Economic Development Board - Regular Meeting

Mr. Kelly?

Here.

Ms. Powers? Here. And Ms. Jemison? I'm here. I think was Jonathan complete on the board yet?

Yes, he is. He had another obligation this month.

And his last month or his last name is? Champion. Champion. So Katie, that would be absent. And then we still have one open position?

Correct. Correct. And I need to bring those before council this next time.

Okay. And we don't have any minutes, but Ryan, what isn't on here is the budget. And so if you will ask Katie to make a copy of that budget for us to discuss.

Yeah, let me. Yeah, I'll I sent you last year's budget, which is the same I just rolled.

We just need to look at

it. Okay. Me do that, and then I'll send that out to the board.

We did it today. Yeah. So in the bylaws, it's a June review of the budget and recommendation. While we're doing this presentation, if Katie can get a copy of that and make for each of us, I think that's what Bliss was asking for.

Okay. Yeah, I also have it. I can bring it up. Perfect.

And then we'll also be electing a chair and vice chair today for the bylaws in June.

All right. How about we have Lou, if you want to do your presentation?

Let's do it. Good morning, everyone.

Morning, Lou.

And thank you for bringing me here, Bliss.

Thank you for coming.

Absolutely. The time took me out of surprise. Should it's usually a little later, right? This meeting?

Nope. No.

It's at eight? Okay. Then good. Because I'm sitting at my desk and I look at like, oh, it's not nine It's eight Okay. Keep it running on Wednesdays.

We're ahead of the banker hours.

All right. Can we go to the next slide? What I'll do, I'll walk you through some general economic indicators and then segue into specifically aviation and aerospace. So what you see here on the screen is basically residential permitting for Volusia County. And this is the first time that I would say that you can see a slight decline in the trend for permitting.

It's driven by really two things. Think about the fact that if you have checked your property values on Zillow, they are high, and they have been high for a while. And combine that with interest rates that have come down, but not a whole lot, they're probably 6.2%, 6.5%. Those two things are slowing down a little bit residential permitting, but ever so slightly. It's not anything dramatic. On the next slide, we'll see the commercial construction. Again, also a slight decline. And I know the bars look smaller. It's basically a different scale, just for reference. But that if you go to the next slide, you'll see what we're investing on from a commercial perspective.

You'll see that people are still moving to the area. So we are still or continue to build multifamily housing. And when you do that, that comes with a lot of things that are commercial in nature, like storage, services, restaurants, and so forth. And a really interesting one that we're keeping an eye on is leisure and hospitality. When COVID occurred, experts were considering that there would be a spike and then it would come down again.

And that, to some extent, has happened in other places. But here in Volusia County, it was never a spike. It just it went up and it stayed up. And investors are keeping an eye on that. And they have been having conversations with developers in the area to build things that look like hotels, things that look like recreation. And we believe that number will continue to grow. So we're keeping an eye on anything that looks like leisure and hospitality. So on the next slide, we'll look at employment. I always say, if you look at the left side of that graph, you'll see a very distinct pattern, what we call the sawtooth. And you can almost tell what month of the year it is just by the placement of the plotting, right?

And once COVID hit and we recovered very quickly, very aggressively, that pattern we never saw again or we haven't seen it yet. But I'll say that employment is very stable. It actually we gained positive employment. And that is significant considering that every semester, every year, we're adding workers to the workforce. And so when we add workers to the workforce and we're able to retain the same employment number, which is right now, conversely, if I talk about unemployment, 4.2, it means that we're actually having more jobs in the county as we move along.

And we like that number. We don't like to see it much higher, but at the same time, we don't like to see it much lower. If we enter the neighborhood of 3%, that's when we start struggling to find good employees for anything. So we're in a good place. Let's look at the breakdown where they're being employed. These are all the different industries where our workforce is being employed. No surprise that number one is health care has been king for a long time. I live just at the edge of Port Orange and New Smyrna. And just there, there's two facilities that have gone up. And I'm sure maybe a couple of 100 employees there alone.

And it's reflective a little bit also the people moving into the community. Again, we need health services. I always say that the job in economic development, our job is to make all those bars equally long. And this goes back to the SADS that we talked about resiliency. Resiliency is achieved when those bars are very long, all of them, equally.

