[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:32] Brandon, is that better?
[0:35] Yeah, that's good. Thank you. Okay, thank you. All right. Good evening, everybody. Would you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
[1:07] Councilmembers, councilmembers, so? Here. Councilmembers, Landry. Here. Councilmembers. Here. Vice Mayor Stride. Here. Mayor Dalgezo. Here. All right. Approval to the agenda. And do we have any add-ons?
[1:25] Nope. All right. Okay, great. Thank you. All right.
[1:30] Okay. First on the
[1:33] Agenda is Mel with Firm, you're going to come up and speak with us, tell us a little bit about Firm that we gave you a grant as well.
[1:43] So this was something new in the last couple of years that we've been giving you a grant and I just want you to explain what that grant from us, how it helps Firm and us as well.
[1:54] Thank you.
[2:05] Good evening Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor Deborah Strife, members of the Marathon City Council, staff and guests.
[2:13] My name is Mel Montagny, pardon my voice.
[2:17] For more than 25 years I've called Monroe County home, served as a local insurance agent.
[2:24] For the past two decades I've served as the president of firm, fair insurance rates in Monroe.
[2:30] as you're passionate advocate for fair and affordable property insurance across our islands.
[2:37] Since 2006, firm has been on the front lines, fighting excessive discriminatory and
[2:43] unaffordable insurance rates that threaten our homes, businesses, workforce housing,
[2:48] and the overall economic health of the keys.
[2:51] As a grassroots organization, we serve as the watchdog voice for marathon and all of Monroe County.
[2:57] We work with legislators, regulators, citizens' property insurance, and FEMA to deliver the
[3:05] fair, equitable, and sustainable coverage for a unique island environment demands.
[3:10] Many of you know this battle first hand, skyrocketing premiums that put home ownership
[3:17] at risk, the realities of storm surge in hurricanes, and the constant challenge of keeping our
[3:24] Our teachers, first responders and service workers house or our communities can thrive.
[3:31] That's why the opportunity to speak to you means so much.
[3:35] Thanks to strong community and legislative support, Firm has delivered real, measurable results, more than $750 million in avoided premium increases from Monroe County property owners for the last 20 years.
[3:49] That's 750 million that has helped families stay in their homes, businesses remain open and
[3:56] our eyes remain strong and resilient.
[3:59] So what are some of the recent things that we've seen and we've accomplished?
[4:05] We've seen some citizens' rate changes.
[4:09] So with the legislative session now behind us, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation
[4:14] as approved citizens, 2026, rate changes that went into effect July 1st.
[4:20] So Forum in Roe County, what does this mean?
[4:23] A 5.7% decrease on wind only homeowner's policies, and
[4:29] a 6.3% decrease on wind only condo unit owner's policies.
[4:35] In our high risk environment, these reductions are real progress, and
[4:39] and put meaningful money back into the pockets of marathon homeowners,
[4:43] condo associations, and business owners.
[4:46] These wins are the direct result of persistent advocacy, strong data on Monroe County's unique challenges,
[4:52] and the improving statewide market we've helped shape.
[4:59] We are especially encouraged that marathon now has a strong local voice on the citizens' board of governors, with Brian Schmidt.
[5:07] Having a marathon resident serving on the board is a significant step forward
[5:12] for ensuring that the unique needs and realities of the middle keys are better understood
[5:16] and represented at the highest level.
[5:19] There is a specific local issue that I'd like to raise tonight.
[5:23] So I want to bring your attention to a practical challenge that many marathon property owners
[5:29] and condo associations are facing with citizens' property insurance.
[5:34] citizens frequently non-renews policy when it determines a roof's age or condition is unacceptable.
[5:42] And it will only rescind that non-renewal upon proof of a full covering replacement, not a coding.
[5:50] So, acceptable documentation is either assigned roofing contract with paid-in-full receipts or a finalized building permit that clearly states a complete roof covering replacement has occurred along with photos.
[6:02] In practice, the wording on some city of Marathon permits is not always aligned with the precise
[6:09] language citizens with unnecessary obstacles for associations trying to keep their coverage
[6:15] as well as homeowners.
[6:16] My request is simply that the city continue working to a clearer, more consistent permit language
[6:21] and documentation practices that accurately reflect the scope of the roofing work performed.
[6:27] doing so would help marathon property owners more easily, satisfy citizens underwriting standards and avoidable non-renewals.
[6:36] This is a general issue affecting multiple properties across the city, other municipalities in the county as a whole.
[6:43] Not any one single association or homeowner.
[6:46] That is why I strongly urge all municipalities and the county to attend our citizens town hall on August 25th, 2026 right here in Marathon.
[6:56] So we can hear directly from citizens leadership exactly what documentation and permit language they require for full roof covering replacements.
[7:07] Now, I don't think any of us here are stupid.
[7:10] We realize what citizens is trying to achieve.
[7:14] They have orders to depopulate citizens, and I believe that order means that any and all costs.
[7:21] And that is why we are facing this issue as well with the non-renoles.
[7:26] So looking ahead, what are some of our key priorities?
[7:30] So we're already engaged on several fronts.
[7:33] We're working on depopulation language to get away
[7:36] from the up to 20% search arge that we're seeing on some
[7:40] of these carriers that are depopulating policies
[7:43] from citizens.
[7:44] So we want to do away with that.
[7:45] I don't believe that that is fair to anyone
[7:48] that is already paying an exorbitant rate with citizens
[7:51] for some new company to come along and say,
[7:53] Oh, by the way, I'm slapping you with a 20% search
[7:56] arch on top of that.
[7:59] We're working with the Office of Insurance Regulation
[8:01] and Citizens on a new mitigation form.
[8:05] So, marathon and keys properties, especially those
[8:08] as strong proven features, receive every credit and discount
[8:11] they deserve, which they are not getting today.
[8:14] We're collaborating with Citizens Board of Governors
[8:16] to better recognize the superior performance of citizens
[8:19] of concrete roofs, which are common in the keys
[8:22] and have demonstrated excellent wind resistance.
[8:25] We're also partnering with Habitat for Humanity Affiliates
[8:28] across the Keys.
[8:30] These code compliant well-mitigated homes
[8:33] for our essential workers still face very high insurance costs.
[8:37] We're gathering data to demonstrate their lower risk
[8:39] and advocate for targeted credits
[8:42] because protecting workforce housing
[8:45] is critical to sustaining our local economy
[8:47] and quality of life.
[8:49] citizen state-wide policy count continues to decline dramatically from a peak of
[8:55] over 1.41 million policies down to approximately 278,000 policies as of June
[9:01] 30th. That's an approximate 80% reduction from its peak. If current depopulation
[9:07] efforts continue, the policy counts rejected to stabilize in the low 200,000s.
[9:13] Returning citizens to its fully intended role is a true ensure of last resort.
[9:19] Now, that's a great thing to say, however we know very well here in Marathon and in Monroe County that citizens has been our only resort for quite a few years here, the reason why we have citizens is because of Monroe County created more than 50 years ago.
[9:39] We attend every citizen's Board of Governors meeting pushing for unending necessary flood mandates, thoughtful depopulation, keeping citizens focused on wind-only coverage, and refining catastrophe models to reflect our actual claims history and mitigation efforts.
[9:56] And closing thank you Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor Strife, members of the City Council for
[10:02] your leadership, and for allowing me to speak this evening.
[10:06] Your commitment to practical solutions that protect Marathon's residents, residents
[10:11] and businesses align perfectly with our mission.
[10:14] Together we are preserving homes, sustaining businesses, and building a stronger, more resilient,
[10:20] and more affordable Florida keys for generations to come.
[10:23] Thank you very much.
[10:25] Thank you, Mel.
[10:29] Do you have any questions from me?
[10:34] Thanks again.
[10:36] Thank you, Mel.
[10:38] All right, next on the agenda is the city manager discussion.
[10:45] Councilman Landry?
[10:45] When I added this to the agenda, I thought we were going to have a far different discussion tonight, then maybe what we're going to have.
[10:51] But I was looking mainly for an update from Evie on what we were going to do, but since then a lot of things have changed.
[11:00] I said when I put this on the agenda I had a far different thought process of having
[11:05] a discussion tonight about where we're going and everything changed last week so I put
[11:11] it on the agenda for a discussion and I was just wanting to, it's kind of all change
[11:15] so see where we're going.
[11:16] Anyone
[11:21] have anything to discuss?
[11:22] Yes.
[11:26] I'm pretty firm with what I brought to the table last meeting and I stand by the candidate
[11:34] that I suggested because for four and a half months we have been trying to find somebody
[11:40] and the last minute we've had two people pull out. We have a lot of things to fix in this
[11:46] community starting with our building department and our planning department and a few other
[11:50] department. So I'm getting phone calls every single day about getting some of these things
[11:54] in line. And the more we continue to put this off, the longer it's going to take to fix it.
[12:01] So I'll see us go forward with this and that's where I stand on it. Thank you.
[12:06] Any other discussion?
[12:10] We all know my candidate dropped out, but Steve has impressed me since he's been doing the job
[12:18] And you know everybody wants to throw stones and there's no perfect candidate. There's no perfect employee
[12:25] It's Steve perfect no none of us are perfect nobody in this room perfect, but I'm comfortable with Steve
[12:31] I know
[12:33] I give him a hard time all the time about what I think his weaknesses are we'll leave that out
[12:37] But I think if they're all manageable. I think he does a good job. I think he's got a great plan moving forward with staff
[12:43] I
[12:45] think he's
[12:47] I think he's the right choice and I know, you know, no matter who we choose is going to
[12:52] be controversial.
