Vice Chairman Oakley and commissioners miscellaneous business

56:09Okay, that will take care of all our public hearing items. We'll go to miscellaneous business. Vice Chairman Oakley.

56:22Got through quicker. Yeah, we're strong. What happened? We got through before 2 30 says uh

56:30is that uh earlier start time?

56:32Yep. Pull out my little agenda sheet. On June 23rd I attended the uh Tampa Bay Transportation Management Area Leadership Group and the Sun Coast Transportation Planning Alliance Board meeting uh at the F. DOT District 7 office there in Tampa. I did express my feelings about it. I didn't quite like the membership and we were outweighed as far as members from the Hillsborough

57:02County area over Pasco.

57:07I was told by uh Secretary Quinn, he explained it to me very well, that uh the regional metropolitan group would have to be uh membership based on uh population, and so that kind of uh I'm sure that we had to have that that many people. I wish it was a lot less and all that, but Uh then I just heard within the last day or two and maybe y'all can add a little something to this, but

57:38I heard if we choose to go into the regional M PO that we would actually lose our Pasco County M PO. And is that Is that a fa I've heard that to be true. If that's the case, I would not want to join this group. And uh I spoke to Carl earlier. I don't know if he's here right now. No,

58:00he's left.

58:00And he's the one that told me that. So um I guess somebody needs to uh Mr Kabalaffs all can research that and and be sure that's right because if that is the case, I do not wanna give up uh or speaking out for Uh

58:17that that's not. That's not our the money that comes to Pasco federally has to be spent Pasco.

58:25I understand, but you won't have an MPO like you do

58:27today. There's different ways that

58:29That's just what I've been told.

58:30Yeah. Well we'll have some s speak up, but if you heard Secretary Gwynn was going to get the T M A um

58:38Well I know that we still get our money for our our our areas, but if it has to go through the regional and we don't have a and we don't have a local there's a problem.

58:48No that that that's not Un costume.

58:51Well somebody needs to tell me

58:53tell me what the real facts are.

58:57Yeah.

58:57So he would

58:58Now I understand the fact with with the regional, we will speak as a group of uh I think we would become seventeenth in the nation for sp population and what we speak up for federal money. I understand that. But I wouldn't want to give up our local MPO. where we discuss and we vote on our own projects. That's what I would not want to give up.

59:24The best way to handle this is that's on the speech some speech lessons.

59:29it'll take care of

59:30that.

59:33I'd have to guess, but my my guess is what's probably being said is there can only be one MPO under the state designation. That would be the regional MPO. But you could still have the function. Locally. But

59:53the local control of your local plan. I

59:55well think that needs to be because I there could only be one state authorized MPO in a region. Um and so if if there if the if the tri-county is The one the state is recognizing. They wouldn't recognize us locally.

1:00:13But we'll speak as a bigger voice if we have the regional and I understand that and I I I would think that'd be good for us. But not if we have to give up our our speaking or voting on our own issues within our own county. I wouldn't want to do that. So we've got to put it in the I'm just making that statement but we'll have to figure that out. So okay. We'll bring that up as a board item,

1:00:36Mr. Carvalho.

1:00:37Right. As as a county we speak speak to our issues uh nationally, we would only be like somewhere between forty one or forty five. Yeah,

1:00:48that was amazing.

1:00:49And that but joining with the three counties. We joined together, we would speak as number seventeenth in the nation. Which is Very important because uh there's a lot of big projects in our area and we're very much in a growing part of this community, this region. So so I just need to find out that so and I feel comfortable. Good question. Thank you. One thing else I have is uh just wanna report I've uh I've never been on a vacation more than um a

1:01:19week in my entire life, even with my own company. I I didn't even take two weeks. I and there always short trips, but After three weeks I was definitely ready to come home. But I'll I'll tell you this w and going through the um New England states, going through and uh going through Connecticut, Salem, Cape Cod, Boston, uh went to Niagara Falls, Maine, Portland,

1:01:49those areas. All those areas. Uh there was no 40-foot lights. Whatsoever that I saw. If they were, there were businesses downtown. But you didn't see any of that in house and there was a lot of room on houses and bigger lots. Uh one thing I I very much so noticed the citizens in those states I uh toured in thought a lot about their area because there was no trash. There

1:02:20was no trash on the side of the road, no trash buildup anywhere that I could see. Anywhere. Um When I was in um in Niagara Falls around Canada, there was presence of uh law enforcement. Um you know, they'd be actually not necessarily in vehicles, but they'd be walking in the parks and all and let me tell you, there's thousands of people visiting there right now. I mean it's just amazing. the number of people that are there in Niagara

1:02:50Falls. But where we travel in the different areas. There was not a lot of presence.

