##VIDEO ID:8JTNZgD17fs## to order the meeting of the community redevelopment [Music] agency the chief of police is blabbing okay I'm always a little cold could you take a seat please we're a little late getting this started sorry sorry sorry Mary Madam clerk will you take the role please I sure will be happy to Vice chair Rich here board member clerk here board member Collins here board member goobi here board member Reed here board member ceny here board member Breville here please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands na God indivisible withy and justice for all I have a motion for the approval of the agenda second motion by commissioner Collins second by commissioner Clark all in favor I a motion for approval of the minutes please approval of the minutes second it's just the opposite Madam clerk motion by commissioner Clark I think you should put your hearing it's I'm just keep moving all in favor any comments from the public on non-agenda items do you have any do we have any green cards Madam clerk oh here we go agenda remember this is non non-agenda items okay wow Deborah harsh please come to the microphone for REM minut thank you m har good afternoon M you speak theic afternoon mayor cityil myow thank you for OPP to I am I'm always all hopefully all work that was done to the church can be rectified and oh there you go thank you and the original bones of the church will be reconstructed and moved back to its historic State thank you for your time and consideration into saving the 1895 church and making it a landmark that generations to come will know and appreciate the history of potam thank you thank you Mrs har Hamilton welcome Mrs Hamilton Miss Hamilton thank you very much for giving me this opportunity and I hope my accent or uh accidents I speak with accidents it will I'm very nervous so my name is Olga Hamilton and I'm resident here and my husband and I we are are the owners of the First Community Church built in steart in 1895 it's still here it's the center of the first St Mary's Church when it was and since we bought the building my husband and I we were working on Restorations we had guests coming and while we were working we had guests coming not only from our area but also from the area of all over the United States we had guests coming specifically to visit us from Germany because it was Germans who built the steward I mean the first settlers here who put that Parts down our church was built before Steward became steart and that's why this is history of this building the first newspaper the 189 uh the first newspaper the steart times was established found it in our building and it was Will Stevens founder of the Stuart newspaper who first shout out through his newspaper that steart had to be incorporated as a town of Palm Beach until 1914 it was a little village it was Community it was like whatever it was that time and finally it happened and that's a very important history for our community that we try to preserve the books the records and everything given us to S by sand we made a promise to Alice lard when we bought the decided to buy the building we contacted Alice lockart and asked her Alice tell us more about that building she sent us article we got on the phone call your first question was what are you going to do with that and they feel pretty your Fe we will open to the public as it was in N uh since 1996 we were with the heritage steart heritage we were on the tours it's all in newspapers we have been cooperating with the steart Heritage Museum since we opened the building people would come to us I would send send them to the steuart Heritage Museum they would go to the steuart Heritage Museum steart heritage Museum sent to us now what we have now this is this is done by theat respon grou this is the everything I just reported to the building department if real when they the on and now we are our roof SE over 12 over 70° humidity goes down on us okay thank you Miss Hamilton doesn't work that way it doesn't work that way okay and Miss Hamilton you have every opportunity to speak to the Commissioners individually regarding this matter thank you your book is here miss Hamilton your uh Robert Hamilton he was given his time damage severe that was done to the destruct of the church we have written everybody in the city including the city manager and everybody it's in detail what was done is tremendous damage to our personal property that we've been restoring for four and a half years I've attempted to sit down with everybody and nobody wants to deal with the elephant in the room I'm faced with a difficult situation I've had several meetings with Brian Mass's office and there is another one coming up what was done here our community needs to have the teeth to deal with this our city manager in my opinion needs to deal with this I sent him documentation nobody ever responds so we come here my wife upset brought in tears by these people over here that man says I'm going to fix it but you're not going to like it it's not about me liking it they took the frames out there's water leaking in it's Butchery really take the time to look at what we've sent you people you know we just voted new Commissioners in here and we will come back here every every time and keep voting new people in until our community is fixed and with all due respect I'm sorry you had a responsibility sir to take care of us the city manager should have contacted us and said I want to sit down with you we know we can't sit with the whole board we know the Sunshine Law what was done here is terrible we are removing those windows we are not paying for those windows we will not sign the documentation on those windows they destroyed our personal property and I apologize for getting upset four and a half years I've been over there like a like a little church mouse I met with David Das originally Alice luckart Chuck giri whoever was in the city planning we had a plan from years ago this just didn't pop up overnight and The Butchers come to town and destroy our building I want it fixed they've been terminated by the guardian group and that's fine panal has been working with me but we are not paying for those windows and that installation they severely damage the property and I apologize for getting upset thank you for your time thank you Mr Hamilton Lori GS could you good afternoon thank St your name and and your address when you begin please my name is uh Lori gos my address is 1182 Southeast Mendoza Fort St Lucy Florida um I just wanted to comment about the fact that I'm an artist um Olga too is an artist and um what's been nice about the church is that we've been able to create pieces people come in and you know some people will purchase items as well but the problem has been is that uh a good portion of what we create goes back into the Reconstruction of the church uh our goal ultimately was wouldn't it be nice to be able to replace the staple and put that back up uh unfortunately I'm not sure when that might happen but uh Olga too runs the church out of of the inside of the building and that's her Revenue um I'm at a standstill right now because I don't have any opportunity to sell anything at all either so um it's hurt us financially as well with with the lack of proper construction of the building which probably should have been done within three four months and it just drags on and on so that was about all I wanted to say so thank you so much thank you Miss g m Mr chair yes before you go on if if we have an agenda item for this if they're speaking now they won't be able to speak cor during the agenda item so they should know that in case they want to wait for the agend Mr city manager are they in fact speaking on cdbg so they just may want to wait to no I would well we only have one more speaker Mr Forester are you speaking regarding this issue in fact are you I can only okay well then we will then we will hold off and wait for the it to pop up on the agenda um comments by board members Mr Reed commissioner Reed I have no comments commissioner goob um I have some questions I don't know that they could be answered today I guess this job would certainly have had building department individuals permit department individuals visiting upon theob comments oh General comments sorry commission board member Burk Bill yes I I just wanted to I know it's probably been done but to congratulate the two new Commissioners U Sean and Laura and uh also recognize the Commissioners that dropped off and for their service for the years that they were involved that's all thank you Mark thanks Mark board member Camp Penny uh none at this time except to say we're all board members up here okay Mr chair I'm congratulations it's and it's nice to see Sean without his friend the computer in front of him so yes board member colum board member Clark welcome to the new members and um thank you it's going to be interesting to just hear some of the explanations uh today so the CRA is very very important to our city and people need to learn more about the CRA the Sun the for suing funding sources for the CRA and really get involved and engage because there's money that comes in and we always need to need to find places to to spend money and to do projects and to complete projects and if there's some questions today I'm willing to listen to them I did hear the previous comments and um I did have lots of discussion with Mr Hamilton and I I'm just glad that people are engaged but we also need to be engaged very positively at the beginning and this is our time this is our budget time and um people just need to stay involved with CRA matters and not just come here when things are not good so just and I appreciate that I know that uh alga and