Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'd like to call this supposed to be 530 regular board meeting to order. And thank you for your patience for getting started a little late here. At this time, Mr. Phillips, would you lead us in the invocation and the program?

Thank you again, Lord, for letting us be here and having such a beautiful day. Thank you, Lord, for any blessings that you've blessed us with in our lives, Lord. Be with all of the first responders, people in this county and some other counties as well. Lord, be with all of the men and women that protect our country, in the country, out of the country. And Lord, just be with all of us. Lord, do not be making as best decisions as we can make. Lord, just be with everybody here and have a safe trip home. Amen.

the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

It's locked.

Yeah, I'll see that.

Staff, any additions? Yes, sir. We have the addition of the extension of the CDBG 22DB-H04, which is the original housing grant extension. Similarly, I do not see the America 250 crowd here today. Something has to come up with their scheduling. So I'd like to go ahead and pull that from the agenda. And items number three and four, the board may wish to pull from the agenda because I don't believe that is doable at this point in time. And then finally, item number six,

David chairman number four I would like some discussion on that if we could just okay at this time I'll seek a motion for approval of the agenda as presented second motion second all in favor say aye aye all opposed Okay, we proclamation number 2026 P dash 23. Amateur radio week, June 21 to 27 2026. Amateur radio operators celebrating over a century of the miracle of human voice broadcast over airwaves in whereas the amateur radio has continued to provide bridge between people's societies, counties, creating friendships and sharing of ideas and amateur radio operators have also provided countless hours of community services both in emergencies and to the other local organizations throughout these decades and these amateur radio services are provided wholly uncompensated okay there we go i see it now okay And whereas the state also recognizes service and amateur radio, these people also provide to our many emergency response organizations, including fire, rescue, police, sheriff, city, and county government. Whereas these same individuals have further demonstrated their value in public assistance by providing free radio communication for local parades, bike-a-thons, walk-a-thons, fairs, and other charitable public events. And whereas Florida County of Columbia recognizes and appreciates the diligence of these hams who also serve weather spotters in the Skywarn program of the National Weather Service, whereas the ARRL is the National Association of Amateur Radio in the United States, and whereas the ARRL, Amateur Radio field day exercise will take place june 27 28 2026 and is a 24 hour emergency preparedness exercise and demonstration of the radio amateur skill and readiness to provide self-supporting communications with it without further infrastructure being required Therefore, the Board of County Commissioners does hereby officially recognize and designate June 21-27 as Amateur Radio Week in Columbia County, Florida. Signed, Jay Swisher and Tim Murphy, Chairman of the Board. Is anybody here to? Okay.

Motion to approve.

Got a motion. P23. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. like to uh speak on this sir or just accept this they got rid of your podium

okay here we go public hearing Seth you got the podium sir

All right, so we have two ordinances today, both for the same piece of property.

See if I can get this thing to work.

There we go, just a little slow. All right, so I think first on the agenda is ordinance number 2026-07. This is a zoning change pursuant to application Z260301 approved by the Planning and Zoning Board. with resolution pz slash lpa 260301 uh to change the zoning classification from uh residential single family to rsf2 to industrial light and warehousing on the lands described below so this is off 441 mr everett this is in your district right by capital i think it's capital metals they are doing a zoning change right now this entire parcel is rsf2 They're just wanting to change a portion of that parcel to industrial light and warehousing, which is the same as what Capital Metals is on right now. They haven't subdivided the land yet. If they have a prospective buyer come up, that is when they will start parceling it off. They just wanted to go ahead and do a zoning change for that portion of the property.

This is in my district, and I approve 2026-07.

hold on at this point in time i'd like to open up the public hearing that's right you're fine yeah you got a cold you're not okay okay at this time i'd like to open up the public hearing ordinance number 2026-07 is anybody here to speak for or against Not seeing none, I declare public hearing closed.

Now we can approve 2026 P-23. No, excuse me, 2026-07. Second. Got a motion and a second.

All in favor say aye. Aye. All in favor say okay. Go ahead, Seth.

All right, so next one is for the same piece of property. This is ordinance number 2026-06. This is a future land use map change for the same portion of the parcel. We are going from residential load to industrial. Same thing to match the neighboring piece of the parcel. Nothing different there. This is pursuant to application CPA 260301.

approved via the Planning and Zoning Board resolution PZ slash LPA 260301 okay at this time I'd open up the public hearing for ordinance number 2026-06 is there anybody here to speak for against seeing none I declare the public hearing closed this has been my district I'll also approve 2026-06 got a motion second second no further discussion all in favor say aye aye thank you thank you gentlemen okay one okay here we go uh law enforcement uh mstu uh i think everybody in the board and uh on the board and the public pretty well aware that uh participation uh you know wasn't part of what the city wanted to do and our further further discussion so i don't see no reason to uh go any farther with this because i'm pretty well sure that the uh it's a null bullet point so that being said uh we got the orders number emergency medical mstu uh same situation but as uh mr ford requested you'd like to have some discussion and uh board if it's all right with y'all uh i think this would be a fair ample time to have some ems discussion so y'all all good with that i mean i just wanted to do that formally we'd stay right with the rules if you want to say and as we get to discussing this again like i did on the previous one uh let's try to keep it a little bit uh uh not stepping over top of each other and i know we've been doing it for a long time so it's tough on those guys but we'll we'll do the best we can so but that being said mr ford you asked for the uh some discussion if you would please lead off if you would on this uh i think i think through some people in the audience just mayor frozen they're not in the audience they are they are you want to hear what they have to say sure Come up and address us, please. I know we asked for y'all to be here, and thank you for coming. While y'all walk, I get to read your letter here, because I didn't have a chance to read it earlier. If you would, sir, just come down here, and one of y'all, whoever, state your name for the clerk, and we'll go from there.

All right, Jeff Avenger, Director of Operations for AmeriPro EMS. All right, thank you.

I may chime in. I'm Thomas McEntee, the Chief Business Officer for AmeriPro EMS. Thank you.

All right, so thank you for having us back. Last time we spoke, we talked about truck count. At that time, we were at 4 1⁄2 trucks consistently. Since that meeting, we've increased to now we're at 7 at peak load, 5 1⁄2 around the clock. We have hired all of our paramedics and EMTs. We've also started to backfill for our supervisors. Those are all hired and in position. So right now, we're still looking for our last station. uh we're in uh in talks with that we've got a lease uh that we're reviewing to help uh expand our our services across the county and close the geographical gap um but that's uh that's our staffing standpoint so you have i couldn't understand how many trucks did you say you're running right now five and a half i'm sorry

five around the clock which meets uh the demand and um it's up to seven at peak load okay yeah mr chairman to further clarify what they said we met with them yesterday and we met with um swanee valley regional economic development commission about moving them out of the trailer on quinton street over to the five points elementary school and then renovating the trailer on quinton street for their use for an ambulance there would need some renovations on that building for both life safety and for uh adding a shower facility because right now it's just a big room and a fence around the property chair can i please so yeah i went to clinton and five points did you guys go out to marshawn Sean wrote they've asked specifically about the Quentin site. They did not ask about the Sean site.

I think I asked about the last meeting to look at Sean. So I'd like to look at that area because that's a little bit farther north and that would put it quicker access to the northern end of the county. Not opposed in South End now, but that would help the constitutional north end of county. You have access to 441 Bottom Creek Road, access to I-10, 441 North. I think that's a good location and it's farther north than Quentin Street. or five points. Let's look at that location before we do a final decision on this right here.

Right.

And I'll get with them and we'll go out there.

Okay.

Sir, are you aware of the Bashan Road location?

I'm not. Thomas Stinson can give a better detail, our captain. So Thomas is familiar with the area, lives in your county.

so you can get more of a as you well when mr partner not speak over mr parnell but when i just i just want to make aware that if y'all weren't you know because it seems like it's a viable location perfect thank you so i did uh sorry thomas fenson i'm the operating supervisor here for columbia county for ameripro ems um in the beginning of this when we started looking at different locations for stations there was a heat map that was created based on the call volume from last year and our applicable locations for stations that need to be currently did speak with the fire department about Mershon at one time, but with the way that the heat map lays out of what the call volume was from 2025, though it's not perfect to be for 2026, it kind of gives us a layout. Being at the Quentin Street area gives us access to 441, 41, I-10. Being that far north causes a depletion coming back into the town and causes a delay in response. We're still, there is a less amount of calls up north of that area. We're still at a close enough response to run north,

not so far north that we're delaying running back to the health system in city or further south so you're saying the heat map because that's what we got you really got to base things on a lot of times at the heat map so you're just saying it where mershon road station hit on the heat map if you look at the circles of it i apologize i

Bring it up with me. It is right on the geographical line of what would be an urban response circle of being within an 11 minute range and is about midway to almost out of the rule response. I'm back into town based on the 17 minute response time. The call volume in the north in the county as far now going from. The Merchant area up north of Deep Creek presented less than 1% of the calls for last year. Not. taking away emergency is an emergency by all means. But to take even a county or a private asset, sticking it up there for what could be spread out of, you know, say 10 calls out of 15,000 and delaying running back to 500 other calls where the Quentin Street location gives us a better geographical layout and we can still respond to those calls quickly. And with the assistance of Columbia County Fire, Fire Station 42 is an ALS asset that is also up in that area, if we were to be delayed for some reason coming from the Quinton Station.

