City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, When you're call December 9th, 2025 city council meeting in the order remind everybody to silence their cell phones. homes. Miss Anita is going to lead us in opening prayer, father, by the pledge of allegiance. Father,

humbly and gracious father, we come to you right now, Lord, with our ears and humble hearts, Lord, telling we thank you, oh God. Thank you, God, for waking us this morning and prepared each and one of us to go our ways, God, as you direct us. We ask you right now, Lord, to decrease each and one of us up on this podium to make the right decisions for the city. In these blessings, we ask in your name. Amen. Amen. I pledge algiance 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. Roll call, please. Councilman Bry,

Hampton here. Council War here. Lrying here. Mayor K. Item number three, approval of items on the consent agenda. Approval to read by title only. Resolution 2025-34. Resolution 2025-35. Have a motion. Motion. Council Bry. Yes. Council Hampton. Yes. Woodfall. Yes. Landry. Yes. Mayor.

Yes. Item number four. Receiving request from the general public. Is there anyone here who wants to speak who is not on the agenda? Andy. Andy Jackson 411 Plantation Road. Hey, I'll be brief and complimentary. You folks in the city of Ferry have received a historic grant for your infrastructure. I want you to know that's that's like lightning strike twice. This will probably never happen again in the history of this city or this town. And a lot of credit goes to a lot of people, including the city council, including our city manager, Don Hart.

Yes. including air and his staff. But I want to point out that all of these questions about your infrastructure started with Duke Energy and their site radius project. That's where we found out that there were some opportunities to improve both our water and wastewater. So when you go guys give credit to everybody, remember your folks at Buke Energy for starting this process of just simply asking the questions. Thank you and congratulations again. Thank you. Thank you all so much to every wonderful.

Okay. Out of number five bids and RFQS. We have we still have two deals. We just have one insurance. All right. We're about to redo the board. All right.

I think there's some something we're supposed to read before, but we don't have all that info, but we we know what it is. So, the first one is Yeah, these are just RFPs. RFPs. Okay. So, we'll read who it is. No insurance broker.

The pole barn has to be redid. This one is from Boyd Insurance and Investments. Just

everything What about this one is from Hub Public Risk Incorporated. What's the first name? Hub HUV Public Risk Incorporated. And we only received the two. That's what came in the box. Yes. It's a bunch of binders.

A bunch of binders. I saw two. The first one was void insurance and the second one was hub hub public. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. There's no quotes. This is proposal, right?

The dollar amount probably is in there, but it's it wasn't apples to apples. We want to see how they would go about solving this problem we have. But they give you the proposal how they would do it and what it would cost. And I was going to take a whole month to rank them, but I got them already ranked one and two. is our top two. You want me to bring get them to come back in the next meeting and give their presentation? Sure. They they want to. Yeah, that would be great. And that's I was going to rank if there was five of them. I was going to rank the top two or three and have them come present. I only have two. Bring those two. All right. Thank you.

Okay. We'll move on to general business. 10 item 6A Thomas Edwards second Tommy Edwards is going to address the council and council will take any action if necessary.

Good afternoon council.

Afternoon. My name is Thomas the second 47 road. Uh just a little bit about me. Um, I've lived here 54 of my 58 years of Perry. So, I consider this home my father's home. Uh I always said growing up as I got older in the high school and everything uh politics didn't interest me. Uh didn't really like politicians because in most cases they always have their own agendas instead of the agenda of the people they're supposed to be serving as a group. And with that in mind, for the last uh 17 years, 2008, 2020, I was back for here in Albany, Georgia with Proctor Gamble. And every time I come home, I'd read the paper and I'd read and read. Okay. So, in 2020, I come home about when CO was kicking off. They'll take care of my mother. And again, this time I had plenty of time with the speed law now to read the paper. Got to say, I'm not going to be necessarily as complimentary as a fellow that spoke before me. A little bit disappointed. I mean, there's no children here for all the wrongs. But when I reading the paper and when I've come and seen for the last couple months and I've been here and the county commission meetings, I I think there's a lot of irresponsibility in uh some of the requests that are being asked for grants. I know it's grand money, it's not coming out of your pocket, so to speak, but it's got to be spent, but in the last two or three years with everything that's happened. I think in my opinion, we could use some of these dollars a lot more widely than some of the requests

I've heard. one specifically that really really kind of chaps my butt is the one about the uh pool because to me that's a very luxury item and I did hear it asked to be put on the five-year agenda and I'm not sure what's on the 5-year agenda list but at the same time it seems like it's uh a localized area where it's being requested be put back and all the other ones have been filled along with it a long time ago for whatever reason whether it's cost of maintenance, cost of staffing, lack of interest. And I did a little more digging and I want the board to consider this when they're thinking about it before if they do go with this project. I went to the FDAL website and within we can do a one or we can do a two mile radius of that location of sexual predators and offenders. So, if we go two miles out from 1201 Marlu King Avenue, it shows me 21 sexual offenders, four sexual predators, two multiple offenders. And then if we go just one mile out, it goes to nine sexual offenders, two sexual predators, one multiple offender. So I hope whenever you consider that project that weighs heavily in your decision in whether to do it or not because that's basically u feed them the candy is right there for them and that's just the ones that are registered who know who who who who

knows who might want to join that list but right now we don't know who they are and I can give you a little more information about that you want to look at it. All you got to do to find out anything about them, you just touch the top of the house that it shows and it'll show you exactly who they are. And this isn't a race thing based on the uh address because they're white, black, Hispanic, they're all there. So, that to me would be very important if I were a parent. But if you're a single parent, you're a full mother uh parent raised child. Couple other things in reading the paper. I'm basing a lot of what I've written down on what I've written or read comments uh basically about money. When I read that the cost of a vehicle isn't necessarily as important as the cost of this water project we're talking about doing out on the uh that

no no Dixie. Yes. Uh right now every dollar is important. Every dollar is important. At least to me it is. I'm I don't come from money and I was raised to respect your money and you know you you try to do the right thing and I ask everybody here to you know maybe once we get straightened out then let's look at some of the luxury stuff right now I don't think we have the luxury of considering luxury out we need to take care of the roads and maybe some of the buildings u that to me is important u question. Do you consider the water project a luxury?

