I'd like to call to order the Lachua County Board of County Commissioners regular board meeting for April 8th, 2025 at 11.33 a.m. First item is to clerk. Mr. Chair, first up we have the invocation, senior pastor Jesse Bryan of the first Baptist Church of the Lachua's here to provide that invocation. If you'd like to come up, if everybody will please stand for the invocation, it'll be followed by the Bludge of Allegiance. So if you'll please stand for both. Please pray with me. God we thank you for today. Thank you for the opportunity to be here, Lord we thank you for who. God, we thank you for just a community God that can come together, Lord, that can discuss things that affect this community, Lord, and figure out how we can work together to continue to move forward to be a better community. And God, I pray that our time today, Lord, that is something that is going to be honoring to you. God, I pray that as you work through this group, through all of the different things that will be recognized, the different things that will be discussed and considered. God, I pray that that will continue to strengthen this community, continue to strengthen families. God, I pray for our leaders, Lord, I pray for local and national leaders. I pray that they will seek to make decisions that will honor you, God. God, we pray more importantly than anything that we will find unity in your Son, Jesus Christ. God, we thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this today. We thank you for who you are. I send Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge to you, just to the five of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under that, and then it's the assault with liberty and justice for all. Chair, that takes us to the approval of the agenda, and I'm not sure if there are any amendments to the agenda today. Mr. Quennell. Yeah, then. Commissioner Quennell, yes. Yeah. Chair, I move approval of the agenda and I'm not sure if there are any amendments to the agenda today. Commissioner Cornell. Yeah. Commissioner Cornell, yes. Yeah. Chair, I move approval of the agenda and also to find extinuating circumstances allowing Commissioner Cornell to participate remotely. Second. Motion in second. All right. Those any further discussion to the motion? Those in favor of the motion, vote by the sign of I I was opposed say sorry motion carries comments to the agenda okay from the public no problem okay yes Is this through the agenda of Anthony Johnson, Mr. Chair. I was looking through the agenda and I ran across this page and it didn't make sense to me. I thought it was something that had gotten inserted into a calendar but after reading through it, he would say it's more than just a UF document, which is what I thought it was something that had gotten inserted into a calendar, but after reading through it, you would see it's more than just a UF document, which is what I thought it was at first. Okay, so I would like to see item J under agenda. Someone needs to explain that it's very deceiving to the public. I know you probably understand what it means, but I just want someone to maybe enlighten the public. I was going on with Adam Jay under on the consent agenda. What item specifically, Mr. Johnson? Jay, that was Jay. Letter Jay on this agenda's items pulled from consent. He's talking about the the piggyback contract for UF on the electrical services. Okay that's on page 10. Yeah. Oh Jay under a consent. Okay, okay, sorry I should have explained that I know there was two J's So it looks like I said what you're trying to do by piggybacking off the UF contract, but the UF contract is about projects, small projects, where what you are doing here with the item that's put from consent is about on call billing. So it's like opposite on you. So I don't understand the value in doing it that way. Although it says there's a value, I was wondering if anybody could explain what that value is because it says you're paying a million dollars for on-call services. And it doesn't say whether that's if you get a call or that's the total amount for the year, but it doesn't explain any of that. But the UF contract says it's a one time job project for $200,000. So if someone can kind of make it clear for the public on what's going on there, that would be helpful. Thank you. You guys are like, um, Miss Chair, on call services are just that. if we I'm going to go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and go ahead We don't have one specific project. This is if we need somebody, we can pick up and call for service in an urgent situation. For projects we bid out projects or reuse POs, force and task orders for projects. We can get more specifics on it, but that's the basic. The piggybacking allows us to use the pricing for the service. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any further comments to the agenda? Okay hearing none seeing those back to the board those in favor of motion vote by the sign of I I post same side motion carries Chair next up is the announcements and communications coordinator Mark Sexton's here to present us. Thank you Steve Mark Sexton communications director for or a Latvia County. I'll ask the board's indulgement, indulgement because the announcements are gonna be... Pfft. Thank you, Steve. Mark Sexton, communications director for Alachua County. I'll ask the board's indulgement, indulgement, because the announcements are going to be a little longer than normal today for good reason. First, we want to let folks know that there is a fair housing resources fair coming up. Breaking down barriers is the title.'s coming up on April 26th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and it will be at the Martin Luther King Multi Purpose Center in Gainesville. And at this presentation, you'll be able to learn about fair housing laws, ship, down payment, and home repair assistance programs, housing authority, rental assistance programs, steps to homecoming, to home ownership and much, much more. So we encourage folks to attend that and learn more. Also, Mr. Chair, we want to let you and the residents know that ITS has been working diligently to always make what we do more transparent. And we have done a soft opening of the new Commission email page. Some governments don't do this at all. Some governments do a kind of a version of this, but ours, we really pride ourselves in being fully transparent and we've made some improvements. ITS has if you go to our website and you click on county offices you scroll down to county commissioners and then you click on commission emails you'll see that the look of it is very different now it gives you some very clear simple directions on how to use the tool. You start by if you're not in fact a robot proving it. I've already done that so the caption didn't come up, but you select a commissioner. And that's all there is to it. You can filter it. You can enter search words like a particular subject you're interested in and those emails will come. The search is much more robust than it used to be. But also you have, you know, you can just scroll down if you don't want to filter and you'll just see that two years worth of emails and one great and if you want all the years before that you can make a public record. One great improvement is the old system was very clunky when it came to attachments. This one I'll just click on one. If you go to the attachment, it pops right up. So the attachment process here has been greatly simplified. And I just want to acknowledge Ryan Evans and his team for putting this together and just always wanting to do what we do better, particularly when it comes to communicating with the public. So just so the public knows your emails, they can see your emails before you even see them. There's no filtering of what goes up. If it's to you or from you, it goes right up. And that's part of transparency. So for the main event today, you know, the World Masters came and is gone now. And we're very pleased to have a lot of folks here today that are, you know, that we're so instrumental in making this happen. So I'm going to start by showing you a quick video that Steven and his team put together. And I'd like to introduce Stephen Rodriguez from Red Sports. Good morning. I'm happy to say that we made it through the event. And it was certainly eventful in an exciting week. And I'm here to tell you just a little bit of the highlights, but we're still in wrap-up mode and kind of going through closing out the event, which will happen over the next three months coming up. But we ended up with a little bit over 3,200 athletes after athletes scratched and so forth. We had printed over 3,400 bivs and we had over 3,200 come. We had 150 team personnel that came for the larger countries that have team managers, infisios, and so forth. Over 200 members of the organizing team and officials from all over the world to come and make this event happen. And a testament to our community over 300 registered volunteers and 794 hours logged of volunteer time for the event and we thank our community for coming out and supporting the event but ultimately the theme or the outcome of the World Masters Athletics and Door Championships is We promised, we delivered what we promised and much, much more. And certainly the athletes were amazed and enjoyed the experience and the competition side of things and WMA was more than happy or they are more than happy and certainly would like to return one day. When we produced the event, we really focused on a couple key things. And number one was promotion in the sense of really trying to get athletes to come, right? Overcoming the visa in the travel issues and first time in the United States. And I think that we were successful there with 98 countries and reaching nations that have never competed in indoor and don't typically compete in indoor but they saw our destination as an attractive one and wanted to come and explore a lot of county Florida. And also you know in terms of promotion of our destination at event time you know I think our media reach was strong. We had members from all over the United States in terms of media credentials that we issued as well as all over the world. And I saw many articles from Spain, Australia, Mongolia that we're talking about competition and performance here in Elatua County. So I think we certainly have made our mark and let people know where we are in the world. The other area that we focused on was competition. That was very important because that's why people are coming as they compete. And I had reported early on that we made sure that we had the the highest quality management