Planning Board - Regular Meeting

This is the regular meeting of the city of Callaway board of commissioners. It is Tuesday, May 12th, 2026. It's 6 pm. If y'all will stand with me, Commissioner Budo, would you please do the invocation and Commissioner Griggs lead us in the pledge. Thank you, God, so much for allowing us the opportunity to meet tonight. Pray, God, that we would have cool heads um and use sound judgment in all our decisions. I thank you for the weather. I thank you for everybody that makes Callaway such a wonderful place for us to live and thrive. Lord, continue blessing us in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. City clerk, please do a roll call. Commissioner Bzel, here. Commissioner G here. Commissioner Pelleter here. Commissioner Ays here. Mayor Henderson here. Okay, we have one presentation tonight. Deputy Martin will do the Bay County Sheriff's Office April Statistics.

Good afternoon everybody.

Good afternoon. Um, for April, we had 1,145 calls for service, 23,462 miles patrolled, total of 48 arrest, 254 traffic stops, 174 citations, and 30 traffic accidents. Um, 12 of those were parking lot accidents, and seven out of the 12 were for improper backing. Uh we only had four traffic crashes at 22 and the Parkway last month and three at Tindle Parkway and 7th Street. And the majority of those were for following too closely some rear ending accidents. Um we had let's see three for failed yield right away. So not too bad there. Not anything major, thank goodness, last month for those. Well, I'm up here and we have a second. Got a couple little presentations here. See who's first. This is for kite day. I want to thank y'all that came out and helped this year to make that a success. Commissioner Pellet, there is a

pre out of jail pass.

I print those off in the basement. But there is a Oh, thank you. Little guy there. There we go. Thank you. And a stand for that. All right. Same thing for you. Thank you. Got you a certificate. All right.

This is a stop sign pass, isn't it? We're gonna get a couple of that. I thank you for coming out, sir. And thank you. Thank you for what y'all do on these. Thank you.

Oh, well, thank you. Thank you. I guess the right names on the boxes as Oh, how pretty. Thank you. Well, we just appreciate you doing kite day. You didn't have to do all this extra.

Pretty Just pulling stuff out left and right here. There's your certificate. And the same day for you, sir. I thank you. Without these two right here, we could not have made this.

They set everything up for us. I don't think they ever leave. I don't think they do either. I think they just I'm pretty sure they stay here pretty much 24 hours a day. I think they do.

Oh, thank you. All right. I thank you. Without straw, we could not

Miss Finn's post. very much because I promise you we would not have been as successful as the world without those people helping us. I appreciate you. We appreciate you. Okay. Do we have any additions or deletions to the agenda? No. No.

Sorry, I zoned for a minute. I really did. I zoned out.

Okay. Just for a a quick summary of the public participation rules. When I call for public participation, do you want if you want to say something, you can speak on every item that we discuss. But when you when I call for public participation, indicate if you want to speak and when you're recognized, come up to the podium, state your name and address for the record if you so choose, and then you have three minutes to speak on the item. You can speak on each item if you want to. At the end of the meeting, we have public participation for non-aggenda items. So, if there's something that you want to talk about that wasn't on the agenda, same process. Once you identify yourself, your three minutes starts and you can mention whatever it is you wanted to mention that wasn't on the agenda. So, we will go on to approval of minutes. We've got the minutes of the regular meeting of April 28th, 2026. Did anybody have any changes, comments on the minutes? And if not, I would entertain a motion.

Motion to approve the minutes. Second. Okay, we've got a motion and a second. If there are no further comments, of ordinances, repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict, providing for severability, scrier's errors, liberal interpretation, modifications, codification, and providing for an effective date. And again, this is just the limited amount of regulation we can do since this is all pretty much preempted to the state um as far as franchises go for telecommunications providers, but we are allowed to require registration. where you can get contact information, tax ID numbers, make sure they have insurance and make sure that they are make sure that they're franchised through the state and they let us know about it.

Do you have anything to add to that? No. Okay. Anybody up here have any question comment? I just had one. um in on the back of the uh page of the of the ordinance um paragraph D. You forgot to put Florida statute in front of the paragraph, but other than that, okay, it just says section. Yeah, we can add the FS over. Okay.

Okay. Anything else? We are working through internally on the processes because we're actually asking them, you know, we can only do so much, but the one we know that's in town right now, Bill, they're constantly sending us updates, but we're trying to figure out how we can be able to say we're they're going to be in certain sections at certain times so that we can try to get notifications out. that's not quite as easy because they don't technically have to give us a schedule. Um, so if people are are are expecting that, oh, we're going to be able to say they're going to be on this area this day, that's we really can't do that. It's it's very difficult. And Kevin, you back up.

Yeah. They're they're allowed to be in our rightway. Yeah. And all we can do is so learn who they are. We want to know who they are, but I don't want anybody to have any expectations that we're going to be able to say Wednesday they're going to be starting in this area. They can give us tentative schedules and we can say, I mean, more than that, if somebody's in there, they can call and say, "Hey, do we know who's in this area?" And, you know, we'll do our best to figure out who it is to get that information, but it's not really a mechanism for us to be able to give public notifications of where they're going to be. So, I didn't want anybody to have an expectation that that's what we're going to be able to do. We're We do have one now that's working with us, but we've been sent schedules

and they're not really, you know, they're on their own timeline of when they're going to be here. Can we just ask anybody that, you know, when they go through the process, just ask them if it's a right away that somebody is maintaining in front of their house, could they maybe try to put it back, you know, dig it up? That is one of the things that we've talked about is, you know, that they need to do their best to put it back, especially if you're dealing in a yard that's immaculate, you know, but we can only ask them. Okay. Bill, is there anything you want to add to that? So far with the new provider, we've had zero complaints.

