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if you wish to speak to any item on the agenda or during the public comment portion of the meeting please fill out a speaker card each person addressing the board shall have three minutes to complete his or her comments on each agenda item for which he or she has filled out a card the chair has the
discretion to determine or alter the time limit on any agenda item the board of County Commissioners requests that speakers appearing under the public comment section of the agenda limit their comments or presentations to matters relating to County Business that are within the board's Control Authority
and jurisdiction good morning and welcome to the March 11th uh meeting of the board of County Commissioners we have a quorum or call the meeting to order we have Jeff cabal from Space Coast humanist to
give us an invocation this morning you recognize sir good morning everyone good morning Commissioners and thank you for your service to the community As We Gather here today to discuss the matters that shape our shared future let us reflect on the values that unite us as a community
values of com compassion respect and a commitment to the well-being of all people regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs may our decisions be guided by reason understanding and a shared dedic to the common good let us approach this meeting with open minds a willingness to
listen and a resolve to work together for a brighter more inclusive future for all in Bard County thank you thank you sir commissioner ainson will you lead us in the [Music] pledge States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation under andice all right we're going to move into uh actually I don't think we have any minutes for approval today so we'll skip that um we're going to move into resolutions we have two resolutions
today and then we will have a presentation immediately after so uh um Matt Culver today sir today's your day special day is today your birthday it is my birthday happy birthday I think we
should all start with yeah okay who's going to start us with happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday
dear M happy birthday to you thank you all right I know you have quite a fan base uh here today and I want you to know that they put a they put a lot of wear
AES uh here today in your resolution I'm going to do my very best uh to to read this okay so we have a resolution this morning honoring Matt Christopher Culver for his contributions to Bard County
during his years of public service whereas Matt Christopher Culver born in California on this day in 1969 has been a resident of Bard County for 24 years and whereas Matt earned Bachelor's of Science degrees in ecology
Evolution and conservation biology and biological oceanography from the University of Washington in 1997 and whereas after graduation Matt spent three years with the Peace Corps in Panama and the crisis Corps in the
Domin Dominican Republic where he met his wife ingred while facilitating rural farming projects and coordinating with relief agencies before returning to the states to pursue Graduate Studies and whereas Matt earned his master of
science in coastal zone management from the Florida Institute of Technology in 2003 after having developed his master's research project on integrated watershed management in Honduras and whereas Matt
started his Public Service career in 2003 as an environmental specialist with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in Marathon and moved to the city of Titusville as a development supervisor in 2004 before joining Bard County as an environmental specialist in
2006 and whereas Matt through diligent effort and dedication Advanced to his present position as boating and waterways program coordinator in 2007 where he has served served as staff liaison to two board appointed groups the Marine advisory Council and the
district 2 Canal dredging committee and whereas Matt during his tenure has overseen the removal of 327 Derick vessels from the Indian River Lagoon thereby permanently eliminating potential contamination and navigational
hazards and whereas Matt's contributions have included countless weekend special events manate protection plan and comprehensive Maritime management master plan development coordination with agencies and marinas emergency response to vessels of drift
during and after storms and G General inter agency Marine law enforcement coordination and whereas Matt has was instrumental in securing approximately 2.5 million in Stan Mayfield working Waterfront program and other grant
funding to acquire and improve the griffs land at Blue Crab Cove site that represents the Last Remnant of Riverfront commercial fishery and crab operations on the Indian River Lagoon in Bard County this 2.74 acre
historic working Waterfront site is integral to the community's maritime history and today provides dockage facilities channelized access gasoline Boat Boat Ramps pumpout stations and supports recreational commercial fishing
and whereas for 10 years Matt has coordinated with and secured grant funding from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and donations from the Florida sports fishing Association Central Florida offshore Anglers and the coastal
Conservation Association to construct fish habitat at a 385 acre permitted artificial Reef site located 15.5 nautical miles east of Port Canaveral for key recreational and commercial fish
species along Florida's Central Atlantic coast and whereas Matt has received many letters of appreciation from communities and clubs and excellence and actions awards for his outstanding commitment to service and professionalism and whereas
Matt looks forward to fishing traveling volunteering to benefit the Lagoon and enjoying more time with his wife of 23 years ingred and his son even and where at Matt has been a wonderful Mentor
coworker and friend and will be greatly missed now therefore be it resolved that The Bard County Board of County Commissioners does hereby recognize honor and thank Matt Christopher Culver for his loyalty and more than 21 years
of service outstanding M meritorious service to the citizens of Bard County and the State of Florida and express their wishes for a peaceful and enjoyment enjoyable retirement done ordered and adopted this 11th day of March
2025 Commissioners is there a motion move to approve all right I have a motion by commissioner Goodson I have a second by commissioner Delaney clerk will call the rooll commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainson yes commissioner Alman yes chair
felner yes sir congratulations thank you and you're recognized thank you Commissioners um it's been a pleasure you're working here have one of the best jobs probably in the county um I'd like to say uh thank everybody uh in my
office excuse me I speak as done just a couple hundred times and today I'm nervous but uh um I think I wouldn't be possible without everybody in my office assisting me over the years for both in field and Technical
Support um I'd like to thank my director and past directors uh the parks department uh Public Works and my wife and my son who's not here today thank
you mat we we've got a frame the resolution for you we'd like to take a picture and you're welcome to have your wife join us okay I'd be surprised if all that fit on that one uh uh it's very small F you're going to need glass con
thank you okay Commissioners I also have the second resolution and we have Brian mccan here today yes sir commissioner thank you we'll give uh we're going to give them just uh 15 seconds here
to work their way out okay I have a resolution today for Irish American month I think there was some promises of uh green food later we'll see okay whereas the Irish first
came to Spanish of Florida in the 1500s first as missionaries and mercenary soldiers and then as planners Traders businessmen doctors and administrators and whereas Irish Americans since America's Inception have provided and
continued to provide leadership and service to this nation's political business and religious establishments and where by 1776 nearly 300,000 Irish Nationals had immigrated to the American colonies and
played a crucial role in America's war for independence and whereas Irish Americans helped to Fashion a system of government for our young Nations as five signers of the Declaration of Independence were of Irish descent and
three signers were Irish born and 22 presidents have proudly proclaimed their Irish American heritage and whereas it is fitting and proper to celebrate the rich cultural heritage and the many valuable contributions of Irish Americans and now therefore be it
resolved that the board of County commissioners of Bard County Florida does hereby recognize March 2025 as Irish American Heritage Month done ordered and adopted in regular session this 11th day of March 2025 Commissioners is there a motion have a
motion by commissioner ainson I have a second by commissioner delini clerk will call the role Commission Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainson yes commissioner Alman yes chair felner yes thank you Commissioners sir you're recognized well thank you very
much we appreciate it the Irish American uh of Bard County appreciate it and the uh Ancient Order H burans Bard County division to we really appreciate the resolution you've created uh to celebrate the Irish Americans in uh declaring March Irish heritage month
it's very important to us and uh we hope to see everybody Saturday 10:00 in the morning in downtown Melbourne with the 35th annual St Patrick's Day parade and Meo Mal is having a great Festival all three all three days Saturday Sunday and Monday so we hope to see you all there thank you very much great and we have uh
the resolution for you thank you very much [Applause] [Applause] okay Commissioners we're going to go to item E3 presentation by Vince Liam with
The Bard Indian River Lagoon Coalition program good morning Commissioners my uh my OB my objective today is to start a discussion among the five of you concerning the future of The Bard County environmentally endangered
lands program between 1990 and 2009 Bard County ran a high effective conservation land acquisition program that established the current sanctuaries totaling approximately 28,000 Acres did
you know that Dr Dwayne defreeze was the first executive director of the environmentally endangered lands program as his first job after getting getting his Doctorate uh a county referendum approved in in 2004 authorized a maximum
of 55 million in bonds to be used to fund land purchases this was the second referendum uh funding the eel program uh the County Commission then authorized up to $45 million in in bonds uh and those funds were used to acquire the Thousand
Islands of Coco Beach the uh UL Wildlife Sanctuary Bo and to Christopher properties on Meritt Island plus the Fox Lake sanctuary and the scotsmore Flatwoods in in North bouard plus some smaller properties the Great Recession 2007 to
2009 n caused Bard County to suspend conservation land acquisition due to a weakened condition of County finances in 2022 Bard County voters with a 70% uh majority approved the issue of
uh $50 million in bonds to be used for more conservation land purchases to be repaid by a small ADV valorum tax over 20 years some of you know that I served as a chair of the political action committee to uh uh to uh get that
campaign in front of the voters the uh the the 2024 commission uh then voted to approve the issue of $6 million in bonds $3 million for Capital Improvements to existing properties and another 3 million for conservation land
acquisition many people consider the $3 million uh as being too small to operate an effective conservation land program some of the individual properties out there now are valued at greater than 3 million Bard county has not allowed the
eel program to invite willing sellers to offer up their lands for purchase consideration for over 15 years the population has increased more than 100,000 people since then no accurate assessment exists regarding the availability of willing sellers who will
offer up suitable land prop properties for sale so the future of this program is in your hands uh are you are you interested in reestablishing the conservation lands acquisition program are you willing to increase the
bond funding to a larger amount that could enable the program to operate effectively would you provide guidance to the eel program staff and the selection of management committee regarding how you would like to see the program operate do you have specific
recommendations regarding how much the bond amount should be increased as part of this presentation I've asked Jim Bernie a member of the selection and management committee to share his perspective the success of the eel program during that 1990 to 2009
period can largely be attributed to the role of the selection of management committee and their efforts so Jim please hey good morning like I said my name is Jim Bernie I'm a current member of the SMC and Brock
resident um really wanted here today to to um to provide a brief overview of the County's current acquisition process and smc's position in that process on Bard County I'm going to read just to keep on track but Bard County's current process for acquiring conservation lands through
Bond referendum is provided in the board approved e land acquisition manual the lamb the document is available to each commission each commissioner contains information on each step of the process the land process can really be interpreted as seven steps the first is
submission of a landowner willing seller application followed by an SMC partial valuation and a no-o decision if it's a go decision then the next step is an independent appraisal and subsequent contract negotiations um followed by a contract review by the county attorney and the
risk management and land acquisition committee a final SMC vote to move the contract forward to board consideration as the next step followed by a board approval or denial and then ultimately a closing all in all it's a well- defined and proven process that's been used dur in the past for
Acquisitions uh focusing back on the SMC each Committee Member is selected by committee and board approved for having strong ecological land use and or business background sometimes there overlap on each SMC has developed a science-based parcel ranking and selection process this process includes
the use of property ranking Matrix comprised of weighted ecological land use and nutrient reduction criteria this is used for sorting properties and to provide a priority Target list for presentation to the board again a well- defined process
science-based once a parcel is identified for possible acquisition by SMC a state approved appraiser is employed to provide an accurate property value subsequent land purchase negotiations are then conducted by an independent intermediary representing the county only after legal and risk
management of excuse me neither the appraisal nor the negotiations involve direct SMC participation it's only after the county legal and risk management of approved purchase contract that SMC re-engages for a vote to move the contract forward for V approval or
not in closing my intent today was really just to demonstrate a well-defined proven course of action by the county for acquiring conservation lands and to reiterate the scientific Integrity of the acquisition process your SMC Advisory Group group serves at the direction of y'all and is available
as always for um any questions or concerns so just a brief overview I'm sure that many of yall are already aware of the Lamb I just wanted to really uh reexpress the scientific Integrity of the of the process thank you just a little more uh I've given
considerable thought uh regarding uh the bonding amount and uh you know how to how to you know how to find the right amount and there is no easy answer uh if you don't want any more conservation lands then uh then leave the pro leave the limit where it stands if you want to
give the program the opportunity to have big impact raise a limit to the $50 million maximum perhaps you want to stay somewhere in the middle the choice is clearly yours my objective today is to start this discussion I want to offer my
help by going forward with uh with any information that uh that you need uh I would also if you would like to visit the the eel program properties in your District uh I would be very happy to uh to arrange a tour with expert guides in June or July I would be uh delighted to
show all of you the uh the nesting sea turtles at the doc airheart Barrier Island Sanctuary where I have uh worked as a volunteer for almost 20 years uh I can ALS I have years of experience working with the Florida scrub js on eel program properties and we' be pleased to
uh to introduce you to these interesting birds the future is is up to you thanks for listening Commissioners questions other questions of Vince slam commissioner
Delan just a state what um okay hold on are there any other any any questions before we get to uh discussion okay I don't think we have any card or anything so uh go ahead I just wanted to say thank you so
much for all of your time and effort and energy volunteering I mean this is I know that people are very passionate about the things that they do so I just really appreciate you giving the community your time in this way so thank you so much you're most welcome it's of course
it's a labor of love I think the prior board just as uh just for a little perspective didn't want to go up to the 50 million knowing that we would have three new Commissioners things would change also not for nothing I think there some
expectation out there that property values will cool off and maybe that's a better time in the future to to buy property not necessarily at the the highest historic um value um so I I think some of those things are contributing factors that we'll
certainly discuss in the in the near future okay um commissioner Alman sure yes thank you um I'd like to thank U Vince for being here and I support him 100% so the answer those four questions we
had is yes yes yes and yes um I support the eels program I support full bonding um I think as far as guidance and how to spend it I think we have a lot of really when that was ills was originally set up
which I was involved in we we look for professional neutral scientific input so the guidance would be to keep doing what you've been doing and obviously fol us on that which is most endangered and would have pay the greatest public
benefit as far as how much I I support going to the max the max isn't that much it's Max but it's almost minimum what we should be probably I wish we were doing more probably should be doing more but the max is what the the people of Bard
voted by over 70% twice actually three times because the beach and Riverfront could be considered a t a typical program there's probably no other program that has greater support probably no other program has the immediate effect on the future generations of our County no other
program is so critical and that if you don't save the land now it's lost forever you'll never be able to go back so we do have an opportunity for what's left we have a booming economy our Parks I think contribute greatly to our
