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A call to order the regular session of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Tarpon Springs, Tuesday, July 28th, 2026 at 6 p.m. Roll call please. Mayor Collins here.

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Vice mayor, says absent and excused. Commissioner Eisner here. Commissioner Banther here. Commissioner Weaver here. Tonight, our reflection will be by Bishop Matthew Dosing of the

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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, and it will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise. Thank

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you. Mayor. Our most kind and gracious Heavenly Father, we are indeed thankful for this great city that thou hast bestowed upon us. We pray now

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that thy Spirit will be with us and with the members of this commission. Watch over them, comfort them, and guide them, that we may continue to, as

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they serve the citizens of Tarpon Springs and also the city of Tarpon Springs, that they will be guided in thy wisdom and in thy truths, protecting our freedoms and our

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rights. We love thee, father, and we love thee most of all for the gift of Thy son, allowing us to return unto thee through our obedience to thy commandments. And we ask for these things in his name, our

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Savior, our Redeemer, Jesus the Christ. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to

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the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You can all

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sit down. Okay, we're going to go to public comment. Before we go to public comment. I have to read a a reminder. As a reminder, each person

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addressing the board shall state their name and address for the record and will be given three minutes. All remarks shall be addressed to the board. As a body, the mayor shall preserve order and

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decorum and shall prevent personal attacks. Any person making personal, impertinent or slanderous remarks, or who shall become boisterous,

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including clapping, booing, holding signs or flags at the meeting may be may be requested to leave the meeting, or may be removed and barred from further

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attendance at this meeting. Okay, so anybody who has any comments, items that are not on the agenda tonight, please come

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forward to the podium. Good evening. Lack is 514 Ashland Avenue. Welcome back, commissioners and mayor. Short

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proverb 17. Correction 18 1 to 5. An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends. He defies all sound judgment. A fool finds no

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pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions. When wickedness comes, so does contempt, and with shame comes disgrace. The words

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of a man's mouth are deep waters, but the fountains of wisdom is a bubbling brook. It is not good to be partial to the wicked, or to deprive the

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innocent of justice. So in a way, there's a lot of ways you can look at justice. And I'm

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going to bring this up as, where's that shot? Oh, geez, I

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lost it again. There were four new deaths just recently for war that was purported to be to stop nuclear proliferation.

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Well, we had a very good solid treaty, JP CoA, that was done in 2015 and 16. And when the current president came in, he said, oh, I don't like that. I

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can make a bigger deal, throw it away. We lose trust and such, and now we're in another war because of wanting to stop the

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nuclear proliferation. Yet if you read just recently, our administration signed an agreement to allow Saudi Arabia now to have nuclear access and

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different from the UAE agreement number, about ten, 20 years ago, I think it was in oh five. They agreed not to enrich their own. But that's not the

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case with Saudi Arabia. They're going to be able to enrich their own. So we're going into war to stop nuclear proliferation. Yet we're

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allowing the Saudis to, in a sense, also capitalize on that. Israel has a bomb. How soon is it that everybody over there has a bomb? They already have

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bombs and drones. How far are we? How long are we going to be complicit in this? This unnecessary war? And let's not

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forget that things are still going on in Gaza. But that's under the under the radar, because all the attention is in Iran. So we're the justice for

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these people that are getting bombed. And we hear that the Iranians say death to America. But if we started getting bombed by another country, we probably would say the same

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thing about them. So try to put yourself in their shoes and let's stop this nonsense. Thank you. Anyone else like to come

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forward? And please come to the podium and state your name and address, please. The Desi Custodio, 79 West Park Street, Tarpon Springs, Florida. I'm a

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home health aide. I was walking my dog one day and we got chased by a coyote, and it's right there by Saint Michael's Shrine. It's it's a very urban.

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On my street alone, we have like nine elderly and disabled people. And I was just, it was just concerning about the

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coyote issue. And if people are aware of it, I was chased with my dog. It was a little dog. My. Yeah, yeah. She she can't run.

