e e check there's a lot yeah you've been in r time I've known you a long time yeah syy I I remember Cindy from long this is a mic test Pat Patterson can you hear us okay check one [Music] two is aille I know I know Enterprise and Enterprise like hel was a problem yeah they didn't would to do any of them that's right Boo okay it is 9 a.m. we are going to start our meeting I want to welcome everybody that is here and on the on the line welcome to the FIA County Florida Valia Echo advisor committee meeting of April 11th and we will start um we will start with a roll call but I will ask before we do the roll call we we do have a member that under exceptional circumstances will be joining us via um Zoom no team teams but I and he is on the call as I understand it I do need someone to make a motion to allow him to be a a voting member of the board for today I didn't same thing did I patteron yeah thank you you I'll second second okay all those in favor for allowing Mr Patterson to join us uh via teams please say I I I okay all right with that we will do a roll call for the remainder of the board B northy here Jay Pendergast here Jeffrey alt here Patricia Drago here John Macaluso here Stephanie Mason Teague here Pat Patterson can here yeah I see him be muted okay Reggie Santilli here Dwight Selby here we have a quorum Pat can you hear us wave if you can say hello you know no he's not no he's a dear friend but but he is challenged when it comes to this kind of stuff you can't hear us I don't think cuz he would laugh at that okay I'm going let somebody fig figure that out and we will move through public participation and we'll start with city manager Carmen rosamunda from DeBerry and you have what we give three minutes for public participation good morning thank you chairman Council how you doing committee uh I just wanted to come I know you were talking about your um reviewing your guidelines regarding um uh the echo committee and I wanted to make some um business recommendations um for the Improvement the possible Improvement of of the this particular process I think um in order to get more participation better customer satisfaction and a better return on our investment for the echo project I think in my opinion we we need to I think if we go to a more business oriented process and consider uh some of the external en environments um that I think that we can significantly improve the echo process um one of the things that we talked about um was is the possibility of of looking at in an echo uh environment looking at the economy uh some of the reasons that we're not getting a lot of applications is the economy our cities are burdened with uh flooding issues from Hurricane e ins still uh compounded um inflation our construction costs are going up 25% a year um and the Florida legislature is really bearing down on us to incre to reduce our revenues and increase our costs and all of this kind of puts uh cities at a at a position to have to prioritize our projects and fortunately Echo projects get pushed to the back when these other higher priorities are necessary and so when you look at the economy asking for um that the echo committee take consideration of of maybe the the 50% match might be too high during this economy meeting every two years analyze the economy determine what's the best match um in my opinion or Beach having to raise their taxes and dedicate money to to meet the match um really is from from their perspective is a good business strategy um from the echo perspective it's do they really have to raise taxes to meet the match for Echo and you have to question those things second we got to take a look at uh believe um is is uh the project type um requiring uh you know engineering plans and and shovel ready projects is great for structures playgrounds lights and everything else but for environmental projects where the permitting and the engineering takes so long um that um uh going to a design build uh process helps us build these projects better cheaper and faster you have to remember construction costs are about 20 5% on an annual basis every year that we delay we either pay 25% more or we get 25% less amenities every every time we we make that delay and lastly to consider um eeko can take advantage of some industry Trends um as an an example that I put here in writing is our H hallogen lights for our ball fields um they're being phased out by industry um and in a couple years you will not have any allergen light bulb anymore um and the costs are going to exponentially grow of trying to convert these fields to LED and so it's a great opportunity to take a look at these industry Trends and say let's take a look at these industry Trends maybe lower the match incentivize these things to come forward let's save some money going forward even not with the construction cost but the industry trends that are that are occurring that are going to U make this uh project even cost more and we take advantage of some of these industry Trends and convert all our ball fields on a timely matter and save a whole lot of money it's all about customer satisfaction return on investment and getting the results that we need so and you did really well on time thank you thank you Carman I would also advise you Carmen we we're just an advisory Bo board committee when this goes to council whatever we decide today I would make sure they had a copy of this I will also forward to to the vucha County Council and staff and I think staff will get this as well it's just my recommendations and hopefully uh looking for uh to to make it uh Echo Pro process the best users y thank you okay then we will hear also we jack satat you're up Jack is a former member of the echo committee Wing this Sim hi here we go all right well yes I'm Jack seret and I was a proud member of this committee for five years and I'm currently a a member of environmental and natural resources advisory committee and I come here for two reasons today one to say hello to my friends and colleagues and maybe meet a few folks that are that are newer to Echo but uh second to climb back up on my Soap Box concerning uh marketing of Echo and uh I know recognize that's a current topic of this uh this group uh first let me say thanks to uh Mr Selby for uh posing some questions that I might pose uh and I found that I found that most interesting but specifically the marketing of echo um has always been a subject of mine and um let me just say that the reason for it is that Ekko is a it's a beautiful program and my passion really lies with the uh fantastic quality of life that it provides uh for all the community in the in the county and um there's no other project really like that uh you know when you when you think about it so I I think it's important and the key is accessibility um everyone gets to enjoy these projects and uh the problem is they may not know of these projects and that's the deal awareness is simply to low of all these things that are happening in the county and the citizens and the visitors uh um are made aware of them but there's so much more there and they really don't know uh so how are they made available by by marketing and to lay the marketing at the feet of the projects themselves is really not doing Justice to Echo in total and I think I was very happy to hear that Brad the Consultants uh are looking at this sort of thing but um you know it it's really comes down to to the the element of enhancing the quality of life that's the key and and true this is somewhat of a brick-and mortar type of program you know we build things that's right um but that ignores the premise of enhancing life and enhancing quality of life which is oftentimes not known so um you know I'm here because I think promoting awareness facilitates accessibility and that's the community is enhanced so I recommend two things one that we continue to put effort at the level of of the projects themselves and the marketing plans that they put together but I think the county should do a lot more and I think that uh the extent of that is up to you and I've made suggestions of it in the past but secondly I recommend that that there's an engagement with the U I'm going to give him an extra minute because he's a former member only need only need a minute uh that we enhance and engage with these advertising authorities within the county and the reason we should do that is because they should in fact advertise and go out there not only for the county but outside of the county to build this awareness so I think there should be an engagement with all these authorities I went to the Halifax advertising Authority meeting uh um just in January uh with this in mind and perhaps I perhaps I engage in that myself and and perhaps become a member there but the uh it's it's to me those two things are really what we what we need to do to encourage more understanding accessibility to to these great projects so let's make this beautiful program better and uh I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you today and and uh Mr zelby please please keep asking the hard questions thank you Jack it's always good to hear from you okay that concludes our public participation we will move to approval of the February 16th 20124 minutes has everybody had a chance to read those and okay any corrections otherwise we will file them as written okay okay there's one typo on page three halfway down pat drgo said he oh I caught that one too yes yeah this identified yeah that needs to be changed Patrick yeah yeah thank yeah so we so can we file them with that change thank you Joel okay okay and then we will move to Old business and we will turn to staff for direct County expenditure update who's going to handle that one which which one of you guys I'll take that introduction so Nick Nick Dunham resource stewardship director so old business today we have the direct County expenditure plan this plan was brought before the committee at the last meeting but we have made some updates and we have a summary presentation for those as well and we recognize that some of the members were not here in the beginning of the direct County expenditure plan so we're going to kind of go over the history of the direct County expenditure in the presentation as well so I'm going to turn that presentation over to Daniel Marsh you got the Powerpoint good morning good morning Daniel Marsh Echo manager all right so the direct County expenditure plan uh was presented to you guys back in February AR so we're bringing it to you here today with some updates uh the dce plan is for County projects and this is a County ballot initiative and program um there's two Pathways we got grants and AIDS and then we have the dce uh this resolution was authorized the referendum to be placed on the ballot and it aligns with ballot language uh the improvements are not maintenance or Replacements because they increase the utility of the asset and will expand user groups and improve Public Access so Eko has a long history of funding the improvements that expand utility and Public Access uh so right now we're in the DC process so County Council uh by resolution has asked that you guys uh look at these projects specifically and they are vetted against the ballot language and the definitions are in the guide book uh we do uh match funding is requested and then County Council will approve we'll review the plan for approval uh after you guys make your recommendations today uh just wanted to touch on the match so far for the program uh in 23 we have about $3.1 million of match and in 24 we have about $2.6 million so of match um as far as compliance goes um this is not a requirement of the program um but it is good practice and we do uh all the dce so far have turned in quarterly reports there are annual reports that they turn in as well um they still follow the two to threee guidelines depending on what the grant is um and then staff will go out and close out uh the project and uh monitor once the permanent sign is up and all of these projects are uh subject to audit and they also are available on the echo dashboard so some benefits of the program include uh Strategic investment uh we're stabilizing the reserve growth uh we're improving the quality of life of our citizens again it aligns with the ballot language and we're expanding public use and access uh so just want to give you a history so far from 2020 to now um here are some of the things that have been acquired um Plantation Oaks and then the statue at Mary McCloud bethon um and then reminder that in March 7th of 23 that's when the plan was approved uh 43 projects at 32 sites across the county for roughly about 5.6 million so uh here are some of the 23 projects that were approved in the last plan and we just wanted to give you an update as to where they are in the design and [Music] construction and we do have some projects that are complete uh the Spruce Creek Park restrooms uh Chuck Lennon uh tennis court resurfacing hit down surface as well as the Bicentennial Park pickle ball courts are complete before we I'm going to stop you right there before we go on to new requests I want to ask the council if they have any the committee if they have any uh questions on the past project list that we just reviewed is there any questions on any of those projects okay Reggie thanks now why was the Cardinal Drive bej ACC access uh Cardinal was crossed off the plan because they have acquired FEMA funds for that project right okay you're back on okay so that takes us to the updated plan that we're presenting to you today uh asking for an additional uh $6.4 million so the original plan was 15.4 over the 5 years and uh the projects were forecasted in each of the division's capital Improvement budget and if adopted the echo investment will represent some general fund savings so this plan is a investment plan uh informed by the needs and identified by our communities and requested by staff and this plan was unanimously approved uh by you as the committee back in February uh so 17 new projects at 17 sites three uh adjustments to the timeline and then we removed five projects and this will give us an uh estimated operational impact of roughly about $100,000 so here are the 17 projects uh listed out here um and on a map for you to visually see where they're at in the