So you can get from the Quinton Station to the most northern part of Columbia County faster than being on Mershon?

No, sir, that's not what I said. Trying to make sure that we localize the options that we have to be able to service all areas as quickly as we can, but also being in a set geographical area that makes a lot more sense.

mr jensen can can we get a is there any way i don't know who has the heat map can we get a copy of that at some point um did send over a copy to mr kraus thank you thank you i'd like to see what i'd like to see how that breaks down for the whole county um not as i said my computer's in the car but i can go get it if anybody um rashaun road was one of the locations that we had discussed

had the hospital authority donated an ambulance.

And that's what I was just saying. I think he just told us exactly why we need these other two ambulances on the road. And I still stick to what I said last meeting at the workshop. I think we need to set the money aside and order these two ambulances. I mean, or three embassies and move forward with that.

Anybody else have any questions for these gentlemen?

I guess y'all are doing all your time zone schedule and all that kind of stuff now.

What percentage of y'all meet your time zone now?

So from what I pulled from Friday to yesterday, since we've added the 7th truck, we were close to 86% in urban and we were at 71% for rule. We started placing a 12 hour truck from the 8 AM to 8 PM and a 10 AM to 10 PM standpoint. They are what we call system status. We can move them around depending on call volume and how everything starts popping out of, you know, the emergency that day. I believe it was yesterday. Before noon, we had 17 calls with eight of them being in the South End and the Fort White District. Those two spare assets got shifted down there. One of them stayed for the majority of the day. As calls come out, they move back up.

When you get more calls in the South End of the county, your percentage goes down.

South End or North End, anything that stretches out beyond the urban area, depending on the number of calls, is going to deplete where you're going one direction or the other. Even in town, we had a that occupied four of the ambulances for over two hours the other day.

So the urban areas are still suffering? The rural areas. The rural areas are still suffering.

That's why it's important for us to get these stations established because then we'll put 24-hour ambulances in those areas. So we're solving first for how many calls a day we see and the patterns of those calls, and then we're solving for the geography. And that's what we're working on right now, solving for the geography, because we're very well aware of it at 70%, and we've got to get that to a 90%.

Mr. Dixon, I just need to say, nothing with Columbia County, nothing with your example. something happens on the very southern point of the county whatever the situation may be i'm not talking about birth and finger or something but are we restricted and then i guess it'd be kind of a double question for maybe lance uh like the example in the lochua where they just put that new emergency center right there on the uh beside eliano's i think it is are we restricted uh from If we feel like it's safer to go, I mean, faster to go there.

It's like going to Gainesville?

Come on up, Lance, and have a seat with them. I'd hate to be hollering at you across that way, if you would please.

Are you talking about if we take patients down to Gainesville, Mr. Murphy? Correct. So, it's based on situation of the patient and discretion of the care provider at that time. I've instructed most of my crew members, especially if they're in the south end, like south of 778, south of 18 there in Fort White. time frame alone going to Spring Hill freestanding or North Florida free ER is just as quick, if not a few minutes quicker than running back up to Lake City and going south.

I was just curious because I've seen that new emergency, I guess it's an emergency Center or whatever, right there in the locker room. Right by the Wawa. There you go. That's an urgent care.

I know what you're talking about. So that's an urgent care. We can't take patients to the urgent care. We can only take them to the ERs.

That's urgent care? Yes. Okay.

The only new freestanding ER that's been put in the area is the one off Archer Road, which is in ACA.

Springfield. Okay. I think what he said, you have to go all the way to Archer Road in which

No, sir. So we have off of 39th, there's Spring Hill, which is a freestanding ER. Okay, on 39th. And then on Newberry, there's HCA North Florida. There's a freestanding ER also off of Newberry for North Florida, and then Shands Pediatric and Shands Trauma Center off of Archer.

They are building a new one, though, right off the off-ramp of the interstate on 43rd Street, right?

Yes, sir. It's just that one hasn't got to its point of completion yet. When they do, my people know to go to the closest appropriate, and that's the big thing, is the closest appropriate.

and uh anybody else have any questions if i could mr chair just to assuage some concerns of the board you guys understand it's minimum units and minimum times right we've talked about that because we've had both iterations historically we had one that was minimum times only we had one that was minimum units only this is a hybrid just because they've met minimum units just as you've seen they've gone above the minimum because they know they're not making time So I I do believe I'm still confident. I think we're seeing it here that there might be another unit increase. I don't know that it addresses the North and South and necessarily, but at least in terms of overall performance under the contract, if I can help with some of the concern about that, like Mr Matthew Sam, we're looking for more stations.

So the Quentin St helps establish something more defined in that northern area that also gives us a straight line into getting to the interstate going more towards White Springs and going both Georgia line. We also have an inter-mutual aid agreement with Hamilton County. Any worst case scenario, if they are closer, my captain's going to instruct dispatch to call up if they do have an availability is the key factor there. They could send somebody to help. If not, we already have an asset going that way. Same thing with the south end. If it's something severe enough, we can request mutual aid to come in. And the moment we have an asset freed up, they're still going in that direction. Somehow there's going to be a convergence of either an assist or our own unit. Getting the station put at Quentin Street will help. Getting the station that we're looking at at 47 near Ring Power Court, the lease that Mr. Avenger was speaking about, to help give us something in the mid-accounting, because right now we're at the station 40 at the fairgrounds. We are off of 100 and down at Fire Station 49 on 18.

Did you say Ring Power Court?

Right near Ring Power Court on 47. So that also gives us center location between the mid of the county, I-75, that can run both north and south, and dispersed down south.

So how many times have y'all been at level zero in the last couple weeks?

I would have to go look.

I couldn't give you an exact number. I looked at a study period. It was like eight days. And on June 1st, don't know what happened but the whole county just we had 65 calls on june 1st so we're a level zero condition i think six times just in one day in an entire period we were 10 times level zero for that eight days but in the data like it showed we were level zero but we used one of our inter-facility ambulances to run a call So we did that on three occasions as well. So we were level zero, but we covered part of them. But some of the calls were held. And most of it was, like I said, on June 1st. Everyone was just overwhelmed.

So do those ambulances have, are they BLM?

No, they're ALS.

They're ALS? Yep. Even your transport ambulances are ALS?

Correct. All of the ambulances that we're deploying in the county are ALS. They're all paramedic level.

Yes. So what was the average before you did this new? I know you just gave me urban and rural. What was that before this? Was it 70 or something?

It's around 75 on the urban side. And again, still high 60s, around 70 on the rural. So we've seen a several point improvement in the urban area. But like I said earlier, now we're focusing on need to solve for the geography how do we do a better job of covering the rural areas and also in that study period 29 of our late responses were less than two minutes late so we did have some long response times because we were just hit really hard with volume but so we'll make we'll continue to make operational tweaks to work on those one to two minute late calls and bring them into compliance, whether it's a rural area or an urban area. And those are some local things that we can work on. And then again, try to nail down what the overall patterns of demand are so that we can deploy our unit hours. And then again, cover the geography.

So if I may, the idea that we're

trying to work with design on our side of possibly putting units in the north and the south then y'all are not opposed to that so other uh materially no we're not now other places that we uh have contracts uh we either have an area that's hard to cover or uh we have a fire department that has some interest in putting up an ambulance and so the way it's written is that if we're if all of our ambulances are working and they can stop their unit they'll uh they'll stand one up as a last call unit yeah they're not just running every call they're just running yeah because and again if the county wanted to move in that direction we have to take a look at what would the impact be to our transport volumes because our subsidy arrangement with the county is based on what we expect to collect from transport revenue against our cost, and the difference is the subsidy. So if we lose a lot of transport volume for whatever reason, then that changes the economics of the model.

Chairman, my understanding, we can ask Jeff or either Lance I don't think we're putting these ambulances out to do transfers. If I understand, you're talking about transfers from like hospital to hospital and stuff like that?

Not with your units. Not with county units. We have ambulances at the hospital in Lake City because we do business there, but they're used to back up counties, but the county units are never used to do transports out of the hospital.

Yeah, I think we would always respond to emergencies. He didn't mean that.

