I just saw when I got here. You change that clock. I can't see anything. It's time. It is. Six on the nose. Okay. One. Two minutes until 2 minutes until See the clock. Is the clock? Yeah. But not 6:00. 6:00.
Today is May 1st, 2025. The time is 6:00 p.m. Uh, city of Eustace commission meeting. Uh, please uh join us for an invocation by Pastor Dan Reagan from Life Point Church and pledge of allegiance led by Commissioner George
Ezbot. Father, we come before you so grateful for your love for us. And we think about this National Day of Prayer that we could come before you and show our gratitude by thanking you for for
blessing us, for blessing city of Eustace. Father, I thank you for the peace that we have. I thank you for just the environment that we can raise our kids. Father, I thank you for what you want to do and what you
want to continue to do with this town and the people in it. Father, I pray for your guidance and your blessings. I pray for wisdom for these commissioners that you would guide them and show them exactly the steps that need to be taken for our future. But God, we know above all
things, we are grateful because you have laid these things before us. And father, I pray that you guide and direct in a mighty way in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Please join me in 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
order. Uh Christine, is uh proper notice been given and do we have a quorum? Yes, mayor. Okay. Thank you. Are there any agenda updates? Tom? Uh no sir. Okay. Thank you. Uh commissioners before us we have the approval of minutes. April 5th,
2025 city commission workshop. Get approval. Move for approval. Second. Okay. Roll call. Commissioner Asbody. I. Vice Mayor Ashcraft. I. Commissioner Holland. Hi. Commissioner Lee. I. Mayor Hawkins. I. Okay. And next up we'll have
presentations and the recognition of Miss's winners. Miranda. Good evening everyone. I'm Miranda Mureer, the events and um communication director for the city of Eustace. Um it is my honor to introduce our 2025
royalty this evening. Um and before I do that, I'd also like to thank the Chamber of Commerce. Um this year they took over our junior program um which was very helpful to our team as the junior program is held both of them are held during GeorgeFest. the junior program is held during a very busy day for my team
and so to have their help with this program um was invaluable and we really appreciate that. So I want to make sure that I thank the chamber. Um and th for those of you that do not know our our program feeds into the Miss Florida program um where the young ladies can then go on to Miss Florida and maybe one
day be Miss America. So it's pretty cool that somebody from Eustace um could grow up through our program and one day walk across the Miss America stage. Um, we also give out uh educational scholarships. Um, and so we have awarded more than 6,000 educa dollars in
educational scholarships with the two years that we've done the program. So, we're very proud of it and very proud to have these ladies represent our beautiful city. I'd like to go ahead and introduce them. Um, our tiny miss is Kinsley Watson. And I never found Kinsley. I don't think she's here. Okay.
Um, our little miss is Violet Dorfler. And Violet had play practice tonight. She's the star of one of our in one of our local plays this evening and we're getting close to opening night. So, she was not able to be with us but sent sent her regards. Our junior miss is Miss
Riley Ward. Is Riley here just for cheer practice. Okay. See, everything's happening. Uh but our teen Miss Eustace is Reagan Ward who is Riley's big sister. So, come on up. I'm gonna go stand over there and we're going to take a picture at the end.
Okay. And then our Miss Eustace is Lauren Juprey. And if you aren't familiar, Lauren is actually the daughter of a City of Eustace employee, Miss Christine Duay. So, we're very proud of that. And did our Kinsley just walk in? Yes. All
right, Kinsley, are you almost ready? You're fine. You're fine. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Ken Kinsley Watson and this year's Miss George Fest um is the very special candidate that's going to represent us at Miss Florida um
in June. So, we're very proud of her and very happy to welcome Miss Jada Carter to our family. want to stand up. Let's take pictures. Okay. Thank you. Congratulations. Okay, next uh thank you
ladies. And next up we have the proclamation for building safety month. Uh Robert, could you come up? U I I think it's important that that we acknowledge that every
department in city hall is important. Um and no department goes unnoticed. Uh fortunate for us we have uh a new uh building inspector official building
official who has come in two months. Uh no I've been here for a little over a year. I've been building official for about two months. Two months. Exactly. But this is building safety. So we prepared a
proclamation and you may have to read proclamation. Whereas our city is committed to recognizing that our growth and strength depends on the safety and essential roles our home building, our homes building and infrastructure play
both in everyday life and when disaster strikes. And whereas our confidence The resilience of these buildings that make up our community is achieved through the devotion of vigilant guardians, building safety and fire preventition, fire
prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders, trades people, design professionals, laborers, plumbers, and others in the construction industry who work year round to ensure the safe construction of
buildings. And whereas these guardians are dedicated members of the International Code Council, a nonprofit that brings together local, state, territorial, tribal, and federal officials who are experts in the build
environment to create and implement the highest quality codes and standards to protect us in the buildings where we live, learn, work, play. And whereas these modern codes and standards include
safeguards to protect the public from hazards such as hurricanes, snowstorms, tornadoes, wildfire, wildland fires, floods, and earthquakes. And where else building safety money is sponsored by the
International Code Council to remind the public about the critical role of our community's largely unknown protectors of public safety, our code officials who assure us of safe, sustainable and affordable buildings that are essential
to our prosperity. And whereas game on the theme for building safety month 2025 encourage encourage encourages us all to get involved and raise awareness
about building safety on a personal, local, and global scale. And whereas each year and observation observance of building safety month. People all over the world are asked to consider commitment to
improve building safety, resilience, and economic investment at home and in the community and to acknowledge the essential service provided to all of us by local, state, tribal, territorial, and federal building safety and fire
prevention departments in protecting lives and property. Now therefore, I, Willie Hawkins, mayor of the city of Eucus, Florida, will hereby proclaim the month of May as public safety month. Accordingly, I
encourage our citizens to join us as we participate in building safety month. I hear I here unto set forth my hand and cause city to be fixed this first day of May, 2025.
you know. Um the You know, we uh uh these are unsung unsung heroes. You know, when someone comes in uh for a
building permit or uh or housing development, you know, they don't usually get the look like we do. But I I think it's important that we acknowledge them for building
[Applause] safer. I just wanted to mention in addition to something I'm proud as a citizen and as a commissioner to see our police departments collaborate with
other municipalities, our fire departments collaborate with other municipalities. I think it's important that you guys know that our building department along with Mount Dora who are their building official even came down for this ceremony has done a tremendous
support to helping wherever he can and sharing his knowledge mentoring John through all the uh years that got uh John mentoring Rob through all the years that got him here. That's something to be proud of when we work with other municipalities like that. So I wanted to recognize him and thank you. All right.
Thank you so much. Okay, next up we have a pres presentation from uh Danielle Straoud for the Habitat Habitat of Humanity uh preservation and repair program. Welcome Danielle. Thank you. Good evening
everybody. Happy to be here. I do have a PowerPoint so that's why I'm looking at Oh, she's What direction do I point this thing in? General, straight ahead. Got it. Easy. I can do that. Thank you for having me tonight. It's pleasure to be
here. Um, for those of you who don't know me as well, I'm Danielle Stout. I'm the CEO of the Habitat for Humanity of Lake and Sumpter County. I get to proudly represent all the volunteers, the staff members, and the families that we serve. And actually, one of the little girls that crowned tonight is a
Habitat homeowner. So, I was very happy to see her mom and her little girl here. So cute. I don't know how they keep those crowns on their head, but um so just briefly a little bit about Habitat before I specifically talk about the preservation and repair program. Um our mission is to build homes, community,
and hope. We believe in a vision where uh the world, everyone has a decent place to live. When you look at that map up there on the screen, all the colors that you see are where Habitat has a presence in other countries. Um but we like to say that we have global reach
because we are making waves in many places in the world. Uh but each Habitat affiliate is very much focused on local impact. Um when we look at the programs and services that are offered here in our community, we are looking at what the residents need. Um what other
municipalities might be requesting. So we very much approach this from a partnership perspective. Um and we try to take as much feedback and dialogue from community members themselves to inform the work that we do. Um this year we have um and are on track to complete
40 home repairs um throughout the 2count area. You'll see of course Lake and Sumpter kind of smooshed together on that map. It's a pretty big service area um with 20 different municipal partners that we are working with including the city of Eustace. And then we also have 18 new
homes this year. And when I say this year, for us, our fiscal year ends in June. So, it's coming along very quickly. Um, we'll have 18 new homes that will very soon have homeowners in them ready to start their chapter in home ownership. So, these are the core
programs. Most of the time when people think about Habitat for Humanity, they think about new construction. They think about being on the job site, volunteerism. Um, one misconception is that homes are given away. That is not true. Home buyers pay an affordable mortgage. They pay taxes and insurance just like anyone else. Um we are just
working with them to provide an affordable product that is not really relatively available on the open market. So outside of the home ownership program um a a program that we run and we have done so since 2015 is our preservation and repair program which I'm going to specifically talk about tonight. We also
have our veterans housing initiative which is a focus on providing veterans with new home product as well as repairs and engaging them in the work that we do so they too can give back. And then we also have our youth construction academy which is a partnership with five different schools throughout Lake and
Sumpter County providing them with skills um experiential learning in the construction industry and the outputs of affordable housing. And then lastly, of course, we do as much as we can with education. Um, so we work with home buyers that are not even necessarily Habitat home buyers to understand how to
maintain their home. What does it mean to have a will to preserve their asset as a generational wealth building tool? Things like this. Um, budgeting 101, anything that is going to make someone um, better at taking that asset and preserving it for their future of the household. And then of course we work on
policy and housing issues that not only once again affect Habitat homeowners but the general public at large. So, in the past five years, we've completed 32 new homes, 120 of these preservation repair style projects across the two county area, and we've
invested over $6 million in local housing solutions to benefit families and once again build their opportunity for their future and for their children. These are just some of the areas that we've worked in over that 5-year period um with those numbers and kind of how they're broken out. Um
you'll see some larger numbers in different cities and I'll talk a little bit about those as are some of the cities that we probably partner very heavily with in both of our programs and uh that's what we're here to talk about tonight. So, the preservation and repair program, the qualifications that you see here,
um, one thing that I will say is Habitat has general guidelines and then when we have a partnership with a municipal partner or even a funding partner that might be a private partner, those guidelines can be slightly adjusted to once again honor the funer who is asking
us to do the job. So, what do I mean by that? Well, traditionally Habitat typically serves families and individuals that are at or below 80% of the area median income. In this program in particular, our norm is 50% of the area median income and below.
