City of Fort Pierce Minutes of a Regular Meeting

Regular Postponed Meeting February 22, 2011
Mr. Sweeney said during his graduate studies, he was actually an
intern at the County. During the Summer of 2009, he was
responsible for carrying out the five year update actually.
Commissioner Becht said the City is lucky to have him.
Commissioner Perona said he sees that the FPUA is on the
Committee. He is wondering if the mitigation strategy involves
and corresponds with the plans developed by the U.A. for
emergency and disaster.
Mr. Sweeney said he is not familiar with the U.A.'s disaster
mitigation plans. But Bill Thiess, the FPUA Director who
happens to be the Mayor of St. Lucie Village, is present at all
LMS meetings, so he is sure the FPUA is fully involved.
Commissioner Perona said the U.A. basically authored the
emergency plan for a lot of the utilities since the two
hurricanes in 2004. In fact, the Director at the time was on
national TV promoting all the emergency tips and things like
that. But when he read through this, he just didn't really see
where the emergency plans corresponded with one another, and he
thought that might be a good idea.
Mr. Sweeney said this is a dynamic document, it can be changed.
The five year mandatory update is just that, an update; but it
can be amended at any point. It is not limited, like the
Comprehensive Plan, to particular cycles.
Mayor Benton said something they have dealt with for many years
here, which kind of bugged him, when it comes to environmental
mitigation, the mitigation bank was always outside the City
limits, Bear Point. He believes when there were issues with
their Marina, the money and the efforts went outside the City
limits. He does not see a map in here. His concern is, when
they change something, they cross out the old language and
underline the new. This is just basically a new book. He is
wondering, do they have a mitigation bank inside the City limits
for environmental purposes?
Mr. Sweeney said he is familiar with the Bear Point mangrove
mitigation bank. But he thinks the Mayor is getting mitigation
for wetlands and environmental degradation versus disaster
mitigation mixed. Those are similar, but different
operationally. This LMS is to lessen the impacts of natural
disasters. Wetlands and environmental areas do serve as a
buffer and in effect mitigate against flooding. Flood plains
are nature's mitigation from flooding. But wetlands mitigation
and hazard mitigation are largely separate.
Mayor Benton said if Mr. Sweeney is the City's representative
with this group, he would ask them to take a look at some
property - as long as there is a wastewater treatment plant
located on a barrier island in a situation like a hurricane,
knowing that the water was within several feet of taking that
facility out, maybe that could be their mitigation area when it
comes to disasters, being on the banks of the Indian River
Lagoon. Maybe they can at least incorporate that to help get
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City of Fort Pierce Minutes of a Regular Meeting held on February 22, 2011
Copyright © 2011 City of Fort Pierce Florida