City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our city of Port St. Lucie City Council meeting this 02/23/2026 at 06:00PM. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilwoman Morgan?

Yes, ma'am. Councilman Pickett? Yes, ma'am.

Mayor Martin?

Here, ma'am.

Vice mayor Caraballo? Here, ma'am. And let the record reflect that councilman Bana is not present.

Please stand for the invocation and the pledge.

Almighty god in heaven, we ask thy blessings upon those gathered here this evening and upon all the citizens of Port Saint Lucie. Look with favor on our leaders and give them the insights, the wisdom, and the patience to deal with the problems and tasks coming before them. Please bless their work and their deliberations. Amen.

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.

K. We have one presentation this evening. It's the PSL and Lights Home Outdoor Decorating Contest. Good evening. Good evening, mayor

and council. I'm Mackenzie Spitler. I'm with the communications department. I'm here to present the awards for our twenty twenty five PSL and Lights holiday house decorating contest. This year, we had 53 festive submissions and five sixty two neighbors that voted for their favorite displays. Now I'll show a slide show of the winners. As each home appears on the screen, please come to the front to accept your award. After all awards have been presented, I would like to invite the mayor and council to come forward and pose for a photo with the winners. Great, thank you. Gus did it for us.

Great, thank you.

Thanks, Avi.

Alrighty. So first place for the Holiday Light Show, we have Jamie and Kim Geller. First place for New Kid on the Block, we have the Wallace family. First place for Showstopper, we have the Sealows Wonderland. Second place for the Holiday Light Show, we have Gary. Second place for New Kid on the Block, we have Russell and Claire. Second place for Showstopper, we have the PSL Gingerbread House with Cody's help.

Awesome.

Third place for holiday light show, we have snowy village. Third place for new kid on the block, we have Lib's place. And third place for showstopper, we have the lovey dovey Christmas house.

And counsel, if you would

come pose for a photo with the winners. Absolutely.

One, two, three. Everybody say PS On Lights. PS Lights. Got it. Thank you.

Thank you all so much for everyone who participated. We know that putting up all those lights is a lot of hard work and a lot of long hours. So thank you so so much again.

Okay.

Alright. We're moving on to public to be heard. This is your opportunity to speak to the council for up to three minutes on any non agenda related item. I do have one person who signed up to speak, miss Isabella Rojas. Hello. Good evening.

Good evening, council members. My name is Isabella Roxas. I'm the Camp Kangaroo coordinator with Accent Care Hospice. I'm here to share an important resource for grieving children in our community. It's called Camp Kangaroo, and it's a free bereavement camp for kids and teens ages five to 17 who have lost someone close within the last three years.

It's funded by the Seasons Hospice Foundation, and it allows families to participate at no cost. And at camp, children receive grief education, emotional support, and the chance to connect with peers who understand their loss, all while enjoying fun, enriching activities led by licensed professionals and trained volunteers. Before camp begins, each child meets with a clinician together with their parent or guardian to assess their needs and create a personalized support plan. Throughout the camp weekend, children participate in structured therapy groups focusing on emotions, coping with anger, memories, and understanding change. Families consistently report positive outcomes.

For example, ninety six percent of prior campers said that they understood their grief better and one hundred percent felt supported by counselors. To answer a common question since I know you guys are gonna go over our flyer here in a second, Camp Kangaroo is a national program. It's the only national bereavement program camp of its kind, with sites in multiple states across the country, all offered in partnership with Accent Care Hospice. Here on the Treasure Coast, our camp will be held at the YMCA of Treasure Coast in Stuart, but it serves children across the Tri County area, Saint Lucie, Martin, and Okeechobee. The YMCA provides the space and the resources needed for a therapeutic program like this.

Camp dates are September 2026, with registration open until August 25. We humbly ask for your help spreading the word so that every child who needs support can access this vital resource. And if you have any questions

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it. Would anyone else like to address the council? Seeing no one, I'll close public to be heard. Moving on to additions and deletions to the agenda and approval of agenda, council. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Madam Mayor? Yes. I just really want to address her just one moment before we move on. Okay. Thank you so much for coming out and I just wanted to say that people like yourselves and as well as the people that work for hospice, they're truly angels for what they do. And I've had, I know we've all had members of our family and friends that have probably utilized the services of hospice. I didn't know you had a program like that for children. So thank you for bringing awareness to that. Thank you very much.

Approval of consent. Is there a motion?

