Commissioner reports on fire stations roads and events

1:30:24Uh I have a few items. Uh February twenty-third I attended the engine sixteen push-in at State Road 54 in Zephyrhills. Um On that day, there we go. We're pushing that truck in. Thank thank goodness for a driver in the engine that works. But uh very nice bushes. almost million dollar trucks and so and the next one we went over to uh just off forty one to

1:30:54station twenty eight and had a ribbon cutting ceremony and we uh were able to rededicate this station. Uh it's the first time it's had a what do you call it? A um Mm-hmm.

1:31:15This is the one on 41?

1:31:16Yes. Yes.

1:31:22Yeah. But their rededication of the fact they have uh officers there that are working for a living there rather than volunteers. They used to all be volunte volunteer. And and um the fact of it is uh This station within this past year since they've opened that back up has done 900 calls.

1:31:49Yeah, I was gonna add to

1:31:50that. It's within uh two other stations. It's within eight minutes.

1:31:58Yeah, it splits the gap of the service area. So it was a a great idea uh by Chief Perez and the team to to really identify ways to improve response time. And so by reusing this asset we we've been able to to do that in the Land O' Lakes area. So

1:32:13And while we were there waiting on the ribbon cutting and doing what we were doing there. They had a call that both um both EMS and and the fire engine went out on a call. They later the fire engine came back in. The um Yeah MSA carried a person to the hospital. Then they finally come back in and went bef right before we were gonna leave They had uh

1:32:43two calls that went on separate ways. The engine went one way for man not breathing and then

1:32:52Ambulance.

1:32:53Ambulance went the other way for another

1:32:55They're on the road every time I'm driving.

1:32:57Every time they're always working, so So but it's

1:33:01that fatality on fifty two Last week my brother watched the whole thing. Where that car pulled out got T boned from that neighborhood. Apparently that's a very dangerous intersection. We need to look at it. Looking on online uh do you m I think that's your district? Do you know the intersection where that fatality was? It's on fifty two, somewhere near Bellamy Brothers. Um I I don't look on my map here, but and looking online It

1:33:32said there were there would had just been another fatality at that intersection.

1:33:38So

1:33:39they've had some on Bellamy. It made me think

1:33:41that we really need to look at the center section.

1:33:46Yeah, there's a lot of p I think it's even Citrus County and Hernando County coming down into our

1:33:51county. Yeah, and we're looking we're looking into safety improvements along Bellamy Rivers.

1:33:55We're working on those. I've had a meeting out there. Actually about a hundred people in the community attended that meeting. Uh Um and Bramper and his team is working on on issues for safety. Um reached out to Sheriff formerly put out a a traffic speed alarm where it will k it actually counts traffic but it counts the speed of the traffic. So um we're I think one of the things for safety we're gonna make it worse than mine passes on because

1:34:26the accidents we've had lately have been where cars are passing and then someone turn onto the road in front of them. Yeah, a head on collision. So if you gotta do s you know, there's major things that need to be done. Mr.

1:34:43Yeah. So on that note, you

1:34:44know,

1:34:44driving down the road is pretty tight. We've got a big development coming in. Yeah. I don't know if we're designing to make that road wider.

1:34:52Well we are looking at that as uh an end result, but uh we're trying to do what we can first to do safety reasons first and answer those. But eventually one day we're talking about a rebuild of that entire road 'cause on down the way it's it's not very wide, it's a rural road and it it needs to be widened and and uh going on till it hits Hernando County. So but that's in the future and that's something we've really been needing to look at. It has soft shoulders

1:35:22on uh as you get on down past Johnson Road. Mm in there around the Barthel Ranch and all they have. There's been several accidents down in and around those curves and people are are passing where they shouldn't be passing. I mean, even though it allows you to, there's too much traffic there anymore for them to be passing and be safe. Uh I attended a uh workshop down in Dade City this past week, spoke for the Evans family for a mixed use uh development piece out here at

1:35:52uh where the public's is. And it was a storage unit, but the s city council in Dade City were seeming to have a issue with the fact they thought this building was just a standalone, but in fact they didn't realize that the entire eighty acres was a part of uh the public's mixed use because it's got a Burger King's got a bank and then of course the storage unit coming. But some of the commissioners, a couple of them are new and they're trying to understand things there

1:36:23and and they have never done it before, so they don't quite understand sometimes. But I've talked to the city manager and hopefully they'll get some more training because they need some of that training to make good decisions for the city. They they've annexed a bunch of property into the city. And they can't be uh naysayers and say no to ever all the growth that's coming because in a sense they they did it themselves when they annex property in. So people are coming and the growth's gonna happen, so There'll

1:36:54be a lot of good things come of it, but this uh storage facility be a nice building. Doesn't pays good avarome tax to the city which they need and uh not much traffic for us, police or anything else that would cause them to have to pay a lot of services for it. But it's a good product. And then

1:37:15I hope the the site plan is something that's not like what we've done on fifty four. I hope it's improved.

1:37:23Well this is not on the road. It's not on the it's not facing out on Clinton Avenue or anything. It's back into the development. So um next on uh I visited uh Tropical Acres Estates again, saw that the um F D O T had uh widened up the time limit on on fifty six and three oh one. to release traffic there for a longer period of time. And also back uh at

1:37:53the other light toward 39, they or Chauncey, excuse me, Chauncey Road, they've done the same there and it's made that traffic kind of spread out and it it's better than it was. But they were having people kill coming out of Florida, uh tropical acres in that property. uh try just trying to get out on the road and and go to Zara Hills. And eventually there's a light coming there and F D OT's been working with me to uh make the conditions

1:38:23out there much better until we get that light there. So and hopefully within this next year we'll have that light which helped that community right there. So next thing was uh and Chief Perez attended with me because the first time I went out about a month ago, um there was a lot of questions about fire service and and how they were ta handling their fire their calls for their in their park. So and he answered those and uh it was it went very good the meeting went very

1:38:54well. So uh March fifth we have a joint workshop with New Port Richey Port Ritchie. Um I was I was actually ecstatic of the fact that Port Ritchie came and uh most everybody came but one or two parties but um and I think it was a very good meeting that we had. Everybody was uh That room was not one sided like it has been the last two years prior

1:39:24to that when we didn't have Port Ritchie being a part of it. So I think they're changing and they're gonna be working and do the best for Port Ritchie. So I look forward to that. So But um And what else we got here? Oh uh

1:39:42Uh we had a investiture sermon investiture. An attorney would know that. For the uh new judge uh Newt Nathy and it was well attended uh basically almost standing room only when if he hadn't gotten there early, so the room was full and uh very well. done it and uh and um of the understanding he's been working for six months

1:40:12prior to this and everyone spoke very well of the work he was doing. It was very good. So all right, that's all I have.

1:40:23So anything else you want to bring up?