##VIDEO ID:FiRV4Qba1Hg## call City counc meeting ther flag United States of America indivisible andice M cler have Ro please Mayor John coer here vice mayor Linda Rodriguez here councilman David Mueller here councilman Robert hubard here councilwoman Lisa Burke here City attorney Nancy Meyer here city manager Matthew copper here thank you actually there's no roll call on here but uh I guess we needed to do it anyway so um next up is from a general public uh there's nobody in in the general public so I'm going to bring it back for CRI city mananger thank you um I I guess I just wanted to maybe provide a little bit of overview of what we've been through over the last week plus um or less than a week now I guess uh say that it was a uh terrible few days last week uh into this week is is an understatement but you know I guess I've been been through a number of disasters in my career and the thing that always strikes me is the good side of what happens when bad things happen and you know from the city's perspective uh you know the terrible loss that that our residents have have suffered is is just again I it's unfathomable what what happened to a lot of our residents but watching uh you know the men and women that represent the city going out and doing their jobs U during the height of storm and in the aftermath of the storm and uh up to this day still going out and doing things that that make me proud to be the city manager of this community um and I want to give them an opportunity just you know briefly kind of give you an overview what they've been through um the last several days so you can understand what the city is facing uh from their perspective but again you know seeing the teamwork that's out there um you know the night that it was all happening uh I had the ability to watch the police department the fire department working water uh rescues and putting out fires um in conditions that again you know they they really don't train for and don't think about but had to act and they worked as a team and that's just an incredible thing to see um and and again the stories of of what the utility Department's doing keeping the the lift stations you know from flooding out the street and backing up into people's homes um you know when the water plant went down and everything they they did to make sure that the the safety and the and and and the quality of the water stayed where it was to what building Department's going through right now and damage assessment and starting to work with residents to get their lives back in in order to you know what finance department is going to be doing and Pam what she's going to be doing working with FEMA to help make sure that we get the reimbursements um and and of course s and Ashley I mean there there are so many great things that our people are doing on a daily basis um that people probably don't see um there's things that that are seen but there's a lot of work going on that again I think we should all be proud of the men and women that that you know represent the city so I want to say that um so I I'll kind of turn it over to uh in in kind of the order I just talked about maybe um of what happened and and start with the fire chief if we could um again just provide kind of an oversight of of what you've been doing what what you're going through and and you know we don't take too long doing this but I think it's important that you here as well as residents have an opportunity to hear what's what's been going on so you know prorm we did a full recall of all units manned everything that we could um we completed ground level video of the residents and then Drone footage of the residents all pre- storm um and during the storm we uh again we had two engines uh our all of our boats three the 4x4 staff uh high order vehicles and three staff Vehicles we did over 100 plus missions that we can even count uh every call that came in was probably three to five associated with it so we go on one call and wind up with three to four or five missions before we ever got back um we had five five fires in the city two of them we could not get to for quite some time they were delayed our responses to it because of the depth of the water um the other three were able to get to rather rapidly and extinguish um we helped the City of Newport Richie with five missions and three of those were fires we helped Pasco with three missions post storm um the day after the storm we repeated those videos the ground level and drone level videos and then we did that same thing I think it was two days after after all the garbage started to be brought out of the house and those efforts were to assist the building department and her never ending T from here on out to do what you needed to do there and to help the residents to document that they have those damages um so we did that um I'm maintaining a higher level of Staffing because since the storm we've had a excessive amount of not just calls but high priority calls smoking houses electrical shorts gasoline leaks propane leaks so all these high priority dangerous calls so I'm maintaining a higher level of Staffing for that and I've also assigned uh one person to uh on overtime on every day's off on over over time to just help get through the hurricane stuff like every vehicle we have is submerged in saltwater and we need to get them all serviced and maintenance and the starting with the fire trucks and all all that stuff you know all of our gear has to be decontaminated washed so we have one person assigned to take care of all that and until it's done and then my goal is to keep that higher level of Staffing until we know that almost all the power is turned back on in the city and maybe a day plus just to make sure there's been a rash of house house fires throughout the county because of the power being turned on as far as what we've done for the community After the Storm um we assisted with setting up that pod which is a term for point of distribution at Waterfront Park um and I I had called for two laundry stations of shower station the generators to support them um and then uh these guys have been taking that over from there and you know trying to keep that going um I got we had five pallets of water five pallets of cleanup kits um three more pallets of drinking water 2,000 MREs um we order some digital signs that building and and and uh Daryl's been working on so we can alert the public with what's going on um we had all that ordered that these guys were taking over from there and then uh they delivered hundreds of meals they're still delivering meals I think right now actually so they're continuing with that process so I didn't want hot meals to leave the P you know the Pod and be left over when there's some people that don't even have cars to get around so we've tried to identify those people and our units have been just taking food to their houses and dropping it off for them every day um we're going to continue to do that and in the middle of all this Pasco fire rescue had lost one of their fire stations so we're housing um one of their ambulances at our station so Newport took in one of their engines and we took in the rescue that's why you'll see our spare fire truck out here um and again our goal is to keep up this Staffing until two days past the power being turned on everywhere and or all of our is cleaned and caught up from the [Music] storm Chief yes our list isn't as extensive as as the fire department but first I want to say that um as you know fire departments and police departments always go at one another but in in instances like this none of that matters um we worked missions together um I think we did 6 rescues that night between 9 and 4:00 and once the the water got to the point where it was coming over the hood of the Hummers um it was time to get the boats in so they had their boat out word our boat out I think you have both boats out at that point and working missions on the South Side as well as in the the bay drives area um when you have to drive one preserver um to make sure that you you're safe enough to help individuals um it can be a little haing but that's what we get paid for and I think was I think Quinn said there was like 40 people who resed during that that time frame