fine to drive around. But say that again. I'm sorry. Let's street. That's what Chris or Christopher Yeah. I was going to try to look at it before the meeting, but I'll look at it tomorrow. So,
trying to pull up some maps there. It's got to be that one on the corner there. 12 street. Please inspect. Yeah, it's got to like go to the corner there of Maine and 12th. It says 10th South and 12 Street. Exactly where it says right away. According to the survey,
it's still there on the corner. That's the one we're talking about, isn't it? That's got to be it. Right by the water. West Main and 12th Street. Yeah, I know where that one's at. I've been looking at that for last year. I think I think Scott look had me look at it a couple years ago. Yes, you've
pruned it. It's been pruned on. Here is the photograph. Oh, you can pull it right up. Is this Is this what you're trying to see? Uh, look to the right or to your right. Yeah. Little more. There's the affected area.
Right there. Affected area. Is that the tree right there? That cavity there. Okay. I'll get you see him. I'll look at it tomorrow. I'll let Chris. I'm working tomorrow. Second I can think of right there. That's That's the one that's right there. Big. That's it. One of the big one of the big leaders must have a
cavity in it. Yeah. I don't know where he got South Tent at. Well, did they rename Main Street? No. Sure. But they sent the ID number and so I'm not sure where all of that is. It
might or it might be 10 South 12th Street. Correct. There's the address. Maybe the house. Ah, that's what it is. The house. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Who you know who lives there? Anybody know who lives there? I can tell you
before anything goes live here. Yeah. Sometimes when I walk out there, the people come out. Email address. I'm just gonna forward this to you. I got two of them. I don't know which one. M. You want me to send it to? M. This one Chris uses M. Goody. G O O D
I E 75gmail.com. Yes, sir. Goody sharper. Good job. And I think it's got more details if you go down the email. Okay. All right. Thanks. Yes, sir. I just send all these visits, Kobe. Do I just send them to you all? All these
free visits every week? Yeah, I'll just charge them to the tree board. It's a good bill. I think I think you all got enough money in there. Depends on what your cost. I'm just Oh, I was I was We do appreciate you coming help.
We're supposed to be pruning a tree. Uh Scott wants me to show up and they actually start pruning this tree on College Boulevard or something. There two sisters there that one wants the tree sort of down. That one don't want the tree down. It's two
sisters. It's pretty funny. But I've got them convinced we'll just prune it first. You know, it's a nice looking tree. Don't want the sisters too much. So, she's on her way, Kim. Yeah. I didn't know. Yeah. She called
Raphael and said she was going to be about eight minutes late. She's in the real estate. Did is there any way we could print that? Um quote, let me see. He copied me on it, right? I
believe he did. Okay. I'm trying not to talk business, you know. I know it's hard to get fired and talk about we're together, right? That was about the outs. Yeah, the from the advanced nurseries and forestry. Uh
well, no, that was just a question. Yeah, the invoice. Yeah, thank you. I told her she needs to of course. Of course. Okay. I'm just presuming everybody's ready. Yeah, we are. Deep breath. Yes.
Okay. No glasses. Is that what you look like? Straight hair, too. Straight hair. Looks good. Thank you. It won't last 10 minutes. Don't worry. Making me look really old now. Okay. Okay. Let's bring the beauty tree board
meeting to order. It's Thursday, May 1st at 512, 2025. And the first thing uh that we're going to do is have our invocation and I'll lead us in prayer. Dear heavenly father, thank you for this
day, for the ability to to be here and to serve the city and to serve you. ask each of us to have keen minds and divine wisdom for any decisions that we need to make. And I ask you to go before us and bless us and bless this city and to your son's glory. In your name we pray. Amen.
Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Okay. So, first item is in new business is the downtown jet out is taking this one. I can start. Um, so I've seen you know Mark doing down there. Um, one of the thing we talked on
the phone the one the reason it didn't do anything because I was we talked about that jet outs the last time we talked about the one in front of Suare. I didn't want to go and put felt down and tear it up if they're not going to put the plants from suare. We're going to put the bricks instead. Right. So, that was kind of where I'm at here is
exactly which jet outs we're going to do. The ones the only ones he's cleaning up. Is that the ones we're doing? Well, there's actually been a little bit uh I wanted to talk to you about that he's offered to go ahead and lay the fan landscape fabric. Um now, while he's
prepping it. Yeah. So, uh, really, uh, we would like to go ahead, you know, um, so that's the reason I went ahead and got the new quote. Uh, it's right here. And really and truly, I was extremely excited about the price change. And she
wanted to me to explain the reason why is because whenever we got the quote during the wintertime, she was having to pull from like nurseries in Miami and it was like nothing came from one place. And so that was actually a little bit high. I know that she can get them all from one place shipped in as early as
next week. Um, we could get 90 of each plant. We could finish this project for that price, especially with Mark's kindness of prepping the beds and putting the landscape fabric down. That's exciting. Now, that's math,
y'all. Three 490. How many? That's a lot of holes. It's a lot. 90 times five. What are we at? 450 holes. Okay. So that being said, um he's working. He worked today and he thinks he can finish them all. He he
needs to be here with no traffic on Sunday. So doing all of them all the jet outs. He's already got like the cutting cutting just Okay. Prepping. Prepping is huge. I know prep is big. It's big. It's way bigger than anything else really.
