--------- so we're I want to call this uh special meeting to order this is Monday February 24th 2025 and I'll just thr it right to Kobe thank you mayor um so Josh Irvin
with the CRA asked to have this workshop with the council so that the parking study they're having conducted by fishbeck could be writed to all of you and then I'll let them talk to you about it in the next steps following that so Josh good afternoon mayor council Josh serving with the defc Springs community
redevelopment agency as Kobe indicated we did hire fishbeck back in August of last year to do a parking study for the downtown to include not only the original downtown district but the expanded downtown district as well I'm pleased to report that our consultant has put together a set of draft
recommendations and findings that he'll be presenting to you in a presentation tonight so with that I won't take any more of your time I want to go ahead and formally introduce John forer with fishbeck he'll be taken from taken over from here with the presentation thank you good afternoon to
everyone um if you've got questions as we go through it uh you got something burning go ahead ask me I want to make sure I answer your questions um but uh I've got about 30 slides and we've got an hour so I'll try to get through that so we can have plenty of discussion time
so just the process uh I was here in October for a week-long visit uh observed everything going on parking wise downtown we had individual stakeholder meetings uh several people came and just we were able to just talk parking they gave their opinion we had a
public open house where we invited people to come in and talk we did data collection we inventoried every single space uh on Street space in the study area 20 blocks and we we uh did parking occupancy counts for 10 hours a day for
two separate days just to understand how many cars are really parked down town and what's going on we had an online survey which I'll talk a little bit more about and here we are after all that cading and talking back and forth and Josh and I sending information and data
um at findings and recommendations so that's been our process through this um the stakeholder interviews were they always are a lot of fun it was good to hear from people people love the recent Revival of downtown and and and uh the business owners who I spoke with uh
thought it was great that their businesses were downtown they thought it benefited their businesses uh they do have some concerns that it's getting busy some parking locations are getting a little full and um and and that it's it's impacting their their customers and
their clients a little bit um they're willing to ask their employees to park about a block away I will say the I I did hear from people that more than a block is too far so we're going to address that uh tonight a little bit U
they don't want parking meters I know I got a picture in here of parking meters you had on the street years back uh that was pretty pretty clear no one wants the paid parking um but they also understand that that success this is part of the byproduct of success and that as more
buildings become redeveloped or even if there's new buildings and New Opportunities it's going to continue um so it's not something that can just be ignored and as you know things that get ignored don't just get better on their own um so online survey we had 108
responses uh which was really good 85% of the of the respondents visit downtown weekly so you got the people who are coming on a regular basis um 97% drive so everybody who gets there is pretty
much in a car um one one thing that did has come up both in the uh public input in the survey was just talk about ADA parking and and wan to make sure that that worked well for everybody um but again two typical
comments in the open end section Josh has got the whole I don't know how long it is 40 50 pages of the survey uh was that they want either more parking they want to make sure there's no paid parking so those are two comments that just kind of came through um so parking
inventory we put all this in GIS and that data will be turned over to you it's maybe a little hard to see but like I said every single on Street spot has a dot in it we noted everyone and we noted what kind of space it was whether it was an ADA space or a standard space um so
across the entire 20 blocks there there were 63 on Street SP spots if you really take that the the heart of downtown U on you know along bald Avenue some from 6th to 10th there's 365 spaces you do have 18 ad8 spaces which is really good
really um they're not actually on Street Ada is not necessarily required by law at this point I think it's coming uh but we're not really there yet um and then we we did count on the other side of the tracks around Circle Drive there's there's a lot over there 200 over there
by the library clear down to the shako building um all your but that's it public parking is limited to onst Street everything off street is owned by a private business now they may open it up to the public to use but it's not quote unquote public parking owned and
administered by the city um so there's a lot of spaces over there 853 spaces in that um and then the count's a big chunk of that as as you know um so looking at demand and if you can see that top that top picture shot that's really the heart
of downtown there and you can see the red means it was over 90% occupied and so there are there are sections of of downtown that at a busy time might be close to full um you know lunch
evenings uh around that 67 and 800 block of Baldwin and even up the side streets on Seventh and eth uh can be full but that we really never ran into a time where it was completely maxed out block after block it it's might be one
individual section or this side street or something like that um private parking all those parking lots plenty of spots in them almost all the time uh the Chinese buffet is the only thing that was ever well they start parking people everywhere when that place gets full um
but pretty much everything else had room including the county had plenty of room uh throughout both days that we counted um and what I'll say is is while there are localized hot spots that are pretty busy you do you don't have a parking shortage across downtown um you have
enough parking right now for what's going on uh so we took a look at just those three blocks uh right in the middle of downtown down uh at your at your building space and so what we found was there's a little over 150,000 ft of
building space on those three blocks uh you're about 81% occupied in those buildings right now which means you got about 29 30,000 square feet of of space that could be something else um if something were to move in there uh your parking pressure would obviously
increase retail office uh as as a much lower um level of increase bar restaurant Brewery lot more cars per square foot so it to say how many would go in those spots and how how much it could impact you it
really depends on who decides that they want to turn that into something and what kind of business they're they're they would put in there um but you know the nice thing about a bar restaurant is it's in the evening uh uh whereas office spaces during the day you'd love to have
that shared thing where one business fills them up during the day and then another business fills them up at night to have a balance like that really makes your your parking system work efficiently the goal is let's have the spaces full as much of the day as possible we don't want them jammed up for four hours and then basically empty
for 20 so um land use mix is important there's really you have two types of of people buying for those spots right now which is your employees and your customers uh patrons are generally given the most spot the the businesses are at least in that 700
block of Baldwin they really encourag their employees to not park there and to get on the side streets and get a little further away we did some um turnover counts so we counted how long the cars stayed in the single spot and and in that block they move a lot more often
than they do on the other blocks so that it's working asking their employees to do that is working um what employees really need is predictable parking more than anything else not necessarily closest easiest but I know exactly where I'm supposed to go I know exactly where I can put my car and I can get on to
work I don't need to circle the block three times to find it I just go straight there um what when and you've got it nice and simple right now not much to think about no one's getting parking tickets those are all good things it gets comp complex when suddenly you've you have to work to
separate those two groups when you got to put up signs and write tickets and get on everybody that's when it gets complex like to stay away from that as long as possible because easy is better for everybody um just to show you some of the things that I took pictures of while I was
around downtown because you do have extra parking things like in the upper left-and corner and someone's got a trailer they can't find a spot to do that you know if you were more occupied you couldn't um commercial vehicles do tend to stop in the street but again it works got a lot of large vehicles in
town a lot of big trucks that's always a concern um and then you know just looking on the street there it's hard to say who's a patron to a business and who's a customer um so just some of the things we observed while we're in town talking about ADA parking like I said it
it came out a fair amount um there's some new policies coming from the US access board that haven't been approved to have the force of requirements yet but uh that's just a matter of of time the justice department has to prove that and who who knows what's going to happen
there over the next year so these may not come to fruition what I'll say is they've been working on these for since 2006 so to say anything's going to happen immediately who knows been 20 years already um but as you if you were to do infrastructure improvements I
would look at those guidelines and say hey if we put in or redo some Ada parking on street we probably should do it the way the guidelines say is is what I'll is what I'll say um we looked at at again the Josh said the expanded side
other side in 90 uh where you're you're working on some zoning and some other things to expand downtown uh 90 can feel like it separates the two sides a little bit um heavy County Presence at the East End a lot of small
parking lots you really haven't developed the on Street Supply over there like you have here I think there's room for it and we'll show some stuff later um but you haven't had a need to really put all those on Street spaces in like you have on on South the 90 um and
and it will be challenging to integrate that into downtown but some good Crossings and some other good policy you already have signalized Crossings there will allow people to to cross a little more safely um it'll just take some work and some effort but I think it can be a really nice part of downtown As you move
forward so just to sum up your current situation a little bit strong growth economic activ I was surprised when I started checking the numbers Walton County's grown 56% in the last 15 years so it's you know I know that's not all up here most of it's more south but
still that's a whole lot more people in the county than there were just just 10 15 years ago uh parking demand is is does peak in those little sections around downtown uh I don't believe you have a shortage um there's there's more opportunities you could fill more
buildings um and again the local businesses are concerned congestion May undermine their Patron willingness to visit downtown I tend to think activity brings excitement which brings people so when there's a lot going on people show up so all that being said moving on to
recommendations the anybody have anything on observations and findings up to this point no all right thank you so just looking at this before we come to recommendations what are the goals that the parking system should have for your
city um it should be an asset it should support support the growth of downtown no one comes downtown to park they come downtown to do something else so parking should be easy so they can do that I'd love to see you know maximize the use even though all those off street parking
lots are privately owned love to see the maximize use of that one thing we don't want is a bunch of half empty parking lots all across downtown it breaks it up doesn't make it feel like a downtown and and so uh let's get the most out of
those um you got to plan for current future needs you got to adjust this nothing in parking is you know nothing in Economic Development or downtown is static it's going to change might go up might go down it will not stay the the same over time parking's the same you've got to build in some flexibility to
adjust and then uh what I heard from a lot of people and and and I've never heard anything different is people don't really want that Hometown feel to change that much they don't they don't someone said we don't want to be destined you know and so I think that's an important
goal I I put that in as important goal of of the parking system um so planning to for more parking I say stay alert to opportunity I I think at some point the city is going to want to put in a a municipal parking lot something the city owns and
provides that's open to everybody um and and there's a few properties around town that might work for that and I identify some of them you know but you got to be ready for that um otherwise something comes up becomes available and and you're not ready to make a move on it
and so you know what are the funding tools and your financing options for being able to do that have you identified some properties that fit well it's just a matter of getting out ahead of that a little bit and being ready when the opportunity uh comes comes on
board I think you need to measure parking demand regularly four times a year really quarterly takes a few hours to count all the cars put it in the gis system then you've got comparative data across uh different seasons and different years over time where you can