Move to approve. Second.

A motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. We have no second reading of ordinances or other public hearings. So we're moving on to item ten, first reading of ordinances 10 a, ordinance 26 dash 18.

An ordinance of the city of Port St. Lucie, Florida abandoning a portion of a 20 foot wide rear utility and drainage easement affecting Lot 57, Block 206, Port St. Lucie Section 13 according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 13, pages four, 4a through four ms of the public records of St. Lucie County, Florida, providing for conflict, providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Thank you. This item is a public hearing. Would anyone like to address the council? Seeing no one will close the public hearing. Council.

Motion to approve ordinance 26 dash 18. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 10 b, ordinance 26 dash 19.

An ordinance of the city of Port St. Lucie, Florida abandoning portions of the access and utility easements affecting Parcel 1 of Gatlin Plaza Condominium. According to the declaration of the condominium of Gatlin Plaza Condominium recorded in official records book 3,409, pages three or excuse me, page 2,468 of the public records of St. Lucie County. Providing for conflict, providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Thank you. Is there a motion? Oh, this is a public hearing. Would anyone like to address the council? Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing. Is there

a motion?

Motion to approve ordinance 26 dash

19. Second.

Motion and second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 10c ordinance 26 dash 20.

An ordinance of the city of Port St. Lucie, Florida abandoning a portion of a 20 foot wide rear utility and drainage easement affecting Lot 4, Block 2218 Port St. Lucie Section 33 according to the plat thereof as recorded in plat book 15, pages one one a through one five b of the public records of St. Lucie County, providing for conflict, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.

This is a public hearing. Would anyone like to address the council? Seeing no one, we'll close the public hearing. Council?

Motion to approve ordinance 26 dash 20. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 10 d, ordinance 26 dash twenty one.

An ordinance of the city council of the city of Port St. Lucie, Florida authorizing and directing the city manager to execute a renewal lease agreement between the city of Port St. Lucie and Port St. Lucie Police Athletic League Inc. For premises located at 2101 Southeast Tiffany Avenue, Port St. Lucie, Florida 34952, providing for conflict, providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Thank you. This is a public hearing. Would anyone like to address the council? Seeing no one, we'll close the public hearing. Council?

Motion to approve orders 20 six-twenty

one. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 10E, Ordinance 20 six-twenty three.

An ordinance of the City of Port St. Lucie, Florida dissolving the Sundance Community Development District pursuant to section one nine zero point zero four six one zero Florida statutes and repealing city ordinance number twenty twenty four dash 26 providing for conflicts, providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Thank you. Council.

Motion to approve ordinance 26 dash 23. Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to resolutions 11 a is resolution 26 dash r 14. This item is quasi judicial. So anyone who is gonna provide testimony must have get sworn in by the clerk. So please stand if you're gonna provide testimony so you can get sworn in.

Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Yes, I do. Thank you.

Thank you. Please read the resolution.

A resolution of the City Council of the City of Port St. Lucie, Florida granting a special exception use to allow an enclosed assembly area over 3,000 square feet without an alcoholic beverage license for on premises consumption of alcoholic beverages in the general commercial zoning district per section 158.124(two) of the Port St. Lucie Code of Ordinances for a project known as Andrews David Joanne Margaret Children's Gym providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, counsel. Are there any ex parte communications to disclose?

No, madam mayor.

Okay. Great.

Evening, madam mayor. Good evening, madam vice mayor, council members, and city staff. I've been with the planning and zoning department. I have been sworn in, and the official file was submitted to the city clerk five days prior to this meeting. Madam clerk, will you please enter it into the record? P25Dash197 is a special exception use application for a project known as David Joanne Margaret Andrews Children's Gym. The applicant is Mary Rogers, authorized by the property owners David Joanne and Margaret Andrews in care of CBS. The property is located West Of South U. S. Highway 1 and North of Southeast Veterans Memorial Parkway.

The request is a special exception used to allow an enclosed assembly area of over 3,000 square feet for a proposed recreational facility for children. Section 158.124 of the zoning code requires enclosed assembly areas over 3,000 square feet to apply for a special exception use. A special exception use was granted to the property in 2003 to allow a pharmacy with a drive through window for the site, which previously operated as a CVS and it is now currently vacant. The proposed recreational facility consists of a 5,801.78 square foot open activity area, along with several partition rooms, bringing the total enclosed assembly area to 7,114.78 square feet. These additional rooms were included in the total due to the use of half height walls.