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She's 80 years old and she can't walk her dog now because of that. So I've made her, you know, we, you know, we're afraid to be out. This was not

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even all that late. It was around 8 p.m. at night, eight, eight ish by Saint Michael's shrine. And and we found

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feathers, chicken feathers and stuff like that and all. But I know it doesn't seem like much, but I just worry because Park Street that my my whole street,

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I make myself known to my neighbors because I'm a home health aide. And I'm all about people living independently on their own. And it was just a

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concern about the coyotes and the, you know, it's a pretty urban area. And, you know, we're walking distance from the sponge docks, the bayou,

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downtown, that kind of thing. And I know it doesn't seem like much, but it's always, you know, worried about the coyote issue. All right. Thank you for

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bringing it to our attention. And the and the chief heard you. So thank you. Anyone else?

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Please come forward. Would that think. No you can't. He's got to be in the microphone. Yeah.

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Oh. The microphone. Can the microphone reach over there? No. If you move it, you're going to sit. You could sit. We'll bring the microphone to you. Thank

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you. I appreciate that. Here's my neighbor. And we're giving you double trouble tonight.

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Sorry. Okay. All righty. My name is Sylvia. I just your last name, please. Okay. I and your address, the the city

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clerk needs to make note of it. Okay. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's all right. 103 West Park Street.

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Okay. Thank you. I've lived in Florida for about 20 years. Just recently moved here about six months ago, my water bill

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was $125. I have no garden. I shower, of course, a couple, three, four times a week. I have no dishwasher. I have no clothes washer. So I went to my

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neighbors were ten units were on the corner, and my neighbor's bills are all over $100 for water. Our water is from City of Tarpon is actually

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running us more than our electric bills. Now it seems to me someone needs to look into that. Thank you, thank you.

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Anyone else? Okay, let's move on. Somebody. Somebody's coming

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down. Somebody else. Jeff. Good evening everyone. Long time no see. Giuliana de 413 East

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Oakwood Street, Tarpon Springs. I come to talk about whoever you all got cutting these trees are slaughtering the trees.

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Truly, it makes our streets look terrible to see. Our oak trees are cut like that to where they are looking like

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creatures instead of beautiful. We're supposed to be a city that's beautified, but when you see that, it's something else. So that's my complaint today.

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Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, we'll move on to let's move on to the consent agenda. Let me read the items. Number one

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attorney fee. Johnson Jackson. Number two, satisfaction release of liens. Number three terminate of convenience. Task. Work order planning support

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services. Number four Award file for single source purchase of food and miscellaneous supplies. Number five approve high visibility enforcement program contract agreement.

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Number six Award file for security and fire protection services and equipment. And number seven, reject all bids for electrical upgrades for

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advanced wastewater treatment facility. Does any commissioner wish to pull any of these items? No. Okay. With that said, roll call please. Oh, a motion

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motion. So move. Mike. See? Move. You didn't make that mistake, did you? Second. All right, roll call please,

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Commissioner Weaver. Yes, Commissioner. Yes. Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Mayor. Colonies. Yes. Okay. Let's go to our only business item of the evening.

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And city manager. Do you want to cover this one? Well, I know this may be a little early, but we've got a busy August and September coming up, so it's

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the choice of the board, but it's the staff requesting us to. And the recommendation here is to reappoint Lori Weaver when it's up at the end of September.

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So I figured we'd just put it on and get the business out now of appointing her to when her term it's expires in September, I'd like to entertain a motion

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to reappoint Commissioner Weaver. So move second. Okay. If there's any public comments on the appointment of Commissioner Weaver. No, let's

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come back to the board. If there's no comments, roll call please. Commissioner Weaver. Yes, Commissioner. Yes, Commissioner. Eisner. Yes. Mayor Collins. Yes. If you

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notice, I didn't give you a chance to turn down that appointment, so. All right. So that concludes our business.

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We're going to go to board and staff. Comments, chief. No comment. Sir. Do you have a nice time on your trip? Absolutely. Thank you. Great. Let's go to our city attorney.

