[Music] Good evening. The time is now 700 p.m. and I'll call to order the town council meeting of Tuesday, August 19th. Uh we'll begin with an invocation followed by a moment of silence and then a pledge of allegiance. If all those
that are able please join me in standing. Let us pray. Almighty God, as we gather here today with gratitude and service to our community, may you grant us wisdom, patience, and unity. And may our choices reflect their trust placed placed in us
by our residents. Amen. Amen. Amen. We will now pause for a moment of silence. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance 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. Can we have roll call, please? Mayor Kitzky here. Councelor Choy here. Councelor Gisinger here. Councelor Sunstrom here. Town manager Kitsero
here. Acting Town Attorney Brett Lashley here. Okay. Uh well, first on the agenda is we have a presentation. Uh we're particularly honored tonight that state representative uh Mike Caruso
has is coming here tonight to give us a legislative uh update and certainly we want to congratulate you on your uh I call it a significant promotion but whatever you call it but thank you. Some would uh I won't say what some
would call it. Thank you, Mayor. Um, Councilman and, um, members, I am excited to be here. Yes, I'm not here as state representative Mike Caruso anymore, although that's how we booked this gig, right? Um, I'm I'm here as the uh the
newly appointed uh Palm Beach County Clerk of Court and and comproller. So, uh, we I got sworn in at 12:01 last night, um, by Judge Kelly, Chief Judge Kelly, and, uh, was at work at around 7
7:15 this morning, and, uh, really drinking from the fire hose. And, and I know what you you know what I mean. And, um, it was uh, it's somewhat overwhelming, but, uh, I'm excited about it and, uh, looking forward to uh,
taking on the challenge and and the position. Uh um our new administrator, county administrator, Joe Bruo, left it in good shape. So um I'm I'm in good good shape over there. Um
you know, I I pardon me. Sorry about that. Does anybody want to take that? Busy. Yeah. Oh, I It's amazing. I think I have um I've got 400 and something unanswered messages and phone calls and uh but it's
all part of the process, right? And um but I'm trying to get to them. Anyway, uh this session, I'm here to give you an update on what happened in Tallahassee this this past session. And and this session was like unlike any other session I've had in the last in in the prior six years. This one was totally
different. This one was more about stopping bad legislation rather than championing the best legislation, good things. Um, and it was all due to, I believe, misguided priorities and infighting. Um, that it just led to a
very unproductive session. And um we had and and and and as a result, we weren't able to do the things we should have been up there with doing like working on uh hardening our homes and lowering insurance rates and and reducing, you
know, our our um taxes and and uh you know, creating tax holidays, things like that, affordable housing and and so much more. Instead, the session was more about, as I said, stopping bad legislation. What did we stop? Uh the first one was the governor called for a
special session on immigration and somehow I don't know how and why but leadership put together a amnesty bill for us and um so we we got presented with an amnesty bill that basically made it illegal for law enforcement. Okay, it
made it illegal for law officers to work with ICE in any capacity. you'd go to jail, not the illegal immigrant that commits a crime. Um, it made it um made allow authorized judges catch and release. Um, and it and it um it didn't
provide any penalties for those that um illegal um illegal immigrants who committed crimes. Um it allowed them no penalties for voting in our elections. And I thought that was insane. So, I fought hard and um worked with the
governor and we came up with a a better bill. That one did pass, but the the first one I just described, it passed and the governor vetoed it and um and so I I stood behind the governor and did not try to override his his good veto on
that. Um second, what did we do? Another bill that uh was that we just stopped. It was um oh that was the oh the um they tried to repeal tort reform and if you remember back in 2022 we were down
to one insurance company for the entire state of Florida. We had 750,000 lawsuits filed in our court systems and three out of every four dollars was for by paid out by insurance companies was for lawyers and not in um us homeowners
that had claims. So, um you know, they they tried to repeal that. We fought that. Um I fought it hard. I actually stood up in one one board, one uh one meeting on the House floor and I said, uh, members,
this bill will raise insurance rates for every single Floridaidian in the entire state, every business in the state of Florida. Why the hell would you vote for it? And then they all voted for it, but the governor uh he vetoed it. So, another bill that, you know, is just just crazy what we're
dealing with because why would we want to raise insurance rates? Everybody, your insurance rates high enough? Are they high enough? Yeah. So, picture they doubled this year if we' have let that bill go through. So, that's that's kind of the some of the stuff we were fighting. Um, they tried to get rid of
CRAAS. Um, shut that down. We we we we stopped that. And then they tried to get rid of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. And so um that would have that would have um unlicensed
uh people like engineers, contractors, CPAs, things like that. So um we managed to um that bill just died a death of uh we ran out of time for them to get that one through. So that was good. Um what
did what did we pass? We did pass good legislation when it came to immigration. Um, we we made it so that it's legal uh for our law enforcement, both local, county, and state, to work with ICE. Um,
made it illegal for them to uh for illegal immigrants to to to vote. Um, to send money to our check cashing store system, things like that. that it required um um and it required pre-trial
uh detention um versus the catch and release. So, we we passed that. That was that was a good thing. Um another thing we passed, we eliminated the sales tax on commercial leases. We were the only state in the country that had commercial sales tax leases. Anybody in business
have a they rent property? You rent beginning October 1st, you won't have to pay any sales tax on your lease. And I I I went there 7 years ago when I first showed up at the at the um legislature. I I worked with Speaker Oliva. He says,
"Mike, you're going to have to take it in steps." So, it took seven years, but we got rid of 7% uh sales tax on the um commercial leases. And uh let's see what else did we get done? We um did the second launch of My Safe
Florida condo program. And what that did is it it was on a trial program prior to that where we set aside $30 million. It went pretty quickly to condos to harden their properties. 150,000 per condo. We
upped that this year to 175,000. added um we tripled the money that was going to be used for it and uh made it a permanent program. And then we continued the work of the live local act to address the affordable housing. And
lastly, we passed a budget. That's that's the only thing we are mand mandated to do by by um our constitution in the state of Florida. We passed $17 billion budget. That's a $2 billion decrease from the prior year.
