Council - Regular Meeting

I don't know if Latricia is ready or not.

Mr. Latricia, you good? I'm good. Ready. All right. Good evening everybody. Today is Tuesday, February 17th. The time is now 6:01 p.m. and the city of Williston city council meeting has come to order. Mr. Latricia, would you please call a role? Mayor Goodman, I'm here. Council President Hines, she's absent. Vice President Cox here. Council member Jones here. Council member Martin here. Council member Rikio, she's absent. City Manager Su Bodet here. Attorney Kirstston Belaloo

here. City Clerk Latricia Wright, I am here. and all other staff president. Thank you.

All right. Thank you everybody. Open in prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag. Mr. Mayor Charles Goodman. Is this thing working? There it is. Hi Aaron. Lord, we come to you today. they city trying to do the business of our community. Lord, I ask you to be with each one of these counselors as they as they make decisions that affect all of us. Give them the wisdom to decide what is best. And Lord, I ask you to be with the police department especially who every day put their lives on the line from the simplest things like a traffic ticket. Lord, we don't understand this world that we're in, but we are thankful for our police department and their bravery. And Lord, I thank you for the fire department and all of the other employees of the city that work so hard to keep our city functioning to the best of their abilities. And I ask you to be with each one of these people that have taken the time out of their lives to come here and to help us to conduct the business of our city. 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. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right. Item one, addition, deletions, changes, and approval of the agenda. I have one deletion deletion, I'm sorry. Item 7 E. Could we please uh chief has asked to have that removed?

Okay. Thank you. All right. Anything else? All righty. I will ask for approval. I move approval of the agenda with that with that correction with that deletion. A second. We have a first. Got a second. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I.

Those opposed. All right. 30. All right. Item two, recognition of years of service to Chief Lamarsteagle, HR Director Kim Troy. Come on, Huffle.

Push and hold. Hello. There we go. I'm presenting a certificate of appreciation to Lamarsteagle. Uh he is at 30 years of service with the city. Um thank you for your dedication and contributing to the city of Willist success over the last 30 years. Speech. Speech. Y'all don't have time for a speech. Sure.

That That's who you need to thank.

Thank you, Chief. All right. Item three, awards presented to officers for outstanding job. Chief Mike Rolls. All right. Hold on one second. Mr. Cox, I did have a question. Um, and I know that the chief's fixing to give out a couple of awards. I want to know why I and whoever he's giving these awards to tonight, we don't get pizza certificates or show gun certificates for the kids meals

for the kids. We will work on our indiscretions. Can I have the mic, please?

M Mike m. Uh tonight I have these uh fine officers standing in front of you tonight uh because I wanted to recognize them for their outstanding service. I know and you all know that the job of being a law enforcement officer is uh somewhat rewarding at sometimes and sometime it's not so rewarding. Well, on this night uh for the reason I have these officers here is because this night was both. it was rewarding and not rewarding. Um, and I'll start by saying this. Uh, these guys and girls, uh, put their lives on the line every day, whether they're in the city or they're outside of the city because they travel back and forth from home to work, from work to home. So, they're in the city and they're out of the city. But that doesn't stop them or deter them from doing the services that they do whether they're in this city or out of this city. And on this particular night, this is exactly what they did. This was a tough one. But on this night uh or this morning, Officer Gun Gonzalez, who's here, uh was on her way in for duty to start her shift. Uh if you all remember it was it was the night it was so foggy you couldn't see in front of you. Uh she's been a law enforcement officer for quite some time. So as she was driving she seen something that caught her eye uh and and made her suspicious of what it was and it was a light from a telephone. So instead of proceeding, she slowed down and as she approached uh she ran up on this RV and this SUV that had been involved in a crash right here at Highway 27 and 316.

She gets there, she starts to render aid. She finds out what's going on. Like I said, it's foggy. She calls for backup. Officer Wit, Officer Hamilton, and Officer Hosen arrived on scene to assist her with this crash. Jeopardizing her own safety in her own life, she after being informed by the family that there was a 5-year-old kid trapped in this vehicle. She jeopardized her own safety to go inside of that unstable vehicle to try to render the aid to this 5-year-old kid. This didn't occur in the city of Willist. This occurred on the outskirts of Willist. So, as I said, they serve the community while they're in the city and while they're out of the city. So, Officer Gonzalez goes in to try to render aid to this kid, realizing that there was nothing she could do. There's 14 family members outside this vehicle. there's children telling her to save their brother, get her brother, get their brother, get their brother out of the vehicle. The other officers arrived on scene, um provided assistance to officer Gonzalez as well as the family members that were there that were involved in the crash. Officer Whit took it upon herself to sit with the driver of the SUV who was also a pregnant female. Correct. So, Officer Wit sat with her. She was entrapped in her vehicle and couldn't get out. Officer Wit stood with her, did the best she could with keeping her calm during this time, which we all know is a tragic. Officer Hamilton, after Officer Gonzalez decided she wanted to try to go back in the vehicle, realized that the vehicle was too unstable and unsafe

and stopped Officer Gonzalez from going in again. and jeopardizing herself. Officer Hosen also helped render aid to the family, kept them away from the wreckage cuz we all know it's hard to know that your loved ones trapped and you can't get to them. So, he did his job by assisting and keeping the family calm until uh Chief Steaggle's people arrived on scene to render aid. I can't say enough about these guys and these girls for what they done. These men and women for what they done because if it was my family, I don't care if the patch says Williston Police Department, City of Ocala or Levy County, Maring County. When those red and blue lights show up, even during the tragic times, there's a sense of relief because somebody's there to help you. So, I want to personally thank each and every one of them for the job that they did that night. It's a hard job. But guess what, folks? Officer Gonzalez, after she left the scene, went back to work. Dealing with a situation like that, she was able to compose herself and went back to work and finished her entire shift. So, my hats off to Officer Gonzalez. I thank you for being keenly observant, always vigilant, and that's what brought us to where we are today. So, I want to present you for stepping in, filling in the gap for a family that was in need, even jeopardizing your own self. So, tonight, I present you with a certificate of accommodation for what you did to try to render aid to that family. Thank you.

Officer Wet, I want to present you with a certificate of appreciation. I know you had a hard job of standing there knowing that an individual's pinned in the vehicle and there's nothing you can do to get them out, but you stood firm. you stayed calm during this time of stress, which I'm sure took a lot of pressure off the young lady that was trapped in the vehicle. And I want to thank you for maintaining your composure and being professional during this time of tragedy. Thank you, Officer Hamilton. I know you took it hard because you are a father just like and you know uh and these men and women all have children. I don't know if Hoston you have Holston has no kids yet but the these these folks are parents and uh I know you took it hard. I talked to you that morning. I talked to each and every one of you that morning cuz I wanted to make sure you were okay. Uh but thank you for your leadership and recognizing that the situation that you were in uh was too dangerous to proceed to go in uh knowing that at the point that you were going back in there was pretty much nothing you can do at that time anyway. So I want to thank you for your leadership and for directing and guiding these these officers on that scene. Thank you, sir. John Hosen, I want to present you with a certificate of appreciation and thank you. I know you had a hard job of trying to maintain a family that's in distress uh that want want to go and try to do what they can for their loved ones. And uh I appreciate you being professional, Curtis, and uh representing us well. Uh

because what you all did that night just shows the quality of law enforcement we have here in the city of Willist. And whether you hear it or not from anybody, uh that speaks volumes around the world, around this city, around this community. So I want to thank all of you for a job well done. Thank you for what you do to represent me, to represent this great city, to represent this council and our mayor and our citizens of Willist. Even though that this event didn't occur in Willist, you stepped in the gap and you filled that gap. You didn't complain about it. You didn't you just did what you needed to do. And I just want to tell you, I can't thank you enough. I'm glad to have you on our team. And you guys and ladies deserve more than what I gave you. But that's what I got for you right now. So, thank you. All right. Thank you guys. Y'all want to say anything?

