Thank everyone for coming this morning. Um, taking your time out to do this. Um, as well as the public. Thank you'all for coming. Um, if you would do a roll call, please. Matt Elliot, present. John Draper, present. Tall Rancort.
Pam Brewer, Jack Conley, present. Thank you. So the purpose of our meeting today is to um talk about um our comprehensive plan review. Is that correct, B? That's correct.
Okay. Um yeah, I presented you guys with some questions last meeting, right? So this going to be like a round table. Anybody's got questions, suggestions, and then we can make kind of recommendations. Um you have any questions? um we can answer them best we
can or get you answers. Uh this is for the Highland County comprehension comprehensive what is comprehensive. Okay. Well, let's just go through these recommended questions. Yes. You want to but basically let's start with I put the
background off of the code the responsibility of of the board. I like when you get a chance, I'd like you to re review them and do that first. No, we on your time. I want you to review them because I want to get you all involved
and and other things than just the regular meeting. I want to have conversations. You have you guys maybe send me emails with questions and stuff or meet in person one-on-one to answer questions. is instead of the board just getting my
recommendations of one time a month, I want you guys to get more involved and, you know, make it more uh comprehensive between uh staff and the board so we can get a a plan to get this
utility up and moving. Okay, let's start with this first recommended question here. Do we want to expand Lake Placid Regional utility area boundaries? pros and cons. Let's hear them. Mer, these are recommendations from uh the
original board that met for years and went through agony trying to set it up. So, you know, if you look, you know, it goes from the north to the south. um
taking in all the areas that the county currently has. So I I don't see any sense in beating a dead horse. I mean, you know, this is the this is the area that
they decided on finally. And until, you know, you guys service that area, I see no sense in changing it. That's my opinion. Okay.
Um, so that brings me to how do we save the lakes for this money that we've gotten? We're going to have to do some sort of expansion to get our lakes cleaned up. Correct. Correct. That's the I mean, I'm
not for putting Yeah. shoreline to Spring Lake and one to Palmdale. But if we need to wrap it around a lake somewhere that we don't have it, maybe that's what we need to do. So this is Highlands County is trying to
do their comprehensive plan. They want to see if we want to expand. We want to say the same. You know, in my opinion, if if if you want to expand, as Matt was saying, I I'd like to start up the north, pick up the lakes maybe to the to
the west a little bit and the east of uh Lake June right there. Pick up around that area and work our way south, you know. Um, as you can see right here, let's see, is that is that that's our that's our current uh um sewer system
right now. So you can see how far we've we've expanded out so far with the sewer. You can leave the water on there too, Leette, please. And could you go down? If we're going to start at the north, can you just pull that down so we can see
the north end of Lake June? There we go. So you you can see this this is uh this is where our water manes are and the sewer stops short short of the mains water manes you can see on the east side of
Lake June doesn't look like there's that much development over there right now or to the west but I want to I would you know if we're going to expand let's start at the north and move down and not that much south until
development comes comes down there. I wouldn't change the the the size of the uh local uh parameters of the what we have now, but thinking if you did want to expand, pick up those up by those lakes to the north at this
time because you got to figure our main plant's going to be over on uh Smokes Road. you know, it's it's more probably efficient to to pipe from around there to to the new plant than running the lines all the way up 27 uh old state
road aid or you know Placid Lakes Road. So we, you know, we're not out we're not out at Catfish Creek. Um over there at Washington Boulevard, we're not out there. Uh Lake Mir, we're putting a forest man to connect uh the old uh wastewater plant. Um, so we're going to
have a force main down to to uh Lake Drive East that it's going to connect to the one uh campaign conference just have put in to run to the plant. So those areas would be, you know, a focus point maybe on on on development next. Um, but
as far as going south, could you pull that up south or make it a little bit bigger? B, are we wanting a water line from the Highway Park um, main back to Lake Drive? No, no, it's the wastewater plant. Okay. But are we doing water through there on Lake Mirror Drive? Not at this point. Eventually, that would be
a good plan. Um, this this force main is to uh decommission the south wastewater treatment plant. But then as you go down, you can see down uh uh down a little more, please. there's not going to be that much
development uh south of uh uh we're north of Grassy Lake right there. Uh south of that there there's you know Sun and Lakes is there. They have their own own facilities. I would focus to the east
and north and a little bit on the west side for development. And as you develop that because that'll give us connections which gives us revenue which we're short on. Um it it just closer closer you are
to the plant we put the pipes in and then we can add if we develop a little farther from there we have something to connect to. So it's it's like Legos. You're building building something up and then expanding it with like tentacles.
So So it's it's it's totally up to you how how you want your boundaries. If you want to leave them the same that's fine. Um the growth of of of new sewer lines and water lines is right now you depend on grants. Grants aren't guaranteed. Um but
if we don't start getting connections to that new plant, the state's probably going to look pretty bad down on you because we're million million gallon plant and we're still only treating 300,000 gallons a day. So we need to get extra connections so we can get revenue.
And if we start getting revenue, we can kind of fund some of these projects little pieces at a time and that will give us more connections which will bring in more revenue. So, you know, a utility, you know, it's kind of like the heartbeat of
of a system. Um, if you can expand it, it brings in brings in customers um and revenue and then that helps, you know, uh, Highland County is looking, you know, if as we expand, they want us to,
you know, uh, bring in that property into annex the property into the town. My opinion, I I wouldn't ask for annexing anything out of town. you know, the the cost of maintenance on the roads, uh, garbage and any other services. We're
just serving water and sewer, you know. Um, that's my opinion, but that's, you know, totally up to, uh, uh, this board and the commission to figure that out. Um, why why should we take on more responsibility? You know, if it was all the roads and everything were in perfect
condition, maybe, but see that that takes funds, too. And you know, then you if you take those in, you might get a little more property. You might get highway taxes. With the water and sewer, you're just getting revenue. You don't have to, you know, supply extra services
at higher cost for the town of Lake Plaz. So, can you just show us the sewer lines on this map? Take off the water. Yep. There you go. Take off the lift stations, too, will Oh, you got them off. Okay. So this is showing gravity
and force mains. Take off the gravity ones for right now, please. So this is where our force manses are at. Um we're stopping. We have gravity up in Tamoka.
Couple little force mains there for some stores and stuff. Um, you can see that they're all the way down, 27 Grassy Lake, uh, up on County Road there. That's where our our south plants at. That's going to be
decommissioned. We're going to go down Lake Mir Drive, come up Lake Drive east up to the plant. So, you can see all the areas that aren't serviced right now. You got uh Washington Boulevard over there,
Plastid Lakes, Catfish Creek, and then all the development in town, south of town there. That's Silven Shores out that way. Uh Lake June drives not um there's a lot of area for potential
growth and connections. So, can we put back up on the um the gravity? No, the just we can see where there's available sewer. Gravity's most thing in town and up Tamoka. Um Tammoka was a you know private subdivision. They put that in
and it went to the maybe a lift station or right to the plant. Um in town you have a mixture of force man and and gravity. Uh out of out of town there is no gravity. So it's it's all force man.
So on the north shore of Lake June we don't have any sewer lines. Correct. and and the most economical uh way to install sewer in these places is the low pressure sewer. Gravity is three times
as much as the um low pressure. You know, uh maintenance cost and everything else we've talked about. Um well, not time to talk to you guys. Um the grinder pumps right now if we if
we we move forward um they're guaranteed warranties for 5 years. The lifespan on the pumps and control panels are 15 to 20. um gravity. Um every 20 years you you'll probably need to have them lined
and the manholes preigned because hydroxulfic gases will heat up the pipes unless you unless you're using the the the DR19 or 25 or whatever for the sewer pipes, but your manholes will be eaten up unless you use the uh um composite manholes which are very
expensive. So your cost, you know, for maintenance I think it'll be cheaper on the uh low pressure because that's all HDP, no gases are hurting it. Um it's constant flow on it so that you're not having to
have jet trucks and shooting the the gravity mains to keep them clean of grease and debris. Um they they clean themselves every time a pump comes on. They clean themselves. So the your biggest maintenance on them are going to be the lift stations which will be
they'll have to be uh relined and every 20 probably 20 25 years uh new pumps uh panel upgrades. So there's always maintenance cost and it's probably considerable because if you put gravity
in it has to go to a lift station. So you're going to have a lift station there anyway. Wasn't there something around Lake Francis, too? Pull it down a little. Again, I I believe we have water up there. Just water up there. Okay. But
like I said, that that's another place to consider for for the sewer. But I'd stick to start stick close to town and and expand it from there. Lake June Drive around Catfish Creek.
