Prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag mayor Charles Goodman. Join me if you choose. Lord, we gather here today a community trying to do the business that you have laid up on our shoulders. Lord, I ask you to be with each one of these council members to give them insight and the ability to make the decision that they feel is best
for our community. And Lord, I ask you once again to be with our police department. Lord, you know, but sometimes we forget. Police officers nearby have been shot. It is a very dangerous thing and they put their lives on the line for our community every day. And we just ask you to place a hedge of protection around them to guard them and
to give them discernment that will keep them healthy. Ask this in your name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. We'll have presentation of certificate of appreciation to Alex Rodriguez.
Item number one. Oh, I skipped the whole item. My bad. I'm sorry. I apologize. Additions, deletions, changes, and approval of the agenda. A second. We have a motion and a second. All ends in favor say I. I. I. All those oppos say nay. Motion passes 4 to zero. Item number two,
presentation of certificate of appreciation to Alex Rodriguez. Madam President, before Kim gets up to give the award to Alex, uh, I wanted to play the voicemail that I received that precipitated this certificate of appreciation, and I know Alex is going to be all embarrassed, but we all need to hear it, Alex. So, it's Jamie over at the quilt shop. Um, I'm calling you to tell you that this guy that you guys hired, Alex Rodriguez, I don't know where you got him from,
but you need 10 more just like him. He is a gem. So, they had a little problem today and he called me right back. He's trying to help me and I just really appreciate how courteous he was and how professional he was and I just wanted to let you know that. So, I'll talk to you soon. I hope to see you soon. Um, well, we're that's basically it. But, so that was from um Jamie over at the Colt shop across the street. So, I'll let Kim take it from here.
Congratulations. All right. Now, we'll have public participation. This is the first of two times that you will
have to speak on anything that is not on the agenda. You have five minutes. Yeah. I'm Tim Edgar, 225. Um, last year I asked for uh uh I asked for a Rick's request on the leaking water for like 5 years and um understand it cost quite a bit of money for me to get it,
but could I get like a a quote uh of what it would cost me for all the the leaks and um and how many gallons it that Wilson lost from the leaks? uh from the old pipes if if I could for the last 5 years. And the reason why I ask that is because if uh we're losing that much water we were before we got Alex in there to help fix the deal now Donald's gone and things are looking better.
Um how much money did Willist lose because we had bad we had a bad supervisor. Um cuz I don't think the supervisor that was here, Donald, had our best interest for the for the taxpayers in town here or the city of Wilson in general. Um I know we got a lot of issues. It's not just water, but um I I'm concerned for Wilson's u well-being because this property tax goes away and other
things go with it because other things are going to come with it like um several jobs being laid off from the county and the cities and not just here but everywhere. And I'm not no sure. I'm not sure it shouldn't be good for it. And uh and get things back to where it's a common sense approach to fix this town. And I I I wish Wilson would get together with the county commissioner. I was over at the GOP meeting last night and I br I mentioned something about it uh about Wilson and Bronson and
uh get with the county commissioners and everybody and the municipalities and and have a a meeting and let the public know about um certain options they can do or what they going to have to do to make things go because I understand we got to have certain like the fire department, EMS MS service, all that's going to still be be needed. But if Will if Wilson and the county around here, they should set precedents to try to head this off at the pass, uh like some kind of sales tax.
20 cent ain't going to be it. Everybody will flood out of this state. If it's 10% 10 cent sales tax, that's all God asked for. And uh and Charlie had this off at the pass. maybe put something on the fuel so so we can still make things happen here. Uh I I I don't I don't know. But I don't foresee the future being very good around here in this county or or Florida if things don't get done
because 20 20 cent tax or 30 cent tax, people will flood out of here quicker than they came. So, I hope people can get together and try to fix this in a common sense way. Wilson needs some common sense. Um, desperately. And I know we got some good people here, but uh it's going to take some courage to to step up and and and and do the odd thing and and and get this thing fixed. It's no
it's no quick it's no quick it's no quick fix but doing nothing about something is the worst thing can happen. It is how I'm I'm seeing this from a common sense approach about things because um out here in the real world work ain't just being there's not a whole bunch of work out here. Not like y'all think it is. It ain't all peaches and green. It's a little more difficult out here. But when you work for the public and you don't get to see what's going on, this thing is going to crash if something don't happen. Just just my opinion. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else?
I just want to know what's the update on the old Peso building that we tore down. Is there any on the old Peso building that up on the hill? That's all. I just was wondering if there's any update or anything. Oh, no. Okay. I'd like to encourage you to use your microphones, please. Sorry. You're not the only ones, so I'm not picking on you.
Robert Langan, 500 Northwest Fest Avenue. When are we going to get these damn water bills utility to be straightened out? My daughter was telling me the other day there's notice or this last cycle there was notice that they were wrong on the web or I didn't get into it. But every time I turn around I'm hearing either her or somebody in here complaining about water bills not being accurate having to be redone. Y'all going to change some find somebody else to do it or you going to hold them accountable and you just That's just a comment. You all can figure it out.
President Hines, can I address that? Yes. Okay. So, um I think I talked about this at the last meeting, but we actually had a person here from Edmonds last Thursday to train the staff because there were some things that didn't necessarily get transferred from one um account manager to another. And uh we've given them a list of about 12 things that needed to be addressed. one of which um was actually brought up by councelor Jones that if you got your bill over the web and you got your bill in the mail, they did not look the same. So, we actually just addressed that last f last Thursday when they were here. So, um they're actually coming to a council
meeting. I think I said it was the second council meeting in February. Um the people from Edmonds are actually going to be here to answer questions from the council and then we're actually going to do a training for the the residents as well. So, we are work we're actively working on it and worst case scenario if we have to we will definitely get legal involved. that's how they they finally came to us is because we threatened to to sue them basically. So, we are definitely holding their their feet to the fire. Um, but it's going to take us a little while to get through, you know, what we need to, but we are actively working on, like I said, they were here all day on Thursday with us. Of course. Yes. I had gave the city manager a challenge to have an answers December
1st. We're a little behind, but we're either going to get this straightened out or we're going to go with something else because I get I hear it from residents. I hear it from my wife when she gets it the bill and it's the same thing that everybody else is doing. So, this was supposed to be a better program and not comment. Yes, Miss Jones. Okay. Sorry. Um, what happened this last time was
the Edmonds program did not pick up the payments. It It had the bill from last month and it had the bill from this month. So, it looked like it was doubled and but it did not post the payment. We did and it took it away on our side, but the bill when it was printed, if you look really quick, the first couple of days that it was on the web, it you did not see the payment posted. It didn't give credit. So made it look like it was 350 last month and 350 this month. It came out $700 cuz it
didn't show the 350 payment in between. If you looked at on our side, it was there. But if you if you and it got corrected, they found it really quick. Um Megan found it really quick and she was able to have them recalculate it. It wasn't even a recalculation. It was almost a reprint. And by the time people went back um to look at it, it was correct. And what most people were worried about is that the draft that automatically comes out of the bank, they were all worried that it was going
to take that double payment out of the bank. But it she sends it a command to the bank for them to take it and she knew not to send it because she knew it. She saw that it was wrong. She had already seen it when I did. People started complaining to me and that's what we found. So that's probably what your daughter saw. Sorry. That being said with explanations, but the city manager is working on it and I think she pretty much has it under control. You can go to the mic.
