6:35 p.m. uh you city of Houston city commission meeting. Uh please join us for the invocation led by uh Pastor Jay and the pledge of allegiance led by Vice Mayor Gary
Ashley. Mr. Mayor, I apologize. I did not um have a presentation for the invocation. Next time you invite me, I'll make sure I bring some extra stuff. So, but anyways, let's pray together. Gracious God, we gather here today with a shared
purpose to serve this city and its citizens. We give thanks for those who have chosen to serve our community in their leadership positions. And I ask tonight for your guide that you give them guidance and wisdom uh for the
mayor and all the council members as they deliberate the matters that will come before them. I pray that their decisions will be just, compassionate, and serve the best interests of all our residents. I pray that you would grant them unity,
clarity of thought, and the strength to work together for the betterment of our city. I especially ask that we might treat each other with dignity and respect even when our opinions differ. We ask this in your name. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Please join me for the pledge. I pledge algiance 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. Thank you. Uh call to order. Uh Christine, is there a quorum and proper notice been given? Yes, Mayor Hawkins. Okay. Uh is there any agenda update, Tom?
Uh yes, sir. Uh one brief one. Uh on the consent agenda, item 5.2 is an annexation agreement for utility services. I wanted uh to bring to your attention that you have an updated version before you um that um matches uh
the template that we've adopted for these types of agreements. And so I just wanted you to know that you have an updated version before you. That's what Mike gave us. Yes, that's what Mike Lane gave you on. And that's it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay. Uh, commissioners, approval of minutes, approval of the June 19th, 2025 city commission workshop. Some moved. Okay. Second. Okay. And the June 19th, 2025 city
commission meeting. So moved. Second. A roll call, please. Vice Mayor Ashcraft. I. Commissioner Holland. Hi. Commissioner Lee. Hi. Commissioner Asody. Hi, Mayor Hawkins. Hi. Okay, next up we have presentations.
Uh, Mike, thank you. Good evening. Thank you for having me. I'm Mike Stevens. I'm the chairman of the Florida Greenways and Trails Council and the treasurer for the Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation and the chairman for the Florida Green or for Friends of Lake County Trails. So, I'm here to give you a trails update in terms of what's happening on a state
level and then what's happening on a local level and then down to a segment level and the individual trails that we're going to talk about. First, I wanted to start off by um talking about the November bond referendum that was approved. Uh it was approved over 80% of the people voted for it. That was for
conservation and trails. And in that ordinance, 50% of that money is going to be used for trails. So that should give us $25 million in Lake County in the next two years to be able to use for purchases of land and rideway and that kind of thing to get our trail system motivated. Um if you look at our
surrounding neighbors, Simol County, Valuchia County, Orange County, we are 20 to 30 years behind in Lake County in terms of developing trails and recognizing that economic impact for our cities and bringing people into our cities without vehicles and that kind of thing. So we really want to focus uh in
Lake County. We worked really hard in 2023 to get two trails put on the uh state priority list. And those two trails are the North Lake River to Hills Trail. This the North Lake River to Hills Trail and
the Wakiva Trail. The state puts together a five-year plan and this is their plan, the Florida Greenways and Trail System. And they put together priority maps for the entire state of Florida in terms of what the city or what the state is willing to fund. And they do that through the Suntrail system. And the legislature last year
through or two years ago through Senate Bill 106 increased the amount of money that they're funding for trails up to $50 million. So that money comes through the Suntrail system and it only goes to priority trails. And the big thing is, like I said, in 2023, this report was updated in 2024, and it's a 5-year plan.
So it runs from 24 to 28. We were able to add uh the North Lake River to hills trail which is this piece going all the way through the center part of Lake County which goes through Eustace Yumatila to Aries on down to Claremont uh all the way up to Aster along Highway 40 up here. That's the North Lake River
to hills trail is now a priority priority for the state and then the Wakiva trail which crossed east west uh which has seen a lot of use and a lot of u activity recently. So those are the two main trails for here. Um, in terms of what's happening with the state, the
top three state trails, uh, the number one trail that they're funding through the Sun Trail system is a Coast to Coast Trail. It goes from St. Pete all the way up the West Coast across the state of Florida and all the way over to Titusville. And we're about 85% done with that. The biggest gap is in here. A
lot of this has been filled in already. Uh, they're widening 50, so they're putting a trail in while they're widening it. This is going to be that the only other gap is on this side, and that'll be finished probably next year. That's in Pine Hills. and it goes underneath the uh expressway. So right now you can actually get on the trail up
here on the Wakiva trail in Sarrento and go all the way to Titusville on trail off the road. So this it's getting a lot of use already. Uh people coming over from Simol County, Orlando, Orange County and that area coming up into Sarrento and then it dead ends. The second priority trail for the state of
Florida is the St. John's River to Hills Loop and that's this loop here that goes around Valuchia County up into St. John's County and along the St. John's River. A lot of this this has been built. Some of this has been built. This is this uh map was about two years old unfortunately, but a lot of that's already been filled in. And then third
priority for the state is the heart of Florida loop that get a 250 mi loop. It goes all the way around Central Florida. It uses the Whit Luchi Trail over here. The CrossFar Trail is currently going under a PDE which the state of Florida is paying for. So that's going to be done soon.
And then this is part of the St. John's River Sea loop which is almost done. So this will be done very quickly and you can see that the north lake trail river to hills trail connects to that because it goes all the way up to the St. John's River here in Aster all the way down through Umatella Eustas to various all
the way down into um Claremont. Also this this trail has already been built up from Claremont. It touches the coast to coast here and it's currently being built over over the top of Sugarloaf Mountain over to Green Mountain along the Lake Aapka U area. So that's already coming up from the south. Uh, and this
is a loop all the way around Lake Apakka that should be finished the next year. It's a 45 mile loop all the way around Lake Aapka. And uh, that's, like I said, should be finished uh, in the next year because Lake County had about a two-m gap on their side and Orange County had about a two-m gap on their side. Lake
County is currently building ours. Now, you said that we're on the priority. Um, and I I guess it's 28. Does that mean that we'll have funding by 28 or No, you'll be eligible for funding. Okay. You have to compete against other
trail systems, but because we got it on the priority map, it's now eligible for Suntrail funding. And the Sunrail funding is a 50 $50 million pot of money every year that comes from vehicle registrations. So, we're now eligible to apply for that. And they've already funded some pieces of it. This PD&E
study up here is coming from Suntrail. The PD study we did uh through the Okala National Forest came from Suntrail. Um and some other things have come through Suntreil uh in terms of funding. But yes, you can you can compete at that point. And to the way we do that is
Suntre wants you to have skin in the game. And I want to commend Miranda and Tom uh for what they're doing right now. They've they've re-energized the interlocal agreement with Tavaris, Eustace, and Umatella as well as the county. Miranda and her group has met with Tavaris, met with the county, met
with uh Umatella. Um, and we're meeting with the Lake County next week to go ahead and order the feasibility study. Y'all budgeted money for that last year. And that's the way we get skin in the game and we and we get on the board uh in terms of funding. So, the state wants to see that you're investing local
dollars to get it started. Uh, because right now in terms of local segments of this trail from Umatella North, that's already been studied up through the Ocala National Forest. the segment from Umatella up to the forest uh is going out to bid right now for construction.
Um and then the piece going through the forest has been studied for the PD&E and that should go in front of the uh county commission uh in September and then it'll move into design so we can get that done. And then the segment um going
south is segments one and two. This is actually segment three going north through Umatella. But segments one and two go from Tavveraries up through Eustace up to Umatella. And that's what we're working on now is trying to get a feasibility study done for that. Right now it's drawn along the old railroad.
Um and we actually met with or talked to uh the director of Florida Rails to Trails Conservancy last week and CSX is willing to talk about buying the railroad. So that's a whole another discussion and funding issue and that kind of thing. So, as you know, for the
Wakiva Trail, that's currently under discussions with CSX, and they've moved pretty far along because there's appraisals being done by the county, appraisals being done by the Trust for Public Land, and appraisals being done for the CSX to try to finalize that purchase. I know the county was trying to do that by the end of the year. So,
that's a good uh I was glad to hear the director of uh Florida Rails Trails Conservancy did talk to CSX and they are willing to to talk about selling the piece north coming out of Eustace. I think you have one customer that still uses CSX in the city of Taris. They get a box car every now and then, but the
rest of the track has just been used for storage of derelch box cars and graffiti covered box cars that aren't the great greatest thing. Nobody in Eustace is using the trail, I mean using the rail. There's one customer in Eustace and Eustace proper, but not north of Eustace. Nobody's using it that way. Um,
and the process for that would be to buy out of that. Yeah, you'd have to buy out CSX and the operator just like we're doing over in Wakiva. Uh there's a operating lease with the operator and then the CSX owns the actual dirt. So, we're a long way from that, but at least they're open to discussions and Miranda
and I have talked about that. We're going to talk about that with the county tomorrow, too. Just hopefully we can keep that moving. Um let's see, talk a little bit more about the Wakiva Trail. That one is is it stops right now comes over from Simol County and again it's already done all the way to here uh out
to the neighborhood lakes trail head. Uh and it's going to connect through the Wakiva um Springs Park all the way down to this piece of the West Orange Trail. So it's going to connect this way too. Uh so it's there'll be another way to get around that Pine Hills loop until they get it built. But the city of Apop
went to the state legislator last state legislature last year and got a $2 million appropriation to get that built along the Wakiva Springs area and then up to our our trail within Lake County and the Wakiva Trail. The piece we're trying to buy from CSX goes from here
all the way in um to Tavaris and then the Tavi has already built a section of that and Leber's already studied this and to finish it into downtown Leburg. So, uh, this piece, uh, coming in from Sarrento all the way to Tavaris is already been studied. It's already been
designed. It's ready to go as soon as we get the rightway. They've been working on that for 20 years. And unfortunately, about three years ago, CSX backed out and then CSX came back after we lost the ARPA money that was going to fund it. So, now we had to come up with additional funds. So, but that's a great piece because that'll connect to Varies
and that'll connect this east, west, and north, south loop right into Varies. It goes up to Eustace, down to Claremont, and over to Leburg and out to Mount Doran and Sarrento. So, those are all in play. Um, and a lot of things happening on Mona right now. Let's see.
Mike, can you touch upon timeline at some point here, though? I know it's it's it's a it's just a pulse feeling of what you think, but can you touch on that so that we as a community can have an idea what what whether we'll be alive by the time it's done?
It's a long road. Uh unfortunately, we are 20 to 30 years behind what Semino County did, what Pelia County did, what Orange County did. They had they use their sales tax money to build these trails and we have not. Uh so that's a big drawback because they had a funding source every year from million and a half two million they were putting in
their trails every single year and we fight every year trying to get money uh whether it be state appropriations or sales tax money or magic money from the county somehow. But it's very hard to plan and very hard to get anything done. But I think now that we have the the
reason we work so hard to get them eligible for some trails is that's a that's a big funding source those two trails. Um, now we're eligible for that. I think the biggest thing that the the cities need to do is get together, which we're doing with the county next week, and get the feasibility study done. The
feasibility study is a 50,000 foot view, and looks at it because right now the the trail is drawn conceptually on the railroad. Now, whether we can get the railroad or not, whether we can come up with the funds to buy that or not, that's a big question. Um but we need to come up with conceptual ideas in terms
of where is the trail actually going to get into downtown Eustus get into downtown to berries. Uh we met with a hospital and hospital is building a trail around their lake they want to tie into this. Uh so there's a lot of inertia and a lot of uh great energy towards it. We just need to keep the
focus on it. Uh it could be 20 years or it could be five. We could get lucky and get Suntrail funding and just move it right along. Um, so the big thing is, you know, getting the rightway secured, getting the funding done, getting the, um, studies done so that we show that we're in the game. Uh, because they
won't really move forward without us putting skin in the game. So, we're kind of ahead of the game for well, Eustace as as far as, you know, we've already have the money set aside. Yeah. For the feasibility. Yeah, it's Eustus. I think Tari's and
Umatella all budgeted money for the feasibility study. So hopefully we can get that done within the budgeted money that's there. Uh we may have to have an adjustment, but if we can get that done, it takes about a year to get the feasibility study done and then we can go back to the state and say, "Okay, we have the feasibility study. We want to
move forward with this. We have the support. Uh help us fund the because it's this process really. It goes from conceptual the trail master plan, which is this document from the county. This is the trails master plan. It's been out there since 2006 and it really hadn't moved until about 2019. uh and it's been
moving pretty good since then. But once we get the trail master plan done, then we do feasibility studies on the individual trails. Then you do a PD&E study, which is an environmental and project development, uh and environmental study, and then you go into design and rideway and then construction. So, it's a process we have
to move through. Um and a state kind of dictates that process to make sure we're doing everything right. Um is there anything that that that we can do to make us more attractive to the state? uh get the feasibility done as soon as possible, get the city on board
and the residents on board and continuing to support it, letters of support, NPO support, county support, those kind of thing, which is all there. Uh we just need to to kind of raise it back up because it's kind of the squeaky wheel gets the grease and the more we talk about it, the more we get things
done and more things get moved up because there's there's a priority list with the with the state and with the county. The county has a list of priority projects which is the lop which is an unfunded list of priority projects and there's actually three or four projects ahead of this one but those will all come off next year because
they'll be done. So these two segments segments one and two should move up to the top of that priority list. And what we were able to do up in Umatella is we got it up to the top of the priority list and then FDOT had money left over at the end of the year and they pull projects off this unfunded list to fund.
So that's what we need to do is and we're working on that. Those should become the top two projects in the next year after this year because the Wakiva will be done, some other things will be done and those the segments one and two is what we're talking about should be done. And the other thing is to make sure the city of Eustus adopted the
trails master plan as part of their development criteria is to make sure that plan's dusted off and pulled off the shelf. We lost a lot of uh potential along David Walker when Tavarius developed a lot of that. And I think there's some development on the Eusta side of David Walker as well that could
have been saved if somebody had pulled that off the shelf and said, "Wait a minute, there's a trail supposed to go through here." Now there's a fence along the railroad and there's no room for a trail. So we got to go back to the feasibility study and try to find room for that trail. So that's the biggest thing. get the feasibility done, the feasibility
study done, which you've already budgeted for, but let's continue to push that and support Miranda and Tom and their efforts. And then, um, make sure we're looking at the development plan. Anytime there's a development along these, uh, conceptual corridors, make sure that you're talking to the developer about, hey, why don't you
build a trail out in front of it that's already supposed to be there so that the city doesn't have to pay for it, the state doesn't have to pay for it. So, that's really all I had, unless anybody else had any questions. May I um may I I have a question. Um
less about scaring people and more about setting expectations. Uh Wakiva railroad right ofway. I know they're way further along than we are. We haven't even started the conversations, but are there estimates on what that railroad rightway is going to cost?
