--------- She came back once like Raphael. Trying to get him to You good, Raphael? Yes, sir. We're good to go. We want to call this uh city council meeting to order. Today is September the
8th, 2025. We're going to ask Councilman Scaners to lead us with the invocation pledge. Dear Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for all your many blessings those Lord upon ourselves and our city as a whole. We thank you Lord for allowing us to come to de together to do
the business of this city and the will of the people. We ask dear father that you will guide us in our decisions and our conversations. Lord pray that you'll be with us every minute this night. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] All right. I see some of my friends from
the Department of Health. I was wondering who was going to get this proclamation, but let me read this proclamation as we try to make a uh to do regularly. This is the um having to do with overdose. And so
whereas overdo overdose continues to be a devastating public health crisis that affects individuals and families across all communities regardless of age, race, gender, or societal economic status. And whereas in recent years, the rate of overdose related deaths have reached
unprecedented levels fueled by the opioid epidemic and the proliferation of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl. And whereas every life lost to overdose represents a person who was valued and loved and was absent whose absent is deeply felt by their family, their
friends and community. And whereas Overdose Awareness Day observed annually on August the 31st is an international event aimed at raising awareness of overdose, reducing the stigma of drugrelated death and acknowledging the grief of those left behind. And whereas
this day also serves as a call to action for individuals, communities, policy makers to support EV evidence-based harm reduction strategies, expand access to treatment and recovery resources, and promote education that can save lives.
And whereas Definia Springs is actively committed to addressing the overdose crisis through prevention, compassion, and collaboration, including the strategic use of n national opioid settlement funds to expand success to life-saving resources and support
community-based initiatives such as Naran training, public education efforts. And whereas we stand in solidarity with all those who have lost someone to overdose, with those who continue to struggle with substance use and with the tireless advocate,
caregivers and first responders working to bring hope and healing. Now there therefore be it proclaimed that the city of Funia does hereby declare August 31st, 2025 an overdose awareness day in Funia Springs in alignment with the federal proclamation and international
overdose awareness day. We encourage all residents to join in raising awareness, remembering those who have lost who have had loss and supporting those in recovery and committing to the future free and from overdose dead. I might ask
the two chief if they're still in the room if they'll come up and join us for a picture. Y'all want to come around? [Applause] front and center. We'll get a chief on either side of it. Come on. Let's see in
right there. Want to get We'll do the old half turn there. How about that? Thank you. We're getting pretty good. Mayor, we also have some uh certificates of appreciation that we'll like to give to uh
uh Chief Hurley and Lieutenant Black. Uh they attended our event that was on the 31st, so Sunday evening. Um uh Chief Hurley, he uh did an amazing uh saxophone tribute. Uh he he did a great job. Uh and we appreciate everybody's
support in this and um the city of police uh and the fire department. Uh everyone's this is an initiative that everyone's getting behind and really helping move things forward and we appreciate all the support. So you bring your sacks tonight, Chief. Just for the record, my stage name is
Skinny G. Skinny G. Thank y'all. All right. Thank you very much. Thank y'all so much. All right. Only difference. Okay. Uh we're going to go to the consent agenda and we'd certainly
entertain a motion to approve as written. You want something taken off, please let us know. Now, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to uh pull off uh the August 11th minutes. What number is that? That would be 3C3. 3C3. Okay. 3C3.
So, I'll make a motion with those changes if there's no other changes. Any other needs come off? Second. All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Uh, we are going to Dan, I believe tonight start it off.
All in favor say I. I I I I carry. Thank you very much. Uh, where we want to move that to, Kobe? That's all right, Mayor. We can move it to 4 C. We'll make it 4 C1 and then we'll move all my other items down appropriately.
All right. 4C1. Okay, we can do that. And that is 3C3. Okay. All right. Um, any other changes to the regular agenda? Um, have our conversation. I would ask
that we add an item under me to lift the hiring freeze on all positions. All right. And where you want to put that? To do so. You put that? We would just put it under under me. We'll make it 4C6. We're so moved. Second.
Okay. All right. [Music] Okay. Regular agenda. Regular. Okay. I got something on the regular agenda I'd like to ask. Okay. Now, if you try to have something that's got to be done by three council members.
No. Okay. Well, I don't know. That's not my intent, but it could turn out that way. Oh, you don't have to have three council members to put something or take something off you regular unless it's an action item. Are you asking to put an action item on? I don't know how it's going to turn out.
Why don't we have him bring it up under us, mayor, and we'll figure it out from there. Okay. Have him bring it up under him and we'll cross that bridge when we come to. We're going to bring it up under let him talk about it under the I'm getting a headshake there from Councilman. What is it that we're at? Well, I'm
saying he can just talk about his item if he doesn't think it's going to require action. It might be more appropriate to talk about an item tonight and bring it back for action later if we don't know what it is. Okay. Okay. So, one of them is a request for information from admin.
So, that can be done under him as a council comment if it doesn't require council vote. And um the other one is uh a request to the CRA. Probably need to put that on the regular agenda. there. I'm not sure that we've got backgrounds to do it, but we might
as well put it on the regular agenda. Okay. Well, if so, then I I need at least two more councilmen to agree with it. Yep. What is it we're requesting a CRA to do? Yeah. Can you be more specific? So, um I'd like to have a discussion about it
and I don't think this is the right time. I think I'd like to put this under my name and let's just get on with the meeting. Well, there's no action required. He can do it if he wants action. If you're actually going to make action, we do need to go ahead and add it to the agenda.
It's a request. I know you're making a request, but No, I'm making a request to the CRA. CRA. Yes. So, I think that's going to require council action. That's action. Yeah. I'm not asking vote. I'm asking them to do something, right?
No, that that would have to if it's allowed, I would like to ask them to consider doing something. So, if in that case, Councilman Cosen, it would require, assuming it's legally permissible, and since I don't know what it is, I can't opine on that right this moment, it would require the whole
council to do it. An individual council member can't carry that request. So, let's Why don't we add a request under wherever you want it? Well, if this if this has anything any likings to a
action, we need to have a vote right now as to whether or not we put it on the agenda. I concur, man. Okay. And so is this isn't this isn't anything negative. I understand. It doesn't have to you can be going to hand out $50,000 tonight,
but you still need the rest of them to give you the go ahead. Okay. All right. So, I've actually already had this conversation with Josh and wanted to bring it uh Josh Irwin and wanted to bring it to the council. Okay. So, all right. So, uh we're going to vote to allow him to add this to the regular
agenda under 9B3. Yes. Yes. Well, we Well, first of all, let's vote on um and we'll start with Dan. All in favor say I. I. I. I. I. All right. All right. You got it, Dan.
Well, that was hard. Yeah. Well, you got legal. We're legal now. Okay. Well, Mr. Mayor, there's still a motion in a second for the regular agenda. Now, we need a motion going to approve regular agenda with all the request for uh information from uh admin, right?
That's going to be under you. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. All right. Now, where are we putting him? So, his request to CRA will be under 93 and then his other item by admin will just come up under him council comments. Okay.
Amended. Second. Yeah. B3. Okay. What was that? So I amended my motion and Mr. Skongers amended a second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. I. I. All right. Eyes carry. Thank you very
much. Um, you ready to roll, Kobe? Yes, sir. We'll go 4C1. Okay. Mayor, that'll be council member. All actually the new So, the new 4C1. Yeah. So, I I had a a citizen um look through the minutes and identify a
couple of scribers errors on the August 11th minutes. So, I'm requesting that we table those so that those can be corrected and presented at the next meeting. So, my motion is to table the August 11th uh meeting minutes to the next meeting. Second. All right. We have a motion and a
second. Uh any questions? Can can you just identify what what they were so we don't have to reread the whole thing? Well, um there there was some misspellings of Michael versus Michael. Jackie Cochran. Um International
Aeronautics Federation became National Aeronautics Association. They were just typos. Yes. Harley Henderson was spelled Harvey Henderson. Uh etc. So, okay. So, I have a motion. Yes, sir.
That's a a little bit a little bit of duplication on the wall of honor under me. Well, this is just just punctual corrections. Okay, we're just tableing this. Yeah, that's all this is. Okay, so we'll just we'll just keep this at
the dice. All in favor say I. I I I I carry. Thank you very much. And now we'll go to Kobe with forc I guess two. Yes. Thank you, mayor. uh council a few months back um we all talked about we
had the citizen come forth and we discussed the review of of accounts billing accounts that potentially customers are maybe paying sewer but aren't actually hooked up to the system and so you all gave us a deadline of October 1st to come back uh with those accounts and so we talked about that and
how we were going to have to kind of elicit the account holders to kind of give us that some of the information and so we we put it out for 90 days uh people had the ability through email come in person over the phone to get on our list if they felt that they were paying for sewer, maybe not hooked up to
it. Um, so at the end on September 1st, we closed that. We were there were 13 people who put their names and addresses on the list. And so, uh, the next step, I bring it forward because y'all had a deadline. I want to make sure we brought that to you, let you see it. Our next step would be to go out just to camera
those those accounts and then bring that back to the council so we know exactly how many of those accounts truly are maybe paying sewer versus not hooked up because we may get out there and they may all or they may none of them they may all be paying sewer and they are hooked up. So um again just following in line with the council's direction to
bring it back and then our next step is the camera and when we do that we will bring it back again uh to talk about and discuss next steps. Thank you. Motion to approve. Second. All right. I have a motion to second. Any questions? Go ahead, Todd. So, I know when this came up originally,
I very openly at the meeting said that I I was one of those people that I'm not hooked up, but I I pay for sewer service. I'm not technically on the list. Clay, is it appropriate for me to be put on the list or should I? Since you're asking for an account in a
open city council meeting, so no one can accuse you of doing anything inappropriate? Yes. If you're asking to be added, show him added. Is that acceptable to the council? Well, he's disclosing in a public meeting. It's not really. I mean, he's a customer as well as a council member. So, I think it's the appropriate thing
for him to do to disclose it that way. Somebody says, "Why is Council Beer Bomb having cameras running the sewer lines? He's getting city benefit. He's getting what anybody else would ask." Sure. Okay. So, what territory was this covering? Oh, it was it was citywide. So, there various addresses all around the city.
So, we'll add Mr. Council Berbomb to it. And like I said, the next step is for us to go out, camera all camera the lines of the camps that are listed and then bring the information back. And this is something he has disclosed in the past in meetings. I remember it coming up. Do we need a motion or just go ahead with it? We already got a motion, so we might as well. I'm talking about for him.
No, no, no, no, no. We're just adding just show him. He just That's fine. Okay. All right. Uh, any other questions or comments? Go ahead, Kobe. So, this is just 13 plus 14 by the addition of Councilman Beerbomb. Correct. There's 14 that we're going to look at that you're going to send staff
to to camera and then you're going to bring it back to us so we can decide how we're going to remedy or what what action we need to take. Yes. Because that'll be the kind this is the first time, right? So once y'all we figure out how we're what we're going to do and remedy, we essentially going to set practice and so we were to do this
again maybe once a year or however often we would do it to review give people opportunity, we would follow that practice. Okay. Any comments from the public? All in favor say I. I. I. I. I. All right. Eyes carry. Thank you very
much. All right, Kobe. We'll go to three. Thank you, Mayor. Um, three, the finest trader applicant matrix attached. You see the matrix of the applications that have been received uh as of Friday. And so, we're bringing this forth to the council. If there's any you wish to
interview, non-interview, hold, however you like to do it, uh these are the applications have been received so far. Any suggestion from the council? Are all the applicants qualified? No.
matrix there are one, two, three, four, five that seem to be qualified. The other the remaining have X's as unqualified. And what's your recommendation? And I would note that of the five if you adopt the the adopted finance break ordinance would likely disqualify
some if not went ahead and made and had the matrix match the participator. Well, for instance, I'm without naming candid I just say your top candidate the top listed candidate in the order. If you look, it says yes to business administration. Yeah. But no to eight years experience where
now you're making experience part of the requirement is what we had then. Yeah. So college degree and experience is required. So that candidate would go from qualified to unqualified. So and I've not reviewed all these. This is I'm seeing it when y'all got your packet too. So I haven't overlaid it, but I
would say that um you have no local government experience for number two. Definitely looks like three appears to meet qualification but may not but says does not possess knowledge of Florida County.
So just letting you know you're adopting an ordinance tonight that may immediately disqualify more than one of the five. Kobe, did you and Danielle go over this? Julie Julie and I have went through these um in terms of the five that meet
it. I mean, based on what the council just said, I mean, the only person there's only one on here that seems to meet the degree requirement and the experience requirement potentially. And the state of Florida, the there is no applicant on here that fall in that five that have state of
Florida experience. That's it. Just leave it open. Keep on just continue advertising. Yeah. How how long have we advertised this now? This is two had been terribly long. Right.
No. Yeah. That that's my 40 days. 45 days. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Motion to keep advertising. Well, we'll just continue to do so. Okay. The question is on the current
applicants, do does the council want us to leave it? Do you want us to go ahead and notify all of them? Notify the ones that are unqualified? How how would you like to proceed with the individuals that have applied so far? I I think we should just go ahead and notify them. I agree. I believe so, too. And I think that we
should give direction that when they don't qualify to immediately send them a notification, I don't think that that needs to come to us, does it? I agree. If they don't qualify, it does not. If you want to give staff that direction, if there's a close call
where Mr. Towns and Julie Danielle and I can't come to some consensus and we're all split on whether somebody meets qualification. We'll bring that person to you before we reject them. I agree. I've had that happen once or twice before, not for a finance director hired. So, and abundance caution, we'd
only do that if necessary, but otherwise Julie can well assess whether somebody needs the new ordinance. Yeah, we don't need to. Let's take that as a motion. A motion to notify and allow them to notify people moving forward if they do not need. So moved.
Second. All right. I have a motion. Second. Questions for clarity. Mayor, Councilman, you are you're talking about everyone that's currently on the solicits. Yes. And going forward. Correct. I mean, if they do not meet it, there's no need. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Anyone else? Anyone
from the public have any comments on that? No. CL is the first one qualified in every category for the very top candidate. Yes. Uh based on what I read, it says yes to business administration. No eight years experience. You have to have both.
I got you. Okay. I'm overlook that part. Yeah. That that's council, you know, the council made the council did not add Florida in the last time we discussed this. Um but but must possess knowledge of Florida uniform county codes is part of your ordinance and the
answer is no based on last yes is having knowledge of general utility systems. I think that would just be disqualifying even if the ad was not. Okay. Anyone else? All in favor say I. I. I.
I. I. I. Carrie. Thank you very much. Back to you, Kobe. On four. Thank you, mayor. Uh council, on the Inscop Grant, uh last meeting, you all approved both the resolution and the task order. Uh the resolution um both
oversight on our part and the state provided us the incorrect resolution for that council needed to approve and so we just need to amend that one to the correct one. Uh Mr. Atinson, will we use the same number or we use a new number? We are basically repealing 20259. We're
going to use a new number unless the state makes us use the same number for reporting purposes. I would say we use a new number. Okay. Motion to approve. Second. All right. I have a motion. Second. Um any questions, comments? Uh that is page 606 of the item. It
currently has a number of 20250. We will uh because it is drafted that that will read 202510. Show 09 rescended. Anyone else? Anyone from the public? Any comments? Yes, sir. All in favor say I. I.
I. I. I. I. I. Carrie. Second part. Mayor. Um, on the task order last meeting, the council approved a task order of three knots group for both design and CI. Uh, in speaking with the state and speaking with three notch group, we overlooked the fact that this
grant does not allow both the same person to do both CI and design. This the first one I've ran into so far. Typically, we've always can do both. So um we have asked three knots to fix that task order and so they've provided to us proposal on the amount of $91,460
for design. So we're ask for approval of that task order and then we will bring back in the coming weeks a task order for CI from anchor CI. Motion to approve this second. I have a motion second question. Um this is for Twin Lakes, right?
Yes, sir. Okay. Does the estimate that they're going to be working on include bringing out sewer connections to the 13? No. It does not. The reason I'm asking is because some are going to want to, some are not.
Um, then we got a brand new road out there and then we got to dig it up and you know, I like before when we go to do it, staff, utility staff will go and camera the line, see what condition they're in, who is and who isn't stubbed out either way. And then we'll bring that back and we'll decide if we want to
do that or not at that time. Gotcha. The this task order is only for the road. Gotcha. Okay. Any other question, comment? Any comments from the public? All in favor say I. I. I. I. I.
I. Eyes car. Thank you so very much. All right, Kobe. I guess we'll go to the five-year capital improvement plan. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor. uh council this is uh last you know we need to update our capital improvement plan and so what we've done this year uh is try to put this in a little more formal
document go through um put these pro so there's two docu there's two things there is a list the plan list which is essentially what we've had and then there is a five-year plan that takes those projects and busts them out and then in the coming months there will be some more detail added to the document that I'll ask for approval but in
general uh what we're looking for is we can go through here uh we need to at some hopefully approve or adopt the CIP. That'll be a part of our budget. And then I believe next council meeting, Liberty Partners will be coming to talk about our major funding request and our legislative priorities for the next
legislative session. So, um, going through here, there are a number especially and I'm going to start through capital improvement plan list. So, that is page seven through 12. If there is an item on here in any of the funds, general, airport, water,
sewer, gas, and it does not have a date, it doesn't have a date under the column date added, uh, it is a new item which I'm requesting to be put on to the CIP. Um, and then as you will scroll down and you look at page 12, you will see a summary of all the funds and the capital
improvement projects uh within those funds when they total. And then you'll see a list for completed and or removed. and you'll see the items that I'm asking to be removed from our current CIP. So, that's that's the overview. I can answer any questions we may have on both
the CIP list and the in the five-year plan, which is pages 14 through 18. Mr. Mayor, go ahead. U Jesse, can you scroll back to the summary page for me, please?
So, right there. So the water fund you're projecting in the next 5 years to need $11.5 million and the sewer fund $9.6 million and the natural gas fund $2.8 million.
I I just just want to call that out. Let that sink in. That's that's a lot of money that we need in the next five years out of those enterprise funds. That's over over $20 million. So, is this going
Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Is this going to upgrade our 50-year-old water treatment center and the and the clay pipes and the infrastructure and everything that we need. Is this is this money going to that?