Since we're talking about the light bill and everything and we've already got someone that comes up and, you know, gets numbers and sends it off somewhere else. Uh why don't we just go back to doing our bills ourself like and mellowing them out back? We didn't do it oursel before. It was just a different program. Why can't we go back to that old program? I mean, it was just more cuz we paid We've got about $180,000 invested in this particular program. Thousands of dollars for the
new program. So, they're doing the due diligence. they are working with the company and and if not we're probably going to sue them. Give them time to do the things that they need to do. Yes, ma'am. Hi. Uh Shannana Church, 590 Northwest Fourth Place. Um I just had a quick question. Uh that's a question that a lot of people have been asking. A lot of people have been going online trying to find answers and there's just a lot of circulation of information and misinformation. And like you said, there were people that were very worried that the autodraft would take the wrong
amount. Um or that, you know, they say bills are released what on the 10th and then you have 2 to 5 days to submit your payment. But then there's a lot of people saying they're not getting their printed bills or even their bill available online for quite some time. So my biggest question is why aren't we having any of that information posted on either a video or a quick flyer on social media? somewhere where everybody can see it instead of it being resident telling resident or hoping
that someone's going to watch the video or be able to come to one of our meetings here to find that out. Somebody would you like to address that? Somebody did put it on. I don't know who did. Yeah, that that part that it didn't go into use, please. And and maybe just to Sorry, can I jump in? Maybe just a suggestion um just because Facebook sometimes the feed disappears that we could do a repost every now and then like um you can sort of pin a post. I'm not
the Facebook expert but I'm sure somebody at the top you can pin important post to the top so that if it's something like that people could see it. And for people who don't utilize social media maybe if there's a spot on the website where we can just put like a little blurb you know we're experiencing this. if you're seeing a discrepancy or if there's a concern, give us a call. So people aren't just sending in a ton of money and not knowing what's going on because a they're either not on social medias or b they just have no idea and they don't really get out of the house much and don't talk to other residents. It would it I think it would help
when it comes to possible misinformation being spread and just everybody being on the same page, especially if we're trying to now that we are made a lot of changes in house and we're hoping to see a lot of good things coming up. um bringing people a little bit more together. Information is key. No information makes people weary and then the trust goes out the window. So I think if residents were able to see that a little bit more, even if it's just a little 30 second video clip or something, I think it would tremendously help and maybe um cut down on the amount of calls that you guys
are probably receiving. Thank you. Thank you. I will say that the printed bill was correct. Excuse the printed bill was correct and the Yes, sir. What? Could you speak into the microphone if you're going to speak, please? I was saying the printed bill was correct. It was if you went really quick and looked online, it was wrong and Megan caught it right away. Um, and re actually the Facebook post was that she had re reposted them online to go back and look.
Anybody else? Anyone else from the audience? If not, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Council minutes from January 6, 2026. I make a motion we approve the consent agenda. I second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes four to zero.
Update staff and board and council. We'll start with city manager subet. Thank you very much. Okay. Couple of updates and I'm actually going to have Hector from um performance services give you guys an update on fiber. But um I'm going to take a little bit of wind out of the mayor's sales here um and talk about Habitat for Humanity because it was a very cool day. So back on Friday the 9th uh the mayor and Latricia and I actually met with um Justin Leech and Nadia Miller from Habitat for Humanity of the Nature Coast and um spent about a half a day with them. They took us to
their restore in Inessous. That's where they resell um goods that are donated to them which was pretty cool. they would love to put a store here in Willist and then took us to one of their model homes in Denellan and um we spent quite a bit of time there. Uh the model home was a four bedroomedroom two-b onecar garage that they say appraises for about $230,000 and with grants of course lots of grants the average homeowner pays between $600 and $900 a month for rent I mean for their mortgage. Um, so Habitat's very interested in coming into Levy County here specifically in
um in Willist. And if anybody knows anything about for Habitat, years ago, Habitat's sort of model was they would come in and just do one house, you know, one at a time. And now they've really opted to do entire developments, um, which is what they would like to do here in in Willist if they could find the the property, cheap enough property. Um so you know we spent some time at lunch talking about some potential um sites that we recommended. Um they are definitely looking into some of those. If anybody has any ideas they are certainly open. Um we even recently the mayor met with
um Nadia to look at um office space because they do need an office if they're going to relocate here in um Ley County and uh they were looking at a space in Bronson that they think may have fallen through. So um they may be interested in setting up a um an office here. So, thank you. I'm excited about it, especially from the standpoint of, you know, I've sat on the Levy County affordable housing committee for several years now, and there is no affordable housing. Um, so this would be great. These are really these are really nice houses. Um, and I mean,
I honestly said it's I mean, I have a it was a brand new house when I bought it 5 years ago, and it was very similar to my brand new house that was built by Dr. Horton. I mean, the only thing that's different is I have a two-car garage. They have one and I have granite throughout my house and they have for micica. Other than that, it's literally like my house. It would be like a LAR. I mean, these are these are really nice houses. And they said the reason that they went to this model years ago is because if they had just a one-off, sometimes that house could fall into disrepair and the people around them would complain about it. But if they have, you know, an entire development,
odds are the people are going to keep that house up. So, I I was very um excited about it and I know Latricia and the mayor were too. So, we're really hoping that they that they can somehow come into to Wilson. Like I said, if they can find property that's cheap enough. They're not looking to spend millions of dollars on a piece of property. They can't afford that. So, that was a very um a very good visit with them. Um second, I wanted to address something that um I think Joby mentioned or maybe Tim mentioned about I think Tim did about the property taxes. So, this time of year, I spend lots of um my time on webinars with Florida League of Cities talking about upcoming
legislation. I've been sending the updates to the council. Um, property taxes is probably first and foremost on everybody's mind right now and what's going to happen if you know they do go away. So, Kristen actually recommended, I think it was last week, different municipalities getting together, municipalities that FS Walker represents. So, like High Springs and Menopi and, you know, Archer, different municipalities, and get us all together to try to come up with some sort of game plan um, as to what we would do if the property taxes do go away. Um, I'd like to include Chief Lind. I was actually just telling Latricia today that Chief has way more in adv taxes than we do here
in Wilston because of their commercial properties. So, they would be very very affected. I'd love to invite them to the table, but it is something that we're we're actively talking about. Um, we're going to be going up to Tallahassee in two weeks. Two weeks. Um, we get invited up there every year to talk to our legislators. So, we'll be meeting hopefully with Senator Mlan and um Representative Johnson about some of the, you know, upcoming legislation, how it would affect us. Um, Councelor Martin and I sat on a committee up in um Orlando a few months ago,
specifically about the transfer from our um utility fund to our general fund that we're very passionate about. And then, um something called extr territorial search charges where if you live outside of city limits and we're providing service, you know, being able to charge more for that. So there's definitely things that we've all, you know, got sort of a vested interest in, but obviously property taxes first and foremost. So we will be working on some sort of a game plan um on that. So um and like I said, we're definitely still working on Edmonds. I mean, we apologize. I mean, I I agree with you. I hate this system as much as everybody else.
