Town Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. Uh, good evening everyone. Uh, thanks for coming to the April 14, 2026 uh, town commission meeting for the town of Oakland. If you could please stand for the pledge. Remain standing. ahead. Heavenly Father, thank you for another day. Thank you for your guidance. Thank you for your love and your blessings each and every day. Continue to watch over the residents, watch over staff, and watch over the commission as we continue to conduct business according to your guidance. We love you. Praise you as always, Miss Max.

Thank you, Joseph. All right. Good evening, Kathy. Good evening, Commissioner Keller. Here. Vice Mayor Satderfield present. Mayor Taylor. Commissioner Mley present. Commissioner McMillan present.

Right. First on the agenda is a couple of proclamations and we'll start first with Earth Day um in the town of Oakland on April 22nd, 2026. And whereas Earth Day observed annually on April 22nd underscores the importance of protecting and preserving the natural environment for present and future generations. And the town of Oakland demonstrates its commitment to conver conser conservation and environmental stewardship through the creation and continued care of the Oakland Nature Preserve. And the Oakland Nature Preserve serves as a vital community asset and living classroom offering environmental education, habitat conservation, and opportunities to engage with restored natural ecosystems. And Earth Day provides an opportunity to recognize the Oakland Nature Preserve as a cornerstone of the town's environmental leadership and to encourage comm community involvement in conservation efforts. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the mayor and town commission of the town of Oakland, Florida, that April 22nd, 2026 is hereby proclaimed Earth Day in the town of Oakland. Be it further proclaimed that the town commission commends the dedicated staffs and volunteers of the Oakland Nature Preserve for their leadership, service, and ongoing contributions to environmental education, conservation, and stewardship within the community. So, I'd like to invite um OMP's director, Nicole O'Brien, to come up and welld deserved um on Earth, Nicole. Good evening, uh, commissioners and mayor. On behalf of the staff and the volunteers at OP, I would like to thank you for your recognition. Um, Earth Day was started in 1970 as a uh way to celebrate all of the amazing resources provided to us by our wonderful planet and to advocate for continued sustainability of of the use

of those resources. So, it is celebrated annually worldwide on April 22nd. And this year, our celebration at the preserve is taking place uh this Saturday, April 18th from 10 to 2. We're going to have uh free activities at the log cabin. There will be some crafts and animal interactions um as well as a um a escape room style scavenger hunt that will be taking place. Um, and then down at the lakefront, we've got some demonstrations that will be happening about watersheds and why it's important to keep pollution out of our waterways. Um, and besides that, you know, we celebrate Earth Day every day throughout the year. Um, just by educating the future generations. Um, and also we are in the last few days of our Firefly nights. So, we have, I think, five nights left for Firefly viewing. Uh, so please come out and join us for some of those. Uh, and thank you. Thank you, Nicole. You do you got you and your team do a wonderful job there. So, thank you. Uh, next on the uh there's another proclamation for uh National Arbor Day is April 24th. Whereas in 1872, Jay Sterling Morton proposed Arbor Day to encourage tree planting. And it was first celebrated in Nebraska with over 1 million tree million trees planted. And Arbor Day is now observed nationwide and globally. And trees reduce soil erosion, lower energy costs, clean the air, produce oxygen, and provide wildlife habitat. And trees offer renewable resources like wood and paper while enhancing property values, business vitality, and community be beauty. and trees bring joy and a feeling of renewal wherever planted. Now therefore, I, Shane Taylor, on behalf of the Town of Oakland Commission, do hereby proclaim April 24th, 2026 as National Arbor Day. And I encourage all citizens and students to support the protection of trees and our beautifification efforts and to plant trees to inspire joy and

promote well-being for future generations. Awesome. Anything you want to say, public works or Arbor Day or Town manager. Nothing. Good. Just want to make sure. I was born in Nebraska and I went to J. Sterling Morton Elementary School.

That's a fun fact. It's a great one. agenda. We got several items. One is the uh we'll start with approval of the March 2020 20 March 24th, 2026 town commission regular meetings. Uh approval of new appointment and reappointment to the parents review board. Approval of amendment number one to agreement number LPA0595 with FD. Approval amendment number one to agreement number WS100 with FD. Approval of agreement with West Tree Services LLC. Approval of soul source source purchase of camprung uh can strup water meters and related equipment and approval to dispose of obsolete computer mounts. Uh any questions or comments? Not we'll entertain a motion.

