##VIDEO ID:S6R-biSO5g0## thank you good evening everybody today's Tuesday August 13th time is now 6:05 in the city of Willison city council meeting has come to order this is our second budget hearing M right would you please call roll mayor Goodman I'm here president Cox here vice president Hines here council member Martin here council member ricko she's absent council member Jones here city manager Terry bouard here attorney Kiren beloo she's absent Finance director Steven Bloom he's online and city clerk Latricia Wright I am here and all other staff all right item one opening prayer and Pledge of Allegiance by mayor Goodman join me if you will Lord we're coming together again as a community leaders in that Community doing the best they can to keep our community a good place to be and safe to live in and Lord I just ask you to be with each one of these council members as they deal with this material help them to gather it in and to digest it and do the very best that they can as they usually do and Lord I ask you to be with our Police Department as they try to defend us from unknown dangers and Lord I ask you to be with all of our staff the fire department the utility department everybody because it's a crazy world that we're in now and we ask your protection and I ask that you put ahead your protection over these meetings over this Hall over the city hall in its entirety I ask this in your name amen [Music] thank you very much all right item two budget introduction by city planner Laura Jones Community thank sir um unfortunately couldn't make it last well I had to leave early our first budget hearing so I just wanted to answer some of the questions that you had and then um if you have any additional questions I'm here to answer them so the first question was for Planning and Zoning um about the comp plan why that budget went down when the comp plan is supposed to be for next year that's because we we're working on the comp plan right now and we're going to be billing a few months in this budget so next year's budget went down a little bit so we don't have that 175 for next year um for permitting why are the building permits being reduced well for the last year and a half we've had a 98 home um development and that's complete it's going to be complete probably all the homes by this new budget by October 1 if it's not completed by then the permits will most likely be in by then so um we won't have something like that next year we only have one development that we know is probably going to be starting vertical next year and that's only 55 Town Homes and it's only 15 buildings and most of those permits will be coming um so 55 Town Homes the cost of Permitting remember is like 1.5% or whatever so it's a percentage of the amount of the house um which won't be nearly as much as 98 uh $200,000 houses so that's why that went down a little bit um code enforcement is a went up a little bit for training because you know my code enforcement officer retired and so we have a lot of training to do and unfortunately it's not inexpensive training for code enforcement so we put that up a little bit the CRA hasn't changed much um you have the you know about the million dooll loan we've been working on that for a while so other than that nothing has changed in the CRA um the animal shelter that was raised due to quests from when this animal shelter was handed over as a bare building um I've been asked to have an exam room set up for veterinarians and to do that we have4 to $5,000 worth of materials and then the rest of it $30 to $40,000 worth of equipment even if it's granted even if it's donated um just to move some of these things if if we get like an x-ray machine move it could be at5 to $10,000 for it to be moved and set up so I put kind of on the Lower Side city manager and I have discussed this um in depth and we don't really think we need a veterinary clinic right now we don't think we're ready for a Veterinary Clinic we think that we have a lot more things to do with our sh of with building that was given to us we have some pcts we need to build we need some um kennels outside for the police to to be able to get to and um we need to pretty much stock it cuz we weren't given anything but uh an empty building so we could reduce this budget quite a bit if we went ahead and EXN that um Veterinary exam room for now Laura can you just like you did with me can you kind of break down how you are providing Medical Services to the animals you the way we yes sir so when we find an animal if it needs immediate Veterinary help it goes to Doc Bullocks if it can wait it goes to vcop which is up at the University of Florida vcop does our fixing our vaccines um they don't do any emergency work for us but if the dog has something wrong with it uh say heartworm it'll they'll pay for that care as well so anything that's not a sick animal um is getting pretty reduced rates up at vcop occasionally we have to go to the emergency services um but we're trying to keep that to the bare minimum so I know the question came up about RF Qing or RFP the veterinary services we did we put it on the internet I called all the vets in the area and nobody was interested in filling out the paperwork or you know partnering in that way but verbally uh leave the animal clinic has been extremely good to us they let us come in right away if we have an emergency and um it's never too high anymore more what you see are from using vets last year that were extremely high um leave Animal Clinic we find is a little bit more fair so I don't think you're going to see the same vet vet numbers you know prices next year that you saw this for the next budget so what about the spaying neutering all that stuff it's all free by the University of Florida yes okay and all we pay for is gas to get there so all of that is covered now um so for us to bring a vet in I just think that we're kind of young for that we don't need a full-time vet I hope that we never do um and Veterinary part-time is very difficult to find because every you know veterinarians wants full-time work to bring students in to do things like vaccines and stuff we may be able to do that but we can't be using the exam room as a storage room to do that and that right now the exam room is full of stuff there's no storage at the shelter there's no closets there's nothing so that's where all of our donations which have been extremely generous from the citizens um that's where they're all sitting right now we have cages we have doggy beds we have toys and we have food um I don't know what else is in there table what blankets all the things that people have donated to us are in the exam room right now so just one more question if you don't mind um so the I I know originally the the plan was at least through Wayne and some other people the vision was you know the the stand up a exam room with uh University students coming down there and uh doing all their work and stuff like that so obviously that's never materialized um in the sense of the way we envisioned it and from your discussion with the University of Florida um do you think that they're filling our needs as a opposed to bring students here yes they're filling all of our needs right now um students I I from what I understand they have to do rotations everybody does a large animal rotation everybody does an exotic rotation everybody does a shelter rotation but we're a very small shelter and if they did a shelter rotation with us it doesn't mean that they're going to be doing anything really um as far as sped and neuters and stuff they maybe would be doing vaccinations and exams so I still don't believe that we need x-ray machine the ultrasound you know if I'm going to set this up for a vet it's it's got to be set it's got to be set up you know and those machines are extremely expensive do we do any lab work at our shelter we're not doing anything right now there's a few things that um because my past career I was a biologist there's some things that we can do um inhouse uh looking at some parasites and things not quite set up for that yet but I can do that in a smaller area than that big exam room need a micro a microscope for that and I think I have going to get one donated and we still have to take them to the vet to get a heartworm test to get the heartworm test yes but vop does that before they fix them right um so they do it before they fix them they they're very very generous they really help us out like I said the only thing that would be a like a problem that vop couldn't do would be a surgery on a a hurt leg or something but they have