Um not officially. Uh unofficially, we were looking at 18 to20 million several years ago. So you may be talking about 20 to 25 million now. Uh and that's about twice as long as what you'd need to buy here. Uh because it's about 11 to 12 miles and this is about six five or
six miles. So theoretically just to swag at it in terms of you know what you're looking at you're probably looking at $10 million and 20 million for the Wakiva. So yeah. And so my my point in bringing that up is one setting expectations but two this is going to we have to bring
partners to bear uh on this meaning state potentially federal certainly lake county certainly Taris Eustace Umatillaa it's going to take a partnership to to c to get a hold of the railroad rightway yeah and the the railroad rideway is
ideal uh we don't want to build trails right beside the road but we have in certain places just to make a connection Uh and unfortunately we beat our heads against the wall several years ago when they built the sidewalk from Umatella to Eustace and it would have been a perfect thing to push the trail further out and build it then. Uh but it wasn't done. Uh
we bu we called FDOT. I know you called FDOT. County called FDOT. We all tried to hey build it wider. Let's just make a connection so that it's right now it's a two 24 36 inch sidewalk that's overgrown and um not well maintained. So, um,
yeah, it's it's the biggest thing is just keeping the focus on it. Don't lose focus. Keep the plan in front of you in terms of when you're doing development request. Always look at the plan and say, "Okay, is there a trail?" Because these are just the major trails. These are just the big regional trails that bring people to the area. There's lots
of other trails on my other map for local trails into developments, into Trout Lake, into Pine Meadows, into other places that we want to make sure get connected as well. These are we're focused on the regional trails because of the economic impact of bringing people to the community, but you also want to focus on the um local trails.
Leburg did a great job of that in downtown Leburg. They bought all their railroad right away in downtown Leburg, built all the local trails. Now we're trying to get those connected to regional trails because you got a lot of local trails in downtown Leburg that don't go anywhere. But we're trying to get those connected up to the regional trails so that bring people into
downtown Leburg. Okay, any other questions? Thanks. All right. Thank you. I just wanted to say just to everybody, I I worked a little bit um with Mike before I became a commissioner
and his dedication to uh to these trails and to our community uh is is beyond uh beyond gracious of himself and his time and United Southern Bank uh for allowing him to take time all the time
to give back to our community. You don't see that anymore. So, thank you. And the reason, right? But you don't see that from banks anymore. So, thank you. Thanks, Mike.
Okay. And then Tom, I I would imagine and Mike, I would imagine I would ask you, beg you to you have a hit list up there where the where the trail goes through and whenever anybody comes in, we we make sure going
forward that we have some discussion on that. I think we missed out a little bit on on a couple last year, but I think we're hopefully headed in the right direction, but we got to we got to we got to catch them. Yeah. And I think uh getting the
feasibility study done um it um it allows us to focus on the route and it gives us more teeth um when the feasibility study is done because then we could say hey collectively we said here's where the trail is going and so uh we need some support from you
developer. So yeah we we've had that uh budgeted for a couple years though haven't we? Yeah. Uh I think the feasibility has uh last current fiscal year was the first time we budgeted for it. Just how soon do you see it happening?
Um we're pulling together it. It's a cooperative effort. We we have an existing interlocal with the county Umatillaa and Tavaris and Eustace. Uh we haven't done much with it in the last couple of years, but uh we're getting the band back together. Miranda's been
pretty aggressive in um getting folks together, getting meetings set up. So, I think we have expressed to the county that uh it's a priority for us and the county really needs to take the lead because the trail goes through Taris,
Eustace, Umatillaa, and unincorporated Lake County. And so, we can't go it. It doesn't make sense for us to go it alone and to go it alone. Uh the county really needs to be the lead agency, but they're I think they're willing to do that. And we're getting some momentum.
All right. Okay. All right. Okay. Next up, uh, residential rehab program update. Uh, Tim. How you doing, sir? Good. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm not Tim. Uh, I'm I'm Derek. Um, I work for Tim. Uh, Derek, can you give us your full name, please? My name is Derek Blue. Okay. And who you work for? Lake Community Action Agency.
Thank you. Okay. Well, uh thank you all for uh giving us an opportunity to uh present to give some uh you know to give a few highlights on our partnership with uh
the city of use. This is uh home improvement program. So uh this program serves the the the CRA and the area of focus the areas rather of focus for uh the the residential
program is to alleviate health and safety concerns uh energy efficiency improvements and then also to make cosmetic enhancements in the CRA. So, uh, when you look at some of these pictures and and I won't, uh, kind of
go, uh, too much in detail unless you do have some questions. So, when you look at these pictures, these are some of the residents in the in the CRA and, uh, we do things like exterior enhancements, uh, pressure washing and painting, uh,
improving the facades as much as we can, uh, on the particular homes here. Uh we also do things like uh kitchen upgrades. Uh there are a lot of residences that we go into that are uh have some serious health and safety
issues like mold. Uh some of the pre78 housing stock has lead in them and they have to be addressed. Things like unvented um gas space heaters that have to be removed. And uh if you look at this particular house here, uh the the
entire kitchen was loaded with mold. Um and uh we we went in and uh did our best to gut it. We replaced the appliances. Uh we partnered with one of our programs, which we'll talk about as well. Uh and we improve the quality of
life for this resident. And um and he was happy. Uh also, if you kind of take a look at this, this was a bathroom that someone was actually using or trying to use uh that had been uh just pretty much fallen apart. and the the residents uh the resident is a low-income family,
could not afford the improvements themselves. So, we were able to come in through this program and uh completely remodel the restroom uh eliminate uh the the health and safety issues that were in this particular home. And uh now this
homeowner is able to use this restroom and not worry about falling through the floor. Uh which is a good thing. Derek, on this bottom picture, go back, please. Yes, sir. Is that just a pipe? Straight pipe coming out for water. Okay. So, on the bottom picture, what
you see there is uh you talking about the the picture on the lower left, right? Uh spet there. Yes, sir. Is that just a straight pipe coming out? That is uh I'll be honest with you, I'm not quite sure what it is, but I know that it was it was bad and and it could
have been. I know that um I'm about 290 u and any false move on that floor would have sent me through it. Um and it's it's hard a picture you know it says a lot but uh this this house was deteriorated and and uh plumbing and all
type of things and you know we were able to gut that bathroom correct the plumbing issue. Um, in fact, um, I think we took a walk through this house, uh, a while ago, uh, to to see this house and we're able to, uh, correct that and basically
eliminate a black mold issue as well in that house. now that I think about it in that restroom. Uh in addition to those type of things and these are these are real houses and and the slot this presentation would have been much much longer had we put all of
the pictures of the items that we actually run into in these houses here. Uh but this particular house here uh had had a roof leak uh that pretty much it had a flat roof and then he had a roof leak that pretty much destroyed the integrity of his drywall and anybody
living in it. Um and uh what you see is is not even a portion of how bad that house was. So uh you know we went in and um the kitchen by the way was this house too that you guys saw. Uh but we went in and had to remove drywall and and uh
repair that drywall, correct a lot of the issues in here uh in that house. Uh we do, you know, this program addresses things like interior doors and and things of that nature. Uh added insulation, energy efficiency measures,
um you know, we make homes compliant with ashray 62.2. Um in indoor air quality, specifically when you're dealing with smaller um houses, indoor air quality is a major is a major issue. Uh in addition to those
things, we replace this program replaces windows, old windows. Um the the the residents are spending a a ton of money on utilities because of their uh inefficient windows, things like uh inefficient air conditioning units, which we also address in the program as
well. Uh we replace roofs in the program. Um address structural issues uh particularly roofs. There's a lot of blue tarps that we that we've kind of helped with by replacing roofs.
Um, as I mentioned, high efficiency. Um, anywhere between 15 to 16 SER uh, HBAC units we installed. And, uh, I can hand this over to Tim. Okay. Uh, I'll, uh, take it. I'm Tim
Bridges, the director of program operations from Lake Community Action Agency. And um first of all, I'd like to thank the commission for giving us the opportunity and the partnership. Uh something that's been resonating Commissioner
Ashcraft is hitting home when he says community. It's about the residents. Lake Community Action Agency has been around for 58 years in the city of Eustace. Now, we have what we call a global footprint
in Lake County because we service all of Lake County. These stats that you're looking at are particular to what we've done in the city of Eustace in terms of funding for the housing program through the bill funding. We were getting about half a million dollars a year. What that translates into, and I and I just kind
of picked the time period, the relationship uh with the city goes back further than me. It was before Tom or city manager. It was actually with Mike Sturman who was the city manager here. He and my boss uh James Low and and uh
Commissioner Hollington kind of attest to it because he's been around doing all of this. So they kind of and uh Commissioner Lee was on our board, Commissioner Hawkins and again so a lot of the uh commissioners are familiar with what it is we do. We provide
services to families at no cost. Everything we do is at no cost. And basically I said that to say 85% of the monies that go into the organization go to direct client assistance. I mean we we pretty much
do the whole gambit of things that don't cost anybody anything. And I kind of took a snapshot to kind of see and basically the talking about funding with the realization program. Um, the monies that came in from the CRA
were about $32,000. Of that, $272,000 went to material labor and only about that left us roughly over a 5year period about $30,000 that we've actually had
that were related to operations. Now, operations, we don't use any of the city's money to pay our staff. All our staff are paid through other programs. When I say operations, I mean maintain the operations so that we're able to do what we do without
having to turn people away. Um, and again, this year through the CRA from 2020 to now, we we've done 17 homes. Now again, the 17 homes don't include
the fact that in the city of Eustace, we've done another 14 homes. The 14 homes totaled about $119,000 of energy efficiency measures that we've done on homes in in the city of US that are outside of what you call your CRA.
Okay. And is that using funding other funding? Our funding. Okay. Weization funding. We've done 14 homes outside of the CRA. We've done 13 in the CRA. Uh again, we we've leveraged the
$85,000 is where that number comes from from the 13 homes that we contributed toward the CRA projects. But outside of the CRA project, we've done another 14 homes in Eustace that totaled about 119,000,
putting us at 31 homes just in the city of Eustace. We got another 10 on the waiting list outside of the CRA that we are going to do home efficiency measures in. Because what we do up front, we pre-qualify everybody. We don't let people go
through the process of filling out this, filling out that, and then only to find out they don't qualify. How much do you have? How many do you have inside the erra on your list? Inside right now, we have six on the waiting list. Okay. And we have another 10 outside of the
CRA. Okay. All right. I'm getting dizzy with this. Who's got the clicker? I got I I wanted to to to piggy back sorry about that. Uh just wanted to uh piggy back on that. And as Tim
mentioned, um you know, one of the ways that the the agency sustains the program is through uh a $4,000 fee, we what we call program support fee. And what we uh that program support fee is kind of a
little more than just kind of managing paperwork. Um it's managing uh a project from beginning to end and then some. And what that covers is, as Tim mentioned, uh to get these customers from the CRA, there's a level of client
outreach that has to happen. Um and we reach out to those neighborhoods, go door to door and canvas sometimes to make sure we can get eligible homeowners. Um, and then we help the homeowners navigate through the applications and eligibility and let them know that um, you know, this
program is here to help. We don't want to take your home, you know, because that's often time a uh, you know, a misnomer that a lot of folks have is that the city's trying to take your property. Uh so we we we walk them through the process uh to get them uh eligible to the program and then we
gather our staff gathers to verify documentation uh to make sure they have everything in place to make sure they're income qualified because uh not only are they going to be receiving uh CRA funds, but they're also receiving uh weatherization funds. So we make sure
that they're qualified uh and ready to go. Uh and then of course that 4,000 also outside of those measures that I just mentioned, it also covers uh developing walking through with the with the homeowner and uh developing a work
scope uh that's based on their need. We prioritize things like health and safety. So as you saw a lot of the things in those photos were health and safety related like roofs and things that directly impact their health. Uh and then we coordinate with uh licensed
contractors. We use uh a roofer from from this area from Eustace, a tree company from this area as well as well as others from surrounding areas. Uh and uh you know we work that's kind of in my purview we work to manage the permits,
the schedules, the logistics, try to reduce uh delays. Um you know we do an initial inspection. It's probably about a couple hour inspection because we measure their appliances, their you pretty much anything that relates to
that house. We we photo document and uh create a a scope of work. Uh you know, we do pre-insspections, mid in progress inspections, and then we do a final walk through. Uh and we're typically accompanied by a city staff member or uh
mayor uh from time from from time from what since I've been here 100% of the time uh we do a walk through. Yeah. uh communicate with the homeowner and the contractor and then we we just make sure that the work is is done. We have
something called a quality control um assessment that we do at the end of every project. And because we're working with older housing stock, sometimes it takes a lot uh, you know, to make sure that that things are well, but we we do our best to make sure that we check all
of the boxes. And then we do the client education stuff um to where we uh after the repairs are done or after the AC is installed or after the ERV is installed, this is how you maintain it. And everybody that we work with, every contractor has a one-year labor
warranty. Um as well as of course manufacturer warranty and the homeowners uh have the the agency phone number as well as my cell phone number. um if there are any issues or warranty issues and even after the work is complete um
you know we we're going to you know something goes wrong we're going to follow that to oft sometimes a year and beyond um okay and yeah and uh just to kind of jump in I was able to go back and kind of track
some of the activity and I'll just start u like I say LCA's been in the city of use for 58 years. Now, in terms of uh financial impact from 2002 to 2025, again, we're right down on 501 Bay
Street. In rent alone, we paid $647,000 to the city of Houston. Again, our sole existence is to provide services to moderate to low income. And that's to uh city of Houston to the city to the city of Eustace or to
uh no to the city of Eustace for rent. Okay. All right. Okay. We paid the 647,000 and utilities to the city of Houston. The agent agency has paid 96,000 883. Oh, sorry. Money's paid by the agency for
operational existence. Uh now in terms of clients in it in last fiscal year from 23 to 24 we served 381 clients unduplicated and we put out a total of $220,482
for utility assistance. And when I say utilities primary heating or cooling source so it's either electric or gas and that's unduplicated. Uh also uh we we provide rental assistance anytime there's an opportunity to kind of help those in
need. Uh last year well again in 2023 24 we did 24 housing assistance and it's either people that are moving in people that are facing eviction or or or people that are needing some assistance. We put out $40,373
and we also have an educational component uh because we firmly believe in training, education, and employment so we can kind of help people move and see themselves uh in a better situation. We were able to help 21 individuals
which totaled us $26,659. And again and going back holistically looking at the total. So from the rent to all of the services that are uh going out to the clients, we've in the city uses alone put over a million dollars
into your economy. Okay. What what is the rent per month that you pay? Almost 3,000 a month. How big is the building? Right across from the laundry mat. How big is that building? I think it's about
4,000 square feet. Yeah. And we we just uh brought uh one of our recent um recipients of the residential program as well as uh hopefully prayerfully uh one of our uh newer one
and we just wanted to let them introduce themselves to you and uh they had anything to mention about the impact of the program. Okay. Okay, Miss Purdue, you give us your full name. Sandra Purdue.