Um because if they hit Lake Francis, we're going to have to run a line down 27 to bring down. Okay. Connect it from Clover Leaf back to Lake June Road and then it it it's possible, you know, it's something we'd have to have designed. Um yes, like I
said, you we do Lake June Road out out to that area. It's possible to bring it down and connect there. Are we taking sewer to the new Dollar General up there? What's that? It's the Dollar General up there. Is it getting sewer? Yeah, that that's when we go back to Force main. You'll see that little line up there. That's the little force
man they have shooting back. So, like I said, there's possibilities everywhere, but you want to go with the lowhanging fruit with the with some kind of a sewer line close so we can connect to that. Um, as I said, the more
connections we can do, we can take small projects, you know, maybe, you know, 500 foot,000 foot at a time and just keep keep growing. You know, it's it's like I said, you depend on these grants. They're not they're not guaranteed and you might not get one for
three to five years sometimes. So, you said there is a force made to the Dollar General. I'm not seeing it there. Huh? Isn't there a force made? No, I think that was
okay. My mistake. So, it's just water. It's just water to there. And that's as far north as we go. Right. Correct. Yes. So, where does Lake Francis get its water from? They're getting water now because uh we just had a main break up
there what a month ago. Maybe put the water lines back on. Give a second. Okay. You can see it right there. It's coming up uh up clearly that 12 inch line. Okay. Yep. And it feeds up up that way. So, you know, if we get down to
Lake June, we can always run a sewer m uh up that way. Um that that would be a So, ideally, our new sewer lines need to run Yes. parallel with our existing water lines. That's that's where I'd start that way because because of what's
water that's how you meter the waste water. It's based on your water meter usage. Can I ask? Yes, ma'am. Pam Fentress. Um, did Bert say that your recommendation would be to put
in the expand the sewer system but not annex in the properties because you didn't want to take over the maintenance of the roads. That's just from the utility opinion. Okay. So, so that's what y'all are be discussing. But I would think that would
be the key part of central sewer and water is if you get that then you get your annex into town. I mean you can have different hats on. You can have your utilities commission hat on. You can have so and so but if you're looking at the broader perspective
um and and I know Kevin in the past has said utilities isn't for gener or revenue generating. It's not the purpose. You know, you don't make money off utilities, put it into general revenue. No. And I'm not suggesting that. However, annexing properties into
the Y'all have 2600 residents. I know the packet said less than that, but that was a couple years ago. You know, you don't have the residents to to support all the amenities, all the infrastructure that you're going to need. I would think you that would that's a part of the policy. And I think
the Lake Placid regional plan, the actual plan states if you're getting central sewer, if you're getting services, you will annex into the town. Like like I said, that's the utility opinion that annexing is is, you know, the administration and the commission,
right? And so I'm just saying if if the purpose of this meeting is to discuss the 2050 year comp plan amendments which the county is undergoing now which we'll have done in the fall. I think Lake Placid is for January 2026. A part of
that will be the Lake Placid regional plan. The utilities portion of it is in there. It was in the meet the P&Z meeting last week. So this is a part of the discussion. And if you're going to say you don't have the NXN, but you can you if if you're in our service area,
you can have central sewer and water, then you're going to have to change the lake plus a regional plan. No, we're we're going to follow anybody's suggestion. Just for information as a round table. My opinion is don't don't I don't feel we have to, you know. Okay.
We're just providing a service to anybody within the the the loop area, right? because your job would be to cash flow. Mine is to have connections so I can maintain the system, right? We're not we're not here for profit. We're not trying to make revenue. We're just
trying to establish the utility budget so we could have three month buffers in there to make pay all the bills and equipment if say something tornado hurricane came in or like you know that's what happened out there on the
coast. So we we don't have that right now. We need we need to build and the only way we're going to be able to build that up is by connections. So that may be a short-term and long-term type goals. Short-term stabilized utility
budget revenue. Longterm you want you I'm I'm looking at joy. You you want as a town council member, you want to increase the tax base. No. Yeah. Exactly. That's right. So, but short term you're you got a cash flow. You gota you're gonna be sitting on a million gallons a day wastewater
treatment plant. Correct. You got to have customers for that plant. Correct. So that's what your goal is and I get it. Thank you for letting I talk longer than I meant to. I just wanted to know. So our goal is as a utility is to expand to compensate for that $40
million plant we're building. Right. Because right now as we sit, we're still only going to treat 300,000 gallons a day. So we're going to have a plant sitting there, you know, We're ready to go do some treatment and we don't have the connection. Right. So, thank you.
Sorry. Oh, no. Thank you. Is is the uh talking about possibly uh increasing services to the to the lakes uh to the north of Lake June? You were talking, right? Like I said, I'm just looking for Yeah.
Well, no, we have water and wherever we have water like Lake Francis. I'd love to expand up to there, right? And and anything around the lake I like to expand to so we can get rid of some of some of the septic and septic tanks. Yeah. Okay. Those septic tanks we get rid of. We're going to start cleaning
these lakes up. My my question was the uh along part of the route that that line would run will be the uh force man from Tamoka to the to the wastewater treatment plant. No, because it would
it'd run uh possibly if we make the connection to Lake June, it'll run down Lake June and then down down to the new plant. We're not connecting connecting anything. It will be a completely separate line. Hopefully within a couple years if we get the grant, the Tamoka
plan will be taken offline. So our goal is to get everything onto the new plan. Right. But so so the the lakes to the north of uh Tamoka would there if and when you connect them none of that sewage would flow through any
portion of the uh force man that's going to be picking up Tamoka. Is that correct? So it'll be probably picking up a Lake June road uh Tamoka you know coming down what's that county road 17
17 down to the plant. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, then then my question is that the small portion of the uh force mane from uh Tamoka Heights uh that that might wind up picking up some of the uh sewage from from the
lakes north of there. Is that as it's presently designed? Is that design large enough to pick up? Nothing's been designed for up there. Nothing for Tamoka. No. Tamoka is the new live station connecting to the new plant. So we're eliminating the lift station at
Tamoka. Yeah. But you have to run a new line from there to the that has been designed. And is that I thought you said that a portion of that would ultimately be picking up the sewage from the these lakes further
north if they were connected to it. Yeah. Okay. I I I realize they're not connected to it. Now my question is that that let's call it the the southern portion of the uh force man from Tamoka heights right some portion of which
might might pick up these lakes in the future right yes is as the as presently designed is that large enough to pick them up I believe it's been partially designed but nothing nothing 100%. So like for Lake June Road, I've seen
some some designs on that, but they're not 100% yet. But but from Tamoka to the new plant, there's not a line, right? Correct. No, no, there's not. That has been designed, but we're going we have to go out for a grant for that one. I'm I'm sorry. You say it has been designed
or has It has been designed and we have to go out for a grant. So the future stuff needs to terminate at the the site now, not at the Tamoka site is what you're saying. Right. So when we get to put a lift station at the Tmoka plant that will to you know de and
decommission it all all the flows from Tamoka will come through that new lift station to the new plant. Okay. But if if the ultimate scheme is to pick up those lakes north of there,
shouldn't a portion of that line be maybe increased in size so that it could pick up them in the future as opposed to having it running two lines parallel to one another or right well with with the with the forest man I I don't recall what the size of
the pipe is. There's not that many homes up there. I'm sure the pipe has been designed for a little expansion. I don't think it'll have to be increased in the future. Okay. But that's that's all have to, you know, that's what we're trying to figure out and then we have to, you know, have it
have it looked at at engineering company and, you know, get an evaluation on. So, okay. Well, I I think it's a good your your idea of starting at the north and working. I think that's a good idea. Well, the way I'm thinking about that's
your most populated area right now. Um, and because it's populated, it has the septics. So, so if we can we can start in in the high dense area and eliminating them, then now we're going to start improving the lake conditions.
Um, you know, uh, it's a long road. We we need to we got to ch uh change utility codes and everything else, mandates, you know, everything else. But it it's going to be an uphill battle, but once we get to that point, which I'm going to need your
guys' help on, I think we'll be fine. You know, it's it's you know, we'll be able to be stable as a utility and we'll have customers. Um the plant will be operating with with still reserves.