and then we had Vehicles since they we couldn't put our regular Vehicles into um any more of the salt water I use them to transport uh because there was any transport available um transport to either a residence up in Hudson to the Pano Center or to five high school whatever so it was almost like a we bring them out and then try to find out where we can put them and we had our guys uh take the patrol cars and truck and and transport them we had one lady that needed to um had a medical issue and so it was a little bit of time before the fire uh service could get their ambulance there so we were actually going to transport her because we didn't want her how you know the state to wait any longer but just as we were leaving then they showed up so we we transferred her over but um as far as followup we're still continuing to go through the neighborhoods and trying to discern looters scavengers versus reputable uh you know people coming in this actually trying to help we put something on Facebook for the resid if they can get it and I I know because a lot of people don't have power and anything like that but we just wanted to make sure the ones that do maybe can pass it on to their neighbors about the scammers and how to make sure and they're going to hire somebody that they're hiring somebody legitimate so it provided um steps and and processes to make sure person that you person to person do work for you a legitimate their licenses and their insurance and and things of that nature because you know in this this type of environments you're going to have people that want to take advantage of people when they're at their lowest which I think is Despicable but we'll continue to patrol the areas like our citizens and they respond to their needs and and their properties and things of that nature so that's what we we continue to do thank you thank you darl so pre storm um we just went around make sure the parks were good and got the sand the sand bags um that's all we can really do pre-storm um for our lift stations we lost 17 of them all from water intrusion to control panels fried every single one of them uh meter cans were caught on fire blown out they're all black um so on Friday we had five pump trucks and our VOR out plus the assistance with Pasco County um pumping out the lift stations so when all these stations were down everybody still had water so they're still able to flush their toilet still do they want and that's just once the stations fill up then the lot then the system starts filling up and that's when you start getting backups inside the house so um we did our best to prevent that we've had known no known uh SE spillage at all through this whole thing even with the flood um right now we have all them running to where we're able to at least turn them on hand besides three of them so I have the guys going every morning when they come in they go around to the 17 Station or 15 14 stations turn them on hand suck them down to the floor I get about 12 hours give or take because I use our system as a holding tank until it gets ready to search charge then we go pump it all down because otherwise it's having these trucks in they're $250 an hour for eight n hours a day we had them in for a little bit until Saturday and Sunday we've weaned them off because we've been working on them getting them started um the electricians are now installing disconnects so um because we lost two legs on the disconnects they fried up we can't you got to pull the meter can to be able to even work on them so the disconnects are installed that's when we're able to assess the panels to at least get one pump working to where we can at least go turn it on we can't leave them on because we're not on floats on time through skate or anything like that so we're able to just turn them on on hand for the day and then they got to come back later day pump them all back down and we're able to get through the night and we got to come do it all over again it's G to take about probably another three weeks before everything's set and done and the electricians are in the panels are in um and then I had to have sker come back in so we're able to monitor it on the computers so that's the lift station aspect of it in in Cliff note version um I want to thank chief for uh Chief Gary for the helping with the water plant issue so on Friday uh or Thursday we lost they lost power on bandora at our wellfield um we don't have generators there so we can which is on our CIP list this year to get generators put there for this for this problem so that went down um we were able to get our tank we able to suffice through the night once all the water got used we had to our three pumps at this at the at the well or at the water plant our ran on generator but they not able to City Hydro Clowes or anything like that for fires so we had to buy we had turn the vals on to get Newport Richie water so if you guys saw it a difference in change in water from Friday to Sunday that's because we were getting Newport Richie water and was just stirring everything up from everything having to be shut down um Sunday about 1:00 Duke restored the power um after a little pressure um and uh we were able to get the water plant back up and running we didn't lose anything with the plant water nothing we lost nothing with that electrical wise that needs to be repaired now everything's back to normal operation with the water plant um we on Monday I have a crane coming for Nicks Park to get at 8 o'clock in the morning they're supposed to be here to get that dock reset and then after that's reset we're going to schedule for the pier to be done with another crane I gotta have Duke come disconnect the guide wires so we're able to lift that and with the assistance of Chief on the boat we're going to have to go cut the dock up in pieces lift it out uh the restaurant Whiskey Joe's I'm hoping they're going to let us use that empty lot to risky River uh to use that empty lot to store that Pier to we can figure out something to do with it it's just going to be up in pieces for now and then waterfront pier or the the kayak launch at Waterfront we were going to assess it today well as we were waiting um for fire to get there with the assistant of the boat again today can't thank them enough for for the boat um it was floating down the channel and we saw it floating down by Hooters so now it's tied off at the mar we were able to tie it off on the pylons at the marina so I got to get with Sito or um somebody maybe we can tow it in you guys are going to come look at it tomorrow I think Tom said um to see if maybe we can use ours to pull at least that dock Park and tie it up there so we have it at least there so it's not floating away um but we're chugging along guys are working uh a lot of overtime long days some of them are over about 15 hours a day some of them are uh at the beginning um these guys have done public work shows they've done but been outstanding to this whole thing so ho is off to the guys that's doing all the the boots on the ground in the field so ver just keep it to five minutes please we've been working nonstop since last Friday it's been around we've been doing door to-door assessments doing damage assessments taking pictures of every single this afternoon at 11:34 exactly we completed the whole west side of the city every single home has been pictured if we can see a high tide Mark um we um with the help of math we hired a team to come in and help because I could not do it by myself my team also helped me our code enforcement officer and Suzanne helped me out there and we were out there all day from Friday Saturday and then came back Monday to do it all over again we took a break on Sunday um but on Monday I had uh on Tu T Thursday Tuesday Tuesday our team came in I had five gentlemen from safe go come in who helped me uh we had ordered some iPads we had them uh it had them ready to go we uploaded our new program Forerunner and we uh initiated that team out there and they finished we amongst all of us we finished it today um so the whole west side has been into Forerunner it will be made public for everyone just bear with us a lot of things we couldn't get uploaded we had a little technical difficulties at first with it but they