##VIDEO ID:akMQVkzIVh0## good evening everyone and welcome to eustus City Hall it is Thursday September the 19th 2024 at 6: pm. uh if you would like to join us for a moment of silence and then the Pledge of Allegiance uh led by our vice mayor please stand amen vice mayor please join me with the pledge I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all go ahead and officially call our meeting to order Christine is there a forum president proper notice been given yes mayor thank you so much agenda update Tom uh no sir all right first off on our agenda tonight we have approval of our minutes from the July 1st 2024 City commission budget Workshop looking for a motion for approval moved second have a first and a second any further discussion not hearing any roll call please vice mayor Lee I commissioner Ashcraft I commissioner Hawkins mayor Holland hi sorry about that that's all right next we have a very special thing uh are you sure you still want to do this I think I'm yes right we have the swearing in of our inum city Commission for seat number four Christine Cruz Christine I'm going to ask you to go to the floor level and meet our city clerk down there and if you would like to have your family join you please do right over there thank ma' you ready I'm ready okay please raise your right hand and repeat after me I Christine Cruz do solemnly swear I Christine Cruz do solemnly swear that I will support protect and defend the Constitution and government of the United States that I will support protect and defend the Constitution and government of the United States and of the State of Florida and of the State of Florida that I am duly qualified to hold office under the Constitution and laws of the State of Florida that I am duly qualified to hold office under the Constitution and laws of the State of Florida and the charter of the city of Eustace and the charter of the city of Eustace and that I will Faithfully perform all the duties of the office of City Commissioner seat 4 and that I will Faithfully perform all the duties of the office of City Commissioner seat 4 on which I am now about to enter so help me God on which I'm now about to enter so help me God let's take a picture here stand here and then uh go and then we're going to have you go up to the dice there and then I'll step out you're just your family so the two right over here and then if you don't mind just getting to family all right Christine you want to come up and get one with all of us move Sasha come on come on up come all right welcome thankor next we're coming down to presentations and our first one is the introduction of our youth Heights Elementary School principal it is always an honor to have really our higher-ups from the county with us I'd like to First go ahead and introduce to you to superintendent of Lake County Schools Diane corn Diane welcome thank you so much it is a pleasure to be here with you all this evening and um first I just want to say thank you thank you to you as a as a board and as individuals and leaders in this community for loving our schools loving our kids I know you are always offering so much support um I see your your hand and your heart so much at eustus high school often as you're sponsoring events and just so many opportunities for the students there so thank you very much for all that you do and I'm very excited today to introduce you to the new principal us as Heights Elementary School we let her get her get her feet wet a little bit and I thought it was a great opportunity for her to come I know some of you have been out to the school and have met her thank you for that um but just an opportunity not only for you all but this community to get to know her and and um I very pleased to introduce you this is Dr Wanita McCall hello good evening everyone um thank you superintendent cornegy for bringing me to this wonderful event as she stated my name is Dr Wan mall I'm the proud principal of usus hikes elementary school thank you all for having me here tonight um a little about me I'm a proud product of Lake County school so I'm happy to be home I attended Dabney elementary school that's no longer with us I then went on to Oak Park Middle School and graduated from Leesburg High School so being back here in Lake County feels like I'm home it feels so good to be in the community um serving the children of many of my classmates who I graduated from high school with so it feels good to be home um a little bit about the great things that we're doing this year at Us's hikes we are growing to new hikes that's our theme this year um we have established some goals and our goal is to move the school ultimately to a a and we're going to do that by growing in each area day by day student by student Lesson by lesson um so we're excited each day I end the announcements by telling the students have a tiger rific day CU we are the tigers and it's a family and that's one of the things that I'm really trying to instill in the students and the community there um some of the things that we've done this year to engage the community is that we have amazing sponsors to I would like to highlight we have lak Point Church and um or orang Avenue Church they have been so amazing to us they assisted us this summer in pre-planning with providing breakfast and gifts for the teachers um we had a inaugural Grandparents Day event which was amazing um it was an event that I just thought oh it'd be so cute for the grandparents to come out and we had over 400 people in our cafeteria that morning so it was amazing um we also on Patriots Day we had um fire usess fire department 22 come out and to our surprise when the engine pulled up we also had the mayor and the vice mayor as well we were able to provide that station with lunch for the day and the kids make cards for them so we're just excited to be doing great things in the community and looking to engage the community and I'm excited to be here Dr Mcall welcome thank you you have a partner with the city of hustace thank you and as I told you that is my school I gra I I I went to school there and I'm very proud of the fact that you're now there and that you can take it to new heights thank you thank you you need anything call us I will thank you for having me next we have a presentation Tom you want to introduce this one uh sure um so um I want to uh thank Duke Energy um Duke Energy has been a great uh partner in many ways especially related to Economic Development um they've been uh very generous helping with various uh efforts including some of our marketing efforts and now uh with an effort to uh help us evaluate some sites for economic development purposes um so they've been a great partner we really want to thank them and it also uh it works in conjunction with uh We've applied for Eda funds for a targeted Market study and this kind of dovetails with that targeted Market study where we can go out we can analyze what are we well situated for and then we can analyze sites to figure out how how we can bring uh job creators uh to the city of eustus so I want to thank Duke Energy and I'll uh turn it back over to you uh to introduce our representatives from Duke Energy thank you having a representative here from duke Foundation is outstanding this evening what a great partnership that we've got with them Mark I'm going to let you come on up and say anything you wouldd like to say thank you well mayor vice mayor Commissioners thank you so much for the opportunity really appreciate it we love our partnership with Eustace um so my name is markenstein managing director of econ development for Duke Energy Florida um Duke Energy for those who don't know we serve 1.9 million customers around the state 34 counties um and we have about 10,000 megawatts of generation capacity so a lot to go around uh for a very fastly fast growing state in one of the fastest growing counties in the state right here in Lake County County um so just a note about Duke Energy's commitment to econ development it's longstanding we've been doing econom development uh at our company since the late 1940s after World War II and um our mission is to help our communities grow and Thrive and so we're we're working on helping you go after your target Industries grow business here uh which lead to as you know new jobs capital investment and improving the tax space for your residents um and this is all um this is a partnership and we have programs that uh are designed to really help you U grow and Thrive and uh one of those is our Economic Development um grant program through the Duke Energy Foundation uh which we're here to talk about today so the Duke Energy Foundation annually funds $30 million and and Phil philanthropic support uh so it's it's really there to meet the needs of our communities and help them um to to achieve their goals and their mission and so and this is all funded by our shareholders is not funded by the customers of Duke Energy um this this particular grant that the city of use has applied for is our Ed econ development grants program um it's an annual program it's RFP based so each um Community or County or region submits the uh proposal back to Duke Energy and it's considered um it's very competitive we have limited dollars uh the focus areas are marketing research and strategic planning and so any of those qualify in this grant requests so we had 40 different Grant requests uh 15 were approved again limited funds and so we're looking for uh the best of the best and uh you know uses' proposal was fantastic it was unique um it was strategic it was targeted and actionable um which we love to see that um and I I just want to