All right. Thank you. Now y'all go to work. I have one more thing I want to do before I sit down. And uh as you all know uh Arizona uh left uh the PD as administrative assistant and went to work for the Ocala Police Department, which is a friend of mine and believe me, I called him and told him about it. Uh but I understand it's closer to home. I get it. So, uh Arizona left. She left in good graces with me. I'm I'm totally satisfied with what she done. But tonight, I wanted to introduce Miss Sabrina Brown, who replaced Miss Arizona when she left uh Wilson PD. And Mr. Brina Brown, would you please come up? Sabrina is now my new assistant.

Hello. I want to welcome her to the PD. I want to welcome her to the great city of Willist, finest place in the in the world and absolutely the best place to work. I don't know where you worked at before, but it don't matter. You're here now. So, you belong to us now. Yeah. So, uh I'm I'm honored to present Sabrina to you all uh and let you know that she's now my new administrative assistant. So, if you need anything, please feel free to call her. Now, Sabrina's been working on this speech all day. So, I'm going to turn the mic over to Miss Sabrina Brown.

I was not prepared for this. I had no idea I was getting put on the spot, but my name is Sabrina and I have 10 years of experience with administration. So, I am very excited to support this community. So, very excited to work with you. Thank you. It took all day to do that. I didn't know about this.

Thank you, Mr. Raina. All righty. Item four, public participation. This is your first of two opportunities to address the council. At this time, anybody in the audience can come up to the podium and speak for 5 minutes on any topic other than what's on the agenda. So, if you come up, please state your name, your address. And just a reminder, the council does not have to say anything. Robert Langan, 500 Northwest Avenue. Two weeks ago, I stood here and told you I found a light pole in my front yard after almost two years. Uh, by Friday night, the city electrical department had all of them burning. We got a couple missing, but there's issues with the installation. But other than that, we got all but two light poles lit up now.

Awesome.

So, I want to thank the electrical department and Mike and Sue and everybody else that's been involved because it's been a battle. Thank you. Great to hear. Great. Great. Great. Anybody else? Okay. All righty. Item five, consent agenda. Uh, this will be on next on the next agenda. All right. Item seven, updates. City manager Sue Badet. You okay? Thank you very much. All right. Couple of updates uh for the council. First and foremost, wanted to let you know that the Williston Police Department received a letter dated January 23rd from Anderson Colombia that I wanted to just read for the council. It says Anderson Columbia Company, Inc. and its subcontractors will be starting on F. Project 2, sorry, T2A44, construction of SR, sorry, State Route 45 from State Route 500 to the Elatcha County line, approximately 7.274 274 miles in Levy County on or around February 16th, 2026 and will be completed in the winter of 2027. It's a long time. I know the improvements under this contract consist of milling and resurfacing, shoulder treatment, drainage improvements, highway signing, guard rail, sidewalks, bicycle path, and other incidental construction. And then they um provided their designated safety personnel on the project if anybody is interested. So, I don't believe that affects us necessarily here in the city of Wilson, but just wanted to let you know that letter did come into the PD. Uh,

is that coming through here? That's going to be 41 north. 41 to 27 north. Yeah. 45 to 500.

All right. Um, number two, this afternoon I attended the Levy County 2050 um, comp plan update, which today it focused on intergovernmental coordination and public schools. Um, it actually was very um, enlightening for me as the city manager in Wilston. Um, so right now they are the schools in Levy County are at 77.67 um, capacity. So, they've got some room, but there is a projected 98% school um utilization rate by 2032. So, it doesn't sound like, you know, that long away, 6 years. They're going to be basically completely full. Um they are projecting, right now we have 47,000 residents in Ley County. They're projecting to go to 54,000 by 2050. Right now, 11% of students in Levy County are currently in potables, which I did not portables, which I did not know. That's interesting. Um 96.6% 6% of the county is unincorporated. They do not plan to have any new classrooms for the next 20 years. Any in the entire county? Yeah. Um Joyce Bulock Elementary is currently the tightest school at 82%. They actually use the most amount of portables, interestingly enough, and they don't allow any schools to go over 100% capacity. So the focus today was really on the fact that again if a new development was coming into the county and they are at 100%. Basically they're going to tell the developers that they have to do something like they have to donate land, construct classrooms, do something because they're not allowed to go over 100% capacity. Um the flip side is that they have the county's lost 171 students to vouchers since this time last year. So they are going to charter schools and whatnot. Um, and then Rob and I actually met with a few, I'll call them concerned, Levy County citizens who

are trying to push development toward Willist. Um, letting us know that Williston Highlands is currently platted for 2,865 plots and that 2,438 of them are vacant. So, there's a lot of capacity there. And then BNR is platted for 735 plots and 436 of them are vacant. So that's where when we're in these meetings, a lot of the people are kind of pushing like go to Willis Highlands, go to BNR. They're already plotted. There's a lot of vacant land out there. So it was very interesting. Um I didn't realize that Joyce Bulock was that that full. So uh I think there's I think there might be one more meeting.

Yeah, it's kind of interesting. So, um, third thing I wanted to kind of give you an update on was my, uh, went to the North Florida Economic Development Partnership, uh, board meeting on Friday, which was in Jennings, which I'd never been to in the middle of nowhere. Um, and the most interesting piece of information that came out of that was there was a lot of recent grant funding in got to remember this is North Florida, so not just Levy County, but um, the city of Perry got between CDBG and um, rural infrastructure fund grants $25 million. The city of Montel, thank you. I was going to say Montello. Monttoello got $14 million and that's a CDBG DR. That's the um one from the last two big hurricanes. The town of Cross City, same thing. CDBG DR got $37 million. Um so I did reach out to Walt who's not here tonight to say you know what what's going on? Why didn't Wilson get anything? And he reached out to Fred Fox because CDBG falls under Fred Fox. and he just said, "While we were able to obtain funding from the 2023 24 CDBG disaster mitigation grant funding for 10 of the applications we submitted, unfortunately the applications we submitted for the city of Williston was not one of them. So what I take away from this and especially with us meeting with, you know, Representative Chad Johnson and Senator Stan McClan is we need to stay in front of the state." I mean, I'm I'm assuming that Perry and Monaceel and Cross City have probably been in front of them and continuously asked, you know, for their grants to be funded. Um, so just things to think about because those are I mean those are huge amounts. Cross city 37 million. Yeah, I was pretty jealous when I read that. So, and then um last thing on the agenda for me is I wanted to um come back with my recommendation regarding

