But if you want to turn to your neighbor and say,
you look good this morning, you know, so we appreciate
you coming to be with us.
I think we've got pastor Nathan Brown with us today,
and he is from Pine terrace Baptist church.
I'll brag on them.
That's where I was baptized.
We appreciate you, pastor brown, for being here.
Would you mind coming up and leading us in a word of prayer?
And then after that, I'll ask Commissioner Calkins
to lead us in the Pledge.
Whenever you get up there, just hit that button and that light
will turn green.
Pastor, Thank you.
Let us pray.
Most gracious, heavenly father, Thank you for this new day.
Grateful that every new day is a gift from you
with your new morning mercies.
And we're grateful for that.
Thank you for seeing us through the storms yesterday.
We pray for any and all who might
have been touched and affected by those winds and the water.
So we pray, blessing and help their father.
Thank you for this group of folks
who have given themselves to serve the people of this area.
And we pray, father, you give them the wisdom of Solomon
as they try to make wise decisions.
Pray god, you give them the courage of someone
like a Daniel who would stand Lord on conviction.
And I pray you give them god, a compassionate heart of service,
of selfless service that was reflected in the life and work
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came not
to be served, but to serve and to give
his life a ransom for many.
So, lord, would you do that?
We are thankful and we are prayerful and hopeful
because you live and you reign and pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen Amen.
Amen please face the American flag.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands.
One nation under god, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you very much, pastor.
Yes, sir.
Notice the pastor was not comfortable facing us,
which any pastor is going to want to face
the crowd as he's praying.
I bet if we started passing the offering bucket,
he'll turn this way.
So we might start doing that.
It it wouldn't hurt.
I, I encourage you all one day about paying your tithes
and giving you offering.
He will definitely press down, shake it
together and run it over more than your storehouses can
receive.
All right.
Any fellow commissioners have any issues with the agenda,
or are you all good with approving
the agenda as presented?
Mr chairman, we do need to move item 32 reference
the old Woodbine road to the regular agenda
so we can discuss that.
All right, Mr chair, I wanted to address.
I was down in Apalachicola yesterday for the triumph
meeting, and I wanted to give an update on that too,
as well for agenda item.
Thank you very much.
Anything else going on?
Going twice.
All right.
Well, we'll do that under commissioner items.
Commissioner Smith.
Yes, sir.
And then we will pull number 32 to the regular agenda.
Mr chairman?
Yes, sir.
If I can just reserve just a few minutes
and commissioner, just to make comment on a couple of items.
But that's it.
All right.
Yes, sir.
I'd like to just make a comment after the consent agenda passes.
All right.
Around that time after the consent.
All right.
We're going to start off today, I think.
Do we have some folks from lifequest, Florida, here?
Don't have my glasses on.
All right.
That's fantastic.
Do y'all want to come up real quick?
And I'm going to feel very honored
and privileged to be able to read this proclamation today.
And so if you'll bear with me just a second
as we get through this, this is a County
on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners
and Santa Rosa County.
This proclamation states whereas National Donate Life Month was
instituted by Donate Life America and its members in 2003
and grew from the federally proclaimed National Organ and
tissue donation Awareness Week.
And whereas, National Donate Life Month
is a time when donation and transplantation communities
concentrate its efforts on educating Americans
about the critical shortage of donated organs and tissue
and other life saving gifts, as well
as acknowledging the importance of documenting
one's donation decision.
Whereas more than 100,000 patients are on the National
waiting list for organ transplants,
of which 5,000 are listed as transplant centers in Florida.
And whereas, in 2023, more than 46,000 patients
received life saving organ transplants in the United
states, with more than 3,000 of those occurring
in the state of Florida.
And whereas, on January 2024, according to the United network
of organ sharing, 1026 patients are listed at the Mayo
clinic, Jacksonville, Florida.
And a 156 are listed at ascensionpress.com/sunday
Sacred Heart in Pensacola.
Approximately 20 people die each day awaiting life
saving organ transplants and one organ donor can save the lives
of up to eight people.
And one tissue donor can save up to 75 people
through skin, bone and cornea donation.
Now, therefore, be it resolved.
The board of County Commissioners of Santa Rosa
county, Florida, does hereby proclaim the month of April 2024
as National Donate Life month, and the board
encourages all of our citizens to support Florida's campaign
to save lives and of the importance of designating one's
wishes to be an organ, tissue and eye
donor by joining the registry at Donate Life florida.org.
Passed and adopted this 11th day of April.
And real quick I want to say two things.
This is amazing that how God had this today on the agenda
because I just had dinner with some gentlemen last night
and one of them son had received a heart transplant less
than a year ago up in Atlanta.
And so that's an amazing story to hear about.
And the fact that I really want to give kudos to Stan Nichols,
who many as our Santa Rosa County tax collector
since his time that he's taken office,
he has really fervently worked towards increasing the amount
of people that sign up and register
when they get their driver's license
to be on that organ donor list.
And I know he's very proud of that.
And so we just want to say Thank you to him,
but I'll turn it over.
If you have anything you'd like to say today,
just hit that button on the microphone.
It turned green.
Thank you very much.
My name is Tammy Ward.
I used to live in Santa Rosa County.
I know a few of you personally through leadership and whatnot.
I represent lifequest organ recovery services,
and today I am proud to say that lifenet
the tissue organization is represented,
as well as Lions for the cornea.
We also have Santa Rosa Medical Center representatives here
as they support us and as well as
an heart and kidney recipient and a kidney
and liver recipient.
The two lady and gentleman sitting right over there, they
advocate for us and they know what it's like to be in need,
but also the generosity of someone
to give the gift of life.
So I really appreciate this proclamation
today and Thank you so much.
And that's a.
It's a miracle that to have that ability and technology,
we're going to if my fellow board members don't mind
and the folks that came with you today,
we're going to come down there and we'll get a picture.
How about that?
You'll have a great day.
Thank you for all of y'all here for being with us for that.
That's if that's not a miracle to be
able to take a heart from somebody
and give it to another man so that he has
the chance to live another day.
I mean, that's amazing.
All right.
We are going to do a presentation later on,
but we're waiting for a few folks
to join us to be able to do that.
So we're going to pass that second presentation
that you see on the agenda.
And then the third item that was on the agenda
about the presentation from the Partners that will
be rescheduled until April 25.
The flights had got canceled due to the severe weather
that came through yesterday.
And we I got to pick on him in a positive way.
We've got Tom Lloyd happens to be sitting with us in the back.
All of you probably know him now from being on the news
yesterday.
But we appreciate Tom and we appreciate Brittany
and that you saw earlier up here taking a picture and Sarah
and her team and Andrew and Michael and Brad
and so many that I can't name for being out there.
They were ready to go for when the storm came through
and to be able to deploy as quickly
as possible after that storm yesterday and go out there.
And our fire departments were absolutely
amazing, especially all over the North side of the County.
Some of the fire Chiefs I talked with, they were able to get out
there quickly, make sure roads were cleared
and make sure they could assist people where they could.
And Thank the Lord.
We haven't had any reports of any major injuries or anything.
So roofs can be fixed, sheds can be fixed,
but lives can't be replaced.
So we're appreciative for that.
And Tom, Thank you for coordinating that.
From our emergency response side,
we've got a public hearing about the Florida building code,
but we're going to come back to that just so we can move
through some of these other items
that we've got folks here for.
So we're going to go to presentation now.
If y'all are good with that and we're going to go
ahead and do the presentation by the Soil
Conservation department.
And I noticed we've got some of our advocates
for the farming community with us today.
And we've got Trent Matthews here.
And so we appreciate all you guys being here.
And we've even got the mayor of Jay in the front row.
So I just want to recognize him.
Thank you, mayor Owens, for being here.
So I'm going to turn it over to you now.
Well, Mr Chairman and fellow board members and residents
of Santa Rosa county, it's a great privilege
to be here today.
My name is Levi Blackmon.
I'm a conservation program coordinator
for Santa Rosa County soil conservation department.
And we just was approached with providing some information.
We all know that knowledge is power.
I'm reminded in God's word in Proverbs 11;14 that where there
is no counsel, the people fall.
But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety.
So today, as we gather together, I
just wanted to present some facts
here for Santa Rosa County.
Soil conservation is a huge impact on Santa Rosa county,
especially speaking with agricultural land.
As many know, we're not making new land.
It's when it's gone, it's gone.
And with the agricultural land and the impacts it has,
we have a finite resource that creates non-renewable resources
for Santa Rosa County with those non-renewable resources
or the renewable resources.
I mean, is livestock crops and timber.
And with that, Santa Rosa County has approximately 16.5%
of prime farm land that is in active row crop production.
That's pretty significant when you think about 16,
16.5% of 100% of land that is available that we are utilizing
in our row crop production of that, that's
7.9% of all County lands.
That's in row crop production.
And we definitely see that we could
have a very potential problems in the near future.
And we're here today to try to present
some solutions to those problems that could appear very soon.
So with that, I think it's very important
that we start with the knowledge that we're giving.
I'm often reminded of that, that where do
we find the truth these days?
That seems to be a great loss in our culture and where we're at.
And so that's why I've been afforded the opportunity
for the past month, if you will, to be
able to present true facts to the residents
of Santa Rosa County.
And as well, the board here today.
