##VIDEO ID:mpzJeNmw_nk## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right um good morning morning uh Board of County Commissioners Bradford County Florida it's January 7th 2025 um I thank everyone for being here this morning to start off this new year um and also uh Mr Corner gay will not be with us this morning due to a death in the family so uh if you would keep him and his family in your prayers uh especially as he's traveling and uh this time to uh get us started I'm going to ask uh Chief Carter to open us up with a prayer and flag salute father we thank you for allowing us to come here together as a community Lord and do what's right you father we just ask that make good decisions for our community and do what's best for the father we ask that pour out your blessings and keep your head protection around all of us in this room and all of us Spread spread across week thank you for your many blessings and all that you do amen Al to the flag of UN un States of America and to the rep for stands one nation God indivisible justice for all right the first item on the agenda is public comments um at this time I don't have any nobody wants to make a public comment we'll move on to item three and before we move on to item three we need to make a a amendment in item 3F It should read approval of ship rehab project file number 2020 D3 DS and contract to be awarded to Florida homes Inc so bidder in the amount of $45,100 188 Cent so by hearing that if I could get a motion to app approve the consent agenda with item 3F being amended to what I just read I'll make a motion to approve cons okay we have a motion from commissioner Thompson second okay second from commissioner Adry any other questions all in favor by a sign of i i i motion carries 5 next we have the uh Clerk's report um Rachel's fixing to put some important dates to the record for V adjustment board dates and just some bud budget meeting dates such okay Mr chair and I'll pass this out shortly with important dates but just to keep uh you all in the loop uh for our VAB members our VAB organizational meeting will be August 26th and our VAB hearing will be October 9th and then for the board members with respect to the public hearings to adopt the tenative um millage and budget and then the final millage and budget that will be uh first public hearing to adopt tenative millage rate and tenative budget will be September 9th and the second public hearing to adopt final millage rate and final budget will be September 23rd and again I'll be passing those out to you all and just to keep you in the loop our office is working very closely with the county manager's office and getting uh things prepared prepared for the budget uh preparations for next fiscal year okay thank you very much all right the sheriff's report you got it all right uh County Manager report we'll turn it over our Steve Carter good morning uh all right so item a we have the letters of support um as well as the county ask for the uh Appropriations request from the county ask again this is uh specific to the county would be funding in the amount of 5.2 million for renovation and improvements to the braford county courthouse uh which you have in your packet uh from the scope of work there funding in the amount of 620,000 for the purchase of a new fire engine and funding in the amount of 635,000 for the purchase of a new fire tanker and those are the three asks for from the county for State Appropriations and we just need a consensus from the board move forward with those or do you have any questions or are we good to move forward I do have a comment um on the one for um the security systems and everything and the upgrades to the courthouse um we haven't discussed that at all um we we discussed that the need and and we knew that there was one but apparently this has already been in the The Works of being put together by chw and and plans are being finalized and um I just I feel like that this was something that and maybe you guys were were in on the meetings and you understand everything that's going on but I was not privy to the this information and really had no idea that we were already working on this so I just again feel like that we need to be involved and and at least knowing what's going on and um being um informed on on what we're going to talk about and and and things like that I I just it was upsetting to me that we didn't know anything or I didn't know anything about this um and to this point I still don't know um how the money is going to be spent um because there's ADA compliance that we're going to be doing and then I know um Amanda explained Security in your office right first phase they're they're almost I think one's three and one's two million 2 2.2 Millions for the ADA compliance and the securing of all the ladies in the Criminal Court division Traffic Division and everything in my office the only ones that aren't behind secured doors in the courthouse um that's it if you weren't notified I apologize because Scott and and uh Jason were ever meeting with us I guess we were just trying to get a price to see if it's even feasible and I know and and what I'm saying is I just would have liked for that information to have been passed on To Us by Mr corn so that we we know what's going on that's all okay um I understand because you've you've mentioned this several times that the need was there but um and like I said The Others May know all about it I just I wasn't pry to the information I'm not sure any of them do really I mean they may have known about the the us talking about it and then have chw here but this is the first time we got the prices together and Appropriations basically the shape we're in right now is the only way we'll be able to do it okay all right um just a comment if you don't mind I know that um I was the the previous year the year before last then we um