All right, welcome to Avito City Council Chambers. If everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God,
indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please join me in a moment of silence. I would like to call our meeting to order. It is June 2nd at 6:30 p.m. and we have all members of council
present. So, we will start off with our ceremonial items. So, we're going to go right into the pride decoration. So, we can all go down. Thank you. And I am going to go ahead and invite if you came here for the Pride Declaration, you want to come on up. I
would love to have you come join me or join us, I shall say. How you doing, Joshua? Good. Great to see you. Let me get in between. Okay. And while they're still coming up here, I'm going to start off a little
something. So, when I first ran, I ran on what I believe in, and that's how much I buy into the community that makes up Bovito. And as I always say, it is the best part of this town. You've heard me say that multiple times. When someone's in trouble, someone always steps up to help without hesitation. And I've seen it time and time again. And
that is one of the reasons Pride Month is so important. We all remember Pulse and what can happen when you let hate get a foothold. I will never forget hearing the news and checking in on my friends, making sure they were okay. Many of them lost people. This community showed up then and I firmly believe we
will continue to do so. According to the Trevor Project, up to 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ plus. More than one in 20 or sorry, one in 10 LGBTQ plus young people attempted suicide in the past year and 90% of those young people
said their well-being was negatively impacted due to recent politics. As Daniel Radcliffe said, you don't have to be gay to be a supporter. You just have to be human. So with that, I will read our declaration of the city of Ovido. Whereas the city of Ovido accepts and
welcomes people of diverse backgrounds and cultures and believes a diverse population leads to a more vibrant community. And whereas the city of Ovido is dedicated to fostering acceptance of all people and denounces oppression and discrimination against people on the basis of sex, gender identity or expression and or sexual orientation.
And whereas the city of Ovidito believes in working together with all community members to facilitate relationships and provide safety, dignity, and a welcoming environment for city residents, businesses, and visitors. And whereas the city of Ovito believes that every person has infinite dignity and worth and encourages the people of Ovito to
embrace this principle and work to eliminate prejudice whenever and wherever it exists. And whereas the city of Ovidito believes everyone should be able to live without fear of prejudice, discrimination, violence, and hatred based on gender identity or expression and/or sexual orientation. And whereas
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer questioning, LGBTQ plus individuals contribute to the cultural, civic, and economic successes of the city of Ovido. And whereas the city of Ovito supports visibility, dignity, and equality for LGBTQ plus individuals. And whereas Pride Month is an entire month
dedicated to the uplifting of LGBTQ plus voices, the celebration of LGBTQ plus culture, and the support of LGBTQ plus rights. And whereas the city of Ovito joins the LGBTQ plus community in celebration of diversity and unity and the commitment to treating all people with fairness and respect. And whereas
the recognition of Pride Month raises awareness for the city's LGBTQ plus community and is an opportunity to take action and engage in dialogue to strengthen alliance and build acceptance and understanding. Now therefore, be it declared that the city council, the city of Ovito, Florida, hereby recognizes the
month of June 2025 as Pride Month and encourages all residents of the city of Veto to celebrate and build a culture of inclusiveness and acceptance during Pride Month as well as every other month of the year. Uh, and this is signed by myself, Natalie Tuker, Keith Britain, council member, and Jeff Bterford,
council member. Thank you very much. [Music] We can make it work. It's not my bag. That was lovely. That's not going to help anybody there. It's a little off center.
