Town Council - Regular Meeting

make every day to our health, safety, comfort, and quality of life. In witness thereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 19th day of May, 2026. Counsel and

What's wrong back up.

Now we have two presentations. For the first presentation, I call up our fire chief, and I don't want to steal your thunder, but we are excited for those that are joining us this evening. Thank you for having them here.

Thank you, Mayor, Council, those in the audience tonight, and those listening from home. I am beyond excited to introduce to you our new 36th frontline leaders. These are our captains, lieutenants, and driver engineers. These men and women represent the absolute best of the best. They are the architects of our reputation and the guardians of our culture, and we could not be more thrilled to have them. They've been with us now since May 11th, so a week and a few days. As we've gotten to know them even better, we are absolutely confident that we have selected the right people for Jupiter Fire Rescue. In this period of time, we've had some time together. We've been working tirelessly on leadership topics, including accountability, expectations, vision, mission, core behaviors, focused a lot on leadership. We continue to also work with them on topics like policy process, our SOGs. But we're also getting them out into the community, introducing them to some of the unique aspects of the town of Jupiter, spending some time with them. And I know a few of you have gotten to spend a little time with them at lunch, and some of you have some of that coming. So we just thank you so much for this opportunity to introduce them to you tonight. We thank you for this opportunity for Jupiter Fire Rescue to serve this community. And I am telling you, I know that you are going to be more than happy with the team that will be out serving you. So I could have them stand.

So, uh,

Just a couple quick other updates beyond the introduction. I just want to throw out two other topics. Fire stations. So on May 15th, we received our stocking permit for our two new fire stations. Chief Martin had furniture delivered yesterday and today, and it's already being assembled. At the end of this month, we'll have our TCOs or temporary CEOs on these buildings. And we'll occupy our two new buildings by June 6. And that is coming really quick. And then, again, Chief Martin has been doing an incredible job. You know, I tell you, he's done so much for us. He's in charge of all of our logistics, supply, support services. He's been doing like the lion's share of the work here lately, you know, getting all the things we need for fire department. And he was able to get a really push and he got all three of our fire engines delivered to a 10, eight on the West coast where they've been completely outfitted. And I think on Thursday, uh, chief Martin and a team were going over to pick up our three new fire engines and bring them back here. So that's also very exciting. Uh, so that's all I have for you tonight. Short. Uh, these folks have been here since, uh, seven, seven 30 this morning. So I'd like to let them get out of here. We appreciate it. Do you have any questions of them or of us?

I think each of us did have the opportunity to have a luncheon, a quick luncheon meet and greet, and we welcome that, right, everybody? So we welcome you to the Town of Jupiter team, or as I told you when I met with you, we're more excited than you are. And unless there's any...

No, I'm excited. I feel like I know you all now after yesterday. Welcome.

My meet and greet is coming up, so I guess you folks know a little bit. But we'll let you go home because it's late.

Well, you realize with 36 people or firemen to sit and talk to, you get one and a half minute per person.

So by the time you make the rounds, introduce yourself, that eats up in 54 minutes, just the meet and greet.

So there is no time for lunch. But I really enjoyed today's meeting with all of you. I really appreciate it, and welcome to Jupiter.

And so at this point, thank you, Chief. We'll take a brief moment here to allow not only our newest staff members and fire department staff, along with the other staff members and community members that were part of the two proclamations. We'll just take a moment here. If you wish to leave, please do so before we restart the meeting.

Did you do your... Yeah.

Well, now we'll move on to the presentation on the annual traffic presentation.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. For the record, Shane Lunsford, Deputy Chief of Police. I'll be doing the first portion of the annual traffic update. This update is going to cover a three-year period from January 23 through December of 25. During that time frame from 24 to 25, you can see we've declined 4% in crashes, which equates to 84 less crashes from 2024 to 2025. And there's been a slight decline during that three-year period from 23 to 25 as well. The major roadway crashes included Indian Town Road, Alternate A1A, Military Trail, US 1, and Donald Ross Road, with Indian Town accounting for 46.4%. at the crashes along what we consider major roadways in 2025. At those top five crash intersections, Indian Town Road at alternate accounted for 68, at Central Boulevard at 65, at Island Way, 46 crashes, at Donald Ross and Military, 37, and at Indian Town Road, US 1, and again at US 1 and alternate A1A had 30 crashes each. And again, most of those occurring along Indian Town Roadway.

Before you go beyond that, I just wanted to make one observation. And for the members of the public that are here or watching, this is a very special annual update we get because it's the opportunity for we on the council and the public to understand what the trends have been. And so we get this every year. And so I was delighted to see on the top five crash intersections, because I save these reports each year so I can easily go back, that Indiantown and Alton A1A in 22 was 75, in 23 it was 90, in 24 it was 120. and as we had speculated, that being a detour route with the bridge, that was the reason we were thinking was the cause of the 120, so most significant to me to see that go back down to 68. I just wanted to have kind of shared that with the public.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

For our DUI-related crashes and arrests, we've seen a decline over the past three years. In 2024 to 2025, there was a 17% decrease in DUI-related arrests, and that correlated with 33% decrease of DUI-related crashes during that same timeframe. So it went from 134, from 161 to 134, and 42 and 63, respectively, during the past year. For motor vehicle crashes involving bicycles and pedestrians, we've seen an incline over the last three years, non-encompassing and possible injuries, routinely counting for the majority of those injuries at about 79% for 2025. And as you know, in April of 24, we started the e-bike safety campaign, and as of the date from 2025, we counted 11 e-bike-related crashes. There's 11 e-bike related crashes of 2025. One was a fatal from March 13th. That was the one at Indian Creek Parkway in South Pinnock Lane involving a middle school student. Since then, we've still focused our efforts on proactive enforcement with 183 citations and warnings for e-bikes given during the 2025 year. That concludes my portion. Do you have any questions related to anything?

On the e-bikes and e-mobiles, were there any of them that were actually counted and had to take possession of and have towed or anything?

I don't have those. Those would be arrests, so we can look into that data and provide that. Some of the citations would include citations issued when we did arrest, make an arrest for fleeing to elude or obstruction or one of the other charges, but I could certainly look into that data and provide it to the council.

Okay, well, you know, this is, and I'm very, we're all grateful for everything that our police department is doing to, you know, continue to educate ongoing and try to keep working on changing behaviors. But this being, for the most part, kids, I know, you know, you have to keep on top of that. So we're grateful for that. Thank you.

I had a question on the 183 citations. Is that primarily involving youths?

Yes, we could look at the stats and data, but most of our focus and just so you know from from some of the efforts we do and it's a daily effort from both day platoons. They're directed each day at the end of release for both middle schools to do extra patrols and high visibility not only to enforce traffic but specifically for e-bikes because we know that's a that's a high time frame. So most of those citations are going to be related to juveniles and not adults.

On those citations, what's the consequences of those citations, either to the rider or the parent?

It's on a regular uniform traffic citation. That does have consequences in affecting your license later on, just like getting a ticket. Once you're in Florida, you get a number assigned to your name, whether you have a license or not. It does affect what time frame you can get your license once you become 15 or 16 and take the course, unless you get that citation taken care of.

Okay.

All right. Thank you.

Just a question on the citations. And we talked about this in the past on the e-bikes. How many citations are put against somebody before it jeopardizes either their license or a future license, if at all? And do you know how many of the citations are multiples to an individual?

Now, we could look at that information. I just have the total overall data. It's kind of like the crash data. This is the total amount we got. We could dig into that to see where it was. And as far as the points that are associated with them, it depends on what the actual citation was. Was it a moving infraction? Was it a non-moving infraction? Was it a reckless? All those affect the points and when license can or cannot be obtained later on.

Okay. All right.

Deputy Chief, back on slide two.

Yes, sir.

I think it's November of 25. The trend was down yearly, but there was a spike in crashes on that month. Is that just an anomaly?

I'm sorry, which one were you referring to? It was slide two, November of 25.

The graph seems to jump up sort of out of the trend of the year for 25.

I don't know what the jump was. However, that might be worth looking into to see what was going on during that time frame. Is that November? Yeah. We could take a look at that. I'm just curious.

This might be an anomaly or just, you know. What do you attribute to the decrease in DUIs, crashes and arrests?

