City Council - Regular Meeting

Hopefully, I will be on a roll.

Okay. We're good. We're good.

Can I turn this thing on already? I feel like I'm echoing. Okay. Alright. If I can get everyone to grab their seats, we're gonna call this meeting to order.

There

we go. It's like coming back from a holiday. Alright, Madam Clerk, if we can get a roll call please.

Mr. Engelke. Here. Mrs. Frank. Here. Mr. Howard.

Here.

Mr. Smith. Here. Mr. Weed. Here. Vice Mayor Bolt.

Here.

Mayor Pichota.

Here. Alright, we will stand for the invocation and today's pledge can be led by Chief Liesenring. If you would lead our pledge after the invocation, sir. Our

father, we thank you for another full day of opportunity as well as responsibilities. It is with gratefulness that we accept the task before us. We ask you to bestow your blessings on all who live in or visit our beautiful city.

Midst

the the We enough to watch this happen. So let's go ahead and start our first progress recognition. We made in This will be 20Six-five12. If I can get City Manager Klinch to join me upfront with Ms. Anderson and her family.

Thank you, mayor. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. It is my distinct honor and joy this morning to be recognizing our very own PIO for the city of Venice for ten years of service here at the city. Congratulations Lorraine Anderson. And she's joined by her amazing family up here, Lee, Liam, and Lake is sitting down. You know, you could let her start doing some laps here in a minute, Lorraine, if you want. So now is the traditional time in recognition when we invite Steve Barons up to perform his roast. Steve, if you wanna head on up here. Just kidding.

Lorraine, you know, you've been telling the story of the city of Venice for ten years, and you've made a huge impact on this community. Lorraine has lived in this area since she was 10 years old, which means she knows Venice extremely well. And that

comes through in everything that she works on. She earned her journalism degree from the greatest, most prestigious university in the state of Florida, the University of Florida.

And then she spent twenty three years in print journalism before joining joining the city of Venice in 2016. So on any typical day, if there is such thing as a typical day, Lorraine will be updating the web site, writing press releases, managing our social media, coordinating public outreach campaigns, updating city center, supporting special events, making the centennial happen, dealing with whatever wacky idea her boss comes up with that day. It's an extremely dynamic position and Lorraine just handles it so smoothly, so professionally. And I wanna point out one of the best things she does, and I'll say this about many of our staff is when I come to her with some new crazy idea and she says, you know boss, you might wanna sit on this one for a little bit. That's that's a real partner right there.

So thank you Lorraine for that. Lorraine is a critical piece of our management team, and she does a whole lot more than just posting pretty pictures. She builds trust in our community, and that is something that is so valuable and cannot be measured. In 2023, Lorraine was named communicator of the year by the Florida Municipal Communicators Association. And this was due in large part to her incredible work during hurricane Ian, in which we had one PIO at the time, and she handled this horribly catastrophic event by herself.

I think she just learned not to sleep. And just was a voice of reason, of calmness, kept our community informed and safe, and it was an incredible performance. And you've got to repeat that performance several times since then. But you're such a professional. One of the things being a small community and being a p I o in a small community, you have to be able to switch into emergency mode at a moment's notice.

And it it happens all the time. Know, you could be posting pictures about a John Nolan bench one moment, and then next thing you know local government happens. A hurricane, a press release for the police department, or a 40 foot whale washes up on the beach. You know, that's just that's just another Tuesday for us. But, you know, when that happens Lorraine handles it so professionally, doesn't skip a beat.

And important to note, a lot of times when she and all of our staff are dealing with these emergencies, her family is going through the same emergency. But she's here and she's representing the citizens and she's focused on her work as long as it takes. And that's really what public service is about. And this is that's such a great example of a public servant. Lorraine, for ten years, you've helped tell our story here at the City of Venice.

You've told the great stories, the not so great stories and and everything in between. You've kept our community well informed and safe, and you've kept our staff connected and part of this organization. And if I'm being perfectly honest, you've made a lot of us, including me, look a whole lot better than we deserve sometimes. So thank you. Thank you for everything you've done. On behalf of the city, congratulations on ten years. The best is yet to come. Congratulations Lorraine.

Congratulations.

Neil? No.

No. No. Gonna hand the mic to the 12 year old. You know, when it was my five year recognition, it was COVID, and we couldn't do it. So I have a few things I'd like to say now.

First, of course, thank you mayor and council for your leadership and for all your support both virtually and in real life. It is very much appreciated. To my wonderful boss, James, who teaches me something new about government and its processes every day, I feel like you are always in my corner. To my amazing team, Cordy, Brianne, and now Roger, we are small but mighty. If you want something done around here, you ask Breanne or Corti.

I probably shouldn't have said that out loud. But even with all their tasks and their projects, they still find the time to ask me something that we all should be asking each other more, which is what can I do to help you? You are the very best. I would be remiss if I did not recognize our amazing clerks. They have proofed hundreds, probably by now thousands of pages of my newsletters and calendars and other documents.

You guys must hate me. So thank you for all the catches and for always making me look good. And now you. If everyone could please give my sweet husband Lee here a round of applause. So this job is not a business hours one and in addition to our son Liam here, we also have a four year old daughter, Lake, in the audience.

And when the phone rings at nights or on the weekends or on holidays, I glance over at my husband and he always says the same thing, is, Go, I got it. So thank you for always holding it down at home. I love you. And thank you, Liam, for always being the best big brother. I love you, son.

You know, in this position as PIO, you're not an oracle. You don't arrive fully formed with all the answers by any stretch of the imagination. You're It takes the entire organization working together in concert. Directors, assistant directors, admin coordinators, field workers, volunteers, everybody. And with all them working together, we're solving problems like puzzles, we're fixing issues, we're coordinating events, we're making it all happen, and we're making this beautiful place even more beautiful every day.

So thank you for all the help. And finally, I have a goal of making a positive impact on people every day. And while that doesn't happen every day, it happens most days, and I'm very proud of that. So thank you again, everyone, and I can't wait to see what the next decade will bring. So

they gave me the lapel mic, if it's working. Am I

on? No.

How about now? Am I on now? Okay. They gave me the lapel mic so that she couldn't take the mic from me. You know, one thing I've got to say is, I've always said and and you know, when I ran for office both times, that I don't have a very good filter.

So typically, go to Lorraine's office, it's usually the last light that goes off in city hall, and I'll I'll tell her what I'm gonna say tomorrow, and she just puts her hand hand on her forehead and just shakes her head because she knows I'm still gonna say it no matter what, so now she's just got to be the one to catch all that and take care of fluffing the story a little bit, so it becomes a little bit better. But Lorraine, you know, I've been here since 2019, so three years earlier later than you and you have been probably one of the most influential people in everything that I've done in this city. You know when we worked during Ian and stuff like that, it was very uncustomary for the mayor to go out and do public speaking and you embraced it, you worked with me through that and even gave a little bit up so that so that you had an assistant in that process and I applaud you for that and I appreciate you for that and every single time I call you and ask you for talking points, what not to say, what to say, you were always willing to stop what you were doing and provide that for me.

And even to this day when I get media, it's the same thing, it's always Lorraine, what do you think about this, should we do this, should we do that and like the mother hen of the roost, always make sure that we're doing the best we can no matter what Bob Mudge is going to write. See I threw you in there too. But anyway, I just want to personally thank you so much and it is my last year and you've made the past seven years quite a journey and a lot of fun and it allows me to tolerate James a lot more, so thank you. Hang out with me and we will move on to city so let's get all the city engineers up front for engineers week. There's only two of you left now?

Okay, good. I'm like, what has happened here at the city? Geez Lorraine, good job. So we'll let you hold this as the Director of Engineering. Yes, over Perfect.

I'm like a bookend, a really big one but whereas engineers help design, construct and maintain the infrastructure and facilities that contribute to a high quality of life for all residents of Florida. Its growth depends on engineers executing innovative, creative, high quality solutions to technical problems and whereas engineers are bound by ethical canons to hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public, promote social and economic interest of the profession and stimulate and develop professional concepts among all engineers through education and in practice. And whereas engineers contribute directly to the quality of life in the City Of Venice by working with others to improve the safety and quality of our roads, houses, workplaces, water, environment and the products we use and whereas members of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Florida Engineering Society, American Water Works Association, Florida Water Environment Association, American Public Works Association and the Florida Institute of Consulting Engineers are making strides to interact with the public sector and local schools to prepare future engineers to maintain our economic leadership and quality of life. And it is fitting that we recognize and honor the continuing contributions of America's engineers by observing Engineers Week with the theme Transform Your Future.

Now therefore, I, Nick Pashoda, Mayor of the City Of Venice, on behalf of the Venice City Council, do hereby proclaim the week of February 22 through 02/28/2026 as Engineers Week in the City Of Venice and ask all to encourage the increase in understanding of and interest in engineering and technology, careers in the promotion of literacy in math and science. Alright, we'll start with our City Manager who is an engineer and has been through the engineering department.

I say I'm recovering engineer here, but honestly I regret that I don't get to do as much engineering as I used to because it is such a rewarding field solving complex problems, and I appreciate what you all do every day for this community. Keeping us safe, keeping our utilities running, keeping our sidewalks and parks looking beautiful on our streets, our beaches, so many aspects that are impacted by what you do. So thank you for that. I also wanna highlight, while there are we're missing one, Jeff Sweater is also a licensed engineer. We have these four engineers on staff.

But we work with literally hundreds of engineers throughout the community and throughout the country. A lot of our projects are so complex and so large in scale, they take teams of engineers to accomplish. So I wanna say thank you to all of the engineers in our community that we work with every day who make this city run. So congratulations, thank you for what you do. And I'll pass it off to mister Barron's.

I have nothing to add. Happy engineers week everyone.

But have you please tell us

what department, so that we know where everybody comes

from. Yeah.

Not everybody comes from one department.

Right. I'm Steve Behrens, stormwater engineering manager with the engineering department.

