Public comments on flooding, drainage and roads
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
It is a stretch of the recording that this archive identified as a separate matter — a call to order, a recess, or something taken up that the agenda does not list. There is no official title, no staff recommendation and no disposition, because the county never recorded one. Everything below is inferred.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Aug 24, 2021
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Aug 24, 2021
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Aug 24, 2021
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Aug 24, 2021
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 53m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 83% of 187 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Okay, thank you. The main note that all commissioners are present. Uh now is the time for public comment. Citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any item coming before the board and on items to be Placed on future board agendas. uh or other business under their preview. Today's public comment would be handled as follows. First We will take public comment from those that are here in person. Then we will take
public comment from those that have pre-registered for WebEx. Link and are currently on queue. Uh this format does not waive the request that when you address the board, comments are not directed personally against a commissioner or team member. But rather Uh directed to the issues. This provides uh mutual respect between the board members and the public. for WebEx and in person participants
after s stating your name and address for the clerk the timer will be activated and we'll start a countdown.
After two minutes a beat will sound Letting you know that you have one minute remaining. After your time is up, two beeps will sound And your three three minutes have passed and you should close your comments. WebEx participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up. The following people have signed up to speak in person. Madam Clerk.
Um I have uh ten uh people have signed up. Do you would you like me to call them in groups of threes? Or just call them one at a time.
One at a time? Or groups of threes, fine.
Okay. So if you're able to, we'll line up in this order. Cheryl Orchard. Followed by Charlie C. D. Cole Hop um Hobbick. And the third one is Noah Denny. If you could line up if you're able to. Thank you.
State your state your name and address for the clerk.
My name is Cheryl Orchard. I live at [address removed] in Newport Ridgeie in the Green Key area.
I'm here today.
to ask every one of you to look into the situation. that most of the people are going through in that area. The flooding is and the mud slides. The kids can't even walk to school. They have to have their parents drive them through that water to get to school buses. The potholes from the deterioration of the roads for 27 years. Since nineteen ninety four when they put the
sewers in there, they changed the elevations terrible on Manor Beach, Largo Terrace. Gets flooded, terrible. Our f we had a broken flap. They fixed the flap after twenty seven years. It closes the water off from the bayou so that when the tides up it doesn't, you know, flood. The rain waters will be there. But when that flap comes closes No water comes through except the rainwater but w it recedes on our street, but the problem is it goes over the next three
streets and all the way down Largo Terrace. It's terrible. It's mud. It's it's it's just disgusting over there. And I just wish that everyone would just take a day. And drive through there, especially when the rains are really bad, and see what people have to live through in that area. It's terrible. And I'd appreciate everybody looking in and talking about it and seeing and getting I've been this has been going on for years, documentation.
Just need the help in there. I'm we're begging you for somebody to just come in and and look at what we're going through in there. It's terrible. It's i y y your quality of life is just shot in there. And there's many other issues, but the main thing is the water issue. That has to start somewhere. The drainage is terrible in there. The county's been out many times. They didn't want to go through the pipes. They couldn't get through the pipes for barcles, for And other debris that's
gone in there and their the neighborhood's old. We just need it cleaned up a little bit. That's all I'm just asking for some help in there. I'd appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank
you for your comments. Yes, ma'am.
Good morning. Name and address for the
Charlie Corona, Diana, Krishal Hobbik, [address removed]. Been dealing with an issue since February of twenty twenty in Fairway Springs, ever since commission of our building in Fairway Springs. The county has always come and take care of the drainage, cleaned our pipes, checked our pipes. Um the for forever, forty plus years now. In February of twenty twenty I met with two members of public works who came
out, walked all the ponds with me. Uh did a flow check 'cause I felt that they weren't Flowing properly. They established that there was proper flow and there was no need to go any further to an engineering report. Fast forward to 2021, met with those two representatives again from public works and was told that the county attorney has now decided they're not going to take care of our drains. I needed to request records from public works or the clerk's court in
order to prove that they had acceptance of our drainage system and maintenance agreements, which I did and I was able to prove and I have documentation here and I've provided it to two other commissioners on on the board here. That indeed units two and four of our subdivision and various other assets in Fairway Springs are owned. and maintained by the county. I was told by Public Works again, okay, don't worry
about it. If we can't uh, you know, if it's on your map that you've provided us, we'll come and take care of it. Since then, our HOA in the last seven months has spent over $20,000 to repair one drain. in our subdivision with completion just happening a few weeks ago. Now that one drain is a hundred feet from my house that has an outflow drain. I'm included in the representation is not. It makes
no sense that um units one, three, and five Are not included, and units two and four are included, because that one drain a hundred feet from my house could cause mine to back up. So that being said, I've not been able to get anywhere. I've been told that it's in the county attorney's office. I've heard back from one commissioner's office who's been very, very attentive. I've not heard back from the other uh commissioner's office since
June 15th. after numerous, numerous calls. We'd really like to get this taken care of because we're at fifty four in Little and we all know what that fifty four forward looks like when it's wet.
