Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Today is Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026, 6:00 p.m. Correction, 6:01 p.m. for the Wilston Council um meeting. We're going to call to order before No, we're calling order. Hold on. So um all cell phones are to be turned off when entering the council chambers. Once the audience has taken their seat and the meeting begins, there will be no talking between the audience members. During the course of the council meeting, if anyone continues to talk within the audience and is called down three times during the course of the meeting, on the third time, that person will be escorted out of the council meeting. The audience must be recognized by the president before being allowed to address the council. The members of the audience that is recognized will proceed to the podium. State their name for the benefit of the city clerk prior to offering comments on any given matter. The audience member will be limited to not more than 5 minutes to speak based on resolution 2020-28. There will be no personal attacks made by any member in the audience towards a sitting council member and to or and no personal attacks made by any council members to towards a member of the audience. There will be no conversation between a member of the audience that has been recognized and any other member of the audience when speaking while at the podium. If an audience member wants to speak more than the allotted five minutes allowed, then that person should make a request to the city hall so that the items may be placed on the agenda. Miss Wright, can we get a roll call?

Mayor Goodman. I am here. Council President Hines here. Vice President Cox here. Council member Jones here. Council member Martin here. Council member Rikio here. City Manager Su Bodette here. Attorney Kristen Belaloo here. City Clerk Latricia Wright, I am here. And all other staff here.

Thank you. We'll have the opening prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag by Mayor Charles Goodman. join if you choose. Lord, we come to you today. A group of citizens, a group of people that are trying to do the work that you have given us to do. Lord, we know that you have all the correct answers and we do the best we can. And Lord, I ask you to be with each one of these council members to give them the wisdom that they need to make choices that are best for our city. And Lord, I ask you to please put a hedge of protection around our police officers. Lord, again, you know better than I more police officers were shot just going to someone's door after they were asked to come. So Lord, I just ask all of our officers have a hedge of protection around them. Keep them aware and keep them well trained. We ask this in your name. 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. Thank you very much. Okay. We'll have any additions, deletions, changes, and approval of the agenda. I would like if possible if we could move. Didn't have it marked down. It is the pension for the employees. I think it is. Hang on now.

Which one there? It's the one uh with HR item D. D if we can move that till the first of next month just to compensation plan. Yeah, just to have more time to go over it and works for me. [clears throat] I was actually gonna ask the same thing. Okay, you can go ahead. Is that okay? Up to the council. I mean, if if we want to ask questions now, we need to leave it on. But if we don't have we don't want to ask questions till next time, we need to take it off.

Correct. If you don't want to talk about it at all tonight, you take it off. If you have questions tonight, it would be appropriate to leave it on. I have not had time to review. I h I have but this is so we just want to we just need a consensus. It would be you would make it a vote in your additions and changes to the agenda. Any other additions or deletions from the agenda? I move approval of the agenda with the exception of item 5D that we table it to the next meeting.

I second. So, we have a first we have a motion and a second. Um, all those in favor I I with this one too. Everything. Everything. All right. All those opposed. Is there anything from the audience? Anything further from the council? motion. What's item C? D. Item D.

I wonder how we Okay. Thank you. All right. I move to vote. All those We did already vote. [gasps] All right. So motion passes five to zero. All right. Number two is going to be our public participation. This will be the first of two opportunities for you to speak on anything that is not on the agenda. Please state your name and where you're from.

Yes, I'm Tim 225. Um, I'd like to uh put a good word in for Alex here if I don't have to. Him and his co-workers for Sunday over here right up the road here at the next uh stop sign. They was in a home about 3 ft of water 9:00 at night. I don't know if y'all realize what kind of tough job they got, but that's pretty rough when it's in the 20s or close to it. Um, and they were no complaining there, don't they? Just doing their job. Just like I do make a comment was a bunch of women y'all been complaining, but the guys was in there doing their job. So, um, anyways, uh, I want to talk about the parking lot over here. I like to know who's the project manager of the of it and u when is the parking lot going to be finished? And who's responsible for the parking lot being halted? Cuz now all the equipment is gone. And they they finally put another fence around it to keep people out of it. And um and whose fault is it? Is it the CRA, the city, uh the contractor, the engineers, or the lawyer? Um, and I'd like to know who's going to pay for it for the screw up and who made the mistake because you know if it's the engineers, they have insurance to pay for this instead of us as the taxpayer. I mean, just by the common sense thing about it. We should have pay for everything when something's wrong. And um I know y'all going to have to remove the remove or move the plumbing or the electric if y'all can't get this sidewalk deal worked out and what's all that going to cost if y'all don't mind.

And and does the city have it? Because when I sat in the CRA meeting over here, I heard I heard about the uh contractor was wanting to pretty much get paid restitution is how I took it for the job being delayed because not his fault and how much it's going to be. And uh and that being said, before I posted a video last year, that contractor didn't put a shovel in the ground over there for 7 weeks. Fence was always blowed down. It was unsafe. Um that should be the contractor's job to make it safe. Not the city, not the CRA, not any of us. But if he didn't just put a shovel in the ground for 7 weeks, why should we have to pay him for anything? Because the job went to us now for you. I'm just kind of curious. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else? All right. Madam Madam President, before this gentleman speak, may I say something about him, please, if you don't mind. About this gentleman? Yes, ma'am. Sure. Okay. So, the gentleman that is standing before you now, uh, his name is Eddie Ley. He's a really good friend of mine. Uh, we work together at Maring County Sheriff's Office. And tonight, he wanted to come to the council meeting to, uh, speak to you all about a project or an ideal that he has for the city of Willist. So, without further ado, I wanted to introduce my friend Eddie. And, uh, thank you for coming and floor is yours, sir.

Thank you, Chief. Uh Eddie Ley, 14940 Northeast 180th Street in Fort McCoy, Florida. Uh the chief said, I'm a 34 year veteran of Marian County Sheriff's Office. Uh during my tenure there, uh served as SWAT commander, served on SWAT for many years with the chief, was there the the night unfortunately he took two rounds. So I appreciate his continued service and I appreciate y'all's service. Uh, I had the opportunity to come here for your Christmas parade on a mutual aid agreement with the Ocala Police Department to bring the mounted unit horses to the city and work the parade. Uh, not sure if y'all had the opportunity to see us on the parade route, but we rode back and forth on the parade route uh with those police horses. I do know we have some equestrians on the board. So, uh, for a police horse to handle that kind of intensity takes a great deal of training. Uh after retiring from the Marian County Sheriff's Office, uh I stayed on as the mounted unit commander. I was at the rank of captain. Uh ran that unit until such time as uh a new leadership came in. Uh that sheriff wanted a full-time sworn mounted unit. We had sworn uh/sivilian posy at that time. So, uh, I had officially resigned from the mounted unit and stepped away, but kept my law enforcement credentials. With that said, there was still a need for all the things that the mounted uh, civilian group did, such as working rodeos, uh, all the high school par or high school graduations, things of that nature. So, my wife that's here with me tonight, uh, Tammy formed a 5013C and an organization called Florida Mounted was born out of that. Uh, I am the commander and lead trainer for Florida Mounted. Uh, we continued to work as a civilian group the same as we

did when we were under the sheriff's office uniform. Uh, fast forward a few years, uh, Chief Mike Balkan with the Ocala Police Department, also a personal friend of mine, uh, wanted to form a mounted unit for the city of Ocala, a sworn mounted unit. Unfortunately, he had no budget, no horses, no nothing. Uh, we had a couple of breakfastes together, uh, started a conversation, and, uh, we were able to bring back a sworn mounted unit for the Ocala Police Department. I currently serve as the lead writer and trainer for that organization. Uh I am a FDLE certified mounted unit instructor. Uh after coming over here and riding in the uh the parade uh last week I had a chance to go to lunch with Councilman Cox and the chief and we had a conversation about the fact that there is no mounted unit in Levy County. Uh Williston. Uh I was born and raised in Reic which isn't that far from here. So I'm very familiar with Williston. Uh have a love for for Levy County as well as Marian County. So we did not have the opportunity to get on the agenda. Maybe next meeting we will actually have it on the agenda, but I wanted to get some conversation started between the council members and the chief. I would extend uh bringing a mounted unit to the city of Willist uh at no cost. I say at no cost. There would be uniforms that would be purchased uh and there would be liability insurance. I can tell you in 18 years of being associated with mounted units and running those in riding with the type of intensity that we had at the Williston parade, we have had no incidents, uh no liability issues, anything of that nature. So, I appreciate your time. Uh would like for y'all to have that conversation with the chief if this is something you would like to move forward with. If you have any questions for me, the chief has my

personal phone number. You can call me anytime. Uh he can give you my number. Uh if I'm available, we come over and we sit down and we have lunch. We'll we'll do whatever we need to get this started if that's something that y'all are interested in. I know the chief is. Uh little fact about the chief. Chief used to run the mounted unit. So he was a mounted unit commander himself at one time. I did ask him who he had at the police department that could ride with me and he said himself and I'd be honored to ride with him if that's something he wants to do. And for the two two main horses we use for the people that know horses they're a fian uh perron cross one's 173 the other one's 18 hands. So they're quite impressive horses when you see them. We actually have three at our house that are certified. We also have a Belgian that's going to be 19 hands. Uh she's only two years old, so she's not quite ready to to go under saddle. And then we've got uh a quarter horse that also is in training. Any questions?

I just had a comment. I just want to point out that the chief is getting older [laughter] and uh I worry about his safety. So if we [laughter] could keep him off of a horse, maybe get him a mule. Well, we have one. We we've got one. But I my wife made the comment cuz she also retired from the Marian County Sheriff's Office. She says, "Mike doesn't age." I says, "That's cuz Mike don't have hair, so he don't have no gray hair." [laughter] So next time you see me, I may be bald. Thank y'all. And y'all have a good night. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else?

All right. Item number three, consent agenda, council minutes from January 20, 2026. And I get a motion. Move approval of the consent agenda. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. All those opposed? Nay. Motion passes five to zero. Updates. Updates from staff and board. We'll start with city manager Souo.

