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e e e e e look all right uh Board of County Commissioners Bradford County Florida March 4th 2025 it's 9:30 uh at this time
I'm going to ask um commissioner Spooner to open us up with prayer and flag salute may we all vow Heavenly Father we thank you for your grace mercy and for your love thank you dear Lord for all who have gathered here today thank you dear Lord for us living in a free
country oh dear lord thank you dear Lord for those who wish to be here that could not and those who are listening online dear Lord help us dear Lord and the um carrying out of our business that we do it in such a way that is pleasing in your sight the Lord
we're asking for your grace and your mercy and your favor for all the appropriation requests that we've made this year that our legislators would find us favorable Lord we ask that you bless us as we work together in our
community Lord help us to always have a mind to work together for the good of our community and bless this meeting as we conduct the business and let it be pleasing in our sight Jesus name we pray amen amen to the flag of the United States of
America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank everyone for being here this morning for this meeting uh the first item on the agenda is is public comments
um uh I'll just call your name when you come up uh if you'll please just state your name and where you live and uh you'll have three minutes uh to make your comment the first one I have here is from U Meridian he healthc care uh Marcus
Reeves good morning uh my name is Marcus Reeves uh we're out of 1525 Southwest uh Williston Road uh 3268 Gainesville Florida um so I've come here today to talk about our Disaster Recovery team we
recently got a grant to help the survivors of hurricane Helen we offer our in-house Services which deal with uh mainly mental health so dealing with mental health first aid or the trauma of the storm uh the other thing we're trying to do with this Grant is linked
survivors who may still be struggling to exist to already existing resources out in the community so this could be food banks homeless shelters Charities that could deal with property damage employment assistance things of that nature and so I think it's important that we begin a relationship starting
with this new Grant with the counties that may know these resources better than we do um so I'll leave these flyers they kind of detail our services and what we're looking to build I don't have it's a relatively new Grant so I don't have a fancy business bus card or anything but I left my name and number on one of the Flyers I'll leave it with
your Clerk and uh we'll be in touch okay Marcus I sure do appreciate it thank you does Bo have any questions yes I do yes if I may go ahead is this in other count is this being done in other counties as well yes so right now we have a grant
just covering all of the Tri County as well as elat Baker Bradford and Union um my I'm I'm a community liaison just to elat Baker Bradford and Union so I don't know a ton about what's going on in the Tri County but I'm just trying to you
know get feelers out there in the other four counties just so that we can kind of know what's available and what we can direct people who may be struggling what resources we can direct them to thank you thanks thanks thank you the last one
I have is U Mr steel Paul Steel Paul still 14167 Southwest 101st Avenue St uh a couple things on your agenda today I'm wondering how uh strawberries and short cake uh relate to tourist development and whether that's an
appropriate uh expenditure of tourist development resources I'm not sure what regulations go with t how you spend your tourist development income but that seemed like a really strange one to me
um the other thing I wanted to raise that's on the agenda I believe today is the uh purchase of the fairgrounds and the question is do can the county afford to have both a Fairgrounds and a uh conference center and I think the thing
that uh determines that is uh is the conference center uh making a profit and is that profit sufficient to cover what uh the interest would be if the conference center were sold and that money put into an account uh
bearing interest then I wanted to shift to your uh workshops I tried to watch the workshop uh on uh YouTube and because the people who were making comments didn't come forward they couldn't be heard so I
would urge you to make sure that you have everybody come to the podium and one of the things I'm particularly interested in is the in the last Workshop you covered Cypress Run boat ramp and I'd urge you to put uh if at all possible work that into
today's uh Workshop because I'd really like to make a comment on that and whether that's an appropriate use of uh the voting funds uh and the other thing uh mowing I
noticed came up in the workshop and I'd like to suggest uh a change in your m approach that would reduce your mowing cost by about 50% and that's simply to mow uh only a single pass down all the roads or to the
roadside ditch and if you do that there's a lot of environmental advantages you don't tear the ditch up which reduces erosion you also keep possibly keep the ATV people out of the ditch and you the area beyond the ditch
then can develop into a really nice display of wild flowers we have a really abundant Wildflower uh Source here if we just let them don't mow them down and in fact I think that we could be a a tourist destination site people would
come up to view the the wild flowers along our roads so I would hope you would consider that when you think about uh trying to mow down everything thanks thanks Mr Ste okay that's all the public comments I have I'm going to move on to item
three the special appreciation at this time I'm turn it over to Chief Carter Mr chair board good morning how's everybody doing uh as you all know we recently had the station 10 grand opening there in speedville um it was a great event and
and huge success and you know in part of my speech out there I said that that that station really celebrates the um the partnership between this community and and our fire rescue department and this County and so um with that we had a
lot of uh participation in that station from community members business owners um that that donated quite a bit of of money and time to that station to that facility to uh to give back to our First Responders and uh the men and women that
are out there doing the job so we have a few of them with us this morning and wanted to recognize their contributions and uh just give them the the the appreciation that they're due and and thank you and and these plaques and being here in this board meeting doesn't even come close to to touching um how
appreciative we are of of what they've contributed so um I won't say too much further than that but I do want to uh to recognize a few people that are here with us this morning and so we have um is is Keith with us from Gator fire Keith was he able to make it okay um so
first off we have Mr chance Wilson from kid of Fire Systems uh they donated the entire fire alarm system panel um and and installation and the equipment as well um what would be the dollar figure on something like that chance do you
have that off off top of your head over $4,000 worth of equipment with and install for um for that and so and Mr chance you made the trip from Tampa area right to be here with us this morning so um we greatly greatly
appreciate that um and I think what we'll do is go through and and kind of introduce everybody at one time and then we'll bring everybody up for a photo if that's okay um in recognition of your incredibly generous contributions to braford County fire rescue station number 10 project your support
strengthens our ability to protect and serve our community thank you for your dedication to Public Safety and your commitment to brre County we appreciate your chance and then we've got Lou Jim here if y raise your hand from Florida Southern Plywood um and they uh donated
all of the cabinets for that station as well and if you haven't been into that station I encourage you to go down there it's it truly is I said this you know at the grand opening the a showpiece of the Gold Coast down there um it's turned out to be a beautiful facility and really the cabinet the Cabinetry and countertops and all that are just
incredible and so um Lou and Jim donated uh the entirety of the the Cabinetry um and and Mr rck if you want to elaborate on that a little bit I know you sure you were very involved with that process so sure yeah if you don't mind uh I just jotted down a couple things here so I don't forget but uh when we started
station uh 10 uh I reached out to Lou Irwin and Mike Cruz Lou Irwin of Florida Southern Plywood Mike Cruz of CNC custom Cabinetry and uh ask if they could help with the cabinets for station 10 uh they both said they would uh get back with me
and um I guess Lou talked with Jim Perryman that's the owner of Florida s and plywood and uh then uh they they talked with Mike and uh it wasn't long that they called me and uh Florida Cy they and this is what they said they
said uh Florida Cy plywood would supply all the cabinets and CNC Custom Custom Cabinets would assemble and install for free and um I I couldn't believe it um I I said for free and uh I I told him I
said all I did at when I I asked them all I I didn't give them no plans or nothing I just told him about how big it was and I I told him that I said look you haven't even seen any plans and uh and and to be honest I was just looking for a little help for a you know a
discount or something like that and then they said again it's it's all for free um everything's for free and uh and they they even has this which you know I'm putting them on the spot now but they asked not to even say even mention their businesses or
anything they did they just wanted to do it and um I just want to say these are two excellent companies um uh they're they're run by great men and women and uh and if you just if you don't mind just for a second I the more I was talking with Mr pman um it's pretty cool
his great-grandfather Mr Peak uh lived in a um hope I don't blotch this up lived in a house that was actually where the CVS is today and then later and they they showed me some pictures of it I
started to put it up on the thing really really cool old house with the big huge columns and they moved it somewhere over around Cherry Street later on um and then also um um his his great grandfather helped
develop the west side of Kingsley Lake then his great then his grandfather helped uh get the railroad from Cedar key through Stark to Fernandina and
also let me see we we have great grandfather grandfather oh and then also his grandfather was a judge in Stark judge Perman years ago I thought that was pretty cool and this is just you know
very brief just um and then Jim Perryman um had a house and two lots on kingsy Lake which he actually sold around 1990 to help start Florida Southern Plywood I just thought that was pretty cool you
know just a little history and and Mr pyramid like I was talking to you earlier you ought to write all this stuff down it would make a cool history reading later on um but but I say all this just to to thank you all very much and thank you so much for for driving
down here this morning um the second one is um is Mike Cruz um Mike from CNC Custom Cabinets actually start started out uh when he was 18 years old as a uh a volunteer firefighter later retiring
from forry with 20 years and um both of these companies have just really wanted to help out our firefighters and again I can't thank y'all enough for um for the donating all the cabinets and everything and again they look beautiful but but
thank you so much for helping us out and again thank you so much for taking your time to come here this morning so I appre appreciate it can I tell you another company that we need to mention is Gator Fire Equipment uh Supply they they supplied the entire fire suppression system for that station um installation and
everything and and between all the donations that you've heard about this morning the Cabinetry um the fire suppression system the fire alarm panel all that I mean that's that's over $100,000 worth of equipment and Labor uh that was donated to that station which is again uh thank you doesn't even come
close to doing it just and we certainly certainly appreciate it and the Community Partnership there and just just goes above and beyond so um I think it would be more than appropriate to bring them up and and grab a photo real quick we got time for that this morning sure and one more round of applause
please for these come on up Mike loves this I know uh we'll get right up there underneath the BR sign sir [Laughter]
all right one more round of applause for these folks just for their again tremendous contributions and boy that's all I have I'm getting out of here sir thank you all again and thank you so much for your time to take this morning to come up here all right next item on the agenda
is item four approval of the consented agenda do I have a motion in a second share I have a motion for approve for the consent agenda okay we have a motion from commissioner Spooner second second from um commissioner Andrews all
in favor by a sign of i i i motion carries 5 all right next item on the agenda I'll just turn this over to our to um Scott corn thank you Mr chairman uh at this
time I'd like to ask uh Mr Jimmy Crosby and Justin Dello uh to come up they have a brief presentation for us regarding theou between Brader County and the City of Stark good morning um for the record I'm Justin Dello I'm a a vice president and
engineer with Woodard and Curran uh we've been partners with the city for probably about the last five years um today I'm going to walk you through kind of the 301 bypass the Investments the city's made for for the infrastructure to improve the downtown city as well as
extend utilities out to the bypass a common commitment between City and County uh as you see behind me um quick agenda for today we're going to recap the the commitments the city has made to improve the downtown infrastructure as well as
throughout the city both water and and Sewer I'm going to describe that 301 commitment that 301 bypass connection and the long-term effects of that project I'm going to summarize a schedule as well as the funding opportunities both um that the city has
secured the commitments city has made as well as the commitments the county has made towards those projects and then finally we'll discuss those last uh next steps and action items so back in 2023 the city made a commitment to improve what they call
collection system Phase 2 um Saratoga Heights miscellaneous improvements of the downtown collection system as well as improvements throughout the the city uh collection system that includes Saratoga Heights lift station Andrew Street lift station um but about $5
million in total capital projects that the city has run out got some grant funding for as well as some um legislative Appropriations for to move that project forward but that's one of the key foundational items of improving that District's area uh that part uh
that Northern uh northeastern part of the city uh sewer infrastructure um that is following right a 20 $25 million investment in the city's wastewater treatment facility that's nearing completion now uh that that new facility is scheduled to go
online within the next several months but again a critical foundational element uh so back as well in 2023 the city made a commitment um to do planning city-wide planning of their water system um that planning document described
upgrading the two water treatment facilities increasing storage uh that was identified as a problem in the Northeast Northwest sections of the city uh we dealt with water age issues and pressure issues in that City so that planning document identified uh
improving pressure in that area the city which included a new elevated Water Tower and line extensions to help with uh water pressure and flow in that north um area of the city um that project also included you know other infrastructure improvements
like metering and other uh line connections but substantially improving the city's existing infrastructure within the city as well as plan for New Opportunities and New Growth so the um we like to describe it or I like to personally describe it as the city was bypassed and overpassed you
know by by 301 um and and with that you know there there's a substantial amount of opportunity and growth out along what we describe as the new truck bypass at 301 um no utilities there currently exist but there's massive opportunity for growth Economic Development and
expansion within you know Bradford County and the city uh provided that you know utilities can get there I think the long-term goal is ultimately to to water provide water and sewer to every spoke right in the bypass but we had to start with one uh with the planning document
that identified the issues to the north and to the West you know we identified that Corridor um as seen seen highlighted here uh in red uh which is the 301 State Road 16 uh Corridor city was already investing in putting a water tower out
there extending a water main multiple miles in order to help with the pressure uh issues in that area um made sense that that would be the first leg because the city was already making a substantial investment in the water system getting out to that area uh this here describes you know the
rest of the process throughout you know the legislative Appropriations that have been secured for this project as well as the commitments made um just recently or or actually back in 2023 um this commission authorized some arpa funds right to go
towards extending utilities out to the bypass right that project was all conceived at that time right then through planning subsequent design right we've moved the process forward to where we are here today uh recently as early as a a couple weeks ago um city and
county got together to to draft a memo of understanding right that memo of understanding went back and forth and then we understand that a a recent copy was issued as early as this morning with some edits from from the county um county commissioner County managers got a couple of comments that he wants to
make on that but just so we understand where we're at with this we want to make sure that that's covered and written in the record um for for the the changes that are made today right thank you Justin so the only uh the only change that we'd like to
make from the from theou that you have in front of you is the uh addition of some language that would stipulate the timeliness of of remittance from the county and the city is asked for seven days seven business days so if you're
inclined to make a motion to approve the mlu it would be with the additional language of remittance um from the county will be made within seven business days of the request and and really it's a just a cash flow issue right when you get
contractors out with big contracts and you got to get them paid quickly um we want to make sure that the city can has that cash on hand to make those uh payments quickly to the contractor and Commissioners um I did speak to the chief Deputy clerk previously and she
said that should not be a problem at all okay thank you uh so so progress to date I did Cover quite a few of these items already but I'll just summarize them here uh start collection system right upgrades in progress right that's going to
improve that area of the city to accommodate right some of that future growth to that area out 16 um City move completed planning right they're in design now the water plant upgrades the tower upgrades the line extensions those are scheduled to be completed this July
um the next step is to obviously move forward with this uh planning document for extending the sewer line utilities out that Corridor and 16 but the the goal would be to provide several options as well as cost estimates uh with respect to to getting those utilities