Predominantly, the individuals that we are serving are seniors, disabled individuals, and veterans. That is not a requirement. That just happens to be the greatest um population of need in that income bracket typically throughout our two county area. But once again,
depending upon who we're partnering with, if that is not a requirement by that funer or by that municipal partner, those um criteria can be slightly adjusted um through discussions and mutual agreement. So, a couple things that we
do always want to see as a Habitat. Uh we are for home ownership and that's not just about building new homes, it's also about maintaining our already existing affordable housing stock. So, as you can imagine on the housing spectrum, if you had a leaky bucket, you keep putting
more units into it, but you keep losing units on the other end. We have to work from both sides of the coin. And that is why Habitat started this program in 2015 because there were so many residents that not only could not afford a Habitat home if we were to build it today. Um, but there was nowhere them for them to
go if they became displaced. So we started to focus in on providing opportunity for families to once again keep them in a safe position um while also being able to maintain that asset for their future family. So of course we need to make sure uh that you know everything is safe
on the front end. So if they don't have home owner insurance that's okay. Most of these cases come to us and they've lost their insurance because they cannot afford a new roof as you can imagine. So we work with them on that. But there's a hold harmless that's going to be put into place. And then when we ever whenever we finish the repair, we want
to work with them once again to get them back into a position of safety, bringing back their homeowners insurance, that type of thing. And then of course, we look at making sure that they're up to date on their taxes and their mortgage so that that house is not going to be readily taken away from them the second that we invest in it. So, um, and all of
these things, we will help the home buyer get into the position to be able to be served. So, we don't just say, "Sorry, can't help you. You didn't check this box." Um we have a great programs team uh who does an amazing job on navigating all of the situations that come to us and none of them come to us in a perfect package.
So uh that's just part of the work that we do. The scope of the program uh we predominantly focus on health, safety and accessibility. Um so in a nutshell we're looking at the bones of the house. We want to ensure that, you know, we
don't have a leaky roof and we're going in to change a toilet because over time that leak le leaky roof is going to cause a lot of other problems. So when we go into a home and we do a scope of work, we are looking for everything, not just what the homeowner has identified as their issue because many times there
are a lot of issues and then we will triage if you will based on that set of issues and the funding available and the program criteria as connected with the partner that we're working with. So we will do pretty much anything. Um we do utilize some volunteers on some of
these. Some of them we will utilize clearly licensed subcontractors and we essentially act as the general contractor and the project manager. Um so it eliminates having that extra overhead if you will. Our staff does that. Um our staff does the intake. Um
and we have the capacity to uh manage as you see we do 40 to 50 projects regularly throughout the course of the year depending upon the funding sources that might eb and flow increase or decrease depending on the year. Um so like I said the objective here is that we're going to prever preserve the
affordable housing stock but also we want to beautify and uplift the neighborhood. Um so some of our projects are focused on light beautifification intentionally because it's a partnership once again with the municipality. So, for example, we just finished a project
in Leburg um in Woodland Park and we worked on 16 homes and the intention was for painting, landscaping, yard cleanup. The residents of the neighborhood were heavily involved in this. We found the paint sponsor. We made it happen. Leburg High School students came out and worked
on these homes over the course of the year. And then we finished that uh neighborhood and said, "Hey, we're going to have a party and celebrate." And it was fun. So, um, the pictures that you see here is one of those light beautifification projects from the city of Leburg, the before and after, which is just a simple paint job. But you'd be
surprised how much pride people take in having even the smallest things done. Um, it's also a great way to introduce the work of what Habitat is and to build trust. Many communities lack trust in government. They lack trust in
outsiders. And so, um, it is our job to pretty much make an introduction, but find neighborhood residents and community leaders who are leading the charge and are saying, "Hey, we want to make our neighborhood better and uplift it for everyone, not just for myself or my
neighbor." Um, so of course we do heavy intense critical home repair as well. Um this is one example in the city of Mount Dora who's one of our partners. We work with them in their CRA area um for their
um investments in this uh northeast side. So this home uh the homeowner had inherited this home from her mother and um was living in a different place and said thought to she said to herself, "Oh, I'm never going to live there. You know, it's run down. I don't have the money to invest in it." um circumstances
changed for her and she was forced to basically live in this house because she had no other option at that time due to family circumstances. And so um thankfully it was someone that the city had brought forward to us and in partnership we were able to invest in
her home and as you can see it's in a much better position today than it was when we started. Um she is a bus driver for the school district so these are essential workers that we need to have uh a safe roof over their head. Um, this house was a hot mess. When you looked at
the electrical, everything, it was in very unsafe condition. Um, so we were really proud to have um, both private and public funders who were willing to come alongside this homeowner and invest in their future and her children.
So, I talked a little bit about uh, success and what that looks like, but just to redefine that here. So, our objective is to uplift neighborhoods as we do our work. That is also true when we're building new homes. Um we may look around and say, "Hey, we but let's talk to some residents and see if they want us to come back and do light
beautifification here. We're part of the community now. We want these homeowners to grain with those homeowners and really feel a sense of pride. Um, of course, when you look at critical home repair and some of the shape of the homes that we're going into to do um the work that we do can be very stressful
when you're going to bed at night and you have a leaky roof and it's been leaking for 10 years. Um so our objective is to ensure that when we walk away that there is both mental and physical relief from whatever is going on in that household. Um so that's why I say they might come to us and say we
need our toilet fixed but we do a whole house assessment to identify what are really the challenges in this household. And then from there with feedback and the voice clearly of the homeowner, we take all of that in consideration, but we also might make suggestions and other
thing that we can do to help them. And we do want to see that when we invest in a house that's going to have a lifespan more than just a few years. We don't want to put band-aids on the houses. Um we want to do the best that we can that that that essentially can live another lifestyle potentially with another
family or with the child or whatever the case may be. um that once again we are not losing that that affordable house um to either disrepair to be bulldozed down and a giant house built. I mean there's enough of those going on. So those those are kind of how we define success. And
then some of our current partners through the preservation and repair program right now as I said the city of Mount Door we've been working with for several years. um they had the the great gumption to decide, hey, we want to do a program. We are going to fund it at
$250,000 every year. It did require a 50% match. So, they were struggling and none of the home buyers that they were the homeowners that they were working with could come up with those funds. And so, I made a recommendation, hey, can Habitat work with you? We will be able to find the philanthropic dollars to
count as the match. And when you saw that slide before with how many um units were served in Mount Doris, close to 34 and that is because the program has since then been four years been very successful. Um and we are happy to do that on behalf of this city, the city
council and the residents that they're trying to serve. Um we also have a strong relationship with the city of Leburg both for repair and new construction. Um, USDA is a partner of ours in some of our more rural areas for preservation and repair and critical home repair. And then we have many, many
private funders who come alongside us um to be able to make these projects happen both through grant writing, corporate sponsors who just want to donate their time, their labor, um you name it, just individual donors. So, uh I will leave it with that unless you guys have any
questions. I do. Uh great pres presentation. Um, do you leverage funds like state funds? Do you have the ability to do that? Um, so yes, when available. So through the SHIP program
and some other um even county programs, uh, we will as much as we can. If we have someone that goes through and is eligible, we will. Okay. So I say that we will, but there's not always a pool of funding for it that's available.
Okay. uh on an average uh how much do you put in in general? That's a great question. So, when you're talking about critical home repair, uh you're looking typically 15,000 to $20,000. So, you'll have some projects that are a little
less than that. The Mount Door one was probably closer to 50,000. Mhm. And uh is there a situation where you you encounter a house that you just say we can't do it? Unfortunately, yes. So,
like I said, if we cannot substantially renovate the home enough to give it a lifespan for our next generation or to even be safe for that individual person, most likely we're not going to invest in it. But we will look at other options for what might be out there, reach out to other partners. So very rarely are we
just going to walk away and say so sorry. We're going to try to identify what are the available solutions. Maybe it's not habitat. Um and maybe it's not just habitat becomes the answer. So that's kind of how we would approach that. Okay. How long does it typically
take you? Excuse me. So that completely depends on the scope of work. Um but I would say three months on average. It's if it's a significant investment into the house for the critical home repair. If they only need one thing done. I mean, you know, and it's they just need a re-roof or something like that. Most
of our vendors are a couple weeks out, so it it it arranges drastically. Okay, great. Do the owners have any skin in the game? Do they participate or put some effort into this? Yes. So, if they are physically capable, we do ask them
participate. Um, we have an equivalency rate, if you will, for our sweat equity, which we do in home ownership. That would be the same kind of concept with preservation and repair. And it's based on how long we might be working on their pro their project. So, you know, it may only come out to be a few hours, but
that is dependent upon how long we're working with them. And some of that might be participating with us in other ways, not necessarily on their house depending upon who they are and their situation. The house that you you you showed us
with the um the before and after, uh was that one that was solely um habitat Um, yes, we were the project manager. We had subcontractors that did work on that house. We also had volunteers. Okay.
Okay. All right. Yeah. No, I mean I asked uh I asked Danielle to come in to give this presentation because I mean I believe you know we have we have funding that's not being used in our CRA program
um for renovations and I think Habitat has the resources as well as the manpower to be able to have those funds utilized how we want the residents in in town to do it. I I I really do. Yeah.
Now, I will say that uh because I go and I you know uh uh and I I visit the homes uh the money that we have we are using. Um and we're probably on an average of
three houses every month and a half. Uh but what I do like is the possibility that we can use this in another part of the city instead of the CRA. Well, I think there are other parts of the city
that that that we can use them as well. I also like uh Danielle's ability through Habitat to have an education to this as well. We can spend all the money we want to unless we teach people to take care of what we're doing for them. we're going to be right back in the same
position. So, I I do appreciate that as well. That's something I've always asked about our program, too, that they're how do we make it so they don't get back into that situation? And I think that that's what you offer to them, and I like that. Yeah. But I I I think that uh
that if if you all went out and you looked at some of the houses that Lake Community Action has done, you would see that that is actually the case. Uh so it's not like they're leaving them and uh they're destroying the homes. Uh but
I again I do think that that it's a program that that we should consider. Uh uh should we consider one outside of the CR? Yeah, that's what I'm Yeah. I mean I think I I think we really need it for the whole for the whole city, not just
our CRA. There's people live outside of the CRA that could that could benefit from this. Um I'm not sure about having separate programs, but um but I mean the goal is is is to make people have safe homes and uplift the community. So I
mean I think we should really consider those. Yeah. One of the things that that the other program does that I don't know if Danielle can do to the level that they are is the ability to leverage funds. Uh we typically spend 12 thou
12,000 out of our on a house and uh they're able to to uh to leverage up to 20,000. Uh but that's because
We've set our program up for the CRA. Um, but I would like to see us Daniel, did you have a chance to look at the the lake uh committee action program? Yes. And how how it might differ a little bit from from yours? Yes. Their program is
predominantly focused on weatherization is the term that I'll use, but it's predominantly focused on and the funds that they receive are about an analysis of essentially energy savings at the end of the project. So inherently the work that we do is different because of that.
I'm not saying that our homes wouldn't also be energy effic efficient at the end. Um but we're not looking at it through the same lens. Um, so for example, someone might not have any AC in their house. We're going to install it and now automatically their utility bill is going to go up. We see that as a
positive thing through the type of funds that they are using in the program that necessarily wouldn't produce the results that they're wanting to see. But the program is great. Lake Community Action does great work. So, you know, I will definitely say this. Whatever you do, I
highly encourage you to choose to make a defined plan on how you want to invest in housing in your community, whether it's in the CRA using CRA dollars or not. Um, I mean, I applaud the commissioners that make that decision
and um decide year after year, this is what we're going to do and provide the opportunity for it to become an excellent program and better your residents and the city all around through that. So, I know when I chatted with Tom, he had told me, you know, you guys had a pool of money and it was
slowly being spent down, but there was not necessarily a direct focus and plan on producing affordable housing program that you wanted to see invested in your community. So, I'll encourage you to do that. Well, I think I think for me it's they don't use all the money every year,
and I would like to see the money marketed and and used and get the most benefit. Um, I believe last year we we rolled over money to to this year and we even added a little extra money. I I would like to see those those funds used
every year and marketed to the to the to the the homeowners that really really need it. And I think I think you might have the resources to do that. Correct. Yes. Yeah. Well, and and we have to understand again they leverage what we
give them. So they get more done with what we give them. And uh Danielle's and again great program. Uh Danielle's average uh is 20,000. So if we give a $100,000, we can get 10
houses done with Lake Community Action whereas we get five done with. So let me just let you know that all of our other partners, it's a 50% match that we leverage the remaining 50%. Mhm. So we are matching dollar for dollar everything that the government entity is providing.
