Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Everybody want to gather a seat real quick and uh whoever Dennis if I see you back here close the back doors there if you would kind of cut that all noise down if you don't mind. Uh at this point in time, we uh like to thank everybody for attending tonight. Uh looks like we're going to have a uh very entertaining meeting and I appreciate y'all taking interest in the issues that we're faced with each and every month around here at board member. So I look forward to hearing the comments and uh presentation we'll go forward. So at this time uh Mr. Parnell, if you would leave us an invitation and click the play. Father, we want to thank you for all these wonderful people coming to our our meeting tonight here. Thank you for our first responders. Lord, we ask that you provide wisdom, courage, and a lot of guidance in tonight's meeting. We've got some topics that are going to be where you're going to be needed. So, in your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stand, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Hopefully not, but staff, is there any additions or deletions?

Yes, Mr. Chairman, we have two additions. The first one is amendment 101 to FY2526 for the LSF health systems and the second one is the Elevate Florida acquisition and demolition agreements. These were both times sensitive that I did not learn about until today. Chairman, I have one addition also if we could. It's um maybe a discussion and action item for the South County Amulance Service. Okay. Okay. So, here's how we'll do this. I know we got a long meeting, but uh because I'm sure that's going to draw some uh uh discussion, Mr. Ford. So, uh what we'll do here, David, we'll just pick these up on your part. Okay.

Yes, sir. And then, uh I think we'll add this in probably right up to the TD Bank discussion. Isn't that good with you? That's fine. Okay. Okay. With that being said, I seek a motion to approve the agenda. Motion approved.

Got a motion. Got a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Okay. Okay. Approclamations. Okay. I've got the first one here. Okay. Uh, this is proclamation number 2026P-04, a proclamation by the Columbia County Board of County Commissioners designating the week February 21st through February 26, 2026 as National FFA Organization Week in Columbia County. Whereas Columbia County has a rich heritage in agriculture and whereas the National FFA organization has been present in Columbia County for the past 91 years. And whereas the National FFA organization provides a strong foundation for the youth of Columbia County and the future of food, fiber, and natural resources systems. And whereas the National FFA organization promotes leadership, personal growth, and career success among its members. Whereas agricultural education and the national FFA organization ensure a steady supply of young professionals to meet the growing demands in the science, business and technology of agricultural end. Whereas the national FFA organization motto learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve and gives direction to purpose to these students who take an active role in succeeding agricultural education. in whereas the National FFA organization promotes citizenship, volunteerism, patriotism, and cooperation. Now therefore, the Columbia County Board of County Commissioners hereby proclaim this week, February 21st through the 26th, 2026, National FFA Organizational Week in Columbia County, Florida, proclaimed this 19th day, February the 26, 2026, signed by Jay Swisser and Chairman Tim Murphy.

Approve 2026 P-04. Got a motion, got a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. All oppose. Okay. At this time, we got a young group here like they do every year. Uh I think Steven's got them uh directed. Uh they're going to be reading a little presentation to us. Uh don't get don't get scared each that big paper they got. They're only going to read a piece of it, then they're going to switch out. Go ahead, sir.

Good evening. My name is Devin Rors and I am from the Columbia FA uh chapter. Um we also have representatives here on behalf of the Fort White Middle and Hive FA chapters as well as the Lake City Middle FA chapters. On behalf of all FFA chapters in Columbia County, we the Columbia County Farm Bureau Leadership Academy would like to thank you, our board of county commissioners, for the opportunity to be involved in the county government process, bring awareness of our organization, and to the agricultural producers of Columbia County. According to a report from the University of Florida's Food and Resource Economic Department, agriculture and related industries have a direct impact on Colombia County of over $38 million. Agriculture creates over 6,000 jobs in the area and compromise and comprises 14% of gross county regional product. There is 979 farms in in Columbia County which total more than 107,000 acres of agricultural land.

Um we will all agree these numbers are impressive and they send a message that we should all be striving to protect our interest in agriculture. Columbia County farmers and ranchers continue in their efforts to strengthen and our communities economically as well as through the educational process by providing guidance to those of us who are members of the FFA. The National FFA organization is dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premium premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. Each year, National FFA Week is recognized across this great nation of ours during the month of February. This year we celebrate the event February 21st through Feb the 28th. In honor of this national event, it is our desire to petition our county government for the opportunity to fly the FFA flag flag under the national flag at the Columbia County Courthouse during this per time period. By allowing us this opportunity, we will be able to bring awareness to of this national youth organization who teaches its members to live by the motto of learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, and learning to serve. Living to serve. Thank you. Thank you. Make a motion to fly the uh FFA flag also.

This right here tight. talking to ST.

Thank you. And uh just everybody acknowledge the FFA flag here which will be flown in front of the county Columbia County courthouse for the duration of the proclamation week here. And uh Steven Dixs, if you would put your hand in there. Steven's our local representative that's uh tasked with the job of taking these children to uh Tallahassee during legislative week. Uh we appreciate what you do Stephen and it's uh me and him was talking about it yesterday or Monday at a meeting. This is a big deal for the kids and uh I think county you said Stephen started this task and uh it's it's something to see if you ever get an opportunity to go over to see it. There's a bunch of blue jackets running around over there and uh the kids do a a great job and they represent us very well and uh there's a future in agriculture in the state of Florida. So, we appreciate what y'all do and all the instructors and uh I got a couple good friends in here that's are the bosses I guess you say. So, thank you for what you do and look forward to keeping the tradition going live. Thank you.

Okay. Uh, Mr. Foreman, I can only read one a night, so you got another two.

I've got my coffee, so I'm ready, sir. Uh, the next proclamation for the board's consideration this evening is proclamation number 2026P-05, Black History Month, February 2026. Whereas this month, we celebrate our American history and the contributions of African heritage. And whereas we recognize the heritage and achievements of a African culture, the contributions African culture has made and continues to make is an integral part of our society. And the history of Americans and African descent exemplifies the resilience and innovative spirit that continue to make our nation great. And whereas for generations, African excuse me, Americans of African heritage and African culture have embodied the shared progress of our nation through toil and struggle and with courageous actions that have broken barriers. They have made America a better place to live and work for everybody from native African kings and queens to Americans of African descent such as Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. And whereas we share a rich cultural history which embodies valuable cultural contributions from Africa through its cultural norms and American of African descent. The strength and determination of men and women like these remind us that our nation brims with people whose contributions continue to make it stronger and better. Whereas our success historically, presently, and as we embark on our future requires the continued commitment and contributions of our citizens and fellow Americans of African descent. We continue this journey toward a stronger, more united nation. Let us use this commemoration of American history to celebrate the contributions made from African heritage and culture. And whereas, let us also use this month to serve as a reminder of the need for continued meaningful dialogue and shared commitment to collective action that uplifts and empowers as well as the strength, ingenuity, and perseverance required of us in the years to come because we have learned from the opportunities of our

past and know that we are stronger together. And now therefore, the Columbia County Board of County Commissioners does hereby proclaim the month of February 2026 as the month to celebrate American history and the era of African heritage in Columbia County. And in so doing, urge all citizens to join me in observing this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. And witness whereof, I have here to set my hand and cause this seal to be affixed this 19th day of February, 2026. Board of County Commissioners, Tim Murphy, Chairman. Okay. Seek a motion. Motion to approve 20 26P- 05. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say I.

All opposed. Is there somebody here to receive this proclamation? Sir. How you doing?

Okay. Here we go. Y.

Thank you. a little uh young lady there's got something she'd like to share real quick and uh if you would be uh happy to do what she can do.

So, Miss Amaya Wilson, this is my grand. She's just going to share with you all some of what um they will put on at the event on Sunday at Derby Pavilion. So, just for those to get a little taste of what the young people are preparing um to provide a living wax museum, tell them your name and give your presentation. You give your speech.

Okay. Just as much as you want to. Ready? Hi everybody. My name is Ruby Bridget and I am 7 years old. When I was little, about your age, I had to go I had to do something very big, bigger than I even understood. At the time, I had to go to a brand new school. Well, it wasn't really brand new for me. It was new for me. You see, before I walked into that school, no little black children were allowed to go there. The school was only for white children. And the one day, grown-ups decided that wasn't fair anymore. So, they told my mom and my daddy that I would be the one to go every morning morning. Every morning I walked it to school with big

federal marshals beside me. They were suit and serious face. People stood outside and some were angry. Some held signs. Some didn't want me there at all. But my mom squeezed my hand and said, "Ruby, you are doing this for all the little children who will who are coming after you." When I got inside my classroom, do you know what I saw? Empty desk. All the other children had been taken out of school except one teacher. Her name was Miss Barbara Henry. She was fromoston Boston. She had never taught a little girl all by herself before. But she looked at me like I mattered, like I belong. She didn't yell. She didn't whisper. She didn't act afraid. She taught me math. She taught me reading. So those are some of the things that G kids get to learn about and we encourage you to come out on Sunday and hear some of the stories. It's a diverse group of kids and adults and it's all intended to share learning and to look backward so that we're positive about about moving forward. Thank you very much for the program.

Thank you. Okay, Mr. Fen, you're up again.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The uh last proclamation for the evening is proclamation number 2026P-03, hazardous materials awareness week, February 23rd, 2026 through March 1st, 2026. Whereas the safe use of hazardous materials is essential to citizens, business, industry, and local government to maintain economic stability and the public health. And whereas Columbia County recognizes the importance of protecting our community from both accidental and deliberate releases of hazardous materials. And whereas it is essential to increase community preparedness so that both public sector and private sector employees know how to safely protect themselves and those for whom they are responsible during an accidental or deliberate release of hazardous materials. And whereas Columbia County representatives participate in the North Central Florida Local Emergency Planning Committee. Whereas the North Central Florida Local Emergency Planning Committee offers free hazardous uh materials emergency response training for firefighters, emergency medical, law enforcement, and other public safety personnel as well well as free shelter in place train the trainer classes for community groups, businesses, schools, and the general public as a means to increase safety in the event of a release. And whereas citizens need to know that emergency responders, emergency management, all levels of government, schools, and businesses are working together to ensure that our community is as prepared as possible to protect all citizens from both accidental and deliberate releases of hazardous materials. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Columbia County, Florida, that February 23rd, 2026 through March 1st, 2026 is hereby proclaimed hazardous materials awareness week in Columbia County. Board of County Commissioners, Columbia County, Florida. Tim Murphy, chairman.

Okay. Seek a motion. Motion to approve 2026P-0. Second. Got a motion in a second. All in favor say I. All. Okay. Is there somebody here to receive this proclamation?

Okay. Lots of pictures. Thank you. Appreciate it,

sir. Okay, this time we've got a update from Miss Kimmy Roberts, our communication event specialist. Kimmy, where she at? There she is. Okay, thank you. I told her she could only speak 10 minutes cuz she's normally going to run on for an hour. But I'll make sure she go 10 or 10 or three.

As you know, the city and the county this year, we're coming together and to celebrate America's 250th birthday. Yay. We're excited. Governor DeSantz uh allocated $1 million to celebrate the birth of America. So, while that was taking place, it was in a grant form. We submitted a grant and 25 grants were selected across the state of Florida and Columbia County was one of those grants. We were awarded $40,000. So, we're excited about that. There were strong stipulations of what we could use it for, and one of them was establishing history and education. So, we began our celebration in January of 2026 with the Columbia County School System where we will be doing a different curriculum every month. We also are bringing in the Gateway Art Gallery is involved. We're doing things with them. The ladies of the Lake Quilting Guild are involved where they're going to be making a quilt with the students. We also have the Columbia County Public Library where we have purchased 45, excuse me, 48 books of American history. They're doing a scavenger hunt, a historical scavenger hunt, a reading challenge in the library. We've got much more things going on, but as of this coming Tuesday, February 24th at 11:00. We encourage all of you to come out. We have a huge opening celebration at the gazebo in Allesie Park where it's going to be a wonderful event with our students are going to be involved. We've got all of you involved and much much more. We've got our veterans involved and we're excited. So, please come out. But right now, let me introduce Lisa Lee with the Columbia County School System.

Thank you. Welcome. I'm the uh coordinator of elementary ed um in curriculum instruction. And tonight I have the the teacher from our teacher from Westside, Rebecca Miller, and two of the Westside fifth graders. Part of the February project was to start or we ended um January with Celebrate Literacy Week, Read White and Blue. Um that's Governor DeSantis um Celebrate Literacy Week. And then we moved into art is um developing quilt squares. As you heard, we're making a quilt and the art um teachers are all doing projects around state symbols. All the things that we're studying for the 250th are in our curriculum and are following our state standards. And then we also have tonight, as soon as they finish speaking, we also have our RSGA chorus and musical theater group that will perform one song tonight for you. and they will be performing with the Fort White High School Honor Choir and their entire choir down um Tuesday at Alusty Park as well. So with that, I'm going to introduce Eveina Miller and Brooklyn Sapperstein. With a single sheet of parchment and 56 signatures, America began the greatest political journey in human history. On July 4th, 2026, the United States turns 250 years old, marking the anniversary of the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence. This historic milestone celebrates 250 years of independence. America started with 13 original colonies and has grown to be 50 amazing, beautiful states. Over 250 years, the country has changed a lot, including ending slavery in 1863,

women gaining the right to vote in 1920, and landing on the moon in 1690 in 1996. By the way, America is about to turn 250 years old. Happy birthday, America. First and foremost, our first art project is American Windocks. This is something we can put off on the 4th of July to celebrate. We even made many ones for you.

Press J. At this time, if you'll start taking the stage. Well, thank you very much.

Second is our aluminum foil soldiers. We'll we'll be passing them around for everybody to see them. Well, that's cool. That's really nice. You did a good job. As you can see, commissioners, they have really put a lot of work in all of this and they have enjoyed their projects. Looks like got bald head.

Come on now. I'm pretty Good. Thank you. Very very nice.

Oh, can you believe America is turning 250? I know the big birthday. Happy semi. What is this word? Oh, that word is semiquincential. Semi what? I don't even know what that word means. Well, it means the 250th anniversary of an event. Well, I can't say it. So, can I make it easier for our audience to understand? Go ahead. Happy 250th birthday, America. See, wasn't that so much easier? Okay. Yes, it was. But let's move on. Do you think that our forefathers from 250 years ago imagine what America would become?

I'm not sure, but we pretty much know from our history books that they wanted the United States of America to become a great nation. As you can see, we have a map of where America is today. Imagine from 13 colonies to 50 states. Notice the words on each of the states. Words like Brazilian, freedom, and liberty. All of those represent every ideal that our forefathers hoped the new nation would become. And it has. We see more words like independent, unified, equality are part of what we know our country to be. America has come a long way. Tonight we begin our celebration of America's semiquincential. There is that word again. Let me see if I can say it. Semiquincential.

Close enough. We have a couple of songs to share about the spirit of America. Please enjoy.

This great country, this great land. All together now we stand proud and strong. Americans one and all. Every dream in the sun shares one hope for everyone and free America. The spirit of America. The spirit of America. Oh Lord in me. The spirit of America. The spirit of America. The spirit of America. America is alive in me. This great country, this great and tall Americans in The spirit of America. The spirit of America. The spirit of America. America is alive in me.

Where the storm clouds gather across the sea as we swear alent to a land that's free. Let us all be grateful for a land so fair as we raise our voices in a God bless that I love stand through the ies to the ocean. I will hold me home. God bless that I love stand beside her and guide her. through the night with the light from above. From the mountains to the pra

through the o WITH BLESS. OH, I sweet home.

I do want to take a minute. That was the best cry I've ever directed right there. Thank you. THAT WAS AMAZING. I HAD TEARS IN my eyes. But I do want to introduce my speakers and my singers. This is Kinsley Hobby and Mary Brown. And my speakers, Haven, Eric, Tina, and Molly Tyer. This is just a very small clip of my musical theater program. Very, you can tell they were nervous. If the other 60 friends have been here, been just as wonderful. But we appreciate you guys having us and we're excited about our uh semiquincentennial. Correct. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you guys.

