Public comment period
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
It is a stretch of the recording that this archive identified as a separate matter — a call to order, a recess, or something taken up that the agenda does not list. There is no official title, no staff recommendation and no disposition, because the county never recorded one. Everything below is inferred.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, May 21, 2024
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 15m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 99% of 77 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Here. Let it be known that we have a quorum in place. Um At this time uh We move for um public comment. Citizens were given a Uh opportunity to comment on
Any event or on our on our future agenda or before the board on business under the board's preview. Today's public comment will be Uh handle as follows first. We will take public comment from those persons here in in person. Um then we will take public comment for those who have re pre registered on the WebEx And are currently on on Q. We request that when
you Uh address the board comments are not directed personally toward a commissioner or a
uh directed at the issues. This provides mutual respect between board members and the public.
After After um stating your name and address for the clerk, a three minute timer will be activated. after two minutes, a single beep will indicate you have one minute left. At that time Um When when that's a good idea, to when that two minutes is up, then you will Have a Two beeps and you should close your comments. Webex participants will be uh disconnected automatically
when their time is up. Madam Clerk, do we have any people signed up for public comment?
Yes, sir. We have four individuals signed up. Uh the first is Philip Carhartt.
And then if you'll give your name and address for the record.
Oh yes, my name is Philip Carhartt. I'm a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer. And I'm also the founder of Semter Ferratis Veteranos. It's a nonprofit veterans organization where I try and help. Get brother veterans off the street.
Uh Mr. Carhartt, uh can you give your address?
Oh yes. [address removed].
Thank you. You can continue
since nineteen seventy-three.
Okay, thank you.
I I have had a lot of ideas and through my entire college experience. I was designing tiny homes because that's the new modern trend. My professors wanted me to do it. So I thought take it to the next level. Let's make those tiny homes for homeless veterans. Since I came home from college and have been here in Pasco County, everybody's now telling me that Pasco is working on a project just like this. I'd like to be a part of that project. I'd like to put my ideas to work. I'm
doing such good research right now. I'm riding this scooter around Pasco County and speaking to the homeless people. How did you get here? What do you think it would take to get you out of here? How can we get you to substance abuse? How can we get you Some of the VA benefits, how can we point you in the right direction? Like some basket officers did for me some thirty years ago. I get emotional about it because it's important. There should be no veterans
sleeping in the woods. Well, we had the power to reach out to them and pull 'em up out of the gutter. Sorry, I get so emotional, but this really hits home with me. and I have the experience that I've been there. And I fought my way back and now I own a three bedroom house in MBC Hills. So I wanna take my knowledge and my experience.
to help and move forward and help our brother and sister veterans and get 'em up off the street.
I know of one guy that rides up and down on US nineteen on a wheelchair, a hand push wheelchair. He's eligible for one of these. He's a veteran that fought in Vietnam. But because he doesn't have a place to live, he wheelchairs up and down the sidewalk all day. We don't need that.
They fought for our country, they deserve our help. Got one minute to go. Second item on my agenda to tell the county about is the condition of our sidewalks. And I read on the internet last night that there's funds available from the federal government in infrastructure packages that we could take away all of these trip hazards. even take work release program to take some of our inmates and let them come out and set them up with a couple of mechanics from the county and grind
the bumps off the sidewalks. The trees have lifted the sidewalks up. The handicap ramps leading to the street are death traps. My elbows all tore up from tipping over on this scooter on one of 'em on Embassy Boulevard.
And I think S apologize for getting so emotional, but that veterans d stuff really touches home with me. And I think my ideas of the tiny home community and even putting solar panels on the roofs of them to make them self-sufficient. and make it a step program where they first get a tent platform to put their tent on. Okay. I hope we can I thank you for your time and I hope we can do that.
Thank you for your comments. And m Kathy Pearson is waiting in the back of the room. And the red. If you will speak to her, she will see you at the back.
Okay.
Okay, so the next individual signed up uh Cinda Crouch.
Ms. Crouch, name and address for the res uh for the record.
My name is Cinda Crouch and I'm representing David Crouch at the residence of [address removed]. He is a retired firefighter of 24 years with Tampa. After retiring from as a firefighter, he made it his life dream to preserve the nature as well as the landscaping of Land O' Lakes. He's well known in that part of the county. He resides on 30 acres. It is a wetlands refuge as well as a wildlife
refuge. Um the commissioners have always done what they can to validate that as well as to preserve it. We thank you for that. In September of 2021, you met to Put in stipulations for the oakstead development that was going on along our south border of the property. In doing so, it was stated that they would put in a 10-foot, leave a 10-foot
natural buffer for the wildlife, as well as preserve the wetlands. that their um property would be touching. Since then they cleared that property of every oak tree. Every right down to dirt. Nothing left but dirt. There was no preserving of the wildlife whatsoever or of the wetlands. They've since put in a fence along Joy Drive along to the SPCA.