county anybody have any specific questions or are you going to go through them by by uh district is that yeah I'm GNA get keep going all right so the next slide gives us the request by category um the biggest piece of the pie is the out is the uh outdoor recreation about $14 million and then the environmental is about 7.4 and the cultural and historic are are there listed as well so in the in the previous plan we did the it did it by division but now we're doing it by District uh so here is the funding request by district and the be and CW stands for the beach enhancement and countywide category which I'll touch on later in the presentation that Mr iGo yes ma'am just for clarification okay I'm looking at the list of the 17 projects and I'm curious which ones of these 17 qualify for the historic uh there is two projects that are historic and they are uh DeBry Hall Mansion restoration and the DeBry Hall exhibits and now I'm looking at the the list of the 17 de I don't see de that must be a on another list so that would have been those projects were uh funded I believe for the 24 in the old plan was a prior list that's not included in the 17 that you're show that we're talking about today I just want to make sure I'm understanding where we're going here yeah that's correct so when I look at the 17 that are before us how did you sort those out so the 17 projects that you're you're looking at today are going to be updated from the previous plan that Warren approved in March of 23 okay so and will they be most they look like they're mostly outdoor recreation am I reading that correctly that is correct uh I'll go through the breakdown it's third I think we have 13 outdoor recreation uh one cultural and two environmental okay and the cultural would be the Ocean Center improvements correct thank you I just want make sure I'm making sure I understand thank you fine anybody else before we move forward yeah similar kind of question um so this is the County Council added 17 projects is that what I'm understanding at 6 and a half million bucks uh we are recommending as staff to add these 17 projects with talks with division directors okay and um can you just sort of give us an overview of what are the what's the how much cash does Ekko have right now uh roughly at the beginning of this year it was about $15.6 million in reserves okay and we we recommended and the council approved for match was it 6 million what did we what what did they total the projects that we uh the total projects in this funding that we're asking for the seven is about 6 4 million and the match that we're bringing to the table is roughly $2.6 million okay and so this uh additional six million is that um will that come out of the 15 million or is 15 million left after the six after these 17 projects so so what it Dwight if I may it will um it'll it stabiliz is reserve growth so about each year we've been doing about the same amount so the ADV vorum generates 10 million a year um we take the 1.5 million off for Trails we take some uh commissions that we pay to the property appraiser and the tax collector about 500 to $600,000 as well as the operating expenses is about 3% to operate the entire program it's self-contained self-funded and so that leaves us about 7 million spendable we we we um we budget 4.5 million each year for uh grants and typically do not get that now there's some years where it goes up and down but really if if there is money that needs to come out of Reserve to fund both projects there will certainly be money available thank you yes sir so when we have applicants whether they be local governments nonprofits Etc we want want a 5050 match but when the county is the applicant we don't have a ratio that we require because that because it matches much lower I just want to make sure what the standards are so it's a diff it's a different program as far as DC versus the echo program so we we do ask for match but there's not a requirement of match 50/50 okay so it's but it's still echo funds correct that that goes back to the first I'm just I'm making sure I understand that the rules are different rul for the match the rules are different for a dce match from what we require from any other applicant yes okay thank you can may I ask a follow up to that where does the county get the match um so there are different funding sources that we uh have match documentation for um so grants and then we have some arpa funds as well as Park impact fees um Port Authority fund and Beach Capital fund as well okay okay good thank you if I may yes yeah um yeah I just want to point out again that yeah in that ballot resolution it clearly indicates that Echo funds can be spent either through direct expenditure from the county or and a grant program doesn't even need to do a grant program if County Council chooses not to um but I also want to point out that the county staff did a you know this match money might seem low but if you look at the match money that Mr Bailey and the county staff brought in for the trails over the years it far exceeds what we put in it far exceeds that so it it balances out okay you're back to you Daniel back to me all right so this would be the funding request uh by fiscal year um as you could see um there was the original 5.6 and 23 and uh here's the out years as well now the the year six FY 28 would be uh the continual rolling plan to get to uh the six years not the five years all right so that'll take us into the new requests by districts so in district one uh a million dollars for two different playards for the library systems at Dand and Pearson we added in uh 500,000 for Colby Alderman Park and $30,000 for Lake George I'm really excited about the kayak launch that's really good can I ask a question about the pl the the playards um are we using a we have a standard developer is that correct that does those that makes them a uh accessible or handicapped accessible all the playards that we're doing correct yes we make that as a re they are accessible so Lucinda has worked with Chris who gave the presentation on Ada to develop those playgrounds they're a big hit because they're you know they have surveillance and they're so people can let their kids run and and feel safe in that environment we're also if I remember correctly those uh that come in for a regular Grant from different organizations we are requiring them to also do use that format correct Ada yes they have to address Ada there's different levels but it needs to be addressed in their plan yes ma'am okay and then the adjustment for for district one would be moving uh the improvements to the vuch county fairgrounds and The Phase 2 project to that beach enhancement and County countywide category and for the phase 2 project uh the ask is is a million dollar in fy2 uh and we're the reason we're asking for that an additional is we did not receive the 1 million in an FDX Grant this year so that's why and you'll see that in a in a later slide for district 2 uh 200,000 for Ocean Center uh enhancements and then we moved uh Doris leaper into District 2 this was the one that straddled two and three but we only had money in District 3 so we uh put both funds uh 1.2 in each district and two and three and then there's a $50,000 increase to the Sugar Mill Gardens restrooms okay any questions on that so far I have a question on the Ocean Center Entertainment enhancement is that like new equipment to bring them up to speed on new how they sound sound equipment is it sound if I may so we have the new Ocean Center Director here Lyn Flanders I'd like to introduce her to the committee and give her an opportunity to speak about the enhancements and her vision so welcome nice to meet you I am so excited to be part of this community and I wanted to tell you that coming from Atlanta when I came here and they were telling me about the echo funds I was like what tell me about that I'd never heard of anything like that and I think this county is so forward thinking to have something like this and to know that it was supported on a ballot by a community it just made me so proud to be part of this community and I have shouted that back to my friends in Atlanta more times than you could even imagine so good job and wonderful that you have this it just speaks volumes for commitments so we are uh part of whatever our initiative is when I was hired was to bring concerts back to the Ocean Center it was very clear during my confirmation from the council that that's what they wanted so we've been working on that and I didn't even realize that we had an in-house Jeffrey expert and I found that out last night I read his bio and I'm like wow so I know enough to know that I don't know what I need to know so when instead of calling phoning your friends back in you know my we're at my former life Jeffrey if you're okay you're going to be my new phone a friend buddy whenever it comes to this so what we are looking at he knows it all yes he does I read it everything I was like wow we don't we just so I look forward to him coming over and visiting and even before we spend any of this I would love for you to come over and make sure we're headed in the right direction but this literally is for lighting enhancements uh a lot of what most of everything of what we have is uh back from the original uh when we did concerts back in the 80s and I know last year in that amazing letter that Jeffrey wrote of the Strategic plan and why we needed one and when he mentioned Ocean Center I was like he was right on par with what you know my first week of saying and you know what how old are those lights because you know they faded the the bulbs are dim we need LEDs we need some some different types of lighting we also need some different types of power distribution the floor boxes in that in that Arena are to original to the building so we have a million-- dooll project that we're working on right now just to bring the floor boxes up to a current code and to provide them with the power that they need when we do have the uh the uh shows there so we part of what we're asking for is just a is is out of that million we're putting in a million is a 100,000 to get what's coming out of those floor boxes portable so that we can have portable distribution centers so that we pull out of a box and then pull over lighting I look so forward to working with Jeffrey on the uh the spotlights um one of the things when we first came was do we is our rigging adequate you know have we had anyone inspect our rigging and so we reached out immediately to have our rigging plots surveyed uh equipment as Jeffrey know it is very different today than it was you know in ' 86 are we meeting are we meeting the requirements we life safety safety is very important um to me so are we into everyone but and our rigging plots sufficient is there are they is the Integrity still there you know has there any structural Integrity that has happened over the past really 30 years so uh that is uh that's the direction so what we're here today is to let you know that we are investing a lot of money into the arena uh probably we're looking at close to and don't quote me on this cuz we're working on all the budget numbers right now but up to $8 to $10,000 we're redoing floors or redoing the floor boxes this would be uh we're redoing lighting girl you meant Millions did I say thousands you said that I meant Millions yeah yeah oh yeah we're real Big Spenders over there we're doing $8,000 yeah we thought we'd lay it all on the line I don't even know that we'd get a you know really good light system but you know we we last year we invested a million dollars in uh new sound in there and lights and I don't even know if anyone is aware of that but um so we're we've slowly but surely over the past year or two been upgrading and this is next year arena is our number one uh our number one priority is we're going to submit in our capital budget so I appreciate your cons your consideration does anyone have any questions Jeff I'm sure I'll just I'll just make a comment just so everybody uh when belua County built that Arena we vucha County had the first arena in Central Florida you know Orlando has built two since then so we we we were the first County in Central Florida to have an arena and um it needs upgrades it it does and Jeffrey's my new phona friend um I I have a question didn't we do an exceptional Grant at one time for the Ocean Center and it required them to have a cultural we required part of that there was a cultural piece that was supposed to be that was the Echo gallery gallery Echo Gallery do correct do we still do the echo Gallery there we still do and there was was a committee that was formed is that still active yes Tim Bailey in the audience actually runs that committee okay with Kate Sark at the Ocean Center so okay yeah so so we're Chim we're changing the this the uh paintings around is that what we're doing how often do we do that I'm sorry I probably should have asked you you would know that I think you have the expert here yep U good morning Tim Bailey parks recreation and culture director and yes we uh it's a 10-month uh rotation 10 month right there is a committee established um we follow all the echo guidelines Echo Gallery guidelines and uh it takes some time to uh to get all that going and then to rotate it out every 10 months but it is active and it stick into the 10-month time frame okay yep okay and and you're will you be sure that the board EXC excuse me the committee gets uh invited to receptions on that I know I've seen some of them sure yeah Y no problem okay thank you any other questions Madam chairman so the the 200,000 what are you what exactly are you going to be spending that on I have a complete list hold on just a second I took a picture for reference okay so we have and if Jeffrey you listen to you're going to see she just knows enough to know what she knows but if you have any any any more technical experience to put in please feel free yesterday was the first time I heard about this so I need to go back and actually wrote the plan that I had sent counsil over a year ago so well and we welcome you to literally before we spend any of this we will certainly get with Jeffrey over this but we are going to do um we need new spotlights for production we need new par can lights and