Annual Report 2009 Part 2 - Lee County Mosquito Control District

Employee
Training
January 12-15
January 21
February 6
February 10
February 11
February 13
February 17
February 19
February 20
February 27
March 4
March 13
April 7
April 30
May 6
May 18
May 19
May 20
May 21
May 22
May 22
May 27
June 25
July 30
July 30
July 31
August 4-6
September 10
September 22
October 7
October 26
Aerial Short Course
What is an Integrated Mosquito Management Program Webinar
Communication in the Workplace
Overview of Yellow Fever, The American Plague
Communication in the Workplace
Communication in the Workplace
Chemical Spill Response
Supervisory Training
Supervisory Training
Supervisory Training
Management Training
Clarke Workshop
Chemical Spill Response
Right to Know and Hazardous Communication
First Aid and CPR
Introduction to Common Adult Mosquitoes Found in Lee County, FL
Introduction to Common Adult Mosquitoes Found in Lee County, FL
Introduction to Common Adult Mosquitoes Found in Lee County, FL
Introduction to Common Adult Mosquitoes Found in Lee County, FL
Introduction to Common Adult Mosquitoes Found in Lee County, FL
LCMCD Influenza/Pandemic Plan
First Aid and CPR
Right to Know and Hazardous Communication
Rift Valley Fever, Florida Department of Health Webcast
Basic Pesticide Safety for Larvicide Materials
Basic Pesticide Safety for Adulticide Materials
Hazardous Materials, Incident Commander Level V
Emergency Communications: Cutting Through the Static—Webcast
AMCA Webinar: Media and Mosquito Control
U.S. EPA Webcast Clean Water Act Permitting of Discharges from
Pesticide Applications
Identification of Adult Mosquitoes in Lee County, FL
The District purchased Automated External Defibulators (AED) which were
installed in the T. Wayne Miller, Jr. Administrative Building, the stockroom,
and the employees break room. Employees that attended the CPR/First Aid
training were familiarized with the use
of an AED during class room instruction.
In an emergency, the AED can be operated by anyone who can follow the written instructions on the front of the machine and the oral instructions the AED
provides when activated.
Media
Interviews
Tours &
Presentations
The Education and Communication Department provided over 27 tours
and or presentations for the District.
Feb. 10
March 24
March 26
March 27
April 16
April 23
May 19
May 19
May 19
May 26
May 26
June 5
June 10
June 11
July 1
July 7
Sun Sentinel—Governor's Travel
NBC-2—Night Vision Goggles
News Press—Educational Program
Lee County Schools Instructional Television
NBC Today Show—Abandoned Pools
Florida News Network—Abandoned Pools
NBC-2—Mosquito Activity
Fox News—Budget and Mosquito Season
WGCU—Budget and Mosquito Season
News Press—Mosquito Season
Wink TV—Mosquito Season
Naples Daily News—Abandoned Pools
Shell Point Retirement Magazine—Overview of LCMCD
NBC-2—Mosquito Activity and Disease Surveillance
NBC-2—Budget
Fox TV—Current Mosquito Activity
January 31
February 24
March 11
March 24
March 31
April 27
April 28
May 1
May 5
May 12
May 12
May 14
May 21
May 29
June 17
June 18
July 1
July 6
August 3-7
August 5
August 10-14
August 18
August 24
September 18
September 29
November 7
November 14
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July 10
July 13
July 21
July 27
July 29
August 7
Sept. 3
Sept. 11
Sept. 11
Sept. 13
Sept. 22
Sept. 22
Oct. 14
Oct. 15
Oct. 15
Oct. 15
Wink TV—Webpage
Naples Daily News—Budget
WGCU—Mosquito Activity and Budget
News-Press—Mosquito Activity
Pine Island Eagle—Mosquito Activity
WGCU—Mosquito Woes, Budget and Control
News Press2
NBC-2—Website
ABC—Website
News Press—Benefits of Mosquitoes
WGCU—Dengue
Wink TV—Dengue
NBC-2—West Nile Virus Case
News Press—West Nile Virus Case
The Breeze—West Nile Virus Case
Wink TV—West Nile Virus Case
Day of Discovery
Leadership Foundation Tour
Beekeeper’s Association of Southwest Florida
North Fort Myers Friends of the Library
EPA Regulatory Tour
Bayshore Elementary
International Rotarians
Gateway Elementary
River Hall Elementary
Sanibel Seniors
EPA/IFAS Tour
Seven Lakes Homeowners Association
Pine Ridge Homeowners Association
Alva Elementary
Mr. & Mrs. Nearon
Candidate Dana Pierce
Leadership Lehigh
Cape Coral Family of Faith Summer Program
EPA Entomologists
Sunshine Rotary Club
Navy Entomologists
Dutch Tourists
Shell Point Village
Evangelical Christian School
Sanibel-Captiva Sail and Power Squadron
Sundowners
Aviation Days
Service
Requests
The central life line for the District is communications. All calls are answered by an
operator. If a service request comes in outside of regular working hours, an answering
service will take the request.