Good. I know they've they've done all the locates on my street, but I haven't seen anybody working on anything. Yeah. And the other day they provided us with a I saw an email come through the other day where they said this is our next section. They had started on the first section. Yeah. And they better not wait too long because the grass is growing. You mow the grass and the the paint goes away. They'll need new locates. And did anybody in the audience want to comment on the communication company registration? Not seeing anybody. I would entertain a motion.

Motion to approve ordinance 1142 requiring communications provider to provide registration as second. Okay, we've got a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? If not, the clerk. Commissioner Berzo, yes. Commissioner Griggs, yes. Commissioner Pelleter, yes. Commissioner Ayes, yes, ma'am. Mayor Henderson, yes.

We will close the public hearing and go on to our next item on the regular agenda. Item number two, resolution 26-05, personnel policy manual update briement leave. Okay, this is resolution 2605, a resolution of the city of Callaway City Commission revising the city of Callaway personnel manual section 6.13A1 bereavement policy, repealing all resolutions or parts thereof which are in conflict here with and providing an effective date. City manager,

as discussed at the last meeting, this is just revising it so that um the firemen will get one shift. So, it's moving from 24 hours to 48 hours for just the fire department. Any anybody have comment or question for city manager? Um, actually, yes. Um, with the normal process, it's generally three shifts. And what what three shifts do you need? You know, when somebody is uh being interred, etc., they need the funeral leave. Come on.

Um the fire people on their regular schedule. Two on, four off. Or two on, four off. They work a 48 hour commissioner. I think you're talking about like the normal 40hour week person that gets the four days. But the the key in in this situation um where you're honoring a loved one, etc., is actually the time. You know, what if the time is not on their 48 schedule? What if the time is on

the the internment is on their off time? They could use that time to grieve, be with family members, to make preparations if it's before, you know, before they're put in the ground or whatnot or whatever they decide to do, you know. So, um, and that's just how it's always been. We've never, you know, you can't really schedule,

you know, I mean, the death or whatever. It's just it just happens and then you take advantage of it. you know, I'm I I can't you I I don't even see it written in policy where you can say, "All right, I I need to make sure that you're at doing funeral business." You know, it's just kind of like you just you greed for them two days. And like myself being 40hour employee, I I'd have three days.

Yeah. I'd like to say it's it's easier for the other situation because it may the death may occur now and they have the services two or three weeks from then type of thing and it's easy easy for the public works for example just use that to schedule the three days if they if they have say the service on a Saturday you're off anyway you know and they might have that Friday Monday or whatever ever, you know, I mean, they'll just pick two days and we just ask it to be consecutive. Um, so I hope that still clears mud or

Well, no, I just think there's there's mud in there that you're going to have to deal with in each situation. I have no problem with the the one shift situation.

As far as scheduling, it can be kind of complicated for you. It's just in time clock bus we just documented is bereavement leave and that's it. It's a two days of 48 hours their whole tour. And I surveyed some more departments that are doing the 48 96s and you know what I've been told it just doesn't make sense if you have only 24 hours to say that person doesn't have additional annual leave or whatever. You know do you really want them coming back in that state of mind after they just put a loved one in the ground or whatever? You know so it's just We've done so much for uh firefighter mental health in our city and I just feel like this is just another, you know, to me the mission's going to be okay. You know, I'm just more worried about my firefighters being okay. And to brag about them a little bit today, I just found out that our two newest firefighters just got their EMT service. So our whole department is EMT certified. Fire tube EMT. So that's the I've been here 26 years. Never. So, I mean, we're putting the best product we can on the road, and I just need them with that right mental state.

And I totally agree. And also in here, it does state that city manager uh can revise as necessary. Yes. So, yes, of course, under your guidance. Yes. He's the boss. He's my boss. I think he's our boss. Well, thank you guys. Anybody else have any question or comment? I'm not going to take it back. Did anybody in the audience want to comment on this item? Mr. Shainer,

Sher 711, Kevin Circle, Callaway. Um, I see this a little different than what I'm hearing. Um, it takes the entire crew, you know, every one of our city workers and some benefits I think should be equal and the same. And this is one of those benefits that should be the same. I don't have a problem if you want to give everybody 48 hours. But I got a problem if you go dividing it up. This group gets 48. This group get 24. That sounds like the big federal government. you know, where we get lifetime pensions for this group for doing a little bit and you know, it all hurts the same. You know, whenever you use a loved one, you know, it hurts just the same whether you're out here digging ditches or whatever you're doing. So, I think it should be the same for everybody, not just, you know, I love the fire department. I've got all kinds of praise for them. They've been to my house several times. have been to my son's house several times and they've done a above and beyond job. So, you know, but I feel like it ought to be the same for everybody. I mean, I I I can't see dividing it up. I really can't cuz it hurt you just the same whether you're digging ditches or whether you're fighting fires. But, you know, like I say, it's just make it the same for everybody. far as a shift, you know, there's always somebody wanting to pick up a little extra time if it falls in the middle or something. So, I mean, you know, or any place I've ever worked, there's always somebody looking for some overtime or another shift or few hours. But anyway, I mean, that's that's just my opinion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ser. I that was what I brought up the last time that I have no problem with the fire department getting 48, but I'd like the other department other workers to get the same amount, but I was kind of the lone voice that felt that way. So, Mr. 24 hours may Yes, Mr. Bo,

yes, sir. The bereavement policy originally allowed 24 hours for all city staff but was questioned for firefighters given their different shift schedule. The proposed change in the bereavement policy refers to work days for city employees but refers to shifts for firefighters. Whereas other city employees will have 3 days bereavement leave, firefighters will be granted one consecutive shift, 48 hours of bereavement leave. While neither I nor many of you on the commission nor many of those behind me in the audience would likely misunderstand. The radians would likely misunderstand the rationale for the proposed change. I do think it will create some discord for the city manager. City employees will have three days. Firefighters will have six days. I think that becomes a potential issue for discord among the ranks. I think if it is passed, it should be made crystal clear that it is a decision by the city commission. If employees want to complain, the city manager should ask them to take

the issue up with one of you. He should not be asked to defend it. He can explain it, but he should not be asked to defend it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bohack.