say hey L we are growing or no things are about the same I and I think we're still okay okay but if you don't have that data it's really hard to know where things are um I think working with those private property owners say hey can we get a little more out of your parking lot I see it sits empty all day every
day or half full is there something we can do to to get a little more out of that and fill those spots up um and then your new zoning policy which I it's not in in in yet but you're working on it is is interesting I'm going to talk more
about that on a later slide um but that's got real opportunities to change the way parking Works downtown that's a big part of it so we took a look at at the at your most popular block your 700 block of Baldwin and and because the old
Depot was right there you have a really wide Street and so there's an opportunity uh to switch those spots from angled pull in to 90 degree and still have extra space and you would pick up a number of spaces in there now there's a little island with a power
pole in it and some other things you'd have to get a a a civil engineer take a look at everything so but but there's what I'm saying is there's space and there's an opportunity and even adding six 8 10 12 spots on that block your busiest block right now would be really
nice and I I don't think you'd lose much and I'm not asking to tear the whole thing up and repave it but there's an opportunity there to to get a few extra spots that's it's 74 feet wide there you only really need about 64 65 so there's plenty of room
there and we put put some we just the sketch we did we put some Ada at at the midpoint or the the 2/3 BL points on that block uh one of the comments on Ada was the spots at the end of the of the string don't always fit because they're going to the middle of the block so we
we Chang that just a little bit to show that um again talking about increasing public parking not talking about taking anybody's private land away from them I'm not trying to get into that I'm just saying there's some open spots around town that are already parking that provide you an opportunity to uh to
possibly add that Municipal lot sometime in the future you might not need it for five years or or so but the 10 years but the opportunities be uh are there there are some pieces of property that would that would do nice and the goal of that is just to provide public parking so
maybe buildings can be reused or other open space can be built upon and you can increase your density of your downtown as you go forward um again optimizing that paved surface is the last thing we want is just endless Paving with no cars on it um and
the the the county block that the county just bought the Thriftway site is is a great example of of a place where parking could be that could open up downtown it's really it feels because of 90 the way it is and stuff it feels far away it's a block and a half from
downtown it's really not that far and you have a great signalized intersection right there at 7even so it's always there's always an element of danger crossing the road but with that signalized intersection it can be it can be very safe um it might be an opportunity if County Parks people there
too to also draw some of those County Employees into downtown a little bit more make them make them well let's let's just walk across the street and go have lunch or something and instead of feeling like oh we're on campus and we drive to campus we do our work and then we go home let's get them let's get them
into downtown a little bit if we can um could provide overflow for events and your big days um and again it could be a catalyst for for the future of of downtown and allow that end toown to continue to grow um so there's an
opportunity there that I think you should work with the county to maximize use of that space I I'd hate for them to tear down that building pave it all over Park nine cars a day there again Max let's maximize pave pave space um I'm recommending that you make some spaces
Patron only I'm not asking you to uh get out there check license plates and write tickets I think keep it on the honor System I got just a sample sign uh that might go up there would allow uh your customers and your patrons to say
oh this is a spot for me I I this is where I should be it's welcoming uh and tells them but I think it stays on the honor System for now i' I'd really like to keep you away from from tickets and enforcement as long as as as you can your zoning policy
I read it uh I like it um making basically making anybody wants to develop downtown exempt from providing parking that really helps you reduce having parking lots everywhere for every business um it's a great tool for economic development I've seen cities
just explode with opportunities when they do something like this um I do like even the curb cut part of it where you can't no more curb cuts on off the main street you got to go through the alley all good stuff uh one thing I will say is as you put this in place it does put
some onus on the city to then manage parking if you're not going to make anybody else do it as part of private development then you have to take a leadership role and making sure that they have the parking they need now they may decide they want Pro parking on site anyway because it helps their
development but to the extent that you can build in um more density and and not have a lot of small parking lots it does put some responsibility on the city which just goes back to the planning ahead and and maybe looking at a few places where a public Municipal lot
could go and just just getting out ahead of that a little bit and also looking at alternative transportation options of how can we get more people downtown 97% pretty high number can we get a few more people uh at least on the days where it's it's reasonable to walk or
ride their bikes or or carpool or or or come into downtown I don't think you're going to get that number down to 50% anytime soon but you might get it down to 88 or something uh that that could be a little more reasonable uh or just help I mean five empty five cars that don't
come downtown but the people still come downtown that's a that's a victory so um administering parking again this is as I went through this I was I wanted to be very careful not to hand you problems not to recommend more Staffing not to increase the complexity of
operations for the city because I don't really think you need it but a couple goals are for the patron it's easy to find a space I I I don't I'm not circling and and doing all those things it's easy to find a spas and for and for leadership and administration that
there's minimal oversight that people aren't worrying about parking every day because you don't have the Staffing in place to do that and I don't want to recommend that you do so on that I'm I'm not recommending time limits or meters or anything like that um I I would like to see some
employee employees kind of ask to park in certain areas but self-monitor that let the businesses do that themselves with some help from Main Street uh and and councel to to kind of help them keep kind of be on the honor System what I'll say is when you get to a point where
self-monitoring no longer works and people are like I'm a park wherever I want then you do have to go to time limits and you do have to put some rules in place to to kind of make that work uh hope hopefully you can get a ways down the road before you have to do that no one likes getting a parking ticket it ruins your day no matter what even if
it's only five bucks it ruins your day no one likes getting parking tickets um so on that note of of who leadership and who has responsibility I am the one additional responsibility I'm putting in here is
I'd like to see you put together a parking working group I think that can come through main your Main Street organization I'm not asking them to do a lot of work but to help coordinate those quarterly parking occupancy counts could be done with volunteers uh it could be done with business owners like I said
it's it's just a couple hours of uh once once every three months to to get those counts and get them put in but also it's an opportunity to gather the business owners and ask what's working what's not what do we need to look to change how can we help and just just stay in touch
I don't think it's a huge lift but it is a little bit more organization uh and a little bit more to work with and I just say you know let's have that group report to council and the CR once or twice a year just let you know what's going on what's what what
they're doing what initiatives they'd like to bring forward um but I would say just for now let's continue to keep it simple I you know a few new responsibilities for a few people but otherwise uh keep it easy and easy to administer and keep an eye on it for the
future and see what you know it's got to be evaluated every year next year may feel a little different five years from now I'm I'm sure you'll feel a little different because things always change uh so and benchmarking that change again quarterly occup counts so
what I would say is when you have two blocks and not just one little spot on them but two full blocks that are well over 80 85% occupied regularly throughout the day that's when you need to start thinking about changing your policy whether you go to more time
limits or we put in a municipal parking lot or or we we do different things those are your numbers when you got to start thinking about something different uh again the voluntary uh employee parking areas if people can't comply and you got to force them
to you may get there let's hope not uh Ada parking I I talked about this before the us access board has some new uh new um guidel guidelines that are are coming through I just say pay attention to that
and if if if and when there are opportunities to to meet those guidelines I would do that pedestrian connectivity you you have good sidewalks you can get around downtown most of I've walked the thing six times a day from end to end
Counting Cars on two different on three days one for inventory and two for parking counts it's a it's a fairly for an able-bodied person it's a fairly easy downtown to get around uh it is my opinion that a three three block walk Which is less than five minutes is a
reasonable expectation for most people uh and and I hate to put patrons in front of employees because they're both important to make a business work but asking someone to block Park a block and half an away for work is not a big deal uh in my opinion those those lines are five
minute Maps so that's uh the gis system allows us to to map a five minute walk so red to Red is five minutes inside the yellow to Yellow is five minutes so that's what that M that's what that map is and again you know I heard some
things well I got to carry things into to where and and uh you know I've got some other things that that may be difficult and I need a SP I'm I am proposing you put in one loading zone space on 700 baldwi 600 bald just so people can do that I pull up unload all
my stuff take care of it maybe I'm there half an hour and then I go move to a spot that works for me people should be able to take care of those things this is the type of community where we can make exceptions here and there to get things done we don't need to be no needs to be peering around the
corner writing tickets for everything let let's work together to get those things done um think you have an opportunity to improve that uh pedestrian Crossing at the tracks um i' I'd love just from a historical standpoint because I love history if
there was a potential to reclaim the shiaka crossing but it's probably in the wrong place by now but it would be neat if you could do that but just the top picture is is a us do Crossing it's got fences to kind of channelize people to the right spot it's got good pavement
markings it's level all the way across um I think working with the railroad to put something like that in uh would be a great opportunity what I find with railroads is if you uh ask if we can improve your infrastructure and and um
work with them they're usually willing to talk if you tell them what you're going to do they'll tell you we're in charge you're not touching our stuff so uh it's just important to to just have that contact with them and see but I think there's a great chance to improve those railroad crossings and connect
downtown with the the historic district a little bit more bicycling I know it's limited right now uh you I only found one small bike rack in all of downtown if you do want to encourage just a little bit more I
would say just some simple bike Loops nothing nothing fancy you don't have to go crazy I like at the top just some simple bike loops on a few of those corn you got some some good siiz space on some of those corn Corners where you could fit a few in and just encourage people with just some infrastructure like that sometimes there's even a
little grant money for for alternative transportation like that so there there might be an opportunity to do that without any cost out of the out of the city's funds but it it would be you know nice to connect people a little bit more by bike if they're willing to do it um
again we talked about north side of 90 we've got a couple sketches that we we did There's opportunities to add on street parking up there just like there is south of 90 so uh chance to to make as that grows a chance to put some of that in there would be great I know Josh
had told me that there's been talk of a road diet which is on 90 which is maybe channelizing traffic a little bit more maybe some buffers on the edges uh I'd say pursue that see what that comes to you got to go with the data and how many cars are out there and whether it works
but I'd say keep keep uh pursuing that um and then just north of 90 I just be careful to you know that that Suburban style development where there's a building with a big parking lot and there's six cars in it but there's 40 spots out there you know if you can