That's your topic, but it's a worthy goal to have everything looking completely green on that bar. That way, if something were to happen with one specific industry, we can rely on all the others to continue to thrive. We have the day we had the Cube Breakfast, we had two three presenters. We had the head of aviation, which is my boss, Cyrus Callum. We had also a representative from Boeing and a representative from Aura Aero. Boeing and Aura Aero together will be responsible. I think if you click on the next slide, it's like a oh, Noel, go back. I'm sorry. I'm glad we took away that animation. No, no, you're Okay, there.

Perfect. On manufacturing, just with those two companies coming to town, the number of employees in manufacturing will increase to the same level of construction. It looks like a little thing, but it actually makes a huge difference. And so if we go now to the next slide, we are going to talk about airplanes and rockets. Now, there's a few reasons why that is important.

I'll begin by disclosing that aviation in aerospace, it's still small in our county as an industry compared to health care, for example, but one that, as you'll see in a moment, has grown rapidly. So keeping an eye on it makes a lot of sense, the same way that we are actively recruiting for businesses in specifically those areas. So it makes sense to look at what's happening there. So if you go to the next slide, you'll see I'll kind of walk you through the national picture and then walk our way to the state and then the county level. At the national level, this is an industry that brings $1,000,000,000,000 with a T, dollars 1,000,000,000,000 in GDP.

And if you we've kind of broke it down into two parts. Anything that is direct aviation and on the other side, anything that we call catalytic, so basically, like the expenses that a traveler would incur in. But again, together, dollars 1,000,000,000,000, which I hope it hints at the fact that, yeah, it's important to look at and to keep an eye on. If you go on to the next, now we're going to look at the Florida level. You can read what's on the screen.

I get that. Let me highlight just a couple of things. We are Florida is the number one state for MROs, for maintenance and repair operations. So every time an airplane will be repaired or updated or overhauled, we are the number one state to make that happen. And we're the third on manufacturing. So anything that is aircraft manufactured, we're number three. Those two things are very important, very big. If you see in aviation establishments, more than 2,000. And aerospace, which is a more niche market, if you will, more than 700. And again, this is Florida alone.

On the next slide, we'll kind of look at the same picture a little bit on yes, thank you. So the Florida Aviation system economic impact, we have about 2,000,000 jobs and a GDP of roughly $330,000,000,000 split into those categories that you have shown there on the screen. Again, just highlighting how important, how many jobs really this industry represents. On the next slide, we will see the trend over time, how aviation and aerospace have contributed to the GDP. So important to note, you see that graph.

Of course, it took a dip through COVID. But in the last ten years, it has basically doubled. Ninety three percent to me means basically doubling the volume of revenue, of GDP for the state. Now on the next slide, we'll see Volusia County. Volusia County, interestingly enough, did not take a hit during COVID. And we I wish I had a reason or justification for why that was. We don't know. And we're happy that was the case. But if you look at the right hand side, you'll see the blue box. The total at the bottom, you can see the total GDP for the last ten years increased 61%.

That's the total GDP in the county. And at the top, you'll see the GDP for aerospace and aviation grew faster than the overall GDP. So that tells you something. If this trend continues, we will be in the presence of a big industry for the county, one that is really relevant and one that will bring high paying jobs. On the next slide, we'll see what is driving that GDP in the county.

There are 64 aerospace and aviation businesses in the county. Broken down in those in that pie chart, you can see how where things are going allocated. And if you go to the next one where we see the jobs, focus on the bottom left, where you see total jobs, and you have Volusia County and Florida. So these are the I mean, all jobs. A nurse, a cook, a teacher, all of them together.

We kind of grew at the same rate as Florida. So 1720%. To me, it's not significant in terms of a difference. Now look at the top box where you see the same information, the jobs, but for aerospace and aviation, you will see that we grew faster than Florida and, oh my god, to the tune of 69%. So there are a lot of jobs coming in specifically for aerospace and aviation.

And that's exciting to see. And that trend and if pair that up with the GDP, again, it's highlighting that any efforts, any efforts that we put into this industry to recruit, to help these industries are well, well placed. I don't know if I had anything else after this. That was it? Okay, perfect.

