##VIDEO ID:G5nxSQjfYhQ## on this meeting order at 5:00 on good stand and inv vacation there so Lord God thank you so much for letting us be gathered here and please help us to guide this organization do great things for PC Springs and we pray for everyone in this town in Jesus Christ name we pray I Al to the flag unit States of America and to the for it stands one nation indivisible withy and justice for all okay all right do we have any minutes no sir not this okay all right um then I guess we'll go on to the finial report so in front of you you should have the financial statement since our last meeting nothing notable to report there as far as changes are concerned okay any uh questions from the board um no questions does anyone want to make a motion to approve make a motion to approve second second okay is there any discussion any discussion from the public okay not all in favor say I I I all opposed say n motion carries 40 okay all right moving on along is our growth and development assistance grant tracking sheet asual note there we've had six new grants award since our last meeting I was able to close out two which you should see there in your packet some photos of those to in total we've had just under um 85,000 through 26 Grand Awards so that's about 100 increase over last year so um definitely getting a lot of traction on that and I would easily say we made significant progress year over year in addition to that I was kind of tasked with through a magistrate um hearing meeting to help an individual over off of West Toledo which coincidentally help yeah we tried to help with our Rock The Block event last year but due to an unfortunate structure fire it kind of took us out of place so through the generous support of a local contractor in the W Landfield we were able to uh go over there and and make um great progress toward hopefully getting her into compliance uh with her parcel so uh a lot of good things happening with the growth and development assistance program and certainly a lot of interest so excited to report that how much have we um funded to date you $84,200 total right yep and again that's about 110% increase year-over-year and we still have a month left in our budet you're hearing good things at the community y you hearing any uh any comments about improvements we can make to this program I have a couple of um items that I'll bring up at um the new business tab that I think make a supplement our growth and devel assistance program okay okay any any questions from the board comments any comments from the public okay looks good all right so under old business item one here update on spring lighting project so I am pleased to report that we are 99% done with that project there are a few little goats that we're continuing to Chase um the city has made a lot of progress uh in that project ahead of schedule um I will say that it was a little more challenging than I think any of us had signed up for but I do believe it's going to provide a longl lasting benefit I've had uh a few people you know approached me and and say good things about it so they should be illuminated tonight um as you drive down bwin there may be a few out here and there but you should certainly be able to start seeing those uh at about 7 is when they're scheduled to come on SO Labor Day weekend we should have uh some festive colored lighting for that particular um holiday red white and blue that you'll see um so it brings a lot of uh a lot of potential and a lot of new character to the downtown I guess you could say so very excited that we're finally at the place where we are because I know it's been a little more difficult than I certainly would have liked it to be is it going to end there where Bogies is or is it going to be extended to last stop so we've talked about extending that there's going to have to be some new infrastructure put in uh when we originally put this together there wasn't any occupancy down there uh nor did the existing Christmas lights extend into that area so we're going to have to make some infrastructure improvements I think um now that we've figured out exactly what we need to do that you know I'll be in a place here hopefully pretty soon to bring that back so that we can make that expansion but it's it's something that could be done um without a whole lot of issue it's just needing that additional infrastructure meaning new po to be able to accommodate those spans okay I mean there is a lot of parking down there too that people utilize at night so yep okay can uh more lights be added I it's kind of like like this and you know you wanted to could he add lights in between those lights or so anything's possible um I will say that there is a finite limit on the amount of distance uh you can span without introducing power we had hoped to be able to put Power Transformers on the poles themselves to kind of Disguise that unfortunately we weren't able to do that in a lot of cases just due to the limits of physical connections but um that would require additional power Transformers to be injected as you'll study them now that I've pointed this out you'll see those Transformers kind of hanging midline we try to disguise them the best we could but that's kind of a long answer to your question yes it could be it's just a function of adding more lights more controllers and all that good stuff is main stream is main stream I guess see Mand is anybody else from Main Street here is Main Street happy with the the lighting okay checking all right all right so uh moving on down to Item B update on 27 Crescent Drive Direction on interest by culture arts alls from our previous discussions that we've had um I made you all aware of the interest of the culture arts alls as far as their occupancy or use of that building uh they have gone to uh their board or the director Miss Jennifer still gone to her board had discussions in your packet you should see somewhat of a proposal uh identifying their interest I am pleased to report that she is here in attendance with several of her board members and I think she would like to kind of give some introductions and answer any questions that you may have hello I'm Jennifer steel I'm president and CEO of the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County I'm joined by six members of my board um and they are here to help answer any of your questions that you might have regarding a potential partnership between the Cultural Arts Alliance and the community redevelopment agency um for those of you who are not familiar with the CIA um we are the local Arts Agency for the county we are a private nonprofit organization but we function as the designated local Arts Agency for Walton County which um puts us in a in a place to represent uh the county throughout the state and the nation and um our mission is um we were founded in 1993 and our mission is to Foster creativity through the inclusive and collaborative advancement of the Arts um our vision is for a thriving Walton County in which everyone experiences the power of the Arts and has access to arts and culture experiences um we uh Josh and I began began these conversations several months ago and I really appreciate your um willingness to to hear um proposal for partnership and and what this does is really just um provide a jumping off point this isn't nothing is is finite or you know we're not expecting anything I just wanted to start these conversations because we um through our strategic plan we have um started to talk about how we can better serve defunc Springs and the north part of the county because our mission is to serve the entire County um our operations are based at the Bayou Art Center in um in Santa Rosa Beach it's a county-owned facility um in 2009 the county renovated that building and um offered it to us to manage and activate and we've been doing that for the last 14 years and it's been a great successful um public private partnership with the with Walton County um that space actually provides um some office space for us rehearsal space ceramic Studios a place for workshops and classes after school um Arts activities summer kids camps and special events um it's a really special spot if you haven't been there um I invite you to come visit us there um do you want me to go through this presentation or have you I don't want to be redundant but I did want to for visibility give some history on the CIA but I don't want to take up I don't know your entire is I mean I'm familiar with you guys but I I think it probably good for okay great I'll continue um the Cultural Arts Alliance um as I said our mission is countywide uh for the for the most part our support in the in the North End of the county has been through our grant and scholarship program it's called Art for all we provide funding to teachers and schools for supplies training and projects we provide scholarships for the Collegiate study of the Arts we have an endowment with Northwest Florida State College we provide grants to artists for continuing education and also for Arts education initiatives by other nonprofit organizations we produce and present annual events including the 38 Songwriters Festival Arts Quest Fine Arts Festival art month Walton County and the flutter by Children's Arts Festival uh these events all provide connection enrichment and economic impact to the community um excuse me the ca's art and public spaces program includes the nation's first Underwater Museum of Art the water sound Monarch Art Trail we've partnered with fdot and the county on the pro um installing art into the County's first pedestrian underpass knock on wood that's opening this weekend um and uh we have a mural program we also offer consultation for other um creative placemaking projects throughout the county we have a prison art program at Walton Correctional Institute Institution which provides supplies and arts education opportunities along with songwriting workshops to over 300 men in the prison um we have other cross- sector collaborations including with the boys and girls club here in defunc Springs and in South Walton we also partner with with Point Washington Medical Clinic and children's volunteer Health Network and other nonprofits that are not Arts arts-based um I have been in the role at um in this leadership role for 16 years um we have 10 other full-time staff we have 700 annual volunteers each um 700 annual volunteers we also hire over 150 event staff every year to support our events um we are we have 600 members who support the organization and um we also could not do any of that without our local business partners sponsors public and private sector funders so the main outcome from our strategic plan um in 2022 was to grow our capacity in order to expand opportunities for public participation throughout Walton County um partnership with other organizations has played a major role in reaching this goal and we've seen a lot of Success Through cross- sector collaboration with both the public and private sector um we aim to strengthen impact by intentionally driving and responding to opportunities to expand our programs and services and diversify our cultural Partnerships and resources so that we can reach new audiences and finally in pursuit of a long-term facility um we have our board the direction from our strategic plan was to focus Less on the development of a compound if you will so a traditional Art Center where the community comes to one place um and to focus more on uh Cottages or campuses so that we could go to the people provide that service where they are and um make it more accessible and not more of a barrier there's a list in your pocket of our Partnerships and collaborations um as I said Boys and Girls Club of the Emerald Coast Coastal seniors Emerald Coast Theater Company Main Street to fiac Northwest Florida State College um South walon artificial Reef Association Walton Ed uh Correctional Institution Walton County library and this is just um this is not even a complete list so excuse me um as I said we have supported our since our operations are in South Walton we have um provided that that funding to schools in North Walton we've also provided um some funding for the Florida shiaka theater invested in public art here in downtown and Freeport we've worked with Main Street defunc on cultural events and um including uh the event that just happened this this past weekend um art the Art Market on Baldwin however we aim to have a stronger presence in downtown defunc through the continuous presentation of programs delivery of services and ideally doing that through a brick and mortar space from which these can be offered the addition of the CIA to the commercial District would empower the already wonderful historic cultural institutions in defunc Springs including the Florida shiaka theater Walton County Heritage Museum the amphitheater which I know is a project you are um in development on um the Florida shiaka assembly and the shiaka Hall of Brotherhood um so some through my conversations with Josh we've realized that a lot of your goals and our goals are aligned and I just want to go through specifically um some of our existing programs and services that are already aligned and I think have even more opportunity for for collaboration um with regard to Economic Development uh the ca's vision for Walton County aligns with cra's desired future economy that offers Equitable access to opportunities for employment and its desire to take a more Hands-On and proactive role in shaping the Region's economy by investing in the development attraction and support of businesses inside the city county and region um we have already we already have so much data showing that the Arts are proven driver for tourism and the ca has been the driving force behind some of the most successful creative large and smallscale events in Walton County um in 2022 we took part we were one of 400 National study partners um that took part in the Americans for the Arts e arts and economic impact study it's hard to say but it's an important study and this provided valuable data on the economic power of the Arts not just throughout the the nation but specifically in Walton County so it it's a really wonderful exercise for us to go to it not only provided data but we got to really get out there and talk to people in the community about how the Arts are impacting their lives um in 2022 in Walton County the art sector generated $ 57.3 million in economic activity 8.6 million in spending by arts and culture organizations like ours and an additional 48.6 million in event related expenditures by audiences and that's beyond the price of admission that economic activity supported 652 jobs provided 23.9 million in personal income to residents and generated $8.1 million in tax revenue to local state and federal governments arts and culture um drives Commerce to local businesses so when people attend as you all know when people attend a cultural event they make an outing of it they'll go to dinner they'll have dessert they'll have drinks beforehand so it when there is cultural activity in a downtown or in any in any Community it spreads that economic impact every single time um overall in Walton County attendees spend $155 121 per person per event beyond the cost of admission these dollars represent vital income for local merchants and a value ad with few Industries which few Industries can compete um in Walton County 51 over 51% of attendees are non-local who traveled from outside Walton County and they spend an average of $28.80 additionally 75 5.3% of non-local attendees reported that the primary purpose of their visit was specifically to attend a cultural event arts and culture we thought this was really interesting um data um arts and culture organizations they contribute a lot of Community Pride in Walton County 83.5% of attendees agreed that the activity or venue where they were being surveyed is inspiring a sense of pride in their neighborhood or Community almost 81% agreed that they would feel a great sense of loss if that activity or venue were no longer available and 73.5% agree that that venue or facility where they were surveyed is an important pillar in their Community the second uh alignment is through public spaces and your investment in improving public spaces so through Partnerships with with the ca's Partnerships with Walton County tourism Main Street def AC private foundations and local businesses the CIA has developed a successful art and public spaces or like we like to call Creative placemaking program that has brought beautiful murals sculptures and activations to Walton County's buildings sidewalks and roadways art and public spaces celebrate our history and our culture they reflect and reveal our society enhance meaning in our Civic spaces and add uniqueness to our communities public art humanizes the built environment and it provides an intersection between past present and future between disciplines and ideas and it matters because our communities gain cultural social and economic value our public art program we believe aligns with your goal to enhance the lifestyle of residents through beautification projects providing higher levels of accessibility to resources and inviting public spaces for Community Gatherings and social events um the third is Community Development the CAA aims to make Walton County a creative place in which to live work and visit and that doesn't simply mean that we create art projects true creative plac making involves a change in operating systems and a shift in the relationship between artists Arts organizations and the field of community and economic development and an outcome can be seen in long-term health and sustainability of defunc Springs research shows that communities with a vibrant cultural scene are more desirable to live in have greater economic stability and attract a more diverse and educated Workforce the Arts drive an increased tax base stronger social networks and Community cohesion providing reduced health risks higher empathy and as I said more Community Pride so we believe the ca can work alongside cra local government and local business to integrate creativity into Community Development and also work to catalyze and normalize the role of artist in this process of downtown Redevelopment partnership with the County's leading Arts nonprofit organization to revitalize um what we hope would be 72 Crescent Drive will ensure that that corner that anchors defunc Springs Southwest downtown Gateway is a visually interesting and continuously active ated pillar of the commercial District are you guys tired of hearing me talk yet um so in the packet is kind of what our initial vision for the building is um with support by CRA and other private and public funders the ca would would wish to develop and create a downtown Center for the Arts that will serve the residents of and visitors to defunc Springs in Walton County the facility would provide opportunities for engagement for people of all ages and levels of creative interest and it would be a beacon in the community providing opportunities for Creative growth collaboration and offer entertainment education Gathering opportunities for all ages of residents and visitors there's no currently space there is currently no space to my knowledge and and this is this is throughout our County really um that its sole purpose is to bring people together for to create and to be inspired um and to connect and this new downtown offering would be a destination for that um it would enhance livability grow support for the Arts and eliminate a blighted Anchor Point for the commercial district and so some of the activities that we would propose for this space would be a visual art gallery with rotating exhibits um event and Community Gathering spaces for live music um receptions meetings fundraisers after school programs for students Creative Kids camps during the summer and after school um Home school activities prek classes for for kids who are not quite um old enough to go to school uh weekend and evening activities to support downtown activation field trips for students um classes and workshops for adults with all disciplines painting sculpting drawing uh dance photography pottery and then um also some administrative offices and we you know we would obviously have space for our not our entire staff but for the management staff of the space but also potentially shared space with um with CRA management so my I guess my initial question um I know there are Josh and I talked about several options but um is would CRA be interested in forming some sort of partnership with CIA to to activate this space and by doing so would you be open to a similar uh partnership that we have with the county in um allowing us to once it's once it's livable for lack of a better word um would you be willing to partner with us to activate that space and this is just that initial conversation um I'm here to answer questions um and I'll introduce my board members if I can um We Have Allison Wiki Sean thomaso Doug folz Tom Watson Jessica Porter and Alexis Miller and they can help answer questions as well no some board members probably have questions anybody start I don't really have any questions I think it's a a great partnership myself um um I'm familiar with the CAA um did Chaka for over eight years so but um yeah you so you guys really do like the building yeah I mean we know that it's we think it has potential um we I mean it's it's a little intimidating right now but it's we we think that that spot is really um I think that it's an important Corner obviously you do too where you wouldn't have purchased the building um it's interesting because the building we're in in Santa Rosa Beach also used to be an antique store so we just thought that would be a coincidental uh move for us I think it's perfect Kathy I just that's a lot of good things as far as like for kids and that's what I was looking at was the the children having something to do but bring something here for the kids as the youth yeah and as I was driving by today I was thinking about the walkability between the library and the amphitheater and the theater and it's just it would just make that a perfect kind of triangular uh hub for kids and families Jennifer could you may help explain what that relationship is that you all have with the county and the Body Center so when the county uh re we before the county renovated purchased and renovated the building the CIA was really the main user group it had not been utilized as a an antique store in a while and we'd been using it in a dilapidated in its dilapidated State um for workshops so when the county bought it they um consulted us a little bit on on the updating because we were the only user group and um when it was renovated they basically did not there there wasn't a real plan for the space except for as an art center and so it made a lot of sense for them to offer that to us we we have a a a no rent structure but we do activate it every day of almost every day of the of the week um we have obviously our offices are there but um it's now becoming our hub for more Ceramics and pottery because that program has become really popular um we provide reporting to the county talking you know giving them data on how many people are there each month um what kinds of activities are happening there and um obviously when the county wants to use the building that's their prerogative as well money do you have any questions so I'm I'm just curious so would we would you be purchasing the building or would this just be an ongoing like collaboration between the two of us we our initial um proposal would be for you to continue to own the building and make the improvements needed basically the vanilla shell of the building so that we could then come in and and um apply all of the finishes and the things that would make it really special as an art center and then operate it as a tenant uh for a nominal fee that would be our our preference at this point um but we are willing to have conversations about other options so this is the basic building needs is that what you would be looking for the Ada Ada access regular parking all these these kind of the is this kind of the list you would be looking yes yeah how do you feel about the parking situation over there well I mean it's challenging is challenging um I think Ada is the most important uh Improvement that needs to be made and then I know there is some public parking available surrounding the building but um I I think that would be one of the biggest challenges with the space so some of these pictures um one we one that showed kind of like talked about events um kind of had a real pretty picture of the space the courtyard and the yeah interor this one event and Community Gathering M this looks awesome and then the the pictures for the programs for youth I guess my question would be what level do you guys would you guys need this building brought to the board desired to go in this direction and you know because I mean it'll you know this board would obviously need to know what we need to spend on something like that um Tom would you do you have any thoughts on that I don't want to put you on the spot but you and I have the most conversation hi everyone I'm Tom Watson I'm board member and serve as Treasurer as well of of the CA and jennif I've been talking about this extensively and uh very interesting location we really love it as a location in the community it seems to fit as an anchor and and fits what we do and seems to fit what you all are doing with your improvements in the district the you know it's obvious from you know walking it that it needs need some work and uh the expectations would be to bring up the building systems that it was in working condition and my guess is and not knowing it specifically that there's probably going to be some replacement of some Building Systems you know and it's the it's going to be subject to property inspection as well so and you all may have already done some of that and we don't I'm not sure if we have seen anything like that an inspection report but that would be a a first step is a is a property conditions assessment and uh and see what is really needed um but we'd be excited to give it a shot and then after that assess the cost and then figure out how that works I guess it would be you know obviously there's the there's the basics like you need to make electrical the plumbing all these things the ada8 compliance all this but then you've got you know to make it look similar to this that looks great and it doesn't look like that right now yeah Jennifer mentioned it I mean that expect in my parlament it would be you know bring it to a clean vanilla vanilla shell condition with all you know all systems in good working condition that means electrical in good working condition HVAC in good working condition if we can get the clean vanilla shell and and you know that is first place we would take care of FF and those are our initial kind of discussions internally and so all FF and would be all you know all built-ins all all furnishings and and and making it look like those pretty pictures enhancements yeah yeah I mean I'm just trying to understand that y we got it to a vanilla box y whatever you want to call it then you guys would beautify the thing to a level I think that's the partnership that things that are interested interesting for all of us to know you know we get it to a point where everything's functional what are you guys going to do on top and how's that partnership gonna look because y all wanted to be successful if something like this was to work out absolutely and and you know since we are operating Jennifer correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe we pay for um operating expenses there utilities all of that so um now I don't know we don't well it's not ta it's not taxable because it's County so we're uh and I'm not sure what we're doing with insurance either are we paying for we pay for insurance too so insurance and utilities would be the main operating expenses and that's something we would take on as well so basically we'll just get the building livable and then you guys will take it from there that's right right that's right a lot of numbers that have to be figured out to make sure it makes sense for both parties sure um these needs that I he is this something that you would be able to just get with a contractor per se are we talking like feasibility studies and Ada studies and stuff like that to accomplish it you know I think that the Ada portion uh would need to be engineered coincidentally that that's kind of the direction we were headed there momentarily um and preparation for us occupying that as an office space so we have some general numbers on what that looks like at least from duberry the other requirements you know I think a feasibility study would would probably be a wise decision to kind of give some guidance on the depth of the repairs and renovations to kind of guide the decision making um so we could probably have a contract to go out there and take a look at things and give us a a ballpark in you know estimate on the mechanical systems and things of that nature but you know it seems to me that a a comprehensive feasibility study with the occupancy in mind or future occupancy in Mind by some other tenant would probably be my recommendation so you you you feel like we need to do the I understand the Ada thing you think we