Council - Regular Meeting

Are you ready? Are you ready? You got your thing to push? Okay, very good. All right, give me this thing. I have this thing down here. All right, if you will, we're going to call this meeting to order. This is a regular city council meeting in the city of Williston. It is Tuesday, August the 4th at 6 p.m. I am conducting the meeting because our president, Dorfness Hines, was unable to be here today. At this time, I will ask Ms. Ficke to please call the roll.

Mayor Charles Goodman. I am here. Council President Dorfness Hines. Absent. Vice President Deborah Jones. Here. Council Member Michael Cox.

Here.

Council Member Meredith Martin. Here. Council Member Shanna Church. Here. Interim City Manager Terry Brevard.

Here.

Attorney Kirsten Ballou. Here. And City Clerk Patricia Wright, absent.

And all other staff.

Here.

I see the back row. Okay, at this time, we will stand for the opening prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance by Mayor Charles Goodman.

Thank you very much. Join me if you will. Lord, we come to you tonight, a city, a group of people, and Lord, we depend on you. to help to guide us in these difficult days that we find ourselves in. Lord, I just ask you to be with each one of these council members, to give them the ability to fully understand everything that they see, and to give them supernatural abilities to make the best decisions for our community. And Lord, I ask you to be with the police department, Lord, who every day come about to serve our city and their life is on the line every time they make us stop. And I just ask for a hedge of protection around our police officers and the whole police department and our fire department, Lord, who put their lives on hold to come and try to save lives and property. And Lord, please watch after all of our staff and all of our working people in our city. And I ask you lastly, Lord, to please give grace to every person that put their life on hold to come here tonight to try to be part of the city of Williston's government. I ask all this in your name. 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. Item number one is the additions, deletions, and changes or approval of the agenda. And I understand we do have a few changes. correct me if I'm wrong we're going to move item two to the second page under new business and make it double a we're going to remove item three because miss wise was unable to attend and if you'll notice we have two fours so we are changing every number after the first four to five six seven I believe that's it anybody else have any other changes

May I ask for clarification, we're moving item two to where?

On the second page under item seven, it will be double A before the A.

Thank you.

Yes, sir. And if you're in agreement with that, let's have a motion for approval of the agenda, please.

I make a motion that we approve the agenda as presented.

Thank you. I second. I have a motion and second. Is there any discussion from anyone? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. We will move then to item number four. Presentation of Retirement Award to Matt Fortney by Council President, who is not here, and Chief Mike Rolls.

Madam Vice President, may I go up there with that presentation?

Absolutely. I'll take my jewelry off.

Okay, whoever's in charge, go for it.

All right, well, I'll start. I'll start. So, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Terry Brevard. I was previously a manager for a while, and now I've come back to town. I've worked with Matt. I came over and worked for him. And I will say that very few people could pull off and build shoes like Matt has built at the Bolton Police Department. Dedicated individuals, solid police work, solid police operations. even what you taught me. But as the city, as that goes, I want to present you with this award for 29 years of service. Thank you very much.

Is there a short camera?

Don't go anywhere.

All right, don't go anywhere, man. We've got one more word we want to present to you. After 29 years of dedicated service, I thank you for the right to have this weapon. This is a weapon that you've carried your last few years as a resource for the great city of Willis and the Willis and Willis Department. And we're so thankful and we're so honored that we've gotten a chance to spend the time that we've spent with you. Thank you, wife, for sharing you with us. And we're just honored to give you this weapon, and we're so happy to see you at the future holds for you.

Congratulations.

Hey, Horny can clean it, Rory. All right. It was clean.

Thank you, everyone. At this time, number five is public participation. If any of you have anything to say at this time about anything that is not on our agenda, if it's on our agenda, we wait for you to ask until we get to that item. But if you have something that is not on the agenda, please come to the podium and state your name and your city of residence.

Hi, I am Rachel Flynn, and I live inside the city of Williston. On Friday, 7-24, I received my utilities bill for $540. My electric had tripled from the month before, from 98.68 to 282.07. But that's not really why I'm here. I just thought that that would be pertinent for you guys to understand why I am here. On Monday, 7.27, I went to the city hall to ask if I could discuss this issue with the billing manager, Megan. I don't know her last name.

Shockly.

She was not available, I was given her email address and I sent her an email on 7-27-26 requesting help. She did not reply. On 7-22-26, I requested the records for the budget of Williston Fiber. I emailed Ms. Wright 48 hours later, she's not here, 48 hours later to ask if she had received my request. She did not respond. On 7.30, I sent an email to the city manager, Mr. Bovard. Bovard?

He answers to all of them.

The new city manager, asking for his help on these two matters, as well as providing the email addresses I had used because I thought maybe they were wrong. He did not reply. I also cc'd the mayor, who did not reply. My question is, in what world is it OK to just not reply to residents who are inquiring here with real issues in this city? Is that acceptable here? And I'm looking for answers.

So what was the date? I'm sorry, what was the date over here? What was the date that you emailed the city manager?

730.

And what email address did you use?

City.manager. I'd have to look, but I actually have the card.

That's close. That's probably it.

City.manager at willistonflorida.fl.org.

That's correct. Now I will ask the same question. What email address did you send to the mayor?

Well, interestingly enough, I sent an email to you that was returned as not... Ah, thank you. Once.

Yes.

I got a new email from the front desk. Sent it again. It was returned to me as the wrong email. And then finally, it was mayor.williston something or other.

It's... It is mayor at willistonfl.org. If you do not use that email, it does not come to me.

Mayor at willistonfl.org.

And what was your name?

Rachel Flynn.

And when did you email me?

730 I cc'd you on the email that I sent to the city manager asking for help because I can't seem to get any responses from any city employee about any matter that I ever have here ever. Just nothing in return. Not a hey.

Please address the council, not the audience.

Not a hey. I got this. I'm going to look into it for you. Not a hey. I'm really backed up. Can you give me until next week? Not a hey. I see what's going on here. Let's figure this out. Nothing. No replies at all.

I will say I know both of these gentlemen, and I can't speak for Megan, but I know both of these gentlemen, they would have replied if they had received it. Did you do it from the Facebook page or from the website?

No, I did it from my email.

You just went straight to it and did it because somebody gave it to you. Usually that goes through. I will say that if somebody emails me, first let me say this. If you want to email me, they hand out my cards at the front desk because they're in a rack. I think most of them are there. So if you want somebody's phone number, email, that's where they are. Come ask for a card. They're public records, so that's where they are. I will say if you do it from our Facebook page, mine goes to junk every time.

It goes to quarantine. It was from my personal email address.

It would, even if it was from your personal email address.

So you think that possibly every single email that I have sent...

No, not saying that.

But not been received.

No, not saying that. I'm saying that that's what happens if you do it through the website. I will say I did not receive.

I look at every email that comes to mind, and I did not receive your email, and I will only say I'm sorry for what has happened to you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Have you gotten answers yet?

No. I can't get any responses from anybody. I mean, I even came into... The city, I came here to discuss this with Megan on 7-27. I got my bill on 7-24. I came in to discuss it on 7-27. I think it's the day that you were starting and there was this big meeting about to happen. So she was unavailable to talk to me. So the nice girl at the front who's always so helpful and pleasant and lovely. I love her. And she has a super cute haircut. She gave me her card and said her name is Megan, you'll send her an email. So Megan did not respond. Ms. Wright didn't respond either, but she's not here, so I don't know.

Ms. Wright has been in and out, no excuse, but Ms. Wright has been in and out of the hospital with her husband, including tonight. That's exactly where she is. That's really hard. He's been readmitted tonight.

That is super hard. I wonder if there's somebody who could be monitoring her e-mails so that these e-mails don't slip through the cracks.

Could you spell your last name for me?

I'm sorry?

Spell your last name for me over here, ma'am.

F-L-Y-N-N. And is your email Rachel Flynn? No, it is rachel.culture at gmail.com. So it's R-A-C-H-A-E-L dot culture, C-U-L-T-U-R-E at gmail.com.

Go ahead. I just want to thank you also for bringing this up because this is actually a conversation that I had. As you may know, we've had a couple of interim city managers. But I just learned, as Ms. Debra said, that when people try and contact us through the city website, for whatever reason, it sends it into like a quarantine folder i had no idea that this was happening so i think our i.t department needs to look into this and i will make a personal request that they look into why those are getting dumped into quarantine and not coming into our account directly. So thank you for bringing this up.

Oh, absolutely. And just the last thing I want to say is that it was, it was not from the website. It was from my personal email.

So, and I appreciate you bringing that up because I only thought it was through the, in fact, I sent our city manager like a test, like I went on the website and did a test and he did receive it, but it goes into a quarantine file. So it's definitely been on at least my radar and I think Ms. Deborah's radar. So we will sort this out.

And sometimes it's two or three days before. It does pop up a quarantine message that you have something in quarantine, but sometimes it's two or three days later before it does that.

I will say that as well. I did a test myself just to see once I got into my email here, just to see how long it takes to receive something. I think it took about three days for it to finally come through, and I was like, oh, we need to work on that. So I appreciate you letting us know as well, so that way we can kind of address all those matters, so we can get those messages right away, whether they come directly from a regular email address or... from the Facebook or not Facebook, the website. So that way we can respond.

Your email is not here.

Well, it didn't come back to me.

I'm just telling you. I just looked.

Yeah, I mean, that's an issue.

Terry hasn't found it either under city manager. Ms. Frank, could I do one thing for you, though? Sure. Tomorrow, I don't know, I'm assuming you live in Williston.

I do. I live right inside city limits.

Do you have time available tomorrow?

To come in? Yeah. Oh, I'm in.

Okay. I'll make it happen. How about 9 o'clock?

Yes.

Is that okay, or do you want to do another time?

Nope.

All right, 9 o'clock.

9 a.m. is great. Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am. That eases my mind because my next question was going to be, so now what do I do? Exactly.

9 o'clock.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Rachel. I can tell you, if we get questions that we can't answer, they always go straight to him.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Appreciate you coming. Anybody else for public participation?

