I was going to go down, too. >> Okay, I'm going to go ahead and um get started here. Please silence your phones and um we're going to um stand for the invocation and the pledge of allegiance led by our town administrator.
If you bow your heads with me, please. Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the opportunity to come and be able to share with how the development of the town of Lake Placid will go. We ask you, Father, to be with each one of the speakers and be with the representatives here to represent the
town. Bless this day and bless this meeting. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. If you'll say the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all >> being 204, Tuesday, November 4th, 2025. the town Lake Placid government center workshop agenda for
information for the Lake June Park. Can we have roll call please? >> Mayor Hullbrook. >> Council member Worley >> here. >> Council member Hayes >> here. >> Council member Charles >> here. >> Council member Eberhart >> here.
as an announcement. Uh Mayor Hullbrook could not attend today, so he will not be here today. Okay, let's go ahead with um item number two, which is the Highlands County Tourist Council. Casey is here from the Tourist
Development Council. >> Good afternoon. Thank you so much for having us and at this special workshop. Um, we are very excited and I will present my my fellow uh presenters in just a minute, but we're very excited to be here from the Highlands County Tourist Development Council um to share
some recommendations from a study that we did earlier this year. Um, for those of you who are not aware of what the TDC does, we are a county department, but we are not funded with general revenue. So, we are funded with a tourism development tax. Um, if anyone's staying at a hotel
or an Airbnb or a short-term rental of less than six months, they are mandated to pay a 5% tourist development tax to us and that is how we get our money. So, a lot of things that we look to do, we're governed by a stat state statute and a county ordinance. Uh, but we are
looking on ways that we can bring more tourists to the county so they can spend more money here within our county. Um, we also find that when we're talking about things like facility development, when you bring more tourists and you create nicer facilities for them, you then create nicer facilities for the
community as well. Those become nice community assets. So, we'll just run through. Hopefully, the clicker works for me. Whoops. What am I doing? >> What am I doing? >> A mouse. >> Okay. And I have a Mac, so I don't even use a mouse. Sorry.
>> Sorry. We don't have a clicker that works. We've tried >> that one. Okay. Okay. that. Okay. Thank you. So, the vision of the TDC back in 2019, we did a vision statement so we knew the direction we were going. Um, we use researchbased decision-making. So, a lot of what
you'll hear today is a lot of data, um, a lot of financial information that that comes with a recommendation such as this. Um, we hope to inspire future generations to remain in the community and not move out of town. This was one of the things that was very clear in our strategic plan is that we grow a lot of
great kids in Highlands County, but unfortunately they move away and they don't come back. So, how can we create a better destination for our visitors, but also for people to want to come back to and live here in Highlands County? Uh, we also look at quality of life for residents. Um, and a couple things other
things within our strategic plan is how do we do re reduce seasonal employment? Um, so how do we make sure that our restaurants have patrons in August and September? Um, and then a great place for families to raise their children. Again, that's going to bring people back, that's going to bring visitors. Um, so these are all the things within
our vision statement. So, a lot of people say that's great for tourists, but how does that benefit me? So, there's a couple things for the locals. Um, obviously the economic development benefits is is very substantial. It infuses outside money into our local economy. Um, it also
creates jobs. Right now, there's about 5,000 people in Highlands County that are directly employed by tourism. Um, local business support, as I mentioned, our restaurants and our hotel years are supported by tourists. Um, tax revenue for public services. And then infrastructure development as well. Um,
we do have um the TDC has uh funding mechanisms. We have an event grant uh program where people if you're bringing a baseball event to the county and you can prove that you are bringing tourists with that that event, you can apply for event grant. A lot of the times what
we'll do is uh the event organizer will come to us, they'll ask for money to pay their facility rental and then we help offset that facility rental. So what we've seen at the sports complex for example the sports complex in Sebring is we've increased the price for the tourism events kept the community price
lower so that way they come to us so basically TDC is paying that increased facility rental it's helping the operation cost of the sports complex um and then I love this quote if you create a place where people want to visit then you build a place where people want to live work and invest in. So, if you
think about it, when you first came to Highlands County, if you weren't born here, you came as a visitor. You know, you came first to look at a place to live or to consider a place to work or retire. Um, whatever. You came, you first came here as a visitor. So, a couple things people keep asking me, why do you keep talking about sports
tourism? There's historic tourism, there's art and culture tourism, there's leisure tourism, and those are all wonderful, and we do work on all of those facets of tourism, but sports tourism can be very intentional. So, what I mean by that is when you book a leisure trip, you decide when you go,
you decide where you go, you decide how long you're going to stay, what you're going to do there. If you go for a sporting event, and I use the example of uh a recent trip in June to Umatillaa, Florida for a travel ball game, you have to go to Umatillaa. You have to go the weekend they want you to go and you're
going to probably be at the ball fields most of the time and then trying to go out to dinner. So I probably I can guarantee you nothing against Umatila, Florida, I would not have chosen to go to Umatillaa, Florida in June, but I did because we had a travel ball tournament there. So it's a really big driver of
economic development, especially for small destinations that don't have theme parks, don't have beaches. Um, this is a way that we can get people to Highlands County when we want them to come here. Um, just so you know, the tourism department does not try to recruit events January through March. We're
full. Our hotels are full. We've got snowbirds. We've got races. We've got all the things going on within the county. What we're really looking to do is how do we fill those hotel rooms, our attractions, and our restaurants in those downtimes? Hence our title, tourism development.
We also um it's great. It creates a great sense of pride. So, I know the town of Lake Placid was an amazing host to an event we plugged in here a couple weeks ago, a lacrosse camp. And and Allan can vouch for this. I mean, the hospitality that the lacrosse organizers
had and the players, I mean, they just beamed with enthusiasm for the town of Lake Placid, the hospitality that was presented to them. And then in turn, we saw a lot of community pride generated within the town as well. So, there's just a couple things here. I
won't read all of this to you, but just hit on the highlights. So, sports tourism is a reliable economic impact. It fills our restaurants and hotels when we need it. It generates tens of thousands of dollars in spending based on the size of your event. Um, it helps with year round visitation. Again, we
don't need more people here in March. We're maxed out. Our roads are maxed out, but how can we plug those events in when we need them here? It helps with community branding and exposure. I mean, there were hundreds of people that discovered the town of Lake Placid a couple weeks ago with the Lacrosse event that fell in love with your town. They
absolutely fell in love with it. And Alan will talk more to that. Um, it helps with dual benefits with infrastructure. So, you have facility investments that impact the visitors and and creates a place for them to come, but then the residents can use it as well. Um, so we love that it's a dual
purpose. Um, it creates repeat and extended visits. Again, people may have come in on Thursday and now they found out about the town of Lake Placid. They may want to extend their visit. They may want to go out on Lake June Pontoon and do different things while they're here. So again, it helps with our tourism and and creating that um economic impact
within the city. And then I mentioned the community pride and collaboration. Um a lot of um people contacted me. I know the miracle league had something going on. There was great collaboration in the town of Lake Placid. Everyone worked together, worked on parking. It was just a really really awesome event.
So the TDC has been doing uh what we call sports tourism or facility studies for a number of years. Um, I wanted to highlight one in 2023 we did a recreation study. We wanted to know from event organizers what kind of tourist recreation assets they needed, but we
also wanted to hear from locals because a lot of times, as I mentioned, there's synergy there and those those items overlap. So, these were just a couple things. We saw an overwhelming response for more things for families to do, more things for kids to do, better facilities, um, a safer, cleaner, uh,
facilities, um, much needed for kids. We need a better community for our kids, more engagement, all the things. These are just a sample of some of the comments that we found specifically related to kids. So when we started thinking about that, I mean, we do these studies and we don't just let them sit on a shelf. We actually like, okay,
here's the feedback we got. What do we do with this information? So one of the things that TDC did at the beginning of last fiscal year is they developed a facility improvement planning grant. What we heard from a lot of different municipalities is like, well, we have a great Lake June ballfield or we have a
great max long. We don't really know what to do with it. We know we're getting more population. We know something needs to be done, but what's the right way to grow that? So, the TDC developed this grant program where municipalities could apply and they would have a little bit of skin in the
game, help fund the planning process, but then the TDC would pay for the bulk of it as well. I think it was 75% 25%. So, we did that. you guys stepped up. You submitted a grant for the town of Lake Placid. The city of Sebring also submitted a grant. So, we knew we had
interest from those two municipalities. Uh we did not hear from the city of Avon Park. So, that gave TDC a little bit of pause and they said, you know, we don't want to leave Avon Park out and we also don't want to miss an asset like the fairgrounds that really doesn't fall within the purview of a municipality.
It's it's owned by a nonprofit. So in January after we got the two applications, the TDC said TDC said, "You know what? We'll just fund the whole study for the whole county." It was a $65,000 study, but really what we wanted to do is how do we develop strategic plans with data as supporting
information for a lot of these facilities and how they need to grow, how they can grow for tourism and then how they can grow for the community as well. Um, so the full detailed presentation was presented to TDC on May 1st and then the written document which can be found on our website was provided
on June 10th. So a lot of people are like, well, why were you guys involved? You know, you're not part of you're not in the community every day. But there's a couple reasons we were involved. So first, um, our tourist development tax must be used for tourism. So that's what we wanted to see from a lot of the facilities is we
wanted them to already have some level of tourism engagement. And so we know like for example with Lake June Ballfields, they had hosted some Dixie youth tournaments in the past. The fairgrounds had had cornhole events. Um same thing with Max Long, they had had some level of of Dixie youth tournaments
as well. Um so we're like some of those things that already have a little bit of tourism with a little bit of investment or some additional infrastructure. How can we move those into real big tourism driving assets? Um so you can see here this is from our state statute. um if we
infuse TDT dollars into a facility, it has to demonstrate that it's driving tourism. So that's why we needed the data. The TDC has what we call a third penny. It's a fund we call it's a 5309 account and it's specifically for asset
development and enhancement. So here's again, we knew some we knew we had some money. We want to have research and data on what's the best way to fund that. The two county projects we're looking at is the Highlands County Sports Complex, which is located next to Sebring High School, and we've been talking for
several years about an indoor facility somewhere in Highlands County. So, we had those two county projects, but the question was, what else within Highlands County could this third penny be used for? So, the study evaluated opportunities for other sports tourism facilities to be enhanced and help drive
more tourism to Highlands County. So, a lot of this obviously we had the two county facilities, but with some of these other projects specifically for you guys late June, um that's really going to be up to you all and how you want to move forward or if you even want to move forward.
So, the study consultants, we call them the the trifecta. Um there were three groups um that worked on this and I'll go through them all. Um so, Huddleup Group is is the the one we started with. We started with them back in 2020. They do a really great sports tourism index.
