--------- What has to be changed? [Music] I like they're like no there. Okay. Thank you. Amen. Amen. [Music] Thank you.
[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] I think we're ready to get started. You want to stand Commissioner D. Father in heaven, we come again now
thanking you for life, health, and strength. We come blessed in your name because your name worthy to be blessed. Come, Father, asking right now that you guide us and lead us now. That we do what's best for our county, our citizens. And we thank you, Father. We
do come pray with this country, this county, this city, this state and father, these that are here just looking. And we thank you. We going to ask you again, Father, as we go through this,
let us not be selfish, but do what's best for the Gentile community. We thank you for what you have done thus far. We thank you for what you're going to do in the future. And we bless your holy name now. name God. God, please help us. Thank you. Thank
you for what you've done and these blessings and all other blessings we ask in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [Music] like to welcome everyone to our meetings the workshop is Tuesday June 1725 at
5:30 we have a conference line set up number there is 91 917 9001022 access code 32347 pound this is not a toll-free number and you may be subject to longdistance charges according to
your long-distance plan with the chair wor opens the meeting for public comment, please follow the below instructions. If you wish to speak, please dial star 5. The moderator will unmute your line when it's your turn to speak and notify you by announcing the last four digits of your telephone number. Please announce your name and
address. You'll be allowed to speak for three minutes. Any person wishing to address the board regarding an agenda item will be given three minutes for comment and commenter may only may only speak one time for each agenda item. So this is a workshop. There won't be
any voting in this uh this meeting. So we will move on to item three. It's Florida develop to provide economic development strategic plan.
Thank you chairman English. Hi. Good evening everyone. Pleasure to be with you here again. uh lovely to to have you and I promise I will be expedient and respectful of your time here because I want to make sure you start on time uh for your next your next meeting here. So once again I'm Laura Deella I'm with
Adam Ree. Uh we you we have been together a few times uh over the past year. I think the first time I said before it was just about a year ago um when uh our firm did uh was commissioned to do the environmental analysis uh and the light touch on the economic analysis
of the county. The environmental analysis was on the George Pacific plant as well as the West Richer site. So um proud to say and you know happy to say that there's been a lot of forward moving progress uh on both of those fronts. uh you know up until this point may not appear to be that way but uh
it's been light years in terms of discussions and and also uh cooperation that we're seeing on on all fronts as far as those properties are concerned which I will get into in that report. So um this is essentially uh today a part
two of that expanding further into the economic development arena. a bit of a triage uh triage and and you know shortterm approach to get things going basically right now. So I think a bigger
strategic plan effort would uh be warranted in probably another couple of years uh once the situation is more or less stabilized. I mean, but what we want to do is just address the the lower hanging fruit, you know, areas that we can find help uh because of the amount
of eyes and interest and support that you have here in this county right now um across the board. So, feel free to interrupt me anytime with any questions that you have, but I will run through the the contents of the report, you know, just hit on a few highlights and um and leave you for for any questions
at the end as well. So uh without uh further ado, you know who we are. This is the next uh slide after number two is is just talks about Adam Sice and just our our footprint. So we're we're a lot more than the state of Florida. Um and uh thanks to some of that help, we we
have uh great assistance, you know, on the federal side and also the ability to benchmark uh against other communities and see how others have reacted to situations similar to what we're experiencing here. So that's the whole meaning for for that particular slide. Next is just the background uh that I
had already gone into is that this is essentially a part two of what we had already uh worked on before uh and also the process through which this plan was uh coordinated. We did a series of public meetings all in the month of April uh and uh we got many interviews
outside of those that were not able to participate in uh in those public meetings. Uh and then it's a it's essentially a compilation of my time uh from when I was with the state of Florida uh to now. Uh so that's why I I say 18 months. This is more or less a
result of 18 months of information in my brain um and information I was able to gather uh in the process uh here. So moving on to the next slide is again the um the background of the information and one key item that is uh not completely
um known to the public rather is that as part of of this uh award to Adams and Reason and also a continuation of our previous work. Uh we have hired Chad Thompson, the former environ mill manager, the environmental mill manager
for um uh for the joint Pacific Mill to monitor the activities of the closure of the mill for a period of one year calendar period of one year. So for those that do not know Chad, he is a wealth of information, knows everything, knows how to read every report that goes
out to D, understands that mill like nobody else on uh on on this land. Um so he has worked his way in gold. So uh you know a portion of the proceeds that you had turned over to us are going to him in order to do that and he delivers
reports to Rwanda uh on a monthly basis as far as what's happening. So he started in April. Uh so you'll be receiving those for the next 10 months. Um key takeaways from there which is how you're going to position yourself moving forward uh and uh and react accordingly
to them. So moving on it's to the report itself. So where we start is of course you know with the with an introduction a vision the mission you know what what is important to you where you know where's our true north in this whole process. So I do make note of that in the beginning.
Then I move on to the economic overview and it is a a a I don't want to say a thorough touch because you there's only so much that you can get you can capture in a in a window of time but uh it touches on all the key areas of the economy. So I speak specifically to obviously the challenges
that you have. I speak to the waterfront. I speak to power. I speak to water uh all the utilities. accessing to the rail, your storm water, your natural gas, broadband, all of the components around me, rail,
roads, airport. We get really into the airport. The airport has been a um one of the key, I don't want to say key findings, but definitely an area where I um uh spent spent a bit more focus than I initially thought I would um here because I see a
lot of opportunity in the airport. And we'll detail uh we detail that as as I go through the sites uh a little bit further on but you have an incredible opportunity at the airport talk about education uh ways that we can uh obviously economic development is a very
cyclical conversation. You know everything in the end points to economic development. So if you're able to uh support your education and you know increase the uh the grade of the district that attracts more businesses that helps you more on the workforce
side there's many ways to go about it but in the end it's called part of the comprehensive economic development discussion. So I do go into uh to those aspects and I'll I'll touch on that in a bit and our goals later. uh talk about obviously post-secary education uh which
you have a tremendous tremendous amount wonderful job going on here uh with both North Florida College and Big Ben Technical College. Talk about the um hospital uh and the needs of the hospital and just how amazing it is to have a a hospital here. That's not
something that most rural communities can attest to and um and really believe in the strength of the employment of that hospital. So and also the you know addressing the needs there and the programs that we can help uh support
them. Uh the strategic relationships are really you know everybody that's all all hands- on deck approach is uh uh which I had highlighted before you know there's no time like now. I'm going to say this to you probably three or four times today. Um this is when we need to act.
This is when you need to be as loud as possible to all everybody, you know, at the state level and saying we need your help, state, federal, otherwise because all eyes are on you and you can get you can get a lot done right now. You're going to get a lot done no matter what, but you can get a whole lot done for
sure. Um, I can tell you talk about income levels and then obviously quality of life. So that's the that covers the economic o overview report. I'm sorry. Also, housing would continue. And then I get into the waterfront. Waterfront was another area that um you know at first
at first glance especially last year was not something that uh was really on my radar. You do not recall last year when I was with you um uh Helen had not come through yet. So the uh the damage was not there yet. Uh so now there was a a
bit of a deep d deep dive on the waterfront, the businesses around the waterfront, how we can support them. Um what uh you know adding an additional Gulf access point, you know, and how that could enhance that aspect of the economy. Uh you know, there's many of
the public meetings that that one point came up a tremendous amount of times. And I understand there's a bit of challenges as far as um you know as far as permitting and and what could be allowed and you know in certain zones and so on and so forth. But being able
to benchmark what has been done in key areas like Louisiana and then also through even across you know across the the county line to uh to Dixie County. seeing what what some of our neighbors have done has has shed some light on me
and perhaps ways that we can possibly do things here. So um again there's no concrete answers to this yet in this report but it has led us on several um se several trails to to continue exploring and having discussions you
know right now especially as we prepare ourselves for the CDBG disaster grants that are soon going to be released for bid uh so that we'll be able to capture funds in order to make these
improvements. So that's a a key area that um that we're looking at there. Downtownization is actually the last piece to um to the overview and uh I didn't get into that too much because you have retail strategies that's
helping the city of Perry uh along with with that prep, but obviously that is uh you know that that's your centerpiece of the community. That's something that is uh that shows well. that's what you want to uh your crown jewel, if you will, of uh of the county. So, it's an important
aspect that needs to be um given some love. So, and it's getting it, which is great. Uh if you heard me say it before, you'll hear me say it again as well as Bob. The retention and analysis um retention is is the absolute fundamental
cornerstone of economic development. It's not recruitment, it's recession. Um so anything and everything that can be done to retain the business community here and expand your community here is absolutely the you know of paramount importance. Those efforts and activities
will uh just happen to to help with recruitment as well. So it's a a fundamental aspect of of where you what foot you delete on all the time. It's not the sexiest foot but it is absolutely most important. So having Bob
and the TCPDA board is uh incredible to to assist on that front and uh it's only going to be enhanced further uh you know now that um now that there's really a lot of momentum uh I think you know with many
of the industries here in the county. So separate next to uh the next area that you'll find the report digs into the site inventory. Let's see if there's a printing issue on my page here. I do all printing issues on your end. There's the digital copy doesn't have that. But
the sites I get into more or less uh almost all the same sites that I did last uh last go around with a bit more detail and then obviously an update on everything. The first is the uh Georgia Pacific site. Uh again going into what
is happening there where where where things are as of today. Um, I can tell you the discussions that that I've had, you know, that we've had at the with the TCDA with the uh Georgia Pacific team have have been warmer um have been um
very cooperative actually uh and more so very recently whereas before there it was um you know rather I don't want to say standoffish but you know very arms length you know thank you for the information. So over the past year, I've sent them every single every single
uh request for information we've received here in Taylor County. Uh in terms of manufacturers looking to the area, even though they say they're not ready, they not been ready. You know, they want to do their environmental remediation on the site first. They want they need to take care of what they need to. They said, "We're not ready to sell the site yet. We're not ready to talk to
anybody yet." But I said, "Well, I'm I understand that. I respect that. But I want you to know what's what's out here. I want you to know what what type of interest there is so that when you are ready um you're you're you know who to talk to when you turn to us. So over the
course of the past year that conversation's gotten warmer and even very recently with a very large uh request for information that we had come in uh we in essence I like to say cracked the code with them and they said okay this is this is interesting this is
uh we're we are we want to how do we prepare ourselves for the next one the next one like this that comes around. So even though yes, their timeline is is is what it is in terms of of uh remediating
the site, they understand that these conversations take time and there could be an alignment from you know how long it takes to negotiate with somebody new and to do what they need to do on the side. So that in my mind was like the biggest breakthrough of all uh is that
we they're they're ready to I say ready to start talking but they are considering their next move. Um so that is the good news that I I can deliver to you today as far as where we are with Georgia Pacific and I I would like to say that's only going to get better
there. So, their timeline if uh just to be uh just don't quote me on this, but it's still we're still looking at about one and a half years to two years for them to do the work that they need to do. Um but again, when you're talking about a very large economic development deal, that's more or less your sales cycle. Uh
so, if they start talking to someone today, there could be a marriage between those two timelines. right now. Uh, West Frasier site is the next site that I do get into and happy to say which you've all known because it's it's been widely publicized in in print is that the the
property is under contract. It was supposed to close the other day. There's minor minor title issues, you know, just little little things that have prevented it from closing. But it is going to close. uh the industrial developer area's plans are to come in and and uh
clear I would say clear the site but prepare it for another user. So but there's already several users that are looking at the site right now um and uh and are speaking to him. So that is our most immediate backfill opportunity that will create jobs nearly instantaneously
because it has the warehouse space, it has the power, it has the rail, it has everything ready for it. Uh it just needs somebody to move in. So that property cannot close soon enough. Uh and we will we will make that happen and we're working hard to do to uh to work with the new buyer uh which is John
Cheryl. I believe you all know him um to to make that happen. Next is city of Perry acreage. Uh that is uh uh new to not new to the report because it was in last year's report but it's new in terms of Duke site selection um site
readiness. uh just entered into the site readiness program. Uh so Duke is and through the site selection group are going through all of the due diligence on the site. Uh basically preparing the site from a an economic development standpoint for a new user to come in and answering all of the initial due
diligence questions, you know, the environmental phase one environmental type of reports, everything that more or less derisks a site, you know, for someone to come in. So it's a wonderful property. It's a a very attractive site. Um, and uh, thanks to Bob and his
efforts, he's he's tracked down ways that we can fulfill the one bogey, if you want to call it, that's on that site, which is the water and the waste. Water water is not the issue. It's the wastewater uh, element that is not present on that site right now. It's only sanitary. So, so that's great news. You have more
more readily available inventory for you there. Also, rail discussions have have occurred there as far as what we can do. I'll move I'll move a bit quicker. Graham's legacy site. I see we have Andy here. So much happening at this site. Um and and has get get so many hits. Uh he
is the most aggressive seller uh and property owner that that I have ever met. Uh and he does it does good work in terms of promoting his property. So um he's even moving forward um with the foreign trade zone designation. Are you going to be done with that in Q4?