Good to know. So you'll be the same as light lake actually. So I certainly can do that. We had discussed essentially um with my other partners there is a small percentage that would go towards the direct labor. Um so if if essentially
the city of Eustace was funding the whole project then I'm not concerned whatsoever about even needing to charge that or use it. And most of the time we don't even take it because we go over the match for the city and put in more money ourselves to be very honest with you. Um so you know when we were
dialoguing and I was talking with the staff as well that was a question about admin fees. What does that look like? How does it work? And on average ours are about 10 to 14%. We've done it where it's a flat rate before but I will tell you they are not as substantial as what
Lake Community Action charges. We do not charge anything on the front end. It's only if we get awarded the project and we begin work. We don't charge anything for the scope, the assessment, all of that. So, like I said, the programs are just inherently different. And there's nothing wrong with that. The more people we can serve, the better. What did you
say your admin fees are? Um, for USDA, they're 14. For um Mount Dora, they're around 10. So once again, it's kind of a little bit of a discussion, negotiation, a mutual agreement based on how you want to see the program happen and how how
large the scope of works are allowed to go, things like that. I know I'm new at this, but um is there an opportunity here with all of these vacant lots we have um that have been around since forever? Are those
opportunities with Habitat to take some of those lots and let them build on them? We've had them sitting for Yeah. decades now. You know, we I I these lots were motor home owned. They were in the and and I think the way that we left it
was uh you know, we we were looking for possibly new homeowners uh or some something like that to to turn the property over. And I don't think we've finished that conversation. We didn't. So that is
something we can continue to. But doesn't Habitat do vertical ground up? Yes, we do. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah. Well, I mean, right. I don't know. The focus the focus of the presentation was really main for the renovation program because um that is something I believe
is not is not utilized enough. So I agree and and the vertical but yes, we always need land. You know, you know, it it it amazes me that we agree that it's not being used, but when I've asked for people to go to the houses, no one goes. So, we don't know how it's been
utilized. I haven't been asked I have asked the commission sitting up here since January. No, last year. Okay. Yeah. I I don't I know there's something that we wanted to do. And I'm sure And I'm sure that that if there's a
question, I can go back in the record and find what I've asked numerous times. Okay, that's what we'll probably have to do. No, please do. Now, um just clarification on financing and funding. Um the commission created
uh a fund in the CRA probably about five years ago and it started with 250,000 and we had rolled that over because we weren't spending the funding. I will tell you that uh this year was the first time we injected new money about
$40,000 into the fund. Uh but this year we have spent it down uh to the point where we could do maybe one more project. Um, so the the we have spent about $300,000 over five years. And you're
right, the first few years we weren't getting any any deals done or it was during co um but um with uh um Lake Community Action in their current management, they
have been getting homes done and and deals done. Uh and so we have exhausted all funding uh at this point uh unless the commission were to add funding this fiscal year or want to do additional funding in the next fiscal year. Uh but
just to clarify, the money is all spent just about. Okay, nice. May maybe we need um them to come and and talk to us again and explain what where the monies have gone and what they've done so that everybody will know that they are spending the money. It has been a while since Lake
Community Action has presented and so maybe it's appropriate. First time, what about three months? Four months. Probably more than that. Yeah. So I can I can ask them to do a presentation. But I I do I do like habitat. Yeah.
There's no reason we can't do a hybrid. Exactly. Exactly. So, but I'm going to tell you, if we're going to do anything with the CRA money, we better do it quickly. That's right. It has to be done by October. So, okay. Oh, thank you, Danielle. Uh
again, great presentation. Okay, next up we have a presentation by G3C2. Hello commission. Uh my name is Austin Gunther. I represent G3C2 in this presentation. Um, just to kick it off, um, you know,
we tend to go into meetings, you know, what's the outcome that we're looking for? And I'm just going to be direct upfront with you guys. The outcome that we would want from this presentation is that you guys feel that we are a reliable community partner that's read through your master plan, has listened
to your comments, has worked with your staff to come up with the concept that you guys feel comfortable with us negotiating with your staff and bringing something back to you in terms of of a development agreement. I'm not asking you, you know, to say, "Awesome, that's the best thing I ever seen in my life.
Where do I sign?" So, basically, I'm going to go through the three blocks. Block one, which is the one closest to the lake, that will have a civic center reception hall, about 500 seats or 16,000 square feet, 6,000 foot
restaurant. We're thinking two stories with a rooftop concept. Block two, which is um the one down Magnolia Street, that would have 30 to 40 luxury brownstone duplex style homes and a large public park and green space. Block three in our
calculation, a 505 car pre-cast parking deck, 50 luxury apartments and uh approximately, you know, 12,000t retail and 12,000 foot of office space. And this is basically an overhead of what that looks like. And also
something I want to say, I know this is a lot of information you're seeing for the first time. Um, so you know, I'd like to for you guys to take some time to digest it too after this meeting and and we are more than open to have another follow-up meeting after this where you guys have put your thoughts and questions into concise format where
we can, you know, just sit here, you guys can bounce them off us and we can respond back. So, I'm not really going to read into all of the bullet points just because that gets a little boring. But what you can see here in building number one, that is the mixed use with the office, retail, and apartments.
Building number two, that is the uh parking deck with the site plan that we had laid out in that um big binder we gave you last week or last presentation. There was about 20 ft 10 to 20 ft of space in between. Uh we think that improves the walkability of the site. Um
buildings three, those are the uh duplex brownstone town home style development. Uh our focus there was to have the front facades uh face the public areas, the streets and the parks. Uh we think rear loaded garages would present the best um
aspect to the public. It would look the best. Um that large green park in what would be the northeast corner that would be owned by the city. You know, potential opportunity for some tot lots there. Um building number four is a small boutique hotel. We're thinking 80
to 100 rooms. Um, building number five that uh is basically the layout of your current community center just rotating. And building number six is that twotory uh restaurant that we're thinking. So, I'm going to get a little more into depth about the scopes, the cost, and
the timelines. Um, the building one is about 74,000 square ft. Um, building two will have about a 28,000 foot footprint. That's a fivele parking deck with roof deck parking. Um the cost for the mixed use we estimate around 16 to 18 million
and the parking 12 to 15. The timeline um design and permitting obviously that depends a lot on you guys. Um but we predict 4 to six site prep two months vertical construction mixed use and parking garage minimum 10 maximum 14
months total 18 to 24 months that blocks up ready to rock. Um this is these are some renderings that we have. Um this was for the mixed use that larger one on the left and then the two on the right that is the Ocala
parking garage and the bottom right is the Winter Garden parking garage and then some more graphics that is also the um left is the Winter Garden parking garage where they have a splash pad near it. Um top right is Magnolia Street facing the lake and then uh basically an
artist concept of what that would look like with the mixed use on that right side there. Um the the uh commission and Mike asked us to bring some numbers and so we brought some um you know I'm not going to go through all this. It'd probably
bore everyone in here to tears but we approached this from this is what we can build it for. this is the debt service coverage ratio we have to meet. And so these are the expected um costs and the revenue we need to get to meet make uh make those costs work. And so again,
take this home, digest it, ask whoever you know that's a professional with this. Ask us if you need to. Um you know, we can get more into depth. And you know, Mike is obviously a huge resource for stuff like this. Block two is the residential, again, the town homes, rear loaded garages with the
public park um in the northeast corner. Uh 30 to 40 depending on, you know, the sizes of the homes. Um and then the large central public park. Um we estimate the costs of the uh town homes to be 9 to12 million, the public park to
be be between one and two. Uh the design and permitting six to nine months for those. the site prep, three months. And the reason the design and permitting for those is a little longer, you'll notice, than the last one, is there may be geotechnical issues on that lot. We're not 100% sure, but we need to do our
diligence there. So, we um accounted for that there. Um and then the vertical construction of the homes 14 to 18, park construction 6 to 8. We have in there that that can overlap. Um we obviously you guys are going to own the park. It's it would be a city park and so you guys get to pick the contractor that you want
to use. We found that typically when you have one guy out there, you get economy of scale and the schedule can compress a little bit. So, um total duration 18 to 24 months for that. And this is the concept we were looking at. Um you know that as I said
the fronts would be facing the streets and also the park. And so that bottom right picture would be that access road that would you know you the residents would be able to access their homes but it would be screened from the public. The prettiest is usually the front. And so that's what we really wanted to emphasize to the public. And you know,
these are at night. This would be the um on the left picture would be the town homes facing the garage on the left. Top right, you know, walking through the park at night. Bottom right decorated for Christmas. And this is a little simpler.
Um these are based on real costs that we've um projects that we've worked on in cities very recently. other cities. Um I'm not going to get into it too much. Um if demand's present, obviously prices will go up. And so that's those
are the numbers that we project for the four years for building all of those out. And then finally, this last block, block one, um the boutique hotel, 3 to four stories. The community center, 16,000 square feet. The restaurant
around 6,000 square feet. Um cost for the hotel would be 16 to 20 and that would be developed by someone else. We're not hotel developers, operators. We would pass that. We would, you know, broker a deal between a respectable boutique hotel owner operator. Um the
community center, we got those numbers. We're working with the city of Okoi right now on developing their community center. And so those costs come from there. and the restaurant, uh, we just developed one in downtown Mount Dora and, um, that we pulled those costs from
there. The timeline, 9 to 12 months. Um, the site prep 3 months and construction, the hotel is a little more comp, it's a little more of a complex construction project, so it' be around 16 to 18 months. And the community seter and restaurant would be about 12 to 14. So,
all in all, 24 to 30 months for that block. and I presented them in uh the phases where we think would be the best way to do them. Obviously, if the demand is present, you know, we get to an agreement, we are starting to reach out to brokers and realtors and they have um
interested parties, you know, we can move on this stuff as quickly as we need to. But, you know, I'm just trying to be upfront, direct, present you guys with the realistics of how these types of deals in our eyes work. Um these are just some renderings. um the hotel, the community center on
the top right, the two-story uh restaurant there on the bottom right, and then just some different options um on the left. The picture on the top right is actually the community center you guys have. It's just cleaned up a little bit. Um and then the bottom right would be, you know, looking down towards
the lake, the hotel on the right. Um you'll notice on the block there's a lot of green space there. We really want to emphasize the amount of green space. We think it really helps draw the public in. Um, creates more of an environment where all ages can enjoy it. You know, families can come down with their kids,
let them run around. Um, we've seen success there. So, um, and again, the financials for those, um, we assumed in these as well, when you're taking a look at them, please, um, understand that we assumed, and we're not, um, emotionally
tied to any of this. It's just the way we presented it. Um, it's all obviously going to get figured out in the development agreement and the negotiations that we would own the garage and lease it to you and we would own the community center and lease it to you. Again, you guys say no, we want to own the community center, no problem
with that. Here's the price, you know. So, just we're not emotionally attached to any of this. We really just want to present you guys what we think is a a viable solution to the development of these three blocks downtown. something we can be proud of, something you can be
proud of, something that really enhances downtown. Um, so next steps, I started this by, you know, saying the outcome that we were looking for. Negotiation of the development agreement would be the next step. Uh, we would define the scope with your staff, the phasing and the
timeline for all three blocks. We would establish the responsibilities for the infrastructure, utilities, and public space and outline financials um, and incentive structures. that honestly in our experience that'll probably take six months to figure all that out and so
that's why you know it's good to get started. We've been working on this a while. Um the due diligence is your typical due diligence for real estate development. You do your title surveys and geotech um design fairly straightforward. We draw the pictures.