economy I've heard I've heard uh corporation that corporations that have decide to move their their companies and their personnel here say our environmental and our Waterfront land acquisition program is the reason they come here because of our natural environment so I think it's important
for our quality of life our Economic Development and future Generations wholeheartedly support cannot say how much I support and thank you for being here any other comments okay Vince we appreciate you very much uh coming here today
Commissioners we're going to move on on to uh consent agenda is there anything to take off of consent agenda is there a motion for consent I have a motion by commissioner Goodson I have a second by commissioner
Delaney clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman felner yes we'll show that passes 5-0 okay commissioner we're going to before we go to public comment I'm just going to do
one thing real quick if you don't mind I have Mr uh Thomas Guth here today with the um the obvious you know on item j4 so we're going to go to j4 for the All Veterans
Reunion uh The Traveling Wall he's got to get to work so just want to try to help him out here if you don't mind and um this is my item I put it on here this has been uh an important Community event uh The Traveling Wall
coming to Bard County there's been a change of guard if you will uh the younger guys are are taking over and uh they've had we've had some sharp increases in park fees and uh they're having some some trouble with that this year we've done some other things to
help with the camping uh and what have you so this is a this is a grant from the cultural fund for uh the uh Traveling Wall um to pay for the park fees are there are there questions on
that any questions okay what I have one question okay um so the park fee or the the 9,000 yes ma'am um how is that actually going to affect the visitors so it goes towards paying for the park the
Park's reserved for what uh 10 12 days I believe 12 days and allows all the veterans to come from all over the country to be at the reunion they Camp all over the park it's solely for that event it's how it's been for the last 37 years 37 years now okay um us being a
nonprofit it's been increasingly difficult to raise funds this year so this grant would be extremely helpful for us okay thank you any any other questions sir you're recognized you're the only card that we that we have and so turn it over to you thank you board
for having us here this morning good morning everybody as well um the grant before you got for the board it will go to pay for Wickam Park um we are new nonprofit organization we want to keep this event going honor the Legacy the Vietnam and all vets rard have put on for the last 36 years being a new
nonprofit we've gone to a lot of events craft fairs pop-up events restaurants you know all over the place we've learned that fundraising is extremely hard especially being a new group so we talked to commissioner feltner and uh we're hopeful that this grant will be approved for us and it'll help us
extremely um we've learned that that event is an extremely expensive event to run so we've had a lot of uh cost cutting processes we've got a huge donation for Power Equipment which Sav us about $20,000 and uh this would be extremely helpful for us I apologize I'm not the
best at public speaking so I try you're doing well you're doing well sir thank you I know it's not easy okay Commissioners um all right is any discussion on this commissioner Del want to say something if everybody's ready I was
just ready to make a motion to approve very very good uh uh we have a motion by commissioner Delaney is there a second second and we have a second by commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson commissioner ainon yes
commissioner Alman yes chairman felner yes your item is approved all right sir we'll we'll see you out there soon than so much wishing you a good you have a good rest all right okay Commissioners we'll go back to uh public
comment thank you for that obliging me with a small change there uh Lieutenant bransom sir okay good morning uh Mike Bramson I'm the bvar county firefighters Union uh
the most recent announcement of the closure of the rocklage hospital is a devastating news for all of you for the firefighters paramedics and our community I understand that there are many policies politics and financial components in the decision to close the
rockage medical facility in spite of these factors private or otherwise we are all Partners in finding ways to deal with this catastrophic decision but is not as simple as just driving to another hospital critical services for heart attacks card arrest strokes and Trauma
will be delayed when sen seconds and minutes count we as public Ser safety servants understand not all rescues are going to be successful not being able to Save a Life in AA is a traumatic event healthc care providers train
religiously in order to provide the best skilled service during these events where seconds minutes count and we hope for the best outcome we cannot look the obvious impacts this Hospital's closure will have to our
community diversion or moving to another hospital especially during an EMS or a 911 call will increase the workload of those facilities of the hospitals of the destinations and will increase the transport time according to google about 20
minutes it will increase the volume at the hospitals it will increase the amount of time you spend waiting at the hospitals it will increase the wall time s and the delay of the availability of your ambulances to go back in service for the next call
waiting it will increase response times this is truly a degreg of services for Public Safety and medical services and it's going to become a vicious cycle the related solution found in interviews and news articles are over two years away it
will take an aligned group effort to derive a plan to maintain the services to the citizens visitors and the taxpayers of Bard County and the cities within the firefighters Union stands ready to assist in this crisis and
please feel free to reach out with any questions thank you thank you um let's get through the public comments and then we can say a couple things about that okay uh okay George mikhitarian
good morning Commissioners County Manager County attorney my name is George mkhitarian I am the president and CEO of Parish Medical Center in Titusville I come to you today today to express my concerns regarding the sudden
announcement of the closing of the rockage hospital I understand that there are many people in our community working on this issue and I appreciate just uh a few minutes here to express our concern and it's only our concern from the Parish
Medical Center perspective you've heard one concern expressed um prior to me speaking and there are countless other concerns in our community I know that you're aware of them but I uh allow you
to give me a few minutes here to uh to express our our concerns let me start by saying that never in my 41 years in healthc care have I witnessed such a careless disregard for the health of a community by a fellow health care
provider this immediate issue must be addressed for the betterment of that community and our Collective Community my other concern focuses around the consequences that this Hospital closing will have on our organization's ability to fulfill its
mission of caring for the community of North Bard and I my ADD there will certainly be negative impacts upon all hospitals all urgent care centers Physicians offices local County governments as well
with little or no concern Orlando Health's actions have now created significant service community and financial problems for the remainder of us in generalities the consequences to
Parish Medical Center in North bravard could be categorized in in three areas service impacts there will certainly be a negative impact on patient wait times in our emergency department as volumes will increase
there will be significant wait times for All County and Titusville emergency vehicles to get back on the road thus delaying their response times for all citizens all patients will be traveling longer distances which can certainly
complicate their clinical condition by time they arrive in emergency departments as our emergency department wait times increase this will have a trickle down impact on all other departments within our organization all departments that
service and support the emergency department such as the radiology department Laboratory department and countless others again we can only accommodate so many additional patients with the resources that we
have I'd like to uh yield more time to George go ahead sir thank you I appreciate that the negative effects to these departments will then affect our ability to care for patients up on our patient floors as as these patients will end up staying
longer there's certainly a broad Community impact the north Bard Community will certainly see longer wait times in our emergency department there are of course urgent care centers and Physicians offices that can expand their office times but there needs to be time
to plan and of course there is a great negative impact economically as the rockage hospital interacts with many local businesses thirdly there's a financial impact it is more than likely that in
the aggregate Parish Medical Center as the County's only public hospital will bear the brunt of serving the lower income members of the rockage community the Mal distribution of this financial burden could negatively affect Parish
Medical Center to the tune of tens of millions of dollars just in a single year as an example Parish Medical Center currently already on an annual basis absorbs almost $30 million in uncompensated care the rockage hospital
is roughly the same size and provides the same level of uncompensated care where will this uncompensated care now go again we can only increase our staffing in space so much and any
expansion of staff and an expansion of the limited possibilities we have in space could cost us an additional $5 to15 million per year what is my ask and it's a general ask not of you specifically but
hopefully to all the influencers in our community is that there should be an immediate review of this Hospital closure by state authorities it is unfathomable that a hospital is allowed to close without State review of the
consequences of such a closure and their review must require a contingency plan be put in place for the community we like to see financial support from Orlando Health and locally from the Space Coast Health Foundation should the
burden for Solutions be placed upon the existing service organizations and government entities money from both of them could be allocated based upon some equation related to volumes payer mix and
reimbursement in addition Orlando Health and the Space Coast Health Foundation should contribute the mone's necessary for the city of rockage and your bord County fire rescue to enhance the 911 system for the rapid response and or
transport of patients when required these commitments should be under three-year basis given the extensive work that must be done to make sure that that Community continues to receive the health care it so needs it wasn't long ago and
I'm old enough to remember when we considered healthc care providers to be our heroes and now this organization comes into this community comes into our County and in an instant insults these people by basically
casting them off as disposable assets these are healthc care Heroes that are providing a service to that community and I hope that everyone that has the ability to affect this decision in a positive way will certainly do that
with that I conclude my remarks thank you thank you Commissioners thank you um okay we have a question by question here's my question I heard about the cost that you're going to incur but talk to me about the profits you will gain by more people there will be none no
profits um there will be only an incremental value off the books in terms of covering our overhead but based upon our analysis of the market in the expense that we would have to
incur we would never recoup the monies required of us to provide the additional Services okay uh commissioner opman yeah is is that is that because of the social demographic of who you'd be serving I
mean as an example um our organization in a good year again we are the County's only public Hospital in a good year our bottom line may be $3 million that's in a good year with the
number of emergency department uh patients that we expect to receive would result in about a $4 million loss to us some of those emergency department patients get admitted on average about
133% given the statistics from rockage and our own statistics it's pretty con consistent about 133% that 133% translates into a revenue but that revenue does not offset the treatment of the 87% of the folks that
would come to the emergency department more than half of which do not have insurance any other questions for Mr mkhitarian okay uh let's do the other public comments and then we
can sir thank you for being here Sandra Sullivan Sandra Sullivan so I run a group called waves action and I posted about rockage Hospital closing I think that's my top performing post of all time so that should put the concern in
in public a perspective of just how much the community is concerned about that I think there is an obligation by this hospital to um do this a little bit more uh in a better way I wanted to talk today uh about the budget I'm very very
appreciative of the very comprehensive effort uh comprehensive budget presentations that are being done and the transparency and accountability uh to the public it is a huge Improvement I mean when we looked at two years ago when that budget
Workshop was completed and this year we have three meetings in very great detail thank you you um it is um a concern that we previous uh Commissioners have kicked this can down the road to a point of a crisis I just want to put this into
perspective the budget is approximately 2.5 billion our transportation deficit and maintenance is $2.5 billion do the same number and clearly this can being kicked down the
road has has put the county in a very difficult position for our firefighters in 2021 we uh gave them a 33% increase That was supposed to close that wage Gap that didn't happen because in 2022 the
cost of growth was $620,000 in last year's budget it was 30 million in January it was 48 million in the most recent magistrate meeting it was 68 million in the next couple years and that number is going to go up
and you are fac faing a huge crisis and I want to thank you for this commission for the first time in getting um going out to RFP and looking at the uh impact fee analysis because quite honestly
you're going to need to take money from a lot of different sources um including space so I was very happy to see that conversation at least opening up that that conversation so I just want to uh thank you for the um Comm communication on the budget
Workshop um and the uh impact fee uh at least going out to RFP and looking at these numbers we're going to need impact fees we're going to need to tax space we're going to need to you put all the burden on the people just with let's assume you do another 33% increase then
we're like the most expensive in the state for fire assessment I also hope that you'll move the MS assessment for the Attorney General legal opinion to to below the line those are just some of the things but I'm just want to say I'm appreciative of all the effort that
you're putting forth thank you thank you Peter mous oh you might have been planning to talk later but you're in there with all the on the g- card so that's fine you kind of surpris me up back there sorry
okay all right so my name is Peter mhen 3900 Lali coko Florida I represent The Bard Renaissance Fair um commissioner felner we wanted to thank you for what you did about 14 months ago you and I met for the first time under kind of a
stressful situation for both of us we came to a an agreement down the road and we work something out you and commissioner Pritchard U mayor Paul Alfrey and mayor commissioner Tobias found a piece of land that nobody wanted or nobody used and had no use for and we
said we would love to do a Renaissance Fair there we'll make it work for us and we'll try to do some other events there we just completed the second event there the Strawberry Festival this past weekend which saw roughly 15,000 people visit the site over the last two months
we've had tens of thousands of bardian come out to the site and enjoy themselves and have fun from all over the state people came uh we took the challenge up in October we built it we built a huge castle everybody's seen it it's become internationally famous because of the
WAP that we had on there it's been recognized by Lowe's and companies all over the world people have had fun with it and we enjoy that that's what we're there for uh the uh uh we want I wanted to give you just some numbers real quick this year at the
Renaissance fair we had five International entertainers there groups from all over the world Australia um Ireland Scotland Canada uh from all over that provided entertainment that people normally don't see in this area um we also had our education day our largest
one ever we had 3,000 kids there this year that came there to learn about the Middle Ages about the Renaissance period the different musical instruments uh all the different things involved with that I've never seen attendance like I saw this year where the kids were just
poured around the different stages to listen to former Educators talk about the Renaissance period and that's really what it's all about is to to ignite their minds and to excite those kids and to make them want to learn uh we also had a group there called a questioning
chaos it's a group of of U it's a nonprofit that works with other kids that have disabilities and stuff they performed every weekend they're trick riders they do a great job they actually left New Orleans parades and stuff to come work at The Bard because they enjoy
it so much here during the week they entertain kids that had handicaps and stuff that came out there got a chance to meet the horses ride on the horses learn different things they're scheduled to be back next year they wanted to be back right away they told me up front we'll be back next year if you guys will
have us so um we have some other events that we're going to try to do this year some unique things to Bard that haven't been done here before for the park is a big place we set it up so it could handle large events but we wanted to really thank you
for the opportunity and all of our people thank you thank you thanks Peter we appreciate it okay Commissioners we're done with public comments uh if you want to go back and if there's anything else you want to say I have a couple of thoughts on the Orlando Health
U more like an update from uh commissioner Delany did you want to say I thank you no I see you reaching for something um I'm pretty speechless about this whole situation um I I have to
appreciate um Mr mkhitaryan for coming down and and sharing the struggles of North Bard um that we'll have with this uh Port St John canaval Groves North Coco uh all of those places get brought
to rockage hospital when they're having an emergency and um from what I've been told from emergency professionals um and the different hospitals is that basically they can
