Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the Winter Haven City Commission meeting for this the 27th day of May, 2025 at 6 PM. We will be led uh in an invocation by Reverend Weber from First
Presbyterian Church. will be led in the pledge of allegiance by Vanessa Castillo, MMC city clerk. Please stand if able. I do roll call. Roll call. Let us pray. As we enter this time and
space to discern the needs, hopes and dreams for this community, please grant to this gathering good conversation, good discussions and decisions. For the leaders of this community, let them remember this sacred call as they engage with the matters of the day. For
community members present, give them ample voice and engagement with the process. Please be with us all this evening. So as we walk out this doors, as the words echo loudly in our ears, well done, good and faithful servant in your holy name. Amen. Amen.
I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Mayor, you want to do a roll call first?
I should before we go down. Yeah. Roll call, please. Commissioner Dolison, Commissioner Mercer, here. Commissioner Dansler here. Mayor Prom Yates here, and Mayor BSong here. Yes. Good evening, mayor and commissioners.
We have one proclamation to present this evening. This is community action month proclamation, and I'll invite Pajoa Lee Yang to come to the podium to receive. And I'll read the proclamation. Proclamation reads as follows. Whereas community action
creates pathways to prosperity by helping hardworking families achieve economic independence rather than keeping reliant on government assistance. And whereas community action is built on innovative, responsive, and efficient programs that are uniquely tailored to meet local needs. And
whereas community action delivers high impact cost-effective results that generate a significant return on investment for local communities. And whereas community action invests in private sector job creation and career training, ensuring that communities grow through free market solutions. And
whereas community action agencies or CAAs are trusted pillars of the community that engage volunteers who donate their time to advance local progress, support working families, and contribute to lasting community success.
And whereas community action programs are both necessary and popular, delivering effective, highquality assistance that strengthens community resilience and fosters local prosperity. Now, therefore, Nathaniel J. Birdong Jr., mayor of the city of Winter Haven, Florida, does hereby proclaim May 2025
as community action month in the city of Winter Haven in recognition of the hard work and dedication of all Winterhaven community action agencies. In witness whereof, he is here to set his hand and cause the seal of the city of Winter Haven, Florida to be affixed this 27th
day of May, 2025. Signed, Nathaniel J. Birdong, Jr., mayor. Attest Vanessa Castillo, city clerk. On behalf of the agricultural and labor program and our CEO Arlene Dobson, we want to truly thank you, Mayor Bersong
and commissioners to your continued support as we celebrate community action this month throughout the United States. And we will continue to provide services to those that would uh those in the community that need the service the most and to help them become self-sufficient.
So, thank you so much All right, count. One, two, three. We'll do one more. Mr. Mayor and commissioners, we do have one additional presentation as noted on your agenda this evening that you can be at the dis for and that is uh from Aaron
Kilibru Kinlaw, director of external affairs representing Citrus Connection and Lakeland area mass transit district for their annual update. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Mayor, commissioners, good afternoon, good evening. Uh, it's good to be back with you. Sorry, I missed
last times. Uh, but I'm glad to be back with you. Okay, so this is your midcontract cycle writership update. So, typically I do every six months because you were on a now two-year cycle with us. As far as your transit agreement is concerned, I'm
doing once a year. Uh, and I wanted to stay out of your budget way uh since this is not an ask today. So, uh, as you can see, you have eight fixed routes. Fixed routes are our big buses. So, when you see the big buses pulling in and out of the terminal back here, that is considered fixed route. And these are
all of the numbers. Anytime you see a colored line throughout this presentation, you probably shouldn't see many. Uh, but anytime you see a colored line, just keep in mind that that comes out of the city of Lakeland. And yours are all for the most part, they're numbered.
These are your WR your routes and then your ridership per route. Um the only thing that I will note you on are the 21X and the 17X. Those although there are a few miles that are within the city limits of Winter Haven, these are not
your primary routes. These just go through maybe four or five miles. So that's why your wrership is so low for those two. The rest of them are your primary routes. the 30 being the Legoland route. Um the 15 that goes to and from Auburnale, those kinds of
things. Top rated stops. As I will remind you every time I'm here, we cannot tell you where people are getting off. We can only tell you where people are getting on. So if somebody is in Lakeland and they come over to Legoland, I cannot tell you how many people that
are staying in Lego are staying in Lakeland come to Legoland. But when they get back on the bus at Legoland on the Route 30, that's where we capture that data from our smart cards. So these are your, as expected, the Winter Haven Terminal, which is right behind us. That's your top rated stop. And then it
uh it goes goes down from there. I will remind you for paratransit services, when you see the smaller buses behind us at the terminal, uh we call them cutaway buses, those are your paratransit services. TD is what the state pays for. It's the transportation
disadvantage trust fund uh that is fully funded by the state. We are one of only two states in the United States that has a TD fund that's structured the way it is. Uh and with session being extended once again this year, uh it's always on
the table to be cut. We hope that that never happens. We the the FPA pays for lobbyists to go up there and hope that they don't cut funding to the poorest or neediest of our communities. But, uh, it is what it is. The ADA service, these
rides are your door-to-door transportation for medical needs or, um, education, it goes down in ways of needs. Um, but this, I will remind you, the ADA, although you quote unquote pay for it, it is based on your big bus
service. So, if there's a stop right outside of here at city hall, anything that's within 3/4 of one mile from that stop is ADA eligible. and all that person has to do is call our call center and we will go to their door, pick them up, take them where they need to go and
bring them back. Um, anything outside of that one mile we will not do as far as doortodoor is concerned. Your municipal contribution, uh, these used to be called fair shares if you'll remember, but there was a discrepancy between FRE and FIR. So, we
now call these municipal contributions. Um, thank you John for always working with us on our contributions and our contracts. Um, the map is something new. Uh, you guys probably have not seen this before. We have now gone to uh, one of our former directors always said
pictures good, words bad. So now we're going to pictures. These are your city limits. As you can see at the top, anything that's in red is what your municipality pays for. Um, the green is all of their funding. So that would be state funding, federal funding, and then
the blue is the route in general. So that's when it moves over to county or what have you, another city. Um, but what the red is is what you currently pay for. And I would like to remind you that we go down as far as if one side of the city is Pulk County and the other
side of the city or the other side of the street is city, we only charge you for the one side of the street even though there may be a bus stop on the opposite side. I always like to show this just so that you have some sort of reference when it
comes to municipal contributions throughout the county. Um, these are based on population. Uh, as you know, 10 years ago when I started coming to you and and asking for this uh contribution, we were directed by the county, the
BOCC, to go after 20% of what it actually costs to run bus service within the city limits. Um I will you you all are way past your 20%. Most cities are at 33%. Our board has no expectation of
going past that 33% at this point in time. Um what I will do is point out that places like Hane City and Davenport they are not up to their 20% much less their 33% at no fault of their own. that is bus service that was committed to
them years ago by the county and they kind of just got stuck with the bill. We are working on it. Both of those cities are very um amicable to work on these with us, but just in case there are ever questions, we do like to show that we're
working on it with these other cities. But you um as well as most of the other ones are at your 33%. And I will stand for any questions. I'm sure that there are some at least on microtransit. Go ahead. Um Erin, I want to talk
briefly. I just want to understand the Legoland route a little bit better and um that throws me into the microtransit. You know, we talked at one time about having microtransit from Legoland straight to downtown. Maybe stopping at the hospital or something. Yes, sir. help me understand the Legoland route to
where um where it goes where just help me get that before I ask my question. So, sure. So, the route 30 goes from our terminal here, goes down First Street. It then goes down Oh gosh, it's been a long time since I've lived here. Cyber Garnes
Boulevard um out towards that Walmart. It goes into the Walmart parking lot. Correct me if I'm wrong. It goes into that Walmart parking lot. Um, and then it goes out to the mall and that's well it goes to Legoland obviously. So it pulls into Legoland, it comes out to Walmart, goes into Walmart. Um, it goes
out to 27, it goes to the mall. The mall is our transfer point for other services that run along 27 and then it turns around and comes back. That's the one that runs on Sundays, too. The Eagle Ridge Mall. The Eagle Ridge Mall. Yes. It goes to 27 and goes south to or does
it peel off and go to like Thompson Nursery Road or No, sir. Goes all the way out to 27, goes to the mall to the food court. That's where our transfer point is and then it turns around and comes back. And the main main stops are Walmarts and what what else? Legoland.
