##VIDEO ID:5hl1_lQsmSk## impact on our service has been that in 2023 when the service shut down we were serving 2042 uh unduplicated passengers individual citizens at this point with the uh demand response dial ride type service that we're doing it's down to 670 so the impact on pum county has been substantial and the uh you know what had been a um you know an award-winning um very efficient uh delivery format um you know to the point that putam County was seen uh about four times the U uh unduplicated passengers per capita than the average of the surrounding counties you which is to say that putam County was enjoying a level of service that wasn't being seen in the surrounding counties that were primarily uh demand response type service like what we're doing now um you know to see that that collapse has been uh difficult um one of the things that we are wanting to pursue in the legislature this year um we understand that that funding is very tight um but what built uh the pun system was the coordination of Human Service transportation funding you know the fact that uh you know the the routes served Medicaid non-sponsored Med waiver um you know that was what made those routes possible so if even though Medicaid's been pulled out of coordination uh through through Medicaid reform if uh the rural counties could see an uh enforceable chapter 427 we feel that there is still sufficient funding outside of Medicaid um to probably bring the routes back without any further State investment that would in include um Med waiver Council and aging uh Veterans Affairs perhaps Head Start you know we don't know beyond that what else is is out there in puam County that's that's tax funded but if that was an enforceable statute uh it would benefit both the taxpayer and the uh citizens of County our writers ship so that's that's our basic U approach to the session you know ask for these funds um recognize the uh frugality of the situation and recognize that through uh a suggestion to um better chapter 427 that built rural transit in Florida in the first place so we are we are asking for the putam County's uh commission's U support of that General approach okay do that complete your presentation yes all right uh commissioner har thank you madam chair um Mr Thompson refresh me again how much money you were asking for Appropriations that you're asking for us to support a letter right 1. 293 that's what I thought so 1.3 somewhere in that area okay and all you need is a letter of support that we we would like an appropriation to go to you to ride Solutions through putam County it Channel Through us and go to you or we just go straight to you uh Channel Through you and and okay thank you thank you sir um uh I have a question so when you said 1.29 3 it before that you mentioned $50,000 did you say something about 50,000 rides it would be for um bringing back the in County Flex routs right in County Flex routes which were free to our citizens before right uh they were free after or during co uh and up until 23 when they shut down prior to 2021 they were a dollar oneway trip okay commissioner Alexander you recognized thank you madam chair during our discussions yesterday I suggested that you know based on what I've communicated with um Judson Sapp and our other legislators that there's not money in there for handouts and services and those are the first things that they're looking at cutting but the ones that they are looking at funding are the ones that are showing the initiative to self fund and be creative and bring something to the picnic and some sort of match so we discussed raising the rate you know if you're going to Walmart and spend $100 you've got $5 to get there versus trying to take an Uber at$ n or $10 so we could still be the low cost alternative but we could offset the cost to the county and to the state by raising those rates and there were other things that we discussed and as I told you yesterday I was going to reach out to um our City Commissioner Jones and we spoke last night for at length and he is also interested in revisiting uh this topic with you so you might I might I suggest that you reach out to him for a letter of support from the city commission as well as the county if you are able to acquire that from us today right right that's all I got um Mr boy do you have um um partnership sh with like the hospital or other kind of organizations for Transit do you work with them and and try to do contracts with them we have submitted a uh the hospital had a uh work available maybe six months ago to uh transport people from the uh uh ER yes uh we submitted a proposal uh to them on that went back and forth several times but uh ultimately we assumed that it went to somebody else oh okay just seems like if we were able to to coordinate some kind of contractual service with some of these places um maybe some of the health care situations it seems like maybe you could get some vouchers and I mean I'm just thinking trying to think outside the box to get some different kind of income coming in other than State funding because I think you're you're um I'm with commissioner Alexander from what we're here in you're going to be really challenged in um getting funds from the legislature I don't have a problem submitting in supporting um your ask because I do know that uh we need uh public transportation in putham County I see it all the time um I would also ask that you um if you were able to get some additional funding that H I guess one of my question is how do you reach the people that are on the street how do they know um somebody that's coming in the soup kitchen how did they know that they need would they can get a when when you were in service how did they know that you could get a ride right it uh you know the the people that had uh agencies uh supporting them such as Arc or Medicaid those were the easy ones to get in contact with uh but about 50% of our ridership was uh general public walk on and the routes were built prior to uh uh internet and Facebook uh and it generally took I mean we planned on three years of uh operation before Word of Mouth um was yeah um I know that um I've served at bread of life before and I've seen people come in and they've walked all the way for or rode a bike all the way from s just to get a meal and um in the heat I've seen them standing out there sweating and asking for water before the food serve just because they've had to come that far and uh and I also know that there's people that's in town that have to walk or um push each other on in their Wheelchairs and everything else and then when you ask them they didn't at the time they didn't they wasn't even aware that they could have gotten a free bus ride so I think there's a big gap in how do we reach the people who most need those rides I think there's a gap in that and um if you were able to move forward I hope that we can reach out and make sure that we can touch you know get the information out so that people use the bus because the perception is and I and I and I'm not being critical but the perception is when you see one person riding around on a 16 passenger bus or 18 passenger bus then people go what you know how what's going on you only have one person on a bus I know there's a lot more to that than just is just not that simple but the but the perception for people that becomes reality and they don't understand um commissioner Alexander you're recognized thank you madam chair I Echo exactly what you said it's a dissemination of the information regarding how we get this information out to the public um we discussed that yesterday in our meeting and I always hate to revert to back back to Facebook but that's an easy way to reach people but we also discussed um I shared the contact information for a number of the Home Health agencies here in town and I suggested that they contact a lot of the local Physicians because it pays dividends for them to be able to get the patients there you know they're going to get reimbursed by insurance if you can spend the money to get a patient there you're going to get5 or $600 back on a visit what I mean I just throwing out round numbers but and the hospital was something very unique that uh Jr and excuse me Mr Grimes and Mrs Young pointed out yesterday that there's opportunities there for Revenue so I believe there there are opportunities out there to fund a portion of this and to show that you are taking an initiative and if we can prove that and document it it's going to be a lot easier ask when you go to Tallahassee certainly certainly commissioner Harvey you recognized thank you madam chair there you know it's easy for us to sit up here and say have you done this have you tried that but I think that some good advice is coming out right now and some good ideas and it's always better when we can collaborate that um I too have witnessed the one person in the vehicle but I understand but maybe at some of these locations like at in the West End at at Hitchcock's a sign that we're going to be here at this time and the cost of writing is $3 you know because I'm hearing people who are in in from West putham into Palaca and you do know that's that's a lot more expensive so you know and then then maybe are some of our faith bath organizations can do some type of Grants to help people maybe we pay a150 of their $3 charge or something you know to get people around we can do things like that and churches would be glad to do that you know but first of all there's got to be a need and it's not just okay I want to ride the bus today I just don't have any other transportation and and putam county is probably no not more unique than any other County but when you go from the West End to the south end and it takes an hour and a half to do that transportation is an issue in this County so if we can partner with you maybe put some signs up maybe do some things like that the bus will be here maybe people will see it um but again nobody needs help until they really need help and then they don't know where to get help and for us to pass the word and hand a flyer out to someone in the food line or getting a meal or something or at our church that we can this is available to you maybe that's a possibility so thank you we will push out more into public Outreach at this point we've been dealing with uh Financial aspect of the collapse of the routes yeah and it's been substantial commissioner paler you're recognized um commissioner Harris uh when I served with her previously this was one of her babies and she very heartily uh put it on my forehead to keep pushing with this and keep driving behind this if I were to ever stay in office or come back to office so in support of her Madam chair if you're looking for a motion I'll make that yes sir all right moving into our Planning and Development public hearing thank you madam chair for the record Zachary Baker planning and development services this is a public hearing for rezone case re24 d00 0011 the Ramirez family own a piece of property that's currently C2 uh commercial retail their application is for commercial General C3 on a 79 acre parcel at the intersection of West Oak Street and North Highway 17 the property is uh split future land use both commercial and urban service 150t of Road Frontage on Highway 17 220 ft of Road front on Oak Street according to the gis there are no apparent jurisdictional wetlands and the property is within fuma flood zone X which is not a special flood Hazard area uh if the rezone today is is approved and adopted through ordinance uh the applicants will be required to go through the development Review Committee before they establish their proposed use on site which is a landscape supply store here we can see an aerial view of the property here you can see that split future land use both of which allow for commercial zoning this image is uh helpful because it shows that at the corner of North Highway 17 and East Harris Street kind of catac corner from the property that is where we have the closest commercial General C3 designation and this is a conceptual plan of what that proposed use could look like staff recommends approval to amend the zoning map from C2 to C3 at the December 11th 2024 Planning Commission hearing the Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of such case I can take any questions are there any questions from Commissioners I have one okay commissioner Alexander when we change the zoning to C3 um what are some examples of other businesses Beyond this that can be put on that property Mr Baker very good question I'm pulling out a copy of my staff report to answer give me one second just let me know when you'd like me to stop wow retail sales food or general Services offices clubs indoor and outdoor commercial recreation lodging cultural Civic religious facilities emergency Services child and adult dayc carees passenger vehicle sales rental and service excluding auto body repair recreational