I'll go ahead and call to order the citizens advisory meeting for Thursday, June 5th. Oh, you want me to do it again? Yes. Oh, here we go. Username. Okay.
Okay. Great. Yeah. Wonderful. We're live. We're live. Okay. Let's call to order the citizens advisory meeting for Thursday, June 5th at 6 PM. Um, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. Got [Music]
it. To the flag of the United States of America and it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Caroline, you want to do the roll? Yes.
Chairwoman Lorie Simpson. So, username would be vice chairman Seth Cap. Let the record reflect the vice chairman Seth Cap is absent. Car uh secretary Caroline Gonzalez here. Member Linda Rodriguez, I believe she's coming will be a little
late. Okay. Member Matt Douglas here. And member Christine Sullivan here. We'd like to welcome Christine to our group. Welcome. Um, do we have any uh do we
have a motion to approve the minutes for May 1st? I'll make them. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor? I Okay. Um, comments from the general
public. Mr. Butterfield, did you want to come up and tell us about yourself? Yeah, there you go. I uh Andy Butterfield just hired as new interim city manager. Um and uh this is my first attending the CAC. I appreciate
the volunteers what you do. I know we don't pay you enough or at all. Yeah, nothing. So, thank you. So, for I can I can attend and learn uh I'm playing catchup right now. It's my first full week uh to learn what what y'all do and
hopefully you can give us uh give us advice. Okay. As we press forward. All right. And where'd you come from? Um my previous work was at Manatee County government and I live in Sarasota County right now just south of there. Great.
Well, welcome to Port Richie. Thanks so much. Good to be here. David, did you have any comments? Okay. Comments from committee members. Start with Christie. I have no comments. Um, I want to thank the the centennial
thing was like the centennial the whole event was really awesome. I went to as much of it as I could. and I couldn't help out as much as I wanted to, but I'm only off Sundays and Mondays, so everybody did amazing. So, yeah.
Yeah, I agree. Everything was just perfect. Um, Caroline, thank you for all your work. I loved it. Did you have any comments to make? Um, I have comments, but I don't know if I should bring it up now. Um, there's some ideas that I want
to go through for like this year. Okay. to do. Um I did want to make a comment though. Yes. Um we just received info for the city of Port Richie for the citizens that see you have it here. Um just a development services
announcement. Effective June 9th, 2025, the city will no longer wave permitting fees for hurricane related damage. If you plan to apply for a permit related to hurricane repairs, please make sure you complete your application um your complete application submitted before the deadline to qualify. If you have any
questions, please contact the building department at 727-8161900. Press option two or email building.services at city ofportrichy.gov. So that's for that. And then there is a paving uh June 9, 2025 paving Bay Boulevard
daytime. Paving will begin on Monday, June 9th, 2025, and continue through next week, weather permitting. Asphalt crews will be working on Bay Boulevard from Wilin Street to Channel Drive. The paving company will use detours and open one lane while the other side is paved.
Good. I just saw that. Okay. Do we want to go to the agenda and then come back to your ideas? Okay. Um I just had comments about the centennial. I don't know if we have any comments that anybody wants to share, but we we all agree everything was just wonderful.
Anybody have any comments? Any more comments about that? It was really It was really nice. It was really great. No, it was I've heard lots of positive comments about the fireworks. Folks said the best we've ever had. So, that was uh
we like that vendor for sure. Yeah, it was uh a lot of work. We uh we uh we had events worthy of 100 years celebration. Yes, you did us proud. Thank you. The drum circle was surprisingly fun. Yeah. I didn't know anything about that, but
that was a lot of fun. Really? It was nice. The Johnny Cash guy was really good. He was good. Yes. Yeah. Everything was nice. Uh we had the EMC VOD Project, which was
the vertical oyster garden. This you put these oysters together and hang them on your dock to help clean the water. I went to that and about 30 of them on my What do they do? They clean the help clean the water and
they attract um other oysters which will help clean the water. Where are they at? It's the um it's at the What's the name of that place? It's down there by Yeah, yeah. What's the name? It's the Energy
and Marine Center. Yeah, it's Energy and Marine. Yeah, I see that. I just didn't know where where it was. Energy and Marine Center. Where is it? At the end of post road, you go heading to towards Brasher uh park. Instead of going left to Brasher, you keep going. It's like a
blue sign and there's gates. They're normally open during the day. You can go in. It's like a unpaved road. It's on the right hand side. It's like by Salt Salt Springs Park. So, I missed this whole thing. Do they let you make them there? Is it Is there a charge? What is it? No, it was free. But, I mean, it's
just something that they had and David re Dave was there, too. he recommended that we go participate. Okay. Just little things like that. Um but they'll have more of them, I'm sure. I'll let you know when the next one is. It was kind of fun, actually. Um
and then Saturday at 9:00 a.m. we're having the golf cart cleanup brigade at uh Lfront Park. I'm gonna have some bags and some pickers and I I'll bring gloves. Um, can everybody attend that or I can I
can on I'm off Sunday's Monday. If y'all want to move it till Sunday, I'll do it all day long. Okay. Yeah, I have a full day planned for Saturday. So, um, I can maybe reschedu that, but I just It's all right. Hopefully, we'll
get some citizens to come help us. Yeah, if you want to move stuff like if you want to help on a Sunday, I can definitely I can do Sundays all day. Yeah, we already advertised it for Saturday, so I don't really want to change the date, but we can have them on Sundays in the future.
