--------- Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order this special city commission workshop at 5:30 p.m. All right. Roll call. Commissioner Mercer here. Commissioner Dolison
here. Commissioner Dancler who is not present. Mayor Prom Yates who is not present. And Mayor Birdong here. All right. Water department presentation. City manager. Thank you sir.
[Music] Good evening Mayor and commissioners. It is uh great to be before you again this evening. Uh tonight we are going to tag team the water department budget for fiscal year 2526. Myself and director of Winter Haven Water Gary Huard will do
this. Um, I'll give you an overview of kind of the highlevel finance side of the water department and then Gary will provide insights on some of the more technical uh project related items that I think are significant and certainly that the commission uh would be uh
interested in. I do want to start off by saying when we look at the budget for the water department, this is not new information. And this is actually information that was contained in the budget presentation that I made to you two weeks ago and then also what was
included in the tenative budget that you considered uh at your last meeting on July 28th. So those numbers, the numbers you're going to hear tonight are part of that. Um keeping in mind that we will likely have a postcript uh that comes before you when we bring the budget to
you in September. There are things that change between the time a tenative budget is approved and when the budget is actually voted on in September. Uh change, you know, we get the additional insights on state revenues or there may be projects that we've have not
encumbered that we anticipated that have to roll forward. So little postcript items like that that um don't really change the economics of the whole thing. You almost have to look at a budget as a two-year window. what you wrap up in the current fiscal year and what you anticipate in the next fiscal year
combined and where those numbers fall out is is really what happens there. But everything you're going to hear tonight is part of what was presented previously. So again um just kind of advancing through when we talk about water department budget again it's built upon six pillars. Uh predominantly
within the water department we focus on community safety. So that is the safety of our drinking water. We have representatives with us this evening from the water production side who are inspecting our water system, you know, daily. They're making sure that it's it's treated properly, that it's free of
contaminants, that it's available not only for our residents as a potable source, but there's also sufficient uh pressure and availability within our system for our firefighters that when they have to go out and do a a structure fire that we have support within the water system to meet that need. Uh,
community safety includes things like the removal of asbestous pipe and that's an ongoing effort that we have. Every chance we get to replace a pipe if it happens to be a speestous there's a very specific protocol that we go through that we certify our uh maintenance mechanics uh utility servicesers in a in
how to handle that. Um, there's also telemetry upgrades that are taking place and will continue to occur that address things like how do we identify when we have drops in pressure within our system when something's happening at one of our water treatment plants. Again, tied back
to community safety. Infrastructure is huge within the water department. Obviously, and this is some of that infrastructure that a lot of people don't think about, but certainly in the in the forthcoming year, we're looking at the uh continued work to build new water production facilities at
Cypresswood and at Pard Road. Um significant upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant as we've talked about for a number of months now and those are underway. And then also the development of a new administration campus that will finally get us out of, you know, what was to be a temporary home. You know,
when we first took on the Hill Nissan building about 15 plus years ago, we weren't anticipating to be there for the long term. Um, we knew that that property had a better value for other uses within the community, but we have not been able to really free ourselves of that just yet. Um we've certainly
outgrown it and this coming year we'll begin work on building a new water uh admin C campus and all the support facilities out on Buckeye Loop Road. Within responsible government, you know, last year we did a rate study. We implemented new fees and charges for our
water operations, our water and sewer. We also uh adjusted our connection fees being responsible in terms of what our future fiscal obligations would be and making sure that the costs associated with growth were being covered by those who were uh uh presenting that growth to
us. We established a repair and replacement fund, a repair and renewal fund um within our budget in our fee structure last year that is generating money to help offset the cost of dealing with aging infrastructure that's not necessarily needing to be expanded for growth, but needs to be improved just
based upon its condition. And Gary and his team have been very aggressive in continuing uh the pursuit of grants, which really speaks to uh responsible government. Another thing I want to talk about with responsible government real quick because I just learned of this today. Um, you know, it's also about making sure that we've got quality
people within the organization who are uh administering and overseeing our operations. Um, want to take a second to recognize Frank O'Neal and Brett Martin, both within our wastewater treatment plant operations. It's my understanding that they were recognized this week by the Florida Water and Pollution Control
Operators Association. Uh they were both awarded a Joseph Towery award which is uh awarded for demonstrating competency and dedication to reclaimed water to the entire reclaimed water industry. Um those are employees that have been with us for some time. Frank's one of our
longest tenured employees here in the organization and it's great when outside organizations uh recognize our employees in that way. And finally on environmental stewardship, um this really, you know, two of the big things that I think you're probably most familiar with. The expansion of our smart cover program that is all about
maintaining the environment by uh mitigating and preventing spills within our utility system by the alerts that come through us when the flows get so high. And then also the continued efforts on our septic to sewer uh improvement projects. Uh we're working
on the east side of Lake Cartridge this coming year. And that is, you know, from an environmental standpoint, the more times we can get people off of uh more houses we can get off of septic systems and onto the centralized sewer system, there's less opportunity for environmental harm from when those
septic systems fail. So just again, the budget's built around the six pillars and those are really the four that are that are most critical to to the water and certainly they speak to quality of life as well as economic sustainability. Couple highlights within the budget. Um
I mentioned some of the key projects that are coming forward this year. So septic to sewer I just mentioned potable water well drilling is occurring at Pard Road water production facility and at the Cypresswood water production facility. Gary will talk a little bit more about that later in the presentation. Uh we also anticipate
construction to begin on the pard roadwater production facility sometime in early 2026. uh recharge well drilling out at the Bradco Farms property as well as commencement of the wetland construction. So we acquired that property two years ago this December and
we're getting you know we're doing a lot of the due diligence and the investigative work that's underway right now lining us up to move forward with that well drilling and the wetland construction. I mentioned the new utility complex on Buckeye Loop Road that is I want to say about a 50,000
square foot facility uh in amongst a few different buildings there. But we'll have our administration that is housed at the Hill Nissan building will be located there. There will be appropriate facilities for our um our maintenance operations, our layown yards, the storage of all of our necessary
equipment. We'll also relocate our customer service operations out to that location at that time as well. um improved screening and filtration systems at the wastewater treatment plant number three. You're familiar we brought a number of projects to you
leading up to the long-term rehabilitation and expansion of plant 3 and we're excited to get that underway. That will be one of the most significant projects that the city will undertake in its history both in terms of the uh the complexity of it as well as the overall cost for that. But I also believe that
it's one of the most strategic things that we'll do in anticipation of future growth within our communities. Um we are with respect to the budget, we do contemplate the issuance of debt for the utility services uh operations of
$24.7 million. I want to talk about that for just a second. I mentioned earlier we did a rate study in the summer of 2024. When you do a rate study, you look at not only what your operational needs are
uh over the the planning horizon, but also what your five-year capital investment program will be. And the intent of that fee structure is to identify what is it going to cost to meet those financial obligations and you establish your fees to generate revenue
sufficiency uh to to accomplish that. that that effort that we went through in 2024 actually contemplated a much greater uh debt incurrence in f fiscal year 26. In fact, the rate study
reflected bond issuance or some combination thereof borrowing of $258 million in fiscal year 26. Right now, we've set the budget to borrow $24.7 million, and that's what's
presented to you this evening. What in talking with uh with our CFO, with with Mr. Hubard, with our uh our rate consultants, with um the folks that you know, Jay Glover, and those that help us with our bond issuance. What we think
will likely happen is we'll bring back to you at some point uh in late 25 early 26 um a recommendation for a bond issuance that's probably in the 60 to $80 million range. Um that is intended
to allow us to get all of these projects up and moving rather than borrowing the full amount at one point and and you know having that kind of albatross around us. We would borrow a significant amount to get the projects underway and
come back with a secondary borrowing at some point, maybe a year or two years after that. Regardless of what the amount is, your revenue that is scheduled to come in based upon how the utility fees adjust year-over-year and
what we anticipate is ongoing growth, which we use a very conservative number for growth of 2.3% which is, you know, very minuscule in comparison to what we've seen over the last five years. your fee schedule is set to give you the
revenue you're going to need and hold those those dollars in reserve to make the debt payment on that borrowing. So you're you're I hope I'm explaining that clearly enough that you actually have sufficient revenues forecast through the fee schedule to that contemplated
borrowing $258 million. We're not recommending that we do that at least not at this point. Now, that may be the total borrow that we do over multiple actions, but likely this year it'll be between 60 and $80 million. When we get to that point, we'll do a budget
ordinate or an ordinance to amend the budget for um consideration of that. Does that make sense? You're you're financially set to borrow a whole lot more than what we're recommending. I have a question. Yes, sir.
