TOWN COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2025 7:00 P.M. OAKLAND MEETING HALL CALL TO ORDER: This meeting was held in-person and livestreamed as a Zoom webinar. Mayor Taylor called the regular meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. This was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation by Commissioner Ramos. ROLL CALL COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Commissioner Keller Commissioner Ramos Vice Mayor Satterfield Mayor Taylor COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Commissioner McMullen PROCLAMATIONS/PRESENTATIONS: Proclamation = Honoring the Life and Legacy of Curtis Massey Mayor Taylor read the Proclamation honoring the life and legacy of Curtis Massey. Proclamation = Honoring the Life and Legacy of State Senator Geraldine F. Thompson Mayor Taylor read the Proclamation honoring the life and legacy of State Senator Geraldine F. Thompson. CONSENT AGENDA: a. Minutes = 2-11-2025 Town Commission Regular Meeting b. Contract for DOAH Local Hearing Officer for School Speed Zone Enforcement Mayor Taylor announced the items on the Consent Agenda. MOTION was made by Vice Mayor Satterfield, seconded by Commissioner Keller to approve the Consent Agenda. AYE: Keller, Ramos, Satterfield, Taylor NAY: None Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes February 25, 2025 - Page 1 OTHER POLICY MATTERS Oakland Exchange = Replat of Lots 5 and 6 of RaceTrac Town Planner Brad Cornelius explained that the Town Commission adopted Ordinance 2024- 10 on December 20, 2024, which is the second amendment to the development agreement for the Oakland Commercial Center Planned Development. He said that consistent with the JW2 Development, LLC, applied to the Town for the approval of the replat of Lots 5 and 6 of the plat to combine Lots 5 and 6 into one lot (Lot 5) for the proposed Oakland Exchange office complex and in addition, internal easements that are no longer needed are also eliminated. Town Planner Brad Cornelius said that the proposed replat was reviewed by Town staff including the Town Contracted Planner, Town Public Works Director, Town Attorney, Town Contracted Engineer, and Town Contracted Surveyor. He said that based on the review of Town staff, the replat is found to be consistent with the second amendment to the development agreement approved by Ordinance 2024-10, and consistent with Town and State of Florida requirements for a replat. Town Planner Brad Cornelius said that staff recommend approval of the proposed replat of the Racerrac-Remington plat as requested. Mayor Taylor opened the floor for public comment. There were no public comments. Mayor Taylor closed public comment. MOTION was made by Commissioner Ramos, seconded by Vice Mayor Satterfield to approve the Oakland Exchange = Replat of Lots 5 and 6 of RaceTrac. AYE: Keller, Ramos, Satterfield, Taylor NAY: None MOTION PASSED with 4 Ayes, 0 Nays. PUBLIC FORUM: Public comments were as follows: Jon Hammerstein, 306 E. Vick Ave = Jon said he just wanted to readdress the progress on the dust mitigation, he said that he knows there have been a couple more sample roads done that seemed to turn out really well SO he is just wondering if we are at a point where we can go ahead. He asked if the full body of the commission agrees that this is what we are going to do, and it is acceptable and are there any other stumbling blocks from proceeding. O Mayor Taylor said he will have Public Works Director Parker talk a little bit about it but from what he has seen, especially on Petris and Hull and what was done there, he is pleased with it and has received many comments and e-mails about positive things. He said it will eventually break down, right now Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes February 25, 2025 - Page 2 it looks like it is a uniform asphalt road because that is the machine that put it down there but eventually it is going to break down, turn a little grayer, the black will come out of it and it will spread out. Mayor Taylor said that from what he saw and what he drove on and he wasn't breaking the law but was going pretty quickly, it didn't really kick up anything. He said as far as timing and other roads that will be done, Public Works Director Parker can probably speak a little more about that. Commissioner Ramos said with Gulley, what they did before was something that we did incorrectly, obviously with the contract but what we are comparing right now is Petris Street and Hull Avenue, they both have that recycled asphalt that the mayor was talking about, which is eventually going to get that dark black color off. He said he had calls with people on those streets who said it has a little bit of smell but in time it is going to go away and then we have dirt roads that a lot of people don't like and some still embrace because of historical view. Commissioner Ramos said we have one more incomplete road from Oakland Avenue on Cross Street going north to Petris which is 1 12 of an inch gray gravel and 1 inch gravel that they started, but they didn't complete it, and it was supposed to be completed as another sample, and he wants to have that on