26, 2025 regularly scheduled town council meeting, town of Indian River Shores. Uh we'll call the meeting to order. And if we can start with the invocation, Councilman Carol, we're thankful for this town and its residents. We are grateful for all who work for the betterment of our community
and all who serve on its behalf. Let those who work here and those who serve here be ever mindful of the town's vision and mission statement. Grant this council the wisdom to govern amid the conflicting interest and issues of our times, the ability to work together in
harmony, even when there is honest disagreement, a sense of the welfare and true needs of our people, personal peace in our lives, and joy in our task. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you will join us in pledging algiance to the flag of the United States to the flag of the free
because of the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, thank you everyone for
coming. Uh, if you can call the role. Mayor Foley here. Vice Mayor Atwater here. Council member Carol here. Council member Alieri here. Let the record show all members are present with the exception of Council Member Dayne. All right. Council member Dayne has an
excused absence. Um item number two, agenda reordering, deletions, or emergency additions. Are there any items from council regarding item two? If not, uh we can have a motion to approve.
Second. All right. All in favor? I. Okay. Thank you. Uh presentations and proclamations. Uh this is the 18th annual Treasure Coast Waterways Cleanup Week. Uh we've been asked to proclaim this. Is
anybody here to receive the proclamation on behalf of Treasure Coast Waterways? No. Okay. Um, in that event, we will we will um simply say that uh the town of Indian River Shores does hereby proclaim
that July 19 to 27, 2025 is observed as Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup Week. Uh let's all do our best to keep our waterways clean. Um thank you very much. Moving now to item number four. Are there any comments from the public
regarding any of the items on the agenda? All right, there being none, we will move to the consent agenda. Um, I don't see any any needs for a roll call vote. Is there is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Second. All in
favor? All right. Thank you. Mayor's report. Uh, couple of quick items. The governor has signed lots of bills. Um my my last count last night was I think it was 124 bills and there are probably 20 more in the hopper
as of yesterday late and a lot of them are local bills. It's up to 189. Okay. So he signed a whole bunch of them since I last checked. Uh I've asked our town attorney as per our normal procedure to summarize any bills that are signed into
law that have any particular impact on us as a community and as a government. I think we've done a pretty good job uh reporting from council, keeping up to date on the on the bills that are uh of potential impact to the town government
and our residents. I see there is an item that one of our council people will be addressing in particular. Uh but we can we can look for a further exposition of this from our from our town attorney. But u we've we've talked about these over the past several months.
Fortunately, some of the more alarming items uh did did die. Um unfortunately, some uh some alarming items did not die. So, we're going to have to be uh we're going to have to be kind of vigilant in making sure that we we are compliant. Um
in in that regard, you know, in particular, the condo safety bill, which we adopted an ordinance um first reading last meeting, uh has been signed into law. So our anticipation was uh welld deserved and
we will be doing the second reading of that. So we are now in a position to be compliant with the unfunded mandate uh next week. So they gave us plenty of time. They gave us 4 days basically to get our act in order. Um if we had not anticipated this likely we would not
have had an ordinance in place to be compliant. So just something for Tallahassee to think about in the future. uh finance committee uh did their did their good work on the uh budget draft outline, their initial work. Uh I don't think they're going to
be doing a second pass on this. Uh we we must have a really good budget because for the first time since I've been here, we have not received a narrative u you know detailing items to uh uh have council think
further about. And um we will be having our budget meeting uh budget workshop meeting on July 24th. That will begin at 8:30 a.m. So for council, we will start early 8:30 a.m. We've budgeted a half an hour. If by any chance we go over, we
can uh adjourn the budget workshop, uh have our regularly scheduled council meeting start at 9:00 and then come back to it. Uh based upon years past, I don't think that will be necessary. So, um, thanks to everyone on council for doing the homework ahead of time, uh, so that
we go right to the wheat and separate the chaff. Uh, let's see. Uh, hurricane season started in June since our last town council meeting. The town provided information for residents.
