City Council - Regular Meeting

Everyone I want to call the meeting to order regular City Council meeting for the city of Orange City, May 26 630 p.m Kaylee roll call, please Here Councilmember Knight here councilmember Thompson is absent Councilmember Stafford here Councilmember Richardson is also absent Mayor Marx is absent Vice Mayor Grimm.

Yeah. And we've got four people, so we have a quorum. Next is the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance by Matt Carroll, Volusia County Sheriff's Office. Please stand if you can. Thank you.

We thank you for this city. We pray blessings. We pray peace and safety over this city. We thank you in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, next on the agenda is absences. Shall the absence of Council Member Dawn T. Ampson from the May 12th Council Member be excused? I need a motion on that, right? Yeah.

Chairman, I would like to make a motion to excuse the absence of Dawn T. Ampson from May 12th, 2026. I second.

Okay, we got a motion, we got a second. Okay.

Want a roll call?

Yeah, please.

Council Member Knight?

Yes.

Council Member Darmes? Yes. Council Member Stafford? Yes. Vice Mayor Grimm? Yes. Motion passes.

Next we have presentations and proclamations. Good Citizen Academy graduation presentation that'll be given by Ashley Gay.

Good evening council. Thank you for this opportunity today. We're very excited to present our present those that participated in our Good Citizen classes. I want to thank them all individually. We have certificates we'd like to give them, but Justin did an amazing little snapshot of all the things that they've been participating in. Okay, I'm going to call everyone's name. If you can please come up to the front. Before I do that, I would like to say that this group was very attentive and there was a lot of information for them to get through each evening. And they had some amazing questions and suggestions. So this is a great group of folks that have attended this year. So this is our second annual. So if Dr. Sherry Poo can come up.

If you can stay up here, we're gonna do a photo at the end.

Could we do that? Okay. And Kim Eichhorst. Tiffany Burgi, thank you. Did I get yours right? Thanks. Lisa Murray. Erica Robinson. Erica Robinson's not here. Okay. Lee Bash. Karen Stuckey. And Shirley Bean.

If we can do two and two on each side.

okay next on the agenda is the good citizenship award i'll be doing a presentation on that the good citizen award was implemented in 2021 as a way to recognize people who go above and beyond for our community city council recognizes that the strength of orange city is built on the efforts of residents organizations volunteers who dedicate their time and talents to improve the quality of life for others We are honored to present the 2026 second quarter Good Citizenship Awards this evening to two outstanding individuals who have made contributions to our community. Our first nominee is Sandy Schatz. I believe I said that right. Sandy founded the operation for the nonprofit Sherry and Tim House of Hope in Orange City, providing housing and support for individuals facing medical, mental, financial, and situational changes. She has organized large community food distribution events, serving hundreds of families while recruiting and coordinating volunteers throughout the community. Through membership outreach and hands-on support, Sandy has demonstrated commitment to helping residents improve their lives, connect with needed resources and services. She is recognized for consistency, displaying honesty, integrity, compassion, selfless service to individuals and families in need. Okay, Mr. Schatz, you wanna come up and get a picture with the board? The second individual to receive this award is Denise Dwyer. Denise has dedicated herself to mentoring and developing local youth through Broadway dance dreams, teaching important life skills including confidence, discipline, teamwork, and respect alongside dance instruction. She has created a safe and supportive environment where children and families feel welcomed, valued, and connected. with the community. Denise mentors students through personal challenges, offering one-on-one support and serves as a role model for local families. Though performances, community events, activities, she continues to strengthen community pride and making a lasting impact in Orange City youth. Mrs. Dwyer. On behalf of the city of Orange City, thank you both for your outstanding service and dedication to our community. Congratulations on being recognized through the Good Citizen Award Program.

Okay.

Here we go, good times, budget presentation, devil and more.

good evening devlin moore finance director i am here tonight to kick off the fiscal year 2026 27 department presentations those presentations will be given to you over the course of your next three meetings including tonight and your two meetings in june this is your opportunity to hear directly from your departments on the original budget requests that were submitted to the city manager Hopefully at the end you'll have a good understanding of the department needs and priorities as we progress through the budget process. Again, the departments will be presenting their budgets as they were presented to the city manager. They do not take into account any cuts or defers that may be necessary in order to balance the budget. The city manager and staff continue to work closely together and meet regularly to finalize the budget in order to provide you a responsible and balanced budget. and of course as we progress through the budget process you'll have an opportunity to reprioritize anything that may have been cut or deferred and to make additional adjustments as you deem appropriate so tonight public safety kicks off the session with police and fire then on june 9th the city clerk administration and utilities will present then on june 23rd finance development services and public works will present The presentations are gonna follow a uniform format for the most part. The departments will start off by providing a comparison of the requested budget to their current year adopted and amended budget. They will share any notable budget increases within their operating budget. They will provide you any positions that they requested as part of next year's budget. And then they'll also provide you kind of a synopsis on the capital improvement requests and capital equipment that they requested as part of their budget. I do want to note that the personnel budgets were prepared by the finance department. They do not reflect cost of living increases as the compensation study and the union negotiations will come back to you in probably July, August as we continue through the budget process. They also do not reflect new positions. I do want to indicate that you'll see increases and decreases in some of the personnel budgets. That's in part because we have budgetary placeholders for health insurance and workers comp. We generally get those final numbers in July and August. There were also some true-ups on current salaries and overtime, as well as there's some cost reallocations of positions between funds. So you may see a department decrease in one fund and increase in the other. So all that information will be further disclosed as we continue through the budget process. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Otherwise, I think the police department's ready to kick it off. Thank you.

Thanks, Devlin. Thanks, Devlin. Police department's up next by Chief Jerome Miller.

Good evening, everyone.