We show them to you guys. You say you like them. You say you hate them. Change this and we do it. And then permitting. Again, we work with lovely Robert Harper, who I had a lot of uh a lot of experience with in Mount Dora myself. And uh we get everything permitted, ready to construct, submit the timeline
to you guys. You sign off on it and commence. So, that is the end. I uh didn't want to belabor it too much. I just really wanted to get through and and show you guys what we were able to come up with in the past two weeks. Uh we think it's a strong project. I mean, we're we're really excited to get
started. I mean, getting to this step where you guys want to see what we can do and you want to see your our ideas, um, if we can get to the the point where we're drafting a development agreement and and things are really starting, the rubber's hitting the road, I mean, we're
we're fired up to get going. You know, we get I get asked about it constantly. I'm at I was at the gym earlier today and there's a police officer named John and he's asking me, "Hey, when are you guys getting started? When are you guys getting started?" and and uh we're we're just I tell them as soon as uh commission lets us off the you know lets us go we're going to rock and roll. So
we're excited. Um so I appreciate your time. Um you will you be available the 6th or the 8th if we want a workshop? I personally will be I don't know for sure of my father and I don't know Derek's schedule either. Okay. What date
set will the 6th or the eth? I think those are the dates that Tom Yeah. I I'm I'm pretty sure my dad would be. Okay. And and if Yes, sir. If we if we do um agree with this. Yes, sir. Are you
are you willing to do a certain block at a certain time first? Yes, sir. Yeah. I mean, so in all honesty, we really think the first block or uh block three with the um mixed use in the garage is very important. um when we add that square
footage, we don't want to cannibalize um the parking that exists in town for the existing businesses. And um also we want to support the development that we have. We also that's why we picked that location for the garage um versus a little further away because I mean we
really want to provide parking that supports what's existing. I mean, it'd be easy to tuck it in, you know, that best support ours, but it's it's pretty central to all of what would be downtown Eustace if we were developed there. So, I mean, we're not, in our opinion, we
want to do that block first. Long answer. You don't you don't think the um you don't think the block with the hotel and the community center would be more logical to start first? Um, just based on, you know, having
um drop yard maybe of of of parking um economics. Yeah, I'd have to probably get back with Derek and my dad to see, you know, actually think about and provide like a well thoughtout answer. Um knee-jerk, you know, that's a lot of parking down there that we're taking up.
If we had 80 rooms, that's at least 80 parking spaces plus employees plus a 6,000 foot restaurant plus a 16,000t community center that can seat 500 people. Um that's just off the top of my head. That's a well there there's a service parking lot right next right
next to that block right and then um then the block across the street from the post office could could be could be with our help could be service parking while that that block's being developed. Sure. And if I could ask what's the what's your attraction to doing that one
first? Just because it's the hotel the hotel and the convention center. Okay. And the master plan suggests it. Okay. Yeah. That's uh that's really Yeah. Thanks, Christian. No, it's Yeah, and that's uh Yeah, that's what the master plan's been saying all along is to is to
to to build on that lap lot first, then try to activate the waterfront and then and then develop from there. So, I was just I was just asking No, that's fair. I mean, that and in our rendering, I mean, the hotel looks at the lakefront, the restaurant would look at the lakefront. I mean, it's all about tying,
like you said, that lake front end in. So, I Yeah, I can hear that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Austin, uh let's take a look at this and come back with our questions on the 6th or the 8th. Tom, you want to set that up later? Do you I
do you want to provide I mean I'm I was going to ask under my reports. Do you want to do So, uh the 6th is Tuesday. Uh so that is uh just a few business days away. Is Derek available? Yeah. You're good. And your dad's
available. You think he texts me back? Okay. Yeah. I'd really like to see your dad. Sure. We've signed with him. We've signed with him. We've not seen him. He's been a ghost. So, he's available. Okay. So, can we do this? So, we can plan for uh
Tuesday the 6th. Uh assuming I mean, as Sasha talked about advertising requirements, I think we can meet all that. Um so, uh I'd like for Mike Omen. Mike, are you available on the 6th? And Sasha, do you need to be there? And are
you available on Tuesday? It would be uh I think we I had I don't think we're doing I had doodled any agreements on the six. I had doodled 5:30 p.m. when I sent it out and everybody said they were available at 5:30 p.m. Okay, I can be available. Okay, so we'll
tentatively say 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6th. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Austin. Thanks, Austin. Thank you. Okay, next we're coming up. Okay, we're coming up to audience to be
heard. Tom, you have any cards? I do. Uh Christine Cruz. Good evening, commission, city manager, city attorney. I'll be super quick because this could also be an email. um on Lemon Avenue from center to exit. I
would like to have a traffic study taken for that whole street. We've got a bit of a public safety issue that has started to occur. We've had some traffic accidents where the church is. We've now got an Airbnb that's down there right behind the school and they are using street parking. So, I'm sure most of
y'all have been on Lebanon Avenue. What were the cross streets? Uh exit and center. Okay. Thank you. And that's going to be the road that is directly behind Eustace Elementary School. So it's not that wide of a road. So when we have street parking, yes, you can still
get by. But in the mornings and the afternoons specifically when the parents come to pick up their students, you've got now a one-lane road that you can't do anything because of the street parking. So and that also makes it very dangerous when we've got buses that are
coming up and down this road as well. So it's not a huge hot mess, but it has the potential to be. And like I said, there has been a couple of accidents, people hitting parked cars on the side of the street. So that's happened, I think maybe two or three times in the past couple of months alone. So, but again,
it could have been an email. Hope you guys have all good night and we'll see you later. Thank you. Thanks. All right, I've got um Robert Laval. I live off of Lake View on Hillrest Court and I have a lot of I'm only
asking some questions about what's going on. Uh I have a lot of neighbors have been asking me about the Duke Energy Polls and they're concerned about if anything is going to come down Lake View and everybody seems to tell me that
nobody was informed. So I'm just asking about it. time. Um, I'll get your information and we'll connect you. Um, it may be more appropriate to connect you with Duke Energy, but we will get you connected
with folks that know what's going on. Okay. I guess we didn't have anything to say about it. We don't generally engage under audience to be heard, but we'll connect with you, get you the info you need. Yep. Miranda, do you mind connecting and getting contact info? Thank you.
Uh, Daniel Deanzo. This way. Either way, Daniel, I like this way. All right. Run out through that door. Can you hear me? Hello. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. My name is Daniel Dvenanzo, local businessman here in EUS.
Uh, I've got my three minutes. Um, I appreciated the presentation from G3. A couple of comments because, you know, I'm a longtime general contractor. Uh many of you don't know I was at Walt Disney World for 10 years. I also participated at Harris Casino in New
Orleans, also the Jefferson Parish Meyer Library. Uh they did definitely include the hotel uh concept, which is excellent. The only thing I'd like to uh express to the commission, I think it's important, is um he clearly mentioned
about brokering the hotel out. They're not hotel people. So, I think it's important that that be a focus and the reason is is because ao somebody that's going to come in and develop a hotel and it's interesting that the hotel would
not be inclusive of the restaurant uh just as hotel developments go and so I would say to you that if you're going to bring in somebody from the outside they're going to pretty much dictate how much real estate they need and how the parking is going to work out and how the
trash is going to work out where the employees are going to park And they're going to also dictate, well, if we're going to have facilities uh that, you know, we're going to be able to use our rooms for the uh meeting facilities, they're also going to want to have a food venue. So, I think it's I
think it's important that as you go forward in your meeting uh and we think about priorities and I and I do want to remind you of the master plan. I was delighted when the master plan was uh acknowledged and accepted by you because uh you know it was in excess of
$100,000. It was professionals and they said the hotel was the economic the the unit to fill the economic gap in downtown EUs. So um you know the the nice thing about the hotel uh being in downtown is we have shops that are
within a stone's throat. And I don't know how many of you feel like walking when it's 90° out or when it's raining in Florida, but I think it's really important to think and I brought it up last time. Peddler's Wagon, a world-class store, Mary's Jewelers, Four Generations, Third Generation Estate
Jewelers, uh Porters Cards and Gifts, and and you know, we can go on with uh a number of the other stores, but uh the hotel would definitely create a vitality and a destination that we need to be focused on and we cannot underestimate
what a hotel builder and an operator is going to want to have to fit into our downtown community. So, I don't think, you know, putting the horse, uh, you know, without having knowing what's going to be in the cart, uh, might be
something we want to we want to think about. Somebody reminded me a long time. I saw this old gentleman and I got 12 seconds. It's a great story. And I was looking at him. I was a punk kid in and general contract in construction. And he would all he was doing was picking up debris on a big commercial. It was a
Walt Disney World job. And uh he looked at me, he said, "Young man," he said, "I don't have to worry about where the cart comes from. I don't have to worry about the horse. I don't have to worry. All I got to do is load the cart tonight." And
with the presentation, we have to be a little bit more concerned than just loading the cart. Thank you. Thanks, David. Please, please, no applause. Uh, David Luke, how's everybody doing tonight? Um,
contrary to what people believe, I'm the owner of Crazy Gator. I've been in there 15 years with Randy Connors. I was a silent partner back in the day. Now I own it outright. I I'm looking out all these pictures, all this stuff. And I'm going to take that page out to various. to
bring other cities up, but everything is geared towards the lake in Tavaris. Tavaris uses the lake for everything. I just want to know what they're you guys are going to do with the lake on like the lakefront. You got Crazy Gator,
which I own. You got Elm Marie, which is contracted out. But if you look at like Tavaris, they're thriving because everything is on the water or just off the water. The lake is where the money's
at. I've said this a hundred times to a million people. If you watch what Taris has done over the last 5 to 10 years, they are crushing it because they use the lake for from sea planes, which I hope we don't get used to, to
um shows and concerts and they used they had little things the other day they were doing a couple weeks ago and boat shows and everything and and everything. and and but everything's on the water from their hotels all on the water. Clue, which I used to own with Randy
Connors. I was an owner there, which is on the water. Puddle jumpers on the water. When they have their concerts, it's on the water. Everything is geared for the water. I don't understand why we're making everything off the water. This just something to think
about. Like I said, your money maker for the city of Eustace to Varies is a prime example is Lake Eustace. That's where your money's at. The view is the money maker. People come to my restaurant. I wish I had a dollar for every time I'd
be a millionaire right now. For every time Mr. Luke or owner or staff, look at that view. Look at that view. There's where the money's at in uselessness and crazy gator. I get it every day. I just hope you guys But when all this is said
and done to look at your your your your lake, that's where the money's at. Look at the varies what they've done. Everything faces the water. You're and your hotels are out in the water or just off it. Not in some corner where you can't even see the lake. I'm just going
on a limb and saying that. I've talked to the city manager about it, Mr. White here. That's where the money's at. You know, I'm I'm trying to work with you guys. These guys are no eminent meetings with them. I'm trying to work with the council. I don't know if they filled you in. I've had some
ideas with them, some great ideas to help you guys up. I talked to Miss Danielle and Joe. We had a plan kind of in place. Got blocked to build upper echelon uh apartments or condos where crazy gators at overlooking the city of use,
the water, the lake. It got blocked. But I just hope you guys think about where the money's at. People want and they drive boats up. Everything is on there. 21 year old, 24 year old, 30 year old kids. They're not going to go there. They They're going to come up by boat,
which they do at Taries and that's where all your money's at. And I got a buddy, you know, he's got a plan in place. Hope you guys take him up on it to bring a couple hundred people a day to spend money in the city of US. So, I know I'm talking too much. I got the time out,
but just like I said, I can't emphasize enough where the money is at in USD. It is on the lake. Like like I said, look at Tavaris. They're thriving. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. Just go ahead. Just clap.