I received a number of compliments from residents thanking us for that annual mailing. those of us who are here for many years tend to see them and kind of get the picture, but it's it's particularly important for folks who haven't been here during hurricane season to see the common sense things
that you need to think about and prepare for ahead of time. So, it was a reminder that uh good work on our administration for putting this uh putting this information out. Um, with that, um, I will, uh, yield to council member items
on number seven, unless there are any questions for me from council. All right, council member items. No, some somebody put a memo up. So, let's
Was that you? A memo up on a bill. Uh I I thought we'd cover that during the the town the town attorney uh Okay. All right. Uh section. I I' I've given Pete a heads up uh on it. No. Uh what I want
to talk about just uh briefly is uh I've been trying to get a pedestrian crosswalk uh activate a crosswalk down by the town's path along CR edge that
goes out to the uh beach parking station park. As I think everybody knows, the that area uh down there has a lot of cross traffic between the CVS, the 7-Eleven, and now we have a new development that is being built behind
the 7-Eleven. I received a a call from the uh Metropolitan Planning Organization uh staff director at the county. So, the MO is the transportation planning for the county. He in turn received a phone call that
uh the FDOT is going to put that in at uh no no cost to the town and that the sidewalk would be extended down from where that is uh down to the 7-Eleven and and and CVS. Now, I haven't gotten a
written uh acknowledgement of that currently, but uh the the individual down at the FD district 4 headquarters in uh Fort Lauderdale indicated that's going to take place. And supposedly it's going to be done during fiscal year 2026,
which is absolutely light speed getting any any highway project done. And I think that will result in that path being used more. It'll be safer for people at that end of town. Unfortunately, we we had a a woman about
100 yards or so uh was uh was killed trying to cross there uh back in the 2023. So, I'll report back when I get the get the final written acknowledgement, but I think that's a good thing for the town. So, that's all I have. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um
that's, you know, safety is our highest priority and um it's it's a dangerous situation now. We can only imagine what it's going to be. um after increased traffic. Uh we also um thank you for reminding me we had some inquiries from members of the public regarding sidewalk
repaving and um I've referred those items over to the town manager as he's in contact with the county. The county has responsibility for that road uh between CVS and uh 7-Eleven. So uh hopefully there can be some kind of
coordination either between the county and FDOT. Uh so it's not it's not the town's responsibility, nor should it be to pay for repaving those sidewalks, but uh to the extent that they're in a a dangerous condition, um Mr. Harping will be following up on that and uh I know
you're in vice mayor in contact with our town manager frequently as well in this. So thank you very much. Um any other council member items? Uh there being none, we will go to item eight, which are items with discussion with possible
or probable action. Item 8A is ordinance number 579, mandatory structural inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings. This is the second reading. Uh I alluded it to it in my report and um
last meeting I think Mr. Held mentioned that we have is it one or two buildings in the town only? You you don't need to come up. I think it's only it's one or two. Two, sir. Okay. Um, all right. So, Mr. Town attorney, if you
would do the magic reading so that we can have our Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Uh we don't have a lot of members of the public, but does any member of the public wish to comment on this item?
Okay. Seeing no public comment, is there a motion to approve? So move. Is there a second? Second. Is there any further discussion by council? If there is no further discussion, a roll call vote, please. Mayor Foley, I. Vice Mayor Awart, I. Council member Carroll, I.
Council Mo Aliier, I. Let the record show. The motion passes 40 unanimously. All right. Thank you very much, everyone. Item 8B, approval of the fiscal year 2025 2026 employee health, dental, and life
insurance plan. Mr. for Harper. Can you explain this and the uh requested item for action as well as your best guesstimate of the costs? Uh we'll do um council the uh in some we have been able
to secure the uh same level of coverage uh for our employees with the same provider Florida Blue uh at a flat rate. So there's been no increase in uh the insurance rates for uh health or um uh
ad accidental uh death dismemberment. However, we will realize a 15.1% uh savings in the rates for uh for dental. So in that regard, it's been uh it's been beneficial um to the town. we
uh were provided with a number of different options from uh from our broker Brown and Brown and uh in the end um essentially stayed with this uh relative to cost without going into great detail. Um uh I'll just note that
all of the detailed costs are in the attachment. Um but again from a budgetary standpoint there will be no uh increase. There'll be that um 15.1% decrease in the dental. So that's where we are. council. All right. Are there any questions for
Mr. Harpering on this item? All right. Well, thank you for giving teeth to that report. Um, we will Nobody picked up on that. The reduction in dental health and giving teeth to the report. So, like, all right. Um, it's not my day. It's not my room. Uh, okay.
Uh, do we need a roll call vote on this? We don't. I think we just need a acclamation. Um, all in favor? I. Are there any any opposed? Okay. Um there being no opposition, it's a unanimous pass. Item 8 C schedule 2025
2026 uh budget public hearing dates. Uh just to remind council and members of the public, these are statutory. We'd like to do them at different times of the year perhaps, but we can't because we have u windows within which we must uh conduct these meetings and even specific
times. Uh there are also requirements for some items to have a supermajority which in our instance has uh four members. Uh so we um you know we need uh we need to make sure we're all available if possible on these dates. So um
uh does the town clerk or the town manager wish to address this item? We would just like to change the September 18th date to September 16th if that's possible. All right. September 8th to the 16th.
18th. Yep. It was the 18th. Okay. To the 16th, which is So, this is the second change we've made. Yes, Mr. Vice Mayor. Since, uh, this document came out, uh, some other, uh, items came up. So, uh, we're just trying
to coordinate that. After we originally set our dates, uh, the school district set their date which resulted in sort of a cascading series of events relative to availability. Oh, okay. So, you had you had already brought this to our attention. So, this
isn't a second time that we're doing this. Um, sorry, I'm confused. And that's fine. With the exception of the Thursday, September 18th date that is in the document right now that is in the agenda uh item.
We we are asking the council to amend that to the 16th, which would be a Tuesday, September 16th. Is that correct, Madam Clerk? Right. So, um, yeah, I think you did alert us to this and that's because we're not able to have one of the, uh, elements of the
Kabuki dance is we're not allowed to have, uh, our budget meeting at the same time another entity is having its budget meeting in the county. So, um, 501 the 16th, does that work? Uh, yes. Yes. Okay.
Councilman Alter? Yes. You good on that? All right. And other than that, the dates will stay the same. Uh just noting the uh Thursday, September 23rd at 50:01. That'll be our second um final uh budget hearing date. Thursday the 25th
or Tuesday the t Tuesday the 23rd. Yeah. Okay. Tuesday the 23rd is the second public hearing at 501 after the regular. Right. Okay. So, we're having a council meeting at 3:30 and then the budget meeting to follow thereafter 501.