Okay. Are you resident? Yes, I am a 706 East Macdonald Avenue. Okay. I the program have really helped me because by me being a single parent at the time, now I'm senior citizen. That the work that they done on my
house, I know I would never have it done. And I really appreciate it. And we need some more programs like that to help other people's also in the neighborhood because I know some more seniors that can have some update done
as well as me. Then the one that really impact me was those security bars in that bathroom because I had a fall and they have since they put there I try to catch hold to those bars to get out the bathtub and
that helped but I never thought about getting that but I really appreciate the program very much. And the workers was very nice. Thank you Mr. Yes sir. My name's Louisis Armstrong. I live in
Eustace. I uh bought a house in 21. Well, it was actually the end of 21 and I moved here in 21, but uh my wife couldn't handle the travel trailer life, so we wound up buying this little house
and we were able to pay cash for it. And uh I've had pretty good health at the time, so I thought I could do the the carpentry work because I'd done it all my life. and uh triple bypass changed that with
a lung problem too after the pneumonia. So a friend of mine told me about the program. So I applied and u they've come out, Mr. Blue come out and looked the place over and then Tim come
with him and looked it over again. And so here we are. All help appreciated. Thank you, sir. How many um um this is the question for how many
other nonprofits do we have in the city that are paying this kind of rent? Uh I would say um Win One Ministries is in the range. Win One Ministries is in that range or other
Yeah. in that range as a gross number. Uh I think Win One Ministries pays about 4,000. And I I will say that there's there's actually a um there's actually a
calculation involved with Lake Community Action because they get credit towards federal match. And so we technically charge them a higher amount of rent, but
then um we give them a rebate back monthly that they use for federal match. Uh and I forget what the numbers are exactly. Uh I can get the um the rent agreement for you, but I technically the
rent is higher, but then we cut them a check back that they use for a grant match. We don't know what that is. The thinking is is you know the fund the funding needs to go to the residents. So if we could give them a break on rent
then they would have more money to for the programs unless you need to be charged that kind of rent for the rebate. I mean I'm just I'm just thinking. But they do get something back. It's not it's not the the total amount that's on
here. No. I mean, it could be a further discussion, but I'm just Hey, I think you just make it a further disc. Is the $3,000, Tom, the net after the rebate? It is the net after the rebate. That's what I thought. All right. Yeah. And one of the things I did want to
mention, um, we are strongly engaged in partnerships. We try to make sure that these efforts aren't being duplicated, so to speak, so that we can maximize the dollars and and serve as many people as needed. Um we are this
this concept started in 2017 city of Mount Dor when Nick Don was mayor then expanded to the city of USUS uh right at 2019 COVID hit so that was a pause we picked it back up in 2020 because of what we've been able to
demonstrate in Mount Dur and usage is now in the city of Leburg uh in their CRA um and just to kind of put out a few numbers um they give us about what 24,000 a home to do work. And again,
right now we have 21 contractors and that's labor. Yeah. Yeah. They give us 24,000 a home for just work for material and labor. We have 21 different contractors. We have open enrollment for contractors. We have training for new contractors, anybody
interested. And and it's like an ongoing thing. So, we're not at a lack for contractors and getting the work done timely. And one of the things we focus on is, of course, it's in-house rehab again. So, when contractors are working on like remodeling bathrooms, you got to take in
mind when the contractor leave, they're probably using those same bathrooms that we just put in because we're not having them move out the facility. So, we try to get in and out as quickly as possible. Again, licensed contractor, work comp, liability, all that's a federal requirement. right now actually
going through an OIG uh uh inspection for the housing program, but you know, everything's in place. So, okay. Again, it's just really appreciate it. I mean, what you guys do for us in the partnership and helping your residents, it it's definitely goes a long way.
I have a quick question. Every time you come forth, I always want to know what you're doing to help them not get back into the situation. So tell me about your train your program that helps them understand how to protect
their homes, how to keep things from deteriorating again. So I want to know about the education program. How do you do that? Right now, what we're doing while the contractor is on site, like Derek mentioned earlier, there's client education going on because again, since it's in-house, they can kind of show
them how to set the thermostats. And again, if they're having difficulty, they call I myself there guys back out to make sure it's they they get comfortable with it. We leave this light bulbs, efficiency light bulbs, lowflow shower heads, all of those things that
help them to reduce the energy consumption. And and most of the times like what has happened over the years when you kind of start aging gracefully your your income status changes and a lot of those repair I mean roofs are expensive
again so every like um one year we had a program uh we had monies for AC replacements and that's all we did we used over a million dollars just replacing ACS in Lake County just anything and only requirement was it was 10 years or older
you can either repair or replace. Repair up to 7,000, replace up to 15. So, why not replace them? So, we were we did a million dollars in just ACS. And to piggy back on that too is um we walk them through the process as Tim mentioned how to maintain the air
conditioner, how to maintain if we put in an ERV, the things of that nature and then tell them also, you know, one of the things that we noticed in a in a few instances is that when we go in and start doing stuff, the homeowner kind of takes a little different type of pride
in their project too and then they start calling. So, you know, we we tell them call call your uncle call your nephews and your your grandchildren over to help, you know, as well. So we like for instance we did one project and um house
is in bad shape and um you know we put in a new air conditioner and a few other things and then what we noticed is that the person's grandchildren and kids started coming over and they kind of helped finish off some things that our funding wouldn't allow us to do. you
know, and it's we put in on average about 12,000 per project is what we kind of do. And certainly grateful for that some but sometimes, you know, that's why we have weatherization where we bring in those funds. But even sometimes some of those houses like the one I showed you,
it'll swallow up both of those. And so we have to prioritize what we do. But to the best of our ability, we sit down with them across their dinner table to fully answer your question and talk about the things that we put in and do our best to respectfully say, you know, you got to keep this stuff up, too, so
that you don't fall right back into this same situation. So, so you know, and then a lot of the work we do, you can't see it. It might be the roof, you know, they might want extravagant windows, but we're trying to keep you from getting sick in the house. So, all right. And we have educational
materials that we leave. We got pamphlets that talk about mold and moisture, how to prevent it, and what happens when you start seeing the condensation on the inside of the window, what needs to happen. So, there's a lot of client education that goes on. Yeah. I I I envision classes that they
would attend and that's part of their skin of the game also. So, I would really like to see that. Okay. Um I and I know we've we've had the conversation about inside of Sierra and we've talked about uh citywide
um kind of kind of un unexpected. I'd like if if she's comfortable for Miss Juliet to come up where she's and and just, you know, a quick uh uh kind of let the commission know
uh how things are for you right now. My name is Juliet Jones and I live in Eustace. My address is 101 West Northern Avenue. I've been trying to get help with CRA for years. They told me I was out of the zone. I don't understand
that. Can you explain that to me? Because my roof in my house is terrible. The whole the whole house need gutting out and I've been getting sick behind me and I know that's what it is cuz I got a lot of mold in my house.
A and and we'll we'll talk about that later. But I I just think it's important that that we as a commission kind of understand it's the CRA and it's outside that it's needed. So if we if we do like we talk about with with Habitat, you
know, maybe we can we can work something. But Well, yeah, because it's all it's all used. Yeah. That's why I was always curious why we limited it just to the CRA because there's people outside the CRA that could use it as well. Yeah. And um that was the whole one of
the whole ideas about bringing her about bringing her on. So um I think it'll be a great great partnership because it's all for the benefit of the and currently we're working with uh with Habitat we are and the Leburg project specific they we
do certain things they do certain things. So we are already when we first all came to the table was us Habitat and the city of Leburg. So we're already in the second phase of working with them on the on the second project. But would they not would she not have
qualified under outside of you of Well, she did, but the only drawback to that is like the the fed the feds have a date of 15 years. So and she's still within she's like a year within that before we can go back and touch her house again. Those are those are the federal stats.
You said 15 years ago, right? 15 years ago. They give you They give us a date of 15 years from the data service. How long How long has has your your house been the way it is? Oh, wow. I can't really go back. My kids
grown. It been a while. Been some years. Oh, this this is why I think it'll be a great partnership because just like he said, you know, if he's not able to do something, then Habitat could. So, yeah. Yeah, I mean I see this being you like a you know like a beautiful friendship
coming together and helping helping everybody. So and that's one of the reasons why you know I wanted Juliet to come up. Okay. Um anything else? No again support. Okay.
Absolutely. So, uh, if I may, uh, as far as, uh, budget for this program, we, um, we had about $50,000 left over from a previous year, we, the commission, as part of the budget added, uh, $50,000.
We actually added one extra house and with the commission's approval and the CRA board's approval, we added um $30,000 to the program. So, we're at about $125,000 uh spent so far this fiscal year. Um my
what I want to bring to your attention is we are out of money for this fiscal year. So, we are not able to take on any additional projects. Uh we wouldn't be able to take on any additional projects until October 1 when the budget year
flips. Uh, is the is the commission okay kind of um taking a hiatus in the program until October one and then starting back up or does the CRA board want to add additional money to the
program to uh get more projects done? I go ahead. I I think I I think we add more money because if not, we're going to end up with, you know, six, seven, eight houses come
October 1st that we have to try and and get. But just let's just keep it going. And how and how much how much was budgeted last year? So, we had about 50,000 uh left over in the program total. We added another 50 and it became a h
100,000 total. But then we we did one extra house and with the CRA board's approval, we added another 30,000 to cover that. So, shouldn't we increase the budget for this year? A little a little bit if it's I mean, it sounds like it's being well
utilized now, which is what we want. So, can we add a little more and then do the same thing for the outside? Yeah, exactly. Are you So, are you saying add a little bit more for next fiscal year starting October one? Right. And then we if that's the will of the in this is
a CRA program. So that's the will of the CRA board. Uh we can do that and we can modify the budget. Um that doesn't do anything for current fiscal year. So that's your call. Tam, you have the one that's that's in
the hopper now. The that where did it go? Mr. Armstrong. Well, my my concern about Mr. Armstrong and of course you we walk the property and if again we welcome any commissioners to come see pre before we
start when we start while it's going on so we can kind of get a real life perspective of what it is there he's going to have some issues with his roof and we're in the rainy season so at some point because it was kind of sloping structural
does he he meet the income guidelines to qualify oh yeah he's already qualified he's already qualified let's put a little more money in for the end of this year. It sounds like it need and then we need to add a little bit more for next year. Yeah, he's already qualified. We were just again waiting for the meeting and waiting on the will of the commission to
tell us what to do and how to proceed. Do we need to Okay, George, we have 377,000 uh left over out of our budget from this year for the CRA. Correct. Yeah. 20. How much will it take for it to upgrade
his house? Well, the roof is what about depend once they peel back the roof and all of us are familiar with some of the pictures you saw. You don't know what's underneath until we take the take the shingles off. Again, if if there's
minor damage in terms of replacing uh plywood or replacing some of the uh support beams, which about eight, nine at the most. Yeah, we we average about realistically about 13 per house. Yeah. 125. Really, it's 12, but we kind of
leverage, but I say we average about 12,000 per house to to do that. And we'd have to like Mr. Bridges mentioned, you know, we have to work and determine what's what. But I do know there's some structural stuff there that is fixable. Yeah. We we would just That's something going on with this
roof. Okay. If we can put a little bit of money in there, can you give us a $2,000 discount? Yes, sir. Was that a Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Absolutely. So, how much?
Um 15. What were you trying to say, Mike? You were looking at the numbers there. We've got 350 377,000 as a 812 actually. 377 812. So,
Is it just the roof or does he have other issues? He he has more than a roof. So it's more like 25 because what we do is we share like the the the PWA on building work report. We send it to both well at the time Commissioner Hawkins, Mayor
Hawkins, and of course always to Tom so they kind of know ahead of time what the items that need to be addressed are in the home. So, I don't want to get above what we typically give for everyone else. And that's that's what about Can we get him to get us a budget and we
can look at it? Get us on this. If you want to finish this gentleman's house, $12,500 for a roof. What's the size of the house? No. No. For the total project. Total project. 125 for the total project. Total project. 125. Yeah. Yeah. Let's Let's finish this project and then
let's readress it during the budget session. Yeah. 125. 125. Do we have to go back to uh CRA to change it? Uh te technically yes. Okay.
Um I um our purchasing procedures allow me to move forward with emergencies and then bring them back to you after the fact. Uh, so if you're if you if I'm getting consensus from the commission um
on a number, I can bring that back to the CRA board after the fact. With the time of year we're in, it's an emergency. Let's go ahead and move forward. You're good. I'm good. I'm the one that's Emily. Yes. Okay. 125. Okay.
Okay. That's bothering me though because that's for the roof, right? But you said there total project other the other issues that's in this house also. Yes. 12. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm good with you. You got to go. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you both. Okay. Thank you all for coming. Thank you, Miss Juliet. Audience should be heard. Okay. Next up is uh u before we get into audience to be heard. Chief, Chief Chief,
Chief, you want to bring that? Yeah. Before Before we get started, I'm exhausted. Take a break, too. You want You want to bring the ladies up? We'll be quick.
Y good evening commission chief Capri and I have some guests here tonight from uh RNO Boxing Gym. We have four fighters, amateur fighters from the city of Eustace that are going to be boxing on the 28th. We have a tournament up in um
Orlando, World of Havoc National Tournament. We have two Eustace High School students that are fighting. Both are females, pretty tough. And we have two other males that are fighting. Uh, one kid is young. What is about eight, nine? 10. 10. 10. So, we have four fighters. Uh,
we are representing them. We are we are supporting them. They will be wearing the city of Eustace logo on their uniforms as well as the police department logo. And it's a national tournament. And we have Ariana's going to speak. She's one of our fighters and aust student. So, Ariana, what you thought?
Um, our gym is like pretty nice. Um, it taught me a lot. It's um it's uh showed me discipline, selfrespect. Yeah. Showed me discipline, selfrespect, and a lot of things. And you know, it's been
pretty good for me cuz I used to be failing in school, you know, and after I started boxing, I've been having straight A's, haven't got in trouble once at school, have been doing really well. Um, and just I had a lot of time to selfres uh reflect and change myself
and boxing has really helped with that and you know I think it's a really good opportunity for me. Great. Yeah. And we we we're started this program about what about six about a year ago give or take but it's it's finally up and running and starting to see the fruition of what's going into it partnering with the police department.
The recck department's partnered with us. We're going to take it to the next level uh with PAL and just get more funding and and it's it's worked out really good. We got a lot of inner city kids uh that can actually ride their bicycles there or walk there where the gym's located in down at 303 North Gro Street. So, it's it's been really good.
The gym's phenomenal. A lot of kids are coming in there. Adults are coming in there. Uh a lot of good stuff. We're looking at throwing a fight at the the soccer complex in November. And uh we're looking at a big event there, an amateur fight card. And uh we might even have
some uh police chiefs fighting in it too for fun for competition. Um there's a few people I want to fight, but uh I don't think they will show up, but uh uh but no, we want to thank the city commission and uh the you know, we're
doing a lot in the community as a not just the police department. It takes the whole entire team, everybody working together. So, uh thank you. I just wanted to give that brief notice. We'll we'll let you know how we come back with some trophies hopefully. Uh let us know the dates. Uh the 28th when you get the times.
