[0:46] Parks and recreation month celebrate the vital role parks and recreation professionals play in building healthier
[0:54] stronger and more connected communities. We're pleased today to recognise parks and recreation
[1:01] professionals who made it all possible for us here at clay
[1:06] county park justin spears is here with us with awesome
[1:10] service members to read today. >> clay county parks and
[1:20] recreation areas preserve the county's cultural historical and
[1:25] ecological resources while providing families with opportunities to connect with nature and enjoy a high quality
[1:31] of life and whereas access to parks and recreation promotes
[1:36] physical health through active lifestyle and supports well-being by reducing stress, strengthening relationships and
[1:44] providing opportunities for children and adults to experience and enjoy the outdoor and whereas parks and recreation
[1:52] programs educational activities including community events like youth sports and environmental education are essential to the
[2:01] healthy development of children and/or as designated parks and recreation areas also promote economic prosperity through
[2:08] increased property values increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses and crime reduction
[2:15] and whereas in july 2026 parks and recreation month celebrates
[2:21] the power of and highlights where parks and recreations unite people and strengthen communities and advance
[2:28] community well-being through connection, play, nature and
[2:33] belonging and inclusive public spaces that build resilience and
[2:38] foster community pride whereas parks and recreation professionals are vital to thriving communities providing
[2:45] and maintaining accessible welcoming and sustainable parks,
[2:49] facilities and programs that enrich the quality of life for
[2:53] all residents. Therefore be it resolved that the board of county commissioners does hereby
[2:59] proclaim july 2026 as parks and recreation month in clay county,
[3:04] in doing so we honour the dedicated clay county parks and recreation employees and support staff whose daily efforts to
[3:12] maintain and enhance the county's parks and recreation facilities create lasting opportunities for residents and
[3:19] visitors to connect, play and build a stronger community.
[3:23] duly adopted by the board of county commissioners, this
[3:27] 14th day of july 2026, do we have a motion?
[3:33] all in favour? [applause]
[3:41] >> first off I want supporting , without you we wouldn't be able to do what we do for the community.
[3:49] 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
[3:56] wonderful staff as to -- introduce each and every one of
[4:02] them and let's go from there. First we have erin.
[4:09] end. They oversee that complex and do a great job there. We also have lisa and liz who
[4:16] are part naturalist and there they had -- stewardship of the
[4:23] natural resources of clay county.
[4:28] we have miss connor who's our recreation coordinator, oversees all of our programs and thank you for what you do.
[4:38] to far left with emily who's new coordinator.
[4:46] what she's done is nothing short of fantastic so thank you for what you've done. Also mr. Eric the manager,
[4:55] without him, our parks would not try in the way they do today so
[5:00] thank you for supporting that. Thank you for your support of
[5:06] parks and recreation. This saturday I. Have to do a
[5:11] promo, we have nice event that we're doing at 2:00.
[5:19] to prevent. Please come out. We also have a tournament at the regional sports complex on
[5:26] trails and natural resources. If you have not, check our
[5:32] website or social media or facebook or instagram pages.
[5:37] thank you. [applause] sheriff's
[7:00] office? Then we have mr. Dingle from the
[7:05] clerk's office, nothing about there? All right thank you guys for being here.
[7:09] moving on to the approval of minutes I'll entertain a motion.
[7:15] >> motion to approve the board of county commissioners meeting
[7:20] on june 23rd 2026. >> second. >> a motion and a second all those in favour say I I.
[7:30] motion passes unanimously. Moving on to our first public
[7:36] comment portion of today's meeting, this portion of the agenda is designed to allow citizens an opportunity to bring
[7:41] matters to the attention of the board. At this time the board is not going to engage in debate or
[7:46] answer questions but you may email and steph will address
[7:52] your questions or you may email your district commissioner. Public comment cards are currently located at the back of
[7:58] the should be submitted to the clerk to the far left of the dais. Please limit your comments to
[8:06] 3 minutes. Before addressing the board, please state your name and address. I would like to open the first public comment.
[8:12] at today's meeting. We have one card, mr. Joe
[8:17] tierney. My apologies if I mispronounced it. >> good evening.
[8:27] last thursday, one of our pilots had a hard landing and the plane
[8:31] ended up landing upside down. We call 911 and the
[8:40] first responders showed up and it was an awesome display of
[8:46] coordination. The fire and rescue crew from station 24 did a fantastic job getting the pilot out of the
[8:54] aeroplane very quickly and then transported him to the hospital. The clay county sheriffs responded especially deputy
[9:02] elias and deputy sterling and they took charge of a bunch of
[9:13] pilots standing around watching us out of the way and control this completely. It was awesome.
[9:20] 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
[9:27] was ready to go if needed. It was not needed.
[9:33] the network of responders who were available to assist was
[9:38] very impressive. From the 911 called until the pilot was on the way to the hospital was probably about
[9:45] 45 minutes total. It's nice to know we have this kind of coverage here in clay county.
[9:49] I just want to thank everybody that was involved.
[9:55] thank you. >> thank you, that's great. Any other public comments? Moving on to the agenda to our
[10:06] consent agenda items three through nine today, do any
[10:10] commissioners, would they like to pull any items?
[10:19] hearing none I'll entertain a motion.
[10:23] >> moving to approval. >> second in the motion. >> I have a motion of a second for the approval of the consent
[10:29] agenda items three through nine. Any further discussion all in
[10:33] favour say aye. Any opposed?
[10:38] carries unanimously moving on to item number 10, our discussion and updates, the progress report on the abundant transportation
[10:45] program and other capital projects by our capital projects
[10:50] team. >> good evening.
[10:59] update the progress of teammate over the last -- for project
[11:05] number 1, the pine tree lane, the county's team continue the
[11:12] status meeting, anderson continue to continue the installation of the drainage structure, pipes, subbase, base
[11:20] material, curving, sidewalk and medium work along the north side of the project. The project 74% paid out on 106%
[11:27] of the time used. Extension of time is anticipated
[11:31] due to weather delays as well as conflicts along the adjacent
[11:36] properties. For project number 2 from us 17
[11:41] to peters creek, the county's team superior continued about monthly status meeting, superior completed the installation
[11:48] concrete island for the west to northbound right turn lanes just west of the crossing and continued construction of the
[11:56] clay cut-off wall at pond c2 while moving the clay material
[12:02] from point site  to two pond sie three as of june 23rd, all work
[12:07] within the right of way at us 17 and county road 29 intersection
[12:12] has been completed. The signal maintenance of that intersection has been thrown over to the contractor.
[12:18] the project is on schedule with 83% paid out and 77% of the time
[12:26] used. Project three be through to the roundabout at county road 29 be, achieve substantial completion
[12:36] on may 19th with 83% paid out while the project's schedule duration remains in dispute the contract or in the county met on
[12:44] june 15th for the final inspection. The project was not accepted due to minor repairs such as placing
[12:51] some sidewalk in couple cracks in the sidewalk. For project number 5, the design team completed the pond analysis
[13:00] and provided comments back to the saint john management district based on their request for additional information
[13:05] related to the permit modification that was submitted. Responses were under review by the district they accept the
[13:12] responses and approved the permit, team will update the modification number provided by the district with mitigation
[13:19] bank in advance of submitting the permit modification to the army corps. For project six a the first time
[13:26] a letter discrepancies found by -- discussed the last update
[13:31] being coordinated with the army corps. The team started preparing closeout documentation for this
[13:37] project. Once the permit is received, plans will be signed sealed and the package will be delivered to
[13:42] the county. Projects three a four and 6b are all complete. In support this work w continues
[13:48] to work with project management and inspection services as
[13:54] of july 7 the program expanded 161 million and on the county
[13:58] website, the bond transportation dashboard will be discontinued or replaced with the static bond transportation historical
[14:06] storyboard. That concludes the update for the bond transportation program. Do you have any questions?
[14:13] >> any questions for the commissioner? >> I have a question. On page 3, project 3b cracks in
[14:19] the sidewalk, is it compact underneath the sidewalk?
[14:24] correct could be caused by a loader driving over it or it
[14:30] could be just -- f. Wave cracks on brand new sidewalks --
[14:36] >> the point of the cracks of the sidewalk, the item before dot, the replacement was required so the subcontractor
[14:43] was actually installing the side drives up on the sidewalk, corrects the sidewalk so places the side pair can now have to go
[14:50] contract to come back and repair the sidewalk that got damaged. So even though it was looking good before they had to come
[14:56] repair the side could still have to fix the sidewalk that got
[15:02] damaged. >> thank you. >> the question I have is when would you say is maybe a target
[15:09] date for the full completion of the btp project in terms of --
[15:17] it's done? >> we talk about the work, I'm
[15:21] sure that's what you're interested in. Projects one and two that are still left yet to go, more
[15:28] towards this fall if you would kick those will be finished and as those project finish up, the less still pending would be the
[15:35] 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
[15:42] each one of the projects as an example project for for its complete and it's roughly 600-page report and then as each
[15:50] of the reports will be completed those will be overall summary reports for the overall program and those will follow up but we
[15:55] have to get to the end of the construction and any pending issues that -- with each one of the individual projects.
