City Council - workshop

It is 12 noon on May the 12th. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Will you call the roll, Madam Clerk?

Mr. Marciano? Here. Ms. Dreyer?

Here.

Mr. Mansfield? Here. Mr. Musley? Here. Mr. Bethea?

Here. Will you provide us with the public notice?

Yes. The May 12th, 2026 city council work session was publicly noticed on, did I say May 6th? The city council work session, May 12th, 2026 was publicly noticed on May 6th, 2026 on the city of Ocala's website.

Thank you. Our topics of discussion today is, uh, for a is safe streets for all, um,

Yes, sir. Safe streets for all, and then we'll do our transportation improvement plan and recycling update, let you know where we are. We have those times so that we can get this all done in an hour with questions. So we will, again, if you'd like. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon. I'm Christy Loafy. I'm with our Dura Group, and I'm happy to be here this afternoon to speak to you about the City of Ocala's Safe Streets and Roads for All Planning Studies. So I'll start with an overview, and then I'll discuss each of the components of the studies, and then talk about some of the grant opportunities, and then wrap up with our requests. So just a quick recap of the city's studies. This builds upon, it's meant to build upon the Ocala-Marion TPO's commitment to zero action plan, but focus on the local streets within the city of Ocala. And there's really two purposes to this project. First is to develop a local road safety plan, including the development of a high injury network. And second is to develop a citywide speed management and traffic calming plan. As you probably remember, funding for the project was obtained through a Safe Streets and Roads for All 2023. grant for planning and demonstration and supplemental planning activities. 80% of the funding was obtained through this grant. AND THE CITY PROVIDED THE OTHER 20% OF THE FUNDS. THERE ARE SIX PROJECT TASKS INCLUDING CRASH ANALYSIS, RESEARCH, AND LITERATURE REVIEW. WE HAD EXTENSIVE PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT, DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOCAL ROAD SAFETY PLAN, AND THE SPEED MANAGEMENT AND TRAFFIC CALMING PLAN. SO THIS STUDY ANALYZED CRASH DATA FOR THE FIVE YEARS BETWEEN 2020 AND 2024. However, we did take a look at the fatal and severe injury crashes between 2014 to 2024. We were looking at the crash trends. And there was a spike in serious injury crashes in 2018. but there's been a decline since, so that's very good news. And then up in the upper right, looking at the age distribution of crashes, this is just 2024. Those aged 65 and up are experiencing the most fatal and severe injury crashes within the city. So even though we're seeing a decline, there's still work to be done. In 2024, there were still 53 serious injuries and 19 fatalities. And then looking at the fatal and severe injury emphasis areas, we see that the City of Ocala intersections are the top emphasis area for fatal and severe injury crashes. followed by pedestrian and bicycle crashes, and then impaired driving. And then going beyond, we checked the 2025 and 2026 crashes to date just to see how we're doing. In 2025, there were still 53 serious injury crashes, but we were down to 13 fatalities. So again, moving in the right direction. 2026 so far, there are 11 serious injuries and four fatalities to date. So KSI crashes, those are crashes that result in someone being either killed or seriously injured. So from here, I'm going to be calling that KSI. So looking at the KSI crashes within the city by crash type, left turns have the highest number of KSI crashes, followed by rear-end crashes. However, the highest number of fatal crashes is with the pedestrians. Looking at lighting condition, we had 54.6% of all fatal crashes and 42.1% of all KSI crashes occurred during non-daylight hours. And now looking at our vulnerable road users, we classify vulnerable road users as including pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcycles. Vulnerable road users accounted for only 4.7% of the total crashes within the city, but accounted for 40% of the KSI crashes and 63% of the fatal crashes. So that just demonstrates to you how overrepresented our vulnerable road users, especially our pedestrians, are in our high severity crashes. So our crash data was used to develop the city's high injury network, which is a collection of local roadways segments with high numbers of fatal and severe injury crashes. So crashes were assigned to segments, and then individual segments were combined to form and create this high injury network that you see here. And here is the list of the high injury network segments. It's 12 roadway segments comprising 51 KSI crashes, of which 12 of those were fatal. So these 12 segments make up only 3.8% of the locally maintained roadway network, but they account for 23.3% of the KSI crashes and 25% of the fatal crashes along locally maintained roads. So by identifying the high injury network and prioritizing the efforts there, what you're able to do is focus your limited resources on the areas that are most likely to benefit in terms of fatal and severe injury crash reduction. As part of the studies, we conducted research and literature review. There's a number of different manuals, documents, websites, Vision Zero action plans for other agencies that were reviewed. The goal was to identify potential actions, strategies, and best practices to be transferred and used within the City of Ocala's planning studies. And here's a list of the documents that we reviewed. So it included similar action plans, traffic calming guidelines, and speed management and traffic calming policies within Florida. And as I mentioned before, there was extensive public involvement and engagement as part of the planning studies. We did hold two stakeholder advisory committee meetings. We also had two in-person public meetings. One was on September 4th and the second was on November 5th. We did create a project web page with an interactive comment map and a survey. So we received a total of 60 survey comments. Vulnerable road users by far were the area of concern for the residents that responded to the survey. And now onto the local road safety plan. So there's four, four basic steps in developing a local road safety plan. Uh, first is to identify your stakeholders. Then is to use your safety data. Step three is to choose your proven solutions and step four is then to implement those solutions. And so through the crash analysis, we identified five emphasis areas for the city of Ocala. They are intersections, vulnerable road users, distracted driving, speeding and aggressive driving and aging road users. So the local road safety plan identifies low cost, high impact countermeasures with the greatest potential for fatal and severe injury crashes. And we also created a countermeasures toolbox for each of the emphasis areas. So this one is for our intersection crashes. We chose intersection crashes for a number of reasons. Left turn crashes was the top. CRASH TYPE FOR FATAL AND SEVERE INJURY CRASHES. FOLLOWED, YOU KNOW, REAR END CRASHES WAS SECOND, AND THEN ANGLES RANKED FOURTH. SO A LOT OF HIGH-SEVERITY CRASHES ARE HAPPENING AT YOUR INTERSECTIONS. AND SO WE CREATED A COUNTERMEASURES TOOLBOX THAT LISTS SOME OF THE STRATEGIES AND COUNTERMEASURES THAT CAN BE USED TO ADDRESS THESE TYPES OF CRASHES. SO THIS IS JUST A SAMPLING OF THE The countermeasures, there's the appendix of the report includes a whole list for each of the five emphasis areas. And I just did want to point out in particular, I mentioned we were looking at low cost, high impact countermeasures. The one at the bottom is roundabouts, converting an intersection to a roundabout. So that is not low cost. However, it does address the left turn and the angle crashes that we're seeing. IT DEFINITELY PAYS OFF OVER TIME IN TERMS OF CRASH REDUCTION. ALL RIGHT. VULNERABLE ROAD USERS. SO AS I MENTIONED, PEDESTRIAN CRASHES IS OUR TOP CRASH TYPE FOR FATALITIES. SO THAT THERE WERE 23.1% OF THE FATALITIES OVERALL WITHIN THE CITY. PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE PEDESTRIAN BICYCLE AND MOTORCYCLE CRASHES WERE ALSO OVERREPRESENTED COMPARED TO BOTH REGIONAL AND STATEWIDE NUMBERS. DISTRACTED DRIVING, WE WANTED TO ALSO ADDRESS THE BEHAVIORS THAT WE'RE SEEING. DISTRACTED DRIVING WAS A FACTOR IN 9.2% OF THE KSI CRASHES. And aging road users were selected because they're involved in just over a quarter of the KSI crashes within the city. And not only that, the population of aging road users is expected to increase through year 2035 according to the Beaver population projections. And for that reason, we thought it was worthwhile to include as an emphasis area.