they cannot handle um the increase there's just not enough beds so not only are our Emergency Services going to be um held up with longer transport times but the hospitals that would be picking
up the slack um don't have the ability to handle um this increase and so I I tried uh contacting Orlando Health
um they were not receptive at all um they were not willing to come to the table they were not willing to um look look at Solutions and hopefully commissioner felner you have better news for me um I tried reaching out to Space Coast
Health Foundation um who has about $54 million um sitting in their foundation and uh their whole mission is uh to work to enhance Health and Wellness in Bard County
um focusing on the same areas basically around uh rockage hospital and so again their mission is access to health and wellness Services advocacy for health and wellness and also medical services
so my my ask to Orlando Health was did you did did Orlando Health as an organization did they reach out to Space Coast Health foundation for um help I understand that the the building is in
quite disrepair um but you would think that this foundation's Mission would go right along with keeping this building together for the next couple years until uh Orlando Health is able to build a new
facility and um so I I was hoping that um I could get board support um rock the city of rockage put together a resolution um and I won't read the whole thing but it's a resolution of the city of rockage um and
they strongly encouraged Orlando Health to postpone its proposed closure of Orlando Health um rockage hospital for the health and safety of the community and while I understand they're a private business and um they have to look at
their bottom bottom line um they're also in the business of helping people and healing and and all of that and they claim that they couldn't do the proper inspections prior to purchasing
but I don't know how that's possible um even on their own website it says rockage hospital is profitable so even in its poor condition it's still Prof profitable so this this is a decision I
feel like that's being made without any um care concern for the community and um I I feel like we have to figure out a way to get them to the table to try to find a solution that'll work for everybody well I do have something for
you commissioner Goodson did you want to say something sir no uh I I spoke with uh representative soroy uh last night and he he just uh said that he is working on
something and um you know it's legislative session so I you know I ask questions like you know are there are there problems with AA and things like that that maybe uh he could work on that makes it easier for him uh I think I said that to to you the
other day and um he he just suggested that he's he's trying very hard to to work on something that they would um be receptive to and ask us all to sort of hold on uh I asked about the issue of a resolution or a letter or something like
that because unfortunately we had this meeting today and um if it was next week we might have taken something like that up but uh he suggested that if each office was so inclined that you could send a letter and I'll just say it to you like this um
you know one letter from the board has got one chance to be opened but five letters from five Commissioners have five chances to be open so um going to leave it like that today that if you're so inclined and and if you're going to do that I'll I'll do one today too okay
I'll make that commitment to you and uh but but know that you're your your legislator um in that district is is very concerned and is doing what he can in Tallahassee to to try to find uh some answer here or or at least postpone it
so that's what I have so far thank you I'd Like Chief voler to come up thank you Chief do you have the numbers on travel time I mean I know I heard the firefighters Union I'm just asking you
from Rock Ledge to uh I don't know where would be the closest hospital viir Vieira or uh well we might go to Cape Canaveral right uh all you know in Meritt Island or coco beach or Parish so the travel times to those are they going
to be depending on the time of day I'm sure but time yeah time of day is a big factor um I mean probably upwards 15 20 minutes I mean it all depends where you're coming from obviously um but say uh let's say the call happened right in
front of the uh Orlando Health Rock Ledge uh on a good day you're going to be 20 minutes probably in any direction Cape Canaveral Vieira or Parish now how many calls did you make last year on ambulance calls to
hospitals you know we did about 55,000 transports how many people died I don't have that number looks like you would if you're having a batting average can you get the board that information sir I'd be just curious to
know do you and then I'd like for you to know with your expertise do you I guess traveling further you always run a bigger risk is that a true s absolutely okay okay now um wof has do do 60% of your calls go to
wof I wouldn't say 60% I I don't have a a breakdown to the whole County 15% 15% okay 15% that's all 15% is that correct what I heard that's yeah I I didn't have count
I think I saw a number of 8,000 so it's 8,000 out of 50 something, that would be 15% okay all right so it's not like you know I guess other people want to go to other hospitals right because I think when you pick me up I could say take me there correct you sure can so uh unless
you meet a trauma alert criteria or stroke and we have to take you to a specific hospital that treats for that specific uh ailment we will take you excuse me we'll take you wherever you want to go in Bard County that's our polic okay if I had to go to a special
emergency room where would you know I had whatever you just said where would that be well like if you were a trauma alert if you met trauma alert criteria we put you in the helicopter if it was available and we'd take you down to homes in Melbourne okay so what goes to woff what
kind of injuries go to woff um pretty much anything besides that uh you know uh cardiac events broken limbs all other emergencies trauma alert's the big one that has to go to homes okay thank you Chief but stay right there okay
okay commissioner Delaney Chief could you tell me isn't it um not just about the travel time but also the wait time for the ambulances that they'll be out of service certainly um you know in in the
winter time those always escalate for us because the population is a little bit of a flux in rar County um so weight times are always a a issue for us our medical Direction group uh you know they've been working and producing stats
uh every week to to watch those travel times and share them with the the hospital staff to try to stay on that uh when the new group came in that was a very big Focus for Dr an tevy was getting the crews back out into the streets as fast as they can uh but Mr
mkhitaryan made a great point of how uh it all kind of flows back to EMS so when they they're holding for hospital beds and then that hold that pushes back to the ER which then pushes back to the 911 system and then
um so you mentioned that rockage hospital they uh they take emergencies like heart attacks and things like that and strokes and whatnot so it's it's not just like boo boos right like it's it's
pretty serious um things and um we talked about the 15% um emergencies but those are just the emergencies that are uh coming to them from EMS correct from our ambul from our ambulances yes and does that include
like say if one of the other uh ambulance companies if if they brought people to them or is that just our um those are inner facilities we only do we're the only ones that do 911 transport and it doesn't count if people say drive themselves to the ER we
wouldn't have those numbers right so 15% doesn't sound like a whole lot but when you add everything together it's it's quite a lot thank you commissioner Goodson
yes what I'm concerned about is the board is going to start mandating governing over private entities I know it's a hospital I'm very concerned but you know are we going to start that because I don't know if we have the
authority to do that but if sending a letter you know makes you excited I think that's great but governing private entity and they bought the hospital whether they checked it or not it's theirs now I know Rockledge talked about they thought they owned the land but I
think they decided they didn't own the land so that's neither here or there um are they going to build a new hospital in central bevard I don't honestly know you know will they I don't know so be prepared for them to do whatever they
think is the best to make money just like George does in Titusville just like anybody else does because you can't have a hospital at your wishes just because you want it they bought it they'll decide on what to do I don't like it any better than you but it it is facts thank
you I'd just say to you uh commissioner uh you're you're not wrong in you're thinking that it it is a a business owned by someone else I think the southern or the sudden nature of it uh closing is is what's given uh everybody
concern um I when you know I received a phone call from Orlando Health person it was very brief and I suggested that they call the other Commissioners but uh they said that it would cost more money to renovate it than it would to level it and build a
new hospital in its place and that's and that's what they said you know was was their situation so I with that if that's true and I I don't have any reason to uh you know to dispute that um if if they could delay
because other things are coming online you're going to have the health first facility on Meritt Island um some of those other things I I think probably uh that would help I I think that's all that the community is looking for that's my two cents only sir I totally agree
with you I totally understand you Andy Gardner call me and he probably that's who called you correct no it was Michelle stren okay Andy gordner called me yeah and you know uh I guess time will tell their intentions you know and and then we can
all say but everything you said is true everything you said I agree with you um so thank you allowing me to speak anyone else uh I think commissioner Del still has a light on is that an old one okay uh commissioner Alman um I'd first
of all like to thank um Mr mkhitarian for coming in this public forum and and being a voice for health care and speaking out I think he's the only person from the industry that's actually come to this chamber to speak so thank
you it's pretty amazing to think that a hospital literally closes uh without even appearing before our County Commission the largest local government entity and so I appreciate appreciate that you know this
um this this was predicted were you born at that hospital no all my children were born at the hospital my wife was born at this hospital my father-in-law's father would have been my grandfather father-in-law help found this Hospital
in rockage w W wof and they say it's properly pronounced wof uh was a a grant from a from a family that that gave money uh this Hospital runs deep in our community it's
a part of our historic community and it's been a part of my wife's family who helped start the hospital as a matter of fact they're recognized as part of the founding members in the hospital you can see the plaque so something that has such a deep hisor
significance in providing such a deep need and and thank you for the union for being here too our firefighters first line uh providers uh we probably do need to deliberate and to talk about this and look at what options if any are there it
was predicted um you know back a number of years ago there were a lot of lengthy very expensive lawsuits between our healthc care providers at the time fighting over certificates of needs and expansion and delivery of service and
and it was predicted that if some of the new hospitals were built wof would have to close because there's only so much that there's some only so many services that can be absorbed in a community so many
hospitals also this was predicted and I I I saw it coming when the State of Florida chose not to expand Medicaid a huge mistake cost the taxpayers of our state probably close to H hundred
billion dollar now that had a real impact on our safety net hospitals who literally are the first line Health Care Providers and they received the brunt of all those uninsured patients and we have
really I don't know if ignored is the right word maybe ignored but we haven't been sensitive to the need of our safety net hospitals and they have been kind of a voice in the wilderness warning and this is the result of that this is what happens I uh I hope we continue to talk
about it maybe get with have some um some of our Professionals in the community to to give us some input as far what options we do have what can be done uh how can we respond uh Orlando Health is a private
company we we can't mandate them um but we do have for public hospitals we do have not for profits is there something we need to do as a community because I do believe this this hospital is important and it's also very much a part of who we are I I know there's a new
facility being built on Meritt Island by health first um I don't I don't know what we probably ought to hear from them as far as what that will do in terms of uh First Responders emergency medicine healthc care emergency room what
services are going to be provided I mean that's still a couple years away yeah that's that's years away it just started came out of the ground so what do we do in the mean end time those are the options that we need to look at and I'm all for it and I I'm glad we're having this discussion there something we need
to to either Workshop or have presentations to have some technical uh input and respond in some way so I wholeheartedly support us engaging okay uh commissioner Goodson yeah Chief tell me what is U fire and rescue doing to
address this pending problem you want to take that Orlando so I have our EMS operations Chief orando Dominguez here uh I know the broad details but he's he can speak well to uh what we've doing what he's been doing meeting with the local stakeholders to
work through the process y good morning Commissioners and um and thank you this is my first time up here so I wasn't sure how to turn on the mic so so thank you so much we feel the same way over here on this side so I um all fire rescue Echoes
pretty much your concerns um we were given about a little over 30 days to come up with the game plan um as you know April 7th is the day that Orlando Health has informed us that they're going to shut down as it pertains to EMS Service delivery we will will no longer be able to transport patients to that
facility so we had to move very quickly um I will tell you that with this challenge um we're extremely proud of our Community Partners we have come together with u some of the other stakeholders uh to formulate a plan and um and that's what we've done for
example uh not this following week uh the following one which is March 24 the week of March 24th we're going to start triing some additional uh units with working with Coastal Health System uh they have been one of our biggest partners and um they have you know
agreed to help us um you know try to mitigate some of the the the excess calls that we're expecting to receive um working with our medical director group uh they've also agreed to to give us some latitude on which patients one of the things that um our men and women
routinely encounter is um having to respond to an incident and then realizing that the caller doesn't really need an emergent transport and that is a significant amount of our calls um they typically respond it could be somebody from you know having a scratchy eye from
a contact lens or a bump in the knee and so forth so if we can kind of hone in on that and and and reach out to the community and have a system in place that can address th that specific subgroup then it will certainly be advantageous and the way we're going to do that is Coastal Health System has
agree to to provide some assistance with those lower Acuity calls and that's what we're looking at um if they can assist us in transporting those lower acity calls and then allowing our Advanced life support EMTs and paramedics to respond to the more critical calls then that's a win we've also restart I'm
working with the health department and our Emergency Management something else that takes place on a routine basis is having our men and women respond to Skilled nursing facilities or assisted living facilities when once again they don't need our men and women there so uh
working with those partners and notifying the Skilled Nursing Facility that now more than ever they really need to contact the system that's in place which is you know Coastal Health Systems um and then that will free up our Personnel our greatest concern working
with the state as well is that um once rockich Regional or Lal health is gone then not only is you know that area vacant as far as emergency department but our transport times are going to double in addition to that is once we
get to the facility then they're going to be chances are they're going to be overwhelmed so then it's our men and women what we call holding the wall they're going to be holding the wall with these patients waiting to transfer those patients to the emergency department staff so it's it's just a trickle down effect that really has hit
us I mean from from left field so we're trying to do it as best as we possibly can um in addition to that we've been in contact with a variety of other stakeholders within the community that are also willing to pitch in and help we have been in contact with the state um since I got the call um that they were
closing and they have also said that if you folks need us at any time um you know certainly to let them know and they can offer some some additional units or what we call part of a disaster management team that they can come down I did ask uh we've been having Hospital meetings and I did ask some of the
hospitals that if they would consider perhaps um during a mass casualty incident they can set up um you know tents in the emergency department cuz really for us on on the on the first responder site what really cripples us if you will is responding to those lower
cuity calls because you're transporting somebody that doesn't need it and meanwhile you can have a pediatric drowning you can have somebody having a heart attack and the unit is committed and then getting to the hospital the travel time which now will double then getting to the hospital and then waiting anywhere between 20 30 40 minutes
sometimes over an hour to offload these patients so these are units that are out of service they are not available to respond to 911 calls and that's what we're again I the community our our partners our medical community has responded unbelievably so everybody's
coming to the table we're meeting on a regular basis to see who can do what and how quick we can get this ramped up but as far as the unloading of patience wouldn't that also occur like on a full moon when you have or either sat Friday and Saturday night do you
experience that now correct we experience that every day okay okay now can you deny Transportation if you pull up and the guy's got a scratch on his forehead and you say go to the walk-in but you if he's says no I want an ambulance you've got to do it okay