out there uh we do feel like that design can be done in conjunction with the water design because we've already done survey we've already done Geotech uh a lot of the uh foundational elements of extending utilities has already been completed um so we are hopeful that you know by this summer again July August
time frame we could be complete with the sewer design as well so this fall will'll be moving into construction right uh for both projects drinking water upgrades as well as construction uh at least bidding right bidding this fall likely award um January 2026 uh
one-year construction timeline on that so by 2027 early 27 uh we we'd hope to be done with construction uh of of this project so getting utilities out to the 16301 bypass um beyond that I mean really the only thing that I'll continue to mention
is the city's made you know some substantial investments in this uh their $14 million commitment into the water system um $5 million upgrading you know the sewer collection system $25 million to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant uh the city's making some very
substantial uh infrastructure improvements over the last uh you know 5 years and certainly the next few uh scheduled um so this very important project for the city um and always appreciate the the county Support and willingness to to jump in we think this is a very mutually beneficial
project and certainly something that you know when I speak on behalf of the city um you know I think it's a it's a great partnership and more more communities counties and City should be doing more of this so as far project schedule I mentioned you know Q q1 2027 we're
looking to be finished uh and I'll open up to any questions you guys have I just have comments okay um I just want to say that um it's amazing to me um the changes that has taken I mean
taken effect in the downtown city is tremendously just like you were talking about what's being done that so many people don't see with the water and the sore and everything but the transformation of of
the city to me um long overdue but it is wonderful seeing everything that's happening I came in this morning just to see Cruise out replac inside on the by the sidewalks which like we discussed a while
back if we're trying to pull people into this city or into this County then we have to make it appealing um no one wants to come in and and say oh I want to live here when it's not that and so I
mean I applaud the city and every effort that you've made every every bit of the work that you've done um I am very very glad that we could do this um and and give this money towards the changes that are about to come um I trust you guys
100% I am glad that we could be a part of this as I said yes it is the city of Stark and we are Bradford County but we are all Bradford County and I want to
ensure that we continue working together and um I'm glad to hear that everybody was a part of these changes and the stipulations that we put on this money now um I hope that no one um sees us negatively um because I
think that um everyone on this board was was it was a unanimous vote to give that money and help the city and making those changes with that infrastructure getting out to the bypass then that is going to create a huge change for all of us and
um so I'm glad that we could be a part of it thank you for allowing us to do that that's Mr chair um M Andrew I like like to correct you it was not just a giving but it was an investment on the part of
our County and working together with our city um so that we are united as one community so we're investing um in this project so that it would better the um the development economic development for
the entire County that's that's how I I kind of see it um but I guess the memorandum U of understanding here is so that there is accountability it's we we trust each other but sometimes when something isn't in writing it doesn't
mean anything but we know that the heart of the the city is to do that which is good for our our community so uh I appreciate you coming to to share um what the the phases plans are and
that we note because we just got it this morning that the change to page two um D phase 3 to include that language in this MOA understood thank you Mr chair yes sir I just wanted to
comment uh Mr Dello thank you thank you for your time uh I was able to meet with Mr Dello uh he was kind enough to take some time out of his day to come up from his home and and so we met met in a a neutral area and uh we went over the
project and we discussed some options and he went over the plans that they had and uh this is certainly the best option as far as the route to go and uh just appreciate the the time that that you put into it and um we look forward to this project and certainly with the
amended language here I think the uh theou um if if we're finished with comments I would go ahead and make a motion to approve uh with the amended language that we put in there for the draws to be as listed in the uh amended language I was second the motion okay
have a motion in a second any other questions just one question this it's seven days correct we uh we agreed this morning that it would be seven business days is that enough okay yeah
right right and also before I call for the vote um the city of Stark and and um justtin celo I I thank yall youall worked very close and very hard with the with the county and again I can't I can't thank all of y'all enough and um
and be honest I'm looking forward to working together with y'all to for more projects to help all the citizens of Bradford and Stark I I just again I thank you all so much and thank you for your patience the presentation awesome I I just want to tell you thank you so
you're welcome all right so at this time we have a motion in a second all in favor by a sign of I I motion carries 5 appreciate it thank you thank you did you want to say something Mr Crosby I do on behalf of the city uh I think I think
we're approving what can happen whenever private public relationships work well together I think we're also proving what can happen when the county and the city and the state are able to work together on a project I can tell you this in
Tallahassee they've been impressed with the fact that the county and the city has worked so well together on this particular project and I think it's going to set the stage for future growth particularly and what the uh the Florida Senate this year is calling for a rule
count a rule County Renaissance and there's quite a bit of money being put aside if it passes through for greater economic development in rural counties in Florida so I think we I think we hit it at the right time and I think we just
need to keep this momentum moving forward while while the uh talli is listening to these types of plans so we appreciate it I appreciate uh Scott carneg working with us and and getting the the details worked out because there was some back and forth as there should
be and and and making sure that our concerns were covered and your concerns were covered and I think we worked through those so appreciate the staff and the staff work on this project and Rachel was in that as as well as the chairman when we worked out those details so we appreciate it and
appreciate working with youall and we appreciate uh being Partners on these types of Economic Development programs thank you m mayor I'm sorry go ahead I was just going to say mayor R did you want to say something go go ahead commissioner SPO I think wanted to my
boss I didn't know my boss was behind me sorry about that now just to uh Echo some of the things that Miss Andrew said this is very exciting um this is a great investment in just kind of the underlayment of our community and even
as mayor of the city of start we're all Bradford we're all start and we are stronger together um having only been on the commission for a couple years we have seen exponential growth in the vision of what we're doing in the
investment in the community um as you said a lot of this with the infrastructure it's unseen by our citizens but when they receive those services and they receive the growth or they receive the benefit of the growth um we all do
better uh the attitude that I've seen a lot in the past or I've felt within our County growth is scary okay you can either manage growth or it will manage you so as we look to our future and we look to our infrastructure and how we
invest in it this is how we make things happen this is how we manage our growth and this is how we make it better for our community and when people come and invest in our community it comes back in tax funds which gives us even more latitude to do
more in the future so again thank you very much and um it's a great partnership you know as we look back and forth to each other how we work together so thank you again thank yeah I just before you go just wanted to comment
because our legislators look at whether counties and cities municipalities work together and when we can show that we are one yes ma they are more likely to fund the different things that we're asking for the different Appropriations and this is just one
example of that yes um but also I just wanted to acknowledge and I should have done during my prayer that we are extending our warm thoughts and prayers towards um um commissioner um nent um
and his recovery and so I just wanted to acknowledge Dan lent and in our prayers for his his recovery yes ma'am thank you very much thank you and not to put youall on the spot I I see a few more City commissioners did you want to say anything okay y all good but thank you
all for coming every every single one of y'all and thank you chairman okay thank you Mr chairman if I may just so you're aware the uh this mou will be taken up tonight at the Star City commission for approval so once they approve it then
we'll be uh we'll be good to go okay thank well they're all here now do we have a quum what we waiting on you haven't advertised the meeting all right uh next item on the is a North Central North Central Florida uh
homeless um and uh again I'll turn this over to uh Mr C yeah Mr chairman actually we're on a item five impact I mean oh I'm sorry I skipped all over I checked it okay my bad six all right six
yeah item six impact studies fees okay uh s Sant Sant I apologize I didn't mean to skip over you skip over yeah you're were hoping huh uh good morning chairman good morning Commissioners uh nice to meet
youall my name is Peter napley uh I'm with Santa Consulting uh we worked on an impact Fe study for the county and I've got a brief presentation today uh overviewing the results of that study um and talking about next steps and path forward it's been a pleasure working
with Mr Carnegie and County staff on this study uh Chris row was also involved of Briant Miller Olive he's an attorney that specializes in Impact fees ensuring that we follow the appropriate standards and conditions for this study I guess it's up to
me so uh just a little background the county currently does not charge impact fees there's been a moratorium for some time on your impact fees a long time ago you did have an impact Fe schedule um this is pretty common in the state a lot of rural counties put moratoriums on
their impact Fe stopped collecting after the Slowdown from 2008 and where there's pretty much a halt on growth and economic development um in order to try to encourage that development to happen a lot of people put their impact Fe on moratorium but now a lot of counties
throughout the state are looking at reactivating those impact fee schedules since growth is coming in so tremendously and um this is also an opportune time with you know the recent discussion about utility extension out to the 301 bypass area there's some
development opportunities out there you don't want to miss your opportunity to collect impact fees on that new development so just an overview since it's been some time since the County's charged impact fees just a kind of familiarize and refresh what an impact fee is and what the purpose of it is
it's a fee that's charged only to new development so it doesn't affect any existing taxpayers and residents within the county it's collected usually at the time of building permit issuance it's a fee that's only used for Capital so you can't use it for any
ongoing uh Personnel salaries operations and maintenance um and it's a fee that's only used for new items um so understanding that with growth comes the need for expanding service you need new facilities new vehicles new equipment
Etc the impact fee is designed to offset the cost of that so that the burden of paying for those new facilities and and and new assets doesn't fall all on the existing taxpayers in the county it's collected from new development as well there's some legal guidelines
around uh impact fee collection in the State and they're outlined in the state statutes there's a whole section on them um essentially what they say is that you have to design these fees in order to proportionally collect from new development they can't just kind of uh
be arbitrarily uh uh calculated um you you can't decide oh it's going to be $100 per new house um just there has to be a specific formula that's followed um and that's where we come in because we've been doing this in the state for uh 20 years now
the rational Nexus essentially means that uh there is a direct tie from the need for new services and the amount of growth that's occurring and the statutes also require that these funds are held in separate
accounting uh funds so that they're not um swept into the general budget and and kind of lost within the general revenues of the county they have to be accounted for separately and then only used for the specific purpose in which they
collected so to start we uh one of the fees that we calculated for the county is the fire impact fee so this slide here kind of details the calculation of that impact fee um the general process is you establish a cost basis so we
looked at your existing investments in the infrastructure and assets related to your fire department so your facilities the vehicles equipment we reduced anything anything that was funded from Grants or donated um because you can't
charge new development if you didn't pay for it yourself with General revenues so we only looked at the assets that were funded with General revenues and then we brought everything up to current days dollars so if you had to replace that station today what would it cost rather than what did you spend on it back when
it was first constructed some other things to point out this includes only the unincorporated County so the next step is to look at the capacity so how many people um and how many uh non-residential businesses are currently covered in the service area of the the
fire department uh the County's fire department so we excluded the city of Stark and only looked at unincorporated County in that capacity number and the event uh the resulting fee that we got was $498 per dwelling unit so that's the
fee on the residential side and then there's also a non-residential side that you would collect from any non-residential development so there's 194 per th000 square fet that's collected from non-residential and then 498 per
household and uh if it was a multif family development it would be collected per dwelling unit so if it's 100 unit apartment complex be 100 times that fee on the EMS side we did a similar calculation looked at the cost basis we
looked at the capacity but on the capacity side we included the city of Stark in that so you'll see that capacity number is a little higher and the advantage of separating out fire and EMS is that you can collect from more um development occurring from
the EMS side since the service area includes the Incorporated areas of the county so the eventual fee turned out to be 28 per unit or per dwelling unit and 101 per th000 square feet
and then finally we looked at the law enforcement um the cost of the the sheriff's department and their assets similar to EMS um this includes all areas of the county and the eventual
fee was 304 per unit and 1119 per th000 square feet so we put some surveys together just to give you an idea of what other counties uh throughout the state are charging for these fees you could see on this uh this survey here shows the fire
fee at 498 and kind of puts you right there in the middle um one of the counties you're probably looking for is Baker County I think Baker County only actively collects a school impact fee right now but they have expressed interest
recently in in looking at updating their impact Fe schedule as well this is the EMS impact fee shows you uh this is a a little bit less common of an impact fee throughout the uh State it's becoming more common um a lot of times it's combined with the fire
so that the the it's fire rescue and includes the EMS assets as well um but it is advantageous to separate them out when the service areas are different and you can collect from more areas with the EMS impact fee and then finally the law enforcement
or the sheriff's uh impact fee just gives you an idea that these are reasonable fees when compared uh to other counties throughout the state um the what the surveys don't show is that what level are they collecting these
fees at it's the the commission's uh discretion when it comes to uh what level you want to execute these fees you could adopt them at 50% cost recovery um so half of the fee levels that I showed you or any level in between zero and 100
you just can't uh adopt impact fees above the level that we calculated so some of these counties may be adopting at lower levels um some of them may have not looked at their impact fees in in decades uh which is often the case so when you total up the
fees you get about $1,000 per dwelling unit on the residential side and about $414 per thousand square feet on non-residential and the only other things to point out are uh the statute requires that you
notice um or advertise 90 days in advance of the new fee levels before you can begin collecting them uh to give the community notice that the fees um are going to be present and that we suggest the county
consider updating these impact fees every four years so there these are just three fees um and there are many other fees more commonly uh Transportation roads schools um
libraries Parks and Recreation we looked at several of those and at the time felt that there wasn't sufficient data and evidence to support the fee calculation uh so some of the things we're looking for is uh near-term or or even longterm
within the next 10 years expansion projects for those services or um or even you know a schedule or need for expanding those Services um but also the funding is important so on the road side and transportation side a lot of those
road projects come from outside funding sources and the only road projects we can look at are expansion so you know going from two lanes to four lanes Etc a lot of those projects have been funded from other sources and there there at
this time there aren't um any significant capacity adding uh projects that we could include so um we' suggest the county look at it again in the future if they have more robust plans or more specific detailed plans um that include funding or the Assumption of
funding from the general revenues um from the county and we can help uh assist with uh looking at that and calculating those fees so with that I'd be happy to there any questions could I ask a question Mr yes go ahead um with the roads so
maintaining the roads that wouldn't fall under that because I mean that's where I mean we we um spend so much money in just trying to maintain them no ma'am yeah okay question so and just for
clarification when you're collecting impact that's only for that specific area how it may impact that the area in which your which the new structure occurs or let's say if you had an Ingress regress area any improvements in