Thank you, Madam President. Okay, a couple of updates on Levy County. Uh last Tuesday, myself and Latricia and Chief Rolls attended the Levy County Board of County Commissioners meeting. Uh the commission officially agreed to vacate the economic and tourism development office because it's saving them about $5,000 a year in utilities. Uh the Williston Chamber of Commerce is still interested in uh leasing the building, but uh Aaron and I had a pretty long meeting on Friday afternoon and he is also interested in moving the IT and fiber departments into that building. We don't have a lot of space here at the building for all especially all of the fiber um you know equipment that's coming in here. So I wanted to kind of put that out there as well if that's an option. Um, and I know that Habitat for Humanity is also put they're interested. So, I'm going to tour the building with Katrina Cystrunk on Thursday to get a kind of lay of the land so I can see what it looks like and then I'll bring a recommendation back at the next um council meeting. Uh, today I attended the Levy County Comprehensive Plan 2050. It's their um fourth workshop. Uh, this one centered on conservation, coastal restoration, springs, and recreation open space. A couple of interesting statistics that they um came up with today. 86% of the residents in Levy County say that protecting springs and rivers is a top priority for them. That's kind of interesting. 78% of the residents want to see wildlife corridors conserved. 37% of the residents identified springs, rivers, and the Gulf access improvements as the number one investment in quality of life. There was also a presentation um by somebody in the astronomy department at UF on preserving the night sky in Levy County by reducing light uh pollution. If you guys have never been to the um I can't remember the name of it, but the um astronomy, what's it called?

Observatory.

The observatory. Thank you. In Bronson. It's actually really cool. I was there a few years ago. It's very cool. Um so I recommend you guys doing that if you can. and they have two more workshops scheduled uh for Tuesday, February 17th at 1 p.m. and Tuesday, March 17th at 1 p.m. Uh those are the last two um workshops. There was a pretty lengthy conversation today about getting farmers and people who own a lot of land in Levy County involved. There was only about I'd say only maybe 25 people at the meeting today and that included commissions, you know, some members of the staff. Um, so they feel like there's not a lot of people that own a lot of land in Levy that are being represented. So, um, they're going to try and really reach out to, you know, the peanut farmers and the watermelon farmers and things like that and try and get them involved in one of those last two meetings. Um, next, this just came out today. You're going to see it on our website and on our Facebook page. There's a um, gas safety champion survey that looks like this. It's part of our TAG grant. That's our technical assistance grant that we got through FGU, the $100,000. Um, if you go on to this, you can choose your utility company. So, it's a drop down. You choose the city of Willist. You can take this little survey and then you're entered to win a $150 gift card. Of course, you can't be affiliated with the city, but for our residents, you can win possibly win a $150 gift card. And then, um, last, just wanted to give you an update on the small county outreach program. That's the SCOP grants that we're working on. So, the applications are due March 25th and um Wright Pierce is in the process of completing the applications. This is to resurface various streets throughout the city. Um we have identified seven um that our former streets and parks um supervisor gave us a few of these and then we added a few. Um, number one is Southwest 1st Avenue from Southwest 3rd Street to

South Main Street, which is about.17 miles. Northwest 1st Avenue from Northwest 4th Street to Northwest 1st Street, again about 0.17 miles. Northeast First Street from East Noble Avenue to Northeast 1st Avenue, which is very short, 008 miles. Northeast 1st Avenue from County Road 121 to Northeast First Street. again 0.08 miles northeast 3rd Terrace and Northeast 2nd Avenue from Northeast 3rd Street to Northeast 3rd Avenue.17 miles northeast 3rd Street from Northeast 2nd Avenue to Northeast 3rd Avenue which is.11 miles and north Northwest 1 from Northwest 1st Avenue to Northwest 3rd Avenue which is.17 miles. So those are the seven that we're definitely working on. The one that we need a little input on is this one came up in our department head meeting last Wednesday about the possibility of resurfacing airport road which is southwest 18th Street. Um basically that that road going to the airport. The issue with it is that part of the road is owned and maintained by Levy County and part of it is owned and maintained by the city of Wston. So I'm going to let Walt kind of take it from here and give you a little more information and then we can kind of decide if we want to put that one in or not. Thank you. Yeah, under the SCOP program, um if you do a partnership with a county and the city, they prefer that the county be the managing lead agency on on it. Um, and in this case, um, we could do that and have have Levy County do the application, manage the project, work with DOT to get the design, the construction, the bidding, and the and the construction done. Um, and then nothing would change with the ownership.

It would stay county road one portion, city the other. If the county chose not to be the lead and Levy County wanted to be the lead and manage the project, um, you can do that. But the DOT has a provision that once the city manages that repaving of the road, you then basically accept the road and you're going to be required for its maintenance and upgrade for its useful life is the term that they use. So you're you're basically taking over that road. And right now we're looking at again 0.95 miles total, just under a mile, about half of its county, half of its city. Um, so the pros of the city being the lead agency on this, you then take over control of your entrance to the airport. You have control over what it looks like, what it what what it would be. Uh, the con is you've got a maintenance responsibility for it. So that's the tradeoff. Um, so we can you can choose to have Levy County see if they would be the managing uh agency for this application for this this one segment. The city could do that and then you take over the maintenance or we cannot address it with this program at this time. You can choose to do nothing. question, comment if this through. Um, a few years ago, and Benton might know how many, we asked the county to pave their portion of that road, and they did. However, we did not pave our portion.

Yeah. So, I seriously doubt they're going to want to pave anything knowing that they did pave theirs and we didn't pave ours. Yeah. Um, we may just want to do our portion. that that is a an option too. I'll just add that comment. He looks like he wants to say [laughter] something

if I may. Uh the last conversation I had with anybody over at the county um is when Mr. Brooks was on the commission. Um he reached out to me and asked if we wanted to pave it um with them. I guess they were trying to do something with FDOT and some sort of experimental asphalt program. Um, and it was it was just going to cost us too much of the time. Jonathan and I talked about it, Terry talked about it, and we decided to to not go forward with it, and the county decided to not go forward with it as well. Um, prior to that, I don't I don't think I've had any talks in my time about paving that road. Um, yeah, I mean, our side of it is it's a little rocky at times, for sure.

Yeah, they did do their side. It's probably been it's it's been six or seven years. It's been before my time and I've been here seven years. Yeah. Six or seven years would be my guess. Yeah.

Miss Meredith. Um just my personal thoughts. If we're trying to attract businesses out there, I think we need a we need a road that attracts businesses out there to keep people wanting to invest in the city. Agree. Agree. My always question where we going to get the money. Well, this is this is a this is a grant grant that because you are ready community and it's it's focused for rural counties and rural municipalities. It would be a zero cost to to the city. Chief,

I'm very supportive of uh paving the roads within the city. Uh but if there's another road that we can think about, Walt, uh as we move forward, and we've talked about this road before, uh for those of you who don't know, the road behind Wendy's and Tractor Supply, Mhm. is a private road.

Anybody go down that road behind Wendy's and try to supply, we have no law enforcement authority at all. So, I know we're talking about paving roads and and taking responsibility of of roads. That is a main road in the city of Willist and we don't own it and we have no authority on that road. So, if we could think about that, I'm not trying to derail anything, but if there's something we can think about, we should think about taking over that stretch of the road behind Tractor Supply and Wendy's cuz like I say, it's private property and we somebody goes down there have a crash or speeding, driving reckless, there's absolutely nothing we could do. Just food for thought.

Don't tell anybody. Just tell everybody. [laughter] Okay. So what is li the liability lies with the owner of the road? Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am it does. Uh so if we have an issue we have to call that owner. Yes ma'am. Sorry. I remember it wasn't built to our specs and we told them how to build it and what kind of pavement to put on it and they didn't. And we told them if they didn't do it to our specs, we wouldn't accept the road. And they did it anyway. So, we didn't accept the road to to my recall.

Okay. They expect it to [clears throat] slide off or something. They expect the pavement to slough off at some point in times. Yeah. And if we're going to be doing the repaving, maybe if if we're doing this through a grant, maybe we could pave it to our specs. Yeah. And then take the road. mail it and pay it to respect. Yes. But don't you have to get the person who owns it to give you the road? I think at one point they wanted to give us the road. Okay. So, uh I'm sure they're probably under that same umbrella of you know if we will take it uh and put it to our specs. Okay. So, um Miss Alexis, do you have anything? It's not going to cost

If it's not going to cost us anything, I'm all for it. I would like to add to that this program we do have to have rightaway acquired for it. So we couldn't do that now under this program. But if that rightaway could be acquired, this is an annual program. You know, once that's acquired, we could apply for that in another year, but you'd have to have that rightaway defined under this program. So DOT wouldn't fund it that as it is now. So we can put it

so we can put it on the list for the next time. Okay. I just I just wanted to bring everybody's attention so because I know it keeps getting left out and forgotten about. So I just wanted to bring it up so everybody have a fresh reminder in their mind. So Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nichols. Miss Sue, do you have anything else? I do not. Do you guys have a um consensus as to which way you would like us to go? Are you good with us applying for the grant and then assuming responsibility for that road? What road? The road to the airport. That should So just the airport. The rest of those are all our roads. Yeah. Okay. I have a clarification question if I can. Go ahead.