the annex building that we talked about at the last council meeting. So Aaron and I went to tour the building on uh Thursday the 5th of February with Katrina Cyrunk and then we I had a follow-up meeting with Carolyn and Dena last Thursday. Um originally we were thinking of giving the Chamber of Commerce the conference room when you first walk in. that's right on the left hand side and that the front desk would be used for like the admin assistant for fiber and then the um offices in the back would be used for IT the fiber um technicians. This morning when I was walking in um Carolyn told me that Dena has changed her mind. She actually does not want to go into the annex building at all. Um and I did follow up with Habitat for Humanity um last weekend and asked them where they were and they said that they were still pursuing the building in Bronson even though it needed $100,000 worth of work. But they they have not said anything about coming in either. So at this point, we don't have anybody who wants to go into the building. The building's it was pretty much 99.9% empty when we were in there. They had some plans to get out. Um but I'm recommending that we put our IT department in there. We unfortunately I'm sure people have seen Aeron's office. It's overcrowded. Um, we have a lot of IT um, materials at in conx boxes at the sewer plant, which is not a great place for IT uh, materials to be. So, I'm recommending that we put our IT and fiber departments into that building. Um, it does have some I had Walt go over there last week. It does have some ADA um, issues that we may need to um, address, especially if we're going to have anybody from the public go in that building. Um, which we certainly can do. So he couldn't get into the building so he just looked at the ex outside at the moment. But that's my recommendation as of right now is to put it and fiber into that building and that is all I have.

All right. Thank you. Uh staff police chief roles. You good? You you okay? Gold. Gold. Okay. All right, Miss Blue, do you have anything?

I do. Uh, thank you, Mr. Vice President. I have an update for you all. As you uh may be aware, uh we received a um lawsuit um from the Carries and Fire Stones regarding um alleged flooding of their property. Um they're alleging a taking by the city. Um so that is is currently going on. And I'm happy to speak with each of you about sort of the interworkings uh of that. I prefer not to speak about the sort of the the plan um in a public meeting. Um we have mediation on March 2nd. Uh that's publicly available information. So I'll give that to you. Um we'll let you know uh what comes out of that mediation. Um our insurance is not covering this claim uh based on the allegations that are made. Um, I'm so I will be your attorney for this lawsuit. I'm looking into uh consult counsel. Uh, there's an attorney with Birfield, Humphrey, um, who does this kind of work a lot and who I think will be very useful in making sure that we don't sort of spin our wheels around um, in a unproductive manner. Um, so I am looking into him and then I'll come back to you all regarding an estimate of what I think the litigation will cost. So, if we end up with it, are we just since basically it's not going to be a livable house that we can't even rent, we just going to bulldoze it if we end up with it?

So, the the request, and I'm trying to answer this without it is a little bit more complicated than than just a a yes or a no on that. So I am happy to speak with you about that more cool beans. Anything else ma'am? No. Mr. Steagle both steagles. All good. Mr. Danny Aaron, thank you for the thumbs up.

You have a flyer on your desk uh showing that the smoke alarms uh that we're going to be installing in the area of uh Cherry Point neighborhood on March 17th. And if anybody would like to come out and help us, we'll be going canvasing the neighborhood, going doortodoor along with the American Red Cross and installing fresh smoke alarms or checking the ones that are in their house to see if they're working or not. So again, March 17th, and this what we do at the fire department. We install smoke alarms all the time. So, uh, if you know of anybody elderly, somebody that can't afford them, we're we're happy to go out there, check their house, and give them new 10-year smoke detectors in their homes. So, they just need they could contact you all, contact us at the fire department, and we'll be happy to do it. So, uh, if you all have any questions, please contact us and we'll get you more information.

All right. Thank you, sir. Miss Troy, nothing. Mr. Rob,

good evening, council. Yeah, I'd like to update you on a few things out at the sewer plant. So, we've started our cleanup process out there. Um, we've taken back I forget the exact amount of weight of the scrap metal, but we have received uh a check for $2,800 to put back in the general fund for scrap. Um, that process is going to continue. We're going to continue cleaning up out there and scrapping what we can. Um met with Mr. Benton last week. Um some of the old electric vehicles that are out at the uh cityorn are going to be transferred over to the airport where they can work on them and uh actually get them back up and running. Uh couple of the other things is we had a uh a large water leak in city hall last week. Um, we had a leak detector company come out and they were unable to locate the leak. So, we sat down this afternoon and talked about the next step. Uh, we reached out to a few plumbers. Going to start getting quotes on replplumbing the um the hot water heater for the uh for the hot water in the city building. So, that's where we're at with that and further updates as they come. All right. Thank you, sir. Ma'am. Good, Mr. Alex. You're good, Miss Bishop.

Good evening, council. I just wanted to give y'all a little bit of an update about the shelter because I've now been out there for about 5 months and thought I should let you guys know how things are going out there. Um, back in October, Maddie Foundation come out and did a consult on our shelter, um, to provide us a report with information on things that we could do to help improve and and make our shelter run smoother. Um, I provided each of you guys with a copy of that before the meeting. Um, we've started implementing some of those things and are working to implement some more of them. Um, we're also working on the TNR program. Uh, I'm currently trapping at the city barn and here at city hall. I have a few people throughout the city who are helping me in that have helped me in the past and a few that are currently helping me with this program. Um, we are working to implement a barn cat program which will help relocate some of these feral cats into different areas um to help with the population. Um, I've also, um, I'm also working on an agreement, um, for the citizens and businesses so that they can sign it to give us permission to go on their property to do the trapping so that we could set in the dumpster enclosures at the businesses and stuff like that and and it'll help us catch some more. Um, since we've started that in October, we've done about 30 cats since October. Um, and I've been reaching out with the community, people who call and need to rehome animals. Instead of bringing them into the shelter, I ask them to hold them and I work on getting them homes. Um, instead of actually bringing them into the shelter so that they're traumatized. That's not a fun place,

right, to be stuck in there. But that's all I have. If you guys have any questions, just Yes, I have one for you. tell us a little bit about the upcoming fundraiser.

Oh, okay. So, in March, on March 21st, we're going to have a um fundraiser out at the shelter. It's called Lucky Paul's. We're going to do a St. Patrick's Day theme. Um it's to help raise money. We We need some fencing um and things like that. And I would like to to also provide information to the community about what we do and how we do it. and the responsibility of picking up pets by yourself and you know where it stands with what the shelter's responsibility is and that. So, it's just more of to let people know we're there. So many people tell us all the time, "We didn't even know you were there. We thought you were wags." So, just to get our information out there and get get our faces known.

Okay. And it's going to be barbecue. Um that's so the event um we do have pre-sale for barbecue sandwiches or barbecue meals beforehand. I did it pre-sale so that I'm not buying a bunch of meat and nobody show up. So I figured if I did pre-sale that would get people to at least stop by. Um, we're gonna have some raffle basket raffles, a 5050, and um, we're gonna award our um, our hero dog of the year because we have a dog that we chose that we've adopted out that we feel like has done an awesome job for what he was he was adopted for. Um, and then we're going to focus on like hero dogs throughout history to to give information on to.