Um there are stops. There are not stops because T. Michael and I talked about um stops where those new apartments are going in. I don't know if those are completed yet or not. hotels and things if they're are not completed yet. We did talk about stops going in at those places along um Cypress Gardens
Boulevard, but the main ones right now are Legoland, that Walmart, Publix on the other side, Bells or Glory Days or whatever that is right there. Um there is a stop at the other Walmart that's closer in town. We stop at the
women's center on both sides. There's a bus shelter there now. That's all part of that Legoland route. Yes, sir. Okay. It is probably your top rated, right? Route. So, the in my mind the microtransit, you know, we had a guy or a company come in two or three years ago
and show us one downtown and we all rode on it and Yes. something um Rick Baker was promoting and it was mainly a downtown microtransit. Is that what you mean by microtransit or can we talk about a line that's like a express line
from Legoland stops at hospital Walmart and downtown kind of a four loop four stop is that what a microransit is tell me what what that is in your world so we consider microtransit that a boutique service but also our squeeze
um we are working with the city right now on something like what you just talked about which is more of an express route out out to Legoland hitting um some of our food insecurity areas, the hospitals, uh Walmarts, Publixes, that
kind of thing. We are currently working with the city on that. But when we consider microtransit are the smaller vehicles that go to and from somewhere specifically and then the Squeeze, which is our smaller golf cart type service that would just go around like downtown.
This this one we drove was sort of high-tech. It didn't even have a driver. It it set up cameras all around or the bubble. The bubble. I was here for it. Yes, sir. The bubble. It was uh an autonomous vehicle. An autonomous vehicle. We we call it you guys offer that or is that one of your competitors?
Was that something we could talk about? Because I think that'd be popular in certain times of the night downtown. Yes, sir. Um MJ and I have actually talked about uh EVs. We have not talked about autonomous vehicles.
Um, our company is based on providing public transportation with a human that's driving it, especially with our ADA requirements. If there's somebody that needs assistance getting on or off a vehicle like that, um, but we have talked about the EVs. We have not talked
about autonomous at Citrus Connection yet. Commissioner Dancer, if I could just offer some additional points on that. So, we are looking at a somewhat of a a smaller fixed route, kind of a
circulator route, um that we've had preliminary discussions with uh Lakeland Area Mass Transit District on uh and and we're considering within our two CRA districts in response to some of the feedback that we received during our strategic momentum session that the
biggest challenge uh faced by all of our medical providers was the the transportation barrier. And so we've looked at some preliminary routing that goes primarily through the uh the Florenceville and the downtown CRAAS.
So, I think probably on the north side um say from the getting from the the new Winter Haven Recreation and Cultural Center through town all the way down to uh the fieldhouse over to the Walmart that is just east of First Street and
then back up through um First Street area and Sixth Street. And it the the route that we've been considering is it really is intended first and foremost to hit all the medical facilities. So Bond Clinic, Winter Haven Hospital, Central
Florida Healthc Care, um the the Guestler or the former Guestler property. Um it hits shopping centers, Publix, Aldi, hits recreation centers. um gets into the neighborhood where we
can can grab people as well. That's really who we're trying to serve. Uh we have begun to plug in some costs associated with that in our preliminary look at the CRA budgets for Florence Villa and and the downtown area to
provide that service as well as um what might be needed for the general fund for where it gets outside of those districts which is just a small portion of it. Our thinking was that in with respect to getting to Legoland, um the transfer
station is one of the spaces that it hits right here, you know, behind us. And so that would be an opportunity to make it all the way into Legoland and Eagle Ridge Mall for that matter, uh via a simple transfer at the at the station here. Um, we're still preliminarily
looking at that and how does that make sense and and can we can we budget for that accordingly. In terms of downtown microransit, we do have funds included within our downtown CRA to provide that service similar to what you're asking
for or inquiring about. That would be um us acquiring vehicles. They would be electric vehicles um similar to the GEM car is what we're looking at that can carry four to six passengers and then contracting with Lamb TED for that
service. Um we had money set aside also through a federal grant program through the clean energy grant program which unfortunately was one of the first ones that was cut under the new administration in the Doge efforts. So, we've been notified that that that is I
don't know if I'd say it's permanently gone, but it's certainly not active at this point. That would further supplement that. So, we're looking at at both microtransit to move people about throughout the downtown during peak hours, which would really be weekdays during the lunchtime and then into the
evenings when we have, you know, significant activity downtown. and then also that circulator route to uh to try and address getting people to physicians, doctor's appointments, schools, grocerers, retail, and the like. Well, the and I'll stop, but the
only thing I would just re-emphasize how important it is is that these are smart vehicles where you can get on your phone and let them know to come pick you up where you don't have to wait 30 minutes for it to make a loop. You know what I mean? If it's particularly downtown, if you can get on your phone and say, "Hey, I'm I'm, you know," or find out where it
is, let's use some high-tech in this stuff because it's out there. I've seen it. I've witnessed it. And if you can somehow, you know, get on your phone, tap a app, and next thing you know, you can call this vehicle to come pick you up, and you can get a bride in five minutes and have to wait 30 while it
just goes this big loop. That to me makes a lot more sense than than other things. So, anyway. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Go ahead. Quick question. How long does it take to determine if a route is viable? So, if you wanted to start a new route,
how long would it have to be in existence to say it's worth it? We won't give it less than a year just because of seasons changing. And uh back in 2020 when we launched reroute 2020 and then COVID hit, it had only we had only launched it
in October the year before. Um, we did the same thing with the squeeze in Lakeland. We launched it in July. No, scratch that. We launched it in the spring where people wanted to walk because it was still nice out and the wrership was dismal. Well, in July, August, September, October. It's now
peaking. So, we don't give it less than a year so that we can see, you know, wrership versus where people are getting on and then, you know, weather conditions and things like that. If I wanted to get on at the cultural
center in Northeast Winter Haven and I want to get to the downtown or the Winter Haven Hospital, am I am I what I'm trying to understand in directionally. Am I am I forced to go all the way out to the distribution
center before I get to that spot or I have no idea without looking at our website. I have no idea. I don't even know where the cultural center is. I'm sorry. I was born and raised here, but it's been a while. That's okay. Martin Luther King Boulevard. But um so and the map
that's on here, you had to kind of It's route 60, but Okay. But um and then get back, you would have to transfer at the terminal. Yeah. So you the 60 would come back and that's uh I'd like to thank the mayor the route 60 is because of the
mayor six years ago that we we didn't have any service out there um past like Lucian Park Road and all those things. Um, but you would have to ride it back to the terminal, get on here, and then you would have to transfer to go out to the 30 or Yeah. one of the other ones that goes out that way. And Commissioner
Yates, that's kind of what we're looking at with that circulator route that um and we we I just looked at a a diagram of it today. There would have to be some stops that are added. Um, but it basically just does a loop through the
core of downtown and Florence Villa to hit those places. If you wanted to get outside of that core, say out to the Walmart at uh out on Cypress Gardens Boulevard, that you would have to transfer for that, but you could take it to the from Winter Haven Recreation and
Cultural Center and and get to Winter Haven Hospital or get to Bond Clinic or Central Florida Healthcare. And on the rotation that it would run, you would have a a route back. So, it's just running a tighter circle in its circulation. Still open to the public,
but but it would run a smaller, which is what exactly you're asking for. Yeah, I guess that's what that's what I'm just trying to understand. And as we're studying it, I I I get that. So, um, just trying to figure out is there a way to get from Lake Mod to the cultural
center to the hospital to the terminal and maybe and that overlaps a lot of that route 60. So could that route essentially eliminate portions of the route 60 is is replaced by this new route and then you transfer to get on
the 60 if you want to get all the way out to the Yeah, I think it becomes a question of efficiencies within that because this route 60 goes out to vill um the route that that we're contemplating for this circulator didn't
go that far and so if you if you take away from one route you know how does that balance out in efficiencies. Um and then also as you take a more compact circulator route and you make it longer
then your time efficiencies within that become longer and your frequency of routes become shorter or or less. So it's just trying to figure that balance out. Um, and again, I go back to to what we discussed in the in the session we had earlier
this spring, you know, to hear from the the medical community that that was their big concern. And when we looked at it, you know, there's a way to do this, I think, that that hits pretty much all of those facilities. Um, certainly within the core of downtown, Women's Hospital, Winter Haven Hospital, um, the
the uh FSU residency facilities there, all those are it's nice and compact. And there's also the opportunity to hit some um some grocerers uh to help with, you know, people that are that are um uh
challenged in getting to getting food. Yeah, I think that as I see it and I and not to keep bringing up the same thing, but and I get we're studying it. So if we had that route that kind of because you don't want to necessarily
