evening. I'd like to call to order the regular city commission meeting for this the 24th day of November 2025 at 6:00 p.m. Can I get a roll call, please? >> Yes, sir. Commissioner Dison >> here. Commissioner Mercer who is not
present present this evening. Commissioner Dansler here. >> Mayor Prom Yates >> here. >> And Mayor BSong >> here. >> We will have an invocation by Pastor Tim Clark of the Winter Haven Worship Center. We be led in the pledge of allegiance by Vanessa Castillo, MMC city
clerk. Please stand if able. Pleased to be here tonight. Let's pray together. Lord, tonight we thank you for your word. And your word says, "Oh, give thanks unto the Lord because you are so good." Lord, in this season, in this week, Lord, of thanksgiving, in this city, we have so much to be thankful
for, Lord. We're thankful that we have a great place to live. We thank you, Lord, for all the employees of the city of Winter Haven who make our city so great. Lord, we thank you for all of our first responders, the police department, the the fire department, all of those who
work so diligently to create a safe space for all of us to live in. And Lord, we're thankful for these commissioners. Lord, we thank you for wisdom and insight, Lord, to lead our city in the way that they should go. Lord, we thank you for the progress that we're making. And Lord, we thank you
that in every situation, even the things that they're dealing with tonight, Lord, they have supernatural wisdom to be able to govern and to make the great decisions that we know they will to keep us in an incredible city. Lord, we're thankful for your blessing upon our city. We're thankful for the privilege
to have the freedom we do to assemble together. We pray all these things in your hand upon each commissioner, each employer of the city in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. >> To the flag of the United States of
America and to the stands one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay, commissioners. We have no presentations, no developments of note,
uh no minutes, comments from the audience. The first one is um Ann Beth And what we'll do, we will call you up when we are dealing
with that particular item on the agenda. Um, David Barry, you didn't put what you wanted to speak in reference to. >> I'm sorry. >> All right. So we'll take you off. And so
that leave you Dan. Come forward. State your name and address for the record. We give you five minutes. >> My name is Dan Chesnik. I live at 861 Oleander Drive in Winter Haven. I just want to take a couple of minutes. Um you the city commission have charged us
theater Winter Haven with uh managing the Ritz theater and I just wanted to give a quick update on how things are going over there and um and it's going well. Um each week we are bringing in about 700 people to the various events that we have down there
at the Ritz between the shows that we produce and also the shows that we are producing for others like the Symphony Guild. We did a fundraiser for State of the City. So each week we're bringing about 700 people down there. Our tribute Tuesdays are going great. We had the Beatles there last week, a tribute to
the Beatles. Um, and we will have Elvis coming in after our Thanksgiving break. We had to add a second show to accommodate the demand for that. So there'll be over 600 people downtown that evening. Um, our vaudeville nights are going well. We'll have the Rat Pack
coming in for their holiday celebration in a couple of weeks. And each Thursday we're doing nitro bingo which is averaging over a hundred people per night that we do that. As we roll into December we will be adding or in January we'll be adding our first Friday events
that we're partnering with Destroyer Media on. And in December we will be layering in our Friday night date nights. Um we've been working closely with the city on this. Um, Friday night date nights are where we will provide child care at the Ritz in the lounge for
two hours before a show so they can go out and have dinner and enjoy the town, come back, see the show, and then pick up their kids at the end. But, um, at the city's request, it's not tied to any particular show. So, people can drop their kids off there and just enjoy the
town, come on back, pick up their kids, and go. It's only going to be $15 per head um to do that for people to enjoy the whole evening out on in Winter Haven. Um also, we're going to be layering in our Smart Mile Saturdays and
our game nights on Saturdays and um we're going to be layering in our Sunday fundays as we come into the new year. So, at that point, we'll be much much closer to providing that entertainment that we've been trying to do six days a week at the Ritz and trying to bring people down every single night for some
reason in there. A couple of things I'm really excited about too are we held a meeting with all of the downtown restaurants um and we are working together with many of them who expressed interest on creating dinner and show packages so they can enjoy an evening out on the town as part of a package
with the show. and we are working with downtown residences to have our shows as part of their whole amenities package. So, we're really doing a whole lot of work and trying to link up with all of the downtown uh entities and we're really trying to
do a lot of programming down there to get as many people in as we possibly can. That's my update. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh ordinance is uh second reading ordinance 02530 would you read by title only city attorney.
>> Thank you Mr. Mayor. Ordinance number 0-25-30, an ordinance amending ordinance 23-25, the 2035 Winter Haven comprehensive plan 2035 future land use map series by revising the future land use map series by assigning neighborhood support
featured land use to one annex parcel. Repealing all ordinances in conflict here with providing for the administrative correction of scrier's errors, providing for separability and providing an effective date. General location, a parcel generally located at the north southwest corner of the intersection of 8th Street Northwest, US
Highway 17 and Avenue X Northwest. The area covered by this request is 0.34 plus or minus acres. Thank you. >> Thank you, city manager. Would you give us a overview? We've heard it three times now. >> Yes, sir. in uh brevity. Um this is as
the city attorney said is a land use change to assign neighborhood support future land use. This property was annexed into the city on July 28th of this year. Petitioner intends to develop the property with a 3600 square foot
adult daycare center. Uh nothing has changed since first reading. Uh, planning commission heard this October 7th, 2025 and voted to recommend approval of the request with one member of the public speaking about concerns about access and traffic. Staff
recommends commission approve ordinance 02530 on second and final hearing. >> Thank you commissioners. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. >> Motion to approve ordinance 0-25-30 on second reading. >> Thank you. I will close the commission
meeting, open the public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak to old 2530 may do so at this time. Seeing none, close public hearing. We open the commission meeting. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I.
>> I. Opposes by the same sign. Hearing none. 02530 is adopted. 02531. Would you read by title only city attorney? >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ordinance number- 255-31, an ordinance amending chapter 21 of the code of ordinances of the city of Winter Haven, Florida by assigning
commercial highway C3 zoning district to an annex parcel, repealing all ordinances in conflict here with, providing for the administrative correction of scriveners errors, providing for severability, and providing an effective date. General location, a parcel generally located at the southwest corner of the intersection of 8th Street Northwest US Highway 17
and Avenue X Northwest. The area covered by this request is 0.34 plus or minus acres. Thank you. >> Thank you, city manager. >> Mayor, commissioners, this is a companion ordinance to O2530. This particular ordinance 2531 pertains to the zoning
>> on the same piece of property. Staff recommends city commission approve uh this on second and final hearing. >> Thank you, commissioners. Mr. Mayor, >> yes. >> Motion to approve ordinance 0-25-31 on second reading. >> Thank you. I will close the commission
meeting. Open public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak to 02531 may do so at this time. Seeing none, close the public hearing. Reopen commission meeting. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I opposes by the same sign. Hearing
none. O231 is adopted. O232. Would you read by title only? City attorney. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ordinance number 0-25-32, an ordinance amending ordinance 23-25, the 2035 Winter Comprehensive Plan 2035
future land use map series by revising the future land use map series by assigning institutional future land use to one annex parcel. Repealing all ordinances in conflict here with providing for the administrative correction of scriveners errors, providing for severability, and providing an affected date. General
location 500 4th Street East Wanita. The area covered by this request is 13.89 89 plus or minus acres. Thank you. >> Thank you, city manager. >> Mayor and commissioners, this is a request by the city regarding a parcel that we acquired and annexed into the
city July 28th, 2025. Uh this is property was acquired for use by the water department, which as you can see from the image, wastewater treatment plant 3 is due east of this property, and the parcel in between the two is also owned by the city. Um, this was
heard by the planning commission October 7th during their regular meeting and voted uh to recommend approval of this request. There were no members of the public that spoke. Staff recommends city commission approve ordinance 02532 on second and final reading. Thank you.
>> Thank you commissioners. >> Mayor, >> yes. >> Motion to approve ordinance 0-25-32 on second reading. >> Thank you. I'll close the commission meeting of the public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak to 2532 may do so at
this time. Seeing none, close the public hearing. We open the commission meeting. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposes by the same sign. Hearing none. O232 is adopted. O 2533 which read by title
only. City attorney. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. Ordinance number- 255-33, an ordinance amending chapter 21 of the code of ordinances of the city of Winter Haven, Florida by assigning public institutional PI zoning district to an annex parcel, repealing all ordinances in conflict here with providing for the administrative
correction of scrier's errors, providing for severability and providing an effective date. General location 5004th Street East, Wanita. The area covered by this request is 13.89 plus or minus acres. Thank you. >> Thank you, city manager. Mayor
Commissioners, ordinance 02533 is a companion ordinance to accompany O2532, which you just heard and voted on. This pertains to the zoning on the same piece of property. Staff recommends city commission approve ordinance 02533 on
second and final hearing. >> Thank you, commissioners. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. >> Motion to approve ordinance 0-25-33 on second reading. >> Thank you. I'll close the commission meeting. Open the uh public hearing and
one wishing to speak to 02533 may come forth 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 poses by the same sign. Hearing none.
O233 is adopted. O234. Would you read by title only city attorney? >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ordinance number 0-25-34 and ordinance amending ordinance 23-25 the 2035 Winter Haven comprehensive plan by revising the future land use map series by amending the future land use
on a portion of a city-owned parcel from neighborhood suburban and neighborhood support future land uses to institutional future land use repealing all ordinances in conflict with providing for the administrative correction of scrier's errors and providing an effective date general location. The subject area is generally located on the east side of Buckeye Loop
Road, approximately 1,100 ft south of Oakurst Drive. The area covered by this request is 10.25 plus or minus acres. Thank you. >> Thank you, city manager. >> Mayor and commissioners, ordinance 02534 is a request by the city of Winterhaven as the petitioner is the attorney has
stated to change the land use from neighborhood suburban and neighborhood support future land uses to institutional future land use. Uh this is property that was purchased by the city. It's part of a 370 plus or minus acre purchase that was completed in December of 2023.
Water department proposes to develop their uh permanent administrative office building, warehousing, and associated parking on this 10.25 acre campus. This was heard by the planning commission October 7th, 2025. They voted
to recommend approval of these requests. No members of the public spoke during that meeting. Staff recommends city commission approve ordinance 02534 on second and final hearing. Nothing has changed since your first hearing on this. >> Thank you, commissioners.
>> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. >> Motion to approve ordinance 0-25-34 on second reading. >> Thank you. I will close the commission meeting, open the public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak to this particular ordinance may come forth. State your
name and address for the record. Have five minutes. >> Good evening everybody. Uh my name is Dwyn. I live at 1475 Buckeye Loop Road. If you look at this diagram here is the house right there directly across the street. Um I'm also uh part of Ahack.
I've been on the board for for two years here. And just a little bit about my background. I do have a real estate uh background with development as well. Uh my concern is having this site here in a residential area. Um it's going to negatively impact not only the property
values. It's going to create more noise, but also the traffic. I've lived at this house for 10 years. I never had any plans to move. And I've seen traffic grow tremendously over the last 10 years. At certain times of the day, it's
hard to pull out. If you have a trailer, it makes it even way more difficult. Um, I just really ask you guys really consider the impact and the future impact of the residents around this site. Um, and vote no or table this and
actually educate us on why this this site is what you guys need for your project. I feel like Winter Haven has a lot of property or can acquire different properties to where it might better suit something like this. And I don't know what, you know, I just don't feel like this is the right spot. You know, when
you look at a development, it's usually conforms with the area. I don't feel like this is conforming with the local area. >> That's all I'd say. >> All right. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to
speak to this ordinance? Come forward. State your name and address for the record. And you have five minutes. Okay. I live at 1491 Buckeye Loop Road. Um, >> your name? >> My name is uh Patricia Glasscock.
>> Thank you. >> And we are right across the street from uh everything that they're putting in now. It's lots of noise. We uh my husband and I came to the meeting on October 7th and uh none of this was told
to us. We didn't get up and speak because we had no idea what was going on there. We were just told that it was the water department and administrative uh buildings and the warehouse. Um we my husband has um looked into it more and
found that there are trucks coming in. We I don't know how many a day. We'd like to know that uh they're bringing in uh a million gallons of water a day which is going to be injected into the ground. And our
concern is that we have well water and our septic system and there's um and we want to know how that will affect it. There's an orange grove that's beside where they're building
now. And they put in a big well before they uh planted the orange grove and that affected our water. There was lots of smell, lots of dirt, lots of um iron and other things in it. Uh we had to put
in a new well and which was very expensive. And since I don't know how long ago that was, but since then we've had to have people out I don't know how many times um to try to get the water
back to normal. And it's uh we spent thousands and thousands of dollars, not only us, but our neighbors, too. And so uh we I'd also like to address the um the noise coming in. if we have big
trucks that are coming in and out, I'd like to know how many and also uh having the sound barrier was um addressed before and y'all decided that they didn't need a sound barrier. Well,
since then, I don't know what's going on, but um the city or somebody has come by and cut down all the trees in our front yard. every house along across the street, the trees are gone. And so now
the traffic is very loud. Not only that, the people come by with their boom boxes late at night and it already shook our house before, but now I mean it shook the windows and now it just seems like it's shaking the whole house if car
comes along at 3:00 in the morning and it wakes us from over a mile away in each direction. And um we don't even know what's going on there. Is there a turn lane being put in so that trucks can come in? Um that wasn't addressed
before and we still don't know what that is. I'd like to hear about that too. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else? All right, I will close the public
hearing and reopen the commission meeting. Is there any discussion? >> Mr. Mayor? >> Yes. >> I had a couple questions. Um, I've been communicating with Mr. Dwyn back in the back and I want to ask him a couple of questions. Um, have you have
you seen the configuration? Would you mind coming up? I just want to ask you a couple questions because you brought some concerns to me already. I just want to see have you seen the configuration of what they're talking about doing out there about where the buildings would go and that right there. Have you seen that? >> I've seen I mean it's massive. >> Pardon?