Robert Langan, 500 Northwest Fifth Avenue. I just want to say, since Mike's not here, I don't see him anyway, I want to thank the electrical department. I know they're short-staffed as hell, but they did get my five streetlights up on 4th Street. And they're all burning. Perfect. That's a bonus. Thank you. Pass it on to Mike.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Barker's dad. Don't give up. Go ahead, John. I saw you first.

Good afternoon, counsel. My name is John Barker. I live at 19650 Northeast 50th Street, which is right outside the city limits. My back property line is the city limits. My question, my concern today is I'm curious about the new data information cameras that are going up in town, i.e. flock cameras that Ms. Jones told me they're not flock cameras. They're another brand. Yeah.

Vigilant. Yeah, they're vigilant cameras. They're not flocked. I don't know if we want to address that here or do you want me to make it?

He's got three minutes, so you can give him three minutes.

Okay. What's your question?

Why are they there? Who has access to them? Who's paying for them? What kind of information can be obtained off of them?

Yeah. Okay, great. The cameras were put there by me. They are right now currently a demo, so they're not costing us anything at all. We have one person that has authority over those flock cameras, and he's sitting right next to me, Sergeant Compessori. That's the only person who has access to go in there. The flock cameras, just like the vigilant cameras, they're not surveillance cameras. They only take still photo. When a car goes by, it takes a still photo. They don't record audio. They don't do video. It's just a still photo of your tag. When you go through that intersection, that's all it does. Then why are they there? They're there because... Missing persons, wanted persons, murder suspects, all of these, some of these things that I just mentioned are exactly what we've gotten off that camera since we put them up.

We as in Williston?

We as in Williston, yes, sir. Yes, sir. We've had missing persons. We've had stolen vehicles. Hit and run. We got a tag of a murder suspect. A murder and a hit and run. A murder suspect that was, a murder that happened here in Williston. We've got the information off that vehicle from that camera. And I'm glad to say that we got a full prosecution. So that's why they're here.

How many are there? There's two. Where are they at?

One's by Walgreens and one's by Pizza Hut.

And both of those are installed by City of Williston?

They're installed by Vigilant.

Under your direction?

Yes, sir.

All right.

Yes, sir.

All right. Thank you very much. Yes, sir.

Good questions, John. Anybody else?

I'm Joel Penny. I live 43 Northwest 4th Street. I just want to tell Jonathan and the guys thank you for getting John Henry Park cleaned up really quick and stuff. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Yes, I don't know if I should bring this up now or when. Sorry for the glasses. I just had eye surgery.

If it's not on the agenda, now is perfect.

Okay. All right. So I'm here to address the water situation. I was here the beginning of this year in April and to discuss water situations. And so right now we've had I have specific dates, but to just make it simple, we've had, you know, boil water issues. So we've had two last year and two this year already. My issue is when we have these boil water issues, they're all due to the well, from what I looked up. They're all due to whatever well is used in the city limits. So... Is our infrastructure not keeping up with all of the homes, the new homes that are going in, new buildings that are going in? Is it not keeping up with what we need here in Williston? My second thing is, and my biggest problem is, is that when we have a boil water advisory, OK, we get alerted whether you are, you know, whether you have signed up for the text alerts. That's one thing. But it's supposed to be that you all are supposed to whatever city officials are supposed to send it out. I think the IT department or whoever. is really lacking because they're not giving us the information that it's okay to use the water again we had seven days worth of boil water advisory for seven days we had to boil our water and the only way I knew that it was okay to use again was because I said, okay, this is ridiculous, I need to go on the official City of Williston website, went on there and it said, okay, it's been rescinded, and it said that it was rescinded but an official word would go out to our public the following day, which is that in and of itself is like not acceptable, it should have gone out like right away to let us know that we can use the water again. It's a real hardship when you have to do that. Anyway, Still, to this day, has never gone out. Nothing came out, whether it was text or a paper thing on your door, which blows away anyway. Nothing was put up at all to say, we can use our water again.

They must have missed your house because they did in my neighborhood.

Yeah, so they didn't send me a text. I'm set up for the text. My neighbor is set up for a text. She didn't get any advisory. And if you look even on a website, it's just like nothing gets sent out to us, and it's a real problem. So people that don't have internet, that don't go on a website, We need to be able to trust all of you to give us information so that we feel safe in this community. I mean, you know, if the city officials have become so complacent with their role and they don't care about giving us information, it's a real problem.

Yeah, so I will tell you the reason why you didn't get the door hangers on the day that the water bowl notice was rescinded, it was lightning and thundering, and it was very dangerous to have crews out.

Right, but why didn't we get a text?

Hang on.

Okay.

So I made the decision that we would put out the hangers the very next day, right? So I do know for a fact, correct me if I'm wrong, from utilities that basically we did a notification on the website and the Facebook page and basically not only notified about the boil water, but also about the rescinded boil water notice the same. As far as the text goes, I have no idea. I will tell you this, and of course I have not brought this up to City Council, is that I'm looking for a different platform than what we currently have that will be better that we can roll it into Edmunds, and Edmunds will be able to do the work for us from the data that I can pull. So if we have an account with you and you have your phone number, you have an e-mail address, this current system that we have can then blast that message out to you. And I believe we'll solve a lot of our problems.

I hope so, because I get, I get the messages, but when it comes time for, for me to say, okay, it's all good now. Yeah. You get nothing.

I don't know why you didn't get it. You can, you want to give me your address and I'll research why you didn't get the hanger. I'll be glad to do that.

No hanger, no text, no, no email, no nothing. Yeah.

Well,

And I'm registered for all that. Okay. But, yeah, I can do that.

Do you want to do it publicly or do you want to wait until later?

I can do it. Go ahead. 635 Northeast 2nd Street. Oh, that's an easy one to remember.

She's in it. She's in it. Yeah. It was Northwest and Northeast, so she is in it.

Yeah. I'll find out and I'll pull your phone number from your account so we don't have to announce it publicly.

Okay.

Unless you want to put it out there.

Yeah, no, that's good.

Okay. You can look it up. I'll give you some work to do. I will call you tomorrow.

Okay. All right. That sounds good. So one other thing when it comes to the water. Last time I was in, I was talking about all this really bad muddy water coming into the toilets in my house. And so somebody was supposed to contact me about that and they never did. So, yeah, it's just a matter of like... Can you follow up with what you say you're going to do? Sort of a thing would be really great. Okay. And I'm hoping that infrastructure is going to improve over time.

Infrastructure is a constant problem here. The infrastructure we currently work off is 50, 60, 70 years old. Yes, very old. So the problem is finding the money to make that happen without raising rates, without... taking loans out the city can't afford to take out. And so the utilities department does a very good job of managing what we currently have. But it's hard. It's hard to put in a $3 or $4 million project when you don't have the money to pay for it. And currently, you know, as a city manager, raising the rates, in my opinion, is probably not a great idea. But, you know, it ought to go so far.

Right.

Right. So... We were able to put back about $85,000 last year in the wastewater program. $85,000 doesn't go very far. If I have two pumps go out, which we have four, if I have two pumps go out, that's $50,000 to replace those pumps. And I've done it several times in my previous time as city manager. So it's a balancing act. I wish I had some better news for you, but the reality is that Yeah.

Just not there.

Well, we're managing a budget just like you do at your home. And there's the things that you must have and things that you want, things that you need. And unfortunately, the must haves are things we're dealing with right now.

Right. So you all keep like letting all these buildings go in, but the infrastructure really can't handle it. So.

So the buildings that do come in, and I don't want to take up too much time here, but I would be more than happy to sit down in my office with you and have a meeting about this. But the buildings, the places that do come in are required to bring in their own sanitation lift stations, and they're adding to the system. And sometimes it's not an issue at all. Sometimes they're so far out of town, they have to run miles of pipes to go around other lift stations. But they are charged. I mean, we don't do it on the taxpayer's dollars. I'm going to say that right now. And then, like I said, it's a two-hour conversation, but I would love to have it with you.

Okay, sounds good.

If you want to come up here and get with the administrative assistant and make an appointment with me, I'd love to talk about it.

All right, sounds good. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Janine.

Thanks.

Anybody else for this particular trial one more time? Wrong, wrong.

My name's Michael Trickle, and while I don't actually live in Williston, Florida, I am here representing two organizations, one being Masonic Lodge here in Williston, and the second being an organization called the Florida Hydrotechnic Arts Guild. I'll represent the Masons first. The last time that I was here, we proposed a sundial to put into the park, an interactive sundial, Unfortunately, life deals the cards sometimes, and I was kind of taken out of that game pretty quick after that and just now getting our feet under us that we can get something moving on that. As we left it, we were going to bring in some examples of what we might be trying to accomplish and some sites that we might be able to use. The problem is we would like to have something heritage park and given how how nice the flagpole is in that whole area that surrounds it we kind of think doing something to mirror that maybe on the north side of the pavilion might be a way to do that and do it in the same structure with the pavers and things like that problem is that cost a little bit of money so what we decided might be a better solution for now is we are going to actually get round paver stones and get with, there was a lady here who said she wanted to get the women's organization involved. I don't know if she's here now or not. Maybe I'll get with Carolyn Timbrook. She remembered her name, but she said they would like to participate and also the scouts. So we got to make two rows of numbers and what we're going to do is make mosaic tiles on round paver stones and take one of the lesser parks in the area, find a spot that's not in Heritage Park and get one down and see how the community reacts to it and people can get a look at it and see what it's all about. And if they decide to move forward and put something in Heritage Park that we could do it on a little bit grander scale and maybe do some fundraising and make it mirror the flag plaza that's already there with the half wall in the north. So that's kind of where we're at with it. Our plan is to have some places picked out by the next meeting and also an example of the paper stones that we're going to be seeing if everybody agrees with. So I just wanted to update you on that.

You might ask them if they know, I'm sorry.

Please state your name.