again all of these are original to 80 to the 80s so you know light bulbs dim so if you go in there uh one of the I have a friend who does uh broadcast for uh ES SPN and we were doing a a show for on the uh basketball uh show in uh the in a the challenge when I first got there November and he calls me on the phone and he says hey you got some new lights in there which we did he goes you can tell in your broadcast I was like Yay so sportscasters are noticing it I think that's really a good thing and then we're going to do some new uh headsets some new wireless headsets some uh mic uh mobile microphones we need LED light trees uh portable PA sound systems we need electrical distribution boxes so once we redo that million dooll floor box then that's where we take the power and distribute it out to the to the various um needs new spotlights uh a new Transformers because we need to convert some 480s down to 208s and then sometimes down to like a 120 so as we do those step Downs of Transformers we have our original to the building as well and then we need new LED lighting in the upper bowl we did the lighting for the main Arena but in the upper bowl that lighting is still uh is original to the building so we want to just bright to brighten that up so that there's a compliment to what's going on on the floor so that is uh that is the $200,000 and just a followup and it might be for staff but um the so dce on investments like this I mean obviously a lot of that equipment I mean I recognize that if stuff is from 86 that's 40 years old but most of that most of the things that you listed there certainly aren't going to last 20 years or they're certainly not going to be um they're not going to be up to standards you know 20 years from now is that an exception for dce expenditures no sir so it is a um we require all Grant applicants to have a maintenance and replacement plan so if there um it's playgrounds are another one if it's you know if it's before the 20 years if something happens to that playground equipment before the 20 years is up they are committing to replace it uh um and which really can be um if you maintain it properly you know typically you won't have to unless there's vandalism or something like that but no that's the we expect people to honor their commitment for 20 years okay great thank you okay thank you so oh I'm sorry go ahead um I actually served on the echo Gallery advisory committee so just wanted to say that what Jack was saying earlier about the echo marketing um obviously maybe we do need to do a little bit more I know that when those galleries open the chef of the Ocean Center provides an incredible sampling of the food that they offer there and it's a wonderful opening an exhibit that does run um the committee is made up of several artists and so the the quality of the gallery exhibit is wonderful but again if people don't know about it they won't attend and so that kind of brings two of those things together right there in the heart of of or of Daytona Beach so I'll let you know two things that we have planned number one um we do have in our budget Echo the echo openings and some some smaller um Gatherings and we plan to do that part of my uh five-year strategic plan if you will is that we tell our story better and Echo is part of that story and not only do we tell our story but as a Community Asset we tell the story of the Community Asset of the Ocean Center um and I want to do this before I've been there for very long because I'm not Moses here parting the sea this has been an amazing organization long before I came and I just need to get their story out for them so one of the things that we're going to do is October 6th mark your calendar we're having to celebrate valua day and it's all of the things that when I first came here and I'm people are introduced me I'm like wow you do that like you have an environmental center wow you have you know your Halifax animal society has a 94% no kill rate that's leading in the nation you know we have Echo we have this art we have this so we're having an open house it's invited all of the vucha County residents we've already working with local television stations to get some promotion and whatnot free and we'll work with the uh News Journal to get everything out and we have some local talent that's going to be performing we're going to have the echo open we're asking echko you don't know it yet but we're asking anybody you want to come and do a a big presentation there so uh we are just now formulating what that's going to look like but all of you will be in a a invited and be all of you will hopefully have some suggestions for us but we want to just show off this amazing amazing in county that we have I say you have but I'm part of it now so that we have so it's exciting great are you happy jack okay okay good oh we we we will work with you directly we are I just we're I'm all about community and just KN that convention centers and I came from Performing Arts our number uh top 30 in poll star you in the world for Performing Arts and I know we had to tell our story you know we had to in Atlanta and we have to here so it's just letting people know what what we do at the Ocean Center that we are there for the community that is why we that is why weas is wonderful I have been going I've G through everybody and and you are the most enthusiastic uh director that we have had thank you thank you and anybody just give me a call and a shout anytime and Jeffrey your my new BFF and I would do want to go to uh P Mr Patterson do you have any questions okay why can we not hear him he can hear he can hear us us but we can he it's something on his end he might have the button muted figure out he can't like push a button to get to talk okay I am so sorry Mr Patterson but reality is we're probably glad no I'm strike that he's a good friend he's a good friend he knows I'm kidding so so and then just a touch on the Ocean Center I mean I was just there in March as well they had the uh CBI basketball college basketball tournament there as well which which is the third most prolific uh College you know after season tournament and they had a really really good turnout and ESPN really did love what they did there and I got some TV time as well because I run the shot clock for those games so oh good for you you know so that's always fun it is until I screw up and then I got to stop the game but I did pretty good let's go all right moving on to District three um we touched on Forest leaper uh an increase to be rant shade canopy in the amount of 10 grand and then long leaf pine Preserve at 50,000 uh for fishing dock and kayak launch and then a part of the adjustment was removing the DeVito property seaw wall uh from this plan um I I just received a text message as I said here from council member uh Robins District member who asked about Reef arches which I haven't had a chance to even read what he has sent me but he is interested in that so I just want to put that in your you know for back of your thoughts I will forward this information to you and it's something that we can do we probably should take a look at it okay okay okay oh and thank you for the bent Bicentennial dog park improvements that that do park down there was amazing does anybody have any questions on distri 3 okay okay District Four uh you touched on by Centennial uh we also have some parking improvements at Highbridge and James Orman tomb Park and then Strickland Park in Daytona uh updating the restrooms and an ADA accessible path from the fields uh and then we remov the Strickland Park lighting to LED in this District what are we going to do with dog park improvements there uh that's scheduled in fiscal year what are we going to do what kind of improvements yeah I'm sorry I'm just I'm in the dog so right good morning Tim Bailey parks recreation and culture director again um so that Park is really busy right and have you been to that location so uh there we're going to try to uh expand as we can right and uh there's some other benches and some other Capital structures that we can add to make it more uh user friendly uh there's already some watering stations we can add watering stations in other areas of that dog park area um but uh it's it's really it's it's tough to keep up with the maintenance there because of all the dogs that uh I know it's that are there there used to be a lot of grass there we we replanted three times I think probably looks like my and it's it it goes right back to the sand cuz it's just so many dogs on that footprint there so but it's a it's a great site yeah it is thank you well while Tim's here can I ask him a question um do we have a a beginning I'm not even sure if this question goes to you but do we have a beginning date for when the uh Veterans Memorial Park right is going to be started yeah so um I'm glad you asked that question because uh was it Tuesday of next week it goes before County Council for a Ward and then in terms of processes it takes approximately 30 days from that point for an ntp to be issued and the the project originally was $1.2 Million it came in at 1.3 and some change so we had to identify additional funding sources to to cover that cost right uh so in terms of leveraging and what we talk about match right a second ago uh we used the park uh impact fees the countywide park impact fees to cover that difference right so um after that ntp has issued um that 30 days after Ward then we plan on having the project done by October of this fiscal year right so that'll put us within the uh the extension time frame we didn't want to get outside of that extension time frame and come back to you for a request of extension so we're planning on having it done in October excellent right there'll be a ribbon cutting and so hopefully it'll be open for Veterans Day oh that would be yeah yes wonder and then we'll invite you all for the ribbon cutting and it's a great program Josh put in a lot of money if you remember right um out of his own pocket so uh and he's been involved and all that so uh yeah we're excited about it great thank you um can I ask a question about the remove Strickland Park lighting to LED yeah could you I don't know who's who want to explain we we did the analysis and it doesn't make sense to replace them until they're ready to be replaced okay because there are some cost savings with switching to LED but it's not significant enough that we should do it before the lifespan on the current lights are done well I'm thinking about what what managa had talked about so that's the answer on that one okay are you good question okay all right all right so for district five uh a lot of projects out at Leonia preserve uh include an ADA Boardwalk a pavilion and then a trail expansion and then High Banks an ADA floating dock and then also uh Veterans Memorial lighting was removed as well for the same reason that Brad stated and then we made two adjustments uh just to move uh Green Springs from 24 to 25 and Lake Monroe to 25 to 24 due to safety issues that take precedent at Lake Monroe okay questions on District Five I have a couple um the Ada boardwalk at Leonia that's going to go from where to where do we know have we looked at that yet didn't done a design on that yeah yes that uh design has not been done that's this year's project so we're about to start so we haven't done the design but it will go down from the LEC down to The Preserve itself okay oh that's good okay and then um I know we I think last year we working on some exhibits in uh I think there was a recommendation to improve the ex the exhibits just like the ocean Center had old stuff that that was goes back to 200 to 2012 or 2010 when we opened that doors on the Lac the exhibits had never been updated and we were I had asked that we do some update on exhibits do we know that's correct so there was 200,000 in last year's budget for dce to update those exhibits at this point at the January um and quarterly report so we'll get the next one April 15th is the next deadline they were 50% um and design 50% of the design was done I know there's a traveling exhibit there as well with the wildlife of the Wildlife Corridor but um I know the team is work Ginger's team is working on um those new exhibits at Leonia okay and then finally um and this is maybe a countywide issue uh the flo floating dock is is we're not we are increasing our population it's amazing the increase in population in valua County but we have not as a county Andor cities increased usage ability to get a boat out on the water for on on dockage so is that something that we look at through echo through our countywide dce expend or D what is it DC Direct County yeah direct County expenditures DC um have we looked at that about about how we how we get boats out in the water I mean I've got people have called me they won't go voting now because they they the uh docks are so backed up yeah like I can speak to the conservation land side of that where uh kayak launches canoe launches are a big part of our future plans on a lot of our preserves uh for example um of our 10 preserves we have seven primitive campsites four of those campsites are Waterfront whether they be on a river a lake or ponds so very popular sites for kayaking so our vision is to install kayak launches at all those sites over time well these are like motorboats they want to get out so a motorboat access I would have to let Tim Bailey on the parks Rec side speak to uh any plans for that you're up Tim I'm sorry but I'm getting calls on this one we're not keeping up with the population with the uh good morning Tim Bailey parks recreation culture director again so uh we did add two just recently so shell Harbor um was added and there's uh it's quite a bit uh traffic through that and if you remember that is the only boat launch on Lake George in Valia County so it and we we got that from donated properties right so that was a plus I said I think council member Patterson when he was council member worked that's right that was a big win for us right for the county yeah uh and then we uh just expanded lemon Bluff and so remember that used to be that small beautiful expansion by the way yep that small boat launch there in in ostein uh now uh with the new launch you can you can launch a rather large boat that you couldn't