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welcome to the putham County Board
of Commissioners regular meeting and Port Authority meeting today is Tuesday February 11th 2025 and it is 9:00 we call this meeting to order first let's have the invocation please by Mr Eddie stey from church of the Heights and then followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by commissioner newal let's bow our heads father we thank you for today Lord that you are continuing to have your face shine upon this great County Lord I pray for this commission and the leaders of our county father I pray that you would continue
to give them innovation insight as they lead this County into the future and laying the foundation for this generation to lead this great this great state into the future father I pray a blessing over them I pray a blessing over this county father I pray that you would just continue to have the blessing and the favor of God to rest on each and every one of them knowing that all authority is placed by you that they've been assigned for this assignment for such a time as this in this great hour Lord we thank you we give you
glory today we ask that everything that happens here will glorify you set this County up for the future and Lord I declare that The Best Is Yet To Come and it's being grown right now today in the people of our great County in Jesus name I pray amen thank you Pastor United States of indivisible
andice for all thank you we have the approval of the minutes um from December 10th and January 14th in front of us today Madam chair I make a motion we approve the minutes as stated in our packet second have a motion and a second all in favor say I I I all right motion passes all right we will recess the BCC and convene the Port Authority meeting approval of the minutes Madame chair
I move approval the minutes of the Port Authority regular meeting December 10th and the Port Authority regular meeting January 14th have a proper motion second in a proper second all in favor say I I I any opposed all right presentation of Port development plan Mr Sam Sullivan good morning Commissioners Sam Sullivan grants projects legislative affairs coordinator Port manager I'm here
before you as my capacity as port manager uh we have a presentation for you today I'm going to give you a brief uh overview and introduce you to our Consultants who will be giving the full presentation excuse me I need my lead readers um back in uh June of 2022 uh the state legislature included Port putam as one of the ports in the State of Florida uh afterwards uh on August 22nd
on August of that same year we were approved as members of the Florida ports Council in October of 2022 we were granted a port in uh Port infrastructure development Grant from the maritime Administration which is part of the US Department of Transportation um we uh a year later in October 2023 we obtained permanent membership in The Fad which is the uh Florida seport Transportation Economic Development Council uh on January 2024
uh we selected Burns and McDonald as a contractor to conduct the P the pit Grant which is a port infrastructure development Grant um in uh June of 2024 we have been appropriated funds to construct a bulkhead at our Port uh in August 2024 we awarded a security system Grant from fad and uh as of this month our Port infrastructure development uh Grant has been completed and the presentation is going to be an overview
a 30,000 foot overview of what came of that study uh the complete study will be posted later this week an email will be sent to all of you once it's on their uh it we'll be posting it in the Port Authority Section of our website uh before I introduce our speakers uh I do have a u comment uh from our federal lobbyist Josh Gabon from the Gabon group who was the spearhead for this whole project several years ago so bear
with me as I read his comments as some of you may know as a senior policy adviser to former congressman John El Mah and as your federal Affairs consultant in Washington I have been steadfastly working with the putham County Administration to generate economic growth and develop the infrastructure within the dilapidated patka barge Port this process began more than 5 years ago commencing with an economic development and transportation enhancement s Symposium which brought together officials and representative from local state and federal agencies
such as the Florida Department of trans Transportation Flor Department of Economic Opportunity Flor Department of Environmental Protection the United States Department Commerce Economic Development Administration and United States Department of Army Corps of Engineers this event provided with the much needed springboard for County officials to hear and discuss available Economic Development opportunities and transportation initiatives that will Ben benefit from the investment and Redevelopment of the Palatka barge Port I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank County Administrator Terry
sugs commissioner Larry Harvey and Port director Sam Sullivan for their support in not only sharing my long-term vision for the barge Port but trusting my initiatives and strategy which is why the county is in the position to deliver this planning presentation this morning I look forward to continuing my work with the county members and staff of your Congressional Delegation including federal and state officials and bring this project to fruition without further Ado let me introduce Scott truning and Christopher Martin from Burns and McDonald or who will Burns and McDonald
sorry uh who will be uh presenting the port development project good morning let me just open this on this computer and let me make sure you can see it is everybody seeing it on their screens okay great so as Sam mentioned I'm Scott shoting this is Chris Martin with Burns McDonald um we were contracted to put together this port development plan I'm going to give you a brief overview
of the plan it's not a formal presentation please if you have any questions we have a slide at the end four questions but if you have something during the presentation please speak up you won't throw us off for anything so help yourselves you put that closer to you oh sorry there you go much much better much better sorry so let me get this to advance here we go so our goal with this plan was to create a um why is
my computer on that was to create a flexible um living plan that could adapt to the market and anything else that actually occurs um because obviously right now you this is the early stages of the project you don't really know everything that's going to actually happen at that Port so we want to give you we wanted to help with a plan that creates infrastructure that keeps you Nimble as you as as things progress can you make this a little bit bigger um let me try uh this is let's
thank you does that work that helps not a lot let me let me try one more thing for you real quick there you go maybe I can do it this way because this is not letting me use the PowerPoint so I've got to kind of improvise is that too big that's better yeah I think they work right there let's try it thank you of course so let me back up no yeah I'm to do this each
time so quick some just a quick agenda we've done introductions we're going to go over the current port's property and its conditions uh the study uh completed for the uh Port development plan market analysis just brief overview there traffic and then Capital Improvement projects and again questions at the end but feel free to chime in if you have anything so the current property as you know is the port um Port proper off of Port Road and comfort Road front it has the two warehouses in the bulkhead and
then you also have your 16 acre Annex um up at the corner the current conditions of the port as as Sam alluded to the the bulkheads dilapitated needs repl the dock behind it also needs replacement to to basically be able to facilitate anything of heavy cargo um the 16 acre Annex site a lot of debris um existing infrastructure water sewer that needs to be rerouted in in preparation for any future development and then you have
some abandoned rail that could either be be revitalized or extended for future use that the fall um so the study basically completed we during the study we actually completed some v um various components that will be utilized for future uh design development topographic survey of the landward side of the port uh geotechnical investigation which did validate that the the bulkhead needs to be replaced we did some preliminary engineering looking at a couple
different options for that bul replacement and then did an environmental Matrix to consider what permits would be required luckily for a one for one replacement of the bulkhead there's very minimal environmental impact or environmental permits however you're going to see that we proposed in our plan future expansion of the bulkhead to increase capacity for the port that would of course then require additional permitting so during the market analysis we looked at domestic European
and Caribbean uh trade um looking some of the local businesses that might utilize the black veritos gypson Beck aut and so on we found as we're progressing through the market analysis the the the rest the Restriction isn't the businesses or the opportunities that the port has the Restriction is the infrastructure you have a bunch of uh businesses that are interested and will utilize the port but the port is just needs to be repaired so as you'll notice when you review the plan we proposed to implement not just a new bulad but
a mobile Harbor crine maybe moving some of the facilities opening up more lay down space just to give you again that versatility we need to react as businesses become interested in utilizing the port we also looked at a traffic analysis and I'm G let Chris talk about that for a second thank you Scott morning all yeah part of our investigation included analyzing the transportation infrastructure leading to and from the port really with a focus on
assuring that increased cargo and truck traffic coming into the port may be accommodated by the existing Transportation infrastructure and so the good news is looking at the Turning radii and the overall roadway geometrics at the North and South entrance on Comfort Boulevard absolutely adequate to support any level of truck truck traffic anticipated um what you're seeing here on the uh screen is a heat map of uh crash dat over the past 5 years not a tremendous amount
of crashes within the immediate Port fac facin but there is a few um accidents right there at Cy Road 216 coming on to Highway 17 that segment Highway 17 there is a two four lane uh two-way divided section and so it's a long uh turn for truck traffic getting through that intersection which is likely the cause of the increased accidents at that location as the pork row and we get more uh cargo coming in and out
that intersection may be an opportunity for improvement to enhance safety but overall the good news is as we look to improve the port and get more cargo coming in and out the existing Transportation infrastructure is absolutely adequate at this time without the need for uh major improvements all right so moving into the Capital Improvements that you know we're proposing with this plan is we talked about the the bulkhead and dock
replacement you know starting at the the the bulkhead and coming back to to allow for any tiebacks and other infrastructure replacing that section of the dock and then progressing further all the way to comfort in the future as funds become available um because all that area needs to be repaired um that's the the um sorry that's part of the dock expansion the rest of the dock expansion is going to the north roughly about 450 ft looking at expanding again the capacity of the port allowing for more uh cargo more uh