If you was to move to Santa Rosa county,
whether you are moving because you love the beaches
or you're moving because you're in the military,
if you was to type in Santa Rosa County economics,
this is here what you would be presented with.
There's some great misconceptions
right now that is presented before the residents
of Santa Rosa County.
And and here's just a few.
If I was to look at the importance
of agricultural impact, I would want to see what the.
These are involved and the area that it impacts
within our County to make a conscious decision if that's
something worth fighting for.
So here we look and we see as you look through,
you know, you can type it in on a web page,
you can pull up the information, the agricultural industry
in Santa Rosa County and what's being reported, 25 businesses.
This is what's being reported, 8.5, $7 million
in sales and 98 employees.
And I thought that would be just amazing being in an agriculture
community myself and knowing that these numbers are this
isn't even close to being right.
I mean, I think how, you know, the Lord
works in miraculous ways.
And I think about today we had several inches of rain
last night.
And oftentimes our farmers can't come
and be representative to meetings like we have today.
But I look at that and see that's a great picture
that they were able to be here today from the rain.
But I mean, when you look at the farmers we have here today
and you see 98 employees, I mean,
that's a small representation.
But we have I mean, you know, we're not far
from that number here today.
And when you think about that and you
look at what the true numbers actually are,
we can look here on the slide that's been created, if it'll
work with me, let's see here.
Maybe I need to do it right here at the computer.
That'll work.
So we pulled some research from the University of Florida,
ifas, which is the Institute of Food and Agricultural science,
and they run many numbers across Santa Rosa County
to determine how many jobs are truly related to agriculture
within Santa Rosa County.
And they ran this in 2021.
That's the closest year I could find this information.
And you can see 9526 jobs.
That's a far catch from 98 employees, wouldn't you say?
9526 and I will even bring to our attention
when you look at the information that the County gathers
from Applied Geographic solutions in 2023,
there was 45,467 jobs in Santa Rosa county, Florida.
When you take this, it's not hard to figure out
that one fifth of the County is influenced by agriculture
when it comes to the relationship there of jobs.
So as I looked at that, I thought,
wow, that's pretty remarkable.
You know, when you look over there
and you think about 98 employees and then also you go and you
look at the farms, you know, 25 businesses,
when University of Florida and the National agricultural
statistics survey service in 2022,
they run a detailed survey every five years.
It goes all across many people's homes
that have agricultural lands, whether it's timber,
land, ag land, pasture land.
And they have to fill out a survey.
Well, in 2022, there were 732 credited farms within Santa Rosa
county, Florida.
Now, when you think about that, compared to 25 farms,
there's a significant difference.
And also when you look at the impact in this County
when it comes to monies, that's what really shocked me,
because everyone knows in the big picture in the state
of Florida that tourism and agriculture often rotate
on greatest income revenues within the state of Florida
depending on disaster years.
Right and I think that's so important.
We recognize greater than $90 million on an annual basis.
I did a mean annual data.
I basically did the numbers every year
for the past 10 years, we have an average
of at least $90 million.
Now, you may say, well, Levi, these numbers are generalized,
you know, and most people probably think they are.
But I've had a great amount of time
over the past weeks and months or a couple of months
to look into this.
And one of the things that I found
was the University of Florida office teams up every year
with the Farm Service agency, the Natural Resource
Conservation service, as well as local buying
points where products are sold for agricultural commodities.
And what they do is they determine the amount of tons
per acre that's brought in.
They determine the value of agriculture
in row crop in the County.
And you may say, well, how is that so accurate?
Well, friend, we have farmers here today
and they go to the Farm Service agency
and they have to report the crops
that they produce every year.
They have to put on these crops insurance in case
bad events take place.
We within pennies peanut production in Santa Rosa county,
we know within, you know, hundreds
of dollars of cotton production in Santa Rosa County.
So when you see greater than $90 million,
this here is determined on the facts of what we know is coming
out of Santa Rosa County based on what
people report in this County.
It's also like if you was going to look at some property
and you pulled up the Santa Rosa County property appraiser
we're going we're going to collect the money
to benefit the county, right?
But by doing that, the property appraiser
has to get very precise.
So on some of the things I'm about to show you,
I took from our GIS department in Santa Rosa County
and I pulled the raw data and some shape files,
and I input them into a pro and created some maps
to present some data for us.
So just don't miss this to this.
90 million per year of an annual income
does not include state Timberland revenue.
Most people understand that we have 170,000 acres of state
land Blackwater River State Forest
in Santa Rosa county, Florida.
You would think, wow, that's a lot of revenue.
These numbers does not include that revenue today.
Here we have with us a resource administrator from the Florida
forest service, Mr Eric Howell, that I contacted personally
to get the numbers of what they have
accrued on the State Forest.
And what I did is I took those numbers
and I subtracted it from the tonnage of our local timber
industry buying points to determine
the true numbers that we have.
So this is not generalized.
This is pretty accurate.
But what I can tell you is that not included in the 90 million
annual revenue of agriculture is our.
Whole industry with timber are Chip and saw industry
with timber and also are Sol.
Timber industry and timber.
That's three classifications of timber
that is not included here.
That's why it is clear that we are approaching
$1 billion industry within the past decade in agriculture
in Santa Rosa county, Florida.
That's a far stretch from 8.47 million per year.
Wouldn't you say?
We look here at the next slide and we kind of
see some geographical location of private agricultural lands?
I think it's very important that we include what can benefit
Santa Rosa County residents.
We all know that state land is controlled
by the state of Florida.
I used to work for the State of Florida as a lifeguard,
and I worked out there at cruel lake,
and I can recall when moneys were taken in.
These moneys go into a pot of money in Tallahassee
and they distribute it out to where
they want to distribute it.
So local money has a great impact on us.
We can see the wide area, the wide area
was pulled from the property appraiser
map of agricultural lands in Santa Rosa county,
and you can see there in the Allentown area, berrydale area,
schmukler and J. Where the row crop land has a great impact.
Also, we see the numbers 63,000 acres, give or take some acres
is crop and grazing land.
I bring to your attention.
I passed out a pamphlet that shows
approximately 51,000 acres are in active row crop production.
So you'll see a difference there than 63,000
because row crop production, we to the acre through the Farm
Service agency, total land mass, 2230 3,000 acres
is the influence we have as private citizens
on Santa Rosa county, Florida.
That is 36% If you look at the numbers, 10%,
which is row crop and grazing and 26%
that is private forestry land.
I just made a generalized number for 64% other.
That includes a lot of different attributes there.
The next slide, we have just focuses on the picture
there for row crop and grazing land, 63,000 acres.
I just wanted us all to have an image there.
And the importance of that, you see, as we fragment farmland,
it makes it more difficult to farm land.
I know that there's a couple of different agricultural producers
that still try to farm near pace high school.
Everybody knows where that's at.
But what most people don't know is that these farmers have
to travel at 1 AM in the morning to get
equipment to this site because of the road
on chumuckla highway.
So as land starts getting fragmented,
it creates a deficit for our farming community.
Also with this, we have another map here,
and this just shows generalized major land uses within Santa
Rosa county, Florida.
Now, mind you, this was all pulled from the GIS department.
And for 2024, you can see the numbers here.
We have, you know, 18% is considered
developed or vacant land.
Right?
that was the land use that was identified as it
we see 36% There is considered state or federal land.
There is a little disclaimer here.
10% is kind of, you know, marked out there
when you look along Escambia river and Yellow River
and Blackwater river, there's some areas there that are river
Marsh that and some of those areas,
water Management District actually manages that area.
So that's going to be the area that was not included there.
So when you look at this, it kind of
gives you a big scope picture of the importance of agriculture.
So if I move into Santa Rosa County and as we all know,
the majority of decisions made in Santa Rosa County
by the residents of the County are
going to occur in high population areas
pace, Milton, navarre, midway in Gulf Breeze.
Now, I bring to your conclusion they're
not driving by this resource every single day.
They don't know anything about it
in a big picture in a lot of ways.
So we got to get the facts to them.
And the truth council of the people
that are in the industry to show the importance
of our agricultural lands.
You'll notice here sustainable agriculture that
takes place in this County.
This is a 20 year average.
A line graph showing the money value of agricultural
in Santa Rosa County.
As I mentioned earlier, a $900 million
industry in the previous decade, at least,
that we know that to be accurate, without a doubt.
You'll notice on this map that in 2021, when we had probably
some of the greatest overflows of impact from COVID 19
that we were at around $100 million
of an industry with the exception of Timberland.
OK that is row crop and grazing only.
That's pretty remarkable.
So in times of disaster, there is a great influx
and still steady wins the race as we all know it.
We know here that the AG industry
proves to be very valuable.
One thing that was not mentioned earlier,
is of the 9527 of those that are involved in agriculture
within this county, friend those are people that don't cross
the river, that don't live in mobile homes or not
mobile homes, but in campers with,
whether it be in construction or working from out of town
on right of way work.
These are people that live in Santa Rosa County that
buy in Santa Rosa County and that most likely
die in Santa Rosa County.
That is a great impact.
So here as we continue, we have options for ag land protection.
Now, friend, we're not here today
to sway this board or the residents of this County
in any one direction.
We're here today to present simply the facts of what we
know is working, what we know is available on the common market.
The first thing is the one that we need to really look
at Levy County tax dollars.
That that that's one thing we're going to discuss here
in a moment, whether it be in a line
item budget or a referendum.