Okay. So I get that you will that you only borrow what you are projected to expend over a finite period of time. Yes sir. My question is okay we know that. So
when will when do you think the second phase where we will have to borrow? I would say you're probably within 12 to 24 months after that. um probably more realistically the the longer period of that. Keep in mind, mayor, that you know
when we look at and Gary and I just had this conversation about an hour ago when we look at you know what's that 258 million look like that may not be all in a bond that could be a significant chunk of it come from the WIFIA loan program through the
federal government. We have approval to move forward with $171 million in borrowing directly from WIFIA. Uh it can only account for 49% of our projects. So whatever that that percent, you know, equals out into dollars. But you may
have a bond, you may have state revolving fund dollars, you may have WIFIA if that's on the table. Um and then you also have to consider what grant dollars come through because that can affect that as well. this earlier this summer, I think our our grant
application, I'm going ask Gary real quick, when we applied to D, it was over hund00 million in hurricane relief available funds. We won't know on that for some time. We feel confident, you know, $20 million out of that seems very, you know, realistic, but we
applied for significantly larger amount in anticipation that if other agencies didn't apply, we didn't want money to be left on the table. you know, let's have applications in the in the hopper so if there's more money to give out. So all those things together will determine
when that next borrowing or financial approach comes to play. Okay. The the only reason I was raising that tea is that I'm just thinking about the water cooperative and we have uh well we're talking
hundreds of millions of dollars but still um we we're projecting out with whiffier and the other and basically we did a uh a bank revolving loan that in
fact we actually in renegotiated uh I think it was last meeting. So, I'm just, you know, with these water projects, the one thing that that I've seen is that they don't reduce. No,
they increase. And so, that that's why, you know, we when you know you got the need, I'm just maybe I should wait till the presentation is over before I start. I think it's it's a great question and I think we just have to be financially strategic in how we go about doing that.
You know, there's uh looking at what interest rates are, what the economics outside of the cost of the project are. All those things factor into it. There's also when you borrow money, there's obligations as to how quickly you spend that down. you know, you if it's going to be something that you're not going to
actually advance for several years, you don't want to borrow that money because then you run into, you know, problems with your your bond covenants that require that money to be spent down in a four-year window. So, all those things have to be it's it's trying to keep all the pieces on the on the table in front
of you and figuring out, okay, what's the best strategy for us? Okay. All right. Gary, did you want to add some to that? You have to turn on. Good evening, mayor, commissioners. Just a couple other points. is that by um spreading this debt out over time, our
current interest rates, for example, whiffy is is around 4.8%. And we definitely don't want to be borrowing money at at at 4.8%. SRF is is significantly lower and the bond market probably is is a little bit
lower than than WIFIA. So what we're trying to do is get the best interest rate situation for the city over time. And with the talk at the Fed level right now of lowering interest rates, we're kind of playing that what when is the
best time for us to issue debt and then hit the market at that time. Thank you manager. Thank you. Yeah. And again, that's kind of that those environmental conditions that we're being very strategic and very mindful of. You know, when do you pull the trigger and on how much and you
know, which thread do you pull? Um, I mentioned the repair and replacement uh fund that that we established last year. We have that as an additional charge that is on our water bills. Um, we're anticipating
budgeting out $2.4 million in work associated with repair and replacement. And then finally, um I mentioned during my most recent budget presentation, we have about 766 uh full-time or uh FTEEs within the
organization. As you can see here, 136 of those fall within the water department. So 132 positions uh that are full-time, four that are part-time, and I'll talk briefly in a moment about what those new positions are within their their budget.
When we look at the user fees, um you can see at the bottom, Winter Haven is second to the the second lowest there for the current fiscal year. Uh we will see an adjustment on water fees come October 1st. That's part of the fee schedule that was put into play last year. Water rates will increase by 2 and
a.5%. Uh wastewater or sewer fees will increase by 7 and a half%. That is the same schedule that'll take place over a five-year window. Last year being the first year, this is year two of that. Even with those adjustments, you can see we go from being second lowest to being
third lowest. Um, even with those adjustments, I I think that that speaks volumes, particularly when you look at the cost of water and sewer in some of the neighboring jurisdictions. We do this based upon 5,000 gallons of use per month. Now, why do we use 5,000?