All right. Great. Any other anything else on this? Um, is there a motion to approve? So move. Second. Uh, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Great. All right. Terrific. We're moving right along here today. Item 9A, staff
updates, building official report and statistics. Mr. Held. Good morning everyone. I don't have anything additional to add for last month's monthly report. If there's any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.
Anything for Mr. Held? No. Well, except Thank you. I think we all were circulated an item uh highlighting the ease with which uh even you deliver bad news to to people but um thank you for
your good work. It's uh not not very common that building departments get accolades and uh we we get them from time to time. So your your attention to customer service we have uh you know we don't uh we don't differentiate
uh here between uh um you know members of the public. we call them customers and your your customer service is greatly appreciated and a wonderful reflection on the town. So, thank you. Thank you, sir. Uh 9B code enforcement report.
Uh Jake, unfortunately, I don't think you get many accolades, but that's just the nature of your business, so that's fine. Good morning. Um I have only one update to the report, which is not on your provided one. um just the next sea
turtle lighting survey scheduled for July 22nd. That'll be the final one for this year. Mr. Mayor, if I just make a note on that. Uh I think the uh transition uh for in a variety of different areas um
to in-housing um our code enforcement in those items um with inspector micrants has been great especially this is an very interesting example because in the in in some years past there have been um high double-digit violations in the turtle lighting piece uh throughout the
season. Uh we're down to four. it could be less now uh compliance-wise because of the manner in which we're doing the surveys and the manner in which uh Jake is communicating um with folks and and really you know trying to educate him and encourage them. So um uh he does
occasionally get a comment uh which is complimentary uh and that's great for code enforcement but I did did want to note uh note that in that regard as well. Thank you very much. And yes, you know, thank you for the good work. And uh it's uh it's it's not our intention to punish people and say gotcha. It's
our intention to educate, encourage, and then as a last resort and force. So uh thank you for following up on that. Thank you. Item 9 C, public works department. Uh Mr. Harper, uh there's nothing additional uh in outside of the
report at this time. I uh just note that we continue with our uh uh in-house uh training. Uh you'll note that uh on item 13 on the memo, uh we were in-housing our elicit discharge training and all of those types of things. It's really uh very beneficial on a variety of
different levels. Um uh but other than that, there's nothing outside of uh the memo. If there's any questions, I'll be happy to try to provide answers. All right. Anything for Mr. Harpering on public works? Uh just say the anchor looks great. um finally got that um that
icon of our town repaired and uh prominently displayed after the work that was done last year. Uh item 9D, town treasurer report. Uh Miss Christmas is taking a well-deserved rest, I take it today, and uh if you can kindly update us and um
give us any items of interest. Well, certainly I'm a very uh poor substitute for uh for Miss Christmas in terms of the report. I won't um speak outside of the uh the the finance report and the budget analysis that uh that we have uh along with the uh finance update. Uh
though, Mr. Mayor, Council, I would like to amplify your comments about the uh the budget, the finance process, the finance committee. Um uh it's always great working with Heather. She's got a complete command of the the numbers in the town. And um uh other than that, I
uh I don't have any additional information outside of those reports. All right. Thank you, Mr. for Harper and yes and just for the public's edification for whoever may uh be watching this we do uh stay very much on top of this stuff. So you know our our
monthly uh our monthly updates are uh at a minimum and any council member is free to ask the finance department or the town manager about any matters relating to finance and we are briefed on individual items as they arise. So, uh,
rest assured we, uh, we do our best to stay on top of this and meet all our deadlines and all of the things that are required of us. Uh, item 9E, public safety department report and statistics. Uh, Chief,
good morning. Um, we've got gone through a a series of audits uh for from a number of different outside agencies over the past uh 30 days or so. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement came in and did what's known as a David audit for us. Uh they found uh no discrepancies in that audit. We we
passed through that without any difficulty. Um this past week we had a EMS compliance audit from uh from the EMS office out of Tallahassee. Um no findings in that audit either. So we flew through that one. Um we had a ISO
evaluation, insurance service organization uh evaluation and um that was about two weeks ago and um we're awaiting the results for that to come back. Um was a different learning process for me. I've been through
probably 10 ISO audits in in my career. Um and uh they're they're all all of them are painful to be perfectly honest with you. Um but uh um because of the we don't manage the water system in in this uh in in our municipality. It's it's
actually managed by the city of Ero. Um we probably are going to run into uh to to a mild hit. They gave us a year to correct it. Uh but it had to do with maintenance of fire hydrants and those types of things. So we'll we'll get caught up on that, but we're not going to not going to see a change in the uh
in the insurance premiums for anybody in the town, I don't believe. Um, and finally, um, the, uh, we had a picnic for all the public safety employees. Thank you very much, uh, the mayor. But thanks for all the vendors out there that actually, uh, chipped in and, uh,
donated items for the the food truck and the and the hot dogs and and some of the things that went along with it. And, uh, had a great turnout and a lot of a lot of our staff from public safety showed up. And, uh, we really appreciate that. Thank you very much. I'll be happy to answer any questions if you have any.
