First thing we have is our call to order and our invocation. Everyone would please stand. Dear heavenly father, I ask you to be with us today. Guide us in our decisions. Help us to make good decisions for the betterment of the city and for everyone involved. I ask you uh to continue to bless our city. We have
been blessed so greatly um with so many good things and and we thank you. We know you're responsible for all of it. Uh again, I ask you to guide and lead us and we ask these things in your name. 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. So our second item is the approval of the minutes from April 3rd. everyone had a chance to review and make
any comments or corrections. [Applause] [Applause] I make a motion we accept the minutes. Okay, we have a second. I'll second. Okay, all in favor? I I. None opposed. Passes unanimously. Uh,
third item is old business. This is the mural kneewall on Highway 90 and looking for an update on that. Kobe, is that you? It is. This my fault. I have not I have not gotten with staff to get those measurements yet. So, that is my fault. I'll work with them to have them get that before our next meeting.
Okay. All right. Sounds good. On that note, I wanted to point out that there is a a little chunk missing out of that wall as well. I don't know if that would need to be repaired before it was painted, but um we'll have to uh we'll have to talk to DOT. It is a DOT wall. Whatever whatever
y'all we eventually do decide to paint, we'll have to get them to approve it, obviously. So, we'll have to keep with them and see if they allow us to make that fix. Okay, just throwing that out there. Okay, thank you for that. Good. Yeah. Uh 2026 budget uh followup and update
from our last meeting. Kobe, would that be you as well? I was not present in the last meeting. I was not present at the last meeting either. So, um we covered a lot. I know. And that's why I'm like I I need
a a primer on and what so Kobe will start with where are we in the budget creation process right now? We will have another budget workshop with the council on July 30 or yeah July 31st
bringing back to that one uh the information they asked for at our last council meeting and then also part of that will be the funding request from Main Street and EDA they can consider. Um but that's really where we're at and what I'm looking for from the council is uh what they want to do next year or the
next few years in terms of uh looking at city's finances and cut to next year. So that's one of be some of the topic. Um that'll be the 31st. I'll have the formal budget to them hopefully right there shortly thereafter. Um so that first week of August I should have everything to them. So a little bit been pushed back a little bit this year
because of our our different new discussions. Um but hopefully that first week or so of August I'll have the formal uh proposed budget. And can you remind me what if any final figures that was requested from our board and for
what? Because I'm not sure I really got that since I wasn't here for the workshop. I was I wasn't here and we didn't have the minutes, right? Because we did talk about the budget summer, but we don't have the minutes.
We might have said something about that. I know that I because I was out of town with my uh sister and surgery that I had sent an email and I think you guys read that and I personally had said, you know, I'd like to set aside a certain
amount, but I didn't know if the board made any took any action on that. We didn't set an amount to my recollection. Did Did we It It was more just uh what we thought was priority.
Yeah, we talked about priorities. So So then my question would be Kobe, how would you recommend that we proceed? So because I know there's cuts and other things at play. Uh I mean Rafael, I mean he he's out now for and next week he's on military
training. So um we'll have to see what he what the minutes bring back what the minutes looked at. Um but in terms of the project y'all identified, I wasn't here. I'm not sure what you identified um and if yall threw dollar numbers or not. So that would take time to have to figure out what is exactly you're
looking for. I know we we set priorities like parks and everything. One of the the big things was is going back to the subcontracting like for the medians on 90 or downtown or any of the things where we talked about we wanted to know what the city's um rules were like what
they required before and then so we'd have a better idea and then going through the city this requesting the city to get some bids on taking care of it and so we really couldn't I think if I remember correctly couldn't really set a a budget without
moving knowing and So I think you were going to look into what was required. So it would just depend on the dollar amount would would be the requirements. Um obviously they need insurance all those things. But the dollar amount will determine if we only need to get three
quotes or we need to go out to competitively bid it. So if it's greater it's going to be greater than 35,000 for the duration of an annual thing. We have to bid it out. If it's going to be less than that then we could get three quotes and have the council approve it. Or if it's even less than 20 I could approve it. But we have to get three companies
to come out. Yeah. That to do that we got to determine how often what exactly we're asking them to do. So it's a little it's it would take some time to put that scope together exactly what the board is looking for in terms of service because they're going to bid each specific thing to that.
So should we focus more on what we would like to accomplish as opposed to having a a line item on the budget? I just what I want to make sure of is we've we've done a really if I can pat ourselves on the back, we've taken a lot of good action and seen some good things and I I
don't want to lose our momentum and not be able to have something in the budget. Yeah, I think and I think any there are certain thing we did y'all have y'all's line item for certain, you know, specific projects or things of that nature, but not everything has to be put into y'all's line item, right? We can if
there's something that this board will advise to the council, hey, this we see to be a priority and we can either reallocate resources that are within transportation, which is where the beautifification money is at or maintenance, whatever that looks like. So, not every dollar has to go into this one. This one can be specific, but if there are things that we're currently
doing operations or um you know, we have we we budget a specific amount of money every year for tree replacement if there's something you're particularly looking to replace. So, it doesn't have to be within just this budget. And so, um, so yeah, I mean, we don't have to stick it all in one. And it could be
across the board of what it is. And again, it doesn't have to be anything cost money, right? Budgets aren't always about things that cost money. It could be just changing something. So, so I I know we may be jumping ahead a little bit, but the the berries and
blooms for Chipley Park, for instance, is that something that because that's not a tree replacement. Is that something that we should consider putting in a formal request? I'm I'm sorry. I'm just new to this and Well, I mean, I think I mean there's down there. So, you might as well talk about now as we're talking about the
budget for 26. So, what is the what was the conversation around the barriers of William? Yeah. So, that really wouldn't even cost the city anything. The the idea was that is I had spoke with several different nurseries and it was more like a drive and they were all willing to um like let's say uh breathe
easy farms for every they would match. So, if their customers bought a AAA, then maybe they would match or they would give $10 towards the fund. And so, you just have a drive for two months with all maybe Ace um Advanced Nurseries
was in um I'm sure Lowe's would go in, but anyhow, what you do is have a drive and then hopefully you have three to 400 plants at no cost to the city except for the city workers. Right. And so, that's a good example, right? That's a good when I mean like
budgeting we so for fiscal year 26 things don't have to cost money that could be a project within the budget. So what what I would be looking for is a list of things whether it's two whether it's seven or six or 10 that the board wants to do and then we take and we allocate what does this one cost what's this cost these four might not cost a
dime and maybe that right there may be doing that the goal may be to create just go ahead and get this donation fund established and start raising money in that. So there are things that can be done that don't cost money. We just want to do them within a specified within specified. I guess the question was this time we instead of planting 10 you get about 10
trees for the blade garden each year instead of using that money for trees. If we didn't get the fundraiser what we got to do if we spend that same money on shrubs that's sort of a tree. I mean it should shouldn't be a big deal. We're talking about aelas blueberries
chameleas would be the main ones to plant. So, I didn't know, you know, that same money used for trees could be used for those, too. I'm at a loss without the minutes. I don't have the minutes, but I do have some notes. That's fine. Yeah, they're not posted. So, I did give
my notes to Raphael and unfortunately, we just didn't get them out in time, but I did find them. Am I allowed to print these and distribute my notes from the meeting just to kind of Okay, I'm going to go ahead and print these and I'll come back down because we
did um talk about some different things and some priorities from there. And so I'm looking at it like Florence Park and the dog park. So all those things were discussed. So I'm just going to give you my notes. They are not the minutes just to
be clear. Okay. Let me print them and I'll go get them. Sorry about that. Be great. Thank you. That's all right. So if you want to is it move on? Pause that. As long as long as you are good. Long as the audience is good, I would move down. Everybody's good with that. We'll I'll come back.
