Latest / 2MC / SPECIAL: 2MC Podcast Eps 55 - The Don

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SPECIAL: 2MC Podcast Eps 55 - The Don · 2MC

• 00:00:00:02 - 00:00:03:12 Courtney Hey everyone, welcome back to tour MK. 00:00:03:15 - 00:00:04:06 MAK I'm Mac. 00:00:04:13 - 00:00:10:14 Courtney She forgot she's Mac. I'm Courtney and this is our weekly podcast. And we've got something special today. 00:00:10:16 - 00:00:18:06 MAK It's actually a special edition today. Right. Because we're setting up special edition to emcee. 00:00:18:08 - 00:00:24:22 Courtney Yeah. And those that are just listening. Well, they don't get to see the sit down set, but it's pretty right. 00:00:24:22 - 00:00:29:15 MAK We're sitting just so you know, it's pretty nice. 00:00:29:18 - 00:00:31:17 Courtney So you're probably wondering. 00:00:31:19 - 00:00:32:15 MAK What's so special. 00:00:32:15 - 00:00:35:26 Courtney What does that mean? You just have an empty chair here. 00:00:35:28 - 00:00:38:13 MAK Can they see that? Yeah. Oh. 00:00:38:16 - 00:00:39:22 Courtney Sitting there. No wonder. 00:00:39:23 - 00:00:41:05 MAK The listeners don't. 00:00:41:08 - 00:00:44:01 Courtney Write. Well. 00:00:44:03 - 00:00:48:02 MAK We have Don Donaldson, our county administrator. 00:00:48:04 - 00:00:50:04 Courtney Will be sitting in our chair next to us. 00:00:50:06 - 00:00:53:03 MAK And he's celebrating 30 years with Martin County. 00:00:53:05 - 00:00:55:01 Courtney That's a really big deal. 00:00:55:03 - 00:00:57:04 MAK I think so, right? Yeah. 00:00:57:10 - 00:00:59:24 Courtney Because, like, I don't have that many years. 00:00:59:26 - 00:01:00:19 MAK No. 00:01:00:21 - 00:01:01:11 Courtney Under my. 00:01:01:11 - 00:01:03:07 MAK Belt. Are you even 30? 00:01:03:09 - 00:01:04:11 Courtney Shockingly, yes. 00:01:04:14 - 00:01:07:26 MAK Oh, cool. I thought I saw gray hair. 00:01:07:29 - 00:01:10:29 Courtney Yes. I need to go back to my hair, girl, and get that covered. 00:01:11:01 - 00:01:13:27 MAK Yeah. Should we, hop over to the interview? 00:01:14:04 - 00:01:15:16 Courtney We should. Because it's so exciting. 00:01:15:17 - 00:01:22:22 MAK Okay. 00:01:22:25 - 00:01:26:09 Courtney We're here with Don Donaldson, our county administrator. 00:01:26:10 - 00:01:30:18 MAK This is so exciting. I know, thanks for coming on the pod with us. 00:01:30:19 - 00:01:32:11 Don Course. Glad to be here. 00:01:32:13 - 00:01:32:27 MAK Are you? 00:01:33:04 - 00:01:33:18 Don Yes. 00:01:33:19 - 00:01:34:04 MAK Okay, good. 00:01:34:04 - 00:01:35:27 Courtney Because we are super excited. 00:01:36:02 - 00:01:37:26 MAK We've prepared some questions. 00:01:37:29 - 00:01:41:12 Don Yes. Joy. I'm ready. 00:01:41:15 - 00:01:51:18 Courtney Well, I guess we really want to bring up why this week you would be on the podcast, and I think maybe. 00:01:51:20 - 00:01:53:06 MAK It's a major milestone. 00:01:53:06 - 00:02:00:18 Courtney You've had kind of a pretty big milestone this week. 30 years here at Martin County. 00:02:00:20 - 00:02:10:07 Don Yes, yes 30 years. That is a big deal. I didn't really think about it much until it happened. And then it's like, yes, at 30 years is a is is a major milestone. 00:02:10:07 - 00:02:12:02 Courtney And it flew by. 00:02:12:05 - 00:02:14:20 Don It did some of it did it. So it did. 00:02:14:23 - 00:02:25:08 MAK So you know people always you always hear this question, you know, 30 years ago or 35 years ago. Is this where you pictured yourself? 00:02:25:10 - 00:02:26:09 Don No, not at all. 00:02:26:13 - 00:02:28:29 MAK Okay. Okay. So take us back. 00:02:29:02 - 00:02:32:20 Courtney Well, yeah. Which where did it all start when you started here? 00:02:32:22 - 00:02:58:28 Don Well, you know, my, my expertise is for coastal engineering and water resources, and I had been working in Indian River County, and, at the time, there was a lot of debate in the state over beach nourishment. A few places were doing it successfully. And, and our inlet here was having some, some issues and, and in fact, it, it closed up on a couple occasions. 