commend Al ladimir and your team uh you guys really know what you're doing when you come in thaton development you guys really nailed it um so it showed that you understand or what you want to do with this program or this this new this grant is you you want to understand what exists and then you want to help that industry Thrive but you also want to tie into a land focus and that was really interesting for us we haven't seen things like that from communities where you're asking for not just the the Strategic plan piece of it but back to the land what can we do with the land here um and that's so important because if you don't have a home for companies where are they going to go um so you're talking about existing land in downtown district infill opportunities um industry growth opportunities on the land north and east of the downtown and the best fit for each and the programs that could help attract business so all of this was really compelling for us and we wanted to to fund that so usus was selected as one of the 15 to receive the Grant and so u in support of that I'd like to I think our our check is here somewhere um I'd like to present I'm going to ask that you present that because of all their hard work to Al and to naen because I know our grants writer does a lot of work with Al to make sure that that happens so if you two would like to come up so on beh of the Duke interview Foundation I like to present guys will come in mark thank you so much thank you very much thank you Mark we look forward to working with you in the future on other endeavors thank you naen don't try to cash that next we have a department update from code enforcement Eric you going to handle this or you going to let Chief do it you I Don't Like Chief coming you know I don't like having Chief come to a microphone if I I'm going to start it off and if the chief wants to Jo in I'm I'm not going to argue with it all right so uh welcome um good evening Commissioners my name is Eric Martin I'm the code enforcement supervisor for the city of Eustace so what I wanted to start off tonight is just give you an update on our collected code finds uh I ran some numbers and from 2014 to 2024 for uh the city is collected one point just just over $1.2 million in Code Enforcement fines this year alone we've brought in 265,000 and last year we brought in 500,000 so we've been very successful on that Avenue um if you're a numbers person we'll go through some some short statistics real quick uh annually on an average from 2021 to 2024 The Code Enforcement office process is just shy of a th000 cases a year uh we take in about 300 citizen complaints uh that's even after the state passed the no anonymous complaint statute so we also do neighborhood surveillance that's the officers go out uh checking on things and we generate about 400 cases a year off that we also uh have about 123 120 roughly referrals those are coming from our water department our fire department Department any any other department that refers a code violation to our department that's registered as a referral so on average we conduct about a th 3,000 inspections a year uh we also with the real estate market we have a lot of investors coming in buying our older homes and they don't always start out the way they should they you know these homes need a lot of work so they'll come in and do construction repairs and alterations before before they come in and get a permit so code enforcement we're the ones that are out watching that we we know we have a knowledge of what we have and when work's being done so we issue the stop work orders and we've had 55 we average about 55 per uh building permits a year uh permit building permit violations so on one other number is the unauthorized signs being placed in our rways so we pull on average about 800 a year this year we're already over th000 so what we've been focus on focusing on really uh recently is residential takes up a lot of our time because that's where most of our complaints come from but we' focused more on our commercial sectors especially our corridors so in 2024 we were able to contact Family Dollar within 45 days they had all their landscaping and all their trash cleaned up they pretty much ripped it all out and replaced it in 45 days that was and it was that's a really good company they're very responsive uh we also if you're familiar with BSS Auto Sales on North Grove um they have their Auto Sales and they have their repair so we were able to get out from what I could count probably if you if I was counting every single one of them probably about 50 junk and der cars they were left over from you know they work on cars that they sell to their customers and a lot of times they can't afford to rep make those repairs and then they just leave them and they stay there so we were able to get most of the cars removed from that site we were able to get multiple trailers worth of discarded tires and trash and debris removed so it's immensely the the the corridor is improved from that action their office across the street we're able to get some exterior improvements get some cracked storefront windows replaced um we are able to we recently facilitated the demolition of an unsafe structure on 233 West Stevens Avenue that front porch completely collapsed in we actually made contact with the uh the property owner when we first noticed it we put the building department put an unsafe limited entry don't come on this front porch and we highly recommended they move out uh well once the front porch completely collap they moved out so um 23 2023 Dollar General so everyone familiar with them they have a really big presence in the city of eustus they've got four stores so in 2023 we filed uh violations against three other stores the one on B uh Bay Street well it's actually Stevens Avenue North Bay and County Road 44 between those they average eight cases uh ranging from not maintaining their Landscaping not mowing their grass not picking up their trash and litter out of those 8 cases we generated $92,000 in fines 78 of that has been paid so just four months ago we closed all those violations out and month ago I opened 10 more because they had already neglected it their landscap started to die all their grass was becoming overgrown the Retention Ponds you know four feet high they've been responsive on correcting these but uh they were repeat violators so they're going to have to answer to our code enforcement for for that action so um racetrack we we were able you remember the damage Lake Hills Plaza on when Lake Hills Plaza would not take action we learned that that was actually on Racetrack property there's a e in an agreement we had deite racetrack it took uh about a year and a half and racetrack finally removed it but not until they accured $103,000 in fines so they also have a landscape violation that's active of the code enforcement board impos some fines just in just last week uh representative did attend they are being responsive as to this point and the code enforcement board agreed to reduce Their fines to $2,500 if they finish the landscape Restoration in 45 days so last week I met with the regional manager and we walked the site with a landscape plan so that they they have they have 100% knowledge of what we expect from that that location so then you go 848 South Bay Street it's a commercial it has a red facade on it now so code enforcement got involved with that that we had exterior facade improvements and resulted in a new roof so be updates right just we yes yeah and we'll get into that so as you're familiar we started generating a weekly update so it's about a week behind but we're we're we're getting more capable of getting these out sooner so we'll have all our current cases that are important need to be noted you know we're not going to put overgrown grass at one two East Ward out you know whatever but if it's important if the if the Commissioners need to know about it if our police department needs to know about it it's going to be on that on that report so that's about all I have do you have any questions Eric thank you for that you do and and I want to thank you your staff police department and the code enforcement board what a difference in the last few years that we've seen and you know I I want the public to know we will take your money but we don't want to take your money AB what we want is compliance just keep help us keep our city clean um other than that keep up the good work what I tell everyone is we're not your property manager and you make if you make us be you're going to pay dearly for it I also want to remind the board with the leadership under uh Craig Chief Capri we were able to add another code position that inspector is undergoing training and as soon as he is capable of working semi-independently you know you're going to see a whole lot more that's a that's going to be a big benefit to our department and I appreciate the city commission for making that help make that happen and the key is rapid response to these complaints we had a complaint today come in this morning we already took care of it on morning Street we tell them this is the deal get it out of here we're coming after you they got to understand that that we're not playing games here this City's not going to look like a dumb as long as I'm the chief and I'll tell you right now it's cleaned up a lot you know so but Eric and his team phenomenal job and some of these calls are at night on the weekends he comes on his on his own time on the weekends I know and everybody's dialed in here we're very uh accessible by phone or email so good things are happening in the code enforcement