When they first came to Highlands County, we asked them to do an audit. Um, what are some of our opportunities? What are our threats? What are our weaknesses? Obviously, there's weaknesses like we don't have a regional airport. I don't know if we ever will have a regional airport, but we had a lot of strengths. We're centrally
located. Um, we have a really good hub of people already working within sports tourism and sports uh working to recruit events. Um so we did actually do the audit twice and we found within a couple years we were able to increase our score with that. So what huddleup group they
brings bring a lot of knowledge as far as economic impact and what you need to be need to be successful within the sports tourism world. Synergy Sports Jason's here um he is our data guy. Uh Jason is our numbers guy. Um and also brings to the table a lot of
ideas with creative financing because the big question is right like we love these projects. we think they'd be great, but that's a big price tag associated with them. So Jason not only helps bring you the numbers and the data, but then if you do decide to move forward with one of these projects, he can provide consulting throughout the
entire process. And then Allan, a lot of people know Allan with Airststream Ventures. He and his team um serve as the Highlands County Sports Commission. So that means they are out in in the trenches trying to find us as many possible sporting events as po as as are out there. So he
he talks a lot the past couple years we've done like the lowhanging fruit, right? We plugged in pro watercross or moto surf or the Spartan race, like things that we already had facilities or some sort of capability of hosting. Um and I'll let him talk a little bit because now it's, you know, we probably
need to move to the next level, but I'll let Alan talk about that. Um not yet. He's so eager. Um, so just an overview of the findings and now I'll turn it over to the guys for more information. But, uh, what the the study did find is that there is an opportunity
for Highlands County to improve our position with sports tourism in the region. I will tell you because sports tourism is so coveted. Um, it's very, very competitive in Florida. A lot of people want a piece of it. A lot of them have sports commissions. P County has a sports commission. Palm Beach County
does it really well. Treasure Coast does it really well. Um so we are stepping into a game that is being played very well by a lot of very big destinations. Um however this can be achieved by executing a very focused sports tourism strategy. Um and a lot of that strategy first starts with the facility
development and then a lot of community leaders during this whole time we've been doing these studies um have expressed a very clear interest in expanding sports tourism um strengthening our stakeholder groups. How do we create more opportunities and and introduce more sports to the youth in Highlands County? Um, so there's a
lot of interest with this. Just a real quick overview on the study proc process and the guys can probably do it better, but I'll just keep going. So, um, first it was to recommend key facilities that could be better utilized as sports tourism venues. Second was to determine the level of renovations
necessary uh to have a better and more productive tourism asset. Third, of course, what's the cost? How much is this going to cost? What does the development look like? What are the things that we need to develop? And then fourth, assess the level of direct spending, economic impact, uh additional
hotel room nights, TDT, sales tax, like all the things that we would want to know moving forward with something like this. And then last is to advise TDC and obviously other municipalities involved um on how to fund these projects if they choose to move forward.
So, we started um I think the guys came down in March of this year and we listed 37 venues um that we think had any kind of sports interaction. Um everything from Highlands Hammock State Park to, you know, your single football stadiums,
um tennis, shooting range, pickle ball, like you name it, they looked at it. Um they narrowed it down um in sites they actually like put eyes on and took the time to visit. So they looked at 12 that they visited during their site tour. You can see them listed. And then we drill down even further for five that were
selected for the deep dive and the financial analysis. Um I did want to mention so HL Bishop was one of the ones that they did look at. Obviously it's here in Lake Placid. Um there's some there's recommendations that go with it. I know we're kind of moving down the path of Lake June
Lagoon. So, we really see that as probably a leisure tourism asset and maybe not one that you want to focus on right now. Like if the the highest and best use of doing facility development in Lake Placid is the Lake June ball fields. Um, but we did want to mention this. Obviously, we have data for this
as well if anyone's interested in that. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over. >> Hey everyone, my name is Alan Berlander with Airstream Ventures. Um we've been working down here for about 5 years. I've been in the sports uh world for about 30 years. Um so have a lot of deep
relationships in in this um line of work. Um I live in Jacksonville, Florida. And I will tell you just a a a quick uh cool story that I I was pumped up because I knew we were coming down here and I was I've been waiting to share this to y'all. So um you hosted a
lacrosse event that we were able to work to bring here uh a few weeks ago. Well, some of those participants live in uh Atlantic Beach, Florida, which is Jacksonville, but one of the beaches or whatever. And so, we were out the other night having dinner and walking by and I
hear Lake Placid. And I'm like, hm, not something you hear all the time in Jacksonville. So, I went up and I said, uh, Lake Placid said, are we talking about Florida or New York? And they said, Florida. We were just down there for, um, a lacrosse event. had no idea
where it was and never heard of it and had the best little town. They had the cutest little shops and cutest little boutiques, that kind of thing. And I I said, "Oh, so y'all know Lake Pla?" And they like, "Yeah, we loved it down there. I think we're going back hopefully soon." So, just a little story for y'all. Um I thought that was really
really cool. I didn't let them on that I was involved with it, but I just thought uh it was a pretty neat little story. So anyway, I I think over the the last four or five years here um in Highlands County, we have been um punching well above our weight when it comes to sports
tourism. Um we don't have the facilities that the Panama cities, the Orlando, the Atlantas, um you know, even the Savas, those types of cities have. We we just don't have them. But what we do have is we have people that care about their community and we have relationships in the sports
world. and that'll get you a a lot of places. And so we've really utilized a lot of our relationships over the years to say just trust us. Come down. While the fields, you may not have 25 fields, you're only going to have four fields or or six, you're going to have the best experience. And that's exactly what
happens is people come down here. Um the lacrosse could not the the um owners of the event could not quit telling me how much uh people came out and just thanked them for being there. Um they said we don't get that anywhere in the country.
We we do events all over and link plus the only that made a beline and said thank you for coming. Please bring more. And so um you know I I think all of those things matter because word of mouth in the sports tourism world is very important. And so when um so we've
been doing events I you know we my my team knows most all the facilities around here and I've always thought with Lake June and the sports fields um the thing that we get from a lot of event planners we work with about 90 event planners all over the country um is we
really like Highlands County your facil now depending upon the sport but in in the worlds of soccer lacrosse baseball softball your fields are are good but they're not to the next step where we can bring big travel tournaments. Um, you just got to get them a little nicer,
a little little more refined. And so we've been dealing with that over the last few years, but I've always thought when we when we looked at this Lake June and the fields, the footprint and the bones are there to create a a really unbelievable complex. Um, and so when
Jason and I and and John Schmeer of Hudderup Group got together and started studying all this, that was one of our first things is um, you know, Lake June in the park there is, um, has got a lot of real, um, unbelievable capabilities.
Um, and so, um, we looked at it from the standpoint of the four fields that were there, they were used for lacrosse. Um, you know, we we're very familiar. We have uh a a um paddle board competition coming next month, the last paddler standing. So, we've done some events out
here, but that area could really be a great area to bring more and more events. Um the way that sports tourism is working now is people don't mind being at different complexes. Um, but you could do 8, 9,
and 10 year olds in Lake Placid, 11, 12, and 13 year olds at the sports complex in Highlands County. So, you can divide up big events to do that, but only if you have quality facilities that can host all of those different types of things. So, we looked at that. We called um just so you know, we our event
planners that we worked with and said, "If we were to do this, would you bring events?" And they all said, "If it's the quality that that we need, absolutely. we because we want to go to Florida and we don't want to go to Orlando. We're tired of going to Tampa. We're tired of dealing with traffic. Um we'd love to
come down to Central Florida but not have to go to those places, but it's got to be the quality that we're used to. And so we did a deep dive of of that. Um and you can see uh you know upgrading and I guess if if I go to the next thing. So you're very familiar with this
this area. This is one of the things Jason um and he'll get into the numbers here in a second, but um we we got with artist render with artist to to draw this out, but if you look at it, you can create a bunch of different fields. Um
it's a re kind of a model of um of the sports complex, but it would be amazing. You could have um you you look at the ball fields there. Not only from a tourism standpoint, we could host a lot of tourists uh tourism events out here,
but Monday through Thursday and the weekends that that tourism is not happening. You have now a great community asset that can be used. And so, um we really we really did a deep dive. Of course, number four, you have the Miracle Field, which is a a really
great facility as well. um obviously keeping that but then taking your current footprint making um restrooms storage those kinds of things that you need for events um uh there as well in addition to uh the field. So
we have vetted this through just so you know our different event planners they love it. Um, and so then obviously this is one of the recommendations we made back to the TDC. Um, is this is one of the five uh, facilities that we would recommend you truly um, taking the next
step on. I'm going to turn it over to Jason. Jason Budri is is uh, with Synergy Sports and can kind of walk you through um, the numbers and and some of this stuff that uh, he and his company do. >> Thanks, Alan. Good to be with you all
today. Um, I'm going to go back just for a second. >> Ah, just to make a couple comments um on this facility design. But first, I'm Jason Budri. I own Synergy Sports. I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina. Uh, so not
too far away from y'all. And uh, like Allan said, we've been working on this and and different projects here in Highlands County for for quite a few years. Um, the nice thing about this design is that it really, like again, like Allen said, preserves the bones of
the sports complex, but makes it uh, you know, two or three or 10 times better. Uh, and so our our role in this whole project is from the data analytics side, financial modeling, financing, funding,
how do you go from a pretty picture on a slide to really doing something impactful for the community? if you all as as uh you know elected officials choose to do that. Um the nice thing is we don't really have a dog in this
fight. We're agnostic. We're trusted adviserss for TDC, for the county, hopefully for you all. And so, you know, our recommendations come with um a grain of salt and we want to do what's right for the community. Um we're not here
selling anything or or or anything like that. We're here to to really promote local use Monday through Thursday and then that sports tourism use. And so as we started putting numbers to this, right, you know, we first wanted to find out, okay, we've reached out to these
event organizers. Um, they've committed to bringing some events. You know, if you look at this like a business, how can it operate? How does it operate? because the last thing you all want to do as a town is to sink, you know, a couple million dollars into a
sports complex and it's still only for local use or you end up losing money doing it. So, you know, we put together a financial model for operations, but more importantly, we put together kind of what the economic impact is um from a
uh tax revenue standpoint, from a visitor standpoint, and from a direct impending impact standpoint. So, you know what these facilities do? They'll certainly generate revenue, but they generate visitors and they generate visitors on
the weekend. And they're going to spend money in local coffee shops and retail stores. And beyond just their direct spending, it's going to be the catalyst for additional development, right? Additional retailers, additional
restaurants, additional businesses, and it's going to support your current small businesses. And so that visitor carries a lot of value. And so, you know, as we went through this exercise and we came to the conclusion that we're estimating
around 20,000 new visitors that are coming from outside the local market. That's very impactful for small towns, right? It increases your tax base. It increases your spending. It makes some of those retailers want to locate here
that otherwise may not want to locate here. Um, estimating around 14,000 hotel room nights. Now, are those folks going to be in Lake Placid? No. Are they going to be throughout the region? Yes. But if, like Casey's, you know, told a story
of of going to um a travel ball tournament, if the majority of the day is going to be spent at the at the ball field, well, then they're going to go the closest place they can to grab lunch. They're going to go grab a coffee on the way in in the morning. They're going to eat dinner before they go back
to their hotel. Uh, and so all of those things combined is really why we settled on u on this project as one that that we wanted to present to y'all um and make some recommendations on how to move it forward, right? Because we can look at this graph and we can look at this chart
and say, "Wow, you know, it'd be great to generate this sort of visitors and hotel room nights and spending, but you know, if this is going to cost us a couple million dollars, how are we going to pay for it and how are we going to build it? who's going to operate it and and all of those things. Um, and so we
want to be able to talk with you about that, but I think there's a whole community side to this that um, you know, Casey's done a really good job of of putting her finger on. And so I don't know, Casey, do you want to go through this a little bit and then we'll get more into the >> Yeah, for sure.