At what age are you considered aging? 65 and up. I'm done.

And the last one is speeding and aggressive driving. That's a factor of 8.2%. OF THE KSI CRASHES ON THE LOCAL ROADS. BUT BECAUSE SAFE SPEEDS IS AN ELEMENT OF THE SAFE SYSTEM APPROACH AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SPEED MANAGEMENT PLAN WAS PART OF THE GRANT, DEVELOPING A SPEED MANAGEMENT PLAN WAS PART OF THE GRANT AND A FOCUS, WE WANTED TO INCLUDE IT AS AN EMPHASIS AREA AND SO WHAT WE DID WAS LIST IT AS AN EMPHASIS AREA IN THE LOCAL ROAD SAFETY PLAN BUT THEN REFER READERS TO THE SPEED MANAGEMENT PLAN TO find the recommendations there. And the local road safety plan includes crash countermeasures exhibits for each of the high injury network segments. So this is just an example. This one's Easy Street from Southwest 27th Avenue to Southwest 17th Street. It's a four lane divided highway with a 40 mile per hour posted speed. There's two mid-block crosswalks that could use some safety enhancements. There's also some horizontal curves that could have a little bit better horizontal delineation through signing. There's some sidewalk gaps. So these are the types of things that we found and recommended in these exhibits. And there's one of these for each of the high injury network. We also had a focus on signalized intersections. We were finding some needs frequently, such as the need for reflective border signal head back plates, intersection lighting for your crosswalks, use of flashing yellow arrow signal heads, and some improvements for ADA compliance. And then the last task was the speed management traffic calming plan. Now this one is so important because, as I mentioned, safe speed is one of the five elements of the safe system approach. And the idea is that we manage speeds so that the impact forces or kinetic energy experienced by road users don't exceed the body's tolerances. So we followed the FHWA five-step framework to address speed management, building consensus, collecting and analyzing the data, then prioritizing locations, selecting the countermeasures, and then conducting ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and adjustment once those improvements have been installed. And I just wanted to point out, there really has been a lot of positive efforts already underway by the City of Ocala and the Ocala Police Department for speed management. It's something that I was really impressed with as we went through this study, the level of collaboration between both agencies working together to address the issue. This is just a portion of the items that I was told about. And so in developing the speed management plan, we used several different data sources. We used crashes that had speeding, we looked at crashes that had speeding as a contributing factor, the locations of speeding complaints that are received locations where speed humps have already been installed, and then also we were able to use the city's urban SDK license to obtain speeding data, which was very helpful, and that was on a citywide basis. And other priorities were locations where speeding is occurring on the high injury network, safety near schools and also the pedestrians in your downtown area. And this is the resulting map of the speed management priority segments. So there are 15 of them. Here are some photos of some different types of countermeasures that can be used to address speed and traffic calming, so going beyond speed humps and looking at some other opportunities. And then tables were developed by roadway type, by context classification, and target speed. And applicable speed management strategies were identified for each of those categories of roadways. So this table is for a two-lane undivided roadway in a C3C, C3R, CONTEXT CLASSIFICATION WHICH MEANS SUBURBAN COMMERCIAL OR SUBURBAN RESIDENTIAL AND WITH A TARGET SPEED OF 30 TO 35 MILES PER HOUR. SO FIVE OF THE 15 PRIORITY SEGMENTS FOR SPEED MANAGEMENT FELL WITHIN THIS CLASSIFICATION. SO STRATEGIES THAT ARE INDICATED WITH AN X WERE ONES THAT WERE POTENTIAL COUNTERMEASURES BOLDED Xs were strategies that we recommended and E's were those strategies that are already existing along the corridor. And the speed management plan includes tables just like these for all of the different categories of the high priority segments. And also as part of the plan we developed a traffic calming policy. And the purpose of that was to provide an appropriate and consistent procedure for addressing traffic calming requests that come from citizens and HOAs. And this included the creation of a traffic calming request application form. The application form also includes this flow chart so that citizens clearly understand the process that is used, the eligibility requirements for traffic calming. the steps in the process for a traffic study, the development of a traffic calming plan, approval and implementation. Now there are some federal requirements for transparency and evaluation and reporting for SS4A studies. So the planning studies are going to need to be posted on the city's website. after adoption and then progress towards meeting the goals will need to be reported by the city on an annual basis. They can be reported using a variety of different performance measures, some samples, some examples of performance measures are shown on your right. But the most important goal that has to be reported is progress towards the fatal and severe injury crash reduction towards that 2045-0 goal. Oops, I went backwards. Okay, so the recommendations that are included in the planning studies will need to be funded. There's a variety of different grant programs that can be used to fund them. Of course, now that you all have completed your local road safety plan, you're eligible to apply for the Safe Streets and Roads for All implementation grants. There's also safe routes to school program, the highway safety improvement program and FDOT state safety office sub grants. And there's many more beyond that as well. So now that we do have a local road safety plan, we've started working on a 2026 SS for a implementation grant application. It's going to include a request for several different things, Southwest 27th Avenue safety improvements. That was the top ranked high injury network segment. The addition of traffic signal head back plates on a citywide basis so covering all your your traffic signals The addition of speed feedback signs within school zones to improve awareness and compliance with the reduced speed Some funding also to carry out traffic safety campaigns and then the response rapid response aerial pilot, which is drones. And that is a demonstration component of the grant that the Ocala PD is as requesting. Okay. So, um, our request of the city council will be to adopt the safe streets and roads for all planning studies, including both the local road safety plan and the Speed Management Traffic Calming Plan at your May 19 City Council meeting. So adoption is required by agreement, and it is also required for eligibility for the implementation grants. And that concludes the presentation, and I'm open to any questions you may have. Thank you.