Anything for the chief? Yes, sir. Chief, mayor, can you u just brief me on the I know we lost an ambulance to fire. I do we expect to I saw a note. It's just unclear to me whether we expect to replace it in fiscal 25 or is that going
to be delayed? Well, it's uh right now we're dealing with the insurance companies um and uh we've pulled together all the information and uh Mr. Mr. Harping's going to be talking to the insurance company, I believe, today or tomorrow in the next couple days. Um, and there was off between what their
estimate was and what what our actually our costs were. Um, and we're working through all those processes now. Now, we've gone back and taken a hard look at um the uh what we actually need and what we can do. Um, it's if we order an
ambulance today, two two and a half, three years for it to come in. Um, and that's just simply because the market there's only so many manufacturers and especially the units that we buy. Um it takes a while to get this processed through. Um we have talked internally
and we're getting the final pricing on that over the next week or so about doing a what's known as a rechassie. Um the the box the back of the ambulance itself where the patient department is has a lifetime warranty on those. So, we'll send the send the old and our one
of our old units back up to the manufacturer and they'll lift the box up um completely strip it from the paint, pull all the wiring out of it, rewire it, relight it, do everything that has to be done to it, drop that down on a new cabin chassis, um and at about 70%
of what a new ambulance cost. So, we made So, is that a decommissioned box that you're talking about or Yeah, it's the unit we were going to replace. And what I'm doing now is trying to see if I can find a backup unit that we may be able to get talking to the county or one of our one of our other uh partners out
there. So, but we're still working through that process about uh about how to replace that unit right now. So, so is this likely to be a zero someum event for us once all of the insurance proceeds are taken into consideration or is this going to require some kind of a
capital expense for us with respect to the the new ambulance? The I'm I'm sorry. I I I I didn't hear you very well. I'm sorry. The the loss of the the ambulance is going to be covered in part or fully by insurance. So, I'm just
wondering whether it's fully or in part going to be covered and whether or not we're going to have to make up a difference. Chief, if I may, um council member, uh in the end, uh I just met with the chief and uh uh assistant chief, uh French yesterday on this
topic. So in the end, if we go with the alternative relative to taking the chassis that we have, completely rebuilding it, rewiring it, making it like new, putting it on a new uh the box, putting it on a brand new chassis, we're looking at substantially less time
and less cost than the original investment. So it may be if we can uh work this out it will be less cost uh less um uh less time in terms of getting that operational. So it maybe a net gain
but is that an interim resolution or that that'll be that'll be the that'll be the replacement ambulance that will not be interim. I think the interim that the chief referred to was um while that rebuild is being done, we will
coordinate uh cooperate with one of our local partners to ensure that we have the the the backup equipment, the secondary and tertiary equipment that we need. Yeah. Would we be able to go to a different contractor, not use the one that burned the current one to the
ground? I I'll defer to the chief on that. that I mean contractor does all of that. I mean they do all that work. I can't account for what the actual error or detail uh was in terms of the the mistake that they made, but I'll I'll defer on that. We we'll try to have the
radio installed at the factory. I'm sorry. We'll try to have the radio installed at the factory when they do the rechesting. Okay. I mean it it you know you and I had an offline conversation. seem like we're having some conflict with them right now that may maybe that's going to
get worked out but so or can can I ask one other question here? Sure. Okay. You mentioned the fire hydrants that we got dinged on that by the ISO about maintenance. So who is
responsible for the maintenance on that? Is it the city of Ver Beach because they provide us water uh service? They they own the system. Yes, sir. We're we're not responsible. I have never been responsible for for maintenance of fire hydrants in my entire career. Okay. Over
multiple jurisdictions. It's never been the responsibility of the fire and the public safety department. That's so by definition of town as well. So, have we reached out to uh the city of Vero Beach uh about these uh issues with uh the
city manager there uh falls and utilities director Bolton and brought this to their attention and have we gotten a response? They are fully aware and they have responded and and their response to us was is that over the next two years every hydrant within the town
will be actually go through a maintenance process with an outside vendor that they have hired. So it's going to take them two years to get complete cycle done. Okay. So we're going to have to step up and do a few things prior to that. So you said in your your discussion on this earlier
that the ISO said we had to fix it in a year. Yeah. So, so that's not going to happen. We'll we'll have our part of it fixed and that's right. I I I understand there's parts out of control, but uh Okay. Yeah. And and that's the part that that um uh has to do with flow rates and
and flow testing and those types of things. We'll go out and take care of that. In your in your view, is this a big safety issue? No, I don't believe so. I I I they the city's been fairly responsible. we have one that gets dinged in a wreck
or something like that to come out and and do a repair on it. Um so as far as you know water supplies and those types of things, I think we're in fairly good shape. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. All right. Uh we do have just on the ambulance we just to remind we do have
replacement value. Um that's the that's the insurance coverage on it. So um I'm sure you'll you can keep us advised individually, you know, as this fluid situation uh happens. It's uh it's it's never a pleasant thing when one of your new
ambulances spontaneously combusts. But you know, as we work through this, I think it's very important that uh we keep in mind that we will have um our primary and a backup and our intergovernmental agreements, you know, do provide comfort for us. As we as
we've provided assistance to them, they will provide assistance to us. So, no need for the public to be alarmed. your your safety will be well looked after and and seamless uh as we work through this. So, is there anything else for the chief? If not, I have one item. Just
wanted to uh point out I think all council may have been copied on this that uh at least is the first time I've seen it. uh state attorney actually wrote to us thanking our public safety department for the outstanding work that
assisted in a prosecution of a fairly well publicized vehicular uh homicide. And um uh it was a source of great pride for me and I'm sure council that we acted with professionals and we did to the point where the state attorney would
be prompted to to to write accolades and basically thanking us for making uh his job easier. So uh have you ever seen that before, Mr. Harping? You've been around these parts. So uh infrequently when they when they take
that uh affirmative step, it was it was great to hear. and I know uh I know the assistant state attorney well and uh uh it was it was well placed. Great. Thank you. So, keep up the good work. Uh town attorney report, Mr. Sweeney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council. Um just a
very quick briefing on uh the budget uh as part of the legislative process. Um, just very quickly, the budget was formally finally passed by the state legislature, but as of uh my checking this morning, it still has not been transmitted to the governor. Um, and the
only reason why I bring that up uh for your information is one, if you were to get questions about it, is being reported. Uh, and the and the governor has made statements that he certainly can veto items. He's suggested vetoing approximately 500 million from the $115 billion budget, but we shall see.
