Hurricane recovery efforts and debris removal

1:33:03Okay, Mr. Kabawa? Thank you, sir. I've only got five more slides left here. I just want to talk a little bit about recovery efforts. So again, our public works team uh continues uh continues to work. Um we have uh over 26 uh stormwater pumps currently deployed. I know the state's providing more assets as well. Uh and again, these pumps will pump and will deploy when it is appropriate and safe to do so. So they are monitoring water. Yeah. I I I don't even think I mentioned the Cypress Creek watershed. Cypress Creek watershed in the center of the county

1:33:33uh certainly uh some unprecedented levels of flooding there too. Um but as such we even had road washouts or full-on collapses of roads. Uh I think at least at least six roads uh are completely washed out. Uh that's a picture there of of Curley Road uh actually uh here here in the U.S.

1:33:49Is that north of fifty-two?

1:33:51Uh yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. On the east uh northeastern portion of the county. Um and we're currently getting quotes. We have contractors in our stable that we can work with. And I know uh our team is already out getting quotes to do to do uh repairs. Yes, sir.

1:34:07One thing uh I would like to bring up I've heard some from some contractors that they're asking for bids for some projects but they're we I don't know if we've given them all the parameters they need. to come up with the right price for those fixing those roads. So

1:34:24they need to meet and be Be sure they have the parameters to give you a lot of people.

1:34:28I think there's a balance between how much information we can give to the contractor based on the expediency, right? I mean if I spend nine months designing the fix, you will be very unhappy with us. So uh we'll we we certainly will have to, you know, uh we we compensate contractors for the risk. I can talk to you later. Yes sir, of course. Absolutely. Um so we again um fallen trees. And roadways, pump trucks, we have moved water and again. Uh we have we have gone through and done an evaluation of our public damage

1:34:59as a result of this, and and we we have received uh uh the green light for FEMA reimbursement. So there's there's different categories of FEMA reimbursement. Category A is debris removal, which we have at 100 percent for 90 days. When that 90 days ends, we're still having some discussions on that because of the two storms. But then B is your preparatory actions. And then you've got Cat C through G, which handle various things such as utility damage, road damage, damage to parks, public facilities. And

1:35:29we've qualified for those, usually on a 75-25 type split. So it's great news. government uh has heard all the work and so we're we're we're looking forward to uh not breaking the bank in responding to this storm. Which kind of leads us to building back and building back better, if you will. Um we we in the local state of emergency have waived Building fee permit to payments, right? So they're the permits are free, but they are still required. So so again,

1:35:59we have we have team members out there in the public. We've tried to go to where the hardest hit areas are to make uh these these pop-up permitting sites to encourage folks to to do uh to permit. Um we are putting them to the front of the line so they do get expedited review. So if you have storm damage. damage uh to your property. Uh you don't it's not gonna sit there and and and wait forever to to get approval. Oftentimes I think they're even doing it on the spot at some at some point so cur Mr Murphy's shaking his head. So Excuse me. Um

1:36:31and again we have these pop-up permitting sites at Gulf Harbor's Sea Ranch, excuse me.

1:36:39Mm.

1:36:42Maybe presentation's over, I don't know. Um pop-up permitting sites over at Gulf Gulf Harbor Tax Collector Office. So thank you to Tax Collector for allowing us to co-locate on a few few of those aisles up there.

1:37:04We wanted to add this by statute, temporary structures are allowed for up to three years. So if your home was storm damaged and you are repairing it, there are some thresholds that need to be met. You can, by law, uh key have a temporary structure there to live in while you are making repairs to your prime residence. So just wanted to make sure folks were aware of that. Florida Department of Emergency Management began individual uh damage assessments, and so that's basically kind of going door to door and kind of validating certain things, and

1:37:34so there's there's a procedure and a process to do that. Uh residents can use those estimates that that come out come out of that for their substantial damage estimates. So that's that 49% rule you you hear us you hear us talking about. Um to date we've issued more than 600 permits. permits, uh, four demolition permits, uh, as well as plenty of re roofs, electrical mechanical permits, uh, so far in excess of $13 million worth of worth of work has already started. And so again, I thank the uh the uh uh development services team for going

1:38:04out there and being ready to help folks rebuild um um as quickly as possible. And so on that, uh on the 14th, uh FEMA uh held a meeting, uh virtual and in person over at our Hudson Library. It was it was well attended online. Um but there were a lot of questions too about what's the county doing? And so we've decided to go ahead and push a town hall style uh meeting uh at the historic courthouse on the 24th. That's this Thursday. That's at 6 PM, I believe. Um