excellent question so one of the things that working with our medical director group we're trying to think a little bit outside the box so what we're going to be testing along with our partners from Coastal is if we arrive if our men and women from parar County fire rescue arrive on a scene and we notice that the patient just may have a bump on the head
or I was slicing a tomato and I sliced my finger right they don't need an emerging transport so we again with Coastal not to be repetitive um we'll talk to the victim to the patient and say if they're in agreement Costa will
be you know on scene within maybe 15 20 30 minutes to pick them up and take them where they want to go that will free up our ALS unit we are working with some of the Urgent Care Facility uh in the in the area the only thing is um urgent
cares are not really considered per se uh a freestanding emergency department so that kind of constrains where we can transport to but we all understand that this is an all hands on deck and everybody like I said have come to the table but you're absolutely correct commissioner so would you say APR by the
mid of April or the last week April you can come back to the board and tell us how it's going or oh absolutely don't you think that we would want to hear that I would I would I'd want to hear that okay so please plan on that okay we'll do thank you thank you sir thank
you commissioner delini I think your mic is on thank you okay um so I had a question question what is uh what's the process going to be you you mentioned before that Coastal was going to come for um some of these emergency
situations um are are people going to be dispatched first and then Coastal shut up like you just said or is Coastal going to show up first in some situations yes ma'am so so right now this this initial trial that will be taking place prior to April 7th is our
units will be dispatched as normal our men and women will respond um and then once they get on scene what we're planning again this takes a lot of coordination what we're planning is that then they could make a determination if this is a critical patient you know or one that doesn't require an emerant
transport and by the way just to inform the board that this is a very similar plan that we used during hurricanes we used over a year during the pandemic which is basically a treat and release we're calling it now a treat and transfer because our goal is not to leave anybody behind if the patient
doesn't require and transport then we met yesterday with the the Sheriff's Office Communication Center they will notify Coastal and then Coastal will be dispatched again Coastal has agreed to dedicate units to these specific areas such as merid Island Coco Rock Ledge to be readily available to respond to the
the request of our men and women what about um Port St John and canaville Groves well the goal is to start expanding but we feel that you know the the epicenter The Ground Zero is going to be that Coco rockage area and um in merid Island um you're absolutely
correct commissioner the goal is to expand now we have to uh we met with some of our Municipal Partners uh yesterday and and to enter into those conversations because again it's it's a collaboration because as you know in the municipal areas First Responders are are basically uh City Firefighters so it
would take a a a collaboration between them and ask how to make this most efficient well Port St John and canaval Groves don't have Municipal Partners cor correct I'm referring to like Melbourne pal but we're I mean North Bard is going
to be um affected by this you know absolutely and so Titusville already goes to um to Parish Medical Center but Port St John canaval Groves North Coco we would go to rockage
so the North End of the County already has the lowest amount of um transport units so what happens when our transport units are in scotsmore and and we have somebody in North Coco who needs transport well fortunately for us we have an agreement with the city of
Titusville and when our units are busy let's just say at a hospital or let's just say they have to transport from Titusville it's a trauma alert they have to ground transport so that puts units from Titusville heading to uh to Melbourne so working together with with
Titusville they have agreed that if we ever get busy and unable our units are committed they will step up so that's what we're hoping for we're hoping that that at least in that North End you know if it comes to the Titusville area we've got a good partner up there that can certainly you know support this initiative as well does that include
Port St John and canaval Groves because I I know a lot I I hate being so specific but a lot of people love to skip over you know the the the Port St John canaval Groves area well no you're absolutely jump right to Titusville no no no you're absolutely correct in in that poring gen era you know we have
station 26 we have station 29 so our concern and and eventually our goal you are correct is to expand however we're looking at areas that have a higher call volume grows in po St John we feel that for the most part those those units will
be readily available uh but when you're talking about the cocoa rockid you know Meritt Island those are heavy volume areas that we certainly anticipate that these units are going to be out of pocket for a significant amount of time does 29 uh regular not regularly but do
they get dispatched to say the Port sometimes to the port yeah um I'm not I'm not 100% sure if they would go that far but I will tell you that's one of the advantages that we we feel the regional system and they can very well go to the port is because with us as you
know I mean there's no boundaries we go wherever we're told from what I understand that happens um you know on a relatively regular basis um but so I'm I'm just really concerned about this and I I I don't want North Bard to get
forgotten or um missed absolutely that's my biggest concern I I just to to add on what Chief Dominguez is saying I think the the addition of those Coastal units in the central area is to make an uh a valiant effort to keep rescue 26 and
rescue 29 in service that's the goal uh and and with that said also our regional system uh you know you we see the craziest things sometimes you know we might have a rescue from Melbourne if it need be we'll pull one of the uh you know we have a rescue in Melbourne
that's one of our busiest units absolute the busiest unit in the county but if need be if it needs to go to the North End of the County uh we'll send that and that's the advantage of the regional system that we have in Bard county is we can flux up and down the county as we need so um it's it's definitely going to
take you know the operations Chiefs are going to have to be on their tippy toes watching the operation go down when this happens but that's that's why they're there that's what they're there for is to make sure that everything runs as efficiently and safely as possible which I really appreciate that
Chief and um I understand how hard you guys work and you do an incredible job um but when somebody's having a heart attack a a ambulance coming from Melbourne to can I agree I'm not
advocating and and let me just say those units are moved up well before the emergency I didn't I didn't say we're having a rescue from Melbourne responding to Titusville um you know our dispatchers have uh you know warnings when there's a a low low volume in the
area and they move units accordingly that's part of the program that's built in at the Sheriff's Office to keep coverage in in all areas of the county with that Regional system uh so please don't take it that I saying uh you know that we're responding from Melbourne for
the heart attack definitely not our goal um you know we're we're all in this boat together just trying to maneuver and and still with the resources that we have uh still do the very best we can for Bard County okay chief we didn't give you any
warning Chief domingus we didn't give you any uh uh notice of that this happening today so thank you very much um for helping us out here on this today sir question okay just more or less have a question for
Morris so maybe something we need to look at so we have our annual budget we approve our budget with our Our First Responders our fire ambulance service we rely on hospitals uh to provide
emergency room access our whole safety net system is based on that you could probably argue that there will be people who die as a result of closing this ER does the hospital do they have any legal right to give us proper notice
prior to just shutting their doors I mean April 7th is not much notice and and do we have any legal recourse to require them to at least provide the services that are so important for our public safety and health and if they're going to close them to give us some sort
of ample reasonable notice I think it's reasonable to request that I'm not aware of any requirement that they provide a specific amount of notice in advance of that as far as recourse I think um the the best and most effective options are in Tallahassee right now so I think that
contacting the legislators to try to get something done there is probably the best Avenue but I will look into any alternative Avenues we may have okay we're they're working on it they're they're trying to find something okay um Commissioners I'll tell you what I think we need a break
here in a minute and give Ian a chance to reset because he's got kind of a big item but let's let's do this there's somebody who's waiting um and I think we could take up J1 real quick and let her get on her way yeah so Mark I'm sorry I didn't give you
that in advance too but I think we could do this real quick and then we could take a five minute break okay so um we're going to let Commander real quick explain this and then hold on one second we're gonna we're let
Mark bernath introduce this okay good morning uh board um so J1 is um explaining a termination of a lease uh that the the board has with uh forever Home Animal Rescue um and then
um due to unfortunate circumstances we also received a notice of violation from the city of Titusville for how it was operating it's in a pretty uh blighted condition at this point so what we want the board to do is one accept uh the
termination uh but also provide uh staff Direction on how to move forward with this property and so we provided five different options uh which I can go into uh as the board May request oh and one last thing I understand there's two potential uh
folks here today that might speak to wanting to lease a two different organizations okay okay uh is there questions for Mark before we go to the cart okay I do have a question yes so
um I'm not sure I take it back I'm changing my mind I'm not going to ask the question okay okay uh Sarah skywin good morning Sarah skywin Melbourne Florida I'm from
The Bard bark house and um we do have interest in this building uh we are a nonprofit We Are we span from Melbourne all the way up to Titusville um there's no question that
this building is needed uh for bavar County for relief for from overflow from the other shelters as well as getting um surren U surrenders rescues and uh animals that need Rehabilitation off off the streets
also um I know the main focus right now is what to do with this building um and if it's even salvageable uh by the looks of it um I know this building well I uh
I have all the literature on it um from all the pictures that were taken um and it doesn't scare me I I know that a dollar amount is looked at I look at it as projects smaller projects make things
happen to you know success so um and working with Skip and Glenn to to get there and um Mr Richardson is his team at some point uh working at a lease that is beneficial to
all of us um the more most important thing is the uh safety of our animals in that shelter so um and work with the fire department
as well their guidance is to meet all the codes the fire codes I think the first thing is a roof um is needed and then everything inside we work on that um there's plenty of people in the
community that want to chip in uh they're chomping at the but to get it you know involved uh there's expertise across the board from um contractors uh fire
sprinklers um plumbers roofers um all these people that we can tap into and and they're requesting to help on this project [Music] um and that that spans from again
Melbourne all the way up to Titusville even out to KMI um from Big Box places to also smaller um businesses in the community to help so I'm just asking um just the chance to um take on this
responsibility it's definitely needed in the community and um and we won't let you down I thank you for the time okay any questions Sky we got one more card question question sir yes sir um it's
kind of a twofold question so be patient okay Mark you're tell I think by your estimate there is a $100,000 needed to either option to clean disinfect replace interior services and Furnishings paint new inside facility giving it some sort of odor right is that correct that's
correct now to you yes you would have to prove to the county you could find $100 to $200,000 is that not correct Mark before you would agree to lease it that's obviously a decision for the board but I would i' recommend some sort of bus plan
which would include financials loans and or liced contractors that we understand that they can actually achieve it I heard a series of small projects but this is something that the city has issued a notice of violation against the county and we would need to get their
participation and understand how we can you know get to opening the doors how long is the notice for the county good from the city good so um that's something that um the County Attorney may be able to to uh answer more directly because they've um discussed
with his staff uh but we indicated that we were having this board meeting and that we would get back to them but they requested uh initially that all actions be completed uh I want to say it was early March March 4th which is obviously not going to happen so we would need to
provide a plan uh whether that's with a tenant or not of what we're going to do and we would need them to buy into that okay um chair may I have a question question another question yes sir could you Mr Richardson could you address that issue with the Titusville my office has
been in discussions with the Titusville City attorney's office but it hasn't been me directly I'm not sure off the top of my head what timeline we were given I just know that the Titusville represented that they'd be happy to work with the county they were more concerned when there was a tenant in but understanding that the County's going to
work on this they they will work with us but I can get more information for you okay chairman may I have another one yes sir now Madam yes if you had to look at that building and you had to follow how long does it how long will these small projects take you to
complete I would say well we would have to go from uh step by step but with that being the first um concern is the cleaning um out out that building I would probably say I would like to have an outline of
that cuz it's still kind of in a gray area but housekeeping portion um a month okay that's cleaning painting Decor decorating and everything a month correct yes okay now are you going to be
able to provide the finances you know that the county will approve that they know you're going to move forward and get it done or you going to be able to provide Financial documentation that you have the money yes and that is um with if it's
just money amount or are we talking about um also supplies because those are two different things I can get supplies without the dollar amount so I would assume we're talking about from beginning to end which is work money
supplies paint everything because that's what I would assume that we're going to want to see uh I believe so yes sir okay okay thank you ma'am thank you chair any other questions for Miss Sarah I was just wondering if you could
um tell us a little bit about your experience and some of the things that you've done um from what I understand you've uh helped uh get donations and things like that in the past and what not oh yes ma'am um we have the ability we have in
the past actually have set up in uh Tractor Supplies um other facilities for adoption days which have been 95 to 100% success rate um we haven't had any dogs or animals come back um we do training
also um and not uh it's more of Rehabilitation you know uh decompression for the dogs and and uh refocus so they are um ready to go into a house setting um that's something else that we have
plans for for that uh facility is not really keeping it set up as the shelter that it is because those are more like holding cells and um it's really not our idea of babying these animals um we want
them more and a halfway house setting for that but we'll get into that at a different time um also we have [Music] um as far as raising funds um we're able
to set up at um various locations from Melbourne to Titusville so far to uh raise funds for our missions as well question sir uh commissioner ainson ahead of you commissioner um my question is how many nonprofits have we had had
an interest in in this because obviously we're not just considering one and it would have to be probably the same lease agreement for anyone who we were so commissioner we were contacted by uh two different organizations and I
believe the other one uh intended to be here today I'm not sure if they are I have another card yes uh from Mr Large L yes oh Lange I'm sorry I didn't put my glasses on sorry okay commissioner Del this isn't so much a um question for uh the speaker
but it's more so one of the biggest things that I think is important is that we come up with some kind of fair process um as we move through this so that's kind of one of my only thoughts okay well we we have another carard so let's um let's sir I'm sorry I didn't
mean to forget you go ahead no all right okay' good we're going to go with the other card here thank you very much Mr Lang good morning and thank you Commissioners for having me in here today um she said a lot of things I was
going to say that uh bravard County definitely needs a rescue entity we we just really don't have enough for as many dogs as come and go so I do rescue I started doing rescue with Greyhound pets of America back in 1990 I'm a dog trainer been training dogs showing dogs
for many years uh so my passion is the dogs the animals and like she had mentioned um my idea was the same I go in and make this place more of a a hotel than it is a a jail cell um I have a
team already put together I have a contractor that will already is already agreed to replace the roof has already spoke to um code enforcement of rard County I've been talking to Miss Webster the attorney Mr Bell um several other people within the county I even spoke
with um Mr Wayne Ivy about it because he originally pulled Humane Society out of this facility because of its ill condition um and moved to Melbourne so we know the building's been going downhill um when forever actually started in this
process of needing assistance to clean this place up I went in help pressure wash this is just recently like the month the three weeks before they closed down I pressure washed all of the back kennels painted them uh did a lot put a lot of time and effort into helping