How far? Yeah, that's good. Is that better? Yeah. Okay. [Music] We will move on to our next order of business which is the approval of minutes. What is the pleasure of council? I make a motion to approve the minutes for April 7th, 2025 and April
21st, 2025 regular session. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All those against. Motion carries. So, we'll move on to the public comment
section. I have two written requests to speak. When I call your name, please come up, state your name and address, and then you have three minutes to address council. First up, I have Mr. Keegan Ford. Uh, good evening. Keegan Ford, 591 Piaza Point. Uh, good evening everyone. I'd
like to take a moment to talk about how something as simple as plant choice can make a big difference in protecting our local wildlife, especially ground nesting birds like the killed deer. Just recently, my son and I were walking near our neighborhood pond when he spotted a bird acting strangely. It turned out to
be a killed deer performing its broken wing display to lure lure us away from its nest, which was barely visible among the roots of an oak tree. Thanks to his sharp eyes, we found the nest and with the help of neighbors surrounded it with caution tape and a clear warning sign that explained why the area was taped
off and shared information about killed deer. We were amazed by the interest it generated. Over the next few days, people stopped, some with kids, some walking dogs, to look, read the sign, and even scan the QR code to learn more. That moment became a living exhibit,
sparking curiosity and real conversations about wildlife and stewardship. It showed that people care. They just need a chance to engage. It's also important to remember that killed deer are protected under the migratory bird Treaty Act, which prohibits disturbing or destroying native bird
nests. Violations can carry serious consequences, including fines, criminal charges, and in some cases, forfeite of the vehicle used to destroy the nest, which would certainly affect our landscaping company. One simple way to help protect birds like this is by planting native
ground covers. Species like frog fruit and sunshine mimosa don't need mowing. which means fewer chances for accidentally harming birds that nest on the ground. Native plants also support pollinators and reduce maintenance costs, benefiting people and wildlife. That's why I'm asking to initiate an
adopt a pond program in our community. In addition to the conservation grant program and pond revitalization initiative I spoke about last meeting, all of which provide a way to get involved, care for shared green spaces, and support the wildlife that calls our area home. With the right choices, we
can turn small discoveries into big action and build a landscape that protects and teaches at the same time. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next up we have Miss Claudia Thomas. Hi, Claudia Thomas. And in light of new
legislation about the protection of addresses for elected officials, I think we should offer the same protection for private citizens. I have no problem giving my address. It is on the comment card, so you're welcome to it from that. However, I like any other citizen, I
think, should not be afraid to come and express our comments to a board like this because of having to state a personal address. So, Sanford, Florida, District 4, as most of you know, uh I'm here to speak about pride and to tell you how extremely grateful I am that uh
some of you have voted to declare this Pride Month. It means the world to me, means the world to my community. And as Natalie has so eloquently said, uh it's tough this year, especially tough this year for me, my fellow community members, particularly those in the trans
community. I've lost four friends who've left the state because of their fear of living here. And others are still here trying to fight the good fight and the rest of us will do so as well. So, I'm not going to talk for 3 minutes. I just want to tell you how much it means to me personally and to my community that you
are recognizing this month. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to speak at this time? Hearing none, I will close public comment and we will move on to the consent agenda. What is the pleasure of council? I move we approve the adopt the
consent agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? I will ask the clerk to call a roll call vote. Mayor Slavic I. Council member Bterford. I. Deputy Mayor Tuker. I. Council member Britain. I. Council
member Aught. I. The motion carries. We do not have any public hearings. No first reading of ordinances. No resolutions. So we'll move on to our discussion item which is the Ovito water conservation grant program. Um I believe Madame Mayor you can kick this off for us. All right. Well, we heard a
presentation uh about a month ago about an idea to tinker with the rates. And if I could pull up my email here real quickly, u I I've been talking to a lot of people since then, including Keegan Ford and the the team from his HOA. Uh
we've got Ellaunes, Idka Banerjee, and Adam Lichfield, who are three um volunteers who are are have been working with HOAs, community association managers. people are actually reaching out wanting to get more information about how to use less water. And one of
the challenges always, you know, how are we going to pay for this if we take it past, you know, let's let's just use less water, which is what they're working on. So, they have a plan to go out and educate people about just using less water in general, but I still love
the idea of taking the highest users and nudging with a little bit higher rate. So this is coming straight from Susan Davis from St. John's River Water Management District and um and it says
that per statutes 373.2773 uh the water management district uh gives wide latitude in selecting a rate structure and uh that's basically it. There's wide latitude. They
encourage conservation rates and we can have a very minimal conservation rate that people don't feel or we can have one that generates enough to spin off a grant program. And in my opinion, there is a lot of value in creating a rate
that only impacts the highest users um and spinning off conservation program to try to help people use less over time. I guess this is a discussion. So if anybody wants to chime in and I will say I uh I did get coffee
with Mr. Ford this morning and we had a great it was like an hour and a half discussion. So um I think you know from what I've seen up here personally I'm I'm really into conservation, conserving water, educating, right? We've all stressed that up here. Um I'm not in
favor of changing our portable water rates at all. We just went through all that. Um but one thing that did come up was that we have a tiered structure on a reclaim for residential and not commercial. So that is something I would be interested in looking in. Um and another thing that kind of came up in
this discussion that I've brought up before with uh Mr. Belden and I don't know about um Mr. Wyatt, but as far as we have talked about adopting parks or ponds and getting volunteers to kind of help out with that. So, I don't know
how you tie this all together into an educational program that does help with our water usage and and things of that nature, but that's where I'm at. So, as far as the discussion, any interest at all from anybody else?
