Parks and recreation month celebrate the vital role parks and recreation professionals play in building healthier
stronger and more connected communities. We're pleased today to recognise parks and recreation
professionals who made it all possible for us here at clay
county park justin spears is here with us with awesome
service members to read today. >> clay county parks and
recreation areas preserve the county's cultural historical and
ecological resources while providing families with opportunities to connect with nature and enjoy a high quality
of life and whereas access to parks and recreation promotes
physical health through active lifestyle and supports well-being by reducing stress, strengthening relationships and
providing opportunities for children and adults to experience and enjoy the outdoor and whereas parks and recreation
programs educational activities including community events like youth sports and environmental education are essential to the
healthy development of children and/or as designated parks and recreation areas also promote economic prosperity through
increased property values increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses and crime reduction
and whereas in july 2026 parks and recreation month celebrates
the power of and highlights where parks and recreations unite people and strengthen communities and advance
community well-being through connection, play, nature and
belonging and inclusive public spaces that build resilience and
foster community pride whereas parks and recreation professionals are vital to thriving communities providing
and maintaining accessible welcoming and sustainable parks,
facilities and programs that enrich the quality of life for
all residents. Therefore be it resolved that the board of county commissioners does hereby
proclaim july 2026 as parks and recreation month in clay county,
in doing so we honour the dedicated clay county parks and recreation employees and support staff whose daily efforts to
maintain and enhance the county's parks and recreation facilities create lasting opportunities for residents and
visitors to connect, play and build a stronger community.
duly adopted by the board of county commissioners, this
14th day of july 2026, do we have a motion?
all in favour? [applause]
>> first off I want supporting , without you we wouldn't be able to do what we do for the community.
to our county manager thank you as well and the support staff we rely on on a day-to-day basis. Most of all I want to thank my
wonderful staff as to -- introduce each and every one of
them and let's go from there. First we have erin.
end. They oversee that complex and do a great job there. We also have lisa and liz who
are part naturalist and there they had -- stewardship of the
natural resources of clay county.
we have miss connor who's our recreation coordinator, oversees all of our programs and thank you for what you do.
to far left with emily who's new coordinator.
what she's done is nothing short of fantastic so thank you for what you've done. Also mr. Eric the manager,
without him, our parks would not try in the way they do today so
thank you for supporting that. Thank you for your support of
parks and recreation. This saturday I. Have to do a
promo, we have nice event that we're doing at 2:00.
to prevent. Please come out. We also have a tournament at the regional sports complex on
trails and natural resources. If you have not, check our
website or social media or facebook or instagram pages.
thank you. [applause] sheriff's
office? Then we have mr. Dingle from the
clerk's office, nothing about there? All right thank you guys for being here.
moving on to the approval of minutes I'll entertain a motion.
>> motion to approve the board of county commissioners meeting
on june 23rd 2026. >> second. >> a motion and a second all those in favour say I I.
motion passes unanimously. Moving on to our first public
comment portion of today's meeting, this portion of the agenda is designed to allow citizens an opportunity to bring
matters to the attention of the board. At this time the board is not going to engage in debate or
answer questions but you may email and steph will address
your questions or you may email your district commissioner. Public comment cards are currently located at the back of
the should be submitted to the clerk to the far left of the dais. Please limit your comments to
3 minutes. Before addressing the board, please state your name and address. I would like to open the first public comment.
at today's meeting. We have one card, mr. Joe
tierney. My apologies if I mispronounced it. >> good evening.
last thursday, one of our pilots had a hard landing and the plane
ended up landing upside down. We call 911 and the
first responders showed up and it was an awesome display of
coordination. The fire and rescue crew from station 24 did a fantastic job getting the pilot out of the
aeroplane very quickly and then transported him to the hospital. The clay county sheriffs responded especially deputy
elias and deputy sterling and they took charge of a bunch of
pilots standing around watching us out of the way and control this completely. It was awesome.
even commissioner renninger who I'm not sure how this happened but he reached out to me and let me know that an air ambulance
was ready to go if needed. It was not needed.
the network of responders who were available to assist was
very impressive. From the 911 called until the pilot was on the way to the hospital was probably about
45 minutes total. It's nice to know we have this kind of coverage here in clay county.
I just want to thank everybody that was involved.
thank you. >> thank you, that's great. Any other public comments? Moving on to the agenda to our
consent agenda items three through nine today, do any
commissioners, would they like to pull any items?
hearing none I'll entertain a motion.
>> moving to approval. >> second in the motion. >> I have a motion of a second for the approval of the consent
agenda items three through nine. Any further discussion all in
favour say aye. Any opposed?
carries unanimously moving on to item number 10, our discussion and updates, the progress report on the abundant transportation
program and other capital projects by our capital projects
team. >> good evening.
update the progress of teammate over the last -- for project
number 1, the pine tree lane, the county's team continue the
status meeting, anderson continue to continue the installation of the drainage structure, pipes, subbase, base
material, curving, sidewalk and medium work along the north side of the project. The project 74% paid out on 106%
of the time used. Extension of time is anticipated
due to weather delays as well as conflicts along the adjacent
properties. For project number 2 from us 17
to peters creek, the county's team superior continued about monthly status meeting, superior completed the installation
concrete island for the west to northbound right turn lanes just west of the crossing and continued construction of the
clay cut-off wall at pond c2 while moving the clay material
from point site to two pond sie three as of june 23rd, all work
within the right of way at us 17 and county road 29 intersection
has been completed. The signal maintenance of that intersection has been thrown over to the contractor.
the project is on schedule with 83% paid out and 77% of the time
used. Project three be through to the roundabout at county road 29 be, achieve substantial completion
on may 19th with 83% paid out while the project's schedule duration remains in dispute the contract or in the county met on
june 15th for the final inspection. The project was not accepted due to minor repairs such as placing
some sidewalk in couple cracks in the sidewalk. For project number 5, the design team completed the pond analysis
and provided comments back to the saint john management district based on their request for additional information
related to the permit modification that was submitted. Responses were under review by the district they accept the
responses and approved the permit, team will update the modification number provided by the district with mitigation
bank in advance of submitting the permit modification to the army corps. For project six a the first time
a letter discrepancies found by -- discussed the last update
being coordinated with the army corps. The team started preparing closeout documentation for this
project. Once the permit is received, plans will be signed sealed and the package will be delivered to
the county. Projects three a four and 6b are all complete. In support this work w continues
to work with project management and inspection services as
of july 7 the program expanded 161 million and on the county
website, the bond transportation dashboard will be discontinued or replaced with the static bond transportation historical
storyboard. That concludes the update for the bond transportation program. Do you have any questions?
>> any questions for the commissioner? >> I have a question. On page 3, project 3b cracks in
the sidewalk, is it compact underneath the sidewalk?
correct could be caused by a loader driving over it or it
could be just -- f. Wave cracks on brand new sidewalks --
>> the point of the cracks of the sidewalk, the item before dot, the replacement was required so the subcontractor
was actually installing the side drives up on the sidewalk, corrects the sidewalk so places the side pair can now have to go
contract to come back and repair the sidewalk that got damaged. So even though it was looking good before they had to come
repair the side could still have to fix the sidewalk that got
damaged. >> thank you. >> the question I have is when would you say is maybe a target
date for the full completion of the btp project in terms of --
it's done? >> we talk about the work, I'm
sure that's what you're interested in. Projects one and two that are still left yet to go, more
towards this fall if you would kick those will be finished and as those project finish up, the less still pending would be the
impairments for project five and six a and the last piece is what we call a wrapper per ports. There'll be a wrap up report for
each one of the projects as an example project for for its complete and it's roughly 600-page report and then as each
of the reports will be completed those will be overall summary reports for the overall program and those will follow up but we
have to get to the end of the construction and any pending issues that -- with each one of the individual projects.
