##VIDEO ID:5-9bhz8gQdg## ver the hi great upright and above room temperature e not right can good afternoon welcome to the special meeting of 
the scambia county TDC today is September 9th and   it is approximately 3:03 p.m. um Danielle was this 
meeting properly advertised yes in the sun press   on September 5th great thank you uh would you 
please call the role Jeff BOS here James Reeves   here Mary Hawking Shirley cronley here David 
Bearer here Ronald Rivera here matish Patel here   tin Yad Bron Casey Jones great we do have a quorum 
so uh this meeting is now called to order thank   you um at this time we will take public uh we'll 
do public forum uh take public comment for anyone   who wishes to speak uh about anything tourism 
related except for the agenda items if you're here   to speak to any one of the agenda items we'll take 
the public comments during that time uh and if you   do wish to speak at all whether now or during the 
agenda items please fill out one of the speaker   request forms um are they up at the table they're 
at the table over here the media table is there   anyone here from the general public who would like 
to speak today to anything tourism related please   please introduce yourself um good afternoon and 
thank you all my name is James Simpkins and I'm   representing the Pensacola yach club and our 
not for-profit foundation and I would like to   bring before for uh the board uh an idea that 
we are trying to present which is to recognize   Pensacola's own American magic team which is now 
competing in Spain uh that competition will wrap   up at the end of this calendar year and this is 
putting Pensacola on the map for international   standing activities as you already know this is 
a great economic shot in the arm bringing some   high-tech and uh very internationally noticeable 
people to this town and we want to with our   Foundation provide a event to welcome them back 
to Pensacola and start their Journey with us this   is planned to be a open event to the public and 
we are seeking to host this on our grounds and   we've already started coordinating with the the 
mayor Reeves and the city and we are looking at   possible timing in January to February they have 
to pack up from Spain and load everything on a   ship and get back but when that happens we want 
to give them a good warm Pensacola welcome so   we are seeking future uh board support for that 
initiative great thank you so much appreciate it   is there anyone else here from the public who'd 
like to speak today all right seeing none we will   uh move on to our business items um we have 
three agenda items today the bay center and   Ashton Brenham indoor park uh Sports facility 
discussion the um pensacon request we also have   the SS United States uh was not on our published 
agenda but after the County Commission uh moved   last week to approve the funding uh portion of 
the funding uh it has come back to our as an   add-on to the agenda today um and Mr chairman 
yes sir can we take them in reverse order I   was going to take um that's my next comment was 
I'd like to take pensacon first uh and then the   SS United States second and then the basee 
center Ashton Bingham Park the third ex yes ma'am yes ma'am can you speak into the mic I can't 
hear you I'm the only Council representative here   and we have a meeting a coun agenda review at 
3:30 yes ma'am so um because of the scheduling   conflict I wouldn't be able to come if they moved 
the item last move which item last the um the one   you all just mentioned Bas Center you want to 
move at last no no I'm saying I wouldn't be I   wouldn't be able to still be here the reason I 
was trying to move it to the last was because we   had these other two items at our last meeting 
and because we our discussion on on that bay   center ran long we did not have the opportunity 
to discuss those other and I I think those two   it items will be a lot faster than the last item 
and so I wanted to move those forward okay well   just know that if you move it then there will 
be no City representative present okay thank you does anyone else object to the reordering of 
the agenda I do too I think City representative   should be in the room for a $90 million 
discussion but that's just my point of view Madame councilwoman how how long will you be 
able to stay for this discussion I can't hear you so for another 22 minutes will you turn your microphone 
on please I said I'm choosing to be   late to the city council meeting so I 
can be present for this discussion okay well in light of that request we will keep 
the base Center Ashton Bingham Indoor Sports   facility first uh are there any speakers 
here uh I don't have any signature I mean   speaker request forms for this item 
you did fill one out we come on up Ted will you give those to Danielle please thank you introduce yourself please sir uh Ted ENT 
15 North Sunset Gulf Breeze um so on the the   agenda item that we're discussing currently the 
study that was provided to me says that this for   this project to be successful there should be 
stakeholder support I want to quote from the   study that was provided to me by the consultant 
from the stakeholder political support section   destinations that are successful have political 