We just wanted to say thank you very much for having us. It was an honor to be here. You're welcome.

We needed that. We'll give the parents will have a few minutes to leave. Thank y'all for coming. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. Uh at this time, uh we've got a presentation. I think I heard that Troy is not going to be here tonight. uh Troy Roberts as the agenda says, but Swan River Water Management District and uh I feel like that's uh a good reason why most of you are here. If you would please listen very tentatively and uh we'll have a uh presentation and then uh I've got a kind of I've got a couple things here thereafter that we'll handle. And uh so this is Mr. Hugh Thomas from Swany County, Swany River Water. I guess that's where you live for county a I actually live in Gilquis County.

Okay. Well, we ain't going to hold that against you, but yeah, but uh you appreciate it and uh you have the floor, sir. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair and commission.

That's a tough act to follow, though. I tell you, you know, it is it uh it it pricks at your heart and um that's great. I'm glad to see our youth with that kind of enthusiasm. Um I do appreciate on behalf of the water management district I do appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight. Um hopefully um you all will find find this presentation informational. Um accompanying me tonight I actually have one of my board members, Mr. Charles Keith. I think all of you know him. Um and then we also have uh Caitlyn Potter um who is actually a Columbia County resident. Um but Caitlyn is director over our outreach um which involves our communications and also our operations at the water management district. And then actually presenting tonight um is Dr. Amy Brown. Amy is a deputy executive or deputy executive director over our water resources. Um she's got a I think a very beneficial presentation. Um it's got a couple of uh videos embedded in it. Hopefully um they will play well tonight. Um, and you know, our intent is to make this anformational.

So, we can hear you.

I'm sorry. Um, our intent is to make this anformational meeting. Um, we have on behalf of the water management district, um, and also working collaborative with St. John's Water Management District, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, um, and our utility partners, um, in wanting to get out and talk about this project. Um, I know some of you have heard a lot of misinformation out there, um, and relative questions and so it it's time we wanted to start getting out. We are in the process of making the circuit through all of our counties in the district um, and a lot of the municipalities um, trying to dispel misinformation and put uh, factual information out there about the status of this project and the intent of this project. So with that, Mr. here. Um, oh, and one other thing that I would mention, one of the things that we would like to do, as I mentioned, we're not looking for any kind of, uh, board vote on this um, tonight and, um, it is strictly anformational meeting. Um we do intend to have a regional somewhat of a town hall meeting um for the general public um once we are able to make our circuit and get uh get the presentations out there and the information um out there um for folks to be able to uh ask questions with it. And I did put some a flyer I think each of you have this uh and um along with a letter there um and then on this flyer I put the flyer out on the um in the foyer there. um with this, but it does have the contact information relative to this project um in the website where anybody can go to learn about the project. You'll see some of that information tonight. Um but also if if uh you or the general public has specific questions, you're able to put those in at that website and receive a either a call back or or an email

response back to that. So with that, Mr. Chair, I'll turn the floor over to Dr. Amy Brown. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Amy Brown. As Hugh mentioned, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Um the deputy executive director of water resources, which means I'm tasked with water supply planning, the minimum flows for our water bodies, uh water quality in our systems, and then also I'm the project manager on the water first project that we'll be talking about today. that way. This one. Oops. Okay. Um, I would like to to step back a little bit and kind of go through the background of of why we're working on this project right now and a little bit more about the lower Santa Fe and Interchucking Rivers just just to kind of set the stage and help with understanding as to why we're looking at this project as one that we would like to implement. One of the things that that I think many in this area are familiar with is that we have been involved in regional water supply planning uh for a long time. Since 2008, we've been actively coordinating with the St. John's River Water Management District. And there really is a recognition between the two districts that we need to jointly plan for the future because the water use in one district impacts the natural systems in the other. And so we have been planning and working jointly on regional water supply planning with two water supply plans. the first one published in 2017 and the most recent update in 2023. What you're seeing on the screen now is a representation of our water use. That's what you see in the blue bars there. The solid bars represent our water use within that partnership area that I just showed the map of. Um the eastern part of the Swany District and the northern part of the St. John's River Water Management District. And although historically we've managed to keep our water use relatively constant over the last several years, um that that is the result of a substantial amount of investment in conservation and alternative water supplies. The orange bar that you see there represents the current population. And then as you move into the hatched area, that's the

projected future population that we're being asked to plan for. And again, that population estimate is coming from the state looking at growth in population both in our district and then also in region one of St. John's. We're also being tasked to plan for the projected growth in agriculture that is in our district. We're looking at a 14% projected growth in irrigated acreage and the demand for water to support that agricultural growth. So, as we're looking at our natural systems, we're being asked to sustain those natural systems while also planning for an area that has an existing water use and projected future demands that exceed that existing water use. One of the key components to doing that, and I'll circle back to this later on in the in the conversation because it has come up as a question, is that we we need to be efficient with water. So, water conservation is a huge piece of what we're looking at for this area, and it's something that both districts have invested in very heavily. There are a lot of water conservation projects including agricultural cost share to implement efficient practices, working with municipalities to deal with leaks, closing loops that you don't waste water as you're trying to flush lines, those types of practices, as well as for the more urban areas bringing water online that can be used reclaim water as a source. The green bar that you see projected out to 2045 would represent the reduction in future demand that you would see in light of that rising population if you fully implement conservation practices. We can make a substantial difference in our water supply demands if we implement fully implement water conservation across all different use types. The other bit of water supply planning though is looking at what the current use and what the projected future use would do to our natural systems if we don't take actions to remedy the impacts. And what we see right now is that we have two gauges, the uh Ichuknney gauge at highway 27, so the spring system as well as the Santa Fe River at Highway 441 that are currently

assessed to be in recovery. That means looking at today's water use, the flows in those systems that those areas are not meeting their minimums. Um, what that means is that it's it's incumbent on both districts to work together to recover those systems as well as to plan to allow for future growth based on the projections that we have. This is just a little bit more detail about the current impacts that we're seeing. And so we have a recovery target of uh six cfs or cubic feet per second at the itch tuck gauge and a slightly smaller recovery target at the highway 441 gauge of 1 cfs. But again, we're also being asked to look into the future at what the future demands would bring. And that's where you see that there is would be an additional 17 cfs of impact at the highway 441 gauge, an additional 13 cfs of impact at the itchy gauge if we don't take actions to alter the way that we're um providing the water supply that people need. So some of that can be done via conservation. Some of that can be done via things like aquafer recharge that put water back into the aquifer. What this next slide uh shows is basically uh the statutes that that guide us in terms of how we implement recovery. So when the when when the water management districts are looking to recover a water body, we are looking to provide sufficient water supplies for existing and projected reasonable beneficial uses, including the development of additional water supplies and implementation of conservation and other efficiency measures concurrent with and to the maximum extent practical to offset reductions in permitted withdrawals. So again, we're guided by statute to seek the water supplies that people need to meet their current and projected future growth and minimize the impact on our existing legal permitted users of water. The update to the ITUNE and Santa Fe MFLs took quite a long time and there

was a lot of conversation back and forth. Part of the reason why this has been such a challenging minimum flow to set is to identify that mechanism to recover the system while meeting the current and projected future demands. Um I think it's telling that when we were when we were looking at these problems ourselves, it was a challenge because source water in the Swany district is not readily available. If you look especially right now in our dry conditions, we don't have easily available surface water supplies that people can switch to instead of using the Florida aquifer and our groundwater. The aquifer itself is interconnected such that it's not easy to go underneath the aquifer and pull something that doesn't influence our springs and rivers. In addition, we have adjacent water management district that is using that shared aquifer. uh one of the things that that was recognized was that even for the larger utilities that exist in the east coast, the the prospect of them independently coming up with projects to offset their impacts to meet their current customer demands and the future demands was a challenging prospect and they have resources that we don't have as readily available in this district. So the fact that that it was recognized that every individual permite having to solve the problem independently is infeasible for many of our existing legal users of water including the farmers that we have in this area and our small municipalities that would be looking to meet their current demands and also the demands as growth occurs. So there was a collaborative effort that that occurred. It involved the Swany district. It involves the St. John's district. It involved D. It also involved some of the larger utilities on the east coast and the process involved everybody putting all the options on the table to look at what water supplies are available and what options could be available to meet the current and projected future demands. That process looked at a lot of scenarios and ran through a lot of permutations. The result of that process was that a project that would involve reclaimed water from the east coast was the most

financially advantageous. Things like desalination were looked at, but they are much more expensive. The technology that you would use to remove the things that exist in the reclaimed water would be similar to those used for desalination, but you have a lot more in salt water that you have to get out. And then you have to figure out how to dispose of what is taken out. It's also much more energy intensive. So, you're looking at an energy cost, a disposal cost, and then also just the costs of the the processes themselves. So this project that I'll be talking about is one of the core projects that was identified that would help to recover the Santa Fe system while allowing existing users of water who use water and then allowing for a mechanism for growth even if it's participation in a large regional project. The recovery strategy that is published right now has identified four core projects that would help to meet the the recovery targets. Two of those projects are recharge projects and two of those projects are conservation projects. In addition to those, you will see that there are local in that in that uh water supply plan, there are also local projects. So, Columbia County and and Lake City would be also involved in smaller scale projects that would help with water supply based on their local use. So, one of the first regional projects, and this one is is nearing completion at this point, um is the Black Creek project. That project was constructed in the St. John's River Water Management District. The project consists of taking water from Black Creek when it is available and transporting that through a filter media that you see on the left. Those are those are beds that are planted beds that include media to filter out color and also phosphate. Once that water has been cleaned to the suitable standard, then it would be used to recharge lakes Brooklyn and Geneva that are currently lakes that are in recovery in the St. John's River Water Management District. this project and the collaborative effort that that came in in putting this

project together and seeking funding for it was kind of the template that was used for the water first project that I will talk about later which basically was that each individual entity trying to solve the problem by themselves became economically infeasible but if they collaborated on one solution that addressed the problem that became a more efficient way to recover the system so that's the approach that was used for Black Creek the recharge water that is going into Black Creek going from Black Creek into lakes Brooklyn and Geneva also provide a recharge benefit to the Santa Fe system. I mentioned that the other key components in addition to the water first project that I'll talk about later are conservation. In the Swany district, we have invested very heavily in agricultural water conservation, looking at soil moisture sensors to make sure you're only irrigating when you need to. um irrigation system retrofits to make sure you have an even distribution of recharge and then also remote control and monitoring that allows people to turn on and off the systems while not physically having to drive out to each of those pivots because we know in Florida sometimes rain can come up and it can be very very local and so allowing them to have that type of control improves the efficiency of those agricultural operations. Public supply would also be looked at for conservation, especially as you're looking at residential water conservation and making sure that any new growth that does occur occurs as efficiently as possible. Um, meeting that demand is going to become much easier as we we maximize the efficiency of the new development that might come in this area. All of the documents and all the projects that we've talked about uh were approved at the November board meetings for the Swany River and St. John's River Water Management District and that includes details on the implementation strategy, the the pathway to recover the system as well as the projects that would be associated with that recovery project. So, I'll talk more in detail about the

water first project. I know there are a lot of questions. I'd like to go over some information and I'm also hopeful that we'll be able to to look at a couple videos that provide an overview and might help answer some of the questions. So the water first project is looking at taking 40 million gallons per day of treated reclaimed water. It's going to get additional natural treatment and filtration through treatment wetlands and then it would be used to recharge the Florida aquifer. The two districts as well as D and local utilities are supportive of the project and it can meet the water needs of the region in conjunction with conservation which is very important beyond the 20-year planning horizon. treatment wetlands themselves um can be recreational amenities. So there there is a strong precedent in the state of Florida for having treatment wetlands that combine environmental cleanup benefits with recreational amenities. The Sweetwater Wetland Park has that and is open to the public. Although Lake City Wetlands is not always open to the public for sure it is it is a venue um birding and other activities are hosted there because it is it is a regional attraction. We're going to try to play the video. We'll see how it goes. Do I press the center button?

Patrick. Patrick, just do the next

floor.

You might need to volume up a little bit. Our focus is on protecting the long viability of the natural water resources that serve as our primary. Our springs river just environmental. They're engines that support agriculture, tourism, small businesses, and economic development. required protection of our water resources through established and minimum flows and water levels. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has adopted a rule for the lower Santa Fe and itch river. A river and spring system is notably its required levels. A comprehensive sustainable solution is needed to recharge our aquifer, restore the flows of our springs and rivers and ensure a sustainable water supply for our region. No, community can solve the challenge alone. Stakeholders across North Florida have united behind the most effective and costefficient solution to protect our water systems. The solution refers to North Florida. This product will use reclaimed water that will be hotly treated at a water reclamation facility before being filtered in a wet further clean water. Water that meets high quality standards will be used to aquifer. Restore natural flows to springs and rivers. Infrastructure will bring the water from the wetland to multiple regions maximum environmental benefit. This project will provide over 40 million gallons of water per day and work in conjunction with conservation and other efforts to be recharged

development project in Clayton demonstrate how this type of approach can enhance aquafer recharge while meeting high quality water spends. Each project are recovering water resources that wildlife and have created recreational opportunities that residents and visitors now enjoy. Water First North Florida delivers a comprehensive sustainable solution with the greatest environmental benefit. Others like desalination considered proved to be too expensive costing two or three times more than reclaimed water. In conjunction conservation efforts project will protect the streets and rivers that make our region unique and support our long-term water supply and economic growth North Florida project a sustainable water supply for the region and into the future. First North Florida.

So that that's the video. I apologize the audio wasn't as clear to hear on that just based on that, but it it goes over just an overview of the project and why we've been getting a number of questions and comments circulating. I want to just touch on a few of them now and then I have one more video um that I'd like to go through that just talks about what's being done right now to look at those inter emerging contaminants of concern that are certainly one of the questions that we're getting. Um so some of the big questions that we're getting, one is water quality concerns, especially as it relates to emerging contaminants of concern. There is work going on right now. It actually was kicked off years ago with the recognition that if you're going to use reclaimed water as a supply, this is something that you need to understand, characterize, and be able to treat effectively. So, that work is going on right now. There's a pilot wetland study that's going on at the JA Buckman plant that would be looking at um the constituents in the water, how you treat it, both the pre-treatment that you would use like ozenation and then also what type of treatment wetland technologies are the best ways to deal with the the emerging contaminants of concern. In addition, they would be looking at things like nitrate and what the best ways to remove nitrate and other contaminants would be. Some of the other questions that we've gotten are why not desalination? And I know that we have heard some reports that that the the costs that we're representing for desalination may be higher than what they're seeing online. But in terms of asking and reasking the people who are involved in desalination in the state about the costs, both the the upfront costs, the treatment costs, as well as the disposal costs and the energy costs, you're talking about a very expensive technology. And again, if we're looking to the east coast to help with the implementation of this solution, their answer is it's more cost-effective for us to appropriately treat our reclaimed water because like I said, the same technologies that you would use to deal with desalination, you can use with that uh that reclaimed water. and there's a lot less dissolved in it. And so in terms of getting the things out you want to get out, there's less to get out. Um why not conservation? I think I think