avoid that going forward that would that would be good because then you can build some density on that side of of the the road as well so summon everything up uh from a leadership standpoint uh a parking
working group as part of Main Street um conduct those occupancy counts uh maybe create those Extra Spaces on on the 700 block of Baldwin uh work in the short term to the midterm with the intention of keeping it simple both for yourself
and for the community uh opportunistically seek that off street parking lot that may be uh needed in the next two to 10 years and then work with the county and others to grow downtown across 90 I think there's great opportunities there
so what does that look like what does success look like um I think when you get 75 to 85% parking occupancy per block you get three or four blocks in a row they got 75% you're you're doing great your downtown's booming uh patrons and
visitors can find a space near their final destination I put that at two to three blocks is near their destination um employees know where they can park they know where they're supposed to be and they have available parking like I said I believe predictability is more important than searching for a close
spot just to know where they're supposed to be someone is tasked with measuring and monitoring parking needs if nobody own as you know if nobody owns it it won't get done so it really needs to fall to somebody I don't think it's a big job but somebody needs to keep an
eye on it and then uh future infrastructure and the biggest thing with that is always funding and and figuring out how to make things happen so the plan ahead a little bit and start to have a plan uh the biggest thing is is the is the plan ahead um because if
if you don't plan then it just becomes a series of well we got to make a decision here now and so just a little bit of planning will really put your head on that so that's that's everything I have so thanks for your time that's let me ask
question kind off there uh because you do this as much you probably know without a calculat but a street that's 75t wide and 3750 ft long um with slanted parking how many parking spaces would that make you
think oh there's um let's see go back to that one you've got 42 out there right now okay I am on the the North South
Streets 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th and I'm specifically speaking about 12 which we've not we've never built it's it's a the rways there we've just never built that street okay and I'm just saying that could be a lot of parking spots
plus there's fixing to be a new library there several other things so I mean I think it would be good you know I don't know if we get the county to help us with that because it's going to be their library but anyway U there's 12 Street
that's not used and it goes from bow to 90 and 75 ft wide are you talking Tesla Street no it's the other way west of there right next to the bank which bank a marison not buil out not built yet right
yeah that's what I'm saying hey you're looking for property I said we got it you know I mean you need about 65 ft to do 90 Dee so straight in perpendicular not be 90° okay if it's Ang through Street
okay it'd be used as a street but I'm just saying it would be just like it'd be just like any of the other streets you've seen uh seventh eth nth I think you can fit it yeah I don't know is there any uh does
anybody know is there any stipulation because it's not in the right in the downtown district I don't guess uh could that type of parking be done I'm saying could it look like 8th Street the good news is there's no alley
8th Street has got an alley in middle of it so it it eats up a couple of parking spaces on both sides this block has no alley in it if you don't have a mid block intersection like that they the spots add up a lot faster I I will say
that if you don't have to stop and break them up because even a small break cost you a couple spots on either side my question would be the legal or technical whoever can you build Street like that on 12 sure
you can that's not an issue at all it's the city's decision yeah your RightWay your straight is planted straight of the city we have not abandon it tonight no we uh you know we were thinking about building over there one time we were
talking about banding it then but uh that's kind of out the window we might as well take advantage of it it's our RightWay y um I think it was was it the Cod review land use committee meeting a couple months ago we we were talking
about parking as well um and we had brought up and this may be just some more low hanging fruit kind of like this this that you're talking about on the other end so beyond like Firestone y uh down that way where you've got all that grassy area there that runs parallel to
the track so you know making that into more more parking so just continue what we already have with the angled pull in and and extend that all the way down and then I noticed one of your slides um you had you had the same thought that we did during that discussion uh see if I can
find it real quick about the potential parking spaces uh just on the other side of the track yeah in between the church and basically that block the Fisher Pharmacy on you know we have trees plant the scrubs planted right there so turning that into a into some sort of pull in parking lot
or either parallel parking um you had highlighted that as well um yeah you got a lot of room there yeah yeah it's under the uh there you go so the little green slides down there toward towards the bottom yeah more
towards the circle yes yes and that's fairly close to you know the busiest block so that's definitely low hanging fruit with right here with an improveed Crossing I mean that's that's a half block right right and then what I'm
talking about is basically going further east that way on either side of the track there is what we had discussed in our C review meeting yeah because there's land all the way on both sides of those tracks all the way down see that used to be on the uh south side of
the track that was all they came in they had I grew up over there Lumber gravel coal you name it that yard was just stacked with trucks over there there's no no longer of any substance there so of course I don't know is that a
railroad property it is or that's well I say it is Clay would strongly advise us not to rely on this map but on the map it shows we we know where our property is and we feel very good about it oh we're good then yeah you know what I'm talking about CL between fourth and
first yes sir yeah I think there's a lot that can be done there councilman Valley's talked about that s times more definitely between fourth and second going down first it does actually jog the road jogs you get across there so our road actually eats up a little
bit of our right away yeah but there's a huge expanse of it between really coming all the way down from fifth to on you because fifth you can see where the spots already are to Fourth and then it picks out up so you could do what's on the side of
fifth right now you could do that all the way down to Second without any problem yeah question is with that being so elevated do you do a pull in parking lot like councilman beeron was talking about or because you
wouldn't I would think there'd be engineering issues with the tracks being elevated and if you go to move shifting or moving too much through there on which side the north on South side was that one there look at it yeah across from the
church there and all the way down because it's it's more level on the North side but the South Side there's quite a drop off yeah definitely an engineer and an architect we need to kind of come up with some sort of concep plan for for that whether that's just some additional parallel parking spaces
or or what because I would hate to see those trees get taken out if there's some way to kind of work around them but include parking spaces MH yeah angled space is compared to parallel spaces is two you're get at two
and a half times your yield on that and so if you can switch even some of those over you're going to get you're going to pick up some additional parking so you're saying kind of focus on like pulling spaces and then just have like maybe an extra wide travel Lane for them
in that area parall or pull in yeah you got I was looking at the the F recommendations and I think there's a a three they want three foot at the back of the space between the back of the space to the road type of thing to leave leave some extra space for people
pulling out I mean pull in Spa as you know downtown pull in spaces along the road you know people got to pull out slow and people other people going down the road gota pay attention you know it's both both parties have responsibility there but what I'm saying is angled pull
in spaces provide a whole lot more spaces than parallel you know parallel space is 22 ft long give or take and so uh and the parking spot's about 9 ft wide so you you you get you come out a little over two two per when you do
something like that yeah two y'all may have been talking about this Josh I don't know but the uh from 11th Street West on balling next to the tracks M you because
back when we were trying to engineer all the parking if we were to put a new city on uh in that block we saw where even with angle parking if we shifted the center line of B and just about 4 or5 ft then
there would be plenty of room uh on city property pointing toward the railroad tracks that had slaming parking on one side couldn't do it on both we could have done it on one side which every little bit going to help you know especially in their special events the
um or anything perpendicular because it's not people go into a business it's just people that's going to be excess parking once you start going down that street because the only business there is a bank and they'll be a
library yes in the bank parking lot there's a number of spaces in there I mean that's why I say they don't need any more you ask them and say hey can we park in here on events I would hope they would say sure you know and that's okay we're part of the community we'd like to
help support that so I've been places where there's giant signs that says if you park here we'll tow your car and you'll never see it again so you try to move beyond that and get everybody say hey we're part of downtown yeah we're going to share we're going to help out yeah well you know a lot of people here
worked in the metro area and you know this this would be laughing stock for them you know uh you know if you get in four blocks where you're going You're just jumping for but here if you don't get within four parking spaces of where you going get upset you gotta give Mr Henderson kudos
for putting up all them awnings though because it definitely keeps you from getting wet walking it it sure does that was huge they weren't cheap they're much appreciated I can tell you um I have a question who owns that
lot Main Street Gym uh coming towards Baldwin between the gym and Baldwin is that the Tesla street is who owns that vacant land right there is that us or the or does the gym own that how do all people gy
the gym owns it that's part of grass yeah the grass area so the one with as is the gy that's great and is do they use that for parking I mean have y'all all seen people park there during holidays yes during big events for sure yeah we get
we get we have a relationship with them to where they are okay with that we use it during not from a formal agreement perspective think from just from yeah they don't complain if it gets
busy but I know like the Lake Fest we always ask theme of time but not the gym because the gym is so busy there's cars in there lot yeah all day long come and going yeah it's not full they probably can squeeze a few out
but there's cars in there for sure and they're building I don't know what they're doing down there at the old uh roll office you know yall know what that is what is it I I don't know what it is where are you talking it's on the very very northwest corner of that block
and they don't have any parking so I don't know maybe a or two 90 building that's kind of lower than everything else the one they just fixed up the one went through yes yes they just sold
that somebody just bought 25 Investments LLC who 254 Investments LLC anyway they don't have any parking there's it's tight right there are they what are they under Todd they
uh are they under the same stipulation as somebody downtown yes paring M somebody ran into that building not long ago a car they ripped the had go took in and demo the back half of the building off
yeah so I guess they don't have to have part I I wanted one piece of clarification on your parking inventory do I understand it that there's 603 public parking spaces and then there's an additional
853 or does that 853 include the 600 no so from the end of the district which goes clear down to uh 331 intersection down to don't remember if it's second or fourth but it's 20 20 20 blocks so 10 on
each side of 90 in that whole District there's 603 marked on Street public parking spots also within that District are 853 off Street private parking spaces not all those are marked marked I'll say
some of them paint's gone some of them may never been painted um but there's about 853 off Street privately owned so those are almost 1500 between public and private if you can believe that yeah
so when someone says there's no parking we got 1500 spots downtown I I believe it because I've heard I've heard the chief say that he prefers um the large events like Fourth of July around the lakeyard because he said everybody can leave very quickly
versus where they've been in the past you know it all funneled out one road yeah he said they were there for an extended period of time directing traffic whereas around the lakeyard and around downtown people dissipate quickly because there's so many streets for them to utilize that's when you can believe
it you come on Fourth July when they break up you can think of more than 1500 out here but it's great I mean you know it on the last four or five years of of Main Street doing those events down there i' I've witnessed people parking