Bill Katsoulis, I'm the sitting master of Ornean Lodge. This is Mike's committee and his brainchild. But maybe you all already know of a park that could use some uplifting and maybe there's already a place in your minds that, hey, this would be Your neighborhood? But just another place.

I think they're signaling the police officer out of the hallway.

I'm sorry. Sorry. I was like, okay, Mike, we can do it at your house. I think I'd be a little selfish of you not to share it with the whole county. But if you already know the park by the rehabilitation center or across the town and say, hey, this would be a great spot for you all to start, we would go do it right there and have it. But that's what I was just going to say.

Remind us of the diameter of the sundial.

About as big as this, isn't it?

You can make it to size anywhere you want, but the actual, you don't, it can be as small as 20 by 20, and it could be as large as the size of the flag plaza, depending on how you want it to look. Okay. Yeah, we just need a clear sky with no trees in the way so you can actually have a shadow.

In diameter, okay.

We'll identify some possible spots in the park and bring them to you, and then you can say, yeah, let's do this one or that one, and we'll get one down. What we don't want to do is come into Heritage Park and throw a bunch of rocks on the ground and say, well, that was great. We want it to be something special, and that's kind of where we're going with it. Are there any questions about that part of it? No. Okay, moving on very quickly. The Florida Pyrotechnics Art Guild is an incorporated organization here in the state of Florida where basically we manufacture and shoot fireworks as a club. Now some of our club members are like, actually manufacture fires for Disney World and I can actually point to the ones that are made by this man and show you in the Disney show where his fireworks are going up. So we do it at a really, really high level. We like to have shoot sites. And each month we meet somewhere different so that we move all around the state so that everybody can participate throughout the state. Some of those are what we call building shoots where we actually manufacture fireworks on site for that day. And once it gets dark enough to start sending them up, up they go. Okay. Usually they love to blow stuff up. They don't even wait for it to get dark. As soon as it's a little bit dark, they start shooting just so they can get some stuff up in the air. We thought that the Williston Airport might be a possible shoot site for us. So Mr. Stegall being a friend of mine, I contacted him and said, what's the possibility of this? And he said, well, we already shoot fireworks at the horse park anyway. But yeah, there's some real possibilities out there. So I approached the club and said, look, we've actually taken tours of the site and kind of identified some spots where we might be able to do that. And I wanted to approach the city council to see if that might be a possibility for us.

Since your time is up and it's not on our agenda, if you will work with Mr. Stegall to bring us back something on our agenda, we can actually discuss it.

Okay. Okay.

because your clock has quit.

Yeah, but I had two subjects.

No, it doesn't work that way. Sorry.

You have ten or one. Okay, thank you.

But work with Ben, and y'all come up with a proposal to bring it back to us. Make sure it's on the agenda, and you'll have more time.

I actually tried to get on the agenda. Like some of the other people in the room, I make calls and whatnot, and somehow it got passed over.

If you can't get the city clerk, ask for the administrative assistant. Vicki's very responsive. She's good. So let her know. Thank you, sir. Anything else for public participation at this time? Here he comes again.

This one's not going to be so nice. Uh-oh. Robert Langan, 500 Northwest Fifth Avenue. She reminded me of it. Do we not have a monitoring system on these wells? I'm not saying somebody's sitting there watching the thing, but I called at 1235-ish today. The night it went out, the guy didn't know a damn thing about it.

You mean like midnight, 12, 13? Yeah. Okay.

Now, I'm sorry. I've been in construction a long time. We put sensors on everything that's got pressure in it. Like I said, I'm not saying a guy needs to be sitting there watching it. But there should be some kind of a pressure sensor. Sure that there is. Well, he wasn't aware of it. And then at the end of the conversation, he said, well, somebody else did call in about five minutes ago.

It depends on who you were talking to, whether they knew or not.

It's whoever answered the phone when I called this number and then got transferred over to them, so I don't know. Not necessarily the water person.

Yeah, but. I know I first heard about it about 5.30 in the morning, 6 o'clock.

Well, it was 12.35-ish, 12.30-ish when I called in. And, I mean, to me, that's a critical path that should definitely have some kind of, and it may have, I don't know. But it needs to have a sensor on it to, hey, we've got a problem at ding somebody somewhere. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Anybody else? Okay, we're going to move to our consent agenda. Item number six, the consent agenda, which consists of the July 21st council minutes.

Madam Vice President, on the Gerald, on the call.

Oh, you have a caller on the phone. Thank you, because I did not see that. Is this Mr. Pesso? Do we know? It's probably Mr. Pesso. What you got, Gerald? I guess we can tell them what we know what do you think madam attorney I did too No luck? Like talk to me, talk to me so I know what's going on. If not, I'm getting ready to move on. So, Kirsten, should we talk about it or just go forward if he's not able to get on? Because I'm not going to wait much longer.

I can provide an update in update, but I know that there's also a second opportunity at the end for public comment if we can get that working. Okay.

That's good. That sounds great. So at the end of the second public participation. Okay. Mr. IT, we're going to move, and if we get it working, we'll do it at the second.

Okay.

Do you hear him? Did you hear him, Mr. Cox?

Yeah, I hear him fine. Can you hear me? There we go. Hello?

Not enough to hear him.

Yep, we're getting there. I don't know why it's not being very loud.

Yep. He's in New York at the moment. I think he told me he was coming to Florida next week. So he just needs to be present at our next meeting.

Hello?

There he is.

Can you hear me?

Yes, sir. Go ahead. We can hear you now.

Oh, now you can hear me?

Yes, sir. Please identify yourself and go ahead. My son can hear us.

How's that? We hear you fine.

Okay, great. Thank you so much. This is fine?

Yes.

Okay. My name is Dave Pesso. I'm here on behalf of my father, Michael Pesso. I was in front of you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the City Council. Mayor Goodman, City Clerk, Deborah Jones. attorney Lou. I was in front of you guys a little bit over a year ago on behalf of my father and his unfortunate situation and the status of his properties. Even though I felt that it went very well and my father even he saw the video and he was brought to tears especially by the wonderful words by Mr. Goodman his old friend and Laurie Jones. Unfortunately, my father spiraled out of control, mentally, physically, and kind of didn't let us help him. I'm not as sure if everyone on the city council is fully aware of his situation. For many, many years, unfortunately, he hasn't let us onto his property. He's been living in squalor. 716 West Noble in a commercial property without any water, without any shower, without any air condition. It's a miracle that he's even alive. By the grace of God, I am here today because fortunately, about a month ago, he did call us and said, if someone doesn't come get me now, I will not live another day. I flew down to Williston roughly about 30 days ago and He was pretty much unconscious. It was one of those 100-degree days. And luckily, we were able to get him out and rush him to the VA hospital, which now he's been in for the past month. And thank God for them that they brought him back. He's on his meds. We went into the property on West Noble. And it's worse than anything you've ever seen on A&E or a TV show of hoarders. He has not taken his medication in years. He's not returned mail. He's living in the most disgusting circumstances you ever can imagine. But luckily, that's passed us. He's in much better shape now, taking his meds, his Parkinson's, has unfortunately taken to another level, but his diabetes and all his other issues have been under control. I know the situation and the troubles that my father has given the many years, unfortunately, towards the end of his life to the town of Williston, but please not forget how many years he was an integral part of this community. He helped many people. He saved many lives. He supported many. He was an integral part of this community. My father was a war hero. He's a combat wounded warrior from Vietnam. And unfortunately, with many other things, had many bad effects on his life. Thank God that the VA and the social workers and the therapists, even though he cries every day and all he thinks about is about the war, how bad things were and I'm sure you've seen him wandering around and he's giving away money and tipping people and a lot of people have helped him on Williston in the last few years and bringing him water and a lot of people have taken advantage of him. I am here now, which I already spoke to Ms. Ballou as well as Mrs. Jones, we have full power of attorney now and we are in control of all his affairs. We beg you and hopefully now the VA is going, is putting him into a long time assisted living. He can never come back to where he's been. He will not go there. I'm sure people have mentioned to you we have been there Friday. This Friday I'm flying back down Thursday with my brothers and sisters and we have local garbage company that's putting containers on West Noble, which was his pawn shop, and we're going to clean everything out there. And we want to do everything to help him, you know, save all the years that he's worked hard for and given his life for, to help him finish the rest of his life as peacefully and, you know, without as stress as possible. So hopefully you guys can have some heart And remember the good things that he's done. I know he was difficult. I know he was nasty. I know he, you know, he has schizophrenia. He has PTSD. But please don't forget he fought for this country. He's one of our veterans. He's one of our warriors that's helped us be where we are today. So I spoke to Ms. Malou today, Ms. Clark, and she said before anything could be done that I have to come up in front of you guys and hopefully... you'll have a heart and help this old veteran out, old sick veteran. And I know Mr. Goodman has a piece of his heart for my father. They go back a long time, and so does Mrs. Jones. So I hope the rest of you do as well. Thank you so much, and thank God for him still being alive and me being able to talk to you about this right now.

Thank you, Mr. Passoe. And when you're here, we will get it on our agenda so that we can discuss it. My question for Ms. Ballou is, does it need to go to the Board of Adjustments before it comes to us?

We have had a difficult time with our code enforcement board getting enough individuals on it to be able to have meetings. So typically the answer is yes. Right now, practically, I don't have a way to do that for you all. So, and this is part of why my recommendation was for Mr. Peso to come and speak with you all, because generally speaking, we have talked about we'd like these to go to the Code Enforcement Board. And when we had a quorum, we were doing that. While we don't have a quorum, you all are the next available entity. Perfect.

I knew that was the normal process, but I wasn't sure. Chief? Chief?

This is probably out of order, but I just heard the words of Mr. Peso's son, which were very moving, and I think we should pay our respects to Mr. Peso and give him applause for what he's done for this city and what he's done for this country.

Okay, so when you're here at your next visit, let's try to make it coordinate with our next meeting. So if you will coordinate either with the attorney or with the city clerk, we will work that out. Thank you for calling in tonight.