Yeah. Well, it's the problem is you got to show up and then they tell you when you get there. So, this is a big tournament. There's hundreds and hundreds of people from all over the country coming. So, uh we got to weigh in on that Monday the 28th and we might be fighting anytime and as we fight, we continue continue to the to till it wraps up on the uh first. So, uh second,
I'm sorry. So, it's uh we're represent Eustus will be represented on their um their uniform city the actual uh it's I'm going to say this right. It is a heron, right? The bird. The her. Okay. They called it a seagull the one time cuz I don't I'm not I'm not a uh
that's in Daytona. Well, I thought it was a seagull. I'm I'm not one they call those uh orthologists that study birds or something, but uh they will have the city logo on there with the police department. So, hopefully uh we want to put use this on the map here in Lake County for boxing. So, thank you for your support.
Good luck. Good luck. Thank you. Good luck. We'll see you there. Okay. Next up, audience to be heard. Uh uh please if if you have anything to say um uh come up identify yourself. Uh you have three minutes.
Tom, you have any cards? Yes. Uh Debbie Winer to finish this in the morning. We could no advertise. Okay. Good evening. This is Debbie. How are you? It's nice to be back in front of you,
mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. My name is Debbie Winert. I live at 724 Lake Door Drive in Tavaris. The reason I'm here is because I brought the Dolly Parton Imagination Library into Lake County. When I was here, I was just
starting. I probably had about 18 children. I want you to know that I closed the month of June with 1,500, excuse me, 1,55 children receiving books. One individual pushing the engine
forward. This is what the graph looks like. and I don't have any Eustus children involved. I would love to have you partner with me in some respect. You know, it's there's an abundance amount of research done that shows that
children who are read to in early literacy programs generally learn to read before they hit kindergarten. They're excited about books and they're ready to learn at kindergarten. So, when they arrive at kindergarten, now the teachers can teach. I brought a couple
of books just to show you. Um, Dolly Parton started the Imagination Library 30 years ago and we started two. So, she's mailing a little more than three million books a month now. So, when I enroll a child, it used to take six to eight weeks and now it takes 8 to 12 to
get in the queue of three million kids. So, the first book that every child gets, regardless of the age that I enroll them, is the little engine. And it's often ends with I can't, I think, I can. And I think I can. So I pay for the printing of the book, the wrapping, the
label, and the bulk mail. And it goes every single month till the child is five. And they get this particular book. Inside every single book is by law. I can't say our titles, can they? So they get a note from Dolly Parton says,
"Congratulation graduate." There's a flap here that's an indication in every single book to teach the parents how to assist with reading questions to ask the child, how to engage the child and so on. So, this is a very worthwhile program and purpose of my talking to you
tonight is to see if you would invite me back for a full presentation a little bit longer than this to see how we can partner together to get some Eustace children involved in early learning. Okay. Well, thank you Miss Deb. How much for one?
You know, uh, here's how I I may change your question just a little bit. It cost me $36 a year for a child to receive a book a month. Okay? So, for me to pay for all of this to come in the mail, it's 31 um 3120.
So, I charge $36. That gives me $4.80 a year, which is 40 a month to pay for the expenses of running the organization. that goes to the website. Um, l board liability insurance. I have a massive
print expense, you know, the tablecloth, the Dolly Parton, etc., etc. to keep it going. Are you nonprofit? Nonprofit. And I do it all uh free. 5013C. 501c3. That's right. Mayor, I'll give her $1,000.
And Lori, give her the rest of my money. Thank you. Okay. Okay. All right. So, you got about $1,500 there. Okay, I would like to see Debbie come back and do a full presentation. I know she has met with I know she's met with an at the library
and I would like to see if a partnership can be formed there. Yeah, I'd love to do that. Yes. And you know, we need to have a certain amount to get going and where year two is going to come from where three because that year is going to come around and I'll be back. You know, I I don't have time to go to you know, every city and that kind of thing. So, if we
could have a plan and I have some ideas I'd love to bring forth. I'd like to see her get together with an bring back a presentation for us jointly and see where we can I like that jointly because I think before it I don't like government being out there all by itself and if we can partner with
somebody like Debbie I think it's great. That's right. And I'd like to see some of the business come in to collaborate you know. Wouldn't that be lovely? You know we're all joining hands. It takes a village. You know I want the Eustace children to be the engineers, the entrepreneurs. I want them to be the astronauts in the space program. I want them to be the
commissioners. You know, we give them a good start in the beginning. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And thank thank you for coming to Million Cups and telling the story every Thank you. We'll talk to you soon. Okay. Thank you. So, I'll get with Miranda on a date in an or I'll wait to hear from you.
Tom's got it. Okay. Got it. There's your thousand bucks. You better grab one of the big happy more checks and everything. Okay. I love it. We'll do a photo op. Yes. Okay. All right, Tom. Next,
Brian Broomfield, Mr. Brian. Good evening. Good evening. Brian Broomfield, uh, city resident. Uh, I I I just stand before you because every year, you know, we, uh, uh, and I'm I'm representing my my church, St.
James AM Church in Houston, 7:25 East Macdonald Avenue, right down the street of Little Blaze. And every year we have our annual Shelly Wear King family and friends day. Uh and what this is a
service and it's going to be on a um July 27th that Sunday. But the Saturday before is a time that we have just a fellowship, you know, with family, friends. We have fellowship, food, fun,
all of that. And we want to invite again all of the commissioners. And uh we have a new commissioner. And I don't think you uh shared with us as of yet, but we want you to come out and enjoy some of
the things that we going to do. So, this is just an open invitation and you know, police chief, the fire chief, you know, some some of the the the firefighters, the police officers, they they share with us, they come out. It's a time that
our community can see that we have a partnership with the city of Eustace and everything is, you know, just just it's it's just open. And it's not just the commission that I'm inviting. Anybody that wants to come by and share 7:25,
it's going to be on Saturday. We're going to feed you. We going to feed you. They going to feed you. We going to feed you. And it's good. Yeah. So, so if you want to come and it doesn't cost you anything, but we are a church. It's going to be from 10 a.m. on
the 26th to 2:00 p.m. Saturday, uh, July 26, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. And our service on Sunday starts at 11:00 a.m. So, you can always come back if you want to leave a little something something, you know, but Saturday, just
come fill yourself with a little something. Okay. Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Brian. Tom, any more? Uh, Chief uh Ray uh Ray left, right? Okay. So, that's it as far as cards.
Okay. Is there anyone else? Okay. All right. Seeing none else. Okay. Next on to the consent agenda. Is there anything anyone wants to pull? Okay. Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of the consent agenda. I'll second it.
Okay. has been first and properly second. Christine, Vice Mayor Ashcraf, I, Commissioner Holland, I, Commissioner Lee, I, Commissioner Aspotti, I, Mayor Hawkins, I. Okay, next up, we have ordinance public hearings. Yes,
Miss Sasha. All right, the first we have is resolution number 25-47. One second. My paper. I have to read it. Just a second. You got to read it first. I have so many papers today.
Give me one second, Kyle. Sorry. It's not going to come up. Okay. No problem. All right, I'll find it now. Okay, so it's resolution
number 25-47, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Eustace, Florida, approving a site plan with waiverss for a self- storage facility on approximately 4, can't read that, 4.63 63 plus or minus
acres located at 36640 South Fish Camp Road. Alternate key number 121-3177. Kyle Wilks Development Services. As Miss Garcia just pointed out, uh this is coming to you as resolution 2547
uh site plan with waiverss uh for a self storage facility and shed sales at 36640 South Fish Camp Road. The applicant is and owner is Novak and Suns Incorporated.
Um the proposal is for a self- storage facility with ancillary sed shed sales. Easy for me to say, excuse me. Uh with a total building uh square footage of 29,760 ft. And I'll give you a breakdown in
just a moment on that. Uh the four waiverss uh that are being requested however are listed below and I'll go into more detail in just one second. Uh they include uh allow understory trees and substitution for canopy trees due to
some utility line uh conflict. Uh waiver to allow metal buildings with insulated stuckle board panels for the sides of buildings facing the road for the mini warehouse uh facilities. Uh and as well as a waiver to the
primary structure set back of 75 ft which is the maximum for a commercial lot due to due to the layout and the uh circulation needs of the uh proposed uses. And finally, um, waiver for the to to wave the frontage build out of 50%
and design standards to meet meet fenistration and architectural requirements, uh, for those uh, self- storage facility buildings along County Road 44. This shows the northeast the site at the northeast corner of Southish Camp Road
in County Road 44. It's uh, again 4.63 acres. The future land use is mixed commercial residential MCR with a suburban corridor design district. This shows the overall site plan uh
proposed by the applicant which did go before DRC and again because of waiverss is coming for you before you tonight. Um, you'll see the the store the self- storage facility or the excuse me, I'm sorry, the storage mini warehouse
facilities buildings along the edge perimeter with RV and boat storage in the middle as well as shed sales along near the uh county road 44. This shows the uh landscaping waiver
that uh is being requested. Um, it would apply both to the southern the southern county road 44 uh 15 foot uh frontage buffer uh as well as the northwest buffer um and the northern
section of of the site. This next waiver uh shows the proposed this next slide shows the proposed uh facilities here. Uh again they require uh stucco with um metal buildings,
stucco insulation. Uh and the uh proposed use will be uh excuse me the um as you can see all all facilities all
buildings and the facilities will be uh will be will be the same. I'm sorry. Mhm. Um and then also on this slide are the is the um off proposed office building 1,200 square ft in size and that will be
stuckco um or similar material. Uh so the waiverss will just apply to the mini warehouse facilities. Um and finally the waiver uh for the frontage set, excuse me, for the
frontage buildout will be um is for um is there we go. Thank you. Uh the final waiver is for a uh final waiver is for a
um frontage buildout. Mhm. and um and to wave the transparency requirements that are normally found in a commercial building lot. Uh that is um all for the waiverss and staff recommends approval uh of the site plan.
We found that it doesn't um generally detract uh significantly from the uh from the site or from the surrounding communities and we recommend approval. Okay. And staff is available for any questions. Okay. The setback is for the storage of
the the sheds. Correct. The setback would apply to any primary structure. So in this case there there there is technically no primary structure to apply that setback to. So right now they're asking because of
the shed sales and because of the circulation needed for the RV and boat storage, they want to push those buildings back away from 44 and fish camp. And that in that waiver would allow them to do so. Okay. Uh can you go back to the uh uh
Okay, that's what I want to see. The site plan. Well, I think it's a bigger picture. Yeah, let's get a bigger picture. Bigger picture. Sure. I can go to the overall site plan. Okay. This Yeah. Okay. All right. Okay. So, we've have we already approved this
project and we're now just approving a site plan. Yeah. Now, I do I do want to I do want to also uh just state for the record that this application did come in and I know we've had discussions earlier about uh LDRs and things like that. This this was
proposed this was in the hopper prior to those changes that were recently made to self storage. And can I I want to clarify your com your question, Commissioner Asbody. It is not a request for annexation. Uh that's done.
Uh you haven't approved this project at all. Uh as far as site plan, so annexation is done, future land use is done, design district is done. Uh but you haven't looked at any uh development approvals or site plans yet. That's what
you're considering tonight. Okay. So, are we a discussion or uh I was just going are so if they're asking for the setbacks to be pushed back. So, everything's going to be closer to the the home that's already
there to the north. Correct. Are they here? Yeah. Yeah. The home owners. Now, it's going to be closer to um I'm looking at the north.
Did I hit? Yeah, it's going to be closer to the north. There's a residential development the way the way 44 is laid out that actually. Yeah. Okay. And there is a there is a fence with the residence I believe that's there
putting all the structures a lot closer to them. I don't know if this I don't know if it's fair. Well, is it putting all the structures or just the main building? Just the office building. It would move all those struct so as it's proposed as you see here on the
screen. So those those facilities would be or those structures would be uh pushed back away from county road 44. Uh generally in a on a commercial uh lot type uh the maximum setback would be 75 ft for this primary structure.
Okay. Do you have a bigger picture anywhere that shows us where the residents are in perspective? The residential section. I apologize. I I Well, this might Well, there you go. That's good. Oh, okay. So, there is a little buffer there. I guess
a strip. How wide is that strip? Here to the landscape here. So, here's the proposed buffer. Uh again, the the waiverss request to the waiver is to uh substitute canopy trees for uh for excuse me to substitute
understory trees for canopy trees uh in that buffer area. Um and so I just wanted to point that out. I believe that landscape buffer is 10 ft. Now under c can you tell me at some point
what's the distance? What would the distance be without the waiver between the back and the residence line? And what what are we moving it? Are we moving it? How much that math educate that commissioner? That math I have not done.
Uh but it's something that you know maybe the applicants could speak to uh as well. But I know right now that um the closest facility that or closest uh
reso residence there would be Can you go back to the other picture? It looks pretty close in that area. Yeah. So I I just scaled it off on the So there's the one large home on the northwest corner. But that's actually on
the north that's CSX right ofway and that's about 100 ft wide. Okay. Um that like thin strip that is 100 ft wide. So 100 ft deep technically from 44. Is that what you're saying? Going back toward
No. So you can above there right here. There is um the outline in red. Mhm. Uh so there's a grass or or a strip of landscaping north of that red line. It's about a 100 ft wide to the nearest
residence to the north in that what is that subdivision? So it I'm not speaking to that single home to the northwest of the project, but that subdivision it looks like there's about a 100 foot buffer, but it's going to come closer to that home on the northwest.
Correct. Yeah. But you have the the the landscaping buffer. Correct. Okay. And you're going to go So there'll be 100 no matter what. And we're moving the buildings or they're asking to move the buildings closer to that back line. Correct.
By how many feet? Closer to the back line. Again, I'd have to do the measurement the difference between what the 75 what it would be at 75 ft north versus what it is now. And I I apologize. I don't have that number in front of me. Okay. This has been advertised. Correct.
Correct. And we have not heard from this homeowner. No. Nope. Okay. Uh you'd like to hear from the applicant? Yeah, we should since they're here. But I wanted to check, do we have anyone in the um audience that wanted to speak on this item other than the applicant?
Oh, okay. Ma'am, if you could come up and state your name and if you're a city resident, you have three minutes. Dear Lewis again, 1992 Meadowside Drive. I'm right there off of Fish Camp. We already have a brand new storage
facility on the opposite side of the Dollar General, General Dollar. And to put one on that corner up against their house just seems unfair. I mean, you got residents in neighborhood. You got a a
cemetery over in there. I just I'm sorry. I just don't see the need for another huge structure on that busy highway where we just put a 7-Eleven and they're about to put something across the street which I'm hoping will be more homes because
they're right down on that section on that side. And I just it just didn't make sense to me when you had your sign up there before and we came before and heard a hearing and it didn't seem like it was going to happen and then the signs on that property and then the
other storage facility came up and I'm like, "Oh, they made a switch." But now I'm noticing that that's not the switch. But how much more are you going to do to that area? That section is very small. You already have a new housing development right up against that
current um storage facility. I I just don't understand. But please consider the rest of us who live in that area. If I had known that we were going to be discussing this tonight, I'd have brought the rest of our neighbors who
don't want that either. And I definitely would hate to ruin their property and their value with another huge structure that landscaping is great until it's not and then it becomes what we have across the street, which is vacant, nothing,
and people dumping stuff. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in the audience before we go to the applicant? Okay, seeing none, if you could please come up, sir. The homeowners are not going to talk. Yes, sir.