that that will be used in those specific areas is that correct with these fees that I presented today the three the public safety fees basically uh they are General County fees so if the growth is happening they're not specific to
benefit districts sometimes counties carve out districts and they say anything collected in this district has to be spent in this District District we're suggesting countywide fees so it's it's General it's up to the county you collect them from any growth occurring
within the county and can spend them um you know to your uh discretion at uh but they just have to be on assets or facilities that are needed because of growth so it has to be an addition or an
expansion okay have questions so how do you account for and I know you just said countywide but you know for instance let's say at the Northwest part of the county if someone has a piece of property there that they're passing on
to you know a family member and they build a home there and they're paying ,40 or whatever it was and there's really no change in the impact there so when you have more dense areas like we do in the South End of the
county where there is a lot of impact and especially impact on our roads down there which we don't include that but again it just it seems to me that and I know it's very difficult to say okay your $1,040 is going to sit here until
something else happens in that District or that area but again it just it to me it's almost uh again kind of an unfair way of proportioning you know that that fee now that's a great point and that I
believe I have to confirm this with uh the county attorney or our our legal adviser but I believe it's up to the county uh if you wanted to wave fees for specific properties if you felt that you know in a certain instance it wasn't deserving of the fee however I would say
that every County and and city that I work with around the state they collect them indiscriminately if that if it's a new unit of growth if there wasn't a house there before and now there's a house you they collect it and it's easier if you don't make any exceptions
because then that becomes kind of a slippery slope of you know you made an exception here you have to do it over there um they uh it's just it's it's the way the impact fees are but that is there's often a lot of difficulty with that you know the infill growth of you
know there was you know they own this property for a while and they're building a unit on it but there's really only one way to to collect them and it's with all units of new units of growth okay and I think another misconception that might be out there is that these
are non-recurring fees so it's a one-time fee I put that in your presentation but I think a lot of people hear it and they think that that something that's just going to come in you know to our coffers every year and it doesn't so you know it's clear that what you had in your presentation but
you know it should be known publicly that that is a non-recurring fee absolutely yes sir and and I would also say that the revenue is is hard to project and it's hard to rely on um because it is closely tied to growth and
growth may or may not occur um so in any given year if if a 100 units come in you'll have $100,000 spread equally almost between fire Poli uh police and and EMS but if that growth doesn't occur you you bring
in zero dollars so um often it it's not um budgeted so much or relied on but when collected every dollar that's collected offsets a potential dollar that would have been spent from taxable revenue or from your property tax
revenue so um it does help a lot and it's good to have them in place and this might not be a fair question but I noticed some of the areas that you had up there where we were in the middle some that were lower than us are more populated areas for instance Nassau County and you said that maybe they
haven't looked at their fees in a while but could that also be U you know just a function of for instance you know their taxes and their tourism and you know so maybe their impact fees aren't as high because of that because they have other sources of revenue that are coming in because we
we don't have a lot of sources of revenue that come in so yeah it's often the case that um they counties that have a high degree of Tourism like that um receive a lot from sales tax and in serd taxes so they
they pay for a lot of capital facilities with that sales Serv tax um so that's one case another case is that um maybe because they're more densely populated the cost per unit is a little
smaller they have a a little bit more economy of scale with their services um but yeah it it's it really varies it's hard to say because we don't know you know when the last time that looked at them was um it's it's kind of
a uh it's not so much it's it's it's a topic that can you know be passed on from commission to commission and and looked over so it it it's often forgotten about and in in counties yeah I do have a question
because I'll be honest I'm I'm a little shocked and disappointed at the same time um I guess my question is how can Clay County just you know border right to it how can their impact fees be1 to $4,000 and now you're telling us that we
can only get about $1,000 which I'm not trying to you know to rip off the people that are coming here to build homes but I was hoping to get at least four or 5,000 to actually be able to do something now a thousand is better than nothing I I admit but so so how how
how do you explain that I would say that primarily the highest fees are the transportation or roads fees schools and Parks and Recreation those three are typically the biggest share of the overall impact fee schedule that probably probably in Clay County that's
the case they collect a high amount in transportation um if we if one once we are acquire the data necessary for it to be feasible to make that calculation the county can still adopt those fees in the future so it's not saying you can't
start getting get to a level uh around there but at this time those are the these are the three best and most feasible fees that we felt they're sufficient data um they're defensible uh from legal standpoint that we can push forward with these now but leaving the
opening for you know the potential for the other fees to come in in the future okay CU because like example I got they just put in Finish Well they're finishing up a 23 unit subdivision off of I believe it's 52nd 52nd going in is just a Lime Rock Road now the
subdivision is all paved so my phone's just been ringing off the hook well hey we just spent you know 3 400,000 for this our home what do you going to do with the road we see if we had about a $4,000 impact fee we could have paid that road going in there for them MH but
with $1,000 and then and then you said it's only for New Roads so could you even not that it would be that much you know we only talking what $30,000 it wouldn't paid that road yeah so the the another issue with
impact fees is that it can't be it can't include an upgrade of level of service so I I think you could look at that as an upgrade of level of service there is a road existing but you're increase you're increasing the level of service or quality of the road rather than
expanding the capacity because you because there's new development um but the more projects that you're staff can identify for you know capacity adding road projects throughout the county that the county would be paying for out of
its own uh funds the more justification you can have to adopt a fee like that right yeah because I you know because like I said when all the surrounding counties and us being at a$1 Thousand impact fee you know when they're getting 10 to 14 I just you know we're just
being punished for being a rural County it's just not you know again somebody come here and pay a $ four or $5,000 impact fee they'd be happy to you know especially you know for what we provide I mean so that's what I'm getting at it's just you know I I don't know if
there's some way to get this i' I've had this conversation with Mr corate to before this meeting but you know like I said I'm very shocked in in this point this is all all we can come up with but um you know so um but again I appreciate your presentation you know and um now
the citizens will be more informed like like I am but um but um just just something for us to think about look into can I ask you Mr rck the road that you're talking about is it a County Road yes yes it's a county road that road that we leave like you I'm not
sure what what verbage you used but when we leave that the way it is right now unpaved that is going to C cost the county forever and it's going to cost the county big much more through the years that it would have done if we
paved it um because and we have recently adopted um policy where the we are trying to get the developers as they develop these these subdivisions that they pave that road because I have
places in in my district that is a nightmare because it was left undone and so we're trying desperately to keep the cost off of the county um by doing this on the onset that and instead of just
because Jason will be down there putting Lime Rock to the end of time and um filling in Holes and um as the erosion begins and it begins pretty quick when we have a a heavy rain season so um I
know it may seem that it's like an upgrade but believe me it's going to cost us a lot more money by not doing that that one thing right and and even another examp could you could you use that money for a red light you know because we've had a ton of growth on 21b
but yet there's we still cannot get do to put a red light in at the intersection of 21 being 100 so you know I I don't know there's probably been what I'm just guessing 100 homes built in there I mean could we have used that money to to put a traffic light down
there yes signal improvements and intersection improvements can be included in the uh in the cost basis for for roads impact fee so that may be something to look into if we can identify enough of those to to justify the fee okay so everything we can add to
it then that helps raise this impact V up higher what you're saying yes sir okay okay just a comment I guess we've um certainly this is something that we have to look into further but we've had a lot of missed opportunities when you think
about the growth and development on 229 all of the new homes on 21b and throughout the E area it's been a lot of development but nothing collected on it um so this is something that we have to
look at but it's also an opportunity to educate our community because in their minds of the community and and the residents they they would think okay now the impact fees now we're looking at fire assessment now we're looking at all of these fees that they Define as taxes
so we have to um figure out a way to educate our community and look at what we can do I know back when the city um took well they actually were was trying to encourage development you know
they allow backcock to have a a building out and help them out but they're gone so if we don't do something uh or we hold off and and and collecting uh fees and we encouraged um development to
come and they decide not to stay we we lost so something that we have to look at but we have to look at it in a plan for manner in terms of our growth and economic opportunities again thank you and I know
this is just on here for discussion but but could the board go ahead and move to uh to move forward with at least putting some type of impact fees in place to get it going and then like you were saying you know come up with other ideas had to add to it to uh make improvements cuz it
is just a one-time thing for whoever's building a new home it's just a onetime fee so could we go ahead and and agree to move forward with it absolutely Mr chairman if if the board would like is that the consensus of the board or do we need a motion in a second well let's do
this let's let's have consensus that we um move forward with it we'll put it on the agenda item as an on the agenda next month's meeting as an action item and then you can vote okay is that okay with the board and part of the discussion um can you also put together how those fees
will be collected and how they will be a portioned to each of those so that we know that that each one of the categories that were listed up there uh that that money is going into those particular accounts and it's not being used in other
areas Peter is that something you guys can help us with or yes sir absolutely okay yes I I was just going to suggest that maybe we just needed to do a um Community workshop on the impact fees so that the Community would um be available
and allowed to answer give some inut I would I would dissuade the board from from having a workshop on this matter we've hired a consultant they've adhered to the state statute and the laws and they've recommended amount there's really nothing to Workshop so is it consens word to move
forward okay all right right thank you so much for your presentation absolutely thank you for your time all right now we'll move on to item seven Mr cor item seven is the north central Florida homeless Continuum of Care
Leadership Council board appointee so in your packet you see the letter that I received uh from that agency and they're asking for a board member for their board it can be a county commissioner or not you have the latitude to appoint
someone else in a leadership position and ma'am if you want to if you want to walk us through that that'd be great sure um so good morning everybody my name is Keana Johnson I serve as the Director um of the Continuum of Care for North Central Florida um so as you all know in the packet we gave you some
information we serve the Five County catchment area funded through DCF um the Department of Children and Family Services and HUD the Housing and Urban Development um Bradford County is one of the five counties that we service along with Thea um ly putam and Gil counties
um we're looking to expand also as requested by the state to move into Union and Dixie counties in this upcoming fiscal year um and so we came here today to try to get um representation from the baord county community for the Leadership Council so we meet once a month um for the
Leadership Council so we meet the first Thursday of every month from 3:30 to 5:00 via teams um and so our Leadership Council basically is responsible for the funding decisions um made for the Continuum of and also the strategic planning um as it relates to our funding
and services and things like that we've already started um providing Services out here in Bradford County so when the hotel caught fire I think it was last year or something like that um one of our family providers have partnered with ansers and so we are funding emergency shelter for families out here right now
so they small um area we also have been providing some rapid rehousing services so those are our fees to move folks in get them connected to employment or service or whatever else they may need um and then the funding carries uh for a few months to get them stabilized with
rental assistance utility assistance and things like that we're also serving um and doing homeless Prevention Services so we also work to prevent folks from entering the homeless system so again those things can consist of any rental assistance they may need um utility cost
we also have Street Outreach who has started Services out um in our rural areas so Bradford County is one of the areas that they have started working into um we're looking to collect the data for you know the needs of the community um so we can you know better serve barford County we think that you know the folks who live here in this
area know what's needed um you know best for the residents and so we're just seeking to see if we can get somebody up on it today okay is there any questions is there anyone that would like to serve on the
board Mr chairman if I may yes sir um our uh Comm commun param medicine director Lieutenant David weeks would be a recommendation from staff if none of the board members would like to serve yeah be awesome that'd be great
yes it doesn't have to be um it doesn't have to be anybody from the commission so in Gainesville and laa County Dave appointed their director of Community Support Services who serves as the chair of the board um and then also with the city of Gainsville previously their chief of fire rescue before the
um special advisor to the city manager took over um as the chief left and moved back to Baltimore so that would work for us Mr chairman um I I don't want to press Lieutenant weeks into service so maybe we should maybe we should hear ask
him if he wishes right okay um I got you okay I ask a question if that's yeah go ahead and do you work with um existing programs that's in braa county and I know there's a um basically a homeless
shelter so to speak for the women Brian Davis who runs that program off I don't know what's we we we are not working with him currently I heard about him when we came out and did our annual point point in
time count um the end the last week of January so we were out here doing our count in the community um and I did hear about the services in the house that he you know has but I haven't made contact with him yet again like I said we are funding answers we're looking to build capacity out here so any providers that
um you know were able to access and get and get information to about how the programs work how the funding works and things like that we're more than happy to do okay um and commissioner um Mr chair with the suggestion from Mr weeks
and he is saying that he was be willing and uh offer a motion to um appoint Mr David weeks to that okay I have a motion from commissioner spoter second second from commissioner Andrews any other discussion all in favor by sign of i i i
5 o thank you so much I appreciate you all right item eight um Nathan thoron thanks for your time and patience anytime uh Nathan uh president of the net group and uni creative um this is our annual contract for the County
commission's website um I'm just here to answer any questions that y'all may have um questions yes yes can you um help us to keep it updated regularly yes um is there something you
would like on there that's just that the updates if they can occur um frequently Whenever there might be a change or new information or or something like that yes so the county staff has access to update the um
meeting information and then we can put more information on there such as events and things like that Mr Thorton you're you're here now right you're correct you're back home yes okay
okay okay there's no other questions do we have a motion to continue the contract with uh that group I'll make a motion got a motion from commissioner doy second second from commissioner Andrews if there's no more discussion
all in favor by a sign of i i i motion carries 5 thank you thank you so much and Mr thoron if you would uh just engage with Mr corn and Miss Brown as far as scheduling and and just you know
keeping things updated okay thank you all right next move on to item nine of the clerk's report we don't have anything we have nothing all right thank you sheriff's report I had a link report but I'm G
nrow this down for about an hour take your time Mr Thorton I'm kind of upset with him I'm not sure we're going to renew ours I just looked at another County's website man great job on that one I'm a little jealous but uh we'll be getting with him
to update ours too because it he did a phenomenal job what I seen there with the F County pretty nice he got that from us but no I want to give youall a quick update and Jazz's brother and I had Zach was here also with it but he got called um but this
this when you see this i g give Zach some credit but the majority of this work goes to Jaz excuse me her married name now Panther um in regards that she'll always be able to sue to me but just knowing her her and my daughter chillers together she's a great asset to our agency and our victim