Those
are my comments for today.
Thank you.
Yeah, I'm not sure. Noah Denny, [address removed].
I originally planned to come here to talk about climate change, but last night those plans changed. I want to explain my new reason as to why I'm here this morning. Last week I lost two good friends to motorcycle accidents. I already attended a funeral three days ago for a twenty-eight year old who was hit while riding their motorcycle. There's another memorial ride for another friend next week who was fifty and was hit while riding their Harley. I thought two in one month was bad enough. It made me and a few of our other motorcycle group members consider keeping or giving
up two wheels. but I never expected a third in two weeks. Last night A motorcycle fatality occurred. This time it's a little bit more than a little bit. This time it was a road rage incident. By a young girl who took the life. Of the co leader of our group. He was an amazing friend and a guiding light to many of our members. Yeah. I'm tired, I'm drained, I'm torn to shreds from the past two weeks of constant news of who went down and didn't get back up. Even
I was not spared from being involved in an accident. Two months ago I was hit while I was stationary. I can't go into the details on that yet, but I was hit in Pasco. I'm just lucky to be able to stand here and advocate for the families who didn't get their riders back from the hospital. Something is exclusively wrong within Pasco and its surrounding counties as to where it's d incredibly dangerous to ride or share the road with other people here. from reckless, probably drunk, twenty something year olds, to snowbirds during the winter, something needs to be done. something
needs to be done soon enough to where I don't have a fourth friend lose their life this month. Honestly, I don't think I'd be able to handle that. I'm not even able to handle the third. My heart hurts, but it hurts even more for the family all of these amazing people have been taken from. Their blood family and their bike family as well. Something needs to be done and unfortunately I'm not quite sure what.
Thank you, sir.
Okay. Um the next three uh signed up are Julia Pauls, Henry Burnt, and Wanda Chasnoff. If you're able to line up, please do so.
Good morning, good morning, good morning. My name is Julia Pauls and I live at [address removed]. in Newport Ritchie. Um, the reason I'm here today is because of that flooding issue, that God awful flooding issue we have there. The drain pipe that runs from Manor Beach runs directly beside my house. I love the area that I live in, but when it rains or
when it's high tide. I cannot live in that house. There are frogs out there, there are s wood storks coming down in the water, getting fish out of the water that came out of the ocean and killing them in our yard and eating them. There is m green muck. Right there. I bought an $8,000 golf cart to enjoy going down to Green Key Beach and I haven't been able to drive it. I just want to appeal to you guys and say to you, what if
it was you? What if it was your family? What would you do? What would you do? You guys have the power to do something about that. That um awful, awful, awful rain and flood and sewage and stuff. The mosquitoes are out there. We can't sit outside. We can't enjoy the property. My husband is a Vietnam era veteran who just recently retired. We can't even enjoy the property that we bought here in Pasco County. I'll put a for sale sign in my In my yard last night. I'm I'm sad
that I have to do that. But I had to do something because this is not fair. We came down here, we moved here to retire. I even run a 501c3 here in Pasco County called the Invercidivism Project, where I'm doing stuff to help guys coming back in and out of prison. I can't even get to work half the time. The ladies are calling me. at different intervals from the office. I can't run the business from my house, but I can't get out of my driveway. I've had lug nuts rust on my 2015
Ford Escape, and the Ford Company is saying it's from the salt water. I didn't bring that stuff to the county. I've never come up here and spoke to you guys. I've let Cheryl Autrid and everyone else do it. What I'm saying to you guys is something has to be done. There are grants out there. There is funding here in Pasco right now, and I know it because of the 501c3, because I work with the county, because I I do stuff for the county of Newport Ritchie, I mean of Pasco County. I'm doing stuff to help the community, but I can't help the
community. If the community is not gonna help me back, I need you guys to come over there and do something. Not just drive, not just drive out there and see it, because you've already driven. I know you guys have already driven out there and seen it. I know you've heard the complaints. Now it's just time for someone to step up and do something about it. Please, I am truly begging you, please. Mm-hmm.
Thank
you for your comments.
Henry Burnt?
Hello. I live in uh Veterans Village, [address removed], been there thirty six years, been in that neighborhood for forty.
Sir, I'm sorry, you have to state your name and address for the record.
