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ready Chris all right Board of County Commissioners uh Bradford County Florida it's February 24th 2025 it's uh 6:00 and we're going to call the special meeting to order with um uh commissioner um
Andrews leading us in prayer and a flag salute let's bow our heads Heavenly Father Lord we thank you for this day God we thank you for the opportunity to be here Lord and do this business for the county and the people that we love Lord just be with us guide us through
this decision and make sure that whatever we do Lord is pleasing to you in your name name we pray and give all praise and glory amen amen to the of the United States of America to the Republic for which it
stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right now if there's anyone from the public that would like to speak on this before we vote on it um now as your your
chance okay come on Mr strong and again you'll have uh 3 minutes and just state your name and your address and um nobody else I don't have no cards and thebody else raise their
hand I'm sorry you ain't going to cry are you no she's my name is via strong post office box 530 Ludy
32058 my opinion is that should the board decide that they want to purchase the loan um to keep it out of
foreclosure the very first thing that they should do is replace the board the board has proven that they cannot handle the finances um you are purchasing this loan with the public
funds and that board cannot uh handle the funds that they have been given and our funds are going to be used to purchase this
loan and they cannot stay on the board so that's the first thing that needs to go is that board there's no amount of uh none of them can
stay because they have not proven that they are good stewards of the fair association's money and they will it's it's pouring good money into bad money and and they cannot stay so it needs to
be a completely new Organization for the county to say hey we're gonna we're going to pour into this they cannot stay so if the county is is going to pour money into this
Association and purchase this longan then that entire board has to go there's no more friendships that can be into this decision that entire Board needs to go
and that's that's where the citizens come into it is that there's no more friendship this is business and that entire Board needs to go because they've proven that they cannot handle it okay thank you all right if there's no more
comments um at this time I'm turn it over to the county manager and he'll yes thank you Mr chairman I just wanted the board to know that on Friday I spoke with I spoke with the lean holder Mr gissy a very short conversation he knew that the county had
an interest in paying off the note he put me in in touch with his attorney and uh called and talked to her for a little bit put her in touch with our attorney Mr Commando and the two of them are working out the details as far or as the language for the for the
payoff so um at this time we could well I should back up because she also stated that we could anticipate a closing date of this coming Friday so it'll be moving very very quickly but um that's all I had to report so now it would be
appropriate to for someone to make a motion okay board if if I can um if I can get a motion to uh pay off the loan i' make motion to allow the county manager to move forward with the process of paying off the promisory note held by
Mr Jim gessy that obligates the Brader County Fairgrounds second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor by sign of I I discussion can we have a little discussion well let me just say this board
if I can't tell you not to but but if we could just just just on the Note only uh cuz all the other things that we're probably all thinking it would be best to get this note closed and then in another meeting discuss what we're going to do and who we're going to
put in place and all that kind of stuff so absolutely this is about the terms of the note okay if I may just ask just a couple of question sure sure um and I think I've already asked you um there is no other loans or any other money owed
on this property right as far as we know I've not seen any of the books you know from the fair Association but to the best of my knowledge this is the only only incumbent once we pay the note off then we will be the sole owner of that property no ma'am they would have they
would have to sign it over to us the deed the deed would have to the fair Association the board the board yes ma'am yeah um and they're they're meeting right now their emergency meeting was the same time as ours tonight and uh and if they choose not to
well if they choose not to then if they couldn't pay the previous lean holder I doubt they would be able to pay us so at that point we would enter into foreclosure and have them evicted okay that's all I yes yes that's that's
he answered my question right there okay because if Mr do my question was where are we pulling this money from and how are we are we going to handle it just like the ass iation was as far as making payments at roughly I think it's around
13 a little over $113,000 a month correct it was whatever the principal amount is with an 88.5% interest rate for 30 years that was 13,000 and some change yes sir and as far as where the money's coming from
the CFO do you I'm assuming the general fund reserves okay and and board the the cleanest thing would be for the prayer Association to all resign and sign it over to the county that would be the cleanest way to go and that's what we're
hoping for that's the onlyest way to go yes yes and from a financial um standpoint um Mr lolic um is there any issue or problem with us doing this uh we currently have 12 million in
reserve for contingency U well 5 million is reserve and 7 million is in the emergency fund okay all right so we we do have the funds thank you yeah so Mr chair at what point are we
going to talk about more details then as far as how things will be operated um you know as far as you know from day-to-day operations as far as selecting a board as far as board