Well, I think there's a couple distinctions. Um, what Councilman Verbomb is referring to is the unfunded amount. Those are the dollar those are the amount dollar amounts that we don't have currently. Right? CIP documents are living documents. Every year we will review this again. We will identify the projects that are priorities to us,
those that we assign or don't assign funds to. Uh and then we go through that. Next year once we do the water and sewer master plans and that's why you'll see on page 12 of the summary, you see all these items that are being removed because they've been on here for extended period of time. They haven't been completed yet. Um, and so we're
about to spend funds and time on water master plans, sewer master plans, street assessment conditions. To me, we should allow those plans and those assessments to tell us what the priorities are. All right, we're going to spend the money and have the experts tell us what our issues are. We'll let that dictate our priorities. Come back next year and we
will update this. So, you you could very well next year come in here and your water fund currently unfunded 11 million. It could be 15 million. It could be 18 20 million, right? the more the more items items you add that we don't have funding for direct currently it's going to be more unfunded now uh in
terms of some of this we know we're going after grants right in SRF particularly in the water and sewer side versus the others but some of this is a correcting and addressing some of those issues but a lot of it has not yet because we don't currently know what our
issues are okay thank Okay. So, Mr. May uh Kobe, tell us what what is the 11.5 million uh unfunded water portion. What what is the project? So, if you will go to page,
uh nine of 19 and this again, this is the list side. We can go down to the five-year in a minute. page 9 and 19. You'll see over here in the unfunded column to your right, those calculate down here to 11.5 million. Uh that is $3 million for the meter replacement program. So we have
allocated 273,000 this fiscal year for that. Um the register replacement program, we've allocated $445,000 this fiscal 26. That leaves 477,000 left to do. And then uh the large one down under in underground infrastructure AC water
main replacement of 8 million. We know that project to have an estimate of 8.8. We received the SRF 50/50 grant loan of 766. That leaves a balance an estimated balance of 8 million. And so if you'll scroll down to page is that citywide
AC water man? Yes ma'am. When they do that design they'll find all the AC water mans in the city and provide a design on replacement. And then on page 16 of 19, you'll see that busted out into a five-year. You got the total cost, you've got the current secured funding,
uh, if there's any prior year expenses allocated to the project, and then busted over the next five years, what we anticipate to allocate to it. Uh, you'll notice though, the unfunded amount that it's still $8 million even though we've said, "Hey, over the next four years, we're going to do 2 million a year." We
don't currently have those dollars, so we can't can't say we can't say that we do. Um, but the anticipation is to get those dollars whether that be through grants or SRF. Mr. Mayor, go ahead. I I do I think it it begs clarifying
that SRF is not a silver bullet for our funding wos. Um, typically they are 50/50. we're still on the hook for 50% of that that $8 million as a as a long-term debt service. Um,
sometimes they don't do 50/50, sometimes they do 7030, sometimes they do 6040. You never know which way they're going to go. And it all depends on what money is available in that that fund. And that is a very highly competitive fund. There's there's water systems all over
the state competing for that money. So this this is the the outlook that we we have to look at as a council. Go ahead. How about the airport the 12 mil?
Go to pa uh you're talking about page I think the summary page said 12 million. I guess you can go to page eight. That is the airport's capital list. On there you'll see again you'll see the ones that don't have dates. Those are the ones raskin had. But what you see
the 12 million short that is because AFI45 and six currently don't have do not have any funding associated. These are projects that are on the airport layout plan. They were on last year's list. We carried those forward for potential and future projects. Uh but
you see in AF1 and AF2 you see 2.6 million for the runway project which we all discussed a few weeks back at the workshop. And then you see on AF2.194 million. Um that one we we we knew that we know that that's the one that um is
the hanger development on the east side. We've been working with Liberty and we talked to council about this that technically it says 10,680,000. There is another 300,000 DOT that we will go for is in our work plan for next fiscal year. It's not included because
we haven't signed a contract. Um so that would put us around 1.8 eight and that is the taxi way from the hangers to the runway itself. Um we've talked about that we've been anticipating on this that we move forward with the road the hangers and the apron and as we get closer we evaluate and decide if that
taxi way is necessary or not from a funding perspective. Do we go find it? Do we not? Because if those hangers are for job creation, if those jobs in that hanger are not do not require access to the runway, what's at this moment, what is the point going getting $1.8 $28 million put in it. Um if if it's not
necessary at the moment. So that is that's where you see on AF2. So my concern would be priorit priority. You know if you got 12 million here well of course that fund needs to support itself. That shouldn't come from other sources. So I'm assuming that our rents
that we get from the hangers and all that will pick up some. Has that already been calculated into this? like your anticipated rents from all the hangers you're building and the so the all the the revenue that gener the airport generates pays for itself operating in the personnel of that
airport the capital improvements you see on this list in particular AF1 AF2 and AF3 that has been secured in the amount of 22 million to 87,05 that's all grant dollars we've not allocated right I'm just concerned about in the future because you know you're saying
$12 million unfunded you know we need to and concerned. Yeah. And well, of the 12 million, three, five, that's 56, 7.2 million projects AF1, AF, I4, five,
and six that 714. There's no money allocated to it, nor have we begun anything there, right? Those are projects in ALP that we would like to see done. Um, but there's nothing currently allocated to it. So now, water, sewer, let's just work on those two for a minute. What's what's our priority? because we're certainly
not going to have $10 million to divvy out in any particular our infrastructure is so far behind. I think the priorities need to be there and I think everybody on this dis has visited our water treatment center and
[Music] we're 50 years behind but that's not even on the list as far as if you're looking for extra dollars on where it should be allocated. You all know from day one I'm an infrastructure guy and that's all I'm
saying. M if if there's if there's extra money on the table or we look like maybe we might may not use it all, we need to put it toward infrastructure. So I think if we would go to page nine
and I can go I can wait. Yeah. Yeah. I was just going to say, you know, everything on this list at some point is needed. Well, was unfunded. Everything starts off unfunded and then we find the money and that's what Liberty Partners does.
That's what our tax revenue is for. Uh once we decide that we need to do something, it's put on this list and then we get after finding the money and you know we have so many departments and so many
needs uh that that we know have you know accumulated but we have to juggle all these things. You got you got to improve your water. You can't just do solely water and not do sewer. You can't do totally sewer, not do water. You got to work on each of those. So, I think
that's kind of the general concept here, unless I'm badly mistaken, that we we continue to uh keep these things on the list and keep working towards finding the money and keep willing away because these problems didn't just arrive overnight
and it's going to take us a while to whittle these things down. So, I just don't think we should be real frightened about how much unfunded we have because that's going to come. And so, to that point, so so I I agree. Um just like to your
point on the airport, all of those dollars are aviation dollars. Those are not dollars that we're taking away from a water pipe or a sewer pipe to put out the airport. I want to be clear about that. Um, and Liberty Partners has done a
fantastic job of securing Triumph money and the governor's job growth grant fund money for that airport. And they they will I firmly believe in my conversations with them that they will continue to do that. They have looked me square in the eye and said, "Trust us.
Trust the process. We've got it." And I I they have a proven track record over the last six years of of absolutely doing that. Um, so their their track record speaks very very loudly for them. But Councilman Harrison, to your point,
this is the process. We have to put these things on on here. We you're exactly right. They they start out unfunded and we we work through them. Councilman Cosen, to your to your concern about the sewer treatment plant, my experience has been you run those
plants, they could be 50 years old, they could be 75, they could be 100 years old. You run those plants until you reach 50% capacity and then by law, by state statute, we then at the 50% mark, we start looking at the replacement for that facility. We actually went down the
path of looking at a replacement facility based on the numbers we were reported five or six years ago and started that process only to find out that those numbers weren't accurate and we were below 50%. which is good on one hand because the price that we were
quoted was north of $80 million to replace that plan. So, it's a process and this is this is part of it. I didn't I didn't realize that 50% mark, but uh last we discussed our capacity
was at 45. So, we are approaching, you know, that time as our city continues to grow. We're going to have to start looking at that plant. And uh for sure and and I will say about the airport, you know, um all the all the government officials, state level, federal level,
they all got money for the city defunia because they believe that that is a huge economic development investment for our area. So, we have I have a lot of confidence in what's going on out there and what still will take place that it's
going to bring some really good things to this community as far as good paying jobs. And so, uh kind of going down that path and I'll go real quick through the water and sewer. Uh in terms of the the planning for the plant and all that, that's we started that back well started
back our monthly meetings with our engineers and staff, community development, utilities, public works. uh and we're now start we know picked up back up the idea of expansion new plant what is next how do we start moving forward with what the levels are at and then the committed capacity that's already been uh paid for uh through
capacity fees and developers and so that is part of uh on page nine of water the water master plan you'll see in both water and sewer master plans uh and so planning the water master plan will help with the water side and then the sewer has one that will help with the sewer
side both infrastructure in the ground and above it Uh and then going down meters and registers again the meter program that Mr. Holm has put together and the register program he's put together uh we we had that this year uh and funded portions of it um going
into underground infrastructure the 280B water main extension those that's the grant and the developer funds that we received a few months back that is being currently done right now. So that's going to be completed in the coming months. Uh the Hill Street water man upgrade that is something that staffs had on here. There are a couple projects
on here that we know need to be addressed. So, we know that they're going to was go ahead. We'll go ahead and do them. That's why it's on here. And then your AC water man for water. That's the biggest one. That's the second biggest one in water that we know we're doing design. It's going to have to find funding for at some point. We don't have all the funding for it uh
currently. And then going into sewer on page 10, the sewer master plan, we have that in this year's budget. Uh lift station pump and panel replacement program. We have 150,000 in this budget. We we fully believe that that will be enough funds to get every station with
the number of pumps that it needs and to replace all the bad panels. It's an item here because every single year we need to review our lift stations or pumps and we may need to replace those that are that are coming up uh useful life going down to underground infrastructure. The biggest one is sewers the effluent line.
Um that's priority number one for for our wastewater system. Uh and then we got again the 280B force main that is to grant that'll be done in a few months. lift station force main one replacement that is in this year's budget to be done by staff and then the manhole repair and maintenance program. So that number next
year will probably go up, but we know that we're doing $91,000 worth of repair maintenance to lift to manholes this year. That program will be on there every year moving forward for necessary repairs, whether that be lining or total rehab or new manholes for your for sewer
system. So um again, you're going to review this annually. you're things are going to change, the numbers are going to update, items are going to be put on, items will be taken off. But on page 12 under summary, we took I took all these items off because they've been there so long. Um, right? And we may do these
assessments and these master plans. I may say, "Hey, that item you got there for list station 9 basin, that's number 457." We don't know that at this moment. Right? There may be 457 more important things to be done. So until we do it, it's really not worth having it on here because it hasn't been funded in the
past and it's not gonna be funded this year. I agree. I think she raised her hand first. Go ahead. Uh Kobe, remind us uh I had asked you this I think when we were doing uh discussion last week. Where is the
funding? I'm sorry, not the funding. What page is this building on? because you identified at our last meeting you needed to put $750,000 into a this building on there page seven page seven is on
that yeah and that's why it doesn't have a date to it so it's a new one uh F2 city hall repairs and maintenance of 750,000 and you'll see it has no secure funding or allocations to it u so it is it's on here as F2 on page
M um while we're on this page, um Kobe, can you help me understand uh the storm water drainage to Lake Definia permanent outflow? I thought we as a council had removed that from our
listings a while back. So last year in June, we talked about it. I know that's something the mayor talked about a lot and we've discussed that. Uh but at that time we left it on. We didn't take it off. Um so if that's something we want to leave, we can. If it's something you want to take off, we we can take that off as well. Um but it has been on for a
while. Which line item? It is uh SD1, center storm water and drainage. It's a second from the bottom there. Mayor, I I know that it's been a passion project of yours, but um you know, the lake level's been down.
I know it was it was up right before I got on the council and it was up over the the uh the lower sidewalk there for an extended period of time and now it's actually the complete opposite. It's way down below Yeah. the that second I don't know how you control it from
going down, but I do know how to control it from going up. Yeah. I just remember uh Councilman Inennis when he was when he was on here saying that, you know, he recalls as a a young person um sitting off the back
porch, the back stoop of the Presbyterian Church and the water being right up there to the the edge of the Presbyterian Church. So, I think it naturally fluctuates and I don't know that we we need to mess with nature too much on that. I figure I won't be mayor when it comes
back up. Some of the rest of you might be here and uh they'll remember this. I've been talking about it for 12 years. 12 years. And it's, you know, unless you lived in it, uh you it doesn't it
doesn't put an image in your mind. But it was horrific. It was horrible. You could not walk around the lake except up top because the water went so far up unless you wanted to walk up top, go back down and go back up around that
kidney looking lake you got down there that you brag on of being the most rounded lake. It was the ugliest kidney you've ever seen whenever all this water was up and it killed multiple trees, beautiful trees, killed lots of them and
uh it it was just horrible. But uh anyway, it will happen again. It may not happen for another 20 years. I hope it doesn't, but it will happen again. And it didn't happen for just one year. This went up and down for about four years, long before I became mayor and well
after I was mayor. And so it uh it was sickening. It you know, it completely flooded the playground that we just remodeled over there, you know, by the western dock. It completely flooded that uh water was all up in the basement of
the Presbyterian church and uh if we had the old Shiitaka building here, it would have been in it, you know, the old auditorium. But uh anyway, it was it was horrible. And u uh it's easy. It's a lot easier to fix
when the water's down is when it's up cuz now you're going to have to be working, you know, in water well over your your your receptor, you know. So, and I don't know what it's going to cost. It was originally 130,000. We figured it cost 200 now. And that's with
a gravity a gravity drain. That's not with a pump. And so u most of the money is for one big boarding from the lake to some of the lower property to our southeast. That was where the money was at. And u
but you know there's there's other ways looking at it too. D will get involved for about a million dollars but they'll probably pay for it but they're going to filter those. Well, it probably cost more than a million now, but those pipes that come down the hill, they want to
capture all that before it ever hits the lake and do something with it. But anyway, that's uh you can take it off there. Uh I'm not going to lose any sleep over. I'm just telling you what happened. So, where where would the outflow where
was it planned? Where would it be or what part of the lake do you know? You know where um Pine Street is? you know, uh, it's it might still be dirt road. I don't know. It was it's u it's it's due south of the lake. Little
strip there used to be Miss Burton's house. I don't know if you ever knew her. Yeah. Yeah. That little street went by her house. Well, the city has a street that goes down in those woods. Okay. For a short. So, the drain, it would be on the south side of the lake either by the middle school. You would never see the drain
until it was probably 100 ft south of Crescent Street. Gotcha. And it would hit the middle school property line. Yeah. Because I was thinking in in the low area, you know, where we had discussed the the Veterans Memorial, and I'm thinking, well, Highway 90 is
probably higher than that particular level. So, that gravity thing doesn't work, I don't think. But, so you're talking southside of the lake. Yeah. I don't want to get into all that, but yeah. Oscar Harrison said his father Yeah. said that's where the water used to naturally drain before the railroad to the northeast. Yeah.
Until the railroad came in. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That was a natural a learning point for me. If if it's on the capital improvement plan, does that mean we can't get any assistance and funding from the C? Uh correct. And that is why specifically this year
on page 12 in the summary, I've added the completed and removed section one so we keep track of things are completed. two uh to to date the things that are removed and fuel and for the three-year falloff specifically for that. So, that's it. Thank you.
So, is it is there any harm of leaving it on there? Um we never know what money might come up down the road to do something environmentally sensitive like this, you know. Um, it's a question council.
It's been on there for a while. Has it? Yeah. I don't I don't know how long it's been. It's been on there for a for a good while. Have we pursued any funding for it at any point? Not on that. Not to my knowledge.
On not that part of the phase. Now, if we went into the the capturing the water off the streets and all that type of stuff. Gotcha. D would help fund some of that. I don't know how what percentage. I got you. Have we reached out to D lately?
Yeah. Not lately, but it's probably been six or seven years. We have a should have hopefully have a meeting in the next couple months with the water management district. I can bring it up to them. I think they're probably our best stop, first stop on this type of issue.
So, does he need a a motion to approve this as kind of as presented? That's what I'm asking for. And so, if if you do, then again, all the items on this list from page seven to page uh 11 will either be added or just reaffirmed
and we will put the date associated with this addition. I'll make that motion. Second. I have a motion. Second. Is there any changes? I don't I don't recall. Are we taking this off the list or not? We're just going to leave it and approve it as is. That's my motion. Unless
unless somebody has any changes. I just have a comment. Go ahead. When uh so this will be our capital improvement. When will we get together as a group to say, "Hey, here's our priorities and we're going to give this to Liberty so they can They'll be coming. I just talked to Tim ear. They'll be coming the next meeting
to do our major funding list and get the council's legislative priorities for the session that starts in January. So, we should use whatever we're going to adopt right now and start thinking about what we want to share with them next week or at the next meeting. Then, yeah, if you look at page uh seven, the first the first page of the cap
improvement plan list for the general fund and go there for after that to the far right, you'll see a column says major funding list. Yes, that is the list that we come in with and then we number those and those are the priority. That's how we prioritize those and what Liberty either pursues through legislative legislation or
through grants. What's your little initials mean? What's ST? That's how we just number them like a instead of one two three four. We did them alphabetically on the on the major funding list. What's the S4? Nothing. A B C D. Oh, okay. I got Thank you.
So, it'll definitely all that have to be updated. Yeah. It's not meant to be ranked as much as it's meant to be categorized over cross reference. If it's not on your capital improvement list, don't waste your time putting it on your major funding list request. So if you want to ask for it, you better
put it on this list. If you don't want to ask for it, then don't worry about it being on this list. And the list that they'll bring next week and Tim can typically that list has two sections. It's got a aviation airport section and then it's got everything else because a lot of these funds and dollars there are grants that
are strictly for aviation whereas other grant programs you can apply for a variety of different things within it. Can we can we ask Tim to come to the podium mayor? Yeah, Tammy if you don't mind. [Music] Mr. Tim, can I ask you a question?
Because you might know what what kind of monies might become available in the next 12 months that are going to be on that list because I'm not sure if I want to, you know, suggest adding something or I also need power ball numbers too. Why did he win?
Did you win? Forecast. No. Um, no. First of all, I want to commend you on doing this exercise. It's something that we are very supportive of. uh that you identify your priorities and then through this list further fine-tune it to your your top
priorities. It makes our job, you know, when we go to Tallahassee a lot easier and say, "Hey, this is something that y'all have identified as a as a real need." I think y'all done a really good job of that the last several years. You know, the affluent line making that your your number one and only priority the last couple of years is is is really
bearing fruit right now with um you know, what the legislature uh granted uh this year. And then fingers crossed now that Congress is back in DC and hopefully it'll pass a budget by the I think the end of the month uh we may have good news there uh for some
additional funds on that project. So and we submitted Friday uh for the rural infrastructure funed his contacts with opportunity Florida helped us out assisted uh but Liberty helped submit that for $2 million. So
hopefully we're that's favorable to us. You good? Mhm. Thank you, sir. Miss Mandy want anyone from any comments from the public? Yes, ma'am. A little levity before you vote. I was
in the audience when the mayor proposed that um DP put the drainage line in and he had already been over there and had all the money. It came to a vote. Mr. Inennis said, "Don't mess with mother nature."