We also have easements, which is a voluntary program,
very important.
We understand that there are several different programs that
are being funneled through the state of Florida locally
and on a regional level, whether it be through the US Navy.
We have a representative here today that's involved with that.
Also we have the rural and family land protection
that has invested more money into protection of rural lands
in the state of Florida than the National level has done.
It's pretty remarkable when you look
at it, regional conservation partnership program as well.
That's followed by USDA.
NRCS we have a representative for here today for that as well.
And then also we have transfer development rights.
And that's something that often is misunderstood,
but it's a voluntary program.
It's something that we need to understand
is incentive based, based on what the land owner would like
to have happen with their land.
And just to discuss a few of these things,
the first one is acquire County dollars.
There is no way possible to get into the fold
with the federal government and the state government
without the County bringing something to the table.
It's very evident the state program
through the rural and family lands,
they have a ranking process.
The usda, through the Natural Resource Conservation service,
they have a ranking process within these ranking processes.
They require 50/50 matches and it is very difficult for us
to Levy that without the help of the board
and residents of the County to see
the importance of agriculture impacts in our County.
So with that, the acquiring of County dollars,
it could be facilitated through a line item budget, if you will.
It could be facilitated through a referendum.
One important note about a referendum where in Florida
a referendum has been brought before the residents
of the County on ballot.
It has been majority passed when it comes
to conservation in Florida.
Just to give a few examples, from 2020 to 2022,
we have Alachua county, Brevard county, Indian river, manatee,
Nassau and Polk counties.
All of these counties presented referendums
before their residents and they all passed with a majority.
As we look at that and recognize that we
see the need in these areas that are
heavy when it comes to influx.
And I'm not about, you know, discouraging people
to move to Santa Rosa County for in,
I believe it's a very great County
and we have a lot to offer.
And we should allow people to move into our County.
But I do see that we do have acquiring County
dollars as at the forefront.
This is something that is a definite need that's
going to be required, I believe, if we are
to counterbalance with the state and federal funds
on projects like easements.
So as we look at that, we get to the easement program.
And there's some pros and cons here.
One of the biggest cons on an easement program
is it takes time.
You know, patience is that one thing that people just don't
often have a lot of, right?
This here takes a lot of time to implement.
And oftentimes working with the United States Department
of agriculture that time is necessary
to establish a working program.
But yet here it also requires match money.
It's going to have to be built off of someone's dollar.
Pros of that, though, is it protects
valuable agricultural lands and not necessarily just
agricultural lands, but other lands
of interest that need easements, whether it.
Be natural resource related or not.
With that, we have a program that's really local, that is
through the United States Department of Navy.
It's called the Ripa program, which
is the readiness environmental program integration.
And this is something here locally that we have people
working in this program locally that we could work
and collaborate together with, especially with Whiting field
being a heart of our County.
And as I think about that, that's
a very good program that we've been in discussion with.
We have a representative here today.
If you need to speak or they need to speak on that.
But also with that, we look at these programs as the protection
voluntarily.
The last thing anybody should do is come to me as a resident
and tell me what I'm going to do with my land.
So if we can voluntarily enter into something
that's available that's offered, I see
it as a win-win for the County.
I see it as a win-win for all aspects.
We find not just easements, but we also
look at transfer of development rights
with a transfer of development.
Right? it often sounds good and looks good.
And we can really explain it well.
You can notice the graph here that it shows landowner a,
he's defined as ascending person.
They send their development rights over here to landowner b,
which receives them as we think about a transfer of development.
Right it's important because it has to have hard decisions
made by those in leadership.
Leadership of our County has to determine where the County plans
in the future to make development
and establish infrastructure and to create
utilities for this County.
And by doing that, it works hand in hand
with our agricultural community because there's
a great need there.
We see this here as based on a determining market
for development rights can be the rise and fall of this.
This isn't something that in some cases,
people decide to do in a whole County or countywide,
but in localized areas.
When we think about the interest here within Santa Rosa county,
just to piggyback onto the easement section in the usda,
NRCS office located in jay, Florida, in Santa Rosa county,
there has been a press release through the state,
through the rural and family land protection.
So they do a press release in our office.
We don't go out and do a great press release.
We really just word by mouth.
And we have 24 landowners that show up 10,000 acres
that put an application in.
You see here today that there's obviously
show some of those farmers.
I think that's important because we see the interest is there.
We recognize here that this transfer of development.
Right is something that is not that we're going
to get off the ground today.
This is a program that has to be developed, developed,
thought through something that the County would need to look
into more in detail to understand what works
and what does not work.
We find here that within this there is procedures
that have to be established.
There is credits that have to be given to whichever landowner
and who it's going to.
Obviously, developers have to be involved
with the decision making.
If they're going to even want to be a part of this.
But I want you to look, there is Florida
programs that are successful.
If you notice here, there is Alachua county, which
is where Gainesville is at.
They have a successful TDR program.
You also notice Lee County there where
the greater Fort Myers area is.
They have a successful TDR program.
But here is just an example.
This is not a silver bullet.
Just doing a referendum ain't going to solve it.
Just doing an easement program.
It's not going to solve it.
Just doing transfer development rights.
This is not going to solve all of the issues in one.
It's going to be a coupled approach coming to the table,
wanting to be a peacemaker with all of those interested in Santa
Rosa county, whether it be agriculture,
whether it be development, tourism, whatever it be,
we have to work together.
So we look here and we see some pros and cons.
We've kind of mentioned some of them, obviously voluntary.
A private market controls this within a system.
The federal government, the state government and the County
government is not coming to me at my house
and telling me what I will and will not do with my land.
That is why it's such a great selling point, because when
the leadership makes decisions based on those that
are interested putting applications in it
would be easy to create sending areas.
And then the hard decision is where is it going?
That would be the hardest.
And that's a con any time.
If you was to come to me and tell me, Mr Levi,
I know you live in McClellan, but we're
going to come and build the biggest waste facility
right beside your house in.
McClellan you know what?
Levi don't want that.
That's a hard decision.
We don't discredit that.
But we do understand that we have
to have infrastructure in our County to establish residents.
We do understand that.
So that's a hard decision that has to be made.
By us all.
We look here and we think about this.
This is just one example of things that are available.
Here's the reference page.
Where we gathered all of our data.
I believe it's very important.
We know this information is not generalized.
This came across my desk when I came to Santa Rosa county,
and I spent hours locating these people,
finding these buying points, calling them and determining
what the true answers are.
Thank you for your time.
Levi, Thanks for coming and giving the presentation.
I it's always great to hear Levi speak.
If you don't get fired up when Levi gets a presentation,
you just ain't getting fired up.
And I'll make a quick comment and then
we'll go over to the District Commissioner
that represents the lion's share of the row crop stuff.
But, you know, I want to highlight two big things that he
said because it can't it really can't
be echoed enough, like you said, to fight those misconceptions.
If you listen to what he talked about as
far as land that is actively under conservation
programs in Santa Rosa county, it's tremendous.
When you couple the private land with the state
owned land, nearly 70%, 70% is a huge number.
I mean, you don't hear that talked about of land
in our County right now is currently under conservation
programs, either via agriculture or silviculture with Timberland.
And so that's tremendous.
And it's nice to and refreshing to hear
that because sometimes you'll hear that, you know,
hey, it's all disappeared.
But that's a lion's share, nearly 3/4.
But I will tell you this.
The comprehensive approach that the farming community has taken
to understanding the issues of protecting those lands
and also supporting what you heard him say today,
the agriculture community, through I know, meetings I've
had them and I'm sure meetings that every commissioner has had
and staff is they understand what you just said.
You know what, we're proud to be American
and we're proud that if Americans
want to move here and live in our community, then
they're welcome.
But how do we address that while conserving land?
And like you talked about, tough decisions,
but the farmers understand that obviously you
got to allow density in areas that aren't farmland to make it
happen so that you can preserve that
and still welcome our American neighbors.
I mean, I think as a Christian, that's kind of what
we're supposed to do, you know?
But I will say before I turn it over, just so you guys know,
and today obviously is not the decision point,
but it is an absolute great springboard
to jump off into which direction that we're heading.
And so I'm encouraged and excited to hear comments
from fellow commissioners.
But just so you all know, and I'll get it out of the way.
And so I can finish talking.
I really like through my conversations, especially
with Trent and Ryan and some of these other guys,
I kind of like that what I'm going to call
a multi pronged approach.
I told these gentlemen, and I'll say it today,
I, I fully support committing $2 million
even in the next fiscal year to land conservation
to match with those grant programs from the funds
that the Navy is willing to provide,
as well as USDA and federal funds.
And and that's something that I know that we can absolutely
do responsibly within our fiscal budget
that we have that won't make a hiccup to any operations
or pay raises or any things we're doing next year.
But also.
I absolutely want to continue to learn more about the transfer
development rights.
I've been fortunate that Trent had provided
that information to me, and you probably said it better than me.
It's a very complex issue with challenges,
and so I just want to make sure that I
get my arms fully around that as far as when
our board makes a decision.
But I think probably looking at that multi prong approach
and having the opportunity to talk with some of the people
in the farming community, you know,
it was clear to me that y'all are just like
folks down here in the city.
You get 10 people in the same room
and you're going to get some different ideas.
And so some really like the idea of, you know,
not getting the government involved at all
and doing the transfer development rights.