world now thank you all we appreciate it next we're coming down to audience to be heard Tom you have any cards uh I do have one card but before I get to that card I'd just like to um uh mention that we do um we have an item on the agenda today uh under other business that is related to a discussion on the reconsideration of the Grove at Pine Meadows what I wanted to point out is traditionally under other business uh we do not accept public in inut so if someone here would like to speak on the Grove at Pine Meadows audience to be heard would be the time to do that um you are welcome to fill out a card if you don't want to fill out a card if you just come up and identify yourself that's fine so again if you're here to speak on the Grove at Pine Meadows uh you should do so under audience to be heard uh that said I have one card from Wanda little keep in mind when you come up you have three minutes at the microphone the commission uh usually will not answer you tonight if you have a question we will send staff back to you for comment okay come on up welcome hi I'm Wanda little I was um referred by one of my good friends Darius Carrison and um I was just telling him about me to get my books into like the library or the school system and maybe come out to the school systems and maybe read to the children and you know try to get people to see the books that I have written which I have a lot of books um a lot of them are faith based and others are for the children at all for all ages and I've within like within the last two or three months I've written like 28 books and I'm still writing so I just y actually I thank God for you know all my writing and stuff that I do I just had my book sign in um August the 10th and that went very very well and I'm planning on doing something next year as well where um the kids can get involved and you know just reading the books and stuff like that um like for my like for my book signing I had different um um activities going on where young people were um entertaining and stuff and I had um everything that was based around like the kids because I do a lot of children's stories even though I have written two adult books already and I plan on making that into a play but I want to do stuff for like the city and maybe like come into the school systems and do something whether it's like um a book club or a science fair I just didn't really know where to start but I really want to go into the school system with my books and do something for the kids as far as reading I think we can help you out did you meet Diane corn when she was here that was sitting up front the first lady that spoke tonight no we'll we'll get you her information and also our our librarian is sitting on the back row back there Ann you want to wave at her turn around Ann's back there thank you get with Ann and she can talk to you a little bit okay thank you so much thank you so much for being here thank you anybody else to uh Amanda Hall Miss Hall um the other night when we had our little public sitting here with the builder architect um you guys weren't here and I was kind of a little uncomfortable with that I know you were here um there was a couple things I heard that made me uncomfortable there was a lot of cross talking going on I know I was one of the ones getting aggravated but the architect had made a comment that he doesn't know how many bedrooms and bathrooms these homes are going to have he's not explicit on how big and how much and the sewer system and what have you because we know it's coming out to Orange Avenue he said it's going 13 feet in to the easement and running back to the back of the subdivision I don't think all those people want to have their homes Nicole's home is right there she's going to be blocked in when they put those lines in his comment back when someone said that's not my problem that's now the counties he's building on your but I'm County I'm just to tick off you but now they're making a county problem I want my taxes going up for that there was a comment made the other night with the builder that he's from winner Garden it's going to eventually look like winter garden here you might as well get used to it we're not Winter Garden we're late County I know we're growing I've talked to you about this I know I've grown up here just calm down a little bit please we got the sub going in there you got the one going in at 19 cut off and please that intersection is horrendous in the morning 44 that whole Fairgrounds area the Grand Island area is blowing up we've got the subdivisions going in out there there is no grocery stores but Publix and windie we're adding a lot of people these people say they've done the school you know on the schools how did they know that there's a bunch of them being felt out youa too it's a lot it's too much my neighborhood I'm trying to speak for my neighborhood I'm trying not to be stressed out about it but I moved out of to Beres to come to your community for Solitude and quietness and we've talked about the wildli they live there too and our Yogi's back and we want to keep him there he came back this morning cool thank you be back uh Heather gross hi thank you for letting me speak um I couldn't make it to Tuesday's meeting so I don't know what was discussed but we moved from Palm Beach count to get away from building up and it's just exploding and we like our little neighborhood and I understand things have to get built but what they're trying to do on that is just too much orange the roads are already decomposing from the rain we have to call and get some of the roads literally have holes in it from the rain if you drive in the neighborhood you'll see them we can't handle having another to 12 or more cars coming out we have one entrance in and out this just it's too much they're not taking into consideration the schools my daughter is in school there she has 30 kids in her class I don't think they've done enough traffic I don't think they've done enough rescue just it's too much please just no we don't want this thank you uh Eric gisler um as they were saying it is too much for our area having another 60 houses put in there and uh I moved here a couple years ago and um I kind of came to for the school but I really once I got to know everybody in in my area it turns out they're all there for the same reason I am like she was saying I'm talking 95% of people so letting this thing go completely disrupt that whole area I mean completely and with the the traffic congestion you're hearing about it and I'm sure when they ran those numbers for the traffic did they consider the the 700 odd homes that got approved I don't I don't think they did because it's kind of over everything thank yous yeah on out come on just pull that mic down so I can hear you okay you're good um so I feel like you're not considering wildlife and if you're adding 60 to 100 homes you're not considering the SCH schools because it's already impossible to get from class to class when there's so many kids in the hallway and they're walking at like 2 mes an hour and the car line will also be flooded buses will be flooded it'll be harder to get the kids to school on time because the car and like the car line already goes like two streets over from the school drop off itself and the wildlife will have nowhere to go they'll all die or I don't know what they'll do um and it's also consider it because there's around 30 kids per class and it's already impossible for the teacher to tell everyone to shut up and calm down and it'll make it a mess and it'll make it hard for everyone to learn and that's what I was thinking thank you thanks for speaking so um I have a card from the property owner um the property owner can speak now but I don't know if it's appropriate to have the property owner speak at the time of the item um I think we should have everything addressed now considering we're cutting off public comment that'll be fine at that point that'll be fine because at the end of the day it's our decision whether we want or anything else y okay all right so Colin cin you my name's Colin Cosman I'm from the Belton family I third generation born and raised here I brought my kids up in this community too so that's four generations I've got going here we got 80 family members in this town we've done all the studying that needs to be done the traffic studying has been done the school studies have been done these schools are three times four times a size they they were when I was a kid going to him schools are going to grow things are going to get bigger that's what's going to happen fact of the matter is is I've done everything asked it's taken two years to get to this point we're all with code and I've done nothing but try to help this community and so is my family my family and I have done everything we can for this community I don't want to see it change that much either this is something that I have to do for my property it's something that I need to do for my family and it's agitating to hear some of the comments that I heard the other night personally attacking me from people that have been here a couple years when my this is the five four generations here I love this town I bleed this town and that's all I want to say about it we've done everything asked and we will continue to just like my family always has in this town whatever y'all need from us we will give to you we will help you but the fact is we're all in the state codes we're in the city codes we're doing what we're doing and it's going to grow the community but the community is growing anyways so why is everybody else allowed to grow and get subdivisions