I've emphasized the me message here that conservation is very much a part of what we need to do. But I think you also heard even in this meeting today that you have projected growth for agriculture and a desire for the ability for agriculture to grow as well as people who want to keep their families here in this area. And so I think there will have to be some growth. that needs to be managed, but there will be growth and we have to plan for that growth. Um the other question that we've gotten a lot is why not just have JA keep that water um and use it themselves. The answer is that they can keep it and use it themselves. That was in fact their initial plan was to to use that water to meet their growth demands if they keep the water and use it themselves. That does not recover the Santa Fe and Tuckney. they keep it all the way over on the east coast versus bringing it back closer to the resources that are in recovery, then you're not going to be able to get the flow that you need to recover the system, which would mean we would need to do something else. And in the Swany district, there's not a lot of source water that we have to work with. And so again, that's that's where bringing this water over, bringing the source water in from outside the basin that is in recovery to recharge the basin is what gets us to recovery while still allowing for existing permites to use their water and the potential for growth. I have just a few more slides. Um, and I do want to talk about the the what I mentioned before. So there is currently a pilot study going on called the JA Buckman ozone wetland pilot study. They're looking at the ability of treatment wetlands with and without pre- treatment to remove some of the emerging contaminants of concern. And again, it was recognized by them that this is something that would need to be dealt with if you're going to use this water. Um so what had happened two years ago, the the study was funded to look at the different wetland configurations and designs to assess how you load it and what the what the performance characteristics are. Those wetland cells that they've built are now established. They have to be vegetated just like the Lake City wetland had to grow in the

wetland plants before you can test it. So that that growth period has been established now. And so now they can start the testing process for looking at the different treatment technologies. Um I'm going to try to play one more video. This one talks specifically about the treatment and treatment design and what they're looking for at that uh Buckman Pilots plant. So this pilot study will allow us to test the efficiency of of the wetland to treat Buckman and Southwest water and give us a resource that that isn't the river. Right? So the goal of Senate Bill 64 is get the water out of the river. This gives us a place to finish that treatment and and elevate the quality of this water for other uses. So locally it answers our question for future waters resources need through that replenishment project we're able to take water from these wastewater plants and and treat it and recharge the aquaer with it which provides a benefit to not just JA as a entity but our customers and the broader region. So with this pilot study, we have the opportunity to not only take a normal constructed wetland, which we have tons of data on been implemented across the state of Florida, but use that as a control versus the other cell, which uses ozone as a pre-treatment. And the the working theory is that the ozone would break down a lot of these contaminants of concern and allow the wetland biology, the plants and all the biology that goes on in the wetland to better assimilate those contaminants. And running them side by side data on the front end and back end then you can do that analysis to demonstrate which of the two configurations work best. So we

have two halfacre wetland cells. One of them will receive ozone pre-treatment will be our control cell and doing ozone pre-treatment to see if that enhances the green break down the pollutants to make them more bioavailable for wetland

inside this whole facility. We're able to generate the ozone using ambient oxygen added electricity and we're generating the ozone here. We're using a side stream injection system here, which is just a really good way for high efficiency of applying the ozone and getting it to dissolve inside of the water. And this contactor right behind us, as you can see, there's a lot of sample force throughout. It's really a serpentine half of the water has to go through. It's a five minute contact time inside that plastic container. So we're able to collect water throughout that path at different time signatures, understand how much of the ozone is reacted with the organics inside the water to really optimize that applied dose. We'll test various doses throughout the project to understand what the right dose is and try to connect it to a wetland response.

Has both deep zones and emergent marsh zones. And so the emergent mar zones about a foot in depth and then the deep zones are about three feet in depth and they have like floating aquatic plants and so we use those uh to distribute the water across the wetland cell so that it flows like a sheet and then enhances treatment performance. Then uh the downstream deep zone collects that water and is tied to our outlet aggra drain control structures and these are water level control structures that have removable stop logs and they'll also control the flow mode of each cell which is another uh variable that we're looking at. So, we want to determine if the surface flow wetland mode where water flows across the wetland and exits at the surface, if that performs better than an infiltration wetland where all of the water exits through infiltration and then through 4 feet of uh sand media that we have below the wetlands into a collection system, simulate a groundwater recharge wetland or an infiltration wetland. Once the plants grow in after six months of education, we'll begin our pilot study in November of 2025 and we'll conduct that for two years. We'll be testing parameters in the water standards, nutrients, pharmaceuticals, PAS, industrial like hexavalent chromium. We'll also looking at the oils to see if there's absorption of those to the soils within the cells. And then we'll also look at the plants to see if there's any plant absorption of some of these compounds.

I think the most innovative thing obviously is the ozone component of this by introducing ozone as a pre-treatment and then seeing how that may impact the removal and the removal efficiency and the treatment ability and being able to compare that side by side is is truly innovative and and groundbreaking. really have the opportunity to potentially invent a new treatment approach for reclaiming water and looking to do a replenishment on a regional basis.

So on the surface the wetlands park that ultimately will be created will provide tourism opportunities for local groups to come and tour and look at just the wetland in general. But it'll also educate on the overall water cycle. Where our water comes from, how we treat it, how collect it, this large water recycling process. It's been going along for a millennia. We're just accelerating it and reusing it over and over again in a phase, right? And then more broadly applied is this now becomes a resource that the broader region can use to recharge the aquifer rivers or even Keystone Heights. So the aquifer itself goes from Southport all the way up into almost South Carolina, Alabama. So we're trying to do our part to restore and recover. You know, being responsible stewards not just to protect our customers interest, but our environment's interest, right? So that's that's what we strive to do day in and day out is the environment that we live um that we live in. Right? That's our obligation is to make sure they get the resources they need. It's safe, and as well as we all live in. That's that's our that's our goal. That's what we try to do every day.

So again, I apologize for the sound quality, but um what you can hear from that is that that again the the process the study right now to investigate the treatment technologies, what's in the water, and what the best way to get the the constituents out of the water is going on right now. The other thing that's going on right now is they're they're about to go under execution for a contract to do a sighting study. That would be a three-phase study. The first phase would be where would the wetland the treatment wetland itself be cited. And you're talking about a very large wetland probably over a thousand acres. That treatment wetland and the process to treat it would likely be in the St. John's district. That's we're anticipating it's in the St. John's district. The second phase of the sighting study would be to identify a place within the St. John's district where you can recharge that water. The third phase would be to be able to bring that water over the Swany district and recharge it in a place that would achieve the full recovery for the lower Santa Fe and Ichuknney rivers. So some of the concerns about would we be getting the water just because they don't have anything else to do with it. That's not a part of what with what this project would include. The ability to retain the water in the St. John's district and to treat the water in the St. John's district is a part of the project. They will be able to treat it. They will be able to recharge it in the St. John's district. Sometimes we flood, sometimes we can't take the water. And certainly if there's any concerns about the water quality then it would be it would stay there and it would stay there until it achieved the required quality to come west. But the ability to bring it to the west and recharge it locally is what would allow us to recover the system. That's the overview that I have. I hope I hope it at least provides a picture of what the project is intended to do. Um and with that I I can take questions. Mr. chair. let some people speak.

But uh how we'll handle this uh our in-house uh I'm going to call governmental lobbyist Styles Gutic. He's got some information I'd like for him to share just on a legislative aspect because you know this is not going to be a local decision come through Tallahassee and he's got an update I'd like to share with you then then I'd ask the board for their input at this point in time. And then I've got some cards up here that uh people have reached out. I've got them categorized so we can have a speech. But s if you would just for their information.

Real quick. Uh good evening everybody. Sash Gek Columbia County. So as of right now there's one line item in the Senate uh budget proposal. The legislative have not completed a final budget yet for $20 million for this. And there was a rural ratification bill in the Senate. um that was filed and passed its first committee two weeks ago. It has two more committee stops. It has not moved since two weeks ago and uh there is nothing on the house side. There is no budget item on the house. There is not a ratification bill on the house side. So I just wanted to at least update you. You know this is a big item. This is a state item as well. So there's nothing as of tonight on the house side. there's only uh something on paper in the Senate and you know there's no guarantee of it getting to the finish line this session. So we'll we'll just have to keep watching it.

And uh in the discussion earlier with St. I I don't know what the dollar figure is on this project. I'm sure it's quite horrendous but you know because I I've been asked the question you know when will this project start? Of course, as the young lady said, the process of uh research has already taken place, but uh I'm not going to put nobody uh on the in the situation where they got to throw a number at it, but we're hearing 400 million. Who knows? But my point is is that uh this is nothing that's going to start the next 30 days. I'm I'm not trying to justify the project here, but it's uh I think there was some uh a lot of concerns that hey, we may be looking at this project in the very near future. And you know, I understand the process of looking into the future, planning, what have you, but it's uh it's nothing that's going to happen overnight. But even with that said, I've got a lot of questions myself, but board, does anybody have any questions for Stars? Clarification.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. At this time, what way I'd like to handle this, I've got some uh uh people that's filled in citizen input cards and uh it's we're ranked. I mean, we're held to three minutes because you can see if everybody in here spoke tonight, which uh I'd like for these people to come up as I call them. Uh please for variance of time, try to do your best to stick to the three minutes. And we've got a clock over here and I guess that's the only way I know how to regulate if y'all turn it towards me and then when you get to one minute I'll put my finger up whoever's at the podium and kind of give you a direction of where you're going. So uh at this time

or do you want to leave it towards them so they can see it while they're up there? If somebody tells me when one minute I mean I I've got I've got to shut them down. That's fine. We'll try it. It's unfortunately this way this operates. We don't own this building. So, it's it is what it is. Okay. So, at this time, I've got a card here by Miss Carol Eert. I think that is it.

Thank you. State your name if you would and the address for the clerk. My name is Carol Eert. Is that it? Okay.

Okay. So, um, stage one of a three-stage process of the 1 billion water first north Florida initiative was approved in no on November 12th, 2025, just three months ago, by the St. John's and the Swani River Water Management District boards to pipe treated waste water from JA in Jacksonville to the Swany Swany Water Basin. They have renamed the treated waste water as reclaimed water in order to make it more acceptable to those who are not paying close attention. The ones selling this will tell you that not much of the waste water contains human waste or toxic chemicals, but their lips are moving. Don't believe them. At best, there will be a bait and switch if this toxic plan goes forward. The project aims to pump 40 million gallons a day into the wetlands nearby and eventually inject the treated wa waste water into our aquifer. The driving force is the JA and St. John's water authority um which are going by um trying to comply with a chapter 403 of the 2023 Florida statutes um which states that by 2032 they have to find another place to dump their waste water. So basically this plan is for them to dump their toxic waste water, their make us their toilet um into our aquifer. Um Jacksonville draws approximately 10 times the daily water from the aquifer that Colombia County does. Um we say let the JA use the wetlands around the Jacksonville Duval area to filter the reclaimed water containing forever chemicals. Now forever chemicals are poly flora I'll kill uh substances substances they're called pfsas and they are forever and they're linked to a growing

list of negative health benefits including cancer. So once in the environment they do not break down instead they accumulate in water and soil and air and that's why they got their name forever chemicals. Um, there's more than 9,000 man-made compounds that that this encompasses and it's also released as industrial waste by the facilities that manufacture these goods. And the EPA currently does not have any flow output uh limits or pre-treatment standards or regulations that would restrain the ability of the industry sources to discharge PFAS in the waste water that they send to treatment facilities. So the lack of federal standards make it's impossible to keep these PFSAs out of the system. So a team of researchers from the University of Florida are documenting just how many are found in the state's surface water including its prized freshwater springs which provide 90% of the drinking water to its inhabitants.

Okay. I know you probably got a lot more but for sake of time I understand take your word I mean your name please for the clerk

Moses Tupper Swan County and uh to piggyback on the back end of that the chemicals were detected in 63% of the spring vent samples or the actual opening in the ground where water from the an aqua aquafer first emerges to surface. and 68% of spring run samples or the flowing body of the water that originates from the vent with 13 qualifiable peas. Um that's I don't like saying present across all samples forever chemicals. Uh green spring, blue spring and Gemini spring held the highest uh PFAS concentrations. Notably, seven springs uh sites exceeded the EPA's drinking water maximum contaminant level of four parts per trillion, all within 10 miles of each other on the east coast of Florida. Thanks to the data collected from UF students scattered across the state, followed by the help from locals interested in the state's natural resources, Ben's team has launched an interactive map to track peifas in the Florida water system stemming from their other recent study measures, peepas in various water systems across the state. Currently most wastewater treatment facilities re remove less than 10% of peepas. Most of the contaminants in the pro processed material are dumped back into our waterways. Bowen says um if our drinking water comes from those sources, it will often contain pifas. What should be alarming for all flidians is that the springs which are often destined for us to as drinking water peas are present. Midn's work measures these emerging

chemicals in different context including white wildlife tissues, human blood and waste streams like landfields. It wasn't surprising to find these chemicals in high levels across the state, especially in high highly populated areas like Jacksonville. What was surprising was how little people knew about them considering they are thousands of distinct types of people's chemicals in use. Recently, there has been more awareness as the EPA has begun to set guidelines for drinking water limits, but many still view the chemical class as a buzzword without understanding the commonness of this widespread phenomena. understanding their widespread presence can help people make better decisions to limit their exposure. And now I hear what she said about the desellinization um and unfortunately my research is from Mr. Google and and AI but um I I cross referenced it many times. of the startup is about for 100 for 100 million gallons a day is about a million to a million and a half dollars.

Okay. Hillary Hillary Hall. Is that that her name? Miss Hall. Okay, there you go. Haley. Haley. Haley. Okay. I'm sorry.

Hello. So I want to talk today about my concerns about the water quality implications of this project. Why this is not a a good idea for our area and what else we can do. So why this project is even happening is relating back to in 2021 there was Senate Bill 64 and that basically banned this water that they want to pipe over here. It's because they are not allowed to put it in the St. John's anymore. It is not allowed to go there according to this 2021 law, Senate Bill 64. Within that law, they included a loophole for where it can go. And that loophole is the lower Santa Fe and it tuck MFL that implementation strategy. That is the loophole that allows it to be used. So they cannot put it in the St. John's anymore anymore, but they can build a pipeline and send it over here and pump it, inject it down into the ground. Um, and so I am concerned about POS and other forever chemicals. I'm concerned about pharmaceuticals, hormones, and birth control residuals. And also being able to even meet the 35 nitrate standard for our springs. I understand that this water is going to be treated through a treatment wetland. I think our area has treatment wetlands. You know that they can be a good thing for water quality. The issue is this is not treating our own waste. This is Jacksonville sending us their waste to be a dumping ground. And so even though that video says, "Oh, you know what I heard IN THAT VIDEO IS NOT THIS TREATMENT plant can get the hormones out and get the POS out." I heard we're researching it. WE DON'T KNOW WHAT IT can even do yet. We're still trying TO FIGURE IT OUT. YOU JUST SITTING AT OVER HERE. You don't even know what you're going to be putting into the ground. You don't even know

what you're even going to be testing for. And even if even if that treatment plant can take that PAS out of the water, where does it go? Into the plants, WHO EATS THE PLANTS, THE ANIMALS, THE FISH. If you hunt, it gets into the game. It gets into the food chain and those plants degrade. It gets into OUR SOILS. AND SO IT'S STILL I don't care how clean the water is going into the ground or what standards it's meeting. There's things that you're not going to be testing for and it's still getting into the ground. It's still Jacksonville waste coming over here. And also it has to to meet that MFL. YOU HAVE TO MEET THAT 35 nitrate limit to protect our springs. It's not just about the volume of water. It's about how clean THE WATER IS, TOO. I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH WATER YOU PUT BACK. IF IT'S FILLED WITH BIRTH control hormones and all sorts of crap. Now, I heard in that video the representative from JEA said, "We care about our customers, our environment. WE'RE PRETTY FAR AWAY FROM THERE."

OKAY. DR. John Rose. We had seen him in a while. Thank you for the opportunity. I do research it. I research it every day and I take the chemicals out of the water. I can get every chemical I know of out of the water with right treatment. I just have to know what's in it. and they're testing it and that's what they're going through and that's what they're trying to do. I think the project's good because we're running out of water over here. We already know it. We're not going to run out of drinking water, but our farmers are going to run out of water. That's who's going to run out of water. And so I I believe this is a nice treat. It's a good way to get 40 million gallons a day that we don't have already. It's going to be well treated. They can get whatever they need to get out of the water, they can get it out. I promise that. Don't have to worry about POS. Don't have to worry about hormones. don't have to worry about any of those things. They're all labeled to be broken down and made into carbon molecules that the plants can use that are filtered out by the ground and utilized by bacteria. That's it.

Thank you, sir.