grants for that so as long as it's not an emergency a lot of things can get covered the emergencies of the tough things and in the general fund budget where is the Bron animal it's not in there I don't know why I told Stephen about it via email yeah Terry said perhaps because it's not guaranteed it's just an agreement it's not a contract he didn't put it in there but maybe he could answer yeah that's that's around $9,600 it would it would help you yes maybe a little more than that but it's around $9,600 a year um would help your budget if it showed in the revenue side but I don't Stephen are you online I know you're not feeling well yeah yeah excuse me can you hear me can you hear me I can yeah no no it's not in there there I mean I obviously I'll call add it for the next version um Laura did email that to me and I already had the version out that is something that I miss put in it was one thing I didn't see when I was looking in the revenue side thank you did it actually did we receive the money yes we've been receiving it monthly $833 yeah $800 something a month yeah and we are providing the service so I want to make sure it shows because we are expending our money on their animals so we need to put the revenue in there too at least I feel like we do even and I don't know whether it's a year to year or a month to month I can't remember um the agreement it didn't have an invate okay so I would definitely put it in there that's just me but I'm not treas Mr Jones is Operation catnip is that just strict laa County um not necessarily they'll help us with traps and we can bring cats there but their schedules vcop gives us a schedule and we just kind of we tell them what we have and and then we bring them to them operation catnip has a schedule so if we can't catch the cat that day um we can't go that day so this is a little bit easier for us as far as the cats um I I know that it's a problem I I talk to Citizens a couple times a week about cat cats we're going to do a big push when it gets a little bit cooler not only for us but for the cats we're going to try and trap all the colonies that we can I know that this has been done before the problem is it wasn't maintained so now the kittens are back but we have a very good group of people in the city who know where the cats are who can trap cats so we're hoping that we could just trap and and talk to vcop about bringing them up for like a week or two anytime we catch them and just get them all if it doesn't work with them we can also talk to Sheltering hands they may be able to give us a special day to do that thing but it would cost a little bit of money they I think they're going to charge us like a regular I think it's 30 bucks a cat they're they started out 30 when I started taking our Colony up there but they're up to 50 now yeah they may be less for the shelter um vob Can't Get Enough cats so they keep telling us bring more cats bring more cats um it's just it's a tough time right now for us well we have a full shelter so that's a lot of work and then the um to trap a cat you really got to watch it you know when it's 100 degrees outside you don't want a cat stuck in a trap for very long so I have the best luck catching them at night well maybe you're going to be on my cat pack I can catch them at that I like fried chicken um and the cat condo is that any Theos in here ctios yeah that's just materials it's really not very expensive to build these things we got a lot of the wood donated already from another rescue we just have to buy the um the fencing to go around it um we have some fencing we need to put up we we need paddocks for these dogs they need to get out they can go on walks and that's fine but for them to actually play and run without being on a leash they're on concrete and we don't like it and if it even gets a little bit wet it's very slippery so you got puppies slipping down the concrete so we do need some grass areas and we have some bids on that um and then I don't I think that was it for the outside oh and maybe fence the perimeter but we might just wait until we can get a donation on that but we've been very good at getting donations lately so have a shed that's hopefully going to be donated if it doesn't work out I'm going to have to ask for a shed we have Place get one a good size for all your storage m else any questions from M um y'all hear me um so you were talking about the perit and you said that the price went down it's just the price of your expenditure went down as opposed to the price or percentage of the actual no yeah my my actual budget went down so you know we only get 5% or something of of that big number that contracted contractual Services how much do we get from that 10% % most of that isn't even our that's going right to the consultant so my budget went down but it doesn't really affect us in the long run nothing's really changed for permitting um I think I put training up a little bit so we haven't actually changed the price of what the permits are it's just that we're going to have to do right but we're not going to have to use supplies that are needed for the furnace right if that makes sense okay yeah I mean we don't use much I mean we just use paper okay right Mr Mayor I just have small question page I animal licenses it says that yeah because we've actually been getting them um it's been a we've been getting the dogs licens in the city we did a big purchase yeah yeah so uh our dog licenses we did a big post for that recently with um know we have a Facebook page now we're much more out there with the animals before it was really a dog catcher so we didn't really have time you know that was more code enforcement so now that we have this whole staff that's very passionate about this animal shelter there's always Flyers going up and people are seeing that they have to license their animals and then new residents are being told when they open up an account that dogs need a license it's only $5 it just helps us know who's who in town because if we catch him down the street and have a license it's so much easier to find his home all right Mr Jones thank you you got anything else for us if you don't have any more questions so I'll work with um Stephen on reducing this if we if you guys are okay with not having the veterinary exam and the room and the veterinarian um I'll work with them on reducing this I agree with you if you're not set up for it let's bring it back at another time yeah once you're ready that's what we need to do it yeah I would say let's get really good at running our shelter and we've got room to grow and that's a good thing yeah it's in good hands thank you all right nothing else thank you m Jones item three presentation by Finance director Steel okay um hopefully you guys can still hear me um I am going to do a brief presentation I did include a lot of the reference slides for you uh in this deck uh but I'm only going to cover a couple things really focusing on what changed uh since uh the first Workshop uh the rest of them are there if we need them if there were questions about different assumptions that were uh included in the budget I I wanted to make sure we had those available uh but I'm going to spend most of the time here just kind of talking about the changes you know and what it really means uh to the overall budget so if we we can start on on well you know what before I do that let's let take a quick look at the budget calendar just to make sure we're we're kind of all set for what the next steps are that's a slide three okay so after today uh kind of The Next Step will be on September 10 um at 5:30 p.m and I believe that is a regular meeting as well that would be your first uh public hearing on the budget uh there are two for every year there's two and this is going to be the first one um and again i' I've got some of those other dates there just as reminders that we're not allowed to have uh our public hearing on the same day as the school board or as the County Commission so the first one will be on September 10th and then you will be adopting a tenative millage rate as well as a tenative budget um after that uh we will do special advertising uh for the second uh public hearing which is scheduled for September 24th at 5:30 p.m. and that uh 24th would be the final and and kind of last step for the commission to adopt their official budget that for next year okay so with that in mind uh the next [Music] slide um i' I've noted changes and um really coming out of the first Workshop uh the biggest or the heaviest lifting that we had to do was kind of to recalibrate the general fund