[16:06] >> is there a warranty on this? >> each project has a two year
[16:10] warranty and it's established they fail completion of each one of the individual projects as each one of the projects finish.
[16:22] that project's warranty already started. So when the overall program is going to be finished I would say
[16:29] the reporting by the hopefully the end of this calendar year,
[16:38] >> I have a question. >> yes, ma'am,. >> on project five, based on your update, there are all of
[16:48] these -- just to give you approval for the permit can you
[16:53] clarify -- ml confused, -- it's my understanding you actually
[16:59] have to get permission before you can complete the project but you're giving us a timeline for the end of the year for
[17:05] completion. So talk to me about what that looks like. >> for projects five and six a,
[17:10] were completing with our portion of the project, these are to the project, the intent we is to have a project design and permit
[17:18] and fully prepared for the next push, if you would with richard,
[17:24] looking at the future traffic forecast and when those projects would actually need to go into actually construction.
[17:31] but the entire project would be designed and shelf ready so
[17:38] project five is the eastern extension of the work that is currently going on with the british expansion on 220 as well
[17:44] as the intersection and I guess if you would as county continues
[17:50] to grow west, that's where the work is going and looking at the
[17:57] additional mile to actually, which would be the next section. But you'll have basically a shovel ready project.
[18:04] and then six a, which is this section of county road 315 that
[18:09] connects with us 17 and also connects with cathedral parkway which now gives you a cross county connection from 17 and
[18:16] all the way up. That would be the next section which would be permitted, designed for four-lane with new
[18:24] roundabout at 315, 315 be with storm sewers, storm management
[18:29] system, storm water ponds and sidewalks, back lanes and so on and again it would be a shelf ready project.
[18:37] >> so I guess the point of clarity, was there is scope
[18:41] change on these two? Because I can't imagine we're talking about these two projects that were never slated to
[18:48] actually have construction be part of the project?
[18:52] >> during the program, backing up all the way to five plus
[18:56] years ago when -- had said the roads were looking to perform
[19:01] work on, as the work -- as each one of the roadways were
[19:06] envisioned on what type of work we could do with the money, that
[19:10] was both concerned with the ponds as well as ten other
[19:16] different funding sources. It was developed through the program on how much of each one of the roads would actually be
[19:22] designed and constructed and what extent some operational
[19:26] approved, like you've seen on county road 2009 or the actual
[19:30] development of a road to support the existing and future traffic.
[19:35] that was all in conjunction with the designers the engineer's
[19:39] input from the county engineer on which project and how to
[19:44] develop each one of the projects based on a concept or an idea, we want to make improvements to these roads.
[19:53] >> so when you present this -- once this is presented
[19:58] completed, it will be once the designer complete, not necessarily constructions. >> yes.
[20:05] >> only for these two? >> yes.
[20:10] >> that's clear, thank you. >> follow up question with a 315 project six a, this might be more of a question.
[20:18] we talked a lot about how dot prefers projects that are
[20:24] obviously roads because the roadway touches 17, does it put us in the mix? Does it help?
[20:30] >> it does. It's one of the criteria to be on the top, be considered in a todo list, it does touch -- for
[20:38] a few years when I first started we had a road on their, interior
[20:43] road going to be a very important connector between
[20:49] county road 216 and sandridge dot -- they finally said --
[20:57] 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
[21:06] a half of extensional that's shovel ready get ready to go to
[21:10] work as part of the btp design portion. We always say 2301. We're not going to build the 301
[21:20] unless you have us 301 under, it does get a lot of consideration.
[21:25] 220 will go from the back under presentation as it goes to two
[21:33] county road -- the connection is complete. We want to see connectivity for their funds to be spent on a
[21:42] regional basis, not a micro local basis.
[21:46] >> I think I have a follow up. Was your answer to my question
[21:51] concerning skill a yes or no? [laughing]
[22:00] when these plans were conceived, projects five and six a, were
[22:06] originally construction projects or was there a change in scope
[22:10] let us know -- >> the scope was put together,
[22:17] again character with intent to do work, being designed,
[22:21] purchasing a property right away to make the road expansion
[22:26] operational improvement was necessary but the intent was to look at each one of those roads and identified what really needs
[22:31] to be done and from there start developing the plans.
[22:40] >> okay. >> any other questions on btp?
[22:46] going to transition to capital projects, the other half.
[22:52] >> see what happens when we go quick through the agenda, we get to ask a lot of questions. >> on the transportation side,
[23:03] the report from six directors, justin pierce, parks and
[23:09] recreation director, public works director jane price, facility operations and maintenance division director
[23:15] and sitting to my right, capital projects director.
[23:20] project to report was compiled by veronica our capital projects
[23:24] cost control specialist. General terms of all the county capital projects was consistent 262 projects the total budget
[23:33] portfolio and workday is valued at $216,460,490 with a spin rate
[23:44] of $158,413,529, split across 25 different departments. To date, the fiscal year total budget capital projects
[23:52] department managing 86 of those 157 projects across 13 different
[23:58] departments or roughly $102,151,487 in the operational
[24:06] department. Of that 15 of those projects are completed this fiscal year. For the overall status of the
[24:12] public safety bond, so far to date the county spent
[24:17] 24.1 million of the 65 million in bond. For a quick rundown running down in numerical order, highlights
[24:23] some of the public safety projects or fire station if you would fire station number 1 construction 66% complete, 39%
[24:31] paid out, forecast completion is all this year.
[24:37] fire stations 13, 15, 16 and 21 are all at 90% design complete,
[24:42] specifically for fire station 15, developers started clearing
[24:47] and grubbing the site in preparation for construction.
[24:52] forecast completion for the station 15 is summer 27.
[24:58] once the fire station 20 is operational complete.
[25:02] second fire station 80% complete and 57% paid out with forecast completion later this summer. Fire station 24, construction is
[25:12] well underway with 27% complete, 11% paid out with forecast
[25:17] completion spring 27. The contractor completed the
[25:22] installation of. >> interpreter:, security fencing and field office construction drilling.
[25:27] the old bay was demolished and building foundation were placed
[25:32] along with the utilities and preparation for repla
[25:41] replacement s. -- 90% completed in 17% forecast for completion
[25:46] summer 27 well sleep radio antenna construction is 95% complete and the demolition of the old tower was completed at
[25:54] 70%, then spread out with forecast completion later this year in the fall. Next up, protocol project is
[26:02] economic development building. The project include designing
[26:06] permitting building of the new two story 34000 square foot
[26:11] building next door building is now finished, staffed and fully
[26:16] operational. Ribbon cutting ceremony planned for july 28th. The project was completed about
[26:22] two months late -- later than planned but finished by $400,000
[26:27] under budget. A note of excellence for the team last month kick this project was selected by a a bc
[26:36] for association, those with contractors award in excellence construction for both the general and the speciality
[26:43] contractors picked this award celebration is a collaboration in term for the entire project team, recognising the sending
[26:52] contribution to both the contractor, the county, architect and the engineer. The award will be conferred at
[26:58] the celebration on august seventh. Next up, omega park, project -- this project will change the
[27:07] parks utility services from the existing failing on site septic
[27:11] tanks to using clay county utility authority services for water and sewer utilities provided along county road 218.
[27:18] the sewer portion of the project was completed in june. Decommissioned and the old septic tank system underway as
[27:25] well as installing water lines and preparing to transition to
[27:30] water connections. Last note on the library, the
[27:36] third public hearing -- public meeting for the library
[27:40] scheduled for this thursday july 16th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
[27:47] at the centre located at 835 plantation parkway pick
[27:53] alternative to our county engineer for roadway project
[28:00] updates. >> thank you. Will start with county road 220, which the intersection 220
[28:07] henley is 90% complete, getting a lot of punch list item from
[28:13] the residents, disturbing request and signage alterations that we're looking into and it works very well very efficient
[28:22] intersection now. The four laning of the road back towards the bridge approach is completed to joe jones and that
[28:31] should be open -- joe jones has been reopened and traffic is
[28:35] underway there. The bridge is still on schedule for an october, mid-october opening.
[28:44] it's 90 plus percent complete with dot punch list items
[28:48] remaining -- they're very minor characters one crack that you
[28:52] just have to repair as part of building the concrete pier we're
[29:00] going to be one thing -- traffic shift real soon the next couple
[29:06] of weeks. The roundabout that is there will not be a true road where you can go around it for about
[29:12] two to three weeks it's going to be single lane traffic as they complete the tie end. That should be -- shouldn't take
[29:21] very long, should be done probably by middle of august, maybe three to four week project but there will be restrictions,
[29:28] in other words you can't make a u-turn, a full 360, it will only
[29:32] be through traffic. The road -- operating on
[29:38] thursday morning at 10:00 k. Last week and is working well.