more barge burs also uh railroad uh spur extension into the property the just basically putting back what was there previously to allow on do rail access which is a huge demand for a lot of folks and then um you know power line transitions trying to put some some of that existing infrastructure underground so it's out of the way and then regrading and compacting in areas mainly on the 16 Acre Site because it's it's just basically a PO rubble and a lot of it so just needs to be cleaned up and regraded to allow for future
development and that's leading into into the rest of the 16 acre improvements right now there's a rail spur that was there previously it's not active anymore obviously but in the future we'd like to reactivate that and actually put in two Spurs to allow for a greater transload capacity um again another um another component that markets are looking at for when it comes to site selection is having that capability and then also keeping that southern portion between the rail Spurs and the buildings open for dredge disposal because as you know
part of in increased capacity of the dock is being able to get the larger vessels so we need to dredge sooner rather than later so we want to be we have to have somewhere to store that dredge material hopefully that dredge material becomes something that you can use and for future developments or somewhere else in the city but we've allocated enough space for that as well within the plan and then I mentioned Water and Sewer modifications there's a lot of existing infrastructure there from the prior development and we don't know where it all goes so we need to get that basically designated figured out where it is and then get it relocated
to the perimeter that way it opens it up for future future development and that is our whole presentation again the whole power uh the complete study will be available as as Sam mentioned uh on the ports website but with that do you have any questions for us commissioner Harvey thank you Madame chair thank you for the presentation um I have great hopes for port putam and
what that's going to become I like the idea uh I've always had in mind the conversation needs to happen with veritos steel about trying to move some of those Southern facilities they have to the north the putam County Economic Development Council owns some property to the north of their place um some of its Wetlands but it could possibly be a tradeoff if you will uh solve our problem and their problem at the same time uh so I I really like that idea
I love the idea of the two rail spur because that means we could hold our own in there until CSX comes in and picks it up and takes it out exactly and you're right there used to be one there and there isn't one U but I think with just a little bit of work we can make that happen and and finally you know years ago uh the former board invested a lot of money on buying that old George Pacific property for the use of Economic Development if you will and
port expansion um and we went around making a lot of promises to people who were funding partners that we're going to leave some of that area open for that reason for the lay down yard and things so I think it's very important that we we look at the long term here and see what the port can become you know when the outer Beltway is done you're I think 17 minutes from the outer Beltway at that point you know and the river used to be the channel years ago for Commerce
and now being that putam is the furthest Inland port in Florida and Sam you had a big a big push on that and and I don't ever want to I mean you you deserve the props for making that happen you went to those meetings and sat there and so did our legislator Bobby Payne and Travis Hudson at the time and our new ones are picking up the torch with it too but this is going to be big for putham County this will be huge and you already saw even Beck's want to Beck's Auto Group they want to start shipping things out
by barge you know and there might be some crumbs from from jackport if you will U and those crumbs are a lot of money to us so I mean I don't want to make it minute um it's exciting I was just on the radio this morning talking about the port putam and the contest that's going on and there's people go you got a port in Paca yeah yeah we really do and but we're excited about that so but we invested a lot of
money to buy that property in hopes that the future will come and um and that's kind of the hardest thing for Rural counties to do is buy it and hope they come but if we don't have it they won't come and we know that so we appreciate y all your help on that I appreciate your presentation and I look forward to 10 years down the road what we're going to look like then so thank you thank you madam chair that's my comment thank you uh commissioner paler um I too
with commissioner Harvey applaud your work there um I'm excited about our Port I took a tour last week and it the concept I had in my brain was totally different what I saw before my eyes um I see huge amounts of U positive growth for putting them there um just just a really good thing that that we have and and our uh predecessors uh did the right thing in buying that and I think us looking into acquiring more land out there is definitely going
to be a a A Plus on our side for just positive growth coming in from everywhere um there's uh I think there's several interested parties already in and places on our port and um this is going to be a really big thing one thing I didn't hear you mention and it may be already be in place and it may not be your part to even look into this but uh three-phase Power is that out there is that accessible it is U we we did look at it cuz veritos has access to it as well it's up near the the
bend Comfort near this the annex site so there is access there now I don't know if it extends all the way down to the port I don't believe it does just yet um but it is up in that Northern Edge if it's there I'm sure they can bring it to us but oh yeah thank you thank you madam chair thank you commissioner Alexander I want to thank you guys for coming down and presenting to us today that uh that's that's really great I'm we're very excited about it and Sam doing a great job man um I'm new to all this I'm just learning um can you go
back in your slides a couple of spaces that uh where it shows the outline of what county the or what property the county actually owns are you thinking this one yeah that looks pretty good okay let me let me just move it down for you a little bit yeah why is it not moving and locked up of course of course well we can see what I need to see there okay and the upper right hand side of your slide there are some green space I'm assuming that's Wetlands now does the county own that or is that veritos or well
that so that's not Wetlands it's trees we've not done a delineation to confirm the limits of the wetlands we just picked up there it's a very wooded area and obviously some of it is well but um that's veritos property that is veritos property yes sir all right I was just looking at that in consideration of um potentially purchasing some mitigation credits and depositing The Dredge material there to give us additional workable water Frontage I I'm not sure if we could
use a for dredge disposal because the The Dredge disposal has to go outside the river limits and it cannot drain directly back into the river it's a requirement by the cord has to drain where it sits and that water has to go through treatment before it leaves so that's why they have to carry as far inland as they can to allow that that drying so they going unfortunately that close to the river wouldn't be permitted okay so it would have to settle dewat and then it could be reused or how does that yes if if de it has to be tested to make sure that there's no contaminants of
course um you want to have it tested to make sure it has any structural Integrity so you maybe can use it for for any projects for infrastructure and then it can be reused okay and we and we have no idea what's there right now because there's not been any testing done on what's In The Water absolutely okay great information man thank you guys absolutely commissioner nebal thank you and thank you for the presentation it's uh get a question once in a while on it be nice to be able to speak a little more intelligently um
you mentioned the the landward side um studies how the the depth of the area on water side or will there be a need for additional preparations there as we look towards actual traffic so right now based on Noah's data for what we have in the river we got about six foot to work with which we can you can bring in smaller barges with that and not having bottoming out so that that's something that can so so once the bulhe head's in place you can start using the p is what I'm trying to get through there with
the dredging project that the core is permitting it's going to you're going to go down to 15 ft that opens the door for a lot larger vessels and a lot more opportunity and that's coming it's already been approved it's moving forward so that will happen um we'll know the exact limits of the dredging and exact limits of where we need to do any preparation with the design of the Valli because we have to do water soundings to figure out what the depth is at that time but right now just based on the data that we have it's about six feet and that's where it stands and does that answer your question sure okay
sure thank you sure commissioner Alexander quick question um the uh Shan's Bridge do you guys know how far along they are with replacing that actually we're going out there right after this to take a look and see how it's progressing but it's from what I from what I understand it's it's moving along and it's on schedule okay and the schedule date is 2030 2030 so we won't actually be able to receive any um large cargo until that is completed depending on the depending on the
um type of that's coming through cuz you're right for the large large ones absolutely but there are some larger ones that can actually still get through there or Go in different other directions so you and definitely barges obviously allow you'll be able to get that traffic as well the lower bar yeah the larger ocean going vessels I think re 43 ft 43 yes that's correct okay thank you absolutely thank you for coming today I think this has been very inform inform informational for everybody um I have one question um regarding and I know
you don't want to probably box yourself to a timeline but can you give us an idea of when you expect to um hopefully maybe start the drudging project how long that project will you know that just give us a little bit of a timeline of what you're looking at honestly with the drudging part it's it's up to Congress and I hate to even guess at this point with the new Administration just to be honest um I know there's there's a push to continue that work um and continue the studies that are required and all the surveys and so on but at this point
with everything that's going I'd hate to even give you a timeline because it would who knows okay so I apologize that's okay uh Mr Sullivan it looks like you have something to say oh sorry that's sry uh addressing that dredging question chairman uh we are currently uh in a feasibility study under the worda bill which is the Water Resource development act in Congress we have been approved uh in the past this fall I am cautiously optimistic that during our next face Toof
face uh meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers leadership uh that we can uh transition from a feasibility status with all the feasibility studies we've already conducted and possibly get us to a uh funding consideration level which could accelerate the process however it's the core they're not very fast but I'm cautiously optimistic that if everything falls our way and we get the support that we need from uh uh US Representative and US senators that we could possibly have the
