please rise for invocation by Reverend Melissa France from D Beach drive-in Christian Church I bring greetings from across the bridge over in the shores hello to everybody let's pray creator of all we welcome your presence in this space tonight thank you for the opportunity to serve our community in the ways that the men and women gathered here tonight do I I pray that they would seek your wisdom and guidance as they work to make decisions that will impact the lives of those who live work and play here in Port Orange I also lift up our First Responders and I ask for your protection for them as they serve and protect our community I pray for their families who wait upon their return home from their shift guide direct and protect them in all that they do Holy One tonight we will hear about world and sephtis day and I lift up to you all those who have received this diagnosis of inflammation of in the brain I pray for their families their doctors and medical staff who provide care for them thank you for all that you do for us and may the business that is accomplished here tonight bring glory to you amen amen thank you for that I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God invisible liy and justice for all with the clerk call the RO here here here may here here all are present we have a full Quorum tonight with that recom recognition and proclamations and recognition is absolutely deserved item four donation from Jane Taylor of port to the Port Orange Police K9 unit for stealth fighter K9 ballistic vest Wayne who do we have to speak to this Chief Marina I've heard of him Chief how are you good evening mayor vice mayor council members City staff and guests uh Chief Annie Marino Port Orange Police Department it's my pleasure tonight to recognize one of our residents and uh a big supporter to the police department not just the police department the city of Port Orange uh in general but especially to the police department Miss uh Jane Taylor uh I got to say I've been here two and a half years this is the second time Jane's made donations to the canine unit she's reached out in the past to see what she can do to help our motor unit uh and then at the last minute I know she made contact with the vice mayor and also managed to get involved with cops for Christmas um and made a very generous donation for that program as well but tonight we're here to talk about Jan's recent donation uh this is Officer K9 Officer Jared alisados and his K9 partner Nico uh you see him wearing the stealth uh stealth canine ballistic vests that were donated uh by Jane uh not only for uh for K9 Nico but also for officer McBride and her K9 partner uh buddy unfortunately officer McBride had a death in a family and could not be with us tonight uh I got to say this particular donation for me is moving uh my Pro my former agency is a brand new officer uh we had um a canine killed in the line of duty canine Kimbo was shot and killed um by a homicide suspect um America's Most Wanted out of California so this one's touching I can't tell you how much I appreciate it so glad to do it I don't speak that's the [Applause] [Music] ru the dog wants in that picture that's [Music] [Laughter] outstanding oh that's awesome he's like I got to go back to work time to work I can tell you from having done a Ride Along with that dog and that officer right there they are incredible um Jared has a relationship with Niko that is just absolutely incredible and is definitely worth protecting and what Jane has done to to help do that I I'm so grateful for but is incredible to see in a 12-hour shift riding along how passive and gentle that dog can be until something happens and if he thinks that officer is threatened boy I don't care where you are you will know it from Nico it's it's it's incredible to see that the the partnership between the uh officer and and the canine goes so much further than just a professional one it's it is it's it's terrific to see with that item five world and and sephtis day Proclamation uh I will read the proclamation Cat come on up you can have a video to show us real quick and a couple words but I want to present this to you but in doing so I want to read it first whereas entis is inflamation of the brain and whereas intis can strike anyone anywhere at any time and at any age resulting in a serious and sometimes life-threatening medical emergency and whereas en sephtis impacts an estimated 20,000 people in the United States and 500 5 100,000 people globally each year and whereas in sephtis leaves survivors with an acquired brain injury affecting not only the diagnosed individual but the entire family and community at large and whereas the 501c3 organization of En sephtis 411 strives to improve the quality of life for all those impacted by en sephtis and the final whereas it is imperative that there be a greater public awareness of this serious health issue therefore I Donald ett mayor of the City Port Orange Proclaim February 22nd 2024 as en sephtis awareness day and in the city of Port Orange I encourage all re residents to support world intis day and learn the symptoms of intis in order to raise awareness and better support early diagnosis and treatment for those who became who become ill with this neurological condition and with my signature and the Seal of the city it is so declared C thank you video thank you [Music] mayor [Music] excuse [Music] [Music] me [Music] for [Music] [Music] that [Music] hey my name is Matthew I'm old escape this is uh one of the most caring and giving in individuals a community could ever want and the fact that you're here right now and the ability for us to do this on your behalf and on behalf of so many I I I'm ever so grateful I want to allow uh Mike to take his picture I allow you to say a couple words yeah they say never follow animals and children right yeah the microphone's all yours thank you there's a reason that video is a silent video this disease is rarely known um the world and sephtis Society if you're not aware has been in existence for over 40 years I never heard of it before World in sephtis Awareness Day on February 22nd every year has been acknowledged for the last 10 years I never heard of it before so if you didn't either don't worry Ken and I are in a mission to change that my husband Ken is in the back world intis day is February 22nd this year and it's on a Thursday and since its launch World in sephtis day has reached millions of people through media interviews and events features and social media there is a hashtag called red for wed and we are doing our best to spread that around the United States