[29:43] hopefully the traffic out there we'll see a bit more efficiency
[29:48] in folks. Also sent a picture like you saw the boardwalk that had to be constructed to preserve somewhat
[29:55] lens as they had a requirement of the saint johns river water
[30:02] main district permit. We have been busy, it's been three weeks since I've been here and in that time we resurfaced
[30:11] complete doctors like draft ... Portion of doctor ulrich -- the
[30:21] plastic striping will be put on there in the next few weeks. They moved over to the bay area, there's this neighbourhood in
[30:28] there they're working on and then as we come to look ahead,
[30:36] remobilizing and get to the early to mid august time frame.
[30:40] in the same time. , we're going to move around a
[30:44] little bit. Or asphalt paving system, overall paving system, this isn't paving roads that look
[30:52] like the interstate, it's a rural road where you expect low
[30:57] traffic volumes, low traffic -- they were able to complete since the last three weeks, black creek drop, becky street,
[31:05] waterway, a portion of shed road, round road, holly hill
[31:09] road, opie road and grove road. Less three roads never heard of
[31:14] to go to drive through three counties to get to empiric there
[31:18] down county roads saint road 21, almost county line there was a
[31:22] big lift for the public works -- crews to get out there 17 times
[31:29] a year. Thereof the list now. They are fantastic. They turned out very well.
[31:39] will have a project in downtown keystone, near the high school,
[31:47] that's underway, lot of dot or a lot of utilities in that area
[31:51] that we're having to deal with. Flipping over the fdot to us 17,
[31:59] 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
[32:07] removal of the old pedestrian poles.
[32:12] those were there the 209 intersection. Didn't say the rest of the story.
[32:18] dtp finished at 209 and 17, the construction is not finished.
[32:23] you have about another six months of that and as you can
[32:27] tell, it's coming together, we warned you there was a very
[32:33] different configuration there. You're starting to see the
[32:37] makings of the island that will prevent traffic separation,
[32:42] making a safer north and south turn of 209.
[32:46] you won't be able to cross over, taking one more conflict out of
[32:51] the way. Country works resume intersection of russell road 17 this week, this was now and once
[32:59] completd they'll move back from there. If you've been in downtown, they're not finished with the
[33:04] medium work they're. The crew will complete at 17 and
[33:10] 209 and then shift downtown and complete what's going on around
[33:16] -- I. Guess it would be center and walnut street.
[33:24] so the intersection is 60% complete. They did get a time extension, they got some rain, their
[33:33] completion date is november 16. So that's -- they did have days
[33:38] added for weather for exchange road 16, that's going well, they
[33:46] 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
[33:52] but they did improve the return from 2009, to state road 16 w
[34:06] west. 218 at 16, they did shift the
[34:11] intersection slightly to allow for trailer and larger trailers and larger vehicles to get through there without running
[34:17] off the pavement. It's an improvement, may not be
[34:22] a solution but it is an improvement. The work is scheduled to be complete in the coming up by the
[34:30] end of the year late december. They're working in green code,
[34:34] they resurface one lane from the railroad tracks to 16, 217 this
[34:40] week. I think that covers it, looking ahead, work will begin in the next two weeks and we've got
[34:49] 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
[34:56] get a couple more streets and then we had for next year.
[35:10] >> ryder road, only going right now from 17 and eventually --
[35:16] once they move construction towards the church more got.
[35:25] [indistinct] >> right now there's a lot of underground work, underground work and storm drain going on in
[35:31] 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
[35:37] impact have to travel from the library over. So it's a bit of a demolition course there.
[35:42] the work on the roundabout is the first step in that that actually completed in august. My best guess would be by fall,
[35:52] october pick once they get an underground in place, going to want to get that paved stabilised and close off at the
[36:03] west end of the athletic field, east end of the church parking lot and have the apartment and church enter, will
[36:11] 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
[36:20] on that. >> many compliments to
[36:27] complaints one was equipment, I think it was the first day
[36:32] equipment parking resolved, the other complaint is why we do it when csx was doing their work on the rail lines.
[36:42] >> the best I can tell you is csx doesn't really share a lot of information on where they're going next.
[36:55] that seems a simple operation flagging railroad crew cut
[37:01] 24 million people consist of them can flag, so that's the
[37:06] entire state. City are out there, we offered
[37:14] to postpone doctors resurfacing and that it was like look like
[37:20] we'll get out there in two weeks and we won't be back there for
[37:25] 25 years. There was no scheduling
[37:30] whatsoever. >> to take away a lot of compliments, there's one lane traffic for quite a while on the
[37:36] drive while they pave, but I think the residents, weather
[37:41] that fairly well and were very appreciative. >> I went through it a couple times, it was definitely alarmed
[37:49] and we got very few calls back we got a lot more calls where
[37:54] the railroad tracks were. There were a few people that were worried but I was surprised that they did do --
[38:06] >> pleasantly surprised. >> there was a couple times where it was paved they don't do it that way now they paved an
[38:14] own operation so they had a failure that that even added to
[38:19] some of the one lane. >> just as a conversation I had
[38:26] with roller operators, very pleasant people to work with so
[38:30] my compliments. >> richard, I got a text before
[38:36] we were walking into the meeting that someone from fox talked to
[38:40] someone in your office and they were telling them that phase two
[38:44] of the resurfacing had been cut for budget reasons but that was
[38:49] news to me. Do you know anything about that?
[38:54] >> if you didn't cut it or I should say this, it is scheduled
[39:00] -- actually scheduled as our first purchase order because we don't want to stop can I go through paperwork and restore it
[39:07] pursuant to basically as soon as the budget is -- we will issue
[39:14] those streets and we won't stop. >> okay, that's what I thought
[39:20] too. >> you would have had to told us to do that. That part of the budget is --
[39:26] >> what you said about mobilisation made a lot of sense. It makes a lot more sense to
[39:31] make our dollars stretch. >> so far they're doing very
[39:39] well this year. We had about four or $500,000
[39:44] under one of them that we had been able to hopefully get
[39:48] moving and finish this year. Fox meadow, the idea that it would be the last project in 2025-26 and the first project of
[40:00] 2027-28 and no delay. >> thank you I appreciate it.
[40:05] >> I have some comments, I guess a couple questions.
[40:09] 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
[40:17] do pierre can you talk about just for backstory for the public on what happened with the drainage and why it's kind of
[40:24] like where we're at where we're at.
[40:28] >> first it's unscheduled. They have until december to get it done. So it's on schedule here could
[40:33] we have something in florida that I'm not used to and it's a
[40:37] state issue. We have liquidated amateur spec
[40:46] however you have to have the opposite, finish early, you
[40:51] rewards, we don't allow that here. So if you get someone that does expenditure industrial and
[40:59] industrial drive and finishes 90 days early like they did they're, they can go do something else because it's not
[41:07] clay county d.o.t. Said you get a thousand dollars a day for finishing early. So we tried, we pushed every
[41:14] 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
[41:22] late, but you don't get 10,000 for finishing early. So there's no incentive unless there's contractors with work
[41:32] backed up. >> that's what I was getting at, the drainage. >> on the drainage part, the
[41:38] drainage part is not adding to the schedule whatsoever,
[41:42] drainage part is we discovered during the project, again it's
[41:47] -- keep in mind, this bridge which restricted in 1991, so
[41:52] we've been driving on it restricted infrastructure for 33
[41:59] years 34 years. Underneath that with types, that
[42:03] was just as old or older and were actually able to do it
[42:08] through million bucks and over them to pay for the repairs. Those are part of the project -- not part of the project but the
[42:16] project area that we're facing while it's closed didn't add any
[42:21] days whatsoever. >> other than that the area from
[42:27] night box to the bridge could be a completely new road and that's
[42:31] where we're at now. Going to be cut a couple of weeks of it, there's one renter, one resident that lives back
[42:40] there, we are working with him to give him maybe a week of
[42:45] unpaid access where he's -- we can do that that will speed up
[42:50] the resurfacing of that part of the road. >> and then the second thing, the radar road roundabout in may
[42:59] -- ma hearing you correctly in terms of, you'll be able to go through the roundabout, just not around it?
[43:05] >> correct. If you forget something at home depot, you'll have to go down. >> so you don't foresee --
[43:12] obviously we're getting close to school starting so that's a very high traffic area high school right there.
[43:17] so it's going to be operational, it's just you can't really use
[43:23] it. >> we would want that to probably -- since you brought that up, that will -- we will
[43:28] get gear for that to be finished by august 11th.
[43:32] that would be business. The roundabout will become a real roundabout, not a decoration.
[43:42] >> commissioner renninger. >> back to 23, you're
[43:48] questioning -- the permitting issue change on the 220 bridge
[43:53] from water management district to army corps of engineers.
[44:05] in fact posing a bit of a problem.