Uh are we are assuming responsibility from 121 to the airport at that point? Um okay. [clears throat] Uh from the way I understand it, yes ma'am. presently um if you're driving down the road from Monterey Boats to 121 is owned by the county and from Monterey Boats that the top of the hill there to the airport is city. Mr. Nichols, Madame President,

has anybody talked to the county to see if they are interested in this? because if the county is an interest, this is a exercise of futility. So I would recommend that maybe somebody should get in touch with the administration at the county, find out if they're interested, then pursue this. Thank you, Mr. Nichols. I've already spoken with county manager. Okay. Yes. And we've and they want to let us have the road. Well, we're in discussions right now. Yeah. Uh we wanted to get, you know, your consensus first. first meeting then if you're not interested then we don't want to bother them either so we want to make sure we have a consensus here first anything else Mr. Mayor don't ma'am

okay Mr. Nipples, we do have a sample inter uh agency agreement from DOT that they gave us as a guide as a recommendation and it we have to decide yeah which way another and then they they would take it to their board um with basically our direction your direction that you want and and proceed that way. But we'll draft up that inter agency uh agency agreement. It's going to have to come to both legal departments to be reviewed. Um, this program is March 25th is the deadline for this. Um, but the county is ready to bring it to their commission as soon as we draft what that what that uh agreement would be. So,

Miss I would just say that entrance road to the airport is not in the city. It doesn't start till the cattle gap, right? Yeah. I just wanted to make that point. Yeah. that where you turn off 121 and go down. It's not in the city until you get to where the cattle gap used to be, which is just past Monterey Bay. Now, Monteray is because it wraps around, but the road itself, it starts about halfway in,

right? Yep. There's a house to the left where you turn in a gate to go and it start right past there is where it started. You can see where the cattle gap used to be. Had a kind of a dip right there. Mr. Cox. Oh, I'm sorry. I was just saying that's kind of weird, too. Mr. Walt, how much how much was the grant for? We're working on that right now. So, we we have to do cost estimates for all this and and ask for that money. That's all being done right now. And if we take over the road, y all of it going up. Do we have an rough guess to what that's going to cost for the city to [sighs] I'd rather not right now. We're in the middle of cranking out those numbers right now.

Um I mean I could have this by next, you know, we'll have it by their next meeting and I can have that for you. Okay.

Yeah. But uh but we have to do the estimates for all this. And right now you're asking for the seven roads without this. It's it's 0.95 miles. That's really a kind of a small ask to the DOT under this program. I think you'd get those all funded. Adding this one would still falls in that. I've I've done dozens of these in my career. They're in Union County, they're 3 to seven miles long, you know, when they get a grant. So, you're well under that. Um, but we're working on the numbers. I I I can give you those numbers of what we're going to ask for um in the in the grant amount. So, but I rather not tell you that off the top of my head until we really work those out. Okay. Okay. Thanks, Mr. Keian. Did I say that right?

Yes, ma'am. You did. Thank you. Okay. So, Walt, if we decide to uh do this project, would we pick up the rightway as well? And would we be responsible to mow and maintain that rightaway? I would venture to say yes. So, there's those are the details that need to be worked out in the inter agency agreement between Levy County and that, but I I would venture to say that probably would come with Aren't we already doing that, Ben? We stop at the cattle gap. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thought we were going to the road. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor.

Oh, you weren't even looking this way, so you startled me. I have a question for the attorney, if I may. Sure. If we become owners of that road, does that mean that all the properties that are touching that road are annexable [snorts] because they will be in touch with city property? If we have I if the boundaries of and I would have to look at a map in order to tell you exactly where that would be, but yes, generally speaking, if a property is contiguous with city limits, we can and exit. That was my thought. I'm always thinking of how can we make our city bigger only the end of the road. I have one more question.

Yes, ma'am.

I just wanted to ask the chief because if we do own that road from 121 to the airport, there will be policing necessary and that's a you'll be able to assume those duties without issue. Uh if we take the road um the county still the county still owns the it's still in the county. We just own the road. Like for instance 121 in order for us to get to the airport we have to enter the county go out of the county and come back into the city. So it would be the same thing as to me would appear to me be the same. It's still in the county but we own the road. So enforcement on that part of that strip will still be county and the rest of it will be city.

If I may, that's the question I asked the attorney.

It's the same question. Do we then own the property if we take the road and can we annex? Because at Bits County that question is no, we cannot. So that's what I was asking the attorneys to for her opinion or her thoughts on. I'm not asking you to give a legal opinion. I would never do that under these circumstances. However, your my thoughts were if we take over the road then the road belongs to us and you're trying to say the asphalt belongs to us but not the dirt underneath of it. Well, that doesn't work. Either we own the road or we don't. And I don't know what you're talking about, but it seems to me if the city has taken over maintenance of the road, then we will be taking over the dirt underneath of the road.

Uh, but we're not taking over the entire road, are we? Yeah. We're not taking over the area. The area is still in the county. I don't care if you own the road or not, the area is still in the county. So, if we take the road and we annex everybody in, then it's in the city. Yeah. But if you don't annex everybody, you just own the road. But but are we talking about from 27 to where we start? 121. You meant 121 to where we start. Yeah. Or are we just talking about from what we already own? No, they're talking the whole road. The entire entire road. Yes, ma'am.

Those details and the city attorney will have an opportunity once we have a draft inter agency agreement has to get put together. And so we just got the sample today from DOT of of one that they've used before. We're going to make it fit this. It'll come before the board. Both county attorneys and and uh Miss Belaloo will have an opportunity to look at then. So we're we're in the the very first stages of getting those details and those details need to be defined and clarified. So Sue, um, what you're wanting us to give a consensus on is whether or not you should go ahead and continue to move forward or just stop where you are. Correct.

Correct. Do we need a vote? Can we just do a consensus? You can do a consensus if you prefer. So all those who want to move forward respond by saying all the roads she said yes everything and every everything. Okay. Thank you. Just clarify. Say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Nay only because we don't know what the cost would be to us if we take it over. So that's what [snorts] it wants. Okay. So we have a vote. Any other discussion? You need to say something else?

No, other than just clarify this grant to repave all of the roads would be a no cost to the city that part. It's I think to your point in the future it's the road out there if we take over the whole road at the airport. Yeah. But it would be repaved. You'd have the mowing that was brought up. Yeah, but the future repaving in 15 to 20 years from now that that would be on you. But but the repaving of it today would be covered with a grant. So I just wanted to clarify that. Okay. All right. So motion's consensus is 4 to one.

Cool. Miss Poo, you have anything? We are moving forward on block 12. I know that it's it's one of those projects that is difficult to keep up with because it's city and we talk about it here, but we also talk about it in the CRA and so a lot of the time there's, you know,

making sure that we all have the same information at the same time can be complicated. Um, we are moving forward. We are not uh our plan right now and it's not solidified until there are signatures. So, I'm I don't want to jinx ourselves, but we do have a plan that does not involve redesign of the parking lot, that does not re involve us ripping up the sidewalk, and does involve us getting this moving relatively quickly and and getting us back uh up to speed. Um, as far as how we got here, this project began in 2010, 2009, somewhere around there. Um so I mean maybe even before that as far as how how early that mistake began um regarding you know this design I would say probably back right around the beginning and it is extremely difficult for us right now to figure out how we got here. So, our focus has been fixing it and then we will try and figure out how we got here. But focus right now has been I know that everyone wants that parking lot done. So, we're going to get it done and then we'll take a look at making sure something like this doesn't happen again.

M. That's all for me. Thank you.

Nothing else. Oh, we've uh as you all know, we've talked about in budget about the uh the upgrades to the communication center over at the PD. Um during the budget session, Steven had put into the budget of the possibility of a $300,000 loan. Well, I'm glad to report tonight that uh thanks to the Levy County Commissioner and our commissioner uh Johnny Hires, uh myself, the city manager, Miss Wright attended the county commissioner meeting had a chance to speak about the consoles. Uh we were the consoles are going to be donated to the city of Willist. So that $300,000 possible loan will now only be the cost of getting the equipment installed, which is probably around 100 grand. Don't hold me to that number, but uh if that is the case, that's a $200,000 savings to the city of Willist and the taxpayers in Willist. So uh kudos to the county commissioner for stepping up and donating that stuff to us. Uh, I can't can't go without saying um thanks to my brothers over in Chief and Cedar Key uh because they were also asked about the consoles and they say no, we want you to donate those to Chief Rose and Williston. So, uh that just speaks volume about the reputation that we have out there in the in the county and in the community and uh I'm just proud proud to be a part of this team. So, uh, that's my big news for today on the consoles.

Terrific. Anyone else back in the back staff?

Yes. Coming up in March, Williston Fire Rescue along with the American Red Cross. We're going to continue our our safety program with uh smoke detectors going into homes. Uh to continue this, we're going to do a blitz in areas at a time. We're going to start start in the East Williston area and then the next blitz will move into another area. We we're really trying to find areas that that are lacking proper smoke detectors in their homes. This be free of charge. We're going to go through Red Cross is going to provide personnel. uh Williston Fire Rescue is going to provide personnel and that's uh keep us up with our commitment to provide safety to the people that we serve. So, we're happy to announce that and we we'll give you more information as the day gets closer.

So, you'll be checking smoke smoke detectors and or installing if need. Is that what you're saying? So, if they have working smoke detectors, we're going to check them to make sure they are working. If they're old, we're going to [clears throat] go ahead and replace them. So, uh we're going to have probably uh try to hit at least 40 to 50 homes. Awesome.

And on this on the date that we pick. So, uh if anybody wants to come out on that date once we uh get it uh down on the calendar, we'd be glad to have help. So, and that is it. uh at this time. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Troy.

So, we did uh some internal shuffling around through the internal hiring process. Uh Devin Hindelang has been moved from the inmate supervisor to the water tech trainee and all these movements provide um future growth for each one of these employees. Uh Jesse Sers from a road tech to a lift a lift station trainee. Jason Fox from a lift station uh operator to a wastewater operator trainee. And then Shereice Hampton from meter reader to permit tech. Thank you, Mr. Killian. Uh first off, Alex and I would like to thank uh the council members for providing the time out of their personal lives to ride through and see some of the troubled areas that we've identified. Um we are currently working in the swore plant, working on that to do the scrapping and the cleaning up out there. Our next uh next big step will be over at the the city barn. Excuse [clears throat] me. So, we are moving forward with the the things that y'all saw the past few weeks. Um lots of movement, lots of growth. Uh, I believe Alex and I believe good things to come. Um, and just moving forward.

Thank you, Benton. Yes, ma'am. Uh, just want to give a shout out to the electrical crew. U, they came out and helped us take the beacon down. Um, it's been inop for a couple of weeks now. Oh, wow.