That's a very uh routine, consistent benchmark. But if you look at the statistic that we have off to the side there, 76 plus percent of our residents, our single family homes use less than 5,000 gallons per month. So the vast majority of our residents, this is what
you're seeing. Over 56% of our residents use less than 3,000 gallons per month. So, you know, the for them the that monthly bill would be even less than what you see here. But I I take pride in the fact that even with what we're
spending and what our rates are, we're still at the very lowest end of what water rates are here in Pulk County. We also effective January 1st adjusted our connection fees. Um we do have the highest connection fees at present time
here in Pulk County. Uh there was some thought that you know that's going to kill growth. That's just going to make everything slow down. I met with uh director of economic opportunity and community investment Eric Labby this afternoon. Um since January for January
through July of 2025 we issued 498 single family home permits. In July we issued 93 alone. So you know that is not slowing growth but it certainly is ensuring that growth is paying for its impact within the
water system. When we look at total revenues within the utility fund, you can see again at the top there that debt proceeds of 24.6 million. Um that number if we if we issue higher uh higher debt later uh into the into the fiscal year, that
number will change, but that is the anticipated debt at present time. Water sales and and your sewer sales make up about 44% of the overall revenue that comes in. Connection fees about 10%. uh
we we estimate uh 10% of our revenues coming from grants. You know, that number could could jump significantly higher if we have grants that come in during the uh the fiscal year. Service charges and and set fees. Um you know, when we're we're setting up new uh new
service at a at a a property, the admin and account services and engineering inspection, that is kind of the administrative fee that apply that we put on every bill. um miscellaneous revenues. I never like to use that word miscellaneous. I always like to try and give you an understanding of what that
is. That includes late fees that when people don't pay their bills on time, they have to pay a late fee. It also includes when we recycle old meters. We do get some value out of recycling old obsolete meters because of the raw materials involved. Um you see interest
earnings. Uh the fees from Pulk County or Pulk Regional Water Cooperative. Mr. Mayor, you'll appreciate this. you know, we pay an whole lot of money to the PRWC. They're actually going to pay us some money. So, there is a uh a raw water line that will come up from the south into the WA the Pard Road water
production facility that will be ultimately owned by PRWC. It'll be their asset because it's p pushing that. It's part of their distribution system bringing raw water to our facility and they will reimburse us for the cost of us putting that in. And then um refuge
billing fee that is a fee that is paid into the utility fund by solid waste because utility fund actually issues the bills for solid waste. When we look at the expenditures within the utility fund, capital is the big
guy. Um remember in general fund we put those big capital projects into a separate construction fund. In the utility fund because it's a proprietary or enterprise fund, we hold everything there. is essential to their operations. So about 45% of their expenditures will
be tied to capital, about 22% towards operating and about 12% towards personnel. Those are the big three. Um there is the $6.1 million that is a transfer into the general fund. The non-EP departmental fees are expenses
that they pay back in to support other operations such as human resources, IT, fleet maintenance, facilities maintenance. um they have some annual debt service that they have to pay on prior bonds that were issued and then also uh the investment that we're making
in repair and replacement. Looking at their budget overall, um this is the entire fund of all the different divisions that they have. So consistent with what we just showed on the prior screen, that would show up in fiscal year 2526. But if you go to the revenues, you see
we're bringing in about $7.3 million more uh in the coming year than we did in fiscal year 25. And we will spend about $6.1 million more than we did in fiscal year 25. Um so we'll end up with
an ending fund cash ending cash fund balance of about 50 million6 50,613,000. in in speaking to that specifically when we talk about fund balance. Um you know it we MJ and I had a conversation
yesterday about this of uh you know why not just use fund balance to pay for all your projects. Well within that fund balance there are certain restricted dollars that are within that that come from connection fees. You can't use those for uh certain things. they can
only go towards expansions of services. You have debt service that is included within that that is forecast out. Uh the unrestricted funds really only account for about 66.2 million or about 12.3% of that. So it's not like you have $50
million in cash sitting there to do with what you want. Um realistically about oh I'd say 87 88% of that is is already restricted and can't be accessed. Well, my question is why you list it
like that? Well, there's there's a whole lot that happens within proprietary and enterprise accounts that drives me as a city manager crazy. Um, I had to have a remedial lesson with members of our finance team yesterday on
everything from depreciation to capitalization of interest because how we do things in a proprietary fund are completely different from how we do things in a general fund. You know, proprietary funds are intended to operate as businesses and in in that same philosophy. It just doesn't make
sense for government. But that's what the uh the general accounting principles require us. new positions that are um coming online within the uh utility services department I mentioned again um a total
count of 13 136 positions the new ones that are included in that a fiscal manager and we're talking an awful lot about money tonight we're talking about big projects we're talking about compliance with federal guidelines for
federal grants or loans with state guidelines for D grants or for state revolving fund loans. Um the complicated aspects of finances within the utility operation really requires us to have a fiscal manager in there to further
support what they're doing. Uh so we included that this year. The expanding infrastructure that we have. Every time you put in a new subdivision in Winter Haven, there is a lift station, there is lines in the ground, there are meters, there's all this stuff that has to be taken care of. it's built by the
developer and then it's transferred over to us uh when we when we do the final plat approval on those things. So adding two utility servicesers to help us with that as well as the valve flushing or valve exercising that we need to do. Um
just there's a lot that happens and with utilities that we need those two additional bodies. And then in customer service we've made some changes in customer service. I look forward to being able to provide you all a report on, you know, we made some changes to the hours of operation. Um, and I think
I think those actually take effect. I'm going to look to the back here. September 1st. Um, so, you know, changing the hours that we're open there really to accommodate what are our peak demands for lobby traffic versus call volume, trying to make sure we're providing the best service. in working
with Amanda and Kyle over in account services. They identified an add one additional body to help us with that overall process. And then again, a part-time electrician. You know, every one of those lift stations that's out there has an electrical panel on it. Um
being able to help troubleshoot that along with our existing lift station maintenance crews uh is an important asset to have. I want to back up one second. Can you back me up, AJ? Um, I do want to just
give you one kind of point of reference here. When we talk about the size of the utility, you know how big Winter Haven is, you know, um, how much water we're we're pumping out. Something that that may at times get lost in the just in the
minutia of everything else we deal with is how many accounts we actually have out there. So for every meter, you know, how many service points do we have? So we have 40,561 meters out there within our operations.
Um I'm sorry, 43,833. About 40,500 of those are residential meters. When you look at what's inside the city limits versus what's outside, about 66.1%
of our meters are inside the city limits. about 33.8 are outside the city limits in that unincorporated service area. Um those numbers continue to go up. We're installing new meters every single week as we have new houses that
are being constructed. Again, that is just kind of one of the metrics that I look at when we say we need additional bodies to help maintain these things. It's not one to one, but when you start adding, you know, more services, more accounts, more customers, more homes to be serviced, we have to make sure that
we're growing the the workforce to make sure we can meet that demand. Okay, with that, I'm going to pass it on to Gary and he's going to talk a little bit more about some of the specific capital projects uh that we have lined up for you in this forthcoming fiscal
year. again. Uh good evening, mayor, commissioners. Uh the remainder of the presentation, we're going to talk about uh the capital investment basically over the next five years. But before we get there, we're going to talk a little bit about some significant things in the
operating budget itself. Um repairs to uh water plant storage tanks, $2 million. um work at the wastewater plant, three aeration basins, you know, $1.5 million. New upgrades for the fieldhouse master
list station, $1.2 million. All of these affect our daily operations. So, this is just some of the things that's in the budget that you have are going to be uh approving later on. From a capital investment standpoint,
this gives you a breakdown of where the money is being spent from a capital standpoint and where it's budgeted in our in our budget under engineering. Uh roughly $16.8 million.
