Y ready? Ready. Ready. Okay. All right. Board of County Commissioners, Bradford County, Florida. It's uh May 6, 2025. It is 9:30. At this time, I'm going to ask Commissioner Spooner to open us up in prayer and flag salute.
May we bow. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful day. We thank you for the wonderful season that you brought before us. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love, your grace, and your mercy. Thank you, dear Lord, for each and everyone that is here today. Those who may be listening online, those who desire to be here but couldn't be.
Father, we ask that you help to guide us in our execution of the business that we have before us today. Let us be receptive to those who have come before us. Let us be respectful of one another as the presentations are presented. And help us, dear Lord, to carry out the
business in a fashion that is pleasing in your sight. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, the first item we have is public comments. Um, I've got two public comments. The first one is Mr. Paul Steel. Uh Paul still 14167 Southwest 101st
Avenue start. Uh I'm coming this morning to uh address an issue that's on your consent agenda. It's the uh approval of the uh splash bash uh expenditure from the TDC.
uh when I read the agenda uh and uh after reading the uh article in the Bradford Telegraph about the PAR association and the transfer of uh land to the this friends of the
uh agricultural fair and use show. I be I became a little bit concerned about the actual application that's in your packet. Uh the application apparently was made
by the Bradford County Fair Association. I'm not sure whether they still exist. Uh then later on uh in the uh document that was produced by the
uh CDC and apparently the funds are to go to uh an organization that may not be correctly listed there. uh it the the the name is uh the
agriculture is left out of the name of the friends group and the EIN number doesn't match the friends EIN number. So, I'm just suggesting that you may want to send that one back if
there's time uh to get it corrected so that you don't have this incorrect information in your allocation of this. I think it's $5,500 to the friends of the
agricultural fair and youth associ uh incorporated. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Still. Next is Mr. Strong. Morning. He took my thunder. Good morning. My name is Vonda
Strong, Post Office Box 530. Lauy. Um so today we have uh three prisons and probation and parole. Um on April 1st the state attorney came in, he did a
presentation. Um, and did he tell the board about the cost of the cases from the Department of Corrections that included those three prisons and pro probation and parole
that come into court each week that he is also uh that also takes up those cost coming into the county that the county shares a cost also.
um separate from what the county also pays for. That's number one. Number two is can the sheriff, which I talked to the sheriff briefly, come in and take over Lahi
PD. Um the sheriff does the work anyway. Um, we have a uh police department in Ludi that doesn't care about the um citizens in Lahi anymore. We're paying for
nothing. Number three, um part of it was what Mr. Steel said and the fair association has proven to be smoking mirrors. Uh it seems like Mr.
Milner was playing in the county's face and he continues to play in our face. Uh this is what happens when you mix business and friendship. You find out that you don't have any friends. They're
only associates. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving on to um that's all the public comment cards I have. Moving on to the approval of the consent agenda. Mr. Mr. Chairman, if I may, it's
staff's recommendation that we pull item I from the consent agenda. All righty. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda except for item I? I make a motion we approve it. Okay. Have a motion from Commissioner
Thompson. Second. Second from Commissioner Andrews. Any other questions? Um, yes. Um, Mr. Carnegie and our attorney. So, the splash um bash um and noting here is
to the tourism development council. Is that not correct? Yes, ma'am. The money would go there, but it's at the request of uh the fair association. All right. Okay. We have a motion and a
second. All in favor by a sign of I. I I motion carries 5. Mr. Chairman, yes. I think to to follow up on Commissioner Spooner's point, um I think it's fair public comments um I thought were well taken um by both of
the speakers in that I think it's fair to take a pause on um anything associated with requests from the fair association till a new board's in place and um and we can uh that it doesn't mean that this item will not
come back at a future date once the board has the proper individuals on it pursuant to the agreement that this board approve with uh the appointees being appointed by this board. And then if that still is the direction with this
newly constituted board that you want to go in making that application or whatever else then then that's something that we can discuss at that time. for right now. I think keeping the status quo and not doing anything new until the until the board is properly in place is
is the prudent course of action. Okay. And just one other I guess question, there were a number of um I guess original intended events to occur despite whatever board and and but
those events that we had in our agreement that we would allow to happen um that were known community events such as the splash event was I thought was one of those um that we would allow those events to to happen.
I think if it's requested, it'll just have to be requested by someone else. Yeah. And not their I think that it's fair to say that I mean I understand what was in the agreement. U but I think it's fair to say that everything needs to be put on pause and you get your people in place. Okay. Um,
and I wouldn't I mean I'm sorry that the community is having to deal with this by the actions of folks on the fair association board uh that have required uh us to to take this uh pause until you get the new board in place. It's unfortunate that those decisions were
made. Yes. And I accept that. And then I I also understand that they can come at the fair association, our new constituted board can come back and make the requests so that those events can can still happen for the sake of the community which is the purpose of the fair association in the per first place
to serve the community and to serve the public. I certainly would hope that those events go forward because that's the very purpose of the fair association. And it would be great for everyone to enjoy everything in due course. And that certainly would be this commission's goal as y'all have stated previously and continually. And that's
all you're looking for. Okay. Is thank you. The events to happen and it be done in a manner consistent with principles of good government. That's all I've ever heard from any of you. And that's certainly where we're coming from. Thank you. I'd just like to clear up if I could for a second. Sure. uh they're still going to receive their regular
funding from tourist development because I was under the impression that's not the way they pay the light bill out there and stuff. The regular funding I I've understood they get amount from TDC every month. I
don't I'm not aware. I'm not aware of that. No. Yeah. And I'm on the board. I'm not aware. Are you sure of that? Sounds like need to have a conversation with Yeah, I'm I'm I'm fairly confident
that TDC doesn't rate make recurring payments to the fair association. Okay. So, there's enough in there to keep lots caught up and such as that right now. Yes, sir. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Okay. Moving on. Item four. Uh let me be there's Yes, sir. It's my
understanding based on just hearsay that I heard this morning that there is enough money in the fair association's bank account to pay a light bill. Correct. But I will just say on the record if anybody's here from the fair association, do not touch a dollar in
that account until this board gets constituted. Right. Thank you. All right. Item four, uh, Lieutenant David Weekes. Thank you. Thanks. And while while he's getting set
up, I just want to uh you know say this has been one one year. uh May 1st of 2024 was when the community pair medicine program was started and you all entrusted us with those funds for the opioid abatement uh settlement funds and I think that uh you I'm hopeful that you
all have seen over the past year that we've been able to put those funds to good use. Um you're seeing results of where that funding's been put um and you're actually like I said you're seeing your money put to work and uh seeing the outcomes that that we're looking for. So certainly appreciate all
the work that Lieutenant Weeks has done over the past year. U Chief Rogers has been a big part of uh this program as well. I think it's been very successful. Um and I'm certainly proud of of everything he's been able to accomplish over the past year and it's it's pretty remarkable uh that this has all happened
in in one year. But you know, it seems like it's been going on for quite some time, but it's uh it's 12 months. So I'll let you get to it. But just want to say thank you for all your hard work publicly. Good morning. Uh like Chief Roger said it or Chief Carter, I'm sorry. It's been a very busy year. Uh it's flown by and
we've made a lot of progress and I'm happy with where we're at and today we'll we'll see a little bit of it. So annual CRP calls for service were 302. This is um actual calls where I went out in the field, whether it be helping with an aux
machine, a substance abuse call, an overdose, something like that. Um so as you can see, it's been very very busy. So I'll just start by going over some of the the main topics that we cover. The first one being chronic disease management. So some of the things that
we provided assistance with uh this year are excuse me diabetes management, blood pressure monitoring, wound care and management, transportation services, teleaalth services, and then accessibility needs. Um throughout the
year we have a total of 52 ED ED redirects logged. Um, so that's where we were called to a patient who wanted to go to the emergency room. Um, we got there, we were able to figure out that this patient's problem can be handled, whether it was they needed help with
their O2 regulator, uh, maybe teleaalth could help that patient or something along those lines. And then we also had 28 teleaalth visits uh, through our medical director, Dr. ODM. He's been very supportive of the program. um if we had a patient who needed a prescription
but didn't necessarily need to go to the hospital, he would work with that patient to get that medicine. So, this is an actual case study. Um I'll preface it with any photos that you see in this presentation have been approved by the patients to be used for for these purposes. Um so, this
was an elderly male. He lived alone um non-compliant with his medications for months. Um severe diabetes. There was no running water, no electricity. Um, very bad shape the residence that he was living in. So, he utilized our services eight
times in a three-month period prior to me taking on his case. Um, after the case, he called a total of three times. So, that's a 62% call reduction. And this is some of the things that we did for him. So, two of the immediate need
immediate needs that we identified were obviously the housing situation. Um, working with Corpal Ward from the sheriff's office, it was determined that the house was not habitable by any means. Um, the second of that would be his his chronic disease management, his diabetes. He had been non-compliant with
his medications for months. So, as a result, his health was beginning to suffer. So, action plan first and foremost was temporary housing. We identified that we really needed to get him out of that house. Um, so working with Elder Options in DCF, we were able
to put him up into a local hotel for about two weeks. Um, during that time, we got him with Swany River Economic Council and they provided him food. Medication was actually fulfilled through Dr. ODM through one of those telealth visits that I was talking
about. We were able to get his prescriptions reinstated for long-term housing. Um, working with adult social services, we opened up a case or two on him. Um, and ultimately we were able to get him placed in a local assisted living facility. And then independence.
So the patient had no valid ID. His insurance had lapsed. Um, so I actually met him at the DMV one day, walked him through the steps of getting his license renewed. Then we also helped him fill out the paperwork to get his insurance back into place. So fall prevention, this is
another big topic. Um, lately the talk of the town's been our matter of balance course. We've had a very good turnout. About 23 people have been enrolled and actually still ongoing at this time. Fall prevention measures. So, I've talked about a few of the projects throughout the year that we've done with
some of the local church groups. This is one of those projects. Um, just one of the wheelchair ramp builds that we did. We also still do inhome fall assessments. We address any accessibility concerns, whether that's helping make their home ADA compliant, if they need shower rails, a shower
seat, something like that. And then we're still in the process of connecting patients to rehabilitation services. Substance abuse prevention, obviously, that's the big topic, the big the big part of the program. When we first started, one of our primary initiatives was the nux and cabinets
that were provided free of charge through the Hanley Foundation. Those are still ongoing. Um, they're still being placed throughout the county and the cities. Again, these are available 24/7 and they they're remaining stock at all times. Lots of community outreach.
You've probably seen us out at quite a few different community events. Um, we're handing out our Narcan kits, just having that conversation with people about the the issues of substance abuse. Um, this summer we're also going to start, excuse me, doing some youth education with Upwardbound. We're going
to start teaching some of our Narcan courses, overdose awareness, and things like that. So, these are just some of our rough stats throughout the year. We do have a drug intake program that's uh fairly controlled, so we treat it like
any other type of controlled medication. Um, anybody from the community is able to come to the fire station, drop off any expired or excess opioids that we have. We always have a witness with us. Um, we have them sign and we sign that we're intaking a certain amount of medication and then we destroy it for
them. Uh, we've handed out 500 Narcan boxes, then 125 Narcan kits. So, the difference between the Narcan boxes and kits are the kits are the little bags that I had originally brought you guys early into the previous year. Um, it's got some pamphlet information and stuff
like that. Those kits are generally provided on scene to families or people who are actually experiencing overdose. Um, we have five cabinets still installed throughout the county and then so far we've hosted two community Narcan courses. Um, and that's going to be an
ongoing we're looking at either monthly or every other month thing where we'll offer a community course. People can sign up, learn about Narcan, and then uh leave homeless. Is this another case study? I might call it patient zero because this was our very first patient ever. Um, it
was a 34 year old male with a history of chronic substance abuse. So, he was initially identified through a crew referral um on an actual overdose call. On the initial visit that I had with him, we enrolled him into the program immediately. Um there were a few major concerns that we had with this
gentleman. One, he was living alone with no family support system at the time. Two, he hadn't had a primary care visit in over 10 years. Um so, one of the first things we did was get him set up for a primary care appointment. I actually met him at the doctor's office to make sure that he was able to get
signed in and that that process went smooth. He did express interest on wanting to work. He had a background in uh website design and computer engineering. So, we helped get him connected with Career Source here in town. Um his insurance had also lapsed,
so we helped get that reestablished. He did have a prescription for MAT services prior to us. Um but due to the insurance we had to get that reinstated and then he ended up moving to Elatchua County. So what we did was we got him connected
with Gainesville Fire Rescue's program just to ensure that there was a continuity of care um after leaving our area and then we actually worked to help reestablish that family support. Um I can tell you for the longest time I was fielding phone calls from his mother, from him, from his father just trying to
kind of be the liaison between that. um because as you guys know the family dynamics play a big role in in the recovery of these patients. Community engagement. So these are just some of the major projects that we've talked about. Um this is the large
ramp that we completed earlier in the year and you'll probably recognize some of these faces. Uh Mr. Mike Brown and a few of the other guys from some of the local churches that help us out. Then the community hubs, we've been um trying to remain active, you know, at
the Hampton hubs, the Lahi hubs, the RJ Center hubs. Public relations, we've got a lot of exposure. Um we do have two uh conferences that we're involved in that we're excited about. First one's going to be this month. It's called the
Bannual Rural Mental Health and Substance Abuse Summit Panel and we'll actually be on one of the community parame medicine panels that they're hosting there. And then we've been invited to present at the they call it the Ardan or the regional drug epidemiology network and that'll be
later in the year. We'll kind of just give an overview of our program, go over our MAT program a little bit and answer any questions that they may have. So medication assisted treatment. Um I don't think I've I've presented this to you guys yet. This is something new that we've started about a month
ago. This is kind of the next thing in in community parame medicine. If you look around at the other counties, um, everybody's starting to do it because the science and the stats are there that this is really what makes a difference for these patients. So, this is kind of how our
process works. Um, the patients referred to us. So, a patient can either self-reer through an online QR code that we have listed on a number of pamphlets that we hand out. They can be referred by a friend, a family member, or by a crew member. Uh, Meridian has sent us
over a referral already. um really any organization. Um once that person's been referred, we'll meet with that patient to determine the eligibility. So the packets that I've handed you guys, that's just a a brief part of um the paperwork that we're filling out.
