordan replied currently, it is what is called a flash pass, so the passenger purchases the pass in advance; when they get on the bus, they activate it; there are three mechanisms that shows it is actually an active and real pass; it pulses, shows the time and date of the current time, and it also has a color that the operator knows to differentiate; and once they hear the pulse, they look for the current time, so a person cannot use a video unless they are using a video and taking the exact time that they are riding the bus tomorrow, they would not be able to duplicate it and use it without it being an actual pass that is being applied. He mentioned typically, those are going to be monthly passes anyway, so just as long as it is within a 30-day range, they can use it as much as possible; there are a couple of individuals that they see using a single ride; but that is just for one trip, and they can get a transfer to continue a trip if they are going to another route. Chairman Feltner asked if there is an ability to give a gift card to someone for them to ride the bus for the day, and does Transit Services have something like that currently; and would he be better off to just hand them $3 for a roundtrip. Mr. Jordan explained not a gift card, but one can purchase the pass for anyone they want if they have a telephone number; a person can purchase a pass and then send it to that individual, which would show up on their phone; and they would have to have the app activated.

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