And that's that's pretty incredible being the only state in the country that actually cut our budget um by $2 billion, a little under 2%. Uh where' the 117 billion go? It went to uh Health and
Human Services takes about uh 40 45% of it. Uh we that's mostly Medicaid. Uh we get a lot of that from the federal government. uh our education took a third of that budget almost uh $32 billion and then in transportation,
natural resources and the environment we allocated $22 billion. Uh total budget $17 billion. Um as I mentioned, we we cut taxes in doing it. Uh we cut $2 billion and and that was found in the
commercial lease tax uh rent tax. We cut that. Um, and we made permanent a lot of the holidays that we have. Back to school holiday sales tax holidays. They're permanent now. Uh, tax exemption on event tickets, state park admissions,
life jackets, things like that. Outdoor fun. Uh, permanent exemptions for disaster preparedness, your your generators, your any anything that's for hurricane wind mitigation. And um we did a a uh another another um what do you
call it? A state I'll read it to you. This is Second Amendment sales tax holiday from September 8th through December 31st, 2025 on purchases of bows, firearms, ammunition, tents, sleeping bags, camping stoves, fishing rods, and tackle boxes and bait and
tackle. So that's um that's what we're doing up in Tallahassee this session. It took us 105 days to do a whole lot less than we normally get done. Um, and instead of the normal 60 days that we're up there. So, we were up there a long time. Uh, I think uh we did get one
appropriation through for for the uh town of Jupiter. It was $127,000 water project. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, but um you know, I did I wasn't able to run any appropriations this year because of the
stance I took on these leadership bills. Um but I did get a call from the governor um when the when the budget got sent to him and he says, "Mike, make me a list of your appropriations." I said, "I didn't run." And he says, "You know what I mean. Make me a list of your appropriations because I had divvied
them out." And uh he made sure that they didn't get vetoed. So, um, thank you, Governor, and, uh, and and we got that one through for the 127,000 for that water project. Um, that's about it. I'm open for questions if you have them for
me. I know you're not going to be in Tallahassee um, in the next session, but do you hear any chatter from more insurance carriers coming into the state? Are we incentivizing them to come
in order to help mitigate these insurance costs? That's that's a great question, uh, Councilwoman. Um, we currently have 12 insurance companies that are now in the state as a result of our 22 23
legislation. We passed uh the tort reform. Uh, we have 12 companies. the uh one that's local here uh in Boca Raton just announced that they were cutting their insurance rates by 14%. Um I personally have commercial property in
in Delray Beach. I reduced my deductible from 7 12% to 5%. And my rate dropped from $93,000 a year to 90 to $82,000 a year. That's
11.6%. 6% decrease that I personally felt. I think we should all start if if your if your insurance is up, I would recommend everybody to shop. There is some a serious competitive market out there. They want your business and they're willing to cut their prices to
do it. So, um I' I'd certainly um and and and we have certainly created an environment for them to come in and to create competition and bring those rates down. I think we should see it over the next few years also. Good. Thank you. Give you an idea. We went from 750,000
lawsuits on property insurance claims in 20 at the beginning of 2023 and we're down to 212,000 lawsuits today. So, it's that's a huge difference. So, yes, sir.
Well, I just want to again thank you for particularly for coming out. Um, this is probably the most informative uh update, legislative update we've ever received. So, um, we appreciate that. And, um, the lack of conversation is
more because you're no longer there. So, Well, I'm excited to um to to see your new city hall. This these chambers are amazing. Um, I you you said they're Cat 5 rated, which is unbelievable. and uh
and so I was glad to come by. So you've done a great job here in the city and uh Jupiter's a beautiful town and I love it and we keep moving closer and closer to it. So maybe one day I'll move up here. I got a son that's up here now. But yeah,
so uh good luck in your new role. Thank you. It's important to us too that new role. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Oh, I forgot to announce Caitlyn McComer, my my I guess my former district aid, but she's still working in
the office. So, if you if you still need me, still call me and she'll take care of it. Okay, thank you. Okay. Uh, next on the agenda, we have an update on the our Jupiter Fire Rescue
Department. Chief Donado. Okay, Sean told me what to do here. There we go. Uh, so good evening, Mayor, council, and uh, all those attending this meeting either in person or virtually. We're here tonight to provide an update on the
Jupiter Fire Rescue Department. And so, it's kind of exciting. Next year, Jupiter Fire Rescue will begin providing fire and emergency medical services to the community. And by time, this time next year, we will have
received and outfitted all of our fire apparatus and EMS apparatus. We will have our two new state-of-the-art fire stations, and we'll have hired all of our firefighters, and they will be actively engaged in comprehensive
training programs. Uh we're excited to share some of our progress to date with you. And so tonight I'm going to provide an update on three topics. Uh Jupiter Fire Rescue's EMS service provider license, our temporary fire station at
the Abakcoa Community Park, and our fire station construction progress. So as you know, on June 10th, the board of county commissioners voted unanimously to grant the town of Jupiter our certificate of public convenience and necessity. and that will begin on
October 1st of 2026. In the first week of July, Jupiter Fire Rescue applied for our state ALS transport provider license from the Florida Department of Health. And on July 20th, 2025, Jupiter Fire Rescue received our ALS transport
provider license along with our fire department identification number, our FID. Uh this now completes all of our regulatory license requirements. We're officially a fire department and officially an advanced life support
transport service in the state of Florida. So, at our at your last meeting, uh you approved some engineering work for a temporary fire station at the Abakoa Community Park. And so, I want to provide a little context and background
to that. So, the existing Abicoa Fire Station, which currently is known as Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Station 16, it's on Military Trail, just north of Frederick Small Road. That station will revert to town ownership on October 1st of 2026.