Make the motion to accept agenda as presented. Second. All in favor? I I Okay. So with that in the consent agenda, we have two members that uh need to be sworn in. So, we'll uh we'll do that now. You want to step up and then we'll get more after that. Have to feel like the Girl Scout You have to go ahead and repeat it without him saying anything. Go ahead. Do the best I can. This is not me. There we go. All right. You ready? Let's do it. I You can say your name. Meredith Ry

solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and will obey the laws of the state and will obey the laws of the state of Florida. I will respect that I will in all respects observe the provisions of the charter and code of ordinances of the town of Oakland, Florida. a member and I will faithfully perform the duties as a member of the appearance review board of the town of Oakland, Florida. Great. Good job. Thanks. Have you back on?

Good evening. How are you? Good. We'll do the same thing. Okay. Ready? Yes. I I Laura Kettle. There you go. Swear or affirm. solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will obey the laws of the State of Florida and will obey the laws of the state of Florida that I will in respects observe the provisions of the charter that I will in all respects observe the provisions of the charter and code of ordinances of the town of Oakland Florida and code of ordinances of the town of Oakland Florida

and I will faithfully perform the duties as a member of the review and I will faithfully perform the duties as a member of the appearance review board of the town of Oakland, Florida. Thank you.

See new people on. So, good job. Thanks, Laura. Uh I think uh Meredith and uh John as well. So, thank you guys for for being on on on the appearance review board as well. Very important. Uh, so moving on next is public forum and this is when we open it up to anyone in the audience that would like to speak on any matters that are not on tonight's agenda and uh we'll limit those comments to three minutes. Any takers tonight? Any take? Oh, yeah. All right. Love to have you, John. Uh John Hammerstein, 306 East Vic Avenue. Um I know last year was quite the process of improving some roads and also agendas for future road improvement. Um, I'm sorry to say report that edition of Vic is not holding up uh like we hoped it would. I know that it's been graded several times. Still loose material. The hope was that after it was compacted with traffic and all that, it would settle down, but it's not. And it's starting to deteriorate. um they're starting to form low spots and therefore you know stuff like that. And we also uh agreed I think last year that um um meant to say Arrington for that first. Anyway, we also agreed that Vic would be paved this year is what I I remember. And that road also is deteriorating and having

uh you know, it's just not holding up. And um I know that if you compare the road improvements inside Oakland Shores, most of those roads are almost as good as paved. whatever they did for that, you know, that compared to what we have now um is a stark difference. Um I don't know the answer. I don't know if there's something that can be put down to emulsify or bind, you know, especially um Arrington. Um, my suggestion would be to consider paving Vic and Arrington because they are used quite heavily, both those roads. Um, but anyway, I want to know what the the town's position is, what are thoughts on this, or any any discussion or where we at with this? Yeah. Uh, I'm sorry. Thinking I don't know. You could probably correct me. Um, Mike Parker was one Bob Vic we were going to do. And you originally when you started you meant Arington the first time around.

Yes. Was I'm confused. I I thought you can check that Arrington was going to be redone the way that um the rest of Open Shores was done. So I'd like to check on that if we do it. Vic, we were going to try to do I think through um transportation impact fees and and pave it. So my impression is we haven't really done a whole lot with it, but we need to check and move on with it. And you might have more.

Yeah. So, I got a uh an email from um one of your neighbors uh this week and um passed it on to town manager uh who has it. Um and and I my recollection is the same as we on the board we approved uh for us to look at a VIC uh from Star Street to Tub Street and trying to utilize those transportation impact fees that we talked about uh for that paving. Uh we were going to do that in conjunction with any close proximity projects uh that were happening. We knew that there was some that were coming up on the uh uh uh schedule. So at that time just to help save on mobilization costs and fees and stuff like that. So uh we do know that there is a couple of projects that are coming up here soon that are just right next door uh that we were hoping to piggyback maybe off of that stuff and see.