No, ma'am. That's a necessity. Okay. Well, I'm talking about luxury. I'm talking about a pool. Yeah, I know that's a luxury. The way you phrased it, it sounded like we were against the water project. No, no, no. Because it was a luxury.

No, that's all I'm saying. Sorry, you misunderstood me. The other thing I've heard, you know, you bringing in new business, you know, I've heard people talk about, well, let's not let's not uh sell ourselves out, sell ourselves short. Well, why don't we do this? Why don't instead of telling them what we can give them, what we can do for them, why don't we ask them basically what they need instead of just throwing the farm, you know, just throwing it all out there and maybe we give them more than what they really need. Ask them what they need. Some question. What do you need for us to get you here? Might save some money. Um, and if this group, I'm not sure how much y'all have to do with attracting new business or what your part is in it. It's going to be hard to get another cash cow like we had out there for as long as we did. They made a lot of millionaires in this county. At one point I was part of that and when I got on there I was hoping to become one of those millionaires right along with everybody else. Well, it fell. Didn't happen. But you got to pick up your boots, keep going. What I would like to ask y'all is if you play a part in that or know somebody who does maybe and you can look right down the strip right now. What we're attracting about all we can attract seems like are poverty level jobs. Who's going to stay those jobs? I mean long term not very many people. It's going to be a revolving door. But if you have any influence over it, maybe consider something that's not a poverty level job that the young people one day can come into. Like I said, it's going to be hard to beat that out there on a financial retirement end. You might want to speak with

commissioners. I'll be there on that. I'll be there. 16.

Okay. The other issue I'd like to bring up is uh you did one actually. I actually pulled it up right there before I got to talk about the uh website. I actually was able to find the date and time that it was today. So, thank you for that. Um, another thing, and I know you want to revisit I remember you uh saying you wanted to revisit the uh extra day and which one y'all might want to eliminate for 2026. I'd be I think if I worked as one of the city workers if it were possible I think it's very uh empowering to maybe have a that little bit of say to say hey as a group maybe put something in your check envelope asking as a group what day do you want with them instead of it being set by you or him maybe let your employee say and and majority rules. Let them choose because there have been things thrown at uh business where it's all mandates like yes, we got to do it because we're we're the law. We're the government. Too much government. We've got way too much government and and I'm starting right here and it says we got too much government in this city. Too big for the size we are. Uh I do want to say a little bit about what what really bothered me earlier when I spoke about pool was, you know, it's easy to ask for that kind of money because it's not real money right now. It's an it's an ask. The part that I really had a problem with was when this man right here asked to amend his budget or uh project

uh amount where he needed 600 bucks and basically he was scoffed at for that. Now I think y'all had a point that the environment those booths were going to be in they didn't need to be going home with him or used for anything but work and the job he was going to be doing. So I agree with you on that. But uh I hope y'all found it some way. And when you asked for two million bucks, 600 bucks drop almost started to pay for my det. I think I even heard him say he would do it. He shouldn't have to do that. Okay. Um so that policy. All right. So, is there a policy in place with people's job descriptions because I've heard the rumbling people talking about, you know, why you guys are do do 4:00 meetings. Okay. Um, very hard most people most people maybe the earliest get off at 4:00 on normal jobs and okay, maybe you don't get participation. Some of that could have been from the uh website not being updated. I don't even know how long you had a website, but so I consistently went today's first day I went to lucky and I actually was able to see it. So I'm glad to see that. But if you know from history that if you were to say go back five just say give a try and then you don't get participation. Okay, maybe we warrant four o'clock. But in my experience, most people that have salary positions, there's usually a clause in there where basically your day don't stop, particularly at 4 or 5:00. You go to the job done. And that's the in most cases that I've been involved

with. That's the understanding of accepting a salary position is that you may have to go to a 5:00 meeting a couple times a month that you're going to be late for dinner or something with your kids or your family. Trust me, I did a lot of sacrificing when I was at that middle. I did a lot of shift work, did a lot of hours. So, I just want I appreciate you all if you consider that. And I think with that I'm going to stop there. But if anybody is interested in looking up that uh information I told you about sexual offenders and predators, all you got to do is go to the FD Flee website and it will show you. You can look yourself. You might have to pay my word for it.

Um and my opinion A cold is not adultery. It is a need. Children need learn how to speak and learn for safety. We also do that by water. Now I don't want to bring uh any race into it but I have to the majority of black kids do not know how to swim. The majority of folks there they're there are those who have they don't have the luxury of we have to look out for them as we look out for others. Now as far as sexual predators that's all around not just around in that area. Now if if you think that the pool should be located somewhere else, I understand that. But there is a need. It's not a luxury. It's a need. Now it's going back to the meetings. When you say together, I've been in 6:20. 5:00 there's no money. 6:00 there's no money. and they are aware that we have now it's up to counselor if they want to take it back to back God but your reason for it is showing not to work um for us or for anyone else and we

keep the mean going and anytime someone walks in and they need to counsel they are allowed to and we stay as long as we have to we don't get got to get 5:00 6:00. It depends on what is brought before the council. Uh there was one other thing. Now it is our responsibility to set uh holiday season and everything else. It is not up to the employees to decide what days they have. That's going to be a different personal holiday. that they can take off at any time. Now the city is also is also our responsibility to think of the quality of life in John has done a very good job of taking care of what needs to be done in the city. So the pool is not anything that's going to happen. It is a need and there are a lot of people who will feel this room and on the outside agree with that motivation. But I thank you for coming. Appreciate you.