Well, there's uh I don't know how many pounds we have. Brian, do you 190? I'm guessing. Alex, I think it's over 200. Is it over 200? Yes sir. I think it's over 200. There's a lot of ponds. So that's a lot of adopes, I guess,
adoptors. Um, one thing I want to really make sure is is we use the storm water fund to maintain the ponds functionally. Uh, that means the water goes where it's supposed to go and not where it's not supposed to go. And the
the aesthetics have always been the responsibility of the HOAs. So, if this is a voluntary program for HOAs and we want to set up something, then, you know, I I think I'd need some more information. But HOAs have never been uh prohibited from doing their own
landscape. Um, if it's a conservation thing to help uh reduce water, we can probably try a trial basis. Uh, I'm not sure how if it'll work or not. you know, I think maybe trying out to see who's using the water and who's uh who's
trying to conserve might might be better a better approach than than going in full speed with a a tiered structure. So, that's where I am. Yeah. And I'd say the same thing. I mean, as far as conservation, I think
it's I think it's a good thing. Um obviously I mean education educating people uh again on their landscaping and how they can you know reduce their water that they're using I think would also be a good thing. Um the ponds I mean I think obviously we the ponds are there
for a reason. You know want to make sure that we don't interfere with the functionality of of the ponds. Um if the if the landscaping could be done without interfering with the functionality of the ponds that's something I think I would be open to if we got more information on that. But I'm also not in
the camp of changing the water rates and penalizing somebody who's on the upper tier of uh of using water and telling them that they have to pay more um in order to establish a grant that's going to go out and help somebody else landscape or help that person landscape.
One thing that came up this morning, um we have a sustainability board and I asked Mr. Cobb how often they're meeting lately and it seems it's a little it's been years it hasn't been. That's the answer. So, I feel like this subject is really important. Um, it's something
that there's a lot of passion about and this would be a great thing to look into with our sustainability board, how we go after creating these programs to adopt a pond, adopt a park, kind of help with the We've also talked about getting volunteers for the city. This this is a pretty big project actually. Um, so I
don't know if there's any interest in kind of getting that reactivated and kind of going after this from that angle. But I think there might also be an opportunity even even if there's no funding involved to talk to the landscaping company about raising the
blade. I talked to the person working on my yard just today and said, "Can you make it three and a half or 4 in and not cut off the tops of the mimosa?" And um, he didn't really love the idea, but he he went along with it. And and I think our our landscaping company ought to be
able to raise the blade also so we don't kill the killed deer or whatever other ground nesting animals there may be. Well, I don't want to go off on a tangent, but since we're talking about uh landscape companies that mow in HOAs, it just goes right through me when I
ride down like I did tonight on Lockwood and they've mowed and edged and blew all the grass into the road and then down the drain. Yep. If we could do something to stop that, I'd be really happy and really into it. Well, it sounds like the consensus up here is we absolutely need
an educational program. I mean, that's that's the crux of this, right? We have people who don't know they're overwatering and overwatering more than 10 times what they should be, which is detrimental to the lawn they have. Um, and then AB I see that all the time, too. People are kind of destroying our storm water system by doing that. Most
of the ones that do it in for homeowners, they blow it back in the grass. But if on the main roads and the HOA landscapers, they just blow it right down the drain and all of that has to be filtered out, right, with carbon filters that are consumable that we pay for with the storm water rate. But also just up
right there. Well, it does that too, but I mean nutrient-wise, we're responsible for every bit of, you know, nitrogen and phosphorus that goes into Lake Jessup. Um, and it costs us, you know, real money to to take care of that. Um, one of the things uh that
uh so about this um about these proposals I what I'm seeing here is that there are about three different things that are being proposed and I'd like to just go through them. So one of them is raising the portable or uh raising some
of the rate on the higher tiers of the portable water structure, right? and and and alternatively some discussion about maybe raising those tiers uh or no lowering those tiers down, right? So the number of gallons would come down or perhaps uh the the price per thousand
gallons would go up or both and that would be to save portable water. Then in addition um there's a proposal for implementing a tiered structure for commercial and residential customers on reclaimed. Right? So that's a So those are
completely different things. Um sorry I said commercial and residential. What I I meant was commercial customers. So on the reclaimed there is no tier structure, right? It's it's only one rate for as much water as you use. And the the issue
here as is as Mr. Ford talked about uh previously is that some that the commercial customers are the HOAs, right? in some cases and those HOAs are using way too much water and they're not there's no incentive for them to use
less. Um Mr. Ford told me on the phone that um his particular one I hope it's okay if I say this his particular HOA did the math on the green space and all that stuff is putting 12 in of water down per month on the green space. And
so I I feel like when we talk about thousands of gallons, that doesn't really that's a that's a quantity that really doesn't mean anything to most people. It's hard to visualize what a thousand gallons is or or whether that's appropriate. But when you talk about inches of water on green space and you go it's it's this