but I I finally come up and make something of myself and I'm going to try to do this and I'm not allowed to do it but the Out of Towners are allowed to do it no no no no it's not right it's not right so that's all I want to say that's my feelings about it if y'all need anything from me or you you know you guys all know my family so if you need anything just let me know but we will always stay in compliance and whatever yall need everything's within code and everything all the research has been done from the schools the traffic everything all right thank you thank you right Nick come on up um actually I just need to elaborate a little bit on what Colin said we have done all the studies Wetland studies and dangered species traffic school all of those things have been reviewed by City staff supported um we we took we had our meeting Tuesday evening which actually all things considered went pretty well um we were here for three hours answering questions with residents um walked out the door Shing hands um we actually made some some offers to help with residents and some of the things that are concerns that they had um and I think overall we're going to bring some value to the community there's going to be more jobs and and like they were saying there's there's not enough grocery stores you need rooftops to have those type of places come in if you want your I know everybody likes to hear the name Walmart or if you want to get another public or public usually every Cor um you need rooftops for those things to happen um beyond that I know there's going to be another hearing might be a little bit more prepared with any questions you guys might have and looking forward to it that's it as far as cards anyone else that like to speak to the commission about something that's not on the agenda not seeing we'll move ahead we have uh next our consent agenda there's one item under the consent agenda anybody want to have any discussion about that or do I need to look for a motion to approve I make a motion to approve second have a first and a second any discussion get that could you try again it just happened have a first and a second we've asked for discussion not hearing any roll call please vice mayor Lee I commissioner Ashcraft hi commissioner Cruz hi mayor Holland hi Madame attorney thank you Mr Mayor uh the first uh item we have are two resolutions this evening 24 um resolution 2466 and 2467 it's a public hearing to hear and consider the comments and questions regarding the city's final millage rate and final annual budget for the com um the coming fiscal year of 2024 2025 the city of eus is proposing a final millage rate of 75810 the millage rate reflects a 7.78 increase per increase from the roll back rate of 7 034 Ms and the justification for the increase is that the millage rate is higher than the roll back rate of 7.34 in order to cover increased operating costs we will start with resolution number 2466 a resolution of the city Commission of the City of eus Lake County Florida adopting the final millage Levy of adorm taxes for the City of eustus Lake County for the fiscal year 20242 providing for an effective date are we having additional presentation this evening Noe okay any questions any questions from the commission for Mr Shepard Christine do you have any questions well I mean I'm kind of coming into this in the 11th hour I think as everybody knows um and and I'm a huge supporter of our Police Services Public Works as you know my father was Public Works and fire all of our Public Safety I'm a huge support of it I know that we've had a lot of additional expenditures especially with technology which is really my area of of understanding for all these departments almost every single Department across the board had an increase in technology spending so and I've gone through it um my one question is is it possible next year to maybe make an agreement to kind of work towards that role but roll back rate if we're kind of because I'm in I'm inclined to vote Yes for this because I understand the cost of the taxpayers if we are to not approve this this evening and coming in this late there's not a lot we can do but maybe if we can maybe make an agreement next year to work towards that roll back rate we can look at that uh I would like to point out that we we use a functional millage rate and our millage rate is higher than leberg Mount dor and tar absolutely our functional millage rate is number two yes sir and leeburg is the high or the lowest the and the reason for them they're they're over twice the uh assess value rates we are right and we're in fact the lowest assessed value rate of any of the three cities absolutely I think Tom said it best in the last meeting where he said we don't play a shell game right we're just trying to because we don't do it a fire assessment fee uh and we don't play around with the contributions from I appreciate it not having to do the extra math so thank you so but uh yeah we've we've looked at the millage rate it just depends on what comes through uh we have a I think we had four days of uh workshops and and the commission has the opportunity and they've went through line by line they talked to each department head and had had the information that they needed to make the decision so those are the processes we've been using since I came back here I think right yes sir and I think it works well so I guess what I would say is we're I mean staff um is happy to work with commission to um establish priorities certainly uh tell us what's important to the commission um what's going on in the larger economy what's you know what kind of um new construction are we seeing because that new construction gets added to the tax base but does not count against you on the roll back rate because roll back is specific to existing properties and so what I would say is we're we're committed to working with commission establish priorities see what's going on with the larger economy see what's going on in the tax base and then we can work together to kind of I what what I have told commission uh related to specific items uh related to funding is we we have a 26 to 27 million general fund uh we can find ways to fund things but you have to work with us on establishing priorities what's important to you clearly Public Safety is important Public Works is important absolutely and so what what I would say is yes we're we're willing to work with the commission uh to see if there is an opportunity to get closer to that roll back rate and provide some relief to the to the citizens yeah I think that's kind of the the larger concern the kind of grave concern is as our property values are increasing next year right our our citizens are again going to be faced with a lot more taxes and that impacts not just Property Owners but it also impacts our rental units as well because a lot of that gets I don't know why the screen just went out that was weird but a lot it impacts our rental units and this is this is a very vulnerable part of our community especially with our elderly and our families just kind of want to make sure that we're looking out so if we can maybe kind of start the year on the premise of looking at that roll back and seeing where we can be creative in a couple areas kind of and this has been a great team you know the amount of communication between all the different department heads and all the people here has been absolutely incredible and I think that's something that is spectacular but talking about it now also gives staff time to prepare for that next year so it's not it's not sprung on them in the middle of a budget meeting hey we want to go to rollbacks but now you now there's a little bit more time if we can reach some kind of an agreement like that that way you kind of know where that starting point is next year and then you know if emergencies happen happens then we work up from there instead of back now okay y we're I think he's willing we're willing Department I had a feeling that wouldn't be a hard sale no that's not so I have a question if we do like a rollback then you come to us and tell us what services we're going to cut and what staff we're going to cut well and every year the the biggest cost is personnel and this year we had some substantial increases coming up uh for personnel and along with that there's other costs that while the the inflation rate has come down when it went up high it hasn't come back down from there it continues to creep uh so we we have to deal with that as well as the rest of the economy has to uh so those are all the factors that you have to take into effect and uh it it'll just depend on uh the priorities that we want to set like uh Tom said and uh how we want to address those and maybe maybe we cut back on a certain few things so it I think it's good it's good planning you know just kind of keeping an eye out between here and when the budget process starts again from everybody from the department heads the people that are sitting up here on the stas everybody combined kind of keeping that eye out seeing what ways can we be created what ways can we generate more funding so it's not just one different area I'm not talking about cutting staff and I love our staff and our services like I've said no I I understand you're not just we're looking at planning right and planning but with with that basis of that roll back number looking at that and then if needed if we've got issues then we're going up as opposed to trying to work our way backwards I think as Tom had said earlier uh the general fund has substantial uh reserves and when we have a major project we have that opportunity maybe