And some really like the idea of, hey,
you know, Trent's already had I can't even remember how many
applications.
I think he said around 10,000 acres worth of land
that people have said, we're willing to voluntarily go
into an easement program if we can
assist with that grant funding.
So I just sharing that with you gentlemen as far as those are
my thoughts and encouraged to hear from the rest of the board
and as we start moving forward with this,
so I'll turn it over to Commissioner Calkins
because he definitely represents the district
with the lion's share that you gentlemen have property in.
So commissioner Calkins Thank you,
Mr chairman, and Thank you so much,
Levi, for your presentation.
It was an honor to meet with the group about all this.
And right now.
Farming is one of the most important industries in Santa
Rosa County and our country.
If you don't have farmers, you don't eat.
It is very important.
And we have a disaster that is heading for us right now.
And I'm talking to some farmers, Mr Jenkins, and learned a lot.
I'm not a farmer, but I'm going to listen to the farmers
to know what to do.
We are running out of farmland and we
are if we run out of farmland, we're all in trouble.
Food prices go up.
People can't afford groceries, so we
need to work together to do everything
we can to protect our farmland.
And what you all are proposing is a good first step.
And I'm going to tell you, I appreciate,
Mr chairman, throwing out a number of $2 million
because that helps me.
I fully will support that.
And that will also get help us to get
grants and get more money from the feds and everybody else.
And and y'all said when we were meeting this is not basically
the landowner has a right.
They're not forced they have a right to join this
and it will help with protect our farmland.
I mean and we have prime soils in Santa Rosa County.
And when you build houses on these primetime soils,
those soils, it it's going to hurt our farming industry.
So we got to make sure that we protect
the land with the prime soils.
And we also now development should be allowed on areas
that aren't good for farming.
And you know, I've seen the maps and I
think that's the direction we need to go in Santa Rosa County.
But you all have my word.
I'm going to do everything I can as the district three
commissioner, as the one with the most farmland in this County
to help protect and promote our farming industry.
Because like I said, again, if we don't have farmers,
we don't eat, our kids don't eat in America is in trouble.
So we absolutely and I'm so thankful that you all care
and that you all are being proactive.
And it's a huge help to this, this whole board.
You all have my 100% support anytime
my door is open at all times.
Any farmer, anybody want to meet with me,
my calendar is wide open for everybody wanting to meet
and I need to hear ideas and we'll put them up on the agenda.
We'll get this done.
I want to tell you another thing that I'm working on
after that meeting is tangible tax for personal property
for the farmers.
It is absolutely wrong that farmers
have to pay a tangible personal property tax in this County.
I went to the County attorney, find out can we get rid of it?
Because I wanted to put that on the agenda.
He told me, no, the state handles that.
But what I want to do as a board, get a letter,
get meet with our state representative,
our we're going to have probably a really good Senator
coming around, meet with him and get a bill
that gets rid of the tangible, tangible personal property
tax for all our farmers.
And I can tell you, I believe the state will vote for that.
And so that's something we could start with now
and that will truly keep money in our farmers pocket.
So that's what I want to bring up.
Thank you so much, commissioner.
Commissioner Wright.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Thank you for the presentation today.
Those of you who listen to me for the last couple of years,
you know, you know that I like to use the term balance.
And clearly I'm not an anti-growth person.
I believe in the right to pursue happiness.
I appreciate the presentation partially
because you talked about the fact
that agriculture is always fighting with tourism
for the number one revenue source in the state of Florida,
driving the economy and people forget about that.
Everyone in the United States thinks about Florida
and they don't think about agriculture, you know,
unless you're in that industry, right?
Everyone thinks about Disney World and beaches.
So I'm glad you brought that up to help, you know,
dispel that myth.
Trent, I think it was almost three years ago
that you and I got together and I came to you
and I said, I know I'm the guy from Gulf breeze,
but I got an idea I want to talk to you about how do
we preserve farmlands, right?
Knowing that growth was coming.
We've seen what happened for several decades,
and we have to figure out a way forward
to make sure we allow for that growth,
because we can't build a wall around Santa Rosa County
and say, you don't get to come here.
Right it goes back to that right to pursue happiness.
But we had to find the balance because once that farmland is
gone, we ain't getting it back.
So, you know, one of the things we talked about at the time
is how do we do something from an accounting standpoint and.
I'm not big on just, you know, knee jerk reactions
and just coming up with a solution really quick.
We really need to do some due diligence
to figure out what tools we have in the toolbox
to get something done.
You've spent a lot of time, you and an entire team,
you guys have all worked together on this.
Try to figure out, come back to the board and say, hey, here's
the options that we see that are out there.
I, like Commissioner Parker, agree
the a multi-pronged approach.
There's no one size fits all answer on this one.
I think the County has to put some skin in the game.
We need to set aside some funding for this.
I think development rights is a good opportunity.
All of these programs we need to utilize everything
we can not to steal your thunder.
But I saw somebody at public forum
when I watched the meeting from Monday,
came up and made comment on something
that's tied directly to this.
I've been working with.
There's a joint partnership with Escambia County and Santa Rosa
County and a couple organizations, Pensacola,
perdido Bay estuary program to work
with 1,000 friends of Florida.
It's been going on for a few months now.
I briefed staff a little bit on it about a month ago
when they came out with a preliminary report.
They'll be coming out with a final report
and there's going to be an event April 23 at 5:00 PM West Florida
public library in downtown Pensacola at 239
North Spring Street.
They put a study together with UW and University of Florida
specifically to talk about what opportunities for growth
there are from a standpoint of housing
and how do we protect prime farmland areas
and conservation like this.
And ultimately, it goes back to their findings,
basically talk about density, how we need to find ways to find
a, the appropriate areas for growth to happen,
how we increase density in those areas
and how we preserve these farms.
And this other delicate soils and delicate areas
of the community and how we protect our waterways.
So it goes hand in hand, right.
And I think it's important that we remember that protecting land
appropriately, protecting land and allowing development,
those things go hand in hand.
They're not partisan issues.
They're community issues.
Right and we can all agree that we want clean water, clean air,
and we want to have food.
Right and we want to have clothing to wear.
So I appreciate the board members
being willing to look at setting aside some money in the future.
And I look forward to a lot of future conversations.
But Thank you to everyone that worked so hard on this.
Appreciate it.
Thank you, commissioner.
Commissioner Smith.
Yeah Thank you for that great presentation
and I really enjoyed talking to you guys
on, on the personal note, getting
an education on this program.
I got to can't help but commend you guys for the work
that you're doing to preserve this wonderful way of life
that this country was built on.
And, you know, sometimes sometimes
I've credited myself to say.
I call out things when I see them.
You know, we get some people up here
sometimes that are professing to protect farmlands.
And I don't see them here today.
And these are the things that this is the work.
This is the hard work that I like to see.
And, you know, it's common sense,
but it's still got a lot of work that needs to go forward.
And you got my support on this.
Thank you.
Thank you, gentlemen.
And I know I know there's going to be some happy folks out here
to hear because I wouldn't sure about the water,
but it sounds like it's amazing.
I wish we had time to tell all the citizens they can take
that $2 million of County money and turn
that into it could be close to $10 million
in grant opportunities.
So that's exciting.
And I'm so proud just to be a small part
of this board implementing programs
that do ensure smart growth.
So that we are working with our citizens and our landowners
and our farmers.
And Levi, again, I can't tip my hat enough to today
for being the representative for these folks here,
and we appreciate it.
And I am extremely encouraged that as we work
through these next few months, I think
we'll be able to shore some stuff up and at least give
you all some direction.
But clearly, obviously, as far as these other programs,
we'll have to.
But it sounds like in Trent, you circle back with me
and Brad as far as what we need to do to shore up with you,
the commitment so that you can start working
on those grant applications and opportunities to help the folks.
And again, Thank you all so much.
Well, Thank you, Mr Chairman and fellow board members
and also residents, Santa Rosa county,
for having the time for us today.
All right.
Well, this is the people watching at home
and we're thankful to our audience
and we're thankful to have the opportunity.
People at home or at work that can't make it
here get to watch these important issues.
But the people watching at home didn't
get to see the yellow wave that came into the room.
And so, you know, it's pretty cool.
Now we've got the cats in the House
and some of our local celebrities.
And lord, I don't think there's nobody
more famous in this County than Brent lane over there.
But we're thankful.
We are so thankful.
And before I turn it over for the Hawks family and honestly,
we're thankful to have, you know, Kevin with us for awanas
and and so many representatives from the Santa Rosa kids house.
And so this is an exciting time.
And as soon as we're having these,
we're going to let the audience clear out for just a second.
Farmers got to get back to work.
Yeah, absolutely.
Because as commissioner Calkins said,
we can't eat without farmers.
And Lord knows I like to eat at least twice a day.
So see y'all later.
Be careful on your way back home.
And then I'm going to turn it over to Commissioner.
Right he's got he's going to fill folks in more about why
they get to see I'm going to call it the yellow wave
here today with cat country.
And just such an amazing opportunity.
And I appreciate Commissioner right.
Being the one to spearhead this presentation today.
And Thank you all for coming.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Yeah folks from cat country 98.7 FM
will be presenting a check to Santa Rosa kids house today.
But I think we're a little behind on this one
from a timing standpoint to celebrate the length of time
that cat country has been a station in our region
and has been an integral part of our community,
but just wanted to present a proclamation to them.