When residents call to report a mosquito problem, the receptionist logs the caller’s
name, phone number and address. Once the call is logged, the request will be sent to
an inspector to evaluate the severity of the problem. Service requests for 2009 were
below average in number. At 3104 calls, it was the second lowest number of service
requests logged from 1981 through 2009.
Late in 2009, service requests could be logged through the District website. Service
requests can be entered by going to www.lcmcd.org and clicking on the box labeled
Make a Service Request. It can be found at the top of home page on the right hand
side. After clicking on Make A Service Request the site takes the individual to a page
with the option to click on service request. The individual is prompted to enter their
name, street address, phone number, email address, whether or not a dog is present
and room for comments. Information on whether or not a dog is present is for the protection of District inspectors. After filling out the information, the individual hits the
submit button. A message will indicate the service request was successfully logged or
if there were any errors. The service requests are then provided to staff.
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Mission Statement
To enhance the scientific and environmental literacy of the younger citizens of Lee County to
augment their lifetime understanding of the science related to mosquito control.
Environmental
Resource
Teachers
Brian Murphy
Courtney Dwyer
Satkoski
Florida
Gulf Coast
University
Instructor
The Lee County Mosquito Control District takes great pride in an educational program designed to teach our school age children about mosquitoes and the role that mosquito control
plays in the local community. Our classroom programs are conducted in collaboration with
classroom teachers. Programs are designed for grades five, seven, and high school chemistry
and biology classes and support Florida’s Sunshine State Standards in a variety of areas.
Films, readings, slide/Powerpoint programs, discussions, art activities and lab experiences
are utilized to teach the objectives of each five-day unit. These hands-on learning experiences are being offered county-wide to public and private schools. Students learn to identify
different kinds of mosquitoes, their habitats and life cycles, and are familiarized with the
techniques currently being used to control mosquitoes. Our public school outreach program
reached approximately 10,000 students in over 350 classes for grade five, seventh grade
science, and high school biology and chemistry classes. Each class participated in a weeklong (5 periods) environmental science interdisciplinary unit relating the biology and ecology of mosquitoes to their disease carrying behavior and resulting
human impacts and responses. In addition, instructors
are active with local, state and national committees
devoted to mosquito control and environmental education.
Neil Wilkinson
Number of Classes Taught
Number of Classes Taught
2008‐09
2007‐08
Total
High School
2006‐07
Middle
Elementary
2005‐06
2004‐05
0
100
200
4
300
400
Intern
Jessica
Phillips in new
Aquatic Systems
shirts
Florida
Gulf Coast
University
Intern Program
The Aquatic Systems/Mosquito Education (AS/
ME) intern program was initiated during the
2008 summer semester at FGCU and continued in 2009. The interns logged 1,012 volunteer hours. Students were able to earn Service
Learning hours needed for Florida Gulf Coast
University graduation. Students came from a
mixture of majors: Environmental Education,
Business, Health, Professional Studies, and
Communications. In addition to assisting with
class teaching, maintaining equipment, collecting specimens for lab work, and production of materials for student use; several interns were able to cover elementary classes
while our resource instructors were unavailable due to attending professional meetings,
sick leave and even jury duty. Interns also
played a critical role in the new Kindergarten
curriculum offered.
The 2009 students selected for the intern positions were Samantha Bunyard,
Kathryn Foreman, John Garafola, Dan Kerr, Brandon Kingsbury, Greg Kosik,
Jonathan Maile, Jaime Massa-Mussleman, Jessie Phillips, Jenny Williamson,
and Mike Powelson.
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Kindergarten
Unit
The kindergarten unit was developed to
expand the mosquito education program
by getting really young kids interested in
science. The kindergarten students are
inspired by interns from Florida Gulf Coast
University students. The kindergarten unit
is designed for 40 minutes of classroom
instruction and 5 minutes cleanup and
breakdown. These classes are scheduled
for Fridays. The kindergarten unit was
presented to Treeline, San Carlos Park,
Rayma C. Page, Orange River, Mirror
Lakes, Pine Island, Manatee, Harns Marsh,
Fort Myers Beach, Tropic Isles, Gulf, Spring
Creek, James Stephens, International
Academy, Patriot, Alva, Caloosa, Trafalgar,
Ray V. Pottorf, and Three Oaks Elementary
schools.