Robert have been Mr and Mrs Hamilton have been involved with us a long time and have participated so um we want to make sure that we do well with all the programs that we have and I I want to make sure that our new members uh use today and all the other days to really get involved with um the CRA issues and and how we keep our city vibrant by being involved with the CRA um I have no comments so we'll move on to the first action item presentation of art vinyl wrapping on traffic control boxes good afternoon board members Jordan pingston C program manager for the record the traffic box art WP initiative enhances Community character and celebrates the city of Stewart's natural beauty under this program vinyl photographs are planned to be printed and installed on 13 traffic control boxes dispersed throughout the city's CRA the initiative transform sign traffic signal controller boxes from functional infrastructure into colorful and inspired works of art all revolving around the city's environment and nature the art is meant to contribute to the vitality and attractiveness of our community and enhanced neighborhood identity turning ordinary spaces into creative landmarks and promoting Community dialogue many cities and counties are brightening their communities by enhancing the dull metal plated traffic signal Bo boxes with colorful theme photographs using a vinyl wrapping method and in the past few years a similar produ project was completed in Palm City Martin County the project was initiated by county commissioner of that District the bird theme photographs were donated by the county by a local business owner in Palm City to implement the project other neighboring cities such as the city of Fort St Lucy and city of Fort Pierce have also implemented similar projects in 2020 commissioner Ula Clark requested staff undertake a research regarding the potential of using vinyl wrapping artwork to enhance traffic signal box is within the city limits the Ws did not receive support from fellow Commissioners at the time but Direction was given to keep it in a long range plan in 2023 the CRA gave staff direction to move forward with the process of Designing and wrapping the traffic utility boxes within the CRA the board encouraged staff to showcase the natural beauty of Stuart by using photographs that reflected nature and landmarks the goal is to add attractive and creative artwork along the CRA cordar and enhance the experience of residents and V visitors beautification of the traffic signal boxes is consistent with the CRA plan and within the purview of the board as part of the cra's continuous mission to Advocate and promote public art in the city of Stewart the CRA reached out to multiple local photographers sinking sample portfolio images that would best represent the vision for the boxes Steven Martine was selected to provide the final artwork and staff will be using Amper sand to fabricate and install the vinyl wraps on each box currently Martin County owns and maintains the boxes and improves the city wrapping however the maintenance agreement is being amended to reflect that it will be the city's responsibility to maintain the wraps in reasonable condition the city of Stewart has 37 traffic boxes within the city limits of the total there are 25 boxes within the community redevelopment area however Martin County staff has advised us that some of those within the CRA are warning beacons and do not have cabinets to wrap and other are being reserved for a partnership with the fdot to provide pedestrian safety messages on the cabinet wraps at Key intersections along Federal Highway the CRA will be moving forward with wrapping 13 boxes within the CRA staff strategically selected images for each of the traffic boxes based on the Box's location and Scenic backdrop alternate images may be necessary based on traffic box dimensions visibility and picture orientation and graphic quality but staff will will work with our vendor to determine which photo fits best for each location staff has selected the main image as our first choice and the smaller images as alter as alternates this traffic box is located on Northwest Green River Parkway and Dixie Highway is the gateway to Haney Creek preserve The Preserve provides this area with nature trails Lush landscape and Wildlife the BM Blue Bonnet flower photograph was actually taken at Haney Creek this box is adjacent to nautical Landscapes and marinas the new landscape was recently planted around the box which will further highlight the artwork the Red Crab brings out the red in the broads behind the box um Northwest Federal Highway and Northwest River North River Boulevard um it's located near the Roosevelt Bridge with overlooks the waterways and marinas um a great EEG is a native bird to this area and will blend in with the natural environment nor West Federal Highway and Southwest Ocean Boulevard this box abuts to the city's very own Shepherd's Park and this location has water views with boats and marine life a photo of Mangrove will reflect the nature that you can find while you're walking the boardwalk Southeast Ocean Boulevard and SouthEast Georgia Avenue this this box is the closest one to Memorial Park and Memorial Park is Rich with nature including beautiful banon trees and the banon represents grow strength and self-awareness through reflection Southeast Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard and Southeast Lake Street an entry point into the East Stewart Community baseball has played an important role in the history of East Stewart and staff thought we could showcase the importance of local sports in the sailfish ball ballpark on this specific box Southwest Federal Highway and Palm City Road uh natural flowers and Greenery will be cohesive with the surrounding backdrop Southwest Federal Highway in Johnson Avenue this one is located off the access point to the Arts and the Creek Arts and Entertainment District on Johnson Avenue has a direct view of the water tower in the distance Southwest Federal Highway and Southeast Central Parkway located outside of the Martin County School District building pink Bogen Vila brings a pop of color to the surrounding Green Landscape Southeast Dixie Highway and Southeast chrisy way a great egret is a native bird to this area will blend in with the natural environment Southeast Dixie Highway and Southeast Florida Street this box is located closest to the airport and Ibis birds in Flight simulate planes in the sky Southeast Palm Beach Road and 10th Street these flowers were photographed in the 10th Street Garden down the street on the orange flowers complement the brick on the corresponding wall and simulate growth for the nearby school students South Colorado Avenue and Southeast Federal Highway um this box is in a key location acts as a Gateway into downtown staff was able to work with the county and add this onto our list recently um the image gives you a glimpse of what you can experience in downtown Stewart the water and Greenery will blend in nicely with the surrounding landscaping and it brings out SE Coast bank's color palette Federal Highway will lead you to the Roosevelt Bridge which is also um featured in this photo um City staff is excited to implement this project as our traffic control boxes ser as an important infrastructure role in our community every day but now the boxes will also serve as a piece of art um and this concludes staff presentation thank you uh board member clerk yeah I looked at them before and then I'm looking at them again under the Martin Luther King won maybe it's just a bad picture of something at saish Park but because the mound is in the middle and it kind of takes up everything you don't really see that blue overhead and it doesn't do anything I you know we have the pond there uh with the water feature on MLK we have Point Siana trees we have um the East Stewart Community sign um there that I think that there could be something more reflective or maybe a better picture of um can you put that up please of um of um sailfish ball park or we have something on the trucks that we had an artwork um for our vehicles which has um the the baseball uh players but it's just like sure it's kind of weird it's because that blue stuff is so dark there uh it's just not vibrant enough for me so okay find something else Point Sienna tree a board member pening so we are going to spend how much per WP about 2,000 no um it's actually about the 30 sorry it's okay so the total cost we budgeted 25,000 but it actually came out to only be about 12,000 total for the photography um installation and Fabrication okay and then we have to install is that including installation everything and how long do they last um I've spoken to um the city of Fort St Lucy and city of Fort Pierce they say about 5 years um and then if we were to rewrap it would only be 500 per box yeah well they look very pretty and we have artists in the room and I have spent the fortune giving public art to the to the city yeah but I I think we could do more for our community with that money than wrap signal boxes so I never supported this and I'm still not convinced we should go forward with it remember brickville yeah I I must have missed this meeting I I I don't remember I this was probably before I was on the board but um I mean this type of thing that you're talking about you know I I think that it makes sense in an area where it's walkable and people can take a look and they can see it some of these locations are remote enough that people are going to buy them we're going to spend whether it's $500 or $122,000 we're going to spend a lot of money on stuff that I think people aren't going to really see and I think we could use that money someplace