This is an aerial image of the property. To the North, you have a medical office with a shopping center to the East, multifamily homes to the South and single family homes to the West. The future land use is general commercial with general commercial to the North and east of the property, low density residential to the West and to the South. The current zoning is general commercial with general commercial to the North and East, multifamily residential to the South and single family residential to the West. This is a view of the approved site plan showing the existing stand alone building, along with the two access points and cross access to the north.

This is a view of the proposed floor plan showing the enclosed assembly area along with the additional rooms utilizing half walls. With our special exception use applications, we evaluate them against criteria as outlined under Section 158.26. There are no proposed changes to the existing ingress and egress of the site. The property will continue to utilize its two access points along with the cross access to the north. There are 86 parking spaces on the property, which are sufficient to serve the proposed use.

There are adequate utilities on-site that are serviced by the Port St. Lucie Utility Systems Department. No additional screening or buffering is required. The site's approved landscape plan provides adequate landscaping. All signage and lighting shall conform to the city code.

Any additional signage shall require a separate permit submittal through a building department. The facility is in an area designated for commercial development and is not expected to adversely impact the surrounding properties. At their 02/03/2026 meeting, the Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval for the SEU. And now before I conclude the presentation, I want to mention that the property is located in the community redevelopment area and the CRA staff submitted a letter of supporting their approval of the SEU. And that concludes my presentation. I'm here to answer any questions. The applicant is also here and they have a presentation.

Great, thank you. Any questions? Yes, go ahead.

Workshop about CRA areas. About the CRA area.

His mic's on. His mic's on.

My question is, what ends on retaining that building?

That's a great question, sir. At this time, I'm not aware of any plans. Maybe once the building permit comes in for the renovations, they might show some new paint for the building.

The reason I was asking, because we were just discussing this, I thought businesses located in the CRA the other day, bringing them up to

Okay.

But that the reason I was asking that question. So thank you.

You can ask the applicant when the applicant comes up as well. Councilwoman Morgan, you have? I was just sharing my mic.

Okay. I'm going to wait for the applicant's presentation.

Oh, okay.

All right. Thank you. Does the applicant wish to make a presentation? Come forward, please. Good evening.

Good evening. This is our mayor and the city council. Thank you for having us. I won't take too long of your time. I just wanted you to know more or less what is our gym and what we do, the service we provided because this is very new for here. So it is a franchise. It's called We Work the Spectrum, and it will be the first one here in Port St. Lucie area. And the concept, it's an open area for all the equipment and most of the equipment are sensory equipment that we use. The gym really is tailored to all children, all abilities, all ages.

We see children from one month to 13 years old. But specifically, we want we really tailor to we cater to children with under who has I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous.

Okay, take it.

For children who is under the spectrum, any type of neurodivergent disorders. The motor is finally a place where you never have to say I'm sorry, because it's very hard to take your children other places where they don't feel comfortable, they overwhelm, they get mail down. So this is a very safe place, inclusive for them. I'm going quickly to some of the slides. The 12 pieces of equipment that we have really is not just about playing and using them, but it's more helping the children building strength, endurance, tolerance to challenge themselves.

Some of them really help body coordination, proprioception and also all the senses. I'm not going through all of it because it's a lot, but I know the favorite ones are the zip line, the trampoline, and also the climbing mountain, where they can go as high as they can and try to reach the highest point that they can. And all of them really tailor for specifically children that need help with motor and sensory challenges. The services that we use that we offered, I'm sorry, like I said, it's open play where they can come and they use the equipment, they play with other children, their ages, but also we do have some areas for reading, where they can read by themselves, with the parents or any caregiver. We have the craft area.

And the one that is very, very popular is the coming room. It's well designed. It has, you know, dim lights, very cushion and sensory toys in there. And if they have a meltdown or the open area is too much for them, it's overwhelmed, they can just go in there. And some of them just fall asleep.

They will just rest in that one. So we do offer birthday parties as well. And we have different packages. One of the package that we have for children who's under the spectrum is very private, where they can just come with the family and people that they're very familiar with and comfortable with. We also have semi private and private where they can use the entire gym pipe themselves, and we close for the general public.

We do have the therapy rooms. Our gym here in Port St. Lucie, we have different therapy rooms where we will have available for speech therapies, OT, PT and the ABA, they can provide sessions as well. And we have that low area, the rock shop, where they can buy all the sensory toys that they really enjoy. Just a few slides just for you to see the inside because I know it's all new.