start to clean up for and the things that needed to be done just kept building up and building up and she finally threw the towel in from my understanding so uh I've had an interest in this and told my wife for the last 2 years well I'd like to go in there really change this place up clean it up and and make it uh something for the
county one of the big things I want to do is I have veterinarian and um veterinary assistants on on my staff already that we want to do a no cost Clinic out of this facility and I want to clean up the facility inside outside
and the and the grounds uh we wanted to offer a lot of things to the the county as far as like I said no cost vaccines for our elderly um low cost vaccines what have you so there's plenty of room in this building I know there's talk of maybe possibly condemning the building
tearing it down we're not going to do that to the 1880 buildings built in downtown Titusville everything's salable when it's brick and mortar this is a brick and mortar facility once we replace the roof we'll have the electrical gone through I've already had the fire department in there I've got a
two-page report on everything that the fire department stated need to be fixed or repaired um so yes the building does need I've heard Pro I've heard um estimates up to $380,000 um I did analyze those costs look at that I've actually got the
building broke down into rooms soliciting each room to um community members as far as businesses small business large business where they can pick a room and they either Supply the cost the material or what have you to
redo it so I've already got all that laid out like I said I've got a contractor that said they're going to do the roof pro bono and so I know it comes down to who gets it whatever but this is something the county definitely needs so please consider at least allowing us I
myself am willing to do a uh a lease option of give me six to 12 months lease with the option of you all can come in everybody can come in and look at this place and if it passes the inspections of County fire code and they give me another 10year lease on top of it thank
you very much any questions Commissioners would you mind um telling us a little bit about your experience as well uh yeah I started with Greyhound pets of America it was actually in Coco Florida um got on the board there did
treasury work uh actually went into the tracks pulled the dogs out and put the dogs place the dogs in homes uh I started training with Bobby mutter I don't know if most of you may probably can remember body m b mutter he trained Kines for Bard County Sheriff's
Department um so he taught me to train um spent a lot of time showing dogs in obedience I started out in confirmation and showing but to me that was political so did a lot of obedience training and been doing this a long time uh the Langs
Relic K9 Rescue is that one this rescue is new fruition started June 1st of last year I have I'm licensed I'm insured I've got everything I need for that for the for the foundation of this um I worked with other rescues we've been placing dogs for many many many years I
did large dog rescue um out of Tampa for many years helped them move dogs because they get the dogs into the bigger facilities and these big masive dogs were harder to place um they they actually euthanized a lot of those um and now I do shuts and work which is um
Protection work um I do agility and I do uh board and train Morris I have a light on for you did you want to say something yes sir I just got a note from my office that I believe um with regard the city of
Titusville that um our new report date to Titusville is June 9th and we have agreed to provide updates during that time okay uh commissioner ainson did you have a question I have a question for staff okay um my question for staff is
because we are talking about budget and we clearly have some shortfalls if we were to demolish the building and and sell the land how much would it cost to demolish it and how much are we likely to benefit so commissioner the
estimated uh demolition cost is a rough cost at this point is $90,000 uh and we believe believe that the property value is $135,000 I have a question to follow up with that commissioner delini um is there any requirement to
demolish the property if we decided to sell the land or could we just condemn the building or what there's not we we can uh you certainly Surplus it whether or not there's takers is is another uh question obviously uh you know the
building is in uh pretty uh you know dis it's in disrepair and you know just to highlight um you know it it's not just a good cleaning um you know we included the $100,000 on top of uh just getting
it code compliant because it the uh smell of um urine and other things are just impregnated in in the uh floor and the walls and I don't know that there's enough bleach out there I think it really needs to be ripped out uh but
it's also uh the wiring needs to be done there needs to be a new sprinkler system the hvc needs to be redone the roof needs to re beone so um you know I think that you know either of these two if they can demonstrate that they have the
wherewithal and the resources uh that's obviously again up to the board uh but I want to make sure that everyone understands that uh going into it that it's a significant amount of work that we believe just open the doors just oh um I I just wanted to um say
that this is definitely a need for the community um in North Bard to have more shelters so um if if there's a way that would be amazing but my my wonder about the um the demolition was um would
that would that make the price of the land go down if we didn't demolish the building or like what would the what would the net be if we kept it up or demolished it I I think you know that we can look into that uh further but you know the building is in
disrepair there's a a shed a pretty sizable shed that looks like it could fall over uh with some wind uh so it potentially could improve it uh the value but I don't think it'd be substantial I'd have to look into that further thank you typically when you
have a structure like that you're far better off to demolish it before you sell the property because someone else buying it has got to deal with deal with that problem um that's uh my my brief understanding also if we continue to hold on to it while we're selling it
let's just say we do that we'll continue to incur code violation um situation right with uh with the city at some potentially yeah we'll have to address it at some point okay uh commissioner Goodson you're reaching for your mic
there all right okay okay uh is that it okay sir thank you thank you okay um are we done with questions we're done with cards I did have one more question um I guess this
is for the board um and maybe this isn't the right time and we need to bring this up at another meeting but um in regards to if um we go the route of somebody taking this building over and doing the renovations
um do we put that out for RFP do we um do we come up with a process to make the decision on who gets the building uh I I was just wondering about I think that's Morris question Morris um could you help us there well I think um it's up to the
board's pleasure really there are any number of ways that you can elect to proceed you have the options that are in the report if you decided that you wanted to um put this out for rescue organizations out there you could do an RFP and outline what you'd be looking
for in an organization as far as what their requirements would be to bring the facility up to operating standards so that RFP could be an option but you got a variety of options in your staff report question commissioner Goodson
yeah thank you chair wouldn't it be advisable or the best way to do this is let staff put down and agree on what they wish to get out of it and what they wish to see done to it and how you fund it and all that then put the then bring that to the board for decision then we
could put it out or we could change it a little bit because I don't know what the um what you Commissioners are looking for and so therefore wouldn't we want to know what are let the staff do something like that okay commissioner arkinson I think
that's the point of what they're asking they've given us several options here right um for me right now uh having spoken with sta and all the other people I've spoken with I think the idea of leasing it to a
nonprofit um with the understanding that they can come up we have some sort of commitment from them that says they can meet all of the requirements that we need for it to be a safe place um and
then for having a good solid understanding of what we're going to do with all of the the current violations that we have that's my feeling for the County's question of what what do we want to do with this thing right
now can can I maybe clarify something maybe it's the pleasure of the board that um they're able to determine which of maybe say these two groups has the greatest capacity to bring the building
up to the the standard that we need is that is that something that you def this is in your District I'm going to defer to you some here is that so the the biggest thing for me is I just really feel like a fair process is is necessary
um because we obviously have two great people here who love animals and want to do the right thing and so I think that having a clear process to go through would be really helpful and maybe something we can include in the lease is um Sheriff maybe if he'd be willing to help us with this but before any animals
come into the facility that maybe him and or his team would be willing to look at it to make sure that it's something that is up to the standard that he would see fit um you know for animals to live in okay so maybe maybe you could work on
this and possibly bring it up at the next meeting April 8th awesome without work okay that would be great okay so not resolved today but uh you both live another day and uh you'll you'll bring it uh we'll we'll come back to the board
um with that commissioners Frank sorry are you ask asking us to put an RFP together we'll put some proposed uh selection criteria uh which will include you know the capacity for them to be able to show they're doing the work etc
and we'll put together you know a proposed uh uh committee that can review uh maybe even someone from the Sheriff's Office uh the uh the proposals that are submitted we'll try to do it very promptly so the board can uh you know get moving on it so can stay in good
heed with Titusville so we'll uh we'll do that and we'll try to get it back to you at the next board meeting to to look at the RFP and decide if that's how you want us to go okay that sounds good to me okay okay uh let's take a 10-minute
break we're going to let Ian uh we're going to have Ian next okay so that give him a chance to sort of reset okay 10 minutes 11 o' [Music] [Music] [Music]
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[Music] we're going to go to item i1 i1 and Ian sir you're recognized good morning Commissioners item i1 is bringing back the to the
board on December 17th you approved staff to go out and advertise for the membership of the science selection and management committee for eels we're bringing that back to you we advertised for two weeks followed the processes in the land acquisition manual had the
Committees meet and review and rank the science applicants brought to you the business applicants that are not ranked through that process what you have before you is a ranking sheet for the science members we are requesting that
you actually rank those the top seven would then be appointed if that is the board's wish top two on the business sheet and then the eighth and the third for each respective committee would be appointed as alternates so staff would again take
your rankings after you score them read that score into the record uh we will calculate it tally it bring it back ask you to make a motion to approve the uncontested nominees if there is a contested or a tie we would ask you to
then break that tie and make another motion okay okay uh Commissioners we do have uh some cards and I think some of these will probably be applicants um potentially so like to go the cards first and then we'll we can
work on our ranking sheets okay okay Craig Wallace morning Commissioners Craig Wallis provid needen riveron Coalition um uh I'd like to speak on a couple things one is the um congratulations on
a very well done workshop last week um I think there were a lot of good ideas that that came across uh one of the things that I wanted to reiterate is the uh there was a number of speakers that spoke about um what we call low impact
development uh of course the the best low impact development is no development so but we know that's not practical for for this area that's growing rapidly so I think if we work towards uh looking at ways in which we can identify are areas
uh that we want to preserve and I'm going to speak specifically about the environmentally endangered lands program here uh and that that is an opportunity that you all have to select areas uh in the county that are particularly sensitive to things that might impact
the Lagoon that was uh brought up in the last um the last iteration of of the approval of the environmentally endangered lands program and I think it's important to look at areas that are perhaps um low-lying areas that might might not
be the best developed uh areas as potential opportunities there are a lot especially in the north county that might uh might help us in keeping some of the storm waterers outflow from uh from developed areas uh out of the
Lagoon uh so we can uh preserve these in swamp lands essentially uh so these are some good opportunities I think as we look at that in and I think the the new um we should be thinking about the people that have the knowledge of these
properties as we look at the new uh uh board members that we brought in for that for this uh committee so um thank you for your time and uh I appreciate your your thoughts on that thank you sir got a question question yes Craig okay
chair yeah uh in new developments today if you have Wetlands aren't the developers saving those Wetlands as far as not trying to develop them and keeping their own green green way there's no requirements for that that I'm aware of uh it's something that you
know if it costs more to develop a wetland then they're probably not going to want to do that is their top priority so I think that once again uh leads us with down the path of these are areas that are good for the Lagoon good for the environment to preserve um not
automatically preserve those so I think having uh the county look at at some specific areas that could be the most helpful would be beneficial okay this might be a question for you Frank or staff once a wetland is purchased by ills does it come totally off the tax
rle yes I thought so y yes okay thank you now you own 28,000 Acres now could you tell me a number that you would finally be happy with in terms of Acres yeah heck care our money but you know how much would
make you happy well once again it's not the number of Acres as it is the where they're located now would you agree that the ills program as far as use of land to the public is not all that great I mean you you profess to have Trail and
walking and hiking and horseback riding correct those are all uh parts of the corre things that we preser you do not allow hunting correct that is correct and why is that and I do not know that
so we could talk to as a board to talk about that especially in the wet areas okay I understand you have hog feral hog hunting though are you aware of that no I'm not yeah I was interested in that because uh you provide a
guide who walks with this person and uh you almost have to get fingerprinted to kill a hog but that's okay but then I found out it was not it was the Traer that you employ that can hunt not the public find that totally interesting but
still that's okay all right thank you for thank you sir y thank you commissioner I think your uh question about nuisance animals especially is is very interesting because an important part of wildlife management is um Hunters who keep nuisance animals to a
minimum anyways um Wayne Burton did I say that right or Burton good morning to everybody um I thought that I had five minutes so I'm going to do some um speech slashing here on the
Fly I would like to thank each of you for offering me this opportunity to speak and to offer a special thank you to commissioner Delaney for inviting me uh to introduce myself my name is Wayne Burton and I have applied for one of the
open business positions on the environmentally endangered land selection and management committee I decided to show up in person today to put a face with the application and to explain why I believe I would be an asset to the SMC committee
my wife and I are longtime Bard County residents and walk in our County parks on a daily basis we're both very pass passate about protecting our ecosystems and sustain and support our wildlife and plant populations I'm an Air Force Reserve
retired officer with 22 years of service while in the service I served in a number of critical supervisory and management roles I retired as an Air Force hospital administrator with experience in hospital information systems and
facility management while on active duty I completed an Associates of applied science degree appi a bachelor of applied science in management I also uh after transferring into the Air Force Reserve from active
duty I worked federal civil service and I earned a master's in management degree and a master's in public administration degree in federal civil service I worked as an information technology specialist and manager in six different agencies
including one year at the timin ecological and historical preserve and for the National Park Service and six years for the ecological Services field office of the US fish and wildlife service in virel Beach Florida I
mentioned these two agencies in particular as while I worked at both as their senior IT specialist and network administrator I interacted daily with over 100 senior endangered species biologist hydrologist contaminant specialist and Land Management
specialist I attended many of the same briefings and symposiums they attended but in an IT support role I was on the senior advisory committee to the wild the fish and wildlife State supervisor and learned about many of the important environmental issues facing
the endangered species of Florida I also learned about different land and habitat requirements and was introduced into this Endangered Species Act of 1973 and its subsequent updates in my position I maintained a close
working relationship with my counterparts at the US Army Corps of engineer St John's Water Management District Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission Meritt Island Wildlife Refuge am I sir we'll give you another another minute okay and Cape canaval
National Seashore and Pelican Wildlife Refuge I mentioned these two positions at length as I feel my experience and knowledge I glean from them would be a benefit to the SMC in my role as a business consultant I'm already quite familiar with many of the environmental
issues faced by endangered habitat and endangered species on the space and Treasure Coast of the Florida I speak the language and understand the reasoning behind many decisions a committee such as this have to make and have made in the past lastly um I read