else to promote art and artists in other portions in the community the other question I have is we're taking over the maintenance on this thing from the county and so hey what's that going to cost in the long run uh B when they decide they want to fix something and we've just wrapped it a year a year or six months ago are we going to have to rewrap it are they going to be responsible for the rewrap and some of those kind of things I just see this as a whole when we start taking over some responsibility that the county had and we're going to take it over as the city that's all I'm saying Jordan would you like to respond to board member brickville sure I mean if a WRA gets damaged ultimately yes that would be the city's responsibility um you will see um coming before you would be the amendment to the maintenance agreement for the traff traffic boxes to reflect adding these wraps so yes could I ask one other question did we go out for rfps on this for both the wrap and the and the artwork itself we did not know what to expect with the quote for the actual wraps themselves for the fabrication installation so we did get the three written quotes for that and we got um we got three W written quotes from the photographers as well um but it was under 5,000 for each so an RFP wasn't needed I would just like if we're going to do something like this I would like sure to make sure that we are using local artists local businesses uh to to get it done which we are we are both are local board member Reed how many of these are we taking over from the county and the inter local agreement to uh maintain and provide continuous operation of them so we're not um we're not taking over um operation of them it would just simply be the maintenance of the WRA itself so no other amendment is being made other than if the wrap itself is damaged we are amending the agreement to maintain just the wrap but there would be 13 in the inter local agreement uh line item number four it talks about the city to cost to maintain and provide continuous operation of all traffic signals and exhibit a m um so it does talk about maintaining them yes so we're just so that agreement isn't changing we're just adding this additional language as the just as the wraps themselves we will take over that and just maintain the wraps nothing else is being changed in the agreement just an amendment so you're saying if that obligation is there it already exists yes okay board member go um it only exists in the matter of the Box itself but now we're putting artwork on that we've paid for and it's being wrapped so the thing I'm not comfortable with is that if someone if someone from the county is working on the box or in the area near the box and they damage the wrap we're responsible for it um somehow if if it can be noted on their worksheet that they damaged it then certainly they should be responsible for it not us um the other thing is that we have such talented young people and and adult artists in our community uh I've been in cities where they have utilized not on electrical boxes but in other venues within the city where they display their um Teenage high schools do uh graphics and whatnot and they've displayed their art which is really nice to incorporate what our children are doing in the education system and it's presented to the community but that's just my two cents well just to reiterate these are in fact local artists correct we used a local photographer stepen Martin for this and of course this does not preclude us from uh adopting the program that you mentioned here uh board member Collins yes I to me this is relatively nominal for the in terms of what it's going to cost at 12,000 for the visual impact I think especially the natural art has you know when you're driving by um I like everything that you guys picked here [Music] except what was it that was one I was going to sub out oh the feed store the feed store was a lower photo yeah okay so if if you don't mind um commissioner looking at the board right now so we originally chose the feed store and then it the way it was kind it kind of looked on the box doesn't work well yeah so we had them do that as a rendering I wanted a sample of Nature and a phic View and building and it just you I would hate for you not to be able to see the whole the whole building and kind of cuts it off you've sold me okay that was all okay um I agree this this is a nominal cost and what impresses me is the quality of these images now the reproduction is just so impressive um and they are in fact very durable and so I hope we can move forward with this any other comments questions if not oh I'm sorry just to say nominal cost do add up so if this is not some if if this is not something the CRA if we spent 12,000 here and 20,000 here and 30,000 there what's the what's our integration what's the payback where are we going with this and I don't I I just see you doing a lot of projects for nominal amounts and I don't see where this integrates and how we're increasing value of the CRA and it's all about taking what we have and making it more valuable so I just don't see it it's not if we were doing real public art I think we could get artists and really bring in public art wrapping boxes you know let's let's do something with public art so anyway that's my two cents you're not seeking action from us you just wanted feedback this is presentation yeah okay did I just address one back to the agreement where the county is not responsible for damaging the wp I think that somehow that should be a little tighter you know where if they do damage it they should repair it I each time we wrap it or have to rewrap it it's a cost Mr mortell do you have any response to that comment okay okay thank you right moving on to item number two present are you going to do this oh no here comes Main Street Buck program by apparently it's p no good afternoon P Gandhi director for the record um Main Street is actually launching this program um Candace is going to go through the program initiative um they are seeking CRA funds for the program and that's why it's being presented to the CRA board um so staff will be looking for direction from the board um whether to put this item in the C budget which will be presented to the board board next month so I'll have Candace present the program sorry for that delay I'm Candace Callahan I am the executive director for St Main Street just celebrating my fourth year in my role and I wanted to go ahead and take the time to congratulate and welcome our new Commissioners I look forward to working with each of you to not only maintain our strong partnership and our vibrant downtown but to help grow that in the future and uh I'm going to go ahead and dive into it unfortunately I did include some information a little bit back um of background on our organization so you kind of have a good foundation as to the presentation that we're going to um be showing you so Main Street is a 501c3 nonprofit organization we um are not a physical place as some people might think we do not have a street named after Main Street but maybe in the future we might um but it's more of a an Adaptive framework that um is used for reviol ation and transformation of our historic district it's a formula used to articulate a focused deliberate path for strengthening our um community and Commercial District a little bit of history of the Main Street organization so Main Street America was established in 1980 Under The National Trust for historic preservation Then followed that by that was our state program Florida Main Street which is founded in 1985 under our Florida Division of his historic resources and then Stewart Main Street which was adopted by the city of Stewart back in 1987 so after 7 short years of national Main Street being established Stuart Main Street was established and we did that well the city did that as a strategy to help our downtown because as the heart of the community unfortunately wasn't doing so good in the 80s for those of us who might have been there um there was a 60% vacancy rate in the downtown and that's considered an unhealthy District dist So within 5 years after adopting our program that went down to a five or a 0% um vacancy rate and we've maintained that um for the most part um for um economic development and health of the downtown we do belong being um an accredited Main Street program we do belong to a network of more than 2,000 other Main Street communities across the country so our network is wide our resources are broad um so we offer a lot of support in a a lot of um various ways which I'll be able to go into in the next few slides and for this year under new standards from Main Street America we are now nationally accredited and also State accredited so that's a little extra notch on our belt there so this is our list of objectives so we use the fourpoint mission which is through Main Street America we have to to stay accredited we are reviewed annually by our National Organization and our state organization so these are just some examples of different um programs or initiatives that we do in each pillar of our mission um and then as they work together that's what we we see a lot of our transformational strategies come through for our downtown so um you'll see promotion economic Vitality design and organization again those are our four pillars of our mission and then the various activities in each pillar um I was re once asked by a commissioner um who does it the best and that resonated with me because it's not about who does it the best all Main Street programs are in different various stages of their re revitalization efforts so it's not exactly a fair question because we're all doing really great work it's