there you will be able to see them up on PO Runner um we've been uh hand inand working together closely with EOC at Pasco County for informational needs and different things we we ordered the wash stations as Chief says I want to thank every single person in this room because we've all worked together as a team for hours and hours able to uh get the contacts that we needed to get the wash stations the laundry stations the reader boards and get all of that uh permits we're we're talking to Residents and we're still out there passing Flyers out and talking to Residents and trying to get them on the right track for what they're doing um uh I've been in touch with a couple of building officials we have a building official I believe Who's online if anyone has questions for him but we are moving forward with those processes as well we're trying to get as much information Sal's been doing a great job getting stuff up on the website as quickly as we can um we're now formatting uh some building information and some other needs out there that is good for the public to know um but we are in these phones have been nonstop since last Friday uh city manager also assisted me on Saturday and we walked he walked with me hand in hand and we spoke to a lot of the not hand in hand I'm sorry I'm in side by side side by side I'm in side by side my wife's not hand skipping yeah side by side so he was with us and he helped us so big thank you to him as well and uh we we did we we a lot of sad a lot of sadness out there but we're we're moving forward and uh we'll Rebuilder so we're moving along um also I you know I kind of skipped over Sal's uh besides doing a thousand different things he's also uh been responsible for keeping the website and the alerts going which again I think you know during emergencies this this seems very jointed and chaotic um we're actually working to kind of synthesize all this more into one or two pages um so we can get up on the website and get it out so people can see you know what resources are out there and there's a lot of resources being brought to bear by the county the state and hopefully the federal government has up but but you know I think it's been a very good job of getting that information out as soon as we get it he gets it up and and uh kind of puts everything else aside to do that and definitely appreciate that work that he's doing to keep our residents up to date um and again that that's kind of the the lay of what happened um you know early on and and one of the things actually the mayor had talked to me about early in in my tenure here um based upon what he was hearing from idalion and and such that that you know we need to do a really good job of getting information to the county so they can sell the story to uh the Federal federal government to get um you know FEMA to get get those declarations that we need and and again working with the county uh it's it's been a team as well with our our brothers and sisters of the county um want to give a shout out if I don't mention Laura will coxon's name she has been a godsend to the city um where early on you know everything was kind of slow in the process when when she became involved everything just started to happen and and anything that it seemed like anything that we requested we got um and she just it's going out of her way to help us and still doing that today um and also Tim Trester who helped get us in a position to start talking about one of the items later on on the agenda um you know his his help and and work to get the the debris piece taken care of and started has been to us and also want to point out and thank commissioner jger who on Sunday heard that we needed meals um was doing some event down I think in Golf Harbor said called me and said we'll be there in a couple hours we'll have food and ended up by I think somewhere around 70 to 100 people that we were able to get with very little very little um communication with people I I think one point I was going through the neighborhoods as well stopping people and telling them that there was food to get them there um and and Salvation Army came in on Monday Tuesday Wednesday to do feeding at the um Water Front Park uh we have now World Central Kitchen who is providing food there it's uh right now at least the next couple days it's a food truck um they've committed to be in the city as long as we need them to be in the city um and actually talking to them earlier they're going to be bringing in more water and fruit to go along with the food uh Red Cross is going to be there on Saturday to give out more cleaning uh kits buckets um so there there's a lot of things going on there's a lot of coordination that we're doing to try to get the resources to the residents um one of the reasons why we don't have a lot of chairs here we're exploring uh putting up little stations here so people can come in that maybe don't have the the ability to apply FEMA um providing computers stations for them to come in and do that and we'll be working to try to get uh resources to come in here as well to communicate and talk to the residents and the businesses about what what uh is available to them it's just unfortunately there's a process you have to go through to do all these things um and it doesn't happen as quickly as what we like but it does happen so that's our story um I know if you have any questions for any of the department directors please ask if not we're done okay thanks Matt um so we can go around the uh the comments mayor city council start with uh Council Mueller lovely um I want to thank all you guys for the hard work that's been put in I know this has been devastating to our community uh at last I heard was 1100 homes were were hit is that correct mat that's what we were estimating that's that's probably unfortunately be a good estimate and you know just my street devastated you know there's still houses on the ground I had four feet of water in the garage um and it's like a washing machine washing your uh your clothes but sowing them all over the garage uh had refrigerators floating um it's a mess you know I had a insurance guy out today and they want me to inventory everything out of inventory you know something you've collected for you know 40 Years of things you know but at the end of the day you probably don't need those things and that's what I'm deciding whether I need them or not um anyway long story short um I've been taking the messages from um C plus and forwarding to my neighbors I've had two neighbors total wiped out three NE all those guys wiped out on the bottom uh they're pulling drywall out today trying to get these homes dried uh one guy had a boat float down the canal across old post up Quist on the other side um it's it's just been a real mess it's doc you know raised up but anyway um enough of that we'll get through this um I'm totally exhausted at the end of every day I get up at 6 and work on it till I can't work anymore and then back down but uh I I know there's a lot of work people are trying to get after it I know uh is anybody seeing FEMA in the area at all so my understanding from a couple of the residents I talked to thank you some of the residents that I spoke to yesterday did receive uh a visit from FEMA yesterday so they are on the ground um I know uh when we were out on Saturday they had uh search and rescue FEMA teams out and they were knocking door too and uh but FEMA doing uh assistance they already I believe had already arrived from what we were told and from what the residents said they she had an appointment at a specific time so they're going to the houses right I uh I sat on a bridge call with Gus baca's office today anybody else on that um they had theme on there about individual assistance programs that that people that are underinsured can go and apply for uh that number in his office is 727 325 9263 and 727 325 926 three and uh they have SBA Loans that can be used for businesses and homes up to half a million on the home and businesses up to two million um low interest loans to help them get on track uh back on track get your business back on track so these are all good things going on uh uh there was a question and answer session at the end uh a lot of the questions came from uh Hudson