And I think based on your comments, I think I might need to comment a little part. Go ahead. This is an agenda item and that's why I asked because I knew it would take longer than the five minutes. Go ahead, Mr. So since you want to bring race into it. So let's bring into it. Okay, ma'am. Yes, sir. white children aren't born from the womb and not knowing how to swim either. You know,

I learned how to swim in a creek away from alligator, snakes, make swim a little faster, make you learn a little quicker. Understand? Uh, personally, I wouldn't have a problem with the request for a pool if we're a little more centrally located for everybody to use. I agree. Okay. And I guess another question I would have is cost to maintain it, the cost to staff it. Now you have to create jobs. You have to have certified lifeguards to to oversee. Would there be security?

Oh, that could be included. At whose cost? At whose cost? the pool is not free. There will be a cause for them to now all of it has not been messed up, but I'm sure that who would be able to I don't know the word to use

maybe the same. Yes. So the fees at some point whatever it's decided they should be for a child for parent to use the pool that money would be used to for the chemicals to maintain it for the staffing to staff it for the training to train lifeguards which I'm sure isn't cheap. Well at some point the city's going to have to do something. So you're talking about taxpayers right? Is that what I'm hearing you say,

sir? Um, the only thing I'm going to say at this point is that there's a need for group and I will be advocating for along with everyone else that's going to attend and I'll be that meeting. That'll be fine, sir. I'd like to see it included in a school because uh it is teaching. I think that would be appropriate because then every child can use it and it be under a certain amount of supervision from the teachers that are there.

Completely amenable to that. Correct. So, so the problem is where it's located. It sounds like it would be well. It doesn't matter to me where it's located as long as we mention Jerkens because it's already set up, right? It wasn't those. Yeah. the high school D that that predates the J and there was the one over by the football hospital.

The one over by the hospital does not have the um the showers and everything. All of that is included at church and and at that time we did have different races come and use that pool. So I don't really think that's a problem because our children get along better than we adults do. There probably is something also. Yeah. Thanks for your time. Thank you. Mayor Ward. Yes, ma'am.

May I um maybe just add something to the dialogue just because it seems timely issue um regarding um potential opportunities for grant money for pool and water safety. Um, I did attend the Florida League of Cities Legislative Conference this past week, um, last week. And actually a part of my discussion about the things that I was learning was, and I kept in mind the projects that the members had talked about that are not necessarily our funding priority. And one of them happened to be water safety um attached to potential revenues or avenues, excuse me, avenues by which we may be able to start um the process of trying to gain momentum to justify as well as um provide grant money spec specific for water safety that may assist in small portions of creating an opportunity to justify pull. So, I thought if I could just speak to that real quick since we're talking about that now, and I did not know that that was one of the issues that would be talked about. Um, but I mean, Councilwoman Hampton said it very correctly, but I was surprised in some ways that um the Department of Health actually has a pretty big initiative right now regarding water safety. Um and um that's based on um seconds given seconds saves lives. Right now Florida is has always been a part of the top um states have had the most drownings based on you know we are a peninsula it's a tourist attraction but when it comes to deaths of one to four year olds were the number one nation I mean state in 2025 that had the highest deaths. there's already been well I don't know when the statistic was taken but there's been

over a hundred fatalities of young people dying and that may not sound a lot when you have millions in the state but that number is pretty high um and so I was just noting that the state of Florida and the state of Florida legislature has been described as making a priority the idea of water safety um and one of the issues that have come up just like with a number of facilities that used to be free and prevalent for the hospitals locally, but there's not many public pools anymore, and it's really hard to teach water safety without a water source. Um, and um I also wanted to know that there are um pool safety grants that are being made available. In fact, next June, there will be um vouchers permissible um to help pay for people to get swim lessons. I'm very curious as to how that may work for people in areas like ours that has no public facility, private or um government ran that it may be something that could be coordinated with the schools like getting kids up to Tallahassee. Um I'm not going to beat the dead horse. I just wanted to know because I was going to talk about it as a part um that because of water safety and the idea that we are having so many drowning deaths in lakes in pools in um open water resources um because our children black I mean there was no breakdown of race but our kids to live in a state that's surrounded three sides by water and not learning how to swim. So, um, I just wanted to note that there may be some resources that we didn't know of that may assist in those efforts because I I could imagine that water safety along with um other positive things that come from the the city investing in this would um be something I think would be really important in

pushing forward. Um, and I already noted that we did used to have at least two pools. I know I had one. We had two pools. I live over here. I grew up over here by Perry, the old Perry Primary. And um the general pool, that's where the Boys and Girls Club now is where I learned how to be a lifeguard, a junior lifesaver. And actually, maybe I was weird, but all the black people I knew knew how to swim then. And it may have been because I mean, we just all knew how to swim and I did have a pool. But um but just the idea that regardless of race, demographically, I think it is a positive um opportunity to help increase the protection of our children. So that's what I was going to share as a part of my um you know review of what I learned at the legislative conference. And they do have a new grant. It's not that new, but it's relatively new now with AI and more available um with the grant assistance program that the Florida League of Cities has where they're actually begging for cities to try their services to see if maybe grants were so much harder to locate back in the day with AI has become much easier.

And so I'll end with that. Agenda item 6B to discuss recent SRF funding announcement that's moving forward and council taking action necessary. Thank you and the mayor. Uh as you all know the I've read through the news uh the city got pretty substantial grant from SRF. U it's a good I think it's one of the biggest grants city ever got um and I'm here to answer any questions. I think uh the newspaper did a wonderful job. I think put everything in place. So I'll be glad to answer any and then I'll give you update on what's the next step will be. So uh

so it's going to be it's a five it's going to be completed in five years.