And they listened to him and I wanted so bad to stand up and say, "Mr. Inis, did you get your polio shot?" Yeah. But I thought that would be disrespectful. And they voted it down when he had the money in his hand. Yeah. Yeah. Don't mess with mother
nature. Remember that one. So, well, flood comes your house, don't do nothing about it. Okay. Uh, anyone else from public? All in favor say I. I. I. I. I. I. I carry. Thank you very much. Kobe. Now
we got the um hiring freeze. Yes, sir. Mayor. So, uh, in short, I'm asking that the council lift the hiring freeze in its totality. Again, we know through the budget and what we presented, we've talked about, we know the positions that will not be refunded
for next year, and we know the ones that will be. So, we're I'm asking that that be lifted so we can begin to uh interview and hire. Motion to lift hiring freeze for budgeted positions for this year and next year. Would you would you focus on the ones
for next year primarily? Which I think it's the same, isn't it? I'm just going to let him second. Let him fill it. Oh, when you say this year, next year you're talking about we only have a month or so left with this. Yeah, that's true. Yes. And we know not to fill eight positions that we know are going to be unfunded to come. Okay.
All right. So, we have a motion to second. Any questions or comments? Many. This is going to keep us solvent. We're not going to go in the red or anything like that. No, everything's already budgeted. Okay.
All in favor say I. I. I. I. Nay. I carry. Thank you very much. All right. Uh, Mr. Atkinson, we will go to 5A1. Thank you, Mayor. This is second reading in the public hearing for adoption of
the revised finance director ordinance amending the qualifications in section 2-59. I need a motion to hold second reading and to adopt. So moved. Second. I have a motion second. Any questions, comments from anyone?
Comments. All in favor say I. I. I I I I carried. Thank you very much. Thank you, mayor. I'll read by title an ordinance providing the amendment in part ordinance 534, ordinance 576, ordinance 587, and ordinance 891,
specifically the provisions of chapter 2, administration, article 2, officers and employees, division 4, director of finance, section 2-59, and providing for an effective date. Thank you. That is adopted. And that ordinance number, Mr. Clark. Yes, sir. That is ordinance number 989.
schedule is 989 for the record. Okay, thank you very much. All right, request agenda. That's Kendra Parsons. We get the better half of that story there. Come see us. I normally just write the words. He
likes to deliver them. So, first um yes, my name is Kendra Parson. Thank you for the opportunity to give an update on Main Street Defiaak Springs. I am uh this year's volunteer board president and our vice president Mark Bird is also here with us this evening. Um so I just wanted to provide a brief update on our
activities. Um since we were founded in 2017, we have seen a steady growth in our downtown business community. Um this year we've added we've welcomed seven new businesses. Uh we continue to serve as a hub for community engagement and tourism in the north end of Walton
County. Last year, we hosted 63 events that required volunteers bringing together 221 people contributing more than 990 hours of volunteer service. Most of these events were led and organized by our nine volunteer board members, a clear sign that we take pride and ownership in our community and our
downtown success. Um, our first our winewalk is taking place this Friday night and we host these twice a year. um they've grown in popularity and these two hour events last year successfully generated over $30,000 in taxable
revenue for our district. Um during the event kind of how it works and how we're able to track that is participants sample wines with participating merchants. It's also a fundraising revenue for us and that we charge $25 for each t ticket. Um and then our merchants open up their doors and for
every $10 spent with one of our retailers, they receive a raffle ticket. at the end of the night. Um, we host a large raffle with donations from our Main Street merchants. So, it's a way to track and enjoy. Um, we have our quarterly food truck Fridays. Again, a revenue generator for Main Street, but
also a wonderful community event. Um, we host these quarterly and our next one is on September 26th. They draw hundreds of attendees each quarter, creating regular boost in downtown foot traffic. Um each weekend, we hope you know about this, but we have our Saturday farmers market
um which we support local producers. We provide quality family-friendly events and bring regular visitors from outside of our city and county. Um now that school is back in season, we'll return to our market hours from 8 to 1:00 p.m. every Saturday. And we have a fall calendar that is very packed. Um
upcoming this weekend, we are going to host a rock painting activity. Um next weekend, we'll host a taste of Main Street. again encouraging market um shoppers to visit our storefront. So, every $20 spent at a storefront or a restaurant in the the district, they'll receive um again a raffle ticket and
then we'll host a raffle at the end of the market that our food our farmers market vendors are contributing to. Um and then the last we're hosting our first at the last weekend of the month, we're hosting a Hot Wheels parade for our youngest vendors and that's our youngest visitors and that's already
getting a lot of signups. So, I think we may have maybe something as big as our tractor parade. Who knows? Yeah. Um, but as we begin preparing for the holiday season, which is right around the corner, um, we just wanted to remind you that our Mary Main Street attracts more than a thousand visitors every Saturday afternoon during the holiday
season. Um, we're excited to kick off the most magical magical time of the year in Defin Springs, starting with Small Business Saturday on November 28th. Um, and then, as a reminder, the first sorry, every Friday in December, we host the festive food truck Friday. And then every Saturday we have our
mistletoe market. Uh as you can tell, partnerships and community involvement empower our work. Uh we've organized four community campus community cleanups uh this year where we're planting flowers, pulling weeds, and much more. And we have several others planned uh
before the year is up. We want to show our best foot forward as we enter our holiday season. Um we've also partnered with a number of organizations and businesses uh to expand our programming and marketing. this year. Our Walton FFA chapter has been amazing. Uh the Cultural Arts Alliance, uh CRA for
Definiac, DBPA, um and so many more that I'm sure I'm forgetting to give credit to. In closing, I want to thank you for the ongoing support to Main Street Definiac Springs. Together, I feel like we're building a vibrant, welcoming, and economically strong community that benefits our residents, our businesses, and our visitors. Uh we hope to see you
at our upcoming events this Friday um at Winewalk or at the end of the month on September 26 for our next food truck event. Well, thank you so much. Now, if I spent a little bit too much time down there at the winew walk, would it be a wine wobble?
Just Yeah, call a friend. I'll see you there. Wonderful. Go ahead, Kendra. It's my understanding Main Street received an award. Yes, we did. um for uh the um big store project, we did receive um and I'm
drawing a blank on what it was called, but we did receive an award for our um cultural arts weekend where we hosted we painted the big store. So, thank you to the people who allowed us to do that. Um and we hosted a arts event, food truck a Friday that night and then a community art project that next Saturday.
That's awesome. Congratulations. Thank you. Go ahead. That's a question. When's the last farmer market date this year? Um, as of right now, they run until Small Business Saturday. I'm going to have a request in soon. Actually, our farmers market vendors would like to continue into
December, um, from 8 to 1 for the Christmas season. Um, but I haven't made that official request yet. So, as of right now, uh, November 28th, uh, for Small Business Saturday, and can you explain what's the what is
the wine wobble as the mayor labeled it? So, so are there wine vendors up town or? No, but what we do is we our storefront owners um and restaurants uh open up their doors if they'd like um and they offer two wines to sample of their
choosing. Um and then we sell tickets to participants to come down and shop and sip. And as they spend money in the stores, I feel like the later the night gets probably the more they spend. Um, but for every $10 they spend in our storefronts, we'll give them a ticket, a
raffle ticket. Um, and then we host and then each merchant that participates donates a door prize and we raffle off those prizes at the end of the night. So, it's it's a really fun event. Uh, I think the last one was the most popular. We had an 80s theme um, sweet child of wine and I don't know if you can top
that. So, this one is harvest and vine. And when is that one? Uh, this Friday night. This Friday. Yes, ma'am. Are we going to have a moratorum on open container that night? They they have a permit from ABT. We do. As of this morning, it came through. I was sweating just a little bit.
They're clear. They're good to go. Good. Okay. Well, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Um, let me get back on track here. We're with Rob. Rob Hamilton's coming and he's gonna talk about Daniel's Revan Rally.
Hi everybody. Uh so uh we put in a special events permit for this year. It's going to be the first of hopefully an annual event. Um my soon to be three-year-old asked me for a motorcycle birthday party. And as most of you guys know, I will move heaven and earth for
my kids if I'm able to. So we decided to do a car show and bike rally. Uh but one of the things we teach our kids is to give back and to be involved. So, what we were doing with the funds from the cars, the motorcycles that enter, um, after we paid for trophies and all that
fun stuff, we're taking that money and we're splitting it between the youth group at my church and, uh, one local nonprofit. This year is going to be, uh, be generous because they're right across the street from us. U, so, we are asking you guys to allow us to close off Seventh Street from
about 8 to 1. And I'm glad Kendra is here because I'm hoping you guys will let the farmers market still happen at the same time because then we can get people going back and forth uh shopping, looking at cars, motorcycles, all that fun stuff. The biggest part of that event that I think is going to be fun for everybody is on top of the regular
awards you have for classic antique modern cars, uh, baggers, shoppers, and other motorcycles. We're gonna have Daniel's pick, which means my three-year-old and his mohawk are gonna walk around and pick one favorite car and one favorite motorcycle. And I've already told him you can't pick mine.
It's not fair. Um, but that's I wanted to be up here and just give you guys a chance to ask questions. I know one major question is how you going to not block traffic on 90? The answer to that is we're having them come off of Baldwin and turning onto 7th, not off of 90. And we're making it very clear to all the
participants they cannot come in on 90. That way we're not stopping traffic on a major highway. Now, is everything uh flowing through there pretty much going to be on foot, people walking through? Yes. So, once the event starts, so we're going to have them, they can show up as
early as 6, but once it's 8:00, there's no more traffic going through there. They have to be in place before 8:00. So, we'll have cars on either side of 7th. We'll have motorcycles going down the middle. And then we've also using the parking lot where the tattoo shop is at for overflow. Yes. for other cars that are
participating. So in function, the way I understand this, this is not much different than when Main Street shuts down for the uh tractor parade. Typically, Main Street shuts down that street and parks all the tractors at the end of the parade. So this function-wise, this is not much
different than that other other than technically this will extend all the way to 90 versus just the alleyway. But I I'm in support of this. I think it's great to have multiple events going on downtown and attract all different types of people. And the other the other big thing I was going to say this is a family-friendly
event. So we purposefully did not get the permit for them to walk around with alcohol outside that they want beer and wine. The Battle Axe has beer and wine and they can stay inside. Okay. Go ahead. Are you is that going to be enough room? I'm thinking, you know, when they have the the car shows it's down in the
circle actually. So next year it's probably going to be a lot bigger. Um, this year we limit it because we kind of want to just kind of get a feel for who would want to show up uh that time of year, especially with the motorcycles. Um, but we're looking at probably from what I looked at, we're looking at
like 50 or 60 cars and we're probably looking at at least that many motorcycles if not more. And and will that mapped out or I I went out there and and measured about 20 times and I think we got more than enough space.
And then the goal is for next year to be a little bit bigger where we can kind of wrap around on the Baldwin maybe. Good. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. I have a motion in a second. Go ahead. Um Kendra, is she still here? Um I'm a
little concerned and and maybe I'll have thought this out. I think I read something about the setup for mistletoe market is like what time is that going to be? Do you know? Sorry. It's from 2 to 3, but I think we
can coordinate. Okay. So, I'm I'm just concerned, you know, this will be going on on Seventh Street Farmers Market and then a rapid turnaround before set up for mistletoe. So, as long as all that can be coordinated because it's chaos with 60
65 mistletoe market vendors trying to get in there um to set up especially if there's a farmer market just ending um it it's extremely hectic and stressful. Uh so if if that can all be coordinated
I'm I'm fine with it. But that's my only concern and that's that's something we've talked about with some of the guys that have already reached out to us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're coming in on Baldwin, but they're going out 90 and everybody's got to wait till 1:00 to leave and then we're done cleaning up no later than 2 o'clock. Yeah. So, we've got we've got it I've done a
few car shows and bike rallies in larger cities. I had you have a 30-minute cleanup window. So, we'll be we'll have everybody out in 20 30 minutes. Yeah. Okay. Good deal. The tours will be glad to cross advertise.
Awesome. Thank you. All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Any other questions or comments from the public? All in favor say I. Sounds like another win for the downtown business district. Thank you. I I
I I I carry. Thank you, Rob. Thank you. All right. Now, we're going to go to Mr. Josh Irvin. Good evening, Mayor, council, members of the public. Josh Irvin for the record. I'm here tonight to bring forward a
infrastructure project that we've been working on. Little bit of background information. This actually stem from an aerial undergrounding uh project that we had identified earlier on. We ended up having a joint workshop with this council and it was identified through that workshop that we wanted to do maybe
a little more than just the aerial undergrounding of the utilities. So, back uh earlier this year, the board um entered into an agreement with Anchor Engineering to do a comprehensive design of the alleyway between 4th and 11th. And tonight, I'm here with two concepts
or layouts that they have put together uh to help move this project forward. Our board did review these back on August the 27th, and they are recommending the approval of layout number one. There on your screen is an example of that layout. Brian is here uh
with Anchor Engineering to answer any technical questions, but very generically, I I'll kind of go over that with you. So, layout one has a delineated sidewalk that is actually elevated over the roadway with a curb and gutter, a 12 foot wide drive lane, and then a three-foot uh miscellaneous
kind of dumpster area. All of that is sloped toward that curb and gutter to collect uh and then convey that storm water to a 2B determined location. Layout two uh is basically an inverted crown of the roadway with kind of a shared area in our conversation on the
27th. There was a lot of discussion about this particular location and and some you know concerns about sharing the pedestrian facilities with the dumpster location. So that was one of uh the comments that that we did receive. We also received a comment on layout one about making sure that there was enough
room for the motoring public. Um so that's pretty much uh the highle view of layout one and two. We simply just need direction from the council to move this project forward to formal design so the engineering consultant can answer some of these you questions about storm water
conveyance and things of that nature. That's good. I really like that layout too. I think layout too. Oh wow. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Now you go. You got it's going to be a little tough where you going have dumpsters on one side and walk paths on
the other and uh I think that that big pathway catching it all is going to be the ticket. Plus catching all that storm water uh in the valley of the middle of the of the alley I think it makes a lot
of sense pushing it all to the curb. One one thing to point out on on this curb will be storm water inlets. So it'll be channeled to that curve, but it also be collected in those inlets and then conveyed underground to again a to be determined location. I think the the goal and Brian you can correct me if I'm
wrong here. The goal would be to tie into the state's system that runs along 90. Um if that can't be accomplished and you know we'll have to look at plan B with maybe some xfiltration. Um, but this is to formally catch that storm water as it comes off of the roof lines
and and flows across the roadway into a, you know, I guess formalized area so it can be conveyed and and and all underground. Mayor. Yeah. Go ahead. I'm kind of leaning toward one. Um,
but when you tear up the road, you're going to bring it bring it down to stop the flooding in the in the businesses. And while you're tearing up the road, that's when the underground utilities go. And there's a water line down there right now. um while you're tearing it
up. Uh it'd be nice if um if that water line's even though it's functional and operational, if it's got any age or any question about it whatsoever, that would be a good time to replace that because once this makeover is done, that alley probably won't see
any improvements for the next hundred years. It is way overdue. And and that's a that's a good point. As part of this project, they're actually looking at all utilities uh including the four uh inch clay pipe and upgrading those specifically the clay pipe uh to a more modern u fixture and then I think
looking at some some future flows and determining if that water man needs to be upgraded. But while everything is is being uh excavated uh that you know utility placement is certainly something that they're looking at at at improving. The only thing that concerned me was um
the storm water runoff on a location to be determined. Um Okay. I'm not just an infrastructure guy and I'm an environmental guy. So was is there any possibility of running that line north? Yeah. And and you know in fairness of
the to be determined they need some direction on you know which layout we want to go with so they can further define that. Um, is there a possibility of running in into the uh F dot? Yes, that that is the goal. The number one goal is is to be able to do that, but they haven't put any time or energy
into that until they can determine if you know this is the layout that that we want to move forward with. So, go ahead. I'm sorry. Somebody beat me. Go ahead. No, you have to Todd next. Yeah. Um, so I I participated as a as a
private citizen in in the u public comment section of the CRA meeting in which they discussed this. But I I kind of want to put again uh some of my comments on the record here. Um whether you do layout one or two, I think it's going to be a drastic positive impact
for our alleyways. Um this is something that the the city's desperately needed for a long time. Um, I can remember uh going into Triangle to pick up my car from being repaired and seeing water rushing through the middle of Triangle and out into the the street there on
Seventh uh because of the the alleyways dumping water into into the old Triangle building there. But anyway, um I am not particularly fond of layout one. Um, I don't believe that the 2% dumpster area
is truly adequate for all of the dumpsters that are there. I don't think it's I don't think it's just realistic for all the dumpsters that we have now. Um, I'm I'm of the opinion that our alleyways should be utilized for our
businesses. And by the very nature of us redoing them, yes, pe it will promote people to uh to to use them and and walk down them. But I really prefer layout two. That being said, I'm fine with either one or one or
two. But what I really want to focus on and what I really want my comments to be to be noted on is when we're doing this, when we're milling up all this asphalt, we're opening up everything and we're upgrading everything. Please, please, please put in extra conduit. number one,
first and foremost. And number two, let's consider thinking about not just the next 10 or 20 years, but let's think bigger than that. And let's think are is it appropriate at this time to maybe put
vaults in along these alleyways much like you see in in the larger cities where when you walk over a grade if you were to look down you would see a large vault down there where all the utilities, power, water, fiber, etc. has all run through there. And then basically when you're down in that
vault, you're looking at conduit that runs to the next vault on the next block and then they, you know, pop up into the buildings from there. Um, I really think that we should explore, you know, some vaults of some sort. I don't know what the cost would be on that and I don't want to I don't want to upset the apple
cart because I know you guys are pretty far along, but I would I really want to say please, please, please, while we have everything opened up, put in extra conduit because it's cheap now to do it now. And then let's let's really look at the hundred-year plan which would be, you
know, putting in vaults. Thank you, Mr. Here. Um I remember Tammy Henderson in a council meeting, Sweet Southern, talking about her her sewer, you know, toilets backing up occasionally when when there's downtown events or or whatever.