dredging coincide or shortly followed the raising of the shance bridge in 2030 okay so you don't think that we would have any drudging projects before 2030 we might it's 2025 it's 5 years uh that's from what my research that's a pretty tight thing it's it's going to depend on how things go with the core leadership and uh how much support we get from our federal representatives and the same way with the repair of the B
uh the repair on the bulkhead uh is going to be going a lot sooner okay uh my estimates uh based on depending on what the environmentals and all that take place and the construction could be two years from now okay so at that time we could take yeah just trying to an idea what what we're looking at administrator Suggs put your mic on thank you madam chair apologize for that uh follow up a couple things uh one is uh Mr Gaton couldn't be here today because he
is actually in DC with the session beginning uh this week so he's up there uh he has been very instrumental on getting us to where we are today I had a phone with Mr Gaton last week and we have a zoom call we're trying to get scheduled for later uh in the next few days hopefully if his schedule will permit to have further conversations about the a word of project and the award of the project as Mr Sullivan alluded to it's been approved that both the house and the sen side so our project is included uh we're hoping
that uh with the relationship that we currently have with the Army Corps because this isn't our project it's actually our second project with the Army Corps and we just uh uh finishing up our environmental study on the second project uh so we uh we have a $30 million Grant uh through them already for some pable water so our reputation and our our meeting uh with the Army Corps has been going really well so we're hoping that that will continue on through the barge Port project itself not take as long as as we may think
it may take uh so that that's all positive and I think Mr gabon's working on that now so when opportunity presents himself we'll meet with the Army Corps and DC again to do that uh also just want to point out we talked to the Commissioners talked a little bit this morning about potential businesses as well as our uh consultants and by the way thank you and you did a phenomenal job on the on the plan itself and thank you Sam but you know we got companies that are already
established ready to go you know verto still has exp has expressed a great desire to get that Port up and moving as quickly as we can so they can expand uh you got Beck Automotive uh in the uh Caribbean opportunities with automotive parts and things of that nature so they're ready to go and and one of our dearest neighbors of certain te and so uh you know they just did $ 235 million upgrades to their facility to double their output of gypson board and so the material that
would be coming down via truck from Jacksonville would then be coming via uh barge to the port so I think all those are extremely positive things to remember and I think uh commissioner Harvey said the best that we spent some money on some property out there to uh give us uh uh more options available and we need to look at other options as well and so uh I think it's extremely positive for what we're doing out there apologize I got a little bit of a cold this morning but I I do want want us
to remember that you know this has taken us a while to get here but things are falling into place uh the raising of Shan's Bridge was what was the Catalyst for this you know give Congressman Yoho the credit for that for getting that started you know so we may be looking at 2030 as far as getting the Bridge completed but I also would cautiously remind us all that when seminal power and GP was going through their upgrades we actually brought stuff in through the port then and so we can get some
materials in and out there now and when Mr suan gets the uh bulkhead in the dockage facility upgraded I think it hasn't been upgraded since the 60s so once we get that we'll have more uh ability to bring other things in as well uh and then as we grow and the bridge raises we'll have opportunity to bring bigger vessels in but we can still bring some stuff in now right thank you m CH yeah that's why it's so important to have these uh good working relationships with other agencies throughout the
state and and at the federal level commissioner Harvey you're recognized thank you madam chair um two two questions really one Sam um some of the new members might not know where the dredging is going to happen and the public hears dredging and they might go oh we don't want our River dredged we're not dredging the river so would you explain it's really going to come out of the North Area uh it's not going to come from the south we're going to dredge from the river channel so if you kind of explain that I would appreciate well
the the plan the latest plan when we conversation was the core is to actually remove silt that's accumulated during you know storms and other inclement weathers and you know basically and it would go from the port kind of northward towards the Rice Creek and then join in on the federal Waterway we're not going to be dredging a big swath from the port out to the federal Waterway a big mile swath we're going to be removing basically Sil that
a ulated spilt to restore a navigable channel uh to 15 ft which is the depth of the federal waterway in the St John's river good thank you and and one more question the life of the bulkhead when we get the new bulkhead in I'm sure it's going to be it's going to be deeper than the current bulkhead no doubt about that but what do you what do you foresee the life of that bulkhead being because we're going to fixing a make an investment and so is the federal government here minimum of 50 years but with the little TLC much more than
that good all right thank you great questions thank you commissioner alexand are you are you okay commissioner Alexander hey Sam um how closely will that come to the spray field from GPS that fluent uh the the dredging yes I that that's would be in consideration like I said the final exact route has not been uh but the the that pipe will definitely be in consideration and it will be not they
would avoid it of course I don't have an exact measurement sir yeah I just didn't know where the dredging was going to take place if it would be around because that the spray field is right in that area where you're talking about right well the spray field is certain distance from the the shore but that's kind of conj adjacent to where the turnaround Basin is and the dredging would be afterwards so we should be okay but that will definitely be a consideration before the operations take place okay just checking thank you all right thank you there any
other questions thank you for your presentation we appreciate it all right moving on to the next item a lease of Southern section of Port Annex this is um this was approved at the I think it's December 10th meeting unanimously by this board and this language is back in front of us because commissioner Alexander at the last meeting wanted to um change the term term
and so that's what's in front of us today does anybody want is there a presentation to make or that I just said it okay Madame chair I like to make a motion to support this item and approve the lease excuse me I have a few questions oh I'm sorry yeah I have my light on but um before we move forward with this and take a vote on it uh I just want to make sure this is the best use of our property and we are capitalizing on the maximum value cuz during the presentation by the Engineering Group there they said the actual
goal of this port was to generate and maximize the revenue of the property that we have so I wanted to make sure that we had Eng engaged all interested parties in this property before we approved the leasee were there anybody else interested was there anybody else interested in it there's not a another lease package in our there's not another lease agreement that I know of that we have in our package understand okay I just want to see if there was anything else available or if we did explore all options before we voted on well
typically what happens in a um if typically what happens is somebody brings a lease agreement to us and then it gets presented to the board if you go back and you look historically at how we got to point to this point and I had to do some research myself um Victoria marine and the national Industrial Services was presented to the board you weren't on here at the time um in July of 2024 and it was approved for
Victoria Marine which is a local existing business in putham to uh take that I think they're right up there at the bulkhead that portion and then in September the national Industrial Service came in September of 24 again before you got here but that was the lease that came in front of us and that got approved unanimously and that's the other half of the 16 acres and um then copper roads was presented in December 10th of which this board approved unanimously and but they had some issues I guess
with a um a gate I think that um but that was the only lease that came in front of us at that time I I believe we look back National Industrial Services was interested in renting or leasing that property so they presented a lease they were they offered to lease that property yes ma'am they would in communication with our team and you know this how the information was provided to by
our constituents um full transparency again um my brother represents that group M and um they were they did offer to lease that property at a higher dollar value than what we are offering to lease it now they offered to lease it in September whenever it was approved is what you're saying uh no ma'am that is a separate partial you're referring to the north partial that was approved the South partial that copper roads is looking at um they offered to lease that one and told they were they could not lease it because it was going to
be used for dredge material storage right that's correct commissioner Harvey I'm sorry I thought you had no okay commissioner peler um I at that time when that came about the copper roads thing that was was all I knew about that was presented to us that we had to vote on that was all that was on the table um since then I've done some research and after my tour of the port and saw that there's nothing out there of copper roads he has no no
equipment no nothing's been done on his part out there because we have not signed the lease pardon the lease has not been signed but he was approved correct he was approved but there was an issue with the gate and his insurance is what I understand which is why he why it's not signed today well and then we and then we kicked it back at the last meeting for additional language okay uh hearing all that um it's through some research I've done that um and I
had this conversation with Mr sugs the other day that um my way of doing business in the private sector is I would have contacted my neighbor that was already doing business with me and asked if they had an interest that if they were a good paying client that I would contact them rather than alienate them to see if they had an interest in coming on board and wanted more of the property or not as long as they had the understanding that in the event that we convinced our
grudging that they had you know a reasonable amount of time to remove their stuff or get out of our way so to speak and I just uh I'm all about making more money for the county that's possible and if if if our current neighbor or current uh tenant is interested I certainly would love to see that they have that opportunity again I have not seen a lease that's been presented to this board from what you two were referring to so I don't know how you expect us to review and approve a Le lease that we don't have
