Thank you. Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order this agenda review. Can I get a roll call, please? Yes. Commissioner Dison here. Commissioner Mercer here. Commissioner Dancler here. Mayor Pro Tim Yates
here. and Mayor Bura here. All right. Uh we have some presentations, but the we have the first one for agenda review only will be Willoughbrook.
So if do you want to do those this before or after the agenda, Mr. Mayor? We can do it either way. Uh you've got Willoughbrook, you've got one from Tennis, and then we also have a strategic plan presentation. I'd like to get them out. Okay. Okay.
Unless y'all need to some more time. If they're not ready by now, they're not going to be. I can guarantee you they want to go first and get out of here. I know. I'm I'm think that's what I'm doing for y'all. Well, good evening. U my name is Dan
Zimmer. I'm uh vice president of operations with with Trunolf. And then also here is Joe Kohley, our general manager out at Willoughbrook. So, we're going to go through this is kind of a two-part presentation. First part, we'll give an update uh on the golf course and the operations. Uh and then at the end,
um we'll turn it over to Katie and she's going to do an update on all of the projects that are going on out there as well. Um, I'm going to turn it over to uh to Joe and he's going to run through some uh historical information on on uh on
revenue and rounds and then just updates on on the course in general. Just a couple graphical representations of our rounds from uh historically at the golf course. So starting the first year 2014 and then this year currently which is
the forecasted same with uh our revenues graphical and then the last will be the bottom line from uh so there are some reasons that you saw that decline at the end there. So to begin the year we started with some uh effects of Helen
and Milton which impacted the beginning of you know September October where we first start to get things underway and then throughout the golf season we had a below average temperatures in January and then the tariff tensions throughout the United States and Canada kind of deterred some of the snowbirds from
coming down or staying as long as they normally would and then their rentals kind of lapsing. Also, the inflation within the economy has a higher impact on the senior golfers, especially the snowbirds that come down. Fixed incomes, everything else costs a little bit more. So, you start to see the discretionary
spending getting a little bit tighter, which golf would be generally fall under that category. The inflation also affects our expenses and our labor. Some of the external things around the golf courses, the housing development going on adjacent to the golf course, the construction phases that are currently taking place. Uh they've leveled the
land and they've brought in fill and especially in the drier months of the winter. Creates a lot of dust. Also creates a lot of traffic out on the Lousern Park road getting in and out of the golf course. Some things that maybe most people don't think of impacting the golf business, but it it it did this
season. And then looking at the impacts that we'll see through the renovations, um we started to spray out the greens at the end of May. So that slowed us down when we would normally be a little bit busier when you're playing on dead greens. And then we'll that'll be impactful through about mid to end of
November. Uh we closed the golf course for play on 18 holes on June 30th and we will probably be closed to the end of August. Hoping to reopen in September on temporary greens through the reopening on the regular greens in November.
Uh course conditions currently in the fairways are very nice. excellent turf conditions. We did not have to overseed this winter, which let us spray deeper into the fall and start spraying sooner in the spring, which leads to that
luscious turf. And we've got areas of grass that had never been grown grass out there before. Um during the season, our greens were all in great shape. We did a slight overseed on the greens. We didn't overseed anything else other than the greens. Just dusted them. They were
coming out of transition very nicely until we had to spray them out for the upcoming renovations. And throughout the renovation process, we plan on taking the greens out to closer to their original size that they were prior to the encroachment throughout the years.
Uh all the tea boxes have excellent turf coverage. One of the resources that we have through this renovation is the old greens mix that has been taken out of the current greens. We were able to use that to top dress the tea boxes. So, we started that process a couple weeks ago
where we will be top dressing tea boxes throughout this closure, which will help promote the turf throughout this growing season. So, when we get into the winter, it'll be some of the best tea boxes we've ever had out there. Our loyalty program continues to be one
of the best in the market. It offers the guaranteed lowest rates all year. We we build in value options such as a sleeve of golf balls or lunch in the morning. And then you also get the rate breaks an hour earlier. So if you're looking at a regular rate sheet, say the public rate
breaks at 1:00, the discount card holder breaks at 12. So normally people wait till 1:00 to book a tea time, you kind of alleviate that big gap in the T- sheet where people aren't calling because they want the cheaper rate later. So you just give a different group of people a cheaper rate an hour earlier. Our social media has grown to a
thousand plus followers. This is the platform that we've used to keep people updated on our renovation process. Uh we've got videos, pictures. We're running specials for the driving range. Specials for the pro shop while the pro shop and driving range do remain open throughout the the actual golf course
closure. Uh as we always touch on, ACE is our guest experience training. It's the three pillars right here. Every employee goes to this training every year. They got we give a pledge at the end and it we'll be really pushing the ACE experience towards our reopening to make
sure that we're banging on all cylinders when the golf course gets back to full capacity. Just a couple of examples of some reviews that we've gotten over the last few months. Um, fivestar reviews. Course is in great shape. I love playing it
many times. I'll keep coming back. Uh, a lot of people like to touch on the nature views of the golf course. It's it's still old Florida golf course at its heart. So you get some of that throughout the front back nine. And then this is our regional support
team. These are the people that we rely on that aren't on site to get us through our daily operations. Pause for some questions. So while things are shut down out there, I get, you know, got the driving range
and putting green kind of still open. And is the restaurant open still or is the shop is still open or the practice screen is not open because it's being renovated as well. The restaurant is not open either. So the pro shop is open and the drying range is open. We do run food and beverage
through the golf shop. Just snacks and beverages and stuff like that, but none of the kitchen is open. And so are we doing other things like is the maintenance crew still out there or are they working on the greens with the contractor that's handling that or
the maintenance staff is working more than they would normally work at the regular time because they have a perfect opportunity with no golfers out there to get a lot of stuff done. That that was what I was alluding to was I was wondering if we were going to punch the fairways or if we were going to cut shrubs and out of the lakes and keep the
canal cleaned up and stuff like that while every while the crew is working on the other things. Uh yes to all of the things that you outlined. Those are things um you know Joe had mentioned before the ability to top dress uh TE's uh in certain parts of the fairways using the spoils from from
the greens uh when they when they cord them out. Um, and then also, you know, getting on the perimeters and clearing out those areas which have kind of over the last 30 years have have encroached on the golf course. So, being able to push those back. Um, certainly the the
lake banks and and cleaning those out. Um, and then there's a lot of tree work that needs to be done. So spending time on on the lower limbs and being able to clean those up and create uh for two two reasons creates better air flow where you can, you know, get a better area to
to grow turf and then also our team can maintain that better. You can get mowers underneath them and equipment underneath them to to maintain those areas. Thank you. Go ahead. Um I guess Joe, you might can answer
this or maybe Dan. I don't know. When I see a number go down like that about rounds, I immediately think about Canadian boycott. Is it can you point to that more than anything? I mean, I know you gave me a whole litany of things. Is that And are you seeing this all on all your other courses potentially or is it just us?
