Dear Broward County Residents,
I am honored to serve as your County Commissioner, representing our coastal communities from Deerfield Beach to Fort Lauderdale and all the beautiful cities, towns and villages in between. Here are some recent highlights from around Broward County:
Hurricane Season is Here!
June 1st was the official start of hurricane season and if you have not already done so, now is the time to begin preparing for any major weather event that may come our way. Broward County encourages everyone to take responsibility for your safety and that of your family, pets, and property by developing a hurricane plan now. Provided below are helpful links and information that can assist you in planning for this year’s hurricane season.
- Get important public safety information before, during and after a tropical event, including readiness tips, boil water alerts, curfews, transportation updates, trash pick-ups, recovery assistance services and more by visiting Broward.org/Hurricane.
- Sign up for AlertBroward, Broward County’s Emergency Alert Notification System.
- At risk residents should visit Broward.org/AtRisk for shelter options, pre-registration services, arrangements for animals and more information.
- Find out if you live in an evacuation zone.
- Find out if you live in a flood zone.
- Visit our comprehensive emergency preparedness website at Emergency.Broward.org.
- Call the Broward County Call Center at 311, or 954-831-4000, for updates and general preparedness information.
It is crucial to begin this process now before we have a major weather event in Broward County. Please be sure to use these helpful resources to keep your families and pets safe this hurricane season.
Port Everglades Update
Broward County’s Port Everglades recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Port of Limon, Costa Rica, as part of its International Sister Seaport Program. Port Everglades has International Sister Seaport agreements with four seaports in Europe, Asia, and South America, and an MOU with the Panama Canal Authority and now the Port of Limn, Costa Rica. The International Sister Seaport Program encourages new business and trade between seaport organizations.
Along with my colleague, I had the honor of signing the MOU on behalf of Port Everglades. The MOU outlines joint initiatives the two parties will undertake and states that it is within “their mutual interest to establish an alliance of cooperation aimed at facilitating international trade and generating new business by promoting the all-water routes between” the two ports. These key joint initiatives include marketing activities, market studies, modernization and improvements, and training.
For more updates on Broward County’s Port Everglades please visit PortEverglades.net.
Broward County’s Tourism
Last month, I highlighted two of Broward County’s major economic engines, Port Everglades (PEV) and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL). Both PEV and FLL have the common asset of providing a valuable service to Broward County’s third economic engine, tourism. The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau has released tourism statistics for 2017.
In 2017, Broward County had an increase of 4.61 percent in visitors over 2016, with 12.8 million visitors. More than 1 million visitors overnighted in 2017, excluding Canada. This is an increase of 5 percent over 2016. Visitors stayed an average of 7.4 nights and spent more than $2 billion in 2017. Notably, 32.5 million passengers traveled through FLL in 2017, an increase of 11.3 million over 2016, and 4.1 million cruisers visited Port Everglades in 2017, the second highest number in history.
Broward Academy VII
Broward Academy is a free, 10-week Thursday evening program (September 13th - November 15th) for college students that will help them develop a greater understanding of how local government works and makes a difference in the quality of life for residents. A civic component will be incorporated so students can better appreciate their rights and responsibilities as citizens. This year’s theme is Passport to Broward - and students will get to go behind the scenes to many Broward County destinations where the public typically does not have access like the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Port Everglades, Emergency Operations Center, Medical Examiner’s Office and more! Dinner is included in the program. Students can go online to learn more and complete the application. The deadline for consideration is July 27th.
Sun Trolley
After 25 years of providing Sun Trolley service to our neighbors and guests, the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Downtown Fort Lauderdale Transportation Management Association (TMA) are working together to re-imagine the City's community bus service and update it to better meet the needs of all users. The City and the TMA are conducting outreach to our neighbors within the Sun Trolley's Galt Link route to better understand the needs. This information, along with several public meetings and additional analysis, will be used to draft route recommendations that will be presented to the community for feedback in the future.
Please take a few minutes to complete a brief SURVEY to help us plan the future Sun Trolley Galt Link. For more information, call 954-TROLLEY (954-876-5539) or visit the website. Thank you for participating, your feedback is important to us.
The Resident's Guide to Government provides a convenient resource to help people stay connected to their local government. It includes contact information for County officials and Federal, State, and local agencies. Visitors can subscribe to eNews and social media sites. Please sign up at Broward.org/District4 to receive email updates from our office. If there is anything that we can do to assist you with your vision for a better Broward, please do not hesitate to contact our office at 954-357-7004 or by email at clamarca@broward.org.
As always, it is my honor and privilege to serve you.
Best regards,