Henry A. Burnt, [address removed]. Thank you. Veterans Village. I moved in there with my father and mother. I've been in there since I was fifteen. That road only went through to Cream Ranch and that was it. They opened it up. Both ways you can go from Hudson to Saint Pete. People drive through our neighborhood. Crazy. I watch veterans. lose their homes because they can't even go to their mailbox. People cannot go to
their mailbox Pull their car in and out of their driveway. without getting hit, yelled at, screamed at, And it doesn't matter. You can go out there any time of the day. Watch. And and it's a butt of the joke of every I call the police, I call everybody. Oh, Seven Springs, we know forty years I've been in that neighborhood. Nobody has done anything. for that neighborhood. The c sidewalks are collapsing, the sewer drains are collapsing. We have sidewalks that are gravel. You tore it up and put gravel down. I watched
a lady in a wheelchair the other day trying to get over that. It's been like that for two and a half years. Nobody's come out to fix it. You put barricades up over ditches that are They deteriorate. The barricade literally rotted away. They still haven't come out and fix the hole. I constantly call it. I'm constantly complaining. I'm not moving out of this neighborhood. Something needs to be done. I just spoke to a veteran. He can't even have his kids play in his front yard. He can't even back in, pull
in and out of his drive and he's right across from a school. a private school and a VFW where people are doing 45, 50, 60 miles an hour. They hit the bridge at Anclote River twice in the last two years. I can't count how many accidents people have died on that road. and no the police come out. As they're riding the ticket, they almost get hit by the speeder. The county needs to do something for Seven Springs Boulevard, Veterans Village. the roads, you're
building all around us. Brand new, gorgeous neighborhoods, but you're not taking care of us. It's not right. I've been in there forty years and I'm probably gonna be there another thirty before I die. I want somebody to come in my neighborhood. Look around. 'Cause Trinity, all these other neighborhoods, beautiful, not mine. Yeah.
Yeah. They 40 years I have a leak. Thank you. I mean the blood in the same area. Forty years.
Thank you for your comment, sir.
Forty years.
Wanda
Chasnov?
Good morning. My name's Wanda Chasnoff. I live at [address removed]. It's off Green Key Road. I'm here because I would like to represent these people that live off of Green Key Road. I live off Green Key Road. My road's considered a private road. I've had Jack out here and because I'm considered a private road, I guess I don't get any services. Well, I've had Tany Tanya out there who's the engineer from Storm Drain. She tells me that it's a two million dollar job
to do the storm drain there and because Pasco County don't have the funding, they go in for FEMA and they go in for grants. In the meantime, I got a man that lives next to me that is a veteran. He's a one-legged guy. He rides a scooter. When it rains, he can't get out because the motel that they just condemned, all the water comes up, comes across my road, goes back out. The man can never get out to get to the store to get a pack of cigarettes, anything. Now, it starts at 19. DOT starts here. Newport
Ritchie starts here. The county starts here. The yellow line in the middle of Green Key says city, county. I live on county. The motel's on city. The city side of the drain is completely flooded or clogged. And then on my side of the county, you got trees and all down from the hurricanes. Y'all got the equipment. This DOT's got the equipment to come in there and temporarily dig our ditches out where it'll drain, where the cars don't go to attempt to
turn around and sink in the mud and have to hire a wrecker to come get. I'd a ditch because they tried to turn around because they can't go through the water. Now, I've dealt with it for fifteen years. Now this time it rained, my man next door couldn't even get out to get his medicine and he had a hernia surgery and couldn't do anything. Now, where do we get the luxury of being a citizen of that area to
get some benefits? And you can't tell me with the equipment you got, you can't come in here and do something temporarily. To relieve us till either you get a grant or you get FEMA in here. I told Tanya, I said, look, I said, What if I take pictures? She says, Well we all know about Green Key. I said, but pitchers speak a thousand words when it comes to FEMA or a grant. Sometimes you wait from two to five years for a grant or FEMA. Do we gotta wait that long? Even though we're considered a private
road, but the other access road makes us flood, not our side. And because nobody wants to clean the ditches out, I watch a Chinese couple that just bought a house on that side of Green Key. Of the yellow line. I wish you'd ride by there and look at the mud mess where they trying to fill it in so they can live there. It's nothing but mud this thick. I can't even walk in my street without bringing mud in my house and I just redone new floors,
painted and everything. Now I'd really like for our commissioners to listen to us because y'all can spend all the money on Trinity, but just because we're a flooding zone and on night 19 that you want to develop it for higher cost of living. We still pay taxes and we still own our places there. And we want some help, please.
Thank
you
for your comments. Oh no thank you.
So the next um three signed up are Tanya Slayer, Gary Roskowitz um Roskowski, sorry, and Natasha Lewis.
Hi, I'm Tanya Salier. I live at [address removed]. And I'm speaking on behalf of about 16 of our residents on Philly Lane and in the surrounding area.