Okay. All right. Everybody holding comments from the public if you would. Okay. Merrily Gibson. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I am a resident of the river of the Santa Fe River. probably the bottom of the county, come to think of it, which is also the bottom of the basin. I've been at this podium since 2006, dealing with water. I stepped back when the Nestle bottle water permit got issued at Seven Springs Water Company. At that point in time, I knew that the government wasn't going to fix us. We did everything. We had five lawsuits and here we are today. They issued 984,000 gallons of water on that particular permit. 984. It's almost like 10 of our cities. I think Fort White uses 86,000 gallons of water a day. You got 500 people in that city, but not everybody's hooked up. You got water problems. We know I live down there, too. So, I also own a recreational tourism business that gets its livelihood from the river. I'm very concerned about this particular permit or not even a permit. It's almost like they're going to do it. And here we are. We got nothing to stand against just like we did all these other things that I've been up against trying to fight. And what I think I need to do is ask you the county. I was in Union County the other night. Miss Hall was in 20 county the other night. She has a lot of good things to say. Did you know that they're under a consent order right now? Ja. They have been since September. That means that they're polluting the St. John's River every day. That means that they have to spend, I think, $100 a

day because they're being fined. Look up that consent order. Find out what's in that water. That's what they're going to be putting into our sludge. There's going to be a sludge component to this. Don't forget, what was that? 3 ft of sledge that you were seeing up there. Where's that going to go? Black Creek Project. I don't know how many Black Creek Project. If you go over and I have met them and you talk to the Maxville and Clay Hill neighborhood, those people are dying from rare autoimmune disorders. They live right near Black Creek. Fenny County and uh Hamilton County have a health study going on right now. I highly recommend anybody in those counties sign up for that house study. It's in the environmental health department so you can get a baseline. Those people that live closest to the well injections of these four pipelines that are going to come off the wetland that they really didn't talk about tonight. Those people that live around those injection points, maybe it's Falling Creek like they talked about in 2010. Maybe it's Brooks Sink. Maybe it's Clay Hill, I'm sorry, Clay Hole and Canning Creek, which they're talking about now because they want to recharge it. Get baseline studies, folks. Sign up for those health studies because your health would be compromised just like Max Maxville and Clay Hill. Clay Clay Clay Hill. Yeah, Maxville and Clay. And the reason I'm talking about that is they move that water in Black Creek Project, which I was also against. Senator Bradley knew that. The man, Senator Bradley, they move that water that was polluted already. Those neighborhoods are polluted from the uh creek. They're not creeks, the branches that run off the ridge and they're having their own issues. They're dying between 40 and 60 years old. I'm telling you, this is a bad deal. Y'all need to like tell them, write a letter, say you don't want TO DO IT. D PADDOCK. OKAY. YES, MA'AM. I'm sorry if I didn't pronounce that correctly.

My name is D. Paddock. I'm from Swany County. I've lived 50 years on the Swany River. Uh I I attended a Tuesday meeting and I was told there's a lot of drought and we need to fill up the aquafer. I laugh because I've lived there 50 years. Yes, we have dropped. A river goes down. Guess what? Comes back up. UM, I have seen things like accidental come in. I don't know where they were when accidental came in. They promised they would not take enough water out to to ring the springs and so forth. They did. I had a spring in my yard. Our park over there, the Swany State Park, had a spring in there. uh thing kids used to swim at. They dried up since accidental came in. Uh we can go to Georgia. They keep overflowing their stuff into the with the coochie which comes into the swanie. Where were they? Where were they monitoring it? So I have a problem with who's going to monitor this? Who's going to say that is not good? No. They want to bring that over to Iran, put it out chemical or what? And I believe they're bad. Okay, we have a storm or hurricane. What's going to happen to all that water with the stuff still on it that hasn't processed? THEY'RE OVERFLOWED INTO the aquifer into the springs. Um, also we were told at the Tuesday meeting the commissioner asked, "Do we have a say in this?" And he said, "No, the state is running it. You have no say. You have no say. It's going to happen." That's why they're already looking into it. That's why they're always studying it. I suggest tonight you call the Sanders, your representative. If we have to take out a petition, we will. Thank you,

Nathaniel Warner. Then I got Bruce Sticks up next. We're just giving you a warning. Did it start?

Good evening, commissioners. Thank you so much for allowing us to speak. My name is Nathan Warner. I'm a Columbia County resident and a business owner here. I'd like to ask these questions on the record. I know there's not going to be any answers, but I would like them to be recorded. Um, number one, what is the maximum number of gallons per day that this project is designed to handle both initially and at full capacity after buildout? Can you confirm whether that number is approximately 40 million gallons per day? What is the total annual volume in gallons once the project reaches full operational capacity? Uh, many people have talked about the water quality and the contaminant issues. I looked up a few things while I was sitting here listening to the um children sing earlier and the processes that were mentioned in the video do not remove nitrates. And I know a lot of people talk about PASES. Nitrates are actually what are damaging the waterways. It's what robs the oxygen. It's what kills our springs. Um there's 3.6 billion gallons a day that is removed from the Florida aquafer. And you will all be interested to know that uh we rank actually under Southwest Florida, Southeast Florida, and Central Florida or the district that is trying to pump this over here in terms of usage. So I don't think that um I don't think that balances out. Um the exact nitrogen levels and phosphorus concentrations in the water that is planning to be pumped over, uh I have not seen I've not been able to find. I'd like an answer if we can get one on that. Looking at liability and risk responsibility. If the aquifer and groundwater contamination occurs in the future, which specific entity will be legally and financially responsible for remediation? Does Colombia County assume any direct or indirect liability under any agreement related to this project? I think from what she said, we don't really have a say. So, I'm curious if we would have any uh

any legal responsibility there. Um, the root cause of the aquafer depletion I do not believe has anything to do with drought. As the lady said earlier, who's been here for a long time, um, we can all do math and the total volume of groundwater that is being pulled from the Florida aquifer today at the 3.65 billion gallons a day. Um it is correct that groundwater withdrawals have increased significantly but this is due to population growth and development in other regions not in ours. And so I would just say that the Florida aquifer is one of the most important freshwater resources in the world and Colombia County sits directly above one of its most sensitive recharge zones. So before we start talking about you know I saw a sales pitch there. I didn't see any information. Um, we don't solve resource depletion by introducing new risks into the system. We solve it through responsible management, transparency, and protection of the resource itself. I couldn't help but notice one of the things that was mentioned several times was the cost. I'm Bruce Dex uh Lake Cityian all my life. Uh don't have nothing but just heart. And so here it is. If you stop with bottled water going out everywhere, our aqua will come up. We didn't have no hurricanes last year. We didn't have no tropical storms. We didn't have nothing bringing in. We're still living. Uh, I don't want to eat, drink, sweethe,

sleep, or uh swim in my toilet. And I sure don't jack some bills. That's it. There she is. Give your name for the record where everybody understands who you are, please. Josie Gaskins. Josie's one of the employees of the county, so we just always like to make you mess with us.

The Swany River and our rural count rural counties are not a dumping ground for someone else's problem. Jacksonville has grown rapidly. They have money for luxury projects, downtown expansion, and econ economic growth. But when it comes to building the infrastructure to properly handle their own waste water, suddenly it's too expensive. That's that's her words. IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE. IT'S TOO COMPLICATED. And instead of fixing their own system, they want to shift the burden on to us. Letting rural communities, rural communities, bear the environmental health and e economic consequences for decades. Make no mistake, this is not just about water. It's about fairness and accountability. The Swany River Water Management District and St. John's River Water Management District confirmed that they evaluated over 800 potential projects before selecting this the plan that would pipe Jacksonville's wastewater onto our county. This wasn't a last resort option. They had alternatives, but they chose our community to bear the long-term cost. Why were we chosen? Cost savings for Jacksonville. Building new infrastructure in Jacksonville would be far too more expensive than sending the water to lower counties. This plan shifts the financial burden away from the city and onto our land and rivers. We have available land and low population. Our counties have space and lower population density which officials see as easier to manage for large-scale wastewater recharge. Even though it means we bear the environmental and health risk, regulatory ease. Recharging wetlands and using our river system is easier to navigate under current regulations than modifying urban infrastructure. In short, we were chosen because it's cheaper, easier, and shifts long-term risk from Jacksonville to us. They literally prioritize city growth over our health, our land, and our river systems, and our own community growth. Let's be clear, the cost of dumping isn't measured in dollars for them. It's measured in the decades of our

environmental damage and public health risk that fall on our shoulders. WHO WILL PAY FOR THE ALGAE BLOOMS, CONTAMINATION, loss of recreational fishing and opportunities, and decreased property values? Not Jacksonville. We will. Shame on Swine River Border Management District for even PROPOSING THIS. IF JACKSONVILLE CANNOT HANDLE ITS OWN ROAD RESPONSIBILITY, THE SOLUTION IS NOT TO MAKE rural communities pay the price. Infrastructure exists. They could invest in it, but they choose not to. This is not an accident. It's a choice. And I say again, they prioritize their city over our land, our rivers, and our health. This is not about drought. We deserve better. Our rivers deserve better. Our children deserve better. And I stand firm against this unjust shift of responsibility.

Okay. At this time, that's all the cards. And I realize there's probably a lot more people here that would love to speak and uh the for you know for just the lack of time and what have you. But one thing that I picked up out of this whole presentation and the board's going to have an opportunity here to voice their opinions and ask some questions if they like. But uh we do have a voice. Uh it's it's it's every two years up to four years at the b at the ballot. you do have a voice in in in this country in my opinion and uh uh and that's our strongest tool that we have here. Uh I don't uh stars I I keep up with the uh economics of it and you know Florida's faced with a lot of challenges but you know I've got my questions just like I guarantee everybody in this room does but at this point in time I just thought I'd say that I just want to make sure everybody and you do you realize but uh it's frustrating sometimes and but we do have a voice and it's at the ballot box and please please please continue to share that. THAT'S FOR SURE. M WE'LL START OFF WITH YOU. I'm sure you've probably got a few questions here or statements or

I mean it's quite easy. I mean the people have spoken. Uh we don't want to be a sudden tank for Jacksonville's waste. That's what it is.

I think that's just common sense. I mean it's our kids play in our rivers here. We don't want your waste here for our kids to play in. We don't want our animals to die. We don't want any of that stuff. We don't want any health risks come from Jacksonville. We do not want to be uh your septic tank for all your waste. Keep it over there where it's at. You mentioned earlier about you couldn't for some reason you couldn't just recycle the water into the St. John's. I I don't understand that concept. I don't understand why St. John's got more water. How much water are you putting back in our aquifer now that you're pulling from? If you're pulling from Are you pulling from it now?

No. Okay. Well, then stay out of it and keep your water over there. Thanks, Kevin. Mr. Ford, I just I would like more information on why they stopped them from putting in the St. John's River if it was going into St. John's River. And what was the treatment level? Is this more treatment level than what's going into St. John's or I would like I'd like some explanation on that. you we're going to you're going to be our guinea pig. So,

well, I certainly may defer to Dr. Brown on some of the responses to that. Um, but initially, uh, Commissioner Parnell, if I may back up, just go ahead.

Yeah. Relative to uh the withdrawals from the aquifer right now, we the water management districts, 20 water management district, as well as St. John's and the other three other water management districts in the state. We do consumptive use permitting withdrawals. Um you're the utility here in Lake City has a permit with us. Um and and that's what we regulate. Um we do not have a project of this scale to pull water out of the river. We we we don't have a project. We gave given that some consideration. actually it was one of the 800 projects that was evaluated. Big challenge with uh with that right now we would not be able to pull any water out of the river. It's only available if it's available and doesn't um the river itself does not have an MFL that's in a deficit minimum flow minimum water level that's in a deficit. um that would be the only time whenever we are in a flooded condition that we would be able to withdraw water and that's why it does that option for Swany itself. Um while it is an option the cost the benefit of that exceeds what we're looking at with this project. Um Commissioner Ford getting uh to your point can you ask your question again please? I would just like to know from what I understand they were putting this water into the St. John's River. What I'm saying?

Yes, sir. Why did they stop that? And is the treatment level that they're sending the water? They're treating the water and it's coming over here more than what they were treating it before they was letting it into St. John's.

Okay. You're referencing the I believe it was the young lady that spoke up here. Um she referenced Senate Bill 64s, Senator Albrittain's bill that was introduced um and adopted that requires all utilities across the state. It was not specific to Jacksonville Electric Authority, but it's all utilities across the state to eliminate their surface water discharge. It was not it while it is a consideration of water quality, it was not the major consideration. Not to put words in the senator's mouth, but you can go and listen to the recordings of when he was supporting that bill. Um but the main emphasis of that was to put a greater value on the water resource itself, the volume of water um with that because it's greatly realized and I know you all realize it um that water supply in Florida is quite limited and with the growth that we have experienced um there are supply shortages across the state and that was the main reason that Senate Bill 64 for was put forth and and passed the water quality itself relative to the water first project would far exceed what that discharge is occurring today. Um it will exceed what is occurring right here at the Lake City wellfield site or the wastewater treatment plant site.

I I heard one other thing I want some clarification on. I know y'all been monitoring the minimum flow levels for the springs and all for several years now. I know we've talked about this five, six years ago. Now, we had several hurricanes, not this year, but in previous years. Did that bring the minimum flow levels up to standard where it should have been when we had those hurricanes? So, is the drought condition part of this where the minimum flow levels were down or or do we have this problem even when we had the hurricanes?

Okay, I'll take a stab at that, but I'll probably defer to Dr. Brown on the response of it because she does oversee that. But minimal flows, minimum water levels are developed over a period of record, a long period of record relative to the flow in there. And that's what that's how that level is set. Within that period of record, you have floods and you have droughts. Okay? And so like right now, we are blurring We're below that minimum flow level because we have been in a drought for an extended period of time. If you look at our river flows and our groundwater uh long-term groundwater monitoring levels, you can see when the hurricanes or a major storm event comes through and you can see the sorry, you can see the fluctuations in our water levels with that. Um, but when you look at it long term, you're looking for that trend of what does it look like? What is the water level, the river levels in this case, or the the spring flows? Um, with that, what does it look like long-term over time? And does it breach that threshold? Um, that's known as the minimum flow and minimum water level. Amen. I I think he he answered the question to some extent, but yes, I mean the impact of of water use on our natural systems occurs through droughts and through floods. When we have high water, you notice the magnitude of the impact of groundwater withdrawals much less. On dry times like this, you see the magnitude much more. It's more pronounced in the water systems. the itch tuck remains in recovery and and you can see where its flows are relative to long term that it's it's below those levels and it was even when we had a

more abundant rainfall condition. The Santa Fe 441 gauge you saw a similar pattern where where you don't see the flows where you would expect them to be based on the high rainfall we had over that last several years with the backto-back hurricanes. So you you see that you see the impact of that in the long-term record. But flows come up when it rains, flows come down when it's dry. We have an impact on the water flows when it's wet and it's dry, but the magnitude of that impact, you see it much more during droughts.

So, is the flow levels from East Duty Springs, I'm trying to remember. I know when I was in high school, we done a there was a study done at East when they put the uh they put tubing through part of the river. They measured the flow of I believe it was 8 million gallons of water a day. They estimated that flow out east of the spring. What is that level today? Do you know? Y'all have that maybe in a range of 300 cfs. I don't know in million gallons per day. Yeah. But I think it was higher than that. I mean, the number that you're quoting sounds sounds low for what it is. I'm trying to base it on my memory. That's been a long time ago when I was I can certainly get you I can certainly get you that long-term flow that long.

So my other question is what happens if we do nothing? So we have an obligation to recover these systems because they're outstanding Florida Springs. you have a 20-year time frame. So, if you don't do this project, then you have to either reduce allocation or put online an alternative project. The magnitude of the reductions for existing permites if we do nothing would be a 30% reduction in allocate in use across the board. So, the the city would have to reduce um mining would have to reduce, farmers would have to reduce and those are also very difficult conversations to have with people or can't you do a desalization plant? So again, desalanization is is very expensive.

Um, it is it's expensive, but I mean it's you don't want to spend the money, but we're going to have the expense on our our families here, though. But that's way more expensive. The technology that you would use to to pull the salt water out would be the same technology that you can use to pull the the the constituents out of the reclaimed water, but it's less there's less in the water. Please, please, please, please, please, please. Okay. Okay. you done. We're not gonna have them back and forth. I I I appreciate you your your your input. I feel like you are too, but we we're not going to have that. Go ahead.