So as a conclusion, I would say that working in economic development and being an economic development board, paying attention to what's happening there is critical for us. I showed you a picture of what has transpired in the last ten years. And that would be I'm excited to see what the next ten years will bring. I, knowing alone with Ora Aero and Boeing, which are not contemplated here because the jobs haven't quite occurred yet. But once they happen, the I mean, just by looking at the math, that number should be 100% growth.

And I wouldn't say ten years. That would happen in next five years. So imagine adding everything else that we hope that we can bring to the area and we can grow here as well. That number should be well above 100%. So we should double that, the aerospace and aviation industry.

If I can add a little comment that I didn't quite say during the Q breakfast, but here, Edgewater, we're probably the closest, Oak Hill and this, to the Space Coast and all the activity taking place there. Melbourne and Cape Canaveral, they're maxed out in terms of capacity. They say it themselves. And if you look at the map, the most viable way to grow is north. So I expect there to be more and more conversations from industries from companies in that industry with us.

And so we need to be ready. That's why I'm excited about some of the things that have been happening recently in terms of approval of projects that look like industrial that have industrial potential because it's coming. I mean, they're going to keep growing. Make no mistake about that. And the one area where they can grow best, especially all the companies, the kinds of companies that support aerospace and aviation that support, would likely end up here. So that's position to be in. So thank you.

What were the two businesses? Aerospace, you said, that were coming in the next

two years?

Yes. So that would be Boeing. So Boeing Where

would they be located at?

So Boeing has a building. I would say it's adjacent to the airport. And for all intents and purposes, it looks like it is Amber Riddle, because it's right next to it. Their defense and, I'm drowning my cybersecurity, research and development division. They are expected to have, on the first phase, about 400 employees, maybe up to 1,000 employees once they complete or ramp up completely.

The other one is Aura Aero. Aura Aero is a French airplane manufacturer. Going to be adjacent they're going to be on airport property just right against the airport. And fun fact, if you are an airplane manufacturer, you're not necessarily able to have access to the runway, but only if you're going to be taken off. And I know that sounds kind of silly, but that differentiation is the key distinction to be able to place a company like Aurora Aero right against the airport.

And we are expected to have ten sixty employees there when it's all said and done. The ramp up is interesting. At first, it's like just a few jobs, maybe 60 or so. But in the second, third year, then they're up to more than 500. They are working with Space Florida to secure financing, specifically for the building.

This is a company that has been very well backed by the French government. They have even direct access to their presence to Macron. And so they have two airplanes. One is a small two seater, all electric, that already has been certified. And I believe it's a first certified airplane of its kind, and it's already flying.

And the second one, which is one that I'm very excited about, it's a 19 seater. And this is a commuter aircraft. If you can remember maybe in the '80s and '90s, how you would have turboprops on airports and flying you from, say, Daytona to Tampa or just short flights. Those went away due to cost. And now we operate more in a hub kind of situation where we fly, for example, to Atlanta and then connect to somewhere else.

This is bringing back those short flights. The airplanes take off on combustion, climb on combustion, and then they cruise on electric and land on electric. That's kind of cool. So they save a lot of and it's a beautiful aircraft. I wish I had a picture of it, but it's beautiful. Beautiful airplane. And those will be manufactured here. So exciting.

Quick question. I know a lot of this generally is a positive trend and it's pretty optimistic. But are there any perceived threats to this growth?

Not that I can think of. If anything, I can say threats of not being able to pull off the plan as we expected. I mean, we always talk about conservation, right, of natural resources. I would say that there's also a threat not having enough industrial space for these kinds of companies that is legitimately a threat that we would lose to other areas. And I really can't think of anything.

We do have kind of like a perfect mix, even for trained workers. I love the fact that we have Embry Riddle combined with Daytona State College. It's really interesting because some of the jobs that are engineering, you would expect them to come from Embry Riddle. But everything else, things that are technical that are required to build an airplane like welding and what have you, Daytona State is so perfect for us. So the combination of those two really speaks to I know that was specifically looking at the combination of those two educational institutions.