Yeah, so the during the season there was really twofold. January was a a very cold month uh much much colder than normal. So, uh the weather impacted play in January all throughout the state of Florida. Uh and then certainly in the snowbird markets the the Canadian impact
um uh was was significant. So we did see similar uh for example down in in southeast Florida like Fort Lauderdale area we saw the same thing. it was either um Canadians not coming down uh shortening their trip and then also
we're looking forward to next year of are they um you know because there's a long lead time to booking those accommodations when they come down you know there have been a lot that have opted opted out of of not coming down this following year as well. So that's something that we follow closely um and
hoping kind of smooths out but it was a a significant impact. Okay. All right. Okay. Good evening, mayor and commissioners. I'm Katie White. I'm a project lead with the parks and rec department and working
on the Willburg project. So, just a quick overview of our project so far. So, like uh Joe mentioned, the clo the course was fully closed on June 30th um with the driving range and pressure shop remaining open. Uh the irrigation pond has been cleaned out and we're working
with utilities to install new instrumentation for the reuse line. As of today, all 18 grains have been scraped out, which entails removing the top layers of the uh grass and soil. The
root zone mix should be all installed in the greens by the middle of next week. And in this video that you're seeing, that's them working in the new root zone mix on the putting green. So preliminary irrigation work has begun and the grains irrigation work on the back nine should
begin next week followed by the front nine. The irrigation work is slated to be done by the end of the end of July. And in this video you can see the grains that have been filled with the new root zone mix. So irrigation completion is our
primary um objective of finishing that. But Trun does plan on opening um on temporary greens once the sprigs are down which the sprigs will follow the irrigation work. So the growin process is slated to be
complete towards the end of the year and that's when TR will open up on the new greens. And that's our update so far. I'm sure we'll have another update in the next couple months. They consider saying greens. All right. Any questions?
All right. Thank you. Thank you. We do the pickle ball. Tennis. I mean tennis. Yeah, tennis. That's still a sport. Lead with tennis, please.
Pickle ball. But I'll be question. I'm calling it pickle ball. Forget the tennis. This is Dave. Anybody's ever seen him in long pants. I never have. Actually, MJ said, "Who's the bald guy sitting over there?" I said the same thing.
I know. My wife won't even recognize me in this outfit. So, uh, appreciate you having me tonight. U, my name is Dave Saltman. I'm the, uh, head tennis professional at the, uh, tennis center. So, um, we're going to go over the what we've been doing. Um, I think the last
time I was here was probably maybe a year year ago. Couple years ago at least, probably. So, um, and so we've been growing. So, um, just to let you guys have an update of what's going on. Um,
we have our missions and goals. Um, our number one mission, and we I tell this to our employees all the time, is we want to provide outstanding customer service. I mean that's that is the forefront of what we're always focusing on whether we're giving lessons or classes drills uh private lessons
running leagues uh working with um uh set doing the courts because we have the hard true clay courts sub irrigated surface uh takes a lot of of maintenance but one of the things we we do is we rake the courts every day and a lot of
the people have come here from out of town to play on our courts and they've said they're the best courts they've ever played on and that includes the national campus in Orlando all the way to St. Petersburg where they have tournaments and things. Um, second mission and goal is to create a fun
family atmosphere. Um, when people come in, we want to make them feel like, hey, this is like just part of my life. I come here, I play tennis, I play pickle ball, and we really have uh we try to create a fun family atmosphere. Uh, outstanding court conditions. Like I
said, we spend a lot of time on that. Uh making sure the facility is looking right. Um we're also here to help people achieve their goals, their tennis goals. And you know, at at the end of the day, we're striving to be the best tennis center in Central Florida. We want to be talked about beyond Winter Haven. And uh
we've you as we as I go on with this uh presentation, you'll see how we are reaching out beyond just uh the city of Winter Haven and helping people outside of the city of Winter Haven besides the residents here. Uh we offer classes for all levels. Um before I forget, uh the
little girl in the picture here is um she's from Lake Wales High School and she's actually walking on at South Eastern University, so she'll be playing college tennis. This is a young girl that I worked with uh uh for several years um you know and she came to me
just was a really good athlete and through hard work on her part she's been able to lift her game up to a level where now she's actually going to have an opportunity to go play college tennis and she but like I said she's from Lake Wales. Side note, um long time ago I
used to teach her dad at uh Boone Middle School in Hayne City. And so and I went uh uh with her uncle. I went to high school with her uncle. So it's you know whole county we're all related somehow. But uh getting back to the classes uh we offer classes ages 5 years old all the
way to 18. And the classes have doubled since 2022. Uh, a lot of it has to do with one, we brought in a um an assistant pro to help out with classes because we were busting at the seams. Um, and also the growth in this area.
Uh, we have uh really developed a following here. So, our classes have really grown. Um, we have also offer adults classes ranging from beginners to advanced and we also offer doubles drills or um, which are a lot of people
like to play doubles. Um, our average age basically for the adults is I always say we're around a 55 and over and a level of about a 3.5 which means pretty good level. But, um, so doubles drills is really popular at our facility.
Um, some growth to share with you. Uh, memberships have increased by five times since 2018. We opened the facility in May of 2018. U, our average class size has doubled since 2024. Um so an example our ready for red class which has um is
a five and six year old red ball group it's little to kids uh has gone from a average class size of eight to almost 16. So uh it you know and if you think about 16 5-year-olds out there with tennis rackets playing it's it's a
challenge. Um yeah uh our if you look at our pickle ball reservations, our pickle balls reservations has tripled since uh 2021. And that is um our walkups. So if you go I it's in here for 6, what 193
walkups in 2021 we had 2,595 walkups. So a walk up is anybody who just comes up and wants to pay as they play. And um our overall for 24-25 our overall uh memberships is uh we have three different
classifications. We have just pickle ball, we have tennis and pickle ball and then we have going through the fieldhouse. So you can do fieldhouse, tennis and pickle ball. So in 2425 it was 330 total 42 pickle ball only 257 tennis and 31 people were the dual or
the triple I should say pickle ball fieldhouse and so you can see it's gone from 330 in 2324 the total was 164 so it's gone from 164 for to 330 um the walkups for pickle ball and people that wise pickle ball doesn't have as many
more of a migration type group where they like to play not just at our facility, but they'll go to Barto has opened up a facility. Uh Lakeland has opened up a facility. So, they're more nomadic with their with their uh with
their sport versus tennis. We have people who are specifically they identify as city of Winter Haven tennis center people. And I think that's why that there's a big change between the There's one of them right there. Yes,
sir. 40 40 and over 80. uh sectional champion right there. Perfect. They probably identify with a specific court, too, don't they? Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I need Yes. Yeah. We have people who specifically want there same court all the time. So, but uh Yeah. But we work with them to do that. Um uh the USA League tennis, USA
um is u the basically the national tennis association for our country. Okay. And uh the league teams we have increased from when I got here in 2016 there was I believe five or six out of there. We're up to 18 teams now. That
includes men's, women's, mixed. Uh so we have really increased that. With that being said, that also increases the amount of court usage and the amount of space. So it's it is quite a challenge to try to fit everybody in. It's almost like a puzzle if you look at our