As you know, we attempted to develop a transition plan with Palm Beach County to avoid being forced to transition our services and this fire station at a flip of a switch at midnight. Uh we've even attempted to meet with Palm Beach County to discuss the transition of services in
this station, but they've been um they've declined to meet with us until January of 2026. Jupiter Fire Rescue will have to station our firefighters in their station before October 1 or 26. We'll have to move furnishings and equipment into the
existing Abakoa fire station after October 1 of 26. And although we expect the existing Abicoa station to be turned over to the town in good condition, we may need to make some improvements or renovations. These improvements will not be possible until the station returns or
reverts to town ownership. And to ensure the continuity and timeliness of fire services to Abico and the nearby neighborhoods, the town of Jupiter is establishing a temporary fire station. It'll be located in the northwest corner of the Abicoa Community Park. And this temporary station will be
located in a lightly used parking area that's along the Greenway Drive near Independence Middle School. The station will be installed by May of 2026 and will be operational when Jupiter Fire Rescue assumes responsibility of services on October 1 of 26. This action
is necessary so we can station our firefighters in their station before October 1, so we can move furnishing and equipment into the existing station after October 1, and so we can make any needed improvements or renovations to accommodate our staffing and equipment
after October 1. Jupiter Fire Rescue is committed to being respectful and considerate neighbor throughout this temporary deployment and beyond. and we've met with members of the Tuscanyany and Antigua HOAs as well as the principal of Independence Middle School to keep them
for informed of our intentions and to commit to work closely with them as we temporarily work out of this site. Uh the slide you see now depicts the temporary station's location and the route that firet trucks will take from that station.
This slide depicts a rendering of the temporary fire station which will enable Jupiter Fire Rescue to maintain continuity of services and timely response. We secured this building from another fire department for our use. The building is rated to withstand a category 5 hurricane. It will house a
fire engine and a rescue truck or an ambulance. Uh we'll put landscaping along Greenway Drive to enhance the appearance of the site. And we estimate the temporary station will be in place for about 6 to 7 months. As for our two new station construction
projects, construction on the Piatt Place fire station is on schedule. The stem walls are completed. The first course of block is being completed now. Uh they're beginning to pour that first course of block. The remainder of the exterior block wall should be completed within the next few weeks. And the top
out for the Piatt station is scheduled for the end of September. The uh Sinquest station is also on schedule. The footers are almost complete and the stem walls are going in now. Exterior block wall should be completed within the next month and top out for this building is also scheduled
for the end of September. So, with August 15th, just last Friday, being our two-year anniversary since inception, and as we move into our final year of creating the Jupiter Fire Rescue Department, I'm happy to continue to report to you. We remain on schedule and
on budget, and if you have any questions, I'll be happy to entertain them. Yeah, Chief General, I have one question. Uh if I look at the area covered by currently by station 16, how is our temporary station positioned within that
area? Is it more centrally located to the side? I'm just concerned, have you looked at that? And what about the response times for that station versus the current station 16? Yeah, so we have looked at that. We uh have some computer simulation models that we've been able to run. I'd be happy to uh run through those if you
want, but they're pretty complex. You'd have to come by the office. uh and and really it changes overall average response times by in the neighbor of seconds. Uh so overall the the impact is somewhat minimal I'd say. You know look every second counts. We love to to
decrease times but it will increase overall average response times in the number of just a few seconds. Uh and again this is on a temporary basis. We begin running calls October 1 of 2026. And our goal is to get out of that temporary station and into the existing
uh fire station on Military Trail as quick as we can. You know, I don't have I can't read the future. I don't know what the answer to that is. It might be a week. It might be a month. Might be a month and a half. Uh but we're going to do our best to get in back into that station because we do believe that
station 16 is better suited in a better location for us. Uh but you know, we're it's kind of out of our control at this point. We don't know what we need to do to that station to get it operational. Uh we hope that it's a very short period of time. We hope that within a week
we're able to get out of the station and move. We just don't have that answer. And and again, as I said earlier, you know, continuity of service is essential. We have to have a plan and we have to have a plan B and a plan C. And so, uh, the station ensures that no
matter what, we're ready to respond. On October 1, 2026, when you call 911, we're responding. Okay. Thank you. I might take you up top by senior models. Thank you. I do want to say I am hopeful um in the meetings in January that, you know, they
might let you see the station condition that we might be in a place where on October 1st we might be able to make plans and have those plans in place um for October 1st. So, I look forward to seeing how those meetings progress in January and I will be interested in how
that goes. Thank you. Yeah, like you, I'm optimistic and I am hopeful. I agree with that. Thank you. Um, two things. Personally, I think it's hopefully it'll work out where we get you get to see it ahead of time so we
can plan for what may be small renovations, but renovations nonetheless. So I think it's as you described the last meeting where somebody did about it's like buying a home. The chance of being able to just one person moves out, the other moves in
in the first day is slim to none. Uh but thank you and I want to just emphasize I appreciate both the town manager putting this out as a as a monthly update. I think it's very very helpful. Thank you for coming out and um you know
as we've listened and gotten all these updates uh uh over the last two years u it's there's been an incredible amount of work by your team um and um so uh as a member of council we're grateful um
that you hit the road running and you've got us this far and uh make gives us confidence that uh we'll be ready on October 1st. Thank you. Yes, sir. I just wanted to say I appreciate hearing from a resident's point of view
that you've met the homeowners associations and the principal of the school. As a parent with little children, I'm sure they are very grateful to know you're coordinating this effort. Um, if in fact you have to be there for any period of time. So,
thank you. Yes, ma'am. Okay. So, uh, next on the agenda is, uh, we're going to get a presentation on the town's emergency management response plan. I got you, Tom. I'm getting you there,
man. Just like Sean showed me. Appreciate it. Good evening, Mayor, Town Council. Don Hennessy, deputy chief of the police department. Here we are. We're in the middle of the hurricane season, right? We're halfway right in the middle of it, June to November. So, um, as we get into
hurricane season, we watch Hurricane Aaron make a fortunate turn. Uh, it looks to be kind of out of our path. We're hopeful for those other states that they don't have to deal with it either. Um, but I thought it was a good opportunity to provide you all with an update on some of the preparedness efforts the town has undertaken over the last year since our last hurricane
season. Before I go into some of those updates, I want to point you back to 2023. Uh the town does its bianual uh national citizen survey and one of the metrics that the residents are asked to um rate the town on is emergency preparedness.