Thank you. Uh Jim Bzinski, the shirt man. How you guys doing? I believe I know all of you guys. I want to thank you for serving. It's I know it's a thankless job, but I want to thank you tonight. Um I own Tiptops in Eustace. Uh we've been in business 42 years. I've been at that location since
2007. I am all for redevelopment of Eustace. Uh but I am I'm concerned what I've seen and I'm I'm a Johnny come lately to this. Just looking at the plans recently, I don't hear bike path in any conversation anywhere. And I
please please and I know that if you continue to do it, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. And I know that bike paths are an economic driver. I mean, you look at Winter Garden, you look at any community that's put a bike path in, it's been an economic driver. And I know there's plans from Umatella to Aster. I know
that Taris and Mount Dora are connecting. I don't want us to be bypassed or left out. And I know that that bike paths are DOT, state of Florida, county, cities, all have to work together. There's a process to do it, but to not plan for a bike path when
you're putting together a project like this is, in my opinion, criminal. I really think that um a bike, and I agree, Eustace, by the way, has the best waterfront of all the towns around here. When you look out there in the west in
the evening, there's no better sunset in Lake County than Lake Eustace is. So, I'd love to see a bike path come right through town, connect with you, Matella, up to Aster, just be a part of the chain that's happening out there. I hope you guys will think about that, consider that, remember that when you're talking
about planning because I really believe it's an important thing. And thanks again for serving. I appreciate you guys. [Applause] challenge Marie Alverki. Oh, by the way, my wife was misused in
1977. We should we should have had her here tonight. [Music] I um I am here to talk about National Small Business Week. We are in it. Um,
what is National Small Business Week? Every year since 1963, there's been a proclamation for National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contribution of America's entrepreneurs and small business owners. More than half of
Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the US each year. I am here basically to celebrate National Small Small Business Week and
to thank and celebrate all of you that are those small business owners and also to recognize them and our downtown, our small business downtown uh commercial business district since I think the city
was in in se inception of the city and um working with the with the city is the chamber of commerce And we're finding out that the Chamber of Commerce didn't just pop up in the 50s. It's been here since the 1920s with um artifacts that I
have found um and uh purchased. And we are very excited about that. We're going to celebrate that. And again, we're going to celebrate at our breakfast May 7th. Um and hope that everyone wants to come and celebrate with us because it's going to be a party. And that's what
we're celebrating is our small business owners. Thank you. Thank you. M got a little letter from you. Yes. That is an invitation for you to share um the tickets for breakfast with two people
who are entrepreneurs or want to be entrepreneurs and want to come down and find out what we do and what's going on. So, um please use those. I like that. If you can do it for a whole year, that'd be great. No, I mean in every every Okay. Yes.
Thank you, Marie. You're welcome. [Applause] Uh Kevin Janess. Hello, Commission. Kevin Janess, Pedalless Wagon here in downtown Eustace. Um I just wanted to say a few things. Thank you, Marie. Not the case.
Um I totally agree with tip tops as far as any plans for construction to improve or to uh to include is some sort of broad future concept of bike path walking lanes or then connecting from one end of the city to the other and eventually connecting to and other locations. I think it's a brilliant way
of signaturing our community and creating ourselves a brand uh probably gateway to to the forest and the nature and all the things that people want to come to this community for. I think it's a really good good point to say. So thank you very much for tiptops as far as the planning that Mr. Austin was
discussing um a lot of it seems to make sense to me things going out with it. I would um say that several things kind of my mind to make certain that any parking and every parking being built on this is public and accessible to everybody. um that I and my opinion as a retailer for
a number of years about 40 years I've been in retail the amount of retail square footage right now that's being planned I think is still underestimating greatly what's required and what's needed in order to create I think the key word that should be for any of these projects and that's destination. Um I am a destination store and I'm a
destination store because I'm large enough to create enough of an interest that people will drive two hours to come to. I think if you have a community that the drive to come to the community is uh longer than what the time people walk around the community shopping, I think we're in trouble. We're gonna have a problem maintaining a destination. So, I
think the idea of putting on 15,000 or 20,000 square footage simply isn't enough square footage. That's less the equivalency of a single block we currently have in retail right now. And we're talking about taking three blocks. So, I would love to see the bottom floor of everything it's possible added to more draw for community to come to and
people will want to come to the shop and and go into. I would totally agree with Mr. Austin's concept of building out your parking and infrastructure first, possibly even including your parks because in reality it um it makes far more sense for several reasons. One is I think a number of businesses would not
survive shutting down our current parking situation and losing that amount of revenue going out with that amount of parking capacity for 12 to 24 months of building. They would have a very hard time surviving that 24 months waiting for that parking to reopen again
presuming things run on time and scheduled and if it's a delayed I would almost guarantee you many of them would not be here. So I think that's an unfair thing to throw out the existing shopping for the new. So, I would bend that one there. And the second one, it would not make sense to me build out a hotel first next to a two-year construction site
because anyone facing that construction site is not going to be happy with their room because they're going to be hearing a lot of noise and a lot of lot of dust and revenue going on with it. So, build out something to come to first and then invite people to come to it. It's much like inviting your garden to come come see my garden, but there no seeds
planted yet. So, it was like plant it out, get it ready. Once it's ready, now invite and bring people in. And I think that's the way the direction to do with the committee, but we need to be prepared to have them come in. Let's see. That's about it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Uh George Warren,
don't start need help. I say good morning, but it's good afternoon. Good afternoon. Morning somewhere pharmacy in here in Houston. And I bet you think I'm here to talk about the DMT, but I'm not.
Decorum, please. A very wise Christian with silver hair and glasses. You probably know who that is. Uh told me it's probably loose a a lost cause at this point. So, we're not going to talk about that, but we're
heard talking about the downtown master plan. And I I heard Daniel and thank you, Daniel, so much. I have a segue for Jim and Marie. Jim, especially Jim's wife was the homecoming queen in
1977. I can up that. My wife was the homecoming queen in 1974 and she was also Miss Houston in 1974. So Doug's [Laughter]
Mr. Mayor, don't don't don't. That's it. That's it. Take it outside. No, but uh we're talking I'm sorry. Hey Tom, you're like my best friend. Um anyway, that's my first page,
so we're almost done. Um, but we kind of left out one thing with the downtown plan is Bay Pharmacy and uh I know Daniel is great station but he did leave out pharmacy station but that's okay.
Dale loves us and he does a great job. Um but and I think you guys see my pharmacy as just just a little shop but I had pleasure having Alber come down about three weeks ago and I think I
could see that it's more than just this little building. Uh Bay Pharmacy has 52 employees in that building. Uh we're filling over a thousand prescriptions a day between threeies. There there's not another pharmacy doing that. We have
prescriptions were delivered to over 1,800 residents in assisted living facilities, rehab centers, group homes, private residents, including the hospice doing all of that. So when I say a thousand scripts, Gary's looking at me
wonder how's I do that. That's Lake Pharmacy, that's Bay Pharmacy, it's our long-term care pharmacy all added together. So that's how we do. Um we support a lot of what you guys do lot lot of swag anybody else you know
we're always uh kind of contacted support the boy scouts we support the cafe house the busar festivals the George Fest it goes on and on and we do all those things and that's what downtown business do for the community
but we don't like being left out of the downtown what's labeled the downtown business uh which you guys did. If you look at the first four pages where they have the contributors, there are no downtown businesses that were part of the
interview. And that was a mistake, I believe. And I've already mentioned that before, but and they had an opportunity to do that back in 2023 at the union center, but that was never followed up. So anyway, that's that's a little bit of
a complaint video. I just wanted you to know that there's a lot going down at two east and uh we're happy there. We're growing and we're growing to the point where we out of room and you know the
plan. I actually bought a bank which was a big surprise to my wife. She she wasn't very happy. But we bought a bank where it's at and somebody's parked there right now. So you got to pay for that parking place.
That's probably one of you guys. I always ask. Okay. Um, that's our plan. We're going to go to that bank and I hope you guys can help a little bit with that CRA money getting ready to give away. Um, but anyway, that's the plan. We're not
there yet and we're not here then because of the amount of money it's going to take to get into that bank. But that bank's 15,000 square ft. We can grow. We got 65 parking places. We don't have to worry about the do that I'm not going to talk about with their four
guns. Yeah. Oh, Jerry's right there. And so they it's got we're going to just be able to grow like crazy. But really, thanks for the extra time and I stand if you guys want to call sometimes or take a visit down to the pharmacy. I really
would like for you to come by. We're you take care of a lot of people down there. So you guys come by here you do. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, George. Uh, John Kelty, even John Kelty, Cozy Corner Treasures. Thank you for allowing us
here. Um, parking. I was here nine t months ago asking for the city to help us with the downtown parking a little bit ordinance. Uh we have an issue with business owners uh employees, tenants parking on Magnolia and uh used to
street during business hours. Um can't really do enforce anything unless there's an ordinance on the books. So we're asking for that help. Um, you know, we've already lost a few businesses out of the marketplace. They
kind of shot themselves in foot. They were the first parking spots there every day and they never move. You know, customers can't park if, you know, employees are there. So, you know, if there's a like time ordinance where they
can, you know, plenty of city parking, parking garage is important. You definitely need to look at that post in master. Um, but we need more We lost some on 19, some on Grove. So, but there is enough parking for these business
owners and employees to park elsewhere than those two streets. Um, Saturday's event was great. It could have been better. Uh, the Elite Baggers had a festival downtown. I think it could have been advertised a
lot better. Um, they were trying to start it in February. flyers were out. We didn't hear about it till April. Um could have been a lot more participation, but it wasn't. I think they did a good job for what they did.