Can you just tell me, I'm sorry, I don't know what a signal head back plate is.

Okay, so they're the rectangular background behind a traffic signal head and some of them have reflective yellow borders and they're now a standard for new installations and they've actually, it's an FHWA proven safety countermeasure shown to reduce total crashes, all crash types, all severities by 15% at intersections where they're installed. So that's one of the main reasons that we wanted to include that.

Do you remember seeing any? I don't, but I know some new locations, so I'll check those out. So does it reduce glare? Does it just call attention to the signal? What does it do? All of that.

All of that. So it really... Especially on east-west roads, so it used to be that only on roadways that ran in east-west direction they were required by FDOT. Now they're required at all locations, but that one was to address glare. There are also benefits when you have power outages after hurricanes. You've got the reflective border, so you might not have lights, but at least people will know But there's a signal there. Okay.

I think they have them on Northeast 14th at 25th Avenue.

Okay.

Are these attached to the signal as part of the signal, the back plate? Yeah, on the back plate.

It's a highly reflective, usually yellow, always yellow, right?

Yes, always yellow. And now they have flexible ones so you don't have to do the structural analysis anymore to make sure that the structure can handle it. They've got some venting in it so no additional wind loading and you can install them without that analysis.

Yeah, so you had mentioned that our vulnerable users, we were higher than the national and state average.

Not national, regional and state, yes, as far as percentage.

How much higher? What was the percentage? Do you know? Is it pretty significant?

I don't have the comparison table in front of me. Okay. We did a, there is a table in the local road safety plan that THAT COMPARES THE PERCENTAGES TO REGIONAL AND STATEWIDE, AND WHERE WE'RE HIGHER, IT'S RED. OKAY. I CAN GET THAT NUMBER.

I'LL CHECK IT OUT. I CAN GO BACK AND LOOK AT IT. ANOTHER QUESTION I HAD IS, YOU KNOW, I NOTICED THAT THEY'RE PUTTING IN THESE CROSSWALK WITH THE TRAFFIC SIGNALS, LIKE ON STATE ROAD 200, BUT, YOU KNOW, AS WE TRAVEL, AND I WAS TELLING CHIEF ABOUT THIS, YOU KNOW, THE PEDESTRIANS DO NOT USE CROSSWALKS. I SEE A LOT OF PEOPLE, THEY'RE CROSSING, So in that educational component, I would imagine it has to tie hand in hand. Does that work to get people, pedestrians, to actually start using the crosswalks? Because I see this investment in putting these lights up and these crosswalks, but I don't ever see, I'll see a person cross the highway 100 feet from a crosswalk, you know, and not use it.

Yes, I've seen the same. So are you talking about at mid-block crosswalks or at signalized intersections?

Those are mid-blocks.

Mid-blocks, yeah. So when you're looking at your locations for installing the mid-block crosswalks, you really have to... collect the counts and identify the natural patterns of where people are crossing. I think there's also some education that's needed for people to understand how they work. I was part of a study where we installed rectangular rapid flashing beacons at some crosswalks at one point and noticed They did not, people were not pressing the button to activate the flashers. So we did some follow-up outreach just out there at the crosswalks, just showing people, don't forget to press the button. And then they're like, oh, I didn't know. And now there's signs, there's supplemental signs that you add next to the push button.