I got I got something I want to say. A lot I want to say. We got this water that's coming over here. If you look at the pie chart, your own pie chart that shows the amount of toilet water is what really causes the POS and the a lot of them and also the prescript prescription drug inundation. I don't know if you guys know it. I'm going to go into it more in just a second, but we have prescription drugs in our fish in the Gulf. Probably one of the worst places in Appalachia Bay. There ain't 15,000 people live in Appalachia Bay. It's not coming from the people from Appalachia Bay. It's coming from North Georgia because the Chattahucha River runs into that river. Appalachiccola is really just the Chattahucha River. We just call it Appalachia River. So when it when you look at a bay that is that that is that I would say rural, it's got as much as Tampa Bay does,

as much pollution in the fish. There are some fish that have 18 and 19 different drugs in them. Porpus that have meth in them. There's all kind of And I never knew guys. This is this is crazy to me. And I I feel like I'm telling you a story, but I'm not. It's amazing that we have that problem on our Gulf Coast. Luckily, from Cedar Key to Steen Hatchee and over into the Tallahass, we don't have that problem. We do have it. they're in the fish and the the inundation of the and it's a lot of it is an elicit drug is it's a blood pressure medication. It's it's u u what do you call it that people take cuz they're sad

antid-depressants are one of the worst. I mean we have fish that aren't breeding because they're sad. I I DON'T ANY I MEAN IT SOUNDS FUNNY Y'ALL. It sounds funny but it's the truth. I mean they actually say one in four fish are in a health are in health are in dire health to have this stuff coming in. And we have it right there in Horseshoe Beach, Florida. So, what tells me what that tells me is I don't think you can treat that out. Now, they may be able to say you can, but from what I know, Tampa, Miami, some of the best treat water treatment facilities, some of the best desalination treatment facilities. This Kane Bay so full of it that bone fish are leaving. Y'all ought to go all Google the Bone Fish and Tarpon Trust. They did a three-year study with FIU University. fish are leaving because of the drugs in Biscane Bay and they have a desalination plant, water treatment plants. I think in South Florida they got like over a hundred uh uh treatment, you know, desalination plans that are small and also a little bit larger. Not a real big one like I'm going to talk about in just a minute. But it it's a it's a scary thought that that is there. So, what I wanted to come into with that, this is from toilet water. This is from human whatever. It's not from farmers. Farmers are putting water on the ground. It's going in the water coming back out and evaporation gets some. This is from toilet water. And if we take that water, I'm going to give you a number. Swany River Water Management. This is 24 numbers. 60% 210 million gallons. I'll go ahead and give the totals. Swany River water manage groundwater use groundwater use in in at at St. John's Water Management is two is 352 million

gallons. Very surprising what I'm fixing to tell you. We're 260 million gallons. But the different in those two 64% of us 166 million gallons as farmers. They have two their largest pie is 210 million which is toilets. So you understand that when we take this waste water that's treated and they're saying you can treat out the chemicals in the in the or they might not have said that that you can treat the treat it for the pharmaceuticals. Nobody in Florida's doing it because it's all in our waters. So and in Georgia obviously. So what I'm saying is when we take this water, that big blue part right there is toilet water. So when we take it, I can pretty much say that it's probably it's going to be treated sewer. So treated sewer is toilet water. So with 40 million, is it 40 or 45 million?

40 million. With 40 million gallons going into our aquifer of water that I don't believe you can clean. And you may tell me and I'm crazy cuz I or I'm not right. So, we're going to see. But but we're doing more than three times as much of that water will be in that treated water. Unless it's treated out. I don't believe it can be, but it can't. Maybe some, maybe a little bit. But I know this. We only put 15 million gallons of toilet water in. We're fixing to ship over 40 million gallons

and mix it with the 15 million. So, a day. So, I I I'm not saying that that I don't have the power to stop this. I'm just giving you the facts as I see them. And they I think maybe she's got something to say about it. But, but that's a lot of difference. Us putting 15 million gallons in a day is a whole lot different than 55 million once you add their 40 to it. So that really scares me about the POS and the pharmaceuticals at Horseshoe Beach, Florida where all of us go. And I have a place I got a place on Swany River too. So I'm going to be all POS up. But I'm just saying that that and and I want to say one other thing and you can refute me and whatever. I'll give you I don't want you to have to keep coming back, you know, and I appreciate y'all being here. Desalination. Florida's a national leader in jet desalination. In 2004, a study in Jacksonville, Florida, identified five st five sites for desalination. Some some uh they were talking about um what do you call it? Brackish water, some seawater. In 2009, which is 17 years ago, St. John's Water Management stated a desalination plant has an almost certain future in Jacksonville. So, they're planning on it. They have planned on it. I'm sure they're putting it off as much as they can because the money is expensive. My numbers on that, and I'm probably close, maybe not perfect, are 650 million to $1 billion. Would you agree in that area? Probably. Let's just go 750 to12. Would that be a ballpark for a desalination plant that would treat 50 to 100 million gallons a day? The estimates that we got were higher than that.

They were how much were they? Um for the Are you talking about the full volume that that J? I'd say I'd say I know not full volume. They have other ways to get water. I'm saying this is what I want the desalination plant for. Our aquifer sits up here. Jacksonville pulls water. Correct. They pull however many millions gallons. What? Uh 350 350 million a day. that that would be the the total public supply water use in the St. use not what they pull. Right. They use some of their own water. They don't pull all their water from us. Right. So the the St. Are you talking about JA specifically or

JA and and the city of Jacksonville? Do they pull all their water from our aquifer? So the the JA pulls its water from the shared aquifer underneath all of Florida and going up into Georgia and South Carolina. They are pulling the water from the Florida aquifer for the Florida aquifer. From the Florida aquifer. When you say Florida, you mean from our aquifer? It comes from from the shared aquifer that we

the very aquifer we sit on top of. Correct. Okay. I'm I'm getting confused with your name. So it's they pull it from our aquifer. My plan would be to do a 50 million cuz we're we're trying to save 40 million a 50 million or 100 million a gallon a day desalination plan. I know that. What were your numbers? What were your numbers on a desalination plant of that size? 40 million gallons per day. I believe it was 2 to3 million or 2 to3 billion.

Okay. 2 to three billion. Well, let's let's look at that. You've got you're going to spend 1.3 billion, which I think will go a little higher than that. Maybe Jacksonville just spent 925 million for a football team. So I think that maybe JUST MAYBE we could get together and and get together and help them help us by saying okay let's do a 50 million gallon a day plant and tell me if I'm wrong 50 million gallon a day plant that would free up 50 million gallons coming out of our aqua every day. Then that 50 million would naturally flow not have any of the stuff we're talking about from Jacksonville. It would naturally flow to the springs and the rivers like it has for a million years.

So if if that's not an option, I hate that. But money ain't everything. You know what I mean? And I feel like if if we could do that, we got we got they spent I don't know several billion just on I mean just hundreds of millions on all kind of projects over there. And this is the most important project they could do right here. And I think it would be groundbreaking to do that so that would free up water in our aquifer that instead of being pumped in there would naturally flow to you because you need it. I guarantee you you do. I have a place on the river 25 years. I feel like the water goes up, down, up, down. But I'm sure that in the aquifer doesn't always reflect what the river does. You know, the aquifer isn't always what if the river flies up and goes over the banks, that doesn't mean the aquifer filled up, you know. So, and I have talked to your guys about using the river as a to to rebuild the aquifer, which is a great idea. Some of your guys told me about that. But that's what I I feel like we could do. I know that those that cost a lot of money, but Jacksonville's already going to do it. They're not saying that in 2009 that in the near future, I do see a desalination plan in our future. Well, maybe if they think, you know, we got a chance to get some help with this now. You know, maybe they were having to do JA was having to do that all of the now. Maybe, just maybe, we can make a new deal, you know, but if we can't, we can't. But I just I just think that when it comes to money that the biggest and most the aquifer that provides everything for Florida and I'm going to be honest with y'all. I didn't realize how special our aquifer is and that we sit right dead on top of it. I didn't realize that. But that aquifer is a bad man. And if you'll take keep quit taking a little water as

Jacksonville will do a 50 or 100 million dollar plant and let that aquifer fill itself back up, I think it'd be a better plan than pumping their water into it.

I appreciate you. It's just the idea. Well, my take is Robbie hit the nail on the head. by this well that Jacksonville put in out here in the middle of where y'all want to bring this water back to. So if that water being draw out going to Jacksonville and you bring this water and put back in where is it going? Is it going to go back in the water go back to Jacksonville through the ground? We have

I mean that's just a question because I know and I've lived in this county all my life and I've been around all these rivers and creeks and all kind of stuff and there's sink holes that people don't even have never seen that goes around these by these little creek that doesn't go by the river. They all behind my house and everywhere else. There's sink hole that takes in water and that water gets into that sinkhole. Where's it going? It's going back into going to be drinking toilet water. So, I I just I'm not I'm not opposed to y'all making our acryer come up. We do need that. But if I'm not wrong, with them drawing the amount of water they're drawing in Jacksonville from our octopus over here, the water has turned instead of coming this way, going that way. Am I right or wrong?

So, hold on. Better answer. So, the the groundwater withdrawals for Jacksonville are from the aquifer, but it's over over at the coast. They're they're withdrawing their water on the other side of a divide from on the other side of a kind of a high in the aquifer from where we are here. Even though they're on the other side of that divide, they're still having an influence on our systems. That's right. If they reduce the withdrawal all the way over at the coast, the magnitude of the benefit that you see at the springs is less than if you have that withdrawal or recharge closer to the springs. It's less sensitive the further away you get from the springs in terms of where you take the water out, the less sensitive the spring is to that withdrawal. Yeah.

So JA has a very big withdrawal but it's further away. It would be the same influence as some of our smaller withdrawals that are closer into the spring. Is our acryers level is the acro under us? Is it it is not it is not one flat surface there. There is a drain towards the springs. The spring discharge is where you see the Florida aquifer level coming up at along the Swany all those springs. That's the Florida nifer water coming to the surface.

Okay. But there the water water in the pow away instead of coming here. So that's why I look at it and like I say, if you bring it over here and it goes back into the ground, it's going back over there in our sink holes and mess our everything we got up over here. Well, I I look at things most of the time quite a bit different most people do, but uh I thought we had a money problem here because how two to three billion for how many gallon for desalination? Is that the question? Yes, ma'am. I believe that's I don't have that number sitting in front of me.

How many gas? It's it's 50 to 100 million. Okay. It it's it's a I don't think you can really nail it down because you got to talk about the location whether they use certain things but I know this they have already identified sites in 2004 and said in 2009 that it was surely coming. So, I kind of feel like they might have a little bit more done than what we're thinking because the the water management said is an almost certain future desalination plants and they actually did the study in 2004 of where to put them and they identified size. I believe there's several desalination plants in Florida right now.

Oh, there's one in Tampa. There's 140 if you want to know the truth, but there's smaller ones. Some are brackish and brackish sometimes they say is better because there's less salt left. But I think They were talking about using injection wheels to pull the brackish water out. So, but I think what I heard is that this project definitely outweighs the other ones due to the cost of the project getting to this point.

Exactly. And I'm not putting you on the spot or nothing like that, but I'm just going to think the simple way that I do. Uh so we're saying let's talk I'm going to even double up 4 billion for 100 billion. Well, hell up there with Trump. We just found there's bill hundreds of billions of dollars of waste that's going into fake daycarees. I think our problem solved. We just GOT TO GET TRUCKS EVERYBODY. Money is not the problem here. Money is not the problem. It's the thinking that's the problem. And and and and I look at it. I believe in economic growth. I want economic growth. Good solid economic growth in the state of Florida. But what most people have got to understand, and I'm sure I'm somebody in this say, "Tim Murphy, you're crazy. There's 1.3 million people a year moving to the state of Florida." I can't tell you exactly how many is moving out, but it's a heck of a lot less. 1.3 million. So, I also look at it to the point that if our water quality gets to the point where I can't turn on my faucet, that that that's uh that that's economic uh that's growth control. So, them people we put gates I built gates for years in my business. We put a lot of gates up here in Florida and we'd stop them people from coming in. That's just the way it is. I mean, that's a simple way, a simple way of thinking. But my point is simply this, and I just say that to be sarcastic, but the point is is that what Robbie said, he's hitting on some very, very valid points here. Uh, you know, and I get it. Like Miss Joy said there a minute ago, uh, this is this is a serious issue for the future. I'm going to survive it. Everybody up on this panel in this room, most of us will survive the effects. It's what the effects that are going to happen later on. And and just like you said, and I appreciate the efforts that water management's put forth in this

research and what have you, you've got to have the research in order to make these justifications. But but you know, here we are trying to solve the problem right here from the Florida line, which is ain't very far that way back this way. But we need to be also dealing with the Georgia, the North Carolina and stuff like that there for to get in the plane and fly from here to Atlanta, Georgia and look down. You see circles everywhere. And I'm all for the agricultural aspect of it, but Georgia doesn't have these conversations. I mean, we've been trying to get them to quit dumping uh you know, human waste in our in with their coochie for 20 years and you know, and it fail on death ears. you know, they they uh they say they do this and they do that, but uh I'm pretty sure as soon as that river goes up, you're going to see some toilet paper flowing this way. You know, it's just a fact. And and it's not Swany River, St. John's, nothing other than And I realize we're legislatively we're deemed that we've got to do what Swany River is doing. And gallon in, gallon out, right? That's the that's the the I guess you say the formula we use. We we got a 2 million gallon out here in Columbia County. That's what we own out here, if you want to call it NFIB, but we're also treating it, turning right around, spraying in the pine trees out there. But we all know that's not going to last forever. But so there's got to be alternative meth methods to this situation. But uh it all comes with a cost and uh I'm telling you there's money out there and to do this and I think we need to be in Washington a little bit more because you know these are the types of things that a lot of people take that what's going on in that whatever that state is there. I don't even try to think about but that's a serious issue. There's a lot of tax dollars that just wasted and and we got an issue right here that these type of things could be addressed and I y'all

so I'm saying continue to do your studies and then collectively us as taxpayers and voters we'll get we we'll call Trump tomorrow and say you get the money down here. You know that's what's going to tax it. I mean that's what get revenue. I I want to say something real quick. I appreciate y'all. I know that sometimes it's a thankless job and I know that y'all make decision you make. I just want to make sure y'all remember that it's a tough it's a rough one, you know, because if something goes wrong and and it and it could be something that you don't even mean for it to go wrong and it does, you know, there's all kind of things when you deal with water and sewage and all it Rocky Ford knows when you deal with all that stuff and on the level you are dealing on and aquafers and all the I mean it's tough. So whatever the decision you make, we hope it's the right one. And I just, you know, I hope everything goes well. I'll be dead by the time that water goes bad. So come on in.

But I will I would like on the way first.

I would like to say one thing before we move on to another item here. Uh I I've got some friends that uh have a lot of dealings with other water management districts throughout the state of Florida, mostly down in that other country down south. It's uh but I just like to reach out to you. He's over there smiling. He knows what I'm fixing to say. Uh we've got an advantage around here if you can say that. You know, uh Mr. Krauss, Kirby, Joel, everybody that's affiliated with any kind of day-to-day activities in government, we appreciate the opportunity. I mean, when we call, we we y'all will at least listen. We don't agree all the time, which is about 90% of the time. I'm only kidding. But the uh but but but we appreciate what you guys do. You're our neighbors. You you're local. You are too. And you know, but uh we're not always done for you, but uh we've got it a lot better than some of the water managements that stories I've heard and just far that way and down south. So, we appreciate what you do at that point. And I know this is a tough time. Uh Troy uh he probably come out of the head co right time. That's great. But y'all y'all had a lot going your way this week. But Rocky, I I just want to say on this same subject, that is why this board needs to be supporting getting these sep tanks off the river in the south end of the county in Fort W. We need to be supporting that project down there, too, because that is just as important as this. Mhm. But that's that uh you know this the levels of what we see and have seen over the years you know we're still young they say but yes I'm call I'm call Donald Trump

he he's around here somewhere there he is going that's Yeah, we'll take uh so we'll take a few seconds here. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You can close and give y'all an opportunity to close if you got something that you like to say to I got to say one thing have anything else?