the list of these two samples, plus dirt roads, for people to give their opinions on it. Public Works Director Parker said he is not really fully aware of that SO maybe after the meeting Commissioner Ramos could tell him what his thoughts are on that. He said he was kind of blocked out of the Andy e-mail chain with some stuff, he is not familiar with that. Commissioner Ramos said that once we get all the samples the way we want, are we going to create people's choice again by voting or putting out a poll or having a committee? He said he would like to see a committee to go out there and talk because he has had people approaching him saying we don't want to lose our historical view of our street that we have but they don't want dust either. Commissioner Ramos asked Public Works Director Parker if we have six miles of dirt roads left. Public Works Director Parker said that we have five miles. Commissioner Ramos said okay, five miles, SO it all will have to be one style unless we get another poll and find out otherwise. He said the first time around, if everyone remembers, it was almost like a one-third split, one-third wanted asphalt, one-third wanted some sort of recycled product other than the dirt road, and the one-third wanted to leave it alone SO he would like to get all three of these and put them back on Facebook for people to come look at them and then find out what the new poll is. Commissioner Ramos said he likes the recycled asphalt, it does look nice, but he does want to see a complete street with that gray gravel and have people come see that and the recycled asphalt and we already have Starr Street as a full asphalt. Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes February 25, 2025 - Page 3 Jon said this is the first time they have heard gravel being an option and he knows there are some residents here who have gone ahead and done their own gravel, granite, and whatever roadwork. He said his question is what authority they have on their own to decide this is the product we are going to put down. Jon said he knows where Tubb intersects Vick, that was a mess, and it is still kind of a mess. He said it is dangerous to ride a bike on and it is not going to hold up, SO he is a little confused because in all the meetings, no one talked about gravel or granite. Commissioner Ramos said that all of the neighbors on Cross Street, Kathy, Chris, Tom, are all wanting to see that gravel continue. Jon asked who initiated this. Commissioner Ramos said he did, he initiated it. Jon said then Commissioner Ramos has a personal interest in it. Commissioner Ramos said that he brought it up as one of the examples. Jon asked how come it was never discussed; he has come here since last year talking about roads. Commissioner Ramos said that we make that an option. Jon said the commission runs the town, he wants to know ift there is agreement amongst the commissioners and the mayor to come up with a plan to mitigate the dust. He said more surveys and back and forth and more samples at this point he thinks is a waste of time and money. Commissioner Ramos said he gets a lot of calls, and a lot of people say they want to have an option. Vice Mayor Satterfield said his opinion is if we can agree on one for the majority of the town, that is probably the way it should go because if we start doing this road like this and then this road as this, we are going to probably be in a mess down the road when that stuff does start to get redone that way. He said if it is not uniform then we might get in a little bit of trouble that way. Vice Mayor Satterfield said he personally likes what we have done here on Petris himself and he had brought up a committee at the last meeting to look into which way to go but if we can all agree on it and we can get enough people to give some comments back, he doesn't think social media is the way to do it. He said you don't get the impact back to the town in the right way with social media, we really need to do some mailers or something SO we can get something done. Vice Mayor Satterfield said that when we previously did it, there were about 100 people responding and that was just a split with the people on dirt roads wanted to keep dirt, people on concrete roads wanted to keep concrete SO it really didn't do a lot. He said if we can get more participation to make sure that we are heading the right way, he thinks we should probably go that way also. Commissioner Keller said that she would agree that we need to find a solution, she thinks maintaining multiple options could be costly for the town. She said she did have the experience to drive down the new recycled asphalt product Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes February 25, 2025 - Page 4 and she thinks it is a great thing but would like to maybe see it for a little bit, just to make sure that it is going to end up the way we want it to be, you know, give it a little time. Commissioner Keller said we had some experience with some of the other products that we put them down and initially thought they were going to be okay, and then the ended up not being after a little bit of time. She said to make sure that we