>> Um, so as we mentioned like tourism is important and the economic impact of tourists, but we also I mean we live here. Reagan and I are born and raised here. Uh we care about the community as well. So a lot of things um if you've been into has anybody been into the Lake June like facility lately besides the I
know Colleen you've been to the miracle field. Um anyway it just it needs a it needs a little facelift. It needs a little love, right? Um so with that becomes a little bit more modern, a little bit more versatile. Um the multi-use fields which they showed earlier are great because they can be two diamonds or they can be one big flat
field. So, it gives you a lot of uh flexibility with the use. Um, expanded sports options. Like, I love that we're bringing lacrosse here and I don't know anybody in Highlands County who plays lacrosse. So, imagine if we start having more lacrosse and maybe local kids want to start playing lacrosse. I mean, the
the possibilities are endless. Um, and then adult league opportunities too, like can we expand into soft adult softball leagues and different things like that? Um, improve restrooms, improve concessions, and then better parking access. um you know, better flow
into the facility and parking. Um so it just makes a nicer overall visitor experience. >> Sorry, we literally raced from Sebring to get here, so we're we didn't practice this one. Um so yeah, so we mentioned the TDC. Um we relocated a camp um I
think it was from like north of Tampa Allen. Um they obviously called because Allan has relationships in Zbring with the sports complex. The sports complex was already rented to YMCA because they've outgrown Max Long. Um so Allan's quick thinking was able to plug them into to Lake Placid. So we were super
excited about that. Um they want to do more events here. They were actually at TDC last week asking for a grant to do a three-year uh multi-year event um here in November. Um but there's upgrades are going to be needed, right? We're going to have to tweak some things. Um, so
today was really our opportunity to come to you and share with with what what the experts think could be done. So, as Casey mentioned, we looked at a bunch of facilities when throughout the process of this uh and then we picked a
handful of them to to consider and and to do a deeper dive on, put together the architectural renderings, put together the financial model, and put together some cost and and expectations to be able to to bring to you guys. So, you know, for the Lake June Sports Complex,
right, that renovation to get the current facility to be what it looked like on that piece on that picture is going to be 345 million, right? It's it's more than just, you know, planting some grass seed and and fixing some fences. Um but the the you know when you
balance that with the a the economic impact that that's going to be generated from it um what the TDC revenue is going to be from that that can be reinvested into events to come here. Um taking into account the visitors and the spending,
right? We believe that it it's well worth the the town's investment in in in renovating that that facility. And so, you know, with with Lake June, with some of these others that we looked at, um, we have this saying that that towns and
cities do a lot of great things, but one of them is not running these facilities. Um, typically we'll recommend a private operator um, operate the facility from an event management standpoint. Local kids, local organizations, YMCA's, uh,
Boys and Girls Clubs, right? They're a big piece of this for community use. And so there's a balance between that revenue generating use and the sports tourism and the community, right? And so we don't want to exclude the community. We want local kids to have a better place to play. Uh and so we put in there
in that green row um you know the the typical management cost for managing a facility. But as we put together the financial model, what we were able to to to show was that through running these tournaments and and the concessions and
other revenue that's associated with it, the operating revenue from the sports complex can pay for the operating expense and can pay for the the debt cost, right, on that three to5 million.
And we'll get into that in a second on on how do you pay for this? Um and so again, one of the main reasons we wanted to come to you all was, you know, we have a pathway or we've identified a way whereby the town can invest in this
stuff for little to no out-ofpocket cost and can support the facility can support itself long term um through running these events and give kids a better place to play, which is ideal, right? I mean, that's the best of all the worlds
if local kids can uh have better ball fields and and flat fields and it can generate enough revenue so that the town doesn't have to subsidize the operations of of the facility. And so that gets us into, okay, kind of how do you pay for this? And so that's
one of our strong suits of of what our role is on this. And so historically, cities and towns and counties have issued bonds when they wanted to do capital projects, right? I mean, that's just what you do. Um, historically also,
bonds have not worked well with very specific sports centric kinds of projects, right? It's one thing to issue a bond for a school or a park, but when you say, "Hey, we want to raise everybody's taxes so we can build more baseball fields." it doesn't quite go
over as well. And so that doesn't generally um sit well with elected officials. It doesn't sit well with the community and it's not a strategy that we typically recommend. Uh capital improvement plans or capital improvement budgets. Um usually it's the same thing,
right? They don't those funds never really materialize. You can put it into a plan, but other things always come in front of that. Developer funded projects is essentially when the town goes to a developer and says, "Hey, developer, uh,
we'll give you this land out at at Lake June if you build the sports complex, if you build the fields and you operate it and you own it and you pay for it, which is great in theory, but it it generally comes at a high cost and it generally
excludes local kids, right? So, if I'm a private developer and I just put $5 million of of my own money into developing these ball fields, I'm not going to let Colleen and her friends come out and use those fields for free when I can rent it for $50 or
$100, right? And even if I can't rent it, I still don't know if I want her out there because she's wearing out my field. And so it it inherently excludes the public when these private developers um come in and and want to privatize a
community asset. And so it leaves us with what we typically will recommend for these higher capital cost projects is a a public private partnership or a P3. And it takes the form of of a municipal lease in the in the way that
that we've seen it work well. And so we don't have a dog in the fight. Like I said earlier, we're an adviser. We're an advocate for the town in this case. But the way that this municipal lease concept works is the private side can still come with the capital, right?
There's there are groups out there that'll say, "Hey, we'll come and we'll privately finance this $5 million renovation, but we're just going to turn it into a lease cost back to the town." Right? And so they're essentially being
a private bank. um they're using your credit, your bond capacity as a guarantee, but they're saying, "Hey, you know, there's going to be a $100,000 a year lease cost." Okay, great. And so if we can figure out
the model where the sports complex can generate enough revenue to cover that lease cost and to cover turning the lights on and turning the water on, then you essentially will get this Lake June renovation and other people essentially pay for it,
right? And so the town doesn't have to come out of their general fund or their general budget for that lease cost. It's being operated privately. um you're getting the tourism impact, you're getting the visitor spending, you're getting all of the benefits for
the local community, and you didn't have to go out and raise taxes, you didn't have to go out and issue bonds. And so, it it's becoming a more and more viable way for smaller towns and and smaller communities to pay for these kinds of projects. And so, you know, there's a bunch of
other slides here that that you guys can read through. I'm not going to um you know read through every single number on here, but uh there is a process that would we would we can go through. We can make some introductions. We can help be the adviser to help structure this. Um
the facility would be developed or renovated privately so it doesn't have to go through municipality procurement and a lot of the hoops and red tape that that come with municipalities doing projects. So, these projects can be
built more efficiently, um, more cost effectively, and faster, right? One of the things that that we explained to, um, county commission this morning is you don't have to have the most fields to be great. You have to have great
fields to be great. And so, if you only have four diamonds out there or four flat fields, if mom and dad want to come back, you have a great facility. And so, you know, you don't have to have 20 ball diamonds. You don't have to have 20
soccer fields, but at the same time, it's one of these where there are other communities within this region that are thinking about doing the same thing. And so, at some point, there
will be a point of saturation where we would come back and recommend not doing this because you're not going to be able to be cash flow positive. you're not going to be able to make your money back. Um, and so there is a little bit of of um urgency to this. Uh, and that's
not to scare you or to to make you do things you don't want to do, but um there are other smaller communities out there that are are looking to do the same sort of thing. Um, and so as you guys read through, I think this is in your your printed packet, the only thing that the town would be required to come
out of pocket for in the short term is what are called preconstruction expenses. And so that's about five or 10% of the total project, right? So on a $5 million project, that's about $50,000. Um,
that cost is reimburseable through this public private partnership. this way of doing it. 500,000. Sorry, wrong. Not enough zero. >> Dropped a zero. Where do we sign for 50? >> Yeah. >> And so that cost is reimburseable to the town. Um once the public private
partnership is is executed and the funding is secured, the town can reimburse themselves for that money. So it ends up being a float of about six months. Um, and there are there are a lot of I don't know there's there's a lot of different ways that that can be
structured. Uh, because some small communities, they don't have $500,000 either. Um, and so we've worked with a lot of those kinds of groups. And so then the private side handles the the development. They take on all of the risk. Um, they develop it based on
what's been mutually agreed upon. And the only way that we really recommend that as a as an option for a community is if there's a light at the end of the tunnel where it's financially viable, right? We wouldn't recommend that if you guys were going to lose half a million
dollars every year, right? We could certainly explain the importance of the economic impact and the visitors and that sort of thing, but it it makes it a lot harder to justify building a facility if you're always going to lose money.
um process real quick. We're kind of in that top middle box. Uh we're presenting the the options that you guys have as a community. Um if the the town wants to move forward with this, then uh we have a pathway to do that that we can start
begin with some um phase 2 consulting. It will take about probably on the shorter end 12 months um to complete construction on on something like this. There's no vertical buildings per se, so there's not a lot of intensive construction that's going to go on. And
like Allan mentioned earlier, the bones of this is is already there. And so roughly 18 months from now, if if you guys said go today is is when it would be operational. Um, real quick, roles and responsibilities, town council is is um
always in charge. TDC is a partner. Us consultants are partners on that. um we have relationships and we know of developers and contractors and suppliers and vendors and so we can help the town move through that process.
And then I put in in there a handful of FAQs that have come up over the past five or six years of of this concept being around that you guys can can read through as you'd like. Um the big thing is non-appropriations.
Uh and so that risk is factored in. Um that concept is factored into these these leases where um it's understood that um that annually funds have to be appropriated for for the sports complex
or for this lease payment. So we can answer any questions that you guys have. We've got a handful of other projects that are currently following this same model. One of them in Charlotte where I live. Um another one here in Florida down in Flaggler County. a big project
in Texas that we're part of just broke ground. Um, and so they're going to they've got bulldozers being delivered this week. Uh, and so that's a probably a two-year project, but it's a really really big project. And so if we look at this, right, kind
of uh taking that that municipal lease concept into practical terms, um the annual lease is about $360,000 based on that budget. Um the management agreement is about 10% of gross revenue.
And so we've estimated that to be about $125,000. And so again, those are generally covered by operations. And so any shortfall the town would be responsible for. And on the flip side, any profit that comes out of the facility then goes
back to the town. So if it's short by $10,000 one year, then the town is responsible for that under this concept. But at the same time, if it makes $10,000 in profit the next year, that money all goes back to the town. um we have recommendations on keeping that in
it in different silos so that it can be reinvested or used down the line if there's a shortfall again. Uh and so that's a way to protect the town financially from u being overexposed to risk uh from a financial side. So we we
can answer any questions you guys have. I know that was kind of a a fire hose of information um especially on the financial side. Okay. May I or >> go ahead. Um, okay. I have a lot of
things I was scribbling down. >> Sure. >> First of all, you initially said that you want this uh the goal is for in town kids to have a places and so forth. The layout that I see takes away the
existing playgrounds and all the things for the kids in town. Uh I can go back to it. So part of that is um a lot of them on on the site plan, a lot
of the smaller things, you know, aren't captured, but I can't think of one project that we're collectively working on that doesn't have play spaces for kids. um you know whether it's outdoor
fitness or ninja warrior courses or you know age appropriate playgrounds um those would all be included in some form or fashion. It may not be shown very well on the on the um slide. >> I can't do it either.
>> It was way way at the beginning. >> Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Good idea. Here you go. >> There it is. >> Yeah. So, this just shows kind of the the the big components of it. Um I don't know if you all can see the cursor where
it is, but there's a lot of, you know, empty spaces around the perimeter. Um right, even between the fields where we could easily look to put playgrounds. We've had some communities do splash part or splash
pads or spray parks or uh you know that's kind of getting into a lot of the the minutia and the detail. You know, if we want to get specific about it, this also doesn't show lights, but there would be lights on the fields. Um this doesn't show uh bullpens for, you know,
warming up, but there would be bullpens there. >> And so you can get lost in a lot of the details. >> Okay, but so let's bear that in mind. Um, but it also takes away we've had now the the Southern Outlaw boat races bringing in revenue. I don't see where
we could accommodate them with this layout. So, um, we could we could definitely uh accommodate there. There'd be different ways to do that. Operationally, the town would have to get involved. you we may have to block streets or stuff like that, but there'd be other ways to do
that to accommodate them. From a parking perspective, if we put the parking lot there, you could bring a lot of the trailers and stuff like that. It' just be a redevelopment operationally. >> Okay. Well, the boat launching and logistics of that, I don't think that fits here. And for the weekend people
who launch their boats like that areas the the ball fields on the uh right hand side people use that for parking and their trailers their boat trailers on the weekends. You wouldn't they would have no room for that anymore.