For the record, John Kramer, city engineer and I'd like to thank you all for for coming out to support Engineers Week and a special thanks to mayor and council for their support.

So I'm Patience Anastagio, I'm the assistant utilities director with the utilities department and since I'm here I guess I'm a licensed professional engineer.

Lorraine was impossible to follow and did not talk to me to help me find the words for this unfortunately but like James said about her, I also have a crew that lets me know how things are going. So I especially want to thank the utilities department and my lift station crew who always reminds me that you know everybody makes mistakes but it takes an engineer to really mess things up. So they make me a better engineer and a better director and a better person and really show what we need to do and we all work well together to improve everything, make everything more efficient and I am grateful to be part of this incredible team that is

doing this for the city on a daily basis. Thank you all for your support

especially you.

Definitely big thanks to lift station crew so thank God for them. All right, thank you guys so much. All right, and then James you can stay up with me. We'll bring down Christina Rimes and Derek Applegate. And this will be for flood awareness week.

Whereas the City Of Venice has experienced severe weather in the past in the form of extreme rainfall or tropical system event events resulting in flooding in coastal areas. And this flooding has caused damage and flood losses to homes and buildings in all areas whether they are high risk special flood hazard areas or low to moderate risk flood zones. And whereas the City Of Venice is voluntary participant in the National Flood Insurance Program that provides residents with the opportunity to protect themselves against flood loss through the purchase of flood insurance at reduced insurance premium rates as well as setting higher regulatory standards to reduce the flood risk and potential flood damage to their property and whereas the reduction of loss of life and property damage can be achieved when appropriate flood preparedness, control and mitigation measures are taken before flood. And whereas public education and awareness of potential weather hazards and methods of protection are critical to the health, safety and welfare of residents. The Florida Floodplain Managers Association, FFMA has declared the week of March 2026 as Flood Awareness Week to promote awareness and increase knowledge of flood risk, the availability of flood insurance, flood protection methods and how to prepare for emergencies.

Now therefore, I, Nick Pashoda, Mayor of the City Of Venice, Florida on behalf of the Venice City Council and the citizens of our community do hereby proclaim March 2026 as Flood Awareness Week in the City Of Venice and encourage all citizens, city government officials and employees to participate events that recognize Blood Awareness Week.

Alright. Well, I just wanna say thank you for the work that you two do for this community. You know, twenty twenty four in the City Of Venice was something that none of us ever expected we'd experience and we had never experienced in any of our lifetimes. But to see our team and your teams come together and respond, helping our citizens navigate what are incredibly complex processes dealing with with FEMA and recovery was was so encouraging to see. And you you made a difference with our citizens at the the worst times of their lives.

So thank you for that. As we move into, I I am cautious to even say this, but as we get closer to hurricane season, we gotta remember, we we had a great year last year. I hope we have 10 more of those. But we live in Coastal Florida and that's probably not the reality. So we have to stay prepared, we have to pay attention, reach out to our PIOs, come to our hurricane expo in May, learn what you can do and how you can work with us to increase your resiliency.

That is that is the best thing we can do to be prepared at this point. And the last thing I wanna say is congratulations to Christina for getting us to a CRS rating of five. Huge accomplishment, takes years to increase your point level to that and resulted in a 25% discount in our citizens insurance rate. So congratulations.

So I'm going let Christina do the majority of the talking. I just want to say thank you to the council for the support. We've had some challenges in the last couple of years and without your support it would have been even harder for us to do our jobs and do them efficiently. But we've done it, we've made strides, we're continually to correct our errors and make a more resilient city. So I'm ready to go. Thank you.

I just want to say thank you to Derek who's been supportive of me and my job. And anytime I had an issue with just anything especially in 2024 he was there to help me, walk me through it. And for flood awareness week I am going to be rolling out some social media, different things from know your hazard, protect yourself, protect your property, plan for responsible building and sea level rise. Rise. So look out for those on Facebook from our PIO officer and thank you for trying to make our community resilient. Thank you.

Congratulations. Thank you.

Okay. Next up, I'll bring down Peter Boers and Sabrina if you want to come down too. And it's no surprise that procurement month is the longest proclamation I have to make this morning. Whereas the public procurement and supply management profession plays a significant role efficiency and effectiveness of both government and business. And whereas in addition to the purchase of goods, services and construction, procurement adds value to organizations by performing functions such as executing, implementing and administering contracts, developing strategic procurement strategies and cultivating working relationships with suppliers and other departments within the organization.

And whereas public procurement professionals for the City of Venice and in other public and private organizations have tremendous influence on the economic conditions in The United States with the cumulative purchasing power running into the billions of dollars and whereas the procurement division in the City Of Venice is committed to provide high caliber strategic logistics and operational support of all departments and whereas the procurement division in the City Of Venice recognizes, supports and practices the public procurement values and guiding principles of accountability, ethics, impartiality, professionalism, service and transparency established by the Institute for Public Procurement and fundamental tenants of the public procurement profession. I practiced that 90 times just to make sure I got that right. Whereas the Institute for Public Procurement has proclaimed the month of March as procurement month and March 11 as Professional Buyers Day and the City of Venice is proud to join in the recognitions. Now therefore, I, Nick Pashoda, Mayor of the City Of Venice, Florida on behalf of the Venice City Council do hereby proclaim the month of 03/26/2026 as procurement month and March 11 as Professional Buyers Day and the City of Venice encourage all staff and citizens to recognize this important profession.

Thank

you mayor. You know on behalf of the city, I just wanna say thank you for what you two do. Sabrina and Peter, it's a two person team here that does all the purchasing for the entire city event. It's very impressive. Sabrina is fairly new to the team and and it's it's great support.

It was Peter by himself for a period of time and that that's a lot of weight on his shoulders. Hundreds of millions of dollars passed through their department for all of our projects, our infrastructure, our new facilities and just our regular operating supplies all has to go through the procurement process. And the last thing I wanna say, procurement is a high risk operation, high risk. It is something that we don't take lightly here at the City of Venice. It's something that you can lose your trust with the public very quickly if you don't do it properly.

And so I appreciate that you two are always looking out for our interests, protecting us, and saying no sometimes when something doesn't look right, asking the questions. We appreciate it because it it keeps us at a high level of integrity with our community. So thank

you for what you do. Okay.

Can you hear me? Alright. Thank you. I'm gonna put Vice Mayor Bolt on the spot here. I received this proclamation from him about two years ago in the chambers.

I think Ed and Nick were on a trip, so I got it from James and the Vice Mayor and he said, you must be doing a good job because I didn't know who you were. And so, and I think that's a good point because a couple things, one is is if you, we should be invisible. That means everything's running right and so if your requisitions aren't going into a black hole that's called procurement and I've worked at agencies where that happens. If vendors aren't getting paid timely, things like that, you're gonna hear about it. And so if you don't hear about it, we're doing our job and I certainly appreciate that.

And when James first took the city manager's job, we talked and I said, you know one thing that I didn't really ever get to talk manager about procurement. And James was very wise and he said, it's because he didn't have to talk to you about it. So, I just wanna thanks him. We we certainly enjoy being recognized at this time. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you mayor.

Don't don't walk away just yet. Don't walk away just yet. So I'm I'm glad I get to follow what what Peter just said with with my first Peter experience. When I became mayor, actually I signed something and there's there's a whole chain in which this has to go and I got scolded big time for signing it before everybody else and I get this this really nasty email telling me how awful I was for for signing for signing this document and sure enough, that was my first that that was the first time I realized who Peter was. I had seen Peter many a times but I had no idea and and I'm a big fan of of rules and procedures, so from that day forward, you better believe I do not sign things until it goes through the proper chain, so that way I can be on Peter's good side and we've had a lot of great interactions over the years, there's been some very I mean in this job, there's very expensive things that we are doing and we have to be the best stewards of taxpayer dollars and Peter has been instrumental in making sure that we cross every single t and dot every single I and I appreciate so much the scrutiny that he puts department to make sure that we're doing it right and while sometimes he's got to be the angry face of finance, it is very helpful to me as a citizen to know that we're so well taken care of and that nothing will get past him.

So I just wanted to throw that out there personally because I've had that experience and I'm very appreciative for it and I'm very terrified of responding to Peter's e mails now. Thank you very much. All right. With that, we will come back at 09:45. Okay.

We are back. And we are at audience participation. Madam Clerk, do we have anybody signed up to speak?

We do.

Okay. Then with that, we're now at the audience portion of the agenda. Speakers are not to address council members individually. Any person making personal, impertinent or slanderous remarks or who becomes disorderly may be barred from the meeting. This is an opportunity to provide the city with your comments. City Council will not respond to any questions or comments during this time per the City Code. A member of City staff will follow-up with you if it's appropriate. Any documents shown during audience participation or part of the meeting must be given to the City Clerk for the record. Madam Clerk, who is our first speaker?

Our first speaker is Katie Chicopelli. I'm sorry if I slaughtered that. It is, okay. And just five minutes.

Okay.

Good

morning and welcome.

Good morning. I I don't know how I can beat any of these wonderful people here that support this city. I've been a snowbird for the last eight years. And, you know, coming to Venice and a little slice of heaven for all of us. But I do want to comment on some of the blight that is going on Downtown Venice and just a question of getting some answers.

The post office, I'll start with that, with the fence around the post office and these terrible orange barricades, it is very difficult to get stamps or mail a letter. I understand that Venetian Plaza has been purchased and it is a private owner that owns that. And he put up that fence around the property line. So the only way you can enter the post office is from Tampa. And I guess the post office is going to do some work over there, but I don't know how they can because I don't think he would allow them on that private property.

Anyway, that's one thing. I think it's a dangerous situation anyway. I see seniors having a very difficult time going over there. And another thing is at 2219 And 221 Venice Ave, the boarded up building that's been there for eight years that I've been coming down here. And I know that the owner may not be to blame, and that's Martha Hammerman.