1:38:34where we'll have county county team members on on hand to do that. But you don't have to go to Dade City to do it. There is a virtual option as as always. We we are a big county with with a lot of with a lot of different needs, and so that that will be there. FEMA will be there prior to that, I believe from four PM to six PM. Um I would check our website with the Times, but uh to to answer FEMA type related questions to reach out to those folks on the east side that are just currently even still experiencing uh this this disaster. And

1:39:05with that

1:39:08I will avail myself to any other questions. I have team members here too, if the board would like to discuss anything else on this matter. Mr. Marion?

1:39:17Uh I just wanna say the uh the response has been phenomenal. Uh the team has just dedicated And the and the debris, there's one gentleman out there I saw yester yesterday picking up in Hudson and uh it made a difference when the other company failed.

1:39:34And it says I'm doing it 'cause my county needs I thought it was just the heart and soul of the way this whole co co county staff has been has uh has b has operated. Everyone from the EOC you call in, things happen, uh Andy, what you've got with the tremendous team you put together. And uh JP I'll tell you the uh the extra calmness you show through this whole thing. the organization of your people and when they're out at these places that they're they're looking also if if they see there's a need for someone to get help with some

1:40:04food or some ice, whatever, I mean Those guys are out there just serving the people. And it it is so impressive. It's meant so much to the people that I just like down and out. So You know, with our community coming together in so many ways, but our team here doing it as well. the food that's been donated over and over again. I mean, uh there's just just been incredible the outpouring support. And I and I will tell you, As bad as this has been so far and th there's much work, I'm gonna tell you when these storms start coming down and

1:40:34then the water start receding a bit, the east side is gonna take a tremendous amount of work to get that back g get that back together too, 'cause that's just uh it's gonna be a it's gonna be a a month um uh it's gonna be a long journey to get through to take care of that too. But I think if we get the

1:40:53In the way we can start working on the bigger debris and then helping people on the on the east side of special recovery, because it is going to be a struggle.

1:41:00Yeah, they've started moving some of that debris.

1:41:02Yeah, we are we are hyper-focused on that. We we understand that debris removal is is a is a top priority as well as getting those things um uh reimbursed by FEMA as well. And and you do mention it, you know, 27 days. And I mean I've got team members here, quite honestly, who have to have done the same thing thing tirelessly, oftentimes through long, long eighteen to twenty-four hour shifts and and I I see a lot of EOC folks and our our media team and folks here as well. I if you could just uh indulge me, I'd just like to give them a round of applause if that's okay. Thank

1:41:32you.

1:41:40We recognize there's still a long road ahead and they'll they'll continue to work tirelessly uh you know for for the citizens of this county. So again, thank you for that. The the last thing is just to remind FEMA will actually be available through our town hall as well uh for additional questions too. So I think it's gonna be a great resource for folks. Okay.

1:41:57Right.

1:41:58Mm-hmm. Any other questions?

1:42:00Well I I I just too want to say thank you to everybody. Um I'm finally not feeling it. 100% exhausted. I I can't tell you how many times I went to bed at eight thirty. Um having two houses impacted by the storm and my son losing his house and moving in with us. Um it's been a lot, but I know some of you have gone through it as well and I I'm just really grateful to everybody. And when this is I don't know, it's gonna take a month, a couple of months, but we need to have a a big celebration

1:42:31when it's all over. Yeah.

1:42:34Yeah.

1:42:34Thank you everyone.

1:42:35And there's another fact too is the fact that we're uh taking pictures of this where we see high water and Yeah, so It'll help us in the future with developments to make sure we set 'em at the right heights and possibly n avoid some of this uh flooding that we're having some issues and in some developments now. Uh we wanna not have those flooding issues, so

1:43:00Um I I I was wondering if we could get a map because I'd love to I don't know the start and finish of I have an idea of Cypress Creek. I think it goes under fifty-four Um because I think we've been buying part of that as part one of the wildlife corridors. But I'd love to see um on a map the the flow of the With Lakie through the county. It's hard to see it. when you're looking at the satellite. So I just want to understand more where these watersheds go.

1:43:29With Lakutschie's out of its bank's about a half mile each way. I

1:43:32mean with Likuchi is actually up in Georgia.

1:43:34Right now.