On social media, the same night or tomorrow, Friday, because we had a really good clean up right before the hurricane along Bay Boulevard, we cleaned up so much stuff. Be cool if we could do some Do we do kayak clean up at all? Like where they uh the Salt
Springs Park has done that before. I've done that with them. You got that? That's the plan is I have a boat thing planned with a friend of mine all day and we're going to DIY island so I could do something on the boat in the water. Well, if you see some trash, just pick it up one day.
I just got my boats back in the water. So, we had this plan. So, yeah. I was actually surprised we didn't have more debris in the river from the hurricane. That's good job. I collected a pigeon from the river last week. I saw that. It is still alive.
Um he flew away. So Oh, he did. Spent a few days in recovery and then he just took and he had a band on. He just he flew little distances till he flew to a um power pole and and off he went the next day. Okay. So I think I think he
lives under the bridge. That's about where I found him. We need to schedule a um meet your neighbor event. We said we were going to do that this month. Anybody have any ideas on where a good place would be or
suggestion? Off the river is a great place where it's outside. It's that golf cart um bar right off of Grand. Oh yeah, it's just a structure. But it's lots of tables. If we No, no,
it's not on Grand. Oh yeah, it's next to garage on Grand. They'll put they'll hire bands and everything. They put on a heck of a party when have enough warning in them. Sometimes the bar next door will, you know, help. Does anybody have any
connections to I do. You do have a connection with them. Yeah. Ask them if they'd like to host. We usually do it on a Wednesday because Okay. They don't want they don't want to do us, you know, any drink specials or anything with it. I We don't really ask for drink
specials, but LS provides, you know, cheese crackers or something for free. They have a good menu, too. They have smash burgers and all different kinds of wings. And And what's the name again? It's off the river. Off the river. If you're familiar with like where the fire
department is. Oh, it's across the street from that. Um really across from that motel on Grand. Hey, Linda. The Grand Motel, I think it's called. It's just an outdoor structure. Um,
so you want to ask, do we want to pick a date? Yeah, we should pick a date. Actually, it's going to be getting really hot if we don't do it this month and we do it in July. It's We might want to find some place with air conditioning, right? Yeah, you would.
Do they have an inside or is outside? That's all outside, isn't it? Yeah, it's just outside. Yeah, that's a stink, right? Hm. Then they have a stage. Yeah, they have a stage and they'll they would hire bands and stuff if we had a large enough crowd. I mean, if we kind of
could tell them. We only get like 20 or 30 people if we're lucky. So, okay. That was a goal. Were you limping? Yeah. Oh, that walking your dogs again. No riding. No, I can't even ride it.
Find that one. Come on, fellas. Oh, they came to get us. Oh, no. Should we plan for this month or I don't know. We're trying to find a place. Um, but we were thinking it might be too hot to do something like open
air. Yeah, I don't think you'll get a lot of people. We could do that. Will you talk about you? I was talking about that off the river place, but it might be too hot by then. right now. We do that in the fall. Yeah, absolutely. In the fall. Sure. We do it last time. Well, we did hitters
inside, but we didn't have many people. But yeah. Um, uh, catch us has it inside. I don't know if we catch us. What about a new, um, business? That would be nice to
bring people to a new business that's opened up recently. Is there some new business maybe that could use the the foot traffic. I like that idea. What's our new uh like bars and restaurants that opened
up recently here? Well, that off the river. Well, yeah. Is probably fairly new because they were used to be garage on Grand and they changed hands to off the river, but that was a couple years ago. If there's anything like in the last six, eight months maybe. That's Cancun. What about
Cancun? Closing, not opening. Right. What's Cancun? Isn't Oh, Cancun Beach is new. Yeah, that's over there off the water where next to Hooters. The old seaside. Yeah, the old seaside. So maybe they could use the foot traffic to get Yeah, they had they
had a Thursday between and they have an inside. Yes, they do. I guess I can ask them. Do we want to pick a date for this month or for um
Whiskey River? No. Um by Gild. Why don't you ask them what's good for them? Okay. And we want to do it on a Wednesday usually. Do we do it like the second or third Wednesday? I can't even remember. I thought I think it was the third.
So either the 18th or in July would be the 16th, right? I can ask them and see see about that. Um, and then I had um sent a a message
to the city manager about we've been talking about cleaning up that wall and on Park forever and um I was thinking that we could pressure
wash it and then paint it white or light blue and then talk to some local artists that might want volunteer their time. I agree with the volunteer because I don't think we're gonna get any money on a grant right there right there, Lori.
So, okay. Go ahead. Hi, I see you. Nice to see you. Um, yeah, I got and I think first of all for the cleanup, uh, we're going to get you some bags for Saturday. Okay. So, we can definitely support that with that. Uh, for the wall, looks like we could pressure wash the wall
ourselves. Okay. And then uh either get some park restoration funds to do like a base color. Okay. And then you could hire a local artist. Uh well, I think with CRA funds, we could even pay a portion, paint the wall just one color.
