to the February 18th 2025 Sebring city council meeting if you all stay with me the mayor is going to lead us in a prayer and a pledge please B with me Lord thank you once again for the city that we live in thank you for the staff that keeps it running smoothly we ask that you watch
over them and guide them we ask that you watch over our responders as today we honor another individual that has put his life on the line to protect us we ask that all we do in your name Jesus Christ amen
alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you for that Miss Haley call the role
please here here here Stuart here Bishop here all right if anyone from the audience has something they would like to discuss that is not on the agenda you can fill out one of the forms on the front table here hand it in to clerk Haley and we
will get to you later in the meeting mayor's report uh just a couple things um HGTV as you all know is here last year filmed for a while well finally our watch party for the initial reveal is going to be March 9th at 8 o'clock in the circle thanks to Anna who's been
coordinating a lot of this and chrisy and Scott helped a little bit but no they've been working hard on on it and making sure everything's arranged and getting going the right way but uh it's it's it'll be a fun event I think it's really going to be exciting got a lot of interest in it um a lot of people in
town now if you go down on the weekend people are just roaming around looking stuff and you talk to them and most of them are here because of what's going to happen so March 9th is a Sunday night on a circle at 8 o'clock we'll be live streaming it and um it'll be a good event and again thanks Hannah for all
you're doing for that stuff so um but also uh the 15th was national school resource officer appreciation day and we just give out a big shout out to our three uh resource officers Crystal Burns who with the Sebring prek Center Diego
Serrano is with woodlon and of course Wilma tendel is with sing medal so thanks for what they do and and the rest of the officers also um and now it's kind of this happy sad thing that we get to do Matt would come up to the front
Chief if you're coming up with them have another Ste retire May service City and C these ouly Bittersweet I'm excited for maty and family the next chapter they uh been with us for a very long time and
excited for what life may bring in the future of course for sad he's leaving he's been a fixure at the department for a very long time has said 17 years of service even though the math wasn't quite adding up Matt was with us fulltime went to a parttime officer for a little while and we have managed to
lure him back he's been a fulltime officer us now for sever very excited for you we're going to miss the heck out of you please don't be a stranger that's all I have that's it sir okay Miss
mindle um good evening everyone and um thank you Matt Cloud for your service and we appreciate you very much and all our first respond First Responders the police department and EXC just a second where's
Carl please Carl we got present the badge in that okay okay all right that's fine I'm sorry go ahead shall I go ahead yes please okay uh this past weekend we had
the uh celebration of 100 years for the uh Temple Israel here in town our Jewish community and I went to that celebration a very lovely event and they actually have a Torah scroll there original Torah
scroll that they've had for years and years and we had a wonderful banquet and a good time of Fellowship ship it was just a amazing event to think they've been here and of course Marvin and Elsa KH were very instrumental in getting that all established and the mayor read
the proclamation last meeting and then I read it at the uh celebration so that was an honor to be included in that that's all I have thank you for doing that ter it was wonderful thank you Josh no report Harrison no report all right flying
right through this thing uh next up is the consent agenda any questions or comments on the consent agenda anything from the public a motion I'll make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as presented
second the board please Hy yes M yes Stewart yes Bishop yes want to finish up Carl okay sorry
you're yep you're up mayor council and staff good evening item number six be on the agenda is to request to present Corporal Matt cloud with his commemorative service video awards that includes his uniform badge service handgun and a retired
officer ID card as we've just covered in his Proclamation Matt's been with the department for approximately 17 years and Florida statute 112 193 which is attached as part of your agenda item summary authorizes City and your department to reward these with that we have a requested motion to approve the
request to decar Corporal ma cloud service handgun a surplus so we can buy another one uh and present him with a uniform badge retired officer identification card and authorize the purchase of a replacement service handun I'll make a motion that we approve the request to declare a Corporal matcloud service handgun as
Surplus so that it may be presented to him with a uniform badge and retired officer identification card and authorize the purchase of a replacement service handgun for future issuance second all the board please yes yes
steuart yes Bishop yes thank you very much I apologize for getting all right good all right moving on item 10A we have a thanks mat thank you thank you St Patrick's Day event we have
anyone here no all right I guess we I don't know Scott do you want to give us a kind of a summary what they're doing here so um between gavagan and 301