>> is there a warranty on this? >> each project has a two year
warranty and it's established they fail completion of each one of the individual projects as each one of the projects finish.
that project's warranty already started. So when the overall program is going to be finished I would say
the reporting by the hopefully the end of this calendar year,
>> I have a question. >> yes, ma'am,. >> on project five, based on your update, there are all of
these -- just to give you approval for the permit can you
clarify -- ml confused, -- it's my understanding you actually
have to get permission before you can complete the project but you're giving us a timeline for the end of the year for
completion. So talk to me about what that looks like. >> for projects five and six a,
were completing with our portion of the project, these are to the project, the intent we is to have a project design and permit
and fully prepared for the next push, if you would with richard,
looking at the future traffic forecast and when those projects would actually need to go into actually construction.
but the entire project would be designed and shelf ready so
project five is the eastern extension of the work that is currently going on with the british expansion on 220 as well
as the intersection and I guess if you would as county continues
to grow west, that's where the work is going and looking at the
additional mile to actually, which would be the next section. But you'll have basically a shovel ready project.
and then six a, which is this section of county road 315 that
connects with us 17 and also connects with cathedral parkway which now gives you a cross county connection from 17 and
all the way up. That would be the next section which would be permitted, designed for four-lane with new
roundabout at 315, 315 be with storm sewers, storm management
system, storm water ponds and sidewalks, back lanes and so on and again it would be a shelf ready project.
>> so I guess the point of clarity, was there is scope
change on these two? Because I can't imagine we're talking about these two projects that were never slated to
actually have construction be part of the project?
>> during the program, backing up all the way to five plus
years ago when -- had said the roads were looking to perform
work on, as the work -- as each one of the roadways were
envisioned on what type of work we could do with the money, that
was both concerned with the ponds as well as ten other
different funding sources. It was developed through the program on how much of each one of the roads would actually be
designed and constructed and what extent some operational
approved, like you've seen on county road 2009 or the actual
development of a road to support the existing and future traffic.
that was all in conjunction with the designers the engineer's
input from the county engineer on which project and how to
develop each one of the projects based on a concept or an idea, we want to make improvements to these roads.
>> so when you present this -- once this is presented
completed, it will be once the designer complete, not necessarily constructions. >> yes.
>> only for these two? >> yes.
>> that's clear, thank you. >> follow up question with a 315 project six a, this might be more of a question.
we talked a lot about how dot prefers projects that are
obviously roads because the roadway touches 17, does it put us in the mix? Does it help?
>> it does. It's one of the criteria to be on the top, be considered in a todo list, it does touch -- for
a few years when I first started we had a road on their, interior
road going to be a very important connector between
county road 216 and sandridge dot -- they finally said --
that's yours. So when we mark it and present to a team, that well you see 218, we do have about a mile and
a half of extensional that's shovel ready get ready to go to
work as part of the btp design portion. We always say 2301. We're not going to build the 301
unless you have us 301 under, it does get a lot of consideration.
220 will go from the back under presentation as it goes to two
county road -- the connection is complete. We want to see connectivity for their funds to be spent on a
regional basis, not a micro local basis.
>> I think I have a follow up. Was your answer to my question
concerning skill a yes or no? [laughing]
when these plans were conceived, projects five and six a, were
originally construction projects or was there a change in scope
let us know -- >> the scope was put together,
again character with intent to do work, being designed,
purchasing a property right away to make the road expansion
operational improvement was necessary but the intent was to look at each one of those roads and identified what really needs
to be done and from there start developing the plans.
>> okay. >> any other questions on btp?
going to transition to capital projects, the other half.
>> see what happens when we go quick through the agenda, we get to ask a lot of questions. >> on the transportation side,
the report from six directors, justin pierce, parks and
recreation director, public works director jane price, facility operations and maintenance division director
and sitting to my right, capital projects director.
project to report was compiled by veronica our capital projects
cost control specialist. General terms of all the county capital projects was consistent 262 projects the total budget
portfolio and workday is valued at $216,460,490 with a spin rate
of $158,413,529, split across 25 different departments. To date, the fiscal year total budget capital projects
department managing 86 of those 157 projects across 13 different
departments or roughly $102,151,487 in the operational
department. Of that 15 of those projects are completed this fiscal year. For the overall status of the
public safety bond, so far to date the county spent
24.1 million of the 65 million in bond. For a quick rundown running down in numerical order, highlights
some of the public safety projects or fire station if you would fire station number 1 construction 66% complete, 39%
paid out, forecast completion is all this year.
fire stations 13, 15, 16 and 21 are all at 90% design complete,
specifically for fire station 15, developers started clearing
and grubbing the site in preparation for construction.
forecast completion for the station 15 is summer 27.
once the fire station 20 is operational complete.
second fire station 80% complete and 57% paid out with forecast completion later this summer. Fire station 24, construction is
well underway with 27% complete, 11% paid out with forecast
completion spring 27. The contractor completed the
installation of. >> interpreter:, security fencing and field office construction drilling.
the old bay was demolished and building foundation were placed
along with the utilities and preparation for repla
replacement s. -- 90% completed in 17% forecast for completion
summer 27 well sleep radio antenna construction is 95% complete and the demolition of the old tower was completed at
70%, then spread out with forecast completion later this year in the fall. Next up, protocol project is
economic development building. The project include designing
permitting building of the new two story 34000 square foot
building next door building is now finished, staffed and fully
operational. Ribbon cutting ceremony planned for july 28th. The project was completed about
two months late -- later than planned but finished by $400,000
under budget. A note of excellence for the team last month kick this project was selected by a a bc
for association, those with contractors award in excellence construction for both the general and the speciality
contractors picked this award celebration is a collaboration in term for the entire project team, recognising the sending
contribution to both the contractor, the county, architect and the engineer. The award will be conferred at
the celebration on august seventh. Next up, omega park, project -- this project will change the
parks utility services from the existing failing on site septic
tanks to using clay county utility authority services for water and sewer utilities provided along county road 218.
the sewer portion of the project was completed in june. Decommissioned and the old septic tank system underway as
well as installing water lines and preparing to transition to
water connections. Last note on the library, the
third public hearing -- public meeting for the library
scheduled for this thursday july 16th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
at the centre located at 835 plantation parkway pick
alternative to our county engineer for roadway project
updates. >> thank you. Will start with county road 220, which the intersection 220
henley is 90% complete, getting a lot of punch list item from
the residents, disturbing request and signage alterations that we're looking into and it works very well very efficient
intersection now. The four laning of the road back towards the bridge approach is completed to joe jones and that
should be open -- joe jones has been reopened and traffic is
underway there. The bridge is still on schedule for an october, mid-october opening.
it's 90 plus percent complete with dot punch list items
remaining -- they're very minor characters one crack that you
just have to repair as part of building the concrete pier we're
going to be one thing -- traffic shift real soon the next couple
of weeks. The roundabout that is there will not be a true road where you can go around it for about
two to three weeks it's going to be single lane traffic as they complete the tie end. That should be -- shouldn't take
very long, should be done probably by middle of august, maybe three to four week project but there will be restrictions,
in other words you can't make a u-turn, a full 360, it will only
be through traffic. The road -- operating on
thursday morning at 10:00 k. Last week and is working well.