much like that's a that becomes now a lot of water. So um if one one issue I have with raising um with having a tiered structure for commercial and I assume that this is perhaps the reason why it isn't done now is because not
every commercial account is really the same right you can have an HOA with a lot of green space you can have an apartment building with almost none. You can have you know a Publix or or whatever and it's it's one it's one meter. So, if we were to say, you know,
up to this number of gallons is now, you know, you're going to pay more above that, that's not really fair to each individual um user of the the reclaimed water. Uh however, um we do know that with all the commercial properties and
probably even the HOAs from the developer agreements, we know what the percentage of the acreage that is green space is. So if we were to if we were to make those um higher tiers dependent on you
know essentially inches per water of the green space that we know you have because it's in the developer agreement. We don't we don't even really have to calculate it necessarily. Um then that's something that I think makes more sense than just having it per gallon if Oh I I
agree. and the uh so Ella and I and Adam that is some data that they are working on gathering because I do think it almost needs to be calculated per property to feel fair and there are so few of them uh that are in that rate
structure on reclaimed water that I think we probably could individually calculate that all up. Uh it's a matter of you know one day of research and then pop it all in and we could we could figure out how to make that happen, right? And there's two so there's two proposals
on the reclaimed. So one of them was to use this additional money um for pond beautifification. Um and then the the email from Mr. Ford at the end of last week um suggested that that we could use that extra um money uh for for a grant
program for helping people use less water. So is is that correct? Yeah. So, so there's kind of like three three things being talked about here and there's an option on on the reclaimed. Um, I guess part of the discussion is to
decide what it is that we're potentially talking about, what which one we'd be talking about doing. It doesn't sound like anyone but me is very excited about raising the rates. I I think hit people's pocketbooks is one of the most impactful things we can do. And I don't feel really sorry for
anybody who's using that much water. Uh because you don't you don't have to use that much and you can wean your your grass off really fast and then you wouldn't be impacted at all. So I don't know. I guess I guess my problem with
that is at the last couple times this has come up, everybody who's presented said I talked to someone about this and they just didn't know better. So I don't want to penalize people who haven't been properly educated first. So if there's a huge drive to go out and educate these people over the next year, right? Sit
them down, get them in a community room with soil and water board or you know whoever we have representing saying hey you can actually do this you'll lower your HOA rates in your whole HOA by this amount and you won't kill your lawn. I think that's step one and we haven't done that yet because I keep hearing we
keep talking to these people and they don't understand. Um, and then of course there's always bad actor bad bad actors, right? But I think you have to give people the ability to be educated and then make the conscious decision on if they do want to be hit with a a a
penalized rate first. If that makes sense. We could begin that process and then it would take us so long to implement the addition, you know, take us at least 3 4 months probably. uh people would in that time. We've got
three people who are willing to go out to all the HOAs. They've already reached out to everybody. They're getting good feedback. So, I don't think people will tune in. Everybody's busy until there is some kind of jolt and you see my bill, what's what's going on with my bill? I
need to ask somebody what's wrong. And then that triggers, oh, I can find out how to have my bill be lower. And it's it's easy steps. Control your irrigation. Switch out a switch out your highest using space. Do we have volunteers that are willing to go out to the collect the data? I'd like to know
what they're if they even know how much they're paying and how much they're using. Hi. Whatever data you guys want. We've got three volunteers all summer who are they've already gathered a lot of data and they are um they're kind of booking
out with community managers. U was able to find out that St. St. John's River Water Management District has a uh continuing education class that's free for community managers and a lot of the managers didn't seem to be aware of that. So, we've been able to, you know,
close the loop on that. U because the managers, if they know, then they can, you know, fix the fix the bylaws. I mean, there there's just so many different layers going on here. The bylaws need to be changed. the community managers need to know to talk to the
irrigation people and the landscapers about these different things. But unless there's some kind of nudge that's going to going to bring it to the forefront and create some sense of urgency, then everyone will just be like, we'll educate ourselves at whatever speed. This seems sensible. This is a nudge. If
we're going to go out nudge money's a nudge, huh? Well, it's a nudge. Well, I guess to the point of money being a nudge, the money is already a nudge. It's there. they're already paying way more than everybody else because they're using way more. So bumping that up more I don't think is an extra nudge. It's
already there. I I just don't I see the benefit of educating and enacting change. I don't see the benefit of I mean I think the bad side of not doing this is already already exists today I guess is what I'm saying. Can can we get that information say by the end of the