Okay. So is is there a formal plan or commitments yet to do any of this or we Well, the formal commitment was us agreeing to say yes, we need to pay but not scheduled yet. Not scheduled yet until we get the schedule of the projects that are going to be which are coming around. I mean you can talk a little bit John about Southern Oaks and that exercise if you want. Give a s sense of where we're at. I'll be honest with you, you probably got to give me some time to take a look into it. Um, I have to see where we're at on the project list. Um, but just give me some time to look into it and I I'll get with you. Okay. And see what we can do and see if I can come up with a plan and see exactly what's going

that'd be great. But for now, uh, Scott, go out there and we'll kind of walk the streets and see what's going on. Yeah. And we'll go from we could go from there. Okay. Second thing, um, before we get off of that, can I just I just have one comment. Did we confirm whether Vic was going to be eligible for impact fees transportation? Because I know because of Oakland, the addition of Oakland Park and people coming through, we thought that it probably would be, but I don't know if we ever got I remember us talking about it and hoping that that was the direction we could go, but did we get confirmation that we can use impact fees for that?

It we can use impact fees for Beck. I think I think again the timing of it um we can't just do a oneoff without tying it into other things. So we don't have the timing on it yet. Okay. Okay. So also just a a suggestion used to have a day when take your hazardous waste and dispose of it properly. Um been a long time. Just want to bring that up as a maybe a future idea or plan.

Yes. So, we actually have that uh we probably have it next month. I think it's the 14th. We already got it planned out with Waste Pro and everything. We we're working on the finishing touches right now and there's going to be a post soon on Facebook to make sure we get Is that the spring cleanup day? Yes. Okay. Now, that's already um a post has already gone out from the town on social media about that. They don't take hazardous based on that, right? Right. And so would the hazardous waste be one of the two? Okay.

So hazardous waste would be like old paint, old oil. What? I would think paints be paint and oil, right? Used to be we had the paint and oil and it would included treated wood. You know that that has been treated stuff like that. The trash people don't really and can't pick up at this point. that was always included in it, you know, years ago that Okay, I think

so. So, let me clarify. So, it's they're scheduled for Saturday, May 9th and Saturday, May 16th. Items need to be curbside by 7 a.m. This is not hazardous waste. Um, the items that we will collect are household items under 50 pounds, recycling, small furniture, and mattresses. What we will not collect is yard waste, hazardous waste, electronics, paint, or batteries on these ones. So again, May 9th and May 16th, have your stuff out by the curb at 7 by 7 a.m. Okay. So we don't have a hazardous not on this one. No. Something we could consider.

Yeah, we're I think we'll schedule that later on. Okay. Okay. Very good you guys.

Thanks, John. Okay. Anyone? Anyone else? Okay. So, seeing no one else, we'll close the public forum and bring it back to our town manager. All right. Just a few things. Um, we covered a bunch of already stuff I had on my list. So, um, celebration among the oaks was March 28th, and I just want to say a big thank you to all the staff from community outreach public works and the police department that assisted with the event. Additional information was in your agenda packet um, with numbers and things. We got a lot of good positive resident feedback that it wasn't as crazy as last year um, and people seem to appreciate that more. We are looking at um maybe moving changing it to be more town center next year um so that it is a little more consolidated. It was quite spread out um but we will get more information as we get closer to the event next year. Um we have a new exhibit that is going up at the Arts and Heritage Center. We have a artist reception this um Thursday, April 16th at 5:30 p.m. and then it'll be on display from April 18th through July 24th. If you've poked your head in the windows, it's going to be an amazing amazing event. There's so much color going on, which kind of the theme. Um but there's some beautiful, beautiful pieces in there. So super excited for that. Um, again, if you can come out to meet the artist um on this Thursday, April 16th, that's at 5:30 p.m. As Nicole mentioned, the Firefly Nights, I can um just let you know the remaining Firefly Nights will be April 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and the 24th is the final night. Um, I was out there volunteering

a couple week ends ago, and there were tons of fireflies. It was amazing. There were tons of people, tons of fireflies. So, if you haven't had a chance, the fireflies are showing up. Um, so go out and and check that out. If you haven't been, you you won't um be disappointed. And then the only other thing that I have is hopefully um commission, you'll be seeing a cell tower ordinance at the next meeting as well as a cyber security policy. So, those are things that we're working on that will hopefully be on your next agenda. All right, Kathy, anything for you tonight?