Yes, the project has to be done in five years. uh typically so the next step will be is city will get a letter um because it's you know it just got announced it's 30 days and then after that we will put an application together and once we do the application together um we'll have to do what is called a planning document where uh we will identify the projects that can be done um the way it was ranked I think the water the city was ranked number one so that means any fallout out of money which no other people don't take. The city is eligible for the funding because they were uh put on the bottom. So they were given number one on the water side and then they were was number one. So any funding nobody if somebody doesn't take city will get first but we have quite a bit of you know projects we put it in as many projects as we could. Do we get that automatically or do we have to apply for it?

So no, it's automatic. It's really boils down to you will not know for another year or so because you know everybody has to put their application in, everybody has to get their reports in and then DP if they deny anybody then you can automatically get those. Um another good news is we have 14 other application now. So this is one those will be CDBG they are and we will know probably what March February March is closer to the end of the year back

I don't remember it's just uh probably either end of the year or first of the year so once we receive all of those we'll come back and put a full plan together so right now what we are doing and what we did is we just put the 16 17 applications out to different agencies and the good news is we've got uh two of the big ones uh approved and hopefully we'll get some more and uh it will be more towards individual projects. So with that I'll answer any questions you have. Um the next step will be you'll get a letter then we'll go uh do a a report and once that report is approved it will be engineered and go ahead and do for construction. We got five years. Thank you so much for your help and uh helping us secure those funds.

Yeah, this is a team effort. You know, city staff were there, Mary Gav, there's about 20 other people involved in it and and we all were together, put it all together, including D folks, even though they gave us hard time on defending our projects, but you know, we were able to defend it. Um and then you have a uh you know good things ahead because you have 14 pending right now. So that so hopefully you'll get some of those. Um if I take one more minute the well projects I think you approved. So we are uh in the process of uh you know doing a test well. Okay. Um that is scheduled for less than

less than property. Yes. that will be um he gave me a date somewhere in the second week of January that they'll do the well drilling and they're fixing to send me a they needed some path clear to get the equipment out there to do the drill as well. So, we're going to give it to John and then we'll have to work out the detail of tearing out houses and we're doing all I think we're in the south in the right direction.

So, are you going to tell her how this from beginning to end? Who's going to take care of the the cost everything? That' be a good Okay. Yeah, we have. So, so mayor knows more about it. So, we were fortunate enough that or unfortunate five six years ago when I live in Panama City, we had the hurricane, we had the similar issues, there was similar funings. So, we knew

so so we knew about it. So, we as soon as Teddy was there and we we put together the plans together and says, "Okay, this is how we will do this uh whole project." So Panama City project is just finishing up. Uh they were not as fortunate as you are that you got all grants. You don't have to pay back some uh because of their size. So there is it's quite a bit of work. You have quite a bit of things put together. Uh once we know all the grants we applied for I'll say by March we'll put a plan together bring it to you and say this is how we have to do it. uh there are some challenges which you already face now is the labor force because you have to do these projects

and that will be the bigger challenge. So the way we have done in the past rather than uh we will meet with some of the contracting community here and see what their project sizes are and if they're you know they are smaller contracts but we'll may have to do some small projects and then maybe one or two big projects. So that's how we have to work through we will standardize all the work uh how we get these projects because five years will take approvals uh right now we don't even have a letter so once we have all that you'll be middle to end of next year before we put in the ground so when is the club going to start five years

it's already started it's already started already started so they are it's up to BP to send us the So we'll move forward fairly quickly on it. So we have a lot of experience doing similar work. So get the project would um want to have and Glenn Street fall anywhere on this or so the way how does that work? So the way we did is uh we these projects are approved as whole and the funding is not there yet here. So once we have the funding then we can work out how we you know which one comes first which one comes second. So right now we just put everything into as well.

So the legislation is the liftation is already going. It's coming through the rift grant. It's a rift grant. So it's design under design. We just had a review meeting. So in three months we'll have that out. Okay. What about the the piping? How long are we out on that one? Uh that one's with the piping product. Tell us more with the piping under the road that we plan. Andrew, we did the 90% review. Yes. Yeah, we're fixing to have the last review for here December for for red ground, but she talked about Glen Street. Glenn Street pipe it. Piping on Glen Street.

The pictures that you showed us of the piping under the ground. I have pictures of some of the work we done um where we rerouted horse man from Buffalo that dumped into Glenn Street and u whenever my time goes around I can go we haven't done the inside of the the wet well yet but we're probably going to do it next week or so. Yeah, that project I think we are doing. So okay, the city staff is amazing on some of those work. He's going to help us uh you know save quite a bit of cost by us doing in-house work because we don't have to pay contractor to do it. So there's a lot of work that's going to be done.

I have a question about labor. Um is that actually my question um you and then for you to say labor force may be the biggest challenge. So I have two questions. One is what um percentage typically will we expect to increase labor opportunities in the next five years based on this in our town versus the professional that may be coming out, you know, who's heading up the vision? And number two, is there a benefit or any consideration in coordinating with our local vocational college to use this opportunity to sort of direct people towards a type of skill building that would enable them to get a job or be available to be used as that labor force that we already may be lacking in just by visually thinking of numbers. So um in the next what is it by March we'll know all the grants and by end of next year uh we'll know when to you know what projects will be so that may be an opportunity for us to sit down with them that they majority of those projects will be for water and earth pipe layer u you know pipe fitters which is historically have worked in the paper mill so there may be some uh synergies there. So we will meet we can meet with them these projects are coming in but the employment of those will be through a contractor. So that's something uh you know I was a contractor that can go

right. Um so with your work in say Panama when you did Panama Panama City when you did this um did the council or were the perimeters to to direct that where possible a percentage of the labor force could come from the local talent if qualified. Was there any coordination as to the people and the citizen of the city benefiting also especially since we have there's a labor shortage? So was there anything done in coordination like that in the Panama City?