Advocate but I already see nobody says it's not my job if you go over there you'll see that everybody does multitask kind of learn because one person's out somebody's got to step up whether it be 911 emergency management uh everybody's kind of dual trained and doing those things and she's one of those
individuals and so is Zach that soon as you go the hallway you got a idea I'll be honest with you most time they bring the ideas and what you see from our social media to our videos to this handout comes directly from them and that's their ideas I just get to smile
and take the credit and read from it but uh and they tell me most time what I need to be doing in regards to it but you look real quick there it's very nice colorful to look at table of contents will guide you through it and I'm not read everything I just want to highlight the work that they put into it each and
every year giv you little buer myself and the chief Deputy who does most uh most of the chores I'm the politician in the bunch uh chief of operations major conill uh along those lines you'll see the command staff and that you all know
you can reach out to them directly you don't have to come through me we meet regularly routinely uh when you make that call to them you're bypassing me which usually just gets in the way I'm not offending to buy that I think most y'all have done that if you need something call them they they know more
about it than I do uh I am truly blessed with a great staff that keeps this thing going each and every day we are a full service law enforcement agency we don't just do arrest or investigations or Patrol or just jail it's code enforcement mapping 911 emergency
management Animal Control we're truly a full service agency would that being the the Patrol Division you'll see it there traffic safety the 10,498 traffic stops 7,964 written warnings 930 traffic
citations and 76 DUI arrests so the patrol stays quite active when you're looking that we're down to Total sworn that probably work the road 25 26 the rest of us investigators drug
unit those type things that you see go through uh calls by the number this is impressive people don't understand the 911 Center um and what they deal with but you look at 2557 offense incident reports those are
actual written reports not just the person you go to and you say and you the cat you know they dispatch you you code it out in the dispatch system no law enforcement resources needed or whatever that the call may end at it's not necessarily a written report which is the majority we have that 128 burglar
reports 200 theft reports reports 113 fraud reports which has becomeing the big issue credit cards online people being taken advantage of you don't have to go into a bank and Rob it with a gun anymore they're sitting at home in a computer or their cell phone linking somebody to steal your money
that's become it used to be bad checks when I first started law enforcement everybody wrote checks those days are gone that whole system has changed and we deal with fraud and theft via that way every single day in a small community 236 assaulted domestic matter
reports 56 missing person reports you look at those missing reports probably 80% of those are female you can't get a boy to run away from the house he's got to eat somewhere you know it used to be you look see if their purse was gone you
knew that they had probably ran away now you look see if their cell phone's gone they'll leave the car they'll leave their purse but they're going to take that phone so a lot of those type things and 67 death investigations that means whether it be via suicide whether it be
via natural causes every one of them are investigated as is if a homicide we have to leave no stone unturn uh just to make sure what the cause is our professional develop training uh every month deputies receive
training that's part of the process uh that we have there our school safety and guardian program we don't call them school resource officers anymore they are School protection deputies their main goal is their to protect when I first started as the County's first many
years ago long time ago when the telegraph had the headline deputy sheriff needed a high school Mark was still too young back then he was still in school but that was a big deal what what's going on and then I that superintendent got voted up that election term and then 301 changed and
we took the parking off 301 and we had a school superintendent to put fence up around the high school and it's like what are you making it look like a prison go back in time they got defeated in the next election term fast forward to the day is where's my Deputy where's my fence where's my cameras the the whole system has changed
in what we do that I can tell you that putting deputies in each of the school has reduced our calls has reduced our crime our criminal mischief those type things the bullies don't show up anymore because we got a place for bullies and that has made a difference and we should have done that long time ago before we
were ever mandated to do that best one of the best things is being the sheriff that we've ever accomplished was putting a deputy in every school but you look at that uh the guardian program 144-hour initial training these are
Educators that step up and do the extra to protect our kids Kudos goes to them they're not being paid anything extra nothing but they decide to make that sacrifice and if you've seen and been encountered the situations through the Margery stom and Douglas being a part of
that touring through the school watching videos um in Texas when we went through all that you've already watching those videos and seeing that teachers sacrificed their lives and their students didn't have anything all it takes is one Brave teacher to stand in the way and change
the direction because I go back to Mike Tyson everybody has a plan until they get punched in the nose and we've learned through those in instances all across our country that one person giving some resistance back changes the whole directory and saves
lives that's re we don't wait for a SWAT team we we we have attack the the active shooter now we don't sit and wait everybody knows that so the training has changed the ideology has changed uh with that North Florida Technical College
criminal justice program educating kids as you'll see our explorers is probably our most div diverse program we have within our agency that's how we've been able to diversify over the years taking these young uh women and men sending them through the academy and working
back here where they've grown up a lot of times they come on board they've been around us three four five years and they step right up and become active deputies within the agency so that that's been a a lot of progress you'll see our Explorer program there explains it our Sheriff's posi that you see the events
football games sporting events fairs those type things not only with the horses but the side besides we have a missing person we have sent them to different counties to assist within the search of missing children or adults they do a lot that's all
volunteer that that's that there's no cost our criminal investigations and Drug Task Force 156 drug narcotic investigations 33 financial fraud investigations 93 Special Victims persons
investigations 55 property crimes and 158 others all the different categories in there so that's what you see with six investigators that that are able to accomplish all that so of 495 cases
resulting in 304 arrests with a clearance rate of 61.4 when the state averag is around 23 24% pretty successful the bcso SWAT team is comp you know is there they go through their training and that's with us in Union County Sheriff Whitehead and
I spend the money and also with our fire rescue we have two U rescue paramedics that are assigned to the SWAT team that train with them regularly and their arms so they're they're there case something bads they're they're doing what they do Communication Center these ladies and
men they're setting a bubble 12-hour shifts when you call for them you really wanted them five minutes before you called everybody's in a panic people are at their worse and when there's a wreck back in the old days we to find the nearest phone or pay phone to call in say hey there's a wreck now when there's
a wreck everybody's got a cell phone and there's 10 15 20 people calling at the same time and they're having hit that button or Heaven's Sake let the power go out in the city everybody and the first question is how long's it going to be out but we need that information because
when the linemen are out there searching they need to know where these locations are at so it gets very busy but these they have the toughest job probably in our agency and you look through that the communication Center 68,7 recorded calls these are the
recorded ones 50,4 35 telephone calls were answered 14,622 were 900 911 calls 31,000 were CAD calls recreated that's remember I said we do actually written reports but the others may be a barking dog and they get there and they
go talk and it was a dog got you know caught its leg in the fence or it's a an animal got caught whatever it is there's all types of calls that we go to that doesn't necessarily generate a report but there is a documented timestamped recording of that call that comes in people public records request those
every day whether it be an accident whether it be a neighbor fussing at another neighbor whether it be you know all types come in and 23,63070 and they want to create the law where they consolidate all 911 centers to be exactly what we're doing in Bradford
County it's coming out of a a senator out of Tampa who have 20 plus other police agencies with Comm cators and second save lives so they want to consolidate all the fire rescue and everything has to be gpsed and you'll be dispatching the closest unit because if
somebody's breaking in your house I don't think you really care what color uniform they have on you're having a heart attack and one of your loved ones are hurt I don't think think you care what's on their patch whether it says Bradford or Stark or whoever it may be or clay whatever it is when you call for help so they're trying to resolve that Statewide to fix the communications
problem that we deal with every natural disaster we have man-made or godm made it's always been a problem they're trying to work on fixing that and they've got some other things in that language but we're already doing what they're proposing and I've been reached out to and I'm actually course betting some response back to them and
testifying so uh to show how that works can't speak enough of our Corrections Bureau as you look down there you'll see uh the ladies pretty much run the show in that division but year after year being the sheriff for 16 years it's nice to be
able to go home put your head on a pillow and go to sleep and not worry about it know that it's being taken care of as it should be through standards training um you look at our jail every inspection how clean it is I watch other situations all across this country people say have y'all been there have
you realize how bad it is how terrible it is we have a very wellmaintained uh cor corrections I call it the jail but uh Corrections system and they also are over the sexual offender sexual
predator registry they did do a new structure last year jail operations judicial services and it talks about what that is jail programs very proud of this started last year people come to jail they're going to get out 90% of
them we're going to live with we're going to go to church with them we're going to be in wind Dixie with them we're goingon to be at Walmart with them CVS wherever it may be we're going we we going see these individuals most of them aren't bad they just make bad decisions bad choices so with that being said we've added a new program section that
is fully funded from the inmate welfare funds these funds are generated from inmate commissary phone calls video visitation putting these phones to good use of priority with the help of programs coordinator many volunteers Community Partners and our jail tablets we are able to offer a full of
educational re-entry behavioral spiritual mental health substance abuse and group programs in a year's time we've got 2,215 certificates issued and a wide variety of topics whether you want mechanic work religious
work commissary I mean cooking whatever you call culinary of type things they're all there to get certificates so when they get out they have something to help that Dr Brody from Santa Fe is fixing a step up and help us with some more resources we've had program come in that kids that were in high school they got
in some trouble and they're sitting in our jail to work them they make sure they meet graduation requirements by time graduation comes so working with our local school district with superintendent heartley has helped some of that occur we don't have as many as other jails we take it on a case-by casee bases we want them to be
successful these are the people we live with jail operations our average daily population was 136 but let me assure you that's going to increase new Administration that's going to increase we've already
encountered two ice inmates a stolen car out of Melrose Park Illinois found their way to Bradford County uh they were arrested one had a fake ID we get them to our jail you we use ocular not just fingerprints anymore we have a lot of different ways that they weren't who they said they were the other one had a
suspended driver's license I guess in Illinois as they give illegal license but they didn't follow the rules to get here but they were driving on suspended license and a stolen car U we got the state dropped charges I picked them up within 48 Hours of making our contact with them so we're going to be but the
population's going up the feds are working with us to increase that population as we're trying to find bed space throughout the State of Florida so we're working on some of those things 1,183 inmate gains 1,27 inmate losses martial gains 114 inmate martial art
losses 88 184 felony registrations that's people that get out of prison have to come and register with us that they're in our County if they fail to do so they violate the law we go get them incident reports 184 dis disciplinary reports 29 20 use of
forces seven Baker acts that is phenomenal for facility and Miss andw I think you know working institution that's that's really low very low num very low numbers for use of force and those type things our medical we had 265 inmate six sick calls 61
medical transports which kudos to being right next but Chief Carter and his staff were're able to do that I sent y'all one on uh the other day with Sav Us hund and something plus thousand dollars because now we're making sure they all that they qualify we sign them up for insurance takes about 7 10
minutes they qualify uh the vast majority of our inmates now have health care when they get out they have health care so instead of us having to transport to Lake Butler were able to use our local facilities now which helps in transports and those type things and we're not footing that like the other day would have been that1 plus thousand
bill we'd had to pay out of our coffers for an inmate they had health insurance because the law says you shall seek it from them first secondary is us and right now as of today I think we have everybody but three inmates covered with health insurance so we're we're pretty good 40 visits to doctor's clinics seven
Hospital admissions 1,712 blood pressure checks I guess mine would be up if I was there 184 employee drug screens you know we do drug screening for new employees but also randomly you get in an accident something happened use a force we drug test
you inmates on suicide watch 18 a matter of fact we just had an incident where two inmates saved another he got sentenced to 10 years and tried jumping off the second story of the the thing but they they caught him and and was able to to kudos to the the inmates both of them
were local inmates that we we deal with pretty regular but they they stepped up and did the right thing um so big kudos to that but the inmate Animal Services phenomenal two ladies do this by the way and then we use inmates to clean feed do
those type but the two programs that go out and do what they do all their programs that they have there intakes 1,241 that's a lot of animals that's a lot of dogs and cats to say that they're not busy is an understatement I mean
they stay really out there outgoing 1,16 34 bite cases that were reported like them go unreported calls for service 2009 and 50 call outs after hours so them two ladies stay busy
judicial Services people coming in out the main part of the courthouse not here we don't give any security to the you know some of the other constitutional officers we don't you know from the tax collector property appraiser supervisor of election but the main part we want to make sure our Clerk's protected he's got
the checkbook but no that being said I'm being factious but they come in and out most of that's for court jury trials see the state attorney see the public defender uh with that being said 2889 people went through that medal DET
deor think about our population that's our population in Bradford County now some people unfortunately come more than once people that get traffic citations you know those type things are in and out so you deal with a lot of that but Misdemeanor Court hearings 1,495 felony
Court hearings 1, 495 I want you to understand a lot of that's generated from prisons they commit a crime out there while they're incarcerated so a lot of there is a lot of transports to and from docc all over the state juvenile court hearings 279
dependency hearings 175 pray hearings 160 trials 33 trials and during this time they're in and out the court what they're doing 198 arrest usually when they show up most time they uh they they got a warrant form or why they're in
court the judge placed them under arrest so they're doing that through the court services for those four that work that in andout Daily in regards to it in on the judicial Services sex offender unit we have 256 registered sex offenders 79
registered sex predators and we did 1,581 registrations completed that means they have to check in we know what they drive what their email address is all that that's routine so we're we're following up making sure we know where they're
at and had zero arest which is phenomenal to me that everybody's in compliance and that's by strict process and they know you step out of line we're issuing War we're putting you back inside the the gray bar Motel over there glass Palace but itate work
Cruise um total of 1,4 1,000 excuse me 14,34 inmate labor hours there's four inmate work squads to assign to the road department to assign to the Sheriff's Office and they stay busy they there's always constantly
something they can be doing day in and day out with the four squads when I took over Sheriff we had one so we've come a long ways and grow that program as Jason and his team are doing the heavy lifting and digging we try to do the picking up some ditches we have to mow we get
behind when grass growing season's not in Jason's usually got a host of list of small projects we can get done um pressure doing things like that so there it stays busy code enforcement as you know we have it public records request 2,218 public records request and code
enforcement background checks 1,123 people that come in need them for ball teams churches those type things background checks property lean queries 120 when somebody's buying a piece of property a lot of times the bank makes them come down make sure there's no lean