I had one more. Did we apply for part of the grant to address the roadway where the girl was killed on her way to school? Is that part of it? That's part of our Safe Streets to School application. Okay. So that's in there for that.

Not in this one. Not in this grant. Okay.

But one of the projects for this implementation grant is the speed feedback signs within school zones. Yeah.

Thank you.

So it'll show the 20 mile per hour reduced speed and then show your speed with it.

And you could potentially use other traffic calming devices in those locations also.

Sure. Right?

I ASSUME WE'LL GET A COPY OF THIS LIKE AFTER TODAY.

YES, SHE WILL GET A COPY OF IT. I APOLOGIZE IT'S NOT ON YOUR TABLET. WE'LL BRING THIS BACK TO THE MAY 19TH CITY COUNCIL MEETING TO ADOPT THE SAFETY ACTION PLAN AND THEN PROVIDE YOU THE SCOPE MOVING FORWARD FROM THAT.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

GOOD AFTERNOON, COUNCIL. GOOD AFTERNOON, COUNCIL. GOOD AFTERNOON, COUNCIL. FOR THE RECORD, JEFF FROM FOR THE RECORD, JEFF FROM FOR THE RECORD, JEFF FROM GROWTH MANAGEMENT. GROWTH MANAGEMENT. GROWTH MANAGEMENT. THAT PRESENTATION ACTUALLY IS A THAT PRESENTATION ACTUALLY IS A THAT PRESENTATION ACTUALLY IS A GOOD SEGUE INTO THE NEXT GOOD SEGUE INTO THE NEXT GOOD SEGUE INTO THE NEXT CONVERSATION ON THE CONVERSATION ON THE CONVERSATION ON THE TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. PROGRAM. PROGRAM. WE'VE BEEN WORKING WITH THE the concept of the TIP as a tool and a resource for long-term and short-term transportation planning. So with that, you should have a hard copy of the actual draft document. Then there's a big map and I apologize, they're big maps, but you need that for the detail to be able to see it. And then at the end, I'll talk about the second map, which is a sidewalk map. And so Typically, the TIP just includes a transportation improvement program, if you looked at the counties. It's really just including those projects that are funded in the next five years. This document actually is more of a TIP, a transportation improvement plan, because we're trying to look at where is the funding going, so you can track that, as well as what are our longer-term projects that we know are important, get them into the list as well, even though there may not be funding on those. We're essentially pulling from the THE LONG RANGE TRANSPORTATION PLAN, THE LIST OF PRIORITY PROJECTS THAT WE SUBMIT TO THE TPO AS WELL, AND THEN TALK WITH STAFF. AND OBVIOUSLY AT THE END OF THIS PROCESS IS AN APPROVAL BY, FROM THE TIP BY CITY COUNCIL. AND SO THE FORMAT OF THE DOCUMENT IS SET INTO FOUR MAIN SECTIONS. YOU GOT CAPACITY PROJECTS, OPERATIONAL INTERSECTION PROJECTS, BICYCLE, PEDESTRIAN PROJECTS, AND THEN THE PUBLIC TRANSIT PROJECTS AT THE END. Within that, we have the types of projects are capacity projects, reconstruction, intersection improvements, which is going to include your single timings, turn lane improvements, things like that, as well as intelligent transportation system improvements. That's the ITS, if you've ever heard that acronym. And then any planning projects related to transportation. What it doesn't include is any maintenance, resurfacing, things like that's typically not in here. That's another list of projects that's maintained by the city engineer. And again, the goal on this is to get to where we're annually updating this. Even though you can make an amendment at any time, the idea is to kind of coincide with the budget process to provide for an annual TIP. So I'm going to walk through real quickly on this. This is just a copy of page 6 of the draft TIP. I just wanted to kind of walk you through a little bit of the information that's on there, what it's showing you. The headers across the top are giving you a reference to the map number. So that number you see on the far left is going to correlate to a number on the map so you can kind of see where they're at locationally-wise. And then kind of just general project name, project description, what's the phases that may be included in that, whether it's construction phase, whether it's right-of-way phase, design phase. Those are for multi-year type projects. The funding sources, whether it's DOT funding, city funding, maybe some county funding, developer contributions, also listing out the previous expenditures on the project, so you're gonna see what's been done on the project to date or prior to, the current budget, and then obviously the projected five years. So that sort of is the makeup of the overall document. I'm just gonna walk through a little bit of the four quadrants of the city. to kind of talk a little bit about a couple of projects on these, and then we can get into any questions that you have. Um, again, you should have the hard copy. We can get you electronics of this as well, if you want that. Um, but in the Northeast and I highlighted two projects here, um, project C 17, which is on page five is the Northeast at eighth Avenue reconstruction. includes roundabouts i only show there's only one roundabout showing on there even though there's right now there's four showing you had that discussion actually at your last council meeting about is that too many do we need to look at that again so Um, the second project I highlighted here was M3, which is on page eight of the TIP that's showing the state road 40 pedestrian improvements. Again, that's another project that actually your last meeting, you're approved to deliver over 250,000, um, for improvements, enhancements to those crosswalks. That's an agreement with DOT. So that's a part of that segment of the roadway that was from us 441 to eight street. Going to the southeast quadrant. I highlighted on the top there, you see that green, that's T3 on page eight. That's the trail project providing connectivity from the downtown. Extends off the map all the way to Silver Spring State Park. On the big map, you'll see the whole project on there. It extends even into the county. The second one I highlighted on here just to give you a little bit of the bus shelter locations is one that's indicated as B2. That's over by the health department by Jervigan Park. And going to the southwest. I highlighted three on this one. I-13, which is on page six, that's the signalization of the intersection of Southwest 7th Ave and Southwest 32nd Street. You've had some conversations about that. I think engineering is out there doing some work on that, not the signal part of it, but trying to show you. Change the turn movements on that right now for a safety improvement. I-21 on here is the intersection improvements at Southwest 43rd Street and State Road 200. That's obviously with the opening up of the roadway, the further impact on that intersection at State Road 200. This project should look at some intersection enhancements, including some turn lane improvements to really hopefully address some of the issues there. C1 is on page four. That's add two lanes and sidewalks to Southwest 20th Street from I-75 to State Road 200. That one's been on the books since way back in my day when I was a transportation planner. So sorely needed on that. If you recall, it's one of the highest priorities on the TPO's priority list as well. And then I obviously couldn't get through this with having to make a correction. It is a draft. I thought I had this removed, but C9 is shown on there, which is the red that's showing on State Road 40 from I-75 to Southwest, Northwest 60th Ave. It's an old project that was carried forward that's actually been removed from their long-range transportation plan, which is the six-lane net facility. So it's showing incorrectly here. The TIP list does not have it listed in it, but the map was wrong, so I wanted to make that correction on it, so... Again, it is a draft. What I highlighted here was C-13, which is on page four. That's a big project. That's a new roadway. It's Northwest 37th Avenue. It provides connectivity from US-27 down to State Road 40. We're almost wrapping up right away acquisition on that project. And then hopefully get a move forward for some funding for construction. I-14 on page 6 is the realignment of Southwest 40th Avenue. And that includes a roundabout as well. So there will be the roundabout and it will extend a little bit to the west and then it will turn north. Have a new signalized intersection at State Road 40 at 40th Ave. And, uh, the other document I provided to you and you can't, I know you can't see this map up here very well. That's why I gave you a big map. You may have heard me or another staff refer to this, the gap map for sidewalks. We thought this would be a good opportunity to give that to you. It's been updated to 2022, so we do need some updates to it. Probably not a lot, but it needs to be updated and cleaned up. But this is a good tool resource that we'll use and prioritize in identifying projects for sidewalks. If you look at the TIP, there's 78 unfunded sidewalk projects that have been listed in there. And again, we don't have a dedicated funding source on sidewalks. So obviously going after the Safe Routes to School project, which was mentioned earlier, that project's been submitted to DOT. We should hear in August whether or not we get funding for it or not. But again, that's going to show up in the fifth year of the work program. So it's something to think about as far as trying to, do we have a dedicated source of sidewalk funding that every year we can make some progress on those? And so I thought this was a good tool or resource for you all to think about, consider when you're having that conversation. With that, any questions or feedback?