Well, crashes, a couple of things. Uh, and as far as the, the crashes, it's, it's, it's kind of self explanatory. If there's less DUI related crashes, we're going to have less arrests associated with that. As far as the other, um, just to take into extra measures of stuff that we can do to make sure we're staying proactive. Uh, next week, um, we're doing a DUI field sobriety task force training, hosting a school here at the Jupiter police department. Uh, that's a two day course that a number of our officers are going through. There's going to be another one in August. that a number of our officers and from outside agencies can attend also. That's being instructed by our own in-house instructors. They are certified to do that. And in addition to that, all the new hires we bring on during their first year of probation, they're all going to go through that same two-day class just as a refresher from the academy. So from a proactive standpoint, we're going to make sure that everybody's still familiarizing. We're pushing that agenda moving forward. But two classes, one starting next week and another one in August, just to make sure we're staying on top of that.

But the trend, generally, there's less people drinking and driving.

It could be. Without actually having data to look into that, I could say there probably is. Ride shares are also more prevalent than they are before in those type of programs. But I don't want to rest... My laurels on some hypothetical, maybe we're going to make sure that our guys are trained and ready to go out there and do the job. There's also trends of young people as people drinking in general, which I've heard from my my own son who's 21 and his crew and my daughter who's 26. Yeah, that tends to be the trend from what I experienced in my own house.

Right. Yeah. Same here. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Yes, sir.

For the record, CJ, traffic engineer, George is also here to answer any question you possibly have. Each year, we evaluate the traffic condition on Indian Town Road. This year, we evaluate the condition during the peak season, 2025, and also beginning of this year, as well as the August peak season. We focus on the travel time index, which is very popular on the major of effectiveness that the people are looking at. And this TDI is derived from the big data platform, primarily is the pro-vehicle based database from a nationwide database. The TDI is simply the ratio of the actual travel times compared to the free-flow travel time. So a value of the two indicating the actual travel time for this segment is twice as much of the travel time during the free-flow conditions. And the value of 2.0 or higher indicating that this segment is at its physical capacity, which is corresponding to Labor Service E. During last year, February and March, TTI are most of the most critical segment on Indian Town Road, exceed 2.0 in the AM peak for the eastbound traffic and PM peak for the westbound traffic. After the signal timing was improved, implemented in April, mid-April last year, the TTI was improved substantially by 30%. Beginning of this year, the entire corridor got retired by the county again, and the TTI was able to improve slightly. And right now the TTI is around 1.5 on the average. in both AMP and PIC, but the day-to-day variation in the travel time still remains significant. In line with the county's comprehensive master plan efforts, we also evaluate the same MOE on the major service street, primarily on the corridor during the a.m. and p.m. The TTR on most of the corridor remain below 1.5, 1.6, which is a pretty good conditions. But a handful that does exceed like Indian Town Road, indicating 2.0, indicating the overcapacity condition again. And these are typically caused by the high demand, the ineffective green time, improvement on the corridor and also the fluctuation in the demand patterns. And notice that the county still implement the so-called time of day signal timing. So it has the limited, relatively limited capacity to deal with this traffic flow patterns variations. So we hope that the adaptive traffic control system that currently testbed implemented on Okeechobee can be a success and later on can be adapted to the different parts of the county including Indian Town Road. We do have several signalized intersections, which has been reported by the Deputy Chief in town, that does present a safety concern. I'm reporting the safety concern in terms of the crashes rate, which is the number of crashes divided by the exposure, which is the traffic count. Elton, A1A, and Indian Town Road intersections stayed atop in the town, followed by the Riverside Drive and Elton and A1A. And we also pursued the funding opportunity to mitigate those effects and try to improve the infrastructural resilience, hardening the signal pole and master arm and the additional signal head will be installed on the Cypress Drive. We also continue monitoring the performance at the University and the Central Boulevard roundabout and the two-way left-hand lane that constructed by the county on Center Street. Both are currently operating at a pretty acceptable level. Lastly, I want to mention about how we address the mobility and the safety needs in the town. The town's CIP program, along with those of the external funding agency are summarized in this map, as you can see. This improvement can be broadly categorized into four categories. Intersection improvement, roadway improvement, safety fencing on FEC corridor. And lastly, the pedestrian crosswalk safety enhancement. Some of the projects are noted here, including the Indiantown Road, Westbound widening to Fallen Road. This project is scheduled to be up for lading in this coming summer. and construction is anticipated to begin by November this year. The PD&E study for the most critical intersection, Central and the Indian Town Road, has been awarded in March and anticipated to be completed in 36 months, three years from now. Finally, the signalization at Tony Pena Drive and the Central Boulevard currently is in design phase, and the construction is anticipated to begin January next year. And we hope that the inter-local agreement will be impressed by that, for us to begin construction of these important intersections. I will be more than happy to answer any questions you have.

Could you just back up one slide? just wanted to really more point this out to the public. You know, you can comment about it, but you know, we, 59% on Center Street, the two-way left turn improvement that was done, that's from Loxachie River to Indian Town Road. And that being the same upgrade that the county is planning to do from there all the way east to alternate a1a i think it's significant for those members of the public that you know had any concerns about that project you could just see having a dedicated turn lane has results in a very very significant reduction in crash frequency and crash rate so you'd expect the same when they do the project further to the east correct

Yes, or even better because we are in the process, the planning and zoning and also engineering department are in the process of injecting the more complete street design into their design work to be able to implement. planning the mediums and also the multi-use trail on both sides of the roadway, one side of the roadway. So those additional improvements, once it's wired in, you would anticipate to even have a higher benefit.

So moving on back to page nine, I just have a couple comments here. Page nine, forward.

Forward?

Forward, you know, to the last page. I said back, but I'm sorry, we were on page nine. I'm really delighted how this every year has resulted in the fact that having our police and engineering department focus on traffic issues throughout the town, how that leads to a pretty large scope, and it may take a while to get them, but this intersection improvements, road improvements, grateful for that. So two specific questions. So the Tonopena Drive Complete Street being a 2035 cost feasible project. I'm not sure that I knew about that before. And maybe that was, can you give us an update on where that stands? Is that in the MPO process or what?

Yeah, it still remains cost-feasible, the TPA-specific program, the funding. I guess it's $6 million for it, for the ballpark.

I'm sure the council would be interested. If there's any detail about that, I'm sure the council might be interested in that. Occasionally we get questions about Tonic Penn, but that means 2035, there is no funding for it, right? I mean, this is just a project that was thrown out there as being into a long-term plan. And then this lastly, do you have any update on the FEC corridor fencing? I'm not trying to put you on the spot because I just want to know if I need to.

FDOT implemented that safety grant in two directions. One is for the fencing, but one is for still the enhanced crossing. Yeah, by installing the delineator and the marking RPM and so forth. Right now, per FDOT, they focus on the second countermeasures, which is still the crossing safety enhancement. For the fencing, they are possibly reactivate the communication with the FEC together to review the right-of-way requirement for the fencing. So it is still possible that the review process will be continued after that.

But there was actually grant funding for it in Jupiter, was there not?

Yes. Yes. But they, like I said, per FDOT, right now their focus is to finish the crossing safety first.

Okay. I'd be interested outside of this meeting to get any contact information on that. I can help to nudge them along. Thank you. Sure. Any other questions?

Yeah. I just wanted to make an observation on the alternate. This is on the high crash location on page 8. The mitigation done at alternate A1A in Riverside within the last few weeks, I passed that several times a day, and there are those, and I don't know what they're called, metal markers, or they're tall, and when someone makes a turn, now they have to go slow down and make the turn, whereby before they were making turns left or right, didn't matter which way they came. And sometimes it was on two wheels. So that alone, I'm going to be watching to see if that has really mitigated because just what I'm seeing, it was a great, great addition to that corner. And I would have to believe it's going to reduce some of those accidents. Great job.

That possibly implemented by the county. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, thank you to the county then. Great job.

CJ on slide nine. Road improvements, number eight, Indian Town Road, westbound four laning. Can you describe what's going on there?

Oh, we thought that the the Congress EOMAC funding for that. And originally it was to improve, to widen the second phase of Indiantown interchange improvement. So basically extended the fourth land from the central all the way to the current, the Jupiter West Plaza to have the complete, the fourth land. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. But not continuing down towards 95? Yes. It would continue down to 95? Yeah, of course.

It already does. But it actually, the scope got reduced because of the PD&E, so the westbound would only pick up about a couple hundred feet west of the mobile gas station. So it's not from Central Boulevard. Right.

Oh, yeah. There were like land acquisition issues, correct, with the gas station? Yeah, for the gas station. Will that ever get ever changed or is that a permanent situation?

No. Yeah, FDOT decided to set aside the right-of-way acquisition process and then to be able to expedite that project. Okay.

There's hope because it's encompassed into the PD&E study for the intersection.

Okay, right. Which is a few years down the road, right?

Yeah. One question on that Anytown Road widening, the four-laning. You said it's going to start in November.

Is that correct?

Yeah. How long will that last, that widening, adding that fourth lane? Do you have a schedule on how long it's going to take to put that fourth lane in?