But it's like I said, it's open. Wherever the parents will be sitting, they will be able to see their children playing and whatever they're doing, they will be able to see them because nothing is really enclosed, like I said. And this is the infant and toddler area. They can be crawling in there and playing. We have the craft area that I mentioned, reading areas, the teen lounge.

Our gym here, our plan, we do have an area specifically for the teens. The older children, they can have games and have groups in there. And the therapy rooms, and this is a calming room, I must say, and this is my favorite really, where they can just go in there and rest. And definitely, we will love to have that place open here in Port Saint Lucie. It is a very new concept and unique because autism is very prevalent here in The U.

S. And we would love to have at least one in every single town. But I know it's not possible, but the children will enjoy it, the family will enjoy it and will benefit from the services that we want to provide. Thank you. Thank you.

Any questions? Vice Mayor, did you have

I did, just know David had one first. So I was just, I have a couple of questions, but first I want to say this is a wonderful concept. My son is not on the spectrum, but he did need occupational therapy, special instruction speech therapy when he was younger. And we had to have our house full of toys and different type of activities to be able to even give him assistance when he was a baby. So having a place where people can get therapy and work with their therapist is fantastic instead of them having to do it at home.

Just a couple of questions. One is related to the application, but one isn't. So the first, the only one that I have related to the application is outside. The site has has like trees and it looks like land that's still available. Just out of curiosity, are you planning on expanding that in the future? Are you going to utilize that for outside play? Or are you just staying everything indoors?

Everything indoors.

Okay,

perfect. I'm leasing, it's not my property, so I won't be anything doing anything outside.

Perfect. And then just because just for public knowledge and awareness, I think it's important. As you may know, we've had a recent death unfortunately at Urban Air across the street with a young child. Could you speak a little bit about your safety mechanisms and how you can ensure? I mean, this is going on a very busy road. You have veterans in Walton and it's right by US1. So can you talk about your safety to ensure that children aren't going to exit and the safety that you have? So

beside the employees, everybody will be trained and they have to have an ABA certificate like being able to work with children, but also children with autism or any other neuro depression disorders. But also we have the doors, they have sensors, all the doors will have sensors. The open area, that's the reason it's like that. So we can see everybody wherever they are. There's no hidden places, just a tunnel, but you can still see the children if they're inside.

And we want all the parents to be involved. We don't just have the children report themselves. The parents have to be there to supervise their children. And we have all the cameras and our staff. They are trained to be able to help any children or any child who is inside the playground. So there's no they cannot go out the doors. They all have sensors. We have different doors. That particular location, it's only one door actually. The back door, it will be completely closed.

They won't be able to get to it. But all the location, they will put those gates with the sensors. So any children because we know some of them, they like to go out and like to go other places, so it will make a sound, ring and we have sensors for that. You.

Ma'am, thank you for your presentation. I think it's an excellent place for kids and families to go to spend time together. I see you're going to make a lot of renovations to the inside of the building, but what are your plans on the outside of the building and the landscaping?

Sure. The landscaping and outside pending, I wanted to answer about that. It will be for the landlord. They know already. And I think they are already working on some potholes that they have outside and a lot of dead trees. So they are having teams working on it before we can occupy the space. And depending for sure, it will be for them. We're not going to be doing it because they're not allowed. But I think they have to do it by code also. It has the color that we require from the code system. I think they mentioned something like that. You're it will be the

not the actual owner of

the building? No, I'm a tenant. I'm leasing.

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions? No? Alrighty, thank you very much.

Thank you. This

item is a public hearing. Would anyone like to address the council? Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing. Council?

Motion to approve Resolution 26 R14. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any final discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 11B, Resolution 26 R15.

A resolution of the City of Port St. Lucie, Florida authorizing the acquisition of real property described as Lots 17181920 And 21, Block 325, Port St. Lucie Section 25 as recorded in Plat Book 13, pages 32, 32A through 32I of the public records of St. Lucie County, Florida for the expansion of the North Port utility site, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.

Thank you. Counsel, is there a motion?

26 R15. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 11C resolution 26 R16.

A resolution of the City Of Port St. Lucie, Florida approving agreement for amendment of dedication on Wilson Grove, Parcel A, Platte 1 providing for conflict, providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Is there a motion?

Motion to approve Resolution 26 R16.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 11d, Resolution 26 R17.