the grassy the grassy lot on the other side of the gym you know people parking that far to walk you know four and five blocks to go to the main street event and I've never heard a single person complain instead they're they're you know lining up they're finding any space that they can use that's a great
observation and one that I thought process I'd like you when people want to be somewhere they go and so try not to put any obstacles in their way or make it even harder but but recognize they they
right now they want to be downtown people want to come down that's a good thing um and they'll go uh so enjoy yeah enjoy it your 244 County Parking Lot spaces is that the courthouse is that where you're getting all of those spaces
they've got includes like where the legal and building department is it'd be everything behind the courthouse adman the parking behind it going back to that that's I can't see what you're pointing to I'm sorry my fault the HR building right here this
part it's the green on actually doesn't include this big one back here because that that fell outside your District this District so they got probably another clay does that include the new
uh building department it does not and how many will they have there because that's a big building 50 easily how many 40 or 50 40 to 50 easily yes they don't either Lo leave at about
eight or 10 Vehicles over the weekend if that if that I don't think the county has said what they're doing with the new Thriftway uh but is that in any of these that's not included in any it is I included those spots how many did you
include um would have just been the existing ones right yeah just the existing ones this parking lot over here yeah that I believe Scout own and then you got the parking lot for the Thriftway you got these ones back here that are like right off the
street that's full of County Employees I'll tell you that that was obvious but I think there's 40 or so in here so I think there's 11 back here you got a little bit of parking all over and Here There and
Everywhere and so that's why I say I'm not anxious for you to build a lot more that you don't have to let's get a little bit let's make it painful get a little busier um and and and then let's start talking about where we need to jam in Extra Spaces um because I I think you
will get busier it's a place people want to be so your study said 80% over 80% on Baldwin what about seventh and eth what at those peak times what does that look like I know they're they're back yeah it
all the times that we counted actually there was 90% on a couple sections 66% up 75 so this was the busiest time I can't REM I I think this was lunchtime one day so you've got some some very full sections
for whatever reason this section was at 40% % and over here 55 66 and 100 65% here so but those seventh and eighth they're pretty well used yeah but not what I'll say is there was always at
least one spot to be found right on those at all times so that those those High percentages are meal times probably probably same thing in the evening I suspect well evening it gets a little better because because the uh the daytime businesses that are on here yeah
are gone true and so actually evenings get a little better the the new rol down here is that it this is this is empty all day long till about 4:30 and that starts to fill up where was that the
last we went there this weekend it was crazy busy I don't know what was going on there but and I forget what it was in the evening but it's like oh my goodness I was happy to see it so full that's why I say it's nice to have a good mix yeah if if you've got some
Daytime businesses and then some nighttime business it's a great mix you get more use out of your parking if everything were a brew Vault then you'd be empty all day long and then at six o'clock at night you'd be swamp because they just draw so many hey meet there
and all four people drive a car you know just out of curiosity which day and times did you actually monitor to to do the study so we did a a Friday from 10:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night
and we did a Tuesday from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm every two hours counted every two hours uhuh and so I've got a map like that the heat map that shows um the occupancy level for every block section
like even if there's two or three sections that shows every block section for all 16 of those counts so that data is with us or with Josh so we could get it from it's on our website okay great thank you
y ask another question so that 29,000 additional square feet uh of of building space once that is occupied what are we what what do you think we're looking like I know it depends on the types of businesses there um if it's another restaurant then
that that kind of blows It Out restaurant you're you're talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 to 15 vehicles per thousand square feet uh uh retail business office space is somewhere in the three to four vehicles
per thousand square feet um so lowend 30,000 square feet times four another can I do math today uh you know 34s are 120 yeah so I mean you're probably talking somewhere you nobody ever gets
to 100% full as soon as you fill some space somebody moves out of another it's tough but if you got over to 90 if you got over 90% you you could be looking at 50 to 150 more cars in that area and that would really that would press you
no doubt then you'd wish you had that Municipal lot somewhere that you you could put you know um a number of employees and and even and some people who are parking longer term and someone's coming down all day parking the lot if you're going to be here an hour and a half parking Park on
street so and if the big if the big store was a brewery things get things would get busy quick well I we don't have Mr Valley here uh I think you've met Mr Valley have about he came to our you see the
one at our public meeting Josh yeah so I actually had a pretty pretty extensive conversation with him he's interested in transportation stuff I'll I'll tell you that what else we need to cover I know we're about to run out time anything else Toby no
matter okay well we greatly greatly appreciate you being a very thorough job here and we can ask you questions all day long about the possibilities but um I guess we need to not jump ahead of the game one of the reason I mentioned that
12 Street was because at some point clay may know better than we do is to when County what year they may take on that Library you know because it's not anytime soon but it could be two years three years down the road yeah that's
fine and uh I thought it may be a good time to address that streak because they're going to be tearing up the ground there anyway I I would say you know you should be talking to the County about parking stuff now just so you can plan together
and and and develop things as a team and that'll give you a great Advantage when things do happen yeah obviously they're spending some money they're building big new buildings and buying grocery stores and stuff so they're they're moving a little bit oh yeah
yeah yeah I don't have their Crystal Ball but but somebody does questions I guess mayor for for me from Direct and we're not taking action now but I guess something the council thinking about I can bring it back into another meeting is like he said who's
going to be the lead on some these things like working with the county the parking is that something that we want to ask Main Street to be leading on does want C to lead on this parking stuff do you want myself the city staff doing that I think it's maybe a little bit of direction I'd be looking for we don't do that tonight um I'll talk to you individually over time and we can come
to that conclusion but that's something to be thinking about and maybe even like you were saying before the formation of a committee consist of all of these different entities and parties so that it's just one group that they have to worry about attacking with that but this
is definitely a thorough study I mean it's really nice and detailed I appreciate your work here well thank you and Council if I may So the plan uh for the rest of this week we're going to have a public Workshop tomorrow night it's t all the Brotherhood at 5:00 P pm he also going to be at our C board
meeting on Wednesday um at that point is going to have the full presentation uh before the board hopefully get U some guidance from them on recommendations findings and then we'll be coming back to you at a later date uh with the full-blown uh study for your acceptance and in that point can address some of
those concerns I think that uh city manager has expressed so just wanted to kind of establish some expectations on how this is going to move forward tonight we we certainly want to get out here in front of it and have some summaries for you um with the understanding it'll it'll be back before you in a full package at some point in
the near future awesome thank you all right thank you very much everybody good all right we're going to turn this special meter and we'll take just about three or four minute breaks maybe not Part: 2
2025 going to ask Council MC to Le his invocation we'll follow the Pledge of Allegiance dear Lord we thank you for this day and we thank you for all your many blessings father uh we pray dear Lord you'll be with us tonight guide us uh give us Clarity and wisdom Lord to
make the right decisions as we do your will and the will of the people father we ask these things in Jesus name amen amen I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America the republ for which it stands one nation under God
indivisible withy and justice for all thank you I have one uh presentation and I'm gonna read this before I ask it to come up but this is a a letter of appreciation to to Mayor
Harley Lewis Henderson he was a mayor here I think was in 19907 93 to 97 and uh and so this is a letter of appreciation we want extend to the family the city of defunc Springs extends it heartfelt gratitude to Mayor
Harley Henderson for the dedicated years of service following the distinguished career as a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force mayor Henderson returned to our beloved City to manage the longstanding family business and subsequently served two terms as our
esteemed mayor we are deeply thankful for his unwavering commitment and the remarkable contributions of Mayor Henderson with his wife Dr Melinda Henderson by his side they have shown they are and have been an invaluable asset and source of insight for the
enhancement of our community we are profoundly grateful for the love and the dedication that the Henderson Family have shown to the city of defc Springs We Are Forever grateful so if you would Mindy please come join us
[Music] [Laughter] where they can see it all right thank you so much Dr hson and thank you your family
[Applause] that woman never quits right there all right we're going to go right to the agenda I think we're going to be starting with aming tonight but uh we
would certainly entertain a motion to uh so move approve second I have a motion second any questions all in favor say I I I hi hi I Carrie thank you very much and now we'll go to the regular agenda
any changes manag uh none mayor okay so we would uh entertain a motion to motion to approve as second all right the motion is second all in favor say I I I I I eyes carried thank you very much and now
we'll go to Mr Townson with 4 C1 thank you mayor um this is really just kind of keep it on the front Forefront um the council have mentioned a couple meetings back about tourism and the TDC going to their strategic plan currently and so this was for discussion
tonight but after talking to most of you we will uh set up a workshop in March if that appeases everyone so work together that time from youall and set that meeting but I already had on the item just wanted to bring it up people thinking about it and we work on setting that meeting in
March questions that's all for me anyone questions on that all right we'll move on we'll go down to four uh C2 thank you mayor so the city issued RFQ 20251 PD so this was for the Land
Development code update we did receive five bids back um for this those were um be honest I do not know how to say that does anybody know how to say that first one pronounce it correctly trying pull up Barco bar so that was that was one
firm uh kimley horn was another Parker Parks Consulting Services uh downtown Redevelopment services in conjunction with another company and uh pull my last one here believe it was North Florida Professional Services those are the five we had received bids for for Land
Development code update it's really a two-part um motion first is we need to establish who will be the Review Committee would the council like to be the Review Committee or would we like to create a um basically staff or an internal committee to review these bids
I recommend we do that staff committee um if so if so please consist of myself planning director the mayor I believe councilman Valley has expressed interest to want to sit on that and then a member of the planning board um most notably Miss Brooke H is who we would reach out
to begin with um if she couldn't we will find another so that's what I'm ask first is who would who would the council like to be to sit and to interview these and provide a recommendation it could be the council itself or a separate committee I'm fine with the separate committee that was listed so I'll make that a motion second I have a motion and
a second any questions from anyone yes ma'am come on I know y'all have microphone testing one to all right thank you uh all in favor say I I I I I I
Carrie thank you very much and uh I guess have a second go ahead mayor uh to that um if uh you've looked through them I've been through all of these I would request that that committee interview three of the five re proposers is that appropriate uh those
three would be kimley horn the first company that we had mentioned barocco barocco and then Parts consulting services so we would not uh interview um the north Florida Professional Services or the it's it's actually it's a