Jerome Miller, Chief of Police, Horn City PD. Thank you for this opportunity to present our 26-27 budget request. This proposed budget was developed with a strong focus on financial responsibility, operational readiness, officer safety, and maintaining the high level of service to our residents from the Horn City Police Department. As our city continues to grow, the Police Department must continue adapting to increased service demands, technology needs, staffing requirements, and equipment replacement cycles. Tonight I'll briefly review our operating budget, current budget issues, capital request, and staffing requests for the upcoming fiscal year.

What you're looking at here is our operating budget.

The proposed budget operating for fiscal year 26-27 is approximately 5.2 million. This represents an increase of approximately 94,000 over the amended fiscal year 25-26 budget. The majority of the increase is associated with personnel related cost. At the time, the department were diligent to minimize increased and operational spending wherever possible, whenever possible. In fact, operating expenses reflect a slight decrease compared to the prior amended budget. The department continues to evaluate spending carefully while maintaining the service levels and public safety expectations of our community. Budget request, this year the department limited new operational requests to essential items directly tied to recruitment, officer readiness, and emergency response capabilities. The first budget request is basic law enforcement academy sponsorship in the amount of $7,800. And what that is is we have vacancies, individuals who apply here at our police department who are not certified. If we think it's going to be a good fit, that's when we would pay for them to attend the 600 or 700 hour academy here in the central Florida area. And most times we try to keep them here in Volusia County, send them to Daytona State.

If not there, Seminole State here in Sanford, Florida.

The sponsorship program helps us develop future officer candidates locally and supports long-term staff instability within a department. The second request is for automated external defibrillator or AED pad replacements in the amount of 6,500. These pads are required for the department's automated external defibrillators carried in patrol vehicles and emergency response equipment. This equipment is critical during medical emergencies and ensures officers remain prepared to provide immediate life assistance prior to EMS arrival. Capital requests the police department proposed capital request total of two hundred seventy four thousand dollars These requests focus on operational reliability officer safety technology modernization accountability systems and equipment replacement needs First we have computer workstations This first request is replacement of commuter workstations in the amount of 26,400. These systems are reaching the end of their useful life and require replacement to maintain compatibility with current law enforcement software systems and cyber security requirements. Next we have body worn camera taser bundle. in the amount of 67,200. This technology supports officer accountability, transparency, evidence collection, officer safety, and public trust. Body-worn cameras provide objective documentation of police encounters and help protect both officers and residents by providing an unbiased record of the event. These systems help resolve complaints quickly, strengthen criminal investigations, improve evidence collection, and to support the city's overall risk management efforts. The Wayne Avenue Message Board. The replacement of this board is an amount of $20,000. This will improve our emergency notifications, traffic advisories, severe weather, messaging, and communicating with the public. This sign remains an important public safety communication tool for the community.

Currently we only have one, so we definitely need this second message board.

Axon fleet cameras.

This request for Axon fleet three camera systems amount of $50,000. These systems provide additional transparency and documentation during traffic stops and field operations. They enhance evidence collection, accountability, officer safety and protection against false complaints. Vehicle replacements, we're asking to replace two vehicles this year. First is a code enforcement truck, 56,000, and an administrative vehicle, about 55,000. These replacements are necessary due to vehicle age, reliability concerns, and operational needs. Replacing these vehicles on a reasonable schedule helps reduce downtime and maintain dependable service delivery. Our position request, the department is requesting two additional police officers for fiscal year 26 and 27. Total is over $300,000. Orange City continues to experience this growth, commercial development, increased traffic activity, and increasing demands for police services. These additional officers will help maintain patrol staffing levels, improve response capabilities, reduce overtime dependency, and support proactive policing efforts throughout the community. Additional staffing also supports officer wellness by helping reduce fatigue, workload demands, while maintaining adequate patrol coverage. As shown in the staffing trend chart, staffing increases over the last five years have remained measured and deliberate. I think the numbers you see on the five-year staff, and that's sworn law enforcement plus civilian. So at the end here, you see 36. At the very end, it says plus two. But we have 31 sworn currently and five civilian. So give us a total of 36. And we're asking for two additional sworn law enforcement officers. The department has taken a conservative and responsible approach to the growth while continuing to meet the public safety expectations of the community. In closing, the proposed 26-27 budget for the police department reflects a balanced and responsible investment in public safety. These requests focus on maintaining service levels, supporting officer safety, Modernizing technology and equipment and preparing for the continued growth of our community our goal remains provide safe neighborhoods proactive policing Professional service and maintaining the high level of public safety to our residents Thank you for your continued support, and I'll be happy to entertain any questions that you may have Quick question yes

here on the uh automobiles yes are we leasing those are we purchasing we purchase okay yes yeah yeah what's the difference between the body cam with the taser bundle and the axon cameras those go inside the car the body cam is what they also wear on the outside of their carrier best carrier thank you for doing such a great job

Thank you, I appreciate it.

It's not easy.

Thank you, Chair.

All right, anybody else?

Thanks, Chief. OK, I think that's it.

Thank you.

OK, next in line is a fire chief budget by Sam Pelcher.

Good evening, Sam Pilcher, Deputy Fire Chief. I'm here to talk to you about our budget that we prepared. Please be kind, it's my first presentation. So I think actually this is like my third time in front of council since I've been here, so a little nervous. It's okay.

So you're experienced.