I have one question on sidewalks. So I know some of the bigger towns I've worked, If there's a sidewalk going in, for instance, in industrial areas, they make the contractors come in and put sidewalks into a sidewalk bank, and then they use those for the residential wherever they want to. So that way, you know, because sometimes in sidewalk and industrial area, it doesn't make sense, but it does make sense in something else. And I know I've done it in other towns and cities. I say done, I've paid the bill, but... Have we thought about something like that?

Yeah, there's, just to clarify too, because I had this conversation with a city attorney not too long ago, the code actually, there is a section in there that deals with the M1, M2 properties, provides for an exception to the requirement. The issue with it is it doesn't allow me or allow staff to require you pay a fee in lieu on that situation. We do have a fee in lieu on other scenarios where a sidewalk is just not appropriate or it can't connect to anything through the engineering review of things. But there are two different code sections. I wish it was a little more broad like you're talking about to have the option to pay in lieu. But right now it's just a total waiver of the sidewalk requirement.

So can we explore that?

Yes, of course.

I mean, I think most of those guys do a big commercial project. They wouldn't miss.

We need to look at a dedicated source for funding sidewalks also. Sidewalks are expensive.

Is there a cost on per linear foot of sidewalk that we know of? Probably in a $50 range for probably 50.

Are you saying 5-0? 5-0, yeah.

$10. Where did he come up with that? That's private sector versus government right there.

He's talking about square feet. I'm talking about linear. That makes sense. So it doesn't matter.

Yeah, that makes sense. SO I WAS READING THROUGH THE MINUTES FROM THE PNZ MEETING FROM LAST MEETING WHEN PNZ ADOPTED OUR 2050 VISION PLAN. AND THE SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER ON PNZ HAD MENTIONED, HEY, CAN YOU MAKE SURE THAT THE SIDEWALK STAYS at the top of the list right so have we have we gotten an ask from them as to anything that they specifically want from the school district when it comes to sidewalks and their schools i haven't got a specific ask

No, and that's part of the ongoing conversation that needs to happen. We haven't got to get – that group hasn't got back together because the Safe Routes to School group that put together that application, our goal was we would meet on a regular basis probably a few times a year to continue looking at other projects, other school needs. Okay. Do exactly that.

So – IT'S A TRICKY CONVERSATION JUST BECAUSE THEIR SCHOOL BUS STOPS CHANGE FREQUENTLY. KIDS MOVE, THEY CHANGE SCHOOLS, ALL THE THINGS. BUT THEY, IN TALKING WITH THE SCHOOL BOARD CHAIR, THEY DO HAVE HISTORICAL DATA OF ROADS THAT HAVE INCIDENTS OR WHERE THE SCHOOL BUS STOPS HAVE BEEN HISTORICALLY OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS CONSISTENTLY, CAN WE ENGAGE WITH THEM AND FIND OUT ON HOW OUR SIDEWALK MAP MIGHT OVERLAY WITH WHAT THAT NEED WOULD BE? DOES THAT MAKE SENSE? YES.