make the right long-term decision that is good for the town, from a cost standpoint, and a servicing down the road standpoint that whatever option we choose, we live with it a little bit before we finalize that decision. Commissioner Keller said she would prefer that we have one solution rather than multiple options just for cost effectiveness and maintenance down the road, but she would like to hear what Public Works Director Parker has to say. Public Works Director Parker said ultimately it is up to the commission to decide but he wants to point out that the longer that we have the five miles of dirt roads or stone roads, our road grader is 30 plus years old and that is going to have to be replaced. He said he likes asphalt millings. Public Works Director Parker said he wasn't sold it at first, but it is really turning out well and he thinks in the summer as things warm up and it gets exposed to heat, it will coalesce into more of a finished surface. He said right now it is getting a little bit of sand and some leaves on it, and you can hardly tell the difference between it and the traditional dirt road. Public Works Director Parker said the travel is smoother but again, it is up to the commission on how we want to proceed. Jon said he is stunned by this gravel thing now, the granite. He said do the citizens have a right to just put what they want on their road in front of their house, is it done without discussion. Jon said he knew that was the case with Vick. Mayor Taylor said he knows that the resident that put the gravel down behind his house was approached by the town to say you can't do that, you are not supposed to do that. He said that he knows for Commissioner Ramos if he and Andy had talked about putting it down as a method to try, the ultimate goal is to try to knock the dust down, and that is what we are trying to do and trying to find some different materials to do. Mayor Taylor said what he has seen, he likes the recycled asphalt and he is not really convinced solely that every single street needs the recycled asphalt. He said he believes it can be used, especially on the streets that have lots of travel such as Petris where you have the trail, and you have the history center. Mayor Taylor said that before, if a car drove down it, it just blew a dust cloud like crazy SO putting that down there has cut down tremendously on that dust. He said he knows on Jon's street Vick, with the cut-throughs of golf carts and cars going from Oakland Park to the park or vice version, that is the road you look at to try to do another one. Mayor Taylor said that he is not convinced that every single street needs to have the recycled asphalt and that can save some money in the long run because there Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes February 25, 2025 - Page 5 are some streets that are sand, and a little bit of clay and they work out well. He said that Henschen Street, that is between Starr and Winter's Landing, is scheduled to be paved just because of the reason that it is a heavily used street for school and in the morning, there are SO many cars that go up and down that street. Mayor Taylor said he doesn't think that we are all here on the table advocating to pave all the streets, that is not what we want to do and that not the direction to go but they are trying to find that source that can do that, that is what we want to try. Jon said he thought we were at a point where the decision for that product was made, the asphalt lines were the way to go and that there would be some kind of schedule for looking at the roads and planning what is next then tonight he hears that granite is in the mix. Mayor Taylor said that there are budgets for the year that have to be looked at to find out if we have money in the budget, how many more roads can we do for that budget amount. He said you can't blow the budget SO this may be something that is over a several year process. Mayor Taylor encouraged Jon to drive down to Cross Street. He said he personally hasn't been to Cross but now that he knows, he thinks he would go down there and just check it out and just see it. Commissioner Ramos said we had the recycled one that they put over there on Gulley that was awful, and we had SO many complaints over and over that it looked like a washroom, SO this new one obviously is different but in between those two we put down. Jon asked who we is. Commissioner Ramos said Andy. Jon asked if the town paid for it. Commissioner Ramos said he paid for it. Jon said SO as a private citizen, you just paid for your own granite. Commissioner Ramos said he paid for it and told Andy it was an option, and everybody loved it on Cross. Jon said he doesn't love it. Commissioner Ramos said the people on his street that came up to him love it. Jon said it is not his street. Commissioner Ramos said that he knows that. He said the people who live on the street and the people who drive on it said this is nice and this is going to be an option and when we are done with it, it could be an option. Commissioner Ramos said that we did not have the recycled one yet. Jon said SO, are the citizens on the street going to agree to maintain it. Commissioner Ramos said no, our town will maintain it. Jon said that the whole process disturbs him, it wasn't public. Mayor Taylor asked if the commission could agree to have a decision, maybe by the end of the next meeting, which would be the second Tuesday of March. Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes February 25, 2025 - Page 6 He said we have got a lot of options that we have tried out there, we have tried the lime rock that Windermere had and everything and he thinks we probably have enough out there to look at, make a decision, and then find out at that point what critical roads that get used a lot. Mayor Taylor said number one, how much money do we have SO you are not blowing the budget nonstop. He said if it is recycled granite or whatever is an option, let's just keep an open mind and look at it and see what it does. Mayor Taylor said he hasn't seen it yet SO he can't intelligently speak on it. He said he does know what Jon is talking about on Vick Steet with that guy and he agrees that it was just kind of put down loose there and wasn't packed down and that may not be the solution to whatever. Mayor Taylor said he thinks we are beyond the point where we can now make an intelligent decision and he would say that they should bring this up at the next meeting and give people two weeks to go hit those areas on Vick, Petris, Hull and Cross off of Oakland. Commissioner Ramos said obviously the previous ones failed SO now we have a few good products. He said with the shuffle of the staff not being here, you can say if it is not on the table, we can take it off the table, but the price may be in budget not to wait 10 years to finish what we need to finish to be closer to the finish line at a lower budget. Commissioner Ramos said Public Works will determine that as he is not an expert at that. Vice Mayor Satterfield said to Jon's other point, there will be a plan on how much we can do each year, and which ones are going to go. He said that it will be worked out before we really get started because you have to have that plan. Vice Mayor Satterfield said to Mayor Taylor's point, some roads might not need anything but by the time we get to end of our process, and it takes five years, they might need something too. He said that as an example, his side of Daniels has that old material that we did all those years ago and it doesn't bring up the dust on that side but then again there are only two houses that go there and the people that go to the park. Vice Mayor Satterfield said that once they open up Briley Farms, that might change too SO that is the type of stuff that will end up getting tweaked as you go along. He said as far as getting it together, there will be a plan on what street goes when and how long it will take, and that whole thing. Jon said good and then obviously building into the budget the cost of this over the years. Jon said on another note, many of his neighbors have come to him and they are complaining about the speed of the cars down Vick. He said they on their own put out their children's signs and bigger signs, SO he is asking the commission to come up with some kind of plan of speed limits on Vick. Jon said that he doesn't think there is even a speed limit sign, and he is not sure the town residents know what the unmarked speed is in town. He thinks it is 20 SO maybe a little enforcement, a little social media goes a long way to help Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes February 25, 2025 - Page 7 people realize that we have to respect the children and the neighborhoods and all that kind of stuff. Jill Cox, 301 Walker Street = Jill said she is just following Jon's comment on the survey. She said that a while back people talked about adding pickleball courts and people that lived around it were not happy and then she was talking to someone who didn't want the dirt roads paved and Jill said but you don't live on a dirt road, SO you don't know what it is like. Jill said that she doesn't live near the park, SO she doesn't hear the pickleball SO go ahead and put more courts in. She said it is hard to have somebody in Briley Farm tell her that they are going to get concrete streets, that they love our charm, when you don't live on it. Jill said it was different when there wasn't UPS and Kroger and Walmart and just having a survey, she thinks it is kind of hard when you don't live on a dirt road to have a say. O Mayor Taylor said that the times have changed. He said there is a lot more traffic and a lot more deliveries now on the street and we have talked about that before and SO all that has to be considered. Mayor Taylor said he thinks at the next meeting that we can have a decision and direction to go on how we want to proceed and figure out which ones and how much and how far we can go with what we have. TOWN MANAGER/DEPARTMENT HEAD REPORTS: Town Manager Report Interim Town Manager Hui said that Charter Review Committee Meetings have been set for March 3rd, March 31st, April 7th and April 21st from 3-5 p.m. at the Oakland Meeting Hall. She said that the Florida League of Cities has been invited to attend the first meeting