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No comments. Our city manager. So as you know, we've been spending a lot of this month on the budget. We're getting ready. Obviously, we've got the next budget meeting for the public

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though. This is a this is just a workshop for the commissioners. But if you want to listen or come, we invite you. 6 p.m. August 4th, the off Tuesday. If there's any other

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questions, we'll be given some follow up with the questions from the last budget meeting. If you have any other questions on the smaller issues or things that you have found, get them to us before that meeting will

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be mostly talking about more the big ticket items. We're doing very well, and we should have a balanced budget presented to you, which you'll

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do us until we see what happens in November. We do have some other issues to do. So anything that you want, you want us to bring for the meeting, give it

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to us and we'll be ready to to get all the new information to you and talk more about the budget on August 4th. Okay.

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Thank you very much. City clerk okay. Let's go to Commissioner Weaver. Thank you, mayor, and welcome back. Thank you. We

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missed you. Thank you. I watched the meeting and and Commissioner, we didn't know you did very well. I think you did. We missed you. Commissioner Eisner did a great

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job. Thank you. So just a couple things. Since it's such a brief meeting, I'll go ahead and take this opportunity first.

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Juliana and and several other organizations, some ladies from the women's club, the Cap Center, you know, they've been providing backpacks and school supplies for the kids. I just want to if anybody's been

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involved in that, I think that's a that's a wonderful cause. So we thank you for all of that. The Cap center had a very nice health fair that was sponsored by Advent Health last

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week as well. So again, Advent Health being a great partner and hopefully future partnerships will, will, will be forthcoming. So, so tonight,

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what really what I want to bring up and I, and I do this wasn't going to do it this month. I know we have budget issues that we're dealing with,

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but I'd like to plant the seed. I'd like to have my fellow commissioners and mayor and city manager start to perhaps consider the idea and the

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benefits of hiring a director of tourism here. And, and while while a lot of people right now might suggest that hiring a director of tourism is an

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expense, I don't see it that way. I. I see it as we need it now more than ever. We need a director of tourism now more

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than ever. We can't just focus on cutting a budget. We have to focus on bringing revenue to the city, and we have to focus on bringing revenue to the city

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in a manner that is appropriate for the city. It can't just be a lot of growth. It can't just be a lot of opportunity for new property tax. It has to be

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something that works with our, our, our, our culture here and our historic nature here. So tourism, I don't think anyone

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can argue that tourism is a very important component of being here. It we need it. Without it, we will we will lose a lot of the things we love. I have some notes. I'm

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just going to. I'm just going to visit them here. So. The benefits of of us having a director of tourism. All right. So we need we need to increase

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visitor spending right now. The last report that I saw visitors day trippers into the area spending an average of an hour and a half here. What that tells me is people are coming

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to shop or people are coming to eat, but they're not doing both. They need to do both. We need we need this tourism for the downtown area. We need it for

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the sponge docks. We need it for the waterfront. A director of tourism would develop a strategy for the city, and we would have some measurable

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goals. A director of tourism would create partnerships and development that keeps our historical charm and the character of our city, because

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that that's where the money is. I would like to see a website created to where when visitors come here and they know the day, the month, the time that

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they're coming, they could go to one central website, click on that date and find out all the things that are happening here. They they could have links that link them to our

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local businesses that allow them to buy tickets to our shows, or to a tour boat, or to a fishing charter. The obvious,

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the obvious benefits would be to the restaurants, the hotels, the shops. I think to myself, why, why, why would businesses

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want to invest here if if we're not trying to promote our own city, then I don't know when. When businesses come and they send out their scouts and they're looking to see where

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they want to go, I think the the benefit there is for them to see that, that we are trying to promote our city. We can't count on the county to promote our city. They're promoting the

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entire county. We need to do this from within. And the thing that I love about tourism Department is that it pays for itself. So the money that a

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tourism department would bring in would actually supplement the cost of having it. So in

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conclusion. I believe that. We need to capitalize on our tourism. We need to make certain that it doesn't degrade

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our way of life or our historic charm. But I would I would ask that my fellow commissioners and mayor start to consider the possibility of adding that

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department to the city. Thank thank you, thank you. Commissioner Banther. Yes, thank you, Commissioner Weaver. That's some very interesting

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ideas. I know that in the past we've we have we have had and currently have, you know that in a very disjointed manner. And maybe, you know. Well, at first if someone told me, you

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know, let's hire a tourism director right now, I'm like, why would we hire anybody right now based off our budget constraints? So but it's something to look into. Interesting. So if it can pay for itself and maybe down the

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road could bring together some of these, you know, initiatives that, that we've had for that that have been in different places. So I look forward to hearing more more about that.