through our Opera funds we appropriated a certain amount to um for improvements uh for the courthouse um but I know that we' talked about doing the capital Improvement plan which has not come together yet but um that they would seek uh appropriation funding which would be be something that the state would assist us with in making the renovations if that was so approved in addition to what we would get um done with our Opera funding with them um but the most recent thing that was talked about um was the gentleman who had come to speak with us about um the possibility of using solar solar paneling and helping with our uh reducing our electrical consumption um and I know during that time you were you were away and some of the issues as far as our budget um I think in fact um commissioner dhy recommended that you know we hold off on some of the others until you got back okay Mr chair and I agree with commissioner Andrews and commissioner Spooner uh and I know that you know we have talked about the needed upgrades you know to the courthouse and to the facility here um and also as Miss sponer said you know we've talked about uh and Miss rhen brought it up as far as our Capital Improvement plan and this would certainly fall into that category I think uh as well as the two fire engines um you know and the tank or excuse me the fire engine and the tanker um it's it's almost as if this if you look at the letters of support below that those items were items that we have talked about in the past and that have been funded at least partially funded in the past but now we have these other items that uh again would be what I would consider more of our CIP you know rather than just uh you know throwing it out as a request for Appropriations I just want to also mention that one of the first I guess Summits that I attended as a commissioner was an economic development Summit and what it reminded me of is a whole bunch of middle school kids coming in with different projects and you know seeing who's going to win the science fair but you know without us coming together and and building the better mouse trap and trying to figure out you know what it is that we want to go after um for instance the uh city of star funding request for the water and wastewater project that we've already been awarded you know a couple million dollars we put $4 million towards it out of the arpa funds and now you know it sits I don't want to say backseat but it certainly sits down at the bottom of the list from what we're looking at right now and so at what point uh do we you know have that money just sitting aside but it's no longer really you know say like a top request as well as the airport um you know as far as the the access road again things that we've talked about more publicly and then you know now we have a couple of items that um you know as commissioner Andrew said I think they just you know kind of thrown at us at this point um but you know again not to Discount any of those items because again going back to the request you know for the courthouse uh I know commissioner Thompson commission excuse me uh clerk Thompson and I have talked about this uh over and over again about the needed upgrades you know to our facility and again um you know this is this is the citizens facility uh it's not just ours so there certainly is that that that need you know for that to happen um but again it it's all just kind of like thrown in the basket right now we have two days to discuss this excuse me tomorrow uh to discuss this with our legislative delegation so you know it's going back to you know right and plan on the back of a napkin and hoping for Success instead of having a real plan and drawing it up and you know being able to you know really have some teeth to it when we request it Kirk Thompson I was just going to say also miss cash dollar from um Court Court Administration she was a 50% of the driver in this with the courtroom needs because the courtroom is really outdated they original courtrooms that were here when the courthouse was built when was that 68 yeah something left something again I and like I said I'm just you know speaking out and also you know agreeing with you know commissioner Andrew and commissioner Spooner that you know these are items that that I think they've been just kind of touched on the surface but there hasn't been a whole lot of real discussion about them um until quite honestly right now yes and and two to go along with your comment uh it would be nice to to finish some of the projects we've already got started like the airport one and the um trying to get the infrastructure out to the bypass it would be nice to to get those projects complete and and actually have them at the top of our priority list so that because um so that they'll be funded so that's that's why I look at it you have some Mr chair uh yes sir so just to just to clarify the letters of support are not being request they're not requests from the county those are requests from those specific uh entities so the airport will be writing their requests uh the city of Stark will be writing their own requests however we're just providing those letters of support uh to the legislator saying that we we support those projects but those are not asks from the county again the asks from the county are just the top three items okay and and they're not in any priority list either or priority rank U order at all it's just a matter of there that was the numbers that fell on there and may I the the letter of support for the for the airport um I'm a little confused and and I mentioned it to Mr corn um why isn't that done by Keystone so from the city of keyone being the City attorney for Keystone they discussed that at their meeting last night um Mr Kirkland came and explained that they're looking for letters to support from everyone in the area so they're looking