THERE'S A SECOND PIECE TO THAT, TOO. IN SOME OF THOSE LOCATIONS, WHERE IT MAY TAKE A LITTLE BIT OF TIME TO GET TO SIDEWALKS, IT MAY BE A GOOD IDEA TO LOOK AT THE LIGHTING BECAUSE LIGHTING IS OFTEN POOR AT THOSE LOCATIONS. EVEN IF WE CAN'T PUT SIDEWALKS IN, IF WE MAY BE ABLE TO MAKE IT BRIGHT ENOUGH, IT MAY INCREASE THE SAFETY EXPONENTIALLY.

WE HAVE SCHOOLS THAT ARE HISTORICALLY THE PARENTS DRIVE ALL THE KIDS. The kids don't walk and they don't take the bus. So we know which schools we can eliminate from the conversation. Westport, that should be taken care of with 38th Avenue being widened by the county when they do that. There are certain schools that I think they're already accounted for, but then we have some that we just need to maybe fill in some of the gaps. But without having a hard ask of what their need is and without really, I don't know that they know what their need is. But if we're going to invest money in sidewalks, I at least want to see, is there a list of priority that we could maybe come up with that addresses what their need is as well as ours?

Yes.

Yeah, and I think that would be another driver to what projects get listed in here. And obviously the priorities, as we might even submit those up to the TPO as well.

Okay.

Lighting should be a discussion on all those as well, whether there's a lighting – Concern or issue that needs to be looked at in that areas.

Okay.

Thank you So We do need to invest money in sidewalks we can go with skirt all around and all we want There are streets that don't have sidewalks that are very frequently used by youth whether they go into our rec centers or whatever the case may be families that walk the neighborhood. And I know that they are very costly, but we have to start somewhere. And we, for as I'm concerned, we spend very little money on sidewalks. Now we have did a better job at spending money on sidewalk rehabilitation. As far as, you know, tree roots, we ground them down and all that kind of stuff. But we need to spend more money on sidewalk. But we do need to make sure that we evaluate the place to put them, you know.

Right. And we'll use this, as Jeff said, the gap analysis needs to be updated, and then we'll begin to work on those gaps.

Pete, I got that. What I'm saying is we don't need – Do this five years from now. We need to get started on these. I mean, even if it's, you know, a little at a time, we need to make some progress on this.

Yeah, we'll have sidewalks every year, but I would rather it be in a dedicated area. It's more predictable if it's in its own. That's why we brought this to you, actually. This is the standard. That's a part of it, and every year there will be sidewalks. It's going to take time to do sidewalks, and it's going to take exhaustive utilization of the resources that are available to us, looking for grants, looking for other ways to put money in that sidewalk. We're saying the same thing.

The point I'm making is that there are areas that truly, truly need the sidewalks, and we need to make sure that we stay on top of that and move. And then you all said it too. Sometimes the areas are no longer utilized as they used to be, okay? So maybe not that many people walking there, but we need to make sure that the pathway to schools are safe, Sidewalk lighting. And the neighborhoods are safe. I don't care where they are. All right. Understood.

Can I ask a few more questions? On the tables that you made, can we just highlight what is on the TPO's list of priority projects? I know some of these are.

Yeah, we could add a column to indicate that. Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, that's sort of the feedback I was looking for is if you want more information on that, let us know.

Just so visually we already know that's taken care of.

Right, there's a lot of crossover there.

Yeah, there's some crossover. And just so I'm clear, all of our new development requires sidewalks, right?

That's right.

Internally, externally, like what are we doing with that?

The requirements are internal and external where they put external roadways.

Okay. So I know I've been asked in the past – On developments that kind of build like that quintessential sidewalk to nowhere where they're building the sidewalk but nothing else is connecting. Like, hey, you know, can we just do away with this? I'm always like, no, I love sidewalks. But if we're going to do something like what Councilman Mansfield brought up, where we can put it in a sidewalk bank, we could at least use that money somewhere else where we know there's a need. Like a lot of our existing neighborhoods, they really don't have a lot of sidewalks. I mean, all of southeast Ocala, for the most part, does not have sidewalks. So if we could do something like that, I would support that, but I would not support doing away with sidewalks on the exterior?

A lot of times, I can't speak for right now, I don't know exactly what happens in the conversations, but historically, especially in a neighborhood that was what I call a trapped neighborhood, you can't get out. Generally, one road provides all of the in and out, right? So people would ask, can we put sidewalk only on one side, for instance? That kind of makes sense. You can't connect that sidewalk to anywhere but the street that it comes out. And so the internal and maybe we can say yeah if you pay the move we're gonna have to get together with both departments and come back with something that addresses sidewalk and that may accelerate the ability to place sidewalks on some streets where they're needed

I just wanted to clarify that other than the two zoned, I think it's M1, M2, right?

Yeah.

Those are the only ones that are actually exempted from requiring sidewalks. All the other ones, when there's something like sidewalks of nowhere, like they would build a sidewalk next to the business and there's no adjoining it, they're required to pay into a sidewalk fund that we turn around and build sidewalks somewhere else with.

So we do have something. Yeah, we do. Okay. Oh.

We don't have. Okay. So we need to expand it to M1 and M2?

That's a policy.

No, it's part of it.

We can expand it to include that option for the M1 and M2 as well.

Okay. It's in the ordinance that you can give a waiver, and the waiver is that they have to pay in lieu of building it. And then there's an exemption, which means they don't have to pay into anything. It's just exempted, and that's for those.

I'm just saying any industrial, I mean, maybe we can look into that just for the fact that I've done it before where I've paid into, you know, another account. And, you know, something else we've always paid into is if there's obviously a big, huge industrial that we're building and trees, and there's not enough place for trees, they let us pay into a tree bank.