need to do a feasibility St for the occupany this was the way we went in future occupany understand I don't understand why we'd have yeah so as part of the feasibility study they would look at the Ada accessibility Is it feasible uh to provide Ada accessible access to the building and and parking while looking at the mechanical systems and some of the other components here um you know are the items there feasible uh to upgrade should they be replaced things of that nature like the electrical and all that that's right yeah kind of identifying you're not saying like occupancy like you know the feasibility of this it's more just like are do these systems work are they in compliance Co compliance it's more like the PCA that I mentioned property condition assessment feasibility in my brain turn off is feasible for occupancy and if not what would it take to get it to that level of you know occupancy we've done our Fe ility on on using that as an art center okay good we're good that part is is is all that done by contractors anyway so I would probably reach out to the city's continuing Services engineering consultant duberry and see if it's something they be be able to provide a proposal on we know that they provide a prop proposal on the Civil design portion for the Ada accessibility uh to the door so you know I think it's something that we can certainly look at have conversations with duberry bring something back to you if that's the direction the board wants to give me and kind of go from there on that would we'd have to get a bid for the actual contractor to the are you looking for a direction on give you to go to go procure a bed and then next was that what you're looking for no so I'm simply asking for direction for me to go to the city's engineering consultant duberry for them to provide a proposal based on the things here that we have itemized I'll bring that back to you hopefully the board meeting if it's something that they'll be able to do in concert with that continuing Services agreement that you all can then you know move forward with or not because it's part of the continuing Services agreement we would not have to go out for formal bids sounds good we plan do we need to make a motion or not no motion okay what when do you want to try if all this goes together take occupancy of it or be able to what what is the timeline so the timeline is in the packet um which says uh August to yeah that it started this was starting now B but um but I think we had um October you know cost estimates finalize that that budget hire contractors um renovation begins in November so Jennifer would you say renovation there'd be certain things that would be our obligations and certain things that would be your obligations would you guys concurrently work as soon as or would you want to get to a finished vanilla box and then and then us deliver that and then you start working on it because if you're going to do enhancements in that I think that would assment and then we things that happen concurrently that would be ideal but I just if there's critical mechanical or structural has to be done first but we may be able to do it parallel cond timeline all right any other questions other comments thank you it's exciting thank you all thank you all thank you thank you all thank you all for coming all righty moving on along to item 5 C update on North six Street Parcels just kind of bring you up the speed so these are the two Parcels that we purchased over off of North 6 Street uh I've been working with uh the County Administrator on identifying uh BCC agenda where we can ask uh the BCC to if there's any interest in purchasing them and then also the any kind of contribution of the demolition so we're still having those conversations I'm hopeful that it will uh either be on the first BCC agenda next month or the last um but we're still kind of figuring that out um that's that's kind of where we on on those moving on to new business under 6A so this is the request to award RFP 2401 CRA to fishbeck and also approve the contract uh as you may recall we went out for bid on the parking study we received a number of proposals Chris Wallace the city planner and I ranked them independently and fishpc was chosen as the top ranked firm we continu this from our last meeting I do have the consultant on Zoom for our meeting tonight he is going to share some information Mr John Forster with Fishback and be available to answer any questions that you all may have before Mr Forester starts is Chris Wallace in the audience he is not okay so we'll need to make a phone call there so we'll have two-way communication so before we do that before we get on line because this is an RP award you have the committee ranking for you it shows the total SC toptal points the second firm walk cons tjk 125 so the first motion you need before you get into it is a motion to award the RFP to top okay is there a motion to award to award second okay all in favor say I I all opposed say nay n okay so the next step would be the contract you have Professional Services agreement proposed there in we if there's things you want us to discuss about that contract and come back we can with my review of it I provide legal approval to this contract with one caveat that under their General conditions on page three should be governed by the law of the State of Florida not Michigan should be County Florida not Grand Rapid Michigan standard request all these cases we're not going to go out State litigate so with those changes and we accept those someone could motion to approve the contract with those changes someone want to make a motion I'll make motion with those changes second second okay okay um any discussion okay all say I I I all oppose say nay okay 31 foros [Music] welcome to zoom enter your meeting ID followed by town you entered too this meeting ID does not exist please re-enter your meeting ID followed by pound enter your participant ID followed by pound otherwise just press pound to continue please enter the meeting password followed by [Music] pound you are in the meeting now there are two participants in the meeting you are muted you can mute or unmute Yourself by pressing star six you are unmuted hey John can you hear us I can hear you through the YouTube okay here let me turn that off can you hear me we got you and I can now hear you through the zoom fantastic well I appreciate your attendance I do have the board here who has just awarded the RFP and approved the contract with one change to the venue uh and so if if you don't mind just kind of give an overview of uh the why and kind of the expectations moving forward all right well thank you everybody uh my name is John Force with fishbeck I appreciate you having me here I've been in parking for almost 30 years so thank you for the opportunity to just talk about parking um about your RFP and the study that uh that we responded to um you know any any good study is going to identify problems but really more importantly we want to focus on reasonable Solutions uh that can be implemented uh that the community can accept and and that you could administer effectively nothing should be too hard U we want to stay away from things that cost too much money or the community will not accept so uh with that understanding just a quick walk through of of The Proposal we we included a very robust public input process which includes an online survey uh public workshops with the community um meetings individual meetings with with stakeholders to understand what their their needs are uh this process uh as I said is robust and really at the end of it we feel very confident and you be very confident that Community Was Heard and that their opinions and their needs were were definitely considered uh at in the building of recommendations and and solutions uh after that we take really a datadriven approach to to information gathering to just really understanding how many cars are there we have a an a GIS program and we will literally inventory every single space in your downtown and say where it's at and what it does we have two days of 12 hours of pounce to understand how many people are parked down there and we will observe everything going on to just truly understand what's really going on in your community with regards to parking and so we'll we'll bring that we'll bring the information from the stakeholders and and the community and the people we'll bring that with the data and and we'll look at demand zoning future projects and really develop an understanding of your current situation and where you're headed and how parking supports that because Park no one comes downtown just to park they come downtown to go to uh their favorit Shop restaurant uh conduct business do whatever they're doing so how can how does parking support that and from all that we'll help you develop a strategic plan based on your priorities and your situation and that'll include supply and demand operations and enforcement signage wayf finding promotion uh have a great Patron experience with parking and and again all backed by administrative efficiency if you can't administer it's really a hard system to have so again we just want to give you Common Sense recommendations that can be accepted by the community and and efficiently administered by um by leadership so any questions for me um yes I have some questions my name is Reynold Henderson um can you hear me I can okay so uh this this parking will will take into account uh will it take into account employee uh needs for the businesses in this district and also take into account areas like um rways for railroad or other areas that the city May own that could be utilized for parking that aren't currently being used for parking so we will absolutely consider employees and where where they need to park patrons and where they need to park any user group but yes employees are a big part of that having them where they can feel comfortable and and safe for throughout their work day is is of vital importance we will if if additional parking is needed we will look at all options to uh both increase any options that that maybe we're underutilizing something right now opportunities to get more cars in a certain space maybe make uh something more efficient but also areas that that may lend itself to addition add in some parking if if it works I've worked with railroads before Railroad rideways on several projects and and um honestly it varies in acceptance from them but but definitely those areas uh provide opportunity for additional parking if warranted if needed great um and you say d downtown businesses and property owners you're going to talk to every everyone that's existing right now right I guess on these down because attemp to attempt to really because Main Street can certainly help with that but I'm just saying I think it's real important because you hear a lot of stuff from the businesses and and from people that are trying to go down there and patronize those businesses you know so I mean it's like um you know it's I think too there's a there's a now and then there's in the future and I mean there's several buildings that are not occupied that once they're occupied and they have full tenant full employee loads and they have um you know people that are that are coming to their businesses uh clients you know it's going to get way way worse in the future so um I think we need to make sure that you know we look at look at you know now maybe in five years and 15 years well how is it going to look and how are we making sure to maximize everything so yeah because that Amphitheater is going to be deal yeah and you know the CAA we're just talking about the CRA taking the south of East Building they're going to bring in a lot of people you know I mean like then you got the old Gul power building you've got you know the old hospital that is going to be redeveloped you got other things all this stuff big store the other store that the the Rays Ray family on it's just when these things get occupied it's going to be a lot worse than it is right now just want to make sure that we're really doing everything we can to look into the future I'm just glad that we're doing this proactively yeah that's why I feel it's so important you still there yeah yes um we will attempt to meet with as as Josh said attempt to meet with everybody we will set up times and invite as many people in as as who want to talk about uh parking downtown and we'll have those uh those individual meetings so people can speak frankly and and give their opinion and and the future is really the key I mean we we'll talk about opportunities to make immediate improvements that they pay dividends right now but but that's why we collect a lot of parking data is to understand where you're at and then look at all those buildings one by one and say you know if this kind of land use goes in here what might the impacts be for this block and for this area and and we take a hard we take a hard look at at that because um you do need to plan for that you need do need to be ahead of the game I I spent a lot of time I like the comment but being proactive I spend a lot of time trying to unmess things up but it's always greater it's always great to be on the front end try to get it right as you're heading forward all right sounds good well uh any other question questions any other comments any any comments from the public okay we've got a comment from the public here Mrs Indy Henderson please state your name Melinda Henderson representing forward defunc uh we have a subgroup and a uh public private partnership with the city for the National Historic Landmark we've just received the final nomination document and I spoke with the National Park Service and it should be to the Secretary of the inter interior by fall of 2025 it will take several years but we will have additional people to come because if we get the designation as a National Historic Landmark and I think we need to think now about what implications that might have for us thank you thank you very much any other comments from the public okay all right well I guess that's it yes thank you John I'll talk with you tomorrow okay thank you everybody appreciate your time all right have a good evening thank you still on he's still there let's make him sit to the rest of the me see he's loyal all right all right so moving on to item 6B request Direction on Veterans Memorial so at our last meeting I was given direction from this board to go ask permission from the council to move forward with the location where we have conceptually planned for the veterans memorial to be located in our plan development uh update went to the council a lot of discussion a lot of good discussion uh and basically the the