Say that again, I couldn't hear you too good. Can you repeat that?

When you're here next, can you hear me?

Yeah, now I hear you.

Okay, when you're here next in Williston, we need to arrange for you to be here rather than over the phone.

I'll be on his property with my brother and sister Friday.

Well, we have another meeting in two weeks, so hopefully we can coordinate that.

So what should I do? Go on the agenda?

Yes, sir.

And how do I do that?

We'll see to it if you're going to be in town.

I'll make sure.

Okay, thank you so much. We'll let you know the date.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you listening.

Okay, let's try this consent agenda, which is number six, which consists of the July 22nd council meeting minutes. I have a motion for approval of the consent agenda.

I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda.

I second. I have a motion and a second. Do I have any discussion from anyone? All in favor of the motion, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Item number seven is updates. We will start with the interim city manager, Mr. Brevard. Thank you, Madam Vice President.

So it saddened me to have to tell the council and I was disappointed when I got this letter today that Unfortunately, Kimberly Troy, our HR director, is going to resign. And her last effective date will be the 18th of August. So obviously we will be looking into replacing her. I will tell you that just the two weeks that I've been here, she's been a tremendous asset to me. the staff I hate to see her go but it's a situation where she's got a golden opportunity to do a job she loves and I would take it if I was her so we'll be Patricia and I will get together tomorrow and see what we can do as far as whether what our options are either to hire somebody internally or to maybe look at some some outsourcing whatever the City Council's wishes are You know, we'll do whatever y'all would like, and I will talk to you individually about it and see where you want to go so we have some kind of a headway. I will tell you that I've spent most of the week with Wright Pierce going over the presentation you were hearing momentarily. So it's... Y'all all had a chance to see it, so hopefully it'll go pretty quick. Myself and Walt checked out four places today of alleged flooding, and apparently some of them are flooding, and it's still the same issue we've always had. Nothing's changed, a high volume of water, short period of time. and people's houses get flooded. So I will look at each one of these individually. Some of y'all sent me emails. I will address them personally as to what our opinion is and where we need to go forward from there. And I really have nothing else further. Been a pretty busy two weeks. Terrific. Yeah.

Thank you. Anything from staff? All the way around the room. Anything from staff that's not on the agenda? Okay.

I have an update.

I heard somebody.

That would be me. Yes.

Gerald.

Okay. So on the fiber front.

Yes, sir.

We're up to 113 customers. 21 of them are businesses.

Could I add to that?

Yes, sir.

Okay. So I forgot that part. So I have also been in contact with Vinnie George. You all know him. Danny and I are pretty good friends. So I've solicited some advice from him. He's offered to loan us the George that works for him for a little bit to come in without any cost, take a look at our fiber system, and basically give me a kind of idea of where we need to go, what we need to do. I've also talked to a gentleman named Chris McKenzie, I believe is his last name. We're playing phone tag. He was recommended by Mr. George also, so I'll be reaching out to him. And there's another company called that Denny recommended, we'll also be looking at as far as doing maybe some additional installs. So I forgot to say all that part, but we're moving forward on that. So it's just been a crazy kind of busy week, and I left it out, and I apologize.

Thank you. That's good news. Thank you. Appreciate it, Gerald. Anything else from staff? Any council member? You need updates on anything? Mr. Mayor?

Thank you, Madam Vice President. This is for your own benefit, and I'm sure my fire chief will appreciate it. In case you people are unaware, right next door, Ivy House had an extreme situation from a dryer vent. And it turns out that 15,000 fires a year are caused by dryers. What happens is you do not keep the vent open. The dryer overheats and you have a house fire. So if you're not doing your own, get somebody else to clean your dryer vent on a regular basis and avoid the of having a fire break out, and for goodness sakes, please don't turn your dryer on and leave the house. Okay, the other thing I wanted to tell you, which is good news, is that High Springs, their police chief has been reinstated. And the last thing, which is for all of us to understand, is that the UF and IFAS is having a hurricane recovery resilience event September 1st in Pew Hall, Orca. And I guess it's Pew, P-U-G-H. I don't know any other way to pronounce it. it's at the University of Florida. It's at 5.30 to 7.30, and it is Resilience in Cedar Key after the hurricanes that devastated our sister city in Cedar Key. And I just wanted everybody that had any interest to be aware of it. It is at the University of Florida, 5.30 to 7.30 at Pew Hall Orca, September 1st. And that's all I have for this. I have something else at the next point. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Okay, we are now going back to our AA that will be our first thing in new business, which is a public hearing. And it's the State Revolving Fund Clean Water Facilities Plan. And we have with us tonight, I don't know if Sarah's here. Sarah's not. Antonio and Dennis is not here. I understand he's still.

He just got back from a vacation.

Yes, he's been gone a long time. And Walt Nickel, of course. Okay, you have the floor.

Thank you. We're here to present the findings, the final result of our wastewater facilities plan. Antonio's going to go through the timeline and history, so I just want to introduce Antonio. He's the project manager on this project and has been heading this up. It's been ongoing now for essentially two years, and we'll go over the details of that. We're here today to get council to approve the plan. There's other steps that would happen afterwards, but an approval needs to be done by council and it gets conveyed to DEP. DEP needs to know that the council is accepting this plan. There's other things, but we're going to go into the detail. And a little bit of a housekeeping thing for our paperwork with DEP. They do want to have a sign-in sheet for the council members. The attendees and the audience don't need to, but anybody on council, I'm going to pass this around. If you can fill out the information and sign it, because this will be part of our submit. Antonio, go ahead. Thank you, Walt.