All right. But we'll come back to the dog park update as well because that's part of what those notes are. Um designated tree. We're on 3D designated tree beautifification fund where businesses and individuals can donate towards projects. Was that part of the
notes as well or is that something new and different? Well, I mean like some No, no. what that was is so when when people approached and wanting to donate money um so I guess that's where that's coming
from is you know how do how do we do that how do we take creating a fund for that right okay I mean is how could yeah that would be simple so that's an easy line item creation and by finance I don't know they probably want to create
a specific line item in in the revenues budget that way you can see it okay or they they may do internal cash count, but they probably do specific line item so you can turn on spend the same money out. So that that's simple. What I think needs to be established there though is is we need
parameters around the program. What's program for, what's it going to do, what's allowed, that type of deal. Um, I think that's what needs needs to be done. But in terms of receiving donations and and allocating those to a specific line, that's simple. So would we be
in a bad position to ask for the line item so that we can have that in this year's budget and then create the frame? No, not necessarily. So what we would do is we would we would we all need to talk about we need to have a um an educated estimate a rough guess on what we
believe would be donated in the fiscal year. So what we would do is we would just create a and again this may not be the case. what we may what may end up happening um you'll probably see in the revenues but we probably would just stick that anticipated revenue within your committee line item. So let's say
for example y'all your request this year is $15,000 just and but we anticipate to get donated $5,000 when you look at the revenue line item you're going to see uh you would only see the 5,000 for donations. You're not going to see the
15 because you don't receive revenue 15. We just budget that directly. So you would see that, but in under admin where your line item is for committee expenses, you're going to see committee expenses, $20,000. So that would encompass your 5,000 donations and your 15,000 that the city
would give you, right? So we wouldn't have two different expense lines. We'd have one expense line for the committee, but we could we could keep track internally the difference between the two sets of money. Is there any requesting that extra line item? Is that is that time sensitive? Do we have to do that at any particular time or can we do
that whenever we want? Yeah, well, we'll put it in this budget. So, if that's something that this this board is committed to doing over the next fiscal year, we would just go and create a revenue on line item, put the estimated amount in it, and we would all but then we would take and he'd have you have an offset in the expense like it just talked about. And what we do with that
is that way if you if this committee only receives $1,000 in donations, we only spend $1,000. We only we only do actual. So, what you what you earn is what you spend. That makes sense. Do we need a motion to create that line item or is that just something we can ask for?
Um, it it can't hurt. I was going to say it probably would be good for clarity to have a motion for a certain amount. Yeah. Um, get in a second and then we can discuss it. Yeah. So, basically we would just probably make a motion to, you know,
recommend the city council to establish donation revenue for the tree board and then you set a dollar amount there. Whatever you whatever you feel we may receive in the fiscal year. Go ahead. I make a motion that we make a line item for let's say 10,000.
You want to shoot for the moon and donations. That's seems like a lot. Seems like a lot. But but like you said, shoot for the moon. But again, let's make the motion. Complete your motion. We'll get a second then we can discuss it. Let's You want to say 5,000? Let's say
let's say 5,000. Okay. make a motion to create a line item for $5,000 in donations for the tree board. I second. Okay. Okay. Any discussion on the amount? Do we think 5,000 is reasonable? Do we want to go higher or lower?
Well, we say 5,000. If we get more, that still work, right? Yeah. If it like say it's only actual. So, we get through the year and you only get 4,000, you're good. We won't spend another thousand. If we get halfway through the year and you get 10,000, then we'll have to make adjust a budget adjustment.
We'll bring it back to you, show it to you, and take the council. Okay. Any further discussion before we take a vote? Okay. All those in favor? I I Okay, passes unanimously. So, but I do believe that though we can
we start maybe start this time, maybe next time, but we do need to start setting some parameters and creating that kind of that that policing. What is it? What is it we're looking at? Um, so that way we know when people we start to receive those funds, we have something in place where we're to use it for. So,
thank you, Sydney. I apologize to the board. No, thank you. I'm sorry that went completely blank. I'm like, I don't remember anything we talked about. Now, it all comes back. Yeah. No, it's good. I just need
Thank you. All right. Is uh everybody okay if we take just a couple of minute break here so we can preview this over and then we'll reconvene? [Applause] Is everybody have a moment. Okay. So, let's
reconvene. Let's go back to 3B, the 2026 budget uh followup and the update. Um the um notes that Sumi provided were her personal notes, not minutes. Um but this is from uh the workshop that was held on
on the 5th of June. So, I'm seeing that collaborating with staff on the parks master plan that was more and and Sumi actually had
some good insight on that as far as you know not necessarily collaborating with staff I think is what we decided but it was best for us to come up with what we felt was like a good checklist and then ask if that could be set as an as a I don't know how to word it, but
you know, standard. A standard. Okay. Yeah. So, um you know, just like visiting the parks and just sort of seeing what might be being missed or you know, just a good checklist, right? And then what was uh was there
anything that you can recall on like the actual master parks plan on if we were wanting to create our own or assimilate from that master park follow it. We went through it and this is all stuff
that came up. We went from front to end. I mean um Right. And so there was a lot that we were just like it doesn't really it's not in our scope. Mhm. I I personally didn't see um Well, I know we had talked in one of the meetings, the one I think just before
our workshop where Kobe had mentioned that the cemetery board had created something that was a master plan that the board created and that that would be something that we could do when that's really what we were going by is this is more of a five-year plan. So if you look
at it here, dog park being number one, putting it at the top and then um Florence, see it see how it says first year uh and then really trying to go after Florence Park the first year. Now some of them are big. So like restrooms, you know, moving on out to the next year or
possibly the next. Um then the Chipley Park, which of course would be year three or four. This is just because it's her notes, but now I'm seeing what this was sort of our fiveyear notes of the fiveyear plan. Okay. Um so it's in order, you know, what was priority, which was the dog park in
Florence. So is this something that um and I may I may have misunderstood when uh Kobe was talking about the cemetery uh board creating something. It was
something like this but formal and yeah so yeah so staff so myself the maintenance foreman um another maint superintendent the grants coordinator and then Chris Mitchell was here so basically we create a five-year plan for the cemetery and then we present it to
the cemetery board approved it I've got to give it to the council and let them look at it and see if they will approve it and then that point then we would start following those and it starts next fiscal year 26 through 31 and different things so yeah I mean we that's what we're looking for we're And it could be a tenure. Parks are much bigger. There's number there's more of them. There's more things to be done
other than just the one. Um, and so it could be 10 year, but going through there looking at all and that's the I think so this is a good start. I think it's going to it's going to take a few meetings because you may have and it's up to this board however we want to try to tackle parks, right? Do you want to
say this year is this park only and then next year is this park, next year's that park or we looking at this year we want to make enhancement here, here and here and then jump around it. It's it's whatever y'all would like to do and put together. Um, so it it could be anything. And I think as as I left the
conversation, I thought more about it. I think we also need to take some time and this even even if we don't use this anymore, at least is a good resource. I took there's a lot of there's information there. There's photos you can work off of. Hasn't been a lot of changes to anything there other than Florence has been and we need to determine if there's parts we want to keep, there's parts we want to get rid of and then and then on
top of that then new ones. Particular the dog part, right? That would be a new one. But are there existing ones that need to go away that need to be recommended to the council for removal? And I say that because does every does every part we have is it good? Is it used? Does it need to be enhanced? Or there certain ones that really it's not worth the time and
resources. Let's take those time resources. Let's put them to something else that's being used more heavily. Right. So I think those are part of the discussion too of recommendations to close down if there's any. There may not be any. Um but so that that needs to be looked at as well. Um the checklist isn't a bad idea. We could do an annual checklist
basically of every park. We're going run through there and looking at everything different stuff. Uh I'll I'll say this. I'll say that and I hear I've seen some of that here with part of the city's reorg that we're going through right now. Um I will be shifting
cemetery. So grounds division will now become parks and grounds division. They will be responsible that division will be responsible for cutting the grass and maintaining the grounds. But also the playground equipment that's currently under maintenance that will be shifting over. Maintenance will still you know clean the bathrooms. They will still
pick up the garbage and open and close parks because that's that's how schedule we have on now. And then the cemetery will be moving under parks and grounds as well. Cemetery will be treated as a park and that's part of the master plan for that. And then same thing with downtown. Downtown is moving under parks and grounds in terms of cutting. We're going to treat it as a park. We're going
to change the way we run people through there and cut the grass. Uh so we're just reallocating some resources, throwing more resources at things, hopefully get it done quicker and moving some stuff around. So um and that goes before the 28th that goes before the council on the 28th
or did that was that last one? It's already been approved. So we will start making those movements. Uh we're doing it now and it'll be all completed by October 1st. Okay. But some of the stuff I can kind of give a quick update on as before we go any deeper. Um Florence Park, the shade
sales delivered the other day. So we will be getting those hopefully installed in August. Um deal there. The uh Okay, that's it for for Florence. Chipley Park, the equipment is here. They're actually, as you seen, they're working on the the ground now. That should be done first, second week of August. Amphitheater is going through
preliminary design phase now with the CRA. So they're working on surveying at the moment. the Henry Park, the bathrooms. I spoke to the count, the inter county administrator. They should begin doing that here in the next few weeks, starting that project. So, that should be getting kicked off here soon for that renovation.