sew then lay in the fabric and then what we'll have to do is um I I tried to work with her on this budget so we still have plenty for um pine straw because I know 8,000 is sort of what we were left at
and we had said that we'd go towards this project. The other thing that I would like for us to consider is the water- soluble crystals um to put in the hole. And what that does is it as it rains it absorbs water. And since irrigation sort of a a issue right now
um that we could put that into the hole and what it does is it holds it when it rains and then it slow releases. So it really helps with the watering on new plants. Um you know and you might have better insight on using that. Uh I don't have any experience unfortunately. So I
have a lot of people especially out where we're at right now next to the farm people aren't putting in wells because it's expensive but they're planting fruit trees and they're having really good success with it. How long have they last? Do you know when Dad I cannot answer you but even if it helps it through its first two three months is
the crucial time. Um so I think see if you answered me. I was trying to see what about soil like an an amendment amendment. So, we talked about that, but everything that we've picked is very Yeah, we and I know we I know we did
before and I and so I think it's done pretty well, but I wanted to bring it up again. I was out by the fitness center today and I I should have looked at it. They all Have you drove by anybody lately to see how much salvation? They look really good. I mean, um,
especially considering we we've been very dry. Yes, they looked really good. I mean, they really do. Is the pine straw down? I Well, they they did half of it. They did half of it. Okay. Pine is done on half of what was left there. Um, so it still needs more pine straw
and the grass still needs to be removed next to the Tesla uh box. Not to butt in, but that seems high. $31 for a three gallon pot. Is that the going price for those things, Evan? Sunshine three gallon is a is a big
plant a mature. Yeah, for you know most of the time I'm not saying I don't line. I'm just curious. Big pink sunshine legustrum. That was one of our five. Yeah. I just went off the same remember the other thing seem in line. I just that one's so much more. Well, it's a bit of a
specialty plant. I mean it's if we would have went with the same price that we were quoted last time, that's the reason I was so excited about this. So just so you look at the numbers, we would have only got 70 plants of each. So we're getting an additional 20 plants and you know an additional 100 plants for the
same. I was just curious but we got the money you know. Yeah. And that was you know the the sunshine lustroom gives it that kind of yellow uh pop. Now, here's the thing that the question is, um, now back over the winter time, she said that, you know, and I know how the
finances work is, um, she needed money up front. Then she said, now she's busy. If we wanted to order it, if the city okayed it, that she would be happy to order them and have them here next week for install. We're we're pushing it on when they need to go on the ground.
Um, you don't think if you call her and say, "Well, we'll we'll do that." But you got to deliver them for free. She Oh, she already said she would. Oh, okay. I just saw it on her. Yeah. Oh. Oh, she did say. I thought she said deliver for that kind of purchase. I think she would deliver them for free. Well, and yeah, course I'm looking at my
at a personal budget, not city budget. So, right. And and we can definitely ask her that. Um, don't hurt to ask. Yeah. And and we've also Mark did offer to take a trailer and go pick it all up. Okay. Um, so as far as install, if we got them next Friday, now
I know this is pushing it, guys, and but Lakefest, you know, downtown, it would be nice if it looked nice for LakeFest. Um, I think, you know, Lake starts on Friday, right? So maybe that's not if if all the heavy equipment, it was just volunteers putting in the ground next
Thursday, Friday. Um, I know that Mark has said that he will bring guys. I have guys um that are regular at the farm that I would bring if y'all are available, you know. But the thing is it needs to be um like I know with Main Street whenever
we do volunteers sometimes it's just an open and we have lots of Girl Scouts. What we need is able bodies that are ready to that know what they're doing and working, you know. Um and it would be a lot of giving your own time. So I don't know what's I'm happy to give
time. I'm just thinking about from a um like a a practical standpoint of getting it done quickly, like if we could um include in from some of our budget to get a couple of those augur attachments that go on the um the drills like and it
and the and then you just got to take like it's the ground isn't so hard. Just the motor ones. You mean that just the little manual ones? No. Well, I was just thinking about the one that like attaches to your drill. So, literally, you can just take a drill and it does this and it loosens all that soil and
then you can scoop. Oh, I see what you're saying. Instead of a regular auger, I'm not the expert at that, but yeah, with three gallon, I think that's more for like putting your patunias in the ground. I I don't know um if that's going to help really for three gallon, you know? I mean, I use what you're my
three gallon. I use an augur on the back of a tractor, right? Um but they make these ones, you know, like that gas powered. Yeah. Okay. No, that might that's bigger. That's it's your same idea.
Yeah. I was just trying to think of some something to ease the Right. No, that's a good idea if we knew somebody had one or I don't know anybody's got one like Ace or somebody that was like Tractor Supply. I know whenever we didn't have to do the
prep work and we installed at Ironing Grape and that was 25 plants and it took three of us an hour. Okay. So, you know, so how many plants? Four 150. Yeah. How
many? Right. No, we would need we would need we would need people, right? Then you got to decide where they go. You got to get them marked up. So Mark was gonna he was going to do the site prep, clean out the weeds, lay the fabric, but we have to plant it. Well, he wants to help
plant too. Yeah. And Lakefest is this coming weekend. Next weekend. Next weekend. Yeah, that is pushing. If you get more crowds in town, that actually hamper the installation. When does like this start code? The 9th. Next Friday. I
know. But like what time? Friday. Next Friday morning. It starts the the fish there's fish fry at noon. So I kind of when it starts but people some people start coming on Wednesday afternoon the camping and stuff. So I mean okay Friday afternoon Friday at 5 it'll be fully kicked off full. I'm just
wonder if that's pushing if you got more people around. I don't really know way but I know where your point you'd like to have it done. Well and if it if it can't then you know and it is a lot. What if we do two volunteer days? Try to do one, you know, work Friday next week and ask them if because ask them if they
will keep half of the plants so they it's in their hands. They keep them watered because you don't want anything right now with this heat. Um that was another thing in the email and um you know because we had leftover plants. We did have a few there are more than a
few. Yeah. The cities of the city. Uhhuh. So, you know, I don't know if those plants are still We did go through a drought, so you know, but um I'm game with half. Let's see what we can get done.