And they went up in the boom truck, took it down. Our maintenance guy um, took a look at it, repaired all the internals. Um, and then they came back out today, put it back up. So, I really appreciate the team effort. Um, Rob and Alex helped us out with that a lot. Saved us quite a bit of money in the the repair or replace cost. U, so we really appreciate that. And I wanted to let council know we finally got our um big generator for the new terminal building installed. Um, they're doing ground tests next week um to make sure that it's good. But in the event that we have, you know, hurricanes and whatnot, that building will be another place that we can utilize for uh, you know, whatever the city needs to.

Thank you. Any other staff? Miss Meredith, I just want to say thank you to all of the city workers who kept the lights and the water running during a very cold weekend and um just appreciate it cuz it was plenty cold and I have a farm and I know what it's like when a pipe bursts and you're getting sprayed with water while you're trying to figure out how to turn it off and it's no fun. So, thank you very much for all of that.

Miss Dova, I agree 100%. we knew you were out there and thank you for the reports and everybody who was sending them to us. Uh it's always nice to know so when people ask you you were able to tell them. Um something not necessarily city related but I wanted you to know that there is another person looking at the hospital. U she was so excited somebody from Dunellan uh that she came back 2 days later looked at it again. This time she brought three people with her uh who were one of them was demo a demo person. So just to put that on the table, one of them was a demo person, one of them was an engineer, one was an architect. So they're kind of looking at it from all angles. She's get prices to see what's the most feasible thing to do. Uh she has talked uh with Guardian Angel Medical Service Dogs to the Bordon Institute that was there before. She's talked with the people who hold the tax certificates. Um, so I think she may mean business. She knows the money. We they they do have a date, by the way, in April to sell the other tax certificates. If anybody's interested in that date, I can give it to you. I just want to say thank you to the police department and thank you to facilities for helping us get in and sweeping the building and making sure everything was okay for us to go in. Uh, you never know what you're going to find in there every time you go. Um, it's a little a little worse every time we go. And I can honestly say that. Um, if you you noticed it's looking better. They've trimmed the bushes and the trees. That is thanks to the chief as well to the code enforcement person who has gotten a hold of that receiver uh who has lit them up and got them making it look presentable. They even mowed the area around the helport and that far end down there. Everybody thinks it's been sold, but I told them it hasn't. It's just

that new code enforcement person we've got is doing her job. So, I just want to say kudos to them. Thank you, Miss Alexa. Mr. Cox, couple questions. Preserve Williston. What is that? I think it's a new subdivision. What was the question? Preserve Williston. It is a new proposed new subdivision by Wen Monzerat. He's the one that did the two two town homes uh two duplexes, right? Um the ones over by the baseball [clears throat] field. Very nice looking building.

Yes. Yes. Very nice. Um so he's proposing this new um subdivision um that looks like it would be really nice, but of course that will all be coming before the council. We're in negotiations right now with the um developers agreement with him. That's what he's calling it. That's his term for it. The preserve full. All right. Um I'll come back to it. Can somebody make it not so cold in here? Who knows how to work this air conditioner?

Mike, can you help us with that? We're freezing up here. Sorry to interrupt. I want to say thank you to the city crew as well. I abandoned you, but thanks for everything that you did. [laughter] But I did receive the text messages and the updates. So, appreciate it. And ditto with what everybody else has said. [laughter] Absolutely. Cuz if we had not been prepared, it would have not have been good. Yeah, absolutely. Mr. Mayor, you have anything for us, sir?

Well, I have a few small things. I would just like to remind the citizens and the council that uh we've discussed a great deal about how I'm going to say this in my terms. This the police department and the fire department aren't money makers for the city. They cost the city money. And uh I want to point out that this chief just managed to achieve this time $200,000 worth of equipment, at no cost to the city. He has gotten a number of cars donated to us at no cost to the city. That is income, people. And my fire department got a grant for $540,000 to the city.

55 whatever it is. It's a lot of dogone money. 55,000. Thank you. [laughter] [gasps] What did I say? 500. He's trying. You said 5,000.

Okay. So the point is that both of those departments are working really hard to bring money into the city and bring items into the city that saves the city money. And I just want to tell both of them that I'm very proud of. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So on to new business discussion with possible action. Wilson fiber update. Mr. Ron Russell with performance services. Thank you and good evening. Hello.

And uh hopefully you you all have one of these packages that has a date on it that's uh today. And I think the last update we gave was on the 20th of January. So you might have that old one too.

And uh if you could please flip to the second page. Uh what that page is is just kind of a legend uh that for reference uh all the attached sheets back in the the back all the the individual sections of town. So that second sheet in your package is kind of a legend to all those those maps there. It's kind of the way we sort of manage the project is is looking at uh the work to do in each one. track [clears throat] it. The third page is the one that's very colorful. It's got the uh the yellow and the green. The the green columns is what we told you on January 20th. So, I left those in there so you could compare to the columns next to them. the the sheet is organized in terms of as you see at the top of that table service drops and infrastructure. So the infrastructure is all those those loops that are out in on the aerial in town some underground but mostly aerial. They have all the splice blocks on them and that's where you take off and go to service drops for subscribers. And so we our contract has in it 950 drops total connections to actual subscribers whether it's a business or a or an individual a residents and at the bottom of the the table you see a num some numbers as totals. Right now we are working on 828 addresses that Aaron gave us and we are if you look over to the right we're 83% complete with those. We'll be doing another up to a total of 950 before we're done.

So uh that's where we're at on the drops and of course they're organized by areas. The top two lines are Williston Williston crossings uh RV resort. So we're we're done there pretty much basically 100%. There was one added. Uh so basically uh that those those two lines plus the next two lines are pretty much they're well in fact all those are well along. So the drops are going very well and we have a few more to do that we'll be getting from Aaron shortly. to up to the 950. So on the right side of the page is the network infrastructure construction. Uh that is going very well. It's kind of done in two parts. First you you hang the the uh cable and you leave looped ends where you're going to come back and splice everywhere. And uh so it's kind of two different operations and and the splicing is very uh specific talent you know and training. So you hang all the carrier carrier uh cables which they call strand and then you hang the wire and the cable holds up the wire you know the uh the cable holds up the strand holds up the fiber optic cable which isn't real strong it on its own so it needs the carrier wire there. But anyway then you come back and do the the the splices. So, we're pretty much we have the the uh cable up in the air and the only thing keeping us from being completely down there is a couple of F dot uh permit applications that are pending. A couple of areas for that footnote, second footnote, the two asterisks there. So, now we're we're doing the splicing which is also going real well. So you can see on the third from the end on the right percent splicing complete uh 100%

in many areas there's a few areas that are related to that that F dot work that got uh put off on completing splicing till we get that which is kind of a technicality it's sort of a formality rather to get that approval. uh it's been lagging because uh they they ask for more information, you submit it, then they ask for more information and you have different reviewers that review the different application or the permit apps. And so you get some different requests. So we're in a process of the final the finalformational pieces that go in there that they are going to rubber stamp once they get them because they already told us what they want. We've already done it. So we expect to get that approval very quickly. their their website for uploading has been shut down for a few days, but but that's being addressed and it's really not hurting us that bad truthfully. Uh there's only a few splices that and most of those splices are just for redundancy because cuz the loop is redundant. You know, you can feed from either direction and so it's not hurting us too bad, but it is keeping us from being complete on some of those lower listed sections there. But regardless, um, there was another problem, by the way, on the drops. You see that there's an asterisk up there on the top left, service drops, where we had some material that we ordered and it was shipped on 20th January. Somehow got got hung up on the way with weather. It was supposed to be here today, but I understand it didn't get here today, and it should have got here long before now. But uh once we get that, we'll bang out all the rest of the service drops. And then the one Aaron gives us to go up to 950. Uh so in the middle column there's a status

of today. It has three lines that say fiber installed. Five days of splicing remains. So there's five and there's three and there's four days. Those are what we have left basically on the infrastructure because all the all the cables in place hung except for a few you know those those F dot um permits affect a few feet of underground here and there or a splice up in the air somewhere pretty minor. Uh so once we get that uh permit, which should be forthcoming within a few days, if we can get it uploaded, you know, those last few docs, we'll be able to uh the last two columns show what we told you before in the green. We're we're trying to maintain those dates. As long as we get that FOT approval, we should be able to in the next few days. So there's about three weeks of work from when you get the update approval and and again we're in parallel working on the drops there and and we need that that cable we didn't get, you know, but it should come in and he thought it was going to be today. The the shipper told us today. I asked where did it come from? You know what what weather are we talking about? I know that it could have been a lot of trying to get here from anywhere, you know, would have been a little bit of a problem, but I was trying to find out where it was actually coming from and uh but it's not here yet. Any day, as they say. So, I'm sorry to have to stand up here and say that, but that's kind of a fact, I guess. So, we're looking pretty good really in in at this point. Uh the last column kind of shows that we're going to be done by the end of this month, maybe a few days into next month. And uh

we're looking real we're good. We're looking good there now. Anybody Does that make sense? Anybody have any questions about that? I just I have a question. So when you're talking about the FDLT approvals that are pending, it says 1.1 1.2 2 1.4 but it looks like 1.5 is I mean 1.2 is complete but 1.5 isn't. Is that is it truly 1.1 1.2 and 1.4 and that was a

there was one that was just a very minor uh splice one they can do five slices a day so we just kind of think it's we didn't want to make excuse for that. Um, but you're right. That that means it's like 99 point something and not 100%. Some of these No, I was just trying to make sure I was seeing the right thing. Yeah, I appreciate it. Some of the F dot permits are simply for a splice up in the air, you know, just because it's in there right away. Okay. It's real no real work. I mean,

Gotcha. Any other questions from council? I just have a comment. I want to thank you. This is very clear, very easy to understand even for somebody who knows nothing about any of the technical aspects of this. So, thank you. Sure. And it look and the numbers do look much better. Thank you for that, too. Well, we are trying our best when we uh we hit a few snags and and then we didn't get the material we're supposed to and we lost crews. And this is a resource game and you have other work going on. So, we're just we're trying to keep them here and and get finished here. Right now, they're all busy.

That's good. So, let's get that that cable in and get those and get those drops completed. We're looking I'm optimistic and I I hope that comes through.