go all the way out to the distribution center if you don't have to but I think if we had those core routes of the Florence Villa CRA that connects down into downtown and then you also had the downtown CRA route that connects the
fieldhouse and Walmart and that way I I think we'd see much more utilization and so I look forward to seeing what comes of the studies. All right. Anyone want to know? I guess
the data uh demographics um who's uh you know who's average writer? I mean what what is that who is that person per se? I mean is it uh people to work or um you know just kind of break down a
little bit of that. I mean, who's riding these buses primarily? So, we do a survey every summer of our with our uh interns that walk around our terminals with iPads to ask that question. 88% of our ridership is for
work and they don't have access to a personal use vehicle. They may have a a parent or an aunt or an uncle at home that have a vehicle, but they don't have access to a personal use vehicle. But now with um some of these younger college kids, they some of them don't even drive. They haven't even gotten a
permit yet. So, we have found that as we keep going with this, especially as we get bigger, that it's some of those two that are just trying to get to and for from college with their skateboards. Erin, does the numbers that you gave to the commission represent does it include
um students because your students do not pay to ride? Correct. Yes. Well, yes, sir. As a whole, yes, sir. So, Pulk State, um the Colts program is the schoolboard program. Um that's all of your high school kids. Uh but it doesn't
include charter schools. Um it doesn't include middle schoolers, although you're allowed to ride our system at 8 years old. Um but it doesn't include like new beginnings, all of those. But those that are riding for free through those programs, are they captured in the wrership numbers that you have on the screen now? Oh, I'm sorry. No, those are
separate broken out by UAPs. So that's those are crazy numbers and I can get those to you too and share those numbers. But like Pulk State in and of itself is like 60,000 rides a year or something. So that I think that's important in that if it doesn't have
those free student rides within there and that could be a a big chunk of additional ridership within there. Yeah. A few years ago, we were concerned uh we had a lot of concerns about persons uh trying to get to and from work uh or to
grocery uh shopping, that kind of thing. Uh a lot of people were, you know, being hijacked by individuals that were giving them rides but charged at exorbitant rates, particularly those in uh uh who did not, you know, spoke, you know, didn't speak uh uh spoke different
languages and had language barriers and that kind of thing. So it was a real concern and to the point where different routes were added to accommodate many of those people uh in this during the county situation. So it's always been a challenge and that's why I'm saying who who who are the people riding so you can
kind of get a sense of who's really utilizing the services and and just how important it is to keep it uh viable for them. Yes, sir. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
All right. We have no developments of note. We have no minutes. We have no comments from the audience. We have no ordinances second reading. So, we are to the consent agenda. We've reviewed all of these, but
uh city manager, would you give us a brief overview? Uh certainly. Um you have uh five four items on your uh consent agenda this evening. Logistics Parkway Florida Department of Transportation grant
G2F94 is simply a grant extension to align the completion date of Logistics Parkway construction with the completion date that was established by Florida Commerce and their grant. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection State Revolving Fund loan amendment
number three is associated with a time extension on that one as well. And that is uh pertaining primarily to the Harmony Master Lift Station. Uh we reviewed at length the other night the Willoughbrook Golf Course improvement guaranteed maximum price for the
construction phase. Uh this is utilizing the funds that were received uh in the sale of easements to Duke Energy um in the prioritization of efforts that are underway at the golf course. Some of that work has already been completed such as the encourse restroom and they
have lined up the priority projects uh for the balance of that fund. Um and the intendee is a lease agreement with the learning resource center for use of the um city property on Avenue R northeast adjacent to Lake Ma. This is for the
operation of the PEP education center which learning resource center does on behalf of the Winter Haven Public Education Partnership. And those are your four items under consent. Sir, thank you commissioners. Mr. Mayor, yes. Motion to approve the
consent agenda as in its entirety as presented. Thank you. I will close the commission meeting, open the public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak to any item on the consent agenda may do so at this time. Seeing none, close the public hearing, reopen the city commission
meeting. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of the motion, let it be known by saying I. I poses by the same sign. Hearing none. The consent agenda is adopted. Resolution R2506, which you read by title only.
City attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Resolution R-25-06, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Winter Haven, Florida, approving a maintenance agreement number 136, between the city of Winter Haven and the state of Florida Department of Transportation, FDOT, regarding mowing, street sweeping,
maintenance of traffic and related matters as more specifically set forth in the agreement and authorizing the city manager and other appropriate city officials to execute the agreement on behalf of the city and providing for repeal of conflicting resolutions and the administrative correction of scrier's errors and providing an
effective date. Thank you. Thank you, city manager. Mayor and commissioner, since uh 2004, the city's contracted with FDOT for the maintenance of nine different sections of state highway that are located within the city. This work
is con is performed by our parks and recreation department as well as our public works department. Uh generally includes large machine mowing, intermediate mowing, litter removal, mechanical sweeping along 16.66 66 collective miles of state rights of way.
City is compensated annually for that work in the amount of $62,416. This is a three-year agreement renewal uh for a total value of $187,248 over that three-year period. Um staff is recommending the city
commission approve resolution R25-06 and agreement number B136 with the FDOT uh in the form attached to resolution 256 is exhibit Authorizing the city manager and others
appropriate city officials to execute the agreement and take all other necessary actions there too. And we're happy to answer any questions you may have sir. Thank you. Commissioners, entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor, yes. Motion to approve resolution R2506.
Thank you. I will close the commission meeting, open the public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak to R2506 may do so at this time. Seeing none, close the public hearing, reopen the commission meeting. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of the
motion, let it be known by saying I. I. Opposes by the same sign. Hearing none. Resolution R2506 is adopted. Resolution R26. Would you read by title only? City attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Resolution
R-25-26. A resolution approving that certain platin titled Lake Deer Town Homes for filing in accordance with chapter 177 Florida statutes with specific conditions providing for the administrative correction of scriven errors and establishing an affected date. The general location subdivision
is generally located east of 35th Street Northwest, north of Recker Highway and south of Lake Deer. Thank you. Thank you, city manager. Mayor and Commissioners, TBHG Incorporated is requesting final plat approval for the Lake Deer town home subdivision as
depicted on your screen. This is a 51.7 acre subdivision which contains 304 building lots and 10 common lots. The internal roadways are contained within 50 foot right subway and these will be dedicated to the city. All water and sewer utilities will be owned and
maintained by the city while all drainage conveyances and storm water management areas will be maintained by the homeowners association. A performance bond in the amount of 1,976,3237 has been submitted to the city to cover the cost of remaining infrastructure items to be completed
which include earthwork, sanitary sewer, potable water, storm water, uh paving and engineering certification. The Lake Deer town houses was developed according to the requirements contained in multif family residential lowdensity
R3 zoning district. Water service to the subdivision will be from the Winter Haven water system. Wastewater will be treated at wastewater treatment plant 3 and there is adequate capacities in these systems to serve the subdivision. Access to the subdivision will be from 35th Street Northwest. Uh, this is
maintained by Pulk County and has sufficient capacity to serve the subdivision upon buildout. Staff recommends the city commission approve resolution R-25-26. Thank you. Thank you, commissioners. Mr. Mayor, motion to
approve resolution R25-26. Thank you. I will close the commission meeting, open the public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak to resolution R2526 may do so at this time. Seeing none, close the uh public hearing, reopen the commission meeting.
Is there any discussion? All those in favor of the motion, let it be known by saying I. I. Poses by the same sign. Hearing none. Resolution R 2526 is adopted. We have uh ordinance first
reading. The second reading will be on June 9th. Ordinance 02518. Would you read by title only? City attorney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ordinance number 0-25-18. An ordinance amending ordinance number 0-24-44 appropriation of funds for
defaying the expenses of the municipal government of the city of Winter Haven for the fiscal year commencing October 1, 20124 provided for severability and the administrative correction of scrimmers errors and providing an effective date. Thank you. Thank you, city manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and
city commissioners. The city's fiscal policy requires an unassigned reserve fund balance of 17% of the general fund's budgeted operating expenditures. Per the fiscal policy, any unassigned fund balance in excess of 30% may be transferred to capital project fund to
defay costs and cover contingencies as recommended by the city manager and approved by the city commission. In fiscal year 24, the general fund operated with a surplus of $5.16 million, which increased the unassigned fund balance. the available balance to
$23,788,487. This unassigned fund balance or the unassigned fund balance at 30% of expenditures is 22 thou 22,354,190. The unassigned fund balance in excess of the 30% provides a surplus of $1,433,997.