consensus in the direction was we need to have a joint workshop with the council the kind of iron out some of these things so working with the city manager to identify a date where we can do that it looks like there's limited opportunity in September but what we're thinking is probably try to schedule that at 4 pm in advance of our next CRA board meeting at 5: and so that's kind of where we're at now and that's the plan um if that works for you all uh then that's what we'll Target uh so four o' before the next pull up that actual calendar day here so you all have that in front of you does that work for everybody is that on the 25th that would be the 25 doesn't that work for you I I may be a little late I've got app for a granted senior some they comeing to do a site visit to hopefully they'll be done though by that's on September 25th Wednesday that's corre all right I'll I'll be here but I could be a little bit late okay I'm good anybody else okay well I will move forward that and let you know when I have that confirmation all right moving on to six se request Direction on income based grant programs so I was made aware of a couple of Grant programs that they have over in the Escambia County CRA one for hazardous tree removal and then another for uh roof replacement these are both income based program and they provide 100% funding for those improvements it's it's based off the area immediate income for the county and it's funded at 80% so in other words the household can exceed 80% of that Ami what what is that for the county the area media income I know but is it is it the problem is if you blend the whole County way high it's way higher than it should be I agree with that up here it's not fair to say that that's so the median income according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation for wal county is $96,700 so Escambia County as you'll see there is is pretty high as well um so well it's it's not too far off um that's a concern you know obviously that we need to discuss and kind of figure out if we want to do 80 do we want to do 50 40 60 none um quite frankly but I think for the Hazardous tree um grant program that they offer it's a way to provide uh Financial opportunities to those that may not have the financial ability to fund and then be reimbursed the half like we do with our growth and development assistance program it does appear that they Reserve that to homesteaded properties um I think one of the areas of concern that I have in any of these two programs if we decide to move forward and have further conversations is to what level will we be involved directly you know right now our growth and development assistance program is structured in a way where the agreement between the applicant and the trades person um is all on them in this case we would hire we would manage and we would pay for those Services upfront so there's a lot of different um mechanisms there that we' have to factor and you know kind of plan for um I think at this particular Point um I'm just simply asking if there's any interest in moving forward with either of these two programs and if so I can kind of massage some of this around a little better maybe tailor and give a couple of options for what 30 40 50 60 whatever percent will look like and kind of bring something back to you I think they're both great programs I think I think this is absolutely perfect for both of them I agree 100% I think we want to make sure we target the right number I mean you know so i' just say back and diing that Walton County number back it's gon to be a lot more effective I think what it says it can't exceed yes that's what I think but I think we those are high the higher the income the more they qualify yeah because their income's not that high the problem too is you hear people around town saying oh why are you doing that I mean like we we really want to truly Target I mean well you could dial it back to like 60,000 which 60,000 is still higher but it's not like you know you're giving somebody who's making a 100 Grand a year um you know the thing if you dial it back down to 60,000 um you're just qualifying two people that work and go the job yeah okay yeah I got it yeah so yeah I what me suggest this the way SC County did it was household income could not exceed 80% of the Ami so that's where it was so set that there you want to say 8 % so you're roughly talking about 19,000 off to 96,000 about you're coming down to so 77,000 is income you're at 967 now that's a household of eight though of eight household a four for example based on the 2024 Ami for Walton County that 80% number would be $72,400 on the four on the four household of four so the income could not exceed correct what you could do we could still base this off the Ami we would just move that percentage say to 30% because that number goes to 27,1 so there's a range in which you know we have some area to move and there's a table that Florida housing puts together that makes a little easier to see based on those percent percentages so I can try to incorporate some of this bring that back to you if that's the desire and try to think about maybe limits on how many of these we want to Grant each year because of the 100% nature we have a limited pot of money you know do we want to set aside a portion of that do we want to say no more than x per year I mean how do we want to handle those Awards those are some of the conversations I think that we need to have and try to figure out and two it's not a bad idea in my mind to have like again we want to Target a lower income we don't want to Target some higher income which is going to come back as why are y'all doing that for people when they could go through the normal grant program pay 50% that's a little lot fairer but you know I mean you know it at the same time we want people that are disadvantaged to take advantage of this program you know maybe we have some finite amount I don't mind saying first year we have 10 if we don't fill the 10 we could back it down and then after that we just have they have to come to the board but we still keep it open for them to to come up do this 100% because I mean if we had 20 people that wanted to do it I'd be ecstatic I think that'd be great I think the other thing the board could look to is if you fund it to a certain Bank and say this is the amount we to cap the number you can set a percentage of people that you want at various income levels we we will assure this much of our project goes to people in this range and then a smaller percentage could be towards the upper range the other thing you can do that a lot of places have done I'm sure Josh has saying some look at is they provide a priority to fixed income so if you can demonstrate that's your income but it's on fixed income that that is an additional thing so the example I would give that some communities where we've looked at this you certainly are able to distinguish between income households or true fixed income households for retire in you could have a household here that could be at the upper range of that 80% of the nhi you could get into that it may be on Military retired income they fixed income oneless and if that's the case% St something of that nature they may fall right into the realm of where you're want to help and while they may be on the higher end of the bracket it may open it up one thing you'll see in all of these discussions Josh I'm sure say time again is you can Target these as much as you want to the lowest segment of income you can reach the problem is there is a line you never know VAR is but you'll find it eventually where you get so long income there's not owners okay and when you get to that point they're rent or they're not living here so they're not going to have any desire to apply for this grant the person who owns the house is renting it to them can't apply and that's where you have a lot of your housing that comes across as bliding because somebody that's living there is paying rent because it's all they can afford but they're definitely not going to take this out to put a roof on house long so just be mindful of what you really should look at is total amount of money total number of these you're willing to fund to start with and then look at where you want to go you want to allocate some upper percentages you want to allocate some to fix income only but make the program accessible and secure some of the money that would inoculate you from the criticism of well people got who are making good money got to be part of the program what's worse is not giving any of this money out of not fixing it either that's true what if we what if we had loose parameters but we made them come they they apply to Josh and they go to the board board approval because it's going to be any roof is going to cost you a decent amount of money it's not like a $5,000 you you5 on the roof so so let's say you're well you could do that I would discourage the board from trying to get into picking these and your level too often because the first time you deny somebody and someone else gets picked y'all are all going to have to I think your rules need to be relatively rigid on this one like I've told you in all your gr programs you qualify or you don't the more discretion you let in the more subject we're going to be to challenge and the more subject you're every CRA that's ever got in trouble in this state has had some form of discretionary funding that's been subject to that criticis so I you can do it I shouldn't say you can I just highly caution you against being too discretionary okay but if you'll set the guidelines let Mr Ur administer it and then it's not a question of want to turn this person back yeah that's fair well why don't we anybody I'd say let's go down the line anybody who has any comments for Josh let's get the comments to Josh and maybe next Bo meeting we can approve of parameters I like it's a great program I think we all agree so you want to start any comments you have on what you would like to see within this program what kind of income levels you'd like to Target any of that stuff I mean I talked to Josh a little bit about this um I'm just glad that we're having this conversation to start with but um my my biggest thing was you know we have a single mom who's living in a house who you know otherwise couldn't get a roof or couldn't get her windows replaced or whatever might be wrong with her home now where we land with income that's kind of something I'd have to really think about but um but I I do think we need to make this Fair where people that truly need help and that want to make their home a better place for every reason has that capability I mean we have this money and this is I mean in my opinion this is what it's really for is the blight you know and this is where we really should be maintaining the focus and and really embracing our community especially the people that really need it thank you next um ditto on most of that and then clay when you said to a lot of s certain amount of money are you talking about basically you know saying that we are going to initially have $100,000 when that runs out the grants we we no longer is that what you were talking about as far as something to that effect yes so then that way when it's done you know no one else applies we all lot out for that particular program year and then you look at it you can look at it again wait and G success of it because you certainly can't spend your whole Budget on correct so you need to set some amount of money towards you and as getting here about start a new fiscal year that's exactly what you want how much of our budget are we willing to allocate to do will you be able to give us kind of like a square footed survey on what roofs cost so we can determine like let's just say we put $100,000 in we could average about how many Grant applications that possibly could be during the course of a year um I have no idea right now what a roof will cost um you know um and and the roofing would the homeowner gets to you know like shingles metal that's a question I would have is what are we offer do are we just going with one difference yeah I mean that so I would to answer your first question we do have some good data we've actually granted um a few awards for roof replacement um you know I would say anywhere between 10 to 15,000 perhaps um depending on whether it's metal or asphalt single as far as the the choice you know I I would think that that's something we would need to somewhat Define you know if it's a replacement of a similar material um as far as color you know I would think we would give the owner the opportunity to choose that um I think when looking through this and having conversations with the scambia county especially on the roofing side of it because of the cost we get into a little complicated area with quotes and making sure we're following the the city's urement policy um so you know it's it's it's something we can certainly do and I I I definitely look forward to bringing this back to you but there are a lot of things I think we need to think about many of which we've already talked about tonight for the framework of this so that we are fair and that we're objective in what we're trying to accomplish I think we funded uh in our next fiscal year we've got a $100,000 for growth and development assistance program so that was where I was going with identify finding either a percentage of or a fixed amount that would be allocated toward either one of these programs or maybe both in aggregate so that we have some finite limit or not I mean it's entirely up to the board but that that's kind of where my thought was do we want to dedicate a portion of that exclusively for this or do we just want to leave it you know wide open first come first serve and you know go from there so so would would the roofing and the tree cutting thing be one of the same Grant or we talking about two different pots of money two different total grants different guidelines on both of those two different grants essentially the same guidelines that' be based off of the area mediate income um with 100% funding but they would be two separate kind of like our commercial and residential site building Improvement Grants are pleased are you done yes okay okay so the but the we'll just say the 100,000 it would be if I came for trees and he came for that that you know it would all come out the same that's correct okay so unless you all decide to carve out a portion of that um and you know have some for this grant program have some for that growth grow grant program and then the rest for the the regular I think tracking of the two different programs having separate separate things would I I personally think would be better that way we