to reduce those reserves but you don't want to do that to to take care of operations understand so and we've got a fabulous debt to income ratio we don't want to lose that don't want to use our credit rating it's just planning absolutely it's planning and creativity awesome okay is anyone in the audience wishing to speak on this item seeing none I will close public input on this hearing Mr Mayor commissioners before us we have resolution number 24 -66 what's the will of our commission will for approval thank you second I have a first and a second any further discussion not hearing any roll call please vice mayor Lee I commissioner Ashcraft I commissioner Cruz I mayor Holland I compl complimentary item to that is resolution number 2467 a resolution by the city Commission of the city of USIS Leake County Florida adopting the final budget for the fiscal year 2024 providing for an effective date are there any questions from the commission on the budget for Mr Shephard seeing none is there anyone in the audience that would like to comment on resolution number 2467 seeing none we will close the public uh hearing portion of this resolution Mr Mayor commissioners before us we have resolution 2467 what's the will of our commission moved thank you second have a first and a second any further discussion not hearing any roll call please vice mayor Lee I commissioner Ashcraft hi commissioner Cruz hi mayor Holland hi Mike thank you thank you for your many years of service now your hair can maybe grow back I know this was the last one you had to do with us I think it's gone again thank you for all the years of service you provided citizens it's a it's a pleasure to come back too thank you sir thank you all right and thank you for your support for the finance department and the rest of the departments in accum doing a budget and doing a a very meticulous job of review thank you sir thank you thanks thank you very much back to you madam attorney all right we have a second readings portion uh for us to start with ordinance number 24-26 it's an ordinance of the city Commission of the city of eustus Florida voluntarily annexing approximately 25 acres of real property at alterate Key number 173 4193 end of Blane street unimproved south of the intersection of blae street and Main Avenue on the west side of Blaine we had presentation on this item uh last commission meeting on September 5th any additional presentation are there any questions from the commission for Mr Richardson okay is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak on ordinance number 24-26 seeing none we will close public input Mr Mayor commissioner spce we have ordinance number 24-26 what's the will of our commission appr for Approved thank you sir second thank you ma'am any further discussion not hearing any roll call vice mayor Lee I commissioner Ashcraft hi commissioner Cruz hi mayor Holland hi next is ordinance number 24-27 an ordinance of the city Commission of the City of eustus Lake County Florida amending the city of eustus comprehensive plan pursuant to Florida statute 163 3187 changing the future land use designation of approximately 25 acres of real property at alternate key number 173 4193 end of Blain Street unimproved South of the intersection of blae street and Main Avenue on the west side of Blaine from Urban low in Lake County to Suburban residential in the city of Eustace we had presentation on September 5th are there any questions for Mr Richardson on this item from the commission okay seeing none anyone in the audience wishing to speak on ordinance number 24-27 seeing none we will close public input Mr Mayor commissioners before have or 24-27 what's the will of this commission for approval thank you ma'am second thank you sir any further discussion not hearing any roll call please vice mayor Lee I commissioner Ashcraft I commissioner Cruz I mayor Holland I next is ordinance number 24-28 an ordinance of the city Commission of the City of usus Lake County Florida assigning the Suburban neighborhood Design District designation to approximately 25 acres of real property at alternate key number 173 34193 on end of bla Street unimproved South of the intersection of bla Street and Main Avenue on the west side of Blaine we have presentation on September 5th are there any questions from the commission on this item would anyone in the audience like to speak on ordinance number 24-28 seeing none we will close public input Mr Mayor commissioners before fa have ordinance 24-28 what's the will of our commission move approval thank you sir second thank you ma'am any further discussion question not hearing any roll call please vice mayor Lee I commissioner Ashcraft hi commissioner Cruz I mayor Holland I next is ordinance number 24-31 an ordinance of the city Commission of the city of USIS Lake County Florida approving the annual update of the 5-year Capital Improvement schedule of the comprehensive plan under Florida Statutes 163 3177 section 35b providing for conflicting ordinances severability and effective date we had presentation on this item on September 5th do we have additional presentation any questions answer any questions that may no questions from the commission for Mr Shepard anyone in the audience wish you to speak on ordinance number 24-31 okay seeing none we will close public input Mr Mayor commissioners before us we have ordinance number 24-31 what's the will of our commission so move thank you second have it first in a second any further discussion not hearing any roll call please vice mayor Lee hi commissioner Ashcraft hi commissioner Cruz hi mayor Holland hi thank you thank you again thanks okay next we have ordinance number 24-32 and ordinance of the city Commission of the city of Eustace Florida voluntarily annexing approximately 19 Acres of real property at alternate key number4 27118 on kage street and Swani Avenue on the north side of Swani Avenue we had presentation on this item on September 5th are there any questions from the commission for Mr Richardson would anyone in the audience like to speak on ordinance number 24- 32 seeing none we will close public input Mr Mayor commissioners before us we have ordinance number 24-32 but the will of our commission so move thank you Christine I'll second have a first and a second any further discussion not hearing any roll call please vice mayor Lee I commissioner Ashcraft hi commissioner Cruz hi mayor Holland hi next is ordinance number 24-33 an ordinance of the city Commission of the City of eustus Lake County Florida amending the city of eustus comprehensive plan pursuant to Florida statute 163 3187 changing the future land use designation of approximately 19 Acres of real property at alternate key number 142 7118 on kage street and Swani Avenue on the north side of Swani Avenue from Urban low in Lake County to to Suburban residential in the city of eus we had presentation on September 5th any questions from the commission anyone in the audience like to speak on ordinance number 24-33 seeing none we will close public input Mr Mayor commissioners before we have ordinance number 24-33 what's the will of our commission so Mo second have have a first and a second you can figure that out however you want to any further discussion not hearing any roll call please vice mayor Lee I Commission Ashcraft hi commissioner Cruz hi mayor Holland hi next is ordinance number 24-34 an ordinance of the city Commission of the City of eus Lake County Florida assigning the Suburban neighborhood Design District designation to approximately 19 Acres of real property at alternate key number 142 7118 on kage street and Swani Avenue on North side of Swani Avenue presentation was held on September 5th are there any questions from the commission for staff would anyone in the audience like to speak on ordinance 24-34 seeing none we will close public input Mr Mayor commissioners before have ordinance number 24-34 what's the will of the commission so moved than second first and second any further discussion not hearing any roll call please vice mayor Lee I commissioner Ashcraft I commissioner Cruz I mayor Holland I and for first reading this evening we have ordinance number 24-38 an ordinance of the city Commission of the City of usus Lake County Florida approving a conditional use permit for an accessory dwelling unit to an existing family uh single family residence in the Suburban residential Sr future landice District on approximately 2 Acres of property located at 514 East Washington Avenue uh oh Mr wils thank you kle development services your first time with us a first time caller there you go good evening mayor and Commissioners again this is ordinance 2438 request a conditional use permit for an accessory dwelling unit at 514 East Washington Avenue the owner applian is Andrew Bennett for blue J Properties LLC the0 2 acre parcel is located within the Washington Avenue historic district and because of that a certificate of appropriateness was required it went before the historic preservation board on July 10th 2024 and was approved the request again is to adopt or approve a conditional use permit the applicant wishes to convert the existing detached residential garage into two different parts and I'll the first part will be an accessory dwelling unit and it's important to point out that he also is requesting to keep a 7t by 14t area of that garage for indoor storage as well the improvements include windows kitchenet and bathroom facilities amongst other improvements listed here on your screen as provided by the applicant now a little bit of background on this and I wish I would have for my better glasses for this but uh we'll