So, they did find somebody to do the work. Yep. Okay. That's exciting. Yep. So, that should be getting started here soon. Uh Harvest, that interlocal agreement is more specifically geared toward the field. They don't the county doesn't do anything with the skate park. Um, we are looking at, we started with
the tennis courts with the lights there first to see how that program works with FPL. Um, and that program should with the new lighting, I think it's $168 a month for all six apparatuses. That's the basically the lease lease charge. Um, hopefully with, you know, increased
efficiency and lighting that should help bring that down. Our next one is was going to be the skate park was replacing the lights there with these these new lights and then moving around to where they're needed. Um and then obviously the for trails we haven't went any further with that too. So that's some information on what you have.
The mayor last meeting told me the mayor was explaining how harvest was sort of a you know different people involved and you know he didn't really know you know that would be basically uh the field itself the county maintains it. They also run it through
the rec program so they're the ones who maintain the schedule to it with a with athletic league and stuff. So we really don't we don't touch harvest. We don't touch the field, but we do we maintain the skate park. That's ours. Yeah. Okay. And then jumping back up to the
dog park, what were what were the last pieces and parts that were falling together? I think we you know we talked about we got some rough numbers. We were looking around. We were around that $50,000 mark. If you were to use existing property between the fences that fence cost the uh
let's see here fence the trash cans signage uh putting in the water and the waterers. Um I don't know what abbreviations are there but everything we talked about was going to be roughly $50,000 based off what we were given. So, what I would suggest we
do um here in the next because we as as we do the budget process as well uh before middle September, I'll have our CIP go back to the council for updating to identify projects that we've completed this year or the new ones we've established. And so, anything over 50,000 goes on the CIP. So, I would
recommend that we put that on we take that as a recommendation add to it. Um and so that's also part of this master plan kind of as what I'm talking what I was talking about of going park by park understanding what should we do here at this park and we have a section on the
CIP for parks matter well may not anymore took Florence off because what they did and you could have each park's name and it' be its rehab project and then if it's 50,000 more it go and it would have a dollar amount associated with it and if it isn't 50,000 it would
go we would do it internally and it would be on your this. So, that's also part of the master plan is depending on how much the renovations cost we're looking at, they may or may not go on to our capital improvement plan. Well, and I I think um it sounds like the discussion was really good at our at
our workshop and I think we it echoes the things that we've been talking about for a long time. So, my personal opinion is workshopping this out um with a couple of workshops where we can really get into the pinpoint.
Yeah. To get into the nitty-gritty of what we'd like to see and what we would recommend. And then at that point, once we have Kobe, if we have a a general idea of what we want to do, would that be when you would go back to staff?
Am I am I understanding that right? or or would they be part of our workshop with public works and like I I wouldn't want it to just be us because there's a lot of stuff that we're not going to know. Uh yeah, we should be able to u Yeah, we
get beware. Okay. All right. Thank you. And Sunumi, thank you for the notes so that we could have a a starting point. So, do we need to make any formal request for um placing the dog park on
the capital improvements project list? Yes. Okay. And am I correct in in summarizing that that was the first on the list? Yes. So, I would entertain a motion
accordingly. I'll make a motion. Okay. to put the dog park on. So to recommend to the city council to add to the city's capital improvement plan the dog park did it in that location right there. Like you read my mind. This one here right here is this
location. Yes. Yes. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. All in favor? I. This will um depending on some of these next the next items, it could be an agenda item on our next agenda or I could we could wait
until I bring back a draft copy of next year's CIP to the council. So do preference, no preference. What is your recommendation? We'll see how these next items go and we'll see if you'll have any more coming forth that maybe work to knock them all out at once.
Okay, sounds good. Okay. So, we can go past 3C, which the dog park update, and then we're going to move forward uh with everyone's if I if I haven't missed anything on 3E, the
iron work and sign located at the Tesla intersection. So, we have a size and materials update. We definitely discussed that. Okay. Yeah. Uh remember some we went with we even talked about the design So what is what is I don't know who was
bringing the the update. So what I what I needed from the board was kind of what the general size was going to be what you were looking for. Our welder can do the um the rod iron section of it. Um I have not found a brickmason but the contractor who is doing the library especially forward to
me a brickmason that he uses here locally. So when he does that I can contact them and see and kind of provide to them the sketch that that we have gotten from Miss Adams and kind of see what that look like. But we kind of we need to know what dimensions y'all spoke of. So height, width, that was my bad. I That's right. Got that somewhere.
Well, no, I we have the sketch and all, but just going back over there and sort of doing a size like does it need to be six foot, 9 foot, 4 foot, and I'm not sure. I'll have to look and bring that back. So we can forward before the next meeting forward that. This is six feet. Yeah. Essentially, right? So I feel like it
would probably need to be at least that. Yeah. Like from inside to inside, would you want it wider than that? Right. And then you'd have your brick what, a foot wide on each side of that? I'd maybe say 18 in wide.
Yeah. So probably eight foot outside to outside at least. Yeah. Yeah. So 8 foot outside be a foot and a half brick wide. You're looking five foot middle. That sounds about right. Well, is that something you need? We if you need more dimensions before the next
meeting because we want to get rolling on that. No, I just write them down. Like I said, I'm hoping he'll send me the contact for that brickmason. If he doesn't, I'll get up with him and see. But um we need we need someone to tell us kind of what it cost to build those columns and to do that. Um and then our welder should be able to do all the rod iron.