vehicle and Boat Sales and Service portable building display and sales many warehouses hospitals with a special use permit education essential Public Services outdoor auction auto body repair child and adult daycare centers group residential homes nursing home assisted living facilities heavy vehicle sales rental and service flea market nightclub kennel communication towers and finally heavy equipment sales and service it's worth noting that any of those uses would be limited on the size of the property parking requirements impervious surface requirements and the like deal okay just wondering because we have some residential area close to there I didn't know how that was going to affect those residents I thought it was a good question toos yes sir we do have residential uh uses within that area pretty much everything along that North uh Highway 17 Corridor if it's residential it would be considered non-conforming because the Zoning for that area in the future land use or a mixture of commercial um that said you know buffers are how we would you know try to counteract any sort of negative impact on the residential uses that are located uh west of the subject property thank you Mr Baker yes sir all right any other questions for staff any public comment for or against this item any public comment in the record one moment um yes so I did receive a text message um if you'd like me to try and address some of these questions I can yes um but a representative of the mb8 group which holds holds property in the vicinity um has comments pertaining to what what are the business hours how early can the business start in the morning and how late are they going to end the day what are the bulk materials that the company will have on property and we would like for them to put a roll of trees to absorb the sound and dust or would they be able to install irrigation system to lessen the dust that is going to be produced especially if they have stone and or mulch also with the mulch we have concerns about the potential smell um a second text message for the record hi Zach please send me the link uh this was sent to me at 9:20 a.m. I did not have time to prepare a response unfortunately yeah that's fine um okay these are things that'll be handled through the DRC I believe that's correct ma'am and for what it's worth you know we wouldn't have any sort of limitation on the hours of operation of that use it would kind of fall under the the Amplified noise ordinance M yeah okay back to the board is there any other um right what's the pleasure of the board Madam chair I move approval of Staff recommendation of the request to amend the zoning matap from commercial retail C2 to commercial General C3 as proposed amendment is consistent with the adopted goals objectiv and policies of putam County comprehensive plan and compatible with the existing development in the area thank you commissioner Harvey we have a motion on the floor second second by commissioner Alexander all in favor say I I any opposed like sign motion passes unanimously thank you Commissioners thank you um on to consent agenda items we take a two-minute break yeah we're going to take a two-minute break thank you e e e e the board of county commissioner meeting uh public comments on agenda items this portion of the agenda is designed to allow citizens an opportunity to bring matters to the attention of the board it is not reasonable to expect that the board will engage in debate or deliberation about matters on which the board has received no prior information as part of the agenda please limit your time to 3 minutes public comment cards are conveniently placed at the meeting room entrance and should be submitted prior to the meeting to the deputy clerk who sits to the right of the podium Madam clerk do you have any cards all right is there anybody who wants to speak on consent agenda items only all right I think um uh Mr fav Malcolm fav would like to speak regarding the uh yes sir we have to go through the consent agenda and then we'll do that yes sir um Commissioners do you wish to pull anything commissioner Alexander I'm sorry I'm protocol there that's okay on uh item I I'd like to pull that and allow Mr fav to speak on that okay commissioner newal nothing to pull thank you commissioner paler I have nothing commissioner Harvey no I have none either Madam chair all right I have none other than mad chair I'd like to make a motion that we approve consent agenda a b CDE e f g h and J all right is there a second second all right we have a proper motion second all in favor say I I I any opposed like sign all right commissioner Alexander item I yes I'd like to recognize Malcolm fa president of the putam county fair board he has a few items he'd like toh speak about regarding the affair okay great thank you y simple enough um it's pretty straightforward most of the stuff y'all seen on that um Lee Duran Sam suvin has been a big help to us as Julianne Jr and several others on staff this has been going on for two and a half years so several of you are new to the board a couple of you are new want youall to know you know how this has been going on but um when we started four years ago we put the Grant in actually four and a half years ago and at that time the grant was pretty close to what we would need due to covid escalation inflation as the gentleman spoke a little bit earlier everything went astronomical when we started getting the grant got approved almost two and a quarter years later we were way behind the curveball so um we got on at the time we met with the state talked to them um they had told us Citrus County went through six um Dade had went through five several phases of their operation and they suggested the same thing so we continued moving forward with the project um we could put continue to put in we got 1,1 125,000 the first go round we got a million 7 on the second go round I come forward to y'all a year ago and we discussed that and talked about it when y'all were voting to support the contract for us what we ended up having to do last year here was unless we paid a professional estimator $70,000 there was no way to get a clear-cut amount of where we're going to be at so we discussed it with the county and we decided the best provision was to go ahead and get it out for bid we explained to all the biders at the pre-bid meeting that this would be a phased approach that we want to get this in to see what our real cost would be so we could continue to submit for the grant funding we got that amount in we submitted for the grant again this year um we submitted for the max $3 million Bobby pay was a big help to me over the years um so was Keith Perry um I've already met with Judson sap I've talked to him about it I've already met with and will be meeting with um Keith successor and Taylor yowy has been a big help to us so I'm already trying to lay that groundwork as I know y'all are too um we've reached out to David Browning um Sam's wrote a nice letter on behalf of the county and sent in and stuff for us so we're trying to get all these things in but we do want you to know this phased approach will benefit us the best because the contractor that's been awarded that has been working with us on that phased approach so what we'll end up with in the end is something very nice of that Fairgrounds that with all the people that we're bringing in here and y'all know we have a big competition right next to us you know Clay County is the the week right after us 110,000 three years ago 140 the next year 170 last year wow so I mean they're eating our lunch when it comes to that so we're trying to get the infrastructure at our Fairgrounds to where we can try and draw in as many as we can we don't want to be Clay County we're not going to be Clay County but we do want to be the best putam can and we feel this is with yall support thank you for your time don't go anywhere commissioner Harvey now I have questions thank you madam chair you know I I appreciate you and I appreciate the fair board uh that we appoint and move this forward do want to say though um my only caution and I've said it many times as long as we know we're going into this with eyes wide open okay I've talked to our staff we are going to try to do the best we can to Value engineer this once we sign the contract but sometimes we want the Cadillac but we have to get the Yugo car you know we we want all that this is an expo center this is going to be putham County's uh Premier Place I believe to have events at and it's it's not just a Fairgrounds anymore we can throw that word out we use it for much more than fair uh part of it fair but truly the Expo Center the convention hall type situation going to be really great for putham County and those buildings are used a lot so as long as we know going in that you know there could be some liability on our part going down the road because uh these grants are encouraged but they're not promised and I don't have a bit of problem going down that road with our staff with the fair Authority right now I don't have a bit of problem but I just want us to be be recognizable of the fact that there might come a day will we go we've done enough as we we can't go any further at this and this is what it's going to cost to make this building happen so but I appreciate all reference I really do Mr Harvey that's exactly why I was here today just to make sure I brought y'all up to date so y'all had the best closest information from I know the staff gives you theirs but just to hear from us we've taken this approach we agree with exactly what you're saying Terry Turner gave me the same speech a year and a half ago so I completely agree with you and support you and understand it we we're invoking Nancy Harris and commissioner Turner today correct okay good and if y'all noticed if any one has like our address you know the web address is putam County Fair and Expo yeah you know we know we're in Expo we're we've been pushing for that and we've had your support the last couple years because y'all have asked us to try and expand that and myself the previous president and several of those members we have y'all we I've made trips to Tallahassee I mean me and Wayne mlan Wayne's helped get me to some people Bobby helped get me to some people I've made two trips up there to meet with people I've been on the phone multiple times now with David brownie I'm I I'm doing or we're doing everything we can to put our best foot forward to support this plan and everyone that we talk to at the state has told us including our director of or our chair of agriculture um Mr Simpson has backed us on this stuff but they have all told us the same thing the last six months it's been two and a half years y'all we hear you but we keep giving you money show us something show us so that's why it's so important to get this 2.48 million out and get this work started yep you're exactly right commissioner newal thank you and I I appreciate um commissioner Harvey's um caution and words of wisdom um we are kind of at a Tipping Point we're at a Nexus we've been um I appreciate you your special talents and and um guidance through this process we've got a a great team at the fairboard a great team of staff that is um financially cautious and aware um I'm I'm going to push for a Toyota rather than a Yugo um so we easy now we can we make it General Motors yeah can we make it a Chevrolet thank you there we go that that that work too anyway um appreciate all your effort efforts and efforts of of staff and commission I think this is a a good project it's it's it's worth the the effort and the little risk that there is there so and there is some risk but it'll be an asset for the community I appreciate the the efforts commissioner piser um I have the same feelings as my uh comrades here um I've met with Mr Grimes earlier this week and he brought me up speed on everything there U of how that's progressing he has some pretty good ideas some uh cost-saving ideas that I think are going to be very beneficial to uh the whole County and and to this project and uh he's he's doing a fine job and and I applaud him and I want to uh spur him to Victory on uh cutting those Corners where he can and saving us some money and uh he's U he shared with me some comparisons to some other counties and and they he's got them scratching their head is where he's cutting and saving corners on some issues so we we're with you commissioner Alexander no I I I just I want to Echo again what Mr newold said Mr um fav you and your team there at the board you guys invest tons and tons of time in this what do you guys get paid oh not a penny no sir not a dime do you no sir and and I just want the public to realize what you guys do and the amount of effort and the time that you dedicate to this for no money just for for the betterment of the community and say thank you and you're 100% there Mr Alexander that's exactly what we do my trips to Tallahassee