in front of us there was no lease presented because they were turned down verbally from staff so we the board was never allowed to vote on it similar we were only allowed to vote on the one that was presented to us because we were presented only one lease as to being the only lease available only interested party when that is not the case there are other parties that were interested that were not given
the opportunity to lease the property commiss Harvey Madam chair I understand the conversation that's happening today but I want to go back and reiterate my comments at the last meeting I wasn't in favor of leasing any of that property out uh the only reason I did was because we were looking at very short term and we were helping a business come to putam County and I think that's our big job this is another helping our business come to putham county that very well might help our citizens of putam County drive
down prices on roads um and it's a very shortterm lease so they'll be out of our way so I think when you look at maximizing the dollar I think it's much more complicated than just going okay we have a hypothetical out there that might do this but we know right now that the board approved this and there was some language that needed to be cleaned up and you very well can't ask a man to start a business without proper documentation going on so I support my
motion and it still sits out there thank you madam chair all right we have a motion on the floor is there a second we have a motion in the second any further discussion since this is a public hearing uh we're going to open this time for public comment is there anybody who would like to discuss this lease under Port Authority for public comment please come forward if there's anyone who would like to have this discussion
publicly please state your name and address for the record thank you Ronda Williams I'm sorry I have a cold as well it's on Federal Point Road East Paca Florida yes thank you all so very much um as you all know I attend these meetings regularly when I don't I listen on uh the video which I hope someday will be live and so I can hear it live time but this port
has been something that's been in the making for a number of years and I think that you all are looking at it in the right direction in that we are looking for long-term enrichment not short-term gain and so I I've seen that happening through the years and I really appreciate that I also think that as we go forward we're entering into a new era that we haven't had before and so we're going
to need to have um a new way of thinking a new outlook and probably even some new language that goes into contracts some of the things that I've been thinking of because when I heard the um robust conversation from the last meeting on this topic I started looking into this as well because I was concerned about a number of things so for example issues regarding EPA I would think that that would be covered under contract so I
do know that there's a current vendor who has some EPA issues at another site that they have so I would hope that we would before we got into any sort of um agreement with any organization that we would do our own homework and make sure that any entity whether it's a short-term or a long-term Arrangement doesn't have any issues with other entities EPA issues legal issues so I understand that there's also a legal issue
with an existing um leasy that we have who has issues in the uh Virgin Islands with uh the lease that they're having there so I would hope that before we move forward with any contract with any vendor that we made sure that those issues are clarified and that we are protecting ourselves and protecting our citizens um from any sort of
action so I appreciate your time thank you commissioner Alexander thank you Miss Williams I appreciate exactly what you're saying um like you said any type of petroleum distill its close to the water it is scary so um thank you for your comments all right uh we have a motion and a second any other further discussion okay we have public comments
Jeremy Alexander 134 timberling PKA um I do represent uh Mr Nations on several issues but specifically did work with staff appreciate that uh for his current Port lease as far as I know Mr Nations has no issues uh with the EPA currently as a matter of fact he doesn't operate a facility in the Virgin Islands he's a contractor uh in the Virgin Islands and as a matter of fact he has 80 employees at the Port we were hoping this
would be a long-term partnership with the county and we were hoping we could tap into his knowledge long term because he's operated that port in that terminal for about 25 years so we appreciate what the county has done I do uh want to make sure everybody understands the only functional restroom Mr Nations has been able to get operating on that facility due to some of the infrastructure dilapidation the previous folks uh discussed is currently on the south parcel so um for his employees to continue to operate there we would need to work through that that issue um he's
already put some new roofs on some of the structures he's beg upgrading those facilities as promised but the only functional water he's been able to get going so far sits just on that sou Southern B boundary line um so if it's not something this commission wants to work through a Mr Nations as part of his long-term expansion plans right now the barges he's bringing in he's having to bring in to the North and the South so we were hoping this would be a long-term partnership but um nonetheless I hope we can work through the restroom issue at a a
minimum so thank sure um so um I did also did some research on Mr Nations um which it's St Croy you just Google industrial uh National Industrial Services St Croy and there are some articles that do pop up regarding a lawsuit that he's in the middle of and an EPA so I think that might have been what Miss Williams was alluding to it's I mean anybody can Google it um and we do appreciate the relationship that we have with Mr Nations and we want
to have long-term relationship with him as well um I think the issue that that was discussed in the previous board meetings and they're all open to the public and anybody could go back and look was that that was going to be a lay down yard for a local contractor to use on a temporary basis um so that was the that was the purpose and that contractor is also the same person who is using who is resurfacing some roads for putam County so it's a benefit but it's not it wasn't this this agreement is a six-month agreement we're not looking looking at a
5year lease so I'm not sure that there won't be opportunities in the future if Mr Nation still needs something so um that those are my comments for now commissioner pelier my question you Mr Alexander does Mr Nations do you think have interest in more of that property located at the Port oh yeah yeah there absolutely his his plan is to grow roots here and that's my job is to get him to grow roots here I mean at one time he had 2,000 employees at the port and the refinery in the Virgin Islands he's currently down to about 200 100 uh has
roughly 150 in diio which is the rum Factory and he still operates in between 80 and 90 at the terminal at the Port so yeah my my idea is that he'll grow roots here and help grow with butam and Jeremy so you work you work for him no he's a client of Douglas law firm and I'll work for Douglas Law Firm okay he um lost train of thought apolog with him having interest here um and going forward for those of you who do not know all that I saw
stored on that property is aluminum scaffolding material which does not emit any kind of Hazard to the environment so uh I don't know what his other plans might be but as of now all I saw was aluminum scaffolding being his lease is very specific and what he can do on that yard I appreciate County staff and the county attorney and how they drafted that lease it's very specific no uh emissions to concern yourselves with it's fabrication uh welding storage lay down yard stuff like that so yeah and it did look like he was on a good job on improving the
buildings yes the U I call it the office building of the old chipa he's done great work there cuz it at one time had a hole in the roof and now it has a new 10 roof and it's been painted on the exterior I've not seen the inside but I'm I'm sure whatever's inside is salvageable now that he's done the exterior work but again I was looking on the financial side of making the most money for the county as long as the understanding with whoever is there that when the time comes that we need to um they're out of the way for our
dredging to be piled over there that they're willing to accept and do so y yep he wants to continue to walk hand in yep all right um before we move on are you done M yes thank you um I have a a question for our County attorney does Mr um commissioner Alexander need to declare conflict of interest and recuse himself from this vote so conflict analysis is a personal one I don't know if he receives any
sort of benefit um with your brother being involved uh there's the potential for the conflict that's something I would just be mindful of okay all right thank you commissioner Alexander you're recognized thank you yes if if it please as a chair I will recuse myself from this vote but I would like to make a comment um so Mr Alexander you're telling me that Mr Nations at one time employed over 2,000 people yes sir that is correct and how many people does Georgia Pacific
currently employ roughly 900 sir okay how many does the school system employ roughly 2,000 sir okay and uh simal electric just for couple hundred okay so we're looking at this man who has had a track record of growing a company to 2,000 employees who has made an investment in both our airport and our Port looking to grow further and
has conceded to terminate the lease at any point and would I mean I thought the whole purpose of this was to grow our County economically and I think that we should do give a a little more insight into working with this gentleman we're here and we're anxious to work with the county so thank you um administrator SS does our current lease with Mr Nations have a term date I
believe it's a three-year with uh some with some options U with two one-year extensions you build into it uh is that where we're at currently okay um I see that we have another public comment Miss Williams thank you commissioner pelier you brought up scaffolding if you will Google this company and Mr Nations you'll
see that in St Croy there was a facility he was leasing that had scaffolding the scaffolding He was ordered by a judge to remain with the facility now scaffolding was shipped from St Croy to Paca Florida its public record now it might not be the same scaffolding that you saw I would highly suspect that it is the same scaffolding but it was ordered to be remained with that facility in St
Croy so again my concern is who are we getting into business with are we doing our due diligence thank you uh commissioner paler and and I know that we don't normally allow this but I'm allowing this because this box has been open and we're going to close it and we're going to close it properly commissioner paler in response to miss uh Williams um I never have known of aluminum to have any kind of runoff that was bad aluminum to aluminum
whether it's aluminum scaffolding or aluminum can so I don't I don't I'm not familiar and I'm not a scientists or physicist but I'm I'm I don't I don't know what the difference is there um my issue sir isn't an EPA issue it's a theft issue okay all right I'm not a law enforcement official so it wouldn't concern me I think she's just bringing the light public information um we have a vote on we have a a a Madam chair yes