>> It's not a small building. It's it's it's fairly large. >> And your house is right directly across from the parking lot. I guess >> the one right there with the pool. >> Okay. So, this was explained to me the other night that this is like a level would you call it, Eric? A level three or C type
development is going to require a certain amount of landscaping and burming or something. Could you explain that to the people please? >> Only that it would require a type C buffer. >> Type-C buffer. That's what it is. >> Yeah. Which is a which is a standard buffer um for uh separation between residential and commercial type uses.
Um, however, I would note as I as I mentioned in um agenda review, the buildings being set back as far as they are um and as well as the parking, there's significant area to enhance or increase that buffer yard. Certainly,
>> how do we how would we make sure that's part of this deal? Because I understand where these where these two are talking. Yeah, it's a it's a city project, so it would just have to be budgeted for and shown on the site plan when the site plan is the final site plan is developed for the site.
>> Would that include things like burning potentially uh for I don't know how to enhance how to stop the sound from going on everybody's property, but I I can understand how to maybe improve the site and what it looks like. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, being a city project, we could we could do a burm if
we wanted to. Um, we could do, you know, tree buffer yards, um, whatever it is we feel appropriate to, um, to buffer the >> And this is a project that the water department's doing, right? So, this would be Gary and his crew. Have they looked at other locations and sites? And
I know that the land we bought, there's not that much highland or tell me how we came up with this particular location or >> I would have to defer on to Gary or to Michael on that one. >> Gary, can you come to the podium, please? Mr. Mayor, I will say that or
Commissioner Dancer, this is the upland portion of the 370 acres that were acquired, right? >> As you know, the balance of this site is to be uh wetland restoration, nature park, um uh aquifer recharge, uh and and
the the delivery of water into that system is through infrastructural piping. It's not trucked in or anything to that effect. It is in fact there's utility work that is occurring at present time to get utilities out to this site. But I'll let Mr. Hubard speak
to um use of the property for this particular purpose. >> Gary, before you start to you talk about the piping going out there, the lady that talked about her well, would she now have access to city water if she were to choose that? I'm Gary's nodding his head. That certainly that that gives you access.
Also, the the tree work that was mentioned out there, that's not associated with with work that that we're doing. That very well could be um some of the hardening work that uh the electric utility in that area would be doing. I believe that would be TCO along that corridor.
>> Okay. So, go ahead Gary. >> Thank you, sir. Manor, manager. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, good evening, Mr. Mayors, commissioners. So, the question is, you know, how did we arrive at this site, you know, for development? And I'll tell you, it was a very long
process. We looked at a number of parcels. Um, we specifically were looking the Dundee Road area because it's kind of the center of our service area. Um, our service area is about twice the size of the city limits itself.
um when we actually were negotiating uh other parcels and were not successful and in the summer of 23 began discussions with uh the owners of the Bradco Farms property and we were able
to come to a a reasonable solution to purchase that property which would include the development of a nature park with wetland restoration aquifer recharge So the benefits of the pro of the
project were farreaching beyond just the utility complex. So with a with a nature park such that will this complex will back up to supports the onewater uh efforts that we have been undertaking
for years and years. And this is actually the first project associated with the sapphire necklace. That's kind of how we arrived at this particular location. >> Well, do you have other locations that doesn't affect these homeowners that could be high and dry? I know I know the
the high and dry land is pretty is pretty much a premium of the Bradco property because it was all wet if memory serves. >> Yeah, we we don't have any other parcels that would meet this need >> other than this. >> That's correct.
>> So, um the The nice lady talked about u injection into the water table too. Is that going to be so deep that it would not affect her well or could it potentially affect her water supply? And if so, would we offer her some sort of an option to tie
into the city water? >> So definitely she'll be able to tie into the city water. Um I can't tell you whether it would affect her well or not, not knowing the details of her well, how deep it is. Uh we will be recharging the upper Florida and aquifer, but we will
be recharging with water that's drinking water acceptable. So should be a positive impact if anything else. >> Do you do you have do do you have a way of verifying if somebody's water has been affected by some of our activities that we could potentially,
you know, make amends on that? If I is that is that something prove or not prove it's word of mouth, hearsay, whatever. uh would be hearsay the without doing some detailed testing on their well to know the depth and all the details
associated with the drilling of that well there be hard to uh >> okay >> determine whether our efforts would would impact their well but as I said the recharge of the upper Florida aquifer would would be with water that's meeting drinking water quality approved
by the state so if there were any impacts it should be positive Right. >> And Commissioner Dans, I just add we're not doing any water withdrawal on this site. It is all it is all aquafer recharge. Typically, when you see
impacts with adjacent property wells, it would be tied more so if you're pulling more water out of the out of the aquifer in that general area. And that is um complete opposite of what we're doing here. And the water that is to supply
the development on this upland is um potable water from the city's water supply that will be infrastructurally piped to it. >> Eric, you told me that this building is roughly 300 feet from the hard road. Is that right? Or do you remember exactly what
>> Sure. It varies between, you know, that that very front building, the truck shelter, I'd say, is is probably 85 to 90 feet from the road right away. And then as you go all the way back to the rear, it's it's 300 plus.
>> And I guess what I'm trying to tell Mr. Win is there's going to be an enhanced effort to do more landscaping out there. I know it doesn't m doesn't mitigate what you're feeling your damages would be, but I feel like we gota I don't know what I don't know
what to think. Um, but do you have a well? Uh, >> you have a well? That's okay. Okay, that's all I've got. Mr. Mayor, have >> a couple questions. Um, so we talked
about at at agenda review how many customers the current office is utilizing or or sees a day and it's like a hundred customers a day. The hours of operation for that existing water office areas was that 9 to5 or
>> no it's um on Mondays I want to say Garrett you I'm trying to think what it is. I know it's reduced to 10 to three on >> 10 to three >> 10 10 to 3 Tuesday through Friday and um Mondays we we certainly start earlier to accommodate you know morning traffic. Um
but the uh you know we're still going to maintain a presence like this wouldn't be the only location for a payment. Um and we're seeing more and more activity switch to our online portals for that staff that report to this site. uh vast
majority I'd say probably 95 plus percent of staff it is um coming in because it's a water utility operation uh pre7 a.m. and they are out 3:30 most of them uh 4:30 all of them. So it it
takes the traffic that would be associated with this site uh to off peak times. >> And so just just I guess in in my decision- making and how I'm thinking about it is even if like if all the customers just started coming to this
location, those customers are going to be coming midm morning to early afternoon. So that's your influx of traffic times there. Won't be when everybody's coming home from work. It won't be when everybody's leaving from work. >> Correct. >> Um
and then it does seem to me I mean the way that the city of Winterhaven limits are set. This is a more centralized location in the in the grand scheme of things of of of
how the city limits are drawn out and our our crazy lines that we have here. Um we don't work in a perfect rectangle box. We have we have lines going all over the place. So it does seem like you get southeast Winter Haven, northwest Winter Haven. Everybody's going to have
kind of the same commute to get there. Um, outside of the customer base, you you'd mentioned we could see workers arriving there as early as 7 a.m. or or they'd be arriving earlier and leaving
>> earlier earlier than that because they're their shifts are basically starting at 7 a.m. time frame. >> And that would consist of essentially them getting out of their car, clocking in, going to get into the water truck,
and then exit. or are they moving heavy machinery? Are they are they running forklifts? Are they creating a lot of noise during that time of arrival and also their time of leaving? >> So most of the activities would be them
coming to work in the morning and getting their shift assignments then leaving. There would be some forklift activity but primarily related to the warehouse within the warehouse itself. So there would be of course some deliveries to the warehouse uh from time
to time >> but the main flux of noise would be contrated inside of the building. >> That is correct. Gotcha. >> Um okay. And so in this approval we wouldn't seek to create that landscaping
buffer to be larger. This this is just a an approval of of use and >> land use and and and subsequently zoning >> and and zoning. So at what point would the the landscaping discussion come in for approval? >> So the the actual site plan and design
doesn't come back to the city commission for an approval on that. Um certainly at the commission's request, we can bring that forformational purposes. I think it's very clear to us what what you're saying is how do we enhance the frontage on Buckeye Loop Road to minimize that. I
would also say that we've just brought on um the engineering team that will do the design criteria package for this. I don't remember who was the liaison to that. It may have been Commissioner Mercer. Um but based upon comments from
residents this evening and what we're hearing from the commission, you know, making every effort to push buildings as far back in as possible and to enhance that frontage to minimize any noise or
visibility. Um, you know, when this when this facility closes at the end of the day, it closes, you know, at 4:30, uh, you know, probably last person out the door no later than 5:00. Um, then it's shut down until the next day, including
weekends. Now, you'll have staff that report back here for emergency call outs in the middle of the night and such, but, you know, those are all things that we can guide with the uh, design criteria team. And the ultimate uh I think we're doing this as a design build
to um make sure that those are factors based upon what what I'm hearing from the commission this evening. >> Okay. And Eric, you said it was a level three buffer or >> type C type. >> Type C is what the code requires. We can always do more.
>> Okay. And so what are there is there a type D, a type E? I mean like >> I think it goes A through F. I believe I'd have to get with Sean Buyers to get the exact. >> And so this type C buffer, if you went to a
Dbuffer, how much more what what I mean, I'm trying to get an understanding of from buffer to buffer, how much more or less you would see. Um I don't have those details with me exactly what I know a type C requires one overstory tree one understory tree and I believe
it's 10 shrubs for every 100 ft of frontage. >> So Mayor Prom again just going back to what Mr. Lavy said that's the minimum so we can do whatever is deemed appropriate in there. Um, I'd mentioned during
agenda review in response to these concerns, burming that area to build it up to a, you know, a suitable height that creates a noise barrier, uh, the planting of of overstory trees in there. Certainly, you know, you're going to
space those to ensure the longevity and the sustainability of those trees. You're not going to put oak trees within 10 feet of each other. You're going to space those out. But what you put is understory and is additional landscape in there creates any type of sound
barrier um that would be be warranted. We've done that in the past when uh the old Chain Lakes project was first built. It had significant burming along the entire US7 corridor that was heavily landscaped. So very similar. And the
last point that I'll make is um with a with a side question to it is we already own this land. It's it was purchased through the the Braco Farms acquisition. Gary, you said you tried efforts in
trying to obtain additional parcels or different diff you know more land in for a new location. I'm guessing nothing was below a million2 million dollars in any of those discussions. >> No, they were not. >> So, we'd have to buy additional land and
and spend millions of dollars just for the dirt and then move forward with the project. And this project, it's a necessary project for a city that our size. >> Yeah, we looked at at least two or three other sites on Dundy Road to try to locate this project.
>> Thank you. I forgot one other question about the road. Is that a county road out there? Is is is that a or is or is that a city road? >> County road. >> So, if you guys want to do ingress and egress like like the lady asked about like turning lanes and the traffic and all that. Is that a county concern or
can we because I I'm concerned about this cutting on and off of that road with all the traffic or we're not going to have some sort of >> We envision that they'll be uh turning lanes both uh north and south. >> County will have to approve that. >> Yes, sir. Do we have we had discussions
with them or is that going to be a problem or can you think of any problems with that Eric or >> I don't think there will be any issues. I we will have to get a driveway connection permit from the county and they will review our site plan at that time when we apply for the driveway connection permit and they will make us
do improvements. Well, clearly I won't be here when you guys approve when you said we'd have to approve the landscaping plan, but I encourage you to go to like level F and put put a thousand trees out. You know, me and trees. I want to see as many trees and as many buffers as we can, but
um I I tend to concur with you, Brian. There's there's no place else. I mean, we've tried to put it someplace else. And I don't know where else we can put it. And it is important. And uh I just feel bad for the residents out there that are going to have to live with this, but stick with us for a while and let us try to mitigate as much as we can
and see what happens. And then, you know, I don't know what else to say other than that. So, >> mayor and commissioners, one thing just to point out our our protocol for projects, and this is certainly in the in the we've just brought on Deubberry as the engineer for the design criteria
package. Um, as an example, last Monday we held a meeting off of Lake Cartridge with residents out there as we're working through the design package for fire station 5. That that's the approach that we're doing with all projects. This will be no different of bringing on um
that engineering team and working with residents to make sure that they're involved in that process and understand what's going on with it and we have an opportunity to hear even deeper into their concerns to factor that into a most appropriate design. >> Okay.
>> Okay. Well, I' I'd just like to say that uh as far as the the site plan and the development of the the facility that we're talking about, that will come to us.
We would like to have that come to us. >> We'll bring that back in as we have more information >> um so that we can at least the commission can be involved and uh find determination. I just want to add one
thing. Um, and there's no science to prove this, but probably what we are doing out there with the injections will improve improve the water of the residents.