Good evening, everyone, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. My name is Antonio Serbia. I'm a civil engineer with the firm Wright Pierce. We're an engineering consultant for the city of Williston for a number of years now. And I'll be presenting the findings and next steps on the wastewater facilities plan that we prepared to fulfill the requirements of the state revolving fund of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. FDEP. Before we start, maybe we can advance to the presentation. I think it's page eight. What is a facilities plan? So everybody understands. A facilities plan is an engineering and technical document that goes and documents the condition of certain infrastructure of the city. In this case, the wastewater conveyance systems, including the gravity sewers and the lift stations. reviews that information and makes recommendation and cost analysis about what is the best option to repair or rehabilitate these facilities. This plan document is required by the FDEP in order to provide the city Forum and standing one of the requirements for any future funding being available and as our city manager just mentioned before raising rates and making loans are expensive you know typical commercial loans are very expensive but the state revolving fund. is a fund created by the state and other federal funding that affords loans to cities like you at very low interest, very low that are not accessible to the common public, and also with very high principle forgiveness percentages, up to 80%. When you see the word loan and funding through this presentation, don't think that the city went to the bank and get a loan that is so expensive. These are special loans afforded to cities that are taking care of infrastructure to solve the issues that you all are facing. at very low interest and with very high principal forgiveness, up to 80%, correct? So with that, I'll follow through, and we're going to provide a little bit of background and history in virtual time. Mr. Rawls here asked me to expedite the presentation a little bit, so we're going to listen to that. We don't want to get in trouble tonight. So, I'll provide you some background right now. What we got here on the next slide, please, we see here a timeline. So, this is nothing new. Back in 2013, the city engaged in similar effort that for whatever reasons at that time did not lead to moving forward with pursuing this funding. But since 2013, the city has diligently identified the need and the condition of the infrastructure and has been trying to devise ways to make these improvements happen. By 2023, an infrastructure revitalization plan was prepared to try to keep the ball rolling on that. But see, that was like 10 years after the first initial trial. But this time, the city took a step and committed to move forward And in 2024, hired right peers to reinitiate this process now, you know, with a full commitment. And also we started pursuing funding to prepare the first phase of this plan, which is the planning phase. In 2025, you may have seen us all around the city with CCTV cameras inside the sewers and Our guys opening up the manholes in coordination with the city and inspecting all of that in unison. With that effort, Walt's team was evaluating the condition of the lift stations as well. So we prepared what is called a survey, a sanitary sewer survey, which is anything more than an x-ray to the system of the city. That study is what gives birth to this plan that we're preparing right now that by requirements of the FDEP shall have three alternatives. The FDEP is looking forward for these recommendations to be vetted and be, I got to have two things. Engineering sense, so it's not a wish or something that we're just like pulling off the cuff to recommend. It's something that is guided by certain engineering principles. And number two, It's going to be financially efficient and make sense. So to that effect, we identified three alternatives. Every financial facilities plan ought to have three alternatives. Number one, we detected that the core of the city was our study area, and it's the area of the city that may have pipes dating back to the 50s and 60s era. There's a type of pipe called Orangeburg, which is really complex. cardboard glorified with tar and set in place. After 40, 50 years, that's really not a pipe anymore. So the city core has this type of pipe and other clay pipes that are really needing rehabilitation. So alternative one on this plan was to go ahead and rehabilitate those sewers and the lift stations that are around it. Alternative to we are coming with three alternatives remember so alternative to response to the pressures and the need of the outside of the city core the outskirts of the city of course there's going to be growth that's where growth will come in I don't think there's going to be high prices in downtown or anything of that so if any growth the city will attract will be in the outskirts of the city as well there are. environmental requirements that will drive and maybe force some of the existing developments to abandon their septic facilities and adopt sewer facilities and connect to the city's sewers. But guess what? the founders of the city when the city was designed you know the the downtown of the wastewater facilities don't have all that capacity and conveyance it's like your city group or your roads stay the same now you have a traffic jam downtown so what alternative two is trying to do is establish these highways to the outside of the city so when this progress happens in the outside of the city or Many communities that are existing go from septic to sewer. Instead of connecting and traversing all the sewer through the city, existing pipelines and lift stations, they connect to those highways and probably share the cost of bringing those highways to them and connecting to that, not burdening excessively the already existing city system. That would be a symbiotic win-win situation in which the city, as established, will work okay, and then we don't close the gates to future growth. growth and also environmental soundness. The third alternative in this plan, just to bring the perspective and paint to the FTP the chaos that would happen, we've got to be a little bit dramatic, is a do-nothing alternative. FDEP defines this as that, like do nothing, but it's like the city is not doing anything. The city is doing something. There's reactive maintenance. You got to go ahead and continue doing makeshift repairs, repairing pipes that are collapsing. You'll have sewer stoppages and whatnot. By not investing in an option that rehabilitates the system, that investment happens anyway, but happens in fixing things day in and day out. So the budgets would be similar. The question here, where would the city focus and put that investment in? Pipes are not like wine. They don't get better with time, right? At some point, they exponentially decay. and lift stations as well. And then comes the day where really the cost might surpass what would have been a simple fix. On the next visual here, we're presenting, just for your quick inspection, what is the city core, the study area. You might not appreciate here, but these documents are available, what the downtown area is. And in the upper right side, you see what is our plan for rehabilitation. In engineering terms, what we're going to do or are proposing to do your infrastructure is at this point that we can do a trenchless rehabilitation. Imagine a sock that you impregnated in resin and unfolded inside the pipe, then push hot water inside the pipe. That hot water cures the resin and quickly you have placed a pipe inside the pipe. That happens between two manholes, no excavations, and really it's seamless. Every segment is done in a single day. So that is a very non-intrusive way to rehabilitate your infrastructure. And the city of Wollastown infrastructure at this point is... It's reasonable to recommend that this can be done. It's at the point that we haven't escalated to a major damage, so this can be done within the next five years or so, and it's possible. The red little squares that you see are really not drawn to scale. These are little spots where the pipe have collapsed. We might need to do like a 10-foot excavation here and there just to repair something minor. But you're not looking at big excavation. When I say that, probably 90 to 95% of the city, sewers can be rehabilitated trenchless. And that is very cost effective. If we wait for the day where this needs to be dug, you don't only are replacing the pipe, but you're also having to restore the whole street and the traffic disturbances, all of that. So this is a sweet moment to look at this. On the next slide, referring also to this alternative one, we have piecemeal this project in four sections. We understand and looking at the cost that I'll discuss later, achieving the whole rehabilitation of the sewers and the lift stations in one shot, it's quite expensive. So in order to get the benefits of the SRF program from the FGP, we propose to split that into four areas. Everything shall be done. But the red area would be Phase 1, and that would include also taking care of Lift Station 1 and 14's rehabilitation, along with the abandonment of Lift Station 16. Right now, that is in private property. So that would be Phase 1 of the recommended alternative. There's other three phases. This is a program that could last 5 to 10 years or so. So for the purpose of tonight, we're going to focus on this project in order to be able to present what the goal is, which is to approve this engineering document that I miss stating at the beginning that approving or not approving this document does, well, I'm just gonna say approving this document doesn't make the city responsible or encumbers or is the responsibility for further loans or charges. But if the city will pursue these advantageous loans in the future, you ought to have this document. This is your textbook. This is a ticket to the table where the city can go and request funding of any kind, higher or lower, whatever the city can afford. But the rules are that you ought to have one of these things. They last for five years, so after approved, the city has five years to figure things out, go to the SRF and request whatever funding they see fit, like one was in 2013. Back then, the motion was not to go for it. Right now, we're hitting the wall and needing to do something, and the motion tonight is to approve this technical document, this engineering document, so the city can have standing Once it's approved by the FGP, in January there's going to be some meetings where the city will have time to discuss how high or low they will go in this pursuing our funding and make it happen. So that ought to be stated. On the next visual here, when I said alternative one is expensive, The infrastructure, the construction monies that are required to build things here to do the whole of alternative one is about 18, shy of $19 million, plus usually there's a 10% design cost, and the FDP requires that when we prepare estimates, we allow for a 10% contingency, because remember, this is all planning. Once we do it, we'll know a better price. So the whole project would cost $22.5 million. That's quite a lot of money for a city like Williston. But stating this like that is the truth, and it ought to be stated so the FDEP recognizes for real. Once they approve this document, they're not going to be judging our engineering prowess to do it or how good we were or not. They will give standing to that number and say the city of Williston certified by a professional engineer has the need for $22 million or $23 million or whatever it will be, and that number will be official. How much you go and pursue for funding, that will depend on your capacity to repay and the conditions of a principal for gifts or not, but We ought to put it on the billboard officially with the state that the city needs all that money. And your citizens and everybody here that I hear that are having needs and issues need that to be official so there's for once recognized, okay? On the next visual, I'm just presenting alternative two. This is a zoom out to the future. The bright red polygon there represents the city core and in the outskirts, I know probably because of distance you might not appreciate it too much, but there are different areas. We've identified here about 14 or so outside of the inner core of the city that represent either want to develop or already develop and want to convert their septics to sewer. There's two projects going on right now that we have helped the city obtain funding, so that's not costing anything to the city, to convert septics to sewers in two areas. The inner core of the city conveyance system has some capacity. We can admit a couple more friends into the conveyance system. But this is not a hypothetical scenario. This is happening. And many developers are approaching to the city. So as that happens, that pressure from the outside really mandates that we provide for that future position where those avenues to the outside are possible and we can continue growing if the city wishes to. but lacking the right infrastructure shall not be a consequence for no development. If there's no development, it's the decision of the city, right? On the next slide, we present a summary of the cost for the three alternatives here. So as I discussed, the city core, the full Cadillac alternative one would cost $22.5 million, but we are recommending that the city focuses for now on a more tangible piece of the pie, which would cost about shy of $9 million after design and construction. And that would be the first priority. That could be achieved at once or in two years or three years or whatever, but this is a multi-step process, and the importance in this process is to continue making steps. No matter how slow you go, but you've got to make steps rather than abandon the mission and do nothing. That's an alternative at this point. If nothing goes forward, which could be adopted by the city, by approving the plan, you're not committing to alternative one or doing anything. It's the technical information that documents the condition and what could be done. The city of the future could select to adopt alternative three and don't do this, right? That doesn't mean there will be no cost, like I said. The cost that these $9 million would cost probably over the course of five or six years might cost you in repairing things that are broken day in and day out with all the problems that that brings. So what's your current and future fiscal and financial position? So I wasn't around serving the city back then, but in 2024, rate increases were approved. The first ones in 13 years. understand there were substantial there was a lot of thinking about it but the utilities department was operating in a negative checkbook and those rate adjustments were level the city finances to produce a balanced budget and a little bit of surplus that is always good to have for any emergencies that happen so that said So that's one reason that ought to be considered right now, because the FDP says that whatever alternative or loan or motion the city takes into this SRF planning shall also consider the clients, the repayers. So none of this decision shall put the city in a bind or a position where rates need to go up astronomically. This ought to be done in an organic, integral way that the city will work and devise in order to chunk down these improvements as necessary in order to achieve that organic growth and rates that are sustainable by the city, like our city manager just mentioned. So in preparation of this plan, we have provided data so that the city can have the granularity to select what's needed as they evaluate their financial position. On the next slide, we're going to skip 11 because it's kind of tiny and I have a better representation on number 12.

It's kind of small.

Yeah, the next one, please. Right. This is the same information, but presented in a more zoom in. So the condition nowadays, existing and anticipated debt, those rates that were instituted in 2014, after 13 years, produce a positive balance of about, a net revenue, we call it, of about $95,000, 96 a year, right? Some of that goes to operation and maintenance, whatever, but there's a small surplus that is healthy for a city the size of the city of Williston. Back in 2024, when the city decided to take this step back then, the city decided to enter into a loan with the FDP for planning, for sending crews out there and starting all the facilities and doing all this we're doing, which this is the deliverable of that. So there's a loan already running for that. That loan will need to be repaid in probably 2027, 28 or so, but let's assume it's in 2027. And the so-called mortgage of this loan will be about $21,000 a year, not a month, a year for the next 10 years. It was quite expensive to do all this. You got thousands, like 20-some thousand linear feet of pipes that needed to be cleaned and CCTVed and hundreds of manholes that needed to be opened and investigated and whatnot, plus a wall prepared. a report that evaluated all the lift stations so that's quite a bit of work to do and it's typical that's what these plans are so tonight we're not talking about encumbering the city in additional monies or loans or whatever that loan was already there but the repayment starts next year The city has the resources to pay for that. That's why they were afforded this loan. But the scenario that it slightly shows in red, I'm thinking maybe you can see the highlight, the phase one, the design of it will be about 10% of that construction. And if the city pursues that, it would start repayment in year 27 or 28 for about $9,000 to $10,000. What does this mean? Today, as it is, the city could afford funding up to the design phase of this infrastructure that does one great thing. It makes the city shovel ready. Many grants afforded by Other programs in the state, when they have money available, they would like to receive requests from cities that are ready to go to construction. The city is not there because there are no beatable or ready designs right now. investing right i'm using the word not spending but investing in designing this infrastructure could place the city with two different escape routes that could be used at the same time one would be pursuing funding through the srf at a very very low uh interest rate and good principal forgiveness, and using the same design to construct other parts of the infrastructure via grants of other agencies. But we don't have that today. So the loans that we go and pursue are loans that admit requestors that have a medium-term construction timing, as they call it, rather than one that if they award us a grant in January that same year, we could go to construction if we had these designs. So that is the importance of approving this document and having the justification. So every time the city goes and requests any funding or make advantage of any grant that is available, we are ready to do it. Let me see right now. Let's go to our next slide here. So that current loan that I mentioned for the planning. So there are three phases on any project like this. There's planning phase, which is what just we're concluding right now and presenting this report. That is the design phase, a brief time where we prepare the plan specifications and bid documents to be able to construct all that infrastructure. that could be constructed under SRF or by other means to fund it, and then the construction. So the current loan, the city was awarded a 50% principal forgiveness for a loan at 10 years with 0.68% interest rate. Quite an attractive loan for that, and that's what will start being paid next year. Future loans, let's say the city engaged in design of that first part of alternative one, That loan has the probability of being awarded an 80% principal forgiveness. So only 80% of what is requested, I mean, 80% would be forgiven. So we pay back only 20% at a 1.52% at 20 years now, right? There's a typo right there on the first bullet of the second area on future SRF loan. That 10 years at 152 is really 20 years at 152, okay? So then let's say the city is construction ready and decided and could afford the money for construction of that first phase. That construction loan could be afforded, again, an 80% principal forgiveness at 20 years at 0.92. Usually the construction interest rate is way lower than the design one. Of course, these interests are not set today. They go and change by the GEO index, but this is very usual. They're the lowest interest rate that you could have. It's called a loan, but as you understand right now, it's really an internal government loan, not a commercial instrument of financial. Why have we considered phasing the project?

there are some rules of engagement, right?