a little bit based on our discussions and so these are a lot of these bullet points really affect the general fund the most although as we get through them you'll note they they also have some positive effect on a couple of the other funds so I'll just kind of go through them the first thing I'll mention is that every year and it usually happens the same time uh in between our first and second Workshop the state releases estimates and all of the intergovernmental Revenue um you know communication tax uh sales tax fuel tax all of those you know intergovernmental Revenue they do fancy estimates for us and then based on that I make adjustments to the budget sometimes I have to adjust it a little bit down uh luckily this time I was able to add a little bit of Revenue into the general fund based on their estimates which is always you know a helpful thing the other thing I did um and we briefly talked about this a couple meetings and stuff is uh based on the uh uh fire loan I did adjust The Debt Service uh to make sure that there was plenty to cover uh what would be the their principle and interest payments um I know I can't remember who asked that question in one of the prior meetings I don't think it was that was after the U the workshop but yes I have made sure that we've got 100% of what would be principal and interest on that that new loan is in um we talked about at the first Workshop there were at that time two police vehicles and um both of those police vehicles were unfunded at that time and would require in that first version a actually another loan uh to be able to purchase those based on the uh change in the uh USDA Grant uh in this version uh we've been able to with some of the other changes that we did personnel and different things uh we were able to include only one vehicle but that vehicle is now a part of your base budget meaning that there's no loan required for it there's no grants assumed for it um it's now being covered um you know 100% within the revenues of the current year not not using fund balance either uh so if in other words and the reason why I wanted to do it this way or present it this way is that moving forward if there is no additional grants excuse me then you're going to need to be able to fund one vehicle at a minimum I know the chief wants two but at the minimum you're going to be able to have to fund at least one or else you'll get behind in your Fleet Management so this version of the budget has one vehicle no special funding for it um you know it's basically being handled within the general fund um so again certainly can have more discussions on that I know the chief is going to want to um you know if there's any other creative ways to get to to keep that Fleet program moving in in a positive direction but at the minimum there's now one in there um the all of the insurance premiums that we talked about that were at the time estimates you know contingency amounts we got better numbers both for um health insurance um better numbers for auto property all of those Insurance numbers came in um and to our benefit and luckily all of them came in lower um than the contingency amount that was put in first version as a result of that excuse me um I was able to reduce the transfer and if you remember we had talked about the reason why the transfer uh was increased was solely to cover these increases of what we call uncontrollable um spending otherwise we were not really wanting to increase that transfer as a result of the reduction in these estimates and again these premiums are going to help each of the funds but in the general fund in particular we were able to lower the transfer uh by $60,000 as a result of this which is certainly a positive to be able to obviously um not have to keep increasing that transfer with c certainly helps the Utility Fund and then also have you know being able to keep the general fund closer to not having to have you know 1.5 million U or more $ 1.6 million transfer it's now 1.54 and then finally as I mentioned earlier with the vehicle um now the loan proceeds U has been reduced from 620,000 down to 460 which again less less debt is always better so from there you know kind of moving to page five and just giving you again a brief look at the overall picture of where the budget is so now um you know based on these these changes the budget is about 13.7% higher last time it was at 14.3 uh capital has been lowered uh to 3.5% um again before was 3.8 um so in general you know again these changes have helped uh basically take some more pressure off of the general fund and then provide some more um potential reserves for the Utility Fund which was a secondary priority in this budget so Within These two versions moving to version two here of the budget we have been for the most part been able to accomplish uh what we set out from the first Workshop um with that in mind obviously this is another workshop for you to to go through whatever you would like to talk about uh there's no um you know constraints on making changes as we just talked about we'll take a look at the animal shelter make those adjustments I'll take a look at that Revenue uh but you are more than welcome to look at any category any section any Department any fund as you would like make any changes and what we'll do is we'll bring back um a third version for your uh first public Hearing in September um and then from there you you know take a look at it B and with that I'll end my presentation all right anybody have any questions for Mr BL do not so as you know Stephen and I have been working on and and Stevie you may have helped me out with this while we're while I'm going through it we've been working on the Water and Wastewater uh usage r and u trying to come up with a way that we can um maybe restructure that to you know lower some of the cost to the the citizens and the commercial side of the house and so we sent some numbers to Stephen uh in an EXL format and he and I talked and Stephen I'm assuming these numbers are on the tier three um structure that we talked about yes the for water is basically after tier three stops okay meaning tiers three four and five are all the same and again for those of you who don't spend a ton of time with the the water bills each water bills got a base rate we're not even we're not really discussing base rates and then depending upon how many you know gallons of water is used it runs through a tiered system uh the new rates that started in January 1 had a five uh unique tiers that built up so obviously as you got up into those upper tiers uh that price uh went up and so what we ran is some scenarios in this particular scenario that says okay I'm going to stop at tier three and tier three four and five are now going to be the same and what does that do what does that kind of do to the revenue on an annual basis with the you know making some assumptions uh the analysis I did was based on the first seven months so it's it's pretty good to see you know a whole seven months worth of uh Revenue to run it off of him and then from there I just kind of straight lined it across to get to 12 months so you but the you know no I was just going to say the end result of that is about 85 to 90,000 of reduced Revenue uh for the water uh portion of the budget based on that one particular scenario and then the sewer the sewer what we did is um the scenario I ran and look we can you know we built this this workbook so that we can run multiple scenarios as we get you know get time to but in this particular one um pretty sure what we did was I gave the first $5,000 5,000 5,000 uh gallons of sewer free uh originally for commercial um you know they paid starting at zero um and so given that first 5,000 kind of matched up I believe with the residential and uh that was a little bit less at about um annually about I think between 45 to 50 uh was the uh short you know change in Revenue it's called a change in Revenue a reduction uh in the sewer uh department so I I looked at the XL Spreadsheet and I was obviously was pretty complicated for me so on the Wastewater spreadsheet was um was there any relief in the tiers based on these numbers no not not in that scenario I mean obviously I can I can keep running scenarios if there's we want to give even more more uh relief um the sewer budget uh was actually looking pretty solid even after this uh change um the water is not quite there yet um we would have a a harder hit on the water but no that's that does not give any other relief years okay so and I think what we were looking for least what I envisioned the tasks to do or