Yes, good, good evening. Um, there will be a planning and zoning meeting this month and next month and we have scheduled as well as school speed zone hearings on May 20th. That's it. That's it. Ashley,

good evening. Ashley Witty, manager, human resources and payroll. Today I am pleased to bring forward four employees that are celebrating their years of service with us here at the town of Oakland. Uh so we have Brianna Fernandez, police officer um at Oakland Police Department. We have William Al Jr. at Oakland Avenue Charter School. He is a part-time on call substitute teacher. He's celebrating three years and Brianna is celebrating two years. Um Morgan Sakala is also with our charter school second grade teacher serving three years and Elizabeth Sumerx celebrating six years currently the fifth grade teacher. One thing I want to highlight about all of these employees as they all started as part- timerrs. So it just speaks to the dedication here of the employees and the fact that they're sticking around with us. Um, so hopefully these employees will continue to stay with us and congratulations to those four that are celebrating.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. All right, Andrew. No, sir. Deputy Chief, you mean anything? John? Um, so from public works, from public works, I attended my first conference last week uh in Tampa. actually was really good. It's the first time I ever attended a public works conference. Um, so I learned a lot about the streets and what storm water uh equipment that they use down there. And we are currently going through all the town agreements and kind of updating those within the um time. So,

okay, chief. Oh, I thought we I have nothing other than November is just around the corner. See, Lieutenant Castro for the 5K with the 50 and the Castro. Okay. 5K with the five. That's right. Uh, Commissioner Keller, I have nothing this evening. Thank you, Commissioner McMullen. Commissioner. Oh, I got to drag that out on. Please help me out. I do have two reminders. They are on they were in our packages, but May 27th is the fifth grade flyaway. So, please try to make sure we do that. I know last year I think was your first one you were there also.

So, try to make it um make it what they do as the kids uh and their families. They they drive off and we get to stand on the side and wave at them and it's really interesting and it's really really cool. So, if you can make that um it's 9:00 in the morning. And the other thing is uh just to announce that the second coolest event in Oakland, second coolest event is the car show on May the 2nd. So um and John is in the audience. Uh John is the first one that came to me originally and said, "Hey, you know what would be a good idea?" And we're coming into our third event with it. So it was a great idea, John, and everyone loves it. And it's the second best event. It's fun event. It gets well attended, doesn't it?

It's very well attended. Yeah.

So, thank you, Mike. Uh, a couple of things for me and I just want to run uh these by everybody. Uh, first, uh, Alise and I had the opportunity to sit down and meet with Healthy West Orange and to thank them for their um continued partnership with the town. Um, as you guys know, they've uh gifted us uh $100,000 towards our trail program that uh will connect in with Long Leaf then run through uh to connect into the main trail uh Storms Trail here and and I know that uh Mike Parker not here tonight, but he's got all these plans for for trail. So, we want to keep uh those partners like Healthy West Orange in good graces with us so we can continue to to work together to uh uh create this cool internal trail network system for town. So, uh looking forward to doing that. Um the next one I have is um Chief, this is I know you may have talked to some people here, but uh this is not a totally unrelated uh conversation. So over the past several months, few months, I've been approached by uh residents of the whole island and trailside about how do I get off cart connectivity into town. So um into the trail system. So uh I kind of want us to start looking at that if we can uh doing that. I think there's some different ways maybe to to make it work. Yeah. Especially with the with the with the trail network coming in. So, if we could seriously take a take a serious look at that stuff and and I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts on on on that as well. So, yeah. Other than that, that's it for me. Unless you want to talk about it right now.

No, we probably need something. Okay. Okay. I'm with you. All right. Okay. Other than that, anybody else? No. All right. Joseph, hearts and mind. If all hearts and minds are satisfied, let's adjourn. It is 7:24 p.m. Well, you you just said the ending. Give me the evil. I was going to say I got to go.