for both Klay County Bradford County um the city of Keystone Heights as well as many of the stakeholders so it's not it's not just Bradford County okay well if I may say Mr chair my understanding um you know just from the state of Florida and you know from the governor's office is that you know they're going to be very selective uh just as they always are but as far as the projects that that push through I know we had a lot of Devastation in our state this year uh so certainly there's some asks around uh that would probably be you know way more than you know projects that we have that uh are just kind of in a design phase so saying that also to kind of go back and say that you know the courthouse is here the courthouse is a project that's been here for a long time that certainly needs uh the upgrades and the renovations whereas some of the other projects that we have on here are just kind of ongoing and really haven't got to that next step yet um again not to go back on what I was saying earlier because you know again these are you know projects that we want to have and we want to move forward but it's just like our roads you we talk about our roads you know you can go out and pave New Roads that are dirt roads or you can take care of the roads that you currently have that are more important to getting people into Bradford County and the City of Stark so you know same thing it's you know again the courthouse certainly has the needs but I think what we really need to decide as a board is if we're going to go after something and we're going to have a request you know it's I'm not saying that there aren't priorities here but there's a lot of stuff here that you're really just throwing a dart at a dart board and hoping you hit a bullseye and if you don't you know maybe ride outside and maybe get one or two other projects so well Mr chair um I had spoke with Mr corn about that um because the last time that we went to Tallahassee um each one of us kind of had our own own goal and um and talk to Mr Brandon about that I what I Envision is us to be one board and to like you said Mr do to have um to have these requests but when it all boils down that we um have what we consider to be our number one priority because Mr corn said that there would not be much money because of the storms and I understand that but um and I think that we have to um the request that we have I think we need to look and think of our citizens um and what is best for them um of course life and safety being our our first um in Bricker we lost the four-year-old child um that makes me feel like we need to complete that fire station and have a Rescue Unit there for the people that are in that area I don't know if it could have saved the little boy but we don't know that it wouldn't and I just think that as a board if we really look at what we have online here um that that should be our first priority is to complete that station and commissioner Andrew I don't disagree but I I'll just wrap it up and this is my final comment but uh again you know if I look at it like my own house this is our house and if you know you're looking to build a new shed out back uh but you know you're Plumbing's gone out or your electrical is gone out and things like that then there's no reason to have the shed out back if you don't have a house to live in so um probably way off base there but anyway I'm just trying to say that um you know certainly I understand the need but I get your point too about not having discussions about this we know that this needs to be done and we know that the request needs to be there but there just hasn't been a lot of discussion and at this 5.2 million I think we just mentioned the clerk's office with security and we mentioned Miss cash Dollar's request for the the courtrooms but outside of that we don't even know what else there is that has been discussed as far as what needs to be done we know we just replaced the chiller unit we know the boiler went out we had to replace that so then you know it's you know what else is there and that's something that we just don't even know right we had a meeting with uh I speak for a minute we had a meeting with Ben Amanda Scott Rael myself and uh yesterday and they're putting together a CIP and it's came together I've really seen what I see ips4 in the last two months there's a timeline on it fiscal years that would like to be done and this that and other so as long as we have that template in place going forward you guys will have something to look at and then when it comes time for an appropriation you can decide and vote on what you want to get and that would be great and and that's certainly the the purpose to have that I understand I was going through my shed the other day and I was going through some boxes of you know some old stuff and I had a 2018 2019 request from the road department for their CIP and I I should have brought that in uh just so we could see where we are and how we've been able to follow it along and I don't even think Mr dods I don't know if you were even a part of putting that together um but again it was just something that I came across and I thought well interesting because I know that we've talked about you know CIP projects or cips anyway and um you know so that's that's really the only one that that I've seen um I think Chief Carter's also had some too in the past that he's put together so anyway um not to beat a dead horse but I think that what it comes down to is you know just uh you know having that CIP in place so where these aren't really big surprises to us and my um is a chair just an ideally that you would have these development with an open workshop with your board uh for discussion and prioritizing that's the part of our strategic planning process um so that when we when we come together and make a discussion we would prioritize what's the most important