staff is recommending that this uh amount be transferred to the construction fund and set aside for capital projects to be completed. Uh as you're aware, we are working on the design at present time of uh fire station number five. We took some of the
money from fire station 5 when we were in construction of fire station 4 to help cover the cost of that project. And so these dollars will be allocated towards the fire station 5 construction effort. Again, the financial impact is
that per the the policy, the current fiscal policy, the general fund will tr transfer a total of 1,433,997 to the capital project fund. Staff recommends the city commission approve ordinance 02518 approving said transfer to the
capital projects fund to supplement funding needs of fire station 5. This is a first reading and we're recommending it be advanced to second read. All right. Thank you. Thank you sir. All right. Second reading will be on June 9th. However, if there's anyone that would like to uh speak to this
particular ordinance, you may do so at this time. All right. We have one new business item. Is Miss Hill going to present this or are you I'll I'll present this um this evening. Sir, I do want to recognize Katrina Hill, our director of public
affairs and communications who helps shepherd our project for grant aid application review. I'd also like to recognize I see uh Mr. Santiago is in the audience who serves as the chair. I don't see any of our other board members here this evening. Um, but these are
individuals that you appointed and certainly Mr. Santiago can answer questions as need be. Um just kind of going back over a few points with this, we've had a number of discussions on grant aid over the past several months and it uh in one of your
recent meetings. We discussed your legacy applicants um to again to be the Boys and Girls Club of Pulk County, Girls Incorporated of Winter Haven, the Learning Resource Center of Pulk County, Meals on Wheels of Pulk County, Neighborhood Service Center, and the Haley Center. and you had established
set amounts that you would like to see those funded at. You had also recommended during that discussion that we increase the total amount available for awards for fiscal year 2526 to increase by 10%. That gave the
uh group a total of $347,761 to work with. We had 76 applications that were received through our advertisement and solicitation. All of those individuals who applied uh had to have completed one of our three trainings. All applications were
reviewed for sufficiency by staff. Where there were uh items that needed to be further addressed or were incomplete, we gave them an opportunity to do that. Uh all of the applications were provided to your grantate application review committee. That committee met on May 9th
to begin their deliberation and review of the applications. Um they completed their work on May 16th uh was their final deliberations on the applications and they made a motion to move the recommendations to the city commission
which passed unanimously. In your fact sheet you have a table that begins on page three of five that identifies all of the agencies who are recommended for funding. Again, the uh the legacy
agencies are noted in there at the higher amounts. Um there were a number of agencies that were not funded this year and that was after a thorough review by your your grant aid review committee. Um at the end of it all they rep uh their total recommendation
represents $347,761 which leaves a balance of $0 uh from the original budget that you had appropriated for their use in their deliberations. Um this does align with our strategic plan in the sense of uh
strategy 2.2.2 two, which is to identify a robust set of resources and partnerships to bring awareness to comprehensive wraparound services available to our citizens. The agencies that are applying for this um are very much in line with wraparound services of
all sorts. Uh they highlight a lot of the issues that have been identified by the Give Well Foundation and the United Way in their comprehensive assessment of Pulk County that was conducted two years ago. So staff's recommending the city commission accept the recommendation of
of the grant and aid application review committee with respect to the allocation of funds for qualified applicants for fiscal year 2526. I will say that we will include this is included in our initial budget deliberations that we're having uh via
my office at this time. Um my hope is that we're able to maintain that funding level at full. If for some reason that is not the case based upon some major shift in revenues or expenditures within the general fund, then we will come back to you with that
information. And I, myself, uh, Miss Hill and Mr. Santiago are certainly available to answer any questions you may have. All right, commissioners. Yeah, Mr. chair and uh just for the record um uh Commissioner Dles and
yourself will need to abstain from voting on this matter given the uh the First Missionary Baptist Church uh is a recipient proposed recipient of funds as you did last year. Yes. And the city clerk has given you the requisite a form
8B I believe to fill out file. It's been done. So, are we carving that one item out or they're not voting on the entire We're not voting. They're not voting on the entire thing. Okay. We can carve I mean, you It's up to you
all. However you want to do it. That's I don't I was just looking for clarity on that. So, last year we did it. Um we had a couple different motions last year. As you may recall, you had a motion that determined the $40,000 um indications or contributions, and
then you had a second motion that approved the recommended. You also had some leftover money last year that you had to make some decisions on the dispersement of that decision, which was what the first motion was last year, but then the second motion was to accept the
grant a application review committee's recommendation. Um, can I do we have do we want to have a motion first or discussion first? Um, probably that's probably appropriate to
have motion on the floor. Okay. Move to approve item 13A fiscal year 26 grant award recommendations. All right. Thank you. All right. Now we will enter into discussion. So, my question
is, and I'm just a little confused because I I I got some calls on this item, and I did some research on it, and I' I'm having trouble connecting all of the dots, but that is the the uh Lake
Mod Cemetery re revitalization project. and who actually so if you do a public record search and I didn't I don't have the information in front of me but there's a church that is the public is the owner of the
cemetery and there is this group that wants to do the work that's out there and I don't know that those two have ever connected it it didn't appear to me like that that those two entities we're we're connecting and have all of
the families that we can identify that have loved ones out there been notified of what's happening and what's going on? I I I I'm supportive of the project, but I just want to be sure that everyone is aware of what's going on because it's a
cemetery where loved ones are buried. And if people are not aware of what's happening, they may not be in favor of what's happening. Regardless of if we perceive it to be good or bad, I can share that the church does
not own the the property. is not there is no listing for anyone that owns property at the present time to my knowledge. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, this city manager that there is no no one who owns the cemetery at the present
time. Thank you, Commissioner Dawson. Um, this is an an effort that's been underway for a number of of years actually. uh Mayor Prom and I'll share with you what what I've come to learn through my involvement um in meeting
with members of the community. So Lake Mod Cemetery dates back into the early 1900s. That land was provided by Dr. Mary Jwitt. Um, it was designated as a
cemetery and within the original documents that laid it out, the internal roadways, alleys, pathways, um, were dedicated to the public. The individual plots within a
cemetery are sold to the family that owns the plot. At some point after the designation of that cemetery came about, an effort to by the county, Pulk County, to realign
First Street um or build First Street. And that impacted an existing cemetery that was located in that area. And many of those individuals that were interred in this separate cemetery were
re were disinterred and reinterred into the Lake Mott cemetery. The city did quite a bit of research into ownership and maintenance responsibilities under city manager Carl
Cheetum back in the late 80s and early 90s as the cemetery had fallen into disrepair. Since that time, the city has maintained the grounds of Lake Mod Cemetery. We do
not were not involved in any of the internments or any of the records associated with the cemetery. Those were all maintained by individuals within the community and to the best of my understanding through members of it was
handed down by church leaders over time that that's who was facilitating that transaction. Um since my time here when I first came back to Winter Haven in the early 2000s Christopher Darby maintained
a lot of those historical documents. uh Reverend Darby is no longer in the area. Those transferred to uh at least one, if not multiple other individuals over time. I understand that Mr. Robert Frasier now has those documents. He has
met with me on a number of occasions. he and members of um a group that is pursuing to more accurately document and record the information on the
individuals that have been interred there. The city's ownership of anything within that cemetery at this point is really in question because the only thing that would have been dedicated to the public back in the 1920s would have been the roadways and the alleys within the cemetery.