>> So they launch the boats on the top right. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> And then >> Yeah. And again, this is just, >> you know, >> it's conceptual. That's right. But if >> let's let's put the um the finances and
whatever. >> I think if you if you flip the parking lot to where one is and vice versa, then then it becomes an easy fix. >> Okay. Right. >> Um then the other thing that um Max Long would this two things go through my head competition with Max Long and you also
mentioned that there are a lot of things going on and that the market is being saturated. So I'm not too sure if a ball field scenario is the best thing for for revenue generation if there's some other sport where it's not
saturated and there's less competition. >> Yeah. I think what Jason was talking about that is there's a lot of towns in Florida, South Georgia that are beginning that are in these phases right now. Some will proceed and build those
and some will not, right? And so I think what he was saying is in the next four to five years if we're starting this five years from now then we may be too late to the to the problem um in doing that where if we get ahead of it and we
start you're able to do that we're going to start booking people and they'll come back year after year after year while these others are getting build they're not going to leave here to go there. So that that I think that was part of the point >> I you know I'm all for trying to figure
out how to get tourist revenue but I just this one just doesn't work for me. >> Oh and then what about our pickle ball courts that are supposed to be going in? But what happens with that >> Joy? What doesn't work for you?
the layout for one thing, but and then above the next layer above that is the ball fields that sport in general versus another sport that would bring in revenue.
>> I agree. Um I I I see the plan here and I know it's a conceptual drawing, but um where are the pickle ball courts? We've tried to build pickle ball courts now for two or three years and they're pretty getting pretty close and they are in the lower right hand number one.
Okay. So, let's just take at least uh probably all of that out because you can't build like half of it. Okay. So, um I I think it's important to our community to have pickle ball courts because we are a senior community and
our seniors are not going to play baseball. Yes, we want to do something for the children. I don't I'm certainly not saying not do anything for the children, but if we take that bottom right section number one out, then we're not going to have enough for tournaments according to what Casey has led us to
believe in the past. >> So, how many pickle ball courts are you talking about building? >> What are we building, Carolyn? Eight. >> Eight. >> Eight. >> So, that then purely becomes just for the community. You can't win sports. >> Again, Casey tells us that that's enough for tournaments. And the other thing
that bothers me is that this is valuable lakefront property and it's you're using it for a baseball diamond or multi-use field. It just doesn't. Now, if you could if we could buy some land on the some of the uh old grove land and work
out some financing to do a complex that way, but not take valuable lakefront land. >> I guess my question to you is I've been working down here five years and there's nothing ever been over there. very few events, right? So, it's been valuable
land for a long time and it took new pictures being done to realize it's valuable land. And so, that that would be my question is I agree. It's amazing land. That's the whole point of of this. And so, um you don't have many sports
complex that have the pictures views, that have lakes and all that kind of stuff. And so, um, it's just been sitting there for as long as I've been working down here. And so, this was an opportunity that we saw to really take that lane and do something with it.
>> Um, I think the the other challenge that things that makes me a little um not happy here is that the um Miracle League is in their their their place is like way over the corner. It's really tiny. It's like, well, let's just shove this
over here. I don't think Miracle League should be treated that way. I think Miracle League should have, if we're going to redo this thing, Miracle League should have a better presence and a bigger presence in that area and more room to move around. Um, more room to move people in and out of that facility.
So, um, >> yeah, we just we just kept it where it was. So, I mean, that's currently where >> Yeah, but the size and and we're looking at redoing the whole thing. Um, I just I just am not comfortable with it at all. And um where's lacrosse going to go? Is
lacrosse going to go on these same on these same fields? >> Yes. >> Yes. Okay. What do you do with the what I mean I don't I don't know a lot about lacrosse but I know some. What do you do with the infields that are sand when you have lacrosse? >> Yeah. So the entire the entire square
each of those squares is turf. And so when you're playing baseball you put up the baseball fences. And when you're playing lacrosse you take the baseball fences down. And then you have the soccer field, which is a lacrosse field. Um, in between the two baseball fields. >> So, what happens to the sand in the
infield? >> It's >> It's all turf. It's all >> turf. >> It's all turf. There's no sand in the infield. Okay. It's just It's just brown on the thing because you like that color. >> Well, it's brown turf. >> Yeah. >> I think that's the beauty of doing this is that you're they're showing this, but
that all goes away. So, basically, you're going to have a lot more green space. You're gonna have right now we have those ball fields. We don't do anything with them the rest of the year. They're like you can't even walk your dog in there. Okay. So that's like all
of that space, all of that land is for a very po small portion of our population for the almost the whole year. This would open it up. We could still have the we could have multi- events going on there as far as you could have um we
could all use it instead of not being able to walk your dog there or go over there and pitch a pitch a ball to your kids. I think we can fit the pickle ball fields in here. This is conceptual. So if you can imagine take away all the drawings and say these are just a blank
slate. So on these fields, you can use them for whatever you want to, including walking, just walking around and enjoying being at the park and you can reconfigure this. And I understand about the parking down there and I've been watching it. Um,
>> the most I've seen and I'm sure that's not that's even on the on a holiday weekend was like 11 12 boats. I think we can This is a conceptual plan. And the conception is is to have flat fields that you can do multi-use with that everybody gets to use year round instead
of just a few people get to play ball a small part of the year. That's that's that's what and I'm hoping and um Allan and I had this discussion at the TDC meeting about the miracle league. I'm hoping if we got this management company
that they could start using the miracle. Then they would be they would be management. So they would have that asset and they could start bringing people from the coast and utilizing it. We're basically three full days a year is all it's been used. So what if we got
this management company and they could actually use the Miracle League and not just for our people, but our people could meet other people and it could be used the way it was supposed to. So, I just I like the concept of having big
fields, open space, multi-use, everybody can use them year round except when we're having, you know, baseball season, then that would be set up for baseball. So, that was my thought on it. But having a management company, I like that
idea, too. Improving concession, the whole thing. I mean, we don't have the volunteers that we used to have. That's our problem. And that's across the country. People don't have time to stay down there. They don't have time to bring fertilizer. They don't have time
to to come do all that. That's what the management company is for. And they take over and they utilize it and we all get to use it all the time. I mean, it's sad that we have those baseball fields that nobody can even walk their dog on. I I like the idea I like the idea of the
management part too, but um I realize it's a conceptual drawing, but it it concerns me that the con that the concept failed to uh failed to recognize the fact that we have been trying to put pickle ball courts in there for 3 years. So, it's not like we just came up with
this overnight that I would have felt better and I won't feel comfortable until I see a conceptual drawing that includes the pickle ball courts and that includes an area for playground for the children and then let's see how the
baseball fields can be reconfigured and go around that. >> Yeah. Well, and I think I was just going to say a couple things. One on the miracle field and I can't get the little mouse cursor. Oh, here we go. So on the miracle field, I mean that's the size of a miracle field. So um but with this
layout and again it is conceptual, but there's nothing that says you can't put a second miracle field directly below it so that you have two um you know that are are are situated so that you can have more events going on there. To the left of number one, right, there's more
than adequate space to put pickle ball courts. There's more than adequate space to put playgrounds and things like that. Again, the goal of this isn't to try to sell the town on anything, right? We were tasked with how can each of these municipalities
enhance their tourism. And that's what we're presenting. Things like this, things like what you're seeing on the screen is what we call a test fit, right? We want to test fit what can fit, right? And if we need to move things around, if we need to change the jigsaw
puzzle, that's fine. like like at this stage we're we're not even 30,000 feet. We're 100,000 feet, right? Is is the town interested in increasing sports tourism? Yes or no? Right? If you want to stay what you've always been and have
community pickleball courts, that's fine. Like the goal wasn't to try to sell the town on this concept. The the goal was to present the opportunities to increase tourism, increase spending, and be able to you util utilize an asset
that you already have without saying, "Hey, let's go build a brand new ball field complex." Right? So, I think a lot of your concerns on playgrounds and components and where they're laid out, those are easy fixes, right? It's um
it's more it's more so from our perspective. Is this something that the town wants to consider keep continue considering or do you like the plan that you have now? Right. Again, we don't have a dog in the fight. Um we're just presenting the data. So before we get
into the details of what should go where, let's take it to the other level of how do you all feel about the finances about I mean about the the uh e economics of the of this venture?
>> Well, I I'm not comfortable with the finances because I don't think that we're going to get that kind of back that kind of buyin from the community, especially with a drawing like this. the pickle ball courts will not go to the left of number one on the bottom where you said because that's already been
passed uh over by the council and is moved to the area of number one and that's not going to be moving back. >> Um so that that baseball field on the left has to stay if it's going to be a baseball field. Um I I don't know about the size of the parking but in in
reference to what Joy has asked, I'm not at all comfortable with the funding and I don't think we can back it either as a town. we're having enough trouble just making it. Um, and and I realize again that this is a conceptual drawing. I'm just I'm I'm very sorry that the puzzle
pieces you were given to put in your conceptual drawing did not include the pickle ball courts. I think they should have. You you were dealt an unfair hand there. Um, why didn't we include pickle ball courts? I think Jason, you had comments
like at the last meeting. >> I'll address this. So when the application from the town league placid came to us, it was to look at the facilities as they currently stood and that was in January of this year. So when they came in March, they just
looked at it currently stands. You can see the date. So this rendering was done in April. Yeah. >> I'm not sure where you even stood with the pickle ball even in April. So again, this was a while ago and they were just looking at what was currently on the ground. >> Yeah. And I think you had mentioned it's
because pickle ball can go anywhere. It doesn't usually need to go in a water pump park. So let me make a couple comments. First, I very much appreciate you guys being here. I did sit through your presentation at Highlands County and I saw them very supportive. In fact,
you've already got some sign us up to do that. this is a great opportunity for this town with economic impact, right? Um and and I said this to some is okay, I grew up with sports, so I totally support
sports. I currently have an 8 and 11 year old grandsons in California and I go out and watch their games and I actually go to their tournaments 2 hours away in another city and it's huge, right? It's
Mantika. It's huge. It's a big field of dreams, but their tournaments are between two cities just like we could do with Sebring. So, of course, we go on a Thursday night. The games don't start till Saturday. It's it's Memorial Day
weekend of three days. And each year we stay in one of the different cities to just get a different feel. this year depends on when the games are. A lot of the dads took their golf clubs, so they went golfing because the game
wasn't until 2:00 in the afternoon while the moms took the kids to the movie theater. There was a fishing pond there, which everybody kept going to Big Bass Pro Sport to buy because they were fishing. So, the economic development on your charts is so real. And I think
we've got a good opportunity between our close cities to do some type of expanded sports tournaments and things like that. The lacrosse thing was wonderful in in what two to three days. The park was
alive. You know, you made the comment, we've got a beautiful um environment there. I like to say we've got an expensive asset that we're putting a lot of money into. each year. This year's budget for Lake
June is 360,000. That's just the maintenance of it. That isn't even including the improvements, the lights that we need to approve and other things. I mean, it's So, when I look at a management fee or something like that, of course, ding ding ding, I'm looking
at, yeah, there's a good opportunity for the amount that we already spend to try to keep it in the condition that it is in. Okay. And and I want to make the comment about volunteers because the youth league this weekend brought in
their own equipment and they were moving the clay to put the sand on the fields. So the youth league does a lot of volunteer work that nobody knows. They're just behind the scenes and they do a good job and um and a lot of them here today and I think that they need to
have, you know, some weigh in on that. But if there's an opportunity, which I believe there is, I actually like the financing. I think there's some big opportunity for us on the way that P3 is structured and some other things. So, I looked at that
and I was like, "Wow, this is really," and this is what a lot of people are doing now. That's how they're making the improvements um with somebody else's money. But that lacrosse tournament brought that park alive. And I mean and
and in a short time we didn't even get to tell them where in town to go eat and to shop and things like that. The swimming was really a bonus for them. Those kids the one day and I was one that both days went and talked to people and thanked them.
