e e e e e e e e e e e
we'll go ahead and call the March 10th City Commission meeting if everyone would stand for the invocation and the pledge dear heavenly father we come to you this evening give us wisdom to make the best decisions on behalf of the city of lebur in your precious name amen amen
I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all we're going to move the agenda around just a little bit and we're going
to move uh Employee Service award recognition so Miss Melissa and Al if you guys would go ahead thank you good evening mayor Commissioners Melissa araga Director of Human Resources thank you very much we have a good group of uh family members and co-workers here to recognize our
employees so we'll get started with our five-year uh Miss Gina Frasier financial reporting manager she has been with us for the last five years in the finance department congratulations [Music]
[Laughter] it's her first congratulations the next gentleman you may see him around especially during the holidays with Christmas lights and everything Mr Jesus Rodriguez Garcia he's a trades Tech in the facilities
division congratulations [Applause] [Music] congratulations the next gentleman we have Sergeant John shear he started with us 10 years ago uh as a police officer and today he is a sergeant and K9
supervisor congratulations on to our 15-year award Miss Amanda Saunders she started in public works and she continues there now as a water conservation specialist and she also brought her new addition to her family [Laughter]
congratulations Amanda next on to our 25 years 25 year award we'd like to recognize battalion chief Jamie ricketson he started with us in the year 2000 uh fire department moved his way up and today he is a battalion chief for the last 10 years so
congratulations for your 25 years [Applause] [Music] congrats J one more one more 30 years 30 years um there is quite
a few of the staff here to recognize Sherry as well Sherry Stafford she started with us in 1995 in customer service and she is currently the assistant customer accounts manager she has been in customer service since she started last 30 years so we appreciate
Miss Sherry there you [Applause] are thank you very much thank you thank you Miss Melissa now and thank you
to all of our hardworking employees that make this city run day in and day out thank you uh next we'll move to proclamations we have none three presentations we have the first one will be Habitat for Humanity Lake and Sumter the Woodland Park update by Daniel
stad we'll give it a couple seconds to clear the room for all the families that are leaving [Music] everybody see what a small cook
okay oh no you kept it okay do you need it this way okay thank you okay thank you oh good [Music] okay look that got real small real quick all right you're all set thank thank you guys so much for having me I'm not Daniel stoud I'm Veronica Troxel um the
program director with habitat I'm going to be trying to fill her very high and very big shoes today um so thank you I'm here to talk with you a little bit about the spruce up the block party specifically that we are doing in Woodland Park Leesburg um so as I said I'm the programs director I have the honor of working um closely with the
families through the programs we offer for home ownership home repair and different um education programs that we have as well so I am honored to be here to talk to you guys today a little bit about the history of our spruce up the block program we started in April of
2018 our first one was in Mount Dora but we quickly were able to spread this program throughout Lake and Sumter counties it's basically a adopt a block so we pick a block of a a city or an area of our community that has been either forgotten they don't have access
to resources or they don't have the attention that they so much deserve from their cities so we're able to come in and we're able to have families apply to receive home repair beautification um basically to clean up the exterior of their community and their home as one so typically with our
programs you have to income qualify this program is a little different we are selecting that based on the community not on individuals qualifying but on this block or this community or this neighborhood so just by living there you get to participate in the program and our first for 14 block parties since
2018 we've served over a 100 families and some of those um local community um centers so churches um and different facilities that the churches may have and may offer so we've been able to directly serve those families and those Community um the points in the community
that everybody gathers right those are also very important so we've been able to help preserve a lot of homes um and those community centers we're able to do that and we wanted to create this program to connect people in the community so we found that um a lot of times citizens
um their worries and their needs weren't being addressed so we said how can we talk to them and figure out what their needs are and help them address them so that's why we created this to bring Community Partners together to support us in serving the individuals in the community so we've been able to have a successful spr spruce up the block
parties throughout Lake and Sumter counties with our local vendors so Florida paints one of our vendors has donated a total of over 400 gallons of paint that they've donated to us to help um serve these uh neighborhoods and for to help help us do more the more we have donated for a project the more we can do
in that Community um we've had Niagara they've donated pallets of water um been their dump that they've donated dumpsters so that we can help clean up these communities at a more affordable cost and we can do more for them and then looking at the The Helping Hands that help us actually do the work on the communities a lot of it comes directly
from the communities we invite the families to work alongside our volunteers to to um create their um Community Spirit right to help them continue to um give back to their neighbors as well um so the leeburg construction Academy is one of our newer
um Helping Hands if you will for this project um we have youth groups from all over Lake and Sumpter County come out and we have groups from uh Lake County that will go to a Sumpter County block party and work so it's it's very interconnected and we have a lot of college groups that come and stay with us and they're able to help directly on
these projects Ohio State Massachusetts Maritime Academy University of Toledo we have um interns that come stay with us from France every summer and so we'll have them out on all these different projects so we're able to bring the vendors and bring our community and these Helping Hands Together in order to
be successful with these different block parties we're doing so specifically I want to talk about Woodland Park what a special Community Woodland Park is and uh We've basically adopted the entirety of Woodland Park for this block party um 47 homes total so of course maybe not every family wanted to participate some
families uh are some are rentals some some are vacant but 18 applied for the block party so it's 18 individual families in that Community we're able to serve um 15 of them are going to be receiving updates and currently 11 of the 13 we're going to be painting are
painted um and we're we're working towards um wrapping up the end of the school year so this is a really special project because we've actually been working directly with leeburg high school construction Academy so they have two different um sets of students they have the dream team which gets to help
habitat build a brand new home but they have um another um faction called the crew and the crew's actually been able to help us um throughout their entire school year with this project it's been really fun getting the kids out multiple times a week they're coming in they're working directly um with the Woodland
Park families on painting fixing fascia fixing sof all that so the crew uh the crew the students on the crew are able to work directly with the families and our other volunteers and vendors that come out um we had 80 other additional volunteers so far with more scheduled um
coming out and joining us to spruce up Woodland Park um and Woodland Park if you haven't been through it it's very different now than it was um a few months ago um so I want to give an opportunity to Sheila and Miss Cita um they're going to speak a little bit I want you guys to hear directly from some
of the families that are able to participate and have helped us get others to participate you know it's very hard to say sure I'll let you come on to my property and work on my home so they've been um crucial in in getting these families to to commit to us so I'll invite michila and
C we the Wen Park Community would like to extend our thanks and gr gratitude to commissioner Alison Barry and the Habitat for Humanity of lebur lebur high school construction Academy students and all volunteers from
Lake and suta county for all their hard work at this time in helpen us Revitalize the [Music] neighborhood hi I'm Chita Foster and I stay at 2106 Woodland
Boulevard in AKA Hollywood so um I want to say thank y'all so much I want to give a special shout out to the University of Toledo and the the Knights of Columbus that's a nice group they help no complaints
nothing and the Hollywood Community is looking like Hollywood it looks good y'all y'all need to ride through and check it out I am so proud of my neighborhood now and I thank y'all so again we get to connect these families directly with people coming
into their Community to help serve them um one of my favorite things about the spruce of the block party and it goes back to why we created this was to connect with the community and um so often times communities get told what they need and we wanted to change the
script a little bit and ask them what they need um so this has been a really great project just a couple more things so yes a big shout out a big thanks to the city of leberg for supporting us in this it's a big uh undertaking and then also to the leeburg high school construction Academy for helping us um I
know he's not here but I do want to shout out Dan McCully he is the construction Academy leader for the crew not the dream but the crew that's been in Woodland Park every week and he has been instrumental and the the support that he's given us he's LED our volunteers on site when our staff