for the county uh our capit Improvement plan would be there and so this it wouldn't be at the last minute the day before a legislative delegation that we're making decision about what what we're going to be asking for and I know that what four years at least that I've been on the board we've been talking about the need for Capital Improvement but no no steps towards doing that um but I do think it's important going forward that we uh continue our efforts with our strategic planning and that we planul discuss the priorities for the county and in doing so um again it's not the last minute someone in isolation or group in isolation has made that decision for us that making sense and I'll just if I don't if you don't mind I I apologize that this is the last time the first time that you all are hearing about it but I do want to assure you on the back end our office for months now has been working with the county manager's office and chw to come up with the plan and I think Mr Corn's thoughts were probably kind of hearing from the clerk just in passing or you know um in a brief moment during a meeting to say you know we have these security needs I think he might have just taken that as let's go ahead and get all the information um and try to on his end be as prepared as he could be to present you all with the information but I do understand that it does feel very last minute to you all but I just at least wanted to assure you that there has been a lot of discussion on the back end um with our offices and just to give a little bit more information for you all with respect to the clerk's office upgrade security um part of the security need is to meet our CCIS standards we deal with a lot of sensitive information same as the Sheriff's Office adoptions um birth records death records um you know very sensitive information and so we've done our very best to secure our office in the best way that we can from public view as we're required to do um we're required to meet a certain set of standards as far as having a secure office to be able to access the software that we need to run our office and if we were ever to be audited and there's any kind of indication that we're not meeting those standards they could shut us down and that would be very problematic to our operations um so we've done our very best as far as putting up you know blinders on our our laptop and and as much dividers as we can from the public being able to view our sensitive records we've moved a lot of our records outside of our office into our storage um with the help of the board not just clerk records but also board records because as the official Record Keeper we have records that we have to maintain permanently you all did dedicate arpa money to us so we could digitize a lot of our um our records and we're still having to digitize our records and using our own funds too for that because it's a very um it's a huge project to again meet the standards of having to keep those records permanently and secure um and they're not just our records they're also board records too that we're required by law to to maintain um but we're just now at this final St age where um we've done all we can do but we still have some work to do to secure our office and and I agree with clerk Thompson I mean it it it's we just want to bring it to your attention so that way it's constantly on your radar um to where maybe we can try to find other funding sources whether it's through a grant or Appropriations but if not also being able to maybe just consider do we budget a portion of our general fund into a committed account for this over the years if we don't find that Appropriations and there'll be other projects like that too um that you all can discuss and consider but I at least just wanted to give you since since you are just being now made aware about what our needs were I wanted to share a little bit more about what that looked like and we can answer any other questions okay Mr chair can I ask a few questions goad um Miss Andrews what was the estimate for the town of Brooker fire station how million dollars how much 1 million 1 million Mr mner what is the request that the city is asking for for the extension of water and wastewater out 16 to the bypass talk about okay Mr dods on the roadway project uh at the airport do you remember what that number was as far as the corridor Road out there 3 million I think okay okay and then miss sponner do you know what the request it's $9,99 I believe for the RJ phase three okay that's that's most of right around $13 million requests not just from the county but from also the cities and the projects that the county has also been involved with water Wastewater extension Keystone Heights you know roadway uh Corridor project at at the airport um the contribution that we had already given to RJ and then um of course you know nothing at this point you know to the fire station so again at roughly $13 million request I don't know that any rural area um other than you know again outside of rural areas certainly you see these large Appropriations going into some of these um you know big municipalities I but uh so it's roughly around $13 million request that we just hope to get again going back to the the the science project and trying to figure out you know which one we're going to get out of all these and we have to prioritize you know really you know what we want that to be so I think anyway like I said I just asking for all of this and hoping to get something uh you know you may get a portion of one you may get a portion of another um but to think that um the Poss possibility of getting around $13 million from the state is uh probably just a good a chance as it Tha out up north right now the next day I agree all right any other comment do you need a motion in a second or just a board's consent just consensus uh for we need the