Chairman Starkey farm share tourism TDC

1:37:55Okay, so now we're on to me. Um so we did our very first um and m Mr. Oakley left, but we did our very first Board of County Commissioners farm share uh in the holiday area. And I want to thank all the staff that came out and helped um distribute the food. And um and thank you to Farm Share for helping us. The next one is March and it's in Commissioner Oakley's district. I don't have the date. And he's left he's I don't know if he's left for the day or stuff,

1:38:25but someone can get us a date for Commissioner Oakley's. We'll all get some notices. I'm

1:38:31told it's February nineteenth. I'm sorry, March nineteenth.

1:38:33March nineteenth, okay. Um I had my Harbor South Leadership Council meeting. And um thanks for all the staff that attended. Um I don't there we have some pictures. So Marcy, um JP of course, you know, we had a lot of flood and uh FEMA questions and so we're we're grateful that he um was there and uh I we get a lot of really good feedback Um a lot more people came in after we started. So we had quite a few communities represented

1:39:04there. I particip participated again in Literacy Week. And I read to the V P K class, uh, in Trinity Elementary, so that was that was pretty awesome. Those kids are are really wonderful. Um I also attended the governor's lunch at Commissioner Oakley also attended um at the fair and um and there's our own Wilton Simpson sitting there so um great event and uh

1:39:34Um

1:39:36Were you there? Did you go? You? No ma'am okay. Let's see what else. Uh we had the growing global event. So we thank you uh Mr. Karbala for coming. Um we held this on a freezing day. It affected our attendance. We had half of our people who registered didn't show up. Um uh our our International Tourism and Economic Development Day um at Starkey Market. And actually made some really good connections there.

1:40:07The head uh of Florida for the Florida US Department of Commerce was there. and um really I'm gonna be following up with him on a number of things. Um speaking down here on the bottom left is again our Stevie, who is our county employee who went to Germany for three weeks. The f the uh the money for the tickets for this event Um are going to help fund that program and we have some raffle baskets that you're all

1:40:37gonna get an email. Uh to participate if you'd like. I think that uh I don't think I have the information on how much the tickets are. But they're very cheap and the baskets are worth four hundred and fifty to eight hundred dollars a basket. So I think we have four baskets. And um really a shout out to Lisa Parisi for helping us get uh a lot of the items for those baskets and my staff. They did a great job. Um is there anything else I should say about that? So and

1:41:07we are working on sending two more county employees over and receiving two from Gemersheim. Um this is the Starkey TLC Outdoor Adventures Expo. at Starkey Cultural Center and that gentleman speaking is an army ranger who was wounded um in his tour duty He's W and uh The woman speaking at the mic is from the Wildlife Corridor Foundation. We had a packed room. And

1:41:38they um They showed a film that they had made with three uh veterans who who traversed part of the w wildlife corridors. It was called it's called O to O, so Cala National Forest to the Osceola National Forest, I think it was. and um they biked and hiked and kayaked and rode horses and And um uh just a beautiful film. I think you can get it, you can see it uh on YouTube. They won a a award

1:42:09for this film and it highlights uh part of the gap in the national in the Florida Wildlife Corridor. So I I tell you, Elaine Smith's doing a great job over there. There are all kinds of lectures and things going on. at the at the T L C that is amazing, um that you should try and go look and see what's offered there. Um They have an event coming up. With uh That With the gentleman who has the museum.

1:42:40Over here Wendell Crine is sold out already, so Yeah I I I wanna go tour with you and Kathy and Mike. Go tour his museum. He needs a much bigger space. This morning we went and did the ribbon cutting at the Elfers Senior Center that opened again on December 9th, 2024. They since since we reopened, they've already served 1,300 meals in December. December.

1:43:11Um, let's see what else.

1:43:13Oh, and that gentleman cutting the ribbon.

1:43:15You

1:43:15should go to high school there.

1:43:17Yes, so instead of me cutting ribbon I s asked for him to cut the ribbon. He went to school there. Back when um oh interesting. I went and looked up the history of Elfers And um It was uh founded by a woman named Bailey, like Bailey's Bluff? And Someone with the name of Eland. E I L A N D. So how old is that family in the county? Yeah, so and here they were over over here in Elfers. And Elfers was briefly incorporated in

1:43:47the nineteen twenties, I think for nineteen twenty, nineteen thirty something. So um and he was saying that they got federal money to build that that school. when they were an incorporated city. So it was interesting. The roads around it are falling apart, so we're gonna look at that. And um okay lastly my TDC uh update our revenues are way up. And sadly it's because so many people stayed in our hotels during the hurricanes. So it's an it's

1:44:17an anomaly. Um but we are up uh 67% from last year at this time. Um but we know we know that that's not gonna um last. Um we did a fam tour with eight uh travel advisors that came in. Uh from the northeast. Uh we also had a fam uh Comquat Fam tour. So we had some people writing about the Comquat Festival. Um we had a very big hockey tournament.

1:44:48We had 34 hockey teams come in from around the country. Um and a reminder that the tourism banquet is uh May twenty second, twenty twenty five at Saddlebrook. Our speaker is Tony Dungey. And I think that um we are just about sold out. So if you don't have your tickets You can buy you can participate in our raffle. And and our raffle from the tourism um Tourism Council has two tickets to the to the dinner