And I'm not putting words in your mouth, because I sure don't know what I'm talking about with the letter zeros and all that. But I would assume that, you know, if you've got a unit available, I'm just going to throw a hypothetical situation here at Quinton Street. There's a unit sitting there ready to go. But we have a call at Milton's, and y'all may not know where Milton's is. It's just, you know, going up to 441. And, you know, we're at, I'm just going to say we're at Bichon Road. That's where we were at. I know I'm putting you in a place, but Mr., how would you deal with something like that?

Again, it's how we plan it out, right? And so that's all.

You've got to be some kind of protocol set up where one day is one day.

Yeah, I mean, we could look at, because, again, you're talking an area that's a distant area that's hard to cover, but also very low run volume, very low response volume. That may not be impactful.

Well, and, of course, I believe it were. It might have been 18. Unfortunately, that's why we unmanned that fire station. But of course, like a young gentleman said, an emergency is an emergency. We get that. We understand. Everybody going into this county deserves some type of... We want to give them service. Correct. Protect them as much as we can. Absolutely.

We agree. Again, it's all in the plan, how the plan is developed.

it's just not a simple switch flip the switch we get that but i just i feel very comfortable now that y'all are not opposed to it it's just a matter i hate you more negotiate but the work keeps out the words that everybody's compatible right because you want to develop a reliable solution right that benefits everyone and we'll gladly cooperate well one of the unique things just but every one of our providers we ever have most of the people sitting in these uh ambulances they're local people you know so they they've got a they've got a vested interest in that every single one of our providers to my knowledge has always been that way and they and they work hard yeah the people that that are on our team here in the county work hard and they do a great job they really do okay staff any questions for us for the hundred dollar questions chairman about me yep

If you still fail to meet the times after all this moving around, transition, are you going to put another ambulance on full time?

Yeah. Yes. Yes, we will. Because, again, we're here to meet compliance. And we're getting close on the demand, matching the demand. Next is, like I said earlier, solving for the geography.

No increase in the contract. Whatever you have to do to it.

We're going to get to compliance.

Yeah, the contract doesn't offer more money. Well, I know that. I heard Joel said at one meeting that it was looking at a million dollars. Oh, yeah. I say let them do their contract.

Their contract doesn't say we're going to buy. Their contract is their contract, and they're going to try to meet it.

okay thank y'all sir that y'all can sit down we appreciate y'all coming here we kind of had a little scheduling issues last time and appreciate you coming you got a fine guy right there old tom stinson knows we'll get grandpa to uh call him if not the uh great guy yes i wanted to uh ask david what okay you didn't have a question for that okay i'm sorry i just want to make sure

just want david told me he had talked to dale about getting us an ambulance i would love to hear him too y'all he kind of told me about that mr chair um what he's referring to is the fact that the letter that we talked about last week where the hospital authority said they were definitely interested in helping us with the ambulances and we need to come back to them with a plan

how we're going to fund it sustainably i can do that if that is the wish absolutely that's uh i think that's where i'm not speaking for jeff or lance i think that's adamantly in their plans you know that's the goal i'm assuming but the uh

I spoke to Mr. Kennan this week, the attorney for the hospital authority, and he explained to me that some of the concerns that his trustees were having was just that there was a plan. They didn't want to front this money, pay for three ambulances, which is perfectly fair. But do understand if there is an interlocal agreement for that effect, the board would be binding itself to do certain things. So I know we're talking about projecting out funding. So this will be that plan, Commissioner Phillips, as we develop that interlocal. So to the extent that's what the marching orders are, Mr. Krause, I think we'll work with the attorneys to develop the interlocal, and that will reflect the plan.

But at that time, if I may, Joe, just as the gentleman spoke a few minutes ago, they've got to be incorporated in this decision. Oh, 100%. You know, because everything's got to, it's not as easy as us saying,

and i think commissioner ford's point that he was making is that these would be sort of units of last resort for the north and south end and would not be transport units they would not be for anything other than emergency yeah that's what that was my point yeah and and not to put words at the gentleman's mouth but i think transport is actually nod your head i'm not asking you to come back up but the transported loot to just literally picking the patient up taking to the hospital

that's what you you know i'm not what we see transport up here we think of somebody you know taking somebody non-emergency to the game or something like that yeah gotcha yeah okay okay we just got to get on the same terminology here i guess but i i thought that's not what i was to speak so uh sure but yes uh so i think okay yeah okay so um

I ain't got nothing to throw at you. So what we're saying was if we go ahead and we get the plan together, Lakeshore House Authority will, and we present a plan to them, they're okay with it. They'll go ahead and get those extra eminences for us, donate them to us, is what we're saying, right? So therefore, that'll help us go ahead and get those eminences on the north and the south of the town. right, or county, right, because I know I've got some families on the way north. They deserve the same treatment as the guys or the families that are in the urban side. I mean, so the rural side, we can't forget about them by any means. I mean, I'm born and raised out there, so if I need an ambulance or if Grandad needs an ambulance, I want him to get it as quick as possible so we can get him where he needs to go. So same thing on the forward side here, south end of town, Three Rivers and all that, they need to be to ambulances wherever they need to go. They need to get there quickly, so we need to go ahead and do whatever agreement we need to do so that they can go and get us out with this force and we go from there. Does that require us to say anything aside for that or how does that, what does that look like?

I would assume, I mean, if you're asking me, that's my opinion. Everybody has an opportunity to express, but, you know, we're in budgeting. We're fixing to go into budgeting. I personally would have no problem where the, where staff and ourselves, what involvement we all have in budgeting, earmark think the number was a million six if I've memorized that correct mean six earmark that and then this way going into budgeting we got that number but we also got a backup plan as David said you know if we put our good plan together because I don't think nobody's saying that we don't want to have it we just got to have a sustainable plan going forth to be on staff and do whatever but we also know yeah sure we also know that

It's going to take a while to get these out. Absolutely. So I think what we need to do, and I said this at the last meeting, we can go ahead and set the money aside right now. We have it. If they buy the ambulance, we just put it back in the fund. You know what I'm saying? Because if they're willing to work where it sounds like they are, we can't order the ambulances, though, unless we have money budgeted for those ambulances. If we go ahead and budget money for those three ambulances right now,

could go ahead and get the order done and get them on you know because from what i've heard it might be eight months if we start now you know what i'm saying you made it as far as getting it as far as getting the analysis here right yeah okay and i won't make that but the only concern i got with that is simply you know i feel like if we dedicate ourselves to this thing we can come up with a resolution and a plan within a month's time. And the only reason I say that is this, because neither one of us know what the immediate future holds on this budget. Now, and I know what you said last time, Rock, on the, you know, contingency money. You know, I understand that. But my point is, is that I'd hate like heck, you know, because the gentleman just said, they got to be in agreement with this thing, too. They're the ones that hold the contract, you know. So... I think that would be stepping out there just a little bit. I think we could get this thing realistically is a reasonable to think that if Jeff and staff can come up with a plan, if you want to call it that we could realistically get an agreement within the next month, month and a half. I mean, I don't think that's this is not a we're not building Empire State Building, but then again, I just want to make sure that and because as the Lakeshore Hospital Authority said, I think when I went back to this they want a sustainable plan, which I think is a real, real good, I don't think that's asking too much. And when I say sustainable, in my opinion, I think this contracts for another three years, right? For three years. So I would like to see the sustainability play out for, you know, be able to, okay, we're going to be able to do this for three years. Regardless whether the moon falls to the earth or not, we're going to be able to do this for three years. You know, so I think that's just diligent on our part.

Sure. sure the so i think we still as we talked about it earlier in a previous meeting or maybe it was a workshop but that workshop confused me last week and i was just a little confused and me personally if i'm confused you don't spend money when you're confused you'll make decisions when you're confused you got your clarity so i think that the decision we we still want to go with the county running it ems in 2029 when america does their exit interview is that is that still what we're at I thought that's what we were kind of, where we were kind of headed at the last meeting and the workshop. We were kind of talking about those. If that's the case, then we get an agreement. We get our letter together. We give it to the hospital authority. They buy three. We still need to be prepping for that 2029 when AmeriPro does their exit interview. We still have to have something on the ground. So then if that's the route that we're taking, we still need to try to try to prepare for that. And that time is now.

go ahead make yourself way up Mr. Parnell I would say absolutely you know we got to have a plan in place irregardless whether we use it or not you know I mean Jeff is our best advocate on this you know we messed around here over the years and try to wait till the last minute come up with a plan and the chairman before Jeff Speeds I'd just like to say I think at the last workshop meeting when we left

that's what we talked about for Jeff to put a plan together am I right have you got that you probably got that plan together I got a 100% budget right here 100% budget I'm not sure exactly what you want on a plan dollar how to fund that budget that's beyond me that's that's David but the dollar amount it costs the The personnel, everything that goes along with it, I've had that for months now. So when we keep asking to make a plan, I'm not sure exactly what you want on a plan. My thought, listening to Mr. Parnell, I was under the same impression of what he was just saying, that three years from now, 2029, when this contract runs out, that the county wanted to be back in the business. If that's not your plan and you plan to stay with a private ambulance service, then buying ambulances is not the right thing to do. And I know y'all probably never would, and I don't want that to come out wrong. What I'm saying is, there's been a lot of talk this week about shoring up contracts is it legal is it not legal is it going to get somebody in trouble and all that if you're going into the idea of this of just trying to shore them up so that they don't have to add extra ambulances and meet their contract you're messing up you know what I'm saying is if mr. Parnell is right and that the board's opinion is that three years from now, we, Columbia County, will be running EMS in-house, then this plan is what you need to do now. You need to buy the ambulances, you need to step into the business, and you need to slowly build it up. Do y'all understand what I'm, I mean, am I confusing anybody? Am I messing up the thought?

over the three-year span if you if columbia county wants to be back running the business running ems this plan is what you need to do mr chairman yes sir may i request that you give us direction to prepare a plan and bring it back to you at the next board meeting that includes direction saying to pursue with the hospital authority the acquisition of the ambulances Their meeting will be after our next board meeting, so you can make decisions at the next board meeting when we bring you back the information.