so people can acknowledge that this disease exists and help try to get people better treatment quicker um it is our hope that recognizing world and sephtis day locally will play a leading role and getting not only the State of Florida but the United States in general in the UK World in sephtis day and the red for wed campaign is acknowledged in over 156 different places to date the United States has had two and as of last week we up that to 11 so we have a lot of work to do but I want valua County in the great state of Florida lead that way so I'm here Ken and I have set a goal to inform and educate as many people as we can so that no other person has to go through what my last 18 months have been I was misdiagnosed for over 11 months I was three days shy of one year since my very first seizure and it took me going to the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix for someone to find the answer I went for a two we stay ended up staying for 4 weeks because had an incredible medical team out there that acknowledged something was wrong and they weren't going to let me leave until they found it so praise God for them the symptoms of incilius are so hard to determine if you have en sephtis because they mimic so many other diseases and I was misdiagnosed with epilepsy for over a year I don't have much intimate knowledge about epilepsy but I kept telling them that's not what I have it's just something in you when something like this happens that says that's not it let's keep going and that man right there fought for me every single day when I couldn't even get out of bed and said something you don't know her there's something wrong so 78% of the people in the world have never even heard of in sephtis and definitely can't tell you what it is despite the fact that 500,000 people globally have it the type that I have is called autoimmune en sephtis with an AE lgi1 marker sounds like I know what I'm talking about I know a lot more now than I did six months ago but that marker exists in less than one person in a million that's me told you I one in a million I told you y'all should never let me go less than one in a million less than one in a million that's the kind I have the lgi1 marker what it does is everything you saw in that video I haven't driven a car in 18 months I haven't been alone in 18 months I have to somebody with me all the time I was at the peak of Fitness distance Runner I was in excellent shape one day I got up was doing some work for the city got up from my home office and collapsed so when they say anytime anywhere anyone I'm living proof of that so we need to get Awareness on this and I thank you very much I'm going to ask you one more thing if we could the ribbon the color since every disease has one world and sephtis day is red that's all the red and I would ask if the city would consider because it's our hometown either turning city hall or the city fountain or the welcome to Port orang sign red that day Ken and I are going to try to make the rounds for other cities that have agreed to do this and get as many photos as we can we are the world and seil Society is located in the United Kingdom and I am collecting all of the mayoral proclamations that we are so blessed to get and all the pictures that we can find or people will send us and we're going to send them in a package to the world and sephtis society and say look at us once again Florida is leading from the front so there is a document out on the podium and I think each of you have one it talks about how our wonderful Community can help participate in this too in the red for wed campaign and it's something as simple as putting something red on you or your animal or your co-workers when they're not looking whatever and take a picture and send it to me there's a list on the podium of how to get them to me and I welcome any questions Ken and I want to make sure people have the facts we have heard everything from I had a stroke do I had a heart attack do I have cancer none of that is true I have a brain disease that we didn't know I had 18 months ago and we want to make sure that people learn the facts I can't thank you enough for standing behind us and showing your support all of you for agreeing to this Proclamation it you know it means world to me one of the hardest things I ever did was give up that seat lucky you because I didn't want to go but you were the one who made me realize that my mission changed if I was still going to serve people I just had to realize how to do it and we had that conversation and it was within an hour I turned around told Ken I said I know what we have to do we have to educate people so thank you for letting me see the light I appreciate also woman Atwood and that's a title you earned I'll be at your stay up here on the Das was a short one your mission to give back to community has been a lifelong Venture for you and I have no doubt that this will continue far beyond just this effort thank than you for bringing awareness thank you for making something more of what you're dealing with personally so that we can help more than just what's in front of us so it can be talked about the way it needs to be so we want we want to help somebody else not go through this so thank you thank you thank you thank you all love you welcome we love you absolutely thank you we love you too Ken yeah Ken Ken she's still better looking just saying public comments on consent agenda items Robert yep there he is mayor council members Robert rehagen 1425 Dexter Drive North Port Orange um I'd like to talk about item c9b the city leases the Riverside Pavilion leases to the Riverside Pavilion Association a piece of prime riverfront property for $10 a year because of some significant public interest compare that with item c9c where the city is leasing raw well filled land along I4 to Clear Channel for $1,500 per year to display a sign personally I see no significant public interest in leasing riverfront property to the Riverside Pavilion Association what I see is a no trust trespassing and members only signs that deny me and all other Port Orange residents the right to access that riverfront a right that I read was guaranteed to the public in in perpetuity in the Riverwalk founding documents I believe we should let the lease terminate buy the structure back in accordance with the lease then offer the to lease the building and the land back to the current back to the association for the current free market price that Prime riverfront property would get us thank you thank you thank you Robert anyone else want to comment on any item that's on the consent