I'm very experienced. I wouldn't be able to go through this in like two minutes. No, I'm just kidding. So again, like the police chief, we put our budget together trying to keep fiscal responsibility in mind and also with protective equipment at the top end of our needs. If you go to first slide, please. So as Devlin said, our personnel services was taken care of by then. And our total budget just under $4 million with $350,000 of that being under operating budget. So we're increasing our operating budget by about $30,000. And those two expenses will be on the next slide. So our life packs, we just purchased those last year. So we're rolling into a new contract for service. Service per life pack, the $60,000 piece of equipment that you use on all the ALS calls. Service on each piece is about $1,500 to get it certified for the year to make sure it operates correctly. So $6,000 for that. That's definitely neat. And then structural firefighting gear. Our structural firefighting gear has a 10-year lifespan. give or take a little bit sometimes it goes through a little bit quicker sometimes it lasts right up to the 10 years that's based on use uv lighting degrades the equipment we've been trying to purchase three sets every year to keep up with the equipment going out of service unfortunately this year we had more equipment go out of service than necessary so this uh 23 000 is going to give us five sets of gear to rotate into that 10-year cycle that we have on equipment Next slide, please. And then in our capital, capital request, again, about $140,000, computer workstations at the top. IT determines that through their rotation of equipment. And then the next we have is $13,000 for Station 68 improvements. So everybody knows our trailer that we live in at Station 68. We've done the flooring multiple times in there. Unfortunately, now it's time to replace some cabinets. cabinets are starting to wear out, the hinges are breaking, everything like that. So we got base and hanging cabinets for about $13,000, trying to give them a better place to live as we look forward to building new Station 68. Stabilizer struts. Again, we're trying to work on our equipment with our equipment in mind. Again, a 10-year life cycle on these. We're about 14 years on this, and this will take two sets of stabilization struts. So the stabilization struts are something that we use on motor vehicle accidents. So if a car's on its side on top of another car, it helps stabilize that vehicle so we can work inside of it with the patient and give us a safe working condition. So two of those, $16,000. I think we're doing one this year, one next year. Was that right, Devlin? Yeah, so we're gonna purchase one this year and one next year. That's why the two was up there. The modular training problem. So this one, Unhinge, this is a training prop that we're going to purchase. It'll be a modular type system, think of it as cubicles, but firefighter proof. So we can build rooms, we can build hallways, we can drag hose through it, we can put ladders up against it, and we can move it from station to station as we do this. so it'll keep our trucks in quarters ready to respond and with, that's $25,000 is a lot, but with that we can keep everybody in quarters and be able to respond quickly. And then on a side note for that training prop, that's also something that the police department can use. We can set up hallways, rooms where they can practice their entry into a building and keep us here around in Orange City where we're supposed to be. But I'll get a little bit more on that. There's a couple pictures in there, I believe. And then apparatus replacement. We got one pickup truck that we're asking for this year, has over 100,000 miles, and we're looking to replace that. And that one was deferred from last year, I believe. So we're looking to replace that this year. So $141,000 in capital request. Am I talking too fast? I have a bad habit of doing, not fast enough? Okay. I can do that too. All right, next slide please. We're asking for one position this year, an EMS captain. Total cost on that is set up cost and salary, $230,000 that'll give a unit for them to drive around in, radio, bunker gear, things like that. A portion of that could come from impact fees, but this position is definitely needed. Our medical director, which is what we operate from a medical standpoint, we operate underneath a doctor's license. This doctor, our medical director, has given us the responsibility to check records, medical records to go through and make sure that they're recorded properly. So we have to check probably 75% of our calls. And with, between myself and Chief Masters, to be able to do that on our own and continue with the jobs that we're required to do, very difficult to do. So we're looking at reviewing 10 calls a shift or 10 calls a day during an eight hour period so that position is going to help out with that it's going to help out with training it's going to help out with paramedic training which is what we're moving forward to making sure that all of our paramedics are trained so that one definitely is a need just that unfunded mandate from our medical director is going to push that and drive that position that'll give us one more i believe we're talking about splitting that position with the berry I believe, making sure. I don't want to speak out of turn. So that would reduce the cost to Orange City as well. So it would be a 50-50 cost to Orange City and the city of DeBerry. Next slide, please. Our call stats. Okay, so last year in 2025, we ran 10,000 unit responses. So that's across both Orange City stations and both DeBerry stations. And that was about an increase of 3% from the year before in 2024, which is about 350 calls, which is another call per day that the units are responding on. Remember when we're talking about these calls, they have to get up, go to the call, take care of the call, return, restock the truck, and do the report. So we're looking 30 to 45 minutes per call. So if they're averaging, 2,000, 2,500 calls out of one station. That's about 10 calls a day, a little bit less, maybe nine. So they're looking at about nine hours just to run any medical calls or fire calls. So that's a good portion of their day along with all the training that we have to do, which brings us back to that unhinged training prop. If we have that training prop available for us to work on here in Orange City or in Tiberi, it's gonna keep us from traveling to Daytona 45 minutes over, 45 minutes coming back to be able to respond to these calls. Next slide, please. So again, we talked about the gear replacement. It has a 10-year life expectancy, but it does degrade from the heat. It's what protects us as we go inside of the fires, contaminates UV exposure, and we're trying to replace the expired gear that we purchased 10 years ago, coming up on 10 years ago. So it's gonna keep us in compliance. It's gonna keep our employees safe as we fight fires and work on structure fires and motor vehicle accidents. I didn't know they put that picture in there. I should go back. so that's chief long nope that one that's chief long and i in the burn building training over in daytona beach so i have a picture with him now and i have a picture of my previous chief doing the same thing okay next slide please sorry All right, so this is the training prop. This is what I told you was like a cubicle on steroids. Fiberglass and metal allows us to pull hose around corners and put ladders up so we don't damage the walls of the fire stations. And it's modular, so we can take it apart, make long hallways, make big rooms for searches. Like I said, the police department can use it for entry searching. They can go in and do that. Active threats and in rescue operations, so we can actually pull people out of the window without damaging equipment at the fire station. It has not been purchased so we this is one of the things that we're looking forward to purchase this coming up here Yeah, so we already have the trailer to store it in it was donated by the church that unfortunately is going under I Can't remember what the name of the church is. I'm very sorry. Yep. Boy, that's bad Wow I'm so sorry. Okay, sorry. I can't remember. It's gone. Next one, thank you very much. The EMS captain, again, this position is going to manage EMS inventory, take that burden off of chief masters, deputy chief masters, and equipment readiness, conduct the quality assurance reviews of the patient care reports. Again, that's a mandate given to us by the medical director in Volusia County. Ensure compliance with our ALS license, policies, and state regulations. So the state comes and does an inspection, he'll be the one to step up and walk around and do the inspection with them. develop and implement, evaluate clinical training for our paramedics. Again, the paramedics, they go through a clinical period where they're evaluated by a adjunct to help them understand what their duties are as a paramedic before they're cleared as a lead paramedic to go out and treat patients on their own. Okay, I apologize, I cannot remember the church. I am so sorry, because that's just bad.