couldn't be there he's been fabulous and we could not do it without the support of you here and with leberg high school and uh Mr mccauly he's very wonderful and I want to take you guys through a few of the before and afters I've got here um so this one um we did exterior
painting and we're we're hoping to add a little bit of landscaping so you can see um little things make a big difference this one um is a great example we did some soften and facial repair we repaired the the ceiling of their car port and we did exterior paint
and uh as you can see in the the after photo you would think man what habitat got rid of all their grass why would we do that so actually that's that first photo is all weeds so it's not actual grass and and we didn't get rid of it actually inspired us being in the neighborhood inspired the family to do things they've needed to do for a while
they had someone come in and help them clear it and they plan to do more whether they're going to plant grass or or or um put saw down but that's what this is about it's about inspiring the community to serve themselves to get out there with a paintbrush and help us help them and help your neighbor and um you
know inspire you to do those little things you've been putting off that it's just the outside of my house yeah but your neighbors drive past that and when they get to drive past their community and feel proud and feel that that sense of wow we did this together it's really special um this last one um is a really
good example of a lot of the clearing we did you can't see it a lot of it was in the back but we cleared 10 foot of brush um so that they have more yard more space um we removed uh rotting wood minor porch repairs a door patio and home painting so not every house gets
the same things but again you know we're we're working with each family to provide what what we can and what they may need in that situation um so connecting with these families and getting closer to to connecting them with with what they need and with people in their community that they might not know we're
there but they do now and they have that special connection you always have friends in Toledo um okay so um I would like to end with inviting you guys to our spruce up the block party the actual Party part um we're going to have food and all kinds
of fun on March 29th Danielle did send you guys out an invite we would love for you guys to RSVP with us because we're going to have two options you can come out in the morning at 8: a.m. you can roll up your sleeves and you can do some volunteering we're going to be putting out some Mulch and some Landscaping um as my construction guy Kevin likes to
call um putting the bow on so we're we're going to be out there putting bows on these projects doing the last final Staples of the the beautification and then at um at uh around 11:30 we're going to start the party so we're going to have food and some fun some entertainment we would love for you guys to come out and join us in celebrating
all of the hard work that's gone into Woodland Park and how beautiful it is Hollywood um I'm sorry any questions I I wanted to save enough time I don't have any questions but I just would like to thank you and please pass the word on to Danielle I have spoken
with her I am so elated to see that the interest is taken in an area where it was much needed as a start a small project that could take throughout leeburg area if we all just join hands and try to make a Improvement where we
live thank you so much for your time and the energy that has been spent I'm really elated very very excited if you haven't been through in the past few weeks I tell you what we uh we really stepped it up we're like you know we're getting to the end of the school year let's step it up a little bit and get these done any other anybody else I just want to say thank you Miss Veronica you
did you filled Danielle's shoes well you did a great job and thank you for the presentation it was very uh well and it's eye opening to see the Transformations and we look forward to continuing this thank you thank you guys so [Music] much next we move to the 2026 commission
seat redistrict redistricting proposal [Music] uh good evening everybody um let me just I'll go through this real quick back in January uh commissioner mayor reesman
brought this up uh redistricting for the city of leeburg I think when we redistrict um back a few years ago we kind of knew this was coming uh because of the villages and and how to deal with that growth because we knew once the villages grew and at the pace they grew it was going to inundate one commission
District or another um so with that just a little quick history if I find the right clicker here um so uh we we changed districts back in 21 um from the the the the old uh setup where we were three uh commission
districts one two and three with two at large um that's kind of how we were uh and then we switched to the five single member districts um and that was the breakdown uh as it is uh the growth area is is is pretty much the villages which is this section right in here and
current District Two which is which is mar reesman's District um so when we went on uh back in 21 um to redistrict the the the the districts uh couple of the guidelines there wanted to have
everything as far as population it it uh it and it's not voter age but its population in the district uh we want that as equal as follows you want to follow census blocks or are significant boundaries roads streets Rivers Creeks
those type of things we want districts to be contiguous and as compact as possible um we want to preserve communities of interest um so if you have a a group of elderly or younger folks or whatever you know those are type areas that you that you do want to
keep in communities of interest because everybody's interest is a little bit different we don't and and then on the flip side you don't want to dilute interests um you want to as much as possible protect incumbents um so our next election is uh
is 26 um and and up for election is is is Mayor rean commissioner Barry um commissioner Peterson is termed out um so those are the three districts that are up so really so of the districts redrawing the seats that are of most
interest to protect incumbency is to is to protect seat two and seat one uh because those Commissioners or those elected officials really have the right to seek reelection in a district that elected them in the first place so so that's a significant issue with
redistricting um and then and then you don't want to do anything crazy and bizarre um although we we do see that happen from time to time um some other rules of thumb uh your population you want to keep plus or minus 3% uh you we want to you want to see the
continuation of a majority minority District um and one of the things that make redistricting um a little bit difficult now is we're doing it in an off year so the data that we're using is similar to the 2020 data from the Census
that came out in 21 um but uh we did a couple of things to to to weave in new data um so I wanted to go over those with you so the first thing that we used is is we did continue to use the same census blocks but the census department has what they call the American census
survey so every year the federal government does their best to update the census um it's not it it's not as uh as widely accepted as the census which is which comes out every 10 years but it is seen as a good data source um we also
have building permits uh so we know where houses have been constructed in lesburg since 21 um and then the probably the biggest deviation that we use to extrapolate data uh for
population as well as um a as well as demographically we use two different numbers which I think are are acceptable numbers um so in areas that were outside the villages it's pretty widely accepted that a household has 2.3 persons per
unit um so what we did is when we where we knew we had new housing we know we have that data so like Eagle Tail the new subdivisions that have popped up outside of the villages we knew how many houses came in from today to 21 and so we multiplied that by
2.3 to get uh a population number um but in the villages we took a little bit of different approach and we took uh a population number of 1.9 so in the and and we got that number from The Villages because that's the demographic data they use so we mix um
we know the villages has a different demographic than typical community we know they're elderly we know they're a little bit more of means um and we know that there's a little bit less of a household number per household so we use their numbers Our concern was that if we
used 2.3 for the villages we knew that that would be that would overestimate our populations and then it would inversely give the villages too much population so where we would draw too many seats so that's why we Ed two different numbers um so on the face I'm
going to say I think we used extremely Sound Logic we reviewed this with with Grant um the I the it and GIS Department I got a tip my hat to them they did a great job uh putting all these togethers and then it became extremely cumbersome in terms of trying to carve everything
up keeping all those goals in mind so this is what we came up with um so I'm going to skip right past this because as soon as as soon as we came up with this map um it commissioner canel got with me
and pointed out um a deviation so let me just go to the deviation because the deviation is is really the better proposal I think for the villages and the City of leeburg um so each of the seats so our population with those
extrapolation methods I I put forth just a second ago is about 32750 persons divide that by five plus or minus so we didn't want to see a a a a district seat that was less than 63 00
people but not more than 6,700 people so our districts we were really able to carve out and hit each number um pretty much on the button so district one and and I'm I'm G drop the word proposed but obviously until this is adopted these
are all proposed districts and proposed population figures so District number one is is population of about 6,528 people District number one is really tricky because District number one has historically been our minority District
uh since the mid90s and to to be able to get a majority minority in that District you really need two census blocks that are 80% African-American and if you don't get those two census blocks into
