Town Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. All right. Good evening, uh, everyone. We appreciate you guys joining us tonight for the May 12th, 2026, uh, town commission meeting. Please stand for the pledge. Remain standing. Bow your heads please. Heavenly Father, thank you for another day. Dear Lord, thank you for continuing to guide us, protecting the people. Thank you for protecting our our citizens, our staff, and definitely dear Lord, thank you for take protecting our police. Thank you for this meeting that we're about to conduct. As always, continue to be in the be in the presence of all that we're trying to our steps, not our thoughts. It was all to love.

Thank you. All right. Good evening, Kathy. Good evening, Commissioner Keller here. Vice Mayor Satderfield here. Mayor Taylor here. Commissioner Mley here. Commissioner McMullen present.

Okay. Thank you everyone. Uh we're going to do a couple of proclamations and we're going to go first. We're going to mix it up. I'll do National Public Works Week uh first and I'll read that one. Um whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of the town of Oakland. And these infrastructure, facilities, and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, employees at all levels of government and the private sector who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And the health, safety, and comfort of this community greatly depends on those facilities and services. And it is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children in the town of Oakland to gain knowledge of and to maintain an ongoing interest in the understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities. In the year 2026 marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association with a theme of people, purpose, presence. Now therefore, I Shane Taylor, mayor of the town of Oakland, do hereby proclaim the week of May 18th, 2024, 2026 as National Public Works Week. I urge all citizens to pay tribute to our public works professionals, engineers, managers, and employees, and to recognize the substantial contributions they make to protect our national health, safety, and quality of life. Thank you, public works professionals. Thank you. We'll do a picture an hour after. Now, let's see. Grab a picture real quick.

Deputy Chief, you want me to make yours short, right? A lot of words in that one. All right. just as important if not important as the peace officers memorial day and national police week uh proclamation. Whereas in 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15th as Peace Officer Memorial Day and the week in which it falls as National Police Week. The members of the Oakland Police Department play an essential role in safeguarding the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Oakland. And it is important that all citizens know and understand the duties, responsibilities, hazards, and sacrifices of their law enforcement agencies and that the members of our police department recognize their duty to serve the people by safeguarding life and property by protecting them against violence or disorder and by protecting the innocent against deception and the weak against oppression or intimidation. and the women and men of the Oakland Police Department unceasingly provide a vital public service. Now therefore, I Shane Taylor on behalf of the Oakland Town Commission call upon all citizens of Oakland to observe the week of May 10th through May 16th, 2026 as National Police Week and commemorate police officers past and present who by their faithful and loyal devotion to our to their responsibilities have rendered a dedicated service to their communities and in doing so have established for themselves an inv valuable and enduring reputation for preserving their rights and securities of all citizens. Furthermore, I call upon all citizens of Oakland to observe May 15th as peace officers Memorial Day in honor of those peace officers who through their courageous deeds have lost their lives or have become disabled in the performance of duty. Thank you, gentlemen. Ladies,

let's grab another one. Thank you, Kelly. Real quick, Dave, before you leave, um, so I was going to announce his during manager report, but before he leaves, he has his sixth year anniversary with the town this month. So, we wanted to recognize that,

Dave. Thank you.

Thanks for serving the town. Appreciate you. Wait till those guys get out. All right. Uh, next on the agenda is the consent agenda. And on tonight's consent agenda are the approval of the April 28th, 202 commission meeting notes, approval to serve wine at the artist receptions for the 2026 27 exhibit season. Approval of Discovery After School contract and work authorization. Approval of water treatment plant expansions proposals by Kimley Horn and Associates work assignment number 23 and approval of additional improvements and final costs of Katherine Ross Road. We have any questions or comments anybody wants to

Yeah, I just had a couple of comments um on the approval of the water treatment plant expansion proposal. I just wanted to recognize staff and appreciate your efforts in finding those adjustments in that program that could, you know, reduce those design costs. Um, glad to see that it can be paid for by impact fees, but always appreciate the fact that some adjustments were able to be made to the design that we're able to bring those costs down. Second that. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Hearing no, we'll entertain a motion. Make a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented. Second. Second. All in favor? I

I. All right. Moving on to ordinances. And this is ordinance second reading of the ordinance 20261 for telecommunications tower.