scheduling book to try to figure out how to get everybody accommodated. But uh so uh but we do have that. It's a lot of fun. Um Commissioner Dancler was part of our team that got back just got back from the USA national campus. We uh reached the we won our sectionals. So
when you win sectionals, you get to go to state and uh he was part of the team that got there got to go. And uh we have another team actually that are practicing right now, a ladies team out on out on our hardcourt. they're going to go ne in a week for uh 40 women. So,
it's it's kind of fun having that um that group. Um we've also hosted the high school boys and girls tennis championships um the last couple years. Well, not la not the year before, but this past year uh the Winter Haven boys and the Winter Haven girls play out of our facility. uh Winter Haven boys
actually got to the state tournament this year and um and I'll go in that into a second, but we do host the there we had over 200 people attend the event this past spring. So that was not just that was not counting the tennis teams, that was actually people coming to
watch. So that was uh it was a good event there. Um Winter Haven is home to the USA League. Uh we have 18 teams. We have four sectional champions. Um, like I said, Commissioner Dancler was on one of those teams. Uh, we win Winter Haven High School. Uh, the middle school, JW
Academy plays out of there. St. Joseph's uh, uses the courts out of here. And it says Florida Southern, South Eastern, and Florida State. Those are the three schools that we just recently had students. Um, we have a stu one of our players. I call him students because I'm
a teacher, but uh, one of our players, he's attending Florida Southern playing tennis there. him and my son who committed to Florida State who plays tennis. Uh they just won the state championship in doubles and my son just won the state championship in singles and he's actually down in playing the
national clay courts uh USA national clays right now in Boca Raton. So he won today so he's in the round of 16. Oh wow. So he hopefully he just keeps on rolling. So um some pictures here. The two girls on the left are from Proof. Uh
they play for Frost Proof. They also qualified for the state tournament. Uh they've been with me since they were eight years old. The one on the left, the blondhaired one on the left, she's actually going to play tennis at South Eastern. So we have two players going to Southeastern. Uh the picture in the
middle, the one with the hair, that is my son, and I don't know where he got it from, his mom. But yeah, his mom for sure. Um, but uh he won the he won the double double which was a singles championship and a uh double sub doubles championship and
his partner is on the left as I'm looking at it. I guess that's how you guys Yeah. Um they won the doubles. He's going to play at Florida Southern. And so um it's just it's kind of neat seeing these kids grow because you're giving them an opportunity. You know, like I said, the girl from Lake Wales,
Michaela, who's going to Southeast five years ago, in her wildest dream, she would never have thought, oh, I'm gonna go play college tennis. But you give them that dream, you know, things, amazing things can happen. Uh, to go over the pickle ball, pickle ball is picking up. Um, our weekday averages
attendance. When we say attendance, that is what we do is we've split Monday through Friday up to in the evening time to ho be able to hold or host the number of players. Um, and the weekday average is between 15 to 35 players coming
through there. Usually it's around right around 35. Mondays and Wednesdays, it's a higher level. Really good players. Tuesdays and Thursdays is a little bit lower level. It's more like for fun. um the Monday, Wednesdays, these guys play tournaments and stuff like this. So
they're using our facility and then the weekend is Saturday mornings 8 to 12 and you're running running between 40 to 60. Okay. So we have if you notice in the picture we have four courts, right? So you know it's it's we have people sitting out. The way the game's played is social game. It's but you win, you
rotate in, you lose, you rotate with a different partner and then once you're done you rotate out. But with four courts, you know, we we try to make it happen with the 40 to 60, but you know, on Saturdays. So, um, but it it's um, you know, it's fun to see them out there. They really enjoy it. It's kind
of like a, you know, it's a it's a it's a it's a following, so to speak. And, uh, the it's interesting because since I when I got there, the average age now is actually dropping where before it was more of an an older age group. So if you look at our age group that's actually
playing now dropping down into almost uh mid20s and now they it's really highly competitive when it comes to the you know that that group because they're always wanting to play tournaments but we still do have the older groups um people my age and stuff playing for fun
socially. So uh that's it. I'll open it up for any questions um and uh we really appreciate you know the city's support in helping us out with with our endeavors there. All right, I got just a couple comments and then I
ask a question. So, first of all, Dave's son, Ben, y'all heard me brag about him for a couple years now. He's really, really good. If you were put him on football, he'd be a fivestar recruit. Could go anywhere he wanted. Too bad he couldn't get into Florida, but that's okay. You know, he could have.
No, but you you guys keep an eye on him because he's got one more year. I don't know if he's going to play high school or not. He's at a level where high school tennis is, you know, hopefully he'll play another year and do it again and repeat. But, uh, if you ever want to see a really really good tennis player, you're going to see him on TV one day. Go down there and watch him play. He's
really fascinating. Um, yeah. So, the the um you know, the the the tennis facility is uh very crowded and uh it's very busy. I have a standard time where I play on 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturdays and by 10 o'clock it doesn't
matter who I am when I was mayor I was coming off the court. They were kicking me off. I tried to pull the mayor card, the commissioner card to stay on. They will not let you stay on. So by 10 o'clock you got to come off. So there's we're extremely busy down there and um I
my question Dave has to do with pickle ball. I know we had tried pickle ball. You know, we've got two hard courts and eight soft courts out there. And we have four pickle ball courts on one of the hard courts and the other hard court. We tried to put pickle ball over there. Is that working to try to alleviate some of
the pressure or tell me about that? It it it is, but what happens is because you we we are so if you haven't been over there, you have the four pickle balls on one side that's facing north towards Lake Silver. And then you have court number seven, which is a hard court facing south. What we did was we
put blended lines on the hard court for so you can accommodate two more pickle ball courts. So what we do is we put them there uh if we have overflow. But the problem is or not problem but the challenge is is that so everybody wants
to rotate in because they want to be part of that social group. But if you're on the other side of the building that doesn't really get the the flow going into that grouping. And uh so that's a challenge. So you'll find that what will happen is we'll have a couple like a forsome wants to just go play by
themselves and we can accommodate them there. But if anybody wants to be part of the the four courts and rotate through it's hard because they're on completely different sides of the building. So, but we have used it um on it, you know, when we need to and when
when it's also not being used for tennis because that's been another challenge is when we have all the clay courts being used, then we put a group on the t the hard court, then we have the pickle ball court going on at the same time. And
that's where the, you know, the challenge lies because now we only have four, we're back to four pickle ball courts. Well, the bottom line, commissioners, is we're going to have to expand our our pickle ball um holdings and and I have thought of a twosteprong process. And I again, you've heard me
talk about this, but we have all of those um shuffleboard courts over there, and nobody wants to talk about this. I'm sorry T's not here, but I've talked to him about this repeatedly. Those shuffleboard courts get used not very often, but if we were to take half of those, you could have four more pickle
ball courts and not have to have another employee because everybody can still come through Dave's shop down there. And then we've doubled our capacity just by going north one court and losing maybe 12 of the shuffleboard courts and that work out little area. Then you can have
eight courts and that would alleviate the pressure until we actually figure out where we're going to build a new facility. But these new facilities, Avon Park just built one. BTO's built one. They're extremely nice. Lakeland's built a couple of them. It's coming. We're going to have to do it at some point.
