Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Town of Cutler Bay's Town Council meeting. Today is Wednesday, April 15th, 2026. Mr. Cook, if you could please take the role. Council Member Duncan?

Here. Council Member Ramirez? Here. Council Member Lord?

Here.

Vice Mayor Callahan? Here.

Mayor Mirabon? Present. We have a quorum. All right, if you could all please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, All right, welcome everybody. Mr. Clerk, if you could please read the directions for calling in.

Please be advised that when joining the meeting, you are automatically muted. Welcome to tonight's meeting. The public was able to make public comments prior to the meeting, either by leaving a voicemail message or sending an email to the town clerk. There were no voicemails or emailed public comments received for this evening's meeting. You wish to speak tonight, please press star nine and the host will be alerted. Pressing star nine is known as raising your hand. Once you press star nine, you will be placed in a queue to speak and will be called upon by your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Please wait to be called upon. Please state your name and address. If you are a hired consultant or town employee and or if you're engaged in lobbying activities and or representing an organization, please provide that information before speaking. Please be sure to be in a quiet area to avoid unnecessary noise. A time limit of three minutes will be imposed for each speaker during public comments.

All right, thank you very much. So I'm now opening the floor for public comments. Anybody wishing to speak, please come forward. There's nobody in the auditorium. Anybody in the queue?

No one in the queue.

All right, public comments is now closed. That takes us to our town council announcements. Board and committee reports have all submitted and many additions. As there are now, we'll move on. It takes us to the town manager's report.

Thank you, members of council. Tonight, we have a very special night. Why do I say that? We looks like we did a clean sweep at the American Public Works Association Awards. I'd like to first summarize all different awards and invite the council down. No particular order of importance. The first award we received was for Project of the Year for Southwest 200th Street and 103rd Avenue Traffic Roundabout Project. if you recall that project was done under two million dollars and impactful improvements to safety traffic flow within the residential neighborhood guided by town's traffic calming master plan and supported by detailed traffic study not only did we win the chapter award mayor members of council this won the project of the year award as well for the entire state of florida so that is a great accomplishment for alfredo and his team there Boy, it gets even better. Cassandra Silva won Exceptional Performance Award for Administrative Support. Cassandra's part of our staff was honored by the APWA South Florida branch for the Exceptional Performance Award for Administrative Support in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Public Works Administration with over 15 years of government service. So Cassandra, congratulations. All right. Last but not least, I'm jealous of this guy because he gets his own street sign. Public Works Director Alfredo Quintero won the Public Works Director of the entire, for the year, for the entire state of Florida. I'm very passionate about that. As you recall my journey, I was a Public Works Director and folks know I said Alfredo's a lot more than I do. So congratulations Alfredo and if I could have the Mayor and Council join us downstairs for all the awards.

There you go, bounce back. ready one two four all right

Mayor, members of council, that's just an example of the amazing staff that we have. And I know that not only that, but the rest of the department. So it's definitely Team Manfred. So congratulations to Alfredo Yaneer and the NEAT team and Cassandra. So thank you.

That's another example of them making us look good. So thank you very much.

Next, Mayor, members of council, I have a brief report. As you recall, the last council meeting, the council authorized me to go and negotiate with a consultant for the plans, permitted set plans for the repairs of the existing Cutler Ridge Pool. I have a little presentation there during my negotiations. I wanted to make sure that we have a timeline that shows all the different events that we're going to be having here. So with that, I'd like to go ahead and start the presentation here. Let's see here. Wait, how do we?

Beginning. Okay, there we go.

So what we created is the existing pool. We have the design and permitting phase. It's going to have that design and permitting in all different elements below, which includes the town building and zoning department, electrical and plumbing, Miami-Dade County Derm, Miami-Dade County Health Department, Miami-Dade Fire Department. And then also we have to deal with that 40-year inspection for the main building there with the showers and the pool house there. And then obviously, you know, we're going to have to have some ADA compliance. We don't know where that's going to get triggered. If it's going to be through the health department, we'll, we'll need to explore that when we go through the permitting phase. Next part is going to be the advertisement and bid award. And I don't know if the clerk maybe can move that little translation box there. Cause I'm going to be down there. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to have at that point, am I kidding?

Is it working there?