would know you know could we fund it in one pot we could fund it in one pot or we could set up a completely different fund for the income based I personally like the idea of an income based pot yep do that and I think I would like to see income levels somewhere between 45 and 65 Max on how many in how many in the household four no more I mean I mean that's four how many people have four in the household they make I don't know I just really don't know but so for some generic numbers just so you know um and I you know I don't mean to get in Ed with this but at 45% based on the 2024 Ami for Walton County for a household of four that's $4,790 so that is the ceiling of that income that would be the limit um if if you move that up to say 60 you're talking about $ 54,3 so you're still the needle yeah I mean you still the needle's up it's not it's just you don't want to get this thing where somebody who's making substantial income can do it but they then all of a sudden they fit into the box and they can take advantage of the program so anyway this is just my thought the roof cost I think you're looking at 30 to 50 minimum on these roofs these roofs are expensive I would say we need to make sure again the materials we're talking about asphalt shingles I mean that's going to be a lot different than you know than a metal roof specific Metals I mean I'd say you know talking to somebody some folks around here talk about three people reach out to them and ask them per square foot buy materials and roof lines are going to meet a lot and that kind of stuff I mean we could do say one family just had this house and it was in really bad shape but I had all these roof lines well that might eat up our whole budget so i' just say you know we're trying to Target five to 10 we need to substantially you know put put enough money in the pot it's not going to go far we just do you know so anyway it'd be nice too to Target these kind of pre-target you know maybe strong can tell you you know what what's out there that might you know might help guide you in the right direction some other people it might be nice to kind of know some of that before we kind of finalize our yeah and I can certainly bring back those Grant Awards where we had a roof replacement um I know the one over off the Douglas Avenue I want to say was around $99,000 um with the removal and you know direct replacement yeah um wow that's good you know it's probably you know your typical farmers's home um 12 1300 Square ft was it it must have been just one roof line yeah it was pretty basic you know you get into all these different roof lines and it it could VAR widely you know based upon what you're saying to your point you know valleys ridges I mean it all has a different cost associated with it so you know when I spoke with Escambia County I asked that very question how do you handle situations where you have a large home they the Ami but it's going to take 75% of your budget you know I mean how do you turn them down they meet the criteria but by doing that you've now limited the amount of people that that can take advantage of that program so there there are a lot of variables you know that have to be looked at and some of which we can't really solve for it it's GNA be one of those situations where maybe we run out of money and we get to a place where I have to come back and say hey this thing's been extremely successful we may need to look at making change um and so you know I think just right now brainstorming this in my mind it may be best for us to include this chart for this fiscal year and allow some flexibil flexibility annually to adjust these percentages perhaps um this is an any P by the way sorry I just print this out um but this this may be a way of of kind of giving some scale there to where we could change it without a whole lot of changes to the of it and what is that Scale based off of based on the 2024 um area median income for Walton County and this is provided by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation this comes from HUD I believe have you um have you checked under any like csbg um in I know you know like um the energy assistance Li program has one set of income than the csbg has different ones have you tried to compare to see what those yeah I've look at probably even get you those income if you don't mind sure I'll be glad to look at them I've looked at a few different you know calculations of of income that everything Tri County does is based on on the chart so I could get you the LI Heap and the csbg and you do Geographic splits of the of the counties right these These are these are this would be for Walton County would be uh for like kind you look at like some of these some of this data like some of it would just be sort of like a five mile radius a one M radius that kind of stuff not that that elaborate you know be nice to know with our just if you take our you know City footprint what what the medium income is in the city and I think census data does drive down to that level um you know as far as the area the block you know the the city def I think there's probably a median income that's provided through that sensus data that's just the standardization that's provided through Florida housing Corporation for HUD vouchers and things that's where that came from that's kind of what I was using I believe that's that's what they use in the scambia county as well so that way there's some standardization as far as where they're getting these numbers from well since we're a smaller defined area it would be nice to know in my opinion what the median income is and even if we need to raise it up a little bit off what the median income may be just so we can capture more people it' be nice to know that yeah well I think that CH could help with that you know look at the different percentages of you know that Ami that you're trying to Target whether it's 30 40 50 to try to get in that price range I can certainly bring back to you that census median income for the F if I can find that to kind of give you an idea if you're at 30% Ami for Walton County at 30,000 how does that compare with the local median income for the city defun I think that's the question you're you're asking yeah you're almost wanting to dial down to ZIP code right I mean just we we got well I mean is there one ZIP code I think there's two no it's two you know I'm just saying our our the city is well we're like 80% of the city so me like you know it would be nice to know what meeting come is the city gives us a better snapshat than the county sure so you have to blend everything and it's just unfair so um but either way if we go with a higher number and we're just I mean it's just in my mind you want to Target those folks that really need it you know right but again like do we want to put some kind of parameters about square footage requirements or not I guess not do they have any of those in scambia not really you know um one of the questions not to really change gears on us but one of the questions I asked the CRA in esamia County On the Hazardous tree removal who goes out and determines that it's hazardous meaning it's dead partially dead hazardous to the home you know who makes that call and basically say well they do and so who is that they the CRA staff oh um so I I think it's one of those things where we're going to have to establish some level of understanding as to the degree in which I'm able to make that call you know I can look at a tree and I can make an estimated guess um but you know those are just some of the things that we'll have to to consider and figure out um and a lot of insurance company right now insurance companies right now they making people cut their trees together get get insurance coverage tree removal is expensive as we all know is get insurance if a tree is too close but these ones where they're encroaching or something and they they got these big hollowed out trees and they're monstrously big so yeah I mean they can be and we've had quite a bit of success with our growth and development assistance program we have now incentivizing tree removal for hazardous reasons but it's only at 50% it's a reimbursable match but it you know it's it's been kind of eye opening tree removal cost there are some other concerns that we discovered that you I won't get in all the details but property ownership where does that tree fall with in that property line you know is it actually on their property is it not on their property so you hate to get in the weeds but at the same times not getting in the weeds is how you end up with some of these unforeseen you know situations we need to make sure that you know we legally can that whatever the rules are where you know if if x amount of the trees on your property they you know we we're sure they'd lent not that's my line and the neighbor says no that's my line make sure survey all right well I think I had a clear Direction be glad to bring that back hopefully our next meeting oh so what Kathy just said survey it may be something that we need to pay for surveys in certain instances too to make sure at least Corner marking just to be sure that we're safe all right okay Todd be and I did want to clarify that I will be speaking purely as a private citizen tonight um the eligibility guidelines the second from last one and the third from last one applicant must not be delinquent or payment of avalor taxes and then no code violation or judgments and leans I would just ask that you maybe provide a pathway for those kind of people because to a certain extent the city has a lot of code violations that we would like to see cleaned up and this could be a potential path for some of these people roof replacement could help them with improving their property and maybe even remitting some of their their code violations so while I don't think you should wholeheartedly exclude it maybe at least provide a pathway for that you know for for consideration the other comment I want to make is um my wife and I previously worked for a constitutional off officer within the county um so certainly when you're setting these uh these income guidelines need to consider you know a two twers household income that is working for a government agency or something that's not going to be paid very well you know make sure that you're factoring that in um but I think that this is a a fantastic for the for the roof this is a fantastic program for the CRA uh as a tree City and as a designated Tree City I think we probably need to have a little bit of pause on having a program that would just encourage people to go out there and and Destroy trees considering that we are a tree city so we we while I am wholeheartedly for removing disease trees as a matter of fact there's a tree that is on my property line right now that when the last bad storm came through a major limb fell off the tree fell onto the fence missed my house by about a foot and now there is about a 6 inch hole in the middle of the tree uh the property next to me is now vacant so I'm looking at having that tree at least the portion that is hanging over my property line having it removed so while I do think that there is a place for removing damaged and diseased trees I think we just need to not necessarily open the floodgates on just you know removing trees that will when we are a tree city thank you agree 100% And um that is a good we need some kind of guideline on the trees like you know they have a big hole in the middle of them like you know do they have what con and maybe we get some kind of direction from some kind of arborist just something they could say well we do have a unification okay maybe maybe J can work with them well if if I may so right now our growth and development assistance program just so the public is aware and maybe the board as well um we don't incentivize the wholesale removal treats the only time that we will award a grant for tree removal is if it's hazardous meaning it could fall on someone's structure or is falling on someone structure or it is in Decay uh dead or you know will soon be um over off of West Orange we actually incentivized um a couple of tree removals it was a dead pine tree in front of the home and unfortunately you know they just it was at a point of no return but on some of the others the applicant was able to hire an arest to limb them up and and Salvage the tree so our position by default already is we don't incentivize wholesale tree removal without those perameters uh and I I think that this program would be tailored in a similar way again I don't I'm not an arborist but I think that through reaching out if we're going to be hiring the arborist to remove the tree they can certainly come and look at it and say oh y that's definitely dead or no we don't need to remove all the tree we only need to remove a branch of the tree and it can still survive kind of thing so I just wanted to say that to clarify to make sure everybody understood that and then as far as the code violations I couldn't agree more our program that we have now actually does not exclude someone from uh receiving a grant if they have violations it's the fines and the Judgment that makes it difficult and I believe there's a legal reason for that um so definitely you know wouldn't want to discourage someone that has code violations we've actually been able to get a couple people out of their code violations through the growth and development assistance program so so definitely um you know want to make sure that we don't copy that exact language when we include it into our growth and development system pram yeah just maybe we just Define it as dead or something just whatever how we need to Define it that so everybody feels comfortable sure but I mean it's pretty simple you know most of them you know when they're dead like I had one from probably here to the end of that thing the wit huge and it just was all hollowed out that thing had fallen down it would have killed several people sure okay anything else on that all right so uh moving on to the next item so uh new business number four request Direction on interest in downtown aloa aerial utilities underground so we've talked about this in the past there's been a lot of interest in um undergrounding the utilities along the alleyway I think we can all agree it's unsightly probably meets the the core definition of black unfortunately there are a number of utility owners that have Arrow Utilities in that Alleyway centry link uh Spectrum Charter uh unity and then Florida Power and lightning so I've been working with all of those property or excuse me utility owners I do have a proposal from all but one surprisingly I haven't Gott anything back from central Link we've been in constant communication