But then for the art artistry, I think that might be either a park restoration fund, park maintenance fund, or if you've got a volunteer artist. But everybody's time is valuable. So, if you found an artist you like that uh could could do a a mural on that wall, that would really clean that up nicely.
Because we had gotten cost before and it was going to be to hire somebody to do something like what they have in Newport Richie or in in Dun Eden where they have like the postcard kind of look and it says Port Richie and then they do aspects of the city within the letters of the
That was going to be like $5,000. I mean, would we be able to get that much money from a CRA? Uh, let me let me do some work tomorrow on that and see get with our finance director and things like that. Okay. Because it definitely is blighted and and they've been fixing
up that area, but that wall is just Yeah, I I was uh trying to have an answer for you tonight, but uh we're looking into it, but I'll I'll get with you tomorrow. Okay, great. I've got your email address now, I think. Okay. My email address is you already have my phone and number. Matt handed me his
phone and it's just city.mmanager. So, uh, so I I you if you already have that email address, it should now you know how to get a hold of me. So, wonderful. I'll get back to you on the funding. I I think we can support. Okay, that'll be great. I would love to see us accomplish that. That
would be a major major thing for us to do. Can can we start by trying to um find somebody to do that voluntarily because like my son is an artist and he would have loved an opportunity like this. He couldn't find places to paint.
Um but yeah, we have a lot turns out we do have a lot of artists. Yeah, we do. And somebody might be willing to do it, you know, just for the opportunity to get out there and put something big on display just because they don't have a canvas that large anywhere else. So rather than get into money right away,
if we could see if anybody just wants the, you know, the thrill of it because for an artist, that's a big canvas. It is. I love that idea. I think it it helps build a portfolio for an artist. It does. That's right. They can sign it and Well, the city could buy the paint and
stuff and Oh, well. Yeah. I'm saying the city would buy the paint, but as far as like at least find money for for Right. Absolutely. Paint supplies. Yeah. And if there's some way that they could have like maybe like a little plaque or something or be able to sign their their
name and a paint their name on their phone, maybe a phone number or some way to contact them so that if anybody does want that type of art, they can contact them, you know. Well, I had I had to put this on, you know, some of our city p
our city um well, not an official city page, but just our the ones like like we run and see if um anybody wanted to do that. And I didn't get any volunteers, but I did hear some people say, "Well, I'm an artist." So, right, I probably
helped. But uh somebody's going to have to coordinate so it doesn't look all hodge podge, you know, right? Coordinate. Well, I think they would have to submit something and then it would have to probably go to council and and have to have their approval, I would think. So, yeah, I was thinking, you know, aspects of the city like, you
know, the stilt houses, the the birds that we have, the, you know, Johnny Cash, the maybe maybe we could think about this a little bit more and figure out how to turn it into a contest that somebody wins the opportunity or something to have the wall and then put
their contact name on it. So submit your plans and then you get the wall and you get to if your plans are approved then you get the canvas and you get the paints and also you'll get a plaque with your contact information or something to
maybe make it something that people want to I think if we can get at least some money help pay for paint it would help because before we just didn't have any money to offer anybody. Oh yeah, we can't make them pay for the paint, right? Tired of being asked. My son wouldn't even do that. Be like, at least
pay for the paint. Yeah. Um cuz Christiey's, she's not here anymore, but her daughter is you saw some of her. She's really good, too. I know there's Janet Mallet, very good artist, also.
So, what do you want to do with that? You want to um wait for him to see about the money? And then why don't we talk to S? maybe put it on the official city site. Yeah. Um talk to him being Eric about bringing
it up to council and bring up Okay. And and then you know get their ideas on how how they might want to pursue this, get inputs from you guys. Okay. Um that's all I had. Um but
Caroline had some things that she wanted to bring up ideas. Yes. Um so following the momentum of the centennial like events and things that Port Richie the city of Port Richie was doing um for the
community, I had a few ideas. Um, one of them is and I I know uh the chaplain Danny Fields does something like that for back to school for children in the um Yes. But is that for everyone? Anybody
can get it. Anybody? Okay. So, I was thinking to have like a back to school drive the city of Port Richie like sponsored by the CAC or hosted um a backpack and school supply giveaway. Um, and we would start collecting from July
1st through July 31st. I I would go to businesses and see if they want to put a box. I know Debbie Robinson, who was part of the centennial um committee, she has a a warehouse building um with offices, so maybe she would like to do that. Um, and then we would give it at
the August 2025 CAC meeting. Um, and what we would do is only for Port Richie residents only. Um, limited to them. And then they would sign up. So if we get 20 backpacks to the first 20 signups um that just an idea so that we can give
back to the community um especially like backpacks, pens, pens, pencils, whatever kids need. When does when does the first day of school? Yeah, August um I think it was August 11th. I did look that up. So, we would have to get it to them
before August 11th, which would be our next uh our August TAC meeting school calendar. I I think it was August 11th. I had it. Um let me see real quick. 2025. Yes. So, we
have August 11th is the first day of school and then our first our meeting in August would be August 7th. It's kind of tight. Is that kind of tight? Okay. I would go ahead. Doesn't the church do that? Yeah. Yeah. Fields does
it, but it's not just Port Richie residents. That's what Carol I was saying just something for the Port Richie residents. Um and then they would register with us. So it would just be limited to city limits. Um something different so we can say that we did something also because we don't have
anything like that. I don't know how would it look, Eric, if we combine with them. Now, I've heard some people that that with what allowing them to do stuff that they have a problem that
there's no this is not my this is not my viewpoint. So, please um that the separation of church and state they have a they have a problem with that. I understand that, but what would would it be possible if
we com because they're already doing it? What if we just add to them? Would that be something? I I don't know if that if there's a conflict there or not. Maybe check with Nancy. I check and see if what we can do is to work. I would think be able to do something, but
I'll check with her. Yeah. I don't I don't want I don't want to cause any trouble for you guys or anything like that. So, but I I think combining with them because they already have a a big turnout, they get a lot of stuff. They they get what how much? Thousands of dollars worth of stuff that they give out. Um, and how do they get it though?