Okay. Just a fun thing. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you guys,

council. Little bitty update on block 12. Um because I'm very happy to say that everybody who is here that could sign has signed um transferring the property and giving us utility easements. We're waiting on two pieces of property. The barberh shop has three signatures that are needed from the Philippines. Uh we've overnighted it. It should have reached there today or tomorrow. Um and it will take another 3 days to get back depending on how long it takes them to do the signatures. We have facetimed with them and sent a return envelope. So, uh FedEx envelope. So hopefully that will be back by the end of the week. Um, the other one that has not yet signed is one of the three people that signs for West Massage and two of the three have signed and one is in Tennessee. So, that one was also overnighted and should be back by the end of the week. But it was a pleasure meeting all the the property owners and business owners um cuz we we also communicated with business owners even if they weren't property owners just to keep them in the loop so they knew what was going on uh and where we stood and they are very eager for us to begin again. Um so whoever's doing that needs to have it lined up because I hope to have those back by the end of the week or the first of next week for sure. And it was, like I said, it was a pleasure. I we worked on Friday with three different notaries here from city hall. Uh, whoever was available at the time went with me because I had appointments with different people. Um, and Latricia helped, Nikki helped, and Kelly helped. So, we had a full day of it, but it's done and

coming back soon. Good. Good. Um, it is good to see Eleanos. Yes. finally breaking ground. People couldn't believe it. Um I thought they weren't coming. That's what everybody said. It's been sounding like thunder for the last week in the store. So, and then um I think they're planning the end of the month maybe for Subway to be finished. Wow. So cool. It's People are asking, so that's good to know. It's going It's big. It's big. So, I just have one request. Yes.

I I would like to have Sorry. Um I would like to have a quote for uh the ADA um updates needed at the annex building before we proceed further with that. Just so I know. Thanks. All right, Mr. Mayor. Had forgot about you. I have nothing, sir. Thank you, sir. All right. All right. New business discussion with possible action update on admin software. Jeff

Seates. Okay. Hit hit the button right there. Hit the button on the bottom of the mic, please. There you go.

Thank you, Vice President Cox. Um, Mayor Goodman, members of council, thank you for inviting me here. My name is Jeff Sates with Edmonds Gov Tech Software, the software provider for some of the city's business, finance, utility, billing, u among among some of the uh services you guys use us for. Uh, h I'm happy to answer any questions from council. Um, if you have any, we can we can start there. So, I'll I'll kind of leave it at that first. Does anybody have any specific questions, topics, thoughts, concerns that I could help address?

I think most of mine were given to staff. Um, my biggest one was to make the bills that are online and the bill that get in the mail look the same. Yep. That that one was one of mine and I know you're working on that.

Uh, so that when they look at it. I will also say though that the graft that used to be online but nowhere else is very helpful. People like to see that. Um and I don't think it's anywhere right now. Yeah, it's not on either bill right now from what I can see. Um I just want it to work. I want Megan to be happy with it. Uh whatever she says is what we need it to be. Um, we don't need to be having to manually redo everything before we can send them out for the second time. That's first time's the charm here.

Yeah, thank you for that. Um, Council Member Jones, any other comments? I And I I do have some thoughts on that if there aren't any anything else we wanted to discuss. Well, that's that's been the biggest thing. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Mayor. Uh we were given a list of the problems from the city manager and I would like to know has this list because frankly it's quite a large list. Uh has all of this been taken care of?

Good question. I'd like to have that list as well. Um because really our job as a company, my job specifically, is to make sure all of our customers are are happy. Um extremely happy in fact. So um if there is a list of any concerns, any concerns like this, especially when they come from citizens, you know, we know you guys may have dozens or hundreds of employees using the system, but you may have hundreds or thousands uh of citizens going online to pay their bill, to look at their bills. So we take that super seriously. Uh we we want to continue in our commitment to stand with the city, make things right. Uh so if if there is a list, I'd love to have it and and our goal is certainly to get that list.

Okay. If I may continue just a little bit. I'm not going to go through the whole list because it is too vast. Please.

But users get kicked out of the system every day. Customers see the previous payment as a credit. Each utility has its own taxes. Bills show online while they're still being corrected by Megan. There's a third party versus MCJSJ bill difference. These are pretty big things and you're confident that your company is going to be able to deal with these. May I ask the city manager? We got this list. Have they Have you not given it to them?

Yes. When I first emailed the um president, CEO of Edmonds, he got that exact same list. Yes. Okay. So, you have the list, sir.

We certainly do. Yeah. And the what I'm happy to report is not only am I aware of of these things which is less relevant to the fact that the proper departments are aware of these things. All of these are being having action taken on them uh and and have been for for some time. So that that's not news to me which which I'm glad about. Also the bill presentment was not news to me um which again I'm happy about not just because I know about it but because we have been working on these things. Um, what I did internally before even speaking to Sue or Megan at the city was I conducted interviews with everybody, every department at our company and got their take on things. What are we doing uh to make sure Williston's situation is perfect? Uh, and everything you've mentioned, uh, from development services to get the bills looking different, uh, technical services so that users don't get kicked out of the system. To me, it's, you know, that that is a a huge issue. uh as well as plenty of other things that that haven't yet been mentioned. But every department at my company, save a few, uh is working on fixing these issues and and a few more. We take it seriously. Uh we expect to have all of this ironed out.

Thank you. I I appreciate that. Do you have a timeline?

Uh each each of these has different timelines. Some are still unknown. Even as of 4:30 something today when I talked to the tech services team about the users getting kicked out, we're working on it. That's something similar to that leak. It's like we can't we have to find the exact problem before uh we take action. I've been told that the bill uh presentment issue will be done in a matter of weeks. So I asked specifically about 6 weeks. Uh they said yes. We also plan if if Megan and the city uh would take us up on the offer, we can have some uh educational materials explaining the new bill. You know, if there is a difference, what is this difference? Something that your citizens, your customers uh could take advantage of because there could be differences between an old bill, a new bill, or a bill that a third party prints and a bill that we print. So, we we want to be proactive for that. Do a communication out to the citizens. We can do that in a number of ways. all of them them pretty easy. Uh and then just make some of the the team's life easier. You know, we've heard uh first of all, Megan is doing a fantastic job. We've been in this business a long time. I've been doing this 17 years. We are all so impressed with her, what she's doing, the commitment she has to the city, and we really take that personally. We're inspired by that. We want to make her life easy. Somebody mentioned, you know, when when she's happy, we're happy. We we take that to heart, too. Especially on the utility side, uh where where she spends most of her time. So, I don't have a a a timeline yet. We certainly can communicate those timelines to the the city staff. I I'm pretty sure some of them have had timelines communicated. Uh but we can continue to update as as we go.