support from a variety of public and private   stakeholders that prioritize Sports tourism as an 
economic generator these include local and state   governments local leagues Collegiate athletic 
departments dmos Economic Development agencies   hospitality industry professionals facility 
management and event organizers I want to go on   the record by saying most of these stakeholders 
were not consulted before this study came out   two days prior to the last TDC meeting in fact to 
my knowledge no current hotel years or our local   DMO or anyone else who generates TDC money was 
consulted in any way about the proposal of the   current location after the study was completed 
you guys were told that hoteliers supported an   indoor sports center and that is true without a 
doubt however the hoteliers that I've spoken to   including myself who represents in free hotels 
does not does not support the current location   um the study indicates that we are going to spend 
$4 million in tax money every year to service the   bond to generate just $1.1 million in additional 
local tax revenue Vue in after the year that we've   we have uh stabilized the project to me that 
is just not a good investment and that's just   a guesstimate because to dat we haven't done 
any official business plan to support locating   an indoor sports facility at the Ashton Brenham 
Center in fact there was a previous study that   was done where the locations were identified 
and the first location was approximate to down   downtown and the second location I believe was 
W Street the old soccer fields so one of the   things I would ask you and I know several people 
on this board are business people for those kind   of returns would you invest your own money in a 
project like this because I can tell you I for one wouldn't this project and its magnitude needs to 
serve multi-purposes an investment like this in   a community our size putting a bond restriction 
on that much tdt money is a generational thing   for us this is going to happen one time for 
the next 30 Years once we make this decision   we don't get to come back and take another bite 
at this apple in fact most of us will long beone   before this scent ever comes back around again 
to be rebonded we have always believed that a   multipurpose Center that could do indoor sports as 
well as meeting and conventions and also Leverage   The existing value of the base Center which we 
all agree is an amazing structure that survived   multiple hurricanes through the test of time and 
obviously needs a significant investment to go   forward is the right path forward for us to do 
this the county has now shown us that they have   an appetite to have a real discussion about how 
we're going to invest our future tdt money and   all the stakeholders ask is they get a chance to 
currently evaluate this study as well as future   studies to make sure we make a decision so that 
we don't bond something away that we can't come   back to at a later date y'all the one thing I've 
learned about being a developer in 35 years is you   don't pick a spot just because it's the easiest 
spot to get something done you pick the spot where   you think you're going to get the highest return 
on your investment none of the documents that have   been provided publicly to me about this investment 
indicate that this is the highest and best use for   us as a community as such I respectfully request 
that the TDC vote no on the proposed project   and allow the stakeholders locally to work 
with the presenters of this development to   develop a project that best serves the 
entire Community thank you thank you Ted uh next speaker is Sharon goar gobert I 
apologize if I butchered that got correct thank   you thank you please introduce yourself Sharon 
Gober I'm a District 5 representative um former   lium Elementary School parent and a taxpayer 
and may I interrupt real quick I forgot to say   earlier please limit your comments to to three 
minutes gotcha I need to set a timer um here is   a 12E skate parent in Greater pensaco Figure 
Skating club board member I represent almost   300 figure skaters of all abilities ages two and 
a half to adult in spite of our sporadic seasonal   ice access Pensacola has a very successful and 
vibrant Sports Ice Sports Community consisting of   well over 500 figure skating youth hockey and 
Adult Hockey participants combined the amateur   ice sports program occupies the base Center Ice 
weekdays from 3:00 in the afternoon until almost   midnight plus some weekends except when there's 
an event or conversion we rent 99% of the ice   time that is offered to us generating in excess of 
an estimated $150,000 in Revenue to the Bas Center   each season this figure does not include revenues 
generated by public holiday and after game   skates which are frequently sold out in advance 
our programs have no room to grow our weight our   figure skating program has weight list for all of 
our beginner classes and our newest programs for   adaptive and special Olympic skating at capacity 
The Adult Hockey closed out their registration   within 15 minutes last season and had a wait list 
of almost 100 which never clears in the past our   youth hockey has had one to twoe wait lists for 