I especially hate how much money it costs. It was so much money to have so many problems. Um, but like I said, I Megan and I are on them all the time to make sure that they're getting these fixes that we need done. And every if you guys have some, just please keep bring them to me if you're not seeing any changes on your end. We want to make sure that the send, you know, the system makes sense for everybody. So, um, Hector is here. Thank you very much. So, I'm going to, um, let Hector get up and give an update on, um, our fiber project through performance services.
Thank you. Uh good evening uh madame president, vice president, council, city manager and staff. Hector Samari with performance services. Uh thanks for having me here tonight. Good to see everybody again. Um let me start with what you already know. We're behind schedule and I think everybody knows that. But what I want to say is that you know a lot of a lot of excuses and I'm going to say that excuses. I could tell you about the logistics, the equipment that we ordered that didn't arrive properly, fed up permits, design changes and so on. I can go on with the the excuses, but at
the end of the day, what really is happening, it's it's our fault. And by our fault, I mean our company and my fault for not making sure that this stuff was done properly early on. So, we're behind, not because of our subs, and certainly not because of your staff. It's on us for not having done um I guess uh you know, as they say, you measure twice, we cut once, and we should have done more more work up front. So, we're behind. Um, and I um get getting a lot of internal call attention internal to our company to make sure that we're tracking this and getting done as
quickly as we can. Working with your staff as often as I have to. Um, weekly, sometimes a little more often to to get this thing get any issues resolved. Um, I promise to I've made a promise to Sue that I would be here at every council meeting now to provide this update. So, I'm going to give you a quick update. you should have this in front of you. Um, and it's uh um it's very brief, but if there's something you want to see or hear at the next council meeting, u I'm happy to do that.
One thing that's missing from this this brief is I intended to have a map of the nine geographic areas that the city has broken out broken into for the project. I don't I didn't have that. It's it's far more complicated to get these uh nine geographic areas laid out than I expected because we're working with TMZ files and it's just uh Google Earth. Anyway, it's just a little more but I'll have it for your next meeting. So, these nine areas are very very clear. So this just tells you on the very first slide here at the bottom that in what we've done to date about about 30 about 33
miles have been installed on both underground and aerial, but we still have another about 11 miles of work to do for both aerial and underground. So we've done a lot, but there's still a lot to be done. This slide um is uh the top the green areas the these are the nine areas and and they're not listed in any particular order. If you look at the uh the left side the f what does FDA stand for FDA thank you should have known that but you see 1.8 1.9 1.6 these are the geographic areas and
I listed them out of order to show which areas are being done first. 1.8 8 is the RV resort. So that's the that's where we are. And if you want to know where these geographic areas are, I can um and Andy is here to help me with that to define those areas. But you can see in the green areas that the first two of the nine areas are going to be done this week, meaning the infrastructure will be complete. The next two, 1.6 and 1.3, will be done by within 10 days of
that. That's within the next two weeks you'll have four of the of the nine areas complete and then we you'll see that the from there on it it gets into the late later parts of February early March. Uh some of those are going to be dependent on when we get the FDOT approvals and permits but we'll continue to monitor and track those those dates and to the extent that we can and this is where it gets difficult. We're going to try to move those forward if we can. Uh but right now we and I hate saying this but we're trying to be a little bit conservative conservative on those dates but those
are the dates that we're going to uh I want to hold ourselves to uh and try to improve on those dates as we move forward. So four of the of the nine areas within the next two weeks two of them this week uh and so those will be ready for those will be complete on the infrastructure side. And that's the updates that I have for you. Again if there's anything that you want added or if you have any questions I'll try to answer them now. But if you want them to be a part of the of the count your next council report, please you can just pass information to Sue specific
to what you want want to hear and I'll be sure to incorporate it. Open to questions. Mr. Mayor, thank you, Madam President. Hector, I was riding around as I sometimes do and uh stopped and asked people if they were working on the fiber and they all said, "Yes, we are." The people I asked. And uh on Northwest 4th Avenue, there was a crew that was pulling drops, if you will. Uh, I didn't look
at them, but they were they were there working on fiber because I asked them and I said, "So, are you putting fiber in for everyone in Willist?" And they said, "No, we have a contract for only 500 houses and that's all we're doing at this stage." And the people that pre-registered are getting in. And I said, "Well, you know, Mr. Barber. I asked him about that pre-registering and if they were going to pull fiber to my house and he said, "Of course they're going to pull fiber to the mayor's
house." Well, they're not. And I don't care because when the city got into this fiber stuff, first thing they did was cut my internet and I had to call Comcast and Comcast said, "Well, Williston is in the internet business now. Tell them to fix it. We don't know when we'll get there." So, I was put into the position in order to keep internet, I had to go to to uh mobile,
T-Mobile and get internet through T-Mobile and pay for it separately there. And I am just not pleased would be a correct way to say it. I think you you got here in your second page. I believe it is. You say 200. Is this complete? Does that is that how many drops are in? Is that what that means?
Andrew, I need you to come up here. Yes, Andrew. I need you to come up here, too. Yeah. I I wasn't clear on what those numbers meant when I received this spreadsheet, but let me be given numbers. It would be nice to know what those numbers mean. I I completely agree, mayor, but let me before you go, let me clarify one point. We are providing fiber to and Aaron, you can correct me, about 1,700 to 2,000 homes. It's going to be to majority of the city, if not all the city, maybe some outside the city. So, we're we're that. But the drops that we were contracted to put in
500 of them about 500 of them and the city and the city is prepped for about another 200 after that and then the city is going to put the rest of them in. Right, Mr. Aaron? And so the others that have not pre-registered will be on the hind and they will get drops in at the city's pleasure and they are not part of this package. And once again, I find this very poorly orchestrated and at least I thank you for taking responsibility for it. But my question is very simple.
They are only putting 500 in. And this number Andy this where it says complete tell me this is not drops. Yes sir. It is because the number I when I look at this uh complete 210 236 24 we're now at 500 and there's a whole page of another several hundred after that. Are you only putting 500 in or are you putting the numbers on this piece of paper?
1.8 8 and 1.9 are the are Willist crossings and the con our contract we we provided a drop to every site in Willist Crossing which was 450 some odd so may I ask does that mean Williston crossing is one or is it one is a different one right so how does this number on this complete add up to 500 is my question it's a simple question so 1.8 1.9 make up hold on 1.8 1.9 make up
resort. So 1.8 and 1.9 those first two make up the resort which is about 400 to 450 drops. So that's what you're seeing in that number 210 to 236 is about 450 drops at Williston crossings. Did that is I'm sorry. Did that answer my question? Do you feel that answered my question? Mayor, are you saying that we omit 1.8 and 1.9 then add the rest of
these numbers up and it will come to 500? Why? Because 28 here that would be the total that we're responsible for. Yes sir. That these are broken down by pre uh pre-signs the 53 84 56 44 per area. But we were responsible for 500. Yeah. 428. Well, if we're doing 500, why would we do I have 828? Where's the other 328 coming from? Say that again. If we're responsible for 500 drugs, why is this showing 828? Because that's not all
that that this number here doesn't equal 500. Let me get you an update at the next meeting, mayor, or I'll try to email you. Thank you, Hector. That's all the questions I have. Thank you, mayor. Does anyone else have any questions? So, Hector, what he's saying is that 828 if we take out the 210 and the 236, that's only 382, not 500. That's all we have in pre-ign. Yes. I thought I said it fairly clearly. You talking about for pre-registrations at all. We have more than that.