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And I have no further comments. Thank you. Commissioner Eisner. Thank you, mayor, first, welcome back. Thank you. It was a pleasure to cover the board

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while you were gone and allowing you some downtime. So my number two thing is, I did want to make a special commendation to our city

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manager, Markle. Chorus. I know that you came back here to work on the budget, and you got hit with a string of polo ponies

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along with it, and I just want you to know that I. I noticed that and I see that, you know, it's just not easy. People,

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residents in the audience and at home don't realize sometimes all of the, all of the fingers that he has to put in all the dikes to keep things going in

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the city. So I did want to call you out and thank you for what you're doing, because I did notice it. With that being said,

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I also wanted to bring up a couple of tough topics. We've had this Craig Park seawall and

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cap, and as the new policy states, we need three commissioners to put it on and as an agenda for the next meeting. And I would like to

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have that a it could be any kind of a a vote. But here's my reasoning for what we. Why I want to have that. I pulled the

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records from the original meeting that we approved the seawall, and I want to read some of the lines that were kind of told to us when we

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approved this contract. So one that says here. The project includes construction of a new seawall extending from the Craig Park boat ramp to the observation deck on the south

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side of the Spring Bayou. That's the entire amount. The new seawall will include tiebacks with anchors, a reinforced concrete cap, and

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will raise the wall by approximately two feet. The adjacent grade and sidewalk immediately behind the wall will also be elevated accordingly. None of this has

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been done on the west wall. The other part here that says to protect Craig Park from tidal flooding by raising the elevation of the seawall and sidewalk all around the

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perimeter of the park. This phase extends from the boat ramp to the pedestrian observation deck. Again, that has not been done. That's what

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was presented to us, but that's not there. The only thing that is not going to change is it says no changes are proposed to the boat ramp or the boat ramp

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parking area at this time. There is something else that says an addition of a short grassy berm. And in parentheses it says less than two feet

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above grade. That's above grade, not above sea sea level. Around the western side of the park at a new elevation, that new

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elevation should not be lower than the old elevation, which it is. I don't have the exact numbers, but I've had numerous people come up and all ask me,

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why is the new seawall lower? Why is the water breaking over the top? I need to have an agenda item to have Bob Robertson describe to us why

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that's all happening. Let me ask any commissioners or any objection to having this placed on the agenda and having Mr. Robertson come forward. Okay.

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There's no objection. So City attorney, I mean, City Manager, would you please put that on the agenda? Yes. Also, I should have ready for all of you, hopefully by Friday at the end

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of the week. I've got the services of Paul Smith back from his lovely retirement home in Vermont or his temporary in the summer. So I immediately

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put him on that project. And he has been doing research from the first time we brought that forward, which I didn't even remember until you mentioned, was when we were talking about

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the Arpa projects, the Arpa money, and what what projects to do with it. So he is looking at those and all the concerns that were mentioned by the

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commissioner, and hopefully he'll have a report for me this week. So that would be one of the things I'd attach, but I'll get it to everybody as soon as that report comes in. Hopefully

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Thursday or Friday, no later than the beginning of next week. So you'll have that to look at. And that's just the additional thing I have. And of course, that can be that can be

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attached to the agenda item if you so choose to do it. Okay, it's on the agenda item number two or number three, whichever you want to call this. I'm having another issue with the

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clerk's office and that I want another agenda item on. We've had no updates. And truthfully, we've been called we're policy

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makers. We're not contractors or negotiators. But that's the job that we've kind of at least I've had to take on. I have the

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first list of schedule, which is of no value anymore. And that was back in February and April. The new list that I have

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has that. Just want you to hear some of the things that should have been done already. Install the solar panel should have been done on June 22nd of this

