National Public Works Week resolution

1:09:50Okay, next item.

1:09:51All right, um our next resolution. Um if you are here for public works week, if you could please step to the podium. Thank you.

1:10:05Okay. maybe received.

1:10:13I will go ahead and read the resolution. Resolution number twenty-four-one zero seven, a resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the week of May nineteenth through the twenty-fifth, twenty twenty four as National Public Works Week in Pasco County. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of a vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health, quality of life, and well-being of the citizens of Pasco County. And

1:10:43whereas these infrastructures and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of Pasco County's public works professionals, who are engineers, managers, and Employees responsible for rehabilitating improving, maintaining and protecting Pasco County's transportation network public buildings and stormwater infrastructure that are essential to Pasco County citizens. And RAS, it is in the public's best interest for civic leaders, residents, and children of Pasco

1:11:14County to gain knowledge of and to maintain progressive interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public work programs in their respective communities. NRAS, efficiency of the qu qualified, dedicated, and talented employees who staff public works is materially influenced. By their can-do attitude and an understanding of the importance of the work they perform. NRAS National Public Works Weeks became an educational campaign in 1960, and 2024 marks the 64th annual National

1:11:44Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association. NRAS in 2024, National Public Works Week's theme is Advancing Quality of Life for All, which pays tribute. To our public works professionals and recognizes their substantial contributions they make to protect our national health, safety, and quality of life. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said board hereby declares the week of May 19 through the 25th, 2024, as National Public Works Week in Pasco County and rec and encourages all

1:12:14citizens to support public works activities this week and throughout the year. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting the seventh day of May 2024.

1:12:24Second. Motion second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passed. So who's our spokesman here today? Good morning. Good morning.

1:12:33Hello, members of the board. Thank you so much. I really appreciate being here today. Thanks to the board for all the support that you give Public Works. I'm Jason Mickle, Director of Public Works, and I do want to extend another thank you to uh Commissioner Mariano for supporting and sponsoring this uh resolution. I want to thank um Mike Corbala, it's been very supportive, and of course everybody knows Brantford. Um he is um sorta passing the baton on to me. You know, it's it's been a little bit of a uh little uh little bit of a tongue, but it's happening. Um

1:13:05I do want to um you know thank the team here. So I wanted to bring everybody, right? But all 260 or so folks couldn't be here. Someone's gotta fill the potholes, you know, someone's gotta be out there, you know, handling uh flooding issues. Um the team does amazing work. It's kind of like the mail, right? Their work never stops. They're always always doing something. Um for anybody who doesn't know, I'll just briefly, you have a lot of your frontline people here. These are the folks that deal directly with our customers. They do an awesome job dealing with customers on a

1:13:35daily basis, doing it politely, professionally, and effectively. The team here does a fantastic job. I couldn't say enough about them. The other thing I want to mention, just real briefly, is you know, when a storm comes, we're about a month away from our hurricane season, which we're all, you know, many of the folks in the Room are all part of. But you know, we don't just deal with hurricanes and major storm events, we deal with fronts that come through. Anytime there'll be a slight flooding issue, these are the guys that are out there filling

1:14:05sandbags, manning sandbag stations, getting pumps ready, mowing ditches, cleaning out storm drains. They're the ones that are out there sacrificing their time away from their families to make Sure that our community is safe. So I I again I appreciate all the great work that they do. I appreciate all the support from our leadership and from our board. Um and you know and and today's a great it's a great week to have Public Works Week, but it's always public works day, right? We're we're always we're always doing something in public works. And

1:14:35I'd like to also extend thanks to our branch um overall, you know, we work closely with our branch and and the safety team, um just keeping everybody safe and keeping our community safe. So Brantford, you like to say that?

1:14:49Oh you always can say more.

1:14:54Well Jason said it all. Uh and public works uh I it's uh I've always said that um Public waste interacts with the public, you know, uh and that is the reason why everybody gets a whole lot of calls. Right. Right. The stormwater, the roads, the traffic signs, you know, if something's not working, citizens are interacting with it. And it's a very challenging job, you know, and I think the team has been doing very wonderful. Jason has just taken off just like that uh to get things done

1:15:24and And um uh we do really appreciate the work that you do in your thank you.

1:15:30Well while I've got you at the podium. Don't step away. Sidewalk. I don't want my folks from District One, the cattle people that are here today. Here you tell me that yes, because you have fifty percent of the land mass of the county, you get fifty percent of all the paving.

1:15:49I hear that.

