Boca Behind the Scenes City of Boca Raton

Did you know that the City of Boca Raton's Utility Services Department is a 100% reuse facility for reclaimed water? The department was recently recognized for its reclaimed water system as a sustainable resource that has been a success not only nationally but also locally since the early 90s. So what does this exactly have to do with golf?
In this episode of Boca Behind the Scenes, Utility Services Director Chris Helfrich and John Creane, General Manager of the award winning Broken Sound Country Club, chat about the In-City Reclamation Irrigation System, how it works and how some of the most prestigious golf courses in the area are benefitting from it.

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With an election year approaching, new voting equipment and ballots will be coming along with it. The City of Boca Raton recently partnered with the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office for an open house at Spanish River Library and provided voters with the opportunity to demo the new voting machines and practice on the new ballots. Host, Anne Marie Van Casteren, went "behind the scenes" at the open house to chat with Boca Raton City Clerk, Susan Saxton, and Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Wendy Sartory Link, to talk about new upgrades and programs, the importance and why to become a poll worker and what Boca Raton residents will be voting on and where.
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Ghouls and goblins and ghosts; oh my! The City of Boca Raton's Boca Boo Days is one of most anticipated times of the year where Recreation Services facilities and centers host a variety of spooky events, activities, family fun entertainment and even education for all to enjoy. Host, Anne Marie Van Casteren chats with Carter Bogus, Marketing Coordinator for Sugar Sand Park and Stacee Lanze, Special Events Coordinator for Sugar Sand Park, about this month's events, what event goers can expect and a sneak peak into some of the most spooky (and even scary) events. For more information about Boca Boo Days, be sure to visit their website.
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🐤 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CityBocaRaton
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🏠 Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/fl/boca-raton/city-of-boca-raton/
🌎 Website: https://www.myboca.us/

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On this episode of Boca Behind the Scenes, host, Anne Marie Van Casteren talks some trash with Zach Bihr, Municipal Services Director, Austin Leroy, Sanitation Superintendent and Tony Remige, Fleet Superintendent. Listeners will hear about Sanitation Services and how the department works, the most asked questions from residents, information about the new sanitation service fee and all the new upgrades that will be added to continue to ensure world-class services to the community. 
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📱 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BocaRatonCity/
🐤 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CityBocaRaton
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citybocaraton/
🏠 Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/fl/boca-raton/city-of-boca-raton/
🌎 Website: https://www.myboca.us/

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On this episode of Boca Behind the Scenes, host, Anne Marie Van Casteren chats with the City's Innovation Specialist, Pedro Moras, and President & CEO of Palm Beach Tech Association, Joe Russo about their upcoming hackathon and other innovative initiatives in the community. The Palm Beach Tech Hackathon is an hour event where participants form teams, vet ideas, create a project, then present their work to an expert panel of judges. The themes this year are Smart Cities and Hurricane Relief, with each project relating in some part to either topic.
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📱 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BocaRatonCity/
🐤 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CityBocaRaton
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citybocaraton/
🏠 Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/fl/boca-raton/city-of-boca-raton/
🌎 Website: https://www.myboca.us/