We live in the Highlands, which is north uh west Pasco uh near county line. Our community is once again filling up with water. Obviously there's this is an ongoing problem with all of the county. Um When this first started happening in 2019, we asked the county to help us and establish a method of removing the floodwaters. After the 2019 flooding, we were assured that the county would have a pump standing by if this happened again. And I sent an email yesterday with
the different assurances. I can go ahead and release all the emails that I've had back and forth with the county if you'd like. Mm-hmm. At this point, it's not about the roads. Our yards are flooded and the water is dangerously close to many of our homes. My own included. Another hard rain or two, we will have um the water threatening uh the finished floors of the house. Several others
in the affiliate lane and Houston area, which is an adjoining road, have already been flooded. Um in my research and by speaking with friends I have in similar communities, I've discovered that the county performs similar pumping operations to rid backyards of water. Crane's Roost is one of them. Um and they get aids, aid apparently with no questions asked. This happens when Yellow Lake and the surrounding lakes begin to flood into backyards in the Cranes Roost area. This is not
the in the on the roads there. It's in just backyard flooding or front yard flooding in some cases. The only difference that seems to be between our community and theirs is that they have more political power than we do. I um I have friends near Yellow Lake Drive who have told me how and when they contact the county to redeploy pumps ahead of expected rainfall and the trigger point, which I've been informed in our community is 15.5. It's been at 15.5 for
the on the gauges for the last week.
This is seemingly because, and this is some of the information that I've heard and some research I've done that the road is county maintained in Yellow Lake Drive where only 200 feet um of Philly Lane is maintained county maintained. That did not stop um the county from assuring me that they had a pump standing by. As I said, this is not about the roads themselves. Cranes Roost, Ashwood Drive. Thousand Oaks as well as others have appear who appear to have political power, um have their backyard flooding
um uh taken care of while Philly Lane is being neglected. Now I know there's a watershed study, but it's not going to be finished until 2025. That does absolutely nothing for us. We've been assured that while we're waiting, the county would have an emergency pump standing by. I am wondering why this isn't happening. I'm wondering why I'm not getting my emails answered anymore. Um We're being neglected while similar um
uh developments and with our our same um private ro privately maintained roads are being pumped out. And there's probably about six of them that I know of. So we're asking, you know, at the very least, do what you told us in 2019. Do what you told us when I started reporting this back in um late July, early August. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for your comments.
Good morning. Uh my name is Gary Roskowski. I reside at [address removed]. Um before I share what I wanted to talk about. I just wanted to take a minute and pray. Father, I just thank you for this day, O God, and Lord, I thank you for these men and women. That stand before me, that you've placed in positions of authority. And Lord, I just pray that you would just strengthen them, Lord, and just
give them wisdom on high, O God, on how to deal with all these issues that are presented before them. So Lord, I just ask that your peace would just fill their hearts and even the people in the audience today, Lord, that that your perfect peace, Lord, would just
Because we know, oh God, that we're living in perilous times, oh God, and So we just thank you for your greatness, O God. I thank you that that you're on the throne, O God, and no matter what happens, Lord, that As a believer in you, Lord, we know that we win. So I just thank you for your mercy in each one of our lives in Jesus' name. Amen. Um so one i one thing I w just wanted to ask you, Commissioner Mariano, was um the issue on Beaconwoods Drive with those
plates. I just um Just wanted to know um what's happening with that 'cause I I never see anybody working out there on nineteen so um it's been about four weeks now I think and
this is a public hearing so you need to tell us.
Oh okay, I'm sorry. Okay
we can't answer you back.
Okay. So on Beacon Woods Drive there's um these plates that have been placed across the road and Of course we have, you know, signs that warn people but um if you've never driven that and you go through there even at night, you're gonna be airborne in your car. So um you know, just wanna know what's happening with that situation and um, you know, when it's gonna be resolved. Um Also um regarding the COVID nineteen,
um I just wanted to ask you, I know yesterday the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine and I know in some uh states, uh federal government, they're mandating that um people uh are required to get the vaccine and I just wanted to know what Pasco County's stance is on that for their employees. Um Um And for anyone that's interested, there's
there's so much good information on the website regarding what's going on, um particularly no jabforme.info. It's N-O- J A B for me dot info. There's a lot of good information on there for employees that um if their employee employer is forcing them to get the vaccine, what they can do to combat that. So thank you very much and God bless you.
Thank you for your comments. Yes, sir.
Hi, my name is Nastasia Louie. Um, we reside at [address removed]. This is my roommate, um, Crystalin. She's lived there for two years. I've lived there um for two months. Um I became very proactive in trying to figure out how to reach out to you guys about the flooding. Um we
Move to receive and file.
Second.
Got a motion second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passed.
Uh we also have video footage of um basically tadpoles um in the uh in the area in which we live in. I didn't realize that I moved into a waterfront. place um uh until you know I moved in. Uh it wasn't supposed to be. Um there's there's herrings, um heron. Uh uh there's I guess fish um So many crickets and uh bugs,
mosquitoes, like it's it's uh overwhelming like we can't we can't stand outside for very long.