go uh the as the applicant is again within the Washington Avenue historic district and was cited by code enforcement in February for beginning work without the appropriate certificate of appropriateness approval it was issued a notice of violation a notice of hearing in February and March and in L and subsequent to that submitted to development services his certificate of appropriateness application in April again the board met in July and approved his request for an accessory develing unit through certificate of appropriateness number 24 excuse me 2024 co-7 this map shows the site here located on East Washington Avenue between Mary and Center streets again the future land use in this is Suburban residential with an urban neighborhood designed District these next few photos show uh or from the code violation inspection this shows the existing detached residential gar residential structure and garage that's being proposed conversion into an Adu this shows the principal structure from East Washington Avenue as well as the driveway portion and these pictures show an up close version of the detached garage now section -19 d section 109 D4 allows for an accessory apartment or dwelling unit within a Suburban residential district if you all adopt or approve a conditional use permit now one one accessory dwelling unit is permitted per lot if it's either within an existing residential structure or um as a freestanding structure and it should be located to not interfere with the appearance or operation of the existing principal structure now because this site is located both within the historic district as well as as Urban Design District the applicant must make some changes to uh deal with the garage issue and the removal of that parking so the applicant May provide up at minimum two onsite parking spots uh 9 by 18 ft in size either in the driveway area or to the rear of the building Frontage and they also must Pro compensate for storage by either providing a 10x 10t shed for outside storage or a minimum 7 foot X 12T enclosed storage either within the existing garage or carport now this is a site plan site sketch provided by the applicant showing the uh proposed parking areas either in the driveway portion between the rear of the home and the attached garage to the rear of the principal structure or to the rear of the residential home and as I noted at the beginning the applicant has in lie of the outside storage Pro proposed to keep 7 feet by 14t of storage within the existing garage structure and as the site plan indicates there would be ample room to provide them to at least two 9 by8 foot parking onsite areas So based on Section 10230 standard of review the conditional use must meet the goals objectives and standards of both the RS and the comp plan as well as our codes and of course condition commission may attach conditions in or limitations to this request so when looking at the major review criteria we looked at location design intensity configuration and public facility impact the adu's location will have minimal impact on the existing residential structure and surrounding area because the structure is is the existing residential uh excuse me the existing detached garage the design will match that of the existing residential structure and the negligible the intensity will be negligible for this Adu uh the propy plan will accommodate additional housing as well as that needed parking we discussed earlier and it will have be negligible impact on the public facilities in the area this was duly advertised in noticed in the Daily Commercial the sign was posted on the property as well as a notice of public hearing uh sent to Property Owners within 500 ft of the seric property all by September 9th and So based on that uh staff believes that it meets the requirements of the ldr comprehensive plan it promotes compact growth with the mixture of uses and it provides affordable housing and recommends approval and I'm available for any questions and I believe the app yes is here as well any questions from the commission great presentation by the way um were the were there any objections from any neighbors any concerns not uh not that we're not that we received between the noticing and today okay thank you anything further did the historic board have any questions or fixes or changes for him that have been completed they did not condition the approval of certificate of appropriateness scale of 1 to 10 how sure are you I'm going to go with the this I'm G to let Mr Richardson approve this this is before my time so I apologize thank you yeah Kyle was not here when that board meeting took place um I was at that meeting yeah they did and I did not I do not have the minutes but I remember discussion on Windows yes um and the doorway entries and essentially make them match the period style of the house exactly just wanted to make sure that that had been completed because I didn't see that here I haven't seen revisions yet whether the applicant has done it or not he is here um but that isn't part of the conditioning of this that's part of the conditioning of the COA so there you go thank you anything further from the commission would anyone in the audience like to speak on this item would the property owner like to comment on itate okay giving her the opportunity okay then uh seeing none we will close public input Mr Mayor commissioners before us we have ordinance number 24-38 what's the will of this commission so move second have a first and a second any further discussion Christine you weren't on that board were you I was not okay I attended as a resident just checking roll call please vice mayor Lee hi commissioner Ashcraft hi commissioner Cruz hi mayor Holland hi thank you madam attorney you're welcome coming down to other business um Tom you want to do this one or Sasha do you want to do it I me I can take the lead on this yeah go ahead I think the staff report uh pretty much covers a lot of it so um the um so the commission uh knows a bit about the history of this project um and the commission knows our uh Rules of Order so this this project was before you previously um that project was uh initially denied um one of the things that uh came up several times at that meeting was did you have a community meeting um and so uh again the commission denied the application uh the applicant then um contacted us and and talked a little bit about uh the path forward uh one of the um sorry I'm pulling it up um The commission's Rules of Order uh says that uh if an item is denied the applicant has to wait 9 months for the item to be reconsidered except if the city Commission votes to reconsider or if the applicant brings forward something different enough where it is considered uh a new uh a new item and so um the applicant approached the city with a request for Relief um the city staff met with the applicant and their representatives uh they expressed an interest in having a community meeting which came up several times at the hearing for denial uh that meeting occurred on Tuesday Tuesday uh the city commission received a summary of that uh meeting of summary of the community meeting uh today um and so again as part of due process they have requested uh that the commission have a discussion related to reconsideration our Rules of Order allows for that uh we place the discussion under other business for commission to discuss uh whether to reconsider the item and so just um moving forward um I'm sorry for this evening uh this evening's discussion is less about the technical aspects or merits of the case and more about uh if you want to reconsider if you want to have another public hearing to reconsider the item and at that point uh you would discuss the technical merits of the case so uh again the discussion tonight should be limited more to uh whether you want to have another public hearing um I don't know have have I covered um essentially that we need to cover and it we we did meet I was part of that meeting uh with the developer as well and as part of the request for relief which is a less aggressive approach uh to litigation um they did preserve their right uh based on what we've heard as far as compliance with the code and uh they did have the meeting and there are some concessions that I believe they were uh willing to make but that would be coming before you at the time if you should you choose to um rehear this and that would also give the public an opportunity again to speak so this would it would essentially just be a doover of that but they now have a better understanding since they did have the community meeting of what the concerns are and a lot of the questions that came up that we didn't have answers to at the time now uh we do so it's it it's just essentially an opportunity to reconsider this before having to take another route and I I would like to add one more thing um related to the commission uh attendance or not attendance at the community meeting you really need to limit your uh you need to limit your decision making on the the technical merits of the case and the evidence presented at the public hearings and so uh I appreciate that the commission did not attend because it would not have been appropriate for the city commission to have attended that meeting uh again you need to make your decision based on the merits of the case which will uh which were presented at the public hearing and would be presented again at another public hearing uh if you choose to uh have that public hearing okay well I'll start us off knowing the laws of the State of Florida and knowing where we sit as a commission with this development um I I I'm going