look at U was you know what would this mean to our operational cost and to to our current budget you know the the the primary drive for me has always been to make sure our um Enterprise funds at the very minimum operate at at least breaking breaking even you got to break even there's no sense it happen you know um so in this particular case what I was looking for was you know with if we made some changes to these rates and Stephen also talking to you again um you know how how far could we go without getting into that operational level where we're not making a penny we're losing money or we're barely breaking even and as you know one of the driving forces between are trying to do or put in the M higher rate for the water you know was so we could really improve a lot of our cap Capital project but you know I'm going be honest with you our capital projects needs are so great um we will never get there by the usage I mean we have to get there the way we're going through srf loans through grants through all the things we do with right pece and everybody else is the way that we get to getting our project done because this is simply a Dro in bu I mean I can't get anywhere on 85,000 not you three pumps go back and I've spent that so my my question is to the city council you know and so Stephen can maybe talk a little bit too in case you have any question to him is what direction you want me to move in in this particular situation would you like us to come back Mr Mayor has a question yes since probably directed at you Stephen on you said it was 85 to $90,000 loss of revenue for not having tier four and five how many people how many people have tier four and five bills yeah hang on so what do you own I'm just trying to do some simple mathematics here and see how many people get to divide up $90,000 and and tag along with that um I see I hear that we're strictly going or what it sounds like going toward commercial reductions I would also if at all possible like to reduce the residential even if it's a little bit so I will tell you this there's 35 businesses in Willison to have our services that are using 15,000 gallons of water 35 you say yeah I'm not going to try to do that now what is 35 90,000 divided by 35 and then by 12 and then by 12 yeah because they get it every month a month that David you got CL say 30 you want to um you repeat that for me mayor I just want to know how many people and how much those people are paying for to make that $90,000 there's 35 people they're over a year's time yeah it's $214 a month yeah so it's it's also dependent on business yes I understand but if we're going to generalize I'm just trying to generally understand what it is trying to do that's all and right now I think we're strangling them ma'am I think we're strangling some people yes they their reach is a point where their business can't be profitable exactly and they can't charge enough to get the money back yeah you know between the car washes and the laundr MS but in the same flip side of that coin aren't we doing the same thing to the city if we you mean the residents the residents that's why I brought that up the businesses because we've worked hard hard to try to work towards getting break and even at least and after all this is a business um you know so and we do need to more than Break Even to keep the system running I know that's the whole point and why we did it to begin with because like we but we don't need to gouch there will be unknown yeah cost ahead I mean it's we go to the grocery store it's more money for us um you know it's it's all the way around you know where they say groceries if you uh a year ago 250 bucks and the same ones now it's like 350 for the same ones okay sure if you have to come to the podium yes and please state your name in your residence and it doesn't look like it's own if you'll push the button to turn the red light on see there you go thank you Mr May so I don't do this very often I lot I'm sorry can I get your name please sir last name so like talk I get basically in even playing field is every business the water rates went up I get it you got to raise money but everybody's got a bathroom and a m meter that on me or fair but I go through 200 300,000 y of water I'm in in that height here but on the other side of the coin it's also for the L Fortune people then would have to drive the they can't they can't afford my rates and I haven't I haven't gone up I should I'm going to have to go up they're walking in they're walking in the building they're walking out I'm gonna have to go up again to stay in it's it's going to put us on so and and then to break it down like water bills it's hard to understand the volume so when you're going through this much every city is about $12 per thousand if you do the math Sumer as low as eight willst them is already 14 so now we're going to $28 per Gall water I believe so I can't I can't me they can give you the true numbers but oh I got the numbers I don't do this very often so it's a little hard I just kind of did a summary of it um good evening by the way thanks for listening to us we own the local laundry my name is Kim Prince I'm his wife um we own the local laund mot here in Wiston our business is based on water it is it's it's not just a little bit it's it's business um at the beginning of this uh year the city more than doubled our water rate so it didn't just go up it it more than double um we were never notified in advance about this increase the laundry does not make enough to cover this extra cost and if this continues it will put us out of business um the laundry has been there for decades and the community depends on it we were forced to go up on our prices but that doesn't even begin to cover the water costs because we raised our prices now some of our customers drive to different cities to do their laundries and this has also affected us this water weate increase isn't just hurting our business it's hurting the community we hear it so we would really appreciate anything you do to help us out you so to give you an idea of the kind of water usage they're they're using I I I have two bills um one says laundry mat trying to laundry during one month is 92,000 gallons the other is another bill which is 12,300 G I'm not sure which one's the difference um because both of them say Dr one says laundry one says Dr so um so looking at this you're telling me you're using over 200,000 gallons of lot of water are you talking about it a whole year oh and not a month okay we thought you were talking per month this is according to Selena per month this is b000 It's 92 no this is from April 1st to April the 30th they got two bills and one of them here according to Selena spreadsheet was the launder mat at 57 nor east6 Boulevard which used um 92,000 gallons Y and then the dry cleaning at 57 Northeast 6 Boulevard used 12,300 gallons just over that one month so how is the dra in using water at all because you you send it out get you come back up okay so the the meter's going to both the water's going to both meters even though it's got that name on it gotcha show what about your cost of goods your deterg it's because we record it has to be recorded oh I understand but you know we also we also provide a service for the poor I've always cut my rates low and it's a double land I kind of raised my rates where I should have been be nice I guess but now the increase in the water and everything else this business can't handle it just simply not when you go to the next town it's half the price so when was the last time our water rates prior to this were raised uh you know maybe 12 years ago 15 15 2015 15 years oh 15 years excuse me thank you but none of the other cities have a double the rate like if we went up a little bit over a period of time we could handle it and then we honestly didn't know I I be uh it was a bad timing the bill came came in it was double do you live in the area no I don't well that's why you didn't know because we've done public hearings on everything we I think we did three on the water sewer rates it was March when I went out the meter wrong know they dou the rates and I I don't think the friends are coming into this meeting in the dark we we've had conversations we we've told you our side of the story and stuff and you know not that it helps any but I I think y'all generally have an idea reason why the rates went up and why um if you did I apologize we if you didn't but I'm pretty sure we had this carity most everybody I do that now with and go through the whole process of the spend 15 years if we had all that Capital sitting back