one and welcome to the town of Lake Placid Government Center this 8th day of September 5:30 p.m. in the evening. Uh first of all, I'd like to welcome each and every one of you here tonight. Uh we
appreciate you being here. And at this time, I have a a couple who's going to come around town and present each of you with a a piece of our puzzle. Well, I guess we could we'll go ahead
and do the roll call first if you would. Clerk. Mayor Hullbrook here. Council member Hayes here. Council member Worley here. Council member Charles here. Council member Everheart here. Okay. Thank you. Okay. At this time,
we'll pass these out. And what been what we've been emphasizing for quite a while now is is being a family and coming together as a community. And that's why we developed these pieces of the puzzle. Each one of us is a a piece of the a
piece of Lake Placid. So, we'd like for each of you to become a part of that. Now, we understand all of you probably don't want to become part of our family, and that's okay, too. Uh but for those that do, uh we appreciate you doing it
and we hope you will join us to to not only help this council but to help the the great town of Lake Placid. Few things that are happening uh under the comprehensive regional planning.
Oh, we need to do that first. Yes. Sorry, Reverend Nor. just got a lot I'm trying to get through. If everybody make sure your phones are either off and vibrate at at this time, it's always a pleasure to have Reverend Norris from the Lutheran Church here with us, who's going to lead
us in our invocation and pledge. Everybody, please rise. I'm here tonight substituting for Reverend Raymond Cameron, who a week ago Sunday, retired after 40 years of ministry to First Presbyterian Church here in Lake Placid. and he and his wife
Clenell are now with their daughter Rachel who is expecting her fourth child. So I'm here in Ray's place. So um let us pray. Gracious God, as these men and women selected to serve this community in the duty of government
governance, I pray that you will grant each wisdom and clarity of thought as they deliberate important issues before them. Grant each of these individuals with a heart of steadfast service and
dedication to our town, the businesses and the residents. Let no distractions disrupt their train of thought and not their own self-interest, but the best interests of our community be their
desired collective decisions. As we approach the 24th anniversary of 911, let us never forget the travis travesty and the horror of that day now and for generations to come. Amen.
Amen. 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. Thank you. Okay, let's go into consent agenda one A through D. I'll make a motion we approve consent agenda one.
Second. All right, we have a motion to second. Any comments from the podium? Just a couple. Um, Eva, on one of the um the August 11th minutes, all of the motions are off. It's saying approved 5
to 0, 4 to 1. So maybe take a look and correct those. And then um actually on the budget um the the police department is overrun in total 111%. And I think the last month I
asked the question because it was kind of trending towards that. At what point does a budget amendment or a discussion need to take place? Um, I know in our MUN code it talks about, you know, when when we run over and it was like if it's
a capital item, we'd bring the budget amendment at that time, but if it's individual line items, it's okay until the department as a total runs over. So, will that be like next month or I was thinking that would be this month. you know, when we do have a department
that runs over in their budget, what's our process in order to to control it or is it just we have to do a budget amendment and then where does it come from when it's midyear? I mean, I've got it at 111%
um as of July, I think, numbers. Next month, right? And that's what I thought. So just so so going forward we'll do that
but we we haven't on on at least this department. I mean there's another one that's closed but it's probably going to be okay. So So next month That'll be a mark question. Are you going to bring a budget
amendment back to council next month? No intention of bringing one back. No, the issues that caused us to run over budget have been brought up previously here, such as uh crash patrol cars and having to replace them. There's those
are unavoidable expenses. There's nothing I could have done to prevent that. as well as the uh funds for our officers to work through hurricanes and the underbudgeting for uh special details. Those were things that were beyond my control
and that's fine, but they need to be documented in the process and brought forward. So then we make the motion and we approve the budget amendment. So, it's and and again, I'm just kind of stating what law says is once it
runs over, we need to do a budget amendment to bring it back in line. So, I'm not I'm not saying that what you've done is wrong, but we need to document it, get it approved, and then determine where in the budget it's going to come
from. I mean, that's the process, right? If if a department runs over its budget mid year, a budget amendment needs to come forward. So, we discuss it. We'll make a motion and we'll approve it because it's already run over, but then
we'll determine for the remaining period, you know, what impact that's going to have. Are you taking the capital as for the the capital projects and stuff that he had in there? you subtracting that before the 110 million. Sure. Sure. Yeah. You can't you can't say his
budget is increased by 1.6 million police department with no spending. I'm talking the general fund, his his operating budget, the the things he said. So, I mean, those are fine, but they just need to be explained, documented, we move on.
He did come back with the vehicles and he did request that those vehicles got replaced. So he will bring them back every item that's going to really significant um affect that budget. So he have done that. That was for the capital, right? But not
it was for the vehicles. Yeah, I call that capital. Okay. But I get with Mark and we'll see where he's at in his budget. If and want to bring it back to you.
It's it's my understanding that that's not been the typical practice is that we typically come back towards the end of the year and then we do a true up. So Rachel, could you speak to that because that's been the typical practice. But I I do know that Mark has brought back the the vehicles as we just stated. Um and
then the other was for due to hurricanes. Yes. C. What I think Miss Charles had did, she took out the capital as far as the police department and out of the vehicle. She took all that stuff out to come up to what is the operating operating fund, right? Your operating expenses.
So even though those items already budgeted, he's still under budget, right? And and I mean and I appreciate we have talked about that with FEMA with um a lot of these special details that we're doing. It's a great awareness that
your budget is being run over by other things and we need to be aware of that because you know even tonight we've got requests to spend more on your budget. So, it's it's a how much are we spending that you haven't been controlling?
And then what do we need to do for the next year's budget to make sure that every year because last year you ran over 135,000. This year, right now it's 126. If you know, and again, I'm not questioning it. It's the awareness and
what is it to make sure we're budgeting right. A lot of the things that cause that are things that we cannot control. I can't control if a patrol car is going to get total. I can't. There's no way to project that or say that's going to happen. It it something that happens
that you can't control it. It's not anything you can plan for or budget for. Right. But that's where you bring the budget amendment. It's approved and we move on. Which was done. Right. So I'm not sure what you're asking then.
I think what you had said is the special detail, the overtime, the special detail, it was initially last year put into my budget at more than it was. It was cut in half. I can't control if the budget was cut last year, and we're still approving these these
details. If that's done, it has to come out of my budget, but it's beyond my control. I've ensured this year it is in the budget to cover all the details that we wave fees on so that it's in there. Now, if we have a hurricane and we put disaster pay under special detail,
again, I can't control that. I don't believe that's an appropriate place to put it, but that's where it wound up. So, it came out of special detail for disaster pay. Again, beyond my control, not something I can budget for, something I can plan for. A hurricane
happens. It's a natural disaster. We have to go forward with it. There was nothing that I could do to change that or any thing I could bring back and say, "Hey, this happened." And and we weren't able to charge that to FEMA.
No. And I might say um on the consent agenda we just for the public the consent agenda is a approval of the agenda approval of the minutes town council budget workshop July 30th 2025 regular
meeting August 11th 2025 and budget workshop August 27th 2025. That's just approval of the minutes approval of the agenda. Now, we're to see approval of the departmental financial reports for August 2025 and approval of all duly
authorized monthly bills for August 25 2025. So, what part of that are you disagreeing with? Please see the financial reports. So, approval of the departmental financial reports for August 2025. Okay.
So, are we going to move forward? or do I need to pull that out of my motion so we can get on with Oh, I I think it can be part of the motion just with the the budget amendment that's needed and that would be for the next month.
You're not going to do it tonight. It's like it's even though I mean what did you say Charlotte? We typically haven't done that but we should do that. And so those are just things that we should be doing once a budget a department runs over. Even
before they run over, we should become say here's where we're at. We're not going to hit our budget and here's what we need to do. I think that you're a little bit premature in what you're doing. I don't I don't disagree with the fact that we
may need a budget amendment. However, we are approving the departmental financial reports. We are saying that we want to approve that these reports are correct. Um, this is not saying that we will or
will not do a budget amendment. That has nothing to do with that. It has to say that these are in fact we agree with with these financials that are on here. And it seems like that you're intent upon trying to point out to the public
in a public session like this that the police department runs over budget and going back to the point where you tried to get rid of the police department a month ago. Um this is another one of those things where we're going to bring it up again and again and again and
again and we're going to shoot it down again and again and again and again. We have to make budget amendments at the end of the year. We are in September. This is almost the end of the year. So, they will come, I guess, before the
council either at the next meeting or at the October meeting. But any department that's over budget, if I understand correctly, would have to have these budget amendments to in order to bring everything back into line for the next year. Okay. Not unusual. not unusual
that public safety is usually over a little bit or a lot as you say and if you look at one year to the next it's not near the percentage over that you keep trying to sell it is not so I'm saying let's approve these financial
reports because we're attesting to the veracity of these reports not to the budget or the budget amendment um I Okay, I have a very simple comment and correction. Um, this is regarding the
August 11th minutes. Um, where there was a discussion about looking into the um, efficiencies of the police department and the sheriff's collaboration. I was mischaracterized in social media
as not wanting to look at improving efficiencies. And I would like to have the minutes amended to say that twice in that conversation, I asked that the scope of the study be limited to day-to-day operations, the police
department, and I was in favor of improving efficiencies. Oh, if you want to go down social media and the news on how we're all mischaracterized, that's a whole meeting in itself. I know, but at least if you would just courtesy of putting in the
minutes that in the discussion, council member Everheart asked that twice asked that the scope of the study be limited to day-to-day operations. 15 words. Well, we have a motion, a second on the
floor. Could I call for the vote, please? Okay. Can I say something? Um, on behalf of my town clerk and to be able to recognize her and also our
deputy clerk, I need to bring up and Bert interject at any time, but we've been asked a lot of questions when it comes to minutes and what's recorded and what's not recorded. And so I have an email that I can read that we brought
prepared for this just in case. So this is just to preempt, but I will not say who it's from. I will read it. I just got a copy of the June 9th meeting minutes from the August packet. There are several problems with the item
on pickle ball courts. It is written in a way that is very favorable to pickle ball. Only one Charlie Wilson of the speakers promoting the courts lives in the town. None of the others pay taxes to the town. The mayor told the one pickle ball player that pickle ball will go out to bid. His statement is not
included in the minutes. Furthermore, the writer of the minutes declares that we have strong support. The bulk of that declared support comes from the people who live in Sebring. Wow. Ray Royce speaks for seven minutes. What happened to the three-minute rule? Josie calmly
spoke in opposition to the courts. The mayor was ready to cut to cut was her off at three minutes. She is opposed to the courts. She also mentioned the 500 plus signatures in opposition to the courts. That's not mentioned. Casey Hart said that the folks who designed all the
fields in Lake June Park do not recommend putting pickle ball in a waterfront park. That is not included in the minutes. Coach Mike, the youth director of recreation in Lake Placid, spoke in opposition to the pickle ball in the park. He coaches kids in the green space of Lake June Park to play
flag football. He basically said the process of pickle ball courts in the park is kind of sneaky. He said other property options would be way better. He also questioned why eight pickle ball courts. He addressed many other issues including the lack of any tournaments in Lake June Park in 25 years and the fact
that no one is asking for volunteers. Yet no not one of his comments are included in the meeting minutes. It is interesting to me that people who speak in opposition to the courts are excluded from the minutes of the meeting meetings. the minutes from that meeting need to be corrected to reflect what was
actually said. This individual goes on to basically insinuate that our minutes are being biased and that our town clerk is writing them in favor and that's not the case.
I will speak on her behalf because she did bring this up, but under section 286.011 0112 Florida statute state that the legal obligation is to ensure that minutes are promptly recorded, open to public inspection, and prepared as a summary of
action items taken. Action items. And in my experience where I have served as a previous town clerk, I can tell you that there was a municipality who was in trouble because we were getting into the nitty-gritty details. There is a reason why we have things
outlined the way that they are. It is very difficult and we understand when we have the public that the public can be very they have their own opinions. They're welcome to have those. They can express them. They're welcome to do that. Everybody is entitled to that. We can't stop the way that people perceive
them and how they want us to write them. And so our town clerk is meeting the statue and the Florida statute and the requirements. If we do this every time and go back and forth, we'll be continually changing minutes to counteract the public. Um, go ahead. I would like you to read what I wrote to
you. You would? Okay, I will be happy to. Yes, the record. Charlotte, I will not respond to this email, but must place the following on the official record. As town clerk, my approach to preparing meeting minutes has always been to summarize the meeting to the best of my ability to capture the
actions taken in the general substance of the discussion. In addition to non-action discussion, I have faithfully carried out this responsibility under both this council and prior councils. Despite this, I have faced repeated accusations these last couple of years, for example, for not legally noticing
meetings or items that were untrue and now for preparing biased minutes. These accusations directly question both my integrity and the personal pride I take in ensuring transparency in every part of my work. I want to be clear. Any corrections or amendments to the minutes
are not made by me individually or members of the general public, but are formally approved by the town council at a duly noticed public meeting. She also references the section 286.011, Florida statutes. My legal obligation is
to ensure that minutes are promptly recorded, open to public inspection, and prepared a summary of actions taken in substance of discussion, not a verbatim transcript. The attorney general has further clarified that minutes may be a brief summary or notes of events and
that a verbatim record is not required. In light of these repeated challenges to my neutrality, I am formally moving to action minutes unless council denies me. This would ensure that the official record reflects only the motions and actions taken a summary of action items
only, removing any room for perception of bias while still fully meeting statutory requirements. This change is necessary to one, protect the credibility and transparency of the clerk's office, two, reinforce public trust that the minutes are impartial,
and allow me to continue performing my duties with integrity and objectivity without my personal commitment to transparency being questioned. I would again call for the vote, please. It's It's coming. It's coming.
Do you want to take from the audience? Okay. I've called for the vote, please. All right. Is there anything else on consent agenda one? Seemed like we got off a little bit, but that's okay.
Nothing else from nothing else from the podium. I'll take it to the audience. Just on the agenda. Okay. Okay. So after listening to what you guys what you said oh I'm not
pull it down so we can hear you. Yeah. Uh I'm Kira Dimpi. Um so you need to state your name and your address please. Uh address is 204 Captiva Way Northeast in Lake Placid. Um, uh, Lake Placid
Police Department's been helping me a lot and I'm still working on stuff to help kids, but um, they need upgrades. They need upgrades to be able to help me to help the kids. And it's funny listening to that. And then pickle ball courts. Why are we putting like why are you questioning, have you guys worked in
their shoes for a day and seen what they have to deal with? Because they deal with a lot and they're crammed in a tiny little place right now and I can't get my help without them getting the proper upgrades. So, I it's hard for me to hear about pickle ball courts. I mean, you can use a tennis court. Just bring chalk
if you have a problem with it. Give the money to the police department. That's all I have to say. Okay. Poll the council. Council member Worley. Yes. Council member Hayes. Yes. Council member Charles. Yes. Council member Abart.
Yes. All right. Now, we'll go to public comment. I have a couple requests here to speak. Um, first is Cara Denby.