the motel rooms going and meet and every time you know you got to grease the wheel right so when I go meet with Taylor when I met with these people I absolutely bought him dinner I absolutely you know anything I can do now we're not B for something we're just meeting with them but the point is they're supporting us and they're trying to get the information they need to go back and they've all said in March that this stuff's going to come up for their budget so I'm just trying to get all the information out there but you know we work real hard out there and I can tell you we pick up a lot of support in this County you know Gator's given us support here lately on getting some things done at that expo hall Force so you know it's things like that so we're not coming to you on B all the time asking for money and we try not to do that but um we do try to utilize the grants as best we do and we do have a lot of support in Tallahassee right now for those grants so we're going to continue to push forward and try and get them and what we get back this year should get us to where we have the window now because we know what the bids were we know what the money is we get this now will we get the full 3 million that we've asked for we don't know but whatever we do we're pretty good with math so we'll be able to make that calculation and on that fourth phase we should be able to wrap up what we're doing and right now you know talking to Citrus talking to day the other counties that done it they went six phases seven had no problems but as you recognize Madam chair that can change any time any election can change what goes on so we recognize the importance of having to move forward and we do appreciate y'all support thank you Malcolm um before I recognize you commissioner paler so help me understand and the general public understand the finances so when somebody comes in and they pay a a feed to get into the during the fair and that goes in the in your budget how does that what does what do you do with your funds I mean just give us a general over probably 80% 85% of our funds go back into the fair grounds as far as like Capital Improvements that's exactly right ma'am we've been we've probably spent uh last year we spent $887,000 on the roof you know on the building so we had the Mal the old Malby building because that is still structurally a very good building but the roof had gotten bad and I was trying to get the a met with Mr sugs and we was going to try and get a little bit of money on to help out with it but it was too late for getting budget so we we forked that out and that pretty much wiped our profit out for the previous Fair um this year and two years ago we've been spending a tremendous amount on the Electoral infrastructure we've added in more camping slots we've added in more capability so when the fair is here that they're not having to use temporary generators pulling cords all the way around and by putting those slots it allows us to when we have bigger things in town that we can actually rent camper spaces out there and make some money off of it okay um we do have have a part-time employee a staff member that's a contractor that works Our Fair manager and she does a great job for us but we pay her a salary and um that's really the only money that goes out other than the help that we use there one person that helps us do ground maintenance and stuff but other than that every penny that's raised goes back into the livestock program the fair the infrastructure 100% of that and then when you guys run out um the building that those funds go back to you they don't not come back to the county you are correct ma'am and all that goes right back into those programs now what kind of cost does the county have um the only thing that y'all put out right now you pay roughly $10,000 towards the liability insurance we pay 4,000 um we all include us on the landscape maintenance the grass cutting contract I think we get I forget it's 12 cuts a year eight cuts a year that we get out of that and other than miscellaneous stuff that's probably the bigger ticket items yeah I I mean for me personally I think if we were able to to uh get this building done I think that uh we should look at a different structure for for uh this expo hall as we move forward because I feel like that if the county has some uh financial obligation on that building that perhaps we should be part of the revenue sharing on that that's my personal opinion but I think we'll just have to address that when we get it because I do have concern that once you know if if for some reason I mean we always got to we don't have a plan B and and if we don't get the state money then the fair board and the county is going to have to have some serious conversation as to how we move it forward and I'm very hopeful and you've done everything it sounds like and I applaud you it sounds like you've done everything you can to try to get the ball off the ground and get it and hopefully bring the money home on finishing this project and I'm really hopeful for that because if if not we're going to have a have to have very serious conversation how do we finish it but at the same time you can't get to point B if you don't get point a done and so this is point a and we've got to finish point a so I'm supportive I just had some questions for myself and for the general public to understand understand how things sort of operate uh commissioner paler um I just want to thank commissioner Alexander for bringing that to the front that everybody on your board is volunteer basis and uh um commissioner newo was a former member of your board and uh did a very fine job and it's through people like you that U volunteer efforts that make our little County turn and grow and that's what it takes uh throughout our County as as volunteers and how important they are to us and the uh everyone here to get things done and in a county our size and anyhow just want to say I'm I'm with you 100% I but I understand commissioner uh Wilson's uh concerns about the finances but as she said you got to take a step somewhere yeah we got to take the step I definitely I mean when they asked I was said definitely we need to put this on the agenda because we have to get it moving so I appreciate I appreciate the time and effort that you put in with a fair Authority I really do and everybody that's on your team so thank you thank you for coming today and we appreciate it we're very supportive thank you I need a motion yep um I make a motion we approve consent agenda I item I item I I'll second that motion we have a proper motion appr proper second all in favor say I I I I any opposed like sign motion passes unanimously all right going into um new business are there any public comments on new business items all right hearing none um Administration item a oh wow hi Mr Tilton how are you this is Brier Tilton good morning budget good morning I'm Brier Tilton I'm in the budget department at the BCC and I'll kind of be going over the q1 report so um on the general fund you you'll see that our taxes are at 80% and this is because our revenues in the general fund are front heavy and taxes are collected early because they're ad B them and then the rest will kind of trickle in throughout the year and then um you'll see that we're at 28% for permits fees and special assessments and that's on track and then intergovernmental will be um your federal and state revenue shares uh and we're right on track for that sorry I'm a little little bit nervous but I'll get it um our total percentage for the general fund revenues is at 65% and we see that that's right on track typically for this time of the year um our expenses for Personnel Services are at 26% and that's about what we want to see because we're a quarter through the year if you're at 50% for Personnel Services then something's wrong and you need to check that out operating expenses for the general fund we're at 16% which is on track um you'll see the operating expenses kind of take up throughout the years you go more and all in all we're at 24% for the general fund expenses uh for the general fund reserves continued we have 2,1 160,000 for reserves for the clerk we have 354,000 um Capital outlay we have 5.81 uh I'm saying thousand million million um and then our cash balance for it is at 7.8 million for a total of 15.5 million about for our Reserve balance in the general fund uh for Capital outlay you'll kind of notice that they're kind of across the board for Capital if you have more machinery and equipment you're going to see that it's easier to get that earlier in the year compared to like a big building project that takes time to build out um for the transportation fund it's slower Revenue because the taxes are not ad warum based it's more local options and like the 9 Cent County tax so it's sales in use um so we're at 28% for the taxes which is right on track um and then for the total of the general or the transportation fund we're at 10% uh for expenses we're at 25% for Personnel Services which is about what we're going to see across all of them operating expenses we at 15% and capital outweigh we're at 34% and again that's because Transportation has more Vehicles compared to buildings we have 615,000 in the reserves 1.1 million in the future projects and 47,000 in the reserves for MSB roads giving us 1,785 th000 um for the fire fund the fire fund is adalum based and it's based off the fire tax unit and um it's right on track at 82% and then you have 5% from the intergovernmental which is your uh federal and state shares and then for a total of 63% of our revenues have been collected in the fire fund which is right on track where we typically are each year again the Personnel Services are at 26% which is what we want to see while operating is a little low but that I'm sure that'll pick up over time and then our capital is at 19% and that gives us a 20% of our expenses expense for uh the fire fund which is right on track and our reserves are at 353,000 while our capital outlay is at 327,000 giving us 680,000 in the reserves um and then for the sanitation fund our Solid Waste assessment fees come out of taxes so you'll see that um they are higher at the beginning but also it's fee based and you have charges for services so they also have contracts that come out through the month so you'll see that it's kind of more of a balance fund but um the revenue stream is right on track for that at 61% for the permits fees and special assessments 27% for charges for services and um that gives us a total for a total revenue source of 53% in the sanitation fund our Personnel Services are at 26% again which is right on track and our operating expenses are at 16 um Capital out is a little low at 3% but again that's because they have more bigger projects compared to just like equipment um for a total of 14% uh total expenses now their reserves for cont for regular con the Reser the regular reserves are at 2.8 million while the reserves for future projects are at 11 million and reserves for escrow future is at 24 million giving us 38.5 million in reserves and um those reserves in escrow and future projects are set aside they're not to be touched they're for like closing future cells or different projects like that and then finally that brings us to the East Plum water fund um you'll see that the intergovernmental category is very big and the majority of that comes from the water supply Federal money and the FD e scepter to suic septic to sewer Federal money um and then the charges for services are user based fees and that's why it's at 23% because we're about a quarter of the way through the year but also we will we are planning on getting more users so you'll hopefully see that uptick some but we're right on track where it's expected to be and then um our other financing sources are transfers from the general fund and BPP fund and that gives us a total of 7% of revenues um received for the East puam Water fund her Personnel Services were at 28% and operating is at 11% but that's pretty much on track for those funds giving us a 9% total of expenses out of East pum water fund and our reserves for continue regular is 430,000 our reserve for future projects is 77,000 and our reserve for debt is 982 th000 giving us almost 1.5 million in the reserves for East pum water fund sorry I was very nervous but I'm done now if youall have any questions all right you did great job Bri are you ready for some questions maybe all right commissioner Harvey right now the nervous part really comes in okay actually you did a very good job you spoke clearly and slowly yeah um sometimes we get fast reports uh but today you did a very good job I'm not having to wear a jacket right now so just teasing just having a little levity we're going to vote commissioner Pickin a little levity never heard anything okay I I'm glad you brought out on the sanitation fund for the new Commissioners um you