Um so but then as we develop other areas all those development fees would be going into a fund for an expansion of of the plant if we have you know great development. So it's it's it's a it's a pyramid and we just we just got to start building the blocks on the bottom and
that's the heavy ones you know. So, you know, like I like I said, if we were going to expand, I I'd say it's maybe out to the northern lakes this way. But if you want to leave it the same, that that's fine with me, too. So, or do you want to go smaller? You know,
you do want to decrease the size. As Pam was saying, you guys went over this and over this and over this and try to figure it out. You know, you know, it's it's it's a set set nothing set in stone because the countyy's asking us what we want to do. So it it's I'm just looking
for your opinions and thoughts. Um that's why we're trying to that three questions are probably the one question just different variables of it. So So I'm just want to get your opinions on on what you think. Pam's saying why
change it? That's what you fought to get. So I I think the feeling of this board is we want to take care of what we have now before we open up any new cans of worms. But if the if there's hot spots around the lakes or whatever, we need to
address those. Okay. Pretty much. Yes. The consensus. Yes. Yes. Pam. Get to you next. Pam Fentress. I I wasn't really saying that Bert. I'm just saying you're talking about going to Lake Francis,
which is an impaired body water. So that's good. Y'all the town limit. I know there's we're discussing annexing or not. That's that's nowhere in your your business plan of anything I've ever seen. Think about when the Lake June Point residents heard about Central
Sewer or Placid Lakes, people heard about it. Lake Francis, that area hasn't been on anybody's radar. And all of a sudden, and and y'all voted before um over the years, what areas? Lake June or
not Lake June, sorry, Lake Pearl, Lake Serena or Lake Mir Drive, then the town council following week t and so my point being what a shock it's going to be if your recommendation out of this committee and then if you go
to the joint meeting with LPA town council all of a sudden out of the blue you're going to like go to Lake Francis. I understand your reasoning. Let's you got to start somewhere. Move. But in your original packet, this is from December 2023. This is a $40 million D
grant. And you had different project areas, 10 or 11 project areas. Lake Frances isn't on the map. So, if you're going to completely go to like go to Lake Clay, go to somewhere. I don't know. Lake Frances is needed for the
water quality. I mean, I'm not saying that part of it, but if you're not going to get the tax revenue from them being annexed in, I don't understand. And then think about that process. How long it's going to take for y'all to explain it to the Lake Francis
people. You're going to have a water and sewer bill. You're they have water now. Yep. From like 20, 30 years ago. And there was issue with agriculture citrus nitrates in the groundwater. That's why D that got started. That's why those
water lines are there. But all of a sudden for them to say that's where we're going to jump to and you get central sewer. Well, I think we're just talking about because Bert said we would go north. So I just want to go the furthest north. If north is Lake Francis. No, we're not. We're trying to Highland County is asking if if we want
to expand. So we're trying to get them an answer. We might want to say we want to decrease. We just want to stay the same. This this has this is for their comprehensive plan. No. Yeah. So, this is nothing set in stone for us saying that we're going to go up there. I'm
just trying to get their opinion. If if we do expand, we might as well pick up places that we're serving water to now, which I I No, we're we're already up there. But if if the the board here says no, they stay the same, then then we can
let Highlands County know, we do not want to expand. They're they're trying to trying to because we're a regional utility see if we can get closer to to uh Sebring and Sebring coming down. In my opinion, we as Matt was saying, we just need to
take care of what we got now. But if we do, I rather go up towards the lakes and try to get rid of the septic tanks than going going south. And it's, you know, there's nothing there. Um, you know, there are lakes down there, but most of it's agriculture and that's probably where the development would be.
So, I'm just trying to get an understanding from the board here. What's their opinion? You know, and I I think we're all probably leaning probably close to leaving it the same with with, you know, the option, you know, we can always not expand the system, but we can always do our
development going south, but I'd like to start up in the north end. Okay. But the util like on the county's 2050 year comp plan amendment the maps utility service maps a shows a park seid for the lake placid utility service
area it mirrors the lake placid regional plan but they were asking us in our meetings would we like to expand so I'm just trying to get those answers today like go up to Joe Lake Josephine is that what you're saying really expand but it's
it's sounding in our conversation I think We just want to stay the same. We don't want to take on more and until we take care of what we have and then we could always probably revisit this with Highland County down the road saying, "Okay, we've we've got our area
contained. We got our services out to everybody in in in the in the our local area uh loop area. Now, we're considering maybe expanding maybe north or south." Okay. Thank you. No, this is just a discussion, Pam. I'm just trying
to get, you know, their their view on it and everything. This has nothing to do with set in stone or anything. Kylie counties is asking us a couple questions and I'm just trying to get their opinions and then we'll make a recommendation and you know
um uh uh Jack saying uh Matt and Pam saying probably say the same and John John's probably saying the same thing. So we'll give it to Charlotte. Charlotte will we give the recommendations to the commission and Charlotte will relay them to Highland County. We're happy what
we're doing right now. Okay. You know, so yeah, this is just a discussion. Yes, ma'am. May I? Oh, go ahead. Let her go then. Um, while she's coming up here, I think the point though to be remembered is that if we
deviate from the areas that were identified in the $40 million plan, we need to communicate way ahead of time because that was part of the bruhaha when the $40 million plan was I don't want to say foisted, but there was no communications, no heads up. And then
when it came to light, everybody was mad because nobody knew anything about it. So in the future we got to make sure if we deviate. I think it was just for discussion. But the Highland Countyy's plan comprehensive plan they're just trying to see if in the future not now.
Yeah. This this this comment is aside from the plan. It's just put it in your back of your mind that So as we move forward as a group, we're going to focus on those projects that were in the $40 million grant. There is some room for
expansion, but we're going to focus on septic to sewer and and and get those out of the way. And if we do get some development, we have that the development charges will go into an account for further expansion of the plant that don't go to the utility. Only
if we get connections on it, that'll go for our operations. So, like I said, this is just a discussion to answer Highland County's questions. So my you know observing I think everybody's saying we stayed safe. So you know that's it was
you know just I was three questions for one. What size do you want to be? Okay. So is that what consensus is everybody says we stay the same? I know I'm still taking let's see what what else we have to say. Oh there we go. Yes
ma'am. Sorry. Good morning Marlene Ber like June point. Um, so I appreciate having a thinking session, which is what I think I understand here, but the question that I have, what is the town and the county and the state doing? Part of what Lake Placid is doing
is under the rubric of Save Our Lakes. If we're talking about Save Our Lakes, we got to be addressing some of the more significant areas. I've consistently had a concern about Lake June Road. Many of the homes there have septic systems that
are 60 years old. They're 25 ft off the water. So if we start looking at priorities, that area is not within the town limits, but it is within the whole concept of save our lakes. So the question is what are we doing working
with the town, the county, and the state to address the true priorities and where we're going to put these before we start addressing making people hook up who aren't damaging the lake and address what we need for those
who are and do are we putting in the lines that are large enough to handle the flow. Thank you. That's kind of what I So, we need to identify the hot spots. Exactly. And that's where they need to go. And And then And then if there's water aligned with it, for sure. Put
one. Right. And then what what are you trying to do with working with the county and the state to get the kind of grants that you need to do the kind of job that needs to be done rather than the town's going to go off and do this, somebody else is going to do that. My
concern is having a big picture. Right. And that's what we're trying to figure out. That's what I think. But the county has nothing to do with it because the county is not in the utility business no more. That's why they made us the local Well, then the county needs to make clear that they're giving you the
authority to decide. They have we have the authority. The uh our boundaries encompass I believe Lake Drive. Am I correct? Yes. So when we That's the one when we did decommission decommission
Tamoka the line's coming down that way. We're going by Lake June. That was the community there. They have their lift station that's going to be decommissioned attached to ours and then it's going to run back to the plant right there on smoke. So, but but if the county is not
involved and the homes along Lake June Road are not part of the town, right? Is the county going to allow you to annex that into the town? Well, see, that's that's a discussion. Yes. because it's a it's a region. It's not the we're not the town. We're the
regional. We're not the town. We're just the you service. Well, I get I get that. So, you're the responsibility for you is going to be expanded. So, you can decide that all the homes along Lake June Road need to be hooked up. We need to have a
septic system. Then you will set the priorities to make that happen. Correct. And then they can they then be incorporated into the town? So that that is a town commission decision, not utilities. We are just providing a
service. Um but that's peace meal. Like yes, but we have my point is the peace meal aspect of it. Yeah. If the county is going to allow you to do that, then the county should allow you to annex it in. But as grants come in, they're not
guaranteed. So we have to as as we go along, we try to connect things that are close to our system already. That community over there, that is going to be one of our grants. So we run when when we run the the lift the
force man to the new plant, we're going to come by there and pick up that uh lift station and get that decommissioned. How far out on Lake June road are you talking? Because if you're going all the way to the end of Lake June, that's quite a lot. which is much. No, no, I'm talk I'm talking uh what is
that? Lake June Point. No, not point. Um Lake June Point is not the issue. No, no, no, no, no. Let me see. What is that one? Uh no. Come down to County Road 17 for me.
