items. Any public comment on port authority items? Madam clerk, do you have any cards on port authority? Okay. All right. Any general discussion from the board? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um, Mr. Settlement, if you would.
Uh this past week, Good morning. Good morning. This past week, I made a uh trip out to the port to uh put some um personal eyes on what's been done or not done out there. Okay. And um Mr. Sullivan and I um he showed
me the part that uh our tenant was supposed to have cleaned up and in agreement. He has not tidied it up quite like he should have. Are we in agreement there? It has not been completed. That is correct, sir. As of that day, it could be now, but this was last week. Anyhow, I just want
my fellow board members to be aware of what is happening out there or not happening out there as to what our agreement was with our tenant. And uh I encourage you to have a look and see. I mean that was part of the deal. That was part of what the man said he would do and take care
of and he is not done. And I understand he's it's a work environment. It's construction site environment but it just does not look good. It it's just not tidy. Um it's disarray everywhere of of the materials out there. the stuff of
ours that he was going to clean up or do away with or use or just just clean it up. It's just not there yet. Are we in grant sen? Certainly. Okay. Anyhow, I would encourage my colleagues to throw some eyes on that yourself.
Pardon? I've already been out there. Have you? Well, before uh his contract renews, I would like to see that cleaned up and tidied up. Okay. To look in ship shape. All right. Okay. And we're just so we're clear, we're talking not all the piles,
but the pile of the debris that's left over, which was concrete that was ours that he inherited when he took use of the property that he was supposed to do away with, clean up, whatever it was. Okay. But it just it doesn't look that way right now and it needs to.
Okay. All right. Commissioner Alexander, you're recognized. Make sure your mic's on. Just to be clear, are we referring to the same debris that was to be removed
in lie of his deposit at the initiation of this contract? That's the way I interpreted it. So if we hadn't renewed that contract, he would have been in violation because he had not removed the the concrete as
part of his initial contract. So he did not fulfill his obligation in the first part of the contract. That sounds like a legal question, but in my mind, yes. Okay. And this is the same concrete that I asked Mr. Sullivan about at the last port meeting that he said had been
removed. I asked you twice. You did? And you told me yes. To my understanding, my knowledge at that time it had been removed. Okay. Okay. So, we removed or we renewed a contract
which was questionable in my eyes from the beginning for a contractor who was in violation of the initial contract. We did not follow the covenants of the contract and renewed it outside of the 90 days uh that was supposed to be presented to the
board and he didn't follow through and remove and uh Mr. Svin told me it had been removed and told us and we renewed it based on Mr. Sullivan's words. Okay. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page here. Commissioner Harvey, are are you are you
I'm done. Okay. Commissioner Harvey, you're recognized. Thank you. Um Mr. Commando, based on this information, can we um get with the contractor and basically say we have some concerns? We realize that things
maybe weren't done, but give them a timeline to clean it up or I mean, I don't know what the answer is, but we need to do something. I I would imagine, you know, yes, you can do that. I mean, you have a lot of discretion within your
kind of rights as the landlord in the situation to ensure that they're that your tenant is complying with the provisions of the lease. Okay. Any other general discussion? All right, we'll close the port
authority meeting and reconvene the BOCC. Um, Miss um, Belrin from Ride Solutions for your presentation and Mr. Boyd Thompson. Thank you guys for being here today.
Thank you. and giving us an update. It's our presentation here. This is not it. Thank you. Where is it? You sure it's this one right here? Okay, thank you.
Mr. Okay, we will. Thank you. Thank you, sir. And and Mr. Mr. Thompson, whatever you're giving to us, we need you to give one copy to the chair, to the clerk, please. Good morning. Good morning.
I'm here with Mr. Boy Thompson, our executive director, and we want to thank you for having us here to give you an update on our transportation service for the county. Before we go into the update, I really would like to reintroduce ourselves. We
are the community transportation coordinator for the county established under chapter 427 of the Florida statutes that outlines provisions for special transportation and communications services within the
state. It's very important to highlight uh what 427.011 011 refers as coordination which is the means of to arrange the provisions of transportation services to the transportation disadvantage in a
manner that is cost-effective, efficient and reduces fragmentation and we'll talk a little bit more about that at the end. We were established in 1984 as Arc Transit and then became Right Solution in 1998.
So, we're actually into our 40th anniversary. Uh, and I think it's very interesting that this is the year in which we are working on a project to actually redesign and upgrade our boss depot. Um,
we should be actually finalizing the contract for design towards the end of this month and hopefully break ground at the beginning of 1986. This is a 2 point 2.1
$2.1 million appropriation from 2023 uh endorsed by former representative Bobby Payne. Uh, I would like to take a couple of minutes today to thank one person from the county's engineering staff,
Scott Nolles, that I think he's been hiding someplace back there, which has he actually has been very supportive in terms of helping us put together the request for qualification through FOT and getting everything, you know, uh,
assessed from a technical standpoint. Um up to December of 2023, we were actually uh providing service for what we call our incount flex services and palaka city route. Unfortunately, this service had to be
discontinued due to some uh extreme challenging situation regarding funding. During that time frame up to December of 2023, we were actually providing service to over 2,000 discrete individuals
in the county. And that was the highest penetration rate in the entire state for rural counties. And this data can be actually uh found in the CTD website AO reports.
Um after we discontinued that service the number of individuals being supported significantly was reduced to less than 700 individuals. Um, currently
we started uh supporting a very limited service of Palaka city route back in April of 2025 through coordination with Palaka city uh officials. And why are we here today? We're here
today to thank the support of the BOCC, the city officials. Via the work of our lobbyist in Tallahassee, we have been able to secure a non-recurring funding of $1.2 million to reestablish the
service previously affected. And thank you all. We do really appreciate it. Those letters of support from the BOCC, from Palaka city officials, Waka Crescent City really help beef up the appropriation.
What services are we currently providing? We provide intercity service operating 365 days a year under a 5311 FFTA grant which is part of the Greyhound network. We service Palaka St.
Augustine and Gainesville daily 365 days a week and Palaka to Jacksonville. Most of these trips are really people that go to either Gainesville and St. Augustine from Paladka
to work and for medical services. In the case of Jacksonville, it's the same also connecting into Greyhound. The main depot of uh of uh Greyhound uh is in Jacksonville and they connect there
with uh Greyhound and also with JTA services out of across the street out of Lava. We have our Orange Park commuter service operating five days a week. And this service has been in in place since the 1990s. Am I correct, boy? Yeah. Uh,
this connects with Orange Park in Orange Park, excuse me, with JTA. So, there's connectivity between Pondam County and and Dubal and Clay. Um, and we also support water management employees that
come into Paladka for work. our demand response services which is really our dialer right service uh within paraka uh city limits is a five days a week and we have limited incount demand response
service uh when I mean limited it's um only 16% of our trips are for people that do not reside within palatka city limits but 85% of our population
it's out there not really within Palarka. So that actually places in context the need to reestablish those services um this year. What are these new services that we are
not really new? We're going to restart again. Upon receipt of the approved grant contract from FOT, the following services will be resumed. Palaka city route will start providing services from
7:15 in the morning until 5:30 in the afternoon five days a week. Um we will be able to provide five days a week full day service whereas in the past it was only Monday, Wednesday and Friday full day, Tuesdays and Thursdays we were only
able to provide half day service. The gross county express will be reestablished five days a week. This is the service that goes from Palatka to Interlac and returns back to Paladka,
crosses over. That's why we call the cross county express and then uh continues providing service into South Potnam. So there we actually have two vehicles. They both start in Pala. One goes west, the other one heads
south. And it connects in Satsuma with our South Potnam feeder which is the loop that goes around 309, crosses over through the Georgetown shortcut and then heads north on State Road 17 corridor.
We connect in Satsuma and then bring people into Paladka. This service is essential and critical for us right now because via this service we were able to connect some of our veterans that reside in South Putham in Palada with our
interc city service heading into Gainesville to be treated at the VA. Unfortunately, since December of 2023, we have seen that some of these uh veterans are not able to secure transportation
and we have cases in which we've known of people hitchhiking into Palaka to be able to board our vehicle going into Gainesville. When these individuals come back from Gainesville, then we have one of our smaller vans that will take them
back home uh into Crescent City, Waka, wherever they reside. We are expecting this service to be resumed by early October 2025. We're just awaiting for FDOT to send us the grants. We do have a challenge and uh we
will appreciate word of mouth um support from from the board in terms of hiring drivers that we need to support this these services. We're right now advertising on uh the newspaper, the local newspaper, on the radio, Facebook,
but word of mouth, if you know of anybody that wants to uh provide more than any more than a job is really provide a service to the community, just send them over to the train station. These funds that we were able to secure are nonrecurring. So they're probably
will last us a year, probably a little bit more than a year. And as probably everybody's well aware, public transportation in rural Florida is crucial for providing mobility, improving health outcomes, boosting
local economies, and enhancing social well-being. Rural areas have limited transportation options making public transit a lifeline for many residents. Um, as per the 2016 Carter study and
Carter is a center for urban transportation research, 67% of Putham County residents are considered transportation dis disadvantage based on the definition of the CTD. That's the center for transportation disadvantage
under FDOT. The need to develop a strategy to ensure that the service is sustainable in the future is critical. These are some of the strategies we are developing to ensure this sustainability. First, we are proposing the creation of
a task force with the the OC, that's where we're here, the city of Palatka and the Chamber of Commerce. We've already met with the chamber to support ongoing lobbying efforts to make the caring appropriation recurring. Um, I
would like to make a point regarding recurring funding here because I was looking at the current budget that was approved by the by the state which is I have it here some places a big budget
and $114 billion. Um, even though this budget was $1.7 billion less than the previous fiscal year, our non-recurring appropriation still made
the cut. But it was really um an appropriation supported by us and by some of the city officials. We need to make sure that this becomes a
total community effort so we can make this appropriation recurring. I I can't imagine why $1.2 million cannot fit within a $114 billion budget in the future. Um we're also proposing a match
strategy to have do using Medicaid and med waiver funds expended in the county as in kind match. Some of the challenges that we have regarding funding is not all of our grants are 100%
uh so we we actually have to find matching uh and transportation is not one of those I would call them sexy type of uh
uh issues that that we can probably find uh organizations that may that may support support us. And last but not least, the strengthening of chapter 427 so that rural cities have the right for first
refusal for transportation disadvantaged dollars allocated for the county. In 2019, as a result of Medicaid reform, um, a large number of rural CDC's were
actually when are actually out of business uh because some of the med most of the Medicaid funds were farmed out to uh private companies. Um, we don't have any we don't have anything against some
of these funds being allocated to private entities, but there's not that much Uber uh presence in Putham County, for example, in Dubal County, Uber is
actually used uh for for Medicaid trips. My sister lives in Orlando and she is picked up at her house by an Uber to take her to the medical appointments. That's not going to happen in Putham County. So, we can provide efficient,
very cost effective transportation. So, if we can get some of those funds being allocated back into rural cities, um that will help sustain our service in the future.
Any questions? Are there any questions for the presenter? I do. Commissioner Harvey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I saw on one of your slides that you stop in Satsuma. Why don't you just continue down to Crescent City? We do with the South Potam feeder. So,
we have CC one and CC2. This is our cross county express begins in Palatka. One vehicle heads west all the way to Interaken. Another vehicle heads south in Satsuma.
Then we have our Sotenham feeder route that starts in Satum Satsuma, loops down 309 south, crosses over Georgetown shortcut, and then comes back north through State Road 17 corridor. These
are the flex routes which are really routes that even though they transit in a specific direction, we flex at the system to actually pick up people outside the main corridor.
All right, my next question is why do we want to continue trying to receive appropriations? We used to just, and correct me if I'm wrong, uh, Boyd, we used to get recurring revenues for transportation disadvantage. So why don't we just go
why don't we ask the legislators to put us in the budget for rural counties to get funds and not worry about appropriations every year. We we do have CTD funds to the tune of $480,000 a year. If we could increase that then the need
for appropriations might go away. There was a uh effort Mr. Boy if you'll step over to the mic. I'm sorry. There was an effort in the legislature this year to establish a rural transit block grant. Uh this was
the first year they've tried that that that failed. Um our need is critical in that we have a year to to make sure that this reoccurs.
Um so you know exploring you know our our third item there which is uh you know trying to get teeth into 427 so that we
can reaccess uh you know Medicaid and there's council on aging funds that have never flowed through the system and head start and that you know there's there's a lot of funing flowing here that could be used
to support the system in terms of building it up so you have the economies of scale to to that you need to run the uh the flex routes. Um we have a year to
make sure that that works. So our initial focus is on uh efforts that are based on Putham County and then beyond
that um statewide efforts. this um uh task number three in terms of getting reoccurring funds. We're we're putting the need for
uh an enforceable chapter 427 in front of Doge uh this next week. So, well, you truly don't have a year. Committee week start in October, right? Which is basically a month and a half away at this point, right? So, you know, session is going to begin
before we know before we know it. So, yeah. So, so just to be clear, your budget is around $2 million. Yeah. 2.3 $2.3 million of which you you you if you don't get the one point, we'll call it three because it's closer to 1.3 from
the state, then you can't operate another year. No, we I mean you can operate the year that you've got, but beyond that point without getting an appropriation or some kind of reoccurring dollars of the tune of 1.3, then you're you have very
limited ability. Right. Right. We in in 2023 were we were serving uh 243 people. We're down to 700 and something now. And those 700 have maybe access to
a third of the transportation that they had in 23. Okay. So, all right. Sounds like that's a bigger discussion we're going to have to have. Yeah. Is there any other questions for the presenter? Well, thank you for giving us an update. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Next, we have Britney Spangler from Episcopal Children's Services for our first quarterly presentation. Good morning, Miss Britney. Good morning. And commissioners, we we asked Miss Britney to come forward and give us a little bit of an update. Um, we the
county funds them just a small portion of $5,000 and so we just want to see what where our money is going. Absolutely. Uh good morning and thank you for having me here. My name is Britney Spangler. I am the associate vice president at Episcopal Children Services.
Just a reminder of who we are. We are a nonprofit that's dedicated to helping underserved children in Northeast and Central Florida to succeed at school and beyond. We provide essential support and guidance to families seeking highquality care and education. And this is our 59th
year that we've laid the foundation for lifelong learning and success one child at a time. Uh one thing that is new since the last time is here is we have refreshed our brand with a new name and logo ECS for kids. So while our look has evolved, our commitment to the community
remains as strong as ever. A few things that we just believe in at ECS for kids is collaboration, integrity, respect, community, learning, and education. So, I am here today. Um, last year I
came in front of you and I asked for a contribution of $5,000 of your 2425 budget to help us meet the matching funds requirement of our program. I was rewarded um awarded in full and I am committed to providing quarterly updates on the services that we provide to
Putnham County. Uh due to receiving the funds in March of 2025, this marks the first quarterly update uh serving as an overview of our full fiscal year of which is July 1st of 2024 through June 30th of 2025.
As a reminder of how your contribution helps, um while most of the money comes, uh from the federal government, they do require us to have a 6% community match for direct services. Uh from there, the Department of Education's Division of Early Learning. They will then match on
a onetoone dollar basis for any funds that we're able to raise. Your contribution of $5,000 brings in approximately $78,333 in federal funds and then matched with the state with additional 5,000 brings
in a total return of investment of $83,333. So these funds are solely used directly for child care costs which are for families who are income eligible working parents um to help meet this requirement.
last year. This is just an overview for Putnham County, what we were able to raise and match contributions um from United Way of St. John's County, the Putinham County Board of County Commissioners, the city of Palatka. So, we had a total return of investment in
federal funds of 282,000 uh one to one match of state funds of 18,000 which brought in a total return on investment of 300,000. So to kind of give you this is where the important stuff is or numbers for this year. Um on average we were able to
serve 776 Putnham County children uh with school readiness services every month and from that 610 of those children on average were from low-income families. The match that we received overall by the county uh provided a year of child
care services for approximately 55 children. and from your match donations alone uh was serving 15 children. The average cost of care that we had to pay out this last year for all ages combined uh for birth through age 13 of
what we serve was $5,41153. We have about uh last year we had 30 child care programs that were contracted for school readiness and 10 of those were family child care homes. We had 476 children that participated in our
voluntary pre kindergarten program, which is a free program for four-year-olds. And we had 23 childcare programs that contracted to serve those children, which includes the Putham County uh school district. Um, and what I'd like to share with this last one is in addition to serving
children, we also um have our childare resource and referral services which not only helps families with education on the different child care programs and opportunities out there. We also help with um community resources, letting
families know what is available for them because a lot of times if the need is there for childare, the need is there also for other community resources. So, uh, in Putham County alone, this last year, we had 2,196 contacts with families, um, on items
such as commu, consumer education, financial assistance, community resources, childcare listings, um, all of those in Putnham County. Again, we also support Putnham County small businesses as because many of the child care programs in Putnham County
are small businesses. Um they are they receive free training and technical assistance from us, coaching support from our education team. We assess them using the class assessment tool which is a teacher child interaction which has proved to be the most important
indicator of a child success. Um, again, we provide free training and scholarships for professional credentials. And as I just mentioned a minute ago, we provide um the childcare resource and referral services for free for families, but this is also a free service for childcare providers where
they are able to advertise their programs with us. In this last year, we moved to the Jenkins Community Center. So we are excited about this move and uh look forward to seeing how we can also grow
and help the community by being there. So um while this is my first update for this last year uh because timing is in the essence, I respectfully request that you also support us again this upcoming year in year 2526 budget with another
contribution of $5,000. Again, this will help meet the local match inquir requirements as well as enable us to extend essential child care services to families in Putham County. And I like to end on this slide. Um, this is the updated one. I I provided
this last year. Um, and this is the 2024 version. This is from Childcare of America. And they do research studies on all of the different states. This is Florida's for this last year. That gives you a summary of child care affordability in Florida. Um, if you
look on the far left, the annual price of child care, it kind of gives you an idea of how much it costs. Um, an infant of care in a year on average is about $11,21. A toddler is about 10,185
per year. Um, kind of switching into the middle. um Health and Human Services, um basically they kind of look at the overall household median income and for what it is in Florida, they say that it should technically be less than 7% of
your household income that should be going towards child care. Unfortunately, for a two parent home, uh it's currently about 12% and for a single parent home, it's about 32% of their income. To the far right, it gives you an
example of what the average household expenses are right now. And the one that I always like to point out is to the far right is college tuition. That it's the average college tuition for a one-year four-year school. The far left column on that is if you have two children, an
infant and a four-year-old in child care, that is the most expensive household cost that you have exceeding housing. Um, and the reason why that we come here and ask uh for your support is because a lot of times um just as they
just explained there that because our services are reoccurring, it's very hard to get uh private donors to want to donate for this kind of thing. So that's why we come to the county boards and um where available the children's commissions.