And Thanks for all they've done for many decades now.
Whereas in 1987, dairy Dave and Mary housing
applied to the Federal Communications Commission
to construct a new radio station in Pensacola in 2003,
construction was completed on a new 100,000 Watt 942 foot tower
on 40 acres West of muskogee, and an FCC license was issued.
The new FM radio station wic, ct, now known
as cat country 98.7, was built to serve
the greater Pensacola area.
Wic made its debut as Christmas radio 98.7 in November of 2003
and switched to pre-recorded country music
on December 26th, 2003.
Live broadcasting started in January 2004
with on air personality Cindy Anderson, Kevin
King, Charlie Crabb and Denver.
Leonard wect was the first radio station
in Florida to broadcast in high quality digital HD radio.
Wect cat country 98.7 is a standout
among broadcasting companies.
It's family owned and operated by Dave and Mary Hocking
and cat country 98.7 is constantly
giving back to our community.
In November 2023, cat country hosted its ninth miracle
on Palafox to raise over $17,000 to support families in need
with Christmas wishes throughout the United Way of West Florida.
In August 2023, cat country organized and broadcast
with TV partner WJR, the fifth annual cat Country Cares
for kids radiothon and raised over $219,000
to benefit the Studer family Children's Hospital.
And in 2023, cat country 98.7 aired
more than 10,000 public service announcements for
non-profit events and causes.
Its on air personalities broadcasted or emceed
dozens of events to help organizations like the Big
Brothers Big Sisters gala, men who cook for PACE center
for girls, Pensacola fireworks on the 4th of July,
the USO and leadership, Pensacola, just to name a few.
And cat country 98.7 is one of the most
recognized brands in Pensacola.
Wect is the only Broadcasting Company with four pace
awards presented to its leaders by the greater
Pensacola chamber.
And during the past 20 years, cat country
has received the Country Music Association station of the year
twice.
The Academy of country music station of the year five times.
The National Association of Broadcasters
friend in need award three times and the National Association
of Broadcasters crystal award three times.
Now, therefore, be resolved that the Board of County
Commissioners of Santa Rosa county, Florida, hereby
recognizes wect cat country 98.7 for their 20 years of service
to Santa Rosa County and Northwest Florida.
Passed and adopted by the Board of County Commissioners
this 11th day of April 2024 and will be signed
by our chairman, Sam Parker.
Thank you so much, Dave and Mary and your entire team
over the years, both your team members today and your team
members over the many years for everything
you've done for this community.
You know, a lot of times people think of Pensacola
and Santa Rosa County.
I think it's a station in Pensacola.
But you've been integrated in this community for many years.
And you've done so much to help nonprofit groups
and help the citizens here to work with one as at the events
you do in Spring Jam and just want to say Thank you
and we appreciate what you do.
Any other comments from the board?
Do you want to have them come up and speak?
Yeah Mary.
Or if anyone would like to come up and speak at the microphone,
then we could get a picture.
When you left him at the house or.
No, he's actually in Las Vegas at the National
Association of Broadcasters.
Well, come on up to the microphone.
We know how much you like to speak on the microphone.
So hit the button at the base right there.
We're going to put Miss Mary on the spot.
So what I said was that Dave is at the National Association
of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas
because he's on that board.
So he's promoting radio throughout the United States.
Come on, Brent, listen, on.
On behalf of our radio station, it has been 20 wonderful years.
And Dave and Mary have taught our staff
that success through service is the way to be an integral part
of our community.
And that was something that both Dave and Mary said
from the beginning was if you're going to work here,
we're going to work within our community.
And it is proven to be the greatest joy of my life
professionally to be able to come here and serve.
And so we stand before you today to say
thank you for the proclamation.
And it has been 20 fantastic years.
And Dave and Mary don't get enough credit
for setting up and literally helping us all
live our dream on the radio.
So thank you for the opportunity to be before you today.
And what I will add is that we are doing as well as we are
because we have dedicated people like Brent lane and Mel
and all of our people are dedicated
servants to our community.
So we're very blessed.
We can't even name all the celebrities.
I think David Wayne and all the we've got so many people
out here in the audience.
That's fantastic.
Well, I will.
Brent, I'm going to I'm going to shift gears
and put it on you because you're the professional emcee, I think.
Do you want to tell folks what we've got going
on with the kids house today?
And we can do that.
But I do want to invite all of our team members to come up here
and before we shift into that.
Commissioner right.
You want to go down with the cat country team
and get a picture with the proclamation or.
Yes OK.
All right.
So this is going to be proclamation photo.
So we'll get me and Mel on the cat and Kevin and the rest
of our team in yellow.
And then we'll do the kids house.
Little more yellow.
How are you?
Thank you so much.
Definitely hear about those kat-tun's.
OK so I just want to.
Now, Brent, I'm just almost like the song Jesus, take the wheel.
I'm just going to turn it over to you.
And between you and Kevin and all the Champions
behind the scenes, why don't you why don't you
tell everybody what's going on with why we're here as far as.
How about that for the folks at home?
I've never.
Yes, I he needs an engineer to be doing it right.
We just got off the air.
This is pretty great.
First of all, we do want to say thank you for the opportunity
to come before you today.
I'm Brent.
This is Mel and it is Spring Jam started in 2018.
And you mentioned in that proclamation the service
to America award.
One of those awards was for the 2018
Spring Jam was the show we kind of created from the ground up.
We called Wendell and said, hey, we want to do something cool
for the kids house with awanas.
And they went, OK, what do we need to do?
And they came out and for the last
it's been five years, although it feels like 10 Thanks
to COVID.
So we have had the most wonderful
opportunity to share in this.
And I know, Kevin, your team produced a video.
And if we can throw it up on the screen, if you guys have that,
we'll take a look at this year's Spring Jam.
New stage, by the way.
Perfect as our first time seeing it too.
It was awesome, you guys.
That was awesome.
So here we are with the fifth annual
and ultimately we're excited to have kids and George Birge
and Parmalee come out.
It was the show that cost the most money we have ever spent
in terms of doing it together.
And it's a partnership I definitely
want to recognize Penn air.
Thank you, Mike.
And your whole team at Penn air did
an amazing job of making this facilitating
this to be able to happen.
And because of that, I think the cat has a check that we
want to present for 28,300.
$7 and I know you guys probably know, but for the folks
at home that don't know what the Santa Rosa kid's
house does for our community, I think
Wendell should take a minute.
Thank you, Brent.
This is this is amazing.
And another amazing year for what Spring Jam does
for the Santa Rosa kid's house.
Similarly Mary Brent.
Mel, Kevin, miss Marie, everybody involved.
Unless you've been a part of it, unless you
come there and see how much effort and how much hard work
goes into this.
And, you know, the good thing about it
is because ladies like this love kids like we do
and they realize that they've been mistreated.
We could not do.
We've we've got a great board.
A lot of our board members are here today.
Our executive director could not be here.
She's ill, but we could not do this
without people like Miss Mary and her radio
station, Brent, everybody.
Over the past five years, they've given us checks.
Each year that's added up to over $100,000, folks.
Now, that pays for therapy.
That pays for victims advocates, that
pays helps to keep the lights on right down to everything
that we do.
And of course, pen air has come on board with us.
We can't say Thank you enough for them for their support.
And it's just amazing.
And really the part that the kids house plays on this,
as opposed to most of our fundraisers, are minimal.
They'd say show up at a certain time.
Help us do a little bit before the show.
I get to come out on the stage and with the other board members
and say a few words to everybody that's there to see the shows
and spent their money.
But at the end of the day, we do very little
and they give us checks.
And it's been more than this.
This is a great year, but it's at
sometimes it's been over $30,000,
so we can't say Thank you all enough.
I mean, they without this radio station,
all of Northwest Florida and especially
Escambia and Santa Rosa county, would
not be what they are today.
And we mean that.
And we love kids.
Y'all love kids.
And we're going to keep trying.
We're going to keep working with them.
And as long as they'll let us tag along
and give us a check for this once a year,
we're going to be there.
So so Thank you all.
We love you all.
We love you.
And Brent, before I go back to you, you know, you've heard me
and a couple people mentioned Kevin rudetsky and his team
at wanas.
Look, I tag on to what you said.
It's hard to make sure you don't leave
people out to say Thank you.
But I mean, out there.
I was out there a week or two before this, and I mean,
his team was working diligently to make sure.
I mean, that is a partnership with our County
that him and his team have that I don't
ever want to take for granted.
And we appreciate what you do for us every day
as far as the economy, but we appreciate you being a venue
that these folks can count on to do this.
And since Mike from Penn airs over there hiding,
I'll say I don't know the name of the new color.
I've been a pen member since I was 16.
That was my first ever checking account down here when
you had the one on dogwood.
I don't know the new color if it's.
It's a Berry Berry.
But I'll say after today you could go back and say hey,
we might be going to cat country yellow.
So Yeah.
Well actually one of our colors is butter.
It's an accent color.
OK all right.
Yeah so no Thank you all.
As a member, I'll say Thank you to Panera for helping
out with this burden.
So this is exciting.
Brent, I'll turn it back over to you.
You tell us if you want us to come down there, we will.
Or whatever.
I like having Brent run.
Why don't you just start coming to every commission
master of ceremonies for the Board of County commissioners?
I love it.
I like to put that on.