Okay. Okay, so here our timeline will be October resolution issuance of the bid. Why October? Because we had to go through all the permitting process with all the agencies where we have an approved site set of plans that we could go ahead and provide that to a contractor. October through January will be the bidding cycle. Early January, the bids will be due. January, February, you know, mid-January, early February, we evaluate the bids. And then during the February council meeting, we would award the bid. The materials and acquisition and construction phase. Here we're going to have, obviously, just like we do any typical contract, but it does take time, the performance and payments bond, insurance certificate, execute the contract, issue the notice to proceed, material acquisition, and then the construction will be within six months. The completion phase, which is the, we call it the punch list items. inspections, engineer record certification completion, and then the agency sign-offs, which are Durham, Department of Health, Town, and Miami-Dade County, and then the certificate of occupancy for the building and pool for the town. We know from the report from January 2026, from StanTech, Terry Glunt, that we know it's gonna be somewhere in that $782,000. The exercise here was to make sure we have a more accurate number going through the bidding process. Just showing you, I want to sit for a second. This will show you that the completion date for repair of the existing pool will be November of 2027. Then what I did was we challenged staffs, okay, let's look at the timeline for our Legacy Park. As you recall from the last meeting, Legacy Park includes the community center, the pool, the pool building, town hall, which is, you know, town hall is three stories. We said that we're going to commit of doing that first phase of the community center and the pool at the same time. But we know it's a lot easier to build a one-story building than a three-story building. So we know that's going to be done earlier. So what we did was we put together another timeline for Legacy Park. Permitting phase, we're currently in it right now. They've gone through several reviews already with the town. Building and zoning, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, structural. Miami-Dade County, the life safety for the pool. Miami-Dade County Derm is going through that process right now. Miami-Dade County Health Department for the pool part of our plans. Then what we have, we called it before, GMP number two. GMP number two is what we're working on right now. And we expect to bring the GMP number two guaranteed maximum price, which is all the underground utilities that are on that site. We have to execute the contract with Kauffman Lin. We plan to bring that at the May council meeting. We're negotiating the prices right now. We'll issue the notice to proceed. They'll have to provide it with the contractor, get the materials. Construction will be about nine months. This will include stormwater, sanitary sewer, water, and all the electrical units. What we also mentioned, and later on you'll see in the presentation what Emma Jones mentioned, in GMP2 we're also going to include the elevator because there's about a year and a half lead time, and some of the electrical switches that we're going to require because it takes a lot of lead time for those. GMP number three, guaranteed max price number three, which is all the vertical stuff now. So we went from the underground to all the vertical. The vertical is gonna include all the buildings, the pool, as well as the deck, as well as town hall. There, we know that the construction foundation will be material acquisition. Construction will be about 15 months for that. Community center, and you can see where it kind of coincides that both of them could be happening at the same time there. That includes community center, pool building, pool deck, as well as the park, the 12-acre park. Then you have project closeout, similar to that, which we have punch list items, inspections, certificate of completion, agency sign-offs, DERM, Department of Health, town, county, certificate of occupancy, what we refer to as CO, it's the community center and the pool, because we want to have that phase open first before town hall. And then here, Mayor, Council, I want to show you exactly what we did with our team, that there's a getting close to where we would have done the pool, existing pool in November 27 versus having our town hall, sorry, our community center pool and pool building done. It's a four-month gap, a four-month difference there. Four month difference there. So I want to show this to you graphically. And then part two of that, I'm going to click onto another screen here for a second. Some of the things we've been working behind the scenes as I've gone through some of my individual agenda briefings with the council. We've also worked are working with Eastridge. They've committed. And thank you, Bo, the director there and his staff, Denise, where we have worked out where we're going to have an aquatic aerobic classes from 9 a.m. to 930 for our active adults. It's going to be limited in size and we want to grow. I've also had at least three meetings with Cheryl Woods from the YMCA, and thank you Cheryl and her staff for meeting with us, with our park staff, where we are finalizing negotiations to offer our residents 90 days for $90, literally a dollar a day, where they could go to the YMCA over by the falls, and they'll have ability for lap, pool, open, swim, and water exercise classes in their brand new facility. And then also myself and the public parks director, Etienne Bejarano, have met with Christina White, the parks director. They call it PROS, right? You know, Parks, Recreation, Open Space. I still call it parks. And they were very receptive of the ability for us to use Goulds Park as well as South Ridge Park, which is going to be opening soon here. They're thinking, you know, late June. Um, but more importantly, we provided them the exact schedule and activities that we would have on our parks. And that's what you see here in all these different bullets. Um, and they they were in agreement that they could probably get this uh done at south ridge pool and also ghouls park but we're now we're going to start at least negotiating what what the fees will be we want to make sure that whatever those fees are that the services that we rendered like active adults you see the keywords they're free swim teams free water polo teams free uh swim days you know free for seniors um And lap swims for ENT and fire responders as well as free. So we want to make sure military law enforcement that use our pool free. We want to make sure those same criterias are there. And for us to negotiate an interlocal agreement or a memorandum of understanding with Miami-Dade County, they've been very receptive of that offer right now. The reason why I say that because both those pools right now open at 4 p.m. We want to make sure that we provide allow our residents and anybody else who wants to use that pool that lives around that area. You know, starting as early as seven a.m. with our same pool. We want to mimic our same pool hours. So they have been very receptive. Mayor members of council. I will finalize this particular deal will probably have to be in our main meeting because we're still going back and forth to a meeting. So again, i wanted to make sure that we i advise the council and the public what's what's happening here and again i just wanted to kind of focus on this discussion item here where you can see the november 27 will be our pool and there's going to be like a four-month delta between january through march we open our new facility well thank you for putting that together

kind of gives a clear picture of what options we would have, especially I appreciate the work on looking for alternatives, because even the best case scenario from based on your timeline, we need to find alternatives now. So that's the most important part. So, but I'm going to open up to the council for questions and comments right now. I know a couple of you have done extensive work in looking at this. So if you have any questions or comments, we'd like to go. All right, Councilman Lord, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor. First, I want to thank the staff and our town manager. You clearly listened to us and the 50 plus residents who were in front of Parks and Rec. We were asking for alternatives. And I think that the fact that you guys have worked so hard at getting so many alternatives for us is really wonderful. And I thank you very much for that. I'm having a hard time. $50,000 on a plan if our legacy park pool is going to be open four months after any supposed repairs to the Cutleridge Park pool. $50,000 is a lot of money. I don't spend that easily. I will say I think it is a better use of that $50,000 for maybe Maybe we go back, we ask the Parks and Rec Committee to maybe do a master plan for Cutleridge Park. What we want to see happen to the building that's there, we do need to repair that building in any event. What do we want to see happen to where the pool currently sits? And that $50,000 would maybe be better spent in any plans for our building or that area rather than repairs to a pool that will be repaired in total four months before the other pool is built. And we never had any intention of having two pools in this town. That was never our intention. Our intention was to have the Legacy Park pool and then eventually I believe phase out Cutleridge Park pool. So you know, a four month period isn't isn't terrible. I also have some questions about these timelines. Terry Glunt and I want to again thank him for walking me through the pool on my inspection of it with him. His timeline has that been vetted by anybody?

Yes, Council Member Ward, thank you for that. Before I presented this item, I vetted it through our building official, as well as our owner's rep, Emma Jones, as well. So I wanted to make sure that from boots on the ground from our building official, to make sure what his experience has been dealing with these agencies. That's why you see there, very cautiously, I put in one of the tabs in the beginning for design permit, ADA compliance. We don't know what that trigger is going to be yet, but I want to make sure that we know we have some kind of timeline there and also making sure that both Terry Glunt and our building official are on the same page, if that makes sense.