Well, um, great presentation, uh, Britney. What you guys are doing in the community is very important. I know that we have a lot of work in families and what they struggle with truly is child care and the fact that we have these services. Now, do you have them all over the county? Do we have them in South
Putnham, West Putinham? Yes, we have that available all over the county. And I did provide um with the presentation, I don't know if you got it, a copy of all of our current contracted childcare providers. Yes, thank you. Um, so you do have that. that was requested last time. And I also provided
um in addition to that, it's just one of our childare programs to kind of show you an example of what a detailed childare listing would look like. This is what we can give families when they're looking for child care to kind of um compare prices, the hours of operation. Um they also have their class
score on there, which we talked about. Um all of that information so they can make the most informed decision for their families. Very good. Are there any questions for the presenter? All right. Thank you, Britney. We appreciate you coming forward and giving this informative um information. Thank you.
Absolutely. Thank you. All right. Next, we have Mr. Clay Davis, property appraiser for an employee recognition. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning. Morning. I thank you all for having us this morning as we recognize one of our employees, Victoria McCrae, for 10 years
of service with our office. A little bit about Victoria's position. She's a staff assistant one, which is the position that helps the customer. It's the first line of customer service that we have as we have phone calls come in and people walk in the office. Victoria is one of
the employees that um handles those customers and she does an excellent job. Not only is she an expert in exemptions, which is what she primarily does, but she also has to know a little bit about everything that the office does. So, she does an excellent job with that. And she
has been an asset not only to the citizens of Putnham County, but also our office. A little bit about Victoria personally. She's married to her husband who Herman who's here with us today and she's got two sons J.R. and Antonio and six grandchildren.
All right. And she is very active in her church, Mount Taber Baptist Church. So, will you join with me as we thank Victoria and congratulate her on her decade of service with our office. Congratulations, Mr. Davis. You're welcome to come up and
get a picture if you want with um with her family and and her co-workers. Congratulations. Absolutely. All right, two more.
Next we have Miss Lori Parker from human resources for employee of the month and employee of the quarter. Good morning. Good morning. It's time for the employee of the month and the employee of the month is Denita Cole. Denita is a project manager in
engineering. She's an engineering project manager. I know you guys have worked with her a lot and she's very knowledgeable at what she does and her staff just love her. Uh congratulations Miss Cole and this to you. Um we appreciate everything you do in public works. Uh your hand touches a
lot with plethora of knowledge that you bring to everything that I get you involved in even if it's not at your desk. Um, so I appreciate the backup that you give everybody and and the support that you give to engineering. Thank you very much. I just want to thank everyone. Um,
wasn't expecting this and um the thoughtfulness of our employees is incredible. I'm just honored that they think so much of me and um I work with a great bunch of people. I mean, we have some talent in this county and our
engineering staff is top-notch. So, um, I just want to thank everyone and I love what I do. I love my job. I love serving the community and helping them. And I just want to remind everyone, we work for the county. We work for the citizens
of this county. And it's our job to help them understand our codes. And that's real important. So when the next time you get a telephone call from an employee or from a citizen wanting help, they don't know our rules and regulations, let's make it easier for
them and help them understand. Um, and it goes a long way. So I'm just very honored. Thank you so much. Thank you, Miss What are you doing? That's right. All right, Miss Parker. Um, employee of the
quarter. Out of the three um employee of the months, the employee of the quarter has been awarded to Brian Brier Tilton. Thank you, commissioners. It was not too long ago we were here because Brier was
employee of the month. Um and we're back because he's now voted employee of the quarter. So, I just want to take another opportunity to brag on him and just appreciate everything he does. Brier's um he does budget. That's his normal daily job, but Brier does anything and everything. We recently launched a cat
um adoption program and Friday afternoon he was like, I need a break from budget. And he sat in the floor of my office and he and Nicole constructed cat condos. And so, it really doesn't matter what's happening. Um, Brier's always the first one to go, hey, I'll help. And, um, that's the type of thing that we
obviously appreciate greatly. So, with that, I will present you. Yes. Congratulations. Thank you. I appreciate the recognition and I enjoy working here and all my friends and everybody up above in front of me. So, I appreciate it. And thank you. Thank you.
You do a picture. Yes. Come on. All right, two. One more. Thank you for everyone for um being patient with us while we go through those presentations. I know that
sometimes it's hard for somebody in the public to understand why we do it. But when we've pulled our um staff, one of the things that means the most to them is just simply a little bit of recognition. And that's why we do that because they are deserving. Um I'm going to have a point of order here and ask
Lee Wilsley from Norththeast Florida Regional Council to come up. She is going to give us a little bit of an update for the 2425 year. Good morning. Yes, Lee Wily with the Northeast Florida Regional Council. Um I'm here to give you some good news. So,
um the Northeast Florida Regional Council is made up of our seven counties around the region and each of our counties pay um dues per capita. So, the what you all pay annually um last year was $29,922.
So, we've done our return on investment report and um you all have received a 39 to1 return on investment. So, um some of the work that we do for you all, we provide technical assistance to several of your um smaller towns and municipalities.
Um we also provide training um through our LAPC program for your your um hazmat and your uh fire department. Um we also have purchased equipment from them for them. Um we uh do we work in healthcare
also. So this year we purchased some disaster stretchers for the hospital and um we provide training and exercises for your healthcare facilities all across the county. Then we also have a lot of regional projects that we do as well. So the way this report is broken down is
the numbers are at the top. Um some of the activities and all that we do for the county is that center section and then the regional projects that we work on um across all of our seven counties that benefit all of our member counties um is at the bottom. and I'm happy to
answer any questions that you might have. But um we are very happy to provide these services to your counties and we're also I want to thank um Commissioner Wilkinson and Harvey for sitting on our board. So um they both are board members of the regional council. So happy to answer any
questions if you might have them. So this is the flyer that's in front of the um are there any questions? Thank you for giving the update. We we appreciate the partnership and uh what what you guys do for us as a county and as a region. We all know that when we work together collectively, we can get
more done. Absolutely. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Um before we go into our public works public hearing, I'm going to ask um a constituent, Ed Kibbru, to come forward and he has a few words he wants to say and then we'll move into
our public works um hearing. Good morning. How are y'all doing this morning? Good. Um, I just want to come up here. I mean, most of the time somebody's standing here, they're hollering at you and fussing at you and telling you how bad you are. Um, last, well, it's two weeks
ago. Two weeks ago, I had need of the fire and rescue um department. My mother fell at home and she's 84 years old. She's native of Putnham County also and um nothing. I mean, she just fell. She just tripped over something, fell. She's
a breast cancer survivor. Um we know she's been there, she's been there at my mother's house before that we couldn't get her up, you know, in a normal sort of way. Um she's uh the the breast cancer has lift her where you try to grab her it hurts her and everything like that. So I immediately called 911.
They came out and um Tina brought about 10 people with her because she was just you know um she knew she'd been there before and she showed up herself. She said I recognize the address and I came. I was like okay cool. Well twofold with this thing. What was the name of the
piece of equipment that y'all used to get her up? The bender lift. The bender lift. Um the last time that they came out, they had to help her up on to her um walker, her wheeled walker, get her up, get her up and get her out. Um this time they came out and they used
the I understand that y'all have, you know, put the monies forth to have I think two of these in the county. Is that the majority? Okay. Well, they're on the majority. I was just understanding there was two, but anyhow, y'all got these on the rescues and what have you like that and they got in, got her, did what they did,
got her right up. Okay. But then, so we got her to the hospital, everything checked out, and got her home. Well, then Tina made me aware of a a project that y'all been doing, and I think the commission uh the M madam chairwoman is the one that had brought
this up and got the funding for this. Um the community paramedic, and um I just wanted to encourage y'all to continue whatever kind of funding you can have for that. But I know that I talked to uh Commissioner Wilson and she told me that
it's it's funded for a while. But the fact is that if that ever happens, the funding goes away. I would like for y'all to look at that. Um just I mean not just because my mother I mean she's 84, she's elderly. Um but um the when we
first started this, she wouldn't even talk to Tina. I mean she said, "I'm I'm I'm good. I'm good. I'm good." So I talked to her, you know, because my mother is um she's not a shut in, but she has hip problems. She needs a hip replacement. She needs her knee re re-replaced, and she's just not she's scared of losing her um independence.
And so with that being said, Tina came in and assured her that this wasn't going to happen. So we we got her a um appointment with the community paramedic. Um Nikki Nikki, thank you. Provo came out and sat
down with us on a Wednesday afternoon and talked to her. I mean, she just took her time with my mother, went down the checklist that they've arranged, you know, do you need food, do you need this, do you need that? And mama, of course, you know, no, I don't I don't I don't I don't. But we are arranging through another company to get her um
inh home medical to get her um the um crud, what was the other thing? in home medical and um that well they're gonna come in anyhow there's another thing but mama mama's got to get these things from her doctor and then prescribed and then
of course her Medicaid will take care of it you know but um I just again I just wanted to say thank you wanted to say thank you to Tina her group um you know the whole organization for that because it helped my mother tremendously it gave her one more thing that Nikki did when
she was sitting there talking to her she said she's going to come out this again this week. She made an appointment with she's coming out and um she said, "You know what, Miss Annette? If you if you want me to bring my Bible out, I could have bring my Bible out, have a little Bible study with you on my time that I'm
supposed to be here. We'll check everything out, make sure you're all right." And my mother just melted, you know, she just melted and she started agreeing to everything. And she just loved Nikki. She hadn't met the other Nikki yet or Cameron, but the fact is, you know, they're going to have three different people coming in and she
understands that. she understands that the uh her independence won't be taken away from her and that's a good thing for an elderly person like that. And so again, I just congratulate y'all for doing that. Congratulate the unit that does it and um thank you and I just I would very
much like for y'all to continue that. Well, thank you for sharing your story with us. Um sometimes when we implement projects or programs, we don't necessarily know how they're truly affecting people in the community and um this this program is working and um
J.R.'s been following the numbers and he's got some good numbers on our return on investment and that. But it's it's meant to be that that in between like how can they get the person to the resources they need? How can they keep them from going to the to the ER as often as they normally would? and um
anything from picking up something off of the ground that is a trip hazard or providing them with services that they didn't know existed and um so we're glad that this program is working. We appreciate you coming forward and sharing your story. Thank you. Thank you again. Thank you. All right. Have a good day.
Thank you. All right. Moving into public works um public hearing to vacate a portion of Woodrest Avenue. Woodrest is an undeveloped uh rideway. Uh they own both sides of the property. We've just made a request to keep the
last 60 ft in case of future development for wastewater for a lift station and the applicant has agreed to it. So public works has no problem with the vacate. All right. Is there anybody who wishes to speak um in favor or against the vacation of the portion of Woodrest Avenue?
Come come forward. State your name and address for the record. Good morning. Hi. Good morning. My name is Jennifer Payton Olive and I live on the other side. Okay. And my property kind of looks at where
that pump station or road would be. So I'm in favor of vacating it. Okay. Would that um vacate the whole project? The road would not go through at that point of vacation. I think that's I want to make sure I
understand your question. Say it again. By vacating that piece, would that vacate the whole road going through at all? Yeah, it would it would vacate except the last 60 ft that we want to keep for the just in case we can do a lift
station there. Okay. But other than that, it would just be private property. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Is there anybody else who wishes to speak in favor or against? Please come forward. This is to vacate a portion of Woodrest
Avenue. Good morning, sir. Is that the road or on the back part? On the back part. So, you're talking the front part will be vacated. Correct. Okay. I was just making sure Yeah, it's it's on the west side
right away. Okay. So, you're good. Okay. Thank you. We appreciate it. Does the map reflect that? Yeah, it shows the future. We got I Yes, sir. I need you to give your name and address for the public
record. I'm sorry. Since it is a hearing, I see it, but it looks like it's the back piece is being vacated, not the front piece. Jones, 202 River Trail, Florida.
Make sure he sees this. Make sure the 202 River Trail Satsum, Florida. So, this road right here, right? We want this piece right here. Right. That's the front of the That's the back part that that will be vacated. I'm sorry I said it backwards. This is what we want
for a lift station. All right. If we That's what I was. Yeah. So that's the part. That's the part that will be vacated. Yeah. Thank you. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you, sir. All right. Is there anybody else who wishes to speak for or against this item? All right. Any other comment? Yes,
ma'am. You wanted to see the map as well. Okay. Here you go. Okay. All right. Anybody else? All right. Thank you. Coming back to the board, I'd move to accept the vacation of resolution 2025-055,
the vacation of a portion of Woodrest Avenue as described in the literature. I'll second that. We have a motion and second. Any further discussion from the board? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Like sign. Motion carries unanimously. Um second, we have public hearing to vacate undeveloped rights of
way in Huntington Groves and Huntington unit B subdivision resolution 2025 056. This came before us before and I think you've worked on um a solution. Yes, the applicant and the person that was here previously that contested it have come up with a solution so that
they can still access their property. I want to say it was Chapman that was going to stay open and everything else would be vacated. So, the desire of the board was actually met with the two parties. Okay. So, on page 80 of your packet, it shows what's not to be vacated. All right. Commissioner Harvey, you have
some questions. Uh, no, Madam Chair. I just want to make a statement if you don't mind. Um, I appreciate you and the public works department getting with the residents and coming to a solution. There's a revised um, you know, during our first meeting,
we find out that somebody might be against it or something that we didn't know. And a lot of times we're we're accused of having our minds made up before we ever come to a meeting. That's not the case. That is far from the case. And I think this case shows the fact
that somebody objected. They had a rightful objection. You worked it out with them and all parties are happy and moves on. I think that's the best solution that government can be and that's why we have these public hearings. That's why we have time for the public to come. It might not be 10
minutes because we'd be here for ever, but you know, get your point across. Let's work it out. Let's move forward and find common ground. And that's what you did. I want to thank you and your department for doing that, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Uh, Alexander, you're recognized.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, before you head back to your seat, Mr. out. Um about a month or so ago, I was contacted by the residents of Federal Point regarding a um I guess it's a dead end road, but we own the end of it. And at one time, the residents had enjoyed
going down there and walking their animals, sipping some coffee, watching the sunset. And through the years, um there had been some illegal dumping from construction in the area, and it be had become congested to the point where the residents couldn't use it anymore. Um,
so they contacted uh me and Mr. Stout and I worked together and came up with a plan to give that access to the river and to those sunsets to the mornings uh back to the residents of Federal Point. And I just wanted to share an email that I had
gotten from Rick Garrett in that area. Um, it's actually where if you guys are familiar with Federal Point, where the warf was where they brought in the lumber to build the church. Uh, a lot of commerce was, you know, centered on that area. Um, there was an old hotel down
there, but this was kind of the focal point and it had, you know, just kind of gone ary. But this this email from Rick Garrett states, um, Mr. Stoutton staff, thank you so much for your work to restore the historical site. The view is breathtaking. The public and our
community now have a beautiful place to enjoy. It is also a tribute to Putnham County's rich agricultural and maritime history. Thanks to your department for making this a reality. So, I just wanted to say thanks guys and let Justin and those guys know that the
community appreciates what they're doing. Thank you for Okay. Um, back to Chapman Boulevard. Uh, thank you for those comments. Back to Chap Chapman Boulevard. Is this map correct that's in here? Yes. Y go ahead.
Then you have the correct Is that correct? Correct. There there was this snafu Marie corrected it and sent it to Laura after the Okay. So for for record the one that's
online and is correct. All right. And it shows Chapman is staying open and Chapman stays open to um Okay. And that's coming off of Pal uh Palmer Sawmill. Okay. All right. Correct. All right. that will not be vacated.
All right. Is there anyone who wants wants to speak for or against this item? Please come forward. Is there anybody who speaks for or against this item? All right. Without with that, we'll go back to the board. Yeah. I'd move to accept this resolution
as well. 2025-056. um the vacation of the I guess old rightaways as reflected in the revised edition of the submission. All right, we have a motion on the floor. Second. We have a second. Any further
discussion? All in favor say I. I. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Uh we're going to take a threem minute recess. All right, going into public comment on agenda items. This portion of the agenda is designed to allow citizens an opportunity to bring matters to the
attention of the board. It is not reasonable to expect that the 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 three minutes. Public comment 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. So um we have going into consent agenda items. Thank you. All right.