agenda there being none need a motion on item seven to approve the agenda for the evening so moved second we have a motion proper second for approval of the agenda for the evening all in favor signify by saying I I I let Le items 8 through 10 on consent may have a motion for approval move to approve items 8 through 10 on the content agenda second I starting to worry there for a second I was I was reading that items 8 through 10 on consent call the role councilman poy yes councilman grubs yes yes Council Bastion yes vice mayor sner yes mayor Bernette yes 5 on items 8 through 10 on consent are approved brings us to public participation somebody who is this christien Johanson who I've never heard of before good evening gentlemen Kristen Johansson 6611 Maryville Lane Port Orange um I'm here representing the Port Orange South Daytona Chamber of Commerce uh we want to I'm also by the way on the board of directors and the chair of their Workforce Development Committee and several items that we are working on I wanted to draw to your attention um first of all we are excited to partner with Spruce Creek High School um for their career fair that's coming up on February 29th um I have a flyer that I can provide to mayor he's been one to switch careers I know I um so this is the first time that we've partnered with them on this um and we're excited to to help them out to try to make it a success so we encourage any businesses um that are interested to come help our future Workforce by participating in that career fair uh we will also end up supporting um the upcoming career fair with Atlantic high school when they um have theirs on April 25th so we'll look forward to that as well um our president and CEO Barbara Anne hegan and I are really excited to implement and partner with the city of Port Orange on an idea brought To Us by vice mayor sner you'll hear about that later in detail but we just want to make sure that we state that we uh enjoy we like his idea we are glad to partner with it and looking forward to um to any work that we can do together and finally um along the same Workforce Development side of things we run a youth Civic leadership program this year will be our eighth year um we've also very much in partnership with your city and you guys have been a great supporter of it since the beginning we're on our eth year it will run June 3rd through 7th and applications will hit our uh schools um by the end of this month so we encourage anybody that has students in that uh age category or at least has access to students in that age category to uh encourage them to apply applications will be available at the high schools and on the chamber website that's all I have thank you sir very good appreciate it she set you up for um Council comments I would say that uh we have everybody on the edge of their seats right and we got skip sentence good evening everyone uh my name is Skip Simmons I live at 543 Hamlet drive here in Port Orange I'm the executive director of no longer fatherless a 501c3 nonprofit founded right here in Port Orange so I'm just here to spread awareness about our mission and what we do and try to reach more families so we exist to recruit train and match mentors with boys who are growing up without a father figure and this is in fuchia and Flagler counties So currently we have 50 mentors matched with 50 young men basically from Edgewater up to Palm Coast and then out in West fuchia so we are trying to spread awareness to any families in need in the area who haven't heard of us or any men who this may resonate with who would be interested in getting involved so we have three major programs it's one toone weekly relational mentoring so each mentors match with one young man and then we also have group events and life skill classes these are designed to just have amazing experiences with the mentors and boys and to also show them new passions and hobbies that hopefully can turn into a career someday and we're just trying to find something these boys can latch on to and be passionate about that can truly change their life we offer services to boys age 6 to 19 and many people know the ugly stats that go along with not having a father in your life it often leads to prison youth suicide drug use um High School dropouts many negative outcomes but mentoring can truly turn that around and we've had some incredible stories of impact just recently the young man I Mentor his mother asked him if something God forbid happened to her where would he want to go if this situation came to be and he said he would like to move in with my family um which hit me pretty hard just showing the impact I've had being matched with him over the past several years so just want to talk about the organization and we currently are in a mentor training class taking place right across the pond at the Lakeside Community Center we're partner with you guys frequently on things like that our upcoming golf tournament in April is held at the city's course Cypress Head Golf Club my wife and I are Spruce Creek High School grads so we're all about Port Orange and just want everybody to learn about the organization and know the resources out there so thank you guys for your time appreciate you thank you skip can you I'm sorry one second you come back up to the mic can you just for everybody watching or that will re rewatch the meeting the replay can you just say how folks can learn more about the organization if they can contact you how they can go about doing that any social media sites can you just say that for us of course I should have squeezed that in my that's okay no you're you're fine you're fine yeah it's good yeah of course our website is www.n longera list.org and we also are on Facebook and Instagram if you just look up no longer fatherless that is what it is for both of those pages thank you brother appreciate you thanks for what you do Council comments Scott since you've been teed up why didn't you lead off okay uh so I got a couple things to to talk about tonight um one of these is is like head scratching interesting to me how we got to this point but but we are there and so just a little bit of background so we we hear from time to time complaints and interest and people being able to operate golf court golf carts in various places in the community and this has become like a Florida thing now and I get it um and so there are there are State statutes and ordinances and and and different things that allow for different things and but one one of the um uses that has long been in my mind assumed and understod came to light recently that we need to tighten