Chairman's report on medical examiner, Dade City, roads, Starkey photos

1:14:00Good. I only have about twenty things here. Um first thing I have, uh we've been asked by the state's medical examiners commission to complete a reappointment ballot from form to consider the appointment District Six Medical Examiner Dr. John I'm gonna say this, I may mess it up. S Fog Fogmarton, Fogmarton, I guess is where you pronounce it, which serves Pasco and Pinot County. Um

1:14:31we're asked to rate by checking one box, either favorable, unfavorable, or no opinion, uh with explanations if possible. So this this is the form.

1:14:46Fill that out for all of us?

1:14:47Yeah, take care of that.

1:14:49Very good.

1:14:52Does anybody here know anything? positive or negative against the a medical examiner or ever heard anything?

1:14:59Don't hear anything negative, you must be working good. Yeah. I don't hear anything bad, so

1:15:04But uh I would need uh a motion and a second. Second. Our motion is second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, like, sign. Motion passed. Okay, I'll take care of that after the meeting.

1:15:17That's somebody you want to get to know very well, is it?

1:15:20Do what? Um, City of Dade City has asked for a letter of support for their wastewater treatment plant. Relocation and upgrade request for funding from Congress. Current plant is built in 1950 near Moore Mickens and the the new plant is they plan on building it on Summer Lake Road just east of the railroad tracks out here from Dade City. And right next to their spray field. And

1:15:51so they're asking for a letter of support for them that for uh Go through Congressman Bellaracus office. Okay, so I need a motion. No move. And I'll sag it. Second? Second. Motion second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passed five zero. Uh I would like to thank um Mike Shoemate. uh for arranging and housing our Pasco County Administrator Host

1:16:21excuse me, hosting our Pasco County Administrator faces with facilities with Citrus County District Three, Commissioner Ruthie, uh Sleybach, along with And you see the pictures. She's standing between myself and Mike on the left. Uh the commissioner, she's District Three. She's uh lives in Black Diamond and covers that area. And um then on the

1:16:52right hand side the lady in black is um Is her animal service person, Colleen Yarborough? And shelter veterinarian is Dr. Megan Milo. She's in the uh red. So we we toured them around the animal facilities and it was a very interesting product. I thought Citrus County was bigger than it is, but it only has 149,000 citizens. And I would have surely thought

1:17:22Homosass M and Citrus uh Crystal River would have had m more citizens than that, actually. So but uh we were glad to host them and their facility hadn't been taken care of very well and uh I suggested she um talk to her c uh fellow commissioners about uh not continuing to kick a can down the road, go ahead and take it's up against the curb and go ahead and take care of their issues so they can they can be set and ready. So we

1:17:52gave 'em a very good example and with a national recognition of two of our employees in the animal services. Uh They're doing a great job. And I thank Mike Sumate's leadership in doing that. So it was very good. Um

1:18:09Well I've got a long list of things here, but I'm not gonna cover all this. Um there's there's uh a lot of issues coming to us and you know we're growing as much as we are growing. Uh small business are seem to with the COVID and everything they've had, we need to be Very on guard and and listening to our small businesses. There's no way to incentivize them now with any of our ordinances. But

1:18:40I think in the future we'll need to make plans to possibly do that.

1:18:50Um with the survey uh We've had here recently uh I think there was about over 60% of our businesses that were part of the survey have been in Pasco County over 10 years. And that's pretty good. So they're not only coming here in new businesses, but they're staying. And we need to make things um business wise and um make sure that customer service wise that we're doing

1:19:20the right thing. in all of our departments and staff is They're working hard and Dan told you about Over nine hundred permits, you know the building department's having a hard hard time with with that many. That's a lot of extra. It's double the work for the same amount of people probably. We've added I think one or two, but not a lot, but we need to um be aware of of what's happening in our county and and look out for 'em in the future. And I'm talking about near future and

1:19:50far future if we're looking out in the next five years to the next ten years in some areas. Um I'm going to be setting up a committee for the um Northeast rural area to be looking at it for there are some areas within that that need to be. We started a commercial park up in Lakuchi and uh there's a a business related to the first manufacturer we have there's gonna come in there also so there'll be two of them. And I think we need to

1:20:20make room. We're gonna have to cut out some areas. For workforce housing. out of the rural area so we can do those things necessary to make that a success. And it's already headed toward the success. And uh so we'll be this new committee when we form the committee will be looking at Northeast Rural very closely and also for things as far as in the future. Of in that rural area and our northern boundary with Hernando County, we need to