I also.
I do want to take one more second to just say Thank you,
that Kevin and your whole team.
You guys, this is how the meeting went in 2018.
Hey, we should do a show for the kids house and Kevin goes,
we'll do all the logistics like and that's about how that went.
And then we just started adding artists to it.
And you guys, we have never had anybody in Nashville not
go we want to go back there.
So that's what it's like at is in Santa Rosa County.
So thank you very much.
So with that.
Yes would you guys please come down?
Mike, I kind of envision you holding this with the Big Ten
logo and we'll head over here.
OK, go ahead.
You're the Masters.
Yeah for what it's worth, by the way,
this year's total now brings us up to $126,000
for the Santa Rosa kid's house.
So Yay.
It's a good day.
Yes, sir.
All right.
Let me make sure I don't got so much
chicken scratch on my paper.
Let me make sure I didn't miss anything here.
Let's see.
God OK, we got.
Let's go ahead.
Because I don't think it'll take too long.
And I saw we've got tambourine and some other folks
that were here earlier.
They may have got mixed in with the crowd
about the public hearing to consider adoption
for the Florida building code.
Local administrative amendments.
I don't have any speakers signed up.
There you go.
I thought I lost you.
I looked.
I knew you were there.
So Yes.
Good morning.
Tell the fine folks at home who you are and what you do for us.
So they know.
Good morning, tambrey Lee with Santa Rosa
County building department.
I serve as your building official.
And if you'd like, I'll just jump into a quick synopsis
of what this is about for you.
This is a process that we go through every three years
when the Florida building code gets
readopted To the new code cycle, we adopt the local amendments.
This is basically chapter 1 out of the Florida building code
that gives us our scope and administrative authorities.
And then any exceptions that we choose to utilize in our County.
For the most part, nothing has changed
other than some Scrivener notes that changed in the code
that we worked in.
And then our wind maps were the biggest change this year,
where the majority of the County is now in the 160 mile per hour
wind zone for a risk category two,
which is your typical building residential structure.
So we made some modifications in there.
We're utilizing a GIS tool now that we're
adopting into the ordinance.
It's a link.
It mirrors what Escambia County is doing.
Excuse me, it's much more site specific.
So that developer can Zoom in on that site
and get a more interpolated wind load.
So that should help them with that.
So far we've had some minor trouble in the beginning
of the year when we first moved to that,
but the state has worked that out for us.
This ordinance also brought in some new language that
from the milestone inspections after the collapse
of the building in South Florida a few years ago,
legislated adopted legislation, adopted
a milestone inspection process for cooperative
commercial buildings.
And this is pulling that language into that.
So it's state statute coming into our local ordinance.
And then it just cleaned up some other language
throughout that helps us with our fire protection system,
expediting permits.
So it's a pretty straightforward document.
If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer.
Somebody have any questions?
I'm just going to touch on one thing you said.
For the people that don't have to deal with construction
every day, the new upgraded wind load requirement,
it is a huge deal.
It is.
You know, it's the unfortunate side
is it does continue to drive up the cost of housing.
It's pretty significant.
You know, some rough estimates I've heard are around $3,000
for a smaller starter home that it increases the cost because
of the thicker or alternative material, you know,
for your decking on your roof.
However, however, the silver lining
is this is an effort by the Florida building commission,
and we're proud to be a part of it,
to make those homes safer for families.
Now they're going to be meeting those wind load requirements as
far North as almost a chumuckla as folks that used to
were down by the Coast.
So it is exciting to know and especially coming off
of the event that I mentioned earlier, where we had the wind
burst right there in the middle of my district,
to know that you and your team of inspectors
are going to continue to work hard to make sure
that when people do have housing here, that it's safe
and that's a place that they can go and refuge.
And we appreciate what you and your team do so very, very much.
Thank you.
We appreciate your support.
I don't see any questions or comments.
I don't have anybody signed up to speak on this.
So unless I'm missing something and nobody's jumping out
of their chair, I will make a motion without objection
to adopt the ordinance, which reflects the amendments that
were discussed.
Hearing no objection, the ordinance is adopted.
Thank you.
Yes, ma'am.
You have a great day.
All right.
That concludes that.
Now we will go to our public forum portion.
And I've got my sign up sheet here.
We are so pleased to have Ms. Pauline Grimes with us
here today.
So, Ms. Grimes, if you will, lead us off
on the public forum section.
And just as a reminder, real quick before you get started,
Ms. Grimes is a reminder to anybody that's going
to come up and speak today.
Just when you get there, please make
sure that green light like you see right here is turned on.
So that the folks watching can get your name and town
you live in.
And and just please, I forgot to do this earlier.
If anybody's got a cell phone or beeper, please make sure they're
on solid or vibrate so that we don't
interrupt our speakers while they're up
here in their train of thought.
So good morning, Ms. Grimes Pauline Grimes I live at 5003 87
Santa Cruz mill in Avalon beach, and I'm here
on behalf of the animals again.
I was talking to a lady who works for the city.
I was telling her about how the houses are built up on dirt.
I said leave some land for the animals and build a house.
She said, they can do that.
They just don't want to because of the money.
She said, you can't replace wildlife once it is gone.
It's being crammed down our throats to get
a subdivision where I live.
I went to pay my water bill before I got the bill.
Well, I need an account number.
So I called them and said, what is going on?
And she said, we are so stressed out of all
the houses they are hooking up.
And she said, we have to come up with a new plan.
And so she gave me the number to the account number, new one.
All the building needs to stop.
I can see building, but just leave some land in between.
It's like a dam running wild.
I called about getting a light at Del Monte and Avalon.
I told her it was a nightmare of traffic.
She said it would take about 90 days.
She said, Thank you so much for being concerned
and my neighbor wants to know where the retention pond is
going, if all these houses are going to be built.
You know, the trees help.
The wind.
They soak up the water.
When it rains, the houses close to the ground
will flood because of what the builders are doing,
raising the houses they build.
You will have to live with that.
My neighbor believes everything is slowing down.
I don't know.
I pray that it is.
Say you need to have a six figure income now to even
build a house in Florida.
Ecclesiastes 317.
In due season, God will judge everything
man does both good or bad.
Thank you, ma'am, for your comments.
We're we're going to go to Mrs. Cherie Chapman.
I want to know where the.
Sherri Chapman, Pea Ridge there.
For a minute, I thought we were going to hear the Hallelujah
chorus, but it is election time, so it's
amazing how the tide changes whenever
everybody's politicking.
I would like to remind those that you guys have voted
to rezone land up in what's considered
the country or agriculture land, so please
take responsibility for that.
Even when the citizens came up in Groves
begging you not to rezone agriculture to commercial,
y'all did.
So I want you to think real hard of what you're
going to do from this point on, because
from what you've done to this point has not
supported what you just said.
I, I would like to say that I am very
pleased that the impact fee is going to be started whenever
the new tax is started.
There has been people that have reached out and touched
and said, well, we're not for that.
So I have asked them to please do happy signs along the roads
that they are satisfied with.
So that the County knows what roads don't need fixing.
Being the majority of people think and feel when they're
sitting in traffic that these we need help
and it's going to take us as well as the builders.
As I said before, in 1970, paid an impact fee
to buy a house in this County.
We paid our fair share.
Then we pay our ad valorem tax.
We paid them every time since, and we have more than one house.
So I understand what people say when they say how
are we going to beat the bills?
Well, we don't rent any of those houses out,
so I don't want people to think that I'm
up here saying it because I get money for the houses
that we have.
I don't and I don't intend to.
But the thing I want to make is that it is important for all
of us to look at what's happening when you have a sales
tax that is put in place, every person that
comes into this County will help pay that.
My hope is that there will be a time that farmers do
not pay ad valorem tax at all.
I know agriculture is less, but every little bit
helps when you have a farmer that doesn't have a good year.
I would like for some point in this County
that we get to have greatly reduced ad valorem tax.
But the way that we are set up now,
it's not going to happen anytime soon
and we need to get our roads fixed.
We need to get our infrastructure going
and the builders can help with the areas
that they impact, such as 182.
There's building like crazy out there.
Think of how much money would help the infrastructure on 182
if there was impact fees.
Thank you so much for your comments.
Sherman Gomez.
And then after Sherman gets through, it'll be George Odum.
How are y'all doing?
Sherman Gomez, East Milton live off of Andes basin.
I'm here to talk about the illicit discharge
that's been going in to Andes basin for over four years now.
Back in August 28th, 2022, Bob Cole was still here.
Y'all seen me for the first time come
up in here raising Cain about the clay
going in from airway Oaks.
Prior to me coming in here, my first videos and pictures
of the clay going into Andes basin
started on August 28th, 2020.
It took a year and a half or so of me complaining to code
enforcement DEP EPA, everybody I could possibly think of
to stop the clay from going into Andy's
basin because of airway Oaks.
That's when y'all seen me finally
up here talking to Bob Cole.
After that time, nothing has really
gotten done to stop the clay.
It's steadily going.
It's been a disgrace watching it go in there.
August 28th, 2022, I made Bob Cole in the County
up here aware that Revere was failing.
Also that was almost over two years ago.
Nothing has been done to stop the clay
from going into Annie's basin.
I stopped it by getting channel 3
News and getting y'all's attention and then
making something happen.
But in that whole time period from airway oaks,
that's a four year problem.
And then Riviera started.