So it you cannot because of federal funds and state funds you are very on that side of it but I can tell you that the money that is being paid to the workers has to be engaged. That means the labor part will be paid how much and build a pretty decent amount that can be paid because you have already it actually really this project will last about four five years and you will have it from the project manager side all the way down to the

you will have every step. So it's a it's going to be somewhere between you know $50 million plus injection into economy which you don't have it right now. about and that sort of thing which be a lot of they already teach that I mean luggage I keep calling it this they're teaching that now I guess the welding the welding program has kind of fit in as part of that program

well I can tell you any vortex on like summer pipe fitter hack. There's so much demand in there, you won't believe they have. I love it because particularly with our local high school and just so many things are happening at that program. But um I've been surprised at how many young people are definitely open to learning a practical skill right now regardless of their ability to go to college. And just know that all that money, I think that would be a great PR opportunity also for the the city people to like identify that this is also benefiting them potentially because when that construction starts and the roads start being closed and people will get complain about progress. That's a really great way to remind them.

Sure. Absolutely. We'll be glad to once we have everything together, we'll be glad to sit down with you and say we are coming. We can give them a schedule and say this is the type of project and then answer questions. All right. Any more questions? We most certainly appreciate agenda 6C to discuss Jurgens Park fencing and survey. Council will take any action deemed necessary.

They talked about putting some fencing back at Jerkens. And I was in the process of getting a survey anyway because I was applying for a Ferdat grant for Jerkens and Lothridge and our property line actually runs through this little covered pavilion area. We don't own where the fence used to be. I was curious where y'all wanted to go back with a fence. We get away with that. I don't know. He does all that whatever this leadership whoever. Yeah. Okay. for a nonprofit. Yeah, that's nothing I was ever saying.

I don't know if you want to put a fence down the property line or that need to be done. We don't own half the pavilion technically. Who owns the notes? It would allow us maybe get a maybe some variety saying it could go back where it was or just to make sure it's I'm sure that could be you work on that just get a

I know well Ernesty Metro is now joining the zoning board is one of the leaders I don't know if she's the president still Teresa C for your husband I think that can be worked out. I don't think they want to lose traction with the fence. It would be because they want to do what's for the kids. I was just wondering how how we got so many years.

Yeah. But where do y'all actually want it? Back out here where it was. Where was it? I think it was up here where it was the fence where Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted where they're not able to go around and come through the park because they made a whole track field like in that area where Did you get a print out of this? Yes, I did. Give to me when you're done. Nice.

Where is the Okay, this is the basketball court. See, right there by that basketball court is where they're coming up and following right there in front of it. Come sometime coming right across it and going back out towards the park area. Could you not meet at the park? Could you run that part? Chain link fence is not going to be sufficient. No, I for something where they're they're not able to ride through.

No, it'll make tore down again. Usually they run over cars and then they'll ride. We've done deal with that in the past. It was to protect the kids. We have 96B council to discuss truck grant council will take any action deemed necessary. I can discuss this but I can't vote. My daughter runs this program, the Volkswagen program.

Okay. too small boats and trains, bigger boats, engines, and now they they've got this garbage. They pretty much created that just for us. Yeah. They made it so tight that only we would be able to fit into it. I would uh hope you're not through filling this out. Because this this is actually zeroing in on period law. They did it on purpose.

That's and uh we we just need to answer all these questions. I've already put it back in and I don't so worry about uh what what destroying one what we're going to do they'll work with with this one doing that but I think there's a excellent opportunity to get three trucks. The problem is we only have three that well probably four or five that really qualify but one of the ones for sure we use every single day and I'm afraid you're talking about side no

what we call the flatbed trucks trash trucks the one without the grapple we have two of those that are old the older models that we still use you're talking about garbage trucks here right but to scrap it can be over, right? And one of them is a trash truck that we're having issues with right now. It's actually tore up, but we've told them not to fix it because of this. So, to get the three new garbage trucks, we got to take three out of service, completely bore a 3-in hole in them, cut them in half pretty much.

They used to be had to go from diesel to electric, and they're not real keen on electric. I don't want electric since the king is not keen on electric. We don't navigate anything. I don't understand why we have to bore holes in them. It was an exhaust issue. They're trying to get older. So, you can't use them again, right? You got you got to bore holes in them and put them in two. Well, they don't that's environmental. Okay. 400,000.

I'll hold the drill. Yeah. But I'm going have to I'm going have to come back and ask y'all for a truck out of reserves that we had planned on to maximize this 1.2 million. That's just normal. Sounded like a big waste to me. But if it's normal, it kind of is. They kind of remember that plunker thing they were doing. You trade a car in destroy it. We be able to get two of three

409 was a particular 09 and before was the type of diesel we're looking for something or vehicle or emissions. That's when they about the time they switched to using the death and all that before that was pre-death the exhaust something new they're regular engines what I call regular engines better engines question if we have three in operation then and only two that is in where we get the third one have to buy it.

Have one. No, we have three. This Sean has one that they they use, but not all the time. We use it every day. Well, he's going to have to not use it every day anymore. We pulled the back rig and all the heavy equipment with it. He's going to find another way. And Andrew's got one that you don't use every day, right? It was our pump trailer truck. The only reason we used it for the water pumps is because it had a hydraulic power unit already built on the body. We just used that hydraulic system and it with the large black beds it was good for hauling some of the larger equipment hydrants but we have a way to get around that. We've already made adjustments.

So that's what I'm saying. We're going to have to pay for the one truck we have to have. We're have to buy it out of reserve unbudgeted. Want to replace it this maybe throw me some cash. I'll buy a used one. He gave you boots. So, we're here now. That's great. But even if we had to buy two trucks, we're still coming out cheaper than one garbage truck. Oh, yeah. I mean, you're spending a dollar. Even if we had Exactly.