know sanitation you think that's an easy throw in the hole and you're done but it's really not that simple and it's very complicated and those reserves are set by FTE that tells us what we need to have and the amounts we need to have so I'm glad you really honed in on that that's very important for us to know U even though that looks like a large number and it is it's really something that we cannot touch and fool with a whole lot it's very expensive to close cells and things at the landfills are very complicated and but they're very profitable too at the same time and I'm glad we kept our landfill for that reason so thank you Brier Mr Tilton you did a fine job today thank you all right commissioner newold thank you yeah you did a great job covered a lot of ground and nice job I don't have one question back up in the general fund section and and um the expense portion grants and a um that one's a little high what what what falls into grants and AIDS expenses in that portion of the budget um can I defer to Mr lean I'm sorry no no no absolutely I'm sorry for putting you on I don't want to give you any wrong information no no so those are going to be um anything that we do like your CRA District to the city of patka the city of Cresent City your payments and L of taxes for the nursing homes um those things like Meridian Healthcare that we support all of those grants and AIDS to other governmental or quasi governmental agencies thank you yes sir and they traditionally are not paid um equal so you'll see cyclical payments I.E our C payments are all paid in December so you're getting a lunp sum of them so you're not going to see a steady expenditure through the year for that category commissioner palace here you recognized just to simplify it there Mr Tilton at this stage of the game are we where we need to be yes sir that's what I want to know now are you going to tell us about your other skill that I watched you demonstrate this weekend no I'm good I just was cutting sugar cane with my family he was making sugar cane awesome deal well he's making syrup yes all right um I I have one question about the um St John's Har Harbor water are we not pulling that separate or how are we keeping up with the funds and what we're doing in that area St John's Harbor is set up in a separate fund um originally when we prepared these budget reports the commission directed the funds they wanted to see if you'd like St John's Harbor added we absolutely will add it to the next report okay that would be great I just want to keep up with that because we are receiving complaints that people don't like the fact that we had to raise their rates and so it'd be like nice for all five of us Commissioners to completely understand the dollars and cents in that area yep and we can send you out a report um this afternoon or tomorrow morning of where that fund is and then going forward we'll include that in our Public Presentation yeah U Mr sugs did you have a comment yes ma'am thank you uh Madam chair for bringing that up and as soon as that report is generated I'll follow up with my conversation that I shared earlier with the citizen and I'll make sure that I reach back out to that citizen have some further conversation so for the new Commissioners what happened was we had to take over St John's Harbor out in um in my district in Bostwick and uh they were already um it it cost the county a million dollars right off the get-go we haven't spent that money yet but we are in the process of having to they were we didn't get a choice they we got handed the water system and um it's it's just not it's not in the black it's going to be a long time before it's in the black and so the the mindset of the commission at that time was the remaining citizens in putam County shouldn't have to pay for a handful of people water that quite frankly didn't take care of their problem and they were paying a a fine of $115,000 a month and um that's the reality and so um we didn't have a choice in the matter but um we did have to raise the rates so if you do get those phone calls that that is why that we had to raise those rates to sort of make up some of those those costs so a report would be great thank you all right Brier thank you thank you and and the team support a love it all right next on on the item for under new business is Public Works Road resurfacing list for 2024 and 2025 exciting times in putam County you want me to touch on the Harbor for just a second for the three new ones um some of the money that has already been spent as soon as we got out there we had to replace all of the water meters uhu many of them had not even been touched and we couldn't tell you how long because the meters were under dirt and then when we dug them up they were submerged in water so whatever was read was not accurate so we replaced every meter in the harbor and zeroed everybody out um some still owed money from the previous water bills and so that was brought into um their current accounts with us uh our engineer is working on redoing the Wastewater pond that's out there that has to be done that was part of the fine that was referenced by uh commissioner Wilkinson so there's a lot going on um and we appreciate the B C giving us that money up front to make the harbor right um and it's going to take us a while yeah when you say a while are you thinking a few years few years before and I'm not going to say we're going to be in the black in a few years oh no I understand that but to get it to get us to get us compliant with d is going to take us another year or two because there's just a lot of construction that needs to take place with the new um the Wastewater pond that's out there so that we can get the fine taken care of with d and I believe Scott gy wrong we're getting some um relief from them because we took it over correct yeah they know we're making it right so they've given us some Grace so we're not paying the $15,000 they're giv us Grace on that one yes sir commissioner Alexander so just so I understand and the the public understands so when one of these water treatment plants go south and they abandon it we are obligated as a county to step in take over correct per state statute per state statute so we don't have a choice we have to spend that money and we have to take it over just so everybody understands that correct yep and I believe it was Mr Young was it August 1 we took it I think yeah so August one we took it over and that was another reason that all of the rates had to go up their monthly bills were based on 6,000 gallons a month we brought them into what we do in East putam which is 2,000 gallons a month and then an additional cost per thousand over that and a lot of citizens are now understanding that they didn't realize how much water they were using yes um and now they are checking for leaky pipes and leaky toilets and you know cuz if it's if it's running they're not water in their yard when it's raining correct yes I just I want people to understand that we don't do this as a money grab or you know a profit sharing opportunity it's we have to we're only bleeding out there we're not making any money exactly I just want everybody to be aware of that thank you yeah no problem commissioner newal um what's the size of that water system um it's it's not in my backyard I don't have have a feel for how many users are on the system uh users you're looking at I want to say 150ish um and we're and it is actually only operating at like 25% capacity we have installed a new air compressor out there that's going to help with some of the pressure that's out there because it took forever to fill up the pressure in the tank to get the water to go out so we've made some adjustments there again with the money that was given to us um and and once I would like to then start to bring other people on the system to help get us closer to the black and if we get more people on the system then we might be able to bring monthly expenditures down um and that's just but that's going to be again one of those years in the future progress that we make out there right right thank you for that update um I know we got sidetracked a little bit if we want to go on into the road resurfacing list yeah so first um are there any questions that I can answer right away on or I can just give a narrative on yeah just give a narrative first and then we'll go from there this was really just a staff recommendation for Road resurfacing um and many of the roads that are on the list have not been touched in 10 or more years um if I go through the list if you look at County Road 308 that has not been touched since 2016 and it has several very bad spots in that road that need to be redone um there's one that's just uh on the Crescent City side of Dead Man's Curve out in front of Jim padet property uh it's right on the curve and it's really bad uh right before the railroad tracks is bad there's just and and commissioner newble knows it because he drives it a lot that I don't want to drag a boat down that road um because it it's that bad if you go to County Road 308b um that road has not been resurfaced since 2007 if you go to Old Highway 17 uh that was done in 2016 but the section that I've asked for is from Junction Road South to 17 so it's south of Crescent City there's another section similar to that's worse than what what's on 308 we've actually engaged with universal Engineering Services out of Gainesville uh they're going to come look at a section that's just off of 17 we call it the whoopy woo section I would not come off of 17 going more than 30 or 35 because you're it ain't going to be fun and it's not a hands up roller coaster it's a you're going to pucker so um I would I would be care I'm sorry I should not have said that um so uh anyway we've cuz that road it's just the whoop dooos that are happening there's some subsurface problems and that's why we've mentioned all the Commissioners today cuz commissioner paler mentioned that is that an official term whoopy woo it is it is in public works because if you say whoopy woo we know exactly where we're talking about on Old Highway 17 so um that that's where that's at so we've we've gotten uh some borings that we're waiting to get the results from so that when we do engage with the contractor they know what they need to do in that specific section because if we just go do a Mill and fill in a year to it's going to be back to the whoopy wos so we got to figure out what's going on right there Madam chair we're not going to put signs up to say whoopy whoop right because on St John's Avenue we got one that says bump and then you come to a bump okay I'm just saying so we're not going to go we can say roller coaster ahead I you know something like that I'm we're wow I I'm over here try to be so serious legal over there is like having a heart attack um no kidding so uh those are the big roads and then with Palm Avenue um let's see we don't even have records of krill to 20 or Crill to 100 on when that was done last I had that uh looked at this morning Kennedy Street has not been touched since 02 injunction Road has not been touched since 97 the last time they did it they did one lane um they only they didn't do the other lane because of a drainage problem that Public Works is fixing right now okay they're actually down there right now fixing the drainage problem all the way to Denver Road um so once that's done and it was just the road just the the irrigation in that area is really wet and it just kept seeping onto the road and that's why they didn't redo that lane because it was just undermining the subsurface so we're fixing that right now and then we can go in and do that one lane okay before I call on Commissioners I just want to clarify so you said Old Highway 17 was 2016 correct so you know that doesn't sound like it's that long ago eight years ago does not seem I mean seems like we should be able to get longer out of a road I got it and that that road M Madam chair if if I could just intervene just one quick second that 2016 fix on County Road 308 and on Old Highway 17 yes it may be listed as a resurface but it was replacing the cross CS underneath those roads which is just south of Denver Road it is a small segment that was patched in 2016 that was not the entire Road okay so we may need to look what the segments were in the entire Road the same thing it goes for in 2016 on County Road 308 which was done just beat east or west of our landfill uh where the road was starting to collapse right there and also closer down to where Georgetown shortcut road comes out on the 308 we had both of them go across a little wet spot that comes out of Lake Margaret and the road the same thing is down south on um as Mr Stout just referenced creson City we had unsuitable soils underneath the road the road started collapsing and they went in and fixed and resurfaced those two areas so we did get longer than since 2016 out of the entire road we