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year. The clerk's office moving should have been done on July 10th. I have the city clerk and the assistant city clerk packed up with all their paperwork, on

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top of all of the hard stuff that they do, and they're prepared to move, but they can't move because it's not ready. You can't have people

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that are running a city sit for months on months to be ready to move, and they can't. I was in Irene's office. It's you need a

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helicopter to land in there. And that's no offense to you, Irene. It's you're doing the right thing. You're being prepared. Install a solar panel that I say. That clerk's office

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move was supposed to be July 10th. It's not. The move was supposed to be complete July 13th. It's not the existing clerk's building and the

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asbestos abatement before they take it down was supposed to be done July 20th. It wasn't done because they're still using it in the original presentation.

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They wanted her to move over there, and then they would do the abatement and everything, which was convenient for the contractor, but inconvenient for our city clerk who's

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already been inconvenienced for over two and a half years, three years, how many birthdays we have we had on that building already? I believe the firehouse is going to go up and

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be vacated before your building is done. Phase two parking. I think we have I think that's what was done to phase two parking, but we still need the

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other parking. So this list is for July 27th, 26. I can read the conversation that I had

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with the contractor. I don't know if I want to read it at this point, but I know that I had said at the time, they never should have put sheetrock

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in until the roof was sealed. We had the roof removed. We had a new roof put on. It is also still not acceptable and it's got problems. So you're asking

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for another agenda item. I'm asking for another agenda item. Is there any objection to. I would only ask that we split these up because I assume because we've had some light meetings, because because of

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summer travel, August and September are going to be more heavier meetings. And then if we put both of these on the same agenda, these are going to be longer items. They're going to be 45 minutes to an hour. So

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I think we should do one in the next meeting and one the following meeting, unless Mike has an issue with that. If if I hear what you're saying and I agree, if we did that, which which one would you like on the

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first. What would you like to address first? If the first one ends the way I'm thinking it's going to end, there won't be a second one. Okay, so why don't

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you get with the city manager and decide which how you want to do it? Let's and let's, let's, let's. I had a preference. Not it's, it's not my item, but I think well, I would say the clerk's office

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first, but you know, you don't you go from the oldest to the newest, right. Unless there's some reason to have the seawall thing first. Yeah. Well regardless what let me answer this question. Well, let me ask let me just say this. We don't

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know what the agenda looks like. So we're jumping we're jumping the gun. It couldn't maybe it's not. So. So why don't you we've we've I don't think there's any objection to either one of these items being on the agenda.

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Why don't you work with city manager of which ones and how they get on. Let me explain why I can't do that. Okay. First of all, we have the finish of the

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West End wall over there by the clerk, by the Craig Park. Okay. That's done. It's wrong. It's done. It's too low. But there's an issue right now going on

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also with around the Tarpon Avenue. And I want to make sure that we're moving ahead with that, because what I don't want to do is get to epiphany and

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have spikes sticking up and no place to put anything. That is my fear. There is extenuating circumstances that I would love to share. I'd love to share it

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then. So that makes that sort of an emergency. And I'm not getting answers on why these piles cannot get driven into the ground 24ft. That's problem one. The problem with the city

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clerk's building is it's just sitting there, and I have a clerk and assistant who's sitting with with packages in there waiting to move. And I don't see that we are even

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beginning to inspect it because it's still leaking. Well, let's just have mark you. That's whatever Mark decides. That's fine. I'm not going to mandate we do it separately. But I just I want to give both those that

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are due. And I feel like when you start to stack an agenda and we get a lot of public comment and questions and testimony, it just waters it down. But I'll let Mark manage that. That's his job, not mine.