10 No, it's just discussion. Anything else from council? All right. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. Um I can I ask a question for Aaron before we move on to this next topic. So Erin, can I get an update on your end of things? The

again, sorry if I have the terminology wrong. Software, hardware status, actually turning it on. I know there's a big green button someplace you're going to hit one of these days. Well, there's several big green buttons, but we're getting closer. It's just working with the software people, getting the inventory items in, getting the network stuff set up, the router, the switches. Uh, it's we're still working on it every day. I mean, I don't can't give you a timeline. We just when we get it all built and all finished and all tested, then we'll know it's working hopefully before they finish. Okay. Thank you. So, question, is it the com is it the infrastructure that you were waiting on or the service drops that you needed to have? I'm waiting on all of it technically, but what I need here is done.

Okay. As far as getting what we need to do inside done. That's what she's referring to. The back end that's controlling everything. Okay. Thank you. How about the billing software? Yes. That's say the back end that's controlling everything. That's what we're working on right now. Oh, you're working on it's not done. Gotcha. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Resolution 2026-05, a resolution of the city council of the city of Willist, Florida, reappointing BJ Bishop and Latricia Wright to the Williston general pension board respectively for terms beginning January 6th, 2026 and ending January 5th, 2028 and approved and providing an effective date BJ Bishop general pension boards presidents. Good evening, council. just what it says. We would like for you guys to go ahead and reappoint Latricia and I. We would be honored if you guys would let us continue on the board.

Thank you. I move resolution I move approval of resolution 2026-05. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion from the public? Any discussion further from the council? Seeing none, I move to vote. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes five to zero. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.

Oh, you got another one coming. No, that's not K. Well, just stay there. All right. Okay. So, where am I? Okay. Resolution 2026-06, a resolution of the city council of the city of Willist, Florida, appointing Azie Delgado and Christy Richardson to the Williston general pension board respectfully for terms beginning January 6, 2026 and ending January 5th, 2027 and providing an effective date. BJ Bishop President.

Yes, we are down a couple of members and we would like for we have um brought them to the council because we would like for you guys to allow them to join us to help make the decisions for our pension board. We do have one of them here with us. If you have any questions for Christy, she is here. And Mr. Delado is not here because he's the coach of a T-ball team and he's at practice. Tell me to please tell you that. Can I get a motion here? Can I get a motion? I move approval of resolution 2026-06. Can I get a second? Second.

Any discussion from the public? Questions? Any further discussion from the council? Seeing none, I move to vote. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes five to zero.

Thank you. Discussion with possible action. Fireworks vendor for July 3rd celebration. City clerk Latricia writes. Okay. In your packet you have three different quotes. One from Premier Events. The price that they're ch they're asking. The quote that they're not asking. Yeah. The quote they're asking is 32,500. It includes the band, sound system, fireworks, and a rain date. The second quote you have is from Skylighters. The price is 20,000 and it's just for fireworks and a rain date. The third quote you have is from Kinique. The price is $30,000 for 20 minutes. And unfortunately on their quote there was no rain date. [clears throat] The last time that um Premiere did it, they their sound system was good. Um the one last year was was good as well, but um I think uh Premier has given us a little more bang for the buck than the other ones. One of them looks like it was just a lastm minute decision and we'll put, you know, put the price in for 20,000. I on the other hand would like to go

with skylighters at 24,000 which is the platinum package. Um and my basics of that decision was Premier Events gave us we have to tell them 24 hours in advance whether we want a rain date or not. Who knows 24 hours before then whether it's going to rain. It rains all in July. It rains all the time. Um, and Skylighters said that we could even cancel that night and they would set up another date at our convenience, which is what they've always done for us. Uh, they're both 20-minute shows. I will I will say that Mike's right about that. They both, if you add their times up, they're 20 minutes. Um, I believe Skylighters shoots higher and bigger shells, although Premier Events said that they were going to try to do bigger and higher this year as well if in theirs. Um, if you look at all the references for Skylighters, they're just wonderful. U, the references are great. All those places that you would normally go to watch the fireworks, that's them. Um, I would also say that I have no idea who this band is. that's in this premier event. They actually list the band. I don't know who they are. I never heard of them.

Um I have no problem helping find a band. Whether if you'd like the one from last year, fine. If you don't like the one from last year, we can find a different one. That'll be a $20 fine. Hey, it went up from down here. [laughter] $5. $5 anything else. That's that's mostly my theory. Miss Meredith, you have anything? Um, welcome back.

Not to mention that it's cheaper by long shot. I I think that's my comment as well is that um you know given our our current budget situation and you know potential for an even more challenging budget in the next couple couple of years I think any place that we can I do very much appreciate Mr. Cox's point, this is the 250th anniversary and if you know we want to do something a little extra special, but if if at that price point of the 20 to $24,000 if then we can actually maybe add a little bit more and do something a little extra special with that price point. So, um that's my that's my only comment. Thank you,

Miss Alexa. Any comments? I am all for the cheaper option because I think the fireworks are dumb and if it's cheaper and better, I'm here for it. So, let's just vote. Cheaper, cheaper, better is always good. So, um I don't think premier is an option because if we look at it, it says due to high demand, if we do not respond by December 4th, then the proposal is Nolan Boyd. So, did did they send us something and updated it? No, he's still is he still going to honor this one?

Yes. And he um sent me a message today to let the council know um if they want a real show that people are going to be talking about, they need to consider his proposal. [laughter] $8,000. I can consider the other one and do something extra like Meredith.

We also just might not even have an Independence Day to celebrate the way the world is going at this current time. So, let's just go with the cheaper option. So, I make a motion we approve Premiier or not the Skylighter 24,000 fireworks. Were you seconding, Miss Ma'am? Miss uh Okay. Whoever I am. So we [laughter] No, I was going to call Miss Latricia. You got that. Miss Latricia. Okay. Alexa made a motion to approve skylighters for 24,000. And Miss Deborah second correct.

Okay. All right. Um any discussion from the public? Any discussion from council? I just asked the question. You didn't say anything. I was raising my hand. Oh, okay.

I just want I want to make one. It's just a suggestion, something to think about. Uh it is a 250th. Uh is is it a possibility of getting donors of people to to u donate to have a bigger fireworks show or to have an additional something for the 250th? I'm sure we can get people around that will probably donate money towards the event. Uh just an option to think about. Just something to think about. I think Ben's going to offer to donate [laughter] and him too. Mr. Steagle, uh just to clarify the clerk's point, no ma'am. [laughter]

But the uh there's a a member of the Masonic Lodge who deals fireworks. um and he would probably be a good person to partner with about this. Can I make comments to that? And even if we don't do additional fireworks, we can do additional things, additional items that we additional events there that we haven't done before. Um because we do have some other money in the budget for that because we did want to make it bigger and better. Mhm.

But I think if you read the fireworks proposal, it is bigger and better than it has been before because Latricia did ask them to make it that way. But I think there are other components to the celebration besides just the fireworks that we can put into the event. And on a side note, as I mentioned before, the chamber has partnered with me to make it bigger and better.

And the can, however you say it, KY nex, they are professional company does stuff for UF. Uh, the city of Elatchua, a lot of other ones. The city of Elatchua is known as the biggest fireworks display for the smallest city. And can I just add one more thing please? If you all have any ideas or anything you would like to give me, I am more than open to accepting your ideas so we can make this bigger and better. Madame President, Mr. Mayor,

thank you. the city attorney. Have you noticed how I focus on you? I'm afraid to I know how close we are. Okay. I was just wondering, you know, when we're talking about other fireworks, people that do fireworks have insurance. And if you have somebody else out there doing fireworks with that is not covered under their insurance, you are entering into a very They're not doing that gray area. I I would certainly expect if we chose one of these vendors, they would

at the very least like to have discussions with anybody else who plans to launch fireworks so that they could uh at the very least at the very least and maybe not just a written not want that to fireworks at the park. Thank you. I would I would just comment that other fireworks at the park are prohibited. I mean, the the police actually stop people and tell them that as they come in. There are signs that say that.

Had his hand up. I don't know. He's telling his Oh, okay. Mr. Okay. All right. Any other discussion? None. All right. All those in favor say I. I. Skylighter. Correct. Skylighter. Skylight. I. All those opposed, nay. Nay. Motion passes 4 to one.

Resolution 20268. A resolution of the city council of the city of Williston, Florida, approving the amendment to the state of Florida, Department of Transportation, traffic signal maintenance and compensation agreement for fiscal year 2026, authorizing appropriate parties to sign any document requiring to execute such amendment on behalf of the city of Wiston, and providing an effective date. City Attorney Kristen Blue. Uh what's in front of you should look uh familiar because it's come before you every single year. Um this is just the updated agreement from FDOT which indicates what they are willing to pay us for uh maintenance of these traffic signals. It's outlined in that exhibit A um to the agreement. And um I'm happy to answer any legal questions. I don't have any technical knowledge for you. I'm sure that your your staff is capable of answering those.

I get a motion. I make a motion that we pass resolution 2026-08. A second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion from this um public? Any discussion from the council? Any discussion from staff? Seeing none, I move to vote. All those in favor say I.