I can't get to work if it's raining too hard. I literally have to call work and tell 'em, I'm sorry, it's it's too flooded. I literally can't get my car out of my driveway. And how high the water gets.
And rain boots, in order for us to be able to take our trash out, be able to get our mail, or just even walk in our front yard. Um, we do like to do some gardening. Um, so had to invest in these so that way my feet didn't sink in. I also do have a photo of um me being in the water in these exact boots where the water goes up to the water. Here, halfway up my ankle, um, actually above my ankle. Um, and um so thankful that these don't
have holes in them. Um but uh yeah it's just it's it's very overwhelming um living there. Uh I've Only live there for two months and I I want to move out. I have a 2021 Subaru and I've taken it to the Subaru dealership, and they also say that I have salt water damage to my vehicle from going in and out of the water constantly. I feel like there's no reason for me to even wash my car. I've tried to wash my car, but
it just gets dirty every Every single time I go to just leave the house. Um, not to mind you like what mopping. Like, I mean, who likes to mop three times a day their home because there's just dirt from just treading in, going in and out, you know? Um, I mean, that's minor stuff, but yeah, we can't even get home. There's this gentleman that we brought with us today, Jack. Um Um, who lives behind us and he can't take himself um
to or from and getting an Uber ride to go anywhere is is it it's impossible. Nobody can get back there when it is raining. So if he were to need medication, if he were to need to go somewhere, you know, um How would he get there? Um so I'm here not only for myself but uh on behalf of all these people who have to deal with this on a daily basis. And I thank you so much for your time today for allowing us to speak.
And then the last person signed up is John Love.
Ha ha ha.
Hello, my name is John Love. I live at [address removed]. Um I'm speaking to all of you this morning, uh especially Mr. Mariano. uh that is your district, uh as well as another district that um The golden acres area that I drive through regularly. Uh family lives out there. and I see roads being paved and uh Almost a million dollars being spent on a water main project that It doesn't really enrich those people's lives. It doesn't really do much for them. We live
as they're saying literally underwater. It's not necessarily a flooding problem as it keeps being described as, it's a drainage problem. There is no the drainage is insufficient. But the roads have depressions in them. So when it rains, these the water does not dissipate. It sits all month. I have a depression in front of my house that I have about six to eight inches of water in front of my house For Basically every day in the month of June, July, August,
okay? I can't take my kids for a walk, I can't take my dog for a walk, I can't get in and out of my house without going through six to eight inches of water. Okay, it's destroyed my vehicles. It's cost me thousands of dollars in repairs to my vehicles. and literally has diminished the quality of life. It is a health and safety issue. I had there's kids playing in this water that has tadpoles in it. That's how long it sits for. There's fish in it. Every time the that we have a rainstorm, we end up with six to eight inches
of water in these depressions all over. It's a problem that you guys created more than twenty years ago. We've owned this house. and it's always been a problem. It's not something we did. It's an engineering issue that has never been fixed. All right. It needs to be done. It needs to be done sooner than later. It's a health issue. It's a safety issue. There's potholes under the water that are created every time it rains that when you drive through, your car will bottom out if you hit them. And you can't see them. They're underwater.
They can't come out and fix them because they're underwater. Okay, so they just keep growing, keep growing in size. I I destroyed my truck driving through one. completely because my my whole stabilizing unit was uh was rusted out, I hit a pothole, it snapped, my truck bottomed out. Thankfully my daughter wasn't in the car with me. I had to have my car towed and had it fixed, thousands of dollars worth of damage. All right. This is an ongoing problem. It has diminished the quality of life for all these people. And again, it is health and
safety issue. This needs to be fixed. This isn't just a cosmetic problem. Right? On top of that, you have a great area with great potential with uh Green Key Beach, Robert K. Memorial Park. You can't get to it half the time because Green Key Beach is flooded or full of potholes. There should be there should be a sidewalk and a bike trail running the entire path. Streetlights all through the area. We have a huge homeless population because the area is pitch black with no streetlights. They walk down the road all night long. I'm
driving home in the middle of the night, which a lot of times I have to call my wife before I can come home and say, is the road too flooded for me to get home? Do I have to go to my parents' house and wait out the storm? If I have to get to work sometimes, I have to leave several hours in advance if I know it's high tide and a rainstorm's coming. This isn't the way people should live.
Thank you for your comments. Thanks, Jack. Yes, sir. No, no clapping. Thank you. Uh at this time We don't have anyone else signed up. Is there anyone in this room now that would like to speak Right now. Come forward. If there was anyone else then line up behind, but Uh this will be the last before we go to the WebEx. Good morning, gentlemen, ladies.