And just to look at some of the data from that survey, the town received 87% positive feedback um on the the residents comfort level with our emergency preparedness um ranked us number five out of 320 organizations that were to participate in that portion
of the survey putting us in the 98th percentile of the country. So, I found those numbers to be pretty remarkable. Um, but the staff's not prepared to sit on those numbers. We're constantly looking for ways to enhance and make our storm preparations better. So, some of the things that we've gone through, I'm going to show you some of the updates
we've done since last year. So, again, we're sitting here in the middle of hurricane season, June 1 to November 30th. Each year, we spend time preparing for a storm or prep preparing for the season, preparing for a storm, and being prepared for the aftermath of whatever storm may come. I assure you should a storm threatened the town of
Jupiter this year, we are prepared to handle it. First off, last year many of you knew and got to take a tour, we opened our emergency operations center. Um, this provides a central centralized location for decision makers to kind of gather um so we can all talk candly in the room
and make real-time decisions on how we're going to respond to an event. Uh, this room actually is set up with technology improvements that allow us to view live news and weather updates, traffic camera and drone feeds, county dashboards, damage assessment dashboards, and then uh has various
communication equipment that allows us to communicate inside and outside of our organization. All having access to all this allows us to make proper decisions prioritizing and allocating resources where they're needed. Um, I do want to take a minute to thank the IS department for putting that together. um it was a huge burden
to put that thing together. They really put a lot of time um and and we feel comfortable being in that room that we have all the tools that we need to do what we need to do. So, thank you to them. Next up, we we implemented some new EOC activation levels, right? How we're
going to uh activate this EOC when it comes time. Just going briefly through those levels. Uh the first level, level three, is our lowest level. Um at that point we're monitoring um either no storm or a storm that has presented itself and it's in the early stages. We're kind of keeping an eye on it,
having some preliminary meetings um and starting to do whatever early preparations we can do. Uh level two moves up a little bit. That means we we have a storm that is likely to impact our area in some form. Um that can be a partial activation that where selected
staff are put into the EOC to handle certain tasks. Um the good part about that is that's scalable. based on the time frame of the storm, the severity of the storm and the expected impact. So we can scale that. And then level one is a full activation uh that in during that
scenario we have a 247 operation out of the emergency operations center with a full staff activation. Um just note that these three levels are um consistent with um levels used by the county EOC and other various municipalities. So that's good when we start talking inter
agency we're using similar terminology. The next update is the implementation of a new crisis track software. Uh I mentioned earlier uh disaster management uh representations and real-time data. This new software called crisis track allows officers and responders post
storm to go out and gather information on roadways, trees down, utilities, things of that nature, and they report them back to the the EOC. So once we get into the EOC, the system gives us, as you can see in the photo, it gives us a graphical representation
of where our areas of impact are. So then we can take and prioritize resources to the areas that were most severely impacted. Uh so it's going to be a very helpful tool for us to kind of manage and make sure all the areas are being covered in a timely manner. Um it also in addition to the operational
aspects of the software, it also tracks staff and AC asset usage for FEMA reimbursement efforts later on. Um it does a basic level of that now, but the town's even going beyond that. We're working currently with the vendor to find additional opportunities where we
see um a value they could provide. So they're working through some extra programming stuff to try to get uh some automated input of forms and things of that nature. So we're looking even beyond what they're providing today. Next up is our storm emergency response
plan. Uh let me go back real quick on the crisis track. I want to thank Scott Castile. So Scott Castile is the kind of the project lead on this and he took a lot of time to build this system. There's a tremendous amount of input that goes into that resources, personnel information and he just he put forth a
lot of work training the entire staff in how to use it. So thank you Scott for that. The next thing we put together is a storm emergency response plan. And I have a copy of this here. Um what this does is we took all the storm prep um activities that the town typically goes
through and we wanted to put them all in one place in a sort of checklist or task format um and based on timelines to be able to do that. So members of the police department, the fire rescue department, community relations, we met with each individual director of each department in the town and went through
and said, "What are your storm preparation tasks? What do you have to go through and what are your time frames for having to do that?" Um, so once we did that, we had all these meetings and then Sean Reed was able to help us compile all that data into this manual here that we'll carry with us. It's
electronic format and paper copy. Um, we'll be able to take it and we broke it down into kind of two sections. So, we have a pre-season checklist, right? So, when we're going into February and we start thinking, all right, we're going to start moving into June here. Let's get out the plan. Let's review the plan. Make sure everything's kind of where we
need it to be. Um, and then we can say, "Hey, town, we're ready for hurricane season, right? We're prepping for the season itself." Then we go into individual stormbbased checklists where a storm has now presented itself. We go through another set of checklist to say, "Okay, this one's specific to the
storm." And then that will help us u make sure we cover everything and and and it helps for continuing too. When a new person steps into a role, they have a manual here to help them go through the process. So that's going to be extremely helpful. And the good thing is all these checklists will ultimately be incorporated into that crisis track
system. So it'll be kind of a one-stop shop for our preparedness. So again, we've additional added additional structure to our storm preparedness recovery efforts. This increase will help us assist in our will assist us in our preparedness efforts for both the hurricane season in general or specific storms as they present. And
I assure you, we are prepared for the 2025 storm season. And I can take any questions from you. Questions? None. Just a couple. Well, first I want to comment. Number one, um,
you know, we were able to see, I was able to see last year and I think others on council did, um, both the prep before a near miss and then the day after, uh, to see u how, uh, quickly the town was
inventorying things that needed to be addressed, public safety items, and then and then acting upon them. So, uh, you know, that gave me great comfort, if you will. And and then to just see and hear tonight, like you, like you said at the beginning, you're we're not resting on
where we were last year. We're trying to get continue to get better. So, I'm grateful for that. you know, being on this council for a bit of time, I worried for many years because in the old town hall, uh, the
weakest building we had was the one that our police were head headquartered in. And, um, so, you know, sigh of relief when the new headquarters was built. So, our police had, you know, at least some place that would still be standing, you
know, after a significant hurricane event. and now now our town hall likewise. Um but so I'm just you know I don't and I don't know the answer to this which is why I'm taking the opportunity to ask. So if
come our way what is the protocol for police um on hunkering down um is there anybody that stays here on site or can you share what that is? I'm just curious and if there's something you're not supposed to share then don't. No, no, sure. It I'll
tell you it is storm specific. Um, we kind of gauge by the impact of the storm what we're expecting and we try to gauge that and scale that, you know, responsibly. How many people do we need here, right? So, you don't want to call a bunch of people in here that you don't need. So, we kind of look at the strength of the storm. We look at the speed of the storm. Um, we kind of look
at what the storm has done in other areas, right? To kind of make a determination on how many officers we're going to want to have. Um, I will tell you typically, um, it's it we usually try to at least double double shift. Um but again that that's that's flexible.