So is five feet enough? Because that's what we just said. Let's do six with the outside of the brake. So that'd be a 9 foot total, right? Six. And then we're nine foot outside the outside. and the rod iron. And what did we say for some of you remember going across the springs?
Definiac Springs. Then we were going to do this later where we hung where people can hang signs on the outside of the Raven. Yeah. You're going to have an iron piece on either side and then it has, you know, pharmacy or city hall that way, police station that way, just
directional. No. You know, makes a nice little permit. So with those little bits on the outside, it would probably end up being 10 or 11 feet. And then how about height? Well, he said nine foot wide outside to outside. So you have foot and a half
column. So six foot six foot middle. We could do the other after we got a built right. We could add on Yeah. Yeah. And we have a welder that could do that. How tall How tall you want columns to be? Yeah. You want to be able to see them?
It's hard for me just to come up. I would say eight foot anyway. Wouldn't you say eight foot the columns you want? Because then you're still going to have that. Yeah, that maybe that's too high because you're going to still have a rounded on top of it.
I think no higher than six. Six. And then that other piece probably about eight by the time you put the the fiac springs wherever that's made out of top that peak tip of that peak probably six feet. top that feet probably talking another by the time you round it off that's
that's another four to six feet that two feet that high you have enough you got enough to span nine feet sure the total will be 10 to 12 feet tall like you're talking about yeah if you want to be able to see it okay
can I get the total of those that dimensions please I got okay anything else to add on that before we move on. You're done. All right. 3F the Rotary Club grant update.
Barbara had said that she had spoke with you, Barbara Jones. Oh, she might be confused. Okay. So, um they did get that grant and I believe it was for 1400, but they're actually separating it and they wanted to spend I
think three to 400 on trees at our choice. I think she did she did contact me and said she was going to get back with me. Okay. But I didn't I didn't know the details on it. So, I'm sorry. Okay. So, and then um I didn't realize that they had also spoke to Main Street.
So, I I just found that out and so what they're wanting to do is help with maintenance for the downtown in any way that could be used. Um you know, so uh that's that's what I have. So, we need clarity on how much you're giving for trees and how much for something,
right? And I I can find out because um how does that work? Is that going to the donation fund? That's what I was about to ask. If that's something that would be able to go again the parameters we got to know what like the fund so you know is the donation fund for you is it just a general donation fund. So the tree
board's budget is 10,000 but any dollar above you know people if we get $5,000 worth of donations it can go to anything. Or are y'all trying to say no the donation fund is we're asking for donations. We're talking about Main Street specifically cuz I know that was conversation about the Jedi, right? So that's that's something you all need
to decide on what you want to use donations for. You want to do it to supplement the budget or you're trying to do a specific thing with it. Can that be just what we decided? Well, in their instance, they got a grant so they have to follow their grant. So if it doesn't fall in that then we would still I would think still
take their Yeah, we'll still take their and that could be a case by case. So if that happens and they have a grant they got to comply with, we can always do that case by case. Um, and you may not want to set parameters. You may want to say, "We want the ability to kind of dictate donation of the go." I was looking at from a donor's perspective of where the
money go, right? Yeah. Even with our church, we have like a building and grounds. It can still sort of be a broad spectrum. You know what I mean? We have a cemetery fund of building and grounds. So maybe and I don't want to get too down deep in the weeds, but it's not impossible to account for that stuff, right? It's not
impossible to say, "Hey, we've got four initiatives going on. You can donate. We're going to put this money in this initiative." That's something be internally kept up with through this board. It doesn't have to be it doesn't create it don't it doesn't require four GL codes. I I will say that they were for the main
street the downtown project. The reason that they wanted to do it was because everything that they saw going on downtown they wanted to help. Maintenance was the big thing further it but any other shrubs that we might want in that area or trees. Um, so if there's
any other areas down there that you know got missed or we want larger trees, um, I'll get a I'll get a dollar amount and let you know. All right, that'll be good. Thank you for that since my memory can't be trusted. All right, 3G, removal of the cedar tree
on Main Street, which was what I was about to say, like if there's a place where we might I have gave in. I have gave in as long as but last meeting we said that we still had to get approval to remove. Right. And then I said after I'd had a
couple people tell me more background of it. I don't want to it's not a hill worth dying over. So I don't I don't necessarily want to be the one that goes and you know steps on. What's the background that that it was it was given by Robert
Nelson or I don't know there's Robertson commander said who's the president of the DVPA said the DVA DBPA put it in a few years back they're trying to dedicate it um but you know in so I don't know Robert Nelson wanted to cut down
oh see I heard opposite no he okay he contacted me you know a few years ago and it's more Robert that I was worried I mean I just didn't want to go against you know I'm or if we remove it, you know, make sure we do something. Yes, I still think we need to do something impactful,
whether it's green or whether I know we had talked in previous years about doing a sculpture, but something that's impactful there. And that is something the downtown is desperately missing is sculptures. I mean, you go to Pensacola and it's a big part of their downtown area.
It could be a collaboration with the uh cultural arts. For sure. Yeah, but I do think we need to decide on something about what y'all want to do with the area because there is a storm water issue there. Some water pulling up that some people want to see get fixed. And so I was waiting to have staff go
and cut concrete, move dirt until, you know, you all figured out what you wanted to do. I didn't want to go do work and then turn around undo the work two months later. No. Well, maybe the tree needs to come down for the work. No, ma'am. I appreciate that. Don't worry. Don't worry. tried to hell.
I I can feel it. You see, cedar trees will grow almost on anything. And you know, we have a lot of trouble losing things. And cedar trees, as you know, are pretty tough. What I would not want to see is the cedar tree gets taken down and then nothing ends up.
Let's come up. Let's sort of table it and then come up with a plan. Try to think about what could go there. Okay. Okay. maybe worth reaching out to the I think I think sculpture is a great idea. Get some ideas for the next meeting. Yeah,
sculpture. Thank you. Okay. And then three H berries and blooms for Chippy Park update. And I think we kind of you've already really covered that. Is there anything else? No. But if we don't get donations, we're
still moving forward this fall and winter. Mhm. I think planning. Yeah. No, no update. I Yeah, I've just been busy trying to bring more color and stuff to the park, right? And not cost a bunch, but um Yeah.
Okay. New business. Um this was something that uh it's proposal to use the natural armor weed killer. I'm not u married to this brand, but I I've I've had it used on my own yard. Um, I would really love
to see the city get rid of the glyphosate, uh, the Roundup that is ruining our foods and our waterways. Um, I know it doesn't, but in in in my opinion, in a lot of scientific studies, um, so, uh, anyway,
um, I would like to see us go to something more like the natural armor. Um, the ingredients are uh vinegar, citrus, sodium, essential oil, glycerin, and water. Um, even with glyphosate, you've still got to reapply, reapply,
reapply. There's not really much difference except I just think it's better for our health to not have to use that. I'm all for trying it. Yeah. So I would I I wanted to also note that as far back as 2019, there are a number of cities in
Florida that have ceased using glyphosate. Miami, Miami Beach, Howlandale Beach, uh the entirety of Martin County and Indian River County, Satellite Beach, Stewart, Vero Beach, Key West, and Fort Myers Beach. So this
would be something that from my perspective if we wanted to pursue and see if we could uh get agreement from the city that we could also introduce it to the county and have something that we might be able to make a bigger impact
than just within our city limits. So I'd like I'm bringing that uh for discussion. So didn't summer last meeting didn't we talk about somebody was donate gonna the University of Florida or maybe it was donate something she actually reached out today and I
haven't spoken with her in a while but um so she missed that opportunity um she was supposed to do some paperwork that she didn't do so she did not get that pallet so we will not be receiving that. Uh, also though, just not really sort of on the same subject, but I do want to tell you that she was the one that
offered the um cypress trees at a discounted price, but I told her that we didn't have any more money. Um, so she said she'd still like to donate three to four and if the city would go pick them up, they're really large cypress trees for the lakeyard, but she just said that somebody would have to come get them.