A lot of the the kids who parked on the beach side, the ones who parked on the football field did not know there was a beach down there. And the other ones like we're bringing our suit back the next day cuz after they ran around in 90° weather, they were going into that beach. So that was an attraction. So I'm
very supportive of of trying to build on this. Um the sketch I think is where you know maybe some opportunity because as I look at the usage of our park today like June Park and I live close to there so I drive by there all the time and I stop
there a lot and I and I also for the second year in a row volunteer for the Miracle League. So the Miracle League nothing has changed. It's sitting right where it is. There's nothing that's changed there. Um and it's seven weeks a year. So today and and in Casey I'd mentioned
to you this we've we've kind of got three things going on in that park just uh as we work on the ideal sketch in the future we have youth sports right um we also have boating and then we have recreation the swimming the picnicking
you know um one of the placer AI showed 120 108,000 visitors visit that park a year so but it was a live that weekend. And I'd love to see cuz that's what I'm used to seeing activities and things like that.
Um on this sketch, yeah, the boating, I mean the parking I, you know, I'm concerned if we start bringing in that many, we're going to have to look at the parking. I like the way that maybe we can join the Jackson Road and the other. So, I think that there's improvements
that we can do, but I sure wouldn't like to say thank you goodbye. I'd like to say this is a great opportunity to improve the ball fields and and just the overall fields that we have and I and I think in the end it can save us some
money but the economic development is really what's important to this town to these businesses and so everything that you're doing I I' I'd like to work with you closer on tweaking it however we need to do but I think that this you
know I don't want to say no I want to say, "Okay, what can we tweak and how do we do it?" Because it's all about economic development. What this we will never be able to get those baseball fields in the plain condition that our youth leagues deserve without some type
of external help. I I agree with getting the the tourism dollars in and having a management company take care of it. Um little scary about the money that we're putting at risk, but that we can figure out, you know, down the road. Um I
didn't want to get tied up in designing the layout until we talked about whether it was a possibility of going ahead. >> Well, so what I'm what I'm hearing, if I could, you know, maybe make a suggestion, is it's at least worth talking about more to see if there's any
there there, right? If we can work with you all, right, Allan, myself, Casey, Reagan, and say, "Okay, right, what do you not like? What can we change? What can we move over? Can we put the pickle ball in and slide the fields and right and come back with the design that works
for the community and look in more detail at, you know, here's the financials, right? And and say, this is the plan, this is the model, this is our concern, this is the opportunity." We had another project that Allan and I worked on and and we got letters of
intent, letters of interest from groups that said yes, if you build this, we will bring an event there. And so having those in a binder, right, having some commitments is a whole lot better than, you know, the proverbial if you build
it, they will come. Um, and so I think to me that's what I'm hearing as some of these next steps is let's see if there's any there there, right? You're not out anything if there's not, but it at least lets you not miss an opportunity. >> Yeah, I I agree with that and and um I
share Joyy's reticence about the financing. Um I I'm just sorry that you didn't have all the right puzzle pieces in your in your uh in your box. So, I would like to see another conceptual drawing that includes the pickle ball courts. And if you want to see where
they're planned, they are lined out out there. Um, you can actually go out there and see it so you'll know next time. And I think you could work your parking around the pickle ball courts and move that upper right number one to where number three is. Then you would have
your parking um somewhere along in there and you would also have room for um the the playground. And so I'm, you know, I and yeah, we might lose one one of the one of the squares, but I think in deference to our population and in
deference to having something for more people in our community, I think it would be better. Um, but I I'd like to see what you did with with the projects we have in place. The other thing I just want to make note of for Casey, we do have um quite an opportunity in our
town, but I don't know if they've ever come to you about it. We have a lot of fishing tournaments here and in fact we have one this weekend and I'll bet you that Holiday in Express is going to be packed this weekend because there's one on Estapoga if I if I understood correctly. I don't know if they have
fishing tournaments in Lake June as well, but I would imagine they do. Um, but we have a lot of of fishing tournaments here in Lakeogga that that do bring a lot of of motel re revenue at least to our town. I would like to move things away from
the water. I I don't know, ideally if we could buy some of the groves, if we could fit that into the finances and move everything a little bit to the side away from the water. >> So, if I if I can ask a question, is there anything else in this footprint
print that's been planned um >> other than pickle ball? other than pickle ball >> where >> I mean and I know uh playgrounds and >> ideally but is there anything else strategically so your playgrounds that's it >> why do you keep saying my playground
>> because I'm the only one that advocates for children >> so own it it's good it's all good >> so if you look see where the trees are up by the water >> we have like another hund and some feet
that could be cleared out there, right? So, we've never kind of finished the whole beach line there. So, I just throw that out as an option. If you go all the way down to the bottom where you have the little half road coming out and you got some trees. So, underneath number
one, >> right here. >> Yes. >> Underneath there house and everything there. >> There's a pump house. >> I get it. There's a pump house, but there's a beach. The pump house isn't on the water. So there's a whole where those trees are is like about another 130 ft that we own.
Okay. But now at the bottom where the on the left underneath number one >> where there's that road that can be all part between that road and the groves is a lot of room that could be parking. So So you've got a lot of opportunity um
for parking. Um you know the one thing though is we've got a lot of youth sports. So I want to make sure that you know use sports you know back to the currently the residents use it a lot. So I want to
hear from them too um on ideas and things like that. And I mean back to the waterfront I think we got a great opportunity for more water tourism. You know, I think of rather than a triathlon, an a what is it? An agua a a
>> aquafon >> aquathon. Aquathon because I mean if you think you've got Bishop Park on the other side, you could do a kayak or a swim over to Bishop Park, run all the way back, right? And then add a boating or swimming or something to it. So, I
think as you kind of go back and tweak it, I think we've got a good opportunity to take advantage of a waterfront park for tourism that could include both water besides just your one event. Again, your AU
aqua. >> Yeah. >> Or something like that. Just because of you got two uh parks right across the street from the each I mean across the uh the bay from each other. Ju just a thought there. But um
and I mean, you know, I hear about pickle ball, but pickle ball could go over to the left with parking because the big thing on pickle ball was no parking and no bathroom. So, you know, pickle ball is still running through costs and other issues and that. Um, so
I just throw that out. I would not want to walk away with, nope, we made a decision. it has to go there. And now the rest of the design is taking away ball fields that could help with tourism. So I just throw that out as a
comment of, you know, back to what Jason had said to us at one of the other meetings. Pickle ball could go anywhere. There's enough room here. Pickle ball could go off on that left side. >> No. >> And then you still I know it's I know what your feeling is. I'm just saying
what options. Please let me finish. >> What options that should be considered while we still got a >> clean slate that we're drawing from. If it doesn't work out, fine. But it's like it's just options to try to accommodate
the variety of interests that this town has. And I I don't want to get into a pickle ball discussion because we know we that have been in this room the whole time, we know that we have already dismissed pickle ball on the left. And I'm the an advocate for pickle ball and
you're an advocate for recreation. So good. We're all in the same room. We can all make it work. Okay. All good. Um the now the ball fields that they would have fences around them. >> Yes. >> And that bothers me because then there's such little area down by the water for
families that just want to throw a football around or have a picnic because people go out there and they grill. They have lunch out there and it's all fenced in. It it just it bothers me. >> So I think if I I love this
conversation, love that we're having this conversation because I have been in this community longer than Allan and we have not had this conversation. So this is all really good feedback. I did want to share because I love options um a couple things that we're talking about um in in with Highlands County because
the county owns the sports complex there. So, we found a Florida Communities Trust grant that is helping us buy an additional 43 acres of dilapidated grove there. So, we are able to expand that park as well. Kind of bumping into the same things like how do
we make everything fit? We need more fields there. Um, not saying you guys have to go apply for a grant, but there are opportunities like that. Um, the other thing, and Jason, I don't Jason might kill me for this, but with another project we're talking about is what other community assets can we can we
build into this because all of it is encompassed into your cost. Um, things like a walking trail like around the perimeter of the park, things like a dog park. Um, when I was at the Umatillaa, they had they had some basketball courts, they had a dog park, they had a walking trail, they had an exercise trail, they had all these things. And
Jason, correct me if I'm wrong, if it's a community asset, if it's owned by the community, it can be included in this project. So just because you only see pickle ball or I'm not, sorry, just because you only see fields and there's other things like this is conceptual and it can be whatever you and the community
want it to be. It's not even just confined to this and pickle ball and a playground. Like it can be more than that. So I just wanted to make sure you guys had all the options and all the pieces. And >> that'd be wonderful if we had the exercise circuits and um dog park that we had talked about. I knew if we can
afford it. >> Yeah. And again, I think that's part of the what's next, right? I mean, it's let's relook at this. Let's take this as a as a starting point, right? Not the finishing point. Let's move this. Let's slide this over. Let's look at buying
some additional acreage. Let's move back from the beach. Let's clear the beach. Let's add this. Let's add that. Right? And that's just my opinion, but >> well, and I've always said it's easier to edit than create, right? So, we created it. Now, let's start editing and
getting it to to where you you want to do, right? So, um this was just lit truly a concept um to spark conversation. We had a great weekend that that built that park alive and hopefully you know in a few weeks maybe
it does the same thing and it creates energy there and I think it created a lot of ingenuity in people's minds to what can it be and so um you know that was and this was created even before that happened. So, I think there's a lot
of uh momentum to to get to that point. >> And I I just wanted to say that our miracle league um I think they did need something to do with the bathrooms. Um maybe for um people that are disabled or something that we could get a list from
them. Um it's not a big list. It's just that they when they have people, they need certain need they have certain needs and we could get that list for you. And I think that we should talk to Rachel about our financing and we could talk to other communities that are doing this. And I I feel good about it. I
really do. I mean, at first I didn't understand it, but when you think about it, it just opens up the whole were was that price going to include turf or just regular >> turf. Turf. Okay. So, um, so that takes
away the ants. Yay. Because we have so many ants out there. And then, you know, I mean, you don't have the fertilizer, you don't have the mowing, you don't have, you know, just it's just a crazy idea as far as when you think about it. And yes, it it's expensive. And Allan
said in Florida with the heat and the with the sun, it it lasts about 10 years, but when you add up all the cost, when you have grass and you have all those other issues, then I think we're that's that's just beautiful planning. I like it. >> I agree. And I looked at, like I say,
the P3, I looked at the cost. I looked at our current budget that we're spending on that park and, you know, the mowing and everything like that. Um, so in as far as the Miracle League, it's just a restroom. I mean, they for their
seven weeks a year and and we're maybe talking about a second season, but a portaotti comes in and and I mean, the other day I went and helped the lady. It's not easy, you know, when somebody's in a wheelchair to try to help them with a porta potty. So, for the miracle
league, you know, just as you're sketching it out, some and then of course paving for them, parking because they just park on the grass. >> It was on their wish list to have um like a special ADA for bathroom with a changing adult-siz
changing tables. That's on their wish list. Um, vice mayor, do we want to open up for public input, too? I know we've got a workshop. I know we've got a lot of people I think that might be interested in. >> Okay. And we can bring it after we hear
public comment. We can come back to the to DAS and and hear comments. >> So, from anybody would like to talk from the public. >> I mean, >> oh, I did. >> Because it's a workshop, you don't have to fill out a form. So, but whoever wants to come up,
>> so because it's not it's not a regular meeting, it's a workshop, you can just come up if you want to just state your name and address and then for >> Yeah, my name is Chad Heath. I live at 588 Sunset Point Drive. And uh my concern really is if you want to
operate this thing as a business, then you have to look at it on terms of return on investment. And while we have the people here, the experts in this, I'd like to know what the return on investment is for the different sports, and I'd like to know typically how many
people in a community use a particular sport. That analysis has not been done. And we went through the trouble to find out how many people that use that park want pickle ball. And we found out there was a very small number. In fact,
there's 500 people against it. So that's that's not a good business decision. You're going to put something in there, you're gonna spend a million dollars on it, and you're not going to get anything back. Bad. It's not efficient.