United Church of Christ.

Maybe, over on University? Yes, thank you very much, yes. So, I apologize for that. Okay, any questions please? Yes.

That's a two-sided question. Okay. This Q&A review, how do the people that got service from you get that Q&A review to fill it out so you know what's going on?

So the QA is done after we go on a medical call. The paramedic fills out their patient care report. Then it has to be reviewed. So if somebody has a heart attack or a stroke, they have to make sure that on the report was documented that they provided the specific level of service mandated by the medical director. So that QA would go back and check the report to make sure that everything is taken care of. If they miss something, they have a one-on-one session to go, hey, you know, you forgot to document this, or you forgot to give a specific medication, and they will go back and do some training to make sure that it's completed next time.

Well, I just had to call 911 about 10 days ago. I didn't get anything about a Q&A. I had the ambulance take me.

Yes, I'm sorry. So the quality assurance is an in-house program. It doesn't go back to the citizen that we provided care for. It's just to make sure that documentation and service is provided correctly.

Based on the reason that they appear? Yes. Okay. Yes. You did a great job, by the way.

Thank you.

Once again, I like the question about the... F-150 that you're replacing. Yes, ma'am. Do you auction off the old one and bring revenue back into the city, or you just?

No, it would go to surplus. This would be a replacement vehicle, and the old one would go to surplus.

Any other questions?

Anything? I think we're good, Sam. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thanks, Sam.

You did real good, Sam.

Thank you very much.

All right, next on the agenda is citizens comments. I have a few here. So I'll bring you up once at one at a time. You got three minutes to speak and we have Angela Vance.

Good evening, I'm Angela Vance, West Taylor Road in DeLand. I've said it before, my address is DeLand, but my heart is here. And I attended the Sunday's historic talk on the school with the Cirrhosis Club, and it was wonderful. They are going to be doing more historic talks. I hope there's more attendance, although we did have a good number. You know, I learned so much that I didn't already know. I learned that the tract of land the school sits on was set aside, it was donated and set aside to forever be a site of education for the city. And I'm glad that they did choose to keep the school there, although my understanding is there was some discussion about moving it to a larger tract of land. But setting that aside, there's so much focus right now on the history and all the historic places that we are blessed to have here in Orange City and being able to maintain that. And I know that there's a very small section on our website with some very limited information. And I would like to see that the city build a historic section on the website with subpages for things like the founders of the city, the schools, the school itself so people can share memories and things. all the historic houses and buildings and places so that when people are coming to our city for festivals and things, they will be able to gain that information, especially since we are talking about building the downtown area, putting the markers in and all these things that we've been talking about. I think we really need to have a strong section on our page, and I know that there is a limit of funds available, there's a limiting of staff available, but I think that we have enough volunteers, hopefully within our organizations that do have a lot of information about our past, as well as our historic committee that now is functional. And then volunteers such as myself, that we could minimize the cost to the city to build a very functional and informational section of the city's website to cover the history and all the vast history that I don't think many people know about until now. And we've been blessed to have Daryl and others come up and help us learn about our history, and I think we need to maintain that. Thank you.

Okay, next up, Patrick Murphy.

Patrick Murphy, this evening here talking to you about the Orange City United Methodist Church, where I am chair of the trustees. And the subject is supporting community child care services and critical facility repairs for those child care services. The Orange City United Methodist Church has long served as a trusted community institution dedicated to supporting children, families, and working parents in Orange City, Florida. The church currently operates and plans to operate a much-needed child care center that provides safe, affordable, and reliable care for local families. to kidney meeting community needs the facility requires critical repairs and improvements necessary to ensure the safety accessibility and long-term sustainability of the center families throughout orange city continue to face a shortage of affordable quality child care options working parents depend on reliable child care in order to maintain employment and financial stability. Many local providers have long wait lists, limited hours, or costs that are unaffordable for low and moderate income families. Faith-based organizations often fill service gaps in underserved communities where additional childcare resources are urgently needed. Services provided by us right now and our tenant, who is Daisy's Bright Stars, include safe and supervised child care, early childhood education and development sports, before and after school programs, nutritional meals and snacks, autism specialized care, supportive services for working families, and in a trusted community centered environment. The importance to the community is for working parents and caregivers, single parent households, essential workers, low income, underserved families, early childhood learning and school readiness, local economic stability by enabling parents to remain in the workforce. requiring investment in child care infrastructure directly that strengthens families employers and the broader local community in our specific case our child care facility is located in our education building which does not have sprinklers Okay, as of 2023, sprinkler installation for preschool daycares is a necessity. We happen to have a separate facility, we call it our youth building, that needs rehabilitation, needs sprinklers, needs a parking lot, needs external repairs, needs a new playground installed. So what we are looking for is community support that gets us help. I'd like to give a handout to the council members for that, if I may.

Thank you.

Next up, we have Ellen Wintemuth.