This is for consent agenda items. Mr. Still, do you have something on the consent agenda you wish to speak about or just in general? Okay, that's what I thought. All right, or new business. Okay. This is
My name is Dan Steel live at 202 May Lane near Laga, Florida. And Miss Jarn, can I have three minutes without anybody say anything from up there because I got some stuff to say. Sure. I think we can handle that. Okay. First of all, the last time I was here
about a month ago, someone thought that I had moved down here to Interlock from Jacksonville. I have never lived in Jacksonville. never will live in Jacksonville. I've lived in this county for 39 years. Another thing someone up there said that
uh when I was talking about the grading of the roads, someone made a comment that somebody could watch a video for 30 minutes think they could operate a greater. Well, I worked for 30 years. We had a 12G
graater down to down to St. Pete. I run a 670 John Deere. I run a lead boy articulated grader to final grade a parking lot for a school. Okay. So, I've did some grading. Our grader operator we've got now. You can
put down clay within about four or five times of him grading the roads, grading it off to the edge of the roads. The clay is about half gone. There's more clay on the edge of the road in some place than there is on the road. Okay. The other thing is out
there, I've complained about it and I don't know who to complain about it more is we've got so many people out there living in tents and houses out there. There's one road you can go down there. If you take Miguel, you go down to Mner's Lake Road,
go to the third road that turns left. There's a whole strip in there. They don't have no power there. You can't see any meters or any of the meter poles. That is it's getting to be a slum area out there in the West Putnham. And quite
a few of us out there are getting a little bit of tired of seeing it. And the other thing is it was brought up that I am the only one that come down and complains about the roads. Yeah, I haven't seen anybody here lately, but I do give a darn about what
happens out there. And I want to complete completely I mean I'm going to continue to complain about the roads. Now the reason they don't come down nothing gets done. I mean we can bring it up like okay for
instance I brought about the baseball field out there about a year and a half ago. Someone said there was somebody looking at it going to do something about it. Well now you can go out there at 10:00 at night. You'll see four-wheeler trucks, vehicles out there. It's nothing
but sex and drugs. Yeah. And uh and you and I've been by I've pulled in there that there's no cable. They can get back in there around those buildings anything they want. If it was cabled off, it would be nice, but
by the four-wheeler still get in there. The other thing is the four-wheelers. About two months ago, there was a four-wheeler going south on 315 right in front of the sheriff's office on a four-wheeler.
Stopped the red light, continued going south, and then by about a week or so after that, I seen him coming from the south going north. We got four-wheelers running the roads out there all over my time up. Yes, sir.
Okay. You had one more thing, but I'll wait till the next meeting for that. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Do you have any other public comment cards? All right. Is there anybody who wishes
to speak on agenda items? All right. Coming back to the board. Is there any commissioners who want to pull any items? Starting with Commissioner Alexander. Nothing to pull for you, Commissioner Palisier. Nothing to pull. Commissioner Newold.
Oh, item C for discussion. Commissioner Harvey. I have none. Okay. I have none. So, Madam Chair, like to move approval of items A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, and
L. All right, we have a motion on the floor. Second. We have a second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Motion carries unanimously. Commissioner Newold. Item C. Well, I do want to say I am in favor of the project. I'm in favor of of funding
the design services, all all of that jazz. Um, just want to make the balance commission aware that we do have several other two other boat ramp programs kind of in the queue and just want to hope
that we get those kind of as they've come along. Um, we have a um obligation to the state on the the Georgetown Park. Um, I think the north side of this bridge is a little farther along in the
process, but um, just want to put my two cents in that I'd like to see those kind of go in a progression. I think this is a a great project. Um, I am in in favor of it. I think, you know, getting it funded now and having it
ready for um possible matches and and just having it in the queue, ready to go, kind of shovel ready is is important, but I'd like to see them kind of run in their natural progression. And that's all I have. I guess I'm a little confused when you say run its natural um
progression because this is a almost a $300,000 expense for um basically for um professional services, professional engineering. So you're saying you're in favor of spending $300,000 for the
engineering and then another probably $2.7 million, I guess, for the project. Well, I think that final cost will remain to be seen, but um I we can't get to that next step without having having this one done. And you
know, it may be that this project has to sit, you know, for a time period until it's it's fully funded, but I I am in support of it. I want to see it happen over the course of time. Um we can spend that money now. We can we can spend it
later. I think it's it's going to have to happen sooner or later. Just my commentary. All right, Commissioner Harvey, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just um really want to say I appreciate everybody who's worked on this. This came to me dum
eight years ago, nine years ago when Tim Hotelling and I bought that property and we contacted DOT and they weren't interested at that point. But you know, times change and people change and interest changes and thank God we got at least their interest. We got a lease for
a long time. I do want to be mindful though because I am in support of the project. But when I got here, we had three projects that we had promised the state of Florida that we were going to do. And it got to the point where I kept
going to Tallahassee and finally was told, "Don't come back up here unless you finish the projects that you currently have. One was Nine Mile Swamp there in outside of Hollister between Francis and Hollister. One was Tangle Wild. We still
have that on West River Road. And one was Georgetown. We got rid of nine mile because we just could not do what our plan was going to do and water management took that over for us and that was good. Tangle wild we
still have but we haven't finished that project up and that's been ever since I've got here. Georgetown. We still have got to finish that project up. And those that one is no fault of anybody that we have contracted with
University of Florida. We did some preliminary site work. Um but gentlemen, I I really want and ladies, I really want to say we got to bring some planes in for a landing when we talk about these projects. And if they are, this is
an 18month study. Study's good for probably two years at that point. But we still now got the east side of Dun Creek. We have citizens and we met with them. Our administration and myself met with um a local realtor
about this gentleman who wants to sell the county 10 acres of property out there on the back side of Georgia's Lake and Flora home for over $500,000. I mean, we got a lot going on. And I'm I
just want to say we got to be mindful that all these projects, the ones that we promised and the ones that we want to take on, the ones that we took on are still out there and we've got to be careful about that
number getting so big. I'm just going to say let's let's finish up the projects we have. I'm all for doing some type of conceptual price getting this going down the road, but 300,000 is going to lead
into $3 million. And if we're not very careful, we're going to spend 300,000 now for an outdated product by the time we can get to fruition on this. I think it's a great idea, but um I don't know what the answer here is. I just want
y'all to be mindful of the fact that we have promises made that were not delivered yet and we need to do that with at least two of those projects and that's Tangle Wild and Georgetown. Thank you, Madam Chair. Did you mentioned Tangle Wild? I thought
it's not complete. It's not No, ma'am. It's not complete. is not up to. There's a piece of property on the north side of West River Road that we've never we put into our plan that we were going to do something and just never have. And we've tried to
Julian, correct me if I'm wrong and and I might I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I think we've tried to work some of that plan over and it just didn't tried to modify it a little bit. Is that correct? So, it's been quite a while since we've looked at Tango Wild. Um, we have not
approached the state related to Tango Wild in making any amendments. Um, I do know we have not complied with the Florida Land Trust's um, metrics that were established. We've that one's kind of been tabled and so truly I haven't
looked at it in quite a long time. The only thing we did at Tang Tangle Wild in 19ish was install an ADA accessible soft kayak launch. From there, we truly haven't done anything. The one that a
year or so later, we did work with the state on how we can come to compliance was Georgetown and we are actively working towards compliance there as far as identifying the metrics that are needed, but we do not have obviously
that Georgetown plan is not completely funded for all of those metrics. Um, it is the board did approve design and engineering and permitting for the boat ramp and parking, but the other there are 14 metrics for Georgetown. We've met
a couple of them. We have the remaining that have to be met in order to be compliant with the Florida Land Trust and we do report quarterly to them and then annually we go through a review. They've been very very patient with us. However, obviously, um, we've we've told
them we're working towards compliance. All right, Commissioner Alexander, you're recognized. Thank you, Miss Holmes. Um, so we have multiple metrics that are left to satisfy at Georgetown before the completion of that project or before we can move forward.
Yes, sir. Now, we're as well. Well, when we say move forward, the Florida Community's Land Trust will not engage with us in some additional land deals or other funding metrics specific to those programs until we meet compliance for
Georgetown and Tangle Wild. The board opted to surplus Nine Mile. It was actually given back to the land trust and then given to the water management via that deal. That's been a number of years ago as well. Well, I I I would hate to see us lose
Georgetown. Um, so what is the time frame for completing Georgetown? So, the state's been very gracious on time frames. We got both Georgetown and Tangle Wild before the America did what
it did, right? Um, before COVID, before calls did what they they are doing. So, they have not put a finite timeline on us. What they have done is asked for continuous progress and we've given them those progress updates as I mentioned. Um and obviously we have a lot of
activity to report on Georgetown. We still are trying to massage how we approach Tangle Wild. Okay. Um Tangle Wild, you know, for for its design purpose seems somewhat usable other than the ADA accessible kayak. Correct. So it's not a usability factor for the
state. I agree with you. Right. Tangle wad's beautiful. Um it they go through when they do these land trust deals and this was before my arrival here. So I'm telling you what I understand happens. Yeah. They go through and they assign a value based on the metrics that are going to
be included within that ultimate recreation space. So again I'm much more familiar with Georgetown off the top of my head. We can go through the details of both of them. But let me give you some for instance for Georgetown. Right. Sure. There are 14 metrics and of those metrics they each have an assigned value
with the state and that's how we earned the right to do the land deal with them. So some of them are things like the education pavilion which commissioner newold agreed to fund out of his discretionary dollars. So that's going to be a metric we can check off.
However, corresponding to that is the agreement that we're going to provide 12 educational expositions or seminars throughout the course of a year. So, we've partnered with UFIFAS and they're in agreement to help us with that through master gardeners or beekeeping or any of those things which will count
towards those programs, but until we actually do them, that value or that metric from the state is not considered complied with. Um, now we did put a playground out there and a picnic pavilion, which was one of the requirements. However, they also want a native play area.
Examples, and I had to ask because I wasn't sure what that was. Um, so they talked about different things that you could do to make it native. They talked about creating um, and this is going to be taboo, right? Because it's invasive, but creating a controlled area of bamboo in
a circle where kids could run in the circle and kids could run out. They talked about composite logs that look like stumps that you could put at different heights that they could jump from one log to the other. So truly think, you know, for them they're wanting a native. Other other metrics
are you have to have an observation outlook platform, a walking trail that is at least a quarter mile long. So there are a number of metrics that we still have to make, educational signs that talk about the native and invasive plant and wildlife species that might be
there if you were um visiting. Um we limited our impact to the wetland. They were very happy about that through the partnership we did a few years ago with UFIFAS and then the University of Florida. Um and so again there's just a number of metrics in these projects.
They're very large projects that take quite a bit of um yeah it seems it seems like they've they've implemented quite a few hoops that we need to jump through on some on that. But sounds like some of that can be accomplished through some of the resources that you know public works has on staff or has on hand. They have a
sign making shop. you know, little things we could chip at as far as our progression on that. But I I agree with um with both of my other commissioners that, you know, we we need to complete
something. Um and if we're not going to complete it, let's let's let it go. But, you know, Georgetown is ab absolutely there. And where are we at on the Dun Creek uh North Side Park? So, the North Side Park, we got back um this week the
um conceptual plans. I know that they are still working with water management to get through Nope. Yes, water management they are working with for both Dun Creek and Georgetown. So, we've got two concurrent applications running there. I'm sure that's a lot of fun.
It's Well, yes, it's a lot. Um, but we do have the conceptual plan approved by the board and we are working towards getting those bid ready documents. Again, we did get an update this week for all of our reviews. It's under review by staff and with the firm. And so, at that point, once we kind of get
some final checks, they'll begin preparing what we need for final bid ready documents. And those documents are what is needed to actually put that boat ramp out on the street for construction costs. Now, in that park, we did, you know, do do a number of things that
could be done in phases so that we could phase it as we had funding available. Um, i.e. there is a designated restroom facility. However, if on day one we aren't able to build that or construct it, then that's something that can be added later, we'll leave the pavilion for it, um, and utilize other resources
until that time. So, that's where we are. Got you. You know, at the end of the day, we have to answer to our constituents. And you know, I get questions all the time. You know, I thought this was approved. Why isn't this done? What's going on with that? So, uh, the purpose of our, you know,
conversation is just kind of to let the people in cyber world know where we're at and that we are making progress. But, um, so at summing up what you said, it's we're basically in in limbo waiting on the design firm to return the documents to us and also waiting on final approval
from water management district. Yeah. So, and let me be let me try to be really transparent with that. It's not just design. Unfortunately, these boat ramps um require Army Corps D and water management and all of those permitting. We had to do environmental studies to
find where the tortoises are. We had to do all of the normal um and so those environmental studies, you know, it's not just as easy as when we go do construction for buildings, right? We can get engineering and design and turn it around. Unfortunately, um this deals
with wetlands and all the native species that have to be protected when we deal with wetlands and uplands. Um and so that process is has is laborious for all of our consultants. No, no, I get it. and you know trying to
get these individual organizations to answer the phone and return your emails and call you back. I've been exposed to that in my short tenure and u I have an understanding. So I guess the the big question is what can we do to speed the
process up? Do we need to call them? Do we need to reach out to them? Where are we at? because we have I mean some of this stuff's been like you said before you even started. Commissioner Alexander, we're having a hard time hearing you in this. Yeah, you got to get near that
microphone. I'm sorry. How's that? I better go ahead. But anyhow, um what I'm asking is, you know, some of these projects have been on there since before your tenure here and probably even before Mr. Sugg's tenure. Um our goal coming in here or my
goal coming in here is to get this stuff finished and move along. So, um, do do we need to meet and establish a plan of what we're going to do or which ones we need to attack first? Uh, which one I mean, for lack of a better term, the lowhanging fruit just to get something
done to show our constituents that we are moving, we are active and, uh, we're trying to make it a better place. So, Commissioner, I'm going to tell you, um, so big picture conversation. What we deal with in Putnham County is what
everybody else in Putnham County deals with. When we talk about finding a contractor to build a $2 million something, I'm fighting against counties that are building a $20 million same something. And so the conversation I
guess that we've had is you're right, these projects have been on the board since before my tenure, but unfortunately due to our fiscal constraints, there's never been adequate funding for them. So when there's not adequate funding for them, we can sit on them for as long as you want to sit on
them. But until we adequately are able to fund them via the normal process, then we we will find ourselves pulling it along one phase or one step at a time. It on day one, if we set out and
went, hey, here's $5 million. Go to Georgetown. We probably would be in a very different spot. But on day one, we did a $10,000 conceptual plan. And then when the conceptual plan came back and we weren't sure where it was going to go
because it could be $2 to3 million, we said, "Pump the brakes. Let's work with UF for some part-time master engineer study people and they came in and did some consulting work for us for nine months and then they came back and said,
"Hey, we might have a better approach." And then we shopped that. And so then we got down to we found a design firm that would take these pieces of the puzzle we've already done and they would do the design, engineering, and permitting for $150,000. So we said, "Okay, we'll put $150,000 at
it." But we still haven't funded all the rest of the metrics. So I guess and I'm not that's not to anyone's fault, right? I'm just telling you that it seems we get stuck in this time frame of we want to do but we don't have the funding
adequate to do and so staff's charged with do as much as you can with this tiny piece of the funding and then we'll talk about it again. So, so based on that conversation, it sounds like it's twofold. We're having
issues with partial funding, which that's going to lead me down the path of regarding this the project here on the south side of Dun Creek. So, a percentage of this funding can be achieved through a BIP grant.
And as we've all seen through our appropriations and what I've learned, you know, if you've got skin in the game, you have a much better chance of achieving one of these grants. Um, so if we move forward with this, we will have skin in the game and we
stand a greater chance after my conversations with FWC of scoring well and receiving this grant through next year's round of funding. Caveat to that is we must move quickly because a portion of our agreement with
FDOT was that they asked that we do our best to have this project completed in the 2027 neighborhood before they had another project starting on their side. So there is that construction? I I I didn't he didn't elaborate to
where they're at, but they asked that we move as quickly as we could. So, um, time is of the essence on this one. But as far as the funding, if listening to the comments from the other commissioners and myself, it sounds like you guys may have been shoestrung by not
having the money there. Well, or not having the passion for those projects. So, the money wasn't allocated to those. I think everybody's been passionate this board, but it sounds like to me that you have a supportive audience here. Sure. If it is a funding issue, please
bring it to us and let us know what we need to get the projects done because we have money to do projects especially that are going to be beneficial for our community, our youth and our growth because at the end of the day the river is our greatest resource and access to
that river. You know that that is a primary goal for this commission for growth for recreation etc. So if if we need money let us know. Sorry. Okay, we need some money.
I I need a bunch of money. You We have zero budgeted for Tangle Wild right now. Commissioner, Commissioner Palisier, you're recognized. Um first, Commissioner Newold, I want you to It's your job to be sure he is looking at that microphone or put it in
front of him because that first half of that conversation I got absolutely none of. So, pardon me if I'm redundant with some of my questions because I heard Room. That's all I got. So, do I get a a lapel microphone or do you get a hearing aid? Some of both. Um, I think Commissioner
Harvey is right. We've got to finish some projects. You can't just keep, you know, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. That doesn't work. We got to We got to come up with some sort of a plan. And and funding is one is probably the biggest pink elephant in the room. Um,
I I have no idea the number you're talking about, but maybe I would challenge my fellow commissioners that we all use some of our discretionary funds every year to a certain portion go to some of these projects to kind of hopefully push them to fruition. Um, I
certainly would support that, but we we certainly do need to finish it, but the commissioner Alexander is is very much on spot that the river is our biggest resource and we need to exploit that to the tenth power. Um, using those boat ramps and and
attracting people to our waterways, I think, is is huge and and certainly a resource that a lot of other counties don't have. And, um, I I would like to see that work toward that direction. Like I said, Mr. Harvey is spot on with finishing something and, you know, don't
just start it and walk away from it. But, uh, I don't want to see some other things fall by the wayside. But, I think maybe, uh, using a certain portion of our discretionary funds as a group effort that we, you know, feel comfortable with giving that much each year to each one of these projects. I don't know if we
want to just concentrate on one and put that one behind us or a little bit on each one. I leave that to staff's discretion as where it best fits. But I I think that's something we should look into for sure. Thank you, Commissioner Harvey. You're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. And this is a
great conversation, guys. Again, we have to do this out in public and it's great to have this. Um Julian, I have a question for you. When it comes to you'd mentioned conceptional design, would that be something that we could engage in now and start a conceptual
design um and and work with our legislators on this is what we're trying to do for which one for west side boat ramp. So, is that something we could we do? you have the authority as the board to
direct how what we do, what's step one, what does it look like, how far do we go? So, absolutely. Well, the reason I say that because I think Commissioner Alexander, what I heard him say was prioritize what we've got out there. Is that what I heard you
say? Prioritize what we have. Okay. Get it done. But also, we can't miss opportunities as well. Because again like you said u M probably said our greatest resource and our greatest asset is our river and we have an opportunity
to um we have a great great opportunity to utilize that river there. Um FDOT has granted us a lease. The majority of the paving is done. We do have a conceptual design that our uh employee of the um month Denita Cole drew up for us a
couple months ago. I'll be happy to share it with you. But um so we have made some progress and you with your legislative ties may be very helpful in securing additional funding for that. But I know that there are BIP funds available um voting improvement through
FWC which I've been in communication with them. So that that is why I'm so adamant about getting this one approved uh because we stand a really great chance if we do have some skin in the game for next year's round of uh grants.