>> Thank you. >> Is it Anna? Somebody come on up. So, this is Anna and Butch, but could you go ahead and state your name and your address for the record, please? >> Um, my name is Anna Shut. My husband's
real name is Robert Shut. Uh, we're at 582 Sunset Point Drive, Lake Placid, Florida. And, uh, we volunteer for Youth for Christ. We work at the middle school and I got your email. I asked the kids
what they'd like at the park and we took a poll. There was actually 99 kids today that came through the three lunch periods and we had filled out a form and it kind of really broke my heart. It was just a smiley face. What makes you happy? And I had what do you like to do
in Lake Placid? And I found out a lot of the kids put nothing. And a lot of them plan to leave as soon as they can. So the lady was right about we really got to do something more for the kids in Lake Placid. I mean it it's
sad and um they're really sweet kids. I mean you're they're your future less than five years. So we asked them what they would like to see with the park. A lot of the kids would like to see a youth fishing tournament. That was
huge. I mean, they want to see more ways that they can utilize. They said if the beach was fixed up, you know, and just what you got was fixed. A lot of them thought >> um there was a huge number wanted to see beach volleyball
>> maybe down at the end there. I don't know if you can do tournaments with that, but I know from our old hometown in Marathon, a lot of teams use the beach volleyball and even young adults use beach volleyball and even some old people like us.
You know, that was a fun thing. The other suggestion some of the kids had was um someone wanted to see a track around the field. Uh one kid liked the idea if they could do a soccer camp. There was other kids that said they
enjoyed music and they said, you know, it would be nice that there was a stage, you know, where the kids could do band or we could have concerts and that could be used for events and stuff as well. So that was the kids suggestions. I told
them I'd bring it here. So, >> one thing that kind of came to mind when I was listening to these people >> and the microphone butch. >> Oh, um, what kind of came to mind when I was listening to the presentation, a lot of
those kids that came like for the lacrosse, I suspect they are parents paid for training like some of these traveling baseball teams. Those kids pay like 200 bucks a time when they go and
get specialized pitching help or batting or whatever it might be. And the thing you got to kind of take into consideration and we've kind of seen this firsthand with the youth for Christ at the elementary school over here at
the middle school. These kids, 80% of them are on assistance. They're they're not their parents aren't taking them out for $200 >> training sessions and
it's kind of a we moved here almost three years ago and the the thing that's comes to my mind, this a beautiful little town. The lake's fabulous. There's a lot of really nice features. We need some jobs in this town that
people can can work at besides entry level Wendy's, McDonald's, because those people are getting $12 an hour. They can't even afford to pay for rent. So,
and another thing, we got no public assistance uh for um tra transportation. These guys, they can't get on a bus and go to Sebring and get a job down there. You can't even get an Uber in this town
because there's there's no interest. >> So, you know, yeah, it's too expensive. So, >> I was kind of thinking if the town organized maybe like a take a kid fishing day or something or if some of
the businesses people got together and did like a youth fishing tournament and more things for kids in the community. >> I I think >> maybe a family fun day like an oldfashioned barbecue at the beach or >> you got a great park right in the circle
in town. I I think it would be a good thing, you know, once every other month to have a family fun day because it doesn't cost the families hardly anything to go and it gives them something to do. >> Yeah. They could even like if they had a
stage or something, they could do it. They might even do like a drive-in theater night or something, you know? >> They could float in the water and watch a movie at night. The the input I got talking to all these kids is what do you like to do around here? Well, not much.
There's nothing for him to do. One kid says, "We don't even have a bowling alley anymore." You know, and so you know how it is when when you're a young kid and you got nothing to do, the only thing you got is the devil's work. And
>> yeah, well, >> it would be good if we >> a lot of them did say they hang out on the circle and hang out various places where they probably should, >> but I'm all for something to get more money around here that the taxpayers
don't have to put in. So that's it. Thanks. >> Thank you very much. There was a bunch of them. Even the girls all like beach volleyball. >> Sure. My name is Alexis Morbacher. I am the president of the Lake Platinum Little
League here in town. Um, I just had a couple of questions regarding all of this. There's like the little boxes by the diamonds. Is that like for scoreboards, like scorekeeping boxes? Is that the >> like see where the diamonds are like the
>> the triangular part? Is that going to be where like the score like the scorekeeping boxes would be and like all the stuff for the parents? >> Yes. >> Okay. And then like obviously like the bleachers and stuff like that. Um and then batting cages that is a big thing for us is there any batting cages that
were >> originated that or you would >> like I was saying you know think about bulls and lights and some of the detail stuff. Okay. >> You're not going to see on something like this. Yes. Just a concept. >> No that's fine. And then now is the building number two, is that the only
bathrooms that we will be having or will you guys be putting other bathrooms in there as well? >> We're at four. >> Okay. >> Especially the Miracle Field and having some more accessible restrooms, concessions there. >> Okay. I was just, you know, we're just
asking um and then now when it does come to concessions and like how we are a league, how would that work? Cuz like right now we're in works with you know the city. So how would that work and go upon from there with SP3?
>> You guys I mean if you guys have a you if you all handle concessions >> okay I Yes sir. We just wanted to make sure how that looked for us. Um and then they keep mentioning Miracle League and this is just something that me and uh
Kelly were discussing. it would, you know, we we've discussed playgrounds and stuff like that already in this meeting, but even, you know, mentioning maybe something to the Miracle League about a handicap accessible playground for them as well. That would be something that you could put over there in Miracle League, you know, since they do only use
it six to seven weeks out of the year instead of another actual Miracle League field in general. And just to add to that, it's almost like a a a special needs playground, but incorporated with the regular because
you know, you've got one mom who has a special needs and and maybe two other and she can sit there while both of them are interacting too. So I know that. Thank you. >> Playground. And I think that's pretty much all we
have other than, you know, obviously we'll probably if this does go ahead, we'll probably be out of baseball season for a year. >> Yeah, that was really how how do you see that? I mean, it's almost like it's out of commission for a year. Go >> there's no way to work. I mean, there's
no way to work around that. >> Okay. To to u >> to go forward sometimes you got to go backwards. >> Yes, sir. Yes, that's totally reasonable. Um, I as a person I I really do like this. I mean, I understand there can definitely be some tweaks and stuff
like that. Um, as a community, somebody who is out there literally every day of my life. Um, this is something that I do believe that would be very great for the community here in Lake Placid. >> Thank you. >> I I guess on the on being out of
commission for a year, maybe that's working with the schools to see, you know, they've got some baseball fields. Is there some I guess it'd be a downsized league or something, but utilization of their fields? >> Right now, we do utilize um four of the
fields and we do have them every day of the week being used besides Wednesdays. So, >> no, I meant the schools. The >> Oh, the schools. >> Yeah. So, if this is going to be under construction for a year, then using the school um baseball fields.
>> Yes, ma'am. Then I know then it's going to be like a smaller league for that period. >> Yes. Yes. That's fine. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. I know if you're here you came to to participate. So
>> my name is Rosemary Heath and I live at um 588 Sunset Point Drive. Um there's a huge huge division over this pickle ball court. Um when they voted at a reasonable hour, they wanted the pickle ball courts on
the left side. Then we had another vote at 11:30 at night. 11:30 at night they voted and two members of the city council voted for
moving it back and two members voted to keep the green space. The mayor broke the tie. I have 501 signatures. The people of this town, the people that visit Lake June Park want the green space. They
want to be able to boat and they want to be able to swim. I have 501 signatures. This is what they want. Not pickle ball in the middle of where they play. And the children use that space for soccer.
that use that place for touch football. As they said there, our children 80% of them are below poverty level. 28% of the adults are below poverty level. They're economically disadvantaged. They use that entire
section to play. And again, it was 11:30 at night when they decide to put the pickle ball courts back in the green space. I and I say it over and over again. The
people of this town want that green space. They want that beach and they want to vote. 501 signatures. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else would like to come up?
>> Yeah, I think our town ministry like to make a comment. >> I just wanted to make a comment about the maps that are along the back. I cannot remember. It's 1970 >> 78 >> 1978 is going to be the oldest map that is there in the back and it's going to show some of the conceptual designs for
Lake June Park that have historically been passing through the planning stages. In addition, there's going to be 2006 that is listed there as well where we had looked at the park and other um conceptual designs where you will see that in the placement of where pickle
balls are is being proposed there were tennis courts that were at some point. So that's the reason why it carried from tennis courts to pickle ball because obviously we change over with sports. We get a new one in. Um and then we also have the conceptual design that is the most recent for the park that does
include the pickle ball and that is out there as well. We have an excerpt from Mr. Horus who used to be on the um park committee that previously used to be in whenever the establishment of that park was done. And so that is over on a table here. just some historical documents so
we can see where we came from, where we are, and where we hope to be in the in the future. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm John Morbacher and uh I volunteer out at the fields a lot, help coach kids, and I'm all for anything
that will help improve our facilities, get more kids involved. Um, not just baseball. I see the last few five years soccer has disappeared, football has disappeared. We lose probably seven to 10 kids a year
that go to Sebring just because the shape of their fields compared to ours. So, it's hard enough with small kids, but keeping them involved. But when you have a facility that's not really the best of what you need for
kids, it's sometimes quite unsafe. It's uh it's hard to keep people coming back. And then I don't do any travel ball stuff, but a lot of people do spend a lot of money on travel ball right now. It's it's a big industry. So, I would be
totally open to listening to what they have to say because I know tons of parents that are gone two, three weekends a month with their kids over in West Palm, Fort Myers, just all around spending every penny they got. So take
it into consideration because it is a big growing sport right now and there's plenty of people that want their kids to play. But not only that, it just it would be great to improve our area for our homegrown kids because the
participation has just plummeted the last few years. And uh it's just sad to see because our youth is what's going to be in this town in the future. It's what's going to run this town. So, we got to keep them here and and keep them out of trouble. So, that's that's really all I got to say,
but I'm down for anything that will help improve our our facilities as a whole. So, thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Carolyn Morrison, 119 Sunset Pop Boulevard, and I'm also the art pack rep for for the Town Lake Placid. So
obviously I have a multi- you know faceted interest in in improving Lake June Park. Um and I really really like you know the concept of bringing in tourism dollars and kind of you know infusing Lake Placid with you know some
some great things for our kids. We've heard from from residents and from from ball coaches and from middle school mentors. Uh and I think there's a lot of great ideas here. Um, and I was just curious, um,
about the consideration, and again, I know you worked with what you had in April and of course didn't have the information about the the pickle ball courts, um, which we're going to have pickle ball courts. They're going to come, but we need to figure out how they
can be placed in there. Um, and I don't know if it is something I know Nell just mentioned that it's already been decided. We're absolutely, you know, hands down. We're having them in that location with the coupled with the paving and and everything else. But, you
know, based on this presentation, they brought a lot of good things to light, I think, in terms of, you know, where to put other fields. I don't know what the minimum number of multi-use fields you need in order to bring in tourism dollars, but is that two? Is that three?