Thank you. Okay. I got a question, please. Why did it take to this point to get somebody from your company here? Because in in all honesty, when Selena was here, I'd go in there, she would be frustrated. She would call and ask questions and say like she was not getting any help. Now, me as a consumer, I would have ditched you all a long time ago. Yeah,

that's that's just me. You know, our customers who are moving here from other areas are used to having something like this with their bills. And we've been doing nothing but giving them bills that aren't correct. And and that doesn't make you guys look bad. It doesn't matter. But it does to us, right? As the citizens, you know, the council, Megan, and everybody. You know, we hear it from our customers. We take the hits. She does. The ladies at the front desk. So, I was for you guys. But the longer that this went and somebody being in working with diff, you know, couple of different companies, customer service aspect of it for me is not not great. Yeah, I I hear your frustration on that. I'm sorry you're you you have that experience. Um, to answer the question directly, why did it take so long to get someone here? Um, well, I wasn't the first one here. I'm hoping a trainer preceded me by a few weeks, somebody that could actually sit with the staff. Uh, and this was this was, you know, it it went too long. I'm not I'm not arguing with you. Yeah, this was only a few weeks ago. I'm I'm saying when we had a trainer here, um, to to me more important than me being here addressing addressing council was, uh, the training that was provided, and we're happy to continue to do so. Um, we, you know, we we want we're all we all have the same goal. So, we we want you guys to be happy. We want everything to be right. Uh, I apologize that it took so long to get somebody here. I I think you're I think you're right about that. It probably should have been sooner as far as the training goes. Uh, and and we'll continue to be available to you. Uh, as far as our training team goes, even me and my team, uh, we're we're happy to jump in and train. We're we're we're here to be accountable. I appreciate the opportunity to show you that, you know, like you mentioned, you

could have ditched us a long time ago. I'm glad you you stuck with us and and let us prove uh our commitment to the city. Mr. Megan,

I will say since I have taken over this position and I've reached out to Edmonds and expressed all the issues that we've had, they have been trying to fix it. Um, so I'm not sure why Selena wasn't getting results because I'm talking to the same people she was. So I'm not I'm not sure why she wasn't, but they've absolutely all stepped in and and have been trying to help us correct the issues that we have. So, do we have a timeline of when we we want to make sure this is where she's 100% happy and the billing and everything is going to be correct when it gets sent. I I don't have a timeline other than I expect constant improvements. I expect every every week things to get better. I think certain things there's timelines built in. For instance, if you're a monthly biller, you know, whenever we're next billing, we kind of get another opportunity to make a bigger percentage of the bills accurate. Um, so I I don't have any specific dates to any of these things at this time. I would not mind um, you know, the opportunity to come back, let's say, 4 to 6 weeks, and stand here again and and continuously do this. I don't I don't this doesn't have to be the only time you guys see me or certainly the only time the the staff sees sees trainers here. you know, we're we're happy to take that step with you.

I don't know about my other council members, but I would agree that that would be a good thing. Good. I have a question. Yes, sir. When did y'all get the list of issues that we were having here? How long ago was that? Was that a month, two months? I I don't know the answer to that. I think I think uh I I don't know the answer to that. Miss Sue, do you know? the end of December, maybe the third week of December,

the third week of December, and we're in the middle of February. And I appreciate what you say, but at the same time, I feel like coming here and not being able to give us a timeline or give us more answers than what you're giving us to me is unacceptable. I mean, this city has been struggling with this problem for a long, long time. And the citizens deserve better. And if you've had this list since December and it's now the middle of February and the council asks you for a timeline and you say you don't have one, but you're telling us how you're so concerned about the quality of your service and the quality of your system. That's not what's being reflected when we're asking you for give us a timeline and you're saying I'll come back in 4 to 6 weeks. Well, my opinion, I don't need you to come back four to six weeks. I need to fix the system. That's that's that's that's my take on it. I could be totally out of line here, but I think the citizens deserve better than you to stand here and and in my opinion feed us a bunch of words, but there's no action. I

I agree with that and and I expect that the action started as soon as we got that list. I am not the action person on that that those departments have been taking action have been since we got that list. all departments uh from the trainers to tech services. So um the you know each each one of those points and there's more. I have I have a list of 15 points. Each one of them have timelines. I am not standing here saying oh thank you for telling me these items. I'm going to go get to work on them. I'm saying that when we got that list, we started to get to work on them and that and those results should I mean the city staff should be able I take their opinion over mine like saying yes Edmonds has been on this since they got this list and here's what's been done. So I'm not saying we're about to get started. I'm just saying I don't know what these timelines are cuz some of this stuff's out of our control. You know, we we don't control when we next bill. We don't control anything about when when and how the readings come in. Uh so there's there's certain things that we can't just control. Uh the things that we can control, the bills changing. Um you know, I have timelines on that. Those are those have been promised to me by April 1st. But but some things out of our control. I don't have timelines, but I'm not saying that that's because we haven't yet assigned them. I'm I'm saying those actions should have started when we first got that email.

So we're going back from December to now. We're not going to see it until April. No, sir. they should already be seeing this stuff. And in fact, even just the things I've I'm hearing, let's say, let's say a hundred usages used to be wrong each time we bring in usages. Now, less than a hundred are are wrong. Um, the fact that we're already doing a new bill, one that more closely matches the the old bill that these are not things that are going to start tomorrow when I get to work. These are things that have started several weeks ago. Maybe can I jump in, Mike? Yes. Would it be possible Megan for you and Mr. Sorry size

sates sates sorry um to give us a itemized update on what has been properly corrected and what remains to be corrected and then perhaps you could give us next to each of those a timeline for each of those items. I I agree. We need to be able to give our residents some specifics and not vagaries. Um because it caused a lot of distress and continues to cause a lot of distress among the residents who

may not have the ability to pay two amounts, you know, previous bill and current bill. And yet that's what's showing on their bills as what they need to pay. And they're thinking they're going to get overdraft fees, their lights are going off and so forth. So if you guys could give us an actual status report, that'd be great. So that particular issue showing them that they had a credit on there, they fixed that. They fixed that within the first 3 weeks of having the list. So um that has been fixed. The printout of the bill, what they actually get from customer service now versus what they get in the mail,

almost look identical. They did work on that. That is that has been fixed. Um, as far as itemized um our taxes itemized, that is a that is the So, I spoke with I think it was Brian from Edmonds and he said that's going to be a coding thing. So, that may take longer than we would hope. Um, and I guess some of this was potentially brought to Selena's attention before we went live with Edmonds and she wasn't concerned with it. she didn't think it would cause such an issue I guess with our with our residents and as we can see it has. So they are trying to rectify it but again it's a coding thing. So it's you know it's not just as simple as yep that's what we're going to do. They're actually having to rewrite some of the code for us

to make it work for us. So I I mean understand that some of it is going we don't have a timeline because they're not sure how long it's going to take to fix the some of those issues. But the bill presentation as far as it looking the same what we print versus what they get in the mail, they do look identical now. Perfect. That'd be great. Just to have a list of what's a work in progress and what has been actually addressed and is has sort of resolved. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. In all your spare time. Yeah. Yeah.

Another another point, u I know that there were issues. I think you briefly mentioned it. um the fact that our two front desk staff can't be in the system at the same time and see two separate system.

So, so they can they can't have two utility accounts open at the same time on their desktop. That's not how Edmonds works. They would have to have a separate login and the ladies up front just don't feel comfortable with that. Um, we did have Ashley from Edmmonds come and she did show them how to look up some of the information they be might be needing in another screen. It's not exactly obviously it's not the account screen. So, they're still just jotting down the account they were working on and pulling up the other one. Um, that's a coding thing. I don't I

That seems to me very problematic if two ladies up front can't both look at a separate account at the same time. We can we can look at the same account. We can't if not the same account, different account. No, we can look at different accounts. Everybody's But if if you have like I have Edmonds open right now. If I were to pull up a customer's account and then you were to walk in and ask me about your bill, I would have to exit out of this one to pull yours up. Oh, and that's okay. I got a problem with that. Yeah. Well, so the two ladies can look at two different ones at the same time. Yeah. On on on their on their separate screens, but we can't look at two accounts on the same login. So, you can't minimize one and pull up another.