You're first. Okay. Do I need to say my name again? Say your name and address again. Um, Kira Denby 204 Captivaway Northeast Lake Placid. Um, thank you for allowing me to speak today. Um, I'm here to bring attention to something that is not only
important to me as a parent, but as a member of our community. My goal here is to inform other parents of why it is important to always background check everyone that is to be alone with your child, especially at private schools. Last year, my daughter, it was her first
year in private school when we were able to use the scholarship to pay for the tuition. My daughter loved the new school until her teacher fell ill and another person was hired to teach the class. Suddenly, my daughter was afraid to go to school and it created stress in our family. I started doing some
research and found out that the new teacher had been removed previously from her teaching position by the Florida Board of Education um for mistreating children over 10 years ago. And they stated that she is never allowed to be a teacher again at a public or private
school. So, how was she able to be hired at my daughter's school where she repeated repeated the same abusive behavior? Here's how. There are holes in the system for private schools. If you put your child in a private school that is a nonprofit and does not accept the scholarship, they can make their own rules and you have no protection at the
end of the day. Schools that are a nonprofit that do accept the scholarship must have certified teachers and they must pass a level two background or fingerprint check if they are not a certified teacher. But there's no one in charge to make sure these things happen. So plenty fall through the cracks. And
another example, there's a teacher in Orlando that just got arrested. He was able to pass the same background check that people from this public school was able to as well. Um he was arrested uh recently because they just found out about his record in a different state.
Um I trusted the founder of the school to keep the children safe. She was the last person I would have guessed um that would have put our children in danger. I was wrong. Regardless of where you send your children to school, always pay attention to any sudden changes in their behavior and find out why. because
there's usually always a reason. I was able to take the information I found and make sure it got into the right hands. As a result, the teacher was fired and the founder was pretty much forced to sell the school to new owners. Um, thank you for all the teachers that believed in me and when I gave them the
information, they fought to um for the safety of the children and they were able to uh buy the school change the name and to me those teachers are heroes. Um, as teachers, if you see something, know you're allowed to report
it without the fear of losing your job. If someone tries to fire you for that, you can sue them. Know your rights. If you don't know them, you can always come to me um and I'll help you for free. Although it uh took many months of research, I wanted um all I wanted was
for all the children to be safe and to have great school experiences. And now they are. We are still working through some injustices that happen with the courts, but that is for a different day. Um, and thank you guys um at our local department because they're the only ones
that haven't also given up on us and continue to fight for us every day. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I have Lisa Shin. Lisa Shin, 571 Bottlebrush Avenue, Lake Placid.
Good evening. My name is Lisa Shin and I'm representing the Greater Federation of Women's Clubs as the treasurer of the Lake Placid Junior Women's Club. We are one of the 501c3 organizations in Lake Placid and our mission is to aid and support our community through through worthy projects. I find it fitting that
the puzzle piece is basically what I'm speaking about, how we work together as town and service organizations to better our community. Each year we raise funds through our events so that we can then donate our proceeds to various community organizations in Lake Placid and Highlands County. Some of those
organizations include the Eddie May Foundation, Mana Ministries, the Lake Plen Middle School Dragons Den, Positive Effects, Christmas Angels, H Heartland for Children, One Hope United, Peace River Center, Speak Up for Children,
Operation Christmas Shoe Box, Veterans Flight of Honor, Wreaths Across America, and more. Most of these are local, while a few are organizations that are projects of GFWC Florida. Our strongest event in the last three years has been our tea party, which just last year
retransitioned into our masquerade ball. This is where the large majority of our fundraising comes from. And because we were able to rent the government cent's community room, we were able to directly pass on our proceeds to the organizations mentioned. For comparison, prior to us using the government center,
our average proceeds were approximately $3,000. Since using the facility, our average proceeds went up to over $5,000. Because of this, originally we were donating on average $250 to $300 per charity. Now we have been able to donate
more than $500 per charity, almost doubling those donations. I bring up these figures to emphasize that our ability to rent the space here directly affects the local charities and community organizations we strive to help. The decision at the May council meeting to halt all reservations will
have a direct impact on the people and animals that are supported by these valuable organizations. So, we request a reconsideration of the decision to discontinue the rental of the room. A possible compromise for the issues regarding the room may be to charge nonprofits a larger deposit versus a
larger fee. This would ensure that you would not be unfairly affecting the ability of nonprofits to benefit the community with their fundraising while at the same time maintaining the right to keep more of the deposit if the room is not taken care of properly. We respectfully ask for your consideration
in this matter. Thank you for your time. Okay. Are there any other public comments? Okay. Hearing none, we'll move on. All right. Number three is mayor's report. I I got something that I think is kind of comical in a way. The past week to 10
days, I've had several people of the community come into the hardware store that I manage and reference me about my health. Couldn't figure out what was going on till today. And I found out that there are those in the community have decided
they know more about my health than myself and are telling people that my health is bad and that I am not going to run for mayor in April. As far as I know, I got my arms, I've got my head, my doctor says I'm in good health. I think I'm in pretty good
shape. So whether these are rumors, induinus, untruth, or lies, whatever you say is not hurting me, it's only hurting yourself. And these kind of comments don't don't help anybody. Uh I
don't take it personal because I I know that I'm in good health. I know I'm not going anywhere. And I know I'm going to be here to represent the town the best I can. And I just want each and every one of you to know that. And if you hear talk out
there, uh, please do your best to to stop it or have them come talk to me and I'll make an appointment with my doctor and we'll go together and get this thing figured out. Okay. Thank you.
We've got a lot going on. We're preparing a comprehensive plan uh and we're active with the Highlands countywide update. The Lake Placid Regional Planning will be in full force this fall and they'll help us in in guiding growth and land
use decisions downtown. Our re revitalization becomes a top priority. Uh our CRA is working diligently to come up with different things to uh promote Lake Placid. You've probably seen the flowers and the big
pots and you know they've they've always coming up with ideas and things and we appreciate all they do. Uh and they're not always about looks. They're about building pride and preserving our character as the town of Mural and Caladian capital of the world. And even
though that's uh sounds trit, it's not. Lake Placid gets a lot of attention all the way across the country because of our murals and our colladium. U on September 18th, our town administrator will be meeting with
Central Florida Regional Planning to review the preliminary results that were completed in August and we'll have a report coming back on that. Code enforcements in full swing and there are some foreclosures that are coming up
that our attorney will be looking at. uh the tower property with Mr. Swerve. His health has prevented him from from being here, but we're scheduled to meet with him in October, and he plans on meeting with each of the council members
beforehand, and I hope he can do that. And on a positive note, we have several employees that I would like to point out. Chief Snder,
he's been with us for 27 years. Shelley Kamasa, she's not here, but she's been with us 18 years this month. Stuart Troutman, I see him in the back. 15 years. Thank you, Stuart. Stephen Arnison and Luis Corino have
been with us four years. And we have two new ones that will be with us a year this month. Jacob Dubano and and Charlotte Rodriguez. So, and and and to me, these these numbers
reflect or these milestones reflect more than numbers. They reflect commitment, loyalty, and the heart that what I think makes Lake Placid a strong community. And on behalf of the town and myself, I want to thank each and every one of you for being a a vital part of what we are.
And in in closing, I want to thank each of you again for being here. Uh, every one of you, whether you agree with what we do or don't, you're an essential piece of the town of Lake Placid. And when these pieces are put together, we
make something that's stronger than any one of us could ever do alone. Just remember that. Thank you. All right. Yeah. I just have one quick comment. I remember last year when we were swearing
in Charlotte as our town administrator, she never told us that when she left this meeting, she was going out and getting married. And so we kept her here till heaven knows when in the middle of the night cuz we were going forever. and
we didn't know that she was going to get married and sure enough she did. So it's also her wedding anniversary. So congratulations. [Applause] All right. Number four presentation
citizen on the agenda. The first uh request event fee waiverss the annual Halloween block party. Sarinia Pipel. Yeah, she's not here. I can read it. Okay.
So, Miss Pipel and Miss Bass are both requesting event fee and deposit waivers and are both nonprofit organizations. Historically, Miss Piple has held two events in the town of Lake Placid. The Easter event where no waiver is requested and all fees have been paid.
The second is the annual Halloween block party event fee and deposit waiver request for 298 plus the deposit of 150 which would be $2,248. The second would be Miracle League. It's
this is a new event in the town of Lake Placid. It's the annual Mary market for the fees and deposit waiver request of $350 and the deposit of $150 for a total of $500. It is the staff's recommendation to approve both events until policies and
procedures can be established to address fees and fee waiver requests. And there is a recommended motion. I believe Miss Bass is here. Did you want to say anything or no? Yes.
Just thank you for being here. Do we need to make a motion and a second in order for us to discuss these things? So, I would make a motion to approve the annual Halloween block party and the annual merry market event fee and deposit waiver requests. A second.
All right, we have a motion and a second for discussion. So, with reference to budget overages in the police department, here we go again. Um, and I think it's important that we take a look at when we're doing these
waiverss that if it's not if it's not in the same line item or if it's not like written exactly right, so you can put a plus b to equal a net zero, if you will.
Okay? then I think it's very difficult and and where we run into trouble is like Miss Charles, she's very good at finances. She looks at all this stuff and thank goodness you do. But but when you look at the overages, for instance, in special detail, that's where this
waiver is going to come from. If we didn't do the waiver, let's say we did charge it. It's $1,320 if I remember correctly, then that money would come in to the town and that would need would
need need be to offset what the police chief is over in special detail. But I think it doesn't quite read that way unless you know that you got to look at this income account and compare it with this expense account. And there are possibly other things in this income
account that that don't necessarily offset that particular expense account, but to be able to look at it in the same way. And then if you're only looking at expenses and you're only looking at the overages in expenses, you're not seeing that there was a a corresponding entry
to offset some of that. So, while I totally agree with approving these fee waiverss, I would like to see in the future as we go forward that we have a way to tell, like for instance, if, god forbid, we get a hurricane and we have some FEMA money that comes in to to help
offset any um overtime with the police department, I don't know if it even will, but so that it could be easily reconciled to that effect if we do not approve free fee waiverss in the future. and police department funds are expended
in special detail that those fees are easily seen to offset that so that we don't have this disparity and this kind of confusion. Just just a note. So, I'll say it a little different and I I'm surprised that we combine two
together versus typically we have, you know, separate ones, but you know, as far as the Miracle League is there's is very minimal and, you know, it's not closing the road. I think where we start running into the fees is when we need to close the road and we've got um our
different department to get out there and put the road closure signs. We've got the police department um to do um the and I think it's on this one you've got four people, right? You've got four people at $55 and that's what's driving up the cost.
Yes. Maybe it is four because it draws such a large crowd. Yeah. Right. So, I mean and and I'll continue to say my concern is I I don't have a concern on waving park fees. Rather than rent the park, we wave it. But when we're incurring actual cost to
the town, then I don't know that the town residents should be paying for that versus the event itself. And I know each one speaks for itself. And there's not I I didn't understand what you were saying about income coming in for this because
this is truly that runs over his special detail budget. And then you also have um supplies, you know, for um the garbage and that which again are minimal, but I mean we had um police department expenses for the caladium festival of
what $8,000. Um and thank goodness they were able to get money from TDC for that. Didn't come our way, but they got money. And then we had the caladium festival. So absolutely his budget is overrunning. And I don't
think this new budget we have enough for police details for all of the different things. So I mean that that's just and and I know I'm only one person here, but it's the when does it become the taxpayers of the
town that are paying for these things versus the event itself? And I think that's a very good question. I I really do. Um and um the difference between the Halloween event and the Merry Market event is yes, there's a
street closure, but the bigger issue is the amount of people. Um over 2,000 people are expected at the Halloween event and and not nearly as many at Mary Market and Mary Market is a a more closed, you know, venue. uh understanding that but um and I and I
didn't mean to confuse you by saying uh what I said about the the money coming in the money going out it is not in this particular case but in going forward for instance some events uh I'd rather not mention them I individually right now because they're not here to defend
themselves but some events that we have in the town are not not for profofit they are for-profit enterprises and so yes those folks should definitely be paying for their garbage and their police coverage and and all of that because they're forprofit things. Then
there are events like this, like the Halloween event and the Merry Market event that are part of what makes our town special. What they are part of maybe why you thought it was a great idea to move here. So, let's not kill
the great idea that you thought to move here because they have these fun things by by overt taxing them. However, um there's got to be a nice little medium, you know, in there. But when there are when they are nonprofit, not for-profit
things that add to the ambiencece of the town of Lake Placid, I believe that becomes a cost of doing business for us. Now, if you want to talk about efficiencies with the sheriff's office, if you'd like to take those special details and toss them over to the
sheriff's office, then we wouldn't have to have this conversation, but then the people would be paying more than we charge for the sheriff's office for their special details to come in and do these events. And I don't think that's what we want to do in the town of Lake
Placid. So, um just just my take on that. And the chief has budgeted, I believe, $15,000 in his budget this coming year starting October 1st on special details. And that's to cover functions like this.
Just to make a correction, it's actually 30,000. 13 30,000 30,000. Thank you. So, it's $30,000 to to cover events like this. But then again, if if we do charge people and we
don't put that in in an account that is easily reconciled back to that expense part, the income reconciling with the expense, you know how that goes. Then we aren't going to see how it ever levels out, right? So, so you've got 30,000 for
special detail for these type of events or for special detail in total these types of events. I have 30,000 in my budget for that. Yeah. Because the special detail when we do other special details that are paid do not
come out of the budget. They're paid for by the people. It is a Z event. So, I do not budget for that. Right. Right. Um the actual cost of special details, not including the Halloween event because I did not have that on the list. was only
done once when I did this list was $25,080 for all the events that we wave fees on each year. This was presented at last year's budget time as well. That's why I requested more than 15,000 in my budget. Then it was denied. That is why we are
going over in these fields because it was denied, but we're still waving the fees. I made sure this year I had a little extra in case you decided to wave fees on an additional event that requires law enforcement. So, I've added
a little bit extra in there to ensure that we are covered in our budget if we decide to do that. Um, the Halloween event does not cost enough that it would put me over budget in this. I have more than enough in the budget to cover it. Right. So just for perspective is
special detail actual through September of this year's 44,000. Yes. But that's also including the disaster pay, right, that went out to pay for everybody working the hurricane. You're also not subtracting the monies that were taken in on special details. So when you're
looking at that, you're trying to say this is how much you've spent, but you're not taking away what has been made or what would zero out in that from what has been brought in on special detail. Yeah, fair enough. So if we're going to give the numbers, we need to give the accurate numbers.
Well, and and I'm just reading the budget reports where we budgeted 10,000 and spent 44. So just for clarity, for this year, it's 30,000 in special detail for special events. Yes. But not including this 2500.
No, that is included in this. I'm looking at a sheet I have here that I did for last year that it was given to council last year. So all of you should still have a copy of it. That was a yearly reoccurring events cost breakdown for the police department which I submitted to each and every council
member last year to ensure that you knew how much each event costs beforehand and how much I needed in the special detail account. I was still denied the amount in the detail account and we chose to go ahead and and wave all the fees anyway.