That's primarily the uh new water utility complex that's going to be on Buckeye Loop Road. wastewater treatment, $8 million. Water treatment, $4.7 million, and it goes on down the list. You can see this
there's pretty good uh distribution of cost across all the divisions. $2.3 million, almost 6% of our capital expense in repair and replacement. This does include um $2 million in land
acquisition too for the coming year. In this next session section here, you'll see the individual projects in each one of the cost centers. Uh this first section is the water treatment plants and and the really the high points are, you know, I
I went through what we're spending in 26, but this shows you the complete project over time. So, let's just take the Pard Road for an example. You know, 1.65 and 26, 2.2 2 in 27 and then
another half a million uh in 28 and that facility will be online when PRWC starts delivering us water in October of 28. So you can see that these these costs are over time and and just for example water treatment over the next five years we're
proposing to spend $45 million uh in the engineering. Um, we have the Is there a question? Was there a question? No. Okay. I didn't. Uh, in the engineering, we have the, uh, the Bradco Farms, the wetland restoration aquifer recharge project
along with the new, uh, utility admin complex at, uh, $24 million spent over the next two physical years. Um, moving on down to wastewater treatment plan three, uh, logistics parkway, and then of course the
expenditures for the the new water resource facility. And you can see that's the big ticket item there. That's almost $173 million of the next five years. Okay. Thank you. And that you answering
my question that I was asking earlier. So that's that's why, you know, we we started out this this coming physical year, we think we're going to be in the 60 to $80 million range, but two years from now, we're going to be coming back and saying, you know, to complete these projects, we're
going to need these additional funds. I'm down to uh water distribution. You can see there uh new water manes um asbestous replacement wastewater collection the septic to sewer uh lift station replacements you
know we have two over 230 lift stations in our system and they constantly require repair. So, we're we have a a list of lift stations that we uh will be repairing and we're going to start a new process this coming year doing a lot of
that work in house where we have been contracting much of that work. Additional work on Lake Howard gravity sewer. That's just extending where that that project that we uh completed this past year on reclaimed water. Uh additional mains
extensions. We're planning a 30 mile loop around the city and this is just additional uh extensions of reclaimed water. It does include aquifer storage and recovery wells. That's again part of that Bradco farm project.
Direct portable reuse. This is really interesting. Uh we have done some feasibility studies on on uh direct portable reuse and we're actually going to construct a uh trailer mounted treatment system that will allow us to
look at different types of treatment processes and that we can pull this trailer to community events. Um, it's going to be quite an impressive treatment uh uh system that will be able to show the
public how we handle treating waste water and reclaimed water. It'll be something that once we're done with it also uh we could allow neighboring uh communities to also you use this limit. So, we're trying to be out in front of everything.
All right. Um moving on to repair and replacement over the five-year period, we're looking at 14 uh $14 million expenditure. Total bottom line, you know, we're talking uh 37.3 million in the the
coming fiscal year with uh 335 million projected over the next 5-year period. Just to again recap the major projects itself, uh wastewater treatment plant 3 or the water resource facility at uh roughly
173 million wetland restoration projects 17 water treatment plants that's cypress wood pard road and then upgrades to Fairfax at 33 million. the new admin maintenance
complex 24 and then on down the list. So during this this next five-year period, we're talking $240 million just on the main the major projects that we're we're undertaking. If we look specifically at our water
treatment plants, as city manager mentioned, we're going to be constructing two new facilities, the Cypresswood and the Pard Road facility. the cypress wood uh the existing cypress wood uh plant is basically falling
apart. It's it's in very bad shape. Um we're currently drilling wells. Um we're drilling already started at Pard Road. We're down about 900 to 1,000 ft. We're going to be exploring the lower Florida the upper portion of the lower
Florida aquifer. And if that water is fresh, that will change the way we permit water from swift bud because there there will be limits on the upper floor in water, but there are no limits on the lower floor
in water. You say that again, Derek. You're saying the lower upper, right? It's the upper zone of the lower floor of the lower. Yes. Upper zone of the lower. Okay. Right. And there are no limits on the amount of water that you can take out of
that zone currently by swiftmud. Okay. So the limits that that Swift mud will be imposing in the next three years basically will limit pumping out of the upper Florida based on our demands at
December 31st, 2025. That number is going to be close to probably about 11.5 million gallons, maybe 12 at tops, but I think it's probably going to be closer to 11.5. That's what they eventually plan to
limit us as far as pumping out of the upper Florida. Now, our plan is to increase the amount we pump out of the lower of the upper Florida by recharging the upper Florida aquifer. So um you know if you look at the
pollard road plant it will be an 8 m 8 million gallon per day facility. Four of it will be basically from PRWC which we will be wheeling water to Auburnale and to Lake Alfred the remainder will be for
our demands. Cypresswood is going to be about a 1.5 to 2 million gallon per day facility. I have a question. We're also working on that water use permit. We're thinking Yes, she has. I just have a question about um the
upper part of the lower Florida. Okay. Do we have any kind of guess of how far down that is? The fresher water from the upper. So, we think it's in the,200 ft range below surface.
So, we're very close to that already. Mhm. We should know here in the next month or so how successful we're going to be. Okay. Uh Davenport has has already drilled a well to the upper zone of the lower Florida and have been successful getting
water. So we're hopeful that that will be the same situation for us here in Winter Haven. Has Swift Mud give them any recognition on their permit for that? I think they're still negotiating th those permits.
Uh we have uh we are working towards a a permit application for SwiftMUD. Um that will come before the city commission later this year, but we've indicated to SwiftMUD that we're going to be asking for a 50-year permit, which is a little bit different than what they're they're
used to. They're used to, you know, 10 20 years. But given that they have issued 50-year permits, I felt like we should push the envelope and request a 50-year permit. And in that permit, we we would be looking for about 18.3
million gallons of upper Florida water. But the only way we can do that is by recharging. So, but we're headed in the right direction, I believe. On to the water resource facility. This
is kind of a uh conceptual layout of what the facility might look like. Um our current facilities as you know wastewater plant two the the northern plant it's a 1.7 million gallon per day facility. Plant three a 7.5 million
gallon per day facility. Plant two became operational in 1971. So it's already well past 50 years old. Plant 3 was became operational in 1976.
So it it'll be 50 years old next year. So this is timely effort for the city to begin looking at how we um handle both of these facilities and com combining the two facilities into one facility makes a lot of sense. U so we'll be
looking this coming year on how do we transfer that flow from plant two to plant three. And also we're looking on the east side of the system. How can we u provide some redundancy to our system so that it's not all in one location. So
we'll be evaluating those options to determine the best way to transfer that flow from plant two to plant three. Um the uh the new facility was is under contract with Wharton Smith. Their their design engineer is Kimley Horn. Uh we
entered into that contract January of this this year. So we're well underway. We'll see some early out packages uh this coming year for this new facility which will include the new new screening
and filtration for the facility. Uh we'll be targeting a 12 million gallon per day facility here to start with on the sapphire necklace. Um, you know, two years ago, it was
March of 23, I believe, that we received an unsolicited proposal from a company known as REZ for the implementation of the first Sapphire Necklace project or what we've come to be known as the
Bradco Farm project. We think that project is going to be expanded from the original purchase of the city uh where we purchased 370 acres in December of 23 for Bradco Farms. Uh we think the
ultimate project here will probably be around somewhere between 450 to 500 acres uh total project. So part of the work that's going on here is acquiring different diff additional properties
and then begin the actual construction of the project itself. Um the well driller that we procured for drilling our new portable wells for Pard Road and Cypresswood. Um, we are thinking that we will issue a
change order to that contractor to drill a recharge well on this property and that drilling effort should begin in November or December of this year. So, we're in those discussions currently with a well driller and uh it will be
exciting that you know we will actually be drilling a recharge well at Bradco Farms this year. So, pretty impressive. Uh I think wetland restoration will probably begin uh probably
uh maybe in summertime next year. So it'll be interesting to see that process start also. It's going to happen. We're going to do this. I know it's been a long time coming. Yes.