consensus for the county items and then consensus for the uh letters of sport SE all right or do we have a consensus to do what we got in front of us or or any changes or I'll go along with what we have here but I'm going to say this and I'm just going to say it now and I know we just talked about this in part of our discussion that there's no way in hell we need to move forward into our next year without having cips and discussions about these projects before they come up so again what we're doing and when we go in front of our our legislative board our delegation that what we have has some teeth to it and it's not just a wish list and it's something more that we can you know stand back on and say this is where we are with this project and and this is this is how we want to move forward so anyway I completely concur we have got to stop the backo office um them making the decisions and us being unaware of what what's going on um he has got to pull us into some of these meetings or he has got to let us know what is what is happening in this County now I do agree too I I feel like again we need to keep our top priorities top priorities and and let them know so we can get some of these projects completed we've got several projects that are started but not completed and uh we we need to get them finished especially the infrastructure out that are bypass with the city of Stark that needs to be done and uh we already started the road to the airport we need to complete it before we start new projects otherwise we got stuff everywhere and nothing's finished so um that's that's why I feel on this totally agree I I agree strategic planning Capital Improvement plan let come together as one body with priority prioritization for what we're going to move forward to with with for our County just so you know one project that we've been working on I found an old newspaper article where the land for sappers ramp was given to the county in 1979 mhm today we are not a whole lot closer than we were in 1979 when that it it's like it just doesn't happen right so you are absolutely right Mr RIT we need to find ways of getting these projects finished if we have to call people every day that's our I mean that's what we should be doing now with that board before we go ahead and make consent do do we want to tomorrow when we go before um in that delegation meeting do we want to have a list of our top priorities and tell them look we appreciate funding for anything but but this is what we really need do we want to go forward with that or do you want to approve what in front of us Mr chair I would say you should establish your priorities now um this is your one time to speak with legislators in a public for something I have a little bit of background with I think what commissioner D saying is 100% on point as far as how the legislature looks at these items and even though represented Brandon and Senator Bradley fight very hard for Bradford County there's only so many dollars that are going to be appropriated and distributed so having your priorities helps um something that the association of counties helps promote too is whenever a county has some financial interest in supporting a project that helps too it it's better to have skin in the game than come in just with a handout um you know if you want fire station talk about how you have the ability to F to fund staff for that fire station um those are the things that appear to help but um one thing that has come out publicly is Speaker Perez has said that the number of member projects is not going to be anything like it was last year so the estimate was a 50% cut this year that's going to be hard for a lot of the rural counties I would suggest and I don't presume to tell you all how to do your job um one of the big issues for Rural counties is the fact that there's a threshold in what is considered a rural County and as a thousand net gain people move to the State of Florida every day a lot of the cities are growing and a lot of our rural counties are growing what's happening is that threshold is pushing us out of a rural County designation and then it affects your ability um to have certain fees waved by the state it affects your ability to apply for scop and scrap money um I would say be careful of some of the things that don't cost any money that you may want to advocate for as well thank you Mr chair so with that do we want to pull some of these off of here well Mr chair if I may say um certainly you know going back to the the bottom four um if you want to look at those as you know separate you know one of is the you know support for the town of Brooker One support for Keystone Heights airport support for concerned citizens and support for city of Stark those are going to be their requests those are going to be their asks right they're just asking for support from us right and we can certainly support that the funding and the amount of 5.2 million for the renovation and improvements of the Bradford County Courthouse I would say that if there's going to be any any Appropriations that would go towards that it's certainly going to have to be a phase project because I I don't see them funding that all up front but you know it certainly is going to be worked in phases and then next year we're probably going to have another requ if we get money for that we're going to have another request again to try to you know finish the project um you know the amount for the uh the new fire engine um you know that comes back down to uh the the fire engine and the tanker are these aged items Chief Carter yes sir so that's actually uh the engine is a continuation of last year's project we asked for two last year we only received one uh funding for one and so the engine is actually continuation of last year's project to replace a 2007 uh fire engine and then the uh tanker is to replace a 1999 uh tanker