Well, we had skin in the game on the other ones, too. Um, the problem is we just haven't fulfilled all those promises that were made. And I think now what I'm hearing and what I'd like to see us is have we need to have a meeting on these on these projects that we have
out there. And not only just have a meeting, but we need to have this amount of money puts this thing to bed and this amount of money puts that to bed. And then I'm not in disagreement with Commissioner Palisier. We don't get 200,000, we get 150. I don't care what
the number is and we start dedicating money to finish those projects because again, I remember the conversation of the Department of Commerce. Don't come back here until you start getting these projects done. Now, they haven't told us that now, but it's kind of like you
would do your own kids. If you ain't finished cleaning out the garage, don't come for me for more money because I already gave you this to do that. Same thing. And I'm not And you've got three new commissioners here that are dedicated to finishing this up. I mean, this is this has been
long before we got here and we want to finish it about that and prioritize where we're going to go and start moving all of these projects. We got rid of nine mile and thank God. I mean, that would have been a nice one, don't get me wrong, but it was way too much that we could do.
So, now all we got is Tangle Wild Georgetown. We got the east side that we're working on. Now, we got the west. And if you throw the other all the other parks and wrecks that are in there, you know, and and we are, the gentleman that spoke a minute ago, we are working very
diligently to secure our parks. We can't close them. We can't They're public property. So, but we are looking and you and I and Mr. Suggs and Jr and staff is going to take a ride out next year. I mean, next
week and next year, I'm sorry. And you know, but we need to bring all that information back to all five of us and say, "Okay, which which one what elephant do you want to eat today and how much money do you want to put at it?" That's the key. So, you know, so I appreciate that,
Madam Madam Chair. Okay. So, um, I agree with most of what's been said today. It sounds like what we need to do on the two outstanding boat ramps of Georgetown, the east side of Dun Creek, and I didn't know Tangle Wild was still an issue.
That's new to me. So, I would like staff to come back and say, "These are the outstanding items, and these are the estimated cost." because I I can't get behind, as much as I like Commissioner Alexander's project on the west side of Dungeon Creek, it's hard for me to get
behind a $3 million project, which is going to and because I don't know how much of this is going to be funded by an outside source or not. I don't know that this is all state funded. I don't know that 50% of it's going to be if we apply for the BIP funds and we get it. I don't know what I don't know what that portion
is. And so it's hard for me to say, "Yeah, let's move forward with a third with the third or fourth um boat ramp when we've got these unfinished ones out there." So I'd like staff to come back. I'd like to see us table this item. Um that's my opinion and and then we get
that information at the next meeting and says, "We've got these projects that are outstanding on boat boat ramps and this is what staff thinks it's going to cost." whatever the best of the ability that you have as as to estimated cost and outstanding items because it's again as a board I don't know how we make a
decision unless we know we are we got $5 million out that we need to come up with we got 10 million we got 500,000 I don't know what I don't even know what the range is and so and it's not any fault of y'all's I understand your comments and what you're working with and what you had to work with all on the same
page I believe that we want to see improvements to our boat ramp and to and to um allow citizens to have more access to the river. I don't think anyone of us disagree on that. Um I do want to remind everybody that as I was sitting here and
we talk about the boat ramps on the east side of the river, we have Pico and East Palaca. We have Waca. We have Crescent City. We're working on Georgetown. We're working on the east side of Dun Creek. So that right there is five boat ramps on the east side of Elton. And which one?
You just approved an update to Elgen Road. Elgen Groves. Yeah. So six. So we have six boat ramps on the east side of the river, east side of the bridge. Um before we even talk about putting in this one on the west side of Dun Creek. So that's where I'm
at is I'm just struggling with with moving forward on this one, Commissioner Alexander, just simply because I feel like we have how we have to get what we've got under control. Those are my comments. You recognize, sir? No, I I I understand. I agree 100% as
far as finishing the other ones up. That that is the ultimate goal. Um, we if we table this again, I feel like we're just kicking this one down the down the road, kicking the can down the road again. Some things you have to
strike while the iron is hot and we have an opportunity, but if we miss this window, um, I think that we we miss a great opportunity. You can't go out and buy another piece of property on the river that we've basically been donated by the FDOT and all we're responsible
for is funding the ramp on it. The majority of the pavement paving is done. It ties in directly with our rails to trails area out there. Additionally, the proximity to Dun Creek State Park. The boat ramp that we've proposed and has been approved on the north side of Dun
Creek will not accommodate a vessel larger than 20 ft. I can't name too many people that I know that have a vessel that's smaller than 20 feet. You know, they're primarily everything that's going now is over 20 feet and it's going to be difficult. You will have egress problems with that
ramp. Neither here nor there. The focus of that ramp is the park and the community involvement. We will have playgrounds there. We will have stuff for the kids. So, there's additional benefits with that one. But again, I I'm I would love to see a finite number
regarding each one of these projects. And it doesn't it's not about just the boat ramps. We've got other projects throughout the community or county that we need to finish up. I mean, it's it's no different than in life. If you get too many projects going, again, you're
not going to focus on getting anything done. You get a little chip here, a little chip there. Um, I know that kind of undermines what I'm saying, but we do have to get get this one started if we ever want to get it done. But we have a tremendous amount of growth expected in
the East Palata corridor. Every one of these boat ramps is jam-packed on a holiday weekend or any decent weather weekend. And that's with our current residents. So if we see the additional 600 800 home developments that are proposed for East
Pala on multiple levels, we are going to be we will have a problem. So there, you know, there's no reason to wait for that. When you have an opportunity to get ahead of the eightball, you know, we always talk about government, you know,
not not being reactive to the future. We have an opportunity here to prepare for that future. So we can we can be that commission or we can be the commission to be, you know, reactive down the road to additional complaints and griping or we
can stem that now. So, um I I I would love I don't know how we task staff with giving us a total list of current projects and where we're at and proposed dollars to finish them,
but I would love to see that. And I would love to have a meeting to prioritize that with my brethren and sisters and this commission so we can say yes and and we can give a time frame. Say this is 2025. We want this one done 2028. And yes, I'm going to I'm
going to dedicate this many of my dollars to finish this project based on how, you know, how valuable I feel it is to the community because those are our dollars. You know, those are our discretionary funds up to us to where they're going to benefit the community. But we need to know what the projects are, what it's going to take to finish,
and we need a timeline on what it's going to take to get them done. So, how do we do that? Do we make a motion? And we well I was very specific in requesting that we ask for these three that because this subject is about boat ramps. It's not about all the projects. What I'm
asking for is for the three boat ramps that are in question that we get more detailed on those. And as far as what's outstanding items, you know, time frame cost, that kind of thing. I don't think that's unreasonable. And I don't think a two week we meet every two, you know, two two times a month. I don't think two
weeks is going to make that big of a difference. But it's hard for me today to get behind spending $300,000 of our taxpayers money for a project that we believe is going to be three million. And we don't know if we're getting funded until we know where we're at with
the other projects. And so that's where that's just me personally. Commissioner Harvey, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, I said in in my presentation, um usually these projects are 18 months out and that's what I heard from our engineering staff. Um, so I agree two
weeks if we can wait if staff can put that together. Um, again, I bought the property nine years ago and it's taken another commissioner to kind of get that ball up and running with it again and I was able to get it done in six months because I want to get
we've got time to look at this and put our priorities in and move it. We're not going to kick the can down the ball. You got five commissioners saying, "Yeah, we like the idea. Um, let's just prioritize where we're going to go from here. Let's know the numbers. So, I think if we can
bring it, I don't know if staff can get it to us by the next meeting. I'm not saying we don't prioritize it, Larry. I'm just saying that we approve it. Yes, sir. On the three different locations, Tango Wild, Georgetown, and Dun Creek. I'm happy to put together as
much information that's available. I will reach out to the designer and ask how closely they can estimate those to answer your question. to some degree those costs and whether or not I'm able to furnish that within two weeks, which is really just a week because we send
agendas out Monday, um is going to be somewhat dependent upon how well they're able to estimate based on where we are in the design. Um and and that puts them at some liability, too. Because if they promise me a million dollars and then when it's
done it's $2 million, y'all's response is going to be, well, they were a horrible estimator and so you know there's going to be have to be some grace with these projection numbers too. Okay, Commissioner Palis, you're recognized. I'm going to be redundant here I guess
because you all kind of all said what I had on my mind. Let's have staff come back to us with with all these projects, some projected numbers, and I'm not pinning it down to two weeks because I don't think that's realistic, but as fast as it can be
done, and come back with us some numbers so that we can got some some hard stuff to look at and then decide where do we want to focus our efforts and and our funds to to go do maybe accomplish one of those projects sooner than other, but
just what's on the table because this honestly I remember Tangle W from years gone by, but I really had forgotten it be honest with you. Um, didn't know anything about Georgetown. So, uh, and I apologize, J. Um, if you just bring us some some
up-to-date info on all that, that would be great. And then we can, I think, move forward and and get something accomplished. Thank you. I'll be happy to bring what I can. All right. I need a motion. You pulled the item. Commissioner Newold, what's your motion? I'm going to fall in here with the you
guys and and ask for this to be tabled to the upcoming meeting um with as much information as we can get from staff on these projects and in order to prioritize them. I really I understand Commissioner Alexander's desire not to kick this can down the
road. So I I hope we will come to some with this added information give us the um the courage to make some commitments on prioritization and funding. So all right motion is to table item C on
the agenda. Dun Creek Westside boat ramp uh design service and budget resolution for $294,780. Is there a second? Second. All right. We have a second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor say I.
I. Any opposed? I. Four to one. All right. Moving forward. Code enforcement fine reduction co case. Madam chair. Is the client in the audience today?
Is there anybody here for fine reduction code case 2008 00215? No sir. Madam chair, seeing no one in the audience on case number 20080025215, I recommend that we approve staff recommendation and reduce the fine to
the actual hard cost of $1,52121 if paid within 90 days. Second. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Like sign. All right. Motion carries. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. In new business, public works request to advertise for a public
hearing to vacate Second Avenue resolution 2025-065. At this time, we're just requesting a board hearing, public hearing at the next board meeting for this. Okay. Any questions for for Mr. Stout?
All right. Need a motion. Madam Chair, I move that we do Is this a public hearing? you have request for a public hearing. It's a request for public hearing. I recommend that we take staff recommendation and move this public hearing to a uh September 9th at 9:05 or
shortly thereafter. All right. Is there a second? Second. Have a motion and second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. um tourism,
the TDC marketing plan and budget. Miss Kimberly Morgan, welcome and thank you for your patience. Thank you, Madam Chair and commissioners. Um we're going to get our presentation up here quickly.
Hopefully, me plug it in. Um what we're going to talk about today is um what the Tourist Development Council has um presented and unanimously approved
um to you. And so um we are going to talk a little bit about a legislative update and um I love technology. There we go. Um so with that, thank you for your
patience. Um we are going to give you just a quick update on um the state legislature. Um they did make some um changes and expanded the permissible uses of the tourist development tax. Um the good news from my perspective is
that um those changes did not impact um Putnham County. So, we get to continue as we always have with um using the tourist development council um and the tourist development funds um as um as
we've always done and right now that's um primarily for marketing and um promotion. Um we do have some data. Um we we were able to talk to some colleagues. Um and uh the primary um
visitor visitor market that we are attracting now is from Atlanta. And so we that's great news. Um they um we're going to dive into some data um as if you all approve this um marketing plan
um and proposal um that we can actually look at what they're spending, how long they're staying, and different things like that. Um we do have a trip share by month. We want to dive into this data a little bit more. Um we want to understand why people are coming when
they're coming. um right now it it it looks it looks good for us um right now. So from a a a share of um when they're coming throughout the year. The other um data that we do have is length of stay.
We want to convert some of those day trippers to overnight visitations and um then impact some of those one night stays to two night stays. So that's the goal is giving them the reason why to stay longer. And then um
looking at the day of the week, we want to really impact that Saturday um stay um and increase that um primarily. So um with the data that we have um and the marketing plan that we've put together, our goal to you is
to increase um the room the room revenue by 5%. Um what our ROI is going to be is for every dollar invested, we're going to bring you back at least three. And so um with that, I'm going to tell you how
we plan to do that. Um you've got um before you a visitor plan, like a visitor research and strategic and branding plan. Um, we want to make that investment so that we can start to know who Putham County is as a visitor
destination and as a community and market that more effectively and efficiently. We also want to do a photo shoot and video shoot um so that our um images and
the the way that we tell our story is um more unique to Putnham County and in brand alignment um with who we are. We are also planning to um be a uh partner with uh visit Florida um more in
the sense of marketing and and targeting the the people that are already interested in Florida. Um we want to give them a new destination and a new new experiences to consider when they're considering Florida. Um so we're going to leverage our
partnership with them. We're also going to be working with um content creators and influencers. Um with content creators, we have a little bit more uh control over the content and how we use it. The influencer side um it's really
their content. We're just getting in our message in front of their audience. One of the ways that we plan to do that is to use um utilize an influencer called You Nation, which we will target or families and and and
young young adults and um Orlando and Jacksonville and hoping to get them to come here um for the weekend. And this actual marketing buy will be is advantageous simply because it lives on before be beyond the sixmonth campaign
that we plan to do with them. We also plan to be in the Fish and Boat Florida, which is the state um fishing and boating guide, as well as the Florida Golf Guide um with our uh Palaca Golf Club uh celebrating 100 years. It's
important for us to tell that story and to be in that publication. Also, we have um we're proposing a $200,000 in advertising agency investment for our brand launch. Um, after that we plan to
have it be a $100,000 investment. Um, so we want to go bold when we have this new brand and and launch our advertising campaign with that. And then um also we've got some website projects um that we're we're considering for um just
again displaying the new brand and making it easy for the consumer to have experience or plan their experiences um for vacationing here. We also have a public relations effort to get other
people to tell our story. So, that is a quick overview of our proposed marketing plan for um for the next the next year. All right. I think we have some questions. Commissioner Harvey,
thank you, Madam Chair. Um I appreciate all your work on this. I appreciate you sitting down with me, walking me through this. I want to say it's long been overdue to clean this up and to move tourist development to the forefront to where it needs to be at. I do want to
address someone who wrote on on a social media site that we failed at getting the bass tournament. We we're not going to get them every year. We knew that going into it. Um they spread the love around, but we're sure grateful when they come. So
um but I appreciate all the effort. I did see that you're you would like to increase that tourist development tax up and that was part of the presentation. Um I would like to remind the viewing audience that this isn't a tax on you.
These are people that come to our community and they pay a bed tax to stay here. So they're paying the tax to promote your county and tell your story. And I think that's a great way of doing business. you know, let somebody else
pay the bill to tell your story. So, I appreciate all you've done. I support this wholeheartedly. It's a long time overdue and I look forward to more changes that might come down the path as we go into this. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Thank you, Commissioner Alexander.
You're recognized. Kimberly, I'm just looking through the numbers here. Um it look the majority of the spend you've got uh different companies earmarked
uh where the money is going to go. Uh the largest spend there's a $200,000 it says advertising agency. So we will do an RFP. We have an RFP
ready to go to um decide who that agency would be that we would work with for and it will probably be a we hoped it would be a three to five year commitment because when you launch a new brand and tell that story then we want it there to
be some consistency in um the advertising message. So we we haven't secured that yet. We're waiting for this approval to to do that. We had for the branding study and the and the um the
strategic plan, we had already set that in motion before the tourist development council um asked us to wait um to see what happened with the state legislature. So, there were some things in motion
that we had already made some decisions on that we halted and then um we've we've been we've got things ready to press go on several items. Um this this plan was in the works be before the
legislation Tallahassee and everyone there decided to have the conversation about um tourist development taxes going away. And so that's why this is coming. Normally this would come to you annually in a
budget and marketing plan presentation and this came up um simply because Tallahassee was having those conversations mid year and so we halted everything and now we're bringing it back to you because Tallahassee's made
their decision right now. Um, we'll wait to see what they decide next legislative session. Um, but this is the plan that we're bringing before you for approval. Did that answer your question? Yeah,
in a way, but um, so you've already got the RFQ ready to go? Yes. Okay. just and then after that um you'll be asking for hundred roughly $100,000 annually. Is there anything else in this budget
that needs that would be an annual request? Um so we're waiting to see how some of these initiatives perform to make that decision. We will always do cooperative advertising with Visit Florida. It may just be at different
levels. Okay. All right. So, um, this initial 720,000, I'm going to call it an investment. Um, this investment, um, going forward, are you anticipating that every year we're going to have this much of a of a
request for investment for advertising and expenses? No. More than half of that is foundational. Okay. In the branding and in the launch of the brand. So, Okay. All right. because I would I honestly I I applaud you for the hard
work you're putting into this, but I don't want to have to spend this much money every year. Right. Well, and one of the things too that that we are looking at what is sustainable, right? Um year after year um with the revenue that comes in from the TDT. So, we want
to definitely work within our means, but at the same time, we've we I don't I don't know that it's been a long time since a branding study has been done for the entire county. Right. I get that. And then I just think in the as we move forward um and we have
TDT money, there should be some consideration for some capital outlay projects. I think that you the TDC money should be working with the county in tandem on some of those projects like we were just talking about that where those are tourist those
bring in tourists too. Um so even if it's a shared um source where people were both you know local residents and visitors are using the boat ramp or local residents and visitors are using a sports complex or whatever it is those things are important to us. So, as we
move forward, I do want to see I would like to see this fund some of these funds moving going into a a capital outlay project. So, and we can figure out what that looks like in the future. I'm not saying that that's what we're here for today, but I'm just telling you my thoughts on the future.
Yeah, I'm going to echo those comments as well. And, you know, basically, we're signing a blank check for $200,000 for whatever advertising agency you guys determine you want to go with. I would like to know who some of those candidates are.