just who has stronger Partnerships and more support to make those things happen quicker thankfully our program alongside the city thanks to the city we've been able to a check a lot of those boxes very early on is which is why we're looked at as a leading organization in the country um and every Main Street program is depending on their uniqueness and their needs of their Community is really what makes their mission right so moving forward so with all of our objectives our mission is to create and promote a positive downtown experience for residents businesses and visitors through community-driven preservation based Economic Development and that's a lot right so really what does that mean so I like to always consider us as the nucleus or the liaison for the city of Stewart we help Advocate while educating the public we create and maintain a Gathering Place for shared prosperity and memories inviting and engaging Generations after us to appreciate our City's history and most recently um I came up with this so it's not just about representing and maintaining and protecting but it's also what our tagline says it's embracing the future while preserving the past so I don't know if you saw but one of our pillars does have some historic preservation on um efforts on there as well I won't Bore You by going through our impressive resume but here are some projects that we have helped the city o with over the years I'll fast forward up into well one of my favorite projects was the Colorado Avenue diet so if you remember Colorado Avenue knew way back in the day um that was kind of an elbow street that you took to get to downtown but because of the work that we helped with the um the city with on that project that you know road diet to make it drivable a little bit walkable a little bit prettier that work has helped that District Thrive and now they have their own art and Entertainment District those businesses are doing really well down there so these are the projects that we help the CRA with and um City leadership with but fast forward to present day Flagler Center I'm sure you're all aware of that wonderful space we currently operate that building and I will tell you that that has become an essential part of our fundraising strategy for our organization which again that money just goes right back into the downtown and helping um our businesses and our community enjoy their downtown and then uh we have our Market which is our Farmers Market that's held every Sunday we took that over in July of 2021 it is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my career but it's one of the most proudest things I've ever done in my career um in 2022 we helped the city um submit a grant to the state where we received as Main Street 100% of the funding to help update our historic property survey that hadn't been updated since 1991 and then the next phase of that um just um announced last month that we have received a second Grant um at the $225,000 level to help the city receive the historic designation for the downtown so again the power of Partnerships right so as a Main Street program an accredited Main Street program we're favored in a lot of these different grants that we can help the city with um different projects and then I think that brings me to our community events something that we're most known for um we have a very robust calendar of events so we have three art and craft festivals that help generate $1.3 million of economic impact for the downtown and surrounding area we have two steart strolls which are like our sipin shops and we have three sidewalk sales both of those really do help our small businesses directly our annual Earth Day cleanup we've launched that last year um I believe some Commissioners on the Das have assisted with that so thank you very much and then of course we have our H Halloween event which hob hob goblins on Maine is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year so put that on your calendar please you're all in um invited to come and then our Christmas tree lighting which is Christmas on Maine which is also celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and our year round events I've already mentioned our Farmers Market every week and then we also have Rock and Riverwalk on our Banner um which is held every week and then of course at Flagler Center hosting of various various events um we have about on average 250 that we manage there at that space when we surveyed attendees at our events for throughout the year collectively it's come out to 77% of our event attendees and visitors came specifically to our event or to our downtown to attend our event and then 91% of that 77% um said that they were either staying after or during that they would be supporting our small businesses in our downtown so we love to hear that and we do that with very limited staff and uh volunteers and resources so always looking for volunteers here a little pitch there our our impact these are our cumulative um stats unfortunately they're not as you know technology wasn't what it was so unfortunately I can't report from our Inception but this is close um so some pretty big numbers there of um our program at work um we have about $2.5 million in public investment we've helped generate almost 12 million in private and then we have about 158 new jobs 50 new businesses which this year we'll be reporting some new businesses coming into our district here pretty soon we're very excited about and then in 2023 we logged about 2700 volunteer hours which equates to about $80,000 if you were to employ staff and that sort of thing so now this brings me to my reason for being here sorry about that and that was a cliff notes and I'm out of breath so forgive me let's get down to it downtown dollars downtown dollars um I'm here to seek your support um for launching relaunching and introducing reintroducing our downtown dollars program which we launched as a pilot in uh September of 2020 in partnership with the downtown Business Association for our assistance in some covid relief um support for our small businesses um at the time it was not electronic I'm looking to take it to that um bring it up to 2024 make it electronic make it a little easier for people to spend money in our district um so when we did it we only had about a $2,000 budget and that was used as a bonus Buck program so you know I'm sure you've seen it around the holidays where a restaurant might do if you buy 25 you get 25 if you buy 50 you get 50 so that that that that $2,000 was used as just the bonus Buck program our organizations had absorbed all the cost obviously of advertising G you know um to help gain a awareness of that program the design work the advertisements that we had to um Print and Design so all of that the management of it because again it was not electronic it was paper little Excel sheets here and there so that was labor intensive so all of that cost was absorbed by organization and 100% of the sales plus all the bonus bucks went stly to the businesses nothing came out of that those funds to help offset our expenses um so it only took us two weeks to go through that extra $2,000 so that kind of proved to us that oh we might be on to something here um it was very well supported by our commission at the time our city leadership our businesses were very appreciative and even our customers that bought the gift certificates they thought it was a really great program um and they have asked when we were going to bring it back so here we are hoping for a little bit more funding which we can make an even bigger impact and I included a slide of benefits but I think we all understand understand um the benefits we know the benefits but my most important my favorite one is that it's an immediate cash flow into our businesses so you can review those at your leisure downtown gift cards so this we are going to be partnering like I said we're going to make it electronic so we're going to be partnering with a thirdparty um program called yfy it is um used by thousands of other Main Street programs and other municipalities some cities have adopted it themselves um some chamber of commerc have done it um but us being in the historic downtown we're going to um help launch this with yft so it's all electronic um they can be purchased on our website and then you get live updates as you spend the funds on your gift cards um see what else do I have there that I did include a extra instead of me changing my presentation I did give little Flyers that have the QR codes to give you an example it's not live yet for purchase obviously um we're hoping to launch pretty soon for the holiday season but one QR code will take you to our website landing page for the gift card program and then it even includes a merchant sign up form so those in our service area um in the downtown will be able to sign up to part be a participant and it doesn't cost them anything to join they're just allowing me to help promote the downtown and their businesses and then the other QR code is the landing page that takes you to the actual yfd platform site where the link takes you to purchase um so I don't I don't know about you but I don't know an investment like this that gets you this kind of return that quickly so we're asking for a $30,000 investment and we're going to help turn that into $180,000 of impact for the downtown businesses and again 100% of that is not coming from those bonus $30,000 the um admin costs are coming from our organization and I did have my thought I think that's it I that's it that's all I have but I'm able to take questions I think is that it question Candace yes U board member Collins so um this program that you're proposing is going to benefit participating