How does it work moneywise for them? I mean, if we I mean, we already voted to spend it, but am I safe to tell her? Well, we'll have to take care of it. So, you got to let her take care of it or we're going to run into a problem. So, we'll have to reach out to her with that and get a new invoice that's built to
the city. Um, and then we'll have to do a requisition, a PO, and then they'll get paid uh next week's payroll. So, probably the week after next. We got checks every two weeks, uh, unless it's an emergency. So, um, yeah, we'll have to just take that PO, call over there,
have them redo it in our name, and then put it in the system. Okay. Um, if we want them next week, she still needs to know. Is that something that someone could contact her tomorrow? Yeah, we I mean if y'all do if y'all want to do it, we can put the PO in
tomorrow. We get the new invoice tomorrow and put the PO in and get the PO approved. That's not a problem. Okay. Okay. As long as she knows you're going to get paid, probably. Yeah. Yeah. Or get the plans, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, you just have a priority or you might pick to do the
first part of it volunteer-wise. We're talking about this for next. Are we still wanting to do I wish she could get them in on Thursday and maybe I could talk to her because it'd be much better if we could do a Thursday
workday. Yeah. Yeah. Um I can I can see what she can do if she can pull any strings on. It's a large order. I think I can give you at least a half a day myself. Work it in. I can make it happen.
I have something. Oh, you Oh, yeah. You'll reach out to the master gardeners, too, and give them the option of There you go. Um, what time do you want to start in the morning? If we can get the plants the earlier the better. If we can get them Thursday. So,
um, I will have to reach out and see about that because really, yeah, I would love to do it Thursday. That was starting to warm up. Probably 8. Yeah. 8 to 12. came by. Yeah. I mean, it would be great if we could start sometime around seven.
Yeah. Right. I think it's supposed to be nice next Monday. Supposed to be no rain. I mean, next week I am looking at the forecast. Of course, you can't believe the forecast this time of year. Anything can happen. Rain, I think, but it rains more in the afternoon than morning. So,
I'm really excited about this. I mean really that's a small amount of money for big impact big impact the entire downtown all the jetouts because even if like even all the ones where the live oaks are just been punched on there it's going to be beautiful I mean it really
is going to be sharp looking it is you know main thing is we we have a water tank there to water them in yeah and I have two this time so we're not so I'm just going to put on the flatbed and bring two and then the city had the one that they brought and they were doing
buckets, but if you have a hose to it, then I mean there's simple ways you can simplify it. Um, so I have two 250gallon tanks that I'll bring. Okay. Um, for water. That'd be great. I need to be able to fill them down at the city. Will that be a problem? No, we we just have
to get with me. We'll take you We'll just have someone take you to one where we fill up utility trucks. All right. I got a really nice bale pine straw. This guy that wanted it don't get it. I can bring it. It's nicer than the one that I brought last. Oh, and that is the other thing is the pine straw, which that pine straw place on 90. Y'all might have a
source, but I have to look. I thought we bought I thought it was like $7 a bail. Yeah, I think so. I know for my commercial landscaper friend, that's what he gets them for. See, my p a one round bail get you about 30 bes, right? If I can, if this guy don't want
it, I'll just donate it to you. But it's nicer than the last one I have. Well, we'll take it. Absolutely. At least get some of it done that day, you know. Yeah. Okay. And that's another Who's who's buying the felt? Yeah. The
the weed the weed block. Uh Mark said that he had a lot from leftover jobs. He was going to use everything he had until he ran out. So, and then the pine straw some eventually to buy some because it
takes a lot. And that's the reason I I I tried to max out at 69 versus going to the eight was for the pine straw and maybe the crystal. Um we should look at some donated some pine straw, you think? I think you probably could, but moving
this fast. Yeah. A very hard time. Yeah. I mean, our frizz, he might donate a few bales hardware a few. Mhm. And that's another thing too as far as with the volunteers, those that aren't ablebodied to be able to do the digging.
Um we could set out the bells and all of them and spread the pine straw. Yeah. Um because you can easily move the pine straw back and dig a hole and put the plant in. That's true. And so that's that's stuff that anyone really can do, you know. Yeah. That's Yeah. You lay all pine straw out, right? Yeah.
Okay. So, um, you'll let know about days when we and then he can let us know if it's a go. Whoever's in charge of all that. Is that you or Raphael?