area where they've got these mobile homes that are close to the water or on the water um totally up to the ceiling on these things um and there was there was some confusion whether FEMA can condemn or what the what the person indicated was is they can indicate that it's totally destroyed and they don't want people trying to repair it if it's going to be totally destroyed because then you're going to be out money so there's there's a lot of nuances with this the first time I've gone through it and I know that a lot of our residents are trying to clear their clear their wet drywall get it out to the street um I I recall in the past I think that requires a permit to do that uh to pull it out or put it in I I don't know but we need to kind of work with our residents on on how that process works so it's not encumbered by paper you know red tape and things because these people are trying to you know Salvage what they have and they're that W's in so well we do have a building official on call he couldn't be here um so if you have specific questions that you have relating to that he is available and you can't ask well my recommendation would be is let's put something out on our website or even some of these um alerts that point people to a place they can get information uh because people are trying to dry out their homes um how do you go about doing that if there's an issue with a permits how do you get you know get things rolling and then you come in after the fact um It's a situation where everybody's doing whatever they can and you know I'm not advocating not doing a permit I'm advocating say hey we need to have some way to work through the process so that people know or are aware so if we can put something out there that hey they should be aware you know pull your drywall out if you need to get a permit go ahead and do it after the fact kind of thing and not worry about you know getting assessed a triple fee or something or from from the standpoint of just pulling out the drywall there isn't a bit required for that it's it's putting it back in it's the next yeah the next step after that okay is where the permit is actually going to be yeah we said that when we were out and about we encouraged them to take the drywall out you know to dry up and start drying the electrical and all of that right we also asked that they hire an electrician to make sure that they have a clearance to make sure that that we just wanted an affidavit letting us know that they're okay we didn't want we had residents that put power back on and everything started to smoke so they C it back down right so but yeah to take the drywall out a permit is not required it is required to go back in what if you don't go back with drywall that's an inspector question I'll leave that to H or to build I'll let them answer that because there's other products that I've seen and I think Linda you put something out there that's a great idea I just don't know what the scenario but trying to give people some ideas here get through the process so as long as we're helping people do that uh if you can get something on the website uh potentially I believe I believe verica your department is actually working on getting that type of frequently asked questions or something along those lines yeah good um saying maybe I don't know to answer you Phil you hear us yes I can hear you can you hear me oh I did not hear the question though unfortunately the question is we understand that in order to put drywall back a permit's required but what if you're going back with something other than drywall like a PVC board or a dur rock or uh some product that's not going to be made out of gypson if if you're going to enclose the wall we would uh we would really want to to see uh what you're planning on doing it with you know a PVC board there's Flames spread and smoke developed issues with that uh we want people you know let let me drop back a moment you know my my intent and my hope is that we get everybody back as close to normal as quickly as possible with as little fuss as possible keeping them safe in the long run that's the so you know it's it's a delicate balance you know get them in quickly but make sure that they're doing what is going to make sure that they stay safe uh you know the electrical apparatus has uh been exposed to saltwater uh that's brass you it's a copper alloy uh saltwater is going to make it corrode that's going to heat up and start fires so we want to be careful about that on your on the wiring and stuff uh the wall covering Mater or the wall assembly material drywall PVC things like that uh insulation uh we we really are going to need to see what it is before it goes back it's not going to be a laborous or an arduous process but we want to be able just to make sure that somebody isn't ending up in worse condition than before just because they wanted to do quickly or because they had some bright ideas right so so the answer then bill is that that regardless of what that material is they're still going to need a permit to put they reinstall it and quite frankly if somebody wants to come back with with Duro or Dent Shield or some other form of impervious uh wall material um I I've been chasing disaster since 1996 that was the first I was deployed with FEMA uh and uh you know if you can do the lower portion of the wall in something that's not going to mold uh that's that's great please allow me to encourage your residents that wet drywall out of there before their homes turn toxic with mold I personally have been in rooms in homes where every surface is jet black they need to get them dried out so no permit is required to remove that and you know remove drywall remove insulation get it dried out please encourage residents to do it as quickly as possible uh great great uh information and and uh so what your recommendation is if if a receptacle was submerged that needs to be replaced if drywall was submerged that needs to be replaced along with vensil and and that baseboards all that needs to be replaced yes okay thank you and uh sometimes the wiring conductors a lot of these homes are wired in uh type NM which is called RX uh the cables uh those cables are not listed for wet use sometimes there will be deterioration on the wiring also if it's been underwater but absolutely I I Rec recommend replacement of any device any receptacle Outlet any plug anything like that that's been underwater it's going to corrode the corrosion will cause Heating and that will cause fires of and you know I I I'd like to see your residents kept safe perfect thank thank you that good good information may I add one more thing Paul feather is also on this call Paul is the area manager for our our company um I'm um area manager for East Florida uh Paul is the gentleman that you'll be dealing with most of the time I'll be available to you uh but Paul should be uh a primary contact UM the building official will be working for him Paul's also a building official so we're uh we'll we're going to make sure that we give you guys good service Paul do you have anything you'd like to say good evening everybody uh I just want to just reiterate what Bill stated um once the drywall comes off and if there was any water in any of the outlets or made it up that high the best thing to do is to get a licensed electrical contractor over to take a look and certify that system that it's either fine to recharge or that it needs to be stayed shut off and uh be replaced uh electricity is the biggest thing right now plus like Bill said get the drywall out of there uh it's as it's extremely hot and humid right now and the mold's going to grow fast so the best thing to do is it just pull it right now we're not just said we're not worried about permits we just if you pull it out one day you can't put something back the next day it's going to take a little while to dry this these these houses out so they it's going to take a long time but they have to be very patient and I know it's hard to be because everybody's lives are turn upside down but we really need to be patient on this and take our time thank you thank you okay pass over to council Burke I have a question about unoccupied properties so when you're doing your safety check when you were doing