Yes, sir. Martin Bosser, 6303 Wallace Road. Let's uh let's get the utility department to work the same schedule these uh first responders do. Let's get let's get y'all to work the same schedule. Let's house some people right over here. Obviously, some of that equipment's been taken out of there. Let's set up these bunks in there. Let's get all these people that have to come out here and replace my water line. Let's get them the same policy. Or or we can understand that these people that come out here to take care of me or my neighbor who had a heart attack and the fire department came out. That's the people the the guy y'all know I complain about my water leaks. I had water leak. They had to come out here three times to my house. And yeah, they do a very dangerous job cuz I live on Wallace and that is like a racetrack out there. And yeah, the guy replacing my water line can get hurt. He's working with heavy equipment, heavy machinery. He can get hurt. He's not wearing a full suit coming into my house when my house is on fire, drag me out, having to put his mouth on my ugly face, and give me CPR. So, I don't care what we got to do to take care of the fire department. I don't care what we got. I don't care. Send me their cash out, their Venmo. We need to take care of these people. They they're the people that are taking care of us when we're we're all going to I'm sorry, but we are all going to die. And there is a moment in all of our lives that we're going to need them. And thank God for them coming out to our house when we're when we're in need.

Thank you. Anybody else? Yes, ma'am.

I was going to sit quietly tonight, but Teresa Langston, 6031 L Street. I agree with what Martin said. The regular employees work eight hours a day. They go home to their families every night. They're not having to sleep. They're not having to work a 24-hour shift. So, I think it's different circumstances. And honestly, I'd rather give them a 24-hour bereavement and have them write in their mind because who knows when they're going to be knocking on your door or actually busting in your door saving your life. And I sure want them in the right frame of mind. And to also with what um was said about the city manager, the city manager is hired to carry out what the commission votes on. So, it's part of his job to take criticism and and all that fun stuff. If the employees don't agree with it, um it's a totally different circumstances besides hourly employees that work eight hour shift than our first responders. And I think they do deserve the 24-hour briefment because it is one shift.

Thank you. Anybody else? Not seeing anybody. Did we have anything else to say? Would somebody like to make a motion? Make a motion uh to approve resolution 26-05 personnel policy manual update section 6313 PN A.1 PN briefment meeting second. Okay, we've got a motion and a second. If there's no further discussion, city clerk, Commissioner Griggs, yes. Commissioner Peliter, yes. Commissioner Ayes, yes, ma'am. Commissioner Bzel, yes. Mayor Henderson.

Yes. So, we will go on to agenda item number three, development order application, construction of a Shell garage shop building, 5615 Wallace Road, city manager,

Mr. Uh right next to his existing facility, Chris Walker has applied for a development order for a Shell garage slashshop building. We call it that because he's not sure exactly what's going to go in yet. Um I'll let him tell his story about his nephew in a moment, but uh it's a very simple design. uh not a huge garage building, tons of imperous I'm sorry, tons of pvious surface, so the impervious surface ratio is just plenty. There is storm water efforts, a fence requirement in the back. The uh planning board did have a couple questions about electrical stuff that uh Mr. Chris Walker, the electrician, was able to answer very well. So, uh, the the planning board doesn't recommend approval, as do I. Um, if you have any questions, Chris is here tonight with us. Um, we'll do our best to answer them for you.

Is this a like a garage and shop for personal use that's attached to his house? No, sir. No, ma'am. It's it's that it's all zoned highway commercial. Okay. And it will be a Shell building. Originally, it was going to be a diesel mechanic shop. Um, I know for a fact that Tindle Air Force Base is in proximity. Uh, it could be anything. Could be a HVAC place. Okay. Uh, the way he's setting it up, it's real smart for a renter to come in. Um, there's always people popping in asking me, "Where can I move into?" And I I send them to realtors. It's their job. But, uh,

it's in a good location. It's where it belongs. It's not in the CRA. It's just a block off of Tindle Parkway. Perfect. Okay. Did you want to say anything or does anybody have any questions for Mr. Walker? Um, could you describe the building? Oh, the property's 200 by 200 on the souththeast corner. It'll be uh I think 40 foot. I'm setting it back like 40 foot on Wallace Road. The propertyy's 200 foot deep. I'm going to put it on the east side of the property. So, my electrical business is here.

It's on the north side of Wallace, but I'm putting on the south side of the property facing Wallace. Yes. Um, my electric shop is here. There's going to be 25 ft between them. Like my electric shop, we have the yard on one side. The buildings are going to they're not going to touch by no means, but the building that I'm proposing to build, the parking will be going toward Tennel Parkway. My electric shop, the parking is going toward Gay Avenue. So, it will be an enclosed building.

Yeah, it's a 40 by 80 steel building. Um, it's a steel building that did that because, you know, dollar for dollar that's going to be there till way after I'm dead, unless of course we get some more of them storms. Um, things I can guarantee, there will be no smoke shops, no marijuana shops, there will not be a bank nor a gas station. We have plenty of them in Panama City. There ain't no room for one of them on Wallace Road. So, uh, and no car wash.