1:20:50start paying attention that we're we'll get pressures from development on the north of our borders coming into our borders. Same as you have on the south side, but you're gonna get it from the uh Highway 575 area, you're gonna get a pushback toward our our county. So we need to be. looking at that and and being um aware of what's coming in the future. And I'm talking 10, 15 years out. Well I know I won't be here. Christina could be here, but I won't be here for

1:21:21that. But I'd I'd certainly like it to be planned out to where we're prepared for that in the future. And I know we can do it. I know Pasco County's um ready to be that premier county. And I think this is with customer services is all a part of being a Premier County. So um Also state we're one of the top 25 in the Tampa Bay area of workplace. To work? Place to work?

1:21:55And that's that's based on all of your efforts and all of our staff's efforts. Because it doesn't get there by one person. It gets there because we're a team. And our team needs to continue working together and getting to where we need to be, and especially. It's getting more and more apparent. that uh customer service is one of the best things we can do for our our county and our citizens. 'cause they're ha coming in, some of these small businesses having a hard time going through the process. We're making changes

1:22:26to where we can help them go through those processes. And that that's going to be better for them.

1:22:33Also along with it being top 25. We are uh one of three that actually in the work workplace that that in our local area that provided this award that we've gotten. So we're getting nationally recognized on animal services. We're nationally recognized uh human trafficking area, and I mean many, many areas that We're doing things differently. Connected city when they came in. It was

1:23:03a way of speeding up the process and smoothly and and getting things done uh better and a little bit quicker. Uh a lot of people are talking now about all the traffic we have on our different roads, but let me tell you we've got roads that are coming that that when they're finished, the traffic's gonna move without without any problem. Um I went out with DOT this past week, saw um

1:23:31Uh state road fifty-two. on the top of the hill uh just uh west of uh Prospect Road and Clint Avenue. On top of the hill there you can see the complete campus of Saint Leo College, right there, Saint Leo University. to your north. The day I was at it, I tried to get a picture, but it it was uh overcast day, it wasn't wasn't very good, but That's uh that road's coming along very well. I don't know if you realize but They put down a pavement.

1:24:02a three inch asphalt pavement. They put eleven inches. Of concrete on top of that. Then they come over that with a Diamond grinder. that smooths out the concrete for a smooth ride. Same way they did with the the asphalt when they did Pitch 6 and had the lasers all come out and they smoothed it for a smooth ride. This this diamond machine that cuts that Cha. edge

1:24:32off there that makes it a smooth ride on concrete. So it's pretty amazing, 11 inches of concrete, but it's coming along real well. They they hope that within uh probably a year they'll be able to use two lanes of that and be able to open it up. So they've still got two signal crossings they gotta do. Prior to that too. They were thinking they're on schedule. They're moving uh faster than expected because they're out there. They don't have to control traffic 'cause it's uh a new roadway

1:25:03across there. So it's but it's coming along real well. So you know also I got a call from uh DOT on uh MPO issues that we need to be looking for in the future. They're going four lane 301 on to 50. To our north. They're gonna four lane the bypass around Dade City here. And they're going four lane. Um Ninety eight, born to Polk County. So th those issues have to be placed on uh MPOs

1:25:33for funding and we'll be ready for that when it comes time. So but it's a lot of roadways and There's a lot of work being done in by DOT in Pasco County. And not only do we think we work well with District 7,

1:25:51Secretary Gwynn and his group, but they think so also. So we're a team. even with D O T and and the county roads and all that we're working here. So It's a lot to be uh uh very proud of that. We have all these things moving. and our traffic's going to get better. Um Commissioner Starkey realize that traffic's starting to get worse and East Pasco when she got held up a little bit for coming into the meeting on fifty-two.

1:26:19Yes.

1:26:21A few times.

1:26:22Yeah. But it's it's really come apparent in the mornings. Uh traffic is building up coming into Dade C Santa and Dade City from from the west in the mornings. Just back it up at at Curly. So um I'll try to get Margaret to check that light again because it was only allowing Mr. Starkey noticed it was only allowing about three cars to go through before it changed the light again. So that's not enough. It's gotta take more

1:26:52cars through there. So but they traffic ops they'll they'll do a good job and straighten that out. I'm sure they will. So

1:27:02Okay.

