commissioner reports and requests

1:25:25Mr. Ropley. About fellow sleep over here.

1:25:31I do have some items. Um the first one is on your screen right now. Um We went out and uh celebrated a fire rescue station number eighteen. uh breaking ground there and That was on April sixth at Chauncey Road and Yonkers Boulevard and Zephyrhills. Uh that particular Uh fire station was one of the One that we um and if you'll notice the dust

1:26:01in that dirt that they're through

1:26:02it?

1:26:04Uh Can tell you we didn't get we hadn't had enough rain and even with uh I think we got three quarters of an inch of rain the other day in the eastern part, it's still not enough rain. So we all need more more rainfall. But that was part of the um projects we had put to the to the vote of the citizens and this is one of those where we rebuild this this station from Crystal Springs up into this area in Chatsea Road. And the fact of it is uh ninety-five percent of all

1:26:34their calls Down in Crystal Springs, we're coming from this area up closer to Zephyrhills. That's right. It um Had a cuts the response time for ninety five percent of their calls and then They'll also uh work back toward Christmas Rings for those calls. And thank goodness you'd think Crystal Springs might have more Because of the area that's in, but Actually they're up around Zephyrhills where there's more populations where they get the calls. So but uh that's gonna

1:27:04be a a news station for Bay. Could could possibly hold up to uh eight vehicles and house I think twelve people, if I'm not mistaken. And while we were there the uh firefighters were there from Crystal Springs And you saw 'em moving out there eventually as we were fixing take pictures and and dig dirt. They uh they were moving out and had to move out 'cause they had a call. So they were doing their job but they were there

1:27:34to see this groundbreak and I'm sure they look forward to this station. So next I have is uh Last Wednesday they had the uh Uh Walmart's Health Center uh is a VIP tour and ribbon cutting celebration in Zephyrhills. Uh Tony Wilson, the center's administrator. She's been in the healthcare business for over twenty-five years. Um I didn't know I was supposed to speak but they allowed me to so

1:28:06But But uh very good uh idea of uh what's going on with with healthcare systems in Walmart. They did one at Weston Chapel. They've They did one that one was in Zephyrhills itself, but It's a w it's a full operating clinic. I mean they have dental, they have x-ray, they have lab work, you see it there audio. Uh behavioral health. And uh primary care, all in that one facility. Uh same day, same Same

1:28:37important time. But they did a great job. That's the I forget his name, but that's the dentist there in the center. So he's got his glasses on, he's ready to go. So But all the girls work in and live in Pasco County. And it was there was one gal that did not and she said, I've been trying to get my husband a change to move up here in Pasco from Tampa but he works at Tampa General Hospital, so He's not moving away from his travel, so It's uh but a very

1:29:07good, very very good crew. A lot of people work there and they're gonna take care of a lot of people. I'm gonna make another visit out there this coming week to see how many people I It just seems like one of those places that'd be easy to go to and and get care right away, which is a very much a good asset for our community. Uh then on Friday I had the privilege to join uh Senior Services, uh Patron Appreciation Luncheon. Um held at the First United Methodist Church. Um has

1:29:38music and games, the opportunity to meet new friends. Uh thanks go out to Brian Thomas. uh and their team for a great event they put on that day and we missed I was telling Kathy earlier. Usually see her at that event and Um it really turned out very nice. Marie went with me. Uh Bob Hatfield was there and then this one lady she'd been sitting by herself and we asked her to come up and take a picture with us. So she did, but um answer

1:30:09several questions and uh got to visit with them and and it means so much to them to have these dinners and get to speak to Like myself and others that They don't give C and M. know that we care about them and the services that we offer are very much needed by the senior citizens. And it's very close to my heart when you talk about veterans and senior citizens because I'm the only one up here that's both a veteran and a senior citizen. So Well that

1:30:39that's all I had. Okay. Commissioner Weightman.

1:30:42Good deal.

1:30:44Thank you.