So no really downside that I can think of, just really a lot of upside. It's just right now it's on us to have a great execution and to really make it easy on these companies to be able to set up shop locally.

Thank you

I very have one comment. To me, the thing that jumps out is that over the seven years for the MicaPlex, there were two seventy eight student internships. That's pretty cool.

I've actually seen it firsthand. I've seen it, and I've talked to the students that are working in those companies. And their experience is phenomenal. Because when you work there, you're not making copies. You are doing doing actual work. And so their preparation when they finish is above what you would expect anywhere else. I'll give you an example. UCF, great university. And I think they graduate more aerospace engineers than Amber Riddle does. But I doubt that UCF has the same connections that we do here to give them that kind of experience.

Next door.

Exactly, next door. So it's phenomenal. Good observation.

And Lou, I'd like to ask you about the comprehensive space industry opportunity overlay that the county has and the three cities, New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater, and Oak Hill also adopted resolutions similar to support it. Are we actually utilizing that, putting it into action?

I haven't seen so from my office, I haven't seen a whole lot of activity. Would now that you say that, I would enjoy the opportunity, and maybe you and I can sit together with Keith to see if any of the conversations that have surfaced recently may include any activity there in that overlay. But from my office, I have not seen anything.

I just bring it up because with restricted availability of industrial land, it would be great for us to be ready to push that button should we have somebody come.

I'm with you, yes.

And for those who might not remember, I'll let you explain it. The space overlay.

Well, it gives us more flexibility to be able to, if we have a company specifically in this industry, to accommodate them this specific area. I exactly where its boundaries, but it just makes it a whole simpler, at least from a theoretical standpoint, to make that happen.

It's supposed

to fast track everything.

Yes.

And the boundary goes all the way down into Oak Hill.

Yes. And I know the conversations that I've had with our leadership at the county, we want to know that when a company comes to us, in aerospace and aviation specifically, that we're able to show them something, to have something to offer. Utilities are important, water, electricity. So those are things that we need to get up to speed. And there are plans.

So there's just long term plans. In my perfect world, we would have things ready. Even at the airport, we have right now, through an EDA grant, we're able to prepare one lot, one parcel, which is exactly where is planning on being. So it's shovel ready. But the other properties are not quite there yet.

And it's not a cheap endeavor to get those properties up to I mean, having shovel ready. And oftentimes, the companies, when they come, they want the conversation to start by knowing that there is land that is shovel ready because the alternative delays everything a year or two, so with studies in environmental and so forth. And they have to happen, I understand. But wouldn't it be great if all the properties that we have available would be shovel ready immediately for these businesses?

That's kind of important because if they're competing against we're competing against some other town, some other county, some other state even that has this parcel that's shovel ready. And we have here's this parcel, but you're going to be three years to get everything in line. It's a no brainer. Yes.

We can do all the marketing and analysis we want. If we don't have the real estate designated or the availability, it's

It's just there's a lot of money for an owner of that property or anybody to get it shovel ready, right? All right. Environmental studies, all of the permitting, I mean, from experience I get it,

but you also have to have something to sell.

Agreed. So I don't know if there's some way that between the county, the cities, and people owning some of those properties are responsible has any ability. It's just a lot of money. It's nice to say fast tracking and have an overlay, but it would be also nice to fast track some of the shovel ready At this

point, and that is where there are investors. There are people with the capital to make the investments. I've had several conversations in the last couple of months. But they can go somewhere else. Can go in the Midwest, buy it, do everything, and be up and running in eighteen months versus coming here and you're still getting your site selection, your site plan and your other stuff done at the end of the year. And the return on their investment,

they're

just telling me, we like it here, but

just fixed you all.

Call it luck or call it foresight that we applied for this EDA grant to be able to have this parcel 61 or two shovel ready. And that's one of the reasons why Our Era was able to choose us. Mean, were looking everywhere. They were looking at Texas. They were looking Flagler County. And of course, it was a draw to our county because of Amber Riddle and one of their chief of staff graduated there. So that helped. But the biggest help, not going to lie, was knowing that that piece of property would be shovel ready basically now.

Thank you.

No, thank you.

Looking at the clock, I would love to go right into SEDS to support everything he just said.