on their property from code enforcement as people are trying to get rid of it and employment fingerprinting 180 they cover that process Cod code enforcement investigations 513 Court civil paper served out of the Sheriff's Office 2565 paper
served the physical overview as you know there personal services is 6,923 operating expenses 1, 389,000 Capital outlays 200,000 inmate housing Revenue was 592 th000 grants we received
1 milli $225,000 in Grants for a total budget of 8,18 th000 our victim advocacy program as I mentioned Jazz earlier um her and and um
Elizabeth nazworth they do that she came on when we absorbed the city we're able to qualify for the call load for another victim Advocate but as you can see they do a lot more than just Victim Advocacy but it is nice uh both of them being mothers both of
them being from Bradford County both of them knowing the people I I van broke down one day and called and I think Jazz they went went away with a whole lot more that because it was cold it was one of those cold days and it was a family of four or five little ones I mean they're like teer totter's little ones
you know we found people that have donated us you know we have our Bradford Sheriff Charities and and those type things but we were able to get them gas money food only he spoke English the rest of them were kind of I don't know what nationality it was was it wasn't Spanish but it was another nationality and working through that those are
things that we do uh if it's a homeless person we we do you know we have a going and ride program we don't have a lot of services here we do offer rides we've taken people to shelters to get in with it unfortunately a lot of them choose to be that way they don't want help but the ones that do we make damn sure they get
it in braford county and that's using a lot of crazy resources gift cards money to put gas in their car the deputies pitched in a hat you know right there on the side of the road and got him cash because his car broke down he spent what he had you know trying to get back to where they had a home little kids they
didn't go away hungry and they didn't go away cold she was like what if they break down again I said I'm not going to be here but she well I don't want them to be cold out there on the side of the road so we had blankets and toys and that poor van couldn't take another another anything so we got wonderful people Al trua Stark every time we deal
with victims now they they if you can see in one of the pictures here on page 21 there's bags full of stuff and and animals and that we deal with victims the deputies have them in their patrol cars that we give to kids it occupies them sometimes you go to a domestic violence incident a bad wreck a house
fire whatever it may be we have something there to kind of occupy the The Young Ones the innocence of that Awards and recognition it's all there I don't want to go through that but you see the pictures of what we do we try to give you an annual report to keep you updated what we're doing we work with
the taxpayer dollars we're one of your largest budgets we we want to make sure you see what we're doing any questions one one quick question and how many um federal inmates do you have now currently today I have not looked but I think we just took on some more it's 48
48 and do you have an increase due to I think um we're doing about 30 yes ma'am and we're they want more increase they they're looking for bed space the State of Florida is looking for bed space and so is the federal government I've actually sat with Tom hullman himself
I've sat with our state leaders and been talking to legislators were all trying to fix because Baker County could get enough to survive about bankrupt the county he's full they called us need more mattresses we said don't get away our mattresses Don would not I'm sorry we love y'all but right now we're holding on to what we got we see it
coming we're starting to Port A lot of people that are in our country and I'm talking about criminals people with extensive criminal histories that's the focus that's where we're going sure thank you so much this is this is awesome I I look forward to reading more into it later yeah very
very nice and and very well prepared thank you I've got one for the city of start tonight I didn't read no their numbers but I they get to get twice they get to see me twice what a blessing you know would be but y'all no thank you because we can do another about y'all I make yes I was
gonna speak about what you said about the schools and and um how the fence you know now it looks like a prison it's the same thing with the county um changes people don't like change and um sometimes they're very vocal about it
and other times they just sit there and and think what are those crazy people doing but um even in the prison system change sometimes is is for the better and now like you said in our school the one thing we want is our kids to be
protected every day and I thank you personally um for everything that you do the phone calls you make um I don't know how you knew we' been involved in a wreck the other day I get paid to be nosy I know know I know and you do that
well but thank you thank y'all all of you um and Don and her group it it it's a tough job and a lot of people um you know sometimes think that you're you're doing too much but like you said when those inmates get out they you're going
to see them again and hopefully somebody somewhere with the right words with the right encouragement will change that life around and that'll be one less that you have to deal with and I've lived in this community long enough I've seen that happen over and over and over just like you got that recycled bin next
to your trash cans yeah not everybody's a throw away that's right and so I thank you for what y'all do it's a big job and um takes a lot of staff and and um so the biggest priorities of the sheriff is our kids and our old folks and I'm getting to be one of the old folks so
that's that's a priority because they can tell you every school protection Deputy knows my marching orders that are somebody comes on our campus to harm a child or a staff member I intend to show up and then be dead yeah don't bring harm to our schools or our community
thank you thank you shff Sheriff I might have zoned out for just a second there um but can I have some I just want to say the uh Emergency Management Division I think you might have glazed over oh I probably did but I know that we always
you know give kudos to Major wit and I just want to you know it goes without saying he does an ex job and I just want to make sure that he gets a recognition that kid I say kid that young man that's I'm getting that old everybody's younger than me but let me tell you that what he
does people never realize how much he spends away from his family his time but he's got OCD don't dare go in his office and move something because he's gonna find it he's I I do it intentionally but when the coffee pot runs out on one side he kind of catches me with KN and them over on their side uh getting the coffee
cuz that's what keeps us going that caffeine and donut so appreciate yall thank you right County manager's report thank you Mr chairman I just want to me let you know that the uh County Manager annual progress report is coming up next
month and there's no way that I'm going to let this shareff go longer than I go so just but the difference between me and him is I'm G to bring snacks just bring us some snicker bars yeah just be prepared Mr corn before you go on and Sheriff I know it's a little
bit further out but I did want to mention I know you have the shoot with the sheriff coming up April 25th April is that right April 25th April 25th I I know it's a little ways out but you know y'all put it on your calendars if you want to be a part of that so I know you'll bring it up again before then but
uh just wanted to mention that go ahead sorry thank you uh the first thing that I have is a uh Fairground property update um there's been a lot of movement a lot of moving Parts here in the last 24 hours uh I just got a text from our
attorney about an hour ago and uh it says the fair Association attorney just reached out to the BCC attorney this morning and we will offer a full report via email later today so that's where we're at with
that um next thing is we had our Employee Appreciation Day scheduled for uh Day After Tomorrow this coming Thursday due to some logistical and supply challenges we need to reschedule um we have two dates to
propose the first is next the following Thursday March the 13th or then two weeks after that Thursday March 27th one better in another or maybe the 27 give more time
planning e either's fine we can do it next week um but if you'd rather wait three weeks we can do it then as well all right do we have enough time to put it together if we do it on the 13th is everything planned and yes ma'am
yep if we do it on the 13th 13th be better best okay you everybody good with 13th I'm not but okay we can do it on I have an appointment that morning um but we'll do it around noon right yes
ma'am 11 to1 I think is what we settled on Chris would the 27th be better if the 13th not or right now the 27th would be better for me but I mean don't stop the show because of me please is that date um I'll I'll check and make that sure but that's fine let's
go ahead and if everybody's good with 27th we'll do that I'm do and see if work or you got to talk to the boss huh yeah okay no it's fine either day is following me so whichever one the board would would prefer I'm
good with the 27 would work better just for because I have appointments that morning you think you make it work okay all right the 27th then 27th it is thank you um I don't want to put her on the
spot but I know Amber is here here Amber Shepard our um with the Economic Development Corporation is there anything that that you'd like to update well she's going up um because I would I did I didn't know about this
date um is there anything that you need us to do um no ma'am I I'll probably contact each of you individually and have a conversation and kind of try and figure out how we want the day to go and what
the uh and where it's going to be held well we we know it's going to be at the headquarters Fire Department headquarters across parking lot so we do know that just yeah like it was last year so but yeah I'll be I'll be contacting each of you individually all right okay uh thank you for the
opportunity to give a brief update um I've been working diligently um with members throughout the community especially Mr corn and his office and staff on um fulfilling the cpta grant requirements and we have submitted all
of our required deliverables I think we're waiting for final approval um on the language from the Strategic plan which has been a very indepth and thorough analysis of the county and all of the municipalities including in that county and um perceived path forward so
that we can bring Economic Development here um I I know at the last meeting uh we had shared the the video and I hope that you all have had a chance to review the video I think it really does a a phenomenal job of highlighting the community highlighting the county and
why Bradford County is a is a good place for business to come and why it's better in Bradford I think um we've seen some very good response activity through our digital marketing Outreach um I've actually had the opportunity of bringing
four different Executives to the community um one of which actually came from India so we're we're getting some traction and you know it takes time really what we're doing we're building fruit or we're planting fruit trees you know those things take time to to bloom
and produce fruit and so um I just want to be encouraging and let you guys know that I am working diligently to attract businesses that are in alignment with our community values and look forward to the day when we can say hey we we've got business that's that's ready to to uh go
ahead and do ribbon cutting just to give you a little bit of insight some of the conversations that I've been having um uh one company in particular is now I know this is going to sound a little odd but you have to keep in mind with today's
technology electric Marine I know it's a little like what but there are um there there is an electric Marine company that is interested in in Bradford County and we're in conversations with them um also talking with a group from India about
building an Innovation Hub here they're looking at potenti potentially 500 Acres if not here um you know then then we'll provide guidance and support and build connections with the state of Florida as well so that we can find um the right place for this this organization that's
looking to grow and of course you know a lot of this requires a a significant investment from these organizations to come here so I think the timeliness of everything that we've discussed this morning I now need to go back and update um that strategic plan is it needs to be
an ongoing living breathing um document so that way we can keep it up to date but I do see that we are making significant progress uh towards achieving the goals that we have of bringing new business to Bradford helping our economy flourish and helping
families and citizens grow so um are there any questions from any of the Commissioners I just have a quick question I know you were working with the it's call it the South Korean delegation maybe or uh some folks there
there any traction so um that you can talk about anyway there at this time my Hope was to encourage them to bring an Innovation Hub here or an incubator here um it's still open in
conversation um I've not had any direct response saying yes they're ready to move forward with that and so um business development is business development in any industry I I can't afford to sit back and wait on them of
course I keep that iron hot they know um where we are and I continue to reach out to them and and share new updates and developments as things come available new um attractive information that will encourage them to consider our area for their next steps but I will say um you
know I took that trip to South Korea and then a week later they had martial law and so their own government is kind of uh in a little bit of turmoil and since they have um gotten rid of their existing president and so there's just a lot of changes going on in their government and
I think that um it's it's good for us to give them some space to let them sort out what they have going on in their governments and um because those projects we we don't need to to bring those challenges um to the community and so uh but that is not a discouragement
to me I think it's every every opportunity it's it's a a numbers game right so the more that we can put our information out there to more businesses more um more communities um more International organizations the more
opportunity we are H going to have to in you know have these companies and these leaders see our community as a potential and I kind of look at the law of averages so my personal goal I want to get 10 different Executives to come to the community because my thinking is if
I can get at least 10 then well hopefully in that 10 we'll find the right one on the way here this morning I was thinking about I don't know I just got this picture in my mind of how Economic Development within any Community is really like building a puzzle and so I see that we're building
you know the first step to building a puzzle you have to put together the outside frame and then you can put together the inside pieces and we're we are putting together we're doing a great job of coming together putting together that outside piece those outside pieces and now as I'm interviewing really these
businesses and that are seeking New Opportunities do they fit where do they fit and if they're not a good fit for us then we can be a catalyst and um you know be a good team player for the rest of the state because if not Bradford then maybe somewhere else in Florida and so I think that also builds
relationships at the state level um we've actually drawn some attention from some of the state leadership in the efforts that we have made and the traction that we're making and um I hope that it continues forward and we'll be able to solidify some of these relationships and bringing them to
Bradford and if I could just ask a question um are we doing that as well within the United States I mean with the big companies um have we contacted them yes ma'am um you know really we're looking for a needle and a hay stack
it's hard to know who's planning to grow and and where they're planning to grow and when um and so we've targeted um some of those industries that really offer bigger that the State of Florida will offer some significant incentives to uh that took some research on our end
to understand what incentives are available one particular incentive that I think is very attractive um is that it starts at a hundred million of capex investment and the creation of a 100 jobs and that will allow that
Corporation to receive 100% of their investment back through the form of their corporate income taxes at 5% per year for up to 20 to 30 years depending on the need and so um I think that essentially you know that really
attracts large high- performing um manufacturing organizations those that are involved um within the fourth Industrial Revolution and so um we are reaching out we are advertising now that we have that video I've really um added
some some ad spend onto that to get that video out and also you know building those conversations I've been attending conferences going through the exhibition halls I went to CES out in Las Vegas um that was five halls and with a fractured
KN and a torn ACL so um I was able to do that on a Mobility Scooter which actually surprisingly enough uh get you a little more attention so they don't forget you so fast um but I think that we are doing all of the right things to attract the business it's a matter of um
growing that exponentially and one thing that um I had suggested to the the county manager is perhaps utilizing another profile um through our digital marketing Outreach on LinkedIn um I've found that most recently the spam
filters really have shut down email we can send out 4,000 emails but if nobody's responding that's not a viable Channel um but the marketing through Linkedin seems to be very valuable it it definitely elicits response and so um this is something for consideration that
we're talking through trying to understand what would be the best way but essentially um I would mirror what's going on on my profile I would create the language and then place that into messaging for a person's profile that
that the community might select but um I think we've got some funding still available through the cpta Grant and I'd like to take advantage of that and um you know increase the Outreach I'm I'm able to do about 800 inmails 800 invitations to connect and all of this
is an automated process every month but if we can double that um then the follow-up messaging that comes along with that can be can be very valuable too so one of the things at R County days um that I thought was extremely effective is they have a video going at
their at their station and um they have property that's identified as available property you know and hopefully gets the message across that if there and I was going to ask you have have we been able to
identify property like you said one company said they would need 500 Acres have we identified that and two is it along the bypass or is it in other areas and um if that might be something that you could put together for Rural County
days there's a lot of people that um come there and see what we're doing in in our counties um so I'll let you answer those questions sure we do have um a site selection inventory list that
is currently hosted on the nef EDC website under site and resources Bradford County has its own page um now that we have the new introductory video and also some new graphics that have been developed through the cpta grant we're working on a redesign of the page