She was a council person, and she wanted to tear it down. And from what I've read, the historical society stopped her from doing that. When things are just left unattended, even historical things turn to blight. She also owns the her and her husband also own the Comcast building on Miami, 214 Miami. And that's slowly degrading.

You know, Venice is a needs to shine. It already is that that city, and from all of you being part of that. So I guess I just wanted to bring that up and maybe go in a direction that would be a good way solve this stuff.

Okay. Thank you very much for your comments.

Okay.

Like I said, a member of staff can follow-up with you on your way out if you have any questions specific about those locations.

Okay, very good.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, next speaker.

That was the last one.

Okay. With that we will move on to the consent section. All matters listed on the consent section are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion unless an item is removed by a council member. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If discussion is desired by a council member, the item or items will be considered and voted upon at the end of the consent section. So with that, are there any council members that would like to pull anything from consent? Okay. Seeing none, will entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vice Mayor.

I move to approve items on the consent section.

I will second.

Seconded by Mr. Ingelke. All in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. We'll move to public hearings, ordinance, final reading. And it will be ordinance number two zero two five dash three seven. Madam Clerk, if you go ahead and

Did you wanna

would never want to skip Mr. Beebe. Sorry about that. Alright, then I'm going to back up here and I'm going to go to Council Action and Discussion twenty six-five eighteen. And this is going to be a presentation from the Chair of the Historic and Architectural Preservation Board, Mr. Mark Phebe. And is this their Board's Annual Report to Council on approval of the 2026 proposed agenda priorities.

Good morning Mr. Mayor and Council members. This is my annual report for the Historic and Architectural Preservation Board. We've had a really good year, and I'd like to update you on what we've been doing, as well as what we plan to do. So past year's achievements, the board's continued to develop community awareness and historic preservation through mail out publications, educational seminars, and the like.

We had a specific forum held in May where we brought city planning, natural resources staff, a member of our board, and general contractors experienced in historic renovations. To provide owners and candidates for properties for local register and opportunities to understand process. And it was really helpful. The general public, we had over 50 people show up to that. And when you're about to embark on something like a historic renovation, it really helps to have that knowledge.

So it was really successful we thought. And the board approved the development of historic preservation brochure as well. Trying to get the general public to understand what we're doing. We approved, excuse me, we reviewed and approved properties added to the local register and made five certificates of architectural compliance during the year. We also recommended that one, we had two properties that were added to the local register of historic places.

And we've also recommended one to the city of Venice, to the council here for ad valorem tax exemption. In 2017, we had seven properties on the register. We now have 14. So we've made a significant progress in a few years, mostly to the creation of this board, joining it with the architectural review board. I think we have a lot of horsepower there.

And we also, this year, we added a new member, which you may know, Helen Moore, has joined our board. So former councilwoman and she's been a great asset so far. The proposed agenda for the priorities for the coming year is just to continue applications for certificate of architectural compliance for properties in the Architectural Control District. And then continue historic preservation education through our outreach program. We have maintained the Legacy Award program and this year's winner was Earl Midland for the old Betsy engine.

And also we've continued community education seminars for historic architectural styles and historic preservations within the city to encourage local register applications for those who are eligible. One of the things we did this year was in the past few years is we've had historic resources surveys. We've applied for grants to do those surveys. We've completed one for the seaboard, I'm sorry, the Gulf View section is completed. We have grants applied for the seaboard and edge wood areas.

Those are not funded yet. But those are coming up. And the new areas that we may be studying is the Gulf Shores and the Golden Beach area. All these areas within the city have historic homes now that mid century modern, different styles than what our board currently looks at. So in order to do anything further with those styles, we need to know where they are.

So the surveys are really helpful to do that and that's what we're pushing forward for and through grants. The strategic plan for the city, we have fallen under goal six to preserve the Venice quality of life through planning. And policy three says preserve Venice's historical resources and significant structures. The three objectives associated with policy three to accomplish goal six are being implemented by the HAP board in historic preservation standards being applied to the city's local register of historic resources. Being promoted in compliance with active participation in the certified local government, the CLG program.

And that is when we're in and we're maintaining, doing our part for that. We only had one area of concern and followed over from last year and it's really not a large concern, it's just something that the Board members want, some of the Board members want to do is indicate a desire to review properties that are non Nolan or non VHP and are on the local historic registers. Except we have SB180 which limits what we can do, more restrictive government as you know. So that until that changes or is revised, we might look at that in the future. And one of the things that we really, we had on our agenda this year to accomplish and we didn't quite make it was update of the palette, the color palette for all these historic areas.

It's something we are going to aggressively look at this year and finish. And one of the things we're gonna do is, I know the city is now looking at an adjustment to the website. We really want to not only change the color palette, but actually have it available on the website in some manner so it's easy for applicants to just pick up and say, I'll have an SB 20 fourseven. You know, it's really difficult for them to come in, get the book from Roger, and you know, so we're just gonna try to streamline. We're trying to do everything we can to help applicants not be intimidated by the process.

There's one process that we've implemented this year that we haven't had, we've talked about it, and that's a pre application process. We've had several applicants that have come in and gone through two, three, four meetings to get approved because they just aren't, they didn't start off well. And so we've offered a pre application meeting where they're not going to get a vote on a CAC, but they're getting board input, which is really helpful for them. Usually I think it's gonna streamline what they do and they're not gonna get frustrated. If they're a design professional, they know the guidelines, they're reading them, they don't have as much problems.

We don't always have that. So that is one thing we're looking to do, is to continue the pre application meetings. So I'd be happy to answer any questions you guys have. That's kind of us in a nutshell.

Okay. Any questions from counsel? Thank you so much. Pretty thorough report. So thank you very much for that. Thank you. Madam Clerk, you have anybody signed up to speak? Nope. Okay. Then with that, I will entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vice Mayor.

I move to accept the historical and architectural preservation boards annual report and approve their 2026 proposed agenda priorities. Second.

Second by Ms. Frank. Any council discussion? Alright. Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you're ready, ask for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And Madam Clerk, you can tally and display the vote. Passes unanimously. Alright. Now we're at public hearings, so we'll move to ordinance final readings two zero two five dash three seven. And the public hearing is now open. Madam clerk, when you're ready, you can read this ordinance by title only, please.

An ordinance of the city of Venice, Florida annexing certain lands lying contiguous to the city limits pursuant to petition number 25Dash29 A N by Abdel Rahman Ayad and Sarah Ayad into the corporate limits of the city of Venice, Florida redefining the boundary lines of the city to include said addition, providing for appeal of all ordinances and conflict here with providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Madam Clerk, have you had any written communication since last hearing?

No.

Okay. And is there any update from staff since last year? None. Okay. And any update from the applicant?

Okay. Is there anybody signed up to speak, Madam Clerk? No. Then with that we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. And I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Engelke.

I move that ordinance number twenty twenty five thirty seven be approved and adopted.

Second. Seconded by Vice Mayor Bolt. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you already asked for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And Madam Clerk, you can tally and display. Passes have strong a the

for

seventeen-twenty twenty seven City Of Venice the comprehensive plan future land use map and associated pages pursuant to petition number 20Five-thirty CP to change the future designation of specific real property located at 2805 Curry Lane from Sarasota County moderate density residential to City Of Venice institutional professional providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict herewith providing for severability and providing an effective date.

And Madam Clerk do you any written communications since last hearing? No. Okay. Any update from staff? Any update from the applicant? Alright. And do we have anybody signed up to speak? No. Public hearing is now closed. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vice Mayor.

I move that ordinance number twenty twenty five dash 38 be approved and adopted.

Second by Mr. Howard. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you'll ready us for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote.

Hold on. Still has the previous vote. Hang on. Okay. Okay. Now you can vote. And you can tally and display. Passes unanimously. On to ordinance number twenty twenty five dash 39. This is a quasi judicial procedure. Public hearing is now open. Madam clerk, when you are ready, you can read this ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance amending the official zoning atlas of the City Of Venice, Florida pursuant to zoning map amendment petition number twenty five dash thirty one r z to change the zoning designation for the property located at 2805 Curry Lane from Sarasota County open use of state one to City of Venice office professional and institutional providing for appeal of all ordinances in conflict here with providing for severability and an effective date.

And then anyone wishing to speak if you would check-in at the kiosk in the back of the room there is a member of the clerk's office there that will help you if you need the assistance. Madam attorney if you'd like to inquire as to conflicts of interest or ex parte communication.

We don't need to cover conflicts of interest but if anyone's had any ex parte communication since the first reading just please raise your

hand and we can take those otherwise I'll assume there's none. Looks like there's none. Alright Madam Clerk have we received any written communication since the last hearing? No. Alright, we'll listen to staff. Nothing, okay. Any questions for staff by council? Alright, then do we have an applicant update? Okay. Any questions of the applicant by counsel? Alright, seeing none, Madam Clerk, do you have anybody signed up to speak?

No.

Rebuttal or final comments? Okay. Alright, then with that, we will close the public hearing and I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Howard. Based on the evidence in the record, excuse me, I move that ordinance number twenty twenty five dash 39 be approved and adopted.

Seconded by mister Inglekey. Any council discussion? Seeing none, madam clerk, if you'll ready us for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. Madam clerk, you can tally and display. Passes unanimously. On to ordinance number two zero two six dash zero one. This is a quasi judicial procedure and the public hearing is now open. Madam Clerk, if you'll read this ordinance by title only please.

An ordinance amending the official zoning atlas of the City Of Venice, Florida pursuant to zoning map amendment petition number twenty five dash forty eight r z to change the zoning designation of the property generally located at the Northeast Corner Of Auburn and Border Road South Of I-seventy 5 from Sarasota County open use rural to City Of Venice residential single family three providing for appeal of ordinances in conflict here with providing for severability and providing an effective date.