collaboration so it's between JB Pro downtown Redevelopment services and TPC the planning collaborative so we would ask to interview those three companies that is your recommendation correct So based on his recommendation that it's a motion you can make I'll make that a
motion second question go ahead um is there a reason why you don't want to do the other two could you share with us yes ma'am so the north Florida company is uh largely an engineering firm they've done a little planning from looking through it they have some but
it's largely engineering and mostly for Rural counties uh so that's for that reason for that company N View and and then the second one is downtown Redevelopment services in conjunction with two other firms um that company did provide the city the parks master plan
and the Main Street master plan it's my understanding that that may not have turned out as well as everyone may have hoped and the interactions that that and de them before we dealt with TPC as well correct okay that's right okay former C manager and Deputy city manager listed
their out for quite a bit that may not have gone as we ADOT did they did they meet the minimum qualifications though for whatever you mic did they meet the minimum qualific for whatever we did put out though yes
when they responded Yes okay so we have a a motion second any other questions go ahead yeah I'll just say for the our purchasing policy does allow the city manager to rank these on his own or present that to you and if he presents it to you it is within the manager's discretion to short
list those the way the RFQ was structured interviews were not a given not anybody was guaranteed an opportunity for an interview but that if a short list was created for interview purposes um the council would have the opportunity to reserve the right to interview or appoint a committee so
thank you for that clarification thank you any other questions comments all in favor say I I I I I I Carrie thank you very much are we already Citi
comments yes thank all right this time we Lo the floor for citizen comments ask you to keep it three minutes or less state your name and if you're representing or organizations state that as well um Dr Melinda Henderson representing forward defunc I'd like to
inform you that planning is well underway for the triathlon I want you to get your swim trunks your running shoes and your bicycles ready because uh you could make a a a nice
team um we um would like to remind you that um we did 13 small grants to other 40501 c3s and and nonprofits with what
we had left over last year and um uh some of our business sponsors need to know that because um um they get double duty for whatever they can contribute thank you very much let ask question on
the last year including the participants at race how many people you think I drew to thec uh each participant we had 160 something
res uh registrants only about 146 came um each one of them brought two or three people with them in the car to guard their equipment or to uh assist them in some way and then we had more Spectators
last year than we've ever had before so um maybe we need to encourage some Spectators uh we've changed the uh running route a little bit we're just going down to East Baptist Church and turn around and coming back rather than
so many turns in the historic district and the racers like that better they're only required to Bicycle 8 Miles how ever they have chosen to go 16 because they love the hills and they love the
views down into the valley and back and that was their choice so wonderful okay thank you anyone else public comment Don how come I knew you couldn't stand I could stand you know I pop up
every down the hills of the East Side uh honorable mayor honorable city manager honorable Financial director and all the uh city council it's a privilege to get up and speak with you so I'm you know I'm just thinking on some things of how
to increase businesses here in the city of the you so uh you know the order of the deal that's I wrote I brought his book and the best way is uh is the numbers game and the word is annexation and uh you've been hearing
that around town a lot annexation so when you go around the few next from shopping areas you got a lot of homes County tags Washington County tags a lot of you know the areas that's a lot smaller than us that will come into the city you got uh Oakwood Lakes right
behind my office oh is booming over there but that's in the county that's only a rock away from the city so what I suggest and uh I don't know if one of y'all I'm sure y'all smarter than me but that you get together and form a
committee annexation committee and and meet with the people send them brochures or social media new age or whatever and show that the the uh one one mile Two Mile Three Mile residence that's not in the city of the funet what the benefits
of annexation inside the city where you got the finest Police Department you got the finest fire department you got the best maror brother you know I'm just saying but but seriously if you could think about annexation city manager if you could put
together a community man because I'm telling you when I'm out there in the business World Publix golden Carrell all them corporations they want to come to the funat but the pop if we can get it to 10,000 by next year then you want see in all my blue cars going to D or Panama
City we'll be ready in few Springs doing security so you know if y'all guys would consider that a committee well I appreciate we are we are talking yeah we got to get them people inside our particularly about annexation and we know that we got to
get some professional people to help us yeah exactly man oh uh look what uh Hammock Bay did to City of Freeport that's just a prime example yeah so like I said I'm not gonna throw all the problems on you you want me to help you because I got the order of the deal okay
thank you and uh my condolences Miss hon last time I saw your husband he came up to my office with a check and I said well thank you sir I said how do how do you keep doing what you doing he said well be nice to your wife or your girlfriend oh
my that's what he told me so I got to learn on the but thank you very much y keep doing good man we always trying to learn anyone else all right we'll close the floor for for public comments and we'll go right
to you got anything clay no sir all right on our legislative request will go to council member Amy heavin oh um the first thing I have is the Twin Lakes Drive if you remember maybe about nine months ago I brought forward a
particular issue with some folks living on that street that actually have lived on that street but they weren't hooked up to the city uh sewer so I see one of our residents in the audience but clay
found out some history for me so clay would you I'll be glad to I saved up all my comments for these two items okay good so mayor I think you'll probably remember it's happened just briefly before you came on board with us um we
had a period of time roughly 15 years ago where the council undertook what most notably and I know most people WR remember was a moratorium on impact fees to allow people to connect to the system that moratorium I think drugg on for
right at 30 months um it was supposed to be a six and they kept extending and then got close to three years in time the Lesser known part of that that was the when was initially done and it lasted for just over six months it got into the next budget year before we
realized there's some issues the council had to address was there was also a moratorium on the collection of tap fees and so we truly had a situation where persons were allowed to come in and we had quite a few people come in and connect and say I want this property
connected and it the one requirement that was absolutely firm was it had to be attached to a property you couldn't just Bank open credits well one day I'm going to buy a lot then I want it for free couldn't do that you had to say it's ass signed to this property and you would start paying the minimum charge
well when we did this from what we can tell looking back apparently it wasn't just well if there's water available you can do it for water there's really people doing it for sewer as well and so people are getting connected to both so we have individuals like this individual
and by the way others in the city limits that have been build for the base rate connection that then works and multiplies up for sewer despite not actually being connected to our system the implication and the direction after
looking back at what Mr 's motion was on all of that and what the council did and even when the council Suns said it the position was if somebody paid those they would be able to connect to the city paying that base rate but we wouldn't go out and set the meter until they said they were actually ready for it because
some people didn't want it so we have plenty of people who don't even have a meter set that have been built so we don't have impact fees anymore we don't have tap fees anymore we have capacity fees so in talking to Kobe what I'm about to suggest is something I wish I could have just told
Kobe he could have done my suggestion to this Council would be that anybody who we can show has legitimately been build for sewer but is not connected to the city system be connected at no cost to the customer because they paid the base rate there's no impact new to the system
we've already counted them in all our numbers and I don't think I don't see Cliff here hour but if Cliff was here I would ask him Cliff can you tell me is that in our eru or ERC counts and I pretty confident his answer to you is going to be as the mayor's nodding well
how else would we have gotten the number if they weren't shown as a connected user even though technically they're not putting anything into our system so with the capacity fees we don't have to worry about the legality there because the capacity fee is a true connection charge well by
definition they're already connected to our system even though the physical connection's not been made so there's no need to charge those people that with that being said because of the logistics of this we need to discuss it one in a public meeting and I do think the council i' want to
formally approve by motion that direction to allow the city manager to identify those accounts working with finance and utility billing and to allow them the chance to connect now the city typically does not go between the meter and the house to do a
connection I don't know how many counts this is going to touch so we need to figure that out and determine that and determine if there are logistical issues and connecting those houses whether those are going to be special use connection scenarios where we have some
assistance provided whether they're going to require a plumber to come in and make that connection or how we want to address those issues um in some of these areas it may well be especially over there by Twin Lakes U very difficult for the city to allow a plumber to connect our system given the
elevation changes some of the sensitivities around the water areas and that we'll just need to figure that out so for tonight the motion is to allow the city manager to identify every count that's paying but not actually connected and to make sure that they would be able to connect with the city system without
the requirement of a capacity fee or other connection charge and then if we have additional things that we need to do Mr Townson can bring back hey there's some logistical issues connecting this customer versus that customer and we'll reach out to each of them individually the council approves that but I would
like that in the form of a motion is that going to be I just want to make sure it's clear to these people that they may have to get a pump to get it to our sewer that's what we're going to need to see on a case-by casee basis
so I want I just don't want to think that when we we vote for this we're not charging them any more money to connect to our system but if they had any private connection charges that was always outside of the discussion yeah I definitely want that
to be clarified that the city is simply not levying a fee for connecting the sewer or or the water I'm assuming this would cover water as well um but it is still the homeowner's responsibility to make that connection to whatever
existing lateral is there right they're not going to they're not going to go from from the road all the way back around to the house and connect up where the the septic tank used to be that's that's on the the land owner to make that purchase yeah to the extent we have
to adjust where our lateral is or provide a stub out from the lateral the way we do with anybody yeah we'll let those people figure it out and there could be some challenges there but we will work with their people to do that okay because I'm one of them I'm I'm on a I'm on a septic system but I have been
paying for sewer ever since we purchased the house that we're in now right well I think it's good and I think you know Greg's not here tonight but uh you know he was talking about over on whether it's loss um that was a four or five houses that were paying sewer they
weren't hooked with sewer I don't know if we can treat them the same way every this is everywhere in the city we want to identify anybody that is paying a base rate paying for sewer or water that has not actually been connected be given the opportunity from this stay forward
to be connected when they ask at no City charge so this see he's not chargeing capacity fee tap b impact Fe all that's gone is there gonna be any kind of a a sunset on this if they've been paying
mayor frankly they shouldn't ever be charged because they're already part of our system so what's the point of charge them the connection fee I think this is when did we cut it off that the uh the free Taps 20 16 is what somebody is saying but the
free Taps ispired much earlier it was late 13 early 14 the impact fee was several years after that okay you have I I just I just want to be I want to be clear here yes we're collecting the sewer fee but this will
be the second time that the city has has basically you know waved any sort of connection fee so I really want to see this come to 100% completion right I'd hate for a council 10 years from now to have this come back up again so um I I I