may I make a point we have one lease in front of us yes sir we're we're defending and and and tearing down somebody that's not even present here to speak we don't have another lease in our pocket uh Mr Alexander you've been told basically that if there's opportunities in the future we'll look at that but today we have one item on our agenda and I do not want to drag anybody through the mud with without them being here to be able to defend thems
and that's that's my comment M Madam chair thank you all right I've allowed public comments so let me um go come on forward Ed good morning Ed KBW 146 Bon State Circle um first off Mr command if I'm I'm wrong chairman if I'm wrong I'm wrong but I believe when you recuse recuse yourself you recuse yourself from all speaking about the
project Mr Alexander okay but he did not recuse himself Oh I thought he just did a minute ago no he said if if the he said if the chair if I requested him to do so which I will not I stand correct I will leave that on his shoulders I stand corrected then yes sir okay thank you yep commissioner paler my question is for Mr Commando um you said we have a lease but it's not signed is that correct do is that right we we had a lease that was presented to the commission in December um because of
technical issues that lease was not yet signed but it's not been signed by the copper Ro representative it's not been signed by any anyone that okay so what is the validity of that lease it's not valid yet that's why there's an amended lease that's for your consideration it can either be approved or denied today my point is that with a a lease that's not signed by us or them there's no validation of of a direction to take that that is we're
obligated to do so is that correct yes sir all right but remember this board including yourself voted unanimously on that first lease commissioner Alexander V I got it okay yeah thank you Jr we voted unanimously on a lease that was was not accurate
nor did any of us myself included know that there were other interested parties in the property we weren't not we were not made privy to that information by staff a constituent brought that information to me and I had to go behind and read the contract to find out that there was no out in the contract for the county so that's that's where we're at on the contct say the lease was inaccurate I don't know that that's a true
statement I mean it was pres it's a state it's a lease that was presented to us if there's an inaccuracy um we we were supposed to address that when those leases come in front of us at the time that lease came in front of us in December this is February um commissioner paleria recognized I voted on what was before me and that was it so I I don't think that that everything was on the table at that time that I feel like should have been any possible interested parties so be to
be clear that's what I voted for all that I was presented nothing else okay all right all right uh we have a motion in a second all in favor say I I I any opposed like sign I I motion passes 3 to2 um any further General discussion on Port Authority items all right here hearing none we will
close and we will um close the Port Authority meeting and reconvene the BCC meeting presentations going into presentations um first if we can have uh Brett Peterson up from the Rotary Club of Crescent City thank you gentlemen for your um presentation thank you good morning Brett
Peterson 3:15 Chestnut Street good morning good morning roarian I know all of you well this morning we'd like to recognize somebody who's done so much for our community uh and has decided to uh recently step back just a little bit and although that's kind of disappointed because we depend on him uh uh for for helping us out in the community uh we we want to recognize them in a our appreciation for what he has done and
I'm talking about Larry Harvey uh and for the the Rotary Club of Crescent City he has been the MC for the parade for many years he has done the cooking for the uh swine and wine and uh this Saturday we're having uh uh we'll be helping out cooking with the um Wild Game Feast and uh Larry has been cooking for them for many many years so for rotary he's done so much probably a lot
I don't know everyone knows Larry has uh helped people raise money with uh his famous pork butts and uh you know it's not only rotary it's helping the Community Helping not only service organizations but uh Community groups churches and so on Larry has been there front and center helping people out and uh I have them on Facebook and it's often uh somebody hey I've got somebody has a I have a refrigerator does somebody need a
refrigerator um so Larry is always looking out for his community for his fellow man and uh he really stands up with the rotary motto of service above self and we'd like to take uh This Moment our clubs here locally to recognize Larry Harvey with a plaque and it reads Spirit of service president's Awards of Excellence presented to Larry Harvey for the many years of extraord ordinary efforts helping the Rotary Club
of Crescent City raise scholarship funds for Des deserving kids and Larry we want to thank you a littleit so while he's shaking hands we have all the Rotary Club represented here in putham county and he
obviously has touched every one of those along with many people in the community so thank you Larry and uh we'll get a picture you guys come on up absolutely I know how to move I know how to move oh I gotta move by Linda yep there we go I'm good no I'm good thank you no you're you're
fine hey before yall leave I do want to say something here my faith plays a major role in my life as you well
know and what started me on this journey was two things one at hunting camp uh poor guys couldn't cook out there worth a darn and I wasn't going to I wasn't going to the local place to fast food joint so I so I started cooking and I enjoy cooking and it takes my mind off of a lot of things often say cooking pork butts at 3: in the morning they don't complain about taxes or roads or drainage or nothing like W you and I've been there we've done it another
thing that started me was a gentleman called me one day um Ed Maron from my church he said are you home and I said yes and he said I'll be there in 10 minutes and he pulls in my yard with a pull behind cooker this was 20 years ago and he said he felt led of the Lord that I was to get a cooker and start cooking for people I did not know what that meant but hey I'm a guy when somebody pulls
in the yard with a roll pull behind cooker I was very much appreciative of that and I've learned to cook and it is a it is a it's a service that I can provide I never could write the big checks I couldn't do that I didn't have the finances for that but I could provide my service and I could provide my talents that God gave me and I'm thankful that this community and I say that as much as I possibly can allows people to recreate themselves all the time and you can
always hit that start over button and recreate yourself and move forward so thank you all so much for everything I mean very good um I'm going to take a point of order um I have K Tucker a local resident would like to speak for just a few minutes
good morning good morning hey Tucker 585 Stokes Landing Road Paca I'm here representing pan Baptist Church on and I just put a p a mint in my mouth I'm sorry um on the 22nd which is a week from Saturday we are having a Heritage Day celebration and um as many of you probably already know Billy Graham was baptized and ordained through panal bapti church and um we just want
to celebrate that we did recently receive a historical plaque from the state of Florida Division of historic preservation and um we're just celebrating that Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is going to be there we're really excited about that um Rory Graham and Will Graham both are going to be there uh dinner on the grounds it's all free uh we'd like to invite everybody listen there's nothing better than a southern baptist uh
dinner on the ground my goodness so um fried chicken tomato I well I can see it now yeah it's it's going to be um chicken and rice and chicken pop pie and yeah you know just it'll be good it'll be good it'll be good so really look forward to seeing everybody there we're going to be doing tours of the um old church and uh there's going to be games for the kids so lots of stuff going on and what time did you say it's from 10: to 2: okay on the 22nd all right well thank you
for the invite yes absolutely can I pass yep thank you I'm looking for dinner on the grounds I'm telling you Thank you you're right about that um before we go into Planning and Development um we're going to take a few minutes of recess five minutes
e e
that's right you're on the back side of the lake I've had more e
meeting thank you um we have in front of us the evaluation and appraisal report which is Planning and Development public
hearing thank you madam chair good morning Commissioners for the record Zachary Baker planning and development services uh today we today we hope to uh adopt uh ordinance 2025 004 um which is codifying the comprehensive plan text amendment that was done based off of the annual or evaluation and appraisal report every seven years I'd like to introduce consultant Robert Jordan with the
northeast Florida Regional Council to take us through the summary of our changes good morning Robert morning members of the commission uh Robert Jordan uh Regional planner Northeast Florida Regional Council and as Zach was indicating uh we began working on this uh project uh to assist the county with updates to their comprehensive plan to reflect the statutory changes required every seven years there's a process called the evaluation review process all communities have to go through it every seven years to make sure
your comprehensive plan reflects the most recent statutory changes we began the process in July I believe is when the contract began and we trans uh there was a vote to transmit in October um it was transmitted to Florida commerce which is the state land use planning agency and other review agencies as well uh we received no comments or objections for any of the review agencies so we're up to to uh vote for we're here for the adoption I'm going to just briefly kind of go through uh some of those
changes because we have new members that were not here during the trans midle stage um so the major proposed changes of the first one uh was the update to the planning time frame all comprehensive plans have to have a planning time frame recent uh legislation pushed it to 20year time frames and so we updated the planning time frame for the comprehensive plan to 2045 uh so that's within the name and that would be the reference to the comprehensive plan going forward if this is
adopted uh in regards to text and statutory change references statutory changes um beginning on page 74 of your packet that's the first big one that's the affordable housing there was a bill passed about I think two years ago now uh the live local act um and there it was a it was a bunch of things that went into this law that uh addressed affordable housing uh some preemption of Municipal and local governments uh the portion
of the text that's on that page is referring to the local governing body so the board of County Commissioners May approve the development of housing that is Affordable and there's a statutory definition to affordability and it's based upon area median income because something affordable here is going to be different than something affordable in Jacksonville um and if it's as long as at least 10% of the unit so that reference to the statute is embedded into that particular policy which is