If anyone wishes to speak there's a kiosk in the back of the room, member of the clerk's office is sitting there if you need assistance signing in to speak. Madam attorney if you'd inquire as to ex parte communication since last hearing. Anyone has had any since the last hearing please just raise your hand we'll take those otherwise we'll assume there are none. Looks to be none again. Madam Clerk do we have any written communication since last hearing?

No.

Staff update? Any questions of staff? Applicant update? Any questions of applicant? Madam Clerk, has anybody signed up to speak? No. Final comments or rebuttal? Public hearing is now closed. I'll entertain a motion.

Mister mayor.

Mister vice mayor.

Based on the evidence in the record, I move that ordinance number twenty twenty six dash zero one be approved and adopted. I'll second.

Seconded by mister Inglekey. Any council discussion? Yes Mr. Mayor. Mr. Weed?

If I'm reasserting you right at the last hearing we did add a stipulation concerning the optional density from the property owner. Is that part of the record?

Yes, that's part of the revised ordinance that's in the agenda that you're approving. So there's no additional verbiage that needs to be added to the motion.

Alright, thank you very much for that clarification. Anyone else? Madam Clerk, if you'll make us ready for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. Madam Clerk, you can tally and display the vote. Passes unanimously. On to new business ordinances twenty twenty six dash one one. Madam clerk if you'll read this ordinance by title only when you're ready.

An ordinance amending the city of Venice ordinance number twenty twenty five dash 32 as previously amended which adopted the official budget of the city of Venice, Florida for the fiscal year beginning 10/01/2025 and ending 09/30/2026 by increasing the total revenue by 265,015 and total expenditures by 67,500 and providing an effective date.

And Madam Clerk, do you have anybody signed up to speak? No. Entertain a motion. Mister mayor. Mister vice mayor.

I move that ordinance I move to approve ordinance number twenty twenty six dash one one and first reading is scheduled for a final reading. Second.

Second by mister Weed. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you already asked for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. Madam Clerk, you can tally and display the vote. Passes unanimously. Madam Clerk when you're ready you can read this resolution by title only please.

A resolution of the City Council of the City 26 Sarasota County United Unified Local Mitigation Strategy Plan to serve as the formal guide for the City of Venice's hazard mitigation activities including the City of Venice hazard mitigation grant program project list. Approving the annual report of the twenty twenty three-twenty twenty eight Venice floodplain management plan adopting the 2025 unified program for public information including the flood insurance promotion plan superseding all resolution and conflict herewith and providing an effective date.

All right we'll go to the staff presentation.

Good morning mayor, members of City Council. My name is Christina Rimes, the certified manager here for the City of Venice. This morning I wanted to update you on floodplain management and just to give you a little background, our community rating system is our voluntary program that enforces higher standards set forth by the NFIP. In return for doing these higher standards our residents receive a 25% discount on our flood insurance. Some of these higher standards include the documents that I have before you today approving them and the first document that I have is the Sarasota County Local Mitigation Strategy.

It serves as an all hazards framework to secure state and federal mitigation grant funding. Part of that is the hazard mitigation grant program project list which is a list of identified projects that can be used for mitigation for a number of different hazards not necessarily flooding. The floodplain management annual report is a report ensures that certain action items in the floodplain management plan are working and are being effective. The full document is required to be updated every five years and the next update is expected to be this 2026. The Unified Program for Public Information and Flood Insurance Promotion Plan is to improve communication with citizens and to provide information about flood hazards, flood safety, flood insurance and ways to protect property.

The flood insurance promotion plan also shows the level of flood insurance coverage within the Sarasota County jurisdictions. The local LMS was approved by the Department of Management on January 27 and adopted by the County Board of Commissioners on February 10. The project list, the HMGP project list consists of any projects chosen by city staff that meets hazard mitigation grant program requirements. The floodplain management annual report is a document that must be approved by City Council and the unified program for public information and flood insurance promotion plan was adopted by the county on 01/13/2020 Requested council action is to adopt the LMS, the events hazard mitigation grant program project list, approve the annual report of the floodplain management plan and adoption of the unified program for public information including the flood insurance promotion plan. I'd be happy to take any questions at this time or if there's any questions on the project list itself that would be directed towards the director of that department.

Any questions for staff by council? Okay, thank you very much for your presentation. Madam Clerk, you have anybody signed up to speak? No. Okay, then with that I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Engelke.

I move that resolution number 22,603 be approved and adopted.

Seconded by Vice Mayor Bolt. Any counsel discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you'll ready us for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And Madam Clerk, you can tally and display.

Passes company's We leadership Okay. We are are back. We are now at the presentation portion of the agenda. And for the record, I did not put 20 six-five 19 on the agenda, but let's go over the ground rules. We're now at the presentation portion of the agenda.

If the presenter should make any personal impertinent or slanderous remarks or bring up my childhood, he or she will be barred from the meeting and I will tell mom. Please remember the family rules. What is said at dinner at family dinner. If the council should ask any questions of my childhood or try to collect any incriminating information about me, I will hit the gavel very hard, but the attorney has reminded me that we are a board of seven and not just one. So I'll sit and pout and protest while you ask and receive your answer or question.

I'll remind the presenter that while there is a police officer in the back of the room, if you should need to be ejected from the meeting, I will call mom and that will be way more effective. Gentlemen, over here. In these chambers, I hold the gavel. Please come up and present.

Right over here.

Oh boy. You haven't been here since they redid chambers? Yeah. You're going over here. Yes, sir. It's already starting. I like this end of the table better, so it's okay. Proceed.

Good morning. That was a lovely intro. I'm Justin Pashoda from Venice Peer Group. This is Mike Pashoda Venice Peer Group. In nowhere we related to Nick Pashoda of Venice Peer Group. Came here this morning, looks great. The agenda says I have five minutes, do I have to stick to that? You guys are moving really fast,

so We'll see how it

goes. Okay. Bringing This is our annual rent check presentation which I I passed along to your new city manager, gets a promotion and gets a million dollar check. That's pretty cool. Quick recap of 2025.

Started the year out in a very interesting state. We were under construction and recovering from the two hurricanes of twenty twenty four. And I will tell you, you know, we have our location in Siesta, and overall the city of Venice rebounded and recovered incredibly fast. We've seen a lot of different things that have hit our community, different hurricanes, different, you know, natural events and I'm I'm really proud of the city of Venice and how well they did with their recovering, and how well the community banded together and helped each other out. So it was really remarkable to see.

We pushed through our construction and one of the most miraculous parts of the construction of our renovation was that we had reached a point where we had built a cinder block wall which was gonna be the the back end of what's our new patio. And that wall was completed probably just two weeks before the storms. And that wall inevitably was the structure that saved the old Sharky's kitchen. So pretty amazing that when we presented this idea of the renovations, we talked about strengthening the building for hurricanes and it was the first part of that construction that saved us and allowed us to reopen as quick as we did. The one thing the storms did do was it resulted in pushing us to do a full renovation.

So if anybody's been out to Sharkey's, we weren't gonna do really anything with the dining room, but we ended up giving that a complete face lift and remodel. And it looks completely modernized, just wonderful and really proud to show it off. Construction was completed in 2025, and we've been at full strength since then. The objectives with the modernization of the patio and tiki bar were completed. We added additional climate controlled spaces inside, and then the patio itself, it's no longer umbrellas and out in the open, now it's full coverage with fans and and more comfortable seating for the summertime.

We simplified the dining entrance and the dining options for our guests. Many people over the years have come to Sharky's and found it to be quite confusing because there is no front door, so we were able to to fix that. We have a much better kitchen, more efficient and and better for our staff, And we addressed the storm water system, so now we actually have ways to get rain water from pouring into the restaurant, getting it to the appropriate areas. Like I said, very proud of the result. You know, ended up with the restaurant with the same number of seats but much more efficient, much more comfortable for the guests and for our staff.

And I love showing it off. If you guys ever come up there and you want a full tour, James can tell you I will take thirty minutes of your day and walk you through it all, and I I won't make you work there either, so it's quite nice. And the tour always ends with a frozen drink, so even better. Coming out of that in June and going into the summertime, we got to see the expansion in its in its, not expansion, the renovations in its full form. I had a very strong summer.

No hurricanes helps. And the winter was amazing too. We had just some amazing weather. Meanwhile, the city completed the pier construction, doing their rehabilitation. And I think the coordination from the city and the contractor was smooth as silk. Very little interruption, never impacted any of the public guests that were going out there. I think you timed it great. I believe you guys commenced in late July, early August, and were completed before October. So really the perfect time of year, again especially with no hurricanes. So that was kind of the cherry on top for the property there.

The rent check I presented today was just percentage of sales rent, and that's for $1,184,367. That is up from last year's check which was just a hair over 1,000,000. And that goes on top of the base rent that you've already received which was 155,000 plus. So about $1,300,000 in rent. So we'll see what the legislation does with the homestead taxes, but you're gonna need more checks for 1,300,000.0 if that changes.

Happy to be a part of that. Another thing we're really proud of is being stewards of the property. It is city park land and we're proud to be on it. We spend a lot of time focusing on the parking lot and the parking lot maintenance, and your crew is always very responsive. That's been great, making it a safe and easy place for people to park.

Being that we manage Sarasota's largest public parking up at Siesta, it's great to say that Venice competes with that and does an amazing job. Landscaping and grounds, No easy task, especially when the property is under a few feet of salt water. So I think the the city has been doing a good job of putting that back in order. Beach accesses, making sure those are always safe for the public. They've helped us through that.

And and then providing the four free charging stations out there for the the push in electric vehicles along with the full solar production we have in what is unbuildable, unusable space, is really awesome. So we enjoy being good stewards out there. One thing I think we do need to make sure we watch as we continue to move forward is, the impact of Caspersons being closed. We are seeing a lot of strain on the infrastructure. Alright?

That was a county owned piece of land, park, a lot of folks went down there and the county had that responsibility. All of that has pushed on to city property now. So the parking lot is used a lot more, twelve months out of the year, so we really have to make sure we we keep an eye on that. I think it's gonna be due for re striping and resurfacing. So remember that $1,300,000 check and how to use it?