your checks to find out for damage or if FEMA's G around if that's something that we've ever had or could have some some kind of unoccupied list maybe um snowbirds that are going up north and they you have a list that there's nobody at that home and a contact number so we currently have that in place already it's called the abandoned property list um and generally what happens is the uh Property Maintenance email us and let us know there's a fee $125 fee that they pay and they go into a list and then we have a spreadsheet now we try to keep up with that door too we see that nobody's been living there um and we try to contact them for slum light issues for rodent issues different things that may occur so we try to keep that up to date and we try to keep that moving that is is that that's really an abandoned property not someone that's just going up nor like someone that's not here because we don't want our firefighters and our police you know going to when they could go to the next where there are people yeah it's just a for me it's a safety thing for both the citizens and our place in fire well if there uh well I mean there's a couple ways well through through the utility services just gonna say that through the utilities if they put their water on seasonal yeah then then that's the list yeah yeah okay I just I just we can definitely get that list if needed yeah something would be good so it would it would save time and it would maybe save people who knows in an emergency oh yes simple briefly as a gentleman out their rookies licensed electrician if anybody needs licens electrician to help him with that he's he's a super guy and he's real reasonable he's here to help out I got his number andbody wants it um he's my Motors on my LT burned out they're $500 Motors both of them he's put a in for 1,00 bucks and he's going to help me with some of my receptacles and and help me get that straightened out too but he's real reasonable um and we should have a personal pile of garbage in front of her house contest I probably would win that we had that so maybe we can do that anyway thanks guys you guys were out there Thursday and Friday I was out there with you guys trying to get to my house and trying to get my cat out of my house we left our cat in the house she's fine though but uh it was you guys were bus everywhere and that's much appreciated that's it nice May rodrig um you guys all of you worked tirelessly and above Bo and we also have to remember not only did people up here lose part of their homes a lot of our employees also lost their homes and then they forego that and came to the city and helped us too so um every last employee from utilities fire police and I think you said something what do you two said something about you know fire and police are always like this I was here um delivering stuff on Friday afternoon and one of the police officers was I was talking to them and they were like singing the Praises of FD those guys have been working through the night they've been running call after call I mean just praising the heck out of out of fire so um you guys really did work together I called Veronica last evening for for resident's question and she answered the phone after hours not no problem at all darl's guys I'm D well Daryl's guys I was driving around and and they had the V trucks going to every lift station and stuff I mean and and I know I'm pointing out you guys as the heads but it's everybody underneath you that has been absolutely phenomenal um this is obviously where up and down the coast as we all know and I I've got friends at work that were swimming out of houses that live outside of Port Richie and and it's just devastating all over so it's a terrible time I'm so sorry um and anything I I think the city has responded with the with the washer and and the shower stations at Waterfront Park and all the food giving out I mean I'm telling even people from Gulf Harbors that have nothing I mean it's there for us to share I think so um everything you guys have all done every last one of you I appreciate appreciate it and thank you very much for all your hard work thanks um and you know when when when you go last a lot of stuff that uh gets brought up so I'm just going to reiterate this obviously kudos to the staff this this event was this this is the magnitude is is staggering right the amount of damage um you want me to talk about as they rate things for the 100-year flood this this was our 100-year flood um and so and you know not unique to us obviously up and down the coast like like l mention just the amount of loss that the that the public has has endured is is staggering and and my my heartfelt apologies go out and sympathies to to those I mean we all were affected form um even if we weren't flooded um I was flooded not near the magnitude that some of the city were and it's just we we're talking before the meeting it's you almost feel bad that you you didn't endure the same loss that other people did um it's just really it's it's really sad for a community it's just that amount of the loss was was was tremendous and so our hearts go out to to those folks that are are going through that and and just I want to reiterate that we're here for you um we're doing everything we can I mean I've seen the difference between the last event last year with the Dal and just on the communication side any am of resources it's just been it's been phenomenal and we'll keep we'll keep doing that uh going forward to make sure that uh we do rebuild stronger um but uh and then you know to to go back to the staff you got just just the amount of time and effort you've got has put into this for the residents you know your families suffer because of that um can't thank you guys enough this fantastic group of of folks that servicing City so um you know Kudos of you guys really appreciate you and again we're also here for you guys as well um I hope that when all this kind of winds down that uh there could be whe it be comp time or something that some kind of um you know to to address what you guys have went through because you guys you been on the ball and really have uh suffered yourselves in order to service the public and I can't thank you all enough for that so hopefully we'll going forward we'll make sure that uh you know you you be compensated at least in time for that I would hope um so again thanks to you guys great job um keep up the great work and anything you guys need make sure you bring it to us uh so we can address that so that's all I have um moving on to uh Council business we'll start with item number one approval of the use of Pasco County for did you anything you want to say oh sure be remiss if I didn't give a special thanks to Mr Juan BGE um he is a he has volunteered his services to the p and and ther city um for high water vehicles and uh his his company he came out um and once the order got to the point where he couldn't utilize the vehicle at he had brought he rode to me for seven hours in the in the Hummer so he was my co-pilot for that amount of time and so uh yeah I just wanted to make sure that citizens knew and I wanted to thank him publicly for what he does and he's worked on Al Homer since then he serviced him he replaced one of the doors and and he's just a great guy he's a asset to the city thank you did you want say I was just trying to get your attention for did you want to say thank you else I also want to thank uh Danny fields and Pastor Lord for opening up the church uh they're housing 10 individuals right now that are volunteering their time uh to to take the mck and gut and debris and and all of that stuff so uh we were able they were able to assist us with um conjointly with Pasco to open their Church up to to give them a place to put their heads at at night so I wanted to thank him as well yeah also you mentioned about the the food stuff that representative joerger his wife commissioner joerger as well was involved in that too want thank her by name um there's obviously there's probably people that haven't been mentioned by name so please you know if we if we if we miss you um nothing has gone unnoticed I assure you and so we appreciate everybody's help in this this is a this is quite a tragedy and and everybody's really