[12:53] You're not going to make everybody happy.
[12:55] It's not going to happen.
[12:55] So I would agree with Debbie.
[13:00] I wasn't pushing to get this done fast, but I do think it's time for staff too.
[13:04] I mean, all of staff is in limbo.
[13:06] Who are we going to get?
[13:07] Am I going to like him?
[13:08] And in a lot of cases, a lot of staff is going, oh, I might quit if we get the wrong guy.
[13:12] And I have not heard any grumbling about Steve being the city manager.
[13:17] I've seems like staff is very comfortable with that.
[13:22] So I would second Debbie's and I would say let's get it going and if we agreed tonight,
[13:29] we could get it all the next agenda to accept Steve and have a contract by then.
[13:35] Do we have any more discussion in this session?
[13:38] I just, since we've started, I think we're going to try to solve one problem and create
[13:44] another because constitution does not allow us to have an officer hold adult position.
[13:50] Well he might be able to do both jobs for a small amount of time but there's already
[13:55] a conflict when you do both.
[13:57] That's why our constitution is written the way it is.
[13:59] So it's not that I don't want Steve a city manager, I just don't want to take a good attorney
[14:04] out of a job he thrives at into a city manager position and we're going to have to figure out what to do about an attorney so we're going to solve one problem to create another.
[14:15] Maybe I'm out of line with this but I would only suggest and we should ask Steve about this but we do have an assistant city attorney
[14:25] who is extremely qualified and capable and I don't think anyone is putting forth that this will be a dual position.
[14:31] He's been working as both positions and being paid for one, so I'm sure that we talk
[14:40] to Allie and we talk as a group and to the rest of the people who have to be involved
[14:46] in this, that we can come to a conclusion.
[14:50] Right now we need a city manager more than we need Steve as a city attorney.
[14:57] Well I just
[15:00] Close to the mic. I just want to add, and this is really for all of you out there that I appreciate all of you in how passionate you are about our community. You've reached out to me, and I'm sure other councilmen on what you think is right, what direction we should go and what we should do. What you haven't been, as you haven't been up here, like we have been working with the city. We did let go of a manager.
[15:27] we've been working with an interim manager and a few months ago, four or five
[15:34] months ago, definitely Steve was not the guy. Steve just didn't want it, he was
[15:41] very open to us finding someone and we were all very open to finding somebody.
[15:46] What happened now when you work with somebody and go to Tallahassee and go to
[15:52] DC, go to meetings, go to chamber functions and every other thing that I've actually asked
[15:58] Steve to accompany me in because sometimes I needed his legal advice and he all of a sudden
[16:07] was you know he didn't want to do it really I mean the legal stuff yes but some of the other
[16:12] events he did not want to go to he's like no Lenny I'm like a cat I just want to hide and
[16:17] and you're at a little puppy and you can go out there.
[16:19] Okay, so I have been working with him diligently
[16:22] and it just fell this way.
[16:25] Here we are open reading resumes,
[16:27] I'm looking at applications
[16:28] and we have some great people who worked here
[16:30] that also applied and they would bring a lot to the table
[16:33] but they're still here and working with us
[16:35] and I'm hoping it all worked together
[16:37] but Steve grew into the position, he was not looking,
[16:41] he was interviewing without knowing it
[16:43] And for me, you know, a few weeks ago, almost two months, I mentioned it.
[16:49] He was a no. I mentioned it again. He was no, you know, on and on.
[16:54] So I just want to put it out there that Steve has shown growth in this position.
[17:01] He has shown management. He's been managing the staff.
[17:04] I've had staff reach out to me and tell me what a great job.
[17:07] I've had people in the community who were no about Steve.
[17:11] But then they changed their mind and said, you know what?
[17:14] You know, a lot of you don't want us to hire from without out of the county or out of the city.
[17:20] So I just want to put that out there.
[17:22] So I hear and read things that you put out there thinking that this was pre-planned or whatever, it was not.
[17:31] Sometimes, you know, my history is in the hospitality business.
[17:35] I have weight staff, all of a sudden I'm looking for a manager or a host.
[17:39] And all of a sudden, this great weight person, you know, it turns out to be the best manager I ever had.
[17:45] So sometimes it's staring you right in the face, you don't know it, and that's what happened with Steve, and I appreciate it.
[17:50] And I was thrilled that he said he would step up to the plate and do this against how a lot of you felt differently, so thank you.
[17:59] Regardless, we need to make a decision.
[18:02] The city needs to move forward, and right now there's a lot of division, and we need to make a decision.
[18:06] I think we need to decide to not what direction we're going to go, whether we're going to
[18:12] bring it back to the next meeting as far as Steve doing dual role.
[18:16] I don't think that was ever the intention, like the vice mayor said, we would be charged
[18:21] with finding a new city attorney, whether that be Ali or somebody else.
[18:25] But we absolutely need to move forward.
[18:28] We can't keep being indecisive about things to make our city move forward and to keep projects
[18:34] going we have to make a decision. Obviously the person that I had selected and that I had
[18:39] liked she pulled out and that's just the way it is. I trust Steve. I know he's competent. He's
[18:45] done a great job. He wasn't my first choice either for the interim city manager but he has stepped up
[18:50] and he has despite saying numerous times he didn't want the job. He's willing to accept that and I
[18:57] just think we need to come together as a council and we need to make a decision and we don't need to
[19:01] keep putting this decision off.
[19:08] Assuming I get the votes.
[19:10] Do we need a motion to put that on the next agenda?
[19:13] Do you guys want to vote it?
[19:15] We shouldn't really vote now.
[19:16] Can I get head nods to put that on the next agenda to?
[19:19] Before you go there, I do believe you got some public speakers.
[19:22] Oh, sorry.
[19:22] Before you take any official actions,
[19:24] let's hear from public speakers what they have to say.
[19:27] And then as drafted on your agenda tonight,
[19:29] just to be clear about it, it's on there as discussion.
[19:32] So we should take no formal action tonight
[19:35] Because it does only say a discussion if you guys give direction to either HR or Miss Claudia to bring you a contract back next month
[19:42] Then we'll work on that for next month, but there's no official action taken tonight because it just says discussion
[19:48] Thank you.
[19:52] Speakers
[19:53] Wendy Bonilla followed by arm and Messina
[20:06] Hi mayor and council
[20:07] I'm Wendy Bonilla. I live here since 92
[20:11] My first question I guess would be on March 10th
[20:15] You guys had a meeting and you guys decided you were going to bring Stephen as a temporary person.
[20:23] I believe Kenny was one of the ones who was very adamant about that he was going to be temporary
[20:28] because you didn't want somebody to be slid into a position.
[20:32] And I understand that you learned and he's not a bad guy as far as that's concerned is even more important
[20:40] to the city as an attorney or as the city manager is one of the questions.
[20:48] My other question is he, I don't know details because I wasn't given the information
[20:53] that I reached out for, but I know the starting salary for city manager was 200,000 according
[20:57] to the application that was supposed to remain open that wasn't, did you guys know that,
[21:02] that the application that you guys said was going to be open, you guys are going to continue
[21:06] to take applications, the entire time was closed.
[21:09] So no, we could all keep applying until the position was filled because it was closed down, but it said 200,000.
[21:15] I believe he makes a bit more than that, is he going to take a pay cut because he's only had four and a half months of experience in this position, or how does that work?
[21:26] That's all I got to say tonight.
[21:29] Thank you, Wendy.
[21:32] Armour, Messina?
[21:46] Good evening, everybody.
[21:47] Thank you for having us up here today.
[21:50] And then full disclosure, Steve was on a tiny of mine for years back in the county, so I've
[21:58] known him quite well.
[22:00] I believe that's a good thing.
[22:02] I advise you not to say anything more about that.
[22:08] Like everybody to remember one thing, especially in a new city manager, whoever we may be.
[22:14] All charter from the Florida Keys contractors association, well in the present, does not allow
[22:19] me to endorse anybody. So I'm going to try to keep this as vague as possible. But whoever
[22:26] the city manager is, I like to keep in mind one thing. The reason we became a city was
[22:32] to clean up the building department and the trouble we were having with the building department
[22:37] in the county. That was the number one reason. And that you understand that the construction
[22:43] industry is the lifeblood of this city.
[22:45] Nothing happens without us.
[22:48] And the government recently passed a law, and put it in the law, that they're going
[22:53] to start streamlining building departments.
[22:55] And first thing that I get up this morning, my phone is ringing off the hook, as somebody
[22:59] had added another layer of garbage on top of us.
[23:04] I mean, this has got to change.
[23:06] We are trying our hardest to keep things put together and we are getting killed.
[23:09] which has run over with documentation and stuff.
[23:13] I understand the need for permits, believe me.
[23:16] I don't understand for just stupid stuff, all right?
[23:21] Hopefully, we can maintain the relationship I have with the previous city manager
[23:25] where we get together every, what, every two weeks in the morning?
[23:30] Discussed a week's events and anything that comes up with my members
[23:34] of which we got almost 150 contractors on the contractors board now.