My name is Scott Statlin. I live at [address removed]. I'm here to echo What these people have said. I am the one that brought the so photos that were Admitted into evidence or whatever you have here. Okay. Uh like John was saying, if you look at those photos, there are potholes that are two or three inches deep that are eight or nine feet long. Okay? We're constantly driving through it and John is correct. It is not a flooding
problem, it is a drainage problem. On this block on Del Prado Terrace, there is a twelve inch corrugated pipe. Okay? From the deterioration of the road, that pipe is hopelessly clogged. There is no way any water can go through there. Some of those photos that were brought in today were taken today. We haven't had any rain in a week, and there's still three, four, five inches of water in the street. It never goes away. Something needs to be done. It's been requested
over and over. over the course of two years that I've been there. And Public works will come out, they'll take a look at the right-of-way. They'll stick a piece of pipe or a shovel in uh Drainage pipe. And walk away. and nothing ever gets done. We had another neighbor that used to go to the other side on a canoe and start banging a piece of wood on the outlet of the pipe, and some water would come out. somebody needs to get in there even on a temporary basis and power jet this thing out just to get the water temporarily.
and possibly curb the streets and repair the streets so they don't continue to fill up. You put a twelve inch pipe there with no screen, nothing's on it, anything and everything that floats down the street. Last week when we had the hurricane that came by here, which turned out not to be a hurricane, there was garbage bags floating down the street. Because as as cars are going down the street The garbage cans that are out for the garbage workers get knocked over. Everything's floating down the street. Everything's going into this pipe. I mean, aside
from that you have the cane toads, which are constantly breeding in the street. That's an invasive poisonous toad. uh children, pets, whatever going out can get killed. It's a breeding ground for mosquitoes, okay, because it's not exactly salt water, it's brackish water at this point, so mosquitoes can breed in it. Okay, with mosquitoes, you have Zika virus, you have everything else that can come with it. It is a s it's a safety issue. It's not a cosmetic issue and there are are many simple things that can be done to help mitigate the situation
temporarily until you guys get the funding. But all it takes is the will and desire of this board and w that's what we're asking you. Just help us out a little bit here. We live here, we pay taxes, we do deserve at least the smallest bit of respect from you guys. Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you for your comments. Okay, uh Madam Clerk, do we have anyone uh signed up for WebEx?
We do. We have one person signed up for WebEx that is logged on, um Jennifer Motzinger.
Okay. Ms. Motzinger, you should be able to speak now. We should be able to hear you. If you could state your name and address for the record, please.
Ms. Motzinger, you are unmuted on our end. We cannot hear you.
We still cannot hear you, ma'am.
Yeah.
Hello? Oh, we have you now.
Oh my gosh, that was crazy.
Well good
morning everybody. My name is Jennifer Mons here. I represent the Tampa Bay Builders Association. The people who
Okay. Ms. Matzinger, you we we cut out, we can't hear your audio.
Yeah.
That's weird that we heard her and then it went away. Yeah.
Yeah.
I
it might be on her end.
It's on her end, Taj nodding his head. That's not so.
Can she call my phone and I pick it up to the
phone?
She dropped off. She'll probably
try to come back.
Um can can she call and p put it up to the mic? Is that le allowed?
Yes, we we we should be able to hear it on the recording.
In the meantime, uh I want to recognize Commissioner Mariano. Turn. Answer this. Some of this is in is area.
Okay. Thank you. So this would be part of my committee report and
sorry. Hang on, Jack. Okay, here we go. Okay, we're gonna put you on speaker. Okay. Hold it up close to the right. Where's the speaker on this? It's on the bottom. Okay. All right, speak Jennifer.
Where there is a will, there is a way, folks. Can everybody hear me now?
Yes we can.
Okay, well good morning. My name is Jennifer Motzinger and I represent the Tampa Bay Builders Association, the people who build the American Dream of Home Ownership. And my address is 512 East Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa. There's no question that Cas Pasco County has become an ideal place for many families to move for its quality of life and proximity to airports and it seems like everybody wants to build a new home with a pool these days. And definitely the master plan community lifestyle appeals
to people at all stages of their life. So I want to take a moment and congratulate you, Commissioners, because you have recognized and planned for the growth that we are experiencing now. And that is a testament to the thoughtfulness of your decisions. In the same approach, I've worked with Dan, Sally, and the staff over the last year to address the challenges that have come with the surge in demand for Pasco's development and building related services. And I just want to take a moment and thank the staff again publicly for
all their late nights, weekends, and so much dedication to maintain that level of service. I'm actually here to advocate for them this morning. The good news is the industry believes in paying fair fees for a satisfactory level of service. So you have the money to invest in new employees and resources that will help the development review process. Hopefully that'll free up some money to invest in some drainage issues because for those poor people, my goodness, my heart goes out to you. Now it's down to hiring new employees though. We
need to work together to ensure that good quality plans are submitted and reviewed and work together to ensure families investing their lives in Pasco have safe homes and neighborhoods. It's truly a partnership between the regulatory community and my industry. But we also must remain competitive with other areas, and that's why it's so important to hire, train, and reward good employees. I support the proposal that Sally is going to be presenting to you today. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you
for your patience while we get through this tech issue.