Is it by donations? Donations. Yep. And they do it in the park in Park, right? And really, we we can just do Port Richie residents. We can advertise Port Richie residents to go. But any child that needs it, I think, right? and that
you know that their parents come and get it whether they live in Port Richie or Newport Richie or out out of in county, right? So, right for Port Richie. So, I was like Port Richie and I and I agree with that, but it's kind of like they already do. I
don't want to so expensive for people to make it more um of a of a city event also um without overtaking the church. But um I think it'd be good to have police and fire there also because it's good
for the kids to get to know the cops. It's good for the cops to get to know the kids, you know, and it makes the kids not afraid of the cops and that they they usually are there for those events. The cop the police fire usually do show up. Yeah. Those events for them.
I think it's a good idea to to to do the supplies. Have a have a have a bin here if they'll allow us. I think it's a great idea. Can we plan for because our new our July meeting would be will we have the July meeting July
3rd right before the 4th. Is that okay? That's our next meeting. Um do you guys want to have a meeting in July 3rd? Yeah. I promise. The day before July 4th. It's still Thursday.
We have canceled it in the Yeah, we have the uh let's see the fourth is on a Friday, right? I mean, I'm fine with the third. I'm fine, too. Yeah, I'm fine with that. Keep it okay because then that we can make a decision on July 3rd
and then or do you want to try to get with the church and I can with Danny Fields? I can. Yes. See how and then I'll work with you to check. Yeah. Do we send anything to like the local businesses? see if they want to sponsor these school supplies or anything. I
would love to do that. I mean, I I can do that. I can help you if you want that. Thank you. So, can we do that? At least do some type of drive and then we'll see if we can do it with any fields or without What if the backpacks were just here in
the lobby and the first 20 people, if you want to keep it, I mean, I appreciate that it's your idea. It's your baby here. And what if the backpacks were here and the first 20 families from um the city that came and picked up a backpack full of school
supplies took off with a bag of school supplies. And I was saying 20 because I don't know how many we're going to get, but if we get like a hundred, but we could just have them here and then just put it out there that we have however many and it goes on a the city
website only. So it's likely only Yeah. going to residents or maybe it can also go on the town hall because that's I know that's residents and then whoever shows up and picks those up first and then like you said it does go directly into the city and it and they come here
so there's foot traffic into city hall you know which is always a good thing to bring people in and see what this place is about. So when when I was the mayor of Taylor'sville in Kentucky, we had the city sponsored it, but or the city put it on, but it was like all the
businesses in the city contributed and we had it at the high school and the gym. So like there was tables all around all these businesses that were in the city that were like passing out whatever school supplies plus stuff on their business. So I mean it they were all wanted to be
a big part of it because all these families were interacting with the business and it made the business well known to to the families as well. So, and a lot more than 20 people came. I mean, it was quite a few hundred that showed up. So, regardless if they're in the school supply business or not, it
wouldn't be like Walmart. It's just any business goes out, buys it, and then hands it out to the kids. That's good, too. So, the city's not spending a dollar on it. It's all these, you know. I wonder if anybody does anything for the teachers because I hear the teachers are like going broke pay stuff for the classroom. We could do that. We can
switch to that, right? I have no problem with that either. Yeah, it's true. Teachers put a lot give it directly to the teachers maybe instead and then they can dole it out as necessary based on school and then certain teachers get more than others, you know. So if you give it to the school, they probably
know which teachers need it. It's going to be hard to plan in a month though. I mean maybe. Well, I mean the things they ask for all the times are tissues and crayon. you know, I'd be happy to hop around with you for a couple days and
gather up what we can. Would you want to switch to a teacher thing to stick with the backpack and the church or we could help the the church with the backpacks and then maybe do our own thing that would be for the teachers. We can do that. I would just
reach out to businesses and see who wants to contribute then go from there. If you don't have if you get a lot of people that say nah, you know, then plan something smaller. But I think you're going to get a lot of people that want to participate. Do we have tables? Do we
provide tables for something like that? If we were to get businesses together, do they have to bring their own tables and things like that or do we have that? Bring it on. I think we have tables.