1:30:47All right, well first thank you for your board support on our built to rent uh item today. Very much Appreciate the discussion. There. I want to just follow up, make sure staff you know of of our conversation of last week on the V OPH items where we talked about the road width. uh distance on cul-de-sacs and neighborhood parks moving into the future. I don't really I don't necessarily think we should get into it today, but just be be mindful of moving forward how we can ensure that other commercial

1:31:17traffic outside of just fire rescue traverse those roads. I mean there's there's a lot of services that modern day residents provide that that the other vehicles use. So I I think that's worth a conversation and and some stakeholder input. uh on on those items. Um Next we had Thank you, Chairman, for putting us on canvassing board. Uh talk about an experience. We had municipal elections and worked a different level of

1:31:47elections this last week on the canvassing board and uh Brian Corley and his team uh did a fantastic and a very efficient job. And uh it was very interesting to see What happens after the vote leaves the bat ballot box and uh very professional group there. Um and uh is uh uh Good to be part of that phase of the of the process. So thank you to Mr. Corley and and his folks. Uh we also

1:32:17went down, Andy and I uh went down to the District 7 office and spent some time with Secretary Gwynn. And uh learn a little bit more about DOT. And there if you haven't had an opportunity to go go down the D O T on these screens are real time. Pictures. I assume probably senior board members have gone, but for it was

1:32:39I've never been in that room.

1:32:40It's it's worth a tour. That is fascinating. They they can't quantify so there's F H P in the building, D O T in the building, and literally real time on heavy traffic congestion. They're changing light cycles and times. Uh if there's an accident happen. They're calling right away. There's no real way to to quantify the amount of lives or or people that have been saved in and time that people get back from being stuck at traffic. It might you might feel like you're being held hostage

1:33:10in traffic forever. But you're literally getting home. Quicker. Uh so it was a great conversation with him and about our roads, Pasco's roads, is speci specifically, you know, fifty the fifty-four section there we discussed uh in front of Saddlebrook. in that stretch of road from the interstate moving east. uh fifty-four way on light timing and you know with all the projects and the volume of folks coming in. But it's really worth your time to go have some one on one with Secretary Wynn and meet his team. uh

1:33:41knowledgeable. One gentleman's been there. He's in the very far back right. Thirty-eight years he's been working in specifically in our area in the level of of transportation and and traffic and logistics. Pretty second at none, so Great experience and appreciate our DOT team and uh everything they've done for us. And then lastly, uh over the weekend we went to the Pasco County Beer and Burger Fest.

1:34:08Uh

1:34:09at Heritage Park. Atlanta Lakes and our Solid Waste and Recycling Team, Pasco Solid Waste and Recycling Team, were the Pasco County sponsors of this event. And so, you know, special thanks to John Batista, Rachel Batista, Carrie Kimball, and uh Shannon Kennedy. They all did a phenomenal job. Great music. ate about ten different hamburgers, judging hamburgers and trying to score 'em. them.

1:34:39It was very filling. Uh the burger that won, of course, it's been dubbed the commissioner. It had like a waffle in it and bacon. It was like a it it was fantastic. Uh you can see it there, that that front burger by the f that that's the commissioner right there. It it easily that was the first burger and it walked away. Uh with first prize. As you can see, but each each burger came out that size. Oh my gosh. Did you have to eat

1:35:06the whole thing?

1:35:07We were finished. It was it was tough business. Uh good burger and judging beers.

1:35:13Such a tough job.

1:35:14Yeah. So it was a great group. Everybody had a wonderful time and it's it was the third annual. and uh seems to be growing every year. Um and uh so great work to folks that put it on and the county staff that kept everything clean and the solid waste team. And uh Had a great time. So That's it for us.