An ordinance of the town of Oakland, Florida, amending section 3.2, 2 zoning use regulations of article 3 zoning uses and design district and section 4.13 telecommunication towers of article 4 development standards of the land development code of the town of Oakland providing for an increase to the height limit for telecommunication towers providing for a minimum required distance between telecommunication towers providing for telecommunication towers as an accessory use by special exception in the R1A zoning district applicable only to town owned property. Correcting references providing in the specific use standards in table one. Primary uses in table two. Accessory uses correcting certain scrivener errors within the land development code related to grammar and spelling. providing for legislative findings, intent and definitions, and providing for codification, conflicts, severability, and an effective date.

Thank you. All right, Elise, second time. I'm not going to do the presentation all over again, but if we want to open, we will want to open it back up to the public for any comments. Okay. So, is anyone in the public, this is in regards to um uh setting up uh land in town that could accommodate cell towers? And it's kind of that step to get there to get some cell towers and some receptions. Anybody have any comments or questions or anything about that? Okay. No. Now, we'll close the public hearing and bring it back here. Any questions or comments on the table?

No. Easy. Okay. Uh we'll entertain a motion. Make a motion to approve the second reading of the ordinance for telecommunications towers ordinance 2026-01. A second. Second. All in favor? I I right. Town manager, go find us some providers. My phone works better already. Yeah.

Okay. So, next is the public forum. And before we open it up to anybody, I want to give the floor to Rick Dumas, who's going to uh present Memorial Day uh ceremony that uh I believe they started back uh how many years has it been? This is at least his I think it says fourth or third year. Yeah. Okay. Rick, thank you for coming.

Thank you, Mayor. And thanks and good evening to all of you, commission, vice mayor, and all of you. Thank you for your time. I'm going to try to be brief so you can keep your meeting going. Um, I'm here tonight on behalf of uh my brother-in-law, John Ward, who is a native of Oakland. He grew up in this town, graduated from Lake View High, and then went on to now used to be called FTU, but it's now UCF itself. Also grew up in the West Orange County area off of Highway 50 and Avalon and Highway 50. You had a track of homes there. I grew up there. My mother forced me to go to church here in St. Paul, some for me, but my parents eventually um moved into Oakland until um they passed away and my grandparents as well. Um again, this is about the third or fourth year he's looking to do this. And a little briefing on how this started. We would go out on memorial on the holidays and our parents are buried in the Tildenville Oakland cemetery and see some flags out there. So about three or four years ago, uh he went out there to Tillenville, Oakland Cemetery, and he was putting flags out. So I just went to help him. And um in helping him, some um airmen who were walking in Celebration Memorial offered to help us. So that spurred him wanting to do this. As of last year, we this was our first time coming before the commission because we want to respect first of all he wants to I told him what you need to respect the city and their leadership and respect what they may already have planned. So this year in um 2026 he's looking to do the same thing. He's the initiating organizer of this. I'm just here because he can't be here tonight again. It'll be

on Memorial Day at 9:00 a.m. and go no longer than 10:00 a.m. It's hot and people have other things to do. The purpose again is to place a flag by those identified grade sites that are there. Don't want to disturb anything. Those we can identify. Well, flags will be placed by there. We pull the old ones out, put new ones in. However, we are mindful of that there may be some that you just cannot identify because of the markings. We left some additional flags at the entrance of both of those cemeteries. So, if family members came out there and they felt they were left out, there was a flag to grab and place it there because we're not aware of it. Unfortunately, this this year um the plan is to um just go to the Oakland Tildenville Cemetery. And let me explain why. He um apparently was in communication with again both of the management representatives of both cemeteries. Oakland Tillenville's U representative. No problem. Go out there and do what you want to do. the I got the other cemetery because I'm not quite sure the name of it, but it is I just call it the Oakland cemetery. That representative did not want to give the verbal okay to do anything in there. His stipulation was that based on what John shared with me was that only if the city was involved. And so I'm not here to certain mandate that, but we're here to respect the wishes of the representative of the other cemetery by not entering in there at all. Unless this thing about involvement, that's a big word to me being in public safety for 35 years. That's a big word to me. So, um, that's