When the state has a bucket at the beginning of the year of principal forgiveness, no single requester can receive more than 25% of that bucket, right? So if you enter in with a very big project in which that 80% wish of principal forgiveness of yours really consumes a lot of those millions of dollars for principal forgiveness, which last year were $40 million, you have a low probability to get your 80% forgiveness because there's many people requesting funding. But if we go in with smaller projects at a time, our probability of getting or being awarded 80% principal forgiveness for many small projects is way higher. So that's one of the strategies that we've used in order to chunk down this program into more tangible pieces that would get additional benefits. Yeah, that's really, that's one of the reasons why we're facing this project, okay? So what are the next steps tonight? So with this, Chief Rawls, I finish now. This will be my final slide. So how am I doing? 19. The next steps. We have already.

I think you had 200 pages, didn't you? 247, I think, to be exact.

Yep. We have already submitted a draft. We can do that to submit a draft of the plan to the FDP for preliminary comments, make sure we're going the right way. And they have already said, yeah, the plan looks sound. We have no major comments to it. Whatever they might comment will be minor. So we have a check mark on that. The FDP requires that this information that I've shared today is presented to the City Council and also to the public so by having the attendance sheet and if the public if anybody anybody wanted to sign it that they're welcome to do so, but these evidences that we complied with that request the requirement and showed up here and summarize the information that is included in the plan. in a transparent manner, what's the condition, what are the costs, and what are the city options that we haven't enticed you to say you have to take a loan. I haven't said that tonight. I'm presenting technical information that the city will use considering all the different aspects of city administration need to take. In parallel with what we're doing, the Florida Rural Water Association, FRWA, is assisting the city review the rates and the financial posture and conditions of the city to determine what type of loan and what size of loan you all could afford. That's not part of our scope. That is a city administrative function. But we've included it here because there's going to be a meeting on August 18, understand, and personnel from the FRWA, which are also assisting us preparing this plan, will have a meeting. you know, information for the city and further considerations. But the outcome of those considerations really will be necessary in January or at the time that the city, having already forum and standing in front of the FDP by having approved this and submitted it to them and posting on the billboard, we have the need of 24 million. You're all invited to the table and the city will state how, if any, or how much you will request. There's a very important deadline to present formally. And when I say formally, this plan takes standing. So far, that draft that I presented was a draft from a professional engineer consultant from the city that presented this to the FDEP for general checks and concurrence. But the formal submittal needs to be accompanied by an adoption resolution that this council will need to approve. in order to put it on the cover page and give it to the FTP. That ought to happen by September 28th. That's the closing of the gate because there's important meetings in November where they prepare what they call a priority listing. Out of the hundreds, because I know there will be at least, maybe not a hundred, but a big number of plans like these of every city and county in Florida who's going to be presenting their facilities plan. the FDEP will evaluate it and prepare a priority listing. Many will not have the merits, maybe the justification is not strong enough, maybe the FDEP understand that that city or that county has other means that they really don't need to use this, get benefits of this program. They really try to put this money where it's most needed. So they will go through that CEIF and publish the priority listing and we are confident that we'll make that list. That list is really the list for the party, right? This is the list of possible requestors that can take the step forward and request a loan if they choose to do so, right? But if we don't make it on that list, the cycle is quarterly and the 80% principal forgiveness that is available now and the interest rate, it might change. We don't have control over that. Every year, the local government, the Fed government, they meet and they determine how much is available for principal forgiveness, for interest.

Can you hold one moment for me? Yes, ma'am. Do we have issues down here? I think our recorder quit, so hold on one second. Do we need a new tape or does it need to be turned over or something? Is it moving? Okay. Do we need another tape? Huh? Oh, is it digital? Didn't used to be. Oh, my. I showed you how long I've been here, huh? Used to just have to flip it over here, man. It was much easier.

I did, so thank you.

So how is it digital? You know, that little thing. MP3, maybe? Yeah. All right, are we taking a recess, or what are we doing? We have our other recording going. Okay, so we have our go-to-meeting going, so we're good. So continue, please, sir.

Thank you.

Sorry for the interruption.

Thank you. I was literally about done here, so that priority listing we have available every year, the priority listing that is prepared every year, so we really are working hard to make it on that priority list and allow the city to continue taking steps as big or as small as you all can take and not abandon ship for whatever reasons was done in 2013. We've been to the knocking the door of the FDP twice already. Remember, back in 2013, we did most of this effort already. It was abandoned. This is the second time. If we don't take steps, even small steps right now, the FDEP, any third time, if we go back in five or six years to ask for another chance, we might not be taken for serious, right? So this is an opportunity, and it's a very sound plan that will allow you to take the steps that are needed. So with that, I conclude the presentation tonight. looking forward to a positive approval of the resolution to adopt this plan and officially submitted to the FTP so this process can move forward for the steps after that happens next year the city will be called in by the FTP or you reach out to the FTP to continue doing as you see fit thank you very much this is a public hearing I would ask if anyone in the public has comments or questions for mr. Serbia

Okay, all right. Council, any questions or comments for him?

I've pretty much answered most of the questions that I've had, but as far as a comment, I feel like there's been a cry for this, just getting the steps rolling and at least showing our focus. So I appreciate all the efforts and all the information that's been provided.

yes I will comment that they have met individually with each council member so we don't have too many questions because we've already asked four million so they were very good to meet with all of us individually so and now they're here to make the presentation to you and just one other question for you sir

My question in there was when we were in the meeting was, just so they understand, we're not the only ones that have issues. We're a small municipality. There are large cities that they are helping to design. So it's just not us.

And one thing I kind of want to stress, you know, we talked about this is the plan going forward. You're not committing to anything, but it opens up the SRF program to you by getting on that priority list. But it also is beneficial for other grants. And we are going to continue and we constantly do that. Continue to look for other grants. So if we have this $10 million phase and we're looking at what you can do with SRF, but if we can find other grants at the same time and that can supplement that, that reduces that. So just because we have this doesn't mean we're going to stop. We're going to continue to look for other sources of funding for your wastewater, for your water, for your stormwater. We're continuing to do that. But this is one source, but it's also going to get you You're shovel-ready for other sources, and it opens up a lot of doors for you for funding.

Exactly. I remember John Henry. When we were doing the stormwater at John Henry, we ended up with three or four different grants that all did that.

Yeah, eventually two big ones. We had the one, and it was an SRF, and it had 25% city share through the Water Management District. Prices came up high. We were ready. We were shovel-ready. We had a contractor ready to go, and we approached – DEP and because we were we got it within two months months water give us some money to not not on that project yeah not on that okay but because you were ready and we could show we're gonna go to construction here as soon as you give us the money and we were able to and And they were very eager to give the money. And so you need to be in that position. Exactly. And this will help get you there. All right.

Yes, ma'am. I just kind of want to speak to the public that we did each, mirroring what Ms. Jones said, that we did each get the opportunity to sit through. I personally was in an hour and a half meeting today with Walt. and mister Serbia to ask all the and mister Brevard to ask all the questions so it may seem like we are not asking a lot of questions but we have thoroughly exhausted I'm sure their time and if anybody would like to reach out to me personally, I can't speak for my fellow council members, but if anybody would like to reach out to me to find out what questions I had and what answers were provided and what concerns I had, since we're not really, we're trying to, and I'm not doing a good job, speed things up tonight, I'm happy to talk to anybody. Maybe don't email me, but... I'll leave my number at the front desk. I'm sorry I said get our cards. Our numbers are on our cards. You're welcome to call. I'd be happy to talk to anybody about this.

My cell number's on my card. Just ask for it. They'll give it to you. Same with most of us, yeah. Anyone else? Questions? Okay, so we need to entertain a motion for approval of the SRF Clean Water Facilities Plan. There is a resolution in your packet. Is it the next thing? Does it have a number?

I'm not... Page what? It's 2026-50 is your number. 2026-50. It's on page 6 of your packet.

I make a motion we approve resolution 2026-50.

I second.

Okay, I'm still not seeing it, so I'm with you. I have a motion to have a second. Do we have any further discussion?

Okay.

If not, all in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Again, that's Resolution 2026-50. Thank you all for your time.

Appreciate it.

Thank you. All right, we're now to item number 7A, Resolution 2026-45, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, amending the airport fee schedule attached as Exhibit A in accordance with Section 12-79 of the Williston Code of Ordinances, providing for the same to be kept available to the public at City Hall and the Williston Regional Airport, providing for conflict and providing for effective date. Airport Manager Ben Stegall.

Yes, ma'am. So this is just a CPI update for our fee schedule. Last time it was done was 2024. We were going to do it last year, but had some personnel changes and it just kind of fell through the cracks. So this is our up to 2026 CPI update. In the future, we will probably have a rate and fee schedule study done. So we'll come back with the big changes at that point in time, but For right now, we're just maintaining status with CPI. If there's anything that the council would like to have us explore to add to the fee schedule, by all means, shoot me an email, text me, call me, come out of the airport whenever you want.

Any questions for Mr. Stegall? And if you'll go to page 257, so the public can take a look at that. it's 257 i think it's also the next page as well okay yeah oh all right that would be resolution 2026-45 do we have a motion for approval from anyone i make a motion that we approve resolution resolution

2026-45.