and officiating team. We had Olympic level caliber officials and managers on board, many of which that worked multiple Olympic games. And you really could see that throughout the week that competition was running smoothly and really was never an issue in terms of management. We had also an amazing quality of competitors that came and visited us. We have 38 world records set and 120 championship records. So that's amazing. That's a large amount of records which again shows that we set the perfect stage on which to perform. But also, hey, the bottom line is we have a fast track. So there's a lot of great performances. We also look at some other indicators in terms of determining success and competition. One of them is the number of appeals, which more commonly probably would know that as protests. During the entire time with that number of athletes, eight days of competition, we only have three appeals throughout the entire competition, which shows the, you know, it's a testament to the quality of officiating. And then the other thing is You gauge not just the athletes and how they're behaving, which they were very organized. You can tell that the competition area was always calm, but also the team managers are a very important voice. And almost every day of competition, you have team manager meetings every morning. And you can gauge how well things go by how long those meetings are and how many questions get asked. And throughout the entire time, we only had five questions that were asked. And really, there were not anything that was wrong. They were actually asking for enhancements that which we were able to deliver on the spot for them. So we certainly delivered on the competition side. Safety was very important to us. And I think we tested a lot of different areas of safety with incidents that occurred throughout the week. And we're able to respond quickly and easily. And you really haven't heard anything about them. Right. so we're able to deal with any type of incidents that occurred. And then most importantly the experience and I think that's really what set us apart in this event and why athletes are talking about this event still is that overall experience. really the tone got set with the opening ceremony and Jessica we worked a lot spent a lot of time on the opening ceremony. And I think that really set the tone of what we're delivering. But what you saw for those of you that were there, what you saw with the athletes' village and live entertainment every day, and just the energy outside. There are as many people outside walking around than there were inside watching the competition. You know, I think that that really created this great energy and really cater to the community that is master's athletics. So we've been receiving a lot of great comments and feedback and I did want to share one that I thought was nice because I think it really shows the power and potential of sport tourism to bring people together. And this came from a Canadian team manager that stated, there was a point when I wasn't sure I was going to make the trip to Florida for this championship with all the political issues going on between Canada and US, but Canadians were treated so incredibly well by everyone at this championship. It was truly remarkable in a memorable experience. We have never felt more welcome or supported. The meat was exceptionally well organized and our athletes had an absolute blast. Thank you and in French she said a big thank you but my French is not good so I won't try it. But these are the type of comments and feedback that we're getting right now and I think it's again a great testament to our community that we all pulled together to make this happen. And know, and I think that really that teamwork led to the overarching success for this event. Now, I will say that we raise the bar, and we will are going into wrap-up mode, and we do have to deliver a post event report to WMA. And we'll have areas in there for a permit permit because we can always keep raising that bar for the future whether it's this event or other events down the road. But yeah, for us the event's still going until we get wrapped up here in about three months. Everyone has left in terms of WMA in officials and except for one, unfortunately we had one that had to have emergency surgery while here. So she'll be here for another week and a half, so our prayers are with her and we've been in constant communication and supporting her and her husband while they're here. But really a big thank you to you, the county, to the county commissioners for making this event a reality. And to Michelle for leadership, she was always accessible and there for us and that really helped in this overall success of the event. Gina, again always, you know, accessible and ready to answer the phone. Jessica, thank you so much. We did it. We worked hard on it, right? And Mark, congratulations on your bronze medal. So, the Ramone and public works team, did an amazing job, Jason, Parks and Open Spaces team, again an amazing job, and a special thank you to Gainesville Sports Commission and Jolene. It was a great partner and really brought a lot to the event and making it happen. So I'm hoping to any questions or I can just sit down and be like, actually I do have one thing I'd like to ask. Yeah, I have Commission of Prisya, Alfred and Wheeler. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Just a quick thank you to everybody who I did everything to put this together. I know we had a little thank you for the staff, but I know it really took everybody from purchasing and procurement and legal all the way to the facility staff that were on the ground to make things that West End happened and beyond. So to all of our team that made it happen, thank you and to all of you who pulled this off. I was very skeptical when it was originally introduced, but I am excited that we could be such a great bastion for internationalism and community building around the world, especially at a time like this. So thank you very much. I wonder when you do the WMA report, will we also get a report on sort of target numbers versus where we landed and budget numbers versus where we landed? I just be interested to see that so for future years we can you know be thinking about how that looks and if we hit things on the mark. Thank you. Okay, Commissioner Alfred. I have a background in project management and in project management you want things to be on time on budget and with accidents, and we seem to have accomplished all of those things. And so I'm super proud of our staff to be able to accomplish all that was accomplished in that short timeframe was really incredible because typically venues would have much more time in order to prepare and to get everything ready. And we really, I'm really proud of our staff for, I guess, you know, putting their shoulder to the wheel and getting everything done in a really amazing amount of time and with such professionalism and with such organization. It showed and when I went to the event, you could see how happy all the participants were and how much fun they were having. And so it was great to see, and it was great to see so many people from around the world together. It was like our own little Olympics. It was very cool. So thank you. Hey, Commissioner Wheeler. I just want to add, my congratulations. It's amazing that it's come and gone. I mean, with all of the preparation in the hustle. But our teams, like Anna was saying, you know, everybody, you know, from finance to the public works, to our organizations that work together to make sure these events happen. Congratulations. I was really excited to be able to come and do as much as I was able to do. And I thank you for that. I was able to ask many of the participants about the track. You know, I said, you know, we represent people who were a little skeptical about what we were doing. I'd like to be able to go back and tell them what you think about the track and the event center and all of that. And everybody, everybody talked about the quality of the track and that the people that had competed here through the nationals were back to compete again. And they said, often I got, well, all the time I got, this is the best track in the country. So thank you so much for the efforts on that and for everyone who was able to make, to pull this off because it was quite a feat. And I know that folks are wanting to come back because they told me so. So thank you again for letting me be a part of that as well. Okay, Commissioner Cornel, are you with us? Do you have any comments? Yeah, Steve, great job. I do. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Steve, great job by the community and really your staff and all the county staff that really stepped up. You know, I don't think most of the folks on county staff had world masters on their Bingo card three or four years ago, but they definitely stepped up and just a really great effort of the Lattor County showing the whole world what Florida and Lattor County has the offer. So congratulations. Thank you. OK, thank you. I would like to say thank you also. I think that the possibility of having another event here is great from listening to the president and all of those folks Sunday night. I think that they're very very happy and they said that everybody was really enjoying the area and all of that good stuff. And I think that there might have been some areas that we can improve on, and I think we'll probably do that. And I told them that that will be coming. If they do decide to come back here again. I think it was a great successful event. I know we had a lot of naysayers in the community, but I think we proved them wrong, and I think it was a great success, and I hope to look for 2027 or 2029, I think. So again, thank you. Thank you for your hard work and all you all have done, and you actually have put a lot of your county on the world's map. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, if we could get the manager and the customers to join Stephen, he has a presentation and we'd like to get a photograph after he hands you your commemorative framed memento, measures. commemorative framed memento. Wow. Wow. Cool. You all did. Thank you. I'm going to give you a minute of a walk. I know how to do it. Thank you. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. Yeah. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. Yeah. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm going to ask you to come in. I'm going to ask you to come in. I'm going to ask you to come in. I'm going to ask you to come in. I'm going to ask you to come in. I'm going to ask you to come in. I'm going to ask you to come in. I'm going to ask you to come in. I'm going to ask you to come in. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here. I'm while you guys are returning, if you'll indulge me a little bit longer, we only, being the first time we've done this, we just want to make sure that we're acknowledging everything that needs to be acknowledged. We received a letter from Marguit Jungman, the president of World Masters Athletics, and I wanted to take a moment and read that to you. Dear Alachua County Board of County Commissioners, on behalf of all the participants attendees and the WMA-MA council, I extend our sincere gratitude to your Board for hosting the World Master's indoor athletic championship. Your dedication, hard work, incredible organization helped make the event a resounding success. We couldn't be more appreciative of all the efforts put in to bring this competition to life. We truly appreciate the spirit of collaboration demonstrated by Michelle Lieberman, her team and your partners. Their leadership throughout was nothing short of exceptional. Special thanks to the LOC team including Svane Dirklebutton, Viking companies and Steven Rodriguez, Rad Sports, Jolene Catchatory Miller, Gainesville Sports Commission, whose leadership and commitment were instrumental in ensuring the event ran smoothly from start to finish. Their collaboration with your team, the meticulous attention made the event run smoothly from start to finish. The success of the championships is evident in the smiles and enthusiasm on the faces of every participant and attendee. The facilities, including West End, were top notch adding to the quality of the event. Additionally, the athletic village became a hub of excitement, serving as a gathering point that participants thoroughly enjoyed. We acknowledge the wonderful volunteers who played a critical role in making everything happen. Many volunteers showed a deep investment in their roles, especially knowing that their participation was closely tied to their future vocations. Their dedication and passion truly enhanced the experience for everyone involved. The opening ceremony was a great success. We're truly grateful for your presence. Thank you for taking the time to join us and sharing in that occasion. It was a pleasure meeting and connecting with you during the event. Once again, thank you for your incredible support. We look forward to the possibility of future collaborations and continued success in hosting extraordinary events, best regards Marguite Gugman president, and she left us with something that Michelle will tell you about. And this is presented to the board, Commissioner Chessnot as the chair accepted this on your behalf on Sunday, but I am bringing bringing it to you officially and we can hang this somewhere great. It is an appreciation of a Latchua County being the host community for the World Masters Indoor Athletic Championship. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Two more quick things. We wanted to share that even at the end of the event, this community rose to the occasion. There were 20 athletes stranded at the Gainesville Airport after the event, not because of anything going on here, but the weather at their connecting flights, connecting cities, was bad, and the flights were cancelled. Some were on airlines that provided hotel accommodations, but about 20 athletes were stranded at the airport. Alan Penske, the director of the airport, made the decision to open up areas of the airport that are usually closed late into the evening when this took place. So he provided broad extra benches and helped folks bed down for the night in the airport. And he brought in pizza for all of the athletes. And it turned into a great time, you know, as great a time it can be when you miss a flight, but they bent over backwards. And then finally, Stephen mentioned that I was fortunate enough to run in the 5K event last Saturday. But also, I want a third place, but I was upstage by Medi Bank Hattar from Growth Management, who won a second place silver medal in his event. So you had a couple of employees running in the event. And it was great fun and there were people from all over the world running in that event, even though it was more of a community event, and a lot of the spouses of the athletes that were running ran in the 5K. So you've got a reasonably fast communications director and a blazing fast growth manager. And Mr. Chair, those are the announcements. Okay, thank you, Mark. Mr. Clerk, Chair, up next is the up. Up next is approval of the recognition for the proclamations. We want to go to public comment. Yeah, I did this track of time. It is public comment time. OK. And Mr. Chair, I think Jessica has something to. OK. All right. One final thing. We have our countdown plus. It's now at zero. We'll hold on to this straight way until we get our next stage. Hopefully everyone may come back in the future. All right. Okay. Public comment? Are there any public comments? This is a general public comment. The general public comment are there any public comments? This is general public comment. General public comment yes. Who that is but. Please do. The private ones are probably mixing. Yeah. Just going to do it. the the the the the Anthony Johnson, Mr. Chair, Commissioners. Mr. Chair, I hope there's a, I want to get something clear today and you all probably can clear it up in my mind. I've been hearing conflict and answers to this. It's just about imminent domain. You see it's something, it's a law that all counties help the power to implement. But I was told that many, I lost your county does it. That it was taken away by the legislature. I come to these meetings quite often, I don't remember anything like that happening. So I came today to get the official word from you, the Board of County Commissioners. So what's the status? It's a tool that government can use and it's a powerful tool, obviously. So I would hate to think that the legislature has taken that power away from local government. I mean, that would really limit you in some areas of importance, I would think. But I don't know if that's true or not, but if you can, someone can explain, maybe the learning attorney can speak to this about what powers those of lots of accounting have when it comes to imminent domain. Is it something that, you know how to implement or is it something that would eliminate on to speak to it because I just think that given all that we're going through and some of the things in accounting right now, it would be nice to know where the accounting stands on such a power for two because, I say it's the state, according to what I've read and some of the things I've printed here, they give you that power. You have the power to do that. So, if you can speak to that, whether you have it or not, that's a simple yes or no problem with actually to do. I know you all are not attorneys, and you can't speak to it, you're not attorney. But the attorney should be able to speak to that. Do we have it or do we not? So all I'm asking is it is or is it something that we have? What we normally do, Mr. Johnson, is here. Let me finish my time here. You know, the last time I was here, I asked a question and counted many of them. No, I was just trying to let you know that your answer would be answered after we do all of the public comment. I know whatever I'm gonna say, if that didn't happen the last time, Mr. Chair, I started asking questions and the county manager jumped being and started talking to him all my time just kind of went down the drain. So, but my time is almost up now. So now you can answer that. Do we have the power of imminent domain in a lot of your county. After we hear all of the public comments, we'd come back to you, Mr. Johnson. Any further citizen public comment? Good morning. Afternoon, commissioners and citizens of Alachua County. My name is Melissa Ray. I am the executive director of the Nia Maya Project. At the Nia Maya Project, we are committed to rebuilding lives by offering comprehensive recovery support services for individuals battling substance use disorder. Our programs provide peer support, recovery coaching, educational workshops, and connections to vital community resources to empower individuals on their journey to sustain and long-term recovery. The urgency of our mission is underscored by alarming statistics in Alachua County, emergency services responded to 1,451 overdose calls, in 2022, which was up from 1,405 the previous year. That included 62 fatal overdoses. Additionally, drug-related arrests have increased from 843 and 22 to 931 and 2023. That's highlighting the growing need for effective intervention and support systems. We believe that by providing evidence-based recovery support that the NMI project aims to reduce relapse rates, alleviate the burden on already exhausted emergency service personnel, and improve overall community well-being. We believe that recovery is possible for everyone and no one should have to face this journey alone. We invite you to join us, whether through partnership, advocacy, or support to help bring hope and recovery to those who need it most. Together we can make a difference in a lot to a county. I would also like to state that I am also a woman in long-term recovery. And what that means to me is that when I was 18, I joined the United States Army. When I was 20, I gave birth to my first child. When I was 22, I gave birth to my second child, along with graduating from the University of North Florida with a bachelor's degree in nursing. Shortly after when he was three weeks old, I lost him to SIDS, and that began me down a long spiraling road of addiction to opioid substances. I found my recovery in prison, which as you can imagine has done a lot of destruction to my life and to my future goals and what I can do. And so today I fight for each person who is in need of and deserve an of recovery in their life. We want to make a difference in a latch of a county as we have in other counties throughout the state of Florida. We will begin by having a visioning session, what that is, we will just listen to what the community has to say and that date is to be determined. Thank you. Thank you. And I do have these if I can leave some handouts for anyone. Any further citizen comments? Seeing none we're back to the board. Telephone. Telephone. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, Mark. Yes. That's OK, Mr. Chair. We do have one caller with their hand up. So Josh and Alan if you can allow the caller ending in 5385, if you can allow them into the room, please caller whose number is ending in 5385 if you would state your name you have three minutes. Good morning Good morning. Good morning. My name is June. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Julie. Good morning. My name is Julie Stokes. I wrote something that I wanted to address to our district 5, which is the correct presiding chair, Mr. Chess met concerning the city of Waldo. You know, Waldo is a rural city in your district and by all appearances it is appears to be operating unchecked without the accountability that the citizens deserve. There is growing frustration among residents here regarding the lack of transparency and responsiveness city leaders starting with the city manager's office and extending to the council seat. There's critical concerns from community members regarding having issues undressed, unaddressed, leaving many questions whether their voice is really mad or in the city. In addition to this, the GLAC, there's also trouble reports of retaliation and harassment from different people regarding from the city manager's office and the council. You know, the resident fear repraisal for participating in the democratic process or advocating for improvement in their city. We're witnessing the city that is not growing, not economically, not structurally and certainly not in trust between the government and the people that it serves. So you are Mr. Tessna, our representative with the County Commission for this area. And we're just asking for a little bit more attention. We know Waldo is on an outskirts. It is kind of like the almost like the forgotten city. But we have real people here. We have real people who care about the growth of this city. We want to see the city excel. We want the city to grow. But we need some help here. That's the end of my statement. Thank you. Okay you. Okay. All right. Thank you. I will look into that. I will talk with your manager. And I would like to get a meeting with you and some of the residents in Waldo to find out exactly what is going on in the community. That would be wonderful. Okay. That would be wonderful. Okay. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Mr. Chair, that was the last caller. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Clerk. Chair, that takes us to the approval of the recognitions. Okay. Where's the charity? Get the answer to my question. Yes. The county has eminent domain power. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Move approval of the recognitions of submitted. Okay. Got emotional to the second. Any further discussion to the motion? Those in favor of the motion will by the sign of aye. Aye. Those opposed same sign motion carries. All right. Sure. Next up is the employee length of service first quarter recognitions. So in afternoon, Heather Aukpan, Assistant County Manager for Justice and Workforce Strategies. I have the great honor today of presenting to you your quarterly length of service honorees as well as some retirees. So we're going to pay our newly updated presentation. Thank you to Tukumi and the communications team. And then we will ask any employees who are here afterwards to please stand and be recognized as well as our retiree who his director will say some words about him. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm gonna play It seems like we all should be dancing. celebration throughout the year. So bring your good times and your life into We gonna celebrate your party with you. Come on down. Celebration. Let's all celebrate and have a good time. Celebration. We gonna celebrate and have a good time. It's time to come together. It's up to you once you're blessed. Everyone around the world will come up. It's up celebration. It's a celebration. Celebrate your time on That's celebrate, is a party going on right here A dedication to throughout the years So bring your good times and your laughter to We gon' celebrate and party with you Come on now Celebration Let's all celebrate and have a good time Yeah, yeah Celebration We gonna celebrate and have a good time It's time to go together It's up up to you once you're blessed. And we won the round round with the top. It's a celebration. It's a celebration. Celebrate good times, come on. Let's celebrate. Come on now. Celebrate good times, come on. Let's celebrate. We're gonna have a good time tonight That celebrate It's all right We're gonna have a good time tonight That celebrate It's all right We're gonna have a good time tonight That celebrate It's all right I It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hello Hello Hello We could have come up Hello We could have come up It's a celebration and then look So if any of our length of service or retirees are here, if you would please stand. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Goveretti, if we want to recognize Mr. Jackson's retirement. Come to the... There you are. Okay, a few words please. Come on, Pete. Come on, Pete. As he walks over, you know, one of the things that I have learned in public works is that a lot of my employees do not use their real names. And Pete is one of them. His name is Terry Jackson. I go by Pete. Pete, it's been a pleasure working with you. So thank you for all your service and your years. And I know we're still going to see you a few more days sometime between here and March 31st. But thank you for working hard and keeping especially latest at the moment and the right that way is looking as they look today. So once again, thank you and I appreciate your service. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, next up is a presentation of proclamation recognizing April 1st through April 30th, 2025, as National Boatry Month in Elatua County Florida. While we're waiting on that, could I say a few words? I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of the folks that have stuck with Elatio County through the years and this age of people moving from job to job, to have so many people that have worked here for literally decades. It's really amazing. So thank you guys a lot. I like the new format too because it's slow enough that I can read everybody carefully and get to see their faces too. Thank you. Come on down folks right right over here right over here. We have our poet society here today. Led by Mr. the honorable East and Richardson. I'm delighted to be able to present this one today because as a former teacher one of the easiest ways to teach a kid to read, I realized was through poetry. You know, Dr. Seuss, we all learn to read pretty much from the poetry of Dr. Seuss and it's pretty important. I think if any of you all are having trouble teaching your children to read, find some good, easy poetry for them to, and it'll make it a lot easier. It's almost like music. Yes. All right, I'm glad you all stand up. You swear I can see you. There you go. I'll read this proclamation. All right, Alastair County, Florida, a proclamation declaring April 1st through April 30th, 2025 as National Poetry Month in Alastua County, Florida, whereas National Poetry Month seeks to highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets, introduce Americans to the pleasures and benefits of reading poetry, bring poets and poetry to the public in immediate and innovative ways, make poetry an important part of our children's education, and whereas National Poetry Month under the leadership and direction of the Academy of American Poets is now the largest literary celebration in the world, and whereas poetry enhances and enriches the lives of all Americans and poetry as an essential part of the arts and humanities affects every aspect of life in America today, including education, the economy, and community pride in development. And whereas poetry has produced some of the nation's leading creative artists and has inspired other artists and fields such as music, theater, film, dance, and the visual arts. And whereas we call upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of Elatua County to observe this month, to celebrate the cultural riches of our community that our community has to offer, and to recognize the important role of poetry in creating and sustaining this great nation with appropriate ceremonies, activities, programs. Now therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, I do hereby proclaim April 1st through April 30th, 2025, its National Poetry Month in Alachua County, Florida. Julie proclaimed this 8th day of April, AD 2025. It's signed by our chair, Charles Chestnut, and it is attested to by Jess Erby, and it's to be presented to you. Well, thank you. Please introduce your friends. He's Stanley Richardson. That's a lot to what County poet Laurie. I want to thank you, Mr Mr. Chair and the entire Board of County Commissioners, staff administrators, everyone here who for supporting poetry and for supporting the the poor at laureate position as poor at laureate one of my duties is to mentor youth in 2023 We established the north central florida a lot of what county youth poor at laureate position and so in 2023, we established the North Central Florida, a lot of county youth poor lawyer position. And so in 2023, we selected a Port Laureate and an ambassador. Our Port Laureate was racial shoe. She is now at Brown University. And so our poor lawyer running her up, who is now our poor lawyer, take over those duties is Miss Annika Gammard. And so she would like to heard a comment, say a few words about what poetry means to her. Annika, you are in the tip right now. Oh, yes. Excellent. Excellent. Hi. Oh gosh, wow, that's tall. Sorry, it's my first time being here. Forgive me, I might be a little anxious. But I first started writing poetry series in eighth grade. While I've been exposed to it several times before, I always disregarded it as like... is my first time being here, forgive me, I might be a little anxious, but I first started writing poetry series in eighth grade. While I've been exposed to it several times before, I always disregarded it as like an English assignment to do. My English teacher at that time introduced a poem assignment to us. Of course at that time I didn't really know what to write about. I mean there's multiple topics I could write about. I was talking a lot my mental health at that time and I didn't know any other way to express how I feel. So, my first poem, The Garden of Marigolds, I wrote about my mental health and expressed how I feel mentally and it helped me process my emotions. That day it became more than an English assignment to me. It's one of the most powerful ways that not only I can communicate but for communities to communicate. It provides