that District you can't get 50% uh African-American District the majority minority and those two districts on opposite sides of town so that makes it difficult um and that District block is up here in Carver Heights and then over here on Pine
Street so to get a district one that's a representative of majority minority you got to carve this District out um and so when you look at kind of what we did um when we did this before we got these inverse C's here um and and those
probably aren't the typical districts you want to see but they keep within the meets and Bounds but this year uh when we went back through keeping into making sure we have pine and Carver together in one District we were able to carve that
out um next district is District Two um District 2 had about 6,517 people so again really representative population wise um and the problem that we had with District Two of all the the growth issues that we've had that we've talked
about that we've brought in outside of the villages we've still seen kind of moderate growth to today around three 3 to 4% so it hasn't been crazy but what we saw was The Villages moved in to District number two and so a seat when
it was carved up in 21 that had about 5,500 people in it had 3200 new homes times the 1.9 so about 6,000 people moved into that District so as we sit right now District 2 is up for reelection in 26 and it has about 12,000
people that live in it so it's clearly malapportioned so and I and and that again was brought to us our attention we we knew it and and commissioner Rees mayor reesman also brought that up um back in January so um what we do here
basically is is to to to make that correct we we come up with a village district and so what does that Village District look like our first cut of it just took in and created new District three which was just the villages um the
second cut of it after talking with commissioner canel is um we put in the undeveloped area of the villages into that District so that's basically secret promise and what was Renaissance Trails
is now all of this property uh that the that the villages bought from us which is which is pretty much everything north of the turnpike along 470 which they bought from the city but then the villages bought this little chunk here they bought secret promise and they brought the old Renaissance trails um so
all that all this area of the villages let's call it South of the turnpike and south of 470 probably going to be developed say in the next three to seven years um The Villages pattern is kind of gone they came in they filled in villages of West Lake north of 470
they've gone back up now working in Suter County but when that development is completed we anticipate that they return south of 470 probably start in the leeburg area again and then work back into Suter County I think probably say the 20 this is my
great crystal ball right so probably the 2030 census depending on how quick The Villages moves back into that area is when we'll see these this area get developed um but for now there's there was there were the grand total change in population shift since I talked to
commissioner canel was 40 people so that that was a good one to shift and it and I and what I like about this concept um was um it keeps the villages which was our goal really which was the intent I think of the voters when we passed the referendum
was to keep the villages as much as we could in one single District seat so that certainly keeps within that the thing I don't like about the concept was I didn't think of it myself so uh I I should have saw that we just we kept it
we we we basically kept old District old District 3 is District 3 um you know which which now incorporates that that developed portion of of The Villages so when we got the number we were happy and ecstatic that we we got the number and we didn't do the the the one more
obvious Next Step which is you know we should take all that undeveloped area um here and stick it into that Village's District um and District Four then becomes all of South leeburg um so
really the the dividing line becomes kind of core old lesburg District 2 down to 48 8 and then everything that's not in the Villages or owned by The Villages south of 48 is District 4 um District three becomes the villages and then
District five is probably the the biggest change of the districts as as as as far as geography numbers it's a little bit bigger at 6,500 almost 6600 people but it really incorporates kind of three areas of the of the of the
community being Sunnyside Beverly Shore and and kind of South leberg pelmore Park area so we wrap all those together um I think it's a really representative mat uh map I think they're they're good sound districts as far as population I think they're good sound districts as
far as communities of interest that we encapsulate and and uh even I think what's better with this map than our first stab at it in 21 was uh they really do become a lot more um Compact and contiguous uh meeting pretty much
all the litus standards uh when you redistrict um so that that that's our modified proposal for you on your desk um because I was out last week I brought in the modified map um there's no action on this tonight other than whatever
input you'll have um if you if you all are happy with where we're at the the next step is just to put it in the ordinance form and then to adopt it um the other the other um a little bit uh that that I'm remiss if I don't go into
this as far as an organizational setup um and the ordinance um which I I think I sent out a copy of that to you in the in the packets but I didn't put it up here for the public but the ordinance is a is a standard ordinance uh but the meat of the ordinance typically states
that uh these districts these new drawn districts uh go into effect um for the TW November 2026 election so that when people come to qualify in Andy office next summer um they they will need to
have lived in one of those districts for 6 months which is the basic criteria um and the that they go into effect for the election so but they don't take effect until your organizational meeting um and
that's because uh uh two reasons commissioner Peterson's termed out so commissioner Peterson lives down there in palur Park which is actually his district district four is going away because district four and five get Blended together so commissioner
Peterson is going to be a commissioner through the organizational meeting so you don't want to get rid of a district that he represents until that time and same with commissioner canel even though commissioner canel lives down there in Arlington Ridge which is current
District three his district uh takes on uh a little bit less area uh because of the growth in South leeburg uh but he he still has two more terms uh so he The Proposal is to reassign commissioner
canel uh from existing District three to new proposed District Four which is obenson canel is termed out and kind of the same thing also happens with commissioner Barry um he he although he lives over here in Sunnyside the new
part of his district for the same reasons as commissioner canel he absorbs kind of that South pomar Park area um but he then gets assigned that District in January so that's the ordinance sets all that out uh so that's really the report
whatever feedback you have uh if you guys are happy with it we'll move forward um if you want to see some more shots at redraw on lines we can do that any feedback from the Commissioners I compliment you I think you did a great job oned Al I'm fine
with it all right seeing none we'll move on thank you thank you Al next we're going to move to public comments this section is reserved from one presentation who oh no we don't I'm sorry I'm ahead of myself we're going to move to public comments you're good this section is
reserved for members of the public to bring up matters of concern or opportunities of Praise please note that issues raised during this time will not be discussed in detail during the current meeting they will either be referred to the appropriate staff or scheduled for consideration at a future city commission meeting each speaker is allocated 3 minutes to provide their
comments kindly adhere to this time limit to ensure equal opportunity for all participants and to support the efficient conduct of the meeting thank you do we have any public comments when you come to the mic if you would please state your name and address for the record thank you good evening my name is Vonda Parker
my name is Max Parker Jr and we are the founder and co-founder of Vmax for one Community Incorporated we wanted to publicly thank you Commissioners for coming out and participating on March the 1st boxing Legends fashion runway um
showcase you did an amazing job and on behalf of our youth and parents and um we just want to publicly thank you and we have a little token for you today in addition we understand that commission canel had another obligation also we
have a token for you sir we wanted to bring the video but it was too long to show shate you not bringing it oh oh you wow blown up photos oh thank you thank you very much thank you thank
you very much [Music] [Laughter] I was Hing there were no photos yes ma'am all right good evening uh my name is Jen McCurry I live in palur park and I'm a founding member of
the Street Dreams cruising Corp a local nonprofit organization that facilitates the main street car show as you may know our mission with the leeburg main street car show has never changed we were and are committed to providing a safe and free family
event for the entire Community while driving fot traffic and potential Revenue to downtown leeburg merchants and to our sponsors in addition we continue to drive awareness and raise funds for Charities throughout our area we're extremely grateful to our sponsors who recognize the potential to
grow the car show into an event that would benefit all however we continue to have to cancel our event last minute with little to no notice from the city of leeburg each time we cancel we're still responsible for the cost associated with
that event in each event we cancel we missed the opportunity to drive foot traffic into the downtown market and missed the opportunity to help worthwhile causes in our community in the 18 months since we separated from the partnership the event has been canceled last minute five times