[44:09] >> the other thing is keep in mind, that draws we were doing,
[44:14] building from 2018 and the other thing you have to always consider and this is why even though we praised the project is
[44:23] done or the design plans are there, is the right of way
[44:27] acquisition. Took us over a year, two years
[44:33] to get 151 square feet from dollar general and that was just
[44:39] a temporary easement so they could harmonise their driveway
[44:44] and $547,000 later with literally took that long and every other parcel was settled. So that's -- with project coming
[44:53] up the central that is going in from lava plain to landing
[44:58] boulevard we're not allowed to bid that until -- certified that
[45:03] the right of way is in hand, utilities are relocated, plants
[45:07] are relocated. The environmental permits are in place under railroad -- we couldn't even bid it until a
[45:15] dollar general finally got satisfied. Doing all that they forgot the sidewalk -- now they don't have
[45:24] pedestrian access to the brand new was the --
[45:31] definitely a 24-30 month delay there. Dot hasn't forgotten. They have a few dollar generals
[45:40] to deal with the future. We don't forget about others.
[45:50] the right of way is a big deal commissioner. The permitting could the middle of that was an injunction that
[46:02] did hurt us to. >> as a comment to give you an
[46:08] idea, starting out with the program, we're talking with odot
[46:13] and we had 242 properties where we're going to touch on after
[46:18] acquiring everything, they left and said you're never getting
[46:23] any physical work done in the five years it takes us that time just to get the right of way squared away.
[46:30] so I took that as a challenge. >> I provided about eight photos
[46:42] for eldridge I don't know whether.
[47:02] so reached out to superior under cleaning up and when did they say, it was like the first week of august?
[47:10] >> that's what they're telling us. >> did they tell us what air? >> no.
[47:19] we have all the pictures and got that.
[47:26] >> anything else? Thank you.
[47:35] >> item number 11 is active and upcoming formal solicitations.
[47:49] >> good evening, purchasing manager. Briefing the active and upcoming formal solicitations.
[47:55] for item solicitations we have out, we have rfp number 2526-85.
[48:01] that's the public private partnership to design build and finance public safety complex, that is currently under
[48:08] evaluation, evaluation committee reviewing the proposals and it's scheduled to go to the august 25th board meeting.
[48:15] we have bid number 25-26, 95, clay county fairgrounds
[48:19] hurricane group repairs this will be for the arena.
[48:25] five bids were received and scheduled for the july 28th
[48:29] board meeting. Bit number 25-26-89 nice marina
[48:34] lake shore boat ramp repair redevelopment and improvements, three bids were received and that will come to the 20th board
[48:41] meeting as well peaked at number and new public works
[48:49] construction seven bids were received and that is scheduled for the july 28 board meeting. Bid number 25-26-97 is the eoc
[48:58] hvac demolition and replacement. Bids will open on july 28th and
[49:04] then -- order due july 28th, and this is scheduled for the august
[49:10] 25th board meeting. At the upcoming bids for july
[49:15] and august, and this is in no certain order, we have the fairgrounds water improvements. Fire station 17 shower addition
[49:23] calculate county wide sidewalk and concrete repairs. The jail recreation yard waterproofing roof repairs, the
[49:34] unclaimed disposition services. The impact study,
[49:40] washington avenue repair, that's a theme project.
[49:45] annual roadway pavement marking services and the pavement
[49:49] assessment. Any questions?
[49:54] >> 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
[50:03] patron? >> we received three or four. I can go back and look. >> it's four.
[50:12] >> as a background question, how does the public, what system do
[50:18] we use. >> we use the open group system. It's free to the public on our purchasing website and any of
[50:27] the suppliers have issues can we contact them directly and we walk them through how to register.
[50:33] >> I get that question frequently. How do I bid on a contract? Opengov?
[50:42] yes, sir,. >> any other questions?
[50:47] >> thank you. >> thank you jessica. >> going to move down one more block here, item 17 direction
[50:55] discussion of appointments to the clay county housing finance authority. Applications were received from
[51:00] the following individuals seeking the reappointment. Roger repstruction and james ryan representing
[51:10] finance. >> did we reappoint?
[51:17] >> I have a motion and a second all in favour say aye.
[51:22] any opposed? Item 18 calculators for documentation was our bid opening tabulations and you can
[51:29] find that in your backup and I will go down to our last public
[51:47] comment section of the meeting, members of the public want to address the commission? There are scars located in the
[51:54] back if you would like to address the commission.
[52:01] or right, hearing none we will move on from that.
[52:07] county attorney. >> nothing in particular, our office is still working on some projects, many of you including
[52:16] commissioner condon. So if there's anything in particular you're looking for, I know commission -- talked about
[52:27] e-bikes. >> we'll talk about that later. >> county manager. >> chair and commissioners, two
[52:33] items for you. In the back in our media room
[52:38] back there, this is her last day here she worked for the county
[52:46] since 2005 for the past 20 years she started out as an it
[52:51] technician and mis. She most recently finished up as a communications coordinator that is here.
[52:56] she's absolutely dedicated to her job, just a phenomenal team member. She's moving out to us to move
[53:02] closer to family. So you cannot blame her for that. I just want to tell her in the
[53:07] next chapter of her career, we exextend sincere appreciation ..
[53:15] I can see her blush already. [applause]
[53:22] >> last but not least, budget workshop. Thursday july 23rd from 9:00 a.m. To 1300 here in the
[53:31] bcc boardroom, we extended it there, a different approach this
[53:37] year. Each department that will be coming up to breathe their budgets along the lines of a
[53:41] port coquitlam on on thursday morning each one of you will receive the slides for tomorrow morning we're going to go over
[53:48] the -- been going over the slides and tomorrow is our last review of those in the department level and we'll send
[53:54] them to you all. Then we have individual meetings scheduled if you want to go over those slides.
[54:01] >> I'll be bringing the snacks. >> we will have a slight break
[54:10] there for -- >> there may be some snacks.
[54:15] >> food makes people happy. >> we know that.
[54:20] [laughing] any questions?
[54:24] >> thank you, sir,, that brings us to the 5:00 time certain. Item number 12 on the agenda. First public hearing on
[54:32] ordinance and resolution to amend the capital improvement plan and resolution for other budget adjustments in jarud.
[54:43] >> good evening, in jarud, before you is an amendment to
[54:49] our budget, this is an amendment that is as brief. We're recognising revenue into several funds across our budget
[54:58] and namely for our general fund, we are increasing our reserves
[55:04] underlying. So pending any questions, that's our budget brief. >> this is a public hearing so
[55:10] I'm going to open the public hearing anybody would like to speak on item number 12 budget amendment, you can come to the
[55:18] 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
[55:24] and three as well? A nice separate items for you? Okay, so we're just voting on these three separately.
[55:32] >> need to vote on all separate. >> so addressing item number 1,
[55:39] which is the cip approval of the amendment.
[55:44] >> I mean to approve item numbe. >> I second the motion.
[55:49] >> I have a motion and a second all those in favour say aye.
[55:54] opposed carries unanimously. Item number 2 is also part of
[56:00] the resolution. >> move to approve. >> I have a motion in the second all in favour say aye.
[56:08] any opposed? Item number 3 is the operating adjustments. I'll entertain a motion.
[56:15] >> move. >> second. >> all in favour say aye. None opposed thank you very m
[56:25] much. Item number 13 is a modification to developer agreement between clay county and the crossings of
[56:31] island community development district regarding 1845 town
[56:36] center boulevard for the clay county sheriff's office county
[56:41] 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
[56:50] simply a modification to an original agreement for utility
[56:56] services. Require additional services
[57:00] that. [indistinct] >> delete or not have to vote on this c- >> we can vote but no public hearing.
[57:07] >> alternate motion. >> move to approve. >> second. >> motion for approval and a
[57:13] second. >> all those in favour say aye. Any opposed? Item 13 carries unanimously item
[57:21] number 14 is a public hearing regarding annual rate resolution
[57:25] for solid waste disposal assessment for 26 and 27.
[57:32] >> this is the annual assessment brought before you for disposal
[57:37] services. It is to remain the same at $96
[57:41] for this upcoming annual year and if you have any questions,
[57:46] we do need a public hearing for. >> opening the public hearing.
[57:51] if you'd like to speak on item number 14.
[57:58] seeing none I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the commission. >> I move to approve that we
[58:05] leave the solid waste disposal assessment the same.
[58:09] >> checking the motion. >> motion and a second, all those in favour say aye. Any opposed carries unanimously.
[58:17] just for the public, that's a standard operating procedure
[58:22] 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
[58:28] to item number 15, the public hearing regarding the annual rate resolution for solid waste and recovered materials
[58:35] collection services, 26-27. >> likewise this is for the
[58:41] annual assessment, this is for collection and likewise is to
[58:45] remain the same at $260 -- $262 as the annual assessment.
[58:54] >> okay, I would like to open the public hearing for item number 15 pick anybody wishes to address the commission?
