I am Charlene Adair, your Beach & Parks Chair. I also serve on the Keep Fort Pierce Beautiful Advisory Board, representing South Beach. As South Beach’s liaison with Fort Pierce Public Works, I coordinate approximately 40 individuals (some who live on the mainland but enjoy South Beach) plus groups from Mariner Bay and Ocean Village. Due to persistent work by a few residents in Ocean Village, they were able to establish a team and regular beach clean ups that have been very successful – OV, welcome to our group. Our role is to keep 9 parks and about 4 miles of beach maintained – a lofty goal for sure! Our volunteers showed they are up to the challenge by working 1871 hours in 2016! This is an increase from the prior year of 653 hours, and represents about 1 full time employee for the City. I would like to ask our volunteers to stand so that we can acknowledge your service and thank you.
We continue to need help during the off-season months when many of our volunteers are unavailable. Last summer we had student volunteers supervised by a parent who achieved their required service hours with their school while maintaining our beaches and parks. I hope to expand this program to include more schools, and I would really appreciate any help you can provide with this effort. Also, if you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please see me after the meeting or call me – I am listed on the SBA 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. They 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 Manager, and Paul Bertram, Parks Manager and our liaison, and others for the work that you do.
The newest enhancement to our program has been the installation of BlueTubes. How many of you have noticed these at beach entrances (hold up BlueTube)? 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. This program is making a difference – some of our volunteers have sponsored BlueTubes, and they help keep them full of bags. This is a wonderful way to get all of you involved in our effort even if you can’t be a regular volunteer.
The City kicked off this effort by sponsoring the first 5 BlueTubes. To date, we have 21 installed and more waiting to be installed, sponsored by various individuals, Ocean Village, Coldwell Banker, and Manatee Island Bar & Grill. Please thank these businesses for their dedication to keeping South Beach litter free! We hope to get more individuals, businesses, and organizations involved in the future – we still have locations in need of a BlueTube. Please consider being a sponsor! The cost is $125 per year or 5 for $500 per year. More information can be found by visiting their website at: www.BlueTubeBeach.org.
Thank you very much for this opportunity to serve our community.