All right.
Thank you.
Okay, at this time I recognize uh Commissioner Mariano.
All right, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And uh folks, thank you all for coming out to help. Bring the the attention to the uh to flooding issues. I wanna uh before we get into Musta Carbella and his team, they have done a phenomenal job and this board I think has done a great job working with stormwater issues around around this county. I mean when I when I first started sixteen years ago We had people that were flooding all over the place. Today we have we we've just passed this morning at nine o'clock MSBUs for places like Magn Mag Magnolia Valley, Timber Oaks. Uh there's places like Ashwood, which was a street,
small little street that Um the brilliance of Mike Carbeller and his team solved that issue with the simple flowway. Ironbark, Ray Bridge to flood all the time, Sea Pines, two agenda items today. after acquiring two other properties gonna get to solve those issues coming up in in a hopefully a short period of time. So Mike, all this here is you've done a phenomenal job. We still have more to do. Um I've been out two to these areas here and you know we did put one pipe in the ground that the lady mentioned, Mrs. Orchard mentioned, where we put a pipe
in the ground that went out to a canal to a flowway that was there and we put a stopdown so the water would flow back in.
Great idea.
On a high tide situation though, in the storm surge situation coming in, that water's coming in, it will flow out when it gets low enough, but it is a low area. Um Mr. Love where he leads to the Mm. Uh we had stormwater team fully out there taking a look at it and the city had put water and sewer in there. And they built the road really low. And it's below sea level. It's gonna be tough to fix that, but we can work with the city to go make that happen. part of the area that Mr. Ochard mentions and and down that whole area. If we have our
life pipes cleaned, then Mike I think we have ours cleaned. We gotta oh we'll we'll double check. Um but we gotta g work with the city on this one because they own stuff that connects with ours, et cetera. And I think that's a good thing. This is the time to actually take a look at and you've heard me mention before Up along US nine time uh up along US nineteen you can go up and down and you see so many white signs with the green lettering, which means it's not county maintained. And the road's always the worst. And I didn't want to shrink the the
TIFF money we had mobility fees to shrink it down until we actually fix those things. We said we can get it to get them done. I will tell you this area here Could be a lot better if we could get into changing those roads over. So folks Doing a paving assessment does cost money. I think it's well worth it. So I'm going to reach out to each one of you. I'm going to go look at doing the paving assessment for the whole area. At the same time, I've always said I want to fix the drainage first. And to what level we can get to to point out. It'll never be perfect with
the sea level where it is and the way the things built, but we can make it better. And we're gonna work to make it better for you. Um And I and I want to say Talking to us is great too and even if you're in the county, you can still talk to the city about what's going on with them so they can be encouraged to work with us. I think we need to have a joint meeting with the city of Newport Ritchie. I mean I can work directly first with them to get started on this. But I I I just need to elevate this issue. And and folks, thank you for coming out to help elevate the issue higher. We've
worked hard. We just did a great a cleanup down there. I think the cleanup went great. Um I think the stormwater drainage, you guys are right, we need to fix it. Uh people need to get out of their homes and we need to find a way to make it better. So I'm a fully supportive to try to make it better. Um for the lady at Philly Lane, uh The Highlands area is difficult because it is the basin that just comes down and and that area, especially Philly Lane, that water just comes down to the basin to try to get it out. And if you were told, and I'm not doubting you whatsoever, that we're gonna get
a pump out there Um and I struggled with those emails too, pushing staff to say, look We've got an area that's in the county. I don't care whether it's a privately maintained road or not. If there's people that are flooding out We should be putting a pump in there to try to help them out. And the pump could help to a certain area. So Whether it be privately maintained or not. is I don't think it's a factor whether we take care of it. These people are paying a stormwater fee. We should be helping them out privately maintained road or not. We'll go into look matter
of fact I you guys have a meeting next week? So I'm going to try to have some staff there. I'm actually going to be away, but we'll set another meeting up coming up, but I'll try to get some of the staff folks there to actually be there at the meeting and talk about the stormwater things. And we're going to talk paving assessment too for down the road. And we'll set another meeting up for that. Right. So folks, I greatly appreciate y'all coming out here. Uh it helps when the board can hear from you. This is a great Board of County Commissioners. We get a lot of stuff done. We're actively going it through. So I'm going to tell you with our team, Mike Carbelli, he's
helped with his team as well, doing so many solutions. I know we'll get some of these things improved. May not be perfect, but But we'll improve them.