businesses yes sir that's what I saw Yes the great thing I'm sorry to interrupt the great thing about the program partnering with yft is when a business participates they say hey I want to sign up they get their own customized Merchant card I sign them up I get them programmed the bank talks directly to their bank so I don't have to be in that exchange and then once they've swiped their card and they're officially signed up as a participating Merchant it creates a Geo fence around the downtown so that Master Card can't be used at the mall it can't be used at Harbor Bay it can't be used at restaurants across on us one there so it's strictly stays in the downtown so I'm a small business guy but it does concern me that we would be um I guess I would say I don't really necessarily think it's a role of government to be purchasing gift cards for the downtown businesses through CRA well you're not purchasing the cards you're sponsoring and it's a very common practice I can show you some examples um at another um time but there are municipalities like I said who actually also do this program on their own without a main street so like there's even the city of Boulder I think is one of them or the city of wisc there there's all kinds of different cities that do it themselves I'm sure that there's a lot of places that do it my my my point would be if we're going to spend money invest money should be to benefit all residents right with taxpayer dollars not necessarily um whatever subset of uh participating businesses well I look at it as you are support you're you're supporting the residents too because you're giving them the opportunity to spend and support their local economy by giving them a bonus so it's you know who at first come first serve I say and I'm for them doing that in free market that that was my only comment is I'm not necessarily in favor of this uh board member Reed sure I have a couple questions in Prior years what was appropriated towards this particular program I know you mentioned that in Prior years it existed or did I not hear that correctly um I don't this this was this I had just started with the organization when we launched this program um there was no funding because we wanted to do it as a pilot program to be able to come forward later on to ask for support for this so that's what I'm doing here today um but yeah at the first like I said we had a very from our organizations we only at the time had $2,000 that we could afford to put into the program so and now that you guys are accredited does it open you up to more grants that you're even able to apply for or now we're talking about very different things so our accreditation um doesn't necessarily we don't get funding for that um being accredited helps us get helps us be better positioned for grants that we might apply for to help the city so for instance that historical property that historic property survey had the city had gone after that Grant they would have had to provide a match to be able to get the award and then hire the contractor and all of those things but as a Main Street program and we put in the application we got 100% of the funding I mean I had to pay my grant writer to manage that Grant but that's a whole another but yeah that these are very different topics I think in questions that you're asking and as far as the business the business would be signing up for YY to accept that they're technically signing up for us like we're kind of like the solicitor I would say we we want to do this new advertising campaign for the downtown the businesses will sign up we already have a similar program existing but it's not a bonus Buck program or anything like that it's more of us giving give certificates to the community when they enter a Raffles or something like that and we have a list of participating businesses that always participate in those but we're trying to expand the footprint of that program um by engaging more of the downtown and now more of the residents as well so this by incentivizing them yeah so this is mainly for downtown our district is only downtown yeah we only service the downtown because that's there's other organizations yeah Main Street is only focused on the downtown because like I'm looking on their website so it's only one user there's not additional users I guess I'm just trying to understand it as well fully I'm not understanding your question like for the merchant and the franchise cards like you pay a flat fee of $29.95 a month and then it's $12 no it's free for us as a Main Street Goa so that therefore it's free for all of my merchants and all of our businesses that want to participate okay any other questions commissioner that's it um Candace I'm not sure you made this clear so how it works for those of us who would purchase the card if I purchase a card for $100 how much value do will I actually get credited on that so you get two separate gift cards you'll get one for the 100 and then the second one with the bonus bucks so you could gift that second one so for those who choose to take advantage of this and spend $100 they get they'll have $200 to spend downtown are both cards I know the one card is Geo restricted both okay they're both GE restricted yes sir and it's it's not limited to the citizens of Steward anybody can buy these I mean we all know that a lot of people outside of our area love downtown Stewart so we would hope that that brings visitors doubling their money and the benefits to downtown are okay I just wanted to make that clear yes sir sorry about that board member go do you have any question um I had the same question that Sean did which is about the fee but you're saying there is no fee because the the businessman the businesses downtown would be connected through you so there's no fee for this um so basically what I'm understanding is we're subsidizing the city is subsidizing the bonus the extra bonus bucks you're sponsoring yeah the bonus bucks y okay um and just a sidebar you had put on your projects as downtown dollars co co relief were there any additional funds I mean many organizations and municipalities have had Co funds and there's leftover monies does Main Street have leftover monies from covid relief we did not receive any funds other than a loan to help obviously um help with our overhead during our organization's overhead and costs um whether it would be staff costs or we entered into the agreement for Flagler center right when Co was getting started so we have some we had some expenses there obviously um so that we did receive a loan like I mentioned but that was SE kept in reserves and now that's being paid back okay I just misunderstood it sounded like the Main Street received a relief funds from Co but you really just were able to we were able to try to help the businesses just using some funds that we had in our yes reserves so you took a loan now many of those covid loans were forgiven at the end we had two loans one was forgiven and this one was Kept For Reserve funds in case the inevitable happen who who knows but that has been paid back or that's being paid back so one was forgiven one was paid back okay so technically if you want to if you want to if we can have further conversations regarding our funding and sources during that those times we can definitely do that but for this specific meeting to STI to the agenda some left over funds oh no we didn't specifically receive fundings and I think but it was forgiven the loan was forgiven right right so those monies were there but you might have utilized them already I was just oh yeah to get Flagler up and running after Co yeah all those funds were probably yes any additional question board member brickville well I just wanted to make a comment relative to that just as clarification the organization was eligible for some um some PPP funding and then the other funding was through the eidl loan which was only a loan it couldn't be forgiven okay it had a for nonprofits it had a 2.75% interest St so that that was the that was the program yes thank you for clarifying that for you mark relative to uh comments if um I I just have unless you're going down go ahead okay um just a couple questions first of all in general I know you've got the um you know you've got the Green Market and we've got um uh and we've got the Flagler Center the money from the Flagler Center goes back into what into refurbishing that building or where does any money that's over there go to Just fund the organization right yeah whatever those program whatever our program expenses are yeah so we've got rent we've got utilities to pay we have advertising that we do for the market for the downtown what about any Market profit from the market where does that go um does that get pushed back through in thought some of that money was to the they're all functions of Stuart Main Street so whether it's rock and Flagler or the market those funds those programs are supposed to help generate money for the organization to fulfill our mission which I just went over so that's to help the entire downtown that is our district that's our service area and then um of course any extra Revenue that we receive are to help fund programs like I'm presenting today because again there's going to be a hefty cost with us doing this program for the downtown so just like there's cost running Flagler there's cost running the market there's no additional Revenue unfortunately coming from the market because there's only one Revenue source which are the vendor fees and that just goes straight into paying a staffer on Sundays to paying advertising thank you I'm not sure we should review the I thought that there were some dollars that were going back that we could redirect from it