I don't know what created the problem, but you mentioned Josh replacing the sewer lines in the alley if necessary as well. Is that her problem, Kobe? Are you aware of what the problem is for Sweet Southern? Is is I mean, I'm not aware of the specifics, but I mean, staff's been out there to
check it, but I don't know the cause of it. So, this would be a great time to address whatever that is um with this with this project as well. Um, but the curb you mentioned if the water flows to
the curb, you're saying there's going to be some drain grates along that curb to go into underground pipe. Correct. Off to the intersection. Correct. Very similar to what's on US90. Gotcha. Okay. Um, and the dumpster count, I have a concern about that as far as space because I drove through
there a couple times over the weekend and there's there's a gosh, there's a lot of trash cans. Sure. Not so many big containers, you know, the actual dumpster dumpsters, but so there will still be that engineers have found spaces for these to adequately go and be out of the street,
out of the sidewalk or whatever. Yes. So, you know, we've got a limited amount of space there, 20 feet to be exact. Uh the remnants after taking away the curve, the sidewalk, and the drive lane ends up being about three feet. Uh you know, the wheeled carts fit there no problem. uh some of the larger
dumpsters, you know, probably going to be in conflict with that. Brian and I actually have a meeting tomorrow with Waste Management to look at some some options that may exist. You know, in my review of that alleyway, um I would agree, you know, there's some pretty large dumpsters there that protrude into uh the roadway now. Where do those go?
And I think that the short answer to that possibly could be maybe they get relocated to a grassy area of some sort. Uh Fischer's Pharmacy is one of those. I think that could easily be moved over there with the owner's permission perhaps. Uh maybe, you know, it's a taller type dumpster. I'm not really
sure. Uh but it's definitely something that needs to be studied further and and certainly engineered a little more to come up with a workable plan, not just a hope and a dream, so to speak. Um but that, you know, that is definitely something that Brian and his team will be working on is identifying how this all works.
Uh Josh, is this an implementation of a one-way street? It it would be uh direction. Um, so I think we have envisioned it envisioned it being either or. Um, you know, looking at the alleyway to the west, uh, considering that the majority of the buildings are
along the southern portion of the alleyway, uh, I see the dumpster area remaining closest to the, uh, buildings and then the sidewalk being opposite of that for a couple of reasons. One, you don't have the obstructions of the downspouts coming where the sidewalk would be in that scenario. And two, you
wouldn't have that storm water coming out of those down spouts going over the sidewalk. It would actually run along the roadway and be caught and and collected uh and conveyed there in the in the gut the gutter system. Josh, is the five foot for the sidewalk
is that ADA side by side or something? Okay. I was just curious as if the two actually need to swap and now understand. Mr. Mayor, uh Josh, two things. Um want to clarify that this will be a like cut and cover
method type of of working reworking the these alleyways. So, we're going to we're going to mill it down, expose it as a trench. We're not going to be doing a bunch of directional boring. Is that correct? No. And in your packet, there is actually a geotechnical report that engineering consultant obtained through
another firm. As you'll note in there, I think it's actually between seventh and eighth. there's about 9 in of asphalt. Uh so, you know, milling in that case, it'd be there all day. It'd be cost prohibitive, I would think. So, yeah, I think it'd be a total demo. Uh and then reconstruction more than likely, and this is something Brian, we'll have to
kind of determine as we move forward, phase by phase, block by block, so that way we don't disturb the whole thing. But I I see this as a full redo, you know, from what's in the ground now to what will be above the ground and when it's complete. So the the ultimate goal is to obviously
we've got two or three blocks where it's too high and then that's forcing the water off. So the ultimate goal is to basically kind of reset that and get that down. That is correct. Okay. Yeah. And then in either layout do we is that representative? We have we know for a fact we have 20 feet on every
single block because I know some blocks like the Fiser block tends to feel at least a little bit narrower than 20 feet and then like um the block that uh Evans Carpet City on has the same type of feel especially with the dumpster there feels very very narrow less than 20 feet. So
it's showing 20 feet on both these layouts and we know for a fact that we have 20 feet through every single block or is that just an average? Yes. So there was actually a survey done. Was that 23? Yeah. and 23 uh that quantified the width of that. Um you
know what I think we're finding in the alleyway is a lot of encroachment. Uh things that are in the alleyway that may should not be in the alleyway. Condensing units as an example of that. Um so you know this design takes into account the 20 foot width that's there
that the city owns that is called the alleyway. What may be in there today may make that difficult but that's something that have to be worked out. But to answer your question, yes, through the surveying, we have 20 ft worth of alleyway to work with there for every block. For every block. Okay, perfect. But you got some
customers, you know, may have a pretty good size restaurant or whatever. Not going to get by with that little bitty dumpster. Yeah. And you know, that's the interesting part. I mean, you that's why that's why I like too is you got a big area there and people can still walk around it with no
problem. But when you break it up like this, number one here, that dumpster is going to be protruding out into either the traffic or where somebody can't walk by it. It's a Well, I'll say the good news in that is, you know, two of the the larger restaurants that we have, um, you know,
they have their dumpster located on premises. Uh, you know, Sweet Southern has it there in and behind their building and then Iron and Grape, they have that up there near near their fence. So, you know, could that change over the course of, you know, however many years? I'm sure. Uh but at least now I think those areas are relatively
contained and then hopefully through engineering and through our conversations we'll be able to find out you know some good alternatives for remedying that. So on the fourth street end of it behind Firestone right
that looks really narrow and there's some large trees there. Seemed like there I remember seeing a big oak tree right off the pavement or whatever. or so. Is there 20 feet through that block there as well? I believe so. Okay, Mr. Mayor, one more time.
Let them go ahead. Okay. So, I don't know if y'all have ever been to Mount Door or not. It's in Semino County, just north of uh Orange County, Orlando. Um, a few years ago, um, I went down there
and I was with some family and they they had a a town like ours. It was a really nice small town atmosphere, tourist attraction, and their alleyway served two purposes.
Um during business hours, Monday through Friday, it was, you know, trucks coming and going and stuff like that. And on the weekends, they brought their um their chair, their little tables out, kind of like in front of uh Pearl, they brought their little
tables out, you know, they had uh pedestrian traffic back in there. Um it was a dualpurpose alleyway. And I thought to myself, you know, that that would really that would really be something to model after. Uh if it's if
if we use it for dural per dual purpose um and the people are using it as a as a pedestrian way during the weekends um when the where the it goes down there for the drainage.
I don't know. I'm just throwing this out there. I'm not I'm not I'm not bent on either either one. I'm just giving information on how this could look if we used it for dual purpose. That's it.
Well, if I can provide some clarity perhaps, you know, when Brian and I first had our um when we had our kickoff meeting, we talked a little bit about some of those things. You know, what what do we see the Galloway being used uh as today? what do we see it being
used at in the future? And and some of my experiences I shared with him were, you know, dual purpose in that if you're a pedestrian walking down the alleyway today and you have the motoring public behind you, then they're waiting for you to walk unless you can find a way to get out of the way for them to safely pass.
And so having the delineated sidewalk was a way to allow that dual purpose to give the pedestrians a facility to use while also giving a facility for the motoring public to use. That way they can coexist. Uh some other things that were brought up in that uh conversation
and I think also at our meeting on the 27th was being able to serve customers uh more appropriately in the alleyway. There's not a whole lot of that that happens now, but maybe in the future. Uh a business may be able to serve their customer directly there in the alleyway. So having that p pedestrian
connectivity, that delineated pedestrian connectivity would would assist that. Um layout two is uh just the inverted crown there. We don't have a a price on adding storm water collection uh and conveyance to that. You know, this would just
simply be an invert in the road and then it would be conveyed to some other area. If we wanted to put storm drains in this concept, uh that's something that Brian could certainly do, but that was not considered in this particular layout that you have here. Nor was it considered the cost estimates provided
in your packet. just for point of clarification on that. So I I really wanted to jump back real quick. It was mentioned earlier about um that we would look at and assess the uh current infrastructure utility infrastructure that's there. Um
I really want to emphasize that when we do that that we don't just look at the current use sure that is there because there are opportunities and it is not out of the realm of possibility. You know one example would be um defianc
family dental you look at the number of employees and the number of patients that they see in that one single building per day. that that is incredibly high density in that one single building. So now you multiply that out that out times multiple buildings down each block. I really
think that we need to to factor that in when we're looking at the flows. Um you know we've got several large buildings that if they were maximized to that same style of density, we could see a
significant amount of increase in flows for for both water and sewer. So, I definitely want to kind of project like, okay, if we were to just max out density, what would that look like? And then, okay, what does that how does that impact our actual uh utility, water and sewer? Sure. Absolutely.
So, what you're saying, Mayor, so what you're saying is don't design it for 2025, design it for 50 years from now. Yes, sir. I got you. Yes, sir. Yeah. At least 50 years. At least 50 years. Yeah. Josh, are you looking for approval
on on a particular layout? because from what I remember from your meeting, they had voted on one one particular layout. Is that correct? Yeah, they they they made a recommendation for layout one. Uh we we do need um an approval so the engineer could move forward with formal design and start answering some of these
questions. Which one would be more conducive to dual purpose? That's all opinion, right? Kobe was wanting to mention something. just the lighting on layout one. What is the lighting? It's 21 of whatever they are to be determined piece
to be determined. Okay. Because I mean this this doesn't consider any sort of holes. So I'm assuming go on the buildings. They'll be in the uh the dumpster area. Okay. It'll be, you know, probably 14 foot um you know fixture height pole mount type
things. So Clay, how do we handle this? Do we go do a poll for layout one or layout two or do we just make a motion for layout one? If it fails, go to two and then make a motion or how how should we deal with it? I'd say let's make a motion and see where it goes.
Motion to approve layout one. Second layout one. Let's make sure we're specifying what type of because I've heard several comments about the vaults, the conduit. Are you asking for any of that to be included in this design? Yes. Yes. Yes. So the full vaults, not just the
conduit. That's said the full vaults plus the conduit, not just So I I personally would like to see the vaults as like a um an add-on. Okay. An al alternate car. Yes. Correct. Yes. And then the additional conduit. Um
just work with, you know, the various utilities as well as our utilities to see what we can do about adding additional conduit and make that an an alternate as well. That's my opinion and that's something I brought up to Josh on the phone earlier today was future expansion of further utilities coming in. Do we go ahead and lay out
the conduit now and stop it up and make it available for them in the future? How how do we go about that? Those are things that we definitely need to look at when doing it. Um I think for your purposes though with what you're wanting I mean that's about as far as we can go now.
Mim is addon options are added. Yes sir. Okay. Now, I know at the other meeting there was some discussion around um softening up that curb. Is that being considered at all or or are we going to kind of do it as is with that the way
it's drawn there? Yeah, I think I think the plan is to, you know, go with the race curb to elevate that walkway above the roadway. We talked about maybe a flat ribbon curb there uh with a slight invert. I did speak with Brian about that. That's certainly something we can do. Um, but
based on the recommendation of layout one, I think that's what what we're planning to go with. Go ahead. Okay. Hey, Josh, will you um help me? Where does this start and where does it end? From what street to what street are you doing this? 4th to 11th.
From 4th Street, which was by to where? To 11th Street, which is there at Maris Bank. Oh, behind. Oh, clear up to Mary's Bank. Correct. Okay. So 4 to 11. Thank you.
Okay. So go ahead. So looking at the aerial map, you know, I see it's hard to tell. It's a little bit blurry, but I would guess in those entire blocks, there's probably between eight and 12 potential backdoor businesses that could
potentially be there. So the need for the f the the expansion pipe all that to be ready for those types of additions down the road is important. Um I I would ask though on back to that Firestone block. I see at least two large trees.
Um I forget which side of the alley they're they are on. So does this project is it accounting for the removal of either of those trees or no removal? We we haven't gotten there yet. um you know as a reminder of progression. So at
30% design plans we'll bring that back to you and at that point you know it'll be a little further defined than just a layout. So you'll have some actual actual cut sheets for those locations and then at 60 90 and 100%. So any conflicts that may exist through formal design you know we'll have to bring
those back and address those you know at that time. Okay. Because once you get past the Firestone warehouse there's residences there houses. So those tree trees might be in their yard. I don't really know where the rightway is there, but um it's close. Yeah. And I suspect there going to be
conflicts that we, you know, haven't identified in this layout. Um but we'll have to address those as we go through the formal design. Gotcha. All right. Any comments from the public? Go ahead. Herson.
Um, I would like to remind you that um I would argue in favor of the sidewalk. We're asking employees to park elsewhere. Many of them will probably be uh wanting to come through the back doors, not the front doors of the businesses. So, they need a place to
walk. [Music] Anyone else? Okay. All right. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Nay. I.
Eyes carry. Thank you very much. And I'll bring this back to us and see where we go from there. Thank you, Mayor C. All right. We'll move on if you're ready. Yep. I am. All right. So, this is another project that uh we
have been working on. This actually came through the parking study. As you may uh remember recall, there was u a conceptual design provided by that consultant uh depicting uh an increase in parking. In the event that we were to go from angled parking to head in
parking, we uh issued a task order to three notch group to study this and engineer it. They came up with three concepts. We actually have a fourth one in there which we can talk about here in a second. Uh but as you'll see there in your packet, there are those layouts um each with their own additional uh or
increases in parking capacity. Uh the first concept basically leaves everything in place on the south side of Baldwin Avenue between 7th and 8th. There's actually a an island, a race curb island that has a power pole in the middle of it. Uh and
then east and west there are some curbs with some miscellaneous grassy areas. uh that would also remain on the north side. There would be two additional accessible parking spaces with a shared access aisle in the middle of that uh with curb cuts to allow the proper
slopes uh and then some, you know, additional striping to go along uh with those leftover areas or remnants after you went from angled parking to head-end parking. Uh so that that is concept A. Uh that of course would would be the the
least um expensive and uh the easiest to do. I believe the net gain on that uh is a total of six parking spaces, two of which are accessible. Concept B uh is very similar at the top where it changes is at the bottom
section. Uh you'll notice that the east and west uh curves remain but the little island area on the southern portion would go away. That net gain is about nine parking spaces. And then on concept C,
you have a total removal of that southern island and then removal of portions of those grassy areas with the curbs on the east and the west side. Uh that net gain is 13 parking spaces. Through some of the conversations with
the engineering consultant after identifying that there is an h there's a fire hydrant there on the west side along with a fairly mature oak tree. Uh the board decided let's come up with what we'll call concept D which is leaving uh that area undisturbed on the
west side the southwest corner uh removing the island in the middle and then encroaching a little bit into the grassy area on the east side for net gain of 11 parking spaces. Regardless of the concept the plan has been uh to mill
and resurface that then we can restripe it and all look uniform. Could you show me one again? Concept one, concept A. Yeah. And similar to our other project that was just before you, we kind of need direction on how to proceed for formal
design purposes. Chief, I think you're going to have to have somebody fulltime down there for the little fender benders. Can you imagine pulling into that right angle parking or should I say backing out of them?
you need a half acre. That's a good point, mayor. You know, this is the only block where physically head and parking can exist. Um it's actually um quite a bit wider than all the other blocks, which is the only reason the um planning consultant came
up with this concept. I make a motion to um to approve the hybrid D uh option that was presented. [Music] Why? Well, it Well, let's see if we get a second
first. I'll second for discussion. That that works. We have So So it leaves the one the the tree by the opinion place and and that that parking space. It leaves that alone. doesn't doesn't add that there. It
eliminates the island and that power pole that is that is technically on that south side. So you gain parking spaces there and then it adds some down over there by that the far end of basically what near 7th Street. So when when you're looking at it on that far right
side corner, they're adding a couple parking spaces there. Um the thing that I had expressed to them, same thing I expressed in the alleyways, conduit, conduit, conduit. So when we're milling and doing all of this um because that that block in particular is used every
single weekend for farmers markets and major events uh along that um southern railing where they're they're going to be basically adding those parking spaces. uh lay conduit that is from the opinion place down along that
area to add power so that when they have Mary main street when they have the farmers market vendors there there's then power available at regular intervals and of course when when they're milling it that's the time to be laying that conduit and trenching that in so that that all gets added uh before
the the fresh pavement goes in. But there was a lot of discussion about this and that's why I'm going with D which is what the the CRA board recommended because it's it's a little bit of a hybrid approach there. Josh is the is page eight the cleaned up version of what council speaking on
the the picture that's uh there on the screen right now page eight. Is that is this the same thing but cleaned up or something different? Yeah, that is a refined version. version. I want to make sure. Yeah. Oh, thank you. Yeah, the page six was my version. That
that page eight is the engineered version. So, yeah, appreciate that. So, so Josh, we spoke about this on the phone a little bit earlier. I also spoke with Mr. Townsen last week about this. I
I'm not a fan of direct parking like that that straight in because of the fact that I think we will have fender benders like the mayor said. I I just I I just see it. People are going to the issues that we're having over there by Millies now that we're going to talk
about in a little bit. We would have this much of the same here. People are going to swing wide even if we cut off some of that southern area to where they it opens up more driving. I just see more fender benders than I would with
the parallel or the um slanted parking. Um I could see the direct parking on the south side and slanted parking on north side maybe in it working. Um I just don't know. I'd like to hear Chief Hurley's thoughts on this as well. Yeah, I don't know if that center line
could be actively I mean moved and used, you know, because right now where it's at, it's kind of tight on the north parking and you got plenty of room on the south parking. I actually spoke with engineer about that. One of the challenges is this intersection right here.
So these curves uh I saw that at least on the eastern side with the Yeah, I know there this one over here. So, it limits the ability for that roadway or the center line to shift further south. But there's
about a foot and a half, maybe maybe two feet if we're if we're if we're close enough to be able to shift that center line further to the south that would very closely make it in line with the other intersection or with the other uh blocks. Um, but any further to the south
you go that center line, the more into that curve you have to get. There's no altering that curve. There is. Um, but there's also a storm uh drain inlet in there that would have to be, you know, recalculated as well. So,
Mr. Mayor, go ahead. So, I I certainly I certainly hear the concerns about straight in parking versus angled. Uh, as someone that parks on that block and the next block every single day, um, I I personally don't
feel like I would gain any additional visibility because the current parking spaces are are not angled enough that you're gaining a drastic amount of view because when when these places are full,
typically you have a car on either side of you that that is already impairing your vision. And so whether you're angled or whether you're straight in, you're not really losing any kind of visibility because you've already got cars on either side of you. And the reality is it's 2025. Most vehicles come
equipped with rear backup cameras anyway that allow and and cross traffic detection that allows you to to not have those kind of style of fender benders. Now, the 2009 Tahoe that I have doesn't have a single camera on it, so I'll have to be extra careful backing out. But the
gain the gain of of anywhere from 11 to 13 spaces uh you know that's something that is I'm thinking more about radius at the radius. That's what I'm concerned about. Well and and as Josh as Josh mentioned this is the only block with that additional width to which we could
accommodate this. You know we we we certainly couldn't think about doing this on the next block. I know that and that's why if the center line was kind of proportionally in the middle it may work.