Thank you, Commissioner. But can can we go check that pipe though and see if it's blocked? And can we maybe put some kind of structure on there that keeps the trash from going through and blocking it? You can't talk from the outers. No, no. The guy behind you was trying to do it.
So so and let me let me say so those of you had said if you have specific things like where the pipes are that it may be clogged or a solution that you have Set send send an email to me directly. We'll get it to them and we'll get the information going. So when we come out to speak with you and start working on this, we'll have your direct information. And I will tell you, I will be able to do that. You are coming out here with direct information helps a lot. A lot of the solutions we have came from people just like you, speaking forward to something that we're going to go work on to solve. So thank you all.
So Commissioner, to answer your question, the public works team is actually online and paying attention and taking notes, so we'll we'll make sure that the maintenance concerns are are looked into and addressed.
I I've been out there on Oldsner and I think that's where some of the homeless camps are in that property over there. And I I've seen the trash that goes into the wetlands and the um right across the street and it goes into the waterways and s it's it's a problem. I'd I'd like to Are there no trespassing signs on that property?
There are some I think that need to be done. I mean there's so there's actually a one disaster that actually happened was some family actually drove into one of those camps, drove their car there. And they burnt the car down on the people. They had they were homeless folks. They drove into the camp and those homeless people burnt down their car. car. That's still there right now.
I think I saw that fire.
With the Board of support, I think administrations here in the Sloud and Claire will go take a look at closer work with the Service Office, our code enforcement team and start clearing that out even more so. And I think if we can also work together as you've I've mentioned a long time ago, we looked at Hudson Beach doing that roadway up there, I think Green Key We need to go push that issue as as well to make that thing a nice road going out there with a trail going out there.
Yeah.
So fully supportive of that too.
I had just um talked to Sally and um Ms. Pearson here b before the meeting started because I have the same issue in holiday where we have uh absent land you know, owner of land where the homeless camp is back. And um It takes a lot of county resources to to try and keep clearing everybody out and cleaning them up. And I I think that these absentee landowners should be fined. Um daily.
And that'll get their attention when the fines start racking up. of because they are really causing havoc in those nearby communities. Not
fair. Mr. Chairman Mariano. I know you got we got a time starting in a second here, but uh I know we weren't really planning on getting into this today, but we're not going to be able to A gentleman came up and talked to uh Commissioner Starkey nine a minute ago about the homeless issue. And obviously we all and just like the people in the audience do, we have compassion and you know, for the people that are homeless, but we have a situation now where we have people that are actually harassing others. Yeah,
like kids riding
bikes. You you mentioned a burning car. Um Being abusive. criminal acts. That's a different story. Um So I know it's not my district and I d don't know exactly what's going on there, but I think it would behoove us to um Whoever wants to, you know, take the lead on that would be to Get with human services. Get with the homeless coalition and the Sheriff's Office. and put their heads together and work as a team. We have
a homeless coalition. They need to be more engaged in that situation. And if you're not going to be able to do W there are criminal acts taking place that need to be arrested. Now that's not the solution to homeless, and we know that. But if there's people co create uh committing criminal acts, they need to be held accountable. No matter who they are. Or where they live. So that needs to be the case. So we need to get code enforcement out there, let's bring the sheriff's office in there, let's pull them out through committing
these acts, get the homeless coalition involved, get human services involved, and let's take care of this for once and for all and be done with it.
And Ms. Chairman Mariano. Yes, sir. Just sorry for one second. Um one thing to talk about the homeless too. They they had a pro a program or ordinance they just passed, I think it's done at Fort Myers, a panhandling ordinance that they just went through. They say ours is weak. needs to be tweaked so I want to go take a look at that and I'll bring that back uh for the attorney's office to take a look at to see if that improvement can help. Because when people that from Hudson and Biko was drive we were just talking about. Um that area right there when someone
accosted a lady, caused an accident, hurt the lady. they did a lot of clearing out from there. The pan handling part of it. I think just promotes even more and more trouble. Whether in the right of ways, wherever they are, it's dangerous, it's not good. In any any form.
Well you know that we banned panhandling, but the Supreme Court through that out and said it's freedom of speech unless they're standing in the road. Yeah.
Most of them are standing right in the road. So that's so as far as like it's not on the sidewalk they're doing it, they're in the medians, they're on the edges.
They can't be there,
they're in the right of way.
All right, let's move on. Uh anyone else on WebEx? Mr. Chairman
Mariano.
So we'll um close public comment at this time. And now it becomes time for resolution. Did you have something to say?
Um I was I had gone on a ride along with um, Chief Case and and w driving down Green Key Road, I did notice there was a home and it was completely surrounded by water. They couldn't even get to their home without being able to walk through the water. And with public services um I applaud them on going out working into the field because I did go to the Rosalie project and they when they were out and helping and feeding
the homeless, they were able to house some of those homeless people. So thank you.