Kindergarten classroom materials
Kindergarten Book
Neil Wilkinson received permission from Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) to offer a
class titled Mosquitoes — Biology, Disease and Control. This class is offered to upper level
environmental studies majors for the Spring 2009 semester. FGCU required seven (7) students to enroll for the class in order to support it. Over 20 students signed up almost immediately. The texts for the class are The American Plague by Molly Caldwell Crosby and
The Mosquito Wars by Gordon Patterson. John Beidler, retired Director of Indian River
County Mosquito Control and honorary Dean of Florida Mosquito Control, was guest lecturer on March 25th providing a class on impoundments. Neil’s goals include educating
Environmental Science majors that will be working with mosquito control programs in the
future through regulatory and advisory positions.
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Long Range
Aviation Plan
To make the District more efficient and cost effective, the Director has developed an Aviation
Plan to contain and reduce costs. In 2006, the District had 23 operational aircraft. By the end of
2009, the District was operating 20 aircraft while transitioning to fewer and newer ships. In 2010
more aircraft will be taken off line and two newer aircraft will be added. By 2011, the goal is to
have a smaller, newer and more efficient fleet of approximately 13 aircraft.
Bell 407
Bell 47
The District had 4 Bell 47s helicopters which have been retired and replaced by 2 Bell 407s helicopters. The District had 6 UH-1H and 1 UH-1B Huey helicopters. 3 UH-1H and 1 UH-1B helicopters have been retired. Two UH-1s have completed maintenance overhaul and next year the final
UH-1s will be go through complete maintenance overhaul, reducing the number of Huey helicopters to three.
The District had 6 radial piston engine C-47s. Three have been retired. The remaining three
will be replaced by 2 more reliant turbine engine DC-3s.
Radial, piston engine
Turbine engine
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Commissioner
Mike Ellis
Five
Years
of
Service
From left to right: Sandra Martin, Ken Soliven, Milton Sterling, Marco Workman and T.
Wayne Gale. Missing from the photo was Scott Bates, Commissioner Mike Ellis, Vivian
Jones, and Commissioner Bruce Scott.
Ten
Years
of
Service
Fifteen
Years
of
Service
Clyde Nabers and Robert Richardson
Commissioner Joseph Burgess and Commissioner Rick Pritchett. Missing from the photo
was Jeremy Ford
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Twenty
Years
of
Service
Brian Cotterill
Twenty
Five
Years
of
Service
Richard Baker, Bryan Smith, and Gene Sutton
Thirty
Years of
Service
Robert A. Harper
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New
Employees
Robert Roper
Rick Pardo
Don Altenburg
Retired
Employee
Roger Zocki
Sanibel Field Inspector
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Advanced
Inspector
Sprayer
Certification
Top: Stewart, Bottom: Hedrick
Florida
State
University
and FASD
Certified
District
Manager
There are 74 individuals in Florida that
have obtained Advanced Public Health
certification through the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. LCMCD had 4 employees with the
advance certification as of December
2008, but due to the hard work of
Robert Hedrick, Chuck Herzog, Paul
Morgan and Tommy Stewart the District
has 4 more. The District now represents
11% of the State Advanced license
holders.
Top: Morgan, Bottom: Herzog
The Florida Association of Special Districts
(FASD) has offered a Certified District Manager (CDM) Program of training and exam.
The CDM designation requires experience
and educational components along with a
written project. There are 35 individuals
that have earned the CDM certification
since 2004. In 2009, James Burgess and
Shelly Redovan completed their written
projects and earned the CDM designation.
Sandy Gross completed the Florida
Medical Entomology Laboratory Advanced Mosquito Identification Course.
This two week course provides intensive training for experienced mosquito
identifiers. Sandy passed the four hour
comprehensive practical laboratory and
written examination at the conclusion
of the course. Sandy was awarded the
Florida DACS/FMEL certification as a
Certified Mosquito Identifier.
Advanced
Mosquito
Identification
Certification
2009 Advanced Mosquito Identification Class at the
Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory
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Edison
Day of
Discovery
Once again, the District participated in
the Edison Festival of Light activities.