Yes. Right there. Uh Lake June Drive. Uh Armwood Jay, that's that's the the the force man going to come down county road 17 to the plant which is unspoken. We're going to this area here has a lift station which has homes on the
lake. So, we're going to be getting rid of the lift station uh on the community there. And as it's something we have to find out if if the town commission or council wants to mandate
hookups, if we can't mandate hookups, we can't make people hook up. But with the state and grants, they're not going to be giving out grants anymore if you the town doesn't enforce mandatory hookups. So that's that's another discussion coming down the road. Where is Lake June
Road on there? Not Lake June Road. It's like Lake June. No, I'm talking Lake June Road. Yes. So that's that's all up in there. That's up in there. So as of right now, can you go back up? Let's see. Um, so we're going to
decommission um to Mocha. It's going to come down down the county road. Um, we can if we get the money and and have mandatory hookups and run a line like John Lake Juno to the end of our water
system. But we have to have people. If you run a pipe and no one's connected to it, it's just a pipe in the air. So we have to come up with some kind of m um you know with the commission like a council that has to mandate this stuff
that's going to have to be in some kind of utility code otherwise you're just putting pipes in the ground and no one's hooking up because they don't want so that's just the way thank you I'm just saying there's a big picture here that that's what we're trying annex annexing is usually the next step I think that's
what you're looking for it happen that's that will fall on the commission to make those decisions thank you spider So just looking for the your recommendation on on connections. I mean not connections but the expansion and it sounds like you guys are
saying the same. To me it sounds like we have a lot of work to do in town with force mains, right? But you're saying there's grant money for this kind of stuff for tying these plants back to the the decommission plants that's already paid for. We have the money right now to for the south plant to be
decommissioned. Um the the main street um uh plant which is going to they're going to convert part of that in for the new plant. So that one's done. So we're applying for tomoka. Okay. And that's our third plant that needs to be decommissioned. Okay. So once those are
all done, everything will be going to the new plant. And then after that, then we can start looking for grants for expansion. if we can, you know, if we get the the authorization for mandatory connections, we can start applying for money for Lake
June Road. Um, that's that's that's going to be the biggest push back. What I'm seeing right now is people were saying that we don't want to disconnect or hook up. You know, um Sebring, I was looking the other day, they have a mandate saying, "Okay, if
sewer is in front of your house, um you don't want to hook up, that's fine, but you're paying a sewer fee until you hook up." You know, so you can't what? I'm sorry. What? You can't what until you hook up? you have to pay a a water sewer fee to the to to Sebrank even if you're
not hooked up about like service availability if the services in front of your house. So you know eventually that the septic is going to fail and they're going to have to hook up. You know there has to be some way to justify putting these lines in the ground and using them and if people don't want to use them why
put them in the ground. Now now you're maintain trying to maintain something that's not being used. So, didn't you say that the uh the state has uh passed a regulation that
any new uh grants that are given out, whatever area it is that those people have to hook up. Okay. That's that's been with the state for a long time, but they left the enforcement up to the municipality. Now, they're saying municipality has to enforce. Okay. And
so with with some reasonable time limit to hook up. I mean six six months or a year. I I believe it's a year 365 days. So So that that's coming down the road. But okay. So So then if you don't want to take their grant money, you know, and
do it on your own, then if the town doesn't want to mandate anything. Yeah. So, so then uh if if Lake June Road is added uh as a higher priority item, let's say that some of the other items,
you wouldn't have to worry about the people hooking up. They they'll have to hook up within a year or so, right? That's that's if you know if if the town mandates it or if they get a grant to do
it, it's mandated. So, you know. Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously we're going to have to get a grant. We don't have any money sitting around to to do that project, right? But like I was saying, is if we get some development, we get connections as that fund builds, we can
do small sections, you know, and just keep adding a piece piece, you know, when we get the funds. So, but the grants are the best, but you're not guaranteed grants, you know. Yeah. You know, uh, there's been said that, you know, okay, they gave us a $40 million plan, they're going to give you grants.
No, they're not because you're not making hookups to it now. Yeah. So, you know, they want you to they want you to do this, but if if you're not getting or getting them connections to it, why are they going to invest in you more? You
know what I mean? Right. Right. So, you know, we we have to show an effort that we're we're trying to, you know, uh comply with, you know, what our plans are and which we are. We're applying for grants and stuff. We're decommissioning, you know, this is a long process. Yeah.
But like I said, it it can be done. So, you know, it just we just need to get a plan and start and stick with it. Like I said, my kind of idea is starting north and working south. So, you know, after for next year's grants, we'll have to pick an area and it's we'll discuss that
and where do we want to go? Now, if we get that grant for TOA, you know, we could say a section of Lake June Road for now or if we don't get that one, it might be the end of year. We have to pick another area, you know. So,
so B, what we're saying is that if if we go ahead and run a sewer line up there, we're forcing connection. We have to force connection if you take the grant and Yeah. And you'd have then by by virtue of that you'd have to force annexation. So you're really putting a double whammy
on it. Yeah. But like I said, that's up to town commission about the annex. Yeah. But I mean I just we need to make sure that people understand that forcing those two things. Yes. Yes. I I agree with you. But so it's going to it's going to be a burden on a lot of lowincome folks. Exactly. So you know as
I'm working on some grants right now. It's a 319 grant for connections. You know, it's it, you know, that'll help, you know, low income or stuff like that. So, we're work trying to figure things out, but like I said, there's no guarantees we're going to get that grant. There's there's no guarantees the
size of the grant and there's no really guarantees unless we have lines in the ground. So, so you know, it's a vicious circle right now. We just need to um get together, try to get a plan and you know
focus on that. So can we pull up our existing area now? What we have so we can look at that again so people can see the loop rack area. The what? The loop. The loop rack area. Yes. There you go. Everything is in the green, right? Yes.
So it doesn't look like any of Lake Clay there then is it? It's just part of Lake Clay. Well, I mean the backside which is a hot spot and Sun and Lakes is also a hot spot. But you know down down the road if we
don't expand we could or we could say now expand pick up Lake Clay but it's it's all what you want to do. Like I said we don't know how long you know we go down Lake Clay Road a little ways up to the mobile home park there
but that that's it. So we'd have to run more lines and everything else. So but we don't have to run lines immediately. we can we're talking about expand expanding our area. So we we could like everybody's saying let's try to take care of what we got now and you know we
we'd like to work on all the lakes but all the lakes don't encompass in our area either. So another question was starting at the north. How is that going to I mean the lakes kind of flow north. So right well um my idea of saying north is where we
have water already. Okay. Let let's try to focus on the dense areas because the water's already there. That's how we will build for the sewage. Let's try to stick with them. Complete those areas because once they're completed, that
will make expansion to the next area. There's pipes already in the ground. So now we don't have to run a pipe three miles. Pipes probably half mile away. And we can expand it that way. And just this is like a a grid system. So, we just keep keep going off that way and
working our way out to the edge of our system. It's like the old Lincoln logs, you know, you just keep snapping them together. So, but if if if it's closer, it's it's less expensive. You're not running six mile of bay to pick up an area. You right. I just don't want
contamination from Sun Lakes get into Lake Yeah. Huntley and ended up and being measured in Lake Clay and then saying, "Oh, Lake Clay is the problem." And it really flowed down there. You know what I mean? Right. Right. Like taking a shower with your socks on. Right. So,
how many connections does it take additional connections does it take for you to balance your budget? Oh, a lot. I mean, is this going to do I don't have a number because basically we're at what it 2300 connections water
lean somewhere near there that that's where we're at for water probably less than that for sewer. So we're running on 2,300 connections in an area that size. That's it's not that many connections. That's
my concern is you know we're going to we're going to have Are we we aren't going to fix the cash flow situation or are we going to fix the cash flow situation? The do the cash flow situation is it's minimal. You know, you should have at least two two to three months in
reserves to run the utility in case of something cast catastrophic happens. We don't have that. When you look at that report I sent out, which I'll give you again, Florida Water came down and did a assessment of our water system. This is
just the you already did the wastewater the water systems here and there is a suggested rate increase. There's graphs if you don't go this way you go that way. Take a look at that and you can see where we're sitting and this like I said this will be presented to you to the uh comm board
here next next uh regular meeting and then on your recommendations we're going to take it to the council. Um like I was speaking um this is the second part of the wastewater one. So this is the water side and if we don't approve it, we
won't be able to re they're going to recommend to not give us grants anymore. So that that's that's the second part of that. But the third part of it is their suggested rate study. And what's the town's proposed annexation map look like
now? I don't believe I have that. So, um, that'll probably be given to you guys at the Does that include like June Drive and like Smoke's office? Is it in that package? It It's not in that No, the Highland the Highland County one you just the the 20 to see what's already in
it. Um, you can pull it off on the Highland County GIS. Yeah, but that map's not in that package you just gave me. You copied this morning? I'm not sure. Oh, you're talking about the Yeah, yeah, there was a bunch of maps in there. has a bunch of maps, but we can
pull the annexation map from so we can county. Are you there? Yeah, that's that's the interact. There she goes. There's your municipal boundary should come up. Yeah. So there, that's your town limits right there.