Correct. We're in the old system that we used to have, they could, and they just got accustomed to it. Um, and that again is is a a coding thing with them and they don't offer that. And I don't know, I wasn't involved in the onboarding of everything. So, I'm not sure what they were told or promised or not promised and they just assumed possibly like us. We assumed. I I don't I can't I can tell you that's totally different than what I understood the issue was. So, I'm fine that the both of them can look at two different ones at the same time. I think that's good. That's fine. I think

I just was under the impression they could only look at one at a time. It's just difficult because just like Megan said, I mean, they're they've got someone in front of them and now they take a phone call, right? And they cannot be in this one and this one at the same time. They have to be in one or the other. That's very I mean, they multitask all day long is what they do there. So, that's a very to me that seems like a very strange thing that they can't open two accounts up simultaneously.

100%. And like Megan mentioned, typically what folks do is is they they'll just have two admins open. So like you like you mentioned it would be a matter of okay I'm looking at Mr. Smith's account I minimize it now I can look at Mr. Jones account go right back to M Mr. Smith. Sometimes we even change color of one of those screens to let's say something different. So this screen's pink so I know not to let's say post payments in that screen. So one's kind of my working screen and one's my extra lookup screen. So that's very common. You'll see that in in any of the you know the customers that use admins up front. you'll see a lot of times it's even one screen for payments and lookups and then the other for kind of you know if somebody calls or something else kind of takes me away. So there we do have an answer for that. I'm aware maybe it's not what everybody's used to. Um but you know they they certainly can look at the as many accounts as they want.

Okay. Okay.

So one last question. Yes, please. Your other admin's customers they having the same issues? Um, listen, um, we've got 2,300 customers. Um, most, if not all, are are very happy. In fact, in my 17 years, this is the first time we've been invited to to speak to council because things have gotten to this point. So, I'm I'm sorry it got to this point. Um, so, so no, I wouldn't say they'd have the same issues. The challenges here that were faced are are not unique. You know, staff turnover after training. you know, you teach somebody how to use something for 100 hours of training and then all of a sudden that person's no longer here. It's tough to come in and and kind of take that on. Um especially if you weren't there at the beginning. So, I would say the challenges are not unique. The fact that a lot of them happened here at once um you know, different bills, different staff, some rates happen to have gone up as bills change. So, if I'm a customer and I see a new bill and it's higher than the old bill, I know what I'm thinking. I know who I'm calling. So, I think a lot of things happened here that aren't unique. Uh, I kind of wish maybe we, you know, would have taken steps a little a little sooner. Um, I'm I'm happy that some of the things have already been completed. Um, but no, it's not it, you know, my job is to make sure everybody's happy and I'm I don't see this a lot. You know, I don't it's it's not indicative of how we have of of what's happening out there in the market.

Okay. I'm good. Audience? No. Okay. Thank you everybody. I will see you soon. Yes sir. All right. Thank you.

All right. Item B, discussion with possible action update on Welliston Fiber. Mr. Hector Samario with performance services.

Good evening, uh, Vice President Cox, council members, mayor, Madame Manager, Hector Samario with Mike McCann, our project manager. Here to provide you with an update from two weeks ago, February 3rd council meeting, as well as to answer any questions. Before I I get to the slide which so it's going to slide number three. Latricia, uh I do want to extend a very sincere thanks to to Sue and to Aaron for all the work that they have provided and all the support they provided us. Um just to keep this project moving forward to just to ensure the progress of implementation. Just for your information, Sue and I do continue to stay in touch and trying to resolve some of the other side sidebar questions she has and I'll continue to work with her on those side issues to make sure we can get some resolution on those as quickly as possible. Uh, Latricia and Sue, I know I just got this to you, but because it's a an update almost every two weeks, I really have to wait till Monday uh to get a final update sometimes Tuesday morning uh just to make sure that I can provide you with the most current information. So, I I'm sorry that I can't get to this to you u much earlier, but I'll do what I can um moving forward to give you as much lead time so you can get this on the agenda. So this is the uh the update here that you see. I've tried to separate the two um the the the update you received on the third compared to what you're receiving now. Uh on the left side at the bottom you'll see that 83% and 87% on the totals. That's for the drops. Uh on February 3rd we were at 83%. Today we're at 87%. And that's uh even with the additional 50 um drops that have been added to the list since uh the February 3rd meeting. So we're still making progress. 50 drops were added, but we're still trying to stay still staying ahead of that curve. We still

have a total of 950 drops that will be installed by us. 450 of those are at the Williston uh crossings RV Resort, but we're continue to make pro progress and Aaron's been wonderful providing us the addresses for those additional drops and as we get them, we just keep adding them to the list. On the right side, uh you see the the splicing the basically the network infrastructure side of it. You see on the on the uh the uh splicing it says 24 but it should be 23 from from where the update you receive on the third. And there at the bottom in red you see that we've gone from this 5% to 60% from 0 to 98% on two of the different uh areas. So making progress there as well on that 60%. Just want to give you a quick update on that one where you see that drop area 1.5. We're at 60%, we expect to be done with the splicing this week and testing next week. So we expect that 60% to to increase to 100% by the in the next two weeks. And then uh the other ones at the bottom 1.4 4 1.1 the two two at the bottom. Really, we're just continuing to wait for the FOT permit approvals to move move those or increase the produ production at those two sites. And that's the uh that's the update that I have. Happy to answer any questions.

So, the main holdup is the F dot permitting for those last two. And if I'm Mike, if you don't mind stepping up. I believe we had to resubmit here recently. Yeah, we uh I think we have eight or nine permits that we are currently uh out and we had

I'm sorry. We had uh problems getting those resubmitted for some reason. It would not take a resubmitt. We ended up having to submit them as brand new permits. So that took us about four days to get that figured out and get that uh finalized. But we did also this last time have an additional set of eyes review the the permits just to make sure that they had answered all the questions that had been asked. Uh and that did occur and so uh we've got those submitted and they didn't work yesterday because of President's Day, but uh we expect answers turnarounds fairly quickly because he he called this morning and said he had received them and uh the inspector with FOT. So So those are the two biggest holdups. The fact that we keep adding drops and the fact that we need permits from FDOT,

right? the the F dot the the two big issues that we have are two main crossings. Uh there's one that crosses Noble and then there's one that crosses I guess that's 41 over by the McDonald's. It actually goes underground there and those complete the ring around that kind of creates the base infrastructure and that gives us our redundancy. So we can still feed from other directions, but we don't really have a full complete system with those completed. If a cut happens somewhere, um, you know, we can feed from the other direction if we need to.

Um, one of them is very quick. It's a 20 minute uh, completion and then just connections on each end. The other one's a little bit more involved because we have to bore underneath uh 41. So, and one last comment up at the very top you see uh 212 for Wiston crossing drop one area 1.8. We have one drop left to complete. And what the only reason we're waiting on that one is just it's going to require some underground boring which we're

when they when we do that one it'll be at the same time we do the boring underneath because we have to bring in a machine to do that. So

any questions? I have a question for Aaron. Aaron, can I please get an update on your end of things? Um, making progress. Um, we've been working with the testing the back end and the router setups. Uh, worked with uh end of the week Thursday, Friday and Saturday with the representative that's helping us with the adren equipment and we got some some stuff worked out. So, that's looking good. Um, I've already started the process with the fiber smmith getting the accounting set up with them. Um just taking time to waiting kind of waiting on the asbuilts to get that infrastructure put into that. Um beyond that we're close. We're about as close as they are.