just had a resurfacing portion of the road to where they did the AG work in the stabilization of the unsuitable okay thanks for clarifying that up because I know what will happen there's citizens in this County that will say my Road's 15 years old why aren't you looking at that when this one's done only eight years ago commissioner Harvey you recognized thank you madam chair and um invoking commissioner Turner I guess everything's going back to district one this year but no and in all sincerity um I'm a county commissioner at the end of the day we're all elected by the folks and throughout the whole County correct and um you know sometimes areas win sometimes they lose but the main thing we're here is to try to save our road bit before it collapses and goes away and it costs double that money to fix it so when I first saw this list I went oh everything's going to district one but trust me District 4 just got 13 million District 4 and5 from fdot to replace County Road 315 that the taxpayers didn't have to pay so I'm supportive this and when you tell me we need it you know I I trust you I trust the fact that these roads are in bad need and so if it falls in district one or Falls in District three or two I don't care as long as we take care of our investment and roads are an investment and their economic development in this County so I appreciate you bringing that to us thank you madam chair thank you commissioner piser you recognized um Mr St um the Kennedy Street um had a very large pothole that I called the city about earlier this week and the young lady there told me that part of that road was ours and part of it is the city is that you're understand yes uh so the part that we're um from Elwood to uh to the school right behind the melon is where we are that's ours and that's what we're going to be reserving okay um anyhow she was going to look into it and if it was ours contact us I any she was going to dig into it okay um I like uh commissioner Harvey also want to mention that a District 5 kind of overlooked here but that's all right as he said it's all about the whole County and um you know we'll get our day in the sunshine hopefully soon and I guess my other question is a commment date on when this any of these projects might start um we're looking at I would like to be able to have the design finished and then go out to bid sometime in June um and I'm putting a lot on our engineer to do that he's probably sitting back there wide-eyed right now yeah um but I I would like to have that done going into 26 because in this summer I would like to bring you a list for 26 so that we can hit the ground running in 26 with a road resurfacing list be uh before I call on commissioner nild I want to say one of the best decisions we've made is getting you a good up and running engineering department yes ma'am it has made a world of difference in the projects that we can move forward so I want to thank you and your team and and your Engineering Group um commissioner newer recognized thank you well it is nice to see the activity in District One um I figured we'd get a little comment here today but I I'd like to um no matter where this is I appreciate um maintenance is engineering and and just their their footwork they they assess all aspects of the county from one into the other and I I I like this idea of doing large swats in one concentrate area no matter if it's in the East the West the north the South we're going to get a lot more mileage for the dollar we put out we're going to get millings so that we can do oh possibly dirt to improve surface um I think we're going to this this idea is going to pay dividends yeah I'm I'm really looking forward to see what the savings are when it comes to mobilization 308 intersects with 308b uh 308 is right down there by Old Highway 17 so I mean so if a contractor was lucky enough to get low bid on all three then you're going to see some some good savings and that's something that we'll put in the bid is um what what would be the discounted bid if you're awarded all three of these roads because they're right next to each other right thaning yep and are you done I'm sorry um as far as Palm Avenue these are the sections of Palm Avenue that that are have been left out correct we did a portion of Palm Avenue and now this is we went South from Krill and now we're going to go north on Palm from krill all the way to and that's one of the busiest I mean it's really a a very busy um road that gets used utilized all the time um very good uh one other question how your staff I mean they came to you with this this is this is their recommendations because they're out in the county and plus the phone calls you receive phone calls I receive um I've I've got RJ white that's out on the county everywhere with dirt to pave he's always bringing me recommendations he's actually working on my um restriping list I'll be bringing to you to go out to bid thank you for the budget that I have for restriping um so we're working on that uh citizen phone calls and just me and my operations manager being on the road and seeing what needs to be done yeah so we're just not willy-nilly I'm going to throw out another term willy-nilly doing this we we have a a system in place for our whoop-de-do and our willy-nilly here you go okay Mr Helms it happens after the whoop-de-doo okay in all seriousness I'm glad we can have a little bit of fun ma' um absolutely all right is are there any other questions Madam chair I make Madam chair I make a motion we approve a list for resurfacing as presented to us today second we have a proper motion and appr proper second all in favor say I I any opposed like sign motion passes unanimously thank remember four and five did this yeah yeah yes yes sir uh I would like to I appreciate the recognition for the engineering um just Scott does a great job back there but I you know just to name everybody with yeah it's a team with our project managers they're killing it with Denita and Lisa will is doing a lot of our all of AR CAD for us and has coming along very very quickly um Marie is our RightWay specialist and that's who I went to this morning or uh Denita helped me with this and then all of our rideway stuff goes through um Marie and then uh Wes and Andrew with the um surveying and the equipment that you allowed us to get a few months ago has we're not now lightning speed just hold on just a second u m slow lightning but lightning it's it's me I'm sorry sorry Mr just one thing I want all the rest of the Commissioners to know and I've spoken with Mr nalt about it and we've talked about briefly with Mr Stout is looking at that Highway 17 old 17 South which has been commonly referred to this morning as the woop dwo okay um it may be a potential option to not continue Old Highway 17 there if it looks like a huge expenditure um and turn that traffic to Clifton Road and take it just one block to the north and put at 17 there um that is a very wet the the the the spot has got a lot unsuitable underneath it if it does look like it's going to be a major undertaking I would as as we move forward I just want all y'all to be aware the same conversation that we've had that we may look at that and come back and reevaluate and try to make the improvements on Clifton Road from Old Highway 70 Old Highway 17 up to 17 and not continue that portion because I don't know there's anything we're going to do in there to um stabilize that soil Mr newold um I have done a little bit of groundwork in the community to um just get a feel for for what we might what push back we might get with that and um it's been surprisingly calm um that's an area that people recognize is going to be a costly fix um although it's a little bit of a shortcut um right now I there are there are wrecks there like you wouldn't believe I'll bet you there's been 10 significant wrecks there in the last number of years so um that idea of running out to Clifton would might accomplish a number of things we wouldn't have to deal with that in the future Clifton us7 is a uh very active and a little dangerous stretch uh this may give us a little more ammunition to to achieve a caution light there over time from the state so I like this idea it's uh economically responsible and I think it would be a plus in the long run okay thank you right do you have anything else for us no ma'am I'm good um I have a question how are we going to move forward on our ditch systems as far as keeping them clean and and um Mowing and all that I know you had at one point we discussed the possibility of setting up a a group are you still doing that we we have a RightWay crew right now um four individuals two are under Davey Hager and they are South uh end of the county two are under Tony papasi and they're the west and North End um and they're they've got the boom mowers U the mower Maxes and a couple Challengers and then Cooper's on our spider uh and he's doing outfalls as we need them done um and right now they've they're finishing up some in South they're now back in East Paca there's some in District Two they're on Springside shortcut if you go home tonight when you go home tonight drive that it looks like a brand new road um and what they're doing out there Hunter Road looks awesome uh so they're they're keeping the ditches clean uh and they're they're mowing them well enough now that the maintenance on them is going to be very simple yeah that's what I wanted to that that's exciting news and the ditch work we've got the gray dolls going right now they're reestablishing ditches is on the West End uh Dalton's got a crew out there working right now so it's things are moving yeah no I appreciate that because um wasn't that long ago before you came on board that there wasn't a lot of work going on in the ditch in the ditches and um and coverts and now we're having to pay the price of cleaning it up and getting them getting that that water moving again and um staying you're never going to stay ahead of it but it's like it's just like do you get up and make your bed every day or not but you need to because it's the right thing to do and so we have to keep these stitches cleaned out we're seeing a lot of positives from it we were even getting phone calls from citizens hey this looks great thank you for being here that's awesome um so those those T and and we also learned that when you put the same guy on the same machine yes he starts taking Pride um and they they like that I did that and so there's a lot of Pride taking place in our work that's exciting uh commissioner pelier um you mentioned Hunter Road and I want to just blow that flute a little bit um we had a tremendous problem of vandalism out there kids um doing a lot of bad things spinning the road up trashing it and uh I work with Mr Stout and uh We've cut some deeper ditches and we've made it more unappealing for that type of activity out there uh and it has U through the SOS help also we've U we've got that to to go way down and we're moving in a real positive direction and uh uh some people are going to have to put in some coverts to get into their property properties uh but you know what we had to do what was right for everybody not just uh what's going to save them a cul but I'm I'm tickled to death with with progress over there public works thank you commissioner Alexander the same I um the complaint I had last week about the ditch you guys addressed it two days later and um she called me the next day she says just I want to let those guys know and you know I apologize for not telling you sooner but she said thank you and thank you for the work that you're doing y also did the uh the new piece of equipment you guys bought bought for the Boom the elevated Boom for cutting the tree limbs how's that working out uh very well um we had some learning pains you know first running it um when I get my new uh uh cabota in skid steer hopefully in February they didn't have it on the lot but when that comes in a joystick will be easier to run than the foot pedals on the Bobcat so it'll it'll look better but they've been um sorry Mr they've been on County Road 308 um taking care of some stuff down there yeah I know the the equipment's in District One um we're going to we're going to have to talk about that sorry sorry just no love for four and five n just an update for the community they bought a new piece of equipment instead of going down our roads um where they have overgrown trees and triming up six or 8 feet 10 feet how high can you trim up now it'll go up to 20 ft so we don't have to go back every 6 months and address a small Lim or a branch they take care and I've instructed them at at least at the white line trim it to where I don't really want to come back in my tenure here which I need to be 10 to 12 years just throwing out there um doesn't need to be short um so anyway you may have to be funded by district one here but yes it's going very well and the roads that they have been on are you