Our last update is what we're working on. Madame President, what I'm saying is that the numbers given to the this council are not accurate. That's it in a nutshell. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Were you done, Miss? No other questions, Mr. Cox. Get there. We'll have 900 and some odd. We don't have the I just want to come. Yeah. Again, I my apologies. I I got these numbers. Um it just I
need to better understand them. And so I I don't have my project manager here. You he was he's out of town. So, the the list we've been working off, which are the non shaded columns here, that's all we have on the list so far. We we we periodically get an updated list from Aaron. We haven't gotten that list lately. Okay. We've been we've been working on these. Let me just stop there. I have to give you president. May I Mr. Cox is next. Yeah. I would just like
to say that your guys, hats off to them. Sunday it was miserable raining cold and they were out there just working away. I'll let them know getting those um cone looking things getting them out there and they were just working away. Thank you. Thank you. Y Miss Vered or I'm sorry, Miss Jones. Yeah, I wanted to say didn't you say that the RB crossings was an addendum? It was added after the initial. So, is it an addition to the 500? Yes,
ma'am. Okay. So, there's part of your your problem right there. If it's 500 plus the 446 at the RB crossings, that does make a little bit of difference in the number. I need to go back and clarify those numbers. I I I apologize because I I understood that we're installing 500 and the city was installing a few more. Where this 828 comes from, it's I'm confused by that. So, I just need to figure that out. And I apologize for not, you know, having that that ready for you tonight. having that that ready for you tonight. Miss Meredith, Miss Meredith, um, can I just
clarify to originally I um, can I just clarify to originally I know that the the engineering plan we know that the the engineering plan we were going to be able to have fiber to were going to be able to have fiber to certain areas as they were completed. certain areas as they were completed. And I apologize for not, you know, But my understanding and I just want to make sure that I understand this correctly is that when um that engineering plan was was redesigned because of maybe a different subcontractor or something along those lines that now we we are waiting for every bit of fiber to be installed before we can
turn on fiber at individual houses. We're not going to be able to and I don't mean every single house but all of the ones that have pre-registered and requested it. We have to get the loop complete basically. Is am I accurate? Uh no. Each of these areas, for example, 1.8 at the top of that list, uh you'll be able to as soon as we're done testing and lighting it all all up, which is at the end of this week, the next couple days, it'll be available that that network infrastructure will be available for you to to move forward with. That's great. Okay. Thank
you. Our our initial our initial plan was to activate as we went. some supply chain issues with the manufacturer of the actual equipment that pushes the the lasers that push the light out. Um it's just a it's a common thing that happens. I have several projects going on and they're they're all in the same boat. So So my sorry my understanding uh from what you just said, Hector, is that the green the green boxes will actually have fiber at their homes turned on, ready to go relatively soon. And then the white ones obviously later, but we will be able to turn
on the completed turn on fiber. I know turn on um turn on fiber at the homes and RV and such earlier than the the like 1.1 drop and 1.4 drop as as we turn them up. Yes, you'll be able to not on. Got it. All right. Thank you. I'd like let me let me add to that a little bit that what they're discussing is the infrastructure outside what they call outside plant. This is the wires the fibers that's taking the internet to people's homes or businesses what have you. We still have work to do
on the inside setting up all the software in the back that manages it, the equipment, the routers, all this stuff that's in here. Um the good news is we've got most of the hardware done at this point. Um, we had a few issues with our supplier and or the provider of the internet getting some network issues resolved and some settings changed, but we got all that resolved here today. So, we should be good to go. The software is coming next and soon as we get that set up and it's ready, yes. Then we can start putting those people on. So, can you Sorry. Can you give me a ballpark?
I cannot not until it's turned on. I'm I'm I'm through giving days cuz this thing has bit me since October. I'm not saying that anymore. So, as soon as it's done, that's We're back to having no idea. Yes. Well, no. I have an idea. It's going to be fairly quickly, but I I'm not going to tell you it's going to be by Friday. I won't tell you next Friday. I won't tell you the end of the month. I don't know until I actually can turn it on and show you then know that it works and everything's set up and working and tested. Then I'll tell you that's when we have it. And I'm not trying to be
mean about it. I just don't know myself. Can you tell me what is left? specifically what's left to be done. We need to get the software set up communicating with the hardware. Okay. So, one step we're one step away. We are literally one step away at this point. Great. Thank you. But you're not going to wait until all the drops are in related to the software, right? No, that's that's it's it's two separate animals. It's just we have to have that up and working before we can get the software communicating with the equipment. Once it's all set up to communicate
with equipment, everything's working like it should, then we can go start knocking on doors and hooking people up. Okay. And and that being said, I want the general public, everybody to understand this is not an instant process. It takes time to get the technician out, get the equipment set up, get the installation done. If you have a pre-rop done, that's going to make it faster. That's why we contracted with them to do these 500 additional drops was to make our installations go faster. And people are just going to have to be patient and wait their turn. We can only do them
so fast. Even even it's turned up and ready. It's still going to take time to get the installations done. Okay. Mr. Mayor, did you have something else? I do, but councelor Jones was asking for the floor. I believe she said you were first. So, go ahead. She saw you before she saw me. I would just like to clarify what our IT director has so eloquently stated. These drops mean
nothing. After these drops are finally in, then it is up to the city to provide the hookup between the two. And I don't know how many people city managers budette do we have on it at this time? Two. So we have two people to hook all of these up. It October. That sounds like fantasy to me.