but the site selection inventory list is currently available and it lists out all of the properties um that are currently listed and those that we identify that may not actually be on the market technically we can add those in as well
um so we are utilizing the gis planning tool we have a special relationship with them through NFP to get at a discounted rate this viewer actually on our website because marketing 101 if they're on your website you don't want to push them to another website they'll never come back
so we want to keep them on our webs website um as we are updating our impact fees there's some information that's going to be adjusted there we're going to have to go from no impact fees to low impact fees so I still think that that's valuable um but yes there is that
listing available in terms of um having a video to present at rural County days I can talk with Pam Whittle and see if we will have the capability of presenting such a thing um however at the very least I am able to like quickly
navigate them and show them where those those sites are um via their phone and um have that information available well thank you very much thank you for the info thank you Amber so one other thing I wanted to
mention just to remind everyone I'm sure you're all aware there is a uh a bill moving through that will be moving through the the Senate it's uh SB 110 it's the rural Renaissance bill that is sponsored
by or Senator Corey Simon um if that bill passes it's going to be a Monumental achievement for Rural counties um it's it's it's gotten widespread support we expect it to to to become law so uh I would just encourage
not only the board but anyone um that has Connections in Tallahassee even if you don't just make a phone call over to our uh to our uh legislators and encourage them to support sb110 I don't know what the accompanying um house bill
is but but right now I do know it's Senate Bill 110 that's all I have Mr chairman thank you all right and I guess for item 12 the County Attorney report we'll just wait till he reports back to you and get an update this afternoon all right
moving on to commissioner's comments I'll just start with commissioner doter I don't have anything thank you a um just to let you know that on April the 26th the last Saturday in April at 9:30 we'll have the second annual Charlanne Brown livon cancer walk
and educational program and I'm um inviting you all there and last year Mr week said for our department participated in it and it provided it provides uh the funds from it provide scholarships to our local students um and then the other thing I
just again to ask your um continued prayers for uh Danny nent Commissioner of city and also um LD Andrews s um my sister sister's husband um for his recovery and then
um U commissioner D is our kind of our eyes and ears with our being on the fact um committee for our County I I was a little bit concerned about you know the talk of um
doing away with property taxes or reducing that so I was going to ask uh if you can keep your eyes and ears open to just encourage because that would if that were to pass that would be a great
financial Devastation for small rural counties so I'm hoping that that won't go anywhere but I don't know um but it's it's a scary thought um and then I know that Mr um uh steel
had commented about you know um the strawberry um Shortcake I know it seems on the surface and um something that's fabulous it's not it gives us direct contact with all of the legislators all
of the if if you can be on that court with the massive thousands and thousands of people who are coming through there that's braford County signature and if you go inside of that capital and you look up into the seal there is that short cake named in honor of rafic
County so it's our public relations uh piece that we do during the legislative um session doing that rural County days and um Pam um does an excellent job in and getting out there and all of our
commissioners who are able to attend along with our County Manager we're able to network with all all of the people that are out there all of the other counties and with our legislator so it's not a wasted investment um uh for that I
just wanted to mention it um and um but anyhow um and then the other concern was with the fair believe it or not there's an actual Fair that's supposed to be going on this week but
you don't see or hear anything about it um it's not the normal um event that we're accustomed to our kids but there is um the agriculture piece that is supposed to be taking place um is it starting today or yesterday oh yesterday
started yesterday yes so but anyhow um if we can support the efforts that are being um made out there um would be of help and so anyways thank you well and I just just wanted to
expand a little bit about the rural County days like Miss sponer said um I can't tell you the number of people said oh I heard y'all were out here I'm coming down and then they ask us when is your Strawberry Festival can you tell me how to get there so to answer your
question Mr still about does it affect tourism it definitely does and like Miss sponer said um people come down and they start talking people come down and hand you a card and say if you need anything let me know we also take that
opportunity like she said to speak to our legislator we talk to people that works in that building who will like Mr corn said um walk by and say hey can y'all support Bradford County on this believe me I heard that so many times we
served I believe 1,500 servings last year so that's a lot of people that come and make their way through that line and gives us an opportunity cuz that's that's our our time to speak up for our County and why
you should come to our County that's why I recommended the video because in the other counties as well one County had they they're known for their shrimp so they they serve shrimp they there there's all kinds of foods and and
different things are given some have honey they give out honey just to make sure that the people know in in that county what they do so it's a it's a prime opportunity for us to go and ask for
funds for our County and um seek the help that we need so it is a good thing it's one of the best things that I know and um but that that's the reason we serve the Strawberry Shortcake um Mr steel um just want to thank everybody
for their calls and their prayers for my husband um we really appreciate that and I think that's all I have thank you all righty um I thank everyone for being here today I know it's been a
little bit longer meeting than normal M Mr chairman I'm sorry to interrupt you sure um do you mind if Lizzy Whitehead comes up and talks to us a little bit about the fair sure yeah yeah I saw you over there good morning Commissioners or afternoon um so Saturday morning we had
the youth goat show um at the Fairgrounds and then um Sunday um they had Pig we in and then uh Monday night they had the swine Showmanship show tonight is the swine show I believe it starts at 6 PM I can send you that information to be clear um but the youth
components are still functioning and they're still happening this week um there will be no vendors as far as I know except for some food vendors there um there are rides that will start I was told on Thursday to Sunday but the youth component is still going on so um tonight will be the swine show Wednesday
will be the steer show and then Thursday will be the heer show and then the sale will happen on Friday afternoon um and right here it says buyer dinner and sale will be from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Friday March the 7th so um I think they'll start that sale once the dinner is over
and I encourage all of you to be there to support the youth in this community in the agriculture side um and I'm I'm excited to see what all will happen this week so that's all that I have thank you thank you very much thank you Lizzy thank you all right again thank everyone
for being here uh running a little late um it's uh say 11:33 so if we could take about a 10-minute break and uh start our Workshop probably about 11:40 good for everybody 11:45 11 11:45 okay 11:45 all
right meetings ajour e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e e
uh Board of County Commissioners Bradford County Florida uh March 6 2025 it is is um 11:50 uh we'll start the workshop and uh as we call this meeting order uh commissioner Spooner is going to open us up in our prayer and the flag
salute let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you for your grace and mercy and dear Lord we ask that you help us and guide us in this process as we conduct our budget workshop and help us do it in a way that is pleasing in your sight and
that is of an aid and benefit to our community community in Jesus name we pray Amen to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible
with liberty and justice for all Mr chairman if I may yes sir I'd like to request that we move the uh presentation from fire rescue to the to the beginning of the agenda if no one objects that sounds good okay chief Carter all right well good morning again
I think we still got 10 minutes of morning left um wanted to bring before you as we discussed in the last fire assessment Workshop um it was brought up about adding Staffing to actually decrease over time and so just kind of wanted to uh look over a spreadsheet
here that I've made up that that maps that out and shows you the savings that we could uh that we could potentially gain from uh from that process uh so what you see here on your screen I'm going to blow this up a little bit bigger here bigger bigger
all right how about that okay so what you see here is uh the each individual employee so all all these numbers are U each of my employees of what they worked from January 1st of 2024 through December 31st of 2024 so full year we looked at the number of PL
hours that they used the number of regular hours that they worked the number of overtime hours that they worked you got a question yeah personal leave okay sorry um and then ewc which as you know ewc is what we is
what we refer to as extended workweek compensation and that is the built-in overtime that is part of their schedule so if they come to work every a shift and they only work their shift and they go home you know there is overtime uh there's there's time and a half pay
built into that because we pay overtime for anything over 40 we pay time time and a half for anything over 40 but that's not classified as technically as overtime because it's not outside of what they would normally be scheduled so that's what we call Extended workweek compensation and that was an auditing
thing I think that was done many years ago in order to clean that that up a little bit because it looked like we were paying uh paying you know an astronomical amount in overtime to the Auditors but that was not the case once they realized it was just their extended Work Week um hours and so that's why
that separation was made um again many years ago just one question quick question been how many hours a week is that that they get or well it depends it's it's an average of2 hours U every two weeks okay so each week differs
though because of their they work 24 on 48 off so some weeks they may work 48 Hours some weeks they may work 72 hours okay so again for each individual employee we looked at the number of personal leave hours that they used the
number of regular hours that they worked which is paid at their base rate the number of overtime hours worked so this is anything outside of their normal schedule um you know if we staff the fair if we staff a football game that's what we consider overtime if they pick up an extra shift that's what we
consider overtime um and then number of extended Work Week compensation hours and so we added all those up to uh the total hours worked so to figure out actual overtime
each one of my employees every full-time employee is supposed to work 2,880 hours every year that's their schedule so they're supposed to work 2880 hours so what we did is we added all those numbers together and then whatever that number came to is their
total number of hours worked so then I subtracted 2,880 hours from that number to get the number of hours that they actually worked over what they should have been scheduled to work for the year so if they picked up an extra shift that would be shown in this um so anything
over 2880 hours is what we consider actual overtime so this is um again actual overtime that they worked outside of what they if they just came to work worked their 24hour shift they were off for 48 and that's what they did for the whole year then there would be no
overtime in here which you see many you know have zero listed in there um and so then what we did with for the overtime pay is we multip multiplied the actual overtime this number here by their rate
of pay so by their um time and a half pay because everything at overtime is paid at time and a half so we took their number of hours that they worked in overtime and multipli that by their hourly rate times one and a half everybody foll me so far I don't want to go too fast or lose
anybody okay um and then we took the number of PL hours which PL personal leave is paid at their straight rate so that's paid at their base rate um and then we divided that by 50% because if we add additional Staffing we're still
going to have to approve some of those personal leave days and fill those with overtime so we said let's not do every personal leave day I don't think that would be a fair estimate I don't think that would be a realistic estimate so we took um 50% of what they used in PL and
we're going to say we're going to cover that 50% of that with this additional Staffing the other 50% we we will still cover with overtime so we added in those uh those costs so we took their amount of overtime and the amount of PL 50% of
their PL and added those together and that's this far right column that you see here and so I did that for every employee over the last year and the amount if you take 50% of their PL plus um the amount of overtime that we paid
out for the employees and you add in their retirement contributions and you add in FICA and Medicare we paid out $345,900 of PL plus their retirement in fad Medicare for last year
2024 so if I were to hire this is our our um what a new a new hire would come in at right $153 per hour which gives them a base salary of 50,000 $984 we add in the holiday hours that
they would be scheduled to work with a projected annual salary $525 7080 you add in their FICA retirement and life and health insurance so each one of those employees cost me 887 $888,000 to use round
numbers I multiply that by three personnel and I get $263,800 out in overtime last year overtime in PL which is 354,000 354,000 I'm sorry 345,000 subtract the 263,000 from that and so we we see if we hire
three personnel our minimum potential savings would be $ 81,82 35 if we hire those those three personnel um I've I've run these numbers with Miss Dana to make sure that everything uh with Miss lefal there in the finance office to make sure that
everything matched up and my math was correct and my spreadsheet looked okay to her um and I don't want to put you on the spot but um you know you verified that everything looked looked right and looked and the numbers looked accurate um you know I rechecked every uh pay rate yesterday just to make sure that
everything was was uh accurate and updated and best I can I can tell you Bard is that um by hiring three personnel and adding that relief Staffing you know we'd be able to to drastically reduce the number of overtime hours that we're paying out
now would they work a straight hour would they work just like they work just like everybody else and and let me ask you um you said that they make $15 an hour yes ma'am and then you multiplied it by something
um but that $50,000 do that include their extended work yes ma'am yep so if they only worked the number of hours that they were supposed to work or their salary should be $50,000 yes ma'am but I have an example of an
employee who um worked a lot of overtime and as you can see here um let's see where this employee he just got engaged as a matter of fact uh this employee
here worked one day on and one day off essentially he worked every other day he worked 50% of life was spent at our department and he added $30,000 to his base salary because of the amount of time that he worked now if I'm paying that
one employee that $30,000 or if I'm paying three employees $10,000 it's the same you know it shakes out at the same at the end but he's he's spending his time here he's spending those hours here um so somebody would have to work it and somebody's going to get paid to work it
but it just happened to be that this one employee picked up quite a bit of overtime um and was able to was able to add that to his base salary but again at at the the uh you know sacrifice of of being here every day or every other day
essentially can we scroll back to the top sure okay go go far left okay um on that person right there so he worked SE 1700 I'm sorry stop and then he worked
how many hours of overtime or go to yeah that's fine um 30 hours of overtime and then 1174 of extended yes ma'am so the total he worked was 2990 yes ma'am and he's
supposed to work 2880 but it says the actual overtime was 110 right because that's the amount over that 280 2,880 hours that they're supposed to work every year so that's what they're if if I'm a a full-time employee and I come to work you know every third day that's my
the number of hours I'm supposed to work is 2,880 so he worked 110 extra hours outside of his normal schedule there's one
and chief so you're you're looking at if you if if each employee took at least 50% of their leave time but aren't there some that don't necessarily take half of their leave um and would there be any
impact with that but I know you trying to give an an estimate if at least if it took half of your so there's there's some employees that you know didn't take any leave time at all so I mean there there would be but that would be a savings to us that right right I'm saying it could potentially be a greater
saving because everybody don't necessar like when I used to work I I didn't take right I might take a week off you know or not take and have a lot of U time accumulated so you it might be even a greater savings than the 87 yes ma'am
and that's why I put minimum because I think this is a very safe estimate and I I'm very comfortable with these numbers and saying that this is what we will save and I think there's a potential for there to be even recogn even more recognized savings there and that's tremendous if save $81,000 and and Miss Dan I don't mean to
put on the spot I'm sorry um but just to just to clarify when we do a budget amendment at the end of the year that's when these costs are captured is that correct so if if we pay you know $345,000 in overtime that's when you move that money
essentially and and make that journal entry or budget amendment is that correct at the end of the year to capture those overtime costs and so now what if we were to hire these three additional employees we would just put that into our budget at the beginning of the year so you wouldn't have to do that
transfer at the end of the year is that correct okay that's good Chief how many salaried employees do you have that are just 40 hours a week I have uh six if you include uh David weeks and um Chris
cookie okay so a question I get from a lot of people is why aren't they filling in and so that we're not looking at so much overtime or we're not looking at hiring additional people right uh we do uh very regularly fill in for um you
know for fair fair Staffing football games stuff like that Chief Rogers will go down and work the football games um you know if we have somebody who is training and we have a need for a third person to be on there so if it's a brand new employee we can't put that person with just another paramedic by