Um you know cuz the officers are out there in hazardous conditions, right? So it's it's helpful to have maybe maybe do two to a car. Um but again that that's something we would determine based on the strength of the storm. But where do they hunker down when the winds get where they really shouldn't be out driving? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You typically they
they hunker down in the community center. Um we arrange we work with the parks and recck department to arrange the the gymnasiums, some of the classrooms. Um and then that's where they typically stay. Well, again, we appreciate uh our police uh our um new
fire department and all the staff that that does take action um before to make sure we're as prepared as we can and then afterward to respond and and I know I know the answer to this, but just to so the public can hear because you know
I remember longtime employee of FPL which is you know very familiar with responsive plans and what have you um and I remember in Hurricane Andrew where um you know we lost contact with employees that was a serious hurricane
and we actually had to send um u you know scouting teams if you will to find if they where they were and if they were safe and what have you. Um so I I think I understand our town has that kind of in place as well. Is that the case that
uh you know I'm just concerned for our employees that maybe we get spared but where they live you know north or south here gets hit. Um yeah it is we we pay close attention to the employees. In fact, one of the things in the manual here, um, that's that's part of the focus in there,
right? Is is when they're not here, where are our employees, right? If our employees vacate and they go to Orlando, what's a contact number that we're going to get for them when a storm presents, where are you going? Um, staff department leaders reach out to their staff. Um, and we had during the last event, it didn't wind up being a major
event, but we had some people that sustained some damage and we were able to get that information into the EOC quickly and able to get to those employees to get them the assistance that they needed. Great. Thank you very much. I just have one quick question and it's generated from all of this conversation.
Is your plan coordinated with the hospital facilities and medical facilities if in fact there is something they have to coordinate with? We do communicate with the hospital. Um, usually a lot pre-torrm. We'll reach out to the hospital. Um, there's been times in the past where we've actually stationed officers at the hospital.
Okay. So, yes, we are in coordination with the hospital. Great. Thank you. Of course. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to citizen comments. This is for non-aggenda items and it's limited to three minutes and anyone wishing to speak uh to the
council is asked to state his or her name and address for the record prior to responding. Do we have any public comments? Yes, sir. We have two public comments. Mason Torres, followed by Andy Weston. Good evening, honorable mayor and
council. For the record, my name is Mason Taus, resident of Limestone Creek. My address is 6814 Mitchell Street, Jupiter, Florida 33458. For the clerk summary, I am asking the town council and police chief to contact Palm Beach County Engineering and FDOT
regarding child and pedestrian safety. School is back in session. I am lucky enough to be able to walk my son to school every day while he rides his bike. I have noticed that the slowdown in our town signs are once again in front of Limestone Creek Elementary School. I have also noticed that about a
third to a half of drivers are using their phones while they drive on Church Street and Limestone Creek Road. Not only are drivers not slowing down, they are not even paying attention. Here's a quote. If you need a sign to
tell people to slow down, you designed the street wrong. That's from Charles Marone, the founder of Strong Towns and author of the books Strong Towns and Confessions of a Recovering Engineer. Luckily, Palm Beach County is currently re-engineering Church Street and will
begin construction in late 2026 or early 2027. This is the perfect opportunity to add proven safety countermeasures that are statistically proven to reduce vehicle speeds, collisions, and fatalities of both drivers and pedestrians. Examples include lane
narrowing, road diets, textured pavement, atgrade crossings, and especially street trees. Unfortunately, none of these proven safety countermeasures are legal according to current rules and standards. I will do my best to explain, but please understand that I am grossly
oversimplifying. Church Street is classified as a county thoroughare. This affects the road design elements that are permitted. I have asked Palm Beach County Engineering if Church Street could be unclassified as a thorough affair due to low traffic counts, but to paraphrase, they said no.
According to FDOT, the context classification for Church Street is suburban. This also affects the road design elements that are permitted. I have asked Palm Beach County Engineering if the context classification for Church Street could be changed from suburban to
urban, but to paraphrase, they said no. The best Palm Beach County Engineering could do is to widen the sidewalk, which is good. But for a multi-million dollar road rebuild, just good enough is simply not good enough. Over 1,000 children
attend schools on Church Street. This rebuild will affect an entire generation of students, an estimated 25,000 Jupiter children, until the next chance to rebuild. I have said to this council before that traffic safety is not an engineering problem. It is a political
problem. If an outdated rule or standard leads to unnecessary deaths, it must be changed. Jupiter was one of the first municipalities in Palm Beach County to join the Vision Zero network. This is a commitment to understand that all
traffic fatalities are preventable and to take action. This starts with the design of the streets and roads themselves. Signs and law enforcement are too late of a solution to prevent conditions that are dangerous by design.