proposed policy 8.1.9 point3 on page 74 of your packet so that's the first of the statutory changes required uh the next one is on pages 82 and 83 and it's uh it's specifically permitting resiliency facilities it's the state term for Natural Gas Distribution points centers that will be permitted uses in commercial and Industrial land uses so we just we added in
text to those particular land use districts in your comprehensive plan to allow the permitting of resiliency facilities as defined by the statute uh the other the next one is on page 86 this already was allowed in your comprehensive plan um and if I'm going too fast I do apologize so you're fine okay um on page 86 uh this is solar facilities you already are allow solar facilities as a permitted use in your agricultural District
but we wanted to reference the statute where we put in the statutory definition of solar facilities that way you're kind of covering yourself within that that um within that policy but it was already allowed but that just covers the state definition um and then there was a couple of changes that happened uh with what was called Bill 1379 which was addressing sanitary sewage development and and developments in what's called The Basin management action
plans or B Maps which are defined as basins of major rivers and tributaries that have an abnormally high level of nutrients and nitrogen that have been deter determined and the lower St John's and the akaha were both Bas and management action areas that were in the county a little bit of aaaha in the southwestern portion of the county um the sanitary sewage there's a policy that was put in uh and it's on
page 138 it's a new objective D 1.7 an Associated policies uh the county is right now exempt from do uh from carrying forward this requirement regarding uh sanitary sewage development in specific to uh uh to that particular legislation because you all are in a rural area of opportunity but that's not permanent that's up through 2028 it could be extended so we just put in placeholder
tax it literally is just saying we will follow this if it changes it's really what it just CES on so there's nothing that the policy that's proposed is not holding the county to anything it's just placeholder text and then further on in Pages uh 180 I think page 180 that is the we proposed the table of projects uh that were listed by the Florida Department of Environmental protection as well as local information from the planning staff here that
addressed uh these baps that that's required by that statutory change as well so that was that was put into Capital Improvements element as an appendix um so those are the the major statutory changes that have happened since we have some other proposed changes that went in as well to reflect local input some wording changes in the uh uh future land element that are on
page 79 and 85 and then there's also um changes with updates to the county water supply facility work plan all communities within the St John's River Water Management District are considered Water Resource caution areas so they have to have a water res a water supply facility work plan and the county does but you have to update it every so often when the regional water supply plan from the Water Management District gets updated so we have an 18 month so the regional water supply plan was updated in December
of 2023 so 18 months is June of this year um and so we're just updating uh reflecting the data in that Regional water supply plan and any updates to policies within that water supply plan and that is beginning on page 4142 uh is the actual County Water Supply plan the major changes are reflecting the water demand numbers and population projection numbers within the regional water supply plan uh we did also update some of the
maps to address the future land news map series uh the last update was 2021 so not all of them needed to be updated but just to reflect more recent changes to data um to reflect the statutory required maps that need to be within your map series and the county also provided the most recent Capital Improvements Plan before transmitt uh in October to be included as an appendix to the Capital Improvements elements just so that you're Capital Improvements element is referencing your most recent
Capital Improvements plan so those are some some of the major changes that have happened uh since then uh we as I said we didn't receive any comments or objections uh so we we haven't made really any changes since October um so it's ready to adopt based upon what those changes were what was transmitted in October thank you this was our second reading commissioner Harvey thank you madam chair I'm glad you're at the walk real quick Robert on page 145 um I
think down at the bottom you've got cyber Lake Oaks I think you meant to say Silver Lake Oaks wouldn't that be correct commissioner P I think that would be um oh yeah you just got a a V and then there's two I know there's two private ones out in West putam one one Jr Mr Grimes I'm sorry one um across from Lady Slipper Lake there's one and
then there's one down by Aquilla in a mobile home park on 21 down there the one in aquaa Is Ours that's Paradise Point is uh belongs to the county I'm not sure about the one across from Lady Slipper Lake but the one that across that's a private one that feeds those homes down there but I'm not those are the only two I that I know of and I don't see them listed on here um the other one we just took over the the
um St John's Harbor St John's Harbor one so I thought I saw it on there it's the very first one okay yeah I think that's one needs to go be changed to the county at that point okay that make sense yeah I think how this is organized is based on on the cup numbers but we can we can reference that it is County owned yeah because it's specifically it's listed as a small Supply system on the region water supply plan with the cup permit so it's
just addressing the size that this this table is just addressing the size is it's the the the point of this document is just to make sure you all can meet the the the water allocated within your county and that's not just you all have a cup permit for your water surface areas but also cup permits for private develop private entities as well including uh that's why there's this fgua list that doesn't have cut permits they're so small but they're still being listed in there so we definitely can make that because these uh these ones that don't have cup numbers we could definitely ensure
that those are um based on what information you guys have to reflect Robert thank you and Zach if you will Madam chair while I still have the floor I want to thank Zach um and also want to thank Mr Helms was on the phone with them yesterday going over some not too many pages but a few comments that I had if I can direct your attention uh Commissioners to page 65 item three a concern I had was the following
uses shall be permitted shall not be permitted in special flood hazards just keep in mind that Robert you probably understand this too the flood maps change constantly and you might not be in a flood zone now but we could be in certain areas so we need to be mindful of that going into the future if we have something there um that we know is going to come come to pass that was just a conern concern of mine I also want to point out on page 73 on
Item B um and you'll remember for some of the new Commissioners you might not but this came to me around the time when I was at the Regional Council uh water management made a presentation about the properties just north of of U Lady Slipper Lake area and um how how much of a water recharge they were and Zach you and I went over that yesterday
we probably can't put an overlay on that for water recharge but like you said there might be some um there might be something this board or a future board can do to minimize the U concrete well you I think you can explain it better what why don't you give a stab at it so the idea is to try to keep as much natural owned property as we can by by allowing certain thing sure so um Madam
chair and the rest of the commission what Mr Excuse me commissioner Harvey and I discussed yesterday in part was potentially the um the establishment of either an overlay or an an amendment to both our comprehensive plan and Land Development code which would decrease the impervious surfaces allowed on properties that are within the high Aquifer recharge area um an Essence that would lower the amount of development
that could occur on those properties and therefore leave more area open to for water to permeate back into the aquifer uh but it would be a pretty large undertaking because it would require excuse me extensive modific well modifications to both our comprehensive plan and our Land Development code both of those instruments are used to enforce and apply Land Development regulations and and my concern there Commissioners and
staff is simply this those lots were developed way before any land regulations or ever there so I go around and I what from what I've been told that this area is the most planted undeveloped area in Florida and and maybe that's true or maybe it's not true but you've got thousands of 75 by 125 Lots out there now the chances of we'll ever see that build out probably will never happen but it could happen
somebody could and then we would see what we see in my neighborhood and you know let's be honest here my well is not that far from my neighbor's septic so when you start looking at you know if we're going to have that throughout here there might be some possibility to save that water recharge area if it's that important and that's what I wanted to bring up so thank you thank you very much and then on page 85 commissioner Wilkinson and I on item 9B were're up
at the Regional Council this week and the gentleman from the Navy was there um and he pretty much was talking about I raised the question about Hog Island for those of you that remember when we had to PUD come before us on Hog Island um and the Navy showed up and kind of were against it and I pretty much said why weren't you there beforehand why didn't you come to us and give us something but we found out something very
interesting uh last week last Thursday in Jacksonville that these military zones the Navy is mitigate well I say the Navy let's just say the armed forces are mitigating those uses by saying hey so and so don't build a mother-in-law Suite we'll pay you not to do this so there's some incentiv that the armed forces are doing that even though it's nice to say you know no fly zones
and all that they have their own mitigation that we need to be mindful of so Zach I appreciate again yesterday you and Mr Helms taking my call I I really think this document's great uh it's always going to be a living document no doubt about that but um we're we're pretty good shape I think with this document and um again thank you for taking time with me yesterday to go through Page by page I told you a lot more pages I was just leading you on that's all but thank you madam chair for allowing me to
make those comments okay this is a public hearing is there anybody who would like to speak regarding this evaluation and appraisal report all right hearing none we'll come back to the commission Madam chair like to make a motion to approve putam County ordinance number 2025-the of plan of putham County Florida updating statuto Florida administrative code and government agency references providing for the development of
affordable housing requiring the county to comply with sanitary sewer Provisions if exceptions change adopts a list of projects in the bmap providing for conflicts providing for direction to the codifier providing for severability and providing for an effective date thank you for reading that into the record um is there a second second proper motion and proper second all in favor say I I I any opposed like sign thank you