They I'm I'm sorry. The Novaks are the owner of the project. The project. Yes. Oh, okay. I thought they were adjacent behind it. Okay. Uh, good evening, commission. Um, so I would like to point out that while we are
Could you state your name, please? Oh, I'm sorry. uh Tanner Kell 9013 uh Silver Lake Drive um Lake County. Uh I'm at I'm representing the Novax today. Um I would like to point out um it we're
not asking to if if you look at the site plan if there was a little bit of confusion. We're not asking to move it more. We're asking to put it where it is on the site plan. Um so there's that. If if you were confused, maybe we thought we were pushing it further than where it
already is according to the site plan. Uh in addition to that, um while we are changing the landscaping buffer, we are proposing a new 6-foot masonary wall right along that um the uh property line
where that home is. Um so that will provide some relief. Um, other than that, um, are you talking the property line just down the street in front of um, this one right here? The house is right here. Mhm.
And we're putting a mixing wall right here. So when you said you're not um asking to move it back, I thought I heard So I could be wrong, but um it sounded like there was a slight confusion. We
are asking for a waiver of 75 ft, but we're not moving it any any differently uh from where it is on the concept plan right now. Mhm. Um but the concept plan right now is it already moved? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So it's already moved.
It's already moved. Yes. Does that mean the 75? So you are asking to have it move back. Am I right? Am I understand? It looks like the concept plan. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. All right. Do you want to add just a few things?
Sure. I just one one thing I just want to clarify that that that that setback is a maximum, not a minimum. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. Good. Thanks, Kyle. My name is John Cook. I'm a project manager for Mark Cook Builders uh here
with the Novax. Um so, a few things. I think Mr. Corino had asked what the additional footage would be beyond the 75 foot. So it would be another roughly
50 foot. Uh the proposed office is 1275 from County Road 44 which is about 50 foot past your 75 ft maximum. Um and to address the resident's concern, these would be singlestory
uh self- storage buildings. They're not multi-story. Um there's a landscape buffer all the way around the property. Uh as far as the resident on the north side, we absolutely get it. I don't uh
everybody appreciates their privacy and we understand that. in addition to the masonry wall. So, it would be the resident a masonry wall, um landscape buffer, and there's also a a swale if you can look at the um
the site plan. So, there's quite a bit and then 50 foot of parking lot and then another 10 foot and then the shed sales office. Uh this is not a 247 operation. Uh, the
Novaks have run a similar facility, less the self storage in Leburg for I can't say how many years, but they keep a clean place. Always have. Um, yeah. So, it's in addition to that, they
they've also not proposed any sighting. Granted, there would be some wall packs on the building, but if that is a concern, we can more than happily take that into account and avoid any light going into uh the adjacent residents.
I'm sure I'm sure that the the building department would would ex uh expect a phototric plan at that phase and we're we're more than happy to provide that. Where's where's the entrance to this? I'm assuming it's off of fish camp. Yes, sir. It is on the west side. I'm not
sure. It's a little Okay. All right. Okay. Any additional questions for the applicant or the representatives? Any questions of What's the zoning there now? What's that
zoning there? MCR, I think. MCR, I think. So, yes, commercial residential. Marissa, can you go back to the site map, please? That'll work. Thank you. There's the entrance right there.
So, a mini storage butdding up to homes. I'm just thinking out loud. Mhm. Or MCR, another dollar store, a Publix. What's the, you know, there's a lot of things that could go on there. Okay.
What's What's the least impactful? certainly residential if it was mixed commercials, MCR, which it is. Um, but I do admit there probably could be a lot worse things going on there but up
to someone's house than a many stories that not too many people go into all the time. That's that's probably the least amount of traffic. The notice went out. No respondents, Kyle. Okay. And that's what the zoning is. So the
question is the waiverss really in my mind. Okay. Nothing further for the applicant. Anything? Okay. I need to close. So I'll just go ahead and thank you gentlemen. Uh close public input and I'll give it back to you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I move approval of resolution
25-47. Okay. Get a first. Can I get a second? Well, I'll second it for the sake of discussion. Okay. Okay. You know what um would be really good if
if we could we could have renderings on how these things are going to look at the final because I can't read this. I know you guys can read it. We have rendering. Oh, you do have a render. Well, that's awesome. Just very conceptual. So, we weren't
sure if you know we wanted to bring it up quite yet. But you should we should have had that. We should have had that during the other discussion. Well, it's conceptual. So, what does that mean? Give us accurate to the final product. Is that what that means? Or are Yeah. So, no one's ever going to bring
this out and start and say, "Let's start building." Uh this is just kind of an artistic rendering of what uh we're kind of leaning towards. Uh but until we get to that stage of engineering, u we don't want to promise anything. And in spirit
of being open and honest, we don't want to promise anything and then turn around and build something that was not. Okay. So, what we're looking at is not promised. We actually do have a pretty good idea of what it's going to look like and I'm
happy to field any questions you may have about that. Yeah. I mean, is no offense and and and if it looks this way, are you really going to have that mount that much of grass, that amount of green space? Yes, sir. because you're filling it with sheds. They're putting sheds there. They're putting sheds there. So, it's
going to be full of sheds. It's going to look like a shed. And how many storage storage units? Uh there are three buildings for self storage. And then there's a covered RV and both. Okay. And then this would be the operations office.
And And is that concrete wall going around this both here? But around the around the Nope. Then go further up. No, sir. Uh here would be a fence uh supplemented by a landscape buffer. As you can imagine, the cost for a masonry
wall is significant and respect the residents in the north. But you're being a good neighbor and you're putting a masonary wall up there. Why not only on one one side of their residence, the other side, they got a fence. So, they only got half their property line landscaping.
They only got the front. Is there a fence on the uh the east side? On the east side here? No. of the residence. What do you have going here? Right. With landscaping. What kind of fence is it? I believe we proposed chain link on the
on the site. But but but don't they have a fence there already around that property? I'm not sure. I I'm pretty sure they do. It's fenced. Yeah, it's already fenced in. It's vinyl. Okay. So, why would you want to put a chain link? Okay. I may have missed what I said.
No, it's okay. But actually, this is this is perfect. This is exactly what I wanted to look at. Okay. All right. So, we really have an outdoor shed place. Yeah. And in the back there's some stoages. So, the perception from the road is going to be a bunch of storage uh uh sheds rather and for sale.
Well, the green space helps a lot. And again, the Novaks are veterans in this. They've they've ran a similar oper operation in Leburg for quite a few years. Uh I used to live myself directly across from it. It's always very presentable. Um Mhm. Are you Lark Shed?
Is that who you are? Adam Novak. 1320 Tyringham Road here in Eustace. We own My wife and I own Lark Sheds Leburg. Moving it to the city. Uh we're Eustace residents. We try to be good neighbors. Yeah.
As Mr. John said, we've run Lark Shburg for 11 years. Try to keep it nice, presentable. We are not huge fans necessarily of storage units. Uh however, a lot of houses are going in with zero lot lines. Sheds are not
necessarily the way the world is going and the way the area is going. Also, it just kind of helps the highs and lows in the good times and the bad. I'm going to ask if you could also flip it around so that the audience could see. And we we do not have plan on having it
open 24 hours. Mhm. But sorry, I didn't mean to cut you, but there's no gates. So essentially, it can be. No, there's there is gates. There is gates. It's not in the rendering, but there are gates. Yes. What's What's it look like? What's it look like from 44? Is it going to be a a fence all the way around it?
Chain Lake. Sorry. From Yeah, that's 44. Yeah, right. The gate and the fence would be here to deny access. Oh, I see. So, there's no They typically always allow the the shed area to be open to people to drive
through the There's no fence there. Okay. This would be I like that. Yeah, I do. I like I like that. The reason for the waiver is we really wanted the driveway here, but county weren't allowed to already got too many. I like that bit. That's where that all and I will tell you the reason I moved
this for for discussion is this is one of the least impactful traffic flow in that area because you could put a big you could put a a a shopping center there and it's going to be horrible for that area.
Even housing is going to be is going to is going to have more traffic flow to that area. And that tra that area right there already is horrendous. Yes. So, thank you. So, let's let's just keep in mind the
resident to the to the north and do please do what you can to eliminate light and noise to them because I think that's the once we know for sure exactly what we're approved for, I fully plan on knocking on their door and introducing myself and that was going to be the next thing.
Have we made contact so that they could tell them with honesty what we were doing. I didn't want to tell them one thing and end up doing something else. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. That's that's that's perfect. We actually every uh every site plan development team should have that.
Did you want to hear from anyone else? Yes. Uh does anyone else have anything with this new information? Okay. With the new information? No. Okay. Okay. I think another thing for us to think about as a commission is what we want that corridor to look like as it continues to grow up over there with the
residentials coming and do we want to or do we want to be supporting residential uh either with sheds or do we want to support them with with grocery stores or small convenient uh or things like that? What are we creating five ten years down
the line in that corridor? Um, and what what generates the best upside for property values for the people adjacent to there. Um, I think we want to have something for everyone. Yeah. But we have some mini stoages
across the street, but now we have a shed place. Exactly. um you know, would that have been better or would a mixeduse use of of of restaurants and and some retail be a better presentation of our city's area?
That's the difficult things. With no disrespect to them, I know this is their this is big to them and and I respect that. But what's the image that we want to create in our city and and continue to move forward? So, um, do we want it
to be a bunch of sheds and many stoages there? That's kind of where that's some of the struggles I have. Um, will we have that option with the new SB? Whatever.
Will that impact what we're what he's talking about doing the possibilities as far as limiting what properties, private property can be used for? I mean that's always been a restriction. So, but what we in trying to determine what
we want it to look like as George was suggesting. Maybe to answer your question, we have amended our LDRs. This self storage would not have been allowed here under our new rags, but they were grandfathered grandfathered in
because their application came. The question will be what is the impact of Senate Bill 180 and we'll come back to that because I have had an opportunity to um review the the bill again
and my opinion stands. However, to just um deal with what we have right now, you can have a seat, sir. Thank you. Any further discussion before there's a there's a motion in the second. I I support small business. I like what they do and and who what they seem to be
as a as a small business. Um, but you I I have to look at to the the area and what we want up there. It's it's it's kind of like our uh our swing upwards in in in our side if our growth is going that way. So, what you know, what do we
want on our nice residential commercial thorough fret? Thorough fair. Yeah. So, fair. So, that's where I'm stuck with. I'm really struggling. I I I really have no idea which way I'm going to go, but this that's that's how I'm struggling. Okay.
Uh we got to think about the entire city and what we what we want. Uh and whether we want whether this is a step up, a step sideways, or a step down, or is this a stifle? And is stifle good? I don't know. I don't think stifle is
good. I think I want to see a step up. Okay. So, we'll officially close discussion and you can proceed with roll call vote. Okay. Um, can I get a motion? There was already a motion in a second. Okay, we got a second. Yes. Vice Mayor Ashcraft.
I. Commissioner Holland. I. Commissioner Lee. I. Commissioner Asbody. That makes that easy. I Sorry. Can you repeat? Is that an I? Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Mayor Hawkins. I
thank you. All right. Next, we have resolution 25-54. A resolution by the city commission of the city of Eustace Lake County, Florida, providing for the proposed millage rate of 7.510 mills for the fiscal year 2025 2026 annual budget for
the city of Eustace Lake County and providing for an effective date. And Miss Carr, hello. I'm going to do a um short presentation on what we have tonight. And this will
kind of explain that this is the first very preliminary step in the budget adoption process. Um and where we're at right now, there's really the trim process has uh four major steps. The workshops, which we've
already had, and it was um non non formal but it was an agreement to move forward with the millage rate of the 7.5810. The second step is to do the proposed or preliminary millage rate. And what that
means is it's nothing set in stone. All you're agreeing to tonight is that this is the rate that is going to be on the trim notices that are mailed out. Um you're not locked into this rate in any way, shape, or form. You can go higher
when uh September comes. However, if you go higher, you would have to mail a notice to every single resident at the city's expense. But you can keep that rate or you can go lower without any repercussions when it
comes to actual adoption of the budget. So again, all this is really doing is putting something on the trim notice for a proposed millage rate and we're also providing the date which will be September 4th and the time at 6:00. So
it's just on the trim notices so the public is aware of when we're coming to discuss formally the budget adoption. So the preliminary budget that we have um prepared at this point is based on the millage of 7.5810.
The city's property tax increased 9.3% which was um almost 2% lower than last year's increase. So we are not g uh receiving as much new revenue as we did last year. And the same is true for
construction, new construction revenue. That revenue um has dropped significantly from the prior year. And uh some of the things that we have that are completely out of our control is health insurance. Uh we have that number confirmed. It's 5.5%.
And property and casualty, we will not get that uh for another month or so. We may not even have it by the time the budget is actually adopted but we are estimating 14% which is what they have be given us at this time as their best estimate. Uh we have some state revenues
that we have not yet received. So there's some things that will still change. Um and as we had talked about um at the workshop we do have some new positions. The deputy clerk were moving from part-time to full-time. We have the cemetery maintenance worker, the fire
captain of life safety, a new police officer, uh the HRS coordinator, the public works custodian, and three new firefighters at six months. That's not all the new positions in the city. That is the new positions in the general fund. That's all we're speaking about
tonight is the general fund. Okay. So uh at this point we have a lot of work yet to do on the budget. Our preliminary revenues are 28.2 million. Our expenses are at 29.8
million. Uh so our preliminary shortfall right now is 1.6 million. However, u it is not uncommon practice to fund your some uh CIP projects through your reserves. And we do have healthy reserves uh to the tune of 19 or 20
million. I forgot off the top of my head. So, if we deduct that, that's 920,000. Um, it's not a problem with best practice or or anything to do that. We do have some recurring capital, operating capital of 310,000.