Okay, that was my next question. Are we going to be ready from our end to launch at the same time that they're ready? Yes, ma'am. Fantastic. Thank you. Your so your building software that's fibermith. Yes. About done. Okay. I held up last I heard. Well, we had some some networking issues with the setup that we were having to iron out first and we've kind of got those things straightened out. So, perfect. Great. Cool. One last comment, Sue. I'll be reaching out to you probably Thursday or Friday. Just we have an internal call tomorrow on some of the questions you've asked me. I I'll try to get those answers in the next few days. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Hector. Mike, I have one more.

Yes. Um, and and this is addressed sort of to Aaron and Sue, but I had asked for Sue from Sue for us to have anformational printout sheet ready to go for the residents because I think it's going to be very confusing that we're not billing through our current utility program. And I know that CFC went through this because it's the same. I have my business is outside of town, so I use their fiber out there. Um, and there was a lot of confusion of why now two bills and two portals and all of that. So, just wanted to make sure that was on your radar that I think that's going to be really important that we have a really clear, you know, you need to go here and log in like just like spell it out for those of us who are not good at this. That'd be great.

I will say that cow link is separate too. So, those of us who have cow link will at least have that knowledge. Yeah, it it's been confusing even that that it was separate and that they want a separate check. They don't want it written in the same check. Y um because it needs to go to the right account, right? Yeah. So, I just think we need to be ahead of the curve on that so that again our customer service comes out Yep.

strong. And I talked previously about door hangers that when an area was ready that we actually put door hangers on everybody's door in that area that says we're here. Come now. If you haven't signed up, come now. Uh and of course I talked to previous employees, not the ones that are currently here. Uh but I think that is something we need to do. uh because people are trying to take our business as fast as we are trying to give it to them, especially in the crossings. There's a lot of a lot of um conversation going on, especially on Facebook, about what's available in the crossings, and we certainly don't want to lose those that we're going specially for and counting on to be our gravy essentially.

Right. So, if you don't mind, if you reach out to me about door hangers, maybe there's something that we can support there. Yes, sir. Because I know I've seen a lot of Starlink commercials in the last two weeks. So, it's the Starlink that's getting passed around in the RV park. Uh they are asking each other, "What's the best Wi-Fi in the in the Willis crossings?" And somebody will answer who's already over there, Starlink. And I know I'll come back com comment back wait for Williston Fiverr it's going to be here before you know it. So trying because if they go buy Starlink they're not going to come to us

that because they've already bought and paid and have a contract with Starling. Uh so we need to let them know it's coming and that or that it is available now when it is. I think we need to be ready to let them all know them but other areas. I mean, for example, we know CFC went after community plantation. They haven't done anything, but they have permits to go there. So, they're another one we need to tell right away that it's ready. Don't let them walk in and take it. It's underground. That would be a great place for them to go because they That's one of the ones that's in the last. They don't have to ask for our poles, you know, they can go underground there. We're waiting on the permits. That's in that section. So, that's kind of why that's not up already.

I think you're waiting on my section, too. So I think I tried to figure out which section I was I couldn't really from the maps I have. That's a great point and I again to if you would reach out I think letting them know that it's right around the corner and the speed I think is going to be and the speed and the price is so much less than Starlink. So yeah let's uh talk about that right away. Thank you Sue. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Sh. Yes. Mighty pass or I might

name and address, please.

Yes. Uh Shana Church, 590 Northwest Fourth Place. Um, as a previous Starlink customer, I know when we purchased it, it was um I would say about $700 because we had to get all the equipment up front. That's from my recollection the only way that you can move forward with Starlink. Uh, it was a great service while we had it and the monthly price wasn't bad at all, but to be able to do that initial upfront cost was quite a bit and luckily we were able to put it on our house ourself. Uh, so we didn't have to contract out for anybody else to get up on the roof and install the equipment for us. Uh, so that's something that you can keep in mind when people are asking, you know, which one should I go with? Well, it's like, do you really want to put $7, $800 down right now? And then you're stuck with the equipment and everything for the same service or better that you could have from us. Um, and I had the question cuz I haven't actually looked into it myself. When I moved into my house, we had fiber already set up and we just went ahead with them. Um, but what would be the upfront initial cost for a customer who's wanting to move forward with uh your fiber?

Are you ready? You're sitting down. Not really, but go ahead. Zero. That is your talking point right there. Zero dollars. It's It's here. You're supporting local business and you do not have to put down $7800 and no contract. If you're not happy, you just walk. And no contract. Exactly. Yeah. So, it was half question, half statement, but you know, however, it's important to let them know that. It's very important. Yeah. Cuz that's going to be a huge difference if people are already strapped and trying to do what they can for their bills. $7 $800, even $500 is just insane to put down for something that you can get from here for free. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Yeah, the commercials that I saw were from cuz we have Dish Network, so they have a partnership with Dish. So, all right, Miss Attorney, these are just discussions. We don't have to vote on them. just Okay, that's correct. Now, Mr. Ber,

I don't see Mr. Ber, I can give you a a 5-second overview of where we are with Laurel Point, which is I have received a um and thank you, Hector, and your team very much. Um, I have received a redline version of the developers agreement on the 27th of January, um, from Mr. Boyer's attorney. still going back and forth about a couple of things that the city wants to change certainly and we relate to Mr. Boyer that he has the right to bring you his version um before staff has approved it if that's what he chooses to do and you all can take a look at it. Um block 12 project has sort of pulled our attention from that over the last couple of weeks. Um but we're we're refocused on that now that we've got block 12 figured up. Uh so I imagine it'll be in front of you soon.

Thank you. Okay. All right. Discussion with possible action. Uh seal bid of vehicle number 182 and 202. Police chief bike rolls.

All right. Thank you. Uh we've been down this road before. It's uh vehicles that we have utilized that uh we're at a point that uh we don't need need the vehicles anymore. Uh so what we've been doing over the years is uh seal bids, selling them and uh using that revenue to outfit uh new vehicles that I come in. Like I told you at the last council meeting, I had two vehicles donated from the Marian County Sheriff's Office. So, we took two out that was older that the mileage is getting up or we're starting to have mechanical problems out of them that's costing us a lot of money. We took them out of line. We will sell them at a seal bid and then we would turn around and use that money to outfit whatever else we need on the cars that was donated from Maring County, which is uh very very little because uh they're just good stewards and they've gave they just they give us everything to pretty much put in the car. we just have to pay for a little install cost. So, um that's all part of the plan from the budget when we, you know, make the changes on not purchasing new vehicles. So, this is just part of that process.

Okay. Yep. And I'm just asking for m permission to have a seal bid to sell the vehicles. Council, got any objections or consent? Does she want a motion? Motion on this one. Okay. I have a motion that we allow the Wilsville Police Department to have a seal bid for vehicle number 182 and 202 uh for dollars to put back into the new cars. I second. All right, we have first got a second. Any other discussion from anybody? All right, you hear that noise?