It does. Thank you. And the same with Emma's timeline, then I presume that has been vetted through the construction group.

Well, yes. And in fact, with that timeline there, I even spent more time on that because you have so many different parties. You have you have Salt Mickelson, who was our design team. Then you also have Kauffman Lin who is our contractor that's gonna be securing all the subcontractors there with their project managers, estimators and construction experts. I wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page because you're absolutely right. I mean, when we're sitting there, I'm showing you this graphically. I don't want this to come back and haunt us, say, wait a minute, here's what you've shown graphically, and here's what's actually happening there. So I think that's important to the point that we've been working so closely that I just received a text from Emma, and thank you, Emma, for correcting me, that I mentioned that GMP2, it's going to be for... Town, sorry, for the pool, the pool building and the pool deck and the pool. If I said count hall, I misspoke. That's going to be another timeline. That priority is our priority there for that timeline is for that, those recreation elements of the project.

All right, so I have one more ask, but before I have that, I want to reiterate that when we started realizing we were going to have to close the pool because we were spending close to $40,000 a month just in water leaking out of it, I did meet with 27 of our residents. I went to homes. I had numerous phone calls. And my position initially was let's try and save this pool. But after my tour with Terry Glenn, to me, it doesn't make sense for us to save a pool that we're going to have a shiny new toy four months later. In these meetings, though, I sensed a great deal of distrust from our residents for the figures that were an original proposal from Terry Glunt, distrust on whether or not the new pool was actually going to open timely. And so. It's understandable. There's a lot of moving parts here. I don't like it, but there's a lot of moving parts that, you know, there's distrust of the staff and the electeds and the construction group. So in order to offset that distrust and maybe build some of that trust back, I think it would be a really great idea, and I hope I'm not overstepping, that maybe Emma Jones can give us the same sort of updates every month that she gives us on Legacy Park, but on just the pool with like the same timeline that we maybe redline through. We've done this. We've completed this. We've completed that. So everyone who's paying attention will see that we're right on the right path like we do with all our other projects in We're doing it with Franjo Park right now. We're gonna have a presentation to I mean Franjo Road We're gonna have a presentation about that this evening. I think that that would be smart because if any delays occur then our community and our residents and us on the dais are learning about those delays all at the same time and and maybe there won't be delays like I there's always delays in construction, but there's always instances where things are completed earlier too. So wouldn't that be great, right? Instead of four months, we can have three months. So anyway, my ask is, if Emma Jones would like to, or with your consent, and with the with the council's consent, maybe we can get monthly updates on the pool construction.

Councilman Lord, I mean, I think it's a great idea. We work at the will of the council, and I hear you loud and clear in my individual meetings with the rest of the council. I kind of heard the same thing, holding us accountable. rebuilding, gaining the trust. Trust is a very powerful word. And I think that it's very important. And we know that I was at those meetings there at the Parks Committee meeting. You know, Vice Mayor also took the tour with us with Terry Blunt at the park, at the pool. And we know it's a very passionate subject, right? So we want to make sure that, oh, it's going to fall on the wayside. I have no issue having this front and center, kind of like with the red line that we do, like Frangero and other of our major projects, Because it's accomplished two things. You are showing residents where are we in the timeline with Legacy Park. At the same time, you're showing those residents, yeah, but I remember this report that they said it was going to be a four month or whatever. We want to make sure everybody's accountable. Keep that same line there. I have no problem with that. I think it holds us accountable.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do want to thank Councilmember Lord for making a great point on the transparency and having that as an opportunity for us to share with our residents, not just the total construction and the total process, but specifically with the pool as it relates to the Legacy Park pool. I think that's a great point, a great opportunity. I think it's a great idea. I think going through the motions with town staff, with town manager and being briefed and seeing what we kind of have before us, I do want to just reiterate to the residents that we've, we've emphasized bumping up the, the community center in the pool as, as early as we can in this process, um, so that we can kind of alleviate some of that, that timeline and really only have it be an estimated four months within the difference between when a proposed fix to the current pool and the legacy park pool, uh, would be open. Um, I would also say with the January figures at the moment of seven hundred and eighty some thousand dollars for a proposed four month difference. I mean, that's that's a really difficult pill to swallow, even if like like Councilmember Lord said, if the only thing we were on the hook for was fifty thousand dollars. And let's just say the construction and renovation of the current pool was free, which it won't be. you're still paying $50,000 for a four-month difference. So it's kind of difficult to reconcile that. Taxpayer money, we've already been the most efficient city, named the most efficient municipality. It's difficult to justify spending any sort of exorbitant amount of money for a potential four-month difference. I wish that we were not in this position. I'm pretty sure all of us up here wish that the circumstances were different. I want to commend Ralph and the team for, you know, opening up those negotiations, because as the mayor said, regardless. what happens with the current pool, whether it is renovated and brought up to a working condition or not, that timeline still puts us through the middle of 2027 without any sort of pool access for our residents. And as many of our residents have mentioned, that pool access, the swim lessons for our children, the active adult activities, just being able to be in a pool is vitally important to their well-being, to their safety. We don't want to have any sort of where a child drowns or anything like that. So I think you and your team working with our community partners and trying to come up with solutions to these complex problems, and I'm sure there's other solutions that we haven't even turned over yet. I would say let's continue to do that just so that in the meantime, we at least are providing our residents with something that they can grasp at, something that they can participate in. I think that's vitally important. And yeah, I would say that based on proposed timeline, based on proposed cost, it's difficult to justify if we're at three to four months from the completion of one to the proposed completion of another. But I do think we do need to be transparent and we need to be as open and honest with the public as possible just so that if they have any questions about the process, then they know where to look. We pride ourselves on that and I think we should continue to do that. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Callahan.