excuse me um consent agenda items public comment on consent 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 this is public comment on consent agenda items only do we have any public comment cards is there anyone in the audience who wants to speak on consent agenda items all right Commissioners um Madam chair I'd like to make a motion that we approve items a b and c well I was going to make sure nobody had anything to pull commission Alexander do you have anything to pull no ma'am I do not commissioner newold nothing to pull commissioner peler I have nothing commissioner um what's your name yeah Harvey obviously I don't so
thank you all right thank you go ahead I make a motion that we approve consent agenda items a b and c we have a proper motion second and a second any further discussion all in favor say I I I thank you all right moving into new business we have um a couple things on our new business items um again this is also public comment is there any public comment on new business items before we step into them all
right uh Public Works requests to advertise for a public hearing to vacate a portion of an unnamed Street in Kuka yes please JT Stout morning Commissioners this uh section that is being asked to vacate is unused by the public uh it borders their property I think it's only 15 ft wide their fence and their well currently lies
in this uh right away so because it's not being used we don't have any objection to it being vacated um I believe the power company only wants to be able to have an easement through there which they've already agreed to do and it's already drawn up so we don't have any objections to the vacate all right that's pretty self-explanatory commissioner Harvey thank you madam chair I support this item but I will want to bring to mind that the old anaren hotel is located on this road up before that vacation ad all right um any further discussion
from the board Madam chair this is just permission to advertise for the next meeting for a public hearing okay thank you for clarifying that all right request to advertise so mooved so moveed we have a motion on the floor I second then second all in favor say I I I thank you motion passes to advertise for the um Vacation all right we have an item from the chamber of Commerce regarding tourist development this was
added to your agenda page 222 to 223 good morning ladies good morning I'm Laura pavas president of the putham County Chamber of Commerce and it's absolutely my pleasure to introduce you today to Kimberly Morgan our new vice president of Tourism who's joined us uh last week we're very excited to have her on the team she brings over 30 years of regional tourism experience to um to our County so this is wonderful um I'm going to give her the floor to speak uh
in just a moment to introduce her to you all but we are going to go ahead and PLL our emergency action item we have resolved it internally thank you all for letting me uh represent putam County um with the tourism and destination marketing efforts I'm looking forward to digging in and and really uh telling the great stories that there are here in puam County all right so that item was pulled
is there um yeah welcome to putam County yes we appreciate you and we look forward to the future of putham County thank you um one other item that's not on your agenda but we do have Andrew from Northeast Florida Regional Council who would like to present legislative priorities on behalf of the council thank you madam chair my name is a copia the senior resiliency planner with the northeast Florida Regional Council and I've come to present
you with the 2025 Northeast Florida Regional Council legislative priorities as adopted by our board of directors so if you would I have copies for each commissioner and a copy for the record okay if you'll just hand them to Ashley and let her and then that way you can fin begin your presentation oh that was it okay all right I if there was anything you need to talk about that's good enough all right good enough all right moving on yes
sir thank you public comment on miscellaneous items I've already read this before do we have any comment cards on miscellaneous items thank you thank you thank you all right we have Cohen for blue crab Productions who would like to speak
good morning good morning commission morning Clerk and administrators my name is Kayu and uh some of you may not know me um I'm the editor of the um dancing M Mastadon in North Paca a local magazine I also work for uh the blue crab prod uction as a business
programmer and essentially uh what I've come up with is a program for um putam County that actually does two things I'm not sure if you all are aware that according to the Florida Department of Education that uh 42% of our students are proficient um on level proficient are exemplary in reading
so um the program that I came up with for putam County essentially addresses that um essentially when I say 42% I mean 58% of our elementary school students are performing below grade level and that's going to be an issue for us uh if our students aren't able to proficiently read they won't be able to um um handle uh Port Port information are they won't be able to to to
read these documents so um the schools are doing their job the teachers are doing their job um there needs to be a community response to encourage our children to um to actually make that extra effort because we're battling the digital um entertainment we're D battling social media uh and uh rewarding them for taking that extra
effort for um learning actually taking the time to as a group so I came up with the blue crab book Rewards program and I just wanted the opportunity to uh to to ask for your support and some type of uh funding
for this program we have about um 5,825 students according to uh putam County I I work with the the district on these numbers um out of those 5,825 students I we've broken them down and determined according to their accelerated reading scores
that roughly between 15 and 20% of them actually meet their their reading scores at their individual schools and we're talking about oh that my time uh we're talking about uh Middleton Bernie Melrose Jenkins AAA B Browning Pierce Kelly Smith children Reading Center Mosley melon Learning Center and James a long so we roughly just went through all the schools looked at
their scores how many PE how how many of them actually complete their their reading goals and determine that our program could uh create create some type of initiative for about 1,200 students who will actually complete their goals and um what makes it a business program is if you remember the booket program which uh I want to say two decades ago was a program that helped my generation uh encouraged
us to want to to read we essentially pulled that program dust it off and said okay instead of uh we'll reward our students and instead of giving the funds to or having our students go to a national um business like a Pizza Hut or so um will actually bring in the local businesses so the students will go to a local business in Crescent City like three bananas are here
in Palaca they'll go to Pizza Boys or you know um whoow or uh we have JB wings that signed on um and in Melrose their local businesses so I'm just here to actually request uh the opportunity for uh your support for this program and you mentioned funding you're you're requesting funding yes um well essentially our the total program is 12 ,000 for all 1,200 students
um we've broken It Up by municipality um by the city of Paca Crescent City interlockin Melrose Hawthorne and San Mato essentially I'm coming to you um to to for you to cover the cities of uh Hawthorne and Sano if that will be possible and then I'll be making the other inquiry request at the other that funding request uh I I I actually need
the information on how to do those things how to how to seek that funding request I wasn't aware of the procedure for how to do so okay and so have you been working with the school district I have I mean I'm not meaning just to get the information I mean have you been working with them as far as their existing programs um how how how would I describe this so along with the officials to get the the data we
came up with this um aside are this will be a a outside a outside initiative okay so we are I know that in this County we have the baby build baby brain Builders program we also have the 21st century after I just made some notes I have three grandchildren in school and so I'm very well aware of what's available and and can we all we all could use help with
reading trust me um but we have the baby bu baby brain Builders which is the nonprofit in putham we also have the 21st century which is an after school program and I know for my granddaughters after that's when they're reading 30 minutes a day every day they stay after school they read they get tutored and then they might have some play time they also of course we have the putam Education Foundation which is a good program as well in a nonprofit We have not funded any of those programs here in putam at this board we have not done that in the past right so um um
that's my comments that I have at this point commissioner Alexander thank you for coming out I've known for probably a year year and a half um the magazine that he does produce the dancing Mas on there's a copy on my desk you guys may have seen it when you're in there so I've seen the quality of the work that he can produce um I applaud you for engaging in this community especially being as new to the community as you are um I would like to learn more about the program how you plan on engaging uh is
your entire ask the $112,000 or we going to be respon you're asking for a portion of it for just hathorn and Sano so um I I have some questions but I've seen what you can do so you know I'm open to listen okay all right thank you for your pres is there are there any other questions for the presenter all right any comments well I just pick you back on Josh i' I'd like to uh learn a little bit more I I like the idea of an outside entity
working with the school system um anything complimentary to help our kids read my this is my wife's specialty um we need more help here than than we know so get us some more information you know we'll look at it again in the future okay thank you very much thank you Commissioners thank you administrator all right uh moving down into our our um agenda are there any appointments starting with commissioner
Alexander Mr Alex were you your there you um one appointment uh Matt Williams for the zoning board the at large position do I oh there it is okay yep yeah we need we move County I believe Matt Williams all right we have a motion
for Matt Williams says at large for Zoning Board of adjustment as our second second second um any discussion by the board all in favor say I I I I all right Mr commissioner Alexander do you have any further no ma'am all right Chris newal um also for Zoning Board of adjustments I'd like to um nominate Dan Dodge from Crescent City for district one Dan Dodge like Dodge the pick truck like Dodge the pickup truck all right that does not need
a motion um commissioner pelier I had one earlier but did Abandoned Ship so I have nothing do what I had one earlier and she oh okay and she abandoned ship on have nothing Excuse me yes sir the uh the appointment I wanted to make was for the Planning Commission not the zboa okay all right so scratch that Matt Williams is not going to be appointed to the zoning Board of adjustments so you're making a motion uh yes ma'am I'd like to nominate Matt Matt Williams