I am begging the Jupiter Town Council and police to pick up the phone. Call Palm Beach County Engineering. Call Commissioner Marino. Call FDOT. FDOT. Demand to know why they are making it more dangerous for our children to walk and bike to school. For reference, at
the current design speed of 35 mph, a child struck by a vehicle has about a 10% chance of survival. We can do better. Our children deserve better. Thank you for your time and consideration. Good evening, honorable mayor, town
council, staff. Uh, Dolphin Road. I'm back. I I talked to you uh personally uh at the last meeting and asked you to go down Dolphin and take a look at it. Uh,
you know, I I'm the only one that seems to be coming, but I'm hearing it from my neighbors. They're all talking to me. They're all talking to the folks that are out there doing stuff on the street. Uh, it's become evident that uh the west
side where all that construction's gone, which is the side where we need to widen the road, uh they've they have the road's coming apart. It was coming apart before. Well, it's even worse now. And I'm told that
uh it's a foot and a foot and a half in places where the road has just disappeared. So that foot foot and a half has to be rebuilt for the thousand feet that goes down where they're they're working on that. I don't know how you can
how can you do a foot and a half and not do four feet. I mean that you you know all the road equipment that they do to put down asphalt and put the underllayment and then come with a roller down there to I mean that if you just did that the the width of the roller that that would be a help. Uh you
you you're going to have to do something with that road to begin with. Uh why not just make it four feet instead of a foot and a half that you got to put back. So that's and I am hearing this stuff. I they just think I'm the guy to come down
here to talk to you all. So, uh, if you want, you can come down and talk to the neighbors, too. Thank you for your time. I did do a site inspection of the road um and did see what some of what you
share and um I think we had asked I'm sure mo most of us on council had asked um the town manager and staff to look at if there were options and it's more complic but we have drainage to deal with and
whatever. Um so that's why uh they concluded that we will restore have to restore uh the side of the road to west side that uh is torn up for the project and and it will be restored.
Thank you. Um okay. Um moving on to the minutes council. We have before us uh uh some corrections uh to the minutes on the dis. If there's no further corrections, I'll take a motion in a second on the
minutes as presented. Amended. Motion to approve as amended. I'll second. Motion in a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Motion carries unanimously.
[Applause] Okay, moving on to the uh consent agenda. This is items 5 uh through 10. Um is there any member of the public that wish to pull a consent agenda item? No sir. Any member on the dis wish to pull a
consent agenda item? Yes mayor. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. Okay. Uh I'll take a motion and a second on approving the amended uh consent agenda consisting of
agenda items 5 6 7 8 and 10. I'll make a motion to approve. Good. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Motion and second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Motion carries unanimously.
Moving on to uh item number nine. uh resolution 8525 uh pled by two members of the council. First I'll turn to councelor Sunstrom. Um what is your pleasure? Do you need a presentation or do you have questions or No presentation needed mayor. I just
like to ask a few questions of our director of utilities. Thank you. Uh, I just wanted to ask because I remember this being such um an emergency for the town with the raw water mane when it was devastated by the contractor. What was the town's
relationship with the contractor? What is its relationship? Is it a vendor of ours? Was it on a completely different contract for a completely different entity? Um, councelor, I can uh jump in on some of these questions here. Starting with that one. Um the the town was not in
privity with the contractor that um struck the town's uh pipe here. The um utility service I believe was um Tampa Electric actually that contracted with this contractor to do some underground boring. Um
above and beyond that, I'm not sure what they were contracted to do, but the answer to your question is the town did not hire this contractor. We were not in privity with that contractor. Okay. And the last update I received on this some time ago was that we were talking to them to try to work out how we might be compensated for such a
devastating loss. Um so you know when I looked at the briefing materials for this item that seemed to be ongoing but not very fruitful. And so I wanted to ask what we were doing to kind of step up potentially be more aggressive on
this because of the cost. I mean, we're looking at what was it, a 70% increase over the last time. So, as time goes on, this project, we would have to go and do it again and now it's more expensive and we shouldn't be in this position to begin with. So, I just wanted to just,
you know, I want to recommend is there something we can look at in terms of trying to get some accountability here? Yeah. Um, it's a good question. It's a very fair point. The town did nothing wrong here. Um and our office did reach out to the contractor, the utility
company. Um we've been looking for someone to do the right thing, step up. Obviously, the town is not at fault here. Um we'd sent some requests to uh these these companies to um discover the insurance company information. Um and
basically we've been stonewalled. Um we offered the these companies to come out and inspect the site. um only one the the contractor who caused the damage took us up on that and that took some time to arrange. Um my understanding is
pipes are pretty far down and that was pretty involved. Um, but it was just back and forth where we were trying to allow these parties to do the right thing. And here we are um further down the road than we should be. And that was going to be an item that I was going to address with the council to um ask for
the town council's thoughts on pursuing a lawsuit. Um because to my first point, the town's not in privity with the contractor. So, uh, the only way to really get anywhere at this point if no one's taking responsibility is to file a lawsuit and hold people
accountable. I would be supportive of that based on all I've learned on this item. So, I just wanted to share that. I am going to piggyback on what um, council said because my question was going to not knowing if we were in litigation. I would support this motion
as well. Second question is, is this the final number that the budget will need to be amended for this resolution? Yes, for this project that is the final budget. All right. This uh the contractor was was a sub to
a sub or is under the FO roadway project, is it not? Um I don't know the exact chain we have here. Uh mayor, I my understanding is Tampa Electric contracted with the general contractor. There might have been some subs at play. Um, but we've
been in contact with the contractor or the sub, but I think it was the contractor that made the initial damage and that's the comp that's the one company that came out to do the inspection. But okay. Um I'm certainly supportive of uh taking the next step which you know
we need to take uh to protect the public's interest on this because uh the public should not be paying for damage caused you know and at significant cost the damage that was caused but uh you know I think I think time is of the essence on this because I it was my
understanding this was related to the FDOT project on the road because the bridge was widened and I think that's um So I I think you know long ago I thought I'd understood we had notified FDOT but if we hadn't um you know and obviously
whatever is legal but FOT's project they need to be notifi if they hadn't been notified they should be notified and then the main contractor because we shouldn't have to be chasing the sub. we may need to do that in litigation, but basically it's F DOT's project,
there's a general contractor, and then those are the ones that usually have uh uh better, you know, insurance coverage and whatever. So, whatever is needed, um I think you you've heard there's a majority probably um consensus, I would imagine, to uh
you have consensus to support moving ahead uh post, you know, as as quickly as we can. Well, uh, on that note then, um, would someone like to make a motion to approve the town attorney's office to file initiate a lawsuit?