Ain't going to put a car wash. We got plenty of them. And I don't know if y'all know it, but there's about 27 coffee shops down the Parkway now. So, we don't need none of them. Um, I'm very particular about things. Um, before Bubba comes and tries to rent the building from me, I'm going to find out what he wants to do. This was originally going to be a diesel shop for my nephew, but he uh he was all gung-ho with it until we started talking about overhead and stuff like that he's not familiar with. So, he is perfectly content with his mobile mechanic business now. But, I was uh I had already purchased the property, purchased the building and all that when he come said, "Hey, Chris, I think I want to stay with what I'm doing." So, I'm so far in now there's I don't want to turn around and it's going to be uh attractive building. The uh the um the question we had about electrical was just there's a power pole in the middle of the property and I've already uh

I saw you had one discussion with um Florida Power. The engineer supposed to call me tomorrow and meet. We're just it's just going to be something just to move it to the property line.

You're going to move it. There's already one on the property line that's going to feed the new building, but the one where the people had the the double wide back in there. And uh with that, Ways of City is going to benefit. Ironically, I can't explain how, but that that double wide was still on well and septic tank. So, we've removed septic tanks. We've uh removed the well. Um I'm waiting on the gentleman behind me to tell me um we're going city water, city sewage. That piece of property has been sitting there for 100 years with the city not making a dime on it. It will have water sewage and we're going to do everything we can. I've I've been in good standings with the city since I built my building and I'm not planning on changing.

Will it be able to withstand a cat 3? I noticed it was checked up to a cat 2 on the hurricanes. Uh I think the I'm pretty sure it still builds I think it's right right there. It's requiring 140 mph wind zone which should be a cat four. Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, I think the build's rated at 145 mph just to work just above the wind zone. And then, you know, all they do with that is a steel building still building. They just put extra bracing in it. Yeah. Is what they put an extra brace across. Just a couple extra braces. Yes, sir. Okay. Thanks. Anything else? Anybody else have any questions? Yeah. Um, so this has nothing to do with your business except you're same owner. You're same owner. Yeah.

Right. Yeah, that's it. But no, I'm not expanding my electrical over there. I'm not doing anything like that. It was it was um like I mentioned in the um the last meeting I went to last week, long-term plan. Drive down Wallace Road, pick up some rent checks, jump in my motor home, and go somewhere. The property is meeting the comprehensive plan. It's also meeting the zoning. Yes. As far as I can promise you before I wrote the check to the neighbor that wanted to move to Central Florida, I had a lengthy discussion with Mr. Fry about this. what I'm allowed to do, what I'm not allowed to do, because it's a lot easier to tell them no than it is to pay for something I won't be able to use. Yeah. Highway commercial doesn't cover a smoke shop. So,

Oh, no. Well, you ain't got to worry about smoke shop. You ain't got to worry about a marijuana shop, convenience store, gas station, or a bank. There's plenty. We want something quiet and low traffic and all that because like the other gentleman said, I've been on Wallace Road. I was raised on raised on Wallace Road. Um, I encourage sheriff's deputies to just come and park in my driveway. I'm thinking about putting them a receptacle outside they can plug the phone into and I might even put a little vending machine out there because we need to slow Wallace Road down. We and I just completely changed subjects. But, uh, we need to slow it down through there because there's kids on bicycles and all this and that and it's a very dangerous road and I don't want to add to the drag racing that goes on on that road.

Well, the sheriff's department would appreciate that. Oh, sure. Yeah, we do whatever we can. They work hard, too. Thank you. Anything else? Anybody? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Walker. Anybody else have anything up here? Anybody in the audience want to comment on this item? Not seeing anybody. We need a motion. Motion to approve DEL development order application construction of a Shell garage/shop building 4615 Wallace Road, Callaway, Florida. Second 565 5615. What is it?

46. Sorry about that. 5615. Okay, we've got a motion in a second. If there's no further discussion, all in favor say I. Any opposed? That motion carries. We will go on to item number four. This station rehab project change order number one. City manager.

Um we talked about this at the last meeting. This has to do with CA1 where we were raising it above the flood plane. This is going to be the one and only change order for this project. Um they're nearing completion of the fourth one getting ready to move to CA1. Looks like we're still going to be under the time frame for the grant and everything. So, we will not be asking for extensions. Um, this reflects everything that's going to be needed to bring CA1 up along with some of the additional items that we had noticed in whenever they were doing the rehabs of the other stations. A lot of it had to do with once the lift stations were pumped down, the the bottoms of them were degraded out. We had to raise them up. Um all of this is also being incorporated into our master uh wastewater plan that we have. So we'll go forward. Um so also uh we had a discussion with uh the people from the state and FEMA concerning CDBGR funds. There are there is some money that has been uh opened back up due to people not following project guidelines and their their projects get pulled. We have requested money to cover this change order, but also if y'all remember when we let this bid originally, it was more than what was for the grant. We have also requested for those funds to be covered because we did follow all the guidelines. So, I was hoping that we would have maybe heard something back by today. We sent this request in last week. Um, as soon as I get word back on that, I'll let y'all know. uh the money to cover this is going to be coming out of the sur fees because all these lift stations were upgraded to cover the needs for that area. So hopefully we'll get funds back uh to cover this. But as of right now we would be using sewer impact fees to cover this cost.

Anybody have any question for Mr. Cook? Um actually yes. Um when we approved the contractor for this all went out for bid. Yes.

And we approved the contractor basically on the lowest cost for the that we seem to be and this is an example of it. Once we get into these things, it seems that the contractor that we've now agreed and hired um is running into these issues. Now, are these issues not um part of the original understanding of what the contracts are going to be about? with the people that we did not approve because they were higher cost. Did they realize that these situations were there and included that in their bid or is this something that even the the ones that we didn't approve didn't know about either? No, no one would have seen these issues, the the small amounts on the certain ones like when we put this out for bid, we didn't have the capabilities when we drew up the bids to draw the lift stations all the way down and see the conditions that were at the bottom of it.