to talk about the charter review process and answer questions from the committee members. Interim Town Manager Hui said that the Florida League of Cities can help us comparing jurisdictions and things we might have questions about SO she thinks between them and having our attorneys present that we will have some good guidance. She said she appreciates everybody that has volunteered and is looking forward to getting to work. Interim Town Manager Hui said that we will be posting the Assistant Public Works Director position shortly SO if anybody knows someone who might be a good fit, send them HR Director Oliver's way. Department Head Reports Public Works Director Parker said thanks for the opportunity to come back to work, he is postponing his retirement now. He said he has a phone call from the St. John's River Water Management District reviewer who was reviewing our latest grant submission which is a $2.9 million grant submission, and he took away from that meeting that we are looking pretty good, SO he thinks it is very positive. Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes February 25, 2025 - Page 8 Community Outreach Director Lambros said Facebook Live is something we are trying to develop SO that we can have more communication with the community. He said if you are not on Facebook, please get on Facebook with us. Community Outreach Director Lambros said that we are trying to be out in the community for you when you can't be there because we realize there are a lot of people that can't be at this meeting because they are at work or something like that, SO we are really going to try and do that for you. He said we are going to try to highlight things that we do in the community and really bring it to life a bit SO if you have any suggestions, he is open to suggestions as well about things that have happened. Community Outreach Director Lambros said that the history in this town is amazing, and he thinks that is one story that definitely needs to be told, and we are going to try to do that. COMMISSION REPORTS: Commissioner Keller said that she had the privilege to spend some time with Public Works Director Parker yesterday morning, driving around town and learning about the infrastructure that the town has worked SO hard to put together. She said we are very lucky to have Public Works Director Parker pulling his resignation back and staying with us longer because he is an amazing supporter of this town. Commissioner Keller said Community Outreach Director Lambros joined them and they spent a couple hours driving around and looking at all the different infrastructure and talking about the sewer, alternative water, and the grants and things that we have done. She said it is really amazing to see that our little town has done SO much with grants. Commissioner Keller warned Chief Esan that the Police Department is on her list to try to spend some time with them and just learn more about the town. Vice Mayor Satterfield said we had talked about the book "The Early Years" and most have disappeared, and he found a digitized copy of it SO his thought was to get it on a thumb drive and bring it in and maybe we can find somebody that can make books out of them. He said that they would be perfect to sell in the Heritage Center across the street and it is not SO much for making money, a lot of people ask for that book, and it is a really cool book. Vice Mayor Satterfield said that You can't find them anymore SO maybe we can find a place to get it made into a book or even digitize for people that want it that way too, for those that like to read on a computer. Commissioner Ramos Nothing additional. Mayor Taylor said that last night, one of the Facebook Live posts, was a great presentation. He said that we had two of them, the first was a week prior, and he and Vice Mayor Satterfield attended that one which was a great presentation by the two artists whose work is on display at the center, and they were Disney Imagineers, SO they had some great stories they told. Mayor Taylor said last night was really good and was about bears when an FWC contractor was here with a great presentation, and you can find both videos on Facebook. He said everybody knows there has been a bear roaming around town and the contractor Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes February 25, 2025 - Page 9 said it might not just be one, it might be a couple of bears running round town. Mayor Taylor said the contractor provided some good tips and advice to try to deter them as we can't get rid of them and just have to learn to live with them. Mayor Taylor said at the next meeting they should talk about how they want to pursue the Town Manager's position. He said they can decide if they want to go out to market or if they are satisfied with what we have here; we will let the people in town make a decision on that at the next meeting on March 11th. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, Commissioner Ramos adjourned the meeting at 7:37 p.m. TOWN OF OAKLAND: SHANETAYLOR, MAYOR ATTEST: < - wi-su ELISE HUI, TOWN CLERK Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes February 25, 2025 - Page 10