OSFR Annual Membership Meeting 2022

May 25, 2022

Dear Advisors, Board and OSFR members,

Thank you all for your support!

This evening at our annual membership meeting we voted in our new slate of officers and directors. We are off to another great year.  Here is the slate:

President:  Kristin Rubin
Vice President:  Terry Phelan
Treasurer:  Dani Lee
Secretary:  David Vaina

Directors:  Bill Basta
Colette Jacono
Rhonda Long
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson
Patty Street
Jim Tatum
Joanne Trembley

We then proceeded to have our board meeting with so many topics and so much information, including old and new business, it was a whirlwind event.

Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson who covers our Advisory Committee barely touched the top of the iceberg, reporting on the phosphogypsum billboard campaign in Southwest Florida which we will help support.  HPSII updates regarding the phosphate mining permit application:  we are working hard to stop it before it becomes our worst nightmare.  She brought up the steps that are being done to achieve a Recreational Task Force for the Santa Fe and the Ichetucknee rivers.  And last but not least, Blue Triton, better known as Nestlé, is looming out there because in approximately 3 years, the permit with Seven Springs Water Bottle Co. will be up for renewal.

Colette Jacono, one of our new directors, shared the updates on the Aqua-Hort program.

And Rhonda Long shared her vision of things she will be working towards,  more to come, so stay tuned.

We voted to support AquiferWatch with a meter to help check pollution levels in the Santa Fe River, and we gave our support to Parknership (look it up on the web-a fantastic opportunity to help students become involved in their environment.)

We will also be joining the GFWC High Springs New Century Woman’s Club June 18, for a yard sale to support The Right to Clean Water and also to gather some of those 900,000 signed petitions!

Oh, and we are taking the summer off, but from board meetings only! We will still be attending city and county meetings where the Northern Turnpike Extension poses a threat on too many levels. We will be at Bradford County Commission meetings, tabling and doing anything we can do to stop a phosphate mine coming to North Florida.

I could go on, but you get the picture. Business will be as usual, and you will hear and see my call for all kinds of help.

We need your help and everything we are involved isn’t always about the Santa Fe River, but sometimes we have to help other people and organizations do what is right for them across the State of Florida.

So look for my ‘BIG ASK’ for the June 18 yard sale, we need you to clean out your closets and garages and stay tuned where you can drop them off in High Springs and come out to our tent to ask the shoppers to sign the petition for The Right to Clean Water.

If you’re in White Springs for Florida Folk Festival come say hello, I’ll be gathering petitions for the 3-day event at the Sierra Club tent.

Warmest regards,
Kristin (Ms. Prez)

Our Santa Fe River, Inc. EIN 42-1756985
A Florida 501 (c)(3) Non-Profit Corporation

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