1:43:35So

1:43:36Well.

1:43:37Go ahead, Andy. Yeah. But so when you Andy look for it on the map, it's good time for you to speak, sir.

1:43:44I knew it would work into having a presentation by

1:43:47you. No sir. Uh uh. No. Um we can get a copy of the watershed and have it display. We'll get it on a big map for y'all. and and get it out to you. It'll take a little bit of time 'cause we gotta use GIS and we gotta use NWS and NOAA to get that map done, but we can do it.

1:44:04Right. Okay.

1:44:05I understand that GI

1:44:06S is working on taking a map of how this looks right now so that We can use it in the future for the benefit of uh developments and People that are gonna Be building in the future for some reason we'll avoid some of the mistakes we've had in the past. So

1:44:22Well unfortunately this time it was Mother Nature that took over.

1:44:25Oh yeah.

1:44:25So that's true. Mr. Chairman Mariano. Back in two thousand four I was city manager in Dade City when the last time that Dixie Avenue area and around twenty third street really flooded like it was. And uh the um Learned a lot about the outflow from Javita through Denlinger and around uh behind uh twenty Twenty first street, twenty third street by the high school out in Royal Oaks. under the old railroad

1:44:56bed, uh, round to you know, south of Dade City and around to uh around Jarrett Ford and Boiler Pond and all of that chain uh to the T Larkin canal. And the problem is that's all very flat. And it's very slow flow. And when the river's up and it ain't going nowhere. And that's what we're seeing. opportunity to drive around east side of Dade City yesterday and the water around people's homes and the streets

1:45:26still flooded there on the east side of uh The bypass and uh three oh one and up in those areas. So it's uh there was a graphic that you all put out that explained that outflow from Javita on around, which I thought was excellent. And I tried to capture it so that at a point in time which I hope we'll never use in the future. Uh but that was an excellent graphic explaining a lot of that outflow around the uh and through Dade

1:45:57City.

1:45:58Yeah. And fa to add to that is I hope in the future when we get um Morningside Drive coming across from three oh one over to Fort King by the hospital. that some of that flooding is happening in that area there around Hickory Hill. Some of that'll go away with the right covert height and it'll take water out before those homes get flooded. So I've been working on that since uh since I was with Swift Blood in two thousand seven to two thousand eleven. I've

1:46:28been trying to get that cover lower. Yep. So the building of Morning Side Drive is hopefully gonna give me that opportunity to have that done. So

1:46:37Um a a question uh was how did the Moffitt property hold up? Does anyone know?

1:46:45David knows. I don't know what David.

1:46:50No? Excellent.

1:46:53Well, we're not to that site first thing.

1:46:58Excellent.

1:46:59Good.

1:47:00Um you know the woman who came from Thousand Oaks and Trinity Oaks. Just and I don't I've got her name like Yeah. Um I hope that she uh I hope that my assistant went out and got a phone number because I wanna call her but I don't I don't recall how long ago she said she moved into that area. But I know before I was a commissioner in in during my first early years We had massive meetings. With uh it's called the Trinity

1:47:31T flood task force, with congressmen, senators, Swift MUD, Army Corps, everybody. uh monthly to try and figure out how to help with that flooding. And um the the state and the county went in and spent millions and millions of dollars Frankly cleaning up some of the waterways there that the neighborhood did not keep up, like that BMP five. There were trees growing in it. And you know what, guys, I haven't been out Seems

1:48:01to me I drove by that road the other day and I don't think it may have grown in again. So we need to look at that BMP five and see if it's been maintained as a clear waterway. Um however we will never be able to keep water from going out of a bowl. It's just a question of how quickly can we empty that bowl. Um and I know every time a stor a big storm's coming, I just want those residents to know that I call staff. But they're already on it. We're dr we're lowering the water levels.

1:48:31We are opening the gates and we are trying to move as much water out as we can. But Sadly. that community is really a fifteen inch lower bowl. And uh I a a resident recently contacted me and asked me what happened to the PACE program. And I don't know if we ever really formally said that the the resolution of that pace program where they were looking at holding the Encloke River back And storm it on the Starkey Wilderness

1:49:02Preserve. Um, is that it was so costly that it was cheaper to buy the homes out that repeatedly fled. And I do believe we had some neighbors contact the county about being bought out. that get water in there and the answer you so so we either need to buy those residents out or find a way to help them to elevate their houses. Uh and some of them it's just it's really a matter of six inches or a foot and they will be

1:49:32out of the water. And so um maybe we have a town uh a meeting for that community again. And with FEMA and insurance people and Um And let 'em know their options, but we will never be able to stop a river from going in there. We just ca it it's just that's Mother Nature.