launch before plus we have all that parking that's that's on the other side so we added we added two so um the the tough part with adding more uh countywide is you got go out and acquire land sometimes it would require eminent domain I I don't have anybody coming to me and say I'd like you to right so eminent domain might be a part of it if we're looking to add more uh along the St John's or Halifax or other areas of the county okay thank you if I may add to that as well I think one of the the the good things about having Ekko and vucha forever under the same roof in terms of division is um how to creating trying to create Synergy and so one of the we're posturing at this point to acquire a piece on Lake George that has a boat a boat ramp slip dog what are what do we call it ni um that's the current family has boat access and so we plan to improve that for Public Access into the future great okay thank you any other questions on five okay all right and then this is the uh updated category that now includes the countywide project so this was the the fairgrounds Phase 2 project went here and then there were some small adjustments that were made in this plan as well um move the Dune walkover from 25 to 26 that Inlet Harbor area will be used as uh the Army Corp of Engineers will come in and use that for sand placement so they can distribute that sand out to other sites um we changed a project title uh and we remov samna Dunes Park main Pavilion renovation uh funding is coming from elsewhere and the 9th Avenue beach access Dune walkover was FEMA funded and then the Marine Science Education building went to this category as well and that concludes the presentation for all of the districts are there other questions for Daniel or this report Madam chairman Mr then I'll come to you go ahead J um yeah are there detailed plans just on the fairgrounds uh you're actually going to get a presentation of the fairgrounds today okay so this is just the okay okay that yeah that was my question also the million dollars to the fairgrounds okay and uh I only have um I asked about this when we met earlier to go over the agenda um art in public places I really would like us to look at that that for this program how that affects this program or whether it affects this program because we whether or not we're still doing art in public places because that was a big one when I was on Council that set aside of construction dollars for art in public places and also green um how are we do have we as a county said we are going to be do be doing sustainable Green Building practices on this because we are we're I mean we're sitting there out in the in the hallway there is a big plaque that talks about we're Green County so how are we implementing Green Technology aspects into any of our the these projects are we doing that we no longer Green County we were we were certified Green County when I was on Council so I think this came up last time and that um it did yeah that you know we the certification is expensive um and and there were also several I'm not asking about certification necessarily but I'm asking that practice are we the practice I know the certification Ginger dare will speak to that she Ginger hi good morning Ginger dare Environmental Management director so yes we are still a green local government with the Florida Green Building Coalition we just did our update to that certification and we're still um certified at the silver level so that is about County practices right so not just about a specific building or that sort of thing um we are also um while it's not required by the County Council um we are building some new buildings to Green standards for instance the sheriff's evidence facility and some others are also are you involved with the with this Pro with this these projects that we're doing I mean are we are we doing Green Building practices on these projects um not necess necessarily as a a whole County practice Although our um development engineering folks who are involved in all of the construction projects um are are um are a fan I guess I should say right they're they're proponents and so we have many new buildings that have um either green aspects or are actually certified as um green buildings on each of the direct County expenditure projects no I I'm not specifically involved I know when we do project with environmental of course we try to implement any kind of green practices and we're really good countywide at implementing practices that make Financial sense so those sorts of things like LED lighting and and all of the enhancements that you can do to a building because it makes the cost of operating the building lower so hopefully that answers your question has Ralph ever done a a seminar with our staff and journal um certainly the staff um is familiar with um fgbc and we Ralph comes and talks to us um not necessarily the you know at the elected or the board level okay I'll take it up with them then okay thank you okay any other questions Mr I I have a question and and this is just because I'm a relatively new at some future date I'd love to have a better understanding of what we're doing at the door sleeper preserve I think that's such a special and just at some future date thank you we can put that on the agenda that that's that's near and dear in my heart well I just think it I I know that it's a beautiful spot and I you know and it we're spending a great deal on it and I just want a better understand so thank you so we have to take a motion on this one you're looking for us to approve the this will then go to the County Council for their approval correct and when will that be uh it's scheduled for May 7th 7th okay can I get a motion to approve the updated Echo direct County expenditure plan I'll move to approve the updated uh County expenditure plan what's that all your fault anyway thank you is there a second I'll second the motion okay thank you thank you well we have a motion to to up to send to the County Council the updated Echo direct County expenditure plan all those in uh favor I don't think we need to take a a roll call all those in favor say I I I okay I any oppose okay you got your you got it okay thank you all right moving on to a new business excuse me do I have to do we have to do something yeah we just need Pat to give us a thumbs up or he mouth ey he mouth ey okay there he goes okay just want to make sure he's he's counted we don't want to leave him out today okay we are now going on to new business and we will have the presentation of the fairgrounds master plan I think this is a great interest yeah so the request by the committee at the last committee meeting to bring back some more information on the fairgrounds and we have with us today kayin Taylor the director of the extension office to give that presentation okay great the new Brad Burpa yes but I I can't confirm our deny I can fill those shoes so okay all right well good morning thank you for having me my name is kayin Taylor University of Florida IAS extension director um thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present the fairgrounds master plan one thing before I get started I would like to share with you the image that's on the first slide this is actually a photo that was taken of the original entrance to the fairgrounds in the 1920s and and the architect was William J Carpenter and um the original location of the fairgrounds was located at um West Land by the railroad tracks and it moved locations for a number of years and then in 1968 the first uh fair was held at the current location um where we exist now so this picture is actually across from the Amtrak station so where they was to put the elephants for winter that was the original Fair that's really interesting and unfortunately when William J Carpenter left um he was expecting to see that entrance for years and years to come but unfortunately that didn't happen there are some structures still um still there so if you haven't been to the fairgrounds I encourage you to come and visit just contact me I'll be more than um happy to show you around um from the map you can see to the north is State Road 44 to the West is I4 and to the east is pvat so we have when we talk about the fairgrounds it's a complex so we are lucky enough to have the UF IUS Extension Office located there we have um the Valia County Farm Bureau Valia County Cattleman's and the valuch county fair Association we're unique in that we have all four partners and stakeholders located at one location the map on the left has a um a breakdown on the ownership of the properties so in total Acres there's 110 um. 83 Acres at the complex the yellow color is property that's owned by the the county vucha county that's 2309 Acres Valia County Farm Bureau owns a total of 5.5 Acres that's indicated in the blue and the valuch county fair Association they own 72.9 6 acres and that's indicated in the red on the map so the map on the right hand side you can see there's a breakdown of um the actual structures that are located on the fairgrounds and um many of you if you have visited the Fairgrounds the three and four that is the Hester and dowty building which is a location a set of buildings that we will talk to um quite often in this presentation and then the number six is the Midway area the area that we call the Midway because that's where all the Fantastic rides and food vendors are set up during the fair so just to get you um acquainted with the grounds any questions on the Lo location yeah you didn't mention the green I don't who owns the green the green to the east is um various property owners and then also to the west or the South the Cattleman's Association is the green oh the green on the left hand sorry yes that's the Cattleman's Association so the um Cattleman's Arena and cook Shack are located at that that area thank you sorry about that that's okay any other additional questions all right so the fairgrounds master plan has five guiding principles which are indicated on the screen these guiding principles aim to preserve the fairgrounds complex historical and cultural significance while enhancing the appeal and the usage of the the complex so that's planning to guide investment we have applied for several different grants and in order to make sure we're utilizing those uh funds responsibly having a guide um and plan to utilize those funds is important opportunities for community activities there's a lot of various events that happen at the fairgrounds maximizing visitor experiences identifying Redevelopment opportunities and promoting uh innovation so and to ensure these guiding principles are met a series of steps have been taken and those steps include um facilities assessments looking at the current existing buildings the grounds and seeing what state that they're in also included in that was the General amenities that are offered at the fairgrounds um having Community input what the community would like to see occur at the fairgrounds what does that what does that actually mean Community input so going to do to get community input we've actually already done a survey to the community and then also a public meeting both of those occurred um the public meeting was in June of 2022 and the survey went out July of 2022 and we had roughly 30 participants at the public meeting and over 360 participate in the public survey and then the third um Step was acquiring a conceptual plan of the the master plan so from that survey that public survey um there's two slides um or set of data that I pulled from them and it says how important are the fairgrounds to your quality of life in Valia County and as you can see the fourth one down it's very important and a 110 um indicated that the the quality of life of the fairgrounds is very important to them and then in your opinion do the fairgrounds need improvements and over 70% indicated yes that the fairgrounds do need improvements made so as a result of the both the public survey and the public meeting um a list of priorities was developed and as you can see the top three um go back and forth between meaning adding and enhancing facilities um community events and programs and amenities throughout the fairgrounds any questions on survey or meeting I have a question on the survey how did you select the recipients what the population that you were going to survey so the survey was um we did emails to some of our stakeholders that are involved with the University of Florida ifas extension office and then those who are involved with the valua county um fair and then we also advertised if I remember correctly on Facebook for people to participate in this survey as well okay so when I look at very important then I'm going I I and I'm H I'm not arguing with it I'm just saying so but the people that participated in the uh survey were fairly well acquainted with the fairgrounds and used it to some extent already so some of them correct yes that is a an accurate statement and then some which I don't have the data in front of me some of them um because we asked that question how many times do you visit the fair and we did have a few respondant that hadn't visited the fair before which was kind of interesting and then we did have some that had been once or twice um it was kind of lower in the amount of visitation you're welcome and had you had almost 400 and some people at the public meeting no at the public meeting we had um just over 30 okay I get it backwards for the survey we had over 330 one of other things Pat as well is that we you know we tried to cast a wide net and we tried to get the public as well as the stakeholders of the fairgrounds to participate so press releases we talked about it on valua today um you know we put it on Facebook pages we asked people to share it so there was a wide net interestingly we had a lot of people that had been to the fair one or two times um this was right after covid so that the fairgrounds is where they were giving you know vaccinations and tests so a lot of people I think um who went to who were at the fairgrounds for those reasons also participated in this survey I just wanted to say that I uh it seems to me that it doesn't matter it's such a range of activities Etc that it is so hard to reach the public to tap them on the shoulder and say you need to