I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 5 to zero. Okay. Now we're going to have an open public hearing and city attorney Kirstston. Madame President, this is ordinance 2026-757, an ordinance of the city council for the city of Willist, Florida, amending chapter 10 of the city code of ordinances regarding animals to provide for additional definitions, updated fine schedules, updated dangerous dog requirements, updated licensing requirements, new tethering restrictions, updated requirements for on and off property restraint of animals, new restrictions on animals and vehicles, new requirements for microchipping of pets, and updated provisions regarding animal cruelty, providing for conflict and providing an effective date. This is the first reading of this ordinance. Um, like all ordinances that come in front of you, you will see uh there's two pages of the ordinance itself, which sort of describes to you what is happening. And then afterwards, you'll see um chapter 10. There's a page uh labeled chapter 10 animals at the top. Um the underlined language is additions. Obviously, the strikethroughs are things that have been removed. Um, and those are um the that's sort of the long and short of it essentially. And uh Chrissy Lewis was not able to be here today. She's not um feeling well. She is was intimately involved in the uh creation of this ordinance. Uh the process that uh we went through in order to put this together was uh Chrissy went and looked at uh other municipalities, places that have um similar ordinances and things that um she was looking for to add to our code. Um and we worked together, collaborated and how to put those um requirements together um in our code. I tried to like all ordinances, this is

why they're so long, um the titles are so long, uh to sort of summarize each section of the ordinance, um that was updated, uh to give you a sense of what exactly we're changing. Um so the definitions changed a little bit. The major change that you're going to see there is we now have a definition for adequate or sufficient shelter, nutrition, and health condition. um that was sort of nebulously defined or not at all defined um previously and so it made it a little bit difficult for our code enforcement officer to determine what is um and is not adequate or sufficient in those areas. Um the next section is the penalties. We've updated um the penalties in accordance um with obviously it's been a minute or two since the last time these were updated. Um so we we tried to match these um with our sister municipalities. Um the next section um that has uh updates is the dangerous dog section. Um, so we just made sure that um the adequate shelter um definitions um and additional signage requirements were provided in that section and you'll find that on in section 10-8 um which is page five of nine of this ordinance. Um then you'll get into the licensing requirements. We just went ahead and you're already we're already required to license your animal in Willist. Um, we just made uh sure that we laid out a little bit more clearly how you go through getting an application, providing an application, um, etc. We made sure that there was a carve out for service animals, not just seeing eye dogs. We don't call them that anymore. Um, but that exception does not apply to emotional support animals. So, it's a service animal versus an emotional support animal. Service animals do not have to be licensed under Florida law. um they have other stricter

licensing requirements that we don't get to be part of, but emotional support animals will still have to be um licensed. Uh the next section um is regarding tethering. There's a lot of uh there wasn't really a requirement regarding tethering. There weren't any rules or restrictions regarding tethering of animals. So, most of this section is new. Um it's pulled from our sister municipalities who have tethering ordinances. Essentially, it just says you can't tether your animal outside when you're not supervising them. Um, it provides for um certain restrictions regarding length of time and weather conditions and those kinds of things um to sort of keep us up to date with animal cruelty laws and that kind of uh thing. Um the next section has to do with restraint of animals off the property. Um, we just made sure that we added in that uh dogs shall be leashed if they are not on the property unless they are in an off leash area specifically designated for dogs. Know that that's been an issue that we've run into before. So, we wanted to make sure that we had something specific for our code enforcement officer. Um, the next section, the update to new uh nuisance animals um was just to make sure that we uh have a proper citation um based on the changes to the ordinance. and then changes to Florida statute. Um the next section we just made sure that we added in um adequate shelter definition there where it was appropriate. The next section that has changes is to animal cruelty. So the next four sections are sections that we did not have uh any requirements regarding. So they're brand new. Um animal cruelty um is uh defined in your ordinance as inadequate shelter, inadequate nutrition or inadequate health conditions um and provides for a uh violation um for uh that improper care or confinement.

Um, animals in vehicles, um, essentially means that you can't place an animal in your vehicle without sufficient water and considering weather conditions, can't keep them in there without ventilation, etc. Uh, again, I'm happy to delve into any of these. I'm sort of just giving you like a 30,000 ft view. Um, refusal to sign or accept citations. 2,000 foot view. Okay, I I'll get a little bit more reads. Um the refusal to sign or accept citations. We wanted to make sure that there was provision in there so that your code enforcement officer can enforce people accepting their citations. Definitely an important uh item. Um and then the last uh section is mandatory microchipping. Um that's as to all of the animals that are owned by individuals uh to have them microchipped with accurate uh information microchip be registered um etc. So again, happy to delve into any and all of these. One thing that I will note, it has come up. It is not addressed in this ordinance, but I just want us to sort of think about it. Our code enforcement board has not met for several months. Um, we are having a bit of a difficult time getting code enforcement members. Uh, I've talked to the chief. He knows that I'm going to say this. Um and we would we would um posit that it may be a good idea for us to have an option for a special magistrate. So a code enforcement board or special magistrate such that we have someone who is able to hear these violations when we don't have a full code enforcement board like we do right now. So if that's something that you're open to happy to bring back a separate ordinance that does that that will apply not to just this section but all of your code enforcement violations. Um, but we do we do think that that would be a good option for you based on sort of the issues that we've had and making sure that we can get your police officers in

a in a spot where they can issue code enforcement violations and they actually are heard um in a timely manner. So, [snorts] I will stop talking and allow someone to ask questions. I know that we've talked about it on and off the the past couple years of having a mass mass straight just for that reason. Yeah, we've talked about it a couple of times. It's never been anything that's really uh held a lot of interest, but you know, we've we've had a couple of updates since then. So, I think maybe a good idea to revisit. I think we're beginning to see the need

Yes. or impartiality as much as anything. Impartiality is a huge huge factor. It's easier for a special magistrate to litigate regarding someone that's not their neighbor than a neighbor litigate on their neighbor. Absolutely. Missed you. Um I think the special magistrate is a fantastic idea. I'm so appreciative of all of this. I think it's wonderful. Um I have actually a question about the microchipping which maybe BJ if she's still here. No, I think she left.

She left. Um, she did let me know that she is now certified to microchip. So, I don't know if that's something that should be included in this language or not. I think that's a question for the lawyer and BJ, but just wanted to bring that up. Um, and I am very appreciative of the additional cost per offense for repeat offenders because in my experience, that's common. Yeah. Um, so thank you for all the hard work that went into this.

And as you know, I think the governor uh passed uh a law on on people that have been uh accused of are charged with animal abuse that they're no longer allowed to adopt pets. Um I I would also like to before we move on, Madame President, if you don't mind, uh Miss Diane is here and she's been very vocal with us on helping Well, is that an understatement or something? [laughter]

I was being I was kind of trying to be, you know. Yeah. But yeah, but she's been uh she's been very involved with uh with this process and providing us with information to update these things. Christy and uh Sergeant O'Hara have worked diligently on this to uh along with the attorney to get this done. Um we are at that point where it's time for a magistrate. We have an aggressive uh code enforcement person and uh animal control officer as well. I know she kept saying code enforcement, but it's animal control as well. So, I think we're at that that point in time in this city where we're getting uh more and more stuff happening that it's time to move forward. And um we've had so many problems with getting the board together and these these violations are taking forever to get resolved because we could never get enough people to attend on the board. So this will speed up the process.

Can I get a motion? I make a motion we approve ordinance 2026-757. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion from the public? after Mr. X. Yes, this is 1025. Um,

we got more of a problem with stray cats than we do dogs. What about finding people that feed these cats? Like this cold river, they feed them. Like right here, uh, right here behind the ivy house. I quit trapping over a little year ago. Now the neighborhood's rampant again with cats. Who's responsible for jump the cats jumping on the vehicles, using our yard for a cat box? Um, and what can y'all do about finding these people for feeding these cats? And then don't take care of them because look, they're cold, too. I mean, who's responsible? I know Laura Jones was behind when Terry when Terry was here Bvard when I had a meeting with him she was behind the so-called cat colonies. It wasn't decolonization. It was making more cats. And I don't know what's more cruel. Feed them and leave them out there like this in in severe weather or just don't even feed them at all. Who's responsible for all that too? Um, there needs to be some kind of fine or something done for for the overabundance and feeding these cats. I mean, it it's really bad. There's 12 cat colonies in town and they're everywhere and y'all know it. And and nipping its ear is not the answer. I did find out though if you nip a male cat's ear and you leave him, another male cat won't come around. But true, another male cat won't come around. If you nip the cheer, you put it back, he still sprays,

but another male cat won't move into his territory so he can breed and make more cats. Can I respond? Yes. So, the the ears notch the veterinarians do after they have neutered them for those cats. So, and and you to your point, you're correct. They've actually done a study that shows that if you catch and either spay or neuter and release, it does keep the the breeding populations low because the other toms don't come in. And I know there are some programs to help [clears throat] do that. And I think BJ's working on that to create, you know, programs where we catch, spay, neuter, vaccinate, and then return them. So they keep the mice population down and they also keep the additional breeding population down. So I know that she's working on that.

Yes, ma'am. my own volunteered to help put some chain link fence out here at Wag so they could put some cats out there or whatever. Um, and I still haven't heard they came to a halt. I don't know why, but something to do with perating. But you know what I mean? We got to do something about these cats. I mean, it's not fair to them and it's not fair to the citizens keep putting up with this rampant of cats. We shouldn't be a city full of cats. It should be under control. Wayne did a real good job when he was here. Thank you.

I have comment, too. Um, I know BJ is trying to catch six cats every week. Um, I know she's caught quite a few from the colony that's behind my house in the John Henry Park area. There is a colony in that area. Um, and I know she's probably done six that I've caught in the last 3 weeks. uh including a couple from the church where I work because there's some over there uh in that where the old Heartley house is over there. They live behind there too because there's three or four dumpsters and they hang out even at Shogun in that area. Uh so we've caught quite a few in that area and of course they are trapped, neutered and released. So, they're back in the area again, but they are fixed when they come back and and yes, they definitely still continue to spray and and our population is much lower in behind our house than it was before. So, she is working on it diligently.

Anyone else? [clears throat] Hello, my name is Mary Lorenzi. I do not live in the city, but I'd be happy to work with you. I trapped uh how many we trapped? 14 or 15 down around the southeast part of town. But I found when I took these cats to get them altered, half of the ones that I trapped were already altered. They just didn't have the ear tip. So, while I don't dispute the fact that there's way too many cats running around, ma'am, in just a certain ma'am, what? I'm sorry. If you can direct your

Oh, I'm sorry. Um, there's there's too many cats running around, but in the particular area where I trapped, neutered, released, and am still feeding, it's just a neighborhood of people that just the cats are just out. They belong to people [clears throat] and they're all altered, but they're just out.

I don't know about the other parts of the city. I really don't. But I would be happy to work with anybody. BJ and Laura Jones had one meeting and they were talking about Operation Catnip. They had a lady from Operation Catnip here that ran Operation Catnip and everybody, but there there was no there was no plan. And when I come up to BJ and ask her, they operation catnip was going to spay and neuter 60 cats at a time. Well, the feeders have to trap the cats. You have to get them used to coming. It's a a lot of work. You have to feed them for a period of weeks and then you trap them and then hopefully you have something in your trap when you take it up to operation catnip because they are expecting cats. Veterary outreach program is the same way. If you tell them I'm bringing six cats up and you come up with two cats, they're not happy,

right?