So yes, I am over budget, but you were given all the information in advance for that and knew that I would be overbudget if we waved all those fees. I tried to educate the council and give them all the information in advance
so that it wouldn't come back and you're saying just like tonight that I'm over budget and you need to know why. Well, this is why when I try to give you the information in advance, you need to pay attention and look at it and not come back to me and say at the end, hey, you're over
budget. Why are you doing this? Well, I told you at the beginning, this is what's going to happen. This year, I'm trying to make sure in our budget we have the money to cover all that. It is in there, the 30,000 to cover these special details. anything over that. If you choose to add
events to this after this that are not in my budget, it's going to go over again. So, I can't control that. And I mean, it's a hard one because you love these events and you love them to come, but at the same time
is it's the town's budget that's paying for it and we're going in with an 18% increase. So, it it's really a tough one and I get it, but it's it's one at a time. And Charlotte, I think, you know, that's one of the things that we said that we were going
to try to get, you know, decisions made on the fees. Yeah. Well, I I just think I want to say, okay, so we're if he's over budget in the expense side, possibly it's over budget on the income side as well when
we don't charge the fees. If if in fact we don't and I'm talking about going forward, not past, but going forward. If we choose not to charge the fees, then there should be a surplus in an income account that we can utilize or show that that surplus in that income account
offsets the overage in the expense account. And I don't know how easy that is to track, but I think we need to find an easy way to track it. And again, the staff recommendation is to approve both events until policies and procedures can be established to
address fees and fee waiver requests. The other thing I'd like to bring up that we're we're not thinking about is our business people when we have these events. Uh I mean, when we have this Halloween block party, it actually brings hundreds
of people into town. And I know they've got to fill our restaurants and our stores that are open. And I'd like to hear from the our our business people what they think about these type of events because not only are they what
Lake Placid represents, but we want to make sure that that uh we're not that we're not hurting our businesses, but helping them. And I think and I believe we are and maybe even the chamber when a lot of their events, you know, they they do a great job representing our town.
And I I I think that needs to come out also that Lake Placid is known for a lot of different things. And I think isn't there a delegation from Hardy or DInnesota County that's coming over to
uh I guess you're talking about um This just to put this in perspective for you, I have spoke with Miss Pipel. The actual numbers at the last year's Halloween event were a little over 6,000 people that showed up in our town.
6,000. That's not a couple hundred, it's 6,000 people it brings into town. That is also why I have four officers for that event because of the number of people that show up at this event. Just like the Christmas parade. Yes. I think our Christmas parade is probably the largest one in the county
and we probably draw more people than uh than Avon Park and Sebring. I don't know that for a fact, but uh I've I've been to all three and uh I I know we I know the chamber does a good job on that. But uh uh but there again, it's what Lake
Placid's known for. Uh so let's let's get the policies and procedures in place to uh take care of these events. But no way, shape, or form uh do I want to see them go away. So, all right. Any other comments from the
I just wanted to ask council moment uh Worley, is there any opport if it's up to 6,000 and growing, is there any opportunity also to pursue TDC like the Cladium Festival did, you know, because you know, when Casey talked to us, she said there were five different type of
categories that money could be from. So, I just throw that out there as, you know, as we're starting to see volumes of people coming in, let's start looking at some of these other areas that we could also get to help. Um this is
primarily um TDC is about heads and beds and creating um you know the tax staying at hotels and that basically and I right there I'm right on the same street my where I live and everything is right
there um when we have the Halloween I don't see any of those people that are staying overnight in the hotels or anything. So the TDC will not sponsor this because they're they exist on the heads and beds which means that they're
paying tax bed tax at somewhere an Airbnb or a hotel or something and these people are not they're just coming here. Um I don't see where it helps the businesses at all. Those people get in a line and they go around and you know
they're they are not the businesses are not to me watching it the they're not the businesses are not profiting from the Halloween event because the all they're there for is to come and get
candy. They come in a circle. They're not wandering around. They're in line from one place to the next to the next the next. um they're not the businesses are all closed. It's it's just
I don't know what it is. It's it's it's expensive event and um I don't know what to say. I mean I I'm thankful that people come and they want to be there, but they'll be in Sebring and Aon Park the same thing. We're not doing anything special to me. We're not doing anything
special. We're just handing out candy and spending a lot of money to be I'm sorry. Thank you. Gilbert Randall, 134 Plaza Avenue, Lake Placid, Florida. Deborah, I'd like to disagree with that. Okay. As a restaurant owner for 22 years here
in Lake Placid, the Halloween event is one of the busiest nights of the year next to St. Patrick's Day for me. I bring in extra staff. We stay open extra hours. We have people standing on the sidewalk waiting to get in the door. And it's one of the things that it comes right at a time of year we've come out
of a dead summer when our books are looking really bad and we catch that night and that gives us a breath of fresh air at the end of a long summer slow summer season here in Lake Placid. So So that statement that it doesn't benefit businesses is very incorrect. Thank you. Well, I only see the the the businesses
on Inner Lake. So I don't see the exterior businesses. I know. I just I don't I'm not out there. So, thank you. I kind of want to go back to what he was saying. Uh, so if you were talking about how your business makes a lot of money,
my thing is instead of blaming the Lake Placid Police Department for going over Can you bring it down? Bring it down so they can hear you. And I'm sorry, I know that you're new to this, but say your name again and your address. Curb 204 Kept away, Northeast Lake Placid. Um, so it's just kind of going
back and forth. um you guys are going over going at them if we're spending too much, questioning them about budgeting and how much they would be spending doing things like this. But then he's making a lot of money with people coming for um this event. I'm taking my kids to
Legoland. So that's all I'm going to say about that. But um I think if businesses like that are profiting, they should pay for it. They should pay for the protection of all these people coming in. Why don't we just Okay, but that's what I'm saying. And then you guys want to complain about how
much they spend. But all I'm saying is if you guys want something like this funded, they they drive 30 minutes down the road, go there. Like I said, there's What about like trick-or-treating? If anything, I mean, I don't understand this whole paying all this money for a
concert to come to our town for what the kids don't want to just stay. They want to go. We go to churches. We maybe stay here for a little bit. I think the most profits, the restaurants and the food trucks, not the local actual businesses like the barber shops and place I got my eyebrows waxed. They're not going to pay
attention. They'll get those little cards and put them right in the trash or put it on the ground. So, that's just my opinion for it. Okay. Any other comments? Pull the council, please. Council member Hayes.
I do not find this difficult at all. I approve. Council member Worley. Yes. Council member Charles. Yes. Council member Everheart. Yes. Uh before we move on, I uh we have
attorney Kim Sap here. She's got another appointment that she needs to go to. So I want to go ahead and if we can and move her up under public hearings, I'll let her and our attorney take care of this. Which number are we going? I believe it's number E.
The alley vacation. Yeah, vacancy. The vacation of alleyways. You're up. It's me. Do we have an ordinance number on this? Do it need to be read in? Yes. There it looks like it wasn't.
There it is. Ordinance number 2025 something of the town of Lake Placid, Florida. An ordinance of the town of Lake Bless, Florida, vacating certain right of way as requested by Donna and Tina Clark and Clark Self Storage LLC,
reserving utility easements and a drainage and Flowage Easement, and providing for an effective date. Thank you. And that will be ordinance number 2025-06. My name is Dana Redell, town planner for the record. You'll see this item was
added to the agenda in conjunction with the town administrator and town attorney. Um we've been working on this item jointly for quite a few months now to introduce this particular hearing. Um, if you're familiar with the area,
you're going to see Main Street running north to south. And on the west side of Main Street is West Phoenix Street. There is an alleyway um, which is dedicated to the town that
runs between Clark Self Storage and Bill Brantley's property. And then on the south side of West Phoenix, there is an easement that's an L-shape and also has a little east to west um alleyway running through the property as well.
The properties have been in use for quite some time. I realize I have a location map. Probably an aerial map would have been helpful. Um I'll scroll through to see if there is one in here. The property has been in use uh for quite some time as part of Clark's self
storage and Clark's outdoor storage facility that he has in town. Uh what I'm scrolling through now are letters of no objection from utility providers. And I think there's an aerial image coming up. I just want you to be able to see
the we have uh plats. Okay. Okay, so the aerial image is in black and white and it's a little harder to see on the big screen, but you'll see Clark self storage here, the alleyway here, Bill Brantley's property here, West Phoenix Street running east to
west, and below that you can even see that this alleyway was platted, I think around the 1920s. And around the 1940s or 1950s, a building was constructed on top of the alleyway. It has not been used as an
alleyway and never been constructed as an alleyway. The reason this hearing came up was on the north side of this property. It's offscreen here if you follow my mouse. This is the property owned by the Barahas.
Um about a year, maybe a year and a half ago, Duke Energy called the town and said, "Look, um we need to get into this property so that we can access our utilities." And that property owner on
that north side has approximately half of the town right away fenced in. And when we took a look at that, we noticed that a lot of the property owners on this particular block and south of it had been using the right of way and had
it fenced in and were using it for their purposes. So, we approached the property owners and we asked them to move their fences or vacate the right of way to do something to come into compliance with
um the town's needs. And Mr. Clark is the only one who actually responded to this request from the town. And he's done his best to comply with the town's um requirements
and to either have he's requesting that the town give up the alleyway so that he can actually continue that use as it hasn't been a hindrance to the town thus far. Um, this hearing has been duly noticed.
Proof of publication is in my file in my office and it has been posted in the newspaper of general circulation. That about summarizes the request from the town's perspective. I'll turn it over to both the agent, Miss Kim Sap,
and the town attorney, Mr. Harris. Doesn't matter. Yes. the the buildings were constructed at least from the property appraiser 1959. So they've been there a really long time. If you look on the actual property
appraisers website, the easement on the triangle piece doesn't even show or the alleyway on the triangle piece isn't even shown. They've been taxed to the um Clark actually Clark self storage for I'm not sure. I know since he's owned it
um because it didn't show up on when he purchased it. He didn't even realize that the alleyways were still in effect at that point. The only alleyway he was aware of is the one um right there off Phoenix between him and the apartments
owned by Peaceand. Um there are um util there are um utilities in place underground um by Comcast and Duke. So, we have agreed to give them an easement for their existing facilities that are
there. Um, nothing will change as far as the current use that we can still fence it. They'll just have a key to get in if they need to. Um, Roy Thomas from Peaceand has already signed his easement. I have not gotten
Billy um Brantley to sign his, but he's agreed to sign it. I just we just haven't gotten together to get it done. Um, and by the opposite, Billy signed a consent to the vacation. Um, but I haven't gotten Roy to sign the consent
because that was a last week requirement. Um, but they're well aware of of what's there. Um, and again, the purpose for doing this was because of the request from the town. um trying to bring it into compliance so that we
aren't um using the rightway and more importantly for the the Clarks is once they were aware that the alleyway bisects their buildings um that needs to get resolved um just for their going future. Um I know the issue right now
that we are still in discussion I believe with town is regarding a drainage easement. We have received um letters from town staff that says we don't need a drainage easement, but I understand they're in the middle of
maybe starting a drainage discussion with the county. Um so, um I know Bert and Charlotte and the applicant and I will get together before the next meeting and resolve their concerns regarding drainage going
forward. Is that a fair synopsis, Mr. Harris? So, so yes. So, we're not the applicant is not okay with the current wording of the ordinance because obviously it does not do us any good to have ditches through our building um or ditches where
we are currently parking. Um so, but we understand that there may be some concerns that we can hopefully address. Go ahead. I hate these issues. Uh this is to me one of the more difficult not legally
but practically legally. Uh Kim has met all the requirements. Um save and accept the one joined her which I think is appropriate but she's got plenty of time to do that between now and the second hearing. Uh Dana has tended to publication. Dana's correct. Um it is
properly before you and you've got discretion. I want to talk about options, your options, history, and your considerations for whether to say yes or no. Historically, we have said yes to several people in closing alleyways a
block north. You just closed one for Rick Miller when he was getting ready to redevelop that area. In the heart of town, we have declined historically. It's been probably 20 years because we worried about access behind people's homes, uh, a lot places for utility
lines, uh, garbage pickup or general access. So, historically, council has said yes sometimes and no sometimes. Turns on the facts of each case. Um, your options. You can say yes without
question. You can say no without question. You can say yes with conditions and the conditions are several. Um, and I will say I I look back over and Deborah will smile over some of my
recommendations on whether to close or not and I have had the vision the wisdom of hindsight and regretted over half of my decisions on what to recommend. Deborah and I can have that discussion privately. And one of them in particular, I would be saying Deborah
was right. Um, so much for that. I've covered options. I've covered history considerations. Um, Bert, the other Bert with utilities has said we're not going to need that for utility lines, water or sewer. I
tend to agree. Um, I I don't always on these alleyways. Some we do, but in this case, you know, if um the owners want water and sewer, it'll be up to them to find where you going to put it. So, I don't see the need for a main. I think
he's probably right. Um Dennis had said no need for reservation for drainage. I don't know that I agree with I don't agree with Dennis on that. We simply don't know. The town does not have a storm water plan. The county is in the
process of helping us with the storm water plan. There are very few places we can put storm water. Do I know for a fact it needs to be on some of this? No, I don't. But my recommendation would be to reserve that option
until we have the study. Now where I don't think that the alleyways are going to be wide enough to make a material difference for storm water as they are configured today. You recall with Mr. Rick Miller north of here he combined an
alleyway with additional land and did a a storm water pond for his runoff and town runoff. So he chose to do things a little differently while we have some time between now and the second hearing. Had a little
conference with um Don and of course Don's my neighbor and that's one of the things that make this even more difficult is we're all dealing with friends who have very strong feelings about how their land should be developed. Noted doesn't make your decision any easier. Uh and I
acknowledge that. I would love to see a discussion about swapping acre for acre. He get we give up the rights of way under his buildings and between his parcels. Maybe reserve some for uh ownership or an easement for drainage on
the very south end where the tip of the triangle comes together that could be an area for a storm water pond or somewhere else at Donald's suggestion. So, I think we can have those discussions with
Donald over the next 30 days. Also might have a discussion. We're trying to clean up areas like just south of that is Mr. Bowers. We've gone to law over that. Um, you can see I've had some candid discussions with Donald
could look like. Donald does a really good job just north of there. Says he's willing to come down and continue the landscaping efforts. That would be magnificent. Everybody then gets to smile about how good South Main Street looks. My recommendation is that you approve
this on first reading. I agree with Kim. We're going to need to modify some of the language. We hadn't had these discussions when I drafted or revised the resolution you have before you. I was recommending reserve for drainage as
well as utilities. Bert has taken away the need for utilities. I'd say let's talk about modifying drainage and anything else we can that would make that work over the next 30 days. My recommendation therefore is approve on first reading, punt the discussions
until we get back for second. Would that be adequate to Berts? But Bert's email back to me was that future utilities, if future utilities or storm water infrastructure is installed, it would be in the front right away that he has no issues with
these alley vacations. So he addressed specifically about drainage and I don't think he takes a position on drainage. If you want to hear it from him, that's fine. I just that I just wanted to clarify that because that was my response from Burke was that not just
utilities but it was for utilities and storm water and he has since said he was not he did not intend to take a position on drainage. Correct. Yes. The drain
the drainage issue is one raised by Bert and Charlotte. Correct. I know. But I and from from the applicant's p perspective, we've had every utilities person and the engineers for the town all say they do not need drainage in this area in
writing to in response to this petition. So that's that's our discussion that we've been having. Um and we'll try to resolve that um and not take the town's meeting time with that. That's our current position is that the town staff
who is responsible for determining whether we need this or not has said they don't need it. So, um, but again, we'll try to get a resolution so that we're not fighting in public and having to put y'all in the position of of making a decision. So,
I will Yeah. Just be clear overseas. Bert, you said the name Dennis. I'm sorry. You said Dennis on storm water. Who did you mean? Dennis. Dennis was here. The old town engineer Dennis. Okay.