But in the meantime, I still think we could go north for just it's just putting in one more tennis court, which equals four pickle ball courts, and then you can have eight, right? And the whole thing about pickle ball versus tennis is pickle ball is much more of a social game. We're over there trying to kill
each other on the tennis courts. We're hitting at each other. where we're yelling and screaming and they're over there laughing and joking and they're bringing food and they're having cocktails or whatever they're doing over there. They're just laughing and having a good time and we're not. So pickle ball wants to stay together and to try
to have them in separate places, it won't work. So to me, if we can figure out a way to get four more pickle ball courts down there and then you can still have the pro shop checking them in and they pay their money and they're all together and they bring their food and they have their fun time and then the
tennis guys are still doing their thing. That to me is a solution for us to consider is how do we expand one more court down there and until we can figure out where we're going to put a new facility because that day is coming. This this sport is just growing like crazy. I sit on the tennis courts all the time. When I see people drive drive
up and I watch them, they can't get on, they drive out and they're frustrated. They get in their car and leave because they can't get on. They need to learn to make reservations like we do in tennis. We make reservations. Tennis, the pickle ball people don't like to make reservations, but they will eventually. But at the end of the day, we see them
all the time. Drive up, stay 10 minutes, and leave because they don't even get to play. It's too crowded. So, if we're going to, you know, if we're going to do something, that's I think the twoprong process I think that we should probably consider. Dave, am I wrong or what do you think? I mean,
I can speak to that and that um you know, we're starting on we just you guys just approved the plan to go in and look at um to improve Diamond Plex and then also look at sighting for pickle ball. I think as we bring that team together, uh, we can also explore what other options are available in kind of the
short term until until we reach that long-term goal. Yeah, that's just what I was going to speak to. The site evaluations is a key part of that project with the Diamond Plex renovations and we have submitted some sites for evaluation for pickle ball, but also we're asking the consultant to
do that from an objective standpoint as well. And so once we get those recommendations, we'll be able to fully vet what's best for expansion. It's if you put pickle ball in two different places having them all together. So it's either all together and then we move them. If you split them
up, it's just not going to work. That's my feeling. So question, and this will offend a pickle ball player, but it it's got to be because it's still part it's part of the argument anytime I talk to a pickle ball player or a non-pickle ball
player. Well, pickle ball is not going to be pickle ball's a fad. It's gonna go away. So, in your opinion, you see this, you know, every day. I know you don't have a crystal ball, but where do you see pickle ball 10 years from now, 20 years from now?
Because if the city's going to make the investment in it, you know, you obviously want to see it have a long healthy life and not fall to the side as shuffle board has for example. So just your opinion, you see it every day. Where do you see Pickle
Ball 10 years from now, 20 years from now? Okay. So when it first came out, you know, it's been around since 1965. So when it first came out, it was you would hear, oh, it's not, you know, it's it's for it's for old people and things like that. Over the course of time, the
age has gone from, let's say, 60 down to 50, down to 40, down to 30. When that happens, I don't think it is going away because now you're having a larger pool of potential players. And
when it as the age bracket drops, and I've talked to some other pros at other places, I see it actually potentially becoming a high school sport, a competitive high school sport. It could actually become a college sport, more of a club. It would probably more of a club because I don't know if
you guys follow the NCA stuff going on now. They're not going to be adding a lot of little tiny like non-revenue sports, you know, because of the uh the the loss the settlement. I should say it's not a lawsuit anymore. It's a settlement. But I see it growing uh because it's influencing or it's being
uh younger people are starting to play. They think because it's it's a it's another form of of exercise of activity. Um, so if you look at like let's say shuffle board comparing it to shuffle board, shuffle boards probably their the
average age over time probably did not drop down to the 20s and 30s where pickle ball has dropped into that age bracket where now you have uh former tennis pros uh Andre Agassi is playing professional
pickle ball. Um, I don't know if you are familiar with a former national champion in tennis here named Tommy Hoe uh who grew up in this area. He's playing uh professional pickle ball in Texas. So, he was actually here a couple months ago
and I had to find hurry up and find some players for him and because he's a little bit he's in his 50s, but I had to find some young guys because he he's actually can really play and so but yeah, so I think it's going to grow. Um, and like I said, if it becomes like a high school sport or something of that
nature, even a a college club, I could see it being a college club sport where you compete against other colleges like they have club tennis and so I could see it growing where there'd be a a need. Yeah. Because if you go like I've been by the Barto facility, N Jordan Park and
I just been dri driven by there because I wanted to take pictures to see what their color their color combination of their courts were and the place was packed, you know. It was just I mean there was cars everywhere. So I think I don't see it I don't see it being a fad right now. Yeah.
And we have lost a lot of people to Barto. I'm down there a lot. I get my ear bent all the time about more pickle ball courts and a lot of people that used to play here now just go to Barto. They don't even try it because they can't get on. They say we're and so we've had a ton of people go to Barto
and Avon Park too. It's they've got a really nice philos but keep in mind they also are they I agree with that and they also are nomadic a little bit but you know because it's like let's say he and let's say Commissioner Dans and I are really high level players. So, we come driving by uh the some some courts. I know
there's some courts over in Hane City off 27 and we don't see players that are our level because we want competition, you know, for the and so we'll drive we'll drive to Winter Haven. Then drive by there. Oh, there's some players there. We'll get out. Hey, y'all want to play? Boom. Now we got a game. So, they
actually sometimes drive around looking for different games. So, but you know, it' be nice to have if we have enough facilities here for them not to have to go driving around. So, anyone else? All right. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a good
night. All right. Then the LA we will do the u the strategic plan at the end. Okay. All right. We have the minutes that we'll take those up. We don't have and comments from the audience. Then we
have this ordinance uh second reading. And since we've heard it twice already, uh, could you be brief? Yes, sir. Good evening, mayor and city commissioners. Uh, Arc Industries, the petitioner for this is requesting to amend the 2035 future land use on a 0.64
acre parcel from neighborhood suburban future land use to neighborhood mixed land use. This is the Monasuri school. Uh, we heard this previously. Um they don't they intend to develop some of the property uh to be open for the coming school year and then uh maybe some additional property within the future.
We all own all right 02522. Uh this is the companion item to that the zoning. All right. The consent agenda. Now there are some things on here. The ones that deal with the travel.
We we don't have to expound on those. We know what those are. Okay. So I just say the other items then for you. Okay. Uh so item 10A is acceptance and acknowledgement of uh the developers agreement. So this developer agreement was assigned in uh May of 2019 and it
was entered into between the city, the CRA and the developer. Um in 2014 that property was sold to BNL Champs. So to transfer that agreement needs approval from the CRA and the city commission. Um there's no direct financial impact from
this. The CRA board at their June 29th or June 9th, 2025 meeting unanimously voted to accept that. Uh and so it's coming to the city commission for approval to accept that transfer of the developers agreement. All right. Um moving on past the travel and
training, uh we'll go to item 10E, drinking water asset management plan. So the water department has requested that Joan Jones Edmonds develop a comprehensive drinking water asset management plan. This aligns with the FD's state revolving fund program requirements. So, it's a requirement of
that money that we borrow from the state. Uh, this will serve as both a regulatory compliance tool and a guide for city long-term planning. Uh, this will help direct capital investments decisions and promote sustainable operations and funding eligibility in the future. So, it makes us more eligible for a variety of funding
opportunities. Uh, that final plan when it's put together will be submitted to FD for approval. Uh the funds are budgeted in this fiscal year uh in the amount of $115,655 and staff recommends city commission approve the Jo Jones Edmonds task order uh to prepare the drinking water asset
management plan and which is a part of our FD uh revolving fund compliance planning document and authorize the city manager or is designated to take any necessary action required of the city. Okay. All right. Uh moving on to item 10F.