Is it all right? I'm sorry.

Go ahead, Jeff.

I was going to ask. I have prepared this budget thing here. I didn't know if it was all right if I handed this out to the commissioners and tried to go over and explain, or do I need to just leave this to the other budgeting process?

I don't think that, I would love to have it, Jeff, just to study, you know, just sit here and try to comprehend it in a meeting like this. I don't think it's the right thing to do. But my point is that, and what Jeff's come up there with is good information out there, because that's what, I mean, Jeff had a discussion after the last workshop And that's what he said he was going to do. And I feel like it's probably pretty accurate. What I'm looking for, not only is that right there, is what the picture looks of total investment in between now and that three years. Is that three years what we're going to do? And how are we going to acquire that money? That's got to be taken into account. Hold on a minute. That's all got to be taken into account with places to put it. If it's going to be extra staff over and above what we've got, where do we put them to sleep? So that's all going to be taken into the equation. And I would challenge Jeff, and I'm just talking to a Lake County individual in your business. Jeff, I would ask that if there's a way, and I don't know that there's a way, how many pairbacks do we have now? 15 probably in that range yes okay just say there's 10 just say there's 10. it you know with the advancement of two more units just doing what we're talking to let's get some immediate coverage on our rural areas you know to work with these gentlemen uh my question is with the paramedics we have in place with maybe adding on additional firefighters. Is there a possibility of coming up with a plan like that, Jeff, where it's less impactful to the dollar? You ever thought about that?

Yes. There is a lot of talk about that, and I know that some of the commissioners have reached out to other areas that have run that kind of Suwannee County. They used to do that. They got away from that because it doesn't work well with a very high call volume, which is, Columbia County has a lot higher call volume than Suwannee has. Suwannee's call volume has slowly crept up, so they got away from the firemen either jumping on an ambulance or jumping on a fire truck. It's not a good plan because when you do something like that, take the south end of the county, or take north end of the county since it's opened up up there. If that crew jumps on an ambulance and they run a call and all, they're out of that area for a good two hours probably. By the time you go to the call, take them to the hospital, get a clamp, get back, get in service, you're gonna be gone a lot more. Right now, if you put a unit up there but you leave the fireman up there, the fireman run to a call with them, ambulance gets there and transports where the fire unit's already back in service. That ALS engine's back in service, ready to take more calls while that ambulance is going to the hospital.

Is that what y'all called the hybrid?

That was the hybrid system y'all talked about. And like I said, with a very low call volume, will work to a point, but our call volumes are not low. I mean, our guys from AmeriPro, he just told you the other day, how many calls did you say there was in one day? So our call volumes aren't that low. It's not easy to do something like that.

So when we prepare, my point is that that's the total number I'm looking for. I'm not opposed to it. I'm just saying we need the real number because

I don't want to throw kink in it but what happens you got to have a plan there there were chairman I may answer that a little bit that was part of the reason of building this budget there has been a lot of numbers I've heard thrown away around and some of them are just really highly ridiculous numbers don't know where they come from but my numbers show that If Lakeshore Hospital Authority buys the ambulances, and all we have to do is budget for the rest of it, then you can do that on a $2.25 million a year. That's first year, because you still have more extra stuff that you have to buy. And there is no money being generated, income being generated off of the second year. actually that that number may go down a little bit if you're not adding more ambulances and all that because you start getting billing in you've already hit a lot of your startup costs and all at that point so the talking about needing to throw out five six million dollars to get started to put the two ambulances on i don't know where that come from but that was bad numbers that that was just ridiculous even if they do not We have to buy the ambulances and all in-house. You can still, you're talking about three, eight, us buying the three ambulances and all the equipment to go on to get started, along with the personnel and stuff. So the numbers are, there is, I mean, it is a substantial amount to me, but it's not what, near the numbers I've heard thrown around.

Fair enough. But I guess, Rob, I think I cut you off. Yeah, I don't know where I'm going with this.

the uh but i guess you know if the next meeting is rushing it i i i like that the accurate numbers and everybody feels comfortable for this board that's what i'm looking at and i'm just speaking for myself chairman yesterday i would just like for every all the commissioners keep in mind they're still running five and a half atlantis swanee county has eight they run every day other counties like us have nine to eleven over our population just saying whatever we do we we've got to start we got to move forward we we're lacking we're way behind and I'm just telling you time is of the essence I mean I can't justify to my people why we have five and a half emphasis in the south of the county they read I mean they hear this they know what's going on they're calling me I'm sure they're calling you and don't know what to tell them but i'm trying to get more emphasis and we can't make them put another amazon we can't make them put two more emphasis on but we could move forward with some emphasis joel is there anything in their contract says we can't put eminence on the road no sir nothing explicit in the contract that's what i thought um i think the issue that uh chief crawford is raising is

Are you adding ambulances to shore of their contract, or are you adding ambulances, which I think you're saying, in the interest of public safety?

I'm adding ambulances. I'm just like Ms. Parnell. In 2029, I think the county needs to be back in the ambulance business. That's the only way us commissioners and the staff have control over the ambulance. That way we can control what happens.

yes we know what we need to do what we need don't need to do yes sir and part of the and i think everybody involved in this would agree the industry's shifted very rapidly because of inflation and all these other sort of issues that have that have sort of thrown all the numbers that used to be good numbers out of whack right reimbursement rates are still not where they need to be there's lots of things that are out of whack so while that might be the three-year objective we have to keep open the possibility i think this is commercial commissioner murphy's point we don't know what's going to happen the next 36 months So I think what you're saying and what Commissioner Parnell is saying is let's expand our options. Let's make sure we have more options than less options by the end of this next three-year period. And I think that does make a lot of sense. But in terms of, you know, we're definitely going to go into the business within three years. I don't think Chief Crawford would tell you that he knows for sure we can do it. But I think what you're doing is giving yourself the options by opening up these other avenues to provide the service. And what I've been saying is having some stake in the service. Right now, you have no stake. You've got a contract. That's it. If you have some stake in it, you can control it. You can understand it better.

And Mr. Chair?

Defense. Go ahead.

Oh, I was going to. And as you had said earlier, and this is something we need to sit down with AmeriPro and the fire department and kind of work through the details. And I think we need that time to have those meetings to give you an accurate and an adequate plan for how we provide for our citizens.

In defense of Jeff, the budget that he's worked up, I'll almost assure you, is pretty darn accurate. And my point is that, but as Jeff said, and he's right, this is what I say is going to take the all decide for that and there's gonna be some kings and I'm sure it's not picture-perfect but I bet you they don't do that but my point is simply this is that with that being said just like Jeff said we got to be able to sustainably it's up to us to find out where that money's at you know I mean two years ago if you told me we'd be spending almost what's that million dollars on

whatever it is it is we've got to do it we've got an obligation to our constituents if it costs a million and a half dollars or two million dollars or three million dollars i don't know how you get out of it you've got to provide this service to your constituents

mean that's just a fact that's the fact i think i think that i don't think that i don't think this is what jeff meant you meant that we shouldn't even do the plan you you think we ought to do the two ambulances no matter what we're going to do in the future the two animals are good i'm saying if you're i heard you wrong i thought you mean what i'm saying is i'm saying is if if it was in anybody's head

that you're buying these two ambulances to help shore up their contract that is a wrong idea that's not why you need to buy these ambulances that's not what needs to be done you're not trying to shore up a contract you're trying to transition something you that is what needs to be the thought okay so so i don't know how so we need to be fully committed to being a full

so we don't want those two ambulances unless we are fully committed to come up with the money to have a all county thing in three years is that what you're saying we don't need those two that's not exactly what i'm saying either okay um mr chair hold on a minute go ahead jeff uh what what i'm saying is is if you want the extra coverage in the north and south