[23:38] contract association, I should say, that we can discuss it and come to a reasonable discussion
[23:44] in some common sense agreements. And that would bring up the one thing about it having
[23:51] an attorney as a city manager. How's it going?
[23:54] Yes, you got it.
[23:55] Okay, is attorney seem to have a thing of looking at things in black and white, which is good.
[24:02] But we do need some people in new with some common sense. I'm not saying you don't, but
[24:07] But it can get a little hairy there, just keep that in mind.
[24:12] All right, thank you for your time.
[24:13] Thank you.
[24:14] Thanks, Tom.
[24:15] Do we have any more speakers?
[24:17] No.
[24:21] That's OK.
[24:22] Betty Chaplin.
[24:28] I can hear my husband now.
[24:29] Betty, please don't say anything when you go to those meetings.
[24:34] I'm listening to Firm.
[24:36] I'm listening to wonderful people speak and their concerns.
[24:43] I've heard the term city manager only lasts five years so and so forth and the common denominator is usually the council.
[24:53] There have been lots of councils in 25 years, 26 years since we've incorporated.
[24:58] There are a lot of reasons we incorporated. One of the reasons is the county literally kept us from having a hospital.
[25:04] We had a county attorney who fought for Barry Mankowitz and his group that now the building
[25:12] is leveled to build a surgical center.
[25:18] We would have had one and it would have saved Fisherman's Hospital.
[25:22] They voted five to one, but five to nothing to for it.
[25:25] They came back three months later and Jim Hendrick, the attorney, decided under direction I'm
[25:31] sure to vote five against it.
[25:33] and the rest is history.
[25:35] We have a hospital, it's nice,
[25:37] but it's not what it could have been.
[25:39] So there are a lot of reasons we incorporated.
[25:41] We incorporated because of nonsense.
[25:43] 75% of all our signs would have been illegal
[25:45] because they put a sign law up.
[25:47] Randy Mernst came and spoke and said,
[25:49] you can make me a multi-millionaire.
[25:51] If I have to replace all these signs,
[25:53] he says it's not fair.
[25:54] People are going by 45 miles an hour.
[25:57] And we need to have something so that they'll slow down.
[26:00] I'm looking at firm, one of the reasons I really would like to see Steve be
[26:06] manager is because we need somebody to fight for us. One of the reasons our
[26:10] councils haven't lasted and our managers haven't lasted is because they
[26:14] number one they either didn't know enough or they were doing things for themselves
[26:18] and not us, but nobody was really fighting for us like some of them should have
[26:23] been. I think Steve will fight for us. I think he's really glued in to the county
[26:29] There are some good people in the county and believe me, they're singing like birds.
[26:33] We have whistleblowers that love us, love marathon, love what we're trying to do.
[26:40] Love the fact that we have a third and fourth generations on our council, and I thank you for doing that.
[26:46] When you look at firm, my husband and I are very fortunate, we have our home, it's 47 years.
[26:53] Our insurance, which we have not had for two years, $36,000.
[26:57] dollars. That is absurd. And it doesn't cover anything downstairs. I look at a young couple
[27:04] who wants to buy a house maybe if they can afford something around $400,000, they can't
[27:10] afford it either. And people who have a mortgage are really under it. And it hurts ownership
[27:15] and it owns it hurts community. Most of the people started firm. They didn't just move
[27:21] way they're dead. That's how long we've been fighting for recent decent insurance and we can
[27:29] have it. It's called competition. There are a lot of companies out there but nobody will go and
[27:33] fight for us and you're perfectly capable of doing that, all of you own property. So I didn't
[27:39] need to take so long but we are on the right track. We really are fair rules, fair deal, energy,
[27:47] looking out for each other and having a city council like you. We're very proud of
[27:54] you. We really are. As a matter of fact, I'm thinking about running in two years.
[27:59] I thought I was too old. I thought maybe I was too old. My hair is going to be gray now.
[28:07] But I said to my husband at least it'll keep me home. It'll keep me home. But
[28:11] anyway, thank you for giving me the extra time. I mean, I've been here a long time
[28:14] and I'm with you 100% and I was very, very leery of an attorney being in charge of us,
[28:21] but he's not just an attorney.
[28:22] He's somebody that has shown some great stripes and I think you'll fight for us and that's
[28:28] the only thing we have had missing for us.
[28:30] We need somebody to really look out for this whole community and do the things that are right
[28:34] and tell us the truth and give us good advice.
[28:37] Thanks.
[28:38] Thank you, Betty.
[28:41] Okay.
[28:41] Any more speakers?
[28:49] I know you and I talked about this earlier, I know you told me you couldn't do it today.
[28:56] As far as approaching Allie, do you need official requests from us to see if that's an option?
[29:04] Not knowing where tonight was going to go or what exactly what is going to happen.
[29:08] So if I am reading the room correctly, it appears that there's at least three, four, five
[29:13] I had nods for me to bring forward a contract to you as a city council.
[29:18] That's not happening tonight.
[29:20] I think what you ought to do is have someone review whatever I come up with this contract.
[29:25] You've got a couple of different options to answer your question.
[29:28] One is we always have an outside law firm on retainer to assist in such situations where we would have a conflict where I would be on vacation.
[29:35] We had a period of time between Cody and Allie where I had no assistant or paralegal if I would go on vacation.
[29:41] So they're on retainer with us. We've used them before as a law firm.
[29:44] Now, after tonight, given what I believe to be your direction,
[29:48] I can approach all of you to see if she has any interest in taking the position I formally held.
[29:55] And that's the first time where that would be appropriate, it would be tomorrow.
[30:00] Approach her. I don't know what her will be. I cannot begin to tell you how competent, able, and wonderful I think she would be. But that's a her decision. I mean, there are all kinds of people make all kinds of decisions in life. So if she wants to, I think you would be in great hands. And then we can get a contract there too for that matter. So we can get all that taken care of in a fell swoop. If she says, why would I ever want to do that, then we can go do other things. But that's really that.
[30:29] That conversation has always been premature before tonight.
[30:32] And as of a week or two ago, I didn't even think the conversation was ever going to be held to start with.
[30:37] So there we go.
[30:38] So yes, we can approach it.
[30:40] If she is not comfortable, we can use the former burdensome bowling that we have a contract with to look at it and protect your interest.
[30:47] So I don't put sneaky things in the contract where no one would ever like in the future.
[30:52] And you would complain about it in a few years, Mr. Matt Locke.
[30:55] So we will make sure you like this one.
[30:58] They can explain it to you so we'll get a nice fair one, but it's in your best interest to have it reviewed understood
[31:04] Then we'll get that to you next month and get that taken care of so yeah, the time for that's tomorrow not tonight
[31:10] So and no time before tonight, so if she's interested we're in great hands if she's not then we will take other actions
[31:17] She and just just to clarify for everyone a
[31:20] Contract that would be for you for city manager
[31:23] We would have an outside firm review that negotiate that contract based on any changes
[31:29] we as a council might want, and then it would not be a blanket acceptance.
[31:33] So there would be negotiation, and we would have discussions about it, correct?
[31:39] Well, it depends on how mean the first version is.
[31:42] You can have them review it certainly, yes, but the point is, yes, it is available to you or
[31:46] granted, you would have the option of either having Allory review it on your behalf, or you can
[31:52] You can have an outside firm go do it to complete your choice in your call, but it's too early to make that decision or that call at this point.
[31:58] So those are the two options available, and I don't know where that will go, we'll have the answer relatively shortly.
[32:03] Perfect, I just wanted to clarify that it would not be a blanket acceptance of a contract that you would write for your own employment.
[32:08] That we would have the option to have that reviewed to make sure that it was in the city's best interest as well.
[32:13] Correct, thank you.
[32:17] We all on the same page, go in the same direction.
[32:25] I'll continue to be the interim for the next month and then we'll do anything so no official action changes anything here tonight so we'll go down as an official agenda item.
[32:34] It'll have my name on it, it'll have the contract on it, it'll be searchable for all future council members to come so.
[32:41] Okay, that's where we are. Now that we got that taken care of can we go back to item 4 please and actually do it.
[32:48] Oh, the approval of the agenda, I thought that was your job.
[32:55] Yes, do we have an approval of the agenda and or want to add to the agenda?
[33:01] Make a motion to approve the agenda.
[33:03] Second.
[33:04] That's work.
[33:24] Next is item 6L, deep injection well update.
[33:31] And we have the people from APEX here with us.
[33:33] Steve wants to wherever you or wherever Brandon tells you to.
[34:14] So before I dive into this, I understand as long I'm going to go through it quickly.
[34:18] Secondly, the purpose, two purposes, one, to give you the update that you asked for.
[34:23] Second purpose, which is why it's long.
[34:26] We have to do an amendment to your facilities plan.
[34:28] It's part of SRF funding.
[34:30] It's what's required to allow us to basically get the SRF loan.
[34:35] So there's a couple things, some items that they're being sticklers about.
[34:40] So we have to step through that process, and that's why you see a lot of stuff that you probably
[34:43] have seen before, or that you're familiar with.
[34:46] But I'm happy to answer any questions that you have on it.
[34:56] I'll do it, just tell me for next slide.
[34:59] Next slide.
[35:04] Next slide.
[35:10] It froze up, give me one second.
[35:12] All right,
[35:21] let's see, is it going to work now?