So, so um our distribution list from for the advertising agency have significant experience in destination marketing. Can you tell me who they are? So, Madden Media, Paradise Advertising, um
Advanced Travel and Tourism. Uh so, are these like national firms? They are. Okay. So, we're looking at all national firms. They are okay. Just and they work with destinations all over the all over the country. Okay. I just want to know where I'm
spending my money because and and um Madam Chair, if I may, um please know that we have met with staff and are working on plans um to present that in the 2526 budget regarding capital for capital. That would be great. I'm glad to hear
that. Commissioner Palister, you're recognized. um coming from the private sector um you have to advertise yourself and you have to promote yourself and you have to set aside those funds to do that. Once you do that and you expel that kind of
money in the private sector you expect a good amount of return on that for quite some time before you have to initially do that again. So I do support this but it's you know we put forth our best foot and we do the what we can do but not a a
returning thing yearly, but uh I understand how that works and you certainly have to do it because if you don't sell your product, nobody else will. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Are there any other comments or questions from the board? All right. Do we have a motion? Madam Chair, I move approval of the TDC
2025 marketing plan as presented. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Will we Okay. Is there any public comment regarding this item? All right. Thank you. I withdraw my motion. Motion withdrawn.
Uh Justin Morris, 180 Stokes Land and Road. Hey, Justin. How are you guys today? Good. Good. As a lifetime resident of Putin County, I find it ridiculous that you guys are considering spending three4 million dollars to tell people that Putinham County is here.
If they didn't know, we wouldn't had to impose impact fees uh for all the new construction. uh with the advent of social media, the Facebook, Instagram, people know Putin County is here. The the numbers that
they refer to in their presentation are not direct reflection of only stuff that they have put together. That's that's a reflection of what this county has done. not through whatever the agency is here, through the
entirety of Putnham County Citizens, social media, um, and just the the the resources that we have here. Um, 10 minutes ago, we were discussing
um, spend how it was a problem to spend two or $300,000 on a boat ramp that would would service Putnham County residents. And now we're talking about and that was an issue, but spending three4ers of a million dollars to
tell people Pton County is here doesn't seem I mean that that that doesn't the math doesn't math to me. Um, obviously you guys have maybe more more behind the scenes information than I do, but on the surface it seems like a
ridiculous expenditure. So that's that's my position as a PM County resident. Thank you, sir. Would you like to respond to that or I would if you don't mind, please. Um, thank you so much for your comments and I definitely understand the public's
frustration with looking at at this number and thinking that it it can be spent however anybody would like it to be spent. Statutoily, these funds can only be spent certain ways on certain types of
projects that can that that actually go to the the improvement and the the the improvement of tourism in our community. So there's there's definite restrictions on how this money can be spent. So
that's why it's taking some time for us to look at those capital improvements to see what's in alignment with state statute. And um from a marketing and sales perspective, marketing is expensive. And what what is what's the
new strategy for us is that we are actually targeting um the people that are going to spend the most in our community so that we see that return. And that's based on the data that you share. Commissioner Alexander, you're
recognized. I appreciate appreciate Mr. Morris coming up and uh speaking on that. I mean, like you said, the the funds need to be spent on something that is going to promote the area. Um, we're looking
at $700 and some thousand dollars on, you know, data that has been compiled by somebody you paid to compile data. You know, I worked for a company that was really good at compiling data to
promote their agenda. Uh, it's just it's hard for me to get behind spending threequarters of a million dollars. Does that include um the salary of the chamber as well or the chamber of leaders? So we're over a million dollars
I mean we're spending $250,000 to tell people how to spend our threequarters of a million dollars to tell us how to spend our money. I mean basically we're we're paying you to tell people to tell us how to spend threequarters of a million dollars. I'm
not discounting your work. I know everybody has a job but um I spent almost five years in sales and marketing for the world's largest association publisher, Naylor and Gainesville. We did a ton of C CBDs um
industry publications throughout the country. Um and just to bring a a blank sheet in here to tell me we don't know where this is going. We don't want to know where this is going, but we need $200,000 for that. I know your process was was in a
somewhat of a hiatus. based on what what the uh legislation was doing, but you guys were were still employed and these are national companies and whether or not they reviewed your RFQ, they could have done that because they're still working. They don't they're not all in Florida. So, we
could have had a completed um presentation here ready to go. So now you're I mean we're asking to approve something in thin air to for $200,000 to a company to be determined that we haven't been I haven't looked at their pedigree to see what they're going
to do. And uh we're going to spend a million dollars on a thin air based on data that was compiled by a company I don't know. Um I just got a little heartburn about it. uh especially after we get a a projected uh that could have
been is tangible that we know is going to bring money to the county. So um I I just have some concerns not having a complete presentation in front of me. So So I'll I'll address a couple things. Um we didn't ask the project. We kicked
it down the road for two weeks. That's all we've done. Um, and second of all, the I sit on the TDC board and I was the one who said, "Hey, we need to pump the brakes on spending money until we know what the Florida legislaturator is going
to do." Because the Florida legislature was was saying at that time when when they presented it to the TDC first and then it would have came to the BOCC. when it came to the TT TDC board, which is a multitude of people, just not myself, and she can explain who who was
on it if we need to. Um, we said as that board from the TDC is let's pump the brakes on this because if the state is getting rid of completely red of the TDC, which is what the full discussion was being is there would no longer be
any TDC money, then we didn't want to we didn't want to spend any money knowing that we weren't that it wasn't an ongoing, you know, that there wasn't any reoccurring funds or there wasn't going to be any money. So, that came from at the direction of the TDC. wasn't my only
point to you is that wasn't on Miss Kimberly or Miss Laura or the chamber itself. It came from the TDC board not wanting to spend any money until we knew what the legislature was going to do. So that was the the mindset. I don't I don't know how much cost would
be incurred to ask for RFQ from multiple advertising agencies. Um, but I'm sure that was already budgeted in there to have that for this year. So whether or not it came to fruition, I mean, it might rain this weekend, but I'm still planning on going out and
vote. If it doesn't rain, I'll go vote. It wasn't in the plan. It wasn't in the It was It was You want to explain how that happened? So mid So I came on board mid year and so there was no um budget and
marketing plan presentation. This is the first time that we've done that in a in a in a while. So that that being said, the other thing is that um it takes a lot I mean you being in sales, you understand it takes a lot of time and
effort and energy to put together a proposal. I am not I don't want to set the precedence being that we are an emerging destination. I don't want to set the precedence of us having an RFP out and companies, you know, taking the time to bid on something that may or may
not happen. And so I wanted to be respectful of the industry professionals time and effort in that as well. New recognized paid either way. Thank you. Yeah, this is a a big ask and a big
lift. I I I'm sure there are appreciate um Mr. Morse's comments that there there are people who would rather not us not promote Putinham at all. And I'm not saying that's that's you're in that camp, but I feel like we're long overdue
for a a brand, an identity, a a solid marketing plan. I mean, we're it looks to me I mean, I'm brand new here, but and maybe we some of this has been going on. I'm sure some of it's been going on in the past, but we're like going from
zero to warp speed here. Um, I would be I see the value in creating our brand and starting a program. I'd be more inclined to um take on this project at a lower funding level, get uh a track
record with the uh program itself, have them really prioritize and and and pair down some of this. come back to us and show a little track record of success and fund it additionally in the future if
that success is realized. So anyway, I I'd be more inclined to to run in the $500,000 neighborhood and then run forward from there. Just my two cents. Okay. So, was there anything particular on the list that you would say that needed to be
um I mean, I'd be comfortable with them having a a figure and working with because I see some of these that um there's definitely room for bringing them in in a phased approach or I I think some of these numbers are are
a little round to the top side. So, okay. All right. I I believe they are round for a reason. And then this will it wouldn't exceed this number but it could actually be less than this number once you get the bids in. And and the website is actually a
there's a threshold that that um we are in discussion now with a website provider um that we are currently working with and we may be able to get there um with very little cost. We're still having those discussions because we're waiting to see what
what we can do today. But you got a but you've got $150,000 on there. Yeah. Give it to something else. I mean, we're we're asked to be good stewards of the county's money. And you're telling me you might not need
it, but we're going to go ahead and ask for it anyhow. But I promise you, we're not going to get a check cut back for the website if we give you 150,000 and you get it done for free. It is It really isn't up to We're We're working We we just found out um maybe a
month ago that there was some there was some new information available to us before this presentation was a was done. Commissioner Harvey, you recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think I think you understand the conversation where we're going. Um I do want to remind
everybody that that the reason we have this money is because we haven't been promoting oursel for many, many years. And the worst thing I hate, two things, well, not hate, that's a strong word. I don't like to use that. Things I don't
dislike. I don't like big bank accounts in churches. And I don't like big bank accounts in government. I think it's silly for us to pad the books and put I think we should have a rainy day fund. All about that. I think we should pay our debt. All about that. But this is
the people's money and this money is to advertise Putin County. And we haven't been doing that. And it's quite obvious that we haven't been doing that. We've done good probably by default and you're right by social media, but we could do better. And this is an opportunity for
us to make that happen. And that's why I'm so supportive of it because I know it's been sitting there and sitting there and sitting there. And the problem with the legislators is they saw these big counties that had all these funds and couldn't spend the money. Well, we
had the funds and could have spent the money and we chose not to spend the money. And if I'm wrong, correct me. You're absolutely right. That's how I look at it. I've served on there as chairman before. I know the struggles. We need to suck this money away because we might have this one
coming. Well, why don't we suck a little bit away and promote oursel? That's what we do in business. That's what we did. Yeah, we'll put up a little bit for the rainy day, but we've got to we got to promote oursel here. start promoting ourself. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Commissioner Palis, you're recognized. Um, I wouldn't dare to tell you how to do your job. And from the proposal you're bringing forward, I don't know if you're swinging for the fence or just trying to get on base. I I couldn't tell you. I wouldn't begin to tell you. But
so this this plan is very strategic. We are looking at people. We are targeting people that are already interested in Florida, but don't know that we exist. We are already we are um we haven't done a targeted marketing effort to
Jacksonville and Orlando, our two closest metropolitan areas that we can increase that Saturday night stay. Um so those those are the other um visit Florida co-op that we're we um we are
strongly suggesting is um the undiscovered Florida. That is an insert in the Smithsonian magazine that we could never buy on our own with the with the budget. But with Visit Florida's help, it's at a discounted rate. So when we talk about like, you know, budget
management and we're we're being strategic with how we use these dollars. Um, but that gets us in the Smithsonian magazine so that we can tell our history story, our natural resource story, which is again a targeted market for us. Um there's
this this plan focuses on how we get people that don't live here into the small businesses of our community to experience the things that
we have. Um it is not a one-sizefits-all. We can't just go and market in Jacksonville or Orlando. We have to be very strategic with who we're targeting. And we will work with those
influencers and the agency to do that. And pardon me for my possible ignorance here, but why would you we just give you a blank check for that large number? Why couldn't you come back to us with we've talked to ABC advertising and EFG advertising and and these bids and let
them come in and then we see what kind of money we have? I mean, which and which ACOs are you using? I mean, tell me, give us the data. I mean, so which I'm sorry, I didn't hear the first part of your question. Which SEOs are you using? I mean, how are you tracking the data? Where's your click data on the the targets you're
focusing on? So, that's part of the visitor research piece. The data that we have was actually provided for free to me. Okay. Because of my relationships within the industry. So, you have that data so you know who
to target. Why do we need to engage in an ad? agency for $200,000. So number one, the influencers are all that we are that we are working with are all outdoor and nature. How many followers do they have?
So live wildly, Misty Wells, all of them are outdoor and nature related on the influencer side um with the exception of you nation. And we are using them to target the lowhanging fruit that is in our backyard in
Jacksonville and Orlando. Trying to capitalize on weekend getaways. Capitalize on those on events. Marketing those are weekend events to them. But those are minimal costs. What are $7,500 a piece? $6,000 a piece.
No, that the Nation campaign is $30,000. 30 for UN. So um but but the live wildly and all of that that's that's those are projects that we'll work at with with the agency. Those are just some suggested
um ones. the a ad agency what they do is they they have their data resources matched with our works and we combine and strategically work together to come up with the marketing plan um based on
the budget that's provided because you you I mean I could I could dream all day long and come up with a million dollar project for a marketing plan but we for the for the ad agency,
we have to go through the RFP process so that we can I mean and this is this is na naturally how this is done in destination marketing. We come to you and say this is the budget. We're going to go out to RFP and and and
give you the plan. We're going to give continue to give you quarterly reports and tell you I mean in the sheet we tell you what we're going to gain and the measurement metrics for for what we're going to do with each project, right? And so we would we I mean we're up for
the challenge. We will come back to you and tell you how each of these projects are performing. Miss Kim, thank you for that. I know that that this is a challenge for everyone in this room right now and and um because it's a lot of money, right?
And you're stepping in in a new role and you've come up with a plan and you've detailed your your budget and your request and and your vendors. Some of them already have um like visit Florida. some of them and it looks like in your budget that each one of these have
different different roles, different targeting, different uh processes that they're going to be doing, whether some of them are social media, some of them are more um maybe a an ad on a television, some of them are are in magazines, some of them are website
engagement and that kind of stuff. A and please understand that this board we we just haven't seen this kind of a request before, right? Don't take it personal. I don't think that anybody is trying to absolutely attack the chamber or you you've made your presentation and you have good data
to support it. I think that it's just so challenging especially in a time when we have to worry about um every dollar and this is just a challenge for this board and it was a challenge for me when I sat sat on the TDC. You remember you had to sit with me like two or three times
because I wasn't on board with it either. I was I was struggling too and some of the you know they're they're just now seeing this for the first time. I mean other than in their packet but so please just understand it's a lot and it's just the the board is just trying
to take it all in and and it's a big request and we just haven't seen that before. And to Commissioner Harvey's point is you wouldn't have this money had it not been accumulated over the years. And now you've got a very
aggressive I would call this a very aggressive marketing plan and to spend TDC dollars. But what what I think for me that really really helps me is when I look at your return on investment. So how do you measure that you're going to
for every dollar spent we get three back. So let's go over that real quick for me because I think that would help everyone um understand the the return on investment because that's what it always gets down to me. If I'm spending a dollar, what am I getting back? Sure. And and we provided the way that
we came up with those those numbers. So, I want to go over that. Okay. Um, so with the data that we've been provided, we do want to convert day trippers to over one overnight stay and one night stays to two night stays. Um,
and increase, you know, that Saturday night. That's that's a key focus for us. Um, the ROI comes with an estimated 1,000 units or rooms when in our community. That includes vacation rentals, that includes hotels, that
includes RV spots. Um the average daily rate um from the data that we have available um is $116.74 with a 66.7% occupancy
which is 243.46 days. That in lodging alone equates to more than $28 million. A 5% increase in lodging alone
would be um again we we use the the o the the occupancy rate um increasing it to 261 days um that would result in two million a little more than two point $2.1
million in lodging alone. So if you take the the ROI it's um 19 5.7% ROI, which means for every dollar invested in this plan, um
we hope to generate two $2.96 back. And that spending for for this presentation is just in the overnight stays in just lodging. that is not taking dining or gas or um if they've if
they've booked a boat for rent or they've taken a tour on the river with somebody or they went on a specialty hunt or any of the other wonderful things that we have in the community. So this and I see up at the top you've got um that basically some of our day trips
and overnight trips have been down from the previous year. Yes. And right now lodging is flat. Like our bed tax collections are flat. Yeah. and and I think it's you're going to have a challenge in this the way the economy is going to go, right? The economy is going to make a huge difference in all this as well. Um so,
thank you for bringing that up. Um Commissioner Harvey, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do appreciate this. I, you know, I'm drawn to the last statement on this page and basically this is money that's not going to come back to the county. We're not going to
see that. We're taking an investment. This is money going back to businesses. And like Commissioner Wilkinson just said, that only counts for the o the hotel stay. Doesn't count for the restaurants and all the other things that are our our business community is
going to benefit from an investment that this board makes. And I've always said our main job, two main jobs. One's to get out of the way and one's to promote our county. And I cannot see why. I know it's ambitious. I appreciate that. I
know it's scary, but you got to stand back in front of us here pretty soon and say, did it work or did it not work? And that's where the rubber meets the road. But I want to know our businesses got had the advantage of of having dollars brought back to their community from an
investment that we made and those are and those are funds that are generated from those same businesses, those the the bed tax. So, all right, it's back to the board. Um, is there a motion on the floor? Madam Chair, I make a motion that we support the TDC plan as projected. All right, we have a motion. Is there a
second? Motion fails for lack of second. All right. Is there another motion? I would move to support it at a at a lower level of of $520,000. Okay. So, your motion is for them to come back with a less aggressive plan at
a lesser budget. May I make a suggestion? Sure. Can we take that website expenditure out? The $150,000. Okay. I would like to see a completed presentation more than, you know, with some more tweaking. I can't hear you.