00:02:58:28 - 00:03:25:06 Don And that typically the, the Saint Lucia Inlet was, would close up, it would be some sort of emergency funding. The Corps would reject it, and it would be open for a while, and then chaos would ensue again. And so there was a, a committee that was formed of, like so many things in Mark County, there was a lot of, community input and, and, and there was a desire to, to try to really work and solve, the inlet problem. 00:03:25:06 - 00:03:32:22 Don And they the, there was a, an advisory committee and they felt that they should the county should have a coastal engineer. 00:03:32:24 - 00:03:34:22 MAK So was there. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. 00:03:34:23 - 00:03:37:19 Courtney No, as you say. So then John came in here. 00:03:37:21 - 00:03:43:28 Don So I, I, I got recruited, if you will, from, from Indian River County. And I was a good. 00:03:43:28 - 00:03:47:15 Courtney Score for a good score thanks to whoever did that. 00:03:47:17 - 00:03:54:19 Don And, I worked for Peter Cheney for a while to start with, and I, worked in administration. 00:03:54:22 - 00:04:02:23 MAK So was there. No, we have an inlet management plan right now. Through the state. Right. That's correct. State mandated. So there wasn't one then? 00:04:02:28 - 00:04:03:26 Don No, there was not. 00:04:04:00 - 00:04:05:06 MAK Oh my gosh. I didn't know. 00:04:05:06 - 00:04:31:10 Don That there was there that we had the county had been working on an inlet manager plan. Actually, it was just the first one was being, being created and the core was, we got the corps to start a general reevaluation was to look at the the inlet. To see if we could the there was the empowerment basin that we talked about from time to time was incomplete. 00:04:31:13 - 00:04:57:24 Don It was, dredged in the early 80s. And the contractor that was dredging it went bankrupt during construction. So it was never finished. And so the, the there was a a group of, consultants, the county had some and, Jupiter Island had some consultants and Sailfish Point and, and then the corps and the, the and there was sort of a, a collaborative effort to determine what were the next steps. 00:04:57:24 - 00:05:00:01 Don Should we leave it alone? Should we make changes? 00:05:00:01 - 00:05:05:25 MAK And ultimate came in at the very beginning and sort of spearheaded that. That's cool. 00:05:05:28 - 00:05:26:16 Don Yes, I was part of the team that did that. So yeah. So that was a company here anyway. Was, was was Coastal Engineering it and the beach nourishment project. The first one was under construction when I was came here. So it was so the, 19 the fall of 95 or when or 95 it, it started 96. 00:05:26:19 - 00:05:27:21 Don And, 00:05:27:24 - 00:05:29:07 MAK Is that the four mile or. 00:05:29:08 - 00:05:29:25 Don The four mile? 00:05:29:29 - 00:05:30:10 MAK Okay. 00:05:30:11 - 00:05:41:00 Don The four mile beach, was it. It was just under construction. And, Greg Fleming was our county surveyor at the time, and he was the project manager for it. 00:05:41:02 - 00:05:42:25 MAK And he gladly handed it over to you. 00:05:42:25 - 00:05:56:29 Don Well, he did actually. He was doing fine. We were going to let him manage it. And then there was a big storm in March, which, of course completely wiped out about a third of the project. And I think Greg thought, you know, hey, we got a new project manager here. 00:05:57:01 - 00:05:59:22 MAK We got a coastal guy, we got a coastal guy. 00:05:59:22 - 00:06:03:25 Don Let him do it. And so, anyway, that was, the first project. 00:06:03:27 - 00:06:06:03 Courtney So you started on the fourth floor? 00:06:06:06 - 00:06:06:24 Don Yes. 00:06:06:26 - 00:06:09:05 Courtney And now you're back on the fourth floor. 00:06:09:07 - 00:06:10:07 Don Yes. 00:06:10:10 - 00:06:14:01 Courtney So there was a time that I believe you were on the second floor. 