participate in this and this not unique to the fairgrounds I can think about our marketing and everything else it seems like it to me it's very very difficult to reach the public that would complain but they may not participate in shaping the directions I did that's why I asked the question thank you yes ma'am any additional questions questions no see me so this is another set of data um the scale zero not import important 10 very important um as you can see the level of importance the highest one was ranking a education Associated industry activities but I would like to point out um three different ones the entertainment for residents ranked High events activities and infrastructure that highlight environmental awareness and then also highlighting Innovative Technologies were um captured in that survey and Echo related some emergent themes um preparing the East Side development um reconditioning the roads using green infrastructure um one of the issues that we have in the Midway area is drainage so I'll um incorporating that green infrastructure to provide um adequate drainage lighting shading um there if you've been to the the fairgrounds in that Midway area it's hot there isn't any shade so incorporating that so people have a a longer stay when they're there is important um incorporating those renewable energy um and addressing building deficiencies that we have develop and attract the shaded areas again for both outdoor and cultural activities and developing new new venues can we get that um that architecture back the we that that AR I I love that entrance piece are we looking at doing anything with the entrance we have not discussed that yeah we have discussed of adding a a entrance piece um there's quite a few entrances to the fair the main entrance is off of 44 so for our building yes yeah to the fairgrounds there they would right when you come in into the fair you come in through the back at least correct yeah you're right yeah that's just such a cool piece it is it is a really Unique Piece when we rebuilt Mainland the mainland that we have now we use the architectural elevations from the Bay Street Building since I attended the Bay Street Building are you listening Mr bbang we we use the elevations from that 1925 building for our new Mainland thank you if we can't incorporate it it would be nice to at least have the image and have it displayed at the the fairgrounds at least yeah yeah don't don't tell me image um our funding sources so in 2021 we awarded um 750,000 in arpa funds that has helped um pay for the master plan fees the design and Engineering plans um Paving for Shell roads new uh signage because that was definitely one of the things that um people had mentioned was directional signs when you get to the complex it's really challenging to know where you're going and then improvements to the h dowy building um fdax we which is the Florida Department of a and consumer services we were awarded in 2023 a $1 million Grant and that was for their um agricultural facility enhancement Grant and again utilizing them for the same purpose as the ARA funds and then on here we have the echo dce for 2024 at a million dollar and Echo dce 2025 for a million dollar and again improving that drainage adding those new um lighting to the the Midway area and then using the improvements as education demonstration area to highlight the use of these Technologies and then also funding permits developing a celebration Plaza for community and cultural events there would be and I'm going to put my two cents in here again about art in public places which in previous Renovations we've we've done well with that we those big uh um paintings of kids and animals just I think that's a Hester building that that they're in that came out of the art and public places from the County Council years ago and we really need you you know we really need to look at anything new how we incorporate art and public places in in this the the entrance Fe would entrance location would be great when um someone had mentioned that earlier I actually wrote it down um in my notes the art in public places cuz I've seen it around the county but I didn't know specifically that was what it was called so those pieces that they have a committee that P selects that stuff and those pieces particularly were selected to go with that building and they are great pieces they're great pieces so I have plans to look into that more that are in public places any questions regarding the funding sources okay there any other questions okay thank you we have more all right so for the Hester owy these are the plans that we have for um some of the improvements so the first section is um allowing access to external access to the restrooms which on the bottom part of the slide you can see I wish I could mark on here um a entrance and then it's um incorporating a wall that would allow only access to the restrooms and not access to the Hester owty building um for certain events if they're only utilizing the Midway area and then um incorporating glass doors and a glass wall and then we could utilize that new um space that has been created for different activities out at the fairgrounds this is um what the front of the building is projected to look like um the rollup doors we would like to incorporate insulation um so we're not losing um air and AC make it more energy efficient and then utilizing storefronts to make it more opening and inviting um to the public I will share with you when the consultant came she's like you have a warehouse in the middle of a field at your Fairgrounds it's not inspiring it is it is not inviting so for the Midway area this um isn't a very good diagram or draft that they gave us it's kind of hard to see but what you're looking at is light placement so the lights at the top those are replacing existing lights with more energy efficient LED lights and then at the bottom um those are all new lights um because it is very dark in the Midway um so this offers a security piece as well for the Midway area again um some of the areas what we would like and what we found out as Brad has mentioned during um the covid vaccines and the give outs um it would have been nice to be able to control the Ingress and regress of traffic so the new plan um would allow for that it would allow for us to block off certain areas to direct traffic more efficiently and then also it would allow for like when we have the farmers market the Farm Bureau Farmers Market every Wednesday it would allow for um staging of those vendors to look more like a a Market Square um it looks more intentional with this new design as opposed to the existing design another thing is Paving the shell roads um because that's another thing that we ran into during the um amount of traffic that we had during covid is um just all the dust that um accumulated during that that event and then if we were to have another emergency type situ ation again being able to control that traffic in and out um of the the grounds is really important so that glass area I was talking about this is um what that would look like oh yes ma'am excuse me this do the fairground still operate as the um pet shelter during a hurricane and in this this these buildings I just want I'm thinking of the parking the direction and everything else does that still fun function that way during hurricanes yes ma'am and so it's in the Hester dark building no ma'am okay oh so this is the area um that glass wall I was talking about that's kind of what it would look like this picture I'd like for you to concentrate on the building itself and you can see that storefront look to it again inviting it doesn't look just like a cold Warehouse some ideas for the green infrastructure that we've presented this is incorporating green infrastructure to those education and demonstration areas um the good thing is we have a plethora of Master Garner volunteers who are really good and very passionate about growing green things and so um the maintenance of this would definitely not be a problem these are some ideas for that celebration Plaza that area to offer um shade and then for future plans on that list would be a multi-use open air facility um land acquisition to both the East and the West that was um brought up quite a bit during our public meeting and then um big future plans is having a vucha fresh Conservation Center and Environmental Education Trail and parking area so this is a some pictures of what the multi-use open air facility would look like this is a map of the future land acquisition both to the East and the West can I stop you there and ask you about the land West is that the where they were one time talking about putting a truck stop the East has had discussions of a truck stop um to the West that's been um discussions regarding housing and um industrial use yeah I'm sorry industrial yeah okay so we're we're looking at acquiring that property so that we would actually be adjacent to the interstate correct correct okay so between us and I4 good good thing to use to do and then this is um some conceptual plans for that valua forever Conservation Center and then on the map to the right you can see the trail system if that land uh to the east of us was acquired with um parking area any additional questions any additional questions well yeah just want to reiterate I think what Pat just said about um that land acquisition that was going to be one of my questions it's extremely important seems like you're kind of landlocked and with we are four different owners on that building you know on that yeah that's a unique situation which really prohibits um a real master plan from you know moving forward you you you have to get approval from four different organizations so fortunately with all four Partners we have a great relationship and they have been involved since the beginning in discussions with this master plan and even the um development of those conceptual plans um so like I mentioned it's great that we have a working relationship with them um and they're all supportive of the master plan there were there were also some some suggestions in the master plan for those entities to do um you know like an upgrade to the Cattleman's facilities we went out and met with Cattleman's to try to get them to apply for an Echo Grant um but like many farmers they don't want the government involved in their business so um I know the fair Association has engaged um you know folks to help them write an echo grant that just came too late last time um so they know they understand that they're part of this uh master plan process too and hopefully will um seek out funds to to um do their part and several of them have already started taking on those suggestions and making plans um for improvements so the Cattlemans have been working diligently um over the past couple months of improving parts of the arena in preparation for Cracker Day and so what is the timeline on this remind me again of the timeline so our plans um hopefully will be finalized by the end of the month and we would like to start construction by January 2025 okay and be done by end of August 2025 because we do have the fair so we have to account for a very large um event taking place and are you working separately on the acquisition of of those two Parcels that we saw on the plan for future acquisition is that being worked on or simultaneous so we haven't received direction from Council on that we've we've asked the these two phases um when we take it back in September that will be our next task okay okay that's important yeah so that that is the county is wants to acquire that we're not it's going to be County acquisition it was suggested that the county acquire it we haven't received direction from Council I will tell you probably the West Side um is a large 120 acre parcel that's a long I4 and will probably receive some commercial development um because it is the last um open I think exit on I4 um besides like I guess like yeah it is um so the east side is more attractive in terms of of acquisition I will say we did take into account development at that East on the west side kilamanjaro piece um and have done a roundabout so if you were have to get to that development you could not come in from the front so we suggested a roundabout at the southwest corner of the fairs property which would give them access to that property but also do a nice road all the way around with some sidewalks and a path so the the perimeter of the fairgrounds would be walkable for people who wanted to all right any other questions the other comment just to um reemphasize what Pat said about you know the the historic entrance that you that first picture um it's amazing beautiful architecture of a long lost time but um you know Jay would probably like this one of our criteria in Orange County for um cultural facilities is architecture and does this in Inspire creativity and uh Beauty and art is this something you want to leave behind for the next generation and when you put when you get good architectural designs together you can make a lasting impression and you know I hope that we can do something along that lines well you know I didn't say much I mean they um you've been quiet today I have been quiet today but you know it does need you know uh the fairgrounds it does need an entrance probably more than one entrance but I mean I've driven across 44 for 25 years now and it's just so sad that that should be something that you really want to go into and everything I was there for covid and yeah it was Dusty and miserable and I was like oh my gosh yeah you do have a warehouse in the middle of a dust bowl so I mean the improvements are definitely there but I mean long term it would be really nice to have some kind of iconic entrance I don't know that we need to look like the 1920s but I would like to see something that's iconic and not just a sign you know Madam chairman um I just I just want to say that I think the land acquisition is the single most important thing um I I agree with these other improvements that you're working on but um 10 15 20 years from now we're going to go oh my God why didn't we buy that land to the right and to the left to the East and the West I mean we're I feel like at times you're maxed out as it is you know with the current