it was almost canceled an additional two times above that but we were able to scramble and pull it off once because of the mayor helping us us out one weekend for the times the show was cancelled the city forgot to deliver the barricades for safety we cannot hold an
event without the barricades and last month had it not been for a city employee who ran into Rick and asked about the car show being cancelled we wouldn't have had the event in February either then last week on March 5th we received an email from a cruiser asking about the Arts Festival being scheduled
at the same time as the car show we knew nothing about it no one in the city had contacted us we sent an email that evening explaining March is our largest event each year and our charity this month was to help pay for funeral services for an officer who had passed
away we had 147 cars last month and there was an hour wait at most restaurants to be seated we packed out downtown we expected closer to 200 this month so we spent the next two days in a heated
discussion and it appears that the phrase our permit quote weekly availability is at the sole discretion of the city manager or designate translates to we can cancel your event and give it to someone else I honestly thought that the phrase meant if you wanted a weekly permit it
would be up to the city manager when reviewing the application itself it only gives direction if the applicant wants to cancel the event I could not locate anything about the city canceling the permit you received once the application is approved does have
the Clause special event permit may be revoked by the city of leeburg if the applicant violates any state county or local regulations to sum up all this information after having to cancel 26% of all of our events in the past 18 months we're starting to get the feeling
we're not wanted and we cannot continue to run an event when we throw money out the window 26% of the time it just doesn't make sense to do so so I have several suggestions and a question Miss McCarthy your your three minutes is is up okay
thank you um Al do you yeah um I will I'll be in touch with Miss McCarthy um Travis brought McCurry I'm sorry sorry um I will be in touch with Miss McCurry um I this attention this issue was brought to my attention
today um so some of the data that she brought up I was not aware of until this moment um she did send an email which I did not get the chance to review today but I will get with Travis and obviously we've got some logistical issues obviously every event is important to
the city and it sounds like we've got some work that we need to do to repair relationships and and fix the event so we'll be we'll be on it thank you yes ma'am good evening Dr Eric Jasper on behalf of the men of Distinction I just want to thank the city of leeburg and
also the city commission for showing up and just showing out at our Gaya doing Black History Month and also the black her Festival we had a grand time we've gotten so much positive feedack back and also it was just a great day and a beautiful day for the parade the festival on that Saturday and thank you
all for joining us for the Gayla so thank you so much for your participation really really appreciate it thank you any other public comments yes sir uh hello my name is Dr geralo Rodriguez I've been a city resident for
21 years and I am an Abid tennis player so I just want to bring up to Mr Mayor and the city commission and I know PR your budget will be refurbishing or resurfacing the cores located at water and peretto Street I mean I know it's
been over five years since any kind of uh resurfacing was done and the course are beginning to show the wear and tear um they're very used the lebor high school used them fact is we cannot play with it there but we wait until the finish so we know those course are used
they are a major major part of the city of Leber for tennis players and especially because they have night livs which is wonderful so you can look at your city budget I would appreciate it and keep it in mind for the tennis players and for health thank you doctor
thank you any other public comments seeing none we'll move to consent agenda routine items are placed on the consent agenda to expedite the meeting if the commission or staff wish to discuss any item the procedure is as follows one pull the items from the consent agenda two vote on the remaining items of one
roll call vote three discuss each pulled item and vot by roll call are there any items the Commissioners would like to pull tonight 5 C4 any other items is there a motion to approve all the remaining items yeah so moved
second call commissioner conell yes commissioner bur yes commissioner Peterson yes commissioner Barry yes mayor reesman yes would someone please introduce 5c 4 5c4 to be read by title yes
ma'am resolution of the city Commission of city of lebur Florida authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute a Construction Services agreement with GSB construction and development Inc to build a rest facility at John L Johnson
Park and providing an effective date motion to approve second discussion yeah so so I'm the one that pulled it U I reviewed the contract from beginning to end and I it for number one for contractual purposes I never found the square footage you know I thought it should be in there there may be an exhibit missing but I it wasn't in there
number two I was just trying to do the math on a per square foot basis but my first comment was probably more important it's a long contract and I read it a couple times you know trying to find the square footage just FYI I'm I'm not going to vote it down I'm just bringing to your ATT so I can tell you the square
footage it's it's it it's a copy it's it's a copy of our existing rest rooms which you which are at ski Beach and um where was The Other Place 800 800 square okay so and is so Ski Beach and where we
put where's the other place we put one of those up Barry Park same restroom same style so and just and I'll just recap and I don't mean to be long-winded but we had put this in the budget in 23 um and we spent about the same number about 250 Grand building these so that
number is about the same as it was before but you guys kicked this back to us uh because we tried to go a cheaper route and the cheaper route ended up being twice as expensive by going a prefab all concrete model and trying to keep it aesthetically pleasing so when
we we were busting the budget on that you guys sent that back to us and said cheapen this up so we went back to scratch which was to use the old construction plans which we got from uh Jamie Senator as our architect so we had to pay him about 2500 bucks to to get
the his rights to reuse his plans uh we ended up paying Keith riddle about 20 grand or 18 or so uh to to do the site plan work and then we went out uh in bid and so the Construction contract is what's before you at 244 so we had
300,000 in the budget and Allin will be about 265 divided by your 800 you get your yeah I did that math okay I'm I'm fine thank you any other comments any public comments comments seeing none roll call commissioner bur yes commissioner
Peterson yes commissioner Barry yes commissioner canell yes mayor re yes we Have No public hearings and non- routine items second readings we have none first readings we have none non-routine items would someone please introduce 6
C1 introduce has to be read by title only resolution of the city Commission of the city of leeburg Florida appointing members to The beautification Advisory committee and providing an effective date move for approval yeah second
second um if any of the applicants are here we would like if you would like to come up just give a brief you know 30 second Spiel um that why you feel like you should be on the uh the board and we'll go from there do you want the
timer yeah all we'll just we have 30 seconds can even good evening Dr Erica Jasper once again um I've applied for this uh committee because I think it's important lesburg is my home I was born and raised here um I've been active in the community since God knows when um I
was active in the CRA board within the cleaning cleaning up projects and I just think that this is an opportunity just to take a beautification efforts to another level um as we saw earlier Habitat for Humanity came forth with their beautification inspiring the community and I would just love to see
leeburg as we continue to grow with extended tourism and also the residential side how our city can grow and be can be recognized for a beautiful city so I'd just love to be a part of this and just take it to another level so thank you than you Dr Jasper good evening Paula Jordan um two
fold I applied for this because well I've lived here for about 30 years and I agree with um all the sentiments that our city is beautiful and green spaces and color non litter those all make for
happiness and a a feeling of well-being secondly I I facilitate a little known program uh through Liv stream to where our students go out into the parks every Wednesday for approximately two two and a half
hours and we pick up trash and I would like to see that continue and I would like to expand that uh program for those students to assist them and developing uh an attachment to
their City the community that they live in and give them some more opportunities for vocational experiences as well as maybe you know planting some flowers or painting some park benches or whatever
that could possibly turn out to be but I would like to see that program program to be expanded so that's a secondary reason for applying for this position thank you thank you Mr Ordon de man nles um I'm the coach at
Leb High School a realtor of Central Florida I'm also involved in many Community um around lesburg uh when I came from college my goal and vision was to come back to the community and show my younger generation that we can be involved in many organizations in many
uh boards so that is one of my reasons for joining and applying for this committee because I believe that if I could stand uh Stand and Show that you could come home and you could be a part of organizations you could be a part of boards and you continue to help and grow your city that you came from thank you
thank you hello my name is Diane Vanetta and I have raised my two children here in the city of leeburg we've been here for 25 years and I would really like to be a part of it because one of my focus is is on youth gardening I work a lot with our