You mean like to do it here? Yeah, wherever we did it that we that we would be able to offer that we would be able to explain to the business owners what we have available to them. Like we'll have a table for you and you just bring whatever that you know just Why don't you Why don't you feel like Where do
your kids go to school? I don't have any. Okay. Sorry. I I after I said that I do that. Why don't we just go to Richie Elementary? It's close and just ask them what do they need? What do kids need? What do teachers need and get a list of
what they would like? So, Richie Elementary, it's right on What school do you go to, Dave? Well, I think there's no schools, public schools within city. Correct. There is I think there is a private school.
Right. Right. Yeah. They actually donated $2,500 to our centennial. go to school. I mean, again, that's that's a private school. They have to pay for that. So, you're not going to get the underprivileged where Richie Elementary is is a underfunded school.
So, you're going to get more kids that need it. So, both private or charter. Private school. No, they're private. Oh, it is private. Okay. So, go to both schools and just get lists from both of them and then com, you know, match them together. Okay. You know what I mean? I can do that. You get two people's opinion on what they what they need, the
teachers and or the kids. So, kids and teachers, what do they both need? I mean, if you all get that stuff, I mean, you can call for another meeting, you know, in two weeks if you wanted to. There's no there's no rule against calling for another meeting. You don't
have to wait a month. So, if you get that organized and you need to call for another meeting, I don't know what the time frame. I think it's three days that they need notice, right? Okay. Because I mean that that is real important for for the for the kids that you know kids they need the teacher
stuff too. Meaning you know construction paper. I don't know what they have to pay for. I have no idea. I know they always ask for tissues and stuff but I you know yes. Tissues always a big thing. Yeah. Hand sanitizer. So, the plan is
we're just going to gather the things up and then take them. We're not going to do the backpacks here at city hall or a ta a table event. See how much money we can get. Let's find out what we can do and then we'll plan Well, I guess we can call another meeting then we'll plan
Yeah. what we're doing. Okay. I can give you a update on um I have like a group chat. I mean, we don't really chat, but I just give you updates on what Yeah. Right. what is gonna go what's what we're gonna talk about. Right. Okay. And then we don't really talk about it and
then right and then I have two more things. Okay. Um the other one is for October 2025. I was thinking since we did it for the centennial and really would be nice if we did it the citizen advisory committee um and we really
don't have to do anything with that is a car show. Another one in October. It was very successful when we did it for the centennial. If we can do it that we said we want to do like two a year or something like that that we were talking about. Yeah. So honestly there's there's an
appetite I think to do one annually even think about doing one in spring one fall but and I and I that it came out very nice and people love it and then they came out and did the what the parade they it was like 40 cars or something like that
and it was amazing. The the the nice thing about it was he TJ basically did it all himself. Put everything together. It didn't cost did anything that we talked to Walmart and got the property secured to do it there. Say a way to include the kids with cars. Is Has
anyone ever heard of the trunk or treat phenomenon? I have. Yes. Where so that you you decorate your trunk? And I've seen some unbelievably creative things. So there may be a Yeah. adults and kids drive for a car show kind of thing. Do
they October? Right. In October. Yes. So do people take their kids? I've noticed most of those are like churches, right? Most churches do like the Well, I mean in Kentucky most churches do the trunk or treat, but they do them with the hospitals here. Yeah. Oh, do they? Yeah. And that's very popular now because it's
safer. Like my neighbors, they'll do it too. Like everybody will park their cars outside. They do the trunk because it's safer for the kids. kids. They don't have to be knocking on people's doors and whoever is going to give things out, they're already in the driveway. Are you talking about on the night of Halloween or a different night? No, just a different day in October. Um because I
was going to say a lot of kids now are going downtown Newport Richie because same thing, they're just walking store to store. So, yeah. Um with the car show, find out when we have to find out when um when and if they're having a car show in Newport Richie so we're not conflicting with that. And a bike fest.
They also have a bike fest in the in the fall. Okay. So, we want good turnout. We wouldn't want to conflict with those. TJ, if you reach out to TJ and ask him because obviously he's in that circuit or whatever, he'll know what's Yeah. And then Yeah. If you did something kind of
where you had a car show and they had they each car gave out candy for the kids or something kind of do some kind of event like that. I know the church does the church do some kind of trunk and treat too. The police do. They go around to the neighborhoods and give out candy. They they drive around the police. It might
be a good idea for the car show. Okay. So, I'll reach out to TJ and I'll have good information. And the last but not least, um I was thinking and again, this would have to be sponsorship with local businesses and things like that. I was thinking of talking to Bash again um for
November 11th, 2025. I don't know if the city does anything for Veterans Day, but I was thinking of doing a lunchon for veterans. Um, again, anyone who's a veteran within the city limits or we can I mean, it depends how we could open it up. Um, so they can come and have lunch with the city and just saying thank you
for your service and they wouldn't have to pay anything. It would be sponsored by someone. It's an idea. Yeah. Then the Rotary does want to every Spartan Manor. It's really nice, but yeah, they do one there through sometime in November, but
Okay. A lot of restaurants give out free lunch, too. Yeah, they do. So to veterans doesn't have to be on Veterans Day. I just chose Veterans Day because I thought that was I don't know. It's up to you guys. If that's even an idea that we can do. Absolutely. I think sports.