to vote to rehear this from the standpoint I want to hear if the developer heard anything from the the neighbors themselves during the meeting if they're willing to make concessions if they're willing to do some of the things that I think the commission actually they did first off by having the community meeting but um there's other concerns out there and I just want to I know they were addressed because I read the email that we got this afternoon going through everything I just want to hear if the developer heard it and if there's willing to make some concessions and make some changes I've always said it's dangerous when we stop talking up here and that's where we are at this point if we stop talking we're going to get ourselves into a litigation that um I don't see us being able to win because of the way the state laws are set just my personal opinion so anybody else the floor is yours I'd like to hear um their new ideas and what they got from the um from the meeting with the community I want to see if they made any changes and if so i' would like to give them a chance to present it to us okay Gary well I know I said this at the uh first presentation and I know we can't can't go back in time but if I was on the commission back then I would not have anex this property absolutely there it just there's some some annexations make sense and they lead to to a growth or something else this one just doesn't make sense to me and unfortunately I think developer knows no disrespect but he knows our hands are somewhat tied I'm willing I'm willing to uh hear it again and listen but hopefully they're going to listen to us and be willing to work with us I I tend to agree that I think there's a lesson to be learned with annexation properties to to really keep an eye and see where they are parallel with County because a lot of things become out of the hand of this commission you know your hands just become tied at a certain point um and and during that that meeting the commission asked them to hold a community meeting which they did and Sasha stated that they're willing to make possibly some concessions and possibly some changes I would like to hear what those are and see if they're substantive or if they are superficial I would like to hear and see from them you know and and listen listen with an open ear and an open mind to try to understand this full project so okay I think the quickest we probably can bring this back to the commission would probably be the second meeting in October because of advertisement rules um and I think we would have a full commission sat at that time as well because I believe Willie will be back from his trip now one thing I would like to mention about that second meeting in October um we probably need to have a discussion with the developer because if they are looking to make some changes as a result of the community meeting then it has to go back to our development Review Committee before it gets scheduled at City commission and so what I would say is at we could not bring it to you any sooner than October 17th but it may not even be October 17th if there is still some design that needs to be done and we can't really determine that until we talk to the developer about their intentions and so I don't know if I would want to do a date certain at this point but definitely no sooner than October 17th I'm fairly sure this probably doesn't need to be said but if they're willing to make changes and concessions you know the easier we can make the process for them I think it's going to be better for everybody all around so I I hate to make it hard for them if they're trying to change things based on the community meeting kind of drag it out because as he stated he's been working on this for a long time you know and if he's willing to make changes and kind of do like a middle ground it'd be nice to be able to kind of work with them as quickly as possible no we we will absolutely do that um but again if they're making changes we need to know what we have to advertise right uh and we don't know what we have to advertise until we have a discussion with them and and we kind of vet what their plans are so we will move forward expeditiously with it uh and we will get it back to you as soon as we can never seen you work any other way all right thank you I that's aord enough to go ahead and move forward then I think we have consensus to uh move forward thank you and the consensus just to be sure I will be reaching out to the developers attorney um would be the soonest would o October 17th October 17th if there is no additional vetting at development Review Committee got okay just wanted to be clear yep and I hope they're listening to this meeting I'm sure they will yeah all right all right coming down now to Future agendum items and comments I'm not going to start with Christine tonight because I'm gonna let her hear somebody do one so I'll go first you go first yeah I've got only only uh one one tonight well actually two Christine want to congratulate you and welcome welcome you to the commission well thank you sir thanks for your willingness to serve and then I have a shout out a big shout out for the park and re director Mr Sam I had a mother come up to me uh last week and said that her son was walking home from the Middle School in the rain and you offered him shelter in the park and Rex building and at that time you signed him up for the after school all right that's the kind of things that makes me proud to be up here absolutely that is just tremendous and that's the kind of proactiveness and caring that I want everyone in our staff to uh to exhibit so Sam great job she was she was almost crying when she was she was telling me about it she said that doing that for her son was just the world world of difference so thank you for doing that and that's all I have deserves an Applause that's all I'm do good ready go home I want to pay you back on that quick I went to the senior breakfast and that's all done by Park and red those are some happy I'm not going to say elderly but um more seniors and they really really enjoy that and they took such good care of my mom and they befriended her and every year she not every year but often she would make a banana pudding so twice a year I take a banana pudding to them and they are just estatic but that's such a good program and thank you for continuing it and allowing them to enjoy themselves thank you I'm I'm waiting on mine too I'll take care of it wait wait I'm not done it's not your turn oh it's te I'm sorry no you go ahead you're ready she needs to she always go she always goes last okay go ahead that way never mind go ahead I met the most wonderful group of kids these are students against tobacco and they have started this wonderful program here where they're not just against cigarettes but about vaping and educating um they taught me that Lake County Sheriff's department now has a vape sniffing dog and that's something that we might be able to work in Partnership to get this Vape sniffing dog to go through our schools partnership with maybe Lake County Sheriffs um and they might have a secondary Vape sniffing dog available to Lake County Sheriffs you know they're looking on some great money I think it's about $177,000 or so for one of these dogs and you don't have to be an officer to handle it Capri can maybe correct yes or no or whatnot back there uh but they said you know any kind of Handler can take care of these dogs but these students were just lovely just absolutely lovely and it might be something to maybe discuss in the future maybe adding a maybe a no smoking policy in some of our our playgrounds kind of taking a look at that and maybe having that kind of a deeper discussion you know no vaping no smoking just in the in the public playgrounds the playground areas just to keep it away from the the kids so perfect I think that's all I have what's tomorrow National cleanup day oh yeah thank you tomorrow is national clean up day so I encourage everybody to find a partner take a picture go outside pick up something and and put it in where it belongs so National cant day tomorrow and throughout the weekend and also Bay Street Theater is now selling tickets for tedex I said B Street Theater so tedex Eustace has now open sales for their tickets correct and this year promises to be huge it's supposed to be at Camp bogy Creek they sell out very very quickly so if you're planning to get tickets to tedx eustus I recommend you probably do it right now because they will sell out fast the venue out there is spectacular it's supposed to be an all day event and it's going to be amazing so I'm very very excited about that and and I know it's not till February but I want to make sure everybody gets their tickets so we and if you've never been out there that venue I believe was built by Universal Studios and they do the update of that theater every year so it is really a neat place that's it's a great choice for a venue so absolutely definitely encourage everybody to pick up tickets for tedex Eustace anything else that's it all right Madam vice mayor it's your finally finally I got a lot of things first was the visit with the fire chief to East Heights Elementary it was absolutely fabulous the kids were excited to see us and we they stood in the line we shook every hand of every kid one little boy was weeping and I asked what was wrong and he said he didn't feel well and so the motherly instinct to me wanted to help him out but it it went well and um we had such a good reception and a good time and I hope that we do more of that um the jungle Feast that was awesome I actually touched a