I can't hear you. I would like to see a completed presentation because that's kind of you already disclosed that you're going to probably get the website adjustment for free. So, um, not necessarily. Oh, I mean, I I'll just forego redoing the
the website at any cost. Okay. So, so, um, you have the floor. Um, Mr. Nel, Commissioner Nel, regarding your, um, motion. Do you want to keep it just that her coming back with the whole new budget at
500,000 or do you want to take out the um I'm more comfortable with just at at a lower level. I I don't feel like it's my point to micromanage what what the the chambers how they're going to develop
this program. I I really uh I feel like that's out of my wheelhouse. I'm comfortable with with them prioritizing within a given budget what what they feel is most important and most beneficial to the community. So, you know, I would I would leave it at that
say $520,000 level. Commissioner Alexander Kim, I'm not asking you to just make wholesale cuts on it. You know, if if you felt that $150,000 was necessary for the website, I don't say just cut it out of there. Obviously, there was a need
for it. So, I would like to see, you know, and again, like J, excuse me, like Commissioner Nubold said, I'm not asking to tell you how to do your job. What I'm saying is if you felt that it was justified to dedicate uh one of the largest uh ask to that website,
reappropriate funds elsewhere if you feel that that is needed. Sir, and Madam Chair, if I may. Yes, go ahead. Um we have halted this plan since April. Um so there is four months of marketing
work and foundation building that we could have been doing. Oh, I'm well aware of windows of opportunity. We are if if it takes me cutting a budget line item from this pres from this proposal so that we can start to do
something. That's what I would like to see from a staff perspective. Um so that we can do something because right now if if this if there is no progress made with this we continue to do nothing in as we to
progress the marketing effort. That means branding and the strategic plan and getting us on the road to get community input to know who we are and what we what we need to do. So, um, and I'm happy to send out an RFP and bring
that back, you know, to bring that back to you, but if if I I don't feel comfortable doing an RFP if I don't know what we have to spend. And that's what I'm I mean, that's what
I'm that's what we've proposed. I don't understand why you're not comfortable with that. Can you explain why you wouldn't be? That's no different than me going in a store and wanting to buy item A and I go, "Woo, can't afford that." You know, you know, ask them what it's going to cost and if you got a cut from them, that's fine, but I'm just I'm still not
comfortable with a a $200,000 ask and then we can wholesale cut $150,000 here. Um, so yeah, I understand the urgency. Obviously, I understand the urgency of getting things done, but you know, as we said before, what's two weeks?
Okay, we have a motion on the floor to um set the budget at 520,000. Is that correct? Yes, ma'am. Is there a second? Wow, we're doing great today. Motion dies for lack a second. What are we doing today? I'd like to see them come back with RFP
on that one particular item or we are across the board on all of them. Well, whatever they're that what they say they need the money. I want to know what for and where it's going. So, you just got through saying you weren't going to micromanage them, but that's exactly what you're doing.
No, I'm just telling I'm not giving them a blank check. That's all I'm saying. I'm just saying what is it going to cost? And then we'll know exactly what it is. That's what she shooting in the dark with the 700 number in. No, you're not shooting in the dark when she's giving you two, four pages of
detailed information. That's not shooting in the dark. But maybe I'm missing something. I'm I'm thinking are these hard numbers from the uh providers? So these numbers the the hard numbers
I've provided the only estimates are for we've already got the photo and and video shoot. Um we've had some proposals that met that threshold and some that went over. Um so that's a real number.
Um all of the visit Florida um ask is a real number. The uh strategic plan and branding study that's a real number. Um fish and boat the you nation that's a real number. They
came to us with that. Um same with the the fish um fish and boat Florida and the golf guide. Those are real numbers. The estimates come with the advertising agency, the um the content creator. I am
going to negotiate those rates with the content creators that we decide to work with. Okay. Um one is ready to sign the contract whenever this is this plan is approved. Um, we've got the website development and the ad agency are really the the
question the the variables. And we didn't send, like I said, we didn't send out the RFP for the ad agency simply because I I I wanted to be sure that we were the budget was approved so that we could move forward. The other thing is
is that while they have ways to gain data, we don't have data to hold them accountable. And so I want to be part of that conversation when we sit down and we develop the actual detailed plan. I
mean, they don't know enough about us as a destination and ad agency to build. They can they can put stuff on paper, but that plan any ad agency that works in destination marketing, we're constantly changing that marketing plan
based on engagement and and results. Okay. Commissioner Harvey, you recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. I I think it's important that we know today that this board, the tourist development council, is appointed by this board. So, they've
already went through this and they've they this is what they said they need to promote Putnham County. Two motions have failed today and and again, it only hurts for a little while. As Commissioner Taylor told Commissioner
Palace here one time, it's not about hurting. It's about moving our county forward here. We have to take these citizens boards when they come to us and say, "This is what we want to do. this is how we want to spend the money. We've accumulated this money for a long time.
We haven't done We haven't been very active. We got a new person now that wants to be more aggressive. Guys, the bottom line here is we spend money. We're going to hold you accountable at the end of the day. If if if your plan was too aggressive,
then it was too aggressive. But I like to be aggressive in sales. I like to promote our county. And this is just a small part. Like Commissioner Wilkinson said, once they're here, they're not just sitting in the hotel room not doing
anything. They're out visiting Putnham County. I was in Orlando the other day. I was at a function and a lady had this picture of Billy Graham with all the presidents and I and she was promoting all this Billy Graham. I said, "Do you
know that Billy Graham started in Putham County?" No, I didn't know that. Do you know he was baptized in a lake not far from Commissioner Paliser's house? I didn't know that. She wanted me to buy him. I said, 'Why don't you add Putnham County to your picture. I don't want to
do that. So, I've been sending her all this data that shows, you know, the historical markers. That's what we got to be about because somebody's out there promoting things that don't even know we exist. So, I don't mind doing something
even at a lesser expense, but let's do something today to help promote Putnham County. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Commissioner Alexander. You're recognized. I just it's it's hard for me to get behind, you know, tying up a million
dollars of the constituents funds. I don't care where it came from. It's my job to spend it responsibly and get the most bang for my buck. I mean, I'm I'm not sure how much you know about SEOs, what it is, how many what clicks are, what page engagement time is, or any of that stuff. There's
millions of influencers out there, $7,500, $30,000 a pop. I don't know who did the research. I don't know who did the marketing. I mean, you can go on AI and create a report to justify anything you want to say. The sky is black. Okay, let's figure out why. But they, you know, you can create a report to do
that. Before I dump a million dollars of the community's money, I need to see some proof in the pudding. I was in the marketing game, the advertising game for many years. I worked for the world's largest trade and association publisher. I understand the
dynamics of this pricing, you know, it was many years ago, but the pricing sounds somewhat excessive to me. And I think that we can get a little bit better performance. And I would like to see documentation of what we're getting for our money before
I okay spending threequarters of a million dollars of my people's money. Commissioner Palisier, as I said before, coming from the private sector, I do know you have to sell your own product. You have to you have to get it out there because not everybody knows it uh abroad. And we're
not on 95, we're not on 75. We're not on I4. So, we don't have that vast uh travel pattern of people zipping all around the state that we might be exposed to otherwise. I'm not against supporting this, but I just I'm with Commissioner Alexander. I
think I'd like to see some more firmer number, those real hard numbers that that that you know for a fact are going to be there versus pie in the sky. Okay. So, um, is that is that that was Yeah, I'm um, if I understood you correctly,
everything on your budget is a, um, a what' you call it? A real number cost, uh, with the exception of the advertising agency for 200,000 and the website development for 150. So, if you took out those 350,000
as a variable, that you would those would come back. I think the sounded like I've heard a couple commissioners say they'd like to see the RFP on those. Um that puts you at um 370 455. Okay. So
would the board consider approving the things that she's already gotten um moving forward with that. So that's the only solution I have to come up with. But we got to do something guys. What are we doing? What was that number
again? Your the what the budget she presented was 720,455. She said that 200,000 for agency advertisement on the last page for website engagement and then website development for 150,000 have not been
sent out thousand. So would the again I'm not make I can't make a motion. If I can I can move the gavvel, but would the board consider um that taking the 350 that's um those two line items, approving the 370 and allowing her to move forward with those projects and
coming back with the RFP results on the those two items. Madam Chair, I make a motion that we approve 370,000 of the TDC um marketing plan and budget. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second.
All right. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. So you've got 370,455 roughly is what is what it was. Um and then the two items you can come back with once you've got them the bid proposals on those. Thank you.
Thank you. All right. Y'all making us work today. Good lord. Um, moving into um this will be another great one. Um, administration. Before we go, I'm going to put these out of order.
Um, let's move to because I know the sheriff's is here and I don't want them to wait any longer. Um, sheriff's office sex offender ordinance. We're going to move item D in front of C as a point of privilege. So, ordinance number 2025-021
in your packet. Madam Chair, can I ask a point of order? Yes. At the last meeting, we all jumped up and down and hooped and hollered and was in support of this ordinance. Do we need to go through it again or just have a public hearing and Yeah. So, so that's the question. Um I
think that we need to understand the process when we talked about Yes, we were um had some appetite for it. Um now the ordinance has been written and is in front of you today. So if um Mr. Uh, Commando, if you could walk us through what the process would be going forward.
So, we have to have a public hearing on um approval and adoption of the ordinance. We did not get it in for advertisement 10 days prior, which is required by statute. So, we're using today as additional public opportunity for public comment. Um, it'll come back
to you one last time for final approval, but I didn't see any issues with the ordinance as it was presented to you for your consideration. Okay. And sheriff, I know you want to speak on this. So, um, if you want to go ahead. I'm here at your pleasure. Uh, before you today on the DAS is, uh, obviously a
proposed ordinance that, uh, strengthens, uh, provisions that are already in place in Florida statute and gives us some additional restrictions on sex offender residencies um, here in Putham County. Uh this is
strictly my opinion the world according to Gator Delo I do not believe that you can rehabilitate sexual predators. It's not a question of if but when they will reaffend if given the opportunity. Um I think we owe it to ourselves and to our children to do everything we possibly
can um within our ability to protect them and this is another measure that uh just strengthens our ability to do just that. So I'm here if you have any questions. um or have any concerns, we can certainly uh discuss those. I do have one question and then I'll go
to Commissioner Alexander. Does the other municipalities do they each have to adopt the same ordinance or does it depend on where the sheriff, In other words, the sheriff covers Pomona Park, but it has its own town. So, would they still have to adopt one?
Yes. Yeah. The municipalities because of home rule, they have to adopt the ordinance as well. Okay. All right. Okay. Commissioner Alexander, you're recognized. I I would like to say thank you. Um but that was a great point you brought up there, Madam Chair. So I guess you guys
will have to make a presentation for to each one of those group. But man, I seeing your interaction with your children and Alex with his. Um I I just want to say I appreciate you guys being proactive in protecting our community and our children. Um good job. Thank
you. There is uh no more important mission than we have than to protect our children. Um and I will stop at nothing to ensure that Putnham County does not become a safe haven for pedophiles. Absolutely. We have seen that in your behavior.
Thank you. All right, that's fine. Um so is there any public comment on the sex offender ordinance? Is there anybody who wishes to speak on this item? All right. So, we'll move um Madam Chair, I move that we move this
item to our next meeting um so we can pass this ordinance to allow 10 days for advertising. Correct. Second. Anything else need to be said? All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. All right, thank you.
I need a that was easy button up here. I know. Thank you very much. Hey, Sheriff, Madam Chair, do you mind if I take a point of privilege? Congratulations on being the president of the Florida Sheriff's Association. That's an amazing fulfillment for Putinham.
You are president. Matt Reynolds is president of the clerk's association. I'm moving up to be president of the county association. I don't think that's ever been done in Putinham County. So, thank you for your service on that. Thank you so much. But I'm not convinced that condolences might not be more
appropriate. Well, I feel that. Thank you. It's still a feather in the hat for Putinham County. All right, moving on to the pavilion at Crescent um Lake. And who's handling
that, Mr. Mr. Suggs? Yes, ma'am. That'd be me. Okay. The um nursing home there reached out. they're um experiencing some critical failure with their elevator and have to review it. It has to have some regular modernization
um which old elevators have to go through from time to time. Um this is a county owned property and the lease agreement stipulates that the county's responsible for these types of repairs. So the quote was um obtained
from a company that can work on those elevators which is proprietary in nature um under the sole source or I'm sorry piggybackable source well contract and the price is before you. All right. Thank you Commissioner Harvey. You're recognized.
Thank you Madam Chair. You know I support this. We've got to do something to modernize, but I think this is a bigger conversation that we need to have one day when we have our our conversation about all of our county properties. Do we want to be into the
two nursing homes that we have? Um, you know, I don't mind if that's the way the board wants to go. Um, but we do have to do something today for this elevator project. But, you know, we all got a email probably from Earl Ballinger and
he wasn't incorrect and what he was asking um what is our plan going forward on some of these older buildings and um I think probably when we do have that meeting, Madam Chair, that that would be a great conversation to have. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Newer
recognized. I always fall back to that little thing. You know, I'm new to this and and a lot of this stuff comes as a surprise to me. I was I'm from Crescent City. I played around that nursing home from the time I was a child and I had no idea we owned that
piece of property. And anyway, I I can't I think we are obligated to make this repair. I don't think we can get out of that, but we really do need to open the discussion of is it good for us to be a landlord in
these situations? I I I really think um we can open this up to the possibility of a private entity owning it, getting it back on the tax roles and getting rid of the burden of upkeep over time. So, I know it's in my district and I have not spoken to anybody down there about this.
That's just where I fall at the moment. So, thank you. All right. Um Commissioner Alexander, as usual, I'm last in line, but No, I got somebody I got two people behind you. You gota be quicker on that button than me, Harvey. I'm never going to win at Jeopardy, am I?
Yeah, I know. Right. No. Um, you know, I I kind of echo the sentiments that um Mr. Harvey and um Mr. Newold. I mean, at the end of the day, it's costing us money to own that property. And uh I don't know what our lease
agreement is with those folks. Um, but at $300,000, I don't think we're we're seeing a profit on that at the end of the year if we have to put that much money in. And we know it's an aged building. The roof's going to have issues. The um HVAC system is going to have issues. So, you know, like those
properties could they could be very valuable, especially a waterfront piece like that for a developer downtown that could really generate some revenue for the county and we wouldn't have to maintain it. So, I think that's a conversation that uh we all need to engage. Um, so I don't know how we'd
move that forward and I don't know what the term of their lease is. When will that when do when can we vacate that lease, Mr. Suggs? We we just entered into the renewal of that lease not that many years ago. And
as far as losing money on the lease, I mean, candidly, there are many years that the county has collected money and not had to pay any sort of thing. So, when you look at the whole term of the lease, you're still making money. Um, as far as what would it take, if the if the county decided that this
property no longer served a public purpose, then there's a statutory process you would go through where you surplus the property and put it out for bid. Um, and then whoever comes in comes in. And then whoever, if there's a lease on the property at the time you decide to do that, whoever purchased the
property does so knowing that it's subject to the terms of the lease. Okay? So, we can sell it without with it not being vacant. We can sell it occupied. Uh, you can dispose of property in many different ways. Yeah. Okay, cool. I didn't know how. But you can't you can't just sell it by getting a realtor, getting the highest.
Right. Right. Right. Right. I know there's there's always a process. There's always a process, but yeah, I mean, yeah, we're making money now through the term of the lease, but what if we have another catastrophic failure, you know, or asbestous or, you know, any of the things that you might encounter in an agent building. So it might be
something we want to consider limiting our exposure on. Commissioner Palisier. U Commissioner Alexander. Typically I'm riding in the caboose by myself so I'm bringing up the rear typically. Don't let him take that. But all the money goes to South Putham.
Um I wholeheartedly agree with Commissioner Newold. U I did know it was a county own facility. I got you there on that one a little bit. But, uh, you know, I think we need to review all of our, uh, county owned buildings as to
what they how they benefit the county the most and where do we do we need to get them back on the tax roles or do we need to uh enhance more of what we're doing, which I and commissioner comments have some I'm going to explain upon that a little bit, but I I do think we need
to visit u looking at all our county owned buildings and and see do these things need to be put back on the tax roles is the county benefiting or would it benefit the private sector more to uh and we benefit from them? Um but I think that's something we need to definitely be looking into. Thank you.
Um so as far as this uh bid for uh repairing the elevator, uh this since this is a life safety issue, it's not something we can really Okay. All right. So I need a I think we got to eat this elephant one bite at a time, gentlemen. So, let's first talk
about the um I need an an a motion for the what's in front of you today. I make a motion that we approve the purchase of the elevator elevator modernization project at the pavilion at
Crescent City resolution 2025-066 to the tune of $256,43045. Second. Second motion second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. All right. Motion carries unanimously. Can I make one more comment real quick?
You know, I I jumped right out there with that. I don't I don't have anything against the nursing home. You know, that nursing home is a probably employs 100 people down there in Putham County. So, I mean, it is I would rather it continue as a nursing
home in the private sector. Um, I do realize when you open that up, you know, developer could come in and say, "I'd rather have condos there." And, you know, we we do run that risk, but, um, anyway, I don't want people to think that that that business is not an asset to the
community because it really is. So, anyway, just throw that out. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Nald. Commissioner Harvey, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner Newold, I think the mark right there with that comment. You know, this isn't just about topic. This is about all of
not just our buildings, but our properties that we own. Uh we got a lot of things out there and it's going to take a holistic approach of us sitting down going what's our vision? What's our marketing plan? What's what do we want to look like with these types of facilities and can we repurpose them?
Can we not? Do we need to sell them to the private? Whatever that case may be. But this is going to be a big conversation not only about buildings, properties also. and um what how our citizens can benefit from that. So, thank you, Madam Chair. Well, um thank you. I I agree with my
colleagues. I would like I don't like owning a nursing home as the county's asset. I don't think we should be in that business. Um I think it should be um both of our nursing homes. I didn't know it until I was here probably a good year that we actually um the county and I guess because there used to be old
hospitals is how we got them. Um, but at the end of the day, they should be in the private sector and they should be back on the tax roles in my opinion. And you know, my husband works on people's cars for a living. And when he tells you it's time to trade in your car and sell
it because you're you're spending more money than what the vehicle is worth, then you listen to your mechanic because he can continue to take your money and let you spend money on your car, but he's honest and says, "Hey, it's time to try it's time to get rid of this vehicle." And in this case, it's time to
get rid of these two nursing homes. That's where I'm at. I truly believe that if we're spending 256,000, and again, it's a life safety issue. We didn't have a choice um for a building that brings in roughly $11,000 a month in its current form. I know over the
years, as um Mr. Commando said, over the years, it's usually, you know, we're still in in good color. We're still we're still good. Um, but at the end of the day, when we start spending that kind of money, we're not we're not helping our citizens. Um, I do have the
same concern that Commissioner Newbolt brought up is once you put it out on out in the public to be bid on, it could be whatever it whoever buys it can do whatever subject to zoning and regulation. Um, but that's what a free market is and that's what we support.
