July 2014.pdfJuly 2014
July 4 Independence Day City Offices Closed
July 8 Code Enforcement Board Meeting 6 pm
July 10 Charter Review Committee Meeting 5 pm
July 14 City Commission Meeting 6:30 pm
July 15 Community Development Board Meeting 6 pm
July 22 *Cultural Arts & Recreation Advisory Committee 6 pm
July 24 Charter Review Committee Meeting 5 pm
July 28 City Commission Workshop 6: 30 pm
August 2014
August 11 City Commission Meeting 6:30 pm
August 14 Pension Board of Trustees Quarterly Meeting 6:30 pm
August 19 Community Development Board Meeting 6 pm
August 25 City Commission Workshop 6:30 pm
August 26 *Cultural Arts & Recreation Advisory Committee 6 pm
Meetings are held in the Commission Chamber unless otherwise indicated.
* These events will be held at Adele Grage Cultural Center, 716 Ocean Blvd.
July 2014
July 2 Wednesday Market – Bull Park 3-6 pm
July 6 Songwriters’ Concert – Adele Grage 6-8 pm
July 9 Wednesday Market – Bull Park 3-6 pm
July 13 Yoga – Adele Grage 4-5 pm
July 16 Wednesday Market – Bull Park 3-6 pm
July 17 North Beaches Art Walk – Town Center & Adele Grage 5-9 pm
Reception for the Artist – Adele Grage 5-9 pm
July 20 Yoga – Adele Grage 4-5 pm
July 20 Acoustic Nights – Bull Park 6-8 pm
July 23 Wednesday Market – Bull Park 3-6 pm
July 27 Yoga – Adele Grage 4-5 pm
July 30 Wednesday Market – Bull Park 3-6 pm
August 2014
August 3 Yoga - Adele Grage 4-5 pm
August 6 Wednesday Market – Bull Park 3-6 pm
August 10 Yoga – Adele Grage 4-5 pm
August 10 Songwriters’ Concert – Adele Grage 6-8 pm
August 13 Wednesday Market – Bull Park 3-6 pm
August 15 Movie in the Park – Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
– Jack Russell ParkJul
August 17 Yoga – Adele Grage 4-5 pm
August 20 Wednesday Market – Bull Park 3-6 pm
August 21 North Beaches Art Walk – Town Center & Adele Grage 5-9 pm
Reception for the Artist – Adele Grage 5-9 pm
August 24 Yoga – Adele Grage 4-5 pm
August 24 Acoustic Nights – Bull Park 6-8 pm
August 27 Wednesday Market – Bull Park 3-6 pm
August 31 Yoga – Adele Grage 4-5 pm
www.coab.us/recreation
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www.coab.us • (904) 247-5800
CITY OFFICIALS
Carolyn Woods, Mayor
Mark Beckenbach, Mayor Pro-Tem
Maria Mark, Commissioner
Jonathan Daugherty, Commissioner
Jimmy Hill, Commissioner
Nelson Van Liere, City Manager
Donna Bartle, City Clerk
TwilighT Movies in The Park are Back!
The first summer Twilight Movie in the Park returns
on Friday, August 15th at Jack Russell Park with
the showing of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
2”. Bring your blankets, lawn chairs, snacks and
bug spray and get comfortable for a great relaxing
evening. Enjoy free popcorn or pack a picnic dinner.
The movie will begin at 8:30 pm and is free and open to the public. All children
must be accompanied by a parent or adult.
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HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS – ARE YOU READY?
Special Needs Shelters
The Duval County Emergency Preparedness Division maintains a registry of clients who have
been identified as persons with either special medical needs or special transportation needs
during an emergency. These individuals require assistance during evacuations and sheltering
or need special transportation to a shelter. Individuals with special medical needs who plan on
using a public shelter during an evacuation should register well in advance by contacting the
Emergency Preparedness Office by phone at (904) 630-2472 or visiting www.coj.net to complete
a registration form. A new registry is created each year in January, so individuals must re-register
every year to remain in the system. Once the registration form is completed it is reviewed by
a health care professional and categorized by the assistance required. Individuals are then
assigned to a shelter or hospital and to the appropriate transportation agency, if applicable.
aTlanTic Beach Police DeParTMenTwarns aBoUT The Dangers oF heaTsTroke
Heatstroke is the number one killer of children, outside of car crashes. As outside
temperatures rise, the risk of children dying from being left alone inside a hot vehicle
also rises. One child dies from heatstroke nearly every 10 days from being left in a
hot vehicle, but what is most tragic is that the majority of these deaths could have
been prevented.
Atlantic Beach Police Department urges all parents and caregivers to do these three things:
1. NEVER leave a child in a vehicle unattended
2. Make it a habit to look in the backseat EVERY time you exit the car
3. ALWAYS lock the car and put the keys out of reach. And, if you ever see a
child left alone in a hot vehicle, call 911 right away.