And those are types of things that are capital in nature, but they're recurring. And that would be um our tough books that we just bought. you guys approved that agreement for the police and fire uh their annual radio uh maintenance agreements, things like
that. So, you could fund those out of your fund balance. That is not necessarily a best practice, but it's not something that is horribly frowned upon either. Uh so, if you did were to uh reduce those uh or fund those from reserves, your revised shortfall would
be 371,000. So again, we still have a lot of work to do and that's using the basis of a five 7.581 millillage rate and I just if I could chime in if you could go back I'm sorry Lori if you
could go back to that slide. So uh we have a responsibility to provide you a balanced budget. Um so uh over the next uh two months uh we're as staff we're going to have to work to uh close that shortfall of the 371
and then we're going to have to take a good hard look at the 310 because what Lori is saying is um it's not it's really not best practice to fund the 310 out of reserves. And so we're potentially uh going to be looking at cutting about uh $680,000
uh out of the operating budget um when we come back to you. So uh there's some work to be done. Uh but again, we have a responsibility to provide you a balanced budget. Okay, here we go. So we've had the same millage rate for 10
years. We've had a surplus just about every year. Why wouldn't we have a surplus this year? we we had the actual expenses. Uh we generally have a surplus every year. We generally do not spend everything we
budget. So for example, the the last fiscal year that's been closed, that would be fiscal year 2324, uh we had $1.9 million in revenues over expenses. Okay? And so we did not spend everything we
had planned to spend. uh I would expect that will be the same but we can't assume that until the year closes out. So uh I guess what I would say is you know we as far as uh staffing we have vacancies. So we generally um we have
projects that don't get done or don't get spent. And so um as long as I've been here we have had a surplus come the end of the year and we plan for that to continue the current year. But again, we can't assume it. Um,
so all we can do is work with what we have and and we are required to present you with a balanced budget. Actually, you're not. Our charter says that we don't have to have a balanced budget if we have over $1 million in reserve. You do use reserves to fill that back
that gap. I'm just saying we you don't you don't have to give us a balanced budget if we have the reserves. And we do. We have $20 million in reserves, right? which is what we would be funding that 920,000. Yeah. I I think the language is from state. The state says we have to provide
you a balanced budget. We have ways to do that, including use of reserves, but state law says we have to provide you a balanced budget. Why does our charter say different? The the charter gives us tools to make that happen, I guess, is is the way it's
worded. Oops. So, uh, here's just some of the millage rates, uh, that you'll hear throughout, um, you know, the budget process. We have the, uh, the millage that we're talking about right now, which is really
proposed and not tenative at 7.58. That would take four votes to pass when it is presented to you in September. um majority millage would be a rate of 7.539
and what that does it takes the roll back rate but it adds a little bit for the change in CPI and so or or I'm sorry it takes the existing rate but it it reduces it by a change in in consumer
uh or residential income increase and so that would require three boats Um if we were to go to roll back uh or anything lower than that than 7.53 it would require three votes. Uh the difference between the roll back and the majority
vote is that 1.0451 and it's provided by do it's based on the change in per capita income and uh any rate above 7.539 would require a vote of four when we actually adopt the budget.
And here's a slide just to give you perspective what a change in millillage would do to a resident to their benefit but the um effect that it would have on the city. We do budget our um property tax revenue at 95%.
Which is uh I think 96 is the maximum that you are allowed to budget for. And if you had after assessments and and exemptions and everything, if you had a taxable value of a home at 250,000 and we were to reduce the millillage by
um from 7.581 to 7.481, it would save the average homeowner $25 a year, but it would cost the city 174,000 in reduced revenue. So it's not a oneto-one comparison. Um it it it's a
much larger impact on the city as compared to the benefit to the residents. I don't know why I have so many problems with this. I guess that's it because that was it. So do you have any questions?
Any questions? No. No questions from the commission. Do we have any cards on this item? Would anyone in the audience like to speak on resolution 25-54? Okay, seeing none, I will close public input and I will ask if there's a motion
on the table. Mr. Mayor, I move approval of resolution 25-54. Second. Second. Okay. Move properly second. Christine, Vice Mayor Ashkra, sorry. Before we vote, any any further discussion before we close discussion?
No. Okay. Go ahead. Vice Mayor Ashcraft, nay. Commissioner Holland, hi. Commissioner Lee, I. Commissioner Asbody, no. Mayor Hawkins, I Okay.
Next we have resolution 25-56, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Eustace Lake County, Florida, approving the recording of water, wastewater, storm water, irrigation, reclaimed water and/or residential garbage services leans, repealing all resolutions or parts of resolutions in
conflict here with and providing for an effective date. Miss Jenkins. Good evening, commission. Good evening. Um so in front of you we have a very um short uh condensed
uh synopsis of one particular customer that we're coming to you with. Uh the approval of this lean is for a city resident who is experiencing extenduating circumstances with a child who has a medical condition. The resident did provide a doctor's note for
this condition. However, the city's legal council has advised that the doctor's note does allow for I'm sorry, does not allow for cart blange failure to pay, but did allow water customer service to work with the resident for several months up until
this point. The customer did attempt to work out a payment arrangement with us, but the check provided was returned to us as non-sufficient funds. The customer currently has water service and an outstanding pass due bill of $1,56.
She is now not responding to our department um via phone call, message or letter that we have sent to her. Um I do have a timeline that I would be happy to share with you if you would like me to
or I can try to answer um questions. Yeah. is is is this due to a leak per chance or no? She does have a leak at her property. Um we have gone out and attempted to help her find it. The leak has been going on
uh for what from what we have found for about 3 months. She is past due beyond that. So she was past due before the leak started. Um, we have been unable to advise her as to what could be causing
the leak and have let her know that she needs to call a professional out. And you you call her phone is not disconnected. Correct. Okay. And is she still living at the property? As far as we can tell, the property is
still occupied, though it is um very unckempt. So, we're not positive that it is still occupied. Water is still being used. Okay. You can tell it's not just the leak, but it's actually water usage. Correct.
Okay. How do you tell that? How can you tell that they're using water when you have a leak? How do you divide what's I'm just curious? We do a polling. So, the polling gives us back three months hour by hour. Actually, we can dive into the hour by
hour as well. Um, and we can see if it's um, steady at, let's say, a thousand gallons per day, for example. If it goes up at any point, then they're using water um, washing dishes, flushing a toilet. But if if they always stay at
that thousand, it's a steady leak. That's impressive. Our pollings do indicate most of the leaks appear to be um, filling a swimming pool and forgetting about the holes. So, there's a swimming pool in the house. There is. Yes, sir.
Is this a city resident or outside the city? Inside the city, sir. Okay. Okay. Uh, how long ago did she provide the doctor's note?
Um, her water was cut off on the 20th of May. On the 21st of May, I received the doctor's note. Does she own the property? Uh, she does currently own the property. Okay.
So, it doesn't divert back to the owner because she is the owner. Yeah, she is the owner of record. I can include that there are several um tax certificates on the property. Okay. She's not um communicating with you anymore.
No, ma'am. So, the water is turned off? No, sir. Oh, sorry. But you say that there's possibility sir I'm sorry it was turned off when I got the doctor's note I spoke to Lori and Lori spoke to um so when you turn the water off was in
the leak stopped. I'm just trying to determine if we can know where the leak's coming from. Um I mean it's past the meter then the leak is on the customer side not the city side. So yes when we disconnected it the leak stopped. Okay. But you said there an indication that
the pool is being filled and the holes is being left out. We believe so. Um can I ask how you how you figure that out? You go there and you see the pool and you see water coming over the top or the neighbor tells you. No sir. Um my field supervisor went and
walked around the home for about an hour and 10 minutes with um our customers. He represented himself as fiance, turns out roommate, and the pool was overflowing and the pose was in it through that walk.
He made a comment to staff that um the kids like to fill the pool. Okay. Um I think they've done all they can do. Yeah. I mean, really, you know, and I mean it's unfortunate.
Yeah. Yeah. Any any other questions for Miss Jenkins? So, we're asking to authorize a lean but still keep the water on. Is that right? I'm asking for authorization to disconnect the water because our um bond
says that we have to do that. Stop giving free water. And then um our collection ordinance says send the 10-day demand to put uh remove the meter and the 10-day demand to also put a lean on the property.
And I don't think I know this is probably out there, but do we know if it goes to tax deed sale? Is there um did we do a title search? Do you do any of that stuff? Is there a mortgage on the property? Are we somewhat protected? Are we do we
have some collateral to grab at? Are if we get the lean before it goes into a foreclosure, um it's my understanding and please correct me if I'm wrong that um it would first pay for the taxes and then pay us
and then the mortgage. So to be clear, the tax the utility lean is not extinguished by sale of through a foreclosure or through a tax deed unless the property is
uh it basically goes back to the county and then at that point our lean and the county's lean they basically have the same the same amount. But basically have they filed? Has anybody filed a lean? Is there any other lean on there? In other words, can we just leave the water on, file a lean, and and we've got
some asset backing us, and we'll get our money down the line, and they have water. That's That's not That's not on our That's not on our thing. Not permissible. It would be a violation of the bond. All right, I'm done. Yep. Okay. No further questions for Miss Jenkins? No.
Do we have anyone in the audience that would like to speak on resolution 25-50 D6? Okay. Seeing none, I will close public input. Mr. Move approval of resolution 25-56. I'll second. Okay. It's been moved and properly
second. Christine, roll call, please. Vice Mayor Ashcraft. I. Commissioner Holland. Hi. Commissioner Lee. Hi. Commissioner Asbody. Hi. Mayor Hawkins. I turn. Can we take a Okay, just a small fivem minute break, please. So we can
Yeah, it's it's if we could just take a fiveminut break. Yeah, she wants us all here for this. Let's take a five minute break. We're back at I can't tell what time it is. 8:41 8 Come back 8:46. Okay.
She's going home. Okay, we have uh we've passed the twohour mark. Uh would you all like to continue or would you like to uh uh to stop? Continue. Continue. Okay.
Y Okay. All right. All right. So, Adam attorney. Yes. Thank you. The next item 25-57 57 resolution of the city commission of the city of Eustace Lake County, Florida
declaring a temporary suspension of certain land development regulation activities to ensure compliance with chapter 2025-190 Laws of Florida. That's Senate Bill 180. directing staff to identify and repeal conflicting ordinances and resolutions
and to prepare amendments to the city code of ordinances and land development regulations so as to conform with state law providing for conflicts providing for severability and providing for an effective date. All right, so this one's um I'll
present. So we've had a number of changes in this recent legislative session. Um you'll see a few more coming over the next few weeks. This one in particular has to do it it was listed under emergency. So it does deal with uh streamlining
posttorm permitting process to ensure that all the local governments are prepared to respond after a natural disaster. And there's certain criteria that they'd like to see as far as a procedure and notice to the public um in that particular bill. Uh, importantly
under that we had that the bill prohibits counties and municipalities that have been listed in the federal disaster declaration which is actually hurricanes uh Debbie, Helen and Milton from proposing or
adopting the following three um items which is one a moratorium on construction, reconstruction or redevelopment of any property damaged by the hurricane more restrictive or burden burdensome amendments to local government
comprehensive plan or land development regulations or more restrictive or burdensome procedures concerning review, approval or issuance of a site plan, development permit or development order for um those cities that have been impacted by the
aforementioned hurricanes. that is actually retroactive not only to August 1st, 2024, but you are fully limited through the statutory period, which is October 1st, 2027. Um, for other municipalities, it really would only
apply from the 12 months from when that particular storm affected that municipality. But for us, Lake County, we're under that full scope of the three years. Um this particular bill I mean it is it
is quite restrictive on home rule um and it does tie not only current developments but future development. So it's really a very it's very restrictive. A lot of cities um are unhappy with it. It was heavily lobbyed. Um, we've had a couple of municipalities
that have um since passed ordinances that um apply a moratorum or changes to the LDRs and they have already received notice pursuit notice from developers and a lot of them um want to challenge this of course. So I mean this will be
in place until there's a change in the legislation or a court finds that this is um an unconstitutional um act. Now the issue with this particular uh bill is that it also provides an avenue for
private property owners you or business owners to sue the government in the event that this is violated. So, it is you're going to be spending tax dollars defending any action in that regard. And I know we've spent a lot of time trying
to get everything together. And this is one of the issues um that was presented is that you can't even change your code to make the structures more resilient um to hurricanes and storms. I mean, you can't even it's it's really very very
restrictive. You have to leave everything as is and um until something changes. So since we did spend all of the time I know we've had some earlier discussion uh one of the things I could suggest is that while we review
everything because this is a temporary suspension just of kind of proceeding with everything would possibly be to bring back the ordinance that we had but revise it to indicate that it's not in
effect until the statutory period expires or there's a change in the legislation or a court strikes down that provision, that would be a way to put it in the code, but make it known that we are not going to be enforcing it. We're
not trying to violate any restriction that the the state has put on us. Um, but it would at least provide, you know, that notice for future if that were to happen or if it happens sooner, then it's already in place and it can kind of move forward. That's I think the
best way to do it. And and I totally agree with you because I was thinking the same thing. Oh, okay. Yeah. Uh so that would mean because we're going to be making that change and it would be in the title as well. I would
um we would have to readvertise it um just but we can bring it back and then we'll include that provision in there just to make it known that we're compliant. Um but in the interim, this resolution basically what it does is just um because this became effective
July 1st um and we haven't had a meeting since this happened. It's just basically to put the public on notice that the city intends and acknowledges what happened with the up, you know, with the Tallahassee and that there's an intent to comply with with the law and um
that's what the instruction is for for me to work with staff and and um with Tom to make those um corrections as needed to comply with it. Okay, any question? No. No. Yes.
Yes, Tom. Uh are we required to go back to the not the July 1 date but the effective date uh or the the back date? Yes. And review everything we've approved. Correct.
And recon reconsider or so for example self storage. Yes. We have to take a look at any any legislation, basically any ordinance or resolution that we have um enacted that has affected the LDRs in any way that
would make them more restrictive. So, we have to go back to August 1st of 2024 and do an audit to kind of see what that looks like. I Right. Excuse me. What what what is the definition of a more restrictive
and who who determines what's more restrictive? Well, okay, that's a great question, but it's it would be the legislature. So, they did not specify um I anything basically the code has to stay the same as it was in 2023. That's that's as close as the example that has
been given as far as the minutes and discussion. uh because that's they don't want anything since the the storms came through to result in in that restriction. Of course, if a private property owner voluntarily
um wants to follow that restriction, that's on them. You know, it's certainly something that can be done, but we cannot enforce that. So, as far as uh specific uses, we're going to look into those particular details to see if where those
restrictions fall because the way it's written, like I said, it just basically states that any more restrictive or burdensome amendments to our comp plan or LDRs. And this does not apply to annexations though because those are private as well. I know, but what who determines on
what's more restrictive? It's a comparison of where the code was pre statutory period to um where we are today. Honestly, I honestly think that we should watch and wait this and
see if something else comes out before we invest all this time and resources and going back how many years and looking at everything we did. I just I can't believe a hurricane is going to tell all the municipalities on what we can do now. Now, I don't know that
and I understand the intent. I understand the intent of what it's what happened down in south southwest Florida. I understand the intent, but to handcuff every m municipality in three quarters of the state of
Florida because of one hurricane. I think I I think Tallahassee does a lot of things that are reactive for good and for good reasons, but just like live local, I think more going to come down and I think we got to watch and wait this. I really do. Okay. I have a question.