that we still have in service as a Frontline truck would it be fair to say if if if I was reviewing this list uh the state level that we don't have a funding source for our fire department right now and we're asking for additional equipment that we have to staff and and again I think this is a replacement like you said sure um but at some point it's the maintenance and the the Staffing and the the buildings that they go into and um you know including the the you know the request for the the Brooker fire department that we own that property until it falls down right there's no taxes paid on that property uh it's one of those items that you know again mentioning to the delegation in the past giving us money to help us generate Revenue so that one day we can stand on our own TW feet is a lot better than giving us money that's just costing us you know more expenses um so again I'm not discounting the fact that we need those um but certainly um I can see where those two would fall under the 5.2 million for the courthouse Renovations so at this point you know what's been presented to us is being presented to us um I I I would I would stick with the the the three coming from the county um because you know we have not discussed anything else as far as a board as far as any other requests from the county but all we have discussed is projects again that are in conjunction with the municipalities or the private organizations you know in the county so well and again I I think that um the fire station broker should be our first priority um Mr Thompson has Hillburn Springs Mr rck has two in his district Miss sper has ly you have the city and we're stuck out there with nothing and um I just think that for the life and safety of our our citizens that that should be our number one priority the the road into the Keystone airport I think should be I'm the road the road that we paved into that leads to Nowhere there's nothing at the end of that road there is no buildings being built there is no warehouses coming to that area um so to look at this and consider it as a high priority I think that's it it's all I mean I I don't understand that because if now if there was a a a push and there was warehouses being built in that area and I might could understand that but I just I don't with the money the way it is now I do not see that as a priority whatsoever the funding here is extremely important and I do understand that um but that's my opinion miss Andrew I don't want to don't take me wrong on this like I said I certainly think that we support those projects as as the ask is here uh support for the town of Brooker support for Keystone um I say we still support those certainly U but as far as the county you know these are the top three that we have on here right now and one being uh it looks like the the biggest one at this point is you know for the renovation and improvements of the rord County Courthouse so again I because this is how it was presented I would just I would stay with those and just support the other projects okay with that do we have a consensus can I say just one thing sure we're all Bradford County workers Bradford County um L's Bradford County each one of these we're all Bradford County and I think that we should look at it that way um I understand what you're saying the three are are from Bradford or from the county but we're all Bradford County and I think that when when we look at something that it should be thought of that way that's just my opin and I won't say anything else and I understand that and I agree with you I'm just saying if that's the way it is again that's the way it should have been presented as seven items that are Bradford County requests and not three that are Bradford County requests and four that are coming from you know town of Brooker town of key or city of Keystone airport concerned citizens and then the other being the city of Stark and city of Stark's going to move over with their request and um you we certainly support that uh just as we do the other three that are on there but right now our request is the top three that are coming from the county and it's you know again the the renovations the tanker and the new fire engine okay and I concur with um Mr dor all seven should be coming from the county the reason for it is because we have so-called skin in the game for the for these four below because we have money invested we got $4 million sitting on the dirt down for the water sewer area so that's an investment on our Count's part as well but and then the RJ we have a half a million on the roof waiting for the inside to be completed and the other buildings that's an economic um Development Area that's going to help to improve not only that area but for the whole of rafic County that's a priority for me for us because when we're looking at Economic Development when we can bring resources in when we can help those agency to be sustainable on their own and in the case with Brooker yes we do need a first station there with sustainable services but it won't be completed in the one year it's going to be phases two because you're going to have to staff it then you're going to have we're already trying to ask the citizens now for um fire assessment to sustain what we currently have so that would to be an additional one that has to be financially supported so you know all of these are important entity important pieces for our County because like she said we're all one so I in my opinion um the priority for our our Courthouse would be one of the top and then all then the rest to support if we're lucky enough to get funding from um from the legislators but say all seven okay so do we have a consensus on the board to go ahead with what we got what what you want to do yes I would say yes again I think it comes down to you know really the only three right now the way it's presented