up with a little bit of housekeeping so so over 30 years ago the community of Cypress Head Golf Course was designed and um and construction began and development began back then I worked for the police department and it didn't take very long after Cypress Head was built for people in throughout the city of Port Orange to say man you know that's pretty cool they they've got a golf course Community they can ride around their golf carts go up to the clubhouse go visit their friends their neighbors what have you and we started seeing this evolution of people buying golf carts carts thinking well I can do this in my neighborhood too well when these questions would come to uh light to the police department and I think the chief could even attest to this it was common practice it was an assumed thing on all of us I can't tell I was telling the chief I can't tell you how many times I said the phrase that's only allowed in Cypress Head Golf Course Community because that's a designated golf course Community which is one of the conditions of the state statute to allow people to drive golf carts on streets on city streets it's been that way for decades and decades and decades um and to my knowledge while there may be a very small hand few of people that lived in Cypress Head that maybe didn't like that idea overwhelmingly that's the assumed Thing by the residents out there and the community by and large and it is a common daily everyday practice for sure C to the to the chase here in in consultation on an unrelated matter to that um with the city attorney and doing a little research we have found that not all of the te's have been crossed and eyes dotted to allow what has been common practice to occur and so we need to do that and I'm going to ask the City attorney to speak to it here for just a moment but my ask here tonight is for concession by the council for us to cross those te's and those eyes and that the practice to allow golf cart usage on the city streets they can already do it on the private streets in cypers head but not all of the streets in Cypress Head and to that I'll just give you an example it is possible and I guarantee in practice to own a home in Cypress Head community in the golf course community and not be on the golf cart a golf course to where you can access a cart path and not be able to legally as of today drive your golf cart to the clubhouse to play around a golf or get something to eat or what have you it has been an understood practice it's been an assumed practice it's been something we've always thought was completely legal and per permissible and we need to make those Corrections so that this issue is put to bed once and for all because that's by that's a one of the reasons probably not the only reason but it's one of the reasons people choose that community and choose to to buy homes in there because that's a practice that's always been allowed so I'll let Matt touch on that and then before before you do Matt I I also uh would like you to look into this as well because about a dozen years ago I don't know you may have already looked at this about a dozen years ago we did some cleanup to the ordinance that allows that and uh I say that was like 2011 2012 somewhere in there uh so I I'd be interested to know where we failed in that uh cleanup as well and granted that was a while ago but that's um so long ago I don't exactly remember what it is that we did specifically uh but I will allow you re crack research team to look at that as well Matt um so I mean he he PR much said it so your uh state law currently uh prohibits golf cart use on uh public streets um so we in the city of Port Orange we haven't designated any of our streets as uh being safe for golf cart use um it sounds like we we may have had a practice at least in the Cypress Head Community but um we we do need an official legislative act from the city council to make that uh legitimate um so at this point um we'll if there's a consensus of council to to move in that direction we can bring back a uh an official designation um once that takes place there's signage that needs to go into place there will be some policy considerations for you guys to to consider um related to additional regulations that you may apply um we do have a couple of our neighbors that have some pretty uh bulky regulations as you relate to golf carts South Daytona Holly Hill um some some of your neighbors have have done this and and you know actually designate quite a few streets as a golf cart uh streets um there's a little bit of nuance in that you know there's lsvs out there too low speed vehicles and golf carts and there sometimes it's not as easy as you would think to distinguish between the two those are are actually okay um as long as it's a public Street that's 35 miles an hour or less and it has the proper equipment uh you know as as per the statute so um sometimes you know don't don't think that if you if you see a cart on the street that it's automatically illegal and it's automatically a golf cart sometimes uh it's a low speed vehicle and it can be there um so uh really uh at this point it's just a matter of of council uh action to uh put the wheels in motion to u to make it a a legal use of the Cypress Head streets man here's what I'm going to do uh rather than give you consensus to strictly move forward I don't necessarily like doing things like that unannounced um if you I don't care if it's on a consent agenda but the council needs to uh act accordingly and vote on it uh in a manner where the public is alerted in advance so if you could take the proper action to make sure that that happens yeah it would come back to you because I uh there are a series of policy questions that H that you'll have to resolve either way so we will be coming back to you uh potentially with with at least a discussion piece before a final draft is in front of you for adoption and then that's my instructions to you is to uh prepare that bring that back to us what else you got do you need consensus from the whole Council on that no I just gave the instru I just need one more well he needs one more you need either the mayor or two counsil people Mr attorney I know the LW okay I think he got one other one anyway to get the person who's requesting it right there but um but you got what you need what else Scott do you have what you need s turning I'm telling you you got what you need all right I just want to make sure CU I I've been this a while too I want to get the ball moving all right um so next item here uh that I'm going to ask for consensus of the entire Council please um this this is