want to certainly identify them all but I you know in some discussions I've had with Kobe I mean other than manually auditing every single sewer connection I mean that that's kind of a daunting task for the city manager I mean obviously there's people that know right like myself and and some of the people in the
audience that know but all I'm saying is let's get it everybody to 100% because to me there shouldn't have to be a third and fourth round of hey come hook up it's free and what do we do what do we do with the ones who decide they don't want to go on the SE they want to stay with
the septic think if they have a technically if the sewers in front of them they have to connect okay I mean it comes within so many feet of your house by State Statute you're supposed to connect so we're gonna you give my time well but if they're already paying by the way this out somebody who's already paying yeah I would assume somebody
who's choosing to pay we're not going to let somebody off the system let's be very clear once they pay they're on our system and the Health Department's not going to be okay without alternative so we're T so I wouldn't imagine there would be people that are saying will just let me off well your house has been
paying it we don't let anybody off so this isn't a situation where somebody somebody may say they just don't want to connect right now but that's a separate conversation to let me out of the system because we don't let people out of the system because there only other expense of course they would have to pipe to us
pipes not that bad as worse it used to be but the pump could be expensive there's what you figuring $4 $600 for a residential pump probably now but let's make it clear though that's Florida statute is mandating that
so so in my particular case when I discover when I purchased my home about a year later I came down here and met with the city managers Miss Sarah Bowers at the time and what she the what she was very clear with me about because my neighbor was Exempted from paying sewer
uh was that if it required uh if the lateral was such that it required any sort of pumping pumping abilities grinder pump then they were exempting them so are we changing our stance on that well we need to make it clear
whatever we do to everybody that's up to the council that's up to the council I think I was under the I was never aware of an official position adopted by the city council that is what councilman beer bomb said but I don't deny that manager did no matter what they had to now some people got exempt for some
reason but the typical customer knows that they gotta they got to have a pump well they've got to connect to the system or they or they're elevated enough that they can gravity feed to us but right most people have to have pump you know I dad shot the the grade with
me and I'm two inches to the good well you're good 44 in is how the say most people are not it it just depends I don't I mean I turn back to our department back there about whether or not it's most or not I mean I but I think at the end of the day what we're trying to establish here is that if
somebody's been paid sewer and they want to connect they technically should connect although they may be grandfather them from having a septic for an extended period of time that septic fails let's be clear if somebody has a septic tank let's talk about that statue somebody has a septic tank they can use it up until the point that thing fails or
closed then they don't get to repair it then they have to connect if their septic predates statute they're good they're grandfathered in up until such time but there's nobody who gets to say I am not going to put connect a sewer when it's available and put a setic tank
anymore that that's gone so all we're talking about is saying that anybody who has been paying this sub who's now ready to connect will not pay a capacity fee or what used to be tap or impact fees now it's on them if they want to get ready to connect but they're going to have to connect at some point in all
likelihood septic tank don't last forever as we know we do that a motion we have we have a motion on the floor okay I mean I just want to clarify as much as possible I don't want com back
you told me I could hook up you can more to it yeah so clay could you clarify that that ordinance I think goes back the original ordinance goes back to 1980 I believe right the original t he's talking about section
2355 was passed in 1980 it's the one talking about within 100 feet in 90 days oh that's the ordinance yes that's the connection if you're I'm not I'm referring to the statute I mean what the state stepped and superseded everything that's on the books there okay many many
years after that okay but we operated under that for about 30 years unimpeded right so okay no I actually thought I was one of those folks but I learned a few days later after I had a
plumber come with a video camera uh I actually am connected to the before I purchased so that property so I'm already connected but the neighbor that are not you know they've been paying since 2016 unaware that they were
not uh hooked up and I just thought you know what let us talk about it because I don't even know what our policy is to be honest with you so Kobe's been very good he and Clay as far as you know helping us understand what it is that we have I mean I'm I'm fine allowing them to
connect and giving them you know the credit the grace and but and I think that's what they were looking for is my point is let's just get it 100% And and I want the council to be clear this is not a new action you're taking the only
reason Kobe can't just do this based off the prior actions the the what I refer to as the inis motions and mr's honors since he did make them um is because at the time it referenced tap and impact
fees we have done away with those and so if Kobe is to literally and he called and talk Bas said clay literally apply our capacity fee ordinance I have to charge this m dris didn't say anything about capacity fees because they didn't exist when he did it
so it is an illogical outcome and an unjust outcome to say that those persons out to pay a capacity fee when if you already had an impact and tap fee paid you were grandfathered in and would never have to pay a capacity fee these people just didn't have them paid they
got into our system under an exemption and so to close this loophole and get to where Council beer saying is resolved that's why I need that motion that anybody that is connect anybody is paying water sewer but is not actually connected to our system shall be
entitled to connect without the payment of capacity fee and Mr Townson his task identifying those and facilitating those connections I I'll make the motion but I think that we should try to you know go through the end of this year calendar year like do we have to put an end date
on it or why don't we just say we'll review it um we'll review it at just set it um October one start of the new budget year so we can calculate it I'll make that motion second I have motion second you have a motion second any
questions yeah mayor oh yeah some couple things to that I'm just little background I spoke to Rand are youtility superintendent about Connections just how do we do that um so we would tap into the main put a clean out and we leave it there in that home owner typically is requ ired to attach to that
to that connection um if the main is on the property side of the street it's about a $500 cost to the city if that main is on the opposite side of the street to the property it's about $1,800 to the city because we got a board under the road and and those things so that's kind of where we're at in terms of cost per property if the city wants to do
this um I do think that it's going to take a substantial amount of time because unless Danielle know I don't there's nothing in the system noting whether that property is actually hooked up or not they're just paying the fee but they're not paying usage charge I'm assuming if it be the base rate so we
ought to be able to sort them somehow base rate customers sewer connect so we'll have to work through that other than that I mean we would have to have staff go out put a camera in the line to see if it's actually connected or not so definitely a long term I won't say too
long because we want this thing resolved but it will take time we have to go into that manual checking but I do think a shorter term timeline is probably going to be effective in terms of hey we would have to create some sort of marketing for this for citizens to see it but the city if you would within the next 120
days come to the city to identify if you're on city sewer or you're not or water I wasn't aware of the water until today but we would take care of that as well likely that there's anybody paying water that's not actually connected we wouldn't be able to measure it yeah but we gota I think we need some sort of timeline there so that we don't have
people falling outside of it we gotta have time to identify and in the time to address and I don't want to be identifying why we're still addressing you know city council want to do that again we didn't get to % I think that'd be appropriate but I do think we get people get information out have them time with extended period of time to
come in say hey I'm requesting this but you've asked for it and we would have to look into it further it's going to take time are you asking me to amend the motion to give you more time or less time no I think one is fine I'm saying from from us what you're asking me to do I think it would be appropriate to have
a 90 or 120 day window of that initial this is what the council is looking for if you believe that you are not hooked up but are paying the fee please come City Hall and we we will investigate so either we're going to tell by your account or we will send out someone directly to review your line if we don't do that I feel like we may have people
periodically all the way up to October one and we're not going to resolve as fast as I think you would like us to do any other questions comments on the motion all in favor say I I I all I Carrie thank you very much and I would
note for councilman beer bomb he did discuss me discuss me the potential for a recusal on that because it does affect him um my advice to him while it does endure to his benefit it is consistent with the benefit he has already derived
and bargained for under the prior council's action prior to him being an elected official and I do not in my initial assessment find it to be a private gain to him because it applies to every single person in the city with a similar situation yeah so in those
circumstances he has discussed that he's disclosed that he would be taking advantage of that opportunity because he already took advantage of that opportunity many years ago as part of the city system or his predecessor entitled did okay thank you Amy want to talk about gas yeah um clay was going to
help me with this one too because he also has the history so and this this is in Pine Shore's neighborhood so all the streets when that was developed have a natural gas line except for two and Clay if you would share yeah and so this is
one where you know I'm going to be in councilman beer bomb's position as isoun heavin um both of us have homes on Willow Run and um so at that point in time that is one of those streets that does not have it it goes right across the top and
the connection streets but typically if somebody was coming in and Kobe correct me if I'm wrong if a subdivision comes in now they say they want gas plumbed we come in and Plum it out unless it's part of the developer contract we connect and if somebody is
connecting and they're 300 ft off the road the city's going to run that gas line down off the road um but what you have here is a road that's I think for those of you familiar with some of those roads and pine Shores they're not very long AR streets um the question is we've
talked about expanding the gas system in count SW havin without giving away our exact location I don't think it's a huge secret is at the end of the road and so if for her to connect she has to bear the cost of that enre line and that's what she called said well how would that
work well we would run this line to somebody's house that fronts on the road where there is right now without blinking but we're saying well we can't come down that street to the end of your house without you paying for the whole road to come in so it's a little bit of a disconnect in the way our gas system
connections work and so councilwoman EVN called me not as the City attorney but initially as another Resident or at least at least somebody who owns a property there hey would you be interested in connecting and while that's not my primary residence I said sure I see no reason why we would not connect that home to gas and the
question was most of the people down there would want to connect but the question is now do we make everybody on that bear that cost or is that worth it for the city and so the discussion she and I had and what we're presenting is a little bit like Twin Lakes Drive scenario in areas where we
already have gas around established residential Urban centers neighborhoods subdivisions if suff if there there's a sufficient number of people that want to connect does it make more sense to get them connected or to make the one owner
that wants to do that because right now I think what you found out and the ones I've tght to down there are for instance we' got somebody on that road right now whose address is on that road when they built their house they had City connect them to gas because they wanted gas what did the city do the city shot the gas
line from the main road at the top under their fence into their backyard and connect it to their house but they didn't pay that connection fee so I you know not picking on cev but is it fair for her I don't think it'd be fair for any of our citizens in that