It's uncertain if bodies have been interred into those spaces. Um, the group that we have met with over the past year has engaged the University of South Florida that has a program that
specifically focuses on historic black African-American cemeteries where there is less documentation or um formal documents that really articulate how these came to be and and and how they're
laid out. They use ground penetrating radar and other scientific methodologies to really identify where are the internments and then cross referencing referencing that with as much historical documentation as they can find to
identify who's in who's in what space. Um and so they have been working with USF. USF has been to the property. um they have begun you know the initial work to do the GPR work on the
site and that's the extent of of what I can share at this point again the city has maintained this facility for at least I'm going to say probably the last 35 to 40 years in terms of landscape uh
there was a CDBG project that was done to create the fence line around the cemetery which had fallen into great disrepair in the late 90s. Um we have looked to see you know done as much research as we can to identify
ownership and I don't know if the city man or city attorney can recall our discussions on that but it is it is very unclear who has ownership of that. Um, but I do know that there is a a group of
residents that are working hard to to try and identify really what's who's there, where are they, and and protect that information uh for historical purposes and in perpetuity and and I appreciate them and
their efforts in doing that. Um, but my concern is that we're, you know, and we're not talking about a lot of money here, and I get that, but we're we're talking about a cemetery. And so, regardless of how much money you're you're suggesting to put at it, I just
want to make sure there's a clear chain here of what's happening. So, this money, is it going to go towards repairing headstones, repairing specific plots, or is it is it strictly
roadways, perimeters, and and ground scans? I'll uh I'll defer to Miss Hill on that because she's more familiar with the application. Commissioner, the past grants that have been given to this group have gone toward tombstone cleaning. Um, for this
particular project, it they anticipate it either going to further tombstone cleaning or also toward costs for things like the ground penetrating radar to try to identify unmarked graves. Okay. So, if I'm a family member who has someone
buried in that cemetery and I don't want anybody touching that tombstone, is there anybody reaching out to me to say, "Hey, this is what we want to do. Are you okay with it?" or are they just arbitrarily going through and saying this one looks
bad, we're gonna fix it? I can share that when a similar question came up at the committee meeting, they said that they're also working with a historian to try to find those committee member or those family members to reach. I believe um from that discussion that that's part of the challenge right now is there
aren't adequate records to necessarily know exactly who to contact in all those cases. I cannot speak to who they're contacting before they clean any specific headstones because that was not discussed at the committee level. There
was there was some cleaning that was done uh with some initial monies that they did have I guess in order to identify uh you know at least try to make some identification of the of the grave site. Little more history with regards to that too. 1909 is actually
when the uh original cemetery was uh on off of First Street in 1924 is when Miss Jw gave the property to uh turn the property over for uh what she called then a colored cemetery and uh the year
that we're not sure when the bodies were removed from the original site and placed in Lake M. I will tell you this historically founder of our church uh is actually buried in that cemetery probably was originally near uh in the
first cemetery. Uh historically, uh the challenge in throughout Florida and other places throughout the uh United States, African-American, uh cemeteries were kind of just a lot of people were buried on on personal property and now
some of them actually even been uh uh many ways desecrated because they built over top of them and then whether they're not sure the persons ever were removed from there. uh on Haven the effort was done. We're trying to actually ascertain now when when that was done by the city of Winter Haven and
when did city uh did the city have relative to that to uh to at least help us maybe identify that would be one way of identifying. Big challenge we have is that uh since 1924 like I said before those bodies from 1909 going forward a
lot of them were not identified. We have sent out information. Information has been uh sent to family members. Some have come out to identify tried to identify. A lot of them are not identifiable uh because either through time some of them are actually buried in
the ground where I think it's reported that probably even the foot of dirt would have to be brought up in order to get to maybe uh to be able to properly discover where some of the uh uh graves are. So, it's it's a it's a significant effort. It will ult
ultimately culminate the memorial that we hope that will be placed out there with the names of all the persons that that are there even though their their graves are no longer uh marked, but we know uh through some of the records that we do have that Mr. Frasier has. I've actually been involved with this
personally because uh Mr. Darby, uh Christopher, Pastor Darby, his father actually had the records before him. And uh so going back 30 years before they used to come out with a probe and to make sure they weren't trying to bury on top of somebody, you would stick the
probe down in the ground and some of the uh graves now where the roadways going in and there was a circle drive, I think, in there, the uh barrels have been actually put in some of those areas, too. So it's really complicated a little bit now in terms of trying to
identify it. That's why having uh the college uh university come over to assist will be really uh helpful. We have a lot of members in our community who do have loved ones there. I I'll give you an example. Mr. Frasier, his uh grandmother's buried there who he knew
very well. He was young when she passed away, but uh do he knows she's there, but not exactly sure where which where her grave is. Um so there are a lot of notables. Uh there are a lot of veterans
uh just past Memorial Day. Uh those that identified out there, we have flags on their graves uh to uh you know uh want to honor them. and uh again some of the uh early pioneers of of this area, African-American in particular that
actually settled Winter Haven in Winter Haven in Florence Villa. So, it's very important. It's very significant to a lot of us uh who uh live in the area and a lot of people that loved ones that are are uh through generations have been
buried there. I as a pastor, I've buried in that cemetery uh a few times. Uh right now I don't think there's probably many more uh because having claim or deed uh might be a little interesting at this point. So we're not really sure how
many more spots if any more would actually be buried in that cemetery. Uh so that's kind of a little bit of the where it is right now, what's going on. So they trying to really uh there's a significant group that's working on this. This not the first time that's been done. It was done several
years ago. Uh and so now it's really an effort to try to uh make this uh what it should be. Now here's the challenge we have because it's not by record there is not listed who the owner would be. So, that is a challenge for us because we we
want to make sure that whoever that is listed because we had someone who did go in and try to uh do an LLC or whatever tried to actually claim the cemetery and that was a concern because a person didn't have a right to necessarily do that. So, we're trying to legally John,
you know, figure out how we're going to, you know, kind of maneuver through that or how we would be able to set that up whether it would be through a church organization. Sorry. So, was that the Church of God? No. Uh, uh, uh, that was an individual.
Wasn't the Church of God. Are you familiar with who the Church of God Bible Way? Yes. I think Inc. is. So, they're the ones right now that have the LLC filed for Lake Mod Cemetery. Yes. So, are they involved with this group?
They're not. They are. They are. and they're not. Let me put it this way. There was conversation with them early on uh about it and uh and I think it was interest, but I'm not sure whether or not I haven't known that I would been hasn't
been made known to me that the persons are are directly involved with it now that are currently working with it because all the records are uh Mr. Frasier has pretty much all the records on it on the cemetery. The the church that you're speaking to does not have any information on it. it it was open in
in the uh you know as far as you could have went in there and done the same thing or I could have done that. So that was just a matter of you know filing because there's no name particularly attached to it. That's all that is. So all we're saying now is that we don't want it doesn't belong to any one person
or any one entity or group but it will have to have it'll have to be listed someplace and in some manner I guess and going in into the future. So we're not sure exactly how that will be. That's probably what they're also engaging legal services to figure that piece out.
I I will tell you whether it's relevant or not, but there is a statute 497.284 284, which talks about abandoned cemeteries and immunity of the city. And it allows that uh notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a municipality which has within its
jurisdiction an abandoned cemetery or a cemetery that has not been reasonably maintained for a period in excess of 6 months may take such action as is necessary and appropriate to provide for the maintenance and security of the cemetery. And that's what was done back in the Carl Chetum days. and put foot
put forward. And in lie of that, it says no county or municipality. It says further the solicitation of private funds and the expenditure of public funds for the purposes enumerated are hereby authorized provided that no action taken
by a county or municipality under this section establishes an ongoing obligation. So carves out a statutory exception for a municipality to help out in these scenarios and you can spend public monies for certain repairs and
maintenance which we've done. Well, I you can see where the confusion is. It is and very confusing. So, I I just feel like, and again, I'm fine with maintenance and and scanning and trying to figure out ownership and but I feel
like if if we're going to contribute funds for repairing or andor replacing or adding tombstones and if any portion of this, there should be written consent from a
family member that's allowing that to happen. And if there if there isn't any then there needs to be the process of this is what we've done to try to get that authorization it can't be done if you set that at 6 months or 12 months or
whatever and there's no reply and there's we're at that end then then there you've gone through that process proceed with what you need to do that that's that's my concern on this item and and I get it's Not a lot of
money, but we're dealing about graves and loved ones of family members. And in that case, a lot of descendants uh for a lot of people are there. For example, we we understand Dan Laramore, you heard that name before, was uh
considered to be one of the first African-Americans actually was brought to uh uh to Florenceville. He's buried there. His wife is buried there. There's actually a uh a tombstone with her name on it. And u so you know there there
there are not a lot of uh dis you know people that are here today or descendants of of those individuals that would be able to speak to that. So a lot of it becomes more of a historical of a historical nature and also just the fact of recognizing this this is a place
where a lot of people were laid to rest honoring that and respecting that itself. So that the memorial aspect of that piece is important for a lot of folks. You know uh like I said a lot of our early pioneers of our our church in the 1880s uh were buried there. Well
well they're buried there now because they were actually removed from from around near our church. Can we stipulate the funds to only to not be used on headstone repair or anything like if it's ground maintenance or
research and those sort of things. And if they want to come back to us for a new request for headstone repair and those things, then they need to come back with that request and have that process in place. And it may be that you
can't contact that. Maybe maybe there isn't. But I want to make sure that we've done our due diligence. Yeah. Especially with given the fact that we don't really know who owns the cemetery and you know Yeah. Some of it was just repairs because some of the uh the
vaults uh actually had holes in them and uh and I think uh to the credit of the church you were speaking to, I think he did send someone out and actually did fill in some of the holes on on the vaults that were, you know, just open. uh with holes in them and uh so to his credit, you know, he was doing that. So
there there's a concerted effort. I think there's no challenge there. I think ultimately going forward, you know, I don't know who's dying, who use that term, who really wants to own a cemetery, you know, but uh it's not something that we're particularly interested in doing
or anyone else. I don't know who really wants to do that. I mean I don't know what the upside of that is but there is an effort to say that you know many of our of our uh citizens and and people were laid to rest there and we want to you know one recognize that and maintain
that. Well I I think it at some degree falls upon if if no one else want that the city needs to own it if not to preserve the legacy and history of that of the community. But that's another conversation for another day.