through the 122 page land use manual I'm going to have to redo that because it's pretty long and I just want to say thank you very much for your time and attention and with your approval I look forward to serving Bard County on the land selection and management committee
this concludes my comments unless anyone has a question thank you sir I just wanted to say a quick thing um you let my secret out and I'm sorry uh I uh contacted all of the I had my
staff contact all of the um submitters because I really would uh wanted to kind of hear from people and whatnot so thank you for being here today GL to come thank you thank you thank you sir uh Jim Bernie hey good morning again um I was planning on coming to be a part of
Vince's presentation anyway but then uh received an invitation as well so anyway I'm here today to introduce myself as a third generation Floridian born and raised in Sanford a Bard County resident uh Liv in rockage UCF graduate in biological sciences with a bachelor in
1987 and a masters in 1995 I'm a certified professional Wetland scientist and a vegetation management business owner and a current um eel selection and management Committee Member as such I hereby State my interest in continuing services to the
SMC and to express my gratitude to the board's continuing support of the eels program The Experience set that I bring to the table encompasses a 41-year background in environment Al Services starting with protected protected wildlife and ecological Community level field studies and management and water
quality field studies and nutrient mitigation measures while at post Buckley Sho and Jernigan and then later on at EOTech Consultants many of these projects were in rard County including scrub J surveys and habitat mapping um for sunre and Vieira before they were such uh Cape
canav Wastewater load allocation determinations and Titusville blueair and Wetland site evaluation envir Al permitting construction management and later operations my SK set my skill set also includes 23 years as um aquatic
vegetation control Inc uh president and owner following the death of the company founder my father in 2002 we a land excuse me a vegetation management contractor from the federal level all the way down through the municipalities for invasive species control flood
management um FPL power line vegetation management and uh construction and uh for the commercial and the um uh residential sections as such I've had the opportunity to meet uh Mr Goodson
and commissioner Atman Alman with the um American or excuse me the ABC group we were ones running around up in tassy with the white with the white helmets and all of that so I did have a chance to meet yall back in the day um as such for the responsibilities of
overseeing Company the company I had to administ ative Financial logistical and operational aspects for land and Waterway management um programs for clients ranging from the feds municipali as I mentioned um we're 122 person company we're filled about 300 people a
day and we've been in business 39 years um and to dat cumulatively we've probably treated well over a million acres in Florida as far as invasive species Upland and Waterway management um and then lastly my participation has on been on environmental organization
boards and commit since 1998 I was the chairman three times for the Florida exotic pest plant Council which is now the Florida invasive species Council as well as the invasive plant management association president for a few terms so once again I just want to thank you for
the opportunity in a free and state I look forward um to evaluating regards critically important conservation Parcels for the environment as well as the people thank you thank you sir question question yes chair maam is there a COR correct way or could you
provide staff and County with the correct way to kill Brazilian pepper trees absolutely we've got a we've got a perfect recipe for that unfortunately it's expensive because you just don't want to kill it in place cuz then you have a standing Mass but yes if you um if you take it down to Route yes there's a herbicide mix that's very effective on
that is that legal to buy absolutely okay yep yep you the the active ingredients Tri here and they they sell that at Home Depot as we'd be gone but but you have to get to the roots uh just the stump you can treat it in place but like I said you just leave a mess that something else is going to grow on if
you leave it in place okay thank I always thought if you put a bucket over the stump uh does I think it'll just lift the bucket yeah I I I don't I haven't had very good success with it myself yeah but it responds well to her besides it's just okay the decision the decision to treat it or not you have to
have a follow-up plan because if you just take it down you have to have a restoration plan too because something else is going to grow there break brake fluid works pretty well too question inv one more question tell me what in other invasive species don't you like um well our business is
in uh uh pal Palm Beach County so we work from the keys pretty much up through Indian River County and some in rard County as well we have worked at the wildlife refuges and whatnot through our federal contracts with the National Park Service and the and the the wildlife fish and wildlife but lodium is
far and above the the japane or old world climate F oh yeah it's probably far and above the worst thing you can imagine because it it doesn't need disturbance it can grow wherever it changes fire ecology it it that you know out competes anything else that's out there so that's probably the worst of the worst thank you sir yes
sir yes sir Susan Chris Chrisman say that right okay good morning um I'm Susan Chrisman oops and uh sorry about that sure I'm an applicant on the um for the e um as a business applicant I want to
thank uh Katie Delaney for her staff calling me and emailing me and asking me to come out and um I wanted to ask if you could refer to your um ranking sheet because if you look at the ranking sheet you'll see that in um under the qualifications for the business
applicants mine's kind of light and so I was hoping to just speak to my qualifications and maybe you could fill it in but I do have a bachelor's degree from the univiversity of FL Florida um travel and tourism I had an outside concentration in mass communication I earned a master of Business
Administration from Rollins College and um focused on finance and management um I went into commercial real estate appraisal here in Bard County 20 years ago I've completed thousands of appraisals um I have worked all over the
State of Florida at one time I was licensed in 13 states in uh the United States um my practice includes all commercial property types um so retail office industrial residential
Hospitality institutional special special purpose I'm nervous to speak by the way um vacant land um but in 2021 I earned the maai designation um this is a member of the appraisal Institute this is the highest qualification that you
can achieve as an appraiser and I wanted to uh point out that if you look at the e land acquisition manual in chapter 5 Section 4D you'll see that maai appraisals are required as part of the process um I think it would be
advantageous to have someone that is an maai on the committee um sometimes ma appraisers like myself are engaged to interpret maai appraisals for other people so because it's sort of its own language um I'm a fan of conservation
and I'm actually trying to expand my career to support and further conservation and so I think I would be a um valuable member of the committee and it would be my honor to serve um I did want to speak on the other issue and
soide of uh The Rock Ledge hospital and can I have permission okay um I was just you know I hadn't really thought about it in depth until sitting here and listening to all the speakers but in my appraisal practice I've witnessed um development of these freestanding emergency rooms
around Florida and I did a really quick search um and I see Orlando Health has free well let me tell you what is a freestanding emergency room they're usually around like I hate to interrupt you but we do have a final public comment and you're welcome to speak on that because you didn't do a public
comment earlier okay that would just be the proper place for it okay I don't know if I'm going to stick around because um like I said I do thousands of appraisals and I need to get to work we're we're trying to go as fast as we can okay well thank you for the consideration and it would definitely be my honor
okay thank you very much if you could email me what you were going to say about um Orlando Health I bet all of us would love to hear it it's not that we don't want to hear you there just a oh I understand okay yeah thank you Ken Snyder good morning my name is Ken
Snider and you've probably heard me hacking in the back and I apologize I'm on the down downhill side of a cold I'm one of the SMC applicants and uh one of the primary reasons I showed up when I was invited or I was me said it was a good idea so I thought I'd show up um my
resume like the previous speaker is heavy I did not complete my Master's Degree and it's shown on there as having done that so I that was I went through all my classes and then with uh family sickness anyway I didn't finish it so I don't I don't want that on the record
and uh but anyway my background I don't I didn't bring any any notes I'm retired from the St John's River Water Management District I was the field program supervisor for what was at the time the largest Wetlands restoration project in the world which was the upper Basin project and it's now surpassed by
Ser the comprehensive regation restoration plan um I just when I saw the ad in Florida today I kind of like smiled and I said well that looks like a an effort to give back I'm retired I work part-time I'm not really retired but um I just thought it was an
opportunity to get back and I'd love to do it I know the county I know the issues I understand how the ecology works and uh that's really about it you know one thing one thing I did think of I've hired a lot of uh a fair number of environmental professionals and I
remember one time that I we hired a a guy and on his resume he literally we're used to seeing you know degreed people and on his resume he literally just had his his job was boy that was it I'd never seen anything like that so we interviewed him and hired him it was the
best hire I ever did I just wanted to say that for Cowboys all right thank you uh Marilyn civil Maran Maryanne yes I know lots of Marilyn so I'm sorry that's all right
well uh good morning or good afternoon I'm not quite sure um I too am here because commissioner Delaney's office contacted me um and uh I had put in my application I've been um a member of the
SMC for the past two years um as my resume indicates um I came to uh Bard County in 1987 to go to uh fit for my graduate study in oceanography and uh geoscience
and I received my master's degree in that uh since that time uh I worked for 30 plus years all over the State of Florida and especially Bard County um doing uh soil and groundwater work I've
done hundreds of environmental sight assessments not only throughout Bard County but the State of Florida and I worked as a professional geologist licensed with the state throughout my career I retired three
years ago three plus years ago and since that time um I've tried to volunteer quite a bit uh even during my professional career I volunteered um with the Marine Resources Council of
East Central Florida I've been a water quality monitor for them for over 20 years I also have worked with the city of Palm Bay on new numerous projects environmental projects for the city as a volunteer um with the friends of Turkey
Creek and then the Turkey Creek Advocates and one of our special projects that was completed two years ago uh we worked with uh Randy fine Randy was able to get us $150,000 of uh State uh money to
complete a feasibility study of the Turkey Creek Watershed and got together with the city and their consultants and um the plan was developed and approved by the city two years ago and I'm very
proud to say that the city is currently working on the goals that were identified in that study so I have long been a volunteer and I really look forward to keeping my volunteer um
commitment with the SMC um I think the uh eels program is tremendous and that three times the citizens of Bart County have approved
through taxing themselves to support this program and I hope the Commissioners do the same one last thing I see I have seven seconds and I'd like to um say that Mike Knight and his staff at eels does a tremendous job with the
program thank you thank you very much okay sorry Sandra rot r r aott we were debating debating that good morning everyone thank you again commissioner delini your office
called me as as well scared me to death but thank you for inviting me I appreciate the invitation my name is Sandra Ray Cott RAC I graduate of UF with a journalism major and a minor in environmental
science I'm a career par legal specializing in the areas of corporate law mergers and Acquisitions commercial and real estate I'm sorry commercial and residential real estate transactions and I received my Florida real estate sales license back in 1989 which remains
active my interest in serving as a volunteer for the eel selection and management committee stems from my desire to serve the community specifically with respect to environmental concerns I previously lived in Melbourne from 2008 to 2011 and
had the honor and privilege to serve as a volunteer member of the city of Melbourne's affordable housing committee for a 2-year term prior to relocating to Melbourne I served as a volunteer business analyst with the Florida Atlantic University's College of
Business Small Business Development Center in boaron assisting new entrepreneurs with business development I find Service as a volunteer to be extremely gratifying and rewarding and I thank you for your
consideration yes ma'am thank you very much Ian back to you I think so Commissioners we would just ask if there's any discussion that you would have if not you go ahead and score on your two ranking sheets and and on our ranking sheets we need to we need to
Circle something for each person correct three being your highest rank Choice one being your lowest okay same same thing on the on the business ones also right yes sir okay and then following that per the county attorney's office we'll
you'll read your scores into the record we will then take your sheets go back and tally them and come back with the results further in the meeting okay uh Commissioners we need to take a few minutes and finish these up is that
I'm done sound good I'm done everybody's done well I want uh yeah I think we let's just let's just take three minutes and finish this up okay [Music]
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[Music] if the clerk wouldn't mind when we get to the reading point if you'll just call the role in the order that we do it in that'll just keep us I think help keep us organized okay Don know if you don't
mind y all set okay okay I know it's it's a tough one it's a lot okay so let's do that Donna um I have a question okay um so I know that this board is a little
different kind of like sorl um and so is there anything that requires us to to go down to these these amounts of people or can we add more alternates like is there is there I I'm just so troubled with
this because we have such incredible qualified people that have applied for this and I would hate to lose their any of their expertise honestly I I think your question um is for the the people who don't make the top seven or the top two could they just could they be
alternates corre is that fair Ian you want to try to address that so the Land Management manual or land acquisition manual has the process of that's followed it is a board
approved process uh the membership of this board is also board approved so if once you've scored and we have scores for everyone you want to do something different with a a motion uh the number of alternates any of those things that's
at the board's discretion is that is that a practical thing I mean um you know I I would say again if you're going to make more alternate that would be fine when you get start getting larger with actual members you
start having issues that you run into potentially with Quorum as well as being able to manage a group that large I I I see that so we have less of a problem with alternates though corre because obviously some people you know life goes on and sometimes people can't show up to
a meeting so alternates there is there any sort of Staff objection to that to that idea well okay we we already have alternates right we we currently have one alternate for the science category and one alternate for
business and again that's what the agenda was written to for what the current setup is but again it's at the board's discretion Let's uh let's do this commissioner Delan I I I think uh we could entertain that after we go through and and and see how this shakes
out so um I don't think it's a bad idea but more particip and what have you okay uh so clerk if we could do so we'll do the call the rooll for the science first and then and then the business and we'll
go through it okay thank you go ahead Donna commissioner Delaney yes um Paul I'm so sorry about mispronouncing your last name
schmalzer uh three Katherine Becker three James Bernie three Maran civil two John Shepard three Kenneth Snyder three Christopher
O'Hara two Lisa Tolland three Jennifer white three Jennifer Thompson 2 Jeff eel three and then Olen burn
3 Susan Chrisman two Jason Miller three Tara Miller two Sandra Rick I'm so sorry I'm so sorry Sandra um three okay Vice chair Goodson uh Paul
three Karen three James three Maryanne three John three Kenneth three Christopher 3 Lisa two um Jennifer two uh Jennifer again Thompson two and
Jeff two okay on the business side Olen 3 Susan one Jason three Tara two Sandra
two commissioner ainson Paul three Katherine 3 James three Maryann 1 John 3 Kenneth three Christopher three Lisa
one Jennifer one Jennifer 1 Jeff three Wayne Olen three Susan 1 Jason one Tara three Sandra one commissioner
Alman uh I know if I've ever seen so many qualified candidates so this is not a reflection of who's better or not it was just had to pick somebody and um so I have uh Becker three Bernie
three Shephard three I again all threes um oh oara three Tolen three Thompson three e eel three and then in the
business I have Miller three and Miller 3 Jason and chair commiss commissioner we we do need a score for
everyone I gave them all threes oh for everyone that I ranked and everybody and even for the ones that you did not read oh you need scores for all of them yes sir okay okay I'll give all them um than ones
okay chairman feltner I I know it's tough I I feel your pain okay uh on on the science um I gave Paul one uh Katherine
three uh James one uh Maryanne two Shephard uh John Shepard one uh Kenneth two Christopher
3 Lisa 2 Jennifer white a three Jennifer Thompson a two Jeff Ebel three on the
business I gave Wayne Burton one uh Susan two uh Jason Miller three and Tara Miller one and Sandra
ricot uh two we're going to pass them down Ian's going to they're going to work on that while we go on to a couple other issues and you'll come back is that sir how we want to do that okay so we're we're going to kind of pause on I2 we're going to come back