Because isn't Allan Stormwater you? Yeah. Okay. Right. I was on this project. Have I ever
paid attention to the area? And then Dana, the second reading is a month from now. It's not next week. It's it's the October meeting. It's next week. Bert. She just said next week. It's advertised for September 15th.
You've published it for next week. It is published for September 15th. Yes. What are you doing tonight? Within the next week. So, we have less than 24 hours. But I'm sure we can pull it off. Um, and then to also contribute to some
of that conversation, there's been some conversations with the town's technical advisor. Um, as such, we're aware that we no longer have a town engineer, and for some of these discussions, we lean on the technical adviser for his input.
He agrees with Bert that he can't really foresee any storm water issues at this time because we don't really have a storm water plan. And and who is the technical adviser from the county? It's through Stonehenge Land Development Consultants, my firm.
Okay. Just like we didn't have a storm water plan there at Miller's Air, but we used the land for storm water settlement. Correct. There was a plan for storm water with Millers.
We developed a plan during the time we were going through his process. Yes, correct. We ran them simultaneously. The vacation of right away and the zoning change hand in hand. If I could make a comment to the storm
water master plan. So we I met with the county and had conversation and be that the um county is responsible for the town of Lake Plus's storm water. We also had asked if you will recall when we were going through the budget workshops for a storm water master plan and
pavement plan to address these concerns. Avon Park and Sebring have already obtained theirs. However, the county is receiving um federal dollars. I want to say Marty said it was a little over two million, something of that nature. And
so, um, we are having conversations about how that can help benefit the town of Lake Placid since we make up a very small portion of the county and our funds are much less. So, just to advise you that those conversations were just recently held and we have more
information that will be forthcoming in the future. My point is if we had to buy a third of an acre for a pond in that area, we'd pay through the nose. Not because it's Donald, but from any land owner because you pay the value of the land, severance from other, how it
impacts the remainder of the land you don't take. So I I'm looking strictly for the purse. Giving away something we would have to buy is my concern.
We'll bring it back to council. I have one quick question. Has there been any opposition just flat out? I mean, I've heard a lot of discussion here, but from any of the joy, what happens with these alleyways when they're in in a platted area is that one
half goes to one person, one half goes to the other. So, and all of these conjoining properties with the applicants, have there been any negative that they don't want it closed or I haven't received any of that feedback
and I'll let uniquely with this property because of the utilities that are between um Peaceand and our property and Bill Brantley and our property, they both Bill Brantley and Roy Thomas for
Peaceland had to sign those easements. to Duke and Comcast. Roy Thomas has already signed his easement. Billy has told me he's going to sign it. I just haven't gotten up with him. But he did send over um at birth request a consent
to the vacation of the rideway. So, and the Clarks them or their one entity that's solely owned by them own the remaining property in those areas. So there is no in this case it's even better because the the two people who could have I
guess object actually have joined in because they had to for the easements. So I'm not clear on so we're hearing there's no objection and all of our departments are supportive and there's
still a question or not on drainage. It sounds like there's not an issue on drainage because we'd do something in the front. So, I'm still not certain what do we need to work out in the next week for them to pay us for giving them
because I want to make sure we're consistent with, you know, as we continue to vacate alleys, let's make sure we're consistent in how we've done it in the past or we make sure then going forward we're consistent. So, what what are the issues
that you see and then are they in agreement with that? because I'd hate to go for a week and all of a sudden we're at a standstill. The Well, keep in mind if you look at consistency, the most recent one was Rick Miller. We vacated it, but we
exchanged it for a larger easement for water. So, we kept the ability to have a storm water pond on Rick Miller's property right behind his building. Yeah, that area had drainage issues. I mean, that
would pool and that that But go ahead. Yeah, I'm not prepared to say this does or doesn't. You know, a lot of times engineers will run pipes underground and have water run to a pond that's somewhere even though there's not uh a pooling issue. So, I don't know the
engineering. That's the reason Charlotte and Bird are saying wait until we have the study done before we release. I I I don't I I would if I were doing this and voting, I would certainly release the red lines so you don't uh interfere with
their development, but I would do it in exchange for a smaller parcel or a small parcel at a place of Donald's choosing. Probably I'm speaking for him now, that would be at the south end where it's not in any of his way. Because if you have
to buy that for your drainage, you will spend a bucket full of money. Now your what was your other point? Oh, Kim is right. Our then engineer said, "Ah, we don't have a drainage problem
there." He was new to our town. He did absolutely zero studies and he had no master plan. And we're coming on the studies and the master plan. Bird and Charlotte are simply saying, "Hold on a minute until we see
what the master plan says." Now, if they don't need a drainage area there, great. Let him have it. I don't care. First of all, not my decision. You got to make a decision as to whether or not this is an asset of the town you should hang on to or just say, "Here you go.
We're done." Charlotte, what's the timing of the master plan? It's a ways out, right? it is because um it's the money's not been released yet either. So there's there's a waiting period for that and then they have to put it all together and how that's going
to work. So I I can't give you an anticipated date because they don't even have that right now. So then we're kind of boxed into a corner. I said we're kind of boxed into a corner that if your recommendation we need a master plan, the master plan could be
six months to a year away. which is the reason I said if if we get into a land swap, reserve an easement over an area and if we don't need it for the master plan, release the drainage easement. That's one option. I mean, you you can
say no and close them all tonight. No, not tonight. A week from tonight. Um but you're going to have to find some places to put water. Is is there a reason to do this within the next six months? Is there a reason that we need to
decide? Can we wait six months? That would be that would be a question for the applicant. Is there a need to go ahead and do this now or Well, part of the reason is the town's requirement. I mean, this is an
expensive process. This is not an expensive process. is the filing fee alone. I think it's like $850. Is that correct? I think. And then because of the, you know, advertising requirements, we spent $1,300 on advertising in the
newspaper rather than $162, which is a normal ad because we had this color picture there. Um, and so yes, it's expensive for us to start this process over again. Um, you know, the applicant started this because he thought he was
helping and doing what was requested. Um, and we did. I mean, Kevin also Kevin McCarthy, which was the prior engineer, also said there was no drainage issues in this area. So, I've had two engineers for the county, utility director, public works director, all say we don't need
it. I'm not arguing, but it wasn't just Dennis, it was the prior engineer also that said he didn't have an issue with drainage. So the, you know, as I said, we we got here, the drainage became an issue on
Friday because we'd already expended the just out of pocket expenses, not my time of of getting the petition together and back and forth. We went ahead and came to this meeting tonight with the ordinance that they drafted, including
the drainage easements. as Burke is correct in saying, we got if we don't have it in there, we can't take it out. So, you put it all in there. Um, and hoping that we could sit down and have a discussion before second reading.
Um, if and that's that's our plan. Um, because from an applicant's perspective, I I understand and and I want to say I respect both Bert and Charlotte's position that they have this drainage master plan come in. Um, but you know,
they're 15 foot easements. Um, and so they're not they're not big enough to do anything as far as a ditch or drainage. Um, if we didn't vacate them, they couldn't do anything with them. But I'm not saying because I don't know what the ask is yet. Um, but to give them a third
of an acre, it's it the property when you look at what's used is smaller than what's used because Mr. Clark has a lease agreement with the right with the railroad to use a portion of that. So his actual property, if you can see, is
just that green line. It's not so where all the boats along the railroad and and cars is actually a leased piece of property. It's not even his property. So we can't give that to anybody. Um so until I know exactly what the ask is, I don't know that we have a third of an
acre to give to the town. And to say we're going to give you a third of an acre when every other staff person in town said we don't need to is it it's it's hard to digest. It's hard to to stomach. But we're willing to sit down
because I understand their position um in trying to figure out the best way to go forward. When we talk about storm water, I distinguish it two ways. One, is there a pond there today that shows there is a storm water problem? I agree. I go by
there every day have for 72 years and there is not a standing water problem. But that I don't think is the question. I'm not talking to Kim. I'm not fussing with you. I think the issue is could this could a portion of that land be used for storm
water storage in the future excavated and used as a settling pond. That's a very different question. Had that question been posed to the county engineers might have gotten a different answer.
But is there a storm water problem there today? I agree there's not. That ain't the question. And if and if you know, Bill Brantley and just like when Rick Miller developed that property and just like when I developed our property on veneer, we had to develop a storm water
plan and we did French drain and there's a big retention pond under our buildings. Um there's a big retention pond under the self storage facilities for drainage for his building. If anything's ever built on Bill Brley's property, there'll be a storm water
facility. He may have to do a retention. He may have to do underwater, you know, a French drain with an underground retention, you know, whatever the engineers at that point based on his development. 100% true. But that's not the storm water I'm talking about. I'm talking about the public storm water off the
road right away. Not not storm water created on site by by Donald's construction. At any rate, I don't think Well, yeah, I'll shut up. Could
could I see the actual ordinance? Whatever the title. Okay. All right. This is my thoughts on it. I'll ask you all to see what you think. We do have a week to talk about this. Um,
obviously this is somewhat of an issue and I I understand that. On the positive side, if we do work through this and get it on the tax roll, it will be taxed next year. And that's what we need. We need some tax money coming in here. I
don't know how much that will create, but if it's if there isn't a big issue about it, let's get it on the tax roll and get it productive for the town. Um, I totally understand because we have had so much problems with storm water in the downtown area. So, I would like to go
ahead and move it forward for tonight and then see what we can do. And if it was delayed for any reason, I would support you not paying the fees at least to the town or whatever that we need more time. I would see that if there's nothing pressing for the applicant so
that they wouldn't be harmed by us waiting for some storm water study and but we could get it if we go ahead and do it now we'll get it on the tax roll for next year and it may not be a lot but every little bit helps.
Okay. So I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to approve ordinance number 2025. What was the number? 06 06 Town Lake Placid, Florida. An ordinance of the Town Lake Placid, Florida, vacating certain right away as
requested by Donald and Tina Clark and Clark's self storage LLC reserving utility easements and a drainage and flowage easement and providing for an effective date. Second. Okay, we have a motion to second. Any
other comments from podium? take it to the audience. You know what I find interesting? Down on the south side, there's actually buildings on this alleyway. And we can't find anything. But it's a
possibility that 75 80 years ago, these alleyways may have already been done been done away with, but we just we just can't find that. So, all right, we'll take the audience. Is there any comments? All right, bring it back. Pull the
council. Council member Warley. Yes. Council member Everheart. Yes. Council member Hayes. Yes. Council member Charles. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Now we'll go back to 4B. Uh
Rachel, we have Garrett here tonight from Maldin and Jenkins and he's coming to present the audit for the town to go over a draft audit. It's not the final. It's in the the last stage of um finalizing. So,
he's going to go over all the items in it. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Thank you all for having me tonight. My name is Garrett Marlo. I'm a senior manager with Maldiv and Jenkins and I was the manager involved in the day-to-day audit processes with Rachel throughout this audit and um though it
is a draft report that's why we haven't passed it out to you. I will be going over the required communications management as we don't anticipate any changes um the only thing we are working on now is Rachel's working on the MDNA and once we receive that we'll have it go through our concurrent partner review we'll be ready to finalize the financial statements for the town. So to begin
with um we are planning to issue an unmodified audit opinion and this is the highest form of assurance that we can render and this is why you are contract with our um firm to provide an audit opinion on these financial statements and um we did conduct our audit with auditing standards generally accept in
the United States of America and they are the responsibility of management and management is also required to evaluate the town's ability to continue as a going concern and we did not see any other issues that we were required to bring up as far as concern. Um and then it is our responsibility to express the
opinion and um for other reports you will also see a single audit report. The town did have two single audits in FY24. There was one federal um which included the septic to sewer as well as the ARPA funding and there were enough expenditures that the ARPA grant has
been um fully expended in FY24. So the town would not need to worry about any future carryover for that or having to remit the funds to the treasury. And then there was also the um state D grant as well. So that's why there are two single audits in FY24.
And then additionally um when the audit is issued that we will also get a management letter um from management. And then there will also be an independent accounts report in the financial statements as well. And then there was a new policy for Gazby 100 did not have a major impact on
the town for this year's financial statement. So there should not be any major changes year-over-year. And for future pronouncements coming up, there is one next year, but with the challenge compensated absence, we don't anticipate any major changes for them as well. And then there were accounting estimates used throughout the financial statement
process and we had no issues with management's estimates. We also had no disagreements with management throughout the audit process. Um Rachel and her team did an awesome job kind of getting us what we needed and kind of the main reason for the delays when you have this amount of grant activity. The grants
kind of operate in a grant term whereas we're obviously auditing in the financial statement term. So kind of working back to get that for the correct cut offs of that activity has kind of delayed the process slightly. And then there were um some adjustments proposed to town management and there
were no disagreements for the adjustments as well. And we also had no path adjustments. And then um as far as we are aware, there were no consultations by management um for another accounting firm for an audit or as we like to call opinion shopping. And then we are
independent of the town to provide our audit opinion. And then we just want to go over there were a couple items. So there were um just a few findings in FY24 kind of you'll see kind of that kind of relate to this grant process. Um, one of them was with inventory and there was an
adjustment to inventory. Obviously, we have kind of these large projects as well as kind of some hurricane activity and that kind of stuff. You'll kind of churn through um your inventory balances. So, there was an entry to kind of correct those balances to get to year end, but there was no fraud or anything like that. It was kind of more just a
bookkeeping um for that activity. And then there was also a finding in relation to the grant activity. And this was kind of as I was saying earlier, kind of working back from that kind of grant schedule to the fiscal year sk fiscal year schedule, excuse me. Um there were no issues with that. It was
kind of just correcting the timing for the revenues and expenses in relation to those grants. And then the third um finding was in relation to the um reporting for uh the septic to sewer grant. There's a report that's required quarterly to be
submitted within 20 days and two of the four reports were slightly after that. And I just want to reiterate I kind of borrow from my banking colleagues for kind of how they determine findings whether it's high risk, medium risk, low risk. And though there were three, these kind of are all three is what we like to consider low risk. Like there's no kind
of issues with fraud or anything like that along that's more kind of just accounting related for the financial statements. And then we did have two recommendations. Obviously we know the timeliness of the audit since we are past the state's deadline. But with this much activity, we wanted to make sure that we were correct and that we got
everything in its entirety. All right, you guys have any questions for me? What are the two recommendations? Um the two recommendations are um for the timeliness just to kind of we've kind of worked with Rachel for her the kind of the grant process to kind of implement
so for future years kind of we know how to account for that cut off to go from the grant to the financial um statement process and then as well for the approval of journal entries. There was no indication of fraud throughout the journal entry process but just to get a second set of eyes to come in and double check that yes these are being um booked
correctly. And then just real quick on the um on the ARP of balance, I think it was 766,000. Um will it be in the report of how we're going to apply that? Because we, you know, had a list of 18 items that were
possible items. So will it be in your report or is that a separate statement, Rachel, of how Rachel was able to amend the report and resubmit it since there were applicable expenditures we were able to use. So, it should be used in its entirety in FY24. And when will we see that list of how
we're going to apply the 766,000? That would be because I'm thinking that's from us. That's not from the auditors. That'll be in the financial statements. Next next meeting, next month. When? No, it's in the financial statements that he's writing up.