That's what I support. And so, um, anyway, I don't know why we have to wait. Why do we have to wait until we talk about, this is for my colleagues, why do we have to wait until we talk about all the buildings? Why do I I don't think we should. I think that we'd have the conversation
right now. And the conversation is, let's sell let's get do we I assume that we'd have to get appraisals on these. I would like to see us get appraisals on these two buildings and move forward with the process. So, that's my thought
process. Commissioner Alexander, do you have a comment? Yeah, I guess we uh we just take the step and make the motion that we uh ask staff to proceed start the proceedings to sell these two properties. Yes, sir. Bless them. What's the
process? What's the first So, I I don't know that you necessarily need a motion. You can give direction staff to at least go out and get appraisals for the properties. I would say that's probably the first step in the process that brings it back to you. Um and at that point we can put something on the agenda that you would
vote on to determine um one that the property is surplus and then you go out for a competitive bid process um or an auction type process where at least with those appraisals you know where to set your minimum bid, right? That's what that's what the purpose is. is you have to set your minimum bid with those appraisals and um
it then we determine whether it could be an open bid process or a sold bid process or it has to be sold bid. There's a I think there's a few different options auction options in the statute. So we can look through those and bring that back as part of the presentation to the board.
And of course like you said it would be if it were to be surplus it would be subject to terms of the existing lease. Yes. So when you surplus, that's just a finding by the board that it no longer serves a public purpose. Okay. And then the actual disposal, the disposal has to go through the process
pursuing to statute. All right. All right. So, can we um can I get my colleagues to agree that wave in support to get an appraisal done on these two buildings? All right. Very good. Thank you. Um moving into public comment
on miscellaneous 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 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 three minutes. Public comment
cards are conveniently placed at the meeting room entrance that should be submitted prior to the meeting to the deputy clerk who sits to the right of the podium. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak? Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak? All right.
Moving into appointments starting with Commissioner Alexander. I have none. Get out. My seats are full. I like giving you a hard time. Commissioner Pelis here.
I have none. All right. Up the rear. I'm not I'm not in the caboose. Up. You're not in the caboose. Commissioner Newold. I have none today. Commissioner Harvey. Madam Chair, we have um a situation that the value adjustment board is meeting on the 22nd
and we have a we had a resignation of a person uh on that value adjustment board. As you know, you and I both sit on that board as chair and vice chair and last year I was the chair. um you possibly will be the chair this year,
but we do need to get somebody on there and I have two people that have offered to serve on there in replacement of the one who have left. I don't know, there's not going to be a whole lot of time for us to find another one if we if we choose to go that way. But let me tell
you, the two people that have offered was Buddy Goddard and Sheila Leadford. So, I don't know how the board wants to move, if they want to move at all. uh that's fine. But we do have a value adjustment board coming up and that board is clearly just a board that says
did the property appraiser do their job in valuing the property correctly and um and people the citizens can come to us and make those requests to lower their taxes or lower their adjustment. I'm sorry. So that's what that board's
about. All right. So, are you are you making a motion or or a if it's an atlarge position, are you choosing one of your two options? It is. I would like for Sheila Leadford to take that spot. She's a very good person and very good. She has a real
estate license, so it wouldn't interfere with her license whatsoever. All right, we have a motion on the floor to fill the value adjustment board at large position with Sheila Leadford. Is there a second? Second. Second. All right, we have a second. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Like sign. All right. And
I have no appointments. Was that all your appointments? That's it. Thank you. All right. Clerk of the court, Matt Reynolds, for your comments. Good morning, commissioners. Um, construction or renovation of the customer service building still coming along uh pretty well. Um, but other than that, I don't have much to bring to the
board. All right. Very good. Thank you. I think you just shared something on social media though. What was your you were sharing some information about Oh, the the def the fines. the the which one? Oh, we've we share
stuff on there all the time. Something about helping people who are struggling with um some kind of issues. I I remember seeing that. I shared it. Driver's license paid. Yeah, that that comes around once a year. Operation Greenlight, but yeah, we just had an ad come through from the association, so we
put it onto our social media. But yeah, once a year, Operation Greenlight, typically done uh in the springtime, March, April time frame. people come in and can we won't charge them the collection fee rate which is 28%. So Okay.
Yep. All right. County administrator Mr. Suggs. No comments this morning and Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner comments starting with Commissioner Palisier.
I'll start with you. I'm not going to make you the caboose this time. I guess you blow that horn long enough, somebody will finally listen. But um I brought this forward several weeks ago, maybe a month or so ago, I don't know.
Uh about our complex here and the uh how we going to utilize our building to the best part is benefits everyone, especially our county. And I'd like some dialogue back from my colleagues here as to the
Commissioner Harvey and I are old-timers here, so we're going to still call it the Pantry Pride Bill, which I understand you work. Yeah. Yeah. Don't get him started. I just shop there with my mother, but uh I was just too young. I was a baby. I was in a cart. I was just a in a stroller.
Um anyhow, um I'd like some some kickback from y'all as to what your thoughts and plans or ideas are about utilizing our building to its greatest potential. Well, I'm gonna take the point of privilege before the buttons. Um, since
I've been here, I have wanted IT department out of where they're at. The IT department should be centrally located with the governmental complex. It should not be upstairs at the tax collector's office. I don't think it's secure. Um, I mean, it is secure, but it
could be more secure here. And I have always wanted and advocated for the IT department as a whole to be in this building or somewhere other than where it's at. I think it needs to be here that, you know, opens up more area downtown. But I think, you know, we have
parking issues and everything else. Get those people. Those are our staff people. They need to be housed here in in our building. So that's that's my first comments. Um commission comm you're not a commissioner, Mr. Grimes. never.
Um, just so you know, Mr. Commissioner Pelis here, that we have that scheduled for the next BOCC meeting. We've already engaged with the designer. They're going to come in here with basically a blank plat, let you guys kind of draw through it and figure out what you want. Then we can go and get a conceptual design for the engineering and architecture and all
that stuff for what you So, you'll have a presentation before you at the very next commission meeting. Right. All right. Commissioner Alexander, I'm sorry, Commissioner Harvey. He he was number he was faster. Tease me knew I couldn't resist on Pantry Pride building. But you know a year and a half
ago maybe year ago we sat down with staff one of our community partners needed some um space in that building and the idea was to uh build it out put it there you put part of them there and
everybody benefits from it. So, I think anytime we can invest in oursel, we have empty buildings here, no doubt. Um, we have some that probably can't be used, then we need to do something with them. But if we can use them and we can bring revenue back to the county, offset the
taxpayers, I think that's what we need to be about and investing in ourselves. So, Commissioner Paly, I appreciate that. Thank you. I do, too. Commissioner Alexander, I want to applaud Mr. Mr. Suggs and Mr. Grimes. I think it was two weeks ago or so. Um, Mr. Suggs and I walk the
facility over there maybe maybe three weeks, but uh, you know, we all talk about government and how slow it is, but for them to have a presentation ready to go for the next meeting that that's that's getting it done. Yep. That is good. It is impressive,
man, after what I've seen. You He's proud. He's proud of himself. He did a good job. Don't steal his thunder, Larry. But thank you guys. I I look forward to that. We've got, you know, obviously this is a building we're not going to surplus. So, we need to utilize it to
the maximum capacity and we have a a needy group which uh Mr. Peliser has highlighted in our our veteran service administration that could definitely use the space. Uh I agree with Commissioner Wilkinson that it needs to be here and I'm sure there's a couple other um vital
portions of our our staff that need to be here as well. So, like you said, you're going to bring in a map, you know, a blueprint, and everybody has a different design, but they all have a priority of who needs to be in that building. So, thank you guys. All right. You still have the floor, sir.
Um, just to add to it a little bit, the sign out front says Putnham County Governmental Complex. That's what I think it should be. Everything that deals with Putnham County Government should be here under this one roof in this parking lot. central centralized one-stop shop
parking shopping for far as your your businesses or your issues with the county, whatever it may be. Um, I think number one priority should be definitely the expansion of uh veteran services over there with the job they're doing in such a confined space. that
should be addressed first and then move right along with uh moving other governmental agencies here with us uh enhancing and making it easier for our constituents to to do business with the county government. So what you're proposing, what I'm hearing is that
you'd like to see other con constitutional officers you utilize our building to its fullest extent. The buildings that those people now occupy be sold, put back on the tax roles to benefit everybody. That's definitely what I'd like to see.
Okay. So that's a big discussion, but it sounds like you're head headed in that direction. I am. Very good. Okay. Does it still tell us your comments? Yes, absolutely. It's your comments. going to get on to a happier better note. I'm talking into it. I'm better than down there in district three. I can tell
you that. Uh onto a happy note. Uh Friday night. Uh forgive me if I get emotional, but my oldest daughter is now a University of Florida alumni. Hey. All right. She's joining the Gator. She's she's Gator to the bone. uh she
has a bachelor's in nursing and um she is eventually I didn't know this but she can skip her masters and go on to her doctorate and that is her plan but she going to take this about a year off she told me she's about schooled out but uh she's she yes she congratulations that's a big deal
that's a big deal smart girl she's very smart I am and uh all those brains I promise you skip to generations because I don't have what she has that kid never cracks a book and right on through. So, or I think she didn't crack a book, but maybe. Thank
you. My my time's up. Um, so since you were talking, let's talk about the truck traffic on Crow Avenue that you may got the the front page of the paper about. Let's talk about that. I'm surprised y'all haven't given me more grief about that. We are. We're just getting started. Oh, yeah. Okay. Y'all y'all are warming
up. Uh, thanks to Alex Sharp from the PCSO, um, we are working to alleviate that problem. We've been putting together um names of companies, truck trucking companies that are using that road and
um I think we're sending out some letters, aren't we, Alex, to all those trucking companies and to the uh sand companies in West Putnham, which I think that's where all they're coming from. Um um and get get the word to them to get the word out. You know, I think these
guys just don't know. And it is shorter. I know it's shorter, but that is not a place for commercial truck traffic to be going down Krill Avenue making that hard curve and going, you know, coming out. Um there's uh there's a big sign out on
Reed Street, uh Highway 17 and 100, whatever you want to call it, um that says West Truck Traffic, and I think these guys are seeing it on their GPS. It says turn here on Ninth Street and go that way. And uh there's something we got to do about about uh educating these
people and uh making them aware that this is not uh way we want this because that's just too much too much traffic, too much everything. Um the um going to be going before the city eventually with requesting an ordinance
to get them to help us enforce and get those trucks off that road or you know, it's like Mr. Sharp said, "We we don't want to write tickets or I they don't want to write tickets. They just want to, you know, educate and get the people, the truckers to understand." And it it won't take much to get that word
spread amongst them. Hey guys, we got to turn and go down 19 to 100 and go this way. And once we get that word out, then I think um you're going to see a great reduction in that. And and probably one of the worst things that they have is those big trucks have a thing. It's a
braking system called a Jake brake. And that's that loud real growling noise that they make where they use the motor as a break versus their brakes on their wheels and it saves them and and it just it you know as I said in the newspaper there's a difference of
that in two in the afternoon and two in the morning and um but we're we're excited about that something we want us we want to see to fruition and um I just I heard a lot of of kickback from constituents that that is something they want to see addressed and I'm I'm trying
I'm starting on it and with Mr. Sharp's uh help and the sheriff we are we're going to push forward with this I hope. Thank you. Well, it has been an ongoing issue which is why I wanted to bring it up. Um we obviously have created the with DOT the truck route and there's a map that shows all the signage that's been put in
place. Um I've sent that to um Mr. Sharp with the to send out. It's actually a little flyer he can send out with the to the trucking companies. So, I guess um you're writing down when you see a truck. Is that how you're doing it? You're writing down. I sat here one day a couple weeks ago
and it was raining and I had nothing to do, believe it or not. So, I sat there in the truck and I just sat there and ABC trucking, EFD trucking, and I gave him 20 odd names. And that's just not one truck. That's companies, right? And they have multiple trucks per company. So
it may have slowed some, but that one time it was probably 150 or more sand trucks a day going by here. Um, and that's just that's just too much on that road. It really is. Yeah, I know. That I mean that was the reason why we created that truck route was to divert traffic from not going
down, you know, to keep them from going down there. and it did help at first and then it seems like we're back to where we were um with as many trucks and um so sending out letters is an educational component of it and then uh you said you're going to work with the city on
maybe doing a city ordinance. Alex is helping me get prepared to go before the city and see about getting an ordinance and acted that we'll get the city officers to enforce that. And uh you know I I don't speak want to speak for the sheriff, but I think his idea is
you know just educate them. Just give them some education. Say look guys we don't write tickets. We just want you to go down this road. I don't think it'll take much of that and you'll you'll get a lot of participation. Um he's provided us a flashing sign out on Highway 20 just west of uh 19 that uh is it can't
be hurting um and it certainly could be bigger but it can't be hurting. We just anything to get their attention start you know turning these but I think we put out a letter to these companies and then certainly at the mines in in West Putinham on their bulletin board drivers attention you know.
Okay. All right. Just trying to figure out what was going on. All right. All right, very good. Um, Commissioner Alexander, not a whole lot. Um, I wanted to follow up with staff. Um, have you guys been able to gather any data regarding the
spending limits uh of your your equal parts of other counties because we had talked about increasing the limits to try and improve the bottleneck we have on some of our projects. And we want to be able to I want to talk about giving y'all more freedom to get those things pushed
through without having to bringing bring little tiny items before us to get changed. Sure. Yeah. Um we have been successful in getting data from St. John's Clay, Marian, Valuchia, Elatchua, Baker, and Bradford. So I feel like I have a pretty good um assembly of both the quote
thresholds as well as the authority thresholds, which are two different things. Um, and I'm working on a redline version now of some revisions to the procurement ordinance because that's how it has to come back to you guys in um of both taking into account um their
guidance as well as taking into account some of where we end up in bottlenecks, right? And so we may deviate a little bit from them. Um, procurement is one of those home rule things. you guys can align it to ensure the best operations
of your county while maintaining fiscal responsibilities. And so, um, likely BA just based on what I've seen from these areas that I've kind of, um, surveyed the the waters of, it's probably going to be a hybrid, taking into account some
of their best practices as well as kind of making our own road. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Ultimately, the goal is to I don't know if I can even use the word agility, but add some agility to our our government.
Anything else? Uh I did have one other question. Um Miss Holmes, can you elaborate on the permit applications and the um
the impact fees? So, when we initially talked about it and and I maybe I'm wrong, uh, and I may have told some people the wrong thing, and I I've got broad shoulders. I'll accept that. But it was my understanding that if they got their application in
prior to the enactment of the impact fees on September 8th, that they would not be subject to those impact fees other than the water and sewer fees, which became um they were immediately enacted. So remember that's a the impact fees
were very complex but we had um a lot of great conversation related to this issue specifically and the board's direction and action was that impact fees are assessed at time of permit issuance and we discussed um you
know in this venue um even that that is typically the most logical point because that's where a financial transaction exists today not at permit application but at issuance. Um, and for a multitude of other reasons. Um, there are pros and
cons to both. We discussed all of them. We can go back through them, but the ordinance did adopt the board action which was at permit issuance. So putting an application in the system does not mean you're exempt from an impact fee because we all know and we've seen
municipalities even our own the last time we imposed impact fees before a moratorum. What we saw was an attempt to get an application in regardless of how qualified that application truly was. So you could have a thousand applications
hit the system tomorrow, none of which are genuinely truly ready to be issued, but the intent was to get an application in prior to impact fees. So we talked through that in here and then we talked through the fact that what we really the desire was truly to have the
conversation of having the impact fees assessed at issuance um for for a multitude of reasons. Yeah, I definitely understand that getting it on the front end and I think my comment was we didn't want to be chasing our money. Right. So, we also talked about doing it at CO. Right. And here we g we kind of
talked three different options and then you've got a bunch of houses that aren't finished. That's right. So, yeah. And a lot of times, as we discussed here, for those of us that have built a house, you start out with one price and then change orders along the way. And then by the end of it, by the time you get your CO, you're tapped out beyond your budget
already because somebody had to have something extra. And the last thing you want to do is then hit them with an impact fee at the end and not give them their CO because Sure. Yeah. No, and we talked about that. No, I was just I thought we had talked about doing it. Um I I agree that the the terminology
was there. Um I was just hoping there was a way for those that were on the border of of permitting their house and getting their house started that they could forego those. But so and it's my understanding
that once the application is made, planning and zoning has 30 days to get it turned around. Correct? Yes, sir. That's what's allowed in statute. Okay. So, in reality, they really had a 60-day window because if they didn't get
it turned in within the first 60 days, they had no chance of missing. So, just because it's allowable in statute, we truly haven't been on a 30-day turnaround in probably a year. we are on a much faster turnaround and knowing that impact fees
were coming and that we may have some people wanting to get in. Um we currently have one um company that's a third party company that can do private plans review and inspections for us to help turn. We have a second company that we're in negotiations right now with
contracting contracts um that likely would also be supplemental staffing to allow us to answer the volume of demand with an appropriate response. Um our intent has never and will never be to take 30 days just because statute gives
us 30 days to do something with it. Sure. Sure. I was just and a lot of that depends on the complexity of the project and how complete the application comes in on day one. We have some applications that come in with a name and an address and then they wait for us to tell them everything else they need.
