uh good evening uh today is February the 11th 2025 uh city of hustus commission meeting all right uh we're going to have a uh invocation moment of silence uh followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by
commissioner Mike Holland thank you please join me in the pledge I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with li and justice for all
thank you cheers thank you Madame clerk do we have a quarum proper not has been given yes mayor thank you agenda update uh nothing sir okay uh
commissioners before us we have approval of minutes got to get approval for minutes uh January 13th 2025 uh the workshop and January 16th 2025 City commission meeting so moved
second roll call commissioner Holland hi vice mayor Ashcraft hi commissioner ASB I commissioner Lee I mayor Hawkins I okay we have presentation uh today is uh
the day that we actually uh uh give a proclamation to to one of the most outstanding groups uh organizations here in in eustus the eustus African-American Heritage committee uh would you all like to come forward
Hi how are you you look nice altion suggestion thank you everyone for showing up this organization is 32 years old 31 years old so okay all right proclamation in 1965 the month of
February was designated as time of national observance of the many contributions and achievements of African-Americans and whereas Black History Month has been designated for the recognition of black history black Heritage and black expression in
numerous areas and whereas throughout the month of February the 31st Annual African-American Heritage celebration will feature events and activities throughout the city of Eustace in celebration of African-Americans their Heritage and their accomplishments and
whereas the theme of the 2025 African-American Heritage celebration is countless opportunities and reachable possibilities and whereas on Saturday February 15th the African-American Heritage celebration committee will host
a daylong festival celebrating the African culture commencing with a parade down Bates Avenue followed by festivities that will include ethnic foods crafts and entertainment for the enjoyment of our entire community and whereas in
recognition of black history month and the African-American Heritage celebration the city of Eustace joins with other communities throughout the nation in recognizing the significant advancements contributions achievements and impacts that African-Americans have
made in the growth and development of our our nation our state our County and our city now therefore I Willie Hawkins mayor of the city of eustus Florida proclaimed the month of February 2025 as
Black History Month in the city of eustus I call upon all citizens in our city to participate in the 31st Annual African-American Heritage celebration as well as other ceremonies and activities designed to
celebrate recognize and honor African-Americans and their history I I have here unto me set by my name and accused the Seal of the city of hustus to be a fixed the sixth day of February 2025
[Applause] oh he's yeah I'll come back up okay thank you thank you all and have a great Festival Bank wining Festival
okay now coming up to audience to be heard okay audience to be heard uh you'll have three minutes uh to speak you come to the commission uh you come to the U to the microphone uh your name your
address Tom do we have any I do not have any cards okay all right okay just ask the audience Mr Mayor there's anyone that anyone in the audience have anything they' like to say okay thank you all right uh now we come down to our consent
agenda uh is there anything that anyone would like to have pulled hearing nothing okay can I get a motion for approval so move Mr Mayor second okay roll call commissioner Holland hi vice mayor Ashcraft hi
commissioner ASB hi commissioner Lee hi mayor Hawkins hi okay now we come down to Future agenda items in comments oh did I miss no sir I just we're just moving right through it
Miss which one did I miss resolution number was all I'm sorry I apologize okay uh future agenda items well I I'll go ahead and start up as um just trying to get some
updates um Tom have we um looked over that agreement from usess housing authority and do we have any any questions about that I have not seen a copy of the agreement from eustus Housing Authority okay hor Horus told me he gave it to the city
clerk I'll give Horus and confirm okay um and then um have we reached out to um Daniel again from Habitat to try to okay yep we had a meeting with her and she uh asked to uh review some of what we've
done with our housing rehab program okay okay that's all I have thank you okay uh Mike yeah thanks sir Emily no I just have some comments okay George
um don't laugh laugh at this but I'm serious um I've had a couple people mention to me you know way back we had a um little bit of a fiasco I call it over chickens in the
city and with the rising cost of eggs and and and everything I've actually had some people comment to me about the $800 fee to have chickens in the city um I'm not really sure what to do
with that how to look at it it's a deterrent for some things um and I'm I'm probably not asking to put it on an agenda at this point but I'm going to look more into it I just would like to try to find potentially a a fair balance
of some sort maybe even a reduction in the cost under some circumstances um but uh I've been approached on that uh twice so that that's a potential future agenda but it's a it's a
sensitive thing because it really got out of hand last time if you ask me but um 800 is a lot for somebody who wants to in the right scenario have some uh potential chickens fresh fresh eggs that's that's it Mr Mayor was that our
last is that how we left it with the $800 or did we decide not to you know uh the the the the couple people the one person who brought it up uh said the 800 I I really didn't look it up so you might be right it might have been