Okay. All right. Okay. Good. Really appreciate. Yes. Yay. Okay. Anything else do we need to cover that you can think of, Kobe? Um, no. We'll have to figure out the pine straw plants. Um
fail need to understand are we're gonna pick up half. We're gonna pick them all you talk about both. So what Well, I need to ask her um if she could possibly move it to Thursday and then
she loves pickup. Easier for her to take care of him at the nursery. I tell you what, Mark has offered and I I I know he's already doing a lot, but he has offered that he'll go pick them up. If we do it that way, then we pick up what we need if that's okay. If somebody else picks it up other than No, I mean once
we I mean, once we get the quote from her and put the PO in, I mean, it don't matter who has them on hand, they're ours as long as we get them. So, okay. Well, then how many you get? Then maybe I'll get them to knock that 150 deliver fee off and then it's not very far, you know, and then if we get
more in the ground, hey, we got another hour, then we can go pick up some more, but then they're staying watered and taken care of. Yeah, agreed. This is a small thing, but if we have a bunch of volunteers, we might want to have a couple cases of water. For sure. No, that's Yes. And uh shovels. Is that
something? I know last time this the city had a truck with like We can do some water. We got cases of water and then we could do like shovels. I got shovels. I know them golden shovels are pretty special to me. So So um Okay. So
from the city from or for me staff, we need to buy the plants. We need to buy pine straw. They have dropped off down there. Mhm. How many bells are we thinking? I had did the math previously and I don't remember. Um, I know that it only
took four bales for the jet out at Iron and Great. 50 would get us really started. Good. Mhm. Okay. So, drop 50 of those off. Okay. So, we need to buy the plants. We need to buy the pine straw, have the pine straw
delivered, and then have shovels and work. And if we're going to try to start with half, where which locations are we thinking? But we'll have to Well, he's saying he'll finish Sunday and you know, weather and everything else. Right now,
he's started from the very last one past last stop. Okay. That was the first one that's been cleared. Okay. So, we could work that in and work our way back. Or if he makes it to the center of downtown, I would like to work our way out just because that's where the most
activity is downtown. That clues up. That's why I was asking. I was hoping we might be able to start in the middle and then do that. Oh, and I there was a question about um sor Oh, it was you sor. Uh just for now because pine straw is cheap. I would like to go ahead and put
pine straw just so it looks uniform. And then so what we'll do is I'll get st we'll just have them put it on a trailer and keep it at the polar yard and that morning we'll have bring it down there and y'all just tell them we need six at this jet out, five of this
jet and Okay. Okay. Yay. All right, good stuff. Progress. So, we'll be getting an email if this is a go for Thursday from Raphael today. I'll find out. What I mean, what do you what do you need from him?
Well, it's just I'm not allowed to talk to them because of sunshine. So, I have to tell Raphael if we can. Okay. Okay. I'll Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, anything else on that before we move on? All right. So the next item uh to B
is the fiscal year 2526 budget request. Yep. So we're getting there. Um we are had our first budget workshop. We'll have another one in May, moving through. You know, we're going. So, uh you know, the council's looking at everything
right now in terms of expenses. So, you know, all we can do is put some stuff together and see if they'll fund it or not. So, last year 10,000 was our budget last year, right? They do. Do we dare ask for a couple more? We do. We do because I think look what we this year
that we're accomplishing with it so we can show we're responsible with it and we're making impact with it. When they have citizen comments, I guess in the budget, I guess we could have firepower ready. I've showed what we've done. You know,
maybe nobody will show up. So, so I I also I am very passionate about this. We have got to get one parks person that just does beautifification. We're buying trees and they're dying as fast as we can get them in the ground. We've got
two longleaf pines that are dead and they haven't been in the ground six months. Well, I met with it it we can make it pretty all we want to, but if nobody's there to take care of it, it's not going to last. I met with Scott on those trees. I told him to remove them and I looked at them. They
were planted too deep. this the STEM was like way down the road, which is another reason why we need somebody who does this so that this is what they know. They can learn and do and it's not somebody like me going out there trying to figure out how deep to plant a pine
tree because I don't know. Well, I mean I'm not but we can't expect the staff to know that, but we're spending the money on it and I just feel like we're going in circles wasting money on things that I mean you expect to lose a couple. Of course, I'm looking at 80% survival. I try to be out there when they're
planting them, but sometimes I can't be at every one, you know, make sure the roots are spread out and but just two I looked at with Scott. He's supposed to have He's supposed to pull them. They're not pulled yet. They're not pulled yet. And an oak tree. There's an oak tree in between three of them right there. Right. But I mean, it just it I agree
with you. We've got to have somebody who knows what they're doing so that we're not depending on staff that are hired for other reasons that aren't trained in what we're doing. But you know a lot of the city employees they have been out there when we spread the roots haven't
they haven't but maybe you know they by now a couple of them should know how to plan them but were those the guys that were out there. So you have one person who's in charge of that they can oversee that piece of it and take the responsibility for it. Is there maybe
somebody in house that that could be trained? Is there training that you know I would I would want my personal opinion and what I've tried to do ever since I joined the board was to have somebody get training on they don't have to be an arborist but they need to have somebody
teach them basic pruning right and basic things to look for if you've got a plant with lyken what do you do what about the crepe myrtles that we have here what about take the the stuff that we have a lot of learn how to take care of those
things and make and then make the beautifification piece of it with upkeep. I think basically though there's just a couple staff members we already have Kobe that we that make sure they're there at every tree planting once we show them. Maybe there is a random crew.
Some of the same ones aren't planting every time. It's basically the same people. If you have folks that need training like that, I can certainly put something together for them. Um and that's just a matter of me scheduling it on the calendar. I've already got some presentations on those topics prepared
that would be easy to just pull out and and talk at some people about. Don't disagree with the idea, but that's the note that I have tree planting and pruning training evidence. I mean, yeah. Um I mean I think that would probably be the first step is we can have again one of the things we want to try to
implement this year but definitely next year is some sort of like lunch and learns for employees and that might be one for that that particular division of public works is that of train. So if you can just get somebody to tell me to do it, you know, when when's convenient for them. She's to your she's to your left.