public schools and we do school Gardens I would really like to see some edible plants flowers uh vegetables much like they mentioned before really with a focus on the youth and educating them and getting them inv involved so if they have a place to come they have people
that are willing to go there with them and teach them uh I think it would mean a lot to the community thank hi my name is is Britney Leonard and we um my husband and I we remodeled houses for 10 years in North Carolina and um I had my real estate license and
we would follow the market um we recently moved here about two and a half years ago and we opened a business in downtown leeburg um it's a a home decor store and um you know I don't claim to be an expert in any area but uh we would
help in any way that we could and um would love to see leberg grow we we love the growth that we've seen already just being here you know the last year that we've been here um and we know that leberg has a lot of potential so we would love to be a part of it I would
wish I'll thank you Miss hi my name is Lisa Humphries and my parents moved to um leeburg in 1969 and I've been here my whole life I love this town I love to do anything that I can to
um take care and preserve lebur to make it the that it can be so that's why I'd like to be on this committee thank you hi I'm Deb Jane with bases loaded and I am already a part of keep Lake beautiful on the advisory committee and
also a volunteer for America and Bloom and I've lived here in leeburg for about five years now and this is my forever Earthly home so I love it here and I'm here to keep it clean technically yes [Music]
all I have to say seven applicants for a new board is impressive I hope I wish we got all these kind of this many applicants on all of our other boards um we had seven show up tonight and I think we had nine or 10 nine or 10 10
apply so would the commission like to make any recommendations um yes I'd like to uh nominate Diane vetta okay we have we have Diane Vanetta uh I would like to nominate uh Lisa
Humphries if if it fall possible um and then I any um I think it's really cool to have some fresh new blood coming onto the boards um I was really impressed with a lot of the applicants um do you want to speak on that or do you want me
[Music] toit we'll just wait okay um and then do you guys have any other recommendations or well we have right now we have Diane Vanetta Lisa humph um any other you guys
I mean yeah I'll nominate Dr Erica Jasper and I would okay and then any other or if not I'll make another recommendation of if Paula
Jordan um so it it was brought to my attention um there may be an organizational conflict with one of the rep one of the nominees it was a last minute thing that popped up with dman Nettles because he serves on another board there was an organizational conflict I don't think
you can serve on two boards you can only serve on one board when they're totally different differently related I I'll refer to Grant or Al yeah I think um it it depends on on what the authority of the board is if the board has any final decision making
Authority then I think excuse me then I think it's problematic to be on multiple boards you know there could be some difficulties I guess with being on multiple boards and trying to avoid Sunshine issues uh in terms of uh making
sure you you keep track of the folks that you can only really converse with sort of in the uh public meeting sphere um but I think really the you know the primary legal concern would be if there were final decision making Authority on one of those boards and if
you were on two of them then you might have a dual office problem I think would be the what is the conflict of The Other Board what is the other board that on the rec board theard and the rec board and the beautification is a either one I I don't know do either one of them have
final decision- making Authority I don't think Planning and Zoning is the only one I think that has not a there's not a conflict as far as far as as far as I'm concerned with that can I make another recommendation or is that we haven't voted yet okay all
[Music] um and the board contains how many people five five people okay never mind I CL I thought it was nine but you're saying okay we had 10 apply and the board sits five I'm just trying to be sure we're
all cleared um dman does serve on the west leberg CDC but that c that's not okay I thought that was our board I thought that was the one way joined us is why I brought that up okay that's a volunteer so right now everyone's if
everyone we have Paula Jordan Dr Erica Jasper Miss Diane benetta Lisa humph and deanii nettles do we have any objections or other recommendations can we get a motion to approve those nominees we accept the
Nom second we have a second or a motion and a second roll call commissioner Peterson yes commissioner Barry yes commissioner conill yes commissioner bur yes mayor Rees yes would someone please
introduce 6 C2 I'll introduce nby R by Tyle L uh Susan Street update US 27 entryway discussion and commission Direction I will pass that on to Al yeah this item is has been brought to
your attention uh because of of a potential major deviation in the concept um we have obviously uh done the Susan Street Pro uh project in a design bid build fashion so we we went out took your input we designed those Concepts uh
those Concepts then went to bid we picked a construction firm you all approved that uh with a 3 to2 vote and approved about a $10.5 million project uh with Kingdom Construction to build the the plans uh that were presented to
you a few months back um the issue that we have uh with the project now is we had anticipated and hoped that we would be able to bring a uh major entrance way to Susan Street park off of
us27 um to do that we had to work with three Property Owners uh Within which is Benderson which is the Gateway Plaza Pat sales and the Pizza Hut um and long story short there for differ reasons
we've only got one affirmative response uh from Pizza Hut in the negative which they did not want to give us access so that alone kind of styes the the ability of us to come through uh that area um we
had some correspondence with their attorneys we've probably had over a year correspondence with the various entities um but long story short um the the last correspondence we had with the Pizza Hut Corporation was through their attorney who's a imminent domain attorney from
Jacksonville um was Pizza Hut was not interested because of parking concerns but they could be interested for uh renumeration so we asked how much they wanted they never responded back to us and with that we left it um and and we
haven't really push the envelope with any of the other property owners in this joint venture to get access uh but we're also getting to the point to where we're ready to pull the trigger issue notice to proceed to the contractor and start
the project I didn't feel comfortable uh signing off on notice to proceed with this big question uh because I think we sold the commission uh a project that we anticipated that would come off 27 I think our disc said we had some issues
with with the with the concept so I would be back to you if anything popped up so I'm back to you so with that debrief let me give you Travis um and Travis will kind of give you more of a scope of the the plans the costs and
kind of some of the options that we're here for you tonight and and based on your input it it's it's um we put it in resolution form to wherever you would want to whatever your direction will be based on this we'll move forward based on the discussion here tonight so this
is really the the final discussion amongst you all uh on to go or no go or modify the plan on Susan Street or what have you so Travis take it away all right good evening mayor Commissioners I did not think we were going to have to be back here but we are
so um do you want to pull up the presentation so we just go right to the next slide Al summed up the entrance way pretty well I believe this is this is the entrance way that we had proposed uh the the three property owners that are there
we Pat sales Pizza Hut and Gateway Plaza um if you look at it on a on a computer that you can zoom in on it does show the red lines on here show where the properties um all come together so uh Pat sales has a little triangle that
comes that Jets out in here it's just this little area there Pizza Hut has has right in this area and then the rest of it is Gateway Plaza all the way through the back um so this is this was the plan it would just beautify the area put some Landscaping Landscaping would would kind
of match their other entrances that that are are at the plaza coming down um 27 and this is what we had this is what we had proposed this was the the plan that you guys had soled last time um and and had approved we got the the four
four fullsize grass rugby Fields one uh Championship turf field and an auxili we call the auxiliary soccer field because it was we couldn't fit another rugby size field so we throw it threw it auxiliary soccer field in there um and then parking lot there coming off of
coming off of 27 past those those properties okay so with with all the discussion with the the Kings x no from from Pizza Hut right now uh the discussion we had with with Al was you know do we move the entrance or
um I think I I believe it was brought to his attention to to maybe dumb down the project down to to more of like a $5 million project we got with our with half our architect and engineer to see what what would that $5 million project look like um and this is what this is what it would be so we would have the uh
five football soccer size uh Fields parking parking would stay in it's kind of its current location um but it'd be all an all grass parking parking area the existing restrooms can concession stand and Press Box would all would all
be the same um the uh we'd have a PA system on this is what we would call field one uh in that the southeast if you guys are looking up there the southeast Corner field um would have a PA system and Wi-Fi at that field and the reason we'd keep it there is because that's where the Press Box would be uh
we would reuse all the the current the current bleachers that are that are there right now for the baseball and football field and then they would be they would would be lighted so we that that in this plan the lights are are the big cost lights are very expensive when
