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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 06-11-2009 FORT PIERCE HARBOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE Meeting Held On June 11, 2009 Convened at 3:00 p.m. Adjourned at 3:42 p.m. This meeting of the Fort Pierce Harbor Advisory Committee (FPHAC) was held Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. in Conference Room 3 on the third floor of the Administration Building, 2300 Virginia Avenue, Fort Pierce, Florida. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken. Members Present: Howard Conklin, Chairman Mary Chapman, Vice Chairman Gerald Kuklinski, Commissioner Grande’s Appointee David Souza, St. Lucie Village John Holt, Commissioner Dzadovsky’s Appointee Also Present: Commissioner Grande, SLC District 4 Bob Bangert, Indian Pines John Arena, Earth First (Arrived @ 3:30 p.m.) Marty Laven, Marine Industries Association of the Treasure Coast Ken Roberts, Indian River Terminal Katherine Smith, SLC Assistant County Attorney APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: The minutes from the May 14, 2009 meeting were unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS: Jerry Kuklinski spoke about John Arena’s presentation which was given at the May 14, 2009 meeting. Mr. Kuklinski also spoke about a presentation given a long time ago by Philip Steel, “There were a lot of good ideas from what he had presented here for the Waterfront Council, a lot of its based on tall ships and mega yachts.” There was discussion on possibly having John Ward from the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency as a future speaker. Page 1 of 3 There was a brief discussion regarding Councilman Cooper and Commissioner Becht and if they would be attending future meetings. NEW BUSINESS: Mary Chapman gave a summary of the trial proceedings involving Lloyd Bell’s partner Mr. King which was held in Federal Court. Ms. Chapman stated, “It was Judge Graham. He was excellent, very level-headed and calm and that was good. He really chastised the parties because they had been arguing for over two hours over what 10% of $5.5 million dollars is. After several hours Judge Graham finally said, ‘Look you two guys get out of here, you’ve known each other for 30 or 40 years. Go out and agree over lunch’. Well they didn’t really but Indian River Terminal now has 10% of Bell Holdings in the terminal. It was never formalized.” Chairman Conklin asked, “How did Bell look or sound? Do you think he was compliant or coherent?” Ms. Chapman replied, “Yes, I didn’t see anything to the contrary.” Chairman Conklin asked how the situation was left. Ms. Chapman stated, “It’s an ongoing proceeding but 10% belongs to the King group.” Ken Roberts replied, “It really isn’t ongoing. The Judge has bowed out of it. The only thing that was left was the question of whether there should be an accounting of the records? Well, there basically are no records beyond what’s already been filed for IRS purposes. The Indian River Terminal is not the owner, it is King himself. King got his 10% and that’s what he wanted.” Mr. Kuklinski wondered if Lloyd Bell really paid $5 million for the property when the asking price was $10 million. Mr. Roberts replied, “The asking price was $11 million and he negotiated down to $5.5 million. That’s an accurate number.” Ms. Chapman stated, “I’ve never heard anything other than that.” Chairman Conklin gave an update of the dredging by stating, “Gail Kavanagh did confer with the Army Corp. within the last 30 days and they said the same issue of no commercial traffic or not adequate commercial traffic could justify dredging of the Fort Pierce Inlet. We’re not on any list or any proposed list of dredging in the foreseeable future. We’re facing a port that was dredged at 28’ and now we’re shoaling at 20’-18’. Gail said F.I.N.D. (Florida Inland Navigation District) has funded dredging for the intracoastal from the South Bridge to the North Bridge and then beyond.” The sale of F.I.N.D.’s larger vessel is “still up in the air”. Chairman Conklin stated, “The Harbortown Marina Nautical Flea Market wasn’t as successful as they thought it would be. They had very little vendor and buyer participation. I think the concept is too premature until the economy gets better. I think it was a disaster event.” Marty Laven felt as though the Harbortown Marina Nautical Flea Market wasn’t a big event because it wasn’t part of a larger enterprise event or activity. Mr. Laven stated, “There was an issue that you had asked us to research regarding flea markets in the City of Fort Pierce and to no surprise it’s pretty hard for us to find any current ordinance that would allow us to do anything of a nature like that out at that facility.” Chairman Conklin stated, “Gail will be meeting with the Corp. of Engineers probably later this month and would be willing to come to this committee in July if there is any new news.” Page 2 of 3 There was a discussion regarding moving sand from the North side of the Inlet near the North Jetty and pumping it to the South. Commissioner Grande stated, “The project is really to dig a pit in the Inlet along the North side, South of the North Jetty and that would be a settlement pit. The sand is naturally going around the North Jetty and coming into the Inlet and causing the shoaling. What they’ve done is they have studied the water movement in the Inlet to determine where the greatest volume of that sand is moving and they are going to put a pit under that area and collect the sand in the pit over a year or two. Then the maintenance dredging for South Beach instead of coming from Capron Shoals would come out of that pit. They anticipated something along the lines of 100,000 yards of sand per year. They figure with a pit that size they would dredge it out every two years and renourish South Beach. There would be no positive effort to actually take sand from North Beach, but what would be coming into that pit would be what naturally now comes around the Jetty and contributes to those shoals that are building up. It should help with the South Beach problem. It should alleviate a lot of stress on the Capron Shoals area. Everything at this point is theoretical and has been proven by modeling and that project will probably move ahead unless something comes up.” Mr. Roberts said the facility would be 30’ deep, 170’ wide and 2,300’ long. John Holt asked, “Has any consideration been given to putting the sand pumping in on the North side of the Jetty?” Commissioner Grande replied, “Yes, evidently the project team did a preliminary study of just about all of the options you could imagine. That’s a much more expensive process.” Chairman Conklin stated, “I agree that shoaling does represent environmental issues because if the bad water can’t flow out of the Inlet and is bottled up in the lagoon we’ve created another problem.” Mr. Roberts brought a survey of the shoaling from January 2008. Chairman Conklin stated, “Sheet six shows the shoaling point of 20’ and its right to the east of marker G11.” Chairman Conklin stated, “I have decided to take a sabbatical for a while and not practice law for a while and travel. I’m heading off for Europe but I want to take about six months to a year off, therefore this is my last meeting. I can’t in good faith leave the seat vacant so I’ll resign and if I’m reappointed so be it, if I’m not, I’ve served my duty and country here. I did a resignation letter and recited some of the issues that you guys would have to solve.” ADJOURNMENT: At 3:42 p.m. the meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will be held Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 3:00 pm in Conference Room 3, on the third floor of the Administration Building. Respectfully submitted by Stephanie Bush Page 3 of 3