A resolution of the City of Port St. Lucie, Florida requesting the Board of County Commissioners of St. Lucie County, Florida to adopt an ordinance calling for a referendum on the twenty twenty six general election held on 11/03/2026 to allow the electors of the county to consider extending the levy of a 1 half cent infrastructure infrastructure surtax for an additional ten years, providing for conflicts, providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Thank you. Is there a motion?

Motion to approve resolution 26 R17. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Have no unfinished business. Moving to new 13 new business. 13 approved the purchase and installation of a sculpture for the roundabout located at Southwest Par Drive in Southwest Savona Boulevard. Good evening, miss Grubbs.

Good evening, madam mayor, counsel, Bethany Grubbs for the record. The application before you is for the selection endorsement and selection of the public art board's recommended artwork for the PAR and Savona newly constructed roundabout. One thing that I did like about this as part of the selection committee is that this artist is proposing to use high quality steel compared to the other applicants. And also, one other thing I wanted to mention before I turn it over is the price point of this roundabout, you'll notice, is 50,000 less than the typical, and that's just due to the size. These are smaller roundabouts that are going on par, and I just wanted to highlight that.

But I'll go ahead and turn it over to Josh Lap with designing local to discuss the selected piece.

Hi, everyone. Excited to be with you presenting another fabulous artwork to go import Saint Lucie. I also don't have a ton of notes, but a few things that I want to point out. The artwork is stainless steel and acrylic. So the artist, Molly Mason, she has indicated that the artwork is very easy to maintain with standard cleaners, just Dawn dish soap once or twice a year.

And so there should be really great longevity with the work. We're very excited about the opportunity to work with Molly. She has been a public artist for thirty five years and is a certified welder. And she actually will self fabricate the artwork. So, you know, she'll be kind of involved in every aspect of it. And we're really looking forward to the opportunity to install this in in the next year or so. So happy to answer any questions, dig a little bit deeper, and I think that's it.

Thank you so much, Josh. Any questions?

I I have one just really quick. This is coming out of the Art Fund. Correct?

This is coming a 100% out of the Art Fund.

Okay, just wanted to make sure that on the legislative text, Mr. City Manager, because it just says financial information, what the cost is, but it doesn't say what GL it's coming out of, especially with the discussion that's occurring right now. I want to make sure that it's very transparent that this is not utilization of taxpayer funding. It is completely out of the art fund. So that's just missing on that second page. If that can be corrected, I'd appreciate it. Other than that, the sculpture is nice. Thank you.

I really like it.

It looks great.

And we used the nature theme for the submissions to kind of guide the artist. And so again, there's another roundabout that will be coming before you, also nature themed.

Is there a motion?

Motion to approve.

Second. Any

discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you. We are on from the city manager's report.

Thank you, madam mayor and vice mayor of council. Just, I wanted to let council know on February 11 that we released the city manager's 2025 annual report. This is one of the many ways that the city reports our accomplishments in the improvement in topics that we accomplished this past year. If anybody wants to see the report, can visit at cdpsl.com/annualreport and it's a great spot where you can really see all the different projects that were accomplished throughout the year. The other part too, wanted to thank the council for approving recently a little while ago, those five lots at the North Port Westwood Dream Plan, which allow us to be able to expand that facility.

I really appreciate that. And that's all I have.

Thank you.

Councilwoman? On

the eleventh, I attended the tourist development committee and, of course, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth with y'all at the workshop. And then on Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the Port St. Lucie National Little League opening day, which was also Mets opening day at Sportsman's Park. And the household hazardous waste collection day will take place Saturday, March 7 from 8AM to noon. Port Saint Lucie and Saint Lucie County residents can get rid of all that unwanted household chemicals, the stuff you're not supposed to put in the garbage, and hazardous waste by bringing them to the Public Works Complex at 450 Southwest Thornhill Drive.

And it's free. Free. Free. Free.

I kinda threw that in. Okay. The February 14, I attended a retirement party for my old commander when I in the army. Forty years of service this band put in. And him and I were together for, I don't know, like six or seven years, but a great time. February 15, attended the Italian Festival. Eighteenth through the twentieth, was with everybody at the Winter Workshop. And then that afternoon, we went to Rosser Lakes. What a beautiful property. Great, great acquisition for the city.