summer? I know it's rainy season and they probably they're probably overwatering now because it is raining. What what info are you looking for? I'm looking for the data from the HOAs on how much they're water they're using and what they're paying. We already have it. We we got that last week. Two, three. Yes, we have all the all that data and
it's significant usage. Okay. And then it's I guess the next iteration is go back to those HOAs, their boards, and say, look at this is what you're paying. You owe it to your residents to cut it out and give them the opportunity to do that. And then if we if it still doesn't
work, then maybe we we go back and look at it. I mean, it sounds like it's better than nothing. Yeah. That that's what the these three volunteers are going to do anyways. Educate regardless of if there's a grant program in the mix or not, right? So, if the city wants to get
involved in additional education, that would be a whole separate thing. But this is already happening. St. John's River Water Management District in on it. the Siminal Soil and Water Conservation District is assisting uh UFAS is helping like this is an all
hands on deck situation and it's and it's working. So I don't know if the government can add any value really other than pointing people to pointing people to the team that's working on it. And did we have anybody from the audience wishing to speak? Did you want
to come and name? Uh thank you Keegan Ford 591 Piaza. Um, I actually have some information related to the top four uh reclaimed water users ready. Uh, if uh, Miss Rivera or if we can pull up the
slides that I uh, sent in. Uh, I went through our top four users are two HOAs and two apartment complexes. The, uh, Twin Rivers Community HOA, uh, the highest monthly usage, you can see it's that's actually a typo. It's 200,000 gallons off. It's
actually 1,337,000 gallons in a single month. That's 1.3 million gallons. That's a lot. Um I've gone through uh both the GIS map and uh uh Google Earth to estimate their land area. This I did
this um throughout all the communities. Uh they have about 5.2 acres of HOA owned property. This is not the single family homes. They irrigate their own. This is only HOA owned properties and parcels. They have about 5.42 42 acres. They're averaging 820,000 gallons per
month. They're putting down an equivalent average monthly rainfall of 5.6 in of water. Um maximum of 9.2 in. And keeping in mind that this is purely irrigation. This is has nothing to do with rainfall. The uh recommended amount
of water put down on St. Augustine grass is between 4 and 6 in. But that is total water. That's rainfall and irrigation. So, what we're seeing here is they're not accounting for rainfall. They're watering already too much um for these
areas and they're very small areas relative to what they're putting in. Uh based on just a 4 in per month, they should only be using about 589,000 gallons of irrigation. That would get them 4 in. Any rainfall is additional
supplemental, but they should be going much less than that. Um, so aren't they required to have rain gauges? And I would think they would have to have more than one. They're probably required, but as I found out in my situation, my HOA, it's there. It wasn't hooked up. It's
It's not working. That's step one. That's a requirement. Exactly. Requirement of my house, and it should be a requirement for them, right? I think that would be the first step. And then go back to these guys and say, "Hey, readjust your timers. You know how much flow you're getting.
set the timer for 15 minutes instead of, you know, 45 minutes on these on these zones. There's a lot of lowhanging fruit here. There's a lot of opportunity to drastically reduce consumption. I live in Twin Rivers. I'd like to have that data because I can go to those guys and
absolutely um we can you can right over. Absolutely. And you can have your water bill. I mean, right. So, the incentives is incentive reduce my yearly news. Yeah. And I think part of the reason why um the current rate structure doesn't
give them the nudge is the amount of the bill comes out to be about $2,500 a month in usage, but that's spread over all of those houses. So you're not seeing a lot in on the individual house. It's previously $2,500 that's 30 grand a
year. That's a pretty big hunk of their budget. Their budget's only, you know, three or $400,000, right? So that's 10% of their budget, right? But if you're pre-planning for the usage, yeah, you're going to pre-plan for it and it's there and you're paying it and great, you're going to go with the status quo. Unless you know the
residents in the neighborhood find out that their bill could be that much lower in their HOA. Well, you go down the the road in the middle of a storm and you see the sprinklers on. Yeah. Drives me up the wall that equally here. So, our our next community on the next slide, uh, landing that little creek right
right next door, um, they're averaging or their highest monthly uses usage just over a million gallons in a single month. They're averaging about 600,000. Uh, their irrigated land area is approximately 2.66 acres. That's um,
averaging 8.5 in of rain, maxing out at 15 in of rainfall that they're putting down on this grass. Notably here, if you're putting down that much water, you're you're hurting your own cause. You're not you're hurting your grass. You're going to induce fungus and you're
going to get brown grass. Um and a lot of people will see brown grass and their immediate response is put down more water. So, it hurts their own cause. Um if they were to follow the guidelines of St. Augustine grass, they should only be using about 289,000 gallons. Is this
reclaimed or portable in here? This is reclaimed. Okay. This is not portable. This is purely reclaimed, purely the commercial side. Um, so the next property is we're going to get in now to the apartment complexes, which notably don't have a whole lot of green space. Uh, but you can see they're using
800,000 gallons in a single month, averaging 500,000 gallons. They have about 1.9 acres probably. Maybe that was there might be some plus or minus in there, but it's not going to be too far off. Uh, so monthly rainfall they're putting down 15 inches averaging 10.