[35:23] Yeah, there we go.
[35:24] Sorry about that.
[35:25] All right, so here's just a quick agenda.
[35:27] We're going to go over project overview just for reminder and refresh on how we got where we are active construction update and then the facilities plan amendment.
[35:35] So basically everything from item three and four is what's required for SRF.
[35:41] So, project overview.
[35:43] So for those of you that aren't too versed in how this all came about,
[35:49] the City Marathon has five waste water treatment plants.
[35:52] They are all less than a million gallons a day of treated capacity.
[35:57] They discharge a treated effluent down into shallow injection wells, which are about 100 feet deep below the surface.
[36:04] That is allowed by Florida law and up until 2020, when the Maui decision came out, which was a case with the county of Maui versus some environmental group went all the way to the US Supreme Court,
[36:19] The Supreme Court made a ruling about their specific situation and then kind of left some broad framework that left the Clean Water Act open to interpretation.
[36:30] That interpretation is that some in some instances a shallow well can be the functional equivalent of a direct discharge which in their view is no different than having a pipe dumping into the ocean.
[36:43] And so in those cases, you'd be required to have an NPDES permit which don't get issued in the keys because we don't, they don't, we're not allowed to dump water directly into the ocean.
[36:54] So fast word there.
[36:58] City Marathon got challenged in federal court for our disposal mechanisms.
[37:03] It started with a rework of area three to basically move their existing shallow well.
[37:10] It got challenged, City went through a lawsuit with that and there was a settlement agreement
[37:17] that was reached that said that we would do a plan to look at some different options
[37:25] and come up with a solution for a new disposal system.
[37:29] That plan was done and the City Council selected option 1A which is basically a regional facility
[37:35] that allows you to dump or not dump, it allows you to inject the water down a single deep injection while with shallow wells as backups at each of the facilities.
[37:44] That is treated effluent, that is basically relatively clean water and it would get injected 30, 600 feet below the surface.
[37:53] So here's what's kind of an overview of the process.
[37:59] So raw sewage goes from the houses, goes through the collection system to your wastewater treatment plants.
[38:06] That's what you have right now, that's how it currently is, that's not changing.
[38:10] The water then gets treated.
[38:12] When it comes out, it's relatively clean.
[38:14] You honestly can't tell the difference between it and a swimming pool.
[38:19] The city staff does a great job at operating these facilities and they really do take pride in what they do with it.
[38:25] So it's relatively clean from there, that's when we go to our disposal.
[38:30] And currently, we go down the shallow wells.
[38:32] So when we were looking at the economics of a deep well, a single deep well is very expensive.
[38:38] So it was better, it was cheaper to pump them all to a single location inject them.
[38:42] And that is being pumped to Area 6, and
[38:46] then the Area 6 has the deep injection well, or we'll have the deep injection wells installed into it.
[38:52] The facility or the overall plan, and I know that there's kind of been some probably
[38:58] confusion about this, but the project split into five phases.
[39:03] Phase one is the pipeline section from Area 3, 4, and 5, and the two bridge crossings
[39:09] of Bakukat and the one over at Area 6.
[39:12] Phase two is from Bakukat Bridge out to Area 7.
[39:16] Phase 3 is from Cocoa Plum Drive down to Area 6. Phase 4 is the pumping facilities themselves
[39:25] which happen at each of the wastewater plants, and Phase 4B is the facility at Area 6.
[39:30] Phase 5 is actually digging the hole itself, which takes about a year to do with the equipment.
[39:38] So, active construction update. The thing you asked for. So, right now, what we currently
[39:45] have going in phase one. Phase one is the one out here in front of the airport, the one that's
[39:50] been messing up traffic. That is from Area 3 to Vaca Cut. They're currently headed to the East
[39:57] and they're slowly working their way. I'm sure you're all familiar with where they are at this
[40:02] point, but they're over there. Getting past the airport, they have pulled approximately 5,000 feet
[40:09] to pipe. They have 20,000 feet in that section total to pull. It's about 5,000 in 10
[40:16] inch and then the rest is 16. They are planning to mobilize a second drill rig and go both
[40:22] directions to speed it up. The intent and what they currently are tracking is that they
[40:28] will be done by October with the work that involves pulling the pipe. There will still be
[40:33] some isolated work inside the street but the majority of that work will be done by
[40:38] October. They have asked and requested to work weekends to accelerate the schedule, so
[40:44] that's being looked at on a case by case basis.
[40:49] Phase one, MOT, and this is the area that
[40:52] you're, you know, you're familiar with right now, from 107 to 115th, that's kind of
[40:56] our early August MOT, and then from 83rd to 72nd Street when they get that second rig
[41:03] up is going to be about mid-August going that direction. And then once they get past those,
[41:08] then we'll be moving our way down towards a community park in the area 3 facility. Phase
[41:14] 2 and 3 B. So phase 2 and 3 B because of how permitting worked and things kind of got
[41:22] shuffled. Phase 2 and 3 B got shoved together so that's a part of phase 3 and part of phase
[41:27] 2. Engineers we like our phases and our letters but they got shoved together and this in essence
[41:36] is the run from VacaCut to Area 7 and up to the bridge at, I think it's the Hobbes bridge,
[41:45] the little bridge at Area 6, that little bridge that you forget exists.
[41:50] This is currently, it's been awarded, came in under estimate, which is great.
[41:56] Contractor is doing the submittal process.
[41:57] because we are waiting on our DOT approvals for the MOT, the Management and Traffic Plan.
[42:06] It is tentatively planned for pre-construction meeting with DOT on August 13th, and we
[42:11] anticipate that they will mobilize by the end of August, and they'll start working.
[42:16] That being said, DOT does have required shutdown dates, they're not allowed to work during
[42:22] The fantasy vests, they're not allowed to work from November at Thanksgiving all the way
[42:29] through the first of the year.
[42:30] So if you see them split out of there, it's required that they shut down.
[42:35] They can't work in the areas that are not DOT areas, which is basically off of U.S.1.
[42:41] Anything on U.S.1 has some stricter time clocks and weekends.
[42:46] If you noticed on phase one, we kind of, the area out here, there wasn't much action from
[42:51] Fourth of July all the way through many season. That's because Fourth of July is a shutdown and many season was also a shutdown.
[42:59] And they had some issues internally with some turnover staff that required them to not be able to get back right after the Fourth of July,
[43:09] which basically ended up pushing them to have only a week.
[43:13] They got here, they had a power pull, if you guys remember the power all going down.
[43:18] We're fortunate that that wasn't worse, that was, you know, something that was a little
[43:23] careless, but overall, I think, lessons were learned from that one and the contractors
[43:29] being a lot safer now.
[43:31] Just to add briefly, Steve, Labor Day is also off for the long weekend.
[43:35] Correct.
[43:36] Yes, that's correct.
[43:38] So phase 3a, or yes, phase 3a, this is the section from the bridge over to area 6.
[43:47] This section is pretty much done.
[43:50] This was choral construction had this section.
[43:52] The pipe is in the ground, the restoration has been done.
[43:55] We are doing punch list check off, that section, the project will be formally closed probably
[44:02] in the next two weeks, two, three weeks.
[44:05] and overall went pretty well.
[44:07] So not a whole lot to say there is about 5,000 feet of pipe.
[44:11] So it was the smallest section, but it went pretty well.
[44:16] So any questions about active construction
[44:18] before I do our facility plan amendment?
[44:24] I'll call you.
[44:25] I was just going to say because we're coming
[44:29] into the holiday season, it almost seems like yeah,
[44:32] more off days than on days and we're really going to come in on time on this because you
[44:38] know we have penalties if we're not so yeah so we're on schedule for the pipeline pipeline
[44:43] will be well in before the December 20 28 deadline not too concerned about the pipeline section
[44:51] it's the rest of it that's going to take some time all the vertical construction there's
[44:56] long lead times on some equipment right now.
[45:00] They'll have to be done to make sure that the rest of it goes, gets in and time, but right now I'm not concerned about the pipeline. The pipeline should be well in before the deadline. One of they starting to actually dig the deepwell drill it. We are waiting on our permit for the actual whole permit applications been submitted. We are waiting for any REIs back from the deepwell people in Tallahassee. We're hoping to have it by
[45:29] in October, November, we did look at a couple options.
[45:33] We have reached out to Youngquest, which is a drilling company.
[45:37] There's only two contractors in the state that can drill this, unfortunately.
[45:42] That's the nature of the deep wells.
[45:44] Youngquest is one of them.
[45:45] We did look at a potential piggyback opportunity,
[45:47] which is where you would basically use unit pricing
[45:49] from a previous project that they did for a different municipality,
[45:53] and just to see where we're kind of coming in.
[45:56] But those are still preliminary.
[45:58] So, hoping we have it by October, November, and then you'll get cut loose right away as soon as, well, it'll come to you guys, but it'll go out to bid as soon as we get the permit.
[46:09] Okay.
[46:13] So, our facilities plan, I lost my screen.
[46:17] Yeah. All right. Facilities plan update. So, facilities plan, what is it? What is it for? What is it doing?
[46:23] Silly's plan basically just says this is the plan for how we are going to approach our projects.
[46:30] They're required for SRF funding, which is the state revolving fund, the low interest loan,
[46:37] which is what's typically used to fund these.