By their own admission, the heat maps need to govern where they're going to put ambulances and all. On our side, and I don't mean this to sound really bad, but we're not following the dollar. We're following the people out there that need the ambulance. they and i don't mean meaning this to be bad against them but any good business they've got to to make their time they've got to do their stuff and they've they've got to make a profit at it we we don't we our our total focus on everything is is the person the constituent the the best service that i can get to them at the best time i can do it uh at the best amount of money of course we have to do them all we can't i mean Money always plays into everything, but I wanted to make one more little point when you're talking about using these only as backup ambulances when all of theirs are busy. Realistically, say the instance you gave, if they're sitting at Quentin Street, and a call comes in up at Milton's store, and we had an ambulance sit, I mean, they're sitting at Quentin, and we have an ambulance at Mershon Road,

them for us to sit there and for them to go by us to call boy that's that's going to create a monstrous mess you just don't even want to do that thank you yes sir i think we're getting away from the original concept of what we were talking about i think it's more what we were just saying and using the north end's perfect example you know if they station at quinton because it's easy to get to wherever they need to get to wherever they need to get to and we station our ambulance Mershon, Suwannee Valley, someplace in the very northern end of the county. What you're saying is those northern end of the counties, which no matter where they're at, it still won't take them 20 minutes to get to, we can cut the time getting to our citizens in those remote areas. This is not about shoring up their services. It's not about supporting them on their time. It's about getting an ambulance to the areas that are the most remote in the county and You're not showing... I'm not suggesting we plan for 10 years from now, 15 years from now. The immediate need is getting an ambulance to the most remote areas of the county.

right what i was and i guess what i was trying to say was that you're not wanting to shore up their contract that's not what you're doing you're you're wanting to enhance the service to the county please don't take it they're still going to be liable for everything in their contract their times their minimum ambulances all that still they're still required but you want to go if you're wanting these ambulances you're wanting to go above and beyond what the the requirements of their contract is, and you want to enhance the service to these people. That's what I was trying to get out.

And it's helping an Indian population that lives remotely and has a very difficult time getting to, and anybody would have a difficult time getting to. That was the whole reason we started down this path, is how do we help those citizens that are on the far extremes.

And that's where, as far as the rush, I think there's a lot of work I mean I'm sure if you guys come together with this and you know I think I think it's a good idea going in another workshop we know in our head we got a million six years your regards what but you know I think it's I truly think that we need to go ahead and staff we're here marking million six you know we don't know what's going to happen but when you do any budgeting go ahead and plan there's a million six gone correct you know you know chairman we don't know what the new monies are we don't know what the you know they're on so i think that's just good business chairman yes sir i just want to repeat again we'll have possibly eight months to get our plan together while these ambulance are getting here we're gonna have to staff these tomorrow or next week you're talking about February of next year so what you're saying mr. Ford is simply this let's go ahead by the ambulance irregardless what the cost of the taxpayer is going to be it is going to be what you're willing to buck up and say if it costs you're willing to do that. Is that what you're saying? I think Jeff just put a budget together. I'm telling you. I'm talking about me and you. That's what you're saying, Rocky. I am. You're saying that publicly. That's your opinion. My opinion's not that. You're just saying whatever it costs to put ambulances back in this county, you're good with that.

regardless what the bottom line is well I think the studies showed what we've seen the numbers that's not what I'm asking I'm asking a point are you willing to put I'm confident I'm confident we can do a better job with less money yes I'm confident we can do a better job with less money none of us have been in the ambulance business and I'm not against these ambulances but I am not willing to stick by the future of Columbia County out I know we're going to take care of our and I'm just going to share this with you board

I'm in the process of putting a team together to go to Shams Teaching Hospital to come up with a plan to put an emergency center in here. If you'll do the research, and everyone of you can, every single dollar you spend sales tax-wise, you're subsidizing Shams Teaching Hospital down there. Why are they down there in Gainesville the way they are? All the emergency centers. Not, not, not... urgent care, nothing like that. They're down there because they got the doctors. They owe it to us also. You put one more 24 hour a day emergency center within the boundaries of Columbia County, you'll stop a lot of that problem right there that you got on your trip. They got all them places in there. So what I'm saying, let's be smart. Let's think about it. We got to look at every single avenue because Jeff's budget over there that he come up with, I guarantee you, is

pretty dang accurate so my point is is that we also got to take into equation of all the issues that we also got facing us here and I'll tell you I appreciate your plan but you're talking about 10-15 years down the road baby maybe eight years at least to get a emergency center here ready built there's no plans at all I mean I'm just saying we can't put that can't put faith and they will build an emergency center here no no we can't but nobody should put down their dash but we got and i i appreciate you asking and that's a good idea it's great i'm okay with that but i'm just saying that's not helping us right now that's not helping the situation we have right now mr chair do we have a motion on the board no right now we have a motion okay so i think we need to

Form that plan, come back next meeting. Form that plan, come back next meeting, give the hospital authority their permission to go ahead and order those three ambulances when we have our plan at the next meeting. We present that to them, they do the three that they're gonna purchase. That way, we can hopefully use those three, one north, one south, then you have a backup ambulance as well. Form that plan, budget season, we come up, we see exactly what Jeff has on his budget, We use that information, and then we go forward with either we're going to get back into the EMS business at the end of 2029 when America does their external view, or we decide we're going to stick with private. Me personally, I think we can handle it as a county. That's just me. That's me personally talking as Kevin Parnell, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But I think for right now, we need to get that plan together. by the last meeting, present that Lakeshore Hospital Authority and go in order of those three. Because I need the ambulance north, Rocky needs the ambulance on the south end of town, and we need to move forward with that here today.

So do we need a motion for that? Can you add it to your motion that if Lakeshore Hospital refuses, that we take it on ourselves to buy these, to go and purchase these ambulance? Because we don't know what they're going to do, but we hope they do do that. I mean, that would be great if they do, sir.

We have the letter that says that. I agree with that. We have the letter. So let's go with that. So if that's the case, I'll make a motion. I'll make a motion that we come back to the next board meeting in two weeks from now with a plan for Lake Shore Hospital Authority for them to go ahead and order the three amnesties that we need here in Clemmie County. Is that what he's saying, or is my wording correct?

Your motion is very clear. Okay. I just want to interrupt you, Kevin. Okay. staff is reasonable to think you can get those copies, but that's all that.

We will work very hard to meet that.

If you don't have it, please be... We'll come back to the next meeting in time.

I appreciate it.

Before the meeting. If you will, let us know before the meeting so that we don't get here without anticipation.

I just want good information when we get it. So that's the motion. Yes, sir. I mean, you are correct. It is a very tight time frame because you're not talking bringing it back July 2nd. You're talking about having it a week before July 2nd. So that gives us a week. But next week is your last second, right? Next week is your last second. No, next week. No, you've got two weeks. We've got two weeks. So it has to be ready, not by next Friday, but the Friday after.

Oh, that's right, because you've got to be posted. Okay, okay. All I ask, I support his motion, I support his second, but please just reach out to us if you don't think it's comfortable, good, accurate information. We'll deal with it at that time. We've got a plan.

We will say that.

And we will meet with AmeriPro on it.

Motion and second. Any further discussion? Motion and second. Not seeing any. All in favor say aye. Aye. All in favor. Thank you.

Good deal. All right. Wait a minute, what was that? Did you say all opposed say aye?

No, I said all opposed. No, no, no. I heard you both.

You couldn't hear that aye?

Yeah, I heard everybody say aye, but I thought I heard opposed. 100%. Yeah, yeah.

But Jeff, Lance, appreciate y'all's effort and keep doing what you're doing. I appreciate that. Thank y'all. Okay, I'll seek a motion to approve of the consent agenda. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion to adopt. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Okay. Okay, Mr. Kirby.

okay good evening mr chairman um the first item is simply a housekeeping issue anytime you have a change order positive or negative in excess of 10 of the project it requires board approval over at the kennels we did a self-purchase therefore we've got a positive change order Of $29,533, so we need to swap it around from $126,730.76 to $97,196.80. I'll make a motion to approve.

It ain't often we get these. How do you turn that one down?

A second. You shouldn't in a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Kevin, I got to ask the elephant in the room here. Was there a reason?

Yes, sir, we direct purchased it.

Oh, okay, just for the direct, okay. Yes, sir. So you saved the sales tax. That's correct. Yeah, saved the sales tax. That's correct.