they're looking to have a St Patrick's Day event they're asking for a closure of South Commerce um from the circle essentially to
Mango we'll close it to Wall Street initially and if necessary open it to Mango got it and then they looking for a waiver of the open container ordinance so they in front of their businesses and down the street to Wall Street or mango
m u would be enclosed in that area if you will okay um dates March 17th St Patty's Day uh time of the events 11:00 a.m. to 9900 p.m. and the road closures would be from
9:00 a.m. to 11 p.m. anybody have any questions comments no anybody from the public all right I'll entertain a motion I'll make a motion to approve the event as presented condition upon
providing the appropriate insurance certificate showing at least $1 million of liability insurance and naming the city as additional insured at least 10 days prior to the event second all the board please yes yes yes
yes all right Mr Swain agenda item 12 a describes what is a proposed settlement agreement between uh the Bennetts and the City of seing uh there's been a lawsuit with Ben filed against the city
and Duke Energy for several years now that uh ended in a final judgment in 2023 uh the benett filed an appeal and the item for your consideration is whether you wish to resolve it as sort
of a business decision U the proposed the lawsuit regarded access and what is being proposed is the city would deed the Bennetts a portion of property
along Sunny Land Drive adjacent to their property that would allow them to access their property from Sunnyland as opposed to running through the city which that was the subject of the law this allows them to have just a little corner from the city's parcel to access
their property the the U proposed agreement would have the city wave a claim for the cost judgment the city obtained during the lawsuit uh there is a light pole in the area that would be deeded to the
Bennetts that the relocation of that uh the city would pay Duke to move that over onto the city's property the city of course would realign its fence to separate uh its property from the benett property on that corner the parties would sign releases the Bennetts would
give Duke an aerial easement for Duke utilities lines uh the form of the settlement agreement that you see in the agreement is not the final version it has been subject to uh one of the city's lawyers looking at it uh she has two
additional items she believes would be agreeable to uh the Bennett's lawyers she has not talked to them about it so uh if any if if Council wishes to move forward these are two important items that we'd want to have included one of
which is that the uh the release that the city would give would be specific as to the issues raised in this lawsuit not more generally in case there's other property owned by dependants it wouldn't be releasing other unrelated matters and that the uh the agreement would have
would be recordable so that not only does the agreement say it binds successors but it would be recordable so future owners of that property would see that this issue has been resolved and so the city wouldn't get to go round and around with somebody else that might say they didn't know
anything about it so if the city is again this is a the city isn't really getting anything out of the lawsuit or continued fighting in the appeal other than the opportunity to spend lots of money uh so if if you want to resolve it
uh this would allow us to essentially just to stop spending on that issue okay um Mr or Mrs benett are here I don't know if they wish to address Council but they are here
okay all right anybody have any questions or the only question I have is Bob do I need to amend the requested motion for for the two changes that you're suggesting uh yes sir and we would need again to to run these changes
by the other parties involved uh to make sure everybody I think these will all be these will be acceptable uh changes but yes a motion to approve the settlement agreement would be to also approve the additional changes
okay I'm open to finishing this thing so we can move on I think it's a good business decision we can stop paying Bob Swain so all right I think it's a good solution too
so so just for confirmation we would not be signing this agreement that you presented but we will be signing an amended agreement that you will bring over with the changes if that's how they approve that yes ma' agreement that they're approving okay and oddly enough this is the this is what the benett
approached the city about many years ago as a resolution that we were told by Duke we could not do at that time that was probably seven or eight years ago now all right I'll make a motion to approve the settlement agreement as
presented with future changes and authorize council president Bishop to execute and deliver it and I second it please Hy yes mindle yes Stewart yes yes all right moving on on to
administrator evening Council agenda item 13A is Project report the only real two changes here um we have relocation of the Public Works utilities site um which is contract that
you all approved for your February 4th meeting with uh Ross McBeth for uh three properties that uh his family owns and the city has contracted for a phase one environmental for that and then the purchase of the
building um at 126 West Center uh We've also contracted for a phase one environmental on that structure as well all right thank you KY second P the board
sorry yes yes Stewart yes Bishop yes all right thank you