Commissioner items on lanterns, park, fentanyl, fire rescue

1:44:37All right, no questions. We'll move on to uh Commissioner items. Commissioner Oakley.

1:44:44Uh don't have very much. I just had uh the thing that actually came up over the weekend was these uh What do you call those kites or something that have the little flame that lanterns? Yeah,

1:44:56the

1:44:56lanterns. Yeah, the lanterns. uh maybe we can get an answer now because um it seems strange that they we would allow them to have a permit to do that when we've got a burn band on at the same time and the winds these devices are all controlled by the wind and the wind was up during this past weekend and and that's why some people in Dade City which is quite a ways from Little Everglades Ranch started

1:45:27seeing those flying in and actually they do have a flame room so but I didn't hear of any real big issues but it could have been. So uh is there something that We shouldn't have had that because of the ban or not. Maybe Joanna could answer that or have someone answer for us.

1:45:47Thank you. Joanna Cheshire, Interim Assistant County Administrator for Public Safety. Um yeah, it's um it's an interesting situation for that. A permit was issued for it. Um those lanterns fall under the state statute of fireworks, so it's a fireworks permit. Um we are under a burn ban, um, but as you know, or you you may or you may know, um we're usually under a burn ban. During the Fourth of July holiday. And so it's kind of just a weird situation with the fireworks in that way. But

1:46:17a permit was issued for this weekend, the event, as a firework permit, per usual. We did consider the burn ban that we're under, and so we had a lot of resources out there to mitigate any risk that was paid for by the event. So they they took on that responsibility. Uh Saturday, you're right, there were no issues. Um Sunday winds picked up and um fire marshal, uh the chief and myself spoke about it and uh decided to pull that permit um for

1:46:47s for Sunday. So they were not able to light anything on Sunday. They were very understanding. Um I know that there's another aspect to this though, is that the lanterns, and obviously we saw one today during public comment um of of you know how how those may fall in in people's properties and the kind of the trash that that um creates. Um so that's unique. Um So yeah.

1:47:10Yeah. I think one of the main concerns I mean, those fell for Gate City, but if the winter'd been going from east to west instead of west to east, we those would have gone out in the green swamp, which could have been a a much bigger issue than than what actually happened. So but it was just a word of caution to do do the right thing and I I understand you did when you pulled from it on Sunday, so That's good.

1:47:34And I want to give the board confidence that we all spoke about that this last week. This was something that, you know, going into the weekend, knowing that this was going on, we we bounced many w you know, we considered the risk um of that and and uh the consequence of of going forward and um you know we we were very measured in that. So I just wanted to give you that confidence. We were speaking throughout the weekend.

1:47:56Something to to follow up on Commissioner Oakley's points. The So the customer came in today says she's five miles away. Fireworks don't travel five miles from their point of discharge. We also don't or uh we we try to discourage releasing balloons that travel and land in people's pastures and cows eat 'em or whatever, they're hung up in their trees or they have to pick 'em up. there's a litter problem with these. So what's

1:48:27the options around the environmental impact if they land in green swamp, start a fire? You know, their event. is leaving their yard, their fence, and going on to somebody else's property. And that's troublesome to me. Do what you want on your side of the fence, right? But the moment what you have going on on your side of the fence impacts somebody on their side of the fence, then we have a potential issue. So as far as environmental impacts and litter associated with the

1:48:57lanterns Uh are there any options to take a look at uh for that aspect?

1:49:05I'd have to sit with Jeff and his team to see uh you know, we have if there is a order or an environmental angle that can be looked at. Obviously, you know, there is the preemption they are fireworks, um, but following your line of of of reasoning that fireworks don't land five miles away, uh that there is a cleanup and a and a nuisance problem there. I'm I'm happy to explore that if the board wants to take that direction and and to potentially bring something back. I I don't know what form that would look. We'd have to sit with Jeff's team and and go through

1:49:36that. But um I think that's fair consideration to at least um you know address what what obviously today was a public concern.

1:49:44We could also ask the Commissioner Agriculture whether or not they still are of the opinion that these classi are classified as fireworks. That we got that push back in twenty eighteen, which apparently was the last time that this issue came came up in front of the county.

1:50:04You have a direction to research it?

1:50:07I mean I don't get a vote for that.