This is a recommendation of award of ITB 2523 for reclaimed water transmission mains along county road 653. 12 proposals were received for this uh that met the qualifications in situ technologies LLC. They were the lowest responsible responsive bidder. Uh this
project extends approximately 1.26 miles of water line along County Road 653 and Eloise Loop Road and approximately 0.94 miles uh south on County Road 653 from Cunningham Road. Uh project is partially funded through FD uh a grant that we
received from them um and entered into earlier this year. Construction is estimated to begin in August of this year and has a 120day construction window. Funds are budgeted in this fiscal year in the amount of $2,535,000 and again that FD grant will cover about
$819,000 of the construction. Staff's recommending approval of this item. All right. 10G. Um you may recall at a recent pillar update, we spoke about the smart cover um tools that we use. So these are
uh tools that are inside of many of our manholes and they're kind of an early detection system for uh potential overflows within the sewage system. So this item is uh bringing the company that manufactures those on board to provide ongoing maintenance support. Uh so that is swapping out some of the
components, monitoring the the devices. We currently have 64 of those in place and uh 25 rain sensors that go with that that look at how much rain we're getting in different areas and what that might cause um as far as infiltration into the system which can lead to an overflow. Um Mark, do we we have more of those
planned to purchase, right? Budget everything every year. Yeah. So we only plan to expand that program and so this maintenance is kind of preemptive in that way as well. And so funds are budgeted for that in this fiscal year in the amount of $85,572. And then staff is recommending approval
of that item as well. All right. 10H. So you guys may recall um earlier earlier this year we brought a um a grant or I'm sorry last summer we brought a grant application forward uh for property that is off of Highway 17
North and US92 kind of between Highway 17 um Brigham Road and the airport. I think there's there might be a map on the next page. Yep. Uh so kind of that parcel there. It's about 152 acres. Um the city has identified this as just ecologically important land and has been
on the city's radar uh for more than 20 years. Um the opportunity to purchase it only recently just came about. It plays a really critical role in filtering surface water from between Lake Panzy and the northern chain. Um just a really important wetland within our system. Um,
so two appraisals were conducted on the property and a mean value was determined of $2,250 per acre for the wetland and $92,747 per acre for the uplands. Uh, based on those appraisal, the overall estimate estimated mean value of the property is
1.41,470,822. Staff negotiated a purchase price of the property for 1.4 million, which is slightly below that appraised mean. Uh the board of county commissioners also recognized this as an important property. So you may remember the environmental lands dollars. They put their um committee together to go out and evaluate properties all over the
county. This was a high priority for them and as such they've agreed to partner on the the cost. Uh so they will contribute $600,000 and there's a there's a letter as an attachment in here that speaks to the county's commitment. Um and then the city would be responsible for the remaining $800,000. So $800,000 is what the city
cost is for about 152 acres. Um, in addition, we were awarded that grant that we applied for last summer, uh, which which provides us 800,000 for restoration work on the site, and it requires a 50-50 match, uh, of which this purchase can be used as part of
that match. So, it that works out really well for us at the end of the day. Uh, it just is this is an important it's one of the last large ecologically valuable parcels within city limits at a time of devel increasing development pressure throughout the county. So, we think it's really important timing wise
to uh to secure this. Uh if approved, $800,000 is budgeted in the natural resources budgeted and that would be paired with 600,000 from PK County to complete the $ 1.4 million property acquisition. The city would be responsible for due diligence items such as property boundary and survey which we
estimated about 20,000 and the title insurance which we estimated uh 7,000. The seller would be responsible for paying the doc doc stamps at uh $9,800. and staff recommends city commission approve commercial contract with astute financial corporation and authorize a city manager or his designate to exe
execute the contract and take any and all necessary actions related to the city's acquisition of subject subject property in accord ordinance therewith questions. All right, continue. Um next up, so this is a related item. Um, so this speaks to the grant that we
applied for last summer, uh, received and, um, we would be entering into the grant agreement with FD and we would be able to use our purchase of the property as our 50/50 match in that and staff's recommending approval of that as well. Resolution
2535. Uh, first item on here is uh, resolution 25 35. And uh so in May of 2025, the commission approved resolution 2526 which platted the Lake Deer town home subdivision. The subdivision consist
consists of 51.7 acres generally located east of 35th Street Northwest north of Recker Highway and south of Lake Deere. Subdivision contains 304 building lots and 10 common lots. However, certain improvements were not completed at that time. The developer TB TBHG Incorporated
submitted a performance bond in the amount of $1,976,000 to1,976,237 uh to guarantee completion of all the required infrastructure improvements of the subdivision. The incomplete improvements at the time included earthwork, sanitary sewer, portable water, storm water management, paving
and engineering certification. Uh when they platted that, they platted it as a singlephase subdivision, but now they intend to break that up into installments. Um at this time they've completed the required infrastructure for phase one and are seeking the city's acceptance of those improvements to be dedicated to
the city. Uh city's staff has performed the inspections of those improvements and has found them ready to be accepted. Uh the city will retain the performance bond submitted as uh part of the subdivision plat approval process and as work that's incomplete for phase two of the performance bond. Um we'll continue
to hold that until that work is complete. Anything else there, Eric? I missed. Okay. No direct financial impact from this and staff is recommending approval. All right. Next is the lakes report. Yeah. And I uh I don't want to steal the
thunder on this one. Uh there'll be a full presentation on this Monday night. Yes. Um after the uh with the annual lakes with the lakes appreciation month uh proclamation. But just a few notes. Um you should have hard copies on the dis.
Um, so that's for you to kind of peruse through before we get there. I encourage you to pick out a lake that, uh, you know, that's special to you and look at the specific management page in the back section, which has a has a page for each lake. Uh, also new this year, um, is a
is an in brief, which is like a 12-page document that just kind of takes that big document, boils it down a little bit, uh, to make it more accessible. Uh, again, team will talk more about that Monday night, but in general, some really good news in there. Uh on the whole lakes are lakes continue to
improve. So can so I know in case you don't have this answer tonight you may already have it but I mean you have it Monday night. What's the benchmark lake? What's the lake that's the best of the best? I think so actually uh it's it's funny
you asked that. Um I think included in their presentation for Monday night they have that best lake of the year kind of recognition in there. So I was trying to figure like and it's probably in this but it's a couple inches thick. So is three good, one is bad.
So and and actually uh Monday night they'll have a nice uh graphic that uh why do we have these meetings on Wednesday? Monday night there's there'll be a nice graphic in there uh that kind of it's it's the map of the lakes and it's colorcoded and it shows um kind of where they fall with on that scale and there's
a nice explanation in there of what that scale means to make it a little more clear. Good questions though. All right, this is uh first reading. Yes, sir. 2519.