can as soon as you pull onto the road it is wide open you're not going to hit your RV with the T or RVs or boats t-tops that kind of stuff we went down to Elgen took care of that boat ramp um so we're we're getting a lot of stuff cleaned up yeah it's a large County 827 square miles so it's a large County to take care of all right any other questions for Mr Stout thank you we appreciate your presentation Madam and we got another round of applause Madam chair if we could also one other program that started I think will help a lot is the herbicide program that we've started this oh I'm glad you're this past uh winter going to move into the spring um a lot of times it's really difficult to get around all of our signs because we tend to have them everywhere um and it's really difficult for a 15ft Batwing to mow around so we have implemented a herbicide program um it's being currently done by an inmate supervisor that's able to go out to the um County um so jail and pick up inmates every day and they're out there with either a weat eater or um herbicide rig and they're starting to take care of the roadsides which I think will make a huge Improvement this spring as we move forward very good they didn't clap for you I don't know why that didn't happen oh it was slow it was it's okay all right um are there any other public comments on miscellaneous items is that would anybody like to speak on miscellaneous items all right going into our appointments do we have any appointment starting with commissioner um pelier yes ma'am I have one uh Madam chair uh for the better place oversight committee yes um Luan mclen all right La is getting that anything else no ma'am all right commissioner Alexander no appointments okay commissioner Harvey I have none commissioner newold I have none today all right and then for the um I have one parks and wreck uh Jenny Robbins at large she uh said that she would be willing to uh serve so that's my motion do I can I get a second I'll make a motion all right I have a motion in a second all in favor say I I any opposed all right and then miss mcgibbon um I see she's on here um to be reappointed so we'll just um at the same time um I'll make a motion that we uh reappoint Brenda mcgibbon second and we have a second all in favor say I I all right any oppose all right very good we got those done all right moving along uh clerk Reynolds um did text me he was unable to make it um so we'll move on to County attorney Rich Commando thank you madam chair I just wanted to bring your attention there was a previous lease that was approved by the board with copper roads out at the Port so even though we didn't have a port meeting today it's been brought to my attention that there's some language in that lease that isn't the same as our other leases um as far as how extensions are renewed so I just want to give you a little bit of a heads up that that lease is going to come back before you at our next meeting meeting for consideration again all right very good um commissioner Alexander you had a question yes sir I just wanted to touch on that lease a little bit um Mr s is that the lease that I asked you about right after we came back from vacation one more time sir is that the lease that I questioned you about in your office when we came back from holiday yes it is and that's the lease that you told me that we had an ironclad out for the county no sir what I told you was what I said in the email that I responded back to you uh not knowing that we did not include the language from the previous lease into the new lease so that's where we're at with it okay so when we had our meeting you told me that we did have an out in that lease and I felt that it was strange that you didn't give me a copy of that lease let me finish please I have I'm not say anything sir I wouldn't I wouldn't be disrespectful thank you and at that that point I found it was strange that you didn't want you didn't provide me with a copy of that lease but you said not to worry about it that we're good so at that time I pulled the contract and I read it and I didn't feel like there was an out for the county in that lease and in an effort to give an give you an opportunity maybe it was a mistake to correct that I sent you an email and again I questioned whether or not that lease had an ironclad out for the county and again you reassured me that it did at excuse me let me back up prior to me sending you that email I reviewed it with my personal legal counsil to see if my interpretation was correct and he said that it was correct so that at that point I sent you that email hoping that it was a mistake and I would give you an opportunity to you know hey man I made a mistake let's go through this and look at it you said no it's Ironclad so at that point I sent a copy to the County's legal counsel to see if I was correct in my interpretation and he said yes I was then I made a phone call to you again hoping that we could get this worked out and you would address it and I gave you an opportunity to say hey man we made a mistake let's get it taken care of during the course our conversation I read the terms verbatim to you and you told me that I didn't know what I was looking at and that I was in I was reading it wrong I did not appreciate that because I felt like you were questioning my intelligence because that would be the third time that I had visited that contract with you and again you told me I was wrong instead of a collaborative effort where you could have said hey man let's sit down and talk about it with Rich or let's go do this or let's go do that you didn't do that you may you questioned my intelligence and made me feel uncomfortable in the fact that I was just trying to serve the community and not enter into a contract that had no out for us because the primary reason that you gave us for leasing this property to coer roads was that you would have a six-month contract that we could get out of at any point in time is that correct yeah that's correct okay and when I that's the only answer I need so did we have anybody else that was interested in leasing this property before we go down do we have anybody else that was interested in leasing the property originally yes okay and you let me speak now no sir I'm not done yet okay go ahead what did they offer to pay us for that if it would have been included in the original release it would have been more than what we rented it for but it was not not if you'll let me finish the answer okay we were not interested in leasing the entire 15 plus acres at that point in time we thought it would be more beneficial for the county with a project that we currently got going not to enter into a leas so would hold that property up for another three to five six years we decided at that point it wasn't in the best the County's best interest to lease that entire that makes perfect sense makes perfect sense with that being said when we extended this offer to Copper roads at $1,250 a month it seems to me that it would make good business sense to Circle back around and see if our other tenant out there was interested in leasing that property at $55,000 a month which they had originally offered I have a question why we didn't do that the lease came in front of the board accounting Commissioners and the Port Authority at which time it was advertised now let's go back if if you want to give me an opportunity to respond I'd be a littleit adver may I respond respond if I was I'd be a little more concerned if the actual conversation that we had was characterized correctly this morning but it was not so uh I don't want to go down that road but we can if we want to because that's not exactly how the conversation went in fact that telephonic conversation that he was referring to I think I had the conversation and was like you know what you may be right now that we've looked at the lease and so that same day Mr sulliv and I reached out to the county attorney with the language issue because the original contract for the other 8 Acres did have a provision in the contract that says it could be extended with mutual agreement from both parties for whatever reason that that language was left out of this one by mistake so we corrected that we corrected it on Thursday afternoon and that's what that's what Rich Commander was just speaking of is that we would be bringing that language back yes ma'am so to characterize that I gave bad information false information or flat outl is is is unacceptable to your County Administrator because that's not exactly what happened we can't we can argue this if we want I would just say that the conversation happened Thursday Thursday afternoon we corrected it with the county attorney well and I and if I recall correctly that was a a board decision we did not want to go into a long-term lease yeah on that second piece of property when the first presentation was was was offered I I understand that completely okay but it doesn't make sense to not extend that same term to an interested party for 5,000 or for $3,750 more a month than what we chose to choose to at leas that to then was the interested party willing to do it for six months ma'am they presented an offer to terminate their lease or lease it back to the county at any time during the initial time frame say that again they offered to pay upfront $60,000 to lease that property at any point in time they were willing to terminate that lease and lease it back to the county for a dollar a month and just and just to be clear I mean commissioner you opened this Pandora's Box yes ma'am so just to be clear and I would never disrespect you but this is the this is the company your brother represents yes ma'am full disclosure it is and with that being said because I do feel like you need to disclose that thank you yes ma'am that is full disclosure but this event occurred in July of last year right I was not on the board and had no involvement in it whatsoever and we as a commission were not represented with that information when we were asked to sign a lease for $1,250 a month I would not have I would not have approved that if I had known that there was another interested party interested in that property for almost three times now and you talk about opening a Pandora's Box we have a man that has invested millions of dollars in this community between the airport between the port and we leased him a piece out there for $120,000 for 10 acres that he paid up front who is now questioning the value of his lease because we have in turn leased an adjacent property that he expressed an interest to for $1,250 a month and he had offered $5,000 a month okay so I think the difference would have been the shortterm lease why was that versus a long-term lease but the the tenant offered to terminate their lease at any point in time bid process and an advertisement the adverti no ma'am that's that's not exactly how it goes about the process was that the the company came in and and made an offer to come in because it's a local business wanting to uh have an opportunity to open up a short-term lease until they got their property up and running so they could do their their their business on their private property it was brought to the board of County Commissioners or the Port Authority I apologize uh with that language within the the uh lease agreement itself for a six-month lease with three addition or six additional three-month terms so that's where we're at and the original the original offer from the previous uh lease uh that wanted the entire thing was actually a fiveyear lease that we said no we couldn't do five years we could do three because I still Port property that we're going to utilize with our with our development of the the port authority and so uh you know after talking to uh to the Commissioners we decided that time the previous Commissioners that it was best for us not to lease the entire process or parcel for for 3 to five years and utilize it for whatever process we need with the Army courp project now when this opportunity came up for this business owner it was brought to the board of County Commissioners or the port authority and it was vetted out here and it was it was approved for a six-month term with with six three-month addition extensions and that's where we're at now so I go ahead um I hear from commissioner Harvey please thank you thank you madam chair you know let me let me go back to when this first came available to us we bought that property from Georgia Pacific for a lot of money but we did not buy it for the fact of making money on the property we bought it for the fact of developing our Port one day when the lease came up and I remember Mr Alex Ander brought to us and his business partners um what excited me the most was getting that building on the property fixed that's really what excited me I wasn't excited about renting it even though you say well we're going to bring income in and we're going to set up a new