to that and oh I'm sorry that was i1 excuse me I2 yeah okay John's in the Box go ahead sir or you want me to introduce the item say again please sir do you want me to introduce the item or you yes sir
okay uh you know I asked on the cultural events if we could come back and I know that some of you may have some other things that you've chosen in the meantime but this is what's made it to the agenda so if you have other things that that were not submitted before the
agenda comes out came out then you can simply put that on the next agenda and we'll discuss it as a group then um because we need to we need to put things on the agenda that we vote for so uh based on that uh we have four total
items on there today are there questions on the items no I just want to say I apologize for that chair I misunderstood I it's okay we're we're going to I'm going to give you as many chances as possible on this okay so we'll just simply take that
up on the next one we don't have any cards on this either right okay all right Commissioners in discussion on it2 is there any discussion so we have Melbourne Art Festival 15,000 we have native rhythms Festival five 5,000 we
have Green Gables 10,000 and field Manor 10,000 any discussion on that like to give uh commissioner Alman credit for picking something out of your District in commissioner Goodson's District so I know he appreciates it absolutely and
hey it's we're all one one County and such an amazing place I know they're trying to preserve a big part of M that's why I put the uh Traveling Wall on there today I knew that you would all feel like that um so I appreciate that so with that is there a
motion we have a motion by commissioner Goodson second we have a second by commissioner Delany clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman feltner yes we'll show that passes 5- Z
Commissioners thank you very much and Mr chairman may I credit commend you for your leadership for bringing this up to last meeting I I appreciate you saying that sir okay we're going to go to J2 Troy there he is okay you recognize sir uh good morning Commissioners I'm Troy
post with the embeds and we're bringing forth a recommendation from the embeds board for the county to sell a piece of property that's in the Spaceport Commerce Park up in Titusville uh the Eds is the official agent uh for the county and the development of lots and
the park uh the uh purchaser is a company called Olympia LED they manufacture electronic readerboard signs they're growing business a small business this is part of our economic diversification strategy to try to attract firms that are not necessarily
wedded to the Aerospace industry uh they actually came before the commission uh for approval to enter into a real estate contract back in 2023 uh they purchased a 4 acre lot when they started working with their uh civil engineer and started looking at doing the site plan for the
park they realized they needed some additional acreage in order to comply with the city of Titusville code requirements for storm water retention on site the city also has a u tree ordinance that required a certain ratio of the lot uh to be covered with a tree
canopy so with the building layout that they needed uh they were requesting an additional 3 acres of land uh they came before the embeds board with an offer of I think 41,000 acre that was rejected they came back and negotiated and are bringing forth this contract to you
which is 50,000 acre for the 3 Acre parcel Commissioners questions for Troy thank you so much for uh being here today um I one of my uh questions that I got uh from the community about this was
um they felt like that was kind of a low price for for the property but but when I explain to them you know the um the fact that this property is uh not really accessible it's mostly Wetlands that kind of thing could you talk to that a
little bit Yeah so these lots are undeveloped Lots it's just a natural wooded area uh this particular 3 acres is actually located behind the 4 Acres that the company acquired so it doesn't have any road access so that's another contributing factor there are some Wetlands on the site that's been denoted
on the site plan the have to work around that in addition to building the new storm water retention Pond but we do a market analysis every 3 to four years we're set to do that again this summer where we look at really what the value is of the Lots in comparison with other industrial Lots in Central Florida so
we're slowly inching up the price per acre but mindful that these are lots that uh pose a lot of development challenges thank you so much I appreciate other questions commissioner ainson were you for your light no okay
any other question do we have we have a do we have a card no that's on the next one okay okay discussion on the item is there a discussion on the item is there motion on the item I'd like to move to approve okay we have a motion by
commissioner delini is there a second second we have a second by commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman felner
yes and Commissioners will show that passes 5 thank you okay we'll go to uh j3 commissioner ainson I think this is your item thank you um so this is
my issue um my understanding when I was elected was to listen to the resident concerns to find answers and solutions to their questions and their problems and to make decisions um on behalf of the residents
after I found all that out so I have heard from residents who come to these meetings and those who don't they want to know do our partners in space pay what they're supposed to I can't answer that so my job then is to find out who
can so I've asked for the board to approve a letter to go to our tax collector and property appraiser because they are our experts they can give us the accurate answer so I'm hoping and and I think that a letter coming from
the board one letter rather than five in this particular instance will be helpful to their offices so they are just answering one so um with the idea of of clarity and transparency and expertness we can put this this question
to bed so I'm asking the board to approve the letter questions are questions on the item we do have a card so we'll do the card and then we'll discuss it if there are no questions Sandra
Sullivan um Sandra Sullivan South Patrick Shores so this is uh one of the issues I I have brought up um I've done considerable uh research on this so from everything I read um and and this document was actually provided to me um
by our property appraiser um the the least lands of federal lands are required or is the option of the local entity to collect taxes when they are leased to private entities and there are two separate laws
one for military DOD lands and one that are not DOD um 60% of property in Bard county is government owned land I'm not quite sure exactly what the federal portion of that is but pretty
significant but now we're moving into you know a lot of entities here um privately um the appeals court said the military leasing act the federal statute that authorizes US military to lease Surplus lands at private entities the
says the interest in the lease of the property lease under this statute may be taxed by state and local governments um taxation in federal areas which is this document um much case law that the local jurisdiction has the right to collect tax accordingly States
and local government May generally impose non-discrimination taxes on federal contractors and leases of federally owned property under uh United States versus musky Gan holding leases and uses of federal land for profit was not immune from tax
um when you look at the state statutes um we have a a a state law similarly to the the basis of the federal government which is that you don't want to create an unfair uh business environment and so in
essence that's what you're creating we have the EDC tax abatement now that gives them tax exemptions on the land value so we're really looking at the improved land value um in terms of this for many of these entities um space Florida uh tax
exemption says real property and tangible personal property owned by the federal government or space Florida and used for defense and space exploration purposes which are put to use and support therein shall be deemed to perform an essential National
governmental purpose and shall be exempt um but when you read the federal law on government purpose it's only exempt for income tax not property tax um so this this and this is owned by
Lei as used in this chapter does not include the personal property buildings or other real property improvements used blah blah blah blah blah so the point is just like the EDC tax exempts the land so does space Florida but not the
improvements and my suggestion just to wrap up is not to go to our constitutional officers who are wonderful but to do an an AG legal opinion because we have huge fiscal problems going forward in Bard County and if this is a taxable income we could
bring in it would be certainly fair for the two richest men in the world thanks sir question Morris is Morris did you not have a tax receipt that showed $6 million of Revenue to the county from uh
was it um blue origin blue origin correct and that's on their buildings correct approximately yes that's on their tangible personal property which the County Commission does set millage rates and impose the tax on those facilities but it's the property appraiser who both assesses the property
values and also determines whether there are any applicable exemptions that exempt them from payment of that tax I'm all for this letter as long as commissioner it goes through Mars to make sure because I don't want to get it screwed up with um defense land meaning
Air Force Station Patrick and I wanted to say mainly in the ined tax area in Meritt Island now you can't go after NASA I don't think that's Federal right so that being said there's only two people if I'm not mistaken is it true commissioner two people that would be
SpaceX and blue origin I don't know I don't either so yeah I don't know what other private tenants are up there that might well I think NASA being technical about this or the um space force they're immune from taxation correct I agree with that totally so there's but that's
where I don't want to get it confused I'd like for this answer to be one time put to bed just like the commissioner wants okay then it that's over unless you want to go federal or state and change something correct I don't think there is any question that those uh
private tangible personal property and leasehold interests of private less EAS can be taxed the question is how are they assessed and then there are exemptions that apply so that it might exempt them from payment of the tax if they're applicable well that all you
yeah I hope you we find this out and I hope we put it to bed one time okay okay any other discussion on the item I I just had a question um commissioner ainson did you happen to reach out to the property appraiser or
the tax collector before this before you brought this to us no okay commissioner Altman yes um I'm going to vote against the letter I don't think um I I really despise property taxes in general but a really really
despise tangible personal property being a business owner having worked in business this probably the most burdensome irritating and bureaucratic tax I I've heard some businesses say we'd rather just write a check and do away with the tax because it takes so
much time and effort to inventory all those personal Property Holdings I also think we shouldn't be taxing anything related to space I um I think space is so difficult it's so
unique it's so special it's it's uh it's something that we pride ourselves to support here in Florida and especially Bard that um there's a term called z g zero fee uh I like the idea of not
taxing California taxes their space industry the other thing about the space industry it has such a multiplier it's it's so expensive it requires so much training that the economic benefit that we have of providing for a launch company a
satellite Manufacturing Company a scientific research company when we bring those type of Industries the payback is is immense I could go on and on I I mean when you call for fire protection or
amamos protection at Kennedy it's it's KSC that responds so they're not impacting our services like other areas so I'm just I just don't feel good about it I'm going to vote against it I kind of like to see us go in the other
direction I like what the governor's doing looking at possibly doing away with property taxes we're taxing the American dream and and personal private property and I think that's a very the very one of the very worst taxes we have
so I'm interested in going the other direction I could support it if the letter was reaching out to figure out how we can charge less taxes on Space related businesses or at the Kennedy Space Center commissioner Atkinson thank you
yeah so I just want to make sure that we're all clear that I'm not commenting on whether or not they should pay or how much they should pay what I'm commenting on is the transparency so that we understand what they are paying so if later on down the line we decide
hey we want to make sure that we're all comfortable because we want them to stay as space Partners but I I I needed to be very clear that I am not commenting on if they should or how much they should this is just a letter for transparency so that we are all very clear what the
case actually is Sor and I respect that I respect that and really respect you I don't take it personal it's just a personal thing but understand where you're coming from is there any other comment on that
commissioner Delan um I guess my only comment about this and um you know I've had these some of these questions in the past as well and um I've gone to our our property appraiser and our tax collector and I
asked them um and so my only thing um out of respect for them and their office is I I would rather for us to go to them directly and talk to them about this and then you know at that point I think it could be
appropriate you know to for them to kind of bring forward a a presentation or something if they're willing and if they um you know which I'm sure they would be um you know I just I I I learned I learned this pretty early
on um the when the board asked me to do the same thing to Circle back with staff and then come back to um you know come back to the board once I had done that and so especially with our constitutional officers they're not our staff um they're duly elected just like
we are and I just feel like they um deserve the respect of a conversation first commissioner ainson just to respond to your point commissioner Delaney that is exactly what I'm doing because one letter from
the board to answer the these questions is much more respectful of their time than all of us whether it's residents or each Commission Office reaching out so that was my reasoning for requesting
just one letter that they could respond to is there anything else I'll say something here uh toward the end I don't think you need to do the letters I spoke with Dana over uh the weekend um and as
you know I worked in that office uh for a long time she's happy to speak with you those are her words and so you're you're you're welcome to um call her I um also suggest to you that she's going to come here to uh present her budget
within the next two months and if that's a question that you want to do in a workshop I I I think that's appropriate and she could do that then so I think you're going to have a couple opportunities one talking to her and then two uh just doing that in the workshop that's going to that's pending
anyways so that's that's my view of things is there do you want to continue with a motion today or what do you want to do okay all right um I'll tell you what before we do Ian the young lady I'm I'm sympathetic to uh Susan I think you wanted to speak on that item let's let's
do that so you can get to work and then we'll finish up with um oh is it okay I came up great you did it the right way we appreciate the other card so thank you commissioner delini staff um assisted me so thank you um yeah so in my perspective I'm
witnessing a lot of these freestanding emergency rooms being built around the State of Florida and so I was just sort of brainstorming here listening to the discussion and thought well gosh could that be a possible solution in um rock ledge because um freestanding emergency
rooms are I looked it up uh 10 to 20,000 square fet and they're usually constructed on Commercial out Parcels so like you know this would be an alternative to a site where you might put a WWA or fast food um and they're Orlando Health on their website they list um freestanding emergency rooms
lesburg Claremont CMI Lake Mary Orlando Davenport um and then their competitor um who also has presence here Advent Health um I know that they have locations Waterford Lakes um and several in Orlando um Min millennia
Disney World um so anyways I don't know maybe it would be advantageous to entertain a discussion about putting a freestanding emergency room in Rockledge because it appears that they get constructed um much faster than a a typical hospital um on a much smaller
site and then it wouldn't have all of the um other services provided that are going to you know affect the bottom line um just wanted to throw that out there that's all thank you okay can I ask a question yes ma'am um I I don't
know if you would know the answer to this and if not I'll look to my staff maybe some of that them um know but do you know these freestanding emergency rooms do you know if they are capable of um stabilizing a patient like say that has a heart attack or a stroke to get
them to like a hospital I I I mean I'm not yeah but um if you looked on Orlando Health they do have a description of the services provided in the freestanding emergency rooms and it does talk about um heart attacks right and um awesome thank you thank you for that I didn't
know if Pat or um Orlando if either of y'all know the answer to that about um the freestanding uh emergency room he can just come up Podium real quick if you want to uh Chief if you guys know if th those have
the capability of stabilizing a patient to get them to a hospital so the answer Commissioners is yes they have the ility of of stabilizing them however many of them actually end up transporting the patient to what we call basically the Mother Ship so um they can certainly take them stabilize them um and then
ship them out to their larger facility do you think that with this um I know that the hospital at large is um needs some major uh Renovations but um rockage hospital has stuff like like a
helipad um you know and uh I didn't know if and you probably you probably don't have the answer to this but I would think to renovate a smaller space within that hospital would be more um would be more possible um and the fact that it
has the helipad even if they can't totally treat the patient from A to Z maybe they could at least triage them get them in the helicopter and you know I don't know if that's a thing that's possible yeah I mean our our greatest priority is just being able to transport
those critical patients to the closest facility and um yeah this is going to hurt thanks thanks Chief okay uh Ian you ready sir yes thank you Commissioners we actually did end up with a tie in both