There's quite a few stipulations that a patient has to have in order to qualify for the program, um including, you know, medical background, things of that nature. So, if that patient's eligible to receive treatment, we'll actually begin that treatment in the field. Um, I can tell you our first patient that we
treated in the program, we met at his residence using our our mobile health unit. So, the the bookmobile that we've renovated. Um, when we dose these patients, it's an everyday thing and we try to dose that patient at around the same time. So, our dosing hours that
we've established is between the hours, excuse me, of 1 to 3:00 p.m. That's Monday through Sunday, seven days a week. Um, so the same day that we dose them, that initial time, we're immediately getting them referred to
Meridian. Um, we've actually been timing it to where me and Brooke, she's the peer support specialist for Meridian, she's actually been going out in the field with me and while I'm dosing that patient, she'll be on the phone with Meridian getting that appointment set up and established for them. Um, what we
also do that same day visit is if they're not currently receiving primary care or if they haven't been to one in a while, we're going to go ahead and get them set up for one of those as well, either through Palms Medical Group or the health department. So this is just some of the inclusion criteria. Again, there's a lot more than
just this. This is just some of the basic ones. Um first and foremost, the patient has a history of opiate dependence with a noted presence of withdrawal symptoms with absence of use. Patient has a history of chronic opioid use, a history of drug overdose or recent opioid overdose or is
experiencing active withdrawals from opioid use. Patient is at a high possibility of relapse. Then patient is willing to engage in recovery at a certified outpatient program. Number four, I would say is the most important one. Um the person really has to be
willing to get help and they want to have to be able to heal. So the treatment overview, this is kind of how it looks like if we go to your house to dose you. So first and foremost, you're you're being evaluated. We're getting a basic set of vitals. And then in that packet, you see some of the
assessment scores that we use. Um, we're using Suboxin. So, Suboxin is a sublingual film. It's placed on the tongue. Um, and we're giving them an initial dose first. We're using a assessment in there to look at what
level they're at following that dose. Depending on where they're at, we may give them a a second dose of it. Typically, you'll find if a patient's been through treatment before, they kind of know what dose works for them. And typically, we will stick with that. So
following the the administration of that medication, we're going to monitor them for at least 15 minutes. And that's just to make sure there's no adverse reactions or anything like that. And then, as I mentioned on the initial visit, um we're making sure that they have an appointment set up with Meridian. And two, they have a primary
care appointment either scheduled or or they're actively seeing one. And then this is also in the packet. I just wanted to show it. This is uh called the cow's assessment. So this is something we look at to kind of judge how bad of withdrawal symptoms the patient's going through. And you'll see
that each box has a a numerical value associated with it. So we're looking at sweating, restlessness, pupil sizes, uh things like that. And that gives us a good idea of is this patient in severe withdrawals, moderate withdrawals, mild withdrawals, or maybe not not any
symptoms at all at times. Then looking ahead, so some of you guys may be familiar with what Care Portal is. I actually ran into this at a conference two weeks ago at Cape Canaveral, one of the mobile integrated health conferences. It's essentially a
community portal um that churches get involved in and other organizations. Um, so the idea of it is if we have a patient who say needs help with paying their utility bill, we typically work with Catholic Charities, but sometimes that money runs out or they don't have
enough money. Um, we could play we could first vet that concern or vet that need for that patient, place this on the portal, and from there any churches that are involved on that portal can go on there and say, "We'll be able to help out this month or we'll be able to help out with this need." And from there,
it's directly from the church organization to the patient. So, it cuts out the middleman. Um, we're also going to be looking at the addition of a social worker case manager. I think this is an important missing puzzle piece that we have. Um, you know, as the program builds, we're bringing on more
and more patients and I want to make sure that we're able to keep up and continue to provide that that good level of care that we've come to see. Um, and then just continue to expand our our MAT program. It's fairly new, so I don't think the word's out there as much as it should be yet, but we're really hitting
it. We're, you know, passing out pamphlets. We're talking to all the different organizations. Um, really just trying to get the word out there and then just continuing to form more community partnerships. That that's the big thing is working with, you know, these different organizations and companies
that are really willing to help these people. Um, I would say that's the most important part of this entire process is it really takes a village sometimes to to help. Um, yeah, I'm like I said, I'm very happy with where we're at. I think we've
made great progress in just a year and uh I'm very excited about this next year. We've got some big things planned. And with that, I'll entertain any questions you guys may have. Um just a comment for Miss Lieutenant Weeks just to to thank you for your efforts in um
programs and you are seeing throughout the community and working um with this issue of substance abuse and I appreciate your work with the combination of Meridian and getting um treatment uh for the people that are out there. I just wanted to say thank you.
Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Kind of want to echo off that. just thank you for a job well done. You guys, when you set up something and you start working um the recognition that you always receive um does a lot for your entire
organization, but thank you for what you've done. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Yes. Thank you very much. And you're definitely changing people's lives. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Moving on to item five, the
clerk's report. We have nothing this week. Okay. Um, moving on to number seven, county. All right. I have to go. No, sheriff's report. Sheriff, excuse me. I've got
Yeah, I know you. I'm here this morning to basically bring up something. It's uh I can tell you since the Telegraph, Mr. Mark wrote the article in Telegraph about the fair. As you can see this morning, the two public comments, I've been
overwhelmed. And each day I'm I'm looked at by constituents, people in the community saying, "Sheriff, what are y'all doing? Is this a crime? How' they do that? I don't know." They ask questions that I can't answer. I'm gonna tell you something.
grinds my gears, turns my face red, makes my freckles glow. I'm going to tell you, it pisses me off to think that somebody's entitled to something that wasn't theirs. That fair belongs to the Bradford Fair Association and the
citizens of this community. They'll think that somebody thinks they're entitled enough that they can, in my opinion, and this is Gordon, not saying it's legal, illegal, whatever it is. Even if they could do it, doesn't make it right. If they want to do that,
go out and raise your money and buy your own cuz that was purchased with fair association monies. But I want us all to be on the same canvas because I have been in touch with the authorities. I've been in touch with the agriculture commissioner directly. I'm coming with an ask
today. I'm going to tell you where we're at. So everybody says the sheriff said this, the sheriff said that, this person, all of us here are going to hear the same thing. and I've been dwelling into it factf finding and working with the proper
authorities. Now, at the end of this, I hope they find it in their heart to do the right thing and return what wasn't theirs. I truly do. But if not, I want the support of this commission to seek every legal avenue
possible, whether it be civil, criminal, or both. Because when you look at the fair, that fair association is formulated came from the the veterans of the American Legion back in the 40s and incorporated in
1951 and they follow under state statute 616 which governs fairs under department of agriculture and a state fair. So they want us to know just a few things. So we're all along that same canvas and things that I found. It talks about having to follow this the and I'm
going to get into the charter in just a minute, but certain little things amount of indebtness that affair can take on by state statute. It must be in your charter and I'll get to our charter in
just a minute. How much indebtness they could take on that wasn't followed. I found in state statute 6607. A member, officer, director or trustee of affair association is not personally liable for any of the debts of the association and money or property of the affair
association may not be distributed as profits or dividends amongst its members, officers or trustees. All money and property of the association except that necessary for the payment of just debts and liabilities or public property shall be administered by the association
as trustee and shall be used exclusively for the legitimate purposes of the association. So long as they are used for that purpose all money property association are exempt from forms of taxation including special
assessments. I've got a few notes here I made just so we're did not for sake of time so you can see why I'm upset. Sure. You're you're good, Sheriff. You take your time. You're good. It also states in there the use of the buildings that no more than 20% of
buildings may be used other than anything but for the fair association when you can't lease, rent, those type things. Now, I want to make something clear. you, the board, nor any
commissioner, the church keeps coming up. That church has been a lifesaver for us in public safety. Every time we've called upon that church, their membership, they have gone out of their way to serve us in this community. In times of storms,
other events, they have stepped up. There's only been one person get in the way, and I'll get into that in just a minute. They have been great great friends and neighbors. So I don't want to say anything disping toward that. And they have volunteered so we didn't have to use other officials in times of
helplessness in times of storm and special needs patients and those type things. So the department shall administer enforce the provisionous chapters and rules adopt a pursuant thereto. But here lies some of my authority what I'm looking into before I for it to the proper authorities. It is
the duty of each state attorney, law enforcement officers defined by chapter 943 and other appropriate county and municipal officers to enforce this chapter and the rules adopted. So there's there's some of my
authority. So I'm getting all the facts timelines placed together in regards to it. That's just some of the things that you'll find in this 40-page document of 616 are the rules that we're supposed to be playing by, laws that we're going to find out
obviously weren't being followed whether intentionally or not. You can go online and you see the Bradford County Fair Association is listed as a nonprofit. However, they're a different type of nonprofit. Donations to this organization are not
taxdeductible. Hence, we'll get into the other nonprofit organized later. I've got all their tax returns, what they say their net in revenue was, what their expenses were, and what their net income was. And so, the last few years when I
changed presidents, we've gone into the negative. There's their organization summary and more tax documents. Now, before I go any further, before they took this loan out in 2019, I said in this very room with then Senator Rob Bradley and
State Representative Bobby Payne, they had gotten a large sumotment of money for an appropriations to build the county's only certified shelter in times of storm. taxpayers dollars and appropriations
from the state. That's what it's supposed to be used for and it became an asset to the fair association. But in this very room when they asked about trying to finish it up, you remember COVID came along. The governor used those monies that year cuz
none of us knew. We were all scared to death. We didn't know what the hell we were facing and it was scary. They told us don't expect no appropriations. And I was in this very room when they were told you can't use appropriations to pay back loans because they wanted the loan to move
forward. That was said. So it's not the state's fault for any monetary mishaps, misjudgments, misfeasants, malfas that happened at the fair with the fair association. That man was told in this
very room and that was Dale Woodruff. I was here and I was a witness. So take the state off the table and for somebody to blame the state was wrong, misleading and they knew
that. However, we talk about the charter. I have a copy of that charter here. went in 2019 on October 23rd, they filed their domestic nonprofit filing with the
state. They attached that very charter and what it says in that charter. But then again, on October 24th, they signed a million half dollar loan with Community State Bank at the time. They can't say
what they know what was in his charter. They had just recently filed it. very smart individuals and I know they can read the dates and all are on this document which will be forwarded to the proper authorities but their
names bear association president October 23rd 2019. You look through here and I just highlighted a couple of the key factors. The sole object of the association is public service.
that there has been provided for the purpose of this association that's in their own charter. Talk about membership because everything they voted on they say they voted on or did they've not had a quorum. This charter says you shall have
a minimum of 20 members and no more than 50 members in this charter. So it means we got to do some adding to our board membership until we we can fix or you
can do an amendment and adjust that. But it has to go before a a circuit judge. Has to be advertised properly in the telegraph. The highest amount of liability to which the corporation may at any time subject
itself shall not exceed $100,000. Now, they knew this the day before or should have known they filed and applied for that loan. It wasn't like it'd been hidden somewhere and they didn't see it and
couldn't find it. They had done no updates to this charter. They could have. What was the hurry? Because here's that very loan. That very loan, if you look at the
B date of it, remember the dates I told you describes the property 1024. They applied with this charter on 1023. in this when they applied for that loan, which remember now it went into foreclosure. When things go into
foreclosure, we got an attorney room. There's a lot of things you can't do. It's like going through a divorce. The minute something's filed, you can't start getting rid of assets. Same way in foreclosure, you got to be careful. The address of 1729 295 North
US Highway 301, Stark, Florida. legal description C attached which is here together this legal description together with all easements I'm public educated I'm not pronouncing that right I'm sure abuing
streets alleys improvements buildings fixtures tenementss prediments equipment rents rents pearl income profits and royalties personal goods goods of whatever description and all other
rights and privileges, including all mineral, oil, gas, water rights, may now or at any time in the future be located on or used in connection with the above described real property, payment awards, amount received from imminent domain, amounts
received from any and all insurance payments, and timber which may now or later be located, situated, affixed, or used in connection with therein called property. Remember it was a fair
association even though that 8 acres is not involved in this. That 8 acres was part of the association controlled by the association. Then fast forward this commission I took some heat for it.
people running their mouth talking about things they didn't know. I asked the commission, I said, "Hey, I was at breakfast where I get a lot of my intelligence throughout the community with some ex commissioners and ex judges and ex-elected officials." The thing came up said, "Hey, we heard the affairs
in foreclosure community state bank." Remember, they changing to DLP. After the commission meeting, I approached, "Have y'all heard any of this?" I had not heard. I told the people I ain't heard any of that. Y'all directed the county manager to inquire and find out that's an asset to
our community. I grew up here. I showed animals here. I've milked goats here. I've chased grease pigs here. My kids grew up here in that fair. Myself and y'all included. Everybody here has donated hundreds or
even thousands of dollars to the kids of this community. That's what it's for. And anybody that think they can take it for their own entitlement, shame on them. And they should hang their head in shame. I don't give a damn who they are. Excuse my language. And chairman, I told
you. Correct me if I get out of line. I'm I'm pretty passionate about this. After the kindness, y'all stepped up to do the right thing. For whatever reason, they decline that offer. They make a resolution.