Where we want to put them? Because we've done them before, right? And they died. Yeah. Well, they're still down in the, you know, in the northeast corner. We replanted a couple. I think there's still one or two living. We had to take two out, you know, down in the hole because that's where, you know, Cypress likes water. So that's why we tried down
in that part of the park. We could try some other low areas closer to the lake. What about So, so um I drove the other day and I was thinking at part of the park's master plan like for example, we haven't talked about Stanley Park. Stanley Park can be something really really nice, right? There's a lot of
area there at the little boat ramp that could be cleaned up and used as a beach area and people could actually use again we'll put them wherever I feel like they're more suited there near the lake that lake rather than this lake because we I don't know that we want to put them anywhere near the water chip that's up we can see
um but we'd have to put them on the other side of the sidewalk. Yes. To get for get adequate water to be on the inside. I have no problem if there's a place in Stanley Park, you know. Yeah, I don't either. Yeah, you fine. we can find a location because the only thing Yeah, they grow knees.
They grow a lot of knees. It takes a while. I mean, I'll be long gone for a no need. But we probably need to We talked about sometime having a the board meeting at Stanley Park. We've never really even been down there, right? Much.
It's been years since we took a a field trip. So, we've been everywhere else. That's that's part of our workshop plan is that we need to There's a lot of opportunity there. Yeah. Yeah. We probably need to I did go look where y'all planted the trees though and that's nice. Sorry, I wasn't there. All right. Glad you were there.
So, if we can circle back and then we'll come back to this because we've kind of gotten off off target. Um, let's first talk about the weed killer. You guys are, you know, in in this more than I
am. I'm on a maybe a different plane from what you guys No, I always like to recommend less impactful uh chemicals when um I give recommendations for things like that. I will say that I would put in a caveat that uh
use the less impactful chemicals unless the weeds control are known to not be responsive to them. So, if we had, for example, a patch of Kogan grass, you can burn it with vinegar all you want and it's going to keep coming back
and and probably stronger because you killed everything else near it. Um, you've just damaged the top parts of the plant and the roots. Uh, and the same would go for anything with those those roots that it can regenerate, more woody stuff, right? So, but I say try that on
encourage using that or those sorts of um treatments before you rely you you resort to something um that has more potential environmental impacts. As everybody knows, grass is all over
the city, right? I mean, it's just continuously. And there's plenty of other weeds that that we can use other have similar habits and and vinegar just isn't going to knock them back for long. Um
it it may be perfectly serviceable for 90% of what's out there, though. I think on on the weeds that we have, we I mean on the plants we planted up in Baldwin, I think that area, you know, there's not much cocoa grass there. It might be a good place we could use it. Well, and that's kind of what I was
thinking generally is particularly around a a bigger population and people to kind of get rid of some of the more toxic stuff. And obviously, I know that it's not going to take care of everything. And if you go downtown and look where we had the weed fabric, it looks great. I
mean, some there's some edges which could be pulled really easily. There's a few that we did. We didn't we had so many plants that we didn't know that we did areas that we had not planned to do and so they didn't have the fabric, you know, and they looked really really bad
until yesterday and doc is down there which I didn't know that was a that's our staff. We we it's the M crews we get. So they started Monday working through downtown. They were pruning some of the bread pairs today. I saw Yeah, it looked really good. So I was I noticed but then the next day they were
down there. So that's good. But um maybe some of our maintenance plan too to be on the more natural side is let's really look at some more weed fabric. I agree. You know on a on a large scale gardener we do not spray. Now I'm at my wits end
right now. You know what I mean? Because it's once you go commercial to to go with what you're proposing is really hard. I'm not saying it's not possible or it's not worth trying, but it's hard.
So maybe maybe let's just try some more weed fabric and and that you know but um it's hard although I mean so if something this board's going to move forward with I think it does need a recommendation to the council and I don't say that because I I can go and tell them stop buying glass start doing but if you're going to
do an initiative like you just mentioned through other cities and you're trying to go to the county I think you're going to need the council to to kind of support that and put some put some on behind it. So if you're going to do it I think that's what you do. Um now we do we have been we will just start doing it more
prominently you know spraying 331 and 90 spraying you know all the state highways on on the sidewalks running down side streets and uh you know downtown we spray so you're going to do you know designate to a certain area that we only use certain chemicals or you going to do for the
whole thing but we do going by by the the drum loads so I mean couldn't it be just a mo motion like you're not going to take round off off the table for glyphosate, but where alternative safer,
you know, products can be used, you know, we'll use them. I don't know if we have to make a motion to, you know, well, but that can, you know, can we just do that? Please, no, no offense to the staff, but it would be real easy to say, well, I've got a truckload of glyphosate and it's
going to be a lot easier for me to go do that than to go back and get this other stuff that I don't have. And you know, I I think that's a little too loose. Janet, we haven't heard from you. I'm a no chemical person because I have
people who want to kill things at the farm when they do landscaping work for me. And I just look at them. You can do it manually. You can use equipment, but you cannot put chemicals because I'm a watershed property to the creeks that run to the river. Okay?
And it's just a no no. I have one exception and that's u invasives that are hard to kill and I do use um a brush killer bio advanced but it is painted on as I cut
so that I'm not over yeah I'm not over it's how I put it on I'm not overspraying so well yeah and that would come into play in some of our parks like the lakey guard you don't want stuff running into the lake so that's you got to You said Max follow the label. I mean,
and use the least impactful treatment property, but I'm not running a commercial property. I have five acres of private property. So, uh, but I have seen I've seen a huge difference um, in the two years that I've been caregiving at my parents house
because they became unable to dose chemicals regularly. Um, and I have more wildlife in the form of pollinators. I have more natural areas that I'm allowing to come
back. Um, and I I don't use it there either. I've just seen a total change in that property as well from going when my mom used chemicals all the time for everything and using none for two years. Could you reach out to some of these
towns, cities, and see what they're using? Sure. I mean, maybe that should be like let's if they're doing it, how how successful what are they using that's right on another note, glyphosate's one of the safest chemicals out there. We're not going to have that
compared to a lot of other chemicals. You ever see Chelco what they spray? It could be. I think it sounds like it's it's a little more than just, you know, I think there's some is it something this board will see that the city doesn't spray in parks only sprays on right across. So I think there's a little more discussion
to be had about yes where people Yeah. where people are because that's going to dictate resource allocation manpower to a manual labor versus that's why they took arsenic out of treated wood in playgrounds because
they were afraid that kids would get arsonic. So that's why our wood don't last as long anyway. Okay. Well, thank you guys for that and yes, I will come back and find out a little bit more. Uh 4B, right-ofway planting. Um I'm I'm
bringing this up because uh a couple of reasons. A couple of the residents over the last maybe two or three months had approached me. One person was upset because she was told she couldn't do something with something that was in the right way in front of her home. Um, then I had
another resident who uh who's actually here tonight uh and she had wanted to plant something nice in front of her home, a a crepe myrtle or something there. Um, and was also told that she couldn't. Um, I did I I looked through
our um our land development and couldn't find anything. And so I did reach out to Chris Wallace and um he said, "As far as I know, we don't have anything in our code. I think the main thing is to keep plants under three feet and any tree needs to be tall enough as to not
obstruct visibility at intersections. I wish I had more, but it's pretty vague." So I think it is vague on what you can do, who can do it. Um I've got a palm tree that's barely alive because it's too shaded to it's not planted in the
right place any longer. and I was told I can't do anything with it. So, I I think that there's some uh either misinformation or or not enough information. So, I wanted to bring this to the board and ask like
what what are your thoughts on this? Is this Who told her? Who told her no? Someone from staff. Miss Mcnoo, would may I put you on the spot if you want? Would you like to come up to the Okay.