[46:40] As part of that, they require a lot of this stuff, which is why we're going to go over it.
[46:44] But the facilities plan is, it's what was brought to you guys before,
[46:50] or basically with these were your options, the ways you could approach the project.
[46:54] And these are the different selections.
[46:57] And so this is an amendment to that.
[47:01] So how the plan has been refined and why I'm bringing an amendment before you.
[47:07] As the original plan was very kind of shot against the wall, it was very broad.
[47:13] It was estimates of how to approach it.
[47:15] Now that we're into the engineering design of it,
[47:18] There's some very specific things that need to be addressed.
[47:22] And that's kind of changed a couple of the scope items a little bit.
[47:26] It has not changed the overall option.
[47:28] It would not change the option.
[47:29] These would be required no matter which direction you went in.
[47:33] It's just that SRF is requiring us to do an amendment to include it in the facilities plan because they weren't the first time.
[47:43] What's in the actual amendment, it's the Phase 4A effluent holding tanks.
[47:46] So all the water after it gets treated gets put inside of a holding tank at the waste water plant and then it gets pumped out to Area 6.
[47:54] We need the holding tanks because of the hydraulic modeling show that it's basically we need a buffer capacity during a heavy event to ensure that we don't end up overflowing,
[48:03] that we have some storage time and that we can ship it out to the Area 6 facility, you know, with a little bit of time between that.
[48:10] So in that really looking at King Tide areas and then rain events, that's really when that comes into place.
[48:19] The other part of that is the phase 4b, which is the facility at Area 6.
[48:23] That's the actual facility when we got into the Area 6 looking at what needs to be done.
[48:28] It needs a new electrical system, it needs a control building,
[48:33] and it just kind of starts to snowball a little bit
[48:37] in what they had in the original facility's plan
[48:39] that Jeterna did to what you actually need
[48:42] to be able to build and operate it.
[48:45] So that's where the disconnect is.
[48:47] And then the phase five is the actual deep well itself
[48:51] and the monitoring well, which is changed,
[48:54] design-wise has changed slightly based off of geotech conditions
[48:58] and what we're actually seeing in the design phase.
[49:03] I'm not going to go too far into this one, but this basically lists at each facility,
[49:09] each area what the additional are, or what is additional, I should say, to the facility's
[49:15] plan.
[49:16] It's not actually an additional.
[49:17] It's just what they perceived as additional.
[49:20] So, Steve, we learned our lesson with steel tanks, right?
[49:23] We're doing concrete.
[49:24] Absolutely.
[49:25] I got pictures for you.
[49:26] Okay.
[49:26] Yeah.
[49:26] I got pictures for you.
[49:27] So here's our first concrete tank.
[49:29] This is area three.
[49:32] We actually, as part of that, and this is part of that, the chlorine contact chambers, which is where they put the sodium hypochloride and it tends to be one of your worst rusting areas.
[49:42] We are shifting those tanks into the concrete tanks because we have to do a holding tank anyway.
[49:48] It made a lot of sense to do this.
[49:49] This will eliminate a maintenance problem, but a maintenance upkeep thing that the city had to do with the existing CCCs.
[49:58] So that is part of what we're doing here and if and you'll see there's square
[50:05] tanks around tanks it largely dependent on how much area we have at the site
[50:09] because there's these sites are getting pretty tight. Area 4, kind of same thing
[50:15] square tank holding tank. This is kind of right where the parking is there where
[50:20] if you've ever been to the area 4 facility. Area 5, we have an existing
[50:27] It's a steel plate tank. It's got holes in it. It's been not used for a while. We're taking that tank down. I'm putting a concrete tank up in its place.
[50:38] And then area 7 is same thing. It's a concrete tank up in the corner that holds it. All the tanks are 60,000 gallons with the exception of holding capacity with the exception of area 7, which is 25,000 gallons because area 7 is a small plant in comparison.
[50:57] So where does this fit into your overall facility?
[51:02] So your phase 4a is actually what you're pumping out from.
[51:08] So that's technically the first part of the system.
[51:10] And then phase 1, 2, and 3 slide in after that for the pipeline phase 4b is the effluent
[51:17] holding.
[51:17] And then phase 5 is the actual deep injection well, putting it down the ground.
[51:21] Um, um, these just kind of go into, uh, a little bit more detail about what the operations
[51:28] controls, reliability, uh, and improvement, uh, and then the treatment and disinfection,
[51:34] um, the things that are part of the amendment, um, I won't go down and read them, but you get
[51:39] the idea.
[51:41] Uh, area six, proposed site plan, so this is area six, uh, the existing area six is in the
[51:47] right hand side, you can see that little tank over there, that round tank, that's the existing
[51:53] and then the new tank is the new holding tank and the residuals processing with a deep
[52:02] injection wall pump system. As part of that, we have a couple other improvements to do
[52:08] with how they do their sledge handling there and then also where we have the dump trucks
[52:15] that currently go at the facility, so we're making that a little bit more user-friendly and accessible for the staff to ensure that they can manage the residuals better.
[52:28] This is the office laboratory building that we're looking at, it looks very similar to Area 5,
[52:37] but the main reason we need a building is to run the new facility and
[52:40] And then also for the electrical, which is the primary driver electrical of the size requires air conditioning.
[52:48] And for that it's cheapest to build a building instead of trying to fit it inside of a conax or
[52:54] something and then you end up having maintenance issues down the road.
[52:57] So, and then if you're familiar with the area six facility, there's the building,
[53:03] Erma damage the building quite a bit.
[53:04] So we're moving some of the critical systems from that building up into this new building to avoid any potential damage
[53:10] from future storms. This is a diagram of the deepwell. Technically, when you build the deepwell,
[53:18] you have two wells that you build. You build a deepwell and then a monitoring well. The deepwell
[53:22] is going to be plus or minus 3600 feet and it will inject into the boulder zone. And then the monitoring
[53:28] well will be about 1250. It's usually around half the distance. And that basically tells you if
[53:34] you're casing those vertical lines going down the side, if that casing has a leak for some
[53:40] reason. We're putting these in as FRP, so there is no anything corrosive below. One of the
[53:48] common issues that you get with deep injection wells, especially up on the mainland, is
[53:52] they'll do steel casing because it's cheaper and you end up getting swish cheese after, you
[53:57] know, 10 years or so. We are not proposing, so that was one of the changes in the facilities
[54:02] plan as we're proposing to put this in as FRP composite material rather than dealing
[54:08] with the potential steel issues.
[54:12] Design alternatives that were looked at, this basically you have your existing strategy,
[54:18] and then you have your other items, I'm not going to go too far into it,
[54:22] but we looked at a couple different options of how can you get the same result,
[54:25] and then try to land on what's going to be the most economic and most operable for the city staff.
[54:31] At the end of the day, I can put anything on paper, but they have to live with it.
[54:34] So I want to make sure that they're getting a facility that's going to be easy to operate
[54:39] and maintain in the future.
[54:42] Environmental and resiliency considerations, this, you know, just basically, we're not
[54:48] affecting anything that we weren't already affecting as far as the environment is concerned.
[54:52] Everything is still within the impact zones of the project, there's no changes to that.
[54:57] And then, coastal resiliency, everything is designed for the FEMA flood requirements,
[55:04] uplift, loadings, that kind of stuff.
[55:08] Cost update, and this is not too dissimilar from what you've already seen, that does not
[55:14] include the pipeline, that is the pump facilities, and the actual deep well itself.
[55:21] So that portion of the project is the lion's share of the project, the pipeline is actually
[55:26] the cheaper portion.
[55:28] Design permitting status, just to give you guys an update, so phase 4A, we're actively
[55:33] in design.
[55:33] We have permits on quite a few of the wastewater plants already with modifications.
[55:38] We are plus or minus 60% there, I would say as far as designs going, and the plan is to
[55:46] try to accelerate that through the end of the year, go out to bid, beginning next year,
[55:51] and get things under construction, which will give two years for
[55:56] the project to be built, which should be plenty.
[56:01] For B status, that one's a little bit more behind because of the nature of it and
[56:07] how big it is.
[56:09] That one, we're still about probably like 30% there.
[56:14] There's a lot of components to it, so we're going through that.
[56:17] The permitting process has started there.
[56:19] we anticipate that the permits will be in hand before the end of the year for that facility.
[56:25] And then phase five, which we talked about briefly, was the actual deep injection.
[56:29] Well, permits have been submitted. It's in DEP's hands.
[56:33] We keep poking them every week and try to see if they had a chance to review it.
[56:37] It's being done by Tallahassee's injection-injection well division.
[56:42] So anything to do with deep wells has to go through them and it takes time.
[56:47] funding and financial planning the fun stuff. So overall project estimate it's not too
[56:54] dissimilar from what you've been seeing but you've seen before you know we're looking
[56:57] plus or minus 70 is 70 million is where we're at as far as everything associated with that.
[57:04] I have your project broken out into different buckets and SRF versus grant funding. We've
[57:10] been pretty successful with grant funding and we anticipate that that's going to continue.
[57:13] So we believe that we'll be able to get at least 50% of the project funded through grant funding or appropriation.
[57:21] So we've been doing pretty well there, Marie has been great at helping with that.
[57:26] And I feel pretty confident, which I'll go over kind of where we've gotten money in the last year,
[57:34] because we had a couple things come through that was really beneficial and helpful.