Let me reach back to FDOT project manager for that.

And will they require closing any of, like, the three lanes in order to put that fourth lane in? I'm concerned about starting in November right during the peak of the season, and we may be closing potentially a lane on Indiantown Road towards the interstate. We've already got traffic backed up. I just wondered what the plans were as far as road closures there and for how long.

Joseph, go ahead. Okay.

George Zama, for the record, Deputy Director of Engineering and Public Works. So DOT actually, Let the project and the bids came in and they are actually evaluating the bids now So it's a little earlier than expected So they hope to begin construction sooner than November either way. We are going to be impacting into Season I would expect the project to last at least eight eight months eight to twelve months but we will get confirmation as CJ said on the the construction schedule when the construction contract is executed. As far as maintenance of traffic, the intent is to keep all lanes of traffic open. And if there's intermittent lane closures, they try to perform that at night when it's not impacting traffic. It's gonna be similar to what we experienced with the initial widening project. So there may be some intermittent closures, preferably at night, and mostly at night, but there may be some daytime. If it's daytime, it'll be outside of peak hours.

Okay, thank you.

All right. Seeing no other comments or questions, thank you very much for the presentation. And now I'll move on to citizen comments. This is the time for all non-agenda items and it's limited to three minutes and anyone wishing to speak is asked to state his or her name and address for the record prior to addressing the council. Council will not discuss these items this evening and any issues get referred to staff for follow-up and then a report is provided to the council and citizens will be contacted. And so with that, I believe we have public comments.

Yes, sir. We have six speakers tonight.

On non-agenda items?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Our first speaker is Carla Adelsberger, followed by Jen Kleiler.

Good evening. My name is Carla, and I live in Riverside Drive Park. And I'm here regarding the ongoing cat situation on Summer Avenue. Right now, I'm just at the point where I just can't stand the smell, the pee, the poop all over my yard from our neighbor behind us cats. I have a beautiful pool that we spent a lot of money on. I have a patio, but none of it can be enjoyed because honestly, the smell is horrific all day, all the time. I live right behind her. And now with the heat coming, it even gets worse. There are all kinds of cages and stuff in her backyard. Honestly, it's a mess back there. Her yard and my neighbor's yard are litter boxes, including my yard. I just don't think it's fair for me to not be able to enjoy my backyard and my pool that I've spent a lot of money on. I have a new grandson. So he's over there swimming, but there's days where we don't even go outside because it smells so bad. We can't enjoy it. I put in fake grass. I just spent $2,000 on fake grass, which I'm kind of thinking maybe it wasn't a good idea because I just spent a lot of money, my hard-earned money. We left for vacation, I came back to poop and pee all over my back porch, a brand new carpet, my deck box, the wall, the baby toys, the pool floats, which were all brand new, because like I said, he's only 15 months old, which I had to clean all that, and I'm just tired of cleaning it up. I've replaced rugs, cushions. I mean, like I said, the deck box. I have to clean it up all the time. It's on my porch. It's on the deck. It's in the rocks. It's in my grass in the front yard. It's in my beds of my plants. It's all the time. That's all I do. And it has to be a health risk, not only to us and the neighbors, but to the lady who lives in that house. I can't imagine it because if I can smell it that bad, I can't imagine what she's smelling all day long. And I mean, I've talked to Officer Black a couple of times from animal control and she suggested that I buy things to deter the cats, but why should I have to spend my hard earned money? I mean, I have a whole fence. It would take hundreds and hundreds of dollars for me to keep this ongoing. I mean, it's every day. It's not just once in a while. I have cameras, so they're on my golf cart. They're on my roof. They're on my boat. They're on my patio deck. They're on my car. They're on my tables in the back. They're on my chairs in the back. I mean, my house is an Airbnb, basically, for them to enjoy. And you can just say it's one or two cats, but it's not. It's multiple cats. And there's, I mean, I know at one point there was 30 or 40 cats over there. And they're all over the place. They're just everywhere. You see them all day long, everywhere. So I would just like someone to think about if you were in this situation and you lived there and you had a grandson and family that wants to come over and you want to have time in the backyard. That's what we do in our yards in the summertime. That's what it's about. So thank you.

Thank you.

Jen Kleiler.

Good evening council. Again, just to piggyback on what Carla said, I'm here tonight regarding the ongoing health issues in our neighborhood that has affected our residents for many years. We have a neighbor, as Carla mentioned, that has accumulated dozens of cats with no regard to the health and safety of those around her and herself. And for years, multiple neighbors have repeatedly contacted staff within the Town of Jupiter, Animal Control, Code Compliance, and the Police Department. Officials have visited the property and issued warnings and code violations, yet the problem continues without a meaningful resolution. This is no longer just a nuisance issue. It's become a public health issue and a quality of life concern for surrounding residents. The ammonia smell outside is awful. And again, I ask you to put yourselves in our shoes. What would you do if you were exposed to this day in, day out? Would you want your family exposed to the persistent odors and the animal waste on your property? We have done our best to follow every channel available to us, and it's cost us a considerable amount of time and money, but little has changed. What has compelled me to be here tonight is that a longtime resident and a truly great neighbor ultimately felt forced to move from his home after living next to this unsanitary and toxic situation for 11 years. I'm truly at a loss. I'm not here asking for any punishment or any additional conflict. I'm simply asking for someone to finally take some responsibility and to stop turfing this ongoing problem to someone else. I believe you're going to actually be receiving some additional emails from the neighbors that couldn't be here tonight just because we're all frustrated and we just request some additional guidance on this issue, whether it's contacting the health department. I know code compliance has been out there in the past, but again, no resolution has come from any of this, and it's just been going on for far too long, costing us way too much time, energy, and money, and it's affecting our health. Thank you.

Our next 2 speakers are Peter Pullen and Leanne Lawbeck.

My name is Peter Pullen. I live at 703 Irwin Lane. I want to comment on the property at 500 North Delaware Avenue. I appreciate what you've done with that land. I'm so glad you bought it. And I appreciate the removal of the exotics. But since you have removed most of the mellow lucatries, we don't seem, my wife and I have both commented, we don't seem to see the number of osprey we used to see over the creek. So I would like to suggest or request that we install, that you install, an osprey nesting post on that land. I think that would increase the number of osprey, and I think all the neighbors would enjoy the ospreys. They're such wonderful birds. And if finances are a problem, I'll pay for it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Leanne Laubach.

Good evening. So I'm glad to hear that we're celebrating Arbor Day in the town of Jupiter. I do wish that we had been able to save the tree in Cinquez Park a little bit better. I know there were promises made that it would be left as is, but it does look like construction has breached into it. It's not going to be able to grow any further and it has unfortunately been damaged with the construction from Cinquez Park Fire Station. I believe I forgot to mention, hi, my name is Leanne Labeck. I live on Carver Avenue, for those of you who haven't met me already. So I do hope that we'll be able to enjoy the park soon. I know that construction is never fun for anyone, and I'm excited to see things wrap up, for the porta-potties to be gone, for the construction vehicles to be gone for the park to be usable again and for there to be a sidewalk towards the bus station that my son takes again and fewer hazards for the children of the neighborhood. However, the most problematic thing and the thing that I wanted to address the most today was the new stop light that's been put at the end of Carver Avenue on Indiantown Road. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's for some reason shorter than normal stoplights. It's directly in your eyes whether you're driving or walking down the road. You can see it for the entire length of Carver Avenue whether you're walking or driving and unfortunately the bright red blinking red lights, there's two of them for some reason, can be seen from my front yard. So I can't leave my house at all without having bright flashing lights in my front yard. I can't walk in my neighborhood without it in my face all the time since they turned them on a few weeks ago. So I'm hoping that there is another solution that can maintain the safety on Indian Town Road. that can help make sure that the new fire trucks can do what they need to do safely, but can also allow me and I'm sure my neighbors to continue the enjoyment of our private properties as well as continue to enjoy the neighborhood once it's restored to usable state again. I'm hoping that the staff can review this and review the location and report back with options that safeguard our enjoyment of our private property and also address the needs of that intersection that's been created for the purpose of the fire station. Thank you. Good evening.