Good evening, Council. My name is Ellen Wintermuth and I live at John Knox Village, a CCRC here in Orange City. This is my first time addressing you and I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I want to begin by thanking you for the progress that you've already made on the flooding after heavy thunderstorms. I know that addressing these problems takes time, planning, and resources and I appreciate the work that's already been done. At the same time, I want to say plainly that more still needs to be done. Hurricane season is here, and that makes storm water and drainage a serious concern for many of us. When streets flood or drainage systems cannot handle the rain, it affects safety access and the peace of mind of many residents, especially older residents who may have more difficulty getting around during or after the storm. so I'm asking the council to keep this issue a priority please continue focusing on the areas that still flood make sure drainage systems are being maintained regularly and help residents understand what's been completed and what is still planned I appreciate the progress that's been made and I hope the city will keep moving forward to better protect our neighborhoods before the next major storm thank you

and we have one more daryl victor good evening council daryl victor 244 north levitt avenue and good evening uh mr acting mayor um i may have jumped the gun uh today i'm uh going to talk about very briefly that the historic board met finally they had quorum and they voted unanimously three zero to um to designate or to advance onto the board to designate that the area between east graves and university which is levitt avenue be designated as connecticut corner i brought handouts but i think i've jumped the gun because apparently the council can or cannot vote on this this session or have to wait until mr ruiz brings it to council i'm not sure how it works but i do have handouts but these are handouts you have seen previously just reminding the council that it was historically known as connecticut corner and also from newspapers and and it's a map as well that you've all seen before and a historical picture of the meeting of the connecticut CORNER COLONY PEOPLE SO I CAN HOLD IT AND WAIT UNTIL YOU HEAR FROM MR. RUIZ BUT UM IT WOULD BE GREAT IF YOU VOTED ON IT TODAY IF YOU COULD BRING IT UP AND VOTE ON IT WHATEVER YOU'D LIKE THANK YOU VERY MUCH THANK YOU YEAH WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT FOR MR. RUIZ TO RIGHT YES OKAY ALL RIGHT THANK YOU NEXT IS THERE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA

I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Okay, we have a motion. Second. We have a second. Any comment from the public? Seeing none, I'll bring it back. Ms. Caley?

Council Member Stafford? Yes. Council Member Darmes? Yes. Council Member Knight? Yes. Vice Mayor Grimm? Yes. Motion passes.

Okay. Ordinance, first readings, we have none. Public hearing, audience's second and final reading. We have none. Resolution number 432-26. Mr. Waters, could you read that please?

Yes, Sir.

This is resolution number 4, 3, 2 dash 2, 6. This is a resolution of the City Council of the City of Orange City, Florida. Relating to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection State Revolving Fund adopting adoption of the water facility plan for the implementation of needed improvements, repealing all resolutions or parts of resolutions in conflict here with providing severability and providing for an effective date. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you.

Vice Mayor, Council Members, my name is Robert Lawler. I'm the Utility Services Director for Orange City. With me tonight, I have John Keene, who's with Plummer & Associates, the principal and Florida area leader. So tonight, this is a required public meeting for the South Water Treatment Plant and the Associated State Revolving Fund Facility Plan. So some background information about our South Water Treatment Plant. So it has a capacity of about four million gallons a day. Doesn't mean we put out that much. So right now, that South Water Treatment Plant along Harley-Strickland produces between 60 and 70% of the city's water. and the current treatment includes pulling out from the aquifer chlorinating it aerating the water then chlorinated again and then sending it out to the people so it's critical that these improvements to the There's a long-term need to sustain water quality and reliability on the South Water Treatment Plant. So the South Water Treatment Plant includes four groundwater wells, two along Veterans Memorial Parkway, and actually all four along Veterans Memorial Parkway. Two are across from Home Depot on the hospital property, and two are across from the new Park Hill development. So some background information of water quality issues that we see at the South Water Treatment Plant. There's iron that's naturally present in all groundwater. But the groundwater that's at South, Wells six and seven that serve the South Florida treatment plant have at or exceed the secondary drinking water standard for iron. We also have an occurrence with disinfection byproducts that can occur with organic matter in water, and when you have to add chlorine to disinfect, that can create some issues. And then third most, we have the new forever chemicals, or what we call PFAS, so this is a new mandate from the EPA. So tonight we're gonna review the facility plan and our step forward for state funding. So why they're needed, the alternatives that we evaluated, the best water treatment approach, how the project can be funded, our schedule, and then address any questions you have, then finally consider the resolution. So from here I'm gonna hand it off to John.