If if we wait it out, could someone come under 2024 and commence with a lawsuit? So we have to do that audit to determine where there could be a vi a possible violation. No action is going to be
taken without commission approval because any amendments that we make to the code have to be done by ordinance. It's going to come back to you. So, what this does is basically just put the public on notice that we we know what's h what happened in Tallahassee and it
gives us the opportunity to then um do that analysis and we can we'll come back to you of course with that summary between now and the time that we do that analysis um there's a different instruction or there's a clarification fantastic in the interim I was simply
proposing that modification to the ordinance so that we can still capture the work that was done, but you know, include the fact that we have that restriction in there um to protect the city. As far as the other uses, um
we we will come back to you on that. And I don't believe that we have that many that would actually impact the LDRs. Again, this doesn't apply to annexations or anything like that. That's actually one of the exemptions um to this particular restriction because it's as long as it's a private property owner
and they have they're the ones that voluntarily come to the city because that would amend our comp plan and things like that then um I think mainly probably what we've done is we've changed the table of uses a couple of times right so an example would be if somebody comes to us and
says I want to do self storage in an MCR and we say no the table of uses doesn't allow that if this law is valid, they could challenge us because it used to be a permitted use and it is no longer a permitted use. The medical marijuana.
Yep. The tattoo shops. Yep. All of Emily's hard work. Well, we have to see because there's uh again the uses component. It's not completely out, you know, outlined here. So, we're going to look at that more specifically. But as far as the the
ordinance that we had with the LDRs, that's that's certainly a massive project. So that was my proposal for kind of um taking care of both things and and again it'll keep us uh where we are and if something changes in the interim, we already have it in the code
and and it's there, but we just can't enforce it. And if it doesn't apply to the uses, which um may very well be the case, again, you know, we have to um look at that a little bit um more detailed, then you know, we'll let you know, of course. Now, the the the
marijuana ordinance, for instance, that has a separate statute alto together with a different authorization. So, we kind of have to see because those are not necessarily canceling each other out. Um this may have been done without necessarily looking at uses.
Okay. So, that may not be effective, but we'll we'll take a look and get back to you on that. I just wanted to address the the LDR modifications. Anything else for me? Okay. Do we have anyone in the audience that would like to comment on this resolution?
Okay. Seeing none, I will close public input. Okay. Mr. Mayor, do you have a motion? Okay. Do I have a motion? Do you? I move approval of resolution number 25-47 57. 5757.
Okay. Can I get a second discussion? I'll do a second. Okay. Second for discussion. Okay. Discussion means discussion. I I think the suggestion that Sasha has made is where we should go. That's the most
we could do with what we have right now, which is to wait and so this is just it's a temporary pause, right? To let us evaluate everything and we'll come back to you with that report. As far as LDRs, the suggestion would be we
would republish with the caveat that it is not enforceable, not applicable as far as you know applications received until the expiration of the statutory period, change of legislation or if the court strikes down this particular bill.
Um that's the best we can do. That way, if six months from now it's it's not valid, it we already have it in the code and it's already covered by the fact that we've indicated we're we're fully intending to comply with the law. But if as it as as you know it takes
place. Okay. Like I said, there are already several municipalities um that are likely going to be involved in litigation. So, we may have an answer sooner rather than later. Okay. Just not our tax dollars. Okay. Any other discussion?
So your recommendation is to just let this go for tonight. Let it go. How? No. No. This is basically um my recommendation. Yes. And staff is Yeah. Okay. To uh to approve it. Approve this resolution so that we can do that audit and then with the
instruction as far as the discussion tonight, we'll come back with that ordinance for the LDRs with that caveat and with the report of the uses once we have more guidance. Okay. All right. It's been moved and promptly any other way.
And just to be clear, this also covers the the procedures we need to have in place for um storm and emergency response. So, sure. Yeah, it's all kind of couched under that. That's why it was also um a bit unfair as far as how that it
was titled just under emergencies. So, okay. All right. Any other discussion? Okay, it's been moved and properly second. Roll call, please. Vice Mayor Ashcraft. Nay. Commissioner Holland. Hi. Commissioner Lee,
I. Commissioner Ozbody. Oh, yeah. Nay. Mayor Hawkins. I. Okay. Next we have resolution 25-58, a resolution of the city commission of
the city of Eustace Lake County, Florida, designating an administrative authority for the review and final administrative approval of final plats and replats pursuant to chapter 2025-164 laws of Florida Senate Bill 784 incorporating the statutory definition
of administrative authority delegating such authority to the development services director or other eligible design as determined by the city manager. establishing review procedures and appeal rights, directing staff to prepare conforming amendments, providing
for conflicts, severability, and an effective date. This is another one. I'm only going to give give like one or two every meeting, so you guys don't get mad at me. I did not do this. Um, so the legislature passed um Senate Bill 784. Uh basically
this bill provides for an a designated authority and it's specified as to who that individual can be. Um the development services director would be one of them. Someone that's familiar with the um planning platting process as well as the LDRs and such. uh
specifically for final plats and replplats because those would have already gone through the process of the preliminary plat which we have provided for in our code. So preliminary plat would still come before commission. So there'll still be an opportunity for
those to be uh you know heard by and public to participate for you to ask questions and all of that. Once a preliminary plat is approved there are no changes to that that are significant. this would basically just move through the administrative process avoiding that
second hearing which is more of a formality at that point because by that time who states what's significant um the code that we have so if they're not changing anything from the initial plot the preliminary plot that's approved they're approved for
that project so any changes it has to come back to us well as to the plat and waivers too correct well the waivers are always going to come back um one on the record. Yeah, waiverss are always going to come back. I mean, that's not conforming. That's outside of what the code provides
for. So, you'll still have the preliminary plat. It's just at that point, the final plat um they're they're really just more of a ministerial duty at that point by resolution and it's for recording purposes and such. So, what this does is eliminate that that step.
It also tightens the the time frame. um once they're ready to apply for that final plat um the city has an obligation to provide a complete uh completeness report I guess you know basically we have to indicate exactly what they have to provide and we have to respond to
them within seven business days letting them know if their application is fully complete or if there are deficiencies and what time frame they can expect to get a response by whatever time frame we commit to which is um generally
somewhere between 30 to 45 days. That time frame is set in stone. So that's basically also to uh provide a quicker turnaround time to the developers and um and it also provides for recording of
that. Um so what we have done is we wanted to build in an extra step. So I we're preserving the right. So let's say the final plat doesn't meet um or gets denied which you have to provide a
written explanation of denials. Um if that gets denied then uh or it gets approved with conditions then and they want to appeal that they can come to you. You would be that that's the next step and um you would evaluate that decision before they can pursue um legal
recourse. That way it kind of still keeps you know keeps you involved at that level. But absent that if they comply with everything in the preliminary plot final plot is um pretty much administrative. So
that is the requirements of the law. Okay. Now any questions on that? Oh wait. No. Okay. Anyone in the audience have questions on this item? Between two lovers. Seeing none, I will close public input.
Mr. Mayor. Okay. Could I get a uh I make a motion to approve? Ironically, this is the exact item I asked you at the last meeting. I said, "We've had three of these on the agenda. Would you like these on consent or do you want them on the agenda for discussion?" Your response was, "We want
them on the agenda for discussion." And then shortly thereafter, the state preempted us and said, "You don't get to hear these anymore. We don't need to discuss." I'll I'll second Gary's motion. Yeah. I just say I made a motion to approve 2558. Okay. Second. Okay.
Been moved and properly. Second. Christine. Vice Mayor Ashcraft. I. Commissioner Holland. Hi. Commissioner Lee. Hi. Commissioner Ozbody. Hi. Mayor Hawkins. Hi. Thank you. Now we're going to move on to
ordinances. Uh we have for second reading ordinances 25-10 11 and 12. We will start with um ordinance 25-10. Any additional presentation on this? Okay. We had presentation on these
ordinances uh June 19th. Um, an ordinance of the city commission of the city of Eustace, Florida, voluntarily annexing approximately 60 acres of real property at Lake County Property Appraisers alternate key numbers 3957568,
3957567, and 3450680 located on the west side of State Road 19 along Ruth Avenue. Um, does the commission have any questions for Mr. Richardson? Would anyone in the audience like to
speak on ordinance number 25-10? Seeing none, I'll close public input. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, approval of ordinance number 25-10. Second. I have a first and it's been properly second. Christine, roll call, please. Vice Mayor Ashcraft.
I. Commissioner Holland. I. Commissioner Lee. Hi. Commissioner Asody. I. Mayor Hawkins. Hi. Next is ordinance 25-11, an ordinance of the city commission of the city of Eustace, Lake County, Florida, amending the city of Eustace
comprehensive plan pursuant to Florida statute 163.3187, changing the future land use designation of approximately 60 acres of recently annexed real property at alternate key numbers 3957568, 3957567,
and 3450680. generally located on the west side of state road 19 along Ruth Avenue from urban low in Lake County to suburban residential in the city of Eustace. Does commission have any questions on this item for staff? Would anyone in the audience like to
speak on ordinance 25-11? Seeing none, we'll close public input. Mr. Mayor, move approval of ordinance 2511. Second. Yes. Move and promptly second. Roll call. Who seconded that? Ash. Thank you. Vice Mayor Ashcraft.
Hi, Commissioner Holland. Hi, Commissioner Lee. Hi, Commissioner Ozbody. Hi, Mayor Hawkins. Hi. And the last of this set is ordinance 25-12, an ordinance of the city commission of the city of Eustace, Lake County, Florida, assigning the suburban
corridor design district designation to approximately60 acres of real of recently annexed real property at alternate key numbers 3957568, 3957567, and 3450680. Generally located on the west side of
State Road 19 along Ruth Avenue. Are there any questions from commission? Anyone in the audience wishing to speak on ordinance 25-12? Seeing none, we'll close public input. Mr. Mayor, approval. Second. Roll call, please. Christine.
Vice Mayor Ashcraft. I. Commissioner Holland. I. Commissioner Lee. Hi. Commissioner Azotti. I. Mayor Hawkins. I. For first reading, we have ordinances 25-13,4 and 15. Um, we'll have presentation on
all three. First is uh ordinance 2513, an ordinance of the city commission of the city of Eustace, Florida, voluntarily annexing approximately 6.18 acres of real property at Lake County Property Appraisers alternate key numbers 3862860
and 1193532 located east of Palmetto Street, north of Hollywood Avenue and northwest of Daw Street. Mr. Richardson. Um as was stated we have proposed ordinances 2513 14 and 15 for the
annexation assignment of land use and design district assignment um for certain property east of Palmetto and North Hollywood Avenue. Uh the property owner is Bergland Land Holdings LLC. Charles Hayyatt is the um applicant for
this particular project. Uh the property is approximately 6.1 acres in size. Uh current future land use is Lake County's urban medium uh going to urban city of East urban residential and suburban neighborhood.
Uh location of the property again as you can see uh east of Palmetto and north of Hollywood and Bates Avenue. Um the property directly adjacent to this is already in the city uh is also owned by
the applicant and is under the MCR future land use currently. So it does have flow through to Palmetto um aerial for the property. Uh this property is in the city of
Eustace Lake County JPA. Uh it is contiguous to the city of limits. Uh notice was provided to Lake County on June 13th um meeting Florida statute. The notice uh for the or the published notice um was made on July 1st and then
again on July 7th again meeting the minimum requirements for the Florida statute for annexation. Uh the site was also posted um slightly prior to July 1st. Uh, I think the applicants picked the items up on I think they posted on
Friday. They picked the items up in post. Um, again, existing future land use, Lake County urban medium allows up to seven dwelling units per acre. The requested land use is urban residential in the city of Eustace, which allows up to 12 dwelling units per
acre. surrounding properties um are also under that um urban residential designation that are already in the city. Um that or the MCR future land use designation um staff's review we find that the
request is consistent with the surrounding properties existing the land use signed to the existing properties surrounding it. Um it is located in between the city of Eustace' um treatment plant as well as the um
Eustaceai carry center. Um the urban future land use designation is basically the most directly compatible as far as for the um allowance of density um to the lake county's urban medium.
Uh the property uh in this case can be served by utilities. There is availability um natural resource facilities. It does, sorry, not facilities, features. It does have um wetland impact on the small piece of
property that extends up to um Gford. Um it uh that is the only place that it is impacted by wetland and flood plane. um for this particular piece of
property. Um again, utilities are located on the east side for sewer and on the actually on the north as well for sewer. Um and then on the west for water services. Um
the flood zone again impacts the small flag pole type area. Yeah, I guess if you want to consider this to be an inserted uh inverted flag, um it only impacts that area uh as well as the wetland is uh creates
the same impact. Uh the uh property is located in the medium high recharge area at 8 to 12 inches per year. Um so is the surrounding area. um this property or this annexation
would potentially le it is already an enclave the the properties as they exist in Lake County. It would leave basically three slash4 enclave areas remaining that will not be within city limits. I say the slash4
because the properties to the south actually do have connection to Bates Avenue. uh design district is exactly the same as all the surrounding area that is already in the city which is a suburban neighborhood. Um based on those factors, uh staff is
recommending that the city commission consider its approval of ordinances 2513, 2514, and 2515. Okay, that is all I have for you. Any questions for Mr. Richardson from the commission?
Do we have any cards? Do not. Okay. Would anyone in the audience like to speak on ordinance is 25-3013? Seeing none, I will close public input. Mr. Mayor, mayor, I move approval of ordinance number 25-13. Second. It's been moved properly.
Second. Christine. Roll call, please. Could I just get who motioned and seconded? Mike motioned and Gary second. Thank you so much. Vice Mayor Ashcraft. I. Commissioner Holland. Hi. Commissioner Lee. Hi. Commissioner Asbati. Hi.
Mayor Hawkins. Hi. Next is ordinance 25-14, an ordinance of the city commission of the city of Eustace Lake County, Florida, amending the city of Eustace comprehensive plan pursuant to Florida statute 163.3187, changing the future land use designation
of approximately 6.18 acres of recently annexed real property at alternate key numbers 3862860 and 1193532. located east of Palmetto Street, north of Hollywood Avenue and northwest of Daw Street from urban medium in Lake County to urban residential in the city of
Eustace. We've had presentation. Are there any questions for Mr. Richardson on this? Would anyone in the audience like to speak on ordinance 25-14? Seeing none, I will close public input. Mr. Mayor, move approval of ordinance number 25-14.
Okay. Yeah. Vice Mayor Ashcraft. Hi, Commissioner Holland. Hi, Commissioner Lee. Hi, Commissioner Asbody. Hi, Mayor Hawkins. I And the last ordinance is 25-15, an ordinance of the city commission of the
city of Eustus's Lake County, Florida. Assigning the suburban neighborhood design district designation to approximately 6.18 acres of recently annexed real property at alternate key numbers 3862860 and 1193532 located east of Palmetto Street north of
Hollywood Avenue and northwest of Taw Street. Any questions from the commission? No. Any uh one in the audience wishing to speak on this item? Seeing none, we'll close public input. Mr. Mayor, move approval of ordinance number 25- second. Okay, it's been moved and
properly second. You're ready to go, aren't you? Vice Mayor Ashcraft. I Yes. Commissioner Holland. Hi. Commissioner Lee. Hi. Commissioner Asody. Hi. Mayor Hawkins. Hi.
I have a full presentation next on the legislative changes. Just kidding. Just kidding. Yeah, you would. You would be on that one. Uh I do have some light reading under my report though, but go ahead. 6.12 got take home to take home for you
to take home. Yeah, we take home. So 612 goes away. We take the next rest of it. Yeah. How about that? We can we can the we can not do 7.1. Okay.