something that kind of came to light from two different angles as well um as most of us have seen and heard throughout the entire city of Port Orange we have a lot of employers that are really struggling to find employees and to maintain their Workforce it it almost is impossible to go into our retail stores and restaurants and and so so forth and and not see they're asking for help they're hiring all those kind of things we hear the stories over and over from a lot of business owners that they just can't find people to work in addition to that um we are starting to hear uh a lot of chatter from graduating high school seniors who aren't necessarily looking to go off to college and a lot of them are pursuing the workforce right out of high school either as a shortterm or maybe that's their long-term plan or going into the trades and any regard we have a city that has two high schools in our city that graduates a tremendous amount of high school seniors every year a lot of those folks coming right out of high school will need employment or be looking for employment right away it just so happens we have a lot of businesses in Port Orange and additionally we have a Chamber of Commerce in Port Orange and so the idea and the ask and i' and I've kind of talked a little bit Loosely with with the city manager's office and our Chamber of Commerce Partners to see about the the the concept of co-hosting along with the Chamber of Commerce a true job fair not a career Expo not that there's anything wrong with I think the career Expos are great but the idea of a job fair is businesses who have positions to fill and are looking to hire perhaps same day on site and bringing together those who need employment that are looking to be hired right away in the same Arena to benefit not only our graduating seniors from our local high schools but also the businesses who need to fill those positions and so we're looking at something where it would this would be logistically hosted by the Chamber of Commerce any business in the city of Port Orange can participate they don't have to be a member of the chamber all graduating high school uh seniors would have first crack at this it would kind of be a a two-tiered maybe lack of maybe not the right word but a two-tiered approach where on the given day the the time schedule let's say is ends up being 4:30 to 6 I believe something like that Christ maray about that somewhere close to would be at least three hours yeah so the the first portion of that event would be exclusively for these high school seniors to know hey come on down don't be intimidated by the process bring your personal information meet these employers they've got jobs they're looking to hire you come on down and facilitate that then after that there would be an additional time period where others that are looking for employment could also come in and meet with these employers that are that that are looking to hire as well so um we've got a great wreck facility the idea is to utilize that facility we're looking at a date in May that coincides with the close proximity of high school graduation as well as seasonal jobs that are going to become available um we've got a wreck facility we've got a chamber of commerce we've got good folks that are willing to host this and logistically put this together the additional ask that I would have have uh is that all of our city council and our city staff also look for businesses that are looking for people and help spread the word to say hey this is coming up you need whether it's Home Depot Lowe's Publix McDonald's any retail store dive shops whatever it is that are looking to hire folks um in additional and and lastly to that and I'm going to I'll stop speaking let you guys speak on this but lastly to that as well I would ask that our city manager and our department heads um provide information back through the city manager's office as to what jobs they would like to be able to have available to offer to because these are these are adults these are these are Folks by and large most of our seniors graduating are over 18 so they are going to be hirable in the adult Workforce some are going to be looking for full-time some part-time what have you and if we've got jobs in the city I want to make sure that they've got uh an equal opportunity to apply and interview for those jobs as well so that's kind of what I'm looking for support a council for for for something like this I think it's a really good idea I think it benefits our community in multiple ways um and I'm grateful that the chamber has has taken a look they've they've reached out to quickly to reach out to some business to say is is this something you think we can do would you be participate and do you have jobs and 30 of them quickly responded back yeah we're in I've also talked to three on the side to feel that out as well and they're all in with jobs so it doesn't sound like there will be a shortage of business that will have jobs to offer the the next step is to make those High School graduating seniors aware of this opportunity and comfortable enough to just come on in just walk in you don't need a fancy resume it would be great if you got one but you don't need that bring your ID your personal information whatever you want to bring and come on in and and and meet with these folks and then those of us that are available to kind of maybe be there uh somewhat as maybe mentors or or coaches just to make these high school seniors more comfortable when they show up to say hey thanks for coming coming in what's your name what are you looking for and and point out some of the businesses that may may fit what they're looking for so Council are we in agreement that this is a good idea yeah I think so I think we I think we do I know the chamber I've talked to Barbara in and she's very excited about it so I I think it's a terrific idea you have it thank you Scott all right thanks that's all I got Drew you got anything tonight I do not I'm not following that not touching that one good that's why I asked you after Scott re what you got tonight um actually don't really have anything tonight excellent excellent report Tracy what you got I want to thank Miss Taylor for a citizen coming to the needs of the police departments and the can9 um it's it's outstanding that we have people in our community to come forth and do what you did and uh I can't express enough gratitude for for everything that you have done over the past and what you've done today so thank you very much um the the next thing is uh dealing with uh ponds you know we always talk about ponds and water