thing and the land's never going to be cheaper you're certainly not once it's developed you're not going to be able to buy it and the land to the West would be my preference the land I have a question on the land to the east um is that environmentally sensitive is that why you the plan showed a walking trail and Echo um you know Museum or whatever Whata forever so it it is forever yeah it's it's pretty wet um but it would we don't know it's never been the problem with it there's like seven owners of that parcel seven different ownership groups of different Parcels in there and so um judging individual Parcels through the forever process would not be favorable to that piece um now if we got them all together it would probably score higher so one of the things that I I think that the the Consultants told us that didn't come out in this presentation is you the the The Preserves the 11 preserves that you have acquired through valua forever are all within 20 like nine of them are within 20 minutes of the fairgrounds so when you get people coming off I4 you know the fairs are it's an amazing place we need to really do this right yeah so uh we will ask for acquisition in the next phase great and then and then just a comment regarding entrance um you know to me festive would be the word the adjective that I would use for an entrance I mean in other words fun exciting festive you know a place that you actually want to go I mean that historic photo is interesting but does it canote festive does it canote fun does it canote you know I mean all the things that would attract kids and family Ames and you know so it's just just my opinion thank you okay you got a lot of opinions up here so yep everybody has one please take them uh seriously because I think we all mean what we say so yes ma'am thank you there any we don't have to take action on this correct no ma'am okay thank you all right thank you again okay um and can we have have them come back occasionally and update us on where we're at sure we can do it each year as part of the DC plan presentation because this is a countywide one I think it's important thank you okay we're now going to go to review of echo guide book changes and uh who's taken that all right so these are recommendations to uh to the echo guide book for committee consideration today that we put together um the summary maybe just zoom in a little bit for them so I could see it you guys can see that okay so uh here are the uh recommended changes uh with the rationale as well as the page number in the guide book where the change has been made um do you guys want me to go over these one by one let's let's start with the so a clarification is just clarifying A current Rule and a modification as a policy change so for your benefit that's why we've categorized them that way so and they're all highlighted in in the I when you yes we've track changes as part of the the guide book so you can see these yeah everybody looked at that already and do you want to hear more information or are you okay are you prepared to do a presentation on this I don't want to cut you off but no I was just going to take these are for your consideration and then you know up for discussion so I would ask if you would clarify on page seven exactly what that language means to the program and give us some examples so right now for-profit agencies can be management Partners so let's say we have a for-profit agency that's managing a a municipal owned facility um we would allow them to have a management agreement however if they were already in place managing that agreement as a for-profit entity they couldn't apply for Echo that's that's what this is saying it's so we we encourage public private Partnerships by saying a private partner can operate uh an echo facility or Echo project do we have any examples currently of that Jackie Robinson Stadium yeah that's what I thought and would this also impact uh council member Dempsey's um program that he wants to do with uh dirt bikes is a dirt bikes he's doing so I I think the plan is a direct County expenditure um if that um you know if the the Motocross facility moves forward so this wouldn't apply to that but if they came through the grant process yes I didn't think of that one but that's a good example so clarification then with this change the Jackie Robinson Park would not be eligible for an Echo Grant they would be they would be okay thank you but they would be subject because one of the issues the last time was that they didn't even know they didn't have any information what they were going to do with that site aren't I right yeah they nothing other than a building and they were going to maybe let the public do use it maybe not during certain times I reread the grant yes they were not ready okay and I think staff made that clear to them that they've worked hard and they're actually gonna I think they've bonded $40 million if I remember correctly so they're going to do the whole enhancements as two in two phases they've selected um a firm to work with as well recently that's all okay questions on the uh summary of changes I I have and I don't know whether it belongs here or not but in the minutes I believe was the minutes we talked about the need to align the um application with the with our scoring sheets and I don't know that that has happened yet or whether that's part of this process but that was really important the scoring sheets and I know I understand where the council was coming from I I get it but they were difficult to align with Grant application we we heard you loud and clear and we've already had some discussions internally about we will put next year the sections that you should be looking at when you're scoring that so you will know um where which section applies to each section of the grant or each section of the rubric okay we will definitely do that we heard you and and just from the chair perspective and I'm trying to find it now but there was a comment about the chair being part of the process when it was presented to the county and um they always were when I when I was served on the count Council they were they have not been much of a a presence lately I mean I didn't feel like I was as a former chair as the shair of this the last time we had um a presentation we didn't give even we didn't even acknowledge who was in the audience we need to do that we need to do a better job of whoever comes in after chairman after me that they are part of the process so the committee the County Council recognizes the importance of this committee and I would say that for Felicia forever too because I don't think is it Jessica who who is the chair of Felicia forever Jessica gal who's the chair there uh Wanda Van Dam's current chair oh Wanda okay okay I don't think Wanda was called out this cheer so that's just personal issue that that I noticed and I would ask that we be a little a little more inclusive of the two programs when they go before Council of the Committees I I have I have a qu a question when when we were going through the uh Grant approval process most recently one of the things we struggled with this as a committee was when we had projects that were felt relatively large in scope possibly multi-year was there a way to do something and it wouldn't be perhaps in this but I'd like to put it forward for discussion um would be something that you might approve a project in concept so that somebody before they go forward with the investment in design Etc recognizing that it's multi-e but we love the concept we supported the concept and I I know I'm thinking from education funding they don't at the University level I do Pico dollars for a year for planning Pico for construction and then Pico for you know completion and furniture but I'm just trying to think when we've had large projects and and the fairgrounds or the do sleep any one of those sometimes when when people come in applicants come in and say design build some projects are suitable for design build others really are not but they because they have to be shovel ready there's not a way to approach this and be and be a successful applicant without have I I'd like to have us take a look look at the steps that we require to make sure that the public interest is safeguarded that we have PE entities that are a available to begin to advance a project plan a project that we're familiar with it and can support the projecting concept and help that move forward because some of the larger projects will require that now when it's a county-owned project like the fairgrounds or door Leeper that's that's the way that works but if if we have something that's owned by another jurisdiction or a not for-profit and I and I'm even Stetson something that looks at what's required to do a multi-year with a recognition that before you invest and I think Edgewater did $800,000 in planning Master planning for their site and they're hoping to be S successful subsequently for some of their side enhancement something I just would like to I to for us to contemplate a way to do that to ensure the uh public interest to ensure that we have a long-term planning uh approach and that we allow successful applicants is there any comment on that I think it's I comment um yeah I I like that idea I think applicants at any time can come to an echo meeting and tell us about a future project uh in 2021 we tried to get municipalities and organizations to come forward to five countywide meetings we had and talk to us about what are your plans for the future we want to try and come up with the long-term plan for Echo it was very difficult to get people to actually come and tell us anything um maybe we need to encourage that a little bit more but we've I think we've always been open to that I just don't think applicants have taken advantage of it or or really seen the uh advantage of coming and telling us about a project that they have maybe next year or two years from now when I watched the County Council examination and approval of the various projects and I saw the series of questions that Troy Ken in particular asked I felt that any applicant would have to be very very far along and have ADV invested sub substant iial dollars whether or not they had an anticipation of being a a successful Grant applicant and I think that recognizing that there may be multiple steps W uh would meet concerns uh so that's yeah yeah I agree with that I think we we kind of touched on it a little bit last meeting but I think a phased approach so that people knew that yeah we're interested so you know bring us something that's um appro and keep going you know I think it might be time that it's been a while since we have had a joint workshop with the County Council it's a whole new County council with that when I and I listened like you did and heard some stuff that was wow that that's that's different um and and maybe we should request a workshop with the County Council to discuss these issues I'm thinking of the bearing I'm thinking of the marketing oh he's left text left the marketing issue marketing how we Market the program how we fund the pro not fund the program we know how we fund the program but how we distribute funds whether the match and uh I'm looking at carman's letter whether the match is correct whe that would lower in the match would get us more projects because we are carrying a fairly significant amount of re of Revenue reserves so I don't know how do y'all feel about that if I may um I I think the um the two-phase concept is a really good idea just to just to boil down some numbers if you're if a city is requesting a $600,000 city or a nonprofit requesting a $600,000 grant you know it's going to be at least a million2 project right the soft cost on that could easily be 10 to 20% so you're talking it could be a quarter of a million dollars quarter of a million dollars that they have to invest under the current rules in order to be shovel ready okay and they don't know whether or not they're going to get the $600,000 I know there were some comments last time well but those plans they they don't go to waste but cities are risk adverse they don't want to spend money on something that they may or may not be able to ever build so they don't want to put those plans on the Shelf hoping that somewhere down the road they get funded for that project so I I really think that a a a a a s the first phase where I don't know exactly how that what that looks like but it's a it's a an approval of the concept and maybe a preliminary reservation of funds for them to come back with so they can go back to their commissions and say okay we got they like our concept they're setting aside the money for us and in the next cycle we know we can come we we can invest the money in the soft cost with a much higher level of certainty than we would have going in just cold Okay so I think that's really that the the at the end of the day the objective is to get more grants out there get more money into the private into the public sector get more projects done how do we reduce the barriers the impediments and I'm I'm I'm I'm pleased that that staff is going to hire a consultant to help us with our process apparently a lot of applicants have said it's easier to get a federal Grant than it is to get an echo Grant okay so so that may be the case I I don't know I've never never applied for one but um I I think the at the end of the day we want to lower the barrier without risking abuse of public funds and then I'll also repeat the comment I made last time which is that all of the money is taxpayer money every dime that goes into whether it's Grant or match whether it's a municipality the county or a a not for-profit where are they getting the money even the not for-profits that's taxpayer money those are donations from taxpayers and almost exclusively people in belua County I would suspect the grand scheme of things so it's all the money of the people who voted 80 90% to continue this program that's funding these programs I'm not not suggesting that we shouldn't be diligent about uh protecting the funds and making sure that people do what they say they're going to do but I do think that there I do think that we should look at a way to reduce the risk especially to cities and nonprofits and then and then relative to marketing I love