I second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion from anyone? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Item 7B, Resolution 2026-46, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, approving surplus of certain equipment and scrap metal located at the utility barn and sewer plant. deemed no longer useful or feasible to fix by utility staff. Approving a sealed bid auction for said surplus equipment, authorizing appropriate parties to sign any documents required on behalf of the city of Williston, and providing an effective date. Fire Inspector Danny Wallace.

Okay, this is a first phase. This is all scrap metal that is non-inventoried that we've collected over 30 years. It's at the sewer plant behind the barn. And this is what we're wanting to do is put it out for bid. And it will be picked up where it is as is by whoever does it. We're not going to haul it away. So we're trying to do that. It'll save us money, time, because we do not have the personnel to go and do all the load up. It'd be like what we did out at the airport out at the pit. what we did before with 50 years of stuff that was out there. So we're gonna, this first phase, like I said, the second phase is gonna be equipment that we'll bring to you. We have, I was able to get back into, Steven got me back into ADG again to where I could work on searching it on the inventory list so it can be removed, so everything that we find that is on inventory We'll have a disposal sheet and then brought back to you. And what's not on inventory will be sold as scrap. Okay. So.

It's not working. Well, it must be frozen. Okay. We'll let type. Oh, there it goes. There are pictures in our packet that show if any of you are interested. There you go.

Not to truck. Not the truck.

The one question I had, Mr. Wallace, was about the pole trailer. Do we have another pole trailer?

Yes, we do. We have a new pole trailer. That pole trailer was built from scrap metal that I received from forestry. Right. And then, unfortunately, they overloaded and bent it, so it never went into service. So everything that is all came from other sources that are non-inventory.

Okay. Okay. Perfect. So this would be the piece of... That's it right there. But it's the trailer sitting in front of it. That's not the pole trailer.

The trailer in front of it is the old pole trailer, and the one in the back is an old wire... trailer that we have that's been out of service for many many years so okay I'm having to research that one to make sure that it's not on inventory all right so it's good it's taking a little bit of time I try and dig up serial numbers and everything asset numbers I want to do it right so it gets removed and I'll be working with Steven on this okay at this time we have only the scrap metal that correct That is correct.

Okay, and it is Resolution 2026-46.

I make a motion that we approve Resolution 2026-46. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion from anyone? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. We're thrilled to see it gone. Can't wait to see the rest of it gone. Okay, we're moving to item C, Resolution 2026-47. Getting dyslexic tonight. Resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, authorizing the President of the City Council to execute contracts for the 2026-2027 Group Health Life Dental Vision Supplemental and 457B plans for the City of Williston and approving for an effective date, HR Director Kim Troy.

Any questions? Pretty much the rates have gone up, which they kind of told us at the FMIT meeting that Latricia and I attended, I think, two weeks ago.

Are these the numbers that Mr. Bloom has for our budget?

As soon as, I haven't seen these yet until earlier today. As soon as it is executed, it will go to him next.

Okay, so you'll let him know how he needs to adjust his budget.

Yes, ma'am.

I mean, I know he built some increase in, but I don't know if it's sufficient. All right, any questions for Ms. Troy? I'll entertain a motion for resolution 2026-47.

I make a motion we'll approve Resolution 2026-47. I second.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion from anyone? All in favor of the motion, say aye.

Aye. All opposed, same sign.

Motion carries. Item D is Resolution 2026-48, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, approving the 2026-2027 holiday schedule and providing an effective date. Ms. Troy.

Are there any questions?

If we can move to that. page, I believe 286, 287, probably 287. Won't come up. Okay, council have any questions? I believe these are the same dates. The question I had where it says day off, I think it's supposed to say day of. Ms. Troy, can you give any They're all days off. Yes. But those particular items where it says day off, I think it should be day of because it's Thanksgiving, day of. Christmas, day of.

Okay.

I think. I mean, I don't think it should say day off because they're all days off.

Anybody else? I just went off the previous years. Plus with the other items saying day after and day before, it goes with the flow. Correct. I thought the same thing.

If you'll make those say day of, to me that... Makes more sense. So any questions from the council? Like Ms.

Troy said, they're pretty much the same ones we had before.

All right. I'll entertain a motion for Resolution 2026-48. Go for it.

You can do it. I propose... We make a motion to approve 2026-48. Perfect.

Do I have a second?

I second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion from anyone? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Item E, discussion with possible action, directives and priorities for Terry Bavard while acting as part-time interim city manager.

since me, and yeah, we can strike the word directives because that was probably not the right word, but this was just the opportunity for us as council members, we've lost one, but to discuss and Briefly, if there were any particular sort of non-obvious, I think is what I was looking for, and also bringing Terry into the equation, items that we would like to have brought to his attention and have him work on during his time as interim city manager. I mean, this does not have to be long. It's just that we can't talk about it outside of this moment. Wonderful.

I have just simple ones, and it's things that's been spoken about in so many meetings before and meetings recently. And it's just the communication. I would like to personally see a little bit more open communication between the administration and the residents, as well as the information that we're making public. So the information with our websites, which I did recognize that has been recently updated, and that's wonderful. But whether it be a little bit more user-friendly, easier for the public to understand, such as when they go to our council page and they click a specific one, there's a link that says email, but for people who aren't familiar with that, just clicking and use that email that's embedded into the system, they assume that there's no email, that it just says email and there's nothing actually listed there. So just little things. that make the communication a little bit more open and transparent. I would love to see that. And I would love to see a little bit more use of our social media pages. They're free. And it's a great way to get information out there, a little less with the papers, because like residents have pointed out, they're great as another option for people who don't really utilize the internet that much. But They blow away. So I would like to see just utilizing that a little bit more. I do feel like we have had that in the last two weeks, which has been wonderful. I'd just like to see more of it. And I also very much appreciate when people come in and they say, I've had issues reaching a person. You've done a great job so far saying, hey, call me. We'll set up something. I love that. So for me, that's number one.

And as I said before, I think he knows what to do. I think we all know that. That's why we asked him to come back. I think he knows. what our priorities are and he knows communication is one of those and he's really good. He's a good communicator. Um, even when he's not at work, he's sending us messages. Of course, nobody heard that, but your fingers in yours. Uh, he's really good at letting us know when the electric's out, when the water has an issue. Um, the council knows so that we can tell the public.

Right.

So that, that's very important to all of us, I believe.

So do you have some? No, and again, this is as much for the community to know that this wasn't what they call a lame duck. I think that's the phrase, which we know that Terry's not going to just sit behind the desk and act as interim city manager, but for people who haven't had the opportunity to work with him in the past, I just felt like this was a great opportunity to sort of say to the public, like, He's going to be hard at it, and these are the places that we are talking to him about, even if we've already talked to him about it privately, that we can say it publicly. And for me, I think getting the fiber fast-tracked to getting as many customers hooked up as quickly as possible is certainly top on my list. And I second Shanna's, which I've already, again, communicated all of this with Terry, but just to say openly and publicly, one of my concerns is response time. times on work orders. So again, it's a communication area where if you call the city and a work order is put in, there's not always the follow-up to say, hey, this work order has been completed and this is what we found. So those kind of places, for me, I think just gives the citizens confidence that we are actually working on things, because we are. It just sometimes doesn't show because the loop doesn't loop all the way back. So those are my two big things for the city.

the next few months I agree with that and I agree both of those tied well together and that if somebody calls in a work order or somebody has an issue that we not that we just go fix it but that we tell them we did and I agree 100% with what you're saying all right the public have anything to add on that you have priorities for him You're not allowed to stand up. Of course you are. Okay, so are we ready to go to the next item? Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Item F, Resolution 2026-49, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, approving the creation of two new positions, Airport Assistant Manager and Airport Project Supervisor, at the Williston Regional Airport, approving the job descriptions for both new positions, authorizing the City Council President to execute all necessary documents, and providing an effective date. Airport Manager Ben Stegall.

Yes, ma'am. So this was something we briefly discussed at the last budget meeting over our technical issues that we were having. But essentially what we're trying to do is create these two new positions because I'm being pulled in different directions. I'm being... pulled into more regional leadership roles and more of a strategic development role out of the airport, which means that my time is being taken away from the operation. And this is, you know, as best as we can do, succession planning. You know, with the airport assistant manager, we'll be creating this position to take over or assist in, you know, daily operations and managing, you know, the operation as it were at the airport. You know, essentially taking my job description and instead of it being primarily, you know, this is your responsibility, it's an assistant capacity. As far as the project supervisor goes, that position is essentially going to be our grants manager and land lease manager. So that duty will entail keeping the financial records for all the grants, making sure that we get um everything paid that's owed to you know passero and to our vendors and contractors and then making sure that we get reimbursed on the back side of that you know as far as closing out grants and there's a lot of paperwork that is associated with that i'm sure you know anybody that's worked with grants can attest to any of that but having a person dedicated to that and still willing to do the operation as well is is kind of a big deal and i think we have

um a couple of people in mind but i know we're going to have to advertise these internally and we'll accept and review all applications okay anyone have any questions or comments for mr stegall this is what he's asking for is just for these two positions these are the other two new ones right okay that he's asking for yes sir and we told him during budget workshop that He needed to bring us first before we could even add them to the budget. That's what he's done. The only comments I have are really in the job description. Sure. And you have both of these people reporting to the airport manager?

Yes.

Yourself, obviously.

Yes, ma'am.

I believe that the supervisor also needs to report to the assistant manager.

I believe that's the way I had it in the org chart. Is it not?

I don't see an org chart. Is there an org chart in here?

There may not be an org chart attached.

I don't think there is. But in the job description, it only says airport manager. Okay.

That's my mistake. In the new org chart that I submitted with the presentation at the last budget meeting, they were reporting to the assistant manager. I'll make that change.

And I think the city manager also needs to be included, I believe.

In which aspect?

In the in the long-term chain of command. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think all three of them need to be there. I mean, that's a... Two additions.

I felt like that's a given.

It is, but I think... But it's not here. Continuity. Fair enough.

Put it up there.