nothing did we make no I mean my understanding is um you're basically asking for a conditional use and the conditional use process that process is an $800 process across the board whether you're asking for an accessory dwelling
unit or in this case what you're actually asking for is to conduct an agricultural use in a residential district so yes it's it's a conditional use and that the cost of that conditional use process is $800 but it's
not just for that it's across the board yeah that's the across the board price for any conditional use but um if I can expand on that did did we did we decide on any particulars on what that was like how big the cops
had to be and how many and I think you know what happens when they die and processes I mean did we have any discussion on that that is I mean the conditional use could potentially cover that on a case-by
casee basis but I don't think we've set any regulations for size of Coupe or setbacks or how far you have to be from your neighbor that kind of thing I think I think we take it and review it on a case-by casee
basis that was the thing I've met with you guys I said there was one more thing missing that was it so I'm GNA if I'm going to bring it out and read it a little bit and see if I can see
some rationale to it and maybe report to you guys or just get you a copy we get a copy could you send us a copy of it so we could yeah I would love for everyone to read it and come up there but I don't want to put you through it if you well and then the other thing I'm sorry I didn't being to cut you
off I really thought we were thinking it was only going to be allowed in certain certain use certain use you know sounds like possibility we're not going to have it in GC you know it' have to be um in one of the other L sister so I thought it was
County but I guess can be that's why we probably all need to read it I know I'd be I'd be expecting it to I would want it to only be in the right residential places for personal use not for profit
right and then we address it we can we without without putting it on the agenda we can get you the information on what kind of districts it it's it'll be allowed in I mean there there's there's actually not going to be much in our code about chickens specifically what
there may be is some information about having an agricultural use and in what districts that agricultural use is a conditional no use in but we can we can get you that information for you to digest so that was it just something to think about okay all
right I have some comments okay yes I wanted to make some comments about p pocket park we now have a nice big butterfly picture taking as you can see and um so you just stand in front of
the butterfly and you have wings and there's some information next to it and as of yesterday there was some potted plants going around it's going to be it's going to really look nice for George Fest so we're getting it all done and I just want to thank them for all
that they did Public Works they did a wonderful job they've been really working at it there was one at the beginning it wasn't big enough so they actually did this and I'm just impressed and happy about it so now people can go it's a photo opportunity it's going to
be all cleaned up and very nice so we worked very hard to get it I'm saying we but they worked very hard to get it done by make it look really nice by George best and um I did go to the uh running of the Georges there was a lot of
participants it was fun to watch um the only thing missing was uh commissioner well representative cob and um and mayor H Hawkins coming in last after
this 993 year old man so that was the only thing missing this time I personally don't find that we wanted to make him feel so that was very very very good I enjoyed it and the kickoff band quid was really great too as usual so we've got a
lot of good things going on in the city and I hope that everybody will participate and go and take your own good picture with the butterfly so that's my comments thank you who who painted your butterfly um actually the one who does the tin work in the shop he
those that's 10 oh and and it's printed on there H okay all right so oh and AI we're really coming along with that we had a meeting and there's just lots of things going on and there's a lot we're we're getting it aibb we're looking at
in the master plan um last yesterday we had a meeting with de Ed on um even the college is going to get involved so we're really spreading the message for aib and getting it very involved in the community we have people who are calling who want to be volunteers and others who
are interested in being a volunteer let us know we would really appreciate your help and uh American Bloom is aib I should explain that so we'll have the whole city decorated with flowers and artwork and sculptures and beautiful things and we're even working on the
cemetery that's it thank you mik I think sir okay George on the comment side um I just wanted to let you guys know if you haven't heard that uh the Chamber of Commerce did uh their first sipson sunset uh we had some
people in the city in downtown not want to participate uh but we had a fantastic uh I think it was 16 people who did participate um and uh we had uh responses and RSVPs for 48 people which
would be a a huge number compared to other municipalities to the South or uh that do a wine and beer walk uh at the day of registration we had 98 people so we had 98 people walking through
downtown for two and a half hours ended up going way past that I was not here so I'm getting everything um from Marie uh but we did get paid for 98 we got the participation and it was a
fantastic event and Marie's not here but I was going to thank her for doing that that's putting the boots on the ground that we want to put in our downtown uh the pocket park and the band over there was was great it was very dark uh in there so we probably need to look at