All right. >> That is correct. >> Yes. And so, uh, I think, uh, I I don't think the residents would realize and know that from a long-term
perspective for the greater Winter Haven, this project is very important and it will contribute to the future
of water supply in the city of Winter Haven. And water is one of the things that uh is perhaps I won't say the greatest
challenge that this municipality and Pulk County is going to face, but it's right up there. And so, uh, this is is is a major major major effort that we have been
able to, uh, implement by the purchase of of of the Brackco property. And I just want the residents here to know that water by no stretch of the imagination
is not one of the most critical items facing the entire Pulk County, the entire Central Florida region. And so we're going to make sure that this
commission is is that the residents when this this this building is is built and stuff, we're going to make it as if we lived across the street. All right. Is there anyone else?
If not, I >> my name's Charles Glas 1491 and I'd like to have U. You got 370 acres you bought. I'd like to see a map of 370 acres to see where it lined up near Sage Road. If you got a map, you
know, the side of this little thing you got here. >> Yeah, we can provide that. >> Yeah, I'd like to see it. And then uh because you got Sage Road is Does it connect Sage Road? >> The swamp on the other side. Yeah. >> Regardless, you've got a lot and traffic
would be no issue at that point. try to be in problem. >> It's wetland. >> Well, that's wetlands too. >> Not this area. That's high ground. >> We can pro we can provide Mr. Glass a map after that. >> We'll provide you with the map.
>> Okay. >> All right. Anyone else? >> Thank you. >> Can I ask another question? >> Go ahead. >> Okay. Um we were talking about the the um turn lanes. Okay. The turn lanes are
going to be taken out of my front yard. Already the 15t easement is marked. >> I I I have to say to you, ma'am, we don't know where the turn lanes will be. >> I assume it'll go. >> They haven't in front of the entryway.
>> I'm just saying they haven't been designed. They haven't been planned. and they haven't been permitted. And not only will the city of Winter Haven be involved, but Poke County will have to be involved. And so we're
sort of ahead of that right now. >> Okay. Um can I suggest something? Okay. um on Dundy Road where the uh the care center is or where they the
surgery center is. The people don't the people don't turn in right there. The road is farther down the entryway and then it comes down. Okay. uh where we are now, we're just we're six houses in
a row and we're all in the county and um the turn lanes if it goes on any of the roads that are entering now, it's going to be in our front yards. Can it go further down the road where you turn in and then go to the parking lot? I'm I
the point that I'm making to you ma'am is that those discussions will be forthcoming and they're not here yet. So I we can't tell you. >> Okay. So uh would we be will we be notified? >> Absolutely.
>> Because we weren't notified of this meeting. >> You'll be notified. >> Told us. >> You'll be notified. >> Okay. All right. All right. Thank you. I just want to go back to the, you know, property values and the impact that this would have in the immediate area. I
mean, I understand this is a big project for the Winter Haven. I understand it's beneficial to the water, but it's definitely going to impact our property values immediately right there. I mean, >> probably in a positive way. >> I I don't see how that's positive. I mean, we're going to see a big
government building. I'm, like I said, I'm my background is real estate. If I saw this in my front yard, I know it's going to impact my property value 100%. There's no there's no denying that. >> All right. >> So, anything the city has planned to
compensate us or anything for our property values? I mean, you're just asking us to eat it, right? >> Yeah. >> But we've spent years building equity in our property. >> I mean, you know, we hear your concern
and so All right. Anyone else? >> One more thing about the trees were cut down. We were here mid October 7th and the planner at that point he said the trees are going to be the buffer for the
sound and since then the trees have been cut down huge oak trees all down Buck Road in front of our house. But what we what we said earlier, sir, is that on the west side of the road, we have nothing to do with that.
>> Well, who's doing it then? >> That's the county apparently co >> likely. >> Yes. We have nothing to do with that. >> That's >> We have nothing to do with it. >> No control. >> That's what I'm saying. You guys are talking about you're going to have a
meeting with us and tell us what's going on. We're going >> what's on the what will be on the east side. >> The east side of the road, not the west. >> I'll call my county commissioner and we'll >> All right. >> Anyone else?
Anyone else? All right, I'll close the public hearing, reopen the commission meeting. Is there any more discussion? All those in favor say I. I opposes by the same sign.
Hearing none, >> the resolution passes. All right. The next one is just dealing with zoning. You want to read by title only, city attorney. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ordinance row-25-35 an ordinance amending chapter 21 of the
code of ordinances of the city Florida by reszoning a portion of the city-owned parcel from single family residential- small lot R2 and conservation CN zoning districts to public institutional PI zoning district repealing all ordinances in conflict you're here with providing for the administrative correction of scrier's errors and providing an
effective date general location the subject area is generally located on the east side of Buckeye Loop Road approximately 1,100 ft south of Oak Drive the area covered by request is 10.25 plus or minus acres. Thank you. >> Thank you, city manager. Stoning
>> mayor and commissioners, this is a ordinance 2535 is a companion ordinance to the one we just read. This one pertains to the zoning on the same property. Uh staff recommends this be approved on second and final hearing. >> Thank you, commissioners. Mr. Mayor, >> yes.
>> Motion to approve ordinance 0-25-35 on second reading. >> Thank you. I will close the uh commission meeting. Open the public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak to oath 2535 may do so at this time. Seeing none, close the public hearing.
Reopen the commission meeting. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposes by the same sign. Hearing none. Uh, ordinance 0-25-35 is adopted. Commissioners, you have a
consent agenda. Mr. Mayor. >> Yes. >> Motion to approve the consent agenda 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 be so. 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 I opposes by the same signs. Hearing none, the consent agenda is adopted in its entirety. Okay. We have no uh resolutions
on its uh first reading. Uh the second reading will be on December the 8th. Ordinance 02536 which read by Tyler, city attorney. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ordinance number 0-25-36,
an ordinance amending ordinance 23-25, the 2035 Winter Haven comprehensive plan by revising the future land use map series by amending the future land use on one parcel and a portion of another parcel from neighborhood suburban feature land use to neighborhood support future land use. Repealing all ordinances in conflict here with
providing for the administrative correction of scriveners errors and providing an effective date. The general location, the subject property is generally located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Thompson Nursery Road and Cunningham Road and south of Thompson Nursery Road, approximately 330 ft east of Cunningham
Road. The area covered by this request is 46.21 plus or minus acres. Thank you. Thank you, city manager. >> Mayor, commissioners, VMARD, Deev LLC, and Cunningham Investors LLC are the petitioners and are requesting city amend future land use map on a parcel
and a portion of another parcel from neighborhood suburban future land use to neighborhood support future land use and also reszone the same parcel and a portion of another parcel from PUB zoning district to commercial highway C3 zoning district. This is 46.21 21 plus
or minus acres located at the northeast corner of the intersection of the Thompson Nursery Road Realignment and Cunningham Road. Subject property is currently subject to PUD ordinance 02172. The petitioners proposed to develop the property with commercial uses a maximum
of 53,118 square feet of commercial could be developed on this site. Subject property is located, as I mentioned, at the north and south of the Thompson Nursery Road realignment, which is an arterial road that when completed in 203031 will ultimately connect from Highway 27 to
the intersection of Highway 17 and State Road 540. Uses surrounding the property include Lake Grass and Drainage and Retention to the north, Lake Reed and the Terteranova subdivision to the east, the Tteranova and Villimar subdivisions to the south, and the Villimar subdivision to the west. Your packet
includes an analysis of the uh water and wastewater impacts associated with this property. The requested land use is consistent with the property's frontage on an arterial road in close proximity to intersections with collector roads. The requested C3 zoning district is
consistent with the neighborhood support future land use designation. There's no direct financial impact uh to the city with these requests. Planning Commission at its November 3rd, 2025 regular meeting voted rec to recommend approval of these requests. Two members of the PO
public spoke with concerns about traffic, flooding, and potential crime. Staff's conclusions are that the proposed neighborhood support future land use and C3 zoning district is consistent with the subject property's frontage on an arterial road and close proximity to intersections with
collector roads. And the city's 2035 comprehensive plan encourages commercial use to focus into nodes centered around key intersections within the city. Further supporting this request is the presence of over 1,700 residential units in the Villimar subdivision alone and
presence of a thousand plus additional housing units within a short distance. Close proximity these neighborhoods to this proposed development has the ability to reduce the number and length of vehicle trips onto the surrounding roadway network through a more compact development pattern. Finally, there is
sufficient public infrastructure cap capacity to accommodate the maximum theoretical development under C3. Staff recommends city commission advance ordinance 02536 to second reading to be held at the first meeting in December. >> Thank you. All right, the second reading
will be 128. Is there any questions, discussion? All right. Would you read O237 by title only city attorney? >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Ordinance number 0-25-37, an ordinance amending chapter 21 of code of ordinances of the city of Winter
Haven, Florida by reszoning one parcel and a portion of another parcel from plan unit development PUD zoning district to commercial- highway C3 zoning district providing for the administrative correction of scrier's errors repealing all ordinances in conflict with and providing an effective date. General location. The subject
properties generally located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Thompson Nursery Road and Cunningham Road and south of Thompson Nursery Road, approximately 330 ft east of Cunningham Road. The area covered by this request is 46.21 plus or minus acres. Thank you. >> Thank you, city manager.
>> Mayor, commissioners, this is your companion ordinance that accompanies 2536. Uh it assigns the commercial highway C3 zoning district to the property in question. Again, staff recommends that this ordinance 2537 be advanced to second reading to be held December 8th.
Thank you. >> Thank you. Ordinance 02539 which you read by title only city attorney. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. Ordinance number 0-25-39 an ordinance of the city of Winter Haven, Florida relating to mandatory structural inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings implementing
subsection 553.88911 88911 Florida statutes 2025 creating section 5-24 of the code of ordinances of the city we're neighbor Florida requiring condominiums cooperative associations and owners subject to mandatory structural inspections to schedule or commence repairs for substantial structural
deterioration within 365 days after the city's receipt of a phase 2 inspection report provided for conflicts providing for severability providing for codification and the administrative correction of scrier's errors providing for an effective date thank you >> thank city manager.
>> Mayor and commissioners, in response to the condominium building collapse in Surfside, Florida, the Florida legislature passed legislation addressing the safety of condominium and cooperative association buildings with the passage of House Bill 913 during the 25 legislative session. This bill
requires local governments to add language to their code addressing structural repairs for condominium and cooperative association buildings within a specified time frame. to comply. Section 5-24 will be added to chapter 5 of the Winter Haven Code of Ordinances.
This section will require those condominium and cooperative associations which are required by law to perform milestone inspections to schedule com or commence repairs for substantial structural deterioration within 365 days of the building official receiving a
phase 2 inspection report. There are presently seven condominium or cooperative associations located in the city which are subject to milestone inspections. These would be those containing buildings three or more habitable stories in height and these are required at 30 years of age and
every 10 years thereafter. Staff recommends city commission advance ordinance 25-39 to second reading to be held December 8th. Thank you. >> Thank you. Oh 2540. Would you read about title city attorney? >> Thank you Mr. Mayor, ordinance number-
255-40, an ordinance of the city of Winter Haven, Florida, recognizing a contribution from the estate of Velma Sewell Daniels in the amount of $258,879.7 to the Winter Haven Public Library, amending ordinance number 0-25-29, adopting the city winter budget for the
fiscal year 2025-2026, providing for severability and providing for an effective date. Thank you. >> Thank you, city manager. Mayor and commissioners, the city has received a bequest in the amount of $258,879.7 from the estate of Velma Sewell Daniels, a longtime resident and supporter of the
Winter Haven Public Library. To properly record this contribution, the current fiscal year budget will be amended to reflect an increase in the city of Winter Haven Library Fund designation of other contributions revenue uh and make the funds available for library related
expenditures within the library fund. Staff recommends that this item be advanced to second hearing to be held December 8th. Thank you. >> Thank you. City attorney, would you read 02541 by title only, please? >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ordinance number-
25-41, an ordinance of the city of Waven, Florida, recognizing the roll forward of open purchase orders from fiscal year 2024-2025 to fiscal year 2022-2026. Amending ordinance number 0-25-29
appropriation of funds for defraing the expenses of the municipal government of the city winter haven for the fiscio commencing October 1, 2025 providing for severability and providing an effective date. Thank you. >> Thank you city manager. >> Mayor and commissioners pursuant to Florida statutes commission may amend
the budget by ordinance to appropriate and expend funds that were not anticipated in the originally approved budget. Purchase orders roll forward representing contractual or encumbered obligations that were approved in fiscal year 2425 but not fully extended by year
end. These are projects that were funded in last year's budget commenced or perhaps not commenced that the money stays with the project and rolls forward. In accordance with established accounting standards and budgetary control procedures, these encumbrances have been reestablished in fiscal year
2526 to ensure proper accountability for prior year commitments. The total value of the rolled forward purchase orders affects current year budget. However, this action does not constitute new spending. The total budget amendment of
$58,118,80.31 reflects outstanding incumbrances as of September 30th, 2025. Those are detailed in the attachments within your packet. The amendment increases the current year's budget across various funds with corresponding funding from prior year's
available fund balances. Staff recommends advancing ordinance 2541 to second hearing to be held December 8th which will roll forward open purchase orders from fiscal year 2425 to fiscal year 2526. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Second reading will be on December the 8th 02542. We're reading by Ty Lon city attorney. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. Ordinance number 0-25-42, an ordinance amending ordinance number O-24-44, appropriation of funds for deterring the expenses of the municipal government of
the city of Winter Haven for the fiscal year commencing October 1, 2024, providing for severability and providing an effective date. Thank you. >> Thank you, city manager, >> mayor and commissioners. Pursuant to Florida statutes, the city may amend its budget within 60 days of the fiscal year
end. As part of the review for fiscal year 2425, staff evaluated project expenditures to ensure adequate budget authorization existed within the fiscal year in which the costs were incurred. During this process, it was determined that several projects required budget adjustments to fully fund expenditures.