They set back that fence twenty-five foot. along the border of our property, both our easement and the south border, that fence last week was put up on the property line with no buffer. We ask that the commissioner help us in having your agencies push this. Code enforcement has tried without success. Please back your mandates and preserve our wildlife. We have now F WC's been out,
Eagle Watch has been out. We have eagles that have moved over from Drexel because of the um building there, because of all the Oakstead. We now have four other endangered, federally endangered animals on the property. We house four um sets of deer that are now about to have their babies and just were crying at the highway day before yesterday because they couldn't figure out how to get back into their babies who were also crying. This is a
plea to preserve the last zone three agricultural wetlands wildlife sanctuary left in that part of the county. Please, if I can plead to you, please help us to preserve it before it's destroyed. It's the last one left. I thank you for your time and your ask dress again because I'm trying to see where [address removed]. Which is off of Joy Drive behind the elementary school there. And it's behind you that was cleared?
In front of us. I have the aerial shot if y'all would like to view it. Yeah. Can we keep that? It's my only copy.
Okay, we'll we'll get a copy. How do we how do we do that? This
is your district.
Yeah.
You can see here that we're ready. You need to s you need to stand
at the podium.
You can see here that we are red lined and red zoned, and what your engineers have taught me that means that no one can touch that property line to preserve it, because it is a zone three untouchable piece of property. The only the front part is dry, the rest is all wetlands. Would you like
Jake Peter. Okay, she's gonna make a quick move to receive and file.
Yeah.
I got
a
motion.
And then certainly we want second.
Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Okay.
Can someone from staff talk to her? 'Cause I don't understand why we can't do anything. Yeah. Yeah. I mean sounds like some finds are coming.
The fence along the easement should be pushed back fifteen feet because where they've put the fence is where our d drainage ditch and our utility easement is. That's a given. There's also supposed to push it back ten foot along the south border to allow for that wildlife.
Okay. JP will you meet her in the back and discuss everything with her. Thank
you
for that. Thank you. Looks like MIOMs.
Okay. The next individual signed up is Alan Rose.
Last thing that she said was Oakstead.
Mr. Rose name and address for the record, thank you. Yes,
good morning.
Alan Rose,
[address removed]. Thank you. [address removed]. I just come to you today. It's been a while. I've been out getting better after some medical issues. But it back to Coastal Pasco County. Uh right now our public beaches. This is this is today's issue and what I've gotten a lot of feedback from people is that uh We need to pay some attention. What I'd recommended in the past. And uh currently we have fourteen hundred feet of
public beaches. Uh the proposed coastal plan that I've brought before you uh Previously. Uh would bring Swimmable and fishable waterfront to twelve thousand two hundred feet. Funding is available, sixteen million dollars from the state. There's over two billion federal funds available. You just have to go look for it and get it. And then um This is annual funding. And there are many more dollars available through various grants. Anglo
River currently is at a thousand feet of a beach. That would stay the same. Green Key currently is two hundred feet. The proposal would bring it to five thousand feet. Uh Brasher Park currently is at two hundred feet. proposal would bring that to five thousand feet. Hudson Beach is currently at two hundred feet. Proposed proposal would bring that to twelve hundred feet, one thousand two hundred feet. The county just needs coastal waterways infrastructure management.
really long overdue. Our beaches, people all want to go to the beach. People all want to enjoy the waterfront. We are a coastal county. And we have it's been sixty years since real efforts have been made to address our coast. And when they did that sixty years ago, they did sidecast stretching, which caused many of these issues over time. The uh Sedimentation. has all caused a lot of issues. The flooding, the repetitive flooding and everything that we've seen. This
can all be fixed. And I know we we're minimized on the staffing we have that can atta uh go after this and the funding. We can find the funding. Once we have the funding in place. As long as the county is behind it, we can We can get people to do the work for us. There's an abundance of funding for this type of work. We can go after uh endangered species because of our manatees and others, the uh coastal seabird sanctuaries
we have, different things we can do and we can attach to these funds that are available and achieve results for our county. Our coastal areas need attendance. Thank you. Thank
you for your comments.
Right, and the last individual signed up is Shawn Novar.
Your team right here.
Good morning commissioners. My name is John Novak and I'm seeking permission to use a bow ramp to remove Pre cut timbers from
the right-of-way.
Excuse me.
Need your address?
It's uh [address removed]. [address removed]. And uh we're required by our permit we're applying for from the D E P to get written permission. for these things were fully insured, were deemed non commercial, and we have Um Just half ton vehicles, very light duty, one or two logs at a time if we get some. And um that's it, sir.
Mr. Chairman, I think this is a this is a request that should go through the administrator's office. Oh okay. It's not something that that you should act on without any having staff vet it.
Yeah. If you will, uh, Johanna, you gonna meet with him out outside there and get his information.
Okay. Thank you for your comment, sir. Thank you. Yes, sir.
That is all that's signed up
for public comment. Anyone in the audience wish to speak at this time
See a no one? Uh WebEx.
No sir. No one signed up.