As part of the Bradco purchase, we purchased 10 acres of high ground. And this is a layout of what the facility will look like. It has a uh 3600 basically 3,700 foot administration building with plenty room to grow into a
25 uh,000 square foot warehouse and operations center there that will house all the work crews. Of course, there'll be pole barns and other facilities there to uh to accommodate all the equipment that the utility uses. So, really
looking forward to this. We think that the construction of this will probably be in the 12 to 16month period, beginning probably maybe as early as December of this year.
We'll just have to kind of see how things go. We're going to be under a lot of construction this coming year. So, it's going to be very exciting. Um hopefully I'll still be here um to see this come to, you know, fruition.
major initiatives. Um we're currently at about 60% on automated meter infrastructure. We uh just received a contract to install more towers. Uh we think this will increase our coverage from 65% to
around 95 or greater. So that'll be happening this year. Um, we're looking at replacing uh water meters. You know, city manager noted 43,000 meters out there and we want to
make sure that we replace those in timely manners. We don't want to replace them all at one time because they're going to all fail at the same time at some point in the future. So, uh, actively want to target replacing about 10,000 meters a year. Another huge
initiative is lead and copper and that's the replacement of lead and copper throughout our distribution system. We have found a few in our system and we're right on target to meet all the deadlines that have been established by EPA.
Another program that is supported in this this year is the uh unidirectional flushing and and valve exercise um program. uh we requested two new positions uh this coming year. Last year we requested one new employee and then
the equipment to imple implement this program. This is a program that is required by DP. So this is we have been contracting this in the past and now we're bringing this work internal and of course we're very active on the grant
pursuit advocating for as much as 50% grant funding. Uh the rate study that we did yet last year was based on assuming that we could get 5% grant funding. I think we're going to be much higher than
that. Um we're we're targeting 40%. That's what I proposed to DP back in June and they didn't throw me out. So that was a good sign. So we'll see how that goes. Uh but that was 40% over a
fiveyear period too. So we we think that we're in good shape there. Um D is is very um positive about the efforts we're taking here in Winter Haven. So really uh we're trying to set the stage for the
future here. And with that, I'll be glad to answer any questions. Any questions? So Mr. Mayor, again, I just want to reiterate a couple points if I can. you know what you see this evening in this presentation. We we carve this one out
separate because this is your biggest department in terms of what the operational costs are at the end of the day. Um utility the water department by itself is actually uh larger than what our general fund inclusive of police, fire and and the various departments is.
Um but all the numbers that you've seen this evening are what are were contemplated in the tenative budget that we prepared and presented to you two weeks ago. Um these don't have an impact on your millage rate because it was a proprietary account. Water department
their revenues account for their operational expenses. Um so it it has no bearing on the on the 6.59 millillage rate. The the other key takeaway is that it does contemplate borrowing for these
projects. We think that the borrowing will be significantly higher than what we forecasted initially in here. But I want the commission to have the same level of comfort that I've come to have in that our fee schedule that is in
place contemplated a very high borrowing and established rates that would generate sufficient revenue to cover the debt service on that going forward. So you're well positioned to whatever borrowing we bring back to you and we'll reiterate that at that point when we we
have something a little more concrete in the mix. Okay, thank you very much. All right, thank you Gary. That concludes our uh budget workshop for this evening. Sir, if you want to adjourn and we All right,
this meeting stands a join. Part: 2
review. Can I get a roll call, please? Yes, sir. Commissioner Dles, here. Commissioner Mercer, here. Commissioner Dansler, who's not present. Mayor Prom Yates, who is not present, and Mayor Birdong. Mayor Bertson
here. Oh, okay. All right. I'm looking at So, this uh strategic plan presentation infrastructure t you like to do that at the end? Yes. Yes, sir. All right. Then we have the minutes some
comments from the audience. The consent agenda. Um I can go advisory. That's just reappointments. Yes sir. uh landscape maintenance rightway parks and trails. So that is a uh extension contract uh we
we not extension contract but a a contract with third party providers to help us maintain some of our um lower profile areas some of our rights of way uh some of our uh parks that don't require a significant amount of detail
such as like a ball field or a high intensity area. Um, we've contracted out a number of our spaces over the years, and this year we did a bid. Uh, this provides a two-year contract to two separate, uh, third-party vendors to help us in maintaining some of our rights of way in in park spaces.
Okay. And the next one is replacing some P320 duty weapons with a Glock. Yeah, this is a a significant item. If I could just take a few minutes on this. So few years back we we transitioned from the Glock uh sidearm that we issue
out to our law enforcement officers to the Sig Sauer P320. Um that is the duty weapon that we have in use today. uh since its deployment and in and recently over the last several months uh there's been a number of safety issues
nationally that have been reported with that that weapon uh specifically involving unintentional discharges. Um these pose a direct risk not only to our officer safety but also to the public creates a liability if you have a weapon that is having problems of that
nature. We have, knock on wood, not experienced that, but certainly a number of other agencies um have experienced that at the federal and at the municipal level. Um tragically to say, you know, some of those have resulted in loss of life. Um
the issue is the unintended discharges. There's been 150 reported accidental discharges nationwide with that weapon. Um, there's also been a a notice from the Florida Municipal Insurance Trust that highlights the FBI uh ballistic
research facility report that outlines a number of concerns with safety mechanisms on that firearm. And I note within the fact sheet, there are uh three significant uh law enforcement entities that have banned its use now to include Department of Homeland Security,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border control. they will not use this weapon anymore. Um, our staff recognizing this and and out of the utmost concern for our members, uh, the police department as well as for the public, they researched, you know, what
these issues are and investigated what suitable replacements might be available for our our law enforcement officers. They've identified the Glock 47, which is a 9 millimeter duty pistol, as being a suitable replacement for this. We
actually used uh the Glock uh pistols prior to going to the Sig Sau. Um so we are familiar with with Glock as a as a manufacturer. This is a weapon that is used not only by the FBI but also the US Marshals and multiple law enforcement
agencies. It includes three passive safeties to prevent un unintended discharges. It's highly it's a highly durable uh sidearm you duty weapon. Um and certainly it enhances officer confidence is it's some it's a we have
familiarity with Glock duty weapons. Um it increases officer effectiveness and certainly improved decision making under stress when you have comfort and familiarity with it. To replace the units that we have uh the cost is estimated at 104,791.