unfortunately just been able unable to produce an estimate but in aggregate you'll see a number there in your packet of what that cost looks like um ballpark wise in order to get down into a more accurate estimate as far as Florida Power and light is concerned they do require a binding estimate engineering agreement where we pay them a nominal amount of money they look at this in more detail they engineer it and then they give us a price that would be uh good for 180 days and so at that point the board will decide to move forward or not if they decide not to move forward then obviously if it's beyond that 180 days we'd have to get a new engineering es if Florida Power and Light were to receive this agreement uh this Bing agreement and be awarded uh the opportunity they did indicate to me that the earliest they could schedule the construction activities would be out in 2026 so you know it's one of those things where if there's an interest the longer that we delay that and take action the longer out in the future the actual activities can take place and the higher the cost and and potentially the higher the cost that's exactly right so in your packet is that letter from Florida Power andl again they did a ballpark estimate I think is actually what they quoted it as there looking at what we have not really getting into all of the details as far as where things will have to be relocated um boring pits and all that good stuff that's kind of where they look like they're going to be they do provide a credit when third parties go through the exercise of undergrounding their utilities or paying to have their utilities undergrounding undergrounded and so it was pretty uh pretty healthy of a credit in my opinion um but in aggregate I think you're going to look at a cost somewhere around three4 of a million dollars to do that um that's in between Fifth and 10th and portions of sixth there are aeral utilities and run along that and go across the railroad track and then go down there to the to the church so that that's kind of the scope when you say three quarters a million you mean this in addition to others no I'm talking um three quarter of a million for all utility owners so again we don't have centry links back they're estimate based on spectrums and unities okay I'm going to say it's going to be very similar do those guys give you a credit or not no no so these numbers are each one of them so Unity is each each one has to come and do do their own underground so we're at 6 636 right now without C link y so if you look at unity and you look at um Charter Spectrum just make an estimate at 100 grand for centy link and that puts you up there close to 750,000 one of the challenges I think that we have to overcome um if you drive down the alleyway now you'll notice a number of Transformers that hang from these poles they overhang into the alleyway if those were to come off the pole they're going to have to be located on the ground they're going to have to be in you know pedestal tools where they can be accessed by the power company so where do those go is there room within the alleyway to place them without them them as in FL of Power and Light having to get easements on someone else's property where it may exist along the Alleyways to locate those so there's not further encroachment into the alleyway the other area of concern at Florida Power and lot has made me aware of is the cost associated with conversion from service entry uh panels at customer side from aerial to underground and if there's any hold out along the way then it kind of stalls the whole project because they can't leave one aial um and do everything else underground if they've removed all the poles so you know there are some nuances I guess you could say with with this project um but based on what they're providing here is definitely doable what are you asking us to do tonight so I'm simply asking do you want me to continue the conversations with cry link bring you something back with more concrete estimates um for you to take action on perhaps at our next meeting or is this something that you know the cost is sitting where we want it to be never mind kind of thing it's not gonna get cheaper I it's are we talking about that this is just to make it look good or or does it is it going to actually is it hazardous in any way it is hazardous right now I I would I would make this statement I think there are aesthetic benefits there are also hardening benefits um that come along with this um and as far as a hazard hazardous question is concerned I mean a lot of those polls are way out of Plum you know they're leaning like this a lot of the Transformers are you know rusted will they come replace them of course when will they replace them I'm not sure so you know power outage is downtown my office space is downtown they have been fought regularly I don't know if it's due to the actual infrastructure if it's due to service entrance uh portion but I would like to think that there would be some drastic benefit there not only for aesthetic but also for future proofing and the hardening effort storm hardening that's that's your Big R I know in the back we lost a lot in because getting those back challeng I know in the back of some of the buildings I have the trucks can't even come by the power lines are so low and they they'll wires in it's pretty rough looking back there but it's you know I think from a hardening standpoint it's good I I'd be interesting to see if there's any money available for hardening that we might get you know supplement something like this yeah so you know interesting I reached out to Florida Power lot early on to have this conversation and said hey is there anything Florida power L's willing to do in terms of hardening you know I know there's a program that for power L has had a lot of conversations with them and basically said yeah we have a hardening program we're actually underway right now in the func with our hardening program and basically to them that's replacing wooden poles with concrete poles or something more rigid so if it's already aerial unless there's some compelling reason for them to go underground they're going to stay aerial um they didn't make some improvements with underground along saan I believe it was so it's really just up to them to make that decision um but what I can say and it's probably not fair for me to say this but based on the conversations I've had with Florida Power and life there's Florida Power and life there's not a lot of interest for them to front those costs on their own it's really someone else doing that for yeah us yeah sure Todd bomb again I'm speaking as a private citizen but I I'm also a building owner downtown I just want to give you this this observation uh the week that we opened our business we had Spectrum come out and install the internet line and we were up and going we were excited we were going to open within a week and not two hours after having Spectrum installed the internet line uh one of the delivery trucks drove down the alleyway and ripped the aerial down and we were without internet again so I and as someone that that receives power via aerial as well as on my internet via aerial I think this is a fantastic project I think that the storm hardening benefits of it are you know fantastic as well but the the infrastructure in our Alleyways is in desperate need of attention and again I think this is Cindy you know better I think this is so I think I think that this this is a unique opportunity that the CRA has that the city might not necessarily be able to undertake otherwise so again I think this is a fantastic project thank you thank you awesome right mayor and in conjunction with that uh one of the things we wanted to do as a city is we wanted to Mill down the alleyway pavement because it's been built up and built up and the rain washes over into the buildings the back of the buildings and so uh you had mentioned that it would be 26 before FL Power and Light could do their as someone who's done a lot of underground work uh the ideal thing is everybody do it at the same time sure if you go in there because we need to have some new Pavement in there and then you know now one of them didn't get it done in time so now they're going to cut through our new payment that's horrible you know so I don't know if there's any way to orchestrate this to to where it can all be done at the same time you know especially if you're going to have prices already fixed two years in or or a year and a half in advance but uh but that's something we've been talking about as a city we know we've got to M down that pavement back there and uh at the same time we were hoping we could get some underground done so anyway that's uh that's something should be orchestrated and I think it uh would make it much easier on all the above everybody working back there do does anybody know when the city's planning on doing that work going down we weren't looking at 26 I think we were hoping to do something sooner than that but uh the 26 may be the best out you know particularly if we could get all the other parties to uh agree to that and then we could work to be ready to do it at the same time great course they need to get their underground in and we could take that existing pavement out repaid it and uh and then you got a nice clean Alleyway with solid underground under awesome well thank you thank you for comments any other comments from the public well even just from a fire aspect I mean cleaning all that up to where you have access to the backs of those buildings I mean it's viable absolutely and it certainly helped over time to come up with a plan to clean it up back there and make it but trashes in certain areas and it's more you know it'd be ideal to make it a walkable you know one day have it where people can you there's little things that are shops that are popping OB you see a lot of these towns like you know a milia hour they you got little alleys where people walk through and there's more you know shops and stuff Resturant stuff the only other thing that you mentioned was that um if um giving redoing the uh from the business the service ENT um so you have to have a 100% of the building owners saying yes that's great yeah I mean that's the goal obviously because if you remove all the polls then there's no way for them to have Arrow um there are opportunities as I've learned to maybe leave a pole here and there if there's an absolute hold out but I think that's where you know our great relationship that we have with Main Street being able to work with those business owners uh and building owners to get them on board um and have those conversations about the benefits you know yes there's going to be a cost associated with this conversion that you're going to have to pay but look at the benefit not just now and look what that Roi is going to be over time and would those that be locked in at the same time too so that would be a cost that the building owner would have to determine on their own so they would have to hire an electrician to do all of that um it's not a cost that full to Power and Light has provided in this proposal or this ballpark estimate that would be to be determined between whomever the building all hires talk about the connection right the connection that's right yeah because right now you know there's a meter base that hangs on the back of the building somewhere and so there's a you know a piece of conduit with a weather head and then you have power lines that attach to a a Transformer somewhere so that metor panel would have to be replaced to accept the underground connection um so that conversion is something that the building owner would have to pay for has uh has anybody talked to any the other building owners um could we get with them and find out what kind of you know I mean obviously got one set of building owners there but it' be nice to know that the other other owner shop owners or what do they they need to because that would you know yeah I think it's some we could poll them maybe and see you know we've got what happens if one of them says no I me what what happens then yeah so 2000 so here's something to to consider so in the conversation they have with Port power they mentioned the project destined many years ago I believe it was on Maine they had a couple holdouts and you know for whatever reason they just did not want to participate um and so from what I recall in that conversation the city finally said hey we get it you don't want to pay the fee or the cost will do it for you and even then I think there was some reservation about it and stalled the project for some time so I think there are a couple of different ways to accomplish that to answer the question if they could leave a poll and accommodate that hold out perhaps but I would like to think that we could figure out some way to incentivize them to do that whether it's us paying whether it's some kind of a credit whether it's something um to help everybody you know meet that goal I think it I mean I think it's a great idea I'd love to see but at the same time I'd like to know that people are G do it before we go running down this you know well and well too I mean if is it is the cost going to be the same so like his building is will will it be the same cost for each of us it's all gonna yeah they'll vary I think some have maybe three phase power um so obviously their metor cost is going to be more um so it's going very widely I would think um and so you know I think between um us and Main Street we can maybe pull those building owners and say how do you have any interest in in doing this um and kind of bring that back to you I will say the longer that we prolong this to find all that information out the more expensive it's going to be in the further out into the future that's going to be how long is this good for it's not good for any this is just an estimate this is a ballpark estim if we want to get down to actual engineered costs to do this work we have to pay them that $3,693 for them to spend the time effort and energy to generate that at that point they lock that estimate in for 180 days we then decide y that's something we want to do or not if we decide that's something we want to do we have to pay them within 180 days or that estimate goes away and we start up so we could we could approve the small amount to get them to do the estimate and then decide we don't want to do it as Bo that's correct that's correct and and we would pay them before 2026 before yeah so you you would be paid in advance and still waiting almost maybe a year for them to do the work that's correct um but it's lock in the cost does um is Florida Power and Light the only one that charges us to pay um will charge us