there we would be able to probably not raise these rates or it have been a small increase every year and you would have this would be an easy small increase so um you know but I'm not trying to drop you off the podium you stay there if you want to but um but then saying that compared it to the other cities mhm there're all12 per thousand gallons do you check Ocala because I know they're high inala deal with who I deal with yeah you guys were 14 now you might as well say 27 that's a lot to hit I would you say 27 where are you getting that if you break down the water bill my last year's bill divided by a thousand gallons that's what tax that's what it is yeah what what cities are those Mr all around see Chie elthor even I mean Gru so if you guys remember our Florida R water uh which Melrose and Chiefland and Hawthorne all the cities he just mentioned are part of that they're in the process of raising those rates they're in rate studies as well they're in critical failure on a lot of their systems as well but if you go through and you talk about the cities in the last two or three years through Florida Ral water that have done their studies and remember Florida Ral water is a nonprofit it's across the state there's a couple driving forces behind the rate increases one is we're all behind on Capital the council knows that um I'm not without compassion I mean everybody in the Water Division is not without compassion but the issue is is that fla's uh recommendations through d one of their driving forces is the influx of population so just a couple weeks ago we were at florid water annual conference and one of the things that they're pushing de is pushing is a reduction in water consumption so they want towns to reduce our consumptive use permit our what we call our cup permit they're making us reduce that as people are moving into our town they actually want us to use less water we get credit through the Sr F program Terry can attest to this with the documentation we've been passing back and forth with with srf as they consider us for a loan for these Capital needs that he just addressed uh we have to reduce the amount of water and one of the ways that D requires you to do that is by raising of rates because it makes people contemplate reducing the water load that they have the tiers are directly a result of that and so you know I again I'm not telling count make decision of any kind I'm just explaining to you guys if you recall in the workshops why it was that that was done Bronson had a much higher increase than we did if you compare us to GRU if you compare us to oal if you compare us to markets that had a consumer price index index increase over the last 10 years we are far below the average in the State of Florida so yes there's there's anomalies there are towns that are smaller than us I mean you can go to MacIntosh and mopi that operate a water plant their rates are extremely low but they have one plant and they have one worker for the entire city so I mean it's it's just comparative in the cost also when you break down the bill he is correct in what he's saying about the bill is cost but the problem is he's forgetting to break out base cost what we call our base meter charge and then our consumptive rate so the base charge is a fixed cost that's what it costs to run the system run the plant the consumptive rate is a totally separate matter so if you remove the base rate out of residential and Commercial ratees and you only talk about the consumptive rate the number that he gave of 28 per thousand is not accurate and then Bronson Lawry mat's out of business they close so that's gonna happen all over I got a lot to say it's just hard is there another way to like deal with somebody without coming to these meetings that man right there yeah that's that's that's it and the only way we can talk with each other is in the sunshine which means in a [Music] meeting right he runs the dayto day we just set policy and I I understand you guys got to go run but on people that consume water like us like I mentioned anybody with a business in a bathroom mod the mind I I'll double that rate on that yeah un how I make my living and a lot of them unfortunately as Mr marber said what royal water is telling us to do is charge more for people who use more oh I know now we've done that now for seven months and we're trying to bring it down you know you you've heard us talk about trying to bring it down I mean you should have just S A know close your business for five months you know well I can tell you I have a small business that is waterbased also I have no idea if it's on my list I don't know what what 35 are on the list but I'm a water-based business too and somebody asked me the other day why aren't you down here complaining about your water bill and I said because I make money off that water yeah in business I'm still making money off that water so I'm not going to complain about it if it was my house and I had that big a bill I would have a problem because I don't have Revenue coming in to cover it but I do have a water-based business that has a large bill I don't your bill was probably more than mine um my entire Bill last month was $1,700 and but the majority of that was electric because it uses electric it uses my water alone is 3500 just water so the other problem too is people can't afford so they're killing my equitment people are shoving so much clothes in and setting their head on the lid to hold it down and I got break I mean I got breakdowns believe it is just killing so I ask for your help so there should be another tear system for yeah if I can just point out here I feel for the businessman yes but my Prime concern is if the businessman goes out of business the citizens won't have any place to do their water that's that water is going to be consumed whether it is consumed by the person at home with a washing machine or the at his business you got to wash your clothes unless we're going back to the scrubbing can and I don't think many of us want to do that so the water's got to be consumed and what we're talking about here is manipulating around where the water is being consumed at and I am very concerned I just want to go on the record I'm very concerned about if our actions are putting the resources that the people need to do their laundry out of business I'm concerned and I hope you are too thank you but I think uh we will be back here this time next year discussing the same thing because we can't continue to keep our rates low and not have any increases like I said last one was 15 think we have a CP now if I remember right and I feel sorry for you understand it you know we've at home you we've had to adjust our lifestyle I mean yeah all right and it's not something we can do tonight either um because but we can put it on the next agenda yeah I I just wanted to bring it up during the budget Workshop so everybody understand that you know I know the staff has done a good job of coming in and keeping their budgets low and I do appreciate that made the process a lot easier but this we all need to understand if we do this what the effect will be uh if we lower you know if we take this loss on the revenue it's got to be just above where I'm braking even and so that's something we're still working on Stephen um so but that the point was bring it out in the open talk about it um I know the prins have dealt with me quite a bit on this so my question is where is what Mr Bloom and Terry are telling us could the direction that we potentially could go combining those TI intersect with what Mr Barber is telling us about what our requirements are from state government so under Terry's direction we did get Florida R water involved again we explained the problems that we were having with the commercial and the residential they've requested quite a bit of data from Selena and from Steven which that data has been provided Andrew Green which is the consultant with Florida R water this is what he handles the what they call their water tracker system where they track you know usage rates and comparative things they're working on some recommendations for us and they'll come back with those recommendations and then Stephen can plug those numbers in specifically um and give you guys an idea of where that exact line is uh for you guys to make a better educated decision um Andrew got all that information I believe about a week and a half ago uh the last bit of It from Stephen and he's saying that by the end of this month they should be able to give us some sort of comparative chart on some of that I'm sorry guys I just