Importantly, the budget is retroactive. So, should he not actually sign it um until after the 1st of July, it would be retroactive. But again, that's the status of that. As we talked about earlier in the mayor's report, approximately 190 bills, many of which
are local uh designations of roads and such uh in other counties have been passed. However, there are a couple of note and uh vice mayor has provided me too. So, I'm happy to talk through those. Uh I'd like to talk in uh reverse order from the documentation that was provided here if that's all right.
Councilman vice mayor I should say. Um so on uh CSSB 1080 local government land regulation. Um I do not believe there is anything for the town to do much like we just undertook in our second reading
earlier in this meeting. Uh the regulation updates uh are much more procedural in nature and Mr. are held in the building department are well aware of it. Uh we talk about uh but it'll be process and procedure providing notification information to applicants.
Um one of the benefits certainly of the town being developed as it is we're approximately 98% built out maybe even higher than that as I understand it. So uh many of these types of development orders uh would not necessarily be applicable just because they require a
scale of over 10 acres in some cases. And again Mr. are held in the department are well aware of it. We routinely talk about if there's any implications, but I don't believe on 1080 there will be anything necessarily for the town to do on CSSB 1620 uh which you see here is
beaches and has been provided to you. Um importantly and I'll pass this out. Uh the main thrust of this uh legislative effort, thank you very much. Is the repeal of a statute which was passed in
2018. And there should be one extra copy for Madame Clerk. Oh, maybe two. Um, this was a statute. I'm passing it out so you can see what was repealed. It is no longer the law as of the execution of this new statute, but previously in
2018, uh, this 163.035 035 was passed and it was an action relating to sort of the upland area between the meanh high water line and private property and it was uh created a a new legal framework
uh to adjudicate what's called customary use and customary use in Florida had been this principle for many many many decades that if the public had been using it for fishing, walking and basically public activities, it defaulted to customary public use, even
though it could have technically been on private property above and shoreward of the mean high water line. What this 2018 statute did was say if a county, mostly county, and this certainly happened here in Indian River County, uh wants to
confirm those customary use areas, they would have to fire litigation on a partial basis. This new law that was just passed takes that requirement away. So, it's no longer required that you have to file. And again, this is mostly
county oriented um to determine customary use. So, it won't be required. There's a much more permissive way for counties and agencies to be able to determine customary use. The other thing is and it's not really applicable to our area is it establishes if they haven't
been established meanwhile high water line and erosion control and mostly is effective within the Gulf count piece. Um but even then there's a limitation if you were to look on the second part of of that. It really only applies to a county with three municipalities and a
population of less than 275,000 excluding inmate population. Um, so again, very limited population. It's really oriented towards the Gulf Coast in the panhandle and northwest sections of Florida. But it's a response to this previous legislation and it's a good
reminder, mayor and council that um we see legislative efforts get passed and then subsequently they get modified and in some cases repealed. Uh, another example that's not really too uh relevant to the town is the change of school start times. Um there was a
legislative effort approximately two years ago saying all schools start times high school and middle school would change and there was such a push back from many of the school districts throughout the state that they completely remove that this year. So uh in effect um I do not believe this new
statute under one I'm sorry 1622 requires the town to do anything. Uh but again in talking with Mr. Harpering and certainly our outside contractors when it comes to meanh high water line we've had those established erosion control lines for this county have already been established and if there were any
subsequent change to this legislation uh we would work with the county natural resources department who would be our liazison um in some that's my report I don't have anything else to add but I'm happy to answer any questions vice mayor yeah I I was the one that asked uh Pete
to take a look at this because the way the legislation is written it's kind of hard to follow other than the first one. The others are repealed. Yes, sir. Um, okay. So, what you're saying, you don't believe we have to do anything. And my concern was if we did that, we would
maybe think about doing it relatively quickly to be grandfathered because you never know when the next set of state legislators come in and flip this thing completely back back around. The one thing I'm trying to figure out and maybe it's not not a question you can answer
on the on the new statute is under section two uh subsection three. It says the department of environmental protection may proceed with beach restoration projects for any area designated by the department's
critically eroded the critically eroded beaches in Florida report dated August 20 and 24 and it states uh that notwithstanding section 161 blah blah blah beach restoration projects conducted pursuant
to this section do not require a public ease and maybe this something I have to bring up with over with the county. Does that mean we don't have to get uh permissions like we had to do to get 90%
uh sign offs from uh people arrayed along sector 4 in order to to get our our great beach restoration project done? Do you do you have any read on that at this point or maybe it's too early? I I think it's early but I I would say two things. One, I think that
the idea behind this was in response to previously the 2018 law effectively shifted the burden to a county or an agency saying you need to prove that this was for public use. And therefore,
instead of going through litigation and saying that that area was for public use, that's where counties such as Indian River County came in and said, "We're not going to file lawsuits that cost a lot of money. We're just going to ask for property owners to give us an easement." Okay, this dovetales with the fact and idea that you no longer need to