for the president to negotiate someone else taking up that note got some mighty fine offers 8% and when it went into foreclosure 24.99% that's a pretty sweet deal their
friend but I am thankful Jimmy Gy just wanted his money back because he loves Bradford County because he wasn't told the whole truth I say he was lied to but something happened and he called the note which was to mature this year anyway. How are
they going to pay back that note just a little over a year? I I don't know. We're looking into that too. But they do that takes up the note but in here it encompasses the same things that are written in the original note. All properties, equipment, rents,
liabilities. Now, supposedly somewhere in and around April 7th, they hold a meeting, which by the way wasn't published. To this date, no minutes of that meeting, which if you go back and look
at case law, Supreme Court ruling, the minutes shall be looked at upon request, whether they're finished or not, by the way. And I've got that those opinions and rulings in here. They make thing where they transfer supposedly money, supposedly equipment, a tractor, lawn
mower, other equipment and it was a property to friends of the fair. I don't call that being friend wasn't theirs for the given. What entitlement did they have
that they could do better than what the fair association was going to do? It's almost, and this is just a Gordon thinking, what people are calling a scheme to defraud because they didn't negotiate with you and our attorney
fairly. And I give credit to our county manager. He's been behind with every everything I've called him on things. We're looking into documents, and I can tell you in working with him, he's got the same feeling I got. They set
out to pull a fast one on y'all. They didn't tell us in negotiations they were planning on cutting out 8 acres of property and taking equipment and possibly cash. Don't know. We just got all the bank stuff yesterday. We're looking into that and so were the other agency. We're getting copies of all that
and some other past accounts that mysteriously closed. Um, lot of investigation still to be done, but I'm getting a timeline together and some facts for the appropriate authorities cuz I have talked directly with the egg commissioner because directly talking with other attorneys and the statewide
prosecutor and I've talked with our state attorney. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quack like a duck, it's probably a duck. Now, I'm hoping after this I said it publicly. I'm not whispering it in
somebody's ear telling one person one thing. I'm telling this publicly. I'm asking for your support going forward on the civil side. I'm gladly going forward and everything I can do if there's anything criminal. But even if there's not, what they did was not right.
The warranty deed when they signed that agreement they negotiated backed out of once or twice cost us nearly $1,100 a day by the way in interest as they drugged their feet. To the tune we could have first took this note over to the day we signed this deal. They cost the
taxpayers of this county about $300,000. You're doing us a favor. They did us no favors. And I don't care in the eyes of anybody, especially God. It's wrong. Why' they do it? I don't have
that answer. Some speculate. I got my own speculations. We did that. That's the 11th, which gave us their four board members. Didn't have a quorum. Didn't have a quorum on the 7th emergency
meeting either. That wasn't published. No minutes published. Meeting wasn't published. They got to operate in the sunshine just like we do because they receive public funds. I got that case law here. Got the attorney general's opinion here. They didn't do it. Hadn't
been doing it. They just pretty much did what they did when they wanted to do and did whatever they wanted to do. It became their own personal. I think it became personal. That's the reason they tried to dup commission without letting you know they did that because that would have changed what y'all's thought
on was in purchasing the property. They didn't do it in fairness and they didn't do it in the light. It's wrong. So on the special warranty on the 17th, they go down and file a quick claim deed to get it
notorized. They don't come to the county manager's office. They don't go to the clerk's office. And I'll show you some text back and forth. They were still heartburned from that first time we offered because what our clerk of court,
Denny Thompson, said was true and correct. If the taxpayer dollars were going to be used, we needed to be in control. He wanted to hold their feet to the fire. We'll show you some that text message. So, they still had a bear under the saddle for some of that and trying to do some of negotiation. But what
could mention, what Denny Thompson said, our clerk, was true, accurate, and spot on. So this was their last act of vengeance. They're no friends of the fair. So they go down there and this is signed on the 17th. Remember there's no
authority after the 11th. Not to mention that property that was in foreclosure they transfer the assets of or was in foreclosure. Read the law on that. Our attorney can advise us on that as well. It's a no
no. It's signed off. Bob Milner and Chuck Kramer 41725 Milner listed as president. Chuck Kramer listed as a treasure. They were no longer those as of the 11th. We signed what they
negotiated, but they weren't fair. They tried to pull a quick one, a scheme. Who? Everybody left them in charge. The citizens didn't get a vote in it. The people attend that fair show their
animals. They didn't get a say so in it. Satisfaction mortgage been done for Bradford County. I also have the foreclosure which gave in the original lenders note about the properties and everything entitled there
records laws a fair association. They've not followed none of them. Of course, they didn't have a board like they were supposed to. didn't publish meetings like they're supposed to. Didn't do a lot of things they were supposed to do. I think civily we get our board in place, we need to move
forward with civil action because that's the fair association. Somebody was in that meeting says, "Well, they said, well, and I'm going to put it out in case y'all hear because I knew it to be a lie that he had talked to Jason Dodge and Jason said, "We didn't need that equipment." Well, it wasn't the county's
equipment. It was the fair association's equipment. But Jason D is assured he's never had that conversation. A lot of misleading things there to get some of the people on that board to vote and why you'd give your money away when you still got to have the funds to operate to still be a county fair. The properties in the
county's name, but it's still the Bradford County Fair and their association to continue what we've been gladly doing since 1951 in this charter. Prior to that was the American Legion. Lot of history, big part of our community.
And the person to claim that they don't know what they intend to do with that piece of property as friends of the fair have no idea said what they might do with it but didn't have no knowledge and garnered the vote as the
president of that nonprofit. It's right there. Not saying we've been lied to, but we sure weren't told the truth. They left a lot of things out. They didn't negotiate in fairness. That's the reason I wanted to say it publicly so the citizens can know
what I'm doing. You know what I'm doing. And I'm asking your support as we get that board together as soon as we can to move forward with the civil action while we're moving forward with the legal action. And I'll get this to the proper authorities because if I it wouldn't be fair for me to investigate and I'd be a
little biased because in my opinion, this is Gordon's opinion, not the sheriff, but in Gordon's opinion, it was downright dirty. It was downright d wrong. And how can you hang your head up
high knowing what you did to our community for your own personal entitlement? I'm open for any questions y'all may have that I can answer. Not not any question, just a comment.
Um, this board and I, we all enter into an agreement with the expectation of integrity. Uh, we did it for the love of our community and um so that we will have something to share with the community
that we're accustomed to having. So I am I'm very disappointed at the actions um that were taken and I think it's important that uh we proceed with all God's speed to remedy the situation uh
and to correct um what was done and to return all properties to the appropriate ownership um for this community is there for the use for our community and and that's what you're supposed to all be
about. So that I I'm disappointed. Um and the law says you can give from one nonprofit to another, but there's a catch. We want a typical nonprofit, the fair association. They underrated the opice of the agriculture commission under the state fair and their guidelines and rule. That's the reason I
couldn't write a check to them and it be taxdeductible. I'm sure the nonprofit was set up so people could write a check to be used for the fair, maybe give kids and they could use it as a taxdeductible donation just as we have our nonprofit that we have set up. I think that may have been the intent, but it was their
last fail swoop of we'll just transfer this stuff. Why would the fair association vote to give all their assets away to another nonprofit that's want to try to find some way to benefit who has no control over it, no oversight of it. It doesn't make any
logical sense. I'm just saying I'm passionate about it and I think Miss Spinner's on the right track as we move forward and the county manager, we have spent hours going through documents trying to find the documents needed. Uh the clerk's office has stepped up and got some of
the things we needed. Uh looking through the bank accounts now, but everybody asked me where' the money go. I don't know. They've never published it publicly. You know what I'm saying? They don't advertise their meetings. Not that I've seen. I've never seen the minutes of
meetings. All those type things that have not been done. It's been so mismanaged. In the last three or four years, they started losing money. When you look back at those tax documents and we got a link to it to print all the tax years back where it was
profitable, they got their yourself in this mismanagement deal. When they overstepped it and didn't do what they advised by our state representative and our state senator sitting in this very room and said you can't do that, they decided to do it anyway.
I wouldn't want to manage in any. You look at what's been done. It's got some nice facilities. That's because of appropriations that you, the board of county commissioners, helped do. Us with the sheriff's office, vision, emergency management, wrote those letters. That would be our emergency management
shelter. We were this close to losing that million multi-million dollar building. This close. I said, why we spend because we have to have that. God forbid we ever need. I hope we never do. I hope we get that. They did some
things. They signed contracts, you know, prior to them leaving out. They did a lot of things and it wasn't in the best interest of the fair association and it sure wasn't in the best interest of their community, their county commissioners. They didn't open it up to us when we were doing those negotiations. Why did not why did they
not openly tell us that they had a scheme in place? and to say they don't know what the hell they're going to do with that piece. You're listen what would you even bring the vote up for? I want to move forward all legal
action we can. And and Mr. Chair, we have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the funds, property of you know assets uh for our county and for our residents. the the the people hold us responsible and accountable and so we
have to do whatever is necessary to protect that. I agree. I agree because I'll also say when I was down there with Mr. corn and we were doing the walkth through then that's when I kind of got into with them a little bit about the 8 acres because at that time they told me
they were going to use it for semi-truck parking and I said are you serious here we're trying to use it to maybe put in four soccer fields or flag football fields and you want to use that property to park semi trucks on so
we are I definitely had a little disagreement with at the at the beginning of with the walkth through with Mr. Cornnegay and and also if you don't mind would what we talked about this morning and would you please explain and and I know but but to make
it all public because I've been getting calls you know that we went in there and we cleaned out the offices and all that. Will you please explain that that it had to be cleaned out by the 30th and that our county manager gave them every opportunity and let it go the whole
month and waited until the last three days before we came in there. But if Yes. The Department of Agriculture is moving into that building. Yes, sir. Investigative people as well uh are moving into that building. They had to be out by the 30th. They gave it up on
the 11th. There was plenty of time frame between then and the 28th I believe it was or 27th whenever it was. We went there because I had already contacted the county manager because I I get paid to be nosy and I'd ride and I kept finding gates open things unlocked. I said boss man we got to secure this
property. I don't know who's coming in and out but we those files the history everything at the fair we need we don't need that being destroyed. They have plenty of time. So we went down there and we seized and all the documents are right across the hallway that were
seized. The equipment they claimed first it was told that's my equipment by Mr. Woodruff. Then he made the comment well the fair paid me back for it. I said okay the fair but we gave it to the friends of the fair by my request we we got together myself Mr. Corn the county manager said
we better secure this equipment. Anything of value we better secure. told me who's got a key until we get all the keys and locks changed. We got to secure this stuff and I told them secure it at the county road department. So that's where the equipment, the tractor, the commotive, very nice tractor hog, a uh
uh what do you call it? A better lawn mower than I can afford. A uh zeroturn zeroturn scagg top of the line. That's Cadillac of lawnmowers was there in a golf cart. So anything we thought of real high value, we went ahead uh did that. got the count the city to come up
and fix one of the light poles right away that's been crooked for years and got it fixed up because it looked miss halfhazardly trying to get things in order, secure everything. Uh the documents were all secured, but it had to be done because they'd already got
notice from agriculture. They couldn't have done it. There was so much stuff in history. It's all been properly boxed and all down. It's in our custody. That's the good thing. So nothing can be destroyed or whatever. Not that they would. Not saying they would, but now we know it's not. So, didn't want to take
that risk. Could have been somebody else getting in there, somebody that used to work there changing all the locks. There's a lot of locks. There was. We worked with the church to make sure that they um contacted Mr. Davis, Davis Trucking, he got a hold of his son who I told them, "We we're changing locks. We'll get with you. Make sure you got the keys
and we want y'all to still have access and all those kind of things. You got to change." There's a lot of changing over. That's the fair manager's responsibility. I'm just the law enforcement side of it. Uh to get all that done. He's been on that every day. I can tell you it's taken a big chunk of
his time. I've wore him out needing things and and and made four or five phone calls a day. It seems like just in getting what we need and to get done, but that did have to be secured the property secured except for the eight acres. And if they transferred any
money, which we've got the documents now into that nonprofit, that's what we're looking at to move forward with the civil side and also move forward with I'm hoping they'll just do the right thing. Those individuals are not dummies. They were smart enough to to do
what they did to us. I say to us because I'm a community member. My kids and my grandkids, that's theirs. It's not somebody else decide what needs to be done with it. That was bought. Mr. Jim Crawford was there for an entire different purpose and became part of the fair association. And it says that fair
property must be in pertu perpetuity. Told you u used for public use and when it's not for public use, it shall be returned to the city or county. Just wanted y'all to know that what direction we're headed in. I think
that all of us are shocked. Um, I think we're sad because we did this um with the goodness in our heart to save the fair for for the county and for our families and um like you said our kids,
our grandkids and um to um take money that was generated at the fair. It just it it just doesn't make sense. And I so I think that we're all deeply hurt by it and um and and like
Miss Spooner said and now we have a responsibility. We do. And um we can't we can't shun our responsibility. Take the gloves off and let's go at it full force. I w I I welcome the day in court to explain this. That's the reason I came
publicly. U the statement because I can't go to the store. I couldn't go to church without being confronted from somebody in the community. As you can see today, sometimes we're not on the same side. It's like we're all on the same canvas today
because it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. It's probably a damn duck. Thank y'all. There. Whatever you need, you got to full support. Absolutely. Thank you. County manager's report.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There's a couple of things I want to say on the record regarding the timeline and the actions that we took um from the county manager's office. The Friday before I'm trying to recall the date um I guess it would have been the 25th. that the 25th
was on a Friday, whatever whatever date that was. We had a meeting with uh the clerk and the chief deputy clerk in my office and discussing um you know our options going forward and the fact that the fair association's administrative
offices had to be cleared out by the following Wednesday uh because the the agricultural department was taking over. Um, we after that meeting, uh, we made the decision to go in on Monday. Um, I called and had a rolloff dumpster
delivered to the property. I asked Amanda and Heather to go down there and and and the arduous task of of cleaning out those administrative offices. Uh, we also had some in inmate crews go down there and help out. Our public works
folks, Rick Stevenson and and his folks were very, very helpful. They're the ones that got all the locks changed out, but Amanda and Heather did the bulk of the work there, uh, boxing up all the documents and and um, even our IT guys got involved. They came down there and
and secured the computer and now all that all that documentation and all that computer system is is sitting in the in the office across the hall here. So, as the sheriff said, we have custody of all that. But to the sheriff's point, we
did. I did. I made the decision to wait as long as I could before we were forced to do something like that. I wanted the fair association to be a part of the transition, but when it became apparent,
um, and by the way, I want to publicly thank the clerk's office for for because Rachel had called me and said, "Hey, let's talk about this." So, we did. And um it was from that meeting that once again I made the decision to move quickly, get out get down there Monday
morning and get that place cleaned out. And they did it in two days, which is absolutely remarkable. So I just wanted to to go on the record and say all that so there was no uh confusion about the timeline or about the intent. Um, we made a decision based upon what we
thought was best for the citizens of the community, the taxpayers, and for our county government as well. So, that's all I have to say about that. Um, give you an update going forward regarding the applications, um,
the fair association applications. The deadline is this coming Friday, the 9th, um, for all applications to be in. Um I I'm not sure how many we have now. Probably eight or 10. Uh but this is what I wanted to mention to you. Our our
next meeting board meeting is next week, next Thursday. I want to I want to go ahead and seat the uh or or call together the review committee um prior to that so that we can bring our
recommendations at the next board meeting. So you guys can go ahead and seat the other five. uh persons for the fair board. I do not want to wait any longer than that. The reason I'm bringing this up is because there were recommendations from the board about
additional persons to sit on the review committee. Well, the only time Amanda has put this together and the only time they can all come together is on a Friday. I do not want to wait until Friday, the day after the next board meeting. So, what Amanda is going to try
to do is bring as many of them together as possible along with our internal team and go ahead and make the recommendations for the um for the board members so that you guys can approve them next Thursday. So, I just want to I want I want you to understand that and I
hope you I hope you will uh agree to that. So, I think I think it's serious enough. I think timing is of the essence and if we can't get I don't even remember how many review committee members what were there four additional so if we can get however many
however many we can get in here to participate with our internal review committee um I believe that's what we need to do that sounds good okay if I could ask will we be able to see the applications you'll yes ma'am you're you'll be the
ones to make the make the decision ision on who sits on the board. Okay. So, I mean, we'll see them all. Yes. Correct. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. And and Mr. Carnegie, and you said your review um committee will meet when. We don't know
yet. Okay. Whenever you can get them together. Yes. As soon as possible. Okay. But it would allow time for whomever chooses to apply by the 9th to to do so and then have the committee to review. That's correct. Okay. Yeah. The the earliest that we could get together
as a review committee would be next Monday. I don't think it will be Monday. Okay. Oh, it will. Amanda says it's probably going to be Monday. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Yes. Okay. Let's see what else.