All these seem to be the bottom conditions. Everything's the conditions that were underneath what was going on. We just Yeah. Um it wasn't until they were pumped down that we could see this and we we've minimized as much as we can on cost. But unfortunately, we can't foresee everything when we're dealing with what's 30 foot under the ground. Nor can the biders or

No, no, they have no way to to pump it down. These are all things that were found. They were verified by the CEI. CI had to go through and then of course the engineers looked at it and said, "Okay, this is what we're going to do." And they were mitigated out by reinforcing with concrete and then of course the wells were then the wet wells were then spread in. Now what we're seeing on all these now because we have a lot to go through over the years. Is this something that we should be considering as part of the bid? So we don't have

you we we we talked about it a little at the last meeting that we have not to exceed bids and and then even on those we seem to be coming back with and I'm not giving any examples but coming back with adjustments. So one of the things that that we're looking at now is what's called contingency in the bids. This had no contingency based on it. Okay.

Meaning that when they went through, there was nothing for them to come back. There was not a line item to pull it on them. Some of the uh the bits that we're putting out now, we we verify we want contingencies in there, like 10%. When we did the roundabout, okay, we ran into issues at the roundabout, but we had a small pool of contingency money. And so once it was able to be done, we just pulled from that line item, but we came in $60,000 under budget on the roundabout. Okay. Okay. Well, it wasn't because they found ways to do it.

It was because we had contingency money there to cover the little things that couldn't happen. So, we're we're now putting in some grants don't allow us to put contingency money in. And I'm not sure if this is one of them. This may be because of CDBGR. They may not have allowed the the contingency money line items to be in there because they want actuals. Um but the ones that we can put contingency in, we like to have that little bit of leeway so we can say, "Oh, you know, um the storm water project that Bill's doing right now, there was a a small like $25,000 or something like that contingency, they ran into multiple issues, too. And so when they came into an issue, Bill would go out, it would be verified. They look at it and go, "Okay, we'll take this additional money to to redo a collar that we didn't know was broke." Um that that's just the one thing we try to get away from is of course I'd rather come back to you and ask you from our money but not have a large pool of money sitting over there that we can just spend willy-nilly. So we make sure everything's documented and that all the contingency is is is justifiable. This particular project has a CI. So the CI has to go through look at the pictures do the evaluations. Sometimes they have to do site visits to look at it but we didn't have contingency money on this. So the only thing we can do is come back and say, "All right, this is where we are. We had to spend an extra

x amount of money." I'm not questioning the need. I'm just questioning that we and we commissioner pelleter is is is is one of the best at saying why didn't we know this ahead of time? You know, that's we couldn't basically we couldn't pump the wells down and that's why I wanted to bring it up so we could get that clear. We could not pump those wells down and see what the conditions were. is on a large part of this increase too where they changed the flood planes and we have to raise Oh yeah 60 I think 60 something thousand of that was where and that has to do with the fact that the well had to be brought up higher outside of the flood plane well that indicated

that's on CA1 and that's a very viable one and tendle Kimber yeah and for that particular one, not only do they have to raise all the panels, but they also then have to this particular one, there has to be a platform built for access because we can't go stick a ladder on it and go get up there. So, there has to be a platform on it and that's part of it. That's we had discussed that in the beginning and all that. So, yeah, a majority of this is is that raising of that and you can go through and look and see and I probably should have broke it out. have 52,000 of this is is CA1. Mhm.

And so the rest of them had to do with, you know, that 5,000. That's why I didn't ask questions. I figured that out, you know, go going through and double checking, you know, to make sure. But when we're dealing with next to CA1, all the buildings there are going to flood. But but at least our CA1 will be above the flood unless the flood's above the flood plane. It's overkill. Got to do it. Yeah. Anybody? And I think everybody agrees that the FEMA flood plane they raised it outrageous. Anybody have any

That may be a 500,000year storm. Anybody have any question or comment for Mr. Cook? No. Anything else? Does anybody in the audience want to comment on this item? I don't see anybody. So, would someone like to make a motion? Motion to approve the lift station rehab project change order number one for CA1. Second. Okay, we've got a motion and a second. Is there any more discussion? If not, all in favor say I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. We will go on to item number five, award of RFQ number CM 2025-10, design of Lake Drive sidewalks. And who is this? I'll take care of this one.

So, we put this out for bid back in October. They have to be out for 21 days. So, I I normally I put the opening date on here. I just realized I didn't. um before bids were received and after evaluation committee, the highest ranking um firm was North Florida Professional Services. After many, many months and emails back and forth between us and them and DOT as far as negotiations, um DOT did approve a not or I'm sorry, not to exceed amount of $168,934.76. And this is for the design of the Lake Drive sidewalks that'll go from Bertha to Tindle

on Lake Drive. And this is a lap funded project. So it's 100% funded. Correct. And that was under that amount is under the total I believe the total we were awarded for lap funds was 173,000. So that is under that amount. So it'll be fully funded by lap. And did the lap projects, they're a two-year cycle. One year is planning, one year is due. Yeah, that's but I don't know when. Well, yes. Let's just say that. Yes. I'm not sure what the funding cycle for construction is on this particular one. It may be two. There's a separate cycle. It's a separate cycle. Yes.

Anybody have any question or comment for city clerk? Did anybody in the audience want to comment on the bid award for the Lake Drive sidewalk design? No. Would someone like to make a motion? Motion to approve award of the RFQ number CM2025-10 design of Lake Drive sidewalks. Second.

Okay, we've got a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. And that gets us through our agenda. And we will go on to commission and staff comments. It's been a pretty quiet two weeks for me. So, I don't really have anything bad to add except I'm out of the boot and life is good.

Okay. We'll start tonight with Commissioner Do. Do you have anything for the group? Um the last few weeks uh I've got the opportunity to come out and just meet a lot of our city workers. I see a lot handful of them just doing whatever their random job is. They didn't know who I was, but they were all performing and then I introduced myself and they continued performing their duties. Um so that was an awesome thing to see that um was going on. Um that's about it. Ma'am, Commissioner Gregs,

I've got to make a comment on that. It was an awesome thing to see our city workers working. Uh, and that is uh that is so true for the city workers of Callaway, but the the normal normal situation is you got a government employee out there, there are five people doing one man job and this kind of thing. In in the case of Callaway, we have one person doing a threeman's job. Absolutely. In many cases. So, excellent comment.