the suggestion that Jack seret made of the tdcs oh I did too that was there's three of them you know in belalia County on the West Side the east side and Delona oh newna that's right newna yeah Southeast and um you know now obviously they're you know I mean I would say their primary objective is put heads and beds because that's where their revenue Source comes from but this is a way to put some heads in beds if they get the word out uh and you know a station okay Georgia Turner from West fuia is already uh she said something like 38% of her calls are about trails and how people can use Trails so Trails over here are a big deal and she's already doing some marketing on that but I think you're right I think they could do more they could do more on our Echo resources and that's a budgetary issue for the council because they take their budgets before the council right and maybe maybe just a just a thought to encourage the tdcs to do that maybe there's a a there some Cooperative funds from Eko to the tdcs to stim to help prime the pump you know if you invest whatever 50 Grand or something and promoting Echo projects will kick in 10 grand or something I don't know what somebody needs to you know look at that um and I I get well the final thing was just get more money out I think at the end of the day and I I guess I have one question for staff um you reserve you use the phrase Reserve stabilization I assume there's a that means there's a future goal that you want to have no more than x number of dollars in reserves in future years so you plan out these dce expenditures in future years not typically sir it was um really to keep it from growing year after year before the dce it was growing about four four to 5 million a year um and so the dce by developing a fiveyear plan I think was the strategy that we took so we can adjust in future years if we need to the dce but there will always be money for the grants as long as the tax is levied by the council MH okay so is there is there a an acceptable level of I mean what what do you what does staff Envision the appropriate level of Reserves at any given moment is I'd have to ask our CFO what his opinion is um I know when it was getting towards 20 million that there were questions about should we Levy the whole should we level Levy the 02 Ms oh well that's that's a really bad idea not it's a really bad idea to reduce the millage rate the levy because the way better idea is get the money out exactly exactly so so we went and figured that out and and I don't know I know this Council doesn't necessarily meet I mean they they have streamlined a lot of what they do but I really think it is important that they hear from and and maybe you do do a joint volution forever in Echo workshop with them I don't know but I think there are questions out there I'm hearing them from Council or for from committee members that we can make recommendations all day but it's really good to see face to face to sit there face to face with them so I will leave it at that because I don't see much enthusiasm for meeting with them I would like as a member as a member of ucha forever as well that's right and Echo uh we need the synergy we we really do and I think that was brought up at our last meeting briefly to to just the idea of meeting with Eko so if I may and just kind of summarizing what I'm hearing from the group and try to thread the needle here so 3.1 million is the maximum for uh a facility can get from us that is the max so that's one exceptional Grant at 2 half million and one standard Grant so if we operated under the current rules we could potentially say 600,000 is available for phase one and to support the conceptual plan and for you to continue to get the drawings and then this would be for exceptional projects only um you know we've had in the last iteration of the program I think four over the life of the of the 20 years three or four exceptional we've had four or five in this one already in this round so low ing that match has helped as well but this keeps the rules in place but it gives them kind of some seed money in that first standard Grant to UM Vet their concept so let me I want to be so as I listened to what Dwight was saying and also what you're saying and it occurred to me for example with this ex extraordinary Grant where with the the value of the land that's a land match that's substantial so having a grant that helped pay for the soft cost wouldn't be shovel ready okay it would not meet that criteria but it helps move the project away and along and I was thinking of some of the playhouse and the theaters that we've worked with if they were able they have a match because they have the building they have quite an asset if they were able to apply for even the soft cost initially and then come back with the construction that's not shovel ready but it means that it really gets the money out in a very responsible way and to move forward with substantial architectural and Engineering drawings and not know that you have a project that will go forward I think is difficult for some of the nonprofits did did you put put together a committee or were you going to put together a committee for the Strategic plan to get question to get these kinds of questions out in the community for them to to speak to us through the Strategic plan so strategic plan has three tasks one it is to um look at our do an inventory of assets across the county um what's deficient what are future plans you know where should there be investment um by eeko so it's kind of that long range plan the the second task is to look at our process um the process as you as Dwight shared and Teresa will share and many great grant writers who if I one comment you know it's it's an isolated incident but when there's multiple comments it's a it's a pattern that needs to be addressed and we have an arduous Grant process it's that simple it's because we continue to just add rules to address every situation is what it seems like to me um we've asked them to look at our process and fully integrate it from application to annual reporting have we asked have we asked people like that did know that know the process to yes what we asked the consultant to do is to do some focus groups so there will be focus groups for that task one with Municipal and nonprofit Partners task two there'll be focus groups with our grant writers and individuals who apply to the program the third task of that is to look at given that we require individual projects to be marketed how can we holistically Market Echo what are some suggestions they have in terms of engaging with the tourist development councils you know and um having a focus group with some of those folks as well so that's kind of and this this committee would be included would be asked would be given those dates of course okay yeah so it's out on the street right now we haven't received any proposals I think it went out yesterday Daniel so this week okay um okay so everybody happy with that uh that was a lot of my questions I had in the actually when I reread the minutes from our last meeting and was looking at my notes I was expecting some more information about when those workshops would be because we've been talking about it for a long time I think well long time since I've been here which is just the whole time um I did want to say I thought staff did a really good job of of um taking the recommendations for the language change and some of the things to the guide book but it does seem a little bit like we're putting a bandaid on it and just keep moving forward and trying to be very reative actionary rather than um do some of the things that Dwight brought up with is yes we do want more applicants and they are limited due to some of the factors that we suggested um but the the Strategic plan just went out yesterday you said it went out on the 9th on the 9th okay so do we have we we don't have an idea yet then when these meetings will be convening the focus groups uh we do not the bid the bid closes on May 8th so one of the things that we struggled with as a as a committee I I specifically was the clarity on the design build versus the shovel ready and I think that almost every application that we reviewed um in this past goor round had that question and one of the Band-Aids if you will that was put on was that design build was okay although it was unclear as to how we were to score those and so I'm curious because we're going into the the next part of our agenda is the second cycle um so maybe there could be some more clarity on that if we are to review the applications again prior to a new application in the Strategic committee's and focus groups meeting to maybe add Clarity to that so I will share um design build is not an acceptable process it's designed bid build and I will own that I I've characterized it wrong in this meeting I've ized it wrong to Carmen um but design build does not have plans it it's basically a concept plan and then it's value engineered throughout the process and it starts at about 60% they start construction when they have about 60% as my understanding from our County engineer so as it is now a design build would not be acceptable that's what Daytona was going to do last time semar is another you know construction manager at risk is another kind of design build approach um the problem with design build is if we fund something up front we don't really know what we're going to get in the end because it's value engineered but I think if we go with the solution that Dwight and Others May propose is we'll give folks an opportunity UPF front to we will invest in the project if we approve the concept within the current rules that you can get a standard and an exceptional Grant um those are the ones I would be worried about are those large amounts those $2.5 million projects where hey we're investing would Carman say $1.8 million and you know uh in their investment and so and not knowing into the future I I think Council would be amenable to that type of change because they want to help our mun Municipal Partners uh but do it within the confines of the rules okay and then just to Clarity we could we could make those changes in advance of waiting for the Strategic plan and the rewrite of the whole application and focus group meetings certainly you could make those recommendations Council okay um back to the agenda item do we need to approve this this says review but I think we probably need to approve the changes correct yes okay okay is there anybody who wants to oh there she is to uh approve the review of the excuse me approve the echo guide book changes that were recommended by the staff I'll move we uh approve the echo guide book changes as presented by staff there a second I'll second and we have a first and a second uh all I'll call for the the vote all those in favor I any opposed hearing none that that that um motion Carri cares Stephanie is there any additional or or Dwight a motion or Jeff that you want to make today or do you want to wait until we get the um results of the Strategic plan okay I don't think it I don't think it requires a motion at this point I think staff has heard our recommendations and heard the discussion I I'd like to hear what the consultant I got a feeling yeah the consultant is going to understand you know the issue probably see it might be abundantly obvious and they'll come back with uh with a you know with some suggestions all right we can do that then we'll move on to review additional Grant cycle can I ask a question to is that there must be a camera that's in front of your face correct yes it is very disturbing when you're sitting up here if you're short I'm me the short people we can't see them so just I'm just complaining I'm sorry it's okay uh can you can you put the calendar up for me oh would when when the U I'm sorry but but when the woman from the ocean C are I kept I focused on the well this does go up and down too by the way yes that's right it does okay yeah they are short I'm I'm short I'm sitting there thinking when I address the council what are they looking at they looking at the camera or me look at me anyway okay go ahead I'm sorry all right so uh at the County council meeting on April 2nd uh just to I was going to touch on this in my staff comments but I might as well wrap it up here uh so seven apps were recommended for funding and then the new samna application that was not recommended by you guys did get approved as well and then the DeBry application was deferred or postponed to the second Grant cycle which this calendar was uh presented to them um there so this is our draft calendar for the new MID spring cycle and it's draft because this is where we have a conversation of a as a committee if some one of these dates will work for you we'll pull the council chambers calendar up Jill if we need to change any of [Music] these and obviously we'll have two you know Cycles kind of going on at the same time and interfering so we try to do the best of you know incorporating the calendars uh to make them efficient but April 25th is not required of the committee correct no right just the applicants just the applicants and then you have a technical Grant deadline that won't be committee and then final committee would be would be Wednesday August 14th and then September 12th correct those are the two dates that we really need uh guidance on okay and I looked at my calendar and they're fine for me did everybody get a chance to review them I mean I I may have a problem with the 12th September of course do you want are you g that week Jay or you want to move it try to move it a day or I'm out that week okay okay can we ask to that for the staff to take the following week Jill what's the calendar look like in the chambers up to the 5th or the week before on the 5th the 16th I can't hear you we're we're looking at it six want to just take a a look at that and get back with us is there other problems in in September that members what about September 5th I'm good with that I'm good with September 5th I'm I have a conflict on September 5th what about September 6th I think it's yeah I'm at a conference it's uh okay four five and six all right Wednesday Thursday 17th is a council meeting so what about the 19th about before the council meeting pdrc is on the 