Timothy F. Campbell petitioner request the city amend a portion of plan unit development ordinance 0223. Uh property subject to this request is the northern portion of the parcel generally located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Cypress Gardens Boulevard and Highway 27. Highway 27. Yeah, right just to the
south of Cypress Gardens Boulevard and west of Highway 27. Undeveloped property contains approximately 50.94 acres and consists of uplands of the Peace Creek and the Peace Creek. Uh 2035 future land use map designates the uplands of the subject parcel as regional mixeduse hub and
designates conservation along the Peace Creek Canal. The current PUB permits up to 300,000 square feet of commercial space on the property and the southern portion of the property would remain under the PUD and continue to allow for 313 multifamily residential units. That
the change requested here uh is to increase the commercial square footage allowed to 550,000 square ft uh which is an increase of 250,000 ft from the current PUD. Other requested changes address lot area, minimum size, on-site parking lot locations for out parcels
and sign regulations. Uh proposed PUD is consistent with these designations uh with the designations in the comp plan. All notification requirements for this request were met as no direct financial impact from this request and it is exempt from business impact statements. Planning commission
at its June 3rd, 2025 regular meeting voted to recommend approval of this request and no members of the public spoke. In conclusion, the increase in commercial square footage along with the minor changes to development standard does not create a significant amendment to the PUD. The proposed changes are consistent with the development pattern
in the area and of the contemplated and of that contemplated by the regional mixuse hub future land use designation and staff's recommending commission approval. All right, quick question. T does the county bought a bunch of environmentally sensitive land just to the north
north? Yes, sir. Have they already closed on it? Yes. Yes, I believe. And does it it doesn't abut Cypress Garden Boulevard, does it? I believe I believe it does. Yes. And it's uh they have some long-term cattle leases, I think, on that before anything will really start to change, but they've
secured that land. Um it's a big portion of that actually goes uh east of Highway 27 to the north, too. Great. Another question. All right. All right. Item 12B is ordinance 02520. This is a
request by Sharon M. Watson to reszone the parcel uh reszone a parcel from mixeduse zoning to commercial highway zoning. Parcel contains 0.24 acres and is generally located 250 ft east of first street south and north of Avenue H southeast. The western portion of this parcel is currently utilized as a
parking lot for the adjacent commercial property which is located just to the west. Uh the petitioner owns the adjacent commercial property and intends to develop the property consistent with that C3 zoning district. As the primary mixeduse hub future land use designation will remain, the maximum development potentials unchanged. Therefore, no
increase in potential infrastructure demand beyond what is currently allowed is anticipated. All notifications for this request were met. Uh no direct financial impact exempt from business impact statements and the planning commission as June 3rd, 2025 regular meeting voted to recommend approval of this request and no members of the
public spoke. Uh in staff's conclusion, the reasonzoning of the C3 zoning district is consistent with the property's location and with the developed uses and city designations in the area as and as the primary mixed hub future land use designation will remain, maximum development potentials unchanged. There's no increase in
potential infrastructure demands beyond what is currently allowed and staff's recommending approval. All right, give me give me some frame of reference. What's some of those roofs around here? I'm trying to figure out exactly where this is. So, it's Avenue H, First Street. Um, trying to think what else is right in
there. Uh, behind it. That's a Is that a house? I don't know what's frontal. What building is that on First Street? Is that the bank? I think south of there is where the bank is. Is that right, Eric? Hold on one second. Whose parking lot is that?
Trying to think of what the uh landmarks right there are. Got to figure out where that is. One second. Yeah, I' I'd have to look it up. So Re Region's Bank is directly across the street. So if you were to take Avenue H straight out, that's where
Regions is. It's just north of Longhorn. This parking lot to the left. Do we know who's that of parking lot for on fronts first Street? Longhorn would be to the top, right? Or No, that's not Long. That'd be Longhorn, wouldn't it? No, that's not Longhorn.
No. Um just to the north of that. There's like a little building. It's a little small. Walgreens is the corner. That's the urgent care center just to the north there or um that one. Yeah. Right there. That's the urgent care center. That's the doctor today urgent care center.
Urgent care center where longs used to be Hallmark. Okay. Yep. Across from Walgreens. Telly. So Walgreens is on the other side of First Street. Okay. Yes, sir. I didn't realize there was that much vacant land on Avenue. That building right there.
Okay, I'm good. Anyone else? All right. All right. Item 12 C is a voluntary annexation. Uh, this is a request by Candace Ducking and uh, listen for the city commission to annex one parcel totaling 0.34 acres located at the
southeast corner of the intersection at 8th Street Northwest or US Highway 17 and Avenue X. Uh, petitioners requesting annexation for future development of the property. Uh it's contiguous to the city across 8th Street and Highway 17 and the annexation of this property will reduce
the size of an existing enclave. Exempt from a business does not require business impact statement and staff is recommending city commission approval. All right. So will that be commercial or we don't know that yet? So we don't know that for sure. We
haven't looked at the zoning yet, but my guess is it would be commercial. you see there's is a vacant parcel to the south. Its only frontage is on um 8th Street Northwest. And so my inclination is that those two parcels
will likely be combined at at some point in time. All right. On to the new business. Yes, new business item 13A. Yes. Um, in October of 2023, the city commission approved ordinance 02339,
which is a PUD zoning ordinance ordinance. Uh, this dedicated additional rightway along the development frontage of uh what was Lake Road and is now uh Lake Ruby Drive West to provide 30 ft of rightway um to the center line and the developer shall pave from Thompson
Nursery Road, Eloise Loop Road to the main entrance roadway. a minimum of an 8ft pave path must also be installed uh from the main entrance roadway west out to county road 653. Um so what we're doing here is as this agreement the
developer is looking to move forward with some of this work. Um and and the the intent would be to relocate some of the existing utilities before undergrounding them. Uh but then they would be required to underground them before they do any of the uh the final buildout of that site.
So, this just allows them uh to temporarily relocate them. Okay, any questions? All right, we'll now have the uh strategic review. Yes.
All right, so who's building? Oh, Tanya will uh will be the first speaker. All right. And uh we'll have our environmental stewardship pillar tonight and this will be our second if you recall we're we're you know we have six pillars and we'll touch each of them twice throughout the year. So this is
our second touch point uh on environmental stewardship. But just as a reminder this pillar is about wisely caring for natural resources for current and future citizens. Um this includes things like meeting the present need without compromising future generations, environmental protection, natural resources conservation, uh waste
management, land use planning and incorporating sustainable practices. So those are the kind of topics we'll cover this evening. And Tanya, well, MJ just had to steal the show. So good evening, commissioners. Um I will
take it from here because MJ took Tanya slides. I'm sorry. Um but we will talk tonight about the adopt a road program. Uh the great winter haven cleanup event that we held and some other initiatives that we're doing there as well as lake cleanups and partnerships. um our lakes education's
outreach, the tree reforestation, and then the lakes defender league. Uh so excited to give you an update on our environmental stewardship and what we've been doing the last six months. Um so the public works department is working with Keep PK County Beautiful to launch
our adopt a road program. This program is going to give citizens, neighborhood groups, and businesses, and really just anyone who loves Winter Haven and cares about our environment a chance to adopt sections of our city-owned roads and help keep those clean. As one of the fastest growing communities in the
country, we all are very aware that First impressions matter and whether somebody is looking uh to relocate here or visiting or vacationing here, how our city looks plays a big part in that decision-making process. Um, so cleaner roads will not only make the community
more beautiful, but it'll also help keep the litter out of our storm water system and our lakes, which are just a huge part of Winter Haven's identity. Um, so how the program is going to work is keep P County Beautiful will manage the program and they will handle um adopting
out the roads of interest. They will also be providing the volunteer groups all of the cleaning supplies, the trash bags, the grabbers, the gloves, all of those things. and they will then track the volunteer hours and how much trash is collected and they will report all of that data back to us. So we are able to
included in things like our annual NPDS report each year. So the program details is that almost all city roadways can be adopted that they have to be a onem stretch for adoption and then keep Pulk County