00:06:14:03 - 00:06:14:29 Don That's correct. Yeah. 00:06:15:00 - 00:06:18:12 Courtney Okay. And that was your time as a public works director, right? 00:06:18:13 - 00:06:19:17 Don Yes, ma'am. 00:06:19:19 - 00:06:24:25 MAK Okay, so we're just looking for you to come down to the first floor at some point. 00:06:24:28 - 00:06:28:25 Don You know, or out in the parking lot or at the beach or somewhere. 00:06:28:27 - 00:06:32:04 MAK Out the beach is probably your your favorite spot to be, I bet. 00:06:32:06 - 00:06:58:27 Don Yeah. So anyway, yeah. So I was, our, county engineer or, left and there was a vacancy and, I competed for the job, amongst others. And they hired me as the, the county engineer. And at that time, public works had been combined with engineering and public works name went away. So was just the engineering department. 00:06:59:03 - 00:07:09:21 Don Yeah, but at the same basic organization, just, that name changed when Terry Root became our. Yeah, that was that was one of the things she wanted to change. So. 00:07:09:21 - 00:07:16:24 Courtney Okay, so you started, if I recall, you had some time at city. Here. 00:07:16:26 - 00:07:17:26 Don Yes. 00:07:17:28 - 00:07:22:29 Courtney And that's, one of the properties that Martin County has now. Right. 00:07:23:01 - 00:07:25:16 Don That's right. Where I went to college is now a park. 00:07:25:24 - 00:07:28:18 Courtney Yes. And that was at the mansion of Tuckahoe. 00:07:28:20 - 00:07:34:04 MAK So were you down in the cellar at the, where they called the Rat Pack? Rat cellar? 00:07:34:06 - 00:07:35:16 Don It's something we don't talk about. 00:07:35:20 - 00:07:39:06 MAK Okay. Got it. Yes. Moving on. My next question. 00:07:39:09 - 00:08:01:22 Don Oh. Was it. It was an eclectic group there. You know, the main campus is Malvern. It's still there. And, they serve a lot of the aerospace and and other industries. But this campus here was focused on, environmental and, and, and, ocean engineering and, oceanography and along with a host of other kind of. Yeah, it was eclectic, 00:08:01:24 - 00:08:04:03 MAK Things that didn't fit into the aeronautical. 00:08:04:05 - 00:08:04:27 Don Yes. 00:08:05:00 - 00:08:06:04 MAK I love that. 00:08:06:07 - 00:08:06:16 Courtney Yeah. 00:08:06:16 - 00:08:12:06 MAK So not a bad place to go to college. Right on the right. I don't think so. Yeah. Whatever their. 00:08:12:06 - 00:08:13:16 Don Place. 00:08:13:19 - 00:08:17:09 Courtney So why coastal engineering. 00:08:17:12 - 00:08:22:10 MAK Yeah. Like what was made you do that. Yeah. 00:08:22:12 - 00:08:36:06 Don Well my coastal. Well you know I grew up in South Florida you know grew up in West Palm and and I'd always love diving and fishing, snorkeling and all those types of things. And so I wanted to do something with the water. And so that was. 00:08:36:08 - 00:08:42:11 MAK Seems like you could make money being an engineer rather than surfing, diving, maybe. 00:08:42:12 - 00:08:44:22 Courtney You know, professional surfing wasn't on the list. 00:08:44:22 - 00:09:07:28 Don Well I wasn't yeah, that wasn't my track. My, my athleticism was a good enough to surf but not to compete. But so no, actually I, I, the, I originally started it fit to, to go into underwater welding and, when I got there, because I had done a lot of construction work and worked at a paving contractor through high school and stuff. 00:09:07:28 - 00:09:30:16 Don So anyway, that was kind of where I was held. And then, and, you know, in the, they had a really great dive program there. But when I got here, I had having worked enough in, in the trades, I knew that would ultimately could be, you know, it's a different pathway. 