themselves um so we have what we call third Riders and so a lot of the times Captain Lumis will ride down as that third rider for one to get a good evaluation on that employee but also um to uh to again prevent from having to call somebody in and pay that over time
out but there are many times where where we do that exact thing that you're talking about because I know like you know when we talk about you know tightening the purse strings you know we got to find out every way we can to be able to you know fill in where we can
yes sir and uh you know whether it's in the public public sector or the private sector certainly in the private sector you're going to do everything you can to fill in because if you don't meet that bottom line then you know there's going to be some issues so but um you know I'd like to follow along that model the best
we can because uh you know without you know trying to raise um you know the budget in any way I know there's you're showing a cost savings here but I'd like to see more of the cost savings sure and one more question for the chief
I know and Mr carnegi um echoed it as well when I asked about part-time folk and you you're saying that it's hard to recruit I just recalled when I was with the city all of those fire guys had second jobs yes you know they had
part-time jobs and so I'm I guess I'm still wondering if that may be possible that there's somebody looking for you know part-time job and maybe not to totally dismiss it um and we do we have about 177 part-time employees currently
um and and matter of fact we this morning while I was sitting in the commission meeting we had a a a paramedic who turned in his resignation as a part-time employee lives over in Flagler County he's the real estate agent over there so he's doing quite well for himself and so he it just wasn't worth it for him to come work here you know on his days uh really
doesn't have days off I guess as a realtor uh but on the weekends or something like that and so he he turned in his resignation this morning and that's what we're finding is that that people um are either leaving this industry or the ones that are uh work for another agency they're going to pick up overtime at their agency because
they're going to make time and a half whereas here they're going to come and make straight time um so that's that's what we're finding but we have quite a few um I know we have at least two or three from the city of Stark that are also part-time with us um you know as far as the the fire Personnel go um you
know we have a couple EMT single CER certified EMTs that we have that are that are part-time with us as well but but finding somebody who is a a paramedic is tough to have as a part-time employee for one if you don't work for a month you fall so far behind in the medical care um it's tough to
keep up in that regard so um it's kind of where where we're at with that but um it is tough to keep parttime employees but we certainly we do try and we recruit for part-time as well we did just hire a part-time EMT who's in paramedic school currently uh we're over the process of hiring her currently so
um you know we're doing all we can to make sure we keep a a good roster of part-time uh employees as well okay thank you yes ma'am can I ask um explain how hiring them I mean where you would place them and and how it
would bring about a cost savings sure so right now if somebody uh calls out sick we automatically use our on call system and we call in someone from that on call system to come fill that spot so if we have the ambulance that's here at the at the courthouse station behind you here
um if one person calls out from that truck we use our on call system and we call somebody in well that person is automatically going to get paid time and a half because it's outside of what they should normally work so they come in at their time and a half rate whereas this person let's say we have a full shift we have everybody here nobody's sick
nobody's on vacation would be an additional person that day so wherever we could put them you know if whether it be Samson City we would put them as a a third Rider on that engine or wherever now the same person calls out sick instead of me calling calling in the person from on call and paying them time and a half I pull that person off of
that engine because they're extra I pull them from there and put them on this ambulance and I'm paying them straight time rather than time and a half okay but if no one called called in yes ma' um so they would just be that third third person yes
ma'am okay and so that explains why you use their leave to explain okay correct and that's you know we have a lot of leave requests that we have to deny because quite frankly we just don't have the budget to continue to pay overtime to staff personal leave so we have we
get personal leave requests that we turn down all the time as a matter of fact a girl this morning we were sitting there drinking coffee at shift change and um you know she was like yeah my my personal leave got denied on my birthday or whatnot and uh I said you know what we'll we'll we'll take care of it somebody's going to work it whether it's
me working the truck or whatnot you need to have your your birthday off go have go have fun and enjoy it so I said you got the time off you know and uh and so this we'd be able to pull that that third person and cover that shift so Chief in some of the past
conversations we've had about HCA where are we currently at with HCA and transport and things like that I know we're talking about something different here but sure sure so with um with HC hospital we are still doing their emergent transfers we' provided
them with a list of um what we consider emergent you know what would what would uh we think meet the uh guidelines of of and and being able to justify taking a unit out of County for transport so anything that is an alert so a stepsis
alert stroke alert um stemi alerts a heart attack anything like that we're going to send one of our trucks because those are our people down there we're going to send our truck to go get them they need to get to a better not a better Hospital excuse me but a more definitive care um quickly and so those
are the type things now um you know they they use that list uh very liberally I would say and so if something is um is is does not necessarily meet that one of those criteria on that list sometimes it's
um it will meet that you know they they'll make it meet within those those guidelines essentially so um you know I think that we're still working out the Kinks of that but we are still doing um the emergent transfers out of there so are they not doing any transfers themselves are they coming over here
they are yes sir they're getting they're getting all the ones that are not emerging okay yes sir okay CU I saw an ambulance in Clay County at the new Ed right there in middleberg right pulling up HCA ambulance pulling up and I guess transporting back to orang park right
Regional or medical whatever it is and they do they um and they're then the works it's they've had a lot of turnover there at the at the hospital and so um they've had a lot of moving moving Parts there but um I know that they are working on getting an actual ambulance staffed out here so they can handle more of those calls
but that's something that they're they're in the process of doing they have the the actual apparatus they just don't have the staff to do it okay what was the total number of um leave hours that you had I didn't actually total that up but
actually give me a second I can do that are you that that's the list yes ma'am so that's the amount of personal leave um 9,455 hours of personal leave that was used last year
okay all right board if there's no other questions let let me just ask the board this seeing that this is definitely a cost savings if is this something we would like to have a consensus of a board for chief Carter to move forward and then if we had to add it to our next
agenda to to I don't know if we need a but but okay so we just need a consensus is is this something the board would like to see Chief Carter move forward with or I would certainly if there's a savings that's what I'm thinking so but uh like I said I mean we still got to
find more ways to save so again if it's you know assisting you know from upper management then yeah you know I would encourage you to you know get with your folks and try to do that yes you I'm looking forward to you work for him so overall I think that's the way that
we should you really be looking at things you know so I'm I'm really looking forward to um you know presenting our actual budget our proposed budget um I don't foresee there being much of an increase from uh this this current year so okay I'm uh said
looking forward to that Mr chairman yes sir if I may Chief do you have some estimate of how much revenue has been generated by the wall time fe uh since we started actually no I'm sorry um we just got this from uh our billing
billing company but I believe it was that was fiscal year correct so October 1st till now we've generated right at $29,000 from the uh from the wall times from the what I'm sorry from the wait time when we get to the hospital and we hold the patient on our stretcher
and we've been charging for that and they've generated about 29 $29,000 since October 1st are we getting paid we're getting paid all right well I mean that is a logistical okay years ago you you weren
getting that though right no sir no we were doing that for free three or four hours and yep and ask one more question and have we made any improvements in our our building process um for transport or whatever um I know there was something
with the the Medicaid or we yes ma'am so um you know we're we're still part of that PMT program where we get the U the offset from um from whatever whatever we have to reduce by is what they reimburse us for and
that's where we pay into the the fund and they give us back money um you know and so that's that's really been a great program and we we've received a significant amount of money from that program so okay um yeah we're we're happy with our with our billing right now our medical billing is is going
smoother than it ever has we're very very pleased with that okay well thank you great report and yeah if you move forward with those three positions that would be that'd be awesome yes sir now just just to confirm you'd like me to go ahead and do that
now yes that's yeah okay yeah yeah if it's that $83,000 in golf season saving yes thank you sir all right all right any other questions for me I actually have to shoot out of here but are there any other questions for me before I before I everybody good head out all
right yeah thank you very much yes sir thank You' all very much appreciate the opportunity to be before you all right thank you Chief thanks all right Mr corn we'll move on to the um Capital Improvement Plan update um thank you Mr chairman um so there
were a couple of updates that that we talked about at the last workshop and actually Amanda is going to outline those for us but one thing I wanted to draw your attention to is down at the bottom of the first page where it says facility improvements
that very first line Courthouse Ada upgrade design that's a that's a duplicate you can just Mark through that that's all included in the in the line below it so Amanda's going to outline the the major updates in the CIP and one of the things that I would ask in
advance as we go through this is when we're done if if you're comfortable and you don't have any more questions we would ask for a consensus um to adopt the CIP and then that way we can get it on the agenda for the because we don't have another budget
Workshop between now and the next in the next board meeting so once again as we go through this um we would ask for consensus when we're done okay so excuse me the uh updates to the CIP were all of the ones that were
requested at the previous Workshop um all of the gas uh tax chip seal uh those have been th those were approved by the board at an earlier meeting so all of those numbers are here uh on the summary page which is this first page uh so you can
see all of those the only uh Road Project here that does not have an amount is the county road 18 um it is a do project that's been submitted we just don't have the number for that yet but I wanted to make sure that that remained on there so that that you can see that's
coming up in the future um of course under facility improvements there is a duplicate there I apologize for that um the courthouse Ada upgrade design and uh following that the construction estimate so we have put in an Appropriations
request for these uh project but there is no guarantee that that would be approved uh if you look uh past that on years 25 26 27 and 28 I have put an amount um that is basically broken out
this would be a possibility for you guys to consider if you would like to start putting those funds to or funds for that project into um some kind of separated account or however you would like to do that um each one of these does include a
5% escalator so that each year you just in case of inflation or whatever things cost when you get to the end of this fiveyear cycle you will have that additional funds on top of the original um price so I I would ask you to consider either
um uh either one of those or some combination of that to to be able to put those funds aside because we know that that is an important project um to the courthouse to the clerk's office to basically everyone and we want to make sure that that can be funded in the
future um I believe everything else is just the updates that were listed uh from the previous uh meeting uh so following the summary I did break it out by departments just like before Public
Works um mosquito control uh fire rescue and then finally the courthouse facility improvements are on a separate page so if you have any questions I do I just have one thing Mr Jason not trying to put show on the spot
but but these we have these um on this uh equipment and Fleet we have the um in the right we're calling them the right thing for the um the Mac rollof uh because I think before we were calling them dump trucks or something instead of
the the rolloffs am I correct um I can I yeah I can dig out my um the last one that the one from the last meeting okay yeah remember we were talking about different different equipment and and then after I was
talking to you later on and uh and we said it was in the wrong categories that way it needed to move some around this is from our last Workshop so so I guess all I'm saying is
all these are in the right spot where you want them yes sir okay okay thank you thank you just want to make sure right thank you man thank you that's all I have for that it's just up to the board to discuss and decide if
you would like to um put this for approval up minus the um extra item on the facility improvements that's doubled there um so if you want would like to put this on the next board meeting for final approval or whatever changes or
specifics you would like to decide about putting the funds for the courthouse improvements um separated we would need to that's what you like like to do okay do do I need to call for public comments because I know Mr steel said he
had a comment he would like to make um this is a workshop so you can okay yeah Mr still I remember in your comments earlier you said you wanted to make a comment about the Cypress boat ramp and and it's something we're fixing to
approve uh yes uh Paul still 14167 Southwest hun 1st Avenue Park um I'm very concerned about the the Cypress Road uh Cypress Run boat ramp you're you're spending a lot of
money out of the boat fees to redesign the work that drmp did uh what I would suggest rather than spend that money for a redesign you simply use the boat uh licensing fees to
fix the boat ramp that's there and what needs to happen to that boat ramp is it's pretty simple you just need to remove the vegetation and you did a vegetation removal uh for the Samson River so we know that's going to cost roughly
67,000 and then the county has the equipment to restore that Canal to its original depth uh from the boat ramp out into Lake Samson uh and that you'd have to come up with the cost from public works to see what they would think that
would be and then you have a an interesting boat ramp that was installed installed in Samson City at uh free pipes that uh it's a boat ramp that has a guard rail in front of it so it can never be used and it's one that could
easily be uh picked up and moved it's a a series of concrete uh sections and you just pick that one up and move it uh to the Cypress Run and now you've got a functional bulk br for uh very little
money the uh boat ramp that was designed by drmp involved dredging uh Lake Samson which I think is going to be almost impossible to get permitted uh because
there is this alternative of using the old boat ramp and one of the requirements of a of a permit is that there's no alternative to uh dredging Sovereign lands and so I uh uh just urge you
to spend some time having your uh somebody look at at those Alternatives and and then the final thing would be to try to get the the money back from drmp that they spent on uh that they build the county for and the county paid
and that if if you can get the money back from drmp then you just tell FWC that you know you're not going to proceed with that project it just it just seems to be a waste to pour more money into uh a project that probably
will not be able to be funded you may be able and you're using money that could be used to actually fix the bo R thank you thank you is there anybody else i' like to make a public comment if I could can I just respond back to that yes um
well Mr s to tell you this project was started in 1979 when the land was donated ated that's how when you said don't make a hasty decision they've been working on this since 1979 so I don't think that
they've rushed through it at all um we are this is a grant that we're receiving correct yes ma'am from FWC okay and um we as far as dmrp um the reason that they are no
longer there is because they were not getting basically weren't getting the job done so that's why um there is a plan I don't think we could use DRM dmrp plan correct so um that's why we're moving forward and
finally um because of of their consistent processing and calling people and getting things moving we are moving forward slowly at a at a Turtles rate or speed but we are moving forward
um are we supposed to have a meeting or no okay but just to let you know this um and and the thing about it is is we may end up using part of that Canal but our goal is to have a nice boat ramp
something along the lines of um Lake Santa Fe Santa Fe Lake yeah Santa Fe Lake um something that the families can come and enjoy spend the day if they wanted to something um appealing for the
county uh that that is our goal okay and I I appreciate that but I think the piece that you may not be aware of is actually this project originated from the Bradford saw and Water Conservation District and
uh going for the the funding and uh then we were sort of cut out of the process and drmp came up with this in my opinion a totally ridiculous design uh and as I said
I I think that uh again you if you what what you have out there now is all you're going to get is the plants so then you have to go after the money yes
sir and it it's not I don't think this is going to be a a project that FWC is going to be willing to fund unless it's a whole lot uh doesn't involve uh dredging of sovereign land and so you you you that's the issue
and I think you just need to get some good advice on you know whether in fact you you go through you start the permitting process and if your permits are design denied that's the end of it you get your money