[59:01] seeing none I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the commission. >> , the contract we have with
[59:11] fcc allows for a change if the conditions are present for
[59:23] recycled materials, I hope we have the option to change a
[59:27] contract any recycling would be in our best -- better advantage
[59:33] for -- I think mr. Talents researched that and have some
[59:40] comments. >> for mr. Chair, director of
[59:44] environmental services, as you know the decision was made
[59:49] through our bid process at the beginning of our current collection program and with the contract for fcc to forgo
[59:59] kerbside recycling services due to cost.
[1:00:03] so at that time, cost to process was about three times as much as
[1:00:09] the cost to dispose for that material and there was no
[1:00:14] guarantee that that rate would stay the same.
[1:00:19] that metric is still much the same. The numbers have changed a bit but it's still the same.
[1:00:30] the difference -- the processing cost difference per ton between
[1:00:36] what we pay to dispose of a ton of household trash versus what
[1:00:41] we would pay to process a ton of household recycles, the
[1:00:47] difference in cost, it would cost $145 more per ton to
[1:00:54] processing than it does to dispose. That alone equates to over $530,000 a year estimated, and
[1:01:03] that is not all of the cost involved in recycling, that's
[1:01:07] just a comparison between processing and disposal.
[1:01:14] >> in order to keep fees the same as previous years, we can't
[1:01:19] go down our road recycle, we have to change it to collection
[1:01:25] fees for everyone. So it's still, the decision we made two or three years ago is still a valid decision that's
[1:01:32] the only point I want to bring up here. >> your recommendation is we continue kerbside pickup as we
[1:01:39] have in the past. >> yes. , I don't recommend we change the.
[1:01:43] >> thank you. That's all I have. >> commissioner I appreciate you going down that road, that's
[1:01:47] doing your due diligence which is really good. I think the number remember was like $90, you were saying now
[1:01:54] it's up to 140. >> comparing those two directly,
[1:02:02] yes, it only grows because that's processing versus
[1:02:06] disposal. In that car could also cost us more to transport recyclables as to transport garbage and it cost
[1:02:17] -- the collection cost, which aren't part of --
[1:02:21] >> correct me if I'm wrong but historically, the county used to
[1:02:26] get profit from recycling, it wasn't.
[1:02:31] >> we did get some. >> correct. >> never recovered cost but it didn't cost us -- it was more --
[1:02:39] it covered the processing cost until about six months before
[1:02:47] prior -- six months or a year prior to us, making the dec
[1:02:57] decision. >> go ahead. >> motion to approve the collection cost for fees
[1:03:03] remaining the same. >> item number
[1:03:08] fifteenmac I. Have a motion and a second to approve. All in favour. Any opposed motion carries
[1:03:16] unanimously. Thank you. Moving on to item number 16, this is our first public hearing
[1:03:22] for consideration of the draft community development block
[1:03:26] grant cdbg consolidated plan for 2026-2030 and for the draft
[1:03:32] annual action plan of 2026. >> jodi, clark county grants
[1:03:40] compliance manager. So this is the first public hearing for consideration for the community block grant.
[1:03:47] we looked at two different parts of the plant versus consolidated plan they are high level. The second would be the annual
[1:03:55] action plan which would be the first year of that five-year
[1:04:01] plan. This is a community block grant
[1:04:05] sponsored by hud and the overview -- this will be our
[1:04:10] second consolidated plan or in the fifth year of the first
[1:04:14] plan, and the purpose of the consolidated plan is to
[1:04:18] establish a broad high level national objective that create
[1:04:23] the framework that the whole five-year plan will be based on.
[1:04:30] the consolidated plan doesn't speak to specifics, but rather
[1:04:35] at a high level. The annual action plan, it has two fold purpose, one is to establish the actual funding
[1:04:43] allocation for those national objectives that have been determined and established in the consolidated plan and also
[1:04:51] to establish specific projects. Let's first look at the
[1:04:58] consolidated plan. This year when we looked at this five-year plan, we took an approach that was a little
[1:05:04] different than the first time. We had five years under our belts, we were able to look at lessons learned and the
[1:05:13] engagement of the community over the last five years. So what we did was wanting to consider first of all the county
[1:05:21] strategic priorities which have been outlined in the county strategic plan. We also wanted to look at
[1:05:29] maximum flexibility and those national objectives so that as the county grows over the course of the next five years, the plan
[1:05:35] can grow along with it. We got a lot of feedback in the
[1:05:40] last five years around the idea of more county wide impact and
[1:05:46] county wide focus for the funding -- for this project.
[1:05:50] so what you will see is projects that do have less individual
[1:05:57] focus and more of a community county wide focus. And also again, to align with the county strategic plan, a lot
[1:06:05] of those projects have been approved and are essentially shovel ready from the perspective of the board
[1:06:13] approval. So we wanted to do that pick one all of those things were considered, the proposed project
[1:06:22] categories which are national objectives and the allocation
[1:06:26] percentages that we are proposing over the course of the five years are outlined on the slide which would be
[1:06:34] infrastructure at 60%, parks and public facilities at 25%
[1:06:40] community partnerships and non-profit expansion at 10% and
[1:06:45] administration at 5% so that in a nutshell is the consolidated
[1:06:52] plan, you have a draft of the actual plan available, so if you
[1:06:58] have any questions on the consolidated plan I can take those before we move into the annual action plan.
[1:07:11] >> are don't have questions, just have some comments. So five years ago, we were awarded the cdbg grant, county
[1:07:20] had never been awarded one before. If it weren't primarily for my district clay county wouldn't be
[1:07:28] awarded. So I have a bit of an issue with
[1:07:34] the approach of putting the majority of the cdbg money towards sidewalks when most of my district doesn't have
[1:07:42] sidewalks. So I am not sure, other than
[1:07:48] that however really feel about the action plan. I don't love it, but of the first public hearing, so we will
[1:07:54] see what kind of feedback we get and when we vote, maybe we can
[1:08:02] see what we can tweak. But I understand the county
[1:08:09] strategic plan, and I understand that there's four commission districts. We have done work in all of
[1:08:16] 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
[1:08:25] areas of my district we wouldn't qualify anyway, so I'm not sure
[1:08:32] that's really appropriate to make it do more sidewalks and more of the already developed areas of the county.
[1:08:40] but anyway, I am not prepared tonight to suggest changes
[1:08:47] because I respect the public hearings that have happened so far, the public meetings, I want to let the process play out.
[1:08:57] then I also heard some rumblings that there was some interest
[1:09:05] from outside organisations to try to use cdbg money towards
[1:09:10] affordable housing and while I commend that I think that if we're going to visit that, that scope needs to be very narrowed,
[1:09:20] because commissioner, you reminded us on a number of occasions that affordable -- affordable is to us is not
[1:09:28] affordable to the next person necessarily, so there are some
[1:09:33] affordable projects -- housing projects that have been funded under our housing and finance that I don't think are
[1:09:43] affordable at all. I think that those projects, it's because of the percentage difference.
[1:09:49] so if you're selling these homes at half a million dollars and these homes at 350,000, they mean the percentages to qualify
[1:09:58] for these affordable housing grants but that's not affordable and that's not what cdbg is intended for so those are just
[1:10:06] my comments about some rumblings that I heard, but again it's the first public hearing. >> through the chair if I may.
[1:10:15] I'll let jody talk a bit more since she brought forward the
[1:10:19] 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
[1:10:29] members about could this be used for affordable housing and specifically could this be used for tiny house and affordable
[1:10:38] housing? Based on that I did ask jody to do a bit of research, she can explain to you what's allowed or
[1:10:43] 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
[1:10:52] speak to that and then longer term, at that time probably need
[1:10:58] to be addressed but I just wanted to throw that out to get some constituents did reach out to doctor burke and she did
[1:11:03] reach out to me and asked the questions.
[1:11:08] >> tiny homes and tiny home communities are unallowable expense under the cdbg plan, it covers everything from site
[1:11:17] prep, infrastructure that would be required to accept a, sewer,
[1:11:22] all of that, those types of things, to design to
[1:11:27] construction. So it does, it will cover that
[1:11:31] under this current, the way this current consolidated plan is
[1:11:37] structured, the infrastructure part of that would be what would be covered here. If that would be the direction
[1:11:44] of the commissioners to do something like that, we would
[1:11:49] need to submit this annual action plan if approved with a
[1:11:53] contingency and then we would need to do some central amendment change if we were going to change it to
[1:11:59] construction, it's a different category that isn't addressed as one of the national objectives that are outlined in this
[1:12:06] particular consolidated plan so that can't be done.
[1:12:13] >> any other comments or questions? >> I was just going to say, from that aspect, tiny homes are not
[1:12:20] allowed in our current code, but the minimum square footage is
[1:12:24] 700 square feet in our current land development code.
[1:12:37] >> I attended two of the public meetings, and where does the
[1:12:43] public comment come in on the consolidated plan or annual plan? >> it will come in on both, I'll
[1:12:49] put the same -- it's a little challenging to separate some of
[1:12:53] those comments as to which went to which part. Since they were presented together, my plan was to put the
[1:13:01] comments in total in both the survey that has been presented
[1:13:08] and has been available to the public is specifically on the
[1:13:12] consolidated plan. So the survey results will be under consolidated plan specifically.