Our next two speakers are Todd Fabry, followed by Richard Rendina.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. Todd Fabry, 20145 Southeast Bridgewater Drive. I wanted to just briefly speak in support of, I believe, a letter Council may have gotten a copy of towards the end of April, early May, and staff regarding supporting the idea of allowing concurrent processing of site plan applications alongside related land use and zoning applications. Concurrent review benefits both the applicants and the town by giving staff and council a more complete understanding of a project earlier in the process allowing policy decisions to be made with the benefit of actual site planning details rather than in the abstract. It also improves the efficiency of reducing unnecessary delays and duplicative review cycles and costly redesigns that can occur under a strictly sequential process. In today's environment, rising construction costs and financing challenges and rapidly changing market conditions, timing is often critical to whether a project is able to move forward or not. Importantly, allowing concurrent submittals does not reduce the town's oversight or public input in any way. The council still retains full authority over the approvals and hearings. It simply creates more coordinated and predictable review process that benefits all parties involved. Many jurisdictions already utilize this type of framework because it helps streamline administration, encourages quality investment, and allows projects to move forward more thoughtfully and efficiently. I believe this may have been a previous policy that was somewhere along the line, may have been changed to not allow the concurrent review, but would like just to respectfully request that you consider change to that policy if possible. And thank you for your time and consideration tonight. Thank you.

Our final speaker is Richard Rendina.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Richard Rendina. I live on Penn point road here in Jupiter. I'm also the CEO of Rendina companies. located in Jupiter, Florida, in Abacoa, and been a Jupiter resident for 20 plus years. I have a copy of the letter that Todd just cited that was mailed to each of the town council members, as well as the town attorney and town manager. Am I able to give those? Not that you need them, but.

For reference.

My father, Bruce Rendina, along with George Guardiola, were involved in the original development of Abacoa, including portions of the commercial and town center development. Groundbreaking was 1998, 1999 of the town center. Mayor Koretsky was elected in 2001. I'm here tonight as follow-up to my April 30th letter. I'm asking for consideration of a simple policy adjustment to allow for concurrent processing of site plan applications with land use or zoning applications at the applicant's option. While I call this a change, it's really more of a return how the process worked for many years. I understand the current approach was implemented with good intentions during 2022-2023 time period when Councilmember Cheryl Snyder was serving. I believe the intent was to improve efficiency, help applicants such as myself, and manage staff workload. But in practice, it's having the opposite effect. I'm disappointed to see that Councilmember Sundstrom isn't here. She's the only one on the dias that I've spoken to directly about this. And maybe you're able to speak to her about that. But today, both council and staff are being asked to make decisions in a vacuum. Without a site plan, without knowing what will ultimately be built, it's very hard for council members and staff to be able to approve a zoning text amendment, a land use change, without knowing what the developer's intentions are with the site plan. Staff puts in the time, but without full context. Council still makes decisions, but without full visibility. And the process adds time in an environment where timing matters. Costs change, markets move, projects become harder to deliver. The adjustment does not reduce oversight, It does not remove public input. It simply gives everyone more complete information earlier in the process. And that's the goal. So I would respectfully ask that the town council and staff review the policy and bring back a recommendation for an optional concurrent process with appropriate guardrails. Thank you.

Thank you. That was in the public comments, correct? And we don't normally comment, but I'll just run through so those who took the time to come here understand. As I indicated, we don't discuss the items tonight, but generally our staff hears these things and we get a report through the town manager's office. So I... you know my deepest uh sympathies to the residents that spoke about the cat health issues uh I thought that had gone in a better direction some time ago so hearing the update we'll get an update from our staff through our town manager and see what if anything can be done regarding the comment about our property acquisition on Delaware and the Connie Osby population. I'm sure our staff will follow up on that item regarding the comment observation with regard to the lighting on Indian Town coming out of Sinquez Park area for our fire department. We'll get a report, I'm sure, on that if What, if anything, can be done about that? And then in the last items, the fact that Councilor Sundstrom is not here doesn't disadvantage you in any way because we wouldn't be talking about it tonight. And I would expect there are... There's no one thing that always works. So I'd ask through our town manager to, you know, respond back to us individually. And then if we're so inclined, we would pursue some, either a policy change or a one-time change or whatever. But again, I leave that to the town manager to get back with us on. And so with that, I move on. Council, we have before us the minutes. of the May 5th meeting, and there's minor corrections on the dais. If there's no other corrections, I'd take a motion and a second to approve the minutes as amended.

I'll make a motion that we accept the minutes of May 5th, 2026, with the exception of page seven. Under Mayor Koretsky's, there is a minor change.

I'll second. Second.

Motion to second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Moving on to the consent agenda, is there any member of the public that wish to pull a consent agenda item?

No, sir.

Any member on the dais wish to pull a consent agenda item?

Yes. I'd like to pull 8, 9, 10, 12, and 14. 8? 9, 10, 12, and 14. Okay. Any other item? 8 and 11.

Any other item to be pulled? No, not on my part. So much for consent. I'll take a motion and a second to approve an amended consent agenda consisting of items six, seven, and 13.

So moved as amended.

Second. Motion in a second. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. That was unanimous.

Well, yeah. One question. Item six was postponed?

Yes.

Okay. All right.

That's on the amended agenda.

So, yes.

Okay, moving on to item eight, first item pulled. I think it was going to be pulled by two members of the council. I'll first go to Councilor Geisinger. Do you have any questions?

I had a couple questions of staff and also for the LSO leadership here tonight.

My mic is on now, thank you. I had a couple questions of staff and also for the LSO leadership here tonight. First, The El Sol Strategic Facility Plan identified issues with the building. For example, it needs painting, windows need to be caulked to prevent water intrusion, stucco needs repaired, roof needs minor repair, and the front door replaced. If the Third Amendment is approved by the Town Council, will the Town Building Engineering Department conduct an inspection of the building to verify whether or not these conditions are valid?

Yes, they will.

So that is the plan?

Yes.

Okay. And the second question, if they're found to be valid, will the town develop a plan with cost to make these repairs and present this to council for consideration, obviously with appropriation at a later date, hopefully before the end of the year, maybe?

It's likely that, as with any capital improvement plans, that those would be part of the capital improvement project and subject to council's approval and appropriation.

Okay, so that we'd include some type of CIP then for it? Yes. All right. And my questions to ELSO.

Hi. Whitbeck, right?

Suzanne, yes, Whitbeck. Suzanne.

Can you just give me a brief summary of the benefits ELSO brings the community? For example, volunteer hours recorded per year, how many adults participating in the adult program has received their GED, what is your annual staff salaries? If you could just address those. I'm looking for the overall benefit for ELSO to the community.

Sure, yes. Good evening, Ann. for allowing us the opportunity to be here. We've been here for 20 years. We have taken care of the day labor market that existed mainly on Center Street, in Streets of Jupiter, but mainly concentrated on Center Street. And those of you who were here before El Sol opened will remember that it was a situation of chaos for everybody involved, the residents in the area, the workers themselves. There was loitering, there was traffic issues, traffic flow issues. It was intimidating to walk down the street with a couple hundred people walking there. So that has been the number one. solution that we have, that El Sol has brought to the town of Jupiter. The town council was a big part of it. We like to say that we are a true example of how a community can come together because the town council was receiving so many complaints about this and instead of ignoring and pretending that this wasn't happened, because it's happening all over the country, this community came together. Government, the school, FAU, the houses of worship, the different faiths, the citizens, residents, and the workers themselves. And the solution that came to be was also. As far as numbers, let me put my glasses on, I can tell you that in 2025, for the calendar year, we facilitated 10,499 job placements. That means that employers came in and hired day laborers for ten thousand four hundred ninety nine different jobs generating just through those jobs over a million one point two million dollars in income for laborers that turned turns around and comes into Jupiter nationwide studies. estimate that between 8-82% of money that day laborers earn comes back to their local communities in the form of rent, utilities, they have to buy food, they have to buy shoes for their kids. If they have kids, it's money that comes back. These laborers were picked up by 1,625 unduplicated laborers. So homeowners and business owners came in to pick up. In 2025, it was a total of 625 unduplicated workers who were picked up to do these jobs. Now, day laborers don't get all their work from a day labor hall. They might come in once a week. They might come in three times a week. They might come in only on Saturdays because they have other jobs lined up. So the income that their work represents is not, this number that I'm giving you is not for, it's just what comes out from Jupiter. I mean, from the El Sol labor program, if that makes sense. As far as education, we have, I just have, by the way, we just finished printing it with Michelle back here.

Thank you.

The first quarter, we've summarized it. It's going to be a lot easier for you all to read. You'll have it tomorrow morning. But for 2025, I can tell you that in adult education, we operate in six areas of focus, so labor being the core of what we do. In adult education last year, we had a total of 106 students in the spring semester and 128 in the fall, just for the English portion of the program. And for our GED prep and students coming in to learn how to read and write, these are adults, these are much smaller groups. We had 21 certificates issued for adult students learning how to, like I say, read and write or finishing primary, finishing secondary, getting their GED. We also have programs in vocational training. We have students getting their KTP. We had an unduplicated participation in our worker development program last year of 343 workers that came in. to do workshops, to learn how to paint a wall. We, I'm going through this, we have 14 students get their serve safe food handler, which of course is nationwide. And we had a total of 32 students participating in sewing. These are skills that they can take with them and help them earn a living. Okay? All right. This is very, very quick.