Okay, the next item is, y'all may remember five or six weeks ago in Commissioner Pardell's district, we had a huge forest fire. What we determined out of that was a tracer round is what started that forest fire. so chris win with fwc ironically enough the city's doing some work out of the airport and they've asked us to go in and all about 350 400 loads of field to basically shore up the rafale range burn put wings on it whatsoever we could do everything in-house and so i have a question permission we're going to get started monday some of you guys say grace go out there they have not reopened the rifle range until these approvals are made so that's the motion go help them and all in favor say aye aye all opposed

uh kevin thank you before uh david takes place i'd just like to give a little update i think uh mr parnell be tickled to hear this is this just happened walking in here this afternoon uh the uh There's been an email sent to Mr. Krause. David's dealing with it right now from Mr. Chris Wynn. He's been in correspondence with the U.S. Forestry on the, what is called a proposed parking lot at the Moose Lodge. Okay. Rifle Range Road and all that, and spoke with Clint Pittman earlier. Clint had worked on this a year and a half ago that I've been known to eye, but apparently there's... sounds like we fill out the permit request it sounds like it could be reality we're gonna have a parking lot out there and then come up with a plan for this uh possible i'm gonna call it a compost restaurant like you see at hog landing a lot of your uh a lot of your uh u.s parks and what have you got you know where utilities are not available you know so is this at the boat ramp correct And Kevin, if I may, could you elaborate on what the ask is on the access to it and everything, too, please?

So currently at Watertown Lake, we've always partnered with FWC, dock construction, pier, you know, where they fish and all that. There's a lot of folks who use that lake. Well, there's not one ounce of parking as it stands today. You've got Williams Road go into it, and then the parking lot is all owned by the Moose Lodge. And the little road needs to be repaved. It's all messed up. So the Moose Lodge reached out to me and said, hey guys, we want y'all to continue using the parking. Y'all don't have any parking. But we need our parking lot redone. And it is time to redo it. So I reached out to Joel. I said, Joel, is this a public benefit? In my opinion, it is because we spent a lot of money on the dog and the boat ramp and so forth and so on. So if they could give us a perpetual easement, that could work. So I don't have the number. I've got the number figured out. I don't recall it. But Their attorneys did draw up a perpetual easement. Joe has reviewed that. So that is an option. They're not threatening. They're not mad, any of that. They're like, you know, if you're going to use a parking lot, you know, we'd appreciate it. Well, along with that same ask, the comment was, and you know, it would really help us to get guys to quit coming up here to use the restroom. So what I learned, I've done some research on the same parking lot. I called it a bulk bathroom from when I came here to come. So what I'm getting out of it, that tank, though you only pump it out like once a year, has to be buried in the ground. With the current boat ramp and the parking area and all, the water table is so high, it's not applicable there. So what I learned over the last few days, that's the need for additional parking to put the restroom there on a higher hill. And I did have a conversation, I can't remember the guy's name, with U.S. Forest, and I think everybody's on board with this 99-year lease for a dollar or something like that. They've actually already mulched the area, I've been told, that they'll go out there. So you've got two things. Going on right there. A need for parking. And according to the attorney, that's possible. Of course, that's a funding source. Then you've got a restroom need on top of that, which is what you're referring to.

And the kind of neat thing to work with is jumping out there, helping them with this. It looks like they're willing to come on board. And I know Kevin's been getting a call. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I get it. Right, right, right.

We had no parking out there.

Oh, yeah. You have a big event rocky like a turkey shooter. There ain't no place to park. There's a lot of people go to work. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I got this picture in my mind. You know, you take the boat out, you go down rifle range road, turn around, walk down the gravel parking lot, go fishing, you know, and it helps them. But the Boots Lodge has went over and beyond being very, very cooperative with us. They really have. They're good partners.

I know the disabled veterans use that fishing ramp all the time. And again, we have this facility, but no parking and no pressure.

They built that real. One of the veteran gentlemen that I was at the Lifestyles of Richmond yesterday with FPL, and he's mad. I said, that new dock down there is real pretty. He said, that dang thing's hot. He said, that's why I like the old water town. You know, that new long dock they got down there. So anyway, I thought that was pretty neat. Okay. Go ahead, David.

Okay. We can get, there we go. All right, first item I have, these will be real quick.

First should be Arctic Wolf.

Let me go back, there we go. All right, so we need antivirus protection. We currently use Arctic Wolf and we use something called Sentinel-1. Arctic Wolf protects our servers, our system. They do the big things. The Sentinel-1 is being used for the desktops and those types of things. IT would like to go with everything under one roof, Arctic Wolf. It's a little bit more expensive, but Arctic Wolf offers 24-7 protection in the call center and gives you a much better protection from people phishing, streaming, taking over your system. It's just a much better improved system. It's an additional $7,162. We'd like to ask you to approve a contract with Arctic Wolf to take over the rest of our system security. So moved.

Second. We've got a motion to second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye.

That's a lot cheaper than getting hacked.

It sure is.

So the next one's real easy.

We have a lease with Garnier Lightham on the Crawford property, and we want to renew it, same terms, for one more year.

So moved.

second motion second all in favor say aye aye the next item before the delay kills me agreement with north florida industrial railroad this is the uh pinsley group this is the people that were florida golf and atlantic uh they run for our agreement all the rail in the north florida mega industrial park We received the $2 million grant for extending the rail. They would design it, and they would construct it, and they would comply with all terms the grant has, and their only payment would be reimbursement from the grant itself.

And, Board, I've been – economic development naturally runs through them. I've been – involved in this from the beginning. When I say involved, it's simply just keeping up, you know, understanding the grant, what have you, and I just want to point out a couple of things. We're not designing this. It's all on them and I'd just like to make the point publicly that. I would assume I had Joel look at it. I read the thing three or four times. I'm sure y'all read the agreement, the economic development agreement and the grant agreement and it says million dollars is there for to be spent here but it also says across the entire road all the infrastructure everything involved so i just want to put this board on notice when they come knocking on the door and saying that we got to come up another couple million dollars finish this project i got a problem with that okay so and one other thing i'll throw in there there's two commissioners sitting up here at this table that could and may be affected by this in an extreme manner And when I say that, the word is that when you install a crossing, you've got to give up two. I don't know the validity of that, but I do know that it's something to that extreme. It happens all over state of Florida. So with that being said, Norfolk runs north to south. CSX runs east to west. This is on the CSX side of the world. Beware. Stay on top of this project. with whoever's going to be over there i believe i believe on the economic development i mean on the grant chad williams but to my understanding nobody's here chad chad's not been involved in this most recently but my point is is that please stay in contact with staff because when the crossings come to be closed you're the one that's going to get the call yeah you too so

go ahead please have you have you guys already looked into that can you validate that that it's going to be some crosses out the clothes when they do this yes uh the stage is telling us state dot rail division is telling us one for one if we close a crossing we can get a crossing we have identified several crossings i spoke with chad about the crossings today we believe there may be one that would have negligible impact on the public that's a decision that's going to have to be made you are going to have to close crossings

You said we looked at crossings. Who's we?

Chad and I discussed the crossings today. Jennifer and I discussed the crossings. We do have a series of crossings, some of which were suggested that we don't feel is appropriate. This was discussed with Pinsley. This was discussed with Weyerhaeuser. So we are aware this is a very sensitive decision. Chad and I felt that we need to have a meeting with Mr. Kirby, myself, Chad, and the Pinsley people to discuss this.

Okay, so I agree with Tim. I didn't know what was going on today, but I have a lot of crossings in my area, in my district I represent, so if there's going to be something in District 1, I want to be involved in it, too, so that I know what's what, because like Tim said, I'm going to get the call. They're going to call you guys. They're going to call me, so I want to know well in advance, and if there's any way we can combat it or whatever needs to happen, we need to try to look at that because, again, I'm going to be the one getting the phone call, i'm one of the people depend on to look at so i want to know uh they're not calling economy development they're calling me they are so i want to know i don't think i'm going to be affected with that one they have a depot but no train tracks mr kirby i do not recall the number or this first card and i've not been involved in a long time

i run the schedule of values of what was constructed on the north side of us 90 a few years ago we run that rail track come across 90 and whatever it on the other side and based on that schedule of values was that three years ago that yes at least completed by then yeah the number of two million dollars just based on that one contract it is impossible to do the length the crossing financially, based on that schedule values.

If you remember, probably not me, you had that discussion, I think the gentleman at Anderson Club had provided us some schedule values, and that's where I got really, really concerned. And where I also got a little bit concerned, we're out there fixing and building a new, nice road, and I sure wish there was a way that whoever, what did you say,

Well, it'll yes, it's okay.

You know, I think it's crazy to build a beautiful brand new road and then two months later, cut it up. So I'm just saying this, but I just wanted to bring that kind of paying attention to this. I'm not saying anybody's done anything wrong. I'm just saying that. But I read that. I read that agreement pretty close. And that's why I reached out to Joel. And I just wanted to put it there because again if we go into if we head towards amethyst it's going to be real hard to come up with three million bucks but this don't obligate us to do that right that's what i'm saying right our obligation is the two million dollar grant beyond the two million grant there's no obligation I know what a neighbor across the next county paid for a crossing here while I'm back. So anyway, okay, so with that being said, any further discussion? I need a motion. So moved. Got a motion. Got a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. Thank you, David.