Oh, it'll be in your report. But in the end, it's a town decision. Right. Not a auditor's decision of how we apply it. Correct. I I mean again thinking out loud is uh Bert's not here but we've got you know
reserves that are under reserved that you know we had some lift station we had some other things that you know and maybe I'm getting ahead of what you're recommending how we apply that 766,000 to which of the 18 projects.
So these weren't necessarily applied to projects. The city had or sorry the town had already incurred these expenses and since they were eligible under the ARPA grant agreement, we're able to kind of use that ARPA funding for the current year. So even though there weren't additional expenditures, it'll show up
as a revenue item in FY24. Yeah. Yeah. I agree totally. I I I think we even had more than the 766 in spending. Correct. So then there's a decision that's made of of the more of the whole list that are eligible which
ones we can apply. I can get to I I was going to say I think what he's saying though is it's already been applied now. There's nothing to decide. There's nothing for council to vote on this project or we need to put it here. I think that we're speaking two different things. But he's saying that
it's already been done. It's already been done in this fiscal year. So council won't need to decide where that money is going because the money was already expended. Did I say that correctly? Yeah. Yeah. I I guess but you have to go into the
treasury system and basically show so that we have all the records in so they don't want to come back and get it. We haven't completed the reporting in the Treasury system. We only had a list of these are eligible projects and it
was still shown as uncommitted. I think we you're saying the same thing. It's the reporting is a list. Yes. Kind of show what you can do with the project. So all of that is the same thing. I'll I'll get with you later and you can show me the list if that's okay.
Of what makes up the 766 that we applied. Okay. Thank you. I think maybe more than just you would like to see that list. That's fine. I'd like to see it too. Sure. I agree totally. Okay.
Any other comments? I'd like to thank him and I'd like to thank Rachel because again, I know how much time and um and support you needed to get your job done. Rachel on top of the budget and everything else she was doing
and Rachel to your staff. So, I know that you'll be relieved to get this behind you, but it seems like in 3 months you're getting ready to start on it again. So, but but thank you for all the hard work and and also to your firm. Thank you. And Rachel and her team did a great job. Obviously, when there's more
grants and the single audits, there's also additional um time requirements. So, we requested kind of the town to provide all that additional documentation for those single audits. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, we'll go to C, town
administrator. Thank you, mayor. I'm going to pull up a m um a video that was provided from Florida League of Cities before I go into the rest of the presentation that I have. So, if you'll bear with me just a moment, I'm going to pull that up.
It's over there. Most days don't make headlines. Most days things just work as they should. And across Florida, city by city, they do. police, firefighters, first responders, clean water, safe streets,
new roads, from public parks to public safety. Most of the time, most of our local services just work reliably, visibly, and of course, locally. No one likes taxes, but in Florida, yearround
residents pay less and get more than just about anywhere else. Property taxes about half that of Texas. And tax rates, more than 70% of Florida cities cut them or held them steady since 2020. That's
part of the Florida formula. Low taxes, high value, with most decisions made and most dollars spent close to home. But some want to upend that formula, shifting dollars and decisions to distant politicians. That means Less
accountability, less value. Let's keep taxes low, decisions local, and services reliable. That's the Florida formula. Let's keep it working. So, at Florida League of Cities, there was a lot of conversation about
Florida and how we keep everything so low. And I had two council women who went with me to that and attended. And some of the things that we want to talk about is in regards to the millillage notice is I just want to take a moment to explain the numbers. Let me
pull up Florida League of Cities was working on a um ready to use with talking points. However, as I stated in our previous council meeting that the the town of Lake Placid has not been to that table in over 24 years. So, they did not have
a ready packet for us. We did get to compile some of the information together. We'll pull that up. So, bear with me just a moment. And this goes through um an example I received from Avon Park.
And approximately 71% of cities have 2024 millage rates at or below their 2020 rate. Approximately 65% of cities have not increased their millage rate in the past five years. Approximately 53% of cities have decreased their millage
rate at least once over the past 5 years, including those using the rolled back rate. And for our notice, I just want to take a moment to explain it because that so that there's no confusion to the public the way that it was advertised. The state of Florida requires all cities and
towns to publish their proposed millage rate in com in comparison to something called the roll back rate. Because of this requirement, the legal notice makes it appear as though the town of Lake Placid is raising our taxes by over 40%. That figure, however, does not reflect
the actual impact that residents will see on their bills. We understand that the difference between the legal the legal language and the real effect on our taxpayers can differ. So without that clarification, the public could understandably walk away thinking that their taxes are going
up when in reality the increase is much smaller. Our current millillage is 3.10. The proposed millillage is 3.65. The difference is 0.55 mills. The actual increase is about 17.7% compared to last
year's rate. So why does the notice say 45.8%. That comes from our roll back rate. State law requires us to compare our proposal to the rolled back rate which is 25035 mills. The rolled back rate represents
the number that would bring in the exact same dollars as last year completely ignoring the increase in property values. Since values in the town of Lake Placid have gone up, the roll back rate dropped and comparing the 3.65 against that lower number creates the much
larger percentage that we see advertised. The bottom line is that the proposed change is an increase of 0.55 mills or about 17.7% compared to last year, not the 45.8% that the advertisement suggests. I'd like to go
ahead and go down here a little bit and provide you with some comparisons. And again, this is based off of the Avon Park example. And I did hear back from Florida League of Cities on Friday and Rachel has to obtain some more information to give to them and then we
will be able to get our full packet as well. So here on the first screen or the first sorry I typically go down there but I'm trying to stay up here. This slide explains how each property tax dollar is distributed among taxing
authorities. It demonstrates the proportion of the total bill that supports of the town versus the county, the school board, and special districts. This is critical to emphasize as many residents assume the town receives the entire amount when in
reality only a modest portion supports municipal services. When we're talking about cost comparisons, the average property tax bill is $127 a month, comparable to cable or coffee, if we want to put it in practical terms. The town's portion is
only about $24 a month, and that's really less than a pizza. It demonstrates that property taxes, while often a point of contention, are relatively modest compared to everyday lifestyle expenses. The comparison to pizza night, coffee, or even a trip to the barber or nail
salon reflects the cost residents pay directly for services that include police, roads, parks, and code enforcement. It underscores that essential municipal services are delivered for a very modest personal
cost. The next graph is our adorum revenue versus the public safety. This slide shows that almost all of the property tax money the town collects is used to pay for police and code enforcement. In some years, the cost of public safety is even higher than the
taxes collected. So the town has to dip into other limited funds to make up the difference. This reflects the town of Lake Placid makes residents safety its top priority, ensuring that every available dollar goes first toward protecting the community.
I would like to add that during Florida League of Cities, a Florida poll was completed that reflected the top tax concern, believe it or not, isn't tax at all. Given the current economic conditions, leaders in Tallahassee did a poll and they wanted to find out
what residents thought and they said that we should focus on 59% of insurance companies to reduce homeowner insurance rates. That's what they wanted the focus to be on. Only 34% felt like local cities and counties
needed to reduce the property tax. residents consistently identified insurance as their greatest financial burden with premiums often two to three times higher than property taxes. Another question that that they asked to voters was what services they would want
to keep. And it actually says on the slide, and for anyone who would like to see it, I'll be happy to provide those to you. It says, "Don't touch this in big letters." When asked what should be protected no matter what if local government services have to be cut or reduced in order to
eliminate property taxes. Again, this is not Charlotte. This is what was stated from all of the residents in the state of Florida. 54% said do not touch police and fire protection. 15% said do not touch water and sewer services. 10% said
do not touch parks and recreation. 8% said do not touch garbage collection and recycling. 7% for roads and streets. There was 4% that said they were unsure or they refused to answer. Just value versus the taxable value. And
this chart will reflect the difference between the just, which is the market value, and the taxable value. Due to exemptions that have been previously discussed in our budget workshops, save our homes caps provide a significant portion of market value that cannot be
taxed. This restricts the town's ability to capture the true value growth in the community and it underscores the structural limitations that's imposed by state law. So the importance of homestead properties has to be heavily looked at for us, especially in the town of Lake
Placid where we depend on this for the very survival of our town. Homestead properties are heavily protected by state law with growth capped at 3% annually. While this benefits residents, it does reduce revenue elasticity for municipalities.
I'd like to emphasize that reliance on homestead properties results in slower revenue growth and shifts more burden to non-homestead properties and also to commercial parcels in comparison to other municipalities in the H Heartland region. I would challenge you to go check them out. We've looked at this
several times through our budget workshops and we've looked at the millage rate around the municipalities in um in Highlands and also the surrounding counties. The town of Lake Placid's untaxed value is significant relative to the neighboring jurisdictions.
It reinforces the point that state policy rather than local decisionmaking constrains the municipal revenue that we bring in. So why does this matter? Compared to our neighboring cities in the Hartland region, the town of Lake Placid has a much higher share of
untaxed property value. And this comes from state rules like the save our homes cap and property tax exemptions which reduce how much of a home's market value can actually be taxed. What this means is that even if the town of Lake Placid
sets the same tax rate as another city, we end up collecting less money because so much of our property value is shielded from the taxation. This is not a result of local choices or spending priorities. It is the outcome of state tax policy. When you put this together
with the chart showing that this our tax dollars are already used for police and code enforcement, it shows you two important things. We start at a disadvantage compared to the neighboring towns and other municipalities. Our taxable base is smaller, so revenue is
already constrained and limited. Our first priority should be our resident safety. Nearly every available property tax dollar already goes toward protecting our community. There is no excess. The town is not overspending. State rules simply restrict how much of
our property value we can actually collect taxes on. This is why the discussion about millillage is so important. It's not about creating extra money, but about making sure that the town of Lake Placid has the resources to provide the same level of safety and the essential services that our neighboring
municipalities are able to provide. our revenues. The graph represents unrestricted revenue sources compared to restricted revenue sources. Unrestricted revenue sources are the constitutionally authorized revenue sources that municipalities may use for whatever
municipal purpose. While cities may utilize other types of unrestricted revenue, this packet that was provided defines them as advalorum taxes and municipal utility taxes, communication service tax, and local business tax.
Restricted revenue sources include every other tax that municipalities are authorized to levy. However, these taxes must only be used for the purpose authorized by law. Examples of extra of restricted revenue could be sources for um building permits or the facility park
usage. And this is another one un unrestricted revenues. Advalorum revenues compared to general fund expenditures. The graph compares advalorum revenues to a number of general fund expenditures. Most or all advalorum revenues are used to fund
these general fund expenditures and you can see them here. The graph compares advalorum revenues to a number of general fund. Most or all advalorum revenues are used to fund these general fund expenditures. Virtually all advalorum revenue
collected by the town of Lake Placid is already committed to essential services, police, code enforcement, roads and parks. And as we've already discussed at great length, and I would have to say it's been painful as well, but I believe
just like Councilwoman Worley constantly keeps saying is that we're going through the storm right now, but we're going to see light at the end of the tunnel. This leaves no discretionary balance. And I believe that the message is clear that there is no excess revenue and
every dollar is already being spoken for and is being used to provide the services that every resident in the town of Lake Placid deserves. Thank you. All right. Any comments of our town administrator? All right. We'll move on to public
hearings. We'll go to 5A. Yeah. An ordinance. Uh, ordinance number 2025-10, an ordinance of the town council of Lake Placid, Florida, adopted the final leveling of advalorum taxes for Lake
Placid, Florida for fiscal year 2025-2026, providing for an effective date. This is this recommend a motion is move to adopt approve and adopt.
Approving and adopting. I'll make a motion to approve and adopt ordinance number 2025-10, an ordinance of the town council of Lake Placid, Florida, adopting the final
leving of adorum taxes for Lake Placid, Florida for fiscal 2025-2026 providing for an effective date. Can I just interrupt? It's approve on first reading. My apologies. That's approve on first reading. I That's why I was like I know you can't
adopt it, right? Hey, I'm in my motion to just say approve. The adoption would be the next meeting. Approve and adopt. Yep. Thank you. I second. All right. We got a motion to second. Any comment from the podium?
Yeah, I I'll make a couple comments and they're similar comments that I made during the first I think it was a month ago when we had to set the millillage. You know, we had to set it at the highest level and then we could always come down and we've worked diligently on going through a budget which I think is
the next discussion item. So, um I I still believe that we have excess general fund reserves of over half a million dollars that are taxpayers money that have built up over the years that we could use some of that and not
put in an 18% 17.7% increase, you know, to the taxpayers all at once. So it's almost like using a combination of and you know maybe it's a h 100,000 from the general reserve which
means this 3.65 would be maybe 3.3 maybe it's a 10%. We still have the money we need to do the budget items. It's just not putting 18% increase
all in one year on the taxpayers in addition to the 7 to 8% county property praise property values that they're increasing on top of
$40 for garbage on top of water. So there's a lot of increases that are coming to taxpayers that I believe we can still get the budget money we need. Just use a h 100,000 from the excess
general fund which is taxpayers money built up. Um the the seven the the 17% sounds like a huge amount, but if you take like a typical $120,000
house, take off $50,000 homestead, that brings it down to $70,000 taxable. And actually 120,000 house is is not the market, it's the assessed. So it's actually probably maybe $180,000 house.
Anyway, you take off a 50,000 homestead. Um, at the proposed rate it's $255 a year. At the old rate, it's $210 a year. So going from the old rate, the existing
rate to the 3.65 is a difference of $45 a year. So get the 17% sounds huge, but when you look at the real numbers, it's not that bad. And then if you want to compare to Avon Park is at 7.25, 25 I believe in Sebring
is about 6.3 and people complain that the towns the parks are not kept up towns running down well that's the difference so I and then on the 50,000 if you're a widow or widowerower you take off another 5,000
if you're a veteran you get another discount uh if you've been in your home for I think 25 years and it's under a certain value you're totally exempt Uh, so I'm in favor of we have to catch up to keep the town running and it's
it's going to hurt. Well, it it'll hurt $45 a year. So, I'm going to stick with a 3.65 because we tried to cut everything we could out of that budget, even some of the things for the police department that they that they need. Um,
so I'm in favor of 3.65. I'm in favor of 3.65 65 as well because we've spent a lot of years um that I have been here that some have not been here that we have spent these years trying to build up this reserve and to
all of a sudden turn around and use a third of it just because you you think that this is too much of a of of a of an increase and I think you put it quite well. When you when you put it down to brass tax, it's really not that much.
And it's all a matter of yes, in in the in the interest of of using taxpayer dollars to the right reason. Oh, I get that. But it's also about looking good and all that kind of stuff, and I get that, too, and that's all good. However, we've spent all this time creating a
reserve, and then we turn around and look at the utilities department. Oh my gosh, we don't have that reserve. But yet you want to turn around and use down the town's reserve. I don't think there's a consistency in there. So I agree with 3.65.