kind of coming together and stepping up and we you know even if we didn't mention you by name I you want thank you you know all of us up here appreciate that uh you're helping out and and helping the city so El any comments before we move on to council bills okay close it item number one approval of the use of Pasco County Emergency debris collection contract for curbside debris collection from Hurricane Helen I'll pass it Mr ca for introduction thank you so um one of the the steps on the road to recovery one of the many step on the road of recovery is getting rid of all the the debris that is being placed at curbside um Let me let me start out by saying that uh we just found out earlier today that FEMA is going to be reimbursing categor a which is the the debris uh removal at 100% um when they got it approved originally was 75% like I said today we just received notice it's 100% unfortunately it's 100% for 90 days and so we need to act uh quickly to to get this taken care of um we've been working with uh Pasco County uh they they have a contract for a degree removal actually have two companies now that they have approved on that list one is Philip and Norton I think is what it's called and the other is DRC Emergency Services um based upon on pricing based upon the location of their uh debris management site which is going to be in Hudson so it's right a road from us we felt that going and utilizing the County's contract for debris removal with DRC is the best um option for the city so let me let me and I've been numbers keep getting updated on an hourly basis it seems like I know I provided you kind of uh in the the letter A number that we're looking at this this particular service running anywhere from 215,000 up to 380 um based upon all the numbers I have now that three number uh is running somewhere between 250,000 to say $450,000 and that's again an estimate on a high low high uh number of cubic yards anywhere from 18,000 700 up to 33,000 I I think 33,000 is is a high number at least I'm hoping that's a high number um so that's uh you know again the best guest I know that they are mobilizing right now at their management site bringing in equipment they are prepared to move in uh once we get authorization to uh enter into the agreement which actually was just I got just was it B 15 minutes before this meeting 20 minutes before this meeting put it at your desk I know the City attorney has been reading it hopefully everything's good um we can get them on site and start putting together the operational plan uh I want to say that that this is not you know this part is going to be the most frustrating part for residents because it's going you know week's going to seem like a month and the 90 days that we're going to have to remove this is going to seem like a year um but you know we're going to try to put together a plan that will get get this stuff off the curbs as quickly as possible but the reality is there's there's never enough resources even with a company that has a lot of resources to get this moved as quickly as what we want it to be and definitely not within the cost we'd like it to be because the other piece that I didn't say that's not part of this discussion yet is the actual disposal and um in in talking with the county early on it seemed as if this debris was going to be going to their landfill which they we fees for um it it bugged me for some reason and I called again today just to verify where the final resting place is and unfortunately that's not where they're going to go uh they believe that if all this debris was going to the landfill it would uh eat up all their capacity that they have uh for the next seven years and so they're going to be moving it uh to another landfill still I believe in the county out towards date City unfortunately there's tipping fee associated with that and they didn't have what that number is when they talked to me late today um we know it's somewhere between 30 to $40 so I kind of calculated it based upon the $40 and again a high number in terms of the tonnage of that 33 um th000 cubic yards is about 24,750 uh tons that we'd be sending there so just roughly it's a little less than a million dollars to dispose of that so we're looking at a total cost of potentially up up to $1.5 million just uh to get it from the curb side and get it to the dump um so I just want you to be aware of disposal cost as well that'll be coming to you in another another meeting as soon as I get that part squared away um but right now the first step is getting the uh the debris collection and transportation taken care of which is the cooperate agreement with DRC okay open up motion or discussion move to approve the agreement for DRC emergency service utilizing Pesco County contract for emergency Dee collection and Disposal can I but quick make the motion to give Matt the ability to negotiate and then finalize the contract because there's a couple things I think we still need to talk about there's no time limit in their agreement I don't know that you want to commit to a okay three-year contract at this point so it may be a motion to okay motion to give Mr Poler the authority to review the finalize the finalize the contract Rie and and for DRC Emergency Services thank you second have motion second for discussion yes um when we get through this the question that keeps coming back to me from my neighborhood is once you get through this when is it going to start and let's get that information in the hands of the people because that's the most concerning thing yeah um and I'm assuming you guys are on board on on that but somehow we need to make that people aware of that yeah it's it's um one one helpful thing is getting the variable message boards is going to be an excellent way to communicate what's going on obviously we'll we'll keep pushing information out through uh you know our website the social media and the alerts um one of the things with the next item we're going to be talking about um they're actually going to be providing enough information where we'll be able to you know understand exactly where we are in the process at all times so we can you know get people aware that they're going to be coming into their neighborhoods on a given day um I I want to say that you know one of one of the struggles in in getting this going is the collection companies really don't want to go in this early right because they know that there's going to be more and they don't like to redo their work um it's cost to them but it's also going to be cost to us as well potentially for that but um they know that from the county perspective from the city perspective we want this done as quickly as possible um and we're going to push to get them going as quickly as possible and you know obviously we'll start you know once once we can have that meeting to lay out what our priorities are in terms of where they're going to start um after probably two days of collection we're going to have a really good idea of how quickly they're going progress through the city and be able to provide that to the res what's the uh I I know there was a lot of information sent out after the fact about being able to separate yeah um and I know that everybody just piled didn't separate and then it's too late now the cats or the horse is out of the barn um and then I had a conversation with you saying well they're going to collect anyway then they're going to Resort it right that I I if again that was based upon the understanding it was going to be going to the county landfill I don't know now if that's necessarily what's going to happen and so until I get that meeting set up with them to understand all the the details of that because in the meantime things are piling up um in whatever kind of pile or order that people have is there going to be one pass made through they're going to continue to make passes until it's gone yep that's what the plan will be is well I I think there's there's going to be a point where it may be more cost effective for us to get involved with it so direct effort yeah okay so I think the the idea as we sit here today as you know say best laid plans um is that they'll be here until it's done um but I think once we get through the first pass depending