We explored a number of different vendors that could provide that to us and ultimately settled on lose police distributors. They're able to provide to those us those weapons at $732 each, which is a total of $87,840
for all 120 weapons that we need to replace. They're also able to provide the holsters that are compatible with the firearms and also work in concert with our existing tools like the Axon body cameras. You may recall that when when an officer pulls their weapon from
the holster, it automatically triggers that body camera. This this holster system will work with that body camera system that we have. Um, we will be able to dispose of the current weapons, you know, to have those recycled out. Um and
and I would assume that those are either uh melted down for raw material or however they dispose of them or or what recycle them. Uh but any money that comes back from those and that will be dependent totally upon what the value of
them are at the time and given what's happening with the sigs right now it could be a relatively small amount but that will be uh applied back to the purchase cost. We do have sufficient funds within the police department's budget to cover this cost. My recommendation is that we move forward
with this as an emergency purchase rather than going through the full-fledged procurement process. We have researched the availability of it. Um this is an officer safety issue, so time is of the essence of to do this. Once we issue the uh purchase order,
we'll we'll get an established timeline for this. It'll take several months for us to to make that happen, but we we feel this is necessary for us to move forward with quickly. Okay. Thank you. Any questions? All right.
Then we have resolution R2534. This is uh pertains to the Willoughbrook North subdivision. So, this is on the eastern side of Willoughbrook Golf Course. You can see it noted on your map highlighted in blue there. Um this
subdivision was or this platting came about through resolution 253 in March of this year. It includes 132 about 133 acres that comprised 434 building lots and nine common lots. Willoughbrook submitted a perform the
KRPC Willoughbrook LLC uh submitted a performance bond in the amount of $7.23 23 million for the uh required infrastructure. Um they intended to initially when they platted this they platted it as a single
phase. However, they've chosen to break up break up the installation of the required infrastructure into four phases. So they've completed all the required infrastructure for phases one and two which is highlighted in blue. Um and are seeking our acceptance of those improvements to the you know dedicating
to the city. Um staff has performed inspections of those improvements and found them ready for acceptance. The work is not complete yet in phases three and four. So a modified performance bond will be issued in the amount of 5.069 million um that has actually been
submitted to ensure completion of that infrastructure in those areas. So really what this is, it's a resolution to accept the improvements within phase one and two and to accept the reduced bond for the remainder of the infrastructure
that will be in phases three and four. We did something just similar to this I believe with the lake deer subdivision uh over the past month or so. Just want to say your drawing is incorrect. There's no canel that connects smart and
fanny. Oh, you Oh, we g that's a part of this. We going to dig it eventually. We're going to build a road across it. Yeah. I think that's a swift mud maintained canal. Mr. Mayor, I'd love if there was if that canal
There is a canal, but you just can't navigate it because it's Yeah. It's hard to chase the fish from one side to the other. It would be good. That would add another leg to the chain. All right. Uh so we have no ordinances. First reading
less on reports. Um we'll do this at the commission meeting to appoint a layon. Yeah, that's just for the those that's for your those two water production facilities. And then I mentioned to you, we're getting ready to issue out a
request for applications. That's for the affordable housing um support we do and the AHAC has already identified members to serve on that. We would just like to have a a commission leaison. All right. You can give us Joe infrastructure. Okay. I'm going to actually uh hand this
off to uh Deputy City Manager Carnival because he has worked with this team to prepare this. So MJ, take it away. All right. Good evening, mayor and city commission. get to the uh first slide there. So uh tonight we're talking on the infrastructure pillar. Again, this is
the infrastructure pillar represents everything we use to keep things moving daily, right? These are roads and bridges, sidewalks, water and sewer systems, much of which you heard about tonight. Uh parts of the airport, um buildings, fiber. So, it's that kind of stuff. Um we have a couple fresh faces for you this evening. Some new folks
that you guys have probably not heard present before. Uh but I'll let you I'll let themselves intro let them introduce themselves when they get to the podium. Uh but we'll start off with Troy Haidal, our airport director. Uh talking to you a little bit about some of the exciting things happening infrastructure-wise at the airport. All right. Good evening, Mayor
Commissioners. Excuse my voice here. It was a long night at the hockey rink. Uh today's agenda includes several infrastructure and plan initiatives that are critical to our growth safety and the operational efficiency of both our airport and the broader community. We'll begin with an overview of the airport taxiway rehabilitation project followed
by updates on the remote tower and the airport layout plan. All of which are long-term aviation strategy. We'll then shift to community focused transportation and utility projects including the eighth street northwest project, Third Street concept plan, and the transportation improvement program.
Infrastructure reliability and resilience are also top priorities. To that end, we'll cover progress on the harmony master lift station, the scattera and radio fiber connections, and provide updates on the weld drain efforts on polar and cypress wood. Each item represents an important step in
enhancing service delivery, preparing for future growth, and ensuring continued safety and connectivity to our city. FDOT runs a statewide airfield m pavement management program that follows a three-year inspection cycle. Our most
recent inspection was in completed in 2024. The pavement conditions are valued very similar to how it works in the public works uh given what they call a PCI. We currently hold a score of 83 which is classified as satisfactory. It's important to point out that when you look at the graphic on your screen
the primarily most of the airfields um in the green which is really something to be proud of. Our T- hanger taxi lanes. However, the area on the south of the field, the orange, pink, and yellow there, those are starting to show some signs of wear with conditions ranging from fair to very poor. The plan is to mill and
overlay these areas and still in fair condition and fully reconstruct that those that are in the very poor category. These taxi lanes are key part of the airfield since they connect tenant hangers to the rest of the airfield. Their condition affects daily operations, tenant satisfaction, and the long-term value of our hangar
facilities. All of which we've just recently completed a uh evaluation and got some uh some hanger rates back and we'll be uh bringing those to you here shortly. Uh you the city commission recently approved an FDO grant to fund the design phase of this project. The approval is an important step that will
help us move toward the full funding. I'm confident that once this project is complete and we're all in the green there that our airport will be in the top 10% of PCIs within the state of Florida. While we're on the talk of pavement, I want to share a quick highlight from our June trip to the FAA technical center, Atlantic City.
What you see in the image is the a the FAA's pavement test vehicle on their 900 foot long track. This facility allows them to simulate aircraft landings under various wheel and weight configurations. It's a state-of-the-art set that helps determine how different asphalt mixes perform under stress. The research done
here plays a direct role in the standards apply here to our own airfield pavements. I do want to make a just a quick point on this. Um this is the the journey that uh Mr. H Highle and myself and General Palumbo took to Atlantic City. This picture doesn't do it justice. This is
the largest indoor laboratory in North America. Um and and what they do there is they're testing all this asphalt on it. It's about close to probably 3/4 of a mile long. 900 ft.