company yes but you know we still had plans long-term plans are that's going to support our Port activities in the future so I was willing to go along with a lease on that part I think it makes common sense for us to lease the second part of that out to a business that wants to get started that is very limited to where they can put their business at and that's the problem that we're facing if you could set up a car dealership anywhere then that probably not that important you can't set up an asphalt plant anywhere and we're we're doing this for economic development and we're doing it to help hopefully help Drive the cost of our roads down now I don't know if that will or won't but I'm just going to say I think that's the that's the opportunities we have available to us but in we have an agreement in place for Discount in the future I would hope that we develop that property ourself as a port and expand our own portabil and not lease that out for longterm for long-term business we my opinion is they were going to come in here and help us with the building they were going to set that up and then they were going to find their own space later on down the road to do business and and that's what I supported so thank you m chair yes sir commissioner Alexander I know you're excited I just it it doesn't it's dollars and cents to me we tell people that we can't raise people's pay we can't do this we lose Code Enforcement Officers we lose Animal Control Officers you know we threw away $60,000 and even more if we if I hadn't caught the verbiage in this contract he'd have been there for two years if we would have approved the contract initially when Mr Nations approached us he could have been there for those two years but at minimum if he'd have been if this contract would have been approved in July of last year in three months time we'd make more off of him than we did off of the entire contract and now I've been told that we're having to add an additional access gate at the taxpayer's expense to accommodate a tenant that's play paying a third of what we had offered yeah I'm not happy I was I was Madam I was elected to do my due diligence and be a steward of this County and the County's resources and their that is not a strategic decision if you were spilling real estate and you got somebody that's going to offer you a million for a piece of property or $5 million who you going to sell it to commissioner peler you got a guy offering you a buck for a barbecue sandwich or $5 who's getting a barbecue sandwich sorry that's where I'm at all right commissioner Harvey thank you madam chair you know the Culvert that might be being put in it's only going to benefit our property and we'll use that in the future one thing that almost really squashed the deal for me on renting it to and I refer you referred to Mr Nations was there was a I wanted a gate on the North End I really dug my heels in on that one we weren't allowed to have a gate for whatever reason the client didn't want one so I I said okay fine but my whole intention one day is for us to have a bigger footprint at the port and to be able to use that proper property we use that property not somebody else thank you madam chair all right um so commissioner I mean um Mr sggs did you want to did you want to have a few minutes sure the only comment that I would make moving forward is that the five Commissioners should know that I've always been open honest and clear in any of my transactions and dealings with Board of County Commissioners and if you have any question about it I'd have no no issue with any if coming sitting with me and having a conversation yes sir I appreciate that um I did have that conversation and when did you say you received that decision from Mr um Commando regarding that contract that was Thursday wasn't it I emailed Mr commander on Thursday yesterday you told me earlier you said you got a response from him on Thursday or Friday which was it no I said we had a conversation once again characteriz it correctly asking you to clarify I did and what I said was we had a conversation on Thursday regarding the the language within the contract and an amended contract was emailed on Thursday Mr command when did you tell them Mr SS that he was incorrect In His thinking on that I don't remember it was Thursday or Friday I okay so it was last week yes sir okay so the most recent email I got from you Mr SGS I emailed you Saturday and you didn't respond back to me uh until yesterday so you knew that I was correct about the verbiage being wrong on Thursday or Friday of last week and you and you told me in the email that you had a followup later I asked you whether or not that verbage was correct Madam chair yes sir the email that again uh commissioner Alexander is referring to uh he sent me an email on Sunday not Saturday so let's be correct in everything that we talk about here this morning and it came in at 12:52 p.m. and I responded on Monday and my the email was did you ever talk to Rich about this one on Friday and my response was I have spoken to Mr Commando and have a followup later today all right well the bottom line is we're here to resolve the issue and the issue is that Mr Commando has recommended that we'll have it on our next agenda to fix the language and the contract yes ma' go ahead but I would like just one more time and I'm I'm probably not listen to the advice of my attorney but if we're going to have a conversation we're going to put it on the record and need this be an honest conversation yes sir and and quite frankly the conversation that started out here this morning was not character not characterized properly or honestly in the conversation that we had and he can get upset if he'd like that's okay he accused me of something so I'm going to clear the record for my own reputation the conversation that he and I had when he asked Mr Grimes to leave my office so he could have a berating conversation with me oneone we had that conversation we were fine we've had multiple me meetings since then nothing else has come up no discussion has came up about this lease agreement other than Thursday of last week when we moved forward with it and my conversation on the phone was you know you may be right I need to talk to the county attorney and I did exactly that on Thursday all right commissioner palis here um I'm up in the bushes here somewhere because I'm catching them on theable this and very unfamiliar exactly what all has transpired so I've got some catchup to do but I will say going forward I want to be sure I think this is the way we operate and if we don't I think we should it is staff's job to bring forward each and every and all possible contracts or people of interest of using leasing renting our properties and this board makes that decision staff makes recommendations this board makes those decisions if and that the way it's protocol yes sir that is protocol all right and that's exactly TR there yes sir but I'm I've got some catchup to know what's going on here because I'm in the dark but you know in all seriousness I know this seems a little heated but at the same time it's a good conversation to have because we have to um figure out how we're moving forward as an organization and um we have to have these kind of conversations not everything is sunshine and Roses commissioner Alexander I just have one last question Mr Commander did Mr Suggs ask you if he needed to bring this back before the commissioner if y'all could just take care of it internally so he he did ask me whether or not and actually it was my opinion at first blush that um because it was a non-material change from the direction of the commission that it may not need to come back and when you and I talked um we kind of talked through what the different possibilities were and after that conversation I agreed with you that it could it should come back to the commission for a consideration thank you cuz that was not the contract I voted on and we voted on because we didn't have all the information I felt regarding the interest in this property I think the contract was in our agenda package was it not it was in the agenda package what I'm referring to is the fact that we voted on a contract vote not knowing that there were other parties that were interested in this and that wasn't brought before the board Mr solman can you approach please we don't normally do this but I I'll give you some levity because I know you're trying to get this resolved no absolutely we don't like putting stop on on on uh good morning hey buddy how are you I have a question yes sir um when we when you offered to lease the property to the asphalt plant I know we did it in the hope of encouraging a new business and helping them out I'm all for it local business but at the end of the day we have a finite number of resources as a county that we can derive revenue from and I'd like to see our our Revenue sources maximized so that we are able to give staff raises and provide for our community so my question is why did we not Circle back around and ask Mr nation's group if they were interested in leasing that property or maybe you did and maybe I'm wrong I I don't think that's a question that Sam has to ask well he's the one that dictates where it goes I know but he works for Mr sugs and Mr sug everybody works for Mr sugs so at the end of the day it's on Mr Suggs I'm I'm asking where he got the direction from all right I'll be glad to answer okay yes sir uh sir uh my understanding was that Nations and Mr Alexander's interests on that southern part of the property were longterm uh that was my understanding sir and that's why I did not back around uh on the advice of our consultant who is helping us develop the port long term and uh the need on that southern property uh for dredging material is most likely within the next three years that would mean that Mr uh coer roads possible leasing of that property would just fit in the window so therefore we would have some Revenue that fits in the window that does not jeopardize the long-term development and uh operations of creating a port which will bring revenue and jobs to our community so that is why they would not approach it was not a disregard for them or anything it was just the thought the UN my understanding was that they needed long-term and we that's why we gave them the north part at least the north part to them we don't want to jeopardize operation we are very happy that they're there that was just our understanding that's why they were not approached we have a timeline thank you Sam with that being said Sam did Mr Nations and Mr Alexander send you a message saying that they would be willing to terminate that contract they'll not piece of property at any point in time I don't have recollection I would have to check uh messages and uh emails Ser to be I do have that so it just makes sense to me and maybe it's an oversight let's chalk it up to that and that's where I'm at Terry let's chalk it up to that but if we have an opportunity to capitalize on resources in the county it's hard for me to go back to my constituents and say that we had an opportunity to Garner another 600 I mean if You' have put Jeff in there at two years at 24 months at $5,000 how much money is that it's a lot of money if we'd extended that same opportunity and so I would just like to see us be a little more strategic with what we do um thank you sir sir thank you it sounds like there was a timing issue with as well um anyway so um with that being said we'll move forward uh you'll be bringing that back Mr Commando yes Madam chair thank you um on to um County Administrator yes ma'am thank you Mr Madam chair sorry about that that's all right uh you know outside of the the last few minutes I think what we had here today was a great great meeting I would like to commend if I could uh Mr Brier Tilton who I don't see in the room right now but that young man did a marvelous job for his first attempt and I think he understands now why there's a Podium because it keeps everybody from seeing your knees shaking so uh but no he did a great job uh staff has always done a great job and yes that engineering department that we have put together at the County Public Works has done a outstanding job as you see we' got projects now on the list are 24 25 and 26 and we're just in the beginning of 25 so I think it's been a great meeting for staff you know so uh again uh thank Mr Grimes for his input on the questions here today and Miss young as well and uh so look forward to uh a good rest today don't forget today's voting day uh and we'll be uh at the cing board tonight at 5:00 so uh you know get out and vote and do your patriotic Duty so thank you madam Sher all right um thank you uh we'll start to my right commissioner piser I know I want you to you know it's fine it's F because you think you're District Five which means you think you're going to go last so that means I'm gonna make you