So moved. Second. Motion a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. The motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Okay. Uh, can I ask one question that triggered
something from Director Barnes? Uh reading ahead to Thursday, one of the projects you have uh is replacing a 30-in or replacing a 24-in aqua line. It goes from I think front of Acoa Greenway
all the way to the plan itself with a 30-in line. It's an existing 24 putting in a 30-in because of high velocities in that line and also there was buildup pressure which makes it harder for the pumps to pump the water and stuff like that.
Um, since this is a this line is 24 in, is there any thought of maybe changing that to a 30 in to maybe looking out in the future where we might be concerned? I don't know what's driving the high velocities in the 24in line. Would we eventually get that situation on this
24-in line going under Indian Town Road? So the project you're referring to is a surficial aquifer raw water main which we have 51 surficial aquifer wells. The majority of them are located south and
west in our like the heights um landing or the southwest region of the town and then all of that water has to travel down central boulevard to the water plant. So that is that's a hydraulic restriction for those wells all those wells pumping in that pipeline. the um
raw water man that we need to replace the damage section really only needs to be 24 in. It's um it's going to serve there will be let's see two four Florida wells on the north side of Indiantown
Road with no plans for um future it we can't increase our Florida w a acryer withdrawal um through our consumptive use permit those wells are simply to give us the opportunity to be able to rotate wells for well health
so that 24in line's well well within the capacity of the wells then yes. Okay. Anything less than 24 in would not be would not be suitable. All right. Thank you. Okay. Um we also have resolution 8525
uh was agenda item nine. I appreciate uh that having gotten pulled uh so we could take the action on funding which we have. Um, can I get a motion and a second on resolution 8525?
I'll make a motion to approve resolution 8525. I'll second. Motion in a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. I. Motion carries unanimously. Um, okay. Moving on to reports. Town
attorney. Uh, no reports. Uh, that was going to be my only report, but um I appreciate the council's direction on that and we will get started. Thank you, town manager. Thank you, mayor. Before I move into my comments, um I just want to address an
email that you all received uh regarding the work of two of our employees, uh Specialist Leila Schultz and uh Nancy Warmersley. um came from a resident who was attempting to find some documents
online um through a computer search at home relating to some business that she had to take care of. Couldn't find the documents. Came down to town hall uh to see if she can get it done in person. And the two of these employees just they bend over backwards to help her. And you
know, and even to the point that they thought they had helped her as much as they could. And as she was leaving, they found one more thing and were able to come out and catch her still in the lobby to um to go ahead and address her
concerns. And she um in the closing on that email that you all received um she said, "The level of professionalism professionalism and dedication demonstrated by the team is truly impressive. Excellent customer service is a major factor in customer
satisfaction and loyalty. And these two employees certainly went above and beyond. And to get a spontaneous letter like this is it really means quite a bit. And so in keeping with this uh resident's request said uh it would be appreciated if this recognition could be
shared with these people and their superiors to acknowledge their outstanding work and dedication to the public. And for us there's no higher place than the town council. And so I wanted to bring it to your attention. Thank them for the work. Specialist Lelayer Schultz and Nancy Warmersley.
They represented all of us extremely well. So in my report, mayor, just a couple of things. Uh inviting everybody to celebrate the ribbon cutting of the new playground at Maplewood Park this Friday, August 22nd at 3:30. It's a soft
opening, as you know. They've I've gone by there and the kids are already playing on that playground. It's just remarkable to see. plenty of shade and uh and really want to thank the residents for all of their input and on the things and and and um what they wanted to see there and uh certainly
count counselor Sunstrom's input and championing of this uh project. So, thank you for that. Uh on Thursday of this week, the town will hold its second budget workshop. As you know, this one focused on community investment program or CIP. The CRA workshop will be held at
6:00 p.m. followed by the town budget workshop at 6:30. Both meetings are here in the council chamber. This Thursday, August 21st, the Jupiter Police Department host its monthly coffee with a cop at Jupiter Donuts from 9 until 10:00. Me personally, I never had a
donut in uniform in 42 years, so I wouldn't have hosted it there, but that's up to Deputy Chief Hennessy. Now, um I'm pleased to share that another der derelik vessel, thank you to the police department, the Billy B, was removed
from Jupiter's waterways on July 31st and supports the town council strategic initiative pertaining to Derelik vessels. So, please pass along my thank you to the team for that. Um, the first workforce single family housing unit constructed as part of the
town's workforce housing program has been sold to a firsttime home buyer. The house was sold to a single mother who recently moved into the house. Two additional single family workforce homes are currently being processed and will be occupied soon. These houses were
built as part of the cornerstone project approval process. Um, the town has been notified that the railroad crossing on Donald Ross Road, just west of Alternate A1A, will be closed for maintenance tomorrow evening, 6 p.m. will remain closed through midnight this Saturday.
We will be posting JPD officers um to be stationed at the crossing to help ensure the safety of motorists. And the town has shared this information and detour routes on its social media channels, email distribution list, and website. And um and I'm hoping folks have been
noticed that we are hearing less train horns that coming through town. You hear them occasionally and we're working on that uh as well. Um I want to make sure that everyone is aware the community center will close this Saturday, August 23rd for its routine annual maintenance.