That's been over two years.
Nothing and nobody has taken me seriously.
I come to these County commissioners
meeting and I learn from y'all.
I heard one of y'all say, I wish y'all would quit
complaining and come up with a strategy
and a plan to stop a solution.
So I did.
I started taking videos and pictures all the way back
to 2020 is when I first started because I realized the County
wasn't doing nothing.
Code enforcement wasn't acting enough,
the clay was still going into the basin.
So I made videos after videos.
I got four years of videos.
It's a very valuable that an important that the County goes
back and watches the failures because it's
very easy to see who's at fault or.
You got the County and you got developers.
When you watch my videos, it's plain to see who's at fault. OK?
and the land development code has to change.
Nobody has done anything significant to address
the issues going on at Riviera.
The basin is destroyed and it is now
that you are in the spotlight.
I'm not trying to beat nobody up,
but now that you're in the spotlight,
it's time things are getting tried to get something done.
But it's too late.
Why I say that, does a lot.
Right next to the 3 that have been developed
and destroyed and space.
And so far, they're fixing to take down all
those trees on that next lot.
They're up right now.
But nothing has changed in this four years
to stop the clear cutting and the clay that's
fixing to go into the basin once again because it
is fixing to go into the basin.
Once they clear that Thank you for nobody's done anything.
Thank you, sir.
I'm not going to get in a back and forth on this,
but I've got things I want to talk about
and I want to bring something up a little later.
OK?
Thank you, sir.
The time time expired.
All right.
I hope you're going to stick around, Mr. Gomez.
OK all right, George.
George oldsmar, pace, Florida.
I just got back from a wonderful trip.
Going to see the eclipse in Texas all the way there
and all the way back.
I'm seeing huge flags, saw huge, gigantic flags
in Texas with the Texas flag in one pole
and the American flag on the other.
One thing in common with every single one of them.
They were on private property.
All of them.
Not one of them was on public property.
I just want to bring that to your attention.
Public money for public use, tourism dollars for tourism use.
If somebody if a group of people want
to get together and build a 1,000 foot flag, I don't care.
They want to put up the money.
I don't mind.
Have a wonderful day.
Thank you so much for your comments.
Sir, anybody that didn't sign up that feels.
Yes, I've got two hands.
Anybody else just so I can take account for that.
Or is it just the two hands that I saw?
OK Thank you.
Good morning.
Last week, the commission held public hearings
to discuss topics of great importance to this community.
Sorry Jennifer Mancini, resident of pace.
I also represent the home Builders
Association of West Florida.
Those conversations have continued today, as they should.
These are issues of dire importance to our community.
Florida's impressive growth is irreversible
and it will continue.
I won't take time today to list all of the reasons people are
moving to our great state, as I would
think they are obvious to all of us in this room.
But there is one major misconception
among some people in this community
about population growth.
Vocal, anti-growth citizens point fingers at builders
and make demands for a tax levied on new construction.
Our industry is not creating growth.
Our industry is responding to growth
by providing supply of housing.
The County works to attract new businesses.
They bring well-paying jobs, high
paying jobs and quality jobs to our area, as they should.
This is key to the quality of life in our area.
We support this.
We absolutely, absolutely support these efforts.
But the builders who build the much
needed homes that come with the economic growth
are taking the blame.
New home buyers are targeted by proposed impact fee.
An impact fee is a regressive tax,
and it hurts the first time home buyer and lower to middle income
families the most.
The HBR strongly opposes any new impact fee.
The local option sales tax was something we could support.
It is fair and consumption based.
We need to stop targeting and condemning
the Homebuilding industry.
We provide thousands of jobs in this community,
but more importantly, we supply a place to call home
for those living here now and for all
those who will need safe and affordable
housing in our future.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
Mayor Owens, Thank you for being here today.
I'll introduce him as mayor.
Sean Owens is the town of Jay.
So we're thankful to have you there.
You're the crown jewel of the North end of the County.
I hear you.
Thank you very much for the complement.
I wanted to just touch base on the presentation
that the agricultural community put together today.
Obviously, the presentation was fantastic.
Made a lot of great points.
And one of the things that I wear two hats sometimes
as the mayor of Jay and living in the North end
of the community and also as a contractor.
Those are battles that I face every day,
determining what is most important for the North end
of the County.
Obviously, I personally have to make a living.
You know, I'm not going to be a mass builder that's going
to build thousands of homes.
I'm going to build someone's daughters home or someone's
sons homes as a custom home.
But what I've realized, having these conversations with a lot
of the commissioners here and also
with the agricultural community, that the very most important
thing that we have to look at in District 3
is just the quality of life.
We have the ability to once again get ahead of something
that's coming our way.
Just in the past two weeks, I have been contacted
by national builders to purchase land in the city limits of Jay.
Just one small little development would,
in the next 24 months would increase the residents by 30%
Now, that's not much right, meaning that we have
a small town, but 30% is a lot.
So when you know, as I think through this
and as I've concentrated on what the most important thing is,
is protecting those that agricultural land,
and that's something that the County has to 100% get behind.
I think it's immediate today that the County has to think
about the future of the agricultural community,
just like we do tourist development dollars.
It has to be on the mindset of how we protect
the agricultural community.
I think there are a number of ways.
I think that the presentation pretty
much explained all those ways that can happen in the future.
But I also think that there's opportunity for the County
to do something now to determine the responsibility
of our growth, which means how do we take zoning seriously when
it comes to agricultural land?
Is there infrastructure in place where it
needs to be for us to develop?
I think that's huge.
Infrastructure is the most important thing.
I think.
Jay Florida has infrastructure, so I could
see development in the area.
But one thing that we have the ability
to do right now through our land development code
is to determine what we can do in the rural area.
Prime examples are pud developments.
Try taking 50% of that land.
Looking at density and doing those things,
I think that's an immediate impact on agricultural property.
We we can slow some of that development
down by looking at different things through the land
development code as we work on different ideas
through the agricultural community.
So, you know, I'm of the opinion and I think it's very important
that we truly, truly concentrate on what we're doing
in the agricultural community.
The commitment that you guys are willing to make
immediately with the investment dollars is extremely important.
But the state has already put a 10 year program in place.
And I think as you think about the amount of money
that you invest, that you do that as a 10 year commitment
doesn't just need to be one year,
it needs to be a long term commitment.
And I ask you guys to really consider that.
Thank you for the time.
Yes, sir.
Thank you, mayor, for coming and being
the representative for that North end of the County today.
All right.
I didn't see anybody else raise their hand on last chance,
anybody that needed to speak.
We're going to bounce or I'm going
to shift a couple things here, gentlemen, just so
we can try to get through this.
And that way, if comments get too long,
I may have to step out because we've got some folks that
are waiting to meet actually talking
about economic development that are here waiting at the office
so we could real quick go ahead and move the consent agenda.
Minus item number 32, the engineering item.
Is there any other issues on the consent agenda
you all have a problem with moving other than 32?
Commissioner Calkins yeah, I just I just wanted to say
I just wanted to have a minute to talk
about all the great things that are happening on the yeah,
absolutely.
I've got all three of y'all wrote down as far as talking
on that, I'm just going to try to get the voting issues
and that way I may have to step out
because we've got several gentlemen
that are here waiting on me.
We'll go ahead and move the consent
agenda without objection.
Hearing none, the items moved.
And then item number 32 under regular agenda, the woodbine,
c.I. and construction services.
Brad what in particular?
Yeah, Mr chairman, we did get an appropriation for this the way
the state does the appropriations,
they run it through is our funnel point.
So that means that we have to meet the dot specs.
Dot does not allow anyone who does
the design to do Ci services, so we'd like
to remove that portion of it.
We'll bring a recommendation for that project
back at the next agenda.
OK so you don't need any action today is what you're telling me?
Well, we do need the approval of the contract administration
not to exceed the 65,000.
We'll just remove the Ci services portion for that.
All right.
And then you'll bring the other part at the next meeting.
OK super short and sweet, super excited.
People will start seeing Brad.
It's next week, right?
That they'll actually start seeing construction
crews on the ground.
So it has been a huge haul.
It's taken seven years to get here,
but we will finally have construction crews on the ground
next week for Woodbine road.
And like I said, it's been a years in the making.
So I appreciate you gentlemen support on this issue.
Brad and Rebecca, Thank you for working.
If there's no other comments or recommend approving that item
without objection, hearing no objection, that item is approved
and then the meeting list is as published.
No needs are changed to that.
That's for public information.
And then we will go I'm going to go in the order that y'all said,
and hopefully if it don't get too long,
I definitely want to be here.
If not, I may have to come back and watch just
because we've got a few people.
So I know Commissioner Calkins wanted to speak on the consent
agenda, and then I'll go to Commissioner
Smith and Commissioner Reich.
Go ahead, commissioner Collins.
Thank you, Mr Chairman.
I just wanted to let the public know
and all the people that are watching what we did today,
this was a great day for Santa Rosa County.
We started out with rural internet expansion.
Since 2021 has been our mission to get the North Santa Rosa
County connected to the internet because while the denser cities,
they don't have issues with internet
and North Santa Rosa county, there
is huge issues with internet.
People do not have the connectivity that folks
in Milton in Gulf Breeze have.
And what we have done is we've worked with the governor,
we have Kyle Holly that has worked
his tail off on getting us grants
and getting them approved.