Know the warning signs of heatstroke, which include: red, hot, and moist or dry skin;
no sweating; a strong rapid pulse or a slow weak pulse; nausea; confusion; or acting
strangely. If a child exhibits any of these signs after being in a hot vehicle, cool the
child rapidly by spraying them with cool water or with a garden hose, NEVER an ice
bath. Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.
PLEASE DO NOT FEED RACCOONS
The Florida Wildlife Commission has confirmed a possible outbreak of distemper among raccoons in Northeast Florida. We
have had several sick raccoons in Atlantic
Beach. Here are a few facts you should
know:
• Symptoms of distemper may include discharge from the nose and eyes, drooling, a
rough coat of hair, emaciated appearance, and unusual behavior such as disorientation
or wandering aimlessly. The animals’ symptoms become progressively worse and the disease is usually fatal. Distemper is not the same disease as rabies, although some symptoms are similar
• Distemper is a viral disease that infects foxes, coyotes, skunks, and unvaccinated dogs
and cats. The disease does not affect humans
• The disease is more likely to occur when raccoon populations are large or concentrated.
Not all raccoons get the disease and many do survive these outbreaks
• The disease is spread when animals have direct contact with body fluids or droppings
from an infected animal. Distemper is always present in the environment, so the best prevention for your animals is to make sure they are vaccinated. Contact your vet to make sure your pet’s shots are current.
• To discourage raccoons, remove attractants from your yard. Feed pets indoors. If you feed
outdoors, bring in feeding bowls right after pets have eaten. Make sure garbage cans are secure and can’t be knocked over or their lids removed
• Keep children and pets away from sick raccoons. As the disease progresses, the animal
may appear calm, but can become aggressive if it feels threatened.
• Providing artificial food sources may lead to unnaturally large concentrations of animals and increase the spread of disease.
If you have a sick raccoon in your yard, call Atlantic Beach Animal Control at 247-5866.
If a raccoon dies in your yard, use protective gloves and wrap the body in a plastic garbage
bag and throw it away.
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Be cool in YoUr Pool—anD save waTer
Enjoy the pool or spa this summer, but remember ways to conserve water too:
• Check your swimming pool for leaks and have them fixed promptly. How do you know if your pool is leaking? - Losing more than 1-inch of water from your pool weekly - Trouble balancing your chemicals because you have to keep adding water - Noticing constantly damp soil around the pool - Loose or falling tiles - Obvious cracks, gaps or settling
• Use a pool or spa cover to reduce evaporation, and save up to 7,000 gallons of water per year. (Increases safety factor and helps keep debris out of the pool too!)
• Use the newer cartridge filters. Backwashing sand and diatomaceous filters use about 500 gallons for each cycle.
Remember your days: Water before 10:00 a.m. or after 4:00 p.m.
Homes with ODD addresses – Wednesday and SaturdayHomes with EVEN addresses – Thursday and SundayNon-Residential – Tuesday and Friday
For more information on how to conserve water, check out the St. Johns River Water
Management’s website at www.floridaswater.com.
Dear Neighbors,Many visitors and new residents of Atlantic Beach may not realize that
our beautiful beaches and dunes are the result of beach renourishment.
Prior to renourishment, there was almost no sand beach at high tide,
and the shore was only the seawall, rocks, and boulders. Since about
1978, the Duval County Beach Nourishment Project has placed over 11 million cubic yards of sand along the 10-mile shoreline from Mayport Naval Station to the St. Johns County line in order to restore
Jacksonville's historic beaches and dunes. The beach is renourished
with offshore sand about every six years, including in 1985-87, 1991,
1995, 2005, and 2011. The next renourishment will be in early
summer of 2016.
Besides creating a great beach for us, and visitors to enjoy, this
renourishment has also helped the ecology of the beach and provided
much needed habitat for nesting turtles. We are lucky to have a
dedicated group, the Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol (BSTP), which monitors,
protects and saves these nests each year. Their positive impact is great. Results from 2013 included: 72 nests (63 hatched, six were non-productive and three were lost) for a total of 7,513 (5,999 hatched,
1,387 unhatched, 56 pipped and 71 predated).
Sea Turtle season in our area is from May 1st through October 31st.
Please be mindful to not disturb the nests and check out the Sea Turtle Patrol website at http://www.bstp.net to learn more. Remember, it is illegal to touch, handle or interfere in any way with any sea turtle, nest
or hatchling, alive or dead, unless instructed by a Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission permitted individual.
If you are lucky you may be able to watch the little hatchlings’ brave march to the sea. If you think one might be in trouble, please follow these baby turtle survival rules: Stray hatchlings should be placed in a
small bucket or container with 1-2" of moist sand, and covered lightly
with a cloth or towel. Call BSTP right away at (904) 613-6081 for
retrieval. DO NOT try to put it back in the ocean.
See you at the beach!
Blessings to you and yours,
Carolyn Woods