I think you pretty well covered a lot of the benefits.

I mean, I could go on.

I know. But I did have one question.

Let me just tell you with staff real quickly. We have a total of 13 full-time staff members and between 12 and 14 part-time staff members who that change is based on our nighttime classes.

And what's their annual salary?

This year it's budgeted just around $1 million.

Okay. All right. Thank you. It's fairly significant, so. And one last question, if your lease amendment is not approved, what is the impact on your ability to raise funds, operating funds? I know you look at grants and private donations and stuff like that. Absolutely.

Our budget for this year is, our cash budget is just at about $1.8 million, and about $1 million is budgeted to come from grants. We will not be able to write a grant and ask for funding without a lease. Nobody's going to give you money if you don't have a place to give your programs. The rest of the funding comes from private foundations. many who are local, and they also, even though we don't have to write a grant, they also want to know that we have a solid place to be able to perform what we're doing. So it would have a significant impact.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you.

and i believe you uh counselor yeah suzanne nice to see you tonight um just want to start by saying i've always appreciated what else brought to the community and the problem that it's cleaned up over in center street and all that um but i i remember i think it was around the time we renewed the last lease that council was you know sort of nudging folks like maybe it's not a permanent location to move on have you guys looked into any other locations or we have on that we have we um have

gotten the message that the town's needs are changing and that the space is going to be needed. The real estate market in Jupiter is impossible right now. It's very difficult. We have started looking. We've looked at a couple places. One property, which would be beautiful, perfect, is over $4 million, which the first thing we would need to do is raise the money for it. And it's located in what's a residential area. So There's many factors, many challenges that we're facing with trying to relocate, but we understand that this is what you are looking for. But traffic flow issues for the morning labor, when drivers are coming in with their trailers and everything, you can't just do that.

I understand, yeah.

But we have. We have started looking.

I don't have a problem with renewing the lease. It's just the five years, I think it is a bit long. I was more in favor of a two over three with options, but...

We need time to raise the money and to find this thing.

Have you raised any money?

We just allocated a capital reserve fund, but it's not even a million dollars yet. So we've got a way to go.

But you're in the process of, so you've got a million dollars put aside?

Not quite yet, but yes.

Okay.

And we're also in a process, we have to do programmatic strategic planning, which will also influence our space needs, right?

Okay. Wonderful. Thank you.

So that's the time I'm looking for. Okay. Thank you.

I understand that we have four members of the public that wish to speak if, in fact, this item was pulled.

Yes, sir.

Can we...

Our first speaker is Suzanne Whitbeck.

I pretty much was going to give you some numbers. So I think the only thing I would like to add to that is that we're not, like I said, we understand that 20 years ago when we came together to solve this problem, Jupiter was a different Jupiter. So we understand that. So we're asking for this runway. But we also, Jupiter was very unique in how Jupiter solved this problem. It was a path that was thoughtful, it was collaborative, and it was very much our own. I can't tell you how many calls I get from other municipalities. Is there an El Sol here? Can you come please open an El Sol? We're like, no, we're Jupiter. This is what we do. So I am asking that we honor that, that you allow us to continue down this path and that we work together. We were celebrating 20 years. Let's continue this collaboration and looking forward.

But you are making this moving forward with steps to put money aside down the road, move on to your own place. Okay, because this is a public campus. The land's valuable. The town may need it for other services, obviously. You know all this. I'm just... For the record, you want to get that out there.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So thank you. Thank you.

Our next two speakers are PJ Willis, followed by Craig Scarrato.

Good evening. My name is PJ Willis. I'm the current chair of LSOL. So thank you for having us tonight. I'm here to share 20 years ago, you know, history of Jupiter, you know, been defined by a commitment of our, you know, of our neighbors. It's a story of a community organization growing intentionally, logically, and naturally alongside the residents we serve. 20 years ago, El Sol opened its doors with a singular vital focus, provide a safe, organized, and dignified employment exchange for laborers. But communities are living, needs evolve. Over the last two decades, we've worked closely with the workers. We've quickly realized that to truly support a laborer, we have to help them grow. Our services did not expand by coincidence. Every single program we added grew organically from an unmet need voiced by the residents of Jupiter who walked through their front doors. Our initial labor program naturally evolved into advancing worker development. to help workers improve their skills, earn better wages. From there, we introduced specialized programs, sewing classes, computer training, in-house workshops. As Suzanne mentioned, ServSafe, where those that want to have a career in the restaurant industry have the ability to get their certification. Next came language as we improved the ability for the residents to communicate. Their ability to communicate also meant that they could integrate safely within the community. This created our English and Spanish literacy classes, all of which is available to residents of Jupiter. A resident of Jupiter can come to El Sol and learn how to speak Spanish. Next came the kids. We want to take care of the children in this community. As parents work hard to build a better life for themselves, we wanted to help and needed to help the kids integrate better into our school systems. That we're doing. Kids that weren't able to keep up with the classes are now able to keep up with the classes. We offer tutoring programs four days a week for kids after school within the community we serve. Finally, we address basic dignity. The ability to work requires a full stomach. The ability to study requires a full stomach. Through our collaboration with Cross Ministries, we offer a food pantry two days a week to provide those within the community that are food insecure access to those needs, also available to the town of Jupiter. So while we understand the town is looking for us to find a new home you know as Suzanne mentioned Jupiter is extremely difficult place to find properties. It's not going to cost a million dollars. It's not going to cost two million dollars. It could cost five million dollars. It could cost 10 million dollars based off of who we're competing with in the rest of this country. So we would we would prefer a longer lease so that way we have the runway needed. And it also takes the stress off the staff. As Suzanne mentioned, we do employ quite a few people that also live in this community. And the last two years have created a large amount of stress for not only our donors, the employers or the laborers that we work with, as well as the employees themselves. So thank you for your time.

Our next speaker is Craig Scarrato.

Good evening, Council, Mayor. I want to represent the practical side of El Sol. I'm a resident of Jupiter, 18319 Oakleaf Drive, for 36 years. I, when I first moved in, was part of that Center Street hustle, looking for people to help me maintain my yard, help me paint my house, do those type of things. I'VE HAD VERY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES IN PALM BEACH COUNTY HOSTING CRAVIS CENTER, CITY PLACE, THE FAIRGROUNDS, FOOD AND BEVERAGE, AND VERY FORMAL KITCHEN CABINET BUSINESS DOING KITCHENS IN THOUSANDS OF HOMES HERE IN JUPITER. SO MY STORY IS THAT IN THOSE FIRST DAYS WHEN I WAS NEEDING LABOR TO HELP, I WENT TO CENTER STREET AND IT WAS A SHUFFLE. Then when El Sol came about, I had an avenue. I had a safe avenue. I had names. I had representation. I was able to identify what their skills were and use those skills. And I was actually able to help those people move on in their life, helping them get their naturalization, helping them learn a language, and helping them become mainstream at the same time they were helping me both on my personal side and the business side. I currently have an employee who is naturalized from Cuba a few months ago and he is learning English so that I don't have to use Google Translate to help him along. So back from the beginning of El Sol till now it is an incredible organization that supports this community in ways that our children and our culture has changed and the other cultures that have arrived here in Jupiter are fulfilling those needs. So I think it's imperative and important that we preserve a space for El Sol, that they have a place to continue this effort and help mainstream the people that participate there. So with that, thank you very much for the consideration. Mayor Koretsky, my wife Jan, the swim instructor, said to say hello.

Thank you.

Our last speaker is Kathleen Waddell.

Good evening. My name is Kathleen Waddell and I live at 6502 Winding Lake Drive, Jupiter, Florida for over 33 years. I want to speak in support of El Sol and the Jupiter Resource Center. In 2024, there were over 352 active community volunteers who contributed over 9,600 hours. Since 2012, I understand there were over 900 individuals who reached out to volunteer in a variety of programs. In 2016, after retiring from the US Army and then from the VA Medical Center, I, like many volunteers, look for a place to be productive and to be able to use my talents and experience. Volunteering supports physical and mental health. Working with others, giving back to our community, providing purpose in our lives enhances well-being by opening up networks that increase socialization for those of us that are aging. Activities of gardening and assisting with foods prep and service allows gentle exercises and positive positive interactions with clients workers and staff also also provides available worker clients to assist with difficult tasks that need to be accomplished in our home whether it's cleaning gardening or assisting with hurricane shutters or helping with family members. I am grateful. for what El Sol has provided me and our community. El Sol is a gem in Palm Beach County. As an aside, I understand there are stories of employers who come from Miami or Port St. Lucie to pick up willing and well-trained workers. I strongly encourage you to consider the value El Sol provides to your community campus. The impact depends on El Sol. The positive impact on the Jupiter community depends on El Sol for their purpose in life, their positive activities, mental health during our aging years. I encourage you to extend the lease as long as you can. I want it to be extended until I finally retire. Thank you.