Okay. I can work on that. I just think it's it's something that let's keep it going events and stuff. Well, I just don't want to see the CAC turn into the event coordinator for the city because that's not our job. No. So yeah, if I could since I I give you update on I'm
not too sure if you watch the last council meeting, but I brought up about as we wind down the centennial committee that we look at creating a um separate committee that would be the event um event planning slash um was it event planning and um
communication sorry event planning marketing committee and whether you know we we would wind down Centennial and some of those members might want to join that. Uh I think Nancy is going to bring language to the next is it on the next agenda? So we should be hopefully
forming that committee if council agrees and then um then we look staffing and that would be their role to be okay forward. So you guys would do it on CAC. Okay. But you also be welcome to be doing that as well if you like to. The reason I was just saying too is because we don't have that much audience as a CC
citizen advisory committee. So for me what I'm thinking is doing something of bringing people in being more proactive in their city being more you know what is and then bringing speakers and things like that for citizen not just events
but citizens you know what citizen advisory but what do we do I I I couldn't agree with you more because I I'm here tonight because there was a need and I have the time and I thought why not but I really don't know anything about what the CAC is I never saw it on
um I never saw it on YouTube. I watch all the council meetings. I think I'm watching and I didn't receive I didn't receive anything though. I didn't receive like a this is what we do or I I'm I'm here because I sent a message to Matt and said, "Do we have a meeting
tonight?" You know, so what do we do? And can we somehow get this out to the public? because I've been pretty active in the city for few years, but I really don't know anything about this committee. I'm just here because you have a need. Yeah. Well, it's kind of to
help out council. Like if if somebody has a an issue, they can come to the citizens advisory committee. will listen to their issue and bring it to council and then they can but that's not out there because I've I never heard like go to I've only heard go to my council
members, go to my mayor, go to my city manager, but I never heard go to a CAC member. So, it's not broadcast to our community that CAC is available to us as residents to go to for any of our concerns or what even then we do with the information that they would then
give us. So, we need to somehow disseminate what this is. And I think we tried to do that with the meet your neighbor over the years. We've been doing that about 5 years or so. And honestly, it turns out to be the same four people that show up, right? And then they drop off and then we have the
town hall. We have a town hall that we can your neighbor. There are a lot of people that are viewing the town hall and Lori and I, you know, can put anything out there that we want that's just educational about things that the city offers and if CAC is something that
the city offers to residents and I think we need to tell the residents who we are, what we are, what they can come to us for or what our role is because still I'm I'm here tonight and I really don't know what what when I was on council I used to bring all the things that we had here and I used to bring it to council
to discuss it all the time. So I I always I was and when I wasn't on council, I was out there and I would always bring I would stand up there and and as chairperson and always this is what our plans are. This is what we're doing. This is what we need volunteers and so on and so forth. So I' I've been
doing this I've been doing it and putting I knew that you were on CAC but there were no meetings to view until recently. Um, and all I knew was there is this CAC out there and Linda is on it and I knew Lori was on it, but it was
kind of this mystery of what it is and you know, I've never been directed to the CS like over 20 years and for a while it was disbanded because it didn't really do anything but over the years we we actually came up with um changing and I
don't even know if they officially change they were supposed to officially change the slogan for the city to Um, it used to be Little City on the River and then we changed it to we recommended to change it to um um Gateway to the
Gulf and then they wanted to change it to our gateway to the Gulf and that was officially chosen by council. Then we did um the the little mini libraries. We also were tasked with the city. Um we
had a competition with the high schools um on creating a new sign. We had people from all different high schools that created a sign sample in their class um and they brought them up here and then people voted on it and then picked their
new sign. So we did that. Um we named Cody River Landing. Cody River Landing. Oh yeah. So sometimes council will task us with a job and say we want you to work on this and get feedback on it. And then we've had people that came and said, "Well, we've had issues with their
canoe launch out on uh Brasher Park and they wanted to see what we could do about that." There's some things you can't solve, but we do listen and we do follow up. And then we also try to look for things that can be better in the city. um
either beautifification or cleanup or issues that that needed to be attended to like a tree that was falling over but near business and wasn't getting attended to. But there's other options that you can do now to even report online. If you had a something for the
utility department to fix, you can go online and file a report. I didn't know that till and that reaches CAC. What's that? That reaches the CAC. We do have an email, but we haven't got emails for like maybe we could come up with some kind of like mission statement
or something. I don't know. I'm pretty sure we have the mission statement update provide contact information because like if I if I knew what CAC could provide for me as a resident
then I'm challenged with who are I happen to know you and you know I happen to know who you are but um you know not every resident knows who is even on the CAC or what you know what I'm saying if we had a way to give them information
about how they could contact us and what our role is. You know, just kind of put it out there every week or something until people start to know what Well, we have been trying to do that, but you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it. I found I've been here
almost 30 years, and I can tell you that when you aren't going to hear from people is when there's a problem in the city. when things are going smooth and everybody's happy and and they don't see a problem, they're not going to show up and to see you at these meetings and they're not going to show up to so they