Um, oh, the uh American Public Works Association annual conference was held last week in Orlando and our public works director Jason Dods of course was in attendance and he u made a excellent presentation on Tuesday afternoon to the
group and uh like I've mentioned before he's something of a rock star when it comes to the road department and he's got a reputation around the state so just wanted to commend him for his participation. and his leadership down at the U annual conference. Thank you,
Jason. And uh that's all I have, Mr. Chairman. All right, moving on. Last item, Commissioner comments. Uh Commissioner Spooner. Yes. Um thank you um Mr. Chair. I wanted to um thank the um health
department fire rescue uh for their event successful event on the 23rd that was run roll or walk um event. It was very successful down at the health department um Mr. Weeks and um Ayanna Patterson. Also would like to thank the
um the group that participated in the prayer walk hosted by Alan Chapel. Um we had good participation for that and again our um fire rescue and sheriff department helped participate in it as well. Also we had a um successful
Shirley and Brown Livingston scholarship foundation cancer walk. Again I would like to thank the um our fire rescue Mr. weeks. Uh, our chief, um, Ben Carter was there, representative from the sheriff's department, Alan Chapel, Antioch,
Ebenea, um, and many others. And Ayanna Patterson from the health department had a booth uh, a table with information on breast cancer awareness. We raised nearly $4,000. We're a little short shy of our 5,000, but if anyone else would
like to make a contribution, you still can do so. but we will be offering five scholarships um to students that are going into the healthc care profession. Um we had um a great Mayday uh festival on Saturday this past Saturday at the RJ
uh site. Um the kids actually planted the maple. Uh had lots of activity and fun activities there. Uh thanks for the coordination of the concerned citizen, Miss Alicia McMillan, president. Um and everyone had a great time. also would
like to u commend um u Miss Cynthia Ross for coordination of the National Day of Prayer held at the city square on May 1st. It started at 7:00 a.m. and went through 700 p.m. with um different churches uh providing prayers each hour
of the day. Um I I wanted to just bring to the attention of the board um my concern and you all are probably concerned too for um the continued loss of businesses in our community and we need to be cognizant of this happening to see what
what I don't know what can be done uh recent loss of the Davis trucking company that was a company provided lots of um jobs for drivers uh funpoint um provided a food u and entertainment. Um,
and then also, you know, we have the the Bcock furniture business that um was was a loss. So, as I'm looking at many of these businesses that are are leaving or they're closing doors and we're looking at how we can improve from an economic
standpoint, how do we bring businesses, but how do we retain them in our community? So, if there's something that we can do to keep these businesses um because that brings in revenue for our community. Um and the sheriff did his um
presentation this morning regarding the um fair association and the swap of that 8 acres. That was just extremely disappointing that of those actions that were taken. So I I hope um that we can
remedy that situation as soon as possible. Um and I just thank everyone uh for your you know being supportive being here and for our board and the the actions of our our county manager and the advice from our legal counsel. Thank
you. Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. Um, I know you tried to skip over the sheriff earlier in the agenda, but you best with the sheriff. You You did manage to skip over the county attorney. I did. Oh, I did. It's okay. I apologize.
I'm sorry. Um, I I just briefly, I think Commissioner Andrew said it best. This is sad. That being said, there is light at the end of the tunnel by actions this
commission has taken. Uh there will be a new board reconstituted and the majority of the individuals on that board are going to be appointed by this commission. And uh I was fortunate to the sheriff was kind enough with Mr.
Corny this morning to brief me on what he presented. And uh my comments um at the time and will be here publicly is uh that just move forward with haste what you're doing to get this board
reconstituted so that they can be a functioning organization. Right. because ultimately the long-term vision that you've set forth is to have a functioning fair association board that's serving the interest of the of the people of Bradford County.
Um, I would also say that uh to the extent some actions have been tempted to be taken, whether it be on the 7th of April or whenever uh by the individuals to move property
around uh whether that property be in the form of the eight acres in a in a quit claim deed or whether it be cash, which I don't know that to be the case or not, But if any of these things have
happened, I would highly recommend to wind that back immediately. Doesn't I don't say that like any of those things that were done were properly done in the first place. What I am saying
is clear up the title, unwind whatever purported was to be attempted to be done in terms of moving property or cash around and do it immediately. Well, we were put in a if I can speak for a minute, we were put in a
precarious position. I think all of us were uncomfortable about it whenever we taking this thing over. We didn't know what to be taken out of the account or I mean it was very precarious position. We did what we had to do to save the fair. I mean, you know, we knew we got
the show barn, got exhibition buildings, we got the fairway, but uh this has been very stressful on me to say the least. And actually, I've worried about it since last January, a year ago when we first started talking about it. and uh I was just scared it
would it would go away and somebody would buy it and we wouldn't be able to have fair anymore. So, well, that's not going to happen. You guys did it. You acted decisively and the band-aid's been ripped off. And sometimes when the band-aid gets ripped off, you got to deal with a lot of triage and cleaning
up. And that's the process that we're in right now. And then it's going to heal up and it's going to be better than ever. Thank you. Thank you, clerk. Thank you. And Rob Bradley, I didn't mean to skip over you. Thank you. Thank
you. All right, moving on. Commissioner comment Commissioner Andrews. I'll save mine for the next one, but I would like to thank everybody for being here and um Sheriff, thank you for your research. I mean, um it's it's going to be tough
like like Senator Bradley said or sorry Bradley um it's going to be tough and um we know these people, they know us and um but in the end it's just what has to happen. So, thank you for that. And um
I'm thankful that we have the fair. I'm I'm thankful that we at least right now have a part of it and um that we can put it to good use for for our families. So, thank y'all for everything you did cleaning those buildings out. Amanda
said it was a mess and um so thank y'all for doing that. And Denny, thanks for hanging in there. So, and that's all that um I just want to thank everyone for being here today. Uh Jason, thank you so
much. And uh wish I could have You'll have to do that presentation for the board one day. Yeah. Thanks. Do that. That that would be cool. I'd love to hear it myself. So, um but thank you, Sheriff. I can't thank you enough. This is again, like everybody said, this is
going to be a tough hard pass. um especially we we're friends with everybody, but whatever you have to do, Sheriff, we're behind you 100% and we really do appreciate it. And uh also, Mr. Cornnegay, um I can't thank you enough. Um
uh if if you go into Mr. Cornnegay's office, he looks like he's stressed to the max. I know he's dealing with all kind of things. Probably like what the clerk was talking about, same exact thing. So, I I know a lot has been thrown on your plate and uh I really do
appreciate the way you're handling it and keeping things going forward and um and uh and our attorney I I thank you very much for all the sound advice you've been giving us and moving forward. So, we really do appreciate it. So, and um we're running a little bit
behind as you can see. I guess we'll take maybe 5 10 minutes recess and then we'll start our um our fire assessment workshop. That's okay with everyone. All righty. This meeting is a journal. Thank you. All
right. Board of County Commissioners, Bradford County, Florida, May 6th, uh, 2025. It's 11:00. At this time, we're going to start our fire assessment workshop. And uh to get us started, I'm going to open us up with a prayer and flag loop and then we'll start the
meeting. Let's pray. Our father in heaven, Father, we just thank you so much for this awesome day you've given each and every one of us, Father, another day of life. We just thank you and praise you for that. And Father, most important, we thank you and praise you that you even allowing us to come and pray directly to you. And Father,
you've heard everything that's gone on in our meetings in the past today. And and Father, we have a lot of problems, a lot of issues. I just pray you'll have your hand upon every situation, dear Lord, and help us to do what's right, what's pleasing in your eyes. I pray, dear Lord, as we go into this meeting
now for the fire assessment. I just pray you'll please be with Ben. I pray the Lord this presentation will be clear. Everybody will understand exactly what needs to be done. And I just pray you'll give this board wisdom to do the right things and what's best for this county.