upon how that that looks and what the city looks like after um that first pass we're going to reassess it and see what what the best approach will be going for a second and potentially a third pass and when does the 90 days start I believe it's already started it's started from the Declaration day okay so but Christmas is coming so yeah let you know in talking with um the companies that I've talked with they they believe based upon the size and and the amounts that that you know we will be done well before the 90 days good anything else pass a public comment there's nobody here just make note of that bring it back for a vote all in favor signify by saying I I Clos motion carries next up to item number two approval of the use of Pasco County Emergency debris monitoring oversight and Recovery contract for curbside debris collection from Hurricane Helen I pass Mr cop introduction thank you so uh as part of our attempts to get this 100% now uh reimbursed uh FEMA does require that uh debris management and oversight be done by a third party um the county has a contract with tetr tech Inc to provide those uh disposal monitary oversight and Recovery uh Services um actually uh had the representative from tetk in my office today and helped kind of start putting into gear the things I need to be thinking about before we get moving on besides getting a contract signed with them um again I uh estimated at that point in time somewhere between 90 to $150,000 uh what their cost would be uh again we still don't have any good numbers yet and it won't we won't have those until we get DRC in here and we get an understanding of what their numbers are going to be um but generally they say that their costs have been running uh somewhere between 20 25% of what the total cost is for the debris collection um cost so I I think the number I gave you between 90 and 150 maybe it's a little bit high that number uh probably that range should be somewhere between 49,000 or 50,000 rounded up to $119,000 so a little bit better but again 100% reimbursable by uh FEMA we get it done within that 90 days okay and that's that's 100% correct so I need a motion to approve the agreement with tetch Inc utiliz the Pasco County contract for disaster related debris collection and Disposal monting oversight and recovery and authorized City man to execute the agreement motion second sure all right have motion second further discussion I'll pass the public comment there's no one here so I bring it back all in favor by saying I I I oppose motion carries and last up is item number three emergency action for city sewer infrastructure hurricane Helen pass it Mr C for introduction so as uh was talked about a little bit earlier um by Mr Rose uh we've been working on assessing the uh lift stations due to the uh flooding uh we've had 17 lift stations affected and we are starting the uh recovery and getting them back into operation and one of the things we need to do is replace the panels electrical panels um to get them on their own again I don't know bar if you like to add anything to that so this is just for the panels and the electrical work to be done to these panels um it doesn't include pumps or the skate system yet I don't have anything with that yet until we get these loow stations up and running then I can assess the pumps and the ska system um which Frank from Ellis automative which runs our skater system is out doing that now with the skater boxes um but that's just strictly to get the station back up and to get us on floats and not be able to monitor it so until Frank get hooked up you're if the high alarm goes on you're just going to get the alarm it's going to be that loud alarm for now until we get it all hooked back up so this is just for the panels and the electrical work to get done in Translation there's still more cost to go with this as well before we get 100% um let you know prior to uh the storm hitting uh our finance director uh put in two purchase orders kind of blanket purchase orders for cost um one of them was in the utilities for $100,000 um so the money that we're spending now in the new fiscal year is actually money we're carrying over from the previous previous fiscal year so up to that $200,000 Mark we're not really impacting the current budget um so again this this is going to eat a good chunk of that utility purchase order um just getting this up and running so we will be uh cutting into this year's budget and we anticipate this be covered under insurance so depending um whether it's going to be insurance or if it's going to be FEMA we'll we'll see how you know which which is the best way for the city cover cost yeah at at some level we believe this will be covered yes do we know how high the water Rose there and that's what destroyed these circuits right or these Breakers so I I think did you include the pictures I saw the I saw the pictures but I didn't see a watermark height and were we looking at elevating these to a higher level I mean that's what we ask our residents to do when they get destroyed they ask them to move their house up are we moving our house up so so in order to do that it's going to cost a lot more than more money yeah so you gotta build the stairs you got to build the platform just to be able to get to to the panel all right um Let me let me let me answer the question yes that that we have to do that mean this this Harden the way the way this is now we can't um you know this Ro right this this is a costly thing and again as part of our adaption uh plan for vulnerability assessment that identified these issues and and on the positive side the the State of Florida is putting money out there to do those type of things um we had to get through the adaption plan and the vulnerability assessment piece first before we could start applying for those dollars um we're almost done I think to be able to start doing that and we'll start putting in um you know the grants for the grants to start elevating days but you know it's it's not how many Li stations we have 1 17 right now we had we had a little over 20 that were down to begin with but we were able to save of how many total stations do we have 405 44 but um somewhere on the so the the list stations got affected were the ones on the all of them on the South Side all of them on the West Side besides B Boulevard and the Walmart list station cuz water came all the way up to I heard that fire had to put their boat in at Dunkin' Donuts so um all those panels were submerged in water they got water lines on them and then we lost two of them on the east side uh by the bridge which is Weber and James Clark so you know I think you know we as as part of our Capital plan we have to start doing these things I mean I don't think we can afford to do 17 at the same time but you know we'll start addressing them and then you know work as much as we can get money from the state and federal government to start addressing these maybe wholes scale but but you really don't have much choice because this is critical infrastructure that that you know you have to harden so we we don't face this because again you know we're we're staring at 100,000 here plus and and you know if if these storms are becoming more um you know more coming down the road you know we don't want to have to be spending 100,000 definitely you know our insurance rates would go through the roof um and F at some point is going to say you are you kidding me should blurt by now um so we're gonna have to do it we have to do it for healthwise Health purposes um I I I had what I didn't say before is I had a physician friend of mine um contact me about there is uh sorry uh Florida health.gov about a vibo vibrio vibo bacteria that's found in the waters it's not spread person to person and it can be very deadly and so um we have to be very careful with our residents with open cuts and stuff but if our lift stations aren't working obviously we have an additional health problem with with that and so making our water our lift waterproof um by lifting them is is essential to to the health and safety of our residents and everybody not just residents but everybody who's here so that needs to be that needs to be done for sure I would uh so with the lift station uh I would probably