a place on a team we also have an organization   that wishes to start an ice Warriors hockey team 
for disabled veterans currently those interested   players are traveling to Dallas as there's no 
ice available for them our Ice Sports families   frequently allow uh travel to allow our kids to 
have ice access pelum Jacksonville Florida and   Columbus Georgia are the r rinks we most often 
frequent youth hockey uses these places as their   home rink for training hosting tournaments and 
friendlies which should be hosted here but our   have um and we generate significant dollars 
for those communities because we have no way   to host those events here we are the only part of 
Florida that doesn't have year round ice access   and I have a map I would love to share with 
you along with the base Center renovations to   the ice plant please reconsider funding a base 
Center practice ranker the inclusion of an ice   sheet if a sports facility is to be built give 
us a chance to talk we were another stakeholder   that wasn't invited to the table for the second 
time take time to assess any potential economic   impact that rink might yield there is no 
competition for Ice Sports for Miles why   duplicate and compete for hard court Sports 
when there's an opportunity to be unique and   enjoy the built-in book of business that already 
exists are we just waiting for another Community   to attract the tourist as well as our local 
programs away and I'm probably out of time   20 seconds 20 seconds okay just a side note 
we just received our fall ice availability   for our programs and if your child skates on 
a Wednesday or a Thursday night between the   month of October and December 31st your child's 
going to have two lessons thank you thank you chair all right our next speaker is 
Greg is that say banford yes sir yes sir please introduce yourself and limit your 
comments to three minutes please thank you okay my   name is Greg Bamford um 20 26 will Mark the 30th 
year since I was uh here in Pensacola uh I've been   uh back and forth several times I'm the father of 
a junior ice flyer that uh plays hockey here he's   been traveling and playing hockey for 7even years 
I'm not speaking statistics I'm not speaking data   what I'm speaking about is an opportunity to be 
creative in an environment that has ever growing   it's amazing to see the growth of Pensacola in the 
30 years since I've been gone and have come back   it takes imagination to grow a community and 
the council needs to be imaginative and how   it uses its available space to not think about 
the advantages that including ice hockey figure   skating the opportunity for classes lessons summer 
activities will grow your tourism is shortsighted   I've heard or read comments where people will not 
invest money in the community if they don't think   that it's going to be profitable and 5 years and 
I think that's shortsighted I don't think I've   ever heard of a product or a business that is 
started and is profitable in their first two to   three years you have an opportunity to increase 
the activity of your youth your community your   adults in a period of time when your beaches are 
full your hot your hotels are full and on a hot   summer day some of the best places you can be is 
an ice rink I also think that it's shortsighted   to say that using the bed tax and not using it for 
advertisement for the hotels and for other tourism   related things in the beach is also short-sided in 
those off Seasons hockey and figure skating will   bring tournaments in you can bring in almost 20 
to $30,000 per tournament in your off season we   may not fill your hotels in the summer but these 
activities have an opportunity to bring business   in your offseason Pensacola needs to continue to 
have the imagination and the willingness to take   risk that has changed the downtown to an amazing 
place to spend your free time and I think that   an unwillingness to talk to the stakeholders 
that have something other to offer than what is   standard here in the community is the wrong answer 
thank you thank you [Applause] next speaker Jen Burkhart uh I'm Jen Burkhart and I am the 
secretary for the Northwest Florida hockey   league um the Pensacola Junior ice flyers I 
am also the manager for the 12 and the 14U   tournament teams um and I'm a parent of a little 
hockey player um I would like you to consider Ice   Sports for the new facility I know it seems um 
I know it seems like we have other sports that   maybe are more common or more important but I just 
want to remind you that the last of the last four   years the Stanley Cup has come home to Florida 
we are growing um all the time we're the tenth   in the nation for producing hockey players um here 
um I have almost 30 hockey players on my teams and   currently we are spending $250 an hour in Columbus 
to skate those kids um in addition to that money   that's just the ice time we also are paying 
for hotels about $500 a family a weekend um   that's money that could be in our here that we 
could have people coming to our community paying   that $500 to us in addition to that we go to four 
to six tournaments a year usually over the winter   those tournaments are stay to play we have to 