Um I might be stepping outside the box, but I think inner city communication is lacking. If it's a city event, the chamber doesn't sponsor it. The chamber city doesn't sponsor it. if they pull their own permit, which they did,
neither one sponsors it. At least that's what I'm seeing from the outside. I don't know if it's true, but it just seems that way. Everybody wants more people downtown. That means everybody needs to work together and bring people downtown, and that's businesses working
with businesses. City working within the city to help them. That's it. Thank you. Thanks, John. Thanks, [Applause] Those are all the cards. Okay. Is there
anyone else that would like to address the commission? Come on up. Please state your name. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Greg Oes and I represent a group called Elite Baggers. And we had the pleasure
this weekend, Saturday, of having a bike rally here in uh city of Eustace. So, I want to take this time and thank the commission and thank mayor and uh city manager, chief of police for uh lending a hand with us u having this great
event. Um on this past Saturday, we had somewhere between a,000 and 2,000 people come out to celebrate uh what we think was a safe and fun and uh had an economic impact on the city of Eustace
uh with having our bike rally. So, we realize that um Eustace doesn't really have a bike rally and we were excited to have the opportunity to come down and share that with the city and we hope that moving forward that uh if you guys thought that it was something that was
eventful and helpful to the city that you would invite us again and help to support us again maybe having more than a one-day event here. I think the venue here is excellent for what we do and I think the people showed u this Saturday
that they really enjoyed being here in the city of Eustus with that bike rally that we had and so hopefully you guys will have us back again. We'd love to be here and we look forward to it again if that's something that you decide to do again. We're from Elite Baggers. I appreciate you. Thank you for your time.
Thank you so much. All right. Thank you, Chief. Chief, anyone else? Chief, you have anything you'd like to say? That's a loy question. Greg, Capri, police chief, I thought the
event was uh well attended for the first time. Uh a lot of obstacles thrown our way, a lot of naysayers, but uh they know who they are. But I can tell you that the event was a huge success. Uh, I saw a diverse group of individuals down
there. I saw families. I saw bikers. I saw people spending money. Uh, the car show at the same time was great, too. Uh, I've been saying the down our downtown needs events like this more than uh First Friday is nice, but it's played out, if you ask me. I think we
need more events geared to bring more people down there uh on different days and different venues and uh we have a great downtown, but to get people down there and help these businesses, we got to have events like this. And when you have people spending money downtown, that's what it's all about. Having a good time, zero complaints, zero
problems, zero traffic issues. Uh okay. Yeah. Success. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. you know, um I have to say that uh that I spent all day down with the chief and it was I
thought it was a great event. Um I was in and out of businesses, several businesses two or three times. Uh um it may not have had as much of it an economic impact as we would have liked, but it was the first one that we've done
downtown. Um, I' I'd like to say moving forward, I don't think that anyone can complain that the city of Eustace is not trying to make a mark
in this community. You know, we did this. Um, you know, there may be uh music festivals or something like that that we want to do, but we're always trying. Um and you know we look for help from
the community from the businesses ideas. Um so uh we can do this. So I think it also would help there were some of the businesses that closed on that day and I think it would be great that they would all open and have something for people
to come and be involved in. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Um, and I think that, um, you know, there there were some concerns about, uh, you know, closing down downtown, and I think the city did a a great job of of
meeting the merchants halfway. So, great job. Okay. Anyone else, Tom? That's it. Okay. Uh, next we have the consent agenda. Agenda. Is there anything that anyone wants to pull?
Okay, Mr. Mayor, I move. Move approval of the consent agenda. Okay, I'll second it. Okay, sorry. Okay, it's been moved and promptly second. Uh Christine, roll call, please. Commissioner As I, Vice Mayor Ashcraft.
Hi, Commissioner Holland. Hi, Commissioner Lee. I. Mayor Hawkins. I uh next up, Sashi. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have for second reading um ordinance numbers 253, 04 and
05. The first reading and presentation took place at our last meeting on April 17th. Okay. Is there any additional presentation on this item, Mr. Lane? Okay. And we will start with ordinance number 25-03, an ordinance of the city
commission of the city of Eustace, Florida, voluntarily annexing approximately 49.5 acres of real property at alternate key numbers 1097070 and 1094712, generally located north of County Road 44 and east of State Road
19. Are there any questions uh from the commission on this item? I um I've been thinking about this for the last week and a half and I have concerns. Um I drove by and it looks like there's
more concrete out there. Uh and that that concerns me. Um I see the machine out there that crushes the concrete. That concerns me.
Um, I don't know how safe that is. Um, some of us complain about poles in our front yard. Some of us complain about chickens uh in our neighborhood.
Um, some of us complain about, you know, housing developments. But do we know the impact on future generations from the crushing uh of the
concrete 100 ft from someone's house? I don't think we do. I looked up uh and Google was my best friend today and I looked up
um you know, if there was any any health issues associated with it. And uh that didn't ease my concern um and I'm willing to discuss,
but that just makes me uncomfortable. you know, the people breathing it in. Um, it get into the water. It may be fine for us now, but what happens 15 years later? And I know
this is this is tough because if the county gets it, they can do whatever they want. I I understand that. But I don't like being put in this position that that concrete is
there that close. It rains, it floods. Where does the water go? It ends up in Lake Eustace. I have a concern. Okay. Before we proceed to discussion,
um we can have uh the applicant's representative address, but if there are no questions for staff, then we should proceed with public input before the commission has discussion on the item. I don't know if he can answer that.
Well, we he'll be given an opportunity, of course, as a quasi judicial process. Do we have any cards on this item, Tom? I do not. Okay. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to comment on ordinance 25-03? Okay, I'm seeing none. I will close public input, but we will have um
Would you like to address the commission on this concern? Logan Wilson, 55 North Central Avenue, UNL, Florida. Uh I agree with you Willie as uh I agree that the concrete is uh atrocious in nature um before annexing this and uh we frankly didn't think that
we would be here right now because uh Mike um was able to um get this on the agenda to present to you guys. Um but the concrete is not part of the plan, the long-term plan for the property. Uh, and I feel like if you give the property owner the opportunity to get the
concrete um so he can uh get it out of there that uh the concrete will ultimately go away. When you say get it out of there, what does it mean? Take it out in dump trucks or crush it? Uh so he now that it's dumped there, he would crush it. Um it should be known that he
does own a CND landfill. So, uh, if he needed to haul it away, he could, but ideally, uh, if he could get it to a crush format and, uh, be able to, um, haul it out that way, it would be ideal now that he has the equipment out there. Do we know why he didn't crush it at his landfill? Uh, that was a convenient
spot. The, uh, landfill was a recent purchase of his, so uh, it wasn't part of his, uh, plan when we started the application process. Okay. Thank you. I have a question. If once it if it's into the city, can we
have control and say that cannot happen there? Um, yeah, I I think that we can, but I have to tell you, uh, it's just the amount of concrete that's out there now is is and it looks like it's growing.
Um, so is is is that activity permitted permitted under mixed uh commercial industrial? Mike. Mike. Oh, it's not the answer I wanted. Well, I mean, he he's he's obviously
able to do that in the county as it stands now. Right. Right. That was my that was my thinking, too. I mean, the concrete's there. Whether it's in the city of Bustus or not, it's still doing damaging to the lake. And our best chance of getting any
help to it is for us to have it in the city to control a little bit of it. But, and I hear you. Yeah, I hear you. But if that's a permitted use under mix, commercial, industrial, they're going to have to talk with them. Then then he's allowed to do it. I mean, I think
we, no offense, we crush our own concrete, too, every now and then, don't we? The city does. Yes, we do. We don't do it near a wetland, though. Right. Well, we're at this point, it's across the street. That's from contract. It's at our north.
Uh, we used to do it on um David Walker. We don't, but we moved it because there's a new residential development there. And so now it's at the north barn. Yeah, there we moved it because that's a residential development. Yeah. I think the the the reason we moved it
though was more about the noise and the the nuisance. Now we're near the lake. Is that what you're saying? We're closer to the lake now. Mhm. Oh, you mean? Yeah. Ours. Yes. I'm thinking about Lake. Yeah. I'm thinking about the other. We I will say we don't do it
continuously. Uh we collect the concrete and then we crush every two years or so. It should be Sorry, can I do a followup? Logan, do you know the owner's long-term plan for this property? Ideally, it would be a a wafer to have outside
storage and uh to be able to uh allow storage inside the buildings that currently exist. Okay. But nothing nothing more after that as far as you know? No, sir. And it should be known that uh although uh he doesn't show his face very often, you probably don't know him. Um actually the material that was
on David Walker uh the city of Eustace um partnered with him to actually relocate your material um and it came to this property uh until he could uh get rid of it um while that development was going on. So um I want to give him credit uh that uh this is a part of his
line of work but not the intended purpose for this particular property. it just happened to be a convenient location as he was transitioning uh the material and he used this as a dropy yard from the transition from the David Walker material um to ultimately
downtown project. Um so uh I'm agreeing that uh the concrete is atrocious um but I think it's just bad timing for say so if he's if his plan is to make this covered storage that won't include the concrete uh activity as part of it. No,
sir. No, sir. But how do we But how do we hold you to that? How do we hold him to that if he's got a he was got a he's got a right under the zoning to do it? Any suggestions? Anybody? I think he just stated that it won't
happen. We've got it on record and and no matter what, if it's a permitted, I don't see how we can deny. I know. That's why I'm looking I'm looking for I'm looking for an option here. I mean, is there
no bad bad timing? Bad timing for us. Did I understand? Sorry. Uh that Why am I picking up on something? He's saying the city, did we give him ask him to take this concrete and he moved it off of city property and put it on his to
hold for us? Did I get that? Complicit in it. You kind of tried to make it sound that way. Well, I I don't think what's out there now, am I mistaken? Came from David Walker. I think that was that was a previous previous deal with
the city of Eustace. Was the material from David? Sound like it was now. No, no, sir. I I just wanted you to know that uh he had partnered to help with the city of Eustace. Uh and this is his line of work. Um, so it ended up um out there but not two separate deals in
regarding the David Walker um material. So I see this is probably three options so to say. One is do nothing, have no control over stuff that affects us. The county isn't making us happy with what they've done there. The other option is for us
to annex it. We're taking on that problem. Uh but we can control it and we can But can we depending on what zoning we take it in? Yes, you can control all of it including the rock crushing but um and number
Yeah. So it's kind of a catch 22. You know there what's the path but leaving it where it is hasn't done us any good. Well, hang on a second. Sorry. So it What's the current zoning at that's in the county? agriculture
is is low. Oh, R six. R six. That's right. Yeah. So, concrete concrete crushing is allowed in R six. Can you guys please just come up? You might have the counties the counties let them get away with it. Right. And and the other part three of that um Sorry, Gary. I
wanted to get No, no, I I'm sorry. I was is if we leave it there, it has a density of six units or four six units an acre. You guys are breaking the rule. Come up here, please, and to answer the question. Both of you. So disappointed.