where we stand right now is to just only go into the Tillville Oakland Cemetery and and do that. It starts at 9:00 a.m. sharp. Um he says there'll be a opening um um speech who's going to speak. Last year it was um someone from the council. I can't even remember who it was. Forgive me. That's what diabetes do to you. And um short speech and then get the flags placed by where the grave sites we can identify. We want to be respectful of anything of the town of Oakland's commission may have planned and not interfere with that. That's my whole purpose for being here representing him and he want to express that. Any questions you might have for me, I will I will attempt to answer them and we authorize cemetery if you're looking for our permissions to do it. the management says it's up to us that

yes it says involvement city involvement and so what that meant I don't know John and John and him were communicating back and forth either via email or text I do have John's number and um he'll have the specific name and number how he communicated but that was it it's only approved if the city is involved and then I just thought well that's that's that's a lot um yeah um If you got that number and name, could you forward it to us? Yes. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'll get it. I think John has been communicating with something, but I I'll I'll ensure you get it. Even if I have to come back here and drop it off at your utility, but I'll ensure you get it. Okay. Yes,

I think John's got our email. John's got you. I'll have him then send that over. Let us know and then we can Yes. talk to that end. Yes. Right. But again, no, not asking for um any funding in anything. Anything the city was going to do that you tell us and we're going to re we're going to be respectful of the town of Oakland and what what um you may want. We just it's just placed on his heart to go in there and put a flag by those veterans that served. I think it's probably a situation where we need to understand exactly what their definition of involvement is because obviously the town doesn't own the cemetery. Yes.

Some constraints within that. Yeah. And I I think it's more something happens liability than the town is what it is. It's all liability and we're dealing with a an attorney who's a partner inside that. Yes. My risk management ran me worked me hard on many things. We will let's see do we we meet again before Memorial Day? We we don't we don't we do Memorial Day is early this year. It's on the 25th.

Yeah. Yeah. So we don't till the 26th the day after. Okay. All right. Well, um we'll get word out if uh we get something worked out with We will be ready and have because it's about 40 um grave sites in each of them. A total of about approximately 80. And we will be ready if um it's okay, John. No, we we will go in and do it that way. It's just a just respect when we're just respectful when people say, "Hey, you're not supposed to do this." And we're going to respect that.

You guys have been very respectful the last several years. I've I've done it. And I would like to ask the commission here, are we okay reaching out to the owner of that cemetery and talking to them and finding out what the issues are? You guys good with that? Some communication um from the Noxis. So somebody was talking to them. Yeah, we did it last time. I did I I spoke to them last time about it uh on there and and and their their reasons were valid. What if somebody hurts themselves? We're the owners. It's not a again, both cemeteries, just so everybody knows, and we I think we talked about this last year, both cemeteries are not owned by the town of Oakland. They are independently owned by uh uh individuals. So, uh we we can do that and we'll work on that and let you know.

Yes, sir. Which one is the Oakland Tilden bill? Is that the one on 50 right ac? Yes, that's the one on that's the one on Highway 50. Other one's Oakland I mean Walker and Tub. I know we I remember we all went to the mo most of us I think went last year to the and I think then the owner expressed concern about us out there. So I think Rick I think what we should do is probably go ahead and meet at the Oakland Tenville one first have that set that way. Yes sir. program and then if if the other owner says sure yeah okay we'll let you go in there then we can just like we did last time. Okay. We'll plan to start at Oakland Tilden if that works for you guys. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. You know, again, I think um speak for everybody on here. We really appreciate you guys doing this. This is a this is a good thing that you're doing on this day, and it's something great uh not only for our town, but for the community and those that uh you know, gave their life there. Yes. Yes, sir. Oh, yeah. Thank you very much. Well, thank you all for your time. Thank you very much. Good seeing you.