sue and and declare on a parcel by paral basis the customary use. Instead, you could do it because it's now swung back. The default position is it would be customary use. The property owner would have to push back on it and therefore
maybe an easement is not necessary. The second part and and it's a it is it's a I believe uniquely worded statute much like the legislation but if you look in I I love you lawyers uniquely worded. If you look immediately below that, it's
crap. Uh number four says this section applies to counties located to and and what you would do then is see well it's saying this section we look up the section is on the previous page section two. So my reading of this is all of
this only applies to Gulf counties with those municipalities. So then in theory the county would still have to go to try to get those. It's probably still best practice because you'd have a document that would be recorded in the public records forever regardless of this legislation ever changes. All right. Thank you. Um but I do think uh mayor,
vice mayor and council um the discussion with beach and shores and uh the representatives of county are our lead agency generally on beach restoration is probably appropriate to talk with them. Well, that's why we're cuz I'm the chair of that. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. I believe during during
debate, one of the representatives referred to this as the get off my lawn statute. So, um um and you know, I think one of the things to keep in mind is that uh in our area in particular, we have very restricted beach access. So,
it's not um there's there's a natural retardant against uh you know, having the kinds of problems of you know, spring breakers crashing your beach and setting up a picnic table. And to follow that, Mr. Mayor, a lot of the Gulf beaches, if you've been up, especially through the panhandle, are very flat.
So, to determine where the mean high water line is versus maybe your property line, it may be 100 yards here. Uh, I don't believe there's 100 yards of beach frontage anywhere in the county. Right. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Really, really appreciate that. Anything else on this item? Um, I think this is a good
time. The council has been distributed a letter uh concerning website publications. And let me try to simplify this. We and other municipalities have to spend an awful lot of money publishing in newspapers notices that
nobody ever looks at. The legislature in the past authorized counties to um basically adopt a mechanism through a website where municipalities there and in the county could use a uh electronic publication thus saving
substantial amounts of money. Um, so I've written to the county administrator and we'll copy the county commissioners on this. It's not a very difficult process to follow. Somebody's 18-year-old kid could do it in a weekend
setting up the website. Probably less than probably less than a day. um should should this not bear fruit, um prepare it on uh beginning of the fall to uh then schedule some meetings with the county commissioners individually and
say this is a real piece of lowhanging fruit here. You know, if you want to you want to save money and cut out some, you know, cut out some costs and benefit benefit your taxpayers and actually reach people who are supposed to be looking for these notices as opposed to having to hunt through. and you have a
number of publications where they're buried somewhere between high school sports and classified ads. Uh this would this would achieve that purpose. So that's what this is all about. If there are any objections to me sending this letter or if you have any modifications,
I know this group I will have no problems with whatever modifications you may make to it before it goes out today. So please uh please feel free to uh give them over to the uh town attorney or uh Mr. Harper. Uh, I'll just say thank you.
This is this is a good idea. I had brought this up with the previous county administrator and county attorney and they pushed back saying all sorts of legal risks that they had, which I could never they just didn't want to do it is what it came down to. So, yeah. Well, we
could have a seminar on sovereign immunity um particularly since it's been delegated from the legislature. So, I don't really understand. I I'd heard that same thing. Thank you, Vice Mayor. But we'll we'll do our best for our taxpayers and the taxpayers of the county to uh save money where it is.
Particularly, you know, we've got this Doge entity now. So, you know, I I wonder if they would be fairly interested in hearing this. This is again very easy way to save taxpayer money. We're just throwing it out the window. Um any comments on that? any
reservations or the only thing I would say Mr. Mayor council is that the statute was passed in 2022 and maybe the first year it might have been a little bit scary for somebody to implement it but as you said it's been around for almost four years now uh and there's certainly other places that are
doing it and it's not that hard. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And and I should say too I I intend to reach out to the other mayors to uh bring this to their attention and uh see if we can't all get on board for this. Thank you, town manager report, Mr. Harper. Um, thank
you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, just one minor point I'd like to add to that. If you do go to the Palm Beach County um website, it's very interesting because their link has not only municipalities, but also um special management districts, everything. And and uh just to amplify
council member's point, we had discussed this with the county previously on a number of occasions and um it seems pretty straightforward. So, we're prepared to assist in any way uh to help the county uh along, but thank you for your support, council, and helping us move this along. We think it'll be a a
great cost savings across the board. Other than that, I don't have anything additional to add. Okay. Anything for the town manager? All right. Uh council committee reports. Again, this is the summer season, so other than the occasional local government barbecue and things like
that, we don't have a heck of a lot going on. But, uh I'll ask anyway. Did Mr. Alteri, there was not a utilities committee meeting, but there is one next week. Um, I'll be out of town. I think Vice Mayor is going to cover in my absence.