Thank you for everything you do for us. Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God
indivisible and justice for all. All right, at this time I'll turn it over to our fire chief. All right, good morning board. Morning. It's always an honor to stand before you and this presentation will probably look familiar to you by now. So, uh it's very
similar to the ones that we've uh completed here in the past and happy to present it again to uh to the community and to you all. So, I think it's important to start when we talk about the fire assessment and talk about the fire department, how we got here. So, on August 20th of 2020,
the sheriff brought his uh when the fire department was under the sheriff, um he brought his budget proposal to the board. Um, at that meeting there was consensus to bring back the fire department underneath the supervision of the board of county commissioners. At that meeting, the sheriff expressed
funding concerns at that time. Um, said the men and women currently responding to the calls need to know whether or not the board is going to fund the fire department and what they can expect in the future. And that still rings true. So on September 8th of 2020, there was a
special meeting called which uh during that meeting, there was an approval of the uh fiscal year 2021 fire rescue operations and a action plan uh to create a fire rescue department, appoint Alan Parish as the director, and
approve a combined fire rescue budget. All of those things passed 50. And at that meeting, uh, Miss Rhoden was the county manager at the time and she pointed out also that where there were funding concerns, um, you know, that they were going to use the unassign unassigned fund balance to fund the fire department for that year, but the board
would need to look for a reliable uh, continuous revenue source. So in that 2021 fire rescue operations and action plan, there was one director um who was the chief, one fire division chief, uh one EMS division chief, one
operations captain, one training captain, two daily roaming lieutenants, five ambulances, and three engines. This was the organizational chart that was approved in that operations plan during that meeting. On March 17th of 2022, that
fifth ambulance that was approved in that plan was eliminated from service due to uh we had five vacancies in our department and six vacancies is one truck essentially. So, uh, there was a hiring freeze from the county at the time and it was the decision of the
board to, uh, we could either staff that unit with overtime. We could hire personnel to fill that unit or we could, uh, eliminate that unit. And the decision was made to eliminate that unit, that fifth unit from service. On June 6, 2022, almost three years ago now, which
is crazy to think, uh, it was moved by Vice Chair Andrews and seconded by Commissioner Thompson to appoint me as the fire chief. That motion carried 50. And at that time we restructured and we actually uh we changed up our operations plan a little bit or I'm sorry our um
our our command structure a little bit. We eliminated the one ambulance um that was done back in March of 22. We changed one chief's position. Uh we demoted that position down to a captain. We eliminated an administrative assistant position and we went from 60
FTEEs down to 56. It was 53 at the time and then we were uh I'm sorry 54 at the time and then the board approved us to uh hire the three personnel for relief staffing which we're still working on uh getting those personnel in the door. Uh but we are again working on that pretty
diligently. So as you can see, you know, people uh claim that we're we're we're growing this thing and that it's just getting out of hand and that um you know, we're we're building an empire and and that's certainly not the case. As you can see, we've actually reduced since we started the department in 2020. So when we look at our response and talk
about requirements, um the NFPA, which which governs all of our decisions and and regulations and rules in the fire service, um NFPA 1710 requirements for a 2,000 foot residential structure, their recommendation is 16 personnel on that
fire. We can give you seven personnel based on our current staffing. For a strip mall, they also recommend uh 27 personnel on that fire. Again, we can give you seven based on our daily staffing. And first due response time,
they recommend that all units uh I'm sorry, that the first arriving unit be on scene within 4 minutes. And our average first arriving scene is on scene within 9 minutes and 18 seconds. So, as you can see, well below um the NFPA recommendations. Today, a large fire at
a Bradford County sawmill is now out. TV20's Alyssa Perry joins us live from Lahi. And Alyssa, how long did it take firefighters to put the flames out? It took more than five hours for the Bradford County Fire Rescue teams to extinguish the fire at the Tatum's
Brother Sawmill. Firefighters say they got the call around 3:30 this morning. Bradford County Fire Rescue was joined by crews from Klay County Fire Rescue. The family-owned business has multiple buildings on site, including a sawmill, two planter mills, and a shop. District
Fire Chief Dylan Rogers say crews have responded to the mill several times over the years. TV 20 was there in 2018 when a fire destroyed most of the business. We asked Rogers to compare the size of today's fire to the one in 2018. About the same in comparison. Um a fire like
this takes a lot of resources um manpower and uh just just doing the best we can to with the resources that we have to to mitigate the situation. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but one of the owners tells TV20 he thinks it was started by
electric wiring. As we mentioned, this isn't the first time the Tatum family has seen their business burn. TV20 Hawel was able to talk to one of the owners this morning about what they're going through and how they're feeling. Let's take a listen. Look, these boys is like family. I went to school with half of
them's daddy. You know what I mean? Some of them's daddy work for my granddaddy. I went to school with them. Uh uh you know is this is a small community and they're more important to me than the shed is. All Tatum can think about while watching
his building burn for the second time is his employees. Some of the boys has been working for me 35 40 years, you know, and and they'll be all right. They they'll they'll we'll keep on working. He believes the material inside the sawmill makes it prone to fires. All the
debris, everything is wood. All right. So, it lays there. We try we clean constantly and trying to clean up constantly to to put the fire hazard down, but you never get away from it. The owners tell me their family has been in this industry for generations and they take the good with the bad. With
every fire, they just rebuild and hope for the best. In 2018, the sawmill was engulfed in a mechanical fire. It's going to take a while to clean things up and then we'll have to start back the rebuilding process. Unfortunately, this is not the first time we've had to do this. Tatum remains positive.
This won't set us back too bad. It's it's a certainly a slap in the face, but but you have to take the bad with the good. Reporting in Lahi Hawa Eel TV 20 News. So why do I show that? Right. It's it's
because that's a recent event that we just had where yes, you know, a a response from us looks different than it does in Klay County or Jacksonville or anything like that, but still on a sawmill fire were able to put seven personnel on that fire. Luckily, Klay County was able to
respond. They brought about 20 personnel with them. Um, so we were able to mitigate that. We uh my my entire administrative staff at 3:30 in the morning was headed out to the sawmill. uh you know on a on a Monday first thing Monday morning at 3:30 in the morning we all got up went out there obviously to
go to go help. Um it was an all hands- on deck thing. As soon as Chief Rogers got there he sent out a mass text to all of our employees saying hey if anybody's available off duty please come help um because we just don't have the personnel to manage something like that by ourselves. Um again thankfully Klay
County was able to to respond and help us with that. Um, you know, and along those lines, I think that it's it's important to remember that we we look at things based on facts. We we started this department
in 2020 based on research, based on data, based on regulations and guidelines that were set place or set in place many, many years ago. Um, and this department was founded on facts. People
say that we're excessive. People say that we're we're, you know, we've got too many personnel or there's too many chiefs and not enough Indians or whatever the case may be, but um those are opinions. We operate our department off of facts. People ask where have the
volunteers gone. As many of you know, uh volunteerism in general has declined. uh in any organization you look at, you look at your your civic organizations, the Rotary, Kowanas, you look at churches, everything has declined over the years with volunteerism. For firefighters, uh
specifically, it's now 206 hours to become certified as a volunteer firefighter. So, it's 206 hours of training that you have to go through in order to become certified uh and recognized as a volunteer firefighter, plus $1,000 just for the training. doesn't include the the protective gear
that you has to be purchased. We get questions about our our vehicles that you see driving around. So, our pickup trucks, uh, let's run through those real quick. My pickup truck, which is parked outside, is a 2021 F-150. Um, that was purchased through a state EMS matching grant. The upfitting
was completed here in house. And so, the only cost to the taxpayers for that vehicle was the match that was associated with that matching grant, which was around $7,600. the division chief uh Chief Rogers drives a 2023 F-150. We purchased that.
We were able to get a few grants throughout the year uh where we had the match waved on those grants. So, we used those matching funds that we had set aside for the grants um to purchase this treat this vehicle here. The upfitted was completed in house. We paid the the price you see there 45,000 for that
vehicle. our operations captain when the county ID department was dissolved um and transitioned over to Inspired uh they had a a two- wheelel drive vehicle, a two wheel drive F-150. Um as you know, two wheel drive doesn't work for many
places around here in Bradford County. Uh no offense to the road department. That's uh certainly not a not a a hit on them at all. They do the best they can, but there's just a lot of places you can't access without four-wheel drive. He's gone. I was trying to make light of it, but uh so we traded that that two wheel drive in for a four-wheel drive
vehicle. Um they actually gave us more on the trade end than we originally paid for the vehicle because that was at the time where there was a shortage of of used vehicles. Um and so they actually gave us more on the tradein than than uh than what we purchased the or that what we originally purchased it for. And the original purchase for that vehicle was
used uh or was uh purchased with CARES Act funding. So it was co COVID funding was used to purchase that vehicle originally. We upfitted the vehicle, uh, put the topper on it, things like that. Um, less than $10,000 to Bradford County taxpayers. Fire marshall drives a 2011
F-150 that was handed down from the sheriff's office. Uh, total cost to taxpayers was $650 for the wrap. Our training captain drives a 2024 expedition that was purchased using the opio opioid abatement funds. Um, no cost
to Rafer County taxpayers. Same for our community paramedic. EMS lieutenant drives a 2019 F-150 that was purchased using CAR's Act funding. No, no cost to Bradford County taxpayers. And our fire lieutenant uh drives a 2016 F550. This was uh the
chassis of the vehicle was originally a brush truck and we uh converted that onto um the box you see there, which is the squad body is what we call that, squad box, uh which was an old volunteer uh truck from Hilton Springs Fire Rescue. And we actually used that from
2006. We used that box and put it on a newer brush truck body. Uh it's worked out to be a great vehicle for us. And all of that was completed in house by our um fleet fleet management over at the uh road department public works. People ask why do we need
four-door vehicles? We carry a lot of equipment. Um a lot of it takes up a lot of space. It's not small equipment by any means. And so every one of our supervisor vehicles is advanced life support capable. So, we carry the same equipment in my pickup truck that is on
an ambulance. Uh, there's a few few more things that they carry like IV pumps and ventilators and things like that. Um, but drugs, inhabation kits, all those things I carry on from my vehicle all the way down to to, you know, the uh our fire
marshal. We've transferred a lot of vehicles out of our department. So when we instead of when our our vehicles meet their useful life for our department, we've got to have reliable uh vehicles that are able to respond quickly and and like I said reliably. Um when they meet
their the end of their useful life for us, we could put those vehicles on Gov deals or some sort of auction website and sell those vehicles and get some sort of money back for those vehicles to be able to purchase newer vehicles. But we don't. Typically, we transfer those vehicles over to the road department.
And here's just a short list of what you can see we've transferred over to uh public works since uh 2020. A lot of questions about ISO. So let's talk about uh what what ISO rating and kind of what that information entails. But um when a insurance company
looks at insuring your home, they give you a public protection classification. one being the best to 10 is not recognized. Uh, no recognized protection. Our current rating here in Bradford County is a five, 5x, and 10. And I'll explain what that means here in
just a second. So, a class 5, if you if you meet that rating, that means that you are 5 miles from a fire station and within 1,000 ft from a fire hydrant. A class 5X means that you are five miles from a station, but you have no fire
hydrant within a thousand feet. And a class 10 means you're further than uh no no station within five miles and no hydrant within 1,000 ft. Again, that's recognized as as no fire protection. Um moving on there
talking about our station locations and where we have things strategically placed. A lot of the the locations that we have currently again were were put in place long before we ever thought about having a career fire department. This was done, you know, by the volunteers. This was
laid out on a map and these stations were strate strategically placed throughout the county. Um Lahi up in uh at the very top of the screen, LA50, that's our Lahi station, station 50. Um Hilurn Springs is station 40, Samson City is 90, Thea is 20, and Speedville
is station 10. And so these circles that you see uh those are all see if this pointer works here. Does indeed. Uh these circles here are all five mile radius circles. So everyone that falls within one of those circles
is getting that class uh five or 5x, right? So if they're within, you know, thousand feet of a hydrant, they're getting a five and they're in within that circle. Um if they're not within that thousand feet, they're at least getting a 5x. So what that means is when we look at
closing down stations that those circles start to go away and when the circles start to go away that means the people that live in those circles that don't live in that circle anymore now their their property protection class their PPC goes to probably a level 10 um which drastically increase their rates if
they're able to maintain coverage at all. So, just to give you an idea of what that looks like, um, if you shut down, you know, the Thoressa station, that opens up a big area in between the Hampton and and Theresa area and Hampton or I'm sorry, in Thor and Stark. Um,
same thing with Hilurn Springs opens up a lot of area and a lot of residents out there. And then station 80 that that you saw there in Brooker um, is not an active station currently. That is one that we're we're attempting to to get put in place here in the near future. And so if that station were not to come
into play um again they would they would remain at a at a class 10. Brooker also has a lot to gain um in regards of us opening a station there because they have a hydrant system. So anybody within a thousand feet of that hydrant right now is probably not at a class 5, but
they would be at a class 5 when we open the doors of that fire station. But what does that look like in real world numbers? Right? We've talked a lot about ISO and the different ratings. Um, so I've obtained this quote. This is an actual quote from a local insurance agent for a woodframe
$400,000 uh dwelling with $1,000 deductible and a 2% hurricane deductible. If your property protection class is a five, your annual premium is $6,7986. If that goes to a property class of 10, so if we close down one of those
stations and one of those circles goes away, they go to an $8,745.38 annual premium or,00 $1,947.32 or 28
28.6% increase. So let's talk about our annual call volume. This is for uh calendar year 2024. We have 1,223 calls that we classify as fire related, purely fire related with a total of
7,536 incidents, which is average of 21 per day. Our average response time, as I mentioned earlier, was 9 minutes 18 seconds. Our average call duration is 1 hour and 32 minutes. Our average scene time is 19
minutes and 40 seconds. And our average transport time is 32 minutes and 7 seconds. A lot of our transports, as you know, go to Gainesville hospitals. We had 32 structure fires with one civilian fatality last year, 22 vehicle
fires. Standby. 63 brush fires with a total of 422 acres burned. 259 motor vehicle collisions with a total of 595 patients out of those vehicle collisions. 71 trauma
alerts, 74 cardiac arrests. We attempted and cardiac arrest as I've explained before means that you're not breathing and you don't have a pulse. Uh we attempted resuscitation on 57 of those cardiac arrests. And the ones that we don't attempt resus resuscitation
uh we we deem that there's no viability with that patient. So they've been down for a long time without oxygen um you know with not breathing. There's signs of of definitive death. Um and those are the type ones that we don't attempt resuscitation on. Uh so we attempted
resuscitation on 57 and we got pulses back on 29 out of those 57. State average uh ROSS grade is 24%. Um and Bradford County Fire Rescue Ross rate is 39%. Now they count the
Ross rate based on the total number, not the ones that resuscitation was attempted. So um it's 29 out of 74 is what our ROS rate is based off of. My opinion it should be based off the ones that we do attempt resuscitation, but that's not the way they do it.