Because they're it's a learning facility and they're using their students to teach. It's a It's a veterary program. So, if you tell them that you're bringing six cats up and you only have one or two, they really frown on that. But what are you going to do? I mean, you there there's no guarantee that you can get the cats that you're hoping for. But BJ said we were going to trap 60 cats at a time and transport them up to um the up to up to Operation Catnip. I have a van that I bought specifically for the purpose of transporting animals. I'm sure a lot of you seen it. The little white van that runs around. It's got 167,000 miles on it. [laughter] But anyways, I could take probably last week I took 24 animals from the panhandle. So I could probably we stack them all up. I could probably take 40 up. But the problem is when I mentioned it to BJ about getting this done to really to really saying, okay, how are we physically going to do this? Who's going to feed? Who's going to trap? Who's going to transport? Who's going to pay for the food? Who's going to do this? You have to delegate. You do this. You do this. You do this. You can't just come into a group and say, "We're going to do this. Who's going to do this?" You have to be specific. Everybody has a job. Everybody has a role. So, she we're going to take 60 cats. And then I come up here to start. and she informed me that the city of Willist, this was about 6 months ago,

did not have one trap. Not one trap. So, how are you going to trap 60 cats at a time when you don't even have one trap? We do have traps now. We do have traps now. Absolutely. Okay. How many traps, Miss Man? I'm sorry. Devil's talking to Okay. I'm sorry. How many traps do you have? I'm not sure how many we have, but we're catching. It's And we take them now to the University of Florida Vet School. Yeah, I know. I'm up there. I see BJ up there all the time. Well, it's six months ago. It's totally different than it was now because it's BJ, not Laura. And I know I've used her traps as well as my own traps. I have two traps

and she's doing well. I have one of my own. She's brought me as many as two at a time. So, I know she's got at least that many. And there's three three or four other people catching them as well. Mhm. She has a reservation for six cats. The date change the day of the week changes. This week it happens to be Thursday. So, we're catching cats. Oh, I know. I've been going up there for Wag for like six years. Right. Well, this this is Wilson Animal Shelter. And we are um and she takes them right back to where she picks them up. Mhm. But you can't you you have to And we do have crafts cuz she loans them to whoever wants them.

They will just explode. If you don't get a handle on it, you're right. It'll just it just you'll have you'll have 40 cats where you had two or three. Okay. So, I mean, I'm willing to help. I'm willing to help anybody do anything. I can buy the food. I'll be more than happy to transport the animals. I'm whatever whatever anybody needs, I'm in 100%. But I agree. I heard there was a lot of stray cats behind Taco Bell. I just One of the ladies called me and she said, "Can you help?" Well, those are the ones near my church and those are the ones I've been catching with BJ. I know we've caught at least four over there.

They Somebody told me there's a whole slew of kittens behind Taco Bell. I don't know where they are. Okay. Well, we're gonna stop you now. Get with BJ and I'll do a discussion. I'll be up here tomorrow. Okay. I'm I'm a person that I that Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Um, Mr. Mayor, you had a some information. No, I have comments. Oh, comments. I have some comments, too. We get there.

Uh, you know, I think this is wonderful. All of this difficult work. You're talking about capturing cats, spayed them, and not not killing them, but releasing them, right? I can promise you I will be vetoing this ordinance because this ordinance defines an impounded dog after 72 hours may be destroyed. I am not signing that. That's the page I'm on to. I am not signing that. Change the words, change the methods of dealing with these dogs or outvote me, but I will not be signing that. Thank you,

Miss Devil. I'm that's the first page I'm on as well. Uh for the impounded animals, uh with the disposition of impounded animals, any unclaimed animals shall be the property of the city and may be humanely destroyed or transferred to the Humane Society or placed in the custody of some person deemed responsible after 72 hours. This is item 106B subsection 2 C. [snorts] Exactly. That's exactly where I am. Um, and I realize you have to do something with them. And I think that's probably what Ley County does as well. I think they do 72 hours. This is a section of your ordinance that already exists. I know, but I don't like it.

So, no, I I'm [laughter] not I'm just informing you that this is something that you don't I didn't sign the first one. You don't humanely destroy an animal just because it's been there 72 hours. I mean, I I'm not Especially if you're capturing cats and releasing them. But dogs are led to a different standard. Mr. Mayor, one at a time. Miss Meredith,

good with that one. I got others, too. Can I comment on that? Um, [clears throat] I guess I read that that at the dis, you know, sort of at the discretion of either a dangerous animal or a very sick animal or something like that after 72 hours. I did not read it that they could just put down a perfectly healthy possibly. We haven't found the owner yet. put that in here and I'm good. We can I can definitely add that. [laughter] Yeah, if you add that part and if it's if it's overly aggressive, if it's sick, if there's no chance of recovery, you know, whatever. It's not just any animal that we've had for 72 hours. Sick aggression or otherwise deemed unadoptable. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm just trying to give us Okay. So, sick or aggressive. Those are the only two things. are injured could be injured instead of sick. And yeah, I mean I guess the the unadoptable because I know that you know if it's an animal that chases livestock or that um has not just human aggression that that is often times what shelters will do. Long as just because it's a pitbull you're going to put it down. There's no reason to put it down. Right. [laughter] Right. Yeah. I'm right there with the mayor. Okay. I can absolutely make that change prior to second reading.

Um I think I'm okay with the dangerous dog area. I didn't really have any questions there. I had a little bit of questions with the tethering. Um I know the purpose of it. Uh but I don't know how where do you buy these buckle type nylon or leather halters or collars with swivel hooks on both ends? From my understanding, from my discussions with Christy, these are widely available for they're like standard tethering. If you like were to get one on Amazon, that's how it would look. Is that

Yeah, Amazon tractor supply. That's that's if you get a item that's specifically designed for like dog tethering, it's designed generally to these general specifications. It'll have those components. So, can we give a warning before we give a ticket or a violation? Absolutely. Especially on a tethering. Yeah, of course. It's a case by case scenario. They won't know unless we tell them. Case by case scenario and uh if if

Yeah, warnings are not something off the table. Yeah, that's absolutely something we can do. This, you know, it's about education. I mean, everything we do here is about education. So if the first time is the warning and the second time is the citation, you know, that's education. So, uh, and we can do PSAs or or different public safety announcements about these these new rules that are coming in effect. So, yes, of course. Absolutely.

So, when you're talking about the warnings, how is it going to be verbal warnings and how do you keep track of a warning in order to give a citation? Yeah, most of most of our warnings I I do believe will be a written warning so we can keep a file of it so we will know if we ever have that situation again, we can pull a file and say you've been warned on this day, this this time and uh then move forward from there, you know, continuing to progressively move up as if they continue to do the things that they're doing. Okay, Miss De.

Um, on page eight under 1019 livestock are, and I know that's a it's old. It's nothing new. Are we really doing that? I mean, it says here minimum lot size is 8 acres or more. and a and I think we're letting number one we also have one um that lets them have show animals. I don't think that's incorporated here where they're allowed to have a pig or a calf for the Swany River Fair in a residential area. I think that sort of needs to be incorporated in here. And one of the one of the things and and that's a good point of um it may be a good idea to say just generally reference the land development code as it exists at that time because we will have changes and we obviously have had changes from there. So the specificity of this section can be a problem. I can absolutely just make it um livestock only permitted in the areas as outlined in the land development code. Absolutely. And I know the one about the horses is I think that one's current. The one that says um allows horses on three acres or more.

But then again, it says but less than 8 acres. So I think there's some conflict in there with our current code. And I think an easy way to make sure that that never happens is to just land development code. Okay. When it comes to the microchipping, I totally believe in microchipped. All my dogs are microchipped. My cats are not, but they all stay inside. They don't go anywhere. Um, and I Some people can't afford to microchip their animal. If we're going to do it for them, maybe we should have micro microchip clinics. BJ actually addressed this with me. She's now qualified to microchips. $10. $10. Yep.

Okay. So, we're going to maybe offer a clinic for somebody to come and they can just go tell them they mandatorily have to do it. They just go to the shelter, call, they just go to the shelter and get it done. I think we need to offer that service if we're going to say it's mandatory because some people really can't afford it. And I think too is um we may even a few grant maybe a few grants for $10. I know some Hey, I help people all day at my church with utilities, with gas, with groceries, with [snorts] things at the thrift store. So there are people I help them change their ID card and their driver's license because they don't have money to do that. Um so there are diet can't spare $10.

I think too we got to help them get once they're um slip once they uh help get the word out. Help get the word out. Yes. but to register the cats or the dogs also because um there was a cat that we adopted we over at Ace and we found out that um they had been microchipped. Oh. But they couldn't find out where the cat belonged to because the cat wasn't registered. Right. So that's the other big part of it.

Yeah. There's a lot of stories out there about animals that have went off. Yeah. and uh somebody else has found them and took them to the vet and read the microchip and reunited them with their family. So, uh there's a lot of success stories behind that. Most microchips, I believe, and somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, once you microchip the animal, the microchip is registered to the owner. So, I know my my animals if you microchip them, it comes back to me because my animals have gotten out and they have taken them to the vet and the vet scanned them and said call me and said, "We have your your dog."

I had to get online and register mine. So, I mean, they put it in there, but they tell you where to go online. Oh. So, they leave it up to the owner and sometimes they don't do it. Yeah. Well, that's a flaw. Anything else, Miss D? No, ma'am. Miss Meredith, Mr. thoughts. Um,

Horseman's Park, we have some work to do out there. I think we have to vote. We're not on the No, I'm talking about related to what we're talking about. Ready to go. No, I thought we were going to take anything else for you with this new language. I thought we already had a motion. We have a motion. I thought we had a motion. This is just discussion. This just discussion. Ma'am, if you'll step to the and you you can be the last person. There she comes. Trouble.