Yeah. Yeah. They didn't even know who I was, but they were just doing it without just kind of a no notice inspection, but already still driving. I'll wait for the city manager's report. Okay. Commissioner Pelier, nothing. I'll wait for the city manager. Mr. Mayor,

um you answered a couple citizen that there was a family of cats ran out front and then locked the brakes up. As we all know, there's no such thing as a family of cats. and slid into a telephone pole. At 25 miles an hour, your brakes don't lock up. You stop. So, but so I talked to her about that, pass that on city manager. You pass that on to Deputy Martin and we don't get a response on those until after 60 days. So, I'll be interested in what actually happened there.

Um, boat race, there was an encampment and I think We're looking at trying to do something with that. So, I'll hold off on that till we get a chance. Try to revamp the no ordinance. Actually got draft in. We worked on that while back. We did. We No, we got way late by the sheriff's department. Bring it back up. We're not going to wait at it this time. We'll see.

Um attended first Friday. Very interesting. Um, also met with the city manager twice and uh, the first time we traveled the city and looked at all the different projects and I noticed Speaking Point is uh, coming along. They're actually replacing the facing out there, just the skeleton part, but it's actually coming along. So, and that's all I have. Okay. City clerk, you have anything for us?

No. City attorney. You know, well, speaking of being in point, I did meet with Jeff Carter at my office for about an hour and a half to make sure he had all the files that he needed and all that sort of stuff. And so, he's said he would start giving monthly updates. So, obviously, he doesn't need to come here and talk about what could potentially be pending mitigation in the public. So, he he's to start updating the city manager once a month and see what's going on. Okay. Thank you.

You're up. All right. Well, we didn't cover the lift station project. Um, we've had some movement on the spillway. Surprisingly enough, uh, we got core approval. Um, so, um, we're still not through all the process with D because D wants us to get core approval first, but it looks like we're going to fall under a general permit for that. I'm still looking for funding for that project. You say core approval. Is that the Army Corps?

Okay. And so we're still looking for some money for that. Um I really don't understand why we're not getting any traction on it. Um it it's it's a very good project with a huge um environmental impact.

Um so we're still working on that. U we're looking through some some of the resiliency money and where it was used and and we're still on their list. We're waiting to hear how far they're going to fund out this year. Uh we were requesting, you know, I think we budgeted 50% on this. So, um if not, we may come back and look at maybe we could phase it in and get half in one year's budget, half in another year's budget, and and roll it that way. Um that's that's a storm water project. It is. And it's also in the CRA. Yes, sir. Storm water is part of the CRA. We have CRA funds in this. Yes. Okay.

Yeah. But it's going to be a 2.5.6 million project. We don't have that in the CR.

No, sir. We don't. So, yeah. If I had it in there, I'd do it. So, um you know, right now we're looking at it as far as a funding mechanism. Um I really don't want to pull the trigger without funding. I just we've got multiple people that are that are helping us look for this to come up with a way something. We'll come up with something. Um Sandy Creek is still sitting in the same place. We're waiting on the core with them. Um, the state is involved. They're trying to push and just as much as we are, but we're we're no further than we were the last 20 times I've told y'all this. Uh, Hugh Thomas is under uh there we've done the final walkthroughs. probably within the next week or two, we'll get final as bit as builts and they'll turn that over to us completely at which point um I have done told the contractor that if I don't get a response back on that fence by the end of the week that we're just going to block the road. We just won't open it up. It doesn't service anything. We'll block the roads. And I mean it it is what it is at this point. Um, it's either that or we're going to come and we're going to put a fence up and the fence will only benefit the city. It will not benefit that area back there.

When you say you're going to put the fence up at our expense, it would be at our expense if we have to do that. We need to secure our our stuff. I don't disagree with that. However, it was agreed upon. It was agreed upon. Yes. Right. Yes. Is it in the contract? No, because we don't have a contract with them. That this that this is the issue that we've run into. Yes.

Cherry Street. Um, you know, we got some well needed rain and we found out that we can create really good ponds on there. They fill up really good. Um, they did they have started with that underllayment that we talked about, the matting last time. They've put down the first layer. Um, they were actually out there working today because they're working in gravel. So, they've been running compaction. They'll lay another layer and then they'll go on top of that. Hopefully, we can get that section up and going um here before long so we can get that section of the street open. They're they're diligently working on that right now as they're continuing down um towards uh towards Bertha with putting in the storm water stuff. Um our crews are done with the first phase that's completed. Uh we're now waiting on them to get their pipes in. We'll start the second phase and we do have the whole entire project has been, you know, we're covered on our part with as far as our water and stuff goes. You may have seen some stuff go out today talking about some minor outages on South Gay. Um the U basically what we're looking at is the main lines that are through there. You know, once again, we're looking ahead at the projects that are coming up. that particular project is at 90% plans for um basically the repaving project. Before that goes in, we're going to go through and what we're doing is we're cutting some road cuts and getting in some uh chase pipes underneath the road. So that we have a future project coming up uh that's going to have to do with Lanny Row. Is that Lanny Row Drive that goes around? Yeah, Lanny Row Drive.