That was it on public comments? Yes, sir. I'll go ahead and start up here to comment. I'm very familiar with El Sol. I'm grateful for the volunteers, the organization, the volunteers that have volunteered there over many years. I'm grateful for the widespread public support that provides funding and grants that has kept it going. I certainly don't want to take a step backwards. I'm grateful that in our package on page nine and 10, It was very thoroughly done by El Sol, providing a look at strategic options. And it's extremely challenging in not only this market, but in this country at this point in time to pursue anything else. I recall how often the town has leveraged the existence of El Sol to reach out to part of the that we had no other way to reach out to and educate about different matters and what have you. And it's my recollection that our neighborhoods department, who has always worked closely with El Sol, in fact, had asked during, I think it was COVID or whatever, for Cross Ministries to be located there, basically to provide food source during those difficult times, or it might have been before then. So, you know, that's the partnership that has gone back and forth. So it exists to this day because my recollection is town actually asked for it to be put there, and bingo. The lease that we have before us, which I support, has a termination provision which has existed in prior the prior lease is just a repeat five-year term and also can serve notice within 30 days if they decide they wanted to move elsewhere And the town would need to provide at least six months advance notice. So we have provisions there if something were to come up that we needed to take some action. Six months is certainly an easy enough time that we could deal with that. So I don't see a reason to shorten the lease. I support it as it was presented. I don't know where we'll stand on the dais. I know I heard one for a shorter lease, and if I need to, I'll pass the gavel to make a motion.

I'd like to make a motion, unless there's any other comments, for the town to enter into a five-year lease with El Sol for the property at 106 Military Trail.

As presented?

As presented, yes. I'll second that.

My questions were answered. That's fine.

Okay. I did have comments. Oh. I'm sorry. That's okay. First of all, I want to thank us all, your generosity, to the community with volunteer hours, all of you. It is so appreciated. It also is an economic search engine. There is no question your laborers bring their income back into Jupiter. I do support a renewal of a lease. but I don't support extending it. I think I would like to just see a five-year lease with no extensions. And this, I think, should give sufficient time to work on your reserve funding. Real estate is very difficult. I appreciate that and I understand that. But at some point in time, you're going to have to spread those wings and figure out if there is an opportunity. And hopefully, some opportunity is going to come along. For 20 years, you've done an amazing amount of goodwill to the community. I've been here for almost 30, so I watched what you did, how you did it, how the town got involved, how the ministries got involved in all of the services that you provide. Again, I support a five-year lease. I do not support extending lease renewals.

I think that the motion and the second on the floor is to approve the lease as presented. So I'll first.

Correct.

So I'll call a vote on the motion as presented. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Opposed?

Opposed. Motion carries three to one with the vice mayor dissenting. Okay, thank you. I'll move on to item number nine. This item was pulled by Councilor Geisinger.

Yeah, I pulled nine and 11 because they're fairly similar contracts for consulting services. So the questions I have to ask for our Director of Engineering pertain to both. So hopefully you'll expedite some of the Q&A portion of this. So if you would, I'd like to start out with Director Zama. Would you please review the selection criteria that the town used for these consultants for both agenda items 8, I mean, excuse me, agenda items 10 and 11?

Yeah, sure. For the record, George Zama, Director of Engineering and Public Works. So both of these contracts are similar. They're just different scope of services, as was mentioned. So the contracts are were procured under the Florida Statute 287.055, the Consultants Competitive Negotiations Act, or CCNA. And these contracts for design must be selected based on qualifications. And there are provisions within this statute for streamlining projects because these projects must be selected based on qualifications, which requires submitted bids, selection committees to review the qualifications. It could be an extended process. So we present these items, these continuing services contracts to select based on a bulk of scope of services. with specific selection criteria. As was asked, the selection criteria were professional qualifications, past relevant project performance, project approach, the firm's internal quality assurance and quality control practices, location, and there are provisions within the statutes that specify scoring for small business enterprises, minority business enterprise, and diversity business enterprises. So the scoring selection criteria, the qualifications were based on the criteria. We had multiple firms submit for both, and the selection committee met, scored based on this criteria, and we took the average scoring to rank the firms.

So if I understand that correctly, cost is not considered as by a Florida statute, so that's correct?

So for selecting firms so for the selection for specific projects you select a single firm and the highest qualified firm that's ranked you enter into negotiations for a price for the project and so they're subject to negotiation. If you can't If prices are too high, you can't reach an agreement. You must move on to the second firm and enter into negotiations and you cannot go back to the first firm. So you must move down the line of your ranking order. In this case, we're allowed to, the contract is structured so we select a pool of of consultants based on their qualifications. For each project, a work order will be issued based on negotiated prices, which are the fee schedules that are established within the contract, as well as hours for each task of the proposed project.

Okay. And the last one, this was more or less on the agenda, item 10, which was the architect and building envelope continuing services. Could you explain to what the BES score is and why They weren't scored? I believe it's CSI Construction Moisture Consulting received a BES score from all three selection committee members as opposed to a numerical score?

Yeah, absolutely. So this contract was bid with architecture. There's a list of scope of services as well as we allowed for building envelope consultants, which is a specialized industry to submit because it is intertwined in building design. So we wanted to give opportunity for those types of consultants to submit a bid. We do, the town does have a need for a specialized consultant for both design and analysis of our existing structures. So we had one consultant that selected as a stand-alone building envelope services consultant, and they were the only firm, so we selected them just based solely for building envelope services.

All right. And my last question, relative to resolution 32-26, is it the plan to remove two of the contractors from that resolution?

Yes, if there are no other questions, which I'd be happy to answer if there are.

Well, let's go to the questions first and then you can address that later. Absolutely.

I think my question is geared to what you're asking.

Okay, so staff would like to recommend the removal of two consultants from Resolution 32-26, one of which Craig A. Smith and Associates due to a conflict of interest, and the other is Kimley Horn due to failure to reach an agreement for their fee schedule. The town did set a maximum multiplier, which is a rate that is established by firms that is over their unburdened internal labor rates. And they, Kimley Horn, actually exceeded our threshold required in the contract. And for equity of other firms, that that several of the firms met the maximum of three. Unfortunately, Kimley Horn and the town could not reach an agreement. So staff recommends the removal of Craig A. Smith and Kimley Horn from Resolution 32-26 and do not award the contracts.

I'll take a motion and a second to approve Resolution 3226, awarding to two firms, Culpeper and Turpening, and Calvin Giordano and Associates. Well, actually, there's three in Chenmore and Associates.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Second. Motion is second. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries unanimously.

Moving on to Resolution 4626, which I believe has been your question has been answered. I'll take a motion on that.

I make a motion to approve Resolution 46-26. Second. Motion to second.

All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. I believe you also pulled, did you pull 11?

I pulled 11. Is there a question for staff? Just real quick, this grant, how much is this involved? Because we discussed the seawall at Sawfish. Is this part of that?

No, this is a separate grant. We submitted, the town submitted for two grants, one for the seawall redeeming project as well as the flushing culvert, and then this is a second grant. The first grant that you're asking about was for a 50-50 match for construction. This grant is a 100% grant for the bay itself.

Just for the bay itself, and it's going to be a study and... Okay, because I didn't see anything mentioned about the wall. The wall's all set, correct?

The wall, we did not get an award for the seawall. We will be submitting again. We had a meeting with FDP on what we can do better, and so we'll position ourselves this coming up September for resubmittal.

What heavy requirements did they want for that, for the wall?

For the wall, they wanted to make sure that it was more nature-based and not maintenance.

Oh, okay. And we can meet that?

Well, we're doing, the plan is to incorporate living shoreline to harden it as well as provide providing the seawall redeeming work that we're working with engineering on.

Okay, so somehow the, I know it's off this subject, but somehow the living shoreline is integrated into the wall at some point? Yes. Okay, interesting. Okay, that was it. Thank you.

Take a motion. resolution 5326.

So moved. Second.

Motion second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. The motion carries unanimously. Moving on to resolution 5626. I think Councilor Geisinger pulled that one. 5426. I'm sorry.