They tell me it's supposed to come by the end of the year. Okay. That's an amazing selling point, especially in the light of tariffs right now. So, uh that's a a lot lots of great stuff. When a site visit we had last week, they looked at his site. So, every pretty much every uh uh request for information
we get, Grant's Legacy goes in the mix um because it's a a wonderful uh big piece of property that uh is not too big, but it has all the elements to it as far as power, rail, and or potential rail and water and sewer. So, Four Rivers has also been a wonderful partner
to us uh in the past uh in the past year. Uh they've opened up the the opportunity for 3,000 acres uh for us to market for them in the northern portion of the county. Granted, there's not uh any any significant utilities to the
property yet. Uh so it is a bit more of a longer term discussion for those that want to um you know are looking for a parcel that perhaps that size or or a portion thereof. But uh their willingness to work with us uh has grown
over the past year and uh and we're very appreciative of it. They've also um uh said that they are willing to have discussions on their waterfront piece uh that they own. Uh so as we have any interested parties that are are are
looking for anything along those lines, we'll obviously send them to the four rivers team. So enhancing the waterfront, doing everything we can there is obviously, you know, a a big priority as I mentioned before. Last on the sites, uh I get into the the
airport. So uh unexpected to me one night, one of our public meetings that we had here and there's Lauren. Hey, I was just about to talk about you. Uh was having a discussion with Ward. Uh discovered that there is an airport user that had had
inquired uh not too long ago um about uh potential space at the airport, hanger space at the airport. So, we chased him down uh and he was still still out there. There was not there was not space at the time uh and it just it was a bit
confusing. There's a little bit of a language barrier that's going on there. So, uh, we've been able to reconnect with this user and, uh, he's still interested. Um, and we have in the process been able to, um, determine when
there will be free space in. So, free space in the in the to the degree of 12,000 square feet, which is significant. Um, that's no that's no small amount of space at the airport. and this user which is a maintenance repair operations user could very much
uh take down that space. If this group doesn't want it, somebody else will. It's a marketable piece of property. Airport hanger space is very very high in demand. You'll see I talk about that in the report after speaking to your consultant. um we talked about what you
know what the market demands are and he said if you were able to to build or provide you know a 10,000 square foot one or two you'd probably be able to fill those rather immediately. So knowing that we will have space available at the airport
we are talking to right now we'll have something very very marketable and the best part about it is that it's going to diversify your economy. We don't have a lot of airport uses. We don't have a lot of aviation period, you know, here in in uh in Taylor County. What you want is
obviously to diversify the mix. I don't want to say get away from the wood manufacturing, you know, that is that is that you're the heart and soul of this county, but if we're able to diversify things a little bit by adding this, more power to us. So, more to be continued. But that is probably one of the most
amazing things that that has come out of this report is that you have you have something very marketable uh in the airport right now. So the um Florida Forestries has the space right now and they will be vacating by the end of
March. Uh so it'll be available come April 1 if not sooner. So next part of the reports is SWAT analysis. I won't get into that. that just talks about the uh uh your challenges, your your opportunities, your threats, you know,
it's it's as you all know more or less right now. Um it's it's anything that that is new to you. Private industries are also next. That was on the uh on the previous report. So
nothing entirely new uh except for just the annotation that uh although we don't have you know data centers and storage nor a aquaculture opportunities with us at present you want to keep them you know out there in the mix and in discussion
because you definitely have opportunities to do that. We're not very close to generation here to support data centers, but uh what you do have is the Georgia Pacific site which could be an incredible data center site um because
it has that uh it has the capabilities to support a very very very large data center. So keeping that there, we go on to workforce development which is uh you know a small blurb just talks about you know how good of a job you're doing there and how how you'll be able to
support industry moving forward. Uh and then I get into the support the marketing and then the incentives. So the incentives are lots lots and lots there and and it's not uh it's not an exhaustive amount of information that I I provide but I had the team you know
the DC team provide everything on as much as they could on the DC level that uh you know on the federal level that supports issues at the hospital any matters at the waterfront uh you know and and and anything that that was a key you know a key issue that
I had picked up in in my research uh while while speaking. So there's still plenty oncoming like after you know since this was published you know we have new SBA grants you know we have CDBG that are coming out so obviously this is just a touch of what is
potentially out there but it is the bottom line is there is a lot and obviously the state programs are are and the tax credits are all listed in there as well. Then moving on, uh we go to the goals.
I did actually actually I back back up for a minute. Uh the recommendations for new or expanded incentive programs is something that you know not not a conversation for tonight unless you want uh is is obviously talking about the FTCs. You know, if there's any other FTC
opportunities, that would be fantastic. um really getting into maybe more retention type of of uh incentives if we need to tweak anything at the local level, you know, to to support retention. Um that may or may not be needed. Uh and then another area uh that
it's not uh not an incentive. Well, I I'll get to that point in a minute, but anyways, those are the two main areas that I talk about as far as uh uh working that. The FTC is where I'm referring to at the airport. Um, but Tallahassee International Airport is going to get their FTZ designation as
well, so they can be the grantee to help this airport. And I could explain how that whole process works. So, goals, goals, goals, goals. Gather as much information from Chad Thompson as possible. And that is underway. So, a lot of these goals are
already underway. There's nothing we need to do here. It's just where where things are going right now. I'm going to backfill the West Frasier site. And obviously these wheels are already in motion right now. The back the West Frasier site, City of Perry site is in no certain order. Graham's legacy and
then uh uh Georgia Pacific. So we're going to we're moving on those all as we speak. I haven't spoken to this yet, but this is something very very key and will be very very helpful is to establish the SBDC office in Taylor County as soon as possible. Small Business Development
Council. Uh they uh operate out of FAMU. It is my understanding that they had an office here uh prior to the storms if I was right. Yes. So through the through the chamber. So we've connected with uh leadership there, you know, and and uh
we're going to resurrect that that relationship. The SBDC wants to have a satellite office here um and figure out a way to to have someone here at least, you know, one few days a week if possible. Small Business Development
Center. For those that are not familiar or um or realize just how helpful they are, they are a key component of your retention strategy. I worked with them very closely when I was uh in Nassau County when I was in economic development. They're they're they're
part and parcel of keeping the entrepreneurial spirit uh in place and alive and to keep the ball moving. So they they offer free business plans. they they have access to all sorts of programs. They can support businesses.
It is just a wonderful outfit. So, they have uh committed to coming back and and they will come back. So, we're we are working with them. We uh TCDA uh as well as the chamber and any other partners involved in making that happen
again. Identified the new golf access point to enhance and strengthen Taylor County's waterfront economy underway. So um not expecting this to happen very quickly but it will you know those wheels are are definitely in motion. I
talked about business retention more detailed assessments about what infrastructure is needed. Um, we applied for a grant. We, the TCDA, applied for a grant for coordinated marketing strategy to to help promote Taylor County a bit
more uh to the outside world. When you come seeing websites, you know, doing doing a bit of that promotion, that targeted marketing because we have a very, very special story to tell and has the greatest opportunity in the state of Florida. So, we're going to add
more sites, at least two is where is a target to Taylor County site selection inventory and then develop initiatives, strengthen cooperation, target high value multiplier industries. A lot of this stuff is, you know, just just what
we do at TCDA day in and day out. And something that I believe has has happened before, at least discussed before, is an innovation hub or shared workspace. This came up in one of our uh one of our public meetings. Um so I shared workspace perhaps on a technical
side. I'm not sure if that's anything that uh you know would we can pursue you know through the partners uh and talk about more but fostering the entrepreneurial spirit obviously would be helpful for uh for downtown
and uh and otherwise. So regular re review and update process um would involve calculating the the business retention you know how many touches this this happens on a regular basis already TCPA delivers these reports on a quarterly basis so
understanding the business retention touches understanding the job creation numbers capital investment numbers site development as far as uh putting new sites online for us to promote understanding population growth because that is a target that is needed uh and
wanted and then obviously the housing development which is absolutely needed um for not only the residents that lost their home but those workers that want to come in. So that is uh more or less uh the the targets you know the the KPIs
for this process moving forward. um an annual report in the uh you know at the end of every year every fiscal year kind of outlining our progress. So understanding that you all have been through a lot. I understand I talked very fast with you tonight. Um but I
want to open it up to any questions and I promise you you have hit the worst. Uh the there is a lot there's a lot in the mix right now and I know you can feel it. I see it. Um it's not just just me being Polyianaish. Uh there's there's
the best is yet to come and I say that for so I will end there. Is there any questions? Any questions for appreciate the information? Thank you all for the workshop tonight
[Music] and we'll go into the regular meeting. Part: 2
[Music] [Music] All right, we're ready to go ahead and start into the regular meeting. All staff pray. [Music]
Thank you again father. Father as we go from one meeting to another help us and guide us as only you can do and you will do and you have done and we thank you what you've done thus far.
these blessings and all other blessings we ask in Jesus name. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the world for it stands one nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all. [Music] like to welcome everyone to a meeting this Tuesday, June 17, 2025, 6 p.m. We have a conference line set up. Number there is 1 1917
9001022. Access code 32347 pound. This is not a toll-free number. You may be subject to longdistance charges according to your long distance plan. When the chairperson opened the meeting for public comment, please follow the below instructions. If
you wish to speak, please dial star five. The moderator will unmute your line. It's your turn to speak and notify you by announcing the last four digits of your telephone number. Please announce your name and address. You will be allowed to speak for three minutes. Any person wishing to address the board
regarding an agenda item be given three minutes for comment and commenter may only speak one time for each agenda item. That said, we'll move on to item three. Uh, obtain a motion to approve the agenda. Motion by Commission, second by
Commissioner D. All in favor on your consent items. Anyone have a chance to go over your consent item? Any questions, discussion? No question or discussion. Is that a motion to approve the consent item? Motion by Commissioner. Do we have a
second? Second by Commissioner M. All in favor? All right, we'll go to our bids and public hearing item 11 to hold a public hearing stakeholder meeting at 6:00 p.m. at 6 p.m. or as
soon thereafter as possible to discuss and receive public input for the Keaton Beach and Steam Hatchee boat ramp bypass feasibility study. presented by CR. Hey everybody.
As you know, we have received restore act three money to complete a bypass feasibility study for Steam Hockey and Katon Beach boat. This is a feasibility study only where it doesn't involve any
construction. It is fully grant funded but it it is just a study only through the competitive process as con was selected as the consultant for the project and they will be doing a brief
presentation later um to receive public input. We are required by the terms of the grant to have a minimum of three stakeholder meetings, one of which will be held in ste. Um, we do want to receive as much public input as we can
get for this project. And I do want to stress, I know there's been some rumor that um, we're going to take people's property and imminent domain and that is absolutely not the case at all. This is for study and study only. So at this
time I will turn it over to um Acon to do their presentation and hopefully we receive some good topic input and I am here on the line if you need any questions answered in reference to the terms of the grant agreement or anything
else in reference to the project. Evening commissioners. My name is John Collins with Bathcon. I know met most of you for several years now. We've been honored to be your aviation consultant here at LA County since 2007. It's kind of hard to believe it's been that long. Um but certainly working hard with um
with Landa and Melody and Jamie and Ward and your your whole team with the county. Um we're actually really excited about this project, the the Stein Hatch and Katon Beach boat ramp feasibility study. We know that this has been a big priority for this county for several years now and so we're really excited to get started with this. So again,
tonight, this is really just um kind of opening the doors to get feedback um from the county and also residents. Um I have with me tonight uh Clint Pleser. He's our associate vice president of our transportation department. So Clint is
going to come up and just really give a high level overview of what this project includes, walk through some of our thoughts, but really what why we're here tonight is to hear your thoughts on what you think are important for this project and also receive um input from the community. So with that, Clint, thanks
John. And thanks commissioners for having us. Thanks to the public for for coming. We really appreciate everyone's attendance. Um, as you see up on the screen here, I want to let everyone know that is an image generated by AI, but none of the engineering will be done by AI. Now that we got that out of the way,
uh, we can go down to the next slide. Um, and this is a so so far we have not put together anything. We we want to let the commissioners and the public know that there there's no preconceived notions of what should or should not be done here. We're just trying to alleviate the traffic traffic um and
utilize the grant funds to best serve the county's residents. Uh so, uh what we'd love to do is after the end of this is get get comments, but first we'll we'll briefly uh talk about the project. Um I'm sure most of you commissioners and the residents fully aware of the
project locations. Uh there's only one road and one road uh in and out of Katon Beach. Uh so we're be looking to to either uh create a turnoff area or a completely new bypass. As Melody's uh stated, there will be no eminent domain to use to uh considered to take anyone's
home. Um and some of our other key concerns would be uh being responsible to the environment. Um as you can see uh in the pictures and you're fully aware from this area, there's a very sensitive uh natural wetlands surrounding all the woodlands uh by nature because they are
leaning out to the Gulf. uh we will be very cognizant of that. Uh and then just find the best solution for the the county and its residents. Uh as as you again you see no uh work or graphics done so far. We're just collecting data. Uh we do plan to collect chapter counts
around the 4th of July weekend as our worst case scenario for traffic in the scalloping season. So we'll be using that as our basis of design for for traffic. Uh but other than that, there's really been no uh decisions made as far as what needs to be done. Uh we'll go to the next slide and you'll see the the
Stinhei aerial. Um again there there's a few more roads in this network. So there might be some different options to consider on moving traffic around. There isn't just the one road in one road out but it is the main road that's that's being very hampered by by traffic based
to the BO ramp. Um with that um we'll just open it up for for any questions or comments from the commissioners or or the public. questions from the board. I got one thing. There's a business there on the right just before you get
to the intersection down there on the right store gas station and all that. I've been asked by the owner for us to put that bypass close to his store there as we could because he don't want everybody bypassing him going around.