00:09:30:16 - 00:09:39:05 Don So I saw the other programs here they had. So I asked, one of the professors if I could switch to. 00:09:39:07 - 00:09:40:05 MAK We're glad you did. 00:09:40:09 - 00:09:52:02 Don Right. And so they they said they gave me a shot, and that was. And that was good. And I made it. I survived there, their tests, if you will. 00:09:52:04 - 00:09:59:11 MAK If you had to pick a favorite project since you've been here. 00:09:59:13 - 00:10:22:18 Don Well, it's hard to to pick, you know, because we have a lot of different projects, you know, certainly getting the Indian Street Bridge was a, long and difficult project. There was a lot of different hurdles from the county acquiring land, and and we had to federalize it and get Dottie involved, and, and that, Kent Pruitt helped us get the funding for that. 00:10:22:20 - 00:11:06:13 Don So there was a lot of work involved in that. You know, we we did some great environmental projects with us, you know, and, and early on and, in the river for, oyster reef creation and, and of course, the inlet actually pulling that off is one of my, my favorite projects is getting the, the, the Corps and the federal funding to actually dig out the impound basin, the, the reef that we created offshore, which most of the locals call the sand pile, was made from the rock and, sand that was dredged out of the empowerment base and created about a five acre area out there of, 00:11:06:16 - 00:11:18:04 Don of, rock and, and sand that we have since put artificial reefs, models around it. But that was as a direct result of getting the, the, 00:11:18:06 - 00:11:18:21 MAK It's pretty. 00:11:18:21 - 00:11:43:16 Don Cool. The, the project in there. And, I know there's a lot of different projects that are out there. I think one of the favorite ones I remember, was a neighborhood restoration that Public Works did, that, they got a big poster from the community that was really happy after, the we took the idea of not just doing the pavement of the roads, but combining the, the stormwater and fixing the sidewalk. 00:11:43:16 - 00:11:47:18 Don So we did the whole neighborhood restoration program. And those are we've. 00:11:47:18 - 00:12:07:04 MAK Seen a lot of success with that. I think people are really you know, we've heard a few, but I don't know if it's that same neighborhood. But they just said, you know, everybody started to make changes to their own properties as the whole neighborhood infrastructure changed and supported it. I just think that's amazing. 00:12:07:06 - 00:12:30:23 Don Yeah, those are, I think, great projects because, when the when the neighborhood is really excited about, making changes to their own neighborhood because we didn't just do one project, we combined a lot of projects together and really did a major investment. And and most people don't see the underground stuff. It's, is, is is is the biggest part of what we do. 00:12:30:23 - 00:12:52:08 Don But it's, it's a really important to, you know, drainage is a big challenge. And our county. Oh, it has, you know, I had when I started, you know, the 95 floods had just happened. And so that was, and that had a lot of consequences into, you know, looking at stormwater programs and, yeah. 00:12:52:09 - 00:13:08:05 Don And then with Everglades restoration, we got, you know, the the county was involved in that from the very beginning. Manager Joe Allen and other staff members, Gary Roddick was a big part of part of that. And, worked with him for a long time on that. So a lot of different look. 00:13:08:05 - 00:13:14:15 MAK Back at the your history here. Some pretty important things for the county. 00:13:14:15 - 00:13:40:04 Don So one of the things I think, when we Kathy Fitzpatrick here, we had we got some grants, in fact, Ken Pruitt had help when he was in the Senate and or in the House. I don't remember when it was, but, you know, we had some bad releases in the early 2000 and, and, and there was, a lot of focus in on cleaning up our rivers, the Saint Lucie River issues team. 00:13:40:04 - 00:14:07:27 Don And there was other folks that created these, groups of, different individuals or county officials on our group, farmers, ag representatives that we would rank projects for, for funding. And one of the projects that we put in there, because the water management district couldn't apply, was for doing a lot of water quality sampling. And so we would get the money from the state. 