19th we're about the 18 18 can we meet in the workshop room or so we we really like to record these cuz a lot of the public listen to them and it requires significant resources of the AV team to set us up down there what about the 18th does that work that's code board what time oh 8 to two Okay about the 20th Belia forever it was a lot it was this was the hardest date for us to try to put on the count CU there was a lot of what if we met at 1: in the afternoon instead of at 9: well this is this is where we actually score correct yes that's correct yeah yeah so what was that is said available I'll make myself available so I'm not planning on doing anything except yeah 25th 25th works for meth is going once 25th you can't make 25th you can you can 25th y 25th 25th September 25th Final Answer 5th yeah smart Al good job okay okay and do we need to take a motion on that because this again says or just I'm looking at the attorney I think this is informational item we just want to get your input in terms of the dates okay you all good with that we're good okay thank you I just a question so then the next cycle also starts when does the next cycle start just just making sure I understand what's going on right around the same of course right right around the same the same time the uh technical app is due in uh December uh the I the September Workshop is September 26th so Danel so he's saying that the the annual cycle will start in September just as we're awarding these at Council we'll start a we'll start another cycle which is only this time it is not routinely going to be a second cycle we're only doing it for this time that is correct all right okay Daniel we'd like to take a minute to make sure Pat Patterson is okay with the 25th okay okay can you give us a thumbs up see him there we just can't see him right Pat Patterson can you give me a thumbs up you me text him he's looking around I mean he texted me to tell me he couldn't make the I can see him yeah he just uh is he awake Pat can you hear me now can you give me a thumbs up to see um for September 25th will that work for you perfect thank you okay good okay we have a date yes wonderful thank you okay all right so uh next up uh if you can go back to the PowerPoint Ashlin when you get a second uh next up will be the uh chair and vice chair election right um can I just say it has been a pleasure to have served I think two years I think I did two years working with staff you all have been wonderful to work with and I appreciate all the contributions that you make and um but I'm really happy to hand this off at this point so um I would ask the attorney uh I have a recommendation can I turn the gavel over to my vice chair and make the recommendation and put put name the nomination and then ask for other nominations am I allowed to nominate I'm being I'm being hissed at from the podium so is there did you have something you was going to I was going to go over the Robert rules of orders and the the rules of the meeting but if you are always welcome to hand over your Gaff if your Vice chair will accept it um but let's let Daniel speak into how he would like to go forward and then if you decide you'd like to hand over your Gaff you can still do that yeah so all right so Robert Rules of Order a nomination by majority vote so we'll do the chair first and then we'll do Vice chair next uh chair is not allowed to make a nomination but a person can nominate their themselves uh members should not offer more than one nomination for the same office a nominated member May decline to accept the nomination and either Voice or roll call is acceptable and then the newly elected chair whoever that may be uh will take pos position possession of the office immediately and they will run the remainder of the meeting so I it says I can't make that when you hand over your gavel you are no longer the chair so if you hand over your gavel to your Vice chair then for the duration of the meeting you are no longer chair so you could still make a nomination if you would like to or you can just wait and see what your other council members or excuse me your other uh committee members do correct so the ball's in your court now oh thank you okay okay um I will first call for other nominations I um have a have a person I think would be wonderful for it but uh it's there nomination okay I'm handing you my gavel and I would put into nomination sanly as shair she's been here almost probably as long as I have been I'm trying to think when you came years you're we're old folks we're old folks so Reggie has been around the I don't want to say around the block but she has certainly been a uh a supporter of eeko and I know when we went to um reauthorization that you helped with that a lot so I want to um put your name into denomination if you would accept it thank you I'll accept you accept it is there other names to go into the nomination does that require a second no does that require a second I thought nominations did not require seconds I will I'm just going to say this to Pat though if you're going to hand over your gavel you got to stop running the meeting though you got to do one or the other running she can't help it she's been doing this so long dust me off again where were we we do we do we need a second for that a second you need a second for a motion not the nomination itself yes okay I move we uh nomination I move we close nominations I'll suck in that I don't know what I'm right so I'm sorry to be clear you can do this either either way so you can with the nomination the nomination could be I nominate and a second and then you can like do that as the actual Vote or you can do what we just did and close nominations and now there needs to be additional motion and that needs to be seconded and then you can vote on it either way you want to do it so in this case you need a motion in a second now for for re yes we did need a motion in a second we didn't have a vote on that other motion no wait what do we need CL the motion to close there's not was not Ved how about this who who made the second on the motion to close you want to withdraw that Dwight you want withdraw your motion withdraw my second there we go Mo Clos is there a second for the nomination we'll do that way instead yes I'll second the Nom there we go all right now Jay if you'd like to ask for a vote on that may we have a vote you want to do it by roll roll call let's do a voice roll call and I'm sorry Roberts I couldn't put you on this I couldn't talked about this with you before so Pat northy yes Jay Pendergast yes Jeffrey alt yes Pat Drago yes John Macaluso yes Stephanie Mason Teague yes Pat Patterson he's giving a thumbs up Reggie sanelli yes Dwight Selby yes motion passes conratulations thank you I don't think we need to change location right now we don't have anything left to do oh we should congratulations okay do we have a nomination for vice chair well I will uh nominate Pat Drago I'd nominate Jeffrey Al Vice chair okay do we have a second I'll second all those in favor do do we want to do a roll call vote Pat northy yes Jay Pendergast yes Jeffrey alt yes Pat drgo yes John Macaluso yes Stephanie Mason Teague yes Pat Patterson giving a thumbs up Reggie stilly yes Dwight Selby yes motion passes okay okay now we'll move on to staff comments All right so we touched on the echo strategic plan already um and then the April 2nd meeting so the other item uh that I wanted to bring to your attention was uh the Lake Helen CAC payment so we do have a pending agreement uh with the City of Lake Helen uh to pay back their Echo Grant so their first uh portion would be due June 12th and then they would owe uh in January of 25 and January of 26 because we ended up splitting it into three payments for them and then as far as your next meetings are concerned uh Thursday July 11th is an advisory meeting and then October 10th would be the next advisory meeting after that for you guys [Music] and that's all I have for staff comments okay we'll move on to advisory committee comments I have a question for Daniel can can you give us uh an update on the African-American Museum yeah so their uh last quarterly that they submitted to us uh which we actually just got from then before the deadline is their completion percentage of their project at design is 95% and there's no construction uh is at zero okay do you want any more detail from the quarterly um H have they mentioned anything about budget change or anything there has been nothing submitted for that now okay um is there anything official that you get off o tell us on the Orman Beach Performing Art Center which had the big fire and was closed down I know that came out of I I've spoken to Mark I don't know if they submitted anything official to eeko or no I mean they made us aware that obviously about the situation that day but they have not gave us an update of when their next plan is to reopen okay that's unfortunate I'm not sure how many people know uh just reopened in February a fire broke out in one of the seats one of the lights in the seats caught a fire on a Saturday night sprinkler system did go off after the flame started and the smoke detected there was only like six or seven seats that were burned however the monitoring company failed to contact the fire department as well as the city and the sprinkler system ran until Monday morning totally destroyed the carpet ceilings um and a lot of it has had to be ripped out so they are I don't want to say indefinitely closed they're expecting about six months to try and get everything fixed um thankfully you know they have full insurance and um will'll get reopened as soon as they can hopefully September October maybe by the end of the year and you know it's really tragic about that is the fire station is directly across the street I mean it is literally directly across the street on the same Corner yeah opposite corner but I'm the same will meton us one wow how unfortunate big lawsuit in the works I'm sure well it was great that their fire safety put out the fire but whoever was monitoring it there's an issue okay we're going to move on to advisory committee comments um we'll start with you Jeff you have anything else to say Pat thank you Dwight no coms thank you for your service Pat thank you J oh no comment I do at our past meeting in review I recommended to Stetson that they um encourage more of the public to participate in events and a flyer went out that encouraged um participation to go to a Rowing competition there at Lake bears for and I did go and it was really fun it was um something I'd never seen before and uh Jason I believe is their director gave me a tour of the facility and one of the spaces that I was also una aware of was a big patio that is on the top of their environmental building that they have out there and it is um able to be used by other community um organizations and something that I think that they I wasn't aware of before so it was a nice tour and it was a nice event and definitely a positive that came out of that conversation at our meeting Madam I'm sorry I just wanted to comment on I did go as well and I was surprised to see this come that quickly it it was really interesting I've never been to a roaming event before and there were there was a pretty good crowd there but the issue was you couldn't see the you couldn't see what was going on in in the water with with the overgrown growth and everything there so hopefully that plan will take the take that issue out um I had spoken with a former rowing coach at Stetson a few years ago and he told me dant is the best place in the nation for rowing teams because of our weather and because of the river and how you can go 27 miles in one direction and we have so many no wake zones so it it is good and John I wanted to um address what you said earlier about um Eko working with Vala forever we had a workshop a few years ago with the valua forever committee and it was explained to us by County staff that vucha forever can acquire the land but they can't pay for the amenities and that is something that we can do and I I believe that there are some grants in the process with yeah that that was brought up briefly in our in our forever meeting I I do recall that our last meeting so I I would expect some action yeah I think we're going to see it Dwight I have no additional comment M thank you other than to say Pat thank you for your service and Jay were you Vice chair yes he was he was chair before what a great job for me did a good job we're both glad to retire thank you for your service also on that note with a motion to adj journ we are sove motion toour we are can't help die hard I'm sorry I didn't mean to put you on this spot but it's thank you thank you that always makes interesting oh man no Rel am and love tot teres yeah be there right okay so we can open a meeting and then close it and go into a workshop sounds good to me see you there see get I will yeah one day I was trying to play to than I appreciate you guys oh yeah yeah you're more than welcome to keep the paper I guess I could just take the P them and give you your give your binder back back yeah you just throw away the creers inside there go thank you very much okay follow few he'll be back for all his stuff I guess took concern and he just WIP it totally casually for e for you canice know some think just 2 you we know how you feel about but sounds good all right well thanks welc line know bre the the power for e for spe e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right thank you see see you next time yeah every month in July August September October PR people whenever she put everything in there I added the extra hour for nothing but just in Cas so I got to go upstairs I expected a going to I introd myself to and I go people know a while and I tapped on Jason's back and Jason goes well I've known him since we were kids still gonna call him Danny and I was like all right Jason we'll let it slide e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for for for for for e for for for for for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for for for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e come for e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e for e e 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