stay all 30 of us have to stay to play there   and we have to pay to do that full price sometimes 
extra um we have over 10 teams that skate with us   here and we're begging for ice time for single 
hours of ice time for our kids um our travel   teams paid $7,000 to Birmingham and Columbus for 
um supplemental ice and host weekends those host   weekends should be held here that $177,000 should 
be coming here but instead we're walking it to   Birmingham um our learn to playay program closed 
last season with 139 on the wait list that's just   the ones waiting um right now we have over a 
hundred kids registered and our season hasn't   started yet we have um 21 practices between now 
and the end of um December for all of those kids   um the southern Youth Travel hockey league is 
who our travel teams play with they posted over   $700,000 profit that one Le and tournament Revenue 
um none of that Revenue came here none of that   went to our hotels none of that went to our res 
to our restaurants none of that our kids had to   pay to go do that so I would just like to ask 
you to please consider giving our hundreds of   little people a place to skate year around or 
at least more than we get now thank you thank you our next speaker is Frank Lloyd hi I'm Frank Lloyd um I got like a zillion 
things in my brain right now but I I'll just tell   you where I'm at I come from Massachusetts I grew 
up I was 3 years old when I started skating played   multiple Sports as a kid but I was I gravitated 
to hockey when I grew up played hockey to out   for 26 years coached the peeee hockey team to 
a championship because I taught him how to how   to play the game retired got into figure skating 
became usfsa got bronze level uh freestyle skater   and where I skated up in Massachusetts there 
were eight she sheet of ice we're only asking   for one but that that rank generated in the in 
the busy season $80,000 a weekend $50,000 on   a on the on the off season it's very productive 
the owner of the rink wanted to generate hotels   to so that people he would F make all the money 
the profit that he could get so it's a good deal   if you guys could would consider that but but um 
so that's kind of where I'm at with I'm a I'm I'm   retired I I skated 5 years ago that was my last 
competition um I'm injured but I'm working my way   back to because skating is better than pounding 
okay so that's where I'm at so I'm I'm going to   be so unfortunately Pensacola Sports commissioned 
two two feasible studies assesses needs in this   community despite having having legal and binding 
contracts with SMG and the county we've not been   included at the table we've not been able to 
tell uh the Consultants uh what what our what   our needs are if they are being met how many 
residents and visitors participate how many   dollars are generated the tourism the military 
inquiries re received the dollars of was we as an   organization and participants spend elsewhere uh 
that that our current market extends from Panama   City to Gulf uh beloy how many how many other 
sports were were not invited to the table for   this feasible study are the results truly in 
accurate a representation of this community's   uh needs so just consider that thank you thank 
you [Applause] you uh next speaker is uh Darren schaer good afternoon Darren Schaefer with 
visit Pensacola um I just wanted to come out   today this afternoon uh and share how visit 
Pensacola shares the use of the Fist scent   to do destination development and use that 
money to either create new facilities or   renovate existing facilities that have the 
potential to generate significant visitor   impact for Escambia County uh I'm a big fan of 
sports in my previous life I did something very   similar ran a Sports Authority like my friend 
Ray Palmer uh I understand the value what they   can bring to the county at visit Pensacola and 
our strategic plan we've identified however that   one of our immediate needs and opportunities 
is to provide conference space of of size of   125,000 ft minimum to address the Wy Wy 
inadequate availability of space in our   Market that's currently preventing existing 
events to grow but are really our inability   to attract major meetings and conferences 
to our area and we've ongoingly developed   a list of all the meetings of conference and The 
Meeting Planners that we've talked to that can't   come here would love to come here but can't cuz 
we don't have the space i' be happy to share that   I think I've been vocal with the both the board of 
County Commissioners and the TDC in the past about   that priority and the reason why I'm here now is 
that when I look at the proposal that came out   after the last TDC meeting and looking at uh how 
that's to be funded it is going to effectively um   use up the fifth Cent as far as being bondable 
and neither of the two facilities proposed uh   are going to be able to provide you know that 
meeting and Conference space needs there'll be   some open space could be do some exhibit space but 
won't really meet the needs of a meeting planner   won't be competitive that we can actually go out 
and pitch and bring those kind of events to uh   scambia County um and with the fact that that'll 