All right. Thank you. Um, I know Councilman Dne uh was planning on going to the joint meeting uh with our town clerk. I'm not sure who else is coming, but everybody's invited to it. You can check on the date and uh I plan on going
to that as well. Um, other than that, no meetings were held on any of the committees I'm on. Vice Mayor, I have a presentation uh just uh one presentation but in 52 parts. So,
uh, but now I just want to very very quickly go through uh the uh most recent MO meeting. This is the most important meeting of the year where they go through and look at all the road projects and uh assign priorities for those projects. basically on pretty much
a fiveyear cycle. So, believe me, I I will go quick, but I think it's important for people just to uh understand the the the process. So, as this slide in indicates, it's a rolling five years and it by multimodal, it it
handles bike and pedestrian. It handles um uh roadways that we use in the county and then what they call strategic roads which essentially is is I95 here. So you could flip the next page uh please. So there's a series of uh
process that they can do. You could hit the whole uh uh thing. So essentially we have uh the MO has meetings where they come up with long-term transportation plans. No, you're going a little too quick. Okay. uh and bike and pedestrian
in in plans. We assign uh priorities to those things and then wrap them into a F5-year uh program gets approved by the NO and then it gets approved by the federal uh highway uh uh works
administration, federal transportation agencies, the MO uh metropolitan planning organization. other counties call it the transportation planning organization is required by federal law in order to get federal highway money.
So it's a it's a pretty important uh committee in order to make sure that we we get our our cut of uh money. Next slide please. So uh so as I mentioned uh years one to four you're basically rolling plans uh forward each year. to
fifth year is you're setting up uh new uh uh priorities and it's been had some interesting meetings where people new on board want to have their project moved to the front of the line and you can imagine who that person might have been. So uh and they had to be explained it
doesn't work that way. Next slide please. So this is the uh process that goes on when a new highway project or bridge in the case Sebastian
Inlet District is being done. And so you know to me on the outside being pretty frustrated about how long it takes things to to get done. But I just wanted to put this slide up to indicate that uh it it's
it's a it's a pretty on uh tough process from a time perspective to get done but just gives you a sense of all the different steps that have to occur. Next slide. Okay. Uh I I the these two following slides I just want to show the
uh pictures on it. So we have 510 up here at the end of the town. uh 510 is going to be reconstructed all the way out to uh 512. The first section is is going to be essentially from just uh uh
near when you cross over the bridge, the intra coastal over uh to uh across the uh Bright Line SL Florida East Coast Railroad track. So uh what the slide shows is they're going to be a overpass. It's going to be actually
a pretty cool project. is going to speed things along the what the uh project is is going to do as as well is it's going to take the bridge the overpass and go all the way across the tracks so you
won't get stuck by bright line coming through and so forth. So if you look at this slide here the top of the slide is east toward the ocean and then obviously west uh inland there. So it's going to be a pretty cool project. Next
Sorry. Yeah. Uh it's actually it's you see this white building in the foreground. Yeah. Yeah. I think right in front of that as you're looking of it or lower in the page is is the railroad
track there. Yeah. So uh so so it's Yes, that that's correct. Yeah. When is that going to happen? Well, within five years. Yeah. I I I think essentially around five years without delays. Yes.
So, okay. Next slide, please. Uh the other one that's going to be uh pretty important is Aviation Boulevard. As I think anybody knows, when you you get on Aviation uh Boulevard past the airport, it's a real mess. They're going to widen that out. And the idea is Aviation
Boulevard becomes 26th Street and down the line and hopefully I'll be alive to see it as they're going to expand that all the way out past the Indian River Mall. So that will be a good alternative to going up State Route 60
to go westbound to uh I 95. Next slide please. Uh so we have the these are some of the other uh projects. Highway A1A has been uh redone up just past 510. It's then going to be uh resurfaced from
Sand Dollar uh way, which is about about a mile north of 510 all the way uh up to the bridge. And then you're going to have a resurfacing project uh south from the city of Vera Beach down to the St. Lucy County line. There's some other uh
resurfacing and sidewalk trails. Next slide, please. This is going to be a really cool project and we we talked about this uh before. I think they're going to start to work in 2027. This is the new Sebastian inlet uh bridge. So,
uh what you see here, it's still going to be uh two lanes. There's going to be a much wider uh bike lane. Uh and in addition, there is going to be what they call shared use path. So, you're going to actually have a a concrete barrier that the car can't go uh go well
shouldn't be able to go through where where people can walk. And then they have these these areas off to the side where you can stop and and look uh uh over uh into the either uh west over to the lagoon if you're walking along or
you're biking you stop or east over to the ocean. It's going to be a really uh nice uh uh project. Face May, are they still uh planning on keeping the existing bridge to the I guess it would be the right of the perspective um while
they build the second bridge? Yes, that that that is that is correct. They'll get one lane done and then they'll as I understand it knock down one lane of the old bridge and then and and yes, there will be no impediment
uh to traffic in terms of going down to one lane. At least that's what we we've been told to understand. Next slide, please. So, this is the total uh funding that we get. As you can see, most of this comes from the uh federal government. It's particularly high compared to other years because the
Sebastian lead bridge at 129 uh mil mill million dollars. Uh next slide. So uh this is the major projects from a map uh uh p perspective with red being the highway projects and green being the
uh the maintenance projects that are going to uh take place. Uh in particular beside that 510 project down at the bottom of the uh map is the Oslo road inter new interchange with uh I95 which
will be a big help to uh those of uh our uh colleagues uh that live in in South Indian River uh county. and then 82nd Avenue uh going no north and south that's going to be constructed and
probably going to end up resulting in a fair amount of development uh out there. Next slide please. And so the these are the priority highway projects. I won't go through all them. My purpose in putting this in is that any of our residents want to look at this uh online
it will be available. one again it's been m mostly rolled uh from the uh the previous uh year. The one exception is the priority one at 45th Street uh which goes through the GER community. Uh the
decision was made by the the MO that uh this should have been done years ago and somehow got pushed back and we we moved it up to the front to get that complete street re retrofit done. Next one. and
and these are the the highway uh projects and then the various transit projects. The transit priorities are to create a a new hub. I probably very few people in this community ride the uh the
local uh transit, but way way it works is you have all the bus routes meet in a in several hubs in the county and it's designed from a schedule perspective. They all come in at the same time and then you can do a transfer to go. It's a
it's a pretty cool system and the uh county has gotten accolades uh uh from the state. It's considered one of the best uh local bus transit uh county systems in the state of Florida. And
from a uh a cost per uh passenger mile, it is generally been either the the cheapest or the second cheapest. Sometimes the uh transit system in Gainesville, which has a lot of traffic because University of Florida tends to
be higher. Uh next slide. the priority bicycle and pedestrian projects. Again, I'll just leave those up there. So, if somebody wants to take a look at this uh online, I don't know if we have any more slides or not. Can you Yep, that's that's it. So, be happy to take any any
any questions, but any questions for the vice uh vice mayor, does do any issues relating to to Bright Line um its path, its stations come within the MO province?