categories so we would request the board's consideration of voting for The uncontested Science applicants we would then take you through the process for break the tie appointing the final member and then have a discussion regarding alternates
and then go through the same thing with the business category okay we'll walk us through this step by step and we'll all right so the highest rank on science uh Christopher O'Hara and Jeff eel both had 14 points kathern Becker James Bernie had
13 John Shepard had 13 Kenneth Snider had 12 and then we tied at 11 so we would ask for a motion for those first six to appoint them as members if that is the board's
wish okay okay we have a motion by commissioner ainson we have a second by commissioner Delaney clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainon yes commissioner Alman yes chairman felner
yes okay thank you so Paul schmalzer and Lisa Tolen both tied with 11 points so we would ask for a motion to appoint one of them and then appoint the other as an alternate or appoint the rest as an alternate as the board wishes who was the second person that you said I'm
sorry about that it was Paul schmalzer and Lisa Tolland if you do appoint uh Mr schmaler it would require a super majority I would like to move to approve
Paul um for the positions okay we have a motion by commissioner delini for Paul and we have a second by commissioner Atkinson any other discussion on that no clerk will call the RO commissioner
Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman felner yes all right okay normally if we had just one alternate we would ask you to appoint Lisa toand as at alternate since she was
the next highest ranked but as you heard the board had wanted to have maybe some discussion regarding what to do with alternates what the pleasure uh hear Commissioners on the alternate question I would if if there's board support I
would love to uh make a motion to approve the rest of the candidates as alternate members is now how many alternates would that would that give you one two three four on the business one no that's just on the science side
on the science so you have um how many members versus seven members four alternates on the science category okay and alternates only vote when a regular member isn't isn't there is there any concerns by staff and something like
that no all right commissioner um what's that no anything else okay is it I'd oh I'm sorry go ahead commissioner if you had four alternates right and everybody no when one person
who was elected to to be on the board was not there how would which of the four would vote we we typically would base it on your rankings from today and the score from today and who was in attendance okay commissioner uh go ahead
I'd like to make a motion to allow the other candidates be alternates to this board okay so we have a motion for the candidates who were not selected uh to serve as alternates by commissioner delini is there a
second second okay we have a second by commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman felner yes okay we'll show that passes 5 Z all
right so on the business side uh Jason Miller had the highest score at 13 so we would ask the board if you'd be willing to appoint him as the member and then we would talk about the tie um do we need to vote on Mr Miller separate and then talk about the tie is
that what we want to do that would probably be the cleanest that's the cleanest okay let's just take up the issue of Mr Miller is there a motion for for him to be appointed I'd like to make a motion for Mr Miller okay we have a motion by commissioner delini on Mr Miller's appointment is there a
second second okay we have a second by commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman feltner yes okay and there was a tie at 11
points between Mr Burton and M Miller so we would ask the board to to make a determination or motion to choose one of those those Commissioners between those two um I make a motion for Mr I'd like to second that okay uh for
Mr Burton is that right oh sorry yes okay motion for Mr Burton by commissioner ainson there's a second by commissioner delini clerk will call the RO commissioner Delany yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainon yes commissioner Alman yes chairman felner
yes I'll show that one and then again you have three remaining uh like I said Miss Miller had 11 Sandra she's gone so she can't help me with pronunciation Rott
ricot and Susan Chris had nine and Susan Chrisman had seven as the scores and again at board what we're doing what you want us to do specifically those either again normally we would just have reached down to miss SAR as the alternate but again based on the board
discussion it is back to those three people could be alternates correct for a board that has four members well total the board has a total of of nine members okay on oh on the okay all right uh is
there a motion for all three of those to be alternates I'd like to make a motion to include all all the candidates at as alternates okay so we have a motion by commissioner Delany for those three last three um names to be alternates is there
a second second second by commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Eon yes commissioner Alman yes chairman felner yes very good we'll
show that passes 5 Z is that it Ian that is all done today good job good job everybody on that uh before we go to board reports um we have something for you uh with regards to the process on um County Manager
selection and how we go forward so this is more of a informational um packet if you will today for you to be thinking I think we'll discuss it in future meeting but this is how the boards have proceeded in
the past and so it's coming down to you here you can be thinking about this and we'll discuss it thank you probably the next meeting at least how we want to proceed
okay based on what we just handed you is there any quick questions that we can answer for you I think it'll take you a little time to to digest that Frank you have uh some words of advice here yeah depending on how the board would like to proceed if if you want to go out for a
national search the board did that in 2017 and so took the opportunity had uh HR put together the timeline of what was utilized back then so just so you had an idea and what you can see is it was
about a six-month process starting out with an RFP so I've actually attached as a separate document that RFP so that Commissioners could look through it see if the process what was in the RFP the
selection criteria is appropriate uh at this point from the board's perspective and then we could work on that if the board chooses to go that route to select a consultant who would do the executive uh recruiting as part of that uh what
happened in 2017 was the board appointed the HR Director the county attorney and one person from the board as the screening and selection committee I believe if I recall correctly they
brought uh two back to the board for consideration and then they selected the consultant consultant move forward that process included the consultant meeting with each uh commissioner separately and then also having an open house for
citizens to speak to the uh consultant recruiter about what they wanted to see in a county manager and so that's the process that was followed follow the last time um if the board uh chooses to do a national search that's something you may want to look at or uh modify as
the board seems appropriate we just wanted to get the board get this in front of the board so you can consider what you wanted to do are you reaching for your mic yeah okay go ahead thank you thank you for um putting this together for us County Manager um I know that uh going for
going out for National search is something that I think is um very important um I I just want to make sure that when we get uh our applicants that we search
far and wide for you know the the largest um most qualified uh group of applicants so I think that that is a great idea any other com commissioner Goodson question um
what's going to be interesting about this if you end up with somebody out of California that you're impressed with that will be something exciting you might want to stay within Florida where you would have a more understanding of everything from climate to to tourism and everything else that we depend on
and space so those are issues that I'm sure we will address as time goes on then of course what's it going to cost you for a study nationally or what's it going to cost you for a study Statewide wide that's something too that we have to look at I think but anyway
everything's fine it will be this will pass and we'll either look like really intelligent people or we'll look like the comic books right I'll I'll picky back a little bit on your comment um commissioner Goodson
um and I've come to Value um our relationship Frank and um I appreciate something I've I've really come to appreciate here um in the two plus years that I've I've been on this
board is the historical knowledge of um not just Frank but all the county staff the many people have who've um I mean we just celebrated retirement today and all of the folks here
who uh help me in in um all all of the decisions before for this board so it's it's my early opinion that uh someone should have some historical knowledge of this County
so um that's my my two cents on that I think bringing somebody here who's never even been to Bard County would be setting that person up for failure so that's strictly my opinion and we'll see how this goes um are there any other questions before we this constitutes my
board report okay so is is there any anyone else before we get into board report question sir um are we voting on anything right now no sir no sir this is just for your information we think about whether we want to do National search just promote
within we want you to we wanted you to ponder this over the next couple of weeks yes sir great thank you yes sir we just thought it was timely okay all right let's go into a board report Mr County Manager uh I have no report okay Mr County attorney no report Mr chair
okay commissioner delini yes thank you Logan if you wouldn't mind putting up my slides thank you so I just wanted to give a little update on what we've uh some of the things we've been up to in D1 um we had
our first canvasing board meeting and um shout out to our soe and all of the people that the great people that work for him um uh it was really interesting watching the uh
logic and accuracy uh test of our voting machines and I got to see firsthand the difference between the machines that um the new machines that we're going to be getting and the machines that we currently have and it's
uh it it was made very clear that those are very needed um so and uh you know of course all the tests and stuff came out came out great there were no issues there and um I know that our board was all there but we had our first annual
speakup rard workshop and I don't know about you all but I have gotten I mean people stopping me on the street emails phone calls um just people being so appreciative of that workshop and so I thank you all so much again for your
support in that and um I I hope that we can do it again we for for the public we had a a full room um of citizens and it was a great time um just so positive the energy in that room was incredible um it
just it was really great to see the community come together with um with great ideas and solutions um so I hope that we we get to do that again um I had a tour of the warber museum and
the people there they just blow me away I mean they're totally Run for the most part by volunteers um even the people who restore the the airplanes um the the sheet metal mechanics and the I mean
these are highly skilled people that are volunteering their time um doing these things and I just think that's so incredible um I also went on a tour to the waste management recycling center and um I'm happy to report that they
said um they told me that 80% of the material they get in that recycling center they are able to recycle which that statistic to me was just incredible I I honestly was a skeptic of um you know how much of the stuff that goes in
our our yellow topped can actually gets reused and I was happy to hear that um 80% of it gets did they tell you what the most valuable thing is oh aluminum of course no the aluminum cans no no not when I was out there oh okay a yellow
kitty litter box uh they have uh one one uh company that buys those specifically oh okay and I was surprised by that too um but uh so they set that aside a certain yellow kitty letter box okay most
valuable and um I also went to the 39th Annual um Junior Achievement business Hall of Fame Gala and that was really uh incredible just to highlight some of our uh amazing students here in Bard County and our business partners that that
um uh take the time out of their day to Mentor these kids and um they just do a really amazing and beautiful thing for for our community so I just wanted to give them a shout out and I also had the opportunity to um go to a couple of the
opening day Ceremonies for our little league and Mims Little League shout out to them cuz they actually let me um give the first pitch and um gave me a little souvenir which is really special and uh so shout out to all of our little leagues out there um you guys do an
incredible job for our our kids here in Bard County and um you you help shape our future so um I just wanted to give a little shout out to that and um so the next thing I wanted to talk about was the uh uh Logan if you wouldn't mind
putting up the slide of the picture of the org chart um we had talked about at our Workshop um you know the public participation and one of the things that I just wanted to bring up was um you
know at the at the top of our organization the whole reason why we're here is for the citizens and um I just really feel passionate that um in our workshops if we can't have people speak you know for every item that
people be able to speak before and after we start and finish um only because like for instance at our last budget Workshop there was only one speaker and they they had to sit through while it's great information um they had to sit through hours of presentations to be able to um
to speak to us and I just really feel like uh we could let people say their say their peace um and that way they could get on with their day if they so choose and um the other thing for the budget uh
workshops is that I just really feel like while yes it's our opportunity to hear from the staff in this um I feel like it's also our opportunity to hear from the citizens and hear their concerns their ideas their um the things
that that they want to see prioritized and um just the more that we can get citizen participation I feel like the more we can bring the government and the people together and um get to a a
place where everybody's happy okay commissioner Goodson on board report oh there oh I'm so sorry there was one more if you wouldn't mind putting up the Orlando Health um um one and I know that we already spoke about this a little bit but um I just had to
uh bring up another point about this Hospital received 8,432 patients last year um transported by bcfr EMS alone and um so there's there's quite a bit of of our people
just being transported by our Ser Services um that is averaging and this is from our chief medical officer this is averaging one emerg emergent ambulance arrival per hour and so that
is um pretty serious we have 3,177 pediatric patients mostly young children 503 OB cases um 246 documented stroke
patients um and 100 stemi heart attacks um and this is the major heart attacks heart attack cases requiring immediate catherization um and it's also the second highest volume of stemi patients countywide so
um you know this is this is pretty pretty extensive um and I I was talking with um one of our Chiefs I think he I is that you back there Orlando I couldn't I didn't know if you had if you wanted to chime in about anything else
about this the the um like the percentage and whatnot um that we had talked about before if you wouldn't mind coming and chiming in about that so is it um pertaining to the percentage of transports to the facility
yeah so according to the state basically every time our paramedics EMTs write a report it goes into this big data bank and what the state has conveyed to us is that once they pull all that data um it's anywhere between 15 and 20% of our
total call volume you can say 15 or 20% but at the end of the day we're looking at what like 8,000,000 calls um so it is it is a significant impact I mean there's there's no doubt and and and our concern is you know our primary you know uh initiative is to make sure that we
have the necessary resources available to uh to meet the needs of our community and come April 7th it's you know that's our date so there's no there's no going back so that's our priority and so I didn't know thank you so much for that I didn't know if if Morris maybe you
could help me with this um uh what would be possible but I really feel like we need to get to the table somehow if they're willing with Orlando Health and um some of our leadership from fire rescue and uh I don't know if the entire
board or a board representative or um and pull together the um uh the the foundation and even invite um you know uh representative soy if he's or he
could I know that he's in the middle of session but um somebody from his office I I just have a really hard time sitting back and just watching this thing fold without us doing everything in our power
to I think state representatives working on this okay he was very clear on that that he he wants to prevent that too okay he's doing what he can in Tallahassee there's limits on what he can do here or what we can do here but
he's he's he's doing he's doing what he can up there right please believe okay and so I don't know if there's anything that that anything more we can do to um like bring everybody to the table and talk about
possible Solutions um I I while I respect that um representative sooy is working on this um I I had a chance to talk to him yesterday too and I I don't know I didn't get any clear answers and
for somebody who lives in this community um that's going to be affected I just I really feel like legislative session there's opportunity and there's there's just a time for things and I so I think he's working with staff to try to figure
out what could be done and then when the opportunity presents itself so I give give him a chance he doesn't want this either I promise you okay thank you good thank you thank
you anything else no that's it thank you okay all right commissioner Goodson you said you said no commission commissioner ainson I just wanted to point out um received an email um and it looks like
this year over $660,000 was raised um thank you to staff for giving their time um and their resources uh for the United Way um the letter that or the email that we have from brazel De Clark is thanking all the directors and specifically uh
Frank Abate and Jim lisenfeld very good commissioner Altman uh have no report uh I said what I needed to say about uh commissioner or I'm sorry uh representative s Roy's efforts in Tallahassee on the Orlando Health
situation and then also I had for you the county manager information so um we'll see you on April 8th thank you or I'm sorry we have Planning and Zoning on Thursday so we'll see you Thursday thank you the opinions expressed by any member
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