well but you don't get any you don't get the money that you've going to pay the new uh engineering firm for so just all I'm saying is take a more close look at this and I'd be glad to sit down with you and explain the process uh oneon-one
so that we don't so we end up with a boat ramp that's usable one of the problems is of course that's an extremely dangerous place to have a boat round entrance because it's a a blind curve you come across the covert that drains Cypress Run and you have to turn
right into the boat ramp yes I almost got hit there with the log truck coming uh so it's uh the design is the the real critical part and if the engineer is not aware of or doesn't recognize those designs need to be
changed again you're just wasting your money thank you all right and just the comment that you had asked earlier whether or not the um need to set aside funding for the um
the building and the Ada um improvements for the courthouse I think that would be an important piece to set aside annually um those funds for the capital Improvement so do we have a consensus of the board to go ahead and uh approve it
exactly as mandag a consensus for it to be placed on the next on the agenda to to be approved yes sir yes am I good okay sounds good all right next is mosquito control Mr dods I
don't know if you Mr wants to tackle this one who good thank you thank you Mr Jackson afternoon afteron yeah know the this year we got double
the amount for mosquito control than we had last year and we've been having a little extra money left over because of the dry seasons we've been having we have to have documentation you know most of the time of Landing count
rates how many mosquitoes are out there how many phone calls you know so there's a lot to it and when it's dry we don't get to go out as much but we're going to start doing some larva sighting and stuff like that I've some uh materials
and stuff that we're going to start doing that and to start spending more of the money because now it's going to be double so we're going to up our spraying um process we're going to spray
probably five hours a night um versus the three hours that we've been doing so we're going to be spending a lot more money and it it fluctuates a lot because you never know what the state's going to give us this year they gave us double
because of some of the people that were participating in it they dropped out and when they drop out that that leaves us little counties with more money that they can just distribute between us so and one of the things you have to you
all have to I guess depending on the the weather if it's raing or if you spray you have to wait a certain amount of time before you go back again or yes and that sort of thing right yeah the humidity and the the winds and the rains you know we we have to watch the weather quite often if we get out there and
start spraying it rains on us just drizzles a little bit then we have to stop and then we then we're wasting our product which is $3,600 for 30 gallons of product wow so it does cost quite a bit of money um but like I say it just
fluctuates quite a bit and we are trying to get into the Lara sighting a little bit to try to offset some of them cost that we can start doing some during the day and but that the larva sighting product costs a lot more so it would
kind of start spending a little bit more of that money that we're starting to that we were accumulating and not being able to spend and just like the uh the grapple truck that y'all were talking about we're planning on um taking a portion of
the money that we have in mosquito control because we can justif justify that as a mosquito control machine product we can get tires out of ditches and help the road department with their their
day-to-day stuff so half of it will come out of the mosquito control and come out of solid waste for the truck yes for the yes ma'am do you guys go out and do any part of that right now no the road department
does okay okay yeah so you're going to be spraying five hours a night yes ma'am there's three of us it's me that's what I was going to ask how many of you are there yeah there's three of us okay so may I ask another question so in those areas
are you Mr do know like um Northeast I think 171st and third that's where I okay where Miss uh um the one resident who has an abundant amount of mosquito
gestation in the area so can you spend a little I guess extra time in those yes really really bad bad areas yeah we usually whenever we get a phone call we go and hit it right then might to practice some of that
larvae control or something yeah um I know Mr DOD and I both went and bought some cans and spray and help that and then you all went out with the truck so in those particular areas any other questions is board good we're moving
forward the way this is set up yes sure it actually connects up with what I said earlier this morning about mowing one of the problems that we have is that when you
mow beyond the ditch and the tractors get in the ditch and you end up having these potholes that fill up with water and and are there as uh uh breeding grounds for mosquitoes and then it it leasts out on
uh in the Samson City area the ATV users make that into into a bug bog mudbog for them and it makes it even worse and uh so by having uh less of those Pockets
that uh can serve as mosquito uh habitats you're better off and those are the kind of habitats that uh would work well with the larva side kinds of approach you go around and you see where these are and you apply the
The larva side that then kills the skito when they're in the water and so I I'm uh the I very much encourage it's very encouraging to hear that uh it looks like the county is going to be moving more towards the larva side or moving
using the larva sides as a as an option because I think that's very important for us it's very hard to and one other thing that uh we had in at the extension office uh several years ago we had uh a program where we had people uh
throughout the community who uh trapped mosquitoes and counted them and uh provided counts when and that uh sort of fell by the wayside when Jim de Valerio left the extension office and it might be worth getting that up and running
again uh to uh just so you have some more data on where mosquitoes are and the populations and then the other key is that you can also get those mosquitoes identified so if you're having problems with uh disease carrying
mosquitoes that shows up for you so thank you Mr Jackson if if you don't mind I know that we had a conversation about this if if you don't mind but you know with thermos cell being in Hampton and uh you know and as we were talking about
you know do we work with thermacell and you was telling me that you've already been in touch with them and you know the gentleman that runs it and um anyway would would you want to share would B any update or anything or or how they I haven't got spoke with him since our
upcoming season but I'm in constant contact but mean emails me when I go out and spray in their area because they're a testing facility they uh ask that we stay away from their um that area when they're testing the mosquitoes but I did ask him I said look I said I know those
are screened in little huts and they they usually house about I don't know how many M quite a few mosquitoes I don't want to give number but um if they do have a an escape or something please let us know and he said oh by all means I will so we got a good working
relationship with them and he did say that anytime we need anything just to let him know and they will be glad to help us so and uh about the buzz Busters you know there was a lot of volunteers where people just you know not
volunteering anymore and I think it's more of the AG is doing more other things now so I've got in contact with the University of Florida as no cost to us so they're going to be coming down and showing me some more about trapping
and stuff which I kind of know all about that but they're going to help us out with our trapping and they'll send the mosquitoes back to the university they do their counts that's more of surveillance for us like when we have a hurricane or something when we need the state to come in to spray we have all
that information to provide to Emergency Management then that's uh for our surveillance okay thank you can I ask him one more question what's the rule um with your spray when there are animals let's say
somebody has a farm with cattles or farm animal is there a frequency in which you can and can or you just can't no we we can spray around animals it's safe for animals um it depends on the the citizen if they don't want us spraying in their area then we try to work with them but
if you got a neighbor that's wanting spray they get the spray so okay especially if it it's becomes a health issue okay but it can be done around their okay that's what I need but you have to watch it around them bees
don't yeah the bees we have to be we work well with the bee Association and uh if they're registered with the state they uh the a department has it and they send me a list of them and we we work around that area that we we stay away
from those as best we can unless there's an outbreak then then there's other things that we have a virus out west nile we got so many chicken Guna and all that stuff if that happens in our County then all that's out the door then we we we take care of Public
Health well sir just for and I know I speak for all of us thank you for the job you do we greatly appreciate it I appreciate it yes sir thank you yes thank you all right Mr chairman the last item that we need to discuss is a cost of living
adjustment uh some of the constitutionals have approached me recently about what the board's intention is in terms of a cola so what I've done is I've provided you with um three different amounts there's a 3% a
4% and a 5% and you can see there what the total cost would be associated with each race so uh just need some direction going forward as we prepare next year's budget and um and we'll go from there all right any comments on that what did
we do last year we did 5% last year yes ma'am yes ma'am we did yes we and and I'll be on sport that's what I was thinking going ahead with another five this year simply with everything going up the way it is um I picked up 12
uh one dozen of eggs uh $7 from the Dollar General pretty soon there going to be a dollar an egg I mean $7 you know so um you know and and also there was a time where we didn't give our employees raises for many many years many many
years you know so um that that would be my you know my vote would be to go with the 5% but whatever the can I say something real quick yeah yes sir the the what the government adusted for inflation this
year was uh 2.5% that's basically what they give Social Security so that that's what they based social security on this year is 2.5% co star in January yes and also the CPI was
3.2% 3.2 okay but but I will say this we have some very very good employees you know and if you want to keep them you need to pay them um that's that's the bottom line I um I I have I was I think I was talking with Ben this morning but
I'm I'm shocked what uh some of these shops are now paying for labor and stuff uh you know I mean it's it's a good thing but it's just um things are expensive I mean it's everything has really gone up and uh and like I said we have excellent employees
in Bradford County and um the the question is do we do we want to keep them you know if we want to keep them we got to take care of our employees that's that's the way I look at it I'm um even when I was a business owner that's why I looked at it I had good employees I
wanted to keep them because they're hard to they're hard to come by I mean so so are we bound are we Bound by the the three um
3% four or five can we go something in between like a 3.5 or do we have to stick with no you can any amount you can go below three or above five as well so could we consider a 3.5 so it would be within the you know what the state feds
do U but not far over that is that a consideration so that they'll still get something that's within the range of the norm for now there's basically there's it looks like $40,000 between each one three to four
to five 40,000 each time you jump up uh across the board so as you see even the 5% total would be um um 21, uh $336.14
so but again I'm I'm just thinking about people like at our road department and stuff like that um we got a lot of people that don't really make a lot of money so that's that's that's what I'm looking at
um and it's not that no that they're not worthy of it they're worthy of a 10% we can afford to do it but when we're looking at conserving cutting back on our budget that we can still provide uh an increase but at a reasonable amount
that's why I was suggesting the 3.5 which would be somewh in line with um across the board inre that the state and and federal are doing and that's why I ask how much we have because 5% is is
quite a boost um I thought maybe that we could do a little less this year um since we did get 5% last year any other comments anyone or well I just you know we had a
Miss Dana is still here she did a presentation uh at our last Thursday meeting and you know with our reserves and you know seeing everything going in the opposite direction and then looking at other ways that we're trying to save money you know we really need to take
that into consideration you know so you know we we we say we're trying to cut and then we keep spending and so um I mean I can I can tell you just personally I
mean what what my Cola was was less than the lowest number on here and so and that's in the private sector a company that's profitable and I know that we're not here to make a profit we're here to provide services
but we need to break even at least and still have the Reserves for the rainy day so I totally agree that we have excellent employees I mean that doesn't go you know unnoticed and I don't think it goes unnoticed by anybody on this
board or any department head here but you know certainly um you know I think that should be taken into consideration and I do think that last year's number was very generous and I understand that we had not you know been giving them in the
past but you know we really need to consider where we are fiscally and and where we're going to be next year and you know if it's smaller you know each time then you know if we're able to do
that then we can but I just don't think we need to jump up you know to the 5% and make that something that we do every year so that's just my comments could I also say one more thing sure yes sir this money we've been getting interest off of we're fixing to give not give but
that project with the city we're going to have four million going out of reserves slly right over a year period over what I don't know what the project span is but it'll probably be a onee one-ear project something like that
it'll it'll certainly chisel away and then also we have 1.7 million because we still don't know what's going on with the fairgrounds so you're talking about near $6 million dollar it's fixing to be gone yeah and you know with that money that's
what we were drawing at 5% most of that 900,000 we were in the black last year yeah and and you know and again saying what I said about miss lefal you know having the the presentation um where I don't want to
spend that money on the fairgrounds I don't want to see the fairgrounds go away so I understand you know that there's comments about other things where we could put that money but I would hate to see this County lose the fair I'd hate to see it for the county
i' hate to see it for the kids and so uh but again that's that's money I I just don't even want to spend but again but given the situation that we're in and being that I don't want to see somebody else come in there and try to
bail it out and do something else with it and and and we don't even know where we are with that right now I mean it it's just so cloudy and up in the air but um if it doesn't you know go our way and it goes however it ends up um we've done
everything we've can man I mean we we we've tried we've offered and we've done everything and I know we're I'm getting a little bit off topic here and I'm not trying to be editorial but you know at the same time people need to know that this doesn't work out we tried twice we tried last year and we tried this year
right and so I don't want to be slung in the mud because we didn't try right right I agree and and the thing is like you said we we know where we're at I've been talking to some people we've got big plans for that Fairground
property if we can if we get if the county gets it so we we know where we're at and and also by just if you think about it this way by just what was it a year and a half ago when we were trying to do it and until now we've already lost what is it
$237,000 and then it's costing us extra just because we couldn't close out this exact same deal last year so now here we are a year and a half later it's going to cost the county another 200 I believe it's $237,000 more and the longer it goes on
the more expensive it gets because the default rate that was incurred in November of last year is 24.99% yeah and I personally don't think we should go on much longer um if if they when is their next
meeting they had a meeting last night right soon as I get out of here I'm going to get on the phone with our attorney and find out what's going on because the two attorneys are talking I think it should be a very simple decision and um because like you said we
we just can't afford to keep waiting and paying all that interest on top of that that's right right to be honest I've had I don't even know how many conversations with Bob Milner and I I I really thought
that we were on the same page and um and to be honest with you just from hearing about it this morning that that they didn't go through what they were talking I'm I'm shocked just you know just not get into a lot of details but but um so
here we here we said and the bottom line is it's just exactly what commissioner doy said do I want another $1.7 million headache not really but I do not want to see that fair go under for the citizens of Bradford County that's that's just the bottom line and I and we could take
it and make it so much more with our resources and and it' all be about the children and the citizens that's that's what it's all about the bottom line because I'll tell you what two or three years from now if you look down there and there's businesses there and no
Fairgrounds I mean that that's going to be terrible I mean I went to the fair kids went to the fair my grandkids are going to the fair probably everybody in this on this board can say the same thing you know I mean it's just anyway that's that's that's where we're at so
um back on the subject of the cola Miss U lefic what if we did 3.5 what would that it's 40,000 if we did three right and then what would it be at 3.5 what would that dollar
104 okay but 40,000 at 3% but a half a percent more is 100 okay I got you thanks or I would recommend we stay at 3% and then let's see where we are let's
see where we are um we'll see where we are next year because I think we are certainly going to get hit and so I mean if we want to do something then you know that again if these are our choices um if if there's anything anybody else
would recommend whether it's you know 2.5 or you know I but I I I think right now the minimum of three um is something that we should consider and and I understand too especially would concern buying the
fairg grounds at 1.7 and um I would have toe I agree okay so three three are you okay with three so we have a consensus at a 3% col yes all right thank you that's all I
have Mr chairman okay well that's that's everything that's on here no other comments or anything I got okay all right all right thanks thanks everyone meeting is ajour our next budget is that in the 1 of
April yeah