We talked about landscaping, you know, the East Side Of Harbor Drive, still is I think a topic that you guys are trying to address with parking, but also the landscaping there. We had to rip out all those plants, so we wanna make sure we get get that back to the top of the list. A big area of strain is the public restrooms, and I know that's our responsibility, but we are seeing the usage of that which was never designed to hold that entire stretch of beach goer traffic, but there's just a lot of a lot going on through there, so that's something that we have on our radar, and if anybody pays attention to social media, it's on the public's radar too. So we try to address that. And then street parking.

I know that's on your list. I know there's some permitting issues, but that really is something that until Caspersons is addressed, if we don't manage it, they're gonna manage it themselves and create unsafe situations and and we don't want that out there. It's not easy for for ambulances and fire trucks to get out there, so we we don't wanna have that happen. Last thing towards the end of my list here is beach renourishment's coming up. I think it's important that as beach renourishment happens, we take that opportunity to build back our dune system that was impacted from the storms in 2024.

Some dune plantings, I think would go a long way in helping to rebuild that natural infrastructure that protects us from storms. And then also maintaining safe nesting grounds. I think that for our turtle nesting and the amount that we've seen that increase over the years, it's important to really watch how that beach renourishment happens to make sure that there's still a safe place for the turtles to nest. And for them to not get into areas they shouldn't be. Let's see, 2027, coming up next year is a big year for us.

That's gonna be forty years Sharkies on the Pier has been in Venice. I'm proud to say that it has always been with the Pashoda family, with the help of the Novak family. It's a real honor to carry that torch for the family and really excited to celebrate next year. We hope as we've seen this year with all the hundred year celebrations that the city supports and celebrates with us because this partnership wouldn't be possible without great partners like the city of Venice Venice. Last thing on my list is I do just wanna recognize since his term is almost up, I think that the city is very fortunate to have a mayor like Nick Pashoda.

As as a family member, it's not always easy. Right? And we expect a lot of each other. Nick has always put the city first. He has never given any favoritism regardless of how the public may view it. And if anything, he has made me a more accountable person in my job, and I appreciate that. So, I hope everybody in the city of Venice understands that that is how the brotherly love has worked out and it has benefited the city immensely. So, that's all I got. If you got any questions for me other than Nick, I'd be happy to answer.

I was about to say if you go over your time, you're gonna have to cater in free lunch for everybody. So, any questions from counsel for the Venice peer group?

Great. Thank you very much.

Alright.

I just Thank want to say

how proud I am of both my boys and it wouldn't be the way it is right now without both of those guys doing a great job. Thank you.

Alright, you got your one sentence. Madam Clerk, do have anybody signed up to speak? No. Okay. Then with that we will move on to twenty six-five twenty, John Kramer, Public Engineer, City Engineering and Ricky Simpson, Director of Public Works and Asset Management on Humphreys Park status update and reconstruction options.

Good morning mayor and council. For the record, John Kramer, city engineer and I'm joined by

Ricky Simpson, Director of Public Works and Asset Management.

Good We'll provide a status update on Humphreys Park and the reconstruction options.

Alright. I'm gonna start off with a little jetty history. The South Jetty was constructed in 1937. The original construction was sheet pile cylinders filled with sand, concrete, and topped with riprap. The bulkhead was constructed with creosote sheet pile with steel tiebacks.

Riprap has been added multiple times over the years to replace rock that was displaced from the storms. The South Jetty was paved in 1974 by the request of the city of Venice, and we have had to resurface the area multiple times from storm damage. The conditions that you see today at the South Jetty is a direct result of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. In the picture, can see the original construction from 1937 of the creosote bulkhead that is now exposed and no longer functional. This slide shows the condition of the concession stand after Hurricane Helene.

Hurricane Helene also caused significant damage to the lift station, water and electrical services to the park. We also experienced significant material loss inside the park, which weakened the site. When Hurricane Milton hit a week or so later, the wave activity almost completely dismantled the structure. This left us with only one option, and that was complete demolition demolition of the concession stand. Hurricane Milton also did significant damage to the jetty and the bulkhead due to the weakened site from Hurricane Helene.

You can leave it right there. As you can see in this slide, large portions of the rock jetty itself are gone. You can also see the exposed original construction of the bulkhead and the steel tiebacks. This slide tells a lot about the project moving forward. This is the structure that is needed to not only hold back tidal water but it plays a huge role in maintaining material inside of our park, inside the rock revetment of our park.

It's really hard to capture the elevation loss that we're experiencing out at the Jetty unless you actually walk out there and get a first hand look. I would estimate approximately six feet of loss in a large portion of the drive parking concession area. Public Works has performed repairs to this park in the past, ranging from hauling material due to elevation loss from storms and repairing the jetty walkout with asphalt and replacing smaller stones that were displaced. The damage that we currently have at the jetty is far greater than we've ever experienced. Alright.

The entire pedestrian walkway out onto the south jetty is damaged and you cannot safely access this walkout. As we did walk out on the structure, we noticed large voids next to the walkway which created steep drop offs as you work your way out as well as large portions of the asphalt path are gone. The water that you see to the right of the staff in the picture was once a portion of the parking lot lined with memorial benches, picnic tables, and now it is a tidal area. This boundary map, as you can see from this slide, the Army Corps of Engineers has an easement over the entire site, and that is in purple. The outlined area in green shows the responsibility of the city.

The bulkhead and rockery revetment is federally owned and maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers and they have acknowledged responsibility for these repairs. The area inside the Green Line will be the responsibility of the city once the Army Corps portion is completed.

There is interest in whether or not we can reconstruct Humphreys Park in advance of the corps performing their project. In order to understand the requirements for this, city staff had a meeting with Army Corps project management staff as well as an on-site meeting including Colonel Bowman from the Jacksonville Army Corps office. As Ricky mentioned, Army Corps consent is required for any Humphreys Park improvements or construction and the design and construction is not something that could be accomplished by city staff. This will require design and construction consultants. Some of the design considerations include the need for a temporary bulkhead or seawall that will need to be constructed before any film material can be placed so that it can contain that and make sure it doesn't wash away.

In addition, when Humphreys is open to the public, we'll need to provide temporary restrooms, safety fencing, parking stops, signage and any other required park amenities. Probably the biggest consideration in reconstructing the park in advance of the corps are the permitting considerations. The Army Corps has stated that a section four zero eight permit will be required. This is a very intense and challenging permit program that's going to have intense engineering reviews. The Army Corps told us that the permitting timeline is typically one to two years to obtain this permit.

In addition, some of the construction considerations include the fact that the core is requiring the fill to be beach compatible and there's actually a specification here for beach compatible sand within Sarasota County. In general this means

requires that the city either construct the improvements to the core standards or that any temporary improvements we construct the city will have to remove when the core comes in to do their construction. Fill.

We have

some order of magnitude cost estimates for the temporary reconstruction of Humphreys Park and you'll see that the ranges here really depend on the Section four zero eight permitting. The timeline for that permitting and the intensity of the reviews by the Corps are really going to drive the permitting and design cost as well as the construction. We're not sure exactly how intense of a temporary bulkhead the core will require. And then presumably the more substantial temporary bulkhead that is constructed, the more the cost will be to remove those improvements and when the corps comes in to do their final bulkhead. Now the Army Corps has accepted responsibility for reconstructing the bulkhead and the jetties here.

They estimate that the bulkhead they want to construct will exceed $10,000,000 So they have to go through the MMR, major maintenance report process as part of their procedures to assess the damages and estimate the total repair This process is underway and they expect the report to be completed in November. This exhibit at the bottom shows what the core is referring to when they mention the jetty project. It's not just the South North jetty and the north bulkhead as well. And the core has stated that these entire four project portions may be constructed in multiple phases due to funding constraints and overall this is likely to take several years. Both the core and the West Coast Inland Navigational District have stated that the repair of is the priority here.

The Army Corps has accepted ownership of the repairs and has committed to making the necessary structural repairs. The city will be responsible for park recreational components. When the city designs the reconstruction of the park, we will take resiliency into account. Can see here an example of a portable restroom building that we would look at something that could be removed in the advance of future storms. And instead of a permanent concession building there may be concrete pads for food trucks or other portable buildings that could be relocated in advance cost and a high risk project.

The high cost is due to the Section four zero eight permit process in the construction requirements. The high risk is due to the unknown timeframe of when the temporary improvements would have to be removed and also high liability from reopening this area to the public. There is continued partnership and advocacy with the West Coast Inland Navigational District, the Army Corps, federal lobbyists and federal legislators. Due to the high cost and high risk of temporarily reopening Humphreys staff recommends that we do not proceed with this project at this time. However, if council would like to proceed, the next step would be hiring design consultants to begin the design and help us with the permit process.

This concludes our presentation. Ricky and I are happy to take any questions.

Well, I've got almost the full board. So Madam Clerk, if you'll reorder me last and we'll start with Mr. Ingleke.

Gentlemen, thanks for the report. I have to say that I was really kind of looking forward to this report because I would like to have seen something there on a temporary basis but based on this high risk, high cost ranging anywhere from 1,800,000.0 to $4,600,000 using your ranges. That's a little bit more than I'm comfortable with and then walking around there Ricky the couple of weeks ago. That's in bad shape and the fence that we have there is probably not high enough because people are going to get around it but anyway I think the height of the fence fence and the signage supposed really understates the danger that we have there and so going in and trying to do something between now and the time that the court gets around to doing it probably not the right thing to do. I do have two questions.

You mentioned $10,000,000 in one of the earlier preliminary studies. How does that relate to the $100,000,000 number that was being bounded about several months ago or is that just part of the $10,000,000

or $100,000,000

I'm sorry?