Thank you, Robert, Vice Mayor, Council, city staff, members of the public. My name is John Keene. I'm the professional engineer and principal with Plummer Associates. It's a water infrastructure engineering firm that has been supporting the city on this effort. Before discussing the recommendations, I'd like to briefly highlight the planning work that has been done leading up to this point. Starting back in March of 2022, working with the city, our staff had developed an integrated water supply plan that was adopted by the city council back in March of 2023. From there, we led into a pilot testing study that was about a six month long effort where we tested two technologies that were recommended out of the integrated water supply plan. and fortunately about midway through that study we were awarded from the state about 3.5 million dollars to complete the planning phase and the design phase for both the south water treatment plant and country village plant so we're very fortunate to have that with that funding led into the state revolving fund facility plan which we're going to talk about today Before we do that, I want to address PFAS. Who here has ever heard about PFAS? Forever Chemicals. So the things that make PFAS so great on products, your pots, your pans, your clothes, your furniture, unfortunately that coffee cup, Vice Mayor. is a forever chemical. It's hard to break it down, and it lasts in the environment for a long time and forever. It's found in food, water, everyday products, and is linked to health risks. So from that, the EPA identified this issue and started taking action to limit what is known as PFAS in our drinking water. And the city has been testing and reporting. And unfortunately, two of the wells that serve the South Water Treatment Plant have PFOA and PFAS in it. So it's a little bit of history on the timeline of this, because there's been some confusion between the Biden administration and the Trump administration. So in the middle of the Biden administration, back in March of 20, March 14th, 2023, um, EPA announced proposed PFAS national primary drinking water regulation on six components. There's thousands of PFAS compounds that decided to regulate the six most dangerous components of that. Back in April of 2024, they came out with published maximum containment levels for PFOA, PFOS, and four others, and set a compliance deadline for April 26, 2029. Fast forward to last year, around this time, May 14th, 2025, the Trump administration came into office and they announced the intent to resend some of those MCLs and reduce the number of compounds that were regulated. And just as early as last week, they came back and confirmed the two compounds that they were going to regulate, which happened to be the two compounds that are found in the South water drinking plant. And they did. Um, so they're gonna uphold the maximum containment level to four parts per trillion. Um, the deadline still holds at April 26th, 2029, but cities such as orange city can apply to get that extended to 2020, 2031. So just to give you guys an idea of scale on what four parts per trillion looks like, that's essentially one drop in 20 Olympic sized swimming pools. So quite the challenge to not only monitor and identify it, but also to remove it and confirm it's been removed. There's a bit of tolerance of error in how we sample these things and how we report them. If you're not careful, sometimes you can actually show an increase in PFAS just because the equipment we're using to test it. So what alternatives were evaluated to improve the treatment? Like I said, we started back in 2022 with the integrated water supply plan that was adopted in March of 23. There were about a dozen technologies that we reviewed. Two of those that rose to the top that we felt were the best fit for the city was granular activated carbon and fixed bed ion exchange. Both those two were piloted. We started the pilot in August of 24. It ran for three months, and we completed that report September 2025. And what that confirmed for us was, yes, in fact, GAC, ion exchange, are great technologies for reducing PFAS in the city's groundwater. We confirmed that the pretreatment that we would need to use to get the effective treatment of PFOS, which is a presser vessel to remove iron, worked successfully. And we were able to use that real data to develop full-scale alternatives for the cities that we could evaluate. Like I mentioned before, we did secure the $3.5 million in grant funding. So that led us into the approval to do the facility plan. And the facility plan is the next step to secure construction funding to implement the improvements. So there are three alternatives and there's pre-coordination and pressure filtration in all three of these. That's the pretreatment to remove iron. Alternative one included the GAC, granular activated carbon, to remove organic material to address the disinfection byproducts that Robert mentioned and GAC to address PFAS that Robert mentioned. Alternative two included just ion exchange to address TOC and PFAS. The ion exchange used a organic specific resin to remove organics and a PFAS specific resin to remove PFAS. And then we created this hybrid alternative that we're calling the hybrid alternative number three, which uses both technologies. So before we, as we got into the evaluating these alternatives, there's a handful of things that we called critical success factors that we identified that were crucial in all three of these. First was regulatory compliance. We wanted to make sure that you guys were, we recommended an alternative that met the regulatory compliance needs. Two, that it was affordable and safe and reliable. So as we went through, there were a handful of things that we had to consider. Two out of the three alternatives had a waste stream that included some high chlorides that we would have to coordinate with Lucia County. It was important that we got them up to speed on that waste stream, and we got some input from them on what they'd be expecting from us as far as removal of that. Of course, staying in compliance with SRF. We didn't want to miss a deadline or complete a facility plan that disqualified you from that. So it was really important that we considered the compliance need of SRF. And then proving cost-effective technologies. We didn't want to select a technology that was completely new to the city, that the operators didn't have experience operating. And we wanted something that was proven within the same area of Volusia County. So those were the factors that we considered. And then ease of operations. We didn't want to create, well, there's going to be a lot more operation work in here. We want something that could be easily operated and didn't require a substantial amount of training. So starting with alternative one, this is pressure filtration plus granular activated carbon. Now who has a carbon filter in their refrigerator at home? Not one, two, couple. So envision this as that filter on steroids. This is essentially a large carbon filter. And this carbon filter absorbs contaminants. It can absorb the organics. It can absorb the PFAS. And we have this as the highest cost alternative in lower risk. And the reason why it's the highest cost alternative is because that media absorbs these toxins but would have to be replaced occasionally, three to six months, three to nine months. It's a lot of money to replace that media that frequently. The reason why it's low risk is it's a proven technology. There's a lot of similar sized utilities that have been using this technology. And there's no waste stream that we'd have to send to Volusia County. So that risk component was taken out. Alternative two is pressure filtration plus ion exchange with organic media resin and ion exchange with PFAS-specific media resin. And who here has a water softener at home? Okay, a couple. This is very similar to a water softener. I'm going to try not to get too far into chemistry here, but the analogy that I would use is the TOC resin would have a chloride ion that it would exchange for organic. So you're exchanging something and removing a toxin out. The PFOS resin would have an ion that would exchange PFOS for chloride. So you're exchanging something in a process. medium cost. We put it on a medium side of the risk because there are side streams that we'd have to send to Volusia County. Then the hybrid pressure filtration ion exchange with TOC resin and GAC. So this is what we found is kind of like the best case scenario between both alternatives. We would use an organic selective media for the ion exchange to remove TOC, and then we would use GAC, granular activated carbon, to remove the PFOS in the back end. This provided the best combination of removing these contaminants with the lowest operational costs. So just reviewing the capital costs across all three, you can see that within the tolerance of error, all three were within the same range, 27.5 to about 28 million, so within the tolerance of error for estimating. But you can definitely see a significant difference between the 20-year net present worth O&M costs. That's where we saw the significant reduction in O&M, which led to us recommending alternative three. So just to give you a summary of some of these improvements, everything you see on the orange in the site plan, those are the new ion exchange and GAC technology, along with the pressure filtration. The rendering to the left is the existing site plan. And the reason why I wanted to show that, and I'm not sure if the fire chief is still here, Let's see if I can risk it right there. There's the fire station building and the garage for the fire trucks. There's a lot of coordination we're going to have to do to make sure the fire station isn't interrupted as far as service with this project. And that's what the improvements would look like. It's a conceptual rendering of alternative three. And again, I probably could have taken out the fire station because by then hopefully you have a new fire station built. But I wanted to keep it in there just to illustrate the fact that we're gonna be talking frequently to the fire chief and the folks doing that job to make sure we don't interrupt them and we're still able to provide safe drinking water. So how will we fund this? Our first primary goal is to continue with SREV funding. We've been successful there. We've been in communication with the state. We want to stay in compliance with our deadline. Like I said, we have the $3.5 million grant for planning and design. Our goal is to meet their deadline for submitting our design package by June 2027 and pursue a grant construction funding.