mitigation of water and all the fun stuff that we have but it's uh education is always what I've talked about in the past and tonight's I like any other we're going to have an education night so just real clearly we come in to the city has approximately a little over 582 ponds inside our city boundaries inside that the city Only controls 136 and then we take it down to out of the 136 the question that is always given to me through email text or stopped in Public's asking me when the rainstorms are coming why aren't the pumps turned on and pumped down well there there's an easy solution to that there's out of 136 ponds that we control we only have six pumps on the major ponds also we need to educate as far as what groundwater is the groundwater table in Florida pretty high and dry right yeah think so we we end up we literally can pump down these ponds and the major ponds and within a couple of days the groundwater level is going to bring the ponds back up so even though the city does its due diligences we are fighting against everything so I just trying to educate the base of you know six pumps on a few ponds is not going to take care of everything at hand so please stay diligent with us as we go forward with the initiatives that we have proposed for moving water with projects that Council uh city manager and the engineering team has put on the boards and I and I re bring this up because I think one of the scary notes was is you know we had Ian that took 21 plus inches of rain and it was devastating the city went out and did its strong diligence of trying to make things as nice as possible and mitigate as we went forward the last major rainstorm was in November a little over 10 Ines of rain and it was nice to see that the things in the process that the city had put forward worked 21 in we've had this story before we never going to be able to take care of 21 Ines of rain but the reason I bring this up is this past week on the news little State called California had five inches of rain and catastrophic flooding in major cities with five inches of rain I think we should commend our engineers and our facilities for taking care of that we have now things under control of 10 inches of rain you know a lot of us think it's a touchy situation to have this conversation but I think we need to thank the people and the hard workers of the city for what they've done to protect us on 10 Ines when we have major cities with way bigger budgets that can't handle five Ines so staff I commend y'all thank you for what y'all done all we can do is move forward with the budgets that as Tallahassee is helping us with to try to make better amends so we can take the 12 and 14 in as we go forward uh for the low-lying areas yes we're still working on your your areas um we're dealing with engineering from the 50s and 60s and those are problematic area so it is going to take us a little while longer I know nobody wants to hear that but it's been over 50 years of a process to create the water problem that we have it can't be fixed overnight so be diligent with us and we will hopefully into two take care of this issue and some of these issues have not new nope smaller ponds go to larger ponds larger ponds get pumped areas that have been flood prone for years and decades are you know we we've seen some numerous improvements like the Monroe Avenue project but uh uh in some cases I mean the rainstorm in November I was out in the middle of it taking a look at the Cambridge neighborhood because of how it was affected so adversely and seeing the pumps you know seeing the road flooding and then the very next morning the pump's given the time to work it was completely dry I'm like you know of course I was holding my breath but all all the same U we've got many many more things to come along those lines and we will talk about those uh at the Town Hall on February 22nd just like we do every year uh we have a town hall and this year February 22nd we'll uh get more information up out about that but uh this is going to be a prevailing topic you'll be able to come and see the projects that we have planned and proposed you'll learn what else is going on in the city and then anybody who wants to come we want also want to hear from you we'll have all our department heads we'll have all our experts there uh the nice thing about that is sometimes I'll go meet some with somebody and I'm not an expert in everything I may know a lot a little bit about the many things that we do but we'll have the experts there and our department heads in the room that night we can get nearly all your questions answered or at least uh to some degree and we also know that we're affected by the things that go on in other areas that as much as we are affect uh the things that we do affect others uh we have been very active at least I have uh in personally helping advocate for Daytona Beach getting its Army Corp of engineer uh review and Congressman Waltz has been very instrumental in helping them that's not going to be a slow uh that's going to be up to two years that's going to take to do that study but Daytona Beach has no Nova canal outfalls in an area that's basically in a bowl that water you know we're trying to figure out after an end how to hold 21 Ines of water that we got and then all of a sudden there's water flowing towards us and towards Orman Beach and Holly Hill because there are no outfalls in Daytona Beach so what happens in other areas so we're taking on their water as well so yes I want to help them find Solutions because I want to help them but I also know that it impacts us as well so sometimes it we have to take the even bigger picture of uh multiple communities uh of what we do and how it affects everybody else so these are important topics and I hope to see everybody at the Town Hall hey just want to echo on something Tracy was talking about because I think it's it's a discussion that needs to be happening all the time Tracy and appreciate you bringing it up the one thing that that's also important to remember is it's not that we can't buy more pumps we can buy more pumps but there's only six Retention Ponds that are capable of being pumped corre because the having the pumps is one Element you got to have somewhere to pump it to and that's a huge problem and a lot of the communities or a lot of the neighborhoods that we have in the Port Orange Community that were built 50 60 70 years ago uh because I've noticed this a lot I'll look on Google Earth sometimes trying to look and try to come up up with an idea some of these communities in these neighborhoods they don't have a single retention