So she can tell you to do it. Just tell me lunch and learn. Tell me new stuff all the time. But yeah, being I just feel like if there's one person who that's what their purview is, then
instead of trying to spread everybody thin because we're in a drought now and I don't we have never used our bladders yet that we got two years ago. Exactly. We're going to put them around the fruit trees. That's the fruit trees that we're planting. Why they were I don't I don't
know. So that's why try if you have one. I'll shut up now. Go ahead. It's not on the agenda though. Can I just mention something? Um are we Well, we're still in budget request right now. Oh, my bad. Okay. How much we asking for? $1 million.
Yeah. So, I think we need to talk about what we want to accomplish this year. uh and form a budget request based on that. Would that be your recommendation, Kobe? Good. Yeah, I think you know uh one of
my things for the city this year is really uh and what staff has talked talked to staff about is really a lot less new and a lot more um because council wants to see cuts. They want to see the city reduce transfer and stuff. So it, you know, maintain what we got
and be good at maintaining what we got. When we do that, then we can start putting things in. That's not the account staff doesn't do a good job and they don't they can't put new things, but we still have the funds to buy new things. So you take we can if we can get back to maintaining what we have at a high level, it'll seem like it's new.
And then so uh I say I say that because I'm thinking of for me like next year we're looking at you know condition assessments of multiple aspects of the city in particular infrastructure, streets, buildings, vehicle, all those things because you can't fix something if I don't know what condition it's in.
Um and so and on top of that, you know, we're rolling into creating a strategic plan for the city which is a fiveyear outlook of what city the council want city look like. Um, so I, for me, I'm going back to the parks master plan. We, you know, y'all did this, you
went through the exercise. To me, this needs to be reviewed, updated, and then work through. That's my personal opinion. Uh, because I'm thinking from, uh, from the budget perspective, not only the one-off projects y'all are doing, which is good, but to me, if we're going to have this, we need to go through it. If we're going to improve
parks, then y'all can go and say, "Okay, let's focus on these two this year or this one this year." That's that's me. That's kind of what I would be looking for um from y'all. But yeah, I would like to see the next the park where the playground just went in. I
know um I would like that to be a big project next year. You know, that's where I was going to say, you know, with a new PL. Now, Ellen, I don't know if you're working, but I was out of town and the Girl Scouts were planting a tree, a plum tree over at that park.
Yeah. I haven't been by because I went back and forth with him when I was gone and she was happy with everything. So I don't know if they got the city got permission to plant a tree or not over at that park, you know, where they meet the girls, right? But just, you know, that nice equipment went in there. I think it's a a staple. It's right there
in the community and, you know, I see kids using that all the time a lot now. Um, and we've talked about it in the past. So, you know, that's there's been a lot lots of the parks that need, you know, I'd be happy with any of them, but that one would be a good one, too.
Kind of on a main road there. So, and we talked next year at Chippy Park to do more shrubs next year like the blueberries. So, as is. So, I think not maybe we won't plant trees next year except maybe we replace the ones that died. I think Scott was going to do that
this year. I don't know if he's doing it or not. Replace. a quarterly thing that uh he reviews what what we've lost and then we replace them. Maybe the nursy was warrantying them. Sometimes they will. Of course, it's not Walmart or Lowe's. So, I don't
know. But we could find out to talk to Scott. But Chipley Park and the shrubs I think that was that's huge, too, you know. And you could do you could do an Isaiah drive and you could probably get Yeah. You know, 200 free Isayas. I mean, really, if we marketed it, right?
We try blueberries and something different. Yeah. Next spring or next more bushes less to mow. Yes. And they grow wild and they're beautiful when they grow wild. There's not really grass out there anyway. Biggest you want them to get. So
30,000. No kidding. I'm not I'm not kidding because I mean we want to We've talked about the dog park too. Right. Right. So, um I know that has we're we've talked about
Florence dog park. We've talked about all the parks, but anyway, and we are putting trees in both CO one and two, the fruit tree project. I guess she walked out and talk or not.
I don't think so. Thank you though. Um, we are going to talk about that though. That's what I wanted to talk. Is she Was she leaving? Okay. I just want Okay. Well, I mean it's once once we finish with the budget. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because I've been meeting
with her about the fruit tree stuff. Yeah. So, Kobe, where does things like creating a dog park, is that falling under our budget request or that's going to fall under something else? No, I mean it would. I mean, that's
that's the project I've been after. So, uh, we talked about the first. So, I got some more numbers. You know, we had the the fence, which we're talking about this area was like right at $34,000. That's if we pay someone to come do it. I know you had some um, you know, park benches, two per section, you're looking
probably $2,000, about $500 a piece, and that's on the low side. Park benches are expensive. Benches are expensive. Um, DWS, oh, way stations, you know, those are at least $250 a piece. So, you're talking 500 there. Uh, I put acronyms there now. I can't
remember what those what they mean. Trash cans. Yeah, two of those probably $1,000. A nice trash can. They're expensive. About $500 a piece. Um, signage, probably $600 worth of signage. And I'm just talking basic signage. If you go get in to get something more formal looking or that
type of hard sign, be more than that. So, I'm just talking about like metal signage, $600 there. And then waters, those things $3,000 a piece. Those type of dogs. So $6,000 there. So I mean you're really looking So 23. So they were so we're 37,000.