Yeah. Thank you. And that was the only thing I saw when I read them. Obviously, they do report to you. The supervisor will also report to the assistant director, assistant manager, and everyone reports to the city manager. Yes, ma'am. So... Any other questions or comments? All right. These two new positions to be added to our staffing plan. Anybody ready for that? Resolution 2026-49. Entertain a motion.

I make a motion we approve Resolution 2026-49. I second.

Have a second. Have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion from anyone sitting here tonight? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye.

Aye.

All opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Okay, now we're going to open a public hearing. We're finally there for this row that's been sitting so patiently here. This is our second reading of Ordinance 2026-764, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Williston, Florida, where the voluntary contracting... de-annexation of the city boundary by de-annexation of 20.23 acres, more or less, of real property, generally located east of Northeast 185th Avenue and west of Northwest 7th Street. More particularly, the legally described on Exhibit A, attached hereto and fully incorporated herein by this preference, provided for this amendment of the city boundaries to contract the subject's property from the city boundaries, providing for repeal or prior inconsistent ordinances or resolutions, severability, and effective date. City Manager, City Manager, City Planner, Laura Childs.

This is a quasi-judicial hearing, so if anyone who plans to testify will please stand, raise your right hand to be sworn in. All right, your names for the record? Cookie King, Adam Hall, Laura Jones. Do you all swear or affirm the testimony you give today will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Thank you. You are all duly sworn.

Next, I will ask that anyone who has materials that they have not yet presented to the clerk, if there are any documents or other presentations that have not been presented to the clerk, please do so now.

City Attorney, I did send Latricia, the clerk, some emails today with the affidavits for the postings in the newspaper. And she's not here, so she was going to print them out for you guys.

She had to leave on an emergency.

No, it's fine. I just wanted you to know that she does have them. They were done in a crowded manner? Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Okay. I'll go down the line and ask for any ex parte communications that any of the council members have had regarding this property. Just as a reminder, ex parte communications or any discussions about this matter outside of a public meeting. And I'll start to my right. None. None. None. None. None. All right. Thank you very much. We'll start with staff's presentation. Thank you.

Although Kirsten does have to go through a public hearing because this is an ordinance, I don't want to go through this all again unless you want me to, and neither does Mr. Hall. So we are here. I'm going to just read in the parcel numbers for the record. April 23rd, 2026, an application for the contraction of the city limits by removing a portion of parcel 0429100A00, also known as Stone Hedge Farm South, located within the city limits, was submitted by EDA consultants on behalf of the property owner. We've already been here for one hearing, so this is the second reading. Do you have questions for me?

Laura, before we jump into questions, let's formally move on to the record, the presentation from the last meeting. Would you like us to do that for the record, each of you? Would you like your presentations from our last hearing to be moved on to this record?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Okay. Any questions for either party? Not at this time. Any questions from the public? Okay. Seeing none, are you ready to proceed? All right. I would entertain a motion for a second reading of Ordinance 2026-764.

I make a motion that we approve the second reading of Ordinance 2026-764. I second.

I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Vice President.

We'll now close the public hearing.

Thank you. And I just wanted to let you know we'll get those city limits updated on GIS for you within about two weeks. Perfect.

All right. Thank you as well.

Thank you. Good to see you, Adam. Item... Yeah. Item number eight is public participation. This is your second opportunity of the night to speak to us about anything that you would like to speak to us about. Seeing none, I will ask if there are any announcements from the council, from the staff.

I have two questions.

Yes, ma'am.

I have two questions. One for Laura that actually I'm glad you're here. It came up today in the conversation about the clean water facility plan that with the comprehensive plan that there's supposed to be a capital improvement plan as well. Does this sound familiar at all? OK. Can you just give me a quick update on where we are with that? With the comp plan? Nope.

Or with the capital improvement plan?

Capital improvement plan.

So the capital improvement plan is going to be a cost from Wright Pierce to get it right for you. The capital improvement plan that will be in the comp plan won't be the best of the best because the budget doesn't have it. So we will be probably having Wright Pierce come to you sometime next year and ask for a really good CIP for you to update. Thank you. As far as the comp plan, also for the scheduling, if you guys want to know, we're on schedule for about two weeks out. So you'll see that soon.

Cool. Thank you. My second question is for Nate. There is a gentleman here, I believe two meetings ago, who asked about the dumpsters behind Block 12 and having them moved. And I was just curious if you could give me an update on what the decision was made about that.

i will let mr walt handle that thank you yes ma'am it was discussed at the cra meeting um and i think a council here that we wanted to finish up block 12 we get the substantial completion there's some minor things that they're still the contractors doing but finish that project close that out and then address that as a totally separate issue because it would be if if the city wanted to move that and take on that you know it's it's not The contractor is an extra expense. We'd have to go through where it could go. I've sent some sketches to the CRA where it could be. I was not at their meeting on Monday. It wasn't an agenda item, but I sent it to them for consideration. But right now, there's been no active agenda. They wanted to, let's get the project done and then see if there's something else that can be done. And that's where it's been right now. So nothing more.

The dumpster's owned by private businesses or are they owned by the city?

They're owned by the city.

Okay.

used by and actually it's on city property i don't think the city pays i mean i think the businesses but it was part of the project on city property removal of the dumpsters i don't believe the city is paying for in any way the emptying of them uh the trash hauling that i think is probably paid by the owner i'm not i'm not

Okay, so to clarify, the dumpsters are leased by businesses and located behind the businesses at Block 12. They're not city dumpsters that city employees are putting city trash in.

That's correct. They're not.

Okay, there is a little confusion amongst the public, some members of the public about that, so I just wanted to clarify.

The parking lot is city property. The city owns the property. The dumpster enclosure is on city property.

Got it.

It is.

Thank you very much. Follow up question if that's okay.

Correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding was that the original spot for the dumpsters was at a different location and at some point in time Donald had made the decision to move it where it currently is. Would we not be able to move it back where it was originally drawn to be?

Well, where it was originally drawn was before the pesos properties were acquired and the parking lot looked completely different, completely different. Where it was in that plan, I'd have to look. But when they acquired the pesos property, we had an opportunity to go from 44 parking spaces to 76 or something. Yeah, a bunch. So it's a total redesign. And in that redesign, yes, there was input from staff that let's put it there, keep it out of the parking lot, keep it on city streets where the trucks are coming in and move it there. Yes, that was a decision that was made. But to compare where it was before, we can't put it where it was before because the parking lot doesn't look like that anymore at all.

Thank you.

I appreciate that. Anything else from council or staff? We're in the announcements. Have something else?

Oh. We have the Levy County Visitors Bureau has kindly created some peanut sculptures. This is part of a cultural trail. You'll see in Cedar Key that they already have their clams. Their clams have been out for a while and they're painted. Our peanuts are still being created, but I am having a little bit of trouble getting artists interested. I have one that would like to paint our peanuts for us. So I did email everybody I know on every board. I asked Latricia to send it out to everybody that gets the agendas, and hopefully we can get a couple more artists. If we just have one, that's totally fine, but I just thought we would want some more opportunities.

Okay.

Yeah, just go ahead and email me. There's no real selection process. I'm going to come to you. I'm going to ask you if you're okay with the artists that we pick. And the city CRA will probably pay for the paint. We are not going to pay the artists. It'll be a volunteer, but we will pay for the paint.

This is going to sound really funny, but when we were having the Levy County Fair, Waste Pro sponsored trash cans that we delved out to people and they painted. We called it the trashy art burials.

That's cute.

And they painted them absolutely beautiful.

Yeah.

And I can pretty much tell you who painted those.

Okay.

Uh, and they may be interested in doing the peanut. I know these peanuts are, are smaller than the ones we currently have in town.

Yes.

Um, I know if people are used to the, like the big one that's in the foyer, this one is considerably smaller. I mean, they're like three feet instead of six feet or five feet. Um, And there are also watermelons right now that are in Shifla. Yes. They're currently painting theirs. They have theirs already.

So I appreciate any help you can get.

Okay. And the one that's listed at the TDC, I mean the Libby County Visitors Bureau, obviously needs to go somewhere else.

Yes, ma'am. We'll have to move that. That's up to you. We'll do that at the same time. Okay.

Thank you. Thanks. The only other announcement I have is that there is a candidate forum for for political offices, office candidates, obviously, this Thursday at the Women's Club. If anybody's interested in attending, it's at 6 o'clock. And we have a lot of people coming. All the county candidates are coming, even the ones who haven't gone to others. And we even have some state candidates coming who weren't originally invited. They invited themselves. So if you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you. Anybody else have anything before we go to the cause?

Is that going to be recorded by chance?

It is not unless somebody is interested in doing that, and I can see about that. They did record the one in Bronson and Chiefland.

I won't be able to make it, and I'd love to hear what the guys have to say.

I know I've watched the Bronson one and the Chief on one both on Facebook. So if we can find somebody to do that, I'll contact the people that I know, tape theirs, and see if they'll do ours.

Thank you, ma'am.

Yeah. It was very useful to hear of them because now I know who I might vote for. All right, anything else? If not, I will enter Mr. Mayor. Sorry.

That's quite all right. Thank you, Madam Vice President. There's two, I have just have got two short announcements. The first one is about Ordinance 2026-764. When the ordinance is presented to my desk, I will be signing it, so there will not need to be a delay for the enactment of that ordinance. And the second thing is a matter of the city clerk. The city clerk has a number of things, but I want to point out that we, as a governing body, have put her in a position to try to be part-time city manager and full-time city clerk. And that city clerk position requires her to give information out when people send it to her. So I'm asking this council, when you are requesting information and documents from the city clerk, understand that it will be a delay. because she is busy being the city manager and she cannot devote the necessary time to get the documents to you. So I'm asking for you to be understanding for the position that we have put the city clerk in. Thank you.

Anything else for the good of the cause? If not, I'll entertain a motion for adjournment. Anybody who has some authority to make a motion will make a motion.

I make a motion that we adjourn this meeting.

Do I have a second? I have a motion and a second. Hearing no objection, we will adjourn at 8.15. Thank you for coming.