putting some lights in pocket park uh hanging which I think we had some uh of those I call them Einstein light bulbs in there but if you guys put it and there's no power there I'd be willing to let you plug into the power to the building next door and I'll pay for the power um for the city as our
contribution um so that was fantastic and that's that's better than any municipality has had um period that I could find uh for the sips and sun it's a monthly event and uh we we'll go on from there one thing that we uh that the
board of the uh uh chamber has asked is that we also incorporate a PO potential tour um in it so you can come for a wine walk a lot of people from out of town a lot of people from um The Villages things like that where we would take
them around town uh 10 minutes in each place and give them a little description of what's here what's there Peddler's wagon you know Fox sales coffee the marketplace which was fantastic tons of people in there and uh I volunteered uh
and was asked to do the first walk around and then uh we decided that might want two people to do it and they wanted somebody from the city or Commissioners so I volunteered um uh you for that I wanted you to know so um you and me will
probably do the first one um and I checked that with your scheduling manager and he said that was okay well my schedule manager needs to check with me okay no I I did not but but whoever would want to do some of that that's
that's an opportunity um and there is a uh just to throw out there there is a house bill 215 that's out there that allows $25,000 uh to businesses who are impacted by construction from Dot and that's something that we're I'm going to
look more into and get that information uh um and uh it's either a loan or low interest loan uh on there and last but not least the uh Lolly Gaggers building I just wanted to uh let everybody know
entered into a leasee today um to bring in a Latin and uh food restaurant into there which has a strong emphasis they have two other Mexican restaurants in Claremont and in uh Dand in a small town
atmosphere the owner uh has this will be his third restaurant and he's contractually obligated to be there 90% of the time that it's open so um I think we'll fill that space which is a big hole in downtown and put some more boots on the ground uh and uh and move forward
from there that's it Mr Mayor thank you hear no I'm good thank you thank you sir uh the um this is the beginning of our one of our busy busy months uh we kick
off George vest on S Saturday with Point of Grace uh in the park uh that will be our first concert uh preceded by Life Point uh we also Friday night we have the
African-American Heritage Bank uh from 6 to 9 6 to 7 to 7 to 9 that's right it's kind of short so 7 to9 um so hope that you all can make it
um Saturday morning uh 9 9:00 9:15 uh hope you all out for the parade parade starts at 10:00 but if we can get there about 9:15 to make sure that we're all there and ready and strapped in uh
that'll be great uh this year as as of last night 252 entries entries so it's it's going to be a pretty decent one uh followed by the festival behind the school uh which will go to about 4:00 now one of the
things that we're adding this year and hopefully you know everyone can come out um we're going to have a basketball game between leeburg and Eustace an alumni basketball game and that'll start at
5:00 and it'll go till about 6:30 uh and at 6:30 uh I'll be running over to hopefully joining you all at the uh the band for the kickoff to George F and
Point of Grace okay Mr Mayor you also have Miss Eustace on Sunday evening at Life Point oh that's right Miss Eustace at Life Point uh on Sunday afternoon and we have the proclamation uh at the Presbyterian
Church correct for 140 140 years so so it's it's going to be a bus a busy month so hopefully everyone will come out and join
us Tom yeah uh quickly few items uh Lee and Alex are our twers sign shop somebody was asking earlier uh who's over at our sign shop so Lee and Alex do great work over there um they I mean they're
they're keeping all the city signs the street signs the stop signs but they're also doing these creative projects time to time so they're awesome yeah they're doing a great job uh and then a couple um we're going to have to coordinate schedules coming up we've got a lot of
stuff going on um when uh waste management and reworld presented there were some interest in from some Commissioners to go visit reworld uh we are the new Waste Management contract will be on the agenda for the 20th uh we will not get a
tour of reworld in before that consideration on the 20th uh but we can still schedule some time for you to go out there I think everybody was comfortable moving forward with that reworld concept uh but we will schedule some time I've got some dates Miranda's
been working on some dates I don't know if the commission so let me lay out what we've got um we've had a request from the housing authority to have a joint Workshop we've got a request from the code board to have a joint workshop and then we've got to figure out what we're going to do related to master plan and
so all of those things are going to require some scheduling of the commission and I I don't want to get into schedules right now but I'm going to have to reach out and uh start putting some some of this stuff on the calendar moving forward so I just wanted to give you a heads up that we've got a
lot going on uh aside from George Fest and African-American Heritage and the fun stuff we've got some business to take care of too so uh I'll be reaching out and we'll try to get this stuff on your calendars and that's all I have I think you said
enough nothing from me nothing from you okay all right nothing else okay well it is 5:58 uh the meeting is adjourned