Yeah, just a couple of quick points. Just a point of clarification, right? The council member Lords asked, you know, we have to spend the $50,000 in order for Emma to be able to give us updates on that timeline.

I think she means on the new pool.

On the new pool? Yeah. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I thought you meant the existing pool. Legacy Park. Okay. My fault. Okay. All right. Yeah. And also just some quick clarification too on permitting. I think your permitting timeline is very soft, right? I just want the residents to know, when did we start our legacy park permitting? Like a year and a half ago?

Yeah, it's almost been like about eight to nine months ago with the agencies, with Durham particularly.

I have two permits in right now that are coming up on a year, right? So, you know, we look at that permitting timeline, you know, for four months, and I think that that's the perfect scenario, right? Yeah. The other thing too, the $700,000 was the top. I think when I went through it and looked at the repairs that we knew that we had to do was around 400 and some thousand dollars. Again, where we start to get into a sticky situation is what we don't know that we don't know. And unfortunately, no architect or engineer or contractor is going to be able to develop a set of construction documents and foresee what you might run into once you start the construction project. So 400,000, like I mentioned in my last report, 400,000 could turn into 900,000 very easily. And once that horse leaves the barn, you're not putting the horse back in. um so uh i i ralph i know you and i spoke earlier today and i certainly appreciate all of your work and staff's work to develop those timelines i think the timelines coincide um i think that when you look at both they're they're accurate right i think i actually tell you the truth i think that the existing pool permitting is probably going to stretch out a couple months even longer which is going to now narrow that that gap even even even even further so um but i i you know in in echoing my fellow council members uh uh sentiments i really do appreciate you and emma uh and the entire construction team uh and staff working on that to to really show you know what where we are in the process so

Thank you.

Councilman Ramirez.

I, too, would like to thank town manager and staff for all the hard work. And the information gathering, I'm sure, wasn't done overnight. So, I mean, it takes a lot of work to do that. I also want to thank the vice mayor, who has kind of kept us up on construction facts over the last several meetings, which gives us a little bit more insight on why it would take longer and everything like that. So I appreciate that. We are the keeper of the funds, all right? We are responsible to make sure that every dollar in this town is spent the way it's supposed to be. And to me, it just doesn't make sense to spend $700,000 or actually probably more for something that's going to not just be open for four months difference between Legacy Park, but it's only got a three-year usable period. fact usable timeframe, even after that is finished. So, I mean, when you put everything up on paper, and this is the best example, best example was great that you actually popped this up. I think we I think we've been very honest about everything that has happened with this process. We've never we've never tried to shade anything or pull the wool on anybody's eyes. You know, it affects all of us, too. You know, we wish we had a pool that was going to stay open and then be in great shape and stuff like that. Unfortunately, that's just not the case. So thank you guys again for doing all the work. I totally agree with everything that my fellow council members have put forward. And thank you for some of the additional due diligence and stuff. So I would not want to go forward with putting all the money into the old pool. And I'm going to put that out there.

All right. Thank you, Councilman Ramirez. I think there seems to be some consensus. It's bad money going after it. a project which won't last very long. And really the focus, which we've already shifted to, is finding an alternative in between, which you've already found three or four alternatives as you continue to look for more. And hopefully we can solidify those and get those moving as quickly as possible. So I don't think we have any further action on that item right now.

Perfect. And I think, Maren, another one that we are also discussing, I didn't bring up yet, is the transportation to those facilities. We are also going to be leveraging some of the relations that we have with Miami-Dade County with the MetroConnect. Okay, so because I know I hear that, well, okay, the YMCA is not in town, Gould's Park is not in town, South Ridge is not in town. But we're trying to leverage that. We want to ensure that it's within the permitted PTP radius within the town that not only we could offer those alternative sites, use our MetroConnect and you get there for free. at that point, or possibly minimal $3. I'm using that for example. So we're continuing to follow that too. And also our parks director has also reached out to some of the homeowner associations that have pools, and we've been active conversations with those folks as well. So we're looking for pools. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Next up, we have Emma Jones from Stantec to provide you an update on our 16-acre Legacy Park project.

Good evening, everyone. Emma Jones with Stantec, owner's rep for the town of Cutler Bay. Hopefully you guys can see my screen.

Yes, we can.

Thank you. So I just want to start out with a big thank you to Councilmember Lord for asking for a monthly update on the pool because it allows me to put even more pressure on our contractor, Kauffman Lynn, because now it's going to be very publicly recorded on the timeline. But I think what's also so wonderful is that members of the Kauffman Lynn team, they are residents of Cutler Bay. And this pool also benefits them and their children. So there is an underlying desire to get this done as quickly as possible. I know Ralph is reticent to say it, but we did add, excuse me, we did add time to the schedule that was proposed and pushed it out to lengthen the schedule for the pool and community center. So we are giving you a conservative projection. So hopefully that will also help to alleviate concerns on that. All right, so there we go. So quick update. So phase one, which is GMP1, the site remediation, we are in the process of closing this out. We did final soil samples and we are in discussions with DERM to sort of round this entire process. process out, get their approval, et cetera. We did learn this week from Durham that they are actually understaffed. So I'm sure you guys are, and I apologize, you're tired of hearing us say, oh gosh, we're waiting for Durham approval. So it is, it is not, you know, it's a, there's a supply and demand issue. They just don't have enough people. They are prioritizing us and doing a great job. So I just want to, you know, alleviate any concerns on that. Phase two, the GMP, the underground, GMP2, sorry, underground utilities and site work. We just completed our groundwater testing. We had very good results with that, except for one location. So we are now moving a couple of the exfiltration trenches and irrigation well locations and the drawings are being updated based on that groundwater testing. DERM is their project manager that would advise us on this was out last week. We are waiting for comments back on the testing that we provided to them. And then we will create a final site plan based on their approval. And we will let you know when we get that data as soon as we can. We did receive a draft of GMP2 that is under review. We are going through it. And the final of that will be dependent on sort of the moving of these exfiltration trench locations. We won't be increasing the trenches. It's just that moving. So once we've got the final site plan, you know, Kauffman will be able to really lock in their pricing, but we are back and forth with them now. And as Ralph mentioned, we will be presenting that amount to you in May. Phase three, which is GMP3, all of the vertical build. The value engineering is ongoing. All of the documents are in for permit and we are receiving comments on a daily basis from both the town We are waiting for Miami-Dade County and their comments. And the GMP3 bidding is being updated based on those permit comments. So as we look at the schedule, you're going to see very similar to what was just shown. Again, you know, we have things that are very much based on DERMS approval. And once we get that, you know, we will be ready to go. We are in a lot of communication with them. And I'm very thankful to our team that is doing such a great job with the back and forth, making sure that they have all the information they need. So with that, I'm going to include my update and welcome any questions.