[57:39] How the project's being funded, we have our state appropriation.
[57:43] So this is one of those things that came through.
[57:45] We basically asked the state government, can you give us money?
[57:49] And they said, sure, and they gave us two and a half million.
[57:52] We asked for five, we're gonna ask them again next year, same thing.
[57:56] You know, hey, can you give us some money to help pay for this project?
[57:59] Then we have grant funding and the grants that you guys typically are dealing with is four to keys area critical concern,
[58:08] which is sometimes known as stewardship money.
[58:11] That money is coming in, I think the city is getting two and a half plus or minus two and a half million this year.
[58:17] That one spreads throughout a lot of the municipalities down here.
[58:22] So like Key Largo gets some, Key West is getting some, the county is getting some.
[58:28] The next one, and this is kind of the big one that we're relying on is resiliency.
[58:34] So resiliency money is basically money that's used to fund improvements.
[58:40] It's to make them more resistant to flooding and see lower rise.
[58:45] And if you can show that your project has that which by the nature of these projects and where we are, we are doing that, you can get up to 50% funded.
[58:54] We got $5 million on the project, so some things don't qualify like the depot, the whole on the ground, that doesn't qualify for that money.
[59:04] But the facility that, you know, the pump systems, the tanks, all that stuff, designing those for flood loading and for future
[59:12] Hurricane hardness and mitigation does qualify. So we submitted a project last year or submitted the project for for A and for B last year.
[59:20] We asked for
[59:23] 50% of whatever it was, I think like
[59:26] 14 million or something. It gave us five and they gave it and what's interesting about that one is we actually didn't make the cut the first time.
[59:34] But we found out later that some people shifted off, so we're in the system now.
[59:39] Which means now, when we ask for money, we'll get priority over projects that haven't started yet.
[59:44] So we anticipate we're going to get another 10 million from that.
[59:47] That's the hope, that's the goal, no promises, but that's what we're trying.
[59:53] So then beyond that, you have your SRF funding, which is your low interest loan.
[1:00:00] Which is basically funding you use that once you keep the project moving and then you pay it off with SRF so that you end up with like a 1% interest loan at the end. And none of that has changed from what you've seen before. The goal is still the same. I think the SRF loan we're looking at is like 30 million is what it was before that hasn't changed. That's still the goal. Of this, where we stand today, there's about 13 million that's kind of floating out there that hasn't been
[1:00:29] plugged in yet, but like I said we're hoping that 10 million of that will come from
[1:00:34] resilient Florida. We're pretty confident that that's gonna happen because we're
[1:00:39] already in the system. We also have the additional two and a half million from
[1:00:44] stewardship or from Florida Keys area critical concern that we add and
[1:00:49] account it for when I put this together as well. So there's some money out there and
[1:00:53] we're getting closer to keep chipping away at it and keep chipping away and any
[1:00:57] grant opportunities that come up, you know, Maria. And as we talk about it, try to chip away at it,
[1:01:02] see if we can get money from wherever we can get it from.
[1:01:06] Next steps. Main thing, these are by
[1:01:09] area. I won't go through them, but, you know, for phase two, start construction, phase one,
[1:01:16] continue construction, phase three. It's, you know, start construction on 3B, phase three A is done,
[1:01:23] Phase 4, continue design permitting plans, Phase 4B, same thing, and then Phase 5 is go to put it out to bid as soon as our permit comes through.
[1:01:33] The design of that's pretty much done through the hole in the ground.
[1:01:39] And then here's just kind of a quick next steps, and our deadline being end of December 20, 28.
[1:01:47] It was always a tight deadline. I'm not going to lie to you and say that it's not.
[1:01:50] it was always you know when they when they we had four years I think when they
[1:01:54] did the agreement we're like really need six but we're on track right now we'll
[1:02:01] see how that keeps going but pipelines on track and then really it's going to
[1:02:05] be the facilities as they start to build on what we can do there and there's a
[1:02:09] couple ideas on how we can accelerate that so questions yeah I have one or two so
[1:02:16] So we're going to go 3,600 feet down.
[1:02:22] Have we done anything in the keys 3,600 feet down?
[1:02:26] Yeah, so great question.
[1:02:28] You are actually just falling in line with where the City of Key West is,
[1:02:32] Code Geo Regional and Key Largo Waste Water Treatment District.
[1:02:36] They're all of their disposal systems, or the exception of City of Key West,
[1:02:39] have a primary deep all disposal, and shallow all backups.
[1:02:42] So Key Largo is about, I think, 3,400 feet, and I say 3,600,
[1:02:47] it's a plus or minus because you actually figure it out when you're drilling it. Believe it or not.
[1:02:53] So it could go deeper. It could be shallower but we're approximating 3600. So you're not the
[1:02:59] first one. There's others out there and they currently do this. And you said there's only a couple
[1:03:03] people who can drill that hole in this state of Florida or in the United States. State of Florida.
[1:03:08] So, are we on the list to drill, or is we, I mean, how?
[1:03:15] So, we've started the discussions with those companies, the ones that typically bid within
[1:03:20] the state of Florida to let them know this project exists and to put it on their calendar
[1:03:24] to ensure that we, you know, when we do put it out that they have the crew and its potential
[1:03:29] to get in, which is why we had explored a potential PE back agreement, which is where you jump
[1:03:35] on to a other municipalities agreement and you use their unit cost.
[1:03:43] Steve, is the lines going in to Cocoa Plum if we ever like say 20 years down the road
[1:03:51] and you know the maintenance issues with so many plants?
[1:03:53] One centralized plant would be drastically cheaper to operate.
[1:03:57] Are those lines big enough?
[1:03:58] I understand there's a challenge with a second or a backup deep oil.
[1:04:02] They are.
[1:04:02] they are. So the plan, looking at it, that was something that the previous City Manager had
[1:04:09] asked us to look at when we were putting this together.
[1:04:14] Yes, the possibilities are
[1:04:16] so likely what would happen if you were to do a conversion and go to one central plant,
[1:04:21] the plant that's there will have to get bigger at Area 6, obviously to make up for the initial flow.
[1:04:27] But you would, all these holding tanks were making would basically turn into raw sewage holding
[1:04:32] tanks, and you would screen them before the sewage goes in to pull any big things out,
[1:04:37] like your floatables.
[1:04:39] I won't be any more descriptive, but you'll pull those out and then you pump the water
[1:04:45] to the facility.
[1:04:47] So it is fully there, the capability will be there.
[1:04:51] The only thing that you're sacrificing when you look at doing that, and this is kind of
[1:04:56] the main thing you have to consider, is that right now you're treating water decentralized,
[1:05:01] And so you're treating them at local areas, each of those plants is allowed to dump in a shallow well as an emergency backup.
[1:05:08] So the way we're designing it is if the treated water, for whatever reason, you know, active water, whatever we cannot ship it to area six, the treated water will go down your existing shallow wells that you currently have.
[1:05:20] And that's, you know, that's not raw, that's not sewage, that's treated, that's basically pool water.
[1:05:26] If you take that away, then we're not allowed to do that anymore, which means you have one option, one option alone, and that's to get it to area six.
[1:05:34] And if you can't get it there, it overflows on the ground.
[1:05:38] So that's what we've had happen before.
[1:05:41] It happens.
[1:05:42] So it's an option in the future.
[1:05:44] It is an option that leaves that way.
[1:05:45] Yeah, that was my main question.
[1:05:46] Yeah, and it's set up for that.
[1:05:48] So if that's the desire in the future, we also have it set up that if in the future, you know, one of the things we looked at was potentially
[1:05:54] Potentially shipping the water to the aqueducts facility the our facility if they wanted to do indirect reuse or something
[1:06:02] That's a capability to that was I think when you guys were looking at this originally there was option 1a and 1b and
[1:06:09] 1a was the ultimate one that was chosen because 1b involved aqueduct
[1:06:14] Wanting to play ball with that and at the time they hadn't and we didn't own the property and we yeah need on the property
[1:06:19] Yeah, so that possibility though if say they wanted it
[1:06:24] You could turn it around and ship another possibility to just thrown it out there
[1:06:28] It's possibility, but it's not something that
[1:06:31] Was advertised too much is that if in the future you ever wanted to send water like if they're if we had a user that said
[1:06:37] Hey, I want the water we're shipping it across marathon
[1:06:40] You can always tap in the line and pull that treated water out and use it for water and grass or whatever
[1:06:46] So that is a possibility
[1:06:49] So it's not a primary, but it is a possibility
[1:06:52] Steve also
[1:06:53] So we have more properties that have been approved to be built, and even maybe Valhalla, will this be enough for the added properties?
[1:07:10] Yes.
[1:07:10] Those have all been accounted for in our hydraulic model.
[1:07:13] We even looked at potentially, and this was something that a previous city manager had asked
[1:07:18] for as well.
[1:07:20] If Duckke ended up not being allowed to dispose down their shallow wells, they could also run
[1:07:25] a line and tie it into the system and take it to Area 6 as a possibility.
[1:07:29] We're not running any lines out there, but that is a possibility if it came up.
[1:07:33] And what about K-Colony?
[1:07:35] K-Colony.
[1:07:36] We did look at K-Colony to tie it in.
[1:07:37] or currently, it is not set up to take key colony.