That's fed by a single line. We want to loop that system. that is we will be in increasing pipe sizes and it's it's not of this year's budget but we just want to be prepared. We don't have to cut that street later on. So we have our internal plans on how we're going to do it. We'll do all this in-house. We'll lay the new lines and everything. We can do all that ourselves like we're doing on Cherry Street. That'll be a next year project. It's not a very expensive project. It's just time consuming with labor. But before we go in and and repave Gay, we want to make sure we have all of our chase pipes and everything under the ground so that we don't have to cut that street. And that's just a little forth thought that's coming out of out of public works and everything else. The same time, we've just put a bid out um Ashley, did you get that published today? We're publishing another bid for materials only that's going to be for Bula. Bula is actually at 100% plans. Um, that particular main line is cast iron. It's small. Once again, we're dealing with two inch lines. They don't have fire protection and uh we want to see we it should be less than $100,000. Once again, we use water impact fees to purchase this. We will go through part of the line is actually under the street currently. We will leave that line. We will abandon it at one point, but we will lay new line outside of the roadway. Um, and we'll increase fire protection down through there. We'll be adding I don't How many fire hydrants are we adding, Chief? Five. We're adding five hydrants down there. They have very poor

There's only two on that whole entire road. And so once again, we'll be increasing pipe size, getting that done. All of this will be done once again in house. We just need materials is what it's coming to. We will get that done before we start on that project for you. And then also we should be set for lap funding on that hopefully eventually. Yes, hopefully.

Getting back to Cherry Street, uh the original contract, uh we were looking at basically the 1st of December would be Cherry Street would be done. That's under the original contract, original number of days. Um when we were dealing with the bridge for example, we were getting a report as to how these may have changed rain days and this kind of thing. Now what's going on Cherry Street hadn't been rain days, it's been everything else and all and all justified, but that has expanded that time out. Do you have an idea of how much time that has expanded out?

I do not. I can get an estimate based on how fast things are moving now. Um, and we can request what they think. I mean, but I, you know, it's not a big deal. I mean, it's it's logical with everything that we've run into and legitimate. I mean, have no complaints about that. But I was just curious. Commissioner, we can't even get a schedule of Cherry Street. How we going to get a time frame? Well, I've been Yeah. just an estimate of how much longer. You know, we're getting questions. We're getting questions from citizens. When we're going to finish with this, when we're going to do this,

uh it's not going toward the original plan starting at Star Avenue. I mean, we're we're totally off the original plan, but when I get the question of what does it look like when Cherry Street's going to be completed, we don't know. We don't know, right? We should know. We should have some sort of schedule that again we can't control our contractor. Yeah. Well, we have all the explanations and I'm not disagreeing with with any of any of the delays that we have. So, cherry street would be two years.

We said that what four years ago Um Tim and I have been working with uh working on the amphitheater that um has been finalized. It's on order. We're expecting the engineering plans to be in next week and then we'll start laying that out. We're going to have to get a bid together um for someone to basically we'll have the engineering plans for basically the structure itself. We will come back then and of course decide how much concrete and everything that we'll need that we can do most of that in house and we've had actually had lots of people that have reached out and offered to help including

that. Yeah. Yeah. Your brother he built the one in Yeah. And he's been a wealth of knowledge. He's been very much um you know saying make sure that this is considered and this is considered and so they've been everybody's been a big help. We're very excited about where that's how that's going and how well that's going to be. Uh they the amphitheater amphitheater they say should be delivered in about nine weeks. Um our goal will be once we get the plans in, we'll go ahead and set forth get the bases set, get the anchors ready, and then when it comes in, you know, we'll have a we'll have to bid out having somebody come in and build it, put it together. Is

this kind of like a pull bar design? kind of structure. Go down to Milville and see what they've done down there. It looks great. I I have a conceptual plan. Don't let me forget and I'll send it to you. See,

you'll get an email there. Um we're waiting to hear back. Uh we had received information that FEMA was had awarded us that storm water uh grant that we requested two years ago. Don't ask me where it come from. They just suddenly called and said, "Hey, we're going to give y'all a $300,000 grant." Um with that, I put our current storm water study on hold pending that grant to come in. Um we do have a match on that. What we've paid so far is actually less than the match. So, we would still be good on this. Um, and they do feel like we can go ahead and utilize it. We're waiting to get the agreement back from the state right now. So, as soon as that comes back, hopefully we can get that. Um, I have been told that we should be in line to be awarded a couple of other grants that are coming up. I'm This is all coming from inside the state. It's all verbal,

but we do have a couple of projects that are in there, and it looks like we may get some more um lift stations. Um, that's that's a good one. The spillway is in there, but it doesn't look like it's going to qualify this year. So, but if I could get something saying, "Oh, we we'll get it next year." Then

we may just hold off and see if we can make it till next year without the thing falling apart. And if it falls apart, we'll just look at them and go, "We told you and we'll go that route." So, that's that's all I have at the moment. Oh, I will tell you, um, Flexet, give a quick update on Flexet. We are sitting now after the tower's been adjusted and we took a read the other day, we're sitting at about 83% on read. They want us to be at 90. Um we are we have been going through each meter right now and it looks like we will start doing some um hands-on surveys of why certain meters are not reading and um staff is going through those right now. We'll start identifying those. It's about 1500 meters is what we're not reading now. So we need to figure out a we are reading them with the driveby. So, are they not switching over, which means we just need to go out and individually make sure that it's switched over because it's not doing electronic. Some of them are just meters that are just they may be in the ground and they're just not operational because they're not hooked up to anything. They're they're old meters um and they're still connected. So 10,000 meters and dealing with a system that's 15 17 years old that we're I don't know that we'll ever get it right, but we're going to get close.

So that's where we are with that. And uh they've scheduled training to start um so that utility billing will be able to uh go in and and run the system once it becomes completely operational. So we're getting closer. So, how many what's the percentage of how many we got right now? You said that mean we'd have 8,300 that are reading. 83. That's 83. And how many are reading on driveby? Most of the time our rereads set at probably 200. Okay. So, that means they got to go to 200 different locations to read.