1:02:59Other than maybe you'll see a car stop for police something, but the presence of police. Uh in the area you did not see much as far as that goes. And there was not I couldn't tell there was a lot of I mean, a lot of people but there was not a lot of issues in that that matter. So it's just things you notice 'cause we notice around here you you can walk out on the street right now In a few minutes, a police officer or something drive by. I didn't see any

1:03:29of that up there. So It was pretty amazing. And I didn't see any problems or hear about any problems while we were up there. But uh beautiful trip. I did let Chuck Carden know about uh Tampe Water. I found him a a water resource when I was at Niagara. And I think all we gotta figure out is the piping from Niagara Falls down down to Tampa and and then we'll have everything sauce. Okay, but that's my report. Thanks. Thank you.

1:03:59Commissioner Weightman. Good. Thank you, Chair.

1:04:03Kick off here we had uh enjoyed we all did the uh change of command ceremony for Chief Perez and uh excited about his energy great energy and uh don't worry you weren't left out of the conversation Commissioner Oakley We threw threw a line out there for you so uh pretty special to be a part of the line? And Sinker. Okay, good. And uh great program, excited for the new Chief, see what he

1:04:33can do. And uh congratulations again to Chief Caston on his what eleven years of of service with Pasco County. And uh you know, new team foreman JJ, I don't know if he's still in, but uh wishing wishing everybody in the team uh the best. One thing I did learn though, don't fall Commissioner Bradford at an event like this. Just let him speak and then we just know just tip your hat. So uh wishing

1:05:04Commissioner Bradford the uh all the best.

1:05:08Uh next my favorite subject matter uh Live Local Project. We have six Live Local projects now in Pasco. Uh this one is in uh District Five, Commissioner Mariano's district, uh on Shady Hills Road, a proposed eighty-four units, and once again it's on a C two zone parcel, uh, which is frustrating. Um you know, we're trying to figure out a way to help folks up there and improve their roads

1:05:39and these projects get tax breaks for a long time and you know they need to be paying their their share if they're gonna come in especially on a job creating site and uh so as these come in I'm just gonna continue to make record to this board and everybody knows where they are and and what they're doing so I appreciate that. That project is uh gonna be just north of Lancer Road on Shady Hills, uh just a hair south of County Line Road. And

1:06:10lastly, again, thank you to Andy Taylor. Your service will be missed. And appreciate once again I think the gesture today. Appreciate your work here. You're always welcome back. And

1:06:31we'll see you around, see you around soon. And then Andy's replacement, some of you may have met him, Brian Holmes. Raise your hand, Brian. Brian's no stranger to the to the public sector. He was he was in the Navy for over a handful of years and uh he was uh was it interim public works director? Is that was the the title? Yeah, for the city of Dade City. So great operating experience and then he left the city and was in the private sector um working on rezoning

1:07:01and a number of different projects around the country. So excited to have Brian join the team and uh he and Andy will be working together over the next couple of weeks while we still have him and um excited to see what we can do and uh appreciate uh Terry will take you under her wing under her wing too. So um thanks for joining us and that'll be That's it for me. Okay. Well

1:07:26I got it.

1:07:26Commissioner Starkey.

1:07:27But remember I didn't get to do anything last time.

1:07:32Was there a reason? You went to

1:07:33Niagara

1:07:33Falls? Oh, there you go.

1:07:35I I I will say I enjoyed the change of band uh as well, but how was a little long, not gonna lie. Um but I'm I'm I'm looking um forward to our new Fire Chief and Wish uh Chief Cass and Well. Um okay, so these are ones I just dropped in there while we were talking. I I wondered if you liked the look of this neighborhood.