are the top three and again not again I'm not discounting any any other requests just saying that those requests are being put in by those towns those municipalities and certainly you know they're going to probably get some funding just like the countyy is going to get funding so to not support any of those projects and try to put them all up under one then we don't know if any of those would get U funded at all we just we we want to focus now I guess on the top three that are presented by the county so my vote is yes okay Mr SP you agree agree agree okay yes we have a consensus thank you and then also just for the letters of support as well yes okay moving on to your item all right uh Item B would be the employee evaluation training uh and the dates that we have for the evaluation training are on January 9th at 10:00 a.m. and January 16th at 3 pm January what now January 9th at 10:00 a.m. and then January 16th at 3 P.M and those will be held here at the boardroom yes here at the boardroom just for employees okay because I know in our last meeting we just kind of tabled it so now do we need a motion to move forward with it if we're going to move forward with the uh employee evaluations or just consensus for that as well okay all right any discussion board on that on the employee evaluation training who will be trained I mean all of us will be right all the employees supervisors and employees correct supervisors and employees to include us you can if you would like to yes but it could only be one of you okay they can come you just can't talk about it with right so if you want to come and you can promise to sit listen and not discuss then you'll avoid any sort of sunshine issue well because we'll be doing evaluation on Mr corn absolutely so um I think that it would only be fair for us to training okay any other discussion no okay everybody agree to move forward yes yes yes yes yes yes yes okay all right uh last two things that I have are the budget Workshop after this meeting is canceled a new date will be presented for approval at the next board meeting that was obviously due to Mr Corn's being out of town for her family family death um and then aquatic plant removal at the Samson River Canal will begin later this week uh and the last thing I have is the legislative delegation meeting is tomorrow at 3:30 just as a reminder it'll be here in the boardroom okay chief Carter or Amanda either one the dates again for the um uh the the fire assessment workshops yes what what what dates are those is that part of what you have Rachel okay and while we're looking that up can I just recommend that the one that we've missed um because I had requested that we have them in the afternoons so that or at our on our Thursday afternoon meetings so that the people of of the you know people could join in and help us kind of look at the problems and and be a part of the solution that you know with this assessment so um and I I think that most of them were scheduled for the morning meetings and um so if we could this one that that we're rescheduling if we can schedule it for Thursday afternoon uh Commission Andrews what we did is as we looked over it there's actually five five dates two of them were in the morning cuz somebody made a comment about you know a lot of people work at night won't be able to make it so that's why that's why we decided to leave two of them in the morning and then three of them at night okay well maybe we can do this other one at night too which one's that the one that we're rescheduling oh yeah for today okay two in the morning and 4 I've I've got there's the paper I got unless something's changed yeah just look at look what Miss rhen just handed out I think you'll see it it looks like February 4th at 10:30 and then you got sent tax at on that's March yeah so it would be two: in the morning and three at night okay for a total of five yes all right all right we're good with that yes sir that's all I have okay thank you all right next we have a county attorney report Rich Commando thank you Mr chair uh you know you had some very good discussion about kind of the legislative priorities and asked today so that's good um I think the public knows that they're also welcome at that delegation meeting and the other reminder I would give you is just remember if you can block off and I don't know the date whatever rural County days is that's a good showing for our smaller counties over in tassi that's all I have Mr chairman thank you all right next we have commissioner comments um with commissioner doy I don't have any comments happy New Year everybody okay commissioner Spooner yes happy New Year again to everyone um just some reminders that January 18th is the Martin Luther King um our braic County um banquet and it'll be at the Charlie John Center at 6: p.m. and um as we've done previously and I need the consensus from the board we are always put a little ad in there so um this year I can use the pictures from our website since we don't have a a group picture per se and just to um incorporate their current theme with that if that's okay with the board I'll submit that for their booklet okay and then the um on the 20th at 10: at the same building they'll have their General U program with the youth um being there and I'd like to acknowledge today um um the passing of our former President Jimmy Carter and his honor and he touched brafi County um I don't know you guys know Mr Arley McCrae but he was one of the coordinators for the habitat host and one of the ones that I participated in helping the build was right there on the corner of of St um St Clair and um and brown Lee um so there's some I think in lity and around our community but his humanitarian um statue was just so big and so I just wanted to honor him today and also our um state representative Budd McKay who also passed and one of the pillows of our