That's the goal.

In addition to that, we've also been exploring other grant opportunities. And we've actually, as recent as last year, we did submit for a multi-million dollar grant with the EPA. We're still waiting for the results of that. It was very competitive. We're not sure where we'll land there, but fingers crossed. And then three, and this is where we might come to you all for some help, is to lobby our state representation with the House Senate and House Reps and explain the situation and see if there's some funding we can seek from the state. At the end of the day, the goal here is to reduce the impact on rate payers by pursuing grant funding. With that, I'll turn it over to Robert to walk through the implementation schedule.

Great thanks John so yes picking up from tonight so we're proposing to adopt the facility plan tonight on the consent agenda you also awarded the contract for the design to Plummer and Associates so we plan on having a kickoff for the design shortly after that way we can have a hundred percent design prepared to seek funding next August for these improvements so let's say funding is approved by the state revolving fund next august we would look to go out to bid the next fiscal year uh issue a construction contract by the end of the calendar year and then start construction with the 18-month schedule so that's in a perfect world but again that's why we kind of tiered out that design and the facility plan into three needs The iron that you guys see in the water, or that some customers may see in the water today, the disinfection byproducts, that is an established mandate that is a serious concern that our staff constantly manages wells in order to make sure that we stay in compliance. And then finally PFAS once those come into regulation. So we tiered this design in the event we do have a shortcoming of financing to where we can pursue, let's say, phase one and two, and then later pursue phase three. So next steps. Recommendation is to adopt the facility plan through resolution 432.26. Pending any questions.

Robert, is there any type of reading of total dissolved solids? How low are they gonna be by going with the system? I know water's rated by... Oh, for sure.

Yeah, so that is something that we do have to ensure is in compliance. As of today, we are in compliance. So that is something that we do test for as a parameter, 100%. Okay, thank you.

Is there a motion?

Do we have any ideas of other grants currently? Do we already have some ideas of grants that we could go out for to help pay for this?

So the EPA after they did that announcement last week did announce a potential award of some funding in the state of Florida but I know John and Plummer as part of their design they are going to help the city seek funding. So I'm not sure.

We have a funding specialist that we work with internal to our company, and he's been tasked to identify grants and loan opportunities that the city would qualify for. So one of our first deliverables that we'd be giving you all is a list of these opportunities that we believe that you would be competitive to submit on and to get some feedback from staff on which ones they would like us to respond to. I don't have a list of the names of all those, but I'll certainly be providing that later.

Okay, the next step is, is there a motion for this resolution?

Chair, I'd like to make a motion to adopt budget amendment resolution number 431-26. To adopt resolution number 432-26. We have a motion.

A second. We have a second. Any comment from the public on this? Yes, ma'am, come up.

My name is Joan Cornette and I live in John Knox Village. The iron content in our water is outrageous. We even have a full house filter and it's still outrageous. What is this new plan going to do to help eliminate the iron supply that we're dealing with? It's in our clothes, it's in our drinking water, it's everywhere.

So in every alternative that we evaluated included iron removal with oxidation and pre-filtration. So that is included in alternative three that we're recommending. Iron is the first thing that we need to remove, not only to meet your drinking water standards, but to ensure the downstream processes function efficiently.

And I'll add, if you do have water quality concerns, please feel free to bring them up with staff. We have staff members that will go out to your address and attend to those Immediate water quality issues to clear up any water discoloration now Please understand that if a community is master metered the city only has the right to clean the water up to That point of metering and then after that it's up to the private development to maintain the water quality after the water meter So if you want to connect with me afterwards then we can talk further

Thank you. Kaylie, I'll bring it back to you.

Council Member Knight?

Yes.

Council Member Darmes? Yes. Council Member Stafford? Yes. Vice Mayor Grimm? Yes. Motion passes.

Okay, B, resolution 43326. Mr. Waters, would you please?

Certainly vice mayor. This is resolution number 4 3 3 dash 2 6 a resolution of the City Council of the City of Orange City, Florida adopting the 2026 wastewater master plan and septic to sewer phase out update by Jones Edmonds and Associates Inc. Repealing all resolutions or parts of resolutions in conflict here with providing for severability and providing for effective date vice mayor.

Vice Mayor, council members, Robert again. So this is my second of third tonight. So this is regarding the 2026 wastewater master plan update. So some background in 2018, Joe's Edmonds completed the prior septic tank phase out master planning. And then since 2018, we've had quite a bit of development growth. We've had the CRA septic to sewer designs. And then we had Volusia County that constructed that Dell North lift station in North Deltona near Normandy. So some background of why septic to sewer is a push in Volusia County is the Volusia Blue Spring and Basin Management Action Plan. So it establishes the total maximum daily load for nitrogen that we're able to put into the groundwater. The FDEP assigned Orange City a reduction requirement of 16,351 pounds per year of total nitrogen by 2038. So for some context, I provided a little heat map on the left. So the low is the orange, the medium is the blue, and the green is the high. so one septic tank is worth 1.6 in the low if you do it near the medium area it's worth five times as much 8.1 ton uh total nitrogen and then a high is actually nine times as much as a low so really our plan is from here on out to target the green for the most bang for your buck So purpose of the plan, establishing a framework for addressing the nutrient pollution by 2038, accounting for recent expansion of the wastewater system with this new development. Oh, and I guess that's points two and three. You can see the fun graphic that Chad Sheeby team made with the manatee on the right. So location of septic tanks, you can see here on the map, the yellow and the blue are either areas that we've already constructed or areas that we have designs for. It's mainly CRA and along 1792. And those red dots is where we don't have designs in hand to date. So a summary of the new projects that we've proposed with Jones Admins and Associates. So these large ones, our goal is that what we felt the most bang for the buck is one, two, and three. That's that orange, green, and purple color in order to accomplish all three by 2038 in order to help meet those reduction goals. Four through seven were provided as alternatives in case we don't choose to do one through three. or if there's some hindrance to do so. Along the way, we also have to do some improvements to existing lift stations. That includes an improvement to the pumps at the Coleman Park lift station along East Blue Springs, the new West Graves lift station by Ron's Hardware, and then the Southwest 60 by Enterprise in Saxon. That's like a master lift station that's run by the county, but primarily serves city water. So recommendation tonight is to adopt the resolution 433-26, adopting the 2026 Wastewater Master Plan and subject to sewer phase-out update prepared by Jones Edmonton Associates, Inc. Any questions?