1:15:59You know, I'm I'm gonna I was gonna talk about what I'm showing pictures of right now uh of a project was just done just because under committee reports it was such a a great thing that that everyone did out there. Um the people in the IRBA Grey Birch area for years were Always flooding out, flooding out. And I felt bad every time we went to emergency services coming in and you guys have to be there because we got so much stuff going on, we gotta keep everybody there to go fix the stuff. And even talking to to your crew about trying to like what can we do ahead of time. Um from putting the MST unit together

1:16:29where we studied everything, uh the maintenance activity, the the performance that you guys are doing out there is fantastic. Uh it's so great we get such a professional team that I could look at a problem coming up where we have this this whole neighborhood that's right there that was shown. goes underwater consistently with it with a big storm. We found out by talking about it, looking at it, and the team, uh Brantford, Jason, I'm gonna mention a few more names, Tim, Jess, Tim, Wes, Mike, Allison, Gina, uh, Jonah,

1:17:00Fig, uh getting everybody together in the room to talk about okay, what can we do instead of the whole process to get something done. So we had opportunities around this aqua plant on Jasmine from Jasmine Palm Terrace around the whole thing is like potential where on the right of way we could actually dig some stuff out, get the water, or at least can percolate instead of going in the road sitting there. And then you saw the long stretches of the long spray field that's there that's no longer pumping because it's been sh d disconnected, but there was an opportunity there to to get all that drainage. I

1:17:30don't know how many square feet we got, but those two long stretches there the whole neighborhood, all the water comes down that stretch and goes right in there and puddles in. The last storm we had probably two months ago, they were all flooded out. And I know you guys don't want to be out there putting those s sticks in the ground saying orange barricade saying you can't drive here. We'd rather like beat these situations. This right here, this improvement is gonna I think, get us through the storm season where these people won't flood. By cleaning out some pipes that were down there, I know there's a little more bo work to do out there, but The work you've done, even right now, is going to be

1:18:00a dramatic improvement for these people. And the difference it makes is one of the ladies who used to live in the end of that used to work for emergency emergency room. And when she would flood out, she'd have to go like a day earlier, hours early, just to get there. All those other people had different inconveniences. So, what do you guys do to help people stay in their homes, not flood out? I I can't thank you enough because I used to have a loop, it takes me like eight hours in a day. To go check everything was flooding up and down the coast. It's so short now, it's awesome because I know we get the right things in place, doing the right thing. So, as someone who's watched

1:18:30over this closely over the years, I greatly appreciate Brantford when you first came on. You you took a trip trip with me to go look at everything that was going on. Jason, you've been great working with getting things done. How do we get things done? And Mike, for the great work you do with so many things. This is just another one putting the right piece. people in position and empowering them to get the work done. So I just want to say I I can't thank you guys enough for the great work you do.

1:18:52Okay. Mr. Wateman.

1:18:54Thank you, Chair.

1:18:56Echoing same sentiments. Brantford, Jason, Fig, the team, you know not all heroes in this county where Kevlar vest carry a gun and a taser. You guys and gals take care of some of the most valuable assets people have, which is their homes and their property here in Pasco County and keeping keeping them from being flooded, help their cars. Stay healthy because our roads and poles are fixed and they're fixed timely. So the work that you all do 24-7-365,

1:19:27while the general public might not see it all the time, they see a problem and it just magically gets fixed, right? You guys step up to the plate day in and day out, good weather, bad, hot or cold, and take care of the work that needs to be done. So it's an auto-regulation. I recognize all of you today and all of your efforts and and all of your your great work throughout our county because you you really help keep the quality and the value of our county at the highest standard it can be well with such a large task at hand. So pleasure

1:19:57to have you all today. Yeah.

1:20:01Well, I tell you, if it wasn't for y'all, we wouldn't see what was being done sometimes for all the work you do. But uh Mike, you want to say something to public work?

1:20:09Yeah, if you don't mind, Mr. Chairman M and I'm just again, thank you. You know, public infrastructure, specifically roads, it it underpins modern economies and society, because without it, nothing gets done. And uh just what you do. do day in, day out. We we've we've hit on, you know, protecting protecting property. You guys do that, ensuring that that folks can get to point A, point B and do it safely is is just it's a calling. And I just thank you all for answering that

1:20:39call because it's hard work, often dangerous work, and uh and and you put yourselves out there for it. So thank you.

1:20:46Yeah. I uh I tell you the they were joking about pottoes earlier, but the fact of it is when Bramford put in that system where Uh if if you called it in today, tomorrow, the next day, you definitely had your pothole filled up and and you're going about business without, you know, knocking your alignment out over your car or your truck or whatever. So but it happens and it works. And one of my neighbors is one that told me that process was being done. I said, You gotta be kidding so Uh, we called it in the

1:21:16next morning and it was done. So it it's been a good good system and it's works I mean years and years ago I used to call Pasco County's paving system was where they had three or four guys behind a truck with pavement and And they had shovels. So Uh some of our roads still look like that, which we're gonna get changed in in the near future. So it's all good and I appreciate everything that you each of you uh doing your job. So makes a difference in Pasco County.

1:21:47And thank you. Uh I'll come down and take a picture with you and uh the rest of you stay up here. What is it? My resolution. I'm going down.

1:22:18Yeah.

1:22:38Get

1:22:38it done.