be bonded for the next 30 Years it means that   uh unfortunately we won't have the ability to 
to use tdt funds to help create that facility   potentially for the next 30 years and that would 
be detrimental to the county thank you thank you Darren all right uh that is our last 
speaker that signed up is there anyone   else here who wish to speak to this 
item that did not fill out paperwork if not uh I will call uh Ray Palmer and uh 
Michael caps and Michael rhods please come on up and friends thank you um obviously we've 
already made our presentation so um I guess   today was really for us to try and clarify any 
questions other than we need a bigger we need   a bigger pot of money you know because we can't 
make everybody happy um and we feel very strongly   that of the facilities and the properties that 
we found that this one checks more boxes than any   of the others is it perfect we know it's not um 
and so we're here to try and answer any specific   questions you may have and then um we'll see what 
y'all decide to do Michael yes thank you and thank   thank you Ray and thank you board for having us 
back today um as Ry said uh we realized maybe this   property might not check every box there is but 
we feel that it checks a whole lot of boxes and   we've been on neutral for this type facility for 
10 to 15 years I've been in in 18 years and it's   been discussed for I believe Ray can correct me on 
this for 10 or 15 years and it's been on neutral   and uh this is a county-owned facility as I said 
last time that does check a whole lot of the boxes   uh drafting your few notes Here is we were asked 
to perform a feasibility study to see if an indoor   venue would fit on this particular site uh and 
determine if there was a demand for the indoor   space for sports or special events uh the study 
yielded yes there is a need for indoor space be   it for sports or for Expos or special events the 
study deemed that there is a need for these type   of uh of this type of space and it also deemed 
we were tasked for determining if this site could   accommodate this type of a facility in which the 
study yielded a yes that it could accommodate this   type is it the perfect site I'm not saying that 
I'm saying it checks a whole lot of boxes for this   and it's also a proven site um evident by four to 
five major soccer tournaments already at the site   uh having over a 100 teams for those uh events so 
it is a proven site again not maybe the perfect   site I'm not saying that but it checks a whole 
lot of boxes that folks will come to Brenham Park   it's not too far out uh home of the SEC soccer 
tournament probably the most elite high-profile   College uh conference in the country um so again 
we filled it checks a whole lot of boxes certainly   we know it has some challenges like traffic and 
so forth which uh again the study was very clear   that it does present some challenges with traffic 
and we feel that we have a way to accommodate that   Frank just with smart scheduling the volume of 
traffic is very high during the school hours it's   not that high during non-school hours in which we 
would not have events during school hours that's   just not the case but again I realize this is a 
challenge um this is a tough decision and again   I think Ray said it best this is a county-owned 
facility that we fill checks a whole lot of the   boxes in a situation where there hasn't been a 
whole lot of options come before you in my opinion   so I thank you for your time thank thank you 
very much thank you Mr Rees um let me ask you a question Michael Michael yes sir um have 
you I mean all we can do is recommend have   you discussed this particular Proposal with 
all the County Commissioners this the County   Commissioners were vetted on I say vetted were 
given this proposal in advance the feasibility   study yes sir I can't speak for them how the 
support is but they were they were given the   information prior to this presentation prior to 
coming to the so you spoke with all the county   that is correct sir along with the school board um 
so because this is a bond issue um from experience   I know that it's going to take longer than most so 
have you spoken to any of the parti the incoming   County Commissioners uh no sir I I have not 
Mr strob Berger Mr stroberg obviously was a   a an aid to one of the Commissioners I I know Mr 
sturer I've never met Miss Ashley hoffberger okay   I I if that was the question I apologize the 
question was have you spoken to the incoming   ones because it's going to go over I I have spoken 
to Mr stroberg not about this particular subject   like I said I've never met Miss Ashley hoffberger 
okay thank you Charle one on the right there we   go thanks um I have a question I know that both 
of you uh Ray and Michael um I know that y'all   have spent a tremendous amount of time looking 
at other sites and so forth and I know that this   is the best site that you find that will accom to 
accommodate the things you have plus check all the   boxes can you share with us some any other sites 
that were possibly considered and why they were   not acceptable uh well we didn't we this when we 
approved or this board approved the contract for   this one it was specific to this site previous L 