1:50:10All right. Excellent. Commissioner Starkey.

1:50:12I I had no idea there were events going on at Little Luther Blaze Range.

1:50:16Yeah,

1:50:16I haven't heard about it.

1:50:18Yeah, so I'm actually kinda happy they're doing things. Um, wish they bring back the Little Everglades steeple chase. That was an awesome event. Who was around when that was going on? Yeah,

1:50:32I was just I just

1:50:33that was the best. Yeah. I want you to know I did win an award uh for my picnic setup. Um I still have it. My little plate and my little um ribbon. Okay. So uh I didn't come back to the board meeting um a couple of weeks ago because I went and toured um the super park at V O P H um what you're seeing with the Keith uh uh and I can't remember his

1:51:04name. Um walking down the hill is where the the um the bike path and walking path is gonna go and it's it is so steep. It it's it's a wonderful, um It's gonna be such a cool bike park. But I do think we we're talking about maybe making a path so that little kids on on on little bikes, you know, they're gonna bomb down that hill and die at the end. So we gotta find a way that we can make make it

1:51:34safe for everybody. Um and when and looking up, when you look up here on the right, that's where the um the active part of the park is gonna be be up on top of that hill with the soccer and and all the other um fields. So uh lots of little waterfalls coming down that mountain. I guess there's springs in it, that hill. It's a Florida mountain. Um down that hill for beautiful, beautiful experiences for for our people. I'm just so excited

1:52:04about this park. Uh I joined everyone uh up in uh Tallahassee for Pasco days. Thank you guys for putting that together. That that was a great event. What what'd we have? Uh a couple hundred people at that at the reception that first night? Seemed like s that's the most we've ever had.

1:52:24Yeah, it was full. That was

1:52:25good. Yeah. And um I hear they're gonna have even more. Is it just one chamber or were both chambers there? Does anyone know? 'Cause we do have two chambers. I know it was the Greater Pasco Chamber that was there. And uh thanks to and I'm sorry your husband was sick that night because he does so much work in helping put this together. Um all right, so as a past uh woman of distinction honoree, um we were uh notified of

1:52:55a couple VIP cookie cookie awards and my staff handed them out. to um the Girl Scouts who sold a ton of cookies. And so congratulations to Amelia and Lily of Troop two three oh eight. They received the VIP Cookie Spirit Badge. It's the both it's the first year for both of them. I was a brownie. I tried to be a Boy Scout but they wouldn't let me. I I wanted to go camping. Yeah. Um but I was a brownie and a Girl Scout back in the day. So um

1:53:26all right, so I wanna thank the men and women of Pasco County Sheriff's Office for their dedication and hard work to keep our county safe. They performed another drug bust last week in holiday. They took 255.8 grams of fentanyl off the street, and that's enough for 127,500 lethal overdoses. So the last drug bust was in October on the same street. removing

1:53:57a hundred and thirty eight grams of fentanyl. So uh Thank you so much. I I I love to hear about these. I mean, I'm sad to hear about these, but I love that we're getting these drugs off the street, so Um, thank thank you to our Sheriff's Office. I do have uh someone I wanna point to the B PAC is Do I do that here? Or do I do that? Okay. So his name is Chris um David B Pack.

1:54:25M P O are

1:54:26here.

1:54:27And

1:54:30Okay. I'm gonna be appointing Chris Pavlovich um as my appointment to the uh uh be back, but I'll do it at the next MP on then.

1:54:39We asking for a remote now? No. No.

1:54:42No,

1:54:42I have to do

1:54:42it.

1:54:42It's got to come before the MPO.

1:54:45I wanted to say something about this. This gentleman came. With all these code violations. I see 'em, you know, I have my iPad here. If people are wondering what I'm doing, half the time I'm going on when we're looking at stuff and I'm look I'm looking at what's going around there and I just see so many gold violations and It's really frustrating to me. To hear Uh here this gentleman. Uh

1:55:16Here what this gentleman's going through and a and I'm sorry, it's a lot of it is up north of Thirty two. Um, but I was in Moon Lake. 'Cause we have something this afternoon on the agenda and um I had a resident on an on another street come out to me uh 'cause I was sitting there um for a long time looking at stuff and he came out and said, What are you doing? and I mentioned I was a commissioner, not his commissioner, um, but I was doing my research for a boat coming up today.