I know it only hearing. Okay. Come up. Please come up and and state your name and spell it if you need to for the record. I'm Kirk McNe and that's my mother, Linda, and she owns the house that's
right across from the library. Uh, and she had requested uh to put in a tree in the rightway that's along live oak. And I think from years ago there was a tree there that died and it was removed. Um and she didn't ask for what
type of tree. She just requested if we could put one in, but there was never any discussion about what type. And uh she got like from secondhand from somebody else through departments that no that was a liability issue for falling limbs or something which it's
kind of nonsense when you look around. So, I don't even know if it got interpreted correctly when it came back as being denied. Um, but the neighbors across the street did get approval and they're at the corner of Live Oak and Crescent. Very similar type situation,
but they got approval to put tree two trees in. Who's approving that? So, I'm not sure. So, I'm not So, we'll get to your crate or whatever put in. I mean that's I'm not real. So at the corner of Crescent we the city cut down uh I know
one maybe it's like there was a definitely there was one I think there was two they were both dead so we cut those down right away and then we replanted those we replanted with trees similar to what's already running down live oak so whatever you know you see there so it stays that those trees that say a
lower height I'm not sure who I'm not sure who you spoke to do we have any idea uh it was kind of coming through second third hand you talked to was it Chris Chris, but he got it from Scott. So, it wasn't directly from Scott or anything. So,
yeah, I'm not sure. Um I don't know why you would because there's no power lines there. Correct. Power lines are on the other side. Uh no, there's power lines that run through there. Yeah, but on yours on that side of Crescent on that side of Live Oak. Yes. And there's already trees that are
along that right away, too. Um yeah, I'm not sure. So, um, well, when I we get done, I'll give you my card. Okay. Just give me a call and I'll have to I'll meet you out there next week. See what it is you're looking for. Okay. Just first heard of it. So, yeah. It could have just been a misunderstanding because of how it came back to her.
Yeah. Okay. Uh, just one question. Only thing we discussed about not planting a former councilman. We said we couldn't plant Laurel. That's the only tree we said we didn't want to plant in the rightways because those are the ones that are all dying in the city and being cut down.
We have a we have a list. So Chris uh Chris I mean plant community development now. So community development now contains they have a list of trees that aren't allowed to be planted or they haven't yeah the allowance they have ones that are allowed anything not on list it's not so okay we'll get that with you but yeah I'll
give you my card and get done and come out and meet you one day and talk to you and see where you're looking to do it because again first I've heard of it so aware of what may have went on. All right appreciate that. Thank you. what from my perspective I think we need clarity for for our citizens on what can
be done and what can't be done um and and what's very clear and because it's not clear to me um and because this has come up a couple of times and I I have wondered myself and I've looked and I'll look later um and then when Chris
Wallace can't show me anything in the code I think we need right we need to dig in we can we can work on something have we go over time. Um, obviously, you know, new development or redevelopment, they all got to follow LDC, right? So, they already are given list. They know the setbacks, they know the can, they can't, they can't. So,
right now, it's typically on a case by case basis because not not a lot of people are trying to put something in the right of way. Um, so, you know, we can look at putting something together. It's it's a lot of times going to depend on, you know, the location, where it's at, what is it dealing with because we want to make sure we're not putting stuff, you know, in between sidewalks in
the road, you know, what's it, you know, adhering hindering maintenance. So, we can work on some stuff. I think here, you know, up until now, it's always been on a case by case so we can figure out something. But I'd like to see us work on something just even if it's very
broad, something that we can say, "Here's what you can do. You're maintaining it. We're maintaining it, you know, very clear. Why don't you say that they have to come to the tree beautifification and request and then if it's a case by case, it's decided if it's
Sure. Because like Kobe said, you got power lines, you got corners where it could be. Yeah, that could be something that could be done for sure. Yeah, because it doesn't come up much, but it's enough that we want to have a clear process for the citizens. We definitely we want to encourage it to
be planted. It does a couple things. one we we need to make the type because power company will cut that down in a heartbeat. So, so um but you know we obviously want to encourage it along you know who's going to maintain it right typically people I'm not not you not saying you a lot of people put stuff in the right way and
that's the city's responsibility now that happens a lot right and then on top of that but we do need trees planted for tree city you know we have a lot of requirements to maintain that designation in terms of trees that are cut down planted money spent like so so it helps out with that designation as well yeah we're cutting down trees almost
weekly on a lot of them are dying And now thank you. Thank you so much. Um, one thing that I I wanted to cover before we get to uh citizens comments. Um, I had emailed Raphael and please
know that this is not a a disparagement of Raphael. We all know what a wonderful job he does. I'm very thankful for him. Um, but I had asked for um something about the Veterans Memorial Park to be put on the agenda back in the beginning of July and he missed it and then he was
out when I asked him to put it back on. Um, so I the reason I I put it on there is that there's going to be a presentation to um our city council on the 28th and um since we weren't able to cover it in this um I I know our council
looks to us as I mean we're here for a reason. We're a very lively um active and proactive board. Um I'd like us to be able to because the the proposed location or locations for that has been
in Chipley Park and that is what I would certainly consider um our purview for some time and considering that we also have talked about coming up with a master plan. I think that we as a board should be able to to give um you know
our opinion on that because it's kind of a big deal. Um but uh since it's not on our agenda tonight and not being able to take action um what I'd like to do is see if we can just call a special meeting shouldn't take too terribly long. Um if and I wanted to see what
your availability may be next week for that. We did discuss that briefly at the last Well, the mayor gave us an update. Yeah, I think it was pretty much that it was still Yeah. And heated topic where
we didn't make a motion or nothing, but we discussed about putting it down where the cypress trees are where nothing grows in the center there. That's the only thing. Nothing was formal, nothing. But you know what I'm talking about. northeast corner where we got the down in there where nothing seems to survive.
There's already a round. I didn't, forgive me. I didn't realize that this was one of our projects. I thought someone else was heading this up. It's not our project, but this is our area that we're, you know, kind of charged with, right?