Yep. What do you think? I will say the majority of parking lot crashes involve backing. Um majority of law enforcement accidents are because of backing. You can ask our insurance company about that. Um
that's why they they harp on us. every reinsurance meeting I go to is backing in a parking spot so when you're leaving you're not in a hurry and back into somebody. So, um I I I do agree with the mayor as far as how much room is there to back into the
actual roadway. Um if it was split in the center where was equal amounts and it was still enough to properly back the vehicle without crossing the center line. Definitely. Um the other issue is I'll go back to Tony Valley. you know, we got to reduce speed down there. We got to put stop signs. So, you got to
think of that being a factor, too. Um, you know, most of us try to, you know, go slow through there, but there's every once in a while you'll have somebody come in there driving like an idiot and and come a little faster than most. Um, I'd hate to say either way. I think it's
a change is going to you're going to have a change to something the way it's been for hundreds of years. that's going to affect some until people get used to actually how to maneuver it. So, you'll probably will have an increase in some traffic crashes there just due due to
the change. Um, but the ultimate goal, I guess, is to create more parking downtown, which I do believe is a is a necessity. So, without actually trying it and doing it, see how it works, I don't know that I can properly
tell you, yeah, it's going to work or no, it's not going to work. Um, it all depends on the driver and how cautious they are. On the engineering, do y'all do any physical test uh prior to making
a change like that? This isn't our project, but uh but no, usually usually not just take all the blame. Do we know what the actual link from the back of the parking spot to the center of the road is going to be?
That'll be part of the design concept obviously. Yeah. Because, you know, to me that would be, you know, we have pulled in parking um at several businesses, Lowe's and Cashes and uh couple other places like that come
off top of head and we don't have all a lot of problems, but you don't have Well, Walmart is angled. It's just a lot of us are on the other side of the road pulling in those parking spots, too. Yeah. Um, and you know, like you don't have a major I say a major road, a
thoroughare that's kind of heavily traveled going right through Walmart all the time either. So, um, so I don't know what to tell you besides anybody's guess, right? Coming it off and we can try it out for a week and see if it works. But we're we're increasing the
we're increasing the accessibility with handicap spaces. This will all be remilled. So, this will all be fresh fresh asphalt. So, we do have, you know, I think we might be theorizing, you know, the concern about where the line lies, but we haven't even
technically got to that point yet from a design standpoint. I'd hate for us to say no to it and figure out if I may add, you know, through the parking study, we we discovered that this is a block that is
nearing 100% occupancy. This is the block that is most uh used. This is the block that has the highest amount of change order uh change over. And so, you know, looking at this in a way to increase parking by roughly 26%
goes a long way in accomplishing some of that as far as providing some additional supply with what I believe is a minimal cost. So, you know, regardless of whether you go with A, B, C, or D, you're going to increase the capacity. But if you're going to be resurfacing, um, milling and
resurfacing, it would be nice, at least in Josh's opinion, uh, to get as many parking spaces out of it as you safely can to maximize the cost efficiency. So, this goes to uh, Ninth Street. you know, the parking problem we talked
about, uh, Chief Early, um, eliminating two parking spaces there because, you know, I remember the comment was made that, well, you know, the parking space been like that for a long time, but vehicles haven't been the size they are now for a long time. So, that's one of
my concerns here as well. Josh and I talked earlier today as well on the north side with the with the straight end parking uh with with the big trucks like like we drive, you know, to get out of that right there without going into the other across the center line is
going to be probably impossible. Um with the center line where where it is. Um and it is a visibility problem for a smaller vehicle parked next to a big Suburban or a full-size truck or whatever to back out safely. you can't
see until three4s of your car is out in the lane uh to back out if you're a smaller car. So, it is a concern right there. Um my other concern and I agree with all the all the conduit and and preparing for all that for the power on on the north
side. That's super important. I mean south side that's super important. The other thing Josh and I talked about earlier today is the east island across from the clock. um taking that green area uh back to
accommodate two additional parking space. I saw your cone you placed. She told me a place I drove by and saw that it doesn't leave a lot of space there for uh what we have talked about in past Main Street I think main street master plan somewhere it might have been this island um
you know envisioned a uh bike rack uh and Kobe and I have talked about this in the past is an excellent spot for a little public space if it were paved over the storm water drain you know cleaned out and functional again uh
because it's just all it's just been a mess there for quite some time and we haven't known what to do with it to make it a useful space and that's one thing the main street master plan call for making more useful downtown public spaces even if they're small there's nowhere for a bike rack anywhere
downtown I wouldn't want to see them on the north sidewalk in front of businesses um so it's either down by the and this is the center block of down of downtown business district so I see that island uh that particular spot as a nice
place to put people lock their bicycles up. People are driving, you know, two $3,000 ebikes and there's nowhere to put them. There nowhere to lock them up um with a potential charging station or whatever. But, um I just see that. So,
I'd hate to lose, you know, I could see us losing one one corner of that island right there for one additional space, but two, I think, is going to reduce that size. Unless that hedge is removed behind the cedar tree, then you gain more green space.
So, that's I don't know, mayor. First, I I wrote down the bicycle issue also, uh, Glenn, but I don't know where you're talking about. Are you talking about down here or this thing? Yes, that that is right here. Right here.
There does need to be, in my opinion, uh a place for bicycles. Unless there's an alternative space, but I don't know where that would be. We make a look over here. I can point the screen next to the pinion place in a
large grassy area there. Um that may work as well. Yeah. a lot of the things you suggested. Um, I believe
we paid $50,000 for this uh study on from uh Main Street came out with this beautiful plan on what downtown could look like. And a lot of the things that
we're discussing right now are in this Uh some of the things have changed. Uh what's got to be frustrating and they've got all they've got parking in here, they got bicycle stuff in here. You know, they did a really main, you know, hats
off to Main Street. They did a fantastic job. Uh but it's kind of just set on a shelf and here we are three years later. um $50,000 of taxpayers money and they paid 50 for that.
No. Is that about right? 90 something thousand. So they paid 90 and you paid how much for yours for the same similar. So we did redevelopment plan. It was around 96,000. Is that this? No. No. No. It's in addition to that with the same data.
Okay. So, what's got to be frustrating if I was in Kobe's seat is it kind of reminds me of the um Disney movie where dogs are talking and stuff and a dog uh he's trying to carry on a conversation and then all of a sudden squirrel and he
looks, you know, something else and we're kind of playing the squirrel game. A lot of things that we're talking about right now, Main Street's already covered and we've paid good money for this. I think we we would be prudent to look at this what Main Street has done and what
we paid for and combine it. Like for example, [Music] we got multiple projects going on. We got uh a railroad track thing that we're going to start doing, right? That's that's on the list. Um,
we need to we need to focus on a plan and stick to it. And this has got so many things we're discussing right now. Not 100%. But this has already been done and paid
for. And I'm just wondering if if anybody's even looked at it. Not lately. I have. Well, I will say the city didn't adopt it, so it's not officially something we have to follow. Am I correct in that? But but it still has some great ideas in
it. And and and you're right there there's a lot there's a lot of good components of that. Um, however, it's not officially adopted, but it doesn't mean we can't utilize some of what was bought, paid for, and included in there, such as the oneway potential streets
that we talked about. uh one way in uh 9inth Street going south, one way out 8th Street going north. Um you know, so there's things there that can, you know, can help us improve downtown. And and Josh has, you know, CRA did, you've got
a downtown master plan as well. Correct. We we have a redevelopment plan. Redevelopment. Yeah. Includes portion of So it wasn't a separate just particularly downtown. No, I got you. Main Street's a big player in this town and they've done some good things and I'm wondering if there's any way that uh
y'all could work together. Mr. Mayor, go ahead. Well, sorry. I didn't interrupt. I'm just looking I'm just looking for a way to simplify
a plan, stick to it, and get away from the squirrel. Don, I want I want to take your your your thought one step further, and that is what I would hate to see is we go at this with multiple different
plans that aren't synchronized, right? And then we we repave a section of street and then we go, shucks, this other plan calls for X, Y, and Z. Now we got to go rip up that fresh asphalt to do this. So, and and I think that's exactly what you're saying, and I'm just
trying to say it a slightly different way, is we we need to synchronize the redevelopment plan, the main street master plan, which by the way, that was paid for with a grant. That wasn't technically local dollars. That was a grant that the original Main Street director obtained
um and and had that paid for. So, that that was We didn't get from the county. No, that was from what I understand that was a grant through like state dollars. Um it's uh 22. May I see it? Yeah. Yeah. This is full of good ideas,
but I just think we need we need to synchronize them because to y'all's point there there there's things that we probably want to do as a city on blocks on either side of this that I would hate for us to do this and then turn around and go, "Oh, that's not
compatible." Or, you know, we from a mobilization standpoint, Josh can back me up on this. from a mobilization standpoint, maybe when you're already have people out here working on all this, it then makes sense to say keep going this way with it, right?
But, you know, I I do have the motion and in a second, I know it was for for a conversation to at least go with the hybrid recommended that that the CRA had endorsed. Um, but yeah, I completely agree. We we
need to synchronize the plans for sure. Well, much like the other deal, uh, you were talking about alternatives, you did the same with this because you were talking about conduits and things again. So, well, if I had clarify that conduit thing, I actually did go out there and
look at that. There is a grassy area uh between the rail and where the pavement would be. And there are receptacles already installed there. I don't know if they're functioning. Okay. Uh, but that may be something we can handle with, you know, the city facilities team to figure out where they go, do they work? if not versus having
to, you know, do anything else. Um, while we're out there parking, but I I agree with Councilman Harrison's comment about that that island down there, you know, using that as a as a bike rack area with a with maybe even a charger facility there for for the ebikes because that's very popular nowadays.
Y All right. So, he's going to bring us a lot more information back than you probably think, but All right. Can I have a motion and a second on table? Any other comments from the public? Yes, sir. Uh Rob Hamilton. Uh so I'm on the CRA.
Uh I actually do kind of like the idea of the bike rack being at the end. Uh but I also want to come up here and say that the Main Street plan is kind of part of our redevelopment plan already. If you read the redevelopment plan, a lot of that's in there and that's part of where they got it from with some of the stuff we looked at. Um, so there
already is a lot of working with Main Street. I know Josh meets with them a lot. So I just want to point that out too. Uh, but I think what we can kind of do kind of like the mayor said, we can go back and, you know, say, "Yes, we like this idea, but let's add the bike
rack and kind of come up with a plan that way. we can go forward with it. But what I'd hate to see is the parking safety be paid for, all this work to be done, and for it to die. Yeah. Right. Um and I also want to point out I have no problem backing in my Tahoe at Lowe's
or anywhere else. There's tight spots. If you can't drive your car, get a smaller one. Anyone else? All right. You got something else? No. All right. All in favor say I. on concept one.
Is that what you're saying? It was D. It was D as in dog. I like the I like the the angled parking. I'm going to say nay. Okay. I [Laughter] no no no.
Okay. So it will this be Yeah. Yeah, like the one you're looking at. Adding the two spaces on that green space most likely. Yes. I'd be good with one. So, I'm just going to have to say,
well, I mean, that's going to come back to us, but the over Will it come back to us? Don't worry. There's already three fil. Oh, we do need whichever way it's 31 now. Okay. I I didn't keep up. Sorry. Okay.
Um, I'm Nick. Okay. All right. Fails. So, the question is, is there a motion for any other Yeah. Do we want to We don't have substitute. We got a whole new chance. We're going to pass on the opportunity to to have this block completely repaved
and reworked. That blows my mind. Well, it may not even may not get any of them yet. Uh, I don't know. I don't want to suggest that. I'm I'm not against the repaving. I'm not against restriping. I just don't think that the straight and I'm
I'm not against the fact that that we performed a study and they came down and looked at it. But a lot of what I heard in that study, I don't quite agree with all the time. Not that they're right or wrong. They're saying we don't have a parking problem is what I caught out a half of it and we're trying to create
additional parking here, but um it's definitely a need. I just don't know that I agree with that straight in parking concept. So, well, and I'm, you know, I'm I'm good. I don't have an objection to changing the
parking parking, but it's like you we were saying, somebody was saying earlier, once we we do this and we go back and we go, boy, I wish we'd put a bike rack somewhere, you know, then then it's then it's too late. So, those are little things to me that are easily overcome. um
the change order in the construction world. Yeah. I I don't I don't want to see the whole project the whole idea uh cancelled though over that. I think that's something that we should work out whether we can the perpendicular or the straight on the
north side for example. We can work that out. The island the bike rack we can work that out. We don't have to cancel the whole project. Uh you know so how do we get that done? I got to make another motion. because mine failed.
Don't like any of these and I guess Josh and I can get together and bring back some other concepts with some of that uh these ideas incorporated. I would agree, Mr. Mayor. Go ahead. I my take on the parking study again as someone that is down there every single
day was while we don't have an actual parking issue, the parking study identified areas where we can be proactive because if we wait until it's an issue, we're too late.
And that's why the parking study had suggested this as a change. it was a lowhanging fruit as far from what I understood um to to gain spaces on the block that t that regularly sees 100% capacity and
100% usage. So to my to my fellow council members, are you opposed to the north side being straight in, but you're okay with the south side being straight in? Is that what I'm hearing? Yes. Is there some some willingness to to
maybe compromise there? Yes. Yeah. I don't think Southside's a problem. I I'm kind of old school. I like the way the angle parking is. Um is it south? It is. It is right now.
Yeah. But you could add additional parking there by taking this concept and I don't think that it would create the issue that I'm thinking would exist on both sides. anticipating this. If if I could add maybe some some clarity there. I did
have a conversation uh with our consultant about the the the mixing of the parking spaces. Um he's advising against that. He said it's very confusing. Um obviously this council can do whatever it wants. Uh but he said typically when you have a mixed
uh arrangement of parking, it's very difficult to navigate and use. Um it's confusing to people. Well, that block is different from many of the rest of them, right? It's it's different in its depth, but not really different in any other way.
Yeah. In fact, it has more, as I understand, more depth of travel lane than a typical aisle would have at Lowe's. So, this blank space that we'll call it in between the parking spaces is
actually more than a drive lane at a parking lot. So, it's deeper than what you would have at Lowe's, for example. What about the width of those spaces? Are they wide at Walmart? They are standard. I think 9 ft in width.
But I noticed like at Sethco, they're wider than most all of them I go to. I I wonder why that was. Why Seo Seco got an extra foot or more the gas station. Okay. Josh, which uh railroad crossing
is are y'all do you have a task for? 11th uh the historic crossing at 8th, 7th, and sixth and crescent. Again, I think that as we've already made some of these comments, I think they go together hand in hand. We're
going to do one thing that's five foot away. It's going to and we're going to be going back at some point and tearing up what we just did. So, to me, they go hand in hand. That's I know we've talked about it some. I talked to uh Miss Parsons about it when they took our main street and to me the first thing to do down there is is a master plan for that
area because we're gonna we're going to do things. We're going to spend money. We're going to turn around. We're gonna undo them. Right. We already have a pedestrian crossing problem on the south side of the railroad track which I'm assuming you're hoping to address with this. Um but you've already identified the island needs some changes, potential changes. Storm drain is non-use. You
can't use it. It's inside some for some reason. It's in grass inside of a lip or curb high above the road. So it's impossible to use. So, I just feel like we're doing two projects side by side. They're not coordinating one another. And I'm not saying you're not. I'm saying but from our perspective, we're doing one now. You're going to turn around, you're going to approve another
one months from now. And what you want now may conflict with them. So, I just feel like they should be going hand in hand. They are. They're actually the same engineering consultant. Yeah. Not saying you're not, I'm saying us. You are approving something now, then we're going to turn around a few weeks later, a couple months later, you're going to approve railroad costs.
So, perhaps you're suggesting we bring them back at the same time. That would be my suggestion. So, at this point, and up I think this is a good discussion. I know it obviously needs to be done, but I am going to point out, mayor, we've had a motion fail and we don't have a motion
on the floor and we're well past presentation. So, we're having a lot of discussion without a motion. So, let's The goal is to bring it back. Like Mr. Townsen said, I don't know there's much more we can do today. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Give us all time to think about it. Mayor, you got two here that want to
mention something. Yeah, it's a quick question. Go ahead. You go first. I don't know how long ago it was, Todd, but you came up with uh the best solution for more parking, and that was acquire more land. Do you remember that? Yes, sir. Okay, that's the answer.
But at the same time, I'm going to say I don't want to stand in the way of this project. So, am I for more parking? Yes, I am. We're going to revisit this in a few weeks, I guess. I'm not sure when that will be. No, it'll be weeks, but it'll be half the
start of the next budget year. Oh, probably a month. So, over a month. So, on on that island there, you know, I mentioned a while ago, if if the hedges were removed, then that would be a green space all the way to the sidewalk that comes across the uh railroad track. So,
if people were riding bikes from the circle and wanted to get to that bike rack, if there were a bike rack there, they would have to go out into the street to get to it because the hedges are there. So, if we could agree maybe to if those hedges were removed and it
made a a a public space all the way to the sidewalk, then that part those additional parking spaces there would not be a problem. And and we talked uh with the engineering consultant today about that um task order for the improvements to the uh railroad crossings. They're going
to be surveying I think actually tomorrow. I I went ahead and instructed them to pick up those areas within that uh so that way we could study it more and come up with a design to incorporate, you know, some parking, bicycle parking in that area. So that that would be, you know, part of that that design for the railroad
crossing for sure. Yeah, that that hedge removal would be the safest entrance to a a bike rack right there. It'd be the only one that's not in the street. And it's quite possible that that sidewalk that's there today may actually be shifted either, you know, east or west depending on what
they find there, what they design. So So is that a possibility that the hedge could be That's what I'm re That's we do. That's your decision. Okay. And so then now we're just left to the north parking. Now what?
To the north parking. Is that the only other hold up we have here on this? Pretty much. So I mean delay is killing us, you know, with with this stuff. So if we can resolve the the north parking,
can we put a motion out there just to if there's a a necessary adjustment to be made? And how are you going to adjust it? Well, it's either it's either straight in or or uh angled. Okay. So that's all we're down to really.
Okay. Angled. you okay with that? Is are y'all interested in in proceeding with that? Not making the parking places any smaller either for our trucks. Yeah. So then what what do we pick up? Well, I guess to Clay's point, let's maybe get a
motion on the table and I'll gladly second for second discussion. Yeah, we're we're way past the point where we need motion at this point. Yeah. Why don't let's Okay. Let's let them bring something back. I need some direction on what you want me to bring back.