Part of the $10,000,000 the core isn't exactly sure what the cost of the bulkhead they want to construct is. This would likely be steel or composite sheet pile driven in. And since that cost they're estimating is in excess of $10,000,000 they need to go through their MMR report process. So the $10,000,000 would be part of the $100,000,000 The $100,000,000 is pretty much a guess at this point since the core hasn't done this study. The $100,000,000 presumably would encompass the north and south jetty and bulkheads, so all four portions project.

So the core isn't sure how much the bulk of the South bulkhead will cost, but they're confident it's going to be in excess of $10,000,000 Okay. So it would

be the bulkhead and not including the rocks and the other things that they would have to do? Correct. Okay. Then one more very unscientific or scientific question. What is riprap? What's the definition of riprap? Thank you.

Riprap is typically what you would see in the pond out here, concrete type rubble or rock that's placed to protect against scour and erosion.

Vice Mayor Bolt. Thank you.

I appreciate I had seen this thing from the outside. I was on a boat and came up and I oh my lord, it was 10 times worse than I thought it was, a 100 times worse. And having visited it yesterday with you two guys to get the full explanation, this is a no brainer. It's basically in my estimation, it's out of our hands. We can throw money at it but all that's going to do is get thrown away in the end because as you said earlier, whatever we do there would have to be removed and erased so the Corps of Engineers could start what they're doing.

This is not a good expenditure of taxpayers' money as much as many of us would love to see something done out there so that we can all go out and watch the sunrise. It's not the only place, go to Service Park, go to Sharky's. I hear they have some decent food. So I really appreciate the work you've done here because it really tells us an order of magnitude and the fact that it really is out of our hands. So thank you very much for the report and unfortunately it's all bad news.

Ms. Frank?

Yes, just a quick word of thanks for the education. We receive a lot of questions and inquiries from the public and from tourists alike who are curious about the scope of the damage out there. So you all taking the time to educate us individually and then obviously do this presentation is immensely helpful for spreading the word just on the obviously moving dynamics of what's happening out there and also just a word of thanks to Congressman Greg Stubbe. He's obviously been very vocal in some of his press releases about how important this project is to him and his district and it's clear to me that he's going to do everything in his power to advocate for funding. The timeline would be expedited, anything within his power he's willing to help us with.

So just a quick word of thanks to him as well.

Mr. Howard?

Echoing a lot of what my colleagues are saying, I haven't seen it since literally a hot dog with my aunt from Arizona just before Lena Milton at Jetty Jack's. I had no idea the level of devastation out there until the tour you guys took us on and greatly appreciated. There was areas over my head I didn't from distance you would never know how much devastation and destruction there was. I agree that the the cost and the liability is is catastrophic at a time where we're reducing millage rates, we're cutting budgets for the reducing taxpayers dollars. We're trying to be good stewards of the dollars and to me this is throwing good money at bad money.

I just don't see why we would ever invest millions of dollars in something that would ultimately be dismantled at our expense a second time to get the core of engineers in there to replace these bulkheads. Thank you. Mr. Weed.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. And I'm coming out of left field here but that's kind of where I live. My question to you, Humphreys Park is owned by the city of Venice. All that property is under easement to the West Coast and the Navigation District, is that correct or is it the Corps of Engineer, the easement?

Where I going with this question, this a very large project but in some ways it seems accelerated and enlarged by the fact of the involvement with the Federal Government. Are the jetties by law actually owned, maintained and operated by the Federal Government? Is that the situation? The reason I am coming to the question, I have been asked by taxpayers, is it possible, and again this is left field, for that easement to be canceled, for the city to take over the maintenance of the jetties and to locally do the redesign, the rebuild, the reconstruction of the jetties after seeking grant monies but without having to comply with the incredibly large requirements that are being placed upon the reconstruction by the federal government?

That's a great question. And I do not have that answer. I do know that all the other jetty structures throughout the state are managed by the Army Corps. I do not have that answer. I can find out.

Mr. City Manager.

Thank you Mayor. I'll jump in here. It is a good question and I can clarify for the record that is a Army Corps of Engineers ease ment that covers that property. We have copies of the easement and it's been in place since they originally constructed the jetty. So they have full ownership, full maintenance responsibility in perpetuity for those facilities.

I really don't see any feasible way that they ever want to divest themselves from that because that is critical to navigation and it's an investment that they made almost one hundred years ago. The reason we would have to go through the Section four zero eight permit is because of that ownership. So if we ever tried to do something on the federal beach as well, the same type of permitting would be required. And that's because it is their facility. They will let you do potentially work on their facility but only after going through this thorough review process. So not only is there an ownership in perpetuity by the federal government, they're not gonna let us do anything out there without going through process.

Okay, thank you. And as I recall from history lessons, the actual entire inland navigation is done for Department of Defense purposes. So the protection, control, management of all these have not only to do with navigation but also with defense as put together with after World War II. So thank you very much for that answer. Mr. Smith?

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Kramer, Mr. Simpson and also our city manager, Mr. Klintch, for the tour you provided yesterday and for the information you provided today.

It's upsetting, but certainly the damage is far more expected when I saw it up close and it's convinced me that we cannot go alone in doing this. So I thank you for the education. You talked about four phases of the repairs, so I have a question about that. And you said that the South bulkhead will be the priority, which I assume means be done first. So my question is, if the Army Corps goes ahead and repairs that bulkhead first, long before the jetty, the North Jetty and the North bulkhead, will that allow us to reopen Humphreys Park before all the other work is done or are we gonna have to wait until all four phases are done before we can let the public back?

Once the South Bulkhead is reconstructed, fill could be placed on Humphreys and it should stay in place. However, I would want to see what the core is going to do with the South Jetty. We wouldn't want to place any improvements there that will interfere with their travel or that they may destroy and how they repair. But certainly South Jetty and South Bulkhead are kind of independent of the North Jetty. I would hope after the South Bulkhead is reconstructed that they'd proceed with South Jetty but I'm not sure exactly what the condition of North Bulkhead.

So I guess the answer is maybe. Phil could be placed there but the Army Corps may destroy it when they bring in the huge rocks to reconstruct the jetty. So we'd have to speak with them.

Alright. Thank you.

So I just wanted to state for clarity and transparency that what everyone is up here is talking about is that so since since this disaster happened, we have brought in, know, staff was there up until the the jetty was destroyed and then after and then after all of the legislators were brought in so that they could see the the damage and devastation so that we we could impress upon them the need for support. But then on top of that, staff made sure to arrange tours for each of the council members so that they could then go put eyes on the jetty and see exactly what the devastation that everyone is talking about is so that they have a better scope of understanding when it comes down to the dollars and cents. So that's what everyone is talking about is that council has been on tours of actually three facilities. It was the Jetty, Humphreys Park and then the new fire station and the new solid waste facility. And I really appreciate staff for taking the time out of their day.

It's very complicated because you can't just take seven council members on a tour and have all of us talking together, so it had to be done individually and I really appreciate the city manager's office and all of you guys and staff for making that happen. Incredibly valuable and I'm one of those people that I have to put my eyes on something to really understand it And you guys did a phenomenal job in in, you know, showing us what we're up against. One thing I wanted to accomplish today is there's some hurdles and hiccups that we always have to go through. So I know you guys are working very close, The Army Corps has been out there. You guys are working with them, WCIND.

I would just like to and and Madam Attorney, you can kind of guide me in in what I'm trying to do here because there is no action on this item. But I would like to just get the council's approval to write any letters of support as it relates to this project. If that comes up, I can't imagine there's any reason we would not want to write a letter of support for funding. So I would like to make that motion if it's possible just so we can get that on the official record. Mr. City Manager, we'll start with you because you had your hand up and then I'll go to Madam Attorney.

Thank you Mayor. We were actually contacted yesterday by WCIND. They are working with Stubbe's office right now and they're submitting a new federal appropriation for $15,000,000 understanding that the MMR report should be finished this year. So they want to go ahead and get kind of the first phase in the pipeline for that federal funding and they are definitely looking for a letter. Depending on how you word your motion, there probably will be multiple letters coming on this topic. But they're looking for that one really pretty quickly by the end of the week was the request I got yesterday.

It's like I could read your mind. Madam Attorney? Yes, so I think it's appropriate to have it would be

a somewhat generic request to allow you to submit letters as requested or needed to support the federal government moving forward with rehabbing this area of the city.

Okay. So with that if there's no other questions of staff, which I see none, thank you gentlemen for your presentation and then I will move into my motion which is I move to allow the mayor to write letters of support whether it's state federal in relation to funding needs for Humphreys Park. Second. Seconded by everybody. Seconded by Vice Mayor Bolt. Then let's go into council discussion. Is there any discussion on this? Mr. Weed?

Thank you. Yes, guess it's a friendly amendment. I would just think it would be more appropriate rather than writing letters to say to communicate in all forms of media, whether it be by letters, through emails, whatever phone calls, whatever need be.

Madam Attorney, you okay with that? Yes. Okay. All right. Then with that, any other discussion? Okay. So the amendment is instead of letters, we're just using the word communicate to encompass all forms of communication. Okay. Madam Clerk, if you'll ready us for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, can indicate your vote. And Madam Clerk, can tally and display. Passes unanimously. Let's see. I think we can get through. So let's move on to council action discussion 20 six-five twenty one.

This is the Centennial Park rededication plaque and between mister clinch and I I think we can kind of talk about this. I'll yield to him and fill in any blanks.

Thank you mayor. This is for on April 15, we're gonna do a rededication ceremony for Centennial Park. And the the purpose of that is going to be to mark the moment and celebrate our Centennial in in the naming of that park. A lot of people as we got into this centennial planning, a lot of people didn't realize that Centennial Park is actually named after the post office centennial, which was founded in 1888 in the Nokomis area. And then Centennial Park was named after the post office in 1988.

