ANNA MARIA – On a rainy Friday morning, Anna Maria resident and Boy Scout William Pakbaz and the volunteers he recruited for his scouting project planted more than 150 native plants near the City Pier.
Pakbaz, the son of Anna Maria residents Julie and Siyamak Pakbaz, planned and organized the May 30 revegetation project and Mayor Mark Short and General Manager Dean Jones helped select the native plants the city paid for.
The revegetation project will help restore the hurricane-damaged Anna Maria shoreline between the City Pier and the Lake La Vista jetty. The completed project will also earn Pakbaz one of the 21 merit badges he needs to become an Eagle Scout.
Standing near the freshly replanted area and joined by the fellow scouts, scoutmaster, friends and family members who helped, Pakbaz said, “Today, we planted native plants next to the City Pier. We did that to beautify the area, fight erosion and repair some of the damage the recent hurricanes caused. I needed to do a project that benefits the community and I had to gather the volunteers and organize it myself. I’m grateful to all the people that helped me – my parents, Mayor Short and my volunteers.”
Scoutmaster Travis McLeod said, “William put all this together and I’m very proud of him. It’s a great cause and a great project for him.”
Standing nearby, Jones, a former Marine, said “I’m so proud of them and it looks beautiful. Most of the plants here got destroyed by the hurricanes. We have gaillardia, beach daisies, saw palmettos, sea grapes and sea oats. To know it’s going to come back as beautiful or more beautiful than it was before is amazing.”
Jones said the sea oats were hard to find because so many hurricane-impacted coastal communities are replanting them.
“In about a month, you’ll see flowers on the beach daisies and the gaillardia. In a couple years, the sea grapes will be producing and the sea oats will drop their seeds and this will get even better,” he said.
Jones said the city recently had a new riprap (rock) barrier installed along that shoreline to help prevent future erosion.
When contacted later that day, Short said, “I want to thank William, his scout troop and the volunteers that made this project possible. This is another step in the right direction as we continue our recovery efforts.”
Commission appearance
Pakbaz appeared before the city commission on May 27. When introducing Pakbaz to the commission that was already aware of his pending revegetation project, the mayor said, “He is heading down the path of achieving the Eagle Scout award, which is the highest award you can get in scouting.”
Short said Pakbaz approached him about doing a project that would help the city and after further discussion they decided to replace the landscaping destroyed by Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters. Short said the city ordered about 160 plants that are saltwater tolerant and accustomed to sandy and sunny conditions, and the public works department will water and maintain them as needed.
Pakbaz told the commission he recruited 15 volunteers for the project.
“Your application was about 30 pages long,” Commission Chair Charlie Salem said. “If you’re as thorough with the work as you were with the application, we’re going to be celebrating a great accomplishment. Thank you very much for helping us.”
“I promise I’ll do it to the best of my abilities,” Pakbaz told the commission.