understanding to topics, people haven't truly understand. It connects bridges to those who feel the same strengthening community our community. It creates empathy thinking creatively and boosting literary skills among students. Poetry is inspiring and I hope one day I can write as great as Edgar Allen Poe Emily Dickinson Maya Angelo and other great poets have come before me. The ability to have access to literary programs and poetry itself is not only helpful to poets, but to writers and to each and every student. It's important to, it's important and continues to stay accessible to create opportunities for each and every person. I think the county commissioners for supporting poetry and continuing to do. Your uplifting poets' voices while supporting creative expression are genuinely love poetry and I hope every person in this community will come to love and understand it as well within this proclamation. Thank you. Thank you. In my name is Jenna Nishita. I'm here just as a representative of your local citizen poetry community. Elachio County has a flourishing literary in poetry community, not only represented by Stan through all his activities during the year and the ongoing bard in broadside poetry festival that is currently underway. But we have many other groups in town. We have the 30-year running open mic at the Civic Media Center, Thursday night poetry jam that everyone's welcome to. And we also have, for example, the writers Alliance of Gainesville. I was honored to be asked to be the poetry editor last year. And this is an international journal that gets thousands of entries from all over the world in different literary genres. and it's right here in Elatio County. So there's a lot going on in Elatio County when it comes to poetry in the arts and we want to remind our citizens to come and join us and take part and listen to the voices of your neighbors. Poets come from all walks of life. They are absolutely diverse and integral to this community and they are the ones who will speak the truth. And so come and listen to your poets and add your voice because poetry matters. Thank you so much. If you'd like to find out more about the Bard and Broadside, no such a floor-to-floor festival happening right here in Gainesville, please visit ArchSpeaks. That's archspeaksgnv.org. ARTSPEA.KS.GNV.org. Thank you. Thank you. May I just have very quickly to stand. Thank you so much. You're always available with the beautiful poetry that represents our community. And I just want you to know how important it is when you show up and you speak your truth through your poetry. It's amazing. Thank you so much. And that you are sharing it. Do you have anything very quickly that you could share? We start our meetings with the prayer. I think it wouldn't hurt to have a poetry. If you don't have anything. You don't have a poetry. Okay. Okay. Rose is a red. Valice of blue. The poetry community loves you. There you go. Thank thank you Mr. Chair that takes the next proclamation, which is a presentation of a proclamation recognizing April 13th or April 19th, 2025 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators a week week in Elatua County, Florida, whereas professional public safety telecommunicators in Elatua County plays a crucial role in the protection of life, property, and delivery of public safety services. And whereas each day hundreds of Alachua County citizens dial 911 for help in emergencies and the telecommunicators who answer these calls for help gathers essential information and dispatch appropriate assistance which can often make the difference between life and death for persons in need. And whereas these well trained, highly dedicated and deeply motivated individuals surge, the citizens of Alachua County, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, doing extreme situations such as hurricanes, These individuals are unable to be with their families to protect their own homes and properties and whereas public safety telecommunicators often do not receive recognition do them by the citizens and agencies who depend on them and benefit from their services. And whereas Congress of the United States has proclaimed its support and recognition to these employees and their professions, and the county is publicly recognizing the local telecommunicators who serve its citizens in such a professional manner. And we invite all all the Lachwick County citizens to recognize these individuals for their commitment to the safety of our citizens. Now therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Lachwick County Florida, I do hereby proclaim April 13 through the 19th, 2025, as National Public Safety Telecommunicators, Week in Alachua County, Florida, Dooli Beclaim this eighth day of April, AD, 2025, sound by me and also a test by JK Jess Erby. And I like to present this overall and ask you to make a couple of comments. Okay, thank you. Give me a second. Hey everybody. My name is David Gibson and I'm a 9-1-1 call taker. I'm one of the first voices you hear during an emergency for the Elatua County Sheriff's Office and the Combined Communication Center. On behalf of all of my co-workers, some that are present here and many that you're not seeing, we want to thank Sir Chair, the County Commissioners and the citizens of Elatua County for taking the time to acknowledge public safety, telecommunications week 2025. Thank you. Commissioner Chair and County Attorney. This is a wonderful group and I'm honored to be here to acknowledge how important this group is. I mean, in order for the guys on the road that's responding to calls to get it right, when you talk about first responders, this is the first contact that people, when you call, this is the first contact that you get. And it takes a special person to do this job. It's a very high turnover and anytime that you have someone that like this group that has, this is the what seventh accreditation, want to tell them, just tell them a little bit about that Pat real quick. I want you guys to know how special this group is. Hi, I'm Patricia Fort-Thomas, I'm the Communications Center Division Manager. So we have been accredited since 2002 and we have consistently been reaccredited and unfortunately a couple of weeks ago we received our eighth accreditation by the Kalea accreditation board so yeah we have been doing a great job for you and And I'm honored to be the manager. We have a bunch of great ordinary men and women in that communication center that does extraordinary work for you every single day. And I am honored to be the manager and I'm proud and honored to have them answering that 911 call in the event that you should dial 911 and require our service. Thank you. Thank you. This is a wonderful group. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Mr. Chair, if I might for a moment. I just want to say thank you to this group. They are the ones that are speaking to the residents on their worst day. A people who are in crisis, people who are not sure where to turn. And you all have to pick up that phone and be calm and cool and collected and be thinking about all of the resources that we have in the community to send their way. Not just the police or just fire rescue, but now we have the mobile response teams and we have all of the co-responder teams and we have lots of resources in this community and you all have to juggle all of that while also trying to help someone stay calm and deal with their situation. So thank you so much for the work that you do for our community we really really appreciate it. All right, Mr. Chair next up is a presentation of our Proclamation Recognizing April as Fair Housing, Month in Elatua County, Florida. Okay. I don't know if anyone's here. Oh, great. We have some folks here. Hello, hello. I'm so happy to see you all. Alright, well, as everyone knows, probably housing is very near and dear to my heart. I'm really proud of the work that the county's been doing through our community sports services program to provide fair housing across our community. And I'm excited to present this today. Declaring April as Fair Housing Month at Elatua County, Florida, whereas April 2025 marks the 57th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, which provides equal opportunity for all Americans in the sale, rental, financing, and financing of housing and prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, marital status, familial status, or age. And whereas it is the solemn and sworn duty of government at all levels to protect and defend the rights of its citizens and oppose housing discrimination whenever and wherever it occurs. Fair housing is a law of the United States government and is consistent with the principles of equality and justice for all. An allatric county is committed to upholding the civil rights of all citizens through allatric county code of ordinances, Chapter 111, which prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, marital status, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity, or expression, familial status, veteran or service, member status, lawful source of income, citizenship status, being the victim of dating or domestic violence, or stalking in the sale or rental of housing. And whereas, a Latvia County in collaborative partnership with the City of Gainesville Housing Resource Agencies, affordable housing advocates, mortgage lenders and legal aid providers will host a housing resource fair on April 26, 2025 to raise awareness of fair housing laws and promote local resource and access to housing for our communities. Whereas the month of April is officially set aside as for our housing month in Elantra County and we celebrate the theme breaking down barriers. Now therefore, the authority invested in me by the Board of County Commissioners, I do hereby proclaim April as Fair Housing Month in Elantra County. And it's got all the signs and seals and I'm now going to deliver it so we can hear more about the fair housing and all the things our community is doing. Good afternoon. So my name is Aaron Kelly. I've been on the fair, it's our human rights board since 2011 and still going. I serve as a chair. I just want to say thank you to the chair and the entire commission for its continued support. Obviously we we heard through the proclamation how important actually housing and establishing that foundation for everyone's lives really is. We've dedicated commitment that this community shows to not have indiscrimination come into play on that one. I will also say thank you to Jacqueline and Jill who's here and Jacqueline's here. It's an amazing team that you have with the EO office. The work that they do is fantastic. I've enjoyed working with them tremendously. I'm sure you're very proud of the team that you have working for you. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all for your attention. This chair that takes us to board and committee items. The first item is the non-government of a non-gainsville municipal representative to the MTPO. You have three nominees, Tommy Howard, who's the City of Hawthorne Commissioner, Monique Taylor, who's the Waldo City Commissioner, and Kevin Patonsu, which is the McIntyre Mayor Pro Tem. We'll be looking for one nominee, so do the roll call. If Commissioner Cornel is available. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Yeah, I really think a lot of Monique Taylor, the councilman over at Waldo. She's really especially, so many Taylor. Commissioner Persia, your nominee. Sir, Moneak Taylor. Commissioner Wheeler, your nominee, please. Moneak Taylor. Commissioner Alfred. Evan Patansky, Patan, Patan, Patansoo, I think. And Commissioner Chessna, your nominee. Tommy Howard. Just. Chair that gives a Booneak Taylor three of your I move Mooneak, sorry I move Mooneak Taylor for our MTPO I'm non-gainsville city representative to the MTPO. Second. Okay got a motion in a second. Are there any further discussion to the motion that's on the floor? Are there any public comments to the motion? I do have one comment. I wanted to make to my my fellow board members and that is that this process went really smoothly thank goodness, but I did note as we were at the MTPO meeting and I was looking through this that we since we are responsible it doesn't outline in the bylaws or anything from them a process for for this nomination. And so it's up to us to figure that out. And I do think that it's worth it for us to maybe put some processes in place where we would ask each municipality to submit one nominee. If they choose to, they don't have to. But if they want to submit a nominee and have those nominees come to us through the municipalities so that we don't have multiple people in one municipality competing for their individual seat and us having to make a call between people at a given municipality. I think right now it also rotates every two years and so we can make a policy that will always see a new municipality those every two years so that it would be rotating so other cities would feel that they had the opportunity to be a part of it. So those are just some some ideas I had but I just wanted to put forward that I think it's worth it for us to do that. And that's all. Okay, thank you. Yes. Mr. Chair and Board Alasama's Transportation Planning Manager for Lachua County staff will take that feedback and incorporate it into both the bylaws and the interlocal agreement. I also wanted to mention that the agenda item today listed one year as the term the interlocal agreement which is in draft presently list two years so if you just would adopt or so appoint the appointee today consistent with the bylaws and the interlocal agreement that would be appropriate. Thank you. Okay. Okay. So I can include that in my motion that we would refer to staff those recommendations for processes and that they serve a two-year term per the bylaws and interlocal agreements. I'm in your motion. Thank you. Second. I got a motion to second. Any further comments to the motion? Are there any citizen colleagues to the motion? Back to the board. Those in for, we've got one. OK. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you. I wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you all, and I look forward to learning from you all. So thank you. Okay, thank you. I want to say thank you to each and every one of you all and I look forward to learning from you all. So thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Okay. Those in favor of motion will buy Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank I'm just here and available. If you have any questions. All right. Then we'll call on each commissioner for your one nominee please. Commissioner Wheeler. Michelle Beans. Commissioner Alfred, do you know many please. Michelle Beans. Commissioner Cornell your nominee. Michelle Beans. Commissioner Prisya. Beans. And Commissioner Chessna. Beans. Michelle Beans is the unanimous nominee. Motion to approve Michelle Beans as the Electric County Housing Authority Board Representative. Alternate member position. Second. Got a motion in a second. All right. Those in favor. Oh, I'm sorry. I actually had a comment. Oh, you got a comment? I'm sorry. I did want to comment that we did have some exceptionally qualified candidates that applied for this and I wanted to thank all of them for their application and congratulate Michelle Beans, but also thank the Elizabeth Mueller and Amy Janard Zepida for applying. So they were very well qualified. Okay. All right. Any other commissioners? Commissioner Cornel, do you have any comments? Okay. Citizen comments? Is it a motion? Cal Colleble speaking as an individual member of the Board of Commissioners at the Housing Authority, we need to have a full house of people to discuss and has been a little bit of issue lately making quorum. So glad to have you fill that seat. And I'm glad to have another person in for our principal fights, one of which I wanted to mention during your proclamation of fair housing month. One of our biggest obstacles is still there are many landlords who don't recognize what you say about source of income. I.E. refused to accept vouchers from Meridian, from Gainesville Community Ministries, from Grace Marketplace, from the Housing Authorities. Without taking notice that those are the most on time, right on the clock payments any landlords get. So with a deep support for extraordinary repairs. So, it's strictly a class issue to me that people are scared of that. And also the problem of getting, uh, ball and getting veterans in need of housing into the HUD VASH program where we have a hundred vouchers waiting and they still trickle us one or two a week. So we definitely need people. We need those seats full to do the fighting for that. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Good afternoon. Ronald Hall, Director of Operations for the Lachkania Housing Authority and Board of Liaison. I want to thank the Commissioner, Jess Knight and the rest of the commission for you, providing us with this very good board, and like Commissioner Albert said, I looked at the applicants, we have very good applicants this time. I think Michelle Beans experienced with the Games for Housing Authority and accounting and development is really gonna benefit our current board and providing us good feedback and good direction as we move forward in our next process as of an authority. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Yes. My comment, too, is regarding the people who were not selected this time, those applications stay on file. So when there are openings, they're still active, right? That's right. I think that's right. So for a year, okay. For a year. Okay. Any further comments? None. Back to the board. Those in favor of the motion vote by the sign of I. All right. Those opposed. Same sign. Motion carries. Mr. Chair, that takes the Human Rights Board annual report. Just a quick journal over here. Me again, sorry. Anne Kelly, I currently serve in as the chairman of the Human Rights Board, just to provide a little bit to the county commission about the board itself. So what the Human Rights Board does is the equal opportunity office, representatives here, receive and complaints throughout the community. If there's any complaint or concern about discrimination in any one of the protected classes those come in the EO office will do the initial investigation and then that complaint will then come to the board for further investigation and then ultimately a decision whether it's kind of substantiated as far as a complaint is concerned or not. So that's our primary focus of the board. Have it done so too much recently but but also looking at the ordinance on a kind of consistent basis, see if there's any additional recommendations or things that we can improve upon the ordinance itself. And then also as far as education and information is concerned, get as much outreach to the community as possible. It's been mentioned a few times in a couple of different starting the announcements and throughout, but again, the housing resource fair, which is breaking down barriers, Saturday, April 26, 2025, 10 AM to 2 PM at the Martin Luther King Junior Multipurpose Center. So I'm available for any questions, but that's kind of a general report on the board. Could you repeat the dates again? Yes, absolutely. It's Saturday, April 26, from 10 AM to 2 PM. And that's at the Martin Luther King Junior Multilay Purpose Center. Okay. I don't need any comments. Commissioner Wheeler? I hesitate to ask, but my concern is with these buzzwords that we're using if we're going to have issues with them at all. Buzzword, I'm sorry, the specific words we're talking about. Okay, well, no, I just didn't know if we were reword looking at any of our word choices. We haven't had to do that. You mean the ordinance? For the county. Not in quite some time. Okay, okay. All right, well that's fine. That's fine, that's fine. Okay, thank you. Sure. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Okay, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Chair, that takes the next item, which is local history presentation by the Elatric County Historical Commission of the history and significance of a block of buildings on Main Street. Okay. Our university kids being, and I wanted to ask you that. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. we all know her. I don't know. I'm here today to celebrate and recognize the significance of the prettiest oldest block of buildings on North Main Street. Okay. This is, she's going to handle the pictures. I thought it was going to be a PowerPoint, but she's going to put them here. This is the 100 block of North Main Street. It contains significant historical buildings in terms of architectural style and age. To 1879 or a little bit older buildings are shown in place on the 1884 Beckenpolly lithograph and are now two of only around a dozen buildings still standing nearly a hundred years later. Almost everything you see in this map is gone except for these buildings on Main Street that I'm talking about. I have a deed from James Brown who purchased the property in 1873. He was one of of only two people who was the mayor of Gainesville three times in the city's history. Brown was the mayor of Gainesville in 1871, 1885 and 1888, and maneuvered the city through the aftermath of a great fire that destroyed much of downtown. The population also doubled in the ten years from 1880 to 1890. Brown's daughter married Barton Thrasher. You always marry the girl next door back in the old days. And he was the first to use the house at 103 North Main for his home and law office. This is Barton Thrasher. After his death in 1882, his son Barton Thrasher Jr. took over his law practice, and in 1920, Barton Thrasher Jr. was appointed judge of the eighth judicial circuit court. He held his position until he passed away in 1929. Barton Douglas, born in 1908, was the youngest son of James Byers Douglas, who was the son of a lawyer. Douglas named his son after his close friend Barton Thrasher. These are related to the Thrasher's in Miquinope. When Barton Thrasher died in 1929, Barton Douglas was in law school and he inherited the building in the law practice. Upon his graduation he was the building for his home and law office. He later built the home on the northeast 4th Avenue but he continued to use 103 North Main for his law office. He passed away in 1993 and his widow sold it to the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Foundation in 2012. This building is likely the only one in Lachua County in use as a law office for over 100 years. Another building is the beloved shop at Holy Trinity Thrift Store, which some people remember as a flower shop. I do remember that myself. You probably do. At the south end of the lot is the modern shoe repair, a unique two-story stucco edition to the Barton Douglas Law Office. It's approximately 100 years old this year. The most well-known building on the block was the wine and cheese gallery, which was in business for 40 years and had scores of fans when they closed the restaurant. And it's worth noting that at least one internationally known rock star was seen enjoying the cafe located at the back of the building. It's not who you think it is. Who is it? It's not Tom Petty. It's not. I feel like Tom Petty was there, but who is this? Stephen Stills. And I definitely, I saw him and I'm like, what is, who is that? Why is he here in Gainesville? And I found out later he went to Gainesville high and he ended up buying a house here. It's okay. Holy Trinity Church cherishes its own history. When it's 1906 sanctuary was burned down in 1991, they built a near replica of the original building. They recently installed a state historic marker in the Pleasant Street neighborhood honoring the St. Augustine Mission Church in school that they established in 1894 for persons of color. However, in the case of all these buildings, I've just shown you, on Main Street, the plan is to clear off the entire lot. It will become a parking lot with a little park, and eventually they'll raise money to put a building on the site. But right now, the plan is, as far as I know, they've pulled the demolition permit to wipe off every building on the lot and become a surface parking lot. To learn more about the history of the block, because I can't say much in three minutes, I'm going to be giving a talk at the Matheson on April 16th next Wednesday at 7 o'clock PM, because I think this will make a significant difference in the look of downtown Gainesville when all the buildings are cleared off. So I'm inviting you and everybody listening to me on TV to come to my lecture, seven o'clock at the Madison. You'll see a lot more slides. You'll learn a lot more about the significance of the building. And I want you to walk over there and look around and see what a difference it'll make when those buildings are gone. Because a vacant lot is not going to be an asset to downtown. And a downtown revitalization cannot continue when we have so many vacant lots. So please come to my, hear my talk, seven o'clock at the mats and next Wednesday. Thank you. Yes, sure. Commissioner Prisya? I have two questions for you. One is, who is building the parking lot for what purpose? The Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Foundation. That's their plan right now. Eventually they want to put a building there, but they're going to destroy every single building there and build a park in a parking lot. And the second question I have is there no historic protections for those who start building this? Well, the Preservation Board has little to say because it's not individually listed on the local register and even if it wasn't local or national It's really hard to stop an owner from destroying their own property They've owned them for some of the buildings over 20 years and have done not much to them. They're all vacant And they do have you know significant problems, but anything can be saved if there's money and a willing preservationist. Okay, Commissioner Conell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maloney, thanks for the report. Sorry I'm not there. I know you live close to and we're active in the Thoma Bolton. I'm saving the Thoma Bolton. Do you have an update for that that you could share with our board? They've done some work on the grounds and they've paid an architect to come up with a plan and they have the contractors standing by. They've got a big fence around it. I don't see a lot of progress but they're making some. The building is technically saved. I just don't see it but I progress, but they're making some. So the building is technically saved. They're just, I just don't see it, but I mean, I'm worried about the hurricane's coming through again. The tarp keeps rolling back, and we've got to get that tarp stabilized, but it's saved technically. And I'm trying to save another significant block of buildings. It's going to be a little bit more difficult though. Thank you for your interest. I think you're a good preservationist. Any more questions? Thank you. Just to share that text, this is the public hearings. And the first public hearings, the development. This is the first public hearing for the community development block grant application. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm going, commissioners. Rollston, Rideca with community support services. And so this is the first of two public hearings required for the community development block net, community development block rent. And so we actually, well, the purpose of this public hearings is to gain community input and to provide information on the available grant programs. And so the application cycle actually opened a little bit over a month ago, but staff just found out about it just the other week. Because typically what happens is anybody with an open grant is not eligible to apply but because of all the disasters we've had in the past year the state has made their program more open and accessible so there's a governor's emergency final order suspending a lot of the statues and the rules regarding the Florida Small Cities program and so Lachor Countyor County is actually eligible to apply. And so, these are the four categories. So there's neighborhood revitalization, housing rehabilitation, commercial revitalization, and economic development. And so, any activity funded by CDBG must meet one of these three national objectives. It's primarily to benefit low and moderate income persons, up to 80% of area median income, elimination of slum and blight, and also it can address an urgent need. And so these are examples of some CDBG activities, so it can be public infrastructure, it can be economic development activities that create or retain jobs for low and moderate income persons, downtown revitalization, it can be part facilities, community centers, drainage stormwater improvements and obviously rehabilitation of substandard housing. And so as I mentioned for federal fiscal year 2023, Elastro County did apply at the board's direction for housing rehab grant and we were awarded just a few months ago. We don't have a grant agreement yet with the state and so we're currently waiting on that. And previously we've done pretty well in this category. And so I do want to clarify the recommendation here is to get the input obviously from the community but also from the board. These are the four categories that we can apply for. And there's also a caveat with economic development. And so that category is open year round. And so any applicant can actually submit an economic development application as well as one of the three other categories during the competition cycle. That's all. Thank you. Commissioner Prisya and Commissioner Halfred. Okay. I guess I have a couple questions. The first question is, what is the deadline for the applicant? You said the economic development one is open all years, so that one doesn't have a stringent deadline. Mr. Chair, the deadline is May 2nd. Okay, for all of them. Okay. Are the projects required to be shovel ready? We sort of have to be ready to go. What's the delivery time once that, if we're awarded? It's different for each grant category. So for economic development, there must be a sponsor, typically a business, and the main goal is to create or retain jobs for that one. For housing rehab, they're not necessarily shovel ready, because we have to go through a process of getting qualified applicants to go through that process to make sure their income and asset eligible. Okay, so for the the housing rehab, that's essentially like it would be a bucket of money that we could then deploy in our community to income eligible housing across our community that's in need of repair. Yes, it can be used for single-family rehab, it can be useful multi-family rehab. It can be used for a lot of different housing activities. OK. Good. We definitely have a lot. I'll just say we have definitely have a lot of need in the housing rehab area. So I see that as a definite need. And if we can apply for both that and economic development, I say we go for it. Okay, Commissioner Alfred. I had some of the similar concerns, but I'll just move staff recommendation. Okay. Madam motion to say, Commissioner Wheeler? Yes, I have a question about the grant, the number of grants that can be submitted from the county. I think I remember in the past, it was like only one or two and that we couldn't compete. What are those stipulations? Mr. Chair, if I understand correctly, you mean from municipalities within the last four of the counties? Yes, yes. Yes. Anyone is eligible. As long as they're on the Florida Commerce website as eligible communities and the last time we checked For the last cycle. I believe all the municipalities are or were eligible and are still eligible to apply so there's no no limit Do how many okay? Okay, okay? We can apply as