Yeah. Absolutely. Does Let's move um E to the next meeting. I think Scott wants to be here for it. I didn't realize he wanted to do that.

John, before you move on, Claire, I have just two questions on it. When this was originally proposed, we had talked about there were some that were maybe not in service that would qualify. I'm assuming that's not the case anymore. We we couldn't find any. I thought about buying that qualified first pitch. Am I wrong? We thought we might have one or two in the yard. Andrew kind of Andrew has one that we're not really using. He's going to find a way to use a different truck. Okay. And it at the time we only we only wanted two cuz we just bought that one. But if we No, you have the possibility to get three. Is the 1.2 million period? It's 400 per truck of the three trucks. Can you give three trucks for 400? No. It'll be about 425 in our

You have to You have to contribute some to get it. Um and they're only garbage trucks, correct? So you're giving up some flatbed trucks. One you're giving up non-garbage trucks to get a garbage truck. Yes.

To be a garbage truck. Course we're table agenda item 6E item 6F resolution number 2025-35 budget amendment J Accum if they don't have an agreement or anything with them I submitted the application they can always say no but I know they made that program for us they're going to try to expedite that get it out quick. But we don't actually have that grant yet, but there nothing to vote on. Move forward if we didn't get it.

Yeah, I already did. What's that? I already moved forward.

Okay. Agenda item 6F resolution number 2025-35 the budget amendment police department JG C Marcage grant resolution of the city council amending the budget for the city of Perry Florida for the fiscal year October 1st 2025 through September 30th 2026 Six. We've already been awarded. It's just cleaning the books up, getting it added into the record.

A motion. Motion to approve. Second. Council Bryce. Yes. Council Hampton. Yes. Council. Yes. Mayor K. Yes. Agenda 96G approval of minutes November 10th, 2025 regular session changes or corrections.

Yes, you have the new ones. They're highlighted two places that were the one um about the meeting approval. It's like next to the last page. Last page is highlighted. It's just name changes is all it is. Everything will be alarm silenced. Motion to approve these minutes as written.

Council Bry. Yes. Council Hampton. Yes. Wall. Yes. Vice Mayor Lry. Yes. Mayor Gibson. Yes. Say manager talk about these are some of the examples you know There any extra things?

This is from the uh signs now sign shop and they are working on some of the better to go on Highway 19. But these are just a few of the examples which there is more to come and I will give you as they are set to okay

um but they are asking once we decide that we pay 50% before they start the print say and I guess that's is what John need to And we're thinking about starting this uh the first or second week in January. Start making or well they'll be done by Okay.

So we can put them we probably don't have to hide brackets. Oh, Miss John anymore. They have brackets as well. And they also suggested that at the end of the bracket that we put some type of tie on the end so it won't come loose the way they used to do on Highway 19. Um, I know I'm excited because it really makes a difference. You're coming into death.

Are they going to sell us more brackets or they can it says here no brackets? They can. Yeah, understand. And I don't know whether John get them something else. It gets above 10 grand. We'll have to bid it out. You think that the brackets and make it brackets are more than the banner. Okay. So why am I doing this? We've been talking about it a long time. We have to bid it. We got to come up with a design first to be able to bid.

Did we find places to put them where they used to be on the Can you Can you afford it? This sign cost $7,500 for one vinyl sign. No, that's 40 something. Yes, it did. No, it be 40. Huh? 40. No, for one. No, it's 40. One side, they're 186 a piece. What? $186 a piece.

Yeah, they got it listed now as they got far. It's written a little. It should say 40 individual grass. You better nail that down before we sign anything. But I guess tomorrow break it. We'll look tomorrow and see what's still there and what a Okay. Did you say we'd have to bid it out

if it gets above 10 grand? This 7450 might not be this have to be doing their work in use.

So how would I proceed John? We'll just see how many brackets we need. If all the brackets are there, we could go that way. We got many brackets we need to buy. Okay. Because they have move forward one complete project come from multiple places. Yeah, that's Maybe that's the equivalent of Jamie buying 25 separate pistols to keep it under a number.

I see. I just didn't know if these people sold the brackets as well. They do sell all the people that sell the B sell the brackets too. A lot of times all kind of brackets you get the most and I got heavy duty ones. I got ones that have springs on that blow in the wind. Everybody would want to do interceptions. Which ones would you all prefer? I don't really like going at the picture just because you're going 45 miles an hour if you don't have time to really stop see what it is.

Yeah, I was thinking that too. These two one of these two. Well, John said you don't really have got time to see the picture. I think I think here's what's the top left one. That bottom picture. Where is that at? Period. Okay, that ain't period. I don't exist no more. North

history one you sent me. Okay. John, do you have anything? I hope you have anything.

Yes, but I'll make it shorter um and use the um email system. Um but as I already noted that um I had opportunity to go to the legislative conference this year um for Florida League of Cities. Um and as um just a reminder again that the Florida League of Cities is also you know advocates um through the legislature and they had a number of platform issues that was addressed that I'll just send you if you didn't already get it um through other means what the platform resolutions were um things that were discussed that I think um you could probably imagine as city officials um a number of those topics that were discussed and um including the idea of using um local government continuing to have authority over equitable property taxes decision since it's such an essential way that we pay for services. Um and that was um they had a really big session on that. Um as well as um there there are communities that are pushing back on the Live Local Act that allows for um for very specific things regarding housing or workforce readiness to be able to set up in zones that are not zoned for it. um for the purpose of supporting the idea of more fair housing. Um the platform would that they said that they're advocating for local authorities to maintain um being able to decide what is placed in their communities and things of that nature. Um and there was something that hit me really quickly and I can't find it so I'll just move on. But um that so as as this as a I don't even know if this is right to say as the state grows but um Florida is definitely one of the um fastest growing states because of our lack of income tax and a number of other