[1:07:41] It would have made the pipeline go from the 16-inch to an 18-inch.
[1:07:46] It would have added a couple million dollars to the cost.
[1:07:49] So the direction from staff at the time was to not plan for key colony.
[1:07:56] But if that's the change, let us know before we build it.
[1:08:01] If they got the money, we get the time.
[1:08:06] Any other questions?
[1:08:08] Thank you, Steve.
[1:08:09] All right.
[1:08:10] Thank you.
[1:08:17] We miss the 630 speakers.
[1:08:21] We want to do that now.
[1:08:23] Diego Cordova.
[1:08:33] A little councilman.
[1:08:35] Thank you for having me.
[1:08:36] I'm concerned about the boat ramp at Harbor.
[1:08:42] And I would like to state that that is a boat ramp that I use quite often.
[1:08:48] and it would be nice to be able to park there for the owners or the people that live in
[1:08:58] the neighborhood of aviation. A few of us guides use that vote ramp quite a bit, and
[1:09:05] it would be pretty helpful for us if we're able to park there. I think that they should
[1:09:14] have a line on the street where a vehicle, a long vehicle, or a long trailer cannot exceed
[1:09:23] that line. And if there's a possibility for us to have some kind of special permit
[1:09:29] because we're in that neighborhood to be able to utilize that parking space that would
[1:09:33] be greatly appreciated by us guides and local people around the neighborhood. And that's
[1:09:41] That's pretty much all I have to say about that.
[1:09:42] Thank you very much for listening to me.
[1:09:44] Thanks, Diego.
[1:09:45] Thank you, Diego.
[1:09:47] John Callian, followed by Diane Scott.
[1:09:58] But if you cancel, I'd like to say hello.
[1:10:02] And thank you for taking the time to hear what I got to say.
[1:10:05] I'm basically here for the same reason that Diego is,
[1:10:08] is to restore the traditional parking
[1:10:11] that we always used to have behind the airport.
[1:10:13] I mean, I've owned at home behind the airport since 1981.
[1:10:17] one and I've launched my boat there when there was no boat right there it was just dirt and
[1:10:23] to be able to park there would greatly help me as well as you know several others because it's
[1:10:29] a two-man thing to launch your boat there. You could have someone to drive the boat away and you could
[1:10:34] have somebody drive the truck away and I'm a one-man show and so that would greatly help and thank you
[1:10:42] for taking the time to hear what I got to say.
[1:10:49] Diane Scott.
[1:11:07] Council, Diane Scott.
[1:11:09] Y'all know why I'm here.
[1:11:11] This is Sheriff of Police Department.
[1:11:14] You know what?
[1:11:15] I'm glad to all lawyers and all that.
[1:11:19] But y'all need y'all on Police Department.
[1:11:22] You really do.
[1:11:23] You need y'all on Police Department around here.
[1:11:26] If Key Collins can have theirs and Key West can have theirs,
[1:11:28] American Thung and have theirs too.
[1:11:30] But you know what?
[1:11:33] Don't stop the city. The Sheriff Office is corrupt. And I'm gonna tell you something.
[1:11:40] If you all don't want your own police department, you are condoning their corruptances.
[1:11:46] Really, seriously. And you know what? I pray. I pray soon that somebody come in and tear that
[1:11:54] Sheriff also support. And then y'all will be looking crazy. I'm like, I told you. You know?
[1:11:58] they are corrupt and you know what when they said they ignore police wrong
[1:12:04] doing and in turn affairs don't do nothing and then they said somebody accredited
[1:12:08] nation people and you talk to them nobody cares nobody cares and I know for
[1:12:14] fact that they ignore reports because they ignore minds and they let two of my
[1:12:20] cases took two years and to the statute of limitations went out and then it was
[1:12:25] like we can't do nothing.
[1:12:27] You had two years to do something.
[1:12:29] I showed you pictures.
[1:12:31] I showed you doctor reports.
[1:12:33] And you still didn't do your job.
[1:12:35] That's corruption.
[1:12:36] And so you all need your own police department
[1:12:40] because you have accountability.
[1:12:42] And don't say that we can't afford it, yes you can.
[1:12:45] Because you know what, you get grant money for everything.
[1:12:47] You can get grant money.
[1:12:49] Well, we already have a police department
[1:12:51] because this marathon paid a share
[1:12:54] also sort of marathon people here that works at the substation, but you all need to be holding
[1:13:00] officers accountable for their wrongdoing. These officers can't go around just thinking they above
[1:13:07] the law and lie and report and get away with it. And the sheriff don't care because you know what,
[1:13:13] they do the stuff, they're reflection of him because they wouldn't be doing wrong if he wasn't
[1:13:19] condone it. So I'm telling y'all I'm going to preach to you all and and guess what? How long you
[1:13:24] know how long I've been saying this? That y'all need your own police department about over 10 years.
[1:13:30] You need your own police department. You really do. I know you pay for the sheriff office, but it's
[1:13:36] no accountability there. They don't do nothing. In a report it says, let me say this right quick. Y'all
[1:13:43] have with the sheriff office is that if the citizen here have a complaint, they
[1:13:48] supposed to look into the complaint and give you all full report. None of my
[1:13:53] complaints have never had a full report. They don't care. They're corrupt. Thank
[1:13:59] you. Thank you. Betty Chaplin.
[1:14:09] Just real quick. One of the things I like about this
[1:14:12] council is you ask a lot of questions every day and you talk to us old
[1:14:17] timers all the time and there are a lot of things that catch people up. A lot
[1:14:20] things that we were told a long time ago we find out but not absolutely true so just keep
[1:14:25] asking questions. The other thing is that marathon the city of marathon is 16 miles long.
[1:14:31] We started the 7 mile bridge and we go all the way to Tom's Harbor Bridge. If you count both
[1:14:36] sides the road that's what 32 miles and we used to say all we have to do to be successful is to be
[1:14:45] prettier and nicer and we'll be better and have more business than Key West and we
[1:14:50] already do. We already do. We have to keep doing that. We have to keep being
[1:14:55] attractive we have.
[1:15:00] We have to be nice, we have to work hard, we have to keep things looking good. The other thing
[1:15:04] is, and last thing is that that road is just about the most important thing to water
[1:15:12] electricity. Every pill, every piece of wood, all our groceries, our gasoline, the greyhound
[1:15:21] bus, everything comes across that road. We also need to understand that if we don't take
[1:15:26] care of things and we don't pay attention and we don't ask a lot of questions we could
[1:15:30] lose it all tomorrow. All of our water comes from the Everglades. All of our electricity
[1:15:35] comes from turkey point. All of our garbage and our of our junk goes up this highway to
[1:15:41] someplace else where they dump it and keep us looking good and smelling good. That didn't
[1:15:46] just happen. A lot of people that came before us worked really hard to make this work and
[1:15:52] That road is really important.
[1:15:54] There's a situation on Veccacut Bridge going north
[1:15:57] that is going to be a catastrophe if we don't stop it.
[1:16:01] And I've just found out that DOT has approved it
[1:16:03] and that's the diesel lane to the property
[1:16:06] behind the Catholic Church.
[1:16:08] The plan is not gonna work.
[1:16:11] It's a catastrophe waiting to happen.
[1:16:12] I hate to do this, but I'm gonna go to the governor about it.
[1:16:15] If we don't protect our road, if we don't protect our sides,
[1:16:19] if we don't protect our easements,
[1:16:21] There are a lot of easements on some burrow beach road that really need to be looked at people put their rocks right out on the road
[1:16:27] If an ambulance had to pull aside or a fire truck had to pull aside
[1:16:31] They would be no place for them to go if somebody died or somebody got injured beyond what had to be we would be sued worse than that
[1:16:38] We our hearts would be broken. So keep asking questions
[1:16:42] I'm going to report on the next meeting that we have about that because
[1:16:46] is going north on the tobacco cut bridge should be easy peasy.
[1:16:50] There will be a lot of turns because that's the way our town is.
[1:16:54] But that is a catastrophe waiting to happen if that turn is so quick right after that bridge.
[1:16:59] You can't see it.
[1:16:59] Somebody's going to hit that and hurt somebody.
[1:17:02] Anyway, keep up the good work.
[1:17:04] Thank you.
[1:17:05] Thanks, buddy.
[1:17:07] 20 more speakers?
[1:17:08] No?
[1:17:08] Okay.
[1:17:12] Ordnance 2026-23, Modifying Section 32-2 of the City Code of Ordnances, Regulation of
[1:17:19] Record Operators who provide towing and storage services at the request of law enforcement
[1:17:24] officers, providing for incorporation into the Code of Ordnances and providing for an effective
[1:17:29] date.
[1:17:31] Good evening, Council.
[1:17:32] We're going to do some good old fashioned government deregulation.
[1:17:36] So we looked at this ordinance and according to the Florida statute, we can be stricter than
[1:17:40] what is in the statutes. Currently, Arden's has a few sections that are stricter. For example,
[1:17:46] a jurisdiction of our size and population. We can allow towing up to 15 miles from location,
[1:17:51] but within our current ordinance it says 13. We're going to keep that regulation in place,
[1:17:56] but we are looking at where we are inconsistent with the rest of the Florida statutes. So if you turn
[1:18:01] to page 64 of your agenda, you'll see the first change. And that is that the statute says the
[1:18:07] hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Our ordinance is 5 p.m. So we're mending that. And it also
[1:18:13] currently says Monday to Friday, but the statute says any day that towing is occurring from that
[1:18:17] business. If you flip to the next page, you'll see that that is repeated again in section 12.