That's that's a great input. Um what we this is something that we'll be doing tonight is we'd like to collect all of these comments. Uh we will be having like Melody said uh several public input meetings uh that will be presenting ideas. Um but the more comments we can get specific comments like that the more
we can get now uh the better. So if any of the commissioners you've gotten any of those you can forward to Melody and she'll provide them to us. Uh if any other commissioners if you if you have comments yourself or you have from your constituents please provide to Melody and and bring one to us. Thank you for that. I just got a question. I think a
lot of probably a lot of questions which was mentioned a little bit probably by Natalie is talking about not taking property. what property and what I mean the path of the road of the bypass of that
see what's what what's the path look like we uh what what properties are you looking to uh partner with to make this happen? We're it's a it's a blank slate right now. So right now we're just collecting data. Uh we're looking at all
the rideway of the ramps. We're we're collecting that information. We're collecting you know what uh where are the wetlands and trying to find that. So we could identify if there's impacts for that. But there's no uh bypass limit set right now. It's all it's a it's a blank slate for us to get your input, look at
the physical existing conditions, and make recommendations. Question. Can you tell me exactly what your study will tell us when you're done? What can we expect? Yes, that's a that's a great question. Uh so so we do
know that if we do get approved study, there is funds for construction as a second phase. Uh we're not authorized like like Amelia said, we're not authorized at all for that right now, but there there are funds for construction later. So our goal will be to have a project that is acceptable to
the community, acceptable to the the commissioners, and and helps make the traffic better. Can you give me a little more detail than that? The the I mean the detail is going to be in the report. Unfortunately, we we don't have those yet. And I'm actually really happy that
we don't have those details right now because that would mean we came up with preconceived notions of what it should be and we don't have that. We we know that there's a traffic issue and we want to to deal with it as much as possible after we look at the data and which we look at all the comments from the commissioners and the public. Well, you
did mention earlier that you'll do a traffic count. Yes. So, what else are you going to do? Okay. All the the pieces of it. Yes. Um so so we are getting traffic counts uh surrounding uh active boat ramps a few uh couple thousand feet away from the boat
ramps to to see uh uh I think I think we have at least five at each location. Uh we we're collecting the local soil uh data from our geotechnical subconultants. uh we have survey sub consultants who are collecting all the right away so we can identify if
properties just because we won't I forget who you did the imminent domain question uh just because we won't recommend taking something to imminent domain doesn't mean we won't recommend purchasing a property so it would be identifying property that may be
able to to be purchased uh but but really we won't know any of those things until we we really get into the detail of it further on so once you get that traffic count over the July of the fourth weekend. So, what are you going to um what are you going to compare
those numbers to or what are you going to use to say, okay, we this is the number, this is the traffic count and do we really need a bypass here or not? Because remember, it's about three three and a half months out of the year. The
rest of the time, we don't really have too much of a problem there. mainly during scolop season. So, what are you going to use those numbers with to determine that? That'll all be part of a process because it's a great point that that uh it's not there all the time, but
we do try to do is get the the worst case scenario so we know it's not going to be much worse than this. So, we grab that and then we can we can have those conversations of what are we doing? Is it appropriate to do this level of of fix for something that happened three months out of the year? And now that'll
be the input we get from all the commissioners and all the the public based on our recommendations, but we know that it's an issue. We know that there the traffic uh is tough in that area. Um and and so our recommendations will will be measured based on that. Uh and they'll also allow you to give your
input and the rest of the public commission as well. And see, I guess what I'm looking for too, it number one, is this something we really need to do or would there be something else that that those funds would be better used
for? For instance, another entrance, another boat ramp somewhere. That's that's kind of what I'm looking for. That's not inside of the the scope that we've been identified for. We're we're going to identify to see what's going on with the traffic and make
recommendations based on on what we're seeing with that traffic to alleviate. Mr. Chair, first if I could ask, so is it even a potential that one of the recommendations would be no build? Is that that's always a that's always
potential? So that's a potential is that you know it may be we don't you know there's a no build option. That's right. or because it's seasonal, you know, there maybe there's another lane or something like that. Okay, that's right. Then my next question is um after this
meeting, I'm sure there will be some members of the public who would like to discuss their properties as potential who I if you can just give us contact information, John, if y'all pull in that to me. Yes, that's something that we can forward to y'all because there may be
people in the public who, you know, have their own ideas or live, you know, have property nearby that would like to be considered. Also, I know there's going to be a question at Katon Beach about some county owned property if that is
and and that's something that was purchased with an SCT grant and I know that that has been zoned um conservation. Is there a process if that is something that's even a potential that y'all could flesh out for us? If there's any
potential at all to to utilize the the property that's already owned by the county. So the question is zone conservation right now, but are there options on potentially developing that parcel? Yes. Yeah, we'd be happy to look into that. We reach out to agencies and find out what options we have. Okay. Absolutely. And also what I'm thinking
as far as m commissioner Feel as far as kind of what we are going to do, what I'm envisioning is we'll have a few different like alternate road layouts for each each of these locations. One of them might be a relatively small impact and one of them might be larger impact. And we could we could sit down and say,
look, you there's different ways we can approach this. How do you feel about something smaller versus something larger? Here's the construction differences. Here's the impact potentially on property. Um, again, we don't know exactly what the options are right now. That's kind of what we're going to work through. But I think our
goal is to flush out all of the options that we have available to us. What do you feel comfortable with? What how would you like to, you know, what path should we be looking at to further investigate different options in addition to the no build? That's
correct. That's correct. Both of they said it very well. The no build is always a baseline criteria that we that we as part of these feasibility studies that we compare everything to. So So the no build will will be compared to all the different criteria that we can
compare the solutions to as well. Sure. This is Melody. Can I make a comment, please? Yes. I just want to let y'all know that's why we're having a series of stakeholder meetings because as they start this
process and come up with ideas, we will come back to the board and bring you know their ideas or their findings so far. So that it could be, you know, down the road you just don't want to do anything that they recommend. Um, that's
that's why we're doing it this way, so that you're involved in every aspect of the process so that when we get to the end, it is something that the board fully supports. And I do want to let you know that we have sufficient funding set
aside and poting if you do want to move forward with this. However, it is not committed to this process. But once we get into this, if you see it is a no build or you don't want to move forward, we have funding or
we can redirect it to say if you want another boat ramp for whatever project you want, we do have funding available. That is not yet committed to anything specific. Go ahead. I don't want to speak for Melody, but or
the board, but you could choose one or the other as well. If it makes sense for one spot and it doesn't make sense for the other spot, it's it's really up to you. And and the only one big thing I had after is please send your comments in like that those little comments of of you know property owner has a store. They're
concerned about losing business. This might seem small but we need to fill them all together because there might be another property owner that the opposite is true for them and the good for this one's bad for the other. But we need to be able to have all those comments together so we can tell the whole story and tell each individual person why this
is moving forward or not. You know, again, that's not up to us to to make those decisions. We're just making recommendations for consideration. I'd like to say one thing about it. It is them children running back and forth across that road from the park to the boat ramp area when they get ready to go
fishing. It's it's a wonder somebody had got run over there and that getting a bypass is going to be a blessing for the children coming and going right there. I can tell you cuz I've seen them run across that road and they got a you know boat paddle preserver or a bucket. They
ready to scrap. [Music] So it'll be a blessing to get a a bypass there. Just to piggy back off of that though, don't we still have the sheriff's department parked right here at all
times? We still Lwanda, we still are contracted for that service. Okay. And so, just to be clear, you're going to present us with two feasibility studies, one for Katon and one for Sting Hatching. It it'll come as one report,
but it'll it'll be separate. Yes. Excuse me. Okay. You said 3 months is all we talking about that be real busy. Do we want to do we want to stay at 3 months? Anything we can do to make six months?
A 9 months a nine months. I'm not quite sure what you're saying, Commissioner. Okay. You said three months is about busy be. Yeah, that's when we have the most traffic, I believe. Okay. Is there anything we can do with the bypass to make it a 9 month
or six month visit? I mean, it is what it is. I don't know that it would be anything. I mean, for me, I mean, I'd have to just see the results to I'd have more questions because for me, I mean, when I go to the beach, I'm not in no hurry. So, I mean, I don't mind driving down there looking
at people. I like to look at the people and such as that. I mean, as far as the bypass for me, I mean, long-term wise, I mean, in 30, 40 years, is that going to is it something that's going to be able to get people moving quicker to work such as that? I mean, is that going to
move people the businesses to develop in these areas? Is it going to move people through quicker and such, but as far as businesses that are in the boat ramps, actual beaches that we already have, I mean, I don't
I'm not sure how the one other benefit we'd say again we're we're we're more presenting the facts for you guys to make your decisions on. There are other benefits outside of that like emergency response time. Um that that also be big considerations. But really I would just
ask for you to send in your comments now. I mean comments about like about what you just said. Put that an email and send it to us. So I'm not sure because we can address that in the report. We can say that there are concerns of of the of the
cost benefit you know analysis. Is it is it a cost a benefit for the whole year? But like again the mo the more comments we get now great. Um, and then after we present, we do, you know, let us know how you feel about that. And, and like Mel said, um, this could move no further
or you could have a a completely separate bypass that moves traffic away. It just depends on what the public and the commission wants. I want to hear from the public. Any other questions? All right.
I'm open up to the public. So, open up to the public and thanks for your time. question. Um, so am I also understanding that you're not only just looking at moving the traffic, you might add
so everyone can hear you. Okay. Sorry. My name is Michelle Curtis and the question I had was um it sounds like this is not just about moving the traffic by adding a new road. It could potentially be adding a new boat ramp to
diffuse the traffic a little bit. Is that what I'm hearing as well? I no I think what maybe Commissioner Figel it might or even the county administrator alluded to was not if if we don't find it feasible for a bypass to maybe the money can be used to for another boat
route. Okay. You know to to get people to the water to you know maybe clear up some of that congestion down there to sell to another. So so that could be part of this really. Yeah. In other words, in other words, what's
what's the best option for us? Is it to potentially have a bypass for 3 months of heavy traffic or to use that funding to put in another boat ramp, which is very much needed. Uh, and that in itself
might alleviate some of the traffic traffic, you know, just by having another option. So keep that in mind. Yeah. And and I guess the thing I'm thinking is we do have other access points, but they need dredging. So is
there money available for dredging if you you know or is it the kind of thing that's totally out of question to dredge anything more than we already have? Do we have any kind of direction from the government on that? I think I think there are I know know the keep beach and
the you keep beach and see hatchy is in the process of the d to be ded and we've also you got cedar island and we've also with theition of we've got that in the plans for bridging
as well and then I guess I'm looking at other places like street you know and other places that we actually have access points if they were dredged. You can have um the issue would be ownership. Yeah. And that there's
probably private places as well. But um so okay, that was that was our question. Thank you very much. Anyone else from the public? Anyone else from the public? Anything else for the board? you guys have anything else? Just just um just one quick comment. I know for me I'm I'm
much more of a visual person. Um so it helps me always to look like if I can see options sometimes I can have you know a lot more input on something. So you know obviously we're going to put together some options and some ideas on what this what some what it could look like and then but like like Clint mentioned we'll have another public
meeting where we can kind of go through these get input pros and cons of each of these options before we move forward with with the next step of this. When are you looking to start this study and when are you looking to have a complete study completed? Yeah. Um so we've
already started uh but just in the data collection area. Our next big thing is the July 4th counts. U but but the the research into the wetlands and the environment and the the geotech and the rideway is already underway. Um the the
like I said, let's uh get the account set and get with Melody and we'll get a a whole schedule out for the whole thing, but I think 365 was our contract and we got kicked off about a month ago. So it'll be it has to be done by this time next year done. Uh but but we'll
get you more detailed schedule. [Music] Just a simple question. Who pays him? From the grant. And how much is this going to cost us? I see
for moral um the golf consortion around 300. I don't recall exactly around 300. 350 some thousand for the study. Oh yeah. 3 350 and we can't find a better way to spend that
money and that's our and that's been approved. I mean we've gone through the grant application process and we did have a third party to um I guess validate or verify the the charges as being
appropriate and that's part of the process. It was approved by um the Gulf Consortium and Treasury. So so that it's all been preapproved. I'm not saying it's not appropriate. I'm just saying that we lost 154 homes at the beach. The beach is devastated from
what it was a couple years ago. She said it's going to be different because you don't have 154 houses. Pam's not going to scholar this year cuz her house is gone. I'm not going to because my house is gone. I'm just saying, can't we find a better way to spend that kind of money and do some studies somewhere else and look at something else we can do for
Keen Beach? Traffic may not be as big a problem because you just don't have as many people in it and it's a real short period. It's not even three months. Y'all said 3 months, but it's a lot closer than that because school starts in August and when school starts back late July of this year, then then the whole thing's over with. So, it's really
not three months. Mr. Person, I I do I was thinking about that as well, Randy. And I think maybe what we can also offer to them is some of the scholar counts that um that we can get from Victor for previous years in case we're off this
year a little bit to Would that be okay? Absolutely. More data is better, right? So, there is data that's been collected at Katon Beach over the years um that IFIS has helped us with and Victor Blanco um for the numbers maybe maybe
more close to what it normally is. I'm sure we can get into a lot of things. We probably should have put a little more effort into getting the ramps ready for them to use, but we didn't. And now here we are in the middle of SC or already started. We don't have a boat ramp area to work from. you know, not going to just kick it around, but I just think
there's a lot of ways to spend the money, especially $350,000 just for a study, a piece of paper that tells you you need to get something you may or may not need in 2030 years. Most of those lands are wetlands. Mr. Moody, that uh gas station come out there, according to
your county development, is not going to be built back. If you guys don't take some effort and put some of that back, that building won't go back. So there's no need to worry about where that goes. If he don't move that gas station on somewhere that's more feasible, he won't be building that building back. He's not going to be able to build it back, but
he's got it going. You got We're not quite sure how that's going to work out either, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to work out, but I'll leave that with you and Terry to deal with that. I have one question really on this money, this 300 plus,000
doing this study. I mean, if it's not going to work. Something we don't want to do a boat ramp study. Do we got to start all over again and go find money to do a boat stud? I mean the process I mean and then we got to go
find more money. Well, I think that I mean you have to remember with this top three funds you have to submit a separate grant application every time. every time you want to change your
focus. But we have a large amount of that that is that is free that. So yes, we yes to answer your question, yes, we couldn't just change midstream and decide to do something different. we
would have to amend our our imple our SEP and start, you know, it's about a two-year process to go through that by the time you amend the the um plan and then you submit a grant application for for those funds. Unfortunately, that's
the way the restore act funds work. Mr. I guess that I I'm just, you know, you probably tell by my questions I was a little bit concerned. $350,000
is a lot of money for a feasibility study that very well could come back with a no build. So, we're spent $350,000 to say we don't need this. Um, and then
I'm, you know, when you talk about the scholar count, I'm just I don't know how much that really plays in into it because
um, you know, has it has it been um has it kept people wonder from coming in the past? Do we have any kind of statistics that says when the scholar count was not as good that we didn't have as many people? Do we have anything
to go on with that? Well, when I So, when I refer to the scholar count, that's just strictly a way to capture activity at the boat ramps. I don't and I don't know. I'm sure there's a way to relate it to, you know, if the if the
sculps were not good, then as many people didn't come. I was just trying to offer a way to provide additional numbers. But my question is, do we have any kind of data from from previous years when the scallop counts were low
that says, okay, this this about this many people did not come because of that information. Are we just thinking that maybe? I can check. I I But you don't know of any right now. And who would probably have that? probably Victor. I
mean, and I don't know that you can tie the two together. Go ahead, Melody. We may be able to obtain data from um SWC and the Florida Voting Improvement Program. Um we may be able to obtain some data from SWC
um in reference to that too. And and I just wanted, you know, to remind everyone this feasibility study was pursued um upon direction of the board.