ask that we do a different $100,000 PO for that because the purpose of the 2pos was just to put all those finances in there you know all purchases so we can keep track of so with this though it's going to be $100,000 off the rip and then I can go while I'm finalizing last year I can go ahead and put that in from last year's um money and that way it doesn't affect anything here so we could have $200,000 out of utility and that'll really that'll give them a little cushion just in case with this purchase and we're not eating into what we have right now in this new budget so um I would suggest we do that and that way he still has $100,000 to for whatever uh things he needs to do and it's Pro it's probably going to be close to that just to replace the pumps as well so um because we lost a lot of single phase and three-phase stations um so just a lot of the disconnects just blew out of the panel so and just shorten a lot of the pumps out do we know how high the water came up I mean uh panel get submerged so I talked to uh one two residents on Davis and two of them sit six feet above the road and they had 5 feet in their house that again Davis some of their houses sit six feet above the road and they had 5 feet in their house so 11t of water some spots some some spots from what I hear were were higher so what I was told um and chief can correct me if I'm wrong on this where you guys see the um water line at on the houses add 20% to that that's how high it actually got because that's where that water sits for a period for an hour 30 minutes for a period of time that's how you get that line around the house of waterline but if you add 20% to that that's exactly the math the calculation I guess of actually how high it really got but do you know how high the meters or or your panels they were submerged I'm assuming that right yeah so was totally over the pels for example uh I have a picture of it for our B's lift station it's right there at on pier as soon as you turn off um that panel sits a couple the list station sits a couple feet off higher than the road like maybe two feet but the panel alone sits about five and that was submer so it got that high all the way up they're just there's no stve in it no matter you know from a mitigation thing that do they um you have to just raise it to some arbitrary height that you want to there's some standard details around um that I already have that they have like waterproof enclosure type things yeah they have waterproof and closures but close to the salt water if you don't have stainless steel panels or anything like that it kind of just eats it away um just with the Salt Air and then just it just corrodes everything the panels get corroded it's just and same with the gases in the station if they're unsealed right those gases that that that sulfur and comes through the pipe and it just corrodes everything in the panels as well so it's just there's a bunch of stuff to fight against if it's not properly sealed right because as you see this this particular storm you you just don't know how high it's going to get really yeah did the last did Adelia uh flood the panels I don't I wasn't here for Adalia so I don't think Adelia got this High not even remotely close I don't think we lost any stations for that essentially this was a 100e storm yeah we took to hit I think in D there was some folks that said really low head maybe three foot was remember or overflowed that's you know but not the panels it didn't get nowhere near the panels themselves just just so with that with when the surge comes in we also have to fight the flood on top of um Everybody uh flushing and doing what they need to do um if we know something this is just me speaking out loud if something was to I know not might be the favorable thing but if we know something's especially on the south side and closer to the water on the west side if we know something's going to get this High we should just kill the power to that side so we don't lose half the stuff and po possibly also the water until at least the storm passes through a suggestion [Music] a motion to approve the emergency person of the list station panel boxes and labor install them motion to approve the emergency purchase of station to Second motion second any further discussion passing public for comment there's no one here pass back a vote all in favor Cy by saying I I I opposed motion carries that's all Council business we have is there any old business any want to bring up um two things I I'll bring up not really about old business but just kind of sum it up um I want to add to the the sewer you mentioned that um we didn't have a spillage or whatever um but I I did notice when at the peak that there was a point where um my bathtub did fill up with some sewer and as well as the shower um not very tall but it did back up into the homes I'm not sure if anybody else experienced that it was flooding but um we get to my SE all over my house once you get to four or five foot it's it's in your back so that's you can do about it that's where it's going to back up first because that's the lowest point in everybody's house it's going to back up in the shower first before it backs up yeah I never escaped those things in my place but it did rise and it was just just a brief moment it kind of came up and then went back down relatively quickly so yeah because what it does is it everybody flushes it all goes to the lift station well once that lift station reaches above the inverts to the road level then it starts filling the pipes up and then that's how it starts backing up into the houses well once as these LIF stations were flooded I'm assuming they stop functioning right so they yeah they just they just stop especially when the power goes out there's nothing pupping it so that's why uh once the storm pass we deployed uh suck trucks so we can alleviate a lot because that's the last thing people want and their houses as they're trying to clean up it's backing up in their house so um that's what we focused on uh Friday Saturday and Sunday yeah you guys must did really good job of that like I said yeah that to be contained is besides that I mean I'm sure it happened everywhere people were backing up because I mean you have water in your house you ain't you're not going to really know but um once it subsided then just now one one point you guys were ordering or looking at buying generators for all of these as a backup plan where they uh they're not on site at that time you bring them in after the fact right so we have two uh pull behind generators and a trash pump generator that we've been taking around so once so it's out of station once we get that station repaired we'll move it to another station and once that station we'll move we'll keep at our major stations but our bigger stations we have a bypass pump on olmer I don't know if y'all have done it's the big green thing sitting there the reason that's there is we got to wait on Duke because of Transformer blue which cut ground which um charged the whole ground around and the guys couldn't even work in it because they were getting yeah so we couldn't even so once we had to wait on Duke to come kill the power on the rest of the pole and then we had to put the bypass pump there but all those stations on the south side which is DJ Chasco eptide uh Pier they all pump to olner and then olner pumps out to Newport Richie well these stations now that we got up running now they're able to pump to olner and with that bypass it's stucking out of the station and dump right into the Force main so we've had that for [Music] since and that's like I think it was like $3,100 for the week so just set why and then the last thing I just want to bring up obviously is U uh just a personal thank you from all those I think speak to all of us here all staff residents uh special thanks to you Matt for being to helm and and your leadership obviously you've came in you've had to deal with a lot and now this magnitude of an event so I just really appreciate you being here and and leading the city through this it's you did phenomenal job and again great staff but great leadership as well so make sure we we point that out so anything else if not look for a motion motion toj motion second on fav