The District provided an educational display at the Edison Day of
Discovery Interactive Family Area, which is held with the Edison
Regional Science Fair. The booth and helicopter static display was
at Centennial Park from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. In an effort to expand community outreach and encourage future scientists, Lee
County Mosquito Control District sponsored a science fair award in
addition to providing judges.
The District invested in two, open-end hangars
which are 133 feet wide, 88 feet long and 33
feet high. The hangars will be used to house the
DC-3s and helicopters from the hot sun and inclement weather. The open-end hangars provide an economical alternative to building multiple hardened buildings to protect the aircraft
from sun and rain.
New
Hangars
Aerial
Short
Course
The Florida Mosquito Control Association in cooperation with Lee County Mosquito Control
District hosted the Annual Aerial Short Course. Classes were held January 12 through the
15. The Aerial Short Course classes were an abbreviated version of the USAF Reserve spray
wing class usually given at the Youngstown (Ohio) Air Force Base for DoD category 11
(Aerial Spray) certification. Approximately 150 attendees from the Air Force, Navy, Mosquito
Control Agencies, LCMCD pilots and staff were instructed by Major Karl Haagsma and Major
Mark Breidenbaugh.
Major Haagsma Instructing
Interior Cockpit of C130
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Spray Tanks and Equipment
Inside C130
DACS
Assistance
Preparing for
Spray Assignments
Following the floods in May along the Suwannee River
in northern Florida, The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) contacted the
District for assistance with ground adulticiding. All of
the District’s costs were reimbursed by FDACS through
FEMA. District crews helped with treatments in LaFayette, Gilchrist and Suwanee Counties.
NPDES
Tour
On May 12, LCMCD/LCHCD hosted a contingent of EPA officials, Weed Science Society of
America policy coordinators, an Army Corps of Engineers representative and Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services personnel Steve Dwinnell and Dennis Howard. The group was on a three day tour, led by Dr. William Haller, UF-IFAS, of south Florida to witness, first-hand, professional pesticide applicators in order to better understand
the industry. The interest is in response to a decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court which
requires that a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit be obtained before the application of pesticides or herbicides to, over, or near waters of the
U.S. This could have a significant impact on both mosquito control and aquatic plant management.
The District provided the EPA members an aerial view of the challenges faced when trying
to control mosquitoes, especially salt marsh mosquitoes. Presentations were provided to
the group. Presentations covered basic aspects of mosquito and aquatic weed control.
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Updated
Website
Pandemic
Plan
The objective of redesigning the District
website was to communicate and better
serve its constituents by expanding its’
website functionality. On September 9,
the updated District Website went live.
There were many enhancements, but the
key upgrade is an interactive map which
indicates areas scheduled for adulticide
treatment and has a section that allows
internet logging of service
requests.
Following advice from the Lee County Health
Department to be prepared in the event of a
pandemic declaration, the District developed a
Pandemic Plan and presented it to all employees on May 22.
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Science
Fair Intern
Automated
Alert List
Five top science fair entries in the Thomas Alva Edison Kiwanis Science and Engineering Fair
were selected as the recipients of the Lee County Mosquito Control Emerging Scientist Award.
In addition to receiving this award, the five students were given the opportunity to apply for a
one week Summer Internship hosted by the Lee County Mosquito Control District. The internship was awarded a one week unpaid experience which involved learning about the biology of
mosquitoes, mosquito vectored diseases, application of basic research and science, issues related to controlling mosquitoes and aquatic plant management. The internship involved both
laboratory and field activities. This year’s intern was Ricardo Lasso de la Vega. He was selected
based on two application essays: “Why is scientific research a value to society?” and “Why do
you want to participate in this actual intern project?” The selection committee also considered
responses on the Survey of Research Readiness: Student Self Assessment. The internship was
June 15-19 and everyone involved found Ricardo to be enthusiastic, helpful, interested in the
work and good natured with the work conditions. The District will consider making the Emerging Scientist and internship an annual award.
Gone are the days of putting red markers on a map with numbers to locate alert list phone calls.
The alert list is a data base of individuals wishing to be notified prior to adulticide activities. Keith
Lowe upgraded the phone system and one of the benefits is the alert list calls are now being
automated. Instead of LCMCD personnel calling our chemically-sensitive people that live in areas
scheduled for adult mosquito treatment, the computer generated calls provide a message and
then record when the message went through. Jon Hornby, Katie Heggemeier and Don Claytor
worked to create a data base of phone numbers sorted by areas. These areas are specially
coded. When the trucks or aircraft are ready to spray an area, the coded areas are searched for
alert list individuals living within the treatment area. Jean Mavrelis has recorded her regular
message for these computer generated calls. This automated procedure saves a great deal of
time when the switchboard operators are busy entering incoming service requests and is less
likely to miss an individual due to human error.