I want to make sure she was done with answering any questions you may have. But um I just want to say thank you all for the opportunity to be here. And um again, y'all will be seeing us again. Um, as as Amy mentioned, you before we come to any conclusion on the project itself, we've got to do the research to see the feasibility of the treatment aspect of this. Um, but we will be circling back, as I mentioned at the when I first started, we are on trying to be on an educational circuit um, uh, to try to bring some factual information in about this project. So, we appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight with that. So I think I think uh the research aspect and this is not to beat you guys up. I do thank you guys for coming. I think for the research aspect I think the general analysis today our community did the research for you today and we don't want that subtank stuff here.

Thank you for your comment. We we again we appreciate it and I'm going to we're going to take a little five minute gr for the people that don't want to tend tonight and some of the old people. I got you.

Make a motion we approve consent agenda. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say I. All oppose. Make a motion we adopt the consent agenda. Got a motion. Second. Got a second. Adopt the consent agenda. All in favor say I. All oppose. Thank you. Uh Mr. Foreman Rocky. I put my paper here. That's I guess I got so dang many. Uh you I'm talking to Rocky cuz I put him in there. I didn't skip over yet. Yeah. On the uh mine's real quick. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll get Okay. Go ahead, Joel. Okay.

Gentlemen, uh this evening for your consideration for adoption is the interlocal agreement with the tax collector relating to the acquisition of the old TV bank building. Like we talked about a couple of weeks ago, this is interlocal agreement providing for the acquisition of the building by the tax collector and the tax collector's plan to partly reimburse the county. Uh there's also some maintenance obligations and things like that in the agreement. Uh tax collector Keane would like to address the board and show you the project and fill you in on some of the missing details from two weeks ago. Commissioners, I'm here to talk about water if you don't mind. If you don't mind, could you state your name for Oh, yes, sir. Kyle Keane. Kyle Keane, Columbia County Tax Collector. Money is everything now.

That's right. All right. What button I hit on this?

There we go. Okay. So, as Joel says, we're here to uh last time I was here, we talked about this being a three-step process. This is the third step of our process to uh acquire the uh TD Bank building for for the growth of my office. I just wanted to give you a real quick rundown of the history of of our building and and why we why we need it. So, the first slide you have in front of me kind of just we're all aware of the population growth of our county. I mean, Mr. Murphy just mentioned it, 1.3 million people moving into Florida every year. Uh when we moved into the building in 2002, our population was around 55,000. Uh we're close closely approaching 80,000 people now uh since that time. Uh and during that time our our transaction count at the office in 2002 was around 100,000 transactions and the space that we moved into ironically was not even designed for uh a tax collector's office. It was designed for court's office to use for their office. So so we did 100,000 transactions in 2002. We are currently uh north of 170,000 transactions uh during that time and the first 30 days of this year compared to the first 30 days of last year our customer count is up over,200 customers already into that 30-day period. So we we flow 30 sorry we throw flow 300 to 400 people a day through this building and we do about 80 to 90,000 uh customers a year. uh through our office. And then we do all of that with a parking lot that holds 41 spaces. Parking lot in front of the building is about 41 spots, which I have to share with six county offices, four courtrooms, and all of downtown. So, I'm sure everybody in the room can probably raise their hand and will admit that they have trouble finding a parking spot

uh at the tax code office on any given day. So the need is the growth in our transaction, the growth in our volume. When we took over driver's license in 2010, the transaction count and the visitors to our office exploded. Um, so we have a space need and we definitely have a parking uh situation which I'm sure you have all heard of from our fellow constituents. So, and this is not There he is. This is not uh something I just woke up one day and said, "Oh, let's go by the TD Bank building." I've been looking at buildings probably for about two years off and on trying to find an appropriate uh location. Um I I contacted and talked to the West Branch, the People State Bank West branch that closed down to see if we can maybe, you know, acquire that as a branch office to take a little pressure off of our main office and that had already sold. That wasn't an option. Um Big Lots went out of business a couple months ago. I reached out to them, the whole company, to see if they would be willing to sell that facility uh to us because a lot of counties have started buying abandoned grocery stores and moving into it. Of course, he wanted to lease it. He didn't want to sell it. And you know, I think we shouldn't be in the leasing business if we can help it. You know, that's an appropriate time to lease when needed, but if we can't, if we don't need a lease, we shouldn't be leasing. So, like I said, this is not just something I woke up with one morning and and thought about buying the bank. The TD Bank, it uh the bank shut down in June. It hit the market in September and I think I first looked at it in October and I was in front of you in November uh and then uh shortly in December about the building. So, the building is 7800 square ft. It has five drive-through lines which are very visible at our current facility and we've been there 23 24 years. Some people don't even know we have a drive-thru now, you know, because it's on the side of the building. So,

this building, we've laid it out. We've designed it. It will support 15 14 to 15 uh clerk stations. We have 13 now. So, we're we're not buying this building for our current need. We're buying this building with anticipation of our continued growth in our county. So, like I said, we currently have 13 stations. We're we can fit 14 and probably get 15 in there when we tweak the design a little bit. um the parking situation at it, the parking lot currently, that facility currently has 41 parking spots. Um and so we we did a a parking design where I'm sorry you can't really see that. I can't make it bigger, but we uh the parking design we have will support 63 parking spots. I have 23 employees. So that would be 40 parking spots for our customers just for the tax collector's office. I'm sharing 41 spots now and it's a nightmare to try to to try to park. This would be 40 parking spots just for my office to use with five drive-through lines. So, these are the quotes that we got. I went well, I call them quotes, more of a budget process. The building price is $800,000. We've already put a $5,000 deposit. So, I think today's ask right is $795,000. That's correct. um the remodeling cost is a budget. It's not a quote. And same thing for the parking lot. So these numbers, what I my my goal or my idea cuz none of this was budgeted and I know we don't like to spend money when it's not budgeted, but phase one of the project is acquire the building. Now I have to give them an answer tomorrow. That'll give us five months to go out and do proper quoting, get our our three, four quotes for the building, remodeling, three or four quotes for the parking lot, and come back to y'all with uh actual numbers to put into the budget

for next year, October of next year, or not this year, sorry, October of this year. Um, this building meets the needs that we that we have. It's a growth for expansion in our office. Uh, the parking lot situation will be solved. It's ground floor, so our handicapped individuals won't have to be walking up steps or or ramps. Uh we'll be we'll be building a handicap station so they can uh access those services. Um so this building checks all of our boxes that we've been looking for. Um, and I, you know, I'm here today to ask that we move on with, uh, phase one of acquiring the building, and then we'll come back to you, uh, in June or July, whenever your budget process is, with the the hard numbers for, uh, remodeling and parking lot.

Mr. Chair, may I ask a quick question? Yes. So, what I just heard you say, uh, Kyle, is that basically 3.6 six and seven of the interlocal would be stricken out. The additional budget for the renovations would not be part of this current interlocal. I that that's what we you know that's this is my suggestion. That's what the board's wishes are. No, I just want Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean I I I think you know the number we're asking for at one time is probably you know that's a lot of money to ask for at one time and we didn't budget for this. You real estate you can't it real estate doesn't fit into our county budget process. So, you know, we get the building, we know the remodeling is not going to cost any more than what it what we gave you already. We know the parking lot shouldn't cost any more than what we did. We those numbers will come down because when we do the competitive quote process, it's, you know, we're going to have uh, you know, several contractors quoting and so forth. So, those numbers, you know, we'll give it to you in October for you to uh to, you know, to approve. And and really the question, you know, is you're you're my bank, for lack of a better term. I can't borrow the money. So I'm asking for this money which we have a structure to pay it back uh which is in front of you uh with I think a attractive interest rate for both of us where you're not losing money taking it out of reserve. I'm not paying you know outrageous interest rates to a bank. I'm paying it to the county which will county will make money on that part of the deal and me me moving out of the current facility will free up space where you're renting you're paying rent at other places you can move them into this building places that you own.

Mr. Ford, do you have a question? Yeah, I was just so you can't move into the building though without doing the remodel, right? Uh that's correct. That's correct. The parking lot we can work with probably if we have to. Parking lot we can put off if we need to. Um, and we have options to park in the grass. We have we have I have not talked to the city hall about parking in their lot, but we do have uh permission from the city already documented that we could cut the curbs out in parking grass if we need to as a temporary situation and address the parking lot at a later situ a later time. So, so, so how long would it take to get a I guess a plan drew up for the remodel and engineering and stuff like that?

I I have the plan already drawn up sitting on my desk. Yes, sir. Already planned engineering. Yeah. Every everything that you y'all asked us to do in the 30-day due diligence, we have completed. Um, so you can put that out to be now. Correct. Yes, sir. Mhm. Okay. In fact, the the the quote that we got was based off of the plans that we have. I keep saying quote the budget that we got is based on the plans that we have and the walkthrough that we did. Um I think that quote is high in my opinion. But how long would it take to David? That might be a question for David. How long would it take to put this out to bid and get and get bids back on? If you go to bid that's typically a 60 to 90 day process. So three months,

right? You have to advertise, get the responses, and then evaluate them and board. So that's getting us pretty close to budget time for next year's budget. Joel, so just to be clear about the peculiarity of this particular arrangement, this would be the tax collector's building, correct? So it would be the tax collector's procurement process that you would go through. So we wouldn't actually do the So we wouldn't do that. No, sir. You're you're strictly the bank, my bank for this project. Okay. So that's this is a really weird one, guys. Like no other constitutional officer can do this. Collectors can do this. are the only ones that I'm about the only one that can own real estate, real property. So you but you can't move in until the remodel is done.

That's correct. Which will give us, you know, we're we'll acquire the building. I won't close until the middle of March. I have 30 days to close once we give them the okay. And then we will uh do the competitive bidding process for the quotes and and come back with the numbers. You know, like I said, if we don't need the parking lot, we don't want to do the parking lot, we have options to get by. And if we want to address a parking lot at a later situation, my premise is let's do it all at one time so we're done with it. But you know, I'm the one and I mean my office is the one responsible paying you back. It's not, you know, you're not buying the building. You're not you're certainly my bank and you know my responsibility to pay you back with interest.

Got any questions? Why does everything cost so much? Well, the building's a great deal at $800,000. That's that's a $2 to $3 million building if you were to build it out. So, one one of my biggest pet fees is pulling up there and not being able to get to pay my tax. You never get a parking spot. Never place. I saw you pacing the other day out in front of the building. Bad planning by Dale Williams back in the day. So, well, the park in in Dell's defense, the parking lot's own by you ain't no money.

D's on my side, so I'm trying to keep him that way. I looked at I looked at Kyle's plan today in this building what he was doing and the amount of money that he was quoted to do what it was to do in there in my mind was way too much because he's not going to do just a very few things in that building at this point in time to make his building accessible for everybody and everybody to work in there. So, I'm I'm sure that the construction cost is going to come down on that price. And the parking I I mean, without looking at some of the different grades and other stuff, the piping and all that stuff, I you know, there there's a variation there in that in that deal.

I'm like you. I feel confident that the construction part will come down, but we're only touching, according to the designer, we're only touching about 5,000 square feet of that building. Um, and we're not even doing that. We're putting up about 12 walls and building three bathrooms. That's that's literally all we're doing. And we got to run some cables and move AC. So there I mean there are cost, but sounds simple, but I know big task, but I'm all for getting more parking space over to other place. That's my that's my

and uh board. I've spent a lot of time with Kyle on this. Uh he's uh we we've had a lot of great discussions. Uh, and I said from the beginning, if the parking uh cannot be accomplished, it's a deal breaker because you haven't accomplished nothing. You accomplished a new building and you're still stacked up out on the streets. But uh Kyle did the things that we asked him to accomplish, he did so. Uh uh the the con I'm sorry, the engineer that come up with this conceptual drawing here feel pretty confident that it's accomplished or close to one fact. But my point is simply this. I I might have went out a little bit outside the box, but I I I I did go to the clerk's office and I looked at our uh cash, real cash uh reserves. We're in very good shape. I don't agree. And nothing mean Joel's had a chance to even have discussion because Joel thinks are tied up with the other situations at hand currently in our government. But uh I would sit I I have no problem going forth uh you know with this uh deal. I I don't think it's a budgetary issue for the simple fact. The only thing main thing I would like to to consider and me and Kyle had this conversation. We reached out to the clerk's office the other day and ran some numbers on but I think me and you were 54% but uh I think we can get get it down to two and a half three.

I like that better. But the uh but that you gota worry about the closing cost on I got it. Yes, sir. Go crazy. Go crazy.

But but my point is simple as that. Uh we could I I want to I would prefer to do it on a 15-year amorization and because Joel explained to I that this agreement is and Kyle did also this agreement is not with Kyle King. It's with the tax collector's office. So if me and Kyle get ran over tonight going to Wendy's, it's still the agreements with the office. It's not with Kyle King. Correct. So that's correct. That was one of my pet peeves. I didn't know how that worked. And but like Joel said, this is really off the box, so to speak. So with some amendments to that, this is just my opinion. We we'll do what the uh majority board says, but uh it it's with the amount of money and I'm me and Kyle Kyle showed me some numbers going all the way back to 2004 or something way back. You know, we're just going to say for easy numbers, you know, you roughly turn back about 200,000 a year. We know that Kyle's going to need computers. He's going to need this, going to need that. So at 160 let's call it $175 $80,000 a year debt load you know with 3% interest he can accomplish that in the budget and the monies that he returned. Now, we all realize we can't look into a crystal ball and that's the reason why it's not enhancing to go forth and get a governmental loan because we would have to budget that in.

Correct. And uh from day one uh because uh I I'll just say I disagree. I looked at the numbers also on the uh the construction part of it. In my opinion, he's got some pretty good numbers there. Uh I I even with this I just I talked to the gentleman that actually give Kyle this number. I just had to educate myself. But you know for what what a contractor got here from it's a good way to budget. But that's why I'm saying it's going to be hard to go out and get conventional loan on this because you know they're going to be looking for all the the uh exacts if you want to say. Uh we definitely got the money to do it. Uh, the one thing I will say, and I'm one of the ones that voted for, but uh uh there's a lot better plan sitting here looking at us right here than than than I had when I bought the when I was one of the ones that bought the Lakes Reporter building. So, I applaud Kyle for his efforts and what you've done here. Uh, but you know, we're we're working our thing through through the uh reporter thing here. I I I personally was inviting myself and Mr. Krauss. I think we we made a tour over there that day, wasn't it? And uh from what I know about building, it's it's and the reports all come back 15-year roof still.

Correct. Uh you know, there are some incidentals, but very very minute, but the uh I personally think it's a real good deal. I don't think it was as good as the deals when we had the opportunity by the Barnett building, but but you that's water under the bridge, but the I knew you was going to say that, but but uh I I I personally go that that would be my only input. I would love the other commission weigh in on that. Can

can I just briefly so that the the interlocal is drafted presented on the agenda has a six-year term and it contemplates financing of the entire project. I've heard two things that I want to make sure if a motion's made tonight to adopt this interlocal based on your comments, Commissioner Murphy. And Kyle, you're here, so you can speak on behalf of your office. Am I hearing 15-year terms and we're only funding the acquisition right now? Because I can make these edits very easily, but I would need the motion to reflect the edits because you need this in place tonight, right? I had to get an answer tomorrow. Tell me Saturday, but you know, they'll be closed Monday.