1:55:47And he said, you know, code enforcement comes through here all the time, but they never do anything. And He said I there's so many violations around here, but for me to call it in He said, I have to put my name on it. I can't be anonymous. So I am hoping that that That went through. Um, but I I just wish that we could be a little more I think that's our own rule that someone has to call

1:56:17it in. If I no

1:56:20No.

1:56:20If our code enforcement officers see a violation they can't do anything about it?

1:56:24If they if they are out monitoring and they observe an a

1:56:35Okay. Well then take a complaint Anonymously. Understandable.

1:56:41Um, but this one he mentioned to me 'cause he was really frustrated because he owns two lots on a neighboring street. And he said he went to uh pull a permit to be legal to put in a shed And they told him he had to get an engineer to sign up on it and all this stuff. to put a shed on, unless he bought a plastic one and he could move it there and not have to do that. But but he said, but my neighbor bought this shed without a permit. Now I don't know if this is true. I'm having mic whilst

1:57:11looking to this. Um it uh moved this shed in and then he turned it into a house. So so if you there is no address, there's no mailbox, but someone would live in there. There's furniture in there. I didn't go up to the window. I've learned my lesson. Um But um

1:57:33I it's just I I I feel for the people who wanna follow the rules and wanna live You know, they've invested in their home. And they I we actually have a planning commissioner who is so frustrated because in his neighborhood he's got very, very obvious violations all around him and no one's doing anything about it. So, um I just had to speak up 'cause you know I'm all about code enforcement. I'm

1:58:04all about protecting people's investments and those who live by the rules. I don't think we should be rewarding this is for later this afternoon. Um, the video. Um so I just wanna say that. Commissioner Yeah.

1:58:19Y'all done? Yep. Thank you. Commissioner Yeager.

1:58:22All right.

1:58:28Okay, so this was a um a mass evening in Venice. This was the Morton Plant North Bay Hospital Gala. So that's a beautiful event. Do I have another slide as well?

1:58:39Wher um where was that location? Spartan Manor. Wow. It was stunning,

1:58:44absolutely stunning. And the statue on the left is real. So she moves throughout the night and you would never know she was real. Okay, next slide. And then I won't go into too much, but this was our Tallahassee trip and um I want to give a shout out to our three lobby firms. They did a a great job. It was um very organized. Uh we had no downtime. Uh I felt like all of our meetings went went really well. As Commissioner Starkey said, Pasco Day was a huge hit.

1:59:14It is growing Um every year by leaps and rounds. And um next year they're thinking about adding Dade City to make it even larger. So we're super excited about that. All right. And then I just want to give a shout-out. I know Klu Commissioner Starkey was gonna do this. We didn't talk about it, but to the Pasco Sheriff's Department. Just last week they had nine thousand three hundred and forty-five calls. So Let that sink in for a second just to think about the ground they cover. Yep, right

1:59:45here. I see you. Um, and how much they do for our county. That included a variety of calls for an attempted homicide near Zephyr Zephyrhills, attempted homicide in Wesley Chapel, child abuse cases, sexual battery cases, among others. So sometimes we lose sight of just saying, Oh, you know, Pasco. Sheriff's Office. Ninety nine thousand three hundred and forty-five calls in a week. So great job guys. And then since the so this is for

2:00:15uh fire rescue. And if you haven't gotten to meet the new puppy, he's so cute. Gina, I'm gonna send you his picture. Did you guys get to see the new puppy? You did, okay. Um and since the burn ban was enacted January 28th, Pasco Fire has responded to seven 73 outside brush fires. We've burned a total of 135 acres. Our lot largest fires were 40 acres in Starkey Ranch, 30 acres in off of Lanton. During

2:00:45these fires, we also lost three Class A RVs, two enclosed trailers, one Flatbled trailer with a car and some furniture, but no residential structures were damaged. Since the implementation of the burn ban, thirteen county uh county ordinance citations have been issued, totaling thirteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-four dollars and mines. So just hats off to um fire rescue. These guys have just not had a break at all, and um between The Sheriff's Office, Fire

2:01:15Rescue, Nine One One, they have had their hands full and um I just wanted to recognize them for all their hard work because this is all year round and that's just in a week. So thank you guys. And that's all I have.