[1:13:18] >> the reason I ask this, both meetings are extremely large or
[1:13:24] not large, predominant military presence and both those
[1:13:29] meetings, and quite honestly the military spread is a huge population in clay county and spread throughout the county.
[1:13:37] so I don't know how -- do you want to comment about the plan
[1:13:43] now to. >> I'll go ahead and we'll take a look at the proposed annual action plan.
[1:13:49] so this outlines more specific recommended projects under those
[1:13:55] national objectives that are outlined in the consolidated plan. This would be year 1 of 5 years
[1:14:02] and the award estimate from year one is $1,057,772 and in the
[1:14:12] projects that have been proposed in those national objectives
[1:14:19] would be primarily sidewalk installation and/or improvement, so these would then be determined at address level,
[1:14:27] which we have a list of pre-approved sidewalk, sidewalk
[1:14:33] intersections, that were approved by the board earlier in
[1:14:37] 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
[1:14:50] county in everyone's district and just as an example of some
[1:14:54] of the projects that are on that list, it would be high impact
[1:15:01] areas county road 218, ten, jefferson avenue, so they do go
[1:15:06] around the county and also then 88 upgrades intersections and
[1:15:11] there's a list of intersections, a couple or aurora and ursa, so
[1:15:21] again, they're spread around are intersections that require some
[1:15:26] ada compliance work. In the area parks and public
[1:15:31] facilities, the focus would be primarily on parks.
[1:15:36] these parks are and the ones that would be covered by cdbg, would be those that earn low moderate income areas.
[1:15:44] again one of the things that is in coordination with the
[1:15:49] strategic plan is ada compliance in the park system so these
[1:15:53] dollars could be used to fund those types of projects to bring
[1:16:00] more accessibility for all residents to those parks, in
[1:16:06] some areas there are great facilities but they're not easily accessible for folks that have challenges so these dollars
[1:16:13] can be used to rectify that. Then we have community
[1:16:19] partnerships and non-profit expansion. This includes neighbourhood cleanups, community partnership
[1:16:25] portion, those have been part -- a core part of the current cdbg
[1:16:30] project and those would continue and those would focus, most
[1:16:38] generally are in the high range, tanglewood and bel air
[1:16:43] middlebrook area and those become partnerships with the community because we have neighbours and neighbourhoods
[1:16:50] and county staff and volunteers along with nonprofits in those
[1:16:54] areas that all get together to execute the community cleanups.
[1:16:59] in addition in this area, under this focus, we would have the
[1:17:07] potential for non-profit expansion, so this would be an organisation or organisations that would be selected through
[1:17:18] whatever mechanism the word finds appropriate to select
[1:17:23] those entities for non-profit expansion dollars and the
[1:17:27] allocation of those funds, of that million plus dollars looks like this pick would be $634,663 towards infrastructure in year
[1:17:42] one, $264,443 towards parks in year one.
[1:17:48] $105,777 for community partnerships and non-profit expansion and then administration at $52,889.
[1:18:01] questions on the specifics of the plan. >> I have a couple comments. With the annual plan and the
[1:18:08] non-profit expansion, listed to nonprofits explicitly and I
[1:18:13] don't think we should explicitly list any nonprofits. I think that should be open for application interpretation when
[1:18:22] the time comes. So I would like to see that
[1:18:26] removed. And just as a side, I was going to get a kick out the administration customer gets 5%
[1:18:32] of the federal grant -- one of my previous lives with
[1:18:37] university of florida university system, they were pre-negotiated administrative costs of approvals of 6070% of every
[1:18:46] dollar went to administration and it baffled me how they got
[1:18:51] that approved through the federal government. But we get 5%, so it's a make over cost.
[1:18:59] and that's for these, all her great benefit she get in
[1:19:04] paycheque and all that kind of stuff, her contribution to this grant, what was the number? 52,000 for a whole year -- for
[1:19:12] all the people working under grant, part of our salary as part of the administration as well, so it probably doesn't
[1:19:19] cover the actual cost of administration but that's what
[1:19:26] we're allocated 5%. Any way, like I said, I don't
[1:19:33] like to see -- I. Would like to have it open until all
[1:19:37] nonprofits, making a bit -- >> we'll make that change and
[1:19:42] get an updated draft for the final public hearing.
[1:19:49] >> any other comments? >> I have two more pieces.
[1:19:58] the schedule, we did six public meetings this time, which is
[1:20:03] more than we have done in the past.
[1:20:08] we did get a meeting at every district.
[1:20:14] to commissioner condon in your area, because it's large, we did
[1:20:19] have a good turnout. We had a very strong veteran
[1:20:27] presence, veteran council members, veterans themselves and
[1:20:31] business owners that serve a non-profit directors that serve
[1:20:37] that community. So they were a strong presence at every one of the meetings this time.
[1:20:43] public comment is still open and remains open through the end of
[1:20:48] the day, not sure exactly whether that's midnight or 5:00,
[1:20:56] but I will take it to midnight. It doesn't shut anything doesn't
[1:21:01] shut off but anything that is received through midnight on
[1:21:06] july 18th, which is saturday will be part of this public
[1:21:12] comment. So then, what is the -- what is coming next? Where are we and what are our
[1:21:21] next steps? So all the public meetings have
[1:21:25] concluded, we do have the public comment.
[1:21:30] still open through july 18, and the next steps are all of the
[1:21:36] public comments and survey results will be consolidated. We will put those into the packets and the next set of
[1:21:43] drafts that will be part of the second public hearing will have
[1:21:48] the change that commissioner renninger has suggested to the annual action plan and then the public comments will be included
[1:21:56] in those packets. At that point there will be a
[1:22:01] second public hearing and then a vote for approval or discussion
[1:22:07] on change, however you all want what you want to make happen
[1:22:11] with this plan. That will be on the
[1:22:15] 28th of july. >> I have one other comment.
[1:22:20] it came from the library meeting that we had, we had an
[1:22:24] individual who had a shoe stored I think it was in five points or
[1:22:29] someplace, moved it to blanding and he and his wife showed up at the meeting and they live in. >> they live in jacksonville but
[1:22:41] his business is online and he was so complimentary -- he said
[1:22:46] he never got anything in jacksonville, but since he moved
[1:22:50] his business to clay county he's been -- he's part of the chamber, so he learned about the chamber, he came to this
[1:22:58] meeting, he was complimentary of clay county and how they treated
[1:23:02] their businesses. He actually told me that, he was
[1:23:08] very pleased with his move to clay county, so good job jody.
[1:23:14] >> thank you. >> I'm good if there are no
[1:23:20] other questions. >> thank you very much. >> going to open the public hearing on item number 16.
[1:23:25] I do have a card on this item from jessica.
[1:23:30] come on a familiar face cat clay county
[1:23:39] veteran of the year. >> good evening my name is jess,
[1:23:45] I am representing clay veterans, appreciated the opportunity to
[1:23:52] speak. A few comments so I don't ramble. I have reviewed the draft of the
[1:23:58] five-year plan, and I found it to be well written, unlike the
[1:24:04] first five-year plan it provides great flexibility being able to
[1:24:09] support emergent projects because we are not locked in as hard. Also thank you to jody and her
[1:24:16] team for all of the public meetings you have put out and put the time together. I would like to focus on a
[1:24:22] portion of the plan for the neighborhood enhancement and nonprofit capacity building. Saint johns county operation
[1:24:32] lifeline, the application for the community development block grant was approved for funding. And governor ron desantis
[1:24:41] signed the budget which included $200,000 appropriation for the
[1:24:46] veterans academy and st. John's community skills center.
[1:24:51] said that saint johns county is just a little bit ahead of what
[1:24:55] we are doing or what we would like to do.
[1:25:00] veterans council in trenton and clay veterans asked a similar
[1:25:04] project that expands access be considered in the plan.
[1:25:11] community facilities provide more than a space, they serve as
[1:25:17] a centralized location residents connect with information
[1:25:21] services and one another. For many individuals, finding
[1:25:25] the right resource can be challenging.
[1:25:29] a accessible facility can help people learn about available
[1:25:33] services can connect with nonprofit organizations and government agencies and participate in programs that
[1:25:38] support health, independence and overall quality of life.
[1:25:44] thank you so much. >> you have one more minute. >> I have one more minute? All right here it goes.
[1:25:50] as you guys develop your community block grant the
[1:25:55] five-year plan, we appreciate it in the planning process includes
[1:25:59] opportunities for residents to share information about community grant projects. We had our first caregiver
[1:26:08] luncheon today, and specifically there are caregivers for
[1:26:13] veterans, it was the first one we ever had in the community.
[1:26:18] and the looks in their eyes, it was emotional.
[1:26:24] there are a few other caregivers that are not specific, we need a
[1:26:30] place for groups like that to meet. I want to make sure that community services, veteran
[1:26:39] services and nonprofits work more closely together.