And what's not shown here is the scale. Um, I wish we had a picture of a person standing next to one of these tires. These are these are air aircraft tires. They're huge. And this is to simulate the movement of, you know, jumbo jets
that are driving on your taxi lanes in an airport and how asphalt holds up. So, when we look to redo the asphalt at our taxi lanes to the um to the tea hangers, certainly we don't have planes of this size uh hopefully ever. Um, those would be awful big for our little airport, but
it does give us the confidence in in the asphalt designs that we use for the airport. I think if we ever have start getting planes that size, you're going to have a lot of people from the surrounding neighborhood standing up here at this podium. So, we'll keep it with the small guys. But the primary reason for FA visit was to tour the remote tower
facility. I mean, when we got there, the lab was buzzing. I mean, it was full-blown operation testing. Operation had going on there. Uh, FAA staff, ATC controllers expressing strong support for this project. I think this project's greatly going to modernize how we control traffic at our airfield and it's it's so close to becoming a reality. I
think we've been talking about this project for almost three or four years now and it feels like we're finally starting to get to the tail end of it. Uh regarding our own remote tower deployment, the console shown on the picture in front of you is Barto's current system. Right next to it as we speak, they are currently setting up the same console that is going to be the
Winter Haven Control Center. It's in the same room, same setup, just with a staffing position behind it. Our actual infrastructure pieces are scheduled to be on site, the actual tower for our airport at the end of this year to early next year. And with current talks with the FAA, we anticipate the system come
online somewhere between mid 26 to mid 27 depending for quintessing. Uh lastly, I want to touch on the airport layout plan or ALP. Uh there's a lot going on in this picture, so don't get too wrapped up in it. But one of the first questions FAA and FDOT ask when
we're reviewing funding requests is, is the project under ALP? So this makes it essential planning tool for us. Among the key future projects shown on our Commerce Park phases one, phase two, new T hanger rows on the southside, and corporate tea hangers on the east side.
We've also designated areas specific on our ALP for advanced air mobility or AAM. Uh some of you may know AM refers to the new vertical takeoff in electric vehicles. Uh it's it sounds like something on the Jetsons, but it's really right here on a doorstep. But in fact, Mr. Mayor, I think we sat in a
meeting a couple months back down in over there on I4 where they from Sebring was highlighting this new technology. As you know, Winter Haven, we're uniquely positioned right between Tampa and Orlando, two major hubs. That location combination combined with our strong local tourism makes us an ideal
spot to leverage this AAM technology. Winter Heaven's location can greatly benefit bringing faster travel times, expanded connectivity, and positioning our airport as a fast forward-looking hub for emerging aviation technologies. That covers the key updates on the
airport infrastructure and future plans. There's a lot of stuff going on. At this point, I want to turn it over to Tyler Williams, who's going to share some exciting updates from the public works department. Thank you. Thank you, Troy. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Commissioners. I'm happy to stand
before you tonight to brief you on some projects occurring in public works and how those are tying into the infrastructure pillar. To begin, we have the 8th Street and Avenue Lest Complete Streets project. This is a project that will be utilizing
funding from the FDOT. The 8th Street portion will extend from Lake Howard Drive up north towards Mir Terrace and the Avenue L portion will extend from 8th Street out towards US17. This project seeks to enhance the growing infrastructure around the Lake Howard
area and will provide safe modes of transportation for both drivers and pedestrians and will help to connect into the downtown area. Some nearby locations include the Northgate Shopping Center, St. Paul's Church, and the Bamer Church. Earlier, funding from the FDOT
had been set, although we recently found out that that funding had been removed from the FDOT's work program due to the removal of carbon reduction funds from the project. However, thanks to our close relationship with the Pulk Transportation Planning Organization, or
more simply, the TPO, this project is now slated as the number one funding priority for complete streets projects in the entire county within the TPO's recently adopted project priority list. In communication with the FDOT, they have also agreed to allocate
construction funding in fiscal year 28. We also recently found out that the FDOT has allotted just over $167,000 for design for fiscal year 26 within their recently released 5-year work program. With this information, we plan
to begin design during the spring of 2026 and hope to have a set of plans in hand by spring 2027, which will then allow for us to roll into construction just as the FDOT's fiscal year 28 is commencing. One of the focal points of the
infrastructure pillar is maintaining those close relationships with organizations pertaining to transportation, which of course includes the PUL TPO and the FDOT. We're confident that this project is the number one priority project in all of PULK due to the relationships that we
have fostered over the years with these organizations as they both have a deep understanding of the pressing needs that our city is facing and understand our deep commitment to improving the safety of both drivers and pedestrians within our communities.
Third Street Northwest. Uh this was last discussed at the previous commission meeting. You may recall that it was on the agenda to enter into a grant agreement with the FDOT. This project aims to improve the flow and safety of traffic in and out of the downtown area
with the addition of two new roundabouts. It will also help to provide better pedestrian connectivity between the various facilities with some improved sidewalks and crosswalks which will help to connect to the trail head playground, garden center, senior
center, tennis courts, and the MLK park. Kimley Horn has been working on the design of this project and recently completed the 60% design phase and have now moved on to the 90% phase. The FDOT has programmed just a little under $1.7
million in construction funding for this project during their current fiscal year and we hope to be able to move into construction by next summer with the conceptual mockup that you can see on your screens. This was provided to us by Kimley Horn. And you can see some of
those proposed changes to this corridor, such as the location of those two brand new roundabouts, those new crosswalks, some minor landscape improvements, minor improvements to both Avenue E and F Northwest, and overall how we are planning to better connect to the
various city facilities along the street. Earlier this year in February, I was here to talk to you about how this previous year was the city's biggest repaving effort in Winter Haven's history. In that effort, 31 roads with the poorest pavement condition index or
PCI ratings were repaved between October and December. Earlier in the presentation, you may recall that Troy had briefly touched on what the PCI rating is and how that is relating to some of the work going on up at the airport. Additional work from last year includes some double microsurfacing
work, which is where two successive layers of microsurfacing material are applied to a roadway. The city did its first ever double micro work during the Avenue C Southwest complete streets project that took place back in 2023. That's the road that is in front of the
Rain Dance Apartments in downtown. Some of the areas that received this treatment in 2024 included Fourth Street Southeast, Oleander Drive Southeast, and the area just off of 10th Street Southeast. In April of this year, the city collaborated with Pavement
Technologies to rejuvenate 15 miles worth of roadways. This work involved applying restorative oils that help to restore the flexibility in these roadways and can extend the life of them as well which if those oils are being applied every 5 years that can extend
the life of a road upwards of 10 years. So this is very important work. The services of asphalt paving systems or APS were also used to finish up with some crack seal work during this past summer. This is completed on roads that are starting to receive cracks and a
seal fixture is applied to prevent water from seeping into them. Typically, when that happens, certain things such as potholes can start to form. Got a question for you. So, once you filled in those cracks, do you come back and put
something over the asphalt? Yes, they'll come back and they'll do a microsurface like he was talking about earlier. The crack seal is just kind of the first part and then they'll come back and they'll lay that fresh microsurface over the top of it. I was just I've seen some Yeah.