These amendments are necessary to align budgetary expenditures with actual activity and to maintain compliance with government accounting standards board requirements and the city's financial policies. These changes correct budgetary shortfalls identified during the year-end closeout process and ensure
the city's records accurately reflect authorized and expended funds. As I discussed during the agenda review, a lot of times projects will have funds that come from multiple uh funds within the budget. This aligns those funds, making a transfer from one fund to
another to align with the capital project on which those dollars were spent. Staff recommends the city commission advance ordinance 2542 to second reading to be held on December 8th which will approve the subject budget amendments to the prior fiscy
year budget to ensure compliance with financial reporting requirements and to accurately reflect project expenditures completed within fiscal year 2425. Thank you. >> Thank you. Second reading will be on December the 8th. Uh, new business
grant and aid application review committee. City manager. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor and commissioners. On September 22nd, 2025, the city commission passed resolution R2548 to further define the grant application review committee structure and role.
Included in this resolution was a requirement that committee vacancies be advertised by the city clerk for application reviewed by the city manager or designate to make a recommendation to the city commission for appointments. One vacancy on the committee currently exists. Six applications were submitted
for consideration. All six applications were reviewed by myself. In addition, I solicited feedback from current members of the grant a application review committee. After careful review and consideration, Mr. David Barry's application is being recommended for the city commission's
consideration of appointment. In addition to 30 years of nonprofit experience and 21 years serving vulnerable populations in Winterhaven, Mr. Barry also pledged that if appointed to serve on the grant application review committee, the mission of Winter Haven, of which he is affiliated, will not
apply for grant funding, allowing him to avoid any real or perceived conflicts of interest. In addition, on November 6 of this year, the committee met to review the fiscical year 26 process, which has been completed now, review recommendations and guidance from the
city attorney and discuss potential refinements. Refinements to the process include the following. One, require nonprofit agencies to have been in operation and providing services to Winter Haven residents a minimum of two years at the time of application. Number
two, expand re reporting requirements to include mandatory proof of funds spent. That is specific to those that had received funding prior through the grant aid program, ensuring that those dollars were appropriately spent. Requ number three, require all submitted reporting
documents to be witnessed and notorized. And number four, implement an agency representative system for all public meetings of the grant and aid committee. uh thereby having those nonprofits that are applying designate a single individual that will speak on their
behalf and be able to answer questions of the committee during their hearings. There's no financial impact for this item. Staff recommends the city commission consider the appointment of Mr. David Barry to the grant application review committee and accept the recommendations of the grant and a
application review committee with respect to process refinements for fiscal year 2627. And I will point out that Mr. Barry is here in the audience with us this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you, commissioners. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. >> Motion to approve the appointment and
the changes as presented. >> Thank you. I will close the commission meeting, open the public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak to this item may do so at this time. Seeing none, close the public hearing,
reopen the city commission meeting. Is there any discussion? One thing, Mr. Mayor. >> Yes, >> Mr. Barry. I want to thank you for your willingness to serve. That's um you do yman's the committee that does that does yman's work. So, we thank you for that. And I and I'm I don't know how much
money the mission got from the city last year. Does anybody know? Katrina, do you happen to have any idea? >> I'm just >> How much? >> 7,000. >> Well, I appreciate your willingness to not
uh apply for money because of the perception of being um conflicts of interest. But I would encourage you to maybe not think about that and maybe just not vote on that particular item that you come forward because you do good work. And if we're going to preclude people from serving because they have a vested interest in
something, we may not have a committee left. So I would encourage you to to consider maybe not thinking along those lines uh because you do really good work with the money that we give you. And uh but that's just me and I again I'm just I'm just throwing that out for what it's
worth. But I welcome you to the committee after we take this vote. So thank you for your service. >> Any more any more discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I opposes by the same sign hearing none.
>> The item passes. Okay. Our next item um is the unsolicited U proposal. City manager. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, mayor and commissioners, on October 13th of this year, the city received an unsolicited
proposal from 610 LLC, uh, referred to as the unsolicited proposer for the construction of a 292 space parking structure to be located at the northeast corner of Third Street Southwest and Avenue C Southwest in downtown Winter
Haven. Section 255.065 065 of the Florida statutes, also referred to as the P3 statute, governs public private partnerships in the process by which unsolicited proposals are received as a means by which public entities can deliver projects that serve a public
benefit in a more timeefficient and cost-effective manner. A public parking structure is a qualifying project under the P3 statute. Concurrent with the submittal of the unsolicited proposal, the applicant provided a $25,000 application fee as
provided for in the statute to cover the city's costs associated with review of the proposal and subsequent construction plans as well as associated construction inspection services and other related costs. The unsolicited proposal deal
details the proposer's intent to design, construct, and deliver the completed parking structure to the city. The four-story parking structure is proposed to be constructed on property property currently owned by Urban Action LLC of
which the proposer is a 50% owner. The sol unsolicited proposer will demonstrate control of the real property by entering in into a development agreement with Urban Action LLC. The P3 statute requires that at this meeting, this first duly public or duly
notice public meeting, the proposal be presented to the city commission and that affected public entities and members of the public be given an opportunity to provide comments on the proposal for the city commission's consideration. In accordance with the P3 statute, at a
second duly noticed public meeting, the city commission will be afforded the opportunity to make certain findings in order to determine that the proposal is in the public's interest. In making the public interest determination at that second meeting, the commission must
consider the following factors as set forth in the P3 statute. The benefits to the public is number one. Number two, the financial structure of and the economic efficiencies achieved by the unsolicited proposal. Number three, the qualifications and experience of the
unsolicited proposer that submitted the proposal and such entities ability to perform the project. Number four, the project's compatibility with regional infrastructure plans. And number five, any public comments submitted at this evening's meeting. At that second duly
noticed public meeting, city staff will prepare in conjunction with the city attorney an appropriate resolution for the commission's consideration and passage which will recite and contain the city commission's findings based on each of the aforementioned factors and
constitute a report that includes the public interest determination and the factors considered in making such public interest determination. That report must then be published in the Florida administrative register for at least seven days. The reg that
resolution will also authorize the city manager, if approved, to negotiate a comprehensive agreement with the unsolicited proposer. To assist with the review of the proposal, city staff solicited an independent third-party review from Walker Consultants, a firm
familiar with Winter Haven Parking Demand and Infrastructure pursuant to its completion of the downtown strategic parking and mobility master plan in July of 2022. On November 5th of this year, Walker Consultants delivered their independent analysis of the unsolicited proposal,
making the following findings. One, the proposed construction cost of $23,224 per space based on construction alone is below both the 2025 national median of 31,400 per space and the Tampa region
median of 27,224 per space. This cost is within acceptable market parameters for a turnkey fixedpric delivered parking structure. The proposed soft costs, engineering, architectural, permitting, and the like,
are 21% of the construction costs and are within acceptable market parameters of 15 to 25%. The proposed cost of $2 million for the land on which the garage will be constructed represents 20% of the overall project cost and when factored
in with everything else increases the allincclusive cost per space to $35,000. The proposed parking structure will occupy a portion of one parcel, leaving the parcel's existing building and some surface parking intact. Current Pulk
County appraised value for the entirety of the parcel is 3,319,331. Depending on whether the parcel is subdivided and to what extent prior to being sold to the city, the cost is likely within acceptable market parameters for purchase.
And finally, the proposed parking structure provides a public benefit by creating additional parking space supply in a rapidly developing downtown area with significant current and planned growth. Staff's review of the proposal along with the Walker Consultant independent analysis of the same
conclude that the proposal meets the requirements of the P3 statute and that the construction and delivery of the parking structure as proposed serves a public need and benefit defines the financial structure and economic efficiencies to be achieved describes the entity's qualifications and experience and demonstrates
compatibility with regional infrastructure plans with the action this evening which is to take public comment on that. There is on this proposal there is no direct financial impact to the city. However, should the commission at your next
meeting or when you hear this for your second notice meeting accept the unsolicited proposal and enter into a subsequent comprehensive agreement with the proposer. The total anticipated cost for delivery of the 292 space parking
structure is 10,217,496. Staff recommends this evening the city commission receive public comment with respect to the proposal and schedule a second duly noticed public meeting for December 8th, 2025 for further consideration as called for in the P3
statute. Uh this evening I understand the uh representatives from the unsolicited proposer are present. They do have a slide deck presentation and I would recommend uh having them make that proposal to the commission at this point.
Okay. Well, there was a person that requested to speak >> should have the proposal first. >> Pardon me. >> Mr. Mayor, I think you should let the proposal the purpose of this meeting is for the unsolicited proposal to be presented >> to the commission of the public and then for the city commission to entertain public comment. Oh,
>> it's the consulting report. This is the same thing. Come forward. Good evening, commissioners. Uh, thank you, uh, city manager. Um, we have, uh, presented I think the city manager had done a good job of summarizing the
proposal. The, uh, uh, Eric, did you have the the deck that you wanted to present? Yeah, I think that I think the commission's already received the the proposal that we have submitted, and we will stand uh, ready for any questions that you might have.
We have it. Okay. >> Uh John. >> Yes, sir. >> I thought that the the total purp Oh, you are going to show it. >> Yes. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. I think that would be a good idea for you to present this >> for the public's benefit. >> For the public's benefit.
>> Um um Mr. Chair, Commission, uh I I'm we're going to walk through it now. walk through it quickly because I think the city manager has has adequately described exactly what we are presenting. It's the uh this these are renderings of the of the garage and uh
if we could 292 space parking garage uh on the corner of Third and Avenue C as was indicated. A lot of these are the compliance argu uh requirements that are chapter 255 of the Florida statutes that we you have to be very specific on what
we are presenting and what we are uh the terms of what we are offering to the city and that we have complied with the statute. We we're confident that we have completely complied with all the requirements of the statute. We can continue. Again, these are more compliance requirements under the statute and and
as uh the city manager uh has indicated, we are proposing to design, develop, and construct the project. It's going to be a new four-story 292 space structure parking garage on 96,000 square feet on the corner of Third Street and on Avenue
C. It'll be a turnkey basis presented uh uh to the city commission uh upon completed. And we will our efforts will include site development. If we can continue back, >> we're going in the wrong direction here.
>> There you go. >> Okay. Uh our efforts will include a comprehensive site development for AR full architectural and engineering design, pre-cast concrete, and compliance with all applicable permitting and regulatory requirements. And it will incorp it it'll incorporate
obviously compliance with all the municipal code requirements. Continue. >> Uh we will be financing the project uh using both the equity in the land and a construction loan which we are already in negotiation on and but but uh as we
present it to the city it will be free and clear uh when when we when we deliver it. Continue. This is the site as it consisted and and to the left is north on the picture on the left and the site will be on the on the right. It'll be the the southernmost
part of this lot and it'll be across street from where Grove Roots is right now. Again, east of Third Street and north of Avenue C and Rain Dance is in the background there. Continue. These are more renderings of the site and this is a the red box indicates the location
of the site on the overall parcel. Again, more renderings of the site. Why don't we go back one? One of the things that we have done, we think the first parking garage that the city constructed and developed there,
there was it was purposeful to try to make it aesthetically pleasing and not look like just a a more industrial looking parking garage. And we have tried to design that into this as well. But obviously the uh we are willing uh 610 is willing to work with the city
with any comments that they might have in terms of revisions to the the appearance of this of the park garage. Okay, we can continue. Okay, right now Urban Action uh which is uh we have representatives from Urban Action and CEO of 610 is here as well
tonight. Uh, Urban Action is the owner of the property. 610 is a partner with Urban Action, the partner in the property. And 610 will be entering into a development agreement with Urban Action in order to uh to have Urban Action committed uh to transfer the
property in accordance with a comprehensive agreement which we will enter into with the city assuming that this goes forward in two weeks. So, the total uh construction the total cost for the project as indicated by the city manager is 10,217,496.
Uh the the it we we we've indicated in the uh application how that we're going to do a 80% loan to construction financing, but that will be all within our financing. When we sell it to the city, deliver it to the city, it'll be delivered free and clear.