Um six we're at we're at 43,000. I mean you're going to be somewhere around 45,000 just on materials, right? You know, we're not talking about everything else. So yeah, you could probably get in. The thing is our CPI the council changed it about a year and a half ago.
We changed it. So anything 50,000 less does not go on the CPI. So I would round that up to 50. The next thing is take it to council say look we would like to put dog park on the CPI on our CIP uh $50,000 cost. Now again that doesn't mean it gets funded next year just goes
on the CIP but then we can start looking for grants for it. We can start pulling all that stuff together and it's it's an identified project of cities and so does that become part of our budget and then we go to ask for it to be a part of the
CIP? I think keep it separate. You're saying it's separate from separate retrieval budget. I mean, no, not this first year. You get put on CIP. Uh, and then, you know, you find the fun money for it, we find the money for it. If you don't, it just sits there until you do
or we put a plan together. So, that would be on the dog part, that would be the step. The next step, if this if this board wants to do it, is technical on the council agenda to say, we'd like to add to this the city's capital improvement plan a dog park, and we estimate that to be $50,000 to create.
That's the next step. Okay, time to get I would like to do that surprise my little passion project. Okay, so for um improving say Florence Park for instance,
we've talked before about Summer had a you know sort of a a um Central Park idea for it where it had you know kind of a little bit of everything. Uh that would obviously be a much bigger project. Would that be something that we could do the same? Because I don't think
we're going to do anything for less than $50,000. It's going to be impressive. Yeah. And see that's so that's kind of what I'm getting at. So what I mean for like this this year or it doesn't m whatever. But I guess when I'm when I'm talking about this strategic plan, whether you we use this one or you create a different one like we talked
about cemetery that five-year development plan, however you want to do it, you we need to lay it out on paper somehow, right? Each individual park or whatever Florence, we say, you know, if let's say Florence, y'all, your big picture is $100,000 and it's going to
take three, four, five, four years to do it. I'm just a big phase person. I'm a big step person plan. So what in the first year of the 100,000 are you trying to do and the next year how much is that and what is it in the third year and the fourth year? How do we get to that? We have to that way. We don't have enough
money to just go and do things. So that's kind of what I'm talking about when we're talking about all these parks. And again that's my personal preference. I I just I think for a long time we've done that. Cities done that is we do a little here and a little there and and it never seems everything never gets done because you wrap back
around what you did the first time is no longer any good. So that's why I'm Florence is the newest one. It's got the most newest equipment. So put the focus there and just keep do plugging away till it's finished and then move to the next one or do things simultaneously.
But you got to plan to it. Would we do like would it be best to like have a workshop then and so we can sit and really just discuss on that and look back over the original master plan. I would like to do that as a group. We need to look at original master plan. I
don't know what we put in for and looking at it before we get here so we're not all coming through. Yeah. And it's important too that during that workshop to really think about any other entities that could help or that would want to give to it, you know,
let the east coast go home. Well, we're still in okay in budget requests. So, uh, all of that said, yeah, I would say you definitely need to look through it because I mean, one of the first pages is his recommendations 1
through 13. Y'all may not care nothing about that anymore. I don't know. To me, some of this is big city stuff. Not saying it isn't possible, but you're not wrong. And then going to pay, you know, to section five, the phasing implementation section F51. uh they have a zero to threeyear time
frame, a zero to a four to eight year time frame and there's nine to 15. Again, that's a good setup. You just got to kind of look through. I mean, there's a lot of money packed in there. Just realistically not possible, right? So, um that that's what I would take to look at is those two things and determine if
that's what you want. This right here may no longer be your mastermind. This just may be a good resource we have. They did inventory on our parks, right? You may we may create a whole separate one, but this is just a good inventory start. But that's up to y'all to decide. Okay. Okay. Work. Okay. So,
since Okay. So, we can do a a workshop, right? But we need to get something into you for a budget request. Yeah. That's I think the workshop is the bigger thing for years later to to work through the rest of this this calendar year and the
next calendar year and be prepared for fiscal year 27, right? Because we're getting into fiscal year 26. So, I think you need to focus on fiscal year 26 and let this be the next year project. Well, I would like to ask for 30,000. I don't think that's crazy. I think we've used
what we've had really well and we've had good impact and people can see it and we have active members of the board wanting to do something actively participating and that's half the battle in my we got a lot of pruning to do. Some of that might have to be contracted out
maintenance of the trees, you know, not just planting the trees. Yeah. They can only do so much pruning, right? I mean, you don't have to make all figured out tonight by this. I mean, here soon, we need to have figured out. Um, I think, you know, whatever number that y'all ask, we just need to have a use for
every dollar. That's something very that we're going to be do very much for everybody this year. And you know, in the budget, there'll be a specific section for the board and it'll have it'll have your funds and a breakdown of what the project is, where it's what part of the community it serves and blah blah. And when do we need to have that to you? Soon, I mean, so departments are
going to be due by the middle of June. So by the middle of June, we need to have it done. So the the budget request needs to have what it's going to be used for for the next year. Yeah. Yeah. They're I have a feeling they're not going to budget. So we can really discuss it now. I can we can check on tree burning cost like what a contractor
would charge for use per tree or something put that in the budget. I mean because otherwise or just have discussion can we combine it into a couple of hours where we've got
our next the master plan and how we're going to use our budget and we can just do it yeah at the next meeting and actually make decisions there. Okay. Now, the Kobe the tree the trees that Scott buys, some of that's not even out of our budget, right? Yeah.