And the February 21, I pushed myself and went to do a five ks. I hadn't ran in a marathon or a five ks for well over five years. And let me tell you all right now, my thighs are reminding me of why. But there was like 15 people on our team, but had a great time. And let's see. Road improvements are underway on approximately 1,000 feet of Commerce Center Drive between Florida East Coast Railroad and Northwest Reserve Park Terrace. Construction began earlier this month and will last about forty five days with nighttime operations. Single enclosures and flagging to maintain traffic control. Got that to look forward to Port St. Lucie.

Thank you.

Thank you. We're sharing mics here because we're having some technical difficulties. Vice mayor. Okay.

On 02/11, I attended the IRSC promise leadership council meeting and also the charge of coast regionally to see cities executive committee meeting. On the seventeenth, I was with coffee with the council and the chamber. On the eighteenth or the twentieth, the winter workshop. Also on the nineteenth, I had the opportunity to address our amazing youth council. So excited to see what our young students are gonna do in the future in the city of Port St. Lucie. 02/20, the roster lakes press conference. And one special shout out if I can shout out my dad, it was his birthday yesterday. It was a milestone birthday. I will not say how old he is.

He's 30. He's 30, we're gonna say he's 30. But I love you daddy so much and I love you to the moon and back. And then my announcement tonight and Mayor, I'll leave Councilman Bonas for years because it's Love Your Block. I know how much that means to you. The third annual fam jam will be held Saturday, February 28 from five to 9PM at Whispering Pine Park. This is a free, like councilor Morgan says, free, free, free, family friendly event will highlight and honor black culture through the three key elements, food, art and music. There will be live music, food trucks and activities for kids. Everyone come out. Thanks.

Thank you. Yep, so the winter workshop was great. I think that with so many things that we have going on and I mentioned this at the workshop, I think it's important to mention here, especially for the public who's watching that we have so many things going on, so many projects in the city of Port St. Lucie. We often forget, right?

How much we have going on. And so the winter workshop is a great way to get down to all the details and to really refresh our memories as to what we have been working on, what got accomplished, what's in process, what will be in process in the future. I think everyone did a great job. So, Mr. City Manager, thank you very much to you and the team.

I know it's a lot of hard work and dedication to put all that together for three days and to bring that all to the forefront for the council for review. And also that first look at our budget is so important as well as you go into budget season with your staff and we head into our the summer months to our summer workshop. I want to thank everyone for coming out to Rosser Lakes. We had a great number of residents out there and it was our naturally PSL event. We announced the formal purchase of 105 acres for the Rosser Lakes property, which will now be preserved for generations to come.

We also announced the creation of the NaturallyPSL Community Trust, a not for profit organization that will help the city in acquiring, conserving and activating green space through fundraising partnerships and public private funding. These initiatives are driven by our residents and who all have told us for several years now, when we started it, I think two or three years back with our national community survey that they want us to preserve land for green spaces in places across the city. And as we kind of talked about at the winter workshop and at that event, You don't get that many opportunities where land like that becomes available. Where we have had opportunities as a council, because there's been so many entitlements that have been granted over the past twenty to thirty years. And this was a great opportunity that we had the option to say no to more residential homes and to say yes to acquiring and preserving green space, which is something that's not only important to our residents, but all of us up here as well.

Because we are residents too. We live here, we serve our community and we want to make sure that we're protecting green space as much as we possibly can. So again, thanks to the residents that came out. I know that we're going to be able to open that up for some use for our public in the next two weeks. We have already applied for some grants to put some passive amenities in that area, maybe a fishing pier, maybe pavilion depending on what those grants may look like and if we are able to obtain them.

But again, the goal is to keep it a preserve and keep it as natural as possible for that passive recreation use. So and it already has the trails already in there. So that's nice as well. Councilwoman Morgan, missed yours about hazardous waste day. So I'm just gonna read it off. You have your paper? Did.

Oh. Oh, you read it off Hazardous Waste Day? I'm sorry.

I missed that.

Free free free. Free.

Oh, that

was what was free free free? Okay.

All I heard

was free free free. So alright. So my

bad. So councilman Vonda's announcement, Port St. Lucie has launched year two of our amazing Love Your Block program. It's the mini grant program that we have that we started in the Whispering Pines neighborhood. Residents, nonprofits and community groups can apply for small scale projects in the Whispering Pines neighborhood that boost community pride, safety and beautification. Applications are now open through March 31. Visit cityofpsl.comloveyourblock for more information and to apply. That's it. That's all we have for this evening. Thank you all for attending and have a good night.