Is that you know, right now you have three, but can we go down to two because of, you know, putting in pickle ball courts in one of these locations? Just a question. And then I do absolutely a joy with uh agree with Joy about shutting off the the access to the
beach area, to the swimming, to the to the water sports access. And I don't know if it's added value or not. Be something consider. I mean a fishing pier, you know, uh Anna mentioned that the middle middle school kids would like to have some a fishing tournament or something. I don't if that's added value
if that would bring anything tourism dollars. Again, I don't know the tourism, you know, will pickle ball bring in tourism dollars. Will, you know, the fishing pier and fishing tournaments? Um I do like the the idea of using the water. Um, and you said that actually in one of your earlier
slides where you mentioned the renovations and the upgrades and one of the upgrades is to upgrade the beach area for better access to water sports and the boat ramp. So, I think, you know, that's something we also need to take into consideration.
And then I love the idea also volleyball. I think that's kind of a neat a neat sport as well. But I think so many um a lot of great information that you guys brought here. And I really do hope that our town council, you know, takes takes it to heart what they said and what we can, you know, be flexible
with and let's kind of look at the big picture and let's all work together to to make this happen and get some more tourism things, get some the kids off the streets and get them into that park to use that park for for for sports, for helping with the miracle league, for,
you know, water access, for, you know, pickle ball, for any, you know, frisbee golf. You know, that's getting big, too. You know, there's a lot of things that are that are up and coming, and I think we should try and look at every possible uh sport venue that we can and and bring it and tie it in with the tourism
dollars that are going to come to our town once we host all these events. So, thank you. >> Thank you. I was just going to say Casey on that note maybe just another thought is as you look at that beach area that could be opened up is we don't have a
pier going out like Bishop Park does, you know, and that was always in my like 10-year plan that we put out. Do we can we create a long p fishing pier? So, I just throw that out there and and take a look at that boat ramp, right? that
whole boat ramp area is like needs some love. I like your word. It needs some love also. So just as you're looking at the improvements and the cost and things like that because again boating, you know, recreation and sports are the big things in that park. Sorry, I forgot one
other thing. I just to and it's to address the council. Um, and I again I don't know if it's possible if if they have a concept here that's going to we're going to be able to do the P P3 partnership. Um, maybe it is possible to
decouple the pickle ball expense with the paving that had been grouped together. And if we can decouple that and have a standalone pickle ball, you know, where this is what we're putting in for pickle ball and let's get that built and decouple it. And then we use the the parking area up and around the,
you know, the beach area where the where the, you know, trailers are going to be and all that. We wrap that into this type of project. Maybe we can get moving a lot faster on it. you know, all these extra amenities we're talking about like the uh enlarging the beach, the beach
volleyball and all that, which doesn't directly bring in tourism baroo, but from what I heard, you said they had so much fun with the lacrosse because there were these extra things that I think our site would have a um a leg up on another
site that's just in the middle of a field because our place when we have tournaments, they can go fishing, they can We'll do the beach volleyball and all these other things and maybe the exercise circuit um that other places wouldn't have.
>> Absolutely. That's what when we go to these tournaments wherever we stay that really brings in more tourist dollars to that area. So absolutely Joy and and I think at one >> No, go ahead. No, I was going to say as
at one point and this is kind of Charlotte to you is as this kind of gets some legs then we have some cost avoidance that we should be talking about such as I think a hundred some thousand dollars to fix lights and
things. So, so we're looking at capital improvements right now buying more bleachers fixing lights. This is cost avoidance. These are things that that's you know and I think it was like $300,000 of capital improvements from
infrastructure this year. Well, that's three fifths of the So, so I think that there's a lot of things going on. The timing of this is really good because I would have hate to move forward and put some improvements to then just come and
you know remove them. So, you know, we've got cost avoidance that we can do. we've got improvements. There's just so many benefits that I see u that I can't thank you enough for just coming, listening, brainstorming. That's kind of where I see it. So,
>> yeah. No, thank you. Uh, two things just keep ringing to mind and Jason and I have been pinging each other. Number one is there's very few times in your life that you have a chance to change a generation. And this is a generational project. And I just kept hearing that
from from what everybody has said here today. Uh take away tourism for a second. You have an opportunity to change kids' lives. You have an opportunity to change famil family's lives um through yes, this new project
that will generate uh tourism as a byproduct of this, but it's also going to generate community spirit and change the course of people's lives. So that's that's exciting. um you know, y'all are the ones that can make that decision. And so, um that just kept ringing in my
mind. The second thing is, um you're right, very a lot of these, um sports complexes that are built around the country, they don't have a lot of character. They have a lot of fields and they have a footprint, but they don't have character
like this has. Right. And so, this is an opportunity that Jason and I were talking about. Yes. We looked at it from just the sports tourism and take the current sports footprint that we have and do something reimagine it. Well, now um when you you start talking about a
beach and a pier and sand volleyball and how do we you know metriculate this and do all this kinds of stuff, you have an opportunity now to create a a park with a ton of character that um becomes written up in magazines that that becomes a national um u you know focal
point for a lot of uh events. So, u that is something that we can definitely go back and do is is do the research of what are other facilities around the country that have that are on bodies of water that could do stuff like this. Um what do they've done and then what are some some things that we could do based
upon what hearing what everybody is saying um to do that. I will tell you um just from a pickle ball and I'm not dipping my toe. Well, I'll dip my toe but not my whole foot in it but um you know we work with I was on a a hour call yesterday with USA pickle ball. Uh we we
do about 10 events uh with USA senior pickle ball US uh a pickleball. We had a call a couple weeks ago with US uh senior pickle ball in Sun and Lake. um they point blank said if you're building facilities that are eight courts or
less, they're great community assets. You're not going to bring a tourism event there. You got to build 16 or more to um to really build because so many people are playing with an 8 court facility, your locals are going to fill it up immediately. So, um, I just wanted
to put it whether pro or con, I just wanted to put it out there. Uh, with the size that you're talking about building that becomes a community asset, not one that's going to be built for tourism. And so, how we look at designing this um, you know, taking a new design and
and all of that. Um, that's probably got to be taken into place there. Okay. No, we were we were informed of that when we were building uh not building when we were proposing all of those and we were looking at the community asset part of it. Okay.
>> And um a a lot I mean if you ask people that are currently using Lake June Park, what do you want? Well, they want what's there. But if you ask people that live in the town and live in the surrounding area, do they want pickle ball? They fill this building. So they don't sign papers, but they fill the building. So,
I I really appreciate and support what you just said because what it made me think is these 50-year-old master plan from 1970. I think you said the one from 1986, what we're doing now is we're doing a
master plan, but we're doing it on what the community wants. And and I know that one had raetball on it and it had just like you said, these sports come and go, but you know, this is the combination of not just for the community, but more
important for our businesses to bring in tourism for our businesses. And I told Casey this and and I guess anybody who has children and takes them to sports know if you've got two children, one's playing, the other's on
the playground. They are somewhere else. They are not watching their sibling. They will never watch their sibling. Why? I don't know. So having that variety like this is so important because it becomes a broader family that is focused on going there for one
specific thing but it gives a variety for others to do something else. I think we also need to take the advice down the corner and um a lot of this discussion is is there'll be never be another better time to buy land right
now. Um, unfortunately the growers can't do anything with it. I would like to also work with Casey on exploring what they're doing up at Max Long to obtain more property. So, I think that would be a good idea as well. Maybe at the same time and it may not work, but it would
be this is I think now is the time and especially if we're going to make this plan that and can we have somebody Yes. Okay. Good afternoon, Jennifer Cucus, 10 Meadow Lake Drive here in Lake Placid.
Uh, first, I just want to thank you for having this conversation. I was on the town's recreation committee over a decade ago and um, dreams this big were not happening then. So, I really appreciate this conversation.
Um, I also appreciate the fact that it was brought up that pickle ball courts are approved and planned and grants have been approved for this location. So, anything that happens in this location
really should consider that. Um, I've been using Lake June Park ever since we moved here 20 years ago. My daughter grew up uh playing softball in those fields. We use the boat ramp now for recreation. It is a It is a great
facility. It has a lot of potential. It's a fantastic lakefront location and I do agree that more could be done with that. Um, but speaking of that same daughter, you talk about wanting kids to stay in Highlands County.
Bringing tournaments to that location does not make my daughter want to stay in Highlands County now. Now that she's an adult, she wants places to recreate. She wants to get out and walk. She wants things to do. And facilities that we can
use on a daily basis as residents that improve our quality of life every day for ages across our entire spectrum will bring tourists. Think about it. When when you go visit someplace, you visit it for the facilities that are
there that those residents get to use every single day. Whether it's a waterfront park in St. Pete or St. Augustine or Vero Beach or whatnot, you go enjoy those amenities that those residents get to use every single day.
As you're considering building recreation facilities for our town, I would ask that you consider keeping in mind what we as residents of all ages can use every single day because that will attract tourists to our town. you just said that the things
that those kids that played lacrosse liked so much were those things that our residents can use every single day. So, please keep that in mind as you look forward to recreation in the future. Um,
I know they talked about uh nicer facilities for tourists will create uh nicer facilities for residents, but I think that's backward. I think we need to create nicer facilities for residents that will be nicer facilities for tourists and that will bring tourists to
our area. And that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Is there anybody else? >> I just want to follow up on that because this point has been made before. The way you pay for these facilities is with
tourism. Yeah. So, yes, it's important to do for both audiences, but if you want to be able to pay for it, that's through the tourism. Just wanted to clarify that. >> Thank you, Casey. All right. Um, >> yes. Um, our town administrator is going
to make some announcements. >> We do have a cleanup day that is taking place on Friday at Lake June Park that is being um put on by the Amazon distribution center. So, we're very excited about that. We've been talking about not having volunteers and Harry
said that the number has grown. You said we're up to how many now? >> Up to 28. >> 28 volunteers at Lake June Park. So, we're very excited about that. >> Um, >> how is that advertised? >> Harry, tell me that again.
>> I haven't seen anything out in the social media on that. >> We talked about it at council though. >> Us talking to try to get it out into the media for people to >> We have not done that. We have 26 that are coming from Amazon and and because of the number that's coming, he doesn't
have enough work. So that's a good problem to have. >> So you don't want Tom volunteers. You don't want resident volunteers. Is that >> they're more than welcome to come. I just don't know that I will have >> enough stuff in a 4h hour period for that many people to do. >> Harry, what time what's the time frame?
>> They gave me the time frame of 12:30 to 4:30. it. They first said 12:30 to 5, but he said it's 12:30 to 4:30. So >> on Friday, >> it's not a lot of hours to have 28 people doing something. So we we plan on painting all the buildings on the
outside. And we're going to start with the main concession stand, painting the outside and then painting the bathrooms before youth baseball starts that day. And then we'll move to the next concession stand and paint that inside and out. paint the outside of the uh
garage that's down there and have them spread the clay for the new project that they were doing on field three on the infield. >> The goal is for us to have this as a kickoff. Hopefully that will be a kickoff and then they will come every quarter. So when they come the next
time, we'll be able to put that out to the public, be able to really have some a good workout day for them to come and be able to >> on the message I have it says every quarter, but I haven't confirmed that with him yet, but I'm assuming that's the case because it's on the message.