But what's the proposed? So there's I'm I'm not aware of a proposed yet. I know Highlands. I'm just okay just knowing what I just have heard is that Highlands County is looking at some of our enclaves. That's areas that we annex and then
should have been annexed. So they're enclaves. They're not contiguous. So they're counties looking at that to say we need to clean that up. You shouldn't have enclaves, right? So the the the way this if you just want me to add this the way the system works right now is when
somebody opens an order account a consent to annex is required. Once that property becomes contiguous then we have the opportunity to the town council can approve to annex that property in
the town under uh Mr. Williams there was a lot of annexation going on. So he was reviewing nearly coming up with a a plan for annex that would come to council and that's how some properties got in in the last since I've been here since 2013.
Um there hasn't been anything annex since we annex this north side going all the way past where the dollar is. So as far as an ongoing plan now I'm not sure. I think that's part of the the exercise. I
think this all these questions are going to come to town council. They're to the LPA. You'll hear probably about that at the joint loop and LPA meeting. That's all I know about it's being examined. Especially
like it's being examined especially for the enclave, the little niches. There's like little spots you can see yellow in the town limits in the green area. That's the ones they're kind of focusing on for the town annex at this time, I believe. They're like little spots that kind of
got missed. You see it up there? See the yellow? I don't see yellow. You see the white spots. You see the white spots? The green is the property have those white spots. So the they're talking about the you know enclaves.
Yeah. So you got the saddle bags there. They're talking about all those little ones and then along the lake. Can I just add? Sure. So on those enclaves, you could see that where you have those the little white spots. Right
now for sanitation, you have our guys going to the town and then you have Highlands County have to go through through town to get to their right. They need to pick up the sanitation. So those enclaves are affecting that's what county Charlotte and everybody's
discussing right now. So what are they proposing to do with those enclaves? I didn't hear that. I think that's what's being discussed now. What are what are we doing with the enclaves? And that alludes to what he was talking about roads. That's the road
sanitation is wanting us to wanting the town to take over the road maintenance for these. So like I said in the past when we've annexed we have not annexed the roads those roads still remain county roads
but but our as a utility is we're just supplying water reserve that's the administration's decision to for annex how they want to deal with it what they do it really doesn't affect us you know so okay so they're just enclaves looks
like it's not something stuck way out somewhere We don't know about it. I'm just trying to Yeah. But so that's that's the discussion they're having on that. If the town's going to the west 14 miles or something, then right we probably need to extend our thing out that way is what I'm saying.
So but looks like all this is inside the a lot of it's within the you know in the limits anyway the limits of loop. So and and I think the utility when they fill out that annexation is in the LPRP location. So anything outside the LPRP
water. Mhm. Okay. So, consensus on expansion or leave it the same. I I believe it's all leave the same, right?
Yes. Leave it the same. Somebody needs to make a motion. That's right. That'll be number three is what Jack saying. Stay the same. So Jack, just because we increase the boundaries doesn't mean the city has to follow that with annexation,
right? It just allows us to um I'm just concerned about the Silivan Shores and the um Sun and Lakes. Those are hot spots and if they're not in our area then we can't get grants for it and stuff like
that. Doesn't mean the city's going to go annex them, but yeah, but it it doesn't mean that we can't change the boundaries later on either. We I think we all agree we we've got more than enough to work on, but this changes for the comp plan, right, Pam? This is for
the, you know, our answer to Highland County comp plan. That's right. You know, you know, if you guys say we we don't we want to stay the same, we're not looking forward at this time to expand. That's that's basically the answer we're going to give them. Possibly in the future, you know, we just want to give them some kind of
answer. They're asking for an answer. So, at this time, keep it the same. I think so. Some of the stuff up. Our plate is full already, I think, but we can always add later on. I'd add consideration for expansion in the future, you know. Yeah. Add that. Yeah.
Okay. Jack's move that we um keep our uh late plastic utilities um boundaries the same with future expansion um as an option. Is there a second? Chairman, we're in a workshop. There are no motions today. This is getting a
consensus of what your recommendation now. The recommendations will be official at your official meeting on the third. Okay. So, what can we pull the board to see where we stand on this? Yeah, you can get so just asking what the consensus is of the board and then
next meeting will I'm sorry next meeting they will needs to go talk bring it back on the on you're having the joint meeting with the LPA on Mon uh June 2nd and then the 3 is when it'll be brought back to you for your final
recommendation to the town council. Okay. Yes, Pam Pam Pentress. So pla a lot of discussion in the past have been on pla lakes catfish creek canal hotspot. So with what y'all are talking
about right now so then you rec so you would always completely drop placid lakes canals because that's outside of the lake placid regional plan. It's outside of the lake placid utility service boundary area. I'm not saying what you should do. I'm just saying
that's part of the discussion. As you're saying, we don't want to go pick up the rest of Lake Clay or we don't want to do this, but yet we spend a y'all spend a lot of time talking about Placid Lakes and it's outside of your service boundary area. It was included in D's
$40 million grant as an area. So, I'm just saying at the end of the day, you're going to have to not at this meeting, but that just the big picture thinking, you need to kind of have that in the back of your head, too. Thank you. Thank you.
Right. So, if we're gonna Well, if we can't vote, then we have a thing. So, the chairman can say get a consensus of his of the board of the commission. Just get a consensus. We can get a consensus. Yeah, you can get consens. It's just not a formal motion. And then
you'll make your formal motion on June 3rd. And that will make a easier for the recommendation next. Okay. Do you agree with Jack? I do. Okay. I do not. Pam's abstaining.
Do you agree with Jack? Oh, I abstain. Okay. And I'll fill out the paperwork. That will be for the right if we vote on that. Right. Okay, just read over the other questions here. Yep. Well, then we we already
covered an annexation of properties, you know, so it was just put out there just so we could give some input to the town manager and commission what our thoughts are on that. I don't know if you agree with
what where I was going with that. We can we could kind of do a consistent, you know, vote on that. I'd say no annexation for delivering water and service. That's my opinion. I don't know what you guys think. I'd like to know. I
guess Michael, when are we going to make it mandatory to to hook up? That's or mandatory to pay the bill, not necessarily hook up, but that's that's a discussion that would be a new utility ordinance that have to pass town commission. You know, that's that's the
next discussions after we get all through this stuff, the pay rate, and then probably the following meetings we can start talking about that putting together some kind of updating utility ordinances. Because to me, if you say
you have to hook up when your septic fails, they're going to milk that septic tank as long as they can, years, and it's not going to fix the problem now, right? So, how do y'all feel about annexation?
Okay. About annexation. I I I don't think you want to force these people to annex. Yeah. Okay. What about forcing people to pay a sewer bill that are in the city whether they have it or
not if they're getting water if they don't have it's a service they don't have to pay for. Yeah. That's that's so that'd be something we'd have to bring up in a utility or I I'm no discussion. Yeah. I'm not saying I'm for against it. I'm just asking. No, I'm just just clarifying that it's just and the
annexation is in code right now. So, it is an ordinance that would have to be taken out of code if you're not going to require a consent to annex at time of getting water service. That's also in the code. Then you're and it's in the comp.