hopefully the traffic out there we'll see a bit more efficiency
in folks. Also sent a picture like you saw the boardwalk that had to be constructed to preserve somewhat
lens as they had a requirement of the saint johns river water
main district permit. We have been busy, it's been three weeks since I've been here and in that time we resurfaced
complete doctors like draft ... Portion of doctor ulrich -- the
plastic striping will be put on there in the next few weeks. They moved over to the bay area, there's this neighbourhood in
there they're working on and then as we come to look ahead,
remobilizing and get to the early to mid august time frame.
in the same time. , we're going to move around a
little bit. Or asphalt paving system, overall paving system, this isn't paving roads that look
like the interstate, it's a rural road where you expect low
traffic volumes, low traffic -- they were able to complete since the last three weeks, black creek drop, becky street,
waterway, a portion of shed road, round road, holly hill
road, opie road and grove road. Less three roads never heard of
to go to drive through three counties to get to empiric there
down county roads saint road 21, almost county line there was a
big lift for the public works -- crews to get out there 17 times
a year. Thereof the list now. They are fantastic. They turned out very well.
will have a project in downtown keystone, near the high school,
that's underway, lot of dot or a lot of utilities in that area
that we're having to deal with. Flipping over the fdot to us 17,
board of d.o.t. Roads, black creek to oak street cog verbatim what is going on from the dot upgrade, contract to work on the
removal of the old pedestrian poles.
those were there the 209 intersection. Didn't say the rest of the story.
dtp finished at 209 and 17, the construction is not finished.
you have about another six months of that and as you can
tell, it's coming together, we warned you there was a very
different configuration there. You're starting to see the
makings of the island that will prevent traffic separation,
making a safer north and south turn of 209.
you won't be able to cross over, taking one more conflict out of
the way. Country works resume intersection of russell road 17 this week, this was now and once
completd they'll move back from there. If you've been in downtown, they're not finished with the
medium work they're. The crew will complete at 17 and
209 and then shift downtown and complete what's going on around
-- I. Guess it would be center and walnut street.
so the intersection is 60% complete. They did get a time extension, they got some rain, their
completion date is november 16. So that's -- they did have days
added for weather for exchange road 16, that's going well, they
continue to work on it I noticed they did finish -- don't know if it will meet the county attorney's d.o.t. Specifications
but they did improve the return from 2009, to state road 16 w
west. 218 at 16, they did shift the
intersection slightly to allow for trailer and larger trailers and larger vehicles to get through there without running
off the pavement. It's an improvement, may not be
a solution but it is an improvement. The work is scheduled to be complete in the coming up by the
end of the year late december. They're working in green code,
they resurface one lane from the railroad tracks to 16, 217 this
week. I think that covers it, looking ahead, work will begin in the next two weeks and we've got
some pretty efficient work going on with that group and I think we have a couple of proposals to finish out this year and maybe
get a couple more streets and then we had for next year.
>> ryder road, only going right now from 17 and eventually --
once they move construction towards the church more got.
[indistinct] >> right now there's a lot of underground work, underground work and storm drain going on in
the road, doesn't even look like a road down there now. I showed you a picture of how the folks that are using the
impact have to travel from the library over. So it's a bit of a demolition course there.
the work on the roundabout is the first step in that that actually completed in august. My best guess would be by fall,
october pick once they get an underground in place, going to want to get that paved stabilised and close off at the
west end of the athletic field, east end of the church parking lot and have the apartment and church enter, will
have to make sure there's access to the apartments as well. Those will be from town center boulevard, I'll get a real date
on that. >> many compliments to
complaints one was equipment, I think it was the first day
equipment parking resolved, the other complaint is why we do it when csx was doing their work on the rail lines.
>> the best I can tell you is csx doesn't really share a lot of information on where they're going next.
that seems a simple operation flagging railroad crew cut
24 million people consist of them can flag, so that's the
entire state. City are out there, we offered
to postpone doctors resurfacing and that it was like look like
we'll get out there in two weeks and we won't be back there for
25 years. There was no scheduling
whatsoever. >> to take away a lot of compliments, there's one lane traffic for quite a while on the
drive while they pave, but I think the residents, weather
that fairly well and were very appreciative. >> I went through it a couple times, it was definitely alarmed
and we got very few calls back we got a lot more calls where
the railroad tracks were. There were a few people that were worried but I was surprised that they did do --
>> pleasantly surprised. >> there was a couple times where it was paved they don't do it that way now they paved an
own operation so they had a failure that that even added to
some of the one lane. >> just as a conversation I had
with roller operators, very pleasant people to work with so
my compliments. >> richard, I got a text before
we were walking into the meeting that someone from fox talked to
someone in your office and they were telling them that phase two
of the resurfacing had been cut for budget reasons but that was
news to me. Do you know anything about that?
>> if you didn't cut it or I should say this, it is scheduled
-- actually scheduled as our first purchase order because we don't want to stop can I go through paperwork and restore it
pursuant to basically as soon as the budget is -- we will issue
those streets and we won't stop. >> okay, that's what I thought
too. >> you would have had to told us to do that. That part of the budget is --
>> what you said about mobilisation made a lot of sense. It makes a lot more sense to
make our dollars stretch. >> so far they're doing very
well this year. We had about four or $500,000
under one of them that we had been able to hopefully get
moving and finish this year. Fox meadow, the idea that it would be the last project in 2025-26 and the first project of
2027-28 and no delay. >> thank you I appreciate it.
>> I have some comments, I guess a couple questions.
so first, the 220 bridge, I will say from the community, we hear you loud and clear, we want that roadway open just as bad as you
do pierre can you talk about just for backstory for the public on what happened with the drainage and why it's kind of
like where we're at where we're at.
>> first it's unscheduled. They have until december to get it done. So it's on schedule here could
we have something in florida that I'm not used to and it's a
state issue. We have liquidated amateur spec
however you have to have the opposite, finish early, you
rewards, we don't allow that here. So if you get someone that does expenditure industrial and
industrial drive and finishes 90 days early like they did they're, they can go do something else because it's not
clay county d.o.t. Said you get a thousand dollars a day for finishing early. So we tried, we pushed every
button we can calculate just don't have a chequebook to write to him and say okay get $10,000 a day or whatever, finishing
late, but you don't get 10,000 for finishing early. So there's no incentive unless there's contractors with work
backed up. >> that's what I was getting at, the drainage. >> on the drainage part, the
drainage part is not adding to the schedule whatsoever,
drainage part is we discovered during the project, again it's
-- keep in mind, this bridge which restricted in 1991, so
we've been driving on it restricted infrastructure for 33
years 34 years. Underneath that with types, that
was just as old or older and were actually able to do it
through million bucks and over them to pay for the repairs. Those are part of the project -- not part of the project but the
project area that we're facing while it's closed didn't add any
days whatsoever. >> other than that the area from
night box to the bridge could be a completely new road and that's
where we're at now. Going to be cut a couple of weeks of it, there's one renter, one resident that lives back
there, we are working with him to give him maybe a week of
unpaid access where he's -- we can do that that will speed up
the resurfacing of that part of the road. >> and then the second thing, the radar road roundabout in may
-- ma hearing you correctly in terms of, you'll be able to go through the roundabout, just not around it?