Transcript:
Hey everyone and welcome to Boca Behind the Scenes a get to know you podcast where we talk to city staff to get details and information about new programs events and projects that are taking place right here in your city. My name is Anne Marie Van Casteren Public Relations Specialist with the City's Communications and Marketing Division and as always I am happy to be your host today. Today on the show I'm joined by Pedro Moras our Innovation Strategist thank you for being here today hi glad to be here and then our first ever non city employee Joe Russo President and CEO of Palm Beach Tech Association thank you so much for being here as well yeah thanks for inviting me. This podcast we're going to be talking about innovation and technology within the City of Boca but focusing on this upcoming hackathon and I know Joe last year you came and presented to city council about the hackathon and presented the winning team who actually created an AI bot for the City so do you want to tell us a little bit about that? Last year we held a hackathon at Office Depot which is based here in the City of Boca Raton and for those that don't know the city's history of technology is very vast from IBM being here for fifty years ago to now so we have a lot of tech talent the community so when we put on this hackathon and had over a hundred people attend it just so happened that the winning team built a product for the City of Boca Raton go figure and it worked out very well for us because we wanted to of course share the news of this hackathon with the city and what better way than sharing a little bit about the winning team which obviously gave a way for a city staff and residents to be more connected than ever before so hackathons are always different and people are always coming up with more imaginative ways to do things but yeah what a perfect result and we're hoping this next one will have just as a perfect outcome for the city. Awesome so tell us about this hackathon  I mean I have no idea what it is or how it works  yeah so every time people hear the word hacking their automatic thought process is oh no what happened but hacking is not a degenerative term it's really meant to be hack something to figure it out to work through a problem and what hackathons are doing is taking a group of very smart people all technology oriented and saying here you have twenty four hours to solve the problem right so it's hacking through that and for this year we put the themes of smart cities and hurricane relief on there so anything that relates to building a better city building a better community and more than that helping a community in peril should a disaster happen as we've seen in the Bahamas we really want to emphasize that community feel and have these teams and have these people have an opportunity to come up with ways to help their community we had seventeen teams last year this year we would obviously like to have more with each team working collaboratively with their skill sets in their backgrounds to come up with a way to help the City of Boca Raton and other

Plastic Free July is an annual challenge to reduce the many ways we use disposable plastics in our daily lives and raise awareness about the amount of single use and disposable plastic is around us. The Office of Sustainability is challenging residents to try the low-plastic lifestyle for this month and see what habits can stick throughout the rest of the year. Hear from Sustainability Manager, Lindsey Nieratka and Gumbo Limbo Nature Center Manager, Leanne Welch as they discuss the benefits of going plastic-free and not only how it helps our environment but our wildlife as well.
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📱 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BocaRatonCity/
🐤 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CityBocaRaton
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citybocaraton/
🏠 Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/fl/boca-raton/city-of-boca-raton/
🌎 Website: https://www.myboca.us/
Ep. 26 - Take the Pledge to go Plastic Free Transcript
[Upbeat theme music plays]
Anne Marie: Hey everyone and welcome to Boca Behind the Scenes -- a get to know you podcast where we talk to city staff to get details and information about new programs, events and projects that are taking place right here in your city. My name is Anne Marie Van Casteren, public relations specialist with the city's communications and marketing division, and as always I am happy to be your host today.
[Upbeat theme music fades out]
So wherever you may be listening to this podcast right now, I want you to take a moment and think of all the ways you may use single use plastics...
[Sound of plastic items being touched]
Plastic silverware, plastic water bottles, plastic food containers, plastic bags, now go ahead and think of all the people in this entire universe that use those very same items.
[Sound of plastic items being dumped]
It's kind of overwhelming to think about, right?
[Ominous music plays in background]
Plastic pollution is one of the biggest problems facing our environment and it's starting to gain a lot of attention. On a regular basis, images appear on our social media feeds of overly polluted oceans, turtles entangled in plastic and ingested plastic particles in pieces by various marine life. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, by 2050, the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by weight. So in an effort to increase awareness of the everyday ways that we as a community here in Boca Raton use and throw away single use plastics, the City's Sustainability Office is challenging all residents, yes you, to make changes this month during Plastic Free July. Plastic Free July is the global yearly challenge where millions of people give up single use plastics to raise awareness of the amount of disposable plastic items that we use every day in our lives and challenges people to do something about it. So last year we spoke to you our City's Sustainability Manager, Lindsay Nieratka, about this very initiative so let's hear from her again about Plastic Free July.
[Ominous music fades out]

Lindsey: So Plastic Free July is just it's a it's an awareness event and it is an international event that was started in Australia in 2011 and it started as just an office initiative but since then over two million people have opted to participate from over a hundred and fifty-nine different countries. What Plastic Free July does is it challenges participants to take a look around their lives and figure out the places where they're using plastic unnecessarily or not recycling it properly and to then implement some changes to reduce the plastic waste that they're producing.
Anne Marie: Some of you may fully understand the benefits of going plastic free and some of you may not right now and that's totally okay. Honestly, I'll admit, it wasn't until I started working very closely with our sustainability department that I started to take notice and really take a look at the amount of single use plastics that I utilize in my life every single day.
[Plastic bags being