1:35:36Okay. Mr. Starkey. Um

1:35:40So uh c just a couple of things. Um first, you know, the gentleman this morning talking about the sidewalks. And we hear it a lot in When may maybe our our new commissioners may not realize that Mm sidewalks on local roads are the responsibility of the homeowner. But I can tell you the homeowners aren't keeping up with their responsibility. And so I just wonder, you know, if there's something we need to do about that because If the homeowners don't

1:36:10fix their sidewalk it becomes useless and dangerous. And I don't ha I don't have an answer. I'm just throwing that out there. You know, how do other people How to other communities deal with that issue. Maybe they Um Fix the sidewalk and Put a bill on the tax bill of the homeowner or do you say you have X amount of time to fix your sidewalk? Are you allowed to keep your sidewalk in disrepair and cracks and missing pieces?

1:36:40So what you know what It's just not a discussion we ever had.

1:36:44I'd like to just add something to what you're saying because I ran it there was a gentleman there, Larry was his first name, I don't remember his last name right now, but he was in uh He had one of those motorized wheelchairs. Yeah. And he's right there on twenty first, was right there along uh in across uh Right there at W R. E. C.'s main office right there on twenty first street in day two. He was on the right hand side, the east side of that road. Neither side had a sidewalk. And he had dirt up inside. There's no way

1:37:14to use his motorized vehicle on that side of the road.

1:37:16I mean what if you're a mom and you're pushing a baby? uh to take a baby out for a walk and your none of your neighbors are fixing their sidewalks. So

1:37:25is there

1:37:26a responsibility?

1:37:34Yeah. So if if I may, I I I think it's it may be worthy of a topic to have public works kind of present to you some of the challenges. In some cases, we we own the property. We there are some sidewalks we maintain, others that we have not. Some are policy, others are not. It's it's complicated. Oh

1:37:51I know

1:37:51it's complicated. And it's

1:37:53a discussion we should have.

1:37:54It's further complicated by again, it's it becomes a revenue problem. And and so those are Those are things you know public works has some programs already in place and there are there are some challenges. But we let me let me have Brantford's team come back with something and we can we can talk more about sidewalks if that's the pleasure of the board.

1:38:10And I add one comment to that, which is all the newer MPDs that come to you have conditions to say that those sidewalks will be maintained by the HOA or the C D D. So this

1:38:23But is an issue that we have left unresolved.

1:38:27But to answer your direct question, legally yes, you could improve the sidewalk and levy a special assessment. on the homeowner. In fact your ordinance, the same ordinance that allows you to do P BAS allows you to also do that for sidewalks. So yes you could do that.

1:38:41So something to think about. Which leads me to uh the conversation I brought it up Jack last night. It's act it's actually Senator Frasano who brought it to me. Um I don't remember where we oh, we were at the uh breakfast for pa the Pace Girls. Which was a wonderful event yet again. Um And that is that Senator Frasano thinks that we can put some of these uh liens when we go to clear out a lot uh because they've left the homeless people have been there and left a big mess and they haven't cleaned it up.

1:39:12He feels we can put that on their tax bill.

1:39:17Interesting.

1:39:19So our office has preliminarily looked into this. We know that we believe that Hernando County does it, but we're still trying to investigate the illegal authority to do that. So We need to look into that a little bit further.

1:39:30Well, and I'd like you to. So right? That would be good. Yeah. Okay. Um Uh yesterday, I think it was yesterday, I um had The folks uh if you guys remember well you won't, but do you remember Lane Gardner from Hines? And uh Commissioner Oakley, he's got a big project going up in your district. Um I don't know if we all fully realize how large Heinz is, but it's one of the world's largest commercial real estate developers. But um They did Asturia

1:40:01here and um they were the winners of the RAISE Redevelopment Project. Um Down in Saint Pete. So um Lane Gardner from Hines and uh Matt Silverman from the Rays were up at Amskills yesterday. because I I invited them to come up and look because they're Their project in Saint Pete requires some workforce development. Components to it. So I threw out there that's a little bit more. Think of us. So They

1:40:31were impr they came up and they were impressed. Actually Lane said You know I build Hines built a lot of industrial developments and we You know, these are the kind of things that our users need within those developments. So he had his wheels clicking. Um Um I attended yesterday, Jack. The reason I I was a little mate late to you um the the meeting last night was I went to the Orange Belt meeting Um kickoff for Lena Lakes. for the trail. And um I didn't I didn't get

1:41:01to stay f through the whole thing but hopefully uh Our consultants and our team had a had a good meeting.