>> And I appreciate talking about the lights, too, because that um Harry and I were speaking about those earlier. So right now um he says on fields one and two, it's almostund 173,000. Council approved me to spend
1729 on those two fields and that would based on the one estimate I got that would completely redo those two field lighting. But I have to get like I said three estimates. I just got the format
by email yesterday for the other two companies to that I asked to give me an estimate to go by. So everybody's bidden apples to apples on that. >> I mean shouldn't that be an RFP out there? And >> well, that's what I was saying. I get I
already have one estimate. I need to get two more to >> But but I meant shouldn't it be an RFP for people to bid on? What are you just calling people and asking them? >> We'll follow the We'll follow >> or should we just put it kind of on pause right now until >> We will follow the purchasing procurement policy
>> and we will leave it at that. >> Okay. But >> should we >> We have to get three quotes for our procurement policy and that's what he's doing right now. Yeah. So, should we pause that or keep that going and just
not make a decision till we see where this sports facility may pan out? Cuz what I don't want to spend is $200,000 putting in new lights in an area. >> Councilwoman Charles, it'll come before council and council will have to vote on that if that's what you would like to
happen. You would have to bring it here and they would all need to vote on that. That's my concern also that we don't spend money unless we can reuse them. >> I've already tore down all of the pavilions down there. >> Okay. But the lights were the lights. I'm talking the pavilions will be gone.
Well, that the one >> we're taking pavilions down as well right now. >> Yeah. I don't >> We're moving forward with everything that's already been voted on and set forth by council from the current budget that we're in. Unless council votes and says stop all work at Lake June Park.
Lake June Park continues. >> Well, then >> with all work. >> Well, then we need to re-examine things cuz we can tear down pavilions because they'll be coming down anyway. >> But that's the issue of the lights. If we if we order lights, is is it
>> the pavilions are already set to be started to be rebuilt now? You approved me to have seven built and I've already called the contractor and haven't I got my three estimates and we chose with the money that council approved one contractor came back and said he could
build all seven for that rather than three and I've already moved forward with all that. >> Yes, works. >> So can't we can't we work around that? We have council on Monday so this will be on the agenda. Okay. It is on the agenda.
>> Of course, police department and pickle ball. >> No, I meant the the pavilions or >> the pavilions or the lighting is what I'm saying. >> But that's already going forward. So, yes, it'll be on there because you'll have to make a decision to have us stop
all work at the park if this is the direction that council chooses to go. >> Okay. Good afternoon. Thanks for being here. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Um, Marlene Berger, 760 Sunset Point Drive. A couple questions.
With the cleanup down at the park, does that mean do we have people who are going to go down and actually the dilapidated um pavilions they're going to take down and perhaps rebuild? >> They're already down. >> They're down. The three are down.
>> The four are down. Okay. And again, back to this plan here. One of the things that they were talking about with kids that is fishing tournaments. They love having fishing tournaments. They love having sailing riatas. Kids can do all of these things. So, we're to be
thinking about the different kinds of activities that we can play there. And again, the important point is bringing people in for tournaments and we're going to spend the night to grow the businesses. Pickle ball is not doing
that. There are other areas you can put your pickle ball. You can put them on the west, which is where we had them once before. You can convert all the tennis courts down at the high school, work with the the county school board, convert those to pickle ball courts, and you can have the kids in the high school
could do it. They could be coaching it and the town of Lake Plastic people could play there. Keep the park for something that's productive. Pickle ball is not Casey, if if I'm correct, the sports complex that's going in Sebring, a major complex where you would have
what 16 pickle ball courts to bring tournaments. Is that planned in the largest sports complex? >> Yeah. Or outdoor. Are you is there anything that Sebring is planning where you're going to have um 16 pickle ball
courts? Is there an initiative an initiative for pickle ball tournaments in Sebring? Because I thought there was >> I can speak to that and Ellen may want to chime in. So I know um we just as Ellen mentioned we had a couple weeks ago we had a call with Sun and Lake and
US Senior Pickle Ball um because they have 16 courts between their tennis courts and everything else. they can make 16 courts and that's what the pickle ball tournaments require. >> Okay. >> Um for uh when we look at pickle ball, we want to have a differentiator. We
don't want to be just like everybody else. So when we're talking about our indoor facility, which is over 100,000 square feet that could house indoor pickle ball if that if that comes online, that's a big if. Um so does that answer your question? Yeah. >> So if it were to come online then how
many pickle ball courts would be in that complex question? You can do um 24 >> 24 pickle ball courts. So, wow. >> Sort of makes the whole point of pickle ball courts in Lake June Park. Moot. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Is there anybody else? >> Again, my name is Chad Heath. I live at 588 Sunset Point um Drive. And I I'd like to amplify a point that was made by I don't even know if the the lady is still here, but and she was very much um
in favor of uh women having as mothers having a place to go with their children. Um, if the overarching objective is to make Lake Placid a place where
people want to live, then it's going to be a place where couples will come here, build houses, rent homes, whatever it takes. You've all got phones. Take your phone out. Ask Google what percentage of the
time when a couple makes a decision about where they're going to locate their home is the decision made by the man or the woman? I'll tell you what is. It's 91%. I hope I have a receptive audience here.
91% of the decisions about where people will live are made by women, typically mothers. I do think that um we have talked about having the playgrounds and the play
structures. >> We've talked about it. Sure. We've talked about it for years. >> Well, we are do we're in a conceptual stage right now. So, that's why we're having all these ideas and we're putting them all forth and that's one of the ideas that I think we've got written down. So, I think that um thank you for
your comment. >> All right. statement was also made uh that the pickle ball decision has already been made. Uh you had a grant that went to Ferdap. In that grant, it was online.
Anybody could sign it. Anybody got to be in favor of it. Go back and take a look at how many names on that petition are actually citizens, voting citizens of Lake Placid. And you'll find
it's only two digits. >> Yes. I I understand and we've talked about that and I think everybody in this room understands there was a petition with your signatures on it, the signatures. So I think we don't need to keep talking about things that we've already addressed. My point is that that
survey that was the foundation of the FURDEP grant may be invalid because it didn't have the proper number of signatures that indicate that there was an overwhelming majority of people that wanted this thing. That's not true.
There isn't an overwhelming majority. what you're going to do. You're going to spend a million dollars and you're not going to make this place a be this town a better place to live. >> Thank you. >> And I I hope that we can move on and not
say like go over the same comments again. I mean, I think everybody here understands. Well, I just wanted to talk that they use that section of the park to play, to have picnics. These families are very poor. They can walk to that
park. The children play there all the time. They have um soccer. Um the coaches have soccer three times a week. Um and these children come from the area.
It's important that we have the picnic area, the green space, the fishing. There were 28 boats um parked on a beach sign and they were
boating. Um we can't take away um one woman was here. She said four generations her family has used that park. Um, >> if you're going to do anything in this town, that park is very important to the
people here. Very important. My 5001 >> Miss Rose, could you please address your comments to the mic? Thank you. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I was just saying that um the people in this town use that park all the time and um the 501 signatures
came mostly from people that use that park >> if not at the park. Thank you very much. And I think that we've had all the comments and I think it's been a very positive workshop. I'm very excited with all the ideas and moving forward on
this. I just really happy about that. >> I was just going to say I I will always stand on without vision the people perish. So, I want to challenge everybody to go and look at what you believe is the most important park that you could actually put your eyes on that
you can see and then bring back to us and say, "This is what we want to see here." And there's one right down the road. I don't know if you've seen it or not, Casey, but it's called Camp Impact and it's in Okachobee. It's not open to the public. It's absolutely not open to
the public, but if you go and put your eyes on that and we talk about having space for pools and things of that nature, you get creative. I have built parks. We have worked on parks. I know how to do this. We have a team who knows how to do this. And we
have a team who knows how to do this. And we have a team that knows how to do this. I think that whenever we're able to have the hard conversations and say that this is what my opinion is, this is how I feel about it, and then to be able to respectfully say that when the
majority vote votes that we move forward with whatever the majority vote votes is because otherwise our town is going to die. It is already stagnated and we need to hear from every voice.
Every voice matters and everybody's opinion matters because everybody lives, works, and plays here. And when we can do it respectfully and with honor, holding integrity for everybody and valuing everybody's
opinion. And I'm looking across the room because I want to make sure that we all know this is not about personal agendas or our political innuendos. We are here because people depend on us to make sure that parks and recreation is moving, that all of the utilities are
working and functioning, that trash is being picked up properly, and that they have the best quality of life that they can have because they have entrusted us with it. So, I want to say thank you to Casey and her team because this is probably one of the hardest
conversations that we have had to have, but you all rolled up your sleeves and you said, "We're going to go down there. We're going to be part of this team regardless." And so, what I've seen is that we all just took our hands and we balled up our fists and we said, "It doesn't matter where we come from. We're going to fight through it. And at the
end of the day, we're all going to win. We're all going to win because this town depends on it. Because our residents that we are here to serve depend on it." So, I say thank you to even our council because I know this has been difficult for all of you and our staff. >> Actually, it hasn't. And I don't see
this as a difficult workshop. I think this was what the public wants. They want something to put out there. They want to be able to come up and give their input. And um so I I guess I don't see it that way. And Vice Mayor Worly, I'm wondering what's our next steps on
this because I what I don't want to do is walk away from a good brainstorming session with some ideas and then nothing. So what do you see our next steps on kind of moving this forward? >> I think that on Monday, this is a
workshop. We can't vote. So on Monday, we need to vote to move forward. I'll have a conversation with our group over here to say what would be our next step and we'll talk about that and we've got more exciting news from the TDC meeting that we went to. That's all good. I
mean, we are just in on fire. So, um, yes. So, I'll get with Casey and we can bring it up and talk about it and then we can vote on what we want to do to move forward. We need to know the next step. >> But we're but we're not hearing from all of the town. We are hearing from Lake
June Point. We are hearing from the people that live on Sunset Point Drive, which is one street. Yes, Marlene is one street. We are hearing from the people that use the park. We're not hearing from the people that live in the heart
of the town of Lake Placid, that live in Wat's Edge, that lives that live on Deanna Point Drive in that area. Um, we're not hearing from those people. We are hearing wonderfully from some people, but that is not the whole thing.
And I think we really need to hear from the whole population. I do think that as we move forward, there's going to be a lot more conversation from the public now that they know that we're off the mark and we're moving forward and they have an opportunity to be part of this
process. I think we're going to get I mean, we need to get it out there to the media and we're going to have so many ideas we're not going to know what to do. So anyway, I know these wonderful people need to get on because they've had a busy day and they've got to get going here. >> But I appreciate hearing from the youth
baseball team coming and then also from somebody from Lake June Point who volunteers in the schools and took a survey with the children and brought that forward. So I think there is a good variety and then other people are getting other ideas from others. Jason, >> Vice Mayor Roy, I was just going to say
as part of that conversation, and just so you all know, um, a lot of what we can do that you guys would approve to move forward with is community surveys, focus groups, uh, listening sessions, town halls to get that feedback. Um,
because we want y'all to make informed decisions that's representative of everybody. And so we've already got those types of things in place that we can that we can help with. So, >> thank you. >> Excellent. >> Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Like I said, I think that we need to get these good people on their way because they
still have another meeting to go to. So, I'm going to call the I'm sorry. >> I think part of the reason why you're not hearing from the people in downtown and some of these other areas that you mentioned is they work during the day,
right? So besides getting the word out to them that there is a meeting, it would have to be during non-working hours. A lot of the people in Lake June Point are retired, so we have more time to come to these afternoon meetings. You're
>> right. I had to take off your comments. >> Yeah. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to call the