So what I'm asking is can we can we put that restriction on these funds that they are used for maintenance and research and ground scanning and
not directly impacting a a a burial site and fixing or or repairing the tombstone without that family being acknowledged. Now again, like I said before, come back if you if you want to do that, fine. But give us what that process looks like
in reaching that that family. Is that Mayor Prom? I'm not being sarcastic or comical when I say this, but you as a commission can do whatever you want. I mean, if that's how you want to guide them on what they can use those dollars for, you certainly have the the
authority to do that. um you know that's that's a condition that you can impose upon anybody. So certainly you have the the the the right to do that um and we'll we'll convey that accordingly. I think the point you make is that it is
a small amount that that we're talking about here. What they're talking about doing is going to be uh costwise significant. Just cleaning the graves. That was just something that uh that was done for and there's not there's not an
abundance of them out there, but there's there's a few uh that that can be seen. I think trying to bring up some of those that are down in the dirt uh that we're trying to locate. Uh one of the uh pastors of our church is buried there. I saw it years ago and I can't find it
today and it's probably because it's underground. So just being able to they may have to just level like I said bring up some of the dirt. So there's plenty of work that they'll have to do. They're actually also uh looking for other grant opportunities as well because they know it's going to take a great deal of funds
in order to do that. Uh so this is just more of a you know something to assist or to help and maybe with the legal aspects of it. I mean I have no problem with them being you know specific to that. uh like you say something more to
those concerned versus cleaning a grave and and you know we don't want to disturb anything that any family member does not want done you know and uh we have reached out some of them have actually responded so that effort is going forward so that's a big part of that is is trying to contact as many
people as they can so is the commission okay with putting that limitation I want to ask a couple questions for but I'm okay with it I You know, I just want to ask a couple. I want to understand what we're talking about here. So, how first of all, and you might be the one to answer these questions. How many how
many people are actually how big is this place? Five acres, an acre. How big would you say? And how many people are in there? Uh I think there were supposed to be what about was it 700? I think 700. It's not that big of an of an area. Because there were plots in there for uh
babies as well. And uh then later they came back and and the plots were relatively small, but then they actually made them larger at one point. And uh like I said, they did bury in some of the areas that weren't there was supposed to be a roadway and a Circle Drive that was actually in there when
you see the original plans for it. Uh so it's about I guess it's probably about about an acre uh is the line up right now. Okay. So So the way I understand it and it's a great conversation, very fascinating and and it's an acre and a half. acre and a half and we don't know
who owns it because but we could potentially maybe determine that if we had some we have we looked at it in the again under the commission in the city management that was here in the late 80s early 90s
when this issue came up they did tremendous amount of research to try and find title to that land who owned that land to no avail. Um, we have have reviewed that effort just recently and
we're in no better position today than they were. Well, John, a what do you do, John, when you have a piece of land that you can't determine ownership? There's got to be something the courts can do because this is what I'm trying to get to. I'm trying to understand who owns the property, who's actually applying
for the money, do they have legal standing, or what kind of standing do the people that are applying for the money, and how do we fix this problem going forward? How do we figure out a way to find out? I mean, the city is clearly maintaining it, right? We're mowing the grass and doing all that. Are we applying for our money for ourselves
to keep mowing or what I'm trying to understand is the all the controlling interest here on on who who uh is applying for this money and if they have standing to do it and how do we clear up this ownership problem and maybe give it to Pastor Dson's church or this other
church that Brian's talking about so we can start collecting these records that apparently get kind of handed around to where nobody there's nobody really has them or they do and they're part of the public. I don't know. I'm I'm just trying to think of how we can fix this problem going forward. I'm not worried
so much about the money as I'm trying to figure out wouldn't this money be well spent to hire some lawyer that specializes in this to let's get this problem solved and come up with a plan on how to contact these people. They're they're meeting with an attorney. They
they're the committee the current committee. They are the ones that applied for money. The Florence Build Association. Well, yeah. I guess I don't know if they attaching their name to it or not. Are they actually specifically doing that? Um, so it's called the Villa Association. Yeah, they're meeting this week with an attorney community
association to deal job is to do strictly take care of the cemetery. Do they have other roles? Well, they're they're dealing with all the all the above that we're talking about here tonight, but they're also dealing with the legal aspect and they're meeting with an attorney this week who do specializes in this particular area.
there is a a legal arm of the legal community that can potentially solve this problem for us. That's great. And and because what happened in the 1920s, Miss JW, uh basically turned that property over to a to a committee or to a group of people then during that time
uh African-Americans uh when she actually because she did that twice, you know, she did it in 1909 and then 1924 when she purchased uh the other property. So uh she didn't intend to own it. she wanted to basically uh be, you know, give that to the community as as a
place to bury those who are of uh who were uh African-American. So, is the money I didn't read the application, so I apologize, but is the money to be used for strictly for legal proceedings to try to solve this problem, or is the
money to be used to repair headstones like Commissioner Yates is saying? Is the money to be used for repairing fences, cutting grass? Because apparently we're already cutting the grass. What What is What are the What is spec I feel like we need to be a specific about what we're going to use
the money and who's going to use it. May I read a statement from their application for you? Okay. So, it is the Florence Villa Community Association that applied for their Lake Mod Cemetery revitalization project. They describe it as Lake Cemetery is the oldest burial grounds for black citizens of Winter
Haven. FVCA is currently in the process of cleaning headstones, uncovering buried grave artifacts, as well as securing and organizing records. The Black Cemetery Network is committed to assisting us in identifying the location of unmarked remains, which we will
endeavor to identify. At a minimum, our goal is to mark all remains, including those unable to identify. We envision that residents of Winter Haven will be able to find the exact location of graves and those who have long passed.
That's how they've described um what they would like to do and their goals and objectives are they they talk more about um as visible from the before and after pictures attached to this application. Um it is easy to notice the drastically
visible difference in the before and after pictures of a couple clean headstones displayed for comparison. So, their past grants they've received from the city have been for they've cleaned headstones, but when they were here, they talked about the need to pay a historian and do ground penetrating
radar as well. So, I think they can, from what I have heard from them, they could use the funding however you all stipulate they need to use it should you agree to give them funding. You're using words like we and they. We as the committee that has no
experience whatsoever on on how to identify people that are buried, but they would actually hire the USF or UCF people to come in there and maybe help them with this or many of the people they're working with the Black Cemetery Network and the University of South
Florida. According to the application, they're they've actually already engaged them and Yes, sir. They've already been on site. And I will tell you uh commissioner that the the members of the committee have loved ones buried there. Okay. Most of them have have family members in that cemetery. And I know
this is a very emotional issue and I'm not emotionally involved because I I'm I don't have anybody out there. I'm just trying to understand we're using public money. I just want to make sure there's some accountability and if they're if there's a committee that's formed and they're they've got standing and they're going to do this
the right way, then that's great. Let's make sure that we support them. But long term, we got to get to the bottom of this. We got to figure out who this ownership is and get it transferred to a controlling interest like a church or somebody that can manage this going
forward because this problem's going to all do nothing but get worse. And and when people, you know, you might live in Michigan and know you have a great grandfather down here and if they come down here, they might get upset if you're disturbing their grave in some way without checking with them first. I
understand all the emotional side of this thing. So, I'd say we use the money for legal proceedings and ground radar and other things, but I don't know how much more I would do as far as Yeah. Beyond cleaning, there will be no other disturbing per se. There will
not be anything that other than a headstone that may be buried that will be brought up so you can actually see it or put it, you know, it proper. What does this brought up means? I don't know. Well, the the over time the headstone has sunk. Oh, the headston is all we're talking about, right? And so
we're trying you're trying you got to bring that bring it up bring it up so you can see so you can read the name. Yeah. Right. So that that would be one way of identifying who's actually in that plot. So you know but again those persons that are on the committee do they have a vested interest because their loved ones are actually buried in
there. So uh but that legal piece as you said perhaps will be answered when they meet with uh with their legal person this week and so hopefully they'll have some idea what that may look like. I I I can't imagine there being a problem. Um just to go back a ways when I worked
here and happened to be with cemeteries over cemeteries. Um there was a lot of disrepair because it had gone a long time and a lot of um I should say cracking in the ground and you could see cracks in the cement. It's it's um a
shallow graves and things. And so as time has they have gone down sunk because dead stones or the big flat I'm talking about uh coffins they were probably wood and you know and um so it
went down and that's why some of the the headstones are sinking and there's a lot of things that h you need to so they they um they asked the city to take it over and there were some reasons for that. Some of them were health because
everything's going down and there were cracks in the ground and things. So we the city did the city became involved in it and have been involved since then. So I think what we need to you know what is good is that eventually even if you
locate everybody you still have to mark it. And so it's still they're going to have markers. are going to have to be markers on it because you don't want to redo that. Most cemeteries are set up with funds for perpetuity to do that
maintenance and things, but when you inherit some of these older cemeteries, they don't have that. So that means that you spend money to get the you know for
perpetuity till it's um completed or till you know everything goes away I guess till the world goes away maybe um but that's that was part of the plan then was to get it back into um shape
and as you know now probably there's more some settlings in that so if it things need to moved up. We definitely somebody needs to take care of that. And I would say since the city's been involved with it for the I came in 96, so I know
that since then the city has taken care of it and a few years prior to that. The documentation goes back to 1989 was when this was first discussed with the commission. Um, and I just want to be clear on on something with respect to to
what we do there today. We mow and we clean the fence line. If trees come down during storms, we address that. We don't do anything with actual internments or headstones or
vaults or sinking crypts or anything of that nature. We don't touch anything with any of those internments as they have have occurred. That the issue with the who owns it is part of in
my opinion why the historical documentation is important because the the individual parcels are owned by the individual who purchased the parcel either for their own final resting place
or for that of a loved one. So if there's 700 plots there, there's 700 likely owners. The only thing that was vested to the public were the internal roadways
and alleys. And those were not to the city of Winter Haven. They were to the public. And it was signed for at that time by Pulk County. the likelihood of those roads and alleys existing
today or not have been without something having been interred a person being interred there is what we don't know. So any claim of ownership, I think the the challenge to the city of Winter Haven in that regard would be is there anything that the city
actually owns within it, which would be roads and alleys if they so exist. Everything else is owned by individuals who acquired those plots for internment of loved ones. So that's that was the issue that came
about in 1989 when um the city attorney at that time uh Bobby Faggers and and uh Bob Anteneello and that team looked at this. They could not you could not secure uh title insurance on on the
cemetery and they this went on for a long period of time. when they finally decide the only thing that the city can do in that regard is to maintain the landscape to prevent blight in in in conformance with in conform. 284. Well, is there last
question and then I'll shut up that the committee that's applying for the money on land that they don't own that the city doesn't own and we don't that owns is owned potentially by 700 families. Is there any controversy between any is there any are we stepping in any kind of
controversial thing over here between anybody on the committee one church versus another church one person versus another person one person wants some done one person not one done. Are we walking into some sort of controversy? You don't know that.