All right, we got that. Uh, is we still we're still in public forum. Is anybody have anything else they'd like to say? All right, John 6 East Vic Avenue. Um just an update on the paving of Vic and the improvement or correcting or finalizing Arrington we talked about a month ago Mike here just

yeah so uh John just to give you some updates here um I know town staff has been working um uh there uh as far as getting bids and what's what's what's going on is um there's a repaving project planned for Southern Southern Oaks right next door. So what I've kind of um emailed um Elise about and um what works is there a way to piggyback off of Southern Oak paving and then hit Vic that's straight between Star and Tub uh through there. So that's the hopes if if numbers work out and the time works out and the contractor works out. But for me, uh I think uh trying to piggyback off of a larger project probably is a little bit more of a cost savings uh for mobilization and for materials and all that stuff. So that's the plan uh as of right now. And the idea is to um make that road similar to what we did down on Henchin. did what a couple of years ago I believe when we paved tension as they were had the same type of issue and stuff with the school traffic. Um your traffic now is Oakland Park going to the park and everybody going back and forth. Um I don't know if anybody else did. I did. I rode down the road. There are some you know degradation that's going on with the road as uh you go through there. Um I think overall majority of those roads have held up pretty good. Uh, and I know that public works probably has saved a lot of money on having to grade and having to maintain with that type of material that's going that's been that's been put down there. So, that's a that's a very positive thing for for the town. We're not having to go out and grade it once a month or twice a month or anything like that. So, um, I can't really Arrington right now.

Um, I'm not sure where we're at on that one right now, but quality of the interior of Oakland Shores has been graded several times continues to deteriorate.

So the focus I think for staff has been trying to get Vic uh taken care of but uh we can certainly look at the the quality of that Arrington as well. That's kind of where we're at right now on those. But so as soon as you see Southern Oaks and I we can let you know, you know, hey, we're we're going to hit this one. But I'm sure we're going to Jonell is going to have to get the numbers together and the bids together, which he's working on now. Um I know he's got the engineering reports back. So with with bidding that, is it possible to include very short section of Arrington?

Um yeah, I mean I have to talk to these guys over here and see. Yeah. Great. Yeah, guys. Thank you. Thank you, John. We'll keep you updated on that one. Anyone else? All right, we'll close the public uh forum and bring it back to Elise. Good evening. Um Ashley's not here, so I'm going to cover employee anniversaries first. Um Kathy on her oney year anniversary. Congratulations Kathy.

Probably feels like it's been 10 years, but it's only been one. Um Andrew um with utility billing and Wade with public works also had their one-year anniversary. Larry Kimple with the school had his eight-year anniversary. Um Scott Townsen and Amanda Farage at the school have 11year anniversaries. and Adrien Cowan with public works has 16 years. Great. This month. That's awesome. Yeah. I saw that was good.

That's great. Um Oakland carrol was was Saturday, May 5th. So, a big thank you to Community Outreach, Public Works, and Police Department that helped with the event. We had about 62 cars, um about 600 attendees, and great feedback from the residents. So, we had people that have been long-term residents that came into the center, didn't even know the center was there, didn't know, had never been to an event. So, it was our yard signs that we um did for the event seemed to have reached the right people. Um we had a lot of Oakland residents there. Additional information is in the agenda packet and Megan's report on that one. If you haven't had a chance to see the Color Speaks exhibit at the Arts and Heritage Center, that's on display through July 24th. Really nice exhibit, lots of color. Um, farmers market will be on May 14th and 28th. Um, some of the signage says 9 to 2. It will be only 9 to 1 as we shift into summer hours. So, just be aware of that. Um, and then Peton Seaf Flowers will be hosting a nature walk and social at on June 4th from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. And right now, ONP also has a challenged match grant underway. Um, so it's $10,000. And so far, O&P has collected slightly over 6,000. So, if you want to donate to P, now is a good time because it'll be matched dollar for dollar.

Thank you, ma'am. Uh Kathy, no report. Nothing. Uh I've been here a year. You're not doing anything already. All right. Deputy Chief, how are you tonight? I'm good, thank you. Um on behalf of Police Department, I just want to thank you again for the pro proclamation. And I'd like to thank uh Mr. Parker here for Katherine Ross. It's a very nice road. It helps the police department uh expeditiously get down to State Road 50 and get to the southern half of town. And it's a it's a beautiful road. Thank you.