we have looked at uh the old ECUA property which   ultimately was then sold to Mr stter and then he 
opted out for a different use um we looked at a   facility on the port uh we looked at a facility 
on the at the end of Main Street across from the   yacht club and then the Sanders Beach area but the 
extension of um the EPA of the uh remediation of   that was such a long period of time there was no 
support for that one the amount of um property   uh remediation at the Port which was a waste site 
same thing just didn't make sense um and the other   one was um up at the W Street area and I don't 
remember now of course FPL had it and bought it   and we tried to trade to get the county to Trade 
property they were going to trade property because   FPL had that and they wanted to build a uh some 
some kind of energy farm but they didn't have the   right kind of property and the quantities that 
they needed that would make the trade so that   killed that one as a trade and they were they 
were not interested in or not willing FPL was   not willing to sell us off a portion of it there 
was an All or Nothing deal which was 20 s Acres   or what it was way way way at a budget again it 
goes back to we basically have been told you have   one source of funds no Triumph money no tourist um 
Improvement districts have been pursued so we've   not pursued and the TDC has not pursued and the 
county has not pursued or lost we were told you   have one pocket of money and it ain't honestly 
very big when you div if I mean I gota be honest   we if you really think we want to kill all our 
tourism dollars on one project that has a lot   of community components to it hell no we don't 
that's not our mission but that's our directive   from the people that we respond to so that's 
what the guidelines that we're working under   so if those are this a Brent was also looked at I 
don't know I wasn't part of the the organization   that looked at Brent and why that doesn't fit 
I can tell you pretty quickly it doesn't have   Hotel structure it doesn't have the restaurants 
that these types of of clientele are looking   for and it surely doesn't meet the downtown need 
that of the conference center the convention type business and the Baye Center was also included 
in that study okay he left that one out but the   base Center was number one location you're right 
in the original in the original uh look was the   base Center but not as a it was just what is 
the base Center what are the purposes of the   base Center because the original study I don't 
know which study you're looking at 2000 the one   that was done seven years ago that showed an 
adjacent building next to the Bas Center the   it was a popular study the one we got on Friday 
okay it was like a copy of it but it was a new   one that was sent Friday I don't know where that 
came from that's that's a different different   study than with the one I've never been a part of 
that study okay before we lose councilwoman Bron   would you you have some comments I just wanted to 
say I have to go oh okay but also speaking on the   microphone please but also um it seems like there 
are many community members here who wen't weren't   invited it seems they're saying they weren't 
invited to a conversation or that they're parts   of the conversation that they weren't privy 
to so I want to make sure that they are and   honestly when I first heard this plan I was all 
excited because I thought it was a perfect plan   but I eventually started hearing from people who 
had input that just weren't invited to the table   and um even the fact that it's two members on city 
council and I'm guessing councilman Jones is at   city council at our meeting right now which is 
where I'm supposed to be so um I would like this   conversation to be more open for everyone who's 
at the table and even though I understand what   happened last time we ran over and today we're 
having this other conversation on a council day   where we're the only ones who are representative 
of the city up here so um I I hear you all and I   hope that we can have an at least an opportunity 
to have more of a conversation with the cities at   the table that's all I want to say thank you 
and now I got to go all right be careful uh   Ronnie were you gonna yeah just uh real quick I 
did have an opportunity I was the one that kind   of asked for the study and I did I did read the 
study I've actually read it three or four times   um and oddly enough I wrote out there right 
that's kind of what you should do is right   out there and take a look around um I do have 
some concerns about the study uh the study is   pretty clear that uh the engineering plan has not 
been done for wastewater treatment out there or   for water treatment out there rather um could 
somebody talk to me a little bit about that I   mean it says that this approach is conceptual 
in nature has not been engineered to details   could somebody just talk to me a little bit about 
that and tell me you know that's kind of how the   conversation started with me to begin with was 
the infrastructure is the infrastructure there   and will it hold this the study kind of claims 
that it you know storm water management is just   a strategy it's not a plan currently so a little 