[1:26:44] >> thank you jess. Any other comments, public
[1:26:48] comment on item number 16? Seeing none I will close the
[1:26:53] public hearing. This is the first public
[1:26:57] hearing, we don't have to take a vote on this one tonight but I will come back at our next meeting.
[1:27:02] thank you very much. Moving on to the end of the
[1:27:07] agenda now, commissioner comments.
[1:27:12] commissioner condon? >> I just have a couple. You probably saw the email but I thought it was really cool so,
[1:27:23] the boys & girls club that operates after school programs
[1:27:27] all over the county, they have one at the high school, they are
[1:27:34] working in partnership with this company called waterworks,
[1:27:39] taking these mobile tech jobs simulators around this week,
[1:27:49] different places, they had eight stops, one at clay crescent
[1:27:54] heights high school was one, and the students actually get to try
[1:27:59] out trades, they get to try out like plumbing and welding, they
[1:28:04] had a virtual reality thing. I just think it's really awesome
[1:28:13] that there is a partner in our community that is willing to
[1:28:18] bring a bit more than just telling young people they need to get into trades, and talking with some of our local business
[1:28:28] owners, I had heard they are struggling to hire enough
[1:28:34] employees, and I know that you probably have seen the notes but
[1:28:40] northeast builders association is building a regional job
[1:28:46] training apprenticeship program center in jacksonville in
[1:28:51] august, and we will get invited for the ribbon cutting and that kind of thing, but they have said they have 100% job
[1:29:00] placement, really high wages. I think it is important, for our
[1:29:05] jobs is to connect those employees and business
[1:29:11] opportunities in our area, and commercial development will
[1:29:16] become more important to us as we move to our tax reform which
[1:29:22] I support tax reform but we have to figure out how to fund basic
[1:29:27] services. Anyway just thought it was kind of cool that we are looking at potential young people in our
[1:29:34] community finding skills to have jobs to stay in our community. Just wanted to update you on that.
[1:29:39] otherwise have a great week. >> thank you commissioner co
[1:29:45] condon. >> since the last time we were all together, the five of us were in orlando for the florida
[1:29:54] association of counties summer workshop, and I just have to say
[1:30:01] one that it is always refreshing to connect with other
[1:30:06] commissioners across the state and get their perspectives on
[1:30:10] things. This workshop or series also did not disappoint, I also want to highlight again, a special
[1:30:19] congratulations to commissioner condon for winning her election, that is really exciting. I know you will do us proud.
[1:30:26] the second comment tonight, as was said in the update, the oak
[1:30:33] creek library design unveiling conversation continues.
[1:30:38] this is the meeting that was rescheduled from the
[1:30:42] 18th of june, and so it will be as you stated this thursday, six
[1:30:47] to 7:00 p.m., the phase athletic center, the phase two athletic
[1:30:52] center. There are two, with the winding
[1:30:57] staircase, that is the one, on the second floor.
[1:31:02] the third thing, it kind of spurs from the conversations that we had again during the update that ed gave us, I am
[1:31:10] very curious, I think courtney this one is for you, what it
[1:31:14] will take to get incentives in our construction complex for
[1:31:19] early completion. And I'm also curious to know
[1:31:24] what does the history tell us concerning which would be more cost effective? Is it completion bonuses or
[1:31:32] liquidated damages? Because that seems to be where
[1:31:36] there is some -- do you have any guidance on that?
[1:31:40] >> we do have contracts that have incentives in them, not
[1:31:46] sure about that particular contract.
[1:31:50] most of our contracts do have liquidated damages and then some
[1:31:55] of them do have incentives. >> so that is an isolated incident where there wasn't an incident to complete the project
[1:32:05] early? >> I'm not sure. It depends on the rfp and what was negotiated before it came to
[1:32:13] us. I think we would have to get with the purchasing team in connection with the rfp if that
[1:32:19] is something that the board is interested in, so that would be
[1:32:25] something to talk to them about. But I do know with the
[1:32:29] transportation program we did do that in our contract.
[1:32:34] >> right. The lasting impression that I got from the update was you have contractors who are more
[1:32:42] incentivized to delay a project than to complete it early, maybe I misunderstood but that was what I got from richard's
[1:32:52] comments. So I don't know -- did any of our projects trigger the early completion clause of those
[1:33:01] agreements? >> yes, on the transportation,
[1:33:07] there were incentives for them to complete at certain stages and also liquidated damages, a lot of times they canceled out.
[1:33:14] we do have projects where they received incentives.
[1:33:18] I don't know this particular project, why it didn't have
[1:33:23] incentives, I just assumed that it wasn't part of what we contracted them for, or bid out at that time.
[1:33:33] >> there is basically incentives, also there is also
[1:33:38] the prospect of your early completion incentives and your
[1:33:44] liquidated damages zeroing out, such that there is a zero sum
[1:33:48] game there, is what I just heard you say. Help me understand? >> so I'm trying to think at the
[1:33:57] bottom there were certain goals based on plans, if they were able to get the plans at a certain point they got
[1:34:04] incentives, then you have construction, and also weather delays and time delays, but we had charts --
[1:34:12] >> we are basically giving it back at that point... Okay.
[1:34:17] >> I think it was hard when we were trying to do the incentives from the board standpoint is you know, doing early completion,
[1:34:27] what amount of money are we willing to give them or provide them for early completion, versus just a contract.
[1:34:36] >> wait a minute, early completion is an incentive so
[1:34:40] they get dollars there, but then the liquidated damages portion
[1:34:45] of the contract gets triggered and there are more dollars?
[1:34:50] it is one dimensional, right? It is coming from us --
[1:34:54] >> know the liquidated damages they are paying us for projects to complete. >> so it washes out?
[1:35:06] >> the incentive, this is what you have to balance, you do a contract calculated on a contract, $13 million, and then
[1:35:13] you want to give them an incentive to maybe complete in a couple of months early, and I remember because it was being
[1:35:22] called the carrot, what can we give them? What is the board willing to put out there in extra money to have
[1:35:31] that incentive? >> I will just say there
[1:35:40] shouldn't have to be evaluated on a per project basis, it won't be the same for every single one.
[1:35:45] it is difficult to determine, we may want to look into that we
[1:35:49] can. Most of our construction projects we don't have the incentive, but we do have
[1:35:54] liquidated damages on everything. >> on most we do not have incentives but we do have
[1:36:01] liquidated damages on all of them? >> yes, ma'am,. >> and the liquidated damages
[1:36:07] based on the roadway project, yes. For the building being evaluated on what were the actual damage
[1:36:14] be to the county if it's not completed on time. >> is there a standard incentive matrix or is that totally up to
[1:36:22] who writes the contract? >> for the transportation, it
[1:36:28] was developed through wgi, it was a different formula.
[1:36:34] >> 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
[1:36:42] pay? We are trying to be conse
[1:36:49] conservative. >> then there's two other things, it's not allowed under federal rules.
[1:36:55] if it's a federal contract, depending on the grant funding
[1:36:59] and the board has to consider, so you have a bitter that says I
[1:37:04] 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
[1:37:12] it's $11 million. Would it really be in the best interest of the taxpayers because he did not get the best
[1:37:17] value, he may got it faster but those are things the department
[1:37:21] has to lay out and that's why this gets really complicated and that's why I think the county has moved towards liquidated
[1:37:27] damages. You say you will do a project, you will say you will get it done on x a day, if you go past
[1:37:34] x a day. >> during the process, I
[1:37:40] understand all the points. I don't have a problem, again I go back to the update we received pointed to there is
[1:37:48] more of an incentive, if there aren't any incentives to get the
[1:37:54] project completed, then where is the rub? One of the questions that came was how long will it take for
[1:37:59] these projects to be completed? I am thinking like why are they dragging their feet? Is there a number of updates
[1:38:07] that we have received over the last several years where the
[1:38:12] project stalls because they are disputing terms, and then you
[1:38:17] have the added wrinkles of weather and all the things,
[1:38:23] inherent to a construction project. So I am looking to discern what makes the most sense, if you are
[1:38:31] saying okay, we got all of these I call them landmines, you don't
[1:38:37] want to trip up anything that will cause problems, but I heard
[1:38:41] a problem and I was looking for a solution.
[1:38:45] so I don't have an issue with what sounds to me like
[1:38:53] negotiating a tightrope and just leaving that alone, but I am curious to know where is the balance?
[1:39:06] when the constituents are asking us, when projects will be
[1:39:10] completed, and we keep telling them well, it was originally supposed to be completed in august now we are looking at a
[1:39:17] 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
[1:39:23] back? I think that is really the essence of the conversation and I think that is for them to
[1:39:29] 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
[1:39:41] was, we are not really dangling the carrot to your point to get
[1:39:46] these projects completed on time or early.