It's way too much. They could be down into the 200,000galon range. Um, same thing with the next property, the Strand apartments, 600,000 averaging 439,000, about the same area. Um, 11 in of rainfall, 8 in of rainfall. They could
only they could be getting away with about 200,000. That's assuming this is all grass area, too. That's not taking into account that these might be mature trees and bushes that don't require nearly as much water. Um so going into the summary slide uh at the end
here the current structure and consumptions you can see the consumption and build amounts if they if all of these communities had or adhere to a reduced amount the amount that they're supposed to be using um even with the tiered structure if we implemented it
today um three out of those four properties would still land in the lowest tier. the Twin River Rivers community would be into the upper tiers, but you can see their bill would be slightly less. So, even with the tiered structure, there's opportunity for them
to save money. Um, but the whole point of the tiered structure, as Madame Mayor said, is to give them the extra nudge. These this problem is an awareness problem. And how do we get them aware? It's we hit them with their money. Um,
reach out to them any which way we can. the these usages are are um way too much and it's about the top 30. Even if it's not the money, I think they would be receptive to knowing the fact that they're really overwatering their grass. Yes, absolutely. They can spend a little bit more money and adjust their systems
and their timers and put their rain gauges up and that'll go a long way. Absolutely. So now to tie into Mr.'s question about the three different initiatives here being um the portable water rate, um the reclaimed water rate, and the pond revitalization. So it's the
way this works is is the um the reclaimed water rate tiered structure would fund the grant program. Okay. So if there's large consumers and they continue to consume even after um an adequate notification time if they
continue to use excessive amounts the excess beyond what our current rate structure is. We could subtract out whatever increased revenue we have fund the grant structure with it. The grant structure then funds community projects like the pond revitalization around near Ovito Park Terrace which is where I live
which was what I was targeting. Um so that's an example of what that grant program can do. It's and then it's all fed by the rate structures rate structures the grant program grant program to revitalization programs and it could also be used for other um water
saving initiatives. So, is that pond that you're talking about, is that is that city- owned or is that owned by the That is city owned. HOA. Okay. That is not owned by the HOA. I I can't landscape it myself. If I could, I would, but I can't.
Okay. I'm a fan of letting people take over adopting ponds. I think that makes a lot of sense. I mean, that is a small step that I think I hope we could figure out how to navigate the logistics and legalities of like let the HOA adopt
that pond. Yeah. Adopt their own pond. Yes. For example, but I would also still be looking for funding. Sure. Because I can't use HOA funds to landscape city property. It's just not ethical. Yeah. So I on the the reclaimed water
um I mean I guess some of my thought is is if you save reclaimed well okay so two thoughts the first is like what you're talking about here if you if you make the taring for you know how much they're uh you know how much St.
Augustine grass needs, right? And you can get that from from so we can get it from a third party and people won't argue about it. Right. Right. And then you say you have this much. You set the tier right there at that point and say, well, you're using it for irrigation. This is how
much I says you need. So anything above that is probably due to this configuration and we'll we'll help you with it. Right. So one of the things that St. John's has is they have a a van that will come out to your uh facility. They put rain gauges everywhere. They
run the sprinklers and they convert inches of water right into minutes of sprinkler time, right? Absolutely. And then they can help you, you know, make it more even and all that kind of stuff. But but to be able to convert those things and say you need if you're putting the right amount of water, it's twice a week at this many minutes and
and you get it right down to the to the level. So I I mean that's a thing that could be done and could get everybody down to this to this proper level, right? So the other thought I have about this though is that with reclaimed water,
um this is going to sound horrible. You have reclaimed water because it comes out of the water treatment plant, you either have to use it or you have to pump it to Iron Bridge, right? Or to or to the to the spray fields or or or wherever it goes.