And then the last one I have, wrong way again. I'll get used to this new controller. There's an addition after this one, but the last item I have is the call for a public hearing. This would be called for the second meeting in July, which would be the 16th at 5.30 p.m. These are changes in state law that we are going to have to do. They've been reviewed by Patrick, I can't pronounce his last name, Patrick Kay, who is the attorney for the Planning and Zoning and Land Development Boards, and he gave them the language. If you set the public hearing, we of course will put it in ordinance format, and advertise it, and have the public hearing at your next night board meeting, which would be July 16th.

This is just call for the public hearing. That is it. I'll make the motion to set the public hearing for the next called meeting. second no no no second meeting in july second meeting in july second meeting in july second meeting in july get uh rocky you you know anything about this i mean in your world sewage world you know with the sword you do you got a you know anything about what's going on so

from my best understandings, DEPs took over now. They've got, they're saying that they're not going to go out and verify existing septic tanks and stuff like that. From what I can gather, they're not, and I'm a little rusty on this because my daughter and son-in-law took over my business, so I don't stay up on all the new stuff as much as I should. So basically, there's nobody going to verify that that tank was ever put in or And they're wanting us to, Troy, we're going to get, what's going to happen is we're going to give a CO to somebody without a 70 tank if we're not careful. And that's what this is fixing.

And that's what the state law requires. The state law requires us to issue the, without whether they have a, go ahead, Joe.

This is another example of the Tallahassee telling you how you're going to run your building permits. a lot of jurisdictions would say you had to be further along in the septic tank process before we're going to take your building permit you know you need to now i think all they have to show is that they've made an application for a septic tank and you have to say so we don't have much houses that's where trolleys are saying the center tank is going to be a deliverer well well before you had to have a signed off to get the building permit i got you now all you have to do is show you the platform and that's the whole process where i was going with that is

all permits are approved. So if you apply for one and it don't get approved and you go out and build a house,

you got a problem you know so so everywhere yeah what's being done to your ordinances just so you know because this is now a it's it's you know it's been uh you guys are knocked out of this right they've occupied the field so your ordinance now is just going to say whatever state law says so that's what the amendment when you see the ordinance it's going to take that very specific language and just say we'll we'll perform that step in accordance with state law and i was informed by my daughter

yesterday that swanee county is already doing this if you got an application they're issuing you an apartment yeah that's what the state law requires yeah that's what i'm saying that's what she said i guess they don't really have a choice isn't it you know and uh board if i may uh

Item number six, that was David removed off there. The clerk also reached out to me and told me the funds were no longer needed for what he needed for, so that's why it was taken off, just if anybody had a question.

Oh, sure. They did away with that? Sir? He did away with that?

Yeah, he did away with it. He didn't need that money.

Okay, so you have one addition, the extension of the CDBG grant for housing. You had one addition that you approved, which was the extension of the CDBG housing grant for three more months. And it cannot be extended beyond that. Antonio, yeah, they actually executed two more housing grants. One was a CDBG grant, which would be the last one we do under this particular grant, which is the old And then the other one was with the last remaining ARPA funds. They got different regulations, but they had the signings at the same time. So you have one more house to do, and then the other house, due to technical reasons, could not be done. You do have another grant out there for housing. You have selected a different firm to provide those services, and we're waiting to get the contracts back before we can proceed with that.

But this work can be done, it sounds like, within the three-month extension?

That is what Antonio says. That's what the contractor said. Okay.

Do we need to vote on this? Yes. So what does he say?

Vote to approve the extension of the CDBG grant.

Vote to approve the extension of the CDBG grant.

Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay. Open public comments. Three minutes. I've got... uh mr lewis beams i think it is if i misspoke there i apologize close enough huh and uh yeah certainly the three benches there please keep it as close as you can but thank you for your time i appreciate it tonight i'm speaking about the columbia ems inc that you got rid of because of their their uh

They were really messing up, put it that way, and I don't think somebody dropped the ball and didn't look up their record from the past when they were in Broward County and. West Palm County and a few other ones because I was hurt by this and was company for four months. I don't know who I tried to contact. Many people in the government here first was EMS. No answer for months. Uh, Mr. Cross, no answer for four months, except for last month that I started getting some contact. Uh, Mr. Foreman, he just ignored me. The only one that did was Mr. Phillips that actually got the ball rolling to get me the, what I needed to have of. going to the health department, making your plane, you know, y'all it's not against y'all. You just, somebody dropped the ball when they hired that, they hired that place because I received besides the report, uh, it was a report made on me from the criminal standpoint. Okay. Which in the future, just to let you know, uh, that if you're going to do it, you own an ambulance, make sure your liability is covered because I have a lawsuit against GMC. I have a lawsuit against this chameleon company. I was hit on I-75 by an AT wheeler truck. I had a brand new car. Things didn't work. Really traumatic. I flipped over four times. It was the same day that the family was killed by the gentleman that made a U-turn. It was the same day, so I didn't get no coverage. But, yeah, they weren't stocked. The MLS wasn't stocked. Gave me an 18-gauge needle, which is like doing a horse. I have neck problems already They gave wanted to give me a 3x large neck brace Okay, and which I said no you'll you'll do something. It'll mess me up and there was you know, I was I mean the whole thing I've gave copies to everybody if you there's not time to reflect right now But you'll see the differences and that she lied on her report whether it's AI or not She lied and that's a criminal offense So her name was Deborah Langford, and the basic EMT that was with her only had three months. They missed my veins seven times. I was treated like a piece of garbage at Lake City Medical, and I never would even send my dog there besides that. And I wasn't too happy that I couldn't get no answer from anybody in the county about this after I received my report. about how bad it was and how she lied on it because it says right there, the only poor says right there. Okay. She, she went against the report, signed it and it's two different things. So I just want to let y'all know that the next one, I'm sure they'll do a great job, you know, but, um, they're not very, uh, they weren't very good.

Appreciate you. Thank you for your time.

I appreciate it.

Sean.

Well, Sean, did I understand him to say that he does a research club EMS in South Florida? I thought that's what he said. Is that what you said? Club EMS was a new startup company right here. They've never been in South Florida. Huh? No, sir. You're not talking about the same company. You're not talking about the same company. They're from right here. They've never been anywhere. There was a new startup company. I got my reports from City Group.

No, you're incorrect. Okay, we're not going to debate you. That's for the record. Someone should have got contact with me if it was. Okay. Thank you.

Sean? He was in Kentucky.

Thank you, commissioners, for letting me speak. I'm Sean Holmgren with the Columbia County Makerspace. We're a nonprofit that was formed three years ago to try to teach electronic and teach a little bit of an educational approach to workforce development for things like drones and aerospace and technology that may be coming to Columbia County. You've shown an interest in supporting our mission. We're trying to put up a lab where we can have 3D printers and where we can have things that are technology driven that are going to teach people careers that will align with some of the companies that are coming to town that are going to do Whether it's building cars or building battery banks or whatever it is that technology is coming to town. So we're trying to align ourselves as a workforce development strategy. We've worked with CareerSource and we've got some programs that are sort of aligned to train people in the right direction. And you showed an interest last fall in sponsoring us and giving us some space so that we could put together a training ground where we can teach people how to do CNC and do 3D printing and do AI. And just you've given us an indication that you wanted to sponsor a training space for us in the old Lake City reporter building. And we're asking for the back of the building, which is unused. It's a warehouse, it's a garage space. It's not tapped, it's not planned. And we were told last fall, you would give us this space once career source moved in and once the renovations were complete on the building and once everything else fell into place so we've been waiting patiently for six months for all the gears to fall into line career source moved in last month and i stand to lose about ten thousand dollars worth of donations if i can't get space to just put pallets of donations I literally, if I can't get donation space in the next month.

We talked about it six months ago. What he's asking is, he's got a bunch of equipment that you were given.

I don't even have to have access to the building.

All he wants to do is store it. That's all he wants to do. Do we have a place to do that? at the building that we offered him?

I need a couple of three pallets worth of storage so that I don't lose $20,000 worth of donations from a guy who's basically selling his house and getting rid of a commercial building. So please help me not lose these donations.

We will work with him. The issue that we have is... You've got two-year-old water that's stored there. All right. So in working with Chad and Chad Williams and Donnie on the report, there's not enough money to finish the renovations with the existing funds. So they're trying to come up with a cost estimate that they can bring as part of the budget process to finish the renovations. They are hesitant to have somebody move into the building while they're renting.

You're not wanting to move into the building. You just want to have a place to store these three pallets.

I swear we don't need to have people in the place, but I don't want to lose $20,000 worth of donations while I'm waiting for us.

But again, you need a place to store three pallets.

That's it.

You don't want to come in here and do anything. You don't want to occupy the building.

Until you're ready for me, I promise.

We're talking about back here in the warehouse area, what I remember.