Um so I mean that's that's why we are pursuing it and went through the grant application process because this was something maybe not each board member on right now but this was a a board driven project. It was melding. I
was here during that time and uh you know when we found out, oh, we've got this much money to spend and it has to be spent at the coast and we were trying to decide what are we going to spend all this money on. And so one of the things
that that we did discuss and and at that time well we were looking let me back up. We were looking at more boat ramps and we looked at quite a few. Um, and I know that one one
location was um at Cove and our engineer did a a big study on that of of you know putting but there were there were a lot of things in the way um I think particularly with permitting
and I don't know how that would be now but um so you know this was just one of the ways that we thought how can we spend the money but since that time Um, you know, we've had a lot of houses that are that are wiped out down there. So, we obviously we don't have as many
rentals this year as we had previously. So, we don't know how that's going to affect us if it's going to be a negative impact. I kind of think it is um you know, because um the rental business was pretty robust during scolop season. So,
there's a lot of factors I think to consider, but again, I I have a little reservation of spending $350,000 of this money, right? And if I can if I'm not somebody
help me remember if I'm not mistaken maybe during that P time period there were some concerns maybe also from the residents of both areas because you know traffic was so cumbersome and so difficult and I I don't disagree that
especially at the beaches that's not a problem right now unfortunately. Um but I I think it's just the timing of the grant application and the storms and the fact that this has come after you know we've had such devastation. Yeah.
We did have uh when we had quite a few more citizens down here. Correct. Right. You're not concerns. But then um you know uh since that time we've hired the sheriff's department and during in the beginning we did not have the sheriff's
department down there to help with traffic and parking on the side of the road and blocking traffic. So I think that with their presence there it has helped a lot in terms of moving traffic especially at the beaches. Now I don't
know about Steve Hatche and um if that is it parking is is not just the issue is get through the ramp so that you can get a park. So my my input is it is a costly study but just as Mr. Moody
talked about the safety factor you can't put a price tag on there. So my thing is it it is 300 plus thousand dollar but it gives an option. We just heard from our folks with economic development and I don't
disagree with Commissioner Moody or Commissioner Dance that there could be the potential for expansion. If we don't have this kind of study and the option to move forward for the future, then we're just continuing to seek a consideration to use these funds
somewhere else and all the laborious time that it takes to go on that and and the opportunity lost in the process. So, I'm not glad about the reductions and I'm really not glad that the cost is that high, but I am exceptionally interested in getting the information so
that we can make the best decision that we can. If that means that we get information that says don't build it, then we don't build it. And Ste, you have people blocking the marina parking area. You have them getting in arguments
in the parking lot because park behind somebody is ready to go. And hacky is really needs a bike. I mean that down there. I've been there when you couldn't even get down that road for 30 minutes. And I mean, you'd wait my 30
minutes to go down the main road. I don't I don't disagree with that about Sting Hatch, and I should have been clear uh when I was starting to talk. I was mainly talking of the Katon Beach area, but I I think you're correct in Sting Hatch. Absolutely. Something needs
to be done there. And maybe Katon Beach. I don't know. I'm just questioning that's all I I do remember there was and I want to backtrack on something that was said a few minutes ago on if we say you find
out you don't want to do a bypass and you do want to do a vote ramp um study a study to find out where a vote ramp would work we would not have to amend the SCP because voter access is already in our SCP however we would have to do
an entire entirely new need application, but we would save a little bit of time on not having to amend the SCP. But you're looking at, you all know by now how slow Treasury is. If you decide to pursue a vote ramp or yeah, a voting
facility um location, um you're looking at uh a year from time of submitting the grant application, but that is a possibility. And um I do want to remind everyone, I know I don't think any of
you all were commissioners then except uh Commissioner Moody. We already completed a study on the site known as Woods that we're getting ready to do Hatching Coastal Park project on. We already have studies completed on that
particular site with the Florida Voting Improvement Grant and it is not feasible to to have a boat ramp there and you know since that is a larger parcel just just so y'all know that is not a doable location. What is that again?
Steam coastal park. Uh we received Florida voting improvement grants on that because since it was a larger parcel, but it was not a doable pro parcel because of the amount of dredging it would require and due to
the the area, it would require continuous flushing of the B basin and FBI and SWC determined it would it that site would not work. Okay. Um so just you know just to let you know on that
since we have that project coming up too. People want to speak about I just wanted to say that um scholar season is our largest stream in revenue but we have many many uh fishing tournaments throughout the year.
They're increasing. We've got Sea Hag Marina. We've got the boat ramp. We've got Dead Man's Bay and we've got Royy's Restaurants across the way. So, the traffic is not just during Scotland season if we decide to go through it.
Yeah. Rhonda Barley with um Steen Hatchee. My question isn't does this study need to be done, but it's the timing of it. Our roads are already messed up. We're pretty sure our rates or our season's going to be a lot slower
this year. And I just would really question whether this is a good time for this or should we wait and see what next year brings. I have to agree with our whole lot less traffic. This study would
have been best done last year before all the damage that we have. We're going to spend money on a study that's not going to be 100% accurate. Or we could take the money and put it on something tangible like a boat print. That's not
the way this work. You can't do it that way. Well, I just think this studies it's not a good idea this time of year now. I don't know how accurate of a reading you get even in I mean when everyone's lost their homes down there
some I don't think people come back I would say next year is going to be the right time to do it last year last year would have been the time question if they're going to come back anyone else we will close the public hearing
July 12 hearing at 6:05 after it's possible to consider adoption of resolution to 30 footway alley located about 23 subdivision agend
closure. Right. This is item number 12. Terry, this is for um the one for Erica Michelle Griffith. I got it. Okay. I think it's come to you. Is something the request come to you about abandoning the
rightway? May information on I think it's it's a good idea. [Music] We all Mr. This was properly noticed that submission um application was submitted.
It was properly noticed. letters were sent to the adjoining land owners and we're at the point of public hearing. We have a resolution on the table. So we want to read about that motion by commission.
All in favor resolution does not have a title. Um but it says it won't take too long to read. I think it's important when you have a abandonment or a closing of a road that everyone understand exactly where it is
and is there a purpose to do that. And also uh when you do this of course uh if there's a vote on it needs to be a roll call vote. With that in mind, if you don't mind, Mr. Chairman, I'm going to read it real quick. And if you can
hear me or can't hear me, let me know. uh because I'm turning to y'all now also because it is a public hearing and this hasn't been passed. It's just what uh they may pass. Be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Taylor County, Florida one that pursuant
to the notice of proceeding for closing of streets duly published according to law proof of publication of which is attached here to and made a part hereof, a hearing was duly held at 6:05 p.m. It's a little bit later than 605
um on the 17th day of June AD 2025 to consider and determine whether or not the county would vacate, abandon, discontinue, and close certain roads in Taylor County, Florida. More particularly described in the proof of publication attached here, too. At the
time and place set for SID hearing, all persons interested were given the opportunity to be heard. The board of county commissioners of Taylor County, Florida, determined that the proposed action vacating, abandoning, discontinuing, closing certain roads herein particularly described will not
deprive any person of a reasonable means of ingress and igress to his premises or her premises and will not materially interfere with the county's road system. Two, that the certain rose herein describe be and hereby is hereby located
abandoned and discontinued. The board of county commissioners hereby renounces and disclaims any right, excuse me, and the county and public here and there by any land or interest
there and contain in this certain roads in Taylor County, Florida. will particularly describe description a parcel of land in section 25 township 9 south range 9 east and being that part of Fletcher Lane southeast line and
between lots four and five of block 23 of the stein hatchy subdivision as per the map or plat thereof recording in plat book one pages 26 and 27 of the public roads of Taylor County Florida and more particularly described
as follows. Being at the southeast corner of lot 4 of block 23 stehatche subdivision as per the map or plat thereof recorded in plat book one pages 26 and 27 of the public records of Taylor County, Florida and run south 88°
16 minutes 20 seconds west along the south boundary line of set lot for a distance of 199.46 46 ft to the southwest corner of said lot 4. Vince run south 0° 28 minutes 37
seconds east a distance of 30 ft to the now north boundary line of lock five of block 23. Then run along the north boundary line of block five north 88 degrees 21 minutes 57 seconds
east a distance of 199.29 29 28 ft to the northeast corner of said lot 5 and the west right away of 15th street southeast run north 01°
07 minutes 57 56 seconds west along the ride ofway at distance is 30 ft to the point of beginning containing 0.14 acre more or less three this resolution shall take effect
when the original here together with a copy of the proof of publication of the adopted resolution has been filed with the clerk of the circuit court for recording in the public records of Taylor County, Florida. And if they pass it, it would be duly adopted in regular
session this 17th day of June, 2025. Thank you. Yes, sir. You're going to ask anyway. So, what you do is you ask for public comment. Go ahead. Did you have some questions? Hold on. I got some questions for you.
Have you been down there and looked at this? Honestly, no, ma'am. Okay. So, how are you certain then that this is the right thing to do? Well, I talked it over with when Bobby was here. We talked it over. Kenneth, the engineer.
They were they were more schooled in this than I was. Bobby looked at it. I'm certain you did. Did it L? Um I'm Well, I hate to confirm yes or no, but this was something um I'm I feel pretty
certain he did. He was familiar with the area. And we also have, you know, the obvious maps of the area. Okay. So, is there any way that you can foresee in the future that the county would have any kind of need for this rideway any
use for it whatsoever? I don't think so, but I have not been down there. So, I don't want to say absolutely not. But I've looked at it. I think until he has been down there and looked at it
himself. I looked at it water hole at the end of it. It got turned into a little old ball down at the end of it. It also gives parking about nine parking spots for the new um pharmacy that got destroyed. That's the biggest thing right now is there's no
parking. And what he wants to do, the new owner CJ, what he wants to do is he wants to take the fence down in between the Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and close that section off so people can walk through and get to the insurance company that's there that's supporting the community and also the new pharmacy that we've let go in there for the last
year. It looks like to me it needed on both sides. Yes, sir. And basically, there's been trees there growing there for 30 years. There's no utilities. The actual utility department wrote a letter along with Kenneth did as well. They've been down and looked at it. Um there's nothing there. So there's a need for the public. Yes,
ma'am. It's it's helping the that we're going to sell it to some other land own dollars. It's just going to be open up for the public with it. Also, two businesses there, two businesses, actually three with the Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and then
the insurance company. They all got devastated. The insurance company moved into the building when they got devastated. And we let CJ Patel, the pharmacy who who handles everybody there in our town. Um, so basically it's it's brought a lot to the town to be able to have this. So parking has been an issue.
Um, so that would that would probably give about eight or nine parking spaces and 9 ft wide by 18t for DOT space and it would give people the opportunity to be able to get in and get out. There's a lot of older people obviously and parking is an issue and there's been issues with people being able to get in and out the right way without having any
accidents. I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution. Well, we got any other comment from the public? We got any other public comment there? My question is, um, it sounds like this
is public property that now is going to be used by some businesses or something like that. And so I wonder if that should be appraised and it be purchased. No.
Let me answer your question. Okay. Okay. close or abandon a road, it goes to the adjacent land owners. Okay? It's not sold. It goes to the adjacent owners. And what I was going to say u before um
Miss Curtis talked was that uh if there is anyone that is an adjacent land owner that has an objection to this, then they should that's why you have a public hearing. Generally speaking, in the years that I've been a county attorney,
if there is adjacent land owner that comes in and objects to the closing of the road, the board really seriously considers that when determining whether you're going to grant the resolution or not. The board actually has a letter
from the adjacent land owner. I know that. I saw it. It's in the packet, sir. Yes, sir. But I wanted everybody to understand that that's uh that's how these things do. And I can remember many many years ago uh there was a very
similar one uh some of y'all weren't even born when this happened. Uh where a portion of a road was closed, you know, and we had a bunch of ripping and snorting. Oh, you
can't close a portion. Oh, you could close a portion. But if you do have a a specific um um description, and that's what I read. It was a descript a specific description of this property. And did you hear at the end of it how
much it's being closed [Music] 14 acre tax? I mean, it's not a whole lot of property. It goes on the tax role. I wasn't going to say that. What I was going to say that it's not a whole lot
of property. It's not. It's a very small enough for about nine parking spots. Yeah. And Steve Hatchee, as we all know, uh the subdivision uh was done a long long time ago. Um and it's caused some aggravation to people
over the years. And there are I I used to call them pig trails. They're not even a road sides. They're just little alleyway. And uh this is not the first time this has come before the board of county commissioners over uh the 35 years I've
been your attorney. Anyone else? Anyone on the line? Yes, sir. We will hear. We do have You need a motion one way or the other.