1:41:10It was pretty full.

1:41:13Um and speaking of that, I know that our friend Ray Gadd would have been there. Um, but as you know, Ray was in the the biking accident and um he is doing better. He's had a couple of successful surgeries and actually left the hospital yesterday and was moved to uh rehab closer to home. Um You might have seen in the paper that And I haven't seen it yet, but I hear the study may be done for Anklet River Park. By Stantec? I

1:41:43haven't seen it, but I read it in the paper this morning. So Um I'm looking forward to m getting with staff to see what the implications of that means because apparently there's quite a few arc archaeological sites that we need to be very mindful of. as we redesign the park. It seems to me we should have done that first and then done the design of the park. Because now maybe we've done a design of the park. and have to rethink it. So I don't know which which should come first. Yeah.

1:42:14So were you talking about

1:42:16The people are from let's say Oak Island. That had done some investigating out there that want to go out there?

1:42:24Oh you mean the the gold gold hunters?

1:42:26Right.

1:42:26No. Um This is um

1:42:29these are like cultural historical artifacts.

1:42:31Yeah, this is what h the state requires. And um Stantec has an archaeological team on it and they got the contract to Do the um very specific site for the h I mean they they did samples for the whole property. Um and there are I think there's more than one mound out there and of course the Spanish well but I am excited about the possibility that we have buried gold out there. And that we bought the property from Duke and we bought the mineral rights

1:43:02too. So don't tell them that but if there's gold in there, is it ours?

1:43:07And if you guys don't know, there's there is the possibility Of some buried pirate treasure at Anklet River Park. They've done some p preliminary digging. 'Cause and and I I can say this here because it was on the History Channel. There's a whole Captain what's his name? I don't know if anyone here is gonna remember. Do you remember know the captain's name? Look it up while you talk. Yeah. There's a great uh segment on the History Channel. I have the link somewhere where um they went out and did some preliminary digging. Um and they'd like to do

1:43:37some more.

1:43:38So so are you saying that there probably needs to be security put out there now that's the right-of-way. Well

1:43:43we do have a deputy that lives out there. Well I we were concerned people were gonna go out there.

1:43:55So um anyway, so the work on the park is ongoing. And um Lastly there were um com Commissioner Oakley, but um I am just a little bit more We um The global Tampa Bay, which is the trade Arm for Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas County did a global Tampa Bay mission to London last week. Um 'tis part of it was well, the impetus

1:44:25was the celebration of the um Non stop. Virgin Atlantic flight t from Tampa to London. And let me tell you it's v it's very high tech. Because when you check in You you don't even have to put your ticket on the on the scanner. They have these screens and you just walk up, boom, sees your face and you walk in. Unlike the British Airways flight, the I I came home by my on my own separately from everybody because I was supposed to go to an event Saturday night.

1:44:56So I did not take the Virgin um flight back. I flew home on a credit on British Airways and um Yeah, it took an hour to check in. An hour to check in. And then they had eighty more people than they thought they were gonna have and we didn't have enough food. So we sat there for two and a half hours while they figured out how to get the rest of the food. Um so it was a nightmare. But Um Uh the mayor of Tampa. Uh when commissioner from e each county. Um

1:45:26some an And uh some business folks from the Tampa Bay area. I think I don't know if there were thirty, thirty five of us. And um uh our friends from Moffat went And um I think for me that was the best meeting that I went to, Jack, was when we went to The meeting at Savills. Yes. And um frankly I learned a lot more about the Moffitt project at that meeting than I have ever learned anywhere else. And I already have a meeting set up to help bring another company

1:45:57there with some folks this week. So um But anyway, uh I think I think that's it. That's it for me. Jack can talk more about