That's right.

Say, here, put the tree someplace else where they need to go. Yeah.

And the important on the discussion with sidewalk is that we have funds that just go to all the roads and then we have grants that we can get to augment the funding and so we don't have a policy set for how much every year we're going to spend on sidewalks as well as the resurfacing program everything else we've been putting everything in the resurfacing got some new roads that will have that's just a little piece of it so we wanna three hundred thousand dollars a year that kind of discuss my discussions what what we're saying so that no matter what we're always going to etch away at our sidewalk gaps. And we'll prioritize those gaps to fill in based on safe routes to school and these other, like the safety issues that we just discussed and the safety plan where there's some gaps she talked about on Easy Street that were contributing to that sector, the fatalities and the injuries. So those would be probably high priority gaps to fill based on those recommendations.

Do we have that list?

Other than what you've given us today? No, we do not have a list of priorities. That's where this isn't going to help us get there. Okay.

And the gap map is another tool. I would agree that we need to have a list.

Yeah, we're going to come back with a hit list and just go through it here.

We need it here. We need it here. And I also agree with Councilwoman Dreyer that, you know, she, you know, We need to meet with the school board so we know exactly their areas when we have kids walking.

Yeah, for the schools, we have two things to deal with. Routes to schools, so our schools in the city and how we get there. And then the other thing will be school bus stop and connection, and we'll work with them. Yeah, Jeff and his group will work with the school board and Noel and Sean on that. What's the frequency used? How many students are at that location? What's the sidewalk network look like on the way? What's the lighting look like on the way? That can be a major undertaking.

Well, yeah, you're right. I mean, this could be like the black hole of financial, you know, costs that never goes away. So I don't think it's wise to put sidewalks everywhere where kids have a school bus stop. That's insane. But there is historical data that says this has been a bus stop for 20 years because it's a neighborhood full of kids. So if we can identify those locations and if something needs to be filled, I think that you're going to find a lot of it over in West Ocala, right? Right. I THINK IF WE CAN IDENTIFY THAT, AND THEY SEEM TO INDICATE THAT THEY DO HAVE THE ABILITY TO PULL THAT DATA.

SO ODDLY IN OUR TRADITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD, NORTHWEST OCALA, SOME OF SOUTHWEST OCALA, SOUTHEAST AND NORTHEAST OCALA, WE HAVE A LOT OF GAPS IN NEIGHBORHOOD CONNECTION, INTERNEIGHBORHOOD CONNECTION. SO WE WANT TO LOOK AT THOSE, PRIORITIZE SOME OF THOSE, AND THEN NEIGHBORHOOD TO COMMERCIAL DISTRICT AND OTHER human infrastructure where people walk, things that attract pedestrians. So we'll look at those. It's likely that we will come back with some kind of a code amendment to deal specifically with this and maybe even a budgeted sidewalk amount.

Okay. Out of the penny sales tax? Or you make recommendations on where it should come from?

I was thinking that some of it may be able to come from that. We'll discuss that.

Okay. I DO HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT BUS STOPS. SO ON THE LIST OF BUS STOPS, DID SOMEBODY PHYSICALLY GO TO THESE LOCATIONS AND MAKE SURE THEY MAKE SENSE?

YEAH, WE ACTUALLY, TOM DUNCAN DID A SECOND ROUND OF THAT AFTER THEY WERE INITIATED BEFORE HE GOT HERE, BUT HE DID A SECOND ROUND. WE ACTUALLY ADJUSTED SOME. THE ONE I MENTIONED, THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT. They were going to actually put it on the property, and we decided, no, let's put it out on the roadway where it made sense. So we've done a little bit of that to look at every one of those locations.

Okay. There's a bus stop that I pass every single day on South Magnolia Avenue. If you can picture between 3rd, which is the road that goes in between Publix and Trinity Catholic Church, On South Magnolia Avenue, there's a bus stop that is literally in the middle of nowhere. I don't even know who uses this bus stop because there's another bus stop right past it for the medical offices. It's on the curve. It's on the curve. You can't even walk to this thing. There's a ditch on your right. There's a road on your left. Look. It's the craziest thing I've seen. I don't know how many of those we have. I just happen to pass this one every day and probably complain every single time I see it.

Is that a JC bus stop?

It may be. We can take a look at it, though.

Okay. Like, so they just put their benches and we put a bus stop there?

Well, it's... Yeah, it gets a little more complex. Originally, that's how it kind of worked out when it first started out.

They had a lot of control over our bus stops. Very strange. Can we look at where these things – and look, I'm happy to ride the bus with you guys and do this, but that one in particular makes no sense whatsoever. I don't know where the people are walking from, but if they're walking from 3rd, just put it closer to 3rd so that we're not forcing them in the street. And they actually have to walk around the woods to get to this bus stop. Yes.

Yeah, we'll take a look at it.

Okay.

All right, thank you. Good job. Thanks, Jeff.

Oh, Angel, did you get your own copy? Yes.

We also have hard copies of the Safe Streets presentation.

Oh, thank you. Awesome.

This department adhered to the black and white print. Thank you.

Oh, cost savings. Good job.

You get some brownie points. Well, good job. 10 brownie points extra. You get 100, you get a prize.