Come on. It has a It has a density of what, Mike? Seven. Right now, the the R six, I'm told, does allow up to seven units. Yes. And there's how many acres there? 49. Yeah. Six time. I'm not the brightest math, but six times five is 300. That's scarier, too. So, but but
pick your pick your evil, I guess, right? I I don't know. Yeah, you're right. And I said that I said that and thought I said I said exactly that in the last meeting. We keep hearing we don't want more homes. We don't want more homes. We don't want more homes. But now now we
have this and it's not allowed under R six. So he takes the concrete away and then he puts in six units per acre or seven. Um or we take it MCI and then concrete crushing is allowed. I I mean you're right. It's a it's a no- win
situation. So what what do so what do what do we do? Do we do we just hope that he keeps his word and takes it away once he's done crushing it? Is that where we're at? Here here's here's one idea. Thanks. Okay. I was
waiting for somebody. Okay. So any development inside the city has to come before the development review committee and get approved. Uh and and that's just the way our our land development code reads. So as I emphasized last time, any
kind of development futurewise on the property would really need to come before the DRC so that we actually could approve uh that that kind of activity there. So and that was the the issue with the flood
plane on the property. As I pointed out last time, uh any significant improvement on that property is going to probably require permission and uh some sort of When you Sorry, Mike. When you say development, you mean housing development? No, I'm I'm referring to
development as as is in our our code and that relates to site development, any kind of uh products that that are brought to the property. And now again, we can't do anything with with uh the the aggregate or the concrete that's
there. now. But if if the property owner is willing to to actually stop at this point uh in any future kind of activity there, we can actually require him to come in and at least sit down with us and talk to us about buffering and, you
know, how he's going to deal with uh construction hours and uh you know, how to be a good neighbor. And uh again, but but Exactly. But I know concrete crushing is allowed
under MCI in our code. It It's a gray area. See, no pun intended because of the concrete. You know, it it again uh as as was pointed out, the city yard across the street had
had a machine there. I don't think I don't think we're doing the extent that they're doing though. I there's no way. Um but but so we When you mean gray, when you say MCI, the MCI is mixed commercial industrial,
as I pointed out last time, it it's a light industrial type activity, which you know, again, what is a light versus a heavy it's a it's it's quantity, you know, at at some point a a uh several
mountains of concrete could be construed as heavy industrial at some point. you know that you got a draw line somewhere. And so um you know at at some point it it well on the outset it is it would be preferred and allowed in a light
industrial uh zone if it is of a smaller quantity. Okay. All right. I understand. You know I I've met the I've met the owner. He's a nice guy. Um
my we know that that he didn't get permission to drop the stuff there to crush it. We know that you need a permit to do that. I would think pole barns. Did you need a permit
for those um trucks dropping concrete off in the middle of the night? I mean, we have homeowners that have come in and told us this and and and and I want to go ahead. I'm
sorry. project. I've looked at that ever since it was a wooded area for the last 25 years. When you took him into the city limits, he was already crushing concrete. From what I understand, once that concrete is crushed and out of there, he's not going to do it anymore.
The easiest way to do is let him do what he's doing, get rid of it, and be done with it. I'm going to re remark about something the city had done to me 25 years ago when we built where we are today. And right where your
shop is today. They used to take human waste that was turned several times and mix wood chips in with it on that concrete slab. And you couldn't walk out my door without gagging. Mhm. Okay. Till that was finally said, you know, we
can't do that anymore. I know the individual that owns it, right? I'm telling you, it's the easiest way to get around that is just to let him do what he's doing and he won't do it anymore. Okay? I don't think he's doing it at night because I come by
there, there's nothing running at 6:00 or 6:30 at night. There's no lights out there for him to do that at night. Yeah, we've had we've had homeowners come in and say that. Thank you. Thank you, J.
Um I'm still not convinced, but but but I know we have what do we do? I know. I know. I mean, what do we do? I mean, what? I'm sorry. That's right. Yeah. Sorry, Tom. Go ahead. Well, no. All I was going to say is when when Mike said
it's kind of a gray area, uh I just wanted to uh I had pulled up Munichode and the table of uses and what what there there is no concrete crushing use specifically. I mean, you just can't
list everything out there. Uh but it does allow all light industrial and research except as listed below. And then it says things like crematorium and research labs and warehousing. So if you're asking can you do concrete crushing? Nowhere does it say concrete
crushing is allowed in every in what district? But you have to do some interpretation and that's why it's a little gray. We don't have anything called concrete crushing. We just have to make a a judgment. And if we consider it all light industrial or research as
except as listed below, that's what it would fall into. No, I think uh I think concrete crushing is more than light industrial. It's heavy. I think it's heavy because if I if I may of the of the of the machinery,
the the the health aspects and as well as the um the noise and and um so yeah, I think it's I think it's heavy. So, you know, maybe uh you know, Jerry's probably right. I mean, we'll just have to let him do what he says
he's going to do and and pray pray that he doesn't uh doesn't have another uh interpretation of the light industrial than we do and keeps doing. Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry. No, you're fine. If I may, if I may, I just have a question. How how urgent is this? I mean, if this is the
intent, right? Um is there a kind of any particular urgency to the annexation? No, no, no urgency other than uh I think I don't know our application date, but uh we knew that uh we were on the back burner because there was no urgency, but uh we wanted to at least start the
process. Um so yeah, in that case, I would like to suggest the following um for consideration of the commission. Since Tom just went through the process of looking at Municode and looking at the exceptions to light industrial to avoid the use of concrete um what
aggregate? Yeah, basically you know what he's doing on the property now. Concrete crushing. Thank you. Um we could add that as an something that cannot be done under light industrial and that way that use is
eliminated under MCI or because or make it conditional use. It could be a conditional use. In that case, we could basically restrict it because the issue is if it's anything that's not in the code specifically, right, it is subject to interpretation. If this property is sold, a future owner
is not going to be restricted to the representation of the current owner. So, the the concerns the commission has today and that the residents that neighbor the property have may be present um in subsequent years. So, in order to really address this this
particular issue, um, we would basically have to look at restricting that use under that particular designation. I I move we do that. I move we table this and I and I I move we we consider doing that before we uh say yes to the
annexation. If we table this, does that penalize them at all? That's why I asked about the if there's any kind of urgency to the timing because the that would that correction would have to take place first um and then the new rules would apply. So we
would have to table the this request to allow for um consideration and modification of of that use. And how long would they have I mean would it take for them to allow them to bring it back? Um it'll probably be a few months but that that's why I was asking.
So you so you're going to be able to keep crushing concrete for a few more months and hopefully he's going to clean it up and get it out of there. I haven't discussed this with the property owner, so I don't want to speak on that, but uh I would like to think that uh the equipment to crush that concrete is
rented by the week. Um it's pretty expensive equipment uh to rent by the week. So I would like to think that if it got tabled that uh he would probably be out of there by then. Um, so I would ask the commission to uh give us a little grace to um get it out of there. Um, and No, we are. That's what I'm
saying. Yes, sir. If you could give us a if we don't table it, if you give us a little time to just get it out of there, um, I would also uh I like the idea of um, uh, modifying the code to be more specific. Um, in this particular instance is uh, frankly, we didn't think that we would be here already. Uh, and
we didn't think that uh, we'd be talking about crushing concrete with the city of Eustace specifically. Okay. Well, Mike, just to make sure any objection to to my suggestion um for Tom.
Yeah, we could actually could have it tabled, you know, for um a date certain and we could maybe pick a a date maybe in August sometime because we don't have to re uh revertise with the date certain. Correct. Yeah. Yeah.
You guys, it is a lot of time. So, I was going to suggest we would we would just readvertise in this instance because it would be best to make sure everyone has has the necessary notice. You guys, I I guess I'm feeling like let's do this. We've been beating on this and ragging
over it. Let's it it it needs to be done and and give him time to clear it off. I think we've got we've got guarantees that that he will get this done and it'll be over with. I' I'd rather it's just annex this and get it over with and move on to the next
thing because we've been just talking talking. It'll be the same thing again until August. Come on now. I'm I'm good with talking talking because we have residents that vote for us to talk and
talk and talk for them to look out for their best interest. Amen. So, I'm good with that. Well, I I feel that he has time to to take to to remove it, which he said he would do, and we need and and the annexation we should probably I
mean, at some point, but till August. I mean, that's a long time. Why are we waiting so long to do that? Till August. Well, what what Logan is trying to do now is trying to find out if that is too much time. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. So, he's trying to find that out now. Okay. Uh I
don't want to for the sake of expediency, forget everyone that's sitting out there. I think it's a matter of being fair to both them and the and the um citizens, but um if they can do what they said they're going to do, I don't see any
sense in penalizing them till August. That's the issue that I have. Okay. we can we can just table it um until we have an opportunity to get the adjustment made to the code so that MCI would have that restriction and it's
going to be readvertised because of the time that it's going to take for for the adjustment to be made. It's it's an ordinance. So we we need at least a month for that and that should be possibly enough time so that once that's that's done then we can uh proceed with
hearing all of this and it'll again the objective since there's not an urgency they would still be able to annex but the particular use would not be allowed. So it would it would apply to any future owner not just the representation from the current owner um because that's
that's a concern. I mean, what happens when he's gone or if it's sold, right? It won't be until August. I can go with that. Mr. Mayor, once again, I I make a motion to table this. Okay. What's the date of August? Not until August. She
said until we until we have um the opportunity. So, no date certain. You'll just No, it'll be readvertised and um Okay. Okay. I'll second that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Christine.
Commissioner Asody, I. Vice Mayor Ashcraft, I Commissioner Holland. Hi, Commissioner Lee. Hi, Mayor Hawkins. Hi. Thank you. I'm done then because none of the other ones can be heard. Okay. All right. Well, we're coming up
to future agenda items and comments. Uh Emily, I um would just like to share it. It's rather exciting. The um is in bloom. We are having um a photo contest and we
have our butterflies all all over the city. And so now we will give people an opportunity to um take pictures. You can see what already we've had some people submit their pictures and it's great. It's fun. And so we I'd like to
encourage um everyone to participate and be a part of this um photo contest. So um it's in motion and I just uh would like to see more pictures. It's it's wonderful. It's fun even at the dog park
and um everyone's really enjoying the butterflies and and u we have some more planned something really special u that's going to be a big surprise to everybody. So we're looking forward to that. Can we get together as a commission and take a picture in front of one? Yes, that would be fun. All
right. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that. And um I don't know if we have to give notice for that. Do we don't talk city business and you should Yeah, exactly. Just everybody's just really quiet. Just go stand there. Okay. Okay. All right. And um I just
want to make a a couple of comments from on a personal note. I I kind of wish when we're talking about the master plan, the downtown and all that, I wish that we had had this what was shown tonight in front of
us after having so many months of talking about this. It would have been nice to have had a copy of it prior to. So, I I would encourage um that when we when we have something like this going on that we at least have
a knowledge of it beforehand that that is handed to us before and not have to wait for it and then plan another meeting because of it. And um and I and I really would like to see Mr. Jerry Gunther be present at the meetings. Um
also I second it. Yes, that's my comments. Thank you. Okay, Mike. I think so. Okay, George. Um, a couple a couple things. When I got here today, I found this proposal
um that I've been scanning through and uh I'm I'm I'm just blown away by it. Um I do notice the date on it as April 15th
submitted. I'm curious as to why we just got it today. um on the workshop for the 6th and the ETH. Um I I did see an email coming across from that, but uh I think Tom
probably didn't realize that I was trying to see if I could get that into moving some things around on such a short notice, but I did not respond that uh that it was okay. Um but I'm trying to see what I could do to to to be here
for that. It it does bother me that we can't make time to talk about the master plan since January in its entirety, but we can make all of a suddenly two potential options for for the for uh um
their for their presentation when we really need to know what we want, where we want this garage. I'm seeing things now that are ground level uh with no retail on the bottom, which we've always said all along. So, there's a lot of things coming at us. Uh, I think we did
a good job in that little time in the in in the uh uh when we had to break for the Trout Lake, but we need we need to we need to all be on the same page. I mean, I think I like what Gary said. There's people coming at us from everywhere and we need to be on our aame
and and got to get the ducks in the right order. Um, so I'm I'm I'm a little concerned on how that comes before we even get to go through and all of us talk about the rest of the master plan of what's there. So that's backwards in
my opinion. Uh, the trails, um, you know, I heard Jim talk about that. Um, I sat on the trails board with, uh, with, uh, up until I was elected into here, and it is very much a part of what we're doing. Um, our previous, uh, city
manager, I think, didn't have it as a priority. Um, but I think it needs to be a huge top top top, no pun intended, to your name, uh, priority to what's tip top tip top
priority. Um, and we do talk about it when when when you say you never hear that. We actually talked about it last meeting when we were talking about some this annexation with this gentleman. So, it is on there. Uh I encourage you to to to come more often and see that we we
are worried about it. We are talking about it as a commission and I would like to see us have Mike Stevens come in here and give us an update on everything. Um the the the trail can make or break what we're doing.