And just on this consent agenda, today, we got a tower to help
improve 5G connectivity.
This will help with emergency services.
This will help with, you know, our farmers
out there mowing the fields and be able to use their phone
and all these things.
So this is good use of taxpayer money.
Also, the hospital and J. These are that hospital.
Right there is a huge employer to the town of Jay.
And I want to thank this board because we couldn't.
This is a team effort.
I want to thank Deborah Jenkins, Sarah Lefebvre.
I listed a whole name, a bunch of names last week.
And and I'm so thankful to all of them.
This was a team effort to get that done.
We have done a lot for the town of Jay
about I think we as a board in the last four years
have basically gotten the town of Jay about a 1.5 million,
1.5, 25,000, all added up.
That's not including all the roads and stuff outside of Jay
that we've been working on.
But if you compare it from, you know, 20 years before that,
if you look at those numbers, I think
we've done pretty good in the last four years
for getting money for the town of Jay.
Also, another thing that's not talked about is we
and this is Trent Matthews.
Thankful to him.
Brad, we're getting millions of dollars.
And it's in this agenda also to protect
our farmland from erosion that has to do with the gullies.
And so we're stopping the goalies
from invading the farmland.
And so that's another thing that is absolutely amazing.
And so I like to bring these things up because a lot of folks
don't know what we're all doing in the background.
And how hard we work.
We are all right here.
I know every single one of you are full time commissioners.
And so it's a lot of work.
I know every one of you, every single commissioner
here works day and night.
And and it's not as easy as it looks,
but I'm trying to get the message
out on what we are doing today.
Another item our industrial parks were there
was years of unsuccess with our industrial park there,
but we had a good economic guy, Shannon Ogletree.
He has he has worked tirelessly to get us
that industrial parks filled and there
was opposition to getting land.
This was a big controversial issue
a long time ago about getting that land in Santa Rosa County.
It was.
And guess what?
Because there were people that said it was a waste of money.
Well, I'll tell you folks, that was not a waste of money
because that's going to bring thousands of jobs in that area.
And great news is we can say the name.
I got to go down to Palm Beach County with Shannon Ogletree
and meet with the folks with Cheney brothers.
And what I saw impressed me on how our economics guy.
Shannon ogletree, how he builds these relationships with people,
how they love them.
We we were up in the North.
We were in New Jersey.
And I seen him and how he's built these relationships
with these business people.
And we need to give him all the resources he needs.
So he can help us get economic growth.
And so we have an amazing team.
Shannon Ogletree is a rock star, and we
need to do everything we can to I can guarantee you
they are trying to call him and bring him out of our County
to get him another job in another County
because he does such a great job.
So we need to make sure that he's well taken care of
and we don't lose him because this man knows what he's doing.
So we got the industrial parks being filled up.
We have so many great things.
And I'm so proud of this board, proud of our chairman,
proud of our staff.
I'm proud of the community leaders like Mr. Jenkins.
I mean, these are folks we need to listen
to when they have a concern.
We need to listen to our community.
And we need to listen to all the people
that are in these industries.
And Thank you again.
Thank you, gentlemen, for approving
all these great things.
And and also, I want to also mention that I didn't mention
Woodbine road is getting tons of money being put in it.
That was on this agenda that Commissioner
Sam Parker, our chairman, has been beating the drums.
And you know, there was someone made a comment a while back
saying you know, the chairman was
telling the employees or something,
we need to get roads done.
Well, good job, chairman.
That's what we need.
We need to get roads done and we need
to get this done as quick as possible
because people want to stop being stuck in traffic.
So we are doing everything we can to help.
People get from point A to point B faster.
So keep telling the staff, let's get it done, commissioner.
Mr Chairman.
And and I will support that.
And I and I believe the staff is doing
the best job that they can.
So Thank you, folks.
Thank you, commissioner.
Commissioner smith, I hung around
because I wanted to hear the update about the triumph meeting
and go ahead.
Thank you, sir.
Yeah yesterday I had the privilege of going down to.
Apalachicola reef, beautiful area.
It was great meeting.
And, you know, Thank goodness we do
have Shannon that's able to talk.
But for some reason, I became locked jawed when I got up
to that podium because, you know,
it's do get sidetracked by the amount of work
that these guys do and they do it in a civil manner
and it's really well run meetings and, you know,
there's no nonsense.
And of course, I had half of the faculty of FSU there, too.
So I'm sitting there practicing my public speaking
with all of this going on.
So and like I told Shannon, I reminded myself of the attorney
on my cousin Vinny.
I just got up there.
But, but anyway, I want to thank the board as well
for all of the work that they have
done to help Santa Rosa County.
And that's just part of it.
And some of the things that we're able to know,
Shannon, I don't want to embarrass you,
but Shannon's got a good imagination
on how we can do some certain projects
and be able to get things done.
And, you know, a lot of the things, like you said,
are in my district and it's stuff
that I'm really paying a large amount of attention to.
But know, you can't help but just, you know, try up board
exists because of an unfortunate situation.
Hey that's called making lemonade out of bad lemons
right there and and we're really working on the resources
to get that going.
And I want to thank everybody.
But what I wanted to do also, I can just surmise everything
I need to talk about quickly, you know,
so you can be here for it.
But and if anybody knows, I am quick.
Some of the things that I heard during public forum.
Mr Gomez I was out there yesterday on
and I'm not addressing you so there's no back and forth.
But I was out at Riviera and the work
that was done to shore up that erosion was done beautifully.
I took pictures, didn't see one speck
of dirt going down that road.
And so I want credit to be given when credit is due.
This is some of the things that kind of irritates me when
I see people, you know, Yeah.
Watchdogs taking care of the community and getting things
done.
And no, this isn't a back and forth.
I've given you your time to speak
and I'm going to talk to these and I'm
going to talk to all three of the things that we talked about.
But one of the things that kind of
upsets me that when we do these things,
we make sure that we give credit where credit is due
and you don't get you down credit.
So that being said, one of the things that I did
see out there at the airway oaks,
there's some things that need to be addressed.
So you need to be removed.
He needs to be left out.
He's already he didn't just let him sit.
I'm not going.
He's fine.
He just so he can be here.
He's not doing anything.
You know, good grief.
So I'm not trying to get in an argument with anybody.
I just want to make sure everybody sees the things that
are being done when we're sitting
here yelling and saying things aren't being done by the County.
I'm going to call it out.
We have worked really hard to do the things
and the staff is doing a wonderful job.
Some of the things that we're doing,
you know, I don't like to hear people yelling
that it's not being done.
And I saw some of the stuff on Facebook
and people aren't paying attention to These things.
And that's something that aggravates me.
And I will call out things from every angle when I see it.
Another thing that I've also noticed,
you know, miss Mancini, when you came up,
you said that you're still imposing impact fees.
Well, that's unfortunate because I thought
we've had an understanding that the hba,
I've talked to a lot of people inside the hba,
that is, for the amount of impact fees that we're doing.
But it's really left to the voters right now.
So for this to be constantly brought up to,
I would just suggest you do your own ad campaign
and make sure that you're yelling
at the top of the rooftops to not have the local option
sales tax and not have impact fees
because they're tied together.
It's very dangerous to do so.
And John, I think, you know, one of the things I've seen at 30%
is a huge thing to your budget.
It is now might be a small number
because of the population.
But anything that we can do to help you out
with that, that would be, you know, something
that I could get on board with.
But I want to thank everybody.
And Mr Gomez, I just want to make sure you know that I'm not
calling you out for anything.
I just want you to understand, you
can't call things out saying we're
not doing things when we are.
And Thank you.
I'm calling the County out.
That's all right.
Hold on, hold on, hold.
Four years of video.
Hold on.
We got to have everybody at the microphone.
I'm here.
Is everybody OK with me adjourning?
Is there any other comments by anybody?
Commissioner coffins.
OK My bad.
All right, commissioner and Commissioner.
I'll be brief so we can.
So we can get on.
I just want to Thank my fellow board
members for indulging me and giving me
the opportunity to be absent.
Monday, I was in Washington DC on behalf of the County
and the region, the association of defense communities
conference, advocating on the behalf
of our military installations in the area
and just trying to secure funding
for significant improvements to those facilities.
But I did want to bring up two quick things
on the consent agenda.
One, the J hospital on 5G service.
I know mayor Owens has been advocating
for some significant improvements
to that hospital for quite some time.
We've had numerous discussions.
I'm glad to see we're finally getting that done.
And two.
Thank you to our attorney, Tom danheiser and city of Gulf
Breeze Attorney Mary Jane bass.
Item number 12 on Tibet drive reassignment of that easement.
We had a less than desirable developer that created a problem
there that for three years now we've tried to have negotiations
to get something done.
And he refused to come to the table
and try to help the citizens on a problem that he created.
So cities, attorney, counties, attorney, got together,
found a solution.
And I just wanted to say I Thank my fellow board
members for approving that reassignment.
And hopefully we'll have some construction being done on Tibet
drive in the near future, because previously we
had already set aside funding for design.
That's already done.
Rebecca and her staff has worked very hard on this
and I'm glad to see we'll actually find
a solution in the near future.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Any other comments by fellow commissioners
or is everybody everybody good?
All right.
I'm going to move that.
We adjourn the meeting without objection.
This this meeting is adjourned.
Thank you, gentlemen, and Thank you, members of the public.