we go to go to lighting Fields um and there's too much too much moving around to just move the current lights we would we would need to go with with newer lights um so that would be the the the $5 million option keep keep all existing um facilities except uh bulldo in the
fields and turning them into into football fields instead of baseball fields so the plan that we're proposing we go to uh is this plan so it's the same exact plan as the the the original plan it
just comes off we have the entrance coming off of William Street uh which is just a little didn't measure it maybe 500 yards north of of the entrance by Pizza Hut uh it's just on the other side of Pat sales and then we have an
entryway coming from that would connect William Street to um the parking lot I think one of the major keys of this would be that nothing in the plans has to change nothing we would have to move the parking lot we wouldn't move any of
the FI the fields so if at any time that the property owners um would want to re-engage in discussion on going back to that 27 entrance it is always there and available uh we we'd have we have a we would have a fence there with this current plan take the fence out put a
gate and there's there's our entrance right back into into that that um parking lot we do feel that that once once the project is done and and I think the the positive impacts are are more evident in that area I think some of the
property owners will at least open up that discussion back up um the local Managers from Pizza Hut I've talked to both of them and they're very positive about it it's just there's a disconnect between them and the property owners um so I I think I think if we get good uses
in there uh good uses always about bad uses if we get good uses in there I think the we have the opportunity to re-engage with those those property owners and if it never comes along we still have the the entrance off William Street um we have a a great facility
that's a dual use facility for our local our local Youth and tourism um we do feel if you go back to that $5 million plan it turns into a single use facility uh which would be a great facility for for our youth but it does lose the appeal for the the the outside tourism
um five grass fields isn't going to isn't going to drive um people from across the country to come here um so that is that is the keys to this one one thing that I did not have on this slide and I intentionally did leave it off is the Marquee sign that's the one big
difference in besides the entrance and the two the two um highlighted areas and we want to have a marquee sign it's just we just got to figure out how we do it and where we do it the dot property at The 44127 Interchange we just had to work with do
to figure out how and where we could have one um so that's a discussion we started having with our architect engineer and construction guy so that is one thing it's not that we aren't going to have one it's just we don't know exactly where it would go right now we
had to figure that out um if this is the option that we go with so if you go to the last slide so this is the budget um I think we've seen these numbers quite a bit the taking that entrance away we do we do save about
$300,000 that entrance way was going to cost more than that but but there is a cost that's going to we have to move some utilities to come off Williams Street and um and then Paving that road to come in so it's about a $300,000 savings um going to that to that William
Street entrance uh I think the biggest key in this project is that that even at $10.5 million City funds are coming up with three and A5 million of that um so we you know we're on the hook for 33% of the of the entire project um if
you if you follow at all which I do the sports tourism world right now there are are multiple uh facilities being being built in in Central Florida and and especially East Central Florida that are anywhere from 30 million to $130 million aoi just approved a billion doll
facility so um there's a lot of money being being thrown into these facilities and I think a $ three and A5 million do investment from the city is is would be good to to bring in the tourism and and good for our youth in the in the city yeah just so so to wrap up uh
obviously we answer any questions and we're seeking your direction but you're really left with three options which is uh the current plan but we come off William Street which we estimate the cost to be 10.5 million uh total City funds in 3.5 or million of the 10.5 so
about 33% uh the second option would be to reduce the scale of the project to just uh basic change over to rectangle Fields uh not including the rugby fields and not doing some of the bells and whistles
with the the championship field so uh that was the $5 million option in that project we think we would lose the county TDC funding um but then we wouldn't need as much of the CRA funding uh so Allin 5 million uh with about 1.4
million of City funds so about 29% so uh the summation is not to do the project at all and cancel it to do the $5 million version or to do the current plan but come off of Williams and not
us27 any commissioner comments on this I have a question in reference to the um entrance signage could you not do it off of Williams I mean what is the reason no we would do it off of Williams sign would be on Williams yeah we didn't have signage in the budget remember even at
that $10.5 million there's still what was there still a two or $300,000 contingency that's in embedded in the $10.8 million contract so that's still there um so you would you probably would have money to do some type of marquee
signage out at say Williams in us27 which is by the old Burger King and the north side of Pat Pat sales [Music] yeah have a couple questions and a
statement also um as far as the access off of 27 when this came up I don't know six nine months ago a year ago I cautioned on spending any money on engineering Consulting fees to obtain an
access easement before we even spoke to the property owners um and it was still voted four to one U so just cost us $100,000 to find out we can't even get access I still believe that this
commission continues to put the cart in front of the horse on spending of money uh there's certain things we should just obtain or at least get a verbal consent before we start spending money um we spent 300 $350,000 less month on stuff
that we had to cancel so that's you know $450,000 we wasted in the last several months on projects we're not even going to do uh with that said I wanted to make that statement as far as William Street what is the width of this uh RightWay I
guess you're proposing to put a a road through will it was right right around 30 ft and and I believe our our architect engineer looked into it and they needed 22 so and at 30 ft with 22t of asphalt you can still accommodate the
storm water so he had said that the 22 feet was was for the entire road so I so I don't think it's 22 ft of asphalt right i' I'd have to get with them and as okay so we can still get drainage in a street in a 30 foot wide access easen okay so this
is this I mean because actually it's not an access easan it's property we own but okay I mean because the picture was a little vague is this running through down yeah I got I got what you show but it didn't like wasn't like an aerial sh houses it running between houses yes well it's a big one house
yeah it's that big green spot right there yes the one house on the west side so we're going to divert all this traffic between houses off of William Street I mean with all due respect commissioner that's how it is now you go you go through you go through a neighborhood to get to the park so
what's the advantage of putting the road in and just versus leaving the exess the way it is if will you go back to the modification keep going go yeah there use that plan so what with the shift in fields to get the larger size
rugby fields which are about 30% bigger than a football field we needed to Ed all the Westside property and we needed to expand it South into the wetlands hence the Wetland mitigation so to get the configuration of the five rugby siiz
Fields a little teeny soccer field and there that that is not being built at this time and then the parking lot we had to configure the parking that way so to come in and use the existing Susan Street access would not enable us to to
put in the larger Fields so we're trying to get to the park a we were trying to get to the park off the highway now with the major reconfiguration so if we can't get it to off the highway we still want the
concept but what now becomes the easiest and cheapest alternative to connect to the new parking lot is off of Williams instead of Susan so remember the current way to get into Susan Street is Griffin to Pamela to Williams to
Susan unless you come in off of Williams which probably only the locals know about and zoom straight across so what this concept does is it's it's pretty much the entry as is now and and instead of going all the way to Susan which we need for grassy area and storm water to
get the stuff we're going to take the diversion off of Williams how how long is how long is this new proposed uh strip going to be off of Williams to get to the parking lot 300 yards or so and what's so what's the
cost not actually not even 300 yards probably like yard what's the cost of David 300 or 150 yard of of asphalt to accommodate one what's the engineering cost on this so he the he um estimated
$75,000 for that entrance that would Mo be moving all the utilities adding any utilities we needed and asphalting um you're going to Asphalt 100 what you say 150 ft or 150 yards yards it's going to be at least 150 yards going to Asphalt
150 yards at 202t width of asphalt accommodate storm water and move utilities for that price that's our our Ian from Kingdom Construction gave us the numbers you ended that with an upwards inflection in
your voice indicates a question so having said that the estimate of the $10.5 million the reduction of 300,000 is in consultation with the contractor and the engineer based on the unit prices so they reported back to us when
we said how much is it going to cost can we get in this way what's the price going to be to do the alternate concept that number comes from the contractor commissioner any other commissioner comments before we open up for public goe goad oh I have a question please Al