00:14:07:27 - 00:14:30:11 Don And then we contracted, actually with, the water manager district to do the work. And that was how we, you know, if you hear sometimes they talk about the Dirty Dozen. Now, all that sampling is what kind of came, created what we identified the our most polluted tributaries coming into the Saint Lucie, which then focus where we were going to do projects upstream. 00:14:30:14 - 00:14:53:09 Don And one of those projects that was pretty successful was doing the, you know, Salerno Creek retrofit. Yeah. And, and then following that, doing the dredging of the Manatee pocket, which was a huge project and, and was used land that was available after the right during the Great Recession. We did that project. 00:14:53:09 - 00:14:56:09 Don So which would be enormously expensive today. 00:14:56:15 - 00:14:58:04 MAK Yes, yes. 00:14:58:06 - 00:15:14:05 Courtney So you've been here for 30 years. So that means that you have been able to see the Martin County difference. Right. And has it been preserved? And and just like what, you know, like. 00:15:14:07 - 00:15:24:13 MAK I don't know, people talk about the Martin County difference. And I feel like just just those projects you've talked about, you've you've been part of making that Martin County difference, right? 00:15:24:15 - 00:15:49:12 Don Yeah. A lot more. Yeah. So I think, you know, I think the Martin County, the, the Martin County differences is that, it's identity is that it has always wanted to be slow growth. Right. That's, kind of a key element of it. Protection of its, wetlands is also been instrumental. Our four story height limit is, is a is another one. 00:15:49:12 - 00:16:16:28 Don And and I'd say the other piece of it is sort of that public involvement. You know, there's always been an engaged community. I mean, the folks that were engaged in the inlet, that included, you know, at the time, the mayor of Jupiter Island was on that, Russell Simpson, was a, a good community leader, that kept engaged, our, our commission. 00:16:16:28 - 00:16:46:13 Don So that's theme has been, consistent. What's changed in since the time I started is the the economics of the county is has changed quite a bit. You know, we're, we struggled to get, you know, equipment and things had to be, you know, and, early years just simply because, it was just the way it was, we, we would get used equipment from the state for public works and, and, and things like that. 00:16:46:13 - 00:17:07:03 Don And, and we've been able to, over time to looking for, you know, how we can do, our job with, technology and resources. And so I can certainly public works, getting air conditioned cabs and things would seem, you know, automatic today. And, of course, all equipment comes like that. At the beginning, it was not, you. 00:17:07:03 - 00:17:08:09 MAK Know, a luxury back then. 00:17:08:14 - 00:17:10:20 Don It was a luxury. Yes. That's right. 00:17:10:21 - 00:17:23:14 MAK Now, Don, if you had to pick a thread, something that's been continuous throughout your tenure here, either in change or, or consistency, what would you say to that? What would you how would you answer that? 00:17:23:18 - 00:18:03:08 Don Well, you know, I think, the if you think about just the in work environment, you know, our reliance on computers and, and technology has become, more significant. You know, the, I mean, what we're sitting in here is a big part of change in how we communicate with, with the public, how you do projects also, and how you interact with the community is, especially in Mark County, that public involvement piece has become a much more important part of of, even small projects. 00:18:03:13 - 00:18:10:04 MAK Okay. Now we've got some fast action questions for you. Ready? 00:18:10:06 - 00:18:12:05 Courtney I was going to say these are the more difficult questions. 00:18:12:05 - 00:18:18:15 MAK Yes. Okay. Winter or Summer Olympics? 