Um, so I feel like what we have to say about it has merit. Yeah. Has merit. Yeah. I got So, yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, the mayor brought it up, I think. So, I I don't know what I don't think it would take us more than 15 or 20 minutes. I don't foresee it being long,
but because they are presenting to the council before our next meeting, um, I'd like there to be some discussion on it. Gotcha. Um, and I I'm open to suggestions for a time next week. It doesn't have to be after hours. If somebody would prefer to
have it during a lunchtime or something, I'm I'm open. But Wednesday evening, Thursday evening, Monday evening, Tuesday is the farmers market. Monday's cattleman meeting. Yeah. Yeah. I've got a meeting literally every
night and then I leave on vacation. Okay. So, I will not be able to attend. You want to do a lunch? You're out of town as well. Next week. Next week. Okay. Sorry. So, because it's not on here, Kim, are you looking for the board to to to have a formal recommendation to
the council or to provide some sort of formal feedback to them? Yeah. Yeah. I was say because that's what Okay, then you're probably you're going to need a meeting motion. If not, then maybe every board member kind of writes up writes their response to the item and we can provide that to council members
for for input. But you're looking for a formal recommendation from this board of what this board feels is appropriate not appropriate then yeah you're going to need me. But what location are you looking for different things design location or what? No I'm looking for So they're making a proposal the uh CRA is making a proposal
that they're going to put it in that location. Um period. So what I would like the board to say is do we think that's appropriate? Do we have other opinions? Do we agree with that? Um what what is what is our take on that?
Okay. But since it's not on the agenda here, we need to do a separate Yes. The only other thing would be um since I did request it um by email if you all would be okay with adding it to the agenda um we can put it on tonight.
No. No. So what we will do moving forward because if we pass we will I'll have Rafia we will add an addition or deletions item onto onto your agenda from now on. So uh probably under so from now on before you get the old business we'll have a section for like
we do for city council additions and that'll allow y'all to have to add or add or delete things on the meeting. I would not tonight because it's not not on there. It's not scheduled. It's not public noticed. So, you do either need to have a separate meeting to talk about that particular topic or each board member to provide their uh what they
feel about the the project and where it's located. And I can give that every council member for their for them to have it. It's up to y'all. Yeah. Okay. I got a little bit of new business when we get to it. Just a brief. I I could do I have a meeting at 5:30 Tuesday. I
could do 4:30 Tuesday if it's gonna be quick. And even without him here, if Janet Yeah. Okay. Three of us. I can make it. Well, that's correct. Can they send the recommendations to you or to
Raphael? They can't talk. They can what I what I can't talk. From what I'm hearing, and I don't know what you're going to do, but I can foresee you getting here and getting nowhere, right? Only three people. I just I can read the room. So, um, so I
think you need to take consideration while we're sitting here if it was worth the time or not. Yeah. Okay. Well, um, we can I would say we could discuss it tonight and we won't take any action on it and then your business.
No, no, no, it's not on the agenda. Okay. Well, I sure did put it in an email. I know. So, can I bring up something else? Yes. This is not This is something I worked with former councilman and I
don't know if this council done anything. I'm trying to work a little bit on getting that old tower removed by Century Lake and I don't you know I talked to former councilman and I've talked to the person that works there. He told me you know getting hold of Lumen's the new owner
bought out Central Link but you know that big old tower they don't even use it and they said they have a lot of problems with lightning hitting it. So they were even willing to you know this is this guy talking this not from a head up but willing to help fund to take it down you know we didn't
know if that would be something CR could do but you know tower I'm talking about that's big old ugly thing up there so I don't know you know if I want to continue to pursue pursue that or and so we can get a recommendation to the city council or something about
removal of that tower. how you want me to proceed. I mean, you need to talk about your next meeting agenda item. I I hate to keep I hate being that way, but unfortunately the board is under sunshine, right? Yeah. Which is is aggravating. Very aggravating. Everybody knows it. But if you are going to talk about discuss
and make a recommendation to something or someone or you got to be advertised so people can come and participate. That's kind of the downside of Florida Suntown law. So we can get it on agenda for next meeting and if I get more information I'll present it. Okay.
Very good. Get my torch ready. Uh as a reminder um every board member can put something on the agenda. So please get that to Raphael preferably by Monday at the very latest before our
Thursday meetings so that it can be included on the agenda. If he's not here, who do we send it to? You can send it to me and Raphael, but the earlier the better because there is a hard deadline. So if
anything gets sent prior to it getting published, you know, posted and everything, then there was nothing we can do. So there are hard deadlines. Seven days actually. So we would like for you to
have your agenda items. Seven days. Go ahead. So we would that would be preferred, right? Because they're only once a month. Cities ordinances is 48 hours. We have to have stuff noticed and to the public 48 hours at a minimum. So anything within that 48 hour window can
do. So that's why we will we can add this I I feel I'm confident with that. I can ask attorney as well when I speak to him. But confident we can add that section of add or delete from the agenda and we may you know we may end up changing old business and new business. It's just business. So, um, we can work
on that, but move forward, we can do that. Okay. All right. Very good. Uh, citizen comments. Nothing. Yeah. I Please state your name and spell it for the record.
Sure. Kyle TS K Y L A TE BBS. I'm the business manager at the Council on Aging. Now, before you talk about the cancel and Asian, no, nobody here probably has been there except for I know Summer's been in there. Sumi's been there. Kobe's been in there. We're 100
yards from here, just on the other side of 331. We've been We've been in Defuniac since 1967. We at the building in 1976. We have a budget from OA, which is from
the federal government and the local U. Florida State Legislature gives us some money through um I can't I got gr in my mind but general revenue fund and we primarily do meals and help the
seniors in Walton County. Now I'm going to give you some numbers on Walton County just so we give you a little bit of what we do so you understand what where I'm coming from on this but we um we have 204 clients today. We call them participants because everybody participates in the care together. where
it's a partnership between us. We did 25,000 meals last year and we're on record around 30,000 this year. And you look at that's 30,000 people. I mean 30,000 meals that went out to a variety of people all throughout the county. We're all the way from Santa Rosa Beach
up to Navar Miramar, sorry, Miramar up to Paxton. Actually, Paxton is our largest area which is kind of interesting when you look at the dynamics of it. We have congregate meal centers in Paxton, in um Santa Rosa Beach, in
Freeport, and here over there we have them. Um we we do about 100 meals a day to people hot meals. They come in, they have a good time. We play bingo, tell stories. Half of them are from the chicken plant, from the the historical, and they know each other. Everybody went to the same bus, the same school. They
it's it's a really fun meeting. Um, I could tell you about all the wonderful people over there, but I I'll keep going through. In addition to the meals we do, we have um meals on wheels, which we'll send them to people's houses. And COVID killed a hot meal going every day and so
we send meals twice a month and we send them in like TV dinners and they heat them up and so we have a large uh percentage of our meals go out that way. After that, we do inhome community services, which can be anything from companion, just hanging out and talking
to people because being lonely is no fun. And it can we also do like housekeeping, we'll do we'll take people shopping, we get them to a doctor's appointment. Um, we do that kind of thing. We did 1,800 hours this month. That that's pretty impressive when you look at how many hours that is going out
to everybody here. So, when you when you ride by our building, you go, "What do they do in there?" Um, we basically have eight full-time people and then everybody else is part-time. We have 21 people in total. Eight are full-time. I'm one of the full-time. We have a
wonderful director, Alicia Brackens, who's been here before to speak, I think, not to this group, but to others. Um, but we are dedicated to just keeping seniors in their home. That's that's what we do. So, I I was talking about our building earlier and we got the
building 1976. We put a new roof on it three years ago and when we work in the building and you're inside it and it's decorated from 1976. We've spent a long time and several of our own funds and our own manual labor and I put a floor
in the other day in the kitchen that you saw. So, we um we do a lot of we do a lot with very little. We we we try we work with Lowe's. They're wonderful. I I can't give them enough credit. I mean, they they help us immensely. Um, a lot of people will give us resources and so
we can we can have certain things done for us. We're very good at getting volunteers and goating people in to help us. But I recently came up and we said, "Look, we've done a good job of fixing the inside. It's it's nice. It's a it's a good place to work now. People that come there to eat, it's very nice.