I don't think it'll be done by October and I have not been surprised at anything that has happened up to this point. But understand that these people are not hooking up internet to our homes. These are people are providing it out at the road and in a circle and then the city of Willist with our two employees will be hooking them up to your homes. So, as the IT manager so eloquently said,
be very patient. That's all I have to say. I'll say nothing else on this matter. Thank you. Okay. Miss Jones will be the last person to comment on. It's very simple. Go ahead. Um, it was just that the people that did pre-register have or soon will have the drop the box on the back of their house. Um, and I don't think we can put it there unless they do register. I mean, we can't just go put things on people's houses if they don't register. No, that's correct. All the boxes are going to
those folks that have pre-registered, right? So, that's why everybody doesn't have it yet. The people that have registered or pre-registered are the ones with the boxes. I know mine's on the back of my house and I'm eagerly waiting, but and I am lucky enough to be a cow link person, so maybe I'll be one of the first. I was going to say you didn't pre-register. Yeah, I I am a cow link person, so maybe I will be. Now, that being said, since this is updates um and we're taking up a lot of time, maybe we can put the next on the agenda, this next update on the agenda. That way we know
and it's and then that gives this the public an opportunity to ask questions as well. Right. One last comment. This is what I wanted to focus on for today was a date the for the infrastructure to be completed and available. I'll make sure that I get uh prepped and um uh just get uh briefed on what the drop numbers are because again I'm still confused by those drop numbers but I didn't care about them coming in here. I should have I wasn't uh expecting questions on drops but I'll be ready
for that next time. And if you can't get the maps, if you could just tell us which area is which, that would be nice. I'll I'll get you the map of the areas. You'll have this to compare it and I'll get that to you. I'm going to try to get that to you this week. Again, it's just a more complicated map than I anticipated. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Bet. Do you have anything else? I just want to clarify because Erin's kind of said this to me 50 times now. So hopefully I can speak eloquently about it, but kind of think of this as three steps. We have to do the
infrastructure outside laying the fiber, right? Then Aaron has to do all of the inside stuff here, the software billing and all of the sort of internal computer things. Then we have to go and install it at the actual house. So it's three steps. So we're still finishing step one. Aeron's working on step two. Then we're going to go to the houses and do step three. So we three three steps. Did I get that right? Okay, good. So, we're working on it, but I want to make sure that everybody, you know, has the updates because we are getting as many calls as you guys are
getting. We're getting just as many calls on our end asking when it's going to be here. So, I'm about to stop answering the phone. All right. And I I will send you guys a copy of the simplified map that outlines those areas ahead of time. just so you'll know it. Thank you. All right. Um, Miss Derek, city attorney Derek, do you have anything? Nothing from me. Um, Miss Wright,
Chief Rolls, any updates? Yes, maybe. Maybe some good news. Thank you, Aaron, for getting my body cameras up and running today. The new body cameras we ordered are now uh being issued out. So, thank you Aaron for getting that done. Well, it only took three phone calls with your people to get that done, but you know, we got it done. Okay. Well, I I appreciate it. Thank you. Um I think I
spoke to each and every one of you about a citizen group that I was putting together to review some policies. Uh just to give you an update on it, uh it's going very well. Uh the first meeting went off very good without a hitch. The team seems to be very excited about the pro about the project and I'm super excited to see what they come up with. I think their first meeting is this Thursday at 700 p.m. over in the community room. If anybody wants to stop in and just say hi to them
uh this Thursday at 7 in the community room. If anybody wants to stop in and say hi to them and uh thank them for uh having a vest vested interest in uh something of a matter of policies and procedures on such dangerous topics such as vehicle pursuits, vehicle police pursuits, and the use of the pit maneuver is the two policies that they're reviewing. uh as you know those are probably two of the most highly um dangerous things that we probably do in this job.
So unfortunately the world is coming to the point that people don't want to stop anymore when you get behind them. So that's what initiates these pursuits and I'm honored to have this team working on those policies to help us come up with the best policy that we can that will protect our officers as well as protect the city from liability as much as possible. But in the job of law enforcement, it's full of liability. But if we can streamline it and cut down as much as we can, uh I'm all for it. So thanks to that group for stepping up. That's all I have. Thank you. Chief Steagle.
Mr. Bon. Yes, ma'am. Just wanted to let everybody know that the um airport staff has been working on updating the um airport website. Um so, if you would um feel free to go take a look at it. We've gotten a a pretty good firing solution on most of it accomplished already. Uh, but if there any if there's anything that the council would like to see u added to it, feel free to, you know, shoot me an email or text and I'll see what we can make happen. What's it under? Is it Willist
Pick 60 or Willist Municipal Airport? It's It's the same website. Um, same address as before. So, I mean, you could just Google Willist Airport, Florida. Don't go to North Dakota because, you know, that's not the right one. No, no, no. Um, that happens way more often than you think. Uhhuh. U, yeah. If you just Google it, um it'll bring it bring it right up and it'll say, you know, Will Regional Airport, Florida, and click that one. Um we tried to make it a little more mobile browser friendly than the last website was because a lot more people are
searching on their phones. Um and you know, we we added a bunch of good stuff to it. So, just feel free to hop on there, take a look, and anything you guys might want to add, let us know. have a question. Yes, ma'am. Um, this is not the same as the page on the city website, correct? This is separate than the city website. Yeah. So, if you if you go to the airports tab on the city's website, it will actually direct you to our web page. Oh, that's what I'm looking at. Great. Thanks. Yeah. So, you should you should see like when you bring it up,
it should have our our logo and now it'll have like a you know, sunrise with a bunch of older airplanes sitting on it. So, um, yeah, there should be a link for on the city's website to direct you to ours, but if not, I can work with staff to make that happen. Okay. Anyone else? Miss Kim, first update is um, Miss Latricia's evaluations.
And then the second update is uh we're going to start introducing new staff members. So over at PD for dispatcher, we have Julian Figuro. Uh we Robert or Rob Kian is now the utility director. Alex Rodriguez is his sidekick, the assistant utility director. Um Kurt Williams is now a lineman. A uh Cody is the lineman B. Um then we've done a lot of
uh shifting around promoting internally. And then we have Antonio Fasen, I think is how you say his last name. He's in streets and parks. He is um I can't remember if he's a if he's labeled as a road tech or a park technician, but he's in streets and parks. And that is all the moving around and all the new employees.
Council President, may I just for one second? Sure. Uh tomorrow is my administrative assistant's last day. She is uh moving to the Ocala Police Department uh for a different position and closer to home. So, tomorrow is her last day. Uh so, we will miss her and uh we appreciate everything that she's done for the police department as well as the great city of Willist. Thank you. Utility director,
you have anything for us? Yes, ma'am. Good evening, council. Thank you. I'd like to update a little bit on Is that working? Sorry. So, we've met with a few of the council members identifying and pointing out some problems that we found, Alex and I, throughout the city. Um, we will continue to meet with the additional council members to update them with the uh the problems that we've identified, the changes that we'd like to make. Uh, so I will be getting with Miss after the council
meeting to set up a date and time with her. Um, we're moving along, making progress. It's about it for now. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rob. Anyone else? No. All right, Mr. Cox. Yes. I keep hearing different things about block 12, the sidewalks, the canopy, stuff like that. What is actually going on?
How much time do we have here? Pass this to him. That tells him what's going on. But you can't pass it. Uh that that is not within the sunshine that I already cannot hide things. It's an open meeting. I can pass it to him. You can read it out loud so everybody can see it. Counselor, if they wanted me to, I would. Why are you yelling at me? Madame counsel, that was not a yell. Okay. So,
Mr. Nichols and the podium. Okay. Walt nickel with white Pierce. Let me give you an update. And what happened is we city right like Peters the previous engineer that designed that the original site on that was under the understanding that the property was owned from the parking lot all the way up to the buildings. And so the original design a redesign that we did once the pesos property came in always had that intent. And so um basically the parking lot was going to be constructed to about
12 to 15 ft from the the building faces and then there was a sidewalk and then there was a utility space green space between the sidewalk and the buildings. That was not the case in some areas. So the sidewalks that are constructed now are on the people's property and there's six owners that are affected by that. And so once that became um brought to the attention of the city, the CRA met. Uh we met uh Laura Jones has been coordinating with with the CRA of what to do.