I think we need to hold a pass on that and go did we get the budget?

Yeah, I can pull it up. We

need to elect a chair and do the budget before

We run out of time.

So I just wanted to point out one thing is just the year over, I published the first quarter for the building department. Although the county is experiencing a decrease, I would say the city of Edgewater is experiencing a huge increase. So you can see from 2024, first quarter, we had three commercial buildings that were approved with an estimated value at 1,800,000 This year, through the first quarter, we've had 18 the And then, to I of progress months. The a the Space Coast Industrial Center will be on next quarters, and that's the first building was a $10,000,000 assessment assessed value. So this may be the city's first year where commercial development exceeds residential assessed value.

So it's a pretty big

That's hallelujah. That is a hallelujah. Yeah, is. Now you're talking about opportunities for people to stay. Something that this young ladies That's for fifteen years.

Have all been working on this all these years. And this is what stay in the course and work in the comprehensive economic development strategy pays off because we have not shelved it. We have not deviated in any way.

So is there in the budget a provision for I mean, Samantha always had SEBMTC, Volusia.

No, he's going to pull it up.

Okay. And

he's just rolling it over.

He's Yep. I just rolled

2025 to 2026.

2024 right there.

Can you just find Did you

Isn't there a search? I I mean, feel my son's pain.

So

this is the CRA budget. I was just going to roll it over because beyond the facade grants we haven't done anything else in the CRA program this year.

Didn't Samantha have some things in here that we were supposed to do with the CRA money like lights in the park and other stuff like that?

Yeah, we've been using a lot of impact fees, park impact fees to upgrade.

So we didn't need the CRA money? Yeah. Okay. Well, that's good.

I guess it was just you could use it either way. I did get another appraisal, two more appraisals done for the little house behind here and then for the large lot immediately there.

What's the sale price of that house right now?

Which one? The little one is $150,000

What about the one that's just down from us, right?

That was the other one. That one is

It's a big piece of land.

Yeah, it's over at It's

not waterfront. But it would be a nice alignment with this facility for sure. Correct.

And what funds are you using for that?

That was the allocation in here at $7.97.

Okay. That's still holdover. Okay.

You don't use that word a lot at all.

Looks like the third one. Sorry. Before you went back, it was it third one on the said 2024. Go back one.

At this one. This is going to be

the same. Well,

let's make it so we can read it.

Just make it a larger. It's all right, we can scroll down. So Team Volusia, 30,000 consistent contact contract. Cost

of contact.

Of contact. Yep. Same.

SCV monthly business luncheons, dollars 500. SCV monthly business after hours, 60. That would be just one then, right?

One what?

One luncheon and one after These hours

these are chamber monthly luncheons for 500 and chamber monthly business after hours for six.

It's just a contribution to support. Okay. Yeah.

Then conferences, should they go on any conferences?

The Team Volusia annual meeting. Is that a that pays for three tickets or something like that? Yes.

Do we use those typically? Yes.

Okay. Mean, I was just wondering if does

And

then those were our representatives on Team Volusia, is that correct? Or one of them So was the there is an elected official anymore that's the Team Volusia?

If they choose to attend.

Okay. I feel like there is always there's like one seat. The past, the mayor has attended.

Okay.

Okay. I was just curious. It's small.

I think there's opportunity. But I think to Bliss' point, the budget should still stay there and we just need to encourage that participation. Yes.

I've reviewed it. I do suggest any changes if anything increases.

Do we need a motion to keep it the

Keep it the same.

Do we need to vote on that?

Yes, we do.

I'll make a motion to approve the budget as is for 2025.

It's twenty five-twenty six, yeah. Second? Second? We'll take all those in we'll just take

a roll.

Mr. Chairman? Yes. Mr. Kelly? Yes. Mrs. Powers? Power. Yes. She's got the power. Sorry.

Katie, will you scroll down just a little bit further? There. Yeah, wanted everybody to see the bottom.

Total. 72.7.

For the SEVMTC budget, you saw your ad. This is your money

20,

Also looking at the clock to get the housekeeping out of the way. We're We need to move on to the election and So vice

our vice Chair last year was John Ward, and he vacated the position at the beginning of this year. So that's open. And then a new election for a Chairperson. Do we have any nominations?