So not taking away from that history but I think it is fitting that we add our own city Centennial to the park that's the heart, right at the heart, bless you, of our of our city. So to mark that moment, we have a a really nice plaque. We worked with Public Works on a a good location that won't compete with any of the other great memorials we have out there. So we'll have a small paver area with two benches and a plaque that will recognize this moment when we rededicate Centennial Park in honor of the city's Centennial. Thank you.

And the only thing I'll add with that is, I think I've mentioned this before, we are inviting all past and present council to attend, and we are doing a time capsule with this as well. I believe it's covered in the memo, but I just want to emphasize, the significance of what will be done with this project. Okay. So any questions by council? Bless you. Okay, don't see any questions from counsel. So Madam Clerk, have anybody signed up to speak? No. All right, then I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Engelke.

I move to approve the Centennial Park Rededication Plaque as presented.

Seconded by Mr. Howard. Any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, you can ready us for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote.

Madam Clerk you can tally and display. Passes unanimously. All right, we're now on to 20 six-five 22 and this is an invitation to consider a joint meeting of the Sarasota County Commissioners and the Venice City Council. Mr. Clinch?

Thank you. We received our office received a formal invitation from the County Administrator on behalf of the County Commission requesting our response on whether we would like to hold a joint meeting with them again. Our last joint meeting was back on May 16 and looking for your feedback and direction on how to respond. If we would like to hold another joint meeting with them, it has yet to be scheduled but I'll be happy to share that response with them. Thank you.

Any questions from counsel? Madam Clerk, do have anybody signed up to speak?

No.

And obtain a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I would move to direct the staff to schedule a meeting and coordinate with the county administrator to develop a mutually beneficial agenda focused on regional topics for council's consideration.

Seconded by Mr. Howard. Any counsel discussion?

Mayor, if I can, I just say I thought that last year's meeting, it hadn't been one in several years, but last year when we met with them, it was very productive? I look forward to this next meeting and I do hope it will become an annual event. Thank you.

Anyone else? Okay, Madam Clerk, if you'll ready us for an electronic vote. Council members when your lights are flashing you can indicate your vote. And Madam Clerk, you can tally and display. Passes unanimously.

Alright. We are on to 02/06 dash 05/23, appoint two members to the Citizen Advisory Board to serve a term from 03/01/2026 to 02/28/2029. And I'll go ahead and make a motion to appoint Caitlin Panfill and Philip Ellis to the Citizen Advisory Board to serve terms from 03/01/2026 to twenty twenty eight, twenty twenty nine. Sorry, 02/28/2029.

Second.

Seconded by Vice Mayor Bolt. And Madam Clerk, did you have anybody signed up to speak? No. Okay. Then with that, any council discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you'll ready us for an electronic vote. Council members, when your lights are flashing, you can indicate your vote. And you can tally and display. Passes unanimously. Alright, we are on to twenty six-five '20 four and this is property signage for public notice requirements. This was put on by Mrs. Frank. You can introduce the topic if you would like.

Thank you. Yes I listed in the memo my observation of the size requirements for signage posted at properties that the county has a larger size requirement than the City Of Venice and so I'm looking for feedback from my colleagues here if they're in agreement to bring the city's size requirements for signage up to the counties which is a three foot by two foot sign. If you're driving down the road anecdotally it's a lot easier to notice so in order to maximize transparency make sure anyone and everyone who wants to come speak before us or write us an email regarding a vote that's going to happen we would like to make sure they're informed. So I'm happy to answer any questions but my motion would be to direct staff to change our land development regulations to bring up the size of to be in whatever, I'm losing my train of thought, to be our size in matching the counties for postage, public notice requirements.

I would second that and then we'll move to counsel discussion. I do have some questions for the attorney. So if we're going to modify the LDR is that restricted under SB 180?

We've had some informal discussions about that. I mean maybe minorly so if there's an additional cost to the applicant but I think on this one it's worth at least proceeding forward and we can look into that further if this motion passes as staff looks at language and what that would translate into for an applicant.

And then my second question would be for the City Manager, any additional cost burden by this change?

Yes, I think I'd love to invite Roger Clark up to talk a little bit about what that cost might be if if that's agreeable to you mayor.

Absolutely. Mister Clark, if you would come forward and bless us with your presence.

Well I don't know about that. Good afternoon, morning. For the record, Roger Clark, Planning and Zoning Director. Currently we pretty much charge the applicant for everything that we do involved with their petition. We don't have a specific charge for the signage that we do.

It's more falls into the application fee as a part of that. But they do pay for all the advertising and the notice, the postage from the notices that we send out. If we were to, if counsel was to direct us to do this type of signage, obviously Could we pass that on to the applicant? Well that would be probably part of what the city attorney was indicating we would need to look into. We would be able to do that.

I think there may be an option to change our policy and maybe not change the code. So these are some things that we have to look into. If we were to continue to do the signage ourselves, which we do and not pass that burden, I guess I could use that term off to the applicant, which I don't think we could do at this point, then we certainly do not have a budget in place for this. This would be a significant increase in the costs that we would have to incur if we were going to take on those costs. But hopefully we would be able to pass those off to the applicant in some way shape or form, we'll have to look into that.

The big part of my question is, what kind of cost are we looking at? I mean, this is going sound ignorant, but I don't know if we're just printing a piece of paper and posting it on a sign versus printing a larger piece of paper. So that's kind of my question, what kind of cost are we looking at that's going be affecting us?

Not sure the specific amount but I can tell you what we do currently. We do our code requires 10 by 16 as far as the size. We do 11 by 17. We did just recently change the text that we have in there, did an update on that. It does get printed in color.

We have laminating sheets that we laminate and then we purchase and we have in stock metal posts with that 11 by 17 size frame on there and we attach the signs to them and we go out and install them. So that cost obviously the paper, the laminating sheets, the posts and those kind of things and we have to replace the posts every now and then, they get run over, mowers, those kind of things. If we were to go up to something three foot by two foot, that's a significant size difference. I even looked into a laminator for that size and it's like couple thousand dollars rather than 40 or 50 for what we have now. Plus you got to consider and the reason looking into that would be waterproof, weatherproof, those kind of things.

So we will look into that based on counsel's direction but I would think there would be a significant cost going from what we do now to something like that if we were to take on that cost burden and not pass it on to the applicant.

One thing I would agree with is that if you're just driving by right now, it's very difficult to not only see but to even read. I mean that's the point we want people to be able to read so I'd have to park the car, get out and go look if I'm driving by the property. So I do understand the nature of this and overall I'm in support, just kind of curious about these financials. Mr. Smith, you're next.

Thank you, Mayor. And first let me thank Councilwoman Frank for bringing this matter up. We do get occasional complaints from people that they're not aware of a significant change in their neighborhood, not aware there's going to be a public meeting, and so I certainly favor, given the biggest notice that we can give, that's reasonable. But I wanted to ask you, sir, about two other aspects of that notice. One is the actual, I guess mail notice that we give to people within a certain perimeter.

Correct.

And is our notification of neighbors as liberal as other areas? Do you know if it matches what the county does or other cities? Because some people, I remember particularly on the recent case on the South end of the island, people said they didn't receive it and they were like a block away or whatever. And so I worry about that, and then ask you two questions and let them let you answer. And then the second thing is people have complained about these neighborhood meetings that are required at a certain point and that we don't do them in person anymore.

I guess that's a relic from the COVID days. But could you update us on that or any plans for us to go back to neighborhood meetings that a developer has to have with the neighbors before ever getting even to the Planning Commission?

Sure. Absolutely, good questions. The first one I'll tackle, most jurisdictions are typically consistent with us or maybe a bit more two fifty to 500 feet as far as notification and that is from the edges of the property or the centerline of any adjacent roadway or water body. When it gets to water bodies there's a little more to it as well. So that two fifty feet currently that we have in our code has been our notice requirement since as long as I can remember.

There was discussion when we redid the land development code as to expand that but it never did come to a consensus to do that. So that's why it's still the same as it always has been. There are certain circumstances where we do notify an entire development like we have a PUD and there's something going, we do notify everybody in the PUD. So it doesn't because the PUD is the whole subdivision, okay, and it's the whole area so that's why we do that. So there are some cases where it gets to be more, but we have heard that too, somebody just on the edge, maybe they don't get noticed but we do do a very specific radius search when we do those notifications and the notification that's required for the neighborhood workshop is also the same for the applicant as it is for us.

And then as far as the virtual meetings that you're talking about, yes, that is something that occurred during COVID that we did maintain in the code the ability for the applicant to do that. We didn't eliminate in person meetings but we did indicate that virtual meetings would be acceptable. In all honesty, most of the meetings, the only people are there are the applicants and it just depends on the application. If it's something controversial, obviously there'd be people showing up more than other times but that's something that we certainly could look at our code and potentially based on our good legislation Senate Bill 180 and look into modifying if counsel desired that.

Thank you.

Ms. Frank?

Yes, just for clarity, you know obviously sheet of paper is an 8.5 by 11, so our current requirements of 11 by 17 is slightly bigger than a sheet of paper, you know like a flyer size. And what the County requires is three feet by two feet which is a yard sign. So if you're hypothetical, if you're a Toscana Isles resident and you're driving down Knights Trail at 30 miles per hour, you're probably not going to see the flyer but you probably are going to see the yard sign. And so I would just like to encourage my colleagues to consider this larger signage.

So I do have a question for the attorney and it would be a friendly amendment. I'm thinking that a motion that doesn't involve the word or letters LDR would be more appropriate, so I was thinking something along the lines of direct staff to research bringing notice requirements in line with Sarasota County government, would that be a little bit more appropriate?

Yeah, that's fine as well. I think in that case then we can determine whether it's something that would require an amendment to the code and if so whether that's even possible given our limitations or whether it's more of a policy as Roger was saying that can be adjusted adjusted without having to do that. So and we can report back.

Counsel are we okay with that friendly amendment?

If I could Mr. Mayor. I would try to be specific notice requirements or posting requirements, two different things. We did Mr. Smith had a question about notice requirements more than and Ms. Frank had about posting requirements. So I would try to be specific with that so staff knows what you're getting at.