All right, we're ready. GOOD AFTERNOON, THIS IS DWAYNE DRAKE FROM SANITATION DIVISION HEAD. FEBRUARY 3, 2026, CITY COUNCIL ADOPTED THE RATE STUDY FOR SANITATION AND AT THE SAME TIME IT INCLUDED THE ELIMINATION OF CURBSIDE RECYCLING AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RECYCLING DROP OFF LOCATIONS. SO IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS, OUR TRANSITION STEPS TO WHERE TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL ARE AS FOLLOWS. WE ADDRESS THE SCOPE OF SERVICES IN THE CONTRACT. negotiated price per ton for recycling and price per cart. We identified drop-off locations, revenue containers, I mean recycling containers, signage for drop-off locations and recycling containers, outreach for program change, and to prepare sites. We rewrote the scope of services and the revised contract or draft form. We proposed modifications to the Waste Pro Agreement for the city would pay $125 per ton cost for recycling disposal. As a comparison, Marion County currently pays $137.70 per ton. City agrees to pay WastePro $18 for each cart. And if the price is agreed upon to purchase, the recycle carts will be used as a second garbage cart. And for residents where recycle cart is a third cart, the cart will be removed. We identified drop off locations considering city owned properties, traffic counts, proximity to potential customers, and preparation needed for each site. Of the eight proposed drop-off locations, we will install fencing if necessary, place recycling dumpsters on the sites, one or two dumpsters at each location. Dumpsters will be painted tan and signed indicating accepted items. Sites will be monitored for contamination and cameras will be installed if necessary, and we'll install site signs for those locations. items to be collected each site, cardboard, which includes boxes and cartons, metal food and beverage cans, paper, which includes newspapers and magazines and such, and plastic bottles and jugs. The drop-off locations that we've identified are the Mary Sue Ridge Community Center, the Karosky Center slash Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Complex, Ocala Regional Sportsplex, Holly Palmer Park, the west of fire station number five, which is at Northeast 25th Avenue and Northeast 24th Street, Northeast 8th Avenue and Northeast 14th Street location, Jervigant Park, and Southeast 31st Street and Southeast 5th Terrace. We did also consider an alternative drop-off location at Scott Springs, but we did not choose that as one of our eight locations. So to finalize, uh, uh, set up the drop-off to identify the drop-off locations, the recycling costs per ton, the cost per cart to purchase the existing recycling carts. And we will come to another page. Uh, we'll bring an agenda item to council in June for your approval. And this concludes my presentation and subject to any of your questions.

So do I, uh, June 1st. So the last day for, um, collection at the residence will be the last, um, day in may. Correct.

July 1st is when we July 1st.

Okay. So they'll still collect at the residence in June.

Yes, they will.

And the resident will be able to keep the recycling cart and use it as an additional?

Garbage cart.

Garbage cart.

That's correct.

Okay. Those are the two biggest questions I get asked. Okay. Originally, I thought we were going to try to do glass, but I don't see glass as one.

The problem with glass is now that we've kind of renegotiated in a sense.

Sure.

If they have the option of not taking glass, they don't want to take glass. Okay.

Okay.

So it'll just go back to being a garbage can. Doesn't surprise me. Correct.

So, DeeDee. Yes. I got two garbage cans. You going to take my third can just because you can't?

Per city code, residents are only allowed to have two garbage cans. Thank you, sir.

I needed to know that.

How do you even know that somebody has two garbage cans? Oh, the drivers tell them.

Just on our route, we'll see if they've got three.

Oh, if they've got three out? Okay.

So if they're. And we'll be taking them away.

So we worked on the locations through traffic counts and tried to catch each area. You'll notice there's a little gap in the northwest, but that's mostly non-residential, so that didn't. Didn't come into play. The other thing to remember is that there are, in addition to our eight drop-off locations, there are 18 county drop-off locations that take all the recyclables and we're always, we can use those. So in, you know, any information that we have, we will put out a lot of information between now and then. But in that information, we'll make sure that we make people aware of that also.

So when you say put out, how are we going to communicate those locations?

We will. Well, certainly our PIO will handle most of that. Happy birthday to him in absentia. But, yeah, we'll put it out multiple ways. We'll put it on our website. We'll also do press releases, and we'll put it on social media. And then I'm sure that we'll supplement it in other ways.

We've also been in touch with the utility office about putting something in the utility bill as well on their website. I mean on their emailed notices as well.

Okay.

The more the better, right?

Oh, absolutely.

Is there any way that you could do a sticky notice that would go on the recycling bin? That would be great. I know we don't pick them up, but.

We can have that discussion.

Yeah, we'd have to send somebody out on collection day to put it on.

Maybe the last two collection days of July. Just so it's coming up because I know I'll get a phone call, well, they didn't pick up my recycling today. I'm going to take a vacation for those two weeks. It was like something.

They're going to pick it up as garbage, though. They'll pick it up as garbage. Oh, that's correct. Okay. It'll still not be there when they move from work. Okay. They're not going to know. That's true.

At that point, it will be picked up as, you know, once the deadline is passed, we will be picking it up as garbage.

Yeah. Okay. Good point. I like that.

Awesome.

Any other questions? Yeah. All right.

Having none.

Thank you very much. Just one quick question. Do you perceive now with... Two trash bins being collected at each house, most of the houses. The routes are going to take longer to complete?

We're expecting a little bit of an increase there. We're just not sure how much. We're prepared to adjust to that as needed, but we want to know until we're actually doing it. Because we've already had some people contact us about giving up their recycle cans, so they'll be down to one can. And I'm sure there's others that are just waiting for that opportunity as it gets pushed out to give up their cans. The ones that have two. They may or may not have two cans out on any given day for us to pick up, but we'll address that as we deal with it on the as-needed basis for sure.

Thank you. That's a good question.

Any further comments? Thank you very much. You're welcome, sir. Well, thank you. Meeting adjourned.

They got out there, I think. Did they say they got it out? They're probably going to have another