Well, I'm just trying to get our opinion as a utility. Yeah. you know, then you're responsible for this the roads and everything, you know, and and you guys got enough on your plates that you know, I'm just letting
you know. Yeah, that that would have to be taken out. I'm just asking if there's a sewer line in front of your home, should you pay sewer? You should. You should have paid something
when you got your permit to put aside for some somebody running a sewer line in front of your place. you paid for that. Um, and you still have a a septic
tank that works, that passes instructions, that's been pumped, then no, you shouldn't. Okay. You're, you know, you're asking people to do too
much. You've got to make it so that it's fair. that, you know, you're not putting these people that are on fixed incomes into a position where they have to sell their homes.
That's kind of like how property tax works, right? You can get the money. There's other ways you can get the money. Oh, it's he's just asking. I'm just asking like property tax work. You don't have kids in school, but you pay it. He's just giving you your opinion.
and they know that and they have been used to that, but they aren't used to a sewer bill. And as long as they have a septic tank that works, you know, of course, when it
fails, then they're going to have to But why force them into asking what do you gentleman think? I don't think they're tested to tell you the truth, you know. So, you
don't really know whether they work or not from my perspective unless the toilet doesn't flush, but you still don't know what it's doing to the water quality around it. So, there's an issue there. I don't really want to debate that issue. And our ground percolates so well that I mean, you can have septic
problems and it not be a problem to the homeowner count. You know what I mean? Yes. Yes. And I and I don't think that they take that into account enough, but it should be taken into account where you live, what kind of soil you have. Um, you shouldn't just do a blanket.
Everybody has to do this. What are your thoughts? Should you have to hook up if your line runs in front of your home? There's no sense of putting the lines in if if the people don't have to hook up. No, I'm saying the lines already in front of your house aren't are like right now if it's available but
you're just not using it. You have to hook up with some you know years. I'm saying when you hook up definitely you pay but I'm saying before you hook up let's say you have a good septic tank you have a line in front of your house should you be paying? Uh, no. You
shouldn't be paying for the but you should there should be a time limit where you have to hook up. Now, if you're if you're into town and there's a line in front of your house and business and you don't hook up, you pay a service availability fee now. Okay, that's what
I mean. That's being done right now. So, it is. So, it's being done now. He says it's being done now. The service availability fee they pay. That's I thought so too. I know it's in code, but I'm not sure how are we
enforcing for new construction. I think there's some businesses in town that are paying the ser I know there I've been told service there is a there is a serviceability charge in the code. Yeah, but residential
I not I'm not sure. I'm I'm I don't know residential, but some business it's in front of your house. Are you going to pay something or you mandatory hookup more or less
because you just you decided not doing the mandatory hookup? Oh, he's ask you know basically if you don't want to do the mandatory hookup, you're going to pay a fee for sewage, you know, because the line's there. You choose not to. So, and if we don't go to
mandatory hookup, we're going to have a hard time getting grants. We won't get grants. You won't get grants. So, that's something else we got to look at, right? And by 2030, all septic tanks, there'll probably be no permits. Even if they're advanced, the treatment ones, they want
to eliminate by 2030 septic tanks. So, you know, yeah, unless there's no sewer, you know, available in your area, but they're they're not going to if there's sewer available in your area, it's going to have to be a mandatory
hookup. State's cracking down. Because right now they're making if you want a grant, they're making the municipality enforce connections before they did. And then 2030 they're saying
no more septic tanks if sewers available. Okay. So it's being done and no one up here likes it, right, Pam? So it's being done now and just none of us like it. That's right. Okay. Right. So, if we if we don't increase
our area, how are we going to um clean these lakes and and spots like like Placid Lakes or Sunen Lakes, Lake Clay, the West Side with this $40 million are supposed
to be doing to clean the lakes. Correct. Correct. Which is part of something we got to finish that we've started. So, Right. It's part of the septic sewer that eliminates septic. But if if you know with what you submitted with the grant, those lakes
ain't in our area, we're not obligated to do that. But if we expand to them, then then we're going to be obligated, you know, eventually run, you know, uh, mains down that way. So, so as as Jack said, you know, keep
it the same now and possibility change in the future. When we get caught up, sure, we'll go go to the county and say, "Okay, we want to expand it so we can finish cleaning this lake up or or this one here." You know, we we have our we have everything basically done in our
area. We've complied with with the, you know, terms of the grant. we're ready to move on and go work on some other lakes, right? Like I said, as long as it can happen that quick. I just don't want to be bound by a line, right? If there's a dying lake and the other side of it is
not getting covered because we're already in Plasta Lakes is already in our area, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So, but bas basically if if we go back to the county in the future say, "Okay, we've done all our stuff. We want to take care of
this." I don't think they'll have a problem saying, "Okay, we'll expand your area to that, right?" Because they're not in the utility business, you know, and there's no one around us, the nearest one. So, you know, and that's not going to interfere with them. They're not coming as far south.
So, so this is what's what's their comp plan? 20 2050. Yeah, that's what they're working on now is the 2050 compens plan, but we go Yeah. So they're working on the 50 and they're probably going to revisit it again in a couple
years anyways. So they'll probably be asking us the same question, but I think the questions are going to be coming up now. They're doing theirs now, but right simultaneously we need to be answering our council these questions. But but like I said, they're going to re revisit this in a few years and see where we're
at then. And then okay, yes, we now we'd like to expand to pick up X XL to improve their water quality. We we've we've achieved our our promises to the to the state with the the the new water treatment plant. We've got the septics
all gone here. Now we'd like to expand and try to clean up other lakes. So, and like I said, I can't see Highlands County telling you no because there's no one else in the area. Severing's 30 miles away. So, they're not they're not going to expand 30 miles
just to pick up a lake. All right, we can keep going through the questions. Do we need a break? Anybody need a break? I think there's only two more questions. Okay. And I think we've uh uh Yep. Yep.
No, the I talk about annexation. The next one's how to fund future projects besides grants. You know, we've talked connections. That's, you know, unless you have any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. Developers pay. Well, yeah, but we
haven't had any developers come talking to us. Uh, except the the mobile home park down on 70. They I haven't heard nothing back from them. Um, Lake Rashard possibly may come back up their development over there. Uh, but
otherwise, nothing else. So, the Basically, that would be connections, development connections, and that's the only ways I know of besides grants to to to produce revenue and and you know, anytime somebody
builds a pulls a building permit, you know, you charge something for, you know, the infrastructures, right? Well, it's new. They, you know, they pay for development fees and everything. Existing building, we don't charge them if it's already been paid. And you know, unless they
upgrade their water meter size, that that's about the only other charges they'll get from us on the utility side, you know, because the it's already been done once and the infrastructure is there, you know. So, if they're just putting in a a regular business 5/8 3/4
meter, it's already there. So unless you know unless you guys have any other ideas besides connections that answers that question basically connections connections development that's yeah because they're forcing us to do this you know you
should be able to make current customers pay more for their water to help pay for the coming sewer that they're going to do. Well, that that will be after this. We're going to have Florida rule water come and give a
discussion on a a rate study. So, you know, so like I said, you guys have this they have a suggestion in there, but that's not set in stone or anything. You can look at that. It shows the financials if which way we go. There's
graphs in there and everything else. That's why I send it to you so you have a good good chance. Most of the reading is only in probably the first 20 pages. The rest is just assets and everything else. So, but this one here is to so we can apply for grants. We'll be in
compliance. So, but then the rate study will come in a couple weeks, you know, discussion because I'll have Florida real water come in and explain their um their thinking on that and everything else to here and then town commission. So,
Florida rural water does a great job. So, Oh, no. They're a great asset. I've been using them since I've been in Florida since 15. So, very helpful, especially small communities, you know. Do they come up Bert with a cash flow analysis in their analysis as to
Yes, that that's all in there. Okay. Okay. So, like what my question before is as we keep adding customers, you know, how many customers we have to add. Yeah. I I don't know if they have that in. It's just based on what we have now. So, but you know, with the rate study,
they're they're suggesting a certain amount that should give us that buffer we're looking for. So, but then any other development, new connections will be a bonus. I don't believe they have a number in there.