There's there's a summary of the financials as was indicated by the city manager that he just gave and a per case per cost space. Okay, let's just more continue to discuss that. Uh you can continue to go that Jason forces our CFO. Uh again upon
this is important upon completion of the project the idea is we will be building delivering and then transferring a completed project to the city. So there the city does not have the construction risks associated with the project. It'll be completed and delivered free and
clear at the time that it is complete. Obviously available for more information. Continue. This is more of the statutory requirements. You can continue again more of the statutory requirements. And then the the public need and benefit
as the Walker study has indicated which the Walker I I should clarify because there's been some discussion that Walker uh was was that somehow worked for us. Walker did not work for us. Walker worked solely for the uh city of Winterhaven. Uh and they did the study
three years ago as to the needs for parking as the city managers indicated. And then they did the study to review our proposal to make sure that they felt that it was uh it it was compliance with the statute. Again, I think that that as the city
manager indicated and as the Walker study has indicated, the south uh the south downtown area is in need for parking. is the in the Walker study that was given three years ago, there was significant discussion about what different sites might be available for
the city and they had identified five total sites, four that were actually in the south portion of the city and we we'll continue we'll talk about that and you can see those sites number one, four, five, and eight that were identified as being available. and the
uh site eight is is presently a grass lot. Site one is is the Grand Central project that's under redevelopment. Site four is sli slotted to be the developed as a as an apartment complex. And so site actually the southernmost portion
of site five that was identified by Walker is the site that we're utilizing for our project. again 292 space fourstory parking garage on the site identified uh in the Walker study and as as uh reconfirmed by Walker
in their recent review of our project uh the the before they before we enter into uh a comprehensive agreement occurs and and as indicated the process is uh assuming the city commission approves this to go forward in two weeks uh then
then we we have to negotiate with the city a comprehensive agreement which deal with the specific terms uh of how we're going to transfer the property and the condition of the property that when we transfer it that is statutoily required and that there's very specifics
in the statute as what you can do uh that what needs to be in that agreement and prior to doing that we will enter an agreement with urban action which is the owner of the property so to to make sure that it's it's a seamless transfer at the time that the construction is completed on the
Uh we think that uh obviously parking is is critical to the success of of any city. Uh the the you you you typically in downtown areas you you try to develop your parking in advance of need because by the time that you need parking and
you you you can have a difficulty or an impossibility of getting the land that you need in order to build the facilities for parking that you want to have. So if you wait too long, most of the project most of the parcels that have been identified are parcels that have are targeted for redevelopment in
different ways within the downtown. And eventually there will not be parcels that you may want to have in order to redevelop in for parking as you go forward in order to uh deal with your supply as you go. And the other thing that I that was discussed in the Walker study and in ours and I we could
continue to walk forward here is and continue please is that is that at some point uh you the the at there's a lot of surface parking that's private in the in the downtown area right now. So there are people park people using private
parking lots for surface parking and not it's not being charged for and much of it is owned by either urban action or 610 as that property gets developed th those those lots are going to go away and so so it's important I think to try
to uh uh adjust for that for you know assuming the city is desirous of building the downtown and developing the downtown you you would you you want to try to develop your parking now in order to support yourself into the future or you could be in a bind as you go
forward. Thank you. Continue. The cost uh has been indicated and it's just as you just heard from Walker Consultant that they have evaluated actually our construction cost they've evaluated to be $4,000 per space less
than the Tampa Bay average and our are and $8,000 less spa less per space than the national average for construction of parking at this point. These are some comparatives that were in there and and it is hard to compare
because sometimes if if if a project is is is very very large if you do a a thous one of these was an 1100 space parking garage you're obviously amortizing your cost of construction over your fixed costs and your land
costs over more spaces. So your per space costs goes down. But as you can see, I I I believe and I think Walker found that our total purchase cost was very was very reasonable and and in fact that's the analysis that's the
conclusion that they came to. Continue. Again, it it it we feel it's a it's a 10-month project. uh I think three months uh for design and and bid process once we enter into the comprehensive
agreement which we would anticipate a after assuming that you approve this in two weeks then it has to go through another step of another evaluation by independent consultants uh by of the city that the city would would enter an agreement with and then and after that
is done then the city would then have to approve an execution of a comprehensive agreement which we would anticipate ate being in late January or February and and it would be a from that point forward would be a threemonth period of
time to uh to do the the design and and the bidding of the process and then and then seven months for the construction. You can continue. So obviously 610 is identified as the developer of the project. We do not own the site. We we we are partners with the
folks that own the site. Uh and and but we would be the lead developer on the project. Whitehead Construction would be the the contractor for the project. I I think they're very well known. Their experience is identified here.
Uh continue. Metromont is a pre-cast contractor that does lots and lots of these construction projects uh around the around the country and and they're very capable group and their their qualifications are identified there.
Obviously, CNK architects is local and well known by all of you and designed the first parking garage that you developed. We believe it's compatible with the uh regional infrastructure plan and and and the plan as articulated by by the Walker
cons uh Walker study in 2022. And to our knowledge since in that three-year period since they did identif since they completed their study and said that there was a need for parking in South uh in the south central south downtown area. I believe we're the only ones that
have come forward in that three-year period to try to fill that need for the city. Public comments obviously that's today I think this is more statutory requirements again more statutory requirements
and this will be in the agreement. So in summary, I believe that what 610 has tried to do is respond to a need of the city for parking in the south central core of the city as identified by the
city's consultant three years ago and to try to put together a turnkey uh project that you will be able to satisfy that need on on property that that is is that is presently available uh for a 292
parking place at a price that your consultant has said is reasonable and and and and in with respect to the construction costs themselves is actually significantly below both the Tampa Bay average and the uh so thank
you for your attention. Uh again, we have representatives uh from both 610 and from Urban Action here if you have any questions. Mr. City Manager, thank you. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> All right. The uh >> So, at this time, Mr. Mayor, um if you don't have any questions of the proposer, uh based upon the presentation that uh Mr. Baker just made, be appropriate to open it up for comment
from the members of the public that wish to entertain that. We will um take note of those and and scribe those uh so that when we come back in two weeks those questions where there are questions or comments that we can provide clarity on
that to the commission. >> Okay. First person is Beth Would you please come forward? State your name and address for the record. >> Beth >> Good evening. I'm Beth Spew. I
reside at 123 Pino Poco in Winter Haven, Florida. I am a proud Winter Haven native, proud graduate of CityU class 3 and an very supportive of a lot of businesses that are going to speak to you tonight. Um, I
read the Walker report. I didn't realize until today it was three years old, but it addresses a lot of the parking concerns in Winter Haven, including the proposed garage, which we're speaking to tonight. I did see one fatal flaw in the analysis
of the Walker report. It's missing a key stakeholder group in these plans and that is of the mobility impaired. And the Walker report as you recall talks in terms of walkability of any parking area in the city of 400
feet, 800 feet, 1,200,600 feet in groups of A, B, C or D. My husband who's had several back surgeries is restricted to a distance parking 400 feet or less. So for
example, should you approve this garage to be built, he could ambulate to grow roots barrel loose seals. He would not be able to ambulate as the walker report suggests to Bowen Yard which is two city
blocks away. We have the same problem now with parking downtown. If we want to do nitro bingo Thursday night at the Ritz, not this week. We park in the garage, but if we want to go to dinner, then the Ritz and a drink afterwards, we can't do
that. We have deprived two businesses of our business for that event simply because it's far enough to walk from the garage down the alley in the back door of the Ritz up the back ramp. That's all my husband can do. So, businesses are
being denied access from the mobility impaired. The good news is I've understood from um talking with um the city manager and with the CRA staff that a golf cart type service shuttle service will be
implemented for downtown and it's similar to the squeeze in Lakeland and Lake Wales and Barto which could span possibly from Central Avenue to Highway 17 and between the two avenue D's to cover that core downtown business area.
I want to thank the city for their support and their pursuit of that. So, in summary, um the goal is so that we can patronize local businesses, so that we can serve the members of our community who are moving into these beautiful new apartment complexes, but
please also consider take into consideration those folks who can't do the walkability part of the equation. I want to thank you for your time and thank you for your service.
Thank you. Is there anyone else? State your name and address for the record, please. >> Good evening. My name is Jesse Scubna. I have a business at 1003rd Street Southwest. Um, you have to excuse me. This never gets easier speaking up here.
>> I am not speaking for or against this project. I just simply have some questions and concerns. And the first one is why are we moving so quickly on this? That um the parking study that we keep referring to that was done in 2022
took how long would you say that took T. Michael? At least a year, maybe two years. >> I'd have to defer to staff on that. >> It took quite some time. We had several meetings, public meetings. And so why is this not getting the same consideration
to give people time to ask their questions and figure figure things out? And maybe at the end of that this is the this is the right spot. But $10 million is a huge investment for the city to make. And I am curious is that coming out of the general fund? What is where
is that coming from? So there is money specifically earmarked for a parking structure and there are savings on other projects associated with transportation improvements that we've realized over the past year. Logistics Parkway probably being the largest of those. So this is within the transportation
infrastructure that is a separate construction fund not general fund. >> Okay. Well, I will say originally when the whole public private partnership was brought brought to the committee and brought to the CRA and kind of discussed through that parking study that was
done, which by the way, um, city manager Mike Hurst stood right here after that study was done and looked at all of you and said that he did not recommend a public private partnership and that was I believe that was at $5 million. So now we're at 10 and we're going to rush it
through in two weeks. you're not giving anyone any time to even weigh in on it. And that's not fair to the people that use the parking or the businesses that that rely on the parking. And like it was stated, there was several different
places that were talked about. I understand that they didn't come up here and solicit a a proposal to you, but perhaps that's because they didn't know that there was $10 million out there to put a garage somewhere. I personally I
believe the Andy Thorn's lot would be a great place for additional parking. I spoke to them today and they would be willing to discuss it with you. I think it's central for everyone. I do agree that we need more parking. I do agree that the businesses in that area also
need parking. But there's questions like where are those people that use that parking lot currently in that construction period time, where are they going to park? Are they going to get any relief? because we see what happened on central is is are we going to repeat
that or are we going to slow down and try to make it sustainable for everyone? It's not fair for people to be collateral damage if you will because that's what's going to happen. You are going to lose some business. We're losing businesses left and right. It is
hard to run a business right now. So adding adding any stress to them is going to it's going to be tough. So that's why I think we need to slow down and have more discussion on this before we come to a
conclusion on it. Two weeks is too fast. I would have never known. Had I not sat on a committee that got an email about this, I wouldn't have known. This is my busy time of year. I'm not looking at the agenda every day because I it's just my busy time of year. Had I not got that email, I wouldn't even know this is
going on, which I guarantee is the same for most people. They don't know. Andy Thornalt had no idea this was going on. They're going to be affected by it. Everyone's going to be affected by this. I'm just asking that you slow the process down, have some more meetings, and and I I think personally there was a
lot of flaws in in the consultant groups um parking study and I raised a lot of questions and to quite frankly I never got the answers. As a matter of fact, I thought that we budgeted more money to
continue that that study and I don't think has that ever come to conclusion. >> The Walker study is concluded. It's >> concluded, but then >> I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> I'm sorry. >> The Walker study was concluded. There was no more work to be done on the Walker study. We budgeted funds to
implement some of the things that were in the study such as the wayfinding um master plan and stuff like that. I thought there was >> microransit was another piece that came out of that for which funds are budgeted. So was that the was that done
that study the rest of the study? >> There was no more study to be done. There was the the recommendations that they had submitted at that time. Um we've done additional design work on wayfinding for downtown and we've done
we implemented through CRA and through the general fund funds to do the uh microtransit. >> Can I extend my time through another business? >> Yes. >> Okay. Jesse Scubno, 118 Third Street Southwest. So, it was my understanding
because this was brought to the CRA committee that I sit on. It was my understanding which I know that you approved the the study but it was my there was a lot of questions that was not in the study and they were and I was told that you weren't you weren't asked
to or they weren't asked to come up with these answers as far as how many businesses and how many parking spaces were needed in each zone because originally they said that parking lot across from us, I guess that would be Third and Avenue A
was not used and they were ready and they recommended that it was okay to sell that and as a matter of fact you were going to sell it. Do you recall what you were going to sell that lot for? >> I don't know recall the dollar value. No, >> I think it was in the 200,000 range. Is it fair to say that?
>> I can't say if that's fair. >> Around 20 spaces you were going to sell that for for 200 approximately 200,000 but yet you're going to buy a 51 space lot for $2 million. And these are the the these are the questions that the
taxpayers and the business community have. And we feel it's appropriate to have time to ask these questions and get these answers before you move forward. And again, I'm not asking you not to move forward with this. I'm just asking to give it a little more time. Two
weeks. I All I hear is government takes a long time. Well, this isn't long. This is you're I mean, it's the holidays. Who Who even has time to come to this meeting? I know a lot of people that wanted to come that are out of town. So, what are you going to do with that? Are you just gonna pretend that's not
happening? And then I guess I want to address something because I am probably the one that put out there that Walker consultant was working for 610 and I am curious. So, who paid for the study that they just did or the
>> So, the city pays for that study. The fee that is charged with the application, the $25,000 is to help offset costs associated with those reviews. That's a fee that we establish. Um, and then we reached out to Walker is the expert on that who did
the original traffic or parking study for us to review that proposal. >> So, between October 13th and November, whatever, they were able to do that independent study that quickly. >> Yes. interesting because it took them a long
time. They drugg out that parking study. It seems like these studies are done for development and not for actual parking for the businesses. I just I'm afraid that you're already having a hard time getting people to park in the garage that we currently have. So maybe you need to look at more
surface parking. Maybe taking that $10 million and spreading it out to several different zones would be more appropriate for the businesses and for the tax dollars. And then you have to ask yourself, why did Mike Herur say that he did not recommend it? Because he
certainly stood right here and said he did not recommend that public private partnership. So all I'm asking is that you give it a little more time and give everyone time to weigh in on it. $10 million is a lot of money and it's the tax money. Thank you.