00:18:18:17 - 00:18:23:20 Don Yeah. Well, I went, summer, I guess. Really, if I think about it, summer, 00:18:23:22 - 00:18:24:11 MAK I'll be a guy. 00:18:24:17 - 00:18:29:20 Don For a guy. Yeah. Although I enjoy watching the Winter Olympics, but the summer would be okay. 00:18:29:20 - 00:18:32:05 Courtney So when you're watching the Winter Olympics. 00:18:32:07 - 00:18:33:18 MAK Which are taking place now. 00:18:33:20 - 00:18:37:09 Courtney Do you prefer ice hockey or ice dancing? 00:18:37:12 - 00:18:38:23 Don Hockey. 00:18:38:25 - 00:18:40:26 Courtney I knew that was going to be all right. 00:18:40:26 - 00:18:45:13 MAK Fine. I think we have 8 or 9 Panthers. Did I hear that? 00:18:45:15 - 00:18:48:08 Don My wife prefers ice dancing? I'll say that. 00:18:48:13 - 00:18:54:22 MAK That was for night. It was very good. Okay. Favorite food? 00:18:54:25 - 00:18:56:25 Don Fish? 00:18:56:28 - 00:18:58:21 MAK Of course, of course. 00:18:58:24 - 00:19:04:01 Courtney And then. Okay, here's one. What's your dream vacation? 00:19:04:04 - 00:19:07:09 MAK Wait, do you get vacations? 00:19:07:12 - 00:19:09:10 Courtney I know, I feel like we see him almost every day. 00:19:09:10 - 00:19:10:04 MAK I do. 00:19:10:06 - 00:19:16:06 Don Yes, well, I do like a, a good vacation in the Caribbean or the keys, you know, so. 00:19:16:06 - 00:19:18:09 MAK You stay true. You're coastal like that. 00:19:18:10 - 00:19:29:22 Don But I also enjoy, seeing other parts of the planet. You know, Europe or, you know, so those are so good. 00:19:29:22 - 00:19:31:08 MAK You would choose beach over. 00:19:31:11 - 00:19:42:09 Don So, you know, Australia is a place I'd like to go, you know, or on YouTube. And, and one of our former comrades, Kathy Fitzpatrick, talks about New Zealand. 00:19:42:12 - 00:19:43:03 MAK Yeah. 00:19:43:05 - 00:19:44:12 Don You know. 00:19:44:15 - 00:19:47:05 MAK Yeah. They have beaches there. Yeah. 00:19:47:07 - 00:19:48:09 Courtney So you get both. 00:19:48:12 - 00:19:50:04 Don Yes. So, 00:19:50:06 - 00:19:52:22 MAK Did you prepare any questions for us. 00:19:52:25 - 00:19:53:13 Don I did not. 00:19:53:19 - 00:19:59:15 Courtney Oh perfect. Well then it looks like our job's done. 00:19:59:17 - 00:20:02:05 Don I, I would have I don't. 00:20:02:08 - 00:20:03:16 MAK Know he didn't really want to. Yeah. 00:20:03:16 - 00:20:07:01 Courtney We don't want any questions. We like to be the people questioning. 00:20:07:02 - 00:20:09:16 Don That's what I assumed. Yes. Yes. 00:20:09:18 - 00:20:18:19 Courtney Yeah. Well thank you so much for joining us today. And congratulations on 30 years at this year's. 00:20:18:20 - 00:20:19:12 Don 00:20:19:15 - 00:20:23:29 Courtney I have a very long way to go. So. 00:20:24:01 - 00:20:26:07 MAK Yeah. Me too. 00:20:26:10 - 00:20:34:12 Courtney But it's it is a great place to work. And the work that is done here is very beneficial for not only staff, but also the residents. 00:20:34:19 - 00:20:40:05 MAK Yeah. We just wrapped up our CARES program. You were there at our graduation. Yeah. I think. 00:20:40:07 - 00:20:57:26 Don No, I think there's a lot of there's a lot of good things going on in Martin County, and there's a lot for us to be proud of. So I think, that's the fun part of it, you know, it is. And there's always adversity and no matter where you are at times and but, we've always been able to plow through that pretty, pretty well, is it? 00:20:58:03 - 00:21:02:22 MAK Well, with your, leadership, I feel like we're. We are doing well with that. 00:21:02:22 - 00:21:03:24 Courtney Yes, I agree. 00:21:03:25 - 00:21:04:23 MAK Well, thanks. Yeah. 00:21:04:27 - 00:21:06:27 Courtney Thank you, thank you. 00:21:07:00 - 00:21:09:07 Don I do want to close this out. Bring it all home. 00:21:09:09 - 00:21:13:29 MAK Like, subscribe. Follow. 00:21:14:01 - 00:21:19:23 Don It. All right. Close everything out. Everybody. Like subscribe. And please follow this channel. 00:21:19:26 - 00:21:21:10 Courtney Oh. He's hired. 00:21:21:12 - 00:21:23:06 MAK Wow. Was fantastic.