He has agreed at least as far as the acquisition. So, my recommendation would be if this is the if the board likes what they're hearing so far, I'm hearing it for the first time, so forgive me. Understand? Um, if your board likes what they're hearing this week, no, it's easy to fix. You're going to need to make the motion to approve with the amendment of terms from 6 to 15 years and with striking of sections 3.6 and 3.7 and renumbering of section 3.8. When it gets time to make the motion, if you want me to read that, you can say so move. We can do that tonight. Okay. Well, I I'll I'll start the motion off by Well, and Lauren, the rate interest rate from four down to He said 1 point something, didn't he?

There's no rate of Where's the rate of for negotiated? Yes, we give you a tax. So, go ahead, Rob. I just want to ask a question before we before we get to that point. Make a motion. Yes, sir. So, we just talked about this is going to be a a drawn out. Could we not go ahead and approve it all and just just pay for it as it as it gets ready? Because

so if you know the problem, the thing about it is if we're going to buy the building, Kyle needs to move as soon as possible. And we we just talked about it's going to take three to four months between each thing. We'll be in the next year's budget by the time we pay for the renovation and the uh in a parking lot anyway, I think. and and and your permitting and everything. You know how that goes. And and Rocky, I agree with you 100%. But what I can do, Joel,

I'll attempt to make a motion and you can pick it up with your superlatives there. I guess what he say before you do because what Commissioner Ford just said is an alternative because of the way this is written. This is written to have upper limits, right? So if you read it says on 3.7, the tax collector does not have sufficient revenues to complete this additional work. Such sum shall be paid by the county as they become due and necessary which is commissioner for said to complete the additional work required by the tax collector to make the premises suitable for the tax collector's purposes but in no event shall such additional sum exceed blank. We didn't know what that number was going to be because it was subject to but if the board wants to say set a cap you're already approving 800 you've already the acquisition you've approved 50. So, this additional sum would be the delta between the 850 you've already approved and whatever additional funds Kyle thinks. What you're basically doing is you're setting the upper limit of what he could possibly spend. Anything above that he'd have to spend himself. So, there I wanted to make sure I was clear about that because what Commissioner Ford just mentioned is doable with the way this is drafted, but you're kind of shooting from the hip because you don't necessarily know what that ceiling should be.

And and and Joel, I agree with you 100% and I I know you're accurate, but you know, and of course I'm not a contractor like, you know, Rockies and Mr. Dupree, people like that, you know, in this world. But I I I personally would have no problem uh putting a call up to $2 million and then at that time if something happens and you got to come back at the board, then we negotiate that. And I think we're going to have to approve the bills as they come in anyway. So it's it's it's on a a payment basis as they're incurred as necessary. So hopefully

it does have to do with diligence and so I I'll simply make the motion that uh to move forth taking them using the monies from cash reserves uh up to $2 million and then where Kyle can go ahead and do the $800,000 closing to acquire the structure. and he could do his diligence thereafter, go through the process of getting proper quotes and what have you. So, so the the delta then is 1.15 million. So, these two blanks I'm going to fill in for the additional funds will be $1.15. You're talking about an aggregate of two for acquisition and innovation. Yeah.

So, just want the board to understand the two blanks that you see on your form will now say 1.12 million 1.15 million. I don't have that kind of money, so I don't know. $1.15 million. Um, and then uh uh just to make sure I'm understanding correctly, Mr. Chair, the 15year, correct? So, now a 15-year term means 15 years of maintenance on the building as well. We're gonna we're always going to have to do the I get it. I get it. I just want to make sure we're clear. The the term is the term of the agreement. The agreement says we will maintain the building for the tax collector at our cost. His obligation at the end of every year is to give this money back to be applied at reimbursement to this. Got you. Correct.

15 years. Chairman, I have I would like to second that motion, but I would like to ask a question. Instead of cash reserves, can't we take this money out of the contingency fund? You could. I mean, we have the money in the contingency fund to pay for it and we wouldn't have to go into our reserves to do it. Is that am I correct on that? I think I I mean yes. You have about 5 something million in contingency. Yeah. How much? 5 I don't remember the exact number. Slightly over $5 million. And and the only reason I made that is, you know, as of the day, not to be exact, 32 million.

Right. Okay. And and and my point is that that uh that's real cash reserves, nothing restricted. And my point is is that uh with what we're we'll have conversation here in a few minutes I'm sure uh with some of the extended costs that are probably facing us in the near future. I'd like to have them contingencies there for possibly whatever's going to happen you know with other issues that we all realize is at hand. I mean that's just my feel. We got three other and the reserves will still be there but I'm just you know we need them. Sir, we but that's up to y'all. It don't matter to me. I'm full building.

I don't know that I don't know what we're making and I I come up with a 3% number. Rock the fact that half I make on the contract. Yeah. So, we're doing we're doing the whole thing out of reserves that we're doing the whole thing or is it so you with a two million cap? With a 2 million cap. Okay. So, the remodel is going to take place next year or going to take place this year? when he gets he can go forth now. I don't under a time restraint to move, right?

You know, and so my point is that procurement, you know, he's doing his own procurement, but if we did it our way be way, the only thing I would add to it is that Kyle, you you agreed with me. I feel like we might need to Kyle's never done this before, and I'm not trying to throw it back. It may be the time, Kyle, you may want to consult, you know, a uh a construction manager to walk you through this. Sure. You know, and they're going to they're going to be uh they're going to be due a fee, and I think that's something you need to negotiate with them. But the uh

I don't think Kevin, you got time to do this in your spare time. Okay, Kevin. But the but you know, I heard Chad's name this afternoon 18 times. I think I counted. So Chad's out and and uh so you you understand my point and we could we could talk about that thereafter. But I I I still think it's a good deal for everybody and then you get if you get it modified we like it you know you should stay in our office we'll move over there. the uh commissioner to answer your question um you know once we do this tonight I have 30 days to close which once and once I close with that time frame then we'll start doing quotes you send out bids which takes you know 60 90 days so we'll we'll start the ball ball rolling pretty quick

okay so I've got a motion rocky second any other questions do you want to restate it before y'all vote okay I will do it okay yeah I'm sorry to amend the budget amendment to reflect it's coming from reserve. Okay.

So the way staff and I understand the motion is to adopt the interlocal agreement between the tax collector for Columbia County, Florida and Columbia County, Florida for the purchase and maintenance of Columbia County Tax Collector's Office with the following amendments. Number one, section 2.6 shall be amended such that the term is not not six years but as it said 15 years. Section 3.7 and 3.8 8 or excuse me, section 3.6 and 3.7 are amended to include the sum of $1.15 million for a total aggregate budget of $2 million for the acquisition and renovation of the building and all such funds uh are to come from cash reserves.

Right. Amend the budget amendment as well to reflect that it's coming from cash reserves. They aren't. Are they voting on budget now? Yeah, because we got to move the money. But it's a separate item or it's all it's all part of it. See right here. Okay. And to adopt budget amendment. What's the number? 2624. 2624 to draw all funds from which? Reserves. From cash reserves. That's in a motion. That is. Did you get that, Madam Clerk? Okay. Good. If y'all want to vote for that, you can. Rocky still got a second. I could. Okay. Rocky got a second. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Thank you. Thank you. Go to work, boy. Go away.

I wanted to wag my finger at you so I don't get to summit.

Mr. Normally do this. He needs to take a picture. Yeah. my pellet.

So your son is the game over 122. Tell your son I say congratulations. Good game. Okay, Mr. Kirby. No, no, chairman, you got No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Have a seat. real rock. Mine's real quick. All right, here here's the thing. So,

I've talked to u EMS representative and u you know how the south end of county, we're a long way from the hospital. Long way from the hospital and anyway, he's agreed to put another ambulance in the south end of the county at this time. But in the original contract, it said he could put an ambulance at the fire department in Fort White. Well, there there were not enough room to to house both ambulance service and fire there. But we have a building in Fort Watt. The old health department building hasn't been occupied in two or three years. We don't have any plans for it at this time. I would like to ask y'all to allow Columbia EMS to set up an ambulance shop in that building if he's agreed to pay the light bill and everything else that that uh that's there. Uh so we could get another ambulance in the county and get another ambulance in the south of the county. And basically all all it would cost us is let him occupy that building that's basically been vacant for several years now. Uh, and I would make a motion that we allow Hunts to use that building for another station.

Okay. Uh, discussion. May I May I real quickly, Mr. Chair, just before we get too deep, we have a lease agreement with Columbia. We would just need to amend that lease agreement. They pay like a nominal annual rent for insurance and liability purposes. So that's all we have to do is admit that lease. Okay. If it's something the board's instrument, but I mean I got to say it. Don't we have a don't we have an issue going on right now that's got to be handled? Um I reported I think we're expecting some type of summary from you.

I Well, I I rendered my final report on an investigation to the county manager at four o'clock this afternoon. So discussion of that would be premature until he reviews it. He's going to circulate it back to you guys. But but again, what Commissioner Ford's asking for is unrelated to that really in essence. I think it'd be a great spot for an EMS location, you know, irregardless. Exactly. I mean, it would be. So, so you got a motion? Second. Second. Further discussion? All in favor say I. Thank y'all very much.

I'm need to let you feel like you need ONE shield right now. I got some of that. Yeah, good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Um, I only have one item this evening. This is out of your annual resurfacing account. So, we had several roads in Commissioner Hollersworth's district. We received three bids. Anderson Columbia was low. I'm requesting a motion to award bid number 202515 to Anders Columbia with a total bid amount of 634 33089 and to approve the agreement. So move. Got a motion. A second. All f say I.

Thank you gentlemen. Thank you Kevin. Hello gentlemen. Thank you very much. Um I'll try and be very quick. First item I have is an economic development agreement for equipment share. This is something that you approved the um the incentives on a while back and we uh had some issues with the contract. Mr. Foreman has rewritten the contract so that it makes legal sense and works out. And so this would be approving equipment share. It's a 75% tax rebate on real property, 50% tax rebate on tangible property and up to $80,000 to construct a sewer main underneath US90.

Make a motion we approve the agreement with equipment share. Second motion and second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. All

next one is request to set workshops. First of all, the planning and zoning department is going to have a workshop at 4 p.m. on February 26th. They are going to be talking about uh variances and just different planning and zoning issues. If you would like to attend as a public, I just wanted to let you know that workshop was there. Next one is um Kimberly Horn would like to have a corridor openhouse workshop. We would do it at the TDC economic development building conference room for 5:30 at March 25th if that is acceptable to the board. You said March 25th. March 25th.

Right. So, not this month, but next month. Is that acceptable to the board? Hold on a sec. Let's make sure that on top of February 26 is our first one, correct? Yep. Mhm. Right. That's planning and zoning, correct? Then March 25th. Correct. 25th. We've already reserved the room if it's acceptable in terms of the date. We have an afternoon meeting on the 19th. There's no way we could have that meeting on the same day. This is just the date that they ask for. You say you want to have it on the 19th. I'll go back and push the 19th.

I'm I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm looking at February. Yeah. You looking at February? We there right now. Well, March is the same as February. February have a meeting on March 19th. March 19, too. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. U if we can do if we can do both. This is This is a This is a corridor workshop. Correct. This is a corridor workshop. I am proposing another workshop on the 19th. So, you were Okay. I was just fixing to ask you the one we was talking about today. You're talking about the 19th or Not necessarily. That's another one. Okay. That's the one you're talking about.

On the 19th, the vulnerability grant uh that came in here and did a brief workshop. They have to do the final workshop to qualify for the grant for us to get reimbursed. So, they would like to do it after the March 19th board meeting at the end of the meeting. That's the one that uh Brandon Stubs come up here and did his presentation stuff before. Correct. Yes. Okay. Uh, so you want to start like at 3 and then just go through the afternoon? Yep, let's do that. I wouldn't have a problem with that. I mean, Brandon ain't going to take that long either. Yeah, there's over by real fast.

The the quarter is probably going to carry some uh conversation, you know, because I would hope that the uh planning zoning group would be here to be able to attend and do what they can. The only issue with the corridor is we want to invite the public so they understand what it is you're doing. Do you think that would work at four o'clock during a board meeting? That's why it's a workshop and then we'll for adoption if we get to that point. Is that what you're saying? Well, that's why they were talking about an open house on a separate date. So it would be like at night on the 26th so that you could invite the public and the public would come. Kind of like when you went with Chad and other people to have a work open house in the neighborhood. kind of like that. But if you want to do it the same day as the board meeting, we can do that, too.

Let's do it. The two areas of discussion. I think if at all is possible, it would be great to have that workshop in that general vicinity if possible. You know what I'm saying? That, you know, because it helps the helps the people in that area, you know, a little bit to to get there if you want to say, you know. So if you if you hold a board meeting outside of the county outside of the city limits, we have to notice it different. Gotcha. That's right. Well, we'll just have to work through that. I mean, okay. This is that out of city limits?

Well, if you do it at the CDC, no, it's not. But if you do it say along the corridors, if there's a place like electric or 47 and those you would have to then notice as a meeting outside of the city limits. Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. Workshop January 15. Okay. What's the discussion?

Okay. Okay. Uh okay. And also uh myself and David and Kirby and several of us had a meeting today and I think we come to a determination due to some of the issues uh that were faced with on utilities uh to bring everybody into the same room all the parties involved uh we agreed that we feel like it's time to have a major workshop relevant to this. Now, this workshop as I foresee it and David, you can put your input in here also if you would if I missed something here. uh the the the people that we're talking about here is naturally the board of county commissioners uh North Florida Water Utility uh city of uh the town of Fort White uh and of course the Swany County Board uh because the Swany County Board is part of the North Florida utility and what what the goal is here is to educate everybody in one room as to what we're faced with. there's issue, you know, me and uh Commissioner Ford, we attended a uh Monday night or Tuesday night, whatever it was at Fortway, and uh uh of course I left there quite perturbed to the fact that I felt like Columbia County was being blamed for all the problems down there. That's my opinion. And uh so it's uh it was uh I'll say a nonproductive meeting, but we're faced with issues there. And I say we, our neighbors at Fort White are faced with issues as far as grants and what have you. And I apologize for pointing out this young man, but he's a mayor to take advantage of that, but the mayor's here with us tonight. And uh it's just time, I think, we get everybody in the same room. Let's have an open discussion and see which way we're going because at this point in time, I don't think nobody knows where we're going. And I think we arrived at that today. Uh so with that being said, I mean because the issues are at hand and I'm not going to go into details. I

think most people in the room probably are aware of to some degree, but it's it's Am I missing somebody there, David? What we had in discussion today? No. The city town Swany County, Columbia County, North Florida Water Utility, town of Fort White. We were going to extend an invitation to D if there

that's correct. That's correct. Thank you. Thank you. But uh you back. Yeah. Okay, I wouldn't ask you to elaborate on it, but Mr. Kirby also had another meeting today relevant to this because D is definitely needs to be involved in this because some of the issues at hand or Duh if you want to say and uh uh permits and what have you at risk. It's just time now David on such a meeting such as this going to take a big run. I I would venture to say of course this is going to be tough to sit. We got to get with Swany County. Got to get with North Florida Water Utility, which two of them are sitting right here. Uh I think this is a meeting warrant to have at the college at the library learn and of course that's going to take coordination to set up with them to uh you know get their schedule and whoever's going to run the electronics I guess whatever they do out there. But this but board I'm emphasizing sooner than later because uh the town of Fort White no doubts on time frames and uh and of course they got some issues that they're having to deal with. Uh it's just time that we put this uh I'm not going to say put it to rest. It's time that as a community we all need to be on the same page and help when we can and do what we cannot you know. So the uh yeah I will I but the uh uh board input output it

okay so David is there a date in mind you or a week sooner the better you I mean here we are if we sit here and try to go through our thing so I guess what I'm saying our next meeting is when Davis uh our next regular meeting is the 5th we got to advertise how many days you have it at the college I don't No, I'll have to go back and look up what those regulations are when we meet outside the city limits. Joel may know. I don't know off the top of my head, but you have to run it out of the newspaper is the issue, right? But we have to run it in the paper. I think at least a week if not two.