in my in my area. So, and later this year, probably around October, the APS will actually be coming back to perform some of that double micro work um and some Cape Seal applications as well. That work usually needs to be completed in the fall due to
it not really applying as well in the extreme heat that we're experiencing. When it's in cooler weather, it's kind of is able to bond a little bit quicker. In preparation for future TIP activities, the city is currently working to establish a list of roads for its upcoming round of repaving efforts
later this year. The plan with that is to use what is currently left in the TIP funds and to bridge that with funds that are within the proposed budget. We are also working on creating an online map for residents to view through the city website. This map will help to highlight what work has been done, what
work is coming up, and we'll also have a way to view the PCI ratings of these roads. As you can see, this is an example of what that type of online map may look like. This is kind of showing you some of that work that's been done around the community. And this will be a great
interactive map that residents will be able to view. And with that, I will now turn it over to Dalton from the water department. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening, commissioners and mayor. Um, tonight I'm speaking about our new Harmony Master
lift station. So, the Harmony Master lift station was uh designed uh to mirror the Channel Lakes Master um but also to reduce the flow going to the Channel Lakes Master. So with this map here you can see the the existing boundaries of the flow that is going to the channel links master and then this
will be the flow diverting to the harmony master. So with this master like I explained it um we designed it to mirror the channel x master with necessary upgrades that we saw fit. Um so some of these upgrades um
include a new uh PLC card that is called specific energy. So this this card will read the efficiency of all four pumps and it will propose new adjustments that we can make to these pumps whether we slow down the speed or upgrade the speed of them and and we'll get more
efficiency out of them. Um we we've also upgraded the uh gate valves. So with the gate valves at the channel lake master um usually it took two to three people to turn them off turn them on. Uh these new wheel valves, you you can get it on and off with one person and they're right there at at
perfect height for you to work. Um we've uh installed outside lighting for safety. Um upgraded pumps, so we went with endst pumps. Um now these pumps have springs in the impellers to keep debris and
stuff out of them. We've installed reuse lines down in the wet well. So when debris gets around the pumps instead of cavitating, we can kick those on and it'll move the debris around. Um ultimately, uh we designed this to be a connect between plant two and plant
three and also just continue to improve the efficiency of our wastewater system. Um that's all I've got and I'll pass it over to Damon Irvvis. Okay. Thank you, Dalton. Uh, good evening, mayor and commissioners. Uh, my
name is Damon Irvvis, the chief chief operator at Fairfax Water Treatment Plant. Glad to be here with you all again tonight. I would like to provide an update on our improvements we have made to our SKA system.
To rectify the issues caused by the SKA communication failure, the team has taken proactive steps. We have ordered and installed essential new equipment including radios, cables, antennas, and grounding rods. These enhancements are designed to
improve the overall reliability of the system and are crucial for monitoring and controlling our water treatment processes. The new radios promise improved bandwidth which will facilitate better communication and
control between the system components. Additionally, I'm sorry, let me flip the So, what you're seeing on the screen, the slide here is our main is our main screen and and the other screen is all of our our plants. So, we could
turn pumps on, we can turn them off. Uh it lets us know how much water is in our elevated tanks. We have uh five elevated tanks with in in the city of Winter Haven. Um, and it lets us know the pressure, how much water we pump in, uh, the different chlorine residuals that
are on the screen. Um, here is, uh, is a picture of our elevated tanks, which is Lake Albert, Magnolia, Third Street, Inwood, and Walmart is on a separate slide by itself. Uh, the other
to the picture to the right is uh, Eloisewood water plant. And again, it lets us know how much feet feet of water we have in the ground storage tank. Uh which high service pump is running, how much water we're pumping, and uh
the different again the pressures of the water. Uh on the left is one of our new radios that we've installed. Uh and we've installed all of our radios with all of our plants. In the middle is a is an
example of our SCADA system. Uh it's different radios, frequency cards. We have uh lift station frequency card and water plant frequency card. To the right is one of the antennas that we use at the different water plants and we have
to line it up just right so it's it's uh reading correctly. Additionally, our ongoing collaboration with the IT department to improve fiber connectivity further strengthens our communication framework. This continuous
effort is essential to ensure the seamless operation of our water supply system and to uphold our commitment to delivering high quality water service consistently. And with that, I'll turn it over to Bejorn W.
Uh, good evening, mayor and commissioners. See something. All right. I'm Bejorn, chief operator of Fairfax Water Plant. We're here to give you a brief update on our well drilling operation. This slide here is at Pard
Road. This showing a drill, that's a drill right there that's actually going into the ground is actually at a depth of 800 ft or so. We're trying to reach 1,200. Um, this slide here to the left is casings
and a well to the right is a drill bit. Kind of sort of kind of sort of the same drill they use in the movie Armageddon, but just here just here on Earth. Um, it's the same exact thing, but
we do not have a meteor approaching us. We do not have that. You don't have to worry. I promise you. Uh uh yeah, that drill bit is the same as that drill bit, but just drilling down to the to the water to the aquifer. Um oh, back one slide. Let me go back. This
drill bit at Paul Roado is uh currently at a depth of 800 feet and hopefully we can get to the upper lower Florida aquifer which provides if it does provide good water we can begin construction of poly road and cypress cypers with uh
water plants. Um that's all I have for today. For the agenda, we touched on airport taxi lane project, remote tower update, airport layout plan, a street and a street northwest project, third street concept plan, transportation improvement
program, harmony mass lift station, skater radio comms and fiber connections and power road cypers drill. Thank you all for having me. I appreciate y. Thank you team. And uh so mayor commission any any questions you may have? We're happy to answer any of
those. Any question? I just have one. Do we have an idea of how many wells we're going to drill for? How many wells total for upper? Yeah. Three. Three. Okay.
I want to see it. Can I come and see it? We We can get you out of there. Okay. I I just wanted to add, you know, it's it's great to have the people that are the boots on the ground come and give these presentations to you and for you
to see and hear from people that have such a passion for the work that they do. Uh Bujornne has been just itching to get in front of the city commission and give a presentation. Um Damon Damon says this is old hat now because this is his second time here.
But no, it is very important to to for these these individuals to get to share on on what those projects are. But it also speaks to the complexity of what happens within those operations. The even having done this as as long as I have to see the the screenshots of
what's happening within the SCADA system and what they can see and monitor uh the technology behind how we provide those services is simply unbelievable. and the expertise of our staff to manage and operate those systems. Very proud of
them for what they do. So, our next pillar update will be economic sustainability and that'll be on March 5th. March 5th. Not March 5th. Marchth, that'll be uh it will not be March in September. We'll come back to you in September with the update on uh economic sustainability. So, that mayor, I'll
turn it back over to you. All right. Thank you. Any other business? Motion to adjourn. Move. Hey. Hey. Hey.