So let me clarify. This is not onethird of the reserve. There's a general fund reserve that's over five half a million dollars and it was doing a combination of not increasing 18% in one year and using a
certain level and I threw out 100,000. Now, the general fund in the town reserve cannot be used for the enterprises. That's a whole different discussion that we're gonna have to have on there. So, um that's just where I am. It's like and and again to Avon Park and the others, I
can appreciate that, but they have large staffs. They have recreation departments. They have a lot of employees. So, they need that. And they have a lot of residents, too. I mean, Avon Parks over 10,000 this residents in that. So, um,
just that's just my position and I respect everybody's position and we'll see where we go. And I appreciate your position, but I just want to say that that our budget right now doesn't account for critical things again that we cannot foresee. We
are blessed this year with so far no hurricanes, but we could have another plague. We could have another COVID. we could have uh other things that happen and that's what that reserve is for for the unknown and we have no idea what might happen and that's why I don't want
to touch the reserve and and just to clarify it's like a 1.2 1.3 million reserve that um four months operating is 700 thou thousand and that's where I said the excess according to our policy the the and I'll call it
the excess reserve is is the over half a million So it's not it's not depleting it, it's bringing it according to our policy. Well, one of the problems we have with our grants and our our other issues with reimbursement because we have to spend
the money first and then we get paid back. So we have to have reserves for funding these things before we receive our funding back which is you know even if you stayed even we still have to have
the reserves to to to fund the project until we can get reimbursement back. Okay. I'd like to add a couple more numbers to what I said. Um because we do take into account people that have low income or are in dire straits. they are
taken care of. Uh there's another exemption that if you have an income below $37,000, you get another 15,000 off. Um and in this whole scheme of things, so the the people who are just getting by um so in
the number I had before is um what $45 a year difference. But the people who have the huge homes, their $50,000 exemption doesn't doesn't even touch it. So the rich are getting taxed and the not so
rich are being considered. And again, just for clarity again, I want everyone to understand that I understand that we can't use these town reserve funds to fill the utility uh the
the the problem that we have in the utility reserves. I know that I'm just making a comparison reserve account versus reserve account. I've been on council for over 25 years
and I remember that the day we didn't have a reserve and it has taken us a lot of years to build it up to where it is now and I'm veinently against squandering any of that because we just like has
been said we just don't know what's going to happen. Uh it's it it's just you know it it it's just a part of life. We have to be able to to protect the town and that's what our job is and I think that's what we
have done in the past years. Uh, like I said, we scrimped and saved for years on our tax dollars and still were able to put 30, 40, $50,000 away a year into this reserve account. And it's it's
there for a reason and I hope we keep it there just for that reason. Charlie, for the record, Charlie Wilson, 763 Sunset Point Drive. Um, just a point of clarification, Sebring and Avon Park, their millage rate is higher because
they also have fire departments, which is a huge cost to them. Fire departments. We don't have a paid fire department. They do. So that's that's part of the difference in the millillage rate which is public service is the very expensive part not anything
but that's that's a big difference. So it's not quite creating apples to apples but I'm just curious as to how much in town propers rental properties because these cost on rental properties are going to be passed on. So
that's a consideration as well. Uh it doesn't sound like much, but you know, you've got a multi-unit rental, your taxes are going up county, your taxes are going up. Um and I understand it's it's a very difficult decision. Um
and the amount of money, but it is going to impact. It is a very difficult decision. And I'm glad I'm not in your shoes right now, but um I'm I'm of at this point we have
enjoyed lower millage rates and we have been very frugal with the taxpayers money building up these and but everyone uses services. Everyone is being protected by the police. Everyone is being serviced. I so I
understand that. Um, unfortunately in the in the situation we're in today, I don't know that you have a whole lot of options. Um, somewhere in the middle or or whatever, but it from what I'm hearing, it's been
hashed and rehashed. So, um, I appreciate everyone's effort in trying to keep it as low as we can. And I thank everyone for their service because I've been there and I understand it is a difficult decision. But on the other
hand, I do know as a businessman, the cost of doing business has escalated exponentially beyond our control. Uh my insurance costs have gone up through the roof. Okay, chair. Okay. Thank you.
All right. Any other comments? Bring it back. Pull the council. Council member Worley. Yes. Council member Hayes. Yes. Charles, I think. Did you get the audience?
Well, I asked and nobody stood up or raised their hand. Yes. Come up. But when I ask a question, at least raise your hand so I can see you. My name is Rosemary Heath and I live at
588 Sunset Point Drive. Um, Councilman, um, Charles, you said you wanted to take how much from the reserve. I was suggesting that the budget that we're going to approve, you can
still get there. The budget was built on a 3.65. That was the highest level. I'm saying we can still get to achieve the budget, but rather than 3.65 or 18% all
in one year, we'd make it 10% and that we take it's probably 80 100,000 from the town reserve. That was where I was still. So, it's not about cutting the budget. We haven't even got there. It's about how do you do
the things that we want to get done that previously people said the prior town council kept reducing the budget and that the the millillage and that's why we're in the condition we're at. I've continued to state I think it was smart
what they did because as they reduced the millillage because property taxes were increasing the ad valorum taxes increased every year. So I'm and and as they increased savings into the general fund took place. So I
was just suggesting rather than an 18% because the comments right the businesses these businesses downtown are getting the full brunt of it. Um, so I was suggesting to do to get the budget by maybe it's a 10% and then
take the the balance from the excess reserve, the the the general fund reserve and we're talking $100,000. That's what I was suggesting. Yes. Okay. What I don't understand it's
$100,000. for spending more than 200,000 on pickle ball courts and we're talking more than 2.2 million on a police station. And then my other question was 7 years ago we spent a million dollars
on this and it was supposed to be for the police station as well. There's still space available. Is it or not? Isn't there still space available here? Does anybody know? Can you answer just for general
knowledge? We've not looked at whether this building could hold a police department or not because this council has not voted that way and the previous council did not either, but they did seven years ago and they charged the um residents
uh $100,000 no $1 million. Miss Rose, with all due respect, that's not the conversation we're having right now, though. We're talking about the current budget. I understand. going forward with that. But I'm also asking that
we're talking about spending 2 million on police, $200,000 on pickle ball, and you don't want to give your residents $100,000 to lower their taxes.
That doesn't make sense to me. Okay. All right. We understand you've you've made this comment clear in in past and we do understand it. But council has voted and
that's the way it's going to be. And so council can't take $100,000 from the general fund to save the taxpayers money. Not the general fund. They want to take it out of the reserve account. Well, that's part of the general fund, is it not?
It's a reserve account. So anyway, council has voted. Well, we're going to vote. We've got we've got a motion and a second to move on with this. So, we'll vote and see how it goes. Okay. Pull the council.
I'll pull. Council member Worley. Yes. Council member Hayes. Yes. Council member Charles. No. Council member Everheart? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Now we'll go to ordinance number 202511.
Ordinance number 2025-11 an ordinance of the town council of the town of Lake Glass, Florida adopted the final budget for the fiscal year 2025-2026 allowing for line item adjustments during the year as needed and providing
for an effective date. I'll make a I'll make a motion we um approve ordinance number is this the adoption is this adoption though or first reading first huh
first reading okay first reading okay that we may move to approve on first reading ordinance number 2025-11 tal lake class budget for physical year 2025 2026.
Second. We've got a motion to second. Any comments from the podium? I do. Um, and Eva, I don't know if this question is to you on the 420 or to Rachel, but on the very first page, if you look at the
revenue coming in for the ad valorum, that would be a question for Rachel of the budget and and it's just it's to me as an oddity that if we look at the advorum, right, because the 18% is
on the advalorum that's the increase of what we would see in the advorum revenue. Does everybody agree with that? Charlotte, I'm sorry. The millage increase impacts only the adorum revenue.
Correct. Okay. So, intuitively this is odd to me that if we look at and you have that up there. If you look at the million 034 which is the October 2024
through June actual number of ad valorum taxes what we're saying is we're going to get less in 2526. So if you follow it over, I guess I
would have expected to see an 18% increase over in the ad valorum for revenue for the 2526 budget. This this is the same conversation we
had that of 1 million 34. That's the same thing on the DR 420. Yeah. So the one 1 million30 is from the 420 that the county's telling you. Yes. But that just intuitively looks off with
not being an 18% increase. There there is also a calculation in there that has to do with CRA funds. Remember those CRA funds are in there also. Okay. And that's there's a offset on the TIFF that will
will fluctuate that number. Um, it it is the number. DR420 comes from the state. We drop the numbers in and that's the number. There's nothing we do that changes that number. Yeah, I I get it. It gets loaded in. But intuitively, when you look at this,
it makes you wonder, are we building the revenue with all are we building the expenses with all the increased revenue we thought we were going to get? That's what that's what looks odd. I would have thought that we would have
seen that amount coming in because later we're building a budget based on that increase. So we can only use the amount on the DR420. We cannot use that amount less the CRA. Mhm. So we put the amount in that the state
approved that we use and based on the millage that is the amount. Okay. I don't know if you've ever looked at that, but it is a Have you looked at the DR420 to see that? I did. Yeah. Yeah. And it's very cumbersome. There's
a lot of training that goes into that when they have to do it. I I had fun with that one last year. Yeah. I mean, it makes you question on a lot of this revenue coming in from the county how trusting we are versus going
back and validating that we're getting everything that we should in all of the whether it's infrastructure, whether it's adorum, whether it's um fuel tax, um the the franchises from the electric company, you know, with all of the
sometimes um annexation that's taken place. I mean, we've seen that in the past that, you know, they sometimes don't get it right. Um, okay. The other ones is, um, as I look through on the budget, what isn't there that I I
thought at one point we had a discussion of our pack, we could get 75,000 to two a year. And again, I'm would like to see some amount put in for playground for
Lake June Park. And maybe that's the 75,000 from infrastructure. And then we can go after an ARPAC matching which would put 150,000 of updated playground in Lake June Park.
It's interesting because Avon Park is always getting money from, you know, um, and and actually our our PAC representative is here. Maybe she could make some comments, but Avon Park is always in the paper with grant money that they're getting the county commissioners and so is Sebring. So, you
know, Arlene Tuck always says we never come forward and ask for money, you know, from them. So, um, that's that's one item. Um, and I know, Chief, you had recommended those radios, right? That you had last year we took radios out. We
gave you half what you wanted. This year we wanted, you know, I think the three more to get you up to where you needed to be, and it would be 30,000. My recommendation was for the officer safety plan inclusion for tasers and body cameras. I've actually been able to
work around the radios and get a feasible solution for this year on the radios. It it my recommendation was to include the officer safety plan to give our officers good working tasers and body cameras. Yeah. I mean where I was going is I
think that we need to support you with the equipment you need and we've got infrastructure money that we could use. I mean, and everybody keeps assuming that with operational efficiencies that I was recommending between the sheriff,
between, you know, it and other things that could could be found that I was recommending to disband the police department and I never was. and but as you need equipment and we've got infrastructure money, those are things that I kind of thought of more is and I
mean you you put a pitch up there and we just kind of nodded to you and moved on versus making any adjustments. So, that would be another item that I think would be well worth to support um the police department with the equipment that they need and you could take that out of
infrastructure. A and of course um I would be remiss if I didn't say that a 1.6 6 million budget item for a police new building when the
bids came in high is premature. And the first thing I wanted to correct to council member Hayes is I have not ever been against building a new police department. when we in April
of 2024, town council made a decision to build it at the Dale at the Dale Hall property, the Hillcrest property or here. I voted yes. So, I did vote to move forward with
the police department. At that time, it was legislative grant money and it was 1.6 million legislative grant. Since then, it's now all town money. It's the infrastructure reserve of 2.3 million
that we would pretty much deplete. And the mayor just, you know, again, graciously talked about the history and how we need that for emergencies and things like that. What is interesting is in 2018
there was a very good indepth analysis of the old town hall, the police department and what do we do going forward and and I Phil Williams did a great study and
and I would encourage maybe Eva to get all of us a copy of that and and you you know, Mayor and Council Member Worley, you were on council at that time that you you know, and at that time it was the police department's 3,000 square
feet. The old town hall was just over 5,000 square feet, 8,000 some square feet. and they did an analysis study between Bayern State Bank building on Hillrest uh building um a brand new well building
on Hillrest or purchasing this building and what was interesting is there was like a whole criteria and one was can we fit the utilities department in can we fit the police department in can we rent out space to the government officials
and it's a very um I actually have brought a couple you copies here, but it was a very great analysis of the four options. And again, the square footage. This building has 17 half thousand
square feet with a thousand behind it. And there was actually a floor chart because this used to be a church and school. So all the classrooms, it had people's names in them. And in the end, the decision that was made
was actually Charlie Wilson said um no, but it was to buy this church. Arlene Tu said no. Deborah said yes. Ray Royce said yes. And the mayor broke the tie and we proceeded to build this building. And all I'm saying is something happened
from 2018 where there's an organization chart with people's names including the police department that would be accommodated in this department. Something happened three years later that we went down the
route to build a separate police department building. I was impressed by this and I think that we owe the taxpayers and ourselves a similar analysis of what happened, why they couldn't fit in
here. Yes, we could move forward with building a new one. Do we remodel? How much would it be to remodel? We we really haven't looked in that. Or is there another place to build versus depleting all of our funds? So I just throw that out there that I thought this
was a very good analysis fiscal responsible of taxpayers money an open special meeting a lot of people came they gave their opinions and then the vote was done and then something happened
that what was decided was put on hold and we pursued building a new one. So, I don't I'll continue to go on record that I don't support. I think the current one is unaffordable by taking all of it from reserves.
We're earmarking 1.6 from reserves, which leaves 200,000 left in infrastructure. And and somebody had said, well, we're thinking we can get the 2.2 2.3 million bids down to 1.9. We still don't know
where that other money is coming from. So my recommendation is we just pull that amount. We can continue with the budget and we can always come back and have the special meeting have what the recommendations and if the decision is
to move forward then we do a budget amendment and do that. So it's just the is does anybody else see the fiscal responsibility that the taxpayers
are tasking us with to just move forward without looking at alternates and then come back and you can always put it back in the budget. So, if I understand it, your recommendation is the budget is okay
except for that one line item you'd like to have pulled out to be added back in at a future date or not or whatever. Just you're saying just pull that one line. We don't even have a concrete decision of how much money. So, we're earmarking
1.6, but we had bids that came in at 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4. But we think we can get them down to 1.9. That is curious. So that's a 300,000 increase and we
don't have enough in infrastructure for that. So I'm saying that this budget can go forward without that line item and then we have the right decision with the right information. Are there other options that should be considered?