1:27:04I think they may have my photos now.

1:27:06Oh you got your photo? Okay, we come up with that.

1:27:10See which one comes up first. I have an uh sad picture of a alligator, but so this is the this is I think this is after this is the maybe it's after I can the cleanup of the Helenalis. So the code enforcement sent me these photos. Can you Yeah. There's a whole bunch of photos, not just one. I think I scroll through.

1:27:34I I'm I'm s this happened in a matter of weeks.

1:27:40Where's the site?

1:27:41It's on US nineteen.

1:27:44Um eventually you're gonna get to um nineteen

1:27:46to the left there,

1:27:47we should start seeing what happened.

1:27:50Oh yeah.

1:27:51I personally think The people, look at that. I think that 'cause i I I'm gonna sorry, I'm gonna beat a dead horse, but I think because there's not mandatory garbage in the area. A lot of people decided they would also add to the joy of putting their garbage here.

1:28:11And um SMS.

1:28:13We had to have a a contractor had to come in and and clean this up. Um, put a lien on the property. But This is like on fifty four. Bruce B. Downs, you know, this is was right on the road. And I can't tell you how many calls I was getting from businesses around there like, what just happened here? What just happened? And um because we didn't have that no trespass sign when we did

1:28:43the condemnation. It took a little while, but Um, I just want to thank staff for going out there and making sure we got this nastiness cleaned up. Um Yeah, so there you can see it cleaned up.

1:29:02And I think the trees hide it, you know. That it hasn't been um

1:29:09Clear of the trees it I did some here.

1:29:16Now we have a lien on this property. Um Then uh I think hopefully you're gonna see the picture of this alligator.

1:29:26That was in the um did that one get to Jordan? So this happened in holiday. No? I sent her I sent her Dan, I sent that to you too. Oh there it is. This was very sad. This came into my office yesterday. So there's junk in the waterways. And uh this is off the Darlington and an alligator swam into a tire. And I you know, I don't know how it

1:29:57happened, but Um it killed the alligator and then this spent a few days floating around and our staff did go. Um FWC said they wouldn't couldn't do it and someone from our staff went and got this, but Um, if we need to have more, sadly, regular some kind of cleanup programs on uh on our waterways. That's a very sad picture right there.

1:30:25Yeah.

1:30:25Um, and I I uh let's see. I was on a n a phone call yesterday with an organization called Lisp. And we had a couple staff members on there. One uh Terry Pitos was on and Troy from um From David Engel's office. Um LISC. I don't know what it stands for. It's a national foundation started by the Ford Foundation. I guess if I move please. Um what they were talking to us about yesterday was Opportunity

1:30:55Zones. It's called the Local Initiative Support Corporation. They're coming here to to Tampa Bay. Um They uh what we talked about yesterday was opportunity zones and they come in and they assist, especially with affordable housing in opportunity zones. They have opportunity funds. Um but we have to do some homework first before Will start working with us. They're going to be working with

1:31:25Tampa and St. Pete and other communities, but Um I'm gonna be hopefully getting together a little group. Marcy couldn't join the call. She was already committed. Um and definitely want to see if we can take advantage of this. Um national or uh organization that brings money from Verizon, Ford, big corporations um into communities to help them, especially in rural areas.

1:31:54Mm-hmm.

1:31:55So um they're gonna be working to stand up an office here. There's one in Jacksonville. It's the only one that's that's here in Florida. Um, but uh hopefully they're gonna set up a board here in Tampa Bay and I hope to be a part of it. Um they also work with affordable uh workforce development and and other issues, but uh Um we don't we I ask, we don't have one project going and an opportunity.

1:32:25Yeah. So it's a little frustrating. But we didn't get to pick them. Ours weren't selected. So uh maybe the process going forward's gonna be a little different. I asked that one of the guys who was on the call was number two at HUD. Um And asked him if he th I th if he thought there was gonna be another round of opportunity zone. um opportunity and could we maybe modify some of our

1:32:55opportunity zones to expand them so that we get some areas in that we can take advantage of. Um they said it's a possibility when the um Census comes out, they think that the data may Show that we could possibly expand. And so we need to stay tuned on that. But in the meantime, they highly recommended that we we Hired A uh Consultant. To um help us position ourselves

1:33:25better with opportunity zones. So I'm gonna talk to David about that and and Marcy and see if it makes sense for us to so that we can move forward. But anyway. All right.