Um there's a multitude of of capacities as to what we see and we try our best to guide each one regardless of their level of where they come in and their knowledge in the industry through to a path of success. Gotcha. Gotcha. just trying to answer
questions for constituents out there, how quickly they needed to get that turned in. So, we're getting a lot of questions, too. We're giving the same guidance. We're working as diligently as we can with everyone who wants to get an application in um to do everything on our end that
we can to ensure that if they are complete, they're ready to go. I I knew you guys were there to help on that. Thank you for explaining. Yeah, absolutely. Commissioner Palier, um I had this conversation with Mr. or so because a few weeks ago and and M uh
Young I thoroughly agree if they just put their name on it and say here's my application that don't qualify but if we had a thousand of those or ever how many we had and you had a qualified application that had done their due diligence everything was correct and we didn't get to them in that timely manner
they should not be held responsible for that impact fee if their application is turned in complete thoroughly done and ready to be executed Ed, they should not be held up or should not be fined because and I'm going to call it a fine at that time because of
our workload, right? And and with the setup that we implemented, um that scenario hasn't happened, won't happen. Um thank you. So yeah, you we we are reviewing all of them. It's not like anybody is sitting in the queue waiting to get through the
guy before them or the lady before them or whomever. Have you seen a influx of applications since this has come about? We've seen an influx in calls and inquiries wanting to gather some information. You know, a lot of people saying, "I may be on the fence. I may
want to um we've sent seen a few application, but not the influx that we would have seen if the caveat was just throw an application in the system." Right. So, I and and I met with Leo last week. He said everything was running a hundred
times smoother than it ran the last time based on the decisions that the board made and how we implement it. So um as of now in fact we met again um with the entire team planning LEO um it administration this week to review the
impact fees scenarios and structures and everything is um from our side is being implemented as smoothly as we think it can be. Okay. Thank you. Yes sir. Mr. Alexander, you still have the floor. All right, Commissioner Newald.
Well, we've been here this long, so I'm going to keep us here a little longer. That's fine. Um, that's what that's what we're here for. I have a couple of items. Um, I'd like to introduce the board to a possible project down in district 1. Um, as many of you aware, there's the middle school campus that the school board has more or
less surplus there. It's an inactive campus sitting in the middle of Crescent City. Um, that's a George Miller George Miller Middle School campus. Yes. Um, I've been peripherilally having discussions
informally with some community leaders in the school board and would like to ask the uh the commission's permission to speak with them in a in a a public fashion. um there's the
possibility of um the county acquiring that space um very economically and if that were to happen it might be a candidate for a project that would benefit both the city and county and district one and the county as a whole.
Um I'm not asking for purchasing powers or you know spending any money but I would like to enter into discussions to see if if that that space could be acquired economically and then at that point it would make sense to um flesh
out a a plan for your further. So anyway if I get permission to work with staff to speak with the county I would appreciate that. Yes. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, Commissioner
Nubble, that's a great idea. And I serve on the Putton County Development Associ. I've brought that up before about that building. And that might be something that the development authority could could help purchase and um make it
incubator type situation, whatever the thought might be. So, I'm not putting words in your mouth or thoughts. I'm just saying that the development authority is there to provide economic opportunities for the county. So, if there's something you want to bring to the e the development authority, they do
meet next week and you're more than welcome to do that, right, Mr. Chair? Yes, sir. I believe that's correct. Okay. Good. Thank you. So, so my my comments would be um you know
the the tax collector and the property appraisers I believe we they rent we have to rent the building that they're in not the main campus but the two annex buildings. Yes, ma'am we do. In Crescent City and Interlean and and Right. Exactly. So um to me it
all comes down to business, right? So, if there's an opportunity to not pay a lease, I mean, we've been there 30 years. I mean, I know how old I am, and it's been there since I've been here, so we're not going to talk about my age, but it's over 50.
I'm not sure the annex locations have been there that long. How long, J.R., how long? I see you shaking your head. You have They're relatively new to the community having those annexes there, but the buildings are old, but the the annexes themselves are are So, we haven't always had an office down there. I did not know that. Okay.
Well, either way, I think from a business perspective, you got to look at um your return on investment. Again, we used that earlier. I think um but I'm okay with you having the conversation. I just don't want that the I watched the city commission meeting from Crescent City. I saw the discussion and the
debate. I just don't want the citizens to feel like um because you're there that there's any promises being made that they completely understand everything has to come back to the board for approval. And I know you'll handle that on your end, but I just want to say that publicly because I think what
happens as we see is people get their hopes up and they go, "Oh, but I spoke to the county." Just because you spoke to them didn't mean it was an okay thing, you know, that that's an approved project. It just means you spoke to somebody at the county. Um, so I'm I'm in favor of it. Personally, I think if are we is everybody on the board okay
with that with him having discussions? Yeah. Okay. But I I just you know my only concern is the public needs to understand it has to come back to the board and I know you'll handle that. Yeah. I I do appreciate it and and this initial step would just to be see if it could be acquired in a reasonable manner
because if it can't it wouldn't make any any economic sense but after that if if that is a come to fruition I would come with a a plan that I think touches a little bit on everything that you guys have
mentioned and would hopefully be um economical be just be an asset to Putnham county in general and if I come and make that presentation and it just doesn't make sense, well then it just doesn't make sense and we rock along.
But thank you for that. Um I have I have one other ask. Well, one that's it's related to animal services. I want to give some kudos right off the bat to our staff, to animal services employees. Um
we've made a lot of progress in a short period of time. I know it's been a long time coming, but we have infrastructural advances about to to come to fruition. We've got human capital improvements
there. Um, just with the a couple of the little I don't know maybe touchyfey nicy things that have come through this culture of change that's happening in that in that space. um staff in conjunction with some outside
communities with um private partners in the in the animal welfare space that have worked together to place I think over 20 dogs in the last month um outside of our community from our shelters to other other communities. Um relationships are being built there.
That will be an ongoing um practice. um as Julian and her team came up with the the cat adoption program that um many people may not be aware of yet, but you know, as you're out and about in the community, you'll come into to um
businesses who are taking these cat condos for whatever um it's a a little beautiful little wire comfortable condominium for cats. And any anyway, it's really a mobile adoption. a mobile
adoption. So, you can you may trip into into the brewery or into an insurance agency and and those community partners, auto repair shops have have committed to placing these um cat condos in their places of business. These cats are uh
have had vaccines. They've been fixed and they have paperwork there ready for adoption. So, you know, little creative things like that, they make a difference. They move the needle. Um, and I guess I'll get to my my ask here
now. With all the positives that are going on in that space, I think for the long run for the holistic approach to that that program, we're still weak. We're missing a puzzle piece, and that's the enforcement aspect of our code as it
relates to animal welfare. Um, and I don't want to get into the the nuts and bolts of that, but I'd like have the commission's permission to to meet with staff and all of the appropriate partners that may help us
develop a enforcement apparatus for Putnham County. Um and that that's likely to be the our court system, um magistrates, the sheriff's office, um states attorneys. It's going to be a wide variety of people that can
come together and craft a document and a process that's good for Putinham County. There are other counties that have, you know, more robust programs, but you just can't take one from Valuchia or Orange and pop it down in Putinham because we're different. Anyway, I'd
like the okay to move forward in that space and come back to you, you know, with some recommendations over time. All right, Commissioner Alexander, you're recognized. Mr. Nubble, I think I speak for um Madame Chair as well. We would like to applaud you for taking the reigns on
that. She and I have been working diligently with the local agencies and uh um have you willing to take the lead on that is uh honestly it's a load off of our shoulders because we can you can only do
so much as a commissioner and thank you. Thank you very much. Well, I felt I wanted to make this public ass because as I'm going out there researching this, I'm tripping across you guys, you know, working in the same space and and I think we can organize it. I I'll certainly come to you guys
for help and direction, but um I I think we can accomplish something good here over time. Now, it may take a little while because there are way more moving parts in this than I had ever imagined. Yes. But it can be done. We'll we'll start it incrementally and I just want to see it moving forward.
Fantastic. Thank you, Commissioner Palisier. Mr. Grimes, could you give us an update on the shelter and where we stand and how's it looking just broad picture? Sure. So, we um we put the gutters on the building last week. The underground
piping is going to the retention area from the building because it's inherently not a particularly dry site. So, we're trying to get as much water shed off there as well we can. Sure. Uh so, that is completed. The base has been put down for the roadways. The concrete's been poured. The sidewalks around the building. Uh the CAT condo is
installed. I'm waiting now for the fire suppression. You guys approved two weeks ago. Uh we got them their PDF files on what has to be done. Just waiting on them to install the fire suppression system. The inside is winding up quite nicely. Uh we're getting in there every day. Usually everybody just doing the
touch-up pieces. So, um yeah. So, we're just got all of the pieces now outside are coming together. Uh, we got the contractors coming in to put the fence in, the the play yards, the turf's going to go down in the next few weeks. So, we're we're steady moving. So, I mean, now that the outside's catching up with
the inside, it's going to be pretty quick. I mean, as a matter of fact, the guy told me he's ready to pave, but I'm I'm not ready for him to pave because we and it's I'll totally take the miss on us when I looked at the building goes, "Man, they needs gutters, right?" So, we had to get the gutters installed on the building, but we can't put that pipe in until after we lay the asphalt. So, uh,
the pipe got there. I think Mr. Lad and the public works crew, Mr. Stout's crew delivered it on Friday last week and Mr. Lad told me that he was going to try to get it in there this week to get that put in so that that portion of it done and we can lay the asphalt on top so the parking lot and all that stuff will be
done. So, moving along quite nicely. Are all the kennels done? I know one building was and I wasn't sure if the second building. Just waiting on the contract. We got to put the the the chain link fencing up on the back of the one set of pins inside the buildings are done the kennels. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Mhm. Okay.
Ballpark idea when we might cut a ribbon. He's always worried about that. I'll let Miss Young take that one. Oh, I see how this is. I saw that pin down ball fall of 2025
there. Let's stay there. Pretty ball. That's pretty park. Let's stay there. Commissioner, can I add just while we're talking animal services, just um a few meetings ago, you guys allocated us two addition additional dispatchers and one street ops coordinator. So, as of this
week, our shooter ops coordinator has been hired um and he has extensive background with cases and magistrates. and he will be um doing on the fe in the field training and kind of coordinating our officers um activities and responses
and truly bringing some process to that. Uh we also hired um one of the two dispatchers and we have interviews this week for a second dispatcher. All of our shelter care attendants are full and um we are actually interviewing this week
for a potential inmate supervisor to supervise female inmates who can come help provide additional and supplemental care and welfare to the animals out there. So on the staffing front, um your guys's investment, we knew it wouldn't be immediate, but it is certainly paying
dividends already. um we have the new dispatchers in training and so we're going through all those processes um to continue to make sure we are able to um enhance the service level of what we provide to the animals and to the community.
All right. Thank you. Um Commissioner, you still have the floor. Commissioner New that is that is it. Thank you so much. Well, um, since you're on that subject, um, tell me spay and neuter. We, how many animals do we have currently? I
know you and I talked about this a little while ago. Um, do we have that are fully vetted, adoptable, ready to go because they're vaccinated, and I mean, roughly, I think you told me, was it 65? That number changes every day. And that's why every time I tell you a
number, it's going to be different. So, and and I say that with a it es and flows, right? We did an adoption event. Unfortunately, we adopted six. We ended up with six new puppies because somebody showed up with seven week old puppies that they absolutely couldn't take and
they were going to put them on the street, right? And so, while we thought we were making a lot of headway and getting six in a home, we ended up at net zero. Um, today, nine dogs are headed to UF to be spayed and neutered. and Thursday 15 cats are
headed to be spayed and neutered. Okay. So, every single week we work with a multitude of partners, UF being the largest um to adequately assess the medical needs of what we have. Um local veterinarians traditionally take care of
our medical needs as far as a neglect situation or an injury, but we work with um the Jacksonville organizational uh No More Homeless Pets. We work with fix them all. We work with UF. So, we try to source it as we have the need. Um, and
again, every day that number es and flows based on adoptions and then what comes in the door. But we traditionally, um, as of Monday, let's give you that number, we had 30 cats that were completely vetted, ready to go, and we had about 60 that needed to be vetted
and ready to go. Um, now remember, kittens have to get to a certain age and weight before they can go anywhere. So, a lot of that number is five or six litters of kittens that we end up with that they have to hold until they're they're a age appropriate. Um, and we
did have a higher number of dogs ready to go. Um, and thankfully the resource that we were able to connect with through the animal welfare league um has been willing to take some of those unfixed animals because they can source them through them as well. So, that's
been a huge asset to our operations. Yeah. Thank you for Thank you for that. Um, you know, I I just feel like that we're going to a new shelter. Um, which is going to be great, right? It's going to be night and day compared to where we're
at. Um, but I feel like we need to clean our shelter out before we move, right? So, we're going to I mean, and I know we can clean them out and and adopt them all out in the next week. We're going to I mean, the next day, in the next hour, we've got boxes being dropped off at the
gate. We've got more calls that we need answered, but we can't service the people in the community and we've said this all along with the amount of animals we have. And so my question is, should we be doing a big adoptathon? I saw that Klay County just did that. I
mean, that we can work with other agencies and just I mean, I would love to see that. You know, we when we set up out front, you know, um all those animals, we had hundreds of people that wanted to come and adopt those animals and it was a big deal. And so, how do we can we do that? I mean, what what would
it take? I mean, I would love to see us come together as a board. Listen, I'll go out and wash dogs if I have to. I have no problem with it. Um, I'll be glad to do it in all seriousness. Um, and you know, whatever it is we can do to get these animals adoptable and have
a big adoptathon or whatever you want to call it, what can we do? What's your suggestion? Sure. Let me first look into the logistics to make sure we have a finite date of when we can get everybody spayed neutered. Um because we that needs to be first and foremost. Yeah. I don't want to send animals out
that aren't spayed neutered because I think it contributes to the problem. And then we'll look at staffing a big um joint adoption agency. Um I mean adoption event uh and we can do it with departments. I mean when we when we had one before, I'm going to tell you the
fire rescue members were incredible. um people adopted dogs from fire rescue when they walked by somebody planning walking the same dog, right? Um so maybe we can pull in a multitude of departments or anybody that might be free that that day to help with something like that. And of course we
have in the provisions the ability to be able to wave those fees and do something. Um so let me bring something back to you. Okay. I just feel like we need to do something like that, especially before we move all those animals to a new facility, stress them out again, um, and all of that. If there's an option that
if we can just have some, we need, we need to empty our shelters. They're overflowing. We all know it. Um, but of course, we also want them spayed and neutered. And spay and neuter to me is the Commissioner Nebold, if this is something that you're going to tackle, I think that spay and neuter has to be on the forefront. I think it's the one
thing that we're um I know um Ark Rescue down in Crescent City did get the grant from the state and that they um are giving out vouchers and people are going through them um to uh get their animals in the public that are that they need help with at a low cost. I think they're
working with citizens, but I think spayed neuter as we go forward and you're working on this needs to be something on the on the very top of the list. Well, I I think what I'm going to focus on first is the enforcement aspect, but I I believe in the and I
don't want to throw anything out there that shouldn't be public, but there are a number of items working our way through admin that are related to just the the holistic approach of the animal services program. And I I I think
without letting any cats out of bag, so to speak, um we're going to see some real positive movement in that area. Um just in the natural process here. So, but that is a a you're right, it's a huge important part of of the whole
M. Alexander. Yes, ma'am. I I love your idea of the adopt. That's great. Um Miss Holmes and I talked about with the, you know, renewed interest, the excitement over the new facility that we
do a big grand opening, a big we do a big grand opening and um we could have a big adopt on at that point. I know part of your your narrative was to limit the stress on the animals, but the ones that we don't we
we might have an opportunity with all the people coming to see the new facility that that excitement may drive some people to take some of these home. I mean, but there's a, you know, counterpoint to that is if they go to the old facility, they're yeah, we need to get them out of here. But, uh, the new facility, they might say, "Well, this is really nice. They can stay."
But, I think that there's going to be a ton of excitement. And again, the, uh, the EMS service is right there. they can participate. Um, it's right behind them. We won't have any logistics issues. Maybe get some of the deputies over because it's right by their office as well. Everything's pretty centrally
located. So, we're going to have traffic out there, so maybe we can capitalize on some of that. Okay. All right. Very good. Anything else? All right. Commissioner Harvey, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do want to bring up annexation that we had years
ago. The first annex for county services was out in Miller's Plaza out in Larkin. If you remember, Mike Noon had a mobile home, I mean a motor home, and he brought out there and he plugged it into the pole and the pole's still sitting there with the with the equipment, but
that was the first tag office that kind of annexed out of out of the city of Palaca went to Inelarkin. So I remember those days. the adoption what we just talked about. I think Commissioner Palisier was here when we did that. We'd actually go down and cook hot dogs for
the adoption day. So, um, we can do something like that, you know. Is that funny, Julian, or just food in general right now? Okay, guys. I want to bring up something um that's important to me and I want to thank JR. Number one, the fire
department in West Putnham. If you haven't been out there on Ben Pal, it's uh 10 feet bigger than the other one in East Palaca, but I can tell you it looks huge on that property and it's a beautiful facility. Go out there and take a look at it. Chief back, you're
out there almost every day. I saw that. Um, but a lot of hard work is going to go in and that's going to serve that area tremendously. You've heard me mention the floor at the expo building. Okay. I am going to
dedicate $30,000 of my discretionary fund for we already got a price of 29,000 to do the floor. This will make administration go out and get two more estimates. But if we can get that in at 30,000, then I'm going to dedicate
30,000 to that floor. Um, and the other one, the asphalt around the Maltby building, we got a price of 15,500. I'm going to dedicate $16,000 of my discretionary fund to that project
to get that moving. And those Oh, first week of school, everybody be careful out there. Put your phones away. Remember, you're in a school zone. Uh be very careful driving down the road. And honestly, if people would just pay attention to the speed limit and what's
going on, then life would be good and we wouldn't have the accidents, including me. I get distracted at times, but I have to remind myself that I'm on a mission. And I do. We all get distracted. But put the phone down, pay attention to what you're doing. It can wait 5 10 minutes till you get to where
you're going. And Madam Chair, that's the end of my comments. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um, thank you, board. I know this was a longer meeting than what we normally have. Um, however, I think it is good that we vet all of these issues out and that we have the discussion. And while we might not all
be on the same page all the time, I know that generally speaking, uh, we all have the right mission in mind. And, um, I appreciate that about this board. Um, moving forward at the next board meeting or in the next couple weeks, um, Mr.
Suggs, if you could work with with your, uh, board to talk about legislative priorities. I know we talked about this is a short year and we're going to be going in. So, um, I would like for each one of the board members to let Mr. Suggs know and then he can collect them up and we can come back and talk about
what legislative priorities we want to have going into the next um legislative year. And with that, that's all I have. Anything else to come before the board? This meeting is adjourned.