just show me again so if the William Street entrance is by the old burer kinge you will have to tr travel South on 441 or it just comes across I mean to turn in so you could go down Griffin turn on pen and drive stra
into it but off of 2 or you turn it Captain D's onto Williams microphone oh sorry I can hear you I hear you so but right now though in order to get to Captain D's you have to go around if you're traveling north on 27 correct
yeah so you have to go yeah you have to go to Griffin and then come back up 27 or Griffin to Pamela I got it I got it yeah okay thank you yeah I got it now that's what I was trying to figure out
and Williams yes and straight in to the [Music] facility so I supported this project at 4 and a half million uh some of this is
redundant but um and and then it went to 7.5 um I started choking a little bit I grumbled a little bit um and when it hit 10.5 I I voted against it last time um now to me it's gotten worse uh with this entrance um but I still stand by my
original comments um I see this $5 million idea the only thing I would say is just an idea and I mentioned it before I mean I would support cutting it back I would support five or six million doar for the sake of our youth in our community and and improving this park
I'm I'm fine at the $5 million number but my comment is why not follow the existing site plan in case down the road we wanted to you know five seven years now somebody decided they want to build the stadium for example that we would you have we' have
to update the site plan but at least it would I just throw that out as an idea you follow that site plan versus a whole new site plan but but in summary yeah I just can't get behind 10.5 million uh on a bet on Sports tourism um I will fully support anything uh you know around half
of that for the sake of our youth uh here in the community any other comments before we open for public any public comments on Susan Street if you would please come to the podium and state your name and address and uh three
minutes starter on close there you go Chuck Johnson 1330 citizens Boulevard sweet 404 leeburg Florida 3478 my hometown I'm here to encourage you tonight in making this difficult
decision about Susan Street you can drudge my community by the way we take care of our children Mr Peterson just simply said that but I'm talking about the children 20 years from now 30 years from now 40 years from now we have a chance to do something great for a lot
of money but you going to forget about the price long time after my children and your grandchildren their grandchildren are going to enjoy Susan Street once again I encourage you to just build the project build the 10 million project be daring
spend the money we're going to spend the money anywhere somewhere that's going to happen spend it on our youth spend it on a place that people will come again visit our community make it great make it great Like Pat Thomas you know how I feel about that make it great like Sleepy Hollow but make Susan Street
great too and you can only do that be bra being brave being decietful being leaders spending the $10 million and following the project as it was originally designed my children grandchildren 30 years from now well thank you greatly and I appreciate your
time as always thanks for being leaders uh Roger Croft uh 1125 Sunshine Avenue and full full transparency I'm also chairman of the rec Advisory Board um the one thing I'd like to say is that
we for all the right reasons we're considering all options and and I respect what you guys what everybody's saying the one thing I will tell you and I agree with Chuck you know 10 20 years from now we're going to think that we
got the biggest bargain out of spending this money on Susan Street there's a difference why people come here for bass tournaments there's a lot of towns that have lakes we were smart enough to develop you know the ski Beach area
around the lake we have a facility where we can host that Pat Thomas I'm sure there was a lot of resistance to putting Pat Thomas in at one time but here we are 80 90 years later still enjoying it
and not only we're enjoying it the entire Lake County community and I was just in Nashville and I talked to a player who had actually played in Pat Thomas made me feel great okay we need to decide right now do we
want it for our children and the community or do we want to compete in the realm of being able to use it for tourism I mean nobody thought I guarantee you when we talked about uh
Sleepy Hollow nobody thought we were going to be having National tournaments played during spring break with big 10 schools and and pack 10 schools and everybody that is you know all the uh Collegiate women that have played at
that facility nobody thought that was going to happen I'm telling you it's possible and we could attract a lot of tournaments to play and I can tell you at a fraction of the cost that other communities have spent for the same type
of facility we have the land we just need to finish it I mean we have a beautiful complex we just need to finish it and I there are Central Florida communities that have spent 10 times this to have
the same type of facility and I think it's the right time and it's the right decision so thank you Mr any other public comments I'll just say you know since I've been on the commission it hasn't happened a lot but over the past 13 years of me attending how many times
do Commissioners dumb down a project because it's too much money and then a year or two later they're like why didn't we spend the money and do what we wanted to originally I think our kids deserve it I think the economic development is is going to help us I want to see our future Generations my kids and my grandkids play on these
fields um and also the economic development I will support this and in hopes maybe once we get this going that these property surrounding properties will come around and we'll be able to add that 27 entrance but I think this is a critical thing for leeburg it revitalizes that area and I think our
kids and our future Generations deserve it thank you I do have a question though me the the major difference between the five million and the $10 million is just really reducing the size of the fields from rugby to football soccer is that
the major difference and the and the stadium I believe and the stadium I mean you basically you basically go from five you basically go from four rugby siiz fields which about 30% larger than a football field that are grass and a and
one rugby size Stadium that's artificial turf with bleachers Press Box lighting the parking lot change um and all the ancillary thing the the B restroom concession stand and
Press Box to basically the same facility and instead of having baseball and a soccer and a football field you have five regularized Bermuda grass football fields with lighting so there it's a
significant difference okay but we we I I've heard tonight about supporting our youth and everything else and and I absolutely agree with that where our youth in this area are going to play football or soccer they're not playing rugby um so if we want to sport a youth
football and soccer fields is what they're going to play growing up um I just don't know it's worth basically double the price to make rugby Fields I I think you know we're talking about rugby but you you got to throw in there
also lacrosse lacrosse is a a sport that is developing in our area uh I think I'm not sure at the high school there's a girls yeah there's a lacrosse program and that size field is bigger than a
football bigger than a soccer field most of our soccer is played on football fields and they're not regulation Siz to begin with so the the reason the Rugby field as we keep talking about that is because that's the biggest and you can
play All Sports on it then you don't you're not limited to what you can do and some of the speakers touched on that I mean 20 10 20 30 years down the road I mean if we're going to do it we need to do the big fields I mean things things change you know uh like we didn't talk
about Lacross 20 30 years ago now we talk about it U I don't know the future of rugby but um so it ties back into you know I struggled with it in the last vote but now to me it's gotten worse with the road uh maybe we can fix that over time I just saw map I mean if you come from out of town that's not very
impressive you you're not going to be impressed trying to find the you're going to be frustrated from the beginning because you won't be able to find the place um but I guess I go back to I would do the bigger fields and why not you may have the votes tonight but if you don't at least do the follow the site plan and do what you get for $5
million and or I even go to six million and down the road you know go back to Sleepy Hollow you know we had Sleepy Hollow we we started the sports tourism um um it it took it did very well for a couple years and then we spent more
money at Sleepy Hollow uh added Fields you know to accommodate that so I see a chance to grow uh the complex um down the road if needed um so stop right there yeah and I one other point I want to make is that you know we've got about
2.6 million in federal money involved in this we've got a million dollars worth of uh County money the county believes in it that the PDC uh we've got a legislative grant that our local legislators got us from the state um so
and then it's CRA money so you know this is an incredible opportunity uh for us to to say hey our youth is worth it our businesses are worth it and it it's something that I'm
passionate about and I believe that it's a good move for the city of leeburg to approve this and I'm all for it yes I'd like to add a my comment please this is in the heart of district one um which is the district
that I serve and I'm excited about the opportunity in which we've had long long discussions about it and the opportunity for young kids to learn about these Sports they're not that they're not aware of is a plus and I only requested that we have our our nice fencing with
our Greenery that I didn't hear that included it's still in there the Aesthetics will still remain the same it's not CL it's a different push listen our Aesthetics will still remain the same but the benefit of the opportunity for jobs in the community as well as
young youth learning different sports with an opportunity to receive scholarships as well from graduating from high school to be able to perform and with all other students that would not have this chance if it wasn't in the back door of their home so I still stand