We have a motion by Commissioner Fo already to adopt the resolution. We have a second by Commission. Yeah. Commissioner Moody. Mr. Mr. Newman. Yes. Commissioner English. Yes. Commissioner D. Yes. And
Commissioner Pel. Yes. Now I have a question. since we're going to close that right away and it's going to be public use. Um, now what about any kind
of liability or comrade? Does that should we be concerned about that? No. If you close it, you're abandoning it. Not county property anymore. Giving it away. Giving it away. That that's what that
you know that's what the statute reads. abandonment closed. In other words, it annures to the adjacent property own a county deeds. What what each land owner will do is end up with half acre more on their property
on their tax on 1400 [Music] property to the next item. Item 13, the board will hold a public
hearing at 6:10 p.m. or sooner after possible concerning proposes updated to the comprehensive plan based upon an evaluation pursuant to section 1631 statutes. That's what I was going to say.
The planning board met on this and they had quite a few issues on the floating solar panels in retention. They didn't feel that it was a good thing to have in residential or medium density. They did think it was an okay
idea for industrial. So they voted industrial only. The rest of the comprehensive plan passed as amen. That's any parts of this that the way it's now
that they did any part the way it's written on the part there parts in here that they did tonight. No, that that was the only things they denied was everything except for industrial. So, Mr. Chairperson, there actually is I I found out about that after I had
prepared we had prepared the agenda item. So, I reached out to the regional planning council. They sent me an updated resolution to just have the planning board signed that indicated their wishes. And there is a a different
ordinance um that's in your packet. And you should all have a copy of that. And this is just the first reading of the ordinance, but I did want we did want to let you know that the resolution was updated um to indicate the wishes of the planning board. The recommendation of
the planning board that the floating is it floating solar panels. Yes. Okay. Be restricted to only the industrial um zing, right? to4
comments. [Music] You got to have a first reading of the ordinance before you close the hearing before you close. And of course, it's a
this is an ordinance. Make a motion to read it by title. I don't have a motion or by title only. Do we have a second? Second by Commission. All in favor?
Okay, this is on page 544 of your um of your agenda. Look at the bottom right hand corner. I want to make sure that we're reading the right one since you said there were two is right. 544. It It's the same. Yes, it's the same number. Okay. All right.
Here we go. An ordinance of Taylor County, Florida, amending the Taylor County Comprehensive Plan relating to an amendment to the text future land use plan Map series and the future land use plan map of the Taylor County comprehensive plan
pursuant to an application CPA 25-02 by the board of county commissioners under the amendment procedures established in section 163.3161 through 163. 3.3248
Florida statutes as amended providing for amending the text future land use plan map series and the future land use plan map of the comprehensive plan based upon an evaluation completed by the
county to reflect changes in state requirements pursuant to section 163 3191 Florida statutes as amended providing Severability repealing all ordinance in
conflicts providing an effective date. Any for [Music] [Music] you close the public hearing. I I do want to bring it to the board of attention that will need signed that to
the regional planning council and that is for review by state agencies um for any comments and then this will come back to the board in August for a vote You make a mo a motion to pass on first reading. That's not final. You
understand? Page 545. I got a motion to pass on first reading. Do we have a second? Second roll. Roll. Mr. Moody,
yes. Mr. Newman, yes. Mr. Fagel, yes. Commissioner English, yes. Mr. Demps, okay. There will be, as I read through this, there'll be uh the the uh duly uh regular session would be in August. Yes,
sir. Because you send this to the state, they look at it, then it comes back. It's it's it's a lot different from your regular ordinance doings if you understand what I'm saying. That's why I'm talking too much. But I want y'all to understand that's all.
All right. We move on to item 14. The board to hold a public meeting at 6:15 or soon thereafter. That's possible to consider adoption of the resolution to abandon a portion of 20 located
official. Again, I did not go out there. This was handed by Ken and Bobby. So I can't attest to any
so on the table. So a motion to read the resolution by commission. Be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Taylor County, Florida one, that pursuant to the notice of
proceeding for closing of streets duly published according to law, proof of publication of which is attached here too and made a part here of a hearing was duly held at 6:15 p.m. on the 17th day of June AD, 2025 to consider and
determine whether or not the county would vacate, abandon, discontinue, and close certain roads in Taylor County, Florida. more particularly described in the proof of publication attached here too. At the time and place for said here and all persons interested were given
the opportunity to be heard. The board of county commissioners of Taylor County, Florida, determined that the proposed action of vacating, abandoning, discontinuing, and closing certain roads herein, more particularly described, will not deprive any person of a
reasonable means of ingress and egress to his premises and will not materially interfere with the county's road system. Two, that the certain roads here and describe be and hereby is hereby vacated, abandoned, and discontinued. And the board of county commissioners
hereby renounces and disclaims any right of the county and public in and to any land or interest area contained in the certain roads in Taylor County, Florida. More particularly described as description portion of 8th Street East
alley to be closed. a portion of an existing public alley in section 25, township 9 south, range 9 east, and located at block 61 as shown on the plat of the town of Steen Hatchee, plat book
one, page 26 on record in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of Taylor County, Florida, and more particularly described as follows. Commence at the northeast corner of block 61 of the town of St. Hatchy, a plat thereof being on
record in Plat book one, page 26 in the public records of Taylor County, Florida. Vince run in a southerntherly direction along a easterly boundary of said block 61 200 ft to the intersection of the norly
boundary of public alleyway and the westerly right ofway of 8 street east for a point of beginning. Vents continues a southerntherly direction along said westerly rideway 20 feet. Vents run westerly along the
southerntherly boundary of said public alleyway 250 ft to the northwest corner of lot 13. Vents run northerly 20 ft to the southwest corner of lot 4. bents run
easterly along the norly boundary of the public alleyway alleyway 250 ft back to the point of beginning containing 0 11 acres more or less
three. This resolution shall take effect upon when the original hereof together with a copy of the proof of publication of the adopted resolution has been filed with the clerk of the circuit court for record in the public records of Taylor County, Florida. Duly adopted in regular
session this 17th day of June, 2025. Usually the petitioner tells us something about it and then if anybody has any uh comments to be made of course uh y'all supposed to listen to them and make a decision. All right
to the public comments from the public on this item. Jamie. Yeah. Jim Zerick from Steen Hatchee. My comment is really for the building director. I think that we should have come up, no fault, but you know, maybe this caught you blind side, but we
should have come more with some visual so that the public could actually see a visual of the location. Next time we will, but I like I said, I wasn't involved in that one. Don't take it personal. Although it sounds personal, there's a map in the packet. It's I
Right. But it's the the packet's online and within the packet there is a map that shows the areas. I'm just used to we had previously for so many things put it up on the visual right anybody else wants to I'm I'm
indifferent about you have something I'm sorry I'm the one petitioner you're the petitioner right Mr. Pearson, nice to meet you. Anyone else? You'll help you have it have
you own it? Yes, I've owned the property for quite a number of years, both sides of the alleyway. This is my second time trying to achieve this. It affects no one but on the line.
Any comments from the board? You know, there was a time I was just sitting here thinking back and comrade, you can maybe help me with this and I don't there was a time when we said that we were not going to give any more
county property away sell it to adjoining property owners. Is that remember that? I do. And also there was a time when there was this was a long time ago if there was
any objection to any closure uh the board at that particular point in time would not close. Um uh usually you know uh again uh this is a very little piece of property you know it's smaller than
the other point zero you know 1100s of an acre is this is what this is there's only if I understand Mr.
Pearson. He's the only um effective land owner. Now, I don't have a ball in it. I'm just explaining what before y'all as a practical matter. It'll come one more street. We don't
have to maintain. Have we been maintaining that? I doubt it. It's an alleyway. It's alleyway, but it's open. It's open. screen there what it looked like. So, Mr. Pearson, it's only the section
between those two parcels that you own, correct? Are those your two parcels? Yes, they are. Okay. So, it would only be what's between those two. So, it's about 20 20 ft, right? So, it's only the
eastern 250T portion. Yes. So, so is it 20 ft wide or 20 ft long? How long? 250. It's the eastern 250T portion. So, it's 20 ft wide by 250.
Yes, ma'am. So, it's 111 acres.11. Any comments from the board? comments to adopt the resolution. Make a motion to adopt. Yes. Motion. We have a second.
[Music] Commissioner M. Yes. Commissioner Newman. Yes. Commissioner English. Yes. Commissioner D. Yes. And Commissioner Fagel. Yes. All right. Next item under public request item
15,000 friends of Florida presentation to re relay the findings of the court project. [Music] Thank you. Good evening, Kinsey and his 10,000 friends of Florida. And I won't keep you long, but I did want to um
thank you for letting me speak to you today and then really just give you an update of some work that we've been doing. We came to the county in August of last year, right between Hurricane Debbie, before Hurricane Helen. So, in a little bit of a lot of a different state
when we were speaking to citizens in August of last year. Um, but just a little bit of information about who we are. Uh, we are the um a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that was founded in 1986 by Dr. Dr. Grove, who is known as the father of planning and
smart grow, and Nathaniel Reed, who was a Floridaian who um served as the assistant or the deputy secretary of the interior, and was a conservationist who um oversaw projects like the Everglades National Park, the endangered species act, and the cleaning water act. So,
those are the ethics and the um legacies that we try to uphold in the work that we do. We do this through uh legislative through a lot of different ways but one of them being uh tracking legislation. We have legislation that is involved with growth management and protecting
home rule, water resources, plant conservation, issues and transportation. So as part of that we testify in front of the legislature. We work with lawmakers to um try to protect local and local governments and um advocate for smart
growth type policies. Um we hold three different webinars throughout the legislative session. So one before when bills are kind of filtering in one during the middle of the session to let people know what's happening in Tallahassee and then one at the end to let people know what has passed and what has not passed.
We also do outreach like this um with not only the legislative issues but also planning issues. Um we have another webinar series that recently dealt with the live local act and giving information to citizen planners and local governments about the impacts of
the live local act and then another webinar recently held um on the Bart Harris act. So giving again policy makers information about those policies. Um, we also have worked very extensively with the um, Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation, which I'll talk to you a
little bit more about in a minute. Um, but again, we just we provide resources for local governments and citizen planners. So, our work is to bring uh, the community together to um, advocate again for smart growth, but we do that
in the context of making sure that the local government planners and decision makers understand what we're we're trying to do. We have also done a number of special reports and the one that I wanted to talk to you about today uh specifically is the a 244 report that
was conducted in conjunction with the University of Florida center for landscape conservation planning. Another one that we just released was the economics of development in Florida. That is a report that was conducted by um Urban 3, a private entity, and it
really highlighted the need for um rural preservation and compact design and showed that under a sprawl scenario, development doesn't pay for itself. It's subsidized by those two other development scenarios. We also recently um released a report in
conjunction with one of our attorneys, Richard Groso, who provides information and background on the Burj Harris Act. Going to look a little bit more closely at the I2040 report, which is what we presented to our stakeholders in in
August. Um our population trends show a slight decrease in population between 2019 and 2023. um and I'm sorry, a slight in increase to 2023 and we expect a slight contraction of population by 2040. But
in 2070, we expect the population to increase to almost 29,000 people. This is only a projection. So we know that any single catalyst could change the entire trajectory of the of growth management and and population change in the county. So the way that Taylor
County accommodates new residents will preserve or change Taylor Countyy's character. Um, so this is something that we're very aware of and we want to help um advocate for protecting the community character while also allowing for economic and population growth.
So under that 2040 2070 scenario, we looked at what would population, what would growth and development look like under a um sprawl scenario or a status quo based on what your comprehensive plan says today versus um in that 2040 time frame versus what would happen if
we um prioritize land acquisition or land conservation for into perpetuity. So, what this shows is that there's not a lot of difference between the development patterns on that center uh 2040 sprawl scenario and a 2040 conservation scenario except that it
looks like you could increase your protected land to about 300,000 acres in the county which is about a three-fold increase over what you have today. The other thing I wanted to um note is that in the 2040 scenario under a sea level
rise um scenario and the models that have been run it looks as though the county might lose about 48,000 acres to sea level rise and the majority of that is already in your protected areas.
Again, that's that business as usual scenario. And then under the conservation scenario, um increasing your your land, um your protected land by about 300,000 acres under this scenario where we're looking at maybe increasing the amount of
protected acreage. Um, I want to just point out that again that considers the Taylor County 2060 comprehensive plan and it also aligns with the Florida Wildlife Corridor found um program which was a legislatively enacted program in
2021. The state put about $2.2 billion toward acquisition and land conservation in order to enact the wildlife corridor. Um, and again it's an area throughout the state that has been identified for protection by the legislature. So what specifically is it? It's an 18
million acre network um based on decades of research by the University of Florida and others. And I just want to highlight here um on the right hand side that map shows panther habitat. So what they did is they looked at where are the opportunities to connect land so that we
have uh again this network of lands for bears, panthers and other habitat for endangered species and plants. Um, and interestingly, the Big Bened area is well suited for panthers, but we don't
have panthers here. Um, primarily because of the dredging that occurred in southwest Florida and south and southeast Florida as well, but you'll know that the majority of panthers are in the southwestern part of of the state. Um so that connection can be very
critical to the um proliferation of the species and again it's just good for flians who really value um e ecological protections. So according to the University of Florida in Taylor County there are about 311,000 acres of unprotected land that
fall within that Florida wildlife corridor. But because of the comprehensive planning that you've already done, uh the development is that you're projecting is in those least sensitive areas. So very little of the land in Taylor County is at risk for development over the next 20 to 30
years, barring any significant changes to your future land use element or your future land use designations. Um and barring any future elements coming in. So I think the takehome that I just wanted to present tonight is you have enough land designated for urban uses to
carry you into that 2040 and through 2017 scenario again don't want to keep you too um again how we develop our urban areas can protect or harm our rural areas and Taylor County is primarily rural. We want to
make sure that our um agricultural areas remain economically feasible. So we support compact development. It enhances our quality of life. It's less costly to taxpayers and it can diversify your housing market. Um this is very
consistent with what's already in your comprehensive plan in terms of protecting agricultural and natural land into perpetuity in Taylor County. Obviously, again, keeping your agricultural lands property uh profitable is priority number one. Um
you had a presentation on your strategic plan earlier and had a little bit of conversation with the feasibility study for the um the boat ramp, but looking at the possibility of expanding ecoourism or agurism and making sure that your policies align with allowing those things to occur if it's a value that the
county has is important moving forward. um lo local land owners can leverage funds um by placing their land in conservation or selling it to the state. Unfortunately, we don't have any real lands uh real monies uh allocated for
Florida Forever this year in the state's budget, which is really unfortunate, but the rural family lands program did get about $250 million for funding. So, that that was a win. Um, and then in looking at your coastal development, which probably will come, it's obviously an
issue here tonight. Having robust coastal standards for development, really understanding what your working water threats might look like into the future, the be important to protecting those uh environmental resources and allowing that growth to occur. In terms of what can happen in your more
already urbanized areas, we would recommend pursuing the main main street funding for Perry and other uh towns within your jurisdiction. Focus your development in areas that are already designated in your future land use map and keep that infrastructure in those
areas and then again allow for ecoourism and aggra agurism entrepreneurship opportunities. And that is really all I wanted to say about this today, but I wanted to make sure that you knew that we are a resource for you. We have 40 years of special reports and presentations and
webinars um to help local governments and their citizens. Um we would love to work with you into the future. We had about 35 people attend the workshop that we did in August. I think there was obviously came out on the heels of Debbie. So we were told that it was just
a very hectic time and even less hectic than what ensued afterwards. So um again we're a resource um and we are um again going to remain actively engaged and look forward to working with you in the future. So thank you.