All right, I have a question. Are we discussing the police department again? We're discussing the budget. No, you're discussing one line of the police department building is as it
references to the budget. You're discussing it in reference to fiscal responsibility, which I'm going to remember that term because it's going to come up again. Fiscal responsibility that we have to the town. You're also incorrect in your
1.6 million because we had $300,000 from the sale of the old town hall. We are expecting $300,000 or more with the sale of the current police department. We also went through all of that and all
of that part that the police department was going to be coming up here and that was one of the reasons that that it passed that we could have this building. We could purchase this building. And then when boots came to the ground, it turned out that this wasn't going to
work out. For what reason? I don't recall, but I know that there was a reason that it wasn't going to work out. But if you take that money out now, you're never going to put it back in. And I will never vote to take that money
out. That money should stay there. If we don't use it, well, good for you. You get to use it as a positive at the end of the at the end of the year, and you show some good fiscal responsibility. the meeting with the co with the contractor and with the police
department with reference to um the bids that came in isn't until tomorrow. So, you don't know if it's reasonable or not. The meeting isn't until tomorrow. So, we're totally uh cart before the horse in trying to do this. The 1.6 has
been allocated in this budget for that reason. And as far as I'm concerned, it stays. Any advice? Any other comments from the podium? I have one. I think we're just We keep
coming back to this and just leave it in there. We can always vote no. We can always change it. I could go over the history of the whole thing, by the way, but it's just actually it's kind of boring in a way, but I know the last time we had a meeting at town hall, even though we'd spent, and the mayor will
remember this, I forget how much money we got for renovation, put a new roof on, dirty water was dripping on my head. I needed an umbrella to sit up at the podium, even though we'd spent all that money. I mean, I'm just saying, you
can't take an old building and make it new. And and that's a long time ago. That was what two 2017. We've been doing this for so long. Even before then we were talking about it. I say leave it in there. If we vote not to
use it, fine. It's is your glass glass half empty or half full? I say let's leave it half full. And if we decide to not do it, fine. Why are we at this last minute changing the budget that we all agreed on or we did vote on it before? Maybe you weren't in agreement, but
that's what the consensus was. So, I say let's move forward. If we decide not to do it or we decide to reduce it or whatever we do, let's just move on here and get our budget approved and go forward, please. Thank you. Lady in the back, she was first.
Good evening, Carolyn Morrison. I'm going to speak as the ARPAC representative since M. Charles a little bit put me on the spot, but I think it's a good thing. Address, please. I'm sorry. Your home address as the ARPAC representative.
119 Sunset Point Boulevard. Thank you. Miss Charles is right about the two $75,000 grants that can be given per art pack. Um because we've been in this budget cycle for the last month and I know
you've asked for input from the residents and as the ARPAC rep I have the privilege of seeing some of the grants that have been approved and some of the propositions that have been brought forward. So, several weeks ago,
I sent an email directly to the mayor and to the town administrator, and I regret now that I didn't send it to all the town council members, but I gave a specific example that Avon Park just put in a grant and was approved. The entire
cost of the project, which included two massive playground sets of equipment, included the construction, and included all of the mulch, was a total of $68,000. So, the town came to ARPAC for half of
that, $34,000, and the town's going to pick up another $34,000. So, I said in my email to the mayor and to the town administrator, would you please consider possibly a 30 to a $40,000,
you know, budget item into the budget so that we can get some new playground equipment into the Lake June Park. So, I just wanted to let you know that I am trying to look out for the town of Lake Placid as your ARPAC representative and I thank you for allowing me to serve as
such. Thank you. Okay. My name is Chad Heath. I live at 588 Sunset Point uh Drive. And I wanted to make a point that the example it was given where it would only be a $45
impact was on a $120,000 home or or even if it was an $180,000 home, it's pretty hard to find one of those in this town. But the people that can't afford that home are renting and the landlords will pay the full tilt
on this and they will pass it on to some of the poorest people that live here. And that's not fair. It's wrong. I mean, I can afford it, you know, but they can't. And there's no reason that we have to
put all that burden on people all at once. The thing that I heard was that we could soften this blow with excess funds. If we did that, it would certainly
soften the blow and the people are going to be hit hardest. Please think about that because it's there's there's not much rental space in this town as it is. Um, it's very unfair to to to people
that well, they're not like they don't have the economic sense situation. I've got I want to see the people that needed Lake June Park for their for their uh
their leisure because they can't afford anything else. And I'm talking about people that don't have options and you have options and you can prepare for them right now. Thank you.
I'd like to add some numbers to that. Um we handed out this chart some time ago and I don't know if it was in the packet. Um let's say you had one in here a $469,000 property. So, that's a pretty good
rental property at $469,000, probably over most rental property values. So, with no homestead exemption or anything, that's $32 a month more that's passed on to the renter.
Charlie, I would just like Well, Charlie Wilson 763, Sunset Point Drive. Last year, the county tried with the fire tax buying down like you're suggesting out of general fund to offset the fire cost to
churches and all that. Well, guess what? They depleted their fund and now all the churches are being taxed on the fire tax at very high rates, I might add. And some are being not classified as church if they have a portion of it. For
example, the Genesis Center is not they're they've actually called that commercial and are paying exorbitant taxes, fire taxes on that property. So, in theory, it sounds good for the short term, but longer term, it just creates a
problem down the road if you're not nip it in in the bud. Thank you. Okay. All right. We've got a motion to second. Is that correct? Yes. I bring it back. Hold the council. Council member Worley, yes. Council member Hayes,
yes. Council member Charles, no. Council member Everheart, yes. Thank you. We now go to ordinance number 2025-15, repeal of solic solicitation
portion of chapter 177 of the code of the town of Lake Plast. Sure. Let me read the ordinance. That's ordinance number 14.
Ordinance number 2025-14, Town of Lake Placid, Florida. Ordinance of the Lake Placida Town Council amending town code section 117-1 regarding definitions repealing town code section 117-3-5
regarding soliciting and providing for an effective date. I think it's 15, not 14. It is 15. Yeah, that one's 15. The next one. Oh, 115. Okay, make that correction. What correction?
I said the wrong number. Oh, okay. I thought I said 14 and it's 15. I thought I needed to fix something in the document I was studying. Okay. Um, this is first reading. Uh, we had an issue regarding solicitation and begging
on the streets and this was one of the se settlement was to repeal a couple of ordinances. Uh I agree with the appeal solicited. This ordinance repeals a portion of chapter 117. It does not
repeal the pedalling or sales on the streets. Uh only the solicitation. Uh the active part um posted residences request to leave um soliciting of certain times prohibited. those um used
to require you post no soliciting or pedaling uh on your home or business and you can handle that simply by saying no trespass go away. So relying on state statutes I always will take a position
that we should rely on an existing state statute rather than try to enforce and adopt our own. So, I think this one is a no-brainer. Um, and it helps make a a challenge go away. I recommend approval on the first reading.
Any questions? I'll make a motion that we approve ordinance number 2025-15 on first reading. Second. Got a motion, a second. Any comments from the podium? Yeah, Bert, I I support it. I just have
a clarification question. is um so if we have the solar salesman that comes knocking on our door, are they allowed or not? I mean, we we were told and you know, um to put up that no
solicitation, no trespassing, so that when that person came started knocking on the door, you know, they they wouldn't be able to. So, it's just that curiosity because everywhere you've got very assertive, you know, young people
that are getting dropped off and they just start showing up at all types of hours and you can't get them out of your, you know, your house. So, I just want to know is is that under a state law or how does that make sure it gets handled?
I believe it is I believe it can be managed equally well under the state no trespassing law. I'm going to defer to our chief of police who's nodding his head. In either event, uh, with or without the sign, you're going to have to call law enforcement.
So, it comes down to what law would they enforce. And I would think the state statute of trespass would be better. It's always better to go with the state statute as opposed to a town ordinance. We would go with the state statute every time for trespassing. Remember, when
you're talking about the trespassing on private property, which is where you're going to post your no soliciting signs, no trespassing signs, they're coming onto your personal property. You have control over your property. If you don't want them there, they can't be there. By
having those signs, you actually save us a step in the process of telling them, hey, you have to leave. They've already been warned. The warning is the sign when they come up there. So when we get there, it actually helps us better enforce that law and go ahead and arrest
them for the trespassing after warning. We can say after warning because there is a sign there that says don't come on my property and they chose to anyway. So it is a little better to go with state statute and have those signs. Okay. So So we had put up within our
subdivision a no solicitation, no trespassing sign. Yes, that's fine. Even though it says solicit, we don't have to get another one that just says no trespassing, the word solicitation is still good. No, you're fine. Your subdivision, the roads as well are
privately owned. They are not public, right? At the entrance gate, they would have to come by those signs as they came in. Anything going on in there if they were not invited by a resident. And let let me quantify that because it has to be
said if anyone in the subdivision invites them in, they're allowed to be there. So it has to be no one has invited them in. They've come in of their own valition. And we have to be able to prove that and and say that no
one invited them in. Okay. So, thank you for this work who's ever worked on it because I know this was not an easy task to go through these 50some pages to see what needs to come out and what needs to stay in. Chief did a lot of that.
Thank you. All right. Any other comments from the podium? Take it the audience. We're getting rather thin out there. Audience is depleting. Bring it back. Pull the council. Council member Worley. Yes. Council member Hayes,
yes. Council member Charles, yes. Council member, yes. Thank you. Ordinance number 2025-14. Now I think I got it right. Ordinance of the Lake Placid Town Council repealing chapter 107 entitled peace and good
order of the town code and providing for an effective date. This one is the, if I may, this is the one that um chief and I worked together on more more so than the last one. After the ordinance, you will see a document
the chief prepared showing other state statutes that he can use to enforce the various provisions being repealed of this statute. Towards the end, there were a few that were a little iffy, but I'm going to tell you, in my opinion,
all of this chapter should be repealed. Uh, it is not necessary. It uh when compared to what we have on the books by state statute, I'll stand for questions. So, you saying that we should repeal the entire entire ordinance or you you left part of
it here on the front? I think I think this one Let me Well, it looks just the front page. I don't know. I guess this is Council Member Worley, what page do you have there? 82
at the bottom. Okay. I guess this is the repeal of it. Okay. I'll make a motion that we got repeal ordinance number 20204 um on first reading.
Approve the appeal of ordinance number 202514 on first reading. If I may, it would be to approve on first reading ordinance 25 2025-14. Thank you. Thank you.
I think I second. I'm sure what you said. That's that's why I was waiting. Yeah. You have a motion to second. Any further comments? And it's it's to repeal chapter 107. That's what we're doing. Correct. Okay. Yes. I second 107. All right. Seeing none, we'll take it to
the audience. Bring it back. Call the council. Council member Warley. Yes. Council member Hayes. Yes. Council member Charles. Yes. Council member Edark. Yes. Okay. Moving right along. 6A, resolution
2025-17, the Lake Plaza Town Council establishing a tenative assessment rate in connection with nonadville assessments for residential solid waste. I'll make the motion to approve on first
reading uh resolution 2025-17 establish an attentive assessment rate in connection with the nonadvelorum assessments for residential solid waste. This is a resolution also. You're adopting it. Oh, so this one's Oh, because it's a
resolution. I'm just wondering adoption. So be it. It's getting late. Yeah. Yes. Understood. Do we have a second? Second. I'll second. Okay. We got a motion to second. Any comments? Take it the audience.
Pull the council. Council member Charles. Yes. Council member Hayes. Yes. Council member Worley. Yes. Council member. Yes. Okay. 7D1. citizen participation plan
and policy adoption for CDBG. Uh yeah. Okay. This is actually put on by our finance director, Miss Rachel Osborne. It's for the community development block grant. The program requires a citizen participation plan to ensure that
citizens have reasonable access to information and opportunities to participate in the planning, implementation, and review of any CDBG activities, especially those from low and moderate income backgrounds. The community or the citizen participation plan
outlines public hearing requirements, notice procedures, and ways to provide public feedback on CDBG funded projects and performance reports. The recommended motion is to adopt the citizen participation plan to submit with future applications for the
community development block grant programs and authorize the mayor and town attorney to sign the policy. So moved. Second. Okay, we have a motion and second. Any comments? I just hope we get people to come out.
That's the important part. we need to let them know that we need their um their voices and their opinions. Um and I think a lot of times we hit only a certain part of the market and we need to hit our whole town.
Okay. Now we'll go to I think we need to vote. Oh yeah. Got a motion sec. Uh we got a vote. I went to the audience. They said no. Okay. Council member Worley. Yes. Council member Hayes.
Yes. Council member Charles. Yes. Council member Everart. Yes. All right. 7D2. Florida Recreation Development Assistant Program Grant application. The town of Lake Placid is eligible to
submit one additional FERDAP grant application. However, per the program rules, municipalities may only have two active FERDAP grants at one time. The town currently has an active grant for Lake June Park, which leaves capacity for one new application this cycle. The decision required is for town council to
vote on which project to prioritize for submission. We have Dow Hall and or by Centennial Park and we also have Spruce Park. The recommended motion would be um for staff recommend applying for a FDRAP grant for Dow Hall bysentennial Park because this
would maximize the competitive scoring potential. We also further recommend utilizing the community redevelopment agency funds under the CRA to support improvements at Spruce Park, ensuring programs on both priority projects. So the action requested is for council to
council to select and approve the park project for fur application submission. And I would I know that um our ARPAC representative left, but I will I had planned to speak towards this, but she's left already. But I'll go ahead and state this anyways. In our um evaluation
of this, yes, we understand that we could apply for additional money for Lake June Park, but Lake June Park already has money that's slated there. And so it was our thought process that if we have already ARPAC and FERDAP money being utilized at that park, then it would make better sense for us to use any additional funds in other areas. So
if that is something that the council would like to entertain, then we would say look at the other parks. However, these are the two um opportunities that we have before us right at this moment. So if we could make a decision for these two, then both of these would be ones that we could we Allan and Harry and I
spoke about these you would be able to see these completed in a year. So that is exciting considering the fact that there are many projects especially with our pickle ball and what's happening at Lake June Park that we can't even get that one completed in enough time but we would actually see these done and for
into and to fruition but not with Ferdap money. FDRAP money we are asking to use at um Dow Hall or bicesentennial. Right. I thought that's what you're talking about. Yes. But we wouldn't be able to see that in a year because we wouldn't if you if you
apply right now because the FRED app is open right now. Right. You apply for FURDAP that that won't money won't be available until they have to take it through their appropriation cycle and get approved. So we're talking a year away. Correct. I mean I support it. There's but it's just on just our expectations on the
timing. CRA will go very quick. How long did it take you, Alan, for the one park approximately? Less than six months. Yeah. So, we'll see that one at Spruce Park completed, right? Um and actually, you can have
three open FURD app grants at the same time. They have to be in different parks. They They said we couldn't. We Yeah. Check those FDRAP guidelines again, but we did. We called them. That's why we want to make sure that it's we're getting right information though because when we've spoken with them, we cannot
Yeah. Yeah. He It's only two and two separate parks, not three. Okay. So, what what amount would you be looking at? What are you thinking because we have to match it, right? So, you it's
we we put it in the community redevelopment already and we are saying for FDR app up to 200,000. So then we would out of CRA take 200 because we have to have matching, right? No, no. CRA is totally different. It's two separate parks. Okay.