You if if one of those 700 families who's still around today finds out that you know maybe they want their tombs. I you don't know until you have the conversation with these people. And I I I would I would suggest that
this money go towards figuring out the ownership of this thing, the ground scans, and that's where it stops. And if they can find that out, then bring that back to the commission. And at that time, maybe the the the city of Winter
Haven takes ownership of the cemetery, sets up an account in perpetuity that takes care of that cemetery for generations to come, but we just don't know yet. Or if they're a local person like you, you you've named several local names and they still have family here.
They come and say, "Yeah, we want you to clean our tombstone and raise it up or whatever." Then then you've got you've gotten the permission and you go ahead and do it. then I don't think you have to come back to us for that, but if it's somebody in Michigan maybe, but I'm just trying to understand everybody's concern
here. Well, I I I think that if you don't pardon me for interrupting while I can still talk, um I think Mayor Pro Tim Yates has laid it out very nicely. And I think that you would like for the monies to be utilized for
investigatory activities that include but may not be limited to ground penetrating radar, dealing with uh grave sites with permission of the owners to the extent you can get it. That's great. And other investigatory efforts to try to
help determine issues pertaining to the overall well-being of the cemetery. Yeah. in furtherance of the established goals that the state has invested money in and has established. So, I think those are reasonable uh limitations that
can be placed on this particular uh request. Keep in mind, it's only $5,000. Uh not that that's not a lot of money. Next year it can be 10. Next year, you know, and I think the information that's gleaned from this effort should be reported back to the
commission. Um so, I think that's reasonable. um under the circumstances as I understand them and I would recommend that that be part of the motion. Um and Commissioner Mayor Promier's made the motion so he's I
would amend the motion to include the verbiage that John so eloquently put out there. Well, I work with the city clerk to get the minutes. The only the only only reservation I have is that none of the none of the committee persons are here
who could probably speak specifically to that situation. She read the you know what they request was and that but it would perhaps would have been a little helpful there because they will get a little more definitive about where they are currently in that process or what they're doing. uh I follow some of it
but I don't know all of it but there are some who who are working very uh deeply with this right now and can probably give a little more in depth as to what what where where where they are with the process and what their ultimate goals will be uh going forward again it was
stipulated in the in the writing and I think that was clear as well uh but right now I will tell you it's going to be quite expensive to do a lot the partnership with the university is really helpful because that will a lot of that will be incurred I I think someone's working on a PhD with regards
to uh this project and uh that that's going to be exciting and interesting to see how that goes forward. other communities that I've seen have dealt with this issue. And this is not a sadly it's more of a common thing uh than it is uncommon that uh some of them have
actually did a memorial where they actually had had names that they knew of uh actually placed on a memorial because right now many of the graves that are out there do not have any headstones at all. So they're totally unmarked. You can see outline of the grave. Some of
them we can't tell at all. Uh so that's that's there's not a lot of headstones to clean first of all. It's just a lot of uh that's why the the sonar or the uh you know being able to know if there's actually a uh something there in that in
that plot Mr. Fraser's records have that or would Mr. Uh he does but see the way the records are are designed well the records were that you know people bought uh the plots and we do have names listed there and uh there are a lot of names you know we got a lot of names that were
listed but some of them were purchased in other words you have like uh XYZ funeral home purchased like 10 even the city of Winter Haven had purchased some graves there too. because it was kind of interesting that uh there were different, you know, groups that bought them. A lot of people do that. They'll
go out and buy a plot, say they want to buy, you know, this section or whatever. And uh so their names listed as who who bought it, but whether or not who was put in it is what you don't know. I get it. My my hope is that this that these overlays and that
this $5,000 is the start of a seed to fix in this permanently within this generation so that the next generations there's a monument there. there we we know what has happened we or
to the best of our ability at that point because the guessing and not needs to come to a finality. Yeah. I think this this group is going to do that. I don't think they're their intent is to drag this on. They want to
basically get to uh uh a place where you know that can be realized that you just mentioned. And uh I think that's probably going to be done. I'm hopeful uh within the next year or so. Uh so at least you know I'm I'm involved with them. Um I've done interviews with them
recently. They did you know they're doing little uh thing for historical uh uh from the city and which is really nice too because this is part of what the culture center some of the aspects of like I said we got world war two uh
veterans there. Um like I said a lot of significant people that are buried that are buried in that cemetery. It's kind of hard to locate people when you get out four and five generations. So, yeah, people move away and they don't
One young lady came out. It was there is a there's a stone. It's actually laying on the ground, but it's in the shape of a cross. And uh and and someone found that and they actually had cleaned that stone and she realized that was her uh that was her great-g
grandandmother. So, which is, you know, amazing. All righty then. All right. Any more discussion? So, if I could just clarify, Mr. Mayor, the motion is Mr. Yates made. was for the recommendation of the grant a
application reviews committee with the caveat that the money allocated for the Lake Mod efforts, Lake Mod Cemetery efforts by the Florenceville Community Association only be used for investigatory and historical research efforts and cannot address any individual plots without the express
consent of the family. Yes. And and I think to the extent that it's $5,000, that's probably going to go very pretty quickly is my surmise based on some things I'm hearing. But I think there should be continued dialogue. Yeah. Keep
us informed. You know, this is we can't hear about it once in a year. If there's if they've hit big milestones and progress and they need help with something else, come tell us. It's a very worthy effort and I think very worthy. And I think that's something we got to get to the bottom of it. It's going to take some time, but we got to
get to the bottom of it. We really do. Well, it's I I will say that the group that I met with is that this group um very earnest uh very much engaged in wanting to better and you know, understand and respectful to the issues
you've identified clearly given the subject matter. So, I think I think we're all good here. Uh particularly based on what I heard Miss Hill read from the application. Uh it is too bad that there isn't someone here, but they can come back. Um this is not anything, no pun intended, set in stone. Um we're
not pulling we're we're not pulling this money away from we we just want to be respectful to right every site that's out there. Y Yep. Yeah. And that's their intent. Their intent is to do just that because I I think that's the real goal ultimately is to give honor and respect
to those who who who are interred there. That's good. All right. Are we ready to vote? Yes. All those in favor say I. I. Well, and Commissioner Dawson and and Mayor Mayor, you're both abstaining from voting on
this. So the recordes the record will unanimous three three votes. Yes. All right. City commission uh leison on reports. Commissioner Mercer.