is specifically uh additional expend expenditure by the commission right for Main Street bug program and and I agree with with uh board member Collins on this in that I I personally have a problem with um the city spending money you know to support programs for private businesses that that's something that they should and particularly when they're not residents of Stewart or even potentially Martin County because some of these benefits as you pointed out um are going to go to uh people who live outside the area and so from my perspective you know normally I would be opposed to this kind of program as I said at at at our c meeting U crb meeting that um in this case I know that local businesses to some degree are struggling we we have some we have some strain on the street right now and that's happening and um so from I wouldn't like to see this be a permanent program but personally I can understand doing it now because of some of the some of the uh stress that people are facing right now in the downtown businesses and um and you know the property owners may have come out pretty well but the downtown businesses have seen increased rents and are stressed right now from a financial standpoint so from my perspective I I only favor it because of its immediate benefit on a one-time basis but that's just my comment Mr chair uh board member Camp Penney uh the crb approved this program 51 I vote to approve it but I'm not so sure it's the best use of funds I'm like board member Collins I don't know if why and I I just don't know why we would do this and I don't know where did you get your six to1 payback where's that figure come from so we multiply the amount of um the amount of gift cards that would be sold and then basic account we just multiply it by the Bonus funds a gift back yeah it's math it's easy math you know multiply you carry the two I mean so that's how we spend 20,000 here and 30,000 here and 15,000 here it it didn't take long to get to the next nominal um board member clerk yes so speaking of numbers if this program is implemented that would be a way that from that 30,000 to the um 18 180,000 to [Music] show what's going on in downtown so that if you ever maybe you use it to apply for a grant or do something to really show what what is happening and to to pinpoint the growth or or the numbers that we can see I think and I think that if it's for a season that's not a bad deal as to the thir K we're going through budget now and you're asking for additional funds we know that we give you money you pay us money and it's all like a wash with that 70 but maybe um I don't know what direction we need to give city manager to say hey look into it see if there's the availability um from the because is it okay I'd say I'd say that um you know it says presentation so um and it didn't have us any staff uh to allocate funding yes so penal will provide okay all right so I I know that there's a um I just like to see we talk about downtown all the time and we talk about what makes a difference to me this gives a razor number of what makes a difference and I don't think that we're going to lose it's a marketing it's a branding it's a part of The Branding and um there's funds available from tip funds and what we have for the downtown that we we help um with the Stuart Main Street I I I really don't have a problem with it um because we need to find ways to make sure that um if people are hurting downtown yes it may not be but the businesses are downtown and they're serving their purpose with bringing people into the city of Steward keeping things vibrant maybe we may not do all 30,000 where me it's a trial thing you've gone from 2,000 with paper money we maybe could do a smaller pilot program but I think that it's something that could be a viable thing to help test really how viable our downtown is so I I'm making a motion that we move forward with this program there's a motion do Mary are we voting on this we can vote I need a motion to add this budg vot dire we should vote is there a second the motion fails I I think we have the direction you needed then if the motion to go forward thank you candas thank you Kanas so no don't put this in the next item is the cdbg known as the community development block grant for those of you not in City politics housing rehabilitation program update and who will be introduce the item again um uh so this the city of Stewart received $750,000 in cdbg housing rehab Grant um back in 2021 uh with limited staff um we did contract with Guardian to provide the service to administer the grant at that time we didn't even have a grant administrator um so they they are helping us um apply the program uh in accordance with the uh federal and state requirements uh we are required to provide assistance to minimum of 11 housing units um and there's also additional requirements that no less than five has to be low income households and no less than two has to be very lwi income household um at that time we also adopted a housing action plan um so as we received the applications uh we did have to comply with the uh requirements of the housing action plan um we have um Antonio and Don here uh to give us an update on all the projects that were funded and that are underway and we do expect to complete the construction on those projects by the end of this year um so I'll let Antonio U provide um background of the program and where we are good afternoon uh again my name is Antonio Jenkins and this is Mr Don C and I just gave you my introductory Spiel I was going to give you a brief background of the program uh but she did a very good job of that so what we're here to do today is give a brief uh verbal update of where we are to date with the projects and the progress moving forward uh this will be given by individual homes what I will do is start uh this particular process by describing the actions that are ongoing with the uh project uh with the Hamilton project that you heard from earlier uh that particular project uh unfortunately is one of the projects of 11 and it just didn't go to plan uh I'm not going to get into back and forth about the contractor and the homeowner here's what I will say uh we have removed the contractor from the project we're working to make it whole uh the plan as it stands is to allow the homeowners to go out and find contractors that are eligible to participate in the program to have the windows reinstalled uh in a manner that they are happy with uh so we're going to do that to make them hold additionally if there's an issue with the roof but to date the roof has passed uh but if that comes to pass where it is reversed for whatever reason we will also make that hold uh in the manner that we need to uh as it relates to paying for uh the windows and any of the work that wasn't incomplete there is a draft set forth pay the contractor for what's just in Du uh that is not only to protect the program but to protect the homeowner from any possible mechanical links uh as project uh as the program is set up the contract for rehabilitation is strictly between the homeowner and the contractor City only acts as an overseer and an agent in that particular process uh so that is what we're doing now to try and reconcile and make the process whole uh so again we are working with the homeowners to take care of that particular issue uh as quickly and as efficiently as possible there are any questions or any more comments from the homeowners and or the contractors who are both here today I'll be glad to answer those after we give this particular update they have any additional com but we are it's unfortunate uh and we provided uh our apologies and unfortunately sometimes apologies don't mean an awful lot till we get things reconciled but we are in the process of reconciling that uh to ensure that in the end the homeowners are made whole that they're happy with the process uh and then that it's a good representation uh for the city and the program uh at the very end of things before close up after that being said I will pass over to miss Don Cobb here and she will give you an update for the other projects that are active or pending active status here pretty soon the next project is for Al Brinkley at 815 Southeast Central Avenue um final inspection was done today um everything is passed the building department there is a small punch out list that we are having the contractors go back and fix some of it is just um they got laminate countertops and they need to reglue like a side um cap on one it's loose and clean up some doors like smudge marks and stuff cuz it's brand new we want everything to be clean and pristine but that has have passed um Bruce Davis at 724 Southeast Bahama Avenue this house is a demolition reconstruction demolition has been done on the property um it's in the process of getting the building plans submitted for the new construction of the home and the contractor is waiting on electrical pole to be installed by fpnl because you need to have that for the permitting um Margaret Brumfield at 1201 Southeast sand dollar Lane uh currently the windows and doors are being installed as we speak um there is a change order for electrical and plumbing work that needs to be done and they're starting the work on the plumbing and electrical work on that change order starting on Thursday and the roof replacement on that home has been inspected and has been passed Nelly rage at 9:30 Southeast Bahama Avenue that is the house that caught on fire in uh Fourth of July weekend her um electric scooter battery exploded um the house was pretty much um it's been totaled the home the she signed a a form to be off the program because our homeowners insurance is going to take over and rebuild our new home Helen