community um Mrs Crosby um that's the mother of Jimmy Crosby they funeralized her this past weekend Miss Juliet long who was a woman Minister over in the Pine Street for many years who um just did her sermons on on the street um so just remembering those um and their loved ones u in our thoughts and prayers um and um just encourage our community to continue to work together let's do our workshops and let's come with some good thoughts and ideas and let's move forward as one board one Community together thank you thank you commissioner Thompson yeah I just like to say thank you all for coming and uh have a happy New Year um well I had a lot to say but we've covered most of it um like I said one thing that I I think that we need to work on is transparency I think that um we need to make sure that we're involved in decisions that are being made and um like I said what I would love for this board is is is to have have open discussions like we did today we're not always going to agree and um but one thing I do know about each one of us on this board we took this job or we asked for this job because we care about the citizens and because we care about the county we work to try to make it function as well as we can and um I think that that's what I would love to see is for us to strive to be one County one board and um to work as hard as we possibly can to complete our projects and to stay informed so that when people ask us well what was that for we have the we have the answer to the questions and um I do wish everybody a Happy New Year look forward to working working with you guys and and getting some stuff done and uh just a couple things I'd like to uh mention and um and and and you brought up uh commissioner Andrew is one of them um we're fixing to go into I hope some very good discussions about our fire department because I know who's going to take the heat on the assessments there's no doubt in my mind it's us five right here and um and like you said we have two stations in one District um I I'll be honest I have had several I don't even know how many conversations would been and Mr corn about our fire department um but you know I can't call you guys but I can talk about it now because we're all in a public meeting we really need to look at closing some of these stations uh we when we're going into this before we really get into to assessments we need to see which stations we need open close the other ones there's two in thresa I mean there's two in my district I'll be honest with you I've already been talking with the citizens in thessa um we don't need it we don't need to thrust one we've got a brand new station in speedville with fixing to open up the uh living quarters that will cover it um I'll just throw it out there we need to discuss lahy if is it better to have H Springs open and close lahi or is it better have lah and close Hillburn Springs but but what I'm getting at and like I said I've had these conversations with Ben it's Scot so just bringing it to you all's attention so you can be thinking about it you can be talking to them on your own but but um we're going to catch the heat on this assessment so we need to get it together know exactly which ones we need open and why and what we're going to do to improve them and um I just wanted to to bring that up so we moving forward we'll all you know be thinking about this um I've got huge maps and uh when we get on that I'll bring them here where you can see where these stations are um uh would like um actual call logs of of what's not dots on a piece of paper but actual calls as to what's going out what's being run um you know and then um I'll just say it mix things uh why do you have a uh ambulance call and you got two far trucks sitting there in one ambulance we need to look into that and um you know these I don't know if y'all get hit but these these are things I get hit with constantly I can't even go into a hardware store around here and anywhere and I get hit with it so it's it's first of the year it's time to bring these things out get them in the open and let's move forward and make like you said make good good decisions and good choices um so that that wraps that up um again thank everyone for being here today I really do appreciate it and um and I appreciate your comments and you know so that we can move forward and get things better so um but thank you very much um if there's no yes um just wanted to add to um Miss Spooner's list U Miss Peggy Stanwick ha that's right yes M Stanwick another real pillar of the community and um so keep her family in your prayers as well and I also just want to say u in defense of Mr corn because he's not here um I I think he's been very transparent U along the way I really do I I think this is one thing that that we could say kind of fell through the cracks um but outside of that I think he's I I mean I'll speak for myself anyway I feel like have been informed on most everything that we've ever talked about or that's come in front of this board I think this is just one thing that may have blindsided us um but uh like I said I I do want to say that that U and if you know we need to have individual discussions with them about this then you know certainly we're all able to do that and I'm sure he'd be willing to sit down and talk to us about it but u i I do want to say that I feel like or I I don't feel like I think for sure that he has done everything he can to be transparent to us so anyway that's all thank you and two just to comment on that I mean this this kind of you know this is our first meeting in January we had Christmas New Year's you know and then bam we're getting hit right with this delegation meeting you know the first week basically that we're all back to work so anyway moving forward we'll get it a lot better so thank you everyone for being here and uh this meeting's a journ thank you wa