>> correct. If you forget something at home depot, you'll have to go down. >> so you don't foresee --
obviously we're getting close to school starting so that's a very high traffic area high school right there.
so it's going to be operational, it's just you can't really use
it. >> we would want that to probably -- since you brought that up, that will -- we will
get gear for that to be finished by august 11th.
that would be business. The roundabout will become a real roundabout, not a decoration.
>> commissioner renninger. >> back to 23, you're
questioning -- the permitting issue change on the 220 bridge
from water management district to army corps of engineers.
in fact posing a bit of a problem.
>> the other thing is keep in mind, that draws we were doing,
building from 2018 and the other thing you have to always consider and this is why even though we praised the project is
done or the design plans are there, is the right of way
acquisition. Took us over a year, two years
to get 151 square feet from dollar general and that was just
a temporary easement so they could harmonise their driveway
and $547,000 later with literally took that long and every other parcel was settled. So that's -- with project coming
up the central that is going in from lava plain to landing
boulevard we're not allowed to bid that until -- certified that
the right of way is in hand, utilities are relocated, plants
are relocated. The environmental permits are in place under railroad -- we couldn't even bid it until a
dollar general finally got satisfied. Doing all that they forgot the sidewalk -- now they don't have
pedestrian access to the brand new was the --
definitely a 24-30 month delay there. Dot hasn't forgotten. They have a few dollar generals
to deal with the future. We don't forget about others.
the right of way is a big deal commissioner. The permitting could the middle of that was an injunction that
did hurt us to. >> as a comment to give you an
idea, starting out with the program, we're talking with odot
and we had 242 properties where we're going to touch on after
acquiring everything, they left and said you're never getting
any physical work done in the five years it takes us that time just to get the right of way squared away.
so I took that as a challenge. >> I provided about eight photos
for eldridge I don't know whether.
so reached out to superior under cleaning up and when did they say, it was like the first week of august?
>> that's what they're telling us. >> did they tell us what air? >> no.
we have all the pictures and got that.
>> anything else? Thank you.
>> item number 11 is active and upcoming formal solicitations.
>> good evening, purchasing manager. Briefing the active and upcoming formal solicitations.
for item solicitations we have out, we have rfp number 2526-85.
that's the public private partnership to design build and finance public safety complex, that is currently under
evaluation, evaluation committee reviewing the proposals and it's scheduled to go to the august 25th board meeting.
we have bid number 25-26, 95, clay county fairgrounds
hurricane group repairs this will be for the arena.
five bids were received and scheduled for the july 28th
board meeting. Bit number 25-26-89 nice marina
lake shore boat ramp repair redevelopment and improvements, three bids were received and that will come to the 20th board
meeting as well peaked at number and new public works
construction seven bids were received and that is scheduled for the july 28 board meeting. Bid number 25-26-97 is the eoc
hvac demolition and replacement. Bids will open on july 28th and
then -- order due july 28th, and this is scheduled for the august
25th board meeting. At the upcoming bids for july
and august, and this is in no certain order, we have the fairgrounds water improvements. Fire station 17 shower addition
calculate county wide sidewalk and concrete repairs. The jail recreation yard waterproofing roof repairs, the
unclaimed disposition services. The impact study,
washington avenue repair, that's a theme project.
annual roadway pavement marking services and the pavement
assessment. Any questions?
>> jessica, you may have said it but I didn't hear you. How many bids did we get -- our proposal did we get on the
patron? >> we received three or four. I can go back and look. >> it's four.
>> as a background question, how does the public, what system do
we use. >> we use the open group system. It's free to the public on our purchasing website and any of
the suppliers have issues can we contact them directly and we walk them through how to register.
>> I get that question frequently. How do I bid on a contract? Opengov?
yes, sir,. >> any other questions?
>> thank you. >> thank you jessica. >> going to move down one more block here, item 17 direction
discussion of appointments to the clay county housing finance authority. Applications were received from
the following individuals seeking the reappointment. Roger repstruction and james ryan representing
finance. >> did we reappoint?
>> I have a motion and a second all in favour say aye.
any opposed? Item 18 calculators for documentation was our bid opening tabulations and you can
find that in your backup and I will go down to our last public
comment section of the meeting, members of the public want to address the commission? There are scars located in the
back if you would like to address the commission.
or right, hearing none we will move on from that.
county attorney. >> nothing in particular, our office is still working on some projects, many of you including
commissioner condon. So if there's anything in particular you're looking for, I know commission -- talked about
e-bikes. >> we'll talk about that later. >> county manager. >> chair and commissioners, two
items for you. In the back in our media room
back there, this is her last day here she worked for the county
since 2005 for the past 20 years she started out as an it
technician and mis. She most recently finished up as a communications coordinator that is here.
she's absolutely dedicated to her job, just a phenomenal team member. She's moving out to us to move
closer to family. So you cannot blame her for that. I just want to tell her in the
next chapter of her career, we exextend sincere appreciation ..
I can see her blush already. [applause]
>> last but not least, budget workshop. Thursday july 23rd from 9:00 a.m. To 1300 here in the
bcc boardroom, we extended it there, a different approach this
year. Each department that will be coming up to breathe their budgets along the lines of a
port coquitlam on on thursday morning each one of you will receive the slides for tomorrow morning we're going to go over
the -- been going over the slides and tomorrow is our last review of those in the department level and we'll send
them to you all. Then we have individual meetings scheduled if you want to go over those slides.
>> I'll be bringing the snacks. >> we will have a slight break
there for -- >> there may be some snacks.
>> food makes people happy. >> we know that.
[laughing] any questions?
>> thank you, sir,, that brings us to the 5:00 time certain. Item number 12 on the agenda. First public hearing on
ordinance and resolution to amend the capital improvement plan and resolution for other budget adjustments in jarud.
>> good evening, in jarud, before you is an amendment to
our budget, this is an amendment that is as brief. We're recognising revenue into several funds across our budget
and namely for our general fund, we are increasing our reserves
underlying. So pending any questions, that's our budget brief. >> this is a public hearing so
I'm going to open the public hearing anybody would like to speak on item number 12 budget amendment, you can come to the
podium piercing numbe I'm going to close the public hearing and bring it back to the commission. Are you going to talk about two
and three as well? A nice separate items for you? Okay, so we're just voting on these three separately.
>> need to vote on all separate. >> so addressing item number 1,
which is the cip approval of the amendment.
>> I mean to approve item numbe. >> I second the motion.
>> I have a motion and a second all those in favour say aye.
opposed carries unanimously. Item number 2 is also part of
the resolution. >> move to approve. >> I have a motion in the second all in favour say aye.
any opposed? Item number 3 is the operating adjustments. I'll entertain a motion.
>> move. >> second. >> all in favour say aye. None opposed thank you very m
much. Item number 13 is a modification to developer agreement between clay county and the crossings of
island community development district regarding 1845 town
center boulevard for the clay county sheriff's office county
attorney. >> s, this item was included at this place under the time certain for the budget amendment because it was contingent of approval on the budget but it's
simply a modification to an original agreement for utility
services. Require additional services
that. [indistinct] >> delete or not have to vote on this c- >> we can vote but no public hearing.