for the atlarge position on the Planning Commission all right thank you second I'll second that second all in favor say I I I I I all right Matt Williams at large for the Planning Commission anything else commissioner Alexander no ma'am I'm done I'm ready to go eat commissioner Harvey I have none M and I have none all right so that gets us through our appointments um I'm going to go ahead before we go into other comments and move down to my comments on commissioner comments
regarding the legislative request I guess I could have put this under new business but um basically uh let me find my paperwork we have received a request from um some leaders in the community regarding um asking the state for a feasibility study in the amount of $2 million um for engineering projects for the expansion of water and sewer along US Highway 17 from the city of
Palaca limits which is at the intersection at 17 and 100 North to the Clay putam County Line so as you guys know our our county is growing and so this is just a request from um some leaders on the community to see if the state would be willing to invest in a um into this study for us and the results of the study would provide a road map for the county to establish safe potable water water as well as efficient sewer services to that area and so we've already established
our legislative priorities so this is a request coming um to the board and um to add it to our legislative priorities and I wouldn't have done that without the board's thought process and approval so um commissioner Harvey Madam chair thank you for bringing this up I think that's badly needed and I think if it comes to us from leaders of our community I think it it's a good push um I mean as you well know we just put money into
that other water facility that was basically um given to us so I think this is a good push for us to be able to serve the residents of of North putton County in that area so I applaud you and I support this is that a motion I don't know that I necessarily need a motion I just need wave support really in support is everybody good okay thank you all right uh clerk Reynolds thank you madam chair and Commissioners uh good morning Commissioners um just real quick wanted to give an update
on status of the audit of last Financial last fiscal year um spoke with the Auditors last week um the board financials have been closed out um so all the information the as400 should be accurate for last year um and they are planning to get us draft um audit figures um the first couple of weeks in March um the end goal to be able to issue the final financial statements is March 31st so and they said they feel confident about that we were the first client of theirs to get the the
trial balance numbers and everything for the board over to them so we beat several other bigger counties so we were we were first in and hopefully we'll be first out they they said they felt very confident about that so yeah and how are your Renovations going at your um customer service I was there yesterday had to apply for a passport so I see your see the issues that you have mentioned um I just spoke with uh Julie mlan project special project manager about that um yesterday she was giving us a short update she's kind of
broken that um project up into four phases she's still working with Joe cuner to get the um previous plans that we kind of brought the draft idea in front of the board back when the board approved it um and um once those plans are finalized we'll be turning them into planning in owning to be able to start pulling permits on that but hopefully phase one will be bathrooms the bathroom upgrades so she's got it she's got it laid out very well and she's done done a great job so very appreciative of of her
for doing that for us okay do you have any other comments no ma'am that's it are there any questions for clerk Reynolds all right County attorney Rich Commando I don't have anything Madam chair thank you thank you County Administrator yes ma'am mam chair thank you I just one quick comment honestly it's uh I was going the piggyback on the I love Harvey uh present ation this morning and uh and for a simple fact is
you know U I believe our Rotary Club was a sponsor of the new Rotary Club in interlocking and uh you know one of the first things that I was invited to when I came to putno County was a meeting at The Rotary Club uh by commissioner Harvey and so uh that was a nice opportunity to get to see the folks and meet the folks that we were responsible for helping get started was fantastic you know and when you talk about Public Service you know you see the cooker being pulled around town about
commissioner working on behalf of puel County he does do a lot of cooking uh he does a lot of cooking for folks here in puam County but if you ain't careful he's going to drag you to other putam counties as well uh I guess commissioner was what four years ago we uh went to putam County Georgia and uh and did a Cookoff uh against some folks up in putam countyia Georgia and uh so uh then before anybody goes and looks yes I took a vacation day for that and we lost the
cook off no no sir we didn't lose we were raw um you know when the uh the thing that that I remember most other than the fact that they had their local house rep as the judge so the fix was in uh commissioner Harvey um we go out of town to just the two of us and he hits the sack about 7:00 at night and so uh you know you're kind of left to the F for yourself and then he gets up at 4:30 in the morning and we go to start a cooker
at 6:00 a.m. in the morning it was 20° and the cooker had a thermostat that wouldn't start until it reached 32 and so we spent three hours out in the cold just hanging out visiting and uh no in all seriousness you know uh commissioner Hart has done tremendous things for this community and he's very well respected and uh you know and I appreciate the things that I've got to do with you commissioner Harvey and uh uh and yes that trip to putner County Georgia was one of the highlights and I appreciate the uh the opportunity to do
that and I really do appreciate the hard work that you put into this community and as County Administrator doesn't go unnoticed by my staff myself or the citizens of hno County so welld deserved sir thank you thank you thank you sir all right commissioner comments starting with um commissioner Alexander thank you madam chair I just want to Echo what uh commissioner ER Mr sug said um we're all aware
of Mr Harvey's uh clock it's a little different than the rest of ours but we're all beginning to get used to receiving our updates and our emails at 4:30 4:45 every morning but I want to thank you Larry for what you've done for our community and that award was well deserved thank you yes sir mrone yes ma'am Larry thank you um my father made an app point before I left this morning to he wanted to let you know he was disappointed he couldn't be
here to represent as as well he he also appreciates everything you do your support for rotary and the community and all that jazz thank you so much um on another note um I continue to get a lot of calls from the community on our Animal Services projects um I know we have positive momentum going there um it would help me out maybe we could get an update at a at a future meeting um there's lots of stuff you know positive stuff going on but it'd be it'd
be good to for the community to have opportunity to to hear a little bit more about that so that's all I have right commissioner paler uh again Larry welld deserved u i I know about those early mornings and all that kind of stuff I got that t-shirt perhaps sha would have had a better shot at winning that in puam County Georgia if you had taken some Waltz barbecue sauce that could have been the the the edge that would needed to take you over the top um on all serious um you know I love to to
brag on our folks when when I have that experience and I've had another one this past week with Mr Baker um took him out to a gentleman's house that had a property line setback issue and um he did an excellent job explaining and taking care of the gentleman and just exemplary service and uh the man was after you drove off Zach he was just about ready to turn a cartwheel because you had made his dreams come true told him he could build what he wanted to
build there so I love to brag on our folks when when things are really really good and that's he's he's an asset to putam county for sure thank you thank you commissioner commissioner Harvey thank you madam chair um thank you for all the accolades and but I've learned from people up here and and um I just go where I'm needed you know one thing I always say about putam County it's one of the most gious counties I've ever seen in my life I've only lived here actually so I don't know of any other place but there's something going on
every weekend to help somebody who's in need and um this this community really shows out for that and uh there's plenty of opportunities to help in any in any Arena that you want to go to I did uh attend the uh Florida Association of County Tech Summit down noala Mr Richie was with me down there and Jacob attended also I was able to put on a u riveting I would say uh conversation about Ai and what's going to take place in
the future and gave some of my um yes my 445 emails um after I run them through chat GPT so um there's things that and I'm not advocating doing that what I'm trying to say is it's I think AI has made me a better Communicator in getting my point across and I think staff sees that when that comes across and and plus my wife doesn't read it and go you need to change this whole thing CU it doesn't make
sense um so it's helped me a lot be able to communicate better uh we're going to be looking forward to the future AI coming um it's going to happen but I don't think it's something to be scared of I think it's something we can Embrace and use as we choose to use it and not as we're forced to use it so uh but it was a good Tech conference and U look forward to uh rural days is coming up and we're getting prepared for that so look forward to anytime we can get
out and promote putam County um that's what I love to do the most and I think that's our biggest job is to do that because if we're not telling our story somebody else is and it might not be the story we want to be told so Madam chair that's the end of my comments and thank you very much well well said um and also I congratulate you on your on your plaque and and your achievements that you've done in the community you certain led by example and I think that's um speaks for itself I want to thank the um
Northeast Florida Regional Council for coming up and sharing the legislative priorities one of the things that's most important to us is our future and that includes our infrastructure and so in this uh one of their legislative priorities is of course to support our rural County for the scrap and scop grants and other programs focused on transportation and in putham county that it's a big need for putam and we generally generally are usually we're we're we're blessed with getting some kind of a grant and this
last year it was huge in in your district and so without those grants our local tax dollars would really it it would be it would be hard for us so uh we appreciate um the northeast Florida Regional Council making that a priority for their legislative um as they go through the state so I thank you um on update on Animal Services I will say there was an adoption event this weekend at Petsense I saw it myself and um I would like to also get an update on that and I believe um Mr Grimes is going to come back and give us an update
for the paramedicine program and also some fire rescue so maybe we can add that to the next agenda um with that I think we can adjourn anything else to come before the the board or Deputy administrators do you have anything all right thank you this meeting is a jour
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