But but Dale Hall, we already have CRA money allocated for it. Correct. But we have to vote here on where you want to apply for the FURD app. Okay. I mean, I I like Dell Hall and then that gets you a bigger playground,
right? It it's that's kind of where I was going is we've allocated a certain amount I don't recall offhand for CRA money for D hall for I thought we did it for we've done it for each of them and I think all of the CRA all of the parks in
the CRA district we had some money Harry is that right oh I'm sorry what was the question didn't we out of the CRA I mean we've got it here the CRA budget didn't we recommend so much money. Or maybe that's
Allan for for for Dale Hall. I think I thought Charlotte we had some money in each because the inspection report said we need to replace them as soon as possible. So I thought we had money in each of them. Um and in
le let's just assume that we had 50,000 in CRA money for Dell Hall. Ferdap is a matching grant. So if you go in for 200,000 for Dale Hall, then we'd have to allocate 200,000 I'm
going to say from CR in order to match, right? I don't disagree with this. I'm just trying to understand is how the direction of how much you should go for because there's an offsetting amount
that we need to budget for a matching amount. I mean, do does anybody know how much we allocated for? Yeah, I think we had for Dell, we had 10,000 for irrigation and 10,000 for trees and landscaping.
You had said we were going to apply for the grant as that that was in CRA. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. That's what I thought was we said that we would apply for the grant. I didn't I don't have that readily available for me to answer that properly. But my recollection was that we were going to
apply for fur money. So we didn't slate anything in there for Dowha and bsentennial because we had already discussed this at the CRA meeting that this would be forthcoming at this meeting and council would be the ones who would ultimately make the vote because CRA makes the recommendation.
Yeah, we have to vote on what CRA does. This council has to approve what CRA does just like the county commission has to approve what TDC recommends. So the C the CRA is a recommendation. So this is
to approve what they recommended. Correct. And and we are on a time limit for FRAP because there are requirements that we have to meet still with civic organization participation and things of that nature. So that's why we said this one had to be
voted on tonight. So um we really didn't have a motion in a second to start this discussion but we are discussing anyway. Um but do we have to come up with a number for that furep grant or do we just have to come up with the conceptualization that we are going to
do the furep grant and authorize the town administrator to move. Right. Yes ma'am. So um I will make the motion so we can do this legally. Um, I would make the motion that we apply for a FURDEP grant for Dell Hall bysentennial Park to
maximize competitive scoring potential and further recommend utilizing CRA funds to support improvements at SP Spruce Park, ensuring progress on both priority projects.
Second. I've got a motion and a second. Any other comments? I just want to ask for clarification Charlotte is because when you apply you have to apply for how much money and if you apply for 200,000
then we have to have matching money for that. So I think that it just needs to be clear is you're thinking the matching money would be from CR. That's a yes for for for the record. Um and I'm fine
with that. I just want to make sure that it's not just 200,000. We have to match it somewhere. Now, you could go to our pack and get 75,000, you know, and reduce it something like that. So, okay. Yes. Thank you. All right. We'll take the audience.
All right. Seeing none, pull the council. Council member Hayes. Yes. Council member Charles. Yes. Council member Worley. Yes. Council member, yes. All right. And last is 73 piggyback agreement parks and recreation master
plan. After review by the town attorney, we determined that the proposed piggyback agreement for the master parks and wreck plan did not qualify as a valid piggyback. There were differences in the scope between um the host contract and the town of Lake Plac's project needs.
What I mean by that is that there was a difference in how many parks that Spring Lake had to how many parks the town of Lake Placid had. And then they also said they didn't have community involvement. We told him we definitely wanted to have the community involvement. He did say um I spoke with Catalyst and he Friday he
sent over a preliminary that has not gone through the process with being voted on at the council and things of that nature. So, as I do have one that will match and meet what we have for the town of Lake Placid. As soon as it's executed, it will be able to come forward and then you can approve it as a
piggyback. Does it make sense that maybe we peel back some of these areas? Meaning John's Park. There's not really anything that he's going to do there. I'll even say that little grass triangle next to
first insurance. Um, even Deain Park. I don't know what more. Steuart Park, even Bishop Park, right? Bishop Park's the county. So, I just wonder if we can peel back on some of these. I mean, I'm very interested in canal
trail connectivity, you know, to a lot of the parks and that. So I just wonder if you know as we're now relooking at it, doesn't it make sense to really go after a lot of our parks ourselves? I was going to say if you pull some of those off now, if we did that, it would
make it viable. Yeah, I just have a concern that we um do this right now. Um, I think we definitely need the parks and recreation master
plan, but if you think for a moment, we're still waiting on Central Florida Regional Planning's master plan. We're still waiting for um a master plan on water and on other things from uh the gentleman in the back. We're still
waiting on that master plan. I just don't think we need to jump into another master plan right now. while we need it and and I totally agree with what you're saying, Councilman Charles, that you that that we don't need some of the things in some of these parks, we do
need to talk about these trails things. I'm real interested in that, too. Um, but I just think we would have too many things going at one time. This is what got us into trouble before because we took a a bite at too many apples and we
never ate and swallowed. And I think we're going to have a bite in too many apples here if we go in yet another project. Now, how far we delay it? Um, I'm thinking not a year, but I'm thinking let's get Central Florida
regional plan first and then I think we'd have a better vision for what we want this master plan for the parks and and recreation and trails to look like and let it match along with Central Florida Regionals's plan. So maybe six
months down the road or something. I agree. I think that we we've had a lot of plans going on. I think we should wait until we see what they have and then Matt then see if this we're going to bring this company in. They can see what they've said. We can see what um
and I know you guys don't want to hear this, but also maybe see what the TDC people have to say. Bring them all in together. Let's look at everything at one time and then decide and not do this plan. Let's just wait and to see what Central Florida comes up with and and
just, you know, just kind of I think I think we have been galloping galloping with our projects and I think maybe it would be time to kind of pause and let's get it all together and then then decide what we
want to do. Well, a couple couple points. It's up to the staff if they can handle this more work is one thing. And it's my understanding that Central Florida's plan was going to concentrate on the downtown areas, not the parks.
And the third thing is we want to get our parks in shape. And if staff can handle this, I don't think we should delay anymore with this plan. So it's up to you think you can handle it.
And to add to it, our PAC is now requiring master plans. That's one of the thing that they discussed as they scaled it down. They want to make sure that the money is being spent, you know, in the best interest. And one of the
things they're requiring going forward and and Kevin even told him at one of the meetings, we're working on a master plan. So, I mean, there's a lot of benefits and in this case, it's a company that's going to run it. And then like Don Elwell had told me when Spring
Lake got theirs, Ferdap grants were like highly scored because of, you know, the master plan is supported by the people that use it and then off it goes. So, I mean, I I can appreciate and
I don't want to overload staff, but I think this is one of the critical things that our town has been asking for is recreation and trail connectivity and exercise and all of that. I I don't disagree. I just think the
timing is poor. I agree. I I think it we're a little bit off on timing. I think we need to wait until we get some others together. But if you're going to go forward with this, I would suggest we take out a government center park, take out John Park. It's a
passive park. It was donated as a passive park. There's not much more you can do to that. And take out Bishop Park, which we have no control over. So, um, I would take out those three. I would leave in the triangle because I think, um, Council Member Charles had a
great idea. Maybe they should look at that for some bathrooms and stuff like that. just look at it. I think that was a good idea. I don't want to take that out in case they see a potential there for something. So, I'll go with it if you guys want to. I'm just saying that
let let's go down your list. Maybe we can par down like that. So, Lake June Park stays in Taylor Park. Deain Park is out. Do you agree or I'd leave it in? They may see something.
I don't know. It's up to you guys. And then the basketball courts isn't, you know, that comes out. Steuart Park comes out, John Park comes out, Bishop Park comes out. I don't I don't I just think that we
should take out Government Center Park, John Park, and Bishop Park because they may see something potential. I know that the basketball courts there is a um there's a playground there that we're supposed to share with the elementary school that was we all donated to it.
It's a um a challenged physical park. It's much like the miracle league and it needs to be redone and that is supposed to be when the school closes they're supposed to unlock the gate by the basketball courts and open it up which hasn't been happening but it should
happen and that park needs attention and probably could be totally revamped for our handicapped children or challenged people. Um and that's along the line of doing our Miracle League park. But yeah, we could we could maybe make a better
agreement with the school board on that. And that would include the basketball. And the basketball courts look like they need some attention. They need attention. They get used every day. I don't know. I mean, I'd leave those in. I just take out. Okay. I
Government Center, John Park, because we can't really do anything according to the donation. And then Bishop Park, we have nothing to do with. It's not ours. I mean, we own it, but we can't do anything there anyway. And um a constituent questioned the uh
need for the trails and so forth. But am I correct that if you have a plan for trails, you also score higher? So, I'm just answering that person's question. And there's different grants you can get. There's the Florida Trails Recre. So, it's outside of FRAP and
ARPAC. There's different other grants um with trails that you can get. Can you Deborah, can you put that in the form of a motion? Well, but also I wanted to say and Miss Pinterest couldn't be here tonight, but she is amazing because she goes to every
meeting. I mean, she goes economic development. She goes to every meeting, every county commission meeting. And she is seeing at the county commission that Sebrank other other municipalities are getting money for trails and different things, but we have not because we asked
now. So maybe if we do this plan and then we'll be up there asking at the podium as well. Um she's awesome at at feeding back to our town that she loves so much. So I just want to say that. So I'm going to go ahead and make a motion that we approve and we can't. So we can
piggyback or we can't we can find one if you make this motion. Okay. I'll make a motion that we piggyback using catalyst design group for our lake placid park lake placid park master planning and we would
include one um what's listed here is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 remove eight keep nine and 10 remove 11 and 12 for the study and then also include Lake Placid Loop Trail and
Highlands County Connection South Quartrer Trail. Second. All right. Got a motion, a second. Any other comments? I have a question. How much does this cost? That's going to be the kicker because
the amount that we received previously was for Spring Lake. And so now it will the amount will change. It should be less. It It'll be more. How many do we have? How many did you count? Councilwoman Worley. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, 11, 12. So, we still have a total of 12. No. You want us to have 12? Oh, with Detroit. Spring Lake has seven. And then the other component to that is they did not have community involvement. So, they'll
create um a community dashboard, so to speak. So, I don't I don't know what that cost is going to be. So, where is this money going to come from? We we put it in right now. It was slated at the 40,000 coming out of the general
fund. I'm surprised you didn't jump on that. I'm going to amend my motion to um to get the motion will include those with the um with spending no more than $40,000
or bringing it back to council. in and Charlotte Spring Lake was how many? Seven. And and those were seven big areas. When you start looking at and maybe when you have that discussion with them, a basketball court, right, is not like a
big area that you know the the triangle. So So some of these are like little small things that he needs to know that you know that these are not big areas. These are little small areas and and if
that's going to cost us more money, I think we've got some intelligent people that could probably think about with the basketball court because there's not much there to do that maybe we don't need a company to come in and redesign because it's still going to be a basketball court.
Well, and I I looked at the other the um Green Dragon, the one that's next to the school, and I don't know. I think it just needs a really good pressure washing, honestly. But I haven't been I didn't get in there to look at it yet. But I did go over and look at it. The the one that Councilwoman Worley is
talking about that's next to the school that you can you can only use that when the school is not in session. Correct. Because of the border requirements of a school, right? And and it's locked even when school's not in session. Yeah. Yeah. That's an issue. But um I believe I don't know if that school has
summer school also, which would mean that it would be very um highly unavailable. So I I still think this is another $40,000 that we do not need to spend. We're trying to cut everything everywhere we possibly can. And to not
spend this right now, I think is the most fiscally responsible thing that we need to do. But I don't think now is the time to spend that extra 40,000. I think we put it down the road six months and see what Central Florida Regional
Planning has come up with and then decide we're going to spend it then and we'll know better how our how our council how our town funds are. And you're thinking about bringing it out of the general fund and you don't know what the general fund's going to look like by then. I don't think it's the right time.
If some of these are in CRA district, is it legal for CRA to contribute? I don't think so. I don't know. I don't know. I'll have to I'll have to clarify. Yeah. If we if we are using uh Ferduct money
for um Bsentennial Park and Spruce, won't they come up with a plan too or not? I mean, aren't they going to do their own plan or do we furnish them a plan? So, um, we just voted to spend money for those
preferred out. The Central Florida Regional Plan is going to encompass everything that's within our CRA district. They will focus heavily on the downtown revitalization. My understanding from Jennifer Cotto Salisbury is that they will also give um
feedback and recommendations to the other park areas. I don't know what that entails. I know that it will not look like a master parks and wreck plan that we get typically from a Central Florida Regional Planning Council um because it's very detailed, but I don't want to
say that 100%. And remember, we put this on hold because we thought the TDC was given a master plan on parks and it ended up being a sports complex master plan. So we we kind of delayed this for
six months, you know, thinking that they were going to be able to, you know, um do that. But was your question on what would we have to provide? Council member Worley, was your question on what we would have to design and present the FURD app?
No, I was just saying if we're paying FURDAP, if we're using the FURDAP money to to do a design, then we're duplicating services here. Pull those off there, too. Right. Pull those off too because We're already paying Ferdap to come up with the design and then if we're unless we
want to wait on that and get our plan and then tell Ferdap that's what we want. No. So, so just clarification. Furdep doesn't do the design. We're going to have to do up something to put in the application this is what we want to do. But it's a good point. If we're already
moving forward with what we want to do in that park, pull it out of catalyst to do anything and then it'll lessen the number. Maybe what we should do is let catalyst come back to us. I just made the motion we won't spend over 40. Let them come back to us and see if it's going to be over
and then see and then par it down. But if Okay, I'm confused. But if we would have catalyst do this plan first and it includes by Centennial Park, then we would score higher on a FURDAP request. So this should maybe come
before the FURDAP. If we do that, we'll we'll move we'll lose it for a whole year. That's right. Because we have to do it now. That was the That was the hold up, right? It's a timing. It's a timing. Yeah. Which is why we tried to get it done earlier so that we could could we tried.
Okay, I got it. All right, clerk. Where are we at? You have a motion in a second. We got a motion in a second. Okay. Any other discussion? Seeing none, we'll take it to the audience.
Bring them back. Pull the council. Council member Worley. Yes. Council member Hayes. No. Council member Charles. Yes. But I thought I was the second. Oh, I'm sorry. I got that confused. That's That's fine.
Correct. Council member Charles. And then Council Member Everard. Yes. Okay. All right. That's all I have on the agenda. I'll go to my department heads. Do we have anything? Okay. See
Okay, we thank you. All right, Mr. Attorney. Thanks. No. Okay, administrator. Okay, we'll start down. You got anything? I I do. I want to give a shout out to Leanne in the booth. So, so she's like
the hidden behind the scene person that is managing the videos, the cameras, the microphones, and then also it sounds like day-to-day it issues when they exist. So, Leanne, can you just stand up
and wave so people know that this is the behind the scenes person that we really appreciate? All right. Thank you, Neil. Nothing. Thank you. Okay, Deborah. Joy. Nope. Okay. The only thing uh if you noticed
on 27, we do not have a flag at the flag pole. It's been at half staff for a little while. But there is a problem. We can't raise it any higher than halfway. So, I believe it has been taken down till we can get it fixed and then we'll
have the the flag back up again. So, if anybody askked you, that's that's why there's no flag right now. We have a we have a problem probably up at the top. All right.