[1:39:52] >> on that particular project there is federal funding so you wouldn't have it anyways. >> that is an answer to the
[1:40:00] question -- >> I don't know how we came up with the number of weeks, the contractor asked for a certain
[1:40:09] number of days, maybe that is something we should evaluate if they were really able to finish it, if they could have finished
[1:40:17] it much earlier but yet we gave them three more months, I don't
[1:40:23] know the answer to that. >> we also rely on the engineer records and architects. We evaluate that along with the
[1:40:31] liquidated damages they also suggested that.
[1:40:36] >> that begs the question what do you mean the proposed
[1:40:41] recommendation, you guys go in and evaluate? So it becomes a conversation piece not necessarily something
[1:40:48] you accept? >> if we agree with it or not.
[1:40:52] the engineer records and the architect are the experts on how long it should take based on the data.
[1:40:58] but for instance on fire station 24, we had a hard deadline so we
[1:41:03] could not use the recommended date, we had to finish by this.
[1:41:10] >> okay. That is clear.
[1:41:15] yeah. I think you have answered my
[1:41:21] questions. And has given me more to think
[1:41:25] about but very helpful, thank you.
[1:41:33] wow. Those are my thoughts.
[1:41:40] >> mr. Renninger? >> just to amplify commissioner condon comments about where works, I tend to be on the
[1:41:51] exhibit with the drops everything kind of I put together a turbine engine by the way with my artificial
[1:42:02] intelligence goggles. Now I am a certified airplane
[1:42:07] mechanic. [laughter] no, it was really good. Good exposure for young people to different careers, they don't have the opportunity in their
[1:42:14] normal lives. It's like referring back to my
[1:42:19] days when people came to college and I said, what is your ultimate goal? And they would say I don't know,
[1:42:24] and I would say what are you doing here if you don't know? You're wasting your time and my time.
[1:42:30] it did not happen so much in my field which was the trades,
[1:42:37] automotive mechanics, diesel mechanics, child care and all
[1:42:42] that kind of stuff. General education area, students go to college, they don't know why they are there.
[1:42:48] it's not productive. This gives students an exposure,
[1:42:53] we used to have high school fairs where we would bring high
[1:42:57] schools to our facilities and let them touch real tools and all that. It's a really helpful effort.
[1:43:04] more importantly, this project was initiated for dual county
[1:43:11] schools so the conversations I had, they were kind of pushed
[1:43:15] away. That is why they are concentrating in clay county schools. Once again the exposure to clay, the welcoming position of clay
[1:43:25] is much greater and clay county schools. I thought that was interesting. I have a couple things.
[1:43:35] one of our primary duties is safety and security, this week
[1:43:40] we had to talk a little bit about fire safety. We had a mortality, a death in a fire this past weekend.
[1:43:48] it is still being investigated but nonetheless, we did escape
[1:43:53] the july fourth home fires, as we understand we did not have
[1:43:58] any home fires which is very common over the holidays, but we did have some kind of structure shed fire where we lost an
[1:44:06] individual on saturday night I think it was. I want to ask the public to be vigilant with fire safety.
[1:44:14] traffic safety, just so you k know, sending an announcement
[1:44:19] about an annual southern slow down effort by fhp to slow
[1:44:25] 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
[1:44:32] nonetheless, july 13th through 18th, in florida, alabama,
[1:44:39] georgia south carolina and tennessee, operation southern slow down so don't get caught this weekend.
[1:44:46] and then e-bike safety. We had several deaths in the
[1:44:53] county. Our goal is to you know first of
[1:44:58] all we need regulations for the e-bikes. We don't have them right now. The legislature passed a statute
[1:45:07] that was... The governor vetoed it.
[1:45:15] we don't. And the real tragedy of that bill I think was they had a work group in that bill, an initial
[1:45:26] look at e-bike safety, it wasn't all encompassing but they had a work group in there. So that was vetoed as well.
[1:45:33] in lieu of that, I will try to get an e-bike safety pamphlet,
[1:45:43] and I talked to clay county school systems that are willing to distribute it as well, and if we can get something built out
[1:45:51] we were working with the health department and clay county
[1:45:56] sheriff's office, and our own departments to come up with
[1:46:01] those pamphlets or a folder, or a flier, something just to make
[1:46:07] parents aware that these are not toys. It is a form of transportation, okay?
[1:46:13] if you are using these vehicles for transportation there are
[1:46:18] certain hazards and rules that you can apply to mitigate those
[1:46:25] hazards. Parents I think sometimes think they are toys. And I know commissioner sgromolo
[1:46:32] and I observed for young 12-year-old boys in the middle of the road doing wheelies on e-bikes, and they can wreak
[1:46:42] havoc catastrophic results. We want to try to get parents
[1:46:46] aware that there are some restrictions. The last thing I have is something I think I have talked
[1:46:54] to you about, it is going to do away with copper line phones by
[1:47:01] 2029. And I don't know, there are certain states that are suing at&t.
[1:47:06] the spc, this was going to happen sooner or later. And they removed the restrictions from removing all
[1:47:15] these lines, so at&t is leading the charge, they will try to remove these lines quicker, sooner than later.
[1:47:23] and I would say for 70% 80% of us, it really doesn't matter
[1:47:28] because we use fiber optics and we use internet, but there are
[1:47:32] maybe some people in the county that this is the only form of
[1:47:37] 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?
[1:47:48] I don't know. But I think it is something we have to be aware of, next two or three years, some people may
[1:47:55] lose all forms of communication in their home. >> it's a really big deal. It is a huge deal in my area.
[1:48:03] I will tell you why, this will surprise you, fox meadow, very
[1:48:10] little cell phone service in the back of the neighborhood. Remember when they changed the cellular so the guy could build
[1:48:15] a cell tower on his private land but he hasn't finished construction for whatever reason, that is his business,
[1:48:21] but those residents are greatly wanting a cell tower out of there because for that very reason.
[1:48:28] even at our own park, they had conversations with the chief
[1:48:34] because they have the a and b at the fox meadow community park,
[1:48:39] but they said they cannot use -- they cannot use the pulsepoint,
[1:48:44] 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
[1:48:51] great service. It is a big deal. I talked to different providers and then the interesting thing,
[1:48:59] 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
[1:49:08] towers, the cell towers are not owned by the big carriers
[1:49:12] anymore, so at&t and verizon, they don't go to put these in,
[1:49:17] they rent tower space. So it is a very complicated
[1:49:23] issue. I don't know what the solution is but you are right. >> the element of this I hadn't
[1:49:30] realized is some of the older elevators have copper wire phone
[1:49:36] lines, and fire alarms. So that is something we have to look at. I don't know if we will have
[1:49:42] 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
[1:49:49] impact of copper lines going away? Because we all know it is happening, it is going to happen
[1:49:55] sooner than later. And I think that is all.
[1:50:02] hope everybody has a good week. That is all I have, thank you.
[1:50:07] >> thank you commissioner renninger. As everybody said, the summer event, it is always extremely
[1:50:16] valuable to hear what is going on in the state with other
[1:50:20] county commissions, the state wide level.
[1:50:24] attending a breakout out there about data centers and it was a very informative, one of the big takeaways of the breakout that I
[1:50:32] took from was that commissioner in georgia who talked about all
[1:50:37] kinds of levers at a local commissions can pull to protect
[1:50:41] their community. I look forward to sharing those nuggets with staff as we continue to look at our
[1:50:48] ordinance for that, and once again two shout outs, number 1
[1:50:53] thank you to commissioner renninger and commissioner condon, whether you realize it or not you were a mentor from
[1:50:59] afar and in continued education, I finally got my commissioner certification from the university of florida, I think
[1:51:10] people don't understand the breadth of information that we have to be exposed to as commissioners, somebody the
[1:51:16] 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
[1:51:24] different topics, so that was exciting. Congratulations again betsy calculated the first clay county
[1:51:31] commissioner ever to be in leadership. That is a very big deal and here is why, when you do this job
[1:51:38] correctly in my opinion as all of us work so hard to do,
[1:51:44] lobbying tallahassee, working with tallahassee to protect
[1:51:49] clay county is one of the biggest things that we do. And the florida association of counties is our arm as
[1:51:57] commissioners in tallahassee to fight for local control.
[1:52:01] and by you winning that election and clay county having that
[1:52:06] voice on the state stage is a really big deal. And I am really happy you are representing us there and having
[1:52:12] the future speaker, we are setting ourselves up to be in a very good spot to continue to protect clay county, so I am
[1:52:20] excited about that. And then that night, friday got
[1:52:25] to attend with commissioner renninger and burke, the
[1:52:29] firefighter graduation for the class of 2026 -- 01, just always
[1:52:35] cool seeing the rookies get to the finish line and kind of like
[1:52:40] the harry potter sorting hat, what station they will go to. Where they want to go you can tell and they get excited when
[1:52:46] they get their first station assignment, and really it was so cool seeing the support of families, whether it was kids
[1:52:54] dressed up as firefighters, whether it was their son or daughter you know, cousin, really cool clay county event.
[1:53:02] thanks again to the church for opening their doors to hold
[1:53:08] those events, and fourth of july was different it was different.
[1:53:13] the 250th, you can really feel the pride in the community, it