Beautiful will then look and say is there enough rightway space for for somebody to safely work within this area and collect. Anybody who adopts a roadway will make a two-year commitment and commit to making six or eight cleanups during that time frame. They're
obviously welcome to do more than eight, but they are committing that they will host eight cleanups and present us with information during that time. Um, we will be kicking things off by installing signs along some of our high traffic roadways that we know could use a little
extra love and are encouraging people to adopt them. The sign on the right of your screen will be what we are going to be posting. And so we are going to get those out hopefully in the next month or so. We're working through some final legal paperwork to make sure that all of
the documents say city of Winter Haven and those type of things and that our attorney's comfortable with them before we put this on the street. But our goal is to have that advertised within the next month in signs showing adoptable roads available. This program is going to align with some
of our strategic plan goals. Um, specifically, I'm going to call them out. I'll read them just real quick, but 4.2.1 was expanding partnerships with organizations that supported environmental efforts and community beautififications. And I think it's really exciting just to have this partnership. We work extremely well with
keep winter haven beautiful and we're going to continue to do that. But this will allow us to take another step to adopt a roads and some other programs that we really want to work on. Uh we also had the strategy of 2.3.2 which was establishing community adoption programs for right ofway and parks and public
spaces. And I think that this partnership will allow us to continue to grow in that area. We're looking at adopting uh launching and adopt a park program next and working with Julie and her team on what that looks like. Um Keep Pole County Beautiful has successfully run a program just like
that before and instead of recreating the wheel, we're just going to expand our partnerships and get more people involved with caring for Winter Haven. Like I mentioned, we're still going to work on strengthening our partnership with Keep Winter Haven Beautiful. They've been a wonderful partner of ours for a very long time. We're teaming up
with them for a number of cleanup events, including celebrating their 45th anniversary. They have a goal of collecting 1 million pieces of a litter, which is a part of the Greater Keep America Beautiful program. And so they are going to be coming to us here in the
near future and asking us to take that pledge alongside of them. in celebration of their 45th year. So with that, our litter coordinator, Lanne Corby, is leading a lot of these charges. She's really working well with these partners and she's going to be sharing some news on the Great Winter Haven cleanup event
that we had as well as some other events that we're hosting. Good evening, city commissioners. My name is Lannne Corby and I'm the litter control coordinator for the city. On yes, on April the 23rd, 2025, we
celebrated Earth Day with the Great Winter Haven Cleanup. Thanks to 2,36 participants, this cleanup effort was a huge success. The combined efforts of the city of Winter Haven employees and
volunteers removed a record setting 5,340 pounds or 2.67 tons of litter from our community. Just to put things in perspective, the 2.67 tons of litter we
removed is equivalent to the weight of two full commercial dumpsters overflowing with litter. If you emptied right now those dumpsters in this room, the pile would take up half of the room
and the walls would be six feet high. So in essence, that's how much trash we removed from the lakes, roads, and storm water drains. Here are a few highlights of the event. Every department across
the city was represented in this event. Together, we cleared 18 hot spots, litter areas within the city. To show appreciation, the participants enjoyed lunch from two food trucks and several
raffle prizes were awarded to wrap the day up on a fun note. This year, in recognition of Earth Day, we invited local schools to partner with us. While city staff and volunteers conducted cleanups throughout the
community, these students simultaneously participated by cleaning up their school grounds. It turned out to be a citywide team effort with students and staff cleaning side by side. Four schools enthusiastically participated and joined
in our event. We equipped each school with gloves and bags for litter for the litter collection along with Earth Day bookmarks as a token of our appreciation. After a job well done, we served frozen popsicles and were delivered as a
refreshing treat while the students cooled off and celebrated their efforts toward Earth Day. We awarded two top prizes. Garner Elementary was the winner for the most participants with 842
participants. Brighgam Academy was the winner for the most litter collected. That included 15 bags, 16 pallets, and tree and brush debris. A great time was had by all. Looking ahead to next year's event,
we're planning to grow school involvement and place a stronger emphasis on business participation. A key focus will be encouraging businesses to take pride in their own properties and take ownership of the surrounding
properties. This might mean cleaning up the street they're located on, a parking lot, or their storefront. This collaborative approach will help expand our impact citywide. For the late cleanups and partnerships,
the city proudly partnered with Keep Winhaven Clean and Beautiful for Project Eagle, their annual flagship event focused on environmental stewardship. On April 26th, city staff volunteered alongside community members at Lake Ship
Park. We cleaned up the park and the shoreline. The city will continue this partnership with Keep Winter Haven Clean and Beautiful the third Saturday of September to commemorate World Cleanup Day. Please save the date and mark your
calendar for September 20th, 2025. Finally, to close out 2025, the city and keep Winter Haven Clean and Beautiful will partner for Household Hazardous Waste Day on December 6th, 2025.
We also partnered with Legoland on June the 5th and Sea Life, Florida. They hosted a shoreline and park cleanup at Lake Ship as part of their global 24-hour initiative. City staff worked alongside their employees in this team
effort. Together, we cleared 10 bags of litter, improving the health and appearance of Lake Ship and the surrounding park area. Thank you so very much. Next, Olivia with Natural Resources is going to present Lakes
Education and Outreach Programs. Thank you, Lan. Good evening, everyone. My name is Olivia Husk. I'm an environmental scientist with the natural resources division under public works. And I'm here today to discuss with you our lakes education and outreach
programs. So while we conduct a large variety of outreach and education, I'm specifically going to be focused on our kayaking ecoours tonight as well as some of the outreach we do with our summer camp groups. All of these are activities are designed to promote buyin to our
natural resources, specifically our lakes. The goal of this is to really encourage citizens to identify with and have uh good feelings towards our lakes to promote them to want to better protect our lakes. So, this can be anything from as small as making life
changes to picking up small pieces of litter along the side of the road or promoting green storm water infrastructure and less pollution in our lakes. So, one of the primary outreach activities we do is our kayaking
ecoours. Previously, we have done six ecoours a year, but we've actually expanded it to nine this year based off of popular demand. Um, we've completed five so far for a total of 44 kayakers. We have four upcoming. We will be out
out on Lake Silver in September, Lake Smart in October, Lake Cannon in November, and Lake Pansy in December. So, we've also worked with the Pulk County EFAS Extension Office to develop a targeted lesson plan covering water
quality, aquatic plants, and wildlife. This is to make sure that our attendees receive a robust and varied education on our lakes. We aim to uh teach them something new every single time. So we also conduct a post kayaking
survey after the ecoour. Um based off of that we know that 72% of our attendees for this year have reported h ether never been out on our lakes before or only going out on our lakes once or twice a year. Additionally, we ask our
participants to rank the importance of lake health on a scale of 1 to 10. 10 being they feel it's very important. And we found that 90% of our attendees have ranked it as an a importance of seven or above. So this is really great for us to
know that they do value our lakes and we are promoting that buyin that we really want to preserve. So, additionally, I mentioned some of our kayaking or outreach opportunities that we do. This is specifically some of the activities we do with our summer
camp groups. So, if you looked on the right of your screen, you can see we have some kids out dip netting. This is when they take nets and they dip it along the side of a lake shore and they can collect small amphibians, insects, and fish. This gives them the
opportunity to identify different species that we have in our lakes and learn more about them. Um, it's really incredible to watch some of the kids get to see these different kinds of animals and get very excited about it. Additionally, we started something about
a year ago called fish printing. So, we take a mold of a fish, something like this. This is a bluegill. And the kids will paint a small layer of paint onto the fish and they will then press it onto rice paper to make a print of a
fish. This is something that they get to keep and take home and it allows them to identify different parts of the fish as well as different fish that we have in the area. So we I'm mentioning summer camps right now. Um we've previously assisted with Mayor Birdong summer camp group. They're
always a great time. We're also happy to help out with various other community groups. We've done everything from um local scouting troops to assisted living facilities. Basically, if you want us to come out and talk about our natural resources, we are very happy to do so.