There there seems to be some um I I think we don't all agree on the facts or at least maybe we don't know the facts about whether we run out of reclaimed water because I I know you have asserted that we have um I when uh
I feel like Mr. Wyatt told us one time that we don't. So what what is the what is the truth on running out of reclaimed or is Mr. Wyatt in the back today Mr. C? Uh no Mr. wide is is out of town right now. But you could come up if you known
the answer. Thank you, Mr. Ford. We do have a pipe that's continually pumping from Ironbridge whenever we need it. So, in a way, we never run out unless that pipe breaks. Well, typically um under normal conditions, whether we're a
drought or just normal conditions, we can supply enough reclaimed and then we supplement with iron bridge. When we're under moderate or severe drought conditions, we have been in the past few months. Those are times when we can't
provide enough reclaim even with Ironbridge because they can't keep up with their demands for their residents and they have the Orlando wetlands which there's a minimum amount of reclaim that has to be sent there. So a balancing game, right? Because we
essentially want to use these lawns as free spray fields, right? So, we want them to use it, but we also we want them to use it under typical conditions and we use it on the um golf course as well, but typically we use all our reclaim, which is something to be proud of, and
then we supplement as needed with Ironbridge. Okay. I hear a lot of people giving feedback. I I don't have reclaimed water. Uh but a lot of people who do often report pressure issues and and
this has been going on for multiple years. Is that so? Um I put out a statement I think it was last month or the month before and we're finding that now under these it's moderate and severe drought conditions we are having a
problem. Not with our system. our system under it's just so many people are watering at the same time. We also have crews go out in the morning um give warnings to residents that shouldn't be watering on those days. And so when we're in those kind of conditions, we
have staff out there proactively letting residents know, you know, when their water days are acceptable and when they aren't. But on a typical daily basis, we have no concerns with pressure. Is it a time of day that people are watering
this year or is it a it's like quantity? Okay. So, if everybody spread it out across the day, we have enough to meet the demand. But if everybody goes all at the same time, we just can't have that much pressure all at the same time. And people don't want to irrigate during the day because, you know, evaporation and
then you don't want to water at night because you don't want your yard. But then, you know, rain supplements a lot of this. So, it's a it's a balancing act like you said, right? And so basically, no, that was it. So when it's pouring rain, right, people aren't using the reclaimed, we that's
correct. Have to pump the extra out. And then when it's dry, everybody wants it at once and then we've run out of pressure and and No, no, no. Only under just what we've had in a couple months ago and they and I went and looked it up for our county. We were in a severe drought and those were really the only
conditions that we and with Ironbridge could not supplement. Um, and so yes, your heart get to have pressure issues during that. How many years does that happen? Is that how many months out of a year? Well, I mean, does that happen every year that you know, we don't go in a severe? Not
typically. Not typically. No, I know it happened last year and it happened this year. Prior to that, I don't recall having that many problems, but again, everyone in Orange or Orange County is expanding. they have a higher need and
then they have their wetlands and you know we're not their top priority in a sense. I mean they have to serve their residents and they're also supplementing us. Well, there was also an issue with the pipe that actually broke south of us that actually caused the problem. Then there obviously there was the pipe that
broke over the econ that also caused an issue. Yes, we've had those but now they're fixed. Yes. So So everything's been good. Everything's good and I don't see you run into a severe drought except in a severe drought. They just can't provide us water. Have we ever used the spray fields or
how often do we use the spray fields? Only um typically we use them during if we're doing maintenance or if we have a lot of rain. We've had times where we have seven days of just constant rain. That's when that's where a part of our
permit. It's a wet weather storage. So, we have a 5 million gallon tank that's near the golf course and then um when that's full, we have to go to the perk ponds. It doesn't happen often. We've been looking at our usage of the spray
fields and it's it's minimal. The 5 million gallon that's the thing on Lockwood pond. The pond. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Can I add one more thing? Sure. Absolutely. Okay. Um, the city of Ovido has an adopt a pond
program. Okay. And it was it's from I have to get my own glasses on. Uh, May 6, 2013. So, I don't know in the past how many people participated, but um the program
is in place and potentially I mean what it really is there for is not about plantings, but it's more about um picking up trash and waste and um adopting your pond in that in that sense. And we can make some
enhancements. I think you've been speaking with Amanda, correct? So there are some things we can put some aquatic plants in there. Um but you know if you plant around the edges with the pond raises and goes down you know a lot
of that wouldn't be able to sustain itself. So aquatic plants um are an option and that's what Amanda's been working with and you can become part of this adopt a palm program and I have um an
information sheet and application and whatnot and I can forward that to you. Thank you. You're welcome. That slices off months of thinking right there. This is terrific. Yeah. So, I guess off of this, what I would like to see is the
city do whether it's like anformational meeting or something where we go over how to adopt a pond and also invite these top users out and see if we can all get them in the same room and educate them based on their numbers. You know, if we have the Twin Rivers HOA come out, we can go through that. But I think that would be beneficial for the
city to go after that. I don't know if that's something you guys are interested. No, I'd be open to that. We got we there is there is a list of top users on the residential portable side on reclaim like we know who all the top users are. Yeah. So it sounds like we could do that fairly easily. Yeah.