So my friendly amendment is direct staff to research bringing posting requirements in line with Sarasota County government? Yes. Okay. All right, anyone else? All right. Thank you, Mr. Clark. And we will move on to an electronic vote. Madam Clerk, if you can make us ready for that vote, we will push that button. And you can tally and display. Passes unanimously. Okay, we are on to Charter Officer reports and we'll hear from Madam Attorney.

This prior discussion actually slides nicely to what I just wanted to speak about briefly today which is the fact that we're in the home stretch of the Florida legislative session and I know there's been a lot of attention on property tax ad valorem changes, potential changes but also just wanted to re highlight especially for members of the public some of the bills that are still moving forward that could significantly impact your land use authority and you tend to get a lot of heat for certain decisions and sometimes decisions that you're not even really able to make, they've been preempted in one way or the other. So I just wanted to encourage you all if you haven't been keeping up to either talk to me or just get up to speed through the resources of the Florida League of Cities and other channels you can go to, to see what is still pending, still moving and as we cross the finish line of legislative session and assuming there's no special sessions we'll just take a look at what actually passes and what gets the Governor's authorization. There are some significant changes out there potentially for your land use approval authority.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

I just have the legislative referral tracking report that's required every six months to update you as to what referrals you've made and what action the committees have your advisory committees have taken to date. So the report was in your packets.

Okay, thank you. Mr. City Manager.

Thank you. First I just want to thank everyone for their time doing the one on one visits to our city projects. That's something that takes a lot of logistics and energy, so we'll try to be judicious about when we do that. But it's so important with these significant projects that are happening to get your eyes on it. So we really, really appreciate that.

And thank you to our staff who made that happen. Something I want to highlight is that we've our office in coordination with IT has put together a shared city calendar and outlook. And the goal here is really just to make sure we're all well informed. We found, especially this time of the year with the Centennial going on, there's just so many events, it's hard to keep track of everything. So this calendar is going to have our city meetings on there regularly, our city special events on there and then what I would call our community events.

So big chamber of commerce events, ribbon cuttings, things that you likely would want to attend. And then there's two places you can get to this. So it will be on the monitor that's right outside of our office where you can kinda see what's coming up on a regular basis. But also it'll be accessible on your personal device. So Roger Navarro with IT will be getting with each of you to be sure you have access to this calendar on your device and that way you can get to it at your leisure.

But our goal is to make sure that just everybody is informed and that we don't miss anything. And the last thing, just an FYI, I will be out of town on Thursday and Friday at an annual city manager's conference. But fortunately, I have an assistant now who will be available if anyone needs anything. And of course, you can always reach me by my cell phone. Thank you.

Mr. Engelke?

I had the privilege of seeing the Venice Corral on Saturday night or Sunday night celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth

anniversary of our country and the hundredth centennial celebration of the city of Venice.

Night And I don't wanna steal the mayor's thunder because he did a great proclamation there and more importantly we now have a city song Venice Forever Home and I encourage everybody to see if we can get a copy of it and kind of promote it. Thanks.

You just want to come take my microphone or no, I'm kidding.

I'll say

that for you. Mr. Weed.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would just like to

take

the city manager and the entire staff for the tour that I was able to take yesterday. Just some wonderful new accomplishments for the city between the new fire station and that entire campus and also the new facility on the Bypass 41 for our equipment. Just some really, really positive forward thinking that's taking place there and it's going to be just a real upgrade to our city. Also to see the tour of the South Jetty and I observed that many, many times from the water, but it was very interesting to get the up close on-site look to that project and to the just a monumental scale of it. But I appreciate the time and also I just appreciate the time of the one on one with the city employee doing the transportation towards just always good to get to know our employees just a little better on a personal basis.

So thank you.

Mr. Howard. Thanks Mayor. Also like to thank the city manager and staff. The tour was as I stated earlier I had no idea the magnitude of the jetty without the tour, would never have known that. Appreciate that, also the coastal advisory, everybody in the county seems to be displaced, I appreciate city manager and his executive assistant, Cordy, for finding them a home for our next meeting coming up on March 4 in the community room. I attended the Nolan statue unveiling. Wow. What a what a great event that was. It was great to see everyone there.

Lot of the Vabbey Main Street, Venice Historic, everyone was there. The reception afterwards to interact with the Nolan family was most pretty cool to say the least. And lastly, thank you thank you for the consolidated calendar. It's tough when there's so many things going on and for most of us sitting up here we're not at a desk any more eight hours a day checking emails. So it's really just a great move to put everything consolidate everything in one calendar. So thank you a lot for that. Thanks mayor. Councilmember

report. Council Member Frank?

Nothing today.

Vice Mayor Bolt?

Mostly due to my position on the other end of the earth the last two weeks, I really don't have much to report. I do want to say thank you though to Public Works Director Simpson and Deputy Director Castle. I am absolutely amazed by our tour yesterday and how far you guys have made it and just how quickly things have moved and even to the extent of knowing that remediation of the seaboard site is well in hand, etcetera, etcetera. So I think that's going to have a major role, your move in our moving forward with Seaboard. We never expected this to happen this fast.

And so I just want to make that in the public record that you guys have gone above and beyond in the timing of the whole thing and having visited it yesterday, have done an incredible job with it. So thank you so very much.

That's all. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Alright, I'll just say a few things, know, not to recap what everybody has said, but, in general, you know, we've came up with a plan for Centennial and it was to honor our history, the dates in which we were a town incorporated into a city with this eighteen month plan and I would just say that all of the events that you're hearing about are a perfect example of what kind of our goal was.

And I would say that everyone has done a fantastic job and I say that meaning the citizens in showing up and participating in these different events, whether it be the Nolan statue and historical information that was provided there or the Venice Corral with the patriotic event that was held but also the naming of the centennial song. There's been a lot of different activities and I hope that the council sees that the approvals that you've given us have not been taken lightly and that we're trying to make sure that everything is reflective of the council's wishes in how we are responsible with the finances that were given to do this. Most of these events are community sponsored events, they're not city sponsored events and the city has been a very welcome partner in all of these. So very excited about everything that's going on and continue to look at the calendar on the website to see what's going on with the Centennial and what's up next. We've got plenty of time to participate and there's still a lot of activities that are coming our way that we're all very pumped about.

Staff has been very judicious with their time but they are making sure that we're giving it all of the time and credit that the City of Venice deserves. So hat off to the City staff and for working with me to make this the best centennial in country. The twenty fifth annual Downtown Venice Art Classic presented by Venice Main Street and Howard Allen events is this weekend, Saturday, February 28 and Sunday, March 1 from 10AM to 5PM, both days, and that's the 200 to 300 blocks of West Venice Avenue. There is absolutely no reason that the entire city shouldn't be at this next event. Celebrate Florida, Bike Month with the annual bike ride with the mayor at 9AM, Thursday, March 5.

Take a leisurely six mile ride with yours truly, as well as special and mobility coordinator, Darlene Culpepper, members of the Venice Police and Fire Rescue teams. I believe our city manager staff will also be there. We're going to start and end at Sharkey's on The Pier, 1600 South Harbour Drive. Bring your bike and helmet, make sure that you sign up RSVP through Darling Culpepper and that's dcolpeppervenisfl.gov. Following the ride, there will be refreshments and a discussion session with me.

The city invites residents and visitors to attend Venice Airport Day and that's from 9AM to 3PM Saturday, March 7 at Skyport Aviation at Venice Municipal Airport, 400. This free family friendly event offers the public an opportunity to experience the airport first hand and learn more about aviation in the Venice community. Venice Airport Day will feature aircraft, drone and remote control aircraft displays, aviation education activities, local vendors and food options. The next family friendly movie in the park presented by Venice Main Street, Gulf Coast Community Foundation and Venice Institute for Performing Arts is 07:30PM Friday, March 6 in Centennial Park, featuring the animated film Elemental, free and open to the public, bring snacks, chairs and blankets. The Venice Area Garden Club Thirty Fifth Annual Home And Garden Tour, a centennial garden celebration will be held 10AM to 4PM Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14.

Two houses and five gardens in Venice to visit, historic farmhouse site with plant sale, Master Gardeners Plant Clinic, Garden Shop and Crafts. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at venesareagardenclub.com. All proceeds go to Venice Area Scholarships, community projects and club programs. We have two annual car shows coming up next month in Centennial Park, the A Vet Together Corvette Show on Sunday, March 15 presented by Venice Florida Corvettes and the thirty sixth Annual Venice AACA Car Show on Sunday, March 29. Both events run from 8AM to 3PM.

The Venice Blues Rock Reggae and BBQ Festival is Friday, March 20 through Sunday, March 22 at the airport festival grounds with live music, a championship barbecue competition, food trucks and fun for the whole family. For daily band lineups and tickets, visit venicebluesandbarbeque.com. The Venice Book Fair and Writers Festival is the last weekend in March with the Writers Festival from noon to 06:30PM on Friday, March 27 at the Venice Public Library Community Room and the Book Fair from 10AM to 2PM Saturday, March 28 in West Blaylock Park, and you can get more information on that at venicevenicebookfair.com. Lastly, I will just recognize the event that we had, ironically it was told to us it was going to be the one and only time last year that we did it, but they loved Venice so much and said that we had the largest participation in the milia that they came back this year. So big turnout again this weekend, had members of the chamber, members of the city staff, their kids were out there to help stamp passports as all these folks from around the world came and showed off their cars.

They stayed for lunch and then they moved on to their next location. So, really grateful that we were on the map for that and, even more grateful that all of our residents showed up to attend and welcome these folks into our beautiful city. So with that, I am done for my announcements. We will move on to audience participation. Madam Clerk, do you have anybody like Marty or Bob Munch signed up to speak?

They did not sign up today.

Okay. Well, if they didn't sign up today, then we will go ahead and adjourn.