Thank you. [Music] Move on to 2015. Bob K right here teaching the edges update Q2.
[Music] Again, [Music] I'm Bob K and I want to thank you for your time tonight. between the last speaker I want to say I'm certainly supportive of health
29,000 inhabitants in Taylor County and between Laura Deella who gave my presentation I thought at first should I be offended and I said no that just proves how aligned we are in terms of what we're focusing on and what we're trying to do uh the slides
are up here and let me get started so I appreciate your time today as I share our most recent TCDA update with you grateful for the TCD a team that came out tonight to support us. We got several of our board members here. I appreciate that, but also appreciate the
support you've given us. There's not been a day, I've been here 10 months in a week. There's not been a day that I didn't feel like we were aligned, that you didn't have my back, that we weren't working on the right priorities, and that I couldn't count on you for honest and thoughtful feedback. So, this is continuing that effort tonight with our
quarterly update. And so obviously I um as you have questions feel free to ask them or we'll have plenty of time at the end to do that. The purpose of my of what I'm sharing tonight is to share what we've been doing, what we have accomplished, where we are focused in
such a way that you have the opportunity to provide meaningful feedback. So together we are successful in our mission to grow the industrial base of Taylor County. As you know, we made a day one commitment to you that not only would we work diligently, but we would
communicate effectively. Tonight is a key step in keeping that commitment. In Buck, I would have called this a lean visual. This is my effort at drawing the coliseum using PowerPoint icons. But the point here is I learned a long time ago
I'm a visual learner. where I can see things that I'm trying to describe now I can communicate them better and I have really mold over this and talked about it to the board and talked about some ideas I had but just created this this past week certainly not saying the idea of lean visuals is original with me but
I put this one together trying to convey what we're doing and how we all work together so think about in your role you've got all of these pillars supporting Taylor County we see education we see workforce development velment, healthcare, accessible housing,
tourism, community development, retail. My focus is industrial development. And I'll I'll have people come and say, "Can you help me?" And I've never said no to anyone that called and said, "Can you help me?" I've talked to DOT for someone who thought they were making them do something wrong. I've talked to a lady
who wanted a ramp put on her mobile home. I don't turn anyone down. But at the end of the day, I won't regard this as a successful effort if if we got a ramp on a deck and and avoided adding a turn at a place. So, it's all important
that we play together, we work together, and that's been a consistent message I've had. But I want you to know at TCDA, we wake up in the morning thinking about industrial development. We think about it all day long, and when we go to bed at night, we think about, were we effective today? Did we do it well? What
could we have done better? and how can we better tomorrow? That is how we're focusing. I realize when I give quarterly updates that if I'm not careful, I can be boring and I don't want that to be because if you think economic development and industrial development in Taylor County is boring, you have got another thought
coming. It'll keep you awake at night. It'll keep you working on the weekends. I will tell you how I'm thinking about what I'm going to share and only briefly revisit the three-legged stool concept, but Laura hit it so effectively. We have to take care of the industry that did
not leave. Yeah. We have to look after them. We have to almost pester them. Sometimes I think they have felt I won't say abandoned because I'm not putting off on anyone, but we assumed they'd be here. Then we got worried when someone left. We need to not assume anything. We need to work with all of them. And we do
work with all of them. We also work on recruiting the industry. And that will be my primary focus tonight. I will get there quickly. already hit very well on our qualified sites, but I will have some of that information as well. Or another thing, if you just it's not
if you build it, they will come. You got to go out and tell them you're building it. You got to go out and tell them we're here. We're Taylor County and I've called it I've kind of and and none of this is original to me, but for me, I've coined it. Why Taylor and why now? And I and you'll see some feedback on that just a minute as I go through this. And
I realized we had some have some tools. I had a lot of hubris. I think when I came into that I admitted I was ignorant, didn't know a lot of things, but I remember standing here saying I did not come here to make brochures and then tonight I started by handing you a brochure. If you open this, you don't need to open it yet. We'll hit it later.
This is not how to scolop in Taylor County or who the fishing guides are. This is where are the properties and where's the interstate and where's the people and what do we have going for Florida and what do we have going for Taylor County. Because when someone wants to call and talk, I want to be able to say, "Yes, let me shoot you
something on email or let me hand you something or if I go speak, let me hand pass this out." So, we now have that. And I got over my my kind of false pride on that. We have to have things to hand people. We have to be able to tell them our tell them our story and tell it
quickly. So, we'll talk more about that as we go through the presentation. We are not all things to all people. It's a great phrase and if you're in the Bible, it's a great phrase in biblically speaking. But that is not what we are.
We know what we know here. We have got some good things going for us that we need to be leveraging off of. We have got wood manufacturing in our veins. We have got light and heavy industry. Look what we do with aluminum. Look what we do with munitions and defense. Or talk
about expanding into the aviation, aerospace. These are things we can do. You know, we're not everything to everybody. If someone I don't tell them to anyone know, but I've told some people you might be looking at the wrong county. First, if you want us to give us the us and give you the land, you're
probably looking at the wrong county. Second, if you want us to buy you to come here, pay you to come here, we'll incentivize you. But incentives, let me tell you, they're they're a tipping point. This is not like, well, I wasn't going to do anything, but boy, your incentives are so good. I've decided to spend $65 million. It doesn't happen
that way. Don't let anyone tell you it does. What happens is is like I'm thinking about you or somewhere else and we say we'll work with you. Here's how we can do it. We will work with you and this is how we can do it. Since we last met, I'm going to get to
the uh the interesting part. I hope it's interesting. We've connected with nine new industries expressing interest in Taylor County. We've lost four that were on our list last time, plus two of the new ones. So of those nine, seven are still on our list. List is on the next page. Four of
them went inactive. Just I'm calling inactive. They're off the list because they're waiting to see where terrorists are going to play out. They don't know if they're going to build or not. And if things settle out that they get a deal with their country, it may or may not they may or may not come. Couple of them their financing went out from under them. So they're like, "Yeah, we're
still interested, but until we get our money back, well, I'm not going to bring that. We got a hot hot topic on the list when I know it's not hot. And we've got one with intellectual property. They thought they own some property on on some intellectual property to do something and they're in court over
litigating it. If they went out, we'll be back. And if not, we call them an active. Two weeks ago, Laura referenced two weeks ago today, we had a company came and spent the afternoon here. They spent the morning in another Florida county. They were down to the final two
counties. that the other county. That's how close we have come. So these aren't just airplanes circling the airport at 30,000 ft on on a traffic delay. These are people trying to land their plane. We've got we will win some of these. The way we'll do that, we'll
keep bringing in these opportunities. Keep working on these opportunities. Turn to the next page. You will see the project list. I don't see it up there, but it's on my presentation. I I don't know what happened. Wow.
Very disappointed. All right. Well, what you're looking at if you're in the audience, and I can only apologize as I have got an Excel spreadsheet, shows our project list. It shows 12 industries since you cannot see this. It shows that we have heavy industry, we have wood
products, we have munitions. Here's a couple of copies for you all. You can't see. A couple more for you all if you can't see. We have heavy industry, rail light industry. We have aviation and aerospace
and I said munitions have one bofules and these are on our active list. I color coded that. So for those of you can see the blue means they were on the list last time. So five of these that were the uh that I shared last time are still here and still in in the works and
the green ones are the new ones. So just trying to give this and I'm giving it such a and I call it sanitized. It's completely 100% high integrity honest but everybody's got a project name. I spent three weeks last time people coming to me saying I think this company must be that company. Can
you can you don't have to tell me just tell me if I'm right. I said I can tell you nothing. You got the same slide I got. And that's all you get. The next um ones and again I apologize if you'll pass those around. We have uh fact sheets and I'm not going to make
you read them all, but I do want you to know this exists and it's something you should have and be able to hand someone, but it's something also I want you as county commissioners to be able to articulate. It may be you that's at a meeting and someone says, "I'd like to take come to Taylor County." He said, "Let me tell you why Taylor because
we've got these multiple sites and let me show you where they are and it's near the interstate. We've got this many people in the radius around us." And by the way, what is our story? We have people. We lost the George Pacific site. We lost the not the side of the mill. We lost the the West Frasier. So we got top
talented trained people, some of them employed, some of them undermployed. We have natural gas. We have high pressure transmission pipeline. We've got Duke Energy. We said we ask Duke how much power they got. They say up to 50 megawatts. Now we have had people want a whole lot more than that. But that's a
start for most industries. A real good start. We've got water. We sit on the floor of an aquifer. We have got the things that certain industries are looking for and value and they can't find them everywhere. So, I just shared those with you and now I'm going to go to the food energy site
readiness assessment. If you're trying to stay up with me, we're on slide 10. So, of course, Andy Jackson and what a great job he's done with Graham's legacy, but do gave us the chance and I mentioned it to you last time to do that for another piece of property. They
ended up only doing three in the entire state. our 51 acre. We call it the city of Perry property because it's across the street from Poly St. Louis. So you think where is it? It's across the street from Poly St. Louis. They sent us a spreadsheet. Andy, you have my sympathy and I understand the sleepless
nights you probably had. 361 line items had to be filled out and not a single one was hardly yes or no. Most of them were like essay questions. We filled it all out. Tremendous amount of help. Then they came and spent the day with us, gave us some good feedback. Then they
ask a dozen more questions that I've spent up to and including sitting in the back of this room answering. And they come back on June 25th and and and we'll give the final overview on the property and kind of what the next steps are. But this process will will draw to a conclusion here before the end of the
month. On that second slide, we got we got paid a compliment. First, I want to thank Duke Energy again for sponsoring this. They footed the bill. Um now have two properties in Taylor County. Graham's Legacy, which is is certainly ready to
go. And we we propose it as Lara said, every time anyone askked anything, they'll talk about Ram's Legacy. We'll have a second property that's in that same caliber. It's a good property. It's good. Like Ram's Legacy is good. It's got other It's got points. You know, they all have their own strengths.
We appreciate Duke supporting that. But this was the letter I got back from the site readiness group. That is the name of the company. And this I just excerpted this said we spend time in all types of communities across the country but the ones that stand out are the
communities with heart and a story to tell. Thank you for making that story come to life during our visit. What we're trying to do here is not just get one site ready. We're trying to get an attitude out there. We're trying to get people that think about Taylor
County and they think about that would be a good place to go. That's a Yes. It's a rural community and that's an advantage. That's not a disadvantage. And it's got natural gas, it's got electricity, it's got a work ethic and we are putting that out there and we want, you know, when you get a letter
like that, you feel like they didn't just come and see the city of Perry property. When they get someone calls from Saudi Arabia and says we want to come to Florida, they might be thinking about us. Now give a couple updates on recovering West
Fraser know real well. But I can just tell you that the list of people we have sent to John Cheryl is is not short and he has his own list of people who come to him directly. So I I again would just say never promise what I can't deliver
but I would if I were sitting in a chair thinking should I be encouraged about that property I'd be thinking yes. Then Lord gave us a good update on GP poly cellulose. I uh in my in my slide I I'll just walk you through it.
Demolition did officially begin. I know you'll see this in the paper, but in case you haven't seen it on the page, it officially began. The notification is started the 29th of May. The schedule shows it'll be through August 31st of 2026.
They have said I have no reason to doubt their accuracy or veracity. We are retaining the wastewater treatment. the two warehouses. For those of you who know the property, we're talking about the purchasing warehouse and the converting warehouse or the number four warehouse
and the um as much rail as possible. Their intent is to preserve all the rail, but if they have to destroy something to get to something, there'll just be a section that got destroyed, but there's no plan to demolish the rail. On April 4th, Ford Rivers filed suit against GP regarding the wastewater
treatment pipeline and and its continued usage after the moon shut down shut down. We of course don't take any position on any of those things. That's all being played out and that's all going to be played out publicly some extent. So to the extent it goes to court and there's things
that'll all happen. So I'm not trying to take some behind the scenes that's out there. But again, I would really emphasize what uh what L said on the sixth union and say the ice crack. I I regard my last 18 months, not my great
career with George Pacific, but the last 18 months of like I was on the Antarctic ice plateau and we couldn't find a crack anywhere to get a a wedge in. And I just say the ice cracked when that lady said, "I have been in your seat before. I have sat and had property and had someone
want to get it and I've said needed to get property and someone had it. How can we work together? I just like my jaw dropped and and I just felt like wow. In fact, I said, you know, if an orthodontist pushes on a tooth long enough, they don't do with a hammer.