Um the uh street parking issue I had talked about a few meetings back and uh I had to have a talk with one of my uh uh people in downtown about their employees parking on Magnolia and filling everything up before the day
even starts. Um I hear about it um from other businesses. I hear about it from really almost everybody I talk to. an ordinance of some sort that limits parking for some certain amount of time uh is probably something we're going to
need more than ever, at least between now and the time that a garage and whatnot gets built. Uh it is really out of control if you're not down here seeing it, uh like I do on a daily basis. Um can we do customer parking only?
Well, there's residents down here. There's res customer and resident parking. Yeah. Well, you know, My suggestion is that we do not want residents parking on Magnolia. Exactly. Or Eusta Street or McDonald's. We want
them parking in the regular designated parking surface areas. We want the welcome sign out and we want parking available for those who are going to come in for a couple hours, three hours, uh something like that. I think I talked with uh with the Janes once about that
and and we we came up between us that roughly two or three hours is what somebody comes in, visits the stores, they go eat. Um they've been trying to police it. Uh I know Cozy Corners have been trying to police it. I have it in all my leases that you cannot park there. Uh but it's not working. So uh I
think it would be a smart uh thing for for economic development to have that. It falls on the police chief. Uh I know in in Orange County we did some stuff where we marked with chalk and we we came there four times a day and if you were parked there then uh you can get a warning in the beginning and then
eventually uh move on to the next step. So that's that's uh that's something um as well. Um, I'm really impressed with what we've done with the uh uh with the girls today
for for uh uh the crownings and what Miranda has done. Um, I also uh like seeing her uh thanking the chamber and uh joining back together. Um, I think there's been some tension there, but
there's new leadership and uh it's really great for our community when everybody comes together. And uh I'm proud of both of them, Miranda and Marie at the chamber uh for working hard to
try to put the community first and uh that's that's all we can ask for and and that's that's at the top of our our priority. So um that's pretty much uh where I am. Thank you for this proposal uh to the uh
I'm sorry I forgot your name, but you know who you are. Hoffers. To the Hoffers. Yes. And uh the trail. We need to all know where we're at. You know, you sat and you said we got so many things coming at us. So, um I'm excited with new stuff like this. It really gives us things to think about. So,
thank you. Mr. Mayor, may I make an observation based on what George just said? I would like to I remember years ago Uh when I was in um working at the county, there was a downtown merchants association here in Eustace and I feel
like the downtown merchants and retails need maybe they need to do a little bit more bonding and have a little bit more working together because I I feel like there's tension there and if you were working together you would all work out
this parking dilemma rather than putting on the backs of the city. But I think if everybody cooperated with each other, there would be a different outcome about the parking. So I would encourage the retailers to get together and try to um
um be more uh together in what they're doing and work at it. Even with when we had the uh the offer the planters to the city, some do, some don't. Well, if you work together, we we'd have a beautiful but downtown everybody working together.
But it seems like it there's there's not that cohesiveness that's needed in down with the retailers. So that's just my comments and we tried to do that, but when you put a group together, there's always going to be something. So Okay. Okay. He's Yeah. Well, I mean it's we've
been here four hours, mayor. Sorry. Um are you are you done? Okay. So, uh real quick. So, um I gave you all a copy of this. This is something I was wondering where that came from. This is something I did with a couple good friends and Christine Cruz included about how important the hospital or the uh hotel
and hospital were for uh downtown and what it meant. So, it's just for reference. Um and then um on my list here um I'd like to see a few more tables in the park. I only see one on the concrete pad. I think we need more
tables tables in the park. Fair park. Yeah, fair park. Yes. So, if we can take a look at that. Um, the girls softball team is actually playing right now in the district championship. Yes. Um, I'm not sure what the score is. I was trying to get this in to get everyone to go there, but I didn't know it was going to
be here at 8:00, but let's wish them well. Once again, um, we have a great softball, girls softball team that that every year just keeps uh, no pun intended, knocking out of the park. Um, uh, Eustus is having their first Cinco de Mayo Festival, uh, May 3rd, 1 127 at
the Double WG Sports Complex at 2001 South Bay Street. Um, I think it's going to be a great event. There's going to be food, music, um, fun for the kids, uh, kids zoo. I want to thank, uh, Chief Capri, um, tremendously for helping them
out. Uh I know uh uh they u relied on you to help them with some guidance through this. I think it's going to be a great event. They're saying there might be, you know, up to up to a couple thousand people there. And then lastly, can we get those slides up, please? I You want to talk about ideas about
bringing people to Eustace? This is something that it's a boat concert series. a boat concert series where we put like a floating dock out of front of Faren Park and then get some really good bands and let people come in by boat. So, just an idea for consideration and I
am done, sir. Okay. Well, well, thank you, sir. All right. Well, I I like that idea. I like Yeah. I like that we're doing thinking outside of the box, something different. You know what I I think I would like, you know, if we want
to do a concert series, each one of us pick a genre or a band and and and we do it that way uh for the summer. Okay. But anyway, I I don't know if there's enough time to get that done this summer, but it definitely would be something we can
consider even doing, you know, in the fall before. Okay. Okay. Um, hold on. The score is uh top of the fourth is one and we're
winning one to two. Okay. Awesome. All right. Um Harvard building official. Um I this year we had two um uh uh long-term employees retire and um
you know I just want to uh publicly thank them for their service to the city. Uh Arlene Applegate and Christine Ginstead. Uh Arlene was uh in the water department and Christine was at parks
and wreck. Uh long-term employees. Uh we thank them for everything that they did. So uh we appreciate that. Uh bike f bike fest, you know, I think it was it was a great event. Uh room to grow, uh room to
improve. Uh thank you, Chief, for uh spearheading this. You always make the city look good. Um, Swanson. Oh, there he is. Uh, great job on uh on getting your u the
ISO. Great job. So, thank you and and Sean for for all that you do. Um, that is it for me. Oh, I don't have anything but Tom before we close. Okay. I always forget. I'm last. Okay. Tom. Yeah. So,
uh, I provided, uh, the unsolicited proposal that was submitted by the Hoffers, uh, to you this evening. Um, the fact that it was presented this evening was my call. Uh, we are working with the Hoffers and, uh, Mike Gman uh,
and staff to vet the proposal. And so, uh, the fact that you received it tonight was my call. Um but we are working with them um going through not just what they submitted but diving uh into some of the supporting materials
and the financials uh to get a feel for uh the viability of the project. But uh it is a very exciting proposal and uh the hoffers have been great to work with and so looking forward to working with them. And then uh wanted to talk a
little bit about so um I did send out uh the doodle poll. Uh everyone that responded said that they were available at 5:30 on May 6th and 5:30 on May 8th. And then the the third date was uh on um Saturday, but I've since had a
commissioner tell me that they are not available on Saturday. And so I have everyone is available at 5:30 on May 6th and May 8th. My question is we have tenatively scheduled uh the workshop for 5:30 on May 6. Do we also want to meet
on Wednesday May 8th or Thursday May 8th for um what is that better? So we do the this meeting to discuss this program and then on the 8th we'll do something. Well, I so the commission had said they wanted to go through the
master plan in more detail and that's that's what prompted the doodle poll, right? Uh was uh setting up some times to more thoroughly go through the master plan and that's what prompted uh these three dates which is now down to two
dates. And my question is uh do we want to meet uh at 5:30 on May 6th and do we want to meet at 5:30 on May 8th? one or the other or both. Um, I think that we have a lot of work to do. Uh, and I
would propose that we we do them both as opposed to Saturday, but that's that's just me. We got a lot of stuff to do. While Saturday worked originally, I've been told that Saturday no longer works. So, the eighth would be for the master plan, right? Well, that's that's at the
discretion of the comm. I mean we so representatives of G3C2 left tonight thinking that it was May 6th. I can check with them if the preferred date is May 8th. I can check with them on that or if we want to meet both dates, we can do that. Uh it's the will of the
commission. One date could be to to work with G3C2 and the other could be to to dig into the master plan if that's the will of the commission. I'd rather two short dates. as opposed to one. And I'd rather one be
about the master plan as we're moving forward, make sure we're all on one page. Yes. And then another one to address if we have any questions from their proposal. Yeah, that's what we said. And how I know we're way past it, but
the public should have a chance to share some opinions on us, but let's move on. We'll deal with that later. Okay. All right. All right. I'm done. So I so tentatively let's reserve 5:30 on both dates and then I will I will check with So Commissioner Asody are you saying
you'd like to do the deep dive first and then yes meet with G3 so that we know what we want to do and then we can convey it with them. Right. Uh well we well or we listen to them and then we talk about it. Yeah. Let's listen to them and talk about it. Right. So we
will keep them for May 6th and then we will do it that way. Thursday the 8th. Okay. The other thing I asked in front of you, this is just 5 seconds. In front of you is was did you give that to everyone Swanson? Did this go to everybody? No, this is okay. So, I I'll
give this to you to give I had asked Swanson to give me an idea on how um how big of a a facility do we need in a uh community center to get X amount of seats. In other words, how many if it's 15,000 square foots, how many seats does
it make? So, that's the breakdown of what he did for it. Thank you, Chief. Okay, let's thank Ann for this. This is great. um librarian and also thank Chief Swanson because of the burn and all of the yes drought and everything going on. They've been working really hard. So,
thank you Chief Swanson. You know, I um and and this is it. Um you know, I want to thank Tom and Miranda Tom Tom and Miranda. You know,
we we get stuff brought to us um you know, every other Thursday. They have a million things coming at them every day. Every single day. And and I think we may have to hire somebody to work for Miranda because
they're doing so much. But uh they're doing a great job. They're keeping everything together. I can never get either one of them on the phone when I need them now. So that means things are working great. Um, but I think, you know, kudos to the both of you because they have it. If we have it
coming in a meeting directions, they they've got it coming, you know, to me. So, great job. I appreciate that. And it's it's it's Miranda and I, but it's the whole team, right? It's it's our entire staff. Okay, we're journal.