So, I know snake on the screen might be a little scary for some. I do not have a snake here today, but we do have some of our animal ambassadors to show you guys so you can get a little taste of what we bring to different community events. And I have Devon Moore, our senior
environmental scientist, and Dustin Everett is going to help me out by bringing these guys around. So, the first guy we have is a Florida box turtle. Uh, his name is Urtle. So, one of the really interesting things about these guys and why they have their
names is they actually have hinges on the underside of their shell that allows them to completely pull themselves into their shell and hide from predators. These guys also have very ornate markings along their backs. It's part of
the Florida box shell pattern. Unfortunately, it does put them at risk of being very popular in the pet trade. So, people will take these out of the wild and capture them as pets. Um, that's part of why they are a threatened
species, but they're very important for us to take around because they are a great example of a terrestrial turtle. These guys prefer to spend most of their time on land. We teach the kids the easiest way to tell that is because they
do not have webbing on their feet. So, we're going to move on to an aquatic species so you guys can see some of the difference between them. This is Shelly, a yellowbellied slider. So, one of the interesting things you can note that she
has webbed feet. That's because she prefers to spend most of her time in the water. She also has a smoother shell, meaning it's easier for her to swim through the water. And sh uh Shellyley is a really great example of what one of
our native species looks like. And if she had cooperated, we would have Olive here tonight, who is a redeared slider. So they are an invasive species that looks very similar to Shelly, but they have a distinct red mark on the back of their neck. Fortunately, she was hiding
at the bottom of the tank today and did not want to come for a visit. We try to respect that when the animals do not want to be handled. So, next we have a musk turtle. This guy is not named, unfortunately. We've tried. Nothing's really ever stuck. But these guys are
really cool because they are actually ambush predators. So, they are animals that prefer to stay more so on the bottom of the lake. They will wait for a fish or something to swim by and then they will dart out and catch it.
His name's Elon. That may actually be the name that sticks now. So, all of our turtles that I've shown you today are actually omnivores. So, they prefer to eat some vegetation as well as some small insects and fish. Um, they're one of the really
important ways that we take and use these guys as tools to teach kids about how important it is to keep our environment protected, keep our ecosystems clean, and to also respect the animals and the wildlife that we have in the area. So, our lakes
education is one of the many ways in which we support our lakes and work to ensure that these ecosystems are protected. And it also allows us to get the community involved in protecting these ecosystems as well. I'm happy to take any questions you guys may have at
this time. I got a quick comment. I'm just going to say um your eco kayaking tours. I took one of those when I first got on the commission probably 12 years ago. And my leader was none other than our assistant city manager here who was now I guess in your role back in that year
many years ago. And I will tell you those are a lot of fun. We went on Lake Elbert and I had no idea Lake Elbert was so clear. You could see the bottom and you could see the fish and and uh it's easy. They set the kayaks up for you. So, if you want to do something fun, jump on one of those things because they're really fun to go
out there and they give you everything you need. You just show up and go. So, good job on those because they're so popular. People do like them. They're very popular. We love doing them. It's really great and we always get wonderful feedback from Yeah. Everybody go just comes back just
raves about it. So, it was fun. White House. Well, thank you very much for your time and I will now pass it back to Britney. Thank you guys. Thank you. All right, we're going to keep this party going. Um, so we are going to talk
a little bit about tree reforestation and some of the things that we have going on there. Um, so we had our first official planting for our canopy enhancement program. Unfortunately, Savannah could not be here this evening to kind of give you guys this update. Um
so I will try my very best. Uh but we launched that uh planting project at Inner Lake and Park which was once a heavily forested munchloved community space. I have heard stories that there used to be Easter egg hunts there and community celebration and just years of
joy by the people who lived in that area under those trees. And unfortunately the many of the storms starting in 2004 started taking those trees out and it just kind of emptied. Um, so thank you to Tyrone Summerall of Summerall's Environmental, many of our urban
forestry advisory board members, um, and our natural resources and parks teams. They were able to plant 36 trees in that area. Um, there were longleaf pines, wire grass, red maples, hickories, um, one or two magnolia, I believe, and a flatwood plum, and those are what the
dot the colored dots are that you can see on the screen. Um the goal was with this planting to mimic a native upland forest and we had the update that at so far the trees are really growing in well. We haven't seen any loss there. Um
at our last urban forestry advisory board meeting we took a field trip with me many of the members to scout the future planning locations. And so on the left we have um South Lake Howard Drive that is over near Avenue D and the
Beamer Church. we have some space to be able to plant there. We're looking at what would be the best size and species to get in there. Realizing that there's some underground infrastructure that we want to to be protective of. I believe there's a water mane right through there. We also had a little bit further
um up there. It was a boardwalk that had a really nice oak tree at one time that sustained damage to the roots and ended up having to be removed. And so we're going to do a planting there as well to make up for that loss. were intending on planting, I believe, three to four trees to make up for that one large one that
had to be removed. Um, we also then went a little to the northeast and looked at planting spaces there. You can see all the dots on the map kind of show where we could plant trees, but we like to get out in the field and vet those out. And so, we believe that we're going to do a
lot of plantings along Unity Way as well as Avenue S. There's some good space throughout there. We've got good good clearance of um utilities overhead and underground and so excited to start planning for those spaces. We are going to schedule those later in the fall when
the weather's a little bit cooler and it's just a better environment to be planting those trees with a better chance of survival once we get them in the ground. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Katrina and she's going to get to tell you a little bit about the Lake Defenders League.
Good evening. Okay, so this is the last thing tonight, I promise. Um, but we're really excited about this. So, shortly before the end of the school year, Commissioner Dansler, you had introduced us um during your comments to the four ocean program that encourages Boers out
in the oceans to pick up at least four pieces of litter or trash while they're out there. Um, and a few weeks after that, I had Anna, whom you guys may remember, you presented a proclamation to Anna, um, for our accomplishments of being elected governor at Girl State
this year. Um, we had the honor of having her intern in our office throughout the month of June through a partnership with Pulk County Public Schools. And what I tasked her with was what's the winter haven equivalent of the four ocean program. Um, and so in
partnership with Britney's team and the natural resources team, she came back with this proposal, the Lake Defenders League. So we're looking forward to launching this within the next year. You'll see that the city is kind of divided into five different teams. Each
team is represented by a native species. Um, so we will be inviting our citizens to join a team. They will be given a kit which will consist of a boat flag with their team's logo, a trash grabber bags and gloves to be able to collect the
litter and trash when they're out on the lakes instead of just sending us video of it. Um, and they will be able to then scan a QR code on a sticker that we give them and report back how much they collect. And we'll ask them to report everything from two pieces to two trash
bags. Um, and we'll compile that information um, over the years. We're working on some additional partnerships with this um to be able to promote it out on the canals um to potentially work with some other um some artists on how to turn the litter into art to further
promote it. Um we're hoping to potentially roll it out at Hands-On Haven, but definitely before the 2026 kind of spring and summer boating um season. So residents can choose the team that overlays their favorite lake or where they live or pick because they
like the mascot best. It doesn't really matter. Um we're just trying to give people something to rally behind and really help defend our lakes by picking up trash when they're out on them. Perfect. Beautiful. So, we've talked about
Adopter Road, the Great Winter Haven Cleanup Event, Lakes Cleanups, Lakes Education, Reforestation, and the Lakes Defenders League, but we we're all still here if you have any questions. All right, thank you. Any questions? All right,
we don't have any reports. Anything else? Entain a motion to adjoin. So we stand a joke.