Here’s The Scoop…Monitoring The Monitors…
June 24, 2009 by Barbara
Dear Readers….you might recall the recent post of the Monday June 22,2009 July 4th Committee….open to the public…but purposefully posted discreetly and within the 24 hr. notice period to keep the public at bay (not “volunteers”…the public )…Coordinator Marc Furth spoke of the contract he gave to the town for 2 people from the County to monitor the beach from 9-10 pm….This writer had inquires of the cost and who it was from the County…It was brought up again by the Vice Mayor at the 6/23/09 commission meeting…and so I sent in a request to PIO Steve d’Oliveira who is now (prev. posts) in charge of all public requests made to the Town…Below is his response….
“The Town is hiring two marine biologists with the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center on July 4th to monitor the breakdown of the fireworks platform from 9 to 11 PM to ensure no nesting sea turtles are harmed. There is no contract. The cost for this is $216.20, according to the Town’s June 22 invoice to Nova.
Earlier in the day on July 4, as part of its daily inspection during sea turtle season of all the beaches in Broward, marine biologists with Nova are going to be checking to see if any nests are built in the Town. The Town can’t even begin to put up the fireworks platform at El Prado until we get an OK from the sea turtle biologists that the area is clear. This is not costing the Town anything, because it’s part of Nova’s duties to inspect the beach anyway for sea turtle nests. Nova has an annual contract with the county to operate the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program.
If there are any nests in the El Prado area, the Town will need to shift the location of the fireworks platform so that the nests are not harmed in any way by the plywood platform or the temporary poles or fencing that will surround it.”
BC-The response from the Town is quite different than the statements made to the committee by Coordinator Marc Furth…which is quite interesting …especially after the glowing commentary presented by the Vice Mayor in his Commissioner comments….extolling Coordinator Furth for his presentations…and for “crossing his t’s and dotting his i’s”…OOPS!…
Although I was quite baffled by the change of whom to contact for public records (It went from Town Clerk White to Senior Office Specialist Nikki Smith to PIO d’Olivera)…this was a great change made by the Town Manager…KUDOS!…
link to Nova University Turtle…http://www.turtlewatch.info/
more to come….