We had a couple options. We came in well what we pause the construction. What can we do? We can either get an easement for that back part of the property. We could ask if we can they donate that back bit of property and it's about 7 ft um roughly on both that we would need to acquire. Um and so the city has been in contact with the the each property owner and talking. Um at the latest of that there are there's one who doesn't want to do anything. No easement, no
um no budging at all and we've looked at that just as of this evening. We could suspend the work on that property and continue on keep the sidewalk. There's one other spot they don't want to donate or sell property um but they would entertain an easement and that would work and uh Kirsten has indicated that that would be a possibility. So right now we're on a pause. We look like we can maybe just not do a sidewalk near the arcade. We can do a reroute of it and it would still possibly
work and actually open some green space up in front of the arcade. Um the other one, as long as they're willing to give an easement, we can get the right language for that to happen. So, we've put the project on hold. We've asked um Wilks Construction to to pause while we figure that out. And there was just a meeting this evening ahead of this with the CRA. Um we don't have actual direction, but I think we know we're going with if they're willing to, you know, give the back part of their property up. they get access to the building, they get the parking lot, they get
all this the stuff that that we've always intended to provide. And that appears to be the way. And if there is that one hold out up at the north end, we've got an alternate where we could reroute the sidewalk. So that's the status of what's going on. So this was done by who was the mistake made by? Well, I mean it was originally say originally Burell Engineering designed the parking lot for that and they had the sidewalk in the parking lot a certain distance in the building once and
we right Pierce was was tasked with taking their design and this was about a year and a half ago roughly taking the Bell design and putting out for bid again and administered construction. So, we took their design, we put it out for bid. We got uh Wilks site prep was uh the only bidder, but they had a reasonable bid. Um literally within I think that same week that we opened the bids, the Pesos property came available or looked like it was going to be available in two corners. So, that
opened up where we could do a better design and the city then asked us if we would take the Brell design and accommodate the the Pesos property and do that. And we did. and we designed it, but we used the same setbacks from the building for the parking lot and the sidewalk as was in that original design. Um, it's my understanding the city always thought that they had that control on that, but in reality they did not. So, that's what we're remedying right now. So, it was an error that was originally done. We went with that same understanding, held the same setback from the
building with the new design, but unfortunately the city did not have control over that. So, so I think back about what our accountant said earlier this year was we have no wiggle room for money for crazy things. Yeah. What's what might this end up costing us? Yeah, there there's some delays when you put a construction project on hold and I'm trying to get those numbers from Wilks
right now. We're talking with them. What happens if this is delayed for 1 month, two months or three months? Getting the uh purchase and legal or andor easements um can be a fairly quick process. Steve McMillan has to write the legal descriptions for that. Um, Kirsten has said the actual work is is really only a couple weeks to get that done once she has the legal descriptions. Um, I mean, we're looking at probably a month delay and there are some cost. If we do that,
there really isn't. The design stays as is, but there is a delay. I mean, there just is. And we're trying to get those numbers right now. Okay. But the the uh sidewalks and such, hopefully we don't have to bust any up and move them. What we have right now, we probably shouldn't. what we discussed literally right before this meeting um the discussions that were coming the CRA didn't vote or act on one or the other but the direction that we're going as of five 550 is that I think we
can keep with the design that is if and the people um Laura uh Deborah Jones has spoken with everyone out there and pretty much they're in most are in favor of doing what they're doing they understand the whole benefit um so we're not looking at a whole relight right now a whole redesign. We looked at if we had to if we had to come out we did some sketches and designs and came up with two plans. We did that a week week and a half ago. Doesn't look like we have to do that though. So it's really taking what we have and just clearing up the ownership where the sidewalk is at. Right.
So okay. So we're hoping it's minimal. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? I do, but I'll save a couple for the next round towards the end. For the end. Yeah. Okay, Miss Jones, he explained it really well. Um, at the CRA meeting, not the one we just had, but the one before, which was their regularly scheduled meeting, he did give us some basic cost estimates of what it would cost to tear up all the sidewalks and put them on our property. Yeah. Um, and that was bad.
Yeah. Um, it it was between 75,000. And also the electric would have to be moved if that was the case if we didn't have to get easements and we didn't even know what that would cost because the padmounted transformers are there as well. Uh so that's when we decided to go talk to them all. Okay. Miss Meredith, do you have anything? Rob's got something going on here. Just wanted to update you on the the pad mount transformers are not there. It's the the actual secondary pedestals.
So, okay. They're two different things. The pad mount is the big trans is the big thing that's over near the park. Yes, ma'am. And the smaller ones are the pedestals. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. So, you say you're done. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Did you have any updates? Uh, hold up. Hold up. Sorry. So, when it's time for participation again, if you will. All right. But this is updates. This is not conversation. So, if you'll hold it until public participation,
please. Yes, sir. I mean, yes, ma'am. I just want to ask the chief if he knows who the people are that are at the hospital property. I'm seeing people around the building and doing things and I don't know who they are. And if I had had somebody with me, I would have stopped and asked them who they were. Uh do is it during the day during the daylight hours? It was daylight hours. Yes. I call the cops. Yeah. Uh code enforcement
has been working with the attorney firm that has the property. Uh and that's why you see so much being done like the windows are being bordered, the grass has been cut, the hedges are trimmed, trees are trimmed up. Um looks great. Yeah. And they've, if I remember correctly, they have that company now on a monthly rotation. They come and keep the place clean. Uh if the window is broke, we call they come, they board it up. That's what they were doing when I saw them, I believe on Friday, it was. Yes. So that's that's a company that was hired through the attorney firm to to uh because of Christy getting talking to them and working with them that they started cleaning the
place up and people have told me it looks the best it's looked in 10 years. I know. Really? So that's true. One other thing about the hospital. Um I don't you know we we told you at one point that we were we had taken the uh tax collector and the property appraisers through the building and that we had sent pictures to the department of revenue. They were going to try to reduce some of the back taxes that were still owed. There's one company that's bought all the back taxes except the most
recent ones which is the like 23 24 25 and they own all the ones like from 219 20 21 22. Um and so they're trying to get them all so that they can sell the building. The the receiver has now said that he will let the building go for the cost of the back taxes, which is like $1.2 $2 million for all of them together. Uh, and I heard today that they um, not today, but the last week,
the end of last week, that the state department of revenue had agreed to reduce the tax lean on their the back taxes. So, it will make it less for them to buy it on the steps at the auction. I asked her to let us know when they decided to sell it just so we would be aware. Thank you. Miss May, do you have anything? Mr. Mayor, do you have anything? Any updates? Yes, just a few things.
the council sometime back when uh Miss Nancy Wineer made a proposal before you and uh she is heading an organization called Just Serve. Uh today I received these signs that are from that organization and I have them in my office. I am not going to be the one to decide where to put them. I will leave it to the city manager and she can ask the council if she
feels the need. But uh we do we have agreed to be just serve city and so the the organization has sent us some things so that we can advertise that that's the kind of city we want to be. And so I will be giving this box to the city manager and she can distribute them as she sees fit. I did ask uh a city employee if they would get with somebody and find out where we could post
one of these smaller ones here in the city hall someplace. And where that ends up happening, I will not know until it happens. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right, we will move on to new business. Resolution 2026-03, a resolution of the city council of the city of Wilson, Florida, approving entering into an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration to develop an action place under the staff streets for all funding programs,
author authorizing appropriate parties to execute such agreement on behalf of the city of Wiston and providing an effective date. Walt Nichols, right Pierce. Okay. Walt Nickel with Right Pierce. Um, yeah, this has been this grant has been in the making for about two and a half years when we first applied for this on behalf of the city. Um,
FHWA, Federal Highway Administration, has a a program, their Safe Streets for All program, and it comes in a two-part process. um you do um prepare per their guidelines a safe streets action plan, excuse me, whereas you follow their steps where you look at a variety of things. You look at accident data, um you know, speeding, traffic violations, um all types of things that affect transportation, whether it be vehicles, pedestrians, multimodal types of operation.