1:08:00This is this is uh this is Tampa, City Tampa. Okay, another one. Um And see the parking on the street? This is a high park. Very, very expensive homes. Super expensive homes. And you've got all northeast. Super expensive homes again. These are rear they're either rear loaded. Hang on a second, you go on the glass. They're either rear loaded or the the garage is in the back and the driveway is on the side. But

1:08:31not in the front of the house. Right. And all those guys that spoke to us live in neighborhoods where it's they they have alleys and streets.

1:08:40Ms. Starkey?

1:08:41Huh?

1:08:42With forty and fifty foot lots you don't have room for a driveway on the side.

1:08:46Osbere. Um well, you but you ha you can do it in the back if you don't make it crazy expensive. Um and notice how old that oak tree is. Yeah. Okay. Um keep going. This is uh Key West.

1:09:06With with old oak trees.

1:09:11Keep going. Okay, so these are way out of order but uh so I went to uh the NACO conference in Austin and um I always try and do the bike ride um and these were uh this was an electric bike bike ride and Austin has an amazing trail system that goes for miles and this is what's called a gravel trail and And um their trail went from hard pat you

1:09:42know, concrete trail, paved trail to gravel. Um on the same trail. It's very interesting. But uh this is what we meant one of the things we meant to look at when we went to Bettonville, but we were so busy we never made it to the gravel trails. Um but I'm hoping that we can get these in the in the uh different parks that we have on like old Jeep roads that are already there um and have a system of these well manicured gravel trails. So these are NACO

1:10:12representatives writing. Did did the ones I I sent a whole group and I might have it might have been too big.

1:10:20Commissioner Starkey.

1:10:21No.

1:10:22A as you as you talk about trails, today when we had the um gentleman that spoke after you showed the walkway into the beach, the the the path that they put in place? For the handicapped people, the car the carpet.

1:10:38Actually the lady mentioned it as well about doing like trails for people. And I'm thinking if we shouldn't be looking at a some near point down the future as far as like in all the environmental lands that we have to allow Motorized gravel trails type thing. Uh some type of improving the trail system.

1:10:57Oh yeah.

1:10:58Up in New Hampshire when I had said I was up there a while ago, it was it's a big part of the tourism right now. So where the snowmobiles go? the bikes can go, the all terrain vehicles can go too. So I think it's something we should be taking a look at as a group to find out we can put them all over the county and travel all over.

1:11:14Snow Nash Gravel Trails, which is an unpaved trail, which ecologically is has no impact, is one of the graph fastest growing trail sectors out there. And with all our water management district, you know, all our well fields, there's no reason why we can't have um trails that uh people of all different abilities can access. I have I do not remember what that is. Um So, sorry, I don't remember that one. Yeah.

1:11:45Um Oh, okay, so this is a before and after. So you see on the upper left, no landscaping. And now they have put their landscaping in and their trees. So It it's slowly happening.

1:12:03Great place to do an operation too.

1:12:04Yeah. We did the ribbon cutting yesterday on Advent Center Ice. No, I'm sorry, Advent Health Care Pavilion. There's representative steel in the back left there. It was very, very hot. Okay, skip. Um

1:12:23God, these are way out of order. So at NACO, um the left here, um my committee went to the University of Texas in Austin and um there's a very interesting um presentation on how they um do these graphics for um scientists around the world. So and then here's Florida voting. you know, for our for our next uh president. Okay? What I really wanted to show you

1:12:53is and I guess maybe didn't go through w uh what one of the um breakouts that I did with my committee, C E W D, we spent a whole day at what was an old shopping center and I I think it might have been too big to send to you. I'll send a few. Um at a shopping center that they bought and they turned the Sears building into a workforce training center. And then they um did uh

1:13:24a I don't have I have the notes in here, but like a seventy eight million dollar bond, did some more and then they did like a seven hundred million dollar bond and they took this shopping center, an old shopping center, humongous workforce training center, they sold the parking lots to private developers who went vertical on apartments and townhomes and and it's in a an uh traditionally black uh depressed community

1:13:54and and it's just transformed that whole neighborhood so I'll have those I'll just email those pictures to you all but what what an interesting uh P3 development they did with their old mall. It's fantastic. Um Okay, I want to pass these out to you. This is something that Mako is doing. It is called Operation Green Light for Veterans. And I'd like our county to participate. I don't know if

1:14:24this has to be something that we vote on, but you use the there's a county toolkit template to pass a resolution. declaring your county's participation in Operation Greenlight for Veterans and they're doing all kinds of things on Veterans Day. So if if you guys would agree, I I think we should participate or get trying to get as many counties as they can to support this Operation Greenlight.