involvement um at what point are we going to have that discussion it it would be nice as soon as um as soon as the fair Association meets tonight like I said if they turn it over to us then then we can meet and also as soon as we secure this note then
that would be the best thing cuz um um you know um that that would probably be the best way to handle it at this at this point Mr chairman I I anticipate having something to put before the board on the on the March 4th
meeting for discussion and maybe um that would be um something you can outline in terms of The Next Step next steps um for us or next actions for us to take well yeah
it'll be what I'll what I'll present to you would be a plan for organization um real organization what we feel like would be the best way to attract board members and how to put all that in place and possibly have the discussion about hiring a fair manager those sorts of
things just the operational issues and I'll have something put together by the March 4th meeting for all that yeah so I mean they're meeting tonight so we should know something tomorrow I anticipate getting the text in about 30
minutes okay we have one person to speak yeah yeah asked Mr Brad I mean I'm I'm I mean I want him to he's working his bonds off on this Fair Association how youall doing right time ly Florida I
just want to make a few suggestions and I speak on behalf of some people but and I understand that Mr Corner gay is want to put a plan together my only suggestion is we have workshops for everything else so instead of the board we get one chance of making this
right um we've had a lot of issues with Bo with the fair board and in the past for years to come and we've got a lot of people that's worked really hard uh for our kids and our community so instead of making the same mistakes over
again how about let's have a workshop we have time once you make the decision to take over the note and if the fairboard gives up their control or however that works we don't have to rush into making
decisions on how we lay this thing out let's work let's have open workshops and work with the people that's worked with it every day who knows how it goes the ins and outs to it we all know that there's a lot of opportunities outside of the Agricultural side to better our
community financially as well as just Community projects there there's so many it's endless supply we we we spoke back here in the back about some different things so my suggestion is instead of making a rash decision on how we're going to lay this thing out what we're going to do and what the best thing to
do forward moving forward is I'd like to see a workshop or two you get one chance to make this thing right if we're going to use the county money the taxpayers money and I believe that's in support the taxpayers want to see it done let's make sure we do it the right way un let
involved the community and I agree with Miss corn we need to build a uh have a fair board head however that works out there there's a lot of things that I agree with but I would just suggest that we pump the brakes just a little bit have some workshops and let's just make sure that we do it the right way that's
my only suggestion thank you thank yes sir and and I agree with you 100% well I'm without even talking with y'all we're on the same page some of y'all I have already talked with believe me we're on the same page on this the the bottom line all depends on what the fair Association does tonight in their
meeting that's that's the bottom line and and and the thing is we we all know everybody on that fairboard just don't want to say nothing to hurt anybody's feelings or nothing nothing let's let's let give them the opportunity to do the right thing and then and then believe me we'll we'll hit this thing running hard
and we definitely want all y'all you know to be involved that that's for sure that's that's the only reason we're even it's it's all about the children and the citizens of Bradford County period and Brad I agree with you I I I wasn't saying like the details right now I'm saying like bullet points like where do we go from here how do we select the
board because just like you said there's so many people that are involved that know what's going on there and then there seems to be some resistance on the other side and that's what everybody's been running into so I certainly agree with that and I would say two workshops is an
understatement hey that's what we get paid for so however many it takes to get us a board that can run this thing hey and make it profitable that's what we need to do yeah the biggest thing is after tonight
we don't ever have to worry about the the grounds being sold again to anybody else right that's that's the main thing we got to secure that and then I agree with you let's move forward and put the right people in place and make this thing happen for our children for sure if I may just make one comment Mr Thomas
one thing we talked about is trying to find individuals like yourself like Lizzy people that have committed their lives to making that a success down there and for our children um there's a lot of people involved behind the scenes and we know them I mean some of them are
are family members and they work hard to make that happen for the kids and so what we've talked about is trying to find people like that who have have lived that life and knows the importance of every aspect of it so um we we had
talked about workshops and that that is the plan but thank you for the recommendation and and just so you all know too we met with with Lizzie probably for what an hour or better the other day so yes we we're trying to make this thing right for
sure and just one last thing this is an opportunity which we offered a year ago um to um correct the situation and get things some control give something back to our community that will be long lasting uh and something that we can
grow on um and it's it's important to our community Mr chairman you've got a motion in a second yeah on the floor all right all in favor by sign of i i i i any oppos motion carries
5 all right well that's it if there's nothing else come before the board meetings in jour