>> alternate motion. >> move to approve. >> second. >> motion for approval and a
second. >> all those in favour say aye. Any opposed? Item 13 carries unanimously item
number 14 is a public hearing regarding annual rate resolution
for solid waste disposal assessment for 26 and 27.
>> this is the annual assessment brought before you for disposal
services. It is to remain the same at $96
for this upcoming annual year and if you have any questions,
we do need a public hearing for. >> opening the public hearing.
if you'd like to speak on item number 14.
seeing none I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the commission. >> I move to approve that we
leave the solid waste disposal assessment the same.
>> checking the motion. >> motion and a second, all those in favour say aye. Any opposed carries unanimously.
just for the public, that's a standard operating procedure
there's no increase, it's just to formal approval to put it on the trim notice that's why we have to do that here moving on
to item number 15, the public hearing regarding the annual rate resolution for solid waste and recovered materials
collection services, 26-27. >> likewise this is for the
annual assessment, this is for collection and likewise is to
remain the same at $260 -- $262 as the annual assessment.
>> okay, I would like to open the public hearing for item number 15 pick anybody wishes to address the commission?
seeing none I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the commission. >> , the contract we have with
fcc allows for a change if the conditions are present for
recycled materials, I hope we have the option to change a
contract any recycling would be in our best -- better advantage
for -- I think mr. Talents researched that and have some
comments. >> for mr. Chair, director of
environmental services, as you know the decision was made
through our bid process at the beginning of our current collection program and with the contract for fcc to forgo
kerbside recycling services due to cost.
so at that time, cost to process was about three times as much as
the cost to dispose for that material and there was no
guarantee that that rate would stay the same.
that metric is still much the same. The numbers have changed a bit but it's still the same.
the difference -- the processing cost difference per ton between
what we pay to dispose of a ton of household trash versus what
we would pay to process a ton of household recycles, the
difference in cost, it would cost $145 more per ton to
processing than it does to dispose. That alone equates to over $530,000 a year estimated, and
that is not all of the cost involved in recycling, that's
just a comparison between processing and disposal.
>> in order to keep fees the same as previous years, we can't
go down our road recycle, we have to change it to collection
fees for everyone. So it's still, the decision we made two or three years ago is still a valid decision that's
the only point I want to bring up here. >> your recommendation is we continue kerbside pickup as we
have in the past. >> yes. , I don't recommend we change the.
>> thank you. That's all I have. >> commissioner I appreciate you going down that road, that's
doing your due diligence which is really good. I think the number remember was like $90, you were saying now
it's up to 140. >> comparing those two directly,
yes, it only grows because that's processing versus
disposal. In that car could also cost us more to transport recyclables as to transport garbage and it cost
-- the collection cost, which aren't part of --
>> correct me if I'm wrong but historically, the county used to
get profit from recycling, it wasn't.
>> we did get some. >> correct. >> never recovered cost but it didn't cost us -- it was more --
it covered the processing cost until about six months before
prior -- six months or a year prior to us, making the dec
decision. >> go ahead. >> motion to approve the collection cost for fees
remaining the same. >> item number
fifteenmac I. Have a motion and a second to approve. All in favour. Any opposed motion carries
unanimously. Thank you. Moving on to item number 16, this is our first public hearing
for consideration of the draft community development block
grant cdbg consolidated plan for 2026-2030 and for the draft
annual action plan of 2026. >> jodi, clark county grants
compliance manager. So this is the first public hearing for consideration for the community block grant.
we looked at two different parts of the plant versus consolidated plan they are high level. The second would be the annual
action plan which would be the first year of that five-year
plan. This is a community block grant
sponsored by hud and the overview -- this will be our
second consolidated plan or in the fifth year of the first
plan, and the purpose of the consolidated plan is to
establish a broad high level national objective that create
the framework that the whole five-year plan will be based on.
the consolidated plan doesn't speak to specifics, but rather
at a high level. The annual action plan, it has two fold purpose, one is to establish the actual funding
allocation for those national objectives that have been determined and established in the consolidated plan and also
to establish specific projects. Let's first look at the
consolidated plan. This year when we looked at this five-year plan, we took an approach that was a little
different than the first time. We had five years under our belts, we were able to look at lessons learned and the
engagement of the community over the last five years. So what we did was wanting to consider first of all the county
strategic priorities which have been outlined in the county strategic plan. We also wanted to look at
maximum flexibility and those national objectives so that as the county grows over the course of the next five years, the plan
can grow along with it. We got a lot of feedback in the
last five years around the idea of more county wide impact and
county wide focus for the funding -- for this project.
so what you will see is projects that do have less individual
focus and more of a community county wide focus. And also again, to align with the county strategic plan, a lot
of those projects have been approved and are essentially shovel ready from the perspective of the board
approval. So we wanted to do that pick one all of those things were considered, the proposed project
categories which are national objectives and the allocation
percentages that we are proposing over the course of the five years are outlined on the slide which would be
infrastructure at 60%, parks and public facilities at 25%
community partnerships and non-profit expansion at 10% and
administration at 5% so that in a nutshell is the consolidated
plan, you have a draft of the actual plan available, so if you
have any questions on the consolidated plan I can take those before we move into the annual action plan.
>> are don't have questions, just have some comments. So five years ago, we were awarded the cdbg grant, county
had never been awarded one before. If it weren't primarily for my district clay county wouldn't be
awarded. So I have a bit of an issue with
the approach of putting the majority of the cdbg money towards sidewalks when most of my district doesn't have
sidewalks. So I am not sure, other than
that however really feel about the action plan. I don't love it, but of the first public hearing, so we will
see what kind of feedback we get and when we vote, maybe we can
see what we can tweak. But I understand the county
strategic plan, and I understand that there's four commission districts. We have done work in all of
those districts with cdbg over the past five years so that's not the situation at all, but if it weren't for the lower income
areas of my district we wouldn't qualify anyway, so I'm not sure
that's really appropriate to make it do more sidewalks and more of the already developed areas of the county.
but anyway, I am not prepared tonight to suggest changes
because I respect the public hearings that have happened so far, the public meetings, I want to let the process play out.
then I also heard some rumblings that there was some interest
from outside organisations to try to use cdbg money towards
affordable housing and while I commend that I think that if we're going to visit that, that scope needs to be very narrowed,
because commissioner, you reminded us on a number of occasions that affordable -- affordable is to us is not
affordable to the next person necessarily, so there are some
affordable projects -- housing projects that have been funded under our housing and finance that I don't think are
affordable at all. I think that those projects, it's because of the percentage difference.
so if you're selling these homes at half a million dollars and these homes at 350,000, they mean the percentages to qualify
for these affordable housing grants but that's not affordable and that's not what cdbg is intended for so those are just
my comments about some rumblings that I heard, but again it's the first public hearing. >> through the chair if I may.
I'll let jody talk a bit more since she brought forward the
housing. If I didn't mention the doctor did reach out, I know she couldn't be here today but she did ask about that she reached out by a couple of community
members about could this be used for affordable housing and specifically could this be used for tiny house and affordable
housing? Based on that I did ask jody to do a bit of research, she can explain to you what's allowed or
not allowed in which category that would fall under because if that's a desire from the board to go, it would be -- if you can
speak to that and then longer term, at that time probably need
to be addressed but I just wanted to throw that out to get some constituents did reach out to doctor burke and she did
reach out to me and asked the questions.