Um, those vary every month. It's not the same one. just every time. Sometimes it's because a car is sitting over top of it, sometimes it's just because it doesn't get a read. Um, right.

And so, but we will we'll probably I hate to say this, but we're probably going to end up going out and checking about 1 th000 meters and we'll take that on as a project and we'll it'll be more than utility billing. Be more than two guys going out and checking. We'll we'll we'll pull in public works and we'll go out and we'll run checks just to see what's going on. Um, and why those are not. And you know, it may be just as much as if we can pull it up on a handheld when we're going by, why is it not getting up? It could be the MXU is in the ground and it's not going through a building. So, we need to readjust the MXU so that it reads better or something like that. It's it's it most of the time it's just minor things, but we will go through it because the goal is going to be 100%. I know Flexet says they want 90.

I know we we're shoot for 100%. More than that if we want to collect some money. Yeah. Well, just because it doesn't read Yeah, I know. It just shows up on the report as unread. Yeah. So, in a case like that, we have to go out. We would load it and we would go drive by and then and sometimes you just get it to where you just don't get a read off a meter and they have to go out and do a physical read and that's just common. There's no way to control 10,000 meters and expect to get it all. Yeah. So, that's flexing that. Anybody have anything he didn't cover that? I got a couple. Go ahead. Paving. Where we at with that on our turkey?

Yes.

Um I'm I'm now on my third person. Um now that they understand what's going on, uh we were supposed to meet last week and something happened and I wasn't able to meet with him. We're just basically determining what we're going to be. I did tell them that um I did send them the section over on what's the name of the street where we got to do reclamation and they're supposed to be pulling me a bid right now because we'll have the the bid for the paving part will be there. The reclamation will be separate or the the milling and so I'm waiting to hear back from them and then we you know we've got two or three other spots that we're going to do and we're just trying to right now work through the process of how do we want to do it? how many can we do at a time, what do they want to see whenever we do it and stuff like that. It's just right now it's we're getting into the fine details on the best way to do it because, you know, we we don't want to waste their time. They gave us great prices,

but at the same time, you know, we want we need to get stuff done quickly. And the only other thing if we could uh we know we're not going to have a parade on Cherry Street this year and we've canceled our Fourth of July. Uh can we staff put something together as to what we're going to do in in lie of the parade in the next in the next uh meeting or next month. We know we're not going to have a parade on Cherry Street. That ain't going to happen. November is just a few months away.

Yes, I'm we'll get Kim B. Come see me. Bill, we probably just need to have a meeting. At least we can have one celebration, you know, for the year for sens 250. Freedom 250. Yeah, that's right. They said they have over a thousand requests right now, but they will get back to us. Yeah. Okay, they're going to be down the road here in a couple of months, so maybe they'll fit us in. But at least, you know, we didn't try two locations. Okay, good. Is that it?

Anybody have anything else you didn't cover that you wondered about? Nope. Okay, we'll go ahead and read the announcements. May 17th, this Sunday, we have the historical society meeting. If you like fishing at all, we have a good speaker. Winston Chester is coming. So, he's always a good speaker. I don't He's good. I don't fish and I still think he's interesting. So, come on to the museum at 2 o'clock on Sunday if you're interested in that. May 19th, does it look like we'll have a planning board meeting? Absolutely.

Okay. So, May 19th, we've got planning board at 6 o'clock. It's not on here, but May 25th, offices are closed for Memorial Day. That's Monday the 25th. And then Tuesday the 26th is our next commission meeting. I did have one question. We're doing the cleanup this week, right? Friday. Friday. Friday from 10 to 12. Where do we meet? I can do it. Did you see my PC meeting? I have no idea. I saw it come through today, but I don't know why. I don't know what's going on. So, I think it's because we maybe needed to hold off till we to get a new record.

Okay. Anybody think of anything else? I'm glad you said that about the cleanup. Yes. Okay. If there's nothing else, we will go on to public participation. Who in the audience would like to talk about something we haven't already talked about? Anybody? Miss Langston, gave everybody a chance.

That's right. Come on. You might close out the meeting. Come on. Teresa Langston, 6030 6031 Lance Street. I know. Um, so I just have a couple questions about the feds. Um, you're stating that we're paying for the fence now. Did not state that. I said if if they don't come through, we will have to consider it for the road before we pay for a fence.

Well, okay. Well, then they um but you said that you previously had emails confirming that the contractor was going to um pay for a fence or do the fence. I'm going have to go back and look. I've had conversations with them since that conversation on the status of the fence that it's been in verbal com conversations or I'll have to go back and review. I don't want to make a comment without with it being possibly being wrong. I need to make sure that I I don't know what the emails are. Okay. I just know that when it got brought back up, yes, the emails started flying.

Okay. All right. And then you made a statement that they had just met with Mr. Carter, the attorney. And so I was just curious of why it took six weeks after the commission um stated to go forward with it to meet. Well, I had sent him documents and emails. It's just we just met in person is to make sure he had everything because you questions come up and they had got any updates. I just called him down to the office. Make sure he had everything. So the ball was already rolling. You just had to add an addition. I just wanted to clarify that just keep it going. Yeah.

That u that it was going somewhere and not just kind of you know on the back burner like things get put like you know things end up. Yeah. It was more to just keep it going. Okay. And then who is doing the engineering on the amphitheater? We are. You're doing your own engineering. Well, the engineering for the um the pier pier and beams once everything was we had satisfied all their questions that they had they provide the engineering drawings for free. Who provides them? The company that we're getting from RCP RCP shelters RCP shelters

they're on source well state source well contract. Okay. All right. And then about the spillway. Um, now was the spillway ever grant funded or it never has been grant funded? It's just going for it ever since we realized ever since it started really falling apart. Okay. I I just wanted to clarify if it was grant funded or not. All right. We want it to be. Been trying. All right. Thanks. Anybody else?