So, I mean, it's going to take coordination to get with Swany County and different things. So, I don't I may be speaking out of turn here, but let's let's set a goal to have the meeting set by the next by the next uh our next calendar meeting. I mean I don't see I unless I don't think I need to call a special meeting but the uh we can get uh we meet in the morning on the 5th so you could do it in the evening or afternoon of the fifth. Okay. What whatever works. Keep in mind the college situation and we're reaching out to D. You know they'd like to go home by 4. So uh my point is is that it's going to take some coordination but me personally I'd rather do it in the middle of the day. I think we get more cooperation.

Okay. I'll I'll try for the afternoon of the 5th and I'll reach out to the college tomorrow to verify that the space is available. And real quick, just in reference to this, uh, mayor, you put your hand up if you you want to speak to something that this No, you got to come up front, please. No, no, only you're only speaking to this discussion. Okay. Yep. Just on this item, George Thomas, good evening. Thank you, chair. Yeah. I just wanted uh to know what specifically the date was going to be. I wanted to make sure it wasn't that but Yeah. Yeah. That's all that's all it was because I think there's there's one week in March where I later in March where I may be unavailable, but I want to be at this meeting. So, I want

Okay, I understand. Okay. He he'll be in contact with you and y'all can coordinate time and date. Mr. Chair, your whole council would be Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. M the charter requires that if there's a meeting outside the corporate boundaries that you have to run an ad in the paper of general circulation at least once one week in advance. So it's easy easy. Okay. You said you heard that David one week in advance. Okay. Okay. Okay. So Mr. Chair, I've already informed you, but I don't think I've informed the rest of the board. I will be far far away the week of March 19th. We don't care. Well, it it's a it's a once in a decade thing. I'm missing my first meeting. We don't care.

You're lashing out like a 5year-old now. You know, when they're like, I don't care. You're sad. You're sad. I know. I know. I know. I know. I've been just all these workshops. I was You be just that week. I'm going to Italy. My daughter. Make sure you schedule it THAT WEEK. HEY, LOOK. I got coverage. I'm just letting you all know. Thanks for that, Joel. And the uh Okay, so at this point, I'm just kidding. We got a motion. We got a motion on on these dates. Got a motion. Got a second. Second. Second. All in favor say. So, just clarity on that. Do a motion. I thought y'all said yes.

I'll make a motion that we say. I thought you made a motion. I could have. Yeah. Rob second. Make it again. Motion second. All in favor say I. I. Okay. Go ahead. Just s of clarity. The corridor openhouse workshop. You wanted it on the 15th or you want it on the 26? The portal. The corridor overlay. Got it. You want it on the day of our meeting? Yes. Like at 4 or do you want it up next week? I' I'd put it before before the meeting. So, what we'll do. Did you have Did you say something, Joe? No. Okay. I'm sorry. I just called clamps down. It must been curve asleep. Okay.

Okay. Uh, so the next item is the North Florida Utility Authority reimbursement for three separate emergency repairs. Okay. And what they're asking for here, David, I believe, uh, we was talking about this week is that out of the $100,000 that we budgeted for, excuse me, for catastrophic repairs, that money would come out of that. Correct. Yes. And that just lowers that number down to whatever the minus is about $12,000. Correct. And the key is we will not pay the sales tax. Correct. I move we approve reimbursement North Florida utility.

Got a motion? I second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. Okay. In your additions package, the first item is amendment one of the 2025 LSF Health Systems contract. It's just a language change to change some things around like they're going to instead of calling it receiving clinic quarterly data, they're going to call it core network data collection. They change the way they do employment screening. Um, and that's really it. So, but they're asking you to approve that so that they can follow their new procedures. A motion. Yeah. Motion to approve. Second. Approve. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say I.

I.

All right. The last one is the Elevate Florida demol acquisition and demolition agreement. Uh your packet gives you a whole lot of information. Uh there's only one house they're looking at. It's on Upurch. We do not want to put a pond there. We want to specify that it would not have a pond, but we just maintain like we do other HMGp properties. Uh, in general, on that second page, you can see, well, the first page, you can see they said they have to have it by the 25th of February. But what they're saying is we're agreeing to take ownership of the parcel, that the zoning for the parcel will be for open space use in perpetuity, that we will assume the maintenance costs, and again, just general mowing the grass, and that's it. uh sign a notice of intent to participate. That notice of intent is in your packet and uh that's what they need by the 25th. So I'm asking you to approve the notice of intent to proceed with the Elevate Florida notice of intent.

So move second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. And as the board remembers, we gave Elevate Florida a portion of one of our grants. That's why it doesn't cost us anything. They took it straight from FEMA. So that will have no cost to the county. David, once this property is, you know, everything's cleared off or what have you, it still remains in the county name? It will be in the county's name. It cannot be built on again. Correct. That is correct. Okay. So, what's the process of us having all this surplus property in the middle of the neighborhood? Can we donate it? Can we auction it off? You have to put it in open space in perpetuity. So, auctioning it off would be tough. Okay. I think Joel's shaking his head. So,

Well, yes. So, you can dispose of this property, but it has to have a restrictive covenant that's provided by the grant. It's a fairly lengthy restrictive covenant that basically says you can't. And some people do want it. I think you can give it to somebody else to take the property just to have more yard or something. That's nothing, but you can pay taxes on still, could you put it back on, so yeah, like some I think the HMGP we did several years ago, we managed to sell off a couple of the adjoining properties to the next door neighbors. We didn't they didn't pay us much, but they came off of our surplus. We just had to use this very long restrictive covenant that says basically come hell or high water, you can't go vertical on this property ever.

Well, I was looking at something the other day and ours I mean strips and we just got to be a way to get rid of I mean I I can count like 21. That's my So, Commissioner, I think we actually have a legal duty and it's just a lack of manpower and it's a project. We we got it kind of off the ground when Ben was still the county manager way back and Esther was working on it. That's how long ago it's been. We did an inventory. We really should we really should push those out to get them back on the tax ro. That's our objective. Um even if it's just a nominal amount and right now they're generating zero. So if that's something the board's interested in, I know we have a way to pull those inventories. It's just a project. It's a project for Erica is what it is.

I think we should move forward to that. Definitely. Okay. Uh, finally but not least, uh, open three minute comments. Uh, public Miss Kelly Brown, she's been She got a long I'm hungry. I'm hungry, too. I'm starving.

Uh, Kelly Brown. Uh, good evening. I don't talk in front of people, so bear with me. On January the 7th, a young girl was injured at the Florida Gateway Pro at the Florida Gateway Rodeo Arena. Following that incident, I filed a formal complaint. This particular event drew participants and spectators from all over the state of Florida. We even had visitors from Canada. Events like this bring revenue, tourism, and positive exposure to our county. But when response times are delayed, it makes me question why would families want to come here if they cannot feel that confident help will arrive when needed. Although I reside in Hamilton County, we are deeply involved in Columbia County. We support events here. We do business here and we deeply care about the safety and reputation of this community. My family and I own and operate a business that carries real risk. Emergencies are not just a responsibility for us, but it's something that we prepare for every day. Watching what happened that day was alarming. If one of my employees or a member of my family were severely injured, I would expect immediate medical attention. The delay at the arena r raises serious concerns about whether that expectation can be met. We are not here to ask for anybody to lose their job. We are not here to place blame. We are asking for a corrective measure. We're asking for solutions that ensure that when somebody calls 911 that there's an ambulance available to arrive. Over the past couple weeks, we've heard of multiple accounts were around the county describing delayed response times and even instances where ambulances were not available. That is extremely concerning. In an emergency situation, minutes matter and sometimes seconds. I respectfully ask each of you to consider this personally. If it had been your

child or grandchild laying there waiting for help, what would you expect from your county EMS? We simply want to know that when the next emergency happens, and it will, that our community can trust that help will be on the way.

Thank you, Kelly. Thanks, David. Commissioners, thank you. Steven Bailey reside here in Columbia County. I understand what you guys are going through. I've sat there. All every one of you know that. However, I have had multiple conversations with county staff and several of you county commissioners regarding the status of EMS in Columbia County and the lack of the quality of care that is deserved by the citizens of Columbia County. 17 and a half months ago, you executed a contract for a start a startup company to begin providing EMS services in Columbia County. What a great opportunity that could have been for that that company to have a highly good success story. However, they have failed and they have failed drastically in this community. Not one time over the 17 and a half months has the company that we have providing EMS services met the response time that they are required to of 90% in their contract. Even after you commissioners admended that contract early on last year, I spoke with multiple of you, multiple Kat County staff members and said, "What is it going to take before somebody does something and administers the performance-based contract that you guys have executed and signed and have put the lives of each and every citizen in Columbia County and the visitors that pass through here's lives in their hands. What's it going to take before somebody gets the attention and starts administering this contract correctly? I cannot say enough good of what the Columbia County Sheriff's Office deputies and the Columbia County fire rescue staff did the day of February

17th when they arrived at the fairgrounds that I was there and witnessed. However, I cannot give the same thing accolades to the EO miss. It was horrible. It was atrocious to say the least when you have someone that's that drives up in the ambulance and is asked a question and says, "I was throwing a t-shirt and told to put it on to look official." Folks, there's a problem with that. Everyone in county staff knows what's going on. We deserve better as citizens of this county to have a contract that is administered. You do it every day with with with um projects that you have. Just recently, you had a road that had to be remilled and moved over because it didn't meet the standards, but you've got a contract that hasn't met the standards from day one, and we've not done anything except half what needs to be done. Life is worth more than a road or trash being taken out as the conversations that were admin that were talked about two weeks ago. Ironically, less than 24 or 48 hours after the conversation with trash. But on February the 7th, on Saturday, when that event happened, there was 16 times that Columbia County was without an available ambulance to respond to medical emergencies. 16 times there were call holding on that day. That is unacceptable. That's not an isolated incident. It's happened. It continues to happen even after that incident. It happened just two days ago that someone had to call the the person who called 911 turned around, cancelled 911, and the person the caller that called was advised we were two calls behind having an ambulance to take them to the

hospital. The business took the person to the hospital themselves. That is wrong. That is wrong. and everybody should be ashamed to have that going on in Columbia County. I ask that you make a change immediately. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Steve. Okay. Anybody else?

Somebody trying to stand. That's Mr. Bailey. I'm sorry. Okay. Uh okay. At this point in time, uh staff, uh Joel, if you don't mind, while we're on this subject, can you give us a brief I know you said what you said earlier, but would you please bring the board up to snuff and and board and and uh public? I received the complaint during the event. Uh and I forwarded on to Mr. Kirby, Mr. Krauss, and Joe for I felt like that was the respective people in this. But I appreciate them reaching out to myself. I know they've reached out to several commissioners that was able or available. And uh I appreciate y'all's quick response to get back with these uh people that were involved in this situation. But Joel, summarize it and just kind of explain where we're at with the complaint. And yes, sir, we received the the written complaint, fairly detailed written complaint from Kelly and Dale Brown, Mrs. Brown that you just heard from um outlining a circumstance where uh there was an accident at a barrel race. Uh a 15year-old girl not from here was rolled over by a horse that was called into 911. Um there was a substantial delay in response time is all I can really tell you at this point. It has been investigated. It's been corroborated. The uh contractor does not even really disagree with the material allegations of the complaint. Um, Lance and I have worked closely this week. Uh, I've interviewed the witnesses. I interviewed Mr. Bailey because he was also a witness. Um, and I have interviewed the contractor. As of 4:00 this afternoon, there is an extensive report uh that's been delivered to your county manager as is pro protocol. He will review it. It's my recommendation that upon and I've made this recommendation to him. when he concludes his review and he's familiar with the report, I've recommended he

immediately refer that report to each of you uh to again have discussions. Um I do think I did find I don't have any problem disclosing this. I did find material breaches of the contract. I did find serious issues. Um and again they were corroborated. So it wasn't just an allegation. It was something that was demonstrable. And so um I I do share uh Mr. Bailey's concern. I do share Mrs. Brown's concern, but the ultimate decision as to what to do about this circumstance will fall to the five of you. I've made sure the contractor was very aware of that. That this will be something that you will be considering and he is aware. So, I'd rather not delve further into that until each of you had an opportunity to review the report.

We're good.

I do want to say something that I I told Mr. Krauss to share with you. If you review the report and you have concerns about anything in it, please bring that to my attention so that I can make sure you understand the underlying evidence and the reasons for the inclusion of some of the things in the report. Um there is a uh at least some likelihood that litigation could result as a consequence of this contract uh if you decide to go in a different direction. And so I want to make sure we're real careful about the conversations that we might have with third parties and the sorts of disclosures we make. And that's just to protect the interest of the county. Okay. So once we receive when we receive David, I'm sure you're right in the middle of it. The uh board just be prepared if uh if it gets to it. You know, we may have to call we're probably going to have to call a emergency meeting next week. Pretty open. about this scene. Uh but this is a serious issue and and we uh we need to act one way or another.

Whatever it is, we need to do it quickly. Right. Right. It's just Yeah. You can't wait. It's just a it's an issue that needs to be had. That's that's

Mr. Chair, if I could just add one more detail that I should have shared before. We did, you guys may remember back in October, we terminated the backup contract with Amerro. Um, we did uh at staff level to make sure we could advise you of all your options uh approach them about whether or not they'd be willing to go back into that backup position because if they don't, we'd have to do an emergency procurement and there'd be a lot of uncertainty about getting coverage. We have to have ambulances. uh whatever that level of care is, we have to have something. And so that's in the process of being prepared to come to you as well. So if you do call an emergency meeting, I'll need to have some heads up on that because they might want to be here because you'll need to be quick about

Okay. Well, I guess that David that response to how fast David can get it to us. Yes, I can review it first thing in the morning. Well, I'm not rushing you. I'm just saying no comfortable I understand critical critical I understand but the uh with that being said y'all I I I concur I think it's uh such a matter we got to deal with it and uh now my question to you is this could you this says something about lith possible I'm not sure what you meant there but that sounds like situation and I don't recall would it be in the shade no sir no sir would not be in the shade

no sir there would not be a shade there is no litigation. There is no threat of litigation. But when you look at a contract with this kind of dollar value attached to it, you have to assume. Okay? Right? So, and and again, you just proceed. It's a riskmanagement thing. You just want to proceed under the assumption that there will be litigation and and govern yourself accordingly. Okay. All right. Uh Barnell, you got anything else?

Yeah, I'm I'm glad we're addressing that issue. It's been a issue for a while now. I'm glad we're finally addressing that. It It needs to be Mr. Be's right. We Everybody deserves better. So, I appreciate you coming up with your concerns. I appreciate that. Um, next thing I have is guys, we we need an update on Publix. Um, I mean, ain't no updates. Well, we need one. I'm sad Mr. Stewart's not here because I had a few questions for him. Or if anybody's here representing, please come on up cuz uh I mean, does anybody know where we're at on that? Until you see a contract signed by Publix, there's no Publix in my opinion.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. There's no Publix uh even coming. We don't even have letter intent. We don't have anything. Um I see a lot of dirt being moved out there from one place to the next and then back go the next day that dirt's moved to the next spot again. Nothing's happening. Um right behind it right there. Uh track supply went up with no problem. We've been doing this song and dance for a while. That man come up here and asked us for a lift say how much that lift station cost? Did anybody know? Just a roundabout. I'm not asking for exact numbers. County cut is a little over 500.

Over five. So half million dollars he asked for and we have no results. That's taxpayer dollars. That's a problem. I think we need to have an update. I think we need to make it mandatory that he'd be here at the next meeting and give us an update. A substantial update, not just, oh, we're still doing the song and dance. I think we need a substantial update. Cuz I don't think public's coming at all. I don't think he's even talking to him. Maybe that's the wrong accusation to make and I hope he proves me wrong next week. But I think it's mandatory he'd be here next week with some answers. We got a lot of taxpayer dollars that went to that and we have no results, not even a letter. So we got to tighten up our next record schedule meeting. Next schedule meeting. Yeah, he needs to be here with a substantial update. Okay,

that's all I got. Okay, I'll give it to David and just make that note. David, I definitely I will. Okay, Mr. Ford. I'm good. I'm good. Mr. Ever just want to reach out to Steel is being taken a lot of I've seen a lot of J signatures. I'm just l