[1:18:25] Then as we get to section 13, it talks about notification and signage. So we're adding that language
[1:18:30] cut and paste from the statute. We are going to make the city clerk's life easier by removing the
[1:18:38] annual fee, and since we only have two currently registered, it's just easy to
[1:18:42] document which to exist. So any new ones, they would just pay a one-time only
[1:18:47] $100 fee. So we're removing the clerk from that process as an annual renewal
[1:18:52] and just doing a one-time fee. Under the current ordinance, they are supposed to
[1:18:57] notify the clerk within 15 days of a tow. Under the current statute, it's within 30
[1:19:02] minutes to the sheriff's office. So we are just copying, pasting from the statute,
[1:19:05] all that notification criteria in the next few pages.
[1:19:11] We are then getting into the penalties on the last page of your agenda.
[1:19:17] I'm 69 of that section.
[1:19:21] Again, we just took the same penalties from the statute and pasted them into our ordinance.
[1:19:26] So we're no longer over complicating things.
[1:19:28] Any questions?
[1:19:38] No, really. I thought you did pretty good, Brian.
[1:19:40] Usually I like to pick at you.
[1:19:41] I'll make a motion to accept ordinance 2026-23 as is second council
[1:19:51] member Matt lock. Yes council member still. Yes council member Landry. Yes, please know vice mayor strife has abstained mayor and Delgezo. Yes, motion carries.
[1:20:06] Ordnance, 2026, 24, amending chapter 15 fire prevention article one in general amending section 15-6 entitled chickies and
[1:20:17] teakies amending section 15-7 entitled penalty amending sections 15-8 through 15-26 entitled reserve of the city of
[1:20:27] marathon code of ordinances providing for several ability providing for the repeal of conflicting provisions and
[1:20:34] and providing for an effective date.
[1:20:36] If this ordinance looks familiar to you,
[1:20:38] that is because it is.
[1:20:40] We had a similar ordinance last year.
[1:20:42] And then as of July one,
[1:20:44] the state changed the definitions
[1:20:45] on what could be allowed as a cheeky and teaky.
[1:20:48] So our ordinance that was under review with the states
[1:20:51] was withdrawn and we are starting fresh
[1:20:53] with those new definitions from the states.
[1:20:56] So previously we had language in there saying
[1:20:58] the teaky's could be five future money structure.
[1:21:01] With the new state law, they went with 10 feet.
[1:21:03] So we're basically copying and pasting the state law.
[1:21:06] You will see additional ordinances in the next few months.
[1:21:09] Those are going to be in the LDRs, so
[1:21:12] those have to go to planning commission first before it will come to you.
[1:21:15] And those are pulling in the criteria where the state said they can't be 10 feet closer than any property line.
[1:21:22] Which is a greater setback than our current setbacks.
[1:21:24] So we need to add that into our setback code section.
[1:21:30] So because we're going to get angry phone calls about this, for layman's terms they overrode our decision and we have to adopt.
[1:21:36] And one stricter that's yeah, so it's not our fault
[1:21:38] I didn't read much room in this when I read it so I make a motion to accept the ordinance 2026 that's 24
[1:21:47] We
[1:21:49] do not have anyone signed up to speak councilmember Matlock
[1:21:54] Yes, councilmember still yes councilmember Landry. Yes vice mayor strife. Yes mayor Delgado. Yes, motion carries
[1:22:03] Resolution 2026 72 impose and provide for collection of wastewater special assessments for air
[1:22:09] service areas 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, including the supplemental assessment program for fiscal year,
[1:22:16] commencing in October 1st, 2026, approving the assessment role, providing for collection
[1:22:22] of the assessments and providing for an effective date.
[1:22:28] Libby says she really loves to speak in public and would like to talk to you guys for a long
[1:22:32] time tonight about this and no, she's going to kill me.
[1:22:37] No, it's one we've got to do if there's no other way to put it.
[1:22:40] So I'm going to add to that, Steve, just because I know stuff.
[1:22:47] I don't know you guys do, too, but I made a jab at the other Steve about steel tanks.
[1:22:52] There is just maintenance and stuff coming up that we just, if you want to flush your toilets, this is, I don't like it either.
[1:22:59] I got to pay it.
[1:23:01] So it kind of what Steve said, we have to do it because of aging facilities and everything we're dealing with.
[1:23:06] So unless you guys have something.
[1:23:15] We have no speakers.
[1:23:17] Any speakers on this?
[1:23:19] No.
[1:23:19] Okay.
[1:23:20] Make a motion.
[1:23:21] We approve resolution 2026-S72.
[1:23:24] No second.
[1:23:28] Council member still?
[1:23:29] Yes.
[1:23:30] Council member Landry?
[1:23:31] Yes.
[1:23:31] Council member Matt Locke?
[1:23:32] Yes.
[1:23:33] Vice Mayor Strife?
[1:23:34] Yes.
[1:23:35] Mayor Donald Gato?
[1:23:36] Yes.
[1:23:36] Motion carries.
[1:23:38] Resolution 2026-73.
[1:23:40] Imposing the annual stormwater utility special assessments for a fiscal year commencing in October
[1:23:45] We're first, 2026 approving the assessment role, providing for a collection of the assessments and providing for an effective date.
[1:23:56] Same concept, you got to do it, you got to have the perquival of the year you rate, so here we are.
[1:24:05] We have no speakers.
[1:24:19] Make a motion, we approve 2026-73.
[1:24:22] Second.
[1:24:26] Council Member Still?
[1:24:27] Yes.
[1:24:28] Vice Mayor Strife?
[1:24:29] Yes.
[1:24:29] Council Member Landry?
[1:24:30] Yes.
[1:24:31] Council Member Matlock?
[1:24:32] Yes.
[1:24:33] Mayor Delgazzo?
[1:24:34] Yes.
[1:24:34] Motion carries.
[1:24:35] I
[1:24:39] think that's it.
[1:24:41] All right, I want to thank everyone in comment
[1:24:43] and do we have any comments, Councilman Landry?
[1:24:49] First of all, I think Mel has left
[1:24:51] but I just wanted to give a shout out the firm again.
[1:24:53] They have done such great work for our community
[1:24:56] and all of the county over the years.
[1:25:00] Happy to hear that we might be getting up
[1:25:02] to 35 million for the deep wild, which will help,
[1:25:04] but it's still going to be a big cost to us.
[1:25:06] And pay attention, now we get into the real nitty-gritty budget season starting in September, so Jennifer, thank you and looking forward to it.
[1:25:18] First of all, thank you everybody for being here tonight.
[1:25:21] School starts.
[1:25:22] I see some teachers in the audience.
[1:25:24] Thank you all very much.
[1:25:25] Tag, you are it.
[1:25:27] Thankfully all my kids are out of school, so I'm not sending them off.
[1:25:29] But I remember those days, and I have friends that are very happy.
[1:25:32] Let's watch out for our school buses.
[1:25:34] We've had a summer where we haven't had to do that, haven't had to watch for the kids who are riding bikes, riding scooters on the way to school.
[1:25:41] So please pay attention tomorrow, we're not really used to that because we've had all summer long.
[1:25:47] Good luck to the teachers, good luck to the students, let's have a great school year.
[1:25:51] Council is a pleasure as always to serve with you.
[1:25:54] I know that we will work hard together to find good solutions for our city.
[1:25:58] Steve, thank you very much.
[1:25:59] We appreciate you being willing to accept the task and come along and be our hopefully maybe city manager.
[1:26:08] It looks like we might be heading that direction, we still have to vote on it.
[1:26:11] But thank you all, everybody, have a great evening,
[1:26:15] Kenny.
[1:26:17] Kenny's good, Deb.
[1:26:21] I really want to thank staff because I know, again, I've been driving you crazy.
[1:26:25] Spook especially, Brian Shay, don't want to leave you out, Brian.
[1:26:31] But Steve, I really appreciate you stepping up and taking this because I really feel like we're off to a good direction and I know that with your leadership, we will be heading an even better direction and I appreciate the way you think about this community and I think that's a very, very important asset.
[1:26:48] So thank you. Thank you guys for coming out.
[1:26:52] Yes, thank you everyone, I like to see our residents that live here, you guys are all passionate about this community as I said earlier, and we love that, we really do, but if you have a question, please reach out to us, I know some of you do, but we are all open, and we will listen, and we are fair-minded.
[1:27:18] So, you know, don't hesitate to reach out email and we want to hear from you.
[1:27:25] We want to see you, we love that you participate, we participate in this community, we love
[1:27:30] our community, we've had some changes this year, it's been a lot, it really has.
[1:27:35] But we're coming out into the light and I know it's going to be super great and when Steve
[1:27:41] decides and gets in, we're going to hit the ground running.
[1:27:45] So I'm looking forward to that.
[1:27:47] This is a business and we're going to get some projects done, and we're going to be back to above normal.
[1:27:54] Thank you.
[1:27:56] Thank you.
[1:27:58] I voted weeks ago, but get out and vote, and let's get this over with as well.
[1:28:05] Thank you, have a good night, everybody.
[1:28:08] adjourn.