i wanted to ask the questions about the um tanks down on like you said mills lake area yes because i've noticed it's been quite a few people down like working on them once especially one on east blue springs no yeah east blue springs and over on orange avenue what's the what what type of problems are they having there

wastewater mm-hmm so we're nearing the completion of the construction project along South Orange to bring that new lift station online once that new lift stations online we'll be able to begin connecting people along Orange Avenue parts 11 including the elementary school some of Clark Street part of graves as well so once we bring that so it's a lot of construction it's right next to that basketball hoop and mill lake so once they finish that up we're hoping the next month or two we'll get some more people off of septic tanks get them on the city sewer and uh help that us get to this 2038 goal any other questions okay do we have a motion for resolution three four three three dash two six

I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution number 433-26 adopting the 2026 wastewater master plan and subject to sewer phase out update prepared by Jones Edmonds and Associates.

I second. We have a motion. We have a second. Is there any comments from the audience? Seeing none. Kaylee, please.

Council Member Darm.

Yes.

Yes Yes Mr. Waters, would you please?

Yes, sir.

This is resolution number four three four two

Resolution of the City Council of the City of Orange City, Florida, adopting the 2026 Reclaim Water Master Plan by Jones Edmonds and Associates Inc., repealing all resolutions or parts of resolutions in conflict herewith, providing for severability and providing for an effective date. Thank you, sir.

Robert? All right, so final presentation for me for the night is 2026 Reclaim Water Master Plan. So background on this one, part of that 2018 plan done by Joe Zinemans also considered prior reuse expansion planning work to pair with septic to sewer. So the 2026 plan considers existing and future demands inclusive of new development, creating a hydraulic model for the city's reclaimed water system, just to see how the current system operates and what pressure issues may or may not be occurring, and then recommending improvements in the system. So, purpose of the plan, the original intention, part of the West Volusia Water Suppliers group between ourselves, Delan Deltona, and Volusia County had initial recharge goals for Cup and St. John's, but later that changed once further central Florida modeling occurred. So from there, we've transitioned that to really The more you irrigate with reclaimed water the less you use drinking water So now you have more water to supply to people for drinking water purposes So it also this addresses pressure concerns When you know you have a ton of users or people that are served off of a dead-end line And then creates a framework for expansion as future development comes in you want future development to connect to reclaim water and not drinking water when they irrigate So, project summary. So, essentially these are getting plans ready in the event a development comes through to where we can seek cost sharing, partnering, working together in order to serve them reclaimed water. So, the first project is addressing a current pressure concern along Harley. Right now we have dead ends to the hospital and dead ends at Junior Street near Saxon Trace. So this idea would be to partner it if we end up doing a road improvement project of Harley partnering the reclaimed line construction into that job in order to loop and create better pressures and then potentially connect reclaimed users along that commercial route other projects it includes a veteran Memorial Parkway extension which would serve reclaimed water to customers whether it's able door and trim whether it's the new monastery village those type of properties there's consideration for a storage tank in on Kentucky Avenue to help supplement water needs again modeling the correct size of pipe to meet our needs near that golf course connection potential expansion up Levitt Avenue up to Graves and then expansion along Graves up to the elementary school so as a recommendation recommend to adopt resolution 434-26 adopting the 2026 reclaimed water master plan by Jones Edmundson Associates Inc

Hey, Robert, the reclaimed water, that comes from Volusia County?

Yes. And we are charged for it, but then we do, because we operate and maintain the system, we do charge out the customers, but it's a cheaper rate than they would pay as if they used drinking water.

Okay. Do we have a motion for Resolution 43426?

Chair, I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution number 43426, adopting the 2026 reclaimed water master plan prepared by John Edmond and Associates.

Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? I second. Okay, we have a motion. We have a second. Is there anybody in the public who would like to speak on this? Seeing none, Ms. Caley?

Councilmember Knight?

Yes.

Councilmember Darmes? Yes. Councilmember Stafford? Yes. Vice Mayor Graham? Yes. Resolution 434.26 passes. Okay. Next.

Let's see. Discussions and actions. We have none at this time. Reports. City Manager. Hello.

Good evening. I'll be brief. I will be away this Wednesday through Saturday attending the FCCMA conference with other city county managers just here in Orlando, so I'm not too far. So I will be out of the office starting tomorrow about 11 o'clock, and I'll be back in town late Saturday. So if you need me, I'll have my phone. I'll be working, checking my emails.

Can you have your trusty assistant over there?

I do. I have my trusted assistant who will be readily available. And I will issue an email with his name and phone number. And I encourage you to reach out in my absence. But that's really all I have. If you have any questions of me. All right.

Thank you. Ms. Caley, anything?

Nothing to add.

Nothing to add. City Attorney. nothing for the group vice mayor wow all right is there any new business rule of the minutes we already did um anybody from the council have any comments additions anything they want to say no no how about you I'm good also, so I just need a motion to adjourn. I make a motion to adjourn. I second. Okay, all in favor? Aye.