Just push and push and push and push and it felt like the tooth moved on that. Okay. We're also expanding our outreach efforts. Laura talked about the Duke Energy Foundation economic development grant that we've applied for. Let me make perfectly clear, it's not been
awarded, won't be awarded until July. But when we look at our outreach and now we've got a tool with our brochure and we've got a, you know, I will speak anywhere they let me speak and I'll talk to anybody they let me talk to. Um, in fact, I have a conference call with Florida Commerce on Thursday morning at
9:00 a.m. So, we're we're out there every day. But when you look at some of people's websites, we would not probably yet say, "Take a look at our website and be really proud of it." We've got a website. I'm not ashamed of it. But if we had $25,000 of Duke Energy grant
money, we can make that thing. We get our properties, we can get the drone flybys like Andy has over his property. We can get a lot more of those things and make it make Taylor County to make me look good or TCDA look good. Is to get Taylor County out in front in a way that catches your eye.
And then I just it's funny because we just celebrated the army's 250th anniversary this past weekend and to quote General Coen Pow. There are no secrets to success. It is a result of preparation, hard work, and learning that that's what we're doing. There's no
secret to this. You can't shortcut it. In summary, as I told you last time, I wish I could say we had a rib. We don't have a written, but you already do that. What we do have is a whole lot of interest. If it's not been seen through, just think about it. I brought you 11
projects four months ago. Only five of those are still there, but I brought you 12 projects today. Seven new ones. So, this there are there are people looking at Taylor County. We could be one keystroke away. Two weeks ago, Tuesday, they could have said yes
instead of somewhere else. They could have. They were that close. So, we could or not? You don't know. But I appreciate your interest. I appreciate your support. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate. What questions do you have?
The one that the one business that ended up choosing another county, what was the feedback that you all received and maybe why they chosen another county? I am prepared to answer that question, but my my first answer is is they don't always
tell you exactly the truth. So if you told I mean that not like they lie to you, but they thought I don't hurt your feelings. We didn't like something. I thought that's what they said in private. What they told us is it was neck and neck. It was very close. And because of that though, when they loo, this was heavy industry
and when they looked at the Graham's legacy property and saw the neighborhood behind it, they were concerned about putting heavy industry with a neighborhood behind it. To which of course we responded, West Fraser has run a sawmill there, previous sus for 50 years. This neighborhood is used to
trucks and traffic and noise and would and would welcome heavy industry back to the area. And then the second thing was not attending. These are factors though. They mentioned that all things being equal, they wanted to be closer to Jacksonville and their alternative was
about 50 miles closer to Jacksonville. So that's what we got told. But I wouldn't tell you to take that check to the bank and cash a good question. Mom, I get a lot of questions from citizens is why don't we
bring in more retail, more restaurants, more things for entertaining such as bowling alleys and stuff like that and um I know what I tell them, but um and I know the reason, but can you just so for
the public's information, can you speak to that just a couple minutes of of Commissioner? I believe I can but make sure you're getting Bob Kate the private citizens opinion. You saw that you're sitting on top of that coliseum
that I drew looking at all those legs. A lot of this is tied to rooftops and have habited people in homes and so we say we want to have a prime sirloin and they're doing a demographics and saying well you know your median income is this and
you've got 7,000 families and we need 10,000. and our survey say we we we don't make it if we don't have it. They look at that. So, we still feel like we're working on the right things with industrial development because that's what's going to bring rooftops. Now,
other things can bring rooftops too, but we we talk about, you know, the kind of jobs that were lost when we sus closed and less Fraser closing. These people were making an income that they have not by and large replaced.
And so th that's my two minutes is it's all based on rooftops which is really demographics and I'm not talking about certain kind of demograph just saying how many people do you have and how many live in the area and how many would drive to per to eat and I think there's all kinds of things we can do to make
ourselves look better and to clean up storm damage and do all that but at the end of the day if we get 500 jobs here for 500 families the restaurants will follow the amenities are going to come and that's what that's one of the things that I
tell people to you know aside from the demographics and all that that the amenities will come. Exactly. Thank you. I appreciate what you and the other members of TCA are doing. We
really appreciate it. Thank you so much all of you. Any other questions? Thank you. Yeah, Bob, I got a question. More of an insight. Dealing with Mr. Cheryl, right?
Yes. Dixie County boy from way back. Made everything he's had. I knew him in the fishing business. With G Coast, dealt with him. He built my a lot of my many storage buildings. I was impressed. I think he that deal goes down. I think
that's the example of the kind of guy that he might not keep it forever, right? because he's got a history of building them up and moving on, right? But he does everything first class. I think What do you think? What What's your uh
My opinion is he's top tier. He does what he says and you know the public record says this is his 12th or 13th sawmill to buy that was already shut down. And he has done what he said every time. There's none of them that he's sitting on. He cleaned them up, got them ready where people who wouldn't take the
risk of I want to buy it and clean it and all of that, but they wanted a prepared site and he's done it 12 times and there's no reason to think he's not going to do it 13. And in fact, he's got more out in front of him. The these are this is what he now does. I mean, he
does other things, but this is what he does. And there's this is not there are places where people have taken and and I just read these things in the magazines not Taylor County but where someone will come in and buy a site and say I'm going to remediate it but what they're waiting waiting is for some kind of five years
from now things are really good and all and and the town sits and suffers for that whole time. This is a person who is I mean he can tell you in West Virginia I bought this I cleaned it up and now they're making activated charcoal at it. in this place. I bought this. I cleaned it up and now they're making. So, he he
definitely has thus far kept his word and I have no reason to think he won't hear. Laura, would you add anything to that? I think that's pretty accurate. I mean, he uh the best the best part about him is that he has the the trust and confidence of
not only West Frasier, but also Georgia Pacific. So, um, I I think we're we're in good hands. We're in good hands. Thank you. And I appreciate your kind of testimonial. Laura and I drove to Ocala and met with him in November. So, we've been working on this for a long time.
Feels like you bought the Cross City Lumber Company, the George Pacific plant there. And uh, a lot of people didn't stay around to see it progress, you know what I mean? But he uh, it's working out fine down there.
Thank you. Good question. Any philosophers [Music] to help the community. Anytime you lose 700 jobs and got somebody out there trying to sell something, trying to
bring something in, my hats off to them. Anything I can do to help, I'm with all right. We'll move on to staff 17. the board to review and consider approval of amendment one to the state of Florida Department of Commerce grant
agreement number 10183 increasing the budget from 1.6 6 million 2.5 million for the doctor's memorial hospital roofing project. Kelly, are you on the line? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Um this grant is to um
this amendment is to increase the grant from 1.6 6 million to 2.5 to include design and engineering services which had not been requested in the original grant. In addition, there was additional damage to the walls in the area known as
the pin house that need to be repaired. So, with this budget increase, it will fully fund this project with no match from the county or TH. And I do want to I just want to say to y'all this has
been the best experience working with Florida Commerce and our partners. I just can't say enough. They've coached us through some of this. They've assisted us with environmental studies, but the whole project team has just been
they've been amazing. Miss Wanda um has worked so closely with them. We've worked closely closely with Jody McCormick at Florida Commerce DH Alw who you selected to be the
project um architect has been so helpful in providing information because you know let's face it and I are not hospital experts or um architects so they have assisted us in in part of the
information we needed But I just want to let you know this has just been a wonderful, wonderful project team to make this happen and Florida Commerce has went above and beyond. Thank you.
Is this a design build? So um the first portion is the design and then the construction will follow. So um but the entire project is $2.5 million. So the portion that was added was to assist with the design portion
and also for that one portion of the roof they they call it a ben house. It's not it is basically an equipment storage area that needs replacement as well. Correct. houses the HVAC the entire scope of work from the for
the project the design the architectural part required by agencies for healthcare administration and the actual repair to the building the total scope of work for the completion of the project so commissioner figle it's not design build
but the architect is going to help with those the bid documents for the actual construction Any other questions in the morning? Question to approve second by Commission Moody. All in
favor? Thank you, Maline. We're on item 18. The board to consider approval of budget transfer sales tax reserved for the purchase of an additional rolloff truck for environmental services agenda by Gary
Lambo, environmental service director. is here somewhere. Okay, basically uh we're in need of some new trucks and uh wanted to force me to come up here and ask you guys. So, there was one rolloff truck that was
in the budget. And so if you recall when we about the time we had so many issues with our trucks, one of the trucks became available that was purchased with the funds that were in the budget. Our question is there is another truck that
will be available in June July should be July which was the truck that we had originally wanted to order. So the question is is if you will consider um utilizing 1 cent sales tax reserves to purchase
the additional truck now. Um it is we did not include it in next year's budget request. Um this would this I mean we can but then we'll have to start the process all over again to purchase another drug. What's the cost? 230 a
little over $230,000. And is time of of the essence? The problem we got with these trucks I can't hear you. Can you come up? Yes. The problem we got with these trucks is these trucks are being built by Mac and they can't get the
basically the parts for them. So, and I don't know how they're surviving selling trucks today, but used to there'd be 500 out there. Well, you probably know. They it's like a a list and they say, "Well, we'll have 200." And that may be 10 to
12 months down the road. They do not have anything sitting out there where you can just purchase, you know, like show up and say, "Hey, we need a truck. It's got to be basically forecast out a long time to get it. You just can't purchase one."
And uh I asked them, did they think it was going to get any better? And they said, tariffs and stuff. They're not sure. So, a lot of the parts are fixed to when you're dealing with Mac, some of the components like Allison transmission and stuff, they can get truck sometimes,
but can't get the parts to build a roll off if that makes sense. That's where they're at. Place the 07. We're going to try to move it out. Hank's in need of a truck. We probably just shift it over there to him. He's struggling. He don't
have one. But like that 07 this week we had a turbo go out and it was $4,800 just for that. Somewhere after the mileage gets so much if the transmission goes out is it really worth fixing? You know as the truck may be only worth
$8,000 and the transmission 16. So you got to make that call. And you seen you seen what happened when we were our trucks were down. We were on the stroke bus uh countywide. It was like I know you guys were getting a call this time.
We got We got drivers for the trucks. We do. Uh some of the drivers been there a while, some haven't, and they we it's like anything else. They float in and out, but we've been able to get some good drivers over the last two years.
We've been fortunate with that. The engines in that 07. I mean, it's on you. You could lose that engine anytime. And uh we try to maintain them. We do a lot of work with next and Lake City. Some out of our scope will pull over there because uh it ain't practical for us to
jump on something we know it's way out of our league. So, and they charge almost between 120 and $200 an hour,000. [Music] You can expect that engine to go. Now, they're not lying. and they'll give you
a range when you buy these trucks at 450 500 you're going to start pumping money into them and the life expectancy like you said is 800,000 you get past that you it's a gift
um lease options have you considered that and of what's the pros and cons of that more than more than anything the the We looked at them and uh the Wanda looked at them pretty hard I
think because we gave her the information and uh the lease is the kind of the least resistance. You know, it's it's easy to get into that and we got into it the last time and it it kind of
backfired on us a little bit. What happened? if you'll recall. Um, so we did enter into a lease agreement for two rolloff trucks and those are the two 2020 and then we also enter to into a lease agreement through the same company
for public works for two dump trucks and shortly after we enter into those agreements because the promise was at so many miles we'll replace your truck. Well, that company went out of business almost about the time we signed the
lease with them. So, that's why we, you know, that's unfortunately why we're in the position that we're in um as far as having so many trucks that are older. And so, we did not add the purchase of trucks back to our capital improvement
plan until just this year. um because we had we had looked at the lease option but um it looks good on paper. The key thing with the lease and you guys probably realize this the warranty on it
there's not a it covers a long range on the mileage on the warranty. So when it gets around 90 or 100,000 they'll come in and bring you another truck. You just continually keep paying these things. It's a good thing in a sense because of the warranty that you behind it, but it
could just like this that backfired on us and we ended up absorbing that and uh but are they going to have a truck to honor the agreement? Well, they go into bankrupts in your your state. We uncharted the area
really. We didn't know what we know you can't get truck the truck readily available. So we just drop you another one. So what happened with those is we continued the lease with for one truck
but then we ended up purchasing um so out of four four trucks we purchased two and we continued the lease with two. So you know and then obviously there is an amount of interest that you pay or profit that you pay for lease
payments. I mean we can we can look at that again. I we just really didn't want to lose the opportunity to be able to purchase a truck that we know will be ready for us, you know, next month. um
and have the ability to have two newer trucks and then you know we can and then at that point we'll have we'll have four trucks that are under 300,000 miles on them with the hope of lowering the
repair and maintenance cost and you know stabilizing our fleet basically. I I just, you know, just wanted to ask the question because, you know, with this situation that we're in um with our budget and everything, I just didn't
know. I know I hear that you have a a one we've had one bad experience, but but that doesn't mean that all of them will be you would hope that all of them would not be bad experiences. But I just
don't think that it hurts to look at all the options and and maybe this is the best option now. Um but I I just think we've got to get used to looking at everything that we can. Um because I
think times are going to even get harder before they get better. I'd say for me it's a service that we to give to offer to give citizens in this community. I support truck available. I support
purchas. [Music] [Music] Thank you. Now we'll move on to our county attorney. Item 19, county attorney to discuss
Feder County versus Ashley. This is one where the police board where they got a order and find the person
for not cleaning up like they're supposed to do. And I looked at it and I think and this is just my thinking would be that if y'all want to get it cleaned up and the quickest and easiest
way to do it would be for uh y'all tell me to file for an injunction to enjoin because I sent the lady letters. I've got pictures of where the uh the problem is. uh you know there's a bunch of
gentlemen and it's uh being very close to the uh to the road and if the court to grant the injunction telling the person you got to move it and then they don't do it then we've got contempt power on that years ago I did
one on a guy that was um putting stuff out in the water and we were successful in getting it moved out by by the injunction process um the same is true as number 20. Well,
that there's another one uh that uh that I'm recommending that it's up to y'all. And of course, you know, I I can't guarantee that we're going to be successful, but we've been successful in the past about doing that. Do you need a motion for that?