All right. Councilman, I mean, Vice Mayor Callahan.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just have a couple quick questions for the town manager and Emma, whoever is would have the information. So you've received the draft of GMP2. Is that expected to come before the council at our next meeting?

Yes, Council Member. We received the draft. We're going through finalizing our negotiation, and the timeline would be, yes, the May council meeting.

Okay. And as far as Durham, Durham is basically reviewing the stormwater,

shed plan yeah so the what right so what emma mentioned that the derm has reviewed the plan we provided them the the well sample sites right right results so they're reviewing they're reviewing the plant but but right now we're confident that they'll get that approved just a matter of time getting approved because the data we're providing them the data saying we're going to shift that that uh exfiltration right i guess maybe i should just um

get get to my point i guess is what what i guess what i'm trying to get to is that in in the gmp2 which is the horizontal work in addition to the storm water management that derm is currently reviewing we also have electrical sewer water and those types of things that go go underground um is it is it plausible to be able to begin that work on the electric sewer and water prior to uh durham's approval of the stormwater

I would sit there and say yes, and Emma could confirm it because there's still going to be a lot of lead time to get in the materials and everything else, meaning that we could go ahead and start some of the other phases within that GMP while we're waiting for the approval for the stormwater system. There's still going to be a lot of water lines and electrical lines and And remember in that GMP2, it's a matter of like ordering the elevator. It takes about a year and a half to get here. There could be some things that could happen while we're waiting for that permit. And we can start that phase within that phase with GMP, if that makes sense.

No, and that's kind of what I'm getting to because what I'm looking at is trying to squeeze up that time frame where the new pool will open. And as opposed to us sitting around and just waiting for Durham to give us the approval on the stormwater, and then getting out there and doing we can in my opinion in my experience we can be doing uh some other gmp2 work while we're waiting for the storm water which kind of gets the project going so you know with that being said i mean i don't know when you would be ready um for uh for the gmp2 draft to come before council, but is there a chance that we may have to call a special council meeting to just approve the GMP2 as opposed to waiting until... Vice Mayor, I think that's something that anytime we can move the timeline, that's a great challenge.

And I can sit there and say that if we finish our negotiations way before the May... Help me there. Marissa, when's the council meeting? May... 15th, I think it is, or? Just want to make sure. May 18th, if we could finish our negotiations way before May 18th and provide the council enough sunshine notice with the information that you could review, that's certainly a challenge that I could do. And I think that that I'm not speaking for the entire team, but it's a pressure that we put on the team. As Emma said, that's that pressure we want on there. And then we'll take that challenge on. And I think that if we can go ahead and finish our negotiations, we could bring back that package to before the count before the next council meeting, meaning a special call meeting. again it's it's also involves our town attorney's office with the contract but if you recall we did a lot of front end work and we call the cmar contract in the beginning there was a lot of heavy negotiations in the beginning so that way when the next gmps come in it's like referred exhibit blank so i think that the the long answer is yes we'll take on that challenge And if I could get that before, you know, minimum, you know, two weeks before the next council meeting or even earlier, we will call a special call meeting just for that item to expedite that. So, like you said, Vice Mayor, start shrinking that timeline.

Yeah, if the council is in agreement, obviously.

I'm looking at all thumbs up there, Emma. So you're seeing that. So, okay, that's a challenge and we'll accept that challenge. And then, and then we'll start again. We have the price we're reviewing the qualities. And now it's just a matter of doing what we do and negotiate it and bringing that before the council.

I, if, if I may, I do just want to add, we are trying to parse out items from that GM sort of what is included under GMP too. And that permit so that their items that are going to weigh it down, i.e. the stormwater or things down the road, we are going to try to parse that out to move that work forward. So we are we are really focused on schedule and keeping everything moving forward and trying to obviously better the schedule. That's our goal.

Great, great, great conversation. I love the challenge. We'll take it on. We'll take it on. So a couple of good things for us there. Okay, thank you, Emma. Next, Mayor and Members of Council, we have an update on Frangio Road. We have Angel Turbin on virtual. And then we have the representative here as well regarding the public involvement. So, Angel, if you're online.

Hi, good evening. Let me just go ahead and share my screen. Can everyone see that?

Yes, we can.