McBride at 921 Southeast Flamingo um her home has also been completed she did have a um plant Plantation shutter that was damaged the contractor has advised me that he'll be there um by the end of this week to install it but everything else has been um completed and its past inspection and um Vernon Davis they're at 902 Southeast Hall Street the contract was signed um on July 12th and the contractor is in the process of pulling the permits Willie Dickens at 907 Southeast Hall Street contract was also signed on July 12th um electrical inspection was performed the contractor is waiting on the report from the electrician the roof is scheduled for installation in two weeks and windows have been ordered and are anticipated being received in six weeks Janice Delany at 918 Southeast Tarpon Avenue Deo just gave us site approval um for these homes not only do applicants have to apply the homes have to also be approved by Deo and we do what they call environmental environmental is oh okay Florida commerce I'm so used to but Florida commerce proves it um tier two new consist of airplane noise train noise car noise um eagle nest um what they call Hazard materials how far away is gas tanks there's a whole bunch of stuff that's involved they just finally gave us approval so we'll be setting up contract signing probably in the near I say near future probably about two three weeks Ava Wy was also just recently approved by Deo and we'll also be setting up and that's at 1616 Southeast Apache and we'll be doing contract signing at the same time as the other house and then we have Brenda Langston at 7:16 Southeast um Avenue Commerce is requesting additional documentation from an engineer prior to that site approval um they're asking there's that house is a tear down replacement and two buildings over inside of one building there is a tank of some sort we have to get an engineer saying that in between inside a building and then there's another building next to it it's metal if it explodes how much damage would be done to the new house that's being built that's it thank you is that it yeah uh board member bre Bill do you have any questions no I'm good board member Camp penny so so that it's clear to everybody the city is involved because it is a grant process that we have to request correct it has to come through US yes sir but then who picks the homes and how does that all work do so they had to we advertised um for the program and we received applications we reviewed the applications we ranked the applications those were presented to the city Commission um about a year and a half ago um and then once those were ranked then we started uh inspecting those homes um and then maybe Antonio can kind of expand on how we they got selected after the applications were submitted your housing assistance plan that's the document that Mr null described earlier outlines how applications are advertised for how applicants are advertised for how they are vetted how they are approved your housing assistance plan requires that homeowners are approved on the first come first approved meaning they submitted the application and all the backup documentation you have to provide clear ownership you have to provide income certifications in those things so once those things have been vetted and approved the applicants are put on a rent list based on the pledge that we've made to P to home uh a minimum of two of the homes have to be what they call very low income or 30% of the area median income uh then another five have to be 50% or low income of the area median income in the other six rank up to 80% of the area median income uh so once you have those folks they're put on a list based on those rankings and prop before so then what is the city's responsibility in all this I mean something something went wrong I think we've all agreed that the church something went wrong and now the city is the one that has to sort it out we we do have building officials here um they've done inspection and cleared inspection on the roof um the window is something that is being worked out um the applicant is um allowed to hire their own contractor we're allowing them to hire their own contractor um at their own choice um so that there's you know that they're happy with the work that to complete the work for the windows um so we are working through that process for the windows my whole point is you know when the city starts giving out someone else's money right there's a problem and the problem is we're the fallback person even though we don't hire the contractor we we don't you know pick really pick the people per se we pick it according to a plan that really were told what the plan is in order to qualify and when something goes wrong we end up on the short end of the stick as if we have to now fix it and I'm going to say it may not be worth taking the money if this is the result and I and maybe this is one out of 10 homes or whatever it was but gee I mean I I I think I I think alga hates us she doesn't have any hate in her heart what I will say these programs do a lot of good in your community all programs all projects unfortunately just don't go to plan excuse me sir excuse me sir all projects don't go to plan this happens to be one part of the reason you hire a consultant is to get out there in the field and to reconcile these particular issues uh there is Damage Done to the home uh there were attempts to reconcile it with the contractor of record before it was determined that the relationship was just irreconcilable and at this particular point it was best to move forward uh which is what we're in the process of doing you uh again like I said I won't get into the fight of it or the mud slinging of it my job is to reconcile it uh and that's what we're doing here uh and we hope to have that have that process taken care of here very shortly and we've had successful applications this is just one case with the contractor so if you speak to the other 10 I have not heard anything from the other applicants so unfortunately this was one application with the contractor issue well I don't want to say there not complaints about any of the other projects it's construction people are living in the home the issue is 99.999% of the time we work them out in the field with the homeowner and the contractor this one just happens to fill over publicly for lack of a good free and this is an evolving situation you're saying you have this under control you're going to make sure he's happy right and the city is going to make sure that you're making sure he's happy that is correct all right there so there if and when we need to revisit this and make sure that this needs to be dealt with further we will a board member campaign did you have any additional comments or questions board member Reed yeah so what is the goal tonight because I see the the poster board that Olga and Robert brought in and I know there was questions about a ridge vent or something being covered up and it almost looks like termite damage with Windows being installed and screwed to that maybe from the window box well here's the point we were we had an engineer to come out to the home uh working with the building department because again we can we're only responsible for what we T there are some questions about termite damage at other parts of the wall we had an engineer to come out that process for a number of different reasons didn't work itself out uh at that particular point we decided that's when we decided the relationship between the contractor and the homeowner was IR retrievable uh and we needed to move in a different direction so that we don't have an ongoing escalating situation here uh so again those are the things that we were in the process of reconciling before the the relationship was just broken to the point of where it's just going to not be good for anybody involved at that particular Point any additional comments or questions uh who was the engineer board member read uh just a random engineer we wanted to make sure affiliated with the program the home owner or anybody involved uh he is not here he didn't even get a chance to make it out of the car do you have his name or do you we'll let the contractor if they want to speak we'll get up and let them okay and and and speak the name of the engineer can I just say something are you done you certainly may board member Clark no go ahead good I just I I know that we try our hardest to make sure that cdbg dollars go to the best programs to enhance our community but I know that some of the members who received this help have called me and said that I I don't know if you'd call it disrespect or lack of professionalism or whatever and it may not have nothing to do with Miss cob or you as to who was who picked the the the different contractors and then the subcontractors that they send out to the home but a lot of UN professional stuff went on around those homes where they put their tools what they do when they leave they don't tell people when they're coming back two weeks later there's a disposal can that's blocking mailboxes that's doing all kinds of things that there just needs to be more professionalism with whoever is chosen for this and the other thing is that this is like almost two years and somebody should have said something or come to us whether with a quarterly report or whatever it took took so long after the first time when people were brought in here and given the instructions to put their applications together and then the 11 people were chosen it took so long to get started I don't know if it was lack of materials or getting over covid or whatever was going on but it's just been going on for so long I appreciate the people who've had problems I want to