With the plaque we did out of our budget, but I guess I don't know. The tree plaque. So, we would just need to know if the room's being used um next next time starting at 4 instead or even Is that good with you
guys? Evan said three. Maybe three. Three. Okay. It takes a while to discuss this stuff. Two hours goes by like that. Yeah. You're not wrong. Okay. So, you want to leave it as a regular meeting or you make a workshop workshop with meeting with the workshop with meeting. Okay, that's fine. We can
do a workshop at 3:00 and then the regular meeting at five. Y that'd be fine. I'll look at the workshop will be about fiscal year 26 budget request and then uh city beautifification. No, revisiting the
master plan. You want you want to revisit the parks master plan? I think I still have that somewhere. Okay. I might have mine, too. That's pretty thick. We'll just Okay. Pretty thick. Okay. Yeah. Because we're going to need them about next year. So, you're going
Yeah. Okay. Are we going to move on? Yeah. Just so she can Yeah. Denise can go because it was it was about the um urban um grant. Yeah. The urban grant. Okay. and it was brought to my attention um at the last city meeting and I did email and so and and thank you for
getting back with me. Um and I didn't hear it. I I tried to watch the whole meeting and and I didn't it must have been towards the end. Um but it was brought to my attention like there was no PCImmens or no figs mentioned and I know that we had discussed what was brought to the table that we didn't want
to use those it and the ones that we didn't want to use I was I was told is what were the ones that were brought up at the meeting. So, I just want to make sure that we were still using the figs and the pimmens and not using the ones that were recommended. I know Denise is coming, but I know Denise talked with
Mike a lot about it, but we had a really hard time getting them because nurseries just didn't have them. So, um, we had to take some of the substitutes to do it because not only are we on the time credits for planning, we're on time for the grant. They money's got to be expended. So, that's why we bought half of them. Correct. We bought half and
we're going to wait to buy the other half to hopefully they'll get the more of the kinds of them that y'all are wanting specifically. That's why we did that. Get this grant moving. Um the advanced nurseries they they're the largest specializer in u in pimmens. So
they have anyhow so I know that we have a local nursery that can get the the figs and the pimmens. Um the stipulation with the grant is that they needed to be in 15 gallon or larger. Okay. So that created a a really hard um hurdle that
we had to get over as so we brought what was available in 15 and larger and got it approved along with a backup list from the agency. Okay. And and that's why it went off our original recommendations and we just went with the best ones. Yeah. We spoke with Mike and Mike gave um what options we could
do now. But as Kobe said, we're going to start with the first park and then she said she was going to get more in because she was getting them from down south. Okay. And that will add to the ones that we originally requested. Awesome. But we want the larger sizes. Definitely. No, that makes sense. Thank you. Okay. Good. Yeah. So, when's
planning? When are we going to plant them? Um, that's a good question. So, I've spoken with Thomas and Scott wants to pick them all up next week because she's going to have all of them for the first park. And then Thomas gets back next week. So, I'm
going to speak with him because he's ready to start on that now. So, he needs to speak to his guys and they'll get started right away. Me and Evan could try to work in to be We could try to when they plant them just I'll get the schedule from him and then I'll send And then the bladder bags. We're talking
about putting them around the fruit trees because those cost so much. Yeah, it didn't cost the pack. No, I'm talking about the trees. We don't want to lose the trees. The bladder pack. I was like, what? No, the trees are very expensive. So we that
there probably be I had a blog moment. Sorry. We might need more. Thank you. Thank you. Um but good. I had one more question. What's going on with this? Oh yeah. We need to find a we need we're
missing a fifth person. Oh. Oh. I've um I've talked to all the council members. Obviously this board's a little different than some of the other ones. This one any council member can re make a recommendation. Okay. U or the mayor um make a recommendation and then the council could approve it. just no one's brought no one's brought names. I
messaged Harper Rain um and I didn't hear anything back from him, but I didn't follow up. We hope to find landscape person. Yeah, that's that's what he does. So, we need to keep working on that. Okay. Okay. I just want to keep it up, you know. Yeah. And I know next, you know, we did it as last council meeting going
over the boards and the vacancies and stuff. We got to bring that back for a couple more council appointments that they sit on and we'll have that again because I think uh I think the mayor was going to bring somebody for planning and council for CRA. So we'll bring it up again and see if they have anybody fill
it. Okay. Thank you. Tell paying position. Okay. Free water every now and then every now and then. Okay. Anybody else before we move on to citizen comments? Citizen comments. Very patient. Hello
everyone. Uh, three things. Please state your name. Oh, hi. I'm Kandra Vargas and I'm the director of Main Street DFS. Also, um, avid gardener, plant nerd, and I'm very excited about the upcoming projects. And so, three things. First, tomorrow morning, if anyone wants to
join at 6:00 a.m. I will be doing some minor tree maintenance of uh, the oaks along Main Street, like in front of Bruce Naylor's office. So, from Suare all the way down to the community center. I already have volunteers lined up. So, we'll be taking down the dead branches. We also want to do some
fertilization. We can't tomorrow because we're waiting for the right weather conditions to do foilier of I don't know. We're going to get the spray, but my request would be um out of the budget that has been allocated for downtown. Um if we could purchase the fertilizer with