Are are the uh the water budget and the sewer budgets they're I mean I know they're built separately. Are they completely separate? I mean there's no co-mingling of funds. No. No. Uh they're separate funds. Um but they're under the
utilities enterprise, right? But I mean they have to be separated. If for some reason you had a a big uh a lot of extra money in the water uh side, you you can't uh Okay. No, they're they're separate funds.
All right. And how do we envision the future of LPRU? No, that question is for me. It's not for me. Okay. I just want to see what what you guys um opinion or or what you see in the future of the system, you
know, that that'll help me out. Um like I was talking to Matt today, I want to uh maybe have you guys I want you guys to get more involved. I I'd like you guys to send me emails with questions or anything before, you know,
the our next meeting. Um any concerns? Sorry about that. Concerns or just general questions or come to the office and see me. I I'd like to get a report to every one of you. Um it's with the sunshine rule, we can't sit there and talk like we are doing here, but we can meet individually. We can have
emails, phone conversations or stop it. And and I'd love to hear your opinions and everything else. See what kind of what we can do. You know, like I said, this is a small system. I came from Long. They had money and I repaired every lift station
they had. I had a rehab because I had the money. I wanted to come out here and see what I could do to help to make this a successful utility. And it's impossible if you don't have the funds. You're right. I right now I'm trying to fix a few things and it's like putting
band-aids on stuff. People forget about the infrastructures when it's in the ground. Long as it's working, they don't think about it. Once you your toilets ain't flushing or or the water's not running through your tap, you're getting a phone call to say, "What's going on?" Yeah. Yeah. So, and I'd like to be
proactive on this stuff. I don't like things to break. You know, it'll cost you three times as much if you don't do the maintenance on it and everything else. If you get up on it and you find something, you can fix a small part and save save money down the road. And that's that's kind of the way I work.
So, okay. I have a question. uh not picking on you because you're you're just here recently, you know, but looking at the this this domestic water report and the the previous report for the wastewater, right? Seems like there
was an awful lot of I'll call it deferred maintenance to be polite, right? In in your opinion, was that caused by uh lack of funds or some other reason? I'm sure it was
accommodation. Like I said, out of sight, out of mind. It's working. You know, we'll move on to something that we know it's broken. We're going to fix it. Um, it's with with the maintenance part and and a smaller community, you know, you have a small staff, you can only do
so much. And like I said, they're not aware of it's broke. You know, um, with the larger utility, you have guys assigned just the lift stations, you have guys just to sand manholes. Um you got guys assigned just to the water plants li you know this way these guys are wearing so many hats doing meter
reading they're not seeing everything as a whole but as they seen it they've reported but it's just you know okay for instance the well over at Magnolia I just found out it's been out of service for a while um I said why he
goes it cost too much I said no let's get a company out here let's get it pulled take them see what it's going to cost us. Uhhuh. And then we'll somehow we'll find a way to fix that. You know, you just can't take something, take it offline because that's a redundancy, you know. So if you know,
one of the wells go down the main well there, you don't have the second one. So you know, you got to address the big things. It's like a rotten apple. You take small bites, but you get rid of it. So it's it's just the infrastructure. It's it's older. So, you just got to
start like each lift station. If we can rehab one a year, we got 17 of might take 17 years, but they're getting rehab, you know, uh you don't have a lot of manholes here because they don't have a lot of gravity. Uh lift stations, um panels, they get eaten up. They get
eaten up by the gases and stuff. You have to look at that because you're spending a ton of money on replacement parts. You eventually have to upgrade the panel and they're about 40,000 a piece. So, you know, it's just, you know, you just got to take little bites and and see if you can upgrade where you
can. And you do the the the big big stations first, the important ones, because the smaller stations, you can throw a generator on and we can make it work. So, it's just it's pri prioritizing the uh the big things that need to be fixed. And when the big things are fixed, you fix the small
ones, but you still work on the big ones to make sure maintain them and make sure they're still working good. So, what about I noticed some of the fire hydrants were out of service or the the isolation valves that that feed them or
uh not working properly. Doesn't the uh either the the utility or the fire department check those things once a year or something like that? Well, on valves supposed to be turned once a year, right? Besides a step, it ain't going to happen. So,
um, uh, as far as I know, all hydrants are in service at this time. Uh, the the staff has repaired, we had two out, and I think we repaired the last one a couple weeks ago. Okay. Now, the valves couldn't tell you, you know, like I
said, they're supposed to be uh operated uh once a year, you know, but like I said, being small, um just having the the uh staff to do it. Um now, you might have some valves that
I'm sure that need need to be repaired, replaced, rebuilt. You know, it's it's just you have to have the manpower and the money because if you go to rebuild one and you can't, then you have to cut it out and put a brand new one in. Now you're putting people out of water. You
know, it it's it's you know, it's it's difficult, but there's ways to do it. It's just But you got to have the money, right? You got to have the money to put buy a valve in case that one fails. Yeah. So, it's it's uh it's difficult, but I'm
sure once once we get a plan and we can get a a preventive maintenance program going, you know, I think you have good possibility having a strong utility here. So, it's just going to take some organizing and and you know, putting our minds together to see what the best way
is, right? is the uh since we don't have access to the the domestic order a map of the domestic water lines, you know. Yeah. Well, I mean, we we saw there, but I mean, I would like to have a copy of it if I could. Oh, no. We sent you the link to
the diamond maps. You should be able to look at them all. Jack was on that list, wasn't it? Yes. You should You should have got an email with a link and a password to Diamond Maps. Okay, I'll have to check that. I guess
Can you Can you pull that up, Leanne real quick? You have access Firefox. Okay. The Firefox, I think. There it is. You'll have this access to to to this GIS map. You can
you have layers there. You can put the water on the water meters, hydrants, valves, and you'll be able to see, you know, sizes of mains and everything else. Okay. You have the read version. You can't make edits to it, but you can see everything we see. It should have been an email
probably about what two two weeks ago, three weeks ago. If not, I can get Leanne to resend it to you. Could Could she resend? Yep. Thank you. Okay. You know that, like I said, you just open it up and it's a web based and Okay. And and also for the uh for
the water. This is waste water. Yeah. Uh, see how she has the the the box on the side says water sewer. Yeah. You just click the box on which you one you want. Okay. The date was May 12th. May 12th. 512th. Yep. Thank you. Okay. From customer service at diamond something.
Say that again. Customer service at diamond something. Let me look. Okay. Thank you. Access so you you can see what's going up. All right. Me too. You got you had you send it to you again? Yeah. Okay. I'll I'll
confirm my email address. Yep. I'm sure we got it right. Yep. But like I said, you got your own password. They send it to you. They in uh user user name. So, thanks.
Any other questions from up here? Comments? So, what what's your what's your vision of of just kind of my kind of idea is we just need to get organized and try to make this I just want us all to be on
the same page when we go to our meeting next week and kind of not like I said that was just deer in the headlights look but like I said I'm going to want your guys input on this you know just not just as advisory board but any ideas you have so you know
because like I said you go you you all live out here. I'm I'm I'm a new guy out this way. So you you go you know the in-n-outs and everything else and if you see something or you think something might we might be able to do I'm I'm open ears you know
you know I've I've worked in just outside Detroit a large large community about 100 thousand and I've worked for the small community like this of 20 23 or 100. So so I' I've been in different systems. So it's just and
I I've seen that. But you know the area. So So what whatever you can help me with or or any ideas that that's what I'm hoping for cuz you know once everybody goes in light bulb goes off and you go yeah let's go that direction. You know what I
mean? You know it's just this is the area's been bad you know or or this area can be improved. You know so just try to get a game plan here and if we're like Matt said we're all on the same page that game plan gets a lot easier. So, so um so basically I guess we're on
the final note. Um we got the joint meeting coming up u and then we have our regular meeting. Um we're going to present present the the the water uh asset to you. Um you were handed out the
Highlands County 30. you're conf just like you to review that. There's mentions water, waste water, all through it. There's maps in here. You could review it and, you know, if you see anything, bring it to our our attention.
Um, like I said, I'd probably review that before the the planning committee because that's kind of what they're going to be discussing. And then that one will be us next next one. So, I don't have anything else unless you guys have something.