Pond their streets where this is a weird thing to say their streets were designed to be the retention by the developer back then back in that day those streets were designed for the water to flood the street and eventually run off through natural means so when you think okay I've got a community it's got 120 homes there's not a single retention Pond that street was designed to be the retention Pond for those very heavy down which is bizarre we don't we don't we don't allow communities like that anymore if you look at the the neighborhoods that have been built in the last 15 20 even 25 30 years uh in the city of Port Orange they look totally different Retention Ponds everywhere you can look and go okay water runs off there there there there's where it goes there's where it goes even if those areas can't those retention areas can't necessarily be be pumped there is place for that runoff to go along with the elevation requirements of the buildings themselves exactly so that's just I just wanted to add to that I appreciate uh councilman grubs bringing that up because that's something that we just can't seem to talk enough about and we need to talk about it and and since since I can't think of a single topic since I've been on the city council that has been talked about more than rainwater and flood mitigation from the time I got on there were already projects that were pre-planned that were in the works absolutely that carried over and so it's a it's a nonstop continuous process and and it's a it's a constant fight that will probably be here forever as part of what we do as as take a look at item 10 we we on item 10 we accepted a million Grant tonight to uh take care of the uh reconstruction of the water mains down in Ridgewood in the uh Commonwealth area and and all that is interrelated so you know those that might have been on the consent agenda we didn't have to discuss it because frankly it's a no-brainer no brainer you know agreed but it's being done thanks Trac y the other thing that I had was uh Wayne I had asked for an update there are three derc boats uh that we're in various stages with Wayne can you tell us where we're at with uh getting getting those taken care of Chief will give you this somay way to delegate not the chief's boats by the way not my boats Manny Marino chief of police again uh yes mayor those three boats uh nothing's really changed since my presentation in November um there's we're showing three deric vels in Port Orange the one that's resting uh against the mangroves right near the boat ramps that one's been uh already deemed derel and it's pending removal we just don't have a date on that yet uh the other two are still under investigation so they have not been uh they have not been deemed derel yet the only other thing we've done as an agency we did remove two boats uh that were tied up uh to the boat ramps um that were in violation of city ordinance uh so we did remove those and we hauled those and had those stored at City yards but as far as the derc vessels it's still uh the same three vessels and this process of course if we honor it makes our expenses reimbursable is the way I understand it or or they're not even our expenses they'll be done by the state it'll get done and this it's not necessarily something that we have to worry about as as local taxpayers with our own local tax base because the state it already accounts for that correct and we paying taxes elsewhere to make that happen that is correct and if we do choose to at some point do that uh the caveat to the grant is that FWC has to do the Der vessel investigation okay if you're going to put into being reimbursed okay appreciate it thank you Chief uh any other that that was it for uh my notes uh and we went through all five of us so that brings this board interviews reports and appointments and environmental Advisory Board Miss Christine Cunningham what you got for us ah I have props where is my prop M Foley I didn't know how ready you were for I'm always ready for props so the word of the day is water goat yes good word water we love water goats that anybody see January 30th news3 um we were on there and they did a whole presentation on water goats uh the in Port Orange the city's environmental Advisory Board is planning to install a water goat at Riverwalk Park this spring and become the latest City to use the device to prevent litter from entering the Halifax River and uh at 4:00 today I received notice it'll be installed tomorrow over at uh Riverwalk and uh vucha County Soil and Water Conservation District graciously paid for the sign we are all listed on that sign which will be um posted near the water Goat as an education um part of the education process for that area where we're also putting in the native plant garden as well so this is step one it's very exciting we did get the grants the city did not pay for this um it's all been done because a lot of people really care about the river and they want to make sure that the cities are doing everything they can with volunteers to clean the garbage up so that it does not go into our precious Halifax River Wayne can we feature this on the our news and information I know that we've touched on that in the past but we can we can regurgitate it this is this is very relevant I want people to know what they're seeing uh if you could lift it just a little bit more um the uh Soil and Water don't feed the goat are the people that um make it obviously the city of Fort Orange and then the uh Foundation is who paid for it so everybody's been giving their accolades and are very proud of what they do y you at a little [Laughter] higher just pretend you got that guitar up there I like it um yeah so if you have a chance to uh I did if you're on my Facebook and I'll reposted the um the news the news uh Channel News 13 segment so we can I know there was Grant funded but what's what's the approximate cost value of that of a water goat $5,000 mhm and uh a little surprising to me uh but apparently that is is is uh the going rate and the sponsor and the funds were provided without any without any question and uh water goat maker uh is from Tampa so um these are not this is not just a local project but throughout the state uh well part of January is election of officers and since I'm standing in front of you I have been voted in as the chair again congratulations and so forward to all the projects we're working on the garden spot is next um Margaret is working on getting the plants for us they've all been approved by our Native Garden experts we will be looking for people to sponsor the benches and mayor I