Okay, perfect. Thank you. So good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Angel Turpin. I'm here on behalf of Kimley Horn to provide our April 2026 project update for the Frangio Road Roadway Improvement Project. So first, for our construction activities, we continue to hold our biweekly progress meetings with the EOR, the town, the contractor, and ourselves as the CEI. For the specific work zones, for work zone one, two, and three, these areas remain open for the public. This runs along Frangio Road from Southwest 184th Street to Caribbean Boulevard. And currently they are working on bus shelter installation and cladding along with electrical work in these zones. for Work Zone 4, which runs along Franjo Road from Caribbean Boulevard to Southwest 92nd Avenue. The team continues to work on earthwork grading and finishing the roadway there, and that is expected to be completed May of 2026, so next month. And for Work Zone 5, which runs along Franjo Road from Southwest 92nd Avenue to Old Cutler Bay, they are also continuing to work on a reconstruction of the roadway at this time. The team remains focused on keeping the site clean and safe for all residents and users of the area, and also continues to monitor the MOT throughout the duration of the project. Just wanted to provide another reminder that a work zone being open for use does not mean that all activities have been completed, so a couple things that could be pending include the bus shelter installation, some light pole installation, tree and sod removal or installation, and especially that final lift of asphalt is still pending at this time throughout the entire project. And for our project schedule, the duration remains the same at this time from July 2024 to September of this year, 2026. And ATI has declared seven total rain days at this point. And that pretty much wraps up our construction updates at this time. If there are any questions I can address.

Councilman Dunham. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do have one quick question. We have these beautiful light poles that months ago we were told FPL was working to connect. It's April. I think the first time I asked about it was November. I was told in January they were working on it. Do we know when they will be on?

I don't have an exact date yet. I do know that they did just install the electrical service and have been working on routing. the conduit to connect those, I don't think we have received an official timeline for when FPL plans to transfer service for that. But I'll be sure to follow up and hopefully we can provide a better update on that next meeting.

Thank you very much.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

And we also have Janet Delgado here in the audience for what I call it, you know, the boots on the ground or, you know, communications and PIO.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council Members. During this reporting period, we maintain ongoing communication with residents and businesses addressing concerns related to traffic flow, access, and construction activities. I've continued distributing updated maintenance of traffic notices and conducting site visits to ensure safe pedestrian pathways and proper signage. Our team remained responsive to community feedback and worked closely with the contractor to resolve concerns efficiently. Again, I want to emphasize phase one, two, and three are open to traffic. However, final completion will be achieved once all phases are completed and the final lift of asphalt is placed, at which point all manholes will be brought flush. Okay, any questions? We're doing very good. All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Janet. Thank you for all the work and Angel as well, the team. I know that's another example that literally on a weekly basis, you know, they're meeting. So we'll prioritize what's going on with FPL and see if we need to get the government liaison involved, et cetera, because it is frustrating. We get those type of calls all the time. The two calls we get is, hey, the sewer manholes are sticking up. Well, the final lift, as we mentioned. And the second part is, hey, beautiful light poles, they're not on. Absolutely.

Right now they're just poles.

Yes, we get that.

So Council Member Duncan's been emailing you?

calling yeah i think he memorized how many polls are out there too so thank you for keeping us there so um also uh tonight we have um linda morris the chief service and planning and scheduling from my county transit to provide us a annual report for our transit circulator uh bus schedule so if linda is on we could go ahead and we could show the uh the brief presentation we're not going to run through the entire presentation mayor we're going to focus on one slide that talks about the riderships but For the members of the audience, the presentation is part of the agenda and is available online. So with that, Linda.

Good afternoon, everyone. So, yeah, I'm just going to walk through the 13th annual report, which is going to be for the period July 2024 to June 2025. At the beginning of the period, the route was extended to serve the publics at the shops of Cutler Bay, and we adjusted the schedule to maintain consistent service there. In addition, the second circulator bus that was funded through a one-year FDOT grant was discontinued in July 2024. And so while the previous year's ridership benefited from that increased frequency, this year that I'm reporting on remained pretty solid with monthly totals between 4,000 and 6,000 boardings, averaging over 4,500. and remaining higher than the previous year where there was only one vehicle. So these levels really show the community's strong resilience on the service. The circulator also continues to support broader transit access. We launched our Better Bus Network in 2023, where we expanded frequent service, improved weekend coverage, and that really strengthened the connectivity between the Cutler Bay Local and our major Metro bus routes along the South Dade Transitway. Key ridership generators are the residential areas out east and the connections to Old Cutler Town Centre and the South Dade Government Centre in South Anmore. Operationally, the service experienced several mechanical issues throughout the year, mainly related to air conditioning, coolant levels, engine warnings and some cleanliness, but we addressed them pretty quickly and they resulted in no to little service interruption. From a customer service standpoint, the County's 311 Centre received only eight calls related to the circulator across the year. These included a mix of late or missed trips reports and one commendation for an operator. All calls were documented and reviewed by bus operations supervisors. So in summary, the Cutler Bay Local continues to operate reliably, connects riders to essential destinations and regional transit, and responds effectively to operational challenges. So ridership remains steady, customer concerns remain low, and the service continues to be a valuable transportation resource for Cutler Bay residents.

And I think members council but I could also add the financial side of it is the brighter the service is still free and we pay to our people's transportation plan PTP funds as you recall we receive approximately 2.5 million dollars you know 20% of that goes to our transit and the other 80% goes to roadway project so this is fully funded through through that avenue there as well. So there's any.

That concludes your report.

Yes this.

All right thank you very much.

Thank you thank you Linda thank you. Members of Council, just two quick final updates. We'll be hosting an open mic night on May 6th, Wednesday, from 6 to 7.30, open mic night with the town manager. We're also going to be working closely for an event, believe it or not, over... 14 years in the making, if you follow us, right? The unveiling of the Southwest 87th Avenue signalized pedestrian crosswalk in front of Pinewood Villas. That's how long that project's been going on. And we're finally, finally, that's when Commissioner Cabo was our commissioner, now mayor, right? So Commissioner Cohen-Higgins is going to be hosting an unveiling there on May 7th at 9 a.m., Also, May 7th, hosting National Day of Prayer in the Council Chambers at 11 a.m. And lastly, something that I know that the mayor has brought up at the Biscayne Bay Watershed Commission, which is the FOG, F-O-G, Fat, Oil, and Grease, another acronym, Fat, Oil, and Grease Workshop, where we're going to be hosting here what our relationship is with Miami-Dade County Durham and the Miami-Dade building official, We're going to have Miami-Dade County staff here in the building department, including Durham, in our council chambers from 10 a.m. to 12.30 to do a community-wide workshop on how to expedite, we were just talking about that, Durham permits. And as you know, that's been very highlighted that it takes... months and sometimes years to get a grease trap. And so we want to make sure that we bring the team in. They've been very receptive. They're going to come in here and ask all the questions. We're also working with the town clerk's office so we could actually broadcast that out as well. So we're very excited about that. Again, that date is going to be May 13th from 10 a.m. to 1230. And we're going to have several activities in May because May is National Small Business Month. So we're going to have a couple of different series, but this is going to be one of the main series there. So that concludes my report, Mayor.