And Winter Springs did it and a lot of people didn't know um that they were using that much. So hopefully hopefully it'll be a good response. And and one thing I'd like to point out too is uh the proposals uh in the packet here for raising rates for residential
that only affects people that are above 8,000 gallons of water and or use use 8,000 gallons of uh portable water a month. And so that's you know not I I don't think anybody's wanting to raise rates for everyone across the board or
anything like that. We're talking about you know the top users um only. So, make sure that I've heard consensus on raising rates here. Oh, okay. If that's what you're asking. Well, uh, well, I don't think I'm I don't think I'm asking. I I I just wanted to say out
loud because, you know, um, sometimes things get misunderstood. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Is it a tool we could consider for later if we can't get the usage down? Possibly. Okay. Because I'd like to bring it up later. I I think that we
can discuss it later. Okay. Not to say it's going to change anything, but we can discuss it later. But I think we are all on board with doing a city meeting and educating. Mhm. Yes. That Okay. Okay. All right. Uh we will
move on. Next up is the city manager report. Uh thank you, Deputy Mayor. Uh last week I was able to attend the Florida City County Management Association annual conference. Uh it was a very good conference. I learned a lot of interesting things. Uh and u main
thing we they had a very outstanding seminar on the uh tax reform issues that are going on at the legislature and some of it was very scary. Uh but uh some of it it looked like that I don't I really
didn't see where it was going to go but uh did did walk away with a lot of good information from the conference and so I just wanted to let you know that that that it was very successful and that's my report. Thank you. Uh next up the city attorney and I just want to say
welcome aboard. Thank you very much deputy mayor, council members, mayor. Good evening. Um, thank you very much again for the opportunity to serve as your new city attorney. I've already uh dove in uh of course uh during the last month uh
working with a lot of the staff and department heads and with your city manager um already integrated into a number of different projects that are going on and um we anticipate a lot of success. So always glad to answer any questions but that's all I have to
report. Thank you. Uh, next up, Council Member Britain. Um, really don't have a report tonight. So, excellent. All right. So, I'm up next. So, I want to say thank you to everybody who came out tonight. Um, thank you to Mr. Ford for coming and speaking and advocating. Um, and those who came out
for Pride Month. I did have a citizen reach out and this has come up a couple times. So, uh, I don't know if Miss Stewart, you want to look into We have some blinking crosswalks throughout Alfa Woods Boulevard, but they're not the ones near the school. So, it has been brought up to see if we can add that at
the intersection grade at Stenstrom and the one before. So, it's like I think there's four crosswalks and two are blinking and two are not. So, and personally sitting in there, I've seen the crosswalk the crossing guard does a really good job, but it is really hard to see him. So, if we can look into adding some flashing lights there. Um,
but that's all I have. So, next up, uh, Mayor Slating. Uh, I got a letter from Audrey who is a resident of Ovido and goes to Lenchild's middle school and uh, she has observed that nobody ever uses the the parking lots at Riverwoods Park and has
suggested that we consider doing something more useful with it, specifically a playground. So, I just want to throw that idea out there as we are pondering where we might add additional facilities. is a lot of times they get put all in the same place. And I think there's some value in what she's
noticing and maybe distributing these and getting them put into different neighborhoods so kids have more access when they're walking and biking around their own neighborhoods. That's all that. All right. Council member uh no report. Council member Bifford. No
report. Okay. And I will add that I will not be at the next meeting as I will be traveling. So with that, future meeting dates, uh, Monday, June 16th at 6 p.m. there is a CRA meeting. Yes. Okay. CRA meeting and regular session at 6:30. And
then Monday, June 23rd at 5:30 p.m. there is a work session. Is there anything else for the go to the order? It is 7:20 p.m. And this meeting is adjourned. Good job.