Embedded Files
We had 5 attendees at our community meeting.
Since we last met, we (Jonetta & Sara) presented to the MBA board on Nov 22.
There were concerns about using “Magens” in our name and possible confusion between what is officially Magens (MBA) and our Friends group. We will try to clearly distinguish ourselves as much as possible.
Other highlights from the MBA board meeting (this was most of what we discussed during the community meeting):
Discussion of the recent flooding & watershed management. There was reference to a watershed management report that was prepared a few years ago (2018, from data surveyed in 2016). If you’re interested to read it, I found it online.
We discussed the recommendations from this report at the Friends community meeting. If you want to skim the doc, there’s a summary on pages 7-8 and recommendations on pages 45-47 & 64-65, and the first few maps show the areas prone to flooding (which we’re all probably familiar with from experience).
The MBA board voted to approve raising salaries for lifeguards to bring them inline with union recommended salary bands, and specifically mentioned part-time lifeguards.
At the Friends community meeting, there was a question about whether they get benefits, to which our collective (unconfirmed) belief is that full-time MBA staff get benefits, but part-time staff likely don’t. As per the VI Code, MBA is a “corporate instrumentality of the government”.
Installation of a new larger generator was completed
Some issues with RFPs noted, including needing to resubmit an RFP for the bathroom construction, so there’s some delay in that timeline
There was mention of maybe getting someone do such HR work on a contractual basis
MBA expressed intent to hold a followup meeting with the taxi association to discuss collecting fares before getting to the gate, etc.
At the Friends community meeting, we discussed the possibility of getting the taxi/tour operators to educate visitors about the beach, including rules
Towards that end, there was a question as to whether there is a public list of all the beach rules & regulations somewhere. I compiled a list of rules I could find.
Misc discussion & questions:
Available for review: Spreadsheet of our objectives & projects.
Do we want to try to trap/neuter/release the dog or any of the cats that live at/near Magens? The Humane Society is holding spay & neuter event monthly-ish. If anyone wants to take this on, we should talk to the MBA staff, as I know there were some prior attempts to catch the dog.
It was noted that the sandcastle excursion (on Disney cruise days) takes up a lot of the beach by the far bathrooms, especially when setting up. As we’re getting into season, there may be more excursions. If we see things that we have concerns about, we can let the MBA staff know so they can check.
This led to the question of if we can get a copy of the vendor/concession contracts, and more generally what info is public. MBA does testify to the finance committee of the legislature, so that’s one source of information, e.g., July 27 2023 budget and Aug 29 2023 testimony.
Since we’re aiming for the last Saturday of every month for community meetings, our next meeting is Saturday December 28 at 10AM, near shed 4 + zoom. Given the proximity to Christmas, should we cancel or reschedule? As always, upcoming meetings will be on http://calendar.friendsmagens.org/ .
Please send me email addresses of others who would like to join this group. Or they can subscribe themselves at https://groups.google.com/a/friendsmagens.org/g/friends-announce .
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