scenario so when she presented that to me I'm looking at the logistical part of that that's a council level call that's something that y'all need to talk about but the suggestion that she and I discussed was not just in Pine Shores specifically but in any subdivision in
any residential area where we already have natural gas lines run is it perhaps worth reaching out to the citizens on some of these roads where it's not stubbed out that would love to connect but their hold up is they don't want to pay 4,000 5,000 $7,000 to run a
line that if that wasn't a city street that they were living down that was just their driveway they'd be getting it connected so do we want these customers on our system or do we want to tell them no they don't want to be in our system and there's five residences on that
street that said yes we would if the line was there but it's not there and they don't want to the whole cost and as it is right now they're only what eight residents nine residents on the street and one of those is already connected because they happen to be at the top so
you know I don't know we ever set some kind of a minimum you know if two people or three or whatever of course again that could be a street with 40 homes on versus 10 but uh you know I think it's
something's got to stimulate to do it other than just forg me one customer at the very end of the road right and certainly those are cases and but what I would say is kind of the direction I was looking for is the council tasking the manager or Randall to come up with what that would look like and what that
threshold connection would be to do it I mean this is customer Outreach and I'm not picking on random when I say that it's not happening but you know candidly I was when I moved when I moved here that was my home in the that I'm
referring to we weren't on natural gas and that was one of my questions well there's their natural gas and I will tell you what I was told well yeah natural gas is out there in that neighborhood so I always assumed it was just there it was there there to connect
and then you know several years ago buer not connected and you don't think to asked to do it but when it came time to swap out a water heater I did the question oh well there's no gas available there well I wasn't at a point where I was going to make the decision to connect
gas or do that I was like I need to do water hitter today for get what is and I don't I won't worry about it but it was news to me and that was after being there for 15 16 years that I literally had no clue there wasn't gas on that street and
probably much like you I mean you move in you told there's gas in your neighbor there's dot well why did they get down those two roads well back when they ran it originally there just maybe weren't enough people there so let's just leave those two cut offs off it's hard to say but I think that's
a broad question of if we want this gas system to continue expanding I know we're doing a lot of stuff with our gas system but if it's an ability to get customers to connect and you have people want to connect you're going to make that money you know unlike the let's wave impact fees because we'll make it up on the
base rate I guess on people like this gentleman out here and Mr bebom we've certainly accomplished what mr's goal was it just took 12 years instead of 12 months but this may be a different scenario I'm just figuring if there some sort of threshold
we can start you think you can get with Randle and kind of look at that and bring some guidance back to the council or is that not a good enough Direction no I mean we can bring it back um gas is not as I want to say fruitful as water and sewer
in terms of Returns on investment um so that's why the ROI is much longer period of time that's why like I talk to council about this uh part of this is probably formalizing some policy stance from the camp from the city's perspective because again I go back to
it's a business it has to operate as such and it has to make it has to make it own money um but also be a service to the community so it's something we can look at I think we need to look at what the city how the city how we do our feasibility to that there are certain fees that every customer pays one a
connection two from the RightWay to the house that varies depending on how far you are from the RightWay give or take and then the third one which is what we're talking about today is we do a feasibility on extension right so we're talking about here is if no one else want to get on Council W have to bear the cost of that extension from a
feasibility perspective of a three-year return on investment that's what the city's been operating for a few years that's what I think we need to formalize um is it three years is it five is it 10 because gas is a long-term game um but as you get more people to want to get on like five or six then you would div that
cost evenly and then you would have a quicker return on that how we going to do it so I do think it needs to be done I just think it needs to be formalized in the process on how the city wants to see that moving forward yeah and I think that's the direction that uh we're recommending be given to Kobe to bring
that back to you because yeah in the example and Kobe's not wrong with the way he said there but that connection depending on what it cost to run from the right of way to the house that fee probably if it's just down a driveway would be less than what it would be to run it down the road run a
true extension and that's kind of the balancing that we just need to bring in and it's that is a business equation so if y'all are prepared to give him that we can get this underway and bring some guidance back so I'll make that in the form of a motion to for Kobe to bring back um a
recommended policy on expansion is there anything else extensions I believe extension and expansions yes all right we have a motion second not to be part of the motion but just and I talked to Kobe briefly about this
a while ago that uh that was another one of the areas that we're really hurting on marketing and I feel like it could be a much more desired um service if we had the right marketing going on so so I'm in I'm in the exact
scenario that these two are in um there's no there was no gas coming down Huggins but when my neighbor rebuilt that house that they're in now they paid for it to come all the way down so now I can hook up for a nominal fee they bore the entire cost of bringing it all the
way down hugin road yeah well that's going to happen uh Mr Mayor point point of information how many of those houses are with in the city limits I understand in that particular subdivision that some are and some are not the whole all the
pine in C yeah okay well I just want to mention that we have a motion second any other comments on on that motion clay do I need to abstain goad no because all he's doing is bring him back Direction okay I
do hi all hi hi I car thank you very much we may not like the policy brings back that's fine now we go to councilman beerbom with the downtown investment thank you Mr Mayor so um it is no secret that o over the years I've talked about
making sure that our our city is clean and presentable um I've talked many times from the dice especially around budget season about you know the efforts that we're going to undertake each year uh to make sure that our our city is is presentable and you know I'm still of the opinion that um the weekend is when
we should be putting our best foot forward so in in that I've always been having some recent conversations with Kobe about events that are coming up and the the look of the city particularly downtown and what I don't want to do is
put Kobe in a situation or myself in a situation where um Kobe feels like he's having to do things downtown at the behest of a single council member so I wanted to have a a discussion with my fellow council members about what what do we want our downtown to look like
especially when you consider the number of events that occur downtown on a on a regular basis uh for me personally uh you know I want to clean downtown I want a well-maintained downtown uh so for me that looks like uh some sort of we weekly presence from
employees whether it's mowing weed eating uh maybe you know once every two or three years you know redoing the striping I know a couple years ago most of the striping was updated um so I want to have a discussion and maybe even even form a motion that that authorizes Kobe
to to put some uh Manpower downtown by the Council on a weekly basis and that includes the street sweeper running on a regular basis maybe sometimes twice a week especially spring and fall when when the leaves are are kind of crazy uh but also directing him to maybe come up
with some plans for you know restriping on on like a a regular basis um that with the number of events downtown that power pole that's right next to the opinion place is in desperate need of probably a complete rework uh the sprinkler system is in desperate need of
some TLC um so I I'm asking my fellow council members to let's have discussion about authorizing him to allocate regular resources Manpower resources as well as maybe bringing back some recommendations during the budget discussion about the uh those projects
that I mentioned being uh put into the budget so I guess maybe to start off the discussion I'll just make that into the form of a motion that the city council or that the city manager allocate weekly resources for mowing street sweeping
weed eating and other maintenance items as well as bringing back to us uh budget recommendations for uh the the infrastructure systems that are down there power water and streets I'll second thank you okay a second go
ahead M thank you Mr Mayor I would almost think that that should be going on continuously anyway I I agree with you I was thinking when we were talking about the parking study earlier that just a pure uh definition lines would
lead to more awareness that there's parking available here or or not and that it fades over time so even as he was talking and discussing everything with us that was one of the things that went through my mind was that the pure maintenance of those lines alone would
probably lead to the the mental awareness that there's more parking available whereas we may not really know that it does because of some of the age of some of the Lots um sidewalks and cracks um we were talking in Ada I remember uh being downtown with one
gentleman and he he was telling me he was expressing his concern with a crack in a sidewalk as his wheelchair tires got stuck and show me how long that it takes him alone to get through that little bitty crack um because of his
disability compared to what we go through just navigating freely from one place to the next a short while back going through the lakeyard when we were looking at the library and and um the repairs that that were needing to be taking place there
and all walking around and seeing just some of the lock boxes on electrical outlets and different things that were left unsecured broken or in dis disarray that just needs to be continuously repaired or maintained um that's I agree with you I
think that there there does need to be some staffing definitely some accountability to to some of that stuff down there because that that's the centerpiece of this town I mean like the fiac is what draws most people here the downtown is coming alive
um and we want people to continous to want to come here and to engage and visit our businesses and just enjoy that downtown life so I agree go ahead Kobe what resources how are the resources allocated now to the
downtown area so we have um this was predate me was implemented but we have a Christmas Reflections technician that shares duties between Christmas Reflections and the maintenance of downtown so one
individual on a should be regular basis um and then the street sweeper is supposed to run on Wednesdays and Thursdays um so we would have to go we'll go and relook at that for a couple reasons one is it happening two is that the appropriate days to do it is there better days to do it first and end of
the week or vice versa um we will take a look at is the appropriate Department been tasked with it does a new T does a new Department need to be tasked with that Duty in terms of maintaining downtown cutting grass things of that nature so those are things that council member and I have spoke about and I would put
together and come back with so how much I'm sorry how much grass is downtown I mean I know there's some like in the rways and stuff but is that are we maintaining all that now correct so you have um so I mean if we're talking about downtown to from 11th to 5th you have the rideway that runs basically
from 11 11 to the parking spaces on 10th you have smaller I would say in between the curb everyone just by every street north and south and down uh going east and then as you get on the South Side so that person does cut those on the South
Side as well all of that median up to a certain point so do we have inmate assistance also and if not can we get them trained so that we could ask the sheriff would he partner with us like they do with the county so that you could have so our so our inmates we have
a limited Crews now I think that's been an issue for a few years now especially since Co those inmates are tasked more so with public facilities so like City Hall and bigger properties and then they go to rideways more so than downtown I think more so from a safety standpoint they will you will see them periodical on the outskirts of downtown not where
people are really walking for that reason but we uh we get inmates we have one I'll double check think we have one inmate supervisor now we used to we have multiple um so we have limited inmate staff and it comes from the prison for from the state and I just have one more
question then I'll finish up is it possible I know you've done some things where folks don't work uh 40h hour work weeks like maybe they work different shifts different days is that a possibility like on a Saturday or you
know is it is it possible to do it with that kind of Assistance or resources just at a different time and I'm not asking you to to answer now I'm just throwing that out there as a potential it's not impossible we would have to you know work we have to find employees identify those who would be willing to