>> Is there anyone else? Hey >> everybody, my name is Steve Caligus and I'm here representing Silver Properties of Winter Haven LLC. So I'm not going to address I want to you go to the first picture in Ariel. So we'll give you a
little history from our perspective. Silver Properties is a is a group of investors 60 that there's another one aerial picture I'll four total that one right there
Properties is a group of 60 investors that have made a large capital investment in downtown Winter Haven. If you look at this map, which is an aerial of it, because I'm not here to debate Jesse's points or anything like that, I'm here to just give you some hard cold
facts about some things I think need to be considered. If you look at the two apartment complexes you see on the horizon, Rain Dance and Breeze, we're by far the largest investor in those two projects. If you look at the 202 building, we own
50% of that with 610. When we bought this properties, our partners and us when we owned the BB&T parcel, we also and and along that way when we got ready to develop it, we said, you know, we really aren't in a position to really
know much about commercial. So, I reached out to Bud and said 610 willing to be a partner with us in urban action, which is where that whole thing came from. Now, having said that, we never bought any of these properties with the intent that we were going to let farmers markets use them or that people would
just park on them free forever. We've done that for about three or four years now and and we can't continue to do that. So, one of the things I want, you can go on to the next slide if you would, which shows the parcel. So, we've moved forward next one. Okay. And so,
you need to know some of the things we're looking at. There's one more than when you first start. There you go. This is a This is a real time picture of where we are. We've already spent over $200,000 on architecture. If you see the blue part in the front now, my concern
was that a lot of this stuff wasn't getting out. So, I personally took the time to go sit down and talk to Joe and to Paul and I think Paul's here and Miguel, let people know where we really stood on this whole thing because at the end of the day is none of this property in six months will be available for
parking because we we can't afford to pay the millions we did and just let it sit there. So, we're going to develop this property and we move forward with it. The picture of the Carl, can you put that up on there? Th this is the project that's going to be on the on the tip
across from Paul call and Paul didn't even know that but so I felt compelled and ethically spend time with these people. So that complex is going on the front the parking lot it you know we we never intended to put a parking garage there. Bud came to us and and asked us
to work with him on that and we support that because we support what 610 does. But at the end of the day, make no mistake about it, that property is not going to sit vacant. And it won't be available for Joe to park in, Paul to park in, or Maritime to park in because we can't we're not in the business to
pay for property just for everybody to use. So essentially what I want to make sure we understand is I am concerned about Joe Dunham. I am concerned about Paul Nunez and those group because those businesses work hard, they're viable, and without parking, I don't know how
they exist. But we we aren't in the private sector. I mean the public sector business. We're in the private sector business and we have investors and they they are experiencing and and counting on us doing other things. Now there's another parcel in the Hwitt. So if you
look at this piece, this is a Hwitt parcel that we own with 610. Paul uses it now for a lot of his employees to park on. I can't promise him that when we get through developing that that there'll be any parking available for his employees.
So when you look at the businesses around this, keep in mind that you know something needs to give here because starting in a few months from now, two or three there won't be any parking available. BB&T we Chris is moving out
now because we're not in the business to host farmers markets. We're in the business to develop property and so I think that needs to be concerned and my concern is what happens to these surrounding businesses if we don't go forward with the parking
garage. Now maybe there's another option you have and and that's okay because that's that's I don't carry that banner but I do carry and want everyone to know is that we're moving forward with our projects and the idea of waiting well it
it costs money to wait you know we have interest payments we have tax payments we have insurance payments so we're not going to sit around and and wait for everybody to ponder these things and my five minutes is up but anyhow thank no I I'm I'm here to answer questions, but I
but I think people need to understand that these properties are owned by private investors with private agendas and and and we're going to end up if we're not careful with a bunch of businesses downtown. I mean, I think Joe Dunham has 50 parking 55 parking places
and so I don't know where he's going to park his people. And I'll let Paul speak to that his own. I don't represent Paul in this matter, but I am concerned. I am concerned about where these business is going to park. So, okay. Thanks for your time. Thank you.
>> Anyone else? >> How are you guys? Uh Paul NZ. I own Luc Seals American Cafe downtown. Um one of the things that uh when we considered putting the restaurant in there about four or five years ago that I was concerned with was the downtown parking
and how the downtown was going to be developed for parking. And four years later, I feel exactly the same as I did four years ago because I feel slightly uh different than Jesse does where I feel like we're not moving fast enough. I feel like we keep kicking
the can down the road. I see development, development, development, development without parking. Apparently, downtown zone to where developers allowed to build without considering parking. So then it becomes a city problem. And invariably, I think what everybody's realizing, it really ends up becoming business owners problems if you
don't have parking for your staff um and for your customers. So, uh luckily um 610 is allowing me to use that parking lot that they own for my employees. That takes up anywhere from minimum of 15 to sometimes up to 30
parking spaces per shift. So, that would be lunch or dinner. Um, and then with the seating that I have, uh, the customer parking usually ends up being, um, anywhere from 100 to 120 parking spaces is used by my business daily, lunch, dinner, during volume periods.
Uh, definitely Saturday and Sunday during brunch. Uh, definitely Friday and Saturday night. Uh, the week nights aren't as tough as we know. Uh, the total parking that I have allocated to my business is actually zero. Um, other than 610 allowing my employees to parked there. Uh, everybody parks there. Uh,
it's just street parking. Um, when I saw this proposal for the parking garage, I actually got a little excited. Uh, it's within a couple of blocks of my business. I wish it was a little bit closer. Uh, and I think that's um, but I think it's a good spot. That side of downtown is quickly quickly quickly running out of parking. Uh, when when I
first opened, there was plenty of parking over there because half those businesses didn't even exist. And here we are four years later, and I just see all these leasings being assigned, everybody's moving in, and the parking is quickly disappearing on my side of downtown. Um, it's actually the number one um, comment I get from customers is
parking. The a lot of my negative reviews like on Yelp or Trip Advisor is like goes back to parking, you know, which I don't feel like I have control over. Um, the other concern that I have, which also echoes exactly what she was saying, is um, you know, ADA is really a
national law. It's not like for any city or county or state to decide, oh, we're going to build it ADA accessible or not. It is a national thing. Uh I don't feel like there's enough guidance on that. I would say to be nice um in this city uh moving forward on
that. And I think that it's a huge issue. Um we I have uh a lot of handicapped uh customers that come in. I put in handicapped doorways and try to make sure the doors don't close that fast. But they still really struggle sometimes just getting down the street, getting down the sidewalk, getting to
the business as much as I've done to make it accessible. So, I think that with this project or with any project like that, I really think that, you know, taking into account, you know, ADA, you know, accessibility, people that can't get through, you know, smaller doorways and, you know, crossings at the intersections is is
hugely important. Um, and and hopefully we'll consider that. And, um, as in regard to the property uh for Thornhall, um, I actually agree with Jesse. Uh, but I I think you should do it all. Like, I think you should do the parking garage. I think you need thorn halls for surface
level parking. There is no parking as you guys know for uh Adlers and for Honeycomb. And then with the school there that is just a mess back there and um there's cars parking everywhere. So I think there's a need specifically there and there's a need specifically on the
side of downtown where we're proposing this garage. Um and again, you know, you got to keep in mind that restaurants take a lot of parking, more than people realize. You know, I'm giving you an example of about 120 spaces, you know, at any given time. That's a real number,
you know, and when you look at, you know, I've got maybe 10 or 15 parking spaces on the street in front of my business. I mean, it's just not enough. Luckily, downtown does have some mixed things happening during the daytime. A lot of business people, the parking is taken up. They all leave at night. The
nighttime people come in. So, I do see a lot of that like turnover the parking, which is which is nice and which is healthy. And I think that this structure will um continue uh on that. So I do support uh any money that the city spends on any amount of parking that can be added to downtown because I think
that that really is a concern for the businesses that have adequate parking for their customers to patronize. Um if people come downtown and every time they come it's just a hassle to park and they can never find parking, they never know what to do, they're just going to stop coming. You know, I go to Lakeland, I take a couple laps around looking for
street parking. If it's not there, I hit the garage and I go. And I think that, you know, pretty much everyone's going to pretty much do that. So, um, I do think that this garage is going to be well used and it's in a great location. >> State your name and address for the record, please. >> Uh, my name is Mike Lee. I, uh, I own
the, uh, Laugh Out Lounge at 193rd Street Southwest in uh, Winter Haven. Uh I I kind of want to echo what he's saying 100% we need a parking garage. We need more parking downtown. Um my big and I'll try to keep this very brief,
but my biggest concern is uh so 610 sells the land at a discount. They build the the parking garage at a discount and it becomes city owned. Correct. Winter Haven owns it. I assume you maintain it. Um so that would be uh yours. My biggest
concern is what guarantees are there that it will maintain being public, that it will stay a public parking garage. Uh because a lot of these places like in Lakeland you go to, uh there'll be apartment comp and they just got through talking about another apartment complex
going in on that same parcel at the tip. Uh there are park uh parking garages in Lakeland where a parking or apartment complex will literally lease an entire floor. So that completely, you know, takes away from the amount. So now your
292 is down to 192 of public parking or also the uh shared office spaces that 610 runs. Amazing place. And I love 610. So please don't think I'm talking bad about you guys. I love the I love their business. But but also I don't want to
see them go, "Well, we have these shared office spaces and we kind of cut a deal for you guys. Do you mind if we lease out the bottom floor from 9:00 to 5:00 every day?" So, just like this parking garage that already exists, we can't park in there from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm every day. So, that cuts back parking
during the day for the the boutiques and other businesses that are open during the day. So, that would be my main concern about the whole thing is just let's make some guarantees in there that it maintains that it stays public parking. It doesn't get leased privately from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or overnight
for resident parking, things like that. Uh, that's my only concern and I hope you guys would also take that into consideration. Thank you. >> Next, state your name and address for the record. >> My name is Carl Coing. I have a business
on 64th Street Northwest. I've operated my business there for 33 years. I have been parking in the present parking garage since its very beginning in 2012. Uh I personally like it, but not
everybody feels that way. Um I would say on any given day the occupancy rate of the parking garage is about 35%. I know that because I calculated it. The bottom floor is usually full. The very
top floor is empty and the floor in between is sparse. Now, this is what I hear from my customers because I hear complaints about parking and I say, "Well, have you considered the parking garage?" He said, "Well, I'm not going
to park there." I said, "Well, why why don't you want to park there? It's so close. It's dark inside. They don't feel safe." And I've always had one to two employees who will not park there. Now, they're not allowed to
park in front of my store or else they would be fired. You know, you can't take away custo parking from the customers. So, they park in 24hour parking somewhere else down the street, but they will not, like many of my
customers, they will not park in that garage because it's dark. Now, I don't know if you need a new parking garage or not. I have no idea. Except you got to be very careful about the design because if it's dark inside,
they're not going to want to park there. Young people probably, but you got to keep in mind, so many of the customers down here are boomers. They're old. I'm I'm one of the oldest boomers out
there. I was born in 1946. I can still walk, talk, and chew gum. But you know, the boomers have half of the wealth of this country. 14 to 16
trillion dollars. My business caters to that age. We really do. I have things for everybody, but my customers are over 60 mostly. I have a baby department that does very
well. It's not young people buying the things in the baby department. It's the boomers. It's the grandmas, the first grandchild, etc., etc. So, you really I don't like I said, I don't know if you need another second garage or
not, but I know the first one does not work. And I've been parking there since the very beginning. And I you can't help but notice I on any given day, if you look at the electronic sign above the
garage, it's going to say 200 plus spaces available. So, that tells you something. the the garage, you know, had I mean, there's a lot of spaces in there and there there's so
many of them empty. I don't know how to put people in there. I really don't. I mean, when you think about when the parking was eliminated on Central, where did those people go? Well, they're
not in the parking garage. I can tell you that much. So, I would really look at the design very carefully. And like I said, I don't know if you need one or not, but if it's going to be a similar to the situation over here, I
mean, you're not getting you're not getting the mileage for the money out of that parking garage. Thank you. >> Anyone else? Good evening. Bud Strang. I'm CEO for 610 1733 East Lake Cannon Drive. Um,
just want to make a couple points. Um, parking is tough, but I listen all this is great news. 15, 20 years ago, there was no parking problem in downtown Winter Haven. You could park anywhere you wanted practically. all day for free
because no one was coming downtown. And it is a it's a problem that all all downtowns that are growing um and expanding deal with. There's no easy answer. There's no cheap answer to solve the problem, but it's a, you know, I I
salute the commission and and Mike her back in 22 when they uh engaged the the Walker folks for doing this because they knew this was going to come and the Walker report, which we did not we did not engage them, I thought was very well
done. Um, and they've they came highly recommended and they do this kind of work all over the state. Um, so I think this isn't something that we're not rushing into. This started four years ago. Uh, the commission and Mike her at the time had the foresight to go ahead
and start they made the down payment for this next parking garage. $4.5 million I believe was set aside that time. So, um, I I take a little bit of, like I said, I don't think this is being rushed into. Um, the second thing I just want to point out is this is economic
development. is that the way a downtown grows is you've got to bring more people down there. Whether it's people living down there, working down there, or visiting the hotel, for for example, that's what will event that's what I think helps make the smaller businesses
work. It's bringing people in and moving them around. Lakeland, our our sister city, has four parking garages. They're only a little over twice the size of Winter Haven, but they have four. They're working on the fifth one. and and look what's happening. The public's employees are moving down there. The I
forget the name of the big insurance company that's moving down there. And we have those kind of opportunities as well, but you can't you can't just snap your fingers and build a parking structure. This is something that takes a lot of time to do. So, um I salute you guys for considering this and and
looking at it. It's it's a real important decision for the city. Thank you. Thank you. >> Anyone else? My name is Cararissa Hughes and I own a business at 684th Street Northwest. And first and foremost, let me just say
thank you. Thank you for your investment. Thank you for 610. Thank you. Um we appreciate the development, the big picture. as a small business owner. What my intent here is today is to bring you my what affects me as a
small business owner. What affects, you know, we're talking about building the business, but it's my business that is directly affected. If my business leaves, you no longer have my small business. If we don't support the small businesses and think about what affects
those businesses and we're only thinking about these big pictures right now, we're all these big things. Are we really thinking about what affects your small businesses? Think about this, guys. Last year when we took away all that parking on Central Avenue and don't, it's beautiful. I love it. It's
gorgeous. We had so many complaints. People that want the ease, they want access. They want to be able to pull in front of the business that they want to go to and go in and get what they want and come out. And I realize the mindset is that we
want this walkability. I I get that. But again, just like Carl said, let's think about our demographics here for a second, okay? And I realize that we want to expand that. We want to think about the future. We want to think about moving people into those apartments. I I get it. But let's take a minute and
understand that seven businesses closed last year. Were those businesses compensated in any way? No. They're gone. So now we're just going to look for other businesses to just bring in. If you don't have those small businesses
in those in in the four blocks, there's nothing for those people to do. There's nothing. So, keep in mind I I I don't necessarily think that the parking garage is a bad idea. I I don't um I think that you just have to be mindful
of what it affects and how it is affected. Are there going to be streets shut down? Are there going to be more businesses affected? What does that growth what does that look like? So that's that's my intent. Bring
awareness from a small business owner's perspective and how the decisions that you make affect us, affect our lives. I literally I moved down here 10 years ago and every I've been in business for 15 years and every single year I've been in
business, my sales have exceeded the year before except the last two years. The last two years I took a 10-year setback. And I know that we've had difficulties. I know economically we're you going
through struggles, but the parking just about killed us. It just about killed us. We're here by the grace of God. So that's I I do appreciate you and I appreciate all that you do and I am
grateful for all the development. I am grateful for the growth. But I just wanted to get just bring that awareness to you from our perspective. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Hello, Mike Hill. 3206 East Lake
Cartridge Drive, Winter Haven. Um, I'm one of the investors of 610 and Silver. I've lived in Winter Haven area since I was nine years old and I am super excited to see what the city's done, the growth. I was one of the people that
pushed back on the parking garage in the very beginning, but I can tell you I know a lot of the small business owners. The whole thing we're doing this for is to make sure they can get people in. I come downtown three or four nights a week. I eat lunch in Winter Haven. I eat
dinner in Winter Haven. We go out for cocktails in Winter Haven. I eat at Lucille's every week. I support the local people. My wife supports, our friends support, but I can tell you it's getting harder and harder to find parking spaces. And my concern is
exactly what you just said. People aren't going to come to your business if we have nowhere to park. So, do I think maybe we could have some other areas like around Amy Thornals and some surface parking? Maybe that's something we look for. But I don't think these businesses are going to make it if we
don't give people places to park. And I know uh like I said, I push back really hard on that parking garage, but I also understand what these people need for their economic development. So, please consider that. Thank you very much for what you do.