And we're going to be moving our kitchen in August 1st." Um, from down here next to Plateful is the where the kitchen is. They're cooking over. It used to be a Domino's Pizza for people who've been here long. I have Oh, there's I know it was Domino's Pizza. We're moving it up.
So, we're basically converting our building. And I I try to tell people, okay, we have a 1976 building. It looks like a 1976 building. It's horrible. Every entrance to the building is not to code. We don't have a single ADR ramp
that's to code. We don't have a door entrance, nothing. We We have a building that was built a long time ago and no one did anything to it on the outside. We've done stuff on the inside. And we, you know, the other thing we were talking this morning, I said, "We have the Charlie Brown Christmas tree of of
buildings and this and on Baldwin and we want to do something. We want to make it better." So, we've gone we've written several grants and we're waiting because that's what you do with grants. You write, you hope, and then they come back and you hope you get it. um to help us fill in some of the land. We have roots
that from these trees. We had two beautiful trees that Kobe helped us cut. We had the roots underneath it. We've had two people fall. Well, when you're 90 and going to lunch and you trip over a root and fall, that's that that ruins your month. That ruins your next three months. And so, we blocked off with some
ugly yellow tape. So, we don't want people walking through there anymore, but we want to make it again. We want to improve our our place. So, we have a plan to put some railroad ties, level out the dirt, and put a picnic table there under the shade tree so people can sit outside and enjoy it. We also want
to do something on the front of our building. And I love the murals downtown. And so, I I use AI. I went and took three pictures of murals downtown, gave it to AI and said, "Please do one with seniors. Please show us what it would look like if we use plants indigenous to this area of Florida." And
they did one. I sent it. We were supposed to have it for tonight, but that's beside the point. I sent it and a mural would do a lot of things. One, it would connect us to the company, to the the city, to the community, and the other is everybody rides by that
building will now know that we're part of downtown, that we're not just hanging out under the trees. So, I saw where you were doing a mural in 90. And I talked to Kobe and he said, "Come come and talk to the the and just say, you want to get a mural, too?" And I said, "Yeah, I want
a mural, too. I'm not worried about um so much who's going to paint it, who's going to do it, who's going to pay for it all. I just want to be part of the same team that's doing the murals. So, I don't want to do it for forgiveness. I want to ask for permission to come in and we want to decorate the building in the same style that all the other
wonderful murals. And I love that image that we have in that town, but we want to do it dedicated to seniors and have a senior picture and stuff. And like I said, I we did one example and and I was bringing it just as an idea. you know, I don't know how you're doing your murals. I don't know if you're using the same
thing that the other ones are downtown, but I wanted to come and give you a little bit of what we do and tell you what we want to become because I I keep telling people we're building a cathedral because everybody who works there is doing that out of love and we I just want something the community loves back and so I came to see you because
your beautifification, the landscaping, too. You like some landscaping help? So, first Kyle, thank you for coming and talking with us and telling us more about what Council on Aging is doing and and what you guys are wanting to do. So,
help me understand a little bit more specifically how we can help you. Well, I that I don't know. I don't know how you're helping with other murals. I don't know if you are doing the other murals. I I I'm trying to learn what you guys can do. Also, I'm not as worried about um for instance, they came out and
cut our trees the other day because they were horrible. was worried about storms. Kobe had him come out and do I didn't even know that was an option. I mean, the last time we cut our trees, we hired someone to cut our trees because we didn't know that y'all would come and do that. So, that Thank you. So, city property.
It is. Oh, it is city property, by the way. City property. We did not come on private property. Yeah. And and I realize the city property, we don't want people falling. We don't want We want to make it safe. I'm just worried about more of the entrances and stuff. I don't know if um Kobe said they're going to do a survey
and look at paving some of the areas for us with the with the county. Yeah, go ahead. I spoke to uh her we talked about I spoke to the prior county administrator. I got to go through that process again um about working with the county engineering. So the county does provide uh contribution to the council some some
monetary contribution and so at the time Mr. Sunday was agreeable to us working with county engineering to maybe come out and do some design work on the property uh for ADA accessibility looking at a parking lot. So, we just got to follow back up with the county uh now and see if they still willing to do that and at some point go and have those
designs done uh because we also want to be mindful of the the future build of the library, the county property right there. So, we sure don't want to build parking lot and then come rip it up in four years. So, we'll coordinate with them on that. But, that's that was a conversation, right? So, just looking at what the what's the right pace to do it. I mean,
I keep trying to tell people, okay, at Christmas, we want to see it all done. That's my my goal. I mean, get it out. We can do it. I mean, but I'd ra like I said, I'd rather do it with permission and with your um ideas because I you guys are better than me. I mean, we went to the garden club and they came and
they picked plants for us to put around and stuff and I think they they would be great and they said they'd maintain it once we we go through it all. So, I'm looking for some help. Oh, that's good. That's on your old one. Okay. Can you see that? Yeah. Yeah.
Yep. Yeah. I like it. I really like it. If you want me to show any other of those photographs that you sent even though you're not on the agenda. Okay. I mean, that's fine. I was that I was just going to see if I could get on the next one. That's I was This is my my
plea to say and then I I'll learn between now and then what you can really do to help me. I I want to be on one thing where y'all can vote and say, "Yeah, we we're part you can't vote because I'm not from the agenda." So, well, the the beautifification and tree board didn't really coordinate the the
murals. Main Street um did fund the Magnol individual owners funded with the help of uh and support of Main Street to get the Magnolia done on the side of uh
Bass's Barber Shop. Um the others, as far as I know, were done by the individual owners. We don't really have any um guidelines set forth at this point. Um but I know personally speaking, and I think I can speak for my
board when I say we all would wholly and and completely support you all doing something like that. Yeah. Like I said, I really wanted to come in through the front door and not, you know, everybody come by. you can't do that because that's not the
way to go. I do. I mean, we're all, like I said, it's it is your land, by the way. And so, we want to make sure we we're, you know, we we have something that everybody's proud of. And particularly with the place coming in next door in four years, when it comes in, it's going to be nice and new and everything. And we're going to be in our
our 1976 Charlie Brown building. I don't want to be that. So, to the reason I asked him to come before y'all is because we talked about the mural down there, right? I know down main we had nothing do private property, but this is a city pride building. So, it will need uh either my approval or
the council's approval at some point. Um I could approve it, do it. So, but I felt appropriate to run through y'all to talk about it and to say, "Yep, good idea, not a good idea." So, next meeting I was we'll have it on there as an item sure consideration. Either you'll approve of what's presented to you or y'all want to change it, whatever. But I
just felt that was appropriate course of action. So, I mean, you may have 20 yards of dirt, fill dirt or railroad ties or something. You say, "Hey, we got those." and that solves me from, you know, fishing over at Lowe's for it. So, anyway, thank you. I just, like I said, I wanted to come
and tell you what and I'll see if I can get on the agenda for next one. So, I'm going to down as a note right now. No, I'm going to do that right now. I appreciate y'all. Any other Kyle citizen comments?
Okay. Well, with that it is 6:20 and we will adjourn. our regular meeting.