1:49:54There's

1:49:54Ms. Jimmy.

1:49:55And uh just and the HOAs are in those areas. Uh Their job is to keep those uh Area is clean. When I got elected eight years ago They were having the same problem then.

1:50:09Yeah, yeah. So we need to

1:50:11keep 'em clean. So

1:50:12I I and I'm not sure whose responsibility. Frankly, BMP five is sometimes when we take on a A swale or a pond or something, maybe it's our responsibility and we're not doing it. So I I don't know the answer to that, but we need to go look and make sure that you know what I'm talking about, Jack? That long one. I walked it with Congressman Bilarakis.

1:50:40Well I I I think sometimes we take over responsibility.

1:50:44You know, and and I started with those meetings long ago. Uh and when we had the Army Corps there, Swift Modes there, Congressman Bilarakas had people there, we had all the HOAs that were there. And I I think, you know, Dr. Gills and Lou Friedland la laid it out with Dan Uh Waymaro. It's a matter of conveyance getting it out there. And sometimes not gonna convey either. But what we did for the improvements were great. But I think what What why that HOA suffers so much is maintaining it is when the drought

1:51:14happened from years ago. All these sugar maples came in and multiplied. and all of a sudden the wetlands got higher Then the river flow. So it couldn't even drain into them like it was even designed. It may be a good thing to go take a look at with the stormwater team. So let's go try to see if we do some emergency thing like we did over in Palm Terrace. you know, Dana that Spreyfield to go dig that trench that we know where it's supposed to go. And maybe this is the time to get it done because the Army Corps kept a lot of that work from getting done.

1:51:45This may be the time to go do it under the storm event because as they're gonna suffer, because when we looked at like the reserve passed away when we cleaned that one out, because that was like plugged in and that was something was like a it was a foot wide. It's probably like eight feet wide now, yeah where the water could flow and get it out there. And you look at Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge is after that. And what is Oak Ridge? Oak Ridge is dry as can be, because all the all the culverts and everything else, all the drains are open. If we can help that HOA Get that thing dug, especially

1:52:15where we have the advantage of the storm that's in right now and the flooding itself right now. I think it's the uh ul ultimate approach because that may be the this may be the one time to get that fixed once and for all. Because all the great things we did we got permitted. This is one they wouldn't let us go in and do. Might be the perfect thing to go take a look at.

1:52:32The other suggestion that had come out of some of the engineering um work around that whole mess was to put a very large culvert under the Um center of Metza Boulevard.

1:52:49Maybe we can look at those numbers again and see if it makes sense. And maybe we can get some if we can get some federal money for it. I wanna uh I brought this up on one of our one thirty calls. After Irma, I think it was. Was Kevin here? Kevin was here, Norma. Um we got a federal contract to clean up A par a part of Anklet River. And I went and watched them a couple of days. They were pulling they were using inmate labor. with

1:53:19a c a contractor and they were pulling the trees out of the river and allow clearing the flow. Um but they only did a section of it. I believe they went from Starkey Boulevard Bridge to Little Road. So If you've ever looked at any that river Going further south, it is filled in with trees. And um and So maybe we can um Get on that and maybe there's some out on the other s in the other rivers that you know

1:53:50we can expand this and clean clear out some of our rivers and get that flow going back. Mr. Steinsteiner.

1:53:55Mr. Chairman Uh I'll remind you again. That If the court told you you couldn't do it, you still can't do it in a state of emergency. Now On the flip side of that, this may be the time to approach the core and see whether well wasn't altogether clear. Um, I just want to make sure that that you know the the state of emergency doesn't give you the doesn't give you permitting authority. So

1:54:26if you've got issues with either DEP or the core You still gotta go through those processes. Uh, but now maybe the time that the Corps might be willing to take a second look at what they had denied several years ago. Um and allow it, but just that caveat for the record. Right.

1:54:49Thank you for the clarity. Mr. Chairman? Yes, sir. Mr. Steinsnyder, I actually appreciate that opinion.

1:54:57That's

1:54:58a first.

1:55:01Actually uh Andy Fossa does tell me that we are looking at that with TetraTech and and it could be something that's reimbursable. So we're we're we're exploring that legally.