Right. Because we vote down the one thing. If if we're going to reconfigure the north part, we added two additional parking spaces. You're trying to chew us into your way or no way. I'm trying to get clarification. So, so at the end of the day, if we if we do
away with the head-in parking and there is a goal of making it back angled parking, do you want to keep the two accessible parking spaces in the middle or do you want those to go back to regular parking spaces? I think it's a great idea. We got a
quite mature group that visit downtown every day. Okay. Amen. And and if so, we're going to have to remove some regular parking space. So, we're going to we're going to lose parking capacity on that northern side by doing that. Just want to make sure everyone's clear that if that's the direction that the council wants to go,
but we're going to gain it on the south end, right? Well, you're going to gain a few, but you're going to gain your biggest gain was going to be on the north side if you went with right angle parking. Look at all right. I I'll make a motion just for the sake of discussion. And I'll make a
motion that we convert the north back to angle parking and we leave the south as presented for straight in parking. I'll make that a motion. Two accessible in the middle. Yes, I will second. Okay. All right. We got a motion. Second
comments, questions. [Music] Public [Music] angle on the north side. All in favor say I. I I I
No. [Music] What do we have? Angle right now. You got three eyes. [Laughter] So, it's angled. It's angled on the north. North and and leave the south like you see it.
[Music] Okay. All right. Is that what you suggested? No. Oh, but whatever. I'm just trying to get something done here. Yeah. Okay, we got something done. Okay. Um, we're going to lose the two handicap
spaces. No, in the middle. We'll put those in. We'll keep But we'll Okay. So, what will the gain of parking be? I don't know. Uh, they'll have to redesign it and find out. I suspect that we'll probably lose if we keep the accessible parking spaces on the north
side, go back to angled parking. Um maybe three parking spaces. We may lose two or three. Okay. But we're on the south side, we're gaining about six, aren't we? We are. So, let me have I have those totals. Let me look at it. So, on the south side, uh we're going to gain
eight parking spaces. On the top side, my guess is we'll gain either one or we'll stay the same going angle. But more than likely we're probably going to lose something. Um because we have to have that five foot
wide aisle in between those two parking spaces. And so when you you know do away with two parking spaces, you have like a remnant left over that that's kind of no man's land. So they'll have to play around with it and see exactly how they can best lay that out. Okay. All right.
I Okay. All right. Eyes carry. Thank you very much. Uh, you good, Josh? Yes, sir. I'm good. All right. Okay. Let me see where I am. We're going citizen comments. Is that
where we are? Yeah. Okay. We'll open the floor for citizen comments. Please keep it less than three minutes. State your name. If you represent an organization, state that as well. And uh, how about it? Good evening. I'm parking. Anything like that. I'm Mark Hamley. representing the
friends of the library. Yeah. Want everybody to know that first of all, your money is being well spent. Um, lots of improvements are already starting to be seen down there, but it's a bit chaotic next few weeks. The front entry will probably close down library for a couple days Friday, Saturday,
where they redo that. The HVAC has got to be moved out. They've moved to work on the walls around side that. Um, they've ordered the the roof, special roof tiles. Um those will be coming sometime near future. Um I think they put in a request to remove the uh the
trees that are overhanging the uh roof in preparation for that. So that's to be taken care of. Kobe's folks are on it very well. But the happy news is uh the bats um the they're back again as I mentioned last night. But but that's under war it's under warranty. So uh
they will be removed at the expense of of people that first remove them. Um so hope to get that taken care of too before the new roof goes on. But the best news is that our library has despite all this this chaos which goes on um we have over 6,000 625
library card holders which is certainly more than freeort which a much larger city and it's to everybody's credit that Walton County has taken us very seriously. So thank you for that for all your support. Appreciate it. Thanks Martin.
Anyone else? All right, we will close the floor for comments and we will go to our attorney. You got anything? Okay. All right, then. Mr. Beerbomb has got an appointment. Yes, sir. So, uh, the TPO, um, staff had
reached out to me and the citizens advisory council appointment, um, according to their documentation, they have that's technically appointed by me, but because it had been previously brought back to the council for the
council's appointment, uh, the city attorney had um requested that we bring that back. uh the current appointee um has requested that they step down due to you know other family issues that
they're they're dealing with currently. Um so I would like to make a motion to appoint uh Tony Valley to the citizens advisory council of of the TPO to represent Walton County. Second. Okay. We have a motion second.
questions, comments, county or defian. I know it's both but yeah technically. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Nay. I eyes carry. Thank you very much. And we'll go to Mr. Cosen on the airport
project update. Okay. Get my notes out. Okay. Um, I tell you what's really been bothering me about the airport, and that's the time frame and the amount of progress that we're making. So, I made some bullet points here that I'd like to
read. Um, I'm not going to go through all of them tonight. Um my biggest concern is that um December 31st, 2026 is going to be here and these projects are not going to be completed and that means we lose the
entire grant and that's the federal mandate. It's got to be completed. So, um, and and please correct me if I'm not 100% right on my on my data here, but it's we
got $7.5 million of ARPA money uh to spend on a completed project in 16 months. Um, if the project cannot be completed,
we lose the entire thing. And right now we're looking for gopher holes out there on uh on the EPA. There's so there's so many things we can be doing between now and then instead of just you don't have to wait until
something is completed before you start the next one. And there's some options here. Um, we could do a request for proposal. Uh, needs to go immediately out uh to in which to find contractors that can
possibly finish the project in this short time period followed by a request for quotes uh to seal the deal as soon as possible. Uh most include a time uh we must include a timeline uh of payment
completed by 20 uh by December 31st 2026 and include cost overruns, weathers uh weather days, penalties, milestones, uh milestone dates, etc. Option number two would be to use a sole source
contractor to request an RFQ for the specific work to be accomplished. Uh justly uh you could justify the source utilizing past performance uh the need to expedite the work and expertise
um if allowed and that's a legal question. We are not allowed unfortunately. Okay. So how much of the $7.5 million is left to spend? Let let me clarify two things on that.
The December deadline you're talking about is not the deadline to complete the project. Let's take the county's portion of that money first and discuss that. So, the county had a pot of ARPA money. Their obligation was to spend
that money. By allocating that money to a non-county entity and turning that money over, they have spent that money and therefore complied with the ARPA guidelines of spending the money. If the
money is turned over to the city prior to that deadline, the county will be in compliance with its ARPA money and not have to refund that amount of money. We do not have to have the project completed by that period of time to satisfy art.
So we can we can relax and not worry about meeting that deadline. You have to spend the money by that day. The money has to be expended by then. But the project doesn't have to be completed by them. Correct. Okay. Um and with the county money, we have a
little bit more flexibility. our money at, we definitely need the money out of our account or at least allocated to a point that we can show it as a committed allocation even if it's not spent. So, if you have a fully funded project and you're showing somebody that this is a contract for services and they
don't get paid until everything's finished, we believe that's going to be something we're comfortable with. And we've talked with Liberty Partners about this. Tim's back there nodding if you want to look back at him, but we've taught him quite a bit about this. We were there was an original concern that the deadline was a year earlier than
what we thought based on some initial Treasury guidance. So, we've been tracking this exact issue for over 24 months now. Okay. So, um thank you for weighing in on that. What
about the um are we going to shut down the runway to get the hump out or is there a plan for that? Do we even need to worry about this? the the engineers once we get further into design the engineers will provide to us a few options on what that looks like either shutting it down for a
period of time uh reduce thresholds working at night so forth they'll present that to us we'll present that to council and let we'll decide there how we're going to do it we have in anticipation of worst case scenario in the airport's budget we have uh reduced our expected revenues by three months of
no fuel sales in the case of that what the council chooses to do is to shut it down completely Okay. So, could we utilize and spend some money on the north south runway? There currently no funds allocated to that to that project to that runway from
a grant perspective and nor is there from an operating perspective of the airport. I don't mean as far as as far as um paving it goes. I'm talking about the runway could be utilized. It needs to be redirected
and it can stay grass there. So, it's currently dirt there. Right. Yeah. There's no there is no money allocated to the movement the repair maintenance of that runway. All we do is our general operation uh general maintenance on it in terms of grading and mowing the grass around the edges. But in terms of relocating, no, there's
no fun. Okay. All right. Well, that's all I'm going to use uh ask for tonight. It's every every time. Let me ask while you're on that. Yes, sir. So, what are our concerns with timing,
but I know we got to spend the money. U some of the other monies we've gotten as it's got some short time frames on. Yeah. So, on a separate project of the East Hanger development, yes, there are funding there's funding sources there that have time requirements on them. Um,
uh, Triumphs is I think the construction of that completion is fall of 27, so a much longer time frame. Uh, the DOT dollars obviously DOT wants us to spend as soon as possible. Yeah. So, I think we're we're comfortable with that. And then job growth grant fund, every dollar has to be submitted, expended and
submitted by the end of fiscal year 2026, which we're still comfortable. Gotcha. Okay. And which that that puts us September fal year 26 rolls in 27 or you're saying next year? Oh, I guess I mean calendar year 20 count I guess I mean uh December
of 2026 which would be the first within the first three months of clarify makes a little difference. One of the reason I bring this up was that to the council is that u we've got to give these guys
some space u especially our grants department. They're they're they're to the top of their brim right now. If we were to load them up with some more grants to chase, I don't know what we're going to do. Uh I'll get to But I'm just saying that um let's don't load up
everybody with more studies and more let's give me this information. Tell me what would happen if we had to do this in 10 years. Those that areated with the airport, we need to cut them some slack and let them and hopefully our engineers are they are already working on design
engineering, aren't they? Yeah. For which that project on the extension? Yes. Yes. Only and of course the environmental study is is working simultaneously. Correct. We pray that that doesn't
interrupt their design. Correct. And uh so we there is some urgency here. It's not as bad as what you were thinking to start with, but it's still a tight tight time frame. So, I'm just trying to be sensitive to that as a
council in loading these people up with any other projects. I know. I know. And and Kobe's he's we're working him like a barred mule. He can take it. Todd, go ahead.
So, Kobe was the original one um to come up with the the tracking sheet, the spreadsheet. I know we don't have it to pull up right now, but Kobe was the one that came up with the original detailed tracking sheet that shows all the various
projects, their funding status, and and all of that. That was when he was serving not in his capacity as city manager, he he came up with that years ago. So, of of everybody in the city, this man right here is intimately
familiar with all of the deadlines and the timelines. and he looked me square in the eye last week and said, "We're gonna get it done." And I believe him between him and Mr. Parson sitting out there, I believe that they'll get it done. We'll get it funded and they have
it well under control because he just like two weeks ago, we were spitballing ideas on on how to address some of these funding shortfalls. Um, we've come up with an idea. He's working through that to try to see if we can address that when it comes to some of the funding.
Um, he has it well in hand and and I am I'm 100% confident in him. He he looked at me square in the face and said, "I will not let the money go back. We will get it spent." That's good. Mayor, I would I would say too, you know, years ago, I I went through this little period where to put
food on the table, I had to contract plant pine trees on on clearcut land or in some case it was which was always a slow rough go, right? No matter how you did it, hand planted or machine planted. But when we got an opportunity to plant
farmland, um that was that was sweet and it was fast and there was nothing to hold us up. So, a lot of this project out there is going to be that type of construction. It's going to be open runway construction. These contractors love to do stuff like that. There's no
traffic. There's no red lights. There's no there's nothing like that to slow them down other than weather. So, I'm I'm I'm very confident they're going to blow through this thing pretty pretty good once it gets underway. Okay. It's not like building a terminal, you know, where there's going to when you're building a building, there's going to be
hang-ups and slowdowns and stuff and and uh I don't think we'll see that. open ground. Okay. Next topic. Yeah. Um is the wall of honor. I'm wondering if instead of sitting here and waiting and uh to form a committee, you know, Yeah.
Okay. We need to form a committee to find out who goes on the wall, but as far as uh three no-brainers go. It's Eward Scany, Jackie Cochran, and Harley Henderson. and I'd like to go
ahead and put things in motion to start putting some of our local aviation heroes. Harley being a Vietnam veteran, uh, 27 missions over Vietnam. I mean, that speaks for itself. And, um, everybody already knows about Jackie and
Eward. So, could we go forward with that? And does it take a vote? Make a motion. I'd like to make a motion that we go forward with the wall of honor on Eward Sconurs, Jackie Cochran, and Harley Henderson.
And we need some pictures from those people. And I'm going to I'm I'm sure that uh Nancy can come up with the most appropriate picture for Jackie. Um I'm sure the Scurs family can do the same for Eward.
And uh the best picture I've ever seen of Harley was uh he had his uh electronic warfare officer gear on in his flight suit and he was the one jamming those SAM missiles coming up. So
he got his B-52 deep into North Vietnam and back safely 47 times. So, I'd like to make a motion that we put those those three local aviation heroes on the
wall of honor at our airport. Is there a second? I'll second for discussion. Um, go ahead. I just I thought, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought we
I thought we were going to bring back a policy. I just don't want to make a decision just yet because I thought we all agreed. We did. We did. The city manager was going to bring us back, you know, gather some. And you're right. You're right. So that I I just would like to wait for
that. Okay. And um that's the only reason I didn't. I just thought with those three local heroes and considering what they've done that this was a no-brainer, but you're right. And I would like to withdraw my motion. I withdraw my second. All right.
Okay. The next thing would was the request for information from admin. Oh, it's the CRA. C. No, I got that on there. You got admin, too. They got CR. This is just the Okay.
Okay. So, um the title to this topic is you plan you hope for the best but you plan for the worst. And I don't think it would be wise if we didn't do that. So, what I'd like to ask
staff to come back with is I got a worst case scenario and I got a best scenario and I got somewhere in the middle. We know that in November of 2026 that
the uh homestead thing uh that Dantis is uh is pushing is going to go on the ballot and anytime people see a chance to lower their taxes. I feel pretty confident that that's going to be the case.
So, the worst case scenario, and I really don't think this is going to happen, but hope for the best, plan for the worst. Let's just say if they cut out 100% of
all taxes for homestead exemption. I know we could run the numbers on that. Now, it might take some coordination with the tax collector's office, but we could get the numbers on that. uh
there's a there's a possibility that it could be 50%. So that's the second set of numbers that we need. And the third set of numbers is the best case scenario is if it's cut 30%.
Now, if we got those if we have those three numbers, when we start going into the next budget year, we'll have an idea of how much money we've got to play with. We'll know what what we're dealing with
and it takes the guesswork out of it. This is making a decision, a plan B. Uh what if well you just don't leave it up to a hope and a prayer and well I hope
it doesn't happen. Let's let's see what these numbers say. And that's my request to admin to bring back that information. What if 100% was cut out? What if 50% was cut out?
And what if it was down to 30%. You know in that budget that we just did. Yes. equals 300,000 right now at 25 because it's all going to the CRA. That's not how that works.
It's not all going CRA. All but 300,000. We're collecting 1.4 is it in that in your budget and 1.111 is going to the CRA. That's total. Mr. Mayor, we we have voted on the CRA funding over and over
again and for Okay, council members to repeatedly bring up that topic. I don't think it's appropriate to Robert's rules of order. Okay. Well, and I'm not talking about yours your comments. I I know you're not, but you can work that up, can't you? Here's my So
So there Yeah, Mr. Towns can work up what you're asking. I will note, just so you know, the um legislature had some statements at the House Select Committee on Property Taxes that they would not, when they begin their discussions later this month, have a discussion on a
complete wipe out of property tax or tax relief involving direct payments to homeowners from state funds. So, we can eliminate the 100%. Well, the House Select Committee says that's not going to be part of their discussion, even though that's what the governor's asked for. So, would it be prudent of us to investigate the 50 and
30% reduction? It's up it's up to Mr. Towns and what he can do. I I think we'd probably be prudent to let Mr. Parsons give us an update after the House Select Committee meets and sees what direction they're going because they definitely want to talk about property tax reform, but I
don't know that us bring back a whole bunch of options until we know what that committee is going to do. But I mean, we got to be prepared, but I think it's a matter of we know right now 100%'s off the table, and it looks like the homestead exemptions also going off the table.
I I Dan, I I completely agree with you because I I think that we as a council need to have this conversation open and in the public so the public understands that what they're potentially about to vote for and how it will actually impact city services. Because if you evaporate
30 30% 50% or even 100% of our adorum taxes, there will be reduction in public safety, let alone regular government services. Okay. I I I hear you. That's that's going to be that's what he's going to bring back. Okay. So
So I I I support your your suggestion. I I I appreciate that. Thank you. But as far as where we got off the rails, I'm gonna have to agree with Amy on that. We gave all our money away. No, we didn't. No.
No, we didn't. Mr. Mayor, can you Mr. Park? Go ahead. Yeah. Just wanted to make a few comments on that issue. As Clay said, u the House Select Committee uh has come out with a few meetings that they're going to hold at the end of the month. Originally, we were told they were going to meet throughout the state, have regional
meetings and take uh input that way. Um, also there was a study that was included in the tax package that went to the governor uh in for the in the tune of a million dollars to study the issue. Of course, he vetoed that uh study and said, listen, you know, they know what
to do and that's, you know, that's a complete reduction of of property taxes. We just I I think comments made by Senator U. Senate President Ben Albrittain was everyone just kind of take a deep breath on this issue because I think it's getting u it's getting
ramped up about what you know could possibly come. You know, we anticipate something uh coming out of the next legislative session and something be put on the ballot and put forth to the voters. Um we just don't know at this time what it's going to look like. Those meetings later this month are probably
going to begin to shed some light on the issue. When when are those meetings and where will they be? Channel. I think it's um September 21st and 22nd in in Tallahassee again. I think originally what was discussed was meeting throughout the
state. We were hoping on one, you know, here in the panhandle. Um looks like those meetings may only be in Tallahassee. Thank you very much. Okay. So, my last item is the CRA request. Okay.
Okay. So, um, I had a conversation with Josh, and if you want to verify this, you can. You can step up at the podium if you like, if that's okay with you. I have no problem. Okay. So, um, he called all of us today
and he didn't want us to be blindsided or, um, not be filled in on all the information that we had to vote on. and he said, "Um, I've got option A, option B, option C, and this is what they are.
So, look at it, figure out what you think is best, and be ready to vote on it." And I said, "Okay." So, while we were having this conversation, I said, "Um, you know, Josh, the
alleyway is a project that is long overdue." And when I used uh used it as an example of it would be the perfect scene for a law and order murder scene. That's not a far exaggeration.
Our business owners deserve better than that. So what's killing us in my opinion, in my humble opinion, and I'm stating this as nice as I can. And I said, Josh,
could you accomplish everything that you're accomplishing now if you dialed it back to instead of us getting 5%.
Um, for us to get 45 uh, I think it's the CRA would get 55%. And the reason I picked that number 55% is because we already voted on 50%.