So, our truck utilization, our station 90, which is Samson City, was our busiest engine. They ran 1,154 calls last year. And Medic 6, our Stark ambulance, uh, ran 2,122 calls for service last year. Uh, Lauia is our
second busiest engine, and Theessa and Speedville, our our slowest, uh, station in the southeast area. And that holds true for the ambulances as well. All right. So, let's talk about why we're actually here is understanding the actual fire assessment fee. So, when we
talk about um what is being charged, the only thing that's going to be charged is a dwelling unit for residential. So, we'll talk we'll get a little bit more into what that looks like. So, this is what is considered a dwelling unit. This is a a resident. The way you can find out how many
dwelling units you have on your property is you go to the Bradford County Tax Collector's website. I'm sorry, property appraisers website. You go to record searchgism map. You type in your information. So, you type in your uh your name and you can search that. It'll bring you up to
search page and then you just pull up your information from there. And then you'll see that there are, you know, this is kind of a a confusing page here, but at the top there it says building characteristics and it says uh
description single family. So that means that that is the only dwelling unit that's on that property is under building characteristics. Okay, so that's the only thing on this property that will be charged is that one single family uh building characteristic. Same thing for mobile
home. It's listed a little bit differently, but it's in the same place. So, if you go to the property prisoners website, search again, you go to building characteristics, you can see it's MH18, which just means it's a mobile home. Um, you can see there there's only one thing listed under building characteristics. So, that is
the only one dwelling unit that will be charged a residential fee. What if you have multiple dwellings on one parcel? So, say you have some rental properties on one piece of property. So the red line here on this screen shows one parcel of property and as you
can see there's there's a few dwelling units or there's a few structures on that property. Um and so when we look take a closer look at that again we see that there's four dwelling units there on one piece of property. You may say well those are you know rundown places or whatnot you know
that aren't inhabitable but they're not. They're they're nice places that these people rent out for um you know for income. So again, all on one piece of property. These are these are rental homes here. When you go back to the property appraisers website and you look under building characteristics, it shows you all four of those residents. So each
one of those will be charged a residential fee. And please stop me if there's any questions. I'm happy to happy to answer. Um, talking about extra features in outbuildings, I know there's a lot of concern about if your shed's going to be
charged, um, you know, or or what's going to be charged in in, uh, in the assessment. Sheds and outbe extra features and outuildings are not not assessed. So, on this same piece of property where we had the four residents on the one parcel, uh, this building
that I just showed you a second ago is listed as a garage. So it's listed under extra features and outuildings and it is not going to be assessed. So this will not get a charge um you know for the fire assessment. Same thing if you have a a shed similar to this three bay shed
uh this is not going to be assessed. Your chicken houses will not be assessed. Horse barns also not assessed. Now, if you have a an apartment built into your horse barn um that has running water and electricity and you're, you
know, using that for a mother-in-law suite or whatever the case may be, I wouldn't suggest putting your mother-in-law in the horse barn, but um you know, if that's your if that's your option, then uh but again, if you have if you have that built out as an apartment or something of that nature, then it would probably be assessed as as
a residential um structure. And at that point, that's one of those things that we could adjust later if we deem that it's uh if that's being charged or assessed inappropriately. Uh nice house here for sale in Bradford County. Um and this
is multiple outbuildings as you see on this property. So, let's just take a look at um what will be charged and not charged. So, none of those outuildings on this property, they're all listed as special special features or extra features uh on the property appraisers website. and they will not be assessed.
So, the only thing that's going to be assessed um as you can see here, it's got a lot of uh extra features and outuildings described. So, there's one single family residence and then everything else is listed as an extra feature. So, again, all the extra features on that property are not assessed. It's just the one single
family residence. Correct. That's right. Uh let's talk about vacant parcels and a exemptions. We'll get there in just a second. So this is an 11 acre piece of property here uh also in the county. Uh one contiguous piece of
property and it is uh you know if that were not deemed agricultural 11 acres that's would carry one uh vacant fee uh which is the only thing it would be assessed is just one vacant vacant parcel fee. Now, if it's got if it's
listed as AG in the property appraisers website, it would be exempt. A is exempt from the fire assessment. So, this is all the same owner, but this is broken up into two vacant uh parcels. So, they have 20 acres on the west, 20 acres on the east,
but it's all owned by the same person. So, this person would pay two vacant parcel fees because it's broken up into, yes, it's connected, but it's broken up into two parcels. So that person would pay two separate vacant parcel fees unless they have a exempt and if they're
agg they are exempt from the fire assessment. Let's take a look at non-residentidential or commercial. Uh again building here in Stark um if you look in the property appraisers website this is based off square footage. Non uh non-residential
is based off square footage. So, under building characteristics, we go over to actual square footage. And so, when you look at the actual square footage of that building, 2,91 ft, uh, that is what their assessment would be based off of. And remember, it's a certain amount per
square foot for non-commercial. Any of the extra features, outuildings, uh, and land is not assessed. Another commercial property here in town, large area, big piece of property. Um, and again, if you look at
their building characteristics, um, under that is the only thing that's going to be charged and the actual square footage. So, 10,845 square foot is the only thing that's going to be charged. None of the extra features and outuildings will be charged. None of the land will be charged on that
property. Commercial gas station, Tony's, everybody knows Tony's. Again, the only thing that would be charged on this is under the building characteristics. It has one commercial building and that's the only structure based on the actual square footage that would be charged. None of the extra features and outuildings as you see
there would be assessed. Crystal Tractor just south of town um they have three buildings under their building characteristics. So they would be charged um based on those three buildings on the square footage of those
three buildings, but everything as far as an extra feature and out building and as you can see they have a lot of those on their property um are not assessed. And let's talk about some exemptions that uh I know the board has considered. One would be churches,
nonprofit or governmentowned buildings. 100% disabled veterans would also be exempt. Anyone who's at or below the poverty threshold and again as we explained earlier anything zoned agricultural is
going to be exempt. Just to give you an idea of the poverty threshold in 2025 for a single family uh or I'm sorry single person their income has to be $15,650 annually or less to meet the
poverty guideline threshold. Um for for two people it would be $21,150 and so on so forth. There is a grievance process as I talked about earlier if you believe you're being assessed inappropriately. If you have um something that's listed
as a dwelling unit on your property that is no longer being used as a dwelling unit, um that's something that we can certainly come out and take a look at. We have a process for that. There's an email already set up. This telephone goes directly to our fire marshal. Uh and so those are the the ways that we're able to to take a look at those and we
can assess or address those um on an individual case by case basis and we're able to remove those things from the fire assessment if that is the case. So again, if you um have two dwelling units on your property, but one of those dwelling units is being used for storage, there's no no power to that
building, there's uh no running water to that building, it's just being used as storage. Again, we can uh we can get those things off your assessment. So, let's talk about rates. And when we look at rates, I know the board has expressed interest in the 50 50% cost recovery rate. That puts the
residential rate at $167 per dwelling unit, non-residential at 11 cent per square foot, and vacant parcels at $47 per parcel. We look at that on a monthly basis. That's $13.92 per
month or quarterly would be $41.75 per quarter. And I've used this example before, but it's basically a double quarter pounder with cheese from McDonald's. um one once a month that you're giving up uh in order to pay for the fire
assessment or I'm going to take a poll in here. How many how many of us go out to eat at least four times in one month? Whether it be a drive-thru, whether it be sitdown restaurant, how many of us go out to eat more than four times in a month? I definitely do. So, if you get a soft drink or a tea at those
restaurants, if four times a month you take and swap that for water, you just paid for your fire assessment. average drink at a restaurant is $3.25. There's also a lot of other habits that people have that
uh that could be given up, right? I think that maybe not given up, but at least cut back on in order to to pay for $13.92 per month. I think it's about decisions. It's about what is your priority. Do you want a professional response or do you want a scratchoff
ticket for the month? These are real life examples. This is the Tatum Sawmill fire right here. This is something that we just went to. We just mitigated. And why do I even put that up there and show these videos is because do you want do you want those
scratchoffs or do you want a firefighter that's going to come run to a call to a burning building and run into that? That's what you get. That's what you're getting with Bradford County Fire Rescue and what the response that we've
established, what this board created in 2020. We've built on that. We've done not in numbers, but we've built on that in quality. And I think that we've set a standard for this community that they've come to expect and that this community deserves for what kind of response they
get. I'm on a bike path that runs parallel to Southeast County Road 18. And you can see some of the damage from the fire. Some areas are still smoking this evening. A man who lives on the other side of this bike path tells me he is
grateful the fire did not jump over the path last night and hit his property. You couldn't see down the road. There was so much smoke just that quick. A tense evening for Harry Kyle and his family as they watched the flames and smoke spread in front of their property. Well, scared to death it would cross
over and come onto the property. The fire started along the Palaca to Lake Butler State Trail, which runs right in front of Kyle's property. The Bradford County Fire Department got the first call around 3 Wednesday afternoon. Three separate brush fires have started along one mile of the trail. Bradford County
Fire Chief Ben Carter says at one point the fire jumped over County Road 18. There's a lot of smoke covering County Road 18, so a lot of traffic danger. U we shut down tra uh traffic on County Road 18 for a period of time, probably about 2 hours. Investigators are now working to determine if the fires were
set intentionally. Wednesday's windy conditions also played a factor. Yeah, the wind was was uh you know, 15 20 mph at least. Anytime that you have a fire, you've got dry conditions and you get wind like that, you know, it's it able to spread very quickly. Chief Carter says this is a good reminder to pay
attention to the weather if you are going to burn something or use anything that involves flames. With the flames now gone and fire crews cleared out, Kyle is breathing a sigh of relief that his property remained untouched and his family is okay. Really, thank goodness for the Bradford County Fire Department.
They really jumped on it and really attacked it. And I I show you those videos not to sensationalize this thing, but I think it's important that you see people do expect when they call 911 they get a professional response. And I I think we've we have
definitely uh met that calling. And uh I'm very confident. I've said this before. I'm confident in our budget. I'm confident in our operation. Most of all, I'm confident in the men and women who respond to those calls every day. I'll open that up for any questions that you
may have. If I may, one question. Um, on the ISO, is that with every insurance department? It is not. No, ma'am. That's a great question. There are some uh insurance companies that don't take ISO into
consideration, right? Um, that don't take ISO into consideration. So, that's not for every every property. I would say and and talking with again the insurance agent that I got this quote from, most insurance companies do take ISO at least into consideration. Um, now they may not
use that as a 100% determining factor, but typically uh they do take it into consideration, but yes, as Mr. Melvin pointed out, State Farm is one that does not. It might be just a good tip for for individuals to know what insurance
companies do. Sure. recognize it and that way if it because it if it's that substantial it might be worth them changing insurance companies but um if we could just get them a list of the ones who do recognize it I think that
would be good. Okay. Yeah. Because also they could call their own insurance company and and find out. Yeah. And if they didn't I mean chop it around. Yeah. Because in insurance is has gotten out of control. Probably everybody in this room knows that. Yeah.
I mean, it's it's ridiculous. So, well, and many insurance rates went up, you know, over the past couple years, as like as you just pointed out, you know, people's insurance has gone through the roof, but again, that's with with a professional fire department with a ISO rating of five or 5x. And and for the
ones that do recognize it, mine recognizes it, for instance, you know, but it did it did increase this last year. Um the rate went up, but I can only imagine if one of those stations were to close and I were to go to a 10 what it would have gone up if they would have even kept me in coverage.
Yes, I agree. Because mine mine came down, but it's gone back up past where it was, but yes, it did come down. Open. Yes, sir. If you would for the public comments, please come up to the mic. Only reason I say that is because if you don't, the people listening Yeah. on
YouTube or whatever cannot hear. No, I just wanted to ask if the assessment rates that you cited include bringing in a station in Brooker and if a station is brought in, what's involved with that? What kind of personnel and equipment? Y
So, yes, our goal is to uh add add a station in Brooker. Um we have 50% of the funding that was requested was uh given to us through a state appropriations. And so our goal is to put two personnel with uh it would be what we call an adaptive response
station. So we would have an ambulance there. We would have a fire engine there. We would have a brush truck there. So depending on what type of call, if somebody's having a heart attack, they jump in the ambulance and they take that truck. If it's a brush fire, they jump in the brush truck and take that call or take that vehicle. If it's an a a structure fire, they're
going to jump in the engine and take that truck. So again, we call that an adaptive response station. Um and that's what that that station would look like. we would have two personnel there per day and that does include um the $167 does include the assumption that Brooker
would participate in the assessment. So um that does again include staffing for the town of Brooker. So uh just to touch on that a little bit, we did get some unfortunate news that the second half of the appropriation funding is not going to be awarded this this goround. Uh we
fought and fought for that appropriation. And that was the top priority for us was to get that that funding pushed through for the town of Brooker. Um, as a matter of fact, Mr. Cornnegay drove to Tallahassee as soon as he got the news and tried to fight for it even harder up there in Tallahassee. We've been on the phone
trying to get a way that we have, you know, we've got the funding right now, $500,000 for the station currently. We have about 130 or 140,000 left over from the equipment. So when we wrote it last year, we wrote for the equipment, which would be the fire engine as well as the
station. And so what we wanted to do was combine the station funding with the leftover equipment funding. So we would have 650, you know, 650,000 somewhere in that neighborhood, rough numbers here, um in order to to go ahead and start building that station. We scaled it way
back. We talked with our contractor. He said, "Absolutely, we could probably make that happen." Um but unfortunately we got met with a no in Tallahassee from that also. So we're basically on the uh you know they say that's going to be the top priority when they go back in session. And Mr. Corn, you may be able
to speak to that a little bit more. Yeah. So I think it's important to note that next session begins early. So they'll actually be in session again in the fall. So it only be a few months I hope before we get good news and uh are able to secure the remainder of the funding and not have to wait until this
time next year. Right. And we we did uh again we we just got notice of that official no late last week and it's uh it was it was definitely a punch in the gut for sure. So, but I will say let you know the legislature has been good to us. The appropriations have been good to
us. We've got that that station in you know in in the half of first half of the funding already. I think we're going to I was going to get with Mr. from Melvin here soon and and start that process of engaging a contractor and that way they see that there is progress on that station that we're moving forward with
it and that we're we're in the process. Yes, ma'am. If I may, I was going to save this for the end, but I'll go ahead and and um dive into it. Um we were given $500,000 for that building. Um when I called Mr.