want to address that I I don't take salary from my business either I'm a horse trainer when hay prices go up I have to keep feeding the horses so I totally feel your pain and I hope that maybe this will give us some better math to kind of figure out where that line is and I know that time is of the essence but we can only move at the speed at which all the numbers come together so I just want to say it's true in business second double but you got the forest of the poor that need this business and were they going to do and don't you guys get fun isn't it's those funding people that told us to raise the rates or they would not give us a loan what what funding that's roll water they're the ones Terry we've been speaking with Terry and he said that they were hoping to create a separate tier for those Bas businesses that were solely based on water um and that is what our hope is that we can talking we're not we're not asking to go back to where we were before we understand that's that's not realistic and they hav race over 15 years we just would like to be at a different tier where it's literally us that's just because they're behind he bu a new people thank you just so you know we can't even if the CC government moves slower than weang thank you thank you for coming I would also as I mentioned like to look at residential even if it's just a little bit Mr so where we're helping out residential lar and I've talked about it we're focusing Florida RO water on portable versus nonpotable so um what's creating the problem with residential rates are those that don't have irrigation meters and are doing Lawns and things of that nature pools and if we can reestablish a new tier rate for the irrigation um that's much reduced because that's going right back in the water table and that's very defendable to Florida Ral water and de that's where we can see the majority of those savings that's part of the things that Andrew will bring back Mr Green from floral water uh and that should greatly reduce the majority of uh residential rates is that extra it's you know that irrigation added on to that regular water they're using in their house that's causing and compounding the issue um so are you going to make them get an irrigation meter yes ma'am and that that that helps us because that's how we track it and yeah but it's very expensive well it's what it costs most people don't have that money to go get one well that's why we're arranging payment plans for people uh that's another policy Terry set in place was to be able to help them out and arrange that P payment over 12 months of time and the savings that they're going to get basically like keeping the same bill to pay it and then after year one when they pay it off they're they're making a profit basically I had a neighbor who um who talked about doing that he was saying about the water prices and everything and he says you know we water our lawn and I said well go up to the city talk to him about an irrigation I said they can do it on you know talk to him about a payment thing stuff like that he said I like yard so they're willing to take and take and do that I think if we were to make a big push I think we could get a lot of people over on that irrigation and I think a lot the people who have Irrigation in their yard can usually afford an irrigation me but it's the person who has an $65 or an $80 water bill that doesn't have the money and that's not going to help them because they're not irrigating but they still have a65 to $85 water bill added to their electric and their garbage and all that those are the people I'm trying to just give a little 15 or $20 break to and and Miss Jones I I get exactly what you're saying I I understand that completely the the issue that the city has is that as we study out the srf and we go into talking about Capital needs which Terry admitted you know we're never going to pay for ourselves right the way to get there is to understand that D's recommendations are is that where most of their money is is their base rate has nothing to do with consumption right you've got to DP wants a water system for the plant for the distribution lines and putting away Capital they want that base rate because in a recession and things of that nature which has been the problem in the past you don't make money off of a consumable rate people will reduce it based on the economy so that base rate if no one turns on the water if no one turns on the electric if no one turns on the gas you still have to maintain all those lines and all those plants so the majority of their bill is their base rate it's not a consumption problem and unfortunately the base rate you guys only adopted about 50% of the 100% that Florida World water came I know they wanted it to be a lot higher than we did I mean you know we we sta everybody has really tried to take steps to reduce that burden and again if you make comparative rates to the cities that are around us we are still much lower than other places I know that I help people almost every day in the job that I have help them pay their utility bills they're not all the city of Williston but when their sewer bill is as much as their electric bill it's really staff and sometimes y'all can go figure it out you know you can find out why it's so bad they've got a leak somewhere and sometimes I call and I say can you go check this person's house because I know that's what they need um but even that base rate of that and you're right that 6580 $80 rate is their base rate it's not their consumption and a lot of people aren't going over the consumption because they are cutting it down so they're not going over the 5,000 yes ma'am so the the biggest problem that we have is the 30-day checks on meters that's the biggest problem with customer relations we are going from in the one bill that Terry mentioned April 1st April 30th and let's say hypothetically Miss Hines you had a leak in your yard yeah we're not going to discover that if that leak were to happen the 2nd of April we're not going to discover it until 29 days later so where in the problem lies is the fact that we haven't updated our systems like other towns with AMI that ADV metering you let her in because what would happen is is we would get a notification and so would the customer within 24 hours of that anomaly yeah they would know that there's a leak so there wouldn't be a chance for that increase in that bill to the rate that it is unfortunately once it goes through that meter you know the the way that the ordinances were allowing uh Jonathan and Terry is they can go in and say look you've proved to us there was a leak you proved to us you fixed it either you've hired a plumber you've bought the parts at Ace we already at that point reduced the sewer down to the 5,000 which is free for the resident then we go in and we reduce all the tiers and only Bill we have to still build the consumption but we only build it at tier one rate so anytime that we find any of those issues we giving them a massive drop I mean Selena and I have done math people have gone from $800 bills down to $200 bills because they've proven there was a leak we reduced the sewer we reduced the water to tier one and that much of the bill can evaporate just from doing that and we do that we actively do that right now yeah because we have irrigation and when we had no rain I made that decision we weren't running it I said well we're going to hold out until we get rain now my yard looks nice but you know that's a decision that the homeowner needs to make and I'm talking about the base rate people that don't have the money to even pay the base rate those are the people that that I'm helping every day I mean probably 10 people this this month alone so I I would keep in mind that the only thing that I can change my resolution simply the US right nothing else can be changed I mean base rates can't be changed nothing just simply the usage rate and hearing system that's so that's what how i t you know I I don't think you know Mr Mayor with the you trying to do the simple math sometimes that's the only math I can do too but you know so that's why Stephen's got this big along spreadsheet that I don't understand but the bottom line is really there's three or four businesses in town that do have stream happen um so I don't know maybe we'll get there and I know from talking to Stephen and I was getting ready to say this until you said a $20 cut in their bill that their the residential rate doing the same thing for them returns such a little such little back to the city that you know it's not doesn't help it really