My name is Diane Mshan. I live outside the city. Also, um I'd like to sincerely applaud the city of Wilston for taking the initiative to pass these ordinances aimed at improving the welfare of the animals within the city. This is a much needed and commendable step forward. For over a decade, I've advocated for Levy County to adopt similar ordinances. Although Levy County finally went through the process of drafting the animal welfare ordinances in 2019, they unfortunately never moved forward with formally passing them. This lack of action has created significant gap in laws that would otherwise provide animal control officers with the tools they need to effectively do their jobs. Without clear and enforcable ordinances, it becomes far more difficult to ensure proper care for the animals and to prevent repeated calls and wasted resources. Ordinances addressing proper shelter, microchipping, confinement, tethering, and overall animal care are desperately needed. When such laws are in place, the ACOs can issue compliance orders and reduce the need for multiple visits to the same properties, ultimately saving time, money, and improving the outcomes for the animals. Uh I also encourage the city to consider partnerships and community like we've been discussing here for the microchipping events and what and with organizations. But now that I know that BJ is certified um for the microchipping, the SPCA local Baron also I spoke with her and she'd be willing to come up and help with the microchip clinic if you needed it and she can bring her unit her unit right here with a vet. [snorts] Um I also encourage the city Oh, I got did that one. Tethering is another serious issue as we spoke about. No dog should have to live its life on the end of a chain, especially in extreme

temperatures without proper supervision. And um many cities and counties are implementing stronger tethering regulations. So I think that's a great idea to do that. And um I'm glad Williston will be leading the way in Levy County. Additionally, stray dogs left on the streets pose serious risks risks to themselves and to the publics. Animals are left to starve, struck by vehicles, cause traffic accidents, and in many cases attack residents and pets who follow leash laws. Community members should be able to walk safely without being chased by lost dogs. I truly hope to lead by example within Levy County by implementing strong, compassionate, enforcable animal welfare ordinances that protect both the public and the animals. Thank you for your time and in doing this. Thank you. All right, I'm going to move to vote. All those in favor say I. I.

I. All those opposed? No. I'm going to say no because I want it to come back. Please change the language. This is first reading, so it'll come back for second. So I changed my [laughter] vote. Yes. Yes. Cuz there's some language we changed there. Yeah. Right. Right. And added. Okay. Okay. Got it. It is first reading. So motion passes five to zero.

All right. Closing public hearing. So at this time we'll have another opportunity for public participation. You again have five minutes to speak on anything.

Yes, maker. I'd like to get on uh the next agenda if I could. Uh, I want to talk about the water. I got the uh the water the the 3 years or 2 and 1/2 years of the water leaks. I haven't got 2025. I got 2022 was only 6 months and I got 2023 and 2024. But, uh, that way I can come back and have where all the leaks were in each quadrant of stuff and be have a little more be more prepared about the stuff. And some of them were a lot. One leak was 630,000 gallons in four days. It's a lot of money that Willis lost is how I see it. So I think we have a real issue with water being being lost. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Eert. Anyone else? Robert Langan, 500 Northwest Fifth Avenue. I want to thank Sue, Mike or Mike, Robert, Alex, and the commissioners. I walked out my front door this morning. I got a light pole in the yard. How about [laughter] that? And the whole subdivision with the exception of a few has light holes now. I mean, I still saw a few flags, but we're finally making forward progress. Two years. Nice. So, thank y'all.

Yay. Thank you, Miss Ling. Anyone else in the public? No. All right. Now, we'll go to announcements. We'll start with uh staff. Any announcements? Real quick um announcement. I want to thank the Marron County Sheriff's Office again for the donation of two more patrol vehicles to the Williston Police Department. Nice. Yep. Thanks.

Fully equipped. So all I got to do is stripe them, do a few little add-ons to them, add on to them, and they're out on the road. So that's all part of the program of what we spoke about in the budget when we make that adjustment in the budget is being able to keep the cars a little longer without having to buy them. So Maron County Sheriff's Office stepped up again and gave me two more. So I'm very thankful. Thank you. Thank you,

Miss Megan. I want to let everyone know that we've been working with Edmonds trying to get the issues resolved and we will have a representative from Edmonds coming to the next council member. So if anybody has questions, please have them ready for him. He is going to be ready to answer them. Thank you. Is should you think um is there any way to get questions ahead of time that he's already prepared? If you want to send them to me even citizens billing.mmanagerwilston.org work. I will be happy to get the list to him so he can be prepared. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Any other staff? Can you make a post about that on Facebook? I can get Miss Latricia to do so. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. All right.

Just want to respond to Go ahead. Sorry.

I'm coming to hurry. [laughter] Thank you. Uh just wanted to respond to Mr. Eard's com response about the water leaks. Excuse [clears throat] me. We are responding uh a lot quicker now to the leaks. Uh Mr. Cox called one in. Um we're hoping to have those leaks, any type of repairs that need to be done done within a 24 to 48 hour. Obviously, there is some time with the line locates that we have to call in. Uh so you you have to call in locates before you can dig in the state of Florida as we know. Um so we are responding as quickly as possible to those complaints andor leaks. Now if it's a dire emergency that's different. You know if it's a big main that's broke and the road's gone. We can we can work on that immediately. But u we're working on them as quickly and safely as possible.

Thank you sir. Miss Latricia. Thank you. Um, as some of you council members know, I'm very big on having council members attend conferences, seminars to get the education and the knowledge they need to succeed in the position that they hold. Uh, with that being said, Council President Hines has been appointed to the National League of Cities Small Cities Council. As as a member of the small city council, she will play a key role among a diverse group of local leaders to encourage collaboration, networking, and the development of resources and programs beneficial to communities that share demographic size or locations that can be replicated across the county. Also, Council President Hines has been appointed as a member of the National League of City Cities Military Communities Council. During this one-year term, the goal is to develop and guide programming amongst local elected officials from similar communities. With her knowledge and expertise, we know we will be able to accomplish this and so much more. Congratulations. Thank you, Council President K. Thanks.

Anything else? No. Let's see. Attorney Kirsten Blue. Miss Sue. No, I just want to reiterate, please, please get your questions in for Edmonds because this is our one opportunity for them to be here and us to hammer them. I had a pretty long conversation with the representative who's going to be here the other day and he's ready for your questions. So, please please get whatever whatever is on your mind. Please get that to us. Thank you, Miss Meredith. Miss Jones, Miss Alexa, not yet. [laughter]

Anything for Mr. Cox? Vice President Cox? Mr. Rob, um, we have some work to do out at Horseman's Park. to get ready for upcoming Fourth of July. Say yes. Yes, that is correct, sir. Okay. Well, I would hope. I mean, it's What's the What was the question? I'm sorry. I missed the question. Some work that we have to do out at Horseman. Okay. I saw I saw that, too, and I wasn't real sure what it meant by number one and number two. Would you like to respond?

Yes, ma'am. So, as you know, uh, last December, this past December, the some things were brought up about Horseman's Park. Uh, myself and Alex and a contractor went out and did a study on the on the area. Um, obviously, there's some electrical issues, concerns. Um, so we're are addressing them now and we'll get back with you as to any updates and uh, make the work happen if if we need to. Mhm. So, the bids one, bid one and bid two from the same company, were those two separate things that needed to be done or one thing? Yes, ma'am. There's four different locations that need to be worked on out there. Yes, ma'am.

And my my other question, I know it's our park, but it's also the horseman's parks operation. That is correct. So, how much are we responsible for and how much are they responsible for according to the contract? that is already in place with Horseman's Park. We're responsible for We're responsible for everything. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, that doesn't seem sir. Cuz I was looking at that and I'm going, "Okay, if we're going to pay the money to get it fixed and people are using it and not paying to use it, there's something wrong with that picture." Definitely had me asking the question.

So, I'm glad we're on the same wavelength there. We did get three quotes. Sir, we've got three We've got four quotes from the same vendor. Okay. And you're going to use Jonathan to help you since he kind of knows all that stuff out there. Where's where is one thing? Where's another thing? Electric, all that stuff. That's an option. Yes, sir. Okay. Anything else? Um, Mr. Benton, while he's looking.

Uh, yes, ma'am. I would just say, Rob, if you want to come out to the airport, I've got their land lease. Most of the land leases read a little differently than than the way you're interpreting things. So, we we might want to review that. I'll get with you tomorrow. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Cool. Thank you. Um, there's a leadership training that's upcoming. Who all is going to be in on that? All department heads. Okay. And that's just per session. That's not per person, per session. Okay.

So, I'm inviting uh Chief Steaggle and Chief Rolls to be part of it if they would like to. Of course, they don't. They're separate, but of course, we like to include you. So, I think there's 12 people total that will be invited to the trainings. Um, and again, Laura Gambino is someone who does our trainings for Swany River League of Cities. She does our ethics training. That's how we know her. Okay. All right. Okay, you have something. Okay, real quick. And then we'll and then we'll have Miss the mayor.

Okay. Um I just wanted to give a quick update on our policy review committee. It's coming along very very nicely. We are working on um our third out of our four fourth meeting. Um so that's coming along very nicely. Um, I I I feel very strong about, you know, where it's where it's heading. Um, and I wanted to say thank you to the individuals that stood up and decided to be a part of the committee. Um, and, you know, we can't wait to for the final for the final review. Who who is on the committee? Um, we have uh DC Floyd, uh, myself, Stephanie Richardson, and Rachel Flynn. Okay. at this time. Knight.

Uhhuh. Yeah. The chief had mentioned it a few meetings ago. The police department. Yes. Policy committee. Pursuit policy. Right. Pursuit policy and then creating the the pit maneuver policy. Right. Just bringing it a little bit more modernized, wanting to have um extra details, making plans for anything that may be coming into the future, you know, for the growth and everything. And just making sure that, you know, we cross our eyes our tees and and make the streets safer. Perfect. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Mayor, you said nothing. No, I was just waiting for her to make another motion. [laughter] All right. Well, that's where we are now.

I make a motion we adjourn. I'll second the motion. [gasps] Motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. All those oppose, nay. Motion passes 5 to zero. will adjourn at 8:08 p.m. Thank you.