to do an an accurate estimate we talking about all three of them no they they've graciously provided estimates without you know any cost associated with that well to what Susan is saying though is well are these other numbers are they pretty good numbers and they yeah you know they were provided the same scope uh they looked at their utilities uh I actually met the Spectrum guy out there doing that inventory um so their estimates I think even with Florida Power language they have a 10% variance in there you know um so we won't know until you know we go through this exercise at least for Florida Power Line um and I think even then until fla power line identifies what that effort is where things are going to be relocated Spectrum Unity centry link doesn't know exactly you know where their utilities are going to have to go either they're just simply looking at Millenia footage and what that's going to be to take it from aerial to underground so but would their prices be locked in too no there's are variable to the whole thing you know we could have we could have discussions and try to get some type of an agreement that locks them into that will they be willing to do it it'd be worth asking yeah I'll be glad to ask sure yeah be glad to ask so so if if if I may let let me try to work over this next month uh to get a general consensus uh or not allow me some additional time to work with cry link that will hopefully get me to a place where we'll have a general idea what their cost will be and at the same time have conversations with the other utility owners to see if there's any way that we can lock the price in or give us some level of comfort you know not exceed 10 % of this value um something similar to that and at our next meeting you all can look at that make a decision if the decision is to move forward I think Florida Power and Light requires a written um agreement basically saying hey we want to move forward with this binding agreement so that we can we can hash all that out then um but that's that's kind of what I'm thinking um I will be able to provide to you at our next meeting so long as censored link it's actually a third part party um that they've hired to do this as long as they can provide me with that information prior to that meeting if not we'll pass it on down to the next does that sound good to everybody sounds good to me please Julie White um my thing on that I love the idea I think it's great but I think the businesses would need a rough idea before they could tell you their agreement to it whether it's a $2,000 investment or $220,000 investment um it would Ma you know that would matter to me if I owned a business how much I was going to have to put in to whether I could tell you that I would agree to it so I don't know how you would do that whether Florida Power and Light would be willing to go down the business lines and say this building would be this and does Florida EMP Power and Light do the connections or do other electrical so it would be electrical contract has to be hired I would say get to talk to a one or two electrical cont it's a great Point thank you um let's get let's get some rough estimates what what do you what do you charge when you do an underground you know connection's not going to be far sure you know see what they say sure and and and you know you go to two of them three of them you you'll have a good idea yes sir all right I mean for them they they can simplify by doing we call meter base it has no panel in and then you have to tap over to a panel most of us like to have a panel with our meeting which simplifies things makes it to where you can shut your own power off you don't have C power it's much easier but it's really according to how it was done you know it's a good question because you know some of the Oldtimer may have used a lot of slicing that thing and it's going to be that's guaranteed [Laughter] well we we all know how old the buildings are yes how much slack you have in there to get you know to a different panel or whatever I mean those are all things you won't know until you really get into there W County got as bad as like B County they're just they just want they want already put up with like aluminum wire being in there and we do and I would argue thatum wi fine is most bigger level yeah it it can vary you I think 2,000 on a not a 300 or 400 amp pound but 200 amp pound 2000 would probably be pretty active if they do have you know somebody has a lot of ovens or whatever they probably have a 400 out that would be much more expensive but some of the some of the meters of course when they put them in they make it where you come in from the top or bottom you know and so if you took the mass out of the top cap it off come into the bottom don't have to change that but that's probably be a RAR do but that's they do make where you can show from the bottom or top I recently had to have an estimate for histor cone it was $1,800 um to disconnected and then reconnected when after the company board and brought it up um interestingly enough they found a um 100 attached to and said this isn't going to kill you or cause any problem but you if the insurance inspector comes and you try to sell it you're going to have to fix that one time again it's a lot of things that probably need to be looked at anyway I can tell you those I can tell you the Transformers on those lines in the Alleyways are bad bad and they're going to be leaking toxic material over time because they're rusting a lot of them out and I mean that stuff gets nasty too so any right thank you yeah thank you all right last item yay uh is a request to approve a new office lease uh same terms and conditions from the uh previous uh office lease that we had that expires at the end of this fiscal year September 30th so this is just a new 12 month Le same term same agreement same location all right and um it sounds like if we decided to move forward with the CIAA it would work out almost timing wise could be yeah pretty good all right um does anyone want to make a motion to approve this uh office lease motion second second all right uh any discussion discussion from the public all in favor say I I I all opposed say nay nay okay it is 31 motion carries all right public comments actually can I just do a board member comment real quick while I have it on my mind Josh I would like to know um because yeah that was next right yeah um the Citywide Improvement committee um that we were supposed to get put together is do we do we have that in doing anything yet the reason I ask is if we're going to be working with the a you know on the amphitheater and stuff it just seems to me like that would be a good first step to try to get this committee together you know for allow the the input of these Community leaders to kind of guide us in directions on what we need to do that will provide entertainment for our community in the years to come i' like to see the culture Arts Alliance to be a part of that um I just think this is one of the the good highlights in our um you know man project our our $95,000 book master plan I think we need to bring the amphitheater up in our discussion with the city council too and talk about get their thoughts on that because I think that's an important project that most of us feel like we could really do a lot of good yeah i' like move for with that and I really just think that this this committee is something that's a kind of a a thing for me to where if we can just get these Community leaders and these organization leaders to kind of just give us input on what directions we need to go in and what what they expect of us well what I'll say is I've met with the H Pig I've met with the landmarks group reached out to the Florida Shaka um or the defa what do you want to call that um kind of polling their interest um I received you know good interest in that just have not formally put together that committee well and like you know maybe they could meet quarterly or something for a little while and then eventually maybe go monthly and then we could we could probably have some joint meetings with them as well to get input sort of like a you know uh a just a study group that would you know help guide us in in our approaches to the things that we're trying to do sure I'm done May uh first of all the the artson lines I was Tickle Pink to think they were going to be moving in maybe close to downtown uh and I still am uh now I was here wherever you guys decided to to buy the building and then consider selling the building and making considerations and if I recall you weren't really wanting to get into being a landlord and that you wanted to find a good person that would be a real compliment to the city and sell it to them uh I just you know just want you to be cautious that you don't get into a lifelong expense of being a landlord and you have to satisfy the tenant um I do like I said I think they'll bring a lot to the table you need to weigh that thing and of course uh what we're accustomed to doing I know Josh You' seen in the county and city but we're you know we hire Engineers do about everything for us and I think that uh if if you can legally get a good contractor to come take a look at that building instead of because you're GNA have to come anyway you know but the engineers they don't have to swirl over everything we do or think about doing you know and pay them you know 100 Grand or just to come up with something the contractor can do the same and so I would yeah you know some of this is ridiculous what we're paying engineer yeah but uh and especially for small building like that small location um it's not you know a complex operation GNA be over there but uh anyway so I just move forward keep it in mind you kind of remind yourselves conversation you had because I've heard y'all you kind of like to get that off your hands now you're going to be in it for forever you I think I think that would be the desire of me to never have to be a landlord for an organization like for free but they do if they if we do work this out it'll bring a lot of things to downtown that I think are missing you got a lot of experience in that area but you're not going to always be here you know you don't want this board to have to be professionals landlords yeah I think I ideally that you know in their process they could maybe come up with some kind of lease option agreement or something something where they may could could purchase it from us at some point that would be ideal um you know I'd say too the we gotta be we got to be strict about what their obligations are and are they fulfilling those obligations so Susan you go go ahead go you don't have to wait I'm trying I wasn't trying to hold you up but um I think those are very valid points and I mean I agree but uh you know again what are we trying to do we're trying to revitalize things and so you know I mean people aren't beating out our door I agree I don't I don't I don't disagree at all nobody wants to so I think we got to look at all options we think we've made they made a great presentation yeah I think we we got some things to go off of and let's see where it goes right um Melinda Henderson representing forward defunc um the Veterans Memorial was one of our projects that we've been nursing along I've been involved with it with for 15 years and I've been involved with it with far defunc and the black community for five that requested that it be revived because they had some money from a memorial but no land or anything like that and so um another Workshop since I've been out there pedaling it and giving the slides to every organization and having them write support letters for this long I don't know what another Workshop is going to do but uh I believe that individual citizens got to individual um council members and express some concern but I want to just say that the veterans serve their country and in every meeting that I've had with them the suggestions for change were Incorporated they want to serve their community and their answers were based not on their wishes but on how it could be used for other purposes and to benefit the city they came up with suggestions that uh uh cut down on maintenance and that kind of thing so I just want you to keep in mind they serve their City their country they want to serve their community and I feel like how dare we say no thank you I was going to wait till the workshop but I want y'all to know that I'm a daughter of a veteran I'm a daughter-in-law of a veteran and my f father served at Egan Air Force Base for most of his civil career as an aeronautical engineer my father liked to go to the museums so let me say that if he was going somewhere he was going to the museum in Pensacola um I want to know what the CRA was developed to do do you want to explain that I I will say the answer to that question is we were created by the City Council in 2018 after a need um to address blight within our community okay um BL def find my Statute in many ways and in accordance with statute we develop the Redevelopment Plan update to address and convey how we're going to do that okay how is this property blighted that y'all have deemed the only property so I I don't know that it's necessarily blighted statute allows for us to redot V areas uh in an overall Redevelopment effort to bring up property values and to make the area more attractive in our Redevelopment Plan update there is a capital Improvement project list that allows us the opportunity to make those improvements that the council adopted back on January the 8th of this year so it's not necessarily directly bled but this is in an effort to redevelop the downtown core and to make that area more attractive okay so let me say what I have to say about that that bowl I I called Three Vets some that have the have issues with noise and and that kind of thing and um I called some that have issue with walking and let me say that I have a daughter who um two years ago she was here living with us because she had a foot surgery she has 10 screws in her foot she cannot walk the the incline we actually tried to get her down on a scooter and the scooter was too much at that incline her son ended up having to take the scooter she just want to pick picture at the lakeyard at Christmas and she'd hop with her dad and I all the way back up so we didn't get very far down it but I mean it's not a it's not a great area to get to the bottom I and the ones that I called I was told a pebble can make them trip the things that they want is easy access plenty of parking and um no train so no train oh train you mean the train close to the you don't want to be close to them M yes they don't want to be near a train if they're there for it being a peaceful place for them I also