Okay, so David, what you're saying is we can find him a place to put three pounds. Okay.

So, Sean, you heard it?

Gentlemen, at my request, God bless you all.

I want to know.

I told him to come up here.

I appreciate you coming up. I thank you all. Yeah. Sorry, Sean. Thank you, Sean. We appreciate what you do.

Yeah. I understand.

Well, if you got somebody giving, it's a good time to take control of it. Thank you. Anybody else up here? Oh, we get to hear Dennis tonight.

That's newish.

Dennis Rivera, PIO for the County. Thank you, Board. Just a comment on Mr. Lewis, who's up here. Wanted the Board to understand, at no time did we ever ignore any calls from him. In fact, I spoke to him on the phone. I know Mr. Krause spoke to him as well. And we told him that we acknowledge that he has some concerns. And he even mentioned speaking to the attorney as well. And we spoke afterwards to the attorney, and we found out that he never had any contact.

We don't need to hear that from you. But I appreciate your concern, but that's all we need. We weren't mad. We know you, Angela. Okay, anybody else? Oops, okay. Ma'am, did you put your hand up too? Okay.

Uh-oh, he's going to knock it off.

trisha christensen 643 southwest sherry circle everett phillips is my commissioner um okay it was brought to my attention today by a friend that came over from jacksonville i'm addressing the cat thing again okay she said that over there that they do have a mobile unit that will go out and it might be a way for the County to take care of some of the feral cat situation for a mobile unit that would go out and they catch the ferals and they actually do the hands-on catching and spaying and neutering. And then they take them and, you know, turn them loose. And, but she said that it's a mobile unit where, because I looked into trying to take care of my situation. And if I could only take three cats at a time down to the university to get them spayed and neutered, I'm going to be making 10 trips back and forth to the university to do this. And on top of that, I don't know if it's possible for me to catch them all. I went back up to the Humane Society and I said, the other day, and I asked them about the cat situation. They said, they're full. They don't have room for anymore at all. And I went over to animal control and I spoke with them and they said, the gal at the desk, after I finished explaining, she said to me that she was going to try to turn it over to a private rescue thing where maybe they would come out and get them. But we have to do something. I'm sorry. Nobody else in the neighborhood feeds these cats. They've been there since day one when I moved into the place. And it's just a bad situation. And I still think that the county needs to set it up where people that have cats and dogs that they need to be permitted and they need to be registered. I know it's probably a pain, it's a lot of paperwork, but I think that maybe it will make some people more responsible to take care of their animals and not just abandon them and leave them. And I think it's, and I'm not just talking cats, I'm also talking dogs. I mean, the whole situation, we've got too many people out here that are not good good uh owners and you see it on tv every day where people are abusing the animals and not taking care of them and i'm actually stepped up to the plate i'm feeding i i feed them just to make sure they're taken care of i'm going to leave it at that but can i make one more comment about something else okay the thing about the septic tanks when you were talking about that is this something where it's going to affect people that already have septic tanks or is it just upcoming ones so it's new permits and stuff okay and what other thing quick i know um this is it um i would like to know on the uh lord senior moment forget it i'll catch you next time thank you but really think think hard though about the about the making these people register their animals and stuff my sister now has acquired two two cats that she found out

Thank you

So my name's Liam Boyle. I did come to this special meeting about the EMS stuff. My background is cardiac. I can tell you what I see from a daily basis from every single hospital from Lake City to Gainesville. I know what I see. i know the reputations of every ambulance company that is around here um i did my research in the last meeting as well mayor pro is in 10 states only 34 counties across those 10 states three in florida that are extremely rural areas us fort walton and bay so my opinion is they are taking advantage of us that's my opinion um i do think that i hope the next meeting there will be resolution and this will not turn into another get let's wait let's come up with another plan where's this money coming from um there is something's got to be done to start moving in the right direction um a freestanding emergency room just to let you know has a two hour limit you fix and you ship so even if you bring shane's here and i understand where you're coming from um They have two hours to make a decision and ship. Here in Lake City, I, once again, if you are having a heart attack, they, in the middle of the night, they're sending you to Gainesville. You're getting sent. I've worked in the cardiac cath lab at North Florida, and I have many times heard, like, fly over my house. I saw PTSD listening to, like, fly over my house. I AM PRAYING YOU GUYS MAKE A DECISION BY NEXT WEEK. WE ARE DRASTICALLY GETTING TO THE POINT WHERE THIS IS NOT OKAY AND IT'S GETTING OUT OF CONTROL WITH THE AMBULANCES. MAYOR APPROVED DOES NOT HAVE A GOOD REPUTATION. I DON'T KNOW, TOM, I DID HAPPEN TO LOOK UP IN THE MEETING ALSO TO SEE THAT, YES, HE DOES HAVE A VALID DRIVER'S LICENSE AND IT IS UP FOR RENEWAL AT THE END OF THIS YEAR. SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

She showed me this research. She's right.

Ma'am, just real quick, not to put you on the spot. You as a taxpayer in Fleming County.

Yes.

What do you support as far as how to financially support? Would you support that sales tax?

Yes, I would.

Okay.

Yes, I would.

We just draw a poll with you. That's all it was. I mean, I'll judge. That's what I've been asked a lot of people. And I'll be honest with you. I've only had one person tell me no.

In theory, I still have a child whose school age, she does not go to school in Columbia County. And I still pay my taxes for her to go to school. I still support the school that she would be going to.

That was quick. I have a... Wait, wait, wait.

I have one comment.

You can't even hear what you're saying. Every Sunday about fans and lights on Mason City Community Center. Can I go cut the wire?

Ever, you brought this to my attention too. Of course, I have reported it to David. Fort White Community Center. The ceiling fans don't work, and the air conditioner don't work. Oh, man. Either one of them. And also, somebody has toned it off about all the tables and chairs over there.

Okay, some work.

Okay, go ahead, Rock.

Yeah.

Lord have mercy.

So, anyway.

Okay, I'm glad you brought that up, Rock, because I heard that same story, because we had a great organizational meeting here a couple weeks ago about the little Columbia City thing.

Yeah.

And... And boy, I'll say it like it is. I think it's time to take it back because I've been here since 2016 and I've heard that story about the tables and chairs three times. This is number three.

And I told her about the meeting. I was like, look, somebody's got to do inventory when they rent this thing out.

Somebody's got to be responsible.

Right. Somebody's got to do inventory.

And all they're doing is okay i called yesterday three times they're gonna call you a week and a half ago about not getting those uh answers at the uh board office when you call off okay i also called uh planning and zoning twice today all after machine todd i checked with todd todd can these phones be set up if it rings four times to go to somebody else um if i call up here one more time serve the public and I you know that woman for Jacksonville chewed my butt today because she called up there in the office there three times yesterday I backed her up three times so that's six calls that went unanswered that that ain't right guys we got I wasn't in there yesterday there's three arms right here on top of that wall I think three damn people answered tell me thank you answer phone either yep yeah that is your phone yeah yeah i mean not not not our clerk yeah but yeah yeah clerk of course while back i had to call i called every number 15 times not a single answer that's why i asked for cell numbers yeah but but that that's uh but my point is you know uh mr senior reached out earlier this morning about a problem they don't need to answer that phone for money that's the problem when you get paid whether you do your thing or not

Mr. Chair, I do have one item.

I do have one item.

The other day you had a meeting with the Water Utility Authority and their budget.

I'm asking for a workshop before the 16th meeting in the afternoon to go over their budget. On the 13th, they're going to have their workshop and meeting to come up with a budget. So... On the 16th, if the board would like, I would like to have a workshop that afternoon.

They're coming. Shannon's going to bring it to us. You're not presenting their budget.

I'm not presenting their budget.

Okay.

They're meeting that Monday. They're meeting at 930 that morning. They're meeting that Monday in Suwannee County. Right, at 930. But we meet Thursday. We'd like to have one Thursday afternoon to go over their budget stuff. So we need to be here what time? Whatever time the board says. 4 o'clock.

Is it on the 16th? I didn't even know that you said a meeting in Fort White. I mean, White Springs is. I mean, I'm sorry. The library. That library place. Okay, so you say what now?

So their meeting on that Monday, which I believe is the 13th or something like that, our meeting is the 16th. So I'm asking for a budget workshop to go over utilities.

on the 16th at four o'clock four o'clock okay okay okay so shannon you're telling me that shannon has set a meeting for the 16th on that morning no no but that monday before the 16th okay

I mean, you remember we said it the other day at the workshop. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, we said it the other day.

The authority is having a workshop followed by a called meeting.

So, Mr. Chair, you can call this.

It's Monday the 13th.

You can call this later. Okay, okay.

Yeah, it's the 13th, Tim.

That Thursday, we got a... We got a meeting that Thursday night. Okay. We have a meeting that Thursday night. I'd like to have a workshop at 4. So we're going to do the workshop at 4?