And that got voted down. The CRA is getting 95% of our increased abilorum and that's what's that's hurting us bad. And I asked Josh, I said, "Would you be
willing to support adjusting the percentage and he said, "Uh, I'll do whatever the council wants." Is that basically what you said? Whatever the council and my board
directs me to do. So if we can't revisit this since it was orig since the vote that we took was uh a was a 50% reduction
so that we have another another opportunity to help our our citizens and help our town and help our infrastructure and help doing all the things on the capital improvement list. I'm just asking, Mr. Mayor,
for for for a little I'm not finished. I'm just asking for some consideration here, and I'm not I'm I'm saying this as nice as I possibly know how to do it. I'm I'm trying. I'm not even going to put this to a vote unless you want one.
But I'm asking you to consider giving the citizens in the city a little more than 5%. I mean that's just that is way unbalanced. So
Josh said what he said which is 100% correct. Thank you. And I'm just asking my fellow councilman and I'm not even going to make a motion. And the reason I'm not going to make a motion is because I just don't want to end up with another
32. This is something that we all need to agree on. And I'm not going to make a motion. And I'm going to ask Amy for you not to make a motion because we're not going to get anywhere unless somebody here
decides to be the third vote. And I'm and I'm pleading on behalf of the citizens, the city staff, the infrastructure, our budget, things we want to get done. Our hands
are tied. We're handcuffed. So I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Well, I hope everybody will, you know, consider what they'll whatever they'll consider and we can talk about
in not too far future. Okay, we are where executive comments. Executive comments. Okay, executive comments. All right, Kobe. Uh, none, mayor, you good? Yes, sir. All right. Well, I am too. Uh, so we
will go to the council starting with Mr. Dan. Anything else, Dan? You I'm ready to go home. Huh? Same. Same. Well, I'm going to be the spoiler. Um, but good stuff. Good stuff. Uh, the
shade cloths. Uh so so many positive comments from people in the community about the shade cloths going up at Florence Park over the playground. People love it. They're using the park again. Shipley Park's doing, you know, large numbers of people using that. So
our guys have done a tremendous job and the county as well helping with with that project. So that's wonderful. It's good to see. Uh it was packed this afternoon on my way here already. Funny thing, dad dads pick up their kids a lot and they're pulling in there with uh
work trailers and trucks that they they just come off the job. They go pick up the kids from school and they go to the park with them. So, I think it's just fantastic. Um and and I will say, you know, we we talked about the CRA and and the 95% and I would say this, it's something to look
at. It is painful to think 95% of new advalors going to them. It is painful. But look at what we talked about tonight. a $4 million alleyway project that they're going to pay for um street paving uh on on Bowwin which Josh and I
talked correct me if I'm wrong Josh if if there or maybe it was Kobe and I if there's any underground uh infrastructure water sewage under Baldwin that we discovered needs to be replaced that will be done at the same time before it's resurfaced is that is that correct not correct
no that's correct on the alleyway the alleyway but I mean for the uh repaving of Baldwin. No, that would just be a mill and resurface. Mill and resurface. So, it wouldn't be replacing any Is there anything under there? Yes, I'm sure a lot of things. Yeah,
there's a water line there's a There's a water line that needs to be red. There's a water line down the middle of the street and a gas line that runs through the parking lot. I mean, if that's something that's not a part of the redevelopment plan, which we'll determine. I guess that's
but my point is we would look at it. we we have to look at what they're they're beginning to put together to do for this the city that is saving us from spending money. So that 95% is not all given away. It's coming back to us in money that we're not having to spend on infrastructure. So
that's that's the way I I prefer to look at it. Um but anyway, thank y'all. Appreciate all of you. All right. Thank you guys. Call meeting a journ. Part: 2
We don't have to wait on Clay, right? No, we should be fine. Okay. All right. I'm going to call this U budget workshop Monday, September the 8th, 2025. I'm going to ask Councilman
Scott if you lead invocation and pledge. Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you for allowing us to come together, Father, to do the will of the people and that will which is yours above all, God. Pray to dear Lord, as we work through this workshop that you will give us wisdom and guidance to make the best
decisions possible, Lord, that lead to your glorification in everything we do. Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. How did that make a noise? All right, Kobe, you want to kick us off with this draft budget? Yes, mayor. One second. council. Um, at
our last meeting, um, we said we'd come back with some options and then also that I had to make a couple changes that we knew were coming. And so, we've made those changes and I go over those in just a second. Uh, but that would now bring our projected total budget to
61,261,972. And so, couple changes that had to be made. uh we were about $5,000 off between what we had in the budget for police vehicles and what the city marshall had. So we went in made those corrections and properly allocated those to impact fees and uh general fund
dollars. Then we had uh two additional employees uh change their health insurance al um health insurance. So we had to add that in. Um I was a $1,000 short on our street assessment which comes from local option gas tax. So we added that in
there from the prior year carry forward and so to and then in sewer I was $41,000 off on the camera. I had a different piece of equipment in there than that one. So we moved around funds from capital equipment replacement to to cover that cost. Um to make up that
difference I reappropriated the vehicle tracking to the appropriate funds. So went through I associated the number of vehicles to the appropriate fund to carry itself. So that reduced cost. Uh, and then I went through the admin professional services line item, looked
at last few years in terms of what we have contractually, what we've done on a one one time basis, and I was able to remove funds from there to balance the budget. Let me hold you up just uh Jesse, are you Michael back there?
Uh, they say they're not hearing us online. You can? Yes, we can hear you. All right. Well, somebody I guess tech somebody here. All right. Thank you. Go ahead. Um and then council, we talked about the
last budget workshop and we had a further discussion during our executive session um about the employee pay or bonuses for fiscal year 26. And so I believe we all settled on a $1,500 bonus to employees of fiscal year 26 in which
the city would pay for both our tax portion and the employees tax portion. So it will be a net $1,500 to the employee. Um that once I went through and looked at all the positions and it took in consideration vacancies um and then any employee hired after set
one wouldn't receive it. That came in to be once I put it in about $148,000. So, it's a little less than what we originally talked about because of additional vacancies to consider. We took those funds for the general fund. Um, we took funds that were going to out
of the HRA account for the city. This will not affect current employees. These are dollars that we talked about that are unassigned and interest that is gained on the account. Uh, and so will not affect current employees, but we're we're looking to pull that $22,000 out
of the H account restricted. Uh and then here if you next meeting or so we will bring an item to the council on regular agenda for that. Uh but we'll bring that restricted put it into unrestricted and that's what we would use to cover the general fund bonuses and then the five enterprise funds they will cover the
bonuses appropriately there. So terms of changes those are the only changes um that occur between last time and this time. So if you have any questions we can go through that. Um, but ultimately that's that's the end of it. And after today, our next hearing will be the
11th. That'll be our first public hearing. And then our second hearing is on September 19th. Go ahead. Kobe, I'm looking at the financials for audited 2024. The unassigned general
fund balance 1,491 and change. How much of that is being put into this budget to make it balanced? your 2024 unassigned fund balance the the financials there was unassigned balance in general fund I'm only talking
general fund of a million49 a million491598 and my question is how much of this unassigned fund balance is in that budget to make it balance we as you know last year in fiscal year 25 we did the care prior care for That
number encompassed both restricted and unrestricted. Once we got the 2024 audit completed, we realized that large portion of that was restricted. Therefore, at the end of this year, the deficit we had to correct. Two, we had to we had to cover those prior carry
forward funds that we thought were unrestricted but were restricted. We did that. Danielle's found that money in this year and done that. And then in 20 fiscal year 26, the roughly $600,000 we cut was to make it to where we did not pull prior year carry forward cover
general operating expenses. So the in the prior year carry forward sheet and I'm going to stick to the page on the PDF. So it would be page page five uh in that top section you see under uh general carry forward numbers
of $933,000. Does that represent 100% of the fund balance for the general fund at this time? Actuals with with you know if it was a million495 and you made a $696,000
correction is that the difference represent 100% of unrestricted fund balance for the general fund? No 900,000. No. These dollars were budgeted in fiscal year 25 and then we're carrying them over to the next year. We're not
taking out of the 1.4 million unrestricted fund balance. So, so, so my question then doesn't relate to what you're pointing out. Is that what you're saying? Those those
were purchase orders or something else that was No, these are the numbers that you see were were dollars that were budgeted last year. Okay. But that's not my question. And my question is fund balance at the end of fiscal year 2024
was a million495 or whatever that's a million 460 4 let's see a mill I'm sorry 1 million491598 so my question is how much of that value is being utilized
was spent in 25 andor how much is going into 26 6 to budget to balance that budget. So going into 26 we are not taking any of the unrestricted fund balance in there. That's we're just taking funds that were budgeted in 25 and carrying them forward.
So unassigned balance is going to be a million4.95 plus whatever you don't spend in 25 will increase that. Because what's not being spent in 25 is what is is fixing the issue we had in fiscal year 25 which was we we budgeted
restricted prior year carry forward in our prior year carry for for general fund revenues unknowingly at the time that they were restricted until the until the fiscal year 24 audit was completed. I I'm sorry that I don't understand your answer. So if you could just 1491
minus how much? 696 needed to be subtracted from that to correct the error. doctors. No, we'll have we can we can get the answer to you. But no, the $696 represents a $600,000 cut to the budget because we didn't want to use prior year carry forward to fund general
operations. The other $96,000 reduced the natural gas and the sewer transfers. Well, the total fund balance in general fund was three 3,259. 1.4 that was unrestricted. The rest of
it was restricted. Mhm. So if it was restricted, I'm assuming these things that you didn't spend were part of the restrictions. Those are part of the restricted number. There was there of the prior care for we had in 26 which was just over $2 million. There is a large portion of
that that didn't get spent because we have these projects that we're carrying forward. Right. So it doesn't impact this 14 1.4 4 mill that I'm aware of because and then on top of that the restricted money that was budgeted in there when Danielle realized that it was restricted we now went through and that's why we talked
about having the the rake money idea from fisc 25 we're taking the money from unfunded position or from un vacancies and other projects that didn't get done mostly personnel services to cover what was restricted that was unknown to us when we passed this budget in fiscal year 25
which which I'm fine with that particular answer it doesn't really clarify what is going on with this 1.4 of the unassigned. I can I can find out and on the 11th I can have you an answer on how it would affect the $1.4 million balance.
But I Okay, I think we'll need it today before we answer. Is the finance director here where she could she's not? Okay. But okay. Um we can get the answer and have it out to back to you. Okay.
That'd be good. Uh Anyone else? I have a question. Were the Was there any money taken out of the reserve? To fund this budget? Yes, sir.
Not from the general fund. No, the the emergency reserve budget, which is what council was referring to as fund balance. Okay, next question is um correct how much money was taken out of the
enterprise funds specifically water and sewer to do what? Balance this budget make a transfer to the general fund. Yes sir. And the second half of that question is
how much more is that for this coming up fiscal year than it was last year? So the first question you first answer from water we're transferring $1,756,674 and you can find this on PDF sheet page
434. And then I have sewer $819,990. That is roughly here of the two together. And that's roughly estimated at like 1.8 2 million something like that.
2.5 2.5. But it is $81,584 less than what we transferred last year from water and sewer because again when we started this year with the goal reducing transfers, we put in expenses and revenues, we put the same exact transfer number we did in fiscal year 25
and we stuck it in fiscal year 26 and we worked down as much as we could. So this year's transfer number is less than what it was last year overall by $96,000 between water, sewer, and gas. Thank you. That's just a result of the other budget
cuts you found. Correct. Well, eliminating eight positions. It's it's on the the notes tab. There was one truck, two trucks, line item reductions, eight positions, and the employee sellback program is what
totaled up to. Well, on the spreadsheet, it's just the notes tab. on the spreadsheet everyone received the update. It wasn't on that one. I printed it. He just sent out. Sorry. Yeah, it was I had that the first night we were doing this. It was the employee sellback program,
eight positions, two trucks, and then various line item reductions like the office budget and or office supply budget etc. Um Yes, ma'am.
Can I ask another question? Um, okay. On page two of 34, business tax again, budget $30,000. My concern my concern is how do we encourage staff or enable
staff to collect more than that because there's a lot of money being left on the table in that line item. So, we had Scott, we had and and I'm sorry and I know that uh land and code is reviewing that, but that might be a little bit more I don't
know how much more time they're going to need to work through because there's a lot of issues there. So, my concern is they've done they've not really done that in 2025. No, but I I don't want to see it go 2026.
Well, u outside of what the code review and land use committee is looking at, I know they got some new information the other day on how we can go through the process of upping those fees. Uh with under the current structure, again, uh we we go by the ordinance. Um but as we're looking at the average cost or
annual revenue for per business, it's typically $30 is about is the majority of our tax receipts right now. So, we can push through that. But for me, by the time we send someone out to violate someone, we're not paying a business tax receipt. By the time we do the notices
and we send them to the magistrate and we we're now over 30 thou $30. Um, we just we're trying to collect. So, we're going to be losing more money than we're collecting if we follow the ordinance as it is. Now, I'm I'm good with doing we will do that. Uh, but the way we're currently fee structured, we'll be
spending more than we're making on the business tax receipt as it's currently structured. Understood. That's a bit of a dilemma. I understand. Mr. Mayor. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The the information that Kobe's referencing that we discussed at our our
last code review meeting, um the state of Florida changed the statute uh a while back on increasing the fees that we collect for business tax receipts. and we have to form a five member committee consisting of business owners
and actually go through a committee process to actually raise those rates. And the committee has to vote on raising the rates per Florida statute. So it it's going to be stuck at $30 until we can go through that process and and raise the rates. Even if we decide to
simplify it, we're we're stuck. So all that was covered at the last meeting. Uh unfortunately as as Josh can attest there was nobody in in the seats out there. It was just us at the dis. Um would have loved to have had public engagement on that but um
you do you recall what statute that was by any chance? I I don't be in the meeting minutes I can just get with the clerk or just just pink clay. I mean he he covered it all. He covered it all in the meeting but bottom line is we've gota we've got to um have a committee
to raise the rates. Um, so yeah, it's they're stuck until we can get through that process. Is the committee done by us then? Uh, business owners or something. He didn't he didn't clarify whether we could at the code review committee level
if we could then form the committee or if the council has to for form the committee and and then it go forth and go through the process because it's all laid out in statute. But um, he didn't clarify. Maybe that's something we could ask him during our internet. The website was down. There
were a lot of internet issues that day when we were here. Yeah. Thank you. Go ahead. Yeah. Kobe, have you had in order to balance this budget, are you having to brainstorm uh
or consider uh any loss of city services uh to the citizens? Are you going to have to cut back on any of that? Uh was that part of the what you came up with when this budget was made? I mean, in terms of the uh the
services we currently provide, we'll continue to provide the same services. Um, in terms of responsiveness, um, effectiveness, stuff like that, we'll have to, you know, we're working on that. Uh, we're doing, for example, in public works, right? We are moving around moving the cemetery under parks
and grounds to the way they cut to cut that grass. Same thing with Main Street or the maintenance of downtown parks and grounds. um because it was one person now we're going to move Christmas reflections uh he'll be three months out of the year Christmas reflections and the other nine he'll be f facility
maintenance so but in terms of services provide they're the same um but we will have to navigate and uh recreate a processes and procedures so they'll the same services will exist just not with the frequency it is now
we haven't we haven't went through it yet uh in terms of if we'll change the frequency or not is that what you're looking at Yes. So, uh, especially as as once we adopt it and once the new public works director begins, we're going to sit down with the foremans and go over their how they do their routes and work plans and see if there's something needs to be changed.
Not only not only because maybe there's a less person, but is there a better way or is a way we're doing it just fine and that's okay. Um, but also in utilities, every department, we'll have to go through there and see who's going to help out one way or the other. Again, for example, we moved human resources upstairs and we left we lost a
technician. We moved her upstairs to be a part of admin. the same office so we can help one another out. So, go ahead. Yeah, but you beat me. Go ahead. Oh, Kobe, look at page 434.
This is back to fund balance. This might help a little bit. Okay, it's the last paragraph before the totals. Okay. In the proposed 26 budget, prior year carryover 933, prior year carryover, what is logg?
Local option gas tax. Thank you. Local option gas tax. Okay. So, uh the sum of those two Kobe was a million 319. Mhm. Uh, and then you're carrying over impact
fees of 141. Mhm. So for a total of 1460. That's what's confusing me because the only fund balance that's unrestricted at the end of 24 was the million491. So
So the the 386 359 um is there is um we don't know where it came from or how it got built over the last few years. There is an account that has roughly $800,000 in it that was of local option gas tax money over the years. So that is and it is considered restricted because it has
specific uses you can use local option gas tax money for. And so that number 386359 on the prior year carry sheet you will see where that is uh direct all that exact number is directly associated with two pieces of equipment a street
assessment the twin lakes drive resurfacing grant match the reconnecting communities grant match and the safe streets and roads for all grant match. So those dollars are coming out of that account. And then the 141 is coming out of the police
department impact fee account, which is a restricted fund as well because those fees can only be used for specific things. So can you refresh my memory on when did the fire department deplete every bit of their impact fees? They have not.
So they still have a balance in Yes. Uh and is it in the unassigned fund balance of the general fund? It would be in the restricted because just that just like police impact fees, they can only be used for specific things as outlined in support of statute.
Do you suspect that would it be in the one called capital improvements? Because here's here's your fund balances that are restricted debt service capital improvements or redevelopment which is under the CRA line item. So I know
that's not it. and special revenue. That's just lights and uh cemetery. So, which where where would one find the restricted police impact fee number buried in
the pool audit? Um is it doubled? Is it like in the in the tens of thousand dollars, not the hundred thousands? Yes, I know it's in the 100 thousands. Oh, it is in the 100 thousands. Sorry. You good, M? Yeah.
You good? Yeah. Yeah, I'm done. I'm just I was trying to Oh, he's still answering. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm looking back at this email that Daniel sent me Kobe. Maybe maybe uh maybe it's in this 25 line item because I can see here
where you have it broke out on page four. In 25 it was 160,000 and change. That was our estimated that was our estimated collection. Yeah, but there was already an existing balance. I'm trying to find uh to find that balance.
Okay. So, that would have been what you would expect to add. There was already an existing balance. Okay. All right. You we can move on. You can find that for me later. I just curious what number it's varied in. Think he's still looking. Go ahead.
You good? You might have mentioned this. You did mention safe streets and roads a while ago, but I did have a question on page two. Um last year budgeted 2235 for safe streets and roads. This is revenue, right?