Thank you very much. That takes us to the town attorney report. Mitch, sir.

I don't have anything to report today.

Town clerk's report? The report this evening. All right. Thank you very much. That takes us to the consent agenda. The additions are cool. So if not, looking for a motion for approval. No move. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Calley. I second. Second by Councilman Lord. All in favor say aye. Aye. And it is approved. It exists to require judicial hearing. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mayor, Members of Council. Tonight we have Julian Perez, but I know that the clerk's going to read the title.

Does the town attorney want to read the closing?

Sure. Sure. Please be advised that the following items on the agenda are quasi-judicial in nature. If you wish to comment upon any of these items, please indicate the agenda item number you would like to address when the announcement regarding quasi-judicial item is made. An opportunity to speak on each agenda item will be afforded to the individuals after the applicant and staff have made their presentation. All testimony, including public testimony and evidence, will be made under oath or affirmation. Additionally, each person who gives testimony will be subject to cross-examination. You do not wish to... The cross-examiner sworn your testimony will be given its due weight. The general public will not be permitted to cross-examine witnesses, but the public may request that the council ask questions of staff or witnesses on their behalf. Full agenda packet on each item, town code of ordinances, and the town comprehensive plan are hereby entered into the record. Persons representing organizations must present evidence of their authority to speak for the organization. Further details of the quasi-judicial procedures may be obtained from the clerk. Any lobbyists must register before addressing the council. on any of the quasi-judicial items. Pursuant to Section 2-237 of the Town Code of Ordinances, all applicants are required to disclose on the record whether any consideration, monetary or otherwise, has been paid or offered to or requested by any person or entity in exchange for any promise or agreement to support, oppose, or refrain from supporting or opposing any quasi-judicial agenda item or application. This closure shall include the person or entity to which such consideration was paid or offered or by which such request was made, whether the consideration was received and the position such person or entity agreed or promised to take. At this time, the clerk will swear at any persons who wish to testify on behalf or testify on any quasi-judicial item. Please stand if you're going to be speaking.

Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to give is the truth to the best of your knowledge and belief? Thank you.

Finally, the town clerk shall confirm receipt of any ex parte communication disclosures that were received prior to this public hearing. Members of the council should disclose any ex parte communications that have not been disclosed previously for the record at this time.

The town clerk's office did receive all communication reports from both applicants. All right. All right, thank you very much. You could please read the title on the sixth slide, please. 6A, a resolution of the mayor and the town council of the town of Cutler Bay, Florida, approving a major modification to a site plan approved by Resolution No. 18-79 to construct a freestanding 6,400-square-foot building on the property to operate a full-service Flanagan's restaurant to be located at 20971 Old Cutler Road and further identified by Miami-Dade County Folio No. 36-6009-039-0030 and providing for an effective date.

Thank you, members council. We have tonight, Julian Perez, our planning and zoning director.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the Council, Town Clerk, Town Attorney, and Mr. Manager, Julian Perez, Flanagan Zoning Director. This evening, we have one of those really, really wonderful projects for our city, and that is our Flanagan restaurant. The applicant is Flanagan Enterprises. and it's located at 20971 O'Cuttler Road. We had a zoning workshop back on March 16th, as you recalled, and this item was advertised on the Sunday, April 5th, 2026, Miami Herald Neighbors. It was posted, according to guidelines, on April 6th, 2026, and courtesy notices were sent out to the residents within the general area on April 7th, and that was about 176 notices that went out. As indicated by the town clerk, this is a major modification to a site plan that was approved several years ago, and that's Site Plan 1879, which approved the public's site plan at the time. And the request is for It's for the freestanding 6,400 square foot building to locate the Flanagan's restaurant. At this time, the department recommends approval of the project and there was no changes on the site plan or any information that was provided to you during the zoning workshop. At this time, we have the applicant here. If you have any questions, whether to the department or the applicant itself.

All right. Thank you very much. The applicant does need to go ahead and present that again. We did see the zoning workshop, but I do want to, you know, we have Jimmy Flanagan in the office. He is with us today as well. But I do want to open it up to see if there's any questions from the council going forward if they need to see your presentation. So if not.

No?

All right, we have no questions. Have you guys been here? So we're looking for a motion. Did you? I'm sorry. Oh, I got to open up. You're right. I'm sorry. I have to open this item up for public comments. This item is now open for public comments. Did you want to speak? You can.

Are you ready for comments?

We'll see if they haven't yet. OK. Are there any public comments? Is there anybody in the queue?

No one in the queue.

All right. Looking for a motion for approval.

So moved.

So we have a motion by Councilman Ramirez. I second. Second by Councilman Lord. Roll call vote, please.

Councilmember Duncan. Yes. Councilmember Ramirez. Yes. Councilmember Lord.

Absolutely.

Vice Mayor Callahan. Yes. Mayor Bunn.

I guess an absolute is better than a yes. Absolutely. Okay. Yes. Yes. Motion passes. All right. Congratulations. Five minutes. Five minutes. All right, that brings us to the next item, 6B, please.