I support that interlocal agreement. I think it's a great opportunity for our fire personnel to work alongside the Palm Beach Gardens fire personnel. I had just a question. And how does that work from an ILO standpoint? How does Jupiter Fire Rescue participate in a ride-along, you know, work with Palm Beach Gardens? Are they stationed with them overnight? Do they show up during the morning and just have an 8- or 12-hour shift? I'm just curious how that whole system works.

Well, first of all, Steve Shaw, Deputy Fire Chief of Operations, Jupiter Fire Rescue. First of all, thank you for asking the question. I'd love to come up here and have an opportunity to kind of just expand upon what we're doing, especially from the training aspect that we got coming up. It's so exciting. So first of all, let me just start by celebrating our relationship with Palm Beach Gardens. They have been an absolutely phenomenal partner since I've been here for two years and since Chief Donato has been here even before we got here. They've just been phenomenal. Even now, when we're meeting together in terms of talking tactics and strategies and just how they run their day-to-day operations and whatnot, just that relationship is stellar. So we already have the ILA for training established, and as you know, during our training program coming up over the summertime, we're going to be doing a lot of training using some of their facilities, and it's already in our calendar at this point. An expansion of that is this ride-along program, which gives us the ability to take a new firefighter and allow them to ride along somewhat similar to an EMT or paramedic student would do on their units to get a sense of the cadence of calls, how they respond to incidents, that tempo, how they respond on the radio, how they respond and operate their protocols and procedures and whatnot. For us, we just wanted to incorporate this inside the program if we wanted to use that. You've got to remember also that we're hiring a lot of people that are fresh out of school. They've never been into a fire department before, so they've never experienced that shift culture. They're going to get a load of training from us, and they're going to have a load of amazing opportunities to learn from some fantastic individuals, many of which you saw already here today. But we are not running calls, as you know, until October 1st. So we thought this was a wonderful idea to have that ability to add along to the ILA to allow them to ride along with our partners in Palm Beach Gardens to get a glimpse of what that looks like in addition to their training program. So the details of which could be during the daytime, during the evening time, there's a variety of ways it could work. We just wanted to make sure that was part of this to get that opportunity if and when we needed to during the course of the training program.

My main interest was exactly how does that work? You're going to be assigned it Palm Beach Gardens for the day. You'll show up at 6 in the morning and work through 6 or whatever and do a ride-along, so observational-type training. Yes, sir. That's the way it works? Yes, sir. All right. I have no further questions.

I just want to comment about that, first of all. call me a naive optimist, but I still hope that the county allows us to do calls before September 30th. We won't give up until September 30th on that ask. Secondly, you know, I remember Admiral's Cove, who's a gated community, who keeps records on who provides service, told us that the Gardens makes after calls to Admiral's Cove. So I was always delighted with this opportunity that you've pursued here for our own firefighters to go, in fact, If they were at that station that serves, you know, Admiral's Cove, well, they'd be even going into Jupiter. How great could that be? Not just a ride-along, but within our very community. So thank you for pursuing that. I'll take a motion and a second to approve 54-26.

I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 54-26. Second.

Motion and second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. And then last of all, item 14, I think pulled by.

Yeah, it was pulled by me. Come on up, George. We're the only ones left. A couple questions on that. We had four firms that we approved and determined to be qualified. but only one chose to bid. Do we understand why three of them refused to bid this contract?

We had a tight timeline to get this project completed. Our timeline is two months. As you heard, Chief, earlier, The time is rapidly approaching for their operations to begin. So we have a pretty tight timeline. Several of them did not wish to pursue the project. So we received the price proposal from this firm, which is one of the selected contractors for, this was for the three buildings. We had building A, B, and C. And B and C are completed.

Okay.

What was the logic rationale I went into? How do we determine, is Parson a low bid for this project? What information did you use in order to determine? Since the other three did not apply, so we're using now sole source one contractor.

So they are considered the lowest responsive responsible bidder because they were the only ones that submitted based on the specific request for proposal within this contract.

So we've done business with them before. We understand their pricing. We think they're reasonable. This is $477,000.

Yeah, we actually requested a proposal from another contractor, from another contract, our general contracting, continuing construction contract, and the prices were within reach, within 5%. So we vetted them, and the pricing is pretty accurate. OK. All right.

And last question. We're in the process of purchasing a new facility, a new commercial office building at 3126 Jupiter Park Drive. Could you just go through why these renovations are important for building A over to Public Works? and may not be suitable for putting anything else over like fire department logistics, leave them at building A?

Well, we've established a presence for fire rescue at the maintenance facility. This was the part of the original plan. They were actually supposed to be in building B. Originally, we've changed the scope around a little bit, but we moved public. We felt organizationally it was best for Public Works to move into building B. And we can put our efforts into renovating building A for a fire. This is to serve the fire rescue logistics to store their PPE and other pertinent equipment and supplies. Staff members will be there for their operations. And, you know, they already have a facility on site as well for their larger equipment. So this is just, you know, what we, it was part of the strategic planning efforts to put the logistics at this location.

Maybe the chief can answer. It's understood it's also potentially a safety and security to have it at Building A, particularly if you're storing tanks and stuff of that nature there?

Yes, sir. There will be compressed gas cylinders, and other equipment that's necessary to be very secure, especially in our medical equipment storage. So, yes, sir. Okay, all right, thank you. Thank you.

Also, the security aspect that we alluded to was also at the public works yard, if you've been out there, which I think you have, also they have the fenced-in areas out there along with gated, you have to have a code to get in, a gate in the evening. So the security is optimized by being in that location instead of the new facility at this time.

Okay. Mayor, I have no further comments.

I'll take a motion and a second on approving resolution 6326.

I'll make a motion to approve 63-26. Second.

Motion second, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye, motion carries unanimously. Moving on to reports, town attorney.

I have no real report. I did want to ask council if it wanted me to consider public nuisance aspect with respect to that house that's being maintained in a way that is obviously offending an entire neighborhood. If that's something that you would like me to explore, we'll be happy to do that.

I would say absolutely. Some of my colleagues may not realize how long that's gone on, but it's been going on for a long time.

So this is nothing new then. Okay.

Mayor, is this the same house? I thought that it had the cat issue a couple of years ago.

Well, I'm not exactly sure, but it sure sounded like it.

Because I thought that was in Paseos, but I might be mistaken.

Mayor, if I could, a couple of things. I'm glad to hear the town attorney bring that up because I was having some conversation with our deputy chief. We have a timeline of all the things that we've gone and done over this period of time. Yes. This is the neighborhood that you're thinking of. We started to make some progress. We were not able to get to the final conclusion that we wanted to there. It is a pretty frustrating process for people that live there and for those involved. So we do have on our list to get the timeline done, make sure we know where we are with things, We have a standing meeting with the town attorney on Friday mornings and to pursue that public nuisance avenue. I think that's probably one of the last avenues we have left. Is that right, Deputy Chief? Yep, I think it's one of the last avenues.

Just a question. Can you not go with the public health? I mean, feral cats. They've been there.

We've been doing this. It's really just remarkable.

Wow. Sounds terrible. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Yeah. I'm in favor of that.

So the answer was yes, unanimously. Thank you. Uh, town manager.

Yes. Thank you, mayor. So, um, I was going to start out with that cat situation and, um, and so that I've given you that update, um, just a couple of things from public, uh, comments tonight. Um, We'll be following up on the issues that were brought forward, but I did want to speak just briefly about the banyan tree at the Cinquez Fire Station. That tree has been a priority for us, and we have been monitoring and watching and doing everything that we need to do, and that tree is in good shape with no issues, and so we'll continue to do that as well. We'll look at that that flashing signal and see if there's something that can be done there. Also on the items that Mr. Rendina brought forward, I am working with the planning and zoning director. drafting a response. I could share some of the draft with you until we get to the final work, after we get to the final product. So I'll send the draft over to you and you can take a look at it. And then a couple of other things. Yesterday, we continued with the town infrastructure project. And this next portion is fixing sidewalks and repaving roads in Egritt's Landing. And we've already started that as construction crews started staging equipment. The project there is focused on replacing sidewalks damaged by tree roots and milling and overlaying the roads throughout the neighborhood. We're coordinating with the HOA. And the town, with the help of the Egress Landing property manager, will actively engage the residents throughout the project and will provide weekly updates to residents through e-mails and flyers and obviously use our website to get that information out. It's going to be a bit chaotic for them for a short period of time, but I think the end product will be well worth it. And just a couple of quick events for this week. First of all, on Monday, May 25th at 9 a.m., The town will host its annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Veterans Memorial in front of Town Hall. And then, believe it or not, coming up Monday, June 1st at 10 a.m., the town will host a ceremony in which our 90 operational firefighters will take the oath of office. The historic event will take place at the Maltz Theater. And I was just working this afternoon. We spent a few hours putting the finishing touches on that. It's going to be quite remarkable. And then on Wednesday, June 3rd at 11 a.m., the town will host the uncoupling and pushing ceremony for the JFRD station number 10, located at Pyatt Place. And these are like traditional ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new fire stations. As you participate in the ceremony, we'll be explaining what all of it means and how it does it. It's actually really very interesting. And then finally on Thursday, June 4th, the town will hold the uncoupling and pushing ceremony for JFRD station number 12, located adjacent to Cinquez Park. On the June 1st date, we will have hired our fire department and we'll have it all set and ready to go. They're putting their continuing down the final phases of training, and we will deliver it. We will have delivered it five months early and on budget. And that's my report, Mayor.