doesn't so until you said 20 I start to say you really can't if you can't change the base rate because that's where most these people it's where most of these people are yeah this is the only thing that I can do Under the current this was this was a three-step process legal um Florida ryal water stepen giving me the numbers for six or seven months him looking at it and so unfortunately this has taken seven months to do it is what it is so if I can't make a decision on a one month which is what I tried to explain to the people that that have been talking to me I have to have six months worth of data to say yes I think but now we're waiting on them yes ma'am and now that Florida water has all their information they'll Andrew Green will be getting back to us hopefully by the end of this month then we'll have the information that we need yeah because these people they get another utility bill they it's just another one that hits them in the face well we can call Andrew and see what some of his preliminary findings are um we can come back to all with a suggestion um of where you would like us to be we can we can go from there I can do it by resolution so um is is there assistance available for people under a certain income bracket through the the city or the state only so much is that something that we could expore further well not for business right no I'm talking about the community activist not activist but what's the name I never remember Community Action does a wonderful job of helping our citizens but it only goes so far I started to say they've been out of money for months yeah and then the uh and then the churches it's the churches that are doing it now and if I've already helped them within a year I send them to another church if they've helped them within a year they send them to my church unfortunately the bills have gotten so high that we're both doing it at the same time we're both having to help some will bounce from church to church I keep a spreadsheet they're not allowed to come once a year and the same with the other church right people the chief had already helped them action group had helped them and everybody else fact I had helped them too same great same same people yeah we're not in a recession I he but people yes they are anybody else all right item Four review of revised budget Mr blo pry already that's what we've been doing yeah yeah she might want all right public part participation uh this is your opportunity to address the council at this time anyone in the audience can come to the Podi speak for five minutes com upe St your name ja anding where you um just just had two questions I was hoping I was able to get before the budget and all that information was just so hopefully this doesn't put a bigger burden on anybody for budg but I think I need [Music] question the question is I've asked this in the past about the possibility of what needs to happen to get a sign that you enter welcome to Willison off 27 I mentioned to a couple people about that sign and having it there I think I'm really concerned now because I enter will up for 27 and school has started and I have been so concerned and so nervous with the speed that people pass me coming on 27 in in Willison and that that speed goes until they go across the Raad track with school starting I watch School Bus trouble to get on those roads in the morning um because people that don't live in Willison don't know that they in in will for some I don't know but I'm just concerned and I that's why I feel like um Mike or whoever can help me with finding out what needs to happen have a sign put out that that's right in that four M BP station um so that maybe people will realize they are entering a little town willon um I slow down and like I said I leave at 6 o'cl in the morning going to gille and people passed me when that that um flashing School sign was out when the Middle School area was out there it made I guess it may people aware that they wor school but I've seen families side the road R across that road school buses and people just Zoom right past me just like they don't slow down until they go across the railroad track and get near I would probably say almost when the like that and it's really concerning I just wanted to find out what needs to happen to maybe get something there sen in wion and also maybe get some patrolling out there in the morning times changing um so people would be moving around when it's dark or when the buses out really early before something happen I me I was out this morning and there was a bus that sat there 10 15 minutes just trying to get across that road to go to pick the suitors up on theal was in the budget dep uh yes sir so it's not in the budget for signs right now at this current time but Community Development uh is going after a grant um that we have a good shop for and one of the ideas was instead of just putting one big giant sign that cost thousands and thousands of dollars on the east and west border uh we instead had an idea to buy a lot of signs and work with do so that let's say you're down on 27 in bliton it says Williston ahead so many miles if you're on 318 at 75 it says Williston so many miles ahead and it has an arrow if you're on 121 so basically surrounding the entire community and so many miles out at certain critical intersections having a lot of signs that are DOD approved and placed that tell people hey you're coming toward Willison and it's this far so it kind of gives them a a chance to know that they're headed toward the town and then finally a very inexpensive sign um basically like a regular street sign that's a decent size but a metal sign that would be on the East and the West border that said welcome to Willison um problem has been you know with the the signs of CRA and the Chamber and all them got into I mean they're they're you know $20,000 $30,000 and things like that so we just thought going out further and kind of directing people and letting them know you know there's a destination ahead from all the different directions was probably a better approach to letting people know that they were in our town and again that's a grant so if we get it it would all be paid for great that's great I think that's good that's a good idea but I also think that we still should look towards the future putar so we brought it to the CRA a few months ago and there was a misunderstanding that they had to do um projects only in their districts they have a primary district and a secondary District well we reread the plan and the plan says welcome to Willison signs um so we're probably going to we're very busy right now with the parking lot but we're probably going to RFP this because the signs that we got here um are we extremely expensive to what we got so we need to do this because this is um being promoted by the uh Levy County tourism and they're going to be helping us with the price for that and then in the you know probably in the next year so you'll have welcome to Willis signs they don't have to be in the district we can put them out on the city limits but we don't want to spend $50,000 on signs so we're trying to do it as economically as possible not if you can help and the one that the one that's down here is also it was half paid for by the Chamber of Commerce yeah the chamber paid for it was there we got two for one kind of we paid the CRA paid for the sign at Heritage Park and they paid for the one at the airport and we kind of just worked together to get to be done which I think that they will probably help us with the next one as well um but we we just don't want to spend that kind of money again because it's more than that because this was three years ago now so now if it was a $10,000 sign now it's going to be a $113,000 sign and we think we can do better so I think their initial bid was 18,000 and by the time they got it up it was more like 20 because I I'm remember here in the bed and you guys know me I'm a very conservative person I recycle not about I'm not people 12 making people weird and find out for M can we get I mean just don't want toity happen just you know if we can just do anything slow people down and Miss Jackie we uh just so you know uh we do a lot of traffic in that area we can't catch them all no understand uh but we we do have a lot of traffic detail in that area um I can tell you I have one also right 100 tickets a month so we are out there we are trying to slow people down and educate them on the speed of coming to Willison um other than that you know we're just out there beating the bushes trying to catch as many as canol just started