go first it's not a problem uh very briefly only thing I was going to say is highlight Mr Suggs today is voting day polls open 7:00 am to 7 PM you must go to your Precinct to vote you cannot vote at the county offices uh a lot of people get tangled up and forget that but um to those of us that study the political uh game pretty closely uh we know it well but it's 7:00 a.m. 7:00 p.m. and you must go to your Precinct and please get out and vote it's not been a great turnout but is so important to our uh our process in this country and uh thank you very much all right very good um um commissioner Alexander I like to skip around no you absolutely absolutely and you know I I don't I don't want to mistake I know things got a little heated for the discussion today but I don't want anybody to ever question my respect for Mr Suggs he's done a tremendous service for this community for I guess 8 years now yes sir and um I just my only thing I would like to see a more collaborative approach he's got vast amounts of knowledge and I fully respect that so saying that I had a good meeting I hope everybody gets out there and votes today and um looking forward to working together with everyone very good thank you commissioner newold good deal I'll lighten it up a little bit um little Public Service Announcement um the concerned citizens of of South putam are doing their they're holding their third annual Soul Food Festival on uh feary the 21st and 22nd in Crescent City um on the 22nd which is a Saturday there'll be a um a Parade starting at 12 um they'd like to invite us as Commissioners to participate in the parade they come down and enjoy some great food they'll have some music and a good time to be had by all and I'll pass that information to you by email and would love to see you there all right Vice chair Harvey thank you madam chair and thank you for the meeting today I know you're a little under the weather but I think you did a fine job and enjoy the conversation that we have that's you know that's government in the sunshine right there at the best and unfortunately sometimes it feels a little discomforting but truly we can all sit up here and and share what we knew why we knew it what we did you I remember um former commissioner John Eubanks told me when um I was getting app pointed you can only deal with the information you have at hand at the day you get it um and things change and they do change in government and um our job is to keep on top of that and look at these contracts and we do I I look at them too commissioner Alexander I read them and I find questions and I'm on the phone with uh Rich Commando on Saturday morning talking about situations uh don't encourage everybody to call them on Saturday morning but I just said are you up and and I do I have a big ideas for that Port out there and what's going to take place Sam I want to say to you thank you for the um what I'm hearing on the radios about the port putam contest it's it's wonderful I know that was an idea that we shared and commissioner Wilkinson picked it up and really Ram with it uh this is something that is going to be exciting for for were putam County and and you know it's not a little idea this is a big you know we're the furthest Inland port in Florida and crossing the hurdles that we did um very important but the future of that port's going to be very important to putam County too and we've got a lot of interest in using that area so I want to say thank you I want to thank you for the condolences uh lost the family member last night you know family is how we Define it in putham County doesn't have to be blood it can be um it can be adopted family if you will um had a lady that years ago when I was very young uh her and her husband helped me along the path my journey in life and uh after I got burned out of a home down off the horse Landing Road I had no place to go and I wasn't going back home and I didn't mind sleeping in my station wagon that I had but got a little uncomfortable every now and then so uh they took me in well over the years we've became family and I've helped them and they've helped me and um she passed away last night with a great homegoing in the hospital room and it was just a very peaceful private pray full time and um you know Linda Hill was very important to me as her husband guy was and um you know you have have those people in life that invest in you and um you hope to be able to give back one day and I appreciate all the comments that I've seen and everybody's heartfelt condolences and uh believe me it wasn't a loss we know where she went and she was she had prepared her life for that so thank you all very much and Madam chair that's the end of my comment all right before I start commissioner Alexander you have one more thing you'd like to bring up yes ma'am things got heated earlier and that should clude me into the most important thing that I wanted to say today as most of you know I had a little cookout Saturday at the house yeah yes you did Sir and I wanted to personally thank everyone of our EMS staff that came out and assisted me at my house I was planning on doing a ride along with some of you guys but you guys went ahead and demonstrated at the house just a what a great job you do and how competent you are in your work Jr Mr back you guys you carry a lot of weight and respect when you're walking around in that field out there in through the course of an emergency and the guys you have in the field stayed calm acted like it was no big deal let's get it done and I appreciate you guys I appreciate their help if y'all could let them know for me so you were barbecuing on your boat uh no ma'am no ma'am but you could making sure I'm clearing that up you could have barbecued from my front yard from the heat coming off of my boat yes sir thank you guys I appreciate y'all thank you I'm sorry I'm a little under the weather I'm pushing through um I wanted to uh thank you commissioner Alexander for attending the woman's resource 5K run out at Coventry I couldn't make it and I understand it was a success I usually do that and you you covered for me so I appreciate that um on Saturday I think it was a good event um we had a couple dog adoptions this weekend uh one at pet sense I I um had stopped by there maybe it was last weekend I don't know it all runs together sometimes but anyway they do usually on one on Saturday and one on Sunday and the one on Sunday is usually up in Jacksonville so they usually hold two events every weekend and I know we got out I think at least a dozen animals over the weekend um adopted or either in rescue so that's very exciting um and also I want to thank the people who worked the cold weather shelter um on one night we the they had 20 people that showed up um so they had anywhere from 14 to 20 people this week at the cold weather shelter in uh uh at Westminster hall downtown and I think that's very um helpful for those people because as you know it got very very cold for us Florida people and um I know we have our community paramedicine program is is about to they're in their training portion but at some time going forward um Mr GRS I'd like for us to do an update in front of the board and you tell us and explain to our citizens what that program what you and see see going forward and how that's going to impact our our community most certainly I'd like to do that as well as the um as our program that we've ran through the schools and our apprenticeship program all through our Public Safety trainees um and we actually put our first um three uh that started in our apprenticeship program they started their full-time careers on I think it was Monday Tuesday and maybe tomorrow um as they were spread out amongst the shift so that's a great success program too as our local kids that went through a program learned it and had gone here so I'd like to do that presentation as well yeah so we'll get that on the agenda for uh upcoming and um I think it's very important for us to know that and for our citizens and then I have spoken just to let the board know um oneon-one with administrator Suggs about helping come up with some kind of retention policy and or or not I don't know if I want to call it a policy maybe a retention initiative a project um like commissioner Alexander mentioned and it is something that we do we have all faced which is the turnover rate it is better I will say it is better than it used to be um but we need to do more and so what does that look like and um I floated some ideas to him of things that maybe we could do so if you guys have ideas because it cost I am a firm believer that it cost us more money when we have to um continually train people and continually train people and to JT's point you know you get people on the road and once they're experienced in in cutting or even mowing or digging ditches that experience is worth something and so how do we how do we retain those employees and stay competitive in the market and um while the government's good at offering benefits what else can we do and I think there's some things that that's that and I don't want to you know Spill the Beans because we might not be able to implement a lot of the ideas but I would like for him um M Mr sugs and and it's one of his initiatives as well he brought it to me at the beginning of the year and I think it's very good that we look at how what can we do for our staff for retention going forward to help keep our staff here um anyway so that's a goal that I we have both set together as chair and as um administrator as we go through the new year so I look forward to you and your team coming up I think they're going to try to maybe come up with a committee and um not nobody not that they're going to meet every month but just hear back a little bit from each department and then see what we can come up with so um I appreciate y'all working on that and with with Miss Parker and um I think that's very important for the future of of our staff and our County because people who stay here are going to be uh you know it's just it's just beneficial to everybody so I appreciate that are there any other comments or questions before we close I got one one quick comment real quick and I got to apologize to take stock and and oh goodness gracious I've got the children take stock and children um program I was unable to attend yesterday there was a presentation in Crescent c a young lady first name is Mia I I don't have her last name on the top of my head but she was the the recipient of a $40,000 scholarship to um 10 of six in the state and you know we have great kids here we do have a good school system um and it showing and I just wanted to congratulate the young lady and and um applaud the Tak stock and children program yeah and if you guys don't know that's the program that's through the Goodwill Industries and they're doing really good in our community and we're so glad that they're here in putam because they are making a difference Wendy Letterman is is their local person Madam CH yes I have been a um a mentee for menture menture for probably over 20 years with I didn't know that and currently I have two young men at uh inar and high school that I Mentor um that program if you don't know it actually starts back in middle school and they make a contract for children who might not seem to go to college or or votech school and um and then they're monitored and they're partnered with a mentor and I I'm in constant contact with mine to see how their grades are see how their attendances anything I can help do uh to help their Journey along life so I'm glad you said said that but there is also room at the table if anybody wants to volunteer I guarantee you there's more out there than we can handle and but we want to be successful in getting these kids these children young men and women uh graduated and go on to a better degree thank you sir um commissioner piser very briefly I know everybody's ready for lunch um I highly applaud your uh program or Research into uh employee retention um when I was here before um our pay scale was far less than it is now and um I got them to implement in part of Public Works a four-day work week which made it very yeah um happy work environment and I understand we're we're working on to uh maybe enhance that and spread that out a little further within different departments in our area as long as our Count's covered you know the five days during the work weekend of course weekends for emergencies but um that's that's a great thing and we need to do do that as much as possible anything we can do to encourage that employee retention because as Mr Stout said you get an employee on a piece of equipment and he takes pride in his work and guess what the longer he stays and on that same piece of equipment he's going to get better and do a better job and be more efficient and uh it just works for everybody yes sir absolutely thank you all right with that this meeting is for