>> tiny homes and tiny home communities are unallowable expense under the cdbg plan, it covers everything from site
prep, infrastructure that would be required to accept a, sewer,
all of that, those types of things, to design to
construction. So it does, it will cover that
under this current, the way this current consolidated plan is
structured, the infrastructure part of that would be what would be covered here. If that would be the direction
of the commissioners to do something like that, we would
need to submit this annual action plan if approved with a
contingency and then we would need to do some central amendment change if we were going to change it to
construction, it's a different category that isn't addressed as one of the national objectives that are outlined in this
particular consolidated plan so that can't be done.
>> any other comments or questions? >> I was just going to say, from that aspect, tiny homes are not
allowed in our current code, but the minimum square footage is
700 square feet in our current land development code.
>> I attended two of the public meetings, and where does the
public comment come in on the consolidated plan or annual plan? >> it will come in on both, I'll
put the same -- it's a little challenging to separate some of
those comments as to which went to which part. Since they were presented together, my plan was to put the
comments in total in both the survey that has been presented
and has been available to the public is specifically on the
consolidated plan. So the survey results will be under consolidated plan specifically.
>> the reason I ask this, both meetings are extremely large or
not large, predominant military presence and both those
meetings, and quite honestly the military spread is a huge population in clay county and spread throughout the county.
so I don't know how -- do you want to comment about the plan
now to. >> I'll go ahead and we'll take a look at the proposed annual action plan.
so this outlines more specific recommended projects under those
national objectives that are outlined in the consolidated plan. This would be year 1 of 5 years
and the award estimate from year one is $1,057,772 and in the
projects that have been proposed in those national objectives
would be primarily sidewalk installation and/or improvement, so these would then be determined at address level,
which we have a list of pre-approved sidewalk, sidewalk
intersections, that were approved by the board earlier in
the spring so that if this is approved, we have a list to be able to move forward with and they are from areas around the
county in everyone's district and just as an example of some
of the projects that are on that list, it would be high impact
areas county road 218, ten, jefferson avenue, so they do go
around the county and also then 88 upgrades intersections and
there's a list of intersections, a couple or aurora and ursa, so
again, they're spread around are intersections that require some
ada compliance work. In the area parks and public
facilities, the focus would be primarily on parks.
these parks are and the ones that would be covered by cdbg, would be those that earn low moderate income areas.
again one of the things that is in coordination with the
strategic plan is ada compliance in the park system so these
dollars could be used to fund those types of projects to bring
more accessibility for all residents to those parks, in
some areas there are great facilities but they're not easily accessible for folks that have challenges so these dollars
can be used to rectify that. Then we have community
partnerships and non-profit expansion. This includes neighbourhood cleanups, community partnership
portion, those have been part -- a core part of the current cdbg
project and those would continue and those would focus, most
generally are in the high range, tanglewood and bel air
middlebrook area and those become partnerships with the community because we have neighbours and neighbourhoods
and county staff and volunteers along with nonprofits in those
areas that all get together to execute the community cleanups.
in addition in this area, under this focus, we would have the
potential for non-profit expansion, so this would be an organisation or organisations that would be selected through
whatever mechanism the word finds appropriate to select
those entities for non-profit expansion dollars and the
allocation of those funds, of that million plus dollars looks like this pick would be $634,663 towards infrastructure in year
one, $264,443 towards parks in year one.
$105,777 for community partnerships and non-profit expansion and then administration at $52,889.
questions on the specifics of the plan. >> I have a couple comments. With the annual plan and the
non-profit expansion, listed to nonprofits explicitly and I
don't think we should explicitly list any nonprofits. I think that should be open for application interpretation when
the time comes. So I would like to see that
removed. And just as a side, I was going to get a kick out the administration customer gets 5%
of the federal grant -- one of my previous lives with
university of florida university system, they were pre-negotiated administrative costs of approvals of 6070% of every
dollar went to administration and it baffled me how they got
that approved through the federal government. But we get 5%, so it's a make over cost.
and that's for these, all her great benefit she get in
paycheque and all that kind of stuff, her contribution to this grant, what was the number? 52,000 for a whole year -- for
all the people working under grant, part of our salary as part of the administration as well, so it probably doesn't
cover the actual cost of administration but that's what
we're allocated 5%. Any way, like I said, I don't
like to see -- I. Would like to have it open until all
nonprofits, making a bit -- >> we'll make that change and
get an updated draft for the final public hearing.
>> any other comments? >> I have two more pieces.
the schedule, we did six public meetings this time, which is
more than we have done in the past.
we did get a meeting at every district.
to commissioner condon in your area, because it's large, we did
have a good turnout. We had a very strong veteran
presence, veteran council members, veterans themselves and
business owners that serve a non-profit directors that serve
that community. So they were a strong presence at every one of the meetings this time.
public comment is still open and remains open through the end of
the day, not sure exactly whether that's midnight or 5:00,
but I will take it to midnight. It doesn't shut anything doesn't
shut off but anything that is received through midnight on
july 18th, which is saturday will be part of this public
comment. So then, what is the -- what is coming next? Where are we and what are our
next steps? So all the public meetings have
concluded, we do have the public comment.
still open through july 18, and the next steps are all of the
public comments and survey results will be consolidated. We will put those into the packets and the next set of
drafts that will be part of the second public hearing will have
the change that commissioner renninger has suggested to the annual action plan and then the public comments will be included
in those packets. At that point there will be a
second public hearing and then a vote for approval or discussion
on change, however you all want what you want to make happen
with this plan. That will be on the
28th of july. >> I have one other comment.
it came from the library meeting that we had, we had an
individual who had a shoe stored I think it was in five points or
someplace, moved it to blanding and he and his wife showed up at the meeting and they live in. >> they live in jacksonville but
his business is online and he was so complimentary -- he said
he never got anything in jacksonville, but since he moved
his business to clay county he's been -- he's part of the chamber, so he learned about the chamber, he came to this
meeting, he was complimentary of clay county and how they treated
their businesses. He actually told me that, he was
very pleased with his move to clay county, so good job jody.
>> thank you. >> I'm good if there are no
other questions. >> thank you very much. >> going to open the public hearing on item number 16.
I do have a card on this item from jessica.
come on a familiar face cat clay county
veteran of the year. >> good evening my name is jess,
I am representing clay veterans, appreciated the opportunity to
speak. A few comments so I don't ramble. I have reviewed the draft of the
five-year plan, and I found it to be well written, unlike the
first five-year plan it provides great flexibility being able to
support emergent projects because we are not locked in as hard. Also thank you to jody and her
team for all of the public meetings you have put out and put the time together. I would like to focus on a
portion of the plan for the neighborhood enhancement and nonprofit capacity building. Saint johns county operation
lifeline, the application for the community development block grant was approved for funding. And governor ron desantis
signed the budget which included $200,000 appropriation for the
veterans academy and st. John's community skills center.
said that saint johns county is just a little bit ahead of what
we are doing or what we would like to do.
veterans council in trenton and clay veterans asked a similar
project that expands access be considered in the plan.
community facilities provide more than a space, they serve as
a centralized location residents connect with information
services and one another. For many individuals, finding
the right resource can be challenging.
a accessible facility can help people learn about available
services can connect with nonprofit organizations and government agencies and participate in programs that
support health, independence and overall quality of life.
thank you so much. >> you have one more minute. >> I have one more minute? All right here it goes.
as you guys develop your community block grant the
five-year plan, we appreciate it in the planning process includes
opportunities for residents to share information about community grant projects. We had our first caregiver
luncheon today, and specifically there are caregivers for
veterans, it was the first one we ever had in the community.
and the looks in their eyes, it was emotional.
there are a few other caregivers that are not specific, we need a
place for groups like that to meet. I want to make sure that community services, veteran
services and nonprofits work more closely together.