people aare y we hope when they see those flashing lights they become aware but still get some of them to still drive can ask them to put the lights back up okay yeah like I said just anything you make I said maybe we can ask do to put some lights back up I mean even if it's closer in um as they're approaching just tell them we're having issues yeah I mean I don't know we should have left them up there so that may I mean I guess down huh do 10 times what sign absolutely whatever and even if it says approaching school's Zone you're not there there people respect but it sort of it sort of starts at Main Street doesn't have to have well especially if you back up and you say approach school you don't have to say school Z say approaching school they slow down when you see the EV sign out there put slow down when they see that sign flashing no I've noticed that I'm coming in yeah and we'll we'll stay on top of it but we have a lot of traffic that comes through Willis lot increased tremendously thank you all for listen all right thank you Mr Mills anybody online no anybody else from the public want to speak all right please state your name where you from good evening everyone my name is Michael De Grandy I live in Willison and I operate a crematorium over at the airport and I've met with Terry a couple times I just wanted to come to the meeting and see if there was anything uh any any news about natural gas entering the airport could you go to page 72 of the budget 72 you actually have a nice answer for somebody so I'm excited that's it's good to have a nice answer I know we talked about it at our last meeting is that the capital budget where is that gas line extension $60,000 is it in the capital budget or the supplemental it's in the total it's it's in the total Capital Outlet yes I give you in here no it's not in sub it's it's on this page right here gas line extension can I just give the council a little bit of a background because you guys probably don't know the whole story Michael came to us and we found a great place for him at the airport but when he came to us we believed at the time we were going to be extending the gas um so he has been I guess he've been here almost two and a half years three three years he's been using propane which is another business that is not going to make it if that's the way it's going to to continue I thought he said 72 73 of the new one or 57 Well mine's in my book so it's hard to find oh I found it it's in my tabs so it's hard to find that's why I needed to know the section so it's in the Utility Fund all I needed to know M um so when um DNN came to us originally we had had plans to have gas at at the airport at that time in that area and um we had another business out there that was going to need gas right right away so this he can tell you the numbers but after we do this it's not only going to save DNN a lot of money and make them much more successful but we're going to make money on it yeah so again as I mentioned uh at the previous budget meeting it's it's not just an expansion and then basically we eat the cost so obviously they're going to get on gas they're going to be a good Gas customer but you also have uh Monteray and Monteray is capped out on what they can be provided through the the 23 pound line that they have the 100 pound line would also go to them and they have heaters on quite a few facilities that they want to add on so our winter months which are good months for the gas um will make significant Revenue so I believe when KD Hall from fgu did the numbers you know this this money would come back in like 3.7 years of usage and then after that point we have that infrastructure that's then at that point gone into uh the property there and and been accessible to any expansion that uh you know the airport may have as opportunities for businesses manufacturing whatever you know whatever they may have so um it gets it gets the line further down this is the connection from b& and it continues that line where we valed off and then comes uh up the one side I think it's the the West side Northwest side of the airport and the old Sheriff's hanger and then would come through into I remember you telling me it went out the back right yes so that that's that's what this is this Capital outlay but it is definitely an investment in future Revenue that has at the bottom 72 or 57 it has 57 what's the timeline uh so it would be about 180,000 if we rfpd it and contracted it out we're waiting for staff to wrap up some projects we need to finish John Henry we need to finish Pagano we need to finish some roads projects and things like that so we're hoping that probably sometime toward uh end of spring beginning of Summer that we would have all the materials in hand and then we would basically of course call in our 8 and one and do the project uh but this budget year is the goal to have it completed is that good does that work for you okay so I have a question no for Donald sorry so um 73 and I guess that supplemental schedule and then the 57 those amounts are different what why the difference in the prices for the gas line extension or maybe that's ST which ones which ones the more money that's the one that was the right one 1 15,000 160,000 150,000 160,000 so I can tell you that the gas line extension on the page there that has the Utility Fund gas service that is the correct number for the line extension if he has a capital outlay separate from that that's most likely other types of equipments or upgrades that 50,000 could potentially be I know that we have to fix the sewer plant Gate station we've replaced Monterey we've replaced Northwest 7th the um they gave us two years the Public Service Commission to upgrade the station that was from the 1960s so um I that may be that money but I Stephen I'll have to answer that more directly right so it says utility fund Public Works page 73 of the new one theity fital right so those are two different things but stepen online because it's almost the same looks like same amount of money one 50 yeah but did they both say gas line extension they do so I just want we make sure that it's we'll take both yeah I know you would but but one's in the budget and the other one is to beid for by the revenue yeah I think st's trying to explain no the correct number is 50 okay so I just need to typo hey save $10,000 right there okay awesome just car so Stephen what what's the purpose of the supplemental schedule it it's only it's only purposes if you wanted to see off Capital on one page instead of having to flip through the whole budget book to get by Department that's the I mean it's all it is the only reason for it is to try and give a another way of looking at the same numbers definitely easier okay that was my question and it tells how it would be funded on that page yeah the other one you would think is in the budget and you lost $10,000 of that question yeah I'd like to reclaim my [Laughter] time sorry I should have asked but no right anybody else well the time I'm sorry yes ma'am the next meeting is scheduled for August the 20th which is election I need consensus from the board to start the council meeting at 7 instead 6 p.m please well guess we got have that's what we always do just one could we do it at three no we canot the polls are open exactly right so is everybody good with 7 o'clock seven is good okay okay August the 20th so question real quick oh I'm sorry you now I was just going to say again um the next schedule council meeting is August the 20th at 7 p.m. oh actually that on my on my account okay so real quick I know on our schedule for the public hearing 05 5:30 are we gonna keep it at that or we gonna change it to 6 5:30 I don't think we can change it CH it's aded okay but if everybody's not here we still good least three people here yes count thank you so I have sent out an email to all of the council about Miss rights evaluation that's due on the 26th this month for the reminder you're welcome can you print it and put it in my box I sure can please yes ma'am all right anybody anything else all right here yes ma'am 7 o'cl and who is it hand that woman a microphone we have music in the park Friday night at 7 um it's Bryce Carlo um and then on Saturday we have an adoption we taking the puppies to the Tractor Supply um so hope to get some adoptions for our puppies what time is that one more 9 to 11 at Tractor Supply on Saturday very nice very good anybody else any takers okay we adjourn entertain a motion do we adjourn have a second a second all right all those in favor say I I I time is 7:35 five got to go pack me too