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So workshop help. The suggestion I have from Commissioner Weaver is a workshop. I I'm fine with that too. I we need workshop would be better because we could we

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could focus on it. I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that. Also, I'd like to get these things we need to know at what point is the contractor and what point is how we got to

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this Craig Park seawall and and know whether you know, because I know somebody spoke up here that they were putting their neck in the noose and they said they would if we gave up

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$400,000, they'd get this job done. It's not getting done right. Both the same workshop. Yes. Okay. That'd be lovely. Yeah. That's a great idea. Workshop. I think that's a I Commissioner Weaver. I think

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that's a better idea. I do too, because then we can focus. I don't think it's something we're voting on. It's information we need to have all we need. We need that. We can vote on it as one item down the road. If everybody's good with

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that, let's let's get the city manager to pick a day and, and communicate it to all of us and, and have a workshop on it. I think that would be better. So I have one last. I'm just going

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to go on the workshop to. Well, I'll be under my 711 that I did. So. Okay. So we're having a at least I'm having an issue. I

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don't know who saw or who didn't see the historical board. Go through the last number of meetings. And what I want to

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explain to the board and to the residents, a lot of what you're deciding on is quasi judicial. Quasi judicial is not legislative. It's not your

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decision. It's not your opinion. It is an opinion of laws that are already made and approved. That's why they call it

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criteria. It's either a criteria of five items or six items or seven items. And that's what you're there to decide. You're not to decide that you drove up and down the

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block and saw that there were five trees on the block. And then you come in here and you break the rules and regulations and say, well, I went up and down the block. I saw five trees. You can't do that. It's

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against the law. What you need to do if you want to discuss five trees since I spent eight years on the board of Adjustments is you ask the staff or the presenter how many

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trees are there on the block? And if they give you the right information, they do. You have to make your decision upon the evidence provided by the staff

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and by the presenter. It's not the evidence that you pick and you decide because you've lived here all your life and you know what's on that block. That's

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not acceptable. There was a comment made that we were deciding on the Safford House between a more safe asphalt

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roof versus a wood roof. You guys chose the wood roof. The asphalt roof was Pooh poohed because we've never had a strike of electricity. There's

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no chance of it firing. Well, when a fire. I was in Texas visiting my granddaughter, it got struck by lightning. And if not for me, giving the proclamation to that hero that

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was here, he stopped that building from going up in flames. When? Where to when? When the historical board is

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here to view the difference between asphalt roofs and wood roofs. They can't do that from two feet away. It's not going to be the same thing. What they

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have to do is keep it 20, 30ft away where a roof is supposed to be. And if it looks okay, you kind of have to not. You

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have to do the right thing because there isn't a house around Craig Park Park that doesn't have air conditioning today that didn't have it when

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those houses were built. So we did change some of the rules. And as long as people are coming in here with a conforming building, they have

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to be not subjected to criteria that is beyond their scope. Because what winds up happening is they will reject your

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opinion, and then it will fall on the board of commissioners, which is who they appeal to. We don't need the extra work as it

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was just shared. I just don't understand why we're critiquing a also a hotel that this board approved. We approved the look

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of it. We approved everything, and I had to listen to needing. It needs eyebrows. It needs an overhang. We don't like this. We don't like that. There's an

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architect that designed this and this board approved it. We don't need to rehash the same thing twice. Doors, sometimes

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in these historical projects are now by permit. They have to be hurricane resistant, hurricane proof, whatever word you want to use. So they may or

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may not be. I don't know if they make hurricane resistant or proof doors in wood, so you have to be somewhat tolerant to what people are going to

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replace with windows and with doors. Same thing happened with coach. People were fighting with them and they had to have a specific door. I want to

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support the board. I support all the boards, but I don't want things to be appealed. And I'm not looking to make people jump through hoops that are not

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possible. I know there was a house on Tarpon Avenue. They made them put up a chimney that doesn't work, but they made it put it up because it was there.