>> thank you jess. Any other comments, public
comment on item number 16? Seeing none I will close the
public hearing. This is the first public
hearing, we don't have to take a vote on this one tonight but I will come back at our next meeting.
thank you very much. Moving on to the end of the
agenda now, commissioner comments.
commissioner condon? >> I just have a couple. You probably saw the email but I thought it was really cool so,
the boys & girls club that operates after school programs
all over the county, they have one at the high school, they are
working in partnership with this company called waterworks,
taking these mobile tech jobs simulators around this week,
different places, they had eight stops, one at clay crescent
heights high school was one, and the students actually get to try
out trades, they get to try out like plumbing and welding, they
had a virtual reality thing. I just think it's really awesome
that there is a partner in our community that is willing to
bring a bit more than just telling young people they need to get into trades, and talking with some of our local business
owners, I had heard they are struggling to hire enough
employees, and I know that you probably have seen the notes but
northeast builders association is building a regional job
training apprenticeship program center in jacksonville in
august, and we will get invited for the ribbon cutting and that kind of thing, but they have said they have 100% job
placement, really high wages. I think it is important, for our
jobs is to connect those employees and business
opportunities in our area, and commercial development will
become more important to us as we move to our tax reform which
I support tax reform but we have to figure out how to fund basic
services. Anyway just thought it was kind of cool that we are looking at potential young people in our
community finding skills to have jobs to stay in our community. Just wanted to update you on that.
otherwise have a great week. >> thank you commissioner co
condon. >> since the last time we were all together, the five of us were in orlando for the florida
association of counties summer workshop, and I just have to say
one that it is always refreshing to connect with other
commissioners across the state and get their perspectives on
things. This workshop or series also did not disappoint, I also want to highlight again, a special
congratulations to commissioner condon for winning her election, that is really exciting. I know you will do us proud.
the second comment tonight, as was said in the update, the oak
creek library design unveiling conversation continues.
this is the meeting that was rescheduled from the
18th of june, and so it will be as you stated this thursday, six
to 7:00 p.m., the phase athletic center, the phase two athletic
center. There are two, with the winding
staircase, that is the one, on the second floor.
the third thing, it kind of spurs from the conversations that we had again during the update that ed gave us, I am
very curious, I think courtney this one is for you, what it
will take to get incentives in our construction complex for
early completion. And I'm also curious to know
what does the history tell us concerning which would be more cost effective? Is it completion bonuses or
liquidated damages? Because that seems to be where
there is some -- do you have any guidance on that?
>> we do have contracts that have incentives in them, not
sure about that particular contract.
most of our contracts do have liquidated damages and then some
of them do have incentives. >> so that is an isolated incident where there wasn't an incident to complete the project
early? >> I'm not sure. It depends on the rfp and what was negotiated before it came to
us. I think we would have to get with the purchasing team in connection with the rfp if that
is something that the board is interested in, so that would be
something to talk to them about. But I do know with the
transportation program we did do that in our contract.
>> right. The lasting impression that I got from the update was you have contractors who are more
incentivized to delay a project than to complete it early, maybe I misunderstood but that was what I got from richard's
comments. So I don't know -- did any of our projects trigger the early completion clause of those
agreements? >> yes, on the transportation,
there were incentives for them to complete at certain stages and also liquidated damages, a lot of times they canceled out.
we do have projects where they received incentives.
I don't know this particular project, why it didn't have
incentives, I just assumed that it wasn't part of what we contracted them for, or bid out at that time.
>> there is basically incentives, also there is also
the prospect of your early completion incentives and your
liquidated damages zeroing out, such that there is a zero sum
game there, is what I just heard you say. Help me understand? >> so I'm trying to think at the
bottom there were certain goals based on plans, if they were able to get the plans at a certain point they got
incentives, then you have construction, and also weather delays and time delays, but we had charts --
>> we are basically giving it back at that point... Okay.
>> I think it was hard when we were trying to do the incentives from the board standpoint is you know, doing early completion,
what amount of money are we willing to give them or provide them for early completion, versus just a contract.
>> wait a minute, early completion is an incentive so
they get dollars there, but then the liquidated damages portion
of the contract gets triggered and there are more dollars?
it is one dimensional, right? It is coming from us --
>> know the liquidated damages they are paying us for projects to complete. >> so it washes out?
>> the incentive, this is what you have to balance, you do a contract calculated on a contract, $13 million, and then
you want to give them an incentive to maybe complete in a couple of months early, and I remember because it was being
called the carrot, what can we give them? What is the board willing to put out there in extra money to have
that incentive? >> I will just say there
shouldn't have to be evaluated on a per project basis, it won't be the same for every single one.
it is difficult to determine, we may want to look into that we
can. Most of our construction projects we don't have the incentive, but we do have
liquidated damages on everything. >> on most we do not have incentives but we do have
liquidated damages on all of them? >> yes, ma'am,. >> and the liquidated damages
based on the roadway project, yes. For the building being evaluated on what were the actual damage
be to the county if it's not completed on time. >> is there a standard incentive matrix or is that totally up to
who writes the contract? >> for the transportation, it
was developed through wgi, it was a different formula.
>> and that's I think the big thing too, that all five of us would have to think about, how much more are you willing to
pay? We are trying to be conse
conservative. >> then there's two other things, it's not allowed under federal rules.
if it's a federal contract, depending on the grant funding
and the board has to consider, so you have a bitter that says I
will do a project with $10 million, the next one says I will do it for ten and a half, by the time you give incentives
it's $11 million. Would it really be in the best interest of the taxpayers because he did not get the best
value, he may got it faster but those are things the department
has to lay out and that's why this gets really complicated and that's why I think the county has moved towards liquidated
damages. You say you will do a project, you will say you will get it done on x a day, if you go past
x a day. >> during the process, I
understand all the points. I don't have a problem, again I go back to the update we received pointed to there is
more of an incentive, if there aren't any incentives to get the
project completed, then where is the rub? One of the questions that came was how long will it take for
these projects to be completed? I am thinking like why are they dragging their feet? Is there a number of updates
that we have received over the last several years where the
project stalls because they are disputing terms, and then you
have the added wrinkles of weather and all the things,
inherent to a construction project. So I am looking to discern what makes the most sense, if you are
saying okay, we got all of these I call them landmines, you don't
want to trip up anything that will cause problems, but I heard
a problem and I was looking for a solution.
so I don't have an issue with what sounds to me like
negotiating a tightrope and just leaving that alone, but I am curious to know where is the balance?
when the constituents are asking us, when projects will be
completed, and we keep telling them well, it was originally supposed to be completed in august now we are looking at a
december timeline, is it enough that our response is not only do we have to wait but the county will get some of their money
back? I think that is really the essence of the conversation and I think that is for them to
decide, as I am hearing the feedback in this conversation. But it's not lost on me that the question tonight, as I heard it
was, we are not really dangling the carrot to your point to get
these projects completed on time or early.