And you go through their step process. you have meetings with the community of where they feel, you know, uh items need to be done with uh with traffic and transportation and safety. It's all geared on safety. You know, zero deaths is what they're trying to do on all types of roads uh state, federal, and local roadways. So, they have money that they are are giving to communities to do the action plan. And once an action plan is done, then that opens you up what they call the implementation phase. And so you then you have money to implement the things that are
in the action plan, but you can't get that money until you do the action plan. So they're funding this. It's the the total project is 192,000. The federal share of the grant is 153,600. They call the recipient share 38,400. That's the city share, but that is not necessarily a cash um is our understanding. there. We're going to have to have meetings with police, fire, um, and other city staff. The time involved in that can be part of your city share. The research we're
hoping of accident data and getting paperwork can be part of the city share. So, there's a lot of that that we're going to try to maximize all of that so it's not an out of pocket. But this literally three two and a half years since application. They you were selected over a year ago and then a year and a half ago then nothing happened. Um they didn't lose funding but they changed language. There was a lot of different things that had to be done in agreements. They
got put on pause and I've been working with the representative probably for 6 months just getting verbiage that had to be pulled out that that out of their per their guidelines in in the scope. And so that's been done. I mean that's been done for months and they've been saying we're going to be issuing agreements. Issuing agreements. Well December 20th I think is it was end of December they finally issued the agreements and not only to Williston but I think there were 981 recipients
across the the country that received the this these action plans. Again so you've got the grant again. This opens it by participating with this, it opens you up for the implementation dollars, the real dollars if you need sidewalks or signalized intersection crossings. I mean, there's talk about here on Main Street that's going to be part of crossing and and things like that. Um there may be even some of the things with the golf court ordinance. I can't predict what the outcome of this is going to be, but one of the problems that we had with the golf cart
or is we've got our segments, isolated segments in the city. Crossing was being a problem. They were going to be expensive. We talked with DOT. There would be need signalized intersections. DOT didn't have the money. If we can show that that's a safety hazard and and doing that, there may be implementation money to get to that final step on the golf court ordinance. But that's just one example. But there may be other pedestrian crossings specifically here in the downtown corridor that could then get funding. But you have to do this step first, the the uh the
action plan before you get to the implementation phase. So that is this grant. Um if there's any other questions u that I can answer for anybody. Attorney Fos, do you have anything to add? It's been reviewed. this uh resolution and everything has been reviewed by our office and is approved. Okay. Can I get a motion? Questions later. I move we approve resolution 2026-03. I second.
I have a motion. I second. Um any discussion from the council? Mr. D. Who will be doing the quarterly reports and analysis that's required? Um we have I I have to go to whether when we applied for this you also authorized us to do the work. Um but it was so long ago and I thought before this meeting I should have looked at that. If you haven't I would have to come to you with a proposal for us to mimic this scope to do this for the grant. So we've done that in others. I I to be
honest I should have looked that up before I came today and I didn't because this is sat for so long but we I think at the time we got authorized to apply for this grant we also gave you a proposal for us to do that. So right Pierce would be we would be the grant administrator and would get paid out of the grant to do that out of the grant to do that. So this pays for that work to be happen but I may have to come back to you I honestly I don't recall um with the time. Okay. Thank you. And I do just because I said it two weeks ago kind of unrelated. I told you two weeks
ago I would come here with three agreements. I'm only here to this evening with one agreement. The reason is the documents they sent me. I thought they were agreements for the vulnerability assessment which is similar to this and the septic to sewer for area 1. They were the pre-agreements where they're asking for the contract information, the insurance. Latrician's been working on getting the insurance certificates W9. It was all the pre-aggreement that they're asking. So, we're working on that. Once that goes back to each agency, they're going to be sending agreements, the the official agreements, and I thought that's what they had sent us a couple weeks ago, but it's
the pre. So, anyway, in case you wondering when I said I'd come back to you with three and only have one, that's the reason. The other ones are still in process. Okay. Thank you. Miss Merrick, do you have anything? Mr. Cox, anyone from the public have any questions for Mr. Nichols? None. Madam President, can I just address one thing if you don't mind? Um, the mayor called me the other day asking me a few questions about why all of these grants recently seem to be planning related. Um, we're not doing a lot of work it seems like. And I had to explain to him
that that's the state right now is looking more favorably upon grant applications that are making something shovel ready. years ago, they would like to just give us, you know, the grants and say, "Go ahead and figure it out and do all the planning, but now they really want these planning grants done first so that they know everything's ready to go when they actually give us the money to do it." So, it seems like there's a lot of more planning grants these days, but that's the reason why that's the push from the state right now. Yeah. And for example, the um septic to sewer,
which was the uh the springs grant program, we applied for that two cycles ago for the whole thing, the design and implementation. and it was a big big chunk. Um, and we weren't successful. We met with them again, asked what do we need to do for the next application and it's precisely that. Ask for a smaller chunk. Once you get that first step, you're in the queue for for the bigger dollars. And that's what this safe streets for all is doing. Gets you that shows you you have the commitment. You've outlined what the projects are. They're justified
because you've done in the report. Then you're going to be there's more dollars on that. The vulnerability assessment is the exact same thing. We get that agreement. We're going to, you know, pinpoint what are the projects, what are the needs, what needs to be done. That gets approved by D. Then you're in the list for now. How do you implement that? And and that comes next. So we are this round pretty much all the grants that we asked for were that they were plan basically they call them planning grants and that's what we did and then we complete those then you're in line.
you're going to be in line for the actual the big dollars of construction dollars once those are complete. So, we have a question from the public. Mr. Eard, if you'll step to the podium. Yes, maker 225. How much does this cost the city for all these grants that really don't do anything to better us when we have water issues that probably cost $50 million? Why don't we pursuing a grant for all the water and the electric to come
up to par instead of all this little this malarkey? And what do you what do you charge the city if you don't mind me asking? Mr. Eard, if you address me, as I presented a couple months ago as we were working on these grants, there was a a slew of grants that came up and open August, September, and October. And we had a flurry of grants. I think we applied for nine different grants because these grants were only for implementation and
design. Right? Pierce did all of that at our cost. No cost to the city on those endeavors. When we do ask for grants that are construction dollars, we typically work under our miscellaneous services and we get a task and we help you do that because you are the primary beneficiary. When these were just asking for the grants, we did not. We charged you zero. We did all that on our own to help you. We are going to benefit from that as engineers. We are. So we felt that was not that was not proper to do that. So we charge the city zero. We did nothing. We did that all on our own. So
and now you're positioned the next step. So for example, if we do on the safe streets for all the results are done and you should have a signalized intersection pedestrian crossing here across the street. the design of that or that application, we would probably have a fee to go with that, but you would be in line to receive millions of dollars for that. Um, in the nine or 10 grants that we applied for here in past September, um, there were several with that were focused on Hurricane Helen and Milton damage. Unfortunately, we didn't get those. Uh, we didn't have enough
sufficient damage. Cedar Key got I know there was some questions on that. Well, how come Cedar Key? They had more damage than Wilson. We could not show, we could not justify that. They encouraged us to apply. Um, we asked for there was over I think $30 million in those project asks that we did and they included water manes throughout the city to harden the city. They included upgrades at the at the at the towers. They included electrical upgrades. They included uh generators for all your lift stations. They include sanitary sewers. So in that ask, we look broad across the whole city.