do come and meetings. But I've seen this place totally packed with hundreds of people when there's a problem. How long ago was that? Well, when our mayor fired at police. Oh, well, yeah. Our old mayor. Yeah, I'm sure they came at any opportunity any meeting anytime the
doors were open here. I've seen council meetings last till 3:00 a.m. in the morning. Yeah, that was way before me. Um, way before um maybe one thing that I a new neighbor of mine that just moved in, well, they
not new anymore. They're about six or nine months old. Um, they suggested like a new neighbor. Welcome. what to do, right? Garbages on
this day. We have spring cleanup. Look for the signs. These are the different departments call for this back. Um pick up pick up and I talked about when I was on council and we never we never went anywhere with it. But a list of um
people at the city to call for certain the different the different um committees and and meetings that there are and when when are they so that they know about it. And then we I was talking to And I said, "Well, I think I talked to I brought I don't know who I talked
to. Maybe Matt. I don't know." Um anyway, I was like, "Well, we need to get how do we get it to the new people?" Well, they always have to sign up for the water. They always have to sign up for water. So, give that to them when they sign up for their water bill, you know, to change it into the water. And
that we don't even have to mail it. We can just we have a little a little pamphlet thing and hand it to them. And then that would answer that question that you that you didn't know, right? People choose not to read it, which they choose not to do things like that. That's fine. No problem. But as long as we give it out and have just like a
little info information what to do for the city hurricane, we give a pamphlet out at the beginning of hurricane season. Just just oneliners or something like that. Well, there's different garbage companies, so different days depending on which garbage. Yeah, but I mean I was just I was just kind you
know, like different things, you know. with what the thing that he didn't know was with the brush in my neighborhood because we have one central area out right outside Claudia's house where everybody else like they put it in front of their house but we have but like what to do with the brush he didn't know he
didn't know the city picks it up so I mean just different things like yeah I wouldn't until somebody told me that but I wouldn't have known until you how systemic this can actually be is that um when I was told to go to a city council
meeting with the problem that I had. I thought that would be I thought that would be um like a bad I was trying to get things handled within the city. So, I had these specific people that I was working on and I thought if I went to a city council meeting that that would be like almost a shameful kind of thing for
the city. So, people don't necessarily know what the city offers like at city council meetings, CAC, things like that. If you've come from places where you didn't have to get involved with your city at all like I did. I mean, I just
went there to get water and that was it. I never had to go again because there was no need. So, if you come from that kind of thing, then you have no idea who to contact or that if you go to a city council meeting that that wouldn't, you know, like I I thought the city manager
would frown on me. I'm working with the city manager on my problem. I thought he this codes man is telling me to go to a city council meeting and complain to the whole council. Wow, I can't believe he wants me to do that. You know, see, I would think that would be the that would be the last
resort to go to council. And this newsletter hopefully would get would send the resident to the correct places to rectify the situation so it doesn't get to council. Exactly. So, I mean, it should be rectified way before it gets that was back then. You know, that was a
whole different administration, but I'm just saying really unless you're exposed somehow, we don't we don't know what's available at the city and what avenues to take to get the help that we need. Were you so what I was thinking is if you put
together a a Port Richie resident packet. Yes. Right. That and that when they come sign up their water, they would get that and even if people we had some on hand, we could, you know, put them on the web if you want one or whatever. And if you guys was, you know, go through different uh bits of
information, the you know, like our our code, people need to know what uh some of the specific codes about keeping your grass a certain height and all. anyformational packet you want. Get them to sign up on the website for the alerts. Just all kind of if you guys compile the information, then I think we
could probably look at um so why don't we all together a list of things that want to see and bring that back to the next meeting and then try to mesh it all together and and try to and then we can present that if Eric's here, he can pres, you know, he can present it or we
can get it to council if need be when we when we get it to the point we need it. And that would answer the question about all those issues you just brought up. you know all the meetings and committees and membership and right let them know when the council meetings are let them know you know when budget season is
important information they have a question the link to the portal how to that there is a there is the um direct to the what is it public works if you have a problem with a you know tree or sure right away
that's I I think that's a great idea because we just don't know a project for you guys to put together. And then like I said, we I'll let council know that you guys have brought that up working on it. And um definitely at the water department like like Yeah. And and then I mean no, you don't even have to put a
stamp on it. they just copy it or whatever the process is, you know, how big come up with a little little thing that they say is they hand it over so that when later on they won't think anything of that thing that you give them at that moment, but months from then, you know, when they're seeing that
dead tree in the rightway that's dropping on their car or whatever, they'll be like, well, they did kind of mention that there's information about who to contact in this, right? Did you want to comment? Uh, mayor and I have talked about this. We're always looking for more ways to
put the communication out. So, I'll get with Adam tomorrow and see utility bills. You can sometimes add an insert information. So, if we know it's a new account, it could be a standard insert of with a QR code for more information.