Community center will re reopen on Tuesday, September 2nd. Uh Jupiter Police Department continues its efforts to focus on ebike and bicycle safety this last week coinciding with the start of the school year. Um we heard in in uh comments tonight, you know, the
importance of the safety of our children and those going to school. And I can tell you uh firsthand that the Jupiter Police Department is second to none in uh the back to school initiatives that that they undertake and this year is no exception. And finally, speaking of the
police department, if you didn't hear last week, Chief Michael Barbara of the Jupiter Police Department has announced his retirement effect of October 3rd. Um, Mike has honorably served the residents of Jupiter for 29 years. I have had the privilege as his police
chief and now town manager to watch him as he goes through his career career and actually promoted him to his first supervisory rank and he's just been remarkable. He's a dynamic leader and um and he's just reliable and be can be counted on um to handle the most complex
situations. And honestly, if there was ever anything that I needed the police for, I'd be getting behind Mike. Um and so he's um he's uh progressed through the Florida retirement system drop program and he has reached the point of
mandatory retirement. Obviously, um we know that he has a bright future in front of him and wherever his next step may take him and we're certainly very proud of him. And that's my report. Mayor, thank you. Uh, Council Joy,
I appreciate hearing the email because personally when you come into the town hall, the gals sitting at the front desk or whoever is there, I witnessed watching them speaking with customers and they they're always so pleasant to
all of us when we come in, but more importantly, it's how they react to our residents who come in with questions. Um, and yes, we're going to miss the chief. I've been, it's been an honor getting to know him and the entire
department, but I think overall I can see school opening is a huge, huge deal to everybody. And I know I've witnessed on Tony Penna, the police being out there. There have to be other solutions. Most
certainly. Um, but again, thank you for what you do. Um, children are children and we do we have to think for them and hearing comments from our residents. Um, it it's being well taken. It is being
taken. Councelor Gisinger. Yeah. Uh, thank you town manager for your pres for your report. Very thorough. Also like to thank Mr. Torres and Mr. Weston for their citizen comments. uh hopeful things have been done to help out obviously the school
situation and we do the right things relative to Dolphin Road and also uh appreciate the presentation both by Jupiter fire and also Jupiter police and the emergency u u man management emergency operations center and u also u
for everybody who attended tonight's meeting it's appreciated thank you sen I'll just be quick and say um I'm going to miss the chief I had a great experience with him on the ebike town hall. He really took that uh by the reigns. Um he led it well. He was very
proactive. So I I thought that was a really great experience. I know um he's only been chief briefly. Um but that was a wonderful experience and I think it's really changed a lot in this town. Um for the playground, I agree. I went at noon on Sunday for the first time. I
would never go to a playground at noon in August, but I did and I didn't burn. So, uh, I enjoyed the swings as did my 10-year-old, and, uh, it was great. So, it was nice to see a bunch of families there, too, and cars coming in as I was
leaving. So, that was nice to see our parks being used, um, on the weekends. And then, um, sorry to steal your thunder, town attorney. Um, but I agree, we just we needed to be pretty assertive on that. I'm glad that you guys are taking it on and, um, I hope to get good results. So, thank you.
Few quick items. First, um, kudos and grateful to our new town clerk for the input she provided on the sunshine law compliance requirements and practices. That's the benefit of having somebody from outside of the town join the town
um because you get a different perspective. So, uh thank you very much for sharing that experience you had uh clearly with your former government employer. Uh number two, you know, kudos on the Derelch vessels. Um and for the
newer members, you know, it was a strategic initiative a number of years ago, uh because we had derelic vessels for years and actions weren't being taken, but now it's really been institutionalized and you know, kudos, uh uh to um you know, our police for
being very active on that. Um so uh anyway um then three other quick items. Uh first of all um had a uh waste management uh missed a number of uh yard waste collections in the shores.
I went ahead and uh tried to use and did use Jupiter connect. Number one is I believe she might have missed the whole neighborhood. Um because it was a couple blocks that I know that I was able to report on. Um and you at
the end of the day on Friday, if you go and you find any others, you don't know if they were put out during the day. These four that I reported, I knew had been out in the morning. Um what I encountered was a completely unresponsive waste management.
I reported it three times over three days. Um and uh it got picked up today. Uh but very disappointing. Um what happens is the first step is got the comment. I figured okay that means
they're going to collect on Saturday which is what normally happens. When they acknowledge it then you can't amend it. Um, so, uh, to me it puts a burden on the resident having to add another,
uh, Jupiter connect entry, um, you know, as opposed to cuz then it's closed for C. I could have just said day two, no waste management, day three, no waste management, you know, but I wasn't able to do that. So, uh hopefully I mean that's something maybe
more longer term but uh if we can look at uh that we're a member of the public who initiates one and you know as of this afternoon I had not getting any response on any of those. Um, so I would
appreciate uh you know some somebody getting waste management to find out. Hey, what's up? Um, sec. Uh, next uh just want to talk about ebike behaviors. I appreciate all the efforts that have been made, but you know, juveniles are
still juveniles. Uh, it was reported to me um two people leaving the shores um I think it was Sunday and I'd asked them to write it up in an email and send me. I could share that with the police,
but two cars leaving Longshore. There was four ebikers that uh did a daredevil maneuver in front of the first car to get across the street, could have been hit, and then
the second driver had another kid daredevil and remove, you know, from one side to the other. Um, so, um, it's like they were laughing when they cut in front of the car. So, uh um you know it
just there's going to be a serious injury and uh the tragedy will be is some driver is going to feel could they have done something different but that kind of behavior and of course after the fact I don't know what police can do about it but I just want to report uh I
believe they must live in the you know in in the shores area that's where they were u doing mischief but their mischief could have got them injured Um, so I was again waiting on the actual resident to report it so I could share as much
specific details. I heard from another resident that they have a they had added some kind of camera to their vehicle. So if that had happened to them, um, there would at least be some record they could share with the police of who was the uh that's
that's first I heard about that. Um, and then lastly with regarding Church Street. Uh, I'll certainly follow up with the county, but that is a county road. Um, so really you need to work with uh Mr. Torres, you have to work with the county, but uh it's a little bit puzzling to me because there is a uh
traffic calming uh between Longore and and Limestone Creek Road. So, some of what they were telling you seems inconsistent with what I've seen is that again traffic calming um on that road. So, uh, I'm puzzled, but I'll but I'll follow up other than,
you know, uh, we really have no influence over that. But, um, I will follow up on that and you should as well. And look at the challenge. How can there be traffic calming right now on Church Street? That can't
be replicated further. Doesn't make any sense. Anyway, uh with that the time is now 8 8:10 and I'll adjourn the [Applause]