Um this year 150. Now you just a minute ago in answering uh her question you mentioned safe roads some of that has some of that been used or No sir so we we budgeted last year for the grant we had submitted for the uh
200 and what was the amount again 220 2235 that was the amount we we applied for in the grant so we went ahead and budgeted that revenue and then we put our match which was 30,000 but we actually came back we got the grant we only received 150,000 so that's why that number represents
Okay thank Yeah, I think everybody's clear. Kobe, this time I have another one. Mr. Mayor, ready. Kobe, the reason I'm asking about the impact fees is with everything that's
going on in the capital improvements and other things that have to go on, can is there anything that the fire department can use the impact fees for in 26's budget? So, we've looked at it. Um, we, you know, back a few months ago when, uh,
fire chief came forward with the radios we need to purchase. We need to purchase, I believe, five with five total. Uh we bought two of those with impact fees and we're buying another three this year with general with general fund dollars. Um because that represented less than 60% of the cost
for all five of them and it had to be contributed to growth and and fire chief presented a report on that. Um but in terms of other things for the fire department that there to contribute to growth, we're having a hard time assigning those things, right? Because we've had the same number of firefighters now for a few fiscal years.
Um the fleet still the same size. uh building maintenance and repair is my understanding excluded in in the sport of statute for fee those fees be used. Now if you were expanding the building uh things of that like I believe that may be possible. Um but that would be a city attorney question on our ability to
use them on that type of project. So can it be used for the equipment associated with the growth in the city? But but you're saying we can't Did we already do that for 2026 because you said we use could use up to 60% I
understood you to say in 25. We did on the on the radios. So right of the total radio project we use we bought two with impact fees. Uh the same thing we're doing with the city marshall this year on his impact fees. Right. His fleet has increased over the years. But the reason the fire the fire department
had the same number of engines now for a number of fiscal years and same number of people. So, we can't really contribute uh any new equipment to growth because you're not changing the size of the fleet andor expansion of the service and they're not getting expanding their capital equipment.
They are. I think it's the same as last year or actually a little less based off what um it goes. Okay. 55,000 equipment greater than 5,000. Yes, that's on page 16 and 34. 15. 15 15. Sorry. And yes, so it is 4,000 less
than last year based off what the chief needed uh in capital. And that that number represents the three other radios and then a set of extraction tools, battery power extraction tools. And to answer your prior question, councilwoman, uh the current bal impact
fee balance for fire is $269,562.99. Repeat the last three numbers. 269 562 562 and my question is where which line item is it which fund balance is that that total you know these are aggregate totals so
I'm just curious what which fund balance that falls into whether it's a restricted for debt restricted for capital restricted for that's it those only those two or it's
in the general fund of 1.49 unassigned which probably wouldn't be appropriate because it is assigned or I mean it is restricted for yeah it got um find out exactly but it got pulled out
this year this year when we did that's the reason when the fiscal year 24 audit was done and we had the issue we had uh we corrected is because in the general fund unrestricted in the total um was policing impact and so going through here and it's it's in the capital line
item. It's in the capital restrictive. It's in the 1.5 both police and fire. Yes. Got it. Thank you. You might have said this, but the debt service that we're paying on the engine now, we have one more payment. Does that stay in the budget for the next coming
year that amount? So it's in the fiscal year 26 for our last debt service. Yeah. When we go into fiscal year 27, you will no longer have that debt debt obligation. Okay. And so we will have to decide, you know, at that point, do we continue debt service of some sort? Do we reallocate
those funds to something else? Do we decrease the budget by that amount? Uh so forth and so on. But yes, this is the last year of fiscal year 26 is the last payment. Oh, so okay. So I was under the impression that we had one more payment in this fiscal year. So
we made the one for fiscal year 25 and we have one to make in fiscal year 26. I was thinking so when we do the fiscal year 27 budget you will not have that debt obligation. Okay. I was thinking this month we would make the final final payment but no we got one more. Okay.
Once a year or twice a year that payment payment let's find out. Probably once a year. Once a year. [Music] Yes, once a year. Thank you. Can we look at page 25 for a
minute? Revenues. Fourth one up from the bottom. Other re other financing sources. 383. What's that? That's the uh AC. So if you'll look at both that line uh and then you'll look at line the very first
one SRF AC water main design 383 repres this is 383 times 2 is a 766 that is the AC water main SRF that the city receives. Half of that's a grant half of that is a loan. So these are going to be net debt
proceeds that you're going to use the Y we haven't borrowed yet though. No, ma'am. We have we have uh bid the project out and hope to have that on the next agenda with the uh council awarded it to Anchor CI. So hopefully on the
next agenda we will have a contract. So the other sources down at the bottom will be the SRF loan proceeds. Correct. the carry forward of the impact fees, capacity fees,
and the reserves. What does that leave us in the reserves in the event of an emergency or are we are we bringing forward 100% of the reserves?
No. So in the the water the capacity fees and the impact fees. Mhm. I have a sheet on me now. Um it leaves in both of those in both capacity fees and impact fees or in impact and water. It's we look at it two different ways.
We look at the large lump sum that was paid by Eagles Crossing and then we have every all other impact fee totals. So extracting the Eagle's Crossing payment, that leaves uh well over a million dollars in impact fee balance. And then the capacity fee balance is still over a million dollars when you take that 773
out. And then so so it'll still sit on the books. It's not brought forward in order to balance this budget. So everything here brought forward is to either buy buy a piece of equipment and or do a project. is not to fund the
general the general operations of that department. [Music] [Music] What else you want to look at coming? I'm good. Mayor, if there's any other questions, I got another one. Oh yeah.
Page 31. This goes back to the sanitation agreement. Did you already work with the county, I understand, to update that $8.50 per household. I've reached out to uh to the county,
Mr. Kellenburgger and I'm hoping to get on one of the next couple agendas with that potential updated agreement, but I have we're not on the today's eight. So, we're not on their agenda for tomorrow. And so, I'm just waiting to hear back from Miss Thomasson on when we'll be on
their the next board county commissioner's agenda with that item. But did you work out did you work out an agreement with them to take back to talk to them in front of them? Yes. what we talked about we did it was to to cut out the transfer
I'm not transfer we received the money from do I'm asking something totally different so I'm sorry if I'm making you think well that's that's what I went to to upgrade the update the agreement okay so I I kept thinking about this because you know I kept harping on hey I think we're leaving a lot of money on
the table so that agreement was made in the late 80s mid 80s late 80s early 90s whatever they I don't recall saw what year he said that was. Was it 84, 85? In the 80s is when they did the actually implemented the sales tax. I think the current agreement, our current local I
believe is 2013. Well, what I did was I went to the courthouse to get records of what did the city map look like back in those days. It was much smaller than it is now. And $8.50 50 cents per unit, which
I thought was one of the issues that the auditors wanted us wanted staff to correct is, wow, if that hadn't been updated since then and we've been just getting this $8.50, how many units have been added since that date of that contract?
Mhm. Do we know that number? I mean, how did we negotiate with the county to say, you know, we only had 1,000 units back then, but since then to 2025, we've got 10,000
units at $8.50 or whatever, vice versa. Same with those sales tax, you know, if the area has expanded. Well, so on the units, I can't speak on the units because of the uh I wasn't here in 2013 when the agreement was
done. But in terms of the sales tax, that automatically is calculated by do when we update when people annex NX in and our city limits are updated. We receive that portion from do. Um again, what what I the council approved me to go and do was to cut out the whole $850
a can. That would that would go away. Would no longer be that would no longer be a factor. Did you say that was uh done in 2013? I believe so. I'll go back and double check the agenda item for the unit numbers. Well, that's the most current that's the most current interlocal that we are under
and and my point is do might be paying that money but they gave the money to us and all we did was say here county you have 100% of what we got and then they allocated it back to us based on $8.50 or
on a monthly basis. Yes. Yeah. So my concern is the map today versus whenever these agreements were put into place are significantly different and I do think that we need to perhaps rethink
about is there money that we're leaving on the table and we're not talking about it. Morhead. So since we signed the contract with waste management four years ago now I believe pretty close
pretty close to four years ago that has been brought up annually in request of the city manager to go and address that. Um my opinion on it is that the way the formula works that was that's all laid
out and it's it's a formula from the department of revenue. So the idea that we're leaving money on the table, we'd have to take it up with the Department of Revenue because what Kobe Kobe has negotiated or we have directed Kobe to negotiate is
simply doing away with that transfer, that monthly transfer. We now receive all that money and keep that money and at the end of the year they then bill us for landfill operations. So, we now get to keep that money
instead of sending it to the county and the county sits on it for 11 months and 29 days. We now keep that money here and we're able to then use it for all of our various operations here. And then we're then obligated at that
point at the end of the year to issue a check to the county for our portion of the landfill operations. That's my understanding of it. The formula, as I understand, was prepared by county
staff and or the clerk's office, it was it's not a formula from the Florida Department of Revenue. And I know you said that the last time, but when you look at that and if you talk to the CFO at the clerk's office, they're going to tell you that's not a
de that's their formula. Just what was developed when the original contract was done and that's what needs to be re-evaluated or looked at based on, you know, might have been appropriate back in the time uh when the
map looked a certain way, but now the map has expanded. And I just want to make that clear that it's not an FD. It's not a Florida Department of Revenue uh allocation that you're So then where do they get the number
from? I I don't know. I wasn't here when they made that allocation and I because the two pieces of paper that were printed out show numbers from do. Well, Kobe, maybe you could get with the clerk's finance director and ask them because they along
with Melissa reconcile that every year and and it is just there's just they drop in the numbers. But our, like I said, our territory has expanded completely since even though the territory expanded, we're still we still catch that because
of this the limits. Waste management sends us a bill monthly with all of the accounts within the city limits that we get that bill. We then turn around and send that to the county and the county reimbures us 850 per residential can within the city limit. So every account, every new account is captured. It's
already been captured because as waste management does does that service they bill us? So So is it on the bill? The bill that you get that you send to the county are the number of units at 850 on there should be. If not every account is
account number. So, so if we requested to look at that, then it's going to match the map as it appears today. Yes. So, if there's 2800 units in the city that we're picking up trash from, every every account that waste
management does for the city in terms of built for garbage, they bill us. Commercial and residential. Residential is split two ways. First can is free to city residents under the sales tax. The second one they pay for separately to the city. Commercial is built separately
from residential and that is not covered by sales tax and we bill customers for that directly. I've never gotten a garbage bill and I have a commercial account at my office and I've been there for eight years and never once have I got a commercial garbage.
Should be on your water bill. It's on your water bill. They're all on one bill. So what is the line item? Does it say trash? Yep. Solid waste, I think. in that monthly $90 or whatever. Like I don't meet the minimum. I'm not saying it's $90. That that
number's Well, I just get a flat fee. I pay $90 to the city at my building every month for eight years. The same amount. It's never gone up. Again, if if if you have trash and waste man picks it up, anything that waste
they send us the bill for both commercial and residential. We take residential and we subtract out those that are not the first can. We send that to the county. The county reimbures us for that amount at $8.50 a can. The commercial, we build directly to customers. If my understanding, whenever
the city contracted out um garbage that the council at the time wanted that to stay with the city staff to bill out commercial, so we didn't give that to waste management. Interesting. Thank you. And the current agreement is dated April 9th, 2013.
Thank you. Okay, I got several questions here. Um, [Music] if that main pump at the water treatment center
that pushes everything down that line all the way to the spray field. And I asked you if there was a backup and you said you'd have to check into it. With all you got on your plate, I imagine you forgot. But while the experts are here, can we ask them if we
have a backup plan? Kyle's here. Kyle, are you referencing is there a backup plan if something goes totally south of the effluent line? No, sir. Yeah, we have two. You've got two. We do. and both of uh the backup fully
operational. Yep. Okay, that's question number one. Thanks. Question number two is um in this next year that we're going into the budget
26, are we still going to be under um a hiring freeze except on a case-byase basis? Really brought that up. That was going to be my request tonight. If we could if if council Thank you. Um I think if if we move forward tonight before we have our first
public hearing, I believe I'm I'm going to request that we lift the hiring freeze tonight. Um we're at we're at the point where we need to start hiring people again. We've already identified those positions that we are not going that are going to be eliminated in the budget. Uh we we've identified the ones that are going to remain. So, um, my
request to all tonight is going to be to lift the hiring free so we can start rehiring position at the at the regular meeting. Yes. Okay. Uh, will the council have any input on what positions uh that may be considered critical? Well, I'm just asking to lift it on all
of them. At the end of the day, they're all critical. Um, they're all critical to the operations of the city. So, I'm asking you just lift on every position, all positions. I guess what I'm getting at is um I'm struggling for the right words.
This job's got it's taken its toll on you and you've been under a lot of stress and you're trying to make everybody happy and you've got this whole city to look after and
you really need an assistant city manager to help you with this load. You've got the budget, you've got the airport, you got water treatment, you've got employees, you've got unions, you've got all the problems on of in the world
on your shoulders. And I've had a few little comments with some fellow council members that and staff members that that they've noticed it, too. your burden is heavy and you may not want to admit it, but
it's it's taking a toll on you and I'd like for you to get some assistance. I'm hoping you're not having discussion with any other council member, but this may be something that comes up for a vote. Gotcha.
I do appreciate it. Um I think we we we talked through it. Um unfortunately this year we don't have the funding for that. Um I do think the actions that the council's taken over the last few months in terms of the restructuring um bringing forth a public works director separated utilities uh things of those
nature uh the p works director starts tomorrow. So I believe do you know that's going to help right on everyone on staff. I'm not the only one that's burdened. Uh you know all staff is right now that's and that's why my recommendation to you is to lift the hiring freeze because we have a number of departments that really need additional personnel. Um but I think
that the actions we've done the last few months are going to be fine. Um, again, like we talked about earlier, it's just going to have to be sitting down and refining processes, um, and seeing who can help who. And that's that's from me all the way across the board. Were you waiting? Go ahead. He might
have another one. I don't know. Okay. This question, let's try and wrap this up by five tips. This this this question is not just for Kobe, but it's you, mayor. It's it's you, Amy. Um, at what point
did this budget go off the rails where we had to um cut positions, both uh vacant positions and staffed positions and our staff can't even get a cost living raise, the
reduced uh the reduction in the frequency of city services, uh, and the list goes on and on. Um, at what point did it go off the rails? I don't know if anything has gone off the rails. I think if Well, I say go off
rails, not lately. There's been problems for years that are being recognized now. It's not something just happened in the last year, the last couple years, but um and I I don't know that it's as negative
as you're you're making it out to be, but that's your opinion. Uh Amy, you're welcome to answer the question. I wasn't here, mayor. I mean, I think it's an accumulative effect. Also,
Mr. Mayor, may I may I respond? Yes. for my opinion. I'm going to keep saying it. Y'all are going to get tired of hearing me say it, but I I have pointed this issue out since I got on the council in 2019. We are transferring
money from the utilities. We were robbing Peter to pay Paul. And to be just completely blunt, I would say that what's changed this year is that there's a willingness this year to tackle that issue where there hasn't
been a willingness in the past to tackle that issue. That's bottom line. Todd Beerbomb has been, as Bob Campbell is my witness, Todd Beerbomb's been bringing this up since 2019 and saying, "Hey guys, if if we want to do stuff with our infrastructure, we've got to stop making
transfers. We've got to get the transfers lower. It's all in the minutes if anybody ever wants to go back and look at it. So, the difference is there's a willingness by this council back in March to address these issues.
We tasked Kobe with coming up with a scenario of what it looks like to have no transfers. And he mapped that out for us in great detail. And it was not pretty. It was not pretty at all.
Mr. Harrison, go real quick. Uh, on the Christmas reflections marketing, uh, the TDC funding went down $2,500, I think. Are we going to This is a revenue source. So, can we
find money to at least keep that marketing expenditure the same or increase it? because if anything, we need to increase attendance um you know and reach out. Well, we got we got people coming from a wide range of people. So, our mark our marketing is
is costly, but $2,500 is pretty significant. Yeah, that's my So, on the uh on the budget attach, for some reason, it's not showing up, but when I met with staff the other day, our communications team went over it. We did we took we had um some excess funds from last year and so
we took $2,500 of the excess funds and put it in promotions to go back to the 10,000 even. So it's it's it's in my sheet and is what will be presented on the 11th. I thought it was in here but some reason it did not carry over onto this one. So TDC funding the same this TDC funding be $7,500 but we put
2500 in the promotion line item. So it would take us back to a $10,000 number. So I have it on mine. For some reason it did not carry over into the sheet that I put on the agenda. So it'll be 10. It will be 10 year. Okay. Good deal. And plus that 2500 you're talking about
won't be restricted like the 10. The 10 you got to spend it right where they tell you to spend it. That 2500 you won't. Correct. And so it went from 10 to 75 and it has to be used for advertising outside of a certain area and for certain things. Okay. And so we put 2500 in promotions which
is not restricted in any way. So it would take us back to a total of 10,000 for promotions. Gotcha. Good deal. One more question. Mayor going back to Clay. wasn't here earlier. Uh the question that somebody raised about impact fees and can the question Clay was can impact fees be
used uh for fire department building improvements. Not improvements but additions. Is that what you said Kobe? Uh so we've had challenges over the past. There's equipment is one we have to have. We have to show the need and the
growth factor, right? Uh my my understanding of the statute is you can't use it for general mass or repair of an existing structure. Correct. But I guess if you were expanding it to a certain level for growth. So let's say you have an existing fire department and you need to do an improvement project to it. And as part
of that, you're going to add additional sleeping quarters to house additional employees that were needed to combat and address additional growth. a percentage of the overall cost could be paid out of impact fees. You would have to have a
proportional analysis because you have to have a direct relationship between the new growth that it paid the money and where that money is spent. So if we've got okay we need to replace the roof on the fire department that's not
going to fly because how's that attributable to new growth? So that would be the difference on impact. So expanding the building size, could they be used for that? In all likelihood, yes, sir. Okay. Yeah. And your fire safety impact the
ordinance addresses quite a bit of that. Good. Thank you, Kobe. Page seven of 34 capital outlay admin reserves. Where is that and where did it come from? So whenever uh we talked about at in our executive session and we brought forward
the 22,000 from the H account of unassigned funds uh one roughly 148,000 of that that's the difference. That's the difference and it's sitting in there for the council's discretion at some point in time. Okay. So you're bringing this forward. So that's part of our 1.4 million then
of the restricted of the unrestricted restricted that's part of the uh 1.5 H restricted. And again, it's not affect it will not affect any current employee. These are unassigned dollars in that account. So, are you asking that we unrestrict
that 54,000 which means it will then increase the 1.4 or are you intending on spending? We're intending on spending. So, we will we will bring forth to the future item for 22,000 for you to restrict. H got it. Thank you. All right. We're going to call this
workshop journ. We will crank up in about uh three minutes after five.