do such a schedule change um those are things that the union we'd have to deal with them as well because that would not not be a temporary schedule change that would be a permanent one your Public Works everybody on Union in that uh everyone out yeah everyone below superintendent correct got it thank
you before I do it Mr Mayor Mr Harris sorry yeah well you know I think over the years not a whole lot of attention has been paid to downtown and and the cleanliness and that and no fault of anybody's it's just was a lot slower back then and and the busier our
downtown gets the more important it is to keep it clean and keep people coming back and and make it you know a clean safe uh place to be um so I I would love to see us allocate
you know somebody to to do that Main Street does a lot m industry has their work days they'll spray weeds they'll kill weeds in the cracks they'll do that once or twice a year probably twice a year um pick up trash paint plant plants
into planters they they do a lot but it's truly not their responsibility to to keep downtown clean and and dressed up entirely but but it is an organization that uh that wants to get that Main Street look established and
and and back to the streetcape that we've been talking about for for years uh we need to get in that direction I think Pride it's like I talked about the way u p goal part too and and and vandalism that was discussed way back I
was on a tree board or whatever and and I I I mentioned you know that for young people that you don't have vandalism if they have something to be PR proud of and and so if our downtown is kept clean um people have a lot more pride in it
local people do uh out of town people love love to come so um I'm very proud of downtown I'm very proud of what Main Street has done um they have a new president now I'm I'm very thankful for what Amanda has done over over the years
for Main Street it's come a long long way a lot of hard work by a lot of people and they do a tremendous amount for for downtown and uh I think we owe it to the people in the town and we owe it to the people that have dedicated so much of their lives to Main Street to to
help them any way we can and I think somebody down there helping a city employee um you know taking some of that on would be tremendously helpful and it would make a big difference in our busy downtown mayor yeah so I do want to
clarify that this was a dialogue that the the city manager and I were having the same dialogue that I've had for the last five years and and it is no in no way shape or form or reflection on Kobe's performance whatsoever it it occurred to me that at some point as a
council it's it's incumbent on us to say hey this is priority and we understand that you're pulled five million other directions and you have a limited amount of budget and a limited amount of manow but it's in those times when having having that leader above you say okay
fine you're pulled in 20 different directions we'll guess what this one's number one and so and maybe we're not declaring downtown number one but we are saying is a that's what I do want us to do here tonight hopefully is say hey this is a priority uh the weekends are a
priority so when we do have a large event whether it's a parade or it's some large event downtown or in the lakeyard we make sure that bookending the beginning and the end of that event there are uh there are activities from a city standpoint whether it's cleaning
the streets whether it's Monday morning first thing collecting all the trash the trash doesn't blow around downtown and throughout the lakeyard because I've I've actually witnessed that happen we have a large event trash cans are overflowing and then it's a windy windy week and then all of a sudden the trash is now halfway down the block so you
know thank thank you for your comments I think think we're going to move forward in a great way but again it wasn't a slight on on Kobe it was more of he and I having the same dialogue and saying okay we need to help him by providing a little bit of priority and Clarity Kobe you how many are have you
got enough help to maintain this as it is or do you need an increase in FTE no I think at the at the current time I think we can do it like council member be mom said I think that was what we're looking for right I'm looking for that this Council wanting me to change the way we process in public works right you
we we have that established system what roads we cut on what days and where we pick up TR needs to be rerouted um currently we do have that one individual dedicated to it maybe that doesn't work not that individual's fault but that's a lot to maintain by one person maybe it maybe need to change it up and the crew needs to come through so I think this is
what I don't think we need anything change right now I think it's something I can work with my superintendant we come to a solution if that solution comes back hey we really don't have the manpower to maybe maintain it to the level that we think they want to maintain it to I'll bring that back to you I do I do want to clarify though
let's think about this for a second let's process this the the employee that's dedicated to downtown is dedicated to Christmas lights so for a solid four months of the year they're not able to focus on on the downtown which also happens to coincide with some of the busiest time downtown because
they're focused on doing a fantastic job with the Christmas lights and and we the the Christmas lights is one of our crown jewels and and they they work hard and it shows but we probably need to process through that of wait a minute at least four months out of the year they're not really available because they're focused
on christas sles and the force multiplier of mate assistance whether state or local I know with the sheriff you if you put someone through the inmate supervision classes then they can now supervise some of those inmates but it seems like covid hit plus we had a
couple of instances where some inmates had escaped on different times and that's really what put the damper on the inmates it was the classification as who can be a trustee or who who should be out there working within the public so I don't want to knock on the shareff or
anybody there too because that that was a lot of the reason as to why we can't get as much help so then it it comes back to that force force multiplier is not really there so now it's how that's why I was asking about the FTE not that we couldn't get it the other way but do
you need more help you know correct that's again we'll go through it because that Christmas reflection emplo like said doing a great job he you know he's tasked with you know managing all that equipment and putting in the zones and maintaining it repairing it um but yeah from you know essentially from October
to end of February we're trying to get it up and get it out as fast as possible um so again probably just need to relook through that and see if that's actually the way we need to do it or do it different way yes and you don't have an issue with I know he was saying the Christmas Reflections folks but in my
mind I'm thinking oh you got a whole Parks division so whoever's taking care of the parks let's consider the downtown area like a park and that needs to be their priority as far as you know one of the first areas that they hit on a routine basis if that's possible but I
think that's your so that was some OD some of the conversation I had today with Public Works superintendent that you know the city we I don't know what happened over years we have a lot of in like connected or duties that go across departments that's good in some some sometimes but sometimes it isn't because
you don't know who does what yeah um so maintenance is maintaining but Parks fall M Parks maintenance falls under transportation but maintenance puts in the equipment and so we're about to start looking into how do we segregate those back out and give specific duties for specific people in departments so you can see that they know what they're
doing so I think that's maybe been some of the disconnect not only on downtown but I do agree that was my initial thought tonight was just internally we designate downtown as a park and it falls within that division who maintains Parks so then you have a whole crew coming through rather than one
individual yeah well you know in marketing mentioned a while ago that's another area pride of your City Market that you know because if you don't get the citizens involved you're you're going to spend yourself crazy trying to keep it kept up the owner we have to own
this town the people here the business people and um that can be marketed to where people take pride in their city and they'll be the first one to tell you hey don't throw that out or whatever gu or go ahead you're right exactly right yeah I remember when the new high school
opened Mr Hughes had a conversation with the students about pride and how there would be no writing on bathroom walls and all that and he but he didn't do that in a threatening way he did it in a in a way to teach them how how Pride could feel
and I can tell you for years you didn't see any bath riding on the bathroom walls I don't know about now I haven't been out there in a while but uh he did a good job of establishing that and and um people people do tend to take care of of things that they're they have pride
in that's for sure another thing with the the I don't know about Sheriff's part with WCI it was the same situation it started way before co co hurt us but not like what happened is they they did a big transfer of inmates all over the
State of Florida they put a much higher more dangerous level in our prisons we used to have we had a huge amount of trustee back you know when I first came there and we had crws out you know I mean we got everything done but now
they're just not there and uh that's that's why we don't have the help we used to have they I'm telling you I for years they did a remarkable job one thing I have learned about these meetings is definitely to give thanks to those who do help us though so by no
means do I want to undercut the help that they're and assistance they're giving us today we're extremely grateful for it it's just that's some of the reason why you can't just have everybody within the walls dump out and come to help you know so are we ready to vote I
hope so any other comment all in favor z i i i i i car thank you very much Kobe you got something uh just two things mayor um if you all remember a couple months back and Kyle's here you you know well five
we had an this5 so we had Donald Smith Company come out pull the well it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be um so you had all authorized an invoice of 44,700 luckily that's not going to be the cost now they have come out they've pulled it we've done some work and put it back so they were about $7,800 and
then I think there's some part cost that we're waiting to get but be substantially less than what we had expected so that's just an update on well five and then lastly um the library so the RFP has been put out um that Library those bids should hopefully be back March 18th hopefully we'll get some
some bids on the library and we can move forward with that so when those do come back you all see them we'll review them and bring those back to you I just comment on bids uh you did the bids are the are being put out right now for the uh water and sewer down
280b correct so yes sir um Newberry has the bid for the 280b infrastructure that is that is out we had a pre-bid meeting mandatory there were a number of contractors here interest in that project so that is currently out Newberry is managing that and they will inform us as we go through the process
and those bids will ultimately come to the council that contract will for approval um the there's another one just said oh the engineering so you all received a shared drive as you always please follow Sun China law don't comment or leave notes but uh all the bids are in there for you to review
since Council will be the Review Committee for the engineering bids um take time to do that we had 11 proposals so that's very good turnout take time to review that I'll have it on the next agenda hopefully if everyone's prepared to do that you will then however many of you would like to select interview and
then we will go from there and set up a date and time for all that to happen but you do have that in your email so please take a look and review those thank you all right Amy got any comments I do miss Danielle Friday I came here it was 4:1
15ish and I have to tell you I first had to go to Jesse because what the ladies needed at the front window I didn't have so I went to Jesse so I just want to give some shout out to some special folks here that went above and beyond to
help me on a Friday afternoon you know when it's it's like I think everybody was trying to wind down and go home but miss Landry was wonderful Miss Jasmine uh Victoria had just come back from the bank uh Jesse thank you wherever you are and for Randall Randall
did a bunch of stuff in the past week or so for my husband so I really want to give those guys a shout out uh you know not not that everybody doesn't do their job but those guys went above and beyond and I just want to say thank you
[Music] I don't really have anything tonight uh I do want to mention uh during all that discussion it reminded me Main Street is actually doing a downtown cleanup on March 6th So for anybody that would like to come out and participate I'm sure they will welcome
the extra hands um I do want to compliment Kobe um as I've been dialoguing with him and um watching him grow and run the city I just I think that he's making fantastic decisions he's approaching a lot of his um
decisions from a analytical and databased perspective um and that that's a breath of fresh air so been very happy especially lately with with the way Kobe approaches a lot of these things so uh all right well thank you guys so very much and thank the Henderson family as
well and so we'll call this meeting a j