>> on that particular project there is federal funding so you wouldn't have it anyways. >> that is an answer to the
question -- >> I don't know how we came up with the number of weeks, the contractor asked for a certain
number of days, maybe that is something we should evaluate if they were really able to finish it, if they could have finished
it much earlier but yet we gave them three more months, I don't
know the answer to that. >> we also rely on the engineer records and architects. We evaluate that along with the
liquidated damages they also suggested that.
>> that begs the question what do you mean the proposed
recommendation, you guys go in and evaluate? So it becomes a conversation piece not necessarily something
you accept? >> if we agree with it or not.
the engineer records and the architect are the experts on how long it should take based on the data.
but for instance on fire station 24, we had a hard deadline so we
could not use the recommended date, we had to finish by this.
>> okay. That is clear.
yeah. I think you have answered my
questions. And has given me more to think
about but very helpful, thank you.
wow. Those are my thoughts.
>> mr. Renninger? >> just to amplify commissioner condon comments about where works, I tend to be on the
exhibit with the drops everything kind of I put together a turbine engine by the way with my artificial
intelligence goggles. Now I am a certified airplane
mechanic. [laughter] no, it was really good. Good exposure for young people to different careers, they don't have the opportunity in their
normal lives. It's like referring back to my
days when people came to college and I said, what is your ultimate goal? And they would say I don't know,
and I would say what are you doing here if you don't know? You're wasting your time and my time.
it did not happen so much in my field which was the trades,
automotive mechanics, diesel mechanics, child care and all
that kind of stuff. General education area, students go to college, they don't know why they are there.
it's not productive. This gives students an exposure,
we used to have high school fairs where we would bring high
schools to our facilities and let them touch real tools and all that. It's a really helpful effort.
more importantly, this project was initiated for dual county
schools so the conversations I had, they were kind of pushed
away. That is why they are concentrating in clay county schools. Once again the exposure to clay, the welcoming position of clay
is much greater and clay county schools. I thought that was interesting. I have a couple things.
one of our primary duties is safety and security, this week
we had to talk a little bit about fire safety. We had a mortality, a death in a fire this past weekend.
it is still being investigated but nonetheless, we did escape
the july fourth home fires, as we understand we did not have
any home fires which is very common over the holidays, but we did have some kind of structure shed fire where we lost an
individual on saturday night I think it was. I want to ask the public to be vigilant with fire safety.
traffic safety, just so you k know, sending an announcement
about an annual southern slow down effort by fhp to slow
people down on the highways. If you see a lot of blue lights, they may be ours and they may be somebody else's, but
nonetheless, july 13th through 18th, in florida, alabama,
georgia south carolina and tennessee, operation southern slow down so don't get caught this weekend.
and then e-bike safety. We had several deaths in the
county. Our goal is to you know first of
all we need regulations for the e-bikes. We don't have them right now. The legislature passed a statute
that was... The governor vetoed it.
we don't. And the real tragedy of that bill I think was they had a work group in that bill, an initial
look at e-bike safety, it wasn't all encompassing but they had a work group in there. So that was vetoed as well.
in lieu of that, I will try to get an e-bike safety pamphlet,
and I talked to clay county school systems that are willing to distribute it as well, and if we can get something built out
we were working with the health department and clay county
sheriff's office, and our own departments to come up with
those pamphlets or a folder, or a flier, something just to make
parents aware that these are not toys. It is a form of transportation, okay?
if you are using these vehicles for transportation there are
certain hazards and rules that you can apply to mitigate those
hazards. Parents I think sometimes think they are toys. And I know commissioner sgromolo
and I observed for young 12-year-old boys in the middle of the road doing wheelies on e-bikes, and they can wreak
havoc catastrophic results. We want to try to get parents
aware that there are some restrictions. The last thing I have is something I think I have talked
to you about, it is going to do away with copper line phones by
2029. And I don't know, there are certain states that are suing at&t.
the spc, this was going to happen sooner or later. And they removed the restrictions from removing all
these lines, so at&t is leading the charge, they will try to remove these lines quicker, sooner than later.
and I would say for 70% 80% of us, it really doesn't matter
because we use fiber optics and we use internet, but there are
maybe some people in the county that this is the only form of
communication, so when you talk about 911 and there are no phone for you to call, you know, how serious is this in clay county?
I don't know. But I think it is something we have to be aware of, next two or three years, some people may
lose all forms of communication in their home. >> it's a really big deal. It is a huge deal in my area.
I will tell you why, this will surprise you, fox meadow, very
little cell phone service in the back of the neighborhood. Remember when they changed the cellular so the guy could build
a cell tower on his private land but he hasn't finished construction for whatever reason, that is his business,
but those residents are greatly wanting a cell tower out of there because for that very reason.
even at our own park, they had conversations with the chief
because they have the a and b at the fox meadow community park,
but they said they cannot use -- they cannot use the pulsepoint,
if they call 911 to use the pulsepoint to tell them how to use the a and, it doesn't always work because they don't have
great service. It is a big deal. I talked to different providers and then the interesting thing,
troy and I got down this path with the broadband thing several years ago and it kind of dropped off everybody's radar, is the
towers, the cell towers are not owned by the big carriers
anymore, so at&t and verizon, they don't go to put these in,
they rent tower space. So it is a very complicated
issue. I don't know what the solution is but you are right. >> the element of this I hadn't
realized is some of the older elevators have copper wire phone
lines, and fire alarms. So that is something we have to look at. I don't know if we will have
elevators at old but it is something we need to be aware of or should be aware of and just take a look at it, what is the
impact of copper lines going away? Because we all know it is happening, it is going to happen
sooner than later. And I think that is all.
hope everybody has a good week. That is all I have, thank you.
>> thank you commissioner renninger. As everybody said, the summer event, it is always extremely
valuable to hear what is going on in the state with other
county commissions, the state wide level.
attending a breakout out there about data centers and it was a very informative, one of the big takeaways of the breakout that I
took from was that commissioner in georgia who talked about all
kinds of levers at a local commissions can pull to protect
their community. I look forward to sharing those nuggets with staff as we continue to look at our
ordinance for that, and once again two shout outs, number 1
thank you to commissioner renninger and commissioner condon, whether you realize it or not you were a mentor from
afar and in continued education, I finally got my commissioner certification from the university of florida, I think
people don't understand the breadth of information that we have to be exposed to as commissioners, somebody the
other day said my knowledge base is a mile wide but it is only an inch deep, that is kind of the way we have to approach so many
different topics, so that was exciting. Congratulations again betsy calculated the first clay county
commissioner ever to be in leadership. That is a very big deal and here is why, when you do this job
correctly in my opinion as all of us work so hard to do,
lobbying tallahassee, working with tallahassee to protect
clay county is one of the biggest things that we do. And the florida association of counties is our arm as
commissioners in tallahassee to fight for local control.
and by you winning that election and clay county having that
voice on the state stage is a really big deal. And I am really happy you are representing us there and having
the future speaker, we are setting ourselves up to be in a very good spot to continue to protect clay county, so I am
excited about that. And then that night, friday got
to attend with commissioner renninger and burke, the
firefighter graduation for the class of 2026 -- 01, just always
cool seeing the rookies get to the finish line and kind of like
the harry potter sorting hat, what station they will go to. Where they want to go you can tell and they get excited when
they get their first station assignment, and really it was so cool seeing the support of families, whether it was kids
dressed up as firefighters, whether it was their son or daughter you know, cousin, really cool clay county event.
thanks again to the church for opening their doors to hold
those events, and fourth of july was different it was different.
the 250th, you can really feel the pride in the community, it