Agree, Mark. Mike, it it's good. I rode down. It's real smooth. Good job on that one. But then you threw a stop sign out at the uh Grove entrance and I think I blew through it because there's no stop bar so you don't notice it. You know, there's a crosswalk and I was like, good job on that one, Mike. Thanks. Speaking of Mike, you have anything? No, sir. Okay,

John L, what we got going on? I saw the garbage trucks out last week, Saturday. It's next Saturday. Is that right? Or I think it's this Saturday.

This Saturday, right? God. Yeah. It's the 12th. Okay. So, that's the one that you can take everything and anything to not everything and anything. Try had to try. So like used motor oil, paint. What? What? All right. And if anybody has any gasoline they want to throw away, you can bring that to my house. So good.

All right. Gold these days. Thank you. Thank you, John. Uh, Commissioner Keller.

Okay. So, um, last week I attended my first pro plan meeting and lots of information. I'm obviously going to take a few months to probably get me fully aware of everything, but one of the um, one of the things that they talked about, which I think a lot of us are experiencing around town. Um so vision zero is the action plan for metrop plan to help reduce traffic fatalities and injuries and create safer roads. And one of the things vision vision zero is working on is looking at um data related to ebikes and ecooters and things like that. in like I'm sure I know we have an issue in my neighborhood and they I've seen them on the trail and so they're they're looking at that data um you know to figure out what's going on. One of the other things that they're doing and actually I told Alisa I was going to share this with her uh is having a online ebike training for teens and they're going to work with the different school boards that are part of Metro Plan to try to kind of educate young people. I just literally saw on the news why at when I was at home um before I came to the meeting that there was a a electric scooter and a a truck incident that just happened I believe in Orlando this afternoon and the young person is in critical condition and it's very unfortunate but I I was driving home from you know my job at Lauren Decor and somebody was going on a scooter faster than the cars were going on Oakland venue. I mean, significantly faster and it's obviously a concern and I know that I've talked to Elise about we're kind of waiting to see what the state's going to do as far as regulations, but um but Vision Zero is working on trying to educate some of these young people and hopefully quite honestly the parents. That's that's the thing that's baffling

to me is putting these vehicles that go fast in a young person's hand and then parents, you know, they're they're miles away from their parents aren't even seeing them. And unfortunately, I hate to see um what I think is going to happen and it's going to be more accidents and such before we see, you know, changes to people's mindset. But anyway, so Metrop Plan Vision Zero, they're looking at that data and also working to help educate and hopefully that will save some injuries. So that was interesting information and I wanted to share that. Great. Thanks. Glad you meeting. Sounds good. It's good.

Yep. Great. Uh, Commissioner.

Uh, nothing nothing. Just thank you for the uh, nobody's here from the history center, so please relay my appreciation. I'm sure all of us really a cool show and I'm already looking forward to next year. But they did a great job. Yeah, I agree. That was a That was a fun That was a fun Saturday. We up. Mr. Mley and I were on the porch there afterwards and we had one guy. Yeah, I guess we ahead. We had one guy that came in and wanted us to do it again like soon.

Oh, turn your mic on. So you hear Oh, yeah. They said at least three times a year and they'd be willing to pay registration fees and everything. Elise is just ignoring it. I'll bring it up again. Yeah, bring it up in couple months. Yeah.

Uh the only thing I have is uh the um this weekend or Friday is the Oakland Avenue Charter School Gayla. Uh so I'll be going to that. I think Commissioner Keller's going uh so we'll be attending that event. Um and then another uh issue I wanted to talk about is um I got reached out by a resident about trash cans. Uh, as you know, um, you know, we pick up once a week, uh, here in town and, uh, public works has reached out to Waste Pro about, um, you know, taking measures to keep down the smells and stuff like that on those. So, uh, they're going, I believe, do a blast, an email blast or send notices out on how to do it. So, you know, as it heats up, obviously that stuff starts fermenting. So, if you bag your trash, you should be in good shape. But if you just start writing that can, you'll probably have a bigger problem. But uh just want to give everybody a heads up on that when that take care of that stuff. So we'll get something sent out to everybody here very soon. Uh other than that,

yep. The order. If our hearts and minds are satisfied, let's adjourn. It is 7:34 p.m.