bit about yeah again this being Fe feasibility   study it was just the initial review of storm 
water and Engineering per se and I have asked   uh David grasel with um convergence design he 
should be on the call Via Zoom right now um I   the CMR Department had him on and I would defer 
to him to this if possible uh Mr grazel are you available I'll let CMR before the meeting they 
were patching him and to make sure right give a second I'm here can anyone hear me yep uh if you 
would speak up just a little bit it's hard to hear   sure um so yeah I mean basically what you both 
said is correct uh we we did a conceptual storm   water management plan but not a detailed storm 
water management plan because we don't have a   building design yet um it would make sense to 
do a detailed storm water management plan once   the building has been designed but uh it it 
doesn't make sense to do all the engineering   at this point when uh there's you know not yet 
a building design uh having said that I I feel   very confident that uh with the various storm 
water management measures that are proposed in   the feasibility study that were worked out with 
our civil engineering consultant ow uh that we can   very readily develop a storm water manag plan for 
this site that that meets all the county and uh   State criteria for treating storm water on site 
I don't think that's going to be the thing that   derails this project okay thank you for your time 
thank you thank you David and standby I'm here I   got a question um for either one of you guys so 
I know Ray you mentioned to me that there's like   a committee that was put together and just now 
you said that this location was the only location   that was sort there was no really site survey to 
say hey which which locations are ranked 1 2 3 4   5 this can who decided on this location and who 
made that call that Hey listen only study this   location and not look at the other ones that were 
on the list before cuz if I I read the one seven   years ago and this wasn't even on the list at the 
time and somehow it surpassed all the rest of them   well that's cuz it was n on the list 5 years ago 
and I don't I'm quite frankly I don't know why we   missed it 5 years ago but probably a year or so 
ago we were all stand out there and we were like   look at this huge big old flat piece of land 
we've got and we just foot added the extension   to the soccer um I mean the um the soccer complex 
we just added a multi-purpose building and it was   like made sense and so y'all approved this site 
only when we when you approved this study to be   the engineering and feasibility of putting this 
building on this site we did we did as a group   this is what we brought to y'all and with the 
proposal with the budget or the bids and said   here are our bids for doing this so we did this 
as a group as this was the site that we said this   is the site we're going to go look and see if it 
works so why wasn't the tourist industry included   in this particular involvement and the other 
stakeholders that feel like they've been taken by surprise I I we've reported at visit Pensacola we've reported 
here in the TDC meetings updates Michael well did   talked about this along the way um I I I don't 
know have a good answer nobody was being nothing   was being hidden from anybody Jim why they weren't 
I think that the county said we're going to put a   committee together felt like we'd been going 
through this for 15 years and four different   studies and we had narrowed it down and you know 
when you get to a certain point you feel like   you're there and we felt like we were there again 
this was one checked the boxes we thought better   than anybody and we still think it checks more 
boxes and anything that we are aware of that's   affordable that the county already owns and still 
feel that way and so the county put together a   committee of mostly County employees and myself 
to push this next venue study and it seemed to   be the right thing going I mean there there have 
been reports at Rotary meetings we've told the   story and nobody said oh we're not you know we're 
this what we're going to do we know we supposed   to build an indoor venue because that's what the 
community has said we need I know they want ice I   know the pool people want um want a swimming pool 
I know I know BMX people that want a BMX track I   mean we have a lot of requests and a lot of needs 
but we don't have a lot of money so this is where   we ended up today that's God's honest truth and 
I don't think anybody was intended to be left out   and I think information was out there um 
again Michael caps made a presentation a   month ago for 60 70 80 million dollar and Jim 
you questioned him why aren't you asking for it   all today and he said well I was told not to so 
we're following the directives of our leadership   because we answer to you guys so how did you 
decide to put the two Bond issues together we   we have talked a number of times seven yeah 
yeah I was going to just say I didn't I was   trying to push them together because I 
didn't want one to cannibalize the other   because I thought that both projects were very 
important and that it'd be important that the TD