Brandon, who I respect greatly, um he is a a very good man. He is he has been good to Bradford County. And um I was somewhat embarrassed. I was somewhat um I was upset
um because his his emphasis was that we didn't get it because we didn't do anything with the money that we had. So, my desire is that we start as soon as possible with the $500,000 that we have
to make sure that they understand that we're serious about building this fire station. Since I came on, I have asked for this and it is extremely important to me and I know just from the meetings that we've already had that we are very,
very busy. We have lots of things that we're taking that we're doing and and that it's our responsibility to move it forward. But when we're talking about life and safety, when we're talking about people's lives and their property, to me, there's not a whole lot more
important than that. I was going to address the board because each one of us, we have to support each other in in things. Every one of us has projects and things that need to be done in their districts. Each one of us have to support each other in making that
happen. Um, Miss Spooner asked for one mile of road to be paid for years and I made the comment, please, can we just do this? I mean, we support what's
important for our districts and for our people and for Bradford County. This is very, very important. And I'm asking the board to support me in my efforts to go ahead and let's move
forward and get started on this building. I would like to see a foundation. I would like to see walls put up by time they go back in session. I want him to know that
I I can't imagine what he thinks of me not pushing this harder. And part of it I mean maybe it is my fault. The rumors now you can't build half of a fire station, but guess what? We did one
time, didn't we, Mr. Edit? And how many years did it sit there? A lot. A lot. 10 wasn't 10. I I you me it sat there a while ago. Sat there a long time. Didn't have a sprinkler system so we couldn't
use it. We can start Brooker Fire Station. I talked to a man that we've talked to about doing the job. He said, "Miss Andrews, I could start tomorrow. All I need is the word." And so Lord, I'm asking you to support me on this.
and before we start another project, please can we get this off the ground and move forward with it? And and that my that was the only reason we didn't get started on it is I didn't want to run into a situation like the fairgrounds to where we got half of it
built and then the other half of the funding never came along and they took out a loan and then couldn't pay back that loan with with the appropriations. So, I didn't want to run into a situation like that. I I feel like that definitely has to be a board decision. If that's the direction we want to go, I
would trust me and you know that I've been a champion for that fire station that I've fought for that fire station and nobody wants more, you know, protection out there more than me. Maybe you do. I don't know. But yeah, probably. But uh I mean that's something that's that's again near and dear to my heart and I fought for that fire
station. But I I didn't feel like it was responsible on my part to say let's go ahead and move forward with it without having the other other half of that funding secured because what happens you know the whatifs? I mean what does happen if that doesn't come to fruition and we don't get the other half of that
funding? I didn't want to be the one responsible for saying let's go ahead and move forward with it. Certainly I'm going to do whatever this board wants me to do. And so if that's the decision, I'll I'll charge ahead. And Mr. Chairman, I would say that I agree completely with the fire chief. So what
we would like to do if if you want to move forward with this, our next board meeting, as I mentioned earlier, is next week. So if we want to, we can put an agenda item on next week's agenda. And if board votes in favor of starting construction without funding, without
50% of the funding, then that's exactly what we'll do. Well, and based on Mr. Brandon's words to me, I feel completely opposite. I I feel like he is waiting for us to do what we should have already done. Sure. And then he will do what he
I trust the man. I trust Senator Bradley. I think that um and I know that it's not just up to them. I understand that. But it I believe that the appropriations will come if we are good stewards and do what we should do.
And I and I agree with you. They've been great to us and certainly I I trust them as well. Um I think that you know things that are out of their control, out of our control. Um God forbid another pandemic hit and same thing that happened with the fair grounds happen again. I'm not
I'm not fighting you on this. I'm not trying to push back at all. I'm just making sure that we look at it from every from every angle for sure and doing and chief um and I I mentioned this I believe to you and Mr. Horn Gay, you know, at Speed Bill, we did it just the opposite. We built the um the garage
to put the trucks in first and then we came back and built the living quarters, right? But I now I haven't seen the the complete set of plans of what you're going to put in Brooker, but is there any way we could build the living quarters first and then in other words, is it going to be two separate buildings where you have little living quarters
and then the breezeway and then Yep. It's going to be designed very similar to station 10, just a scale down version of that. So, um, with that in mind, then we could definitely go ahead and build the living quarters with the money we have and have that complete with
500,000. That would be complete. And then if we worst case, we didn't get the funding, we put up a whole barn or whatever to park the truck under. Now, I know it will not make the ISO rating go down because the trucks have to be in an
enclosed building, but at the same time, you've got firefighters there that are can respond and you do have the trucks protected. Yep. And that way we can move forward. That's Yes, sir. Well, and the other piece of that is adding the personnel. We've got we've got to add six more personnel if that's the case.
But that was built in. That is That's funny. but it was not built into my my budget for next year because of construction times and um lead times on everything else. So, we did not put that into our budget proposal for this coming fiscal year. It was going to be the following fiscal year.
What's that? I'm sorry. Yes, sir. I don't think people out there respect building a for firefighters and then let the truck here outside. No, he was talking about building a
shelter for you'd have to build like a, you know, you can get one of them pole barns with the metal roof to park the truck under. I'm just saying we only have 500,000. You can't do the complete project. Now, if you want to build the See, if you built the storage for the truck, then there's no living quarters.
So then you'd have to do what we did in Speedville and they'd only be able to respond from 8:00 in the morning till 5:00 at night. Then the firefighters would have to go to another place to spend the night. Whereas if you did the living quarters first, you'd have the
firefighters there 24/7 and then park the truck inside, you know, a protective um pole barn or something like that. But but at least you would have a complete setup ready to go. And I think it's important to remember, too, that that truck's a two-year lead time. So, we're still, you know, a year and a half out
from that truck being complete. Hopefully, by that time, we would have the additional funding to be able to build the full the full project. Mr. Chair, I just wanted um Commissioner Andrews to know that the uh I have and I believe the board has supported the efforts to have a Samson City because
it's the farthest um community that we have and we definitely do need that. So, I don't want you to feel that there's a lack of support for it. I do know that the legislators do look at what you do if they provide funding what have you done with it. So that question may
arrive but I also think that um they also understand if you don't have the full amount of money you can't complete the project but I certainly you know would be in support of utilizing it if if you are able to do a structure for
that sum of money. I have no objections to that. Like Mr. Riddick did say we wouldn't be able to build the building. Um, we wouldn't be able to build the base yet, but we could get that structure up.
Um, it won't be the size of No, we've already scaled it way back. We already scaled that way back from But but Brooker doesn't need it that size. We're only going to have two staff on duty. So, um, but I just I just feel like we should do
something to show them, um, that we're serious and that we appreciate what they've done. Um, and I spoke to some people in even in the city, they had a they had been given some money and they almost lost their project because they
didn't do anything on CityWalk. almost lo lost their money because they didn't do anything with it that year and here we sit in the same situation and I just think that we need we need to act upon it. So maybe it could be done as a phase
one phase two project. Exactly. Being one piece and phase two being the second. Yes ma'am. But I'm just wanted you to know there's not any objection or lack of support or that it's your fault. It's not. You know. Well, yeah. Well, then let's go ahead and put it on the
agenda for the 15th. Is that good with everybody? I would also ask if if we're going to move that direction that that we also approve me hiring six additional personnel um needs to be included in I actually thought we already did that. No, ma'am. Um we had the three for the
relief staffing to help with overtime. So that's that's I think that's what you were thinking about, Miss Andrews. But when we checked with our um clerk the last time and in terms of whether we could afford looking at reducing our overtimes that we could hire more staff
and that would even things out. So I think that's the the people that you're thinking about. Right. That was for the relief staffing to help offset some of the overtime costs. Well, it's not and it's not what I was thinking about because I was told that it was going to be built into it. Um
that so that I mean not by you but I was told that it would be built into the budget. So that's and I thought it already was. No ma'am that my next year's my next fiscal year proposal does not include the
staffing for the town of Brooker but it can. I just we can work that out. Okay. Sounds good. And you you had a question. And I do want to appreciation Diane Andrews for, you know, going to commission congressman
congressman. Um things are getting more expensive, right? We all see that. So we're talking about trying to build as much of a building as we can with 500,000. Do we know that that's doable for sure? Beyond a shadow of a doubt, we can drop a building that we need to drop for
500,000. We got that in writing. for living quarters. Yes, we're doing one now. It is. It is. It is doable. Plus the six folks you're talking about hiring. So that's a problem. So we can't do a
building and six people for 500,000. So that's something we either need that's going to take a little while, ma'am, to be able to build the building. So when we put it into the budget next year, then that'll be done. But we're talking about building a building. Like,
does this time frame work 100%. I'm I'm very hesitant to be in support of building a building when we don't know for sure. I mean, I'm he's he seems like a a fellow that's been trustworthy to this point, but we don't know for sure that that's coming. So, that's just
something I want to express. I'm not confident that that's definitely going to come. And I was always taught that you don't do things without something in the hand. If I can the appropriation was not for personnel for the personnel side of that
has to come from the council and part of that is being offset by fire assessment fee. So is that something we're going to have to jack up the fire assessment fee to get more people in the proposed fire assessment. So we're and that right now has been set at about 50%ish we're
thinking. It's not set. Not set. So, it could be that could be something that y'all consider increasing to offset another six individuals because those folks do hard work. I rode rescue for a while before I moved to Florida. That's hard, hard
work. That's hard work. Get that. So, that's something that I wanted to express some concern about. I live in Brooker. I'm on town council with Mayor Melvin. Um my other question to propose out to everyone was um for the exemptions for our individuals that don't have access
to internet or um how how do they go about applying? What's the plan for the individuals who need to apply for exemption but don't have an ability to do that easily? How are we getting that information out to those people? Perfect. Thank you.
So, great question and we'll be advertising those that exemption process and um you know the the grievance process or whatnot, but those exemptions are done. It's the same form for indigent um persons who can't afford uh funeral. We have that that process to
where they can request a cremation um through our county. And so it would be that same process. We would, you know, advertise in the telegraph. We advertise in in whatever uh capability we can. And if you know if there's an individual
that someone refers to us, then we'll go out there and talk with them and walk them through that process. But the goal is certainly to help those individuals that certainly that can't afford it. The goal is to make sure that we're taking care of those people. Unfortunately don't get telegraphs. Right. Sure. All right. Thank you.
Yes. Yeah. Question. Just one other short question. What is the current response time to Brooker? Yeah, it's not nine minutes. It is not 9 minutes. It is not 9 minutes. That's probably why our response time is so high. So, if we left from right here, ran as hard as we could
go, lights and siren is 26 minutes to the town of Brooker. um from Samson City, which is where our closest response is. And again, that's ALS unit that we have out of out of Samson City. It's still about 12 to 14 minutes uh from Samson City, which is a long time to wait for somebody to come help you.
You got a family member on the floor, having a heart attack, and you're waiting 26 minutes for an ambulance to get there. If you can't see the need, I there's nothing I can do that would help you to see it better. That's a long
time, isn't it, Mr. Hardy? It's a long time. And see, yes. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That's why I think we'd be better off if we could get the living quarters, then we could get something going like now.
You know, even if we did have to carports now or whatever to park the truck under, you'd at least you'd at least be able to to staff it. You know, it' just be the opposite of what we did in Speedville, right? Okay. Yes. yet.
The only thing I was going to say in regards to the RV park, um, you didn't I know last time you mentioned it about the assessment fees for them. And then the second thing is I see this in Keystone. I live in Keystone as a resident. Our medical calls have been tripling and doubling. So, we're asking
for, you know, rides coming from Stark or Middberg um long ways down. So when you think of the fire assessment, you're we have to think about the future of it. How many medical calls you're going to be getting down the road. So as our
population keeps expanding and our commercial spaces keep growing because we got like racetrack coming in and all these businesses. I said so is the demand of people. We're getting so much people coming down here that they want to be part of Florida. So people think short term about the cost of it, but
long term it's going to financially eventually break out. because we're going to need to have six. You have to have a minimum of certain amount of firefighters and paramedics because medical costs are going to go up. Not so much fires, but that was what my main
concern is. It's more the long-term cost of it. So for the um res county commissioners, I'm Mayor Dean Melvin from Brooker. Uh that's the saddest information that I could have possibly got for the town of Brooker
this morning. Uh the plan didn't fail. Looks to me like we have failed to plan. Uh I feel like it's negligence on our part and I have preached this from the get-go. We first talked about the fire department. Brooker, get something started. Miss Andrews, you I've
mentioned that to you many, many times and and you have refreshed my memory and said, "Yes, you have." Uh this thing should have got off the ground. We had $500,000. We should have already had a foundation or some kind of a structure out there. uh the things that we've had
to go through with the town of Brooker, the questions that we have to ask every meeting. I was with a lady yesterday that's that's unable to pay $167 a month. I know her personally and she had several questions for me yesterday. Uh she was thinking that the town of
Brooker is the one that's putting this $167 or 50% uh on the people. We're not. Uh if the we we meet I think week after next or next week. Uh, I don't think at this time here that we can possibly sign
a resolution for $167 at this time. Uh, I don't know what the time frame is going to be, but I personally I can't speak for the rest of the board, but I can say at this time I don't feel like the board's going to approve uh 50% or
$167. I feel like they're more settled in a $94, especially now that we're not getting the fire station for if we get the money. Who's to say in October we're going to get money? November to finish this station out. Uh people aren't
satisfied knowing that that this thing is uh if they pay this assessment that uh we're going to have a fire department. I at this time I don't know. Next question. She said if the people of Bradford if this was put on a referendum, Mr. Melvin, do you think that this thing would pass? Absolutely
not. Not not at 50%. the $94 they would they would go along with I my personal opinion on about it. But this is the situation that we're in out here at Brooker here. And like I mentioned last time to the board there these fixed incomes these people cannot
help that. They can't call the governor or the county or anybody else say look I need another $167 uh to get me by. They they don't have the the they don't have the function or the ways and means to do this. Uh, I still think that the board of county
commission should look at this 25%. If we need to increase it from time to time, so be it. Uh, we we have to do more with less. I have to do more with less. I worked with Enron Corporation for 28 years. When they said they was shutting the plant down, well, forget
what about the 28 years that I served and I worked there. They didn't care. And the same thing with these people out there. They appreciate the fire department. We love the fire department. And you guys do a tremendous job and we appreciate you driving 26 minutes to get out there to Brooker to a fire. And uh
the only question I have when you come out there, most of the time they come out there, they're not dressed in their uniform to to put the fire out. I witnessed that in Brooker on a house fire. But anyway, think about this. when we vote
on the 50% or the 25%. And for I am very upset with our legislative bodies. I so I shouldn't say that. I'm upset because we haven't already put something in place out there so that the
people of western Bradford County at least can know where their money is going to be spent on special fire assessment. Appreciate it. Thank you. Just um to address um Mayor Mayor Mevin's um comments. I know that at our
last meeting you expressed um the Brookers's basically the resident's inability you felt to to pay the 50%. But also I was under impression that your board would be meeting to make a decision and I know that our time frames
has been extended so that the municipalities will have a chance to meet with their various boards um to make your decision. um this board and you know while I'm cognizant of the many
residents and their financial burden that that many people experience but a decision has not been made by this board yet on the amount that's going to be imposed. It's been recommended but we haven't made a final decision.