that and then I already have a team that's ready to um install it if that would be possible. fertilizer like on trees you want nothing too hot like a 666 888 something you know sure whatever you recommend I
would just want um I guess I don't know understand the budget process of how Main Street can contribute or are we reimbursed through the city or through the the fund here or does it have to be a collaboration so would I have to get board approval for the expense of buying
the fertilizer or could that be something allocated through this project that I I make sure it gets on. So, the two really don't cross. And we just spent our budget, right, for the year because we spent 2,000 and then we we were spending our additional 8,000 on
these plants that are going in. Okay. So, that's when we're talking about next year. I mean, you you can always come and ask. And then um the main thing I think was like if it's okay to fertilize them, if it needs to be overseen or 40 bucks you take care of
all couple bags, take care. Yeah, not a problem. Have you spoke to Have you spoke to any of my staff? I have not yet. I've spoken to Scott and he did clear us uh volunteers trimming trees on Main Street. He told me where we could put branches for the city pickup. Okay,
that's already got that cleared. Sorry. We're talking about the smaller ones. How about the big ones? Right. Not the big ones. No. Like nobody's going to be using a chainsaw. No chainsaws. Just like just a lot of manual. Yes. Yes. Yes. And um and some um we've already
done some the palmettos by the opinion place that needed to be trimmed. So those were already trimmed back and and removed safely. So So the pruning people know it. They're going to prune back to the branch crotch and stuff. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. You can come. You can hang. I'll buy you coffee six o'clock in the
morning. Yes, sir. You're welcome to come. He's already You already checked cows by then. I might cut some grass, but we can't do that till later. Sure. Sure. And um I I did want to second the micro crystals for this project. Um it I mean,
we could order them on Amazon or Walmart, and I'm happy to present it to the board to see if we could cover that. I'm not sure. Um because I believe it's one cup of crystals per gallon of plant root. Um I think that's the ratio. So, we need three cups. So, I'd have to calculate how much, but I'm guessing it
would be probably several hundred worth of crystals to go in. So, I don't know if we want to if that's something you guys can still cover or if that's a project that I could take on. I I I was hoping after um the pine straw that we would still have
money for that because that is very important. Sure. So I we're coming from Main Street or from our Well, I was asking for this to cover it during the planning, you know, right? From our budget. From our our budget. Yeah. It's now or never, right? When you got to get it done. Yeah. You got to do it right.
And it's it was going to take us at least three days to get the shipping here. I haven't checked like I know Walmart and Amazon. Um but it just depends on where they're being shipped from. Minimum two days, maximum could be five. So if we want it by next week, we need to order it probably now. Okay. Is what I'm thinking. So something to keep
in mind. So I'm I'm happy to do that or collaborate with you. I just I would just need a permission from either the board or y'all to order it before Friday of next week. With the cost I mean it's hard to tell how many I mean plants got two. We're going to
plant 150 plants the first time and we're talking about doing half 225. 225 and you want to put three scoops per 250. That's 750 scoops. That's for three gallon. Do we have are they all three gallon? They are except for she couldn't
get the rosemary in three gallon. Oh, that was the one that I saw. She probably go light on the rosemary though. Rosemary doesn't like Yeah. So, we could be done. I mean, a wet anyway. I mean, are are y'all okay with us
purchasing that? I mean, is that Oh, I don't I mean, y'all got it in there, but send me what you're talking about for sure. I can do that. Okay. Okay. We can have we can have the we have to buy it with a credit card once we do the POS. Okay. I can send you the link then because first thing in the morning that's what we'll do. So So maybe you
need enough for about 100 I don't know how many rosemary I'll do the math too. Okay. I'll do the math and send it to you. All right. Amazon or whatever. I will. I'm good at sending those links. Okay. Okay. So wonderful. Well, thank
you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. I did have one more thing. I'm sorry, but it's uh the because I don't want to get in trouble. I just ask for forgiveness. I like doing that, too. But the tree, the cedar
tree on the corner of the main downtown, I want it gone. You know, and and it can He's gone now, but Mr. Nelson always wanted it gone, too. You mean across from the clock there? Uhuh. What's wrong? Tell us more. It's
ugly and it blocks the view. And we could right now Mark said he could pop it out real easily, but it does survive and drop bad conditions. It's ugly. And everyone else down there doesn't like it. I mean, the feedback is on it. Um, it's they it's
been trimmed wrong and now it's all like halfway up. You know what I mean? What do you want to put there in place of it? Well, we want to put the pine straw. We want to clean it out and let's put these shrubs. It's going to be low. We got enough now. Say just cutting grass. I'm going to I'm going to stop you though. Oh, no. I would say let's wait until the
next meeting. make an agenda item, make a recommendation for the council to take it down. I say that because could I do it? Yes, I could have se it down. But I'm gonna look up to them. So, I'll look at it. Let's do that. Okay. So, so next next regular agenda, please
add Cypress Tree uh downtown on the corner of what is that? Seventh and Baldwin. We want it taken down so we can corner of seventh and Cedar. Cedar Street. Yeah. Where's the southwest
southwest corner of 7th and Ba? Yeah, we'll have that as a engine time for y'all to talk about. Okay. So, show up. Be here for three hours. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. No more. All right. Okay. Uh
well, with that, it is 603 and we will adjourn. Now you can talk the way you want to talk. That's