what I said I'm supporting it I just want want to keep everybody protected and keep the Aesthetics as like we discussed so thanks any other discussion from the commission seeing none we'll have roll call so oh wait we need to make a motion
of what item we're going to go with yes in in the res so I would like to make a motion with the revised plan to have the road the new entrance come off of straight off a pen the pen Williams intersection million op yeah
uh that's it 10.5 million option and do we have a motion do we have a second I'd second it please all right any discussion on the motion I do I do have a question on that so you're you you were saying earlier Al that this
revised Paving of 150 yards and storm water and everything is part of the proposal if that comes back and changes you come back to Commission on a price differ difference if it's outside my spending Authority yes so that's what what's my spending
Authority on is is 50 Grand or 3% of the project 3% I'm looking at or one and a half or something how much there there's an over there's there's an amount that you can go over on the project it's like 1% in 50,000 increments yeah thought one
and a half one and a half% so so it's 1 and a half% of 10 million bucks in 50,000 increments so if there's a deviation that's over 50 Grand and we haven't gone over 1.5% of 10 and a half million bucks I got to come back to you
if we have 10 $10,000 changes I won't be back to you so it's basically 0.534 million plus 1.5% once that 1 and a half% threshold is exceeded I have to come back to you
you s you can go over 100 Grand I just don't see how they going to pay this and take care of storm water for that price but okay that was my comment thank you commissioner any other discussion roll call on the motion commissioner Barry yes commissioner
conell no commissioner bur yes commissioner Peterson no mayor Ean yes moving on to informational reports we have none City attorney items uh no reports this evening thank you Mr Mayor thank you sir city manager
items um just on that on that note I I just I should keep my mouth shut but I just feel compelled because this is an important statement I think and I apologize ahead of time um and I because I want to speak to commissioner canel's report about in the last you know four
months we've over spent 450,000 bucks so I I just wanted to put some perspective into that and at least give you my feedback and back in in August you all can judge my performance on that and have what you will this may I'll have been a city manager for 30 years so 30 years in the
profession and I I think I've seen a lot of different things occur in lesburg now over 11 years and I think one of the most exciting things that I've seen happen in lesburg is um for lack of better words we have picked a lot of low
lion fruit and we have made a lot of accomplishments from meat and potato stuff to keep an electric r down to keeping water flowing to fixing things in hurricanes all that's low Li fruit and we've done a couple of big projects the Venetian Center the teen center The
Aquatic Facility and we had lots of back and forth discussion on all of those and I would still suggest to you that those projects are low lion fruit on our table here lately I think we have now progressed to projects that are high
hang in fruit and as we reach high hire to achieve different projects that have longer implications they have more tentacles they have more problems they have more unforeseen issues and I think you're seeing that clearly on the two
big projects that we have before us Susan Street yes we put the cart before the Hort a little bit on on this parking issue but you know what for the life of me and I would say Grant and I would say
Travis um I am shocked talk to death that those three entities didn't respond back to us quicker and if we had waited we we we would still be on the drawing board um so yeah I'm disappointed 100 Grand has gone out the door but the
stage is set that we have that access for for and I won't shy away from this when those businesses come to their senses and realize that they had opportunity to fix a three-way cluster of horrible Ingress in a parking lot that the police department
and the EMS respond to at least one significant major time since I've been here so that was opportunity fix but where with the point I'm trying to head to is this was a project that had multiple tentacles that was a tough project that's high- hanging fruit but
in the long term is going to benefit generations to come the next project that's been on our desk and we've had the same conflict same discussion same are we wasting money as what we're doing down in downtown you know should we buy the Tropic that's a waste of money
should we invest in parking that's a waste of money should we get rid of the partnership I mean in that project we're are talking about parking improvements demolition of a facility Moving Two organization arounds moving a department to a different facility and we're and we're getting it done and we're staying
within budget parameters that we set out and then back to Susan Street in my 30 years of experience I have heard useum spend other people's money money be creative this project you're only spending $3.5 million out of 10 of your
own you guys only have 30% skin in the game 30% skin in the game I would challenge any other Municipal Corporation any other political subdivision in the state to say that they did a project and only have 30% skin in the game so I'm bragging a
little bit but you tackled a humongous project and you don't have that much skin in the game and last week we made a decision based on pending litigation there is no clear-cut definitive answer that the state was
going to support Senator trun now's Bill and demand that fluide get taken out of the water we did that because that was the fiduciary thing to do at least in my position and that was my recommendation to you and we changed course on that
project if you've seen the legislation in alasse there is legislation that's sitting on those legislators desks that takes away CRA effective October 1 125 no more projects so therefore if you were going
to say Mr Miner let's not do this project and let's spend that 44127 CRA money all $6 million of it somewhere else that could be fine until July 15th if the state legislature supports that bill as written that money could be
there but come October 1 that money could be gone so this statement is just to say I think you guys are doing significant projects they're they're cumbersome because they're high hanging fruit and I
think at the end of the day I think our our experience our record has shown that once we finally get these things set we stay within budget parameters we argue about it till the cows come home but once the things are set we we we've pretty much stayed
within our Target once we know all the answers so that will that's what we will endeavor to do tomorrow I will instruct Travis to issue notice to proceed and I will report back to you accordingly thank you city manager for that roll call commissioner
[Music] Peterson commission Barry um yes I have a couple of things the first is the dying in the dark with the new vision of Independence was on March 6 a wonderful experience New Vision is relocating from
is that Mount dor Eustace to leeburg I highly recommend the us as the city commission and as our community to support them wonderful things that they do I also want to just add on to what um city manager just stated about the CRA
going away this is very very very important that we all by March 11th tomorrow join in at 400 p.m. and I just want to know what can we do together as a commission to put in our comments or do we do individually what would be the
most effective impact the best thing we can do is is have a resolution in opposition to the proposed bill um and if you want commissioner I will have that agendized for the next meeting and you all vote on it and send it to Tallahassee okay well they're asking for
tomorrow for us to do something to far as calls in I think it's really important and that we will all suffer not just in most poverished areas but within the city every CRA will be gone no we can't do anything I mean we'll be limited major so that was my one thing
that I was hoping to and if you do need a statement for tomorrow and I'll look into that if if the commission is all of the same opinion on this I can draft a letter uh on behalf of the commission and have the mayor sign it if and I'm seeing everybody on their that um with
that so so we'll I'll I'll plan to do both you know I'll get i'll get a letter drafted on behalf of the commission and have the mayor sign it and as well I'll have a resolution ready for the next meeting okay thank you thank you for bringing that to us is that it that's it for me yes
commissioner cill nothing commissioner bur nothing tonight mayor re couple things I attended the Arts Festival over the weekend and I thought that was a good layout and um nicely attended um upcoming events I hope you guys can all make out to make it out to is the shamrockin festivals this weekend the
14th and 15th um and then the lebook special events does a phenomenal job event that is one of my favorites it's called blooms and Bruise downtown highly recommend that on March 22nd and then one of my favorite events of the year is the chamers spring Fish Fry on April 3rd
you have never been you need to go um and then just a little followup the LHS boys basketball fell short in the third overtime with a score of 54 to 47 uh but they fought hard and they did make us proud and I know they appreciate the support the city commission gave them and lastly I just want to touch on I
know we might all not see eye on a lot of things um but I I like how we can come together I've learned a lot from all of you guys you guys bring a lot of wisdom and I enjoy working with you and uh we have some great U City manager and Deputy city manager and staff they do a great job for us and uh I continue look
forward to continue working with you guys on future projects um yes sir may I make one more comment yes sir um I just want to clarify that the $350,000 does not fall on Al men for fluide that falls on the commission and I will fall on that sword but I I do not think it's fair for Al to take the blame for that
yes sir um and with that I will make a take a motion for adjournment second so moved we have a motion a second oh I we're [Music] done e