snake as afraid as I am of them is that the first time you've touched a snake yeah well it was a second time and um but I wouldn't eat the brownies and I didn't do the chocolate cover crickets didn't do that um then the last thing is on Monday our mayor reached a milestone birthday and so I'd like to wish him a happy belated birthday thank you thank you I won't tell them how please don't you can I think you might have already I think that was a pretty good hint and that's it I'm done thank you Tom yes uh a couple things wait wait wait the 911 event at the police department that was awesome it really was and uh and we thank you chief for doing that and uh and our being able to participate in it it really was good and I hope that next year we have a bigger observance of that day absolutely I'm done now thank you ma'am Tom yes um one thing um the uh a community meeting to um present the master plan um I mentioned it at the last Commission meeting commissioner Hawkins said uh we could move forward in his absence because he wants to keep it moving forward but in looking at calendars we've got a few folks out uh at the staff level and so I wanted to check uh commission availability towards the end of October um Thursday October 24th I wanted to know if it's possible to check calendars and see what that's the off conference will people be gone there that's what I have on my calendar yeah we'll have to take a look at that um commissioner Hawkins is back on the 16th again he said we could move move forward um but I didn't if if we're getting to that point anyway as far as staff calendars then it makes sense to wait for him to get back that far down uh and and just to talk a little bit about format uh this would be a community meeting so it would be at say the community center and it would not be a commission meeting and so the commission would not be engaging in discussion the commission would be there to listen to the consultants and then listen to the public and their comments um we have about the 14th on Monday how do anybody about anything on Monday uh commissioner Hawkins would still be out again he said to move forward uh and so if we want well um how about how about Tuesday the 15th that I don't have anything Gary you okay yeah I'm good on that day too Christine you're good let's do the six or the 16 15th Tuesday the 15th yeah okay um so I will um we have to check and make sure that that works for the Consultants calendar they have to travel from out of town we also have to check with Recreation uh to see if the community center is available if not we can we could probably do the wom the Women's Club if we needed to um but we'll we'll nail down the venue okay so tentatively the evening of of uh Tuesday October 15th okay um just quickly uh a couple other things um the um as you know the Lake County um Lake county is a partner with us on the uh UCF incubator along with mega properties uh but we have in our agreement with uh the county to do an annual presentation um more UCF than the city of Eustace um but uh we have uh an item scheduled for next uh Tuesday um the city and UCF will be presenting to the Lake County Board of County Commissioners about um the incubator and what's going on with the incubator so that is the board of County Commissioners meeting is at 9:00 am I don't know exactly when we'll be presenting uh but we'll be presenting to the board on Tuesday September 24th okay I will I will um my my portion will be limited to uh thanking the County Commission uh and then introducing Rob and carolan from UCF um because it's mainly their presentations um so I just wanted to let you know that and then I I did this last meeting but again I just wanted to thank everybody for their involvement in the budget process I know a lot of people put a lot of time in uh the city commission want to thank you uh for all your your time um the um the citizens are well represented by the city commission and the time that they've put in to uh work with staff on the budget and then of course want to thank everybody on the team uh for all the time that they've put in uh we start as early as April pulling things together uh working on capital projects so again thank you to everyone to uh help make it happen that's itk you all did a wonderful job thank you we should probably say thanks to Tom's Catering too yeah got to keep everybody energized and Alive Madam attorney nothing for me tonight all right um I want to thank everybody too what's going on back there Marine I to say come on well I I didn't know if you wanted to talk or not of course I've known you for a long time I know you always want to come up you know that's always going to be a yes Miss that classroom let me be in charge um I just wanted to say we um had a fundraiser for the sheriff's Charities we did a um sing for the shield and it was karaoke it was karaoke and the community center in the city uh through their efforts we had the venue we put everything else together and we had some wonderful talent and we had some wonderful entertainment and we laughed a lot and it was a great Community event it was familyfriendly our uh businesses donated uh in kind food everything and um we had a contest and I don't know who started it but we had a contest where she's on the back row oh somebody I it wasn't me I didn't say we had a contest instead of just you know picking a winner we had the option somebody came up with the idea that we would pay somebody to not sing or we would get enough money that they would have to sing and um that challenge came about and that was the challenge was for uh Chief Capri and uh commissioner Hawkins to sing together a duet and they did okay but it got up to $2,000 2,200 $2,200 before those two said okay we'll sing cuz we don't want to pay that so in that in that case by itself we've raised over $10,000 and um thank you thank you for participating and it was a good time what did they sing Marie pardon me Ebony and Ivory it was great it was great and honestly the word sing might be a little bit of a liberal word they they actually weren't too bad no they weren't too bad really but it looked like they planned it because they were both wearing shorts and polos I was like you two spend a lot of time together but um it it was great and and so the community effort in that and um and when we get with these Sheriff's Charities uh I'm sure they'll let us make a presentation somewhere but um and that goes to to the families and we thought we would raise it we would give it to the Sheriff's Charities and then he could um they could that organization could go ahead and disperse those funds perfect thanks J thanks did [Laughter] a that event was a lot of fun raised a lot of good money and we had fun doing it um again Trout Lake nature Center's um Jungle Feast was outstanding again this year raising money for one of our uh places here in town that is just tremendous if you haven't gone out there please go out and do it the 911 service at the police department uh just outstanding um Elena I'm G to probably cause you a lot of work because I think Emily hit on it earlier I would like to see our police and fire department work together and let's do something in faren park next year that's really fitting I think we had 50 or 60 people at the police department but we need to not only remember but we need to cele celebrate the men and women that serve us constantly and that are willing to do the things that some other people aren't willing to do so um we need to go ahead and start planning that event and let's make it something very special for our citizens so we have that um another thing I going out to eustus Heights Elementary mik was fun we had a great time with you with all those kids out there um that's one of the things that I'm so proud of this commission for is staying in contact with our kids in our schools because truthfully they're our future and the greatest Economic Development tool that we have as a community is our education system now that I've mentioned Economic Development I would like to ask Al and Marie if you all could work together and put together um an economic Summit um I'm getting very concerned with some of our local restaurants and this is not a eustus problem this is a problem that's going on all across the country I was listening to the news this morning and some of the largest and oldest restaurants in New York City are starting to fail and shut down um we have some beautiful buildings downtown that are going to be sitting empty um we've got one big one that's already empty we've got another one that's just now shutting down and we have several others that are on the brink of not being able to make it and it's all because of our national economy if we can come up with an idea as brainstorming together as a community of how to save our small businesses which is the backbone to our community um I'd like to be proactive and try to get something done so I would like to see if if maybe Al you and Marie could get together with some of our business owners and then we have a workshop business Summit and let's see what we can do to move things forward so um and I know that's a surprise to you hadn't mentioned it to you earlier and I didn't even mention it to Tom I sat here thinking about it all night and whether we needed to go forward with it but if we don't do something it's our fault if we fall apart so um folks thank you for all that you have done for this city all you employees out there everything that you do residents thank you for being a great part of our community um thanks for sitting with us this long tonight it's about 7:30 we're adjourned than you