>> Anyone else? >> I will make it short and sweet. I just want to clarify I am not against this parking garage. I am against how quickly it is going through and things aren't able to be addressed like how many of
those spaces are going to be able to be leased out to different businesses because I believe your current ordinance allows for quite a bit of it to be leased out. >> Current ordinance limits parking leases to 10% of the available inventory.
>> I believe you changed that. Did you not change that ordinance for struct the parking structure? >> That is what is in our current ordinance. >> So then when you were going to lease out the entire top floor of the current garage, how was that going to work? >> You buy a development agreement that would have to be approved by the CRA
board at that time and the city commission. That's the group that has the final say on that. The ordinance as it's written today is for 10%. And there is no nothing within this proposal that calls for any lease back of any spaces >> currently, but we all know how it goes once something gets moving. So, and
that's and that's my point. I feel like all of these things should just be addressed before you get into an agreement. And again, I'm not here opposing this parking garage because I do believe that side of town needs parking. I do believe those businesses deserve parking. I have been downtown
for 23. My business has been in the same location for 23 plus years and I have to beg to differ. 15 years ago I was having a parking problem there. Our businesses bring a ton of parking down there as well. And there's always been a parking problem since I've been in business. I I
actually see recently it seems like more of a ghost town than it's ever been the entire time I've been down here. So I just feel like it just needs a little more time. And again, I am not here to oppose it. I'm just asking that you give
some time for some of these questions and concerns to be addressed before you vote this through in two weeks. So, thank you for giving me the time and um thanks for your consideration.
>> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Good evening. Miguel Barcelo, 3024 Street Maritime. Uh, one of the owners there. >> Miguel, can you pronounce your last name again, please? >> Barcelo. >> Thank you. >> I'm uh I'm new to all of this, so we're
a new business here in Winter Haven. Not new to Winter Haven. Grew up here uh from here. Um, but have a lot of questions. Um, so with regard to what, you know, Jesse was saying here, uh, also, you know, very much in favor of the parking garage because we need the
parking for sure. Just want to be clear about that. Um, but I think that some of the concerns are that there's a lack of transparency. And I don't mean that in a negative way as if you're trying to hide anything, but for people like me who are new to the process, uh, it's not clear how we figure out where the money's
coming from um, or what the plans are tactically in terms of Sure. The parking garage is supposed to support business, but how exactly are we planning to do that? And what I mean with that question is, uh, for example, my business is going to be further south than the
parking garage is planned for, but nobody walks in that direction. There's no reason to walk in that direction if you don't know that the Bowen yard is there. And a year and a half into our existence, people are still coming to the restaurant for the first time and saying, "We didn't even know this yard was here." So, we're looking for support
from the city. And are we going to get that in terms of signage that will specifically point people in our direction or uh like someone had mentioned before, you know, golf carts or some kind of valet uh parking that will get people down to us? Um and
furthermore, uh going back to the transparency thing, um how do we get information from the city uh regarding what the plans are moving forward for future projects? Um you know, those kinds of things. If we could just have that in writing or some forum in which
we could present these questions so that all of us you know that are interested uh can you know get together whether it be online or in meetings like this where we can say hey we have all of these questions we submit them and then we get a time frame where someone says hey you
know on this web page or through this vehicle we're going to give you some answers in uh in writing where we have hey your question was this on this date here's our specific answer to that Um, and then the feedback is, did that answer your question? So, uh, those are my concerns. Just as someone who's new
new to all of this and you know experiencing this for the first time, it just seems that you know some questions are not able to be answered just because the forum of just getting up here asking a question that isn't necessarily able to be answered today at this time or
where it's available to everybody else in the community uh makes it difficult for the discourse to be uh useful um where people feel like they're being heard and having their questions answered. So, uh, to quit beating a dead horse, is there something
in place where people can ask their questions and have an actual specific answer given, you know, by the city or, uh, the contractors involved? >> Certainly, you're able to reach out to my office, to Mr. Labby. We'll be happy to sit down and share with you whatever
information it is you're looking for. It's kind of hard to put that out without knowing specifically what your your individual questions are, but >> Right. So that that's that's my point is that I there what is there not a vehicle set up to where we can actually in writing where everybody can see what our
questions are and we can collaborate you know extend those questions and then everybody >> I don't know there's a vehicle for that other than the public meetings that we do city commission meetings for that purpose for them to receive comments from the public but as far as you know
this proposal certainly give you a copy of it that you have the same thing that we have as far as this is what's submitted here's what the Walker analysis says to it. Here's our our fact sheet that goes with it. Um, and be have for anybody for that matter, myself and
and our planning staff, happy to sit down and go through that. >> Sure. Well, I would I would ask and even recommend that we do establish a vehicle, whether it be an online form or something where we can actually see, hey, these questions were asked on this date and here's the answer to those
questions. And that way everybody has a transcript of you know specifically what was asked and they get an actual you know very specific inwriting answer to those things um you know those concerns. I know that Jesse had asked about, you know, budgetary things like, hey, where is that money coming from? And you did
answer. Um, but it would be nice if that was in in writing so that people can actually see and we can disseminate, you know, whether it be through Facebook or whatever other vehicle cuz, you know, a guy like me, I it's my first time ever coming to one of these. And even though I've come here, it's a lot of information to try to remember all of
that without, you know, having my own personal stenographer. uh you know it's going to be hard to relay all the information I've gotten to you know my friends and my business partners. So >> well and for the benefit uh Mr. Marcelo and for you and everybody else everything that we have we've presented
this evening is available online through the agenda packet. So certainly that's and that's published for every commission meeting. In addition to reaching out to me and my staff certainly encourage you to reach out. You have five elected officials that will be happy to meet with you at the
same time, not them at the same time, but individually to answer questions and hear concerns. And that's that's really what their role is is the elected body. >> Okay. Thank you for your time. Anyone else? >> No one else.
All right, we just item we'll come back and >> so Mr. Mayor, commissioners, certainly we've taken note of questions asked this evening. Um you'll meet again on December 8th. We'll bring those
questions back. Uh provide answers to the specific questions. Uh and at that point you'll have an opportunity to decide how you want to proceed. Um and again anything that would be specific to a comprehensive agreement to advance the
project if deemed appropriate by the commission that would come back. I would anticipate no sooner than the end of January, your second meeting in January, more realistically probably early February 2026 for your consideration at
that time. Right. Okay. All right. Any questions? Any more comments? All right. We going to move on. Commissioner Leon reports.
Commissioner Dancler. >> Okay. Kind of a sparse couple weeks for me. wine, chocolate, and cheese. Uh, one of my favorite events that the city puts on or that Main Street puts on. Very well attended. Good time there. Opening of Lake Elbert Trail. That's been something
that's been uh talked about for over 40 years as we talked about at the grand opening. So glad to see that finally become a reality. Uh that's going to be one of those projects, iconic projects that's going to that's going to be used by the
residents of this community for well over 50 years. So also attended the Winter Haven Police Department Thanksgiving lunchon. Finally got a piece of that peanut butter pie I keep hearing about. So that was delicious. Whoever makes that has gets my compliments. Uh state of the city T.
Michael, you did a great job. uh staff was there in force uh supporting you and made the city commission look good. So, thank you for the state of the city. And then last but not least, I attended the Hart for Winter Haven banquet. And uh I've been to a lot of banquetss for Hart
for Winter Haven and others through the years, and that was one of the best ones that was just top-notch from top from from beginning to end. So, they did a good job with that banquet. So, uh um and that's it for me. >> All right. Commissioner Dles,
>> good evening. Very informative meeting tonight. In interest of time, I'll just made my comments that I did uh attend the uh Lake Elbert uh trail which is uh really phenomenal and uh encourage anyone ever want to uh take the opportunity to utilize that. That's all
I have for >> Okay, Tim Yates. >> Thank you. Just a couple couple items this evening I wanted to um bring attention to. Number one, yes, the state of the city was was phenomenal. Um
countless people came up and said, "Where did you get that guy?" T Michael. I'm like, "Oh my gosh." >> Didn't want to want his head to quite explode, but he did. >> So, if the guy from Laugh Out Loud Lounge is here, he could probably get you somebody better.
>> He uh I I will say I I I agree. you did a phenomenal phenomenal job and we are lucky uh as a as a city to have a city manager as team Michael just very articulate way more than I
ever could be um to really get the message out there and that's where again that that gentleman that just spoke you know I mean it's coming coming to things like that and just being involved that's that's really what it comes down to it's coming to commission meetings it's
attending cities uh states when uh states of the city events all those kind of things just add up and make you a more well-informed citizen attending cityu is another one you know I mean just becoming a more well-informed
citizen it it it's it's on their part as well and um I just I just am glad that we as a city continue to make those um things available um to our citizens also attended the Heart 400 Haven event.