things and this political climate. So there definitely Florida legal cities is pushing back on probably anything that tries to take the authority wishing municipalities to decide for their communities versus having it see done in the state legislature including like legislation that would try to restrict a municipal voters authority to set their own election dates and things of that nature. Um, oh, this is the one I thought was interesting. The Florida League of Cities supports legislation that provides a public records exemption for the personal information of municipal courts as well as investigative personnel and employees of the city who perform um municipal elections work um and things of that nature. I wanted to um note I grabbed enough for everyone. if you don't have an updated um capital contacts, but fortunately I don't have a five with me or four with me, but if you want one, I make sure you get one. Um it was really great to everybody I saw be like, you know, we got $98 million. And then of course sometime it was humbling is like, oh, we got 250, but I don't care. Like this is Perry, Florida. We're not um a island, what do they call them? harboring islands in Miami that has like 5,000 people, but the medium income is like $5 million a year. So, it is quite an ask and we were just um you know, everybody seemed to be really happy about that a lotment and just suggest that we make sure we get all of the money and to look after it to make sure it's used in the right way. Um I already noted that the grants assisted program has expanded um and so um all of us have access to it and it's much easier to search now because of AI. Um and I wanted to also note I wrote down so many things. Um my number has changed. Um and I'm in

actually in the process of looking for a new office space. But that number and I can give it to you as well as email everyone. 8502735932. 8502735932. And I'll reach out to Stephanie to make sure she changes it on the website. I did have a great opportunity to connect with John yesterday about some of the um some of of what I'm about to share next. Um, one of the things that I enjoyed in going to some of the practical um, sessions um, that actually continued a conversation I've been having regarding how to build trust signals. It's a really popular term that's often used in branding. But because we're sort of like some people call this the post truth generation where people don't believe they almost by default believe people are not telling the truth including their government that you know the use of social media um things that would make people feel like a part to show and build confidence or the idea of this transparency. um some of the ideas that I had regarding ways to build trust signaling because they definitely basically people don't believe that the laws work they don't obey it and part of our our biggest one of our biggest job is creating ordinances and then having where possible to enforce them and I know sometimes that's lacking but um one of the simple ways and I asked for this um I don't have a huge presentation about it but I'm hoping that you'll hear my heart. Um I something that really hit me um during another conference in the summer, but I didn't bring it to the council until I read more about it. Um and just didn't know if the timing was right. But I think timing is right. I

would love the council to give permission for me to explore what having a youth council uh youth council could do um or be and Taylor County youth councils under Florida that are directed and use the policies of the Florida League of Cities youth council. Um the purpose is to um not only basically help encourage young people, mostly high school student age people to get an interest in local government, but also um their families and anyone who's um attached to them may also learn to appreciate more really what it takes to run a city. Um and there are some other positive things regarding trust signaling I think would help because young people have more time. um as well as they're they're they have a pulse always have in the community to we could also use them to help um as they understand government to do short posts about the workings that are happening in the city particularly as we're looking at um this grant being used to do a lot of stuff that people don't see outside of inconvenience like oh the road is shut down but what this does in our city and I think it's a great opportunity also to um to have um there to be just um an opportunity to look at what could be our future um elected officials or people who see that they can like actually make a difference in their community. And when I think of people even like Carly and the more I learn about a lot of the history, even the people in this room, a lot of them started in high school working at the police department or something like that, they felt like they could make a change. So when I asked um for permission um what I would like to do um is basically connect with the civic and history teachers in high school and ask that they would um think that or select

one or two students to deal with a group of like no more than eight maybe five to eight students um and sort of serve them about survey them about interest in local government where they like to pretty much be like a test pilot for a youth council. um so before um them being officially established or have any um I don't want to call it advisory rights but um but there is in the Florida League of Cities youth council there is a standard of them being held to sunshine line all those kind of things and I think because of that I would want some time to see with these students what and if that would generate interest so those councils are historically with four legal cities considered advisory councils. So this would be a non-advisory youth council that I would ask have a permission to identify in early January or maybe before school services over and have them in a way have a pilot youth council and see um what it would possibly take to really create a full-fledged advisory council of youth. I know when I was in high school, um I would I was a part of and I don't know if they still do it. Um I was a non I was an advisory member of the school board for a year and it definitely opened my mind up a lot about how things are done that year. Actually, it prompted me to petition the school to start a black history class. The class itself I think lasted like a year and a half to two years but it was very empowering but also um we've already shared whether it's the agriculture program or other things that we're using losing our youth and um as you can tell I probably have a passion about young people and I would just love

um to be able within parameters to be able at least to start gathering um interested young people in a very short and very specific way to reflect on whether or not this type of youth council could be an asset to our community and our most important city of Perry. And if you need more information, that's fine. Um, but maybe this is just a precursor to January, but because I was not asking for a um an advisory, the advisory authority, and I say authority loosely, doesn't like hear their opinions, but um I would like to at least try to identify some people before the the spring semester. I've always thought that was a good idea to have this youth counsel. So, is that a motion? Can I get a second and be authorized to move forward or would you like me to just present more?

We can. I mean, you need a vote on or can I just give a consensus to go ahead and move forward? you can again cuz these I just wanted I didn't want potentially there to be some discussion and it's like wait a minute we didn't have that brought before us so I feel like it's a very um innocent but helpful first step but I wanted to pose that to the council to see if there would be any objections any objection to it okay sound like thank you and that's all for me right Fast Carly is with a brand new baby.

And mama, baby, are you doing good? Doing good. Chief, this weekend, Saturday, we'll be holding our shop for the cop event. Been doing this about 14 years. Um, just a reminder, all this is is donations from individuals, community, business leaders, and civic groups. Uh, the city does not contribute to this as all stuff the community does for us. We'll be taking about 45 kids shopping this weekend. That's it.

And we're we have a resignation. We got an officer resigning to go somewhere else. So, we'll we trying to find some more. Good luck. Don't really have anything

one That's a video YouTube that is all the gases if you want to open that up.