well as they they can apply but again, it's a competition Okay, okay. I see all right. Thank you Okay, Commissioner Carnot. Howel do you have any comments? I'm good, Chuck, thank you. Okay, all right. Okay, back to the board, I guess. I don't really have any comments, but I guess the economic development at housing is more important to me than anything, so compare it to the others. So I don't... Same. Okay. Is there a motion? I think we have one. Yeah. Okay, I'm sorry. I made the motion. I'm sorry. That's okay. Mine elsewhere. Okay. And the second it was Mary Helen, right? Okay. All right. Just want to make sure. Okay. Any further discussion to the motion? Are there any public comments in the motion? Okay. Seeing none, back to the board. Those in favor of the motion. What by the son of I? Aye. Aye. Those opposed. Same son of motion carries. Mr. Clerk. Sure. I believe that wraps up the morning agenda. I didn't know if we wanted to take any opportunity to take any kind of attorney comments, kind of manager or commission comments since we have time. Okay. All right. I'm looking at the manager in the attorney. So Mr. Chair, I do not have comments today. Okay. Mr. Chair, I also do not have comments and we can call for public comment. I don't see anybody unless there's anybody around the corner. Nobody here for closing public comment? Okay. Okay. So I guess we're in recess until. Oh, you had comments? Okay. You want to do them now? Okay. Yeah, I'd rather do them now. No, okay. All right. Okay. Okay. All right. I have a couple things. The first one is a quick and easy one, and that is that I noticed that our Locke-Lusa Slough Public Engagement meeting coincides with the exact same time as the Hawthorne City Commission meeting. And that was brought to my attention. And while I understand that it's hard for us to avoid meetings with our public engagement processes, I would just ask that in the future if staff for public engagement activities could look at the local municipalities and try to avoid their commission meetings for those events. So at least so they're not at the exact same time. Because it does, it's in Hawthorne and it's the same time as the Hawthorne City Commission. So it's going to, you know, be a competition and I hate to see us doing that with our local municipalities. So if we could just avoid that in the future, that would be great. And then the second thing is our farmer's market. We're going to be... We had the conversation with Chief Theis and our facility spoke so a bit ago about needing, we're going to be needing to move the farmer's market in order to accommodate the fire training facility and they're beginning the phases of planning that space and as they plan that space I'm hoping that we can be undergoing a parallel process planning for what's going to happen to our farmers market. And I think the first step of that would be having our new ones that are important, I guess. Food systems and agriculture coordinator and economic development folks kind of work with the farmers market to do a survey to figure out their needs in terms of space and what the customers and what the vendors want in need from a farmer's market and kind of give us some basic information on which we can start to have a dialogue and conversation. So I wanted to bring that to you all and see if you were okay with us. Me making a motion, I wanted to make a motion to direct staff to work with our farmer's market. Vendors and farmer's market customers to solicit information about information about farmers markets needs so we can begin to explore what next steps are for that. Second. Get a motion in a second. Any further comments? Miss Sher and Mr. if then you want that information brought back to a special meeting for further discussion. Yeah I mean I think that probably if we can just start tracking kind of the process, the same process that they're going through on the fire rescue side so that by the time we're ready to begin processes there, we have a plan for what's going to happen with the strategy for our farmers market. Yes. I'd like to tell you thank you for being proactive on that. That was something that's been of concern to me and that's this is a good way to handle it. Thank you. Yeah, really good. Thank you. Yeah, really good. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Commissioner Wheeler, any comments? No. Commissioner Cornel, any comments? I mean, I care a lot about our farmers market. I care a lot about that nonprofit. I wonder if we are setting a precedent though with other farmers markets around the community. And so this one is a little bit unique in that the counting has provided a lot of space for them, or provided space for them for a very, very long time. But I do want to be cognizant of staff's involvement in what Mr. Prisya is asking for. I think we all want to find another location. I would like for them to actually be taking the lead with the county's help as opposed to the county taking the lead with their help. And so I guess, could you restate the motion, Anna? The motion is for staff to work with the vendors at the market and the customers at the market to ascertain the needs for the farmers markets so that we can explore next steps on a new location. I hear your concern. I think that I actually would like to hold on. So you're asking for them to establish kind of a needs analysis? Yeah, essentially a needs assessment. Yeah. I will have any problem with that. I think we probably need to do that anyways as a as a community. I have seen entities consume staff time when it's, and this is a public purpose. We've kind of determined it to be a public purpose, but I just, I don't want our staff to be overwhelmed, but I think I need the assessment is fine as long as it comes back to us. Yeah. I hear you. And I mean, I'll just say to my colleagues too for purpose, it's not for discussion today, but when it comes back to us, I do think, the vision that I have for the farmers market, and beyond is that it's a really important conduit for our community to be able to engage with our local farmers and learn about our local food economy, and that it's a kind of a linchpin in direct marketing for our farmers. And it ultimately will hopefully tie into the Food Hub project that we have going on the feasibility study and business planning that we have. And I think that in an ideal world, honestly, I hear you about right now it's a nonprofit that just leases a space for us. But I actually am not sure that that's the ideal setup. I think that it actually, in my opinion, places the county and at risk. There's a lot of issues with that nonprofit rather they're managing the market. You know, there are a bunch of vendors that actually use the market. And so it's people who are using the market that are managing the market, which can be challenging in and of itself. And to me, it might be a better process. If we do decide to go forward with a new space that we do something where it's a contract for service, where it's our facility and so we're contracting with somebody to be able to operate that facility and make the most of it from an economic development standpoint and really push the envelope on some of the priorities that we have as a commission for local food economic development, nutrition education, food access and food security, etc. So, I don't, again, that's not a conversation for today, but I do think that it may be necessary for us to rethink some of the structure as we move forward. Yeah, I just think one of the comment check and I'm done. So, so, yeah, and when you got on the board, you brought this whole food system process really into the county's sphere, which is so important that and we also really, really supported it. I just don't know how far down we go, you know, and farm to plate makes a lot of sense, but there's a lot of other farmer's markets around the county. And I just, I think if we do this needs assessment and we figure out kind of what they need and we can duplicate that around the county, I see a lot of benefit to that. If we are rather though trying to figure out something for this specific entity, I'm not in favor of that. I'm in favor of something that we can implement systemically around the county. And if they are our partners in helping us establish that in accordance with kind of what I believe was your vision when you got on the board that I'm totally bought into which is improving our food systems for the folks that need it the most and local food resiliency then I'm all for that. Yeah no I think we on the same page. I think that like looking at this is what are the needs for farmers markets in Elatua County kind of broadly with that market as sort of one example of one that we've been supporting I think is exactly kind of you're on target for sure. Okay, thank you. I'll support the motion. Okay. I don't have any comments. Okay. Those in favor the motion by the side of our Those both same side. Okay, thank you. Okay, and then the last thing that I have is at our last A-Hack meeting, there was a lot of conversation about our infrastructure surtax. And we haven't spent any of that money yet. And I think that's in part because we've been sort of wrestling with the structure of the program and I think that it is, I think that we need to have a policy conversation. I think there are things that staff are figuring out like legally and logistically and that's great, but I also think there are some questions for us with regards to some of the policy decisions about the criteria that are being used and sort of how we then vet the programs and how we want the projects to come to us. So I would like to ask that we put that on either our next regular agenda or our policy meeting in May for a discussion so that we don't belabor it any longer because it's dragged on quite a bit already. So if everyone's okay with that, I just wanted to ask that that happened. I'd love to see it in the policy discussion. I think I'd like to have a robust discussion about it. Okay. So that and that's my three things. Thank you. I'm pretty in motion. So yeah, I guess I had moved that we add the affordable housing infrastructure surtax to our May policy meeting. Second. You got a motion in a second. Any further discussion to the motion? Commissioner Crenel? I'm OK with that. OK. All right. Back to the board. Well, I don't see any citizens. So back to the board. Those in favor of the motion vote by the sound of I. Hi. Hi. And those opposed motion carries. OK. Commission. Commission Wheeler. Do you have any comments? OK. All right. OK. We're in recess until 501. All right. All right. Hey, look at us.