Thank you. Vice Mayor?

I want to say thank you. I really appreciate the citizens' comments when they come in. Everyone has been productive, polite, respectful, and so much can get accomplished when they come and talk to us. I appreciate hearing the immediate feedback on both sides of this dais. I do wish El Sol so much success. maybe a little bit tougher on the lease negotiation. However, I really do believe that they can make it happen. Real estate is tough. But what they do in El Sol, I personally appreciate their services. And again, I do refer to them as an economic search engine. They do bring wealth into the community, whether we think it's a huge amount or not. But I want to thank all of our fire staff Staff, it was great. We had a lot of fun yesterday, meeting as many as we could. And again, I don't know, what did you say, Counselor Geisinger? It was a minute and a half for each one? I don't know. He's got it down, but it was great. And I'm looking forward to all of the collaboration with our fire and our police department.

Thank you. I'll just kind of piggyback on your El Sol comments. They've added an invaluable service to the town. They cleaned up the mess on Center Street years ago. It was something that the federal government issue with immigration screwed up. We had to kind of clean it up locally. But we did start nudging them that they needed to move on at some point. And I understand the market. So I just wanted to get them on the public record that they are trying. They're putting money aside. So at some point. And we always have, like the mayor mentioned, we have the out clause. We can terminate the clause at any point. But not too much pressure on it, but a little bit. Enough. But I think they can get there. So we'll see how it goes. But they've been a great service to the town. And just a nice surprise tonight. Chief Donato having all the 36 frontline leaders in here tonight, that was just a pleasant surprise. So it's coming together, and it's coming in quick. So keep it going. That's it.

Councilor Gossinger?

Yeah. Relative to the 36 new fire department personnel, I had the privilege of having lunch with them today. It was phenomenal. I also called up Stacy to thank her for inviting me to attend that. And on the way home and on the afternoon, I thought about this lot, and I should have probably read it, but I went ahead and wrote out my remarks relative to those 36 individuals. I'm going to go ahead and read it, if you don't mind, and get it into the record. But I would like to congratulate the 36 fire department personnel, the new fire department personnel, who recently joined the town of Jupiter. I recently had the privilege of meeting with each of the 12 captains, 12 lieutenants, 12 driver engineers over lunch and was truly impressed by the exceptional quality of these firefighters and the tremendous amount of experience, professionalism, and enthusiasm they bring to both the town and to their profession. The addition of these talented men and women strengthens an already outstanding department and positions the town well into the future. Residents can feel confident knowing that they are served by highly skilled professors who are prepared to respond in times of emergency with courage, compassion, and expertise. On behalf of the community, I extend my sincere appreciation and warm welcome to each of these new members. We are fortunate to have them serving our town and look forward to the positive impact they will undoubtedly make in the years to come. I spent a lot of time out today. I was really impressed meeting these folks and have a chance to sit and talk to them. I enjoyed it a lot. And that's all I have.

So I've got just a few quick items. Number one, regarding citizen comments, if you didn't already know this, I always watch in the back of the room because so many times when something gets done, I see a staff member go over ready to make contact either while they're still in the room or as they go out the door. So this process really does work well. I would say more because staff is so proactive than someone just speaking. So I'm grateful for that. That doesn't go unnoticed up here. Secondly, with just regarded to the request of the last two people, you know, reason I said it's up to staff to come back with us through the town managers. I don't know the specifics and generally I think it comes to us anyway, if the town manager believes it should come to us. And so, you know, I don't know really the specifics of the history on that, but I do know one thing we don't want staff to be working unnecessarily on something that we wouldn't approve you know so that's why you know keep that in mind whatever you wind up requesting because it is the case that if an upfront decision had to be made and we don't approve that then staff would have been burning a lot of unnecessary hours. You know, I know I'm not telling you anything Mr. Kitts wrote that you don't already know. I just want to have said that on the record here, right? So in any event, then I just want to make a comment about consent agenda items. And there's five of us up here and we can do what individually we want to do. And sometimes it's appropriate I know some on the council will pull a consent agenda item to ask a question into the public record, and that's a good effort. And I'm not singling out anybody here, but I would just ask as a general rule, consent or items that staff believes is a chance are just going to be voted in total. And I know we may be out of town or whatever, but I try to get questions ahead of time, and I'm not suggesting you can't. call it up here but I'm just saying we almost didn't have a consent agenda and I just wanted to ask you know for the newer members you may not know that was the process is we do try to get questions answered if If they're to our satisfaction and we don't think it's pertinent to the rest of the Council, then you know that might eliminate as many being pulled but, again, each one of us has that right to pull consent agenda items. So, then I just reminder your next meeting I didn't want to do it tonight with a member missing but. You know we've all either should have completed our performance review with the town manager and so next meeting, we should expect to have conversation about very high level about that. And then come to some determination on what we believe a annual compensation adjustment would be so i'd ask everybody to kind of come in with some with that in mind, so we can coalesce about. about something on that. And then just lastly, and I'm gonna make a pitch here and I'm gonna, specifically target the vice mayor, only because on this item, you asked questions in line before I even got to them. And this is on the non-advalon fire tax. You asked some questions that I thought were great, and then I followed up. And if you recall, we learned that certain types of residential units, the fee was not based on the same scope as single-family homes were. And so that came on the public record here. You asked it, I asked it, and we learned that. And so I just did dig a little bit deeper, and I just wanted to make sure, and I'm bringing this up just so you all understand before the public starts coming out, because there's a letter that's going to show up in our mailbox, and then second meeting in June, we're going to have public hearing about this. But I'm even more opposed to the non-advalorant fire tax because I think it's inequitable and unfair and I just want to point out that so and again this came out from the first meeting single-family homes it's total square footage including air-conditioned garage porches entries everything Well, townhomes and condominiums for some reason are different. And that was told to us. And some of this, again, I'm not finding fault with anybody here. You know, there's limitations that staff had with regard to what they could get from the property appraiser's office. So this had to be worked out. But let me just tell you, the townhomes in Mallory Creek that have garages and porches, it's not included in the assessment. So the townhome owners in Mallory Creek are fortunate. They don't have a single-family home because they'd pay a higher fee. The townhomes in Greenwich, in Abacoa, likewise. I went and I pulled addresses, and I looked what the fees are being charged for. You got a garage, porch, entry? You're not paying for that square footage. You're paying a lower fee than a single-family home is. Osceola Woods, ditto. Tierra del Sol condo, ditto. Several of them, I believe, although it isn't finalized yet, that Cornerstone condominium. So it just is patently unfair that the council would assess a non-anvalorum assessment fee that treats some residential properties significantly different and charges them more. In addition to that, I have the issue about how it's a escalating fee on per square foot. But just fundamentally on this, I just wanted to make sure you all had the opportunity to think about this before the public hearing comes up, because I'm going to be more and more vocal about this. I can't support an unfair fee, right? Where, look, and I asked a question and I knew I wouldn't get an answer from our fire departments outside of this meeting, and I want to put them on the spot. Is there any reason why a garage in a townhome has no fire risk, but it doesn't a single family home? No. How about a porch? No. Same thing in condos. No. There's no reason for it. I'm just saying. I'm answering that as an engineer, right? And so they're in, you know, it's a disparity I don't get. And in fact, I would think a townhome is greater risk in condo. First of all, they're elevated and closer together and whatever. And so separation you think would help. But that's the way it was presented. And if we remember, we asked the question and the way this process works is we couldn't change anything when it came to us. Take it or leave it. And so again, I'm not finding any fault of staff on this. It is what it is, but we can't change it. And that's why I'm gonna continue to vote no. And if people show up here asking about the fee, I'm gonna make sure they understand it's unfair and I'm gonna keep fighting opposing it. You come back next year and make a fair one, right? But you can't be inconsistent about it. And so with that time is now 9 0 8 and I'll adjourn the meeting.