6B, a resolution of the mayor and the town council of the town of Kettler Bay, Florida, approving a variance application by ARQ211LLP to reduce the required building frontage along Primary Street, Southwest 211th Street for a mixed-use project to be located at 11155 Southwest 211th Street, folio number 36-6007-021-0020, and providing for an effective date.

Okay.

Mayor, members of council, similar to the last item, we have Jillian Perez, our Planning and Zoning Director, to present this item.

Good evening again, Julian Perez, Planning and Zoning Director for the record. Again, this was another very good project too for the community. And the applicant is ARQ 211 LLP. It's located at 11155 Southwest 211th Street. We had a zoning workshop the same time on March 16, 2026. The project was advertised in the Miami Herald on Sunday, April 5th in the neighbors. The posting was on April 6th and the courtesy notices were sent out on April 7th, 2026. 29 notices were sent out. at that time. This project before you is a mixed-use residential project. The applicant, again, is requesting a variance from Section 3-64 of the Town of Cutler Bay Land Development Regulations, and this is relating to the building frontage on a primary street that's on Southwest 211th Street to reduce the requirement from 100 percent or the building frontage to 89. That would allow us to have, you know, more other features added to the project that makes the project more attractive. At this time, the department recommends approval of the project and there was no changes to the site plan or any documents between the zoning workshop and this hearing. At this time, we also have the applicant here represented by their architects and they're ready to answer any questions as well as the department.

Thank you very much. And the beauty of the zoning workshops is that we really get to go through it with a fine-tuned comb. Are there any additional questions? I see Councilman Duncan has a comment or a question.

Comment, comment. And I just want the public to know that the applicant has also proffered to allow our senior citizens, our active adults, use of the community room in this development 12 times a year. 12 times a year, so thank you for that.

Any other comments or questions? No, no. Then I'm looking for a motion. Oh, public comments again. I'm now opening the floor for public comment. Public hearing. Public hearing. Anybody who wants to speak, come forward. There's nobody in the auditorium. Anybody in the queue? No one in the queue. All right. Public hearing is now closed. Looking for a motion. So moved. We have a motion by Councilman Duncan. Looking for a second. I second. Second by Councilwoman Lord. A roll call vote, please.

Councilmember Ramirez? Yes. Councilmember Lord?

Yes.

Councilmember Duncan? Yes. Vice Mayor Callahan? Absolutely. Mayor Meirbein?

Yes. Motion passes. All right. Thank you very much. All right. Now opening the floor again for general public comments. Any public comments at this time? As there are none, public comments. Anybody in the queue? No one in the queue. Public comments is now closed. Takes us to item 11A, please.

A resolution of the mayor and the town council of the town of Cutler Bay, Florida, authorizing the town manager to issue an amendment to the purchase order authorized by resolution number 23-67 to Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. for continued owner representative assistance and construction administration services for the 16-acre legacy park and municipal complex project and providing for an effective date.

Mayor, members of council, when we first started this journey as owner's rep, we provided the estimate of number of hours and the cost. Since our journey with Legacy Park, as you've been following it, we know that we had to do a redesign of the entire project because the water is the arsenic, right? We showed the lazy river, the lake, until we found out there was water in the arsenic. We had to go through, spend more time with the team and the owner's representative, Emma Jones, on that site. Also, we then went back and had to do a lot of battle engineering. If you recall that one time, we all got that sticker shock. It was going to cost like $76 million, right? So we had to kind of downsize that project and do a lot more value engineering that required a lot more time. And the third anomaly that occurred was when we started chasing that EPA grant. The EPA grant, there was over a $4 million grant, required a lot of time with our engineers, the owner's rep, to working closely because the reason why I wanted them to do it is that We had a similar they had a similar case just like ours over in Wisconsin that we want to make sure we did that. And we went unfortunately went through the whole appeal process for that. We did not get that grant. But those those three items kind of brought us over that budget. So tonight we're just requesting additional funds for the owner's rep within that additional funds. I do have an allowance account there. If that is not used, that is the savings that we'll have too. So again, that's one of the ones that we're going to keep a close monitoring of that for the next phase of the project and allowing us to increase that.

All right. Council, do we have questions on this? No? It certainly makes sense to me. I'm looking for a motion. Motion. We have a motion by Councilman Ramirez. Looking for a second. Second. Second by Vice Mayor Callahan. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion passes. All right, that takes us to just one last thing I'd like to do before we adjourn. On February 5th, 2026, Ralph and I attended the Economic Development Council State of South Dade, and we watched a presentation by Dr. Ned Murray from FIU highlighting the potential for growth in South Dade. We've all talked about we can't fix traffic going north, so we need to bring the jobs down south. And he said that there's... The opportunity in the South to have an advanced industry sector for architectural engineering, computer systems designs, management of scientific and technical consulting services, advanced manufacturing services, including aerospace products and parts manufacturing for that industry, not to mention pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing industry. And since then, some meetings have taken place with the town staff to discuss what potential sites might be within Cutler Bay for these type of businesses and to review the town's current code in anticipation of this type of potential development. So we did uncover that we need to review and update some of the town's comprehensive plans and its land development regulations in order to allow for this type of potential growth. within the town's commercial districts. So I'm requesting that the council authorize working with the town manager and the town attorney to develop codes so we can bring these types of advanced industries in the town of Cutler Bay and create more jobs here in Cutler Bay. Just moving forward, what we've all been talking about is trying to bring jobs to Altaid. So this will allow us to capitalize. Number one, we've got a great location. We're very strategic. All the highways are right here. We're very close to the space development that's been going on at Homestead. It provides more economic diversity, which we definitely need in Cutler Bay. And like I mentioned, all the major connectivity networks are right here in Cutler Bay.

And we have a Flanagan's.

And we have a Flanagan's. So absolutely, as Councilman Lord says. So with your permission, could we report the objections? No. All right. So it'll be it.