It's ghosts. There's some kind of odd noise going on behind us. There is. It's up in the the thing there. All right, we have first. We got a second discussion. All in favor? If none. All in favor say I.

I. Those opposed. 30. All right. Public participation. This is your second opportunity to address the council at this time. Anyone in the audience can come and speak at the podium for five minutes on anything other than what was on the agenda? Anybody? Nope. All right. If we adjourn. No, we're not there yet. I got to do announcements first. Sorry. Yep. Forgot that part.

All right. I'm not in really in a hurry, but Miss Kirstston, we'll start with you. Nothing for me. Miss Latricia, we have a special guest in the audience, and I would like for him to come up and introduce himself and let us know why he's here. If you want to go to the mic, honey, right into that microphone.

Hello, my name is James Hudson Jr. Um, we need to come here for a uh boy scout merit badge. That would be communication. Um, so yeah. And before the council leave, he wants to take a picture with the mayor and the council members, please. Okay. That's what you call proof, huh? Y want to do it now? Want to do it now? BJ, can you? Yes.

You want us out there or just standing back here? I'm not ready to adjourn yet. No, I'm not president. We're taking a picture. That's fine.

Okay. You want us all out there or right here? Great. I'm focusing on that part. And I have one more announcement. Uh, as you all know, uh, a couple of weeks ago, we had qualifying for new council members. And I would just like to announce that the mayor ran unopposed, so he would be in the position again for another two years. Miss Deborah ran unopposed. She'll be in her position again for another two years. And we have a

newcomer, Miss Shannon Church. Please stand. She will be sworn in in May and she will be taking U council member Rikio spot. So, congratulations to each and every one of you all and I look forward to working with you all again. Thank you. And so once she gets sworn in, she gets to take all these fun courses. And

Mr. Ropes, please see roles. Mr. Lamar, Venton, Jimmy, Aaron, Miss Kim, Mr. Rob. Yeah. One quick thing was brought to my attention about the fencing over at Eleanos. Uh, I will be in touch with the contractor tomorrow to get the fencing up over in that area. Thank you, Jonathan. Okay. Yeah, probably because they're hauling out so much concrete. So, doesn't matter. They need it up. Yeah. Was still got theirs up. They're busy at it.

Yep. Miss Megan, Mr. Alex, Miss Bishop, Miss Bishop, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. I would like everybody please to start considering. I am going to ask the city clerk to put on the agenda for our next meeting. Not action, just discussion. I would like to try to get into a discussion with all of my councils to say how do you feel about annexation? Do you not want to annex? Do you want to annex or do you want to continue what we have done in the past which is if somebody wants to get annex will consider it. I think that we should be more proactive and I would like the council to start considering how they feel about it and if the council who is the authority here chooses that they don't want to pursue any type of proactive annexation attempts so be it. But I would like to have that discussion at the next meeting.

Okay. Excellent idea. Yeah. Can I just make a comment about that? Yep. Did you say no? Just go. Oh, I did not say no.

I never opened my lips. Um the reason that we pulled it from the agenda tonight, um just to give you an idea is that I'm not going to get this kind of gets into the weeds a little bit, but we received a letter from Florida Commerce a few weeks ago saying that our um they call it an EAR, which stands for evaluation and appraisal amendments is not complete. It needed to be complete by June 14th of 2025. Um, JB Pro is in the process of updating this ear, but we cannot make any changes right now to our LDRs or our comp plan or anything while this is in play. Whoa. How did we Thank you, Sue. But I will point out what I am asking this council to do is to

just discuss make just discuss if if for instance if the whole council would rather not get into annexation we're not talking about annexing anything. We're simply having a discussion about the preferences and the vision of these councils. Understood.

Okay. Thank you. So, we have over at uh Ace, we have some uh wheelchair customers who comes in. Um, and one gentleman I was talking to the other day, and maybe somebody can help get this going in the right direction. Two years ago, he was hit at this intersection because the cars zooming by. Um, and then two, the traffic lights are not there. They're not staying green or red long enough for them to be able to get across. And um he was almost hit. So he started going to the one down at Circle K in the bank there. And he started going there. He was almost hit the other day because of the same thing. The time light the times on the lights. They're just not doing long enough. So um who at FOT can we talk to to see about a possibility of them coming and checking the timing of the lights? um just see if maybe they can make them a little longer.

Yes. So the uh the light in front of Circle K, Jonathan has more information on the other ones. Excuse me. But the light in front of Circle K um the motherboard is bad and do DOT is aware of it and they they have one on order so it should be here relatively quick. Again, Mr. Bishop has additional information on the other one. Okay. So, I'll get a hold of Sam Agretton tomorrow and we can start working on the timing on that and they'll have to do an an investigation and we'll move forward. No big deal.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah, cuz he said he was almost hit down there the other day. He said the person wasn't paying attention to what they were doing and he said I wasn't it was still I had the, you know, the white lights to go across. So just seeing what we could do. You know, it maybe if anything it could correlate into the walkway here, you know, like you go to Gainesville and there's a walkway, people hit a button, you got flashing lights and everything for people to cross. So even if even if it's over here that the crossway is like we've always talked about. So just just something to think about. I will say too, it's really hard at this intersection. It's always going to be really hard because of that advanced green and the and the lefthand turn. Um, and there's nothing we can do about that. People just need to be people that are on the street that are pedestrians need to be aware that it's an advanced green. But just because the light turns red, you can't walk because the other light is green and it's that advanced green for them to turn left to turn left. Um, if they watch as, as you say, if they watch the signals that say when you can walk and when you can't, they don't turn white. I've actually looked at them because I've been doing a lot of walking around down there lately for block 12. Um, and they don't turn white until that advanced green is over. And it is a short period of time after that. So

and and maybe you can answer this, but the last time I crossed there was no audible countdown, which I think is mandatory for people who are hearing impaired that there is an actual sound that beeps as there's a certain number of seconds left. And I'm pretty sure none of ours are updated, at least a beep beep beep. Yeah. That they're supposed to give you a certain number of seconds to let hearing aid, hearing impaired people know that they need to scurry. So, um, just we could maybe follow up with that as well, Mr. Bishop or Mr. Killian. Yes, we'll work on that tomorrow. Okay. With Jonathan and we can move forward. And to your question about the crosswalk, Mr. Bishop has a meeting set up in March to discuss that uh crosswalk out from city hall.

Awesome. Awesome. If it's on the day that I'm off, Mr. Bishop, I'll if you don't mind, I'll join you. And if you need any letters written or thoughts expressed from council, I'm happy to jump in in support of this because I think it's great that you guys are working on this. I really appreciate it. Anything else? No. All right. Item 10. Got a chamber banquet coming up.

What else we got coming up? The Won Chamber banquet is scheduled for February the 21st. If you haven't purchased your ticket yet, Miss Carolyn at the chamber still has tickets available. You can come in and purchase one from her or you can order one online.

That's it. All right. Well, it's that time. the time. Yeah. What time is your I'll try it again. I move we adjourn at 7:33 or 4. I second. We have motion. We got a first. We got a second. Any discussion? Nope. Didn't hear any. All in favor say I. That we adjourn. I those opposed. All right. This meeting's ended. First time with us.