see programs succeed but I just want to make sure that if there are contractors in here or if we do anything in the future with any contractors that we really put them to the fire and let them know that when they're going to do something with city of Stewart where money's being passed through and it's happening in our city our people shouldn't have to go there and deny deny deny every time because the work is so bad so we need to have things yes there are times when maybe our building contractors um May you know it's not that they're going to pass everything but they need to make sure that the work is not shoddy that's their job they're doing their job and I think that this was just not a good experience for a lot of people and I agree when you said to Mr col commissioner Collins that if we're going to work on the issues let's work on it and we need to do that and get it resolved and make it successful here's what I'll say about the timeline believe it or not we signed our first contract in January of 2024 the time proceeding that is just The Upfront time it takes to get the grant up and running uh there are a lot of processes that you have to go through with the state to get the grant up and running uh although we received the Grant in 2022 again we didn't sign our first Construction contract until January of 2024 was it 24 was it 23 Oh no just recently yeah was 20 23 probably I think November I think it was November 23 when we signed okay so that was so very recently is when we signed our first set of contracts because it's it's the process that you have to go through as I say we are still waiting on one to clear Commerce yeah it's it's a lot of environmental and a lot of paperwork and a lot of things that that need to happen as it relates to uh the experience that some of the the home owners have had uh uh I will take the blame for that because I am your project manager that you hired through through your consultant uh I have been in constant contact with the contractors and the homeowners like I said not all complaints not every project is going 100% smoothly but 99.9% of them uh are taken care of in the field just before we were here today we visited every project including the project with the dumpster uh didn't know that was an issue until last week didn't know if I'm not told these things I I I un unfortunately I can't read M sometime so if I show up at the house and you tell me everything is good and then all of a sudden everything is not good I can only go based off the information that I see some of these projects have moved slower than I would like much slower than I would have liked them to I'm not going to share Cod that uh again that means I need to be better is what that means so again I have visited the contractor we need to move on so thank you for that respon uh board member go um these cdb programs could be very helpful to a community but the reality is the city is a conduit of this money okay so it falls back on the people who are doing the cdb program to monitor it to go forward with it where they need to take place and replace um contractors that's on you it shouldn't come back to the city and that what is what really happened in this case and it could happen in future but I think it need really needs to be tightened up if you're going to be a conduit you get the money we're passing it through we're making it available but then all of the other responsibility is on you and should not come back to the city well unfortunately the way your program works is that if we can't resolve it in the field it does come back to the city uh that is just the way the program is set up uh and unfortunately this was one project that we just couldn't resolve in the field so it was inevitably going to end up here uh and it will inevitably end up with me saying exactly what I just said that we're in the process of reconciling the issue uh and we hope to exper that that as quickly as possible okay thank you thank you um clearly there we need some answers uh you're saying 99.9% are fine and commissioner Clark is saying that she's heard from a number of people with concerns and complaints so I think the commission needs to take a closer look at this and as you say tighten it up and there have been some very good points made I don't think we need any action Mr mortell do we regard what public comment okay can we have public comment please on [Music] this m McBride yes some people won't like what I'm going to say but I'm Helen McBride I was part of this program and um there were two contractors when I came it was right here we had the meeting one was more expensive M was cheap I picked the more expensive Mr disis was my contractor and these two people were here that stand on here they were great but for a point of clarification when I signed the contract it was explained to me after they finished if I sell the house I pay back all that money if I run out my house I pay back all that money now when I die I don't have to pay it back the money which just I'm not here but I just want to say I felt bad for the other five people that were in this room and signed the contractor with the cheap guy well I'm going to say cheap the lower price guy they got terrible service because they were all coming to me and asking me and I remember Mr Brinkley he came he said how you doing with it Mrs McBride oh I said they've been finished for the last three weeks I'm we're done and finished except like she said they broke the shutter but they're going to replace the shutter course the shutter is quite old know when we put them in Lo's had to order it and then it was on back order but this program I didn't know about it because I come to the meetings and when the man explained it to me I thought why not try he asked me to try he said we need more middle inome people but if you go and have like I thought 16 years ago I thought I paid some guy to put impact when windows in he didn't I paid him quite a bit of money this program as soon as they found out my windows weren't impact they put the impact windows in did a beautiful job and they went above and beyond because I'm by myself and I am handicapped they did above and beyond moving the furniture taking things down this is a fantastic program but if you're just think someone's going to come into your house and do anything or your church you have to have someone right there watching them and like when we built our house on Flamingo Avenue I dropped the kids off at Parker I always came down to Flamingo to see what the men were doing that work day so when you sign a contract you you just can't say back oh the city's going to take care of it that's their job you have to have someone there ask your neighbor ask a friend I asked my neighbor because one day I couldn't be there and but they always call the day before because that one day and I said oh Mr desis I'm not going to be home what can we do no problem Mrs mcro when is it convenient for you for my workmen to be there so this is a fantastic program and these two people that were standing here she was a saint in the beginning I was a little nervous I was very nervous I wasn't a little I call she came right over explained everything so the program itself is good unfortunately the church went with the war contractor now I know the government site to make ask questions are no longer doing business with that person but that's his fault their fault thank you thank you Miss McBride um is it just these two it is they gave public comment during public comment so that's up to you Mr and Mrs Hamilton you both it was my error and I apologize for that but you did make comment regarding this item if you have and perhaps if just one of you cuz we're way over time here if just one of you could speak to your concerns or is it necessary I'll just I'll just be brief I I just want to rebuttal to what Mr jenin said major disagreement there and here's why he made the statement on the record in your room that we're going to reinstall these windows they can never be reinstalled the structural frame has to be put back in that's what this is about what it's about is somebody didn't read this right it's in their own documents and so the taxpayers what M Mr uh uh wants us to do is let them get paid then use the rest of our grant money to hire and get another set of Windows put in and get the frameware fixed so the taxpayers got paid twice and he tells me well you can donate him then no they knew what they they did when they did it and we objected and there was another businessman who we had asked to come to give us an estimate I didn't know the guy he didn't know me he saw how we were treated how he treated my wife and how belligerant they were and how they were going to forcefully do it and there was nothing we could do or the city could do about it so I don't want Oran is talk at the general meeting but I had to have that rebuttal because that was not accurate information they're not being put back in sir thank you Mr Hamilton I apologize I'm upset I'm confident that your concerns have got the attention of at least one commissioner and that some of us will be out there visiting you I would thinkk you and congratulations to the new two I apologize for that congratulations thank you guys very much okay I'm going to post for the we're over time here and you've learned the first first Superstition of commission meetings is when you look at an agenda and go oh that shouldn't take too long don't ever say that but I want to get going because people take time at the end of their workday to come here and I want to accommodate them delayed I'm going it's yes so I'm going to adjourn this meeting yesst we need to vote on that you need to put it into the all in favor thank you sh