No discuss. No, this Well, yes. In light of what we just the new legislation, we really can't do that either. Yeah, that's true. Can't do any of that. And I I'm sorry. I don't want to slow things up, but I do want to point out one thing. Um,
previously approved legislation is requiring St. John's to be more strict when it comes to storm water water quality. And so what I want to point out is we our code currently says we uh
defer to St. John's or follow St. John's. They're being required. They're being required to improve how storm water gets done with low impact development and with storm water quality. And so my reading of Senate
Bill 180 is that St. John's is not included in that restriction to not be more restrictive or burdensome. And so what I want to point out is St. John's is required by state law to become more restrictive on storm water. and our code
says we follow St. John's. And so I do think we need to have a discussion about this and Okay, you brought it up then. Um cuz I was I was about to let it go because based on what we we did on Senate Bill 180. All All I'm trying to
do with this and we can if you want to go and bring the slides up, go ahead. Is is is find a way to prevent some of these things that are happening with the storm water. Um, can you get that up, Marissa? And and my comment would be if these
facilities meet St. John's requirements, we can't do any. Our code says that we follow St. John's. And so if we want something more restrictive, I don't know if we can currently do that.
I'm not asking for more restrictive. I'm just asking for different ways of doing storm waters besides all these deep holes. Now, this one is the new medical plaza right off of Kurt Street. And the hole is
literally I I don't know if you got the other picture. It's literally right up to the back door. It's literally four feet from the back door. all have it. I mean I mean I know they have to have a door there because you know I'm sure of fire safety but they can't use any of this in
the back back of the I mean it's a hole. So and I and I I've heard Mike for how many years now say there's other ways we can do storm water besides all these deep holes. So can you go to the next slide please?
That's a good looking bunch. Yeah, this this this is this is right off our corridor and people see this. There's there's got to be a better way than this. And number one, it's using a valuable parking space. And number two, it's not it's not doing anything else
but growing weeds. And I don't believe the fountain is even allowed to be there, which I'm I don't care about that. I'm just trying to make a point that we have to think a little differently on how to control I mean and I know the thinking from the last
meeting was you know we want these open spaces to be more recreational but there's no way to do that when they all look like this. So I mean can we think of anything better? I I don't I heard you. My point is changes are coming from St.
John's and we'll have to see what those changes. But I mean, don't but don't they give don't they give different ways of control controlling storm water? I mean, you can do it this way, this way, or this way or is it just all this way? Were you the one always bringing up the
swells and and be dangerous, huh? But I'm just thinking they don't they don't give options of controlling storm water besides this. Daniel, right? Do you have anything, Daniel? Yeah.
Um, this is Daniel. Uh, I'm a staff engineer work on the Rick. Um, one of the reasons why, uh, this ponds look this way is also because of the water quality treatment that it receives. So that means that
the area that you might see there is also it has an intended purpose to actually treat the water and there's biological processes that actually occur in that pond before it actually goes to a recharge area. So a lot of these
shapes, although they're not very aesthetically pleasing, they do have a function. I don't I don't doubt the function, but you know, if we want if we want open spaces to be more recreational, being more functional, then we have to think
of something different. That's all that's all I'm saying. So, that's fine. Thanks, D. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Oh, Tom, anything else? Well, that that's it on that item. Yeah. I didn't even want to bring it up,
but he made you. Okay. Uh that's it. Okay. Next up, future agenda items u and comments. Mike, I I'd just like to congratulate u Ael
Barry uh from Advent Health Waterman uh being promoted to CFO of Florida Hospital Orlando. We're going to miss him greatly here in Eustace and in Lake County. He has done a tremendous job out at Waterman over the years and he has
been a good partner with the city of Eustace. So congratulations to him and we're going to miss you. A really do we know who's I have not heard yet. There is a reception and I will get that to Miranda
and Tom tomorrow on the 22nd which is next week. It's kind of a going away reception for him. So I think it's some of us would like to go hopefully. Okay. things. That's it. That's it. Go ahead, Emily. I did receive a um very strong
compliment to our planning department um from a gentleman who worked with them and said that he's worked with numerous city planning departments, but this one was the most organized and knowledgeable that they had ever worked with and they how much they appreciated the help that they got.
You know what? I I got one of those as well. So, so keep up the good work. Okay. Anything else? That's it. Okay. Okay. I've Yeah, I've got a I've actually got a few things. Had no idea we was going to be here this long, but
um so as you know, I've been working with the Japanese Arts and Cultural uh center um that's outside of Eustace. The owners, Sebastian and Chelsea Veila, have invited me to go meet a general council from Japan.
uh number one to talk about the Japanese arts and cultural festival we're going to be having here and then secondly maybe to start a relationship about possible investment or uh job opportunities that might come to us.
That meeting is uh August 15th 11:00 a.m. in Miami. I definitely would like to go, but I would like from the permission of the commission to u be reimbured for some travel expenses and time.
I think any I think anytime we can do anything to promote our city if all he's looking for is some travel expense and and Tom as well. With your permission, Tom and Tom to go too. No, I don't need anyone to go. I mean I just it it actually coincides with Florida
League of Cities. I know. And I wasn't going I wasn't going there anyway. So is that okay? His travel expenses. Yes. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Um and then um
a longtime resident um and volunteer Pat Davis um is uh on hospice. Um, she's been a resident of EUs for I don't know how many years, maybe 30 plus years. She's all volunteered her pretty much
her adult life. Uh, we are going to have a ceremony at the community center Friday at 3:30 to commemorate all her all her years of service to uh to Eusta. So, I like invite commission or anybody else that wants to come to that 3:30 community
center. It's going to be on the boardwalk. Okay. It's going to be on the board. Okay. What's the date again? Tomorrow. Tomorrow. 3:30. 3:30. Um, and then next, uh, Sam is still here. Thank you, Sam.
Wake up, Sam. So, their part, he ain't listening to us. Their their their parks um and recreation had an event called the Altimont Springs Central Florida Teen Challenge. And I guess where they do
these all these events against other counties and other cities. I think it was children 12 to 15. I don't know how many events they did, but our recck department one out of all the Can you give us more info on that?
Yes. So it was the city of Orlando winter garden and springs and a couple other cities that that wanted to be involved. Uh it was uh coordinated by Ryan Stansel who oversees our team program. Um took a bunch of kids down about 35 of
them. Uh they actually he actually they actually played a joke on came in my office saying look you need to talk to the kids man. They was just acting up. So I was going out there to let him have it. They all got off the bus looking like they you know they did something wrong. Yeah. And they
and they started chanting use this use this. And they pull out these big trophies with ch uh medallions on the neck. So yeah, it was a nice little night for them. What did they do? Uh it was a bunch of games, basketball, football. It was uh track and field,
checkers, chess, and things like that. So it was a good event. We'll post something on on Facebook. Cool. Yeah, they uh they did a obstacle course, uh brain games, kickball. Well, anyway, I think it's a testament to you and your team for all the dedication and
inspiration you do for the kids to come out and and win something like this. So, thank thank you for thank you for all that. So, thank you. Yeah. You know, and to go along with that, you know, the the the kids from Parks and Recre, they went down to Fair and Park
and and did a clean. They did. Yeah. That's the program and and I don't think that's ever been done before. So, again, kudos to It's only only eight months in. So, that's we just started in October. So, that's awesome. I mean, really, that's a
I think they do a great job at that department. and they don't get a lot of they don't get a lot of kudos. So, and I know I know how hard you guys are working there. So, thanks for everything you're doing. Thank you. All right. Nope, I'm I'm not done. Sorry. Um and
I'm assuming most of us up here probably all already heard that um longtime resident Bill Gay passed away yesterday. Bill was uh so dedicated to this community in so many different ways. he gave and and part of the chamber did so
much. Um I mean I only known him a few years but um he was just a delight to be around. Um I know I was able to visit him yesterday after or yesterday morning at hospice and um he acknowledged that I was there. Um but
uh he he's in a far better place today. He fought a good fight. Yeah. Yeah, he did. Yeah. And um he just like I said he he just did so much. Um and then lastly for me uh Saturday I am on vacation to the 27th.
Uh I will not be answering my phone. But if I need to be Yeah, I won't. I'm not answering my phone, but uh I will have access to email every now and then. So u just just letting that letting you know. Okay. All right. Thank you. Well, thank
you, George. I was just going to just our hearts out to to the gay family and that was really what I was going to say. I think uh the vice mayor said it well. He he he carried and helped chamber. He played in the bands. He did a lot of great things.
He kept the spirit. He rode the motorcycles for our George Fest for so many years. Became the bud man. I just continued on that. That was really all um I had to have to say. Uh, thank you for a record meeting.
I don't think this is our record meeting. No, it's not. I've been here to one o'clock in the morning, so we're doing quite well. So, yeah. I uh you know, I want to Oh, I'm sorry, Tom. Uh yeah, a couple of items. I want to thank the finance department. They've
been working hard on uh we received a uh request for information from uh Florida Doge uh related to revenues and expenses. Uh finance has been working hard to put that together. Uh that's due uh Monday, July 21st, so this coming
Monday. So thank you to all their hard work on that. Um we do have a workshop scheduled for 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. Um, I do want to just I'm going to stay here. I do want to apologize in that uh one
piece of information we were hoping to have uh is the um is there or is there not a deed restriction on the community center site. Uh we don't have that answer. We don't have the title work yet. Uh they're saying they will have it
to us uh by tomorrow, but we don't know what time. Uh I would recommend that we continue to move forward with the workshop. Uh but I want to hear what commission has to say about uh moving forward with the workshop. Can you give me just an over? This is to
review the master plan moving forward the hoffers thing and is that what we're doing? I'm not sure. I So I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. I I thought our intention was to
to solidify what we wanted on those three blocks. What about the community center? Oh yeah, that's all that's going to be part I think in that all part of the conversation discussion. Yeah. I mean there's there's a lot to figure out.
Yeah. But but we need to at at this point we need to make start making decisions and and I think if we keep kicking it down the road, you know, this time next year it's going to be so we we've got to make some decisions.
So consensus is we move forward with the workshop tomorrow 9:00 a.m. Yes. Eggs and bacon, please. Scram. Scramble or egg whites only? There there will be refreshments. Refreshments.
Promising eggs. All right. Fresh chicken eggs related to uh budget. Uh we had a budget budget workshop. We had some discussion today, but we have not covered uh capital improvement and we've not
covered uh other funds outside of the general fund. And so um I I would ask that we uh schedule additional budget a one workshop or multiple workshops or um
the commission can review what we've provided and give us feedback. And so I'd like to know, would you like additional workshops or you do do you want to review those um that budget information one-on-one and get back to
me or staff on what you'd like to see? And we need to have all this together by when? Well, the CIP we need to pull together pretty quickly. uh the other funds like the utility operating funds uh I would
say are not that they're unimportant but they are less critical to the state's millage and trim and budget timelines. Um so um again CIP it's important that we get CIP wrapped up pretty quickly and
the other funds we just have to wrap up heading into those September hearings. Mhm. Um and so I know um we have um we'll have to work around schedules, but I I
guess my preference would be we schedule at least one more workshop and we work through these items so that you can give us uh feedback on the budget. Uh but in the absence of that uh you'll have to get us feedback some other way. I think
it it to at least to me, I think it's better for us, you know, to do it together. I like hearing what everybody else thinks. And yeah, so I will uh knowing uh that we have to work around schedules, I will unless you want to look right now, I will send out
a doodle poll and we will schedule based on the doodle poll. You can't it can't be next week. I won't be here. Yeah, we won't. George, when did you get back? I don't I'm not saying that. I don't think we should. This is just friendly, guys. We shouldn't discuss our schedules in public.
Doodle poll is a good idea. Just doodle poll it. Okay. Sasha has spoken. Um and if you want me there, please make sure I get it. Sure. Don't forget to doodle. Okay. And the final thing, um I've been
communicating with the commission on recent media coverage. Uh I do want to say we've been working with the media outlets because there's been some frankly irresponsible journalism where they uh they have done some stories based on old meeting minutes and old
videos uh without the latest up-to-date information. And so we've been working um Marissa and Miranda and I have been working uh to make sure everybody has the most up-to-date information and accurate information. And so, uh, we're trying to make sure that everything out
there is accurate and up to date. And that's all I have. Okay. Uh, madame attorney. Okay. Me, um, I just have some light reading. I'll take one and pass it down. Just a summary of the,
um, changes that, uh, the legislature made that affect the city. Um, and some recommendations. just just little brief edit. So, if you have questions, you can just contact me directly. Um, if not, some of some of this you've already seen
tonight. Some will come back. Um, or no, some will come back, but you also have some new ones uh in subsequent meetings as well. So, it's just a little bit of a summary. Not such thing as home anymore. No, that's it.
Okay. Um, is that it, Sasha? Yes. Okay. Uh, I'd like to, you know, we've all been gone. Um, uh, but I'd like to say the Fourth of July festivities, uh, you know, I thought the city did a great job. The, the turnout, the turnout was
great. Um, even with the rain, it was packed. Um, so kudos to to Carl and and and everyone involved as well as PD and fire, you know, public works. Great job.
Uh, Gary mentioned Oh, yeah. And the chamber. Yeah, it was it was great because this was the first year I think that that we did something in conjunction with the chamber, at least the mayor's the mayor's. And you done?
I think Michael's been doing it. Been doing it. Yeah. Okay. Well, it worked out perfect because it was inside. So, that was great. Um, uh, drainage on Orange Avenue. Um, we've all heard about what's going on on on
Facebook. Um, I know that uh that that has been a problem for the last forever. Um, and I I suspect that uh a lot of the um uh the chatter on on
Facebook is because of DOT and what DOT is doing. Uh the city's on it. We're working on it. Um but if you look at the country, their cities being flooded and we just had
Orange Avenue in Bay. Um uh kudos to um uh kudos to uh police and fire. Uh over the course of the last two or three weeks, uh we've had shootings of some
sort and our guys uh uh our guys and and and and ladies, they I hate to say gals, uh they they responded uh and they they made us look good. Uh and and you know,
I I I think that even though we say it a lot, it's times like that where we really uh you know what they do uh and we appreciate it. Uh music festival uh our first uh I heard it was a great
event. I wasn't able to attend but I thought it was great for um activation of our downtown Bill Gay. I like Mike. I was able to stop by and see him yesterday and um
he was a good man. Uh the first time I met him is when the three of us were were running against one another. That's right. I forgot about that. Yeah. And uh No, but he is in a much better place.
And let's see. Uh Alvin Jackson has a book signing on the 27th Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. Next Sunday. And Alvin was what was he Tom? Was he the city manager?
I think he was city manager. Deputy city manager. Deputy city manager. Uh hometown boy. Uh done good. So uh it's next Sunday uh
from uh 3 to 6 uh at Carver at Carver Park. So if you get the opportunity, please please go out and uh support it. Okay, that's it. Anything else?
All right, we are ajourned.