Don't forget to ask for your new uh new neighbor packet, that sort of thing. Yeah. And we obviously we want to digitize everything so that we put them but also have some hard copies available. So you know we don't want to just hand maybe like a little one piece something that gives all of this
information can be found at this barcode. You have to remember not a lot of our residents are not. So we have to have both push the digital but you just have some people to the website and then it's been coming on us to make sure the website is up to the minute right and that's a constant
effort to do that. Then another one uh that uh we had a gentleman come to the uh town hall meeting earlier this week who's starting a radio station in town and he says it's his name's James Stall and he's trying to make it a nonprofit uh community oriented so u you could he
could we could arrange I know he said he wanted to put city council meetings on the air as another way along with YouTube and things live streaming uh but he could conceivably do this put the word out periodically with public service announcements and uh hey if you're new to the area stop by city hall
that sort of thing but we are looking for u ways multiple ways to put the word out but yeah the more we can drive people to the website where I can even um even longtime residents can see updated phone numbers updated personnel
you need to contact and we also have the big problem with boundaries because there's you know the city of Port Richie and then there's people with the Port Richie address that are in the county and they think they're in the city. So they'll you'll
occasionally roads or whatever and they're not in had people even come and apply for jobs and they think they're in the city of Fort Richie but they're not. So that's why we worked on the signs and we made sure we put them at all of the boundaries so people could get to know
where where where the boundaries of the city of Fort Richie are. If as I say, so we used to have a map on the website since we checked websites. I don't know if it's readily accessible out there, but that ought to be on the home somewhere, city boundary map that they
click on. They can actually see if they if they're in there or not. Or if we had a little lookup tool or something, but even a simple map would help. People could see, well, I'm up here. I guess I'm not in the city after all. We need to make that clear on the
website because it is confusing. Right. You enter your your address and it'll show you if you're in the boundary. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah. We should have that your address and then it means where you are and if you're outside of the gray area. Yeah. Yeah. It's the the the map of Port
Richie is really squirly. Oh, I know. I know. It's all cities right back behind us. Yeah. It's like, well, I didn't even know the the closed Bank of America that PAMs and all that in there, that's all Fort Richie, but the Bank of America, the closed Bank of America is not. Your
area is crazy because that's over there in this little street Port Richie, but the next street Well, that's because the mayor when the mayor when they when he bought that property, the back of our properties back up to Port Richie. So, that's how he was able to annex it in.
But to commend like I don't get I don't get Port Richie mail. I go because we go through 34652. We have a zip code and it's Newport Richie because the mail the that's how it go. So you didn't they
didn't Wow. So because they come through county and Port and Newport Richie to get to us. It's very squirrely. It is. Did you have anything else?
No, but if you need me for anything, I can draft things. I'll try to find that mission statement. I know we have I'll look at I'll look at my my book. We just did red we did the resolution and it is a good It's not a mission statement obviously, but it kind of outlines a little more clear than the original
resolution. I don't have it with me unfortunately, but Okay. I was just We should have a pack a welcome packet for you. Exactly. I kind of wondered, you know, I'm like, well, do we, you know, there's also a Facebook group that's dedicated to CAC that there's a membership is on it, but it's quite a
few members. Okay. Yeah, you're you're a member of that. Yes. Great. I was just going to suggest when you're scheduling the meeting, July 3rd is Thursday night before a three-day holiday weekend for the end of Just so you're aware. Yeah, we we talked
about that and we agreed we could be here July 3rd. Okay. I I asked everybody if they wanted to have a meeting, but I I may not be, so I'll miss you. That's fine. We'll excuse you. Matt, did you have anything you wanted
to? You sure? I've just got Oh, you just had surgery and everything, right? My mouth, too. Yeah, my back and my mouth. Yeah. Wow. Linda, no, I'm good right now. Thank you. Uh okay. I I I had one thing. Um I
just saw that there's going to be a development uh in my neighborhood. But it's Yeah, that development. It's actually with uh Newport Richie though. The Benley, the Riverside. Okay. So they just bought all that and they're supposed to be So I don't think it'll
come before us. Will it? No. Rich coming before our city because that's all Newport Richie. Well, so there's this I think small part of that area that we it's us. Yeah. I'm not sure what the line is, but um I know that Newport Richie just voted to approve the
demolition of the hotel. So that should be happening very soon. And I did see those plans. I look at them and I don't know if those are final plans or if those are just kind of like spec type things. I'm not sure where they're at with that process. But does the city own land close to there? Real folks
touch some of ours. Yeah. I mean it's it's Indiana. So the only I think uh the bathrooms there at Whiskey River are ours and that that a little bit of that area small strip is just put in a little dock
or launching Yeah. boat ramped mixed use and commercial and res it was supposed to be a a larger boat ramp facility than I think what those pictures said. So I don't know what's Yeah. Sunost said mixed use commercial
res finalized but um something yeah it seems like they want to work on focus uh cleaning up some of the businesses along US 19 so that's great yeah it would be nice so um that that's along like Pier Road and where where Whiskey River is
and the Riverside Hotel that's the one that he said is going to be knocked down and then the benchley was knocked um quite a while ago. But so anyway, I took uh some pictures the other day as I went by that hotel for Valentine's Day in case anybody wants to see it in its
final stages. All right, then. That's all I had. Um did we have a hotel that they're about to knock down in Newport Richie right off the river? You don't have anything to say? Whiskey River knocked down. Yeah, I didn't post.
Eric, you don't have anything else? No more questions. So, I'm good. Appreciate you. And Mr. Butterfield. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. You're welcome. Okay. Do we have a motion to
adjourn? Anybody? All in favor? I. Okay. The meeting is