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For more information on this project, contact Charles Henry, Environmental Health Director at the Manatee County Health Department.

MANATEE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
August/September, 2004 PACE-EH Report

August 4 - Purpose of the meeting was to introduce the PACE-EH Process to key City of Palmetto individuals.

The following individuals were in attendance:

After introductions, a presentation on PACE-EH followed by a question and answer session was conducted. Many good questions were asked and discussed. There were also several positive comments about the potential benefits of the process. The steps of the PACE-EH process were reviewed by the group and a brainstorming session was held to generate a list of potential Leadership Team Members.

The following plan of action was agreed upon:

1. Contact potential leadership team members to recruit for the Leadership Team.
2. Invite the City of Palmetto Mayor to the next Leadership Team Meeting scheduled for August 18th.
3. Begin planning for first community meeting (target October)

The meeting was adjourned.

Date:        October 15, 2004

To:             Daniel Parker, MSP, GAL
                    Assistant Division Director, Division of Environmental Health

From:         Charles Henry, RS, MPA
                    Environmental Manager

Subject:     PACE-EH Progress Report for Manatee County

Despite a slow start and several hurricanes, the PACE-EH Project for Manatee County continues to move forward. We last reported a need to refocus our efforts towards identifying specific communities or geographic locations in which to utilize the PACE-EH process. We have now identified the City of Palmetto as that specific location. Palmetto was chosen because of it rapid growth and changing demographics.

As of the 2002 census, there were 12,571 people, 4,448 households, and 3,046 families residing in the city. Rapid growth over the past two years is expected to significantly change the demographics. Currently there are 5,776 housing units at an average density of 516.2/km' (1,338.4/mi'). The racial makeup of the city is 75.20% White, 12.78% African American, 0.54% Native American, 0.36% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 8.78% from other races, and 2.23% from two or more races. 26.71% of the population are Hispanic or Latino any race. In the city the population is spread out with 26.3% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 24.7% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 19.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 37 years. The median income for a household in the city is $34,093, and the median income for a family is $40,132. Males have a median income of $26,526 versus $21,290 for females. The per capita income for the city is $17,724. 13.9% of the population and 9.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 20.2% are under the age of 18 and 6.0% are 65 or older.

Many environmental health related issues have already surfaced such as ageing and sometimes failing municipal sewer and water systems, storm water management, land use, and community planning. Our leadership group believes that the introduction of the PACE-EH process will assist both the citizens and city government in addressing environmental health concerns as growth continues.

Currently, we feel that Tasks 1, & 2 are complete and task 3 (our EH Assessment Team) is almost complete. A successful first EH Assessment Team meeting was held on August 4th, 2004. During this meeting we learned more about PACE-EH and brainstormed together for potential community members for our assessment team (see attached meeting report). We also scheduled additional meetings for August which were unfortunately cancelled due to hurricanes and the resulting disaster relief activities. We are now getting back on track and have scheduled our next assessment team meeting for October 22, 2004 and hope to schedule our first community meeting in November.

October, 2004