We work with city staff. We've worked with with Sue. We've worked with everybody on that to come up with these projects. That was just one grant. We've applied for road projects through the RIFF grant. That one unfortunately we didn't for Main Street. We we didn't, but there's still another one that were pending for the um uh for economic development for your downtown that we're still waiting on that is still favorable. Um, so we've done we've won three out of the nine already and we're po poised to win one or two more um out of this round and we watch grants. I sit in a grants
meeting every two weeks with our staff. We keep up with that. We let the city know. I sometimes Sue gets them and lets us me know and we keep keep a breast of this because it's it is a way to fund your projects. So thank you. We appreciate you sir. Mr. All right. Thanks. Any other questions? I move to vote. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 4 to zero.
Resolution 2026-04. A resolution of the city council of the city of Willist, Florida. approving the scope of service letters with the purpose gray for audits of the city of Williston as well as the city of Willist community redevelopment agency authorizing appropriate parties to sign any document required to execute same and providing an effective date city attorney Miss Voss. Thank you madame council president. Um this is the agreement to engage with purpose gray for the annual audit.
It is the same as last year's agreement. There is an increase in price. Last year's agreement was 62,500. This year's increase in price is 5,000. The scope of services. All um other items have remained the same. Appropriate action will be to u make a motion to approve and legal has reviewed this and it's approved for legal conformity. Thank you. Can I get a motion? Motion. I make a motion we approve resolution 2026-04. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any
discussion from the council? Any discussion from the public? Seeing none, I move to vote. All those in favor say I. I. Those who oppose say nay. Motion passes four to zero. At this time, we will have the second public hearing where you'll have 5 minutes to speak on anything that was not on the agenda. Um, please state your name, where you from? Yes, Tim 225. Um,
is Wilson ever going to come up with a plan to come up to to to get the water? Water's like gold, you know? We got bad water in Florida, everywhere else, too. But when are we going to get up the code and try to get Willist some water? As Do y'all ever go out to like East Will and talk to these people here and ask them about their water problems? You know, most of them most of them can't even take a shower because the water pressure is so bad because the leaks in the ground are so bad out there. I mean, I'm from here. I know a lot of people around here
and I don't see any effort from the city at all to the embodiment of East Willist. I mean, I really don't. The the the water's terrible. Um I won't say a lot of that had to do with diamond, but uh that's not all his fault either. It's been a culmination of of years of neglect on purpose created chaos. Um, and I and I believe their labor grid needs to be better than what it is. Are y'all
ever going to have a general fund for both just for those two issues? And and Wilson used to be self-sufficient, but it's not normal. Something's got to happen better than what's going on. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Okay, now we'll have announcements. Any announcements from staff? Miss Latricia?
Thursday, January the 22nd, I believe it is. The chamber will be having bagels and coffee at Heritage Park from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Yeah. All right. So, if anybody's on their way to work, please stop by and have coffee and bagels with the chamber members. Crazy. You won't see me between 6:00 and 8. Sorry. Can I ask for a change in time? Fine. Not really. Let's change the time. All right. Any other staff, Miss
Council members? Any updates? says Meredith. Yeah, Miss Jones. I just want to say that those of us that went to the MLK, Gayla had a wonderful time. Nice. Um, we had good entertainment. We had good food and we had good company. Awesome. And we had a lovely MC down here. He did a great job. Didn't recognize him in his hat. Yeah. Mr. Cox, two things. been seeing all over the news. This is America's 250th
anniversary, celebration, birthday, whatever you like to call it. Would love to see, and I know money is tight, if we could find a little more money to make Fourth of July that much better. Other cities are doing it. You see it on the news, you know that everybody's planning to do this. Um, so I guess that would come to Miss Latricia for the 250th. What do you think?
It's the will of the council. I think it's already planned to make it bigger. We tal Yeah. Third budget, we talked about that. We did put more money in. So, we just need to make bigger plans. Um, so what plans do you have? What thoughts you have, Mr. Cox? Well, I was talking to Miss Latrician. She gave me a whole plethora of different things. Tell us about it. That's in the next meeting. No, I do have something big planned for the
250th celebration. Um, I would like to try to make it a all day event. Starting at 11:00, I am working with the chamber to make a make the 11:00 event very special. That's not all day. Um I could use about $5,000 more if possible, but And you're going to start at we gave you 9:00 in the morning. No, you gave me You all gave me 32,000. Yes, we did.
Yes. and the um fireworks would take up all that amount with the entertainment. All 32,000. Yes. You know, things are getting more expensive. We won't say why, but a lot of us know why. Gotcha. So, I'm just looking to go big. Yes, ma'am. You know that was ter in case you hadn't heard it.
Yeah. You know fireworks aren't made here in America. Some of them are not. That was from China. They doubled everything. I guess we need to start making fireworks. Just saying. It's a It's a How many people in Spain were killed with fireworks not long ago? The whole plant. Oh, I know. A lot. In that same vein, I don't play with fireworks. I watch them. I just play with them. And I don't play with them either. I'm scared of them. In that same vein, there is a logo that America 250 logo. I would love to see that on our on our website, on our Facebook page.
That will be hopefully on our website next week. Terrific. JJ Fields is working on that. And we and we also talked about the fact that we were we were we talked about the fact between you and I that we were going that we could contact every person who had a festival of any kind the whole year and ask them to use that as their theme. Yes. Uh we've already had one. What do we have the other day? Something. What do we have? Something uh MLK could have had it. should have had it,
should have added it. And and that's because and that's what made me realize that we had not talked to anybody about it. Uh just including the logo, okay, in Celebration of America, ask everybody who has anything to use the chamber, the any anybody who has a festival in the park, you know, um we have the ability to go across the road, the banner. We make a 200. We now have the permit. We do. Yes. Thanks to Walt. Good deal, Walt. That would be great for the parade. Look at you. That
was painful. Yes, it was. I bet it was. It It was very painful. I hadn't heard that we got it. I knew you applied for it, but I didn't know you got it. Wow. It It took a while with all the different changes. Sounds like you have some things in the works. Yes, I do. For the um logos like you were saying for all the different people that are having JJ feels is working on that as well. Hey, that's because we talked about it. We were in the same workshop together. So, that just means we have to think about your budget. We'll think about it or just ask them to do it.
The chamber and it's and Homestead Park. We need to call everybody who does anything and ask them to include it all over town. And any increases for this year, we would just roll back to what we did last year. Yeah. You know, any other announcements? None. See none. How about you? I have no announcements. Are the mayor? Mr. Mayor, do you have an announcement? Madame President,
I have nothing. See, thank you, sir. Um, move. I will adjourn it. Ready for adjourn. Got a motion. Got a second. Any discussion? None. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Oh gosh. Motion P motion P uh passes 4 to 4 to zero. Have a good night at 7:39 p.m.