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Again, there's no air conditioners that were ever in any of these homes. Some of the homes have metal roofs, which are much safer in the event of

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a hurricane. We don't allow it. It's just a number of things that I think, you know, I'm going to personally be watching every one of the meetings, and I would like to make sure that

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the people abide by the rules of, of the quasi judicial and not bring in their own evidence. I know most people. I know what

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goes on in Tarpon Springs. I see it, but I'm not in a quasi judicial allowed to say I was on Tarpon Avenue and I saw that there was such and such. I can ask those questions and get the

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evidence to come out. But you guys are judges. You're not evidence producing people. So that's pretty much I mean, I have more items, but I don't

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want to get more into it. I'm done. All right. Thank you. Commissioner Banta, correct me if. Anyways, Mike, I wanted to

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thank you for all you did in covering so many things over the last few couple weeks, and I watched the meeting. You did an excellent job. I don't think I was missed one bit other than

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no movie quotes. So you could have incorporated a couple of movies. I don't watch movies, but that's okay. Other than that, I think you did a great job and I want to. I just want you to know how much I

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appreciate everything you did. So thank you. And Commissioner Weaver, you know, your your comments about. The tourism and

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such. You know, I think that, you know, the the game is going to change a little bit maybe after November if that referendum passes and, you know,

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we're going to have to look at kind of, you know, it's a new paradigm of thought and how we we function and looking for ways to create revenue. And if

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you look at our and we, you'll be seeing it as you see our budget, when you look at our budget and you look at the, the sources of revenue we have. And obviously we have services, we

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have ad valorem tax and we have we have sales tax, right? So if we're, if the ad valorem tax is shrinking and we have to figure

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out ways and then getting our town to be more vibrant and, and commerce then creates a more of the other tax that can

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create revenue for us. So I appreciate you thinking outside the box. And we're going to have to do that. Maybe we don't, but it's most likely we probably may have to do that

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come November. And so you bringing that up now is is appropriate. So. And one. Yes sir. You want to you want to say something. Yes. No not about this. When you're done.

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No, no. I want to wrap it up. So I just wanted to add one more thing because it's not 711 yet. All right. I was at the Dunedin meeting and I just went

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there to just see the meeting. And they it was a contentious meeting. There were over three 400 people there, all about the the jet skis on the causeway.

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So I did want to make it make this board aware that Sunset Beach was one of the targets for the people that can no

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longer get to launch their. Oh. So it's something that we're going to have to keep an eye out on. Craig Park, Sunset Beach, they still have a second

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reading that's coming up, but right now they were actually even considering doing a charge for people to be there, similar to what we did at Sunset Beach

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that was brought up at the meeting. So I just wanted to, you know, put that out there that it was it was our it was a contentious meeting. There were, you know, and unfortunately,

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it's the good people that come to these meetings to speak their mind. And it's the people that caused the problems out on the causeway that don't show up.

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And that's the issue. That's it. And Dunedin, they built that really magnificent city hall. But they're beautiful. But their their auditorium is

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smaller than a third of this year. So, so when they got 2 or 300 people showing up there, I don't know where the heck they go, but they were everywhere.

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They're out there. So anyways. Okay, so I had a nice vacation, but I know I'm sorry. We're not, we're not. No, there's no,

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there's no more public comment at this point. So the we excuse me, no, there's, it's we're

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past that point. So anyways, I had a part of my trip was a business and I went over to Ana and I met with their mayor. And

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we are, we're making arrangements to complete the twinning ceremony and have him come visit us here. And then

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their mayor, you know, he, he is the city manager as well. He runs the whole thing. He's he's it. And everybody's got stuff.

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So I hope he's not watching this, but I think he's got other things to do. But he you know, they spent $3 million

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fixing their their platform at their dock. And that is really critical to their commerce because that platform is where all the boats come in. Bringing

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the tourists from Athens and Piraeus. And it's also where they get all their supplies because, you know, they everything comes by boat. And so they, they spent $3 million

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a year ago and, and all the concrete went bad. So now they have to redo the entire thing. And they don't have a budget even our size. So it was it's

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he. So he was really busy because as, as being the, the city manager as well as being the mayor he was in when I met with him. And I know you might

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have saw it on my post. He was in very casual attire because he was the foreman on the job as well, getting all the

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concrete and redoing the job. So anyway, so, but we made we're making arrangements to have him come and do the and the twinning ceremony. We're

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going to work on dates. And then there's another surprise. I'm not going to I don't want to jinx it right now, but there's another surprise that if we can get it done, will be something that the Greek

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community, as well as the community as a whole, will find fascinating. And with that said,

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it's we're adjourned. The meeting at 645.