understand we're going to get a certain type of bench and uh we're researching that for our conversation and also um we will be looking for people that would like to volunteer to help maintain the garden and I think a lot of people when they see how much work is going into it the city is going to be digging it up the dirt around it so uh the volunteers can come and just plant the plants we're trying to get it all organized for the all the uh tree giveaway that we'll be having on um March 2nd at the spring brew and food festival which unfortunately we told everybody in October it was going to be at the city center but of course now it's down at the Riverwalk and so we need to you know let everybody know we had 182 people sign up to get free trees that was amazing and so they'll need to go down they will receive a letter from the city saying uh just go on down and pick up the tree from 10 to 2 Saturday May uh excuse me March 2nd and we'll coincide that with uh our plantings of the Native you anticipate having any additional trees available yes we will have last year we had a few extra um you'll have of walk up right and some people will forget I mean and they will receive um letters and I think that's about it does anybody have any questions Council questions I do Chris dealing with um the water goat and you said volunteer base as far as clean vet you got plans of anybody just yet or well we have you know getting the word out right now the board members are are going to take care of it um part of I think part part of it is understanding is this the right spot for it okay um we didn't the board did not come up with the spot okay it was put out to staff and so this is something that has been a a a collaboration effort we think we're doing the right place but maybe not so we might have to move it to be functional um what we're looking for is if you have a chance to to watch that um uh news Spectrum news you'll see how many people are involved in the other cities and how much garbage they give their statistics so we have to report that as well um it's not a hard job it's just something that needs to be done continuously and so we will be looking for people to just come along and sign up it could be something the high school kids need to do there's there's all sorts of ways of having uh kids really help out and learn yeah you have a couple different organizations here in town um first one right off the bat is scouting of America there's multiple troops that have to do environmental science right as far as their merit badges and they can come into that with eagle projects also uh four oceans uh there is actually a local chapter in vucha County um they're always looking for volunteerism doing that and their big thing is collecting plastic because they turn it and recycle it um and then not them speaking for a dive store uh there's a dive store here locally dive store here a lot of environmental help also so if you get with that person and they can get it to the club members and um a little over 12200 people in Port Orange area in that club so they might be able to help in that aspect for you too it's something you do uh once a month twice a month um and and then we also um in case there's a storm coming we have to have backup plans people I mean this this is It's just something that is a true team effort and we want to make sure everybody um feels that they they can be part of it the county even has a list of volunteers for water goats and for other uh projects so really appreciate the fact that it's a beautiful thing I mean it's it's amazing how much you're actually going to get out of it you're going to be quite surprised and uh which is good and bad for those that yeah exactly those that us that boat and fish the river it's it's aming amazing what the quality it will do for that Basin yes exactly and we want to make sure that um if people uh you know have projects like this this is something that because you know there's a lot of networking with environmentalists that they all talk to each other and so this is just one aspect of what we can do between all the cities especially the coastal cities we have a little bit uh unique issue with trying to keep everything out of the Halifax yeah yeah yeah beautiful Christine Ashton Lakes subdivision if you're able to reach out to the homeowners association I think the city staff may have some contact info if you need help with that but recently um we had to have several trees removed remember that were planted totally in the wrong place and were just destroying infrastructure yes so it's not something anybody wanted to see happen but it just become a necessity so maybe that may be I've already talked to several residents out there that were really upset about it and I get it I mean they were beautiful just in the wrong place and they were just destroying things they were wrong trees wrong trees wrong place lot of liability anyhow just throwing that out there to you that maybe you want to reach out to HOA out there at Ashton Lakes let them know about this homeowners that want to add ex treated of their yard in the right place the right kind might be a really good thing well we're growing first first year we did it we I think we did 40 second year 80 and third year 180 so uh and we're getting so much support from the cities the counties are all having their own so uh we're part of a great group recognizing the tree City designation is very important to the cities now more than it used to be absolutely come a long way Council one you other questions no thank you so much thanks Christin thanks section g additional items item 13 City attorney no thank excellent report item 14 city manager another excellent report Council committee reports city council committee reports item a on 15 River to CPO counc yeah executive committee which I think you guys know I'm on uh meets tomorrow where we are going to review um a new permanent home for the river CPO um we're looking at to contract with the Cornerstone building which if you're not familiar where that is it's there around the corner of LPG LPGA and 95 um right there like Gary om's and so um they have a proposal we're all going to review tomorrow and maybe uh finally stop moving around from place to place for a while we'll see but uh that's all I have to report for now okay Adam b art housee councilman Tracy grubs uh haven't had a meeting just yet so we're waiting and and I'll be able right give it to you looking forward to hearing from that with that if no other business comes before us we will see you all again in two weeks have a good night everybody that