Yes, ma'am. Pam and thank you very Oh, thank you. Like I said, please call me. Just come see me. Let's let's let's get together and see see how we can get, you know, pluck this chicken, right? Pamper. Um, you were talking about how
do you get revenue um besides the grants. So I go back to Lake Placid Camping Conference Center and whether it's actually up and running and sending to the town. I I would figure out and as we know there's been a lot of delays and
there's still not a a water line. There's still not all these things. How much revenue are you missing out on every day? The system is not up and running. And you don't have to answer that now. I'm just like it is up and running but they still have to connect it. So, so, so like what can you do to
bring in revenue to utilities? So, um, and I'm not trying to bring up the past or this delay or that delay, but how moving forward as these things occur to have tighter controls. You have an agreement, you have a contract,
things anyway, I would know how much if this was a a business run efficiently and professionally. Every day that something's not hooked up and sending to the town's wastewater treatment plant, you're missing five bucks. You're
missing $1,000. I have no idea but know that and then how what can you do to get that up and running and connected and so I would that's one part of it. Second part is that house bill 1379 which brought about all this advanced
wastewater treatment plants or septic tanks. Howland's county does not have a utilities department. They have abdicated all their responsibilities. I read the I go to the county commission meetings. I read the packet. Every year they have to do an annual packet to the
D of the state. What are you doing to come into compliance with House Bill 1379 as a county? 10 pages of we don't have a utilities department. Therefore, we have no responsibilities. Next question. We don't have a utilities department. We don't have any
responsibilities. The county has abdicated that to the different municipalities. The town of Lake Placid has taken on this heavy load. are not in the town limits. So having said that, why is Lake Plat Ser and Avon Park not going to the
county? Understand you don't have a utilities department. You this is like an unfunded mandate. So you don't have a utilities department. We want a million dollars a year to come into compliance with the Okchobee BAP. That's what I mean in Hardy County. There's different
areas in the state. They don't have to comply with House Bill 1379 because they are not in a BMAP. We unfortunately fall in Okchobee BAP. So there are stricter regulations that fall upon us in other
areas in the state, not Indian Rivers, Toughers around the Springs. But so why why is the county getting off scot-free? So what can you do to bring in revenue? That would have to be y'all, you LPA advocating to the C town council
to pass a resolution to go to the county. Give us our money. We are taxpayers in the incorporated. I live in unincorporated Highlands County, greater Lake Placid area, but I'm sending my taxes to the county. Why aren't they
then funneling? They do it with recreation. The town gets 125,000 for recreation um per year or has been. and Sebran gets at Avon Park. Um, so why aren't they giving y'all a portion of of the tax
revenue for utilities or income and compliance taxes uh doesn't fund utilities enterprise fund. So I understand but comp not utilities but with the house bill 1379 I get the report. I mean, this this is reports
that the the county they do studies. This is from February 2024. On-site sewage treatment and disposal system. This was on the uh county commissioner's agenda. Um they do a lot of reports. I don't think y'all get those reports.
They do they have to they have to be in compliance with D on certain things. I'm just saying they need to better do a better job of forming y'all, helping y'all apply for grants. What when I was on the swift mode governing board, we did cost share pro projects. Lake McCoy,
Lake June, that's the uh Lake June, the BMP project that's currently involved with the floating islands, the nutrient removal islands, and catfish creek. The county is supposed to be advocating to get not just your normal state and federal grants that this utility
department lives or dies on, but other grants. Swift. There are other agencies that you could be tapping into. I don't think y'all do because you don't have the staff, the man power to. The county has Don Ritter. She's a natural resource department head. She should be the one
or in my opinion there are people at the county office that should be helping Lake Placid be in compliance. um is it but that discuss those those doors are never open because we don't ask we don't get our fair share per se in my opinion because we don't go to the
county and say this is a I was going to say demands but that's not nice a list that we need help with or these are our wants or desires we have to start working collectively and advocating for it is the greater Lake Placid area
because you're so small you only have the 2600 town residents either you grow by annexation and I wouldn't be so afraid of the road system um surn avon park they're this there was one Tuesday avon
parks taking on more roads they're asking the county what are your top 10 top 10 list of the roads you want us to start maintaining why are why is Avon Park over 10,000 residents uh Sun and Lakes North 14,000
Spring Lakes over 7,000 residents in growing. They have utilities department. They have wastewater treatment plants and they're actively pursuing not just old or new development. They're pursuing customers. Um, so y'all are going to be
sit I know I've talked to this a lot. You're going to be sitting on a million gallons a day wastewater treatment plant. Then and I know I'm I've talked more than I normally do at these meetings. you're going to be sitting on that plant, which goes back to to, you know, your discussion and your points.
Why isn't new development coming inside of the Lake Placid Regional Plan area? Why isn't uh somebody coming in requesting 200,000 gallons a day or so and so gallons a day? What prohibits
growth within the Lake Placid Regional Plan? That's not the topic for today, but that's a part of I think you're going to be struggling for years to come, decades to come because new development isn't going to come within this Lake Plaza regional plan. Not at a
pace I think the utilities department needs to cash flow. So, um I do I think you could have one of these meetings every week and have and have the the open form and discussion. I
think it's needed. You're at a critical time, not just this commission, but the town of Lake Placet as it relates to the Hounds County impact fees. That study will be done in eight months. I mean, I could go on and on. The rest of the world is moving on even in Holland
County. Do you want to be a part of that? And if so, how will you address that? And I guess that's about it. Y'all know I can talk, but anyway, sorry. Thank you. So a question conference center if the
city's done everything it's supposed to do and we're ready to go are they getting build their service fee connection fee? I have to check on that. It's available. You know what I mean? You know, it's it's it's online, right? But their flows to that lift station,
they have to connect their buildings, too. Right. So, so that's on them, though. Right. Right. So, I'm not sure, you know, they've sent me plans of what they were planning on doing. Right. I don't know if they've done that yet. Right. They had they had a consent order from the state that they had to. Right.
You know, according to urgent emails that they're ready to hook up, but I have to I have to check and see if they're getting we have to uh since they don't have water, we're going to have to base their their flows on their flows, you know, billing. So, I have to check on that, right? But like I said, right
now, I doubt it's it's a minimum flow because I don't think they've connected anything, right? Because there's no urgency. I'm saying I would probably start sending them a bill, but just me. No, that any other business, you know, because we're waiting on the the the bulk water agreement with them so we can get the water out there and that's how
they'll be built after that, right? But right now, we just go on the flows on that lift station because they're the only one on the lift station. So, okay. Anything else? No. Anything else from the public, ladies? Good. I'm sorry. Next meeting is
so you have two meetings. June 2nd is your LPA lra joint meeting at 5:30. Just to take note, there'll be a short little meeting. It be a board of adjustment. They have a a hearing. It shouldn't go it should go pretty quick. And then your your joint will start immediately after
that. Okay. So that's June 3rd, right? That's June 2nd at 5:30. June 3rd is your 1:30. It's a Monday, right? So, Monday is the LPA joint and Tuesday is your regular. Gotcha.
Okay. At one. Yep. Right. Okay. I thank everybody for coming. Um, you have questions, please email them to Bird, get him involved. Yep. Like I said, you know, any question, you know, it just gives gives me a window into seeing what's going on, what you're thinking.
And like I said, if we can have the communication instead of having our meeting here, okay, I'm reading you a director's report that you could read yourself. It's just it's kind of like wasting time to me. We I'd rather have it more productive and uh you know, and see what what we can come up with, you
know, I want you guys involved. You know, it's I I'm not sure how it was done in the past. You know, like I said, give you a recommendation. You say yes or no. I'd like to see your opinions on it before we even bring it to you. You know what I mean? So, use your experience with my experience. We might come up with something. So, we need a
big spinning wheel so we can All right. And then talk about something. Is it connected to a dunk tank? You can dunk me out. That's what it feels like up here. I can fall off stage for you. I I don't care. We just want to make this work. So, how's the wastewater treatment plant
going? Uh, it's still on schedule. So, we'll keep those cards and letters coming. Part of Keep those cards and letters coming. Yep. Yep. Yep. Like I said, they're working, you know, on the trains, the carousels. Um they're putting duck banks in. You know, we're waiting on the the building, but that
that time frame shortened up, so we should have that June or July. So, so we're back to our January finish time. So, at this point, so so it's just uh you know, it'd be nice to get that one done, get it online. And what would really nice is
getting Tamoka offline. So, get them all on one plant. That way we could have staff at one place and they don't have to travel and you know we just can stay there and work on that one. So y and I appreciate you guys making time for this little round table thing. I know you guys are busy. Okay. Thank
you'all. Mean adjourned 1051.