Uh no. uh they they they do not and at at least at this point I guess in theory somebody could come up with a project to try to reach out to Bright Line and get them to build a station here. The I I think that's extremely
unlikely for two reasons. The most important reason is if they get they put a station here that slows them down even more. The reason why they have thought about doing Stewart station is if you look at the way uh Bright Line the track runs
when it gets to Stewart it does one of these and then goes across the bridge of St. Lucy River. So they have to slow down anyway. They can't maintain even a 70 m hour uh speed. If if you're there when they're crossing the uh St. Lucy
River, they're probably only going about 30 35 miles an hour. So that made sense from them to do that. Uh up here they're getting some speed. In my opinion, when I try to eyeball it, the fastest speed I ever saw him going, my guesstimate was
about 70 uh miles an hour. So that would slow them down. The second thing, which I would have a problem with, every station that they built, they want the taxpayer to pay for it. They don't want to put a nickel into that steward state, which is now why it's gotten backed up
uh so much because I think there's been a turnover in the city of Stewart uh council and the new people are objecting to kick kicking uh money. You know, they they Bright Line refers to them as themselves
as the only privatelyowned railroad uh in past railroad in the country. Uh, I would push back very uh heavy on that. I could identify at least $250 million of taxpayer money spent on stations on
their behalf. Did you include within your question like grade crossings? I think also from time to time members of the public have raised a notion that uh and it it's not specific to Bright Line but also the freight trains that prevent people from the other side of the tracks from coming
through. So, is NO have any any discussion or persuasive ability to approach uh Florida Rail um the FRA and say like let's revisit the the grade crossings to allow for access across um
across the tracks east and west. Uh again, it comes down to if we want to pay for it. Florida East Coast Rail has uh as far as I know legally, we can't force them to
reduce number of grade crossings. Uh so, you know, it's interesting you brought that up because Aviation Boulevard, as you know, going eastbound comes to the uh right by the hospital. So I raised the issue in the no
uh about uh building a tunnel and the t the type of tunnel I had in mind was only one lane. If you think about you go up uh north here in A1A Disney has a small tunnel because and my suggestion was to build a tunnel that only
emergency vehicles could go through. Oh, I got responses from two of the county commissioners that were previous uh public safety people said that was totally unnecessary because uh somebody that was in an ambulance and the traffic got backed up there and they couldn't
get through or god forbid there was a freight train that was stuck there which I've I've seen happen many times since I've lived here and only live lived here 11 years that wouldn't be a problem that they would be maintained their viability by paramedics. I have a lot of respect
for par paramedics and and EMTs, but the idea that you would feel comfortable having somebody sitting in an ambulance when they could be inside the hospital in the emergency room, I thought frankly was absolutely ridiculous. But I the the consultant thought that was a good idea to explore and I got shot down on it.
So, all right. Well, thank you for your efforts. Um, anything else on on this? I you know I know that this is available on the MO um the county website but in our weekly I think it'd be a good idea to highlight this and provide the link.
Um I don't think we need to upload it to our website but provide the link so that the public can have a look. These are going to be some substantial projects and I'm sure we've all heard uh comments from folks on why are you working on two bridges at the same time which when I was on no was told would never happen.
uh we'll never work on two bridges at the same time, but things happen. So, um I think it's I think it's beneficial for the public to know what's coming their way. And it's comforting for me to hear that they're still planning on having the existing bridge over Sebastian Inlet
because that that would do some very interesting things to traffic flows on A1A North and South which would affect us particularly in season. So, thank you. Anything else for vice mayor on this? All right, time for the call to the audience. Anybody in the audience
have anything on their mind that they wish to explore? All right, there being nothing, we'll see you at 8:30 on uh Thursday, July 24th. And uh have a safe and pleasant rest of the month. We are adjourned.