I am Charlene Adair, your Beach & Parks Chair. I also serve on the Keep Fort Pierce Beautiful Advisory Board and the Parks Committee. I coordinate approximately 50 volunteers to keep 9 parks and about 4 miles of beach clean and maintained – a lofty goal for sure! Our volunteers showed they are up to the challenge by working 2392 hours in 2018! Our volunteers were honored at the recent Coffee with the Mayor. Thank you, to all volunteers who work so hard to keep our beaches and parks beautiful.
We continue to need help during the off-season months when many of our volunteers are unavailable. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please see me after the meeting or call or email me – my contact information is on the website. This is great job for those of you who enjoy the outdoors, and every hour is appreciated.
I would like to thank our Fort Pierce Public Works Department for your tremendous support. You have responded to numerous suggestions for improvement as well as reports of needed maintenance. They cheerfully provide 100% of our support with shirts, picker uppers, gloves, bags, and any other supplies we request. I would like to thank Mike Reals, Public Works Director, and Paul Bertram, Parks & Grounds Manager and our liaison, and others for the work that you do.
Our BlueTube program, spearheaded by the City and the Keep Fort Pierce Beautiful Advisory Board, has been extremely successful – the difference they are making continues to be noticeable. These BlueTubes hold clean used bags for anyone to grab when going to the beach in order to pick up trash. You can then toss the bag in any trash can and bring more bags the next time you visit the beach. The Keep Fort Pierce Beautiful Advisory Board wants to thank SBA for sponsoring the wrapping of 4 electric boxes. FPUA will be wrapping the box at the Jaycee Park entrance soon. This leaves 1 large box in Surfside and 2 small ones between the Jaycee Park entrance and Mariner Bay NEEDING SPONSORS. If any of you are interested, please see me after the meeting, call me, or email me.
The Parks Committee has had a very busy year with projects that include recommendations to the Commission on: (1) Should we have a dog-friendly beach in the City, (2) Clarification of state laws regarding golf carts, (3) creating a process for naming public facilities, and (4) vendor demonstration and delivery in public parks. We will be presenting our final recommendations on the latter along with recommendations on addressing the jet ski safety issues at Jaycee Park at the April Commission Conference Agenda on April 8th at 9:00 AM.
Please also plan to attend the Great American Cleanup sponsored by the Keep Fort Pierce Beautiful Advisory Board on March 2nd. One of the projects will be painting and cleanup at South Beach Park and Bergalis Park. You will find details on the City website.
Thank you very much for this opportunity to serve our community.