talked about the flooding they did not like the ability that that flooded there but I talked to three locals and one not here that their family used to live here they're not opposed to it but the things they want is parking flat area and limited noise and I don't have a problem with y'all going forward with the veterans something to honor them I have a problem with the location and the location for the function of getting to it for anyone who has limb issues um Prosthetics the train and I was told Point Blank they don't even want to be near major highways and hear a lot of sirens so I think I think the workshop is to help other people come to a terms that it's not one person's opinion or who they said supports it I think it gives the community an opportunity to come forward and us get other people's opinions and not what someone said so thank you thank you very much thank you any anyone else from the public like to speak on this I think the that might authoriz will like access for those that are handicapped it would not be down those stairs okay so I guess you know the thing is uh to move forward or to do another Workshop is that kind of where we are so I believe it's there are comments that are coming out that I mean I don't know were you part of a workshop before or were you not part of a workshop before I mean like it I don't know sorry real quick I was a part of the workshop but I do know that a lot of these things are um fundraised and if Mindy's had 15 years I don't know why I she doesn't have a good little pile of money for this project um but uh I will say one of the things that upset me in Monday's meeting I watch a lot of them and Josh you're not going to like this but he said to the council I'm here as a courtesy and took that as a total insult he does y'all don't own the lakeyard you don't have a right to go tear it up as a courtesy matter of fact I have a page seen this before on the website what is that it's um page 84 can I step sure please 84 is that the plan where does it say that it has to be at Laker it's right the back of the okay that's a picture that doesn't say it's been voted on and approved can I can I address some concerns so so if I may um I would like to kind of explain how we got to where we are when I was hired back in October of 2022 didn't know anything about a CRA in fact it took me a while to even understand what the acronym meant did a lot of research discovered that our plan that we had as it was called a strategic master plan lacked a lot of the things that are required by State Statute this board allowed me the opportunity to go out forbid to hire a consultant to put together a Redevelopment Plan update the way that we're allowed to spend money is covered in this Redevelopment Plan update statute very specifically states that if it's not in our plan we don't do it so there was a need for us to update our plan to set us up for success for the next well nine years of our existence through this plan update process we had two public workshops public engagement sessions as we call them had them at stock Hall Brotherhood had them on two separate days at two separate times to give people uh an equal opportunity to participate in that public engagement is where where we had members of the public come and present their ideas and things that they would like to see the CRA do as part of their Redevelopment effort included in this Redevelopment plan the Veterans Memorial was brought forward by Miss Mindy henerson she was encouraged to put a dot on on something that she thought somebody else suggested that it be there sure so miss Henderson put a dot on you know the thing that that she thought was important to her so through our exercise of this plan update we included the Veterans Memorial as part of our Capital Improvement project conceptual design on January the 8th of this year we brought this Redevelopment plan forward to the council C board approves this plan but it has to be adopted by the governing body so in our case that's the city council have they adopted it they have they adopted this plan on January the 8th this year it was my understanding and apparently a wrong understanding perhaps or maybe a misunderstanding on both parts that when the city council adopted this plan it gave us the thumbs up to move forward with what we said we're going to do and what we've been communicating to the public that we're going to do through this Redevelopment effort so I will admit the the courtesy term that I use maybe perhaps wasn't the best term to use the use of that term in the the way that I said it was because of what I just mentioned it was my understanding I think it was maybe perhaps all of our understanding or maybe some of the Public's understanding that we got the green light to move forward some of these projects when they adopted this plan through a public hearing my goal all along has been and will continue to be public engagement because I don't think it's important for any of us to make decisions that's not well grounded in public input all I'm simply asking for at this point is to move forward with hiring an engineering consultant to generate conceptual plans that we can then Workshop where I go into an informal setting like we did at Shak Hall Brotherhood and on three easel we have concept a concept B concept C and we ask members of the public what do you think about concept A what do you think about concept B what do you think about concept C we gain all that input the engineering consultant gathers all that and comes up with a general consensus we then bring that back to the C board and we explained to the C board that on such and such date we had a public in Workshop we gained public input here are the people that attended because we always have a signin sheet this is the general consensus that we got through that public Workshop what say you would you like to move forward with the concept that the public that participated has provided at that point we take it back to the council and we say Council we had a workshop on such and such day this is the general consensus the C board approved concept b or recommended concept B on such and such say would you like to move forward at that point that's when we get into the formal design and we start looking at you know the actual elevations and all that stuff I will tell you that I would not be involved in any project that did not include accessibility to people of all abilities and so you're exactly right that is a challenged area but so is a lot of CH Point well and and it is a challenge and having a daughter who had to have major foot surgery major um therapy after to be able to walk again who is not she's not on crutches or anything now but I'm I'm just telling you that is not I mean she couldn't walk on the beach the sand alone causes caused issues with her foot so I'm thinking of these veterans how much is this how much sidewalk are you going to have to have and at what angle to make it safe for them to get up and down I mean that that's going to be a monstrosity in my my vision it could be um or it could be just simple Landings in between um you know there specific slope requirements where that sidewalk can exceed and there's a certain distance where it can be without having to have a platform a flat platform for landing as you'll know at Chipley Park every one of those sidewalks that I've seen are straight shots down the water so you know I think that it can be made accessible I'm not an engineer consultant but until we actually hire an engineer to go out there and do the side elevations and determine what that would look like and put it on a conceptual plan we're just basically saying hey we have a general idea and I think that's all we are here we have a general idea that we got through public input that we're wanting to move forward in accordance with our Redevelopment efforts that's all two more issues is one of the veterans told me he didn't want to feel like he was in a ditch and that to me is an area that does feel like it's in a ditch that they don't want to feel that way and um number two do you feel like the council because the meeting I watched they seemed a little blindsided by this you know do you feel like communication was good that they knew exactly what you were wanting to do so I will say this I did reach out to them individually via email explaining the background with a request to meet with them unfortunately I didn't have any meetings with them could the communication be improved of course could I have done better in the January 8th meeting to help them better understand what they are approving of course we always have room for improvement and I'm not here to step on anyone's toes I'm not here to make enemies with anyone I'm simply here to serve this community and make the improvements that we have agreed to as a board and as a council to move forward that's all I'm here to do I have no hidden agendas I have no individual goals that I'm trying to accomplish through this I'm here to serve the public so on on that note I do have an 80 year-old father-in-law that lives in the area that is a veteran that this area would not be an area that he could get down safely or that he wouldn't be exhausted after he climbed ramps I I don't have a problem with the concept I have a problem with the location and if y'all think that you are creating accessibility to All Veterans you're not you're not and I'm here to tell you I couldn't take my 80-year-old father there if I had a place I could pull up and he get out of the car but if I have to park out at Walmart too far away he's exhausted by the time we get in so I'm not using these examples as an issue I'm just saying that he is on dialis um and he can't walk that far he can't walk ramps we need to make this accessible to all citizens and all vets and that location being near the train causes an issue for some of our vets and I have an issue with that I have an issue with the fact that my father-in-law unless I drive him to the bottom he's not going to get down there now you're W to put a train down I said no only one train a day passing well I don't know how we can control that in the future so the one train a day thank you me again jie white um I'm I have mixed feelings about both I have just become I shouldn't say outraged but with what's going on with our Parks our state parks I consider Chipley Park like a state park except it's our city park and I think we need to be very careful about what we build putting more concrete down there I just I just don't want more concrete I don't you know I don't I'm not against the veterans I'm the same way my father was a pilot in the Air Force I had grandfathers I have father and laws I'm not against supporting a veteran but I think it needs to be for them where they can reach it and we also need to look at the Chipley Park and I'm like Michelle I think the city council was little they're not supporting it as is right now and I think that's why the workshop was designed to hear maybe it's a different location maybe it's you know somebody said the courthouse I don't know and I was at one of your meetings and we did put the stickies on the wall but there was probably about 18 people there I you know is that the whole of defunc no is that everybody having their say and and you know and 15 years ago are those people that had a say still here are they still alive I mean I just think it just needs to be it needs to be careful again because Chipley Park is the lakeyard is our our place defunc it makes defunc and it just needs to be very careful that's just my opin thank you I got them I got them um I talked to Susan earlier today and um you know I'm a little taken back that the communication between this board and our city council seems to be and I'm facing this on the meeting I don't I don't know that there seems to be an issue but I think y'all need to take a step back and evaluate this but one of the things I asked her is how many veterans are involved in this or veterans family and and I was told this far she knew I think I just said veterans none why are we trying to build something for veterans and we don't even have anybody in a veteran the Veteran's opinion involved in it you're presenting it I'm saying there are no veterans there's not been a board created of veterans to decide what we should do Mindy's presenting it Josh are you a veteran I'm not a veteran Mindy are you a veteran okay so I'm just saying I think that the first thing we need to do is if we're going to move forward or y'all are insisting on moving forward at this location we need to get veterans involved not me I'm not a veteran my my father was I grew up but I'm not a veteran so please consider our veterans over our citizens as far as us that didn't serve when I I did was I Incorporated all their suggestions and were very much in favor every Veterans Day seen slides or we having a meeting with the city council we are we'll H it out we'll hammer it out we'll hammer it out I thank you all for your comments I think that's what makes Community is great is everybody given their input but we had more City we come up with a solution I've ever seen yeah it was a full house tonight well yeah a lot more period but we finally had some city council members here which was reassuring they've been they've come to a lot of meting I know just throw them under the bus yeah all right Mr chair if I may just as a word of close these are all just ideas how we get there those are the details we have to iron out and so you know I couldn't agree more veterans need to be involved in this and as I stated earlier I'm an advocate for public input I will hang my hat on public input we're still at the the idea phase we got a long way to go before we figure out what this thing actually looks like or even if it looks like anything so just want to remind everyone these are just ideas but this is the framework for which we operate and the allowance for us to do the things that one thing I will say is that I think every one of us here in the community we need to get stuff done and we're getting to the point where we have projects that we can do we need to make sure their projects the community is going to support we I think this board's excited about getting some things done so we are ready to spend this money wisely on some good meaningful projects and there are a lot of things that we can do so let's just let's just all work together and let's get some stuff done so all right any closing comments thank you Josh for everything you do I'm good all right thank you Josh thank you everyone else clay you're back sorry had a 6:30 okay I sorely underestimated time in this meeting thank you all thank you all for coming and with that I'll say we're Jed at uh 717