That was a great event. I mean, that that was packed. That was I think 54 tables and I I didn't see very many empty seats. That was a phenomenal event for them. Um and then finally, I'll just say the Lake Albert Trail. Wow. Um I was a little bit
frustrated because of some of the things that I saw after the event out there on social media. And you know, it's like gosh, I I know better than to look at social media by now after six years of doing this, but it still want to get what the pulse is out there. And I'll
just say the Lake Elbert Trail was not a pet project for anyone. It was a legacy project for the city of Winter Haven. I am 43 years old. I had think about that for a second. I grew up on Lake Elbert. Um, I walked home from school from
Elbert Elementary to to to home and walked through everybody's yards and got yelled at most more often than not from the baby boomers of that time. Um, get out of my yard. I'm like, I not supposed to walk in the street. Where am I supposed to walk? But, you know, that's
something that that students no longer have to worry about. They can they can walk around that trail to get from point A to point B. um exercising in the community. I mean, I need to go walk that trail more often now. Um just a it
it's just it's a healthy project for the health of of Winter Haven and I couldn't be more proud of it. Wasn't my project. It wasn't Commissioner Danclers or anybody else's up here. That was a generational legacy project that that occurred and I couldn't be more proud of
it. I wanted to address one accusation that I saw out there and I'm like I saw it and I'm like that I just don't even that's not accurate. I don't remember anything ever seeing this but that is imminent domain. We have to my knowledge there was no imminent domain you
utilized for the Lake Elbert Trail project. Every single land owner there either donated the land or was compensated for their land. and quite frankly, their homes are probably more valuable now because that trail
exists. So, I just wanted to clarify that accusation to get the facts straight on that. And again, certainly not since I've been on this commission have we ever enacted imminent domain on a on a on a piece of property. And
that's not anything I would ever support. >> Can you clarify that? Can you, >> city manager? So there was no eminent domain involved in any way, shape or form on the Lake Elbert Trail. Uh we use a voluntary acquisition process. We do
have every parcel and these are small parcels. These are lakeside kind of repairarian and right parcels or or natural parcels that across a street. Um every one of those is appraised. We use Florida appraisal and acquisition services for that reputable appraising
company um to identify all those parcels and then we worked individually with every property owner uh to negotiate the purchase prices. Um eminent domain does not come into play in that in any way, shape or form. In fact, on the eastern
most side of Lake Elbert, there were property owners who did not want to to sell off, you know, their their lakeside portion of the property. And in those cases, we simply stopped that negotiation and and worked to improve the small
sidewalk that was there. Um, so we worked with every single property owner through there. It was an extremely cooperative and engaged collaborative process. Um Andy Palmer sat with countless residents going through that
project with them. Um and to your point, I've been here going on I'm now entering my 25th year in administration with the city. Never once used eminent domain during that period. And looking back historically, I don't know that the city
of Winter Haven has ever exercised eminent domain on an individual parcel. If we can't acquire a piece of property through an outright negotiated purchase, we don't acquire the property. Um 370
acres of Bradco Farms negotiated purchase. 154 acres of astute financial negotiated process to purchase that the Bennett property that you approved. uh for zoning and land or yeah for zoning and land use again purchased that from
the Bennett family. So we don't it's eminent domain is more a function of the state typically with major roadway projects or perhaps the county with major county transportation projects. >> Thanks. I appreciate that. I just it I
take it personally when there's you know sorry I'm passionate about that part that but it's just this is my hometown and I'm I just that drives me crazy when somebody you know makes those accusations. So I'm proud of the city and and everything that we do and um we
respect our residents and and property owners and um I I just couldn't be more proud to to live in the city of Winter Haven. So that's I'm done. >> Okay. I'm I'm I'm going to start out by adding something to what you just said.
I've been here for 23 years and Commissioner Dancler knows that the major re reason in my opinion that that park
that that trail was never built is because the people that own the property were not willing right >> to give anything up, sell it or donate
it or any other way. They did not want that trail. And so the city of Winter Haven, we did not try to imminent domain or anything else
to get it. So 23 years later, here we are. The people that own the property is the reason that that trail is there. We never could have done it
without negotiating getting those people to either sell. Some of them donated. And I do know this for a fact that years ago they absolutely majority said no way,
no way, no way we're going to have no trail around our lake. So I just wanted to chime in on that. And I do have a little experience with eminent domain, too. Yes. with the water
cooperative. And there are times that it has to take place to get water all over this county, the transmission lines. You don't own all the property, but that's a story for another time. But
since I mentioned the PRWC, I did have a meeting and I've been selected to chair couple of the committees. So, I'm going to do that. Um, and attended the new employee
lunchon. And uh, one of my favorite things is to uh, go to the Veterans Day celebration and have uh, lunch with the veterans. So, I went over and had lunch at Lake Harvard
Heights uh, for the Veterans Day celebration. Uh, I've already mentioned the Lake Elbert Trail. The food was good from the police department lunchon
and the state of the city address was good. And there's something else that you all have done t with the website that people just need to know that there is so much information
that's available that people don't know. I I don't think they know about uh projects and everything else. I mean, we need to we need to make sure I know
y'all are doing it, but I'm saying um I do know this. No matter how hard you try, you're not going to reach everybody. I don't care what you do,
you're not going to reach everybody. And uh the fact of the the the the uh garage study that that was done, man, we did spend money for that. We spent
money. I was here. We spent money because we felt that there was going to be a need. So, we spent the money and here we are. And a lot of people weren't here then,
but some people were. Jesse gone. Yeah, she's gone. But at any rate, it is what it is. Um, and that's all I have. City attorney. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Commission.
Nothing this evening. >> One more thing. >> Happy Thanksgiving. >> Happy Thanksgiving. >> Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I was going to chime in there. Thank you, sir. Likewise to everyone. >> Okay. City manager. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Commissioners. Couple items, uh, if you'll indulge me. Um, great comments from our business
community and residents this evening. And that's why we have this process. This is about being transparent and hearing concerns and support and all that will come back to you in in report for the next meeting. Couple things that
came up. Wayfinding, uh, Mr. Marcelo had mentioned that and that is something that our CRA staff is is working on at present time. We actually have a meeting tomorrow with representatives from Lakeland Area Mass Transit District regarding the circulator route that we've been discussing as well as
microtransit. So yes, all those things are occurring at the same time. We did do a safety audit on the existing parking garage to make improvements to that with lighting. That's what brought about a lot of the improvements we did with the uh the resealing of that building. And we recognize that if
you're going to have parking structures, everything you can do to put as much natural or artificial light into that is important. Um also look forward to as we look to support our small businesses. Um what may be coming back to the commission and the CRA board at some
point in the next month or so. uh hopefully with uh some concepts for some new grant type programs that specifically target benefiting our local small businesses. Um you mentioned Thanksgiving and uh city offices will be
closed Thursday and Friday. However, myself and deputy city manager will be available to address concerns should you have any that come up during that time. I do want to take an opportunity this evening to introduce you to a new employee. So, uh, we have with us this
evening our brand new fire marshal, uh, Jeremas Perez. Uh, so I'm going to give Chief New Brand an opportunity to make that introduction. But as you know, the fire marshall is an extremely important part of our organization, works with all of our businesses, certainly
investigates any fires that we have, and we are grateful to have filled that role with Mr. Perez. So, Chief Newan, >> good evening, mayor, commissioners. Um, I know it's been a long night, so I'm going to keep it kind of short for you, but uh, we're really blessed to be able
to add our new fire marshal to our administrative staff and team. Um, want to take the opportunity to introduce you to him, put the face with a name, as you'll see him out in the community, but his entire goal is really to strengthen uh, the safety in the businesses and the
community around here. comes with about 10 years experience in fire prevention practices, served as an assistant fire marshal as well as a fire marshal in other entities in the surrounding area. Um, and with that, uh, this is Jeremiah
Perez to my leftish on the side and offer him any words he might want to say to you guys this evening. >> All right. Uh, good evening everyone, commissioners, um, city mayor. Uh, thank you for having me. It's definitely a privilege. I'm blessed to be here. I am
born and raised here in Winter Haven and I'm proud to serve as your fire marshal. Um, I'll do my best to not let anyone down. I'm only human, but I'll do what I can and uh if you ever need anything me from me, I'm just as transparent as the city. Ask away and I'll do what I can for you guys. >> Thank you.
pretty exciting that we have uh we've in the past year hired a fire chief and a fire marshal both of which did not work for us previously but reside within the community that they serve and I think that's awesome so uh and with that one
last thing um I mentioned you all mentioned Lake Elbert Trail super proud of of Andy Palmer and Julie Adams and the entire team that worked on that people are using that like crazy it is a uh just a phenomen phenomenal asset that
the community um has come to enjoy. Members of the city team will be out there bright and early on Thanksgiving Day about 7 a.m. doing a little healthy walk jog. If any of you are so inclined to join us, we'd love to to see you out
there. Thank you, >> city clerk. >> Oh, can I jump in? >> Dep manager, >> I actually have something for you this evening. Um, I just wanted to recognize I think Mr. Arlland Arbiter is uh with us still. If you could just raise his hand. Mr. Arlland Arbiter.
>> Yes. >> Oh, he was appointed to our urban forestry advisory board on the consent agenda. I just wanted to recognize him. Thank you for being here and for his commitment to that team. So, that is it for me this evening and happy Thanksgiving. >> Thank you, city clerk. >> Well, I do have a lot of things, so just
bear with me one second. So, as you already know, the runoff election is next Tuesday, December 2nd. Um just uh want to uh let you know that reminder postcards to registered voters with their specific polling locations have been mailed. Um early walk-in voting
voting started today and continues until this Wednesday, November 26th and then on Monday, December 1st. Those locations are at the Poke County Supervisor of Elections Operations Center in Winter Haven and also the Poke County Supervisor of Elections Headquarters in
Barto. for the runoff. The Poke County Government Center in Lakeland is not available this time. And of course that for early walk-in voting, the hours to do so are 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. On election day, the polls are open from
7:00 a.m. to 700 p.m. So the same polling locations that serve the November 4th election will also serve in the runoff election. And those are the two note those two new locations were Spring Haven Senior Living on Havenale and also Cypress Ridge Presbyterian
Church on Cypress Gardens Boulevard. Just know that we have added three more pole workers to that location. So hopefully that'll speed things up a little bit more. Um I asked them to um add a couple people and then they added one more uh deputy. Um, all this
information and more is available on the city's website on the election page and there's also helpful information on the Poke County Supervisor Elections website that includes the voter lookup page and that's where a voter can use that um to go in there and verify if they're in the
city limits or not. Um, also tomorrow, uh, no, uh, at 11:30 a.m., there's a logic and accuracy test of voting equipment at the Supervisor of Elections Operations Center in Winterhaven. Both candidates were invited to attend, and
since no quorum is needed for this, Mayor Birdong has agreed to attend to represent the canvasing board. Um, lastly, I just want to follow up on an email that I sent you all last week regarding the canvasing board meeting on Friday, December 5th at 10 a.m. here at
city hall. And that's to certify the runoff. And I understand most of you are attending the Florida League of Cities Legislative Conference um on December 4th or 5th, fourth and 5th. But this particular meeting requires a quorum of the canvasing board. So, I do need to
know other than Commissioner Dancler, who will be here, um, who is definitely going to attend. >> What time is it? >> That is December 5th at 10:00 a.m. >> And it does need a quorum. So, that's why the the importance of it. If you
made it later in the day, would they could y'all make it? I know 10:00 a.m. on the >> That already been advertised. That's set in stone that time >> and date. >> Sorry, guys.
You don't if you're not in, you don't it count. It doesn't matter to you. >> He He can be He is part of the Oh, >> he can. Yes. Okay. >> But you have to do the signature training. Yes. >> Have you done that already? >> No, not yet. I've provided the information. >> I saw that email. I was notified tonight.
>> Yes. And I sent an email last weekend and today. So, >> what about Tracy? Is she out? >> She's going to >> She's going to the uh Florida League of Cities conference as well. >> Well, there you go. You need two more.
>> Need one more. >> And my issue is I have a 8:30 meeting and then an 11 meeting there at the conference. I'll be We only need one of you, not two. I'll be part of it as the alternate. So, I just need one more.
>> Trace to be there. >> This this we need to get this settled tonight, I think. >> Yes. >> Because we can't be wondering if we're going to have a quorum. This is an important thing. We It's statutory. We've got to get it's got it's got to get resolved.
It's an important requirement. >> Well, I I'll just say there will there will be a quorum here. If I have to leave and not attend one of the meetings I'm needed at, then I'll I'll leave and get here. But we can continue to work on schedules and also check with Tracy.
Worst case scenario, I I'll I'll leave the the meeting that I may may need to be at to this need to be here. So, mayor and commissioners, I'll I'll lend you a hand in this. Um I'm an alternate.
I'm scheduled to be at that same conference for the same purposes. I'll forgo my attendance on Friday morning and drive back that morning for that meeting. Well, I think let let's keep it as a worst case. Let's make sure Tracy where
she's at with it and then we we we know we've got coverage. >> That's the main issue. >> I I haven't done my that certification as of yet, but um um >> because if I had, but I will get that done this week and uh I'd be willing to
also uh come back early to to be able to do that. I know we've already expended resources to, you know, be at the uh at the session. So, uh I know that that's important. Uh but we will >> the problem is that the meeting is going
to be here not won't be 15 minutes. We'll certify the election and you guys can go back. So, you're going to have to drive over and drive back. >> Nothing happening. >> If you really if those meetings are so good that you just can't miss one. >> I'm not driving I4 twice a day.
I'll be here Friday. >> I'll be here for the meeting Friday. >> So, we got more people we know what to do with. >> I think I'm gonna skip. >> You're going to be here, mayor? >> I need you for sure. >> I'm going to go to the beach or something. >> I I didn't understand what you just said, Mayor Bird. You're >> I'll be here.
>> You'll You'll be at the meeting on Friday the 5th. >> Yes. >> Oh, okay. >> I may be late. The traffic's bad. You can't be too late. We got it figured out,
>> John. It'll be all right. >> Good. I I agree with you. It will. >> And that's all I have. Thank you very much, everyone. Have a happy Thanksgiving. >> Emergency matter is not received for the agenda. Motion to adjurnn.