Well, which one are you doing first?

Chair? We'll do the chair first.

Nominate Rebecca. Thank you. I would actually

renominate Bliss. I know she's done it for a lot of years, but she's much more engaged in the mechanics of things, budgets and chamber, probably not. Two nominations. Any discussion?

Well, I'd like to ask before I make a motion, Are either of the candidates nominated willing to serve as chair?

That's a good point. Chairwoman. Chairwoman. Liz? Yes,

she is. Great. So I would like to have a comment.

Yeah, well, I don't know when it comes, but I mean, perhaps chair and vice chair? I know when that

Yeah, and I would say being the title position doesn't mean that you're the one that's always at

No, but I just know that I rely more on Bliss. And she was I think it's been a three year break, right?

Such a break, too. That's good enough.

I'll come back.

But the reality is I'm retiring from business this year. I'm probably going to be one would say I have more opportunity, but there's some travel and other things.

That's good thing. Yeah.

It's the slowing down aspect. I'll still remain on the board if people are willing to have me. Definitely.

Promotion to nominate Bliss Jameson as chairwoman.

I would second that. Alright.

Don't we do a package?

Yes. Flip flop. Okay.

Make a motion. Getting ready for this, sorry. Make a motion for WIS amendment to your motion. Amendment, yes. Amendment to my motion. WIS for chairwoman. Yes.

I know, right? Well, Bliss was never John Ward was our Vice Chair left the Board.

I think of Bliss as

Of course.

All right, let's get this one.

We all do. So the nominations, what I heard, Katie, were Bliss for chair and myself for vice chair. And we'll take a vote on that.

I'll make Howard second.

I'll second it.

Roman Cruz?

I do have one quick thing from my last CAC meeting for the TPO. I just want to make note of something that something has moved up to the A tier on the bike ped projects, the Airpark Road sidewalk from 30th to 442 is up on the A list. That's good news. And it's P and E. Total cost, we're at 10% match, which is going to be $200,000 Say it again?

11,011 thousand now. Okay. But it's saying 10,000

Yes, we are yes, we're working on that. We're working on we have two DOT grants open at the city right now. We have emergency traffic signal in front of the fire station and then a sidewalk connection from 442, the South Side of 442, down Air Park, around to Silver Palm and all the way down Silver Palm to 30th Street to create that connectivity in our sidebar network. It's 11% match. It's about $330,000 on a $3,500,000 sidewalk. So it's a pretty good It's it's pretty good pretty good deal.

It also supports the city's residents' request for more sidewalks or more opportunity.

Correct. And it also just gets you into relatively to our multimodal transportation system, right? That gets you to $4.42. That gets you to the trail. That will eventually get you out into Deering Park, into the Wetland Park. So it's a good thing to provide that connectivity.

Thank you. Mike, Okay. Did you have anything? I didn't. We'll

finish here.

Oh, yeah.

Just happy to share I was happy to represent the board at the Byrne SciTech scholarship. We gave our two $1,000 scholarships to two students. There we have it. May 21, I think.

Same with New Smyrna. It was actually quite fast this time. I spent half the time there that I did the year before.

Because you got a lucky draw.

No, I was at the end this time, Citi. It went backwards. So last year, was at the beginning.

You were the end.

Yes, you were. But I was there for most of it. And it was it went pretty quick. But I think very much appreciated. And I just want to kind of reframe that we think we need to go out and try and get additional funds other than just the ball to support this.

We think businesses can. And that we somehow need to provide schools with trade opportunities. And I don't know if we can increase the scholarship fund, if we can designate some. I would probably be willing to go talk to New Smyrna and maybe that would be the only high school but to try and get kids that are interested in either that you go to some of the trade organizations, whether it's the Lyman College or whether it's Daytona State and provide those funds. And I don't know if we can do that so that kids that sign up, they can sign up for that scholarship. That would be an interesting way.

One last thing on that, because I know we're pushing through. I think that when we agreed as a Board, I think we changed the bylaws as well to include trades. Yes. To your point, I think that's a good thing that we can probably promote a little more this That will make it a little more inclusive for people who will apply for the nontraditional college applicant, which I think is a big missing piece when kids go to apply for scholarships. You're not a college bound kid, you just don't even

don't think about it.