Okay. Um I attended the Junior League celebration. This was the first time they've ever opened it up to the public. I guess it's always been a private celebration. Attended the Pope Vision Smart Communities meeting. um the public
safety complex station 4 um grand opening that was very we got to walk through the fire station and see everything very nice um on the public safety side and on the fire department side um girls inc she knows where she's
going uh awards banquet I guess we did that lunchon um the grand opening uh of the uh grand opening cere ceremony of the George Jenkins Memorial for the Boys and Girls Club. What a nice event that was.
I mean, as far as the new building is wonderful. Um, Main Street, uh, I attended the Main Street event after that and then the Winter Haven High School graduation at the RP funding center. And it's always good to look out
and see um, half to twothirds that graduate with honors. It's quite a bit. And I never knew that you could get 4.9 or 8 n and whatever percent. That was amazing. You only had
four uh 4.0 when I was going to high school. So now you can get way past that. So smart kids. Yep. That's it. That's it. Commissioner of Dancler. Uh Pulk State Girls, Inc. uh went to
that with I think three of us were there for that. Uh Ahack, we had a two-hour workshop and actually you know how these workshops are. I was telling somebody this morning, it was actually pretty good this time. Um we had a couple county commissioners on there and several commissioners from Highlands
County and we had some really good dialogue on that two-hour workshop. So went to Bubbles and Bites, walked around downtown and had some Bubbles and Bites. um Fairfax Financial Fire Station ribbon cutting. Very proud to have that place
finally open and uh congrats to fire chief and and u city manager and the crew for getting that up and running. Um spent two days at a Florida Municipal Insurance Trust National Convention. It actually happened to be over in
Clearwater this year. Um that probably I could talk about that, but I won't because we're running late here. uh Lake Conine ribbon cutting. I really am proud to see that place open up. I think I think that's going to be
extremely popular. I think we're going to start seeing more and more people out there. And I have a feeling there may come a time we might have to put up some lights there, but we'll see. Hopefully not. But um enjoyed uh seeing Lake Lake uh K9 Roman. Last but not least, I was
just going to mention to the commission, anybody listening, um I went to the comedy club, the downtown comedy club. I enjoy comedy clubs and I don't know if anybody's ever been to one been to the one that we have downtown, but it is really really good and there's like 80
seats in there and they had they've got some people coming in there like they had a I went to hear a guy named Bo Johnson who has a who had a Netflix special on. He was so funny and he you look on their wall and all these people that have been through there and JJ Walker and there's a lot of famous
people that have been in Winter Haven performing in that little comedy club. So, uh and they go like five nights a week. They have something going on. They have roast all the time. It's really funny. So, if you're into comedy clubs and having a good time and laughing and all that, it's not very expensive. support these guys because they've got a
real good thing going down there and they need us to help support them and buy tickets and spread the word because they're doing some good stuff down there. So, I'm doing my part talking about them right now. So, that's it for me. Commissioner, I've uh I would echo uh
Commissioner um Mercer. I've uh attended pretty much the same things. And so I don't want to go through all that list. Uh with one exception that was able to go to the new employee lunchon for a brief time. I was able to be there before we went to the high school graduation. Uh I do want to just simply
say today I was able to uh privileged today to be at the uh ribbon cutting for the Jersey Commons. And uh I want to say this uh and I said this to Commissioner Dancler uh brief, but I want to say it to the to the commission and and all of
you who are here. I want to thank you first of all for uh just few years ago uh I wasn't sitting up here. I was sitting out there and uh working with a group of people that uh were concerned about an issue
that was uh near and dear to many people's hearts and that was homelessness in our in our city, not only in our city but throughout our county and uh sought to really look at what can be done or should be done to
lessen that. you know, uh, people living outdoors and people living in those conditions. And, uh, the challenge was to challenge Lakeland to do 500 units in Winterh Haven to do 150
units. We met with uh, Commissioner Dansford, who was the mayor at the time, and I want to and I appreciate you for meeting with us. And I said to him that for some it may appear that we were pushy or we were somewhat uh eager. But
the reason for that is because we recognize that if it's your mother or your father or if you got an uncle or aunt or someone living outdoors unsafe uh in very difficult situations, you would understand the urgency of now. And
that issue was brought to the cities. Winter Haven did respond. Lakeland did respond exceeded the 500 units that were uh that we asked them to do as well as Winter Haven did meet the mark. And today being able to stand there and to
see a facility uh come online, 68 uh units, over 5,000 applicants, over 5,000 applicants, young people who are aging out of foster care.
Some of them will be moving into that facility and social services are available. Case workers will be right there. The new Publix which is literally, you know, blocks away is
going to be convenient to them. you know, to see that and to know that I saw the news today because they interviewed one of the ladies that she said, you know, her mom had passed away and she had been homeless for the last 6 months. You go into the apartment, the
apartments are affordable. They are also fully furnished down to the dishes and and it's not low-end stuff. you know, the uh trim work was is
excellently done. Uh Blue Sky, I I've got to take my hat off to them and many other partners who actually made this possible. But it underscores the fact that, you know, when we show concern and care about those who are on the margins, those who are suffering in our
community. Uh that's that's the heart of our city. That's what we're about. And I'm proud to be a part of that. And I want to thank each of you because you all partnered with us in trying to make uh this a reality. However, our work is not done because there are still many
more who need a place to live. So uh thank you again and I want you to know how much we appreciate it. May I prom uh highlight two things to attend to most of the things mentioned this evening but Lake K9 is absolutely
incredible uh great great project um long time overdue but it is a fantastic fantastic project Winter Haven High School graduation um f you don't realize 595 handshakes in a row But um
incredible kids, incredible students. What a year for Winter Haven High School. State championships um throughout multiple sports. Um just a just a great year for for Winter Haven High School. Um final thing is I want to
bring up an issue that was brought up to me. Uh and I'll forward this email to staff as well. Um, but I guess there's some issues down on the east side of Lake Howard around the dock. Um, you know, historically there a lot of homeless have been gathering there. I
thought we'd made a lot of headway there because I remember that was one of the stops we made when I did my ride along with the police department. Um, and saw a lot of of individuals uh moved on from from what they were
doing. But apparently there's a lot of trash down there. A lot of um there's clothes hanging on drying on the ropes and on the dock bars and just a lot of nastiness down there around the dock. Um
someone went there earlier today I think for some family photo sessions and it just was not a great experience um that we want that area to be. So please share those if you'll send them to me. Um, just so you know, we uh, Chief Monroe
and I have had conversations specifically on that area and some of the uh, areas around there that we're targeting where we've seen uh, some some behavior and some activity that is not consistent with how those spaces are intended to be used. So, appreciate you
sharing that with me. That's it. Well, I have 11 items and I'm not going to go through each one of them. I'm going just go
fast. The EDC board meeting, Winter Haven graduation, the uh Lake Conine Park, Jersey Commons, PRWC. I will stop on one. I really
enjoyed doing the memorial day proclamation uh at a assisted living facility. uh public safety fire station, Girls Inc., the Boys
Club, and uh one final thing, I was uh presented a resolution on the homegoing service for Cindy Price. And that's it for me. City Attorney, thank you, Mr. Mayor,
Commissioner. I'm nothing more this evening. Thanks, city manager. Mayor and commissioners, I feel like I'm letting you down this week because we don't have a grand opening or a dedication of a facility as you've had over the past two weeks. I do want to appreciate your your comments on station 4 and on Lake
Conine. I will however share with you that um as of tomorrow, the city of Winter Haven will be the owner of a little over four additional acres of land as we have signed this evening before this meeting all the documents necessary for the closing on Logistics
Parkway. So that uh gives us the capacity to move forward with getting that project completed. Um something we've been working on since those grant dollars were first awarded. So I just want to thank city attorney's office uh and our utilities department, public
works department for their efforts on that. Final point is uh beginning tomorrow through Saturday morning, myself, Mr. Carnival and um Miss Hill will be attending the Florida City County Management Association
conference. Um during my absence, uh Chief Monroe will be available as the emergency point of contact for anything that comes up. I'm only about an hour away if you need to come back, but uh Vance will be available for you as need be. Uh and certainly you can reach out
to my office as well as need be. Thank you. Deputy City Manager. Nothing this evening, sir. Thank you. City clerk. Nothing this evening. Deputy city clerk. Emergency man is not received for the agenda. Motion to
adjoin. We stand joint.