1:14:57So

1:14:58we can take that and I can have veteran services vet all that for us.

1:15:03And is that it on the pictures? Yes ma'am. Okay. I'll I'll send you guys privately the um pictures from that mall that was converted into a workforce training center. We um had our first boot camp. uh graduate at Amskills. Thank you very much, staff, for all your work to get us our TCO. Thank you so much. And Esther and everybody. Um we got it on the Friday and the class started on Saturday.

1:15:33I mean it was by the skin of our teeth that we got we got it. Um we had the Department of Um Corrections there uh to to take a tour. We had HUD from Jacksonville and you know we got a C D BG grant, so they're in charge of that money and they were thrilled. With what's going on and loved it. We had commissioners from Hernando and Pinellas County, and staff from Senator DeSigley's office, Senator Representative Maggard's,

1:16:03and Senator Angolia's office, and many of General Deal, from who used to be the commander of McDill. And he's the one who put together the coalition. that's down there with I think it's 24 generals from around the world and he was so enamored with what we're doing he wants to bring them all up to see it. And one of the things they do at McDill, which you may or may not be aware of, so that's the home of the KC one hundred thirty fives, which my

1:16:33son in law flies. But um most of those planes are from the fifties. You cannot buy parts for those planes anymore. Uh so they make they actually make them at McDill and ship them all around the world. They have a 3D printer and a fabrication um office there and um they want to bring those people up to see Anskills as well from McDill Air Force Base. So um while we were doing our graduation class, we had professors in

1:17:04from around the country getting certified on how to teach. robotics courses. So we were teaching the prof the we were training the trainers as we were also running a boot camp. So um and and P E D. C smart Starts was in there filming two of their really big success stories, which I think you'll see at the uh the Big Awards Dinner. So there's a lot of activity going on. So I invite you all to um Come on. And

1:17:35and see what's going on there and be sure and put October fourth on your calendar for our um first inaugural gala there, which is the the Tampa Bay Area's manufacturing dinner. If you uh I go to it all the time, uh it's usually in Oldsmart, uh but now they've agreed to move it to to Amsterdam, so we'll have a big event there October fourth. Okay? That's it for me.

1:17:59Okay. And just to tag into what you were just saying about skills in a mall, um, I know Gulfiel Mall has got some improvements going on, they sp they may have some space. But there's also a Publix Mall up on uh US nineteen, an old public's building that's sitting vacant. Uh probably next two buildings next to it that they could be both contenders for a P three project as well. Yeah. So something to keep in mind. Okay. Yeah County Administrator.

1:18:26Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of quick items. First, I'd like to welcome Sonia Toulouse here. She is our new agenda coordinator. I recognize her from doing the stuff for planning and development. So we're we're happy to have her and she's hit the ground running, so thank you. The other thing is, is just to call to your attention, our our engineering services department uh did energize a new traffic signal up at uh County Line Road and Winding Oaks. So right along there, our border with Ronando County. It was a joint effort. We worked together with Ronando County, but uh it's always good to have these safety

1:18:56improvements uh coming coming forward and doing good things for our citizens. That's all for now.

1:19:02Can I jump back in? Because Rob Marin was there as well. What'd you think, Rob? It was a great show. Yeah, it was crazy. We also you know had I think 12 high school students participate. in a a one week utilities boot camp and then they all worked for Pasco County for six weeks, paid paid internships, and they hired a couple of them. So um we had we had that as well. So thanks Rob for

1:19:28that. Good County Attorney.

1:19:32Um I wanted to add my thanks to Ms. Blair for her work on the airport zoning matter. Um something I didn't really have to deal with, so that's always good. That's it. Thank you very much. You're welcome.