All right. So, what we did was we caught that force man and we rerouted it out of the wet well into the force man that Glenn Street uses to pump the water

because we couldn't access the inside of that wet wheel to replace the pipe until that was rerouted. Basically, you got you take care of got it fixed. You know, I have I had something through these pictures with you. All right. that that's we we've covered up. That's just that's the outside of Glen Street. We're not through with it yet. We're going to put this in a driveway. We're going to, you know, we're going to try to make make it look a lot better. Um as he pulls these pictures up, this is the guys in the hole. This is the pipe outside of Glenn Street. Um there that that we cut out. Um that's uh we had to dig between a light pole and the and the wet well and the uh that excavator that that gas part B that Garrett asked for come in really handy. Did you see how tight he is there? Our

tech is up to cooperate tonight. That's the brother Glenn Street. That's excavating out pipe as we're starting.

All right. Um, that's just the one I gave. Yeah. I mean, if it was a computer on that one, too, would it? Yeah.

Go to the next next picture from the P. See your test. All right. So, we re we routed we rerouted it and now there's a bypass outside the front lift station. um that's going to allow us to isolate the station, get in safely. Um because there there's so much water that comes out of the the the lift station from Buffalo. I mean, we would be in Gulf for water with no way we can work in it.

So, um this is the first stage of the project. Like I said, the first picture. Can you get that picture out there? That's how far we had to run it. We had we caught it behind the station and we had to put a couple bins in it to to get it to the front of Glen Street lift station. And uh that first picture was a covered up. Like I said, we're going to we're going to try to put us a nice nice driveway in and we're going to try to make it look a little better. This the second video. All right. This is when it starts playing. This is the inside of clarifier at the plant. Those are holes that are okay and it's it's wasting away. It's falling apart. Um, basically what that does is as the raw sewage comes into the clarifier, it stops the turbulence and allows the solids to settle to the bottom so clean water comes top of the wees. um when this picture comes up. All right, that's the bottom of it. Um how we found this out was because the clarifiers are generally full of of water. The rake at the bottom was bound up and tripped it out. And it was that metal falling from that u that skirting that caused the binding. And um it keeps falling off. This is the pile that we had um Monday. That was last week. So um I got a quote for repair. I think it was $110,000.

Parts are about 20,000. And I think we might could do it in house. uh we might have to run a crane or something, but to to pick pick the skirting up is the skirting goes all the way around the inside of the uh butterfire means a small gap like I say for the raw sewage comes in. It stops the turbulence. So settle um we'd have to get parts in the in the clarifier, assemble it in the clarifier, and then lift it up into its brackets because it's off the ground about two two and a half feet. But um and and we're trying to limp along. Maybe we can get maybe when the grant money starts this this can um be one of the first projects, but we're going to monitor it. We got it right now and um hopefully it will hold. The lack of rain has made the flows lower. Um so we're we don't really need to run it right now. If the flows got higher, we would. I mean that's the only concern is um if it does go down during high flows um we wouldn't have enough retention time to uh we wouldn't produce a quality effluent and our our lab our lab test would fail. So so we we got we got plenty of projects right now. Uh tomorrow we're going to do uh Tulie we call it Tulie loop station over there by Liippard or Kirk Kirk root now. Um I think the Votech U RDS not RDS that anyway their sewage goes to lift station. Um we have some problem one of the pumps isn't working. The foot piece at the bottom is not sealing. So, tomorrow we're going to go down in it.

We're going to cut it out. We're going to replace it. Um, hoping to do both sides in one day, but we just don't want to do anything. We We take it out, we remove it. We can't put the station back online. We can't bypass it. Won't be good. So, we just just we try to do it in stages. We try to do it slow. We try to make sure we don't we don't get ourselves on.

Thank you for everything. Appreciate it. Yeah. Appreciate you getting it off, taking care of it. And um we That's stuff that goes in the field station. It's it's amazing what goes down. Yeah. Like I say, like you know, um the skinny and everything and like I said, the estimator that Garrett got the gas farmer, we've used it quite a bit. It's been real like I love equipment. I like getting tools. Help us help us do things. Sure.

So, I'm glad he got that. I do have pretty much I have all the equipment. John kind of knocked me for not putting the trench box in the hole, but we did bench the hole and it was only about four foot deep at the deepest. I know it looks deeper than that, but it's not. So, anyway, very good. Thank you, Sean.

Thank you, S. I do know something that's been bothering me quite a while and I don't speak to you anything about but 287g number that we had I thought it was required of the city of but And from what I'm seeing on TV, it's just sad the way when they're treating people and I surely hope and pray that that doesn't happen in theory. What information are you basing this? Have you Are you accusing?

No, I'm not, Chief. Okay. He's not even No, I'm just want to clarify. No, I'm not accusing you of anything. I just uh I hope whenever I is here, if they come here the way they are in other places, I hope that we treat people as humane as possible. We will continue to treat people we do as we do daily. Yes, there will be no change in what we do and how we do things, right? But if we're required to assist, we will. But we were told that it was it was required.

It's it was implied by the governor's office that you will cooperate or he can have him removed from office. And that includes me. Not concerned. Well, I am. Um I know that the uh county they were required to participate. I I it's just it's just saying the way that we are treating when you say we please clarify not us locally.

Okay. Please because that because when this message gets out it's going to be skewed in a way is that we're treating people badly locally. I'm not speaking of our city employees as a whole. Speaking of speaking on what you're saying on the news from Yeah, that's what I'm reading.

I just think that we the city is even involved in it. Next By the way, I think we're doing good. I think we're coming along. I think we got a lot to make up for and we tapping it one at a time and doing a good job at it. I appreciate all of y'all on the job dayto day.

Safe. Enjoy the holiday season and thank y'all for everything. Simon next