But you still need money for those other things.

Right. Well, I don't know if providing the funds to some of our tech organizations like Daytona State having that available when kids sign up and maybe I don't know. Just promoting of it

in I'm sure we promote it all the way to it. It is inclusive of trade. I don't want to alienate the I'm

taking them out of

the house and we'll get a job until the end of the summer.

I don't know. Like a 21, two, three maybe year old female HVAC tech come to my house to do like the inspection, free inspection, whatever. I was like, you go, girl.

And can make them specific. I mean, they can be if they're representing a minoritized group in that profession, so women firemen, male nurses, you can get that specific if you needed to, if we wanted to.

I don't know. We just need to get people to apply. I just to Mike's point, I don't think students think about that for trade school until they realize that retail isn't going to pay their bills. They're never going to be able to move out mom and dads, and they're not college bound. I don't even know if going to the high schools, which we've done some of that, helps. Maybe it's just an allocation of a fund to I think

it can work. And this is probably a whole other agenda item. But I think you could do it not to recreate your wheel. I think we just need to promote the scholarship a way that is inclusive of a college as well as trade. So when you go when the students that are at the high school, since we only have one, it should be a fairly captive audience, that the people that normally wouldn't apply to college are also realized that, hey, this scholarship, I can apply to because I'm going be an HVAC person or I'm not going to go to college, I'm just going to be whatever, lineman or whatever happens to be. Where they might not go fill out a scholarship application to go to wherever.

Yeah, the problem with that is, I think, at the school level, honestly. I agree.

Well, don't I mean, I There you go.

They're not encouraging those kids to apply for

their scholarship.

I think we need to come up with a handout.

For the

Arnold Scholarship. You're looking for the long haired kid without glasses? Here's a flyer. But

I mean, it gets it out, and then we can put it in that newsletter you all get, the online newsletter parents get? Also some

of the job fairs. Yes. It would be nice to hand those out at the job fairs that are around the community, whether it's at the Brennan Center or whether they do it at the high school, because those are the students looking for a job.

There's not going to

I'm not sure I'll put that on the guidance council. I mean, I'll put a lot stuff on them. I'm not sure I put this particular thing on the high school, because they're managing college scholarships. That's what historically they're asking students to sign up for. And if we're going to be different than that, I'm not sure that the one scholarship for 1,000 or whatever we're giving away, 10 of them or five of them, whatever happens to be, which changes every year, is they're responsible out of 70 scholarships they give away. Oh, hold on. Let me get the city of Edgewater. It's only available an Edgewater kid to go recruit somebody that's not really necessarily going to a four year college.

We can go find

them. That's our job.

It's our job, but it is also their job because they serve each and every

student of But their

we have to guess my

point is we have to relate to them that that is part of it, which is the first year we've really done that. We had never done that before until last year,

right? So what I heard was create a handout, and it would be for we'll put something in the newsletter for the city of Edgewater. Maybe when the scholarships kind of come, maybe we could reword the scholarship that's specific for trade. And then also have that handout be available for any of the job fairs that come around. Because it may not be the person coming, but they may have a child, or they may have a brother or sister that's in school that's like, oh, wow, my parents can't afford to send or they're not interested in college. So I think it's just doing something a little different and a little more.

And I think I heard you volunteered. You did. Did.

That was like a good vice chair job. You

did. Definitely the role of vice chair one.

It is. Can you tell us All right. I have assistance that I can appoint you.

What's the timeline for a city manager?

The city manager?

Yeah. When are they

They're supposed to come next week.

We're having a discussion

on Friday.

Yes, it would be helpful if people were in the audience on Friday afternoon at 04:30 because the council has decided to have a discussion about Friday

at 04:30 when not one person in public could possibly be there unless she retired. But anyway.

Okay. Yeah,

very strategic.

So they're supposed to come next week. We will see if that is still the case.

Have to excuse myself. Apologize. Yes. You. I apologize.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Yeah.

Let's, since we don't have a quorum

I can wait. I can wait.

Motion to adjourn.

Oh, Yep.

Second. Oh.