I'll make a motion that we move ahead with the uh turning um They're doing what is it being both item 19 and 20 on item 20 is the uh
attorney to discuss [Music] got a motion for item 19 and 20 second by commission all in favor I'll keep you informed
Good luck. Let's back up a little bit. Once once you do that, what what will it say, Conrad? What will it say? What once you do this, what what happens then? Oh, when I get an injunction.
Okay. What does the injunction say? Injunction says, Mr. So and so, you need to do that. You need to move it or get rid of it or clean it up. And then if they don't do it, see, it's an order of the court. It's not an order of the hearing officer. It's an order of the court. And if they don't do it, then
number one, they can be held in contempt. And of course, I'm going to ask for authority for us to go ahead and do it for them. In other words, to get it. You know, if they won't do it, then we'll do it. And is a date certain? Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Right.
We'll go on to our county administrator item 21. The board to consider approval of opioid settlement funding subcontractor agreement with Dr. Hospital Incorporated asended by county administrator. There is one correction I'd like to make
to this. Under the fiscal impact, we had listed $49,834. That's actually $74,751. it was more than we initially anticipated. So, we'll need to make that
correction within the contract. And the um the budget that was submitted by DMH was $5,000 for medication assisted treatment, $30,000 for expansion of warm
handoff program and recovery services. That is to support a case manager work to track patients seen in the emergency department that need follow-up services for opioid use and abuse. Um $15,000 to
provide community education programs on opioid addiction. Um $14,751 to provide transportation to patients in need of outpatient follow-up services. and then $10,000 for prevention programs
for a total of again $74,751. Now, this is the pot of money that flows through um NWF. Um it's not what's it's for the non-qualified county. So, remember we have two pots of money for opioid um for
opioid um settlement funding. So, this is a separate pot of money. Um, I'm asking you to approve the agreement with Doctor's Memorial Hospital. This is a secondyear agreement and then um we have to report that directly to um to the the
reporting agency in the state of Florida. Yeah. You know, um when we first started this and I attended the first meeting. Yes. and haven't heard anything since then except I know that
there was a vehicle purchased. I think we might have approved that. I don't don't remember exactly. But anyway, I would like to have a report from somebody that kind of says this is what we've done. This is just what's been
done and and how many patients this and that and and just you know that's why Lauren's here. Yes, ma'am. I wasn't prepared to give a full report with the statistics. I don't have that with me, but I can talk in general and then I'm happy to come back and give you a report statistics. Yeah. You want me to come next meeting? Yeah, I'd like to I'd like
to hear a lot happening. I hope it's a su success story. I want to hear all about it. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments from the board? Comments to obtain a motion to approve
by Commissioner. All in favor? Title 22, the board to consider approval of lease amendment number five for real real property with US General Services Administration at the Perry Poly Airport
and about county administrator airport. So, um, word is here, so we can make any comments or answer any questions, but this is a an amendment of the lease that was approved last year for, um, for the
FEMA housing trailers. They're at the airport. They're in the closed runway section of the airport. Um, and this is basically to amend the agreement so we can offer, they will pay us for utilities and they will not pay their
bills direct. They just want a turnkey operation. So that requires a lease agreement. So the totals are $21,595 monthly for the rent, and then the
utilities is an additional $973 a month for portable toilets, $493 for electrical. Um, and then there is some some back rent and utilities that they will be paying that's amended for this agreement.
This the only one you can find. We don't have several more we can get this kind of money from. Well, we are we are working on that commissioner. But this this has provided some much needed revenue to the airport. And I
think it's probably stabilized um that airport fund until we get to the point where we can add more hangers or perhaps get another user at the airport. Any other questions for the board? Motion to approve. Motion to approve by
Commissioner with a second by Commissioner D. All in favor 23 board consider approval request for proposal pack advertisement for property casualty and workers compensation coverage by Person.
So the board has indicated that um he wishes to advertise for proposals for property casualty and workers compensation insurance. Um these lines of coverage include general liability, cyber security, public officials liability, property, inland marine,
business, auto and workers comp compensation. Um, since our last conversation when the board asked us to move forward with this, I have been contacted by Florida Association of Counties Trust. Um, and they have
offered a discount of $19,000 for next fiscal year if the board wishes to remove liability and cyber security from the request for proposals. This would just allow us to continue our relationship with Florida Association of
Counties Trust if we wish to remove that from from the from the packet. So that would leave auto liability, auto property, um property insurance and workers comp. No sir. So what basically what they're
asking us to consider is if we want to retain fact for our liability and our cyber security coverage. Um and they're the ones that's the organization that offers us the employment law attorney. They represent us in any liability um
cases. So and we've been a member of with them for a very long period of time. So they they basically said, "We will offer you a reduction in your premium if you wish to stay with us and and then pursue the request for
proposals for the other lines of coverage, which is really the lion share of of our um of of our coverage. The reduced rate for the services we already know we get from the Yes. What is your what is your take on this?
What is your take on this? Well, we have we have a long-standing relationship with fact. Of course, we do with Florida league league of cities as well. So, I appreciate their offer to
reduce that premium. We pay $147,373 in premiums for general liability and $6,614 for cyber security. What's unknown is if we put that out for RFP if those premiums would be less. We don't know,
but they have offered to reduce that. You know, I I would I would like to continue our relationship with fact, but I'm not adamant about it. I I really am looking to the board for some guidance on that. And again, that would be the
the lion share I believe of the premium, you know, the the lion share of the premium payments that we make are for mainly for property insurance, workers comp, auto liability, and auto property. So, it's a small piece of the pie, but I
can't guarantee that the $19,000 discount that they're offering would be the absolute lowest that we would get. So, it's it's more of a a comfort, I would say, just because we we know how they've um how they've
protected us in the past as far as liability um and off, you know, we can continue that relationship with them. How much time do we have? Well, I think for budgeting purposes, we really need to move forward um with
proposals because um I mean the new policy year would not start until October 1st. So, I feel like I mean it's not the very last minute, but I know that we're soliciting for proposals for our
healthcare insurance now. Um, I don't I mean, if you wish to if you wish to table it, we could talk about it at the next meeting, but I don't think I'd wait any longer than that because we would need to advertise for 30 days and then receive the proposals and go through
that whole process. I just hate not to, you know, at least test the water and and and just see what it would take versus just automatically, okay, yeah, we're going to do this. So my preference would be to table this and to see if
this gentleman's raising back here. I think that's how we got to this point we are today looking for the approvals. We the board had asked to put it out for an RFP out. So I I'm just conveying the offer that
was made. I don't know. We need question. I mean, we're here because we already have requested the staff to move forward in this direction. But I'm not going to keep an offer to myself and not sure.
Yeah. Yeah. I think we keep going and looking for this. I offer I can offer some opinion on that if So, by the way, my name is Michael Richer. I'm with Boyd Insurance. We do a lot of municipalities and I plan to
bring a proposal forward for Taylor County with one of the few competing uh carriers in the state. Uh this is just an indication of what you will experience through this RFP process. Just the mere speak of it. We want to
reduce premium. We don't we don't want to go bid against the carriers. So the competition in the marketplace will show you what you have available to you. I feel confident you'll see at least that much savings as those line those lines of coverage and also what we'll present
to you is not a take all or nothing proposal. So you can still remain with fact if you show so choose after your review. Uh and I'm confident that our competitive bid process will bring you u you know great savings. So, I would
encourage the board to move forward with the full bid process, allow allow the marketplace to perform for you and see what you got. Okay. So, the way that the RFP is worded is um it lists the insurance coverages and
then ask that proposal proposers submit proposals for coverage and commission and they should indicate any discounts available for bundle coverages. Now, I I guess Conrad, if you'll help
me, do we need to add verbiage in there that basically states that the board may wish to to separate the award is Okay. Will you help me with that verbiage? Okay. Or
I just want to make sure I make it clear in our RFP. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. that we're willing to to award multiple multiple companies. In other words, very motion to
obtain a motion to approve this to go out for contingent upon the additional language, right? Additional with us. Okay. [Music] Motion by Commissioner. Do we have a
second? Second. Second by Commissioner Tele. All in favor? I 24 the board to consider approval request for proposal packet and advertisement for countywide emergency medical services identif.
So um Dan and I worked on this. I I'm very um grateful for his input um as far as being in the field and a able to offer some real-time experiences. Um this is very similar to the request for
proposals that we advertised 5 years ago. However, we did make two very important changes in my opinion. Um, in the contract we added that the supervisor position would be within the
county and they would be here on a regular basis because that was not in our contract 5 years ago and um we regretted it. It was in our request for proposal documents but not within the contract. We also wish to double the
response time fees if three or more conse consecutive occurrences within a calendar year. So, in other words, if three three months in a row, if we see that there is a um the response times
are not where they should be, then um then at that point, we can double from and we've never had anything over a $2,500 penalty. But at that point, we can double it to the $5,000. Um so, we did add that language to the contract as
well in the request for proposals. Yeah, they're not I I have to share this story. Um I have one of my constituents and who is also a friend that called me a couple of days ago. It might have been yesterday, I
don't remember, but he is a senior citizen and he fell um the night before at home and he broke his he he broke his hip. And so he uh called the ambulance and
they responded in a timely manner to take him to the local hospital. And it wasn't until way up into the next afternoon before he was transferred. Now I know that and
I've read the criteria for uh enter facility transfers and I know that it it's um you know it's things such as stroke, heart attack, hemorrhaging and and just a very few more. And I'll tell
you with this situation with a senior citizen that breaks their health and they have to sit in the emergency room for that many hours waiting to be transferred and then
possibly have to wait till the next day before they have surgery. It just br his pain and suffering. And so there should be some clause in there that when you've got situations like this that that they
can make exceptions because if I fell and broke my hip, I'm going to sit up there for 16 or 18 hours and clean and suffer. I want to get to where I'm supposed to go. Remember though that DH has partnered with another agency for
inter facility transfers and oh go yeah I don't think they're up I don't think they they've stood up the new truck yet but July 1st is when they will they will start that arrangement with Doctor's Memorial Hospital and that's the very reason. So if it is a if it's an air
facility transfer and not emergent then at that point the this other company who the board has has agreed for COPCN they will be basically on site at DH to help with with those inner facility
transfers. Will the TH be better? I would I mean I think that's the hope this other truck is instead of having to wait for Century to get one of their IF trucks to come over right Survival Flight is going to
have a truck on site. So as soon as Sentry says, "Oh, it's going to be six hours." They can look at Survival Flight and say, "Go ahead and go." Right. And so it'll and that's a big reason why why the board went ahead and chose to give the additional COPCN to have another
another company operate within the county um to cut down that was a big reason for that is to cut down on those times and also eliminate the or lessen the amount of times that we have to rely on our 911 trucks to do enter facilities. Um, obviously we want to
leave those trucks available as much as possible for 911 calls and by having another provider in county, it's going to eliminate those long, but it's July 1st is when we'll see that really start to be impact. And I think and Lauren's on the line. She's raising her hand. I
think she wants to speak to that. I was just going to say exactly what you just said. They were they've been outside all week are crew training and they will be ready to go to live birth. Now there's going to be times where they are also on the road. Um, but we had it's just another resource and they're totally
dedicated to us and we'll be helping each other and so I think it will alleviate some of that. But there was there are a lot of EM agencies that are having staffing crisis right now and there are times like EMS will not be running in the evening because they
have. So that is part of the issue. big truck. They're not sad. After the trucks are gone for hours, but we have about this will increase to about five or six different options for transfer. But starting July 1, hopefully that's going
to go along. So we are seeking approval to begin advertising for these services and um we will advertise for 30 days and then or approximately 30 days and then receive the proposals um at a subsequent
meeting. Motion to approve commission to approve a second. All in favor 25 administrator discuss information on items. So I just wanted to share formally with
the board that the um 2025 legislative session is at an end and I learned that there are three legislative appropriation projects that were approved by the legislature. Um, and so
they're in the budget. We are waiting for the governor to sign. He still has the ability to veto. One is a public safety complex that was funded at $6,750,000. The other is the Peton Beach fire
station that was included in the budget at a million. And the third is the um the air handlers for the courthouse. and that those were funded at um a little over $750,000.
So the total impact is about $8.4 million to Taylor County. So now we're waiting the 15 days to to see um if the governor um signs the budget or you know again he has veto power. So we'll be anxiously awaiting
that. Thank you. Yes. Item 26. We go to comment six concerns from the public for non agend. Yes. Um when they sign Lwanda at the
airport for um uh for the VA office and the grants office uh out by the road. Um we did one. I didn't see it. I was out there this afternoon. It It's written across the bottom of the sign where the airport's
across the top. The veteran services um is across the bottom. Well, if I can't see it, how many other people can't see it? We can look at that. I mean, it might be that the, you know, I don't maybe the writing's small or
Okay, I'll go back and look at it tomorrow because it's not a huge sign, but it can't be, right? And I'm trying to remember when that was added. It's been out there for a while. Do you remember? Yes, it was
before the hurricanes, right? Yes. But it is small. It's not near as big as the airport. Yeah. I I wonder how many citizens don't see it either because um you know, but I
tomorrow and we might need to discuss that again. And also, did we ever um pick up the sign off of the ground at the Katon Beach Fire Station? Is it still down or did we ever pick it up? has been picked up and we have a replacement on order again. It's picked
up and we have a replacement on order so we can It's been replaced. It was on the ground a long time. Um that's all for now. Thank you. [Music] All right. Nothing else motion to
by commission. All in favor muted.