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Tower
Taping
Project
West Nile
and Dengue
Fever
Viruses
There was concern whether taping towers would be acceptable to the FAA. To get the issue
resolved, the District invited Bruce Beard, National Operations Manager from FAA Obstruction Evaluation Services to be our guest on October 7—8. The visit allowed Mr. Beard to
examine the District’s tower taping project in Lee County. Gene Sutton and Jim McKeever
gave him a night demo flight in the 407. Mr. Beard was very impressed with the way that
the towers showed up at night when taped. The District had sent him pictures of the towers, but Mr. Beard said they really were not as impressive as it was to see them in their real
setting. Jim McKeever and Robert Roper also gave him a demo flight in the DC-3. Following his visit the District received a letter from the FAA stating they do not object to the taping of towers.
October 14, 2009, the Lee County Health Department (LCHD) announced a 69-year old male
from the South Ft. Myers (Iona area) had been confirmed to have West Nile Virus (WNV) by
the state laboratory. LCMCD actively monitored and sprayed the effected area. The Lee
County Health Department and LCMCD provided press releases to advise residents and visitors how to protect themselves from mosquitoes.
WNV is a mosquito-borne disease that causes mild to severe illness and first reached Florida
in 2001. WNV activity has been identified in all 67 counties and peaked in 2003. There have
been a total of 239 cases of WNV in Florida and 6 cases in Lee County since 2001.
The big news in Florida for arbovirus was the 22 human cases of Dengue Fever Virus (DEN1), sub-type 1, found in Key West. The cases represent the first documented, local transmission of dengue in Florida, since 1934.
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FMCA
The Florida Mosquito Control Association (FMCA) Fall Meeting was held in Tampa, Nov. 8—11.
The FMCA President was none other than our former LCMCD employee, Dennis Moore, who is
now the Director of Pasco County Mosquito Control District. Shelly Redovan served as President
Elect. One of her duties as incoming President was Program Chair. Shelly lined up Dr. Jeffrey
Lockwood, author of Six Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War as the keynote
speaker. This lead into a symposium on mosquitoes used as weapons and mosquito control
serving as first responders to mosquito-borne diseases. Courtney Satkoski and Neil Wilkinson
provided an overview of the Malaria Club at FGCU during the Awards Banquet Tuesday evening.
The program provided updates on research from the Florida Medical Entomology (FMEL), Public
Health, Entomology Research and Education Center (PHEREC), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Mosquito and Fly Research Unit (USDA/MFRA) laboratories.
At the end of this meeting, Shelly Redovan, who served as Program Chair and President-Elect, was installed as President of the FMCA.
Aviation
Days
On November 14th, Aviation Days was held at Page Field and drew thousands of interested
people. Over 500 bags of information about LCMCD were distributed.
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Surplus
Aircraft
LCMCD continues to utilize military surplus through the U.S. General Services Administration
(GSA). LCMCD had indicated interest in surplus aircraft for a number of years, but nothing suitable was available to the District. The U.S. State Department decided to retire a fleet of OV-10
Broncos and LCMCD was awarded one for no charge. While it is too early to know if this aircraft
will be an advantageous tool for dispensing materials to control mosquitoes, it has many desirable properties such as being a twin engine, being able to carry heavy loads, and being able to
take off on a relatively short runway. LCMCD took possession of the plane on December 10.
What is a Bronco OV-10?
The Rockwell, OV-10D, known as a Bronco, is a twin-engine, two-seat aircraft designed in the
late 1960s by North American Aviation, to fulfill a requirement for three branches of the U.S. military (the Air Force, Marines and Navy, usually referred to as the tri-service requirement.) The
design is unconventional, with twin booms, a very large greenhouse canopy, small sponsons for
armament, and a cargo area in the center fuselage pod. The original purpose of this airplane was
to serve a Forward Air Control aircraft, although it has been used for a large variety of other
roles.
On December 10, Bronco Bureau Number 155447 after being serviced was test flown and delivered to LCMCD by Marine Corps Lt. Col. and former Bronco pilot Bob Finer. This particular aircraft, while in Marine "green", was flown by VMO-1 as an A model before being converted to a D
model during the 1970's. It was then later modified to the "D plus" configuration through the
Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) in the late 1980's. After service in the Marine Corps, this
aircraft was acquired by the U.S. State Department where it was modified for use in their counternarcotics program.
From http://www.ov-10bronco.net/
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