I'd also like to just address the the comment about not being dressed when they get there. That's that's probably factual. I'm not not denying that at all. Um because of the fact that's a result of us having two personnel on an engine, right? The person that's driving the engine can't be fully bunkered out in all their gear and everything while
they're trying to drive a truck 70 mph down a narrow road. Same thing with the person sitting in the passenger seat is getting dressed on the way out to that call, but they're having to navigate. They're having to run the computer. They're having to run the sirens, the radios, those type things. So, um, that's probably very factual and that's
that's a result of having two personnel on an engine, but that's that's reality. Yeah, Mr. Ste Paul still 14167 Southwest 101st Avenue. Uh, two comments. Uh if you need some money to go to the Brooker Fire
Station, I would suggest that you if it's possible to move this money from the Cypress Run boat ramp engineering pot over to Brooker. It's far more important to get the Brooker station there than the Cypress Run. And I think that what I've seen going
forward, what the engineer is trying to get permitted is is not going to work. And so you're just wasting your money proceeding with that Cypress run. uh the money that any money you're putting into the cypress run. The other thing I wanted to point out, I thought that the county owned that uh the
building uh that used to hold a welding shop. It's sort of a quonet hut sort of building and because the guy that was living there, I think the county kicked him out. Uh he's been sold. Yeah, we sold that property. The county sold that property.
Oh, okay. If I could say something real fast, Mr. Chair. Yes. I don't have a vote in this thing, but I'm just I just want to emphasize again before hiring more personnel that you make sure you have
this assessment passed at what amount you need it passed at before you go furthering any hiring. because we ran decently in the black last year just because CDs were drawing over 5%. The only reason only reason we'd have been
in the red if we'd still been in bonds. So just don't make a whimsical decision, please. I mean, make sure the assessment is passed and enough to cover it
before we add more personnel. I I agree with you 100% and and I second that as well. I'll be honest I everybody here I I think if we go less than 50% it we're it's just not going to work. It's not going to work. Um you
know we I feel like we have to go with the 50%. I'm only one vote but I'm just throwing it out there. That's that's exactly where I'm at. Um, and and the other thing is I'm going to be straight up and honest and this going to make I hope it
doesn't make you mad because we've been friends a long time, but I hope Brooker opts in cuz we're you will have a fire station there and it has been taking us some time. But it's going to be awful hard to staff that if Brooker doesn't opt in. You see
what I'm saying? Uh, well, I'm just saying how how could I vote to staff it if y'all won't opt in to um to help pay the assessment? You see what I'm saying? I mean, we have to represent all the people. And I'm not
trying to be mean or harsh. I know there's people with hardships that won't be able to pay. Ben has opened it up. There's a telephone number they can call, you know, to to to take care of it and help them. But I'm just saying I'm only one vote. But for me, it would be
very hard for me to vote to staff a station where they're not participating in the fire assessment. It it would because that's that's not right for the what 26,000 residents in Bradford County. And uh and again, if we lower go
lower than 50%, we're going to go broke. I mean, I I think it's important too to remember that the fire assessment is helping to pay for that staffing. And so, yes, if to if we're increasing staffing to put in the town of Brooker, it only makes sense that the town of Brooker who's benefiting from that staffing would help
contribute to that staffing. Right. That that's the point you're trying to make. Right. Exactly. I'm And I'm just trying to be upfront and totally honest with you. Totally honest of of what I'm thinking and the way I feel. And I and please, I'm not somebody that can't afford it, they just can't afford it.
And and we'll deal with it with the hardship and and get them where they they don't have to pay it. But um but especially you know the town of Brooker going from y'all will be going from a what what was it 26 minute response call to having a station right there you know
and and that's why I think and I've been pushing this for a while that's why I think it's so important to build the living quarters and even if you have to park the truck under some type of shelter to protect it you won't be under the ISO rating because again that truck
has to be in an enclosed building but at least At least it would get the protection there now and get something started. If you got you got somebody that's not breathing, I don't think they care about the ISO. They don't care where to Yeah. They care about somebody showing up. Exactly. How many's in in
the town or Brooker? No, I mean, our budget has not been approved. It hasn't. So, I mean, we're still in in uh budget talks right now, but I agree with the clerk that, you know, the fire assessment needs to be decided on before we add anything uh any personnel. So, that would take, you know, the time of the fire assessment,
but I could certainly build a budget with the anticipation that that passes and with those personnel on staff, two years for the truck. We have apparatus we could put out there now. This one up pretty quick. Yeah. That one right there in Samson City right now. About six months. Yeah. Yeah.
And that's a great point and this is why again I I didn't feel comfortable moving forward with anything until we had all of the funding secured um you know for that building. But I'm Yep. [Music]
Right. Yeah. Yeah. We need to make sure y'all are on board before we keep that final results by June. But what I've got today from Andrew the funds are not available
for June. We hope for what October November the first 500,000 we have available to spend right now. Right. Right. I think I think the point is that we're going to build a station and we're going to put people there again with the
commitment of of the town of Brooker. I mean, I think that's but that can happen. We can start that right now because we have the we have the money for the building currently that will build the living quarters and if we need to put a metal, you know, a metal shed out there, we can do that. Um, you know,
for the time being for a for a truck. So, that's right. I've been 47 years. I've seen it all. That's right. Yeah, I think and honestly I'm just going to speak openly here. I think that a commitment from the town of Brooker at
that 50% level would certainly convince this board to say let's go ahead and move forward with it. But I think that's there's got to be a mutual agreement on on both sides. I think you're you're going to getting a benefit of the of the response. Um, and you know, the county is going to be getting the benefit of
collecting the the assessment on those, but I think there's got to be that mutual benefit. And I I just want to town of Brooker. Um, Mr. Melvin, I don't know the other lady's name. Brief. Um, the counties took quite a hit over
this thing the last several years. Ben knows, commissioners know, all the commissioners were here when all this happened. the the fire department budget used to be like $325,000 and then the sheriff took it over and it was $500 something thousand
that year that the sheriff's office had the fire department. Then when went ahead and did it with full-time people with uh the sheriff hired part-time guys. What was that first budget? I don't remember. Three million two and a half I think it was 5.2 I've got it right here as a matter of fact but it was I believe it
was 5.2 2 million. That that would be the current budget because well with I'm sorry that was fire and EMS combined. Yeah. Yeah. See here. So the countyy's taken quite a hit off this thing. I mean it's it's hurt the whole time I've been clerk here. This has been very very hard
and stressful trying to balance the budget and it's almost impossible. Like I said we ran in the good last year just because we made 5% interest on CDs and besides that been running in red. So it was it was 1.9 for fire operations
in uh in 2020 and then 5.9 total uh between fire and EMS and now they're 10 together. Well, that was including the fire apparatus for the appropriations. Our actual operating budget is about eight right at 8 million. Okay.
But it's also important to remember that you can't buy a gallon of milk for the same thing you did back in 2020 either. So I mean the price of everything has gone up. I don't I don't think that's from mismanagement or from from anything. Let's pull that back up. So the 50% for residential was 167 25%
was $84 which brings in 843,000 annually with 25%. 50% brings in about 1.6 million. Mr.
Strong, you be nice to me. My question is, so we have residential and then we have vacant and you showed a picture where the two vacant
were forest. The forest tend to have used more manpower, but they cost less. They're we're getting less money. They're not
actually, right? So, my house is going to cost hypothetically $167, but you're going to have a forest
fire that's 50 acres or 75 or 100 acres and they're going to pay $47. But it's going to take every bit of
manpower that you have plus more plus another county and they're only going to pay $47. But you're going to knock out my house
with five people. Where's the fairness? I I agree with you. I don't know that that's necessarily, you know, a fair split. But what they do is they take the calls that we've had over the last three years and they look at how many of them were brush fires, how many of them were
residential structure fires, how many of them were at commercial structures, and that's how they get that breakdown of what a residence is going to pay versus what a uh commercial structure versus what a vacant parcel is going to pay. And if anything is a exempt, that's set
by statute. That's nothing that we can control. And everything here has to be we can't adjust those rates. Everything's done. It all has to be relative and done by the the percentage of what the calls that we run there. I understand the
ad, but the vacant 47 bucks, 24 bucks. I mean, I saw you guys pass my house a couple days ago going out to the massive fire on 225. and all of the trees and all of the
manpower. Um, you were out there and you shut down the road. If that fire had been assessed for 47 bucks, that's unfair to the
residents that are paying 167 bucks. But you want people to pay the 167. The board wants the people to pay 167. But that massive fire, how many acres was it? Six or seven acres. Six or
seven acres. But you shut down the road for how long? How long you shut down that road? You shut down the road for two hours. How much manower do you have? What's everybody?
Okay. It was a It was a lot because you had troopers, you had police officers, you had brush trucks because I counted them when they passed. Sure. Um they were the first to go on the
scene and then the the trucks went back. So it it was a lot of manpower that went other than five. It it's unfair. And I'm I'm not arguing those numbers at all. The the methodology that we use to
determine these rates um was done by our consultant, our consulting firm. It's been court proven. It's it's a very reliable way to collect this data and to generate these numbers. I'm I'm not a consultant so I certainly don't know the
intricacies of it but um again that was the methodology that they used and that was the the numbers that they came up with and how they were split between each um between each type. I understand your point though I do I guess I'm looking for the a fairness to
to it and it was kind of like Mr. Steel brought up way back when in his 1970 something mobile home that by the
time you got to his mobile home there's nothing there. Right. And so it's the difference of someone's brand new 5,000 square foot home. It's going to be a difference.
um in in the two and um there there has to be some leeway. Um, so it looking at the number it if it's not egg and it's
vacant, what what's the I think they look at it based off value as well, right? The home is more valuable probably than the property, right? I understand that. But when you're looking at a forest, Yeah. you're using a lot of manpower and the forest
is less and you could or exempt and you're there for you could be there for day. I see your point. I will say this. I do agree with you because I've already talked to him about the same thing. But but at the same time, that's
the way it's set by the state for the for the A and everything. So there's nothing we can change those rates. No, not I don't think without without going back through and doing a a full study again. Um, I don't think those
weights be rates could be adjusted and you can't adjust an individual rate. Like I can't say, okay, well that the or this board can't say that the residential rate is going to be 300, but the A is only going to be 20 or vice versa, right? They can't say that the we're going to keep 167 for residential,
but A is going to or but the the vacant is going to go to to $200 per parcel. They can't do that individually of each uh type, property type. It has to all be relative and it has to all be done in sync. So if one moves, they all move
essentially. Okay. Is there any other questions? All righty. Then we're moving on to our last item, the uh public public hearing dates. Do you have the the dates? Uh yes, sir. The first
hearing is July the 1st. Okay. And the second hearing is August 21st. And just so you know, the the notices be mailed to the property owners between those two hearings. Okay? And then corrections and complaints can begin to be addressed when the notices go out.
When the noses go. Okay. All right. And when the notices go out, we'll put some a number in there for so people can call. Yes, sir. Okay. Great. Okay. Can I make just one more comment just to make sure that everybody's clear? This is not a fire department versus a
community. We all we want to do is provide the best service that we possibly can. I love this community. Love everybody here. It's this is not an us versus them type thing. This is just we want to provide the service. How this board again decides to fund it is is up to you all. And and again, we're just
trying to to provide options and provide justification for what we do and what your what your money goes towards. But again, I don't ever want it to be painted as an us versus them. Take a lot of pride in this community. take a lot of pride in our department as you can tell. Um, and I have a lot of love for
this community. So, I'll end with that and we appreciate you. Excellent. All right. Yes. So, are we going to put this if if Brooker can provide whether or not they're going to be in then we can put it on next week's agenda?
Yeah. All I would say is yes, we can we can move as fast as you want. I just wanted to state for the record that I think we need to know what Brooker's commitment is because we're basing the personnel off of that 50% assessment. So, if Brooker is not committed to that,
and that's okay. That's if that's what they're saying, then we need to probably back up and reassess what we want to do with that station, how we're going to staff it, and at what level. I think we in fairness to us to be able to plan, we
need to know what Brooker's going to do so we can have all the cards. Exactly. Otherwise, we'll have a building there with no staffing. Right. And we'll have the item on the agenda regardless. If if if you're not prepared to move forward with it, then you can just table it.
Okay. Mr. And you said it's Tuesday. It is the Okay. indicated to have a meeting. Maybe it would be helpful if if Mr. Carter, you know, would be willing